The board of directors for the San Leandro Hillside Geological Hazard Abatement District (GHAD) met on October 7, 2025, to consider initiating dissolution proceedings. Staff presented the district's history, unfunded status, and survey results from property owners, recommending dissolution to mitigate city liability and administrative burdens. The board engaged in discussion and reached a unanimous decision.
2025 and I am calling to order the board of directors meeting of the San Leandro Hillside Geological Hazard Abatement District. Madam Clerk, would you please take role at this time of all the directors? Yes. If every director would please tap in with our mic. Councilmember Aguilar. Director Aguilar. For a roll call. There you go. Present. Thank you. Director Azevedo. Present. Director Bolt. Present. Thank you. Director Simon. Present. Director Viverous Walton. Present. Director Bowen present. And Chair Gonzalez. Present. At this point in time, we will move to our action item. And this is the initiation of proceedings for the dissolution of the San Leo Hillside Geological Hazard Abatement District and the setting of a November 17th, 2025 public hearing date. At this point in time, I think we have the agent of the district, Erwin Chang, here to present on this topic. Welcome. Good evening, GAD board directors, GAD chair, board staff and the public. My name is Irwin Ching. I'm an agent for GAD. It's my pleasure to present to you this evening the initiation of dissolution proceedings for the San Leandro Hillside Geologic Hazard Abatement District or GAD. Before I begin, I would like to mention that there is a change in slide 10 compared to the presentation that was published last week. The change was to clarify the steps of the GAD dissolution proceedings. During my presentation, I will be discussing the background why GAD was formed, the sequence of events that led us to this point, and the next steps. This defines the boundary of the GAD. The GAD was formed following the El Niño storms in February 1998, where the storms caused a major landslide on the hillside drive slope. After the slide, support in the form of grants from FEMA and the state were approved. However, a separate entity from the city will need to be formed to accept the grant and to manage the repairs on the private property. This entity is the GAD, which serves as the vehicle to perform these duties. Subsequently, in 2002, the landslide was repaired using the grant funds. However, not all the grant funds were expended, and the remaining funds were used by GAD to perform its duties and responsibilities until the winter storm of 2022, when new erosion occurred on the slopes. The city acting as a limited capacity agent to the GAD hired a contractor to place erosion control measures on the slope. This depleted the remaining GAD funds. Note that the property owners were never assessed a levy to increase the funding in the GAD and relied solely on the remaining grant funds to fund the GAD. The work performed after the winter storm include the following covering slope erosion at two locations within the GAD boundary by placing plastic tarps. Plastic tarps will prevent the erosion from getting worse, but it's only a temporary measure. The repairs to the erosion remains incomplete to this day. The repairs also included reconnecting a private drainage pipe, clear clearing and cleaning of private V ditches, and private storm drain inlets. The GAD duties and responsibilities are mainly to construct, maintain or repair slopes with potential impact to geologic stability. However, GAD's responsibilities have limitations. GAD is not responsible to repair instability outside of the GAD boundary.