Very good.

Good afternoon.

Welcome to the public safety committee meeting of May 13th, 2026.

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

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Campio.

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 the 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.

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

Please note that if you're watching via City TV 224 or online, there may be a delay.

Your hand will be lowered.

Thank you for reviewing the instruction for the benefit of the public, a quorum being present.

Uh non-agenda uh comment.

Let's um why don't we start with non-agenda public comment if we can.

Um, go ahead.

Let's uh sorry, I know that's a little out of order.

We're thinking about taking it towards the end, but let's jump straight to it if we can.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Per Rule 2.7 on agenda public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on the agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of this committee, and each speaker will have two minutes.

And again, if you're watching on City TV or the live stream, you can call 1669-2545252 and when prompted input webinar ID 161-398-0144 pound.

Before we jump over there, Sarah, the council members respect and appreciate the public's input and fully committed to protecting every participant's free speech rights at Council and Committee meetings.

How many speakers do we have?

Thank you, Vice Chair.

We have two slips here in the committee room, so we'll begin with in-person testimony.

And so far we have four hands raised in the virtual queue.

We will begin testimony with Blair Beekman.

You will be followed by Fran Shepard.

So if Fran Shepard would like to move to the reserve seat at the front of the room, and Mr.

Beekman, you'll have two minutes.

If you're in person for comment, please join us near the podium.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

One of these mics has been acting really funny lately.

It totally sculptes out a person's voice when they speak into it.

I'd like to hopefully it's been fixed.

Uh we'll I'll leave it alone this time and then um I'll listen to the broadcast tonight and see what it does.

And report back.

Um hi, Blair Beekman.

Afternoon meeting.

I guess to start with.

I spoke at uh the uh morning meeting today uh on items and that I thought would be of interest and concern to council person campillo.

I had like five seconds left, and I blurted out Campillo, and I I didn't say I didn't preface it by saying councilperson Campio, and it sounded awkward and I'm sorry about that.

Uh what I was discussing at that time to discuss now is um I hopefully I can be more clear that Oakland is really really working on technology issues.

Um they're trying to find a future of our surveillance tech and data collection that uh serves community voices that are really demanding change, and um I we I think we're all aware of what they can be doing with AOPR stuff.

They're gonna uh you know wait uh for the next year or two and in that time period, you know, search out a new vendor and an involve community, and they just have something called Cell Bright technology, which is a data collection tool for police departments.

It's really helpful to police, but it's questionable, and um the community's questioning it, and it's quite possible they're gonna be working towards uh a new technology that can do that, and it's a long process, but they're it's a measured process, they're gonna take their time with it, involve community, and work towards change.

That is what they're sharing with the community.

That's the process, and I think that's beautiful.

And I hope we really want to take those lessons seriously here.

Uh what we have to be working on here in San Diego.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Fran Shepard.

And if you're here to provide uh public comment, please join us in the seats over here that are listed green.

Hi, I'm Fran Shepard.

I'm a member of the Claremont Town Council.

I'm in Jen's uh Dr.

Jets district.

Um, I was interested in the in the subject today with the psych and the uh safety of the of the um of the facilities.

Uh, but also while I'm here, I always put in a plug for disaster preparedness for the hospitals.

I take my neighbor to the Kaiser hospitals, and they have these big beautiful boulders, but they're not movable, they're not plastic, they don't sink into the to make room for uh ambulances, fire trucks, and those of us that are gonna have cars full of leading people when the big earthquake comes.

And I don't know how the inspectors ever checked off the landscaping for these hospitals.

Uh at least the emergency room around the back has curbs.

You can you could jump the curb and run over some of those cactuses and park if you had to.

But the main entrance has none of that.

And I've asked the workers, they have not been trained.

I've even um interviewed the head of the security, and he assures me that they have been, but they have not.

There was one uh security guard once that said he already knew.

Um plans, but uh uh it's just been an ongoing need.

Thank you.

Thank you.

David Dumas.

Uh hello, good afternoon.

I don't know if it's appropriate to ask a question.

Um, how many of you or anybody online know a marching ban is?

I can tell by your faces.

So um my name is David Dumas.

I worked for NASA for five years, and I know what it's like being in working groups where you have to manage a budget, especially when administrations change over time.

But the key thing there is never to lose sight on the mission and what our values were as we develop that budget.

I know that the ALRP isn't on today's agenda, but I know it's a high priority aspect that's urgent.

Um, so just quick personal story.

Growing up uh with my mom was at work and we didn't have school, marching brand practice hadn't happened yet, so where did we go?

We would go to the public library.

It was a place where we found safety, it was free, and it was a chance where we can just spend time together and not be out on the streets for kids whose parents work two jobs, library parks, public centers isn't a luxury, it's survival.

So I am I just wanted to bring up some data points in regards to this.

Federal data shows that according to the uh SDPD 2024 annual survey report.

ALPR data was shared four times to Homeland Security investigations and other six times to custom and border protection.

California prohibits this.

The second thing is regarding the efficiency and effectiveness.

A public advisory board member said that the success rate of these cameras was 0.77.

Uh 0.77%, which means that basically out of a thousand scans, about two less than two actually are useful.

Um so I think the only thing I just wanted to say in closing is that I would rather have kids in libraries and parks and public service and public communities.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your concluding remark, and that concludes testimony here in the committee room.

So I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment, uh non-agenda public comment.

Each speaker will have two minutes and we will begin testimony with Hector.

Please unmute and begin.

All right, thanks a lot.

Yeah, I I attended meeting uh this morning on the online, and the guys were explaining the budget on different things.

The federal budget, 1.2 trillion defense spending.

San Diego is all about defense spending.

The military, the guys that build the bombs are businesses here.

We have huge income from that.

It puts the tourist board to shame.

If you guys would figure out how much money San Diego's gonna get from that and compare it to the tourist thing, it doesn't even compare.

We're doing, and those are great jobs, defense jobs, military jobs, all the different other kind of jobs.

That's what San Diego is a military town, man.

They didn't even bring that up.

It's a meeting, like they're just focusing on Trump didn't give us the money for this, Trump didn't do that.

But we got huge military town here, man.

Which I guess those guys, I don't know if they're ignorant or they just like everyone likes to bash Trump, but we're getting a lot of money out of that out of that bill, man.

And then uh the safety thing, uh for safety, and anything south of highway eight should get any kind of library, bathroom, any kind of public service should get double what it is north of eight, and north of eight can call for volunteers.

The library be safe with one person running it, and call for a bunch of volunteers.

There's plenty of people that would gladly volunteer in ranch or pen mosquitoes, and even in Claremont, up in uh Delmore Heights.

You know, the kids don't use a thing in Delmar Heights, they got their own computers, they're at the beach.

With the South County kids, need a place to go, man.

It's it's it's it's a safety thing because it's just a good thing to do.

Thanks.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you for your testimony.

Our next caller is Becky Rapp.

Good afternoon.

My name is Becky Rapp, and earlier today, I spoke to the EDNIR committee regarding California Assembly Bill 2697, which is currently moving through the state assembly and would allow marijuana storefronts to operate drive-through sales.

I wanted to bring these same concerns directly to the public safety committee because of the significant safety implications tied to this proposal.

If the bill becomes law, it would further normalize and commercialize marijuana use while increasing convenience and accessibility to high potency THC products.

From a public safety perspective, this raises concerns about impaired driving and increased roadside consumption.

One major issue is that the bill contains no safeguards regarding children being present in vehicles during marijuana purchases.

An adult could potentially drive through a marijuana dispensary with children sitting in the back seat while purchasing high potency THC products, and that should concern all of us.

We continue hearing from public health experts about increasing youth mental health challenges, accidental ingestion, and the normalization of drug use among children and teens.

Yet Sacramento continues advancing policies that make marijuana sales more convenient and more normalized.

Drive-through marijuana sales send the message that marijuana should be treated like a fast food.

And that appears contradictory while cities like ours are simultaneously investing millions into prevention programs, behavioral health services, homeless response, and public safety efforts connected to substance abuse and mental health impacts.

I urge this committee to communicate these concerns to San Diego's state assembly members and ask them to please oppose AB 2697.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Our next speaker is Maxine Francine Maxwell.

Please unmute and begin.

And the question about the Kevlar vested.

Why does he need a motorcycle with three cars?

But I digress.

We're asking for this committee to host a hearing on the central division as it pertains to the bike unit, especially given what's happening down at the gas lamp.

We definitely have had staffing changes within the Central Division bike unit, but there's some things that are occurring that we need to have an conversation.

We have people that are being hurt.

We have people that are coming from out of our city to come celebrate someone's birthday down at the gas lamp, not knowing that they're going to be pepper sprayed.

This mob mentality that is occurring with some of our most recent graduates from the program from being and again, we are very happy that people are entering law enforcement.

We respect that they run to danger, but we have policies and procedures that are supposed to be upheld when they come in contact with an innocent bystander that is just standing there in awe watching people get beat up.

They may not have solved full context of what is happening with people that are intoxicated and their um the extra aggression that has to occur.

But again, we continue to change the bike unit, we continue to change staffing at the central.

When are we going to collectively have a conversation about the police department, gas lamp, and the community?

If we want to build a bridge of trust, given all the money that comes to be paid out of the liability account.

Come on.

Thank you for your testimony.

The five-minute timer has exhausted with four hands remaining in the queue.

We will take no other callers beyond these four hands.

Phone number ending in 8700.

Please press star six and begin.

Phone number ending in 870.

Phone number ending in 870.

If Sarah, I I have no idea what's happening today on my star six.

I'm doing nothing different.

So I apologize for that.

I I don't know.

I'll have to look into it with T-Mobile.

Uh okay, Joy Sanyata.

Uh I want to say um talk about our chief police wall.

Um, first of all, let me start with our chief of the fire rescue department.

When I spoke with him last week at budget, I said we're so lucky to have him.

And I want to say the same thing about our police chief wall.

We're so lucky to have him at budget.

What I really liked was financial, uh, financial and financial response, excuse me, physically responsible, academies, high quality, and uh overtime adjustment.

Those were very, very important big things to me, and he covered them all.

So I want to look at the word trust.

I did bring that up when I commented to the chief uh Chief Wall, because when Chief Wall came out of the gate in the beginning, he talked about trust being his priority.

So part of trust is safety, and safety is aligned with our surveillance technology, and as all of you know, I followed the trust ordinance, I love it, I trust it, and I really put my arms around surveillance in our new world.

So I'll read the USA Today newspaper cover story on drones.

What they're gonna do, they're going to use the system of drones to offer new tools to foil gunmen on campuses.

They're gonna help protect our little kids, our big kids, everybody by using drones for safety.

So this is what surveillance is all about, and it's not perfect.

There probably is a dark side, like there is to everything in life, but I want us to continue to be open to that to talk about it, to discuss it, but I'm excited.

So again, Chief of Police Wall, you can thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

Our next speaker is Judy Strang.

Please unmute and begin.

Thank you for your patience as I too deal with my technology from my workplace today, and thank you for the opportunity to talk to public safety.

I noticed that last month I spoke to the value of prevention programs and education to provide an upfront solution to the sorts of things that public safety personnel face, and that how we could reduce the cost to our first responders.

And I'd like to continue with that theme today, reminding us all that it is national prevention week, Monday through Saturday of this week, and this has been promoted by SAMHSA, Substance Abuse, Mental Health, Services Administration, of course, a federal agency, because they recognize the economic value of preventing substance use and promoting mental health.

The two go so hand in hand.

So what I'd like to talk to is the cost to society that we see in the public health world for marijuana induced erratic behaviors that first responders are called upon to handle, and not the least of which are also marijuana-impaired car crashes.

It seems to me that one of the real values to our city would be the reduction of these public safety issues.

So many people are harmed, and so the costs are so great when we have to respond to these sorts of situations.

Let's take a good look at what causes people to start marijuana use.

And perhaps we look at the environment around us, not the least of which are billboards.

I spoke to the billboards this morning that were on the front page of the UT.

I think you all need to take a look at that huge picture and revisit whether we really need marijuana billboards in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

Kathleen Lippett, please unmute and begin.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

If a city wants to attract tourists, especially for repeat visitors, perhaps the city could consider using decoy tourists and surveys to evaluate their experiences, ask them why or why not they would consider returning to the city.

When hotel accommodations are unable to protect their guests from the unsafe streets that they would like to walk and evaluate the city and enjoy it.

Instead, they are met with excessive noise.

Umatic, uh irresponsible oper drug or uh excuse me, bar operations that are that overserve and their drunks are out onto the street and causing problems.

The other is that the sidewalks are no longer navigable to pedestrians.

We have so many sidewalk cafes serving alcohol that have taken away public access to their own sidewalks, and it is really not fair when sidewalks are littered with cigarette butts and and refuse and wreak of human urine, streets especially euphemistically in districts called hospitality districts, when they're unsafe and drunks behave badly, homeless who are in need of mental health care, behaving badly.

They aimlessly wander around with their meager belongings, cluttering the paths of pedestrians.

Twenty-four-hour graffiti removal has now been become months to remove, if it's re-removed even then.

Tourists thought that they would be smelling the salt air of the ocean, hearing waves crashing, the fragrance of flowers that once filled the air of neighborhood beach.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

And the final speaker in the queue this afternoon is Terry Ann Skelly.

Please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon, Public Safety Committee Chair Von Wilbert.

My name is Terry Ann Skelly.

I'm a planning group member and a parent who has volunteered countless hours in youth programs here in our city.

I'd like to share some thoughts from an article in the Atlantic magazine written by Matthew Loftus, MD, that I think are applicable to the policies and programs that the public safety committee considers.

Dr.

Loftus is a family physician, and he wrote that public policies and programs play a role in shaping a safe environment so that we can develop our best selves.

As he wrote, and I quote, just as highways have guardrails for the moments when a driver isn't exercising perfect self-control, so we also need guardrails to help people from driving off the cliffs of bad decisions.

End quote.

That is why we should be attentive to the guardrails that are necessary when companies make money off products that cause or contribute to substance abuse and an unsafe environment.

Parents like me feel that we are at an extreme disadvantage in pushing back on marijuana policies that might enable more pot shops in the city, or marijuana myths that are identical to the very myths that the tobacco companies perpetrated 50 years ago.

Tobacco myths enable tobacco use that killed millions of people in the United States needlessly.

We are seeing the same with marijuana myths.

Let's reduce the influence of marijuana outlets so young adults can develop their very best selves.

Thank you for hearing my concerns this afternoon.

Thank you for your testimony.

And vice chair with no other hands up in the queue and the five-minute timer expiring.

This concludes non-agenda public comment.

Thank you to members of the public for your participation.

Apologize to the members in person for my daughter here being a little loud.

Any committee member, mayor, city attorney, independent budget analyst comments.

Hearing none, let us move on any request for continuances.

Hearing none, let's move on to our consent agenda.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Councilmember Wolfman.

Nothing.

I didn't make the motion, but I guess we could have comments.

There we go.

Sarah, please proceed.

Thank you.

Item number one is the approval of the committee minutes from April 15th, 2026.

We have received one speaker slip here in the committee room.

Blair Beekman, if you'll please approach the lecture, and you'll have one minute to speak to the item on the consent agenda.

Hi, thank you.

I've been talking about Oakland a lot lately.

I think they're creating a really good example for us here in San Diego.

With the George Floyd incidents that's happened from 2020.

We have a bunch of stuff we've been trying to work on.

And that we have been working on before.

And now the time we really can be working on those things.

And you had an item uh on the mini meeting minutes last time of towing.

That um I'm interested how that went.

I missed the meeting.

It was a really good meeting, it sounded like and uh one of the items was towing, wage theft issues working on that was another issue.

Um with the towing stuff, um, I'm assuming you're doing a really good job.

Uh you're doing all the best practices from that era of George Floyd that we really trying to better develop and keep up those good efforts and uh thank you.

Thank you.

And seeing no hands go up in the virtual queue, this concludes testimony on item number one.

Thank you for the members of the public for your comments and questions.

Do I have a motion?

I have one from Councilmember Whipburn, and I have a second from Council Member Campbell.

Uh, with that motion and a second, I'll call the roll.

Councilmember uh Campbell.

Yes, Councilmember Whipburn.

And I am a yes, that passes with three members present.

Let's move to our discussion item.

Sarah, please introduce number two.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Item number two is the authorization to enter into a contract with focused psychological services to provide psychological consulting services for the San Diego Police Department.

And if you're watching on the live stream, you can call in to 1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID 161-398-0144 pound.

Thank you.

Uh we have members of our police department.

Please go ahead and introduce yourself.

Let us know how much time you're going to need for the item.

Thank you.

I should have um probably seven to ten minutes for my presentation.

Very good.

Go ahead.

I'd like to first introduce myself.

My name is Lieutenant Corey Stosh with the San Diego Police Department, and I am currently assigned to the San Diego Police Department's wellness unit.

Uh the purpose of this meeting is for authorization to enter into a contract with focus psychological services.

The San Diego Police Department seeks approval to enter into a contract with focal focused psychological services.

From here forward, referred to as focus to provide comprehensive psychological consulting services for police officers, civilian employees, and their family members, resulting from request for proposal, RFP, the numbers listed here on the screen in an amount not to exceed $3,895,800 for a term of five years.

The proposed action is to approve a resolution authorizing the mayor or his design to execute for and on behalf of the city a contract resulting from the request for proposal for so uh with focused psychological services to provide consulting services in the aforementioned amount for the same time limit of five years to approve a resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to appropriate and expend an amount not to exceed that dollar amount from the general fund over the five-year term of the contract.

Contingent upon the adoption of the annual appropriations ordinance for the applicable fiscal year and contingent upon the chief financial officer furnishing a certificate certifying that the funds necessary for expenditure are or will be on deposit with the city treasurer.

Uh so discussion of the item.

Uh focus is the incumbent uh contractor for whom the City of San Diego's police department has partnered uh to provide psychological services uh to not only our police officers, our professional staff, our sworn staff, but we also offer these services to our family members as well.

Uh over the years, tens of thousands of hours of psych services have been provided to assist our department employees and their families.

Focus officer offer, excuse me, focus offers individual and family counseling on a broad strectum of life stressors as well as training to department personnel, critical incident intervention, and peer support program guidance.

Focus is designed as an entry-level care with an emphasis on prop response to personnel.

They provide debriefings and interventions and respond to critical events within one hour of notification from our department personnel.

Speaking with focus during the RP process, they mentioned and many of our department members also are aware of countless incidents in which focus has been on scene within maybe even minutes to provide psychological services to our officers experiencing draw-related stress.

Clients uh who use focus, they can use this program via referral system or through our employee assistance programs.

Additionally, the department will continue an embedded services program, which in this embedded program, focus psychologists are available at our police facilities in various police buildings four days a week, five hours a day, and focus has offered on-site clinicians who provide immediate care to a department employee in need.

I have witnessed this firsthand because they do work in my office two days a week, and having them available at a moment's notice on a walk-in basis has been very instrumental in providing immediate care when needed to our department members.

The documented in the RFP and discussed during the site visits focus assisted department members during extremely emotional challenging events.

A few that we could talk about in this discussion forum.

Focus has responded to call outs where officers have been feloniously killed in the line of duty, where officers have died in both on and off-duty related traffic collisions, where officers have been fired upon by subjects, and when officers have discharged their firearms in the course of their duty.

These are events that don't weigh lightly on officers or their family members, and having a dedicated uh personnel assigned to these incidents within a moment's notice, usually less than one hour's notice, is just huge in the recovery process and helping these officers get through these stressful situations.

Having them uh available has helped with their mental health for not only them, our staff, but the families of whom these officers reside with and have to go home to.

In law enforcement, no two calls are the same, and each of the calls impacts every officer differently.

Knowing that a trusted and established culturally competent resource is immediately available, given the demands within this profession is huge.

Having an outlet provide the opportunity to process trauma and build resiliency.

Having an officer who is supported both psychologically and emotionally will improve their performance in providing customer service to the residents of the city of San Diego.

Fiscal considerations, this action requests approval to enter a contract with focus for a term of five years not to exceed the dollar amount previously mentioned.

The annual estimated expenditures for this contract is 779,160 beginning in fiscal year 2027.

Estimated annual expenditures are available in the police department's general fund.

Any questions?

All right, thank you very much for the presentation.

We'll go to public comment.

Um, I'm sorry, IBA has uh comments on this item.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Uh Baku Patel from the IBA's office.

I just want to clarify that the police department's proposed budget for wellness services in fiscal year 27 totals $600,000, which is roughly $180,000 less than the annual estimate cited in staff's presentation.

It's my understanding that the annual estimate of approximately $780,000 dollars is on the higher end of expectations to allow for growth over the five-year contract term, and actual expenditures are expected to be closer to the $600,000 budget.

That said, if this contract is approved, uh expenditures will need to be monitored through the budget monitoring process, and if there is an overage and there isn't sufficient savings from other contracts, the department will need to request additional funding through the annual budget process.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Thank you very much from the IBA.

Let's go into public comment.

Do we have any in person?

Thank you.

Yes, we've received one speaker slip here in the committee room, Blair Beekman.

If you'll please approach the lector, and you will have one minute to speak to item number two.

And if you would like to push both the microphones together, that will help.

Thank you.

Hi.

Well, Beekman, I'm gonna have to leave early today.

Uh I'm gonna be uh going up to Bay Area to check out a uh one of their quarterly WASI meetings.

So um for this item, um, it's really related to the to the words I tried to offer on the previous item that um since the era of George Floyd and before then.

If you remember, we were really working on stuff before George Floyd, that um we are trying to uh the psych psychology service psych psychological services for police are really important.

So I'm hopeful that budget money can be available, and that um, you know, I I work with tech accountability, which actually came from uh whistleblower protection things, having good whistleblower protections and overall therapy process for police and our EMT who are here today, that if we they have good uh you know services that helps a lot in how we build our future.

So thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes comment here in the committee room.

So I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number two.

Each speaker will have one minute.

We will begin testimony with phone number ending in 870.

You can unmute by pressing star six.

That's better, thank you, Sarah.

Uh Joyce and this is great, of course.

Now, here's what I've said many times before.

We are all biased, we are all flawed, we are all wounded, we all bleed red, and that's the reality, and then you put on top of that all that our beloved police officers have to face, and they're all human, and we need to help them in any areas to perform their well work well and have well-being.

So I studied the response times of police officers a little bit, and it gets down to less than a second, and and even it sometimes it's just unbelievable how quick they have to respond.

How they do it, I'll never know.

Thank you for individuals and family.

That's fabulous.

Focus, we love you.

Keep up the great work.

IBA, thank you for pointing out what you did.

So uh it's uh it's a great day all over the place.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Hector.

Please unmute and begin.

You will have one minute to speak to item number two.

All right.

Yeah, this is a no uh brainer for the police department.

It's great, whatever they need in this line.

We should get more of it, and it's a good thing.

And then another question: who's the George Floyd guy?

George Floyd.

Just kidding.

We got to get over the George Floyd guy, man.

He died of an overdose, but it created so much stuff, but I'm just done with the whole thing like that.

But let's support the police, give them more cameras, support their families, give them more pizza, re-coffee at places.

They're great.

They're doing a great job.

Thanks.

Our next speaker is Francine Maxwell.

Please unmute and begin.

You will have one minute to speak to item number two.

Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego.

When the city of San Diego has paid out more to a family than the George Floyd family, there should never be a joke about that because the taxpayers have still not seen full justice when it comes to Kona's case.

Um, very supportive of wellness, um, very appreciative of the designee that may or may not come from the mayor's office to sign this and move it forward.

Just want to make sure that there's monitoring that wellness has been moved to lower floors so people that want to access can have a little bit of more privacy.

Again, we are very appreciative of those individuals, those men and women who run to danger who are first responders.

We also are very appreciative of those that remember if you see something, say something.

Thank you.

And this concludes testimony on item number two.

Thank you to members of the public for their participation on this item.

And we'll scope for a motion and questions and comments from our colleagues, starting with Dr.

Campbell.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for the presentation.

This is a wonderful item.

I just wondered if you had any data on how many officers have received help through this program.

That's a wonderful question.

This is a confidential program.

The only thing that we do receive back from Focus are the billable hours.

So we I do have numbers from that I could I could talk to.

Yeah, that's really what I meant.

See here.

So historical data that I pulled up.

I'm sorry I didn't pull up the hours.

I pulled up the monetary value associated with the last five years, and the trend of that has been ticking up, which is one of the reasons why the dollar amount is a little bit higher as well, because we are seeing growth within our unit.

If you look back uh to 2021, we spent uh 386,000, and if you look at uh fiscal year 25, 587,000.

Uh the reason being is because we're promoting our unit uh to the members of our police department, to our staff, and to the families as well.

We've created a family wellness day in which uh the officers upon graduation before they hit phase training, they're invited to a meeting with our unit.

We spend eight to ten hours with them and their families explaining what our services are, how to access them, and letting the family members know that if you live with a law enforcement officer, you have access to these same programs as well.

Uh we have also broadened our reach through our peer support program in order to be more active in responding to critical events, not just your officer-involved shootings in custody deaths or um calls involving violence.

We're also looking more at emotional challenging radio calls, uh your SIDS cases, your non-breathers, uh, your fatal traffic collisions, especially the fatal traffic collisions involving children or multiple children, like we had in San Carlos.

We're taking a more active role in providing critical incident stress management debriefs, diffusings, and talking to the officers one-on-one before they go home to their loved ones, really pushing to have an outlet through a psychological services provider, such as Focus, rather than turning to alcohol or some other way to cope with the stressors that they may be occurring within the next several hours of this event.

By doing so, our aim is to reduce the stress on the officer, reduce the stress on the family, but more importantly, drive down any officer misconduct issues that will result in further discipline for these officers, or result in a lawsuit, which is gonna cost a lot of money to the city.

So, we see this as a cost-saving measure.

Uh, we also see this as a way to uh provide an outlet for the officers so that their issues don't become more serious than what they could be.

Um, in fact, if you have just one moment, I'll I'll read off something that I I wrote a note when I was going through the RFP process, and this came directly out of the RFP from Focus.

Um they stated in their RFP Focus Psychological Service uh is a treatment that is based in the philosophy that although SDP SDPD personnel can't avoid being exposed to trauma, exposure does not need to result in a psychological injury.

That injury does not have to result in a disorder, and that disorder does not have to become a disability.

The way that I'm seeing that is that's our insurance policy, right?

This is our our outlet for command staff to say, hey, this is what we have for you, this is what's available.

Let's get this addressed early.

Let's get something um set up for you and your family so we don't have future issues down the road.

So we're not having this officer come in a month later to medical assistance and we're referring them to our risk management personnel to put them in a higher level of care.

If we can address the issue within one hour of the event actually transpiring, and get this officer on the straight and narrow path and get them in a head space in which they can go back to work, they can answer your radio calls.

They could drive down your calls for service and they can provide uh customer service to the city.

That's wonderful.

Thank you so much for that explanation.

I I was quite impressed with the price.

I thought it was very reasonable for the amount of services that you're receiving.

And I imagine through the officers' normal health care providers, if they have other emotional questions that they'd like to ask a therapist about, they can use that other method, or would they use the same method?

Um our officers do have access to their own medical care, and this is not anything that we require of an officer.

If that this is a voluntary program, as of right now, and if they want to use Kaiser, Sharp or any other method that pay out of pocket, uh private practice, they're more than willing and able to do so.

And that goes back to what I was originally saying where we don't track the officer by their name, by their D number, by any city personnel group.

Of if they're going to focus specifically, or if they choose to go outside of the this process to find care in another fashion.

Right.

Right.

That I think this is an excellent program.

I will move uh the acceptance of staff recommendation.

Thank you.

We will go to council member Whitburn.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I support this item.

I do have a question for uh Mr.

Patel.

You mentioned that the budgeted about for FY27 is 600 and what?

Exactly 600,000.

Oh, 600 even.

Okay.

And the staff reported lists the estimated use at 770 died.

Uh if we run up against that 600,000 number during the course of the year, does that impact our ability to provide the service in any way?

Uh no.

Um the department thinks they if they have savings elsewhere, they can certainly use that.

Uh and then through the rest of the general fund through the budget monitoring process, you can see if there's savings there.

Uh, and then ultimately if there's not, then um uh there would need to be some other mitigation that would need to occur.

And then if this is a trend, then uh budget adjustment should be requested for the subsequent fiscal year that they're going over budget.

Thank you, Mr.

Patel.

Uh all right, I support this.

I would just say as we go through the course of FY27, I assume somebody will be keeping the eye uh where we are in the budget.

If we need to come back to council, I want to make sure we do that before we run out of fugs to provide the service.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Today, I heard a second.

Yes, all right.

We have a motion in a second.

I'll thank the police department for this uh really important resource uh that goes to uh people in our force who've been through some of the most traumatic incidents and obviously they deserve it so that they can continue to their job, serve the public and deal with the trauma that they've faced.

Uh whether it's a police officer or any other city employee who goes through such uh such a thing, they deserve this type of uh the service.

So I appreciate your good work.

I will be in support and I will call the role.

Dr.

Campbell, yes, Councilmember Whitburn.

Yes, and I am a yes.

That passes 3-0.

Thank you very much.

Let's move on to item number three.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Item number three is the authorization to enter into an agreement with the county of San Diego for county detention facilities.

And again, if you're watching on the live stream and you'd like to dial in to speak, please call 1669-2545252.

And when prompted, input webinar ID 161-398-0144 pound.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Our police department again with the item.

Please introduce yourself, sir, and let us know how much time you'll need.

Can you hit the green light for us?

There you go.

There we go.

You hear that?

Perfect.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Public safety committee.

I'm Lieutenant Brian Breck, San Diego Police Department with the Operational Support Unit.

I'm going to be presenting today on authorization to enter into an agreement with the County of San Diego for detention facilities.

The police department, the police department requests to enter into an agreement with the county of San Diego for booking city misdemeanor arrestees into county detention facilities for a term of five years and a total not to exceed 5.2 million dollars.

Proposed action is to adopt a resolution authorizing the mayor or designee to execute for and on behalf of the city a contract with the county of San Diego to provide detention facilities.

The term of the agreement shall be retroactive to July 1, 2023 through June 14th of 2028.

To adopt a resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to appropriate and expend an amount not to exceed $5.2 million from the police general fund over the five-year term of the contract.

Contingent upon the adoption of the annual appropriation ordinance for the applicable fiscal year, and contingent upon the chief financial officer furnishing a certificate, certifying that funds necessary for expenditure are or will be on deposit with the city treasurer.

This agreement is for the central jail, Las Cleanest detention facility, and the reentry facility collectively known as county detention facilities.

This new agreement terminates the rent for beds for arrestees at jail facilities and consolidates male and female misdemeanor bookings into one.

This agreement will govern the jail administrative fee for book and release and supersedes all previous agreements, whether current or expired.

The agreement allows the department to process city misdemeanor arrestees under specific criteria, ensuring the book and process is efficient, compliant with legal standards, and meets the department's mission.

During the process of book and release, arrestees are medically screened, search for contraband, fingerprinted, photographed, and screened for additional wants.

Then release with a future court date in lieu of remaining in custody.

The cost to house and book and release arrestees is known as the jail administrative fee.

The fee per arrestee for fiscal year 2026 is $320.46.

The contract is retroactive to July 1, 2023, due to delays in the negotiating process with the county.

The department began those negotiations with the county in 2022.

This action requests approval to expend a total not to exceed 5.2 million from the police general fund.

The fiscal year 2026 not to exceed amount is $2.4 million, which includes both current year and prior years 2024-2025 anticipated expenditures.

The estimated annual expenditures are budgeted in the police department's general fund.

The cost breakdown is as follows.

That concludes my presentation.

Any questions?

Thank you.

We will go to public comment.

Thank you.

We've received one speaker slip here in the committee room.

Blair Beekman.

If you will please approach the electoral and you'll have one minute to speak to item number three.

Hi.

I'm going to give this my best effort.

Um I'm kind of inexperienced at this stuff, but um I've met Tony.

He's been offered a really interesting voice, I think, to the public process recently.

He's mentioned to me uh there's been some issues at the county jail.

Uh deaths that continuously are happening.

Um I come from Santa Clara County where the same issue is happening, and we really wanted to work and solve the issue in Santa Clara County, and we didn't do it very well.

And with incidents like what's happened to Andrea Ebbing recently, and uh she's had experiences with both police, EMT.

Um, there seems to be a pattern that's uncomfortable.

And um I think we have to be addressing something a little bit more openly that we're not doing.

And I hope we can be doing that.

I hope you'd be having conversations asking these kind of questions to um the for this sort of contract and and that we work on on ending deaths in our county jails.

I think we can really do it.

It just takes um good luck how we can do it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number three.

Each speaker will have one minute and we will begin testimony with Hector.

Please unmute and begin.

Thanks for taking my call, Hector here.

Yeah, this might be a little off topic, but I think Governor Newsom's closing down four prisons in California prison system.

He's gonna send the send the guys around different places, maybe to our county jail.

And I was thinking maybe with the county and the city's doing with the county to put the guy in there.

How about if we contract with like El Salvador and take about half the county guys in jail, the ones that are there for more than a year, and we'll put them down in El Salvador, and that'll be like twenty it'll be super cheap to do it.

It'll clean those guys up, they'll get their head shaved, no phone, no BS, and they'll bring them back alive.

Maybe a whole different life, man.

Although that would be it also would be deterrent for guys to get in jail.

Because if we go to San Diego jail, we're gonna end up in El Salvador, man.

And they don't play down there.

They don't play like our jails play.

Thank you.

Your time has concluded.

Our next speaker is phone number ending in 870.

You can press star six to unmute.

Uh thank you, Sarah.

Joy Sanyata.

I I hadn't planned on speaking on this item.

Uh and then as I listened, I started the beginning uh to feel wow, a contract with the county.

It works out, we're approving it probably.

Uh, you know, it's on agenda and goody goody.

And then I heard about the delay for years, it seems that's probably exaggerating, uh, in the negotiation of this negotiating of this contract.

And then I just said, Oh no.

Uh why is there a struggle with the county?

And and would you please let the uh city council know if you haven't already?

What caused that delay?

What were the obstacles in getting that thing done?

That's a long time in my opinion.

So uh please do that for city council, and uh I really don't need to know it, but uh but I think our city council needs to know what what held up that contract.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

Our next speaker is Juliana.

Please unmute and begin.

You'll have one minute.

Hi, uh, much like Joy, I was not planning on speaking on this as well.

Um, it is slightly concerning uh, because there are a lot of deaths in the county jail.

Um, it's very alarming, so maybe you guys should you know work on or the county should work on that before we enter in this contract.

I know you guys probably don't have any other choice.

However, I'm not very informed on this topic.

That's why I wasn't gonna talk about it.

However, it does sound concerning.

I definitely have some questions.

We'll do some research.

Um I think maybe you guys should, you know, consider the death, the county death jail issue.

Um, maybe incorporate that into your, you know, uh decision process.

Anyways, that's all I have to say.

Goodbye.

Thank you for your testimony.

And seeing other hands go up in the queue.

This concludes comment on item number three.

Thank you to members of the public for their participation on this item.

We'll go to com uh council member comments and questions and entertain a motion, and we'll be in with council member Whitburn.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for working to get the most fiscally responsible uh agreement for the city.

Just a couple of questions.

Uh the 2.4 billion dollars in the FY26 budget.

Uh, is that already in the FY26 budget?

Uh the department has sufficient budget for that 2.4 million dollar payment.

Okay.

And the 1.4 for FY27, is that already in the draft budget?

Correct.

Okay.

And then if you would educate me, please a little bit here.

So this is for book and release, uh, which I tend to think of as being a one-day process.

You could tell me if that's different.

Is there some other arrangement for when these folks are in jail waiting for court or after they've been sentenced for a misdemeanor or I'm just wondering how this fits into the bigger picture?

Yeah, so most of the times it could be book and release, but if they're in there daily, you have a per dam rate per day.

Um debt per dam rate for 2026 for males is three hundred and twenty dollars forty-six cents per day.

For a female, that would be three hundred and twenty dollars forty-six cents a day as well.

So each day that you're in there, that's what you're being charged.

Okay, and so that's separate from what we're doing here today.

We've been doing this since 2023.

Since July 1st, 2023.

Okay.

Um, so this refer uh this refers to the book and release agreement.

Correct.

Right.

So then the book and release is just if we book and release out of the same day.

Correct.

And so do we have a separate agreement for whether they have to stay at jail?

No, it's just a daily per dam rate.

So they would you would pay for each additional day.

Okay.

So regardless of whether they are booked and released on the same day or they're booked there for whatever period of time, but then released, it's just a per diab rate.

That's correct.

That's what this is about.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Um I'll make the motion to approve the agreement.

Thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

We'll go to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you.

Uh, thanks for the presentation.

Um, I think the citizenry may not realize we do not have city jails.

All our jails are county jails.

So just so they they understand that.

Uh I will have be happy to second the motion.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

Uh, thank you to our uh police department for their uh negotiation on this issue, uh, moving away from an outdated uh jail bed rental system um and something simpler, more consistent with uh especially with uh the administrative free structure, simply an updated process, um, one that's been needed since probably but the 1990s.

So thank you for your good work on this.

I'll be in support and I will call the role.

Council member Whitburn.

Yes.

Council Member Campbell.

Yes.

I mean, yes, that passes 3-0 with three members present.

Let us move on to our information agenda.

Uh Sarah, please introduce our final item.

Thank you.

Item number four is 211 San Diego disaster relief and preparedness.

And if you're watching on the live stream and you'd like to dial in to speak, please call 1669 2545252.

And when prompted, input webinar ID 161 398 0144 pound.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Paul Redfern with 211 San Diego.

I'm the chief financial officer, but I also uh serve as the officer in charge during disaster and our disaster preparedness.

Be about 10 minutes today.

Thank you very much, and welcome to the public safety committee.

Thank you for having me.

First, I'm gonna start with a little bit of background on what 211 is just to educate those that are here, you probably know, but maybe some of the people that are listening in, and then I want to move directly into our disaster preparedness and disaster response history for the organization.

In the year 2000, the FCC designated the 211 dialing code to act as a three-digit dialing code similar to 9 1 1, but not for disaster response, rather for uh information and referral services.

So this would be a public utility.

It's across North America now in most uh pretty much every place, and it's run by a nonprofit.

We are a 501c3 nonprofit that's designated in San Diego and Imperial counties to man and staff this telephone number.

Last year we had about uh 430,000 unique calls as well as about 136,000 outbound calls as well as tech text messaging technology where we can connect to people and individuals in the community that are in need of resources.

We helped uh with a resource database to connect people to over uh 1,200 nonprofit agencies as well as public benefit services that exist in our community.

We had about 261,000 uh individuals served during that year with over 413,000 referrals.

We have a number of programs at 211 San Diego, ranging from our basic information referral where we receive inbound calls and we connect people to the resources that they desperately need.

We also have a disaster preparedness contract with the Office of Emergency Services and also work with San Diego Gas and Electric on their public safety power shutoff PSPS program.

We work specifically with medical baseline community uh clients of SGG<unk>E and uh able-bodied people that might need a little extra assistance if during time of emergencies their power is shut off.

We help staff uh the county, a couple of the county lines uh with general information about access and benefits as well as uh benefit appointments.

We help to reschedule those, and then we are the largest nonprofit in California with application assistance for CalFresh.

We also do some uh larger enhanced services.

Uh, you might be aware of some of the uh ECM or can't enhanced care management services that are with our managed care plans.

We help enroll individuals into those, and then we have additional services from Family Connection Hub as well as the City of San Diego Housing Commission housing first line.

Addition to that, we do run San Diego Health Connect, the San Diego County's health information exchange.

We have about 300 staff uh and 13 board members that represent our community.

Moving on to times of disaster and disaster preparedness.

Subsequent to September 11th, 2001, the FCC looked and those areas that were impacted, certainly said we needed a place for people to call for non-emergency services during times of disaster.

And so 211s were stood up in order to respond to that.

211 San Diego first came into existence in 2005, however, and we signed uh an MOU with the County of San Diego Office of Emergency Services to respond to disasters.

Well, just over two years later, two years later in 2007, we had a massive wildfire event.

As you recall from our second slide, we answered about 430,000 calls in calendar 2025 with 300 staff.

In 2007, we had about 25 staff, and during the 2007 fire storm, we answered 150,000 calls in 10 days.

We didn't we weren't able to do that with just our staff.

We brought in about 1,500 volunteers to help respond, as well as technology companies like ATT and Qualcomm that came in to assist with computers and extra telephony so that we could answer the needs of the community.

The previous major wildfire in San Diego in 2003, 911 crashed because there was no other place to call.

So people were calling 911 in such an abundance that the whole system went down.

To be fair, in 2007, when they started calling 211, our system crashed as well.

But we got it back promptly with some of our partners in the community, and we're able to answer those 150,000 calls.

One of the volunteers that day was Bill York, our president and CEO today.

So from there, we enhanced our relationship with Office of Emergency Services of the County as well as SGGE and some of Calfire and other organizations.

It's imperative that during the times when there is no disaster, that we enhance the relationships with cities and communities and disaster service workers so that we know what role we're gonna play to help support the communities that are impacted.

One of the neat things that happened recently was we create a relationship with Airbnb.org.

Airbnb, as you guys know, is a place where we can all stay right when we go on our trips and our vacations.

Well, they have a nonprofit arm that allows people impacted by disaster to stay for free at their Airbnb properties.

We had signed an agreement with them about two weeks prior to a plane crashing in City of San Diego neighborhood, where 39 Navy families were impacted and their houses had to be evacuated.

Either they were destroyed or there was there was the crash site and there was fuel and they needed to get away.

Through that Airbnb.org relationship, we were able to rehouse all 39 of those families up to three weeks while the Navy was trying to sort out where they were going to go.

And so those types of relationships, when they're created in advance, be it with the city or with the county or the fire departments or with Airbnb.org allow us to act with speed to help alleviate the needs of those individuals as they occur.

So it's not simply when we start to see smoke and people are impacted by fires.

It's much broader than that.

It's a preparedness aspect, and then when an event does happen, it's answering the calls to give them information and referrals to the resources that exist, and we'll go into what some of those might be.

It's also information gathering from those individuals.

So in the 2007 fires, we're the first ones to hear that the fire had jumped interstate 15.

We were feeding that back to the Joint Information Command Center at the Office of Emergency Services saying we're we're hearing these multiple calls saying that this fire's jumped interstate 15.

And so we provide that feedback loop.

And then beyond disaster, it's local area assistance.

So people, it takes months and sometimes years for people's lives to come back together.

We hear very regularly from the people in the Palisades and Pasadena that were impacted by those fires last year.

You know, they're still getting back on their feet.

And so we are standing alongside those individuals, getting them the benefits that exist to help them get back on their feet, as well as alternative programs for housing, whatever else they may need during those times.

During disaster, here are some of the specific areas that we're working on.

Initial calls, it's usually about are they in evacuation zones?

Are they in evacuation warnings?

What road closures exist prior to storms like the rainstorms that we've had in the past, it's where can I get um sandbags to help protect my property?

We deal with county forms in FEMA during health emergencies.

So going back to COVID, um, some of the other health emergencies we had, you know, we're filling out forms on behalf of the individuals over the phone as we talk to them, trying to make sure that they their emergency is recorded and they have uh their information in the system at the end of the response.

As the disaster goes on, it transitions into things like housing, hygiene and household goods, transportation, um, the local area assistance centers where we can meet up like we did during the flooding in the in the libraries so that we can meet with individuals that are impacted and help them get access to the resources that exist.

And then finally, things like other times like cool zones, identification documentation, and then some of the benefits like uh the cow fresh benefits that can happen during emergency.

When an event happens, our shift goes to uh incident command structure.

We go under the 12-hour shifts, all of our employees have signed uh acknowledgments of our role during disasters, and so we make sure that we're there to respond.

These things, especially in wildfire, ramp up very rapidly.

So it's initially our staff that work on it.

We also work with disaster service workers through the county.

So there's about a thousand a hundred county staff that are trained on the 211 systems.

They can start answering disaster-related calls as well remotely, so they have access to the telephony system, which is all in the cloud, and then we have about 300 register three, excuse me, 3,000 registered volunteers that we can bring into our call center to help uh once they get just in time training, start responding to a disaster as it occurs.

And then in extreme emergencies, we also have uh mutual aid services with other 211s across the country.

We've responded to fires in California and in the Los Angeles area.

We've responded to hurricanes in the Louisiana area and on the east coast.

Um, and so they provide that to us as well.

So if there was a need where we needed to expand rapidly, we could turn to our 211 partners across the nation and they could start responding to calls to people in need in San Diego.

We also have hardened system at our location where we do have an on-site generator, we have redundant circuits and things that would be necessary to respond to disaster to make sure that we can be up and running.

We do have scalable technology.

As I mentioned, most of our stuff is as you would expect in the cloud now, and so gone are the days when phone systems crash because an overwhelming number of calls on hard lines.

Now we can expand uh in the cloud by using technology so that we can be there.

We also leverage our community information exchange and 211 database CRM, which is on Salesforce, one of the largest CRM platforms in the world.

Uh, and we can take that information of what the callers are saying so that we can respond back with just in time um immediate data to provide that to cities and the county or to other disaster responders.

We do have multi-channel uh communications where we can do those text messages, we can do outbound calls, we obvious also obviously are reproducing things on social media with our partners.

What started as response really to fires even through like 2014 has moved into all sorts of different things.

Um we had a Navy ship fire in 2020.

We responded, we served one of the zip codes in the city of San Diego that was being impacted by noxious fumes from the burning ship.

We were able to rehouse people for 48 hours in uh to uh hotels so that they can get out of harm's way.

Uh we obviously responded to the plane crash, uh that was unique, but then there's a public health crisis beyond COVID.

We responded to hepatitis A, uh H1N1, and monkeypox.

So what we're seeing is an expansion of what is a disaster and how 211 can be leveraged to respond to those things just beyond fire.

Here's a list of the things that we have responded to since 2007.

You can see that it's quite uh extensive.

Right now we are responding to the Tijuana River Valley Crisis by providing access to resources that exist to that community.

It's a public health crisis, and we're helping and happy to respond to that.

Um, but there's a number of things over the years that we've been able to respond to.

These are some of the areas where we have public partnerships existing already.

We have worked with the people before disasters to make sure that we're ready and we would enjoy the opportunity to continue the conversation with the city of San Diego how we could better integrate our services with you prior to disaster occurring.

Um in closing, I was happy to tour uh Chief Logan, the fire chief, through our facilities within the last few months and talk about some of the work that we're doing in the community and uh hopefully we can move that forward.

Thank you.

No, thank you for that presentation.

Let's now turn to public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

We have received one speaker slip here in the committee room.

Is Blair Beekman still present?

I do see him online, so he may raise his hand.

We've also received one final speaker slip here for Anthony Ralphs.

If Anthony would please approach the lecture, and you will have one minute to speak to item number four.

Good afternoon, City Council.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Wanted to say that um I'm strongly in support of the 211 program.

Um my family was directly affected by the 2007 fires, and I know that 211 did an amazing job in coming to our aid.

So I hope that this program can move forward.

I also wanted to encourage our council to look into and maybe there's a way that 211 can help with this as well, but I know that there's a um a new flame retardant that's uh more bio-organic than the current uh PFA sprays that we have coming out of the helicopters, like the pink stuff that comes out, like the foamy stuff.

Um and there's concerns with that because it's like leeches into the water table and causes all kinds of uh contamination concerns with the natural environment.

So I'm wondering if we can use Citrotech with the fire department.

I know they're already using it like in Oceanside.

Um, I know the county is using it, but uh it can be used as like a spray to put on buildings, uh adhesive for not an adhesive, rather, but uh a flame retardant spray that can go into sprinkler systems, it can go into uh all sorts of applications.

So please look into Citrotech.

Thank you.

Thank you for your concluding remark, and I'll begin the five-minute timer for those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item four.

Each speaker will have one minute.

We will begin with phone number ending in 870.

You can unmute by pressing star six.

Thank you, Sarah.

Vice Chair Campiel.

Loved seeing your new daughter with you.

Thank you.

Okay, um, one.

Um, is it too big?

Now, uh, let's just put that on the back burner for a minute.

I've worked with the homeless uh, you know, for eight to twenty years.

I have really not had any good comments about two one one and the homeless.

Now, I don't have a big, you know, survey on that from the homeless, but I do know that in general, my sense of how two-one one helps the homeless does not seem to work for the homeless.

So I I don't know why they talk about not getting through.

Uh they also talk about that the resources they're giving uh don't work.

So I I don't know.

I think you said enhancing relationships and knowing your role.

My goodness, what you told me.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

Thank you, Sarah.

Our next speaker is Blair Beekman.

Please unmute and begin.

You will have one minute.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Uh thanks that you saw my uh uh saw me on Zoom.

Uh this is another item that actually relates to our time around 2020 and what we're building before George Floyd and what we were building after George Floyd.

And uh thank you that we're working on stuff.

How is is 211 and 311 ideas of San Diego?

Are they related?

Um they're really good services that I hope uh, you know, Panda and Get It Done app, uh I hope they can learn important lessons and it's a cooperative sharing process instead of a competitive process.

Um I know the city of Oakland, I just attended one of their public meetings yesterday.

Their 211 service doesn't offer uh Spanish or Chinese or any other language besides English.

And I kind of agree with uh Joyce's words that uh you know that the app is a bit inaccessible for homeless people who really need it.

Uh good luck on accessibility and possibly language uh help and uh thank you.

Thank you.

And seeing no other hands go up in the queue.

This concludes testimony on item number four.

Thank you to members of the public for their participation on this item.

And of course, I want to thank 211 for the critical role they play in our region's emergency response uh and social service system.

Um first place that many people turn to when they don't know where else to go.

And so it's no exaggeration to say that there are many, many lives that the 211 and the people who answer the phone um have saved, quite literally in hundreds of languages.

Um I'm seeing here that there's uh 6,000 different community resources that 211 connects hundreds of thousands of people to.

And so that's not simply help.

That is life-saving help.

That's essential help.

Um I know that uh firsthand uh when Tira Santa was uh responding to the plane crash uh that happened uh last May.

Um being on site there.

I know many people called 211 looking for help, and 211 was responsive to that.

So uh different partnerships that you have going throughout the community is very, very important.

And the community information exchange model uh is also an important innovation so that providers can coordinate the care more effectively and better understand what communities uh are needing in real time.

Um, that is uh really at the core of what you're doing is serving the community in many ways that uh this when the city can't uh or the county can't, you have other providers that step in and really help.

So um uh a core part of our regional resilience strategy.

I'm really grateful for the work you do.

Uh I don't have any questions uh for you today.

Just a big thank you on behalf of District 7's constituents who I know uh you see you daily.

So with that, I will go to Councilmember Whipper.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Redford, for uh the presentation.

Very informative.

Uh, very much appreciate the proactive role that uh 211 plays at engaging with local uh governments like the city of San Diego at exploring opportunities uh to partner.

Uh glad that Chief Logan uh received a tour.

That's good.

Um, you know, l want to ask you about homelessness, uh, particularly because of the impact that homelessness has in the district that I represent out out of the surrounding area.

Uh, Ms.

Sadiana mentioned the experience of some of the people she's spoken to who are experiencing homelessness.

And uh obviously two on one is not a service provider per se.

Your role is more to connect people to service providers, uh, and their experiences ultimately going to depend on the provider at the other end of that connection.

Uh but tell me a little bit about how uh you interact with homelessness.

I mean, obviously, for the person who is experiencing homelessness, that is an individual disaster.

Unfortunately, there's far too many of them uh who are going through that or the community.

So uh could you elaborate a little bit on uh two ones role in uh the homelessness crisis?

Yes, thank you for that question, council member.

As you pointed out, we're not direct service providers, so in many ways we're only as good as the resources that exist.

I will say, though, through the community information exchange and technological advancements, what we're seeing is better integration with organizations like RTFH, who allow their database information through consent to be included in our community information exchange so that those organizations that are serving those individuals are able to see a more to uh holistic record for that individual so they can provide better services to that individual.

Additionally, when we see the coordinated entry programs into the shelter beds program, that during COVID and just after, we were able to actually open that up so individuals on our phone lines could see what beds were available.

So rather than saying you just need to go to this location, we could say there's a bed available.

Would you like me to reserve it and get you to that place?

So that as well as uh we have our housing first program with the city of San Diego under a joint powers authority.

Um, you know, we're trying to address those things in in more holistic ways through technology, but also through the resort resources that exist.

I think that as we see more than 140 organizations that many of whom are serving individuals that are housing unstable, uh we're seeing an increase to that, how we can do better coordinated efforts to impact a very uh difficult and challenging population to serve.

Thank you.

I really appreciate your efforts in that regard.

Um certainly I see two on one as having a real role to play in helping to connect people experiencing homelessness uh with the resources they need.

You're already doing that, and I think that uh the more of that we could do uh the better off we'll be.

So thank you very much.

Uh and thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Seeing no further comments or questions, uh, we will leave it there and thank you very much for the presentation and um continued continued great work on behalf of not just the city but folks who live in the county as well.

Uh with that, we are at the end of our agenda.

Thank you to members of the public and staff for your participation.

We will now adjourn the meeting of the public safety committee to our next regularly scheduled meeting, Wednesday, June 17th, 2026, 2 p.m.

We are adjourned.