Morning, everyone.

Welcome.

I'd like to call to order this study session for the 2026 2027 budget.

It's the morning of May 7th.

Tony, would you please call the roll?

Kameh.

Campos?

Tordillos?

Here.

Cohen.

Ortiz.

Present.

Mulcahi.

Here.

Duan.

Kendellas.

Here.

Casey.

Foley.

Mayhan.

Here.

You have a quorum.

Great.

Thank you.

Well, good morning.

Welcome back, everyone.

We are jumping right back in today with transportation and aviation services.

And unless our assistant state manager has anything to add, we're gonna get to it.

We're good to go.

At least good.

All right, John, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you.

Council John Risto, Director of Transportation, and we're here for the CSA for Transportation Services.

And with me today is Mookie Patel, the director of the airport.

Uh Manuel Pineda, our deputy city manager, and the esteemed Jim Shannon, our budget director, will help us through this.

So let me get started.

The transportation aviation services core services, you can see them on the screen.

We are uh an important element of all of the city services that both of our departments conduct.

Um, most importantly, airport operations and the safety for the airport is Moonkey's top priority as well as ours in terms of all the surface transportation safety.

We do a lot of other things in this CSA, pavement services, parking, traffic maintenance, planning and safety and operations among many others.

Just uh another example of all the different programs that are within our departments.

I'm not going to go through every one of them.

We mentioned them before, safety being the most important for both the airport and transportation surface safety.

Um all of this activity does take a lot of work.

There's uh a number of employees in every one of these sections that uh rely on uh the funding that we're asking for today in the budget to actually maintain those facilities in good operating condition and to actually improve the outcome of everything.

Going into some of the dashboards, I'm gonna let Mookie jump in on the first part about the airport.

Thank you.

Um for passenger satisfaction.

I think our our scores remain very, very high.

I think we're also uh ranked always as as well with Jill competing with the airport as the number one perception of city services.

Um I'm always very proud of the airport.

Uh cleanliness is something that we always strive to improve, and that that's a little bit of a challenge with us.

Um I'd like to be in the 80 percent score range.

We've just got aging facilities, and so with that, we are looking at an asset preservation plan that will improve those scores over the next few years with um uh modernization and improvements, and then of course the annual passengers.

That's been a bit of an economic challenge for us, but uh we continue to work and we can talk more about that.

Thank you, Mookie.

And then for transportation department, uh many of these don't move around very much, especially the resident rating of traffic conditions, they're pretty static through the years, but at least gives you an idea of where some of the uh sentiment of the population is with regard to the service transportation system.

Some of the other ones that we have a little bit more control over is a bike network completion, and we are on track.

It's a small amount of increment every year as we try to attain that very large bicycle network.

Every year we complete more of that with our paving program and other safety projects.

Our average pavement condition, the um the most important of trying to keep our major asset in good condition.

We were able to improve it greatly over the last 10 years and get it to 73, 74 with a lot of the funding support from council and voters.

We're trying to maintain that 73 now number going forward as measure T is gonna run out after this year, but we're looking at other ways to actually maintain that.

Just a real quick shot of the budget summary.

Both the departments have uh for a large budget, not much of an increase showing for either either of the departments, and a small increase in FTE positions.

I'm not going to go through every one of these slides, but I just want to highlight what's again most important for both departments, for the transportation department.

It's really is a safe transportation system, and everything we do from maintenance all the way through our transportation safety and uh system improvements throughout this, is actually for our system safety for all users.

So that's very important to us.

And then for the airport.

Sorry.

Um obviously efficiency is something that we uh work with with our FA partners.

Um our weather is phenomenal, so our we're always ranked, I think this year we were ranked sixth in the world for on-time performance.

Um restoring flights and and recovery of the passenger demand is something that uh we focus through customer experience and innovation and trying to stay top of mind with our with our residents.

Um it is a bit of a challenge with the the business travel dropping off at SJC.

And then as we as we continue to look at uh the safe uh components, safety components of the facility, plumbing utilities, uh power outages, all of those things are resonating with the team as we as we work on the asset plan.

Thank you, Mookie.

And then on to some of the proposals in the uh in the budget that we're considering.

Uh the largest one, at least, that's on the screen there is the next year of we we did receive a fairly large grant from the uh U.S.

Forest Service.

We're implementing that uh grant.

This is these are the amount of funds that we will be implementing this year, which includes staffing and actual planting of trees.

So we're gonna be to continue to do that.

Some of the other important ones are staffing for the automated speed enforcement, um, airport facilities of landscaping, real estate development, and then back to our downtown parking rates and hours where we're gonna be increasing some of the effort on parking meter enforcement and scaling up our parking rates and time frames downtown.

And as a summary, it's it's our important again most important for our surface transportation program is our transportation safety effort and safety goals that we're trying to achieve.

We have uh put quite a bit of work into that and will continue to do so.

Trying to both plan and deliver our our rail transportation system, which is mostly done by other agencies, but we're coordinating with those agencies, whether it be VTA on the BART project or other transportation improvements that are regional and will help the city.

We are always after grants for uh transportation projects, and we've been fairly successful for that, but uh that could be a continued uh area of concern and growing airport passenger transport is is an important one, providing excellent customer service, which the airport already does very well, and uh continue investing in the airport in infrastructure to enhance safety and efficiency.

That is our last slide, and we're available for questions, all right.

Thank you for the overview.

Colleagues, let's turn out a questions.

I'm happy to kick off.

Or actually, I see Vice Mayor's got our hand up.

Go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Uh it it's I know that we're seeing decreased uh air transport to air uh traffic time or traffic.

Mookie and uh you and I have had this conversation about increasing the demand on our airport.

So, what do you see?

What's your vision or what's your idea on how we can boost uh travelers coming in and out of the airport, or more importantly, airlines who are coming in and out of the airport that would attract travelers?

It is a bit of a seesaw, as you just said at the your last few words.

Is it is it the airlines being here that create the demand, or is it the basis of the community and the economic factors in our community that create the demand for the service?

We look at it uh the second part first is uh there's been a shift in business travel.

Um I think when there's an economic cycle like even the one we're in right now with fuel prices doubling, jet fuel prices doubling.

Um airlines will make uh contraction decisions to where they have the most amount of flights and the most amount of staff to reduce uh outlying cities from having to uh duplicate services to the same city.

So we haven't seen any cutbacks uh in the last few months of uh maybe a non-stop to a specific destination, but the Mayor's March budget message that addressed uh a need for uh creating some kind of a um a larger group than just uh our staff doing the legwork, uh getting more data, developing some kind of a plan where there's speakers that are uh speaking on behalf of their companies is something that we're gonna try and target.

But uh right now our our load factors, I think Mark uh my Air Service Development Manager is in the audience if you have specific questions, but our air service development uh sorry, our number of seats in the market has been trimmed to a point now that it's meeting the demand, and and my job is to obviously to operate a million square feet of space and the 16,000 pieces of assets that we need replacing and upgrading and to run an efficient facility.

Um we don't create the demand for the consumer, that is economics, and I'll continue to work with Eric to see what we can do about growth in housing and affordability, and then working with Jen to see what corporate businesses are relocating and opportunities to promote those ideas, but we do often get inquiries as SFO continues to see challenges with their growth.

Um I think there's always an interest from international carriers interested in serving the peninsula and the valley as one major MSA, if you want to look at it that way.

And so I think we want to stay close to our partners at SFO too in the future.

Is that answer your question?

It it does.

Uh flying in and out of San Jose Airport could not be easier.

My daughter came in last week from New York, and she had the choice of flying direct to San Francisco, or flying into San Francisco San Jose and changing planes in Dallas, which she chose because she wanted to make it very convenient for her mother and father to pick her up at the airport, but also getting through TSA when she left San Jose, took her two seconds.

She was so thrilled that it was so seamless and easy for her.

That's why people fly in and out of San Jose because it's easier to do.

So there's that's that's uh not business travel.

Those are people coming home or vacation travelers.

So any anything we can do, and and uh I'm a fan of the non-stop, so I unfortunately make the other decision and drive someplace else so I can go nonstop.

But you and I have talked about that, and I I hope one day we'll be able to fly nonstop from San Jose and uh Councilmember Monkey probably hopes this too, uh, from San Jose to New York and the East Coast in general.

So uh I know uh I I think you're doing a fabulous job over there.

We just need to get people out and flying, and of course, the cost of fuel affects the cost of tickets, and we may see vacation travel change.

Okay, uh John, I have a couple questions for you regarding uh, you know, Vision Zero is really important to me, and we've had uh our number uh too many fatalities on our streets this year.

The trend is actually up from last year, and that's not the direction we want to be.

We want to go in the other direction.

We want to go down.

I noticed in the budget there's um allocation for a uh staff person to handle the quick build.

How will that have you hired that?

Is are you getting ready to hire that person, or is that person ready to come online once we approve the budget?

And then how will that really create quick build off?

Will we really have quick building going on when you request it in one day and it's completed within the year?

The good news is that personnel area works for us, and we're just making that a permanent position.

So that that person is doing that work that we're we're monitoring both the pre-conditions of those roadways and then the post-after after being built, we're then monitoring and reporting that best example is in your district, which Hillsdale, we did a quick build a number of years ago, which was pretty significant change to that roadway.

We had done pre-monitoring of what the volumes crashes, usage of all the different kinds of vehicles and bicycles, and then we've done two years, and you've seen those results.

We're actually pretty pleased with that.

Speeds are down, crashes are down, usage of multimodal is up.

So that's the kind of thing that this person is doing is going to continue to do.

That's great.

Uh, the the quick build program is really important to in the case of Hillsdale, we removed a lane in either direction, we put up bike lanes and slowed down traffic uh in tremendously, and the statistics bear that out after a couple of years of studying it.

It takes a while to people get used to it.

Right.

Well, yeah, people are still complaining about it, but that's okay.

If I'm saving one life, I'm happy with that trade-off.

I'll take the complaints anytime.

The other thing that I've been very involved in is the automated speed cameras that we work to have that legislation passed and included in the pilot program, and then we have the grant from the federal government, which was put on pause, and now I see we're going to install them.

Can you tell us when the automated automated speed cameras will be installed and operational?

Yeah, thank you.

The um unfortunately, that federal grant does not look like it's going to be approved by the Department of Transportation, Federal Department of Transportation.

So we've decided to move on, and we are wrapping up the contract with the vendor for the cameras right now.

We should be still on track for deployment and implementation this fall, so it's all still looks good.

I think what's really helpful for us is that same vendor was this same company that actually installed and is implementing both San Francisco and Oakland.

A lot of lessons learned by them and us that we were able to avoid that.

And in the interim, while we were waiting to decide on the federal grant, we've actually been doing concurrent work to get work performed for identification of the acts exact locations for those cameras and working through all the details of customer service with the vendor.

So we're looking pretty good and still on track for September.

For September, okay.

And 33, we're going to be installing the full 33.

Yep.

You might, if you could, John, re remind my colleagues of where the funds go that we collect for those fines.

Yeah, thanks.

It's a really good and important thing is that the statute that allows us to do this does require that net proceeds.

The proceeds can pay for the operation of the system, the vendor and our staff to support it, but any net proceeds must be returned to those corridors for traffic safety improvements.

So should we have those kind of net proceeds?

It's all going to be plowed back into the system to make it safer.

So that's all really good news.

Great.

And just to remind the public, if they get one of these citations, it's not a ticket, it's a citation, it will not show up on your license.

That's different yeah, it works more like a the parking ticket than that.

Yeah, it's different than the red light cameras.

And Vice Mayor, if I could just add Jim Jim Shannon said he's budget director, uh part I want to give uh DOT some kudos for the creative um strategy here because not only are we going to make sure that we install those those cameras because of the evaluation of the the citation revenue, we're able to make sure that the staffing costs that were previously in the the general fund.

Now that we have some good data on on how that's going to look we can move that into the traffic capital program offset by those site citation revenues um generating about five hundred seventy thousand dollars worth of savings in the general fund so just wanted to point that out wonderful I'm I'm so glad we're looking at it that way and that we're finally able to install these cameras and and with the net result of slowing people down and saving people's lives.

Thank thank you for that I see my time is up.

Well thanks Vice Mayor great questions those were all all on my list.

Appreciate it.

Let's go to council condellas.

Thank you uh mayor um vice mayor I I appreciate your your uh your questions uh my my questions are on the similar um uh path path line of um the vision zero andor deployment of uh bike lanes uh in our city and and specifically I know we have a uh a metric um for uh transportation mode usage uh based on over based on percentage of trips that that are made on a on a on a weekday average um and and so the the breakdown uh from fiscal year 23 to to uh 24 to fiscal year 24 25 is I mean it didn't really move much whether we're trying to get folks to you know uh use other modes outside of you know single occupancy vehicle but I guess a more specific question that I would have is you know obviously we have our downtown that has you know protected bike lanes with like concrete barriers that are are being put up now and um you know as you go into the periphery in other districts how are we how are we actually uh measuring um and or you know as we're expanding the bike network uh how are we actually tracking the usage and or seeing before and after numbers specific to corridors that we implement these the the this bike network in I'm I'm curious about that.

Thank you for the that question and yeah uh while we don't do the same level of analysis on those quick build projects those large quick build projects we do do regular evaluation and counts of our system including bike lanes.

Not every street every year but we do do that the way we're we make decisions on what type of bike lane facility it's in our uh our our bike plan that comes to council roughly every five years it identifies those types of roads and the level of protection that that road really needs to have to encourage bicyclists so those uh roadways that are generally higher speed higher volume we want to provide more protection to them which would be uh class four which is a protected bike lane yeah we're slowly getting there either through our pavement program or dedicated specific projects through grants to get there as you don't see a lot that's why you saw that little tick up we were a little below but we're ticking up as as we can granted that makes sense and you know the the reason for my questioning is I mean for example Silver Creek Valley Road is something we talked about yesterday.

And there's this it's it's a steep hill and and um the the density around um Silver Creek Valley Road doesn't you know it isn't conducive to uh a lot of folks taking their bike from their residence in my district to wherever they have to go and so you know um as we're talking about redesigning that roadway um you know uh my question is how how are we balancing you know the deployment of the bike lanes and and and or if we are uh enhancing the bike lanes or uh the lanes the the road design to put protected bike lanes or or ballards um that we uh we can see the actual usage that we're oh you know this has actually works so when I'm out there talking to residents I can say well we see we saw an X percentage increase in in bicycle usage instead of you know getting yelled at saying, Well, you just made the the the roads narrower, and you know, you just you know made it more difficult.

Does that make sense?

So yes, yes, and uh Silver Creek Valley Road is a tough one just because it is in some hilly areas of the city, that's a tough one for bicyclists, but it also goes through other areas that need to have that kind of bike lane protection.

And again, we we don't monitor every year every road, but we can certainly get some numbers on the usage for that.

What's important is actually to continue to uh connect all those bike lanes so that someone that is intending to use them make sure that they get a safe route the whole way.

So I I think that's something yet we can still be reporting on to you and all and those kind of things.

So as we move through areas like that, they don't get all done at once because they're different segments to get done.

It's important to us to start to connect those things up, yeah.

Yeah, and measuring is but I'm getting to.

Just measuring.

That's uh that's that's my question.

Real quick, I'll pivot to um the um the the olive program and and the um uh the expected revenue that we were supposed to be generating from an increase enforcement um to the tune of I want to say it was about $55,000 according to the MBA uh last year, MBA number four.

Um a question for for John is uh are we are we going above that?

Are we is the revenue that we're generating from this increased enforcement uh hitting that target?

Are we falling below?

Is it are we falling above?

Uh, are you referring to specifically the ALU program?

Because that wasn't intended to be a revenue.

Uh no, uh, because that was really that was really an enforcement.

I guess it was the oversized vehicle registration pilot program.

Yep.

Yeah, that so yes, all uh as we pivoted the last couple of years, either into uh more increased enforcement a la olive or the enhancements that we provided, all of which is um another team that went out just to enforce RVs parked for longer periods of time that weren't in big encampments, and then we also started our um registered vehicle compliance team about a year ago or so, and that team has actually now been through the city about one time, one and a half times gone through the entire city.

So our uh citations overall on an annual basis, all parking citations are up about 20 percent.

We're tracking that right now.

Revenue is up similarly about 20 percent.

We're we're issuing lots of more citations on all program areas, not just unregistered vehicles, but in all areas because we've focused on some more enhanced enforcement of all of those areas, whether it be lived in or just on registered vehicles.

So thank you.

It's up about 20 percent.

Okay, it is so it's it is uh thank you.

Because I mean part of the and pardon me, wasn't all of our is the parking and in enforcement enhancements that we made last year as part of the budget.

Um and so the pardon me, the the net target was about $55,000 that we have.

Yeah, we're probably above that, but we'll let maybe is that something.

I think I think that answered it, but if Jim has anything else to add to it, I don't know.

Yeah, I think well um we'll look and see also how the citation revenue is is tracking.

We'll clarify that if we need to later on in this session.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Um no, and that's that's the the reason why I asked that question is you know, I I've I have uh um an area that that is a high concentration of oversized vehicles or vehicles that are just people go and dump their cars and have um their their registration clearly expired.

Um and so the frustration is while those cars aren't abandoned, uh they are um uh they are used to store.

And and so when our our um uh parking our meter maids outcome, but they go around and they they um parking compliance officers.

Thank you, the parking compliance officers go around and mark the tire, you know.

The owner of that vehicle just moves it a few feet, um and um and it's hard to know whether you know um uh well it clears the bar for us to say, oh no, it's not abandoned, but it doesn't clear the the mark for folks to you know get that that car to park in the driveway or park in front of the home or or wherever.

And so I I hear a lot of the frustration from our residents.

And and I I just um I'm hoping that we um uh you know we're essentially uh essentially chasing folks from one side of the street to the other.

Yes, and I think that that's a frustration among every council district and us.

And but we do need to follow the law when it comes the motor vehicle code when it comes to those kinds of either a citation or a tow.

So we we try to do that.

Uh I think the good news is the when the council allowed us to build these new programs that are higher enforcement levels, especially the unregistered vehicles, we're at about 21, 2200 toes already in this one year just on that one program and similar amount of citations just in that program.

So those frustrations um hopefully are being abated a bit by a really good program that's addressing those kind of vehicles that have been nuisance.

It does not get all of them, but um I think it's been a good program to do that.

We're gonna just continue, and that's a proactive patrol that goes through every city street.

We're like I said, we're about halfway through the second round of that, and we're we're still actively citing and towing vehicles that are unregistered.

No, thank you, John.

I appreciate that.

And uh, you know, I I had a couple other questions, but for I'll I'll leave it leave it for now.

And um I just wanted to thank you.

I have nothing for the airport.

Sorry, Mookie.

I love SDC.

All right, council member.

If I could just jump in just to got some more information for you.

So when we're tracking it from a the general fund overall forecast per perspective, um, for overall citation revenues.

I think we're estimating 13.5 million.

Last year we received about 11.6 million, so that whole category is yeah, up um, you know, sixteen percent or so from what we're tracking.

Uh thank you, Jim.

Great.

Thanks, Jim.

Thanks.

Councilmember, let's go now to Council Member Mulcahy.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um, so Vice Mayor Foley, just to your point about air service, um, I think it was day one that Mookie and I met, we started talking about this issue and where um, you know, I could be helpful where this city could be helpful.

And um I think we were both buoyed by the mayor's March budget message speaking to this issue, and something we've been working on is um and we're close, a task force that would be looking, you know, exactly at this, working with uh regional partners, uh the airlines themselves, regional employers, um, because yes, it's business travel, but we also have thousands and thousands of employees who live in this community who also fly out of this community, and so making that connection between both the business traveler and them and their leisure travel, I think is critically important.

So you'll be hearing more about that moving forward.

Um I think the other thing I just want to acknowledge Mookie and his team have been really creative around thinking about growth of the airport infrastructure.

Um there are some opportunities on airport campus for um, you know, increased economic impact like a hotel site, like increased um uh activity on the west side of of the airport.

And so I'm excited to continue to work with Mookie and his creative team, both real estate and and you know, Mark here, who's trying to drag as many airlines here to San Jose and flights as possible.

Um so I don't know, Mookie, if you want to sort of highlight any of that or add any color, I'm gonna move on to John.

Yeah, I think uh thank you for the one-on-one to to discuss after the March budget message about how we could actually execute some of that.

Um I think I'm looking forward to engaging with you to see what kind of outreach we can do.

And and that also the the remaining council members that do have local business contacts with large leaders.

But as I informed the mayor during one of the one-on-ones, was that um we do have a major employer here in the South Sound, has 34,000 employees, and he mentioned to me that we would love to support nonstops in New York, and that's the engagement we need um to encourage these airlines because by themselves the metrics don't seem to work, but we also live in an environment where we have two other major commercial airports that uh take our feed or our what we call our catchment area, and so that leakage uh is a big concern.

And so we we're right sized right now, uh, council member, as you mentioned, but and and we're we're comfortable with the finances of the airport, but we are bolstering up uh development of real estate on Coleman and Heading, doing the Orange Lot for hangar development.

Uh, we're looking to do some creative things with our advertising program that generates almost six million dollars, 6.7 million dollars a year in ad revenue, and then also looking at lounge expansions because we've seen a major shift in uh what used to be called, you know, first class and coach, and now it's called uh premium and basic economy and the segmentation of all of that.

If you've watched the news about United looking at first class premium and first class basic, um they're segmenting the population down to where their buying power is and pushing that buying power.

So we also need to have facilities that represent what the customers want, which is better holdroom seating, better experiences, we're going through a whole retail redevelopment program, and lounges is a part of that huge development.

So we're we're already in the phase of uh discovery and uh looking to write an RFP to to redevelop all of that infrastructure.

Well, you weren't here the other day, but we had a we had Matt Lush from the public works department here.

I made a snarky remark about our bathrooms, but I know it's not a snarky remark to you because you're super focused on that part of the experience.

So keep going on that.

Thanks, Mookie.

Um, John, I'm uh maybe to pick up on something that the can Council Member Condelis was talking about on the quick builds.

I'm curious, are we staffed and budgeted for maintaining our quick build systems throughout the city?

Um one of the complaints that we get and hear about I do it myself about the pylons and paint we have around this city, which are well intended but oftentimes plowed over and takes a while to be replaced.

Can you comment on what our budget allows for that and are we prepared?

Yeah, so what when we actually design those projects, we actually do it in mind of with our maintenance people in mind to do those.

But yes, you're right, some of those plastic bollards or even the paint does either wear or they get run over.

So what we do have a regular replacement time frame for those, but it happens sooner than that.

So we actually rely on some of the public to tell us that some of that is is happened where we need to go out and replace it.

But yes, it's answer your question.

We considered in our design work through it when we actually build a project, there's an estimate of what the maintenance costs would be ongoing, and then we take care of them there.

I think that our toughest issue right now is street sweeping through those areas.

Sometimes with our equipment, it there can be a problem, but sometimes uh we do have some areas that we need to improve on that, but otherwise we do have regular replacement of those kind of bollards and things.

That thank you.

I just let's we could take it offline, but I think it would be really important if we're depending on others to report.

Let's make sure that it's super obvious whether it's 311.

I don't remember seeing you know, bike in first.

There probably isn't one on three report, but let's make sure we keep that in mind because it's probably a top 10 complaint that we hear, especially from our bike and pedestrian community.

Um, I know this is not going to be a surprise to you that I'm raising it, but it was a huge surprise to me when I got a briefing on the budget mess on the uh budget proposals, and one being Willow Glen street parking.

Um, there's probably nobody in this building who has spent more time in Willow Glen than me, and the fact that I wasn't part of that conversation to kind of put that out there.

It's like I'll use a baseball analogy, somebody throwing that sort of, you know, curveball low and outside.

I'm the catcher and I don't know about it, I'm gonna miff, right?

So uh it was very surprising, and I remember the conversation about us come contemplating that.

We would not even be having this conversation if I hadn't fought for parking tips, which I've been doing for Willow Glen for 25 years.

We finally got them, and then surprise we're gonna make people pay for parking.

So I just want to make sure that um my request is that we consider a return to source, a return to source of some percentage of the revenue generated by what are most likely gonna be customers of Lincoln Avenue getting hit, or God forbid, an employees parking for more than our time limit and not paying the meter.

So I think it would be helpful that, like, you know, I'm not a semi-permanent guy.

If we're gonna do signage as the budget message points out, it should feel like we've now invested in this program.

We're gonna need to go talk to the Willow Glenn Business Association, who now knows about it because I had to go tell them that this was in the budget and it wasn't something I proposed.

Um, but I'm willing to help defend why this is a good reason, you know, for Willow Glenn to sort of join the ranks of other communities that have paid parking.

I get it.

I'm thinking about doing them in my own private parking lots, but I just don't appreciate this being kind of thrown out there in a situation like it was.

So I want to work with the department to come up with a game plan where we're if we're gonna do this that we reinvest into the community to make this successful.

And the thing that's plaguing, and I would imagine this is happening in other parts of our community right now, are delivery services, for example.

Double parked, you know, you illegal U-turns, taking up parking for you know, until they get the next order.

We're having a real problem.

I know we have it in downtown, we have it at the Alameda, we have it on Lincoln Avenue.

I'm sure others have it.

So some consideration for how this is paid parking is being monitored, might be able to allow us to be helpful in freeing up parking from those that are taking advantage of it.

Yeah, thank you, council member.

And and we actually really appreciate your support all the way through when we started with the Lincoln Avenue paving project, which you know it's really to you, both our walkthrough of that to get all the details right, and your ideas, and we completely supported that the putting actually in the parking spaces, parking tips are those designated spots.

Uh we're apologize for the uh the proposal, but it is a proposal, so we can talk more about that and how we would if we want to move that forward and what time frame.

So, yes, all those things are important, and as we would did the walkthrough of Lincoln, you pointed out all those areas that of either double parking or uh usage in areas that are not intended for that.

So, all that is important to us as well.

I think some of that can be addressed with the next steps of this whole thing, but we're actually really appreciate your leadership and the ideas of actually getting the parking tips out there.

So it's a good first step with that, so thank you for that.

Thanks, John.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Let's go to Councilmember Kamehameha.

Thank you.

I um appreciate my colleagues' questions.

I I had similar questions uh as well.

Um I want to ask you, Mookie, in terms of because of what's happening in our world, um, you know, we know that uh business travel has shifted and there's not as much as there used to be.

I'm a little bit concerned that you know, here we're coming on to our summer travel, and you know, I I know that the cost of uh airline tickets has just gone tremendous because of the cost of jet fuel.

I'm just wondering uh, you know, in terms of in your budgetary forecasts, do you think that that's oh not gonna be a problem?

Is it just a temporary thing?

Because I think that I have seen even for um uh, you know, just local uh auto travel, I mean, just people driving around are trying to drive less because the cost of just gas is you know, uh expensive.

And so I'm just wondering, you know, what are you seeing?

Thank you for that question, Councilmember Comey.

I I want to be a I feel like I wanted to be an economist.

Um I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I one this morning was the comparison of those that um live on the higher end of the pay grade, are filling up their gas tanks very frequently, but those that have uh lower economic thresholds or even credit card uh lower card to credit thresholds are are fractionally filling up their own gas tanks as they can afford it so we see that through our economy um I I think it's gonna take about two years for the global supply of oil to get back to uh a reasonable rate the West Coast uh jet fuel prices are well over 1150 a gallon for for our uh to fly an aircraft um and so I don't see us uh coming out of this in a positive growth um being very conservative until about 2028 uh but I think that we've hit bottom at 10 million annual passengers which is what we're forecasting for this coming year.

Okay I think that could stay in place for the next two years now that spirit has gone out of business that allows some absorption for some of the other carriers to find some opportunities but as this um administration has sort of made it well known there may be additional uh mergers and acquisitions going out and you see that in the newspaper with uh comments so we're kind of holding our breath because when that happens uh there's no need for extra ticket counters and no need for extra office space and we're obviously a landlord for our facility and recovering those costs and if we don't that falls back on the remaining carriers too so airfare isn't always a direct indicator of the local markets operating costs but floating close to almost being twenty dollars now for every outbound passenger uh gives us pause for some concern as we also carry a mil a billion dollars of outstanding debt so um we work with our carriers we explain all of that cost to them multiple times a year they're very confident and they're comfortable with the twenty dollars um in fact we've just sent out what we call an MII a majority in interest ballot to the airlines to approve an additional four and a half billion dollars sorry four and a half million dollars of spend in our next year's budget to replace some elevators escalators things like that and they're they're very comfortable with those kinds of expenditures so I think it's there's a national issue and there's a local issue.

I think locally we work very hard to work with our partner carriers um but the national issue and the supply and demand the ability to raise airfare yeah going to Vegas is well over three hundred dollars now where you could have bought it much cheaper in the past.

Thank you thank you well thank you so much for all you do and I'm really delighted that you're thinking about facilities because I think that those who do have money expect different types of amenities and facilities and I think that the airlines are targeting that so thank you.

John I wanted to ask you about um the key budget actions that are uh in the book and uh on page uh 765 um there was a um ad of three parking traffic control officers so before I get all excited does that mean that you're gonna have more uh uh uh parking enforcement officers it's on page uh three I mean 765 yes but it's really associated with the speed enforcement the cat speed camera program though those officers have to review all those citations and we expect thousands of them so while their parking compliance officers are not going to be deployed to the field right away until we get a handle on how many of those citations we're gonna be getting so it is the answer is yes but not necessarily in field right now.

Oh okay well I I was hoping that you know our numbers were gonna go up and um uh I don't know about anybody else or my colleagues here but I think that for a city of our size it's shameful that we only have 50 uh San Francisco has a four 400.

And you know, if you go up there, you know that you're gonna pay that 50 dollars for parking because you don't want to be out there and get a ticket, so uh, which is much more costly.

So I I think that uh maybe not maybe this is not the year to do it, but I want to sort of set the stage for consideration of increasing another 10, you know, which would give everybody one more for your area, and um, and so you know, as we look forward, I think we need that.

I don't know, you know, I'm glad that Councilmember Candelas has only one spot that is a problem.

I have a lot of bad actors, and I just want to recognize your staff because you know, um, they've been working uh very uh collaboratively with my D1 office.

I have so many who are not just RVs but trucks as well as um uh big rigs and all kinds of of uh big vehicles that um and I know you know that very well, Charles.

But I I want to say that um, you know, 50 is not enough, and you would think that there would be sort of a balance in terms of revenue generation by having these parking compliance officers out there.

So maybe not this year, but I think that I'd like to plant the seed for considerations in the future, because that is just such a huge.

I mean, I have so many areas where it's a constant thing, a constant thing.

And my residents are not shy about sending it to me, sending it to your staff, and and I think that we need to sort of like you know, sort of up the ante a little bit and say, okay, we're going to invest to be able to address some of these, especially hot spot areas.

And so um I appreciate um the olive program.

I also appreciate the OSEP program because we're looking for ways to address the issue.

Uh, but you know, one year doesn't you know give us as much information as we'd like.

So I just want to support um your department in in looking at that in the future because I think that it might be something that is worth investing in.

So thank you so much for your work and and really thank you to the staff who really hear my complaints, hear my residents' complaints, and and really it's it's a constant, constant thing.

Uh I also want to mention that I agree with Councilmember Mulcahy and his uh thought about you know, what are we doing about some of the trucks who they're right in the middle of the street.

They could care less.

They'll be there for a while.

And you know, those Amazon trucks, they don't seem to care.

So I think that um we ought to figure out what to do about that as well.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Ortiz.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I want to thank the Department of Transportation for their diligent work, uh making our streets safer.

I also want to thank the airport department as well.

Appreciate your your leadership, Mookie.

Um I'm a major proponent of uh making sure that we are making our streets safer.

Uh of course, uh also a supporter of Vision Zen Zero, sorry, visit zero, traffic safety infrastructure and strategies that help our residents get to and from their destination in a safe manner.

Unfortunately, District 5 continues to be a section of the city that struggles with traffic collisions and even traffic fatalities.

White Road has had multiple car accidents just this past month, some resulting in death.

And it seems like over at least the last three years, three and a half, I've been in office.

Department of Transportation has been talking about uh redesigning and developing um uh White Road, Jackson Avenue, uh, and King Road.

Uh however, now that I'm three and a half years in, I haven't seen any shovels hit the ground.

So I would just like to see what's the department's plan on making sure that this these projects get done in the next decade.

Thank Councilmember and yes, we're uh very concerned about some tragic fatalities that happened on White Road recently, and it was uh a really really terrible thing that happened over there.

Um to answer your question about those three projects.

You're right, we're those are all some of our key projects that are really important to our overall traffic safety because those those are really high level traffic and volume and speed issues that we've got on all three of those roadways.

We're in various stages of planning and design of those quarters, and I think you've seen some of the some of the plans.

Our biggest problem is actually trying to find the full funding to do all those projects.

Probably the one that's furthest along is King Road.

We were able to secure some funding from the state that was associated with a housing development over on the BART project land VTA.

But the other projects don't have funding for them yet.

We're going to continue to look for that funding, either through state, maybe not federal for a while, but state or local local funds that can do that.

Each one of them is pretty significant cost.

King Road could be in the $15 million range, and I think we've got about eight.

So we may have to do that one in phases if we can, but really the answer to the question is trying to get the funding to actually build all those projects.

Okay.

So are you working on all of them at the same time?

Are you prioritizing one?

How are we going to make sure that this the second part of my question?

How are we going to make sure this gets done in the next decade and just not something that the next council member is going to be talking about when they get it?

Yeah, we try to prioritize all of those top safety projects.

Um there's another round of funding that's going to come through MTC VTA for these kind of projects that's going to be uh the the grants are going to be on the street or the request for a grant application is gonna be on the street this late this summer.

Those are all at the top of our list to see if we can make make those uh rides up to the top, get funding.

Um the federal government isn't issuing as many of those kinds of grants for these kind of projects as they used to, so that's a little bit more restricted.

But yes, each one of those is since we're moving into a planning and design of each one, they raise the top trying to get those things done.

Okay, I mean, is there any time I know you're saying try, you're saying prioritize, but okay.

King, when when can we get king done?

What is your expectation?

Yeah, I think that's one that we want to complete the rest of that funding.

That's probably the furthest along.

Um I can't give you a date because I've got to get the funding before we can actually schedule something.

So within the next couple years, quite a ways along.

Yeah, it takes a while to get that, any of those kind of funds that actually uh receive the grant, then how much are these grants that you're applying for at the state level?

So we're at 8,000.

We need so the the fund that I was just referring to that's gonna be coming through MTC and VTA this this year.

I think is uh 85 million for the whole Bay Area.

So we're gonna be going after our share of that.

It's not gonna fund everything because we're compete against every other city and county.

So I would just like to say that, especially King Road that passes through District 4, 5, 7, and 8.

And so this is not just my district office who's uh uh advocating for it, it's multiple council offices and and constituents and White Road as well.

It goes through four, five, and um eight uh as well, just not seven.

I'm hoping that you know every every month it seems like we're having another fatality in my district.

Um I know that you guys take this very seriously as you as you said, um, but I would hope that four years from now we're not looking at another list of individuals who've lost our lives and saying, Oh, well, it's our hope in the next four years to get some of these things done.

Um all right, another one.

Uh the in movimiento project.

You know, it's a transportation.

I know you know what this means, but for the record, it's a transportation plan for the east side Alam Rock and San Antonio corridors.

Uh, you know, I see infrastructure that's quite innovative, such as roundabouts and other speed deterrence being installed in other districts, but not on the district five side, specifically on San Antonio.

The uh in movimiento strategy resulted in um roundabouts on the San Antonio District Three side.

Um, but that not just quick build but cement roundabouts.

District five just has plastic pylons, plastic sticks.

Could you talk me through why the district three side had uh well thought out roundabouts and cement and in district five doesn't have any of that?

So in moving viento was the the name of our transportation plan for a segment of correct East Side that's just around 101, Julian, Santa Clara, et cetera.

So what we design and do those kind of plans and then uh come up with projects that fit that context and try to address.

So the roundabouts didn't fit my district.

Well, sometimes no, so it depends on the type of uh roadway we're talking about, what we're trying to accomplish.

Some of the ones like San Antonio is a in some parts fairly narrow.

Uh traffic circles are something that we could look for, but a big roundabout is a little bit tougher to put into some of those areas.

Okay.

Well, it's just it seems like nothing.

No, I don't see any infrastructure on my side of the of the um and move and move the mento project other than you know, plastic sticks that are on the sides of the road, not even in the middle.

And so I just um I understand that things don't fit or they may not fit you know the the area, but those types of excuses have been used to uh prevent East San Jose from getting infrastructure historically, you know, and so I just I want the department to start thinking about and acknowledging hey, you know, if we're doing a transportation plan for East San Jose, why are we continuing not to put the most uh uh uh strong infrastructure in district five?

I council member, I really do believe that we do that in every district.

And um your district of a roundabout.

As you know, as I just we talked about the those main streets of White and Jackson and King are really important, and actually those are going to be pretty significant projects when we find the funding.

In 10 or 15 years when they're done, yeah.

We are trying our best to provide funding for those, and it's a difficult competitive program among all the Bay Area cities and in some cases everywhere in the U.S.

So we are actually quite successful at getting grants, and I and I'm proud of our effort to do that in those kind of projects, and we've been able to do that in other areas and in your district too.

Okay.

Um, another thing I I uh my lights are blinking yet.

Another thing that I I think uh Councilmember Condelis touched on this.

I know that uh uh Councilmember Kamei also touched on this, and I've mentioned it any time this department's reviewed.

Our current approach to abandoned vehicles in district five, almost certain, probably district seven and parts of district three, um, are not working.

They're they're failing our our residents.

Each neighborhood in my district probably has 10 abandoned cars, 10 lived-in vehicles at a minimum.

That's not an exaggeration.

I get uh images from my constituents, I get text messages, I drive around and see them.

When I reach out to DOT, I feel like there is always a quick answer to why we can't tow them or why we can't approach them in a timely manner.

In fact, it's taken my office months to get cars towed, even cars with broken windows towed.

And I know that we talked about police overtime.

I think at the last uh the last council meeting or maybe the previous one.

One thing that the police does do is when I need an abandoned vehicle addressed, I call my captain, he gets that done.

For some reason, he doesn't seem to have uh roadblocks or barriers to reaching out to tow truck companies.

And so I just I I want to I just want to ask this department um, you know, what what sort of strategies are we going to be implementing to actually meet the needs of our our constituents as it relates to abandoned vehicles in our neighborhoods?

Thank you council member.

Yes, as we uh we we have deployed a number of programs to actually address that.

One of them is basically is a reporting service through 311 for abandoned vehicles.

That report does need to include photographs and location of that vehicle to meet the criteria that we're trying to do to abate that vehicle, flat tires, broken windows, uh inoperable, that sort of thing.

So those are the abandoned vehicles that meet that criteria.

Those referring to the other ones like the uh unregistered vehicle program is actually a proactive patrol that we go through the entire city, and we're on our second round of that, and we've towed over 2,000 vehicles for that program and cited the same amount.

So we're actually out there doing that on a proactive basis and a reactive basis with regard to the reporting that comes through.

What we don't do now, we decided to end that service is the extended parking state for just somebody parking their vehicle.

We were doing that for a number of years, and it was very inefficient.

We were getting reports for uh parked vehicles that didn't meet that criteria of condition, and we would go and tag those vehicles and then they would move.

So we were less than one percent of those vehicles being towed.

We do not do that service anymore.

We're actually added that those patrols into these other areas to be much more effective in terms of addressing those abandoned vehicles.

It'd be good to get in the future.

I know my time's up.

Get a breakdown of you know what what vehicles are being towed from what district, because my constituents feel like they're being abandoned.

We can we can give you that.

And if I can jump in, council member.

I I do need to say for the record, um, in the way we implement these programs, it is done fairly and equitably across all council districts.

I certainly get across this dais, abandoned vehicles, oversized vehicles, has been a point of frustration.

It is one of the you know highest complaints that we receive on 311 and the data, but we do it in a way where we focus on the problem and we don't look, you know, district by district to see, well, we're gonna help this district and not an other district.

We really look at the problem.

I appreciate that, Leland.

But when you in my district, when you live in my district, when you look outside of your houses, that's not the lived experience of my residents.

But I understand the intent of the administration.

We'll provide that breakdown by district, by citation, by program.

Yeah, I think so.

John, I I think what we could do just on vehicle concerns in general.

One of the things that uh John and his team are working on is an info memo for the full council on kind of the shift from Olive over to OSEP and what the data and what that story is really telling us around lived in and oversized vehicles, which is a very good story, and something that from a policy perspective, this council's made a lot of progress on, and the Department of Transportation has done an amazing job on.

I think expanding that to just talk about vehicle concerns, the registration and abandoned vehicles and share that data, John, would be worthwhile.

Thank you.

We will do that.

Okay, great.

Let's turn now to Councilmember Tordillos, and then unless they're pressing questions, I do want to move us to our next city service area.

Council member.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll try to keep it brief.

Uh, thank you, John and Mookie, for uh the great presentation.

Want to up level some of the comments from my colleagues.

Uh, you know, agree with Vice Mayor Foley, important to keep the uh intensity up on vision zero.

It's been great to see the hardscaping of our downtown bike lanes and the expansion out into some of our more residential areas.

What we certainly do see still see some complaints from neighbors who don't understand, you know, the need.

I've noticed an uptick in people at some of our more suburban uh neighborhood associations who actually speak favorably about these bike lanes as they're getting installed.

So glad to see that work continuing.

Uh, also supportive of uh Councilmember Kamei's comments about trying to find the money to invest more in parking enforcement officers and trying to see you know how much additional cost recovery we could get to you know provide that expansion of service uh in a fiscally responsible way.

Uh and then also very much agree with Council Member Mokehee's comments around uh evaluating return to source.

Uh, we certainly hear from some of the residents and businesses in Japan town who don't feel like they've necessarily seen a benefit to Japan town from the expansion of uh paid permitted park or uh meter parking there.

Uh so I think finding ways to have some sort of uh return to source there to uh show the benefit of opting into some of these parking management programs would be very helpful for some of these uh business corridors.

I have one quick question here.

Uh it was about some language in the uh March budget message.

Uh not necessarily a direct budget angle since it was direction to align within existing resources, but it was looking at enhancing parking enforcement immediately adjacent to uh no encampment zones, which I know has been a persistent area of confusion for our residents given that no encampment zones don't cover lived-in vehicles, they don't necessarily result in any increase in parking enforcement for abandoned vehicles.

I was wondering if you could just speak briefly to the strategy of improving the uh parking enforcement near and easy.

Thank you, council member.

So we are we are trying to do the the whole program of uh homeless and unhoused folks and and all collaboratively and actually comprehensively through the whole city.

So what we're trying to do is support that effort where it gets a little tougher in no encampment return zones is that we would be involved in where there's a a street that we can actually enforce a vehicle on.

Uh we still have to follow the state motor vehicle code when it comes to vehicles parked on streets, but that's really what this is talking about, is making sure that we're covering those kind of areas that the no encampment zone overlaps.

It doesn't really apply to a street because people can park their vehicles on a public street as long as done uh legally and registered properly.

So, thank you.

Uh, and then my only other comment here, I know there was a discussion about double parking, about delivery vehicles, uh, you know, posing a challenge here.

I know a couple years back we had the SMART grant uh that we had the first phase of that looked at curb management, and just wanted to encourage.

I know we're, you know, not seeing a lot of grant money flow out of the federal government these days for the stage two of that grant program, but it would encourage us to work with IGR uh kind of at the state level as some of these things develop.

I know there's a bill SB 1292 around enhanced curb management that would allow for camera-based enforcement of things like double parking, uh, you know, delivery vehicles blocking uh our streets.

And I noticed that just recently it was uh amended uh in the Senate uh to limit the bill to only a few cities in southern California.

So as some of these opportunities are moving forward at the state level, good to keep uh close with our folks in RGR to make sure that we're also eligible to benefit from some of these uh changes in law at the state level.

Yeah, thank you.

We're we are just about wrapping up our first phase of that, learned a lot, and then applying for the second phase.

So thank you for that kind of support.

Great.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Well, we covered a lot of ground there.

Appreciate my colleagues' questions and comments and the focus on pedestrian and traffic safety, parking enforcement, and um airline service at the airport as we try to rebound from uh the pandemic and some of the reduction in business travel.

John Mookie, thank you for answering all of our questions.

We don't have any other hands, so I think uh we're gonna now take just a moment to transition to environmental and utility services, our next CSA.

And we'll turn it over to Jeff Provenzano when he and the team are ready.

Thanks, everybody.

All right, all right, Jeff.

Are you in the team ready?

I think we are, yes.

All right, let's jump in.

All right, thank you.

Good afternoon.

Uh good morning, Mayor and Council.

Jeff Provenzano, director of the environmental services department.

With me is Lori Mitchell, director of the energy department, and John Risto, Director of Transportation.

This item before you today is the environmental and utility service services, city service area.

That's right.

Within this CSA, we have several core services.

Those include within the environmental services department, potable water delivery, recycled water management, recycling and garbage services, storm water management, utility regulatory advocacy and compliance, and wastewater management on the energy side.

Within the CSA, we have providing clean energy to the community, energy customer support, and energy community programming.

And of course, on the transportation side are critical services of sanitary sewer maintenance and storm sewer maintenance.

Within those core services, we have many different programs.

A few of them are listed here before you.

Energy supplies, conventional energy supplies, regulatory compliance for energy, energy risk management, local energy programs, marketing and public affairs, and of course, of course, our climate smart San Jose program.

And on the transportation side again is our sewer operations and maintenance as well as storm water operations and maintenance systems and street sweeping.

Here are a few dashboards that you may be familiar with.

I'll quickly go through them starting at the top left wastewater discharge.

We have a cap of 120 million gallons a day, max discharge during summertime flows to the bay.

And what this graph represents is that we are below and continue to be below that 120 million gallon a day cap.

Moving from left to right.

Recycle water demand.

You'll see there that the estimate for this year is a little bit lower than the uh than the target.

The reason for that is primarily driven by lower, lower water sales.

We saw as we went through the last summer, unseasonably cold weather during the summertime, followed by a couple early winter, late fall wind uh rainstorms that dropped water usage down.

We see this trend on the potable water side, and we see it across the county.

So this was expected as we move forward.

We're projecting that water recycled water usage will remain flat.

We did see some uh heat waves in the February and March timeframe.

Water usage is upticking uh across all water types, and we will continue to track that going forward.

Uh next slide over is the uh utility assets, operational assets.

All are tracking really well, 100% or in the upper 90s.

The ones that are not 100% have active capital improvement projects in place to rehabilitate and replace those assets.

On bottom left side, sanitary sewer overflows.

Um we are at right at the cap, or estimated to be at the cap of 1.9 SSOs per thousand miles.

Uh San Jose clean energy power mix moving along here, a slight decrease anticipated in our carbon free uh mixture of clean energy, but otherwise remaining relatively flat and landfill, landfill waste diversion, uh bringing your attention to the columns on the left, that dark blue column.

That is our overall, the state goal is 50% diversion from our landfills, and we're well above that into the low 60s.

Quick snapshot of the numbers across the CSA.

Changes is relatively flat from the proposed to the forecast.

Um the increase uh in forecast over adopted is primarily driven by base increases related to wholesale water purchases, wholesale rates are going up, and a few other costs that are coming into the utility outside of our control.

Other than that, the proposed includes the few proposals that we are recommending to council this year, but overall positions are remaining uh flat between the forecast and proposed as well as our budget.

Priorities on service delivery.

A lot of words here, so I'll be brief.

Um, of course, we're always focused on building, operating, maintaining our wastewater, drinking water, recycled water systems, both for reliability and to ensure public health and safety.

We're also very focused on environmental protection.

A lot of the work that we do is around environmental protection, keeping pollutants, trash, contaminants out of our water systems.

This is both through both in our creeks and in the South Bay, and this regards collection treatment and management of our wastewater and stormwater runoff.

We also have extensive programs and collecting, processing, recycling, composting, and disposing of our solid waste to maximize diversion from our landfills and protect public health, safety, and the environment.

And we are, of course, focused on reducing our environmental footprint through energy efficiency, waste reduction, and environmentally preferred purchases.

And we will continue as we go forward to provide residents and businesses with renewable energy options at competitive rates.

These are a few of the budget proposals that you will see in the packet.

One is um you may be familiar with a cost of service study for our sewer rates.

Another is ongoing work of cleaning PFAS from some of our fire stations and fire training facility.

The third one is uh is adding a full-time position to our solid waste enforcement program.

The next is a enhanced street street sweeping pilot.

This is um pilot in conjunction with uh the Department of Transportation and ESD on our stormwater side, trying to uh achieve two goals at the same time.

The next is a strategic load management staffing plan and energy hedging program review.

Looking ahead, of course, we um what we do all the time and we will continue to do is focusing on delivering exceptional um and reliable utility services to residents and businesses in the most cost-effective manner that we can.

And of course, compliance, all of our utilities are driven by um compliance and updated regulations for um for all the utilities, but especially the sanitary and storm collection systems, potable and recycled water energy, and at the regional wastewater facility.

We have three items listed here.

These are uh bigger cost items that are related to updated regulations.

You may be familiar with our stormwater permit, and we'll continue to work across uh departments to address trash and uh illicit discharges into our receiving waters.

We have been uh to council um a couple times in the past year, year and a half on uh nutrient reduction strategies, amount of nitrogen that's going into the lower South Bay, and we have a plan in place for that, um, and we'll require reducing the amount of ammonia discharges and upgrades to our wastewater treatment plant to achieve that.

And there's an acronym here, acronym the PCIA, where it'll be I'll look to Laurie to explain what a PCIA is.

Um will increase substantially in 2026, uh which will have some significant financial impacts on San Jose Clean Energy, and we're available to answer any questions there.

And with that, I'll conclude the presentation and we are available for questions.

Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

Let's turn now to colleagues and we'll start with Councilmember Campos.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you to the team for the presentation.

Um, I have more kudos than questions because I I really um just want to commend the enhanced street sweeping pilot partnership between DOT and ESD.

Um, it really embodies the one-team approach that we always hear um uh our city manager reflect, and I think that that's exactly the kind of thinking that is going to help us meet the needs of our residents in um stronger ways.

I was uh recently hearing from residents in D2 about cars that are preventing the street sweeping from actually working, and given the previous conversation about what we're doing to make sure that we are um being responsive to those concerns from our residents and also um the double benefit of making sure that we are prioritizing the areas that are blighted that are then um further uh hurting our waterways and systems.

So I just really want to give kudos to the team for the work on that.

Thank you.

Thanks for the great comment.

Uh we'll go to Councilmore Condelas.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um Jeff, I I I too want to just give you all kudos and not just for uh the treatment plants amazing uh annual breakfast that you guys uh put on.

Uh which to my colleagues, I was just talking to Councilmember McKay about it.

It's uh it's it's a top-notch uh breakfast and uh gives the firefighters their uh run for their money, according to Keltimar McKay.

But um no, um uh but but uh my my questions essentially is um or my question is is around the uh the nonprofit coordination.

Um, did I take your line?

Anyway, sorry.

You don't get invited to the breakfast.

Oh, okay.

You're the invite will be in the mail.

Um, but uh so but I deviate so the nonprofit uh cleanup coordination dollars.

Um, you know, I I I am a huge proponent of leveraging uh, you know, the volunteer uh uh base that we have and the enthusiasm around leveraging um, you know, folks who want to get in get their hands dirty, roll up their sleeves if you will.

Um the uh the I have a problem creek area that has a lot of uh trash and it's gotten better over the years, but uh I'm curious as to how uh I can uh include or we can include Thompson Creek as one of those waterways because I uh you know it's Los Gatos, Coyote Creek, and you know, some of the other riparian uh waterways, but curious to what the thoughts are of how we can loop you know other areas and as we start making tangible progress on some of these areas that have historically been bad.

How do we uh you know spread the the love and the the work?

I'm I'm all into seeing how we can leverage these critical partners and and curious what staff's response to that is.

Sure.

Yeah, thank you for the question, Councilmember.

Um right now for for these nonprofits and the work going uh toward the money to going towards them that are really focused on San Jose properties.

Uh, specifically, I think you mentioned Thompson Creek, which is which is an important uh waterway for us.

Um a large portions of that is uh owned or managed by Valley Water.

So if we want to look at improvements there, um we can uh work with your office offline.

We always have um different partnerships and collaborations going with Valley Water.

We'd really be looking for them to uh kind of be the lead there on funding, access, right-of-way access.

Um we can um whether we can do some work in collaboration with them, but um, there may be there are good opportunities there.

And again, we do partner with them quite frequently and we can engage with them and see if there's any any way to leverage uh these groups or or add more funding to these groups to do work on Valley Waters properties.

Got it.

Um and so um if if we come up with like a I guess uh an agreement, if you will, or I mean uh uh not all portions of Coyote Creek or or maybe all the portions of Coyote Creek or Los Gatos or Guadalupe are owned by the cities.

Is that where you're telling me, Jeff?

Uh that's correct.

We do own a good portion of uh lands that uh in and around the creeks, the city of San Jose, um, but there's a lot of uh private property owners, the county owns a lot, Caltrans, Valley Water.

Correct.

Um so there is there's a large mixture of property owners and um and uh and for and for right now, yeah.

These nonprofits, we have them focused on San Jose properties to kind of remove trash and litter from those areas.

Got it.

You know, not all uh creeks and waterways belong to a single entity, they belong to multiple.

I'd just like to see uh some of the the efforts also considering this is gener this is general fund contribution go to other areas that are willing and have needs and are and and can do the work to get that that uh that organizational okay from our partner agencies who it may belong to to leverage that power and that strength of our volunteers who want to help out and and want to be able to you know roll up their sleeves.

So I would just encourage the administration to think about that and uh would hope that that in the next fiscal year we can do that.

Thank you.

Thanks, council member.

My second point about the annual pancake breakfast.

It's a great time.

You gotta check it out sometime, Vice Mayor.

I would just wanted to say before Jeff gets yelled at.

Um I I believe you might want to say you it was just the T PAC members who were invited.

Oh, sure.

I didn't get an invite either.

There also wasn't any bacon left because Manuel had eaten at all.

So uh you didn't miss much.

Yeah, I'm actually still looking for more bacon.

So glad we got that on the record.

All right, counselor Kumet.

I'm jealous.

I think you're gonna have to invite everybody because you know this just can't be.

Um but anyway, I I want to say that um you guys just do an absolutely excellent job of all of the briefings, and I take everyone.

Even though, you know, I'm familiar I may be familiar with the topic, I certainly get so much out of it, and all my questions get answered.

So I just want to say thank you to you and to your staff because you know it really makes a difference when you understand complex information and uh and you always do a great job.

So thank you for that.

I had a question under the um the budget actions for this year, and I I saw that uh there was an increase of seven percent proposed and four percent proposed for um uh the um for the trash and the uh junk pick up pickup, the fees, yes, the single family and for multifamily households uh for cost recovery.

And I'm just wondering on the on the junk pickup and household hazardous waste, are we expanding that or are we what exactly is it going to be the same?

And uh just wondering about that.

Um the uh what we're seeing in both of those programs is increased usage by residents, and that comes with a little bit more more cost there.

Uh the junk pickup is um that's a part of our contract with the with the haulers, so a little bit more money to to fund the increased services there, and same thing with the county's household has hazardous waste program, uh we have more residents dropping off those those contaminants, which is a good, um, and that comes with a little bit more, a little bit more dollar amount.

Okay, and then um I was just curious in terms of junk pickup and household hazardous waste uh uh sort of program and dumpster days.

Is that totally separate?

Or is that kind of like that when when we have dumpster days, there are areas where people do not call to get their junk pickup done.

You know, we have areas that people put it in the corner and accumulates in the corner, and so we have started to do some dumpster days because they don't know to call to be able to get it picked up.

Uh a lot of it in in the areas where there are a lot of apartment, there's a lot of turnover, and so I'm just wondering, this junk pickup has nothing to do with the dumpster days that are done by beautify.

Uh that's a that's a great question.

Uh there is a manager's budget addendum that should be coming out, if it's not out already, um, on free junk pickup and illegal dumping and how um how um free junk pickup is intersects with beautify San Jose and and their efforts there.

So there's some information in there at a high level.

Um yeah, dumpster days are are very popular, and we're looking at multiple ways to connect both of those programs together and streamline the services, uh definitely making sure that we're not duplicating anything.

Um so there is information at MBA that you may find uh useful and the dumpster days are very popular, and we're looking at doing more of those going forward.

Yeah, I I think that it's important from an educational point of view where uh especially in multifamily housing where a tenant maybe they don't know that they can call and say, Hey, you know, I have this mattress or I have this uh dresser or whatever it is, right, to be able to pick up during the um the days of uh the uh regular garbage pickup.

And so I'm just I was just wondering how that's going to be reconciled because sometimes it's just a matter of knowing, really.

And so instead of having, you know, a corner that is always full of junk uh where someone has to complain about it that there would be a little bit more you know educational information uh to be able to let people know that hey, you know, we have this great service that the city provides as opposed to you know the dumpster days, which can be okay, but you know, if you have dumpster days once a month every single month, and people think that they could just put their stuff in the corner, it's it's unsightly.

I mean, it really is just not the way to go, I think.

So I'll look forward to that MBA and uh hopefully we can kind of find ways to to reconcile that.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember Councilmember Duan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for doing your job of keeping our environment clean and safe and you know, from solid waste to water treatments.

I know that uh the old um fire training center had a lot of PFAST, which is like forever chemicals, which is cancer causing, causing liver and thyroid problems and immune system deficiency and so on.

How do we how we decrease that amount?

And why are we um costing us?

I think it's like $350,000 to investigate where the property was been purchased by Google.

Um thank you for the question, council member.

Um, with regards to transfer of ownership, I believe um the city of San Jose retained the responsibility of environmental remediation that went along with the transfer of that property, the sale of that property.

For the training facility, for that one specifically, we're still in the process of the environmental remediation.

We're removing all the PFAS out of the groundwater there.

We're projecting it'll take a another couple years to kind of you suck all the bad stuff out of the ground, the groundwater, and and let uh clean water move back in.

So it takes a little bit of time for all that to kind of move through the soil.

Uh that work is underway right now and should be done in the next couple years.

Thank you.

And then right in the corner of Alma and 10th Street, the EPA site.

Do we have any influence to help them move a lot quicker?

It's been 38 years, I believe.

That site that could be a real asset to you know the San Jose State, the Shark Eyes, the Barracuda TechCU, you know, the Giants and so on, and the History Park to have that land available to become a you know a mixed news uh would retail and restaurants and so on.

When can we help the EPA or do we have any influence?

Yeah, thank you for the question, Councilmember.

Um, don't have a direct response right now.

We'll have to look into it and get back to you.

Uh it is a super fund site that's being it's on uh the EPA's list and the Department of Toxic Substance Control.

Uh so it's there.

Um I think believe there's funding to do something.

We'll just have to find the timeline and see if we can help exput it.

But we'll look into it and get back to you.

Thank you.

And uh the last question I have for you is uh obviously there's chemical or particles that being released into our waterways.

Now, some company they'll they'll pay a higher fine because of part per millions and so on.

I think it's it's prudent that we reduce that amount of contamination or that goes into our waterways versus defined right.

How do we go about to make sure that any new company have these pre-filter or post-filter before that water go into the creek or the the river?

Another great question.

Uh we have a green stormwater infrastructure program.

It's part of our stormwater permit.

So new developments have to put in the green stormwater infrastructure, and that is like a biofilter that will uh remove all those pollutants before the clean water then goes into our stormwater system.

Well, thank you very much and continue with the you know the good job that you guys doing, and I yield my time.

Thanks, Councilmember.

I don't see any other hands.

I might just ask quickly, since we have a little bit of time, I'm I'm really interested in the work we've done over the last couple of years to transform our relationship with PG<unk>E and ensure that we are connecting customers faster and really as one more integrated service delivery team figuring out how to be more responsive, more efficient, and be an easier place to invest.

And I'm just curious if we can share a little bit about maybe just where we are and and what we can look forward to in this coming fiscal year in terms of that partnership.

I know it's a little bit broad, but Manuel, if you could just share what this budget, I know there's an investment specifically in uh a new a new strategic load management position, but but maybe just more broadly how this partnership is going because we've we've had our concerns and we've we've done a lot to hold our utility accountable, but also be a better partner.

Um thank you, Mayor.

Manuel Pineda, deputy city manager.

Yeah, uh over the last year we have done a lot of work uh as part of our partnership agreement, which was signed uh last June.

And uh the key things that are happening is that we're being able to track all the schedule for uh the large projects, including the agreement, uh meet on the regular basis with PGE, um, also able to track some of the large projects, infrastructure projects are gonna be being built within the city.

So it allows us to kind of get a comprehensive picture of everything that's happening in the city.

In addition to that, I think a side effect of the partnership is that it has gone beyond just those specific projects that are within the agreement, but we've been able to resolve also some hot button issues that the city had uh for uh city facilities and city projects and uh some interconnection issues uh to allow city priorities to move forward.

Um, as we go forward to next year, uh, you know, fiscal year.

One of the key things is we want to make sure that we are still tracking on the agreement.

We're looking at adding additional development projects within the city, uh, up to six, I believe, that could be added to the 13 that are currently there.

And one key item that we explored with PG<unk>E and started a conversation with currently the agreement is for projects that are 20 megawatts or larger.

Uh we're looking at modifying the agreement to include projects that are five megawatts to 20 megawatts as well, which would also create additional opportunities, especially as it relates to uh facilitating uh industrial manufacturing projects and other economic development opportunities.

So that's a conversation we're gonna start and would be a significant change in benefit to the city.

That's great.

And then are we currently tracking speed of interconnection from a logical point, like when a request is made to when someone's actually connected.

And obviously, there are different categories, low very large load, the more medium-sized, which we maybe previously would have thought of as large prior to this AI revolution.

But then I'm also interested in small businesses and new residential.

Uh I didn't see it in the top-level dashboard, but I'm just curious if we feel that we're trending in a positive direction.

Yeah, I would say we we are in a positive direction.

I you know, the uh there's a lot of um requests for PGE to be for projects to be in San Jose, which is a benefit, but what comes with that is that there are some um delays for future interconnect projects for those who come in later in the process.

Um, we are having conversation with them about their modeling and can we make modifications to facilitate um more opportunities in San Jose.

Um I think the meet the big step for us will be to add those projects that are five to twenty megawatts.

That's gonna give us a lot of flexibility.

And then we just internal to the city, we did talk also about the possibility of adding some uh high density residential projects as well.

It'd be difficult for us to track individual residential projects, but some of the larger projects as we try to facilitate housing, that'll be next step on the conversation with PGE.

Got it.

I mean, they they probably have better data on this than we do, but I'd be interested to know over time if the way we're working together and the way they're staffing the demand in San Jose is leading to tighter turnaround times on connection.

We know that's been a persistent pain point, whether it's large load uh employers or it's residential or it's even smaller projects.

So I just I just throw that out there.

If you feel free if you want to check it out.

I will say that at this point, we are seeing faster times for large load projects.

Um, based, you know, and we do get involved not just in the large load projects, but all kinds of projects across the board.

We're not seeing those yet for smaller load projects, and that's what we want to work on that change.

Yeah, I'd love to get to that.

I know we all at times get questions and and sometimes complaints about how long people are waiting, but I think there's a lot of progress that's been made.

I don't mean to be negative about it.

I just would like to be able to measure it and understand how much we've shortened those windows over time.

And then maybe my last topic, which Laurie, I think is is probably for you, is I was looking at that chart and our numbers around renewable and GHG free energy overall for the city.

Uh, it seems to me that part of the way we unlock the next growth in those metrics is by incentivizing storage.

And I know we're doing long-term power purchase agreements that are at scale.

Uh, it also seems, and you should feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about this, but that there's a lot of opportunity at the local level related to home batteries, and then I think we're we're pretty close, as we've talked about before.

Um, in fact, we know other countries are even ahead of us on vehicle to grid connections and being able to incentivize EV owners, of which I think nearly half of all vehicles sold in our county now or EVs, uh, to plug in at night and actually provide some power back to the grid when demand is peaking.

Um, I'm just curious how you're thinking about that, if there are opportunities in the coming year to further incentivize the deployment of those solutions or if you're thinking about it differently.

Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more.

I think those are really important technologies for our community.

So we currently have a battery incentive program for our customers, focused particularly on those customers that have installed solar, but they do not have a battery to soak up some of that midday energy that we're seeing.

And we do expect to scale, you know, what you will see in the budget, excuse me, is an additional position focused on demand side management.

So, you know, just as you're saying, to get more, you know, opportunity out of the existing grid and infrastructure, and you know, make sure that we're utilizing those batteries, the electric vehicles, as well as um the heat pump technologies that our customers um have installed that can provide some grid benefits.

So we see a lot of opportunity there.

Our customers are certainly embracing those programs, and we will look to you know continue to expand those to the extent that we can this year.

Yeah, that's great.

And then maybe just as a follow-up, if you have if you know off the cuff, is the two questions, I guess.

One is is the home battery incentive fully tapped out each year, or do we have room?

Is there is there is marketing, do we need more marketing, or is it fully utilized?

And then have we thought about designing?

I know this would be innovative, and maybe maybe state law would get in the way, maybe we're not ready for this, but incentivizing EV owners who have that vehicle to grid technology.

I know it's still not widespread, but to be in a position to incentivize them to plug in and actually get an incentive get paid to power the grid during those critical moments.

Is that something we can do locally at this time?

Yeah, that's a that's a great question.

Um not quite yet, but I think we're close to that.

And so we are working with a number of pretty innovative companies out there that are doing a lot of this virtual power plants, things like that that you know are taking advantage of the vehicles as well as the batteries.

Um, for your first question on our battery program, we're not tapped out there.

Uh we are looking to do some advanced marketing and actually even using some AI tools to help us do that in a more cost-effective way.

So we're excited for that this year to push out that information.

And then, you know, one thing I'm really excited about this year is our DC fast charging pilot will go forward.

Um, that's a contract that we just signed, and and those five sites will go into construction later this year and be operating in 20 uh 27.

So those are fast charging sites, mostly located on the east side of the city where we don't see a lot of uh fast charging that hopefully will really help uh that side of the city, you know, use electric vehicles and feel confident that they have a place to charge those vehicles.

And then with that, you know, it provides some unique opportunities.

Um, we will control the retail pricing for those DC fast chargers, which unlocks a lot of opportunities, particularly we're working on on some rates that would provide uh you know our low-income customers, potentially also our employees with a lower rate in that 10 to 2 p.m.

time frame when we know we need uh, you know, there's a lot of solar on the grid and we need to soak that up and more people charging would be great.

So we're we're excited to pilot some of those projects in the coming year.

That's really exciting.

Okay, and I promise last question on this, and then we'll we'll wrap.

Um the batteries on homes today.

Do you know roughly so for the thousands of San Jose households who have solar but have not installed a battery?

There's a a still I think pretty significant federal and or state incentive, plus I think the city has an incentive.

So these batteries have really come down in cost just on the market.

Plus, plus are the incentives.

What's roughly the payback for somebody if they put a battery at home at this point?

Yeah, that's a great question.

Um, you're right.

We're seeing a a lot of great pricing out there for customers and and stocking these incentives.

And so, you know, it varies depending on your, you know, the size of the battery you install, but we're seeing some sometimes as as quickly as two to three years, and you know, sometimes five to six, you know, just depending on what you've installed.

Wow.

Okay.

Yeah, that's great to know.

Cool.

Okay, I think it's exciting.

There's a lot of a lot of innovation and and opportunity there.

Well, thank you.

Thank you, Lori.

Thank you all.

I don't see any other hands from colleagues, so I think we're going to transition to public comment if we have any.

All right.

Well, thanks to uh everyone who is here.

Thank you, City staff.

Uh with that, we're adjourned.