Good afternoon and welcome to the public safety committee meeting of June 5th, 2024.

Our committee liaison, Sarah Jordan will provide information and instruction for the public on how to participate in today's meeting.

Sarah, please proceed.

Thank you, Chair Von Wilpert.

While members of the public are able to attend the meeting in person, this meeting is being televised and live streamed on the city's website, and the council administration will continue to make arrangements for the public to comment using the Zoom webinar platform.

Members of the public who wish to provide testimony via a call-in or an internet-based service option must enter the virtual speaking queue within five minutes after conclusion of in-person public testimony or before virtual speaking queue is exhausted, whichever occurs first.

This will allow for better meeting management between the two platforms and ensure the committee is able to manage and conduct city business.

We appreciate the public's cooperation.

Chair Von Wilbert.

Thank you very much.

Vice Chair Kempio.

Committee member Campbell.

Committee member Whitburn.

Sure.

Chair Von Wilpert.

Present.

Also attending the meeting is Michelle Garland from the Office of the City Attorney, Baku Patel, Office of the IBA, and Chloe Madsen from the Office of the Mayor.

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip located at the entrance of chambers and place it in the box indicated at the speaker's lectern in the front of the room.

And please do so in a timely manner to ensure proper meeting management.

In-person testimony will conclude before virtual testimony begins.

Members of the public can join the webinar by computer, tablet, or smartphone by accessing the link, which is listed online in the preamble language of the agenda on the city's webpage.

To join the Zoom webinar by telephone, please dial 1669-2545252.

And when prompted, input webinar ID 161-215-0336 pound.

This information is also available on the agenda and will appear on the screen during the public comment period for each agenda item.

And members of the public who wish to provide virtual testimony must enter the virtual queue by raising their hands before the queue closes.

And please note that if you're watching via City TV 24 or online, there may be a delay.

Please participate via the audio on your phone and mute your TV or your computer when it is your turn to speak.

If you wish to speak on a particular item, please wait for that item to be called and then raise your hand to speak by tapping the raise your hand icon, or if you are a call and participant by pressing star nine on your phone.

If you raise your hand during a non-comment period, your hand will be lowered.

Thank you very much for reviewing the instructions for the public.

So I will set the five-minute timer for all those to indicate if they wish to speak on the past committee actions.

Oh.

Yes, um, for the minutes.

Um I feel like it's not being very clear what people are saying sometimes.

So I wanted to reiterate uh what I was saying because it wasn't written in the way that I had said it.

Uh, when I've been talking about the uh public safety issues with the border being open and a five-year-old little girl that's been raped.

Um, I think we need to be transparent with the people when people are um providing public comment and um also having you know a military ID tag that was found on the border in San Yesidro that is written in Arabic, um, just shows that there isn't uh not only a city uh security risk, but also a national security risk to our nation.

So if you could please, whoever is taking the minutes, um, be more um clear with the public about what the people were saying and in line with um whether or not they were actually for against, because otherwise it just looks like they're for the stuff that you guys are doing if you don't specify.

Thank you for your testimony.

Our next speaker is Lori Saldonia.

Please unmute yourself and provide your comment.

You will have one minute.

Uh yes.

Uh last month, Stephen Whitburn was not present at the meeting when the they recommended approval of uh technology regarding uh towing vehicles.

And I think it's important that he be held accountable for statements he has made in the past to look at how much it costs the city for what are called poverty toes.

Uh, the city actually loses, according to news reports, about one and a half million dollars a year on these tows because people can't afford to retrieve their vehicles.

So last month I was hoping that Stephen Whitburn would attend the meeting and participate and comment on the fact that the city loses millions of dollars of not only on these toes, but also when people can't afford to retrieve their cars, they lose their cars permanently.

They might also lose their jobs because they have no way to get to work.

And that ultimately leads to more homelessness and more cost for the city.

So I I hope that Stephen Whitburn would weigh in on parking at some or towing at some point.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Our next speaker is Blair Beekman.

Please unmute yourself and provide your comment.

All right, thank you, uh, Blair Beekman.

Yeah, I I like uh the approach that DRA is taking about the meeting minutes issue.

Uh, thank you very much that you are continuing uh to allow uh public uh uh comment at uh on the meeting minutes process to always be looking for little things to improve upon that.

Good luck in that effort.

You know, words uh that DRA offered, you know, to offer in five five words or two sentences, you know, something like DRA had concerns about uh current border issues.

I mean, that it's a little bland, but it it comes closer to what she was actually talking about and yet still respects the space that you're trying to work towards and the neutrality of the public meeting space and giving public comment as well.