How do we give us a hug Oh, I don't know.

Oh, I don't know.

Oh, I don't know.

Okay, it is 702, and I am calling 703.

It is Tuesday, September 2nd, and I will lead us in the Pledge of Alle, liberty and justice for all.

So we've got our announcement.

The City of San Leandro conducts orderly meetings to fill its mandate and discriminatory statements of conduct that would potentially violate the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, and or the California Federal Employment and Housing Act, California Penal Code sections 403 or 415 are per se disruptive to this meeting and will not be tolerated.

Please see the City Council handbook and the City Council meeting rules of decorum for more information.

Madam Clerk, your announcement, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

If you would like to make a public comment during the meeting, you can do so in person or via Zoom.

If you are present at the meeting, please complete a speaker card and submit it to the city clerk before the item is presented.

If you wish to participate in public comment via Zoom, you can use the raise your hand tool when the item is called.

During the public comment session, speakers will be invited to speak and will have a set time to share their comments.

A countdown timer will appear for their convenience, and when the time is up, the microphone will be muted.

All raised hands outside of public comment will be lowered to avoid confusion.

Once public comment is opened, hands may be raised to speak.

There will be a 30-minute window for public comments, which will take place under item 7, public comments as per the published agenda.

After this time is up, the council will proceed with the rest of the meeting's agenda.

If you have not had the opportunity to speak during the initial 30-minute period, there will be another chance to do so after item 12 City Council reports.

Thank you.

And just to confirm, I don't believe that there is any report on closed session today.

Is that correct?

Okay, thank you for the confirmation.

And we're going to proceed to our proclamation to declare September 2025 as National Preparedness Month here in San Leandro.

Sorry.

We didn't do roll call yet.

My apologies.

Correct.

Thank you.

Let us now confirm it's the perfect time to have a perfect roll.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Present.

Councilmember Azevito.

Present.

Councilmember Bolt.

Present.

Councilmember Simon.

Present.

Councilmember Vivero Swalton.

Present.

Vice Mayor Bowen.

President Mary Gonzalez.

Present.

Note all members are present.

Let us move on.

I think you've got page.

Chief Bowie.

Go, Chief Bowie, come on down.

As we celebrate you and others that help us prepare.

Thank you.

So much easier.

How are you?

She just loves these things.

I won't you hold that.

Obviously, the importance of preparedness cannot be overstated.

So I do want to thank you for being here.

And I know that you're standing in because I think one of our hand crews that was supposed to receive this proclamation has actually been dispatched.

They're deployed.

They're out there taking care of business.

So be sure to thank them to share share what we've done.

Crew 8 has been instrumental in providing rapid response within Alameda County and has been deployed now as one of our response units to support wildfire suppression throughout the state of California.

And they're out there reducing uh fuel loads in high risk areas and supporting firefighting operations and other things.

So please, please, please reinforce the importance of what they're doing and our gratitude to them.

What I'd like to do is more generally talk about national preparedness and emergency preparedness.

And I think that based on many years of experience, you know how important it is for people to be ready.

So whereas National Preparedness, excuse me, whereas National Preparedness Month observed every September since 2004, creates the ideal opportunity for everyone here in San Leandro to join people across the United States in preparing their homes, their businesses, the community, their communities for any type of emergency, including natural emergencies, technological emergencies, and human-caused emergencies.

And whereas planning and investing in preparedness of ourselves, our families, our businesses, the community at large now, preparing now before a disaster can reduce fatalities, economic devastation, as well as improve community recovery and strengthen resiliency in the community and throughout the nation.

And whereas all residents of San Leandro are urged to plan ahead for these disasters, and they're encouraged by and to encourage their own families and their friends to do the same by participating in neighborhood preparedness activities, registering their contact information with AC Alert and Nixel.

These are mass notification systems, and visiting the preparedness campaign website, ready.gov.

R-E-A-D-Y, period gov.

Please visit the website for essential preparedness tips and information.

So now therefore, I Juan Gonzalez III, mayor of the city of San Leandro do hereby proclaim September 2025 as National Preparedness Month here in the city of San Leandro.

And I urge all community members and businesses to develop their own emergency preparedness plans to build a kit, prepare for disasters and talk to friends and family about preparedness in order to have to create a stronger and more resilient community.

I know you want to say a few words.

Build your go bag, please sign up for alerts.

Contact your friends and family.

They're out there working very, very hard right now.

We have a lot of wildfires going on in Northern California.

So thank you.

Okay, I can someone's getting a microphone.

Okay, so for.

Okay, so for item number five, we've got the consent calendar.

And so just very quickly, I am going to pull item 5e even before we get started, so we can have the right recusals to take place there.

But are there any other items that someone would like to pull?

Councilmember Aguilar.

I'd like to move the consent calendar with the exception of 5e.

Okay.

Council uh Vice Mayor Bowen, please.

I will second that.

Okay, so I've got a motion by Councilmember Aguilar with a second from Vice Mayor Bowen to remove the entire consent calendar absent item 5e.

At this point in time, we'll take public comment.

Consent calendar.

Mr.

Mayor, we have no public comment on the consent calendar.

Okay, so I will close public comment on the consent calendar.

Come back to council.

Any further discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote.

If we could please silence cell phones, put them on do not disturb mode.

Thank you.

No, not yet.

All votes are in.

Motion passes 70 unanimous.

Okay, at this point in time, we will ask for three recusals.

Council members bow and Aguilar and Simon.

If you could step out of the room while we address item 5e.

Okay, at this point in time, is there a motion?

Councilmember Votus Walton.

I'd like to move item five E, please.

Perfect.

And Councilmember Bolt.

Second.

Okay, so I've got a motion by Voters Walton, second by Bolt.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

All votes are in.

Motion passes 403.

With Councilmember Simon Aguilar and Vice Mayor Bowen recused.

Okay.

So I'm going to take the chair's prerogative here while they're coming back into the room and just let people know with respect to public comment.

So we set aside 30 minutes for public comment before taking care of the rest of our business.

And then we will reopen public comment for general public comment for items that are not on our agenda.

And so for the benefit of your uh fellow city members that would like residents that would like to speak.

Uh I encourage you to be thinking about what you want to say, how to say it effectively, quickly, efficiently.

And Kelly will eventually be calling on you in groups of three, three or four, whatever it is, so that you're standing very close to the mic.

So that we minimize walking time.

So coming back to item number six.

Now that we are missing a council member.

Okay, we still have quarantines quorum.

So we are going to proceed with the city uh manager's report, city attorney report.

If either of you have a report, now would be the time.

Okay, please proceed.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Good evening, community members, council members.

Uh San Leandro is the first library to host a 35 million miles to Mars exhibit.

Whether you're inspiring next generation of scientists and astronauts or expanding your understanding of the red planet.

The exhibit has something for everyone with interactive components about Mars and space exploration.

It also displays a new prototype space suit that is only one of two in the world, the other being at MIT with this inventor.

The exhibit begins this week at the main library and runs through November 29th.

It's free and open to all.

Mayor, that concludes my announcement.

Thank you.

So now we will take public comment.

So public comment is a time where people may speak to address the council on matters that are not on our agenda.

So that's on our agenda.

This is not the time for that.

So for items not on our agenda, and Madam Clerk, we will begin and we will take in-person first.

Okay.

We have 18 commenters in person, and right now we have one hand up online.

So I will start with Chris Beebe, Cindy Fonzino, and Carol Habercross.

If you could please then just all stand and line up.

This is the microphone, right?

That is the microphone.

And you can pull it down.

We can adjust it.

Thank you.

I'm Chris Beebe.

Um, I'm here about the rent stabilization ordinance.

Um mainly I'm here because I'm a senior and disabled.

And I believe that you people, if not one of you, all of you should call the public, uh, the housing, excuse me, the housing authority, and get um San Leandro needs to have section eight for seniors and disabled in mobile home parks where seniors or disabled own their mobile home.

I own my mobile home.

I've owned it for 25 years.

But I'm uh at the end of this year, I'm going to be homeless.

I don't have the money to pay the space rent.

Um, and uh, you know, it's not right.

I'm I'm very sad.

I don't know what to do.

I don't want to move into an apartment, but I may have to.

Um, I don't want to move to Oakland, but I may have to.

Um, you know, um, as I said before, Hayward has this program where uh seniors are disabled only have to pay 30 percent of their monthly income.

And um Alameda County will help out with the rest.

I mean, I can't even buy toilet paper or toothpaste.

Friends give it to me.

Um, so uh, you know, I have the phone number on my sign here.

If anybody would like it, it's 510.

Um, well, I'll tell, I'll tell the person over here.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for listening.

Please call.

Please do something.

Thank you.

Cindy Fonzino, Carol Habercross, and Leo Sheridan.

Okay, so sorry.

So I will set the tone early.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

So hold on.

I'm just gonna set the tone early.

Cheering, clapping, booing, hissing.

We just listen to our speakers.

Please proceed.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

As a resident of Mission Bay, I'm here tonight to urge you to act quickly in amending the mobile home park ordinance.

The negative impact of the current ordinance is palpable.

We've seen seniors no longer able to afford skyrocketing rents, forced to move in with a family member.

And while you may think that's good, because they have a place to go.

Think again.

People who work their whole lives to have some security, reduced to losing what little they had.

People's independence and self-sufficiency should not be sacrificed because a corporation has no limit in making a profit.

While we understand profits are important, we ask at what cost.

I just saw on the news tonight that San Jose is setting up tents to house people before they find an actual place to live.

Is this what passes for humane housing?

Please do not be a part of the problem.

Cap increases at no more than 3%, and do not allow owners to pass on the cost of repairs to the most vulnerable population.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Carol Habercross.

Leo Sheridan.

Please.

Please.

Please.

Thank you, Carol.

Good afternoon, City Council and Mayor Gonzalez.

My name is Carol Haber.

Microphone interest.

You can lift it up towards your okay.

Okay.

Good evening, City Council, Mayor Gonzalez.

My name is Carol Habercos, and I'm a renter.

I appreciate the city and the work that's been done so far on the um uh rent stabilization ordinance.

The city of San Leandro is a city of kindness, where kindness matters, but also fairness matters, accountability matters, affordable housing matters, integrity matters, helping families matters, bringing the community together matters.

I support this ordinance because it is the right thing to do.

It is the moral thing to do.

It provides tenant stability when tenants know what their rent increases will be, they can plan their budget accordingly.

I believe it fosters good relations between landlords and good tenants, benefiting both parties.

Long-term tenants provide a more consistent and reliable income stream, as landlords avoid the loss of income that occurs during vacant periods.

According to the city website, 48.8% of residents are renters.

The average monthly rental is about $2,000.

If you work at minimum wage is $16 an hour, you make $33,000 a month approximately.

And the annual with the rent of $2,000 a month, that's $24,000.

Is going to the rent.

That leaves families $9,000 left to live on.

And it should be no more than 30% of your salary.

Please pass this rent stabilization ordinance and help our community thrive.

And I also agree with the three percent increase.

Thank you.

Leo Sheridan, Celine Schaefer, Mary Trounstein.

Good evening, mayor, city council, and staff.

My name is Leo Sheridan, a 45-year resident of San Leandro, a business owner and a homeowner.

I'm here tonight to urge this council to address the toxic behavior that has eroded public trust.

From ethics violations to corruption scandals to harassment of women and attempts of self-enrichment.

This council no longer has or deserves the public trust.

As an elected official myself, I'm deeply troubled by the state of this council.

You are elected to serve the public, not yourselves.

And some of you have fallen short of this responsibility.

The inability of one council member to regularly attend meetings is unacceptable, as you have an obligation to those who elected you to participate in the decision making process.

Furthermore, it is long overdue that the council member Bowen investigation findings be released.

This investigation, which involves similar accusations made by former city manager Robostelli against two council members who have been previously censured, sheds light on the pervasive toxic behavior within the council.

It is time to release the findings and for the council to move forward with its responsibilities.

Ignoring this issue only gives the impression that the council is complicit in this gross behavior.

We must restore the integrity to this council and return to serving our great city in addressing the issues that matter most to our residents, such as rent stabilization.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Celine Schaefer, Mary Trounstein, and Mitch Heidema.

Good evening.

My name is Celine Schaefer, and I'm here today speaking on behalf of the League of San Leandro voters.

Tonight, we begin what we call the case of the people versus council members Azevedo, Aguilar, and Simon.

This is about public integrity.

All three have been implicated in serious misconduct.

Confirmed by independent investigations, official censures, and in one case, a federal corruption probe.

These are not rumors, these are findings.

Councilmember Azevedo is named in a federal bribery and conspiracy investigation.

Councilmember Aguilar was censured for interfering with the city manager's duties and creating a hostile work environment.

Councilmember Simon was censured after an independent report confirmed he used threats and coercion against the city manager, leading to her resignation.

Their actions have caused cost the city financially and operationally, forcing investigations, contributing to the city manager's resignation, stalling key staffing, and opening the door to legal claims.

These disruptions drain staff time, delay priorities, and may cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Most troubling, none of them have offered a public apology or acknowledged the harm they've caused.

So we are here to lay out the facts publicly and for the record, speaker by speaker, case by case.

It is our responsibility to bring this forward because if we accept this behavior as normal, we lower the standard for what public service should be, and we refuse to do that.

We're watching, the people will speak, and we will not forget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is the case of the people versus council member Azevedo.

Councilmember Brian Azevedo has been named as a target in a federal investigation involving bribery, conspiracy, and making false statements to law enforcement.

This was confirmed in a letter from the U.S.

Attorney's Office May 12th.

Earlier this year, the FBI raided his home, seizing phones, tablets, computers, evidence for potential criminal charges tied to the misuse of public office.

Why?

Because Azevedo accepted thousands in campaign contributions from the Duong family, then joined them on a luxury trip to Vietnam with the former Oakland mayor, who is now under indictment.

He has never explained who paid for this trip, why he promoted the Dong's Company evolutionary homes to city officials or why he pushed an emergency housing declaration on their behalf.

This conduct is a breach of public trust and an ethical failure.

San Leandro has already received subpoenas for records.

Our city is now entangled in a regional corruption scandal.

Councilmember Azevedo has said nothing publicly.

He has not recused himself.

Silence is not accountability.

We call on him tonight to acknowledge the investigation, disclose all campaign ties and dealings, and either clear his name publicly or step aside.

If you don't, the people will.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mitch Haidema, Jesse Rubin, and Laura Blumenthal.

Hi everyone, my name is Mitch Heidema from the League of San Leander Voters, and this is the case of the people versus Councilmember Aguilar.

In November 2024, this council formally censured Victor Aguilar for violating Charter Section 345, which prohibits council from interfering with the city manager's duties.

An independent investigation found he crossed the line in the council voted for to want to impose consequences, but those consequences only matters if he learns from this.

We've seen no acknowledgement of wrongdoing, no real apology, no evidence of accountability or visible behavior change.

The concerns don't stop at interference.

The city now faces a lawsuit that includes allegations of retaliation in a hostile work environment, especially toward the former city manager.

Additionally, we've learned that while the FBI did not raid council member Aguilar's home, he was also involved in pressuring the city staff to shortcut procedures with an emergency declaration to quickly make a purchase from the now infamous evolutionary homes.

All of this has been while speaking publicly about priorities like housing and rent control, but taking no discernible action to actually make those things happen.

All of this, plus behavior in some key meetings, show a pattern of bullying and intimidation and not public service.

Tonight we ask directly: will council member Aguilar acknowledge his misconduct?

Will he change his behavior and meet the standard of collaborative and cooperative behavior and the leadership this community deserves?

If not, then we will use the tools available to ensure that he does not continue to erode public trust and prevent ethical and productive governance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jesse Rubin, Laura Blumenthal, and Lana Fash.

My name is Jesse Rubin from the League of San Leandro voters.

This is the case of the people versus Councilmember Simon.

In November 2024, this council censured Fred Simon for violating Charter Section 345 after an independent investigation, confirmed he pressured the city manager on staffing decisions involving the police chief and city clerk.

This was not speculation.

Multiple witnesses, including the mayor and fellow council members, testified that Simon used threats in closed sessions and tied staff decisions to the city manager's performance review.

The investigation concluded that Simon helped create a dysfunctional and intolerable workplace, contributing directly to the city manager's resignation.

But rather than reflect and rebuild trust, Simon has offered no acknowledgement, no apology, and no commitment to change.

In recent meetings, he has even questioned the very ethics rules that held him accountable.

His behavior, often combative toward colleagues and staff, shows that he has not learned from public rebuke.

And his repeated absences from council meetings raise further questions about his commitment to the rule.

He does not even comply with the most basic responsibilities as an elected official.

So tonight we ask: will council member Simon acknowledge his misconduct and explain how he plans to restore trust?

If not, then perhaps it is time to discuss a formal recall, because the people of San Leandro deserve leadership, not retaliation, not excuses, and not continued damage to our city's governments.

We are watching and we are preparing.

Thank you.

Laura Blumenthal, Lana Fash, and Maria Silva.

My name is Laura Blumenthal, speaking on behalf of the League of San Leandro voters.

Tonight on record, we publicly presented the case of the people versus Acevedo, Aguilar, and Simon.

We laid out facts confirmed by federal investigations, independent reports, and city council actions outlining misconduct, coercion, and ethical breaches.

Yet you've displayed no accountability, if not abject refusal of it.

When the community watches, as city council members abuse power, ignore censure, and act without remorse, and then nothing happens.

You know what happens out here.

You breed community distrust, public cynicism, reputational harm to our city.

The San Leandro community deserves better.

And we are watching.

To council members Bolt, Bowen, and Viveros Walton.

Please speak up.

Hold your peers to account.

Or yield your integrity to Mary Gonzalez.

It is your job to curb the dysfunction within this council.

You canvassed at my door on this exact point three years ago.

And many lawsuits, rounds of infighting, and FBI investigations later, here we are.

As for we the people, we're not going away.

We're prepared to pursue civil oversight, ethical filings, legal remedies, or recall petitions.

We want to see course correction and enforceable ethics standards.

Please protect the public interest, or we will.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lana Fash, Maria Silva, Lee Thomas.

Hello, um, my name is Lana Fash.

I've lived in the uh senior mobile home park for six years with the high rent increases yearly.

I fear I will not be able to afford to keep living here.

My rent started at 899 before escrow closed.

BSM, the owners raised my rent at one to 1,050 with no notice to me.

When I moved in, my rent was 1,050.

My rent now is 1,300.

I want to plead with the city council to go forward with changing the mobile home ordinance now and not wait.

The ordinance has hurt the homeowners with high rent increases yearly.

The city ruled against the homeowners at Mission Bay.

The homeowners will have a $500,000 repair bill for a wall that the owners should have maintained.

That loan becomes a 15-year lien on our homes, which will make it our harm our homes much harder to sell.

The city has been promising for years to the Mission Bay Homeowners Association to amend the mobile home ordinance.

The time is now to change the ordinance to protect the homeowners from higher rents and owners from abusing the intentions of the ordinance when the city council approved it.

Please do not make all the mobile homeowners in San Leandro wait another year.

As citizens, we voted for this council.

We hope you will hear us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Maria Silva, Lee Thomas, Rob Rich.

Hello, I'm here with the Renestabilization.

Um, I start paying my rent at 1200, and now I'm getting charged 1800.

When I asked why they were charging me so much, they threatened me with eviction.

I was getting eviction notice every month, every three days, if you were late.

But when you asked why they were charging for so many things, the answer was you're gonna get evicted.

When I tried to pay my rent, they denied it.

They don't want to accept it no more.

So they're threatening me with eviction.

Now I'm getting help issues because of its extra stress that I have.

I have a child that is under 18, and I'm responsible for it.

I don't want to go back to Oakland because of the everything that happens over there.

I want to stay here, but with the rent being so high, I don't think I'm gonna be able to.

I have a deaf son, and this community is really good for him.

But if I if I don't get to pay my rent, I'm gonna get evicted, and I'm scared of it.

Please make the rent stabilization to come right now, and not later on when we're homeless again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lee Thomas, Rob Rich, Stephen Town.

San Leandro residents, elected leaders.

You can't be fired up about what's happening in the DC and the leadership in DC.

If you're not fired up about what's happening in your own city and the leadership that's happening in your own city.

Residents in the audience, residents on uh social media, who's watching this tonight.

It's time to take back your city.

It is time to take back your leadership.

It is time to ask City Hall to govern on behalf of the people.

Your city is under attack by incompetent leadership that is failing to lead and govern for you.

We deserve elected leaders who are not under FBI investigation, who are not making backroom deals, who are treats women in City Hall and government with respect.

We deserve elected leaders who are not being censored by their own and finally leaders that shows up to work.

San Leandro residents, take back your city.

Ask your city, ask your neighbors, ask the people that you know, make them aware of what's happening in this city.

Take back San Leandro because the city that was once great is now a city that is in need for great leadership.

I will say what many people are probably scared to say, and I'll say it because it needs to be said.

Councilmember Aguilar, Councilmember Simon, Councilmember Azevedo, do what's right for San Leandro.

Step down, step down and help move this city back in the direction it needs to go.

Thank you.

Rob Rich, Steven Tao, and Mark Janowitz.

Mr.

Mayor, Ms.

Vice Mayor, members of the council.

I know it's old-fashioned, but I'm kind of old, so here goes.

Thank you.

Thank you for every time you've put the needs of San Leandro first.

Thank you for every time you've admitted a mistake.

Held yourself accountable.

Tried to do better.

For every time you've really listened to a constituent.

Especially when you disagreed.

I imagine this job gets pretty rough sometimes.

Maybe even tonight.

Thank you for sticking in there.

Some urge us to treat those with whom we disagree as our enemies.

Thank you for every time you've helped build community.

It pays off.

Look at your accomplishments.

Like the Llewellyn Drop-in center.

And the hard work you're in the middle of on rent stabilization.

Of course, there's tons to do.

And resources are tight.

So I sure hope you had a good break.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Steven Tao, Mark Janowitz, Victoria Yang.

Hello.

Some of you know me, some of you don't.

My name is Stephen Michael Tao.

I'm a resident of district one, homeowner.

Kids are rolled in the San Landro schools, and we've lived here for over 10 years.

I'm not here with any group.

I'm speaking only for myself.

Victor, Fred, Brian.

I consider you friends, but in your roles as council members, I'm disgusted and ashamed at your behavior, ordering on incompetence, misogyny, and criminality.

Mayor Gonzalez, you call this your council.

You bragged about being a full-time mayor, even with your lack of public service experience.

But you failed as a leader to unify this council, let alone unify the city, as you focus more on consolidating your personal power and fighting with residents committed to building a set better San Leandro.

But it's not just you for if you're on school board, the board of the local democratic club, bringing the community institution, a local leader, even activist and organizer like I am, we've all failed to prepare our city for what's coming from the fascist federal government we have, targeting communities like ours across the nation as our city slowly crumbles around us.

Instead, we fight over petty grievances and break faith with each other.

And I understand because at one point I lost faith in us too on December 4th, 2023.

When I came to listen and heard bigotry in this very chamber, I was spit on, called the kike, had threats against my family, and more besides, by people fighting for social justice, by the very people I marched with for social justice in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

I don't have all the answers, but I know that if we don't come together right now and get ready for what's coming for us, and it is coming for this city and this country.

It'll be too late for all of us, please.

I hope you're listening and ready to get to work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mark Janowitz, Victoria Yang, and Cheryl Nolden.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Thank you for the opportunity.

And uh thank goodness we have a way forward.

We can come together and pass a meaningful, strong, protective rent stabilization ordinance.

I'm a proud homeowner in the city of San Leandro.

I'm also a tenant activist.

I'm a tenant lawyer.

I defend evictions.

I've defended thousands of evictions in the county of Alameda.

I can tell you there is a crisis out there.

I can tell you because we've gotten it directly from the presiding judge of the Alameda County eviction court, that the number of evictions filed per month now is over twice as many as before the pandemic.

Over 6,000 families put out on the streets.

And that's without adequate representation on the tenants' side and bad outcomes that result.

One thing I want to I want to interrupt myself and say this.

I want to make it clear.

My comments are as much directed to improving our mobile home ordinance as they are towards a rent stabilization ordinance, because these concerns of the most vulnerable in our city are united.

There can be no division among them.

But we need you to pass a strong rent stabilization ordinance, a little bit of which you have before you, but that proposal put out by your staff can be improved upon, and I urge you to engage in the hard work of digging into it and making it a meaningful, strong, protective ordinance.

The overwhelming number of these evictions are economically driven.

They are allegations of non-payment of rent.

It's a financial crisis we are in.

Tenants respond by landlords by alleging that the landlords have failed to maintain the property, that there's retaliation and bad faith.

This proposal before you with enhanced protections, addresses all of these issues.

So this is a good start, but I urge you to do the hard work to get a meaningful coordinate.

Thank you very much.

I've been a residence for over 10 years, and everyone I talked to tell me San Leandro is getting worse.

We voted you in for the taxpayers' best interests.

Instead, you have collaborated for your best interests.

For your gain, not for the taxpayers.

Your personal gain is what on you have put on stake.

How did 18,000 get approved by the city council for an educational expense?

We're talking about rent control, and yet 18,000, you know how about how far that would go to help these renters?

How can you approve this?

This negligence.

There are lawsuits against San Leandro.

Yes, you haven't mentioned the rest.

You haven't published the rest of the lawsuits, have you?

And then how does city council approve their vacation?

Why do you get taxpayers to pay for your vacation expenses?

Why don't you submit it to the IRS and have them approve for your education for your vacation, your educational expenses?

Not the taxpayers.

We work long hours.

And 18,000, your vacation expense, it's just frivolous compared to person's rent.

In addition, I see some of these field uh city employees.

They're standing at the marina talking for an hour or so, doing nothing.

The park people are parked at the park, doing nothing, but they get paid by our salary.

Why don't you log them in for what kind of duties they're supposed to be finishing?

Anyway, to end it, I I pray.

Thank you.

Your time is up.

Cheryl Nolden.

You stop Gary Branshaw.

Mr.

Mayor Gary Branshaw is the last in-person public speaker.

10 seconds.

Good evening, city council members, Mayor Gonzalez, and Vice Mayor and City Manager.

My name is Cheryl Nolden, and I live at Mission Bay.

I'm sorry, Mission Bay Mobile Home Park.

This morning you should have received a revised mobile home rent stabilization ordinance, which updates provisions on base rent, capital improvements and replacements, rent increases, fair return methods, rent reductions, homeowner rights, and protections against harassment.

New sections cover language justice and hardship exemptions.

Mission Bay Residents Association, Trailer Haven, Bay Shore Commons, and other San Leandro mobile home communities remain committed to advocating for fair housing.

We urge the City Council to prioritize approval of the revised ordinance as many seniors and residents are struggling with rent, facing illegal increases, or facing language barriers.

And as you heard from a few of the residents, uh looking at maybe being displaced, we will continue collecting signatures protesting, which we did this afternoon, engaging the media and canvassing until all residents can live safely and securely in their homes.

Mission Bay residents, Trailer Haven, Bay Shore Commons, and all other San Leandro mobile home, manufactured home, and RV parks are not going to stop fighting for our rights for fair housing.

We will keep pushing the need for approval of the revised ordinance to be front and center despite the issues left that are currently impacting city council.

What do we want?

When do we want it?

Thank you.

Thank you.

My wife and I live in the same park that the uh last uh entity uh who is speaking here.

Here's here's the issue.

And I have one minute and 38 seconds to tell you.

The rent of these uh corporations own these yards.

You own the house or the trailer, but you don't own the dirt.

The issue is the dirt keeps getting more expensive to the point where you can no longer afford it.

And then they either take your house because you could not pay the rent, or whatever.

Point is you're screwed.

Now, none of you are screwed because you know we're very comfortable, but there are people I'm comfortable, we can pay the rent, but there are people who cannot.

And uh, by the way, if you want to sell your house and the property rent goes higher, you have to lower the price of your house, a manufactured home for that entity to buy it.

So they're also stealing the equity because the higher rent, the less you have to sell the house for.

And I spent uh 40 minutes out here laying on the ground with a blanket with uh rent control now because that's where people who are living in a trailer go next.

They go to the street.

Thanks for listening.

And let's all pay our rent.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, there is no more public comment in person.

So at this point in time, we have far exceeded our 30 minutes.

So we'll continue with public comment after.

So let's move to our next item on the agenda, which is our public hearings of which we don't have any, but we do have item number nine, which is a presentation on our climate action plan and receiving a status update.

If I remember correctly, we do have our sustainability analyst.

There you are, Kimberly Anderson here to introduce this item.

There we go.

Okay, uh good evening, Mayor Gonzalez and City Council members.

My name is Kimberly Anderson, and tonight I'd like to present you with a status update of the city's climate action plan.

I'd like to start um by introducing the city's environmental services division in public works, which was newly formed last year, and it includes three programs: sustainability, solid waste, and stormwater.

This division is led by Carrie Parker, who is the public works environmental services manager, and her team consists of myself, the management analyst to position, as well as a waste reduction program coordinator, whom we are excited to have join us in the next month or so.

To house this division that hadn't existed previously, the city incorporated several sustainable practices to create office space for us, which we will be moving into next month.

Some examples include repurposing the vacating space at the South Branch Library, which had been shuttered since the pandemic into office space for the new environmental division offices.

We retrofitted the windows to double-paned to make the building energy efficient and to reduce street noise from East 14th Street.

Um LED lights replaced the fluorescent lamps and the fixtures, which you can see in the photos, and lastly, this new space was furnished using refurbished furniture, including cubicle walls.

Before I get started on the status update, I want to remind you why the climate action plan is important to the city of San Leandro.

A climate action plan is essential to provide a strategic roadmap for communities and governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, build resilience to climate change impacts, promote equity, and improve quality of life, by establishing clear goals, quantifying emissions, and outlining specific actionable strategies across sectors like energy, transportation, and waste.

These plans guide effective action and resource allocation for a more sustainable future.

The city, the community, our businesses, and any activities in this region must all contribute to and agree with implementing this plan because we are in this together.

San Leandro's Climate Action Plan, or CAP, was first adopted in 2009, and that plan was later revised and adopted by City Council in 2021.

This slide provides a timeline for expected status updates like the presentation tonight.

Around Alameda County, typical CAP full revisions with updated inventories are on a 10-year schedule.

The last status update City Council received on the CAP was in 2023.

So we are moving forward with the biannual updates with the goal of fully updating the existing plan in 2031.

Ava Community Energy, formerly East Bay Community Energy, is the local electricity provider for Alameda County.

Ava generates the electricity while PGE delivers the power and handles the physical infrastructure.

Right after the 2021 CAP was adopted by council, the first action implemented was to change San Leandro's power mix default to renewable 100 for residents and businesses, which is 100% from solar and wind.

This power mix selection can be changed by account holders at any time, and the difference in cost between renewable 100 and the next mix right choice is less than $4 per month.

Ava also has a disadvantaged communities program on the horizon, scheduled to begin in April of 2026.

It's also known as the Ava Solar Discount Program.

This will offer income eligible customers a 20% discount on their electric bills, in addition to any existing discounts, while providing them with a 100% renewable energy supply from locals and from local solar projects.

Ava Bike Electric is a new incentive program that began in July of this year, and it aims to increase access to e-bikes, reduce carbon emissions, and support local businesses.

You can apply for an instant rebate of 400 to $1,500 on a new e-bike, including $250 for safety equipment for income qualified individuals.

Monthly lottery drawings are held on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

In solid waste and waste reduction, we've had some big changes.

Last year, we finalized a new collection agreement with Alameda County Industries or ACI, and a new post-collection agreement with waste management or WM.

Both tenure agreements began February of this year and have incorporated the state requirements of Senate Bill 1383, which is essentially a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases by ensuring that organic material is composted instead of landfilled.

Also new, on Earth Day, we launched trash-free San Leandro, an initiative to celebrate and reward the use of reusable dishware whenever possible by avoiding single-use disposables.

For the schools in May of this year, in partnership with ACI, Oraloma Sanitary District, and Stop Waste, we re-engage the school district's recycling and waste sorting programs by providing educational assemblies, recycling containers, and technical assistance to custodial staff.

Regarding the concerns of sea level rise as a Bayside City, the California Ocean Protection Council, or OPC, awarded San Leandro funds via the California Resilience Challenge Grant in 2023 to study the impacts of sea level rise in our city.

This city, this study will provide the city with adaptation strategies to address flooding associated with sea level rise.

The city recently had a work plan approved for additional grant money to fund the next steps in this study, which are listed here on this slide.

Next, we have alternative modes of transportation.

Last year, the city updated the bicycle and pedestrian master plan and installed enhanced bike and sidewalk infrastructure.

The goal of the AC Transit Realignment Project is to improve transit service and connections in San Leandro where needs were identified.

In addition to the new stop at the San Leandro Boys and Girls Club, new service from San Leandro Bart to Union City Bart was added.

The tree master plan was adopted January of this year.

This provided plans for tree planting and tree maintenance.

The city has hosted eight tree planting events since 2024, adding approximately 50 trees to our inventory.

They are our plans for a future ordinance update that will include additional requirements surrounding privately owned trees.

And the city's resilience network continues to expand.

This network is comprised of hubs which provide or focus on one or more of the following community connection, emergency preparedness, and climate action.

From community-based organizations such as churches and nonprofits to housing complexes and neighborhood meeting spots, resilience hubs are trusted spaces that serve as inclusive gathering places to connect with others, to share resources, to exchange information, and to express community care during disasters.

There are no requirements to join us in these efforts.

Just a few of our next steps towards reducing San Leandro's carbon footprint are listed here, and I'll go into a little more detail in the next three slides.

We will be working with the checklists of the California Green Business Program to make sure the city is walking the talk towards sustainability and is a model for other San Leandro businesses.

Water and energy conservation, reduction of paper use, reduction of disposables, non-toxic cleaners, and better recycling stations will enhance city operations and result in a more sustainable place to work.

Next, regarding fleet fuel reduction, Public Works is in phase one of electrifying its truck fleet and installing chargers.

We currently have three electric vehicles on site with five more on order, and we anticipate that the heavy duty fleet will be fully electrified by 2035, which will put us in compliance with the California Air Resources Board's initiative called Advanced Clean Fleets.

That requires a phased in transition towards zero emission medium and heavy duty vehicles.

This will result in cleaner air for everyone.

And thanks to Vice Mayor Bowen's pledge, we are in the process of qualifying as a clean California community.

This is a new state designation for communities who have completed certain initiatives, like implementing this climate action plan and beautify San Leandro, which focuses on uh community litter cleanups and landscape improvements, and trash-free San Leandro, which is focusing on single use foodware reduction where possible.

This designation allows the city priority access to grant and educational opportunities.

Thank you for your time this evening, and that is all for tonight.

And I'll see you at the next CAP update.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

So, what we're gonna do here is we're gonna take public comment on this item, and then we'll come back to our council member questions, comments, exploration.

So, any public comment on this item.

Mr.

Mayor, we only have one hand up online and no public, two hands up online, no public comment in person.

Okay, so we'll go ahead and close public comment in person and we'll open up public comment online.

Okay, Douglas Balding, you may unmute yourself.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, uh council members.

I I mainly want to laud uh the work of Kimberly Anderson, who's uh certainly hit the ground running.

It's been my great pleasure to meet her uh through the work of um Homegrown Habitat San Leandro and a little bit about the resilient around the resiliency hubs.

So I'm looking to forward to much, much, much more.

Um, my one question from the presentation emanates from this uh moving plan to uh inhabit the south branch, the former South Branch um library space because uh I kind of remember you guys uh voting to um to rebuild it.

So, how is that gonna work to have our environmental services offices in the South Branch while it is uh being reconstructed and turned into a bigger, better library branch?

It's uh it seems like a only a temporary fix, so I just kind of raises a question for me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jenny Madsen, you may unmute yourself.

So thank you for letting me speak tonight.

Um, I'm I have to say I think the climate action plan was one of the big accomplishments of the last administration, and I know that this administration understands the importance of it.

We're all in this together, and I just wish that we could focus on solving problems as well as we focus on pointing fingers.

This is important.

We need to keep working on this, and I believe that the group that you have hired are doing that.

We just need to keep putting focus on it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alvaro Ramos.

Can you unmute yourself?

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, so um, with regard to the um presentation on climate, um, I felt most encouraged by the tree master plan and also the sea level rise plan.

But I wanted to comment in particular on sea level rise.

I wanted to emphasize uh that we need environmentally friendly ways of managing sea level rise.

Um, we need to restore wetlands, shoreline, potentially coral reef.

Um the complexity of biological organisms is a tool that could come that can combat it.

And also, I think there's a case for uh sewer upgrades that would help with flood control.

I would advise against using environmentally destructive seawalls and levees that would permanently damage the coasts and the beaches of this area.

Those are really expensive methods that could fall apart during natural disasters.

And you know, if a natural disaster were to break one of these down, then you're looking at um paying an expensive bill to actually build it back up.

So I really want to emphasize the need for environmentally friendly ways of dealing with with sea level rise, but I feel encouraged that at least the city is uh making the concerted effort towards uh doing something about it.

Um we have to learn to live with these issues um in the future.

Um it's not just something that where we can build a wall and keep thing these things out.

Uh that's the end of my comment.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, there is no more public comment.

Okay, so I'll close public comment.

And then I'll just clarify something from one of our public commenters.

You guys are located at the South Branch Library, correct?

And not the Mulford Marino Library.

So just for the public commenters' benefit, the Mulford Marina Library is one that is being reconstructed and expanded, not the South Branch.

So I thought we will go to questions and commentary, let it all flow, beginning with Councilmember Aguilar.

We can go around multiple times if needed.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

I grew up watching Bill Now, Bill and I, the science guy.

And so, Bill says climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think it's this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us.

And it is, and we're working to combat it.

And I think the steps that we are taking are fantastic.

Um, I'm glad that East Bay Community Energy is uh is now Ava community energy, um, with regards to the electric electrifying the fleet to 2035.

That's a tough move to you know take on tackle that.

Um, and I think that's you know the advocacy of our council to show that you know we are in environmentally um supportive of moving this aspect forward.

Um I think one of the important parts is working with AC transit to make sure that we have the lines that go directly to the boys and girls club.

I think as someone who is uh a product of you know after school events and and getting involved in transportation was key as part of being a latchkey kid and you know being able to transport myself without having parents take me to and from um events because they were you know working to pay the rent.

Um and so uh that is that is awesome.

The tree master plan is wonderful as somebody who has worked with our city to get a tree.

I have a jackaranda that's planted right in front.

Uh, and so you have these options to pick uh a tree.

I I picked one and it's uh growing beautifully right in front of my house.

Uh I think with regards to sea level rise, that is something that you know is it's real, it's happening.

Uh I think you know, San Francisco are are taking steps to, you know, have this multi-billion dollar seawall being built.

And you know, we are we are um, you know, it's something that we need to focus and hone in on because it's it's it's not gonna go away.

Um, and I think the uh you know keep up the go work, anything that I can do to be supportive.

Um, thank you so much for the presentation.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bolt.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um, I will point out that I liked when you were talking about um the South Branch being repurposed, and you said you used uh refurbished furniture that's in real lines with climate control as far as not building things we don't need and wasting uh money on stuff like that.

So that I wanted to highlight that because I know you said that, and I think that's important for us to continue to do.

Uh the last commenter about uh sea level rise and understanding how that's affecting us.

Um, it's extremely important to fold that into this conversation as you guys have already done, um, and focusing on that so that uh it's a long-term solution um that cannot be destroyed um through any major um catastrophes that may come.

So, you know, we're gonna do some work, which I think is good, but uh having the focus on um sustainable efforts is is also just as important as we do this work.

And then um, lastly, there was a uh I think it might have been slide six where you had the group who was exchanging uh some of the fruits of their labor or some of the crops that they have grown within the city with others that may need it uh that that's been um discussed uh in in district six and so how do we how do I connect them with that group because and maybe not starting a whole new group on that side but combining the efforts and maybe rotating it or you know just connecting the people is there a solid group as that picture showed a way to get in contact with them that we can you know uh help distribute that information to try and bring more into the fold actually um I am working and have in discussion with um with human services with um Pedro uh Naranjo and we are talking to Tandy Farms and and there's another group that they're involved with where we're trying to form some sort of new group to bring this back into play again.

So as that develops I'd be happy to uh have somebody reach out to you with that information.

Yes please and then maybe even if we can help with some of the efforts they've started um just bring it to you and see if that's something you want to work with.

Absolutely okay okay thank you so much.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor please.

Thank you Mayor thank you for the presentation um I is I'll piggyback on Councilmember Bolt's comments um I I wanted to highlight and maybe you can share too a little bit about um the the resilience hubs and and the roles that they have one of the first question and we I think it was mentioned that it's um bringing community together and the thing around emergency preparedness was to share resources I I think when an emergency happens but what I didn't hear or it wasn't as clear to me was the role of the resiliency hubs for emergency preparedness in particular like getting together to make the bags or in case of an emergency are they do they play a role in sort of this hub of resource from the city um what what is that relationship when an emergency happens right now we've been um the city actually has been having several emergency preparedness um workshops and cert training there's been all kinds of things offered by the city and through the city so we have been um we have the members have been going to those classes I actually had um another member have um the fire department come to their neighborhood and do one of these presentations for the neighborhood so we are encouraging people to go to these events and then also within the hub that I belong to we've had like little mini drills and uh to see if our generator worked and what we would do and different things like that but we are not working directly with the city to have emergency connections we're trying to teach the the neighborhoods to become resilient and to learn to depend on each other and not the city because with there's going if there's a disaster or a huge emergency we're going to need to help each other because this there just aren't enough people to help us this city during uh times of emergency.

Thank you I appreciate that.

Then I'll pause your timer let city manager add a little bit more color.

Thank you Mr.

Mayor thank you Vice Mayor Bowen for that uh wonderful question uh so um Libby Bessman our emergency services specialist also partners with um Kimberly Anderson and Carrie on supporting resiliency hubs and does presentations.

I just can't really mention the fire department one out there, but Libby has also as well from an emergency preparedness perspective, meets and trains with different HOAs and resiliency hubs as well.

Fantastic um and I I know I've met with a few of the resiliency hubs in my district, and I appreciate that they do need to be tied to a brick and mortar.

So oftentimes it's like a church or a a community center.

Is there a way for neighbors who are not say directly on that street or within the vicinity who doesn't go to that specific church or gathering place?

Are they able to then also join these resiliency hubs?

Yes, there's uh in my hub, there are people that don't do not belong to the church that's supporting our group with space, and there are people that don't that live all throughout the neighborhoods that on other streets.

It's it's not exclusive, and we encourage people to, if they don't have a place to meet, to maybe meet at people's homes or to meet in the driveways, different things.

So it's done, no two hubs look the same.

They're all different and they're unique, and they adjust to the community and what their needs are.

So, that's that's fantastic.

And I want to echo what Councilmember Boltz said about um uh food sharing.

I know it happens a little bit, but the more that we can promote that, obviously, with just the amount of food scarcity there is, and obviously with funding cuts coming too.

Um, there are lots of different groups, especially in San Leandro and the history of San Leandro that are just have abundance um and finding ways to be able to um share those that the resources they have that are growing literally in their front yards and backyards.

Um, I was looking through the climate action plan, and I I have a question around, you know, we're talking about the status of it.

Um we for this, we've got 2020, 2030, 2050 goals for um greenhouse gas reduction.

Um, and I'm asked I'm wondering where we're at in terms of our pro our progress towards that, and then what, if any, our challenges because of what's happening at the federal level, changes with the EPA and and um just the general state of uh what climate change is and the priorities there are at the federal level versus what we're trying to do here at the city.

Yes, there are lots of challenges.

50 seconds, no, yes, and I don't know how they're affecting us yet, but other than that concern, um and yeah, it's kind of too early to know what the answer to that question is.

Okay, thank you.

We will go to Councilmember Azevedo next.

Thank you for your presentation.

Um I wanted to allude to basic kind of the question that my colleague asked, but it's about the municipal fleet.

Is that you you probably don't know that either, but is that gonna put something in there where we can't get the vehicles, you know, through federal funding or is any grants or is that gonna affect us getting those vehicles?

I don't know believe so.

I I can't answer that directly, but uh I don't believe that that's affected by federal funding.

That's where that's uh yeah, I believe that we're paying for that.

I know that some tax credits are going away and also some charging that you allow.

Um, when you buy electric vehicle, you have two years where you can charge it for free.

Yeah.

Changing a lot of that, so I don't know if that's gonna affect us.

Yeah, I I'm actually not sure on the details of that in particular, but I could find out and get back to you.

Thanks.

Councilmember Simon.

Excellent presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And um, great, really happy to see your team and just to see this new division together.

And thank you, Janelle, for leading that.

This is really, really exciting.

I'm like many of my colleagues, totally supportive of everything we can do to help our environment because it has been neglected for generations and generations, and I'm glad to see us turn the current toward the corner and start to improve things.

This is great.

A couple questions for you.

Um, one question, and I was happy to see the slide with the greening of city facilities and under recycled materials.

There's a tab there.

Uh, as far as recycling textiles or like genes and coats and things for bulky, or not bulky, but regular pickups.

Has that been um a discussion or any dialogue on that for the community instead of throwing them in the trash to have them reused?

Um actually, Carrie Parker, my manager, is an expert on this topic, and I'm going to defer to her on this question.

Oh, here we go.

Yes, the new agreement with uh Alameda County Industries, right?

So not in the Orloma district, but in the city's sanitary district.

Um, there we have included a new textile collection that is twice per year, once uh the first week in June and the first week in October.

You're going to see social media come up for that shortly, uh, where you leave a clear bag of your textiles without with your uh three carts that you've pushed to the curb, and they are picking it up separately and making sure those textiles are recycled or sorted.

Um for rewearables, but most for uh other textile recycling.

So just so you know, we're on our on the way.

Excellent.

That's great to hear.

Um, next question is litter and illegal dumping around our city.

Uh some areas have more than others, railroad tracks in particular have a lot, and litter, some areas are just heavy, like in front of Walmart on Hisparian at Llewellyn, just clustered with litter.

Uh, what plans does the city have to try to address that?

Not just picking it up, but educating changing people's mindset to not throw it out in the first place.

Excellent question again.

Uh this is kind of the essence of what the trash-free San Leandro program is.

We're going to work uh in moving forward to discourage people in the use of single use and use reusables more often, not use the thing in a single use thing in the first place.

So that is our going to be our effort.

We're going to be doing some major uh education pushes uh in the years to come.

But we are hoping to see less litter because of it.

If people are using more reusables, like the reusable utensil sets that we gave out at the Cherry Festival this year, uh, instead of the plastic forks and the plastic uh spoons, then we are hoping that we will see less litter in the first place.

Excellent.

And uh you practice what you preach at your employee appreciation picnic.

I did notice that you had reusable plates, forks, knives, and everything, and there's no trash on the ground because it didn't exist.

So you're practicing what you preach.

And I'm looking forward to that spreading throughout our city to our different bus different businesses because that would be a major help, major help.

Uh, next question is uh water re water reuse and reduced reducing amount of drinking water.

Um I'll bring that up again, that runs past the Walmart and you continue south, it goes into San Lorenzo, Hayward, and it's like night and day when you pass under the 880, lush, green, beautiful landscaping, just at the other side in San Lorenzo because of the recycled water from Hayward.

Just a few feet to the north, us in San Leandro, desolate, very little landscaping.

Um yet we're right next door.

Recycled water, we have our own treatment plant.

What plans do we have to try to recapture and reuse that water rather than just send it to the bay?

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that question, but I can look into it.

Uh it sounds like a good program to be developed, though.

Okay.

And I'll I'll throw a plug in on that one too.

From the water side, I understand that we as a we as a city would need water purveyorship rights.

Right now, East Bay Mud has those rights, but those are very, very old.

Um modern times show that local municipalities and cities should also do recycled water.

So I would be very supportive of that.

I'll yield my time.

Council Murray Vedos Walton, please.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um, really um appreciate all the time and uh detail.

I really only have one question, just in terms, I was looking through the climate action plan that was approved in 2021.

And I'm interested in kind of understanding how we're tracking greenhouse gas emissions and how we're kind of tracking progress towards our 2050 goal.

Um how often do we get kind of updates on measuring?

Is it like is it every five years, or how do we go about kind of measuring progress in terms of all these different strategies combining together ultimately to get to our 2050 goal?

In the 2021 plan, uh they indicated a bunch of tasks to get us to the goals that we set forth for uh 2030 2050.

Um, and doing that in-depth inventory of what is currently being used and what we project being used is a big project.

And so we save it for once every 10 years.

So the next inventory, unfortunately, will probably be done in 2030, so that we can report out on where we are in 2031.

And do we have any kind of interim points like maybe the air district is measuring air quality?

Um that's included in the report, kind of some interim, you know, uh bar usage in San Leandro public transportation.

It's a good point.

I think that uh in our next update, we can include more of those sorts of gauges that are being reported out around the region and included in our uh report to council.

That's it's a very good point.

Thank you.

And then finally, um uh do we coordinate on a regional basis?

I know that's a lot of cities in the East Bay have adopted climate action plans.

Um ultimately greenhouse gases don't respect city borders, county borders, state borders, any borders really.

Um do we have any kind of regional coordination in terms of thinking, acting locally, but really thinking regionally about some of these um tactics to kind of reduce greenhouse emissions, you know, increase public transportation and so on and so forth.

Stop waste.

Uh, the Alameda County Waste Authority and Recycling Board uh hosts the energy council as well, and the energy council has a technical advisory group, which includes all the sustained sustainability professionals from all of the jurisdictions in Alameda County.

Kimberly attends that monthly meeting and reports out on San Leandro and listens to everyone in the region with their upgrading reports.

Thanks for your time.

I yield my time back to the chair.

Then, did you have anything else that you wanted to explore further?

Councilmember Simon.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

One more question.

And this relates to sea level rise, and I was really happy to hear the city was working on Long Beach Restoration or rehab plan.

And I've seen some community updates on it, which is very very well received by our community.

And just wanted to give a shout out to staff on that.

Sheila and her group, and um it's very well received, and it's really good to see progressive projects moving forward and pulling grant money in too.

That's not utilizing our city, you know, tax base, but pulling in those grants is very valuable.

So I just wanted to say a special thank you.

Thank you.

So at this point in time, I'll I'll add my comments before moving to our next agenda item, uh, and a couple of questions.

So one of the things that drives uh heat index is the amount of concrete.

And I know that we've got a growing number of concrete lawns in San Leandro.

Um, I had someone tell me that they were shocked when they put in artificial turf.

How hot the artificial turf was.

And so I'm wondering, have we given some thought around why I know that we have an ordinance already around concrete and the concreting your whole property?

But do we have some something that we might do there to be more effectively addressing heat index that you've thought of already?

And if not, that's fine too, but I'm just I'm wondering if you've been contemplating it.

Certainly contemplating it.

So like an ordinance you're suggesting of uh permeable uh pavements or or any sort of if we're going to be greening, let's uh not covering lawns so that we don't have to water those, but maybe having water-tolerant gardens that can or rain gardens that can trickle that water through more slowly.

It's an interesting thought, okay.

So the the with respect to just the any kind of ordinance for enforcement, obviously the power of AI these days and image recognition, satellite images, because I know we have we do have an ordinance that says you can only cover so much of your property and impermeable surfaces to be thinking about how we could use satellite imagery from the last 20 years or whenever that ordinance was passed to say, hey, clearly, I don't know when it changed exactly, but it's different today than it used to be.

So just food for thought.

Um I'm always concerned about the most impactful items.

I know that methane is six times more dangerous than CO2.

And so I think about um green waste in particular, and so I'm particularly excited about any efforts that we can undertake to um to better uh drive composting of green waste.

Do we have measures right now in place with ACI and Oraloma to measure?

We've gone from X to Y to Z, and what do we have a stir step plan?

Yes, uh it's a law, it is state law.

Uh Senate Bill 1383 made composting mandatory in a jurisdiction like ours.

So every household and business in uh San Leandro that hasn't been received a waiver for whatever reason has organic uh service outside the building.

Uh and every year uh both Oraloma Sanitary District and the City Sanitary District, we do route reviews and making sure that the right things are in the right bins.

This is mandatory.

We are required to do this, and so we do.

Uh we are providing uh more and more education every year.

We uh to residents, uh everyone in the city receives a door hanger or a bill insert that says that this is a mandatory practice here in San Leandro and in Alameda County in the state of California, um, and so we are doing everything we can a little bit more every year to get that education out there.

Um the big organic generators, let's say, in our uh commercial kitchens, our are being shown this is the bin you put it in, not that one.

So we are doing uh a lot of work towards getting the word out uh to all sectors in San Leandro.

Yeah, so I think in the same spirit as Council Murray Votus Walton earlier just metrics, I think would make the the council excited.

You know, we've gone from this to this.

I can build that.

Thank you.

I do want to say that um when we see the illegal dumping that some of our council members have pointed out, one of the more common things that you see is mattresses, mattresses or some kind of bulky furniture.

And I know that we have been uh working towards sort of contract negotiations, etc., uh updating the ease with which those can be disposed of properly.

Can you just tell us a little bit about that?

There's a state law actually that requires mattress um producers to take them back in some way, shape, or form.

This usually involves funding mattress recycling initiatives uh in smaller jurisdictions.

Mattresses are usually part of uh a bulky pickup, and so uh they are taken away for free um as part of a bulky pickup, it's one bulky item in addition to the three yards that are set at the curb.

So, yes, we are enhancing that mattress recycling every moment we can.

Again, I just think that's one of those things where we can tell our public, you know, we used to process a thousand mattresses and now we process five thousand mattresses.

It just helps tell the story of how we're making progress.

Are there any other questions or comments?

Because I've got two more, so I'm just gonna plow through.

Um Ms.

Anderson on the resiliency hubs.

I think you mentioned that there's 18 now within our network.

Uh my recollection is that it wasn't that big before.

Has there been a change?

Are we are we gaining more into the network, or is it currently flat?

The network is expanding.

We have more people coming in, we have uh more groups coming in, and we're actually making a concerted effort to try to help more neighborhood hubs come in.

We we have a lot of organizations, but I'd like to we'd like to help more neighborhood hubs form.

So we're talking to neighborhood associations and things like that to help us start uh increasing those around the city.

So I'd load if you can just send me a a year ago we were at nine and now we're at 18, you know, something like that.

Um, the last thought that I have is, and this is something that I've uh spoken a lot about at the air districts.

I sit on the on the Bay Area Air District as a commissioner.

I just our focus on making sure that we stay focused on the most impactful items.

So, for example, at the air district, been focused a lot on diesel emissions diesel emissions on trucks.

Now, cars are pretty doggone clean these days compared to trucks or wood smoke.

Wood smoke is highly toxic.

Um, and it's something that the air district has stayed away for political reasons from, but in terms of the danger that it poses to residents, it's actually quite high.

And so I just want to make sure that we as we think about our climate action plan and all goals periodically get updated.

If we're making if we can make sure that what we've laid out are the most impactful things, and if we've learned something subsequent, let's just come to council and say, I'm thinking that maybe we should update our goals in the following way, and I think that we would be very receptive to that.

Uh so with that, I will close this item since there's no more discussion, and we go to our next item on the agenda, but thank you for the presentation.

Item number 10.

Today we don't actually have action items, and I don't believe we had any requests for for uh agenda items for consideration.

So we will move to council reports, announcements and the like.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just it feels like a long time ago, but since we were on that break, I just wanted to share that um at the end of June.

I did attend the API Lead Summit, the um first gathering of um or organizations bringing together local, state, and federal API electeds.

And one of the most impactful um sessions learnings um that I participated in was focused on the impact of the current immigration policy on ANHPI populations and ways to respond and protect our residents.

And so um just wanted to share that because that is still top of mind and having active conversations with city staff about that.

I also really wanted to just give a shout-out to staff because now that we've gone back to school and I drive down Bancroft twice a day, it is so great to have the Bancroft um paved and and the parents are doing a great job of turning into the Bancroft parking lot and taking a right outside of the parking area and not going into the left lane.

So it's it's uh um really uh people are very excited about that.

Um, I also want to share that um my kids had the privilege of attending Chabot Day camps this summer and attended the largest one.

I think there were almost 300 um kids in the last session, and it was such a joy to to be a part of.

And I will say that for those families, it really is a matter of um um a very much needed resource in the community, and so thank you so much for providing that.

Um, and then I wanted to share also.

I saw that um the city was uh I forget the organization the city has partnered with, but um working with entrepreneurs in the city for daycare providers to be able to potentially um start daycare programs in the city, also much needed.

So it's it's lovely to see um the work being done that when we sit up here and we talk about um our our action plans or academic development plan to see some of those strategies um out there.

I know it flies under the radar for us at times, but it's really nice to be able to see.

So shout out to the PIO and everybody else who's working on getting that information out.

Um, I will be at the farmers market on September 10th.

Um, so encourage anybody in the community to come out and visit.

Um, I will also have um some community members who have been working on um getting know your rights um cards out in different languages, and so if anybody wants to come and get copies of those to hand out, I will have many for you.

Um and finally, the other thing in um uh District 5 that I'm really excited about is the ribbon cutting on September 27th for Memorial Park.

Um I know people have been talking about that as well as um sprouts, but you can check, you know, online for all that information.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Aguilar, please.

Uh thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.

I think uh, you know, a lot of us are busy um on break.

So August 5th through 7th, I was invited um by the strong cities network uh to participate in a panel discussion in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Um I collaborated with fellow mayors at the Strong Cities Network to address the growing threats, hate and harassment directed at public officials in the US and Canada.

Uh I mentioned that no individual should face mortal fear while serving their community, many face threats or violence while serving in public office.

The targeted shooting in Minnesota lump um of Minnesota lawmakers emphasize the urgency of this issue and to ensure democracy prospers without fear, we must protect our leaders and ourselves.

Uh in my capacity as a council member, I shared my personal stories, especially as an LGBTQ Latinx leader.

Um I am always a vulnerable to that's and um touched touched upon that aspect.

Um but all in all was a great conference.

Um August 13th, I attended the 1139th meeting of the Board of Trustees for Elameda County Mosquito Abatement District with regards to the arbor virus in uh mosquitoes.

None of the traps this month uh work of the traps were collected, no mosquitoes were in uh were infected with West Now virus.

With regards to um viruses and birds, none of the birds collected this month were positive for West Now virus.

And uh this month, 28 birds were tested, none were positive for West Now virus, and uh 262 mosquito collections from our traps were tested for West Now virus St.

Louis Encephalitis virus and Western Iquen encephalitis.

Um none of these muscles were positive for any of any of those, although there was one 80s agypti larvae that was collected from a monitoring trap in Pleasanton at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, uh, and no additional 80s Egypti were found, none of the 80s water traps tested positive for 80s Egyptian environmental um DNA.

On August 14th, I attended the LGBTQLO board meeting with uh the National League of Cities.

Then on August 20th, I attended the WHOA meeting, um, worked with our PIO Pulse After to get some information uh with city updates, and he also provided me an early release of the city manager's uh uh update, which I presented to uh the WHOA.

Um, and there were many questions and uh one of the questions that the that well question that a lot of folks had was regards to the citizen bond measures.

So um I think that was something that I was caught off guard by, but uh got some answers to that.

So that ends my report.

Thank you.

Okay, are there any other announcements?

Okay, I would like to before making my announcement remind the public that we did close our public comment.

But if anybody wants to continue that public comment because we did shut it off before everyone had spoken, this would be the time to raise your hand because when I'm done with my comment, I will come over and reopen that item, uh, item number seven.

So just very quickly on uh on my end, a couple of announcements.

Um, third act will be bringing their Sunday here to San Leandro on September 21st.

Sunday, September 21st.

I believe it starts at 10 a.m.

and runs through about 3 p.m.

or 4 p.m.

And celebrating renewable sustainable energy.

So hopefully some of our folks, I know some council members have volunteered already to participate.

And I know we've got youth from the community also volunteering to participate, so it should be a pretty energetic day.

On the 20th, we have a community cleanup, uh shoreline community cleanup in particular.

So encouraging the members of the public to participate.

I have my date right.

If you could just check very quickly, city manager.

I believe Saturday, September 14th, is our barbecue.

Uh it's the United for Safety Barbecue here at City Hall on the 13th.

Thank you very much.

So it's Saturday the 13th, uh, starting a little bit before noon.

Uh, and again, encouraging members of the public to avail themselves of coming here and uh enjoying some uh some food with us.

Um I think the other thing that I do want to just uh offer, and we are in in some trying times, and for a number of uh weekends now we've had folks gather here at downtown at Root Park to really celebrate democracy and to highlight the importance of speaking up to defending the rights of immigrants and those that are disenfranchised.

And it has been wonderful to see so many different people and diverse people from our community gathering together to promote unity and to recognize that the American flag is a symbol of inclusion and to not let it be usurped by those that would take the flag and use it to divide people.

So I'm really proud of the community for coming together uh to support the rights of folks.

And when I when I think about uh times that I've been proud to be an American, uh one of those times was on my vacation this summer.

I had the privilege of going to South Africa and while I was there, I had the opportunity to visit with the State Department folks, at a program where they were promoting education USA, and to hear um local people talk about the wonderful experience that they had by coming to live in Alabama, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas.

That they were so welcomed, even though they were foreigners, and they were thoroughly shocked.

So I'm proud that we as a country do have programs where we encourage people from other countries to come and visit and see the best parts of who we are, and I'm proud of that.

And so hopefully we can continue to have programs like that where we promote American goodwill around the world.

So with that, we'll go to any final public comments.

Do we have any hands raised?

Mr.

Mayor, we have one hand up online.

Please proceed.

We now have two hands up online.

Doug Spalding, you may unmute yourself.

I'm still here.

Uh thanks for the correction, Mayor.

I am geographically challenged.

One thing I would point out is it seems like the uh date and time of the United for Safety Barbecue directly conflicts with the Octobo Fest uh event for that day.

Um the reason for my hand is uh I know we are all impacted by um by inflation and maybe no more uh no more so than when we look at our PGE bill.

And the fact is that PGE has been siphoning money from our bills for decades uh to feed the profits of their shoulders, shareholders that are part of the PGE corporation, as I think from the company.

That of course uh has meant that um they haven't hadn't really invested sufficiently in maintenance of the grid, resulting in the San Bruno National Natural Gas line bursting and numerous fires all over the place.

And it's frustrating that they've largely escaped legal and fiduciary responsibility, and that they're now passing through the costs of doing that maintenance to all of us, making our bills higher.

So why do I talk about this?

Because it seems to me in San Leandro, many landlords operate on a similar basis.

They pocket our rent money, cashing the check.

They don't necessarily make repairs that are needed, they don't hold money in reserve for those things like uh, you know, when the sewer line gets backed up or the roof starts leaking.

Um, and instead, these landlords hold the same attitude and practice as PGE by wanting to pass through all those costs to tenants.

And this is true whether you are a tenant in a in an apartment or uh if you are part of a um mobile home park.

I oppose the notion that's it's currently written into the uh ordinance that we're gonna green light some percentage of these costs that will get be passed on.

I think it all should go before the hearing officer.

Thank you.

Your time is up.

Jenny Madsen, you may unmute yourself.

So thank you.

Um I cannot not give public comment in support of the rent stabilization ordinance that you are all going to be considering shortly.

I can't let it pass.

I've worked too long on this.

I have learned a lot of things this summer, one of which is that according to the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority, most of the rental units in the nine barriera counties, including Alameda are single family homes.

I have also been researching certain property ownerships, and most I am stunned at the amount of rental property in San Leandro that is owned by people who live in San Ramon or Walnut Creek or Orinda.

It is not owned by San Leandrons.

And you need to you need to remember that.

That was also from Bafa.

I've learned a lot of stuff this summer, and I don't know.

It we are all in this together, and we need to have San Leandro survive, and it's not gonna survive if it's owned by private equity and people who were just here who just own the property here for investment.

I want it's important that people stay housed, and I am in support of Mission Bay and Trailer Haven and all the other parts in town.

You need to give some attention to that too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I know it's too much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, there is no more public common.

Okay, so with that, we'll close public comment.

And I would like to just uh clarify one thing very quickly for the benefit of one of our public commenters.

You have a wonderful opportunity to come to the barbecue starting at 10 a.m.

It runs until 2 p.m.

And then go over to fest, which runs from noon all the way to 6 p.m.

So lest you feel like that you are unable to do that.

Um with that, what I'd like to do is adjourn our meeting, um, reflecting for just a couple of seconds about for the tragedy that occurred in Minneapolis and the killing of innocent children because I do think it's so powerful when we hear this expression.

They're in our thoughts and prayers.

I mean, these people are literally praying.

And I think we it's time to move on to uh either Second amendment uh amendments, updates, and or um just being more committed to more stringent gun control laws in the United States of America.

So with that, let's take a moment of silence and remember those folks.

So in memory of those children we are adjourned at 852.