How do we give us a h do we give us a hug Okay, the time is seven oh three.

I'm calling to order.

Okay.

Councilmember Azevedo.

Present.

Councilmember Azabito.

Councilmember Simon.

Present.

Councilmember Vivaros Walton, present.

Vice Mayor Bowen, present.

Mayor Gonzalez.

Present.

The announcement City of San Leandro conducts orderly meetings to fulfill its mandate and discriminatory statements or conduct that would potentially violate the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and or the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, California Penal Code Sections 4 through 415 are per se disruptive to a meeting and will not be tolerated.

Please see the city council handbook and the city council meeting rules of decorum for more information.

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

If you're 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 public comment, 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.

Thank you.

Okay, item number three.

Uh city attorney, is there any reportable action coming out of closed session?

There are no reportable actions.

Okay.

For our consent calendar, item number four on our agenda.

Does count do any council members have items that they'd like to pull?

If there are none, then we'll go to the public first and then we'll take a motion.

So councilmember Aguilar, did you want to pull or is that just for the motion?

Okay, so let's just wait a second.

Let's hear from our public.

If there's anyone from the public that would like to comment on our consent calendar, Madam Clerk, did we receive any cards?

Mr.

Mayor, there is no public comment on consent.

Okay.

Either in person, no raised hands, correct?

Correct.

No hands are public comment on the consent calendar and come back to council member uh Aguilar.

I would like to make a motion to move the consent calendar.

Okay and Councilmore Vidus Walton.

I actually just had a quick question, and I'm I had a question about that, an item on consent.

Okay, please ask your question.

So this is regarding item 4A, and I apologize for not sending the question in advance.

Usually on consent items I do, but um I didn't the when I read the um the documents, they were from a 2019 grant.

I just had a question about why we're and why we're accepting them now, if it's because the all the attachments were from the previous sheriff from 2019.

I'm just wondering why, okay.

So we will start with our chief.

Oh, good evening.

Um, so the reason why this grant is from 2019 is because we were doing an audit of previous um years of our grants, and we realized that we never submitted the proper paperwork in the past for that grant.

So instead of forfeiting forfeiting the funds, we decided to apply for uh the funds.

They had not expired yet.

We just needed to follow the proper procedure to get them approved.

Thank you.

So I'm assuming we're good to receive the this is to receive it.

So we're all squared away.

Correct.

Thank you.

Uh I'll second to I'll second the motion from Councilmember Aguilar.

Okay, so I've got a motion by Councilmore Aguilar with a second from Councilmore Virus Walton to move forward with our consent calendar as presented.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Councilmember Bolt, your vote, please.

Yes.

All votes are in.

Councilmember Bolt, yes.

Vice Mayor Bowen, yes.

Councilmember Faverous Walton, yes.

Councilmember Azevedo, yes, Councilmember Aguilar, yes, Councilmember Simon, yes, and Mayor Gonzalez, yes.

Motion passes unanimous.

And just to state the obvious the record should reflect that councilmember Bolt is present, even though he was not here at the roll call.

So moving to item number five.

Here we have the uh before us.

The possibility of uh adopting a resolution to approve amendments to and adopt this updated council, city council handbook.

Uh just uh for the benefit of all, we have had this come before us several times now.

It has gone to rules a couple of times, and so what we'd like to do here is have uh city clerk go through her presentation.

We'd like to get some uh public comment on the handbook.

And then come back to council members for some questions, dialogue, andor a motion.

So first we'd like to see the entirety of the presentation, and then hear from the public and then hear from our council.

If you would please proceed, Madam Clerk, as I believe you are presenting this item.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Okay, so tonight before you we have the council handbook update.

Sorry, trying to figure out how to use Canva.

Uh before you, the handbook in the update, there's a general cleanup where we did reorganization of sections for better flow.

We added information about facilities and transportation, finance, and rules committees.

We've removed references to the previous human relations committee, which is now the rules committee, and we've cleaned up spacing and spelling and grammar.

Where we will begin is on page 14, the nomination and role of the vice mayor.

So the committee coming, the recommendation coming out of the rules committee is that we remove the second paragraph and keep the original city charter language, which is the first paragraph above you, under nomination and role of vice mayor.

And then so how I will do this presentation, we will go slide by slide.

So the first slide is to talk about the nomination and role of the vice mayor, and then as you talk amongst yourselves, once there is a consensus on council direction, I will type it out up here like we did at rules committee.

We're actually we're gonna do a little bit differently.

We're gonna go through each of the four pieces, and then we're gonna approach it in total.

Okay, so then just excuse every blank slide you see after every one of my regular sites.

The next page is page 17, strategic organizational training account.

The committee made a unanimous decision to remove this language from the handbook due to budgetary constraints.

And the committee recommendation is to remove the program offering from the handbook.

And we go to reimbursement for expenses.

The committee agreed to combine the budgets and create a new budget called advocacy training and technology.

So instead of having a separate travel and training budget and a separate technology budget, the recommendation was to combine both of those into one budget, calling it advocacy training and technology with a budget of $9,300 per council member per fiscal year with an agreement not to exceed $2,500 on technology expenses per year.

The additional recommendation I'm seeking is that we apply, I'm asking council if we apply the change to the mayor.

The mayor currently receives an annual travel and training budget of 10,000 and 1,800 technology for a total of 11,800.

I'm also asking council if we will be keeping the $3,000 inaugural term technology budget.

So in the inaugural term, which is the basically the first six months of a brand new council member, they will receive 10,500 per council member, which would be 7,500 travel and training plus $3,000 technology.

And then the mayor would receive $13,000, which is their 10,000 for travel and training, and then $3,000 for technology.

And I forgot to mention that that language, yeah, or this language was added unanimously, and then everything under the red is what I'm asking council for.

I'm sorry, just to clarify.

The current text right here, these top two bullets is what was added to the handbook in red line.

And then the bottom two bullets is where I'm adding asking for clarification because that was not discussed at rules committee.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

On page 18 under reimbursement for expenses, this is the proposed language that came out of staff made the proposal, and then the committee recommended to add that language unanimously to the handbook.

And the added language is that staff may purchase flights for council members upon the council members' submittal of detailed flight to request.

This is a new page.

And I can have Nicole present it.

This is a new update.

This is the finance director, Nicole, is going to present this item.

Good evening.

Thank you for this opportunity.

This is a new update coming before you this evening.

It has not been presented previously.

This is on page 20 of the handbook, which is documentation of expenses and expense reports.

In this change that is being proposed is council members and the mayor must submit requested reimbursement on the expense reimbursement form within 30 days of incurring the expense to qualify for reimbursement.

So this is a change moving from 90 days to 30 days.

And the reason behind this is to better align with the city's current policies on what we expect of our own staff and vendors to ensure that we can meet deadlines specifically as it relates to when we close the current fiscal year.

We need to meet certain deadlines.

And so the proposed change of 30 days will allow us to make sure that we're meeting those mandates.

Thank you.

Now we will move on to the second section of the presentation where we discuss the code of ethics and related documents.

So the following pages include the section regarding consequences for violating the council handbook, an addition of a code of ethics, and the council handbook acknowledgement page.

So on page eight, there is an addition of consequences for violating the council handbook.

And that committee, the recommendation coming out of the committee is that we add the language to the handbook, and that was a unanimous recommendation.

The language to be added is that violations of the rules and policies outlined in this handbook may result in disciplinary action as determined by the city council.

Reference to Title 1, Chapter 13 of the San Leandro Administrative Code, which was adopted by City Council Resolution 2024-138.

There's also been an addition on page 69 of a city council member handbook acknowledgement form.

And that committee recommendation was to add the language to the handbook with a vote of two to one.

And then on pages 9 to 12 of the council member handbook is a council member code of ethics.

The recommendation coming out of committee is to add that language to the handbook with a vote of two to one.

The sections, because it is too detailed, I won't read the entire code of ethics, but I will just name the sections for the record.

There's public service and integrity, act in the public interest, compliance with laws and policies, accountability, professional and personal conduct, fiscal responsibility, ethical leadership, respect and civility, engagement with the public, respect for the process, conductive conduct of public meetings, decisions based on merit, communication and disclosure, conflict of interest, gifts and favors, confidential information, use of public resources, representation of private interests, advocacy, policy role of members, independence of boards and commissions, and positive work environment.

And again, that recommendation from committee is to add the language to the handbook with a vote of two to one.

And those are all of my slides.

So now it's open for questions or comments.

Okay, so at this point in time, we will go to public comment on this item before coming back to council for discussion, questions, motion, and the like.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Oh, sorry, we have to fix it.

IT.

Okay, Mr.

Mayor, I have three speakers in person, and I have two hands up online.

Let's begin in person, please.

Mitch Heidema.

Hi everyone, I'm Mitch Heidema.

Sure, I will acknowledge that there are ways in which the proposed 2025 City Council handbook falls short.

The League of San Leandro Voters has outlined specifics that would be an improvement, like giving solid consequences for ethical issues like we've been seeing, and having protections for whistleblowers.

However, it's shocking to me, frankly, that the handbook didn't already have a code of ethics and consequences for non-compliance.

And it's stunning how much time I've seen, how much time and energy that the council has already had to put into adding very clear and straightforward ethics expectations to this proposed handbook.

The amount of money that we as a city must have already spent for staff time on this is ridiculous.

The code of ethics in this is this proposed handbook is pretty straightforward and unambiguous, which is why no one could identify anything wrong with it in that one meeting, even after spending hours upon hours going through it line by line in a meeting that was specifically set to do that.

But nevertheless, someone stated at the end of the meeting that he wanted something different, something vague and toothless.

No doubt that will happen again tonight, and that someone will insist on changes tonight so that the council can be forced to spend more staff money and time and even more just dragging this out so that there's no code of ethics to hold anyone accountable with.

That would be very good additions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Tim Holmes.

Hello.

Excuse me.

Um the one thing I wanted to mention was I there's been talk about signing the document or not signing the document.

I don't think anybody cares whether you sign the document.

I think I, for one, care that you care whether you sign the document or not.

Thank you.

Deborah Acosta.

Deborah Costa, Mission Bay Residents Association.

While this council debates its ground rules, our neighbors are losing their homes.

We just had Maria Silva join us today.

She just got her unlawful detainer after months of dealing with this uh beytion or facial comments.

So tonight you're spending valuable time debating rules for how this council does its work.

But while these conversations continue, mobile home residents are being displaced every single month.

Mobile homeowners are not waiting.

We've already done the work you asked us to do.

We came together across San Leandro's nine parks and produced a fully revised mobile home rent stabilization ordinance.

You have it in hand.

The next step is simple.

Send it to the city attorney for review.

Bring it back to rules and schedule the first hearing.

That's it.

No more delays.

Last week you saw us at site.

I know it's not quite on.

I can keep it focused.

Okay, keep it focused.

But here's the point.

Here's the point.

We have waited for almost three years through city council promises that it would be a priority to get the mobile home rent stabilization ordinance.

We waited, we waited, we waited.

We hired its attorney.

We got it done ourselves.

Let's get it done.

No more stuff about the ground rules.

Let's get this handbook approved so we can get on to the business of saving our our city for our residents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, I have no more speaker cards.

Okay, at this point in time, we'll go online.

Okay, thank you.

Maureen Dupree Dominguez, you may unmute yourself.

Hello, Maureen Dupree Dominguez.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thank you.

Resident of San Leandro since 2008, 94577.

I want to add my voice to the chorus of San Leandro residents who are stunned that a code of ethics does not already appear as part of the City Council handbook.

I am exceedingly suspicious of any city council member who is reluctant to agree to a standard code of conduct.

Especially in this national climate, we need public leaders who are publicly accountable to ethical principles if we have any hope of achieving liberty and justice for all.

So I ask that the city council get this done tonight and pass the code of ethics as amended.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rosie M.

You may unmute yourself.

Hi, this is Roseanne Manina, San Leander resident since 2014.

I'd like to acknowledge recent concerns involving some members of our city council.

Allegations include misuse of public funds, improper pressure on city staff, and links to an FBI corruption investigation regarding a local housing project.

While these issues are complex and ongoing, they remind us that elected officials must act with ethics and transparency.

The situation in San Leandro is part of a broader pattern nationwide, where corruption by public officials erodes trust and harms communities.

Leadership is a serious responsibility.

It either upholds integrity or it threatens our institutions.

Unethical behavior spreads like cancer, undermining democracy and public confidence.

When public trust fails, people disengage just when we need them to be more involved.

Locally, the proposed 2025 City Council handbooks ethics section is a start, but it falls short.

It lacks transparency, protections for whistleblowers, and real consequences.

That said, I urge adoption of these guidelines, but also urge an ongoing improvements to strengthen ethics rules.

As residents, we must demand accountability and ethical conduct at every level.

Only then can we repair the damage caused and restore faith in our institutions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

David Jackson, you may unmute yourself.

Thank you very much.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

All right, good evening, Mayor and City Council.

My name is David Jackson.

I'm speaking on behalf on behalf of the League of San Landro voters.

Um the League of San Landro voters supports adopting the new council handbook ethics rules.

Uh, we do feel that it puts in writing the correct values, namely truthfulness, accountability, fiscal responsibility, and respect.

Um, but words on paper are definitely not enough, and enforcement in the rules seem vague.

So the handbook simply says that violations, I quote, may result in disciplinary action as determined by the council.

So to us that sounds a lot like the city council merely polices themselves, um, but we are hoping for more transparent accountability from the council.

Currently, the public has no way to file a complaint.

Whistleblowers in the city government also don't seem to have a way to file a complaint, and even council members themselves don't seem to have a way to file a complaint under this handbook.

And that appears to be a major gap.

So what we're asking is three simple changes.

One, create a clear complaint channel that residents, staff, and council can use.

Two, spell out real consequences if the code is violated, and three, require council members to correct the record if they miss state facts.

Um, this handbook can be more than a rule book.

It can definitely be the start of rebuilding trust between community and council, um, given everything that's happened, but only if accountability is real and visible.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, there is no more public comment.

Okay, so we will close public comment online.

I understood that you might have received an extra card here in person.

No, I do not.

Okay, perfect.

At this point in time, we're going to move to back to council for discussion, exploration, some questions and the like.

And certainly if someone has a motion, I'll take a motion.

Councilmember Simon.

First, I'd like to say thank you, public, for coming out and speaking as in person as well as online.

It's important that we have this dialogue and discussion, so I'm glad we're all here.

And then we can move on, as I've heard, to uh getting other work done in the city.

But it's important to get this right, as we've seen on many documents.

If you don't get it right, there are repercussions.

So we want to get this right.

My I understand that we can talk about any item in the rules handbook since the whole handbook was published.

Is that my understanding?

This is your time to do whatever you want to with that time.

Um so my first comment is on the consequences for violating the handbook, which is chapter one, page eight.

I'd like to add a statement that this disciplinary action shall require a supermajority vote, five-seven of the council.

I think that's important.

Um, when there's significant decisions that need to be made with serious consequences, we should have a supermajority, and I understand if that's the case, then we'll have to come back and discuss that further, but I at least wanted to throw that out there.

My uh next comment has to deal with the code of ethics itself.

Uh I have raised concerns on what was proposed and tried to understand how this was developed and received a number of code of ethics from different cities that this came from, and I appreciate that work that was done by the city clerk.

As I mentioned before, I just have a differing opinion on the code of ethics that we use.

And I agree we definitely need a code of ethics.

There's no dispute there.

Um, but I believe that we should have a value values-based code of ethics rather than a rules-based approach.

And I'll go ahead and pass this out to my colleagues as I've done previously.

And I also have some comments, handouts for the public too.

But what I'm what I'm proposing, and this is what I had proposed previously, was and this is one of the examples that the city clerk had provided and looked at is the city of Morgan Hill.

And I I got the feedback from my colleagues last time.

You know, why did you include only a portion of it?

The key is the core values, which I've heard before, and I support completely honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness, and loyalty.

And with the values base, that it covers, it can cover a wide variety of issues that come up, not just specific um defined rules, but a wide variety.

However, I I heard the feedback from my colleagues, and I agree, and I'm proposing that we include the entire um Morgan Hill policies and procedures, as was mentioned by my colleagues.

I think this will help us better as a council with a values-based, and it can cover uh generally anything that comes up, and it's it's not so um tied to specific uh rules but values.

My next comment would be on page 16 chapter one, and this is not in the presentation, but this relates to item number 11 when we're bringing items to the council for consideration.

And what I'm proposing is defined here that if council members want to bring up new items, that they are sent to the rules committee once a quarter, rules committee evaluate those, brings them back to council the following meeting, and then that council will vote and decide if those items should move on.

Right now, we generally get about once a year to look at new items that come up, and uh I think we need more time.

I mean, more opportunities to look at uh adjustments to the work that we're working on.

Um, number four is I recommend that we change our meeting times to start earlier.

I think many members of the public and staff uh would probably appreciate not working until 10 or 11 o'clock, sometimes later at night, and um decision making, you know, gets it's better.

I think when we're fresher to uh make some of these decisions, and I think it'll be easier on staff to who have to get up and go to work early the next day.

So as I'm proposing closest and starting at five, kind of like we're doing now, and then we start the meetings at 6 p.m.

My last comment would be uh meeting attendance.

This is just simplifying things as we're not able to attend, we notify the city manager and the city clerk as soon as possible.

Those are my four, excuse me, five comments.

Thank you.

Thank you for comments.

Vice Mayor Bowen, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, it's um I'm gonna try to keep this short.

Uh, this is um the fifth time that we've looked at the code of ethics and the same exact council handbook since December of 2024.

I'm not sure what other item we've had come up before us agendized five times since then.

Earlier today, I actually had to fill out three um code of ethics and anti-bullying agreements for my kids because they're in aftercare.

And last week I had to do it for Stanley and our unified because my kids um are joining um cross country, and so I'm really getting used to staring at code of ethics and anti-bullying agreements.

Um, I think that this is great.

Um what we have is great to get us started.

It is something that um I sent to the city manager and the mayor in October of 2024, and I know that there have been conversations previously about putting something in.

I think it's about time we do it.

I have a question about the administrative code.

I think maybe this is for the city attorney.

Um, I can it's my understanding that we, as part of the administrative code, have previously as a council adopted a process to be able to take action once a complaint has been filed, whether by the public or by a council member.

Can you clarify for me exactly what the administrative code is and where the public or the council members can find that?

It's on chapter one-thirteen of the administrative code.

It's um, so chapter one-thirteen of the administrative code provides for the uh city council's policy regarding requests for discipline.

So there's a process we have if a complaint has been filed to look at whether or not we as a council want to take action on something.

To discipline one of their own numbers, yes.

So the to if it to discipline, so it does not say that we have to discipline.

That is correct.

So it is essentially a guideline process for us to be able to go through to decide whether or not we want to hold ourselves accountable.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay.

And this code of ethics, uh code of conduct simply outlines, codifies explicitly what we think as a council is ethical behavior that a council, our council should at least understand to be factually true.

Is that a is that a legal question?

That's a process of city, but I just understand what this actually means.

Maybe it's city manager.

Like, what does the handbook actually do?

Is it just to help us understand what for a council is the council handbook really just a tell us council with each other?

This is what we think ethical behavior is.

It is our agreement amongst ourselves.

Okay.

So we're trying to come up with an agreement of what we think is ethical.

There is also, secondly, a process for us to take action or decide if we want to take action.

But again, there's no nothing in this saying that we have to do anything.

Is this correct?

This lays out a framework and then it allows the council to apply judgment based on the facts and circumstances.

Is there anything in the council handbook that compels us to take action even if we find there has been unethical behavior?

I don't see any item in there.

City attorney, is there anything that compels action?

No, there's nothing that compels action, but the council member handbook does contain state rules and laws that do have their own independent consequences for violations.

So say the city council handbook is a summary of what ethics laws apply to the council including state laws that have their own enforcement mechanisms under the Fair Political Practices Commission or the district attorney's office and independent consequences for violation for violating those rules and laws that are ethics laws under state under state law.

And are there federal protections that are also in place for council members that to protect council members.

Not in the city council member handbook.

Got it.

And is there another question for you city attorney is there a um is there legal is there exposure to us for not having something that is more explicit around taking action and taking responsibility when somebody does violate um ethics or does something improper.

So I think it's fact dependent to answer your question.

Legal exposure necessarily depends on the facts as applied to the laws that could create the exposure.

Does uh I think produce a positive set of facts if the council is following the ethics code and certainly would help in any defense of any claim or issue that may come up that is made by an independent third party or by an internal city employee or by um city council members themselves.

And just for one last clarification um it's my understanding and just so I I understand you correctly the city council members um have an opportunity to help in um I don't want to use the word enforced but make a decision whether or not we take action or not against each other but when you talk about this um potential exposure it's against the city or against one of us as a council member as council members of the city it certainly could be against the city because the entity the city council is the majority of the city council the city council is the body that governs the city certainly there could be instances where individual council members personally have claims against other council members or staff or whoever personally as well that could be pursued that could be pursued in a civil separate civil action.

Okay thank you thank you for your questions at this point in time I'm gonna go to council member aguilar and just so you're aware of council member bowen or not bowen bolt I will be coming to you next so beginning with council member Aguilar please.

Thank you Mayor Gonzalez and thank you Kelly for that presentation I think um with regards to the reimbursement for expenses I think we should bifurcate the combined travel training and technology budgets to have the clear separate technology aspect and then the separate travel and training um I don't see any reason why I know a lot of us have you know we we have cell phones and you know Wi-Fi um I just don't what I'm afraid of is you know some of us going over and having to pay out of pocket um for some of these expenses and I think it puts extra strain on staff to kind of maintain you know who's who's paying for what cell phone bill or Wi-Fi or or what have you and I think that yeah or at least have some sort of ticker information to let us know what our annual expenses would be projected for cell service um just so you know we kind of have a a hand on on what we're you know utilizing our you know our our allotted budget for.

Um I was support what my council colleague had mentioned with regards to chapter one page eight uh with regards to the supermajority.

Um that is something that I wholeheartedly support and it utilizing the the Morgan Hill policy and procedure.

I I think you know there's there's a lot of belabored processes, which my council colleague had mentioned.

You know, I we've we've go through rent stabilization, we have multiple meetings, same with council handbook.

This is just how we work things out.

I think my concern is just not having folks weaponize the handbook um against council members.

I think you know, we we all are here to deal public service and to do our job.

Um, and you know, keep in mind that we're also here to you know work and be um amongst colleagues to make a safe environment and you know advocate for the community and not to be chastidized for supporting, you know, having political uh support.

So I just want to make sure that you know we're we're here to support uh a handbook that is thought out, and I appreciate the rules committee for for working so hard on this, and um, I think those are those are my recommendations for now.

Um and if anything pops up, I will let y'all know.

But those are my comments, thank you.

Thank you.

At this point, I will go to council member bolt.

Thank you.

Um, I'm over all of this right now.

I think we should pass this and move on.

I agree that there, you know, if we didn't know the body of the apple, we can, but I am not willing to let this go back to rules and language and then take up time on some future agenda again.

We've been dealing with this for way too long.

It's it's it's a code of ethics that doesn't seem anywhere that I read that was like, wow, what is this?

Um, we should hold ourselves to a standard that that these aren't even concerns of ours.

And so I'm I'm gonna make a motion right now that we pass this as is and move on.

Uh if there's some clarification around, you know, those the city clerk asked for earlier.

Um let the rules committee handle it.

I'm okay with whatever you guys decide.

Entirely too much time and resources have been put into this.

Um there are much greater needs in our community right now that need to be addressed other than a rules handbook, uh code of ethics, or I mean, let's just let's just do better as council members and move on.

So I'm making a motion to pass it as it stands, and then the clarification.

I don't even want to spend time on clarifications and get into the weeds.

I'm I'm being totally honest.

Uh the rules committee can handle that later.

Uh, but we need to get this off of our plate and get it done with.

And I'm gonna stop with.

Thank you.

Uh just as a mat as a courtesy to your other council members, because not everyone has had a chance to speak yet.

I have recognized that you would like to make a motion, but I'm just not quite ready to accept the motion.

I'm gonna move to council member Vivarus Walton to make sure everyone has a chance to speak at least once.

But I will come back to you, councilmember Bolt.

Thank you.

Um I was actually gonna make a motion as well, just to uh move it move it forward.

I think um uh just a point of clarification was that uh uh in terms of um just in terms of transparency.

Um what is the delta between the previous um council budgets?

Um advocacy and training and travel technology versus what's in the what's in the um current version.

It is the same.

We just combined the current budget of 7,500 for council members and the technology budget of 1,800 into one.

However, the new feature that was recommended by rules committee is that council members could spend up to 2500 of that combined amount on technology instead of 1800.

Okay.

Um I'm just trying to figure out because it is my recollection that we actually lowered some of these amounts through the budget process.

So some language here that reflects budget adoption, because these numbers track the budget, and if they live in here, I'm just concerned that it won't get updated as the budget changes depending on the fiscal outlook of the city.

City manager, did you want to comment?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

So our normal practice is any time that an outside of the handbook policy affects the policy, we bring that to you for an update.

So for example, let's say none of these other items were in front of you to discuss.

We would still have brought this portion of the reduction that was approved back in June.

So then just to be clear that we don't have to then change, we don't have to add any language here.

As it is would reflect the intent.

So the the handbook has not been updated since you adopted the budget in June.

The handbook still needs to be updated.

So we went to rules also in June.

The committee discussed to combine all of this together.

You could say no, keep them separate, but just keep the amounts correct.

I want to I want to clarify the discussion.

It is factually true that the numbers that are in our uh red line handbook reflect the total expenditures that had been budgeted for in June.

So we we went through and we reduced travel budgets, the 7500, for example, reflects the reduction.

Uh what the red line includes though is that at rules we said it's okay if we combine two of the categories subject to a maximum in one of those two things uh as far as the spending in that pot.

But it that the amount that's budgeted is reflected in the handbook.

That is not accurate.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Mayor.

The red line change does reflect that the handbook.

If you go onto the city's website and look at the handbook as it is written without any changes, it has the old numbers in it.

Correct.

But I I understood your question to be the red line.

So either way.

Okay.

What we are proposing is that the new language will reflect the budgeted amounts.

Okay.

Um I don't I also don't want to make too many changes because I do want to pass it as presented.

Um it's just gonna be a lot of work to submit all of my receipts by the 30 days, specifically, like utility like internet and phone, which is what I usually submit.

Um, I'll also note that um like one expense.

Anyway, that's not germane to this conversation, uh, but I I would like to second the motion when it's up for.

Thank you.

At this point in time, I'm gonna go to Councilmember Azevito who has not spoken yet.

Yes, thank you for your presentation, Kelly.

And I agree with Councilmember Bolt.

We spent too much time on this.

We need we as council members need to be held accountable when we do something, not just being accused of some, but when we actually do something, then we yes, we need to be held accountable.

So yeah, we need to get this done with and yeah, we spent too much time on it.

And I did want to ask a question about the re um reimbursements.

What what's the difference between 90 days and 60 days?

How much would that put?

Because I agree with council member Walton about um I send in two months at a time myself.

So I was just wondering what's the difference between 60 days or 90 days to the city.

I will defer to finance Director Gonzalez.

Thank you for your question.

Um, this to close our um month end so that we can make sure that we are um making sure we're accounting for all of our receipts and our transactions is most important at the end of the fiscal year.

So on June 30th, we start our close-out process so that we can close our fiscal year financial books so that we can start our audit process.

And so our internal policy for staff as well as vendors is to have invoices and receipts within 30 days so that we can begin the close-out process so that we can make sure we're meeting mandated dates to file our audit reports.

All my questions.

Everything else, yeah, I'm good with it.

Thank you.

Okay, so I'm not going to belabor this.

Are you fine?

Did you did you want me to come back to you, Vice Mayor?

Okay.

So I'm not going to belabel this with more comment.

One of the very first questions I stated this publicly when I arrived is where's our code of conduct?

We didn't have it back in 2023.

I'm proud that we've made this progress.

At this point in time, Councilmember Bolt, I believe you have a motion that you'd like to make.

Okay.

So at this point in time, I've got a motion by councilmember bolt to adopt as is and subject to any place that clarification is needed for rules to handle that as a cleanup item on the back side.

I'm gonna go to Councilmember Rivotus Walton, who I believe had wanted to second this.

I'll second that.

Okay.

At this point in time, I cannot tell if someone else, Councilmember Aguilar, did you want to further discuss this motion?

Uh yes, please.

I'd like to make a substitute motion to um include supermajority language in chapter eight, chapter one, page eight, and then also to bifurcate and not combine the technology and the um travel and training.

Those are just my substitute motions.

Okay.

And so you adopt um the language of the primary motion for everything except for those two things.

Adopt, but also to change.

Yeah, yeah, except for those two changes.

Okay.

So I have sub uh supermajority on enforcement, was it on the actual on the punishment piece?

And your second one was please remind me to bifurcate travel and training and technology.

So keep them as two separate budgets.

Okay, correct.

Thank you.

So at this point in time, we will begin discussion of the substitute motion.

Oh, was there a second?

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Councilmember Simon, second.

Thank you.

And then I'm coming back to council to Vice Mayor Bowen, please.

Just punch yourself in.

Thank you, man.

I just have a clarifying question, just logistically.

There are seven of us, a supermajority of seven would be five.

What happens in a situation when there are literally not five people that can make that decision?

Does that mean there can be no action?

So I interpret that as a legal question, so I'm gonna come to city attorney.

Uh in those situations, Vice Mayor Bowen, we would uh there's a procedure under conflicts of interest rules where it's described as legally uh required participation, and essentially there'd be a process created whereby one of the conflicted members would be able to participate and would be sort of a random, it would be a random procedure.

So if they all had the same conflict of interest, then a legally required participation rule would be in effect, and then the one of the conflicted out members who have the same conflict, assuming all have the same conflict, would uh be chosen to participate in a random selection.

Oh, it's I'm sorry, so I understand.

If there are if there's not at least five people in the room, then one of the two that could not be in the room because they would be recused since they are in conflict, would then join the participate in the pro in the process of deciding whether or not to enforce any sort of consequence to a violation.

That's the law, yes.

As far as conflicts of interest rules are concerned.

Now, if the council could define for itself its own process for determining that that's the usual rule.

This is called the legally required participation rule.

And how would we as a council have an opportunity to create a new process that would mitigate this very real conflict of interest?

And I this to me is also not a hypothetical.

In the last year, we've had a situation where we could not have a super major, a super majority, or maybe we could have, but it's um this is not a situation that is uncommon with us.

So I think that that would be up to the council to amend chapter one-13, which is the request for internal discipline policy in the administrative code.

And to expand upon that, Mayor, just a little bit.

The substitute motion says, doesn't make it effective.

You the council has to come back to the council for a separate action and vote to amend chapter one-13 of the administrative code.

So approval of the motion would only bring that item to amend chapter one-13 back to the council for a full discussion and vote because it can't be effective by the vote to amend the handbook.

The handbook isn't operative on its own that way.

Understood.

So the handbook would be with this amendment.

If it passes, every everything else in the handbook remains the same.

The change is that we will have another another meeting where we discuss the administrative code.

That is correct.

So amend the administrative code or that policy, yeah.

Okay.

I didn't see any other of my colleagues punch in.

Uh Councilmember Bolt, who's remote today, um, I actually would like to call the question on the substitute motion, unless I didn't see any mall punch in, but so is there a so that's a motion to call the question.

Is there a second on the motion to call the question?

And I know councilmember bolt, you have your hand up.

Yes, I'm not willing to spend any more time and bring it back to discuss later.

I won't support this the amended motion.

I want to move this off of our plate and deal with what we're dealing with right now, which is the handbook as it is.

It can go back to rules to be adjusted for the clarifications that the the um that uh city clerk is asking for.

Okay, so this time this is a matter of process efficiency.

I'm going to go to the maker of the original substitute motion and ask, are you willing to withdraw your motion, or would you like to go through the call of the question, the vote, and then another motion?

Okay, thank you.

So at this point in time, we've had a request to call the question.

We've had a motion to call the question.

It was motioned by council member.

Please vote on the motion to call the question.

Okay, just to clarify, councilmember Bolt.

When you stated that you didn't want to do this any further, I interpreted that as a second.

Do you formally second the motion to call the question so that we can have a vote and we'll see how that vote goes.

I second the motion to vote on this to vote no, yes.

Well, to be precise, I don't yet have a second on the calling of the question, but not seeing further discussion, I suggest that we vote on the motion.

We have a motion on the floor.

It's a substitute motion.

That substitute motion says that uh we adopt the current handbook with some further changes that would then be subject to some additional discussion by rules.

So that would be to add a supermajority provision to the enforcement section.

And the secondly to bifurcate, i.e.

to amend what's in the text right now.

If you support this motion, you would vote yes.

If you support the original handbook, you would say, or the proposal that city clerk brought to us, you would vote no.

Okay.

So this is just on the substitute motion, please vote.

Councilmember Bolt?

No.

All votes are in.

Councilmember Bolt, no.

Councilmember Bowen.

Sorry, I it's very confusing.

Vice Mayor Bowen, no.

Councilmember Viveros Walton, no.

Councilmember Azevedo, no.

Mayor Gonzalez, no.

Councilmember Simon, yes.

And Councilmember Aguilar, yes.

The motion does not pass with a vote of two to five.

At this point, we return to the original motion and ask.

I am calling the question on that, asking for council members to vote on the original motion, which is to adopt the red line the edits that were proposed by the city clerk reflecting discussions that have been made.

That is a motion by councilmember Bolt with a second from Councilmember Viveros Walton.

Please vote.

Okay.

Councilmember Azevedo, please.

I second it to call the question.

Okay.

Thank you.

So do we?

At this point in time, please cast your votes on the motion by Councilmember Bolt that had a second by Councilmember Votus Walton.

Councilmember Bolt.

Yes.

All votes are in.

Motion passes.

Councilmember Aguilar, yes.

Councilmember Azevedo, yes.

Councilmember Bolt, yes.

Councilmember Simon, yes.

Councilmember Vivaros Walton, yes.

Vice Mayor Bowen, yes.

Mayor Gonzalez, yes.

It is 801 and we are adjourned.