All right.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to call to order this meeting of the San Jose City Council for the afternoon of November 4th.

Yasmin, would you please call the roll?

Come here.

Campos.

Here.

Cohen?

Ortiz.

President.

Okeihe.

Here.

Duan.

Here.

Condores.

Here.

Casey.

Here.

Foley.

And Mahan.

Here.

You have a quorum.

Thank you.

And by the way, happy election day.

Don't forget to vote today.

Pulls open until 8 p.m.

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

I like religious.

The United States of America.

Thank you.

And this is liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Today's invocation will be provided by Reverend Jason C.

Reynolds of Emanuel Baptist Church and Councilmember Casey will tell us more.

I have a personal connection to this church.

Emmanuel Baptist Church was where I had an opportunity to attend as a child.

Mr.

Childress was there sitting next to the pastor, my best friend's father on my street.

If you spent the night at the children's house on a Saturday, you better bring your church closed because on Sunday you were going to Emmanuel Baptist Church.

So I have the honor or I had the honor two weeks ago of presenting a commendation on behalf of the city for their 60th anniversary.

And Pastor Jason C.

Reynolds has taken over at Emanuel since 2012.

And just a little background on Pastor Jason here on his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St.

Louis, a Masters of Arts and Divinity from McCormick Theology Seminary in Chicago, and an executive education certificate from the Kellogg School of Management from Northwestern University, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric at Christian Theology Seminary.

So I'm honored to introduce Pastor Jason C.

Reynolds.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It is a pleasure to the mayor and the council.

It is appreciated to be here.

And if you give me the moment, I'll lead us in our invocation.

If you would bow your heads.

Help them govern your people rightly.

Let the poor always be treated fairly.

May this valley yield prosperity for all.

Holy one is the words for all ring in our ears.

May they also take deep root in our hearts.

As we considered housing for the unhoused neighbor.

Help us to imagine policies and possibilities shaped by the conviction that all can prosper.

As layoffs ripper through the tech companies and beyond, and many in the valley are struggling to make ends meet.

Strengthen our leaders to craft these very same policies to hold fast for the heart of all.

As we lift our hearts, we remember the champions of the poor.

Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., Oscar Romero, Mother Teresa, and Fanny Lou Hamer, and so many unnamed saints of compassion.

They believe that justice could dwell among us, and we too can, like them, live and labor for a world where all may flourish.

In the name of the Holy, we all say.

Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Jason.

Appreciate your beautiful prayer this afternoon and all your good work in our community.

We're on to our ceremonial items.

Vice Mayor Foley, if you join me at the podium, we will recognize Parents Helping Parents.

Come join us.

Good afternoon.

Today I'm honored to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Parents Helping Parents, a local nonprofit and trusted champion for families raising children and adults with disabilities.

Since 1976, Parents Helping Parents has strengthened families through education, support, and advocacy.

Over the past five decades, they have empowered thousands of families across the Bay Area, helping them navigate complex systems, access resources, and build confidence and resilience.

Their mission is inspiring to help children and adults with special needs reach their full potential.

And their vision reflects a world where people of all abilities are valued, respected, and fully included.

Through partnerships with schools, service providers, and advocates, Parents Helping Parents has shaped a more equitable and inclusive community across our region.

On the milestone 50th anniversary, they continue to champion families by ensuring access to the knowledge, tools, and community that ensures everyone can thrive.

Their work reminds us of the importance of supporting our disability community and continuing the conversation about how we can make San Jose a city where everyone feels welcome and included.

On behalf of Mayor Mahan, myself and my colleagues on the City Council, we're proud to recognize and commend Parents Helping Parents for five decades of empowering families, advancing inclusion, and building a stronger, more compassionate community.

Joining us to accept today's recognition, our executive director Maria Dane and Chief Development Officer Mark Fisher.

Mark, would you like to share a few words before Mayor Mayhan presents you with the commendation?

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I mean, my goodness, I I had this whole speech prepared, but Pam just said everything I was going to say.

Um, yeah, no, it's good.

Um, so again, my name is Mark Fischler.

I have the privilege of serving as the chief development officer at PHP.

I'm deeply honored to accept this uh commendation from the city, celebrating our 50 years of empowering families, advancing inclusion, and building a more compassionate community.

PHP began in a living room in East San Jose 50 years ago, where a few determined parents, each raising a child with a disability, came together to share information and support one another.

From there, and those humble beginnings, we have grown into a powerful community.

Today we serve 7,000 families a year, plus another quarter million online.

And it's all guided by our mission.

We strengthen families, raising loved ones with disabilities through education, support, and advocacy.

I especially want to thank Vice Mayor Foley for recommending for recommending this recognition, and the mayor and the entire city council for highlighting the importance of inclusion and community.

Just last week, the City of San Jose celebrated Disability Awareness Day on October 30th, a timely reminder of why our work and the work of all that support families with disabilities is so important.

As we look to the next 50 years, Parents Helping Parents will continue to do what we started to do around that living room 50 years ago, which is helping families find strength, connection, and hope.

Thank you so much for this incredible honor.

Thank you for that.

I was remiss in not introducing Viviana Barnwell, who was one of the parents helping parents and one of our parent, extraordinary parent volunteers.

Congratulations.

Thank you guys for the work you do in this community and for being here today.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right.

Now I'd like to invite Councilmember Dewan to join me here at the podium where we will recognize Daniel Martinez.

I'll ask if you want to say a few words.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today we have the privilege of recognizing someone who compassion and commitment have made it real different in the lives of both people and animal in our city.

As a founder and president of Adop My Block, Daniel had built a rescue organization that goes beyond finding homes for dogs in need.

His work has created a safety net for struggling pet parents, ensuring that family don't have to choose between keeping their pets and meeting other needs through his work, like fostering, nursing sick dogs back to health, and helping re-home those most at risk.

Daniel have shown what is meant to lead with his heart and with proceed from his dog or dope line supporting spay and neuter services at the San Jose Animal Care Center.

His impact continued to ripple across our community.

So on the behalf of the entire city council, we are proud to recognize Daniel Martinez for his outstanding service, leadership, and love for San Jose, four-legged friends.

Thank you for everything that you do.

Please give him a warm welcome.

Daniel, would you like to say a few words?

First, I just want to say thank you on behalf of our entire rescue, my wife Rachel, and our executive director, Ruth McKay.

Over the last few years, I've been fortunate to work firsthand with the San Jose Animal Care Center and the employees there.

And I know that they care deeply for all the animals that they come in contact with.

I also know that we are in the midst of an unwanted pet population crisis, and as long as residents in San Jose don't have access to affordable spay and neuter services.

But realistically, that's not a suitable substitute for the robust spay and neuter program that this city desperately needs.

Thank you so much for your time.

I appreciate it, and thanks for the recognition.

Thank you so much for your very good board.

Thank you so much so much.

And now I'd like to invite Councilmember Cohen to join me here at the podium where we will recognize the Riverview Stormwater Garden Project, which was awarded the 2025 Outstanding Stormwater Capture and Use Implementation Project Award.

I know that's a mouthful by the California Stormwater Quality Association, Casca.

And Councilmember, we can invite down our guests.

I'll say just a couple of prefatory comments and then hand it over to Councilmember Cohen.

And I would also like to invite our city manager, Jennifer McGuire and representatives from each of the departments that made this achievement possible.

That includes environmental services, public works, transportation, and parks rec and neighborhood services.

Thank you all for being here.

All right.

Also joining us is Karen Cowan, Executive Director of the California Stormwater Quality Association, Casca, who recognized the Riverview Stormwater Garden Project as one of its 2025 awardees.

Welcome everyone, and good work.

Thank you all for being here.

We appreciate it.

Today we're celebrating a major milestone for San Jose, a project that shows what's possible when we approach infrastructure with innovation and collaboration.

The Riverview Stormwater Garden is a transformational model of how cities can protect waterways while creating something the community can enjoy.

Instead of infrastructure that's hidden underground, this project turns environmental protection into a public asset.

This work shows that sustainability is not just about meeting regulations.

It's about building spaces that serve residents, support our environment, and make our neighborhoods better places to live.

And this project definitely does that.

If you haven't been up there to check it out, I highly recommend taking a walk around the stormwater garden.

To everyone involved, many of whom are standing here with us today.

Thank you for pushing the boundaries and showing that San Jose doesn't wait for the future.

We build it.

So I will now turn things over to Councilmember Cohen to tell us a little more about the project and the award.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm excited today to recognize city staff who have been instrumental in the development of the Riverview Stormwater Garden, which has been recognized as the California Stormwater Quality Association as outstanding stormwater capture and use implementation project in 2025.

And you can see how many people in the city are involved in making a project successful and really want to thank all the members of this team for their work.

The California Stormwater Quality Association selected the City of San Jose for the Green Infrastructure Initiative at Riverview Park.

Opening in April of this year, the Riverview Stormwater Garden is a five-acre bioretention project that aligns with San Jose's green stormwater infrastructure plan by integrating natural stormwater treatment with existing flood control measures.

The project enhances water quality, reduces pollution, and maintains essential flood management functions.

The City of San Jose is recognized as a regional and statewide leader in stormwater protection.

So it's not surprising that this project is the first of its kind regional stormwater infrastructure in Santa Clara County.

The stormwater basin captures and treats runoff from over 340 acres of surrounding neighborhoods before it flows into the Guadalupe River.

In addition to its environmental benefits, Riverview Stormwater Garden offers walking trails, boardwalk, public art, and native landscaping that supports pollinators and wildlife.

It's a place for neighbors to walk, relax, and learn.

And there are interpretive signs throughout the garden that beautifully explain how the system works.

If you have not yet had a chance to visit the garden, I encourage you to make some time to enjoy it and enjoy the Guadalupe River Trail that runs right next to it.

Under the city's one team approach, the city departments of environmental services, public works, transportation and parks, recreational neighborhood services, all work together to complete the Riverview Stormwater Garden Project.

Now I'm happy to welcome Karen Cowan, Executive Director of the California Stormwater Quality Association, to say a few words and present the award for outstanding stormwater capture and use implementation project.

Following her remarks, Mayor Mahan and I will present commendations recognizing the departments in the city for their collective work.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Karen Cowan, the Executive Director of the California Stormwater Quality Association.

That's a mouthful, so we go by Casqua.

Our members are the cities and counties throughout California who are regulated by Stormwater.

So this award to me is not just something great for the city of San Jose, but it's also recognition by your peers throughout the entire state of a wonderful, outstanding job that the city is doing this particular project.

Every presentation I give, I end it by talking about Casca Together because we all do what we do by working together, and I'll tell you this is humbling and exciting to me to have this amazing team behind me because I think this exemplifies what Casquet Together really is about.

So thank you all for your dedicated service for being a member of Casco and helping to advance all the wonderful goals that we have together and share in the state of California.

So congratulations to the City of San Jose for being selected to receive by your peers the outstanding stormwater capture and use implementation project award for its green stormwater and green stormwater infrastructure initiative, Riverview Stormwater Garden Project.

This recognition highlights the city's commitment to innovative stormwater management and environmental sustainability.

Today I'm honored to recognize the dedicated city departments whose collaboration made this project possible.

Environmental services, public works, Department of Transportation, and Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services.

Together, their efforts have created a model for sustainable infrastructure that benefits both our community and the environment.

All right.

Who wants to go first?

All right.

Thank you very much.

All right.

All right, congratulations.

We also have commendations signed by the whole council for each of the four departments that made this possible.

Thank you all for your hard work.

It's an incredible project.

And I do hope members of the public will go check it out.

Should be one big photo.

All right, we can do one big photo.

All right.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you.

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

Okay, I'm not seeing any.

We do have an adjournment today.

Today's city council meeting will be adjourned in memory of Janessa Lurie, who tragically passed away on September 16th, 2025.

Janessa was a gifted musician, environmentalist, a devoted animal advocate whose work from cat rescue to veterinary care helped countless pets and families in San Jose.

Her compassion, dedication, and love for animals touched everyone who knew her.

She will be deeply missed and fondly remembered for her kindness and the lives she saved.

Councilmember Campos, would you please tell us more?

Thank you, Mayor.

This meeting is being adjourned in memory of South San Jose resident and animal rights advocate Janessa Lurie, who passed away on September 16th, 2025.

She was a remarkable community member, daughter, sister, and friend who brought joy and warmth to all who knew her.

Her loved ones describe her in so many wonderful ways, caring, authentic, tenacious, charismatic, loyal, intelligent, and fiercely passionate.

She was quick, she was an old soul with a mischievous streak, known for her quick wit, sharp mind, and unwavering commitment to what she believed in.

Janessa posed many talents, starring in high school musicals and flourishing as a singer-songwriter.

Her greatest passion was her unwavering dedication to animal welfare.

Her work in this area ranged from volunteer at a cat rescue to professional veterinary medicine, driven by a simple yet profound compassion for all creatures.

In high school, Janessa began her volunteer work at 13th Street Cat Rescue and later made the deliberate decision to focus her life's work on saving and caring for animals.

She spent her college years learning to work with a variety of dogs at home away from home, gaining invaluable experience that shaped her approach.

After college, she worked at veterinary clinics in San Jose, pursuing her vet tech certification as a critical step toward her ultimate goal of becoming a dog surgeon.

She embodied her dedication not just professionally but personally, and in her short life, she fostered nearly 20 cats and dogs, often taking on the most vulnerable cases, including bottle feeding tiny kittens who would have otherwise been euthanized.

She rescued and loved a bonded pair of polydactyl kittens, Asher and Juniper.

Dogs also held a special place in her heart.

She famously adopted Humphrey, a senior American bully with aggression issues, and transformed him into a sweet, relaxed companion, a testament to her patient, resolute, and nurturing personality.

Janessa Lurie's compassion and dedication significantly impacted the lives of countless pets and their owners within the San Jose community and beyond.

She will be remembered for her commitment to her family and friends, her unique spirit, and her enduring inspirational light that guided her to care for and save furry friends in need.

At this time, I would like to invite Janessa's parents, Kevin and Gina, to provide remarks and share more about Janessa's life, her legacy, and how they will be honoring her.

Thank you, Mayor Mahan and Councilmember Campos, and all the council members for the opportunity to speak about my daughter, Janessa today.

You can see by the support here with me that Janessa was loved by many.

This is just a few of them.

The number of people who have reached out since this tragedy, who have been touched by Janessa and her short life, has literally been in the hundreds.

The whole she has left in my heart and those of so many that knew her is absolutely indescribable.

Janessa was a very vibrant, witty, and unique person.

I could go on for hours with funny stories of things she has done and said, especially when she was little.

Her middle school teacher Gary used to refer to her as the spice in the meal.

To say she was a handful as a child is an understatement.

She walked at nine months and talked in full sentences before she was two.

At Sunny Mont parent participation nursery school, she was the kid who spent most of her time in her underwear, covered in paint or shaving cream or mud.

And she took every opportunity to hold or feed the pet guinea pigs.

In elementary school, she found a love of performing arts, taking on lead roles in school place at Living Wisdom School, participating in children's musical theater, and finally landing her dream role as Ursula the Sea Witch and the Little Mermaid with Sunnyvale community players in eighth grade.

At mid-Peninsula High School, she learned a number of instruments.

Bass guitar was her favorite, and she sang lead in their studio ensemble band, including writing and performing her own songs.

I often heard from other parents how impressive her stage presence was.

She knew how to work the crowd.

She absolutely thrived at midpen with a high GPA and fully immersing herself in all sorts of school activities, including playing on the volleyball team, even though she was as short as me, and served as the team captain her senior year.

She was involved in student council and had lead roles in a number of school musicals.

She was also the only girl on their baseball team her sophomore year and earned some street cred by catching a fly ball to the nose and continuing to play on throughout the season.

It was at mid-pen that she became friends with her roommate Tara Taylor.

A huge love for animals was something Janessa was born with.

We adopted a black lab puppy, Sarah, when Janessa was a baby.

Sarah was the most tolerant dog ever, allowing Genessa to torment her the way toddlers do, and she never learned to fear dogs in spite of having been nipped by more than one dog in her formative years, never by Sarah.

Every dog we passed on the street would get her full attention, and she loved other animals too.

Her senior year of high school, she volunteered at 13th Street Cat Rescue and conned us into fostering Jack, an American short hair.

After Sarah died of old age, Kev and I were ready to take a break from pets, but here we are six years later, and Jack still rules our house.

During her sophomore year of college, she moved in with her boyfriend John, and together they adopted, as mentioned, two kittens, Juniper and Asher, a bonded pair, and they fostered a couple of animals until they finally adopted Humphrey, and that's who's in her picture.

So she gave Humphrey the life he deserved, and that dog followed her everywhere, even waiting outside the bathroom for her.

And then two more cats, Hal and Sophie, were added to their household, and a couple of terrariums of frogs as well.

Humphrey was put down due to failing health last year.

It gives me comfort to know he was waiting for her over the rainbow bridge.

She was heartbroken losing Humphrey, but she continued to foster dogs and cats after he passed.

When her life was stolen from her, she had been fostering Bulldozer, another American bully, and a pair of abandoned kittens bottle feeding them from just two weeks old.

She was wholeheartedly committed to taking care of animals with a work ethic that she developed at a very young age, rivaling most people far older than her.

Janessa got her first job at age 14, working the front desk at Blossom Birth, where I worked, after school, and moving on to weight tables and other customer service roles.

She always had an easy time engaging with people, and many adults were impressed by her sophisticated vocabulary, often referring to her as an old soul.

She now needed two summers for the Thai family who we knew through Sunnymont.

Their three kids were as spirited as she was, and she knew how to connect with them and support them as their parents navigated divorce.

It was a job she handled with Grace, something many adults would have struggled with.

She was also an excellent babysitter to her much younger siblings, Maceo and Aria.

Really, she was kind of their second mom.

They're in high school now, they're 15 and 17.

By 16, she had saved enough money to buy her own car, surprising even me.

She was an extremely independent and determined person.

When she wanted something, she set her mind to it and would make it happen, and there was just no stopping her.

By the end of high school, in spite of her natural-born stage presence, she decided she was done with performing and focused her attention fully on working with animals.

She went to CSU Monterey Bay for college and worked the entire time she was in school, starting at Stone's pet shop in Pacific Grove, which she was forced to give up when the COVID pandemic hit in spring of her freshman year.

In spite of my pleading with her to stay home with us during that scary time, my independent girl spent the first three months of the pandemic in Colorado with her dear friend Emily on her mother's ranch where they got to spend time with dogs and horses.

She did come back home briefly that summer, but bored and restless, she moved back to Monterey and found work at home away from home, a doggy daycare and pet boarding facility.

Within a year, her work ethic landed her the job as the general manager there.

Sometimes she took on way too much responsibility, but she was just so committed to the animals.

Home away from home is where Janessa met Cynthia and Dean Carring, owners of bike club.

They wish they could be with us here today.

She convinced them to take her on as their trainee, pretty much begged them.

And she was a fast learner, taking on her own clients in no time, and even convincing them to train her to use the bite suit, which, if you don't know, is that big suit that they use to train police dogs to attack.

Janessa was extremely loved by everyone in the bike club community, especially especially Cynthia and Dean, who consider her their adopted daughter.

She spent nearly every Saturday training with them over the last three years, even moving back home to San Jose early, even after moving back home to San Jose earlier this year.

Cynthia and Dean hosted a dog memorial for her 10 days after her death.

Meeting all the dogs she trained and their owners was incredibly moving.

She wasn't just a trainer, but a person everyone truly loved and connected deeply with.

So I'm wearing her bike club shirt, I'm sure it's the one she's wearing in the picture here, the exact same shirt.

And I just wanted to point out the back is kind of irreverent.

It says, but did you die?

That was kind of their response to like if someone was having a hard time or complaining about something, they would say, Oh, but did you die?

And I know that after she passed, she's laughing at this.

She's like, Yeah, I did actually.

I know I could feel her saying that.

She's just irreverent in that way.

College was arduous for Janessa, mostly due to the lingering challenges of the pandemic.

In spite of this, and while working and training dogs on Saturdays, Janessa graduated with honors in May of 2024.

This is her cap that she decorated.

It says, it was rough R U F F, but I did it.

She got a job at Blue Pearl Pet Hospital in Monterey, and within a year decided it was time to move back home.

I know she wanted to be close to our family, and perhaps there was a bit of pool given our long family history here in San Jose.

So my great great-grandma settled here as a teenager in the 1880s.

And our maternal family line has remained here since.

She grew up in San Jose as well.

In April, she moved Janessa moved back and landed her dream job at the Lincoln Avenue Veterinary Clinic, just walking distance from our house.

She was pursuing her vet tech certification with plans to go back to school to be a dog surgeon.

And that wasn't her only dream.

Janessa and her little sister Arya talked about one day owning a goat farm together.

Janessa in charge of the herd, and Arya running a cafe featuring her artisan goat cheese.

Aria is not just mourning the loss of her sister, but the loss of the dream they shared.

That's like the first thing she said when she found out.

As soon as we heard the devastating news, Kevin and I knew we had to do something to carry on her legacy.

Janessa's friends is in the process of becoming a 501 C3 nonprofit.

It's a genessa's friends.org, if you're interested.

While my daughter had a gift for working with animals, I have experience and innate skills and nonprofit administration and events.

So we will focus on raising money and awareness through events such as 5Ks, live music, food, things that Janessa would want to spend her weekends doing.

With the giant pet population and our local animal shelters overcrowded, we just heard about that a moment ago.

So with our local animal shelters overcrowded, awareness, support, and funding for animal welfare is a huge need here in San Jose.

We envision Janessa's Friends as an organization that will assist existing organizations in pet rescue and adoption, including training aggressive dogs so that they may become adoptable.

We also would like to have a scholarship fund to support future veterinarians, since the cost of education is a barrier to filling the demand for this career.

While helping animals was Jeanessa's greatest passion, she also cared deeply for humans.

She supported me to start an annual tampon drive a decade ago.

We bring them to Bill Wilson after the holiday season.

And I know her commitment to protecting Tara is the reason she stayed home the night they were murdered.

Cynthia and I have talked about possibilities for training dogs to assist in domestic violence situations or providing support to animals affected by domestic violence, like Juni Asher and Janessa's foster dog dozer who witnessed her murder.

Coincidentally, earlier this year, Janessa called me looking for resources for a woman from San Jose who brought her dog injured by domestic violence into Blue Pearl.

Not only did Ganessa want to help the dog, she was concerned for the woman's life and doing what she could to help her get away from her abuser.

There are a lot of possibilities in how Jeanessa's friends unfolds, and of course, at the moment we are still navigating the initial aftermath of her death.

It's my hope that eventually we will find comfort in using her memory to multiply the good deeds she would have been able to do on her own had she had the chance to live the long life she deserved.

I kindly ask you, Mayor Mahan and Council members, for your support as we launch Janessa's Friends, with permits, publicity, your blessing, any support you're able to provide us.

Thank you all for helping us to keep Jeanessa's vivacious, compassionate spirit alive through support for our animal friends.

Thank you for sharing Janessa's life and story with us, and we're deeply sorry for your loss, which is really a loss for our whole community.

Thank you for being here today.

Keep you all in our thoughts and our prayers.

Well, Nora, I know you don't have a closed session report, but I figured now would be an appropriate time to acknowledge that today is your last city council meeting.

So on behalf of the entire city council, I want to thank you for your five years of service as our city attorney and the two decades of service to our city that preceded it.

You know, I was talking to Nora and asked her what she hoped her legacy would be in this city.

And she said something I think leaders often don't reflect enough on.

She said the development and support of the team that continues the work long after you're gone.

Nora has built an environment of constant learning and exceptionally high quality work inside the city attorney's office, while removing the competition and even toxicity that can often creep into the fast-paced legal world.

I know that because my wife worked at a law firm for a while.

Her team loves her, they respect her, they see her as a mentor.

And I think that's the most important legacy you can leave.

She told me that Susanna, our incoming city attorney, is damn lucky to be our next city attorney, because this is a special city.

A city whose residents care for one another, a city that values civility, thoughtful discourse, and can stand as a model of peace in a world that feels increasingly divided.

I agree.

Thank you, Nora, for your years of service to a city that I also feel damn lucky to serve.

Thank you so much, Nora.

Four shores if you'd like.

Oh, I thank you.

Um I don't really have a whole lot to say, but I did notice there are a couple of my attorneys here, and I didn't know what was up.

Um they've been torturing me with surprises.

So you guys all get back to work, and apparently.

Apparently, we're having a party tomorrow, too.

So, but thank you.

And you know, one thing while I sit here, I have an opportunity to say this people don't realize how um tough it is to run for office, and how um any decision you make, all you're doing is gathering people who are unhappy with your decisions.

If they agree with you, you know, life goes on.

And I don't think the city uh and a lot of members of um the residents of San Jose appreciate how hard council members work and and how hard it is to get it right and be comfortable in your decisions.

So I hope to some extent um I and we in my office have helped you get it right.

But I also um want to recognize that because it I rarely have a microphone, but also it's um that I don't think is really understood um as widely as it should be.

So thank you.

Thank you, Nora.

You've been an indispensable resource and thought partner, and certainly help us help us to get it more right.

I won't say we always get it right, but you've helped us get it more right over the years, and we're we're grateful to you for your many years of service.

Thank you.

Thank you to all the members of the city attorney's office for coming down here to recognize your your boss.

All right.

We are now on to item 3.1, report of the city manager.

I'll turn it over to Jennifer McGuire.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council.

Today I have the great pleasure uh to recognize one of our most accomplished and dedicated teams in the city, the San Jose Police Department's homicide and crime scene units.

Will all members of the homicide and crime scene units please stand?

We've got several of you in the audience.

There we go.

And wonderful.

Join.

They look great, don't they?

Uh joining this elite team are their command staff and colleagues from the Bureau of Investigations and the General Chief's Office.

If you'd all please stand too to be recognized.

We've got some chiefs.

There's a chief of police over there and some other people over there that are that are helping.

So for the first, so it's important to know, and I want definitely our community to know, and I know we've been celebrating this, but for the first time in our city's history, the homicide and crime scene units have achieved a 100% solve rate for the for three consecutive years.

They have solved 122 murder cases since 2022.

While having zero homicides in the city would be the ideal outcome, isn't it is important to recognize that San Jose continues to have a relatively low homicide rate for a city of its size.

Furthermore, San Jose is the only large city in the nation that can claim this achievement of a 100% solve rate, undoubtedly contributing to San Jose being one of the safest large cities in the nation.

This is truly an extraordinary feat that is commendable and reflects the tireless efforts, the diligence, and the dedication they've invested in solving some of the toughest, most complex cases in law enforcement.

Just as remarkable and noteworthy is the composition of the homicide and crime scene units, with nearly half of the crime scene unit, is being comprised of female investigators and four of the 12 homicide detectives are women.

In a profession that is both demanding and deeply impactful to the lives of our residents, the men and women of this these units embody excellence.

Their historic makeup is a powerful message to future generations of officers that talent, determination, and compassion know no gender, and all people are welcome to serve at the City of San Jose.

Thank you very much to the San Jose Police Department's Homicide and Crime Scene Units for your exemplary work and for upholding the highest standard of public service in the most difficult of circumstances, working as one team to provide justice for the victims and their families.

Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart and every community member and the city council.

Thank you.

And that concludes my report.

Except for I'll make a little shout out for Chief of Police Paul Joseph's birthday today.

Happy birthday.

Happy birthday, Chief.

Shall we all sing?

Jennifer, thank you for recognizing our police department homicide and crime unit for their incredible achievement.

And thank you all.

You are the best in the business.

I know you're eager to get back to work, so we'll let you do that.

But we're uh we're proud of you and grateful to you.

Thank you for the good work.

All right, we're on to it.

Actually, I'm sorry.

My agenda actually missed um a call out on consent, my mistake.

So we're gonna go back to the consent calendar, and uh we'll start with the council if we have any does council want to pull any items from consent.

I wasn't aware of any.

I'm not seeing any.

Do we have a motion?

Okay, thank you, Councilman.

Cohen, second.

Uh I think it was vice mayor.

Do we have public comment on consent?

Um, I have a public comment from there's no name, but the phone number ends with 152 something.

Um come on down.

And I also want to note that we don't take public comment on item 3.1 as it's not an action item.

So those who submitted a card for 3.1, you will be called under open forum.

So, this was a card anonymous card again for VTA.

Item 2.13.

The person's not coming down, so I'll there it is.

Yes.

Come on, come on down.

I think you're talking about on pot.

You know, I see a lot of pot in the bus and the light whale.

You need to stop.

We need to.

I maybe I need to go down to the VT River Oaks office and talk to somebody about BTA people smoking.

Got smoking pot on our light rail stations.

It's disgusting.

I see I go into light rail station sometimes.

I see people see smoking pot.

That is not allowed.

The $50 fine for that is incredible.

Ridiculous.

It should be a $500 fine first offense.

The second offense of VTA bus or light rail service should be a 90-day ban.

Um, this is um, yeah, and also I uh I I saw some people last week on a track.

That should be an automatic 90-day ban.

We should get you notice um cameras, Matt.

You're thinking about putting on the streets for people for um cars, not we should put those on our VT light rail stations because last week I was at a Vita light rail stop, and um, there was a crash, and one of the trains came back, and I heard I called the VTA customer service.

Why is the light rail late?

And um, and it was late because um somebody crashed into it.

That should be another thing where we need to put those those cameras where you were suggesting on our VT bus and light rail station platforms.

And if it the first offense should be if you bump into a light wheel and you get hit in a Santa driver's fault, that's an automatic 250 dollar fine first offense.

Second offense from VT is an automatic ban for 90 days.

If it's a third offense, it's a ban for life.

Back to council.

Okay, thank you.

Just coming back to the council.

I don't see any hands.

So it's pausing for a moment.

Alright, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay, thank you all.

So we are now uh we we already took up 3.1, so we're now on to item 3.3.

This is the board of fair campaign and political practices.

Interviews, Tony.

Do you want to remind us of the process here?

Yes, um, Eddie, Sangeetha, and John, come on down.

You're gonna sit in this front row.

We have your name tags, so put your name tag in front of you.

Um, and then we'll rotate the questions.

So we'll start with um, looks like Eddie's in the first chair.

So we'll start with Eddie, and then I've got a list to make sure we we rotate whoever answers the questions first.

So, um, so like Eddie, Sagita John, and then Sagitha John Eddie, etc.

And we have two vacancies with three applicants.

Got it.

Okay, and we're starting with opening statements, so I apologize if I missed that.

Yeah, okay.

Great.

We're doing two minute responses.

Sure.

Okay, great.

So we have an opening statement and then a few questions, and we'll open it up to the council.

Uh so we'll start down here at the end with Eddie.

We'll give each person two minutes for an opening statement covering wire point for the role, anything else you'd like to add, and then we'll ask the questions.

Hello, okay.

Um, so to give some context on myself and thank you, Mayor Maehan and members of the council.

I have worked in the tech industry for about nine to ten years now, uh, six of which have been here in Silicon Valley.

I was very excited to apply for this particular board because I felt that my experience, my skills as both an engineer and an engineering lead heavily coincide with the responsibilities defined in the description for this particular board.

Um, regardless if I've worked at small startups and large organizations, I need to follow a process when it comes to determining how to resolve conflicts.

Um, regardless if it's regarding uh determining whether to ship a feature based off of metrics and legal concerns, or if it's regarding uh determining whether an individual should remain at the company based on their performance.

Now, in terms of what I can do for the board and analogous to what I've done for my work, uh I can say that firstly, it is important to establish pre-existing rules and protocols.

So for this board, obviously Title 12 of the San Jose Municipal Code.

Secondly, being able to avoid personal bias when making judgment calls to interpret the code and make a decision that is up for recommendation, and lastly, to iterate over time uh to improve the code.

And in this case, I believe we have a biennial review matrix where I can participate in that.

Um, but that is why I'm here to answer any questions you have today.

Thank you, Eddie.

We'll go to Sangeetha.

Hi everyone, thank you for the opportunity uh for me to be here and uh interview.

I'm Sangeeta Vijayindrin, and uh I've been a program manager for over 18 years, uh working across the tech industries with a focus to um enhance user experience through products, but one of the uh important aspects there is also to build promote and maintain users' confidence and trust through this process.

I've worked for Google in the past, and uh it's been challenging to maintain that and uh I've been in rules trying to do that, working with legal and privacy and compliance.

At my current role, I do the same thing where I am like um responsible for uh data governance across all the AI solutions.

So my main responsibility is working with product teams to build trustworthy products that are compliant and are ethics based.

And so I feel strongly that I bring the skills and expertise that are needed here to leverage and uh promote the trust-based and ethic-based uh fair process here in the political and government process.

I also enjoy volunteering, and part of which is uh uh coming from the fact that uh the city has given me a lot of uh opportunities to help and thrive.

Coming here as an immigrant, and so I want to give back to this community.

I volunteer at uh Red Cross.

I also have been uh serving as a member in the City's uh CBOC committee, where I'm responsible for making sure the public funds are uh expended appropriately, and I monitor the progress of projects and also make sure that the users are updated transparently around the expenditure.

So I am eager to bring those skills into this uh commission as well, and uh um thank you again for the opportunity.

Thank you.

And Tony, you all are keeping time, right?

I I can't, I guess I can add it to my screen here.

Okay, we'll go to John.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh otherwise known as Jay, by the way.

Thanks.

Okay.

Um I'm a San Jose resident since 2000, and uh my background is uh I was a professional trumpet player for 12 years, and then I was in technology uh for 30 years at levels up to and including CEO uh and board member.

Um now I'm retired, and my decision was to give back.

Um, and part of giving back has been to uh teach students in Lee and Branham High Schools to develop native plant gardens in Hoagie Park and teach private lessons, and I also played several organizations, uh tets and and orchestras.

Um but one of the things that makes me particularly interested in this uh position is that I have a deep desire to see the restoration of true democracy in the United States and everywhere, everywhere below that level.

Um, in fact, have created a uh website uh that's been up for about three years now that I called America 2.0 at Schulers.net, which talks about a lot of the issues that come up when campaigns and political practices are not uh particularly democratic and just and so this is very much in my uh in line with my passion.

I've actually talked to Pam fully about the possibility of replacing her and and uh it this that just seems to be a step too far at this point, but this is uh I think the best best I can uh at least get started in.

And um so I'm hoping that this would be so somewhat of a stepping stone to getting to know you and the process and possibly Eva to see if we can kick off some things that add to the to the representation of people like things like rank choice voting and and uh I don't know, multi-member districts, things like this that are have been discussed uh nationwide and are being successfully implemented in many cities and counties throughout the United States.

Thank you.

Well, thank you to each of you for your interest in serving the community in this capacity, as Tony mentioned.

We have two open seats.

I appreciate your introductory remarks.

We're now going to go around the council, ask a few questions.

Uh, I'll ask colleagues to direct the questions to all of the panelists so we can um kind of get a fair uh equal uh sense of their views on things, and I'll I'll kick it off with a question.

I always like to ask for uh this role and other boards and commissions that are similar, which is how would you handle a situation in which your personal beliefs might conflict in some way with the existing campaign law or city uh rule that uh you are charged with helping to enforce.

And uh we'll start with St.

Githa and go around.

Thank you for the question.

Um so I understand that the maintaining the integrity uh for the political process is of utmost importance.

And um on a daily basis, I try to follow the rules and the standards that are required, even at work, and giving a fair equal chance to ensure that everybody gets an equal opportunity.

So extending that here, I would do the same following the established rules and regulations, keep that in mind and not get distracted by my own personal views, uh come in way of any decisions and matters.

Thank you.

John?

Yes.

Um, well, we we live in a in a nation of laws, and the law is should be followed.

And if the law is not a fair law, it's it's up to legislators to change the law.

And so if I see uh a difference between justice and what it seems to be the outcome of what is about to happen, uh my I would the way I would address it would be to talk to the legislators and say, hey, this is this is I feel compelled to do something that seems to be not the just thing to do.

Um what can we do about it?

Um I I think ultimately you have to follow the law, bottom line.

Um and this is definitely a current event big time in the United States right now.

Uh people seem to think that they're above the law.

I think no one is above the law.

And in a democracy, the people get what the people want.

So, thank you.

Had Eddie.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty obvious that following the law, following the code of conduct is quite important.

Um, I definitely will not allow my personal biases or judgment cloud my ability to help make decisions for this board.

Um I like to state that also aligning with um I guess Ahmed Sharma, who is a board member today, uh he said rules are rules, and that is something I follow even in an engineering uh background.

Um last thing to note, um as someone who's resided in the US for about I would say 20 years now, uh I recently became a naturalized US citizen.

So I can say that I have a fresh mindset and I will not have different perspectives that can cloud my ability to make proper judgments for this board.

All right.

Well, thank you to each of those for those answers.

Um I'll continue to facilitate, but I want to turn to Vice Mayor Foy to ask the next question.

Good afternoon, thank you all for being here.

I am the City Council liaison to this committee, and uh since I was appointed, we haven't been able to hold a meeting because quorum cannot be met.

So I would like to ask you a question about your level of commitment and assurances that you will attend the meetings.

If we can't make quorum, you can't do your work.

And as we hit election season, which we're we are in right now, how th things will start to heat up for your committee and and meeting as a quorum, meeting as a group is becoming even more important.

So I would like to get some assurances from you that you have the time commitment and that you will you will prioritize your time commitment for this this body and how you will do so.

Sorry, we'll uh this time we'll start with John and then we'll rotate around.

Sure.

Yeah, my time is my own.

I'm retired.

Um there are many situations in which I've been forced to make decisions between the commitments that I've made, for example, to Lee and Branham, for example, or to an orchestra or to students, and something that is clearly more important.

Um usually family related at this point, but obviously city related in the future if this is what if the city's decision is to ask me to be part of this board.

So I I have a lot of flexibility, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

It's gonna not an issue.

Eddie.

I believe this question was actually asked um in March of 2025 for this exact board, and the fact that we're still having absences is definitely not um reasonable.

I would say I applied particularly for this board because I know that I can commit outside of uh my typical day-to-day job.

I take attendance very seriously regardless if it's for a board, regardless if it's for work, even for a casual activity with friends.

Um I also am open to working late into the evenings if discussions uh continue.

So as someone who's studied electrical engineering and worked in the tech space, uh, although I don't condone working uh past evening hours, that is something I'm open to doing as well.

But I do take attendance very seriously, regardless if it's a formal matter or a casual um fun activity.

To answer your question, I am fully committed for the time that is needed to invest here.

And uh uh one example to quote that is I'm already demonstrating that as part of uh being a member in the Citizens Mon Oversights Committee.

Uh, but I also understand that this commission may need, may require more meetings and may run longer, which I am intending to do and committed to do.

I am a working mother, so multitasking comes second nature to me, but I also uh mindfully carve out time in my evenings to do volunteer activities, and I've been to uh involved in several activities to do the same, and uh I'm yeah, at most confident that I would be able to do the same here.

Thank you.

Thank you for the question, Vice Mayor.

Uh we'll continue on.

I have Councilmember Duan next.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you all three applicants for putting the application for the board, and and I know that the old, you know, with your volunteerism and then take time away from your daily uh activity with your family and so on, and it's very admirable.

My question to you is the commission often review complaints involving political figures and campaign activity.

How would you ensure impartiality in making decisions?

So, in addition to making sure that there's a consensus among peers within the board, um I believe the process, as I've seen from meeting minutes from past board meetings, is that we can hire an independent group uh that can mediate the conversation.

Um so that is one thing I think we can pursue.

Um, yeah, as I said before, maintaining the integrity uh and having an unbiased opinion is of utmost importance here.

So any investigations that require uh I would put my attention to details there and investigate thoroughly and uh use the applicable laws and regulations to see if there was a violation made and uh you know apply the resulting course of uh corrective actions accordingly based on the rules and applicable laws without having uh any of my own views uh distract that.

Yeah, I think the rules are the rules.

Someone either violates the rules or they don't, whether they're a democrat or republican, socialist or whatever, right?

And obviously it's disappointing when somebody who I wish would be the person that I want to root for is not behaving properly.

If they don't behave properly, they they deserve whatever they get, right?

If there was ever a situation which I can't even imagine at this point, where uh I have a personal stake in that that decision, I would excuse myself from that decision.

But I think uh independence is absolutely vital here.

You have to it's it's it's about the integrity of the process and the integrity of the process as perceived by the electorate.

And if the process is not does not have integrity, then the process is not a good process.

So it's vital that it is both fair and perceived as fair.

Thank you, Paul.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Let me turn now to Councilmember Ortiz.

Thank you, uh Mayor.

Thank you all for um applying to be on this commission.

Uh public service is a great calling, and regardless of whether you are chosen or not, I wish you uh the best and um hope you continue to look at opportunities to volunteer, whether that's at your local neighborhood association or another commission.

But I just wanted to thank you for taking this this leap.

Uh, you know, I I definitely don't know if I would want to be here being judged by a group of council members, so I give you all your your props.

And so this this may be um, you know, very specific question, but I think it's it's um it's an important one that uh your commission or at least the commissioners um that participate on your commission should be uh aware of.

Um this is a new law, it's called the Levine Act that all of our city council members have to now comply with.

Um, and so I would just like to see if each of you can just explain or your understanding of the Levine Act and how um it may impact uh council members.

Can I go first?

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

Um so I understand this uh act is recent, and I don't have a lot of political uh background or background in this uh kind of like matter, but I understand that this law is basically um related to not having uh proper disclosures if there are any um donations or income sources made over 500 to any of the public officials, and I think disclosures are key to remaining maintaining the transparency across the board and keeping uh the field level to all players.

So that's basically the importance of this act.

Great.

Thank you.

Yeah, I saw that as I was looking at this and I'm going, hmm, I see some loopholes here, right?

Um it's a tough one, right?

It's really hard to regulate something like this.

How do you know when money given let's say a year in advance was intended to be used for a campaign, right?

Or or how do you keep someone from from providing a loan that is paid much later?

How do you how do you know about these things, right?

How do you know when the how do you know what specific money is being used for specifically what, for example?

And I think this is what we're talking about.

I'm I'm I I read through the the big big blurb, but it's just really tough.

I mean, this is a judgment call, right?

It ultimately it becomes a judgment call, and that's what makes it a hard job.

If it was easy, anyone could do it, right?

So this is this is where you have to talk to you have to talk around.

You have to talk to the other people on the board, you have to talk to the council and go, hey, you know, you know, this sort of smells funny.

Um, maybe technically okay, but it smells funny.

Um there's really no good solid black and white answer to a lot of this stuff.

I mean, obviously, you have to follow the code.

The code has dates and times and durations and blah blah blah.

But and so that that makes it clear cut as far as that goes.

But beyond that, I think that that's it is funny.

Uh so regarding the disclosure of funds and transparency, um, one thing that got me excited about interviewing here today is because I noticed from past meetings for this board that there have been discussions on proper disclosures of funds and proper definitions of different committees.

Um correct me if I'm wrong.

From my understanding, there have been recommendations already set forth from prior uh meetings in this board to properly uh provide disclosures for independent committees, and then right now it seems that we are also working on providing a better definition for a candidate controlled committee and how funding can operate in that sense.

Um although I am not too familiar with this subject.

I have read through 63 pages of Title 12, which was a very fun experience.

Um I can tell you transparently that after reading through that title, I still to this day don't have a proper definition unless I ask ChatGPT what that definition is.

Um and I think that is because we don't have a proper definition.

And because of this, as you mentioned, there may be loopholes in terms of funding.

People may be not aware that their committee may be sponsored or heavily influenced by other individuals.

Um I would like to continue that work with the board and participate in determining how we can update both that definition and also even potentially update the code through um what I believe is the biannual uh matrix review, um, but no other thoughts here.

Thank you all.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Let's turn now to Councilmember Kamehameha.

Thank you so much for coming before us.

I know, as Councilmember Ortiz said, you know, putting yourself out there and answering all our questions and so forth and really being committed to public service.

So thank you for that.

I'd like to hear from each of you.

What is your understanding of the duties on this board when you're on the commission?

Your own interpretation of what are your duties going to be?

Do you want to go for it?

Sure.

Sorry.

Yeah, I think we're starting to be beginning to figure out.

So my understanding is that there is that we're really kind of more in the okay, someone's decided that something happened here, and we have to decide what to do about it.

Job.

And the it there's an independent group that decides was there a violation, perhaps in consultation with us and interaction with us, but at the end of the day, we have to say, okay, here's what here's what we need to do about it, right?

This is this is what happened.

Uh there's been a fair, there's been an investigation into what happened, and there's been a conclusion that this is something that needs to be adjudicated, and that's when it's then we kick in.

So is that roughly what you understand it to be?

Oh, sorry, didn't you want to go first?

Yeah.

Um I believe the purpose of this board is to make sure that uh you know the uh reform act is basically interpreted and enforced correctly to ensure that uh the political process and government process is kept fair.

To that end, this job involves administering rules and applicable laws and making sure that the process remains fair for everyone through the playground, and then also about campaigning uh laws around funds, making sure that uh the sources are well supported and genuine, and also um supporting lobbyists uh regulations and laws.

Uh, the other aspect is overseeing um ethics and resolving conflict of interest.

So, overall, I would see this as like you know, uh enforcing the rules, and then the second aspect is about um, you know, maintaining the ethics and conduct uh throughout the process and uh improvements in process as well.

I think I would keep an eye on what the gaps are in the process and bring it to the commission to see if there are changes that are that need to be done.

Yeah, so as someone who works in engineering, I think the implementation of how one abides to a code is quite important.

Um, at a high level, obviously, by the name of the board, we have to make sure that we have fair campaigns and political practices.

But when it comes to actually implementing these changes, um, I will to some degree reiterate what I mentioned before.

Firstly, you have to really understand the existing code and the existing title specifically for this board.

Secondly, um, you have to remove personal bias and make sure you provide a proper interpretation of the code.

Um, I know there have not been many uh new complaints filed for this board in the past 12 months.

I believe there's actually only been one.

Um, but I think one other thing to point out is that uh upholding attendance as vice mayor has mentioned is quite important because uh, to my surprise, I could not attend any of these meetings as just a civilian because they kept getting canceled.

Um so that is something I think is quite important as well.

And then lastly, uh to reiterate what I mentioned before, um, the ability to absorb the knowledge with an open mind, and then to be able to formulate adjustments and reach a consensus across board members is quite important during the biannual review matrix.

Thank you all.

Let's turn now to Councilman Cohen.

Yes, I want to thank you all for your application uh for your commitment to San Jose.

Um maybe I I'd like each of you to, based on your observations of elections in the city, what is the one thing that concerns you the most when it comes to fair and ethical elections that you think needs to be watched when it comes to um oversight.

I can go first.

Um there are a few things, but I think um one of the things that actually uh impacts more is misinformation or disinformation, especially through social media, and given the times we are in with uh AI, being able to generate so many uh misinformation on its own if it's not uh really used well.

So I think uh it's uh important for um every uh citizen to be uh making sure that they rely on legitimate resources and get their information towards making uh fair decision.

Yeah, I I'll uh absolutely agree.

Um, but I would also say that it was I was startled by the cost uh and the the difficulty of becoming a candidate and and go getting to the election and getting to the to the final election.

I think it's it's formidable.

I mean, the bottom line is that um you have to have a lot of rich friends or be wealthy yourself to be able to afford even in a city election, even you know, albeit a major city in the United States, it takes a lot of money to get even to have a half a chance at the at the primary, much less the general election.

And you know, there are a lot of there's nothing this board can do about it.

It's it's a it's a it's a it's a dilemma in our society in general, when one person can donate 280 billion dollars to something, you know, 280 million dollars to a campaign.

Um, it's you know, I know that there are limits on how many much an individual can contribute, um, but it's still it's darned expensive.

And I mean you have to have a lot of pretty wealthy friends to get six hundred dollars a shot times, you know, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars divided by six hundred is a lot of people with six hundred dollars to spend on your election, for example.

So it's it's a that's a concern in general, I think for the for elections broadly speaking.

And one one solution to that would be public public funding of elections.

Um it's obviously not in the scope of this board, but these are the kinds of things that concern me about democracy with a small D.

As an Asian American living in San Jose, um I do have many friends and family uh like Chinese friends, Vietnamese friends uh who I've spoken to about this actual election today.

Uh to my surprise, a lot of them don't even know that there is an election.

Um and the ones who do know that there's election um don't understand what they're voting for.

Uh so they choose not to vote, which I think is a pretty serious problem.

Um I obviously don't have a silver bullet to provide a full-on solution for this, but I do think awareness of the election could be done in other ways than uh via the existing media that I see today.

Um for example, me watching the World Series and seeing a Prop 50 advertisement may not be accessible to someone who doesn't have a TV in a low income area.

Um I think, although we do properly translate languages as well, as we can see on this board here, um, there are cases where uh family friends are not able to understand what they can vote for because the pamphlets that they are provided don't necessarily have proper translations.

Um I know this may seem a bit external to the uh the the board's responsibilities, but at least I can say that if I can make a change right now, first thing I would do is um also to improve the website for helping find information about not just uh elections, but for our code.

Um, because I myself, as someone who's a front-end web developer, had I've had trouble even locating certain pieces of information.

Um, but yeah, that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you all the council member.

Let's turn it out to Council Member Tordios.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank uh all of you for your interest in service and your interest in the political process.

Um, but I wanted to note that, you know, the municipal code has some restrictions around political activity for members of the board.

Uh so I was curious if each of you could just relay your own understanding around some of those restrictions on your own personal political activity.

Uh, from my recollection, I think you cannot run for any elected office for the next calendar year or even a year before today.

Um, I think you cannot also sponsor a heavily influence an existing campaign.

Uh at least those are the two that I have on top of that.

A couple of things that come into my mind is one, given that today is election day, and uh um one of the things that is forbidden uh from campaigning is um not campaigning just before an hour or in the premises during the time that the election is happening.

And uh the other is about uh disclosing the income sources for the campaigning.

Yeah, I mean it's it's it's basically common sense stuff.

I mean if you're gonna be if you're gonna make passing judgment on on elections, you can't you can't be influencing the election one way or another.

You can't be you can't be advocating for one or more one or the other of the of the candidates on a regular basis, either in protest or in campaign uh active campaign.

Um so it's you know, it's for me it's logical.

Um what can I say?

Okay.

Colleagues, do we have any other questions for our panelists?

I think you've all given us a difficult decision.

So I think we'll go to the council ballot.

We'll ask our applicants to just sit tight for a minute.

Thank you again for being here and taking the time.

Um, please have to see two, because there are two agencies right before me on the act.

Um, otherwise I'm just not going to remember someone right.

Um, and then select that too and then click on the votes.

If you guys want to go back and get a copy, now's the time.

Okay, I have the results, and staff has double checked it.

I have ten votes for Eddie and nine votes for Sangeetha with one vote for John.

So we have an appointment for Eddie and Sangeetha.

So you have two appointees.

Okay.

Well, congratulations, and thank you all for applying and taking the time.

Really appreciate it.

And I would I would like all three of them to come meet with my staff person.

Where did she go?

Okay.

I don't know where she went, but come over here.

Where would you like our applicants to just come this way?

That way, okay.

Well, congratulations again, Eddie Sanguitha.

Thank you all again for applying.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you, colleagues.

Uh we are moving on.

We are on to item three point four.

This is actions related to the SJC Terminal A Ground Transportation Island project.

There's no staff presentation.

We'll start with Tony if we have any public comment.

I have no cards for this item.

No public comment on three point four.

Coming back to the council.

Move approval.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you both.

I don't see any other hands.

Oh, I do.

Sorry.

Council Mr.

Duan.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm excited that the contract is being awarded to a company base right here in the city of San Jose that is a granite rock that will bring, you know, local roots, existing past performance at SJC, and we'll generate local employment and subcontracting opportunity.

I'll be supporting it.

We already had the motion, but thank you.

Okay, I don't see any other hands.

Tony, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great.

Thank you.

We are on to item seven point one, which will be heard concurrently with item seven point two.

So we'll have a single presentation and discussion, but we'll take separate motions.

Item seven point one, we'll have staff come on down.

Item seven point one is the amendment to the San Jose Municipal code to prohibit the sale and distribution of nitrous oxide.

And item 7.2 is the temporary moratorium on the issuance of tobacco retail licenses.

Again, joint presentation and discussion, separate motions.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Chris Burton, our planning director and colleagues.

Thank you, ma'am.

I will uh do the same and hand it over to Rachel Roberts, Deputy Director for Code Enforcement.

Great, thank you.

So good afternoon, Maryland Council members.

My name is Rachel Roberts.

I'm the deputy director of code enforcement, and I'm joined today by Senior Deputy City Attorney Vance Chang and PBC Director Chris Burton.

I'll be presenting both items 7.1, the proposed urgency ordinance to prohibit the sale and distribution of nitrous oxide in unauthorized retail establishments.

And 7.2, the temporary moratorium on tobacco retail license.

So nitrous oxide misuse is a growing public health issue, particularly among teens and young adults.

Although it has legitimate medical and industrial uses, recreational inhalation poses serious health risks, including neurological damage and in some cases death.

In San Jose, the sale of nitrous oxide canisters, often called Whippets, has become common in tobacco retail businesses, smoke shops, and other similar retailers.

These sales normalize recreational use, generate litter and blight, and contribute to neighborhood safety concerns.

Existing state laws restrict misuse, but does not adequately prevent retail sales, leaving a gap in the ability to enforce.

The proposed ordinance would ban nitrous oxide sales in tobacco retail licensed businesses, smoke shops, and similar retail establishments.

It would hold property owners jointly responsible for violations and would allow exceptions for medical, dental, industrial uses.

It would declare violations of public nuisance with administrative and civil remedies in place.

It would allow revocation of a tobacco retail license if not nitrous oxide is sold illegally.

And because it is an urgency ordinance, it would take effect immediately upon adoption.

So we've laid out here a matrix of our enforcement strategy.

Cases would be generated through either complaints from the public to either the police department or code enforcement or through proactive inspections as part of code enforcement's tobacco retail license program.

If violations of the municipal code are found, code enforcement will pursue expedited enforcement, including administrative citations, cease and desist orders, license revocations, or other administrative remedies.

If illegal drugs or other products are discovered, those cases would be referred to the police department for criminal enforcement.

In both situations, the outcome can lead to legal action, depending on the severity of the violations, either through the DA's office or through our own city attorney's office.

This two-pronged approach allows the city to respond quickly and effectively to violations, whether they are civil or criminal, protecting public health and neighborhood safety.

In summary, this ordinance strengthens state restrictions, eliminates a major retail source of misuse, and provides the city with clear enforcement tools.

So moving on to the temporary moratorium on tobacco retail license.

This is also another urgency ordinance before you today.

And the purpose of this moratorium is to give the city time to review and strengthen our licensing program, enhance enforcement, and address the public health and equity impacts associated with the tobacco and vape retailers.

Over the past few years, we have seen an increase in complaints about tobacco retailers, including unlicensed operations, flavored tobacco sales, and other illegal products.

Of the 101 businesses which we currently have complaints, 30 are operating without a tobacco retail license, and another 35 have neither a TRL license or a business tax certificate.

Additionally, recent data shows that there is an overconcentration of retailers in certain areas of our city, often near schools or within underserved neighborhoods.

The 2025 Latino Health Assessment conducted recently found that these areas face higher exposure to tobacco and vaping products contributing to health inequities.

Under government code section 65858, the city can enact enact an urgency ordinance that must be approved with eight council votes, and it would take effect immediately for 45 days, with the option to extend for up to two years.

During that time, no new tobacco retail licenses would be issued, and existing retailers would be allowed to continue to operate if licensed.

This pause would allow the city to start the work to curb the growth of vape and smoke shops, including unpermitted operations, protect public health youth and vulnerable communities, provide time to review and strengthen the TRL program, improving our enforcement tools and enhancing our coordination across departments and other agencies.

This would ensure businesses comply through permitting ending illegal sales or closure, reduce youth exposure and over concentration, and support stronger community health and neighborhood safety.

With the moratorium in place to pause new licenses and focus on public health and compliance, we would begin implementing the following work plan.

Staff will develop ordinance amendments to strengthen the TRL regulations and close loopholes, including definitions and signage and product rules.

We'd amend the fine schedule to strengthen penalties as part of our upcoming fine study.

We would reconcile city and state retailer lists to identify any unlicensed operators not yet captured.

And we'd work to implement a coordinated enforcement strategy in partnership with the police, city attorney's office, the state, and the county public health department.

We take direct enforcement action against violators, including possible license revocations or business closures.

We'd continue our proactive inspections and look to expand our grant-funded enforcement activities through the Department of Justice program.

As shown in the previous enforcement slide for nitrous oxide, enforcement will follow the same expedited process, including license revocation, cease and desist, citations, etc., leading to legal action whenever necessary.

And if approved, the moratorium takes effect immediately, and staff would return to council with the progress update at least 10 days before the initial 45-day period expires, including recommendations for extensions or permanent ordinance changes.

And that concludes our presentation, and we're available for any questions on either of the items.

Great.

Thank you, Rachel.

Chris, Vance, appreciate your work on this, and uh we'll start with public comment, Tony.

Erica Murphy, please come on down.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Congressman, Congress, Congress.

Council members.

Maybe one day.

So thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

The mayor's October message underscored the importance of consistent enforcement, whether it be seatbelt use, recycling, or encampments.

The same must apply for flavored nicotine sales targeting our youth.

While I support this moratorium, without a doubt, on new tobacco shop licenses, temporary pause isn't enough, and it sounds like you guys have done a lot of research on that.

So, but I wrote this before I heard your report.

San Jose needs regular proactive enforcement of existing laws that prohibit flavored nicotine sales.

Despite the 2022 citywide ban, these products remain common in schools, parks, and neighborhoods, and that's all neighborhoods across San Jose.

Um, this candy-like flavors attract teens, foster addiction, and harm youth brain development.

The change to change this licensing fee should fully fund enforcement.

Staff with authority and resources to proactively inspect and enforce local, state, and federal tobacco laws to the fullest extent.

Right now, San Jose lacks the staffing to monitor even licensed shops, and enforcement can drag on for over a year, time during which more teens are exposed and addicted.

We can and must do better to protect our young people from becoming the next generation of lifelong nicotine users targeted by big tobacco.

So thank you all today for taking this on, and please do more.

Thank you, James.

Go ahead.

This is James Whitman.

I write the VTA all the time.

And I think about this one thing about tobacco is if there's fair inspectors catch you with tobacco, they have to see your fair.

They have to see the tobacco license.

If you do not do that, if you don't have a license on you, they are gonna grow you out to train, they're gonna call security, and they're gonna ban you for 90 days.

If that happens again, you can't write BTA again.

And also, I'd like to know what your plans are for the Super Bowl next year.

Um, yes, uh, so um, I think what you guys should do is get a get a um good fund from the Donald Trump administration of 50,000 grand dollars to put CTBs on the Gray America and White Rail station on the Lick Mill station, all IR size station.

What are your plan to the Super Bowl next year?

All right.

Vas Vasindara Tatamedi, good evening, mayor, council members, everyone.

Um, is Vasendara.

Thank you for supporting this important pause on new tobacco retail licenses.

This moratorium truly matters because our kids are being targeted every single day.

Because flavored tobacco was banned in San Jose in 2022.

We all know high schoolers and middle schoolers are still using flavored vape.

Some of them are bright neon vape pens with berry and candy flavors that are often disguised as highlighters, pens, or even backpacks.

Tobacco brands make them look fun, stylish, and harmless while hooking a new generation of teens on nicotine.

Many parents have seen how easy it is for kids to get these products from local shops.

I'm concerned when violations are reported.

Enforcement takes long.

We need code enforcement teams that are trained, educated, and proactive in confiscating illegal products and closing the gaps, as well as educating the youth on the harms, harmful effects.

This moratorium is a strong start now.

I really appreciate you all for taking a stand on this and let's vote to support this and make sure enforcement is smart, swift, and serious enough to truly protect San Jose's youth.

Thank you all.

Back to council.

Great, thank you.

I'll be very brief.

I do just want to thank uh the many people who have worked on this body of work that's been a long time coming.

I recall as a new council member conversations we were having in 2001-2002.

I remember then council member Dev Davis bringing forward a memo, and I know my colleagues at the time, mayor uh Vice Mayor Foley and uh council member Cohen were uh part of that conversation, and we finally were able to get it prioritized.

It's been a long time coming.

I think one of the benefits, by the way, of having our focus areas is now we can go deeper in a fewer fewer number of places and really get right the multifaceted patchwork of reforms and enforcement actions and codes that need to be in place to promote community safety overall, because I know we all see it in our districts.

Councilmember Ortiz has been a real leader on this.

I know uh all of our council members see the impacts in their neighborhoods, and the truth is uh well, we believe in freedom and freedom and consumer choice and options and all those sorts of things.

There's an overconcentration of these retailers and these products in our lower income neighborhoods that have been historically underinvested in.

We see tactics targeting our children, and we see the impacts, the negative impacts far outweighing any benefit, frankly.

And so it's high time we get a better handle on the activities of some of these retailers and certainly ban nitrous oxide.

So again, thanks to Councilmember Davis, who I'm sure will be happy to know that we're moving this work forward today.

Thanks to all my colleagues, appreciate the two memos, and uh look forward to hearing the discussion and supporting what I suspect will be motions to move all this forward.

And I'll turn first to Councilmember Ortiz.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh well said, appreciate um all the historic actions that have been taking place, leading us to where we are today.

Um both these items take an important step to protect the health and safety of our residents by closing a dangerous gap in our laws.

Over the past several years, East San Jose and other working class neighborhoods have been have seen a dramatic rise in smoke shops, often located just blocks away from school, youth centers, and family homes.

In fact, I first thought of this policy when a smoke shop under the guise of a gift shop opened directly across the street from James Lick in the Alam Rock Village uh business district.

In too many cases, students can walk past two to three smoke shops on their way home from class.

You know, I consistently say you throw a rock in East San Jose, you're gonna hit a smoke shop.

Um, and inside those same shops, products like nitrous oxide canisters known as whippets are frequently sold alongside vaping and other addictive products.

Uh these items are cheap, accessible, and incredibly dangerous.

Nitrous oxide misuse can cause paralysis, neurological damage, and even death.

Data from the 2025 Santa Clara County Latino Health Assessment shows that East San Jose, one of the city's most under-resourced and predominant Latino communities, has a tobacco retail density of 6.7 outlets per square mile.

That's that's actually more than double the countywide average.

When harmful products are sold without the oversight, it's these same communities already facing historic disinvestment that bear the highest consequences.

And that's why this effort goes hand in hand um with my broader advocacy around the East San Jose revitalization strategy and our city's ongoing commitment to more equitable neighborhoods, because public safety, health, and economic opportunity are all deeply connected.

True revitalization isn't just about new investments, it's about confronting the public health challenges that have held our communities back for far too long.

So to close out my uh to close out my remarks, specifically speaking on uh nitrous oxide, I want to thank former councilmember Dev Davis as well as Councilmember Cohen and um Vice Mayor Pam Foley, who all originally brought this issue forward.

And of course, council member uh her successor, Councilmember Mokehu, uh, for continuing to lead on this issue.

I'm proud to be a co-signer on the memo that we authored together alongside Cohen and Tordillos.

Um I also want to thank my tobacco moratorium, Brown Act, which consisted of Council members Candelas, Cohen, Campos, and Casey.

These two actions, the temporary moratorium on new tobacco retail licenses, and the prohibition on the sale and distribution of nitrous oxide are deeply connected.

Both are about prevention, both are about protecting and prioritizing youth and families, and both are about making sure that every neighborhood has the same right to live in a healthy environment.

That being said, it all comes down to enforcement.

All right, and I know that our code enforcement is going to be prioritizing this.

They're gonna have some time to identify policies and procedures to reduce the concentration of these smoke shops.

You know, they there are heavily in East San Jose, but we see them in all of our districts.

Every neighborhood has every district has working class areas, and we do see an increased amount of liquor stores, and we see an increased amount of smoke shops along those corridors.

So I look forward to working hand in hand with along the council, along with the council alongside um code enforcement to address these uh health disparities.

And so I'm going to mo um motion for item 7.2, uh temporary moratorium on the issuance of tobacco retail licenses.

And you had a memo that we have to include, right?

No, not for this one.

Okay, for that one.

And I'll allow one of my colleagues to uh motion 7.1 for a later item.

Thank you.

So we'll the motion on the floor will be for 7.2 first we'll take that up presumably and then we can go back and take a motion on 7.1 I don't think the order necessarily matters we have a second from councilmer casey thank you all right we'll turn now to Councilmore Cohen.

So first I'll just clear ask for clarification on the motion.

I assume you wanted your motion to include not just staff recommendation but your memo so I I'll just ask for the friendly amendments and put your memo that we were our memo that we were okay with the second yeah okay we're including the group memo that was attached to 7.2 I was I was just about to go check that I was not mistaken that there wasn't grouping.

Thank you, Council Mr.

Yes.

Um I want to uh thank staff for bringing this forward um I and and the mayor for mentioning councilmember Davis I actually had dinner with her yesterday and she would had noticed this was coming and was excited about it and so I told her I would I would appreciate the work that she did leading up to this her work on uh blue zones and trying to implement healthy San Jose um in the um leads us to want to do actions like this she she was the for example for in particular the smoke shot moratorium is a part of the official blue zones policy and so she is excited about that but also excited that we're that this is coming forward I want to tell a story about just like almost four years ago one of the most memorable moments in my first year in office was when my staff member um who's now the chief of staff for Councillor District 3 who was my policy uh person at the time walked into my office with a plastic bag I think a target shopping bag and and he opened it up and dumped out on my desk a bag uh about 90 and nitrous oxide canisters he said I just went around the city to see how easy it was to buy nitrous oxide canisters and I walked in and out of smoke shops and no one asked me for an ID anywhere and I just but was able to buy all these canisters without questions asked and he and so that moment my office decided we wanted to do something about that in parallel councilmember Davis's office had been working with a res member of the public on this issue and we uh found out that we were both interested in the topic um but the the ease with which people could get recreational nitrous oxide and it is an addictive behavior for children a definite health risk and something that we wanted to address.

So I want to thank um staff for bringing forward I think we submitted the memo in January of 2022 got approved in February of 2022.

We're here now and I'm excited that we're finally moving this forward I want to thank I think this is a great last ordinance legacy for Nora and her office bringing this forward in her last meeting so I want to appreciate with the work that they did to help craft the policy after we got that memo approved by council and um you know just just wanted to thank also um also council member Ortiz and the rest of the the Brown Act on the uh tobacco item as well for um continuing to look out for our children and residents I know the Vice Mayor Foley was a leader on the flavor tobacco ban that we did I think it was around that same time about three plus years ago when and I think that's what was happening we were discussing the tobacco ban or the the flavor tobacco ban when Alexander walked in and said while I was researching that I I was able to buy these or something that's how that played out but um you know we've been making some progress on trying to stop retailers and tobacco companies from addicting our youth and um these are all parts of that process um to make our city healthier for families so thank you to everyone involved thanks council member tornada council member thank you mayor um so uh I just want to thank the staff for putting this together and um presenting today and for the work that is about to sort of take place I also want to thank Erica for being here we've um gotten to know her and the passion around these topics, specifically nitroxide and other illicit uses of drugs that our kids are being faced with out in our community um so just for item 7-1, I want to thank my council colleagues Tradillos Cohen and Ortiz for working in partnership on our memo that works to strengthen the staff's recommendation to include include further exploration into how we can implement tighter mechanisms and process between code enforcement and San Jose Police to create a consistent enforcement and tracking of violations.

In addition, what we're really looking for is how to up our game and harness funding to improve education, media attention, and proactive enforcement around nitric oxide and other illicit drugs plaguing our community that impact the health and well-being of our youth.

I'll pass on some of the questions because I think we're all sort of in agreement here, but I just want to make a couple of comments about item 7-2.

I want to acknowledge my predecessor, like others have.

You know, when the recent bust of six smoke shops occurred, I think in various conversations, I think with Councilmember Ortiz and a couple of others, thinking about how we can do more, not realizing that there had been three and a half years ago a lot of work that had already started around some of these issues.

It's honestly hard to believe though that we're still only talking about a temporary moratorium after they got that conversation started so long ago.

So I'm hoping that you know what the work is gonna reveal is that we need to cement the need for a more permanent fix to the bad actors in our community and serves to encourage other small business owners to implement changes to their business models that eliminates the sale of tobacco and all illicit products that end up on those shelves around it.

Um I mean, this stuff is literally killing people in our community and harming our our most vulnerable youth.

So I look forward to supporting both, but I think uh I can't make a motion now on seven-one, so we'll do seven-two and come back to it.

Um but thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Vice Mair.

Thank you.

I'm really happy to see both of these items come through.

I wish I could have been the sixth signature on some of these uh these memos.

This um I originated the ban on flavored tobacco in 2021, and the way that came about actually is I met with some students at Evergreen or at West Valley College.

They were actually high school students who go to college there, junior college there, and we posed a question to them: what's an issue affecting your contemporaries?

What's what's what's on your mind?

And it was very clear that the the access to flavored tobacco was a huge concern for these students.

So we met with them and we figured out what that meant, what it was happening in the classroom, what was happening in the schools, how easy it was to access things that had flavors like um green uh sour apple and very uh bubblegum and very attractive flavors to our students, but it was harming our ch our children's health.

So we went after it and we got a ban.

And it got implemented, I think, in July 2022, approved in 2021.

But the problem is we have this ordinance on a book, and it's against the law, but it's hard to police it unless someone's in one of these businesses notices it and reports it to code enforcement.

So I'm hoping that both of both of these items that we're talking about are protecting the health of our children first and foremost.

The access, the proximity of these smoke shops, uh prolific in East San Jose and other parts of the city, the nitrous oxide, all of those are very dangerous to our children in particular, but our society as a whole.

So, how we police it, how we enforce the code enforcement side of it is really, really critical.

While these are emergency ordinances and they'll be in effect for uh immediately, I'm my hope is that we will find a way, as others have mentioned, a way of sustaining this and really taking the profit out of the business for these bad actors who are selling these things illegally, but they're getting away with it.

So we need to make sure the profits gone, that enforcement it continues and is more aggressive, and that we protect ultimately the health of our children.

Thank you.

I look forward to voting on voting on both of these.

Thanks, Vice Mayor.

Let's go to Councilmember Duan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Steph.

Um, I want to I want to thank um my colleagues for bringing this to the forefront.

And Vice Mayor said at best uh we can put up all these changes, but we don't have any code enforcement, it'd be worthless.

From flavor tobacco to now is synthetic TH9, nitrous oxide, illegal cannabis, paraphernalia, I mean all those on and on and on, and in my district, same as Councilmember Watese, we have enormous amount of smoke shops, and it's come with not only the smoke shop, come with crimes and law breaking, you know, bad actors.

How do we go about to enforce if we don't have enough resource in order to do so?

Have the code enforcement reach out to our IT department put it on 311 app so the citizens can report it.

It wouldn't make sense because there's a lot of people out there, CD smoke shop, they live around it, they see what's going on, but they really don't have a whole lot of avenue.

And my second question to you is: have our IGR team reach out to our state legislature for more resources and help.

Thank you for the question, council member.

Um, so you know, this this has been and will continue to be a um a joint effort.

It's gonna require a lot of coordination, uh, with not only the city attorney's office, um, and but also the police department and um the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.

Um we all have kind of play a different role depending on what we're finding in these businesses, and that coordination is already happening, but we definitely need to strengthen it and formalize it and make sure we have like a framework in writing that we all understand our role and how um you know we can work through some pain points to ensure we're best coordinating when we're taking steps to to you know resolve these issues or even shut down some of these businesses.

I mean, the moratorium is gonna be very critical to that end because it'll give us uh that pause that will allow us to really hopefully um you know reduce these businesses from from popping up even more, and we can focus in on the problem properties, um, but then look at it looking at it from all angles, you know, whether it's um how our fees structured, if we need to to make amendments to that and bring that in the new budget year, or even before the budget year, um, if we uh need to make amendments to our code, if we're finding you know loopholes and things like that.

So it's it's really gonna be a multi-pronged approach, but also a um a very collaborative effort since there's points where our our ability to enforce ends and and other jurisdictions need to pick up from where we leave off.

You didn't get you didn't answer the have have you reach out to our IGR team to reach out or state legislature in order to enforce some of these state laws, if you will.

So we've reached out, especially under the rubric of more local control, um, with our California um state legislat, you know, I would say the our legislative local delegation, but also there was a lot of talk earlier this session about a special select committee by the assembly and Senate to look at the sale of not nitrous oxide statewide.

That didn't come to be, um, thinking that it would be part of next year's legislative session.

So that'll be something that we continue to push for additional regulation scrutiny, but also more local control here, so that our co-enforcement team and the city team have additional tools.

Um I would say on the resource front, most of our resource asks have really been around housing um and homelessness money and not specifically this because traditionally the state does view it as more of a local issue.

Thank you.

And and I noticed that there is a synthetic TH9, which is now package like Lay's chips or or Frito package and and Doritas, and they're selling it almost every single smoke shops.

Uh banned from uh from sales.

Am I correct?

We were gonna have to double check that product specifically.

But yes, anything that has like any amount of THC is wouldn't be allowed to be sold in those types of businesses.

Yeah.

See now our kid kids will grab that bag of chip, put in their lunch pack, go to school, and it looks normal.

And we need to put a stop to it.

This is affecting our community as a whole, and um I will be supporting this 7.1 and 7.2.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Let's turn to Councilmember Tordillas.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to acknowledge that the problem of uh over concentration of these smoke shops is a problem in a lot of parts of the city, particularly in east side, but also in downtown, uh, and a lot of our uh lower income neighborhoods, kind of directly south of the freeway in D3 and D7.

So excited to see us moving forward with this moratorium.

I think in downtown in particular, we've seen that the you know, abundance of these smoke shops has had a really detrimental effect on the overall urban fabric and is really kind of making it more difficult to achieve a lot of the goals that we have for our downtown to make it more safe, more clean, more vibrant.

Uh so hopefully that this you know temporary pause allows us to come up with the plans and the new tools that we need to advance a lot of those goals.

Uh also want to highlight uh nitrous oxide and excited about the progress there because in downtown we've had a number of you know high visibility incidents over the past year where smoke shops were advertising these industrial-sized nitrous oxide containers, you know, right in the windows, uh, you know, on major corridors downtown.

Uh so glad that we've been able to get to this point.

It's been a long time to get here.

Uh, so want to extend my thanks to council members Ortiz and Cohen and Vice Mayor Foley for being uh a part of this uh you know journey for a long time, as well as uh all of my other colleagues past and present who've contributed here.

Uh I think as folks have noted it's an important first step.

Uh, but the part that I'm more excited for is uh for staff to come back with more uh details on you know new strategies to address the enforcement side of the equation and hopefully come up with some more holistic solutions here.

So we'll be excited to support both memos.

Great.

Thank you.

I appreciate all the colleagues who mentioned enforcement.

I do think we spent a lot of time on policy making and program design and reporting and all the rest.

But at the end of the day, unless we ensure consistent application of the rules and actual consequences and create that accountability, it's very hard to change behavior.

And again, I'll just emphasize the importance of focus where we do fewer things we can actually follow through and implement them citywide in a high quality way.

So I'm glad that we're at a point where we can pursue this, and I hope we do so vigorously.

Let's vote on 7.2, which includes the group memo, and then we'll come back for a motion on 7.1.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great.

Thank you.

Coming back to the council, do we have a motion on item 7.2?

Go to Councilmember Mulcay.

I'm sorry, 7.1.

That was 7.2.

That was 7 2.

Right.

Yeah.

I'd like to move um the memo for 7.1.

Great.

Tony, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great.

Thank you all.

Thanks to our city staff for their hard work on this.

Forward to hearing updates as we proceed.

We're now on to item 8.1.

This is actions related to the fairways at San Antonio located at 305 San Antonio Court.

No staff presentation.

Do we have public comment?

I'm not sure.

James has submitted a card without an item number.

So James, did you want to talk about the fairways?

This is specific to the fairways.

Item 8.1.

Looks like we have public comment.

Yeah, at the airport, um, I think what they should do on Super Bowl is have the 60 go.

That'd be this is not the topic we're taking up.

I'm sorry.

This is actions related to the fairways at 305 San Antonio Court.

The stairways I think that they should make the stairways bigger.

Fairways.

I'm sorry, but why don't we come back when we have an item you'd like to speak to?

James, you might I you might need open forum.

So we can just at the end of the meeting.

I'll call you an open forum.

If you want to sit behind me, I'll talk to you in a second.

I'll just go.

No, just how I see I'll talk to you in just a second.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

We're coming back to the council on item 8.1.

Thank you.

Great.

Not seeing any other comments or questions.

Let's vote.

Okay.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh we're on to item 8.2 actions related to grant agreements for targeted outreach and engagement programs serving unsheltered individuals in San Jose.

Bless you.

We will turn it over to Eric Sullivan as soon as he and Cupid are ready.

Okay, thank you, Mayor and Council.

So Eric Sullivan, Director of Housing.

I'm joined today by Deputy Director Cubid Allen.

I'm so sorry to interrupt.

I see the voting screen back up.

Did we not complete the vote on item 8.1?

I may have just accidentally clicked it.

Sorry.

Okay.

Do we need to revote?

Do you want to confirm the vote?

Was it unanimous?

No.

It's unanimous.

Great.

Okay.

I apologize.

We just had the screen to vote back up on the last item.

Sorry, Eric, go ahead.

Thank you.

It's back again.

I'm hitting 8.2.

It's it's frozen.

It's so continuum.

We'll see if they can fix it.

Okay.

Okay.

So I'm clicking start.

Alright, well, what if everyone votes will just take us through?

No.

Okay.

Sorry, Eric.

I don't you have slides, so I want to make sure we can see them on our screen here.

That's why I'm delaying.

There we go.

Well, I ended the vote, but then when I click start next, like I click on the next item and click start proposal.

Okay, now it's working.

It wasn't working before.

I think it's fixed.

Okay.

And you had a unanimous vote on item 8.1, and I don't see any objection from the council.

So I think we're good.

All right, Eric.

Please proceed.

Okay.

Thank you.

So we'll go through a brief presentation here that takes us through first the historical expenditures from the April 2024 agreements.

That total just about uh under 9 million about 8 point million in change for out targeted outreach and engagement and what were the outcomes from those expenditures.

What was the data analysis conducted for how those funds were spent in conduction with our partners?

Then two, we'll talk about the shifts that we have made over the last eight months as we bring more internal staff to do outreach and engagement.

And then three, talk about how we're gonna go moving forward and why this agreement and contract before council represents a two-thirds reduction, going from about nine million to just about three million dollars in outreach contracts, reflecting overall shifts in strategy.

And so I'll talk through some initial present some initial kind of data and results here.

And then lastly, I want to talk through is just about how we are framing up our strategies around thinking about outreach and engagement, how that syncs to the work that we're doing and continuing to build out our shelter system, and then three, as we complete sort of our last two sites here, Cherry and Serone throughout this calendar year going into January to June, the last half of the fiscal year, where the outreach teams are going to be focused.

So first here, overall, as we have presented before, our tactics for implementing our outreach, a sync to our engagement shelter, clear, preserve restore tactics.

This comes up under our overall housing continuum, and this reflects our overall comprehensive approach to provide and connect individuals to services as well as collect the comprehensive set of data.

As we'll talk through throughout this presentation, there are some challenges in some of the data collection and some of the recording.

Some of those challenges are reflective in just the nature of the work in building communications and relationships with individuals we're doing outreach with.

Some of those challenges are more technical.

We do not own or operate the HMIS system.

We're merely a vendor for it.

We pay for licenses for it.

The county kind of sets policy around what items can or cannot be tracked within HMIS.

And then we take those existing policies and sync that to what we're being directed by council to track and how we build supplementary systems in order to track the full length of information being requested.

And then three, as we begin to deploy the teams and collect the data, and a lot of the work that has been done over the last since April 2024 has been bringing folks in to roughly 800 beds that we have opened up across the different sites.

You know, going forward, we're going to be shifting that strategy as we shift from building out additional shelter capacity towards maintaining an effective, efficient, and outcome driven more system.

And so very briefly here, this is just a quick overview of where the targeted outreach and engagement focus areas are.

And I'm going to ask Cuba to get into some more details here.

But as we discussed last week, during the homelessness coordinated, homeless coordinated programs audit, a lot of the work that we do is very much targeted because we don't have the sheer capacity and funding available to address all of the individuals who are unsheltered in the city.

We've made tremendous progress in reducing that number, and we're going to go through once we complete the opening of the last two sites and update to that number as it's been brought substantially down, probably closer to about 50% in unsheltered homelessness or lower.

So we made a lot of outreach and a lot of progress with that, but our goal has been to take the limited resources that we have and to target them to specific neighborhoods.

And that's what this slide kind of represents where those targets are, synced to all of the shelter that we have opened, as well as the multi-month multi-department efforts that occurred in Columbus Park for that clearing.

I'm gonna ask Keep it just to go through some more details here.

Yes, thank you, Eric.

Uh good afternoon, mayor and counsel for the record.

My name is Cupid Alexander, Deputy Director of Housing, with the privilege of focusing my work on the unsheltered response grants and data.

I'll walk us through the next few slides, which highlight how our targeted outreach and engagement program, what we call TOPE, translates into on the ground results through our staff, contracted partners, and internal city departments.

So Eric mentioned it lightly, but the outreach teams target three to four geographic areas at a time.

We choose them through a biweekly interdepartmental meeting.

So that includes housing, beautify SJ, DOT, SJPD, and our environmental services team.

Once these priorities are set, our contracted outreach providers, both Home First and Path, and thank you, Path for being here, deploy to connect directly with residents in those encampments.

They complete assessments, offer placements, and begin trust building that make transitions into shelter possible.

So you can see on the screen where some of this coordination has taken place across San Jose.

Locations like Columbus Park, Coyote Creek, the Five Wounds Trail, and Monterey Road have been amongst our focus areas.

These efforts aren't isolated cleanups.

They are part of our data-driven outreach rotation, ensuring our teams visit and maintain areas while connecting residents to shelters or services.

So when we engage our residents, it's not just about asking them to move to the next place, but it's also about offering them something meaningful.

So our TOPE outreach workers and coordinators conduct Vaspidat assessments to prioritize housing placements, provide referrals to navigation hubs and emergency interim housing when available, and help with ADA accommodations and offered homeward bound transportation for those reconnecting with family or support networks.

So at every interaction, we make sure to ask if the person would be interested in homeward bound, if they would require a reasonable accommodation.

And to this point, we've had about 105 people inquire about homeward bound and have successfully connected 28 individuals with long-term solutions.

Of the 200 individuals that have engaged with staff around reasonable accommodations, 85 have requested an accommodation.

There have only been about seven approved.

We're still working through that process, but we wanted you all to know that we are tracking, and this is a part of that work.

We also meet the immediate needs, so it's resources, hygiene kits, food, and conversation to build trust over time.

So this program has shown that when we do outreach together, enforcement and housing coordination, we get some real results.

So you all remember this was our work around Columbus Park, and I'm extremely proud of the work we did together through the targeted outreach engagement program.

We also did this around the Monterey Corridor, where we successfully resolved allowing for site restoration and the return of public space to community use.

This couldn't happen without our collaboration with Beautify SJ, DLT, SJPD, Animal Care Services, Public Works, ESD, PBCE, and other departments that help move from engagement to restoration.

So this slide is going to go over what our coordinated efforts produce in 24 and 25.

So you all saw that there was about an 8.6 million dollar investment in outreach.

We reached 2,225 individuals that we engaged and served.

Of that, 866 people transitioned from the street to stable living, either shelter, housing, or reunification.

1,368 individuals identified as chronically homeless, receiving sustained case management, and we had over 28,000 outreach sessions completed.

These numbers reflect real people, real engagement, real progress.

This is in light of high utilization in our shelter availability, which means when a space is open, we have a system that quickly refers an individual to utilize that space.

And outreach doesn't stop at engagement.

It directly feeds our shelter system, it keeps it full.

TOPE teams have helped drive 96% occupancy across 20 emergency interim housing sites, and we have two new openings just this past month, Rooferari and Motel 6, and two more coming soon in Cherry and Cerone.

Every new site benefits from TOPE engagement ahead of time so that when open when doors are open, people are ready to move in.

This model shows that when outreach and shelter planning happens, hand in hand, we sustain high utilization and high meaningful transitions.

And as we look ahead, we'll continue to coordinate this approach through the next fiscal year, maintaining engagement for about 1,450 participants while preparing for new site openings and major events in 2026.

Now, before I turn it over back to Eric, I want to take a moment to recognize the important work of our internal team, our internal outreach team, which operates in alignment with the targeted outreach and engagement program.

Our internal staff are deeply engaged in the city's waterway count, and they've been instrumental in identifying and assisting individuals in our priority and preference areas.

As we continue to refine this model, we also have upcoming the enhanced engagement program team, which will build on this foundation, working to closely align with the code of conduct initiative and the quality of life work that we're setting out to do in the city of San Jose.

All of this represents an aligned approach, one that integrates outreach, housing, and public space management to create a single coordinated system of response.

Moving forward, we'll continue to make strategic decisions on how to deploy outreach services effectively and leverage our collective capacity to connect with San Jose's hardest-to-reach community members.

With that, I'll hand it back over to Eric to discuss how we'll advance this coordinated model through next year's priorities and implementation.

Thanks, Cupid.

So going forward, as we begin to think about the system of impact, so this slide just quickly captures what that impact has been.

As Cupid had mentioned, you know, over 1,500 beds are active now in the system.

We've housed about 866 of those.

And I'll mention a lot of those touch points of contacts as Cupid mentioned and those interactions, our multiple contacts with an individual in order to build that relationship and transition them into beds, as well as the plethora of also additional offerings that we make.

And then as we continue to move forward with the shelter system and beginning to think about how we're going to progress from now through June 30th with the proposed contract that is up for consideration today.

Here's what the targets are going to be.

How do we sync that to the needs of individuals?

Two is about deployment.

How do we best deploy with our own and kind of internal teams high need areas, areas of focus, such as going to be downtown going into 2026 with a lot of activity happening.

And then three, it's about decision making.

How are we sure we are able to better control what is the flow of individuals as this outreach team is a part of the overall continuum that we've discussed over the last year and a half here of how do we move individuals through the system and how do we do that, particularly in light of the work and coordinated efforts we'll be doing with the county around syncing our shelter systems.

And so going forward here, we're now going to be really focused on building out the code of conduct team.

We're now going through the hiring process to have our enhanced engagement team better sync with Chief Paul Joseph's code of conduct and qual team on our code of conduct work.

Two, really looking at deployment consistent engagement practices across all departments.

This is actually one of the findings and the coordinated homes response audit.

Three, looking at ways in which we can keep the interim units filled.

Right now we're operating on average at about 96%.

And as we have turnover, as we have throughput, we want to make sure we always have individuals ready to take up that bed in the system so we can maintain high occupancy, and that's relied upon through the outreach work that we do.

Four, providing consistent person-centered engagement, as Cupid had talked about, making sure we're able to manage individuals' connection to services while also restoring public space management to the public.

And then five, how we ensure we're providing this coordinated data-driven deployment and decision making within limited resources, despite existing demands of our unsheltered population.

And that's the quick overview of the how where we've been with this work around outreach and where we are and where we're headed going forward.

So I'm ready for your questions.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you both for the comprehensive report and all the good work you and your teams and our partners are doing.

Let me turn now to the clerk for public comment.

I have no cards for this item.

Okay.

Well, then just coming back to the council, I'll just expand upon my comments very briefly and then turn to colleagues.

I want to thank Eric, Cupid, you, your teams in the housing department, our partners at Path Home First, and then of course other departments and partners who you all work closely with.

I really appreciate this update on how we are evolving our outreach services and making sure it's part of a larger set of strategies, really optimized.

As I've mentioned before, I think we are rapidly ending reaching the end of a phase of system expansion and moving into a system optimization phase.

We don't have the resources to add the next thousand uh shelter beds or interim housing uh placements.

So we need to make sure every piece of the system is tightly coordinated and working really well together across city, nonprofit, county partners, and others.

So this work follows on council direction from last year to match our outreach levels to system capacity, and that really includes compressing external contracts, bringing more of the work in-house, and producing better reporting on outcomes to make sure that every hour spent on outreach is having the greatest possible impact.

There's a lot more data and strength and coordination that we see here with other departments, including DOT and PRNS, something that I appreciate that we are doing more of.

And that's helping us as a city, as one team, to learn and respond strategically with our limited resources.

It's also leading to better clutter outcomes for our most vulnerable neighbors.

Nearly 40% of those who engage our outreach teams in this report transition to interim or permanent housing or reconnected with family.

That is a big deal.

And that highlights the impact of our partners.

So thank you again to Home First and Path for the work you do day in and day out, from delivering council-directed data to building trusted relationships with our unhoused neighbors and connecting them to care and housing pathways.

Eric, can you talk maybe just a little bit about what coordination looks like or will look like once we're fully staffed in our department and have these new agreements in place with Home First and Path and are coordinating across departments.

Yes.

So there'll be three lanes essentially of work.

The first lane is going to be with our coordinated work with Path and Home First as we get Cherry and Saronny fully leased, fully sort of everyone in 100% occupied.

And then two, the extension of that work post uh occupancy for charity and cerroney is keeping the beds filled as we're getting more and more throughput through our work with the county, and then two, ensuring that we're able to collect a better sourcing of data through that uh external contracted outreach work.

That's the first lane of work.

The second lane of work is then taking our internal teams and dividing them into two lanes.

One is going to be around our enhanced engagement team.

Once that is fully staffed, that enhanced engagement team will be synced up with the neighborhood quality of life unit for the execution around code of conduct.

And then the other internal teams will then be focused on our priority, top priority areas, downtown being one of them, to ensure we're able to provide additional support to individuals in downtown and to execute very effectively around the coordinated work occurring with the county to identify the 248 individuals who are in downtown, who they are, what services they need, and how we're routing effectively as possible through our internal teams, working with the county teams, working with the CIV teams to those housing and shelter resolutions.

So that's the three paths that the outreach teams are going to take going forward.

Great.

Thank you for that.

And just on that second lane of utilization, I know it was mentioned in the report, but you all should be commended, as should our partners for that 96% utilization rate.

Every bed is valuable.

Every night, every day in a bed is valuable.

And so as close to 100% utilization as we can get is a good thing.

Yes.

So, you know, one of the challenges that we have, as I mentioned at the outset of our comments, is there are a lot of users in the homelessness management information system or HMIS.

Over 200 users in the county, over a hundred users just in the city of San Jose, including our staff, outreach staff, a whole host of county staff and other employees and workers in the business.

So data input is a real challenge as identified in the audit last week.

How we streamline and standardize expectations for data input, working with Path and Home First, who also do a lot of work with the county so we can have some touch points around managing what is the quality of that data input, but by having a more expanded team, we're able to put more controls around the expectations for the quality of that data input.

And then two, with the data input improved, the data output and how we're able to get to better analysis and tracking through likely separate databases some of the items that council has directed us to track regarding denials of service or program participation, as those are not modules that has been approved by the administrator of the HMIS system, which is the county where we will better kind of control that separately, sync that data with what's in HMIS, so we are able to report out on the data outcomes that are requested by council.

Thanks for that.

You actually highlighted something else I wanted to just dig into for a second.

Are you saying that the HMIS system cannot add a field for service resistance or refusals of service, or are we just at an impasse over why that would be valuable?

I think by the way, it's incredibly important for us to know who's repeatedly refusing service so we can try a different intervention.

Our goal should be to get everybody into a safe place, connected to services, and and improve public safety and use of public space for all.

So I'm I'm concerned how are we going to understand who you know basically the outcome of these interactions and why why is that not something we can track in HMIS?

We have multiple engagements with all individuals and try our best to engage.

Columbus Park is probably the best example of that.

That went on for about 60 to 90 days of engagement.

And individuals who ultimately denied uh program participation, we track that manually because at the moment we can add a module to that because those decisions are not made by the city as the administrator of the HMIS.

Okay, but it's a policy, not a technical limitation.

So that's a conversation we can have with our counterparts at the county, it sounds like to be able to better understand what's going on in one database.

A little concerned to hear that there's not a willingness to help us understand what's happening and what the outcomes are over time.

I think I think knowing that is important.

Also, just highlight for colleagues again, the TOPE program engaged through city staff and partners.

2,225 people, 866 transitioned into managed spaces, nearly 80%, 79% of them transitioned into our interim and emergency sites.

But for the expansion of interim housing and shelter that we have embarked on over the last few years, those individuals would all still be outside, live in tents, living in vehicles, at risk of literally dying on our streets, suffering on our streets.

Uh also just highlight 12, and I hope it's a growing number over time, engaged with our new homeward bound program, meaning they were successfully, and we track all the way to completion here, reunited with family and friends, which means not taking up a space in even the interim system, which we know is costing 25,000 plus per person per year to operate, not to mention having to build permanent and find a Section 8 voucher.

So really great when we can actually create that kind of outcome and get people reconnected with loved ones in a support network.

Final question from me: 12% of those outcomes are basically unknown.

So only six and a half percent went to a rental placement of some kind, like a section eight voucher.

Twelve percent are unknown.

Do we think those folks actually are indoors, or do we just simply not know?

But they had told us at some point they would they had housing.

It's a self-reported data point, so we can't confirm or deny it.

It's they said we exit it, and so with that box has a bunch of different things.

So we can't confirm or deny that.

That's self-reported.

Okay.

All right, well, thank you.

Appreciate all the good work.

I I really think we're making some progress at uh integrating all these different approaches and optimizing the system.

And of course, it's partly thanks to data and partly thanks to the great working partnerships we have uh with our county and nonprofit partners.

So thank you all very much.

We turn to council campus.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you, Eric Cupid and the Housing Department for the presentation last week, uh City Council unanimously adopted Councilmember Ortiz's memo in my joint memo that approved the coordination of homelessness activities audit report and provided further direction.

That direction calls for stronger coordination, clearer protocols, and training around reasonable accommodations and the handling of personal belongings.

So I have just a few questions on those topics.

Can staff please confirm that those directives are being implemented through these TOPE contracts and training requirements, and that compliance will be reflected in contract performance monitoring.

So the ADA process is primarily done by internal staff because that's a very particular process.

So our contracted partners at Path and Home First do provide some of that service, but we primarily executed that delivery of the ADA system through internal teams because that process is just so very particular that we have worked out with the city attorney's office.

So the answer to question is yes, and we're using a lot of our internal staff to do that, and then have train Path and Home First when there are times in which they have to execute on that ADA process to the personal belongings issues that's something we're exploring now about how best to execute on that work.

I don't, since we got the direction last week, that it's something we're gonna figure out how do we implement and explore uh the personal belongings issue.

Thank you for that answer, and it's good to hear that those conversations are happening now.

Um you also mentioned, you know, 2026 being on the horizon and as we're preparing for these major events with a focus on downtown.

I want to ensure that our outreach efforts remain humane and equitable.

So can staff please speak to how this approach will prevent people from simply being displaced from downtown into other districts and ensuring that every area of the city is doing its fair share to provide shelter and outreach support.

Yes, so the strategy around downtown as we have, I is we have a collective work with the county to look at uh sort of the listing of about 250 individuals who are in in downtown, about 25 to 30 percent of those are individuals who've been in downtown for very long period of time, are highly service resistant.

Uh the cities aware of them, the counties are where them, we're trying to triage how best to address these individuals, including up to the options given under state law around 5250, 5150 uh in voluntary placements.

So that's one path.

The second path is new individuals who are coming in to downtown, as this was the case when we were doing big clearings like Columbus Park and executing around additional abatements as we're tracking the individuals as Cupid had mentioned through uh at the time of the abatement.

We're seeing they're coming into downtown, if so, trying to reconnect them back to services so that we can limit some of the impacts within downtown, the concentration that we have within downtown of both boarded care sites, PSH sites, uh halfway house sites, county run sites.

We just have a heavy concentration in downtown, and what we're seeing through some of the initial analysis of that 250 is that a significant percentage of the individuals who our outreach teams engage with have some form of shelter or housing placement within downtown.

Um, but again, the high concentration of those services within downtown, we're looking for ways in which to try to impact that.

That's on the second lane.

On the third lane is then we have program resistance, we have individuals who are just existing within downtown.

And the third is as we have more events that come forward within 2026.

We want to put our best foot forward as a city, and how do we do that through positive engagement with individuals to ensuring that individuals who have high needs and are expressing kind of some of those needs in the public space, how we ensure we have reactive teams to respond to that, and that's part of the overall strategy.

So it's not about displacing individuals to other neighborhoods, it's about how do we address collectively the problems within downtown, including our partnerships with the county in addressing that work.

Thank you for that.

Um providing them the support and the resources they need to accept shelter, um, stabilize themselves, and not not just um you know can continue to uh be on the streets in other parts of the city because that uh is not a real solution, and so um my last question is uh what so can staff please address whether incorporating these additional protocols or trainings will have any fiscal impacts, and if so, how is that being accounted for in the contract amounts or deliverable schedules?

We cannot assess at this point what the fiscal impacts are of last week's memorandum.

We're going through that analysis now, and we could come back with what, if any, fiscal impacts, those two directives on personal belongings and ADA process reviews will have.

Uh, to the broader question about impacts in other neighborhoods.

You know, Colemas Park has an example.

Everyone was offered uh shelter placement at the site.

We had about a 30% denial of program participation, and we've seen some of those impacts, we're aware, we don't track all of them, but we're aware of the impacts of sort of our roving groups of RVs and other individuals, and we're trying to make reconnections uh as best that we can, acknowledging that uh again uh once offers are are made and denials are provided, it's difficult for us to execute a solution.

Thank you for that answer.

Um, I know that our housing department works uh diligently with uh other departments in the city with county and other partners, and so I thank you all for that important work.

Um, and I will motion to accept the staff's recommendation.

Great, thank you.

I don't see any other hands, so Tony, I think we're ready to vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great.

Thank you all again, appreciate it.

All right, we are on to open forum, which is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on any city business that was not on today's agenda.

Tony, do we have any comments?

Okay, Lynn come on down, Brenda and James.

So that's Lynn, Brenda, and James.

We have a picture for the down this.

Uh Mayor Mahan, City Council, City Manager, and other leaders.

My name is Lynn Paulson.

I spoke to you two weeks ago.

The request that the city managers updates should include a status report on the issues at the San Jose Animal Care Center, since it has the attention of the public and the media, um, especially since also the council commit committee on that has not had a report for a while.

I expressed concerns at that time about deficiencies in the process for efficiently rescuing dogs based on my experiencing rescue the dog, rescuing the dog Chiasi last year.

To my surprise and upset, during the past two weeks, another dog meeting rescue did not get saved because of a lack of effective processes, including expert rescue coordination and communication.

The situation with Chippy lacked transparency because the dog was euthanized without the normal warning that it would be killed.

This was despite the fact that a rescue partner with proven results had indicated they would help.

The information on Tippi on the website did not provide the final warning that is supposed to be posted with a scheduled due date.

Instead, the dog was euthanized.

No one was informed, and the listing for Tippi just disappeared from the website that evening.

One was the recommendation six, specifying that each animal have an identified path out of the shelter that would be implemented, and recommendation seven relating to finalizing the shelter's draft euthanasia protocol.

I've only been involved with these two rescue situations at the center in recent years, but now I wonder how many other dogs are being killed without transparency or accountability to the public.

We count on you to provide the leadership to make sure the issues at the center are resolved in a timely manner.

We count on getting updated status reports from the city manager or another method on resolution of the center's many.

Next speaker.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Please accept this my petition for your help to secure vital documents and a waiver from procedure so that I can fully pursue due compensation for a traffic accident that almost took my life.

The accident took place on December twenty first, twenty twenty three.

As a result, my car was toted and I was hospitalized with a myocardial infarction.

For almost two years, I have sought closure and full compensation for my injuries and loss.

A mistake in date of incident throughout the course of reporting is mine, all mine.

Also, the imposed shutdown of the university email used for the initial report did not help matters.

Mistake corrected.

I now seek a full report from the officers who attended to the incident.

Thank you.

Back to council.

All right.

Uh thank you all very much.

We are now adjourned.

Yeah, colleagues join us in the back for a moment if you can spare the time.