Okay, it's seven o'clock and I'm calling to order the city council meeting, standard of city council today.

It's Monday, May 18th.

And it's like I said, 7 p.m.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge the allegiance.

So at this point in time, if we could have.

I guess I'll do my announcement first.

So today we've got the swearing in of an appointee.

Uh, it's under section 10A.

I'd like to move it to the section four recognitions.

If there are no concerns, seeing no concerns, we will make that adjustment to our agenda.

And uh let's see the city of San Leandro conducts orderly meetings for fill its mandate, discriminatory statements for conduct that would potentially violate the Federal Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four and or the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, California Pial Code Sections 403 or 415 are per se disruptive from the meeting and will not be tolerated.

Please say the city council handbook and city council meeting rules of decorum for more information, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Mayor.

For purposes of our roll call.

Present.

Councilmember James Aguilar.

Present.

Councilmember Victor Aguilar.

Present, thank you.

Councilmember Fred Simon.

Present.

Councilmember Sue Bowen.

Present.

Thank you.

Councilmember Dillon Bolt.

Here.

And Mayor Gonzalez.

Present.

Thank you.

Now for our public comment 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.

Then wait for public comment on that item to be called.

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

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

A countdown timer will appear for their convenience.

And when the time is up, the microphone will be muted.

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

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

After the 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.

So we did not have a closed section, closed session today, so there is no item three to consider.

For item number four, we've got our 10A recognition, the motion to appoint and Rixon to the senior commission.

We already took public comment during the nomination process.

Are there any questions or follow-ups on this item?

Seeing none, I believe that we can move straight to a vote.

So if you would please vote.

Okay.

Can I please have a motion?

So moved.

And who was that?

That's uh council member uh Bowen, right?

Yes.

Thank you.

Uh Vice Mayor.

Second.

Okay, so we got a motion by Bowen, second by Viveros Walton.

Now please vote.

Councilmember Bowen, may we have your vote, please?

Yes.

Thank you.

All votes are in and the motion.

Motion carries successfully.

At this point in time, would we please uh move to the swearing in?

So if you could just raise your right hand and repeat after me.

Okay.

I please state your name.

I and Rickson.

Do solemnly swear or affirm.

Do you swallow solemnly swear?

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 the Constitution of the State of California.

That I take this obligation freely.

That I take this obligation freely.

Without any mental reservation.

Without any mental reservation.

Or purpose of evasion.

Or purpose of evasion.

Purpose of evasion.

And that I will well and faithfully discharge.

That I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter.

The duty upon which I am about to enter.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

And thank you, Mayor and City Council, for confirming and then um voting me in, thank you.

I really am looking forward to helping the seniors of our city.

Okay, so now we are going to celebrate National Police Week.

And we've got two recipients here today, Jose Sanchez and Ruth Canisal Vialobos.

Did I say that right?

Vialobos, yes.

Where are you?

Are you in the back?

You can't receive it back there.

Come on up.

Welcome, welcome.

How are you guys?

Doing well?

Yes.

Alright, stand right here, right here, right here.

Either way.

However, we want to do to this.

There's so much going on here.

I'm gonna give you guys a little bit of time to just very briefly introduce yourselves at the end and talk, you know, 30 seconds, you don't need to panic, you know, but be mentally preparing, okay?

Yeah, look at that smile.

That's how you know everything's wonderful.

Okay.

So whereas in 1962, the United States Congress and the President designated May 15th, the week of May 15th, or May 15th as uh Peace Officers Memorial Day, and the week in which it falls as National Police Week, and whereas National Police Week honors police officers who have dedicated their lives to the service of humanity through public safety, and to the 26,950 officers who have given their lives in service to this noble cause, and whereas everyday San Leonardo police officers work to protect our residents to enforce laws and to keep our community safe in accordance with core values of teamwork, integrity, professionalism, and service.

And whereas San Leader Police Officers are proud to serve and report for duty with knowledge of the dangers they may face, and the sacrifices that they may be called upon to make.

And whereas this week we pay tribute to the police to the police officers who protect and serve bravely in pursuit of a safe San Leandro.

And whereas we locally take time specifically to remember and to honor three San Leandro police officers killed in the line of duty, Fred Haller, Donald Spingola, and uh Nels Daniel Daniel Neme.

And whereas, in honor of all the fallen officers and their families, U.S.

flags in the city of San Leandro should be flown at half staff during Peace Officers memorial day.

Now, therefore I, Juan Gonzalez III, Mayor of the City of San Leandro, do hereby proclaim May 11th through 17th, 2026 as National Police Week in the City of San Leandro, and encourage residents to encourage all residents to join the police department in honoring our three fallen officers by visiting the public safety memorial located in front of the San Leandro Police Department.

And to that I'll just add very briefly that we did have some long riders come and visit our city.

I think it was last week, the week before, traveling from across the state of California, but visiting us from other states, to really help us remember and bring tribute to those that have fallen in the line of duty.

So very grateful for what they did in support of our city in particular.

But what I'd like to do is pass the mic to the two of you so that you can introduce yourselves, make it a little bit real.

30 seconds.

So you don't have to go the whole biography in whatever year I was born, like two years ago or whenever that was.

You know, maybe you've completed some recent training, for example, hypothetically speaking, something like that.

Hi everybody, I'm Ruth.

I've been, I'm probably one of the newest officers with San Leandro.

I just finished the field training program, and I just graduated at the Academy in December, and I'm just happy to be serving the community.

Hi, my name is Jose.

Um, I've been with the city of San Landro for two years.

Uh, this was my past uh this past week was my two-year mark here.

I used to work uh Oakland Police before this.

Um very happy to be in this community.

Uh I love the city, I love the community that we serve, and uh we're proud to be here.

I know you want to take a picture.

So then I think that's why it's literally.

Thank you.

At this point in time, we will move to our consent calendar items.

Would council member was there any council member who would like to pull something from the consent calendar?

And if not, I will go to public comment on this item.

Is there someone who would like to pull something from the consent calendar?

So seeing no desire to pull any of the items from the consent calendar, we'll take public comment on this item.

Do we have any?

Mayor, we have not received any comment cards, but we do have one hand raised online.

Okay, so we are opening public comment in person and closing it accordingly, seeing no commenters.

We will move online to open public comment online.

Our online speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Uh thank you, City Clerk, and good evening, council members.

Uh, I would like to call attention to item five A of the consent calendar as an example of yet another consulting contract the city is about to uh uh lean into.

Uh I really um wish that you all were uh taking a careful, a more careful look at these things.

Uh, from what I can tell, this is a uh a contract that may be worth up to one million dollars over a term of up to five years.

So that would be about uh two hundred thousand dollars a year on average, uh, in order to um manage and administer um uh uh what's it called?

Um workers' compensation.

Uh so one question it it raises in my mind is that a big problem in San Leandro?

Like, do I know we have a large workforce, but uh are there a significant number of workers' compensation claims more than one might expect?

Uh, but the other idea that occurs to me, my sister used to do uh this kind of work, um, and uh while it does require some specialization, it's you know, not like you need an advanced degree.

So thing positions like this, I just think like, uh, couldn't we set up a desk in the uh city hall someplace in the finance department and um and allow someone to take care of that.

Maybe there wouldn't be a lot of claims, and maybe that would free up the person to do other kinds of work for the city while they are employed uh by the city.

But I just think like, you know, we have problems like this that arise, and then we think, oh no, we don't have anything set up for that, and so then we just sort of like knee-jerk automatically go and find the expert and pay that consulting fee, which I have to believe is more expensive than it needs to be.

So thank you for your ongoing diligence, and that's all I have.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.

So we'll close public comment online, come back to the council if there's any discussion.

If not, uh, willing to accept a motion.

Uh Councilmember Victor Aguilar.

I'd like to move the consent calendar.

Okay.

So I've got a motion by Councilmember Aguilar and Council uh Victor Aguilar, and I've got Councilman Robolt next.

Second.

With a second from Councilman Rabolt.

Seeing no further discussion, please vote.

Councilmember Bowen, may we have your vote?

Yes.

Thank you.

All votes are in, and the motion carries unanimously.

Okay.

Okay, at this point in time, I do not believe we have any uh executive reports.

So we will move on to public comments.

Opportunity for the public to comment on items that are not on our agenda, but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council.

How many comment cards have we received?

Mayor, we have received 15 comment cards.

Okay.

And then how many hands are raised online?

There are two hands raised online.

Perfect.

Okay.

Um, let's go ahead and begin in person.

Our first three in-person speakers are Susan Gonzalez, Dan Finley, and Mike Katz Lakabe.

And if speakers can be very efficient with our time and later be standing like almost next to the other person so that we can get all 15 of you because we do have a 30-minute limit.

And if you even want to cut your comment short by 10 seconds, then we can make sure that everybody that's at present will be able to speak and not have to wait until the end of the meeting.

Okay, thank you so much.

Please proceed.

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Mayor and uh council members.

My name is Susan Gonzalez.

I'm a longtime resident of San Leandro, and I am the assistant treasurer of the citizens for a safe and vibrant San Leandro.

Um, I know that we can all agree that the city of San Leandro is very nice uh place to live.

And you of any group also know that there are many streets and facilities that need improvement, and city needs exceed our resources.

Our group is supporting a local citizen-led bond measure to improve streets and infrastructure with public oversight.

And I'm hoping that the city council will work with us and support our endeavors.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Dan Finlay, Mike Katz Lacabe, and Faye Clements.

Uh good evening, Mayor Gonzalez, uh, Vice Mayor Vivirus Walton and Council members.

Uh, my name is Dan Finley.

I'm a resident of district one.

I'm here tonight about the 41 flock safety license plate cameras the council approved in April 2022.

Since that vote, a great great deal has come to light, and very little of it is good.

Flock has been formally found in violation of state law in Illinois.

The California Highway Patrol has issued a formal warning to Flock for SB 34 noncompliance.

San Francisco's own audit logs documented over 1.6 million illegal out-of-state searches of its system, including searches explicitly tagged for ICE fugitive operations.

A Texas Sheriff's Deputy used Flock to track a woman who had a legal abortion in another state.

Police officers in at least 14 documented cases have used these systems to stalk ex-partners and strangers.

In January, a researcher showed dozens of flock cameras streaming live to the open internet.

Stolen flock police credentials have been found for sale on Russian cybercrime forums.

Mountain View terminated unanimously after its own police chief said Flock had, quote, absolutely failed.

Santa Cruz and Los Altos Hills also canceled.

A California class action suit is pending.

Flock's own CEO has admitted the company didn't build the protections it promised.

San Leandro has not published its flock audit logs.

We don't know who has searched our cameras or why.

Earlier this month, I filed a public records act request seeking that information.

I hope to get it soon.

I'm asking this council for a simple test in two parts.

One, audit the cameras yourselves.

Direct staff to show you in public exactly what the flock system has been used for since 2022.

And if you don't like what you see, cancel the contract.

Mountain View did, Santa Cruz did, Los Altos Hills did.

San Leandro can too.

I'd welcome the chance to meet with any of you on this.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Mike Katz Lakabe, Faye Clements, and Paul Wellenkamp.

Well, I couldn't have planned that better.

Uh, this is Mike Katzakabe.

Good evening, honorable mayor and city council members.

Um I'm here tonight to draw your attention to some other issues regarding Flock that you may not know.

So, first, Flock's patent for analyzing the images captured by its cameras doesn't just include license plates and vehicle identifications.

The patent states that flock safety will use neural networks to identify and track humans and then filter them into searchable databases using a person's age, clothing type, gait, posture, gender, height, race, and weight.

So the 86 cameras the city is currently paying for will be used to identify and track people, and the data from those cameras is now being used to train Flock's product to identify and track people.

Second, Flock terms Flock's terms and conditions have changed to eliminate the statement, quote, Flock does not own and shall not sell customer data.

Yeah, they changed it.

The revised terms and conditions also grants Flock Flock, quote, a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide license to A, use and disclose customer data to provide Flock services, and B use customer data to support and improve Flock's products and services.

That means Flock keeps the data when the contract ends and uses it however they want.

Under the new terms, Flock's liability is capped at 12 months, so fees.

Even if Flock acts with gross negligence or willful misconduct.

Maybe it's worth reconsidering whether this is a company that should be receiving money from the taxpayers of San Leandro.

On a completely unrelated subject, since I have a few seconds, I would also like the city council to consider a moratorium or a complete ban on data centers in the city of San Leandro.

Data centers will compete with us with the cons with the taxpayering residents of San Leandro in electricity and water and cause increased rates for all of us, and obviously we can't afford it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Faye Clements, Paul Willemcamp, and Catherine Lucerne.

Hi, Council.

My name is Faye Clemens, Mayor Juan.

I'm here to implore the council to figure out a way to open Lake Chabot Road for all of us.

I live in SCDO estates.

I don't think the fire is going to get me, but I do worry about 4,000 residents in Bayo Vista and countless others that want that road open.

And I'm concerned that we're entertaining the wishes of staff and a minor portion of our population when we've got thousands whose lives might be at risk and an acute care hospital with hundreds of patients that can't mobilize.

And I thank you for your service to our city and count on you to be with us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Paul Wellem.

Catherine Lucerne and Margaret Horwitz.

Thank you.

I'm here to speak about Lake Chabot Road or speak to it.

And I'm really here to ask you: don't let the perfect be the enemy of good.

Uh there's a difference between fully rebuilding the road, which is a nice project and a nice long-range goal, but very expensive, and simply doing what it takes to reopen the road now.

Uh what I'm going to suggest is that it's important to find out now what whether the road can be reopened after the current project is finished.

If it can't be reopened, it's important to find out what it takes to reopen it, not to fully rebuild it, but simply to get it operating again.

You don't have that information now.

You can't make a good decision about the future of Lake Shebo Road without getting that information now.

I want to point out that uh Alameda County fixed similar damage on the same road their portion of the road a similar slide within six months for $700,000.

They did not rebuild that road that it's definitely not a perfect road.

I have spoken with the Alameda County Public Works Director.

They maintain country roads quite all the time throughout Alameda County.

And they don't maintain them by fully rebuilding them.

They maintain them by doing what it takes to fix the road maintaining it and repairing it as needed.

You know Lake Shebo Road has been critically important route since it was built 150 years ago.

Don't abandon it now because we can't afford to make it perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Catherine Lucerne, Margaret Horowitz, and Emily Grego.

Good evening Mayor and staff and elected officials we really appreciate your time and your commitment to our city.

I also support this measure for the new parcel tax that will bring a lot of funding for our city which I know is needed for upkeep and I will be one of the people out there trying to get signatures on this new um proposal that's going out.

But I also agree with Paul I would like you guys to really prioritize opening up Lake Shabot and initially I think I would be that geotechnical report to really see last night I'm sure if you live in the city you realize that windstorm that we had it made me very very nervous and now to hear about this fire down in Simi Valley we live in a very high fire danger we back up to those San Leandro hills and many of my neighbors have done everything they can to try to keep our houses safe by clearing I just got a new roof that's a Class A fire safety metal gates we spent a lot of money but we still feel unsafe.

The other concern that I have is um we got an email from AC Alert saying that there was going to be a countywide notification system for our emergency system and San Leandro did not get that on May 12th.

I did inquire and I found out that the city had elected not to participate in that I don't know what the city has plans for emergency prep, but I think it's really important I was at that community meeting when we had the gas um leakage in Llewellyn and Washington and many of our community members did not get the proper messaging to evacuate.

So I think it's really important that we have a way to let our community know when we have something that is very urgent our community has spent funds on buying doing our own report and we found out it can take one to two hours for us to get out of our neighborhood if there is an evacuation.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Margaret Horowitz, Emily Grego, and Helen Cataldo I want I'm sharp okay I want to thank the city for opening the gate on Lake Shabot Road which would allow cars to travel on it in case of an emergency my husband and I have taken many steps to prepare our house and garden in case of fire having the optimum number of evacuation routes open is essential.

I also empathize with residents on Astor and View, though I don't live there, where cars diverted from Lake Shabau Road contribute to dangerous conditions and road degradation on streets not designed for this amount of traffic.

I support the citizens-led initiative to repair Lake Shabot Road and to accomplish many other significant projects in San Leandro.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Emily Grego, Helen Cataldo, and Ann K.

Wood.

Hello, everybody.

Good evening.

I'm Emily Grego, president and CEO of the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

I'm here today to discuss the proposed business license tax revenue measure that's currently under consideration and to share concerns we are hearing from our businesses regarding both the substance of the proposal and the timeline being discussed.

We recognize the proposal is still in development and there hasn't been a final decision made.

We have requested additional data and clarification from staff, including details regarding definitions, thresholds, exemptions, caps, and multiple jurisdiction businesses.

However, businesses are concerned that a decision on whether to place this measure on the ballot could occur within four weeks from today, despite many critical implementation details still being undefined and insufficiently vetted.

Businesses are concerned the potential financial impact could be substantial depending on how gross receipts are defined and applied.

And we've reached out to our membership in recent days, and some of the comments that we have received include our license fee would go up 50% in this model.

Our license fee would double if this increase were to pass.

Wrong move to punish small businesses in town.

A small service-based business with high expenses and a very small margin, this new structure would be a big hit to us.

Unfair to large companies where the margins are small.

An example is a grocery store, our grocery store.

We respectfully urge the council not to move this revenue measure to the ballot.

The proposal has not been yet sufficiently vetted.

Many key implementation details remain unresolved, and the current timeline does not allow for the level of analysis and stakeholder engagement this issue requires.

Advancing this proposal without clear without greater clarity and collaboration risks undermining our economic development progress and creating long-term unintended consequences for our cities.

Thank you.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next three speakers are Helen Cataldo, Ann K.

Wood, and Tonday Smith.

Good evening, Council members and mayor.

My name is Helen Cataldo, and I'm here to respectfully request that Lake Shabot be reopened to two-way.

If you wouldn't mind just moving the mic a little bit to there, well, should I start over?

Yeah, if we can just stand over just a little bit.

No, no, no, no.

The mic pointing at your mouth.

There you go.

And just step in just a little bit because we want to be able to hear you online.

It's touching me on those.

There we go.

Let's try that again.

Good evening, Council members and mayor.

My name is Helen Cataldo.

I'm here to respectfully request that Lake Chabot Road be reopened to two-way traffic.

I want to add my voice to my neighbors who have mentioned difficulty in evacuating the area.

I live on View Drive and I'm extremely nervous about fire danger, particularly being blocked in my driveway due to increased traffic from Lake Chabot Road being closed.

I also support the citizen-led local petition in support of funding much needed repairs for safer streets and emergency infrastructure, as well as parks and community facilities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Ann K.

Wood, Tonday Smith, and K.

Wu.

The timed evacuation study we commissioned for the Bay of Vista neighborhood from researchers aligned with the UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies, found that in several fire scenarios, it could take almost two hours for our entire community to evacuate in the best case.

We also learned that if Lake Shabot Road is fully open to two-way traffic, our most vulnerable population would have the chance to escape much faster.

Almost 400 people will need more time to escape just not just the fire, but deadly toxic smoke.

Our census track contains almost 900 people over the age of 70.

In the Pacific Palisades fire, 30 people died from fire.

Another 47 died from smoke inhalation.

The average age was 77.

We ask that you support opening this road as soon as possible, and that you commit to the citizens-led revenue measure to fix our dilapidated fire stations, our failing streets, Neptune Drive flood prevention, the Marina Community Center, the Casa Peralta, and other infrastructure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Tonday Smith, Key or Kaywoo, and Robert Caruso.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, staff, neighbors.

My name is Tondi Smith, and I am I live in Bale Vista on the street that's immediately adjacent to the hill.

I spent last week sanding and restaining my deck, and all the time I was doing it, I was praying, God, please don't let a fire come rolling over that hillside.

Because the threat is real.

But more than protecting my deck in my house, I want to protect my life and the lives of my neighbors.

I did have the pleasure of Sunday going through our neighborhood, collecting signatures for the measure.

And while collecting the signatures, I want to tell you that that we we came in contact with several neighbors who would definitely require a lot of time to try to get out.

One man's hands were so, he was shaking so much that we had to like hold the form for him and let him prop himself up in order to be able to sign it.

So he would need extra time.

We saw a lot of ramps.

So it is a neighborhood where we need as much time as possible to be able to escape.

So I encourage you to do whatever research you need to do.

Make whatever commitment you need to make to get the road opened.

We appreciate your commitment and your time and your interest in helping preserve our lives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Key Wu.

I'm a resident of the Bella Vista community.

I want to say that I emphatically concur with all of my neighbors, our lives, our quality of our life, and the safety of our lives have been significantly adversely impacted since the closure of Lake Chabot Road.

We will continue to be impacted until the road is reopened.

So I implore the city, please to make it a priority to reopen the road for the benefit of our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Robert Caruso, Kat Wellman, and Brian Libau.

Good evening, City Council members and Mayor Gonzalez.

My name is Robert Caruso, and I'm the owner of the John Benjamin Company.

And my our company is a I'm a general contractor, I'm a project manager, and a real estate developer.

And in 2007, our company built uh eight townhouses at Superior and MacArthur, uh McArthur Boulevard in San Leandro, and I'm really proud of that project.

But at the time we uh initiated that project, we paid a fee to the city of San Leandro to develop a roundabout in front of that uh that project.

That was in 2007.

And this 19 years later, and I decided maybe I should come downtown here and find out what happened to that money, number one, and number two, what's the status of that project?

And that's not the only reason I'm here.

I've got another reason I'm here.

There's an ordinance here in San Leandro to do soft story uh development of soft story improvements on uh homes that are in danger of uh earthquake uh uh problems.

And I've tried in starting in the latter part of 2025 to get a list of those properties that are subject to that ordinance.

And I've done numerous of those numerous projects in San Francisco, numerous numerous soft story projects in San Francisco, and I would like to get my hands on that list of the properties that are subject to that ordinance here in San Leandro because I would like to have an opportunity to bid those projects.

And for some reason, excuse me, I've been running up against a brick wall.

For some reason I cannot get that list, and I think that's public information.

So thank you.

And I would I want to end, but I would like to have someone make a commitment to go find out what happened to that money for that roundabout.

And then if I can somebody can point me in the direction of getting my hands on that list, I'd be very grateful.

Thank you for your attention to this.

Thank you.

The next two speakers are Kat Wellman and Brian Liebau.

Good evening.

I am co-chair for Citizens for a Safe and Vibrant San Leandro, and it's going to be a wonderful measure that will fund many of the very badly needed projects that we have in the city.

One of which, of course, is to repair and open Lake Shabot Road.

Those of us in Bayo Vista spent most of late yesterday afternoon, last night, and today, fearing that there might be a fire.

And if you looked at the news, there's many fires.

I think down in CMI Valley they had a fast moving brush fire in one hour.

I think it took over a hundred and eighty-four acres.

I may not be quite right on that, but it was very very deadly.

And they had to evacuate 23,000 citizens.

We know from the week O timed evacuation study, which we are going to show you that there's going to be if Lake Shabot Road is not open, there's going to be upwards of 400 residents, vulnerable residents that may be exposed to toxic fire exposure.

This means death to many people.

And getting the actual cost analysis to fix the road.

We don't even have that for the measure that we're taking to our to our residents right now, asking them to sign the petition.

This is critically important.

Fire season is upon us, and public safety is absolutely the most important thing that the city council can take care of.

So it's in your hands.

Please help us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our last speaker card is from Brian Libau.

Good evening.

We in Bayo Vista have been living under the terrifying fear of wildfires for quite a while now.

Our community is the only one in San Leandro that is rated high and very high fire danger.

We come to meetings, we talk about it, but the city doesn't seem to hear us or it doesn't really register that it's a matter of life and death, and not some hypotheticals in the future, but could be tonight.

Could have been last night.

There were four fires in the last 24 hours.

Well, I'll get to that, I can't remember.

Oh, here we go.

Alameda Creek, Altamont Pass, Norris Canyon, and one in Fremont.

Any fire in these windy conditions can ignite in travel.

So we're not pretending in our fear about this.

It's a real concern, and it should be by the city council as well.

So I'm here to request that the council get a resolution on the agenda as soon as possible.

I think it should direct staff to declare unambiguously its intent to that the city council should state in this resolution its unambiguous intent to reopen this critical evacuation route ASAP, and to direct staff to get a qualified geotech report on what Lake Shabot Road needs to make it drivable.

You already have funds in the budget for Lake Shabot Road to do that.

So it won't cost anything and it won't reduce the general fund.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

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

Okay, so we will close public comment in person.

And how much time do we have left on our 30 minutes?

Five minutes and a few seconds.

Okay, so let us proceed with our first two that you had before.

And if we have time, we'll continue.

Very well.

Our first online speaker is Alvaro Ramos.

Uh, yes, hello, uh, Mayor and Council members.

I'm calling in to join the flock.

I speak to you as a uh concerned citizen to tell you to drop your contract with Flock, F L O C K.

Uh, last time I checked, we have hundreds of flock cameras in this city alone, and uh thousands of flock cameras in the Bay Area, and then thousands more flock cameras across the state of California.

Uh automatic license plate readers have become a staple of policing across the United States, and uh these cameras scan uh millions of licensed plates daily, giving police enormous unchecked power that violates the constituent constitutional rights of the American people.

And people are standing up to this.

They've rejected these privatized utilities because Flock their sole purpose is uh profit-driven surveillance that's blanketing our cities or towns and communities.

And um, you know, this is a perfect example of government overreach.

Uh flocked uh so I what I'll say though that uh the city of San Leandro needs to join the movement and say no more to automatic license plate readers and comment.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Thank you.

San Leandro, we are giving Chicago a run for its money as the windy city, and I don't refer to meteorological phenomenon, I refer to all my neighbors from Bayo Vista who are giving Chicago politicians a run for their money.

I am appreciative of the We Go study, it gives a very clear plan for evacuation.

I'm very uh thankful for my neighbors who have trimmed their yards.

I did too.

I spent, I don't know, two, three thousand dollars on Arborist.

I'm very thankful to PGE that implements a PSPS under these kind of weather conditions.

But the road has been closed for more than three years and the sky has not yet fallen.

We seem to have adapted and be able to opening reopening the road to vehicular traffic, especially to large trucks is only going to accelerate its deterioration.

If you want to be able to fight a fire, you need to leave Lake Shabot Road alone as an access road for uh access route for our emergency vehicles.

Um the difference between our half-mile segment of Lake Chabot Road and other country roads is that it just hopes so happens that this big thing called the Hayward Fault crosses the road right where the Bay of Vista Swim and Tennis Club is.

There is no place to build the road stably.

It is a bunch, like a pile of kilometer of ground-up rock, melange.

There's no bedrock to sink your anchors into.

And so consequently, we're we have a little piece of road that is exactly the same story that they have over on the peninsula.

Dave will slide.

After more than a hundred years, Caltrans gave up and they build a 500 million dollar tunnel to bypass it.

And with my few remaining seconds, I want to point out the community police review board is meeting this Wednesday at six.

I invite everyone to come out.

Unfortunately, CPRB has been handicapped in recent months because we don't have an at-large members.

So I request you properly vet and appoint someone AI.

Thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next well, mayor, there are two more hands raised online, and we have about a minute left.

Just pick one, and then that's where we will end.

All right.

Our next online speaker is Arthur Johnson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Uh, thank you for giving me this time.

I'll be brief.

My name is Art Johnson.

I live in the district five area.

I'm part of the Citizens First Safe and Vibrant St.

Leandro Committee, but I'm here to tell you a slightly different uh reason to support it.

Uh, we're at risk losing the most important part of our history.

Uh Casa Peralta, the historical house museum on Este Dio.

This museum tells a story of California and San Leandro for current and future generations, yet the doors have been closed for more than seven years now.

So with this measure, uh we have an opportunity to move quickly to protect what remains of our history, including the Casa Peralta, uh while also addressing the other critical community needs as Lake Chabot, but more importantly, other roads, failing roads, building new firehouse, and investing in other essential infrastructure.

I hope the city will support this effort and work alongside the community to help us move it forward.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Okay, so I will remind the public that we have a continuation of public comment after item 12 for those that have not already spoken and would like to at this point in time.

We will continue with the council's business, and in particular, we move to our public hearing.

With respect to this public hearing, we have assistant finance director Felicia Silva here to discuss various ordinances that we will potentially adopt.

All right, good evening, Mayor Gonzalez and members of the council, Felicia Silva, assistant finance director here with the fiscal year 27 um fee schedule update.

And um I will go back to uh the slide.

This is uh a reminder that it's our annual update for our fee schedule.

We do come to you every year with a proposed um update to our fee schedule.

And quick background on the authority for us to charge fees for services.

Um we are looking at proposition 26 as well as California government code section 66 um 14, and uh that allows us to recover our costs for um charging uh fees as well as um it uh limits us to making sure that again that we're not uh charging above our fees and that we are charging reasonable costs to recover uh the cost for those fees, additional authority.

We're looking at um proposition 218, and that is related to our property-related fees, such as um our wastewater fee, and we also have other fees um such as our development impact fees, and um that's set forth by uh government code section 66,000 to 6625, also known as the mitigation fee act, and uh that allows us to charge uh fees related to the impact of uh significant development um on our infrastructure, and uh as certain findings are met, um such as the need and and the nexus to that activity and the and the need our update um just a quick reminder that last year we were in front of the city council with um a more significant update um where we um did a um fee study and we were looking um at the the cost um to provide services uh and bringing that up to date with our current business processes, etc.

Um that starts as the base for our fee schedule this year.

We incorporate any uh adjustments that are authorized by council throughout the year.

We put pull all of that together, and that makes up the base for this proposed fee schedule in front of you tonight.

Um, and then the next step is then we look at what are the appropriate adjustments to propose.

Um, we typically are looking at CPI for most of our fees, and uh in particular looking at December over December, so um year-over-year change between December 2044 and December 2025.

We um also look at um the construction cost index uh for those fees that are related to construction activities, and uh we're recommending 2.8% there, and then sometimes there are other um parameters that we're looking at um when we're studying our fees, such as some fees that may be capped by state statute or or other um codes, and then we also have um some fees that we're looking at in terms of market alignment to making sure that we're um staying within uh the market with that.

I'll also note that the uh revenue impact associated with the proposed fees that we're bringing in front of you tonight have been included in the fiscal year 2027 mid-cycle budget uh that was approved by council on May 4th.

In addition to our fees, we also do annually bring forward um three different um taxes for proposed increases that are authorized by um chapter two of our municipal code.

One is the business license tax, um, emergency medical services tax, as well as the emergency communication systems access tax.

Um, again, looking at a proposed three percent CPI increase.

And with that, I will ask uh city council to um consider a recommendation to adopt a resolution approving the amended master fee schedule for fiscal year 27, as well as adopt a resolution approving the amendment to ordinances um amending the um or yeah, amendment to ordinances to allow the CPI increase for business license tax, emergency medical services tax, and the emergency communications systems access tax.

Thank you for the presentation.

At this point, time I'll go to council members to see if there are any questions.

Yes, um so this is specific.

Um, so one appreciate all the work that went into the fee schedule.

It went through finance committee, it has gone made the rounds.

Um, but I did want to um I was trying to recall our conversation because there was one specific fee that around block parties and the fee permit for block parties, and I believe it went from 31 dollars, uh, and it's now at 125.

Um, and um actually at the over the weekend, I was at the um uh I was at another neighborhood party in SCDU estate, and neighbors from another neighborhood were there with friends, and they were kind of just chatting about um the the increase uh from 31 to 125.

Um so I just I recall this coming up.

We had a conversation about wanting to keep that as low as possible so as to encourage communities to have you know be able to close the street, have their get together.

And I I can't recall where we left that off.

I don't remember if we left it at 125 or if we we did.

My recollection, and I'll kind of have you guys keep me on this for my recollections that had been higher than that, either 250 or 500, some number that was higher, and then we had a discussion, said, Well, can't we do something that we get the 31 may not really reflect anywhere near the cost, but can we come a little bit closer?

And I might I see a head uh head shake over there from Councilmember Victor Aguilar.

Does that sound right?

Of kind of how we ended up uh for lack of a better word, compromising at something that was higher, but not where it had originally started.

But I'll I'll kind of uh do you remember those discussions?

That seems right.

That is correct.

Okay.

So I think that's kind of how we got to where we are.

Okay.

Alright, thank you.

Uh that's my only question on it, the rest of it.

I was going through the license through all of the fees and everything else kind of squared up with what I recalled from our conversation, but that one I couldn't quite remember what our conversation was.

Appreciate the clarification.

I cede the my time back to the chair.

Thank you.

This point in time, I'm not seeing anybody else in queue.

So what I'm going to do at this point in time is I am going to open the public hearing that we have on this.

It is 7 55 and the public hearing is open.

Do we have anyone who wishes to speak on this item?

Mayor, we've not received any common cards.

We do have one hand raised online.

Okay, so let us continue our hearing online, please.

Our first online speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Hi, I'm the public and I'd like to be heard.

Um, this is a uh an interesting item.

I I gather that the deal is that the city without having to put it to a vote can increase these fees uh by a nominal amount according to CPI or some other criteria.

Which sounds good.

If we haven't been doing the past, we should certainly start doing that now.

Um I do feel a bit indicated that the CPI you're referring to is 3%.

Are you sure it shouldn't be like 65% of CPI or three?

Well no, that's just an inside joke.

Um I would my impression, because I I I did try to look through the fee schedule, is that uh I think the fees are a little bit on the low side.

And I would be interested to know if uh if a comparison was done, like uh uh Stanley under fees versus Oakland versus Hayward versus other places, uh, to have more of a marker study.

Your your story about how you're setting the block party fee um indicates to me that it's more of a divining.

I I don't think we should be subsidizing block parties.

If it costs more than that for the city to block off the street and provide uh cleanup and whatnot, we we should charge more.

And you know, 125 dollars to me is not is not too much.

Um but my concern about this whole thing is if you raise the business license fee now in May, and then we put on a revenue measure for November.

Is does that mean people are gonna say, wait a minute, you're you're changing it up on us, you're already raising it.

Unless your intention is to never put the business license fee on the November ballot.

I I think it is important.

That is the revenue measure that I support.

Um, I think it's telling uh in the public comments earlier that the speakers made very clear that the proposed revenue, or sorry, the proposed parcel tax is tied directly to the priority of reopening Lake Shabot Road.

Speaker after speaker after speaker.

Whereas if we had money from a business license fee, you the council members could support the priorities the public work departments already determined.

Thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.

Okay, it is 7 58, and I am closing the public hearing.

At this point in time, we come back to council members for discussion or commentary or motion.

So first, but first let's begin with any discussion or commentary because certainly I have something that I'd like to say, but I'm I would defer to my colleagues first.

Okay, seeing no commentary from my colleagues, I'll just quickly offer a couple of things.

First, am I?

I think it's a question comment, because I think I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

Um, fees as to be distinguished from taxes.

Fees are cost recovery as the capital.

Um so most fees are those that are governed, for example, under proposition 26, as well as um uh government code, um, what was 66,000.

Um, okay.

So the majority of what we're gonna see on the schedules that were presented to the public are cost recovery.

They they are.

Um, and even those that are governed by, for example, proposition 218, um uh based on a um, you know, uh deliver, you know, cost to deliver service model.

Um, so my comment that goes with that is I think that it's pretty exciting um that our fees would be lower than other areas because that means that our costs are either lower or that we've chosen not to do full cost recovery for the benefit of the public.

That would that would be accurate to say.

Okay.

Um I think just more broadly.

Um, I believe we have done these CPI increases at least the last two or three years, and probably before that, but this is there's nothing out of the ordinary in us uh following up to make sure that as costs increase our uh our business taxes and the like reflect those increased costs as permitted by the ordinance, correct?

That that is correct.

The uh more consistent we are with the revenue recovery for the cost to deliver service, then the better overall uh revenue picture is that that helps across the board.

Okay.

Well, thank you again for all the work that you guys have done in preparing and to the finance committee for all the work that was trying.

I think if I remember correctly, from that we covered a variety of fee schedules over an extended number of meetings.

Yeah, um, and so as I mentioned, the base for the 2027 fee study was our fee schedule update was based on the 2026 study that we did.

And every so often we do need to look at our business processes and the cost to deliver service to make sure that we are um looking at that and and then looking at the uh fee that we're proposing so that we can cover those costs.

So that was last year, 2026.

That becomes then the base for the fee study, and then we um uh apply inflation or um again, there are other um indices or considerations.

So thank you for all the work that you've done.

Thank you for the finance committee for all the work that you did at this point in time.

I am open to a motion.

Vice mayor.

Uh I would like to make a motion to approve the resolution, adopt a resolution approving the amended master's fee schedule for fiscal year 26 or for fiscal year 27, and adopt a resolution approving the amendments to the ordinance for the following taxes: business license tax, emergency medical services, and emergency communication systems access tax.

And I will accept your would like to as an you are making that motion and coming to Councilmember James Aguilar.

Mayor, I'd like to second that motion.

Perfect.

Do we have further discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote.

Council member Bowen, may we have your vote?

Yes.

Thank you.

So we do not have presentations today under item nine and for 10 8.

Sorry, we have to read out the vote.

Yes.

All votes are in.

And apologies, I cleared the vote, but the motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

Um we do not have any presentations today, and under 10A, that got moved to section four on our agenda.

So we've got our second action item, and that is the first reading of an ordinance with respect to the approval and renewal of military equipment funding, et cetera, as stated in the agenda.

At this point in time, we have acting chief police acting chief of police, Luis Torres here, I believe.

Are you back there?

There you are.

Well, please come forward.

We'll make that mic nice and tall for you.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, uh, city manager, members of the public.

My name is Luis Torres, and I still refer to myself as assistant police chief.

Uh tonight I'll be presenting our 2025 annual report on the use of military equipment.

This will include an overview of the assembly bill, definitions and categories, what we have, how we've used it, any concerns, uh or policy violations.

What if anything we are asking for this year, and the outcome of our presentation to the CPRB or the Community Police Review Board.

Lastly, we're asking you to once again approve our policy and renew the ordinance.

As you are more than likely aware, this law was enacted in 2021 to increase transparency and oversight around certain types of law enforcement equipment.

It requires you, our council, to approve uh any acquisition and continued use of such equipment, and it mandates an annual report like this one covering usage, concerns, and any policy violations.

There are 15 defined categories, of which we have equipment in nine of those categories depicted here, highlighted here.

I will go into a little more detail in the next several slides, but I will add that none of this equipment was obtained directly from the military.

These next two next two slides have the categories broken down with a specific equipment.

Category one is a tactical robot and unmanned aerial vehicle, also known as a drone.

And I'll show pictures of some of these items.

Category two and three is our armored vehicle that can have a battery ram attached to it.

Category five are our two command posts.

Category seven is our newly acquired kinetic breaching tools.

Category 10, these are our rifles and accompanying ammunition.

Our beanbag shotgun and 40 millimeter launcher fall under both categories 11 and 14.

And category 12 is our diversionary devices and chemical agents, also known as flashbangs on those adversary devices.

So here's the photo of some of our equipment.

The upper left is our drone.

The middle top is the tactical robot.

It's basically an RC car with a camera on it.

To the right, upper is our some of our diversionary devices, less lethal, and some gas.

And then bottom is our vehicles.

So our our hostage negotiation vehicle on the left, our Metavac in the middle, and our command post in the far right.

Next, I'll cover an overview of our usage and non-training settings for the calendar year 2025.

Our drone, our drones were used or deployed 65 times in 2025.

Most commonly it was used for warrant services, searching for suspects, missing persons, and scene documentation.

The armored vehicle was used 19 times in tactical situations, compared to 21 times last year, or the previous year, excuse me.

The deployments were for barricaded suspects and armed incidents, as well as warrant service, and it was also displayed at four community events.

The hostage negotiations command vehicle was used three times, primarily for warrant service operations.

Less lethal tools were used in limited targeted situations.

The beanbag shotgun was deployed five times with 17 rounds used.

Four out of the five times the beanback shotgun was used to disable a camera or to break a window.

In one instance, it was used at an individual who had fired a firearm at an officer.

Diversity devices were used twice during warrant service, and these tools provide alternatives to higher levels of use of force.

As of this evening, we have not received any email or phone call complaints regarding our equipment, and there were no noted policy violations.

In 2025, we acquired two Rdvark kinetic breaching tools, which you spoke about here last year and were approved to purchase.

These tools provide a safer, more controlled method of forced entry when necessary.

And as a result of purchasing these breaching tools, we've removed several older breaching shotguns and associated rounds from our inventory.

This reflects the transition to more modern, safer, and controlled breaching tools.

And for 2026, we are not requesting any new equipment at this time.

Our current inventory meets our operational needs.

On April 15th, we held a community meeting during the community police review board meeting.

And finally, our website is uh on our website is a current policy and the board had no recommendation regarding the presentory as well as the draft policy and inventory that is attached to this agenda.

The only update to the policy itself is just a change in dates.

Our ask tonight is to approve is for you to approve and renew our military equipment funding, acquisition, and use policy, which includes an updated inventory list of the items that were added and removed this past calendar year.

And with that, Mayor, I'm open to any questions.

Thank you for your presentation.

So we will begin questions with Vice Mayor.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um I just have a question regarding the deployments.

Um based on when we when San Leander PD deploys some of these assets, the city council gets a kind of a notification.

And I'm just wondering how many, you don't have to give me exact numbers, but proportions of how many of these were used in San Leander versus in mutual aid, where we get a request from a neighboring jurisdiction to use one of our um police assets for aiding whatever it is that they're doing in another city.

What is the proportion of, for example, um, just in general, for unmanned aerial vehicles, you do we have 65 deployments.

How many of them happen in San Leandro versus in mutual aid situations?

I would say a vast majority of them are in San Leandro because most agencies have uh drones already, uh similar with our um our vehicle, our uh our metavac, a majority of them are here.

Uh, it is a regional asset uh partnered with the Fremont Police Department.

Oftentimes they will pick up the vehicle uh to use it.

We'll notify council, but that wouldn't necessarily be a deployment for us since they're the ones taking the vehicle to their operation.

And can you tell me a little bit the between the difference of the Medivac armored vehicle versus the mobile hostage negotiations command vehicle?

So the Medivac is a ballistic rated vehicle uh to um safely bring our officers closer to a situation, whereas the uh command posts are uh are far away from the incident itself, but it's an uh it's a uh location or uh a vehicle in which our uh staff can um can navigate a situation safely.

We usually have dispatchers in there and our uh on-scene incident commander, okay.

Those are all my questions.

I see my time back to the chair.

Thank you.

We'll go to council member bolt next.

Thank you.

Uh thank you for the presentation.

I see on all these categories there's the expected life span.

A lot of them are in the uh five to fifteen or somewhere in the 20.

When it comes to the weapons, what's deteriorating that we're saying, okay, we're gonna lose this in five years or 15 years.

Can you speak to that?

Yeah, it's usually manufacture recommendations.

Uh also for if we're talking about a firearm, it's uh how many rounds have gone through it, and some of it is just maintenance.

So, for example, a couple years ago we replaced uh they were called uppers of certain rifles, so we didn't we didn't get all new rifles, we just replaced uh the parts, a part of that is is the uh is the maintenance piece of it.

Okay, and then the it was uh another one, and I lost it because I was searching through, but basically it was a uh collapsible um M16.

I don't know what I forget how you guys uh call it, but it was a collapsible rifle that the um the motor officers.

So those are those are probably the ones that are uh motorcycle officers, yeah, motorcycle officers.

Yes, carrying their uh uh they wouldn't be able to have the long ones so they have a collapse pull stock on it so that it can uh fit on their on their motorcycle.

Fits on the motorcycle.

Correct.

Uh and then lastly, when going back to the um uh time the time frame time lifespan, would it be possible for us to see in here like expected lifespan is 20 years, we're in year two or we're in year three in the future, so that you know, because some of these are like the vehicles that are I assume are extremely expensive, but it would give us the opportunity to take a look and understand what may be coming up, what you guys may be needing in 10 years or in five years, you know, because a lot of them say five to fifteen, but we don't really know where that is, so maybe uh in the future if if there's no rules against that, letting us know where each one of these are in that mark, and and that way we can prepare.

Okay, I believe some of them had do have days of purchase, but you're right, not all of them do.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, but Lieutenant Robertson will be more than happy to update that list for us.

Okay, thank you.

Council member James Aguilar.

Hi, thank you.

Um I have a couple of questions with relation to data.

I I love data and I love to see whether or not the use of the equipment actually supports public safety outcomes.

So my question, my first question is um, is there any data recorded, whether it be internal or or public, um, that shows equipment improving safety outcomes?

Like what kind of data actually tracks whether or not successful there was a successful deployment or otherwise?

So the uh in use of our uh whether it's a kinetic uh uh weapon, uh so use of force report is conducted on it, and that would um actually I'll I'll go to the injury portion.

So we'll we do document whether an injury was a result of uh the incident, whether to an officer or to uh an individual.

Uh the second piece for the safe outcomes of it.

Um we do after every incident, we do have a uh report that is that is generated, so we can we can certainly moving forward come compile that and kind of give you know successful outcomes versus a uh a non-success successful outcome?

Sure, yeah, I would love to see that.

Um I'm also really interested in because I I'm I'm in the data, I think the data tells stories, and I think the data shows patterns, and so do you also track any kind of geographic or neighborhood based data on where said equipment is deployed?

We have the information um in those in those reports, but as far as like plotted on the map, we um we we don't have that.

Okay.

Um, okay, good.

Um, and then I could just out of curiosity, in your best judgment, do you um think that the use of tactical equipment deployment is increasing um as compared to other years, or where do you think that that usage is at?

Uh on one of them for the uh let's see which one was it that we went.

It it's remained I'll say steady.

Okay.

Uh we did go down two usages on the armored vehicle.

Uh last year we used it 21 times.

This or in 24 we used it uh 21 times.

Last year we used it 19 times uh with our uh drones, I believe it did go slightly up, but not not a significant amount.

Okay.

Uh in ideally we would want to with the with the drones, we would probably want to increase that number uh because it uh we use it for interior searches as well instead of sitting on officer in or using a canine, which we don't have canines, but utilizing that interior drone to search a particular area um for for safety purposes of the officers and the individuals inside.

Great.

Thank you.

I appreciate your responses.

That's all I have.

Okay, thank you.

So at this point in time, I've got uh three questions that I don't think have been covered.

Um two questions, one of them you covered at the very end.

Um do we audit internal audit for policy violations?

Yeah, so every every usage in a in a use of force incident does get uh reviewed internally in addition to the independent police auditor would review those as well.

So if I'm understanding that correctly, so we had 19 deployments, and we'll just pick this one in particular.

We had 19 deployments.

Um would each of those be reviewed or only if it resulted in some sort of gunfire or some some of it would be reviewed if it was uh so there's a an after-action report that is that is conducted uh with um in in these operations here, and if there was a uh use of force, then that would be an additional layer of review that is that is conducted.

And in that case, I guess what I ultimately care about is consistency with whatever policy we have in place.

Um as part of that after action report, is there a an assessment of consistency with policy, or is that only happen periodically?

I would say more periodically than not.

In some of the situations, for example, on a committee event, we wouldn't that there'd be no no review of it for the use of a of a armored vehicle, it's typically um run through our chain of command.

So at this point it would be Captain Conn that would get a call to seek the approval of the uh of the usage of the Metabac itself.

Uh so it would get that that approval, he'll get a rundown of exactly what's occurring and then give a yeah or nay.

Uh if it's a quickly evolving situation, it would be uh it would be deployment and then notification.

Thank you.

Does the IPA do an independent spot check?

No.

Okay.

The mobile uh the medevac.

There was a question about Fremont, and I wasn't quite sure about the answer.

So these 17 deployments are exclusively in the city of San Landro?

Uh those uh those deployments are uh San Leandro uh San Leandro personnel utilizing the Metabac vehicle, and a majority of those were in town.

Uh I can I can probably get you the number before the meeting's over.

I have it here on my phone.

I think my curiosity goes to the question, because I know that we partner with Fremont specifically.

So if we're sharing it, does that mean that they will send officers here to get it, or do we drive it down for report?

Most of the time they come up to pick up the vehicle.

If it's so if they come and pick up the vehicle and utilize it, they report it under AB41.

If for whatever reason they would call us uh because they couldn't get it, then we would report it because we're now we're taking the vehicle down there and uh we're with the vehicle itself.

So it'd be us deploying that vehicle.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Um, I think that's all I've got in terms of questions.

It would be a good time, madam clerk, for public comment on this item.

Mayor, we have not received any comment cards, but we do have one hand raised online.

Okay.

So we have open public comment in person.

Seeing no cards, we are closing public comment in person.

And we're moving online to open public comment.

And we have no uh no hands raised online.

We are closing public comment in person.

At this point in time, come back to council members for any commentary, and if there is none, uh, we can move to a motion.

So I'll just look for any commentary.

I'm not seeing any raised hands, so I'm open to a motion.

Councilmember Bolt.

I'd like to move this item.

Okay.

And to basically prove staff's recommendation, correct?

Okay, thank you.

And then Councilmember Victor Aguilar.

I have a whole second.

So I've got a motion from councilmember.

Seeing no further discussion, let's vote on the motion.

Councilmember Bowen, may we have your vote?

Yes.

Thank you.

All votes are in and the motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

So for item number 11, I do believe we have one request to schedule a feature agenda item.

And so I will uh you'll the chair give the floor.

Not the chair.

I'll give the floor to our vice mayor.

Thank you.

Um I submitted a uh request for a fruit future agenda item to reaffirm the city council's intent to rehabilitate and reopen Lake Shabo Road for community safety connectivity and infrastructure resilience to just provide a little bit of context um in terms of process.

Um this is a resolution that would um reaffirm the city council's intent on uh the long-term future of Lake Shibo Road.

Um Lake Shippo Road is part of our capital investment plan.

Um it has been closed now for more than three years.

Um and um city staff is currently undertaking some repairs on uh two of the four slides that are currently um that were the result of a winter storm um three years ago.

Um this particular resolution um I'm requesting it that it be scheduled for the July City Council meeting, um, so that we have some time to meet with uh the Bay of Vista community and hear a little bit about the evacuation study um that the neighborhood commissioned paid for and uh co-managed with the consultant from UC Berkeley that um helped create this um evacuation study.

Um again, this would just clarify the intent of the city council on the future of Lake Shabo Road.

I think it provides clarity one um to uh future councils and to future staff, and also um it also provides clarity on the city council and the city's position, um, so that we're able to go and um uh work with uh our county and our state partners and even our federal partners to fundraise essentially grant funds to be able to um to get a plan in place to actually reopen the road.

Um the first step would be a geotechnical report, however, this resolution is purely reaffirming the city council's intent on the long-term future of the road.

Um I'll pause there and see if there are any questions.

So we'll begin with Councilmember Bolt for questions, please.

I guess my question would be to staff.

Aren't we already in that position and working to open the road?

I thought the goal was to open the road, and that's why we've done these, we've gone down this path already.

So I'll begin with City Manager on that.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman Bolt.

That is my understanding as well.

And so I guess to the vice mayor now.

So the goal of this item, would be to reiterate what staff is already suggesting to us.

Thank you for that clarifying question.

Um it would reaffirm our position and be explicit about the city council's long-term goal of reopening this road.

It would explicitly, it would be explicit that that is our goal.

I think right now, again, and our goal in making the um implicit explicit, that's that's this is a manifestation of that.

Okay.

And then uh lastly, I'll just say this.

My only problem with this is the money.

If we're saying we don't have no money, and we can't fix this because the price it's at, I don't want to put us in a position where we're doing something ahead of.

So I do need you to form a question because we're not allowed to really discuss.

Because it's not agenda sized, right?

Let's play Jeopardy.

So no, I already said it, so that's where I'm at.

Okay.

Thank you for your patience.

Did I saw you came out of queue?

I would have been a comment.

Okay.

Make it a question.

Allow me to ask you some questions.

Thank you.

Um, seeing as that we've got um city staff commitment to open the road, but that is an explicit statement.

That's not what I said.

Okay.

So that's why I wanted to.

So let me come back to the city manager to understand what is explicit.

And I don't want nothing that's implicit.

I want to know the explicit.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Um thank you, mayor.

Councilmember Bolt asked me if it was my understanding that the council wanted to open Lake Chabot Road.

And my answer is yes.

That is my understanding is that that is the council's goal.

Not that I, because I cannot, that would be illegal if I, Jadelle Cameron, your city manager, went and opened Lake Shabau Road without your explicit direction to do so.

So that's there's a difference there.

And that's a that's a good clarification, but it is your current understanding that it is the direction of the council that the vision here is to open the road.

That's what we're working towards to opening the road.

Very well.

But I do want to come back to Councilmember Bolt just to clarify that I didn't misstate your question.

Would you please proceed?

Yes, I apologize.

Maybe I confused everything.

My question is, is the two staff.

Isn't it our goal on the staff side?

Or are we are we gonna separate staff and city council?

I thought it was always the goal, not just by city council, but by staff because of prior communication from city council to staff, was that our goal was to open it the whole way, and and I'll interject into that.

Our only problem with that was during a fire, emergency response wanted it closed if it wasn't going to be completely open two ways.

So that's why we said, okay, let's close it down.

I'm gonna focus you on a question.

Well, that's the question, and and but I want to be clear on what I'm asking.

We were told by parts of our staff, that we want to keep it closed so we have access.

So I'm asking is the goal from staff to completely open the road at some point.

Not just what we've said to staff, but staff is working in that manner today.

Okay, so I'm taking that question.

I think it's very clearly stated.

We've had a a statement from our city manager of what she believes the council wants, and I think your second question is is that what staff is in fact working towards?

Correct?

Yes, that's correct.

Okay, city manager, please.

So, the last time we were in this room on this item, the decision from the council, because that is who we take our direction from as this council, is to continue the work which we have money, which is slides one and four, I believe, and that is what we are doing right now.

And at that point, we said when staff completes the work on one and four, we would be back in front of council with where the status of the road is at that time.

It has also been made very clear every day that road moves.

So the status of it at the beginning of the project, the status, it will be different, and so we will need to know where it stands at that point to then come to the council and ask council for its direction on what would you like us to do with the road, depending on whatever condition is at that point.

Thank you.

Okay, so I will go to Councilmember for Victor Aguilar.

Thank you, Mayor.

So my my question is so your vice mayor recommending that we pass a resolution to explicitly say that we are prioritizing Lake Chabot Road as one of our projects and advocating for funding.

Thank you for that question.

Uh no, um, it is not prioritizing Lake Shabo Road.

It's just reaffirming our intent, our overall long-term goal for that road, which is to reopen it.

Um prioritization means that it would be above all the other projects.

Um, and at this time, like council member bolt mentioned, we don't have the funds to be able to do that.

Um, so it's not about prioritizing that over all the other projects, it's just uh reaffirming um our overall direction to the city manager who then in turns directs her staff on uh the the council's intent for this the long-term intent of this road, which is to reopen it both ways.

And my question is staff is this resolution will this go to our next planning session, or is this going to be prioritized and put in on uh agenda for July?

Like Vice Mayor had mentioned.

So I will go to city manager.

My understanding is that the vice mayor is requesting that this be an emergency referral, and it comes to the July for I got it open now.

The July city council meeting.

And for an emergency referral, what's the the voting threshold for that?

I'll go to city attorney for that.

I believe it is five out of seven.

And he has said that's correct.

Okay, thank you.

Those are my questions.

Councilmember James Aguilar.

Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna try not to be repetitive, but my question, Vice Mayor, is with the context of all that has happened over the course of the last three years.

Can you reiterate why it is important for a written reaffirmation of our commitment?

What's the line of importance for that reaffirmation?

Thank you.

Thank you for that question.

Um so to clarify, um, there are portions of this project that remain unfunded through our capital improvement plan, but not the whole road.

There are just the slides that are included in it.

Um so there are currently there's so there's four slides.

Uh two of them uh we have uh some funding from a federal agency to address two out of the four slides.

The other two slides remain on unfunded.

Um in uh exploratory conversations with our intergovernmental partners, whether they're uh county and state, um, there are uh some uh documents and or studies that need to be completed, like a full geotechnical report of the road so that we're able to pursue grant funding.

Um so um this particular uh resolution again makes it explicit that this is our goal is to reopen it both ways.

Um uh me uh in partnership with the uh with the Bay of Vista community folks with the Bay of Vista uh association.

I am looking at other sources of funding through some philanthropic uh organizations that work on resilience and fire safety, um, to be able to fund this geotech report to so that we're able to get a clear picture of what really what's happening under the road.

We think we know there are experts who think they know, but we haven't actually done a full geotechnical report on uh the portion of the road that is uh under the jurisdiction of the city of San Leandro.

Um is there anything in the question that I did not answer that you would like to get clarified?

Okay, thank you.

So I'm gonna go to council member bowen next online.

Thank you, mayor.

Um questions.

Can you um clarify?

I know that there is a uh um request from the vice mayor for this to be an emergency referral, but what is actually the criteria for an emergency referral?

And would this constitute one that meets that threshold?

I will come to city attorney on that.

Thank you, Councilmember Bowen.

From the city council member handbook, page 16.

And I'll just read verbatim.

Items referred by council as urgent matters shall be prioritized ahead of the other already established priorities and will impact staff's progress on other high priority projects.

An urgent referral must meet the following criteria and be defined as part of the referral.

The criteria for urgency is defined as an action necessary to immediately preserve the life, health, and safety of the community, or failure to respond in an expeditious manner could result in harmful legislation, legislative or financial consequences for the city.

No discussion is allowed on the nature of the urgency.

So an urgent referral requires a two-thirds vote, which is a five members of the council to move forward with the urgency referral.

Okay.

Um and then my second question is around what affirmation means.

And I think some of the other council members um we're trying to dig into it.

But in your last answer to council member James Aguilar, you said, you know, in the future looking for a council or vice mayor looking for funding or affirmation around being able to find ways to pay for the other slides that have not been currently allocated, with funding is not currently allocated.

Um we've I think the current funding, the four 4 point something million dollars includes federal highway funds.

Um so we're definitely looking for ways to pay for it.

But um, is there an expectation that the council affirming this one road would mean that we would be spending um uh directing staff to be able to um find specific funding for this project over another project?

I'm sorry, is that that is a question directed to the vice mayor, or were you looking for the city manager to answer that question?

Both.

What would this mean?

This resolution mean.

Thank you.

So I'm going to go to Vice Mayor first.

Thank you for that question, Councilmember Bowen.

Um, so um, in terms of my response to uh uh council member James Um Aguilara, I specifically referred to looking for philanthropic partners to fund the geotech report.

Two out of the four slides remain unfunded, but are included in the capital improvement plan in terms of long-term investment from the city.

Um, in terms of the second part of the question, um, the resolution is not written yet.

Um this is uh request to the resolution will come before the council should my colleagues um agree to hear this uh resolution in a July meeting.

And the reason for the urgency is because this does in fact relate directly to the health and safety of the neighbors of the Bay of Vista neighborhood.

We are currently at the beginning of fire season, which uh it has been made clear by the windstorm that we had last year.

I do have this morning.

Apologies, but that's what we've agreed to.

Other questions, Councilmember Bowen?

Uh, I don't want to end up having more discussion, so I'll just leave it at that.

Thank you.

Uh any other questions?

Okay.

The question that I have is as you're contemplating the resolution, it appears to be exclusively focused on uh a commitment.

Um, are you anticipating that that resolution will also have a funding commitment, or is this purely a um a commitment, absent funding?

If I could put uh a financial commitment that would not impact the general fund, um that would either reappropriate existing funds from the project.

Uh, that's what I would like to propose.

If it doesn't have any impact to the general fund, um that would be my first that if I were to be able to choose, that would be my priority number one.

But if that is not possible, just affirming that that is that it that it is a council's intent to rehabilitate and reopen Lake Shable Road to traffic both ways.

Okay.

So at this point in time, I don't think there's uh there's any further discussion.

So what I'd like to do is we have to take this in two pieces, urgency first, and then if it uh meets the urgency uh criteria according to the council members, then we will move to the second part of that is uh working to agendize it.

And if either of those fail, we can then have a further discussion on what we might do next at another meeting.

Uh so let's begin with a question.

I do need a motion.

Uh that this would be agendized as urgent.

I would like to make a motion to agendize and as an as an urgent item.

Do we have a second?

Councilmember James Aguilar.

I'll second the vice mayor's motion.

So we've got a motion by uh by our vice mayor with a second from Councilmember James Aguilar.

Any further discussion?

I guess we can't discuss that item, so my apologies for even asking the question at this point in time.

Please vote.

Councilmember Bowen, may we have your vote?

No.

Thank you.

The motion carries with five yes votes and two no votes.

One moment while that comes into view.

With our yes votes coming from council member Simon, Victor Aguilar, James Aguilar, and Vice Mayor Viveros Walton, and no motes, no votes from Councilmember Bolt and Councilmember Bowen.

And my vote.

And yes from the mayor, thank you.

At this point in time, we go to the second question, whether given the urgency, and I do want to go back to because I did have my my question.

I really want to focus on the funding piece because I'm trying to avoid a um, and I don't mean this pejoratively, but a statement that has no teeth that has no consequence because we can make statements, but is the objective of the motion to get funding of some type?

Yes.

Okay.

May I clarify that?

You may.

Specifically to fund the full geotech report for that road, so that we're able to actually get some estimates on the on the repair.

Okay, thank you.

Further discussions on that item.

So one moment, please, and I'll come right to you, Councilmember Bolt.

So actually, let me I'm gonna unmute your mic so that you can begin.

Um, but I do have a question that I need to ask my turn here on the side.

Okay, thank you for your patience while we work through just some of the logistics here.

Councilmember Bolt.

Yes, I want to go back to the question you just asked because I heard one thing and then I heard a response.

Your question as I heard it was, are we looking for funding?

If that's correct, then the answer was yes, funding for the geotechnical report.

But to me, that seems like we're going to go into our general fund money to fund the geotechnical.

But now we're getting into a discussion.

All that she is saying is that her, as she drafts her resolution, it will include an element with respect to funding.

And that's all that I was trying to get clarification on.

I don't know.

Hold on just a second.

Yes, discussion.

I can't.

That's a question.

So I'm relying on my parliamentarian.

So my apologies if you're in disagreement with the parliamentarian.

Okay, so at this point in time, any other questions?

Did you want to have something else?

Yes, the council has voted that this is the urgency is an urgency item.

And now you are just going back to what you said, when do you schedule this item?

The council is still within bounds to just talk logistics about when it plans to schedule this item without having a full-blown discussion about the merits or the merits of the topic.

So it's about discussion of when do you want to schedule this.

May I just ask a scheduling question?

Yes, please.

So just to clarify, the council is on summaries for the month of August.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Um, so um I will be absent the first meeting of July for the 4th of July holiday.

Um so I would like to propose that it be on the second meeting of that is not a work session of July.

So to be at our second July meeting, that is a regularly scheduled meeting, which I believe.

Seven plus four twenty-first.

Oh, do we have a please proceed?

Please proceed.

Um the second meeting of July is the thirteenth, the third meeting is the 20th.

As I look at the schedule right now, it's really light.

So if I may ask the vice mayor, are you okay with either the 13th or the 20th?

And I work that out as we get closer to the date, just so that we don't call a meeting for only one item if there's not enough to have both of those meetings as we get closer.

It's May.

So there's lots of time for these agendas to change, but there really isn't much there today.

I am okay with the both of those dates.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

So just clarifying the process piece.

So it will be it will come forward on either the uh 13th or the 20th.

Is that this is true, right?

13th or 13th through the 20th or the 20th for a full discussion at that point in time.

We always go on the axle.

Okay, so at this point in time, I think we have some clarity up here, and we're going to proceed as is.

And if there's any additional clarification required, and I can certainly myself push this item with the prerogatives that I have as the mayor under the authorities granted to me under the charter.

But I think we're fine.

I think we can all reach agreement given the votes that we've seen, or enough of us reach agreement that we will have a discussion on this in July.

With that being said, we're gonna move to item number.

My hand was up, Mayor.

Online.

I know, but my question, what is hold on just a second?

Okay.

Let uh we're gonna give you the floor.

Please proceed.

Yeah, I just had a quiz.

This this discussion is about the scheduling of the item, correct?

Because the vote was to put the referral on as an urgent referral.

So and this is the first time we've actually passed an urgent referral since we passed this new policy two years ago.

So this is our first urgent that have we had another one since.

Oh, anyways.

So with an urgent referral, should it not?

I mean, I guess I'm I'm confused as to the urgency of it and then kind of working through what's like if it's urgent, should we not um schedule it for like the next meeting that we can versus having a discussion about when it's convenient for different folks on schedule?

Just trying to understand what urgent means in this case.

So we're gonna check right now very quickly um with city attorney because I know that I don't have a copy of the handbook handy.

Is there anything that talks about this precise scheduling?

It does not.

But uh again, what I read earlier from page 16 is that an urgency referral must meet the following criteria.

We described this criteria.

So action necessary to immediately preserve the life health and safety of the community or failure to respond in an expeditious manner could result in harmful legislative or financial consequences for the city.

There's no statement about any scheduling.

If it's not an urgent referral, then council requests for future items shall be added to the city council priority list to be prioritized at a subsequent city council planning retreat or session.

So there's no vote for a referral.

It just automatically goes to the priority setting session or planning retreat, unless it's an urgency referral, which return, which requires a vote, but there's no defined time that that urgency referral has to be scheduled to be heard.

It just does go ahead as an item for discussion before any of the prior before a priority session or for sorry retreat or a priority setting session.

Understood.

So it's it's not time bound, but it does come ahead of any other scheduled staff work or agendized item.

Is that according to how this the handbook reads is that items referred by council as urgent matters shall be prioritized ahead of other already established priorities and will impact staff's progress on other high priority projects.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so I think at this point in time we're done with item 11.

Moving to item number 12.

Are there reports that council members would like to make?

Beginning with council member James Aguilar.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Um, just want to point out a couple of meetings I've had with city staff.

Um, I took a couple of meetings specifically to take tours of city facilities like the wastewater treatment plant with Dr.

Moorehouse.

And I'm not gonna lie, we're we're really great brain uh brain partners talking about science and how it all works.

And so that was a really fantastic tour and meeting.

Um I also met with Director Simons at the library, took a tour of the library, learned a little bit more than I think uh the everyday citizen knows about the library, and I really appreciated that.

Um I'm looking forward so for going ahead.

I'm looking forward to attending the youth voices public reading event this Thursday at the library.

Um I think that's really neat and really cool.

Um so I can't wait to see what the kids got for us.

Um I'm also looking forward to meeting with Congresswoman Simon um at the end of the month on the 31st with other East Bay electeds to talk shop, but also to build a support network for uh new electeds and new appointed officials as well.

Uh and that is all I have for council reports.

Thank you, Mayor.

Going to Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Um just uh attended the SCDU neighborhood association's barbecue this weekend.

Um it was lovely and uh a well-attended event.

Um and Mayor, um I don't know if you are planning to address this, um, but I I would like to request a moment of silence for those who were killed in the mosque shooting in the city of San Diego.

Um I don't know if you already planning on doing this, but I I if if so, I would like to add my request to hold a moment of silence for the victims of uh the shooting in the mosque in the city of San Diego.

Those are all my comments.

I see my time back to the chair.

Councilmember Victor Aguilar.

Thank you, Mayor.

On Wednesday, May 13th, I attended the 1147th meeting of the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement Um Board of Trustees.

Uh we introduced uh new trustee, Don McCoon, uh who was representing the county at large for Alameda County, and returning trustee Lisa Rassler, who is representing the city of Oakland.

Um, we approved the final budget for the fiscal year.

We also had a presentation of the preliminary engineers report for fiscal years 26-27.

Um we also uh discussed that we have no new detections of the invasive mosquito 80s Egypti, which were made by ACMET operations um by their lab.

There was one crow found in Newark that tested positive for West Now virus, but no mosquitoes were positive for the month.

Extensive monitoring for both invasive mosquitoes and mosquitoes that can vector Westnell virus will be the focus of ACMAD's efforts in the months to come.

Requests for service received from the public in April totaled 116 well below the 10-year average for the month.

Um that concludes my report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, seeing none others, I will go very quickly.

Had the opportunity to attend this state's neighborhood association event.

It was a beautiful day.

So many families, young, old, everybody's running around having a good time.

So very grateful for the invitation and just glad to see community coming together.

Um it was also nice to see visitors from other cities coming in to celebrate.

Uh attended the library appreciate volunteer appreciation event, luncheon.

That was on Friday.

Another great event highlighting 99 adult volunteers that support our library system here in the city of San Leandro with a variety of programs.

Especially touching was the uh the folks at volunteer helping others learn how to read.

Uh I represent the city of San Leandro on the Ava Community Board of Directors, and as part of that, attended the Cal CCA meeting in Sacramento, where the all the community choice aggregators are coming together to work on policy uh advocacy.

And in particular, one of the things that's uh high on the agenda is transparency.

One of the key drivers to the cost of electricity is the what's called the PCIA.

It's basically a kind of a make-hole charge to PGEs.

It's represented by PGE.

But it's very opaque.

And what we see is big swings in this number that's supposed to be very uh simple for people to understand, but it's in fact it's just opaque and not transparent.

So we're working with the legislature to help bring clarity and transparency because we as CCAs believe that there may be an opportunity there to help drive electricity costs down.

I also had the honor of attending the um a gathering from around the Bay Area of folks from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

I had the opportunity to spend time with a consul general of Indonesia and Singapore here in our own Marina Community Center.

Probably 200, 220 attendees, all sorts of beautiful cultural expressions, and to have all that happening here in San Leandro, and I asked why San Leandro, the answer was simple.

Location, location, location, and your staff was really easy to work with.

And so when I think of our staff making our facilities available, and that we're able to bring the Bay Area and highlight our city in a positive way, where people are having a great time and they're saying, like, wow, this is a great place, this is a great place.

That's that's brand building also.

So thank you for all that supported that effort in particular.

And the last thing that I'll identify is that I spent time uh with the Citizens led uh initiative on Saturday.

A number of council members showed up.

You haven't mentioned it, so I won't call you out by name, but thank you for joining to you know listen and to support efforts to increase revenue in our city.

We have some very specific needs, long, long, long deferred maintenance.

And these are very specific challenges that we need to address.

So if we've got volunteers out there in the community who are helping to make a difference, uh you better believe that I'm gonna be there by their side helping to support them.

At this point in time, we will go back to item number 12, or was it what's our public comment number seven?

So if we've got any public speakers who did not get a chance to speak before, this would be the opportunity online to raise your hand because we did close public comment in person already.

Mayor, I'm not seeing any hands raised from community members who did not already speak during the previous opportunity.

Very well.

So at this point in time, we will close public comment uh as part of item number seven, and we will come to our adjournment.

And I, you know, any time we see violence, any time we see violence, it's important to take time to reflect on it and try to find peace.

Find a way to convey peace through our words, through our actions.

And one way that we can convey our commitment to peace is by recognizing the tragedy, acknowledging that it's a tragedy, and finding moment to honor all of those lives that were lost.

So please join me in a short period of silence and memory for those lives that were lost.