Okay, it is 7.05, and I'm calling to order the meeting of the San Lando City Council.

Today is Monday, October 6th, 2025.

And again, our apologies for being a little bit late.

Our prior meeting ran a little bit long.

At this point in time, Councilmember Aguilar, would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Please stand if you're able to.

And to the Republic for which you stand.

One nation under God.

So thank you for joining us tonight.

We've got lots of folks, but before moving on, let's just do a roll call check to see that we have all members present.

Councilmember sign in.

No.

Just QA.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Present.

Councilmember Azevedo.

Present.

Councilmember Bolt.

Present.

Councilmember Simon.

Present.

Councilmember Viveros Walton.

Present.

Vice Mayor Bowen.

Present.

And Mayor Gonzalez.

Present.

So tonight with the appointment and swaring in of several new members to the Youth Advisory Commission.

Yay.

At 10 a.

And I'd like to move this item up to uh right as part of our recognitions.

If there are no concerns, seeing none, we will make that adjustment to our agenda.

The City of San Leandro conducts orderly meetings to fulfill our mandate.

Discriminatory statements for 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 403 or 415 are per se disruptive to a meeting and will not be tolerated.

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

Madam Clerk, your message, please.

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 winnow for the 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 for you to do so after item 12, City Council reports.

Okay, so at this point in time, we'll go to item number three on our agenda, closed session item reports.

Do we have anything to report out of closed session?

Thank you, Mayor.

We have no reportable actions uh taken in closed session.

Thank you.

So let's move to item number four.

This is our recognitions.

We'll do three things in this time slot.

We'll start with a proclamation to declare uh October 2025 as crime prevention month.

We'll move on to declare October 2025 also as domestic violence awareness month, and then we will move to nominate and appoint our youth advisory commission members in this section of our agenda.

So let's begin with our first proclamation.

If we can begin with crime prevention month, please.

There you are.

And from 7-Eleven.

I'm trying to remember, is it Guri?

Guri.

Gurpreet.

Come on up.

Come on up, please.

Ma'am.

Ma'am.

Mr.

Mann.

Come in.

Come on, come in.

And so we will let you guys hold that.

We're gonna do a little bit of reading and celebrating because obviously crime prevention is an important part of what we do.

It's not just responding to when there's a problem, but we try to keep problems from happening.

And so whereas the vitality of San Later depends on the safety of our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and communities.

And whereas people of all ages must be aware of what can they what they can do to prevent themselves or families, their neighborhoods, their workplaces from being harmed by crime, because crime threatens a community's health, a community's prosperity, and a community's quality of life.

And whereas crime prevention initiatives must not only include self-protection and security, but must also promote collaborative efforts to make neighborhoods feel safer for all ages.

And whereas effective crime prevention programs excel because of partnership with public safety agencies, city staff, government agencies, civic groups, schools, faith communities, businesses, and community members as they work together to help nurture communal responsibility and shared pride.

And where is it vitally important for cities and neighborhoods, businesses, and visitors to actively work together to solve and to prevent crime.

And whereas the goal of our citywide united for safety.

That initiative is to engage our entire community to participate in public safety in order to prevent and reduce crime, making San Leandro a great place to live, work, and play.

Therefore, I Juan Gonzalez III, mayor of the city of San Leandro, do hereby proclaim the month of October as crime prevention month in the city of San Leandro and urge all community members to invest in the power of prevention and work together to make San Leandro a safer and stronger community.

So I'm glad that you are both here because it takes people working together.

Would you like to say a few words?

I really like to thank the crime prevention unit, uh, Mayor Gonzalez and all the city council members to provide such a uh uh program in place.

So, because the the atmosphere before the last few days is really tough for the businesses and uh especially for the small businesses and uh even uh even for as the owner or the employees very lose very confidence quickly for a small small incident.

So, but I really appreciate that uh this program is in place.

Uh some team from the crime and prevention normally stop to our stores, say hello, how we are doing, checking on us, guide us, give us the suggestions to keep us safe as as much as we can.

So I really appreciate it.

Thank you, and thank you, thank you for the so I just want to say thank you so much for this proclamation, truly means a lot.

Um, obviously, here on behalf of the entire police department, but not but and specifically on behalf of Jenny Crosby, who has put in numerous hours of hard work and dedication to this program.

I know everyone at the police department will continue to work together with the community and continue to you know work to serve and protect um everyone here.

Thank you.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, thank you.

Now, of course, what he didn't tell you is that they gave away Slurpees so that you could have slurpees with a cops, but it was a great event.

You should have seen the big smiles, should have seen the one wonderful, wonderful day.

Okay, so our second proclamation is just come on up, go on.

The more the merrier.

This is really important.

Here we go.

Domestic violence awareness month.

So we went from lots of smiles to now it's getting really serious.

Domestic violence, whereas domestic violence awareness month is observed each October to support those who have been affected by domestic violence, to recognize individuals and groups who have stepped forward to break the cycle of domestic violence, and to recommit to ending domestic violence in our community.

And whereas this event evolved from the first day of unity observed in October of 1981 by the National Coalition of Domestic, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, with the intent to connect diverse groups that were working to end domestic violence.

And whereas our community, the city of San Leandro, all of us, where we're committed to connecting victims to the resources they need from the emergency shelters and the legal assistance to transitional housing support with providers such as here in San Leandro, Building Futures, Save, Safe Environment, Safe Alternatives to Violent Environments, and the Family Law Center, and other groups.

And whereas our community can also reduce the likelihood of domestic violence by promoting, actively promoting healthy relationships, speaking out when we see acts of violence, standing with survivors, and changing attitudes that perpetuate a cycle of violence.

And whereas survivors of domestic violence need to know that no one should live in fear because they feel unsafe in their own home.

They are not alone.

Resources are available.

Now, therefore, I Juan González III, Mayor of the City of San Leandro, to hereby proclaim the month of October as domestic violence awareness month in our city and encourage all community members to recognize the importance of speaking out against domestic violence, supporting local efforts to assist victims of these crimes in finding help and the healing that they need.

Would you like to offer some words?

Yeah, sure.

Um, I just want to thank the mayor and the city council for once again declaring October as domestic violence awareness month.

Uh, we at Building Futures really appreciate it.

Just to highlight some of the things we're doing for October.

So if you ever go to the Kaiser, what is that called?

Farmers Market on Tuesdays, we're gonna be there tomorrow all day.

Um we also are gonna have a banner that's gonna hang across East 14th Street in downtown.

So if you see that banner, you know, feel free to take a picture with it and send it to our development or anything like that.

Just keep an eye out for that.

And um thank you for the community and for the city for always doing everything they can to address domestic violence.

Appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Um, I'd also like to thank the mayor and uh the city council for um funding our ongoing efforts.

Um my name is Laura McInnes.

I'm the managing attorney at Family Violence Law Center.

We work closely with Building Futures and Save and other organizations.

Um, and I can tell you that we do make a very tangible impact on the communities that were um that are suffering from domestic violence and their families.

And so uh with the city's assistance, we are um it's really critical that what you're doing is stabilizing our communities' lives and futures and especially now when our funding is really under attack at the federal level.

Uh, we really rely on um on your support.

So thank you again for all you're doing.

Okay, at this point in time, I will leave this open because we are going to nominate some youth advisory commission members and swear them in.

So at this point in time, we have, I believe City Clerk Kelly Clancy introducing this item, or will it be Ms.

Bunting?

Please proceed.

And thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Deputy City Clerk, Sarah Bunting here.

Before you this evening is a motion to appoint several new members of the Youth Advisory Commission.

And they are here in attendance to receive the oath of office as well.

Okay, this item is in the form of a minute order.

We need no further public comment, discussion, etc.

on the item.

So we will proceed with uh councilmember.

So moved.

Got a motion by councilmember of this walton, and I've got council member Azevedo.

I'd like to second it.

We've got a motion by Vivetus Walton, second by Azovito.

Please vote.

All votes are in.

Councilmember Bolt.

May we have your vote?

Yes.

Thank you.

The motion passes unanimously.

So at this point in time, once the tabulation, the formal recording in the system is complete, we will have the members, the new commissioners sworn in.

So if you guys can begin by coming forward, all my youth advisory commission commissioners, or at least nominees.

Let's get you sworn in and make you officially commissioners.

Come on back a little further back.

Yeah, pack all the way in.

All right, great.

I do solemnly swear.

I solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

That I take this obligation freely.

Without any mental reservation.

And that I will well and faithfully discharge.

The duties upon which I'm about to enter.

Congratulations.

Parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, you're more than welcome to stay, but we know that you probably want to leave to celebrate a little with the new commissioners and feel free to leave.

There's no embarrassment in departing at this time.

Okay, that being said, it is item number five on our consent calendar.

At this time I am uh asking uh council members if there are any items that they would like to pull to pull or no okay.

So at this point in time, seeing that no items are to be pulled.

Let's go to public to see if we've got any public comment on our consent calendar.

Mayor, we have not received any comment cards, but we do have two raised hands on Zoom.

Let us proceed on Zoom.

Uh Jim in the IT room, will you please share your screen for the timer?

Thank you.

The public commenters, the first public commenters are Douglas Spaulding, followed by Lucas.

Douglas, you are free to speak.

Please unmute yourself.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, Council members.

Hey, hat tip to Lucas.

Uh I would like to speak to items 5D and 5i.

5D is the one concerning um recycling.

And um it just uh calls to mind the the usual warning about recycling.

You know, thou shalt not uh uh wish cycle put things in the recycling that that we don't actually collect.

Um I realize the city itself it does not uh run the the pickup service that's uh actually divided between waste management and ACI Alamina County Industries, but the city I believe does uh formulate this contract.

So I wanna plant a seed, which is that right here in our hometown of San Leandro, there is a fabulous business called RID Well, and Ridwell's promises to recycle all that those wishful things.

So uh I I just uh wish that the city would investigate and figure out maybe how to coordinate with Ridwell.

It would be a boost to them and also allow us to keep more things out of the um the landfill.

Uh secondly, 5I is the one about dispatch.

And I'm I'm a little a little confused because it's uh uh advertised as um maintenance, but it when I open the item it says uh it's all about software renewals.

And there are dozens and dozens of different uh well, not dozens and dozens, but maybe a few dozen things here.

Uh uh looks like uh there are maybe are a lot of middlemen.

This is kind of a big ticket item over two years, um $500,000.

So I'm just a little worried about people uh dipping into the till, but but also I'm worried about the news today.

Uh, you know, the attorney general of California is suing El Cajon for sharing their license plate reader data out of state.

I'm happy that San Leandro does not, but I would like it if there was some kind of audit to make sure that none of these.

Thank you.

Your time is up.

The next speaker is Lucas.

You can unmute yourself.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh Mayor and Council for taking my comment.

I've been away for a while, but I'm back.

And I'm glad to be back uh in this time of year.

I want to draw the council's attention to two items, item 5A, uh especially attachment B on item 5A, which is a scope of work document that's essentially two sentences.

Uh by comparison, compare the attachment scope of services in 5A to 5D.

On 5D, you've got 23 pages long of a consulting services agreement.

It's the one, it's the standard one.

We've seen hundreds of these at this point with a very clear appendix that lists the scope of services and lists the compensation schedule.

That's 23 pages signatures.

You know exactly who's getting the money.

You know, you see their signatures, you see the dates, it's executed.

By comparison, item 5A, it's two words.

Some company is gonna do temporary staffing, some position 200,000, some other position 50,000.

This looks like a slush fund or something close to a slush fund type of spending because it is not documented.

I don't know who's getting the money, it's not signed, it's not executed.

Where is the legal agreement that's standard and all of these other CSAs?

Um, so that that's item five A.

On 5H, I draw the council's attention to the scope of services attachments there.

It's a bunch of laptops.

Uh, they're not the greatest laptops in the world, but we're buying one laptop.

We're buying 20 laptops for $3,281 a piece apiece.

We're spending $60,000 on 20 laptops, but wait, but wait.

The laptop docking station, eight hundred dollars per docking station.

That's sixteen thousand dollars for 20 docking stations.

Do you want to know the price of the mouse?

No, you don't want to know the price of the mouse.

It's crazy.

Please take a look at this spending and please sign a proper CSA for item 5A.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Your time is up.

The next speaker is Jesse.

You can unmute yourself.

Hi, thank you.

Just uh to clarify is this the only opportunity for general public comment for items not on the agenda, or is there another opportunity coming?

To clarify, this is specifically on the consent calendar.

We will come to general public comment in a little bit.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

That's all I just wanted to clarify.

No worries.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

There is no more public comment.

Okay, so that we will close public comment.

Um I am going to go to uh IT director signer.

I do, I know we have had some briefings about the ERP system implementation at some committee meetings, but would you like to elaborate a little bit on item 5A?

Yes, 5A um is asked for authorization from council to enter into agreements with um uh an agreement with Robert Half uh to provide staff augmentation services.

This is for um um staff augmentation that come potentially comes up throughout the year.

Um we have two uh vacancies in IT.

There's also uh vacancy in the city manager's office.

These um are designed to um bring in quick temporary help, um short term to deal with vacancies that we may had have uh throughout the throughout the year.

We've um we've had uh similar type of contracts in place with Robert Half uh in the past, and um this is similar to what's been done previously.

Thank you.

And oftentimes we don't have the scope in advance, um, it's it's to um fill in for vacancies that that exist in many different areas.

There was also some questions about the um the laptops that get bolted into the police cars, I believe.

Right, and those are just clarify a little bit about this is a little bit different.

These are rugged laptops, ruggedized laptops from Panasonic, which are um there are a handful of vendors that provide high-end rugged laptops for the very demanding environment of a police vehicle.

So these are you know, they have to take heat, they have to be able to work outside in in blazing sunlight or cold.

They're they're um, they are not your typical laptop.

They're they're rugged laptops that can be dropped, stepped on.

Um, they're they're uh um uh uh very different from what you would normally get for day-to-day use, and the um the quotes are all on government contracts, so these are these are competitive competitively bid contracts that um that have been scrutinized by many, many different agencies and Panasonically is used by uh hundreds of police departments throughout throughout the nation.

Thank you.

I'm going to go to Councilmember Iveros Walton, please.

I would like to move uh the consent calendar.

Thank you.

And then Councilmember Aguilar.

Oh, excuse me, I'll second.

Okay, looking down, Council Roll.

Is there any further discussion?

Questions?

Is that right?

Do you have a question from council member Simon?

Let me find you in the queue here.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Just a follow-up question on 5A.

As far as that scope of services, like dollar, how much the cost per hour of a consultant?

Where would that be defined?

Yes.

So the cost per hour, and this is in the staff report.

The um there are this is also off a government contract, so all the any any um any job title that we would potentially use is on um is on a government contract that uh that has an hourly rate defined for each job title, and that um and that is also bid uh bid on by uh in a in a um competitive process.

So uh it allows us some flexibility and allows us to move quickly, but also ensuring that we get um that that we get good value for for the money for that each particular job classification because it is uh pre-bid government contract.

Thank you.

Next, one more question on 7D, the ridwell comment from the public commenter.

I heard, and also just the ability to make use of like bulky items that are left out, couches that are in pretty decent condition or chairs.

Is there any uh opportunity to look at those avenues to make better use of our um items that are thrown into our waste stream?

So I know there has been some discussion on this item before, and there was some questions about does do uh our West waste management providers have exclusive domain, etc.

But I'm gonna come to city manager for additional elucidation.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember Simon.

So, yes, um, City of San Leandro has franchised waste haulers, which gives them exclusive rights to pick up waste in our jurisdiction.

Um, and so we are under as you may remember we have a new contract that went into place this calendar year.

Um Ridwell is not the exclusive uh hauler for the city of San Leandro.

Um, and so we can also provide more details just regarding specifically uh the services that are under our contract to an email to council follow-up email.

Okay, okay.

So just so without I mean we'd have to amend the existing contract in order to do different things with the waste.

That's the situation.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for your questions.

At this point in time, seeing no further discussion.

Please vote.

All votes are in.

Councilmember Bolt.

May we have your vote, please?

Councilmember Bolt.

Are you able to hear us?

Yes, thank you.

Displayed as well.

All those are in the item passes unanimously.

The consent calendar passes unanimously.

Thank you very much.

At this point, we'll move to item six on our agenda.

Do we have any reports today?

City manager.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Good evening, Council members and community members.

I just have one announcement.

The city of San Leandro is proud to announce that we have been awarded one million dollars from the department from the California Department of Housing and Community Development through its pro housing Incentive Program.

This award recognizes the city's strong commitment to expanding affordable housing opportunities and supporting residents and finding stable, affordable homes.

Special thanks goes to our housing manager, Carrie Hoosler, and senior housing specialist Grace Stretzable for their outstanding work in preparing the successful application.

These funds will help advance new housing development and programs that make San Leandro a more inclusive and welcoming community.

And mayor, that concludes my announcement.

Thank you so much.

I'm assuming there's nothing from legal at this time.

So we will close item number six, move to seven.

This is the opportunity where the public can comment on items that are not on our agenda.

So if you have a concern that lies within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council, but is not on our agenda.

Today is the opportunity, or this time is the opportunity to do that.

Do we have public commenters?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

We have received one speaker card from people in the room, and there are presently four hands raised on Zoom.

Okay.

Let us take our speaker in person first.

Please proceed.

Jamie Mann.

Okay.

So do I just start?

All right.

My name is Jamie Mann.

I'm sorry, can she have a timer?

I can't tell.

There's a timer on for her.

IT.

Could we please have the timer?

I just want to make sure you don't get surprised later by what?

Only 10 seconds left.

Where's the timer?

It's coming.

Oh, sorry.

We can't control it yet.

Okay.

It's my first time.

Oh, our comment.

All right.

So my question for you is would you feel comfortable if I just gave you a hand signal of where you are on time?

Like this means you've got one minute left, and then so you just have a good sense of where we are.

Okay.

Well, you start when you're ready.

Okay.

My name is Jamie Mann.

I teach race and resistance studies at San Francisco State University.

I'm in a statewide leadership position for my California Faculty Association Union, and I speak for and with the League of San Leandro voters.

And we are appalled by the sexist and racist behavior of council members Victor Aguilar and Fred Simon.

This is not speculation.

It's documented in the former city manager's lawsuit and in a pending HR complaint.

From an Asian American woman council member, your colleague up there.

Uh, this HR complaint has been sitting unresolved for months.

Months.

That is an insult to the people of this city and to every woman and woman of color, person of color who expects dignity in public service.

Let's be clear.

This is a pattern of abuse of power, and the council's inaction makes it worse.

When leadership delays accountability, silence becomes complicity.

So we're calling directly on those of you not under investigation, Juan, Dylan, Speiday, and Brian, to act.

You have a duty to this community to uphold integrity and to protect your colleague from retaliation.

You cannot claim to value equity or transparency while allowing harassment to go unchecked.

We are watching.

The public is watching.

If you don't move with urgency, if you don't demand completion and public release of that HR report, then you're no longer by standards.

You are complicit.

We deserve better.

Finish the investigation, release the report, hold people accountable, restore integrity to this council now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That is our only in-person comment card, Mr.

Mayor.

If you would please move online, Douglas Balding, you're the first speaker.

You may unmute yourself.

Thank you so much.

Mr.

Spaulding.

Sorry, I thought I'd yeah, let's restart.

There we go.

So, as I was saying, I wanted to broadcast the news that the earthquake brace and bolt program uh registration deadline was moved from October 1st to October 17th.

So San Leon residents are still encouraged to apply.

I did several years ago and haven't done the work yet, but once you're in their system, they keep you updated.

Also, the city of San Leandro's building and safety services department is offering their excellent earthquake retrofit, retrofit planning uh class this month, October.

The first session is October 9th.

And again, I I couldn't um recommend it more to everyone.

Uh the second thing I wanted to address, I guess maybe more of a parable.

Uh, you know, I was uh the founder of East Bay Arts High School in San Lorenzo, and I was the lead teacher there for many years, and I took a lot of pride in my school.

Uh I uh spent too many hours around the clock working on that.

But my my best friend, my Iraqaba partner, once said to me, He said, Why do you keep referring to it as my school?

Uh you know, aren't there other teachers?

I thought this was a teacher-led school model, and I had to kind of um grapple with that a little bit, and I realized what, you know, like my ego was so wrapped up that that I was kind of making this possessive statement.

And so the application here is I I've been concerned by comments that happen from time to time uh from you, Mr.

Mayor, when you refer to my staff, my council.

And we live in a city that is uh right, it's it's run by the city manager.

So I, you know, I can understand your pride.

I share your pride in our city, but I would just ask you to consider that and to think about how to uh express that pride in uh in a non-possessive way.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Michelle Minsack.

Michelle, you can unmute yourself.

Hello.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Uh thank you for hearing my comments.

My name is Michelle Minsack.

I'm a long-term resident of San Leandro since 2001.

I've raised two children here, and I love the city.

Um, I am calling commenting related uh to potential ICE actions and any plans that currently exist on how San Leandro Police Department will be directed to respond in the event that San Leandro experiments uh experiences similar events to what we're witnessing currently in Chicago and in Southern California.

I think San Leandro residents should be able to count on our police to take appropriate action to ensure that law enforcement actions of any type within our city are in fact legitimate, um, that agents appropriately identify themselves and protect the public civil rights.

I urge the city of San Leandro and SLPD to develop a protocol for officers and residents to follow to ensure community safety and enforcement against any illegal use of force.

And that's my full comment.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Rosie M.

And you can unmute yourself.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Recent developments at the state level, including noon led legislation, have made it clear that California intends to lead on civil rights.

The newly signed laws, such as AB 49, which aims to shield school children and personnel from ICE data inquiries, and SB 81, which guarantees healthcare privacy for all patients, regardless of status, set important benchmarks.

We should take inspirations from these statewide protections and ensure our city is doing all it can to both comply and go beyond them.

Firstly, I asked the council to ensure that every city resident, not just immigrants, has access to know your rights, materials, and legal support.

Federal enforcement actions don't just affect the undocumented, they traumatize families, disrupt workplaces, and chill entire communities.

Every resident needs the tools to understand their rights and resources to defend themselves when threatened by federal overreach.

Second, I urge the council to pass an ordinance requiring full transparency and public notification of federal enforcement activities such as ice raids.

Families, schools, and community organizations are often left in the dark during raids.

Our city should guarantee timely notification and support for those impacted, including clear plans in schools and workplaces to protect everyone's safety and dignity.

Third, with scams and fraudulent schemes on the rise, particularly targeting vulnerable workers.

Please strengthen local ordinances to protect all workers from coercion and deceit and offer legal resources for those affected by federal enforcement or scams seeking to exploit fear and confusion.

Finally, I ask the council to publicly support and help implement the provisions of the new state laws just signed by the governor, including AB 49, SB 81, SB 98, which enhances school notification plans, SB 627 to ban secret policing, and SB 805, which prohibits bounty hunters and ICE impersonators.

Our city can be a leading example by fully embracing and building on these protections.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lucas.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking my comment again.

I just came back from a couple of months in Europe, and it really was uh an eye-opening experience to be in the Netherlands and in Belgium, where they really invest in public infrastructure, specifically bike infrastructure in their city.

Um it's possible for seven, eight, nine-year-old kids to go from their home and bike for 20 30 minutes every day to get to their school without ever having to bike on a public road.

They have completely separated pedestrian areas, bicycle areas, and car traffic such that kids could spend all entire days without ever having to cross a crosswalk or come into contact with a car.

I look at the bike infrastructure in San Leandro.

I've called about this many times before, and it's not well connected.

San Leandro Boulevard, which should be, you know, it's the namesake of our city.

That boulevard, it should be a pride that shows off the best of what our city can offer in terms of transportation, and it's a car sewer.

I think we should all be embarrassed by what goes on in San Leandro Boulevard, that five-lane road where people from Oakland speed in.

It's a mess.

Barely any traffic lights.

But my second item that I wanted to urge to the city council is to prepare uh some kind of a resilience or resistance plan in case the national institutions are compromised.

We need to identify clear red lines against collaboration, identify resources and lawsuits that we might need to file and commit to filing them when the time comes.

Do not comply in advance with orders that you believe are unconstitutional.

And I urge the mayor to direct the chief of police to tell the citizens of San Leandro what should we do if a black unmarked van pulls up a bunch of people without badges, jump out, try to pull you into that van, don't show badges, don't show an unrest warrant.

What should the citizens of San Leandro do, especially those who have guns on their person?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, that concludes our online commenters.

So with that, we will close public comment as well.

And we will come back to item number eight on our agenda, which is our public hearings.

Today we don't have any, so we move to our presentation, which is item number nine.

And I believe we've got here to introduce the item.

We've got Cameron Oaks, Caltrans, Director of Transportation Planning and Local Assistance.

Good evening and welcome.

Can you hear me okay?

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor and the San Leandro City Council, for giving us an opportunity to present this this evening.

My name is Cameron Oaks.

I'm the Deputy District Director for Transportation Planning and Local Assistance for Caltrans District 4.

So tonight I'll provide an overview of an exciting new planning study effort that we are conducting in partnership with the Bay Area Air District.

Okay, there we go.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Okay, so for tonight's uh informational uh presentation, I'll be giving an overview of the I 580 truck access study, our study goals, public and stakeholder engagement, and other study events.

So, in terms of the origin of the I 580 truck access study, in 2019, the West Oakland Community Action Plan first identified the need to look at the I 580 truck ban.

As we know, the I 580 truck ban is a weight restriction on the I 580 freeway here through uh mostly through Oakland, where trucks weighing over 4.5 tons are not allowed to use the freeway.

So the WOCAP, that's what we call it, is identified numerous strategies, almost 90 in total, including one to examine the effects of removing the truck weight ban on I 580.

So, based on conclusions in the WOCAP, as well as a few local news articles, the I-580 truck access study will be tackling the question of how would removal of the 580 truck ban affect traffic safety, reliability, and throughput along the 880 and 580 corridors, and achieve equitable public health for nearby populations.

So the study scope has been divided into four components, or we like to call them buckets.

We have we're gonna be conducting traffic studies, we're gonna be developing an air quality and noise impact assessments, a racial equity assessment, as well as a comprehensive community engagement strategy.

Oops, stay on this for a second.

And then the study also represents a close working partnership between Caltrans, the Bay Area Air District, the City of Oakland, as well as many other local cities and other stakeholders.

The study's air quality analysis is going to be completed by the Bay Area Air District, as well as a racial equity assessment that's modeled after the City of Oakland.

Both the air and the noise assessment, along with a racial equity assessment will help ensure that this study looks beyond mere traffic analysis and forecasting.

So the map you see displayed here shows the truck access study area.

The study area includes the limits of the current I-580 truck ban, which begins at Foothill Boulevard in San Leandro and ends at Grand Avenue in Oakland.

The study limits also include the parallel segments of the 880 corridor, other state highways, and major arterials connecting both 580 and 880.

Additional areas in San Leandro, Alameda, and unincorporated areas in Alameda County, such as San Lorenzo, Ashland, and Cherryland, as well as Berkeley and Piedmont are also included within the study area.

So one of the main components of the study is the technical analysis and forecasting.

The study itself will be comprised of various technical freight memos, including an analysis of existing conditions as well as future conditions.

And as I mentioned in the previous slide, another component of the study will include an air pollution assessment to be completed by the Bay Area Air District and a noise impact assessment report to be completed by the study contractor.

Just briefly here, this is the study schedule.

So we officially kicked off the study in March, and we had our first technical advisory committee meeting in July.

And then we will we will conclude the study somewhere around late 2026 or early 2027.

In terms of study goals, we've developed the following seven goals in partnership with the study technical advisory committee.

Goal one, to reduce air and noise pollution exposure from trucks in the region, particularly for impacted communities.

Goal two is to reduce truck traffic on local streets.

Goal three, reduce exposure to truck traffic for vulnerable road users.

Goal four, reduce roadway degradation and maintenance costs.

Goal five, identify potential strategies and lead agencies to support reduced local truck traffic exposure.

And goal six is the balanced travel conditions and safety between 880 and 580 corridors.

And then the last goal is to improve efficiency of goods movement through the study area.

So the study is also exploring various existing conditions such as socioeconomic factors, freight factors, as well as environmental factors, with the goal of demonstrating how the two freeway corridors are operating today with the 580 truck ban in place.

And the data metrics you see listed here on the screen are just a few examples of information we are going to be using to understand the existing conditions.

So moving on to engagement, we plan to include the following activities which guided the study, which will guide the study's community engagement strategy.

So outreach activities include three rounds of public engagement in the beginning, midway, and towards the end or the conclusion of the study.

Community workshops, as far as community workshops goes.

Three will be held within the study area, and they will either be in person or virtual.

We'll also be developing up to two online surveys during rounds one and two of the engagement.

And we'll also be holding informational presentations to local planning groups, cities such as yourselves, and others.

And information about the study will be posted on social media and through the constant contact platform where people can sign up to receive information about the study.

In terms of TAC members, the slide, this slide you see here shows the public agency TAC members for the study.

State and regional partners such as the Bay Area Air District, CHP, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the Port of Oakland.

County partners include the Alameda County Transportation Commission, the Alameda County Planning Division, the Alameda County Public Health Department, and AC Transit.

And various local city partners within the study of area or cities that may be affected by the study are also included on this list.

And they're also on the TAC.

We've also invited a couple industry partners to join the TAC, including the California Trucking Association as well as the Harbor Trucking Association.

The study TAC also includes three community-based organizations, including the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Communities for a Better Environment, and San Leandro 2050.

In addition to these CBOs, we are providing regular study updates to the Burcio Vasquez Health Center as they do not have the resources to participate on the TAC.

So we're getting ready for some of our first round of engagement.

And on November 12th at 6 30 p.m., we'll be hosting our first virtual open house, which will be a Zoom webinar.

For those who cannot attend, we plan to record this webinar and post it on our study website.

So the main goal of phase one engagement is to introduce the study to members of the public that live within the study area.

The second goal for this phase of engagement is to communicate the study's purpose and importance.

So this meeting will also go over the various study components, the study timeline, and then dive into some of the existing conditions data that we have been collecting so far.

Afterwards, there will be a facilitated question and answer period.

To promote the open house, Caltrans will be sending out e-blasts to our listservs and asking our TAC members to send out similar messaging.

We'll also be sharing the meeting information on our social media channels, including X, Instagram, and Facebook.

We also plan to do pop-ins by going to committee meetings from the Air District, Alamady County Transportation Commission, as well as cities within the study area.

And we'll also be reaching out to neighborhood groups along the corridor to help advertise the event.

And there's a one typo here is the duration will be uh an hour and 30 minutes.

We'll spend the first half an hour doing a presentation and then we'll have an hour for members of the public to ask questions.

So, in summary, these are the some of the upcoming work events, including, as I mentioned, the phase one public engagement on November 12th at 6 30.

We also be will be beginning the traffic modeling analysis and air quality analysis phases of the study.

And the air quality assessment will include an emissions estimation and air quality modeling focusing on fine particular matter exposure as well as cancer risk.

And then this is just my last slide uh of the presentation that lists our constant contact address where anyone can sign up to receive study updates.

We've also established a study uh website to develop and and developed a GIS story map, which are both linked here.

And if you'd like, you can email us at the uh the email address uh listed here.

So this concludes my presentation, and I thank you for your time.

Well, thank you very much for your presentation.

This is an informational item.

At this point in time, we will take public comment on this informational item.

Then we'll come back to council members for questions and some for discussion.

Mr.

Mayor, we have no speaker cards on this item, and there are two raised hands on Zoom.

Let's proceed to those two hands, please.

The first speaker is Lucas.

Um, hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking my comment for the third time this evening.

I wanted to call in and say this is a very very interesting presentation.

Um, I'm not very clear, I guess, as a consequence of this presentation.

What are the specific action items that will be taken or are being thought to be taken as a result of this study?

Perhaps the objective of this study is to decide what the action items should be, but it's not very clear to me other than sort of the analysis memos that are listed on the tech technical analysis and forecasting memos that are listed on um slide five of the presentation.

I also wanted to point out that I don't see an item listing here how much all of this is costing and who is paying for this.

I suspect it's gonna cost a lot, and I suspect we're going to be paying for it in some way, especially if it's going to run from 2025 through 2026, maybe even 2027, for an effort that started in 2019, if I heard correctly at the beginning of the study.

If it is, you know, costing us what I suspect it is, which is on the order of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, to answer four questions, you know, traffic study, air quality, noise impact, and racial equity assessment.

I suspect the answers are traffic will get better if you ban trucks off of the highway.

Air quality will improve if you ban trucks off the highway.

Noise will go down if you ban big trucks off of the highway, and big trucks tend to go through poor neighborhoods, and poor neighborhoods tend to be populated by minority communities in this country.

So that's your racial equity assessment.

Do we need to spend whatever amount of money we will spend on this over the next couple of years to get those common sense answers?

I don't know.

The other point that I wanted to add is this study was very fascinating.

Next week's agenda is not published yet.

The agenda for two weeks from now is not published yet.

I hope the city council is running, you know, well enough that we can let the public know and educate themselves ahead of time by publishing the agenda ahead of time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Uh, well, you know, I live in my grandparents' house where my mother grew up over here on the 580 side of town.

And so I was brought up with the uh, you know, clear understanding there shall be no trucks on 580.

Uh, now with the wisdom of my my age and my experience, I you know, I understand how that's really just not fair.

This is the the status quo really is environmental racism because it does uh overly burden the flatlands where right uh people of lower socioeconomic means uh tend to live uh on average.

Uh so to answer your your question, Lucas, uh the the reason I believe this study has been ongoing and will continue go and will cost us a lot of money is they are trying to see TAs, they're trying to cover their asses.

Right.

I think there's widespread spread support to open 580 trucking, but also opposition, uh historical opposition to it.

And so in order to do it, you have to, you know, like really lay the foundation uh very carefully.

But it's it's it's way past time.

Like just open it up.

Yes, trucks are trucks are big and it uh, you know, it it sinks the safety a little bit, and there's more wear and tear on the roads, and uh there's more noise and there's more pollution, and right there's a lot of things about trucks that are not very good, but we're not gonna get away from trucks in our current economy.

There they're they're uh needed to transport goods from point A to point B.

That's the reason not to run trucks on Lake Chabot Road, I might add, and to keep Lake Chabot Road closed.

Um, but I think you know, if we want to live in the society we live in, then we have to stomach the trucks and the trucks should be able to go on 580 as well as 880.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes our online comment.

So we'll close public comment and we'll come back to council members for questions or discussion.

At this point in time, who do I have?

Councilmember Azevedo, please.

All right, thank you for your presentation.

I have a few questions.

First on slide three.

Um it shows the truck band, and it's showing it ends around.

I'm not too familiar with this because I know there's a truck ban, but I don't know everything about it.

So the truck band, can we turn on can we put on slide three, please?

Okay, it shows the yellow line ending by right past 98, right before the border.

But the truck ban goes all the way to where 238 and 580 meet.

Am I correct?

No, no, that this is the actual uh location of the truck of the truck weight restriction on I 580.

So so that there is no truck ban on 580, where it's uh in Saliander, because it's shown to the yellow line to right there.

Right, right.

Right.

And a lot of the truck traffic will will take the I-238 corridor to 880 to avoid the uh the truck ban, but there is signage, um, notifying truckers that they are they're approaching the ban.

And a lot of times I think you have trucks that are then leaving the freeway to uh realize they've made a mistake.

Okay, okay.

And then my next question is on um page six.

It's the six gold uh I-580 task goals, balance travel conditions and safety between I-880 and I-580.

What is the plan for that?

Is that is that what they're discussing?

Whether balance it by putting trucks on 580, or what's the plan to balance the travel conditions?

Right.

So we are gonna be basically doing running two scenarios.

One collecting information on the existing uh conditions as we as we are today, and then uh doing a scenario where if we were to allow trucks on 580, how would that change?

Not only traffic, but how would other change other things like public health?

Okay.

And my last question on page 10, slide 10.

The two trucking associations we have listed on there, are they do any of them represent clean trucks where non-desel trucks?

I believe the California Trucking Association is probably looking into that.

I can't speak for them.

Um they represent uh I think truck drivers as well.

Okay.

Okay, that's all my questions.

Thank you.

We will go to council member Viveto Swalton.

Thank you.

Um, I just want to be kind of crystal curious.

Who is that actual decision maker in changing the rules on the f on the these two freeways?

Yeah, uh, thank you for asking that question.

Um it's so around, if I could take you kind of on a back in back in time a little bit, around 2000, the year 2000, Caltrans was gonna look at studying the uh the truck ban, and there was a lot of public opposition at the time, and the city of Oakland passed a resolution to solidify the ban at the local level.

And then later on, actual legislation was developed that was signed by Governor Great Davis at the time that put the truck ban into the California Vehicle Code.

So in order to reverse the truck ban, you would it would require an act of legislation.

Okay, and so what was so uh the impetus for this study, it sounds like it was a combination of community members in West Oakland, but was there legislative action that mandated this study?

No, no, this came out of the AB67.

Well, I I should say this came out of the AB617 effort, which was a the community emissions reduction plan.

So there's various, we call them SERPs, right?

There's various um CERC communities in in the Bay Area, and one of the first ones was uh West Oakland, they were identified, and so they developed the West Oakland Community Action Plan, and as I mentioned, about 90 strategies came out of there to deal with uh emissions in the community.

And so one of them was to take a look at this study.

And so it was originally uh the air district was asked to take on the study, but in in consultation between the air district and Caltrans, we decided to take up take the study on ourselves in partnership with the uh Bay Area Air District as well as the city of Oakland.

So in terms of the funding uh for this study, it's coming um strictly from Caltrans.

Okay.

Um I guess it's not the place for comments.

Uh you may proceed with comments as well.

Okay.

Questions, comments, yeah.

Okay.

Um, in terms of state partners, um, well, Caltrans obviously is a state partner, but um, California Air Resources Air Resources Board.

Uh, our state elected, I mean, if if there is to be some sort of legislative action that needs to be taken, and don't see them as part of TAC.

How are our state representatives that are along the corridor, both corridors, 580 and 880?

Um, how are they being consulted and or integrated into this process?

Yeah, I think that's a good question as well.

We um have been providing some briefings to like example uh assembly member Bonta.

We provided a briefing on the study to them about where we are.

So they are there has been some interest, I think, about joining the technical advisory committee, which there's certainly um we're certainly open to them joining the technical advisory committee.

The I would think with respect to CARB, the Bay Area Air District is probably that arm of CARB uh in the in this process.

Ultimately, this study at the end, we're looking to provide a recommendation.

That's all we're looking to do at this point, and then where it goes from there is um probably, you know, would we proceed with legislation?

There would we would after we conclude the study, we would provide kind of like a maybe a pathway for um how the ban could or could not you know be removed.

But this point we we don't know.

We're collecting the data and we're gonna be analyzing the data and looking at it from a full spectrum and not just traffic, you know, traffic studies.

Thank you.

Um, and I can't, I don't know how much time I have left.

I was okay, I have 52 seconds.

Um where can we find more information in terms of some benchmarks of, for example, uh I I don't know that there is an acceptable level of particulate matter in the atmosphere, but like what are some of the benchmarks and the kind of containers for the study in terms of socioeconomic factors, environmental factors, public health uh factors, in order to actually base a recommendation off of the study and the community input.

Is there like a study methodology that we can look into just in terms of consulting with our other environmental partners in terms of what is an acceptable level of um particulate matter, and whether we should change look to our legislators to actually change the vehicle and the requirements, which I know car, is that my time?

Oh my gosh.

Anywho, um I'll just finish my thought.

Oh my gosh.

Please do.

Will there will the study methodology be shared in terms of what are some benchmarks and limits?

Yeah, I I, yes, to be uh to be uh very simple.

Yes, we can share that information.

I think that's a question that's probably more geared towards the Bay Area Air District to respond to, but I can take that question back to them and develop a response and get back to you.

Just aside from the particulate, I'm also interested in public health indicators that they're looking at.

I'm assuming asthma rates is one of them.

Um access to public transportation.

I mean, there's some a bunch of factors that will be taken into consideration to make a recommendation.

So we'd just like to uh understand the research questions and the kind of benchmarks that you'd be that the Caltrans would be basing the recommendation off of.

Sure, I'd be happy to provide that.

Councilmember Simon, please.

Thank you for the presentation.

This is a very uh um interesting topic when I first joined council about five years ago.

This was one of my main concerns and going to environmental justice and how this is impacting the uh people of color low income along 880.

So I'm very happy Caltrans is studying this.

Um, first question is are what other highways in California restrict trucks?

There are not very many that that restrict trucks, it's one of the very few in the United States actually that restricts trucks based on their weight.

I believe there might be a truck ban on State Route 85 in Santa Clara, but as far as truck bans in the Bay Area, this is the only one.

Okay.

And highway 13, looking at slide three connects to highway 580.

I'm just Googling.

And I'm seeing that also bans trucks.

Is there a reason why 13 bans trucks and why that's not being looked at in this study?

Uh we will be looking at that because I I don't believe there's a truck ban on State Route 13, but they as a result of the weight restriction that we have here that we see in the orange, uh trucks do not tend to use the 13 corridor very much.

Okay, so 13 will be part of this study.

Yes.

Okay, great.

Good to hear.

And just looking historically, just looking way back, way back on how this all started.

And just so the public who's listening who may not be aware of this, could you elaborate a bit more on how this started?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So going way back, like you said, um, before there ever was a interstate 580 freeway, it was MacArthur Boulevard.

And that is when the original truck weight restriction or truck ban was in place.

And the origins of that original truck ban date back to I believe it was a rancher who did not want his horses to be scared by trucks, and so therefore, that's somehow how the ban or the truck weight restriction was implemented on the MacArthur uh MacArthur Boulevard.

When we proceeded before there was a Caltrans when we were the division of highways, and before there was an FHWA, um the freeway, that was the agreement when the freeway was constructed to transfer the the truck weight restriction onto the freeway.

Now, Caltrans then was tasked with monitoring truck traffic in around the area at the time, and did so for until the into the 1970s, and then at some point uh Caltrans stopped uh monitoring uh truck traffic in that fashion.

Then, you know, fast forwarding to the 1990s, the California Trucking Association raised uh concerns that's saying, hey, you know, we're paying a lot of fees in through diesel fuel taxes, and we're not allowed to use a public uh roadway.

Why is that?

So they asked that question in around 1990, and then Caltrans got around around 1999 to trying to do a study of of the of the 580 truck ban, and then as I mentioned before, the the ordinance was passed by the city of Oakland, and then eventually uh state legislation was passed to put the truck ban into the California Vehicle Code.

Okay, that's kind of a short history.

Thank you.

And just looking at it from an environmental justice standpoint and more of San Langel's history, which some of it, you know, we have talked about recently, and there's been presentations at the library, redlining in San Leandro, and certain people of color not being allowed to live here.

Is there a connection between that redlining and this ban?

I have not heard that.

Similar to we are, we are also, as you might have heard, we're studying the I-980 corridor in Oakland, and that is true, but I have not heard that redlining uh component uh associated with the truck ban.

Will that be part of your study to um ferret that out?

Certainly, we could certainly look into that.

Okay, as part of the racial equity assessment.

Okay, thank you.

Could you clarify your answer?

You said 980.

We are looking at that.

Yeah, we are also conducting a vision 980 study right now.

So that was kind of um, I think the question was or maybe the response suggested that was um is there a truck ban on 980?

No, no, I was I was responding to the question about redlining.

Is there redlining related to 980?

Yeah, redlining was uh I think a factor in the construction of the 980 freeway, or at least the planning of the freeway.

But but it your your work's not gonna have anything to do with removing 980 or anything like that.

That's probably uh Caltrans is actually conducting a Vision 980 study right now.

Um, yeah, with uh it with the city in partnership with the city of Oakland.

Okay.

I think you had finished, is that correct?

I have more, but it looks like I have 16 seconds.

Should I wait?

Yeah, why don't we go to Councilman regularly and we can come back around?

Thank you.

If you could punch in there so I can see you on the list.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

Uh thank you for the presentation.

I just, you know, there have been some um documentaries and some episodes from KQED discussing you know the history of 588 with regards to environmental justice issues and supposed redlining issues.

So that's something that my colleague had touched on.

I'd like to also advocate to see how that came about to implement this truck ban.

Um there are former senator that I had talked to who advocated, you know, I had a conversation with them, and they mentioned that do not move forward with advocacy to open 580, but you're conducting this study, which is great.

Um, but I like to learn or ask that you look into that particular issue with regards to how you mentioned 980 corridor.

Um the redlining, if there is any influence on the 580 quarter, because there are some folks uh who were advocating saying that they did not want trucks uh on the 580 um quarter.

So I see the whole encompassing study area uh and 980 vision.

I I think you know, like to be that advocate to, you know, they're with regards to asthma risk um autism um coming out of the flatlands and between, you know, Oakland.

Due due to this uh truck ban on the 880.

I mean the trucks going on 880 but not on 580.

So I just wanted to advocate that you include that in the city.

Yeah, thank you.

Great, thank you.

Councilmore Simon, did you want to revisit?

Please proceed.

Thank you.

On your um cities and TAC, and then also looking at your map here, it looks like I mean 580 almost, it leads into Hayward, and Hayward leads into 580.

So it seems like has Hayward been outreached, and are they part of your your process?

We have not reached out to the city of Hayward.

We certainly can.

We're willing to do so.

Okay, I think that'd be a good idea since it connects directly into Hayward on Foothill.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

And electric trucks, and I understand that is or hydrogen, but electric trucks in particular and reducing diesel particulate matter the charging systems.

And I understand there's studies on charging systems around major highways.

Since 580 has banned trucks, has 580 been excluded from the electric charging network study for trucks.

Yeah, there's some efforts at the state level that are looking at mostly the main or I would say the big the bigger highways like the Interstate 80 corridor and the 880 corridor and the and the 580 corridor from 238 and out.

So I don't think this particular corridor was included in that kind of grouping of prior, you know, a priority freight corridors in the Bay Area, most likely due to the truck ban, because there's not a lot of truck traffic on there now.

Okay, and my comment would be to um re-evaluate that because if it was excluded just because there was a ban, however, maybe trucks will be on there, and 238 starts down in the flatlands of San Leandro.

So I would encourage the electric charging systems to be um reconsidered since this is being reconsidered.

Yeah, that's a great point.

And just to can bring to light San Leandro, my understanding, because we've had several discussions on environmental justice since I've been here, and yeah, Councilman Aguilar before me, and my understanding is the 880, and I might not have this term correct, but San Leandro is designated 880 as an environmental justice corridor, or some terminology is that so we take it very serious here, and I'm so happy that you're here presenting this, but we take it very serious uh about that 880 corridor since um it runs through you our um people of color and in a lot of lower income areas.

So just want to make sure that you're aware that we have designated that.

Okay, and my last question would be looking at your looks like potentially changing laws, potentially.

Would you also be looking at infrastructure modifications or ways to clean the air, more trees, air scrubbers, ways to you know reduce the amount of hazardous materials?

Yeah, that's certainly an issue that we've uh already been hearing about from the public, um, the overcrossings, those sorts of things.

So, yeah, we will be looking at those those infrastructure-related issues uh along the corridor as well.

Okay.

Oh, well, actually, one more rail, big transporter of freight, of course, is rail being considered to transport more freight and just get it off the roads all together.

Uh that's probably up to the I would say the railroads more than than Caltrans.

The uh typically when a commodity or a load is moved beyond 500 miles, that's when it becomes more feasible to move those items by rail.

Um, under 500 miles tends to be moved by truck.

Is rail being included in this?

Rail is not being included in this analysis.

This is strictly an analysis of the relationship of the 880 corridor and the 580 corridor, as well as the connecting roads and other state highways in the in the study area.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Well that we will go to Councilmember Ezebito, please.

Yes, excuse me.

I have a question regarding infrastructure.

My colleague just mentioned infrastructure.

Are the overpasses uh high enough for trucks to go underneath that on 580?

It was would there be any issue with that?

I don't think there would be, but I just wanted to ask.

Yeah, great, great question.

Um, it's an interstate freeway, right?

So it's a federal freeway, and so it uh when so there's two points.

One is a like I said, it's an interstate freeway, and the second is that when we have a SIG alert on either two thirty-eight or eight eighty, and that means it's a it's kind of a CHP Caltrans designation when we're gonna have we have an incident on the roadway where or two or more lanes of freeway are going to be closed for like more than two or three hours.

We do a SIG alert and we allow trucks on the 580 corridor.

So there is a time that when trucks are allowed on that.

There is a time.

It's a it's when Caltrans and CHP are dealing with uh an incident, usually on the 238 or the 880 corridors.

We allow trucks to use the 580 corridor temporarily.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Viveto Swelton, please.

I just have a quick question, Mr.

Oaks.

Uh, I see what your title is, but can you talk to us a little bit about your role and your role within the study and so you are the director of transportation planning and local assistance?

Can you tell me a little bit about what that means, both in the context of you know of council members, but also in relation to the study.

Yeah, so I'm the deputy district director for transportation planning and local assistance for Caltrans.

So we have a number of divisions uh at Caltrans, of course, from where I am in the very beginning of the where projects are born, or where we are seeking uh grant funding to conduct studies, that sort of thing uh in partnership with other other agencies here in the in the Bay Area, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Alameda County Transportation Commission, as well as local local agencies.

So my role is to be that early uh kind of coordinator, uh developer of projects and plans uh for the state of California for the state highway system, or should say the state transportation network.

Seeing no more questions, I'll uh come with some.

Oh, Councilmember Bolt, thank you.

City Manager, Council Member Bolt, if you could please proceed.

Thank you.

Uh yes, uh, appreciate the uh presentation.

This is something that's been talked about for a long time.

If you live on the west side of San Leandro around 880, and it's always um it's always bundled up in uh political or racial um modes, is why we ended up this way.

So so I'm interested, honestly, uh, hearing it around the dinner table forever about one side of the city compared to the other.

As you move forward in this, the reasons why we would keep it closed.

Uh I appreciate uh Brian Oze Vita, or excuse me, Councilmember Oze Vito's question because you were able to answer the fact that we do run trucks uh at certain times on that freeway.

So it's not um that the freeway can't handle it.

Uh uh I've heard plenty of times that it was more about military.

Um the MacArthur freeway was designed to move military equipment back in the day, obviously they were long gone from that now.

Um, but here we are, and I I think it would be really cool if it was extremely transparent around uh the conversations on why to keep it closed, why we should open it, and even um the pressures that you feel you get through conversations from electeds from the top down, so that we know where we stand and where this uh comes out.

Oftentimes we feel like we're gonna make a difference, and there's some change coming.

And I kind of feel cool right now, like oh man, this could be the answer, and we could finally have uh a change here that would make a difference um uh for us.

But I but I'm also nervous about what happens when the doors closed and nobody's there, and so if that could be transparent, we have, you know, just some way to document like these are the kinds of conversations we're having.

You know, these are the electeds asking to keep it closed, you do these are the elected to uh have it open.

I think that would be a great part of the study to be reviewed at the end.

So we could put it to bed.

Was it a political uh aspiration, or was it truly a uh, you know, some type of highway um designation that kept it closed, which I doubt is the case.

And those are my comments.

Thank you for that.

Uh Vice Mayor, please.

You thank you, Mayor.

Um, lots of great questions.

I wanted to ask about um something that is related to the freeway that I don't know if I saw it in the presentation or not, but even um just today um Alameda Um County Transportation Commission actually um released an RFP for the countywide ramp intersectional safety program, and that's part of a long-term conversation we've been having at ACTC around um safety at the freeway ramps right now, um, with regular traffic, much less um the idea of of larger trucks.

Um, in particular on um uh there's a off ramp to MacArthur from San Leandro heading north, um, and we've had a truck accidentally go onto this freeway thinking they could go all the way through off of the 580, um, and then try to do like a U-turn and ends up hitting um a fire hydrant or because you can't do a U-turn and there's not room for that.

Um, so just thinking through two things in particular um safety for um pedestrians and drivers and the neighborhoods, um, and then also the impact of large vehicles and the weight of these vehicles on these roads um that would dramatically impact our um pavement quality index and I the fact that most of these neighborhoods and these jurisdictions already are lacking funding to be able to maintain those, and so thinking through those broader conversations of like what that impact is.

Yeah, I I definitely agree that we will be looking into degradation of the roadways, both the uh I would say on system, meaning the state highway system as well as off system, local streets and roads.

So we're gonna be looking at the existing conditions of traffic today and then trying to develop a forecast for how uh traffic would behave uh in the future, both for uh with the truck ban and without the truck ban.

So we should be able to have some information that we can provide, and of course, safety um is the always the the number one um thing uh issue for Caltrans.

Um, you know, Caltrans is four foundational principles of safety, equity, uh, economic prosperity and climate action are kind of what are driving the the agency to uh today.

Well, then would you possibly I'm on and uh let me know if you are the best person to contact, but I would be remiss not to ask if you are the right person to talk to if I have some other safety concerns on Caltrans property that runs through San Leandro.

You can absolutely contact me and I will get you in in in touch with the right person.

Okay, wonderful.

Okay, seeing no other questions, I'll ask a few myself.

Um West Oakland.

This appears to have originated in West Oakland.

So I'm a little bit confused though about how West Oakland connects to 580 because when you leave the port of Oakland, you only go on to 880.

Regardless, you go north, you go on 880, you go south, you go on 880.

So, how is there a connection to West Oakland?

Well, as we we know uh West Oakland is a community that's surrounded by three freeways as well as the ninth largest container port in the United States.

So they get an awful lot of truck traffic and they get a lot of truck traffic that is should be on the highway and it's on local streets.

So, this was one of many strategies that came out of the uh the WOCAP, the West Oakland Community Action Plan to help reduce emissions.

Now, your question having to do with access to 580, right?

Um, the truck traffic there right now there is yeah, there is no connection to 880 and 580 on on the north side, as we understand there is a connection with the 980 uh freeway to 580.

So I think it's understanding that dynamic, and that's to be clear the trucks will still be leaving the port of Oakland on 880.

Yes okay so I am particularly curious about um how we're looping into the the in San Leandro along 880 that's where our uh impacted communities are particularly under the the Cal OES and virus screen 4.0 but that's also directly aligned to the flight paths to Oakland Airport.

How are we controlling for the fact that the the airport generates a fair amount of pollution given the prevailing winds you can literally follow the line from the runways right into San Leandro we have overflights over schools in San Leandro and it's just you can see for lack of a better word the plume how are we considering that in this analysis?

Because if we're gonna make promises about changes I'm trying to figure out how how we loop that in.

So your question is about how do air cargo operations at Oakland affect truck traffic generation saying is if we were to change the truck traffic pattern will it change those plumes that I think we'd have to look at the data and see what the data tells us um because I don't want to my concern is really simple that those plumes the the impact that we're seeing is primarily driven by the airport and not necessarily by truck traffic because we have some green zones along 880 in San Leandro as well as some red zones for lack of a better better description and the red zones are in much closer proximity to the airport.

So I just want to make sure that we consider that somewhere in our analysis the third question similar question to that which I raised at BACMED that relates to all the industrial infrastructure that has been built across the last 75 years there's an entire infrastructure San Leandro has a number of industrial warehouses and the like they're all built off of 880 and I think to some of the council members' questions and certainly in other cities these questions are asked well what if there's now cut through traffic because they think magically they're gonna get some kind of a shortcut by cutting through city streets to get from 880 to 580 even though all the warehouses are on 880.

So how are you considering that in the analysis?

That will be an issue that we have to contend with and I think as we move forward with strategies for keeping or removing the truck ban we would need to look into so would we if we were to remove or recommend removal of the truck ban maybe we somehow prevent trucks from leaving the freeway and doing the cut through uh method of of down in city streets um another question relates to your study area is the study area uh the city of Oakland the city of Oakland and the city of San Leandro what where is the geography of your study area here on the on the map and it's probably we should do a better job of that but this area in white is the study area so going all the way up to down into Ashland yeah down into Ashland I appreciate that um I noticed that in the the outreach uh you had talked to you've looped in some environmental advocacy groups but have you looped in the neighborhood associations as well as best we can I think we are also working with the East Oakland SERP which is getting into that the this area of the study this is the community emissions reduction plan there is an East Oakland effort going on that we are actively attending and speaking at and providing updates so that's always a challenge and we do have three CBOs that are part of the RTAC and we're certainly open to any type of guidance or or assistance on how we can do more outreach.

I just think that there's a lot of community neighborhood associations in the city of San Leandro and reaching out to whether it's Estadio States neighborhood, whether it's the Bay of Vista and neighborhood association.

These are the um neighborhoods that will be impacted that will potentially receive truck traffic.

Um my last question relates to your goals if we can get the goals back up there, so is that as I look at the goals, something like balance travel conditions?

If that's the goal, it seems to be self-fulfilling that that means you move trucks.

How is that?

I mean, that's just you're you that's the conclusion, yeah.

That's not really a goal.

Yeah, I agree.

I agree.

And we can certainly think my just the call out here is we need to really be sensitive that we're not assuming the answer, as opposed to really doing like a real genuine scientific analysis, because at least from what I heard when I was sitting at the air district, I got more of the latter sense, as opposed to we're really having a structured framework where we're gonna figure out what are the pros and cons and what are the true consequences of moving that traffic.

Um council member Simon, you had another question or comment?

Yes, that page page three with the map.

Could you go back?

I'm just trying to understand a little bit more on how trucks operate out of the port and head south.

Um can they because it looks like the port stretches up to 80 towards a Bay Bridge.

So could can trucks completely avoid 880, could they just go straight to highway 580 from near the 880 near the 80 interchange near the bridge, or could they take 980?

Are there options for them to just completely avoid 880?

Yes, they could they could completely avoid 880, but they wouldn't be able to utilize the 580 corridor currently.

Currently, right, but there are ways to how would they exit?

I'm sorry, because I you're talking about can you show us how they would exit the port of Oakland?

Okay, without going past 880.

Because you said yes, and so I'm just I want you to do that.

Yeah, they can act they they can uh there's there's the 7th Street corridor, which you see down, it's hard to see on this map, but they can access 880.

Uh they cannot access 880.

Oh, oh, okay.

I understand what you're saying, yes.

So there's a frontage road out of the port of Oakland that that trucks can take that takes them to Grand Avenue, and then from Grand Avenue, that's where they can access the 80 corridor.

They could also access the 24 corridor and other corridors to to leave, but the drayage traffic that comes to and from the the the port of Oakland and heads out either over the Altamont into the Tracy Triangle to distribution centers or into San Leandro, where we have a lot of uh transloading activities and and warehousing as well.

They would mostly most of that truck traffic, that dynamic of drayage traffic, um to and from the port of Oakland to warehouses utilizes the the southern portions of the port of Oakland and the 880 corridor.

So in terms of when we talk about truck traffic, it's usually represented by kind of three uh types of of traffic.

We have our drayage traffic, which is where you see all our container trucks, then we have the service and delivery traffic, which could be safeway trucks, could be Amazon trucks, and then we have the long haul trucking, which is the uh transcontinental type type uh trucking.

So the long haul trucking that could be coming from the 80 corridor over the Sierra Nevada, that that type of thing, but the majority of uh container traffic on on trucks accessing the port of Oakland tends to use the the 880 corridor.

Okay, but if I understand what you're saying, yeah.

But if 580 were to be open and you're heading to the Central Valley, they could go 580.

I mean, they're physically possible to do.

If yeah, if they use the 880 corridor or excuse me, the the 980 corridor to access 580.

Then yeah, that could be a possibility, but time is money and I think the direct pathway that the trucks tend to use today is to utilize the 880 corridor to 238 and then 580 out.

Unless it's backed up.

Yeah, it's backed up.

But we will be looking not only when we're doing our traffic analysis, we're not gonna be looking at truck traffic, we're gonna be looking at vehicle traffic as well as transit.

So all modes on the freeway and how they could be affected.

Okay.

So not just focusing on trucks.

And on slide number six, I think this is my last one.

Slide number six back to the mayor's comment about balanced travel conditions and safety between I-880 and 580.

Um, so balancing safety.

So from a safety perspective, if you have all trucks on a freeway, would that be considered less safe in general than a freeway that does not have trucks?

I would have to look at the data on that.

I don't have an answer whether it's safe or not.

It's okay.

So that's something you'll be studying.

Yeah, that's like a truck.

If a freeway has all trucks on it, is that less safe or not?

Yeah, I I think we'll need to look at the data and see what type of uh information CHP can provide us in terms of um incidents on the roadways.

Okay, thank you.

Well, thank you very much for your presentation.

At this point in time, we will close this item.

Thank you for coming to share.

We've got item number 11.

Did we have any submissions under item 11?

City manager.

Um, item 10B.

Oh, I missed 10B.

Thank you for that reminder.

Clearly, you know where I want to go.

Okay, so item 10B.

Uh, this is amending our municipal code chapter 4-45 to revise the rental registration filing deadline from January 31st to July 31st.

We've got Carrie Husler here to present.

She is our housing manager.

Welcome.

Good evening, and council members.

My name is Carrie Housler.

I'm the housing manager.

I'm here this evening to talk about the first reading, the ordinance of the ordinance to amend the San Leandro Municipal Code Chapter 4-45 to revise the rental registry filing date.

So I wanted to talk about how we got here, provide an overview of the timeline to date.

So in April of 2025, City Council adopted ordinance 2025-002, the rental registry program, and the original ordinance effective date is January 31st, 2026.

The purpose of the ordinance is to establish a program for the collection of important data regarding the rental market in San Leandro.

In June, the City Council adopted the biennial budget and included two years of budget for the rent registry program.

In July, the city council approved the fiscal year 2526 priority work plan, which included the rent registry program, and staff has been working aggressively on this schedule to meet the original January 26th implementation timeline.

So now we're here talking about revising the ordinance effective date to July of 2026.

So zooming in on the software, staff's been working diligently on rent registry program implementation since the council adopted the ordinance in March and subsequently approved the program budget in June.

The software development has required significant time and effort as it is a critical component of both the program's success and the level of customer service provided to landlords.

A shift to a July 2026 program launch date is necessary to allow time to work through several factors that have contributed to late to delays in the software timeline, including analysis of recent changes in software pricing, interdepartmental evaluation of integrating rent registry software with existing city financial and data systems, and the decision to use an RFP process to ensure transparency and competitive bids.

So to talk about the software development timeline underway, August through November of this year, we're working on the RFP, the procurement, and the selection of the software provider.

And in December of this year, we're going to come back to city council with a con with a selection of a vendor recommendation and a two-year software contract.

And then in winter and spring, we will look at software development on software development and staff training, a significant public outreach campaign based on lessons learned from peer jurisdictions.

It is anticipated that program staff will dedicate substantial time to assisting landlords with software navigation and related customer service needs.

Ahead of the software launch, staff will conduct an extensive public outreach campaign to make the software and the program as user friendly as possible for landlords.

And then in July of 2026, the software bill will be ready for launch by the revised ordinance effective date.

And then just to conclude, next steps would be returning on October 20th with the second reading of the amended ordinance, and then it would put the revised ordinance effective date for July 1st of 2026.

And I'm happy to take any questions, just wanted to give a brief overview.

So at this point in time, we will take public comment on this item.

Do we have any questions from members of the public?

Mayor, we've received one comment card here in the room, and there is currently there are currently two hands raised on Zoom.

Okay, let us take the two on Zoom first.

Lucas, you're the first speaker.

You may unmute yourself.

Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking my comment.

Hopefully, the last one this evening.

Um I wanted to um note that uh I think I made a very similar comment when this ordinance was first stopped for a debate.

Um, that the word landlord, I have a feeling is the way that it's defined in the original ordinance is subject to uh abuse and evasion.

And if we are if you guys are amending the ordinance, I think you should amend the definition of landlord because the way it's currently defined on the original ordinance, and it's the definitions were not included in this particular version you're looking at today, but please look at the original ordinance that you passed back in April.

But it says any person partnership corporation or other business entity offering in the present uh progressive tense for rent or lease any rental unit within the city.

That means that a landlord who rents for 11 months and just so happens to not be offering that piece of you know apartment unit or or real estate for rent in the month of reporting.

Do they count as a landlord or do they not count as a landlord?

I think the ordinance should be rewritten so that it says any person currently offering or who has offered an apartment in the last calendar year or whatever 12 month period needs to submit this thing.

I think you're potentially creating a huge loophole for people to have 11 month leases, 10 month leases, and then sort of go on a handshake agreement for two months where the next lease is being negotiated.

Uh it's not very clear exactly who falls under the this definition of landlord.

The other comment that I wanted to make is on the reporting requirement, the form says that the registration statement shall include item 13, all other information required by the program administrator.

It's far too broad.

Will the program administrator require social security numbers?

How about PIN codes for a bank account, checking numbers?

It's far too broad.

It should be scoped down.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Douglas Balding.

Sorry about that.

I was in the wrong view.

Um good points, Lucas.

And my question about changing the date.

I I understand right.

It seems there's like a lot to accomplish in order to make this happen in January, be much better, perhaps uh better implemented to to wait and do it, do it in July.

But but my concern is that that this then becomes the the horse that right uh leads the rest of the housing protection carriage.

And if the um the date that uh the rate the rental rates are set each other uh each year is moved to July, that's potentially problematic.

In the the hearings I was in, there were there were more than one comment where you know tenants said, you know, we get our rate our notification of our rent increase every year in December at the end of the calendar year, and then we set our budget for the next year on that basis.

And I think that's probably much more common than you know people following the fiscal year so I don't know if then we want to make sure that all right the rent registry deadline is in July and the rate increases in January or maybe you could say the the first rent registry deadline will be in July of 2026 and every uh year thereafter it will be right at the end January of the of the calendar year um so uh I just think there's a there's a logistical consideration there thank you thank you that is our last speaker mayor will we close public comment online we will open public comment in the room our first speaker is Chris Tipton hi uh good evening uh mayor and uh council members uh my name is Chris Tipton and I'm representing the East Bay Rental Housing Association regarding I want to talk a little bit about the rent registry um as you can you can you know it's it's obvious that the the registry is taking a lot longer than you expected time is money and I think the city needs to stop trying to reinvent the wheel and do something that may not be the most cost effective we're right now uh Alameda County has also been looking at a rent data rental data collection and we've been working with the county county supervisors and Michelle Starr, the director of LD County HCD on a smart and cost effective approach uh to the unincorporated areas of Alaman County instead of building an entirely new and expensive rent registry system the county would have to maintain the county is taking our suggestion and using existing business license renewal process adding additional fields to collect some additional data from rental housing providers this approach simply adds a few fields and would um and the county can pull reliable data also from third party intermediaries to provide rental data reducing the burden on staff and rental owners and keeping costs low for the city I encourage the city of San Leandro to look closely at this model it's practical it's efficient you don't need to create and set up a whole system uh some of our concerns with guarding correcting too much rental data is that other cities have already experienced dangers and mishandling sensitive data.

Berkeley just last week had a rent rent registry data breach Oakland recently had a ransomware attack compromising personal data for over 1300 employees and residents city was forced to set a lawsuit.

So what I'm saying is these incidents highlight uh incidents highlight serious risk for the city of San Leandro not just identity theft but also potential exposure for renters uh recent targeting from ice sanionos shouldn't take on this additional liability right leveraging these systems already in place like your business license program you can take um San Leon can gather the data without the unnecessary unnecessary burdens and re-thank you sorry your time is up to say this we can help you with this mayor there are no more speaker cards so with that we will close public comment come back to council for questions and deliberation.

I'm beginning with council member Viveto Swelton.

Thank you um I have a question in regards to the budget allocation um I'll defer to the mayor and how the who this question goes to but um so the council allocated in the two year um a two year allocation but now we're six months behind how is that going to is that going to affect any type of budget allocation do we have to extend do like anyway I'm just trying to figure out in terms of the budget allocation how the delay plays into that in terms of money spent is it fair to say that you're asking does this mean that we're over budget behind as well behind schedule okay I'll start with city manager and you can pivot so to Ms Husler.

Thank you.

I can add more information on that.

So that but program budget starts January 1st so the first year is actually a six month budget for the current fiscal year and then the second year is a full fully funded year.

So we're looking at about a year and a half of funding and we are on pace with that funding.

We should be fine okay um in terms of uh the outreach work to property owners um and residents does the delay in the implementation affect the community outreach and information plan of the implementation phase we will start outreach right after we have program fees determined and give as much build up um on the outreach time as possible so as of right now I think we're looking at about a month delay on the the program out outreach and we'll just have a bit more time to take care of that okay in one of your comments uh you mentioned that there was change in the software pricing how does that affect the program budget sure we are in the final stages of launching the RFP right now and so we will have an idea of the software the final software budget I would say in about a month and a half we anticipate needing about 50 to 75 thousand dollars more for the original software and then about the original first year of software development and then about $55,000 more $55,000 annually with a cost escalator ongoing for software maintenance and so we will be looking at the program budget to see if there's ways that we can move things around and fund the software within the current budget.

Okay and is this would we own the software is it city specific software is it um I forget the model where you own it but then you lease it or rent it what is that called like a membership what is the I think subscription would be the way to describe the approach we're going for um we we have an idea of who the software vendors are out there it's a very small pool and so we've been in some initial talks but we'll we'll launch a formal RFP and then have responses soon okay thank you those are all my questions I like my time back.

Thank you.

Do we have other questions at this time or comments?

Council member Simon please um thank you for the presentation like my question some of them come from some of the public commenters that are heard tonight just so I fully understand the main reason for moving to January 31st away from January 31st to July 31st could you summarize that really um succinctly absolutely when we started working aggressively on the program um steps and the the timeline to meet the January 1st launch date we realized the software is a much bigger endeavor and we just simply need more time software is a is the main component of the rent registry program so the stronger the software the better the customer service to the landlords it's really meant to be the main interface.

Okay and the public comment I heard was many folks get a rent increase December time frame and how do you see this as fiscal year middle of the year registry impacting or relating to that I'm not aware of a traditional December um rent increase timeline that if if that's something we learn along the way we can revisit but I would I would say we're never going to capture um we're never going to capture the perfect ebb and flow of the the market and rent increases we just have to set a moment in time to to capture the fees.

Okay thank you and the other question um was looking at other avenues or other other ways to collect this data as we heard what Alameda County is looking into have we looked at what Alameda County is doing, is that been a consideration?

Uh I have not looked into Alameda County and would be happy to do that.

We've talked with other peer cities that have that have extensive rent registry databases and we can do some work on that as well, especially as we are just underway with the RFP.

It would be a good time for that.

Okay, thank you.

Do we have any other questions or comments at this time?

Seeing none, I will take a motion.

There we go.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Uh make a motion to move the first reading of an ordinance to amend the San Leander municipal code to revise a rent registry filing deadline from January 31st to July 31st.

Okay, and then do I have a second on that motion?

Councilmember Aguilar.

I'll second.

Okay, so I've got a motion by Councilmember Votus Walton, second by Councilmember Aguilar to move forward with the first reading of an ordinance as described by the motion.

At this point in time seeing no further discussion, please vote.

All votes are in.

Councilmember Bolt, may we have your vote?

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

At this point, I'm moving on to item number 11.

It's my understanding that there have been no items submitted at this time.

Is that correct, City Manager?

I have an acknowledgement.

Thank you.

City Council reports.

Are there any uh activities that council members would like to report at this time?

And I am going to clear the queue.

I think Councilmember Aguilar, are you in there for this item for please proceed?

Uh thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.

On Friday September 19th, I attended the ribbon cutting for the Mulford Marina Library, which is fantastic.

Uh, I also attended the grand opening of the memorial um park, which was wonderful, great use of funds to open up this all mobilities park.

And then this past weekend, um I attended the.

Well, actually, I received a scholarship to attend the USC price executive forum for local leaders on Friday, October 3rd and Saturday, October 4th.

Um, we I took some sessions on um council manager relations, also understanding budget and policy making, emergency management and communications, and uh response to disruptors like natural fires, natural disasters and fires, and uh all of this was paid for um attending plane ticket uh and stay out of my pocket, so there were no uh expenses to the city.

That concludes my report.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Councilmember Azevedo, please.

Yes, I attended uh EBDA operation and maintenance meeting on September 16th.

On September 18th, I was at the EBDA commission meeting where we discussed the operations of all of our facilities within the East Bay.

September 26th, I was at the Memorial Park Grand Opening.

It's a beautiful all-lability park, and I was proud to be there.

October 3rd, I was uh I did the Save the Bay tour of a horizontal levee that um they're testing out for Oraloma by Aureloma property, and um it looks really good the way they're doing the levy, and it looks like it's really gonna help the environment and it's good for it.

Thank you.

Coming to Vice Mayor Bowen, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, just a few things I wanted to share from some of the meetings that I've been attending on September 11th.

Um, we had a stop waste meeting, and one of the big action items, just to let the council um put on the council's radar, um, something that's familiar to us, but stop waste is looking at um trying to figure out ways for cost recovery.

Um the current model of of um being able to fund stop waste of the revenue stream is based on fees and in terms of tonnage of the landfills, and so um stop waste and the and the county is doing a really good job of diverting waste away from the from the landfills, which means they're getting less money.

And so we had a staff presentation on a few different options that Stop Waste could pursue in order for cost recovery.

And it was unanimously voted on by the board to explore a new fee on solid waste bills.

And some of the numbers that the organization is starting to look into is for a single family home, potentially something along the lines of 34 cents per month.

But all of this again is just to give feedback to staff to look into some what this could look like outreach to the community.

This would be a long-term effort with something for the board to consider and go into effect in FY fiscal year 2027, but just wanted to get that on the radar of the council because they will be working with the different jurisdictions.

And this is something that the staff are actively working on with Stop Waste.

The other thing that I wanted to mention of note, actually, today at the ACTC policy meeting, I mentioned earlier when we were having the Caltrans conversation, the as part of the countywide transportation plan.

Today the committee took action to release an RFP for the countywide ramp intersection safety program.

And that's going to be a study to look at safety along the corridors going off and onto the freeway, something that we as a council and certainly I have been paying a lot of attention to, especially with like the MacArthur roundabout, but trying to build the McArthur roundabout coming off of the freeway.

And that's something that is a the beginning of the process.

So they will likely try to find a vendor to work with over the next nine months and be able to explore, but I'll continue to update us because I don't know what this means for potential funding for programs.

But I did say that San Leandro was first in line if there was anything that was going to come up for us.

And so they made a note of that.

So I just wanted to make sure that they knew that San Leandro was interested in working with them.

And then speaking of pedestrian safety and in Caltrans, I have been in contact with numerous families in our district, actually very close to where we are right now, but just around pedestrian safety trying to cross 14th streets to get to school.

Really appreciate my commissioners on BPAC advocating for trying to understand what we can do and to push Caltrans to help with that.

So I really want to encourage all the drivers out there that are not driving their kids to school to be extra mindful because there will be a large number of children that will be walking to school, biking to school, scootering to school, and carpooling.

It is an incredibly popular event, and the schools are all actively promoting that.

I also encourage any of the council members to stop by the schools because the families will all be out, and it's a really sweet day.

I want to just make a few last notes.

And it's interesting that some public commenters mentioned it before.

I have been speaking with a lot of residents in our throughout the city of San Leandro and in my district in particular, and then some that are working actively to address a lot of the concerns around immigration.

And I just want to uplift again that the city has a web on the city website that there are resources for um rights for immigrants, and as well as letting the community know that in all of the schools there are know your rights cards in different languages and notices are going out to families.

I think the city is working actively with different partners.

I've certainly been talking to the uh school board members as well.

Um we've also been working with community members to create know your rights cards in different languages, including Vietnamese, Tagalog, um, and Spanish, and Chinese, and so different nonprofits in the community, including the Vietnamese American um, the community center as well as um the um community center and others um are in communication and trying to figure out ways to support the different communities that um are in San Leandro.

Um and then again, just to look at some of like the um state bills that have just been recently signed.

Um, and and that's something that I you know I'm paying attention to, and I know other council members are paying attention to, so that is definitely something that is on our radar.

Anyone else?

Um, I just want to make sure that Councilmember Bolt does not have a hand raised.

Okay.

So that I will close off with just a couple of things of my own.

First, do you want to highlight there have been a number of community festivals and celebrations?

Uh, some include the Assumption Festival, which I attended, the St.

Leander Festival, the mid-autum moon festival.

I think I saw Councilmember's Azevedo, I think I saw you, Councilmember Simon, probably some other people went as well, sponsored by the city.

Umticultural mixture.

So the chamber hosted a number of other chambers here in the city of San Leandro.

Very positive evening, and we we got a lot of good traction, a lot of good things were said about the city of San Leandro.

In terms of activity on boards, I will say that a lot of energy at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has gone into working to improve the permitting process of the district.

We approved uh significantly expanding the budget for resources to help speed through the backlog of permits.

There are many permits that are stuck in backlog.

There's also significant investment that's been made into technology to help drive system changes to let people know where permits are stuck.

Are they stuck with the applicant or are they stuck with the air district?

And metrics are being rolled out and reporting is being rolled out.

So some good things are on the horizon there.

Uh at Ava Community Energy, there's a lot of focus on okay, we price less expensively than PGE.

And we sometimes are able to generate a surplus, and in some years the it's a little bit leaner.

This happens to be a lean year, and so there were significant questions asked.

What do you do with the surplus of last year?

Do you put it into reserves to cover the losses that are anticipated for this coming year?

Do you give that out in terms of customer rebates?

Some healthy discussion there, and the final decision, final recommendation that came out was to really focus on the most vulnerable and making sure that we maintain uh price rebates for those that are on care and fara, uh, fully recognizing that those are the people in greatest need.

If you're not familiar with the Karen Fair program, please look online.

C-A-R-E or F-E-R-A.

Those are programs that are available to help subsidize the cost of your energy.

There's also a number of activities that have happened in the city that celebrate um cultural events, and so I happen to be at the Filipino American History Month celebration at the Manor Library, which is a wonderful event where we had two groups uh come in and offer dancing, and also got the the community involved.

It was a good uh well-attended program, and I I offered a proclamation.

Um the last thing that I'll highlight is that this is the what I call gala time of year.

There's all sorts of galas and fundraisers and the like, and I did represent the city at the Friends of Shabot College.

We know that many young people from San Leandro go to Shabot College.

And the Friends of Strabo College is focused on building resources that are available to students.

Particularly there's a number of students that, by the nature of their economic status, are not able to get the the tools that they need.

So if they're in a medical assistant program, you've got stethoscope, and you've got uh other materials that you need to buy beyond books.

And so being able to provide resources through a foundation, through an endowment, uh those are really good things where we as a city want to support our local community college.

And so I was proud to be there and support them uh in their efforts.

So with that being said, we will wrap up this meeting.

We will move on to adjournment.

The time is 9 16, and we are adjourned.