Okay, it's something I want.

I'm gonna call this meeting of the family under a city council to order.

Today is Monday, April 6th.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and the Republicans.

So at this point in time, Madam Clerk, would you please take a roll?

Vice Mayor Viveros Walton.

Present.

Councilmember James Aguilar.

Present.

Councilmember Victor Aguilar.

Present.

Councilmember Fred Simon is absent.

Councilmember Sue Bowen is absent.

Councilmember Bolt.

Here.

And Mayor Gonzalez.

Present.

Thank you.

So tonight with the appointment swearing in of it, uh our new member of the Arts Culture and Library Commission.

So I'd like to move that item up to Section 6 recognitions in the interest of time.

Immediately following our other recognitions, which include the oath of office for our district two council member, Councilmember James Aguilar, uh Aguilar, and the National Autism Awareness Month Proclamation.

Any concerns about that?

Seeing none.

The City of San Lando conducts orderly meetings to fulfill its mandate, discriminatory statements or conduct that would potentially violate the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and or the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, California Penal Code Sections 43 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, meeting rules of the quorum for more information.

Madam Clerk, your announcement.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Item three in our agenda is a report on closed session action taken.

Was there any reportable action taken?

No reportable action, Mayor.

There was extensive discussion and guidance provided to legal counsel.

At this point in time, we're going to move to the recognitions portion of our agenda.

And we'll begin with a swearing in of James Aguilar, City Council of District 2.

If you would come down to the front.

Thank you, Mayor.

We will be also joined by Jennifer Brohard, who will be administering the oath of office to our incoming council member.

I do solemnly swear.

I do solemnly swear.

That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

If you don't mind, hold on just a second, so we're going to do a pause because we can't hear you online.

We can hear there you go.

So we're going to do this, we're going to share, we're going to have two mics, because we want everyone to re who records this video and who downloads it and clips it and all that to have the full thing nice and clean.

Raise your right hand.

I do solemnly swear.

I do solemnly swear.

That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

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

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

That I take this obligation freely.

That I take this obligation freely.

Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.

Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.

And that I will well and faithfully.

Discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.

May I, Mayor?

Yes, you may have a minute to share your thoughts and excitement.

Thank you all for being here.

I I see so many of the people that help.

See, I'm gonna try not to cry.

Um, I see so many of the people who have helped build me into who I am today here in the audience, and I genuinely appreciate your support.

This has been an interesting journey in my life, in which I started on the school board and now I'm here.

And all of you in the room are just are a very important part of my life, and I appreciate you for spending the time to come here and be a part of my journey.

Um, and I'm I'd be remiss to say that I'm excited for this.

I'm excited for the opportunity that San Leandro has to move forward.

And so that will only happen with you in partnership.

And so I appreciate you all um and I'm looking forward to what's to come.

And I'm ready to get to work okay.

You can go ahead and leave that open, Madam Clerk, because I'm coming right on down, because next we've got a proclamation to declare April as National Autism Awareness Month here in the city of San Leandro, and I think we've got Ronke Shodipa.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to our chambers.

Someone let you hold this on this side right here, if you can look at those people out here.

And so this is our associate director from the regional center of the East Bay.

For those of you that don't know, the regional center is uh the largest nonprofit here in the city of San Leandro and are responsible for distributing a significant amount of state money to organizations that support individuals, but I I won't steal all of her thunder.

Because you'll get a moment at the at the end to share a few thoughts.

Okay.

So let's just read through the proclamation very quickly.

So whereas autism is a developmental disability characterized by atypical development in socialization, communication, and behavior, and whereas children typically display autism symptoms before turning three years old, and often exhibit abnormalities in cognitive functioning, learning, attention and sensory processing.

And whereas, according to the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, a program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism affects one in every 31 children in the United States, and can affect anyone regardless of race, ethnicity, or other socioeconomic factors.

And whereas parents, relatives, caregivers of individuals with autism, are commended for their dedication and sacrifice in providing for the special needs of individuals with autism.

And whereas worker training programs that are tailored to the needs of autistic individuals are vital as people with autism can often serve as productive members of the workforce and exemplary members of the community, especially when given appropriate support, training and early intervention services.

And whereas the United States House and Senate both introduced concurrent resolutions on February 25th, 2008, recognizing the importance of autism awareness, of the need to support individuals with autism, and of the family members, teachers, and physicians, and other professionals who care for individuals with autism.

And whereas individuals with autism, like all others, should have the opportunity to realize their ambitions and lead rewarding lives.

Now, therefore, I Juan Gonzalez, the third mayor of the city of San Leandro do hereby proclaim April 2026 as Autism Awareness Month in the City of San Leandro, as a symbol of our commitment to creating a culture of disability awareness and inclusion for all members in our community.

Would you like to say a few words?

Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.

Thank you, City of San Leandro.

Our organization, Regional Center of the East Bay is one of 21 agencies statewide that's mandated to provide services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

And we are proud that we are based here and we're our headquarters here in San Leandro.

And this is the first time that we have been called upon to do this, so I commend you and thank you for uh doing this.

Um population has grown, whereas in the before maybe 15, 20, 30 years ago, the individuals we served um with autism were maybe a third or maybe a quarter of our population, which right now in both counties, Contra Costa and Alameda counties, we serve about 29,000.

Now it's about 70 percent of who we serve.

So we do know that it has grown, and it's important that we all are aware so that individuals and families can get the support that they need.

So I thank you.

Ms.

Wilkins, thank you for all that you do.

Did everybody get the pictures that they wanted?

I just want to make sure.

Oh, one more.

Okay, sorry.

That's what I say.

There we go.

Whichever side you want.

And then we will move uh take our item 10A, which we moved to this section of the agenda.

Uh Madam Clerk, would you please briefly introduce this item?

Thank you, Mayor.

The item before you this evening is a motion to appoint Mike Bryant to fill the district four vacancy on the arts, culture, and library commission after council makes the appointment.

Mr.

Bryant is in attendance to receive the oath of office this evening.

Perfect.

Councilmember Simon.

Yes, I'd like to move this item.

Perfect.

Councilmember Vice Mayor of Vivus Welton.

Second.

Okay, so at this point in time, we've got a motion second.

Any discussion?

Because it's just an administrative minute order.

We do not need public comment on this.

That was available the last time when the nomination occurred.

So please move to vote at this time.

We're experiencing a brief moment of technical difficulty.

Uh Councilmember Aguilar, James Aguilar, may we have your vote, please?

You can just vote verbally on the mic.

That would say yes.

Yes.

Thank you, sir.

With that, all votes are in.

And the motion carries.

So to be clear, the vote carries with the vote of six zero, correct?

Correct.

But if I can get a head nod, Clerk, the vote carries six zero.

Yes, thank you.

With one, thank you.

Check.

Chuck.

Thank you.

So at this point in time, we will move to swear in Mr.

Bryant.

I please state your name.

I Michael Bryant.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm?

I'm so sorry, go ahead.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm?

Hold on, Miss Byrne.

Madam Clerk, can we get him a mic as well so that he can be heard online?

We sure can, Mayor.

Thank you.

Okay.

I please state your name.

I Michael Bryant.

Do solemnly swear or affirm.

Do solemnly swear or affirm.

That I will support and defend.

That I will support and defend.

The Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

Against all enemies.

Against all enemies.

Foreign and domestic.

Foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance.

To the Constitution of the United States.

To the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

And to the Constitution to the State of California.

State of California, excuse me.

That I take this obligation freely.

Without any mental reservation.

Without any mental reservation.

Or purpose of evasion.

Or purpose of evasion.

And that I will well and faithfully discharge.

And that I will well and faithfully discharge.

The duties upon which I'm about to enter.

The duties upon which I'm about to enter.

Congratulations.

At this point in time, we move on to item number five on our agenda, which is our consent calendar.

Would anybody like to pull an item from the consent calendar?

Councilmember Aguilar.

I have nothing to pull, but I would like to uh move the consent calendar.

Thank you.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Mayor, I'd like to second.

At this point in time, we will move to any comment, public comment on the consent calendar.

Thank you, Mayor.

At this time we've received one comment card, and we have one hand raised online.

Okay.

Please proceed with a comment card.

Our in-person speaker is Robert Rayburn.

Good evening, Mayor Gonzalez, Council members, and welcome James Aguilar as our newest council member.

My name is Robert Rayburn.

I'm BARC Director for District 4, which encompasses both San Leandro and Bayfair stations.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes the comment cards we received in the room.

So we will close public comment in person.

Please move online where we open public comment.

Our first online speaker is Alvaro Ramos.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

I wanted to comment on item 5E, uh, the affordable housing.

Um that I don't know, is is involves Pacific West.

Um I wanted to say that um I I didn't really find any details.

Heck, I was trying to figure out where the law was.

And I just wanted to emphasize that, you know, I think that I wouldn't want to just see housing.

I would want to see mixed use development that faces East 14th Street.

Um, I mean it's it's should be kind of obvious to most people that um you know having having some ground floor for business um makes sense on that street given that it sort of has that downtown atmosphere.

Um but I yeah, I just don't want to see not just housing, but you know, a mix here, right?

That ideally would improve human traffic um on East 14th.

It's always felt um I guess it's the parking minimums that have really stunted um any sort of um possibilities that could have maybe have happened over these decades.

Um and I I was looking at the Pacific West website.

Um, but I'm really um want to see more about maximizing density and um and not a suburban approach to um the architecture.

I mean um I've complained about suburbanism before, and um I will continue to do so because I really think that um this is um this is generally what's holding back the city.

And um I think that more of that, more mixed use and high density would be very helpful and um bring at least more human traffic on ace 14th.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Chris Urban Res Life.

Good evening.

First, I'd like to acknowledge the Aloney people whose territory we occupy in San Leandro, known as Halquien.

Um, I'd like to um welcome Mr.

James Aguilar uh to the city council.

And I'd like to wish um all of us in San Leandro to continue to walk in a good way, and that we bring our city back vibrant, and that hopefully we can now get to work.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes our online commenters.

So we are closing public comment.

I apologize.

I missed a card earlier that was submitted timely for this item.

Thank you.

Then if you could, so we are done with online public comment.

We'll come back and briefly reopen in-person public comment for this one card.

Thank you, Mayor.

The in comment in-person commenter is Douglas Spaulding.

Thank you, Mayor.

I appreciate your grace.

Uh hi, uh council members.

It's nice to be here in person for once, although it was a little hard.

Final two of the final four, but I haven't been here since the new countdown clock was installed, and it kind of has the feel of it right over the mayor's head there.

Uh I I had a few questions, uh, reading over the consent calendar items.

Um I'll start with uh item five C, which is uh nearly a two million dollar item.

And given um the our budget difficulties here in San Lorenzo, I wonder why we're spending so much money to adjust traffic lights.

Um I I haven't detected a problem or traffic backing up in any intersections unless they're doing railroad work.

Uh so it's you know, one of those things I wonder is this something that could be delayed.

Uh item five F.

Um, I'm in favor of recycling too.

I have been a recycler since I had it as my college job.

Um, but I hate to put out 215,000 worth of cans and watch them fill up with garbage, which is you know what happens not only in our schools but in our public places as well.

So I'm wondering if there's any educational piece that's gonna go with that to uh you know help people understand the importance of it.

Um there are places like Germany where recycling works very efficiently.

That's because you get fined if you don't uh don't sort correctly.

My son would be out a lot of money doing that.

Um was surprised to find that there's such a thing as a pavement cut impact fee.

Um and I'm wondering whether we currently have anything like that in place.

I I don't know any from information about it, any more information about it, but I'd be curious to know uh it makes sense to me that when you cut up the road that it doesn't last as long.

And then finally, in terms of the your budget adjustments, you know, it's not much of an adjustment, less than a half a percent in adjustment.

Uh the revenues and expenses wash out, uh it's just the $7 million in transfers, and I would like to be reminded what those are.

Thank you.

Your time has elapsed.

Mayor that concludes all of our comment cards.

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

Um, just for the benefit of our public speaker on item five C.

This is related to, I believe, as Director Marquise is back there.

I think this is ACTC funded specifically for when 880 shuts down and we run detours through the city.

This was discussed at facilities and transportation a little bit ago.

So it's not general fund money that we're reallocating to time lights.

It's really how we deal when there is a problem on 880 and we have external funding to make sure that the detours work effectively and don't disproportionately impact our residents.

Um with that, I'm gonna come back to council to see if there's any further discussion.

Seeing none, please vote.

Apologies while I work at this technical issue.

Council member James Aguilar, if we could have your vote by verbal, please.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

All votes are in.

And the motion carries unanimously with uh six yeses and council member Bowen absent.

Okay, so for today, we don't have an item six.

Anything to report?

So we will move to public comment.

It's temporary public can address the council on items that are not already on our agenda that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council.

Mayor, we have received seven comment cards.

Okay, so what we'll do is we'll begin with uh public comment in person.

The first three speakers are Jeff Carey, Lynette Bailey, and Brian Rooney.

Jeff Kerry, Lynette Bailey, and Brian Rooney.

Yes, uh I'm Jeff Carey.

Uh I'm a real estate person in San Leandro.

We've been involved with the city for over for a long, long time, I'd say a hundred years.

Uh but anyway, uh the reason I'm here is we have a downtown parking area that's basically on the east side of East 14th Street, anywhere from uh right across the the street from City Hall, uh on the on the uh north side of the bridge, all the way over to Dolores Avenue on the east side of East 14th Street.

Uh that area has metered parking.

Uh the metered parking is not easily understood by the resident by the people using that area.

That area of East 14th Street is made up of small businesses, you have accountants, uh, you have uh uh you have uh people that sell eyeglasses, you have people that uh that uh take care of pets, and they're all small business unit users.

Uh we and those people rely on people coming in and dropping their and doing their business within a short period of time, they're there for a short period of time, they see their accountants, they see their eye doctor, they see their pet groomer, or they they see someone someone else there, and that area is now uh saturated with parking meters.

Those parking meters uh are very tough to understand.

If you want an education, just go down there and try to go ahead and use one of the parking meters.

Uh I've been down there and uh uh when we park my car, I have to walk 70 feet to find the meter.

And the first question the meter asks me is what is my license plate number?

So I have to turn around, go back to my car, write down my license number, come back and try to use it.

But people are not happy with it.

Uh thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

Pardon me.

Uh thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

My time is expired.

Yes, sir.

Anyway, the next parking is we want two-hour parking tax, just like they have on the left side of each one.

The next three speakers.

So, one thing that you'll learn about me as the chair of this meeting is whether I agree with you or disagree with you.

We don't have a lot of cheering and hoopla and all that kind of stuff in the chambers.

We keep it very professional.

So that's just kind of a uh first pass warning.

How's that?

If we can come on to our next speaker, please.

The next three speakers are Lynette Bailey, Brian Rooney, and Ed Harris.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Um, I am an accountant and a tax preparer, and I'm in the best building.

And I want to thank you for your time today.

But um I'm here to speak about the impact of the paid parking and now best building.

Since this change, I've seen a clear drop in customers.

Many choosing to go elsewhere, where parking is free and simple.

A large portion of my customers are elderly.

For them, it isn't about the cost, it's about the accessibility.

Many struggle with the payment systems, whether it's apps or kiosk and finding the process of confusing or overwhelming.

As a result, they're not coming back.

This policy policy is unintentionally driving away vulnerable members of our community and hurting small businesses like mine.

We believe a balanced solution is possible, one that supports both the city and the community.

We ask for at least two hours for our customers to drop their tax uh information off to me and not go down and find a $50 ticket on that car, which by the way, they're asking me to pay because I didn't tell them because nobody told us it was going to be paid parking.

We never got a notice or anything about it.

So I want to thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Brian Rooney, Ed Harris, and Marakua Banks.

Hello.

I'm here about the best building parking as well.

We've been told that this is a zero sum game while the city is also facing a two million dollar deficit.

Yet the proposed solution seems to be charged for parking as a fix-all.

It isn't.

Our city already carries one of the highest sales tax rates in the Bay Area.

At some point, we have to acknowledge that we cannot tax and fee our way to prosperity.

Increasing the financial burden on residences and businesses will not create a long-term stability.

It risks driving away the very people that and enterprise that keep this city strong.

Unless businesses are the backbone for the community.

When they are weighed down by rising sales tax, business license fees, state taxes, and excessive regulations, they begin to leave.

And when they leave, they don't come back.

We have we have seen the impact of these policies at the state level that many view as unfriendly to business.

Policies that have to contribute to companies relocating or scaling back.

Because when the businesses succeed, the city succeeds.

Now is the time for strong independent leadership, leadership that stands up for the local economy, learns from what hasn't worked elsewhere, and focus on sustainable solutions instead of short-term revenue fixes.

That is why we oppose your parking restrictions on the best building parking lot.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Ed Harris, Maracueta Banks, and Bob Jones.

Good evening, Mayor, members of uh council.

My name is Ed Harris.

I'm a banker with Fremont Bank, located at 1480 East 14th Street, corner of East 14th and Wana.

I am not a City of San Leandro resident, and I'm not speaking on behalf of Fremont Bank tonight, but I am somebody who has worked at that location for more than 11 years, shops in San Leandro, has a number of clients and friends who also frequent that area.

And to reiterate some of the comments you've already heard, we're all very stressed out and very disappointed by the changes to the parking situation.

It's made it very difficult for my clients to park on the private surface lot that's located at the corner of East 14th in Wana.

A number of other individuals who are trying to avoid getting uh ticketed on WANA, uh, who are uh not wanting to pay for parking in that area, who are used to the two-meter uh zones that were there, um, are using our lot, and it's created a real burden for our customers for a number of my colleagues, many of whom work in San Leandro and shop in San Leandro as well.

I urge you folks to uh reconsider um the changes that were made to make it easier, more tenable for folks who are shopping in San Leandro, for folks who are living in San Leandro, for folks who work in San Leandro to be able to park and enjoy the San Leandro downtown area to their credit.

Uh, Deputy City Manager Engelbart and Cynthia Battenberg met with us within the past couple of weeks.

We had very constructive conversation about uh things that we could do to me to ameliorate the issue, to make the situation better, and I'm optimistic that going forward uh we can find a more tenable solution.

But again, I urge you to reconsider the situation that we're in currently.

It's not sustainable, it's not good for the residents of San Leandro and for people who want to make San Leandro succeed.

Thank you.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Mara Queda Banks, Bob Jones, and Douglas Spaulding.

Hello.

I'm here on behalf of most of the neighbors in my area.

I currently live at Bancroft Towers, which is on Bancroft, across the street from San Leandro High School.

Um I've kind of been getting the runaround over the last month about who to come to regarding the issue.

Um recently there has been some new no parking signs that has gone up all along Bancroft from Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

Once again, including Saturday.

Um in that area, there is three large apartment buildings and a nursing home.

They have taken away all of our parking.

One of the apartment buildings, one from East 14th all the way over to Bancroft.

So for example, just last week, my son was homesick.

I work from home sometimes in our unit in our building.

We're only allowed one parking space per apartment building per household.

Um it was a Saturday, and my son got a ticket on a Saturday.

Once again, he was homesick last week, so we had to take a chance on him getting another ticket, which is a little outrageous.

I've spoken with um City Hall.

City Hall is pointing to San Leandro High, saying they're asking for the signs to go up.

I spoke with San Leandro Unified School District.

They're saying it's not them that's asking for it.

That is up to the city for this um to go up.

It's very dangerous to even come home late on a Friday evening because we have to be up either at six in the morning to move your car by seven, um, which there's still no parks because people are still asleep on Saturday mornings at six o'clock.

So all of our parking has been taken, and I live where there's older residents, so I tell them I will come today to represent them to see how to get the ball rolling.

Thank you.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next three next two speakers are Bob Jones and Douglas Spaulding.

Hello.

I'm Bob Jones.

I grew up in this town.

I'm a real estate broker.

I have an office on Joaquin right next to East 14th.

So all the space behind me, Joaquin to uh Estadillo now has the paid parking.

One of my tenants is a chiropractor who says, Oh, is patients just are really upset about this.

Paid parking.

It's you go to the other side of East 14th, you don't have paid parking.

So why this is so anti-business and a 47 fee if you don't pay?

I mean, the whole thing's absurd.

We want to encourage business in this town.

And uh what I see from the council is really an anti-business attitude.

Just like, for example, the rent control.

Um I've had owners with low interest rate loans, five-year fixed, and they kept their rent, their rents low for their tenants.

Now the five-year fixed loans have gone and they've jacked the rates up 50%.

Plus, the insurance rates have gone skyrocketed.

Do you have any clue about that?

And uh the state's already got you know, rental rules.

Why do you have to be so anti-business, anti-investment in San Leandro?

It just makes no sense.

Anyway, this part I like to get rid of the parking fee if you can.

I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

Our last speaker card is from Douglas Spaulding.

Thank you.

Um, I disagree with Mr.

Jones on the rent control ordinance uh through the chair.

I'd just like to thank him for taking care of the eucalyptus trees on his side of the creek.

But I'm here to speak to the disturbing stories that have been on the news the last week.

And mayor, I appreciate your statement, uh clarifying that an investigation had been made into this uh troubling incident whereby an individual was uh not arrested but uh taken into custody and then driven to the neighboring city of Oakland and dumped off seven miles from where he's picked up.

So um I I don't have any more information about it, but but I assume in the comments that that there was a consequence uh as a result of the investigation, and I would note that the commanding officer in the incident no longer works for the SOPD.

So maybe I'm reading too much between the lines or not.

I I'm not so concerned about the hit and run.

Um I've done that before too and not realized it.

Uh but um to me it's much ado about not much, and um I assume the insurance companies would will uh will sort it out.

But what I do want to draw your attention to is the source of these two stories, and I would be very leery of Sergeant Michael Oliveira, uh longtime president of the San Leandro PD POA.

Uh this is the same playbook they used to jettison our former chief, Abdul Pridgin.

And my fear is that now they're going after our current chief.

And of course, there's plenty of comments in social media, like, well, what about the chief?

What about the chief?

What about the chief?

I'm here to stand for the chief, unless until we have a lot more information uh that implicates her in some way, but it seems like she's doing exactly what she needs to do.

And um I'm sorry that uh you know, Channel 7 Dan Noise picked it up, but they like to do that because it you know gets ratings and sinks progressive people everywhere.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes the comment cards we've received.

So we will close public comment in person and we will move online.

We currently have four hands raised, and the first speaker is Jenny Chang.

Hello, can you all hear me?

Yes.

Hi, I'm Jenny Chang.

I'm a longtime resident of Salandro, 43 years to be exact.

I'm just wanted to chime in and offer my congratulations to James Aguilar uh for being the uh district two, the new district two council member.

I just hope and wish um James the best and hope that he can work together with the rest of the council in um getting district two on the right track.

Um it's gonna be a lot of work.

Um, but I believe um he'll be able to do it.

That's it.

Um have a good evening.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Melissa Wong.

Uh hello.

Hello.

Oh, I'm sorry, I I didn't see a note.

Okay.

Um, thank you very much.

Uh good evening.

I appreciate the earlier uh comment because I was going to duplicate that, but I have a little bit more.

Okay, so um I'm a member of the board.

Uh I'm a board member of the Washington Homeowners Association.

So I also want to welcome the newest council member to the council.

Council member James Aguilar.

Um congratulations.

Although we are District Four, we of course look forward to your contribution.

And um, so far I like your enthusiasm and your energy.

Um, and um, I think um uh everything's gonna work out well.

Uh, and I hope that um the council will uh uh work together and move forward.

Um I was encouraged by the number of applicants and appreciate each person who apply.

So I hope that uh they um well continue to apply where there's an opportunity.

It was a thorough process, and I thought it was very fair.

Okay, on to a separate and um different note.

I wanted to give a shout out to the manor library.

Um I'm always an advocate of the library, in particular the manor library because that's in my neighborhood.

Um in this case, they have two volunteers, Kit and Sky Wu, who have been teaching Chinese Mandarin as a second language in the library on Wednesdays.

The mayor and council member Simon have also attended.

I encourage um everyone, not only council, but um anyone who's interested in learning a little uh a little bit more about the Chinese culture.

They not only teach Chinese culture, but they have interactive and interesting activities.

So I want to acknowledge them, but in particular, I want to thank the library for having um this uh ongoing um course, and I welcome anybody to join.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Bernard Ashcraft Yes, um Bernard Ashcraft, 31 year resident of San Leandro, and civil rights.

I'm here to speak on behalf of many people, including the big tent.

We now know that an effort is being made to get rid of our police chief as we're ever at, but you also are bumping up to another level where you're trying to also push out our city manager, which we will not stand for.

And I'm here to let you know that misdemeanor vehicle accident that was happened is not a felony.

And we know also that San Andrew has been known as a sundown city, not wanting black folks here after dark.

Well, that policy is still been activated, and we the people are gonna stand up and we're gonna fight for a sunshine city where there's an open policy for everyone, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity.

We know that the POA and others now are using the old Republican MAGA playbook to get rid of top black employees.

We will not stand for it, and we want to put you on notice that we will fight you forever, and we will go to wherever court we need to stop this mendice.

I hereby suggest that you knock it off and turn the city into a sunshine city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Carol Haberkos.

Hello, can you hear me now?

Yes.

Oh, hi, good evening, uh, mayor and city council.

I want to congratulate James Aguilar for his um a seat, new seat, and he's in my district, district two, so I'm really happy about that.

The other thing I want to bring up is I'm very concerned about the um the story about the homeless man being dumped.

I've been reading a lot about it.

I feel that um it needs to be investigated.

It seems like the report wasn't completed.

Apparently, this police uh handcuffed a homeless man and then dumped him and then apparently laughed about it.

So I feel like um there wasn't a thorough investigation that I saw, and it seems like there's a lot of missing pieces to this, and I think it's very, very serious for our city in uh for our city to be handling people that are in in need.

I have worked in a nonprofit many years with many um people who needed help, and we would never ever dump somebody and then laugh about it.

That is just really, really um shameful.

So I hope it is investigated.

I would like to know more about it.

I think the public needs to know and to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Um thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

Hello, everybody, good evening.

It's Emily Grego, uh CEO of the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

First um foremost, James Aguilar, congratulations.

Happy to see your appointment, and we certainly look forward to having an LA in your district, a business LA in your district, as I don't really think that we had one in the past.

So um looking forward to that.

I also want to speak on the parking situation.

I we, the chamber has been advocating behind the scenes uh regarding the parking situation, and we've talked to a couple of different department heads and had discussions, and I will say that we've generally been in favor of some parking because we have also seen the opposite happen where people park in the free parking for hours and hours and hours on end, and then they don't leave.

And so we've saw that being fixed over at Pelton Plaza when there were meters, that um, you know, customers were able to cycle through the parking once there was meters installed.

But I do understand that that best building parking lot is somewhat unique, and I also understand that we want to encourage people to park in the parking garage.

But there's a lot to be happening in the parking garage and trust to be earned so that people feel safe to park there.

Meaning employees long term, so that the um customer parking is available.

But I I hope that you all are listening to everybody's feedback.

And I'm also offering our feedback via email regarding the meetings that I've had.

So I think that there's more to this and more conversations to be had.

And especially when there's free parking right across the street, I do see the point that it's kind of hard to justify um paid parking on the other side.

So there's a lot to be worked out and figured out, and we're here to be part of the solution.

So happy to continue the conversations and get something that works for business.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are no more raised hands online.

So at this point in time, we'll close public comment and come back into the chambers for our next item.

At this point in time, we do we'll move to item eight, which is public hearings, but we don't have any scheduled for today.

And similarly for presentations.

You know, just one quick thought about public comment.

Um, when items are not agendized, we are prohibited by the Brown Act from discussing them in response.

So we can't respond to your concerns in this forum today, but we have taken note, and a number of us have taken notes so we can discuss with city management.

So just be on standby, be aware that we are hearing your concerns.

Okay.

Are you going to get back to us or what?

You should anticipate further discussion and outreach, both directly and through the folks that you've been chatting with already.

So at this point in time, we'll move on to our next agenda item.

But thank you for coming today to share your concerns.

So we will move to item 10.

I see it as a 10 B.

Is that a typo?

Oh, we moved 10A to the top.

Thank you.

Uh 10B.

So 10B is a uh a resolution that I have put forward.

I raised this at the council agenda setting two years ago.

And in particular, the problem that's being addressed here is that all of our residents in San Leandro are being defaulted to the most expensive form of electricity.

Uh, in contrast to cities uh other cities in Alameda County, our residents have lower median income, as was pointed out during the rent control discussion.

What I have what I'm proposing here is that we focus on defaulting people to the cheaper power, and then if they want to, they can upscale and pay a higher price voluntarily.

We know that a number of our residents are born in foreign countries, they have English as their second language and navigating systems to opt up and opt out, and all that change is just something as a practical matter.

That's not something that they can do.

Originally, we had forced folks into the more expensive power approximately five years ago, because um the Ava community power for bright choice was not so clean.

Over the last five years, that has changed materially.

It's approximately 95 between 90 and 95% carbon-free, GHG free today.

So uh what I have proposed is that we default people into the less expensive power, which is pretty doggone GHG free.

It's not completely GHG free.

Uh part of what I have done in uh touching base with the community has spoken with a number of environmental advocacy folks to just get their vibe.

Is this something that's okay given the trade-offs?

Because ultimately I have described this as a as an equitable outcome.

That's economic equity is the way that I'm framing it.

But I'm happy to answer any questions.

And then if you don't have any questions, we'll go to public comment and then come by for any remaining discussion.

Not seeing any questions.

I'm going to go to public comment on this item.

Mayor, we have not received any comment cards, and there is one hand raised online.

Okay, so we will open and close public comment in person, and we will open now public comment online.

Our first online speaker is Alvaro Ramos.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

So I think my concern is uh the increased price of oil due to the oil shock, which I'm talking about affecting the costs of transportation, production, and not just as a fuel in the bright choice mix um as sort of something that could be happening in the background.

We're not feeling the full effects of oil shock, but they should be expected to hit us in full swing this year.

And I mean, these are the consequences of overspending on defense and bad decisions on United States foreign policy.

I think renewable 100 is the way to bypass the negative effects of that situation.

Solar and wind minimize the effects of an oil shock because they're least dependent on it.

And they've also become uh competitive to the other energy sources right now.

China is way ahead in the United States on green energy.

And the United States is the least prepared country to deal with an oil shock because of our oil dependency.

I mean, if anyone here remembers the oil shocks of the 1970s, I think now would be the time to talk about it.

Because I didn't experience that, but maybe some folks here have.

I'm also concerned about uh grainwashing of uh Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant energy, which does run on a nuclear fission.

And as far as I know, that creates uranium waste and it sits on the coast and drums, and there's no proper waste facility to deposit it.

And then that's because there's no recycling upgrade to the nuclear power plant.

Probably because it's expensive to do it.

And then hydroelectric power is unsustainable.

I mean, one only need to look at the Oroville dam spillway that failed in 2017, and then the state of California had to go and fix that one.

Uh there's no effort here to tackle Pacific Gas and Electrics greed.

Privatized energy utilities are the problem.

It's the hundreds of dollars for PG ⁇ E and households keep cutting back again and again and again.

Thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next speaker is a phone number, it appears.

It starts with 134 and ends in 941.

You can unmute yourself.

Yes.

And I I don't have a working microphone on a computer anymore.

So I got given a phone number today to call in.

And this this whole issue with bright choice and renewable 100 is very close to my heart.

When I could not afford it, I signed up for Ava Energy.

It is the closest I will ever come to a green new deal in my lifetime.

And when I was finally able to sign up for renewable 100, it was worth it.

Even though PGE is now charging me three times more for delivery than they are for the electricity that I use through Ava.

I'm still gonna hang on to my renewable 100, but I understand the mayor's thought process on this.

And I know there are a lot of people who just don't know the difference between it, they don't know what this is at all.

And let's push them to something that'll save them a few cents.

Because with the latest change in PGE bills where they're charging low income low users, a huge.

I mean, my my PGE bill tripled because of what I'm paying now for delivery.

And I'm still willing to do it, and I still think it's a good idea, so I ask you to vote yes on it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes all raised hands online.

Okay, so we'll close public comment and come back to council member for uh any further discussion or questions that you may still have.

Okay, seeing none, I will move the item.

Do I have a second?

Councilmember Bolt.

Second.

Okay, so there's a motion by Gonzalez, a second by Bolt.

Seeing no further discussion, please vote.

All votes are in.

And the motion carries unanimously with six yeses.

And council member Bowen absent.

Moving to item 10 C.

Uh, we have a presentation regarding a potential future revenue measure.

We've got Deputy City Manager Eric Engelbart introducing this item.

All right.

Well, good evening, Mayor and Council.

Appreciate the opportunity to be with you tonight and to revisit our ongoing dialogue we've been having related to uh pursuit of a presential revenue measure that could potentially appear on the upcoming November 2026 ballot.

Tonight we'll be hearing some survey results as well as a related request from staff to authorize additional funding associated with community outreach efforts and related next steps.

Just a reminder uh for how we got here tonight.

You may recall back in February of last year at the special uh annual count council planning session, the council directed staff to explore potential revenue measures that could appear on the November 26th ballot.

Uh then in June, as part of the 20 FY26-27 budget adoption process, staff proposed including a $500,000 allocation to explore the viability of such a measure.

The council did not include the funding in the adopted budget, though council did concurrently direct staff to return to council once year-end fund balance estimates were available.

Those estimates were subsequently provided.

Then on December 1st of last year, uh the council did consider survey work, uh, though the item did not pass and was was brought reconsidered on December 15th, at which time council did direct staff to proceed forth exploring a potential measure, including conducting community outreach and as well as uh conducting a feasibility survey, also known as a scientific community survey.

Uh then you'll recall just about a month and a half ago on February 17th, uh, we presented to you all uh various revenue measure types, and ultimately you all directed staff to proceed to three of them uh for testing purposes right now through that scientific survey, which I'll get into in a few moments.

This slide and the next two ones should look familiar to you.

Um similar ones to this were presented just like six weeks ago at that February 17th meeting.

Just a quick overview of this for folks who may not have had the opportunity to see this or those in the audience, a little refresher.

Um, business license taxes recall, we already have one in place.

It's currently based on a flat rate based on business type and number of employees.

Uh over the past or in the FY24-25, we received about 6.9 million dollars in general fund revenue from that existing tax.

With that said, uh our structure, um, there is a number of other structures that we're seeing as regular practices throughout here in Alameda County, and it's becoming more typical uh through a business license tax modification modernization effort.

And the more typical structure we're seeing nowadays is a gross receipts model.

I'm taking for an example a rate of a dollar and a quarter per thousand uh thousand dollars of gross annual receipts, could potentially net the city about anywhere between 3.8 to 4.3 million dollars annually.

Of course, with such a modernization as well, lends the opportunity to consolidate various business types, make a more streamlined, less confusing tax structure, as well as also incorporate some uh market reductions in the annual tax rate for small businesses here in San Leandro.

Uh also worth noting, though, of course, like many taxes, it is an inextricably linked to the broader macro economy, and so there is some volatility there with the ebbs and flows of the market cycle.

Um such tax also is only requires a simple 50% plus one approval.

Um, and although we could not prior to this effort identify any polling data that have been conducted here in San Leonard's effort, in a few moments we'll be hearing from Brian Godby, our consulting services partner, who will be providing an overview of the recent polling data that was just derived from the survey work that just took place.

Um next up, as you remember, we talked about parcel taxes.

Uh city does not currently assess any parcel taxes, though there are other agencies here in Alameda County that do.

Um part of our analysis of that tax, recall there's different ways of structuring a parcel tax, including a per parcel rate or also a uh square footage rate.

And as part of our testing effort, part of that scientific survey work you're about to hear about from Brian, uh, you'll hear that we we split sampled different structures of that.

Notably, though, of course, these taxes ultimately be per state law require a two-thirds supermajority in order to pass.

And then last up, we have the vacancy tax.

We covered that in detail at the last discussion in February.

You'll recall Oakland is the only city municipality here in the United States we could identify with such an tax fully in place.

And we'd also discuss the although Berk the City of Berkeley currently has such a tax technically in place.

Uh it is facing um some potential legal hurdles or jeopardy in the future.

Unclear Helena tax will remain in place there.

As we noted, the administration of the tax is highly complex, requires an appeals process, and a lot of the revenue that's derived from it will be offset by the additional staff that are needed to administer it.

Notably since last time, this is new information.

And we did test this both in 2020, which uh through an informal polling that tested out of a little over 61%.

And you'll hear more about the latest from Brian.

And with that, I will now turn things over to him who is joining us via Zoom.

Great.

Thank you, Eric.

And uh good evening to members of the council.

Uh I'm pleased to be here this evening.

And uh let's jump right in.

Uh and next slide, please.

Uh great.

Uh so uh this is just a brief overview about the survey.

Uh obviously uh we've worked with the city in the past and we've looked at some of these issues uh as well uh previously, and we'll see that as we go through the data.

Uh the survey began with a uh questions to test the perception of city's provision of services and management of taxpayer funds.

We then turned to a hypothetical uh parcel tax and business license tax measure.

We did what's called a split sample.

So within the sample, we had two random samples, and one group got the parcel tax and one group got the business license tax.

We do that because if you say, what do you think about a parcel tax and then a business license tax or vice versa?

The second one always does worse.

So it's important to split that and get as clean a read as possible.

Uh in addition to the ballot questions that you'll see in a moment, we looked at a variety of things we might spend the money on and ranked the respondent priorities.

We tested both informational positive arguments and critical statements uh on the support.

And then we looked at the um respondents' forecast for the direction of the economy in the fall.

Uh, of course, the data uh in the survey is based on a wealth of demographic and behavioral characteristics that we use uh to uh segment the sample up front and then validate it on the back end to make sure that it is representative of the city of San Leandro.

Uh next slide, please.

The next slide gets a little bit more into the methodology.

Uh data collection was phone and online.

Uh yes, there are still a few people who answer landline uh calls to participate in a survey, more obviously from cell phones, uh, but the vast majority is from a text or an email invitation to do an online survey.

Uh the universe was likely November 2026 voters.

We were in the field uh March 9th through the 19th.

Uh the average phone survey was 25 minutes long.

That's still the way we measure length uh of a survey.

Uh, and then the sample size was 600.

Uh our goal was 600, rather, and we completed 607, which gives us a margin of error for the overall survey where we're not splitting the sample of 3.94, but the ballot question splits are plus or minus 5.6.

Next slide, please.

So the next slide is that initial uh satisfaction with city services.

And uh when you add the very favorable and somewhat favorable together here, our top bar is the current survey.

You see 59% have a favorable uh view of city services, uh 21%, somewhat unfavorable, and only 9% very unfavorable.

There's also about 10% in round numbers that don't know.

When you compare that to the survey that we did for the November 2024 voters, it was actually conducted in June, but the universe was November.

Uh, you can see that it's at 56% when we add the variance somewhat together.

Uh, and so you know, that's a nominal increase.

It's not statistically significant, but it's going the direction we would expect it to, and it's what we've seen repeatedly throughout the Bay Area as the further we get from the pandemic uh favorability on these kinds of measures improves.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh the next slide is the favorability of the job the city is doing to effectively manage public funds.

Uh, this is always lower for every city because there's a larger don't know.

Uh, and that's also common uh in throughout the Bay Area.

So again, adding the very and somewhat favorables together, you see where 43% favorable total versus 41% in 2024.

So again, a small increase, but it's certainly going the right direction.

Next slide, please.

So the next slide is the first of the two ballot questions that we tested throughout the survey.

And you can see the wording on the right-hand side of the slide.

This is the parcel tax measure.

The wording conforms to the statewide legal requirements.

It can't exceed 75 words.

It has to have a tax rate, which is $95 per parcel.

It has to have a term, which is until ended by voters.

And then it has to show how much it would raise annually, about $6.9 million.

Some of the other things are up to the council if they want to put those in annual adjustments, independent oversight, those sorts of things.

And then you see a bulleted list of the things that we thought from previous surveys might still be the best items to include in the 75 words, understanding that we only get 75 words.

So by definition, it is just a high-level summary.

There can be a lot more detail in the full text of the measure.

So we presented this item to them.

We then asked definitely yes, probably yes, probably no, definitely no, don't know.

And you can see when we add the probably and definitely yes together, we're at 53%.

As Eric mentioned earlier, a parcel tax requires a supermajority of 66.7 in round numbers.

And you know, this has got a long way to go.

Next slide, please.

The next slide, and again, just to reinforce this was the other part of the split sample.

So this is the two are separate.

You either got one or the other.

Again, excuse me.

The wording is in the right-hand side of the slide, uh, and it has all the components that make it legal and meet statewide requirements for a business license tax.

Uh and then again, when we add the definitely and probably together, you see where it's 63% in round numbers.

This requires a 50 plus one majority.

So obviously we've got a cushion there.

Next slide, please.

Uh, the next couple of slides I'm going to go through quickly in deference to the council's time.

Uh, but in these questions, this is a list of all the things we might spend the money on.

There's some split sampling going on here as well, and that's why the bars are different colors, but not to dwell on that.

Uh, the point is to present these in a random order and figure out which things are the priority uh for the voters uh for the proceeds from either one of these measures.

Uh at the top of this list, you see repair potholes and maintain streets.

Uh, it's 1.09 on our intensity scale, which is how we rank them, and 77% at least somewhat more likely to support the measure.

So that's very important to the residents.

Maintain public safety infrastructure to ensure rapid emergency response is second.

Uh, and then third in our top tier, which each tier is statistically tied within it, but different than the one below it.

Uh the third item repair and maintain critical public safety infrastructure to ensure rapid emergency medical and fire response at 71%.

So again, with the margin of error, you can see how those are grouped together.

Uh, in our second tier, we have provide updated life-saving uh fire and police equipment, maintain park infrastructure and use services, maintain emergency and disaster preparedness, maintain neighborhood police patrols, enhance senior and youth programs, uh, all in the mid to high ish 60s.

Uh so those are uh really solid for a simple majority threshold, but for two-thirds, they're right at the two-thirds threshold.

Uh next slide, please.

And the next slide continues that second grouping uh with provide violence drug gang prevention to maintain school safety, main repair and maintain parks and recreation facilities, uh, provide services to reduce homelessness.

Uh again, in the mid to low 60s now, certainly good for a simple majority measure, but for a two-thirds measure, uh, they're not reaching that level.

Uh, then we're into tier three, and these items, well, important, obviously, uh, and we don't want to diminish that, uh, but they're just not the priorities that the first slide was.

Uh, next slide, please.

And so the next slide switches gears a little bit.

Instead of what we're going to spend the money on, we're now talking about uh factual statements that are essentially positive in nature, but they're things that people need to know about the measure.

Methodology is largely the same as we just discussed.

Uh, large businesses and corporations will pay their fair share, so homeowners don't shoulder the entire cost of repairing uh and keeping potholes safe.

Uh, that's certainly true for the, and you can see the split sampling here.

That's true for the business license tax.

Uh, then we have under the measure large corporations and major commercial businesses, not small businesses, uh, single out will pay the largest tax amounts.

That's for the entire sample.

Uh, the measure ensures that the businesses pay their fair share.

Uh measure requires strict fiscal accountability protections, including financial audits and public disclosure, uh, and then large property owners will pay their fair share.

Uh, so homeowners don't shoulder the entire cost.

And again, we're testing different wording of the same idea, uh, but they really test it at the same level.

And all of these are in the high to low 70s.

Uh, so again, uh for either a two-thirds measure, they do exceed the two thirds, but they far exceed it for a simple majority measure.

Uh, next slide, please.

This question was continued.

Uh, it was certainly a longer one.

Uh, and um, this is the remainder of the top tier, uh, and that is the measure will give San Leander local control, another accountability measure, uh requires citizens' uh independent citizens oversight, uh, yet another accountability component.

Uh the measure is more the the San Leandro has more than 509 miles of streets, uh, and this measure will help repair those.

And then finally, uh ending tier one, we need to fix potholes in the neighborhoods and prevent accidents and damage to cars, etc.

And we're into tier two, and now we are at the two-thirds threshold.

So these things for a parcel tax aren't as helpful.

And next slide, please.

Uh, and as you can see here, we're you start at that two thirds level, and we then go down uh into the low 60s, which for the simple majority business license tax is certainly uh good information, but for a two-thirds parcel tax, it's just not there.

And next slide.

So the next set of questions, we switch gears and we look at the other side of the coin.

These are the negative statements.

Now, not only are each of these question sets randomized internally, but half of the respondents got the positive informational statements first, half got the critical statements, and then the other set.

And we do that because we don't know how people will wind up hearing about the measure uh in the real world, and so we're kind of randomizing it to make it um make it a little more fair on both sides.

Uh at the top of this list, and the higher it is, the worse it is.

So this first item is the measure approved if this measure approves a permanent tax that will continue forever, taxes should include an end date so that voters can determine if they still are still needed in the future.

That's 66%, at least somewhat more likely to vote no.

Uh with continued high inflation rates, tariffs, gas prices, grocery prices, etc.

Uh at virtually the same level.

The city has increased real estate taxes, sales taxes, and utility taxes.

Now they want to do it again.

Uh voters are facing uh a Bay Area regional transportation tax for BART and this new city tax.

We can't afford all these new taxes.

Uh city can't be trusted, uh, is lower down the list.

Um, and then this is just another property tax that places burdens on homeowners.

That's of course asked only of the parcel tax, and the measure uh is a new tax on local businesses, which is business license tax, and it'll make them hard to maintain jobs in the city of San Leandro at 56%.

So that's getting closer to that simple majority threshold.

So clearly not as strong as the top of the list, um, but still over the simple majority threshold, and something to be aware of.

Uh next slide, please.

So this question set two was a longer one.

Uh here you see the remainder of uh tier uh oops, sorry.

Uh that was it for the critical statement.

Sorry.

Um now we come back to our ballot questions a second time.

Again, this is split sample A, the hypothetical support for the parcel tax measure.

Uh the bar on top is the first test at 53 with the positive information.

And even in the face of the negative, we get up to 56.

But again, this requires a two-thirds uh supermajority, so it is not um going to be successful in all likelihood.

Um next slide uh is still uh split sample A, but it's a different version of the parcel tax.

Uh so instead of the $95 tax rate, uh, this is six cents per parcel per square foot.

Um, and this one doesn't do as well.

Uh when we add the definitely and probably together, we're only at 50%.

So people like the flat rate, they like knowing how much they're gonna have to pay rather than having to do the math, uh figuring out the square foot uh rate.

Next slide, please.

So uh the next uh question is the other split.

So this is the other half of the sample, and this is the business license.

And again, we started at 62.6.

Uh, and then after the information, we uh again go up, and this time we're at 64.7, nearly 65% in around numbers, certainly 15 points above the simple majority threshold, gives us a nice cushion, even with the margin of error.

Uh, and like the parcel tax next slide.

We had an alternative, which in this case isn't a different rate on the business license tax, but is the vacancy uh tax that Eric talked about at the beginning.

Uh, and you can see the wording again here.

This one, uh, assuming it's a simple majority measure is Eric and uh no, sorry.

Uh it was a simple majority, we thought, but then we found out it's a two-thirds.

So this is at 61%.

And you can see that we're uh we're not reaching the the two-thirds threshold.

And then last question, or second to last question, two more.

Sorry.

Uh the this is uh the AB 1416 list.

Uh, and what that means is uh every election, every registrar can decide whether they want to include people on the ballot, the actual ballot that are supporters and opponents.

Um so in this case, we're testing uh the people that might be those supporters and opponents to see you know which ones are most important uh for either side of the coin.

Uh at the top of the list, you see firefighters, local small business owners, then police officers, chamber of commerce, uh county Alameda County Taxpayers Association, uh, the mayor and council.

Uh, and then next slide, please.

And the next slide is our final question.

This was that forecast on the economy that we talked about.

Uh, if you focus on the burgundy portion of it, that's the people that think it's going to be worse.

Uh, again, November uh this year is at the top bar and it's 54%.

Uh, think it's going to be worse in the fall.

Uh, in November of 24, that was just 39%.

Uh, so it has gone up significantly uh with all of the uh economic trials that have uh happened since the survey in 24.

It's not surprising.

Uh and we see this pattern virtually everywhere.

And 54% is about the middle of the pack.

Uh we've seen it in the Bay Area as high as 64 uh and probably as low as 46.

Uh so you're kind of grouped with most of the cities in the Bay Area that we've done this same question for.

So that's the data that I have for this evening.

Um I can turn it back to Eric.

Okay, well, thank you so much, Brian.

Uh, just to wrap things up here, we appreciate all that uh insightful information that Brian just shared in terms of just next steps as well as covering an outreach plan.

So based on council direction tonight, and and to the extent the council does authorize additional funding as part of the staff recommendation we'll get to in a few moments.

Staff is prepared to commence with community outreach, and that could include examples such as things you see on the sub bullets there, community listening sessions with those interested parties and local stakeholders, uh distribution of community outreach and informational flyers.

We could also do some additional non-scientific survey work to our communications team as well as online informational messaging.

And we would also be prepared to, if so directed by you all to return to council uh in maybe the June or July time frame with a proposed ballot package uh for adoption, which would then elevate it to the Nobember ballot.

Um so just to summarize in conclusion, our recommendation from the staff level is that you that the council directs staff to proceed forward with the community outreach and engagement efforts associated with the business license tax in particular, and that recommendation is based on the uh polling results information that just that Brian just outlined for us.

And then related to that is also a request to adopt the resolution that's included in the packet tonight, which is if adopted would appropriate up to 185,000 to conduct community outreach efforts.

I would also know, and as Sherr stated in the staff report, we of course, as always, given our budget circumstances, we'll do everything to constrain costs.

And to the extent we don't spend that 185,000, we will, of course, leave our goal would be to leave money on the table and to restore it to fund balance.

Uh, and then that could be channeled through an existing contract.

And that concludes our presentation.

And then I would note that we do still have Brian Godby on the poll on the call for more technical questions related to the polling results.

And we also have Mani Moss from Clifford Moss available on the line as well.

And that we're wrap things up.

Happy to answer your questions.

Thank you so much.

I think what we're gonna do is we're gonna take public comment on this item, and they'll come back for questions and discussion.

Mayor, we have received one comment card from in the room, and we have two hands raised online.

Please proceed.

In person.

Our in-person comment card is from Sarah Bailey.

Thank you.

Welcome, Councilmember Aguilar.

You may be the only person on the dais who doesn't know how strongly I support investment and city infrastructure.

A few weeks ago, I asked the mayor and council to undertake a ballot measure that supports road repair and public safety.

I told the council then that I thought these two things were what people in San Leandro cared about the most.

Please vote, all of you, as city staff recommends to continue community outreach about a measure that would modify the business license fee.

I want to point out that it actually lowers the fee for most small businesses.

It requires only 50% plus one to pass, just like the uh citizen-led measure.

Um call that one a Christmas tree bill with shiny ornaments, or a specific infrastructure project selected in a cynical effort to induce support.

This one wouldn't tie the hands of professional city staff in public works and engineering.

They prioritize projects by their own intricate scoring system that's based on the city's named value system, not by popular vote.

Please vote now with city staff's recommendation.

I'll help get out the word any way I can.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes the comment cards from in the room.

So we'll close public comment in person.

Please move online.

Our first online speaker is uh Douglas Spaulding.

Well, hello from the virtual land.

Um let's go.

Business tax.

Uh it's no secret.

This the city needs money.

And so I'm I'm right now putting it out in April, no fooling.

The people of San Leandro need to support this measure.

Not only does the city need to move forward, but then when it's on the ballot, the people of San Leandro need to vote for this money.

Um I'm interested in the vacancy tax.

It seems like we're a little ways away from that.

Maybe that requires some some work of you know a few years down the road.

What would be interesting to know is um uh uh how would this stack up against the citizens' measure that's anticipated that you know it would also be on the ballot.

Does that does that draw votes away from that?

Is it possible that both measures would pass?

I don't know.

Uh I I appreciate the citizens' efforts.

I would support the measure, except that it doesn't conform to the the city's uh well publicized priority list of Capital and 2 improvement projects, which as uh Sarah Bailey just pointed out is you know determined through uh through a very um uh rigorous uh rubric.

And uh in contrast, the the projects on the citizens list are uh are designed to just get votes from every one of the districts.

Uh in fact, there it's antithetical to the priority list because these are projects that didn't rank so highly on the priority list.

So, in essence, they leapfrog all of the work that was done by uh our professionals and the city of public works and under the guidance of um director Marquises.

Uh to me, that is undemocratic.

Uh I would venture to say it's it's unethical.

Um as much as I you know, I think there's more money coming that way.

I I have to say vote against that one, vote for the business tax.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Alvaro Ramos.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

So I uh wanted to maybe one of your presenters can uh provide some more information on the age of your participants and the demographics of the sample collected.

I noticed that landlines were a minority of what was in the sample, which is probably a good thing because that means you know, senior citizens is not is not the majority, maybe, but we still need to know more about that because you know, how do we know that the data is representative of the city population?

And I'm also thinking about you know, communication.

Um, you know, within the business license tax, I think I saw some language thrown around about simplifying, and I'm just wondering is that flat taxes?

Are we talking about removing tax tiers?

And you know, those are things that have to be, you know, talked about.

I mean, I don't know if a parcel tax would pass or not.

Um, maybe if you made the the period of time less, like less than 30 years.

Um, but the polling showed there wasn't sufficient support.

And I think there's a lot of unanswered questions around the vacant property tax.

Um, I I mean, it I remember from the last presentation, it kind of felt like it was more about you know empty housing, but I don't know if that also is about like empty storefronts, like for businesses, or is it gonna it could be both?

And then of course there was a concern of uh legal disputes with that one.

Um, you know, I think the the one thing that you know I I that really irks me is that you know, based on the the the what I had learned about the city's budget that police is like one third of that.

And so if one penny goes to the police, I would just vote no, quite quite literally if it was funds for the police.

You just can't have guns and butter.

And I agree with Sarah Bailey on infrastructure needs, but I also think there needs to be uh reprioritization of funds.

Just as a reminder, taxes are a tool for steering the economy to stability and limiting excess demand to control inflation, and that's what the federal budget failed to do when Congress passed tax cuts.

Thank you.

Your time has elapsed.

The next speaker is a phone number ending beginning in 134 and ending in 941.

So hi, this is Jenny Madson again, and I used to have a landline in San Leandro, but ATT took it away, like they take away many of them.

So now I have a cell phone, a crummy cell phone, but 341 is the new 510.

I was told I could not get a 510 phone number.

So that said, that's enough introduction.

I feel very strongly about the business tax.

In all the cities in California, and I've lived in a few, particularly in the Bay Area, everyone is struggling to maintain their infrastructure.

They haven't been able to do it ever since Prop 13 passed.

And what Prop 13 did was give businesses the same low tax rate.

So most of these cities only get 20%, like St.

Leandro only get 20% of their operating budget off of parcel taxes.

That is not the way to go.

And I think the business tax license is a good idea.

I live in the industrial part of town.

I drive past big warehouses all the time.

San Leandro was for many, many, many years the home of big square footage with hardly any employee businesses.

And I think the city is missing that these businesses are not supporting the infrastructure.

They're driving on the streets, they're dealing with, they're using the city infrastructure and they need to pay for it.

So I feel pretty strongly about this.

And thank you for listening to me again.

Thank you.

The next speaker is San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

Hi, everybody, Emily Gregos, San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

So this is um what I was talking about at one of the last meetings.

Every topic that seems to come up here at City Council is always about the business community.

And then the business community has some challenges, and we've got to, you know, do a lot of advocating to get the help that they need.

So it's just it's a frustrating place to be.

You know, our membership does consist of really small businesses and some of the larger businesses.

So and not everybody does reside in San Leandro, but their businesses are here, so they don't always have, you know, a vote in this.

I would just like to ask for more outreach to the community.

Um, I would like to also get some more information out to our members.

Perhaps they feel like maybe this is a good thing to keep the city moving forward.

I doubt it.

But you know, I wish that an economic plan was really just focused on about how to grow businesses and not just always taxing them.

So if we could find some balance there and get Bayfair up and running with some really great support and some businesses around there, and we could figure out the shoreline and get a business in the shoreline, which doesn't seem to be happening.

That would be fantastic.

But you know, I don't know.

There's doesn't seem to be a huge focus on just growing the local businesses and inviting new ones in for a real strong focus of you know, 10 years instead they get taxed a lot.

But you know, I would just like to ask that there's more outreach so that we can find out how um the business community is is um feeling about this.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.

So we close public comment online and come back to council members for questions, discussion, deliberation.

We'll begin with council member bolt.

Yes, thank you for the presentation.

Um couple of things pop out to me, potholes, potholes, potholes.

It's it's no wonder that's where we're always at.

Um flat rate.

That's that was interesting to understand the difference there.

So thank you for that.

Um then the other one on slide 23 where it said the least important people to hear from is us.

That stuck out to me.

Um I do have a question about when I said ask the mayor and the city council.

Um they aren't gonna uh sway any votes in this.

Uh but uh slide 18 that was uh reasons for a no vote, correct?

Like at the top, it was that's correct.

Okay, all right.

And then so the way I'm reading this in D, that means it means that 66% are at least somewhat more likely to vote no.

If there's not a timeline.

If they hear that argument, that's right.

If so, so if they hear the argument that we have zero timeline, you threw out 30, we'll just go with that.

If we don't put a timeline, a sunset on this tax, they're more likely to vote no.

That's correct.

Right.

As an individual item.

And the reality, of course, is that they look at the positives and the negatives, not in isolation, but together, and that's why we asked the second ballot test.

Um, so while you see that uh some of our positives are much higher, uh, some of these negatives sort of offset that in both cases the parcel tax and the business license tax, we got an incremental increase from the first test, uh, which suggests that the positives are outweighing the negatives, even though some of the negatives are strong, some of the positives are equally and actually more stronger.

Understood.

Yeah, I I mean I don't I was just is that something typical that you're seeing in the other cities that you do this as well?

Because I I hadn't pinned that down in other areas.

Yeah, that the to simplify it, the forever tax uh is almost always the top argument against any municipal measure.

And when we're discussing D, we're talking about a business license tax, correct?

Um no, that's the entire sample.

Burgundy uh is uh it was asked of everybody, sample A, the green bars are the parcel tax, and the blue bars sample B are the business license tax.

Oh okay, all right.

That makes a little more sense.

Okay, I confused that in my brain, and I was interested to hear that.

So thank you.

And that's that's my question.

Next we'll come to I see another questions here.

Um I do have a couple of questions myself.

So I I noticed that some of these are well, maybe I should frame it as a question.

Is there a material difference between?

So just take the slide that we're on right now.

Is there a material difference between 1.14 and 1.0?

Is that something that's exciting to me?

Does that really matter?

Or all of these are basically statistically the same?

Uh the difference between 1.14 and 1.04 is not statistically significant.

Uh it needs to be a point two difference or high or greater either direction, up or down, uh, for it really to be statistically significant.

And you can see that when you look at not getting into the margin of error for the different splits here, but 66 plus or minus means you got to be 56 or in reality more uh below 56 for it to be statistically significant because that 5% margin of error is plus or minus.

Um so that means you need a 10% differential from high to low uh for it to be significant.

So everything on slide 18 uh is essentially tied from a statistical perspective.

There are, of course, numeric differences, and at the end of the day, if we're looking at the positives or the uh features that we might spend the money on, you've got to come up with an order on, you know, when we're putting together a measure and so using the order, even though it is not statistically significant, is then our rule of thumb for 30 years.

Okay, second second question.

When we think about critical statements, and you're going to do all of this outreach potentially that we're being asked to consider funding.

Is the outreach to drill down into these critical statements?

Or is it for another purpose?

The outreach, and I'll let Bonnie comment on this as well, but uh from a survey perspective, uh the it's not the critical statements that drive uh the outreach messaging.

It's what are the top things people want to spend the money on and what are those uh informational statements?

They're all factually correct, uh, that uh are at the top of the list.

And so that would this would be on slide 15.

Uh so it's the top four or five at most that we want to focus the informational messaging on rather than trying to debate back and forth with the critical statements.

Okay, so just if you can drill down into that.

Are you saying that because we have now slide 15 up on the screen?

Right.

Are you saying that that outreach is to amplify awareness of these?

Well, it's to amplify the awareness of factual components of the measures.

Yes.

But it is not to advocate, it is not to abdicate, it is to explain the what the measures do and how they do it.

So elaborate.

So just you know, we're gonna go spend potentially 200,000.

Give me uh an example in a day of what you're doing.

Bonnie, you want to happy to do that.

And even good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Council members, Bonnie Moss with Clifford Moss.

Um the the way I look at the poll is that this research helps us by simulating the real conditions in an actual election window.

Should a measure go to the ballot.

So that's why we we we strive to understand both the positive informational messages and the negative informational messages.

But as we go out to tell the city's story, we have a responsibility to tell that story accurately with facts and information, um, and also using this research to help inform that conversation.

And of course, our goal is to elevate the exchange that happens with the community.

And we do that through opinion leader work, uh, whether it's meetings, stakeholder meetings, town hall meetings, uh, individual one-on-one conversations.

We do it with direct mail, we do it with digital, we do it with um uh thought-provoking uh invitations to weigh in and ask the community uh to give us feedback, whether online or in a response return uh card back to us.

But by doing that, we find that um we get good information.

Um it is not unlike the poll, but let's remember the poll was with 607 people, not thousands who live in the community.

And we also uh get to hear what the community is really favoring in all of these different situations that I've just described.

So that's perfect.

So just to make sure that I'm understanding.

So if I'm right now we're looking at slide 15 letter C, which is number number uh the second item at 1.31.

So if I'm understanding you correctly, you will meet with groups of folks and as part of those meetings, you'll say, well, as part of this measure, large corporations and major commercial businesses, not small businesses or single family homeowners will pay the largest tax amounts.

Tell me about what you think about that.

And it's in their verbalization that you will be learning more about this.

Okay, thank you.

At this point in time, I'm gonna come to council member Simon, please.

Questions?

Two questions for you.

Uh the first one is on this business, this license tax.

The amount of revenue isn't very much.

It's like four to six million annually, something like that.

4.3 million additional in addition to what you currently hear.

Right.

But just comparing that to what our needs are in the city, which are vastly in excess of that.

What is our our plan?

I mean, sounds like this is a viable solution.

It's just not enough money.

Have we thought about you know what will this really do to help us out of our infrastructure, deal with our infrastructure needs?

I'm I'm happy to comment here.

Um, good evening, council member.

Um the environment that you have described just now is reflective of what most cities are struggling with.

There will never be a measure that solves all of their uh challenges and problems and meets all of their needs in one measure.

And so most cities, and San Leandro fits this profile as well, simply need to go out for a measure, do what they say they're going to do, earn the support from the community, um, perform and keep their promises that were um suggested in the measure, and then go back out for another measure and leverage that more.

Um, we just simply do not see a lot of measures or a lot of communities who are willing to do one mega measure in a community um to meet every need in one fell swoop.

We just don't see it.

Thank you.

And my second question has to do with the vacancy tax.

And it looks attractive from the polling, like it would pass if we proposed it.

However, it looks complex, like we it would be difficult to administer.

So I'm curious.

I mean, we can get the support for it, it looks like, and it makes a lot of sense because it brings in money and it it removes blight from the community.

Two things it takes care of.

Is there a way that we can, even if we don't have the solution right now, how to administer it, but we can get approval for it.

And we will figure this out, how to administer it.

Brian, do you want to comment on uh yeah, from a polling perspective, we get 61%.

We need two-thirds.

Uh and the margin of error is plus or minus uh six in this case.

So we could be at 59.

We could also be at 60 uh 67.

Uh, it's unlikely we're at 67.

Uh in most of these revenue measures that we go put on the ballot, we're within the margin of error on election day, but it's usually on the downside.

So I would say that the vacancy tax is actually not viable at the two-thirds level.

If it could be a simple majority measure, it's a different story.

Okay, I I hear you.

I'm looking at an older slide, my my bad.

No, no worries.

Thank you.

At this point, we will come to Vice Mayor.

Thank you to the team who put all of this together.

Um, I definitely see our input in the um presentation.

I have a question regarding, I'm just looking ahead in the funding horizon.

And um the question is if this were to go to the ballot, assuming best case scenario, the voters approve.

When does this actually hit the books in terms of fiscal year?

Bonnie, if you're excuse me, Brian or Bonnie, feel free to chime in, but my understanding on the implementation timeline for the uh business license taxes after the once the vote has taken place and it's affirmed through the official election results.

Um and the council has accepted those results.

That that is that is sufficient authorization to implement.

Uh that's correct.

I would say, and but the parcel tax is a little bit different.

The parcel tax has to be placed on the tax rolls.

So you can't start collecting that as soon because the county assessor's got to put it on the tax bill for fiscal 27 28, not 26, 27.

That would take longer for a parcel tax.

So let me just clarify my question.

Um I was specifically, and I'm sorry to not make it clear.

I was specifically asking regarding um the business license tax.

Um, because there was talk about streamlining the business license tax, which means kind of there's implementation time on the back end.

So again, the question is if a business license tax were to be approved by the voters, um, do we have an estimated fiscal year or when it would actually hit the books?

What I would say is typically our standard protocol here is the business license tax invoices go out in January time frame.

Um, and that's when they would go out.

So presumably also typical certification deadlines for elections is well prior to that, you know, after the election, November election as to whether or not we would be able to implement that prior as by that January outgoing.

I would think so.

I I think if I may, I think we would begin to see the revenue start coming in in fiscal year this next fiscal year, right?

It would start coming in in in January, February, you know, and then throughout I think we would really see the the effects of a full year the following.

Okay.

So we are just to be clear, we're looking at a um I'm just thinking about looking ahead what's before us in terms of council decisions on the budget.

Really, it would be a nominal increase to the fiscal year.

So we're looking at at the current fiscal, at the upcoming fiscal year.

Um so we're look we're we're looking at the same kind of variables in terms of that decision.

Um my other question was regarding um the citizen, a possible citizen uh proposal and its interaction with this.

Um has that been part of the analysis in terms of what if both of them are voted positively, if both of them pass.

I guess we don't know what they're doing.

So yeah.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Maria.

Yeah, because that is the citizen initiative staff is not involved in it.

Okay.

I'm just wondering if that having that on the ballot at the same time would change our what our uh probability looks like in terms of passing it.

I mean, it sounds like the business license tax has a lot of kind of leeway and a lot of slack, so to speak.

Um I'm just worried that if there's two that folks might just be like no to everything.

Yeah.

My my analysis of that, and again, as Eric said, you know, we didn't we're not privy to the citizens' initiative, but to the extent that it is a property-based tax.

Um I think it's similar to the parcel tax that we tested here.

Now, this was a parcel tax that the city would sponsor in the survey, but it only got 56% in round numbers.

Second test with a 6% margin of error.

So it could easily be below a 49% threshold.

The business license tax, of course, got 65% with a 6% margin of error.

It's at 59.

Uh so it has a cushion.

I would say, and Bonnie could come on this too.

Uh, confusion is our enemy.

Uh, and confusion will result in both measures being getting less than we were looking at here if they were on the ballot at the same time.

I think that means a property tax type measure probably fails.

And we could probably, if we do our job, the business license tax could be successful because it just has a bigger cushion.

Thank you.

I agree with that.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Steph, for that presentation.

My question is with regards to the business license tax.

Um for every what is it, 1.25 for every thousand dollars of gross receipts?

Did we did we toy around with increasing that number of 1.5 to see just to try to maximize?

I'm just trying to understand how do we come up with that 1.25 numbers.

Thank you, council member.

I can I can share with you uh some of the background on this.

We uh were aware as always, we're always looking at what other adjacent and other cities, neighboring jurisdictions here in the East Bay and in Alameda County are doing.

Uh the city of Union City uh in a recent election cycle just went through a similar exercise with a business license tax modernization.

And so the structure that's before us here uh largely mirrors that one, although I would share that that rate in Union City is actually slightly lower.

I believe theirs is like, was it a dollar?

A dollar per thousand square foot.

Uh I'm sorry, a dollar per thousand dollars of gross annual receipts in Union City, which when you do the math, that that markedly reduces that figure of additional revenue we're seeking.

And so it was kind of a balancing to see, you know, we certainly mirroring the structure made sense because Union City has a well-tested model in terms of the structure.

Needed to recognize though, we also needed a measure in order to make the juice worth the squeeze a larger rate.

Um, and this 3.8 to 4.3 million dollars would also make a market beneficial impact to the city's general fund bottom line, and uh also helping to mitigate our ongoing structural deficit, and then also again providing you know, potentially more funds, annual funds to provide the important services that our community members rely upon.

Got it.

Thank you.

And and with regards to the vacancy tax, I know we don't have any financial numbers.

Um, do we have some sort of ballpark estimate?

What this could potentially, I mean, uh, the numbers are, you know, with the margin of error, it may or may not pass.

Um, but with the revenue estimates not presently available, do we have like uh a ballpark figure as to what this could potentially bring in?

We did, and we you know, in order to have done the survey work, uh, they had to, in the question to make it a valid question, had to include a dollar amount.

Uh, and so we did that based on um based on uh uh the experience in Oakland, um, and and you know, acknowledging that if we were to go down this route, we would certainly engage an expert uh in this area, uh, spend the money to to get the the uh you know uh a more accurate projection.

Um we based it on the you know a comparison to the number of parcels uh assume the same vacacy rate uh in Oakland to what we have here, and then extrapolated to to uh the amount shown.

And the other piece I'd add on to what does uh deputy city manager Clausen just shared, knowing that the per state law, the ballot language just talks about how much total revenue it's gonna derive in a given year, but it's not taking this number is not taking into account all the costs of what I call basically an overhead, which is unique with this tax because we literally would have to hire staff to administer it, have to have that appeals process, identification of the parcels, a notification process and the business or any property owner has the ability to contest it and say, no, no, I'm not actually vacant for X, Y, or Z reason, identify reasons that are eligible, and then provide a hearing officer if they want to appeal that decision.

So there's quite a lot to that for context in Oakland.

I think they have three and a half FTE administering their program.

Now, on a net basis, Oakland is still it is still a net revenue generator for the city of Oakland, but one has to basically this three million dollars, you have to take that with a pretty heavy grain of salt, knowing that a good chunk of that is going to be basically offset by the cost of administration of the tax.

And that's what's just comp makes this particular tax more complicated than than all the others.

Yeah, thank you for that explanation.

Um, I think those are those are my questions.

Thank you.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the presentation this evening.

I want to drill back into methodology a little bit adjacent to Mayor Gonzalez.

Um, so on slide eight, just to throw that up there real quick.

Um, I think an important statistic that matters to me, at least in how I see this presentation, how I see the data that you've presented, um, is something that's in the footnote that I don't see on here.

Can you tell me a little bit about this age spread of those 607 folks?

I mean, historically, 18 to 25 is a group that doesn't turn out as much as at least we're seeing climb a little bit.

But with the reality that standing under residence, at least the voting population is an older population.

So I just want to get a good idea on the spread of age in in your methodology.

Yeah, sure.

Uh good question.

Uh, just uh at an overall level, the sample is stratified and then weighted uh based on uh 14 different variables, including gender, age, ethnicity, uh presence of children, uh education, homeowner status, um, and um, let's see uh as well as um individual party, household party, uh gender composition, voting frequency, uh, as well as city council district, which is really important because that's geographic.

But to answer your question directly, uh it is weighted to the likely voter universe by age, 18 to 29 is 10%, and I'm rounding 30 to 39 is 16 percent, 40 to 49 is 15 percent, 50 to 64 is 26 percent, uh, and 65 plus is 33 percent.

Uh and I'll just add that one of the reasons why we appreciate God be research is they put so much attention on creating a mirror image of who we expect to turn out in a November election here in this case.

So it matches like a mirror uh the demographics that the of who votes in San Leandro.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

That was my one question.

Thank you.

At this point, we'll go to council member Simon.

Yeah, I wanted to follow up on the vacancy tax again.

Um, similar to council member Aguilar, and I understand the numbers don't look positive based upon that slide.

61% compared to the two thirds that are necessary.

But my what I really like about it, and I heard it from my colleagues before is it just cling up cleans up our city.

We have a lot of blight in our city, and this is not just bringing in money, but it's it's helping to improve the look of our city, which can help us in so many other ways.

So my question is if we if we did move forward with a business license tax, if we went for this one at the same time, even though the cushion wasn't there or it did it didn't look very likely, what would we have to lose if we're already going out for measure if we went with one that had so much benefit to our city?

I'm happy to comment on that.

Um by simply saying we are in a very turbulent economic and political environment.

And that's one of the reasons why we are um recommending the um early listening and pre-electoral conversation.

So we can certainly have that conversation in the pre-electoral window.

Uh, one of the risks of um public agencies putting on more than one measure that are sponsored by that public agency, is that voters may um misinterpret um the measure and say, wow, they're just they want to go for it all.

So we're not in the mood for that, and we're voting no on everything.

That can happen in this environment.

So we would say if there is interest still in both, understanding where the numbers lie today, that we would really be including that in part of the conversation with voters and community prior to coming back to you with a final final recommendation.

I mean, we want to listen and we want to share with you, the council what we've heard.

But there is some risk to doing that.

Thank you.

Yeah, I do see the risk.

I hear it.

Um, I mean, I do see the business license tax where it would get a lot of support because it's not impacting the normal voter.

It's impacting the business, so they'll likely vote for it because it doesn't impact them.

And I can see the vacancy vacancy tax in the same way, where they don't have a vacancy vacant property, so they'll probably vote for it.

I'm just trying to I I see a parallel in those two, and I don't see it in your numbers up there, just in how someone would think through this.

Just in how someone would think through this.

Brian, what do you think?

Yeah, I think that it um you're correct that there is a similarity between the sixty-five percent we got on the second test of the business license and the sixty-one for the vacancy.

But again, the thresholds are what it's all about.

The business license is a fifty plus one.

So it's a fifteen point cushion.

The vacancy tax is a two-thirds, so it's got a six point six and a half point def a five six point deficit.

So I I just don't think you're gonna, even though voters average voter doesn't pay a vacancy tax.

Six points to get it over there.

It's just not gonna happen.

I just I mean, I see that the theme here is just cleaning up our city.

And I would really hope we would get more support from our community.

I mean, your numbers aren't showing it, but um, I really um hope that these wouldn't tear each other apart, and neither would pass.

But we're in need of money.

We really are, and I'm concerned we're not going for enough.

Thank you.

Um, I don't have any more questions or comments.

I actually wanted to move forward with a recommend with a motion, but I I know please do.

I didn't know if you wanted to have some all right.

I'd like to make a motion to direct staff to proceed with community outreach and engagement efforts associated with exploring the viability of a business license tax modernization and adopt a resolution that appropriates up to a hundred and eighty-five thousand to conduct community outreach and authorizing an amendment to the existing consulting services agreement with Clifford Moss.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Okay, so we have a motion from council from Vice Mayor Fedos Walton.

The second by Councilmember Aguilar.

Is there any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

All votes are in, and the motion carries unanimous unanimously with six yeses and the council member Bowen absent.

Okay, at this point time we will take a ten minute recess for our nine o'clock hour, and we will be back at uh ten minutes from now per the timer on the clerk's clock.

So we're officially in recession,

Okay, so having exhausted our break, we are back, and the time that we're coming back on the record is nine nineteen.

At this point in time, we move to item ten.

A discussion to consider restorative justice mediation for the council.

And Councilmember Simon, you have the floor.

How restorative justice mediation would be a good way to help resolve issues early on and resolve them more effectively.

Um in Berkeley, there's there's at least two of them agencies that provide this type of mediation.

And one thing that I think or actually two total of three things uh that I recommend we do as a city or as a council.

One is that we implement this retortive justice mediation, but we implement implement it in the process of updating our discipline policy because they go hand in hand.

You have to have um the restorative justice uh melded into that discipline policy.

Uh but those two take staff time and they take costs.

So I recognize that.

And we just had a workshop looking at cost savings, and this did not rise to the level, the discipline policy.

But the third thing I think we can do, and I'd like to move this item tonight, uh, which doesn't require cost, is to take down the online discipline items that have been up, some of them for two years now.

Um, and the items of interest under the city clerk's page, items one, four, and five.

Um, because those items do not lend to us moving forward.

Okay, so just very quickly on the last item.

I'm gonna come to city attorney because I don't think that's agendized.

So I don't think we can talk about that today.

But I'm just gonna get a read from city attorney.

That's correct, that's not agendized, but the council could provide direction to agenda it for future meeting okay.

Thank you.

So just if you don't mind, I've got three things.

You said there were three points.

One is to uh possibly implement restorative justice mediation uh during a discipline policy update.

And then I had this last item.

What was your number two item?

Well, the first was the council agreeing that restorative justice mediation is needed.

Got it, thank you.

Second is it's needed, however, it must be implemented as part of the discipline policy.

That's number two.

And the third is I'll make that motion for us to discuss that later.

Perfect.

Thank you.

I appreciate the clarification.

Other questions for council member Simon.

Okay, I'll ask one other I'll ask one other quick question.

Um, the distinction between restorative justice mediation and just mediation.

I don't have a direct answer for that.

Okay.

Uh Vice Mayor, please.

Uh yes, thank you.

Um that actually does was part of my question because it's my and I don't have that in front of me, but it's my understanding that that um part of the disciplinary process does involve some sort of mediation on behalf of the mayor.

Am I misreading that?

Am I misremembering?

I can bring people together to have a discussion.

I can have individual conversations with people.

Right.

Right.

Um, okay, so it's not so it's mediation, but not restorative mediation.

Because restorative okay, I I understand.

Um I um I don't have questions, I have comments, so this is the time for questions.

Any other questions at this time before going to public comment?

Okay, seeing none, let's take public comment.

Okay, council member Aguilar, please.

Yeah, there's talking more about this uh and thinking about it.

So uh the considering restorative justice mediation for the council.

I um my question is how uh how would this be?

I think uh Vice Mayor Veterans Walson had mentioned, but how would this be handled?

Is this gonna be through a third party, or is this uh for the mayor to kind of get involved in um or uh hire a consultant?

May I answer that?

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Yes, there's I've been doing some research online, and there's several agencies in Berkeley that run this and have done it for a number of years.

Uh UC Berkeley in particular does it for Berkeley.

Um, but there's some other agencies that do it, and they have training that they advertise in mediation for other agencies or corporate corporate different companies.

So that's I would recommend we would outsource that when the need arises.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's my question.

Councilmember Bolt.

I think you just answered my question, but this would only be in a scenario where it's council member to council member uh and and at that point we would look to hire outside staff to do remediation.

Yeah.

Please proceed.

Yes.

And this would be part of a tool bucket we have to use, not guaranteed we're going there, but this is something you know we can vote on as a council and say, why don't we try this method first before something else?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, at this point we'll come to council member Aguilar.

So I don't know if this is a question for council member Simon or um Mayor, you can help me direct my question.

Um but my thought for right now, because I have other thoughts is around this idea of having that third party mediator is my question is do we as a council take ownership over the decision on who that person is or what does that look like?

I just want to throw that out into the air because that could also take some time for discussion.

That could also take an extended uh um conversation beyond when and where and the details.

That's that's something that concerns me about this is who is it that's running the the process.

And so I know you have suggestions, I know you have an idea of who that might be, but my concern is where how does that process happen?

So first of a few questions I think I have for now.

If you could just go ahead and leave your mic on.

That'll be okay.

Thank you.

Yeah, I would say when we're updating the discipline policy, uh, this is something that we could flush out, and perhaps we could have someone on call every year or every two years that we have vetted different companies and they're ready to go if we need them.

Is that the only question?

Okay, perfect.

Coming back to Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Um I I guess I'm I was under the assumption that this was that the restorative justice mediation based on the background on the um on the background on the um on meeting central, it is specific to the investigation and the subsequent disciplinary hearing.

It was specific to that process.

What I'm hearing now is more of that it's not related to that, but just to have something on that in the future.

So I'm I'm confused because the the background is is specific to that whole cycle of events and subsequent disciplinary hearing and action.

Can you clarify if this is a time and point mediation or what are you proposing is to not do mediation regarding to that specific is not an SNET, but more of a anyway, to that situation, or are you are you saying that's no longer the case?

You just want to have someone on deck or an organization on deck to mediate future conflicts that arise.

Yeah, that's what I'm leaning towards is future.

Um I think if the council so chooses, we can do this for the past incidents that have occurred, we can do that.

Uh but I see more value in the staff time that we've got.

It's pretty pretty stretched thin.

Um that what could help us resolve future issues more effectively than we have done in this past one.

Okay.

Um so if what we're looking at then is um the scope has now changed.

Um we as a council then um want to have a um are we a restorative justice mediation approach or philosophy towards conflict resolution.

I believe that should go to rules committee.

I I because if it is to be included in terms of our our official approach that we want to take to conflict mediation, um as it stands right now, there's not enough there there for me to to do that because that means we have to submit an RFP, have organizations or folks who specialize in this submit the RFP.

I mean it's theft time.

It's theft time to do the work to get someone on deck just in case something else comes up.

Um I'm not there yet.

So before going into too much commentary, what I'd like to do is take quick public comment and then come back for council members to share their um their views on this.

Mayor, we have not received any comment cards in the room.

However, there are two hands raised online.

Okay, I think we are receiving one in the room.

So let's proceed online first.

Our first online speaker is Douglas Spalding.

Well, hello, dear friends.

Uh I I've been advocating for a restorative approach to um issues that have uh been ongoing on the council now for more than a year.

Um to respond to the question of how does restorative meet how is restorative mediation distinct from mediation?

Mediation I think of as a negotiation.

Uh for example, me um uh me uh negotiating with my ex about how much I'm gonna pay her to buy her off of my title.

Restorative mediation focuses on harms that are done.

Uh it's more akin to truth and reconciliation, which has been done successfully on big big scales, but I think can also be done on uh on the scale of just the city council.

Uh I don't think of this as a process that is between two or more council members.

I think of it as a process that is among all of you as a council.

In other words, all of you are sitting in the circle and contributing and expressing all of the harms that you felt and really trying to hear what the harms that have been done to other people.

Um it turns out that council member Aguilar probably is the the best uh trained among you in conflict resolution of this type, but but he shouldn't do it, nor should the mayor.

It should be a third party.

I think you need it for the current circumstances.

And I would counsel you to give it a try and try it and see if you like it and if it's effective.

And then if it's effective, then maybe uh think about adopting it into your uh you know crimes and consequences, uh city council rules and whatnot.

Um I think the first step is that someone else, in addition to uh council member Simon needs to call up and get more information.

I know there's a uh uh concern about the closed session, private process, and you can't do this in open session.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next speaker online is Bob Bailey.

Hello, um counsel.

Um mayor et al.

Um I'm speaking on this in part because I have a background in mediation, a past president of two community uh-based um mediation organizations, both in Berkeley and San Francisco.

Um first of all, I think it's should be clear that it's a it requires third-party neutral to mediate.

Um so you're on the right track there.

I think the idea of mediating as a group, frankly, is not what restorative justice mediation is usually designed for.

It's to where there's a claim of harm caused by one individual to another, um, then the idea is to bring in the third party.

And what makes it restorative justice is it's about healing and trying to repair the harm.

That means preconditions for entering into any kind of uh uh restorative justice mediation requires that it be voluntary for both parties, that it be confidential, that it be respectful.

But prime what particularly important is that it's about the party who has been accused of producing the harm has to accept responsibility for the impact of their actions, not having to, you know, if not about whether they intended the harm or not, but they have to accept responsibility for the impact of their behavior.

And then the intent of the mediation is to seek a remedy that um addresses that harm.

Um so I hope that's helpful.

I think I would think it does make sense if you do change your um discipline process procedures for the council that this be one of the options available for uh the parties involved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.

So we'll close online public comment.

We will open in person public comment.

We receive one comment card from Jeff.

Thank you, council members.

Um I'm gonna speak to Fred directly.

I don't think you've presented something that's worth consideration.

It's vapid.

I'm gonna ask you, I'm sorry to be rude, but we try not to direct specific comments to specific people if you wouldn't mind addressing the body.

This proposal has been presented without any supporting evidence.

The part that Fred presented today appeared to be nearly word for word Google AI for those three terms together.

Um I don't I think the questions that are asked by the council members here support the idea that there's just no information.

This is a really vapid presentation.

Frankly, I think it's to evade responsibility.

That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are no more comment cards.

So we will close public comment in person and we'll come back to council members for discussion.

If there's any kind of motion, you know, I'll certainly look to council to initiate uh a suggestion.

Councilmember Simon, we begin with you.

Uh first I'll make a motion for future discussion to take down the on-dine online discipline items from the items of issues website.

Councilmember Aguilar.

I'll take it.

And next is far as the So we're gonna take that motion, right?

We've got a motion on the floor.

Uh we've got a motion by council member Simon to adjust the information on the website uh under, I believe it's called items of interest.

Is that correct?

Okay.

Um so what questions, if any, do council members have for council member Simon.

Okay.

At this point in time, Council uh Vice Mayor, please.

Um so this is for future discussion.

Um was there a submittal of any kind of background information on this?

Did it follow our process?

I want to come to city manager.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Uh this item is coming as a question to the council within a different item.

So there is no previous process that is required for the council to consider agendizing this question on a future item.

Okay.

Um I uh I'm not supportive of it because pure on process.

Uh there's a format and a process that we follow.

If we want to have something agendized, submit a proposal, send it to the city manager, and then we talk about it at the end of the meeting, and then if we have the votes to do that.

Um, I don't think this is the right process.

It's two totally different things.

Um, so I'm I I just I'm not supportive of it just based on process and and and how it's being presented, kind of nested in between another issue that's not that is not necessarily related.

I'm I'm gonna come to the city attorney because how is this related to the topic of restorative justice mediation?

Because it seems to me that otherwise you can agendize, you can offer a motion on any topic.

So I'm just trying to get the nexus to restorative justice mediation.

I would probably defer to council member on on how he views the nexus.

Um in terms of this particular process, you know, it um it seems to fall outside the council's typical procedure.

Um I will just note that there can't really be any substantive discussion on the substance of the request to agendize, it's just procedural.

So I'll my comments to that.

Okay, I think I you know what you see from the chair here is I am struggling because item talks about restorative justice mediation.

It does not talk about our city website, it does not talk about a prior investigation.

So council member Simon, I will afford you the opportunity to try to make a connection at this point in time to what's been agendized for the public.

Uh sure.

Uh I think restorative justice mediation, it looks at a different method to solve problems to solve issues rather than punitive discipline rather than harsh discipline.

And I think that posting the investigations on the websites for up to two years is the opposite of restorative justice.

I think that it doesn't help heal anything by having it up there.

So that's the nexus is we want to heal things on our council.

And I think having a discussion on pulling that down is one step to helping us heal, which is part of restorative justice.

So I would request that we could take a vote, please.

Okay, so I'm gonna come back to you.

You had told the council earlier that as you were thinking about restorative justice, it was about something going forward, and that that was your intention.

And now I'm hearing a motion that's not directly related to restorative justice, but it points backwards.

Um again, I'm gonna come back to city attorney and ask given the descriptions provided thus far.

Is this an agendized item?

It is not part of it is not this agendized item.

Okay.

Yeah.

So what we're gonna do is we're going to take this item under item uh 12, is it?

And item 11, and we'll explore how that's being handled there because it's it's not part of this agendized item.

I believe you had a second motion that you wanted to make it.

Yeah, the second motion is to, and I would agree with vice mayor to bring this to rules to have a discussion how to implement restorative justice mediation into our discipline policy.

So that's my motion.

I'm gonna go to councilmember Aguilar Point of order clarification.

I can't comment on the last motion because you put that under 11, correct?

Yes.

Okay, then I'll wait for that.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bolt.

Um I'm getting confused.

Where are we at?

What are we doing right now?

What are we going backwards?

Are we that there is currently a motion to take the uh to the to have a restorative justice mediation um the possibility of incorporating restorative justice mediation within our discipline policy to have that discussion occur at rules?

So it's kind of a motion to move this discussion to rules as we contemplate our discipline policy.

I'm gonna stop and ask, is that a fair summary, Councilmember Simon?

Yes, and going forward, adding as a toolbox for future issues that may arise.

So that's the motion.

Do you have a second for that?

Not currently.

I will second taking this conversation to rules.

Okay.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Uh I was gonna second, but thank you.

Okay.

Councilmember Bull.

I get a sense that we will have consensus on this, but let's let's just kind of do it, take a quick poll if just moving this to rules.

So I'm not gonna have not gonna have unanimity, it appears.

So maybe we need to take one moment, please.

Okay.

So I think that uh we're going to go ahead and take a vote.

I just thought maybe we could get a quick, a quick uh unanimous consent sort of thing, but we can't.

So let's go ahead and vote on this motion to take this discussion uh as laid out by council member Simon.

Move the discussion to rules.

Uh please vote.

All votes are in.

And the motion carries with six, sorry, five yes votes and vice mayor's waltzone abstaining and council member bowen absent.

And so coming back to council member Simon, does that close out your item?

Yes.

Okay.

So we have item 10 D closed, and we are moving on to item 11.

Have we had any item 11s submitted city manager?

Just because you're not on a mic, I will repeat that the answer was no.

No, sir.

Um, so the answer is no.

By our process, then we move to item number 12, city council reports, calendar, and announcements.

It appears uh council uh vice mayor, please.

I wanted to thank um staff for a fantastic um ribbon cutting of our farmers market at the library.

It was uh rainy day that was cold, and we still had a lot of people that came to the market.

And also for folks out there, there's a whole bunch of new um food options at the farmers market.

So there's a couple of the old favorites, but there are some cool new options.

So if you're hearing, please join us um every week at the farmers market.

Um, and then I'm also planning on doing some tabling sessions at the farmers market.

I'll make sure to um announce them publicly.

Um I have them every year since I started.

Um, and those are that's the end of my comment.

Thank you, councilmember Aguilar.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to have a word of appreciation for the council mayor and staff for a really warm welcome.

In the last couple of weeks, I've been meeting with folks um in the city staff um on council for advice and how how do I do this, right?

Um, but nonetheless, I've gotten such a warm and inviting and lovely welcome, and I I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart.

Um, and so I I'm looking forward to working on this team.

Um, because I know we have a lot of work to do, right?

And I'm looking forward to being a part of those conversations and helping to push the conversations forward, helping us really enforce governance and protocol procedure, because that's that's the world I come from.

Um but in addition, I also wanted to say um just a shout out to the business community.

I went to the taste of San Leandro um just the other night, and uh that was lovely.

And I hadn't realized how how many great diverse options there are in our city, uh, and what that says about us as a city and who our people are, who our business community is, who makes up San Leandro.

Uh and so you'll see me ask data questions just related to that, like I did today on methodology is who are we having these conversations with, who are we gathering data from?

That's important to my worldview.

Um, but just otherwise uh uh a gratefulness and a thank you for the welcome, and I'm looking forward to doing the work.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Uh thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.

On Wednesday, March 11th, I attended the 1145th meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Alameda County Mescalabatement District.

We um passed a resolution to honor our county at large trustee Kathy Roach.

Um we also move forward with the desolution, uh dissolution of the ad hoc policy review committee.

We also appointed an ad hoc manager evaluation committee for our general manager.

Um we also approved replacement of a 2015 Easton Frontier 4x4 with a leased 2026 Nissan Frontier um 4x2.

We also went through the state of California Master Mutual Aid Agreement.

And with regards to our lab reports, surveillance in February 2026 indicates Alameda County remains in a low winter season public health risk period.

Arbal virus testing for West Now virus, Saint St.

Louis Encephalitis virus and Western Equine Encephalitis virus remains negative across all birds and mosquito.

So the collections were dominated by Colix Tersellus and Colosetta in Arata, the species that commonly remain active during winter conditions.

So that I have no 80s Egypti um to report or that were detected during February and uh no West Now virus to report.

Uh I also wanted to touch base on the National League of Cities Conference.

I attended that March.

Oh, I have it on my calendar.

Um anyways, I attended National League of Cities Conference and DC with my some of my fellow colleagues to advocate for for federal funding.

Um we got to meet with uh staffers from council uh congressman Latifa Simon's office and uh Congressman Eric Swabol's office.

And I attended the um ITC meeting, uh LGBT CULO meetings uh and various uh sessions at the National Neo Cities Conference.

So that's that concludes my report.

Thank you, Councilmember Simon, please.

Yes, I also wanted to give a shout out to the local businesses like um James, Councilmember James Aguilar has.

I went to the Taste of San Langel last Thursday night.

It was an incredible event to see so many different businesses and sample their great foods and great great um beverages.

It was a very nice event and met a lot of people.

A lot of people from the city staff were there, community members were there, of course.

Business was there.

It was a wonderful event.

I'd encourage, I would encourage everyone to go out next year.

It was really good.

I also attended the National League of City Conference with my colleagues March 14th to 18th.

One of the good programs I went to was an opening session for the youth program.

And it was really, really exciting to see high school students from around the country that were presenting their involvement with local government.

And there was some youth here from right from the Bay Area, one from South San Francisco, another one from Novato, and just hearing how the youth are making the voices of the community, making policy stronger from the youth level, and hoping that we can perhaps do that here too in San Leandro.

Also went to a session on looking at solutions to help in homelessness.

That was very uh powerful.

Um, also using housing as an economic development tool.

And it was really great to meet our representatives, uh, Senator Padilla's representatives and chiefs to help bring in money for some of our projects, such as the Llewelling Boulevard Multimodal Safety and Complete Streets Project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bolt, please.

Yes.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh, we'll just quickly say I also attended the uh taste of uh San Leandro.

It was a great event.

There were a lot of good options, and I appreciated the uh business community coming out and sharing that uh with everybody in one place and giving us the opportunity to really uh look into um seeing their uh going to their facilities in a lot of them I had been to before.

Um, but it was it was neat to be there and hear the conversations around what they're doing next.

Um with the appointment to EBDA East Bay Discharge Authority.

Um on the 17th, I did my first uh um operations and maintenance committee.

Um understanding the role that EBDA plays um and all the different aspects that go into what they do along with the overall commission meeting.

So the 17th and the 19th, and then on the 24th, I took a tour of San Leandro's um facility down at Davis.

Um really enjoy the opportunity to learn about this and uphold our values uh on that committee.

Just going through this, it's how much goes into it is amazing.

The amount of water they move is just insane.

And I will be setting up another tour because it it consists of a lot of other areas in the East Bay.

So more to come on that and uh how we can help support them.

And that's it.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Uh thank you, Mary Gonzals.

I'd like to um inform the public that I will not be at the April, Monday, April 20th meeting, um, because I will be on the flight in flight from Hawaii back to Oakland during that time.

So I will not be able to attend in person.

Thank you for that.

Okay, so just for me quickly to wrap us up, um remind folks that we have state of the city on April 28th, doors open at 6 at the San Leandro Senior Center.

So it's in about what is that about three weeks from now.

Um I sit on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and one of the things that we have been focused on is streamlining the permitting process and making sure that we can keep driving uh economic development within the nine Bay Rail County region.

Uh, like my colleagues, I attended the National League of Cities in mid-March.

I think we were highly successful at moving along our two uh requests are now sitting at the appropriations committee.

So thank you to all of the council members uh for the good work.

East Bay EDA, East Bay Economic Development Association had awards last week that we attended, and two San Leandro companies were recognized, Fuse Technologies based here right across Caddy Corner to Kaiser for their work in the fusion space and B3 Investors for the uh work that they have done to revitalize revitalize and transform spaces.

And so uh you know, it's a good night for San Leandro.

We were proud.

Um attended an Alameda County Transportation Committee, but I want to focus on a specific element, namely the Central County Connection uh sub meeting that we had.

So there is a corridor running along Llewelling all the way out into Castro Valley, and ACTC has been focused on how to make it more accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists.

And it was a discussion about different projects that are going to be prioritized in that quarter, and it afforded us as uh commission members that are within that region to provide some feedback and make sure that the work that Public Works does is aligned with the work that we're doing so that we're coordinated and uh making sure that we're being responsive to resident needs.

Um a fun activity was uh attending the Coca-Cola bottling plant, right?

They invited all of us to attend.

I did carve out a little bit of time to go visit and take a picture with a FIFA trophy.

And that was fun.

Councilmember Bowen was there as well.

Uh taste of San Leandro.

I'm glad that so many people made it.

Uh, I was not able to make it, but my wife and I were able to sponsor.

Last couple of things, there are significant number of commissions uh in Alameda County that are desperately in need of folks to volunteer to serve, whether it's the commission on aging or I don't know about the veterans commission if you have openings.

I regularly get a list of commissions, and perhaps city manager, maybe we can even put like the put the list up on the city website or someplace, just because there are so many opportunities to get connected and to offer your talents and experiences.

And all I can tell you is when I go to the mayor's meeting, there's always openings.

They're always looking for people to support.

And so I know we've got a lot of talented people, and the opportunity is there.

Okay, so I'm gonna just close by um I know this is uh the Easter.

We've got Passover, Ramadan finished not too long ago.

It's kind of a just a heavy religious time of year for many members of our community.

And so, in recognition of all that and and really hoping that those uh religious folk focused celebrations help to drive peace and healing, not just uh here in the United States, but really around the world.

So in the search for peace, we're gonna adjourn in the name of peace.

Have a wonderful evening.

And the time is 10 01.