Excellent.

Looks like our colleagues have joined us.

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

of December 16th.

Tony, would you please call the roll?

Campos

Tordios

Here

Cohen

Ortiz

present

Mulcahy

Here

Duan

Here

Candelas

Here

Casey

Here

Foley

Here

Mahan

Here

You have a quorum

Thank you

Well welcome everyone and happy holidays

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

I

Pledge allegiance

to the flag of the United States of America,

to the republic for which it stands,

one nation under God, indivisible,

with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

For my last invocation in December,

I would like to invite Alicia Garcia,

Chief Operations Officer of WeHope,

to join us at the podium.

Alicia here

There she is hi welcome. Let me do a quick intro

We hope is a barrier nonprofit

Dedicated to helping people become healthy employed and house through innovative and compassionate

Solutions we hope began as a small volunteer shelter in East Palo Alto and over the last

26 years has grown into a regional network serving communities across the Bay Area

Alicia joined the We Hope team in 2012 after a career in education and years of volunteer service in homeless shelters.

She's made a career of uplifting others and even finds the time to be a published author, sharing her insights and experience in nonprofit leadership.

In San Jose, We Hope operates the Dignity on Wheels mobile shower and laundry program and manages the Berryessa Safe parking site,

site, which I know Councilman Cohen is very happy about.

And I'm thrilled to say that Alicia will soon be sharing her talents with our community

a lot more, as we hope we'll be taking over the operations of a couple of other sites

in the city, providing safe, dignified alternatives to the streets for our homeless neighbors

and helping them toward a better life.

Alicia, thank you for everything you do for our most vulnerable neighbors.

I thought it would be fitting to have you give the invocation as we head into the holiday season and give gratitude for all of our

Blessings and think about how we can care for and love our neighbors. Alicia, I'll turn it over to you

Thank you mayor

We hope stands for we help other people excel

This organization was started in

1999 by pastor Paul and Cheryl Baines

It started out as an all-volunteer nonprofit to reduce recidivism reduce truancy and

provide a hot and a cot at our warming shelter during inclement weather. Today

we hope operates five shelters in three Bay Area counties, one RV safe parking

program, a food bank, Dignity on Wheels our mobile hygiene program, and Hope Jobs

our job training program. Through the years we have had the honor to see

hundreds of people exit homelessness and return to self-sufficiency. It is a

a blessing to meet people in the most difficult time in their lives and have

the honor to watch them rebuild their hopes and dreams with the assistance of

case managers. This holiday season I want to encourage all of you to do something

to give back to the most vulnerable members of our community. This can be

something as simple as taking a moment to stop when you see an unhoused resident

and engage in a brief conversation. It can be something like carrying hygiene

kits or snack packs in your car to help meet a small need and wish them a happy holiday

season or something bold like treating them to a meal.

Whatever you do, please remember kindness costs us nothing, but it means everything

to the marginalized members of our community.

Please bow your heads with me.

Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessing upon this council.

Inspire them to listen with open hearts,

to seek understanding, and to make decisions

that uplift the vulnerable and benefit everyone

in our community.

May compassion and truth guide their deliberations today.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Alicia.

Appreciate you doing today's invocation

at our last council meeting of the year.

We are on to ceremonial items.

Council Member Kamei and Council Member Duan,

if you would join me at the podium,

we will recognize Happy Hollow Foundation,

the happiest place in San Jose.

It is truly an honor to recognize and commend

the Happy Hollow Foundation for its outstanding commitment to our community, our families,

and our children.

The Happy Hollow Foundation plays a vital role supporting Happy Hollow Park and Zoo

by expanding access to education, conservation, and enriching experiences for all visitors

of all ages.

Through its dedication to educational programming, animal care, and inclusive community initiatives,

The foundation helps ensure that Happy Hollow remains a welcoming and inspiring space of

learning, play, and connection.

The foundation's work reflects a strong belief in the importance of environmental stewardship,

early childhood education, and equitable access to cultural and recreational resources.

We especially want to recognize the foundation's partnership with city departments, educators,

volunteers and donors whose collective efforts strengthen the impact of this beloved community

institution.

Because of the Foundation's leadership and generosity, countless families and children

are able to experience hands-on learning, develop curiosity about wildlife and conservation,

and create lasting memories.

One of their biggest accomplishments this year was the capital campaign and updating

of the Danny the Dragon ride.

For so many, we know that Danny is more than just a mascot.

Danny is a figure that fosters a magical experience for all visitors.

And we have him here today.

I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Happy Hollow Foundation for its continued

contributions, services, vision, and dedication to our community.

I want to ask Rhonda Norris, who is the Executive Director, to say a few words.

Thank you, Councilmember Kameh for that introduction.

Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the City Council.

Happy Holidays from Happy Hollow.

Yes, my name is Rhonda Nurse and I am the Executive Director of Happy Hollow Foundation.

And for 67 years, the foundation has been dedicated to our city's zoo.

I'd like to thank my staff, staff, Wade,

and my board of directors represented

by Kami Van Kuren, our board chair.

Our board dedicates their time, they volunteer,

and they give out of their own pockets.

And we do this work because we love Happy Hollow,

and we want Happy Hollow to be a place

for every constituent and everyone in this room

to experience the joy that only a day at Happy Hollow

can bring, and our vision is truly to foster pride

and involvement so that Happy Hollow remains a community asset that is highly valued and

accessible to all.

Just this month we had our sixth season of our Title I educational enrichment program

in which we serve Title I school students.

We served nearly 5,000 older adults through a senior SEPARI program.

We hosted a Friendsgiving for over 200 foster youth and families enrolled in Dependency

Wellness Court.

And as Councilmember mentioned, we embarked on our very first capital campaign and raised

over a half a million dollars to renovate the Danny the Dragon ride.

And so many of the Councilmembers were here to celebrate with us for that exciting ribbon

cutting.

So thank you very much.

As we look to the future and we create a new operating agreement with our partners, thank

you Councilmembers for all that you do.

Thank you for our partners with Happy Hollow Park and Zoo.

We are committed as a foundation to be good partners,

and we're excited for what the future holds.

This commendation, we are very grateful for it,

and we want you all to be invited to come to Happy Hollow.

Our doors are open for you.

Thank you so much, and on behalf of our mayor,

he will be presenting the commendation

on behalf of Council Member Duan, myself,

and the entire city council.

I also want to ask my colleagues to come down for the photo

because we've all had really great Happy Hollow experiences.

So whoever would like to come down, I would encourage that.

Rhonda, I'm gonna give this to you to hold,

we'll put you in the middle.

In the middle.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

Thank you all very much.

We don't wanna buy you a lot.

I know.

You should be a friend.

Yeah.

We're trying, we're trying.

There we go.

Oh, you can't mark any of that.

It's okay.

There we go.

There we go.

There we go.

There we go.

Yay.

Thank you.

thank you so much for everything it's good to see you

all right thank you all especially danny for being here uh councilman duan you can stay here we are

going to recognize the venerable Tik Fathlu and I'll invite our guests down as

well and where did councilmember Dewan go oh there he is okay

Today we are honored to recognize Venerable Tit Phap Lu for his faithful service as an

abbot of Yilak Temple, for his long-standing commitment to the Vietnamese American community

in the city of San Jose.

Under his leadership, the temple has been more than a place of worship.

It has been a center for cultural connection, bringing families together through Lunar New

Year Mid-Autumn Festival and other community gatherings that help preserve Vietnamese tradition

across generations.

General Thich Phật Lu has also placed a strong emphasis on education and care, supporting

a Vietnamese language school for children and ensuring elders are not forgotten through

a senior nutritional program that provides meals, companionship, and dignity.

In addition, the Temple weekly grocery distribution and social services continue to meet real needs

for family throughout our community.

Through his compassion, service, and leadership, Ven. Thich Pháp Lu has strengthened not only

the Vietnamese community, but the broader San Jose community as well, and we are proud

to recognize his impact today.

Thank you, the mayor and all the council members, especially council member Bieng Dong.

He is in my district and he is one of my longtime friends.

and it's my honor to be here to get this recommendation.

I have been in San Jose almost 25 years, but the service I provided to the community and

all the other people are 18 years.

So right now at the present time, we're serving 300 cinnamon meals a day, so five days a week.

And that helped a lot for the community. And I know thank you for all the support I got from

the county and the city of San Jose, especially the protection because I'm very close to the

wetland to the jungle so we have we had to face a lot of problem in the homeland jungle so thanks

to the protection from the city of policemen and all the members pay much attention to thank you

for recommending me my contribution to the people thank you thank you and now the mayor will present

the accommodation

All right next I'd like to invite councilmember Ortiz to join me at the podium where we will recognize and proclaim

December 2025 is Native American Heritage Month.

Members of the tribe would like to join us down here, please.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor.

Today we stand on the unceded ancestral Muwekma Ohlone land.

We are here to acknowledge history, a culture that is still thriving,

and a sovereignty that cannot be erased.

The Muwekma Ohlone tribe has been here long before this city, long before this state,

and long before this nation.

Their story is not just part of our past, it is part of our present and our future,

and it deserves visibility, respect, and advocacy.

This proclamation reflects our city's commitment to acknowledge the long-lasting impacts of

of colonialism, honoring indigenous people and their ancestral homelands, and uplifting

indigenous voices in our civic life today and into the future.

I want to express my deep gratitude to Chairwoman Nijmeh for her leadership, advocacy, and

her partnership.

Her work strengthens the understanding of history, advances visibility for the Muwekma

Ohlone tribe and reminds us of our responsibility to move from acknowledgement to action.

So it's my honor alongside our mayor to present the proclamation to the chairwoman Charlene

Nijme who accepts it on behalf of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe in recognition of Native American

Heritage Month and in honor of the enduring culture and sovereignty and contributions

of Muwekma Ohlone people.

It was also a great honor and partnership with the tribe to raise the tribal flag in

front of City Hall for the first time in modern history.

Before the mayor presents the proclamation, I would like to invite the tribal chairwoman

to say a few words.

Good day in our native Chochenyo language.

Good afternoon, esteemed Mayor Mahan, members of the San Jose City Council, distinguished

guests, members of the Ohlone community, and all our relatives here today.

Today as we raise the flag of the Mwakma Ohlone, we affirm more than just a symbol.

We proclaim the living truth.

We are the original people of this land.

But today, with more than 600 enrolled members, we continue the struggle to reaffirm our sovereignty.

The federal government acknowledged that our tribe was federally recognized and never terminated,

but because of the past administrative errors and present-day politics, we remain in limbo.

Congress can correct this mistake, just like they are doing right now.

They are correcting the status of the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina.

And just like in 2019, they corrected the status of the Little Shell tribe of Chippewa

Indians in Montana.

And I want to remind Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, who wrote a letter to this very body suggesting

Congress has never overturned a negative declaration of the BIA.

But she herself signed the bill that reversed the BIA negative determination of the Little

Shell Band of Chippewa Indians in Montana.

Yes, Congress has plenary authority in Indian Affairs and can overturn the BIA's negative

determination and they have done so many times in the past.

This year Union City and Livermore have both passed a resolution requesting Congress to

act to restore our status.

Many other cities are also planning to pass similar resolutions in the next coming months.

Although I am grateful for today, for this proclamation, and for raising our flag here

at the City Hall, I must continue to ask all of you of a resolution requesting Congress

to restore our status. MoWACMA needs your support now, San Jose, and you should be the leaders

on this issue. San Jose needs to show the federal government that you support your local

tribe. It's been a very long road for us, but I believe that justice bends to persistence,

politics. And so we will continue to press and press our case and we hope you will join

our cities in our homeland in supporting the restoration of our status.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm usually extremely strict about limiting ceremonials to three items, but last meeting

of the year, I'm going to exercise my mayoral prerogative to add one special one that's

come up recently, and I want to invite Council Member Mulcahy to join me.

And are the Garcias able to join us as well?

I'd like to recognize and invite the Garcia family to come down.

On Black Friday this year, I'll wait for them to get here.

Welcome.

This is Irene and Martin and their son.

On Black Friday this year, 100,000 people came through Valley Fair.

Unfortunately, all 100,000 eventually made it home,

but not without a tremendous amount of chaos and fear.

A couple dozen of those people were kept safe by Irene and Martin Garcia, who opened their

home, invited their fellow residents inside, and showed us what humanity looks like in

the midst of chaos.

Irene and Martin, thank you.

Thank you for opening your door.

Thank you for making so many people feel calm and safe in such a terrible moment.

you for exemplifying what it means to be a good neighbor. It would have been easy to turn off the

lights and lock the door that day when thousands of people began running through your neighborhood,

but you all chose differently. You chose to help, and for that we are deeply grateful.

In a moment when it's so easy to feel divided, we need more people like Irene and Martin who bring

us together. They have reminded us how to care for each other. Thank you both. I

want to invite Council Member Mulcahy to say a few words and then we do have a

commendation for the Garcia family. Council Member. Thank You Mayor. Today we

have the honor of recognizing two extraordinary District 6 residents, Irene

and Martin Garcia, whose response during really one of the most frightening times

in San Jose showed remarkable humanity and courage. Irene and Martin stepped up

when our community needed them most, showing compassion, generosity, and a

deep sense of responsibility to others. The Garcia family provided refuge to

many in a moment of fear without hesitation. I think you've seen the

videos. Today, their open door stands as a lasting symbol of courage, kindness, and

and hope. Thank you, Irene, Martin, and the Garcia family for stepping up for District

6, San Jose, and Santa Clara. When we first heard this story, we knew it was important

to lift up the Garcias and formally recognize them. I am grateful for the Mayor's partnership

in coordinating this commendation, so on behalf of the City of San Jose, we recognize the

Garcia family for their extraordinary humanity, courage, and selflessness.

First of all, thank you, Mr. Councilman and Mayor, for recognizing my family.

It really, truly means a lot.

We were never expecting anything like this.

I also want to thank our family and friends for coming and supporting us.

I have some friends and family up there, my colleagues from EQ1 Real Estate.

As a real estate agent, I think that was the most substantial open house I've ever hosted.

But I want to just say that my wife and I are being recognized quite a bit for this

whole thing through all the interviews but I want to make sure that my boys they also are recognized

this is my son Nathaniel they were so gracious and kind and loving that making sure everyone was safe

in the house as well my other son is at school right now but I want to make sure that they're

mentioned that we mentioned that and Irene and I never really wanted to be recognized publicly

but we wanted to recognize the fact that in our home at some point these people were terrorized

and afraid for their lives and they sought refuge in our home when God put us there to be able to

help them with that but at some moment we realized there were so many diverse people it was so diverse

and there were so many different races and religions in our home at one time although it was a horrible

reason for them being in my home there was this level of peace and togetherness that togetherness

that i've never ever experienced before and it was a beautiful thing so we just want to make sure that

people take care of each other we hope that the same thing would be done for my wife and my kids

and we just hope that people are kind and loving to one another may god bless you all and merry

Christmas to you all thank you very much

All right, thank you all again.

That concludes our ceremonial items, and we're on to orders of the day.

let me first turn to colleagues and ask if any

colleagues have changes they'd like to recommend to the printed agenda

okay I'm not seeing any we do have a request

from the city manager's office and city attorney's office they would like to

defer item 10.1

A so I'm going to go ahead and

ask for a motion or if there are any questions on that

we'll take up that action and then we do have an adjournment but why don't why

don't we go ahead and move to defer thank you appreciate it okay I'm not

seeing any other hands Tony do we have any public comment on orders of the day

I have no cards okay thank you let's come back to the council to vote again

that's on the deferral of item 10.1 a

I'm still waiting on one.

Everybody check your screen, please.

Do we have every...

There we go.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, Tony.

All right.

We do have an adjournment today.

Today's meeting will be adjourned in memory of Mr. Locke Vue, founder of the Viet Museum,

who passed away on November 29, 2025.

As a driving force behind the museum's creation and growth, he helped preserve the history

of the Boat people and the Republic of Vietnam for future generations.

He also founded the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center and was an author, dedicating

his life to lifting refugees and giving them a voice.

He leaves a legacy of service and deep impact in the Vietnamese community and far beyond.

Councilmember Duan will tell us more.

Thank you, Mayor.

Mr. Vu Vang Luuk was born in 1933 in Nam Den, Vietnam.

He graduated from the Dalat Military Academy and served with distinction in the Army of

the Republic of Vietnam.

During his military career, he held several key leadership positions, including Colonel

in the General Logistics Department and Chief of Planning Department of the Joint General

Staff.

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Mr. Locke and his family resettled in the United States

and made San Jose their home.

In 1980, he founded the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center, known as IRCC, to provide

English classes, job training, housing assistance, and citizenship support to thousands of refugees

beginning a new life here in America.

His lifelong commitment to preserving Vietnamese history led him to establish the Viet Museum,

also known as the Museum of the Boat People and the Republic of Vietnam.

Over more than three decades, he collected artifacts, documents, and stories that honor

that sacrifice of the Vietnamese people and the journey to freedom.

The Witt Museum opened in 2007 and remained the first and only museum of its kind in the

world.

Mr. Love, also known by his pen name, Zhao Ji, was a prolific writer whose work reflect

the resilience, memory, and spirit of the Vietnamese diaspora.

We recognize Mr. Vu Vang Lo for his legacy of service, cultural preservation, and community

building.

His work ensured that future generations will understand where we came from, what we endure,

what we contribute to this nation.

We honor his life, his dedication, and his lasting impact on the Vietnamese American

community.

At this point, I'd be honored to introduce Mr. Min Le, his son-in-law, to speak on behalf

of his family.

Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, City Manager, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of

My family, thank you for today's memoriam

and for recognizing the lifetime contributions

of my father-in-law, Mr. Vu Vang Lop,

as a servant leader to his community

and to the city of San Jose as a whole.

We receive your heartfelt recognition with gratitude

Over many decades, this city and its leaders have supported his work, stood alongside him at important moments,

and gave space for a refugee community to tell its story with dignity.

For that, we are truly thankful.

Vietnamese spiritual tradition teaches

that during the first 49 days after passing

the spirit is in transition

I'm not a superstitious person

I got educated in the United States

but at 4 o'clock this morning

his spirit woke me and instructed me

for what to say today

and at this moment I actually do believe

his spirit is with all of us

in this chamber

and with all those across the city

who are watching

I would like to invite his presence to be with us

and all of you

in the chamber

who are here to honor him

I invite you to stand with me

During this sacred time, the family's wish is very simple, that we help his spirit release

the worldly attachments and find peace.

And that IRCC and the Viet Museum, the work that he devoted his life to,

the refugee families he cares so deeply for

throughout this beloved city

and their history, heritage, and culture

be treated with care, integrity, and respect.

Before he fell gravely ill

and again while in skilled nursing care,

he wrote two final reflections.

The families asked that these be entered into the public record

and shared with the community.

These are not political documents.

They are the words of an old soldier,

a refugee, and a community builder,

putting his affairs in order

and preparing to go into the next world.

These are his final testimonies to us.

I invite everyone to read them

because when you read them,

you will know best how to honor him in the spirit of sincerity and goodwill.

Thank you for honoring him.

Thank you for standing with us and with his spirit in this sacred moment.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for coming on the 22nd

to honor my father-in-law, to comfort his family,

and for reassuring the community that his legacy will be preserved and protected.

Thank you everyone.

Thank you Mr. Menlai and we just want to extend our deepest condolences to you

your entire family and all of friends community members impacted by this

terrible loss but a great legacy and sort of contributions that live on

beyond mr. fuck foods life so thank you so much for being here and I wish you

all the best through this difficult period we are going to continue now on

to our closed session report and I'll turn it over to our city attorney there's

nothing to report out of the session today okay thank you Susanna all right

next is the consent calendar which is often as is often the cases is pretty

full here at the end of the year so we do have I'm aware of a number of items

folks would like to pull I'd like to pull items 2.17 and 2.18 I know we have a

couple of memos on item 2.18 that will obviously take up as we discuss that

item I believe councilman Mulcahy would like to pull item 2.21 and councilman

Condellas has asked to pull item 2.27 before we jump into any items is there

anything I'm missing? Are those the four, I believe that's four items we're going to pull for discussion?

Okay. No one's flagging me down, so I'm going to assume I've got that right. Okay. So just on 2.17,

and I will try to keep this quick. Eric Sullivan, if you don't mind making your way down just for

the sake of efficiency, we've got a question or so for, question two for you here. I think it's

great that we're extending our contract with the PUN group for additional oversight capacity.

Just today alone on this agenda for everyone's context, we're approving

$22.1 million worth of grant agreements for various

homeless programs run

primarily by external nonprofit

partners. So Eric, can you just

describe for us briefly the range of audit and compliance activities the PUN group?

uh engages in on our behalf and how we monitor that all public funds are being used appropriately

yes so eric silly one director of housing thank you mayor for the question so in the past what

we've done with prior contract work with the pun group that they pulled the last set of 52 contracts

out of the roughly over 100 total contracts of the department operates and looked at a period between

2023 through sorry 2022 through 2024 and that was the initial set of review this set of scope of

work will be pulling a balanced set of those contracts which is also a mix of internal sort

of administration for the interim housing program as well as federal side contracts for ongoing

compliance can i just ask and i hate to bring up such a negative topic as we end to the holidays

but given the news coming out of Minnesota allegations of maybe misuse of funds with

pandemic dollars that we've heard in various places including in California how rigorous

is the audit function because it's one thing to have a contract and then get a report that

a service was provided it's another thing to actually know that it happened in the quantity

and quality of it and I'm just I just want to make sure we feel we have sufficient controls

in place and just curious a little more about the level of auditing that the PUN group is

able to provide or if that may be a topic for the council to take up in the new year.

Okay.

So the level of review that the PUN group provides tracks along our reviews.

So it begins with desk audits.

It does a rigorous sampling of existing contracts and performance as well as date of review.

The third, it gets into invoice compliance.

And then the fourth item it then looks at comparable contracts in order to see the vendors performance

Compared to other similar vendors within the city an initial report is then issued to staff

Staff then reviews then a report goes out to the vendor the vendors allowed to provide comment

Try to provide additional information as needed to fill any gaps a second review is then done in order to ensure

that the holistic set of challenges and opportunities for improvement are found

in the last set of 52 contracts that they found all 52 had some version of

additional compliance that needed on a varying scale from severe to just sort

of missing some paperwork that needed to be filled out so it's a pretty vigorous

review that tracks along the work that staff does it's just given the sheer

volume of contracts and the expansion of the shelter system our work with federal

funds this is just adding an added capacity okay the last question for me

on this item do they have the capacity to send people out physically into the

field to better understand the delivery of service yes depending on the severity

of the initial set of findings they will send individuals out into the field to

do actual one-on-one interviews and reviews that's subject to and it's

included in the contract so the staff determination about whether the severity

of what the finding is substantiates in-person interviews okay I just again I

mean disturbing to hear not that it's I don't want to pick on one case but some

of the the early reports out of Minnesota we'll see how that plays out

but I just want to make sure when we're using our hard-earned taxpayer dollars

to provide a meal to pay for a meal to pay for an hour of counseling that it's

actually happening and that we're serving the people we intend to serve

appreciate the the answers on that don't go too far I suspect we're gonna have

some questions for you on the next item colleagues did anyone since we're going

sequentially here have additional questions or comments on item 2.17 I'm

not seeing anyone okay so thanks Eric we're gonna move on then and I have a

couple comments on item 2.18 we have a couple memos here so I want to thank

Jennifer Lee Eric Matt Lesh everyone who has done tremendous work this year to

expand our interim housing system we are the only city on the west coast this year to open over

1 000 new beds and see the level of reduction on sheltered homelessness and as was just announced

today reduction in death on our streets we are down 23 year over year on the number of people

who've died outside still a long way to go don't want to celebrate prematurely we still have

thousands of neighbors who will be out on the streets through this holiday season

but we've we've made some real progress financially we're at a point where we're

going to be shifting from system expansion to system optimization we can't

just build another thousand beds unfortunately our budget does not allow

for that so a lot of work being done across the board including better system

integration with our partners at the county advocacy in Sacramento things we

can save for another day but as we think about system optimization and cost

effectiveness I did want to comment on item 2.18 and we have a group memo that

builds on work that's already underway but I think frankly needs to be a top

priority for our city leadership and our nonprofit partners so I want to thank

vice mayor Foley council member Cohen council member Mulcahy and council

member Casey for working together on this group memo so first well today's

item extends grant agreements through June 30th of 2026 we cannot wait until

then to realize cost savings and operational efficiencies we all have a

sense of the budget outlook it's going to be critically important that we

accelerate that work Eric you've talked to us about centralizing property

management security and food and I just sorry I don't have a question for you

quite yet but just want to prioritize make sure we prioritize and accelerate

that effort I apologize so the resulting cost savings can inform the next budget

planning cycle that we're about to enter into and then so that's part of what you

see in the recommendations here and then second we're asking city staff to

develop a dashboard a public facing dashboard similar to the excellent

utilization dashboard that publicly reports on use of these beds we've

created and exit data across our interim housing portfolio. I think it's really

important for transparency, accountability, and policy and budget insight and

council direction to know when people exit our system what those outcomes are,

whether or not they require further support and subsidy in their next step,

when they're declining to move on, the things that we've outlined in our group

memo and then finally as we explore additional ways to optimize and improve

the system our memo asked city staff to report back with a summary of acuity

levels of those we're serving employment and income and permanent housing

rejections which unfortunately we're sometimes seeing and we're gonna need to

figure out how to manage given that the truth is interim is meant to be interim

and one person per year in the interim system costs taxpayers about $25,000 so

we need to focus on those throughput numbers.

And then we speak in the memo to engaging those with lived experience, as we always do,

but to continue that practice to inform our work.

I also just want to acknowledge and thank Councilman Campos for her memo.

And I support the general efforts, though.

I think it's a little early to direct an MBA, but we can get into that in the discussion.

So, Eric, the first question I do have for you, I have a couple questions,

and then I'm going to turn to colleagues.

There is a lot of work underway.

Can you just provide a brief update on where we are in this work to find cost efficiencies

and optimize the system we've built?

Yes.

So Eric Sullivan, Director of Housing.

So first, we have completed the first RFP in this series, which was Security RFP.

So we'll be moving to the selected contractor beginning in January and rolling that out

across the sites as we have to first amend the contract then push the service out so we'll be

doing that in phases and that has already recognized just over 20 of savings on the current

cost uh structure forward two we have moved forward with the food rfp we're reviewing those

bids right now and we'll be entering into negotiations in january getting into the

processes for best and final offers with again the target being to begin rolling that out to the

sites with centralized sort of food delivery through two or three providers by roughly march

of next year and third we just posted the rfp for property management so that'll be up either up

today or tomorrow up here soon that will then allow us to centralize the cost structure regarding

ongoing maintenance at the different sites we know what the baseline target

is for existing cost structure and how we can achieve the 20% reductions on

that as well the fourth item is related to caseload management as we're

continuing to roll out our collaboration of services providing direct services

of the different sites we're gonna be start throttling down some of our case

management I'm sorry going the opposite throttling down the values increasing

the case management loads on the providers as we're having more direct

services being brought on site so comprehensively we think that for set of

the Chica goals would allow us to reduce our costs and hit our targets okay

thanks for that context and the spirit of the group memo is to kind of just

build on that ongoing work accelerated as I mentioned and then provide some

public reporting okay here's I would like to get a motion on the floor if we

can on the group memo and then have some discussion about the additional requests

and recommendations from councilman compost that came in in a single signature memo yesterday

so i'm going to first go to vice mayor and then come to councilmember compost and see where we

land on a motion that hopefully integrates and is aligned with what staff thinks is feasible so i

want to just have a little bit of a discussion here but i'm going to turn to vice mayor

first on the the staff the item coming from staff and the group memo and then i'll turn to council

member campus great Thank You mayor actually I'm really excited to see this

item come through because it actually means many of us our sites are moving

forward including Cherry Avenue and I want to point out the contribution that

Good Samaritan Hospital made last year the commitment they made to fund

affordable housing and the Cherry EIH in to the total dollars of three million

this memo require allows for two million of that to go to Cherry and offset some

of the operation costs so I want to give a public recognition to Good Samaritan

for truly giving back to the community and helping support the the neighborhood

I should also note that they gave blankets to each of the individual units at Cherry Avenue and will continue to support Cherry Avenue.

It is exciting news that we are opening up or will have about 2,000 EIH beds by the end of this year in early January with Cerrone coming online.

That's exciting.

and all but but we need to know that we're being successful and we need to

know that when they're exiting the EIH we know this is temporary they come from

our mot our hotels they go to the EIH and then to affordable housing or

something more permanent and we need to track that and notice know how

successful they are and how successful our strategies are so that's one of the

reasons I signed on on the memo is that it really detailed all of those things

that were important to us so with that I will move the staff recommendation and

our memo which includes the signatures of mayor Mahan councilmember Cohen

Mulcahy and Casey great thank you okay I want to turn to

counselor compost and I think what would be helpful councilmember is maybe we can

discuss how you want to add elements and just my one caution would be to confirm

that we can collect all the data without too much additional work and I'm a

little concerned about adding an MBA that could have a fiscal a new fiscal

impact given the outlook versus the emphasis on finding cost reductions but

happy to open I'll give the give you the floor thank you mayor I'll get to that

when I make a substitute motion and really want to thank your Brown Act group

for submitting a thoughtful memo last week. To your point about the data that

we collect and the feedback that we solicit from individuals with lived

experience, it's all to inform us and the decisions that we make as we build out

and improve our city's shelter network. So additionally I want to thank city

staff, Eric Sullivan, Jim Shannon for helping me and my staff prepare the memo

that we've submitted. There are some edits that I will make given staff's

recommendations but truly I am grateful for the incredible work and the

tremendous effort of city administration as we transition from rapid development

to system optimization and cost reduction. So based on the recommendations

from staff there is one change I'd like to make to my memo. In place of

recommendation four I recommend instead that the city manager report back to

City Council in quarter three of fiscal year 26-27. Is that right? I think that might be 25-26.

Yeah, quarter three of fiscal year 25-26 with an assessment of no encampment zones and the

city's homeless outreach and engagement programs, including a budget component as needed to ensure

that these programs are sustained at existing sites and expanded as new priority locations

are identified. This will give staff time to think about resource implications related

to staffing and resourcing with the no encampment zones as we have committed to our residents.

And with that, I am making a substitute motion to approve the memo from the Mayor, Vice Mayor

Foley, Council Members Cohen, Mulcahy, and Casey, as well as my memo and replacing recommendation

again with direction to the city manager to return to council in quarter three a

fiscal year 25 26 with the assessment I referenced earlier great thanks for that

and then so I appreciate the revision to rec 4 I think that addresses the concern

I had I know we're not in the Brown Act so couldn't discuss but that's great and

then just finally Eric can you before we vote on the motion can you tell us and

I'll turn to council member Ortiz just on item 3 if that's feasible to add all

of that to the dashboard and if there's a timeline here we should be aware of

yes so in councilmember compost's memo the breakdown just a little demographic

data length of stay percentage of individuals and state mandated

requirements that's an existing data that we collect so we can certainly add

that in great okay let me go to councilmember Ortiz

thank you mayor I want to thank both the mayor's Brown Act and councilmember

Campos for both of their memos I support both of them councilmember

Campos's memo does an important job of strengthening our emergency and term

housing system by pairing compassion with accountability by calling for clear

outcome metrics transparency through a real-time dashboard and feedback from

people with lived experience this memo helps ensure we are not just investing

dollars but delivering results this memo builds on the work already underway

asked the right questions and give us gives us the tools to make smarter more

equitable decisions and so for those reasons I look forward to the vote and

we'll be supporting the motion great any other questions comments okay so we've

got the staff rec the group memo items one two and three with the modification

removing the request for an MBA but coming back in Q3 of this fiscal year to

counsel or a committee I forgot what you said for council council's all okay all

right let's say any other questions or comments can I yeah councilmember

Campos can you read the item number four again I don't think I completely amendment for

recommendation four yes so the replacement language for recommendation

four is direction to the city manager to return to council in quarter three of

fiscal year 25 26 with an assessment of no encampment zones and the city's

homeless outreach and engagement programs including a budget component as needed to

ensure that these programs are sustained at existing sites and expanded as new

priority locations are identified can I ask a clarifying question and so when you

say the budget component are you anticipating that the city manager would

come back with a budget request and that we we would be approving it at that point in q3

it's up to the manager's discretion i was i was thinking that we would be doing an information

memo yeah i think yeah so i think we can do an informational memorandum and get council that type

of information one of the things we were just in front of all of you in your council committees

on the council focus areas and kind of that last slide showing how this process will work next

year so coming out of the mayor's march message of you know assuming reducing unsheltered homelessness

is still a council focus area one of the things that we'll be doing is getting that feedback

what's the direction and starting to build out what those goals the change initiatives are which

you know we've and you know jennifer has us working on on optimizing this system already

so we'll be building that into the budget and then when study sessions start as well

showing all of the direction we've taken today all the direction through the

council focus area in the context of the budget and what's achievable you know

with those dashboards as well so council will also see it then as well as part of

the budget process that's really baked in okay so given that and given that it's

word that's just before well the mayor's March message will come out by that

point real theoretically and anything regarding this would have a budget

impact related to possible staffing and other issues or is it your

recommendation Jennifer that it be an info memo rather than an action item to

counsel what are you recommending I'm recommending an information memo so

them that that information can be taken into context with all of the other

budget policy work you'll be contemplating as part of them March budget message

okay in in in light of that then I'd like to request a friendly amendment to

change item 4 to a to an info memo to be submitted to council in the same time

period I'm okay with that friendly amendment thank you thank you sorry all

right apparently we have a few seconders okay councilman Candela's is okay with

it yeah I appreciate the catch on that so I think that clarification is helpful

and just as a reminder of folks we will kick off our budget discussions with a

a priority setting session that I'll be bringing to the council in February and

we'll start that conversation about priorities in in a process that allows

us to think holistically about a budget that I'll just flag for folks is is

unfortunately gonna involve a lot less of what do we hope to spend more money

on versus what do we hope to protect and not cut but we will take that up as we

start with priority setting in February I'll bring that item as an opportunity

for the council to give me initial input on priorities

that can inform my March budget message,

and then we'll get into the process,

including all of the budget study sessions

that the city manager's team puts together

as we get into trade-offs and costs.

And through that process, of course,

we can request MBAs and get those along the way.

Okay, so we've got a motion.

I think it's clear, I don't see any other hands.

Tony, do we have public comment?

And sorry, we're just to keep everybody clear.

We're on consent.

And we had a motion on, this is item 2.18.

Right.

It's been moved.

We've got memos.

Do we have public comment on item 2.18?

I have no comments on this specific item.

Great.

And then we're going to come back for the rest of consent.

So let's vote on item 2.18.

And the motion from Council Member Campos.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay.

Thank you.

Alright two other items that were pulled for question and comment next is item

2.2 one and I'm going to turn to councilmember Mulcahy

Thank You mayor

Just want to make a few brief comments and recognize a few people on this item

After a long and meaningful community engagement process at long last the city has selected a new partner

to bring much-needed programs, services, and activities to the Gardner Community Center in District 6.

I want to thank Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services Department for leading a thoughtful and thorough RFP process.

As a council member, the wall between our office and PR&S is, while frustrating, valuable.

We were not part of the process part of the review of the RFPs

Couldn't even look at the RFP before it went out

And so I just want to recognize that as a first-year council member while that was frustrating. I I get it

But I also want to thank the Gardner neighborhood association and residents for their patience and their continued advocacy

see the center was closed during the Great Recession due to citywide budget

cuts and while limited programming has occurred over the years the community

has waited a very very long time for this moment I see some leading neighbors of

the community here today Daniel Peralta I'll the guy in the hat who's waving but

also Patti who I think you know when I was a candidate running for office spent

That's a pretty significant amount of time in the neighborhood and at meetings.

The passion that you bring is also evidenced by the letter that she submitted today.

I just want to recognize that they're here today.

So today I'm pleased to welcome Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County as the recommended partner.

Their deep commitment to community service makes them a strong fit for Gardner.

With this partnership, the neighborhood will finally have a fully activated community hub

serving children, families, and seniors.

We are also grateful to Google for its generous support, including a one-time $1 million operational

grant that will help launch services, strengthen community programming, and bring the center

to life.

We are also pleased to have, I think, Fred Buzzo here on behalf of Catholic Charities.

He's the director of their advocacy and community engagement group.

He's here to represent the organization.

And for background and clarity, this recommendation comes out of a competitive RFP process that

I referred to.

The city received 26 proposals, 21 met the minimum qualifications, and full evaluation

and review of two protests occurred during this process.

So it's been through a lot, and it's moving forward now with confidence.

Importantly, a contract still needs to be executed PRNS.

I know you've got that at the top of your list.

So today's action authorizes the intent to award a future agreement.

And I look forward to seeing this work move forward and the greater community

and the Gardner Community Center finally activated in the way

that the Gardner community deserves.

So with that, I'd like to move item 2.2.1.

Could I ask before we get a second that maybe we hear the final question,

take up the final item and get a motion on consent as a whole?

I'm totally game for that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sorry to interrupt.

No worries.

Okay, great.

I'm going to turn, and you guys can do the motion together,

but I'm going to turn to Council Member Condellas to offer his question and comment on 2.27,

and then we'll take it as a whole.

Yes, Vice Mayor.

I want to comment on the Gardner item.

Sure.

If I could be brief.

prior to being a city council member I was a school board member for 14 years representing

the Willow Glen area which represents the Gardner Academy that's right across the street

I'm really excited to see that the Gardner community center is going to be reactivated

the children of the school district and the school nearby needs that support and involvement

of the community so I'm 100% supportive of this I just wanted to weigh in and

share a little commitment on where how I became all involved in Gardner element

Gardner Academy thanks thanks vice mayor and thanks council member Mulcahy for

your comments I'm going to turn to council member Candela's to comment or

question on item 2.27 and then we'll work out a motion on consent as a whole

hopefully up to you all thank you mayor you know i just had a few short remarks uh from the memo

duran construction construction group um was the uh initial lowest bidder uh however did not receive

the award recommendations this is the this item 222 27. um and the the memo states that duran was

deemed non-responsive for failing to submit the correct compliance documentation with their

their initial bid package, which they subsequently submitted the correct certificate, but were

still deemed nonresponsive per the bid process.

Curious from staff if they could talk a little bit about this and provide just some insight

into this specific process, if you will.

Good afternoon, Councilmember.

Good afternoon.

Sorry.

Matlash, Director of Public Works.

So, SPENCON is the recommended awarded contractor because they are the lowest responsive and

responsible contractor duran construction was not responsive in this bid because of two items one

they did not supply the required documents and there was a subsequent email that we allow them

24 hours after the bid was submitted we sent an equal that day we sent an email saying this

document is not in you have 24 hours to submit the document they did not submit that document

respond to the email secondarily we required three example projects or

sample projects that express the experience that they did this work they

submitted two projects that met the threshold of what was required for this

particular project so for those two reasons they were not responsive to this

bid got it and you know I totally understand the need to have a level

playing field and thus why the CARB requirement is a standard. So you know

contractors aren't utilizing old equipment that historically is heavy in

greenhouse gas emissions and you know that that creates an unfair advantage to

those folks and those contractors or suppliers that rely on this old

equipment. So I see the need for it and and I appreciate your note about

letting letting the awardee know that they could rectify correct within a 24

hour window on a on what appears to be and you all are the experts in the

procurement process a document or like a form a form issue or form question

because the way I see it they did submit the certificate but it was just after

that window and and it was it was it was because of that and obviously the the

the I guess experience qualification was was the second was the second piece and

you know I did I did also want to note that there is a according to the

middle there's a wage theft a wage violation for spend con construction

while the violation did not meet or exceed a threshold for mandatory

disqualification it does give me some pause and I wanted to just note that in

that and you know I obviously appreciate all the work of our businesses and

and contractors to help us do the work in our city but you know as I've

previously mentioned I believe that you know our a more San Jose focus in a more

San Jose centered local preference policy is in order for this exact

specification this exact situation and I just wanted to take this opportunity to

uplift that issue because if you Google spend con construction it says Sunny

bill but their headquarters is in San Ramon so that being said I believe you

you motioned for the approval of the entire consent calendar with council

member okay sounds right that sounds right okay yeah and I will second that

motion great thank you and then we'll go thank you comes from Condellas we'll

turn back to councilman okay for a final thought well I'd be remiss I just wanted

to make sure our district 6 office has been all in with Gardner and just want

to specifically point out Karina Castro on our team who has really gone above

and beyond and just want to recognize her a bit so with that we'll go to our

vote okay thank you very much Tony we have a motion for the remainder of

consent and one to ask if we have public comment before we take that vote I have

six cards so I'm gonna call your name when you hear your name please go ahead

and come down to the microphone you do not have to speak in the order you are called pascal garcia

fred buzzo daniel peralta patricia

one doesn't have a name it just says durin construction group and then angel luna come on down

Go ahead.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

My name is Fred Buzo.

I'm the Director of Advocacy and Community Engagement for Catholic Charities.

This is the division in which the Gardner Community Center will sit,

along with the Washington United Youth Center.

So on behalf of Catholic Charities, I want to begin by thanking you for honoring us

and trusting us to be stewards of this community center.

We recognize that the space carries history and that history matters.

It informs how trust is built and how partnerships are judged.

Our approach is to learn from the past, but not to stay there, but to move forward together with clarity, humility, and shared purpose.

The Gardner neighborhood has long demonstrated resilience, leadership, and strong sense of community.

The center gives us an opportunity to invest in a space where residents are not just served

but heard, not just invited in but empowered to help shape what happens there.

We see the Gardner Community Center as a place where families can gather safely,

neighbors can connect and organize, and people can access resources

that support stability, dignity, and opportunity.

Most importantly though, we see it as a platform for community voice and civic participation,

where residents play an active role in shaping solutions and defining success.

Moving forward, we are committed to a strong partnership, not just with the city,

but with partner organizations and with the community itself.

That means clear communication, shared accountability, and a willingness to adapt

based on what the community tells us is working and what is not working.

We welcome that responsibility.

I'd also like to thank Google for the funding associated with this item.

It's really their investment that will make this vision possible.

We are grateful for your trust and we look forward to building together a Gardner Community

Center that is responsive, community-led, and positioned.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Pascal Garcia Mopati.

I'm the program director for Santa Teresa Safe Parking.

It's a pleasure and an honor to speak with you today,

the same that it is a pleasure and an honor

to speak with our community members that we serve every day.

As the Santa Teresa Safe Parking program's origins

as a pilot program, we have navigated many different

challenges and journeys throughout the course

of this program, from having an office the size

of the space that you see behind me,

to going through six and now potentially as of this morning,

seven generators to make sure that we have the basic necessities

to meet the needs of our clients.

Over the last six months,

we have doubled the positive transitions with our community,

whether it's permanent housing,

transitions to EIHs and other support.

And we continue to build on the raw potential

that this site and our community that we serve

has each and every day whether that is working with different partners in the community such

as premier credit one union to offer financial literacy classes offering shelf stable foods

through our pantry and even shutting off our lights in the evening to make sure that we have

fresh dinners available throughout the course of the evening we push the site to its limits

and our staff in order to ensure that we support our clientele and our community with the with

their basic needs and meeting them where they're at in the same way we invite the community and

and yourselves to to continue this conversation about how we can best do that um whether it's in

uh ankle deep water uh whether it's in the freezing weather where we give uh workshops

for housing and employment applications or whether it's shouting over the 80 85 decibel

generators that we use to run our site we welcome and thank you that's your time next speaker

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council, Mr. Mulhaney.

I'm Daniel Peralta.

I've worked 55 years in the private sector.

I've worked 40 years at Lockheed Missiles and Space, so I'm retired.

So I belong to Gardner Community Center.

I'm one of the seniors that's advocating, and I have a list here of over 40 residents,

seniors, that attend Gardner that are in favor of the Catholic Charities.

So looking forward to having them, and again, thanks very much to City Council, Mr. Mulhaney.

Appreciate it very much for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon everyone.

I'm just here in the support of the Gardner community and I'm just basically excited that

there's going to be a community center because somebody that has benefit through my whole

entire life here in San Jose from community centers.

I think this is the right move.

But it's been 10 years since it's been closed so it's been too many years, too many days,

too many seconds.

So I think it's the right step that we're taking.

So thank you for the Gardner community for being so resilient and to basically pushing

this forward through Catholic Charities.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Working with Google to show them what Gardner was as we were closed was a big impact.

They walked the streets, they saw the need, and somehow I touched their heart.

I brought out families, showing them the need.

This Google money is important because for more than 10 years it's been closed.

I accept Catholic charities to help us to support our families in the need.

We have kids from Gardner, Hoover, Lincoln, who walk through the streets with no services.

Yet other communities have had services for their children, for their students.

But yet right now, I want to cry because I didn't think that walk would mean a lot.

Because I didn't see mothers without having food for their children.

For our seniors, at least they were the only ones who were blessed to have a meal, because

that was also a fight.

Yes, Garner has gone through many levels of being disrespected, of being ignored, because

we're on the blue line.

And that hurts, because we are not on the blue line.

We are the power, because our parents of cannery workers worked hard for Garner when it was

just a little shack.

It's a building now, but it's empty.

But with Catholic Charities coming in,

it will bring life back again, because it

is the second home of many families.

A sad story, when the center was closed,

one of our youth 16-year-old, Donye,

got hit by the train, because there was not

that second home open no more.

So like him being gone, I lost a child.

like that I lost many cedars too because we couldn't gather up no more so thank you for

sorry that's your time next speaker

good afternoon mayor Mahan city council my name is Ismail with Durant Construction Group and I'm

here to talk about 2.27 and we did not provide the document in time when we

were given the chance but I did address a concern on my letter of protest

everything was answered but this question there were seven other

contractors that provided a bid not one provided a CARB certificate for their

concrete supplier all but one of the seven does haul their own concrete the

other six don't and we're being deemed for him for providing the incorrect

CARB certificate but the other six contractors didn't list their sub for a

concrete hauling so um you know with that being said I I think that raises the

flag there right we did we provided that incorrect one they didn't but the next

lowest bidder is gonna move on with the contract when they didn't provide a

carbon certificate or list the sub for the concrete calling and then in

regards to the statement of bidders experience the gentleman before me is

correct we only provided two completed two or three completed jobs that meet

seventy percent of the engineers estimate estimates threshold the

company's been around for 25 years 21 we've been doing work for the city of

San Jose for five departments Muni DOT Public Works Parks and Recs and all we

do is emergency work concrete emergency work and thank you that's your time back

to council thank you coming back to the council Tony let's vote oh I'm on the

wrong item I'm on an individual hold on there we go

motion passes unanimously okay thank you appreciate it ladies consent item was

deferred under orders of the day we're on to our regular agenda thank you all

for being here we're gonna go on then to item 3.1 report of our city manager

thank you very much mayor and council and happy holidays to everybody I have

no report today happy holidays thanks for the gift just kidding we love your

reports we're on to item 3.3 fire department inventory controls over

controlled substances audit report Joe when you and the team are ready please

begin.

Joe Royce, City Otter, I'm joined by Allison Pauly and Maria Valle to present our Otter

report fire inventory controls over controlled substances also in the box

our chief Robert Sapien and deputy chief Stephen Bowie this thought it was added

to a work plan following a crest request from the fire chief in April

earlier this year containers of controlled substances were found damaged

and suspected have been tampered with at a fire station following an

investigation the San Jose Police Department arrested a fire captain

related to these incidents our audit focused on inventory controls in places

starting in late April 2025. I'm going to turn over to Allie who's going to walk through a little

bit of the background as well as the findings and recommendations in the report. Good afternoon,

I'm Allison Polly from the Office of the City Auditor. Per the City's contract with the County

of Santa Clara, FHIR has supplies of two substances that are controlled by the DEA.

These are administered by paramedics to provide advanced life support. The two substances are

morphine, which is used for pain management, and midazolam, used to treat seizures and

for sedation.

These medications are ordered by the EMS division, and they're stored at a central facility

before EMS staff distributes them out to fire apparatus.

Our audit had two findings that focused on the two parts of this process, the management

of the inventory on fire apparatus, and then the central supply management.

So the first finding focused on the fire apparatus.

The finding was that policies require securing controlled substances on fire apparatus but

should be clarified to reflect current practices.

The first thing that I want to note is that we reviewed the controlled substances at 17

fire stations over the course of several days in the summer of 2025 and we found no evidence

of theft or tampering.

A few key controls to highlight that fire has in place.

are kept locked and bolted to the apparatus. Paramedics are doing daily verifications where

they inspect every vial on their apparatus. A witness is required to be present and the

paramedics are instructed to report any discrepancies immediately. Both of these controls were expanded

and strengthened in April and May of 2025. FHIR also uses electronic records and records

in their system an ID number for every vial so they can track it individually. All these

controls are in line with what we found in other jurisdictions.

There are a few aspects of FHIR's current inventory management practices that should

be formalized into policy.

These include clarifying requirements for the daily and periodic reviews of controlled

substances boxes on apparatus, the storage of medications on reserve apparatus, and the

protocols for remote handoffs of medication.

One other thing to note is that fire is in the process of acquiring biometric safes.

Once fire has those safes in place, they should review their policies regarding access, monitoring,

and usage.

So that first finding was all about the fire apparatus, and the second finding is about

the central supply.

So the finding was that separating the duties for central supply management would strengthen

inventory controls.

Again I want to start off by saying that we conducted an unannounced audit of the Maine

Safe in the summer of 2025 and that showed no evidence of theft or tampering.

A fire captain is the Controlled Substances Program Manager.

That position oversees the central supply which involves receiving, labeling, securing,

distributing and destroying medications.

What we found is that this is too many duties to be concentrated onto this one position

and that FHIR should split up the responsibilities to ensure the security of the medications.

For example, the Controlled Substances Program Manager's responsibilities include system

administration over the department's inventory management software, entering and reconciling

information within the system, and also handling medications, which includes receiving and

distributing them to stations, and collecting and destroying expired medications.

So our recommendation is to separate these duties to improve the security of the central

supply.

FHIR should assign medication handling, system administration, and certain record-keeping

duties to separate staff.

We also noted a few additional security measures and policy updates.

Because the safe can be physically accessed by one person, having a camera or a biometric

safe would provide a record of who's accessing the medications.

We also recommended conducting periodic inventory counts and having management regularly review

inventory reports.

Lastly, we recommended updating the policy in a few areas, including to specify the process

for what happens when a vial has suspected tampering and when the county should be notified

of that.

Our report has seven recommendations.

We ask that you accept the report.

With that, we will turn it over to Chief Sapien for the administration's response, and then

we're available to answer any questions.

Good afternoon, counsel Robert Sapien, Fire Chief, San Jose Fire Department, joined by

Deputy Fire Chief Steve Bowie, who oversees our Emergency Medical Services Division.

The Fire Department appreciates the City Auditor's willingness to include the Fire Department

Inventory Controls Over Controlled Substances audit in its Fiscal Year 25-26 work plan.

The Department recognizes and values the collaboration of the City Auditor's Office, as well as its close scrutinization of our systems and processes, and concurs with the two findings and seven recommendations offered.

We appreciate the time and resources that the City Auditor committed to its comprehensive review of the Fire Department inventory controls and field practices.

The department has already completed several corrective actions and continues to evaluate and monitor its controlled substance security program to ensure alignment with best practices and regulatory requirements.

We are happy to take any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Joe, Allison, Maria, thank you for the audit.

Tony, do we have public comment?

I have no cards for this item.

Okay.

Coming back to the council.

I'll turn to colleagues. We'll start with the Vice Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation, and Chief, thank you for your response.

So I want to focus a little bit on your response, Chief, that there are several items,

and the majority of them are green-lit except for the biometric item, I think, is the one that is a little bit later.

later, but those all indicated a timeline of December 1st, 2025. Since that was a couple

weeks ago, are you saying those have been accomplished, or can you tell us what status

those are in? Yes, most of those recommendations were policy in nature, and we actually had

begun drafting those as we were hearing feedback as the audit proceeded, and so they're very

much in final draft form and ready to be implemented as the systems come online.

Excellent. I'm happy to hear that. And what's the status of the biometric system?

Good news on that front. Just as I believe a day or two ago we are in the field with an RFP, so that procurement is proceeding apace.

Wonderful. That is fabulous news on all fronts. Thank you. With that, I will move approval of the audit.

Second.

Great.

Thank you.

Again, appreciate the audit.

Very straightforward, common sense recommendations.

Appreciate the department's swift implementation and agreement.

It seems like a great way to have better control and accountability over controlled substances.

So, thanks for the practical, actionable audit.

Tony, I don't see any other hands, so let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously

All right. Thank you all again. We are on to item 7.1 digital empowerment and broadband

Strategy we have a staff presentation, so we'll give folks a moment to switch over

All right, Jill, when you're ready, take it away.

Awesome.

Well, good afternoon, Mayor, City Council members, and members of the public.

I am Jill Bourne, the City Librarian, and we are very excited to be here to present

on the Digital Empowerment and Broadband Strategy today.

I am joined by our team leading this work from the library.

We have Anne Grabowski, our Deputy Director of Public Services,

Abigail Scholl, Division Manager of Digital Empowerment and Public Technology,

and U Nopmongal, the Program Manager for Broadband and Partnerships,

and we're joined by Harrison Phelan from Guidehouse Incorporated.

At the heart of this strategy is our vision that every San Jose resident should be able

to benefit from and fully participate in the digital economy.

Today, that means having reliable internet access, the right devices, and the confidence

and skills to use technology safely and effectively.

This is what we refer to as digital empowerment.

Digital empowerment is essential and integral to other city priorities as well, including

those of workforce and economic development and the Children's Youth Services Master

Plan.

This strategy will be our roadmap for tackling persistent aspects of the digital divide while

embracing new technologies and ensuring equitable access for all.

This strategy builds on the success of our earlier efforts and renews our commitment

to making sure that San Jose, the capital of Silicon Valley, remains both a global leader

in technology innovation and a city where the digital future is truly shared by everyone.

All right.

So San Jose has been active in this space for some time, longer than many other state and

local government entities that we've seen, and is nationally recognized as a leader.

The program has adapted over the years from like especially during the pandemic time when needs surged across the country.

But almost 10 years later from the initial strategy, needs, resources, and technologies have evolved, which makes now the right time to refresh the strategy.

And so one of the major decision points for any like broadband and digital equity strategy

is really the role of the city and where does this fit in.

And so back in the 2017 strategy, we set out the spectrum of there's a fully market-driven

model, a municipal ISP model, and then somewhere in the middle, which is the partnership model,

which was set out in 2017 and which we continue to pursue today.

We see this as a bit of the best of both worlds where the market-driven model

leaves market forces on their own, is a little bit more hands-off,

and so that's what led to the challenges that we experience today.

But the full municipal ISP model can be very costly and also very complex,

and so that's where the partnership model feels a bit like the Goldilocks fit,

and that's where it's being more proactive working with entities in the

community to then meet digital equity and broader needs.

Thank you Harrison. My name is Ann Grabowski, Deputy Director of Public

Services for the library. What our census data shows us about the digital divide

in San Jose is something many of our residents have felt for years. The digital

divide doesn't fall evenly across our residents. Communities that already face

economic and social barriers are the most likely to be left behind when it comes to

digital access and opportunity.

Lower income populations, those over the age of 65, those with less than a high school

or two year degree, and our black and Latinx communities are disproportionately impacted.

While this is unsurprising to most of us, it confirms what we understand anecdotally,

And this data helps us focus our attention, our outreach efforts, and program development

specifically to those in our community that are digitally disconnected.

As we look at the progress we have made since the initial 2017 strategy, we can be happy.

We can celebrate.

We've made strong progress.

Since then, more San Jose residents have been able to get connected online at home with

with roughly 10,000 additional households connected now.

At the same time, more residents are relying

on cellular-only intranet,

and the number of households with only a smartphone

at home has more than doubled.

This signals that affordability remains a key barrier.

During the pandemic,

the Federal Affordable Connectivity Program

helped nearly 40,000 San Jose households

gain or keep their home internet by providing a subsidy

covered about $1.2 million per month in local internet bills. When that program ended in 2024,

about 16% of those households canceled their service entirely because it was no longer affordable.

As we focus our efforts on ensuring that people can access new and existing technology safely,

the library's programs and online courses offer structured pathways where residents at any

experience level can learn everything from online safety to job ready tech skills. As Jill mentioned,

this work aligns with several city priorities, especially the city's Children and Youth Services

Master Plan and the city's education strategy. To reach more residents where they are, we've opened

six tech hubs hosted by community-based organizations inside multi-service centers

that provide walk-in access to computers, Wi-Fi, and culturally responsive support.

These tech hubs are located at Sacred Heart Community Service, Catholic Charities,

ICANN, Vivo, the International Rescue Committee,

and we have a tech hub in the Roosevelt Community Center operated by SourceWise.

These sites have supported more than 5,000 residents in the last year

and are made possible through grants from the city's Digital Inclusion Fund,

which is administered by library staff in partnership with the San Jose Public Library Foundation.

At the same time, our new SJ Access Pathway within the city's Resilience Corps program

gives disadvantaged youth in San Jose a living wage as well as real-world IT and coding experience,

helping them launch careers while closing the digital divide.

Now I'll pass to U Nhatmunkal, Program Manager for Broadband and Partnerships.

Thank you, Anne.

As with the internet, if we don't bring people along now, the AI divide will only grow.

The city takes a multi-parter approach to AI.

On the economic development side, the city is leading the nation with the AI's intensive program

and a new Pluck and Play AI Center of Excellence downtown.

To empower the community, the library's AI-focused digital training courses have reached more

than 3,500 people and a new AI for All initiative adds free AI training from leading tech companies,

both in person and online.

And internally, the city aims to safely and responsibly leverage AI to improve services.

Over 400 city staff have completed introductory AI training with more than 50 participating

in deeper upskilling courses.

Our broadband approach is grounded in partnership.

By forming public-private partnerships and streamlining permitting, we made it faster

and easier for providers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to invest in San Jose.

Small sales on city streetlights now move through city review in days instead of weeks

and macro projects in weeks instead of months.

As a result, broadband meets the federal basic speed standard is now available citywide.

Gigabit service is steadily growing and we are seeing more home wireless, fiber, and

more competition.

Our committee Y5 initiative is a tech bond funded public-public partnership for outdoor,

safety net, connectivity in school attendance areas most impacted by the digital divide.

It's a targeted investment in equity and opportunity.

The eight networks ensure students and families can get online for school services and daily

life even if home access is uncertain.

I'll hand off to Abby Shaw, Division Manager for Digital Empowerment and Public Technology.

Thank you, U. The Digital Empowerment and Broadband Strategy is organized around three goals,

all grounded in the partnership approach with telecommunications providers, technology companies,

and community-based organizations.

Their continued investment, collaboration, and contributions are key

to closing the digital divide in our community.

Goal one is closing the digital divide in San Jose through digital empowerment.

This means stabilizing long-term funding for core programs and expanding community access

to digital skills, cybersecurity, and workforce training.

We will continue to advocate for affordable internet service and devices, an area where

our private sector partners play a critical role by offering low-cost plans and expanding

coverage in underserved neighborhoods.

Goal two is ensuring universal broadband availability and future-ready connectivity.

Our goal is universal one-gigabit service availability for all residents by 2030.

To achieve that, we must work hand-in-hand with the telecoms and internet service providers

to expand infrastructure through ongoing private sector investment, increase the number of

provider options so every household has meaningful choice, and build long-term resilience into

the region's broadband network.

Goal three is providing best-in-class broadband permitting processes and enablement structures.

We will continue to streamline city permitting and align regulations so our partners can

and deploy broadband faster and more predictably.

We will continue leveraging city-owned assets

and existing infrastructure to reduce deployment costs.

And we are improving coordination across departments

and with telecom partners to accelerate planning

and build out.

Across all three goals, closing the digital divide

requires sustained private sector partnership

and coordinated cross-departmental collaboration.

Today, we're asking City Council to take four key actions to guide our next chapter.

First, to accept the status report on the digital equity assessment and the recommendation

to renew the city's strategy.

Second, to adopt the new digital empowerment and broadband strategy, which formalizes and

continues our hybrid approach to telecommunications partnerships, leveraging both public and private

investment to close the digital divide.

Third, adopt a resolution to formally incorporate the Federal Communication Commission's broadband

standard of 100 megabits per second download speed and 20 megabits per second upload speed

and to set an aspirational future goal of 1 gigabit down and 500 megabits up speeds

so our policies stay aligned with where the technology is heading.

And finally, to direct staff to implement the strategy's work plan and return to City Council

in 2027 with a status update.

And I'll turn it back to Jill to close.

Thanks, Abby.

As we wrap up, I just want to note that San Jose has long been a leader in digital inclusion.

The SJ Access Initiative has been awarded multiple distinctions.

Most recently, San Jose was awarded the 2025 Digital Equity Project of the Year

by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors.

and the 2023 and 2024 digital inclusion trailblazer award from the national digital

inclusion alliance the 2025 announcement is pending and you know we are seeking a three-peat

on that city council's approval will continue the momentum behind this work strengthening our

programs our partnerships and investments that we have made in san jose as a national model

and ensuring we can keep expanding access, opportunity, and empowerment for every resident for years ahead.

And before concluding, there are many people and organizations to thank for contributing to and supporting this work.

I'd like to shout out just a few, as shown on this slide.

We want to thank our six SJACCIS grant-funded tech hub operators for being pioneers

and for their dedication to incorporating digital empowerment into their work in community.

We also want to thank AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile for their public-private partnerships and for citywide broadband deployments, as well as other partners like Comcast and Eastside Union High School District for their creative support of our efforts.

And not on the slide, but I know that our library team wants to thank our partners,

City Departments, everyone from IT, Public Works, Department of Transportation, Planning,

Building, Code Enforcement, API, Office of Economic Development, PRNS, Budget Office,

Housing, and Office of Emergency Management.

And I'm sure I forgot somebody, but thanks to everyone for their collaboration.

This truly is a citywide effort.

And lastly, thanks to all of you for your support.

This concludes our presentation, and we welcome your questions and dialogue.

Awesome. Thanks for the report and the thoughtful recommendations.

Toni, do we have public comment?

Yes, I have six cards, so when I call your name, please come on down.

You don't have to speak in the order that you're called.

David, come on down.

Jeremy, Charlie, Daniel, Lenny's, and Brian.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

I'm David Witkowski.

I'm the Executive Director of Joint Venture Silicon Valley's Community Broadband Initiative,

Wireless Communications Initiative, which rolls up under our Civic Technologies Program.

I want to start by commending the team for all the work that they have done.

We have been partnered with the city of San Jose for several years on these projects and other projects.

And when the National Telecommunications Information Administration set out the digital equity competitive grant opportunity in 2025,

I knew exactly what I needed to do in order to apply for that.

I took San Jose's model and I scaled it across two counties, Santa Clara, San Mateo, using the same partners that were mentioned here today.

We were recommended for $11.6 million award the day before the inauguration, which the executive order then nullified that.

We are hoping that we will be able to restart that award at some point in the future.

I would encourage all of you, if you have contacts with the federal government, to urge

them to consider moving that forward for us because we have a lot of people that we want

to serve, not just in the city of San Jose, but this model works and we want to scale

it across the Bay Area and Silicon Valley.

So thank you for your support.

Thank you to the team.

I always really enjoy working with them and I hope in the future we'll continue our partnership

with you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon, Mayor Mahan and City Council members.

My name is Jeremy Stroop and I'm a municipal engagement partner with Verizon Wireless.

We'd like to express our appreciation for the productive relationship that we have developed

within city staff and with the Mayor's office.

We believe our current collaboration and partnership with the City of San Jose has been highly

effective.

success is evident across a couple of key areas. The first one being our robust network build out.

Secondly, it would be our critical coordination for major upcoming events like the Super Bowl

and the FIFA World Cup. And then finally, the increased public safety coordination related to

the critical infrastructure here. Verizon is committed to continuing to support San Jose's

connectivity needs and ensuring that Verizon's substantial network investments across the city

are maximized thank you thank you next speaker

good afternoon daniel pell senior manager of network development at t-mobile um i actually

born and raised in district 6 and thrilled to have a partnership with this team over here on helping

expedite our infrastructure delivery from from t-mobile as they mentioned bridging the broadband

divide is really important to us at Tmola but beyond that as well is the

critical services for public safety and things of that nature so by having a

partnership like this where we can understand exactly how long it's going

to take for some of our building permits and other approvals from your

jurisdiction it really helps us calculate our strategy to super drive

the investment in the city of San Jose so I just came to speak in support of

this team, speak in support of this partnership, and looking forward to additional partnership.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Also, Quinn, come on down. Good afternoon, honorable mayor and

council members. My name is Charlie Masteloni, and I'm the external affairs manager for AT&T.

AT&T is proud of our strong working relationship with the city of San Jose, and we greatly

appreciate staff support and work with us. AT&T has been a strong advocate of San Jose's

public private partnership and we support the city's digital empowerment efforts to

connect every household to high speed internet. That's why we've continued to invest in our

wireless and fiber network in the city and will continue to do so. In fact, over the

past five years, we've invested nearly 475 million dollars into our network infrastructure

in the city of San Jose.

I'm also excited to share, and this is hot off the press here,

that as of this week, we've finalized a $20,000 donation

to the San Jose Library Foundation to provide Chromebooks

for classes for low-income adults.

As of today, AT&T reaches nearly 580 neighborhoods

in San Jose, making AT&T fiber available to over 148,000

customer locations, including residential and small business

locations.

We continue to invest heavily in our wireless network in San

Jose to ensure a best-in-class wireless experience for

residents and communities.

This includes building macro facilities, over 800 small cell

tower sites, and upgrading sites with our latest technology.

I'm also excited to share that the California Public Utilities

Commission recently announced their proposed Broadband

Equity Access and Deployment, also known as BEAD, awards for

California.

And we were awarded eight applications specifically

for San Jose, where, if approved,

we'll expand broadband to over 3,300 customer locations

throughout San Jose, including the eastern hills of the city.

All of that to say, we have genuinely really

appreciated working with the city.

And we look forward to continue to work on our partnership

and continue to bring high-speed internet to as many residents

as we can.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Hi. I sort of come at it from the other end.

I've been providing adaptive equipment for people with developmental and physical disabilities since about 1980,

where I pretty much built most of it myself, and I'm self-funded,

and have provided computers to get access to the internet since probably 1997, 98,

using Linux machines, legacy machines that you put Linux on, adaptive switches,

adaptive communication systems, software to buffer so that people who maybe can't

use a standard screen reader can use one of these. Anyways, I'm here just to offer

my limited services if people want to get home. We did this last year too, didn't

hear anybody, but if you have constituents that need access or need

someone to advocate for them to get equipment I don't charge I drive to them

if they need me I can bond myself if you require that I just would like to help

folks thanks thank you next speaker good afternoon my name is Queen von from I

can we work with the Vietnamese children and families in San Jose in San Clara

County. I am here to thank Mayor Mayhan and the City Council of San Jose as

well as the San Jose Public Library team and now I get to hear AT&T, Verizon and

T-Mobile. So thank you all for supporting this incredible, incredibly important

project. A lot of Vietnamese seniors need to know how to get online so that should

Should another shutdown happen, they're not so lonely and so desperate as before.

So our tech hub is held at the Santa Clara Service Center at the corner of Tully and Center.

And it's a beautiful three-way partnership between the city, the county, and ICANN.

So we are there to man that tech hub three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

And the rest is part of the, and the location is at the BASC.

A lot of seniors came to learn how to turn on the computer, how to set up the computer.

They asked us to show them how to get online and pay the bill.

So things like that.

And I appreciate that the funding is still there even though it's been reduced.

But we're grateful that the funding is still there and the clients keep on coming.

So thank you for your continued support for this incredibly important project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, City Staff.

My name is Lenny Gutierrez.

I am Director of Government Affairs with Comcast, and I'm here to offer support on this item.

I've met with most of the council members earlier this year on this item, so I hope you're familiar and remember my comments.

And, you know, part of the staff presentation provided the 2016-2017 digital study, which we actually helped support.

And we have also been involved with the Digital Inclusion Fund, and we're an active participant, which was an amazing experience.

and we worked through the pandemic. We attended connect fairs. We supported the mayor when you

had your press conference on the affordable connectivity program which was an amazing

federal subsidy when that was available and we want to continue to engage with the city and the

San Jose library as you implement and update this important strategy. So I do want to focus my

comments on the importance of the public-private partnership. We have active lift zones in the city

where we offer free community Wi-Fi, including the African American Community Services Agency,

the Boys and Girls Club of Silicon Valley, Grail Family Services, the School of Arts and Culture,

and we have also worked closely with Sacred Heart Community Services, which is one of your tech hubs

and other partners. And it's important to note that for us to do our work, we appreciate the

city's progress on streamlining permitting. Thank you. Permitting, permitting, permitting,

I think you hear that a lot, but even for broadband connectivity, it's important.

So thank you to city staff for that.

And we believe a clear and coordinated strategy provides the predictability needed for continued infrastructure investment.

So we look forward to our partnership with the city.

And I do want to offer a special thank you to U and to Abby, who have been amazing partners, and to Jill and to Ann.

And since I have nine seconds, I do also want to mention that Friday is my last day at Comcast.

It's been an amazing 15 years, everyone.

and the City of San Jose has been...

Thank you. Back to Council.

Thank you. Congratulations.

All right. Coming back to the Council,

great to hear in public comment from so many of our partners in this work.

This really is one of the most innovative and impactful

public-private partnerships we're engaged in that I'm aware of.

aware of and I just want to give quick credit where it's due to you know this

work really precedes any of our time in these offices and goes back to a

previous council that all the way back in 2017 working closely with our

administration put together our first broadband and digital inclusion strategy

and then two short years later actually set up the digital inclusion fund and

And really premised on the idea that as private, large private telecom companies are leveraging city-owned assets and infrastructure,

we can generate revenue to close a digital divide that, frankly, the private marketplace on its own just isn't going to close fast enough.

And so the sort of openness from large global companies to think differently and partner with us in this way

has been really transformative and unlocked opportunity for thousands and thousands of

families. I know former Mayor Liccardo and his team worked very hard on this in partnership with

the administration and particularly our library team that spearheads the work. Thank you, Jill and

Abby. I know for years now you've really toiled away at expanding the program and during the

pandemic we saw just how important this was as folks were sheltering at home

kids need to get online and it was you know these resources this fund that

enabled us to do hot spot distribution community Wi-Fi expansion remote

learning support and and and I also I just want to flag for folks we've done a

number of community events together on this but for those who haven't followed

it as closely it's one of the important lessons we've learned is it isn't just

about the connection and it isn't just about the device it's also about the

education and that's where our nonprofit and community partners come in who have

done a lot of work to make sure we're meeting people where they are in

language in their neighborhood and really helping them learn how to use the

tools and take advantage of the connectivity I do have one question

before turning to colleagues so we've made a lot of progress and we still have

a lot of work to do, and I'm particularly interested in fiber adoption. So when we started

in 2017, we had 1% penetration of fiber in the city. We now, six years later, have jumped to 37%,

which is awesome, but the national average is 56%. And we're the capital of Silicon Valley

and a data-driven bunch.

And what I'm hearing from the industry

is they really appreciate that we're streamlining permits

and we're doing everything we can to facilitate,

but there are still barriers, and particularly just costs.

The cost of doing anything in California is high.

We're seeing that with housing, with the grid,

with all sorts of things.

Can you give us a little more insight

into either the barriers or what we might be able to do

to incentivize broader adoption of fiber in San Jose

so that that option is out in more of our neighborhoods.

It's really frustrating that we're almost 50%

behind the national average in this regard.

Or alternatives you see on the horizon,

other approaches that may be better.

So I'll leave it at that.

Yeah, so thank you for that question.

I will get started while my super genius tech people

have better answers.

But I think overall, to your point,

we've grown by 36%.

We also did have a pandemic with shifting priorities

and really sort of dramatic priorities, but also really shifting funding sources available.

And so we've worked closely with our, this is part of the answers about our public-private partnerships

and how we continue to work closely with them on each having a solution to broadening and solving for this fiber gap.

But also, so some of them have some plans in the works, which are pretty exciting.

And then also the fact that technological changes keep happening suggests that maybe fiber only isn't necessarily the future solution to this problem.

And so I was going to offer from my staff to say.

That's what I was hoping you'd get to next is what else is on the horizon we should be thinking about.

Yeah, so I was going to offer the staff to add some comments or more details for you on that.

Yeah, so on the horizon, so we have seen wireless grow as a faster speed option and higher capacity.

So during the pandemic, there was a shift from small cells, which do have high speed,

but don't have as much capacity because they're able to cover a footprint that's just within a couple of blocks radius of those cells.

But what has come to prominence lately is C-band, which is a mid-band.

It just travels further out.

that gives greater capacity, greater speed across a longer distance.

And so we've seen wireless options grow.

So not only in like a cellular, so on your cell phone option,

but now there are in-home cellular home service options

that are coming available that have grown from 0% to 57%, I believe it is,

in terms of looking at the stats, so 1% to 37% on fiber.

But the wireless growth has been tremendous.

And so that is growing in terms of competition with fiber.

And then also Comcast on their cable side, they are working on fiber-like upgrades to their system that can achieve great speeds of, oh, I'll invite Laniece to come back down and to speak on it more eloquently than I can, but definitely in the one gig plus speed range and are working towards symmetrical that is a fiber-like option as well.

Thank you.

I think she's left the building.

On that second, the middle option, the wireless you described,

what are those download-upload speeds, roughly?

Are they competitive?

Right now we're seeing advertised speeds could hit one gig or plus,

but that capacity, they have to have that location

of how many houses they can serve for that capacity.

So there is that variance there.

got it all right and then micro trenching is that happening are we doing it in San Jose

yes we had a micro trenching pilot that was very successful started with Verizon AT&T also did a

pilot to test various strategies that are lower cost faster to implement there are some newer

options that they are working with us on actively now so we're working with our partners in Department

of Transportation and Department of Public Works to understand those better

and see where we can potentially optimize further what's possible to do

to get to a better speed and predictability there all right thanks

okay just as I wrap up since Lenny's has not left the building sorry would you

just give us quickly your perspective on kind of the technological trend and how

we get help what's the fastest path to a hundred percent access to high bandwidth

with the internet?

Continued work in public-private partnerships.

I think continued periodic conversations

with our network team, you know,

I think with the city and available assets.

And yes, technology is improving,

so whether it's two gig or up to 10 gig,

symmetrical speeds, right, so not just up but down,

is really important.

So I think just having continued conversations

because infrastructure and investment infrastructure

is always just gonna, is gonna continue.

I don't know if that's helpful, right?

Thank you.

All right, let me turn to colleagues.

Thank you all again for all the good work over the years on this.

Councilman Campos.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the presentation.

First, thank you to library staff for the briefing, for the work here in the consulting partner

Guidehouse, and all the partners who participated in the development of this phenomenal assessment

and strategic plan.

It's been a lot of work invested, and what it tells us is that low-income and vulnerable communities have digital access challenges that are both persistent and structural.

Neighborhoods with lower fiber coverage have to rely more heavily on fixed wireless and community Wi-Fi.

for example in my district we see this around oak grove where students and families are dependent

on community wi-fi access points to get online which reflects ongoing need rather than a temporary

gap and district 2 is one of the districts with some of the highest concentrations of mobile home

parks in the city and we know that in mobile home parks affordability and infrastructure limitations

make reliable home internet especially difficult to obtain.

And as a result, we have many residents relying on shared connections like public Wi-Fi or

even smartphones to meet basic needs like schoolwork and accessing services.

This is highlighted particularly for our children and youth living in mobile home communities

who lack reliable home internet, which can affect school participation, access to enrichment,

in connection to prevention, health, and city programs that are increasingly operating online.

These conditions mirror the barriers that were identified in the Latino health assessment,

where access to education, health care, and prevention services is constrained by structural inequities,

which includes digital access. And last week, NSC, our committee, emphasized sustainability

and the need to move beyond pilot-based approaches.

So this access challenge shows why long-term solutions are necessary,

and it's wonderful to have philanthropic partners

who are playing an important role in this work,

but philanthropy cannot be the backbone of access

to foundational infrastructure in communities

where the need is ongoing.

And so as conversations around AI and data centers

become more prominent, we should be very clear

that many families cannot benefit from those investments if they cannot reliably get online

at all. And if digital access underpins children's outcomes and community health, it does belong in

our broader budget conversation. Addressing the digital divide is central to equity, prevention,

and opportunity for our neighbors. So I have a few questions. The first is,

what are the current affordability options provided by our telecommunications partners?

thank you for the question councilmember we have we have a lot of information about the

different plans they the the most affordable monthly plans range from 15 dollars an hour

or sorry a month 14.95 to um 80 and with the average being i think we calculated like in the

30 to 50 dollar range thank you and with the given scale and persistence of affordability

affordability challenges what role can the city be prepared to play over time to ensure

that access remains stable and equitable particularly as external or federal funding fluctuates

that is kind of the quintessential question for us uh with this program and the current

strategies that we have uh outlined in this proposed work plan are really to

to seek greater choice for our residents so that we drive affordability in neighborhoods.

So really working with our partners to ensure that we have affordable plans for residents

and at the same time, and I can't remember which of our colleagues said it, but the,

you know, continuing to lean in on the digital inclusion and the digital skill building work

that we do so that people are more likely to seek adoption and they're more likely to

be able to utilize the tools.

And so working through our Tech Hub model seems to be a good solution at this time because

we have trusted community partners who serve the community in a variety of ways already

and they've taken this on like you heard from one of the representatives of ICANN today.

And we have a, and there's four others that are funded through the Tech Hub model currently.

And so that was an intentional shift to really be able to bring the training out into trusted

partners that could reach the hardest to reach or the, you know, the folks with the least

access and be able to do it in language and in the community.

And so that is one strategy we're trying.

We're also work through libraries.

We work through community centers, work with our partners in PRNS.

But we are open to other solutions.

constantly seeking grants as you mentioned and other opportunities to

expand that reach. Yeah thank you and I'm glad you brought up the public comment

related to ICANN. I think we may have also received all a letter from AARP

that highlights seniors having access to internet but also the support to figure

out how to enhance their digital literacy and skills.

And so the strategy indicates that outreach efforts will include social media campaigns

along with direct engagement through existing library programs and partnerships.

But if the outreach strategy is trying to reach neighbors who are disconnected from

the internet or don't currently benefit from city programs, including the elderly, are

there other opportunities or other ways we're thinking about doing outreach and

engagement so as I mentioned the primary way has been through our trusted

partners in the past we have also even partnered to do flyering at all

households in an area that could qualify for service such as the affordability

plan that had that was there for a brief amount of time and we work with our

partners to come up with other solutions I'm going to have and talk more about it

we've also had conversations with the parks recreation neighborhood services

department who is the city's lead at serving seniors about deploying citywide

to the senior nutrition program and having a monthly programs programming

series at those locations and finding other avenues to reach them directly.

Most of our social media campaigns and online engagement is really directed at reaching the

children of the elderly that are disconnected or trying to make sure that our reach is as

broad as possible so that they can then go tell their friends, their grandmothers, their

parents, their neighbors, what they, you know, what might be available to them. So it is a,

it is an and approach, but we are, we are working diligently to expand operations this next year

into other existing city programs. Yeah, thank you. Leaning on those trusted messengers is

critical, especially in multi-generational households. And so one last question for staff.

As the city plans physical infrastructure investments, for example, we're looking in District 2 at updates to Monterey Highway, potentially with power lines and things like that, which is going to require construction.

construction, are there opportunities to lay digital infrastructure more efficiently by linking

broadband installation with existing capital improvement projects such as transportation

or street work rather than treating it as a standalone effort?

So that particular project, I believe we already are working in partnership with the city departments

and our community Wi-Fi provider SmartWave

to make sure that we are keeping the Wi-Fi system up

during that transition.

We're looking at also what upgrades we might make

to that Wi-Fi network in relation to a grant

that we received from the CPUC to look at

what technologies we might be able to use

that would expand the capacity of that network

and the ability of that network to get indoors

because that network is an outdoor network,

most primarily, but wanted to look at potential upgrades

that could be affordable and those opportunities

where if we're already doing something

and we need to change this equipment out,

then it gives us that opportunity to say,

well, this is the better technology

that we could change to.

So that's on the community Wi-Fi side.

I think to your broader question of,

is this an opportunity to work

with our telecom communication partners

and see if they can upgrade their infrastructure

So the private infrastructure side, that's certainly an opportunity.

And we do work with them when there are larger projects.

And with something identified in all of the conversations we had with all the Internet

service providers, that that was a key area that they wanted to explore with us as where

are those opportunities for cross alignment.

And so we are getting started on that work in the work plan.

Thank you.

And lastly, this isn't a question for staff, but it's one for my council colleagues and

I to reflect on because last year, not last year, last week, our NSC committee met jointly with the

county and our council chambers were packed with community members that are invested in the necessary

work to bring about more equitable outcomes for everyone in our city, particularly our children,

our youth, and our neighbors who have been under-invested in and are living in neighborhoods

that have been historically under-resourced.

And we know that there is so much important work to do and fund,

but as I was looking at the Children-Youth Master Plan

and thinking about how we're going to effectuate that policy

and looking at this one as well,

I'm left thinking, why is it that our equity-oriented work

is typically funded through philanthropy, external grants,

or occasional special funds and fees

when we have a general fund that, you know, we can be using to ensure equity in our neighborhoods.

And again, I'm not looking for a response from staff or colleagues right now, but it's just

for us to reflect upon because we have difficult decisions that we're going to be making in 2026.

And I want to make sure that when we have so much invested in work like this, that we're not just

listening to the concerns of our community, but truly doing the work to make a difference in the

lives of our most vulnerable neighbors and communities and so I thank you for

hearing that that reflection that I've had looking at this work and I will move

to approve the SEC recommendations thanks councilmember let's turn now to

Councilmember come in thank you so much first of all we've really really come a

long way I was involved prior to being on council and I know how the evolution

has occurred and how technology is just going faster and faster than we can imagine.

And I want to thank the library team as well as our partners.

This is not something that's going to happen just with the city of San Jose.

This is something truly that is that partnership that makes it work.

So I want to thank Abby in particular who's been with this for a while and just really,

know the the work that's being done to create that access and that's what we

really want we want our community to have that access for telehealth for

making any kind of online work that they need to do you know it was mentioned

that you know even paying bills right so I think that we have come a long way it

It has been sort of a little bit different over time as technology improves.

And I really think that the library team has been very, very adaptable.

And so I'm very, very impressed about the work that you do.

And it is that public-private partnership that's going to make this work.

So I just wanted to say thank you.

I want to thank our partners and speakers today and really know that this is something

that we will continue to work towards and make sure that our community is connected.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Councilman Rucott?

Thank you.

It's gratifying to see us.

We have this report a few times over the years and it's been gratifying to see the continued

emphasis on this topic by your department but also the city.

I was, as a school board member, one of the founding members of the Digital Equity Coalition

that sort of started the conversation about how we partner with the city to begin to propagate

broadband to places that don't have access.

So I'm really excited that we've continued to stay with it for this many years.

You know, it wasn't just a matter of getting things installed and then moving on to the

next project but continuing to push the envelope.

The school district on which I was the board, Berryessa, was one of the first to sign on.

I don't see them on the partner list at this point.

I assume that's because the installations haven't really gone quite as far north as

we as I had hoped at the time but you know we'll continue to see what we can do to propagate.

I was going to ask about the new technological improvements and I know that was already asked

about wireless in particular.

I was glad to hear your answer and that we're looking at the new technology.

I will ask in the context of one of the gaps in what we've been doing has been access at

mobile home parks and I kind of have this feeling that wireless will be the way that

we can crack that nut.

Can you just talk a little bit about what we might be doing in some of those areas because

there's some access limitations right now within some of these communities.

Yes, thank you, Councilmember.

The complexities of mobile home parks are many, including governance models and other

more technical and just structural issues.

And so the approach that we have in the plan is to start district by district with the

mobile home parks that we've outlined for each of you and work with your office on connections,

start the process of actually talking with each of those and and with our

partners about what what some of the solutions could be because in some cases

it might be there's a solution available but some changes need to be made to the

park which will need to be made by the residents or decided by residents and so

there could be some facilitation that needs to happen in that approach but

that is part of our plan is to really you know we mapped all them so that we

could see where those gaps were and the next step is if approved we would go forward with

developing the strategy for each of them.

Given the new wireless technology that allows for further distances and not having necessarily

need line of sight, is it possible that we can, that there's less cost then to these

properties by putting in a couple of these units around the perimeter of some of these

sites and providing access?

My understanding is the answer is it depends.

I don't know if our tech folks want to give some more information.

I know that the structure of the actual mobile home part can vary in terms of what works

to bring wireless into there.

Right.

It depends on what kind of poles or infrastructure that we can attach the wireless equipment to

and how large the communities are, what the perimeter, and, you know,

if we can even have a pole right in the middle of the property,

can we only have to extend the pole just around the perimeter?

So all of these actors we need to think through to come up with a strategy.

Okay. So what I heard is that you might be asking for some partnerships,

and so I'm certainly happy to act as a conduit to some of our parks.

I know that Casa del Lago was a particular of interest,

and I would certainly be excited to try to reach out to them

and see if we can create a partnership that might allow us to move forward.

So let's talk about that.

We will 100% be reaching out for that assistance.

Also just understanding who's best to talk to from your perspective

and also whether there is an interest in moving forward with some of these solutions okay thank

you so much great thanks councilmember let me turn to councilmember ortiz

thank you mayor i also want to thank staff for this very thoughtful work i really appreciate

how directly this presentation lays out the disparities in digital access across our city

and how intentional this strategy has been in regards to closing them.

The digital empowerment vision makes clear that internet access,

skills training, and device access are no longer optional.

They're foundational for participation in modern life, particularly here in San Jose

where we're at the technology capital of the world.

But still, it still feels a little jarring to see a slide describing how one

in eight homes in the city lacks its own internet access next to a slide

highlighting our focus as a city on artificial intelligence I'm not saying

we can't walk and chew gum at the same time but this is a perfect example of

why I'm always talking about ensuring that with every innovation we bring to

this city every resident should feel the benefits particularly when it comes to

data centers and AI I don't want to detract from the really important

progress being made but I believe we should take a moment as a city to reflect on this divide.

What it truly means for our residents and how we can continue to close it and do better as a

government agency. If we're truly an innovation capital of the world then every household regardless

of zip code must be able to benefit from the opportunities that AI and digital technology

will shape in the next decades to come simply unacceptable that any family in San Jose does

not have reliable internet access in 2025 so I just want to thank again our staff for tackling

this issue head-on I know that there's been comments today at council in regards to budget

constraints and that's always difficult when we look at programs that serve our most vulnerable

because time and time again those seem to be always the ones that are on the chopping block when tough decisions have to be made.

But I know that this initiative has personally helped communities like the one I represent, District 5.

I know it's helped pretty much a large portion of Eastside Union High School District.

And so I just really want to thank our staff for being innovative and transformative,

as well as leaning on transparency where the gaps still exist.

Because, you know, if these things were simple and easy, then they would be solved in every city.

But I'm confident in the leadership of our department, our department head, and our team members

to bring the roadmap that brings all our residents into the digital future.

So thank you so much, and I look forward to the bell.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Councilmember Condellas.

Thank you, Mayor.

No, thank you, Jill, to you and your team for your comprehensive status report and presentation.

You know, it's really great to see the positive progress we've made since 2017.

But, you know, it's a little bit disheartening to see that there are still a significant number of households that are either under-connected or unconnected in our city.

city and you know obviously it's not surprising that the digital divide is

most negatively affecting those lower incomes those with lower education are

seniors and black and Latino residents and so you know I want to quickly ask a

question on accountability I appreciate the ambitious work plan and the report

back to us in 2027 until then how does staff plan to keep us apprised of the

progress within that work plan

thank you for the question council member um we as as mentioned just previously we will be seeking

your council offices uh assistance with council district specific issues potentially like outreach

to mobile home parks any neighborhoods you know we've provided maps of connectivity in your

district so any neighborhoods where you may be hearing from residents that there are issues

our team is ready to work with you on those issues and we also we do present to the neighborhood

services and education committee and so that could be agendized as a precursor to the annual report

but we could also you know come back with uh reports at any time on different aspects of the

work plan if that is the council's preference yeah i mean me personally i'd like to see it like a

checkpoint um you know whether it's you know i leave that to the administration uh whether it's

nsc or an informational memo so we can take action if something or if there's an opportunity for for

one of us to be able to leverage and see if there's additional partnerships needed.

I think that would be important because a year from now is a long time and there's a

lot of things that could happen.

And so obviously I don't want to be too prescriptive on what it is.

If it's a check back or a checkpoint at NSC, so be it.

But I know those are quarterly meetings now and whatever vehicle you deem fit, I would

appreciate that and and and you know I just hope that with the implement

implementation of our strategy we help make progress and help move the needle

especially as we're as we're pushing an economy that's more rooted in AI and and

and and the the the future of what the internet looks like hopefully more

people have access to it so thank you thank you we'll work with the

administration thank you thank you mayor thank you for the presentation and thank

you for the hard work that you've done and you know decreasing the amount of

home without internet and and sell your internet and computer and so on but my

question is because of the cut in federal funding what is the total amounts

that that was cut that affect 40,000 residents thank you for the question

about 50% of San Jose residents who were eligible to receive that subsidy so

there were 80 I mean just for simple math 80,000 residents were eligible 40

40,000 received that subsidy it was for that 40,000 it was 1.2 million dollars per month

That was distributed locally in a $30 per month

Credit essentially to their bill so you double that you get to 2.4 million

And then you set the duration that you're looking to subsidize and we can do some math from there

That's a quite large number. I

have about 17 mobile home or

or manufactured part, mobile home parks in my district.

And, you know, it's no longer a want, it's a must.

In order for us to move toward the AI hub,

our children need those internet connection

and our elderly need to pay their bills

or just to be entertained from being alone.

I think it's important to be able to reach out to family members from across the world

or across the street for that matter or friends.

I think that if there's a will, there's a way to find out how we can, you know, reduce

this gap either through or philanthropic partnership perhaps some fundraising and

hopefully the economy will pick up but I just want to say thank you so much for

your hard work thanks councilmember all right looks like that exhausts questions

comments my colleagues I think we're ready to vote motion passes unanimously

great thank you thank you again to Jill and the team for all the great work all

right so we are on to item 7.2 abandoned shopping cart retrieval pilot program

status report we do have a staff presentation

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Chris Burton, Director of Planning and Building Code Enforcement.

Joined today by Rachel Roberts, Deputy Director for Code Enforcement.

We're also supported today by Deputy City Manager Angel Rios and Peter Hamilton from the City Manager's Office.

And we're here today to report back on the abandoned shopping cart retrieval pilot program.

It's quite the mouthful.

And to share what we've learned from this effort, both in terms of outcomes and what it takes to deliver them.

This pilot is another example of our code enforcement team testing new ways to respond

to persistent citywide issues.

It shows that with the right resources and coordination that we can make tangible improvements

that residents notice.

At the same time, it's really important to be clear that these results don't happen

in a vacuum.

They require focused effort, coordination across departments, real staff capacity and

resources.

This pilot focused on the visible symptom of the larger issue of abandoned shopping carts

throughout the city but it's also part of a broader three-part strategy that the city council

has already advanced that included ordinance changes approved earlier this year legislative

advocacy at the state level to unlock cost recovery and now on the ground testing of a service model

that could work citywide i also briefly want to place this work in the context of our recent

operational assessment and the work plan that we're advancing to re-engineer code enforcement

Exploring innovative solutions like this are absolutely consistent with the spirit of that

assessment. At the same time, this pilot was additive to our existing workload. To make that

happen, the team had to make deliberate trade-offs and temporary shifts in resources away from other

ongoing priorities. That's really important context as we look ahead. Today's presentation

is really about what worked, but also about the opportunity, the costs, and the operational

considerations involved should we choose to pursue this further.

Before we get into the details, I just want to recognize the people who made the pilot

possible.

Rachel and her team created the capacity to deliver this work alongside everything else

they're responsible for.

In particular, I want to recognize Inspector Angelica Garcia, Senior Analyst Raymond Ho,

Supervisor Donald Timoteo, our Beautify San Jose and Department of Transportation partners,

as well as Peter Hamilton in the City Manager's Office for all of their support throughout

this effort.

And with that, I'll turn this over to Rachel to walk through the pilot results, the lessons

learned and the path forward.

Thank you.

So as Chris noted, this work has been underway over the past year.

To recap, beginning in February of this year, City Council considered various policy options

and directed staff to pursue changes to state law and amend the city ordinance to allow

for more flexibility and strengthen enforcement and also to explore a contract for cart retrieval

services.

Shortly after, a proposed state law was introduced into the Senate and it began the process through

the legislature.

In May of this year, City Council approved the revised regulatory ordinance which included

a mandatory requirement for retailers with 76 carts or more to more effectively prevent

abandoned carts.

In August, staff implemented the shopping cart pilot program.

And then in October, after moving through the state legislature, the governor signed

the bill into law.

And then just recently, mid-November, staff concluded the pilot program, conducted analysis,

and prepared the report being presented today.

So the pilot began on August 14th and ran through November 14th.

The effort covered two pilot areas, one in the vicinity of Coleman Avenue and Taylor,

and area two which was in the vicinity of Almaden Expressway and Blossom Hill Road.

Through the duration of the pilot, a total of 734 carts were collected, with 202 collected

in area one and 532 in area two.

On or about week three, staff implemented ride-alongs to observe the contractor's efforts in the

field and we worked with the contractor to improve the results and carts collected.

The graph here on the right shows the cart collection through the duration of the pilot

with area one cart collection being represented in blue and the area two cart collection in

orange.

So this slide here we wanted to provide the maps of each of the area, area one provided

on the left and area two on the right, but also the legend provides key insights, noting

the number of carts that were collected at each location and the location of the retailers

in relation to the carts that were found.

So another key insight from the pilot was the number of abandoned carts that were retrieved

for each retailer within the first ten weeks of the pilot, which is shown in this data

table here.

We've provided from that data the top 10 retailers with abandoned carts in the pilot areas with Costco and Whole Foods at the top of this list, followed by Walmart and Safeway.

We also had a number of key conclusions and lessons learned that came out of the pilot that is going to be very instrumental in helping to inform a sustainable permanent model.

So first, we found that a significant number of carts were collected in a very short amount of time.

And the use of the ride-alongs with the vendor improved our cart collection.

In particular, a two-person team seemed to make the most difference in effectively navigating

the pilot areas as well as locating carts.

Area 2 had a high number of carts collected, likely because this area was smaller and had

a higher number of larger retail stores such as Safeway and Walmart, Whole Foods and Costco,

and also subsequently had a higher density of carts.

We found the retailer data also to be useful, allowing us to track the retailers and being

able to note high cart abandonment rates could definitely help us improve and inform our

existing oversight of our cart management plans and our enforcement tools under our

existing program.

There was a relatively small number of carts that had trash or belongings.

Roughly 6% of the total number of carts collected had trash or belongings.

Despite this low number, these carts still required coordination with other city departments

for pickup, which sometimes resulted in the cart being gone before the city could retrieve

it.

Our data also suggested that there were several reasons, as you can imagine, that carts may

be abandoned, the most prevalent being either use of the carts by the unhoused or by customers

that were transporting their purchases from those stores in the area to their nearby homes

and apartments.

And then lastly, retrieving the abandoned carts requires a significant amount of effort

across multiple departments, whether that was Beautify S.J. picking up the carts with

the trash, the Department of Transportation managing the service yard when the carts needed

to be stored, the IT department supporting the 311 complaint intake, and then code overseeing

the vendor coordinating of the retailer engagement and enforcement.

So while these partnerships proved critical during this pilot, they also revealed the

need for potential streamlining and process improvements.

So understanding the desire to continue to address the issue of abandoned carts through

a proactive retrieval model, we wanted to provide an overview of the cost for the pilot.

The total pilot cost shown here includes staff time as well as vendor costs.

These were absorbed by staff and funded with salary savings for a total of $32,000.

There was also additional cost to the department and opportunity cost as there was no activity

under the abandoned shopping cart program happening while the inspector pivoted to oversee

this pilot.

Those opportunities costs can be quantified as the equivalent of 62 proactive inspections,

10 potential citations, and review of 30 shopping cart management plans during the pilot duration.

Scaling the cost of the pilot and lessons learned, we were able to estimate that continuing

the pilot for a year would cost approximately $128,000.

Taking this a step further to implement the program permanently citywide, although there

is the potential to offset the cost of the program through cost recovery fees under the

new state law, there are start-up costs which we have calculated to be approximately $686,000,

including $563,000 in vendor costs and $123,000 for a new analyst position to oversee the

program.

Our initial cost recovery estimates are based on a 12,000 carts retrieved annually for up

to approximately $1.2 million in cost recovery revenue.

However, there are some factors that could decrease this estimated amount and decrease

the amount of carts retrieved.

With the recent ordinance amendment put into place, retailers with 76 carts and more will

now have mandatory abatement cart measures in place which could reduce the number of

carts that we find out in the community.

And the 48-hour notice requirement implemented by the new state law before carts can be retrieved

by the city could impact the number of carts collected.

So in addition to the 48-hour notice, the new state legislation also prevents carts

from being, from recovering costs for inaccessible carts.

So excuse me, it also prevents the city from recovering costs for inaccessible carts, which

we as a city will need to define what an inaccessible cart is.

And then the new law also caps the cost recovery fee at $100 per cart, despite the true cost

incurred by the city for retrieval.

So what are the next steps?

To complete the analysis of the pilot, staff is in the process of implementing a customer

survey with the retailers that were within our two pilot areas to collect and analyze

our feedback on the pilot, including how successful it was from their perspective and how much

the pilot impacted their operations.

We'll also continue to evaluate our lesson learned with our internal partners to inform

a potential RFP, as well as enforcement and oversight of our existing program.

To establish a permanent cart retrieval service, we will need to conduct an RFP to select a

contractor to provide that service on an ongoing basis.

And while staff would seek to achieve cost recovery for the program, initial funding

would be necessary to start the program, potentially including staffing to administer the program.

And then lastly, as far as proposed timeline, if the spring 2026 March budget message indicates

that funding would be likely staff would seek to complete the rfp process by june of 2026 so that

the new service could be implemented soon after the start of the new fiscal year and that concludes

our report and with that we are here to take questions thank you great thank you for the report

tony do we have public comment i have no cards for this item okay coming back to the council

chris rachel want to thank you for bringing forward and running a successful pilot that gives us real

date on where abandoned carts are showing up and where they originate from I thought the table

on retailers was quite informative I'll come back to that in a moment as we all know and I think the

reason this has been a strong IGR priority for the city and was something that senator cortesi

gladly took up and helped us with and I want to thank him for that and and Peter Hamilton and

and the city manager's IGR team.

You know, these are the thousands of carts

that are lost every year and scattered across sidewalks

and parks and our trails and waterways

are not just a visible quality of life issue

for our residents, not just an eyesore,

but they actually really damage the environment.

And I can't tell you every single cleanup

along the waterways we do we are fishing dozens of carts out so I appreciate that we're looking

to find a measured targeted program that's got cost recovery baked in that holds retailers

accountable and incentivizes them for upstream loss prevention while keeping our neighborhoods

and waterways clean I do so with with these tools in place I think it's important that we

minimize the gap between doing this research and getting this data and then actually deploying

the program now that we're kind of a year into discussion and have some data.

I do want to just ask a question on how we might get there.

So given, back to the chart, that a majority of the carts came from just 10 retailers.

Looking at you, Costco.

What is the plan to proactively engage these retailers, whether through outreach, stronger

cart management plans, since we already have those in place, we don't actually have to

do an RFP to do that.

How much can we do now with the data we've just collected through this pilot to work

with the folks who really ought to be doing more to invest in loss prevention?

Thank you for the question.

So this report actually in the culmination of the pilot is quite timely.

We actually just issued the invoice for their annual plan review.

And so we'll be reviewing those plans as they come in through January.

And so we're definitely going to be using this data to help inform those conversations

and that review of their plans.

But also the new ordinance amendment will be in place where they're required to have

a mandatory mechanism, whether it's contracting with a cart retrieval company, having locks on

carts, or some other means or tools. So that's new. So we're hopeful that we'll be able to have

more direct, more specific conversations. But our enforcement efforts will continue as part of the

shopping cart program that's already existing, if that's needed. Okay. And when, I'm sorry,

one of those plans due back to you, you said you just initiated the conversations? Yeah. So the

The invoices go out in November, but we will be reviewing those through January of this year.

Correct.

Or next year.

Right.

Yeah.

And at that point, they will have to have one of the prevention strategies.

If they have 76 carts or more, yes.

Right.

Which includes, and actually that was a question I had, of the top 10, I assume they all fall into that category?

That is correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, good.

Yeah, I just, I don't want to end up in a situation where I have to wait half a year to start anything again

because of just the nuances of our budget process.

I think we've learned a lot, and there are some levers we have today,

especially with this state legislation.

Thanks again to our Senator, Dave Cortese.

Okay, let me turn to colleagues for additional comments and maybe a motion.

Council Member Cohen.

Well, thank you for the pilot.

And I was actually going to focus on the cart management piece

because I feel like that is the low-hanging fruit

and potentially it's a place where we can make big impact

without having to do this large program.

And just sort of to follow up on that one a little deeper,

the chart you showed, you mentioned in that list of key learnings,

one was that we can understand better how different retailers are managing their carts.

Is that the next step?

Have we done anything to understand why some are rising up higher on the list than others?

I was struck by the target being somewhat low on the list,

but I know that they have a pretty robust cart management compared to some of the other places.

I'm just wondering if we have any feeling yet as to what different retailers are doing

that might lead to some of these differences.

Thank you for the question.

I think that work is still happening now.

As I was saying, there's still a little more analysis to do,

especially after we get the survey from those retailers,

but I think that would be the types of questions we're going to be asking

because we too are surprised to see that with a big real tailor like target um so what are they

doing that these other stores are not doing okay i appreciate that i'll be interested to hear what

you what you learn and what our next steps will be thank you i'll make i'll move approval of the

staff report second thanks councilmember councilman condos no uh thank you i i appreciate the report

and i i too want to thank senator cortese for his advocacy in sacramento it's no easy feat to pass a

bill. I know that firsthand and I know the mayor was instrumental in helping

move the needle and get the council on board to support this pilot which

ultimately provided a lot of valuable positive information for us to be able

to assess and you know I'm glad the mayor and and councilmember Cohen

mentioned our retailers and and as it relates to the cart management program

because I think there's a lot of work and opportunity that the pilot showed us with regards to making sure that they're doing their fair share

to make sure that they're preserving their own cards.

And so, you know, but, you know, something that was stressed earlier is the city budget next year is something that concerns me

and something that we are seeing.

The jobs report came out today, showed a weakening labor market.

We have a challenging budget year next year, and we're going to be in service preservation mode as a council, which I'm going into my third year.

This is the first time, and I'm a little nervous about investing $700,000 in upfront costs.

So does staff have any insight and or some things that we can proactively do or do to kind of alleviate, you know, that concern?

Or is that something we're going to have to discuss as part of the budget, considering it's essentially going to be a new service for PBC?

Yeah, thanks for the question, Councilmember.

And that's entirely right, right?

This is a new service.

And so really, we can make estimates on what we think cost recovery would look like.

but with the changes in the ordinance, we really don't know what the landscape for retrieval looks like.

So that's why we have to put the startup cost on what we assume would be,

you know, the cost to just deliver the service without a cost recovery component included.

I think that's really the value in the pilot, is being able to kind of use, sort of, you know,

dig through the couch cushions to find resources so we could experiment and see what it looked like.

And it is. It's a successful program, right? It works.

But it gives you the opportunity to understand what that balance looks like

and what that investment looks like to really get that kind of return.

Yeah, and given the $100 cap, if you will, per cart,

and looking at, say, a retailer like Costco,

that's 204 carts at $100 a cart,

you know do they know that they're on the hook potentially for this and what kind of engagement

are we doing with the retailers on this potential new fee that they would be assessed and assuming

you know I mean anytime we we talk about fees and and or taxes you know they always say oh it's

going to affect the consumer and we already know affordability in our cities you know an issue

I'm curious to hear what engagement with these retailers on a potential new fee,

to the tune of what, $20,000, $2,000, you know, what that looks like.

So we have not conducted that engagement just yet. I think if we were to, you know, get the funding

in the direction to go forward with the permanent program, I think that would probably run in

parallel while we're doing the RFP to secure a contracted vendor. We also

would have to do an ordinance amendment which is part of our upcoming you know

work plan to make sure that the current ordinance aligns with the new state law

to actually be able to charge that hundred dollars. So I think that is still

to come but it would definitely be part of our outreach. Got it. Yeah and you

know that's I think it'd be you know having proactive communication with

these retailers as a, you know, as part of these cart management programs and being able to, you know,

after today's conversation, being able to debut and or talk about, hey, there's this potential state,

there's state law that's, you know, in effect that would allow us to do this to the tune of $20,000 for Costco,

for example. Sorry, not to pick on Costco, but they're the highest amount of carts out there.

So, you know, that's something that for thought.

And obviously I'm supportive of the pilot program.

And obviously this is a conversation for us to have during the upcoming budget cycle.

And this is one of those tradeoff conversations that we need to be able to have with our residents

to see, you know, what kind of things are we giving off and putting on to PBC's plate,

considering they're probably the most likely department tasked with overseeing this new

contractor if you will that we select to be able to manage uh the the this cart retrieval program

so anyways uh i'll i'll i'll leave it at that and i'm curious to hear uh from the rest of my

colleagues on this thanks councilmember councilmember mulcahy thank thank you mayor and thanks

Thanks for the work on the program.

I would certainly support having been involved in this from the jump and testifying in Sacramento.

And again, shout out to Senator Cortese.

Because I see the cost on the other side, and I think as part of the evaluation moving

forward, I think it would be interesting to know, you know, when we think about these

carts in our waterways or in our you know catch basins it'd be interesting to

know what costs back to the city this is you know what we're incurring in terms

of potential damage you know the cleanup after the fact if we don't have a

program to go out and collect these proactively I think that's a fair part of

the evaluation we should add to the list of what we need to know before a

decision is made certainly around the budget I won't pile on about what we

need to do with our retailers but we now have a short list so if anybody else's

game for it you know this pilot was done in the Coleman area know exactly who

those retailers are and who those managers of those stores are we can be

proactive agents ourselves and be requesting these property owners and

uh store owners to be uh to be better custodians of their carts because when we started this as a

property owner myself of some of these retailers um you know it's really important that we're

pushing them to be more responsible we don't haven't always required and don't require

cart retrieval systems and we should um so i would sort of look maybe to you know chris

from your standpoint i can't remember if we made any determinations on this for approvals moving

forward but really being you know playing hardball on cart retrievals and other systems do we include

that before i can't remember i'll answer this council member um so the the ordinance amendment

that we did in may did add a provision that requires any vendor with 76 carts or more they

have to have right yeah that mechanism they get to choose one of the three that

we've included in the ordinance but they have to have it which is different than

before yeah everyone on the list would qualify they absolutely do yes great

all right thank you thanks councilmember yeah appreciate your point

about the existing costs and I think at least along the waterways the reality is

we may have to do it either way question will be is it it's beautify it's a

to try to find more volunteers,

or is it incentivizing the retailers

to do more loss prevention and cover our costs

when we need to have a contractor do it?

I will be interested to see how it plays out, though,

because I don't think there's one mechanism.

I think the idea is to get to the outcome.

This gives us more tools, to Councilor Condellos' point,

and allows us to incentivize

more of that loss prevention investment.

I mean, if the retailers can take actions

that prevent us from ever needing to hire a third party

to go collect carts and then charge them for cost recovery that's that would be

wonderful I think we need this likely in place to incentivize that behavior in

which case maybe our costs are significantly lower or closer to cost

recovery but we'll learn more as we head toward the the budget process so

appreciate all the questions comments we've got a motion on the floor Tony I

think we're ready to vote motion passes unanimously thank you all right thanks

again to city staff on that item okay we're on to item 7.3 there's no staff

report this is the extension of the urgency interim ordinance on the

temporary moratorium of the on the issuance of tobacco retail licenses

Sorry, that was a mouthful Tony do we have public comment on item 7.3. I have no cards coming back to the council

Thank you, I don't see any other hands don't rush my colleagues, but I think we're good Tony, let's vote

Okay motion passes unanimously, thank you

Thank you all okay, we're on to item 8.1

This is the preliminary actions required for the creation of the Alameda business improvement district and levy of assessments for fiscal year

25 26 we have a brief

Staff presentation. I believe I'm gonna turn it over to Jen Baker once staffs ready

I

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Manager McGuire, and Council, Jen Baker, Director of the Office

of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs.

I'm here today with Vic Farley, Sal Alvarez, and Jessica Munoz from our small business

team who have respectively shepherded these two projects, 8.1 and 8.2, over the course

of the last two years.

I would like to give a quick shout out to our colleagues in the City Attorney's Office

and also the Finance Department for their support and work also in bringing these processes

to you.

Likewise, I would like to acknowledge Ani and Kat who are under contract with the City

and who supported the Business Association and led the campaign on the ground for the

Alameda Corridor.

Today City Council has the opportunity to pass a resolution of intention to establish a business

Improvement District from active tax certificates which will complement the

formation of the Property Assessment Improvement District or CBID which you

council approved earlier this year. This new bid will significantly expand the

boundaries and number of businesses in the business district and I'd like to

hand the mic over to our team Vic Farley and Sal Alvarez on item 8.1 to take you

through the presentation. Thank you, Jen. Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. The establishment

of a bid must follow California law, which allows for the creation of a special assessment district

to raise funds within a specific geographic area. What is important here is that all the funds raised

by businesses within the district are used exclusively for the benefit of the district.

A bid must be renewed annually by City Council, and the business community must adhere to

a high level of transparency and engagement locally, including the adoption of brownout

regulations and maintaining at all times accurate and complete financial records.

Thank you, Vic, and good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

The Alameda business bid area is shown in green on the map, stretches from Heading Street at the top of the map, all the way south to West San Carlos Street at the bottom, eastwards as far as Stockton Avenue, and westwards as far as Dana Avenue.

In total, there are 1,731 businesses with an active tax certificate sustaining roughly 5,000 jobs.

For reference, the C bid approved by the City Council in June is highlighted in the brown area in the middle of the map.

if you look at the proposed assessment fee for all businesses you can see there are two categories

defined by headcount and there will be exemptions the tabid board adopted a more cautious approach

for the first year of operation assuming a 70 percent collection rate generating 258 930 dollars

for the first fiscal year city staff will be meeting with the consultants in early January

2026 to update all the figures and we'll be reporting back to the city council as part of

the steps outlined in the state law to form a business improvement district

this is the first budget identifying the proposed allocation of funds emphasizing the business

association strategy to promote the neighborhood host events and market local businesses as detailed

in the service plan the board will review and present a new budget each year to city council

as part of its annual renewal process analyzing assessment fees projects and expenditures

here is the time here is the timeline for city council taking us from the resolution of intent

today setting out the key milestones required including an information mailing to businesses

the public meeting for business owners, then the hearing itself and the first and second reading of the ordinance.

If the City Council approves the resolution of intent today and subsequently approves an ordinance,

then assessments could commence in April 2026.

As Jen has said and as Sal has mentioned, the City has the opportunity today

to continue to support the creation of a fiscally sustainable business district,

building on the formation of the C-bid and engaging directly 730 businesses.

The Alameda bid was discussed at the recent Small Business Advisory Committee on December 4th,

which enthusiastically endorsed this approach to improving and highlighting local commercial and economic resiliency.

Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you.

Do we have public comment?

I have no cards for this item.

Excellent. Thank you. Coming back to the council. Councilmember Mulcahy.

Thank you, Mayor. I first want to start by thanking the entire staff in the box from OEDCA

Finance Department and the Alameda Business Association and

Kat and Ani who are here in the audience today who seem to be in the middle of so much progress

on the Alameda along with many of the faces there in the box.

I just want to point out so the bid is a separate initiative than the C bid there's only one other

place in the city of San Jose where we have both and that's in the downtown and I just want to take

a moment to sort of talk about a couple of things and then you know sort of talk about why for the

Alameda it's specifically beneficial in a couple of different ways so back in June when we voted

to establish the Community Benefit Improvement District,

we'll call it a CBID, which was the assessment added

to a property tax bill based on a specific calculation.

That's different from what we're doing today,

which is a BID where the fee is attached

to the business tax.

Practically speaking, it's riskier for an organization

to rely on the business tax levies.

And as we discussed recently with that whole amnesty

conversation, we're dealing with a situation

where many businesses don't register or renew their licenses,

which is a key reason the amnesty program was needed.

Property taxes, on the other hand, which is tied to the C-Bid,

are almost always paid in part because enforcement

is much stronger.

This is one of the reasons why before my time on the council

and going back 15 plus years when we passed the C-Bid in Willow

Glen, we actually sunsetted the bid,

because they are fees that a retailer may end up paying both,

depending on whether the landlords pass those costs

through from property tax to the tenants.

The work, so the work kind of being done here

with the Alameda is genuinely impressive,

and I hope the bid and CBID managers

of other districts take note.

As I mentioned, this is the first business

outside the downtown to pursue both,

And their plan for the funds essentially, you know,

serves some very specific purposes.

So in the case of the bid, the idea

is those resources would go towards sort of marketing

and generating interest in the Alameda businesses themselves,

while the CBID funds might go to more beautification,

security, et cetera.

So it really allows them to have a marketing fund that allows them to sort of gang together

and compete with some of these other places like Valley Fair, Santana Row,

that have the corporate dollars to really be an attraction.

So it allows our small business community to be more competitive,

which frankly is good for ultimate sales tax generation.

And these businesses are running on razor-thin margins.

So I think the cost of this is fairly sensitive to that.

It's annually $350 a year, which is about $29 a month for these businesses to participate

and specifically allows solo artists and contractors working in salons to pay about $100 a year.

So it is an opportunity for, and Vic, can you tell me how many businesses are in this kind of basket

of businesses?

Thank you, Councilor Mulcahy.

We have currently 1,730 active business tax certificates

within the enlarged area.

Right.

So to your point, there's a lot of businesses

that think about themselves as part of the Alameda Business

District sort of economy, if you will,

but they're not geographically tied together,

so they wouldn't necessarily be qualified

to be in the CBID anyway,

which is geographically tied correct that's exactly right council okay and

we'll be running a new list on January 1 and our current assessment is that the

numbers are increasing in the district which is a very good sign in terms of

the overall approach that the Association has taken in the last six

months to to really reach out to the business community in this enlarged area

great so I appreciate the outline of the timeline we'll be looking forward to

supporting you however we can so with that I'm proud to move staff's

recommendation on 8.1 to begin the process of forming the Alameda business

improvement district great thank you councilmember thanks staff for your work

on this I don't see any other hands Tony let's vote motion passes unanimously

All right. Thank you. Item 8.2, preliminary actions required for the creation of the Alum Rock Santa Clara Street Business Improvement District and levy of assessments for fiscal year 2025-2026. And I will turn it back over to Jen and the team.

All right.

Well joining from the OEDC team on this presentation is Vic Farley and Jessica Munoz.

And this particular business corridor was supported by consultants at Community Strong

Strategies under their contract with the city to build capacity and manage the campaign

on the ground.

So CSS engaged directly with business owners and partners and worked to help build this

momentum.

And I would create a prelude in that even though there are two bids that we're presenting

to you today, these are really two very unique opportunities for two different neighborhoods

with different dynamics.

And so what is similar is that in each of the districts, the business community unified,

they identified priorities, they accumulated the capacity and the political will to want

to bind together and to adopt this tool and propose this tool for their community.

So while we're presenting two, please be mindful that they're very unique and uniquely meaningful

to their respective communities and leaders.

So today we have the opportunity to pass a resolution of intention to establish a business

improvement district that covers both District 3 and District 5 focused on the city's east

side business community.

This has been a subject of discussion for many years and we're delighted to be able

to bring to City Council today this opportunity.

So Vic and Jessica with the presentation.

Thank you, Jen, and good afternoon again, Mayor and City Council.

The establishment of the bid, as we referenced in 8.1,

must follow California law, which allows for the creation

of a special assessment district to raise those funds

within the geographic area.

And what is important here is all the funds raised

by the businesses within the district are used exclusively for the benefit of that district,

which is important to Alum Rock and East Santa Clara Street.

A bid must be renewed annually by City Council, and the business community must adhere, as

I've mentioned, to a high level of transparency and engagement locally, including the Brown

Act rules and regulations, and maintain at all times accurate and complete financial

records.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

As you can see in the map, the geography of the bid is narrow and long, extending on the

west from 22nd Street along East Santa Clara into Alam Rock Street to the Capitol Avenue,

crossing the 101 and 680, and includes diverse neighborhoods such as Little Portugal, Plata

Arroyo, and the Mayfair North.

There are over 540 businesses in a variety of sectors, from retail to professional services

with a current business tax certificate employing over 1,700 people, many of whom are local

to the area.

The businesses are a mix of Latino, Asian, Portuguese, and for many this is their first

time experiencing, first experience creating an effective association and engaging positively

with the city.

This milestone marks the first ever business improvement district in East San Jose, representing

a historic investment in the area's small businesses and vibrant cultural diversity.

If we look at the proposed assessment fee for all the businesses, you can see there

is a flat rate of $350, and assuming a 70% collection rate, it will generate $133,035,

its first fiscal year city staff will be discussing with the business association the continued work

of the consultants to ensure there is a managed transition into the first half of 2026

this is the first budget identifying the proposed allocation of funds with 50

focus on safety and beautification and the balance and the balance equally divided between

marketing and promotional work and administration.

The board will annually review and present the budget to City Council,

analyzing current and planned expenditures.

Here is the timeline for City Council taking us from the resolution of intent today,

setting out the key milestones required, including an information mailing to

businesses,

the public meeting for business owners, then the hearing itself,

and the first and second reading of the ordinance.

Again, similar to the Alameda,

if the City Council approves the resolution of intent today,

then assessments could commence in April 2026.

As Jen has said, the opportunity for City Council today

is to create a business-led improvement district

to unify the local business community

and provide a clear sense of purpose

with the prospect of long-term resourcing

under the control of the business community.

This bid was also discussed

at the last Small Business Advisory Committee on December the 4th, which again enthusiastically

endorsed this approach to strengthening local community and economic resiliency.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

All right, Tony, do we have public comment?

Yes, I have three requests.

Helen, Cynthia and Nathaniel, come on down.

You do not have to speak in the order you're called.

Come on down, it doesn't, the order is flexible.

Welcome, you have two minutes once you begin.

Hi, my name is Helen Masamori.

I'm very proud to be president of Santa Clara Street

Alamark Business Association.

I'm gonna speak in Spanish and they're gonna speak in English.

Thank you to the Council, the Municipal Council,

especially to Matt Mahon.

Thank you also very much to Victor and Jessica.

We are working together for a long time.

And also, the most important thing,

especially to the Councilor Peter Ortiz

for his invaluable support to form this bid.

And thank you to the Councilor Tordillos for his support.

And also, most importantly,

especially to Councilman Peter Ortiz

his invaluable support in forming this IDB, and thanks to Councillor Tordillos for his

support. This is also an investment.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon. My name is Cynthia Velazquez. I am the owner of Dulceria Mi Carnal

on 24th and East Santa Clara Street for over 30 years here in San Jose.

I am also secretary of the Alum Rock Santa Clara Street business corridor.

Thank you to City Council for believing in this community and a special thank you

to our council member Peter Ortiz and Councilmember Anthony Torreos for their invaluable leadership

and steady support in helping bringing

this business improvement district to life.

You all, and also OED, brought CCS in to help organize us.

This investment allows us to reinvest locally,

supporting small businesses, improving safety

and beautification, and strengthening

this vital east side artery that connects

our neighborhoods directly into the heart

of downtown San Jose.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, next speaker.

Good afternoon. My name is Nathaniel Lim. I'm a business owner for 38 years on Alum Rock and Eastside.

I'm here to, basically, we are here taking that first step and want to thank Councilman Ortiz, Councilman Dorotios,

for helping us take that step this helps us the businesses pull ourselves up by

our own bootstraps not waiting for anybody else to do it for us so this is

very exciting thank you for your continued support and have a good

afternoon back to council great thank you let me turn first to councilmember

Ortiz

thank you mayor I just want to thank staff for all this hard work I appreciate that timeline you

you shared earlier but really these conversations regarding a business improvement district started

actually with the previous council member and I know that Daniela from district 3 was involved

in those conversations as well as many who stayed on with with my team like but he's son and Kim

And so I'm truly excited about and incredibly proud to support the formation of the Alum Rock

Santa Clara Street Business Association's Business Improvement District, a milestone that has been a long time coming for this corridor.

This corridor is the heart of East San Jose. It's home to more than 500 small businesses, thousands of jobs,

and generations of immigrant families who've built their livelihoods here.

Alum Rock isn't just a place you pass through, it's where culture, commerce, and community come together every single day.

As part of my East San Jose revitalization strategy, I've been very clear about one thing.

Revitalization doesn't happen from City Hall alone.

It happens when we invest directly in the people who are already doing the work.

Our small business owners, our entrepreneurs, and our neighborhood leaders.

leaders. And the reality is this, city services, while essential, are not designed to meet every

day-to-day need of a commercial corridor. Cleanups, beautifications, marketing, activation,

these are all kinds of services that too often fall through the cracks when budgets are stretched

thin across the city, especially with a budget like we're going to be discussing next year.

This bid changes that. This is about business owners choosing to invest in themselves and their

community. It's about creating a stable dedicated funding source that stays right

here in the corridor supporting safety, cleanliness, marketing and activation in

a way that is responsive, flexible and led by the community itself. And for me

this moment is deeply personal. I was one of the founding members of the

founding board members of this Alamrock Santa Clara Street Business Association

helping bring business owners together, build trust and lay the groundwork for

long-term change. And now, and I did that before I ever thought about being a

council member, but now that I am a council member I'm able to be a part of

helping them take that next step to become a bid. And it truly feels like

coming full circle. This bid builds directly on the momentum we've already

created through the entertainment zone along Allen Rock Corridor. We've opened

door-to-door, we've opened the door to more events, more foot traffic, and more

opportunities for families to gather and support our local businesses and through

our current work in partnership with the Association and the School of Arts and

Culture establishing a cultural district who are uplifting the identity creativity

and history that makes this corridor unique this is what economic equitable

development looks like it's not about waiting for outside investment to arrive

it's about empowering the people who are already here to shape the future of

their own community so I just really want to thank the Alamark Santa Clara

Street Business Association thank you to this to the board members who are here

as well as Community Strong Solutions who I know has been a major support with

these efforts as well as our city staff I know that you know this isn't the

first time we've tried to do this bid and you know multiple times we've hit

roadblocks and you know was grateful to be able to secure some money from the

previous budget in order to fund you know this last shot to try to get it

done and so I'm glad to see that you know hopefully in the next couple of

months I'm surprised it takes that long but over the next couple of months I

think I read April you know district 5 should get its its first bid district 5

and district 3 and I'm proud to partner with our district 3 council member to be

an advocate for these businesses I do just have one one quick question so I

I know that as we mentioned in I think it was CED yesterday Nathan and Community

Strong Solutions have essentially supported them in getting to this point

but I think that that contract should be ending soon or I'm not sure necessarily

when that ends how are we going to make sure that you know these business owners

get support and actually governing the bid or getting training on you know how

to stand understand how to properly govern the bid because getting us here

is one thing I want to make sure that our business owners have the tools to

then successfully lead the bid thank you council member the answer to your

question is that community strong strategies are under contract to the

city through to December 26 so we have a full 12 months okay the current

funding profile takes us through to June 26 and we'll be sitting down with CSS in

early January to just plan out the work from June through to August on the

assumption that council does approve all the various steps that were outlined in

the presentation if you then factor in when the timeline would be for the first

payment to the association in terms of their ability to then make decisions on

the use of that money that's estimated to be August so we're looking at a

period from June to August to ensure there's sufficient cover to enable the

board to be effectively trained and developed in brownout regulations and

the necessary transparency rules that have to come with managing a business

improvement district so there will be I can assure you a smooth handover through

the period from January to June and then June to August and then the board will

make decisions from August onwards. Okay just I want to make sure I confirm did

you say that within the contract with Nathan's firm there is language on

making sure that the business has an understanding on how to manage the bid

correct okay he's not here so I'm not able to ask that question so okay I'm

I'm happy to hear that, and I look forward to supporting this bid, and let's get this across the finish line.

Thank you so much.

Oh, yeah, and let me actually move this item.

Great idea.

Great idea.

Thank you, Councilmember Dewan.

Somebody want to second it?

Right.

Councilmember Tordias already did.

I saw it across the dais.

It is partly in his district.

Thanks, Councilmember.

We'll turn to Councilmember Tordias next.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, we obviously spend a lot of time thinking about how we take care of our downtown core,

but I think today's presentations really emphasize just how important it is that we also make sure that we are investing in and looking after all of our neighborhood-serving business districts.

So I'm personally really excited to see how this new bid is going to help to revitalize and support this corridor,

make it safer and more vibrant for everyone, and also support all of our great neighborhood-serving small businesses.

But obviously, a model like this could only work with the partnership and support of the community.

So I just want to thank all of the business owners and leaders who came out to speak in favor of this today,

and all of the community members and community leaders who've really been

advancing this initiative over several years now so thank you all thanks

councilmember and just a pile on the thank yous I do want to just thank

everybody who leaned in to make this possible you know starting a few years

ago we were talking about how long it had been since we had a new bid and we a

strategy is to invest in them but it really I think it's exemplified this

evening it's when you have council members like council member Ortiz

Councilman okay, Councilor Tordios and others on this body who I know have leaned in who really personally make it a

Passion project and go to the meetings and talk to the business owners and lean in and then we have the business owners and neighborhood

Leaders who step up and say we share this vision

We want to invest in ourselves and control our own destiny and be a little more

Kind of self-sufficient and really be strategic together

And then of course it doesn't happen without staff actually facilitating and and making it possible

Bring all the structure and legal compliance and process to it that we need

So I'm just grateful that council colleagues have leaned in and made this a reality because without that leadership

I just don't I don't think we would see all these bids coming to fruition

And I think they're gonna be a great thing and give us a lot more resiliency as a city as we head into some tough

Fiscal years just from a general fund perspective here at the city

So thank you all around everybody who's got us to this point. I don't see any other hands

We've got a motion on the floor last one of the year. I think Tony let's vote

We have a holdout there it is all right motion passes unanimously excellent

Congratulations everybody. Thank you. All right, so

We're on to open forum which is an opportunity for members of the public to address the council on city business

That was not on today's agenda Tony. Do we have any comments?

Brian

Thank you first of all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everybody

I sent you all a card. I don't know if you got it. I actually brought them here.

One of the reasons I did that is instead of hearing a lot of negatives, I went through your newsletters

and found some positives that each of you have done. And I just said thank you for that.

The second thing, Mr. Mayor, I sent you some information about, you posted it on Facebook,

about traffic accidents, DUIs,

CalMatters, I believe, had four articles.

I just want to let you know,

the stuff I wrote that I sent to you

was sent to Senator Wahhab and my assembly person,

and they said they're going to put it

before their legislative community.

So anyways, Happy New Year's and Merry Christmas.

Take care.

And you guys are right.

You are heading into some very perilous times.

I ask you please to watch the president's address

on Wednesday.

I have a feeling that's not going to be something

we're going to enjoy.

Thank you.

back to council

i muted myself thank you tony colleagues thanks for a great year a lot of impact and work together

i appreciate it want to wish each of you and your families a very happy holiday season and happy

new year though i suspect i'll see each of you before then but uh thank you and thank you to

our city manager city attorney and everybody here on the team that's helped us move our

city forward this year happy holidays everybody

Thank you.

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