All right.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Apologies for starting a few minutes late.

It's a busy Tuesday in San Jose.

I'm pleased to call the meeting this or to call to order this meeting of the San Jose City Council for the afternoon of August twenty sixth.

Tony, would you please call the role?

Come in.

Here.

Campos.

Present.

Tordillos?

Here.

Cohen?

Here.

Ortiz.

Present.

Okay.

Here.

Here.

Candeles?

Here.

Casey.

Foley.

Mayhem.

Here.

You have a quorum.

Great.

Thank you.

Now, if you're able, please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

For which it stands.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Today's invocation will be provided by Tan from Silicon Valley Taekwondo.

And Councilmember Duan will tell us more.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm excited to present Tunfong Silicon Valley Institute as my final invocation for the month of August.

Tanfong Silicon Valley Institute emphasize excellence in the practice of traditional martial arts.

Fostering not only a strong sense of community and cultural identity, but also the importance of physical and mental well-being.

Without further ado, here is Tanfong Silicon Valley Institute.

Well, no matter what's not real.

Frank, thank Frank Slay.

Turn the left.

Turn the back.

This way.

Yeah, and the alleyway.

Ready?

That's okay.

Yep.

What do you do with this?

Bye.

Ready?

Yep.

I think I'm browse, right?

Well, it's a back.

Yeah.

Fun kick out backside click and ask.

This is the front.

Yeah.

Front kick.

Oh.

Um.

Ready?

That's that.

Oh.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilman Duan, for inviting in Ton Foam, Silicon Valley Taekwondo.

Thank you for sharing your immense talent with us.

Thank you.

Pleasure.

Thank you so much for helping us start our meeting today.

We're on to our ceremonial items.

We'll start by inviting Vicemair Foley, Councilmember Tordillos, and Councilmember Cohen to join me down at the podium, and we will recognize Silicon Valley Pride.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I love to see so much media here covering Silicon Valley Pride Day, so thanks for being here.

Although I know they're here for other reasons.

Good afternoon and happy Silicon Valley Pride Week.

I'm honored to stand alongside my colleagues, Councilmember Cohen and newly elected Councilmember Tordillas to present this ceremonial.

Each year in San Jose, we're proud to celebrate and recognize Pride twice.

Once in June during Pride Month, and again in August with Silicon Valley Pride.

And along with that, we actually raised the flo the Pride flag twice too, and we're going to be raising the flag at five o'clock today, so I hope you'll all come out and join us, and I invite all of my colleagues to join us at five o'clock for that flag raising.

Well, this week's annual ceremonial has traditionally been to proclaim Silicon Valley Pride Week.

This year is speci is especially significant.

It marks fifty years of Silicon Valley Pride.

Founded in 1975 as a small group, grassroots rally, Silicon Valley Pride has grown into the South Bay's largest and longest running LGBTQ organization.

Over five decades, it has championed equality, visibility, and acceptance, evolving from San Jose Pride to Silicon Valley Pride in 2014 to reflect a powerful commitment to regional unity, inclusivity, and representation across our entire valley.

But Silicon Valley Pride is so much more than a parade or a festival.

Staying true to its mission of creating safer spaces and advocating for the LGBTQ community.

It organizes and sponsors events year-round, fostering connection, education, and empowerment through advocacy, celebration, and engagement.

It is truly a beacon of love and authenticity for all who call the South Bay home.

A remarkable leader whose impact has been profound.

Nicole has been volunteering with Silicon Valley Pride since 2016, first as chief operations officer, and in 2020 as CEO.

Her passion for advancing equality has not only strengthened the organization, but has also prepared progress within the City of San Jose.

Through her leadership with the Marsha P.

Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, queer and trans people of color, united advocates, employee resource group.

She has elevated queer and trans voices within our city workforce.

In fact, there's a celebration on Wednesday at lunchtime.

Ensuring that equity is not just a value we hold, but a practice we live.

This year is particularly meaningful as it will be Nicole's final pride week with us in her role as CEO.

As she will be retiring from the position at the end of the year.

Nicole, we want to thank you for your years of leadership, your relentless dedication, and the lasting legacy you leave behind.

Congratulations.

On behalf of the City of San Jose, we commend Silicon Valley Valley Pride for 50 incredible years, uplifting the LGBTQ community through unwavering advocacy, unity, and celebration.

And we commend you, Nicole, for inspiring us all to be our authentic selves and to build a community where everyone belongs.

Nicole, it's an honor to invite you forward to accept one last Silicon Valley Pride ceremonial before you conclude your tenure at the end of the year.

I'll ask you to say a few words and then ask the mayor to present to you with the proclamation.

Thank you.

Okay, lower this.

Thank you so much, Vice Mayor Foley.

Mayor, City Council, City Manager.

My name is Nicole A.

Denson.

I am a proud brown Mexican Native American lesbian woman.

This year's Silicon Valley Pride's theme is unstoppable.

And as myself and the board of directors were contemplating what this year's theme should be for our 50th celebration, unstoppable seemed the best fitting.

Because the LGBTQ community has been around for the entirety of humanity.

Since its conception, Silicon Valley Pride has stood up for rights against those that would be persecuted for who they are, for who they love, for who they choose to spend their life with and how they choose to spend their life.

So 50 years reminds us of the fight, reminds us of how unstoppable we have been and unstoppable we will continue to be.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Let me now invite down Councilmember Mulcahy to join me at the podium, and we will recognize Dana Zell.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

Um, I'd love to invite Lee Wilcox to join me down here as well.

Lee is a uh proud board member of CMT, where Dana is the managing director.

Hi, Dana.

So good afternoon, everyone.

It is such a privilege to celebrate a remarkable leader and dear friend, Dana Zell.

Children's Musical Theater San Jose, or CMT is celebrating Dana's 10th anniversary of guiding the organization with resilience, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to young artists.

Dana's decade-long partnership of visionary leadership with now retired artistic director Kevin Hauge begins anew with new artistic director Kikao Alvaro, both of whom are here today to celebrate Dana and will join us in a few minutes for a photo.

During the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dana provided steadfast leadership when it mattered most.

She helped pivot CMT's programming to online platforms, creating virtual productions and interactive experiences that kept children, families, and our community connected during a time of isolation.

Even in the midst of uncertainty, Dana led a successful two and a half million dollar capital campaign, culminating in the opening of CMT's Creative Arts Center in late 21.

This state of the art space now serves as a vibrant hub for arts, education, and community engagement in District 6 at Parkmore and Meridian.

As public health conditions shifted, Dana guided a safe and thoughtful return to in-person program, ensuring students, staff, and families could come back with safety and confidence.

Her leadership has also fueled remarkable growth.

Under Dana's direction, CMT has expanded up to a three and a half million dollar organization, strengthening its reach and impact across the Bay Area arts community.

And what makes her journey even more meaningful is its full circle nature.

As a proud alumna of CMT, Dana brought not only her professional expertise, but her own lived experience and passion for the arts, empowering the next generation of performers, creators, and leaders.

So Dana, on behalf of everyone here and a very grateful community of thousands of CMT families and performers, thank you for your extraordinary leadership, your heart, and your vision.

Congratulations, Dana.

I'm gonna ask you to work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you for acknowledging me in this way today, and with this great honor.

It's so fitting that CMT's Creative Arts Center sits in District 6.

So it's just another branch and another connection for Councilmember Mulcahy to be connected to this organization.

How lucky are we?

I want to thank you so much to Mayor Mahan and the City of San Jose.

The financial and emotional support that we receive from the city is vital, especially especially now in this time when the arts have lost their footing or losing their footing a bit on a national level, and local foundations and businesses are changing their funding priorities.

The city has really stayed true to its cultural and community values.

When I took on this role about 10 years ago, it really was my dream job.

And now 10 years later, it still is most of the time.

But two things stay true.

One is that there really is no other organization like CMT anywhere.

And so we're so lucky that it's here in the city of San Jose.

And number two is that we um cannot, we're not we are successful.

We could not be as successful without the support of the strong connections and the partnerships that we have with the city of San Jose and all the council members that are here and the Office of Cultural Affairs for all of their support.

So we want to say a huge thank you and thank you again for this honor today.

We appreciate it.

Congrats.

Why don't we move this way sort of the way of the podium?

Okay, it's all good.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right, and on to our final ceremonial item of the afternoon.

I would like to invite Councilmember Ortiz to join me at the podium, and we will recognize and proclaim August 30th as Lowrider Day.

We'll invite the Lowrider Council.

Come on down.

Thank you, Mayor.

I also want to uh bring down my uh co-sponsors.

I think it's Councilmember uh Mulkehi, Councilmember Condela, Councilmember Compost to please stand with us as we do the commendation.

What's up, man?

Good to see you.

All right.

Hello everyone.

As the representative for East San Jose, I am no stranger to a lowrider or a cruise.

For years I've partaken in the celebration, joining our brothers and sisters as we travel along Santa Clara Street, Alum Rock, and of course the historic intersections of King and Story, which I proudly represent.

This culture is more than cars.

It's history, it's family, it's the creativity, ingenuity, and pride of generations in San Jose.

Low riding tells the story of the Chicano community's artistry and resilience, turning steel and chrome into symbols of identity, unity, and pride.

That's why I was proud to partner with the United Low Rider Council in 2023 to bring the first official Lowrider Day celebration to City Hall.

And this August 30th, we continue that tradition with the 2025 Low Rider Day, celebrating how far we've come and affirming how much this community means to our great city.

So today with my colleagues on the San Jose City Council, it's my honor, alongside the mayor, to present this proclamation to the United Low Rider Council, declaring August 30th, 2025 as Low Rider Day in the City of San Jose.

To our car clubs, families, and community members, thank you.

Thank you for keeping this tradition alive, for bringing people together, and for showing us what it means to ride low and to ride proud.

I invite everyone to join us this Saturday at City Hall for Lowrider Day.

I can't wait to see you all there.

Que viva San Jose and que viva the Lowrider community.

I remember my glasses this time, so I'm ahead of it at this time.

First of all, I'd like to thank the city council members for supporting this event.

Pamela Compos, District 2, Michael Moclehi, uh District 6, District 8, Domingo Gonzalez, and the mayor, and also Peter Ortiz.

You know, for some of you guys that might not know, this was born out of the Lowrider or the uh cruising ban being uh lifted by this city council uh by the city, you know, some of the members are different.

Um, at that point, we celebrated that, you know, and that was this never ever thought that we'd be doing this, you know, going into uh what the third year of Lowrider Day, really the fourth time we'd be in front of City Hall.

Um I think even nationally and throughout the state of California, uh people would just look into to see that collaboration between the city and the low rider community, and probably never thought it would ever happen.

And uh I can't tell you about the amount of doors that have opened up for us because of that interaction and that collaboration.

Um we're extremely grateful for that.

And uh it's something that I I just I've said it before up here that I would never would have guessed we'd be where we're at, you know.

And I I don't know where it's gonna go between here and now, but you know, I tell the guys that I'm with now.

I mean, where is low riding in 30 years, 40 years?

Is it gone?

Is it still here?

Right?

So that's the I think that's a thing that we have to get across.

We have to find a way to keep that going.

And I believe we are onto a good start by uh uh collaborating with PD, you know, the city, uh nonprofits, and uh anybody that wants to have our culture um be around our culture, experience our culture that never had it really obtainable before.

And uh I think that's one thing that this has done is it's you know, someone knows how to get a hold of us, they know how to bring us into their event and to celebrate our culture with us.

So again, I like to thank the city and everybody involved for uh all the sponsorships.

And uh it's not too late if you want to get involved.

But uh, anyways, I really appreciate everybody's support and uh thank you guys all again.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

And and for the record, that was David.

He's president of the United Low Rider Council.

And I also want to mention that the mayor also is a co-sponsor of this great event.

Please present the proclamation.

Thank you.

Let's move this way.

Thank you.

Does anyone on the council have any changes to the printed agenda?

Not seeing any hands.

Okay, great.

We will I've got that under um the consent calendar, is that right?

Yep, I got it.

All right.

Uh we'll move on to the closed session report.

Nora, do we have a report?

Uh hi, Mayor.

We do have a report out of closed session.

At least you do.

I've got the report.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, thank you, Nora.

Uh, I am really excited to share with our community that by unanimous vote, the city council has selected our new city attorney.

I'm gonna invite Susanna Alcalawood to make her way down to the podium here.

Uh, so excited to invite Susanna.

She uh definitely deserved that unanimous support of the council and received it.

We began our search back in May when Nora let me know that she was uh beginning preparations for retirement.

I want to thank Nora for her years of service to our city and just the stellar job that she has done.

She's given the council critical guidance through some tough times, uh, including a global pandemic, and then of course, our more recent challenges with our federal government.

Uh so when Nora gave me that news, we engaged a professional search firm, Mosaic Public Partners.

Uh, I was uh really grateful to have the support of Sarah Steele in our human resources department.

Thank you, Jennifer and Lee, for the collaboration and allowing uh me to lean on our human resources department to help us structure and execute the search and the process.

We went through multiple rounds of interviews, had many qualified candidates from all over the state, a really diverse pool, and put them through the ringer, right, Susannah, through quite a rigorous process that included online interviews, in-person interviews, written responses, uh background check, reference checks, quite a quite a bit.

Uh, and we emerged with uh our new leader who I'm so excited to invite.

Just a word on Susanna, and I'll let her introduce herself.

But I was struck through the process at um how deeply she had thought about the role of municipal law in making people's lives better.

It's clear that Susanna is motivated by a desire to serve the public and really relationship driven, cares about people, and did a great job of connecting with everyone through the process, talking about how she would attract and grow great attorneys and support staff within the city attorney's office and would collaborate with every member of the council and and with city attorney and other stakeholders to make sure that we're using every tool available to our city attorney to deliver better outcomes for our community.

Uh, which uh just really caught my attention and those of uh the interview panels that we put together.

So, Susanna, I just want to say congratulations.

Welcome to the city of San Jose, and I want to give you a couple of minutes to introduce yourself.

It's on okay.

Not used to being on this side.

Uh thank you, Mayor and Council, for this incredible opportunity and and your support today means uh so much, and I'm really excited to come work for for all of you in this community.

Um I have to thank my uh my best friend, my driver, uh my my biggest cheerleader, my husband Joseph Wood, he's out in the audience uh holding my stuff.

Um, and uh he's the one that encouraged me when I doubt myself, he encourages me, and so he's a big part of the reason why I'm even standing there.

Um and I also uh I got a few minutes with Nora to go up and meet the team, city attorney's office.

You have a tremendous city attorney's office.

I'm so excited to come work with them.

And um it's just really great.

Uh I I just wish I could work with Nora who who is also another reason why I'm here today, because she encouraged me to also try.

And finally, um I'm happy I met uh Jennifer today.

I'm looking forward to meeting with you and working with your whole team as uh as we get to the important work in front of us.

So thank you.

Thank you, Susanna.

Thank you so much, Susanna.

Once again, congratulations and welcome.

And you're right, we have an unparalleled team uh up in the city attorney's office, and I know you're gonna do a great job to continue to support them and the important work that that you all collectively do for our community.

So, congratulations once again.

Uh we that uh concludes the closed session report, unless you had anything else, Nora.

Great.

We will then move on to the consent calendar.

I'm aware of three notes here, uh and we'll take them in order, but uh, we have one on item 2.14, which I'll get to in a moment, 2.19.

And then, as I understand that the administration would like to request uh that we defer item 2.24 uh until I believe September 9th, if that's if that's correct, Jennifer.

Do you want to add anything?

Um thank you very much, Mayor.

Yes, that would be uh what we'd like to do.

We'll be we'll come back September 9th.

It's strictly because there's a technicality that MTC requires, so that's the reason we need to reshape the recommendation language just a bit to make it clear.

So thank you very much for that your consideration.

Great.

Thank you for that additional context.

So when we take up the motion, it's a slightly consent's usually not quite this many steps, but um, we'll ask that uh the maker of the motion include the deferral of item 2.24.

Before we get to the consent calendar as a whole, though, we are gonna take up item 2.14 on its own.

I'll turn to Councilmember Mulcahy to recuse himself and then we'll we'll take up that item first.

Councilmember, do you want to share your disclosure?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

I wish to disclose a potential conflict of interest regarding Brightview Tree Care Services, which is included in item 2.14.

Brightview is a tenant in one of my partnerships, and because this constitutes a financial interest, I will recuse myself and leave the chamber for your vote.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Appreciate that.

Okay, so council colleagues, I just ask that we take up item 2.14 first, and then we can bring back councilmember Mulcahy for the remainder of the consent calendar.

I'll move approval.

Second.

Great, thanks.

I heard a few motions and seconds.

Tony, I assume you got it.

Okay, I'm seeing heads nod.

Thank you, City Clerk.

Uh, do we have any public comment on item 2.14?

I have no cards for this item.

Okay, great.

And yes, I'll let uh please council member Kamei.

I just want to thank the Department of Transportation for answering my multiple questions that I had on this item.

And uh it's just a gratitude.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Um assuming councilmember T's to a separate item, right?

Yeah, okay, great.

All right.

Uh Tony, let's come back and vote on 2.14 specifically.

Motion passes unanimously 10 zero.

Thank you, Nora.

Tony will or uh I'm sorry, Nora will go grab uh Councilmember Mulcahy if he hasn't already heard us.

Um thank you all.

So now we're under the remainder of the consent calendar.

Again, we're gonna ask for a motion to defer item 2.24.

Um Councilmember Ortiz would like to pull item uh 2.19.

This is the amendment of the San Jose Municipal Code to increase the maximum administrative penalties for um a separate vote, I believe, because we have a memo, a group memo.

Just before you jump in, council member, I just I want to thank everybody who's worked on this.

This has been a long time coming, and I think has stemmed from a collective frustration this council has had around um code enforcement uh not always being equipped to deliver the outcomes we need fast enough for our community.

I do want to just recognize and thank councilmember Kamei and Vice Mayor Foley for working with me on the original memo that initiated this work, and then thank council members Ortiz, Campos, and Tordillos for bringing today's group memo, which we'll discuss uh we absolutely need to do a better job of ensuring that we hold absentee and negligent property owners accountable for maintaining their properties because when they don't, it affects everybody around us.

So we have a staff recommendation based on that prior council direction from the group memo that was adopted by the council a year plus ago.

Uh we have a group memo today, and I'll turn to Councilmember Ortiz to introduce the group memo.

Great, thank you, Mayor.

And I also want to thank you and Councilmember Kamei for your leadership and bringing this uh very important item uh to the forefront of our conversations here on the council.

And I would also like to thank Chris and of course Rachel Roberts for their leadership and uh time and dedication to this very important issue that really impacts all of our all of our districts.

And so I want to thank you for the effort and time you've put into this.

Um so first off, you know, today we have uh before us an important opportunity to address an issue that has been plaguing our neighborhoods, which are blighted, neglected, and absentee owned properties that drag down the quality of life for entire communities, especially in districts like district three, five, and seven.

Residents live every day with the consequences of absentee property owners who refuse to maintain their properties.

These sites have ultimately become magnets for overgrown vegetation, illegal dumping, encampments, trespassing, most recently fires, graffiti, and crime.

They consume a disproportionate amount of our city's time, resources, and taxpayer dollars to monitor, remediate, and enforce compliance.

That is why uh uh following the great leadership of uh the mayor and councilmember Kamei and that Brown Act, uh, Councilmember Campos, Tordillos, and myself are proposing to increase the penalties on these bad actors.

These increases are designed to make sure that fines are not just the cost of doing business for wealthy absentee property owners, but a real incentive to comply with the law.

And while the Department of Planning, building and code enforcement and the city attorney recommend a $10,000 daily penalty, already higher than most Bay Area cities for the worst offenders who ignore city notices and let their properties become public hazards.

We need penalties strong enough to ensure compliance.

Um additional, uh we had originally proposed um uh that we increase the maximum administrative penalty from 100,000 to 500,000 within a 365-day period rather than without a time limit.

Unfortunately, um we've had a discussion with PBCE.

We did some horse trading here on the dais, uh which is common sometimes when you introduce memos.

And they've told us essentially that this isn't possible based on how the fees uh are applied during the process.

And so we're gonna we're willing to drop that aspect of our of our memo.

Um, this memo is not about punishing those who are making an effort.

It's not about penalizing small uh small homeowners, small businesses who are struggling to fix their roofs or local businesses who are working hard to maintain their properties.

This is about absentee owners who repeatedly fail to act while our neighborhoods pay the price.

And so I know that our residents are demanding action.

They want to know that the city of San Jose will lead the way on issues regarding quality of life, and that we won't allow blight to spread unchecked, and that we will hold accountable those who refuse to do their part.

So I would like to make a motion to approve the memo uh signed by myself, council member Campos and Tordillos with two slight amendments to that memo to include the language at up to in the language, so that it's not a mandatory uh uh fee, but it's up to the discretion uh of the code enforcement professional.

Uh and then increasing these bad actor fees from 2,500 up to 20,000 per day.

Uh and then of course removing the stipulation on the annual cap to return to the original staff recommendation.

Uh, by passing the memo and by approving the amendment, I think we send a clear message that the city of San Jose will not tolerate chronic neglect.

We will protect our neighborhoods, and we will put the as an uh the interests of our residents first.

Thank you, and I ask for your support.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Uh appreciate your focus on this and your comments, just to make sure that everybody understands the adjustments.

I have the group memo here.

Um you'd be adding up to 20,000.

Is that what I heard you say?

That would be the high end of the per day maximum administrative penalty.

Correct.

So it's a range, but yes, up to yeah.

20,000.

And um, and I may have a just so staff is ready, may just have a follow-up question for staff just to make sure we all understand uh that recommendation and its implications.

Um on the surface sounds fine to me, but just want to make sure I understand.

And then are you striking one B or modifying one B?

Uh I'm reverting back to the staff level on one B.

So effectively one B is struck because it reverts.

Okay.

And then okay, great.

So it's one A, and we'd be you'd be changing that from up to $20,000 for the per day maximum administrative penalty.

And then can I just ask staff on that?

Um, are there any implications we should be aware of?

As you know, I've been very vocal in wanting to we propose the five X increase in fees that you all or the CAP that you've all brought forward today.

Um, but what tell us is is there anything we should be aware of here, or does this does this work?

Thanks, Matt.

Chris Burton, director of planning building code enforcement, joined by Rachel Roberts, uh deputy director for code.

Um I think it's fine as proposed, you know, with staffs in agreement.

I think this is a great approach.

It's really just about how quickly those fines can accrue if we're working at the maximum level.

Right.

Um the way we approach these fines can often be complicated.

Obviously, we've talked through the operational assessment about that process.

We did commit um based on this um direction by city council that we're also gonna come back with a deeper dive on how we're applying fines.

Um that's gonna come back uh optimistically by December, possibly.

I think in the memo we said Q3 of the fiscal year, which would be sort of January, February.

But that will really dive into how these get applied.

The municipal code lays out the sort of criteria by which we assess fines.

Um not everybody gets the full maximum at 20,000 a day, up to 500,000.

So we want to do a little bit more of a deep dive on that, talk a little bit about how we've been applying them and working with other partner departments to actually move that forward, and then also just kind of talk about the effectiveness of what we've seen so far.

So that's worked yet to come.

Um that will also give us another opportunity to dive in on this issue.

Great.

So there's still flexibility built in for staff to figure out the right approach at the operational level.

You don't feel that your hands are too tied, and we don't feel this that this going up to that level, which again I support philosophically in in the case of the worst actors, but doesn't harm our ability to defend any of our uh administrative actions in court.

That's correct, Mayor.

Great.

Okay, great.

Well then I can certainly support the motion.

Let me see if colleagues have other questions.

I'll turn to Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

This is truly a really important issue, and I'm glad it's coming back, and I'm glad to see the higher uh penalties uh coming forward.

Uh the mayor, vice mayor, and myself were amongst the original authors of the memo a couple a year or so ago, and I'm glad to see it back.

Uh the penalties in my mind can't be high enough.

Uh they should be high enough that they hurt, but then we should be able to afford enforce them and that we collect the the fees.

I had a situation in my district where trees were removed illegally and a fine was implemented, but then it was appealed, and the appeals board or appeals officer discounted it in their uh quote unquote the reason of fairness.

I find it unfair to have cut down mature redwood trees in an area and then have the fine cut down because they're being reasoned a reasonable fairness.

So my question is how often do you think the and maybe you can't answer this right now, but how often will these be appealed and will we actually be able to impose the amount or collect the amount that we're asking for thank you for the question, Vice Mayor.

Um so there's a small percentage that are appealed currently as part of that appeal um to request the PLR process requires uh that they pay the the fine amount in order to um have the appeal of the citation heard.

Um, this type of fine, this is an administrative remedy fine, so these would be assessed by the appeals hearing board, and then the um person subject to those fines could appeal that um order um to the court.

Okay, so the appeal doesn't come to our appeals board, it goes to the courts as an appeal.

For this type of fine, yes.

For this these fines, yes.

Okay, great.

I'm happy to support it.

I 20,000 initially great, up to 500,000.

That's great.

I'm supporting you 100 percent.

Thanks.

Great.

Thanks, Vice Mayor.

Uh great.

I don't see any other hands on this item.

I will ask if it's okay for a friendly to uh uh include the remainder of the consent calendar, unless I don't think any other items are polled, and then just with the note of deferring item 2.24 as requested by the administration.

Sounds good to me.

To the second or okay, great.

So this would be the consent uh the remaining consent calendar items, deferring item 2.24 as requested by the administration with uh recommendation 1A from the group memo related to item 2.19.

Sound right to our clerk.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I don't see any other hands.

Do we have public comment?

Chris West, come on down.

All right.

He is declined.

Okay.

Any other comment cards for consent calendar?

Okay, Tony, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we're on to item 3.1 report of the city manager.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

I do not have a report today.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Let's go on to item 3.3.

We have a staff presentation on this item, which is access to and use of the city's traffic safety programs by traditionally marginalized communities.

This is an audit report.

We'll be joined by our city auditor Joe Royce and members of his team.

And we'll start with the staff presentation as soon as you're ready, Joe.

So good afternoon, Council.

Joe Royce City Otter.

I'm here with Abele Obi, Maria Vye, and Brittany Harvey to present our audit access needs of traffic safety services, targeted outreach, and other improvements can enhance equity in services.

Also in the box are John Ristow from the Department of Transportation and Michelle Bartet from the police department.

Department of Transportation and the Police Department provide key traffic safety programs and services, such as responding to traffic safety service requests, implementing a variety of traffic safety projects such as traffic calming projects in neighborhoods, pedestrian safety enhancements, and quick build projects, and providing schools traffic safety education, crossing guards, as well as traffic enforcement.

Residents can request these services in different ways, such as through email, phone, or online.

In other cases, the departments prioritize service delivery in priority safety corridors where there are high incidence of crashes or injuries.

The objective of this audit was to assess access to and use of traffic safety services by traditionally marginalized communities with a focus on services within the increasing community safety city council focus area.

The genesis of the audit was direction of the mayor's March 2023 budget message to explore an audit of access and use of our most critical services by traditionally marginalized communities.

This is a second in a series of audits that we hope to do in this area.

Our first finding was that equity priority communities received the same or higher level services in some traffic safety programs.

The audit used two different equity lenses to assess traffic safety service delivery and access and use of such services.

First, we use the San Jose Equity Atlas, which is a tool created by the city to help departments inform equity work that uses data to identify census tracts with higher proportions of people of color and lower household incomes.

We also use the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's equity priority communities, which are census tracts with significant concentrations of underserved populations, incorporating demographic factors such as race, income, English proficiency, disability status, and age.

We found that equity priority communities received a greater number of quick build safety projects in comparison to other communities.

This is part because Vision Zero quick build projects are generally targeted in priority safety corridors, many of which are in equity priority communities.

We also note that requests for basic neighborhood traffic safety services were equally distributed across the city.

And the Department of Transportation was more timely, in closing out basic traffic safety requests and equity priority communities.

We also want to note that the Department of Transportation explicitly factors equity into project prioritization for some pedestrian safety enhancements and neighborhood traffic safety work.

Lastly, I want to note that Division 02025, which was adopted earlier this year, prioritizes equity, specifically noting that the city should prioritize resources to areas with high fatal and severe injuries, especially in areas with the highest equity scores of the San in the San Jose Equity Alice.

Our second finding is that school traffic safety programs can be more proactive in their outreach to engage more schools.

Both DOT or the school, we found that school traffic safety services are generally accessed by request, and both DOT or Department of Transportation and the police department have faced challenges in reaching all elementary and middle schools for school safety programming.

Slightly fewer schools and equity priority communities were involved with the walk and roll program or had crossing guards than would be expected if participating schools were equally distributed.

Also, there are opportunities for better outreach and cross-departmental coordination to improve access and use of school traffic safety services.

In this finding, we had recommendations to the departments to expand and coordinate on proactive targeted outreach and develop a process to better track and facilitate crossing guard requests between the departments.

I also I do want to note that outreach will help in expanding the reach of these programs.

However, schools will still need to request these services.

And also for crossing guards, schools need to meet certain some safety criteria to qualify, and then they may be placed on a wait list until crossing guard staffing becomes available.

Our last finding is that translated and updated resources could enhance access to traffic safety services.

We found the police department's public online traffic enforcement request form is only in English, as well as the Department of Transportation Traffic Calming Toolkit, a resource intended to provide information to the public on how to access traffic calming improvements in their neighborhoods.

Lastly, we noted that phone trees that residents are directed to for traffic safety or enhancement services are not always translated in all the languages identified in the city's language equity policy and guidelines.

So in this final, we have recommendations for the police department to translate the online traffic enforcement request form for Department of Transportation to update and translate its traffic safety resources and both departments to translate phone trees for accessing traffic safety services.

The report overall has eight recommendations.

Like to thank Department of Transportation and the Police Department for their time and insight during the auto process.

I ask you to accept the report, and we're happy to answer your questions, of course.

But I first I'll turn it over to John Ristow for the administration's response.

Thank you, Joe.

John Marisno, Director of Transportation.

And first, I'd just like to thank Joe and his whole team for a very complete, comprehensive report.

They did a really good job of reviewing all of our processes and programs and our traffic safety, both for Department of Transportation and Police Department.

And then on behalf of the administration and Chief Joseph and the police department, we'd like to accept the report and accept all the recommendations that are important to look forward to implementing those and making the traffic safety and access and equity programs that we undertake even better.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, uh Joe to you and your team for the audit report.

Thank you, John, to you and yours for accepting the recommendations after reviewing them.

We're going to turn to public comment first.

I have two cards.

Jordan and James come on down.

Jordan Moldow, District 3, uh, thanks again for the audit report.

Uh great work as always.

Um, this is an incredibly important topic, and it's good to hear that there aren't uh a lot of barriers uh to accessing these traffic safety services, although, as the report notes, there is some work to be done, but it's good that we're in a good place.

Um given the recent closure of a bunch of school campuses and more closures in the future.

I don't know if there's any way where the school-related recommendations can be bumped up a bit in priority so that they get completed sooner rather than later.

Um, in particular, recommendations four and five might be useful for students who are um you know different traffic patterns with the new schools that people are going to.

Um, and then just a quick note on equity.

It's great that um we're making sure that our equity priority communities are re at least receiving equal resources.

Um, but for the council, which you know is the policy making body of the city.

Um, there's a question of do we need to make sure that we are allocating funding in a way where we are making up for historic inequities?

Um, and that was outside of the scope of this audit.

So thank you for your consideration.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

This is of James Wyman.

Yeah, I write VT all the time.

And I know in San Francisco, they put up those needs news speed, they put up those speed cameras.

Hey Matt, when are we gonna get those speed cameras down here?

And um, the thing is I think you need to put those speed cameras up on your VTA light rail stations.

I think I'm gonna maybe suggest this to Carolyn Gunnard, the next board of directors meeting.

And um, and um we need to put this those new cameras on the light rail station, especially for Super Bowl and for the light rail stations on VTA.

We need to um vent.

I I suggested this at the VTA meeting last week.

We need to put gate right next for the bio light rail stations because it's the super bowl, it's gonna be very crowded.

All right.

Great, Tony, is that our last public comment?

Yeah, back to council.

Okay, great.

Thank you to our public commenters.

Coming back to the council.

Let me start with council member compos.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Joe and your team for this detailed analysis and the recommendations.

It's wonderful to see the progress that our city is making with Vision Zero and with active transportation.

So thank you as well to um DOT and team for our um joint efforts in and really um working to address the needs as we heard in public comment around our equity priority communities.

I think it's crucial that we continue building on this momentum so that every resident from students to seniors can safely and comfortably cross our streets.

Um this report does demonstrate that we have more work to do, particularly ensuring that our dynamic teams at walk and roll and the police department's school safety unit are reaching schools in our communities.

Um the issue is uh looks to be uh connected to the sharp decline in students walking and biking to school, a number that now is less than 10 percent.

And I was just at a um neighborhood block party, and I asked uh some of our D2 residents why uh they are dropping their kids off in cars instead of walking or biking to school less than a mile away, and it was safety was the number one concern for why um they feel safer in a car than allowing their their children to uh travel on on bikes or or um using pedestrian access.

So um clearly by prioritizing safer routes, we can get more kids moving, we can ease traffic congestion, which is the big concern of adults.

The drop-off is very difficult, and so with that, I do have a couple of questions for staff starting with DOT.

Um was very uh pleased to see the department agree with the auditors' recommendations to be more proactive in reaching out to schools as well as providing language accessibility for our diver diverse communities.

Um what I want to better understand is what kind of resources are needed to accomplish this.

We heard in the audit recommendations that um that things could be improved in that area, and uh I I'd like to learn more about what uh resources we could use to help bolster that work.

Thank you, Councilmember John Russell, Director of Transportation.

Yeah, the uh the audit did find that we could certainly do a better job of connecting with the schools, and we definitely do want to do that.

We act the DOT does that in two ways, and police also in another way, but we do that through our you mentioned it, our walk and roll program.

Those schools that we're working with voluntarily uh agree to work with us on that.

So we would love to have more schools participate, and I think that's where we're gonna be putting some of that effort.

The other area that that we work on is a school safety program that we're again proactively reaching out to schools to determine um improvements to safety for uh students that either walk or bike to school as well.

So we're trying to find out and work with the schools to actually install and implement safe more safe devices at those locations where kids are walking.

I think where the the question on the resources, I think it's probably both sides of the equation.

We really would like to have some more um staff on our side to be able to reach out more.

We have a pretty small team when it comes to the walk and roll program, but it probably a bigger resource area is on the school side, either the parents or the PTA or the school administrators having the ability and time and effort to actually engage with us on that school safety work that we need to do.

So it's probably both ends of that.

Thank you for that.

And you know, I know that in my district alone, there's at least a dozen schools times 10.

There is a lot of need to be met.

And so without additional resources, do you see our city being able to expand outreach proactively to more schools?

This is a job or so again.

Yeah, I think so, because what we what we learned in we are actually when we were at the T and E committee, we got some very good recommendations from the committee members, and one of them is really making better use of our city school collaborative effort that we do led and organized by the library department.

So we found that that might be a really good avenue to actually connect in with school administrators each each one of the schools or the school districts themselves to actually get more engagement on that.

So I think that's at least one very good suggestion that we got from the TE committee.

Yeah, that's wonderful.

I I um strongly uh believe that the city and the school working uh together in partnership can bring a lot of success to our neighborhoods and communities, so I'm glad that that's being worked on.

Um a couple questions for um uh our police department as well.

In the report, I was excited to learn about the student safety patrol and student ballet programs, and I want to express my strong support for uh expansion of these programs because they not only enhance pedestrian safety, but they also provide a valuable opportunity for older students to develop leadership skills and serve as a positive role model for their younger peers.

So, with this in mind, are there opportunities to expand these programs to more schools in the equity priority communities?

Michelle Barte from Police School Safety.

And thank you for recognizing those two programs.

So traditionally and historically, the school safety unit used to have only student safety patrol, and that's the use of fifth grade students throughout the entire city, and that's a program that our unit goes out, educates both the advisors, the adult advisors, as well as the students, provides all the training as well as the equipment.

Uh, it's a program that is housed through the school, though.

So the administration through the school takes responsibility for all those children's on a daily basis.

However, our staff does go out and we spot check to make sure that they're doing everything that was adequately taught to them to make sure that they aren't making any adjustments on their own to also provide incentives for them.

We also like to incentivize everything with an end-of-the-year celebration for all of the schools.

If not, there is a grand program that we have as a celebration and a recognition for the top safety patroller and safety patrol unit throughout the entire city.

In the past, we've invited them to the San Jose Sharks game, they've been on the Jumbotron.

Uh, we've also participated with the St.

Jose Giants.

We've had city council members come out.

A couple years we had safety patrollers come here in front of City Council so that they can be recognized and see the impact that they hold within their communities.

So it's definitely a great program and something that we encourage to expand.

Over the years, though, with the demographics changing, like you had mentioned, parents are more inclined to drive their students within a short radius as well.

With that, we try to adapt and make adjustments to help encourage parents to either walk, bike, or if they're going to continue driving, what could we do to enhance that?

So, in place of that, we've altered the safe student safety patrol to include student safety valet.

The valet program takes place on a school campus when a within a parking lot.

The children do not step off of the sidewalk, it's a much more controlled environment.

And same thing.

We go out and we provide all the all the equipment, all the training, spot check them.

So that's something that we are seeing more of a school's open to and welcoming.

So between the two programs, we are expanding both.

That's wonderful to hear.

And is it possible to tap um young people into this program through the San Jose Cadet program?

Both safety patrol programs for safety patrol and valet are focused on elementary schools only for fifth grade students.

So by age, it's a different demographic.

Okay.

Um, and my last question is how can we work with our schools to encourage and organize the dedicated parents and neighbors who are already volunteering as crossing guards?

Um, are there any liability implications of the city endorsing a community-based program like this?

Uh there's often it is confused with all of our crossing guard staff.

They are paid city employees.

So there are there are different types of groups.

More so the private schools tend to have parent volunteer groups that go out and conduct uh duties that crossing guards would.

As far as our staff though, it's completely different.

We do encourage them to, but since it's a different program, we don't provide the training nor the oversight of that since it's not part of our program.

But we do try to go out and proactively look at the challenges that each school has.

Every intersection is different depending on where the point of uh issues are, if it's speeding, if it's an issue of congestion, because congestion with cars not being able to move sometimes are double parking, they're popping up on the sidewalk to get around other vehicles, they are speeding, making illegal U-turns in an intersection.

So depending on what the issue is, we'll go out and assess and we'll provide our assistance.

That could be teaming up with our traffic enforcement unit.

That could be putting out a request to the Department of Transportation for parking compliance control officers.

It might be a matter of using cones, flares, possibly proposing a safety patrol that could be implemented in that location if it is deemed safe enough.

Um so there are different programs and resources that we could use to provide in those ways.

Great.

I I just want to wrap up my comments by recognizing and uplifting the great work of the Rose Garden neighbors who have created a really safe route to school for their elementary, middle, and high school students to be able to ride their bikes and walk safely, and it was really led by uh involved parents.

Um so I think learning um from those best practices and identifying what it takes and how we can then implement that throughout the city to make sure that every neighborhood is providing safe um routes to school.

And so with that, I will move to accept the audit report.

Thanks, uh, Councilman Ocampos.

Let's turn now to Councilor Cohen.

Yeah, just quickly uh because John, you brought up the discussion we had at the Transportation Environment Committee.

I was just going to mention that we had a good robust discussion of that committee about how we connect with more schools, how we can be proactive, what kind of engagement methods we can use, and I look forward to seeing some of those things in action.

Um I know how great the uh the walk and roll program is and the um Viva Escuela program is, and as I mentioned there, the one of the schools that's closing this year in my district actually was one of the biggest uh schools involved in Viva Escuela and uh walk and roll.

So obviously there's maybe some capacity to spread out to some other schools, but um certainly appreciate that.

I think maybe ask Council Mario Campos, you were asking about student crossing guard program, or you were talking about the adult crossing guard program.

Both, yeah.

So student crossing guard program, as I understand it, just can you can you clarify this for me?

The city is this is a school program, not a city program when that happens, is that correct?

It's a city-led program, but student crossing guards?

Uh for student safety patrol.

But it requires having somebody like a teacher on site who is willing to just take the time to be the coordinator of the program, is that correct?

Correct.

So I know because I know many of our schools have dropped it just because of staff unwillingness to be involved in helping the program.

You're correct.

And depending on the location of the school, a school might have safety patrol, but two locations, for example, so that we request an adult at each location.

So if that's the case, we would need two advisors.

Okay.

If it's, for example, one intersection or only a valet program, it would just be one.

All right, thank you.

And then I just wanted to just offer the services of our offices to help promote some of these programs to our schools.

Um I think we've got, you know, we often have connection.

We use our newsletters and other ways to get it out.

So if we're trying to get other schools involved, please reach out to us and provide us with the retail with the information to get that out to the to our districts.

Thank you.

Thanks, counselor.

Appreciate those questions and comments.

Let me turn now to Council Rucomet.

Uh thank you so much.

Uh, first of all, I want to thank uh the auditor and the his team uh for the information.

It's always uh really good information and moves us forward.

Um I um wanted to um ask a little bit in terms of I had not previously known of the uh San Jose PD school safety unit until last year, and I thought, oh my gosh, this is a great secret.

Um so I think that you know, somehow um even in the school safety program that DOT has, um there's a lot that uh the schools and cities collaborative can do.

We meet frequently with the uh superintendents, and I think that in terms of of helping with the message uh to be able to uh promote some of the programs, be able to expand, uh working with council members.

Um I I want to encourage you to uh reach out to us because um I think that we could probably do more just being aware of some of the activities, some of the programs, um, some of the areas that you might need help in.

And so I just want to offer that because I think it's it's so good, but you know, I think the principals sometimes are so busy with the day-to-day, and now that we're back to school, um, this is really a good time to be able to bring some of that and let them know uh these things we could do in partnership.

It isn't just a city doing it or the schools doing it, but doing it together.

And uh, and I would encourage that and working, you know, we have a lot of new council members.

Uh so I think that it would also be great to um work uh collaboratively with us to be able to reach the schools.

Uh many of us have um have good connections with uh either principals or school.

Some of us were on school boards, so I would I would encourage uh both uh both uh teams to to really uh reach out to us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And also thank you for your support.

It was wonderful seeing you out there with us and with all the children.

The community definitely loved it and appreciated it.

And I want to take this opportunity and time also to highlight two new programs and initiatives that we had launched last school year, one of them being A Drive Safely campaign, and that is just as DOT had mentioned.

Sometimes it's difficult to gain the support and interaction from the schools.

So we said, what could we do without tasking the school with their time and their staffing?

And we came up with a drive safely program where we could go out and put banners up, um, draw attention, have our motor units pass out stickers, and teach the pedestrians, both children and adults, about how to be proactive and keeping keeping themselves and their friends safe.

In addition to that, each one of you should have been contacted by our office as well.

And I wanted to point out I know you just stepped out, but council member Casey was the first council member to participate in our crossing with council.

Here he is, as I mentioned.

Um we did this at the end of the school year at one of his locations, and it was wonderful.

It's another thing that we tried to think of what could we do on our own with the services and the staffing that we have, and we extended that to all of you.

So I'd like to to remind you and your staff to please participate.

And I believe this coming week we have Councilman Cohen that's going to participate in a crossing with council with us.

Um so thank you.

We're trying to schedule all of your offices without with us throughout the school year.

So if you'd like to go out and participate in one shift with some of our crossing guards, we have safety vests for you.

We have stickers, pencils, and everything.

So it's a great event, and it definitely draws attention to to being proactive and taking action into their own hands.

Thanks, Councilman Casey for leading the way, and thank you for the public accountability.

We're all checking our calendars.

Um we have a uh we have a motion.

I don't see any other hands.

Motion from Council Mr Campos.

Let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Thank you.

We have another audit report.

So Joe at least will not be going anywhere.

Thank you all.

We're on to item 3.4.

This is cost of special events audit report.

We once again have a staff presentation, so we'll change up who's in the box and jump in.

Good afternoon again, Joe Royce again, uh City Auditor.

I'm here with Brittany Harvey, Michael O'Connell, and uh Dil Mosa Kodoy Berganova for audit on city costs for outdoor special events.

Opportunities exist to enhance customer service also in the box, or Carrie Adams Hatner from the Office of Economic Development Cultural Affairs, Sergeant Tony Depp from the police department, and Melina Iglesias from the Office of Economic and Cultural Affairs as well.

And were coordinated through the Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs or OEDCA.

These include large annual events like Christmas in the park and San Jose has Summer Fest, as well as smaller scale community or cultural events overall, the attractive estimated 330,000 attendees over 300 event days.

City costs charged to event organizers, which include the cost of permits, labor costs, such as for security or traffic control, and other costs, such as for the rental of traffic control equipment totaled $622,000, the more majority of which was for labor.

The objective of this audit was to assess security or other city costs to organizers for large outdoor special events.

The audit did not include city sponsored events, for example, Viva CAE or similar events, or smaller private events that did not involve multiple departments or not facilitated by facilitated by OEDCA.

An example of that would be like a corporate event or a park facility has been reserved.

We also recognize there are many other costs to event organizers for putting on events.

We were only focused on city costs.

The report had two findings.

The first finding was that more transparent and predictable police staffing costs can help event organizers of the $622,000 collected from event organizers in fiscal year 23-24, roughly 51% were for police department staffing.

This includes sworn and non-sworn staff, such as community service officers and crossing guards.

And not all hourly rates were posted on the city special events webpage.

We noted that sworn and non-sworn police personnel voluntarily signed up to work special events through the police department's secondary employment unit or SEU.

However, fully staffing events has been a persistent challenge for SEU.

Lastly, roles and responsibilities for sworn officers, non-sworn staff, and private security are not clearly defined in clarifying these roles and encouraging the appropriate use of private security can help organizers ensure a safe and affordable event.

In this finding, we have recommendations for the administration and the police department to identify a threshold for which cost estimates would be required to update the city's website for sworn and non-sworn rates and update the special event guidelines to define and prioritize roles for private security and non-sworn staff.

The second finding is that improving coordination in the event process may help enhance customer service.

So the city has developed a customer service vision and standards to improve customer service across the organization.

While the outdoor special event process meets some elements of those standards, there is room for improvement to better support event organizers.

We found that currently event organizers receive separate invoices and go through different billing processes for each department involved.

In some instances, they may receive multiple invoices from the same department months apart.

A more coordinated approach can streamline the permitting and invoice processes to provide a seamless customer experience to event organizers.

We have recommendations here for the administration and OEDCA to assess how the city can better coordinate the permitting process, potentially through a technology solution.

Also to formalize OEDCA's current procedures or to follow up the departments around timely invoicing.

Overall, there were four recommendations.

Want to thank uh OEDCA, the police department, and multiple other departments who helped during the uh preparation of this report.

I ask that you accept the report, and we're obviously happy to answer questions.

I'm going to turn it first over to Carrie Adams Hapner for the administration's response.

Thank you.

Carrie Adams Hapner, Director of Cultural Affairs for the City Manager's Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs.

I want to begin by thanking the city auditors team for their thorough good work and bringing this important issue to your attention.

I also just want to first of all say that we very much pride our work around special event services and what we do for the event organizing community as well as for the greater San Jose community.

And we embrace a spirit of innovation and continuous improvement and consistent services, and that's something we pride ourselves on, and we want to continue to do, and we want to meet those high standards.

And so we very much embrace all of these recommendations.

You'll see in the administration's response to the this audit report.

We agree with all of them.

In fact, we've already begun the process of implementation.

So those are things that we are working on right now.

Of the four recommendations, there is one that we named as a yellow, really, because we're looking to with the target date of June of 2027 to implement it.

It is regarding the use of technology for a more streamlined, efficient, and coordinated billing system.

And so we anticipate that the identification, the procurement of that platform might take a little bit longer than some of the other recommendations implementation.

That said, I just wanted to also conclude that customer service is very important to our department.

In fact, in recognition of our department's new economic strategy, as well as the timing of this audit, we integrated a new performance measure target into the annual budget process that is directly related to customer service and special event coordination.

So we're very pleased to begin to benchmark that and improve upon it again with a spirit of continuous improvement and innovation.

And I also just want to thank the time, the timing of this report.

I think it's very uh well done.

And in terms of what we're anticipating of 2026 and all the activations associated with that, it helps us better prepare for what is going to be a very vibrant year in San Jose.

So with that, I am going to conclude my remarks and we will open it up for any questions.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, Carrie.

Uh, thank you to Joe, you and your team, PD as well, everybody who collaborated uh on this audit.

Tony, do we have public comment?

Um, yes, Jordan and Artie.

Jordan Moldale, District 3, thanks again for the good report.

Uh, I just want to emphasize how important it is to figure out how to reduce the mandatory uh costs associated with hiring SJPD officers for these special events.

Um I'm glad 2026 was mentioned just a second ago, because we're gonna need to run a lot of events with a lot of security, um, and we're gonna need to do it a lot more cheaply.

So that means finding ways to uh prioritize being able to hire uh the right role for for the right role and do that cheaply and leave our SJPD sworn officers to do the tasks that only they can do.

Um and I know that this audit did not focus on things like Viva CA, but um I like Viva CIA, and I've heard that the required SJPD costs for that are a huge portion of the budget, and we could probably run more of the CIAs if we could manage to reduce the amount of overtime we're spending on SJPD officers, and I assume that's true for all the special events, whether they're city or private events.

So uh just really looking forward to seeing that recommendation implemented as soon as possible.

Thank you.

This report meticulously details six hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars in city costs for 84 events, but ignores the parallel costs of sweeps occurring to prepare for similar events.

The audit focuses on improving coordination and enhancing customer service for event organizers.

Meanwhile, nationwide analyses by the urban institute find that cities spend an average of over $30,000 a year to criminalize a single person experiencing homelessness, while the yearly cost for supporting housing is around 10,000.

With San Jose conducting approximately 30 major sweeps annually according to public records, this suggests we're spending millions on sweeps, significantly more than the amount spent on community events with minimal audit oversight.

Furthermore, we see that half of the special event costs go towards police staffing.

According to public records requests filed by local advocacy groups and School of Public Health Research, more than half of sweeps involve police contact, whereas 15% actually involve a homelessness outreach worker.

In fact, today at Columbus Park, I counted 15 police officers and four police cars in the time it took me to drop off food.

The report recommends more transparent and predictable costs for event organizers.

I ask, where is this same commitment to transparency and predictability for unhoused neighbors?

As we prepare for major sporting events, could we apply that same rigorous fiscal analysis to encampment management strategies that we do to festival planning?

Thank you.

Back to council.

Thank you, Tony.

Let me start with our vice mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation, Joe.

It seems like a long time ago we saw this at CED, so had to refresh my memory what this was all about.

Particularly it's about staffing, special events, and the coordination of staffing.

And we have a tremendous amount of special events coming up, just the normal events in 2026, but we have a huge amount of events coming up in 2026 that we have to be very careful and concerned about.

So, how are we going to ensure that we have adequate staffing to cover all of the security needs in 2026?

Thank you for the question, Vice Mayor.

So we've uh in secondary employment, we've implemented different uh strategies and utilize different city agencies, such as park control officers, crossing guards, and our community service officers to assist us in staffing these major events that doesn't necessarily require a police officer to do, such as traffic control or uh just blocking an intersection.

So that way it leaves us uh sworn officers to deal with more uh jobs that are relatively uh important for uh police work as opposed to just traffic.

Thank you.

It's I I think it's important for us to look outside of just sworn officers to uh help create security around these events, crossing guards as you as you say, CSOs, that seems like a perfect role for them and to be flexible and think outside of our normal way of looking at safety and security.

Of course, we want all of our community to be safe and secure, and I know we're probably coordinating with VTA and the sheriff and all that on the major 2026 event.

So I don't want to get sidetracked with that, but this audit is really about secondary unit and secondary employment and how we're gonna manage all of that and stay within a certain budget.

Um so I appreciate the audit, and I I think it's it's very helpful.

Uh, there are four recommendations.

Three of them were green lit, one of them was yellow lit.

And the yellow lit item seems to be the one that uh in my mind could be the most important one because it's the technology one that will help us manage the system.

So I uh I know it's yellow lit, and it's uh supposed target date of June 2027.

Uh I am going to move the staff recommendation and modify recommendation number four that it be referred to CED uh and added to their work plan to review uh have a presentation in June uh January 2026 to get an update on that process.

Could I could I clarify?

Sure.

Um I would suggest rather than modifying a recommendation, have a separate separate direction to count to the to the department to do that because our normal process that won't get rolled out.

You don't want it to go through the audit department.

Yeah, you're putting it basically onto us to to bring that forward, and that's not really our role.

So I would put I would accept the auto report and have separate direction to bring an update on that to the administration, if that makes sense.

I will accept that as a uh friendly amendment, Joe.

Yeah.

So uh so I will move the staff recommendation, but then I will come back and uh move item four to CED.

Thank you.

So maybe sorry, okay.

Second from councilmember Kameh.

Let's turn it so that's it for me, but I will come back when it's time for to make my motion.

Thanks, Joe.

Okay.

Uh Councilmore Ortiz.

Uh thank you, uh Mayor.

I just want to start out first off by um thanking our city auditor and of course our Office of Economic Development for all of this great work to make sure that events can be made possible here in the city of San Jose.

I of course want to thank Sergeant Tony Diepp for his leadership and partnership.

I we would not be able to do many of our, uh especially our Chicano and Lowrider events, without um your leadership, uh Sergeant.

And so I just want to thank you and all of your officers, because they definitely you know elevate the quality events that uh we've been able to put on, and honestly, we we wouldn't be able to provide the level of programming that we do without our our men and and men and women in blue.

So just want to thank you uh uh for that.

Uh I do just have some questions, you know, in light of an event that occurred on King and Story that my office didn't um uh approve, and uh which I know there was some safety concerns that occurred there.

I wanted to ask what I guess what uh sort of authority, if we have authority, um does the city have or the Office of Economic Development have uh to I guess stop events that we feel does not take into consideration hiring police or having the level of security um required to put on a safe event.

If somebody could speak to that.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Uh very significant point, and that's how our office in the Office of Cultural Affairs looks at every event proposal.

We have the event ordinance, but also we look at uh time, place, and manner, and we coordinate across agencies to make sure that we address and mitigate the impacts, but we look at the time of the event, the place of the event in the manner, and we can go back to the event organizers and propose alternatives and run it through the process for review.

Okay, but there's we don't have any sort of authority to say, like, hey, we're looking at the writing on the wall, and it looks like there may be some incidents, so we're gonna prevent this event from happening.

We don't we are not able to do that.

We do that collaboratively with our uh department uh partner departments in the police department, department of transportation, whatever the element of concern is, we run it through that process and review, and we work with our stakeholders uh as well to try to mitigate sometimes those issues don't show until after the event, and so then we do post-event reviews and we look at the proposals for perhaps the next event or the next year and account for that.

So if for example, the event that you're speaking to may not come back to that space based on the factors that we experience with uh time, place, and manner, and safety and traffic management.

Okay, of course.

And you know, I know that I just got up and gave proclamation for Lowrider Day, so obviously I support low riding and and you know the culture, but I think you know, safety uh of the community also needs to be made a priority, and I encourage you know that individual to come back with more security for a future event, but just making sure that you know that goes into to consideration.

Of course, I know I think Jordan was mentioning earlier that um you know there has to be considerations for alternative safety measures.

I think also the vice mayor said what crossing guards can do some of those roles and responsibilities, but I do also reinforce, want to reinforce the importance of having uh SJPD there because it does make sure that events go smoothly.

And our I know that the committees I work with they they would never want to do an event without SJPD because they do make sure that safety is a top uh priority.

Um and then I know that we got a letter from Jesus Flores and a lot of the businesses on Story and King who are concerned, you know, and which they felt like you know, the events came in and utilized their access to their you know shopping districts um for the event and they really didn't have much say.

Can you just talk about um how I guess pro surrounding property owners and and business owners are treated as stakeholders in these processes?

Yes, absolutely.

So we host what is called a pre-event coordination meeting.

Uh and actually let me go back.

When we receive the application, we review it, we make sure that it fits within the conditions that we can approve.

Umce we do that, we send it internally to the departments that it uh that are providing a service or a permit, and once we get through that process, we then send it out to our stakeholders for notification that this event is um conditionally approved, meaning that it is something that what would fit within our permitting parameters, and then we coordinate with them.

So we have uh what is called a pre-vent uh event meeting, and it's a virtual round table because we do it via Zoom these days, but uh we bring them to the table, we have representatives from each department or agency, we have representatives from the event uh production team, and we work through the issues.

So, for this specific event, for example, we did have the stakeholders, the businesses were invited to the meeting, and we did speak to the problems.

We it addressed it with um control points, and we had traffic mitigation plans in place.

Um, and there were just again, once the event is live, um, there are other elements that uh do take place, and we look at those post-event as well.

Okay.

Uh we'll we'll take this conversation on.

I'd love to follow up with you guys and just you know learn what else you know our role in council can do to facilitate um these conversations.

I don't want to drill you on the dice, but I appreciate your answers and thank you for your hard work.

Thank you, and we welcome that thanks, council member.

Uh, just before I go to council come, I just want to clarify what I heard as a motion, but want to just confirm with the vice mayor that it was in fact a motion.

What I think I heard was a motion to accept the audit report and direct the city manager to bring, I believe it was recommendation four to CED for a future meeting.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Spring.

Spring of 2026.

Spring of 2026 for REC 4 going to CED.

Okay.

And I believe I heard a second from Councilman Kamei.

Does that sound right?

Yes.

Okay.

If you're both happy with that, we'll turn to councilmer command.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Foley and I were thinking about the same uh recommendation uh number four.

And uh, you know, I I was kind of curious.

Um, it says that the police department is piling a new centralized permitting software.

Is that something that will have information at least a year or did they just start?

The uh new system was implemented uh several months ago, about three months ago.

Okay, because I think that um Vice Mayor Foley is correct.

This is probably one of the areas that to me would help facilitate uh some of the uh other permitting that happens.

The fact that you know uh departments have all kinds of different uh uh ways in which they're um charging or or sending out invoices, or you know, when I came on board here, uh there were uh invoices from months and months and months that I don't know what happened when Chappie was here, that all of a sudden showed up.

So I think that it would be great to bring it all together, and to me I see it as a tremendous benefit to accelerate that.

So the fact that June 2027 is the time for completion.

If there's any way of being able to uh fast track that, I think that it will benefit many.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Let me turn now to Councilmember Duan.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a question for OED.

Regarding that event that was happening on July 13th.

I barely get any any notice within the last couple of days of that event.

It's affected the Tropicana businesses, the road was blocked on King, enormous amounts of residents decided to park inside the parking lot, which literally the business had to shut down for that day.

And it some businesses may lost like 10 to 15,000 that particular day.

So my my office reach out to your office and making sure that the next event like that.

OED should communicate that with the council district that is being affected.

And now, you know, I I hear huge amount of discourse from the businesses, which I had no idea that is happening.

And they said they were never invited into participation of this event.

I think we should do our due diligence to make sure we reach out every single businesses within maybe a quarter of a mile, or at least one-eighth of a mile from that event in order to support our community.

There was somewhat of a chaos event, and again, I just want to be very clear that district seven office was unaware of the event until a couple of days before.

Please give me some answer on on this particular issue.

If I may, and then I can turn it over to Melina if she wants to add any additional details.

But we do have uh a standard where we do require the event organizer to provide uh a notification of an event within a 300-foot radius of that event.

And I agree we can coordinate with you, and I would also welcome the opportunity to really unpack this event with you, maybe this week.

That would be welcomed.

But furthermore, we do very much want to some of the the notifications maybe don't reach the manager, maybe they don't meet they don't reach the person that's in the field that day or on site.

So, you know, I think that's something that we will learn from, and we can continue to work with you and ensure that there are not similar um types of events that cause this type of impact.

We were we we have talked a lot about that event and how we can improve our services moving forward again, emphasizing time, place, and manner.

So we're very much we are on heightened alert of how we can improve the network of traffic control in that vicinity.

Thank you.

If your office would have communicated with my office, we could have reached out to the business association.

Um not only within 300 feet.

I think is all it need to be extended a lot more.

And it's not only the businesses lost the revenue, but it became a safety for a residents on top of that.

And that and to me that's unacceptable when you're shutting down a main throwway that come right off the freeway, it causes chaos, not only in that area, but miles around.

So I appreciate that uh we'll we'll have a conversation on the side regarding that.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Turn to Councilmember Condelas.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um, I I I want to thank Joe and the City Auditor team for your work on this, and um also the the Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, which I know quarterbacks hundreds of events, um, whose goal it is is to all um to make it easier and to put on good high quality community activations.

Uh you know, um, as the unofficial event organizer of district eight, I know firsthand what it takes to do some of these things, and and and for example, with the Fourth of July celebration at Lake Cunningham, um, you know, our collaboration with not just SAPD but with DOT and OEDCA um helped deliver a safe event.

And shout out to Tommy who's sitting in the stands and helped us pivot from our fireworks show to our drone show.

But you know uh behind the scenes, I know there was some issues that that uh I'm glad the audit brought to light, and and whether it's you know the budgeting and building billing process and and bringing some transparency and an upfront costs for the event organizers or whether it's uh a more seamless process for these event organizers, including my office and my staff.

Um I I think it's important and you know that that transparency is going to be key, and and I appreciated uh my colleagues uh comments um and the the secondary direction, if you will, this to bring that out of this report and into committee, and I look forward uh to keeping that the that um to keeping apprised of the status of this because uh you know I I think we create stronger neighborhoods through community activation and uh and so your work doesn't go unnoticed.

And and uh that's that's all I wanted to say.

Thanks.

Thanks, council member.

Appreciate those comments as well.

All right, uh don't see any other hands.

We have a motion on the floor.

Tony, let's vote motion passes unanimously great.

Thank you all very much.

Okay, we're on to item 5.1.

This is the amendment to the food and beverage concession agreement with SSP America, SJC, LLC.

There's no staff presentation.

Tony, do we have public comment?

Yes, Jordan.

No, that's for 5.2.

Sorry, no, no cards.

No cards on item 5.1 coming back to the council.

Move approval.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I don't see any other hands.

Tony, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great, thank you.

We're on to item 5.2 resolution establishing speed limits.

We do have a staff presentation.

I'll invite John Risto, our director of transportation, down along with colleagues.

Uh John, whenever you and the team are ready, let's jump in.

Thank you, Mayor.

We did abide by the speed limit getting down here.

So let me get the team.

Well done, John.

Thank you, Mayor, for introducing the item.

And with me today is Heather Hoshi, Deputy Director of Transportation Safety Operations and Parking, and Lamb Cruiser Division Manager in charge of DU the DOT safety division.

We are here to present uh an item on a resolution establishing new speed limits on a number of segments and priority safety corridors throughout the city.

And um those of you that have seen many of our vision zero presentations know that our research and research around the country shows that speed and speeding is a primary factor when it comes to uh traffic crashes and severity of crashes.

We are looking to lower the posted speed limits um within the vision zero safety corridors, and that's what the research that we did for this item uh entails, and the plan that was presented as uh the vision zero action plan does have a number of uh strategies.

This one being one of them is to reduce speed and speeding on our important priority safety corridors, and this item is accomplishing some of that.

We did do a number a lot of work to update the traffic and traffic engineering and surveys to ensure that uh both the the correct and the most appropriate speed limit would be posted, and from a technical standpoint also that to ensure that San Jose Police Department can actually issue citations using their radar services.

The reason we're able to do this now is re fairly recent legislation passed in Sacramento that allows us to not only use the traffic survey data that we take, but also use other characteristics that are on the roadway and engineering judgment to actually come up with uh an appropriate posted speed limit for a segment.

We in this item we're actually proposing to lower speed limits on 23 different segments on those priority safety corridor, and the survey that we did also is we are recommending based on that information to maintain the current speed post posted speed limit on three street segments.

Following uh council action, we will what will we be doing with the new posted speed limits?

We will be doing quite a bit of outreach using your council newsletters, quite a bit of social media, uh changeable message signs and uh free media as well to get the message out about these.

We will be installing these new markings and signs in September and thereafter for the new speed uh before the new speed cameras are implemented.

And this fall, later in the fall 2025, we will be coming back to council with a number of other segments that we're also working on right now.

And that completes our presentation.

We're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Tony.

Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak?

Yes, Jordan, come on down.

Hi again, Jordan Muldau, District Three.

Push just the mic, there you go.

Nope, you turned on the back.

Yeah.

Jordan Moldow District Three.

Uh, thank you so much for DOT for bringing this item forward, and thank you in advance for hopefully adopting this item.

Um this is an important part of the many faceted Vision Zero Action Plan that was adopted by this council earlier this year.

Um, and a bunch of advocates pushed for this as one of the many things to make sure that the city did with priority.

Um, in that same vision zero action plan, we adopted the safe systems approach that says that the design of the streets is the primary factor that leads to uh traffic violence.

So why am I here advocating for changing the signs on the side of the road that might seem counterintuitive?

Um there's a couple reasons why this is incredibly important.

Um, one, again, speed kills, not speeding.

Um, and so having speed limits set too high conveys the wrong notion.

By reducing the speed limits, we make it so that saying that speeding kills is a little bit more true.

Um, additionally, this will allow us to get more uh efficiency out of our speed camera implementation.

Uh we can only ticket people if they're going 11 miles an hour over the posted speed limit by reducing them by five.

We can enforce six miles above the current speed limit.

Um people aren't necessarily gonna slow down by five miles an hour if you reduce the speed limit by five miles an hour, but some people will, and the cars behind them will also have to slow down.

Um, and maybe most importantly, the speed limit just conveys our values and conveys what the engineers are going to design for when they change the street in the future.

So for all those reasons, please adopt the staff recommendation.

And I hope there will be more decreases in the near future.

Back to council.

Thank you.

Councilmember Campos.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, and thank you to the incredible team uh in the Department of Transportation Safety Division for developing this ambitious and necessary list of recommendations for speed limit reductions.

I uh want to thank your team for the work in aligning this policy with our vision zero goals and existing safety programs, such as the implementation of speed safety cameras throughout the city.

The comprehensive approach maximizes our impact and ensures that we aren't duplicating efforts.

And when the state empowers cities with new tools to improve street safety, this is exactly the kind of response that our communities want to see.

I know that in my district, I often hear concerns from residents about vehicle speeding and reckless driving.

Blossom Hill and Monterey Road are two corridors in the city that have recently been identified as safety corridors, and I'm very pleased to see that they will both have their speed limits reduced and receive new speed and red light cameras because this is a major step towards creating safe, accessible and welcoming streets for everyone.

So to ensure that this change is successful, we must also proactively engage with our communities so that they fully understand the reasoning behind these changes and the positive impact they will have on our city's safety.

And so with that, I do have a couple of questions for staff.

Um I noticed that in the safety in in the staff report, your team cited California Vehicle Code 22358.7 to reduce speed limits by an additional five miles per hour on safety corridors.

For example, staff used this authority to justify an additional five mile per hour reduction on both sections of Blossom Hill Road, making the recommended speed limit 10 miles per hour lower than it would be under the 85th percentile rule.

So can you please walk the council through the criteria for this additional reduction?

And specifically, I'm looking at Monterey Road and wondering why it did not qualify for this extra reduction.

Thank you for your question.

Um, Lamb Cruise Division Manager over traffic safety.

Um looking at this one particularly here, um, we were able to reduce it by five miles per hour or higher.

I'd have to dig a little bit deeper into the data.

Um, but what this actually let me try to see if I can pull it up right now.

Um we could also follow up on this question.

We need to follow take a look a little bit deeper into the data.

But um, one thing I'd like to mention is um when we do the engineering analysis, we do try to take advantage of that part of the bill, but we don't just look at that blindly and just say, hey, let's just reduce that by another five miles per hour or higher.

We look at the land use, we look at adjacent segments as well.

I know in the case of Monterey Road, it is a little bit tricky because further on the southern end it's a little bit faster.

So, what we try to minimize doing is doing an abrupt speed limit reduction, like something say from 55 all the way directly to 40 or something like that.

So we do look at adjacent roadways or adjacent segments.

I don't know if that's the case here.

I'd have to take a little bit um deeper into the analysis we did, but there's other considerations outside of just blindly reducing it by five miles per hour.

Thank you.

I know my council office would appreciate a follow-up on that because from Morgan Hill through to downtown San Jose, Monterey Highway is a very long corridor that runs through our county, and as many people may know, um, it's it's nicknamed Blood Alley for a reason, and so it's a key corridor in my district that I want to make sure we are bringing all opportunities to the table to ensure traffic and pedestrian safety there.

Um in my district, in addition to the corridors I've already mentioned, uh we also have Snell Avenue and Branham Lane that are designated as safety corridors in alignment with state requirements, and I assume that there are many more roadways in other districts that did not receive the speed reduction in this initial phase.

Um so is your team able to return to council with additional recommendations for speed limit reductions in the future.

Yeah, we plan to come back in the fall with addition another set of um reduction.

And not just that, but if there are ones, there's also ones that we are also updating outside of just you know um reducing it, but if we're able to maintain it, we're also um renewing those surveys as well.

Thank you.

And as a follow-up to that, if there is a safety corridor that is not included in future staff recommendations, can you share with the council office the results of the traffic surveys outlining why speed reductions were not deemed necessary?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you so much for that.

Um again, really appreciate the the work.

And with that, I will um move the staff recommendation to adopt the resolution.

Second.

Great, thank you.

We have a motion and a second.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

As Vice Chair to Vision Zero, our death count is still way too high.

And as a form of Farr Captain, and and you're absolutely correct, Councilmember Compost, is that Monterey Road and many other roads we named the blood alley, especially Monterey.

And I personally have gone out there literally picking up body parts because of how fast people have driven down that road and end up hitting trees or other vehicles.

I've seen too many pedestrian bicyclists, death out there on the on the road, including vehicle collusion.

And trust me, it's never a pretty sight, or when you have to tell the family members that someone that they love have passed because of someone else speeding.

And I think it's important that we continue to what you call behavior modification.

People can save one or two seconds in their daily trip.

It's better off that they plan to leave a little bit earlier.

That prevent these unnecessary death.

And um and I think that we're doing the right thing.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Uh as the former chair of the Vision Zero Task Force, this issue is extremely important to me.

In fact, we've been pushing for some ability to lower uh track uh lower speed limits around the city for a long time, and now we finally have the legislation that empowers us to do so.

We know that speed kills.

Uh we know that that is the reason for the higher death rate and the serious uh uh injuries that we get on our streets.

So lowering the speed limit will help that tremendously, and I agree with uh with Jordan that lowering the speed will uh benefit under the speed can the camera legislation and when they're when they're uh presented, because it's now going to be 10 miles or 11 miles over 35 miles an hour instead of 40 miles an hour.

So I'm I'm very excited to see this uh come through.

And uh but I want to caution everybody that it's our responsibility to drive sensibly and responsibly and the speed limit too, and to model that behavior, particularly for our children.

And school started a couple of weeks ago in other areas, it's actually starting this week.

So please, please be careful if you're a parent, allow yourself five or ten more minutes before you get in the car and drive.

That it's uh stressful driving your kid to school on time.

I understand that, but the more we do to model good behavior, the more people around us will be safer.

So I hate to preach to the choir, but I am preaching to the choir and asking that you all be safe out there and watch for our kids as they cross the street.

It goes along with our uh crossing guards and our safety patrol issue that we were talking about earlier.

Very happy to see this uh come forward.

Uh Councilmember Kamei.

Thank you so much, Vice Mayor.

Um I um I I was just curious.

I know that uh there are many corridors that were vision zero corridors that um will have the speeds reduce, and and I do believe that speed does kill.

Um, but I was also wondering in terms of other techniques that I know that uh DOT has tried before in terms of even um painting the line so that it appears to be narrow so that people do slow down, and I don't know how you determine I do know it's expensive.

Um that I do know, but uh but I do think that that it's uh it's it's sort of a uh a way in which you can combine not just a reduction in speed but also the narrowing of the lanes uh because I did notice that when they're doing the paving and the lines are not there, people are going like so fast, regardless of the speed limit.

And so um, you know, I I I just put that out there in terms of if there is any way of of combining in some areas, especially in areas where you know they're high uh crash areas, uh, that perhaps it would be appropriate to spend some money to be able to to do that.

And you know, I I don't know what those areas would be.

I leave it up to the experts, but I do think that um that when there's a a line drawn, people do slow down.

I I I see that all the time, and so um I would encourage that.

So thank you for your work on it.

Great.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Vice Mayor, thanks for covering.

I see we have exhausted questions and comments.

Tony, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great.

Thank you all.

Thank you to staff.

We're on to item 7.1 beautiful ISJ neighborhood blight reduction status report.

We do have a staff presentation.

John, we'll turn it over to you and the team when you're ready.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

John Cicerelli, Director of Parks Recreation Neighborhood Services with me today, Deputy Director Olympia Williams and interim.

Let's see, your interim.

Division manager, sorry, Paul Pereira.

Uh, we're here to present the annual report on blight.

And with that, Olympia will begin.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council members.

I am Olimpia Williams, Deputy Director of the Community Services Division.

Joining me today is Paul Pereira, interim division manager for the Beautify SJ program.

Over the past year, Beautify SJ has continued to advance San Jose's commitment to reducing blight and enhancing livability through education, eradication, and enforcement.

We removed over 14 million pounds of trash and debris as part of our blight reduction efforts throughout neighborho through neighborhood cleanups, dumpster days, and illegal dumping response.

We eradicated more than 2.5 million square feet of graffiti, marking the first year we've seen a citywide decrease on public property.

And nearly 15,000 residents volunteered over 20,000 hours, contributing to cleaner neighborhoods and building community pride.

This past year, we also strengthened our focus on education and enforcement.

We launched an environmental stewardship program in schools, engaging almost 1,000 students in beautification and sustainability, expanded our outreach with neighborhood associations as part of our new engagement model to strengthen civic participation, and with our partners, we established a blight enforcement working group and an updated city ordinance to hold illegal dumpers accountable.

While we're proud of this progress, we recognize there's more to do.

In the year ahead, we will continue refining our service delivery, strengthening partnerships with agencies like Caltrans and VTA, and expanding deterrent and enforcement strategies to sustain these gains.

At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Paul, who will provide more detail related to this year's results.

Thank you, Olympia.

Good afternoon.

Some highlights to the education component of our three E's approach include the launch of an environmental stewardship program at schools in districts 7, 3, and 8.

This program engaged over 970 youth at these three schools and provided more than 1,100 hours of volunteer service by youth and their families.

This element of education proves to be a positive multiplier.

We can educate our youth, then enroll them in volunteer service that almost always brings out an additional volunteer in the form of a parent, sibling, or caregiver.

This allows us to amplify the education message to many people in one household through one young person and multiply the service and engagement through volunteer events that often bring out families.

Part of our education strategy involves marketing and outreach.

Beautify SJ launched a multilingual ad campaign to raise awareness and promote community engagement in bus shelter and on bus ads for 12 weeks.

A digital ad that you see here on the slide is currently running at Eastridge Mall.

I'd like to share some highlights of our second E, our eradication efforts.

The anti-graffiti program removed just over two and a half million square feet of graffiti last year, a nearly 15% decrease from the previous fiscal year.

It is important to note though that 29% of the reported graffiti was on private property, a significant increase from the 6% reported the previous year.

Of the 14 million pounds collected by the blight reduction program, almost 10 and a half million pounds were collected through the Rapid Program.

This program addresses illegal dumping by responding to requests submitted by the public through San Jose 311.

While the team's goal is to respond within five business days, the Rapid Team is currently responding in roughly three days.

Removing blight from our communities would not be possible without the support of our amazing volunteers who generously contribute their time.

Over the past fiscal year, volunteers in the neighborhood litter program contributed over $714,000 worth of volunteer time.

While the number of neighborhood volunteers remain similar to last year, new challenges with some school districts requiring that we execute and use their MOUs prevented us from entering some schools to conduct presentations.

As a result, school presentations and volunteer projects at those schools declined from 74 to 47 this past year.

We have now established MOUs with three school districts and are working on executing MOUs with others to address this.

I'd next like to highlight the work of the neighborhood beautification team, better known as the Dumpster Day program.

This team collaborated with council offices, neighborhood associations, and community groups to host Dumpster Day events, collecting almost three million pounds of waste.

We plan to host dumpster days at fixed locations throughout the city as part of our evolving blight reduction strategy.

I'll now highlight the enforcement part of our strategy.

To better align blight-related enforcement efforts, a blight enforcement working group was established as Olympia mentioned.

This working group includes key internal departments, the along with parks, recreation, and neighborhood services, code enforcement, the city attorney's office, and the San Jose Police Department.

External partners include the District Attorney's Office, Caltrans, and the California Highway Patrol.

The group is developing strategies to better align and leverage our resources as it relates to illegal dumping and graffiti related blight.

Beautify SJ operates 12 surveillance cameras in high volume illegal dumping hotspots.

This has both challenges and positive outcomes.

Connectivity problems, primarily due to weak Wi-Fi, tree branches obstructing the camera's view, limited recording range, and vandalism have complicated maintenance.

But despite these challenges, the program has yielded several positive results.

Illegal dumping has decreased by an average of 32% in areas where cameras are installed.

In 2024-2025, we added a new full-time staff position to review camera footage, refer and track cases sent to code enforcement.

Citations can be issued when video evidence captures the act of dumping.

Warning notices are issued when evidence is less conclusive.

Twenty-two cases were opened by code enforcement in the 2024-2025 year.

In addition, the San Jose Police Department arrested three prolific taggers in the last fiscal year.

The city continues to invest in physical deterrence throughout the city, including the Clean Gateways Project, which is working to enhance our off-ramp and on-ramp locations in key areas.

Beautify SJ has also installed fencing, signage, and boulders in areas with high rates of illegal dumping, graffiti, and issues with trespassing.

We continue to explore ways to expand beautification efforts such as murals and planting flowers, California poppies, and other native wildflowers, as well as other beautification efforts as part of our service delivery strategy in areas where we have spent the past few years eradicating blight.

This is all part of a proactive and multi-layered strategy to combat illegal dumping, graffiti, and blight to promote cleaner, safer, and more engaged neighborhoods.

I'll now turn it back over to Olympia.

In closing, I want to extend my deepest thanks to our partner department, our external partners, and especially our neighborhood associations.

These community members give their time and energy to improving the quality of life in their neighborhoods, and they inspire all of us with their commitment to making San Jose a cleaner, safer, and more beautiful city that we are all proud to call home.

With that, we are available for questions.

Great, thank you.

Thanks for the great work you all do out there.

I know it's often thankless and tough and dirty work, but uh I just so appreciate the work of Beautify SJ.

And uh, you know, every time I see the team out there, it's just it's it's really meaningful to see how much they care and take pride in our city.

So just want to say a huge thank you.

Uh Tony, do we have public comments?

Yeah, I have three cards.

Ozelle, Jessica, and I think Artie, come on down.

Um Artie, if you didn't submit, I do have an anonymous one, but it looks like your handwriting.

Um, Jessica Ozelle and maybe Artie.

Uh good afternoon, Mayor, Council, and staff.

My name is Ozelle Kirkland, and I serve the core as the coordinator for the Cataldi Park Neighborhood Watch of District 4.

On July 13th, the neighborhood was devastated by a tragic act of violence in Cataly Park, where a father fatally stabbed his nine-year-old son before he was shot by police.

That heartbreak underscored how vulnerable the community feels in response.

We formed a neighborhood watch to reclaim safety.

And I want to thank Councilmember Cohen's office and the San Jose Police Department for supporting us in this effort.

But our concerns have grown.

Since last week, a fire broke out at Cataldi Park, ignited by occupants of a homeless encampment.

There was mere feet away from dozens of homes in the neighborhood, and more than uh many families.

So, quick thinking resident alerted the fire department and the blaze was contained, but the scorched ground daily reminds us of the imminent danger.

So our adoptive park volunteers now hesitate to go near the encampment, undermining very goals of the beautify SJ today.

And I raised this concern with the police department, and I was told the new site requests are not being accepted for the Olive program.

So I want to be clear.

This does not diminish our request, nor does it the sense of urgency.

We feel this resolution for having a fire hazard magnitude, and we cannot wait.

So on behalf of our residents, I respectfully ask that the Cataldi neighborhood park be incorporated into the Olive program.

Doing this will directly reduce blight, remove dangerous fire risks, and restore peace of mind to families who simply want to enjoy and care for their park.

I thank you and the leadership for standing with us.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

Hi.

I'm here to comment on the Beautify SJ project at Columbus Park.

For 10 days, I've been helping the residents of Columbus Park while the city destroys their homes.

When I first spoke to a police officer at the site last Monday, he told me I don't want people thinking that we are making people more homeless.

I'm here to tell you, in case you are confused, you are absolutely making people more homeless.

This week the homes of many residents were destroyed, and the city informed them that there is no additional housing for them to go to.

So you are making them more homeless.

Those who were offered housing have little support to get to financial independence.

They are likely to become homeless again when the city contract expires.

Many who have been offered housing lack access to cooking facilities and are not allowed to park RVs.

Surely you understand that to get back to financial independence, working class people must be able to cook.

Your policies here are expensive and wasteful.

You traumatize, displace, and disconnect people, which inevitably leads to further chaos and crime in San Jose.

The fires that the person before me just mentioned were a direct result of your policies to remove shade, turn off water, and create a humanitarian crisis at this park.

Yes, desperate people do desperate things.

The desperate conditions that you are creating are not helping.

Your policies do not help homeless people become independent.

You waste money and solve nothing.

I invite you to come to Columbus Park and see firsthand what your policies are doing to living, breathing humans.

Please stop using taxpayer money to create new problems that will require taxpayer money to solve later.

You even turned off the water during the hottest part of the summer for two days.

You manufactured a public health nightmare.

I cannot see any logical explanation for your policies here other than you are trying to create a humanitarian crisis.

Please do not do that.

Thank you, next speaker.

In this report, we're celebrating removing 24.4 million pounds of trash and categorizing human beings and their possessions as blight to be eradicated.

This report talks about using the California Healthy Places Index to better target resources in communities that have the highest need.

But a quick analysis sees that sweeps happen without concern about which communities have need.

When unhoused people in Columbus Park have literally, time and time again asked for regular dumpster services so they themselves could clean everything, the city has denied these requests.

I have seen people in Columbus Park put out fires before the fire department could even arrive.

I have seen them purchase fire extinguishers on their own.

I have seen them put dirt on fires in order to stop them, making sure that the environment around them is taken care of.

A little bit of support would go a long way.

The report boasts of three E's education, eradication, and enforcement, but you're missing a fourth one, empathy.

At Columbus Park, residents have as little as 30 minutes notice before their belongings are destroyed with no meaningful outreach or service connection.

People were told some arbitrary deadline that you have to sign up with home first within the day, or else you can't get services anymore.

Where is this enforcement when construction companies that you partner with do illegal dumping in Columbus Park?

Where is the eradication by allowing people to actually access a dumpster that they have repeatedly requested?

The report celebrates neighborhood engagement and community participation.

But can we reasonably say that San Jose residents have requested for people to be forced out of Columbus Park and into their neighborhoods?

Can we reasonably say that what San Jose residents have requested is actively sabotaging attempts by unhoused people to maintain a clean environment by removing dumpsters and allowing companies to dump without consequences?

As we prepare for major sporting events, the language of beautification becomes quite disturbing, suggesting that human beings experiencing poverty are simply aesthetic problems to be removed from public view rather than community members deserving of care and support.

Thank you.

Thank you back to council.

Thank you, Tony.

Just coming back to the council, I don't want to distract too much from the uh comprehensive blight report that we just received on the work of beautify SJ citywide.

And I I do on that point just want to highlight that this year of our three E's of eradication, which I'll just remind folks, we spend millions of dollars eradicating illegal dumping and graffiti.

The education investments we make, particularly focused on uh creating a culture of civic pride and responsibility amongst our young people, and then enforcement.

Uh this council uh is agreed that that third had gotten short shrift in recent years.

And I want to thank SJPD for their effort just in the last six months that identified a few prolific taggers and has also led to some enforcement uh related to illegal dumpers that have led to real accountability.

And I think it's that increased focus, really taking that multipronged approach, but investing once again in enforcement that has yielded the 18% reduction in graffiti on public property year over year after years of steady increases where cost of eradication was outpacing the increase in revenue to the city.

So I think strategically we've got to take a multi pronged approach.

I'll also note that enforcement itself is productive and compassion, it's constructive and compassionate.

We let even prolific taggers who have to face dozens and dozens of public properties and small businesses to uh pay their restitution by painting community murals and giving back to the community, which I think is the a great way to go every where we can.

Um, just on uh, but since we're on the public record, and I you know, Lee, I'll let you and um John Olympia, whoever's best positioned, just quickly clarify that uh prior to any abatement at Columbus Park, as I understand it, uh we've been doing outreach for over 60 days.

In fact, I think it was it's meant to be a 60 day notice end up being about 70 days of notice with repeated outreach.

Prior to that, I know we'd had the water destroyed in the park and tried at great cost to taxpayers to fix and re-establish water at Columbus Park multiple uh times.

I also understand that we're opening enough interim housing and have in fact offered individual private housing to every single person who has been encamped out in Columbus Park and have not abated anyone who has accepted housing.

So I just I've been saying that to the community and the press for the last uh two or three weeks, and so I just want to make sure we clarify on the record that those are all factually true, and then we can get on to the rest of the blight report.

All of those facts are absolutely true.

Great.

Outreach has occurred in facts.

Outreach has occurred for 77 days.

Um, and as we've said to the media and residents, um, instead of abating this site in the spring, uh, which it was previously previously scheduled, uh, this was backed up to August to align with hotels opening so that everyone on site could be offered a safe shelter as we went through Columbus.

Um and then contrary um to rhetoric, I would just say on the water, the city has spent over millions of dollars trying to fix the water because of damage and sabotage to the system and San Jose Water Company, after it was damaged beyond backflow preventers, which could have contaminated the whole system, made the decision to shut it off.

So we went through um other services and other attempts to provide water on site through the summer given the condition there.

John, I don't know if you wanted to add anything.

Yeah, we were providing a water truck, big gallon, five gallon things of water free for everybody.

I think they were there twice a day every day.

Um, so that was our backup because it wasn't there wasn't much point trying to fix it since we knew the abatement was coming anyways.

Um so we just use water trucks.

Yeah, thanks.

Not cheap, but something we felt was the right thing to do, not our preference.

All right, well, thanks for those clarifications.

I appreciate it.

Uh, let me turn to colleagues on the the broader blight report.

Let me turn it.

Councilmember Ortiz.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, as well as thank you, staff, for your diligent work.

Um, I just can't say uh enough positive things about Olympia and beautify SJ.

She's been a rock star for Eastside San Jose, even though I probably email her every day, so sorry about that.

Uh, but just really um want to elevate you and all of the staff work.

I've seen staff go out there, residents tell me that they see uh staff go out there, and so I just want to elevate, you know, and and tell you how much the families of our city appreciate your your diligence um to beautifying our city.

Um, but you know, that also goes into like my next uh I guess a question, because I know that it's not necessarily sustainable for us to be sending you guys out every day, especially to the same site, you know.

And I know it uh this kind of alludes to our previous conversation in regards to holding property owners accountable, and I know the fee, uh the fine is just literally one aspect.

The other aspect is you know, making sure that we can refer these cases um to our city attorney um for direct action.

And so I just wanted to ask like how is that process currently um being done?

How are we working in partnership with code enforcement?

Is there anything we need to streamline to make sure that's more efficient so that we could kind of hold these properties owners accountable instead of like continuing to go there and you know utilizing staff time and and stuff like that.

Yeah, council member, I'll I'll take that one.

Yeah, as as you heard in the report, uh we we have convened a standing neighborhood divide uh neighborhood inner department and neighborhood blight enforcement team.

Um and and our whole focus is on really trying to drive down our investment on eradication, because as you've heard, the bulk of our work and money is spent on picking up trash as as a key point.

If you take a look at the baseline in 2021 when we first started collecting that data and compared to our most recent collection, you know, we we collected 13.7 million pounds more than we did that first year, right?

So that tells us two things.

One that we definitely have gotten better at collecting trash, but it also tells us that this is unsustainable long term, right?

So we're gonna have to really pivot towards more enforcement.

Uh I think the the this group initially started with uh graffiti, and uh as you heard the mayor reference, there was a few stings that were coordinated through this team.

Uh excellent work by PD, excellent work by some of the other departments that drove graffiti for the first time uh in in over 10 years down by 14.73 percent.

So that was an indication that these efforts uh can work similarly with illegal dumping, and you heard in uh with with today's um uh council action earlier today.

What we're doing is we're doing a deeper dive around illegal dumping and and looking at taking similar approaches.

I won't share too much publicly in terms of those approaches, but I will say that we are honing in uh looking at the way we use surveillance cameras, looking at the way we use APLR readers, looking at the way we uh uh uh the use of hybrid stings, uh looking at the way we're also working in partnership with many of our neighborhood associations to get the word out around uh you know education and and all this work, and so you will see something in the very near future uh really stepped up game in that manner.

Great note, thank you, Angel.

And I I know that our our staff work extremely hard, especially in PRNS, and I know our code enforcement officers are always out there doing you know the best they can.

It's just it's it's a numbers game, and we don't we don't have the staff uh systemically to respond to the the need.

I guess uh I'll get I'll be more specific with my question.

How many properties or problematic lighted properties have been referred to the CAO for legal action?

Yeah, it's so so that would be a code enforcement question.

We don't have that information right now, and I don't want to put Rachel on the spot either.

But I will follow up offline.

I just yeah, but but I will tell you this.

Uh on that point.

Uh as you know, we are currently doing a the operational assessment and re-engineerative code enforcement, and what we've baked into that work is basically a whole system that not only tracks that but actually coordinates interdepartmentally the way we enforce our illegal dumping uh ordinance, which is section 9.10 and in the Muni Code.

Uh and and that's part of this body of work that you'll see in the very near future.

So it is definitely top of mind.

Thank you.

Thank you, staff, for your hard work.

Thanks, Councilmember Didow.

Uh let's go to Councilmember Cohen.

Yeah, thank you.

Um I I want to focus on what I think is one of the most frustrating things as a council member is the uh is illegal dumping and the prevalence of illegal dumping and what I see as a lack of pride that people have in the community be by by dumping regularly in certain places, but I want to first of all just thank staff for responsiveness.

I think one of the services that works best in this city is illegal dumping response.

When some I know that I know very confidently that if somebody reports a location that it's within 48, if not seven 72, if not 48 hours, that site is addressed and picked up.

And it's it's a lot of work, and I'm I I'm just shocked by the volume of reports and incidents.

Um and I also know that we've worked collectively on certain locations with repeated dumping to put up barriers and and deterrence and other things, and so I you know, I appreciate all of that.

Just to sort of follow up on Council Member Ortiz's questions.

Um there are cameras up, and I hear that there's reductions in those sites for the cameras.

I'm curious, maybe you don't have this information either.

How many how many citations have we issued as a city to people who have been caught doing illegal dumping?

Do we have any any information about that?

If not, I I'm curious to get that data eventually.

Um get a follow-up because I'm you know it just feels to me like I mean we've talked about this.

I know this is this is my fifth year, and I feel like every year we have the same conversation.

I know we've focused on cameras.

It probably works as a deterrent, but it's it's still shocking to me that that there's so many people out there, especially contractors who feel like it's it's their uh it's it's their right to just drive out and and dump the their construction waste.

I've been out at sites in my district where I can even tell where it came from.

There's address material on the garbage that they've dumped, and I know that it was it was an upgrade that was happening at a location, and they just the contractors just dumping.

Given all of the resources that we provide for free pickups and all the things, it's just shocking to me that people still feel the need to dump because we've worked so hard.

Um can you just talk a little bit though about the camera system?

Are we are we moving those cameras around?

Are we um being strategic about how we deploy them in key locations?

Thank you for the question, Councilmember.

Yes, we do move our cameras around quarterly.

So we have 12 cameras, which is the camera and the license plate reader, and we do move them to areas where we have ongoing dumping issues.

Our challenge is we just have six for BSJ, but the next step is we'll be working with SJPD to see how we can use those ALPRs and strategically have those placed in areas to support kind of our camera system and get more coverage throughout the city.

Great.

And like I said, I I would look forward to finding out how you know what that's led to in terms of of um citations and and enforcement, and potentially we could use some of those cases and and highlight them and amplify them publicly to let people know if you do this, we will work to cite you.

So it might be great to find out.

You know, we had this many cases and gave you give an example.

If this person got fined 10,000 for dumping, don't be next.

That kind of a of a promotion might be a way to go.

Um with that, I will move acceptance of the report.

So I can't.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Appreciate the motion.

Don't see any other hands.

Tony, let's vote some last motion passes unanimously.

Yeah.

Let me let me get that over to you.

Okay.

We're on to it 8.1.

This is the 2026 major event status report.

We'll let staff swap out.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council Rosalind Huey, Deputy City Manager.

I'm joined today by uh Tommy O'Hare, our 2026 Sports and Special Events Director.

John Poach, executive director of the San Jose Sports Authority, and Carrie Adams Hapner, uh, director of the Office of Cultural Affairs.

Um we're really pleased to be with you this afternoon to give you an update on the activities related to 2026.

Um, as you're aware, uh, this effort requires a lot of coordination among uh several departments throughout the city, and the slide shows um all of those departments that we are coordinating with, and even uh as important, we have a lot of external partners that we have been working with.

Um actually, it was back in February we established this 2026 partners coordination group, and we've been meeting monthly since.

In terms of what we're focused on, we have three objectives or pillars as it relates to all of the events happening in 2026.

First and foremost, we want to make sure that as we're um looking to welcome thousands upon thousands of new visitors to our community.

We want to make sure that our existing residents are part of this celebration.

So we see this as an opportunity to really build strong civic pride.

Next, we see this opportunity to grow our economy, and really an opportunity for many of our businesses, particularly our small businesses, to see a great impact that will be lasting for our entire city.

And then lastly, we see this as an opportunity to really position the city as really the premier destination for future sports and special events.

And really, we see this as an opportunity for San Jose to really be the downtown of Silicon Valley.

We have several work streams as you saw on the slide.

And now we are prepared to give you updates on where we are on all of those items.

I'm going to hand the presentation over to Tommy.

Philip Council, thank you for the time today.

We are focused on major block party style events in downtown San Jose, as well as exploring some similar activities outside of downtown San Jose.

We're in well down the line in terms of our operations on these plans and picking operators to work for us on this and having talent solidified as well as other operational plans around watch parties.

So I would say we're in a good position now, some six months out from the first event that we need to do related to the Super Bowl.

We've made a lot of progress on digital wayfinding solutions.

We have a committee that works every single week on everything that we're doing around wayfinding.

We have a list of about seven different tools that we're working on from wayfinding.

I won't go into all the details on that, but some of its micro sites, some of its new signage around town, some of its stencils on sidewalks and things like that.

Again, the idea is really just make it super easy to get downtime and find these different events.

We're working through super graphics right now, identifying buildings that we can use as well as costing out what that's going to cost.

We have a fly stay and play campaign that will go into effect with a significant paid media campaign starting in October, and that's being led by Team San Jose.

And then we have outreach programs that we're working on as well to bring in notable athletes into schools, boys and girls, clubs, libraries, and places like that, as well as having a digital component to it for education.

And then we have a significant sponsorship program that John Poach can speak more to, but that's been going very, very well for us.

And then within everything that we're doing here, we're layering in San Jose's culture and technology.

We're really using these sporting events as a chance for us to feature San Jose in front of a big audience, and in particular introduce San Jose to a national audience.

The big three events, and it's actually, I would say four now, now that we have the National Women's Soccer League Championship game coming to San Jose in November.

But the big events are NCAA West Regional Tournament, which will take place at SAP Center March 26th, 7th, and 8th.

Teams will be staying in San Jose, practicing in San Jose, and similar thing for the FIFA World Cup as well as Super Bowl.

Teams will be staying in San Jose and practicing in San Jose.

We've seen really positive momentum on the NFL's opening day, traditionally called Media Day, now generally known as opening day, that's turned into a major spectator event anticipating about 16,000 people.

We don't have that solidified yet, but we've had positive movement with the NFL in that event.

Among the activations we're going to do for the public, uh we're going to go big.

What we want to do is make this event so that every resident of San Jose feels a part of the Super Bowl experience, feels a part of the NCAA basketball experience and feel a part of the World Cup experience.

You don't need a ticket to feel a part of the excitement.

We're going to offer major concerts with 13 that we have planned with national headliners.

You may have seen the test ones we've done this past year with Fisher, right in front of your office.

And with the Steve Ayoki concert down at the Valley Title.

That was a great learning opportunities for us on how to present and prepare in a great public setting.

Around this is a Super Bowl, we'll do the three-day Friday, Saturday, Sunday with a concert series.

We'll also do the NCA men's basketball, in which that will take place adjacent to the SAP Center along Barack Obama and Arena Green West.

And then for the FIFA World Cup, it'll be throughout the city of San Jose with the emphasis of downtown and then hitting districts throughout to be able to provide different types of activations with the concerts.

What we're going to do is some lighting, some drone shows and then visual mapping along buildings to be able to tell the story of San Jose and our culture through a spectacular fashion through the arts.

So this will happen over Super Bowl weekend, the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the NCA basketball and the visual mapping will happen at the SAP Center in those buildings.

Then the FIFA World Cup.

So our events will be based around those matches.

The Watch Parties has been probably the most popular.

The Sharks have mastered it during the playoff season at the SAP Center.

Then the earthquakes have done a phenomenal job for every World Cup in major soccer.

So we're partnering with these partners to be able to host over 100 watch parties.

And these are free to the public.

For the NCA regionals will be along Sharks Way, hopefully going from San Pedro Square all the way to the SAP Center.

And for the FIFA World Cup, as we mentioned, we're planning to do activations throughout the city with the emphasis on the major one in downtown San Jose.

There's gonna be a number of neighborhood activation opportunities.

We have been meeting with a number of groups throughout the city of San Jose, uh community strong strategies and director alliances to bring 12 neighborhood business districts across the city into the block party themes, the soccer clinics, concerts, promotions, local food vendors, community booths, and family activities.

All these as part of the fanfest around the major events.

We have used Mexican Heritage Plaza, Viva Park events, and we're gonna have our program called the SJ26 Game Changers targeting our K through eight schools.

As far as the branding and marketing, first of all, I can't thank enough the leadership of San Jose Moneta International Airport, Muki Patel, and visit San Jose with John LaForcha and Lord Cremaluski and Matthew Martinucci for taking the lead on the branding.

You've seen the sampling done at the airport, already welcoming our visitors.

But the brand design, I'll love to show you, but I believe Mayor Mahan's going to show us on Thursday, the 28th.

We're gonna release the San Jose 26 logo and themes.

And our fly stay and play campaign, and I have to credit Jonathan Becker there who helped me shape this.

Uh the focus is the fly to San Jose, not to SFO.

The focus is to stay in San Jose, and if you stay, this is where you can play.

So Team San Jose has done a tremendous job on building this out in partnership with the San Jose Airport.

And then most important, we're going to create a micro site.

Uh, what to do, where to do, where to go, how to eat, everything that fit on your mobile app, so that our guests coming in for these major events can plan their own itinerary around the events, restaurants, and activations we have in San Jose.

Thank you, John.

The Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs is a very proud partner to be participating in 2026.

So, in addition to helping to facilitate the city services associated with all those amazing events that were just presented to you, we will be leading with several art installations and activations.

So we will be beginning in January of 2026 with two new City Hall exhibitions right out here, right outside of the chambers, featuring the work of local artists with the theme of hometown heroes.

It'll all be sports-related work, and we're very excited about that.

At the end of January, on January 31st, an internationally renowned artist, Elizabeth Turk, is going to be bringing one of her installations to San Jose, and it's called Invisible Skies.

And she's a sculptor, and she now does work in the field of public art, and she calls these social sculptures.

And this event is free, and it'll be right here on the plaza, and every participant will be handed an umbrella.

And the artwork of this is seeing the social connection that happens organically between people.

And you will all get a free umbrella.

So you're all invited.

Everybody here is invited on January 31st.

We're really excited about that opportunity.

Beginning in April, we will have the We Create 408 challenge, in which we will be curating the themes to emphasize the nexus between creativity, sports, and also the cultural diplomacy that is an outcome of international sporting events like this.

And then in uh June and July, we'll have a city dance, and we'll be expanding that program, and we will again be curating the genres based on the competing FIFA teams, which we will know at the end of this calendar year.

Similarly, we will be activating Sonic Runway.

And then we're very excited about a series of temporary public art as well as projection mapping.

We have a budding, exciting opportunity in partnership with San Jose State University that's going to feature the work of their cadre program.

And then finally, it's one of our goals to really promote the uh assets of our arts and cultural ecosystem here in San Jose.

And so we are encouraging all of our partners in the art sector to promote their events through the event calendar that is a feature of the visit San Jose, our destination uh organization, and to promote it there so that they will be used to pitch to the media and also promote it on social media and communications.

And finally, we have identified we've launched a new opportunity for our art sector, in which we are going to be funding approximately 10 to 15 local organizations to participate in a promotional campaign with an estimated worth of 10 to 15,000 each.

They will be working directly with Visit San Jose, who will also be providing their own in-kind expertise and providing an individualized custom digital marketing campaign for them.

So that is an open call right now, and applications and proposals are due this Friday.

So we hope to see a lot of very exciting proposals about all the wonderful things that are going to be made available to our public, our residents, and our visitors in 2026, showcasing our talent.

I'm going to turn it back to John.

Thank you.

Some of the additional activations in downtown.

We're relying on private sponsorship to be able to provide these events throughout the city.

So we'll have an SJ house.

This is meant as the official hospitality house for our corporate sponsors.

It's credentialed only, so it's not open to public.

It'll be a hospitality with a business showcase so they can showcase their business to their clients, vendors, associates.

At the same time, our city leadership can draw businesses there to meet with companies that are doing business why they need to be in San Jose.

The second level will be a C-suite for private conversation from those business sectors, and the top level will be for entertainment.

What I'm most excited is working in partnership with the Office of Economic Development is we're going to open a visitor center and sports merchandise store.

It's a former Kinkos FedEx building on 93 San Carlos and third.

That will serve as a one-stop visitor center for all one, everyone in San Jose from out-of town visitors or residents to learn of events happening downtown, restaurants, dining, retail options, hotel options, VTA airport schedules.

Also have a chance for out-of-town visitors to get out of a hotel, charge your laptops, work in a private setting, have a nonprofit community boardroom, have a program room where any group could come to do presentations and programming.

And then, as I mentioned, I have a visitor store and a sports merchandise store.

The merch will be the partner organizations of San Jose, San Jose Sharks, Barracuda, Earthquakes, Bay FC, San Jose State, San Jose Giants, Barry Panthers, and then we'll all our three college partners, San Jose State, Santa Clara and Stanford to be able to sell sporting apparel.

And yes, there'll be a made in San Jose apparel brand as well.

There's a floor plan of the space, just so you can see it.

And it's a very community-centric.

And we have a few events, it's not just the big four that you heard of.

Just this past year, we saw we started with the U.S.

women's national team in April, all the way up to what we're gonna have the end of the year was the FIFA World Cup draw party on December 5th, which is the most exciting day because we'll know what 10 countries will be playing in those first five games in San Jose.

So we're very excited, but you see, we have more than one event, and in 2026, you see another full lineup of sporting events that we have here in San Jose.

So we're very, very excited to show people that we can do more than just major sporting events.

Great.

So that include conclude the staff presentation.

Awesome.

Thank you all very much for your hard work.

I I want to especially just note that I know Tommy, John, you guys have just been living and breathing this every single day and have made a ton of progress, particularly in recent months.

I also want to have to give a quick shout out to Michael Lomeo, our new downtown manager and Jess Buttery on my team who've been involved in a number of the pitches, and uh we're we're making progress here, which is really exciting.

I'll have a few more comments, but let me turn first to public comment.

Sure, I have four cards.

Um, let me call your names and when you hear your name come on down.

Leah Tennisgetter, James Whitman or Whiteman, Artie and Jordan.

Come on down.

And first person, the microphone, go ahead and speak, and the others can line up behind.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council members.

On behalf of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, I want to commend the city and its partners for its tremendous progress reflecting the status report here.

SJ26 is not just about hosting games, it's about activating our city, uplifting our neighborhoods, and strengthening our economy.

We already see this, as was just shared.

58,000 hotel rooms secured for FIFA, early corporate commitments.

New policies like the entertainment zones and sucographics that you pass, thank you.

These will both modernize and enliven our downtown.

What's really most exciting is this effort blends global attention with local pride.

From concerts and watch parties that will gather thousands, the art installations, the block parties, small business activations across 12 business districts.

San Jose is showing that we can host the world while celebrating our own diversity and creativity.

The chamber deeply values this partnership together with the sports authority, Team San Jose, Downtown Association, our cultural community, and our business leaders.

We're building the foundation that will deliver not just this one-time economic impact, but lasting civic value.

So thank you for your vision and ensuring that 2026 will be remembered as the year San Jose shined on the world stage.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Thank you, Jordan Moldow, District 3.

Uh, thank you for the presentation and the report.

Um, I hope that in the next report we might hear a little bit more about the transportation aspects of the 2026 events.

There's gonna be a lot of people here.

Uh, if everyone tries to hop in their own car, their own taxi, it's it's gonna be a nightmare, it's not gonna work.

Um so I hope the city is partnering very closely with VTA.

Um, obviously they're in charge of the buses, we're in charge of the roads.

So if there's anything that we can do to make sure that those buses are operating efficiently, that would be helpful.

I assume also VTA will want to do some messaging campaigns to advertise their bus services to visitors, and so I hope that we can collaborate with them on that so that we are amplifying the message that uh, hey, if you're gonna come downtown, and especially if you're planning on drinking or something, that you hop on VTA and come downtown.

Um so please work with them on that.

And then especially for the World Cup, but probably for all these big events, there'll be visitors coming from out of town who are coming from cities and countries where they're more used to active transportation than we are here.

Um, and so I think it's imperative that we be prepared for an increase in people who are interested in walking around, biking around, taking e-scooters.

And so I'd I'd like to see how we're gonna make sure that we have enough stock in the city of bikes and scooters that people will be able to rent to be able to get around if that is their personal mobility choice.

Um, and then one last thing.

I know that we've talked a lot about the stitching districts for Sharks Way and people walking back and forth.

Um, and I think we need some attention on the intersection of Sharks Way and Notre Dame.

Um that's a two-way stop that's basically a freeway on ramp, and especially people are drinking.

Uh, we need to make that a thank you.

I believe the other two people left, so back to council.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Uh so once again, I want to thank all of our city staff for your hard work and getting ready for 2026 events.

And uh I know Tommy and and John are with our partners making sure that while downtown is truly the hub and the destination, we're also extending the festivities into our neighborhoods and our schools, um, including events uh in locations like Mexican Heritage Plaza.

What I find most exciting about these plans is that they create opportunities for everyone in our city to participate.

The truth is these global sporting events are incredible, but most of our residents won't get the opportunity to go either because they can't afford a ticket or just logistically it won't be possible.

And so our opportunity is to create a robust fan experience from local legends going into classrooms to low-cost public concerts downtown that really help everybody take pride in our city and celebrate this unique moment on the world stage.

And I think we we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that it's an important opportunity for us to reset what is a somewhat dominant narrative about California and and the Bay Area and our bigger cities.

If you didn't live here, you would bless you.

You would think uh that uh the bay was a bit of a dumpster fire of of crime, trash, homelessness, etc.

Uh, we know we live in the best place in the world.

We have our challenges, but we're making steady progress towards solving them.

And I think what we want to show off is the things that make us the best place to live in the world.

Um, our our ingenuity and innovation, our great weather, our diversity, our food and culture, all the many things that make uh San Jose, specifically and the Bay more broadly such a special place.

I also think it's a unique opportunity to really reintroduce our region, not just the 500,000 visitors from around the world, but the nearly 8 million people who call the barrier home, reintroduce them to, or for the first time introduce them to downtown San Jose, where we are really working to create Silicon Valley's true mixed-use, transit-oriented, walkable urban center, something that still, you know, just quite in the imagination, the the popular imagination still isn't quite the case, but I feel like we're on the precipice of that is our opportunity to be Silicon Valley's downtown.

Uh we uh I know we have a group memo, which we'll get to in terms of, I know there's been uh some discussion about public screenings and watch parties, so I'll just go ahead and jump to making sure we get some information out about that.

Tommy, do you want to just explain?

I know we're working closely with Barrier Host Committee, we're in regular touch with them.

The rights to watch parties outside of a bar or restaurant with a screen and the cable subscription is uh largely the control of the leagues and the and their relationships with the local pro sports teams.

But can you just describe that a little bit so people are kind of aware of the context there?

Yeah, traditionally there's some element of the league.

So in this case, we'd say FIFA or the NFL is control of the watch party rights.

Um sometimes it's the telecaster, the exclusive telecaster, so it could be for um Super Bowl, um Fox and Telemundo, um, World Cup, it's MBC.

Um so there's there's some element of we need to get the approvals to those processes in order for us to have the watch party rights.

Um traditionally um on the as long as it's non-commercial, you're in pretty good shape um to have a watch party, and if it's under a thousand people, you're in really good shape for having a watch party.

If it gets over a thousand people for the watch party, um you need some more specific approvals, in particular for FIFA and the World Cup.

That process hasn't come out yet.

I did check um on the link that was sent to me and um FIFA's watch party rights in terms of um applying for those are not out yet.

It looks like it'll be Q4 when that comes out.

So I'll just speak broadly on that in terms of the watch party rights, but the overall net is um we do need to get approval to have those under a thousand people and non-commercially in pretty good shape to have a watch party over that, some more specific approvals for that.

Great.

So our our smaller commercial districts and neighborhood associations can get creative and in their parks, but for the bigger, more public viewing parties, we still have some work to do.

You mentioned Q4.

December is also when we'll have the World Cup draw and we'll we'll know which teams, which countries will have a presence here, which is a big deal.

That's a that's a big opportunity for us to then go out and tap into the incredible diversity that is part of our strength here because chances are no matter which countries are playing here, we will have an expat community that lives here and will be very excited to help us host uh those teams, which is which is pretty exciting.

And then on fundraising, as you mentioned, uh we're doing a lot of work to make sure we have resources.

We have to go out to private sponsors and get folks to invest.

Barrier Host Committee has a very big responsibility to cover things like security and make sure there's mobility and wayfinding regionally.

But one of the learnings we've had from past global events is that we also need San Jose to be in a position to put on its own party and control our own destiny.

And that means getting local partners, uh, particularly local employers, to step up and say, I'm willing to also invest in helping my hometown put on an experience.

And so we're kind of going through that process of learning what are they excited to sponsor?

Is it is it the big concert it downtown?

Is it the athletes going into local schools?

And so we're you know, trying to have that conversation and making steady progress.

And uh, I don't think we'd be in as strong of a position as we are uh without hiring Tommy to help us kind of stay organized in-house and be able to fully leverage the great work that John Poach and the Sports Authority do, Team San Jose does, and make sure we're disciplined about every day getting out there in front of those potential sponsors.

So we have the resources we need to actually host our own set of events in the city of San Jose.

So uh appreciate again all the work.

Let me turn to colleagues to get in on the conversation, and we'll start with Councilmember Duan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for the report.

I'm extremely I can speak on behalf of my colleagues and the citizen of San Jose.

We we extremely excited for these events from the Super Bowl to March Madness to FIFA.

I believe it is an opportunity to bring us out to forefront not only showing that San Jose, not only downtown, but many other corridors throughout the city.

That's including, like, for example, in District 7, we'll have entertainment center like Vietnam Town, the Barracudas, the drive-in and probably on their own with the Tropicana.

That is extremely exciting.

And I just want to take an opportunity to thank you to the city staff.

We're talking about the city's city manager office, Office of Economic Development, Office Office of Emergency Management, Fire Police, the Airport, the planning building, code enforcement, public works, from park and recreation to transportation, our housing and our city um attorney office.

And on top of that, of all of our partners or our stakeholders from Bay Area Host Committee to San Jose Sport Authority, San Jose Shark.

I see Sharky over there, San Jose Earthquake, San Jose State University, the Chamber of Commerce, San Jose Downtown Association, SAP Center, Silicon Valley Create, Team San Jose, Urban Vibrancy Institute.

All these entity, not only within the City of San Jose, but throughout our county.

In order to make these event to be safe, fun, and it's an infusion of half a billion dollars into our economy within the Santa Clara County.

And I think that this is a great opportunity for us to shine like never before, to show our pride or innovation or entertainment to make cities of San Jose to be a designated visiting area throughout the nation.

And I just want to say thank you so much for being partnership with us.

And um I want to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues, Councilmember Campos, Cohen, Councilmember Candales for their collaboration in this memorandum.

And of course, I urge my council to approve the staff recommendation to include our memorandum to to show that the San Jose City Manager to return with an update on the fundraising effort by this uh San Jose Sport Authority, an allocation of city fund to support the activation beyond downtown, and clarification of fundraising for large-scale FIFA public screening.

Um I move to accept uh you know our memorandum.

Um thank you.

Great.

So the motion would accept the staff recommendation and the group memo from council members Campos Cohen Duan and Candelas.

And we have a second from Councilmember Campos.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Let's go to Councilmember Ortiz.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, also want to thank city staff for their diligent work and making sure that all of these amazing events can become a reality and that we share uh the excitement across the city of San Jose.

Uh while of course I always will support events and investments in our downtown core and and downtown west.

I want to thank my colleagues also for their memo uh that was just uh uh seconded and introduced.

Definitely something that's on top of my mind to make sure that we're able to harness this momentum for all uh local economies and and uh small businesses throughout our city.

So I just wanted to get into if if staff can speak a little bit to specifics.

I saw the page that you had in regards to um acknowledging the intent to expand outside of downtown San Jose, but I just wanted to ask what what plans or concepts of plans do we have to expand these current VIFA watch parties into our neighborhood corridors.

Um we've been working closely with the community strong strategies organization.

Um they have a plan to have I think it's watch parties in five different cultural districts right now.

So we've been working closely with them.

They do need they have some funding from the county.

They do need additional funding.

So we've been exploring ways through our sponsorship program to be able to provide funding to them.

The watch parties again can't be commercialized, so there's not really a commercial benefit for anything in our sponsorship program, but we're hoping to raise additional funds to be able to support everything that's going to happen outside of um downtown San Jose for watch parties.

Great, and just so that I I can confirm your next based off of the um the memo that was introduced.

The next time you come before us, you're gonna have more information about your your next steps in regards to making that a reality.

Correct.

Okay, great.

I'd love to see um uh just like the steps you've taken and what your plans are, even if it's more of just like concepts of a plan to reassure us of that we're gonna make sure that this wealth and investment is spread throughout the city.

Um but of course I want to emphasize my support for downtown because I know the downtown association CEOs here in the front in the front row, so got you guys back.

Um so I also wanted to ask how we're gonna be supporting our small and minority owned businesses.

I know that you said that as long as um I guess it's not over a thousand people in a set like bar or restaurant.

Is it like how are we gonna be helping like elevate you know local watch parties, you know, with with with small businesses, like you know, thinking about Costa Alegre on Alum Rock.

Is there an opportunity for your city to like elevate these are like official or unofficial watch parties that residents can attend on the east side or on South Side or you know in Almadem Valley?

How are we thinking about um elevating um those those activities um outside of downtown?

Um so just to take it up another level.

We want to make sure that it's not just us putting on watch parties that happen outside of downtown.

We want to make sure that there's a whole series of months of events that happen outside of downtown related to all these big sporting events.

So um the first thing that will happen on Thursday will debut the brand, look and feel, and we have assets that for people in the community to use that so to start promoting what's happening with SJ26.

We have a program that we're hoping to launch called SJ Game Changers, where we're gonna have notable athletes go out to schools, uh boys and girls clubs, libraries, and places like that.

So it's more than just watch parties that we're interested beyond downtown.

Um we're presently working on our strategies for how we communicate to businesses and how they can best um leverage these sporting events.

So there's some things related to businesses and the commercial television rights packages that they have in terms of what they'll be able to do for promotion.

So we're working through exactly like what we'll be able to tell those businesses as well as what their telecasters allow them to do inside their business for promotion of these watch parties.

Um we're also looking at some things and bringing in some of the sponsors so you can imagine um say someone who's the sparkling beverage provider inside of the restaurant or bar or something like that, they may have rights to use IP.

So we're looking at opportunities for um the sparkling beverage providers to come in and educate the businesses and how they can use the IP from FIFA or NFL or something like that inside their businesses.

So right now we're working on a program of like how do we communicate to the businesses on what we think they can do, but also bring in some of the rights holders that might be on the sponsorship side that work with the businesses in terms of the IP that they might be able to use um during these big sporting events.

Wonderful.

I appreciate uh that and look forward to learn more and see report more flushed out in regards to those efforts.

Um I guess next my next few questions is in regards to human trafficking.

We know that human trafficking is an issue, even outside of major um sporting events.

We have a lot of massage parlors in our city, a lot of issues going on, and so we know that this will only exacerbate when we have these events coming uh uh forth um in the next in the next year.

So, what are we doing to make sure that we're preparing for the risk that uh that will come?

Um do we have any specific plans in place?

Are we working with SJPD or the county um uh or you know the human trafficking uh coalition of Santa Clara County to make sure that we're ready for this you know potential um crime that will be expanding in our city?

Um I have been involved in one planning meeting.

I can't remember the specific organization that came in and spoke to us um about human trafficking.

Um SJPD was in there.

Um SJPD does have a plan.

They work with the local municipalities um for human trafficking, and they have a plan for that.

So um I can't speak to all the specifics of that, but I know that SJPD is working on that.

Great.

Did you want to I was just gonna add also obviously public safety is the big concern.

Uh Ray Raredon is heading up actually a regularly scheduled call with PD with FIRE with um many other agencies, including the county, in terms of making sure that we are well well prepared uh for all of the public safety security issues.

So that work is has been ongoing for months, and actually several trainings have been conducted as well.

And I'd like to add in as well.

We'll have three three people add in on this subject.

Recently I had a Santa Clara County City Managers Association meeting, and we brought in the Santa Clara police chief who also talked about the human trafficking and how they're coordinating with all their surrounding cities because it can there knows no borders with with that issue.

And so I can definitely tell you they're thinking about that very actively and getting protocols in place on that.

Great.

I don't know if this is being done, but we may want to coordinate with our local hotel staff, our ride share drivers and companies, just to make sure that staff are being trained on how to identify that and make sure that you know people aren't being taken advantage of uh here in the city of San Jose.

Well, thank you.

I look forward to future uh uh conversations and presentations.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Well, I also I just want to flag for folks uh would you have a brief scheduled recess at 5 30?

I see Vice Mayor heading out.

We had I'm sorry at five.

We has thank you for the correction.

We had scheduled uh the flag raising at 5 p.m.

for a brief recess.

I'm sure Sharky's getting pretty sweaty in that suit.

So just want to do the uh the time check for everybody.

Uh I'm hoping we can at least resolve this item before we take that recess and and then get back in quickly for the next item.

Councilmember Campos.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and thank you to our uh great team work here with the city and getting uh this report ready for us and um giving us a sense of what's being worked on and um allowing us the opportunity to have this conversation.

I wanted to uplift something that council member Ortiz said about um watch parties throughout the city and something that I was told um in in a travel that someone took to maybe Seattle was that they already had uh postings at a restaurant that said future site of a World Cup party, and I think that or a World Cup watch party.

Um just in my experience from uh participating in events like Viva Parks, the biggest um hurdle that residents face is not knowing with enough time in advance that something was gonna happen in their neighborhood or their community.

So I I really just want to emphasize how important it is for that lead time, and as soon as we know that something is gonna happen in a community, um, getting um you know the signage posted, getting that information to the council office, and really making sure that we are making the best effort possible to let as many people know um what's coming into their neighborhood because I think that that's um a huge opportunity when we're investing time and resources and energy to come into different parts of the city that that those neighbors know to block off time on that schedule or to make sure that they can attend and participate what's happening locally in their neighborhoods.

Um that's the spirit of my comments.

I am incredibly grateful to see that we have an approach that is allowing our city to meet people where they're at.

I recognize that downtown is everyone's downtown, but the sense of community that these 2026 events will bring are stronger when we share that joy with every district in San Jose that wants to participate.

And district two has several community and commercial institutions that are assets and can be highlighted in this time, such as Ramick Park, Great Oaks Park, Hayes Mansion, um, the Plex, just to name a few.

We also have leaders both at City Hall and in our neighborhood associations that want to collaborate.

So that energy and that spirit is there throughout the city.

Um and in district two, particularly, I I'm incredibly proud that we have Cheeto Ayuzy, I think is how you say I use it.

Okay, thank you.

Um he graduated from Oak Grove High School.

He is now playing on the Baltimore Ravens, and he recently came home to San Jose to announce his investment in Nirvana Soul, another San Jose staple that I am a huge fan of.

Um and so we have proud San Jose ambassadors in every district of our city, so it makes sense that we have activations in every district of our city.

Um and so my uh just a couple questions I wanted to ask.

The first is um you mentioned a micro site that will be live.

When can we expect to see that public?

Our goal is to launch that on Thursday.

Thursday, okay, thank you.

Um I also wanted to circle back on the question about the transit plan.

Um what is the plan to get tourists from other parts of the city into downtown and into sports arenas?

I'm thinking, particularly my district, we have Hayes Mansion.

We're hoping to book that hotel up.

Um, but how are we gonna make it convenient for folks to get from Hayes Mansion to uh activations throughout the city and the and potentially the county?

We're working through that now as part of our wayfinding effort.

So ideally people would be taking public transportation or using some sort of ride sharing service or something like that because we don't want to congest the streets downtown.

We're looking through what are all the streets that we're going to have to close off.

So it's a matter of like what are the mediums of mobility that people are going to use to get to downtown.

Where are things going to be closed?

Where can people park?

What are our micro-mobility solutions?

So we don't have all the specifics at this time, but it's a multimodal plan that we're developing related to how do we get people to downtown without having to drive a car primarily as their primary reason or primary method of getting to downtown.

So glad that you're thinking about that and would love more information when you come back on that because I know it's going to be critical to the success, making sure that we are incentivizing public transit so we capture as many of those uh dollars in our uh local uh agencies as possible.

Um and my last question, um just some food for thought because I always bring this up.

Twenty twenty-six is a big year, and twenty twenty-seven hopefully will be an even bigger year for our city.

So what have you learned about San Jose culture and how is staff thinking about leaning into the people and the culture that makes our city so special?

This is great.

I'm really happy I have the chance to answer this.

Um I love San Jose.

Um I love coming here.

I love the people here, I love the infrastructure we have here, and I love the teamwork that we have here, and I love the diversity that we have in San Jose.

And I am so excited to have this opportunity for San Jose to be on a national stage and introduce the diversity and the culture that we have in San Jose to the rest of the world.

So what I've learned is this is an amazing city.

Um I'll give in the sports analogy.

We have amazing teammates that we're working with here.

Um, and we're gonna show the world that San Jose is the number one city in the world, and we're gonna show that through our cultural diversity through these sporting events.

And to elaborate on that, Councilmember.

We are hiring local event planners, not people from outside to work the events, whether it's a Super Bowl, NCA, and the People World Cup.

And a personal pride of mine, being a San Jose K through twelve forever, my whole life, is that we're highlighting our visual mapping, the Hispanic art history of San Jose.

It's a little secret.

You're gonna see it.

But um, we're very proud of our culture.

We're gonna showcase it.

Thank you.

I am incredibly proud of the work that you're doing, um, and I'm excited to continue to learn more.

Awesome.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Okay, we're at four fifty-nine.

We still have hands up.

I want to give this item its its due.

It's obviously a very important one.

So we're gonna take a brief recess.

What we have scheduled is a recess from five to five thirty for the pride, the annual pride flag raising out in the courtyard.

Everyone is welcome to join us, including members of the media, Sharky, if he's not too hot at this point, whomever else.

Uh, we're gonna do our best to be efficient and be back in here ready to go at the latest at 530.

If we can get back here faster, we will because we still have some very important items on today's agenda.

So we're gonna take a brief brief recess now.

Thank you.

We have quorums, so we're gonna resume.

We have a couple council members who will be with us in just a moment, but are able to listen in in the back.

Uh, I'm gonna bring us back into session here and turn to Councilmember Mulcahy.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll make this brief.

I just wanted to recognize the team that's been doing all this work.

Um, for those of us that were around ten years ago for Super Bowl fifty, um, we got totally taken advantage of by the NFL.

And years later, with all of the work that's been put in and the groundwork that you know, the council before me did relative to some of the you know, tools that you're now using and and able to implement in twenty twenty-six is just really exciting to see, and I'm, you know, hoping that we can all be a part of how we're promoting these events throughout our districts and you know, through our throughout our city, and so forth.

So I just want to thank Tommy and John, Rosalind, um, Carrie, and I know you represent so many other people, you know, making this happen.

Um, and so I think just, you know, talking about what uh Councilmember Compos was was saying, you know, the sooner we can know to celebrate and tell our people what's gonna happen, I think the better prepared we'll all be.

Um, but uh just you know, really want to thank you all for the hard work, and that's cheers to twenty-six.

And um, as Compost also said, we got twenty twenty-seven as the two hundred and fifty birthday of San Jose, and we'll be flexing a lot of muscles this twenty twenty-six, and really be ready to uh make it a party in twenty-seven as well.

So thank you very much.

Well said.

I have Councilmember Cohen next.

Yeah, thank you.

Um, I want to thank you for the report.

I'm really excited to hear about all the things that are happening, and nobody's more excited than I am to have all the sports coming into the area.

So uh I I want but I just I also wanted to bring up, and all of our our jobs up here are to advocate for our districts, so I'm gonna do that a little bit.

But I will point out that North San Jose is the only part of the city that's walkable to Levi's Stadium, so I think we ought to consider about how we might activate spaces in that area.

People who take light rail from BART or from the city of San Jose to the stadium will all be passing through North San Jose, District 4, along Tasman or along North First Street.

I think there's opportunities there.

There are four hotels in the city of San Jose within walking distance of Levi Stadium, um, the homewood suites, the Hyatt House, the uh extended stay.

Anyway, there's four.

And so we might want to also make sure that we're promoting those hotels as great places to stay for the World Cup and for and and for Super Bowl and all the other things that are happening at Levi's next year.

So I just wanted to throw that in there as part of this conversation, and maybe for a conversation that we can have in my office with your team as we move forward about what we might be able to do to take advantage of that proximity.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember.

It's good at Councilmember Condellas.

Uh no, uh my comments will will be brief, and uh um, you know, I I'm not I'm not gonna try to one up council member Cohen, but you know, we did we did go to the NCAA tournament in San Francisco last year uh for a couple of regional games, and you know, the the entertainment um like venue or the space of activating right outside of you know where the games actually took place is actually very important as part of the overall experience.

So I'm I'm really excited to see that as part of um you know what we're doing right out of uh right outside of SAP.

Um and um one of the one of the questions I had was uh specifically I know we're working with uh community strong strategies as well as the director's alliance, but you know it's my hope that we can also um uh connect with uh you know each respective council office on not just specifics, but if you need help reaching uh uh communities or if you know on on the on the front with regards to places to activate and not just the one-offs where we have you know just um um whether it's a a watch party or a soccer clinic, but how do we activate uh the neighborhoods and or areas adjacent to these to get maximum exposure and then build that momentum for for whether whether it's the the FIFA World Cup games or or the Slam Jose um or whatever it's it's beyond the the that event itself but the the domino effect it has on the surrounding communities and that's that's my hope that uh that you all do that and Tommy I'm gonna give you props for the second time today.

I I really appreciated how you jumped in and and and you know put that that collaborative effort, uh Rosalind.

You know, you know, any anytime I I I reach out, you're your your responsive.

So I appreciate the work that you all are doing and look forward to seeing updates as they come.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Let's go to Councilmember Kamehameha.

Thank you.

Um I want to extend my gratitude for all of the work that you've done.

I mean, this is really really amazing.

One of the things that I have not heard too much is uh because this is going to uh have an international audience.

How do you incorporate language and translation?

Uh the first way is the microsite will be available in five different languages.

Um we can expand it well beyond that.

Um it's just a matter of what languages and what budget that we have to do for that.

Um we start to look at other things that we're exploring around like AI wayfinding and holograms and things like that.

Um we're looking at doing multi-language um as well, not only um text, but also um audio for that as well.

So um it's something that we're taking into consideration with everything that we're doing, but the most basic way we're starting with first is the micro site.

That's wonderful.

You know, I think that um because technology can be such an assistance, um, just the fact that you're thinking about that, providing for that uh is a wonderful thing.

So thank you so much, and thank you for all your work.

I look forward to more and more.

And please, as council member uh Cohen says, Um, think of the West side.

I mean, I know that there's gonna be activity where Santana Row is, but you know, the West Side is more than just Santana Row.

So please think of us in the hinterlands.

And and one other point, you know, December 5th is a FIFA World Cup draw.

Um, so we'll know the 10 countries playing the first five games.

So visit San Jose in a partnership with the airport.

Our fly stay in play campaign is to target those ten countries of why they need to fly into San Jose and not SFO, and why they need to stay into San Jose.

And so that is gonna go to their language, targeting the countries that we've been selected to play in Santa Clara and saying in San Jose.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Let me come back to Councilmember Duan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just want to uh reaffirm uh Councilmember Ortiz regarding human trafficking because I'm on the human trafficking uh Santa Clara County Human Trafficking Commission.

And we're not only involving the federal, the county and the city agency and leaders.

That's including Santa Clara County PD, Santa Clara County Sheriff Department, San Jose Police, and the task force, our DA department, our FBI, a public defender, South Bay Coalition to end human trafficking.

And there's many other agency that continue to look at this event and how do we prevent human trafficking not only now in 2026 and far beyond.

And be assured, we want to do our part right here in Santa Clara County to stop every single human trafficking as we can.

And I want to give a quick plug to South Bay Coalition to end human trafficking.

They need some funding.

Doesn't matter where you are at which county it can get you the help that you need.

So anyone out there that care about the human trafficking, meaning our women or children, uh, or men and women for that matter, um, a boys and or girls, please reach out to South Bay Coalition to end human trafficking and donate.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Appreciate those comments.

I think we've exhausted comments and questions from the council.

I did just want to encourage folks.

I think we all agree that it's not an either order between downtown and neighborhoods.

It's really important that we do that we do all of the above.

Downtown is unique for a lot of reasons.

The transit connectivity, the density of hotel rooms, the cultural venues, the and the economic opportunity it presents, and yet we certainly want to make sure everybody participates.

The thing I want to encourage colleagues to think about is that we cannot solely rely on or hand it off to council, I'm sorry, to staff to through the city manager to figure out all the activations around the city.

Council members, and that's not to say we can't partner with the Chamber of Commerce or Team San Jose or Urban Fibrancy Institute or other entities, but the council members for their district have the opportunity and um can certainly uh you know pursue funding through fundraising to, but we've seen I mean Councilmember Condel is a good example with the fireworks show, Lake Kynam Park went out and made it happen.

I have seen council members over the years and myself have put on new events, new initiatives within uh the district I represent, and seen others in their respective districts, put on local initiatives, uh, screenings in the park, organizing small businesses, partnering with faith communities.

You know your neighborhoods in your district better than anybody else.

Not to say city staff shouldn't be there to be a partner, but I just want to make sure you don't uh assume that some comments here in this meeting is gonna just hand it off to them to take care of it because it's too big and complicated of a city, and we do have uh we have to prioritize um some things over others.

So just something to think about.

Okay, great.

Tony, let's vote motion passes 10 to 1 with fully absent.

All right.

Thank you all.

Okay.

We are on to uh item 8.2.

Yes, Sharky, that's you.

Yeah, Sharky's excited.

Poor Sharky.

I hope Sharky's getting time and a half at this point, Jonathan.

Um this is item 8.2 actions related to the agreement with San Jose Arena Management LLC for SAP Center at San Jose Sharks ICE, LLC for Sharks Ice at San Jose and Tech Sioux Arena, and memorandum of understanding with Shark Sports Entertainment and Associated Agreements.

That was a mouthful.

Uh, but this is a really uh critical historic decision for this council.

I'll save my comments for after the staff presentation and a brief presentation from the president of Shark Sports Entertainment.

But let me turn first to our assistant seamanager Lee Wilcox, and let's jump into the staff presentation.

Thank you, Mayor Lee Wilcox, Assistant City Manager, and joining me in the box today is Jen Baker, director of economic development and cultural affairs, Kevin Ice, our director of real estate in that office, and Cameron Day, senior deputy city attorney.

So today is more than approval of an agreement, it's a milestone in the city's relationship with the sharks and sports in this city.

It's a milestone in the city's relationship with the sharks and sports in this city.

The contract and the recommendations in front of you today keeps the sharks in San Jose through 2051 and authorizes 425 million dollar renovation that modernizes our SAP center.

Today's agreement does mark more than a simple transaction.

It reflects a renewed commitment between the city and the sharks to grow together as partners.

The team will remain a cornerstone of San Jose's identity and together shape the next chapter of downtown's evolution, unlocking cultural, commercial, and community benefits for decades to come.

The sharks unite us from playoffs from playoff runs that electrify the region to youth hockey programs at SARS ICE.

They embody San Jose's resilience, innovation, and pride.

Sports for the city has become an increasingly important topic, so much so that through this year's budget and the restructuring and modernization of the city manager's Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, we made sports an actual core service and program for the city.

And the council's first action as part of that was to prioritize as a performance metric for the administration to secure a long-term lease with Shark Sports and Entertainment.

I did want to reflect and really thank the city team sitting with me today and sitting in the audience as well as the Sharks and their negotiation team.

Last year, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the complicated relationship between cities and sports teams and how new economic trends have made it very difficult to find new avenues to partner.

We've seen all too regularly of teams leaving cities.

And really what the article demonstrated was the foundational reason is the negotiations table had mistrust, lack of communication, and an inability to partner through complex conversation and complex issues to come out mutually beneficial.

This team in front of you today and in the audience found a way through that.

So I do really want to start by thanking before we get into the rest of the presentation.

Shark Sports and Entertainment, starting with the top, Jonathan Becker, President, Senior Vice Presidents John Gussison, Greg Matthews, Chris Shea, General Counsel, Lucy Lofermento, and Jerry Ramirez, as well as the city team.

Kevin Ice, Director of Real Estate, Lucy Armantrout, Cameron Day, former director of the Office of Economic Development, Cultural Affairs, Nancy Klein, City Manager's Budget Director, Jim Shannon, as well as A.P.

Hurd.

Without those folks, we wouldn't be here today.

So thank you.

And Sharkey.

So in front of you today is three important actions.

The first is approve a Third Amendment and Arena Management Agreement that keeps the sharks in San Jose through June 30th of 2051.

Second, you also will approve an arena management district memorandum of understanding with the sharks, which this action is consistent and aligns with work already previously directed by the council through the budget for the city to begin long-term economic and land use planning of a sports and entertainment district in the downtown for decades to come.

And then last but not least, it does give authorization to the city manager to negotiate and execute a number of smaller but still very important agreements, including the lease at Sharks Ice and Tech CU.

SAP Center has been home to the Sharks since 1993 and is a city-owned facility and is also one of the most important economic engines in the South Bay, especially in our downtown.

It hosts over three million annual attendees, generating 235 million in visitors spending annually and supports 2,000 over 2,700 jobs, contributing 4 million annually to our tax base.

It is also one of the oldest arenas in the NHL without any improvements since it opened.

Good afternoon, Kevin Ice, Director of Real Estate.

So we entered into negotiations with the priorities that Lee touched on.

And you know, we have a clear eye towards the national trends for facilities undergoing similar renovation so we can understand what is fair for the city.

When looking at comparable renovations, we focused on other public facilities to help guide our thinking about aligning our renovation plan with the market.

Typically, public agencies fund much less of the cost of renovations in privately owned buildings.

Recent trends show public agencies funding 100% of the cost to renovate their buildings, which we saw in Salt Lake, Charlotte, and Raleigh shown here.

We also considered building a new arena instead of renovating the existing one.

We estimate the cost of a new build to be at least 1.5 billion, which would be difficult to fund without the benefit of developing a broader district around the building that could catalyze investments to be leveraged.

Ultimately, we determine the better return on the city's investment would be to renovate the existing building with the objective of squeezing as much remaining time out of it as possible.

Thank you, Kevin.

So as we start to outline the deal, I do want to take a step back and remind the council as the negotiations uh started, the administration really had four important priorities that we saw as achievable outcomes as part of this negotiation.

The first was focusing on guaranteeing uh sharks hockey in San Jose.

Second is maximizing the lifespan of both the team and the facility to ensure the highest possible return on investment for our community.

The third is ensure a deal structure and financials that mere national trends or better.

And lastly, safeguard the general fund from major impacts.

And I'd like to say the deal that we're about to outline achieves all four of those.

First, if San Jose intends to retain a professional hockey team in the associated economic activity, regional visibility, and place-based benefits, a significant public investment is required.

We've acknowledged this from the very beginning and have structured these negotiations, the conversations with Shark Sports and Entertainment, and the final deal accordingly.

As you see on this slide, the Sharks will manage and execute the 425 million dollar renovation of SAP Center.

The city's contribution share totals 350 million to be paid in five equal installments of 70 million beginning in uh fiscal year 2026 and 27 through 2030 and 2031.

The sharks will contribute a hundred million towards that.

And of that 100 million, 25 will come to the directly to the city to offset uh a debt service that we will have.

That'll take shape in over three years, 8.3 million dollars coming to the city.

This agreement does provide a lead time to deploy responsible fiscal strategies to protect core services.

In addition to the 25 million coming over to the city to help with those initial years of debt service, the sharks will front the first two years of the projected renovation costs, giving us further time.

We do anticipate using commercial paper, and we'll have a modest first-year debt payment of around 3 million in 27-28.

In addition, if we continue to proceed with larger debt service uh payments through lease revenue bonds, over the next two years, 11 to 12 million dollars is projected in debt service payments.

So we are now modeling using that $8.3 million to smooth out any debt and impact to the general fund.

This approach really does two things.

It first gives the general fund revenues cushions and the ability to continue to grow revenues.

When I say that, for example, property tax last year, we were roughly at uh $498 million last year.

Four years before that, or that was the climb of 27% four years prior.

So even taking a conservative growth assumption of 20% over the next uh four years, that's an additional hundred million dollars that the general fund would see just based off of property tax.

And while growth alone doesn't solve this problem because other services will incur additional costs, it does ease the burden of absorbing the fixed debt service over time.

The second thing this strategy does is it gives the city multiple at least two election cycles to go out for additional revenue measures.

One being possible increase in transit and occupancy tax, and then another being a possible general fund or a general obligation bond that could cover some or all of this burden.

So we have 2026, 2028, and really before the large impacts come of the full debt service, we do have the 2030 election cycle.

So we have multiple ways to get at this.

Once approved today, this model, this financial modeling based off of you know standard financial practices, our finance department and budget office will continue to work through this and bring on bond council to really look at these.

These assumptions and this forecasting is not a rosy picture.

We've assumed very high interest rates, and obviously that is not the norm right now of where we're going, so we will spend time and attention on this, and we will be required to bring back several iterations around the financing to you as we move forward.

Last but not least, uh protecting our investment built into this agreement is an early uh termination cause that the sharks have that is a very uh hefty price tag of repaying all of the outstanding debt uh plus interest on it.

Um, and that's been built in to assure any safeguards as we move forward.

With that, I'm gonna hand off the presentation to Kevin.

Thank you, Lee.

So running through other financial terms to note, uh, the sharks will maintain their outlay of 475,000 per year for community benefits, uh totaling 12 million over the term of the new AMA.

Uh we'll both contribute 32 million into the capital maintenance fund.

Under the current AMA, all rent paid by the sharks goes into the capital fund.

Here we're simplifying and just stating what the sharks will pay overall into the maintenance fund.

While the city pays the same amount, the city's contributions are heavily back weighted.

Again, we're focusing on offsetting the impact to the general fund, uh, especially in the near term to the extent possible.

The sharks pay for traffic and parking management, up to 517,000 annually, uh adjusted for CPI.

Uh we do not anticipate the city city funding costs above this amount in the near term.

The sharks will continue to part partially fund the arena authority along with the city, and the city will continue to fund a public safety account to be used for vendor enforcement and other event security measures.

So, what can we expect to see in the SAP renovations?

First, SAP Center is a union building, and this project will use union labor.

We've noted the arena is the oldest in the NHL that hasn't undergone a major renovation.

As such, there's significant deferred maintenance to be addressed in the structural building systems, the plumbing, electrical, HVAC, technological, the TV media equipment needs an overhaul, and the kitchens need to be expanded.

However, under NHL regulations, the arena's layout has blocked certain upgrades to the back of house areas.

The visitors' locker room is on the opposite side of the ice from the bench.

So you'll notice the visiting coaches have to walk across the ice at uh the beginning and end of each period of play.

And then you'll notice the visiting backup goalie has to sit with Sharky on the opposite side of the ice from the bench.

Addressing this layout issue is required before the sharks can improve the back of house area that serves VIP staging for concerts and other touring acts and the hockey clubhouses.

This work is necessary not just for hawker hockey operations, but for concerts and other entertainment acts.

When you look at the changing ground floor layout, you displace uses that need to relocate, which has ripple effects to the layout of the next floor up, and so on.

So optimizing the layout will be a major part of the renovation work, which will provide opportunities to improve the structural systems and provide new fan amenities.

Other things we can expect include a big expansion of concourse areas.

Right now, there's one main concourse with a limited concourse on the club level and limited areas above the main concourse.

The renovation will expand the club level and upper concourse areas, addressing the traffic jam situation that happens when 17,000 people try to exit out to the same area at the same time.

The renovation will also open up the main concourse area so it's more open to the bull.

And finally, fans will like to know that the relatively tiny team store will be significantly expanded.

All in all, these renovations will take place in the off season over seven years, so there won't be a disruption to hockey to the hockey season, although offseason events will be constrained, of course.

Then we have the question of what's next after the SAP Center.

The recommended renovation will extend the useful life of the 32 32-year-old facility, a facility that has seen over 50 million visitors.

By 2051, we expect the building to have reached the limits of its useful life.

And we expect that we'll need to develop a new arena by the end of the term of this extension.

We've agreed with the sharks to explore what's next over the next two years.

We aim to identify at least two locations that can accommodate a new arena in a surrounding entertainment district.

We've also agreed to not encumber or lock in any use on city owned land behind SAP Center, including the ABC parking lot, that would prevent a new arena going into that location.

So it can serve as a viable location to have in our back pocket.

We aren't giving the sharks an option or any rights to the land.

We're just agreeing not to convert it to conflicting uses while we discuss where a future district and arena could go.

We envision the district being a hub of activity and entertainment options, and we'll likely include a flagship flagship hotel, retail, restaurants, arts and cultural venues, and other gathering spaces.

Finally, as part of these recommendations, we'll also update and execute this list of related agreements.

We've posted the 378-page third amended and restated arena management agreement in full.

There's also an amendment to the Shark's Ice and Tech CU arena lease to conform it with the updated term of the AMA.

And there's also an option to acquire a parcel behind SAP Center to use this parking, uh, which is required under the current and future AMAs.

And with that, staff are available for questions, and I'll turn it back to council.

Great.

Thank you, Kevin.

Thank you all so much for your work on this.

There's a tremendous amount of effort on both the city side and I know the Shark Sports Entertainment team side to get us to this exciting moment.

Before we go to public comment and come back to the council, though, I want to invite Shark Sports Entertainment president, CEO Jonathan Becker, to come down and say a few words.

And if if you want to bring Sharky, you're welcome to.

But Jonathan, I just I want to, you know, on a personal level, just thank you for your commitment to San Jose and how hard you and your team have worked to find a really uh mutually beneficial path forward that's going to be great for uh, in my opinion, be great for the city and uh and I and I think great for Shark Sports Entertainment.

So I'll turn it over to you.

I appreciate that.

So thank you, Mayor, to all the honorable council members for letting me have some time.

I was gonna say this afternoon, but I guess I have to say this evening.

Sorry about that.

Uh that's quite alright.

I understand how that works.

Um, I'm here speaking on behalf of Haso Plottner, my boss, and the roughly thousand people at Shark Sports and Entertainment.

We call ourselves Teen Teal and proudly represent San Jose everywhere we go around the world.

Over the last 32 years, as you probably heard, the San Jose Arena has hosted more than 50 million people at 5,100 events.

That's a lot of people and a lot of events.

And if you look at that 32 years, that's collectively generated just shy of 10 billion dollars of economic impact to our region, mostly here in San Jose, by filling hotel rooms, restaurants, and downtown businesses.

For those of you that were around before the arena was built, you know what it looked like before it showed up.

As council members, you should be proud of your arena.

I know all the residents behind me and out in the streets are as well.

And as your tenant, I hope you're proud of how we've managed the building over the last 32 years.

We take pride as if it was our own, even though it is city-owned.

And while we've had no obligation whatsoever, we've put in more than a hundred million dollars of our own money into the arena over the last decade to try to kick it make it better.

And I think you'll agree if you come to the arena, it doesn't look like it's 32 years old, and that's partly due to our investment.

But the reality is behind the scenes, the arena is aging.

It is 32 years old after all, and it's getting harder and harder to compete with that new shiny toy in the north, which drives me crazy.

Last year, for those of you don't know, we had an unfortunate incident with some raw sewage after a 32-year-old pipe burst and dumped it on the media and right outside our shark's locker room.

We've had a harder time keeping up with the increasing number of NHL regulations, and we're just out of compliance.

You heard from staff in a couple of ways, there are many more beyond that as well.

But frankly, most importantly, the thing to me that matters the most is if you look at the core components of this arena, the elevators, the plumbing, the electrical systems, I could go on and on.

All of those are original, with a few exceptions.

And they're well beyond their stated lifetimes.

Most of them we can't get replacement parts.

Most of them we can't fix.

We're actually patching them.

And it's a surprise that we haven't had more than one incident in the last 32 years.

In fact, the well-known consulting company, CAA, who's built most of the modern arenas, came in and issued a hundred page report on our arena and said to bring it up to current standards would cost just shy of 900 million dollars.

That's a lot of money.

And by the way, a minority of that 900 million had anything to do with hockey.

That was for general arena purposes to hold events like concerts, et cetera.

In fact, if you think of this arena, we are best known for of course our beloved sharks.

But if I look at those events, the vast majority of them were not sharks.

The vast majority of those events over the years were other things.

In fact, we've been the home of 10 professional sports teams over the years.

We've had eight US gymnastics and figure skating championships.

We've had seven NCAA men's and women's tournament games, March Madness.

We've had virtually every concert and musical artist imaginable.

In fact, even Taylor Swift, who, while we were in session today, apparently got engaged, which was all the news.

So the economic benefit, while we love the sharks, and that is what we're both known from, 10x of that comes from things that have nothing to do with hockey.

So just like you should be proud of your arena, I think we should be proud of the process that got us here to this proposed agreement.

Unlike what you normally read in the press, which is chaos and sometimes it feels like bitter animosity between cities and their sports teams.

None of that happened here.

To credit to you guys.

It was a professional process that mostly played out without having to go and argue in public, as teams seem to do all the time, particularly here in Northern California.

We've seen it a lot in the press with some of our neighbors to the north.

And while this can be viewed as a contract negotiation, it never felt like a contract negotiation to me.

It felt like a true partnership.

And there have not been many many times in my career where I walked out of a situation going, that was clearly a win-win, but this is one of those.

So if you approve this proposed agreement, yes, the sharks will be here to at least 2051, probably a lot longer than that.

But more than that, an enviable SAP center becomes the linchpin of an even more vitalized downtown and the rest of San Jose as well.

And if the other things we've will begin discuss come true, maybe a reimagined city of San Jose entirely.

Of course, that means the hard work starts for us if you guys approve this.

Because we don't have 900 million dollars to figure out how to actually do this reconstruction.

But one thing that didn't get mentioned is any cost job runs are on our dime.

If we choose to do more than the 425 million that we have, we pay for that.

If we miscalculate how things are and they go on and they take longer, and if any of you have ever done home remodels, you know that is the norm, not the exception.

No more comes from the city.

That comes out of our pocket.

So you can assure that this is the maximum.

I'll end you with one thought.

You've likely heard us say over the last year to 18 months that the future is teal.

That's mostly a hockey saying, and that's because we're wildly by pretty much any reporter viewed as having the top prospect pool.

The kids that are 18, 19, 20, some of which are now in the NHL, others who haven't played yet.

If this agreement gets approved, I think the same thing will be true of the arena and the surrounding districts as well.

We will pivot from saying the future is teal to recognizing the future is San Jose.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Once again, want to thank you and Shark Sports Entertainment for your commitment to San Jose.

Well said.

Thank you, Sharky.

Sharky, I'm gonna have to ask you to sit back down.

Thank you.

Uh we're gonna go to public comment and then we'll come back to the council for discussion and emotion.

Cher, when I call your name, please come down first person the microphone.

Go ahead and start speaking.

Um the other people who get called line up behind that person, this um security will show you where to stand.

Um, Leah Tennis Ketter, Gumby, Tom McHenry, Jaime Vasquez, and David Mulvehill, please come on down.

Thank God I don't have to follow Tom McHenry.

If you're curious, uh Hammer and Lewis got the tie, so $20 just down the street.

Uh I'm Gumby representing uh the San Jose Downtown Association.

I am so excited about this deal, I can barely contain it.

Uh this is such a good deal.

Like people on my advocacy committee, smarter than me that actually reviewed the uh the uh the deal said this was a win-win uh truly on this, and and a really remarkable deal that will showcase uh the relationship between a city and a sports team.

Uh I'll also say uh as a representative of the downtown, uh this is a huge uh economic boon to us.

Uh I'll get the first one to throw out the statistics in the last five years 1.25 billion dollars of economic impact uh to our city and 50 million visitors over the last 32 years and change that the sharks have been over here.

Um and I'll just also say it since I'll go ahead and say it right there.

I've always said that you know the the thief of joy is comparison.

But if you look at us in comparison to our our sister cities right now, you can see the the benefit of investing in a sports team, having that pride, investing in a venue, and what it can do for a city's profile.

And you can also turn around and see what happens when you lose your sports teams.

Don't invest in your um uh venues.

Uh not only to see what that does for pride, but see what it does to the overall community at all levels.

Okay, this is a win for San Jose, this is a win for downtown.

Go sharks.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Uh afternoon, Tom McHenry.

Uh I've been here a lot lately, Mayor.

I know you've cautioned me on that.

You know, it's it's not because I like meetings, it's uh you guys are doing a lot of interesting things.

And uh today is certainly uh no exception.

Uh I do like seeing that high school picture of me up in the hallway there.

Really appreciate that.

And if you could remove that, I I promise not to come back too often.

Um it's uh uh an interesting and important day when we're talking about this building.

Uh it meant so much to San Jose uh as it does now.

Uh but it was a whole different period that uh you may have read about in history books.

Uh it's uh it was about a San Jose that was just as it is today.

It wants to continually improve.

And it's always had leadership that tried and pulled in that direction.

Unfortunately, with uh certain buildings, we didn't always succeed.

We tried to steal the uh giants a few times, and uh I mean we tried to acquire them a few times, and it didn't didn't quite work the way it should have.

But with this particular election, uh it was pretty dynamic.

I mean, it was an intense election.

Uh, and not only did it pass uh in a surprisingly good way, but it was always nice to go to events after that and see people who you knew were not quite enthusiastic about it, say how much they supported it.

And that's really what the what the sharks have done.

Um, you know, they adopted the city, and the city adopted them, and it's a unique relationship.

Uh I couldn't express it any more than Jonathan did uh and uh so well.

Uh but it it has been something uh that you know people just have seen this as something that was particularly that's your time.

Okay.

Uh it was sorry.

You know, the people have spoken.

Uh they've spoken again and again, and now they are uh having their elected leaders as you've done so well, keep it up, keep moving us forward, and we'll bring San Jose again to a new era.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

I'd also like to call down Doug Block and I think it's Rodney Baca.

Come on down.

Go ahead.

Hi, I'm uh David Mulvahel, and um have multiple business on San Pedro.

First of all, I'd like to thank the San Jose team and uh Sharks team for negotiating this deal, and hopefully uh it will get approved today.

Um without this deal, um survival on San Pedro would definitely be a lot harder, uh especially summer months, there are lean years, people don't realize that a lot of the time we're just hanging tight really down there in the summer, uh waiting for shark seasons to start, convention season, etc.

Uh, the sharks is the backbone of the winter economy on San Pedro.

Um Flathardies, I started there 20 years ago.

Um I didn't understand how San Jose had a hockey team when we didn't have snow.

I quickly realized uh like you know how important it is to the city.

I mean, it's it's San Jose sports team.

We have people showing up.

I thought we were crazy, uh bleed teal, all this kind of good stuff.

But uh I met so many friends, people coming from as far as Oregon, Sacramento, and obviously locals as well.

I mean, um I'm so glad you guys have negotiated this, and hopefully council today approves this.

An example of what the sharks means to uh local business, hella good burger last year was struggling, you know, it was um we're hanging tight, but uh we got invited into the sharks arena for two weeks to showcase our product, and uh we lines uh we lines uh lining up for our food uh for two weeks, and it really kind of got us out of a hold.

And uh people don't see that kind of stuff, but it's all those little things uh people don't see.

I mean, I don't think I would have opened up my restaurant to press room if I thought that sharks weren't coming to SAP, and I don't think all Fly Heart is Irish pub would still be there if it wasn't for the sharks.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you, next speaker.

I guess good evening now, Mayor and Council members.

As Mayor uh McHenry said, stories of the years past really talk about that community-led fund arena now, the fun group, uh fan group, campaign and eventual opening of our shark tank.

As the mayor said, it was very controversial at that moment, and if you asked anyone who voted for it, nobody would say until the sharks arena actually came to be.

And then now we can't even imagine ourselves without the sharks in downtown.

So they've been part of our history since they opened, showing up for our community, fueling the economy.

Their presence and sharks ice, as was said, generates over 235 million dollars in annual spending, supports thousands of jobs, and benefits businesses from restaurants to our hotels.

The chamber has made sports and entertainment as an economy a core focus of our work, and the sharks are a centerpiece of that vision.

Their plans to modernize SAP and explore a future arena district represent the kind of forward-looking investment that will keep San Jose competitive and growing.

We urge your support of this agreement.

We thank the city for their negotiations and keeping the sharks here with us, and the chamber looks forward to helping with that growth.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

I'm also gonna call down Sherry Lewis and Mark Lewis.

Uh good evening, Mayor Mayhem and City Council members.

My name is Jaime Vasquez, and I'm a field representative with the North Cal Carpenters Union, local 405 here in San Jose.

And um, I'm here today in um strong support for the SAP Center monetization.

Uh since it opened '93, the SAP Center has been the heart of San Jose, home to the Sharks world-class concerts and millions of visitors every year, and supporting near nearly 3,000 jobs.

Uh that impact is vital to our city's economy.

But it's systems are outdated without these upgrades.

San Jose risks losing not only the sharks, but also major events and uh economic benefits they bring.

Um what's equally important is how this project will be built.

The SAP Center has long history of using responsible general contractors, one that value quality, safety, and accountability.

That commitment has always ensured that projects are done right on time and with union labor.

For us, that means good local jobs, fair wages, and opportunities for apprentices from our community to learn the trade and build our future.

Uh, this renovation is more than a facelift, it's an investment in San Jose's workers, our economy and our identity as a destination city.

On behalf of the Carpenters Union Local 405, I urge you to move this plan forward and continue the tradition of building responsibly with skilled union labor.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Council members.

My name is Rodney Baca.

I'm a local business owner, restaurateur, and caterer.

And um I've worked with the sharks and and seen what they've done for our community from every walk of life.

My commercial kitchen is actually in West San Jose, or in east uh North San Jose, and my wife and I live in Evergreen.

And everywhere we walk, what is the one thing that we always see?

Our community is wearing sharks gear.

It's it's all about teal.

And working in downtown for many years, the SAP Center has brought nothing but uh people down from all walks of life from all over the uh the community from Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, and so on and so forth.

And during some of the toughest times when I think about it, like for us, it's very personal because some of the toughest times that we face during the pandemic, the sharks opened the doors for small businesses like myself, gave us opportunities, gave uh nonprofits opportunities, and allowed us to thrive and to actually come back with a vengeance.

And you know, they gave us an opportunity to do flights for them to travel when they travel on the plains.

And so we do that, and we've gotten six other teams out of that, and our businesses continue to grow.

And so for us, it's just very personal that we see SAP get this lift and that the sharks are here for a long time because it matters and they care about our community.

And when we look at teal, we look at hope as a community, and I think that's a huge thing for us.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, also Danny Mangan, come on down.

Steve Weimer also.

Go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name's Doug Block, and I'm with the Silicon Valley MEPS, which is the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and sprinkler fitters unions.

We will be performing the bulk of the deferred maintenance on this project.

I'm also here on behalf of Unite Here Local 19, Silicon Valley's Hospitality Workers Union.

Our unions are proud to represent workers who both build and operate SAP Center.

We support this because it will create good union jobs for our community and for our members.

And at the same time, we want to ensure that these investments continue continue to generate good union jobs into the future.

The item before you involves a significant use of taxpayer dollars.

Therefore, labor peace is an essential tool to safeguard our funds and reduce risks.

Simply put, we want to deliver this project on time, on budget, and we want to make sure that the SAP Center continues to operate smoothly after it's built.

This is where the citywide project labor agreement comes into play along with our existing collective bargaining agreements, and to that end, we want to thank the Sharks organization for their continued partnership with organized labor.

Um assuming those safeguards are in place.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, next speaker.

Sherry Lewis, uh D Theory resident and little Italy board member.

I'm here to express my support for the arena district agreement.

As you know, SAP et al.

are much more than just a hockey arena, and they have generated over a billion dollars of economic benefits for San Jose in the past five years, with 150 events per year.

Well, this is an excellent result.

There are another 215 days in the year to fill.

Attracting the top-tier talent for San Jose residents and its visitors, thus generating revenue through more events, hotel occupancy, and small business patronage.

Economic vitality, I don't need to tell you, is crucial for San Jose to support local essential services.

This is a critical piece to achieving that.

We must keep an eye on both the current conditions and implement maximizing opportunities for the future.

San Jose Arena Management and the Shark Sharks have been good partners over the last 32 years.

Let's let them help us move forward.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Christina Bowie, come on down.

Jordan and Ed Davis.

Hi, good afternoon.

I thought I'd mix it up a little with some boots on the ground perspective.

I'm a resident of a downtown community that is less than half a mile from the SAP Center.

We experience firsthand the positive impacts that SAP Center events have on the area's vibrancy and culture.

Of course, with the sharks leading the charge.

Every event begins with people and vehicles streaming in, filling in the area parking lots and hotels before, after, and even during events.

The local entertainment districts are extremely busy, and at many times they are themed in sync with the event.

On sharks nights, it's teal everywhere.

In between game nights, the sharks buzz is alive, and residents and visitors are wearing sharks' hats and jerseys.

This is sharks territory signs proudly displayed in South Bay businesses and home windows.

There are many ideas out there to grow city vibrancy and San Jose Pride.

I see today is about supporting and investing in two significant city vibrancy and pride successes that we already have.

And those are the SAP Center and the San Jose Sharks.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

Rob Lindo, come on down.

Adolfo and Paul Penn.

Go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members.

My name is Danny Mangan.

I'm a union rep for the Sprinkler Fitters, local 483.

I'm here tonight to uh express my support for this agreement between the city and uh the sharks and the SAP Center.

Um, you know, as a as a labor representative, uh, I very much appreciate that uh from my understanding within this agreement, uh, any rehabilitation work to the current stadium and uh you know down the line, any new stadium work um falls under the citywide project labor agreement.

And uh, you know, the citywide PLA, it ensures that uh you know our investment in in the stadium provides directly translates to good uh good paying jobs, family supporting jobs for our local workers.

Uh it also means that the men and women that are going to be working uh on the upgrades to the current uh facility and you know, eventually building a new stadium are well trained, fairly compensated, and uh you know, working under safe conditions.

Um the PLA also gives stability to the city, as uh previous speakers mentioned.

You know, the job being done on time on budget, uh no labor disputes, uh, and equally as important um the PLA ensures that you know the community stands to benefit uh from the work that's being done because uh keeping taxpayer dollars here local uh and strengthening the middle class.

So um, with that being said, I I uh I I strongly support um this agreement and the work that's going to come.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you, next speaker.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

Uh, my name is Ed Davis.

As the first chair of the San Jose Chamber, I want to highlight the importance of the shark's vision for the future.

By modernizing the SAP Center and beginning the path toward a future arena district, San Jose has the opportunity to capture even more of the growing national market for major sporting events, concerts, and cultural gatherings.

These investments are uh catalytic, they ripple to the every benefit to benefit every sector of our community from startups to longstanding businesses, small businesses.

Additionally, you know, to the economic effect that everybody's been talking about 30-year plus shark season ticket holder, 40-year business owner in downtown San Jose.

I see every night when there's an activity going on at SAP, the economic activity.

We've been trying to reactivate downtown, and that's when it happens is when there's events and games and things along those lines.

So that's really important.

Above and beyond that, I've I travel through the U.S.

and and abroad, and the recognition that San Jose gets from the San Jose Sharks was way more than before.

And so we want to bring everybody here and show them what our city can be.

This is a gem that we can use to start that.

So as a the first chair in the chamber, we strongly support this agreement because it honors the sharks' legacy in the San Jose while laying the foundation for the next generation of growth in our sports and entertainment economy.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

Gino come on down and Nicholas Adams.

Mayor Council members, good afternoon.

Um my name is Adolfo.

I consider myself a downtown person.

Um I've been around for about 35 years in downtown, and I just want to say thank you to the uh city team and the sharks teams to negotiate this agreement.

But being here 35 years, I really don't see our city being the same without the sharks.

And me being in business, I don't think I can be in business without the uh sharks in the subcenter.

So uh I'm part of the business community, I'm part of the downtown association.

I own a business in downtown, and I don't think we can be the same without the sharks.

So we us, I know it's a big ass, but we ask for this to move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Uh good evening, mayor and uh council members.

My name is Paul Pham.

I'm a resident of San Jose, a local business owner and a fellow Sharks fan.

Participating in sports and watching them has been a cherished pastime that brings uh communities together.

Rooting for a team unites people in ways unlike anything else, fostering shared excitement and victory and collective resilience and defeat.

Sports also teaches essential values like discipline and teamwork while building confidence and a sense of belonging.

It would be a profound loss if the San Jose, if San Jose endured what Oakland did with the A's and the Raiders leaving.

Our community deserves a team to rally behind one that inspires pride and strengthens our bonds.

I strongly urge the city council to approve the proposed agreement that would keep the San Jose Sharks in our city for the next 26 years.

Losing such an iconic franchise and community partner would be heartbreaking, especially uh so after so many of us have been bleeding teal for so many years.

My understanding is that the Sharks uh sports entertainment generates 1.25 billion dollars in economic benefit to the city of San Jose.

And as a member of the Story Road Business Association, we have been fortunate to build strong partnership with the San Jose Sharks organization thanks to the leadership of Chris Shea.

Mr.

Shea has been instrumental in fostering our relationship to support small businesses and local communities.

This partnership has the potential to connect the 1.7 million visitors to this Sharks Ice with the vibrant small businesses along Story Road.

I appreciate all the Sharks franchise has brought to the community over the years, and I hope that you stand with me and in never giving up on our home team.

Thank you to who uh for your time and please vote in the affirmative for this motion.

Thank you, next speaker.

John Pack, come on down, go ahead.

Harry Neal and Chris West.

That's my last card.

Can't put it on my head, my hair.

Uh good evening, Mayor, Council members, city staff, thank you very much.

Uh I wanted to show some love though.

Um Mr.

Becker and and Leah Tensker already spoke eloquently about the facts and the figures and the numbers and the statistics that indicate why this is such an important um uh uh deal for you guys to approve tonight, and I want to speak to it on three capacities, as quickly as possible.

One, um, as the chair of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce board, I would like to encourage that you vote in favor of renewing this contract.

Um, the SAP Center is a crucial element of the city sports economy, and that sector of our economy is set to grow.

And without the sharks being at the center of that, and without the SAP Center being modernized to last into the next towards the next end of the of this uh contract, that won't be able to happen.

Second of all, I am the vice president of Casino Matrix, a business in D6, and we are proud partners of the Sharks.

And we have been for three years now and hope to be for much longer.

We use that partnership to market our business, but also we send all our employees there because we have a suite there, and we use that as a perk for the employees.

I gotta tell you they love it so much, and we are super glad that's gonna continue, and even the suites are gonna be even nicer now, it sounds like so.

Yay.

Uh, third, as a resident of downtown, when I moved here, I didn't really know much about the city, and I'm a big hockey fan, and so I was thrilled to be able to have this arena right downtown where I could go to games, see concerts, meet new people, and fall in love with San Jose.

So it's personal to me, it's important to our business, and it's important to the chamber, and it's important to San Jose.

So go Sharks, team TL.

I appreciate it.

And then also from my friend Gino Ashley, who couldn't be here.

The SAP Center is home to the San Jose Sharks, an iconic symbol to everyone that San Jose is a major league city.

Want to share that, Mark.

Thank you very much.

Vote yes.

Thank you, next speaker.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, City Council, Nicholas Adams, immediate past chair of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce.

Uh the SAP Center means many different things to many people.

For me, I'll never forget watching my son's face at the at the Shark Tank as the boys in Teal scored, and he leaps out of his chair and celebrates with thousands of fellow San Joseans and folks from around the South Bay cheering on the team.

And it's about community and civic pride, but it's also about those lasting memories that you make in those very special places.

And it's not just hockey.

We've heard a lot about the teal tonight.

At a recent uh indoor football game, the Panthers, I realized what an incredibly diverse group of folks really do come out for our sports and entertainment uh opportunities here in our San Jose downtown community.

Uh there were probably retirees, students, folks who have been here for a long time, and maybe some folks who are new to San Jose.

SAP Center is one of those places where you actually do get people from all walks of life.

It's a really unique place.

There's also the economic story that we've heard of.

My company's been headquartered in the downtown district for 14 years and the North San Pedro area.

And so we see the spill out from the tank into Little Italy and to San Pedro Square, and even down to the historic district.

So when you vote tonight, it's really more uh about things uh adjacent to the building.

It's about that community pride, that civic responsibility.

Uh it's also let's not forget about the thousands of jobs, the thousands of jobs that the tank supports, both at the tank and in our downtown district.

Thank you very much for your support.

I urge you to vote yes on this.

Go sharks.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Mayor Mayhem, members of the count.

You're looking at the biggest fan of the SAP Center.

I can say that because when the city had the great vision to build an arena, two entities had to be formed.

The San Jose Arena Authority to help manage and the San Jose Sports Authority to fill the building.

So we are so fortunate since 1991 to work on behalf of the city to bring over 225 events to San Jose.

And I can tell you right now, these great events of 2026, they're not here if we're not a major league sports city.

And the reason why we're a major league sports city is the SAP Center and the Sharks.

All they brought to our community, and all they're gonna continue to bring for not just sporting events, but everything where our community benefits.

So thank you for this consideration.

I hope you vote for it and go Sharks.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

This is clearly uh an issue with uh a lot of community passion behind it.

Uh I would I I hope this doesn't come off as raining on people's parade, but uh given that it is uh use of quite a lot of public funds.

I do hope that uh the proper proper caution will be taken and and and not be caught up in in the excitement of what the sharks have brought to our our city and and and what the SAP Center means to us.

Uh I I do also want to note that the amount of parking on site is quite a lot uh for the SAP Center.

And uh given that Caltrain is uh newly electrified, running some beautiful new electric trains uh much more frequently than before.

And BART to San Jose will be stopping right outside the SAP Center.

We should be considering in the long term uh reduction of uh parking and using that for uh better space activation uh where possible.

But it seems like uh the uh community has spoken, so you know what?

Go ahead, vote in favor.

Thank you, next speaker.

Good evening, council, good evening, mayor.

What's up, man?

Uh you know, I work for local 134, and I'm at the SAP Center a lot for concerts.

Um, and it does kind of need to be renovated.

A lot of the things that I see there aren't should be upgraded.

Um, but I just want to say that you know, I do advocate for the arena, and we're right in the back door of the SAP Center.

We sit there every day wondering when you know we can possibly do something like get a job or maybe go to the SAP Center after hours, like when you know concerts are over, because I'm I'm working at the South Center and I see they're not union members, but they're the youngsters that come in and they clean up the floor and they put the chairs back and whatnot.

Like, why can't we get a job like that?

You know, like the people at the arena, because we're there, we're like walking distance from the SAP Center.

So I don't know, that's food for thought, but just wait till the open forum.

Thank you.

Back to council.

Great.

Thank you, Tony.

Thank you to everyone who came out and spoke this evening.

I really appreciate your patience.

Obviously, we had a very full agenda.

Uh, thanks for hanging in there.

A lot of heartfelt comments that I that certainly resonated for me.

Uh once again, I want to thank the folks who got us here.

I do want to recognize and thank council colleagues who have supported uh this negotiation and an agreement, um, at least in concept up to this point, and I just appreciate the council leaning in and prioritizing this and and directing our city manager and city attorney to work on this agreement.

Uh of course the day-to-day hard work is is done by our staff, and again, really want to thank Assistant City Manager Lee Wilcox for personally leaning in and putting a tremendous amount of time into this effort, and I know he was uh very ablely supported by Cameron Day, uh Kevin Ice, Jim Shannon, and other members of the team who have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into getting a good agreement for everybody, uh, a fair one, a clear one, um, uh legally defensible one.

And I know it's been a lot of work on our end.

So thank you to the city team, of course, to the Sharks team as well.

Uh Jonathan, that was one heck of a speech.

I mean, if you ever this doesn't work out for you, you might consider running for local office.

Um I I really I'm I I wouldn't wish that on yeah, Shark you said no.

Okay.

Uh but you know, Jonathan, John, Greg, uh, Chris, and the whole team over at Shark Sports Entertainment, uh, it means a lot to to me and I I'm sure colleagues and staff that uh you always came in very clear about we want to be here, we want to get to yes, we gotta make this work for everybody.

But we're a San Jose team, and we're proud to be a San Jose team, and that that just means uh means a whole lot.

I I will thank uh Tom McHenry.

I I constantly remind him there's only one mayor at a time, and public comment is limited to two minutes.

But uh, you know, I I think Tom, it's fair to say that without your vision and partnership and in that previous iteration of the conversation we're having, it kind of takes each generation of public leaders and uh uh you know, sports owners and leaders, and uh you know, to kind of move the city forward.

And I know you and the council at the time uh took a brave and visionary stance to bring an arena here.

And it and it really changed the trajectory of the city when the arena opened in 1993.

It gave us a home for professional sports, a stage for world-class concerts and and events, a place where residents, where our community could gather and create lifelong memories.

In fact, I was not a San Jose resident, but I remember I think it was 93 or 94.

I attended my first ever concert.

I remember how excited I was to drive all the way over the hill from Watsonville with my friends.

I forget whose mom drove us because we were not driving it.

We were like 13, but uh came to my first concert.

I will not embarrass myself by saying who was performing.

Uh, but I was reflecting on on Jonathan's comments about how it yeah, it's hockey rural hockey town, but it's so much more than that.

And just thinking about, I mean, I've been invited by San Jose friends and neighbors over the years to go to multiple concerts that are Latin music, country, hip hop, classic rock.

I mean, just speaks to the incredible diversity and vibrancy of our city.

Um, and it's fun and it helps people connect.

Indoor football, multiple iterations of of indoor football leagues.

Uh Disney on ice with the kids, of course.

Um, some Jurassic World thing that they were excited about that I'm still trying to figure out what it was.

Um, our San Jose PD major awards ceremony, and yes, a celebration of life when we tragically lost CSO fam last year, and the way that Shark Sports Entertainment opened the door and made it really easy on us as a community to come together to grieve to celebrate CSO fam's life and uh and and support our police department uh meant a lot.

So this is about a lot more uh than just sports, as important as sports are.

It truly is a gathering place, and these upgrades to SAP Center mean that we'll continue to be able to attract all of those great performers and players and experiences to our city.

Um it also, as Jonathan pointed to, gives us an opportunity to take our city and our downtown to the next level.

The truth is cities are never static.

We live in a dynamic world.

We're either growing, investing, evolving, reinventing ourselves, or we're stagnating in declining.

And we can have that positive, virtuous cycle, that flywheel effect we've talked about, or we can be on defense trying to protect uh you know a smaller and smaller pie.

And I think this is a real statement, assuming we move forward tonight, that um is a major world-class city that deserves to have the very best experiences and events and performances, and uh should be recognized as the largest city in Northern California.

And I think we have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us to build a proper arena district that is walkable, is vibrant, supports more and more small businesses and arts and culture groups, and just takes that experience to the next level for all of our residents and millions of people around the region and and far beyond.

So I am very proud to support this agreement.

I don't normally do this, but I'm gonna go ahead and move the Third Amended Arena Management Agreement and amended documents.

And uh and then um turn to colleagues for comments and rebuttals.

But uh I'm hoping hoping we won't get a lot of this.

All right, we've got a lot of council members to go, so I'll turn to council member Ortiz.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm just trying to keep my comments quick, but I just want to thank staff for their leadership, uh getting us to the finish line today.

Um, as mentioned, we want to make sure that we are a uh first class city and first class cities have sports teams, they have innovative attractions that bring individuals to our city core, to our city center.

Um, and hearing all the uh business owners and community leaders um here today, I think it's fair to say that we have some of the best uh in in the country, and of course, uh a major attraction is our San Jose Sharks.

I also want to thank um the sharks, they have been uh amazing partners really with all of our council offices have sponsored uh many of the events that I have put on here in the city for my constituents, whether that's uh Cinco de Mayo Festival, uh we were able to bring that back.

They helped with a lot of marketing, um, a lot of they they brought in a lot of festivities for the youth and and for local families, and so I I know that that event um was really um uh expanded and made possible thanks to the sharks and and their willingness to to partner with us.

And so I think this is uh a win-win um situation, you know.

Uh I'm a sharks fan, you know.

I I uh my me and my family have always gone to sharks games, and unfortunately I lost a little bit of weight, so I don't fit in my sharks jersey or I would have it on right now, but uh just know that um I I bleed teal and uh you know I'm I'm very passionate about the team.

Um do have just uh some questions.

It was mentioned uh by I think a few different individuals today.

Um one is just like in regards to labor standards, and then uh a second is if we've I know it's very early and the deal's not signed yet, but I uh the second one is if we have any thoughts on how we're gonna engage minority-owned and woman-owned businesses in this deal.

And so, first I I let me go into the labor uh uh comments.

So, does the citywide PLA apply to all the construction work that will be happening uh in regards to this deal?

Yes, it will.

Okay, great.

And I just want to confirm that uh the live the living wage requirement doesn't supersede any collective bargaining.

It does not.

No.

Okay.

I just want to make sure it's it's on the um the uh the uh the the record.

And then finally, uh just my final uh uh question is uh are we starting to think I know it's very early in the process, but did it ever come up in negotiations how we may look into and I know Sharks is already doing it, many business owners, uh communities of color.

I think they just um brought in Planeta uh Paleta Paleta Planeta and their in their um and their new uh their stadium.

But are we thinking about how we're gonna give opportunities to minority-owned and women-owned businesses for this deal.

Okay, all right.

I'll take that as a yes.

I know we'll we'll we'll have discussions in the future, but thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Appreciate your questions.

Let's go on to Councilmember Mulcahy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, the cool thing about hockey is that you don't just recognize the goal score.

You know, there's something in hockey called the hockey assist, more sports should have it, where they're crediting more than just the goal score and more than just the guy who passed it, but maybe up to two others.

And I think it sort of demonstrates the teamwork that really has been shown here.

And I just want to start by recognizing certainly our city manager and the and the organization that she put together to run this program and you know, Lee, you've been such a great leader on this, and so Lee Wilcox, thank you for um representing the city so well in this, and budget director Jim Shannon, who I don't know is here today, but want to recognize him, Kevin Ice.

Um your explanations have been clear and um I could say as clear as Cameron Day sitting next to you.

But Cameron, thank you for your work on this as well.

And then I think a shout out to former uh OED director, Nancy Klein, who I know lived and breed this for a very long time as well.

Um, and of course, Mayor Mayhan and his team for the role that they played in in shepherding this along.

And you know, just to the Hasso Platiner family for doubling down on San Jose and President you know, Jonathan Becker.

Um, you know, I think you took the words out of a lot of people's mouths about the passion that you have for what the sharks mean to San Jose, and and um thanks for pushing this forward.

And you have this you know guy behind you who's gotten a few shout-outs, who I think is one of your greatest ambassadors in Chris Shea.

So thanks to Chris for all of your work and making so many of the connections in our community.

And uh Mayor Tom, uh you didn't really take any credit as you typically do not do.

But the date was June 7th, 1988.

And I can imagine how just this probably more harder than your election for mayor, because that was probably one of the boldest moves San Jose has ever made by putting something like that, you know, measure on the ballot without a team to build a building on top of San Jose's downtown Dotson, right?

But you know, I think what people are alluding to is these days it I think it was a 53% win, but it was you know, it's really really hard to find anybody who will say they didn't vote for it.

But I will tell you, after having campaigning, especially in the Shastahanchet neighborhood area, there were several people who admitted they didn't vote for it, but super happy it's here.

So 37 years later, we're continuing to build on the legacy for San Jose for hockey fans and for countless families and businesses, some of whom we've heard from today, touched by our hometown heroes that have come to represent our city more than any other sort of organized body for sure.

So our vote today isn't just marking a milestone for a hockey franchise, we're celebrating a flagship institution that anchors our city's identity, drives our economy, and ignites pride across our community.

We've heard you know how many people are touched by the sharks, how many people they drive to the build building, 235 million in annual spend that happens there, and the bottom line uh return that happens to to our city budget.

But one thing that didn't get talked about, I think one of our union reps reper you know recognized our um unite here.

But SAP drives 25,000 hotel room nights.

And for those of you in the arts business, that is directly taking transient occupancy tax and putting it right into our arts grant program, and it's given a lot of hotel workers a lot of hours in our community from Unite here.

So I just want to make sure to make that connection.

So as we continue to collaborate on a bold new vision for a future arena district, this extension really lays the foundation for San Jose to remain a premier destination for sports, entertainment, and cultural events.

Those have been buzzwords over these last 18 months, but I think this deal really seals that that is part of our future and part of our commitment, I think, as a body.

And what makes the sharks truly special is their impact off the ice.

Nobody's talked about tonight.

The Sharks Foundation, you know, the team teal, 30 350,000 people through programs and events, 430 organizations with grants and in-kind donations, um, thousands of volunteer hours, and since 1994, the Sharks Foundation has contributed over 21 million to area nonprofits, and I'm sure some of you uh are sitting on boards that have benefited from the sharks activity.

And then just finally, there's one thread that weaves every fan experienced together, and that's organized labor, and we've heard the commitments that have been made, and we've heard from some of our union representatives here.

Um, but you can witness this at every game and concert, welcoming fans, cleaning, maintaining, and building the stages.

And with every upgrade, as we've heard, that's going to be built by union labor.

And so from you know, the largest ice sheet collection west of the Mississippi at Sharks Ice and Tech CU, Union Labor's at the heart of Sharks Territory.

Key partners like SEIU, operating engineers, IaTi are at the very core of that work, and you heard testimony today from the sprinkler fitters, carpenters, and and MEPs.

So our vote is not just about the renewal of a building or a contract, it is a pledge to San Jose's future.

Together with the Sharks, with our business community, with organized labor and with fans, we're building a legacy that strengthens our city and sets San Jose on a path for even greater things ahead.

And I just want to say, thanks for being here, Sharky.

Go sharks.

No questions.

Let's go to Councilmember Condelas.

Um thank you.

Uh I appreciated that history lesson, Councilmember.

Okay, I think it's I'm older.

Just a couple years.

But no, I I just wanted to take a moment to thank staff as well as the Sharks organizations for your hard work and just bringing it bringing this item today.

Beyond preserving the SAP Center, I'm glad that this is a plan that uh works on transforming uh San Jose and the downtown of San Jose for for years to come.

Um I I did have a quick question for staff um based on some concerns I heard from from folks is um you know given the city's projected deficit next year um I've heard concerns about layoffs and and the danger to our general fund and and our ability to provide services.

Uh can you provide some insight into this and and just how we're we're looking to approach this?

Absolutely, council member.

And you know, like we acknowledged in uh the presentation, this is a significant investment for the city.

So we went into this kind of eyes wide open, and that was a pretty big uh deal point and process with the sharks going back and forth, really, as Jonathan mentioned in the spirit of collaboration is how do we go into this with knowing the next few years um that there was volatility in the general fund.

So you this council obviously um you know, through the adoption of this year's budget took care of uh a substantial portion of next year's budget to next year's uh budget as a deficit of about 25 million.

Um the following year is around three.

We'll say the way we've structured this is there is no payment next year.

We wouldn't actually be paying anything on debt service until the following year.

And that's why the 25 million from the sharks is so important at 8.3 to smooth those out over the next several years, even though the five-year forecast does show a trend in deficit.

We need to plan for you know a worsening economy or or anything like that.

So the additional modeling will go forward to be able to kind of thin some of that out.

But the deal's been structured to hopefully avoid those scenarios, absolutely.

No, thank you, Lee.

And and I think it's important um for us, you know, to talk about that and knowing that our staff and the administration, as well as the sharks are committed to that partnership and know the realization of what the economics of of you know the deal are, and and and and that's important to know, and and I appreciate that.

Um last year, you know, I actually partnered with uh the sharks and the boys and girls club.

Um, and I I believe the mayor was there as well for an opening of a brand new outdoor hockey, hockey uh rink in a historically disadvantaged neighborhood in East San Jose that I represent.

And because of this commitment and more importantly, that investment that the sharks made, thousands of kids um now enjoy street hockey and are now introduced to the sport of hockey uh whereas they were they would not otherwise be.

And so, you know, now they uh we have not just kids playing hockey, but they're they had visits from Sharky and even get free tickets to games uh because of the San Jose Sharks.

And so I am extremely appreciative and grateful for the partnership and and look forward to working together with the sharks for uh for the for the years to come.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Let me turn now to Councilmember Duan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Investment uh in the shark is is not about just investment in hockey, it's about investment in our community or cultures and our arts.

And I've seen them in action.

It's not about promises, they actually go out there and work with neighborhood association.

They're out there working with business association, how to make it better.

And and recently we even had the the Zamboni and and and the Barracudas out there at the Vietnam Town to showcase that hey, the Vietnamese people can enjoy hockey too, just like anybody else.

And and to me, that's incredible.

They also part of the backpack giveaway uh with at Grand Century Mall.

And I thought, what a great partnership.

They don't just say things, they do it.

And also the investment with the shark right now is is also I just want to say thank you for protecting the public from the future cost increase because their commitment to make sure that they go, you know, whatever the costs above is out of their pocket, and that's huge.

And you know, I um I just want to throw it out here is that we do have the city do own a 92 acres uh at singleton.

And you know, if we we we can put some PEM units or someday we can renovate that and make that into uh the new shark district, if you will.

That's a big big spot, right?

We can do that.

Well, anyway, I uh I have family members who live in uh Toronto, Canada, and they didn't they're not there supporting the the Maple Leafs, the Marlins or the Septres, but they support the shark all the way in another country, and and and that show how important we are here.

And I I look forward to someday to see the the shark and the NHL championship.

So go shark, and I will be supporting you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Uh I always appreciate your continued dogged uh advocacy for Singleton.

Who knows?

Maybe one day it will be shark size 2.0.

I mean, who who knows?

All right, let's turn now to Councilmember Kameh.

Thank you so much.

You know, I want to recognize all of the hard work because you know, we're here today because of the wonderful partnership that has come together.

Um, but a lot of work has gone into this, a lot of thought.

This is a long-term significant investment uh on both sides.

But at the end of the day, I think that you know what you have, what we have in front of us ensures that it's good for the community, it's good for good jobs, and it's good for business.

So I personally a lot has already been said, but uh I do remember when uh SAP was not there.

And for those of us who've been around a long time, you know, I think that um looking towards the future and ahead is something that I think for many, many years to come is going to be wonderful because it's gonna be good for the city of San Jose.

So um, you know, these moments don't come as much, you know, as frequently, but I think that we are at a good place, and I want to thank uh the Sharks team.

I want to thank our staff for all the work, many, many, many uh meetings and and what have you.

I want to thank the community for coming out uh and sharing your thoughts and your experiences.

Uh, and I want to thank Labor for being here today because this is all-encompassing.

So I uh uh also will be supporting this, and I look forward to many, many years of going to see the sharks.

So thank you so much.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Appreciate that.

Let me go to Councilmember Cohen.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh first I just want to say, as somebody who attended Sharks Games at Cow Palace before even knew I was going to be a San Jose resident.

Um it's great to have followed the sharks to San Jose and uh and and know that they're still a that they are the cornerstone of our city.

Um I want to first also appreciate the stewardship of the arena by the sharks.

Because you you attend SAP Center and you don't think of it as a 30 33-year-old, 32-year-old arena.

It really is in good shape, and that's due to the good work the sharks have done, and it really is testament to the great relationship because the San Jose owns the building, but the sharks have invested and made sure that that arena is still you know relatively state of the art for for its age.

And um, and just you know, there's a story about age of stadiums.

I mean, I so many some people know that I'm a huge baseball fan, I'm also a big hockey fan, but I traveled 35 years ago.

I took a trip around the United States and saw a game in every baseball stadium in one season.

But I think about that now and realize there's only sixteen six stadiums in baseball that are still exist today from 35 years ago.

And baseball is a sport of tradition, so some teams obviously will never change their stadium.

Um, but almost every other team has, and that's true of hockey as well.

And I was just in St.

Paul last week and drove by the wild Minnesota Wild Stadium, and you think about all these new downtown arenas that have been built, and the sharks have made a deal to stay here.

And I I want to appreciate um that the the work between the city and and the team to come to this agreement without ever feeling like we were being extorted, like I feel like we read about other cities feeling like there's an extortion from a team, that the team isn't pitting us against other cities about saying we're only trying to get a deal here so you know to improve our deal elsewhere.

That really is uh a difference in today's world that's not happening everywhere.

So I want to thank the sharks for that.

Thanks, Sharky for being here.

You know, you're a fish a few words, but you're definitely a fierce advocate.

So I you know having you there certainly is uh is great uh for us.

I want to thank I I also want to thank our city staff, particularly the budget office.

I know it's been mentioned before, but you know, the work that Jim and his team have done to help fashion this deal in a way that will keep us, I think, uh financially secure in the years ahead to backload the expenses to figure out the best way to keep us safe as we make any significant investment has been really important to the city.

So I want to thank Jim and his team as well as everybody else who's been thanked already for the work that they've done.

Um excited about moving forward.

Awesome.

All great points.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Let me turn out a vice mayor.

Councilmember Cohen, Cow Palace.

I remember those days.

Not as great as SAP, that's for sure.

I'm I'm really uh excited to have this conversation and to see all the members of the community come out.

I I too want to thank our staff, Lee, Cameron, Kevin, Jen, and uh Nancy, who was really uh instrumental and retired before she could see it to fruition, but she's probably watching us and and thank you all for the all the work you've done, and Jim Shannon, of course, because he helped craft all of the financial components of this.

I know we're gonna be talking later about TOT and uh funding mechanisms, bonds, and all of that, but that's a future discussion because we have this year covered, and next year we'll be discussing it further in the budget session.

I just want to share a couple of stories, and I want to particularly give a thanks for the Shark team, but particularly for Chris Shea.

Chris gave us a tour, uh, gave me a tour of this stadium or this this arena that's falling apart.

And I didn't know how it was a falling apart until he gave me this really brilliant tour.

It was really a good marketing strategy.

It w it worked completely.

But where some of our big name celebrities go and are their green rooms, uh if you want to call it that, is pretty sad.

Even where the sharks players are small and needs some revamping.

I was just so impressed by the tour and your hospitality, Chris.

But mostly in April, we had a delegation from our sister city, Okayama here, and they came to see a sharks game.

These were city council members who were here to visit the city, but also wanted to take in something special.

So we took them to a sharks game, and they all bought teal, they were all wearing it, they loved the game.

Chris was generous with some of the swag that he gave us, which we passed out to the Japanese, and they absolutely loved it.

It was a highlight of their trip to come and be able to see the sharks play.

It creates when I think of the the sharks and the performers and what happens at the arena.

It's not just the economic impact.

We've already talked about that, the jobs, the financial impact to the small businesses around it, to the businesses within in it.

It's the support that the sharks give to the community, the fill philanthropic efforts that the sharks give all over Councilmember Candelas.

You talked about uh the sharks setting up uh an arena at nearby at one of your schools.

I remember one of my first experiences at Washington Elementary.

Same thing happened back in 2004, five, six.

I think Joe Thornton was a brand new member at the time.

Didn't even know who he was.

I think he was a rookie.

It was very exciting.

But it's just the sharks, I think, are the heart and soul of San Jose.

You do so much for us.

How can we say no to this going forward?

There's absolutely no way.

And you bring Sharky, you can't look at Sharky and say no to Sharky.

Come on.

Although, where's a t-shirt that you're gonna shoot out at us?

With that, I'm I'm finished with my comments, but I really am so grateful that we have come together with this deal that benefits everybody, including the residents in the city of San Jose, which is the most important component.

Thanks.

Thanks, Vice Mayor.

Uh let's go to Councilmember Tordias.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll keep my comments short, but just wanted to thank the sharks and city leadership and city staff for all of the work to get to this point of this project.

Clearly represents a generational investment in the future of entertainment and art and vitality for our downtown core.

Uh, as has already been said, in the short term, it'll support thousands of good paying construction jobs for all of our friends with the building trades.

And over the long term, we're looking at billions of dollars in ongoing money flowing into our local economy, supporting all of our local businesses downtown.

So excited to be able to support tonight.

Excellent.

All right.

Well, thank you all very much.

Appreciate all the comments, questions, and enthusiasm for our sharks and uh a renovated SAP Center that's just gonna help us take things to the next level.

Tony, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Excellent.

That's exciting.

Thank you all.

Now I'm gonna ask what the pleasure of the council is.

Uh a couple of us need to step outside to just uh we don't typically do this, but given the time and the importance of this announcement, want to make sure members of the press have an opportunity to ask any questions before the evening news broadcast.

Vice Mayor has generously agreed to continue chairing the meeting if there's still a quorum.

If folks want to instead take a brief recess and listen in, that's fine too.

So I'll just ask quickly what the council prefers.

I recognize we're we're getting a little late on timing, but it's up to everybody here.

So I'm I'm here and stay here.

Is any is anybody want to make the counter-argument?

Okay, Vice Mayor, you don't mind?

Not at all.

Okay, it sounds like we're thinking quorum.

I'm gonna go answer, do a quick QA and we'll be right back.

Don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Just kidding.

Okay.

That's very exciting.

And now you're all leaving after all of this.

Yeah, that's fine.

Okay.

So moving on to item 8.3.

Um do we have a presentation?

Can I try to just sign your hand?

This is the San Jose Downtown Association Service Agreement.

Uh Vice Mayor, there's no presentation.

I just have some very big comments.

I don't have a gavel.

It's over there.

In that case, uh, I'm gonna let everybody leave and give them like two minutes.

How about that?

And in that time, I'll get the gavel.

Good job, Cameron.

Okay, so we did move sign.

You still have a quorum.

We still have a quorum.

Let's go let's confirm that we still have a quorum and move forward.

Downtown association.

I don't really okay.

Tony, we're moving on to item 8.3, which is the downtown association.

Do we have any public comments?

Yes, I have two cards.