Okay, so it is seven o'clock, and I am calling to order the City of San Leandro City Council meeting.

Today is Monday, June 1st, 2026.

At this point in time, if you're able to stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, please do.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

Madam Clerk, would you please take our role to establish quorum?

Councilmember James Aguilar.

Council Member.

Present.

Councilmember Bowen.

Present.

Council Member Bolt.

Here.

Vice Mayor Vivero Swalton.

I would like to tell my son that I am present at work.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Aguilar, Victor Aguilar, if you are on the Zoom call.

We are looking for you.

Councilmember Victor Aguilar is presently absent.

Thank you.

And I am present.

Just saying.

Let's have some fun.

Okay, so a couple of announcements.

First item 10A.

The appointment swearing in of a new youth advisory commission has been removed from the agenda as the appointee is graduating from high school and is no longer eligible to be part of the youth advisory commission.

For item four A, our proclamation recipient is going to be a little bit delayed, and so we'll just kind of handle that.

We'll try to weave that in when the recipient arrives.

And for this evening, we have a presentation that was scheduled under 9A that's relatively short.

And I'd like to move this up to section four in recognitions because this is basically a recognition of city staff and great things that are happening in the city.

And so if there are no objections to that, we will move that item into uh our slot number four for our agenda.

Okay.

Madam Clerk, your announcement, please.

If you would like to make 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 we'll have a set time to share their comments.

A countdown timer will appear for their convenience.

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

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

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

There will be a 30-minute window for public comment on items not on the agenda, which will take place under item seven public comments as per the published agenda.

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

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

Okay, at this point in time, we'll move to our closed session report.

Was there any reportable action taken?

No reportable actions were taken in closed session.

Direction was provided to staff.

Thank you for that report.

So at this point in time, we will take our agendized item on the recognition, the presentation from the California Association of Local Economic Development.

I believe that we do have uh economic development manager Katie Bowman who's going to make the introductions to get us rolling on this item.

Welcome.

Thank you.

As you mentioned, I'm Katie Bowman, Economic Development Manager with the City.

And here we're very excited to have partners here from CalEd uh to present to the city, as well as B3, the Developer Estate Award and Economic Development.

And we have with us today Jennifer McLean Hiromoto.

She's uh executive director of economic development with Ontario, California, and also serves as chair of the CalEd State Board.

And Steven Bader, who many of you may know, he's the executive director with East Bay EDA here in the Bay Area.

He's also vice chair of the CalEd board.

And so uh this award was um uh we we uh also talked about this award today at the facility.

If people have not seen, there is a lot going on inside the rear of Bayfair and uh throughout the Bay Fair area, looking to the future and a new future for this mall area, and so it includes uh converting over 400,000 square feet of space at the rear of the mall.

We have flexible work workspace, we have uh Carrington College and San Joaquin Valley College, as well as um incoming space, very nice incoming space uh for Asian health to offer senior day services.

And so uh this facility offers a lot of opportunity for jobs, and so at its height, you know, this could have up to 400 jobs, paying at a higher rate than the previous retail rate, so looking to continue to create good things here, and with uh a lot of um staff manpower and staff work, we've been able to leverage a relatively small amount of public grant funds uh with the developer putting in over three 33 million dollars that they'll be putting into the project.

And so today we were out at the facility really thanking all of the staff.

Really, this award is I'm I'm the conduit for this award to really recognize all the work that the staff has done and the developer B3 have done, and really from from building to fire to planning, as well as engineering, environmental services, police department, city manager's office, really um, beginning with the city council approving uh an updated plan for the area as well as supporting updated zoning for the area, and then on a day-to-day basis with the staff, really working hard, being nimble and innovative, as we talked about today in their review, allowing for new things to come into old space, and that uh takes work and it takes creativity, problem solving, and so we really want to recognize staff for that.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Jennifer to just just to tell a little bit more about the award, and then we can um present it here to the mayor.

Great.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, members of council.

Uh, it's really a pleasure to be here in part because it's a bit of a homecoming.

I did grow up uh just not too far away from here in Castor Valley, so I shopped at this mall, and I'm reminded that I'm old.

Uh things have changed a bit, but um, it is really exciting to see the development that you've done.

And first and foremost, this is a big deal.

Um, and it should really be celebrated tonight.

Um, but earlier today, as Katie mentioned, we had the opportunity to go out with the city manager and the mayor, uh, your city team, and the developer.

And really, three three things stood out to me.

And as mentioned, I work for the city of Ontario in my volunteer gig.

I'm the chair of CalEd.

The first is that this is not a new story.

We hear of shopping malls closing up and down the state and across the country.

But what makes this project remarkable is how quickly you were able to reposition it.

A developer step forward, and the city of San Leandro embrace that opportunity to reimagine what the site could become.

Not all cities seize that opportunity, and you should really be recognized for that.

Second, the city didn't just support the vision, it acted on it.

I asked the developer two questions.

First, why buy a mall?

That seemed a little bit risky.

But second, what assurance did he have from the city that the city would actually support it?

I mean, this is a significant investment.

And his answer was simple: the city delivered.

The fact that you were able to rezone this within a three months' time is significant.

Again, I work for Ontario.

We're very proud at how quickly we can move things.

I think that you've now really set the bar on what the standard should be.

And the third is that this project builds upon San Leandro's success.

You reflect a community where developers continue to invest, businesses continue to grow, and innovative companies continue to choose San Leandro as your home or as their home.

CalEd in our capacity, we recognize and appreciate your leadership, your vision, and the commitment demonstrated by the council, and your whole city team that made this happen.

Our hope at CalEd is that we we celebrate these examples so that you can serve as examples to other communities.

And with that is our honor to present to you this well-deserved award of excellence for the City of San Leandro B3 Investors Speedway at Bayfair Project.

So congratulations.

And I think Steven Vader wanted to say a couple of words as well.

Yeah, just very quickly, I guess, good evening, Councilmembers.

Mayor, so Steven Bader, executive director of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance and Vice Chair of Cal Ed.

Yeah, was out there this morning, and just it's great to see uh the fantastic uh growth is starting to happen at Speedway, thanks to all of your support and investment.

Uh it's it's not often that you get the CalEd chair here, so it's really great.

Her city also won one of these awards a couple of years ago, so she knows a thing or two about uh how much work you're doing.

I think it's high praise, speaks to it.

I was saying too to the mayor that we know this is a really important note of activation, and ESPADA stands here to really help support you in that work.

So thank you.

Congratulations.

Okay.

And I said, you know, we can have uh a tagline like San Leandro's City where kindness matters and innovation flourishes, but it's not about the words, it's actually about the actions, and in particular, innovation is flourishing because of the actions by staff.

When we had an opportunity to act quickly, we acted quickly.

And so, you know, I said that privately, and I'll say that publicly, that it all of this is because our staff has acted quickly in response to changing market conditions, and that's particularly important.

Of course, we're grateful for the investment that's happening in our city, uh, but very grateful that staff is responding, pivoting to address those opportunities.

So again, thank you, staff.

At this point in time, uh, what I'd like to do is I do not believe we've got our recipient here.

There you are, right?

That's Corey way back there.

Your timing is impeccable.

Because we're ready.

Come on up.

We had we had organized here where they were gonna do this little like song and dance routine, and we're gonna figure out how to adjust until he got here.

And your timing's perfect.

So we're very grateful.

So you you can hold that.

I'm gonna read this.

Um, recipient Corey Blanchett.

Blanchette, yes, Dr.

Core.

Dr.

Corey from Golden Bear Chiropractic.

Uh, just a quick look at the website shows you that it is a very welcoming chiropractic practice, specifically focused on inclusion.

And so I thought it was very fitting and proper that you be a recipient today.

So, whereas the city of San Leandro celebrates and cherishes the value and the dignity of each human person, and appreciates the importance of equality and freedom.

And whereas the city of San Leando denounces prejudice and unfair discrimination based on age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, color, religion, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, or physical attributes.

We abhor these as an affront to our fundamental principles.

And whereas Pride Month is celebrated in the month of June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City, in which thousands demonstrated against discrimination and against harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.

And whereas the city of San Leandro appreciates the cultural, civic, and economic contributions of the LGBTQ plus community, and thanks these residents for strengthening our community and for enriching San Leandro's diversity.

And whereas many LGBTQ residents and citizens across the United States have provided decades of hard work to organize constituents and have made personal sacrifices to pave the way for the civil rights that we enjoy today.

And whereas everyone in our community, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression, should feel valued, safe, and empowered, supported by their peers, and by community leaders.

Now, therefore, I Juan Gonzalo, third mayor of the city of San Leandro, do hereby proclaim the month of June 2026 as Pride Month in the city of San Leandro and encourage residents to demonstrate their support for the LGBTQ community, especially in this month.

Thank you.

Oh, I've got to.

Oh, I'll take a quick catch.

Yeah, come on.

Remember, Fox there.

Thank you.

Of course, I think we'll take this one way.

So with that, we will close out uh both item 9A and 4A and move to our consent calendar.

First, I will take any amendments that will go to public comment.

Then we'll come back for a motion.

Are there any amendments to the consent calendar?

Vice Mayor.

I don't have an amendment, but I do have some questions regarding 5E.

I appreciate that.

Would you please ask your questions?

Sure.

Um, this is regarding SB1 funds, and I have specific questions about one of the projects regarding um anyway.

So it's SB1 on streets.

Thank you.

And director Marquises, will you be addressing the question?

So first, if you can ask your question.

Yes.

So I'm referring to item 5E for those of the folks that are following us online.

It's regarding um Senate Bill One, which um allocates funding uh to cities across the state.

San Leandro is estimated to receive 2.5 million.

Um attachment A1 talks about the four projects that will be funded through this uh uh fund, and I specifically wanted to zero in on item three, which is Lake Shabo Road Stabilization Repair Phase One.

And I was kind of I I just wanted to get a clarifying question on the project um on the project page.

It says that uh phase one, which is specific to slide uh slide locations one and four, was going to be funded through a grant from the federal highway administration.

I'm just wondering, can you just talk about the how these funds are going to be used?

Is it complementary to this work?

I'm just trying to understand kind of the um composite of the funds.

Correct.

Thank you.

Good evening, uh Sheila Marquises, Public Works Director.

To answer your question, the funding that's identified, it's also uh the funding sources are listed on the project website.

There is a 2.09 million for the federal highway emergency relief grant funds that you referenced.

And then we also have the local capital improvement program funds, which is about 720,000, which includes some of those SB1 funds.

So that um is part of our local match for to receive the federal highway emergency relief grant.

So it does supplement those um funding sources.

Thank you.

So I just want to make sure that it's clear again in my goal of making the implicit explicit.

So there is uh so there's uh can you tell me again what the total cost for phase one is?

The emergency relief fund is two point zero nine million dollars, and then seven hundred twenty thousand of local funds.

So the cost for phase one is the first number you gave.

The total is two point eight million dollars.

Okay, so it's two two point eight, and then we have federal, we have grant funding uh for some of that, and then we're gonna complement some of the other month funds that are coming from SB1.

And so the actual city investment, you said it was 200 and something thousand?

720,000.

720,000.

Okay.

Um, so just to clarify, we are combining essentially a lot of funds to ensure that phase one is completed.

Correct.

Thank you very much.

Um, I just also wanted um to apologize.

I usually send these questions in advance.

Um, and so I just want to apologize.

I usually do that, and I apologize for putting you on the spot on kind of zeroing in on the numbers.

Appreciate and know that obviously they're amazing and um would are able to answer these types of questions.

I also wanted to highlight um some of the other projects as I have the mic that are of um I think all of our colleagues and the folks here in the room.

Um, overall local street maintenance, annual street ceiling projects, MacArthur Superior Roundabout Project.

Um, so we're looking at some uh kind of citywide uh impact and then some of those locations that have needed a lot of love over many years.

So um thank you to the team for putting together um and leveraging all the kind of different funds to move these projects along.

Thank you.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you.

And just for the record, I do want the public to know that council member Aguilar, uh Victor Aguilar is in the meeting, uh, through the remote participation participation location identified in our agenda.

Uh seeing no other qu there is there, we do have a question from Councilmember James Aguilar.

No, can I make a motion?

Not yet.

Okay, but thank you for asking.

Um, we'll go to public comment on the item at this time.

Mayor, we have not received any comment cards.

We have one hand raised online.

Okay, so we have opened and now closed public comment in person.

We are opening public comment online.

We're up to three hands.

And the first speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Thank you.

Uh good evening, council on this uh beautiful first day of June.

Um, I had a couple questions about a few items.

One I know was 5D.

I'm just trying to pull that back up.

And uh it it uh I guess it's a um, you know, permitting the city manager to enter into consulting agreements with a lot of civil engineers, of which there are 19 different firms listed.

And what it says here in the item is that uh construction is civil engineering construction management inspected counseling uh consulting services and an amount not to exceed uh one and a half million dollars within a three year period with each firm.

I just want to be assured that that's not one and a half million dollars times 19 firms.

That's overall.

I I hope, I hope that is.

Uh and then I just wanted to um say I'm happy to see not only 5D on here, but also uh 5B, which is also transportation money uh from Measure B B and the vehicle registration fee.

It looks like the measure BB and and BRF funds are a long time coming.

It's the first time we're we're receiving those, but uh, but I'm hopeful that those those uh will help with our our budget uh our very tight budget.

Uh I I don't know if I I assume they were accounted for in your budgeting before, so it's not like a windfall or anything.

But um, but good news for the city of San Leandro.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Alvaro Ramos.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

All right.

So item 5E.

I just I feel like I need to get my perspective out on this.

I think that by the time that uh Lake Chabot Road drains public resources.

I wouldn't expect anything left for MacArthur roundabout, annual street sealing or local street maintenance.

There are significantly higher infrastructure priorities in Lake Chibo Road, and there hasn't even been a funding source passed for this.

And I mean, you're talking about already dumping tax dollars at uh I there's not an even enough specification, I think, about what your phase one involves, aside from some you know, talk about construction, stabilization and repair on the text.

Um, and I would have thought that city staff would have made it clear last year that it's impossible to restore like Chibo Road.

I think that throwing money at the problem is not gonna make it go away.

The risk of fiscal crisis is too extreme, and it wasn't bad enough.

You know, the perception really should be that the city cut back on all the is gonna cut back on all the public services in the next fiscal year.

Um, and it feels like you know, but but now we're focusing on funding Lake Chabot Road and possibly I don't know, accelerating the city's structural deficit, which would, you know, damn us to permanent debt.

Um this is just worse than a multi-million dollar money pit.

It's the Hayward fault.

And I have never heard of any government fighting an earthquake fault because geology makes it totally impossible.

And I think that um the, you know, the desires of one district should not be above the needs of the rest of the city's districts.

There's a real opportunity here for the mayor and the council members for not taking uh a serious discussion here about alternative transportation options that would provide accessibility to the rest of this city.

I mean, many of the residents who came to complain were senior citizens.

How much longer are there gonna be are they gonna be driving?

That's the question you should be asking.

Thank you.

The next speaker is actually there are no more hands raised online, Mayor.

So we'll close public comment online.

Come back to the council for any further discussion, or I will take a motion.

Councilmember James Aguilar.

Mayor, I'd like to move the consent calendar.

I have a motion from James Aguilar, Councilmember.

Uh Councilmember Bowen.

I'll second that.

We've got a second, Councilmember Bowen.

Any other discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Councilmember Victor Aguilar.

May we have your vote, please?

Aye.

Thank you.

All votes are in, and the motion carries unanimously with all members voting yes.

Thank you, Council.

We will move on to item number six, City Manager report.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Good evening, Council and Community Members.

I have two announcements today.

The first one I'm excited to announce, and um it's our cherry festival, our annual cherry festival this Saturday.

Um, I hope to see everyone there.

It'll be an exciting fun time with live music, vendors, local food options, a fun zone, and many more fun things to do, and lots of cherries.

So we have our parade starting at 10 a.m.

going through 11 a.m.

We also have our pride flag raising ceremony at the San Leandro Main Library at 11:30, and then there's the festival from 11 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

So I hope everyone gets a chance to come on out and have some fun with all of us this Saturday, June 6th.

Uh and my next announcement, I am extremely happy to announce um that San Leandro has a new chief technology officer, Elisa Hernandez, who began with the city on May 26, last Tuesday.

Alicia brings more than 20 years of experience leading complex technology initiatives in local government.

Most recently, she was with the city of Fremont, and throughout her distinguished career, she was successfully modernizing technology systems, strengthening cyber security programs, and enhancing the reliability and effectiveness of services provided to both employees and the community.

Our new director Hernandez, her expertise and dedication to public service will be invaluable to San Leandro's technology infrastructure and expanding digital services.

I'm excited to welcome Director Hernandez to San Leandro, and I look forward to the innovation, collaboration, and strategic vision she will bring to our organization.

Please join me in giving a warm welcome to our new director, Alicia Hernandez.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members, and community members.

I am honored to join the city of San Leandro as your chief technology officer.

I believe that technology is at its best when it's not about technology at all, when it's about the people, when technology is about the people it serves.

And I believe that my vision here is to use technology to make services faster, easier, and more accessible, all while being good stewards of public resources.

I look forward to partnering with the great team that is here at the city, the wonderful community, and uh and with and to help the city of San Leandro continue on its path of innovation and continue thriving.

And I'm also looking forward to the Cherry Festival.

Thank you.

Thank you for choosing San Leandro.

It's good to have you here.

At this point in time, we will go to public comments.

This is the time for where the public can offer comments on items that are not on our agenda, that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council?

Madam Clerk, it appears that you have a number of cards in front of you.

How many do you have today?

Mayor, we've received 12 cards.

We have 12 cards, and it looks like you might have another one coming.

Oh no, a different card.

Okay.

Um, so we will proceed with the 12 cards that we have in person.

And then we'll see if we have time left.

Remember, we take 30 minutes of public comment at this point in the meeting.

If we have time for some more, we will take it online.

And then we will continue with public comment towards the end of our meeting per our agenda.

Our first three speakers are Marikita Banks, Gloria Strom, and Jack Strom.

Hello.

I know parking may not be a big deal to you guys.

I was here about two months ago on April 6th in the meeting, and I was told someone would get back to me.

No one has gotten back to me.

The parking signs are still up in District 2 near San Langel High, still not allowing residents to park from 7 a.m.

to 5 a.m.

The schools will be letting out this week.

There's going to be an empty high school and empty Bancroft with us not being able to park anywhere.

Some of the parents are teachers.

We're, they're gonna be out for the summer and they're getting ticketed because they're not allowed to park on Bancroft.

I've spoken with the city.

The city said they're not the ones who put up the signs.

I was told that San Leandro School District put up the signs.

I spoke with them.

They're pointing the fingers back at the city, saying everyone's just pointing fingers everywhere.

So I'm not getting any resolved.

I'm not sure at this point if I need to present it to them to the media for them to investigate and find out who's put who has these signs up where we're not allowed to park, so they can investigate, even just a few blocks down the street on Bancroft in front of Jefferson School.

These signs aren't up, and that's the elementary school, which is more difficult for the elementary school kids to cross than the high school kids.

The high school kids may have issues with parked cars because they're not walking in the crosswalks.

They're just walking back and forth in the middle of the streets.

So for us not to be able to park, just because they are saying that the high school kids, it's unsafe for them, that's untrue.

They need to park, they need to walk in the crosswalks so we can have access to being never to park on the streets on Bancroft.

Once again, Jefferson, there's apartment buildings over there, and they're able to park with no problems.

And I know they said that though these signs have been up for a while, but we all have to pivot.

We all have pivoted since 2019.

Thank you.

You're a lot of collapse.

Uh thank you.

Our next three speakers are Gloria Strom, Jack Strom, and Carol Haberkoss.

Good evening, Mayor Gonzalez and council members.

I want to speak directly to the mayor tonight.

I've yet to hear you directly address the fact that women have not been safe at City Council in any meaningful way.

The city settled a gender discrimination lawsuit with the former city manager for 335,000 taxpayers paid for that.

We also paid approximately 100,000 for an independent investigation into complaints made by councilmember Bowen.

That's more than half a million dollars spent on dealing with the consequences of how women have been treated in our government.

You can push fire trucks into firehouses.

You can raise pride flags, you can ask residents to help shape the identity and branding of our city.

But those things are compromised when our when women are not safe at City Hall.

What I have not heard from you is a clear statement that what happened was unacceptable.

I've not heard specific steps are being taken to prevent this from ever happening again.

I've not heard what accountability looks like.

Moving forward is not pretending this didn't happen.

Moving forward is telling the community how it will never happen again.

So tonight I'm asking you to do three things.

Tell this community that harassment and gender-based hostility at City Hall are unacceptable.

Tell us what concrete steps are being taken to make City Hall safe for women.

And tell us how you intend to rebuild public trust after taxpayers have spent more than half a million dollars payting for the consequences of this behavior.

Behind you, the sign says a city where kindness matters, and you actually quoted that today.

Clarity is kindness, integrity is kindness.

Mayor, safety is kindness, and that's the standard.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Jack Strom, Carol Habercross, and Gunnar Hassam.

Um I'm Jack Strom.

Um I'm here regarding similar subject, um, regarding the independent investigation report detailing the harassment bias and retaliation against women uh in City Hall.

I'm disappointed and unhappy over half a million dollars of our public funds have been wasted on lawsuits and investigations entirely because of shameful actions of the men who made them necessary.

After reading the report and the behavior described, it looks like junior high popularity inviting, and it's not what I expect out of our local government.

This includes trying to minimize the seriousness of what happened and sweeping it under the rug.

Pushing these issues aside and hoping they disappear is not how the city moves forward.

It destroys public trust and it leaves a toxic toxic environment in place.

We don't need more public relations statements.

We don't we need actual structural changes, and we need real accountability from leadership.

Taxpayer money belongs to our community, not to fix self-inflicted legal disasters.

City Hall must be safe for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Carol Hybercos, Gunnar Hassam, and Craig Williams.

Good evening, City Council, Mayor, Vice Mayor, staff.

I'm gonna talk about rent stabilization.

So first I want to thank the city council and the staff for making this happen.

This is such a good thing.

It's a huge step for renters in our community, and I look forward to working together with you to make sure that we get you know get this out into the community and help renters sign up for it.

Um I also agree on the ordinance prohibiting the pass through of the rent stabilization fee to tenants.

So that part I can't let you talk about because it's on the agenda.

Sorry, okay.

So the whole topic, so just like stay away from anything that's on the agenda.

Okay, but we are not done yet.

So we need to protect tenants by adding a new just cause ordinance for the eviction for eviction ordinance.

So Oakland, Berkeley, Antioch, and Concord currently have enforceable just cause ordinances, just cause tenant protections are designed to stabilize housing, protect long-term residents, and prevent unjust evictions.

They also include provisions for vulnerable tenants.

For example, people over 60 or people with disabilities who may be at higher risk of displacement.

So this ensures that protections extend to those most in need.

In short, just cause tenant protections are needed to prevent unjust evictions, protect long-term residents, and maintain stable affordable housing in a city that you know is to high rents are so high.

And so, and they balance landlord rights with tenant security.

So I've been a renter for about 16 years, and um, you know, I want to continue being a renter, and I also want to work with, you know, with all the other renters in the city.

So we all we look forward um to working with you and adding this important ordinance to truly make Saint Leandro a fair, equitable place for renters to live in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Gunnar Hissam, Craig Williams, and Judy Square.

Reset that timer.

Hi, my name's Gunnar Hissom.

It's good to see everyone here.

Uh, I'm here to speak about um the MacArthur roundabout.

Surprise, surprise.

Um, it's it's an ongoing project.

Um, the city's been working on now uh for 20 years, and to my understanding, it's fully funded.

And yeah, we're still waiting for it.

So what I wanted to say is I live on the corner of Lewis in MacArthur, and we have witnessed quite a few car crashes.

We thought that the CHP getting T-bone would be the pinnacle of our list.

But we also had a pregnant woman with a child in the back flip her car over.

Safety is, I would hope, the top priority.

And I would hope that you would prioritize finishing this project for the safety of all those who live here.

So yeah.

Please just prioritize this thing and get it done.

Thanks.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Craig Williams, Judy Square, and Woody Square.

Hello, my name is Craig Williams.

First of all, I'd like to thank the council for their great work on rent stabilization.

At the Democratic Party convention in February, they highlighted on one of the housing committees the work that you guys did.

So they applauded you.

You know, but I also like to talk about just cause.

You know, just cause is something that's universal in other countries.

Throughout Europe, it's universal.

They say, you know, it's it's a sad thing that Americans don't have just cause protection.

It's something that we really need here.

And hopefully we can get it uh on a city council.

Um, as Carol mentioned, you know, there are numerous cities throughout the Bay Area that um already have just cause uh Oakland, Berkeley, Almeida, um, Antioch and other cities.

When I think about this issue, I think about is this something that you would want for your children?

If you had a child who was a renter, would you say, yeah, you know, let's you know, make sure that my child has uh just cause protection.

I think almost everybody would say, you know, they support this idea.

Um, and the final comment I'd just like to make is that, you know, people in the Bay Area in California pay some of the highest rents in the country, yet at the same time, some of the lowest property taxes.

Um, and that's something that the city should investigate because it's you know that that difference is is really something that uh uh is a shame.

But uh please support just cause.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Judy Square, Woody Square, Brian Sandine.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

First, I want to acknowledge the tremendous workload you carry.

Every week brings new challenges, new requests, and new issues that demand your attention.

At the same time, there are important projects from years past that still require leadership, focus, and follow through.

So I'm here tonight to respectfully ask you to not allow long-standing commitments to be pushed aside by whatever by whatever new issue happens to be most urgent this week.

And one project in particular stands out the construction of the roundabout.

It is a project that has been discussed, studied, and anticipated for nearly 20 years.

And over that time, this council and previous councils have repeatedly assured residents that the roundabout remains a top priority for our city.

But our priority is only a priority if it remains at the front of the line when competing demands arise.

It is easy to focus on the newest challenge, but true leadership requires honoring commitments that have already been made.

Tonight I urge you to keep your promise to the community, stay committed to the roundabout project.

Keep it on the front burner.

Continue dedicating the attention, resources, and urgency necessary to move it forward forward, regardless of what other projects come to the fore.

So the residents of this city have waited patiently for two decades, and they deserve to see this long-promised project become a reality.

So thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Woody Square, Brian Sandine, and Sarah Bailey.

Hi, Mayor Gonzalez, as well as uh council members.

So grateful to be here and grateful for all of you and for the way in which you are helping our city to grow and to maintain a quality of life that's amazing.

It was mentioned by Jennifer, I think Miramoto earlier that you are a group that delivers, and we're grateful for that.

And right now we'd like to ask for you to deliver on behalf of us.

We do need a roundabout, this roundabout to be taken care of.

It's been on the docket for 20 years, I believe.

And I think different it's been brought before different council members, and nothing is happening, and we're still waiting.

The CHP has been T-boned.

A mom and a child and a little baby have been turned, their world has been turned upside down.

I don't know what kind of dreams they're having right now.

But our prayer is that before it's too late for somebody at a roundabout be taken care of.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Brian Sandeen, Sarah Bailey, Leo T.

West.

City Council, thank you for your time.

My name is Brian Sandine.

I'm a 26-year resident of San Leandro on Lewis Avenue.

And I'm here to speak about the roundabout.

I remember going to my first meeting about the roundabout.

Boy, must have been at least 15 years ago.

And so the longer that it takes, the more Lewis residents feel like it's just never gonna happen.

And so uh I'd encourage you uh not to let it slide to the back.

Uh, that you'll keep it at the front of the priority list.

Um, it means an awful lot to us, and uh and we appreciate your attention to that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Sarah Bailey, Leo T.

West, and San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

Hi, I'm Sarah Bailey, and uh Councilmember Bowen will have a make a statement later tonight, right?

Okay.

So I uh want to take this opportunity to thank uh Councilmember Bowen for standing up for all women who have swallowed their voices when they have been physically violated in the workplace.

We all did this to get along.

We did this to avoid professional repercussions.

An email went out in advance of the assault to describe the incident before it happened.

Councilmember Bowen was set up to be assaulted.

This is grotesque and cruel, and whoever did it is grotesque and cruel.

We support you.

Thank you for using your voice to support us.

Thank you.

The next speakers are Leo T.

West and San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

I believe that the Bromur Plaza is in your house in San Leandro for six years.

I've been harassed, threatened, bombarded with fraudulent accusation, violation, house rules.

In 2024, I ran a petition denouncing management neglect, arbitrariness and abuse.

I it was signed by more than half of the tenants.

The harassment against me escalated.

Last February, I ran a petition of posting management request to have for a rent increase.

A group of 15 tenants signed the petition, but this time management issued a memo asking tenants not to sign.

They also called them to the office on intimidation tactic.

On April 29th, I was settled with a 60 day notice of termination of tenancy.

So after 10 years of opinion for tenants in San Leandro and 30 years resident of the city, I'm facing addiction at the age of 85.

Now the City of San Leandro made a financial contribution to develop the plaza facility.

The current uh the government suspended chief of police came to that place for a meeting with tenants.

I believe that the mayor and the council member also came to a party there last year.

I was not home.

So is the city going to intervene to prevent human goods from putting me in the streets of the age of 85?

You have a cloud to do so.

Will you?

Now, the agencies that do it no help, like uh uh centro legal, uh the eco housing, the uh legal assistant for senior.

None of them will provide any assistant legal assistant.

It's a fraud.

No state, no county.

Thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next speaker is San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

Hello, everybody, good evening.

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

I'm here tonight to talk about two issues.

The first issue is the business license tax that we are going to be looking at at the June 8th meeting.

As you know, and I've shared with lots of staff members and city council last week.

There's a lot of concern about this business license tax amongst our members, how it's going to work, how it's going to be implemented, and how it's going to impact their business, especially in a time with so many other rising costs to do business in San Leandro and actually throughout California.

I do want to thank the city staff.

They have given us some more information about specific category rates and a calculating tool so that businesses can see how much it might cost them to have a business license tax here in San Leandro.

We're putting that information out to our members.

We're going to be collecting data and hoping to share more of that with you guys next week at the June 8th meeting.

The second item I'm here to talk about is the illegal street food vendors.

We've got a hot spot on Marina.

Make sure I'm scared of the Marina Drive.

And we had a round table last week, which we invited our Senator Grayson's office, uh assembly member, assembly member, or assembly members, Ortega's office, and also our supervisor, Lena Tam's office.

We had a really robust conversation.

We heard from businesses, and we really want to get to an end result with what's going to work best for businesses that are currently here, that have been paying their taxes, that employee people, and how we can overcome this.

So we look for more work on that.

There might be more work to be done with the city ordinance, but we are really focused on that, and I hope that you guys are too.

A lot of these businesses have been here for a long time.

They commit their tax dollars, and we want to also protect them as well.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes the common cards we have from in the room.

Okay, so let us proceed.

So we'll close public comment in person.

Let's open public comment online.

Our first online speaker is Chris Urban Res Life.

Good evening, relatives.

My name is Chris Urban Res Life Longoria.

First, I'd like to acknowledge the Alone people whose territory we occupy.

I like to acknowledge the whale relative that landed in our bay.

Currently, it's naturally decomposing as it's the safest and most effect, most environmental appropriate option for us.

I really appreciate how the city of San Leandro dealt with this and kept the community updated.

I hope the city keeps notes on how they handled this deer whale relative, as I'm sure we will encounter this again due to climate change.

I also want to acknowledge our young people who are graduating.

Many blessings on their new journey to the class of 2026.

Gratitude for this amazing progress with our rent stabilization.

Don't stop now.

Keep going.

Next up is just cause.

As a longtime renter, 41 years in San Leandro, I really appreciate this work.

Aho, thank you.

Thank you.

Our next online speaker is Jesse.

Good evening.

In the HR investigation that resulted from Councilmember Bowen's complaint against Councilmembers Aguilar and Simon, we read that after she was sexually assaulted at a conference in Florida.

An email started circulating alleging that she had been drunk, flirtatious, and suggesting that she had ended up in the mayor's room later that night.

As video surveillance has shown, those accusations were categorically false.

However, I was appalled and honestly enraged to learn from reporting last week that the first of these cruel and libelous emails was actually distributed before the sexual assault occurred.

The only logical conclusion is that Councilmember Bowen was set up to be assaulted.

The HR investigation referenced how council member Aguilar repeated the cruel and untrue allegations from the email.

Councilmember Aguilar, were you behind this setup?

The voting public deserves to know.

Thank you.

The next online speaker is Melissa Wong.

Oh, hi there.

Um, good evening.

Um, since we briefly heard from our new technology officer, uh, maybe that's a good time for me to follow up on the status of a financial system upgrade.

I'm referring specifically to the recommendation from that wonderful budget task force from five years ago to enhance the city's financial system.

I have the written proposal if it helps anyone, and I wanted closure since this recommendation was deemed complete as I understand it from a prior city planning session.

Can someone from the city share updates on this effort?

I think many folks know my contact information.

So if someone can get back to me, I would really appreciate it.

And um, well, I think from what I'm hearing from the public comments.

Um, well, I thank uh everybody for now, and I look forward to hearing the rest of the agenda items.

Thank you.

Our next online speaker is Jenny Chang.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, good evening.

I would like to comment um the hiring of our intern chief.

My concern is why are we wasting taxpayers' money, particular residence money in hiring a new chief when we already have an assistant chief, Luis Source, who's doing the job.

Um, we've already, we've been through two chiefs and lots of trauma and drama that the community knows, but seems to be hush hush about with the leadership.

So I just want to address this.

Um, because it's a big concern of mine.

And also, lastly, I just want to thank Mayor Gonzalez for getting back to me and also my council person, James Aguilar, for uh listening to my uh concern.

That's it.

Have a great evening.

Thank you.

The next online speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Can I get two Minnes though to talk?

There we go.

Um, uh, you know, I'm an old guy and I still believe in practice that thing called dialectic materialism.

And I'm happy to report that that a healthy debate has broken out in our fair city over the merits of competing revenue measures, the citizens' parcel tax that folks were out getting uh signatures on, and then the the uh uh potential um re-modernized business license fee.

And uh, you know, I had a lot to say about it.

I've been writing some and been uh going door to door a little bit and uh but I've been listening too, and uh, and I I've been learning things too uh as well.

And and my um my belief is that you will you as a council will make some some good choices, and we as voters will make some good choices and and we'll end up uh in a better place after the November election.

Um, but I don't I do have to pause for a moment to say I I am a little disturbed by one thing I've heard from more than one person, and that is um residents who you know the not came to the door, somebody was there looking for a signature on the petition, and they indicated they weren't really in favor of of it, but somehow ended up signing the petition because they felt pressured to do so.

And I just think, come on, dude, like you know, you're gonna get your signatures.

Do you really need that one signature?

It just doesn't really strike me as being that democratic.

So um with this regard, I guess the the more important thing I wanted to address is measure F, which is on the ballot, which everybody needs to drop in the ballot box by tomorrow.

Do not mail it at this point, and please do vote yes on measure F because we have district elections coming to St.

Leander, whether we vote in favor of it or we get taken to court for it.

Uh, and you know, some of the concern in the past has been, oh gosh, if we have district elections, then we're gonna create little fiefdoms.

And and actually the city works a little bit like that at present because uh districts one and five kind of dominate debate.

This will help people.

Thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.

Okay, so we will close public comment.

Um, as has been my longstanding tradition, I don't tend to comment or have any discussion on public comment unless there are objectively false statements that have been made.

So it is objectively false that we have not communicated with a resident about parking in front of the high school.

There are emails going back and forth with that individual.

Um, and so I'll just leave it at that.

There is no confusion about who has the right to put in no parking science.

It's the city that would put in no parking science, not the school district.

There is no confusion.

We're not confused um about uh that particular topic.

Um there is a question that has come up.

Obviously, we have the city projects page with respect to the status of projects.

Um, a question has come up with respect to the MacArthur roundabout, and I'd like to just get clarification on whether there is funding.

Do we have full funding for the MacArthur roundabout?

Is that funding at risk or anything like that?

So if I could get just clarity of that answer, because there's been some apparent confusion as to whether we're fully funded and whether that funding is at risk.

And to the extent that it's at risk, if you could please inform the public about any potential risk there.

Good evening, Sheila Marquise's public works director.

Currently, we have about 7.2 million dollars committed to the project.

At this time, that is our best um engineer's estimate for how much the construction, the total cost of the project would be.

Um at this time, I don't I'm not aware of any risk to those uh funding sources.

Thank you.

And the only other question is that clearly there has been delay over the years, and I think that Councilmember Bowen and I talked about how this would project would be launched in 2025 or maybe 2026.

How confident are we about the current timeline?

The current timeline, we have several uh agreements in place um with the city of Oakland and Calchance.

We do have on our project website, we are currently scheduled for a start of construction in early 2027, May 2027, with the completion um in early 2028.

Assuming all those agreements proceed as planned, that would be our project schedule as it stands.

So early 2027, meaning if I'm counting correctly within a year.

Okay.

Thank you.

At this point in time, we'll move beyond public comment on non-agenda items.

And we'll move to a public hearing.

We've got a public hearing to adopt a resolution, potentially adopt a resolution, and to have the introduction of an ordinance as laid out in our agenda.

So to introduce this item, we've got assistant community development director, Avalon Schultz.

Is that working?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Um, quick refresh for the community.

Um, as a reminder, the city council adopted a rental registry ordinance in April of 2025, and then later in February of 2026, a rent stabilization ordinance.

Together, we're referring to those two programs as the rent program.

Um and then recently in April and then in May, there were actions taken related to implementation of the rent program, including budget staffing approval and shifting the rental registry deadline to January 2027 to align with rent stabilization.

So the program will launch in coordination in January.

On April 20th, the council took several actions, including establishing a special revenue fund for this program, appropriating the fiscal year 2027 budget for the program, and authorizing six full-time equivalent staff positions, as well as amending the deadline, as I previously mentioned, which the second reading and adoption of that ordinance was on May 4th.

And at that April 20th meeting, there were a few actions discussed that were not finalized by city council and direction was provided to come back at a future meeting, which is why we're here tonight for three items.

One was to update the general fund loan interest rate term, and that has been updated based on guidance from council.

The next was to update the rent program fees.

It was shared with staff that the petition fees didn't make sense and that it was preferred that there just be the base program fees for the two programs and no additional petitions.

And so the result of this is that the base fees went up by a dollar a piece.

We have an updated fee study, and we also heard from council some interest in eliminating the fee pass through to tenants.

And so the prior ordinance allowed 50% of the rent stabilization fee to be passed through, and we were hearing that there might be consensus about eliminating that pass-through, and so there's an ordinance for your consideration tonight that would do just that.

So first the general fund loan.

The prior recommended rate of 3.76% interest was based on the city's investment portfolio return, and we heard from a few council members that there was interest in looking at a different benchmark, and so we're returning with an updated rate of 4.03%.

That is the average of the five-year and seven-year treasury daily par yield curve rates.

Um, an average because this is a six-year loan, and so if we average five and seven, we get six, and so there's some equivalency there.

Um, so the rate increased slightly, um, and again, this is a proposed loan to get the program up and running before revenues start coming in, and the payback period would be three to six years because we're not sure exactly how revenue is going to track, and we'll provide updates along the way.

Um, depending on the payback term, this will yield 280,000 to 487,000 in interest revenue to the general fund when it is paid back, and um just the first year interest alone is roughly 90,000 at this rate.

So moving on to the fees, um, we you'll see here an updated fee table that does not include any petition fees, so included in the program costs would be any property owner or any tenant requesting a petition to increase or decrease rents, and those would be heard for free, and the costs would be recovered through the general program fees, not specific fees for filing.

I do want to clarify on this table that the 9,500 units that are subject to the rental registry are inclusive of the 6,500 units that would be rent stabilized.

So rather than adding these two numbers together, the total unit count assumed in the fee study is 9,500 total.

So rent stabilized units would be responsible for paying both fees for combined 258 dollars.

And I know at the last meeting there were some questions about why the base rent program fee revenue is so much higher than the rent stabilized fee program revenue.

And so the next slide provides, I will not go through this in detail, but the next slide provides kind of a how did we get here in terms of the development of the staffing and budget estimates for this program?

And so originally, you know, we were just looking at a rental registry that was not going to have much enforcement, and it was going to be a pretty lean program of two staff with $650,000.

And when the policy discussions developed and we heard there was interest from council in pursuing rent stabilization, we started looking at combined programs and found that it was really hard to extrapolate for existing combined programs in other cities.

Which percentage or proportion of those was to administer the rent registry versus the rent stabilization because they typically operate as one unified program.

So we did come back to council in December with refined cost estimates, and we're really looking at a combined program model at that point or rent stabilization only without a rent registry.

And the red text highlights shows the direction we receive from council at those meetings.

And so that enhanced enforcement option with six FTE, 1.3 to 2.2 million dollar estimate is the direction that we went in.

But when we really worked with NBS to do the fee study and figured out which costs could be attributable to administration for all units versus just the rent stabilized units, that's where we came up with the split in revenue that you see here.

And that really has to do with having a more heavily enforced program, and really the heavy lift it takes to work with a community across all units and have them register and you know understand how to use the software and understand how to give you the information necessary.

We've learned that it's very time-intensive, and that the actual review of the rental uh price data is less time-intensive than some of just getting everybody in and getting them to register.

So wanted to provide this just for transparency and just to explain, you know, how we got here.

We are also proposing tiered late penalties.

We really want to drive people to register on time.

Um the penalties originally stopped at 100%, and we heard from some council members that maybe that wasn't going to be a strong enough penalty to offset, you know, all the all the time and money we spend trying to get people into the program and wanted to look at more stringent penalties.

So we worked with legal team and established a recommendation to go up to 150% penalty for 120 days late.

And we are also looking at leaning or putting special assessments on properties that are rent stabilized that are not coming in and paying.

Um, and so that is something that we've discussed with council along the way, and that um will be something you can assume after the first program year is completed.

All right, moving on.

Um, we heard there was some interest in exploring elimination of the fee pass-through.

And so, as mentioned, currently up to 50% can be passed through to tenants in two equal installments.

And the proposed ordinance tonight would prohibit the fee pass-through option and make the program entirely property owners' responsibility to pay for.

And the first reading would be tonight if council's interested in adopting this ordinance.

A second reading is tentatively scheduled for June 15th, and it would go into effect July 15th ahead of our January registration.

And so tonight, these actions would propel us forward with implementing this rent program by giving the program this startup general fund loan with the updated terms and providing clarity on the fees so we can get those into the master fee schedule, and then the ordinance if the council wishes to modify the pass-through provision, that would be for your consideration.

And we are just for a quick program update.

So we've heard from you guys lots of great ideas for how we can reach the community and get people to be aware of this requirement.

So that's that's what will be coming soon.

And having finality on the fees will be really helpful so the public understands what to expect.

And we're available if there's any questions, and we have our fee study consultant available on Zoom if council has questions for her.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So prior to opening our public hearing, we'll take some questions.

Seeing no questions, I'll ask a couple.

Um will we be tracking the costs associated with the properties?

Because we we have a you know, whatever that split was two-thirds, one third.

Will we actually, as we implement, uh track our cost to see if they align to that?

Yes.

Um, I won't commit to a level of specificity with the time tracking, but absolutely we'll be figuring out how much activities related to the program take for staff to Minister.

You mentioned leaning, but you qualified it for the rent controlled properties.

Not all payments of fees would be subject to leaning.

That's correct.

Um, when we bring the list of um accounts that are in arrears that need to or that could be placed as a special assessment through the county's tax collection process, we need to have confidence that those monies are owed the city.

With non-rent stabilized units, it is very hard to say with certainty that someone is renting out their single family home or their condominium.

Um, and so we would not feel comfortable um recommending a lien in those circumstances.

It's much more speculative which precise single-family homes may or may not be rented at any given time.

But with apartments, um, right, non-condominium apartments.

There's certainty that those are rentals, and then we would be much more comfortable recommending those special assessments to the city council.

If you had sufficient proof, would you be able to, or we would need a law, an ordinance provision that enables you to?

My understanding is that it's not a legal concern, it's more one of um a policy decision based on proof.

So if we had proof, um we would be comfortable recommending it's just very hard to obtain that proof at scale.

Okay.

I just want to make sure that if we need to change the order that we tweak that.

We have agreement, city attorney.

Yes, Mayor, that's correct.

Thank you.

But go ahead.

We will have a language that would be able to.

This we would have the proof and we can proceed under other code sections as well.

Thank you.

Okay, seeing no other questions.

The time is 8 15, and I am opening the public hearing on this matter.

Do we have public speakers?

Mayor, we have received four comment cards on this item, and there's presently one hand raised online.

Please proceed in person.

Our in-person commenters are Jenny Madsen, Robert Jones, and Jennifer Rizzo.

My name is Jenny Madsen, and I'm glad to be back here.

And I'm glad to be walking.

And I continue to be grateful to this council for the rent stabilization ordinance and for the motions to eliminate the 50% pass-through fee.

It means a lot to tenants, and they won't come forward and tell you, but I'm telling you, they say thank you.

I barely believe that this is happening sometimes, but I need to also talk about just cause because it's specific to the rent registry.

I think the city is going to find out how many single-family homes are being rented.

Over the years, the people that have been put forward to me to talk about all they've lived in this house for 30 or 40 years, and all of a sudden the landlord is saying, oh no, we need to raise the rent, you're out.

These people actually felt like this was their home.

This is a family thing, and it is unique, I think, to San Leandro and the unincorporated area.

I don't think there's as many rental single-family homes in other cities.

And I hope the city, I I hope the rent registry shows this.

You're hiring staff.

I believe it is very, very important that the staff here understand the situation and be committed to it.

Um it's just hard.

But I also want to thank staff because if they didn't understand this, if they didn't have the vision, it wouldn't have happened.

That is my goal.

Thank you.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next three speakers are Robert Jones, Jennifer Rizzo, and Michael McGuire.

Clearly, I'm not Robert Jones.

Is that okay to continue?

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Jennifer Rizzo, and I'm here on behalf of the California Apartment Association and San Leandro Rental Housing Providers.

The issue tonight is fairness and fiscal responsibility.

As you may recall, city staff retained a consultant, Baker Tilly Consulting, last year to conduct a research and provide staffing and cost assessments for the rent control program based on comparable E-Spay programs.

Based on that assessment, staff told you that the rent control program would carry, quote, a maximum annual fee of $100 per unit.

And that was at March 17th, 2025 staff presentation.

Now city staff is proposing housing providers pay 149 for partially regulated and 258 for fully regulated units.

And that is a major increase from what was presented to you when you agreed to the program.

The proposed fee is also substantially higher than the other comparable programs in the neighboring jurisdictions.

For comparison, Alameda charges approximately 114 to 170 for fully regulated.

Concord charges 50 and 78 dollars, Oakland charges 137, and San Pablo, which only has the rent registry, charges seven dollars.

And given these original benchmarks, we respectfully urge you to demand fiscally responsible management of this program.

We also oppose the elimination of pass-throughs because tenants are primary beneficiaries of the program, it's reasonable and equitable that share in the proportion of the cost.

Plus, it's common practice in the region to allow the rental program pass fee program fee pass-throughs.

For example, both Alameda and Oakland allow pass-throughs of 50% of the program fees to tenants.

How does this work?

In Alameda, housing providers pay a hundred and seventy dollars annual fee for fully regulated, with of which seven dollars and thirty-three cents per month is allowed to pass through to the tenant.

Thank you.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next speaker is Michael McGuire.

Sorry, I thought one more person was ahead of me.

So uh incidentally, just as an aside here, I find myself every once in a while actually agreeing with Leo West on a problem he's having.

And tonight was just one of those times, him as a tenant.

So uh about the uh rent stabilization.

What we all want is a normal housing market for San Leandro without sudden unpleasant surprises for either renters or property owners.

What any business person also needs is that their competition follow the same rules as they do.

Whether or not we change which family members of the owner are allowed to displace current tenants, we need to enforce those laws, assumption of honesty.

Currently, there is no mechanism to check that the family members allegedly moving in really do move in, or that they have any desire or need to move in.

They might have a very nice house someplace else.

Uh who does move in at least sometimes is a tenant unrelated to the owner who pays more rent than the previous tenant, but a wall for children and other family members renting for mom and dad if they actually do need a place.

Somebody needs to check a little bit later.

I return the former tenant to their apartment in cases where a fiction fraud occurred, or for that matter, to a nicer apartment in the same building at the same rent to compensate them a little for the illegal illegal disruption of their life.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are no more in-person comment cards.

We do have hands raised online.

One hand.

Please proceed online.

Our online speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Douglas Spalding, if you are present.

We cannot hear you.

Douglas Balding, public comment, if you're there.

Okay.

So it's 8 22 and I'm closing the public hearing.

At this point in time, we will come back to council members for any further questions or discussions.

If there are none, I am happy to accept a motion.

Vice Mayor.

Um thank you.

Uh just wanted to thank uh the team, the city team for putting together uh I I see the both the councils and the communities.

Um I see it reflected in the policy that one is on its way to being enacted, but also um the the pass through to tenants.

So I I want to thank you for all of that work.

Um I am uh I would like to move item eight A.

Um, and I'm just wondering if we need to do two where we adopt the resolution establishing the fees, or can we pair it together?

Because one is a resa, one is an ordinance and one is a so to city attorney.

Any problems with pairing them?

There are no problems with creating one motion to approve both.

Okay.

And to introduce an ordinance amending the San Leander section to prohibit the pass through of rent stabilization program fee to tenants.

Councilmember James Aguilar.

Happily, I would like to second the vice mayor's motion.

So do you have a motion from council from Vice Mayor?

And a second councilmember James Aguilar to both adopt the resolution and the first reading of the ordinance as stated in the agenda.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

He does have his hand up.

I just I was asking if you're does he have his hand up.

Thank you very much.

My apologies, council member uh Victor Aguilash.

Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.

Um, I was I would I would make this a third motion, but uh yeah my council colleagues already had put this on the on uh to to move.

But I wanted to thank staff for the you know the presentation and um you know I think everything is lined up where it we'd like to see it.

So thank you.

Like to move forward okay at this point in time please vote council member victor aguilar may we have your vote please i thank you all votes are in and the motion carries unanimously okay we have moved item nine a earlier in the section four and similar for 10 a was removed as described in the announcements at this point we come to item 10b 10b is a motion by myself to reconsider i e revisit last meetings uh vote on an urgency on an urgent referral uh the request for reconsideration is based on a simple premise that upon further consideration uh by myself i don't feel that it was an urgent referral so the motion to reconsider simply says let's open up that discussion again and i say open up the discussion even though to be very clear we did not have a discussion because we were prohibited by our process from having a discussion about urgency um so that's my request i will be pairing that just for your information it should we decide that it's in fact not urgent it is my intention through the regular uh powers afforded to me through the chamber uh through the charter to bring forward a request to city council to do and that engineering assessment the long awaited engineering assessment so we can determine the cost of reopening Lake Chabot Road but that's not yet on the table but just I just want you to understand that that's where this is going I just would like to reconsider whether that was in fact properly urgent but in order to do that you have to vote that says we're gonna go revisit that other question so my request my motion um and I don't believe that needs a second correct it's just the authority that I have for reconsideration my motion is that we uh open up that discussion again and I'm looking for your permission to do that I will accept questions and discussion at this questions before going to the public and then we can wrap up our own discussion council member bolt please do you need a second for that no so um to be clear the vote would now be is it in fact an urgent item the vote right now is whether we have permission to explore that question this is just a procedural action that lets us have that discussion first we have to do this because we've already voted and said that it's urgent I'm saying I want to reconsider that vote so but I need I need you know we need to work together in order to reach that question right now is just permission I have a motion that we open up that other discussion correct I'm just getting clarification on my word choice make sure that we're that is correct okay if this motion does not pass on the vote then we're done this item does not continue forward so do we actually discuss it now?

If we if we vote yes on reconsideration so we are we'll we'll be able to then discuss urgency but first we have to agree that's just a process thing okay uh council member Simon so just to clarify if we pass this motion then we can discuss if Lake Shabau Road is an urgent item and if it should be agendized per council member Walton's previous discussion.

So I'm gonna let city attorney work on the language.

So if the motion for reconsideration passes, then we come back to the item of that was originally the referral, and whether the referral will continue as an urgency item.

We cannot discuss the urgency.

But it's really whether it will go to a next priority session, or if it's going to remain an urgent matter that gets put on a future agenda.

Okay, I guess the difficulty I'm going to stop right there because it was my understanding that this would enable a discussion of urgency.

Is that not the case?

Because it is now an agendized item.

So the motion for reconsideration is to reconsider the action that was taken.

But interestingly enough, Mayor, this is still just a referral.

It's a referral that do you agendize it for urgent and have it brought back because it is urgent, or does it just go automatically to our priority work session?

The action that was passed was that this is urgent.

And so what you're asking is for the vote to be again whether we have urgency or not.

Okay.

I'm just processing because I came into this meeting with a different understanding.

So at this point in time, I'm gonna go back to council member Bolt.

Yes, thank you.

Eliminating all urgency just in that thought process right there.

So if anybody were to vote, it is urgent, then urgency to me means it comes at the very next meeting.

Those are my thoughts.

Someone come back to city attorney because I don't want to run afoul of the Brown Act.

We've got our council handbook, and we've got the Brown Act, and I'm trying to navigate both of those together.

City Attorney.

Thank you, Mayor.

That is correct.

We we are still in the process of whether we're going because right now the item is moving forward.

It is stopped from moving because the motion for reconsideration has been set by the mayor.

That's his power to do so under the charter.

The council's deciding, are we going to pass this motion for reconsideration?

If you do pass the motion for reconsideration, then we come back to the referral itself.

And the referral is an urgent item.

You will revote on whether it's going to be an urgent item, or if that motion fails, it'll just go on to the next priority session.

The merits of the discussion cannot be discussed this evening, nor can the urgency.

But let's explore something.

As they're trying to decide whether to vote on reconsideration.

I'm assuming that they can discuss how they're thinking about whether to vote for reconsideration.

Okay.

So you're not out of order to say what you said.

We appreciate you being in order.

Vice Mayor, please.

Thank you.

The conversation kind of clarified a couple of my questions.

Um the reason I also had a another understanding of what the recon reconsideration would trigger.

Um I did want to um there were some questions from my colleagues that I wasn't able to answer in terms of my proposal, which is why I wanted to bring back the resolution in July that would enable us to have a conversation about that.

Um essentially with the what the uh what the May meeting where we voted on this item, it it merely scheduled it.

And I think it for for me, this reconsideration was just a matter of process, so that I would be able to answer some of the questions in terms of uh what uh where I'm coming from, what I've heard from the community, my understanding of the project and and the reasoning for that, but that the structure or more so the process did not allow us to have for me to be able to answer that um and so I don't want to uh I wasn't aware that the reconsideration would actually affect the urgency then affect the scheduling that's what I don't that's what I would not I I don't want to have the um unintended consequence of voting for reconsideration and then not being able to keep on as we have voted on let me be clear I will be bringing this item through the powers that the charter gives me I will be putting it with the working with the city manager on the agenda and in particular to allocate money to do the engineering study so that will come to us for discussion and then we will be able to vote on that I will be agendizing that outside of an urgency process.

The challenge the reason that I have brought this forward is because I do not believe it meets the standard of urgency.

That's all this is just trying to clean up process.

I understand um I see my back time to the chair and I'll address some of the comments from my colleagues and my uh at the end when y'all are done I'll take notes and try to respond to all of the questions and comments.

Councilmember Bowen thank you Mayor I think we might be on the same page now but I wanted to clarify for myself that we are discussing a reconsideration of whether or not it was um of the vote for urgency and the vote for urgency was not a question of the exact resolution that would be passed because again in our um agenda that we have tonight the the risk the request description was one sentence and the question the vote that we took was is this one request urgent does it meet the needs that are outlined for future agenda items and urgent referrals and so any discussion to answer the questions of is um the the the technical considerations for opening Lake Shabo Road is not part of that urgency question because this only the statement um is to only reaffirming the city council's intent to construct the the um to open Lake Shabo Road um am I understanding that correctly yes okay and if we can discuss how um about the urgency I from my questions at this last time I still do not understand how this action this um resolution would uh qualify as urgent okay so seeing no other hands I'm gonna go to public comment on this item oh yeah and council member Simon I just saw you come in after I said that so please proceed.

Well just a point of clarity I I do believe that our council handbook needs to be I do believe that our council handbook needs to be cleaned up there's many areas in particular this section requests for future agenda items and urgent referrals I think it's very subjective on what an emergency or what an urgency is depending on each council member depending on our life experiences depending on many different factors.

So for example Councilmember Bolt does not believe it's urgent uh I do believe it's urgent uh I have life experiences I lived through the Oakland Hills fire I do believe that things can be done and even though it's not done next meeting.

It's still urgent and it can protect the life of those living, especially the seniors that need to get out using Lake Chabo Road so um I'm fine with reconsidering it, but I will continue my vote because I believe it's urgent.

To clarify this in the future to prevent us from doing this, I think we need to completely revamp our procedure where we decide at what comes forward to council and um I'm hoping my colleagues would support that to clarify to clean this process up.

I know it's not a topic for tonight, but I do think we need to clarify this process.

Thank you.

I'm not seeing Councilmember Aguilar's hands up.

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

Mayor, we've received two comment cards, and we have one hand raised online.

Please proceed in person.

We'll open public comment in person.

Thank you.

Our in-person comment cards are from Janet Everett and Sarah Bailey.

This is not my jam.

Council members, mayor, city manager.

I um I wouldn't even know about this, but somebody came around and asked me for my signature on a petition that prioritize Lake Chabot Road repair.

So I just want to tell you what I did and what I saw.

I walked up there myself.

I've done it several times.

I've looked at it from below as far as is possible.

I've looked at Ascot Place, which is the which is the what do they call it?

Earthquake acres.

Um and I went to every other site that is mentioned in that petition.

And I think urgency means that this is the thing that is urgent in our in our city, and I don't believe it is.

Thank you.

Our next commenter is Sarah Bailey.

Three true statements.

Lake Shabot Road is open for emergency use, both for emergency vehicles and evacuations.

Two fire chiefs have explained that to us more than once.

Second, the number of evacuation exits and routes off Bay of Vista Hill has not changed.

Third, if Bay of Vista Hill residents need to evacuate, they can use Lake Shabot Road as long as the fire department directs them that way.

Staff has said they are working with the intention of opening the road to two-lane traffic.

They are always looking for outside funding sources for all major projects.

This is an absolute given, it is not urgent to tell them to do so what they to do what they are already doing.

In 2023, the cost estimate for two-lane traffic was 10 million dollars.

In January 2025, just two years later, the cost estimate had ballooned to 15 million.

Lake Chabot Road should be stabilized and preserved for use by police and fire and potentially evacuations.

Putting two lanes of traffic on it, the fancy word for that is connectivity, will accelerate the erosion and do more harm than good.

Please vote yes to reconsider your decision on the 18th, and then vote no to the question.

Is this referral urgent?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes our in-person commenters.

So let's close public comment in person and open public comment online.

Thank you.

Our first online speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Boy, I am awfully glad to see that unmute button.

I did not see it the last time you were calling my name over and over again.

What's all this I hear about the need for an engineering study?

Because I thought that was the basis for this uh urgent uh item.

Uh you know, we have two geotech studies, one from 2011 and one as recently as August of 2025, sandwiched around two additional assessments, uh which have uh deluxe engineering plans.

How many of you have read those?

I I spent the day studying the August 2020 5 plan today, and I like to share with you a few of my notes.

First, good news.

Uh, I've heard the depth uh quoted by the city as being, you know, we got to go down 20 feet, and some in some places it's as shallow as six feet, but in some places it's as deep as 37 feet, and you gotta go a five five feet additionally to sink your pierce.

That's more than 40 feet.

Second, the quality of the rock, the bedrock is described as more competent than the weathered sand, clay, stuff that's on top.

But I think we should be uh really concerned when we read the um the characteristics that this more competent bedrock is quote, fractured, foliated, spoiled, and fryable.

That means it is part of the Malongs as part of the Hayward fault.

Um, that's just characteristic being in a in a fault zone.

And the last thing is, you know, in reading the report, I realized that the firm Haley Aldris, which we just uh promised some money to early in the agenda, downplayed the impact of the Hayward Fault.

First of all, it's that one is focused on site one, and they say, well, we're 200 meters away from the fault.

So la and then they rate it as uh low potential for ground rupture.

I don't know, but maybe they don't know about the big one in 1868 because that's well within the parameters of when you thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next online speaker is Melissa Wong.

Hi there.

Um, first a brief observation.

Um, when there's a vote, I do not expect the vote to not count the next meeting, and I have seen it more than once.

So I'm not sure if it's really listening to the situation, the city attorney advising appropriately so that we don't think that there was a vote, and then two weeks later it seemed like there was something else or maybe more confusion.

As far as the urgency, uh, this is where maybe I would have to disagree with my council member.

Um I think that there are plenty of urgency, so I really can't say that this one is um urgent to me.

Um, and I'm sorry, uh, there are a lot of elderly folks everywhere.

I would agree with all of the three previous commenters.

I am just not sure.

Um, I think that if you ask somebody in the manor, they will have plenty of other places where it's urgent.

So I think you have to be very careful and not set a president.

You want to make sure you actually know the language.

If it's not good, then reword it and vote when you really know.

Otherwise, you absolutely should have um abstain, and there's nothing wrong with that, because that means that you really need to know more about this before you can vote.

It's not just yes or no.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.

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

And again, this is my motion is a motion for reconsideration.

So it's a I'm requesting your permission to go back to the original question that council that Vice Mayor had proposed at our prior meeting.

So is there further discussion?

Seeing no discussion, Vice Mayor, please.

Thank you.

Um let me just have some notes that I wanted to address.

Um go back to the item.

So the I just wanted to uh clarify again, making the um implicit explicit.

Um I do want to have the opportunity to um answer some of the questions and specific concerns um around that that we weren't afforded.

So I'm willing to uh uh vote for reconsideration only with that goal in mind, um, and then you know, um just wanted to uh leave that there.

Um I also wanted um to um just talk about the the impact of the closure is not just about that road itself, but the impact that it's having on Astor and on View Drive, those roads are not meant um for that type of traffic.

We've talked about traffic counts, we've talked about the impact to those neighbors.

There are near misses and some property damage.

I think I'm getting a a tug on my ear over here that we've got a point of order.

I'm gonna go to my parliamentarian, or is that council?

So we need you to hold on to a second.

Hold on a second.

So we are simply on whether we're going to reconsider the vote that was taken, which was to move this uh the to move this referral as an urgency item.

And the urgency, the referral, which was an urgency item, was a resolution reaffirming the city council's intent to the rehabilitation of Lake Chabot Road for community safety connectivity and infrastructure resilience.

Certainly, it was named as an agenda as an urgency item.

If the council had voted that it was not urgent, then it would just have passed to the next priority setting session, right?

But the council did vote to say, yeah, this is urgent.

So the mayor is re has filed his motion for reconsideration on that question on the urgency question.

So the this original referral doesn't die, it'll just go on to the priority setting session.

Um, but to order to get to that question, we have to answer the question as to whether we're going to reconsider or not.

I understand.

Okay.

So we're just on the question, let's are we going to reconsider this or not?

Take the vote.

If the motion doesn't pass, then the item will stay as it is, and we'll come back at a at a council meeting in the very near future.

I understand.

So uh regarding to the item one, uh, I will support the reconsideration only to have that discussion.

Council member Simon.

Um just to clarify, uh Mayor, I understand you said you would put forward a motion or you would add to an agenda item, a geotechnical study.

Um, but just to confirm, Vice Mayor had requested a resolution reaffirming the city council intent.

Would you also would that also be part of your yes?

Great.

Um, and I also just want to clarify whether this is uh my district four or any district in our city.

I would support seniors who had limited access in an emergency.

It's not just about any particular district.

I represent, like all of my colleagues, everyone in our city.

So if our my residents in the manor had very limited access out, I would be supporting that too.

So I want to help our seniors make sure that they have adequate access in a fire.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bowen.

Is it possible for me to call the question now?

Because I am afraid that many of our comments are not directly related to the urgency of the motion, which is what is up for reconsideration.

We've been having a discussion that I don't feel comfortable with.

So the question for my council colleagues, are you ready to vote just by head not for the motion on reconc reconsideration?

So the motion on the table is to reconsider our vote.

The yes vote means that we will go back to the original question.

All of that is provided in the context that I've offered about what I will be doing in terms of our future agenda.

Councilmember Aguilar.

Uh Victor Aguilar, do you have your hand up?

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I think in all this uh this this talk, I think my question for you is I I know we're you know we're talking about a resolution and the urgency, but the motion for reconsideration.

Um I you know I had mentioned what council member.

Simon had mentioned I went vice mayor.

Um, but would that also include a plan to get an estimate for all portions of Lake Shibore Road?

That's where I believe some of the confusion has arisen because there's some discussion about well, there are engineering estimates, blah, blah, blah.

There has been a geotechnical.

I want to turn to city uh manager to make sure we're all on the same page, same language.

We're getting to this, yeah.

Okay, so the parliamentarian agrees with you.

So council member Aguilad, would you like to take it in a different direction?

Um, I I think there, you know, there is the urgency.

Um, so I'll just leave it at that, and we can um call the question.

Okay, so I think everyone has that that wants to speak has spoken.

This is a motion to reconsider um the decision that we made last week.

So yes means we'll move back to that to that uh to that motion.

No means we're done.

Please vote.

No, I don't know.

Thank you, but thank you for asking.

Please vote.

Councilmember Victor Aguilar, may we have your vote?

Aye.

Thank you.

I apologize.

I am cleared the vote too quickly.

The motion carried unanimously with all members voting yes on the motion to reconsider.

At this point in time, we have a motion.

I do not remember who seconded that motion last time.

Was it the the was it you?

No, no, I wouldn't all I'm sorry, I'm gonna pause.

So last time you had an urgent referral, and there was a there was uh a just someone had to second that it was urgent.

Do we remember who council member James Aguilar?

So I just want to kind of lay the foundations.

We had a motion for an urgent referral from the vice mayor with a second from council member uh James Aguilar.

Last time uh we are now that motion is back on the floor.

Now we are limited in what we can discuss.

I'm gonna rely heavily on the parliamentarian to kind of position that.

So uh council member or council member, city attorney.

Well, I actually don't have anyone who wants to speak at this time.

So if you want to speak, please put yourself in the queue.

Councilmember Bowen.

Thank you.

This is on whether it is urgent.

The motion for urgency.

I mean, sorry, the this is the So we have a motion on the floor because it's from last time.

We've kind of unpeeled.

We're back to where we were.

We have a motion from the vice mayor with a second from Councilmember James Aguilar.

Thank you.

I'm looking at the referral request that was submitted.

Um the ordinance or the resolution reaffirming the city council's intent to the rehabilitation of Lake Shabo Road for community safety connectivity infrastructure resilience.

Specify reason for urgency.

The reason for urgency is to clarify the intent of the council to rehabilitate Lake Shabor Road to look for alternate funding sources.

That's the reason for urgency.

And it clearly states in our agenda, in our handbook, 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 legislative or financial consequences for the city.

I do not see that as included in the reason for urgency.

I think that the criteria as written, what we could clarify would be actually to include what would be those financial and um uh uh uh risk to life, health, and the safety of the community.

Look, uh, I'm sorry.

I I'm kind of waiting for my for like Yeah, yeah.

So I'm saying I so I understand, but you you're giving the reasons why it is or is not urgent, but you're saying you could fix it.

No, I did not say that.

Well, you said we could, doesn't matter.

Um, I said the handbook could be cleaned up to specify that explicitly, but what how I read what is in front of me is what I stated that this is the criteria.

I do not believe that the referral as submitted meets that criteria.

But that's now becoming discussion, is it not?

If we were to start debating that, but that's clearly she's making a point, yes.

So you've made a statement.

We what we cannot do is go back and forth on it.

Sure.

I I'm sorry, I I will refrain from making that comment now.

Okay, okay.

Councilmember Bolt.

I'll go back to what I said in the beginning.

Urgency, that's what we're talking about.

Urgency.

If it was urgent, we would be hearing this at the very next council meeting.

But that's not what was proposed.

We actually put it about a month and a half out.

Am I in line here or am I out of?

Well, I mean, I'm I mean, I'm just going off of what we're talking about.

Urgency.

Urgency means now.

And we are not doing that.

We're saying come back in July.

That means it's not urgent.

We should let no.

So, once again, you have to make individual individual council members have to make their own assessment as to whether the referral meets the criteria under your handbook for urgency.

Truly.

You are, this is under the city council handbook.

We want to be careful not to discuss the nature of the urgency because then we'll get into the it could cross us over, which it is already happening, into the merits of the discussion.

And so either we will accept that it is urgent, and you've made your you've both made points that to your you made statements to make a point.

Uh, but the council, according to your own rules, you should not discuss the nature of the urgency.

Under the Brown Act, you may vote to put items on a future agenda.

You've made a rule to say that we will automatically put items on our priority setting session.

Unless we as a council find that it is urgent to do so.

So we're not in violation of the Brown Act.

And if we have a full-blown discussion about putting an item on the about about the item itself before putting it on an agenda, then we would stop and say we can't have the continuation of this discussion.

You, the council has elevated the rule a little bit to talk about just basically the urgency of bringing it back.

So at this point, my advice to the council is you have uh a referral in front of you.

That states that it is urgent.

Individually, if you feel that that doesn't meet the criteria, then your vote should reflect whether that continues or not as an urgency item.

It takes five votes to make it an urgency.

If that vote fails, then it'll go automatically to a priority setting session.

Whatever whether whenever that gets scheduled.

Clearly, you don't have you have an automatic priority setting session at the beginning of each year.

As a matter of equity, fairness.

But to very briefly affirmatively state her opinion if she showed it just, because I see you in queue.

Thank you.

Um I do believe this is an urgent item.

Um I believe I've submitted several items that were um I have submitted several items regarding Lake Shabor Road with a lot of information and context, and that still doesn't um seem to um change to move the needle.

However, the urgency is defined in the council handbook, talks about immediately preserving the life, health, safety of the community, and um failure to respond in an expeditious manner could result in home harmful l legislative or or financial consequences to the city.

If we are not able to reaffirm clearly what our intent is, and to and uh I've been working with the mayor to find sources of funds that would be able to um get a full geotechnical report to truly understand what we have is a well the chair has not interrupted me, so please um so a point of order has been raised.

Please make your point of order, council member bolt.

What is your point of order?

Regarding urgency.

We are getting into dialect on what the process is going to be in the future if it's agendized.

We should focus on whether this referral is urgent or not, and it is intended to be a very brief statement because we did have some brief statements made, and whether we crossed line is neither here nor there, but I wanted to afford you equity.

I appreciate that.

I still believe that it is urgent.

Um and I would um let me just confirm what um what the presentation talks about the uh and so uh if the motion for reconsideration passes the city may then be considered okay.

So then I um I still ask for your it does a yes vote, can you explicitly talk about what a yes vote?

So if so the motion on the floor is that uh there's a motion for an urgent referral.

Okay.

And in order to be an urgent referral, that means that council members have made the assessment that it is okay urgent, and then in which case it would come back to the date that you proposed, I believe is uh a yes vote just carries what we affirmed the last time.

Yes, okay, okay.

So I would ask for a yes vote.

Thank you.

Councilmember Simon.

Again, we're trying to watch that line, so please be careful.

Yeah, I just I just want to clarify just to clarify for us as council and for those watching and listening, all we're trying to do is vote on if we're going to talk about this item.

We're not approving Lake Chubro Road, we're not approving geotech reports, we're proving none of that right now in this vote.

We're just trying to vote.

Can we talk about this?

That's it.

That is correct.

And and to be clear when we will talk about that.

But that's it.

We're not approving funds.

We're just want to talk about it.

Correct.

Thank you.

Seeing no further discussion, please vote on the council member Aguilar.

You have your hand up.

Victor Aguilar, you have your hand up now.

Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.

I think, you know, this is an urgency matter.

What do you say to those 19 people who lost relies on the ink fire and the 12 who lost their lives in the police?

We can't say I'm sorry to those if that potential happens.

So I'd like to move forward with this urgency to prevent anything like that from happening.

Council member, thank you.

Councilmember Victor Aguilar.

Recognizing Councilmember James Aguilar.

So I'm really struggling with this one.

Um and sticking to the topic of urgency.

I I voted this last time because I I and I bring it up because Councilmember Aguilar kind of sparks what I voted yes for.

Um I almost lost my grandfather on the skyway in paradise.

And I I think about that when I think about this issue.

What are we trying to say about our role as a governance team about a really confusing because now we've been going in circles about a conversation about urgency um about it defining an immediate preservation to life, health, and safety of the community, failure to respond in expedition manner and resulting in harmful legislative yada yada.

Um circling back, and this is this is my struggle, and I and maybe the vice mayor can kind of clarify.

This is a discussion about a reaffirmation, or rather funding, but not necessarily the opening of the road.

I'm I'm I'm having a hard time because I do think that this opens a can of worms, and and now this is why we're all going in circles, and so I'm just listening, and I would like clarification on where we're really headed with this and what specifically the urgent okay so the matter is.

Yeah, thank you.

We're now getting into like really questioning because you're you're asking I very much understand that the biggest struggle that we have is that our legal guidance is that we're not really supposed to be discussing the pros and cons.

And we can revisit in the future how we address that.

The question before us right now is whether this satisfies the condition of an urgent referral.

Um the only thing that I will add is I have given context to how this decision's being made.

Um, if we don't really have any further discussion without getting into the debate about urgency, which we're trying to avoid, um, we should go ahead and vote.

And so the question, the motion on the table is uh that we have an urgent referral to reaffirm the city council's intent for to the to the rehabilitation of Lake Chabot Road for the community safety, connectivity and infrastructure resilience, and that it is an urgent referral.

So you either agree or disagree, please vote.

Councilmember Victor Aguilar, your vote, please.

Thank you.

The motion fails to carry with three yes votes from council members Simon, Vice Mayor Vivero Schwalton, and Councilmember Victor Aguilar, and no votes from Councilmember James Aguilar, Mayor Gonzalez, Councilmember Bowen, Councilmember Bolt.

So moving on to number item number 11.

Council request to reschedule agenda council request to schedule agenda items.

Yes.

City manager says yes.

Let us proceed.

Councilmember Bowen.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a few items.

I'll pull them up right now.

Um the first uh request for future item is um an ordinance uh to adopt a home hardening ordinance to prevent wildfire and home fires from spreading, especially in high-risk fire zones.

Home hardening is the practice of increasing a building's resistance to ignition from fire.

Wildfires can ignite homes in three ways flying embers, radiant heat, and direct flame content.

Umbers are the most common cause.

They can travel miles out of a fire and land in gaps, gutters, and vegetation around your home.

So um uh I just added some information about the different zones, but to look into that for for um an ordinance for the city.

Um the second item is an ordinance to adopt an ordinance for food service packaging reduction and reuse.

The primary objective of the ordinance is to address is to reduce the demand for and consumption of problematic single-use foodware items, such as plastic and paper cups, plates, and utensils that contribute to litter ocean pollution, contaminate compost and recycling collection programs, and contribute to consumption-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Uh stop waste has a model ordinance that uh many cities have adopted, and we would use that as a resource.

The third item um future agenda item is um uh is a resolution to reaffirm the city's council and city council's intent to construct the MacArthur roundabout for community safety connectivity and infrastructure resilience.

We heard public comment about um why that is an important project to make sure that we complete and then sorry, one more.

And then the final one I have that I will be talking about is an amendment to a city ordinance.

Um we have city code um that outlines the hours that solicitors can visit residential homes.

Currently it is from 7 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

I would like to amend the ordinance to reduce the hours that uh solicitors can uh knock on uh residents' homes.

Thank you.

Councilmember James Aguilar.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

So this morning I submitted a uh referral uh in collaboration with Councilmember Bowen to propose that the city council in a working setting develop and adopt um a council self-assessment or a self-evaluation, the goal of which would be to monitor and discuss the council's process and performance annually and identify areas of growth as a governance team, uh, and at least a couple of weeks before the annual planning session, having a little bit of a distribution of a self-evaluation, um, and then having that discussion at said planning session as to provide us data on how we're doing and what we can do to better improve our performance as a team.

Uh, and essentially affirming to us as a group that we are a working team and that we uh, as much as we evaluate our staff, uh we also should be evaluating ourselves for areas of improvement.

Thank you to both of you for those.

Uh at this point in time seeing no others, we will move to item number 12.

Council reports calendars announcements.

Beginning with Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

I attended um the uh U.S.

Green Building Council's conference um this past week at Berkeley.

Um, it was very instrumental and came back with some.

It was a uh really interesting and exciting learning session for me, and I came back with some ideas that I'm still putting together.

I had a great conversation with the city manager about some of the ideas that um came up uh in my discussions and in my learning um that day.

So I'll be coming forth uh to my colleagues with some of those ideas for discussion at the um at the council session.

I'm excited about the cherry festival on Saturday.

I will be there.

And we'll be uh celebrating both San Leandro and uplifting and affirming our uh LGBTQIA uh friends and family neighbors and community members.

Excited for uh a great um a great cherry festival.

Um and that is it for now.

Thank you.

Going to Councilmember Bolt.

Uh yes.

Uh first I'd like to highlight um a stand down for Veteran Resources Fair for Homeless Veterans in Alameda County as a part of the uh Alameda County Veterans Commission.

Uh we try and do it a couple times a year.

We're doing it June 28th of this year, and it'll be in, or excuse me, June 15th this year, and it'll be in Oakland at the St.

Vincent de Paul, which is 2272 San Pablo Avenue in Oakland.

Um, very close to the VA Center.

If you guys know any veterans out there, please uh either get in contact with me or you can go to the uh Alameda County Veterans website, and we have a flyer and everything up.

Uh there's legal assistance, employment, housing, uh connect them with their own veteran uh benefits, uh health care, teeth cleaning, um, showers, laundry, overnight show.

There's just all kinds of stuff going on uh along with um a couple of hot meals we do it for a couple of days.

So uh if you know any veterans, please uh send them there that way.

Um another thing that we're doing, or excuse me, another uh meeting that I went to, EBDA, um I was appointed to the EBDA uh East Bay Discharge Authority, had our monthly meeting talking about different projects and and ways to keep the cost down across us to actually get rid of some of this uh water we use in the city and and um uh that the focus was was all about that.

Uh additionally, not because I am such a great commissioner, but I was appointed to the chair, which is awesome after two meetings uh only because it was the city of San Leandro's rotational turn, and I wasn't gonna give up on us.

So I will in July start the chair of that.

Uh lastly, a fun note, which I believe you will talk about it as well, Mayor Gonzalez, but Kiwanis Club did project literacy in the city of San Leandro.

Um a couple of our local unions helped donate the funds.

Uh there was a great team out there, all uh kindergarten in first grade at Carfield Elementary in Hulking.

Received three books.

Um the reason we haven't gone further, is strictly about funds, but we have a plan to scale up and hopefully next year it will be bigger.

But on Friday, I was uh at uh Garfield Elementary.

Uh, enjoyed the opportunity to pass out the books that were um given to the children and I believe Mayor, uh you went today, so um I think that's awesome.

It shows a good effort by us getting in the community and doing everything we can to help out the kids.

And uh I am looking for the forward to Saturday's charity festival as well.

Thank you.

Councilmember James Eggler.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to elevate a few things um first and foremost met with the HR director Emily Hung last week and I really just want to publicly recognize the hard work that her team has done to transition to work day which is going to be super transformational for the city of San Leandro um in also the idea that we are trying to play catch up on things like uh in infrastructure like that and so I'm really just grateful to their team for the immense work that they put into uh transitioning us to work day um I also want to recognize happy pride month um and this is a really important time for us to recognize the issues that the LGBTQ IA community is going through and the and the advocacy that's required to keep our community whole and so American thank you for the proclamation today um and recognizing that the city of San Leandro is a place where LGBTQIA uh plus people can live love and work and this this is the space to be um I also wanted to uplift uh Sergeant Watson at SLPD for helping me organize a ride along last Saturday uh with Officer Sanchez and Officer Coaches um both of which were super welcoming I appreciated their perspectives and and I was met with nothing but professionalism it was very informational and I appreciate that finally I'm really excited for the Cherry Festival.

This will be my first as a council member so it'll be a little bit of a different perspective than I've seen.

And I really just can't wait to be with community I can't wait to be with you all so I'm excited for Saturday.

Thank you coming back to Vice Mayor okay.

Whoops did that wrong I forgot to mention one event that I went to that is actually part of a series that I think uh many of us would benefit but um on in May I attended an affordable housing tour um and uh we had a policy conversation on the kind of the state of housing and how it's being funded through federal state county and local monies and it was a great conversation and then post that comp post that policy breakfast we went on an affordable housing tour where we visited different types of um affordable housing sites and we went to a one ribbon cutting um and this is a series uh put on by partnership for the base future um and it builds knowledge tools and leadership capacity to shape Bay Area's housing future um there are one two three four five uh future events is a series to uh one increase capacity increased power building increased knowledge on you know what is the scaffolding that of policy that we will need around housing to keep people housed protect folks who um are currently in the rental market but also kind of activate different types of ownership and different types of um of housing uh needs that different folks have that are not you know only met by single family home ownership or condo ownership but that really we need a diverse set of housing options to meet people where they are um and so I just wanted to elevate the partnership for the base future and their job and their learning series um it that first one was incredible and I absolutely recommend my colleagues to attend um I'm happy to kind of share it around um and that's it that was the only thing that I neglected to um include in my council comments.

Thank you.

Council member Simon Thank you I want to recognize the Alameda County Fire Department uh Chief Willie McDonald, as well as station Engine 13.

They came to my community chat last month um it was really nice to see all the staff on the engine, Captain Binnencourt and his two um engine workers.

And we got to get a personal experience of what it's like to work at station 13 uh unfortunately, it is not really up to standards from seismic.

Also, some health issues, just the way the doors open.

Most new garage, most new fire stations have two doors, one on entrance, one on the exit, so trucks can drive through, but it improves the ventilation, which makes it safer those fire workers, helps present prevent them from getting cancer.

Unfortunately, Station 13 does not have that.

I know that's on the city's list to uh fix uh at some point, and um I'll just mention as the citizens initiative had that station 13 to be repaired.

Uh, but my main focus is I want to give a shout-out to Chief Willie McDonald and station uh engine 13.

Uh, they do incredible work for our city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll got a council member Victor Aguilar next.

Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.

On Wednesday, May 20th, I attended the National League of Cities ITC uh committee meeting on Friday, May 29th.

I attended the Baleo conference and awards uh in Napa.

I received a scholarship to attend um this event, and they featured um a panel discussion of four amazing Latinas who are supervisors in San Mateo, Napa, and Sonoma Counties who are doing amazing work.

And uh I would also like to.

Since it is Pride Month, as the first openly gay council member in our city's history, I would like to take a moment to recognize and celebrate Pride Month.

Pride is the time to honor the courage, resilience, and contributions of LGBTQ plus people who have helped shape our communities or state and our nation.

It is also a reminder that progress is made when people are willing to live openly, authentically, and without fear.

As someone who has spent years advocating locally and nationally for LGBTQ plus equality, I am deeply honored to serve this community.

I recognize that my ability to serve openly today is possible because of the countless activists, leaders, and everyday people who came before us and demanded a more just and inclusive society.

One of those leaders was Harvey Milk, uh Supervisor Harvey Milk, who reminded us that hope will never be silent.

Those words continue to inspire generations of LGBTQ people to be visible, engaged, and committed to public service.

Tonight I also wanted to recognize all LGBTQ plus individuals who serve openly and proudly in government, education, public safety, nonprofit organizations, and throughout our community.

Representation matters, and when people see themselves reflected in leadership, they gain hope, confidence, and a sense of belonging.

Pride is not only a celebration of how far we have come, but it is a commitment to continue building communities where everybody is welcomed, valued, and treated with dignity and respect.

I invite everyone to join the city of San Leandro this Saturday at 11 30 a.m., right after the Cherry Festival, uh Cherry Parade at the San Leandro Maine Library as we raise the pride flag and celebrate the diversity that makes our city stronger.

So all members of our LGBTQ plus community, happy Pride month.

We see you, we celebrate you, and we are proud to stand with you.

Thank you.

Those are my comments.

Thank you, Councilmember Aguilar, one moment.

Okay, Councilmember Bolt.

It sounds like there might be an update on an announcement.

Yes, sorry about that.

Thank you, City Manager, for um getting there quick.

I said June 15th.

It's June 26th and 27th, and it's important for me to get the dates right because I if anybody were to send anybody, that'd be horrible.

So the veteran event is June 26th and June 27th, same location.

Thank you for that.

And that's a St.

Vincent de Paul Center in Oakland.

In Oakland, yes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay.

So at this point in time, uh, in coordination with Councilmember Bowen, I will be going before she does, and then I will give her the floor when uh when I am complete.

Um, so some of the things that I've attended over the last couple of weeks celebrated the opening of the Leap Center right there along MacArthur.

Beautiful location, wonderful work being done there.

Special thanks to staff who worked particularly hard.

And worked with the owner who has faced some trying circumstances with contractors.

Very grateful for the team around the messaging for the whale, the deceased's whale on our shoreline.

It was a difficult situation.

It's not something that it's in the mayor's handbook or the city manager's handbook or the assistant city manager's handbook, or even in the comms team handbook about how to deal with a whale.

But I thought that the information that we put out was clear and it was concise and it was scientific.

And I think that we did the right thing in the right way.

And I'm really grateful because that was an opportunity to have a big big mistake, and I think we hit the ball out of the park.

Grateful to Maru, formerly known as Korean Center of the East Bay, that a beautiful, beautiful art exhibition around belonging.

What does it mean to belong in America these days?

And to see the artwork and Dion Lim was there, former uh ABC 7 news anchor, just a lot of energy in the space celebrating being American from different perspectives, different lenses.

The fire station, we we pushed into service a new fire engine.

You know, we talk about the investments that we need to make and engines, we have engines that break down.

And, you know, very grateful for the investment the taxpayers have made in bringing a new fire engine into service that will significantly increase reliability of that engine.

I was honored to be the Memorial Day speaker at the Veterans Hall for their Memorial Day event on Monday and for their flag raising ceremony.

I am grateful that we have veterans groups in particular that keep up holding the tradition of moving beyond.

It's just a day that we can have barbecue to remembering why we have this day.

And it's because many people have given their lives over the years in service of country.

Like Councilmember Bolt, I'm excited to report that the Kwanas, in coordination with various community groups, and it sounds like some of our local unions collaborated to deliver free books to students in advance of summer free books and also free books to the teachers.

So very grateful.

And I know that I I attended Haukeen Elementary.

It was just the joy on children's faces.

The sheer excitement at getting a bag of books is hard to describe.

But I just got to tell you, it's just very, very beautiful.

Uh, did also have the ability to uh join a uh, I'll call it an AAPI uh celebration focused on the dual immersion schools that we have for Mandarin speakers here in the San Leano community.

So went to Yooming Charter School and went to Madison Elementary to celebrate teachers and the administration that's focused on helping children maintain some of the culture or culture of heritage, become bilingual, and at the same time uh be fully conversant in English.

And to me, that's very powerful to, as we figure out what it means to belong in America for immigrant children in particular, uh, to see the celebration of that.

Very, very powerful.

On more kind of technical and administrative notes, I'll highlight that the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is focusing on efficiency, and I said on the efficiency task force, but how can we make permitting work more effectively, more efficiently, take the lessons learned from the mistakes and the delays in getting permits issued.

Also, have good news to report from the Alameda County Transportation Commission where I represent the city.

Um, we continue to take uh ongoing steps to move the East Bay Greenway forward.

We should expect uh first steps of construction that of that greenway uh in the near future.

Uh, pizza with the interns.

You know, at City of San Lander, we work on workforce development.

We actually bring interns into the city and we help people.

And in this particular program, we hope what I will call a non-traditional folks.

So not folks that are going through that four-year college and they're 19 and 20 and 21 and looking to get their first job.

We work with people that are a bit not traditional, that might be 27, 28, 30.

And we give them that opportunity.

And so I spent time with the folks in that program.

And last time I'm happy to ignore to announce that the mayors of Alameda County have elected me to serve as the president of the Alameda Mayor's Conference for the coming year.

With that, I will close and turn to Councilmember Bowen for our final remarks.

Thank you, Mayor.

I love hearing everybody's remarks because it shows how diverse we are and all the things that we care about.

The first announcement I wanted to make was that the Alameda Family Services is doing a free diaper and wipe distribution event on June 11th.

You can sign up for it by contacting staff at FRC at Alameda AFS.org.

Second today was the first day of the summer reading program, and you can go to Army and Library and the Manor Library to sign up for it.

Love talking about the books that the kids are getting, but they have a wonderful incentive system for them.

The third thing I want to talk about is an event I went to last weekend that I'm going to mispronounce as my children make fun of me for because I cannot speak Spanish.

But Liberando Nuestras Bosis is a wonderful organization that works out of the San Leandro library every Wednesday night for a year, and all of the Latina girls, middle school age Latina girls that attend attend either John Mir or Bancroft, so they're serving San Leander schools.

They are currently not supported financially by San Leandro or the Arts Foundation, but I think that that would be something to look forward to.

I went to their final poetry and art poetry reading and art um exhibition, and it was really, really beautiful to see.

They just came into their own, and it's such a wonderful thing to do for young girls.

The last thing I want to mention about ACTC that the mayor did not mention, I sent it to staff as well, but we had just recently approved a proposed budget for the 2028 comprehensive investment plan, and that includes a $4 million carve out for CFRS to schools programs.

And I just wanted to make sure that if that is something that we can look into because we have done the Safe Ross of School Assessments and our while our way to be able to make sure that our kids are safe getting to and from school.

And then the last thing that I want to share, and I'm gonna try to stick to my notes so I don't get um uh too emotional.

Um, there has been a development in the criminal case against um Daniel Para, um, where I am the victim in the crime.

Um, in November of 2024, I made the difficult decision to report an assault and pursue justice through the legal system.

A resolution has now been reached in that criminal case.

Mr.

Para agreed to enter a first-time offender intervention program that includes mandatory consent training and community service.

I am grateful to the Tampa Police Department and the Hillsborough County District Attorney's Office for taking this matter seriously, conducting a thorough investigation and pursuing accountability through the judicial process.

But tonight I am here to talk about more than the legal resolution.

I'm here to talk about what happened after I spoke up.

Because what I learned through this experience is that the violation itself is often only the beginning.

What follows can be disbelief, it can be rumor, it can be character assassination, it can be people searching for reasons why what happened wasn't really that bad, or why the person harmed somehow bears responsibility for the harm done to them.

After I came forward, I learned that false allegations about my character and conduct had been circulated.

The fact that these rumors were being spread even before the assault occurred is deeply troubling.

I was horrified to learn that in the immediate aftermath of my assault and months later in his interview with an HR investigator, my colleague on this council, Councilmember Victor Aguilar made disturbing statements that I could only describe as victim blaming, harmful, and fabricated.

According to his own words, as recounted in the investigation report, Councilmember Aguilar said that I kept sipping from drinks, that I was persistently asking Para to dance, and that if Para did kiss Bowen, then it goes both ways.

I want to share that those statements are categorically false.

The facts are clear and supported by evidence.

I did not initiate or encourage physical contact.

I never even had a drink in my hand.

But what I want very I want to be very clear about something.

Even if I had been, even if I had accepted a drink, even if I'd asked someone to dance, even if I had done every single thing that was falsely claimed, none of those things would justify assault.

None of those things would excuse unwanted physical contact.

None of those things would make the person harmed responsible for the actions of the person who caused the harm.

Because consent is not complicated, and accountability should not be conditional.

When we suggest that someone's behavior invites misconduct, we shift responsibility away from the person who committed the act and onto the person who reported it.

When we do that, we send a send a message to every survivor watching.

We tell them that if they come forward, they may be forced to defend themselves instead of having the harm they experienced taken seriously.

We tell them that their choices, their personality, their clothing, their actions, or their reputation will be put on trial.

And we tell them that speaking up may cost more than staying silent.

This is how cultures of silence are built.

This is how predators are protected.

We have had very high profile protectors that we are or predators that we are still questioning how they were able to do the things that they're able to do.

I'm sharing in my own experience how they were able to do it.

But be but because too many people are willing to make excuses for wrong when it becomes uncomfortable to confront it.

As elected officials, we have a voice and our responsibility is greater.

We do not have to agree on every issue.

We do not have to be friends, but we do have a responsibility to tell the truth.

We have a responsibility to reject misinformation, and we have a responsibility to ensure that no one is blamed for the misconduct committed against them.

This is bigger than me.

It is about the kind of community we want to be.

A community where people are believed when evidence supports them, a community where accountability does not depend on status, power, relationships, or political influence.

A community where survivors can come forward without fear that their character will be attacked more aggressively than the conduct they are reporting.

And a community where women not only feel safe living, working, and raising families, but also feel safe surfing in elected office.

Because when women who step forward to lead are met with harassment, retaliation, victim blaming, or attempts to discredit them, the message sent is not just to one person.

The message is sent to every woman and young girl out there who's considering public service.

We should want a government where women are encouraged to lead, not warned about the personal cost of doing so.

If this experience contributes in any way to building that kind of community, then speaking up was worth it.

And finally, I to everyone who stood beside me during one of the most difficult periods of my life, thank you.

Thank you to those who share their support through letters and public comments, shared your own difficult experiences, checked in on me and reminding me why this mattered.

Your support gives me strength when I needed it most, and for that I will always be grateful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

At this point in time, we will move to our last item, which is adjournment.

It is 9 40, and I do want to thank counsel for kind of running through our break.

Hanging in there because I think it was important that we get done.

Thank you to each of you.

A special thanks for Councilmember Bowen.

With that, it is 9 40, and we are adjourned.