Okay, so it is 706, 705 and uh 706.

And I'm calling the City of San Leandro City Council meeting to order.

Today is Monday, July 13th.

I will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please stand if you're able to.

I pledge to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

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

Council Member James Aguilar.

Present.

Councilmember Victor Aguilar is absent.

Councilmember Bolt.

Present.

Councilmember Bowen.

Present.

Councilmember Simon is absent.

Vice Mayor Rivero Swalton present.

And Mayor Gonzalez.

Present.

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

Discriminatory statements or conduct that would potentially violate the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and/or the California for Employment and Housing Act.

California Penal Code sections 43 or 415 are per se disruptive to a meeting and will not be tolerated.

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

Madam Clerk, your announcement, please.

If you would like to make a public comment during the meeting, you can do so in person or via Zoom.

If you are present at the meeting, please complete a speaker card and submit it to the city clerk before the item is presented.

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

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

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.

Okay, I think Senator City Manager Yoon, I think you've got an announcement for us.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Good evening.

Uh the fourth annual San Leandro restaurant week is next week from July 19th through the 26th.

Uh join the fun by enjoying specials at your favorite restaurants and participate in San Leandro Restaurant Week Challenge for a chance to have your meals reimbursed.

Over 20 restaurants are participating with multiple offering one-time and three course meal specials.

So learn more at San Leandro.org slash restaurant week.

So even that even though it's not specifically a city sponsored event, we are supportive and collaborative with our chamber of commerce.

There we go.

So that is correct.

So let's move on to item number uh four, which is presentations tonight.

During our work session, we've got a couple of presentations.

The first one involves AC transit budget and service updates, and we've got Diane Castleberry and Owen Christopherson here to present and share.

Um it's my pleasure to be here today.

I will um talk about essential role of AC Transit plays in San Leandro and the East Bay, alongside my AC Transit colleague, transportation planner Owen Christopherson.

We'll also directly address our current budget challenges.

AC Transit is a special district serving 13 cities and eight unincorporated communities across Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Nearly two-thirds of our riders are low-income, making AC transit an essential lifeline for all communities we serve.

We're proud to have received the top honor as outstanding public transportation system in the United States in 2023.

We provide 40 million rides every year, more than 140,000 riders aboard our buses on a typical weekday.

And when school returns, at least 30,000 students will depend on us to get safely to and from class each day.

In February, March, and April, we delivered our first three straight months of year over year ridership growth since the pandemic.

AC Transit supports more than 5,100 jobs across the East Bay.

More than half of those jobs are created outside our agency.

Together, they generate over $604 million in annual wages, and they inject nearly $1 billion into the East Bay economy every year.

For over a quarter century, AC Transit has led the nation in zero emission buses.

Today, our fleet of 58 zero emission buses, that's out of some 635 buses, are eliminating any tailpipe emissions from our streets.

That leadership earned AC Transit, a 40 million dollar federal investment to launch the transit's industry first zero emission bus university known as ZebU.

Alongside Chabot College and Union ATU Local 192, ZebU will help our employees earn associate degrees while preparing the clean transit workforce of tomorrow.

We're making transit more affordable, faster, and safer.

On this slide, you'll see the EasyPass program, which has unlimited rides at deep discounts at participating employers, colleges, and communities.

Clipper Start gives income eligible adults half off every ride.

We redesigned 104 of our bus lines last summer under what is called the Realine Network.

We have AI-powered cameras mounted inside buses to help keep bus lanes and bus stops clear, improving safety and reliability.

AC Transit riders, as mentioned, nearly two-thirds are low income.

More than half earn less than $50,000 a year, below the federal poverty level in one of the nation's most expensive regions.

65% of our riders are transit dependent.

Service cuts would not be an inconvenience.

They would upend the lives of those who rely most on AC transit.

This month we launched the multilingual fare required fare compliance campaign.

Also, a comprehensive California State Auditor Review found that AC Transit syncs service well with other East Bay bus agencies.

I'm sorry, yes.

And our collective real challenges are sustainable funding, not mismanagement.

What's more, an independent review confirmed average annual savings of 33 million dollars since 2020.

This commitment to making every taxpayer payer dollar count is why we have a top-tier AA plus credit rating.

When the cost of running our bus network is rising faster than revenue supporting it, the result is a fiscal cliff.

So what's behind this?

Federal pandemic relief funding is gone.

Regional sales tax revenues have flattened.

Did it just have flattened, and fair revenue growth has slowed.

Fuel costs are up 28%.

Bus maintenance parts have increased 14%, and buying new buses have surged 35%.

So you can see it's a bit lopsided, it's not sustainable.

We've taken action in the last fiscal year alone.

We tightened our belt by $9 million.

We've done this by hiring only for positions that directly support service.

We scaled back temporary service staffing, saving roughly $2 million annually.

We brought outside professional services in-house, and we're partnering with other agencies to purchase goods and services for less.

We've even temporarily restructured payments through our pension plan to preserve cash.

So we're making every taxpayer dollar count.

AC Transit projects a 200 million dollar deficit over the next four years that translates into a funding gap of at least 50 million annually beginning in 2027.

Without long-term sustainable funding, service reductions of up to 16% began become unavoidable avoidable.

The human pack is that potential layoffs would be about 300 employees.

And this would this is our looming service workforce and community crisis.

We've been thrown a lifeline, but it's not a permanent solution.

It's a state bridge loan, and it's exactly that alone, not a bailout, and it must be repaid with interest.

AC Transit's share is $55 million, enough to close this year's budget gap and avoid service cups today.

But next summer, the loan is gone, reserves are exhausted, and the funding challenges return.

That's that's why hope now rests with the Connect Bay Area Act.

This measure would um ask voters in five Bay Area counties, including Alameda County to approve a 14-year half cent sales tax and then one cent in San Francisco.

Um if approved, it would generate an estimated $980 million annually for Bay Area buses, trains, and ferries.

AC Transit would receive approximately $52 million each year, helping to protect protect existing bus service and prevent layoffs.

Without long-term funding, our bus network remains at risk.

Um I now invite my colleague Owen to provide an overview on our proposed contingency service plan.

Good evening, counsel.

Uh my name is Owen Christofferson, transportation planner with AC Transit.

Uh so you've heard from Ms.

Castleberry about uh the local and regional importance of AC Transit as an agency and the folks we serve, uh, as well as the uh very serious uh financial challenges that we're facing.

So, you know, our our strategy and our goal going into this uh, you know, is is plan for the worst and hope for the best, right?

So the plan that I'm about to talk to you about, uh, we hope we will never have to use it.

Um, but we do need to make do that planning work anyway.

Um the uh board of directors gave us some guiding principles, uh, which included maintaining the realign network, uh, which is a big network redesign recently completed, minimizing complete service eliminations, uh, instead focusing on span and frequency reductions, uh restructuring our high cost services, uh, and proportionally impacting uh service across our network.

Uh so uh AC Transit, we have something called our primary route network, uh, and this is something that we really strove to protect.

Uh, this includes the lines on your screen here, uh which are able to be preserved at 15 minutes or better on weekdays, uh, other lines uh which include the 97 uh are uh we are unfortunately having to make some cuts, um, but we are able to maintain at least every 30 uh minute service and service uh hours uh at least 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

Uh and within this group of uh the kind of the backbone of the network, 93% of the lines remain unchanged.

So uh for the city of San Leandro, uh, as I said, um we're gonna have to make some small cuts to the nine, uh, which is going to result in some frequency reductions uh early in the morning and later in the evening.

Line 97 uh is also unfortunately getting some uh more significant cuts uh from kind of 15-minute daily service, uh 20 minute evening to 30 minute all day.

Uh and then there are also some other uh both uh hourly frequency and hours of operation reductions that will happen on the other lines serving San Leandro, including the 28, 34, 3540, and 93.

And if you have some questions about the specific lines, I can um give you those details later.

Uh the tempo or bus rapid transit and our all-night service uh are not going to be affected.

Just talk quickly about uh the road ahead, what this is gonna look like uh for the next uh year or so.

Uh we uh on August 12th, 2026, the AC Transit Board of Directors is expected to set a public hearing uh, which would happen on October 14th.

Uh as you all know, the general election is November 3rd.

Um if no new funding is secured, uh we would have a board meeting on November 8th, um, which would result in in a kind of a plan approval on December 9th for service changes under this plan of June 13th, 2027.

So that's when uh folks of no new funding is secured would see uh the specific changes.

Uh and that said, I'm happy to talk more about the lines.

Uh and of course, we are very interested in hearing the community's feedback about this plan.

You can scan scan the QR code on your screen to submit comments.

You can email planning at acransit.org.

And to learn more information uh about the plan, including these specific line-by-line recommendations, you can visit acransit.org/slash contingency-plan.

Thank you very much.

And Ms.

Castleberry, was that it?

Yes.

For both of you, perfect.

So, in the spirit of your last comment of hearing from the community, we'd like to just start with public comment on this item.

We'll hear from the public and then we'll come back for clarifying questions and discussion.

So, Madam Clerk, how many cards do we have for public comment on this item?

Mayor, we have received two cards uh from the community.

However, they're not for this item.

Okay, and do we have hands online?

Checking right now to see if we have any hands raised online.

We have two hands raised online.

Okay, so we've open and closed public comment in person.

We will open public comment online.

Thank you.

Our first online speaker is Alvaro Ramos.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

All right.

And it contributes to increased municipal debt, which is why we need more public resources and we need to spend less on infrastructure.

I mean, the United States has the most expensive transportation system in the world.

But we have a situation of cars trapping people in traffic for hours, bus stops with no practical bus service.

And when I talk about oil shock, it's not really about the gas prices, even though, yes, that is an issue.

I acknowledge, especially for households, but it's about a fuel shortage, not having enough oil supply to properly fuel an oil-dependent society.

And all the international countries are planning and rationing their fuel sources, but the United States thinks it's the exception to that, which makes us unprepared to face the real consequences.

We should be shielding our residents from oil shock with public transportation.

And I also have an issue with the creation of uh hostile public spaces that are unwelcoming and cruel to people.

Specifically, you know, when I the at bus stops, you got bus benches that really should be replaced with more comfortable benches that don't slant at an angle because you don't want people sitting on them or don't have bars on them.

Um and I also am concerned about AC Transit's use of AI because AI needs data centers, which contributes to water pollution, uh air pollution, and higher energy costs for households.

I think where we really need bus lanes around here is going to be on East 14th and Mission Boulevard and Bancroft Avenue and Hisperian Boulevard.

Um and we need to work on higher income riders riding public transit as well.

Thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next online speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Uh thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh I regret to say I'm coming to the presentation late.

Um, but I um uh I fully support everything that that Alvaro had just said.

Um thank you for your incisive analysis always.

Um I agree with that the need to extend the bus system.

Uh I would like to see, for example, the rapid transit bus that was um uh uh developed by my by my good friend Kathleen O'Sullivan, um, extended from San Leandro Bart Station to Bayfair and Hayward and like the whole corridor down East 14th and Mission Boulevard.

Um so I I fully support public transit.

Uh despite other disappointments in the development of my children.

I I am proud to say that they they are Oakland school kids and they take the bus everywhere.

And my daughter has ridden the uh infamous 57 bus uh every day.

So I I also uh I'll be voting for the the November ballot issue, but I'm just curious what you're basing your um uh your service cuts on.

Uh you know, like the 97 bus, I I know well because that's a bus that that my students in San Lorenzo use a lot.

Uh and the number nine bus, I think is used by working people a lot.

I mean, uh you know, students and working people, uh, who else is riding the bus?

Except me when I, you know, my car breaks down.

Um so I like to better understand that the rationale for those cuts.

It you know, it does make some sense earlier in the morning, later, maybe not as many riders, but um but I but I hate to see the cuts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.

So with that, we'll close public comment.

And I will afford our presenters the opportunity to speak, should you wish to respond to either of the comments.

Either or both, inclusively.

Yeah, I'll just um this is um Christofferson, transportation planner with AC Transit.

Uh I'll just respond to the comments about the 97 and uh kind of the methodology for how we develop these service cuts.

Um as you can imagine, this was not an easy task.

Um, and this was not a task that uh, you know, myself or any any planners uh you know look forward to or want to really uh complete.

Um we the goal, uh as I said, um was to was to maintain you know as much service as possible on that on that real line network, uh excuse me, on the primary route network, uh, which is a combination of not only routes that are high productivity, high to ridership, uh, but also routes um, you know, with uh steady ridership in um equity priority communities and uh and other communities.

So we uh, you know, every every service hour that we cut on one bus, we cut that so that we could preserve service on another part of the system.

Um and uh these, as I said, these were very challenging uh cuts.

These were not uh cuts that we uh you know made wholesale.

Um but we the you know the minimum service standards for uh the primary route network, uh which is that that 97 uh line is included in that is uh 30 minutes.

Um so we were, you know, as I said, we were able to at least maintain that that 30 minute service uh all day.

Um and um, but yeah, just know that every every decision that we made uh around uh hours was to you know really be able to allocate, you know, really even down to just the the dozens or the tens of service hours uh to other parts of the network uh that needed it uh just as much as this area.

And I also just wanted to uh double, you know, kind of re-emphasize again that this is you know, this is not a plan that is set to go into effect.

Um, you know, if new funding is secured uh this fall, uh the board of directors will of AC Transit will not move forward with this plan.

Okay, thank you.

At this point in time, we'll go to council members for their questions, comments, uh beginning with Councilmember Bowen.

Thank you, Mayor, and and thank you for their presentations.

Um can we go to the slide before on I think slide 12?

12?

Yeah, the one uh maybe the one before this.

It was uh maybe one before this.

It had I don't know which slide is apparently.

It's the one that had about the different lines and potential changes, the 90 minutes.

This one.

No.

Yeah, no, not this one.

This one.

This one, yes.

Can you um I'm interested in uh line 40, the one that cuts down across um Bancroft.

Um I sit on ACTC as Supervisor TAM's representative, and I also sit on the policy committee and focus a lot on this um the safe routes school and the student um uh transit pass my kids have now, as middle schoolers got their clipper card, so they're really excited to start to use it.

Um I have incoming high schooler, and so this idea is how do I get all my kids to three different schools before school starts?

And the bus is how we're planning on doing that.

And so two things.

One, I'm looking at the route, the the stop times for 40.

And at one point, Bancroft Middle School, one of the big concerns of the at the bus stop or was a students getting out of school and a lot of kids like running across the streets, um, jaywalking and just trying to figure out um uh not paying attention necessarily to to red lights, and it was because they were trying to catch the 40 bus.

And at one point, I think I believe AC Transit had adjusted the time to give the students a little bit more time.

I just wanted to confirm if that's still the case, because I I could be misunderstanding the bus schedule.

I think there's a 302 and then a 32.

Yeah, so thank you very much for your comment, uh, council member.

Uh so the 40, um, yeah, so the 40 uh is currently uh runs kind of 10 minute frequencies during the day and uh 20 minute frequencies in the evening, um, kind of runs uh weekdays, 6 a.m.

to 12, uh all the way through to 1230 a.m.

midnight.

Um for the uh portion of the 40 um in between Eastmont Transit Center and Bay Far Bart, uh the service is going to be reduced uh to 24 minutes.

Um that's gonna be a 24 minute bus uh all day.

Um and uh service is going to um uh begin uh at 4 a.m.

actually a little earlier, uh, and that's to offset um the uh that's to offset due to this discontinuation of another uh owl line.

Um so and what I'll say as well about this planning process is that you know at this point we haven't developed our our exact schedule.

Um, but we know how important those school routes are, and I've noted your comment, and um I will absolutely pass that through to our scheduling department.

Uh obviously we don't want to see this plan move forward, but um, in the case that that is the case, um, and we will work on that, yeah.

Excellent.

Um on the schedule on ACTransit.org, it says it's effective August 10th, 2025.

So I just want to make sure if we can get some feedback on that, because it's like a 20-minute interval, but if there's any opportunity for that bus to be just a few minutes later, it will significantly increase safety at the middle school and also at the high school because kids are desperate to catch the bus before would not wait another 20 minutes.

Absolutely.

And Consumer, just so that I understand, are you are you um are you referring to the current schedule right now where there's an existing problem or is this was this something that was already tweaked?

Do you remember it was already tweaked, but I'm looking at the schedule now that's as effective August 10th, 2025.

And I just want to make sure that when we're talking about any proposed changes, that that doesn't get lost again.

Absolutely.

Um that that's a significant barrier for the students.

And obviously, just again to reiterate that that line is so important for all of our students in the community.

Absolutely, thank you.

And yeah, we will absolutely be looking at that.

You know, if if we do have to move forward with this plan, there's gonna be a lot of work around scheduling and coordination, uh, as you can imagine, because not just our services will be affected, but BART's as well.

Um, so we're we're really gonna be looking at like every time point throughout the day.

Thank you.

I would just add one thing is um with the scheduling coordination with the schools.

Um we uh reach out to the schools every year.

It's really important that if they make changes to their bell times, um, because that that triggers some of this kind of you know, adjustment.

Um, we need to know as soon as possible in the like for the up like for that year, upcoming year, because basically by February, no later than maybe like the first week of March before the next school year is when we need to have that information so we can you know kind of time it with the rest of the overall schedule.

And that's where probably sometimes we have a little bit of an issue if we don't get that information from the schools or they decide to change it after we've already made the schedule.

Uh I um the we had spoken with um AC Transit Board and then uh AC Transit Leadership and staff as well and engineers had actually come out to the middle school.

I just want to make sure as we're starting to reschedule that it doesn't get lost in that.

So I just and I'm happy to follow up with any anybody that is like we I need to.

Um just wanna uplift that.

Thank you.

Councilmember James Aguilar.

Whoops.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you so much for the presentation.

I am kind of a self-appointed transit nerd.

I love transport transportation.

I I mean, specifically AC Transit, just it gets people where they need to be.

School, they need to go to work.

And I'm a product of line 57 in Oakland, uh, line 34.

And I think council member Bowen brought up a great point with not line nine from my experience, taking 34 to San Lorenzo High School and landing at San Lorenzo High School is something that I definitely don't want impacted.

Um, but of course, like you said, that's that's the worst case scenario.

And I I kind of just wanted to uplift and appreciate the motto plan for the worst, hope for the best.

Um and and and no, I fully understand that you know that is the worst case scenario.

But yeah, impact to line 34 would be an impact to so many kids.

Um and same for 35.

I mean, that that's that's an artery up his spare and right.

Um, but nevertheless, just appreciation.

I love what you guys do, and I I appreciate your approach to fiscal stewardship.

Um, and that you know what you're doing.

Um, yeah, but I I I would say, because Councilmember Bowen really brought up all of the points that I think I had, um, yes, let's focus on uh uh on not getting here.

And if we do get here, line 34.

Let's let's advocate for keeping that as is.

But of course, thank you very much.

Appreciate your presentation.

Vice Mayor, please.

Thank you for the presentation and for the service um that you provide um to the public in terms of public transit.

I had a couple of questions in terms of um uh I'm looking at slide six.

Um in the launch of having folks use exclusively clipper cards and versus there were some equity issues in terms of cash paying writers versus uh non-cash paying writers, whereas cash paying writers were actually were effectively paying more for transit service.

Can you expand?

Has there been any uh any changes to that, any improvements?

The the improvements are happening, but they're very slow.

Um Clipper is a third-party vendor that is providing the clipper cards um kind of payment service for all of transit in the Bay Area, and so um unfortunately, that was a piece that um that is they're still working on.

Um they've made a lot of progress, but they're still not quite there, if if I may.

And so um we are we we have a team of folks who are meeting with Clipper and other Bay Area transit agencies um pretty much on a weekly basis um to kind of be checking in on this and helping to kind of address the issue.

Um also on our service, you know, giving some leeway to people who are riding the bus where they're being affected by, for instance, if they're a senior or youth who normally gets 50% off on their card, and then with this transition over, there is not showing up um working through our customer service office trying to get that resolved.

And so um it is an unfortunate side effect of the transition into this new generation of Clipper.

Um that uh we as the transit agency don't have a lot of control over, other than just kind of staying on top of um Clipper and then also trying to work with our customers to help them through this process.

So effectively cash writers are still paying more than non-cash writers.

I don't know the numbers on that, but there are probably are some cases where that's happening.

But they're getting resolved.

So they're they're correcting them.

Like so a customer will say, hey, I got charged a full price versus half price.

So then they're going in, they're working with Clipper and getting it addressed so that then they get refunded that amount.

Thank you for that.

But I'm I'm talking about customers that don't have a clipper card that are cash writers, they're effectively paying more for service.

And I'm asking about whether how that is there a timeline for resolution.

Um the reason that I'm asking is I'm I'm concerned that people who are underbanked or people who don't have access to banking that are effectively paying more for public transit.

And I'm just asking are there any plans or you can get back to me?

This has been reported widely, so that's why I'm asking.

I'm I'm just really concerned about those folks who are under-resourced, underbanked, or not even using not able to use banks and effectively paying more for a service that is intended to be used for the public in general.

Yeah, I I don't have the specifics on the response to your question.

Um I do know that it's definitely on the radar, and we are following up on that.

And so we can get back to you with those specifics.

But I know that um there's been a lot of effort to work with those cash paying uh members, and in some cases, um, even at the the fair box, there's some um they're they're working with they're not like turning away writers just because they can't pay because they're being charged a full amount.

So we are working on that.

I'll have to get back to you with details.

I don't want to give you misinformation.

I appreciate that.

Um my other question, um, and I'm gonna go a little over time, is um, so this is in relation to the update updated Title VI regulation that just came out of the US Department of Transportation.

And I'm thinking about, and that's just to again making the um implicit explicit, it essentially um relieves um transit agencies and effectively a lot of um other government agencies of doing equity analysis.

Um and I'm wondering what is AC Transit's approach to this new I'm just wondering what is AC Transit's approach in terms of um in in making these recommended changes.

Um thinking about the intersection of impact on low-income communities and disparate impact essentially.

And I'm just wondering how is that being factored in?

Yeah, thank you, Vice Mayor.

That's a very good question because you're absolutely right.

The the federal guidelines uh have changed in this area.

So for this plan, uh AC Transit is uh, you know, is um we're we're running we're running the same types of disparate impact analyses, Title Six analyses as we would have um had the federal um you know uh guidance not changed.

So we are uh when the plan will be presented um at the board, uh it will have a uh Title VI analysis, it'll have a disparate impact analysis uh attached to it.

Thank you.

Uh I really appreciate AC Transit's commitment to continuing this type of analysis to ensure that low income and under-resourced communities continue to have access to public transit.

Thank you so much.

Um and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for that and appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bolt, please.

Yes, uh, thank you for the presentation.

Thank you to my colleagues because most of my questions were asked.

Um I will say that I am also interested in that, where somebody who gets a clipper card gets some type of discount, but then someone paying cash doesn't.

And I understand the idea is to go cashless, if you will.

But I don't want to see anybody that doesn't have the means be over taxed, because most likely not taxed, uh wrong word, but uh essentially it is because they don't have the means to get there.

So when you find that out, maybe to all of us uh because that is important, I think to all of us.

Uh I will put in a selfish plug for line 35, which goes through my uh district.

But um the last thing was uh I don't I don't see it and I could have missed it, probably did students used to receive uh uh a discount.

Uh they used to get cards from the local schools, things like that.

Is that still available through the programs?

Yeah, so there are two programs for students or youth.

Um so one is a student transit pass program that the Alameda CTC provides.

And um there's two types of student transit pass programs.

So one is an income-based discount, um, which gives them basically uh about a 50% you know off their fare.

Um the other one is a universal discount, and the universal discount is for that school district, all the students get to write basically for free.

Um I'm sorry, and then we go back to the the the income base, it's also free.

I'm sorry, that correction.

On the youth um transit clipper card, it's a 50% discount.

And um they just need to apply and just demonstrate that they are between the ages of five and eighteen and a student.

Where do they can they still apply at their school or because that so for yes, okay?

Yeah, so for the student transit pass program, um their school office, there's usually someone designated who takes care of that, and then they work with Alameda CTC, and then also there's someone in our customer service that coordinates with you know the other two entities, so we can get them their student transit pass.

For the youth clipper card, they can go to Clipper.

Uh ClipperCard.com and go to the youth um discount program, and they can fill the application online.

They can also pick one up at our customer service, um, or they can reach our customer service and ask them to you know send them the link or send them the information so they can um get that.

And we're also out in the community where we provide the brochures with that information as well.

Great.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Bowen, please.

Yeah, um, thank you, Councilmember Boltz for uplifting that again.

I um because I literally just went through this process and because I sit on ACTC.

Um you can go to the Alameda CTC.org and all students sixth grade to 12th grade can get the student pass, and it is free for AC transit buses.

It's 50% for BART.

Yeah.

Um, and uh so the every any student from sixth grade to 12th grade in San Leandro, and they just and they just have to apply it in and um put in their number, their student ID number, and then they'll get it.

Okay, so for me, a couple of questions.

Um the largest cost component in your budget.

What's the largest cost component?

It's it's it's the labor and um you know benefit fringe benefits combined.

Okay.

One of the things that I think I heard you say is that you're essentially deferring a payment or some level of payment for your pensions.

Did I hear that correctly?

Yes.

Okay, can you elaborate on that, please?

I can't elaborate fully because that one surprised me a bit, but but um they uh they're deferring, but it's gonna be paid back.

So basically, with the loan that we're getting from the state of California is deferred for now, and then they're going to pay that back.

And it was negotiated and passed through our board.

Yeah, so my primary comment on that is there's significant risk associated with pensions, deferral of pension payments, loans to make pension payments.

Um a number of transit systems over the years have gotten in trouble with respect to pensions and pension payments and the like.

So I think a little bit greater transparency about something that could be uh a big risk would be useful.

Okay.

And to understand that if the measure passes, what does that imply about that piece in particular?

Um it was unclear whether the commitment was that basically all service remains as is.

So maybe I should ask that as a question.

Suppose that the measure passes in November.

Is there a commitment for the next, let's say three years in the forecasting to re uh maintain the service as is, or will is there still anticipated to be service decreases?

Uh there will not be uh anticipated to be any service decreases, any service cuts uh if the met if the funding is secured uh November, and uh so the current levels of service and of course potentially more service or uh you know all of our our potential future plans, um, those will still be able to move forward as is uh if that funding is secured in November.

So I do want to dig into that one a little bit, because we just went through a process of realign, correct, which resulted in service cuts to a number of neighborhoods and writers for purposes of delivering better service in uh the higher use lines, right?

And I use the term trunk, I forget your term, priority network or what's the correct term?

Primary route network.

Primary network.

Um so in that realign process, there were already adjustments.

But what I think I hear you saying is there would be no further decreases.

And then you kind of tossed in as a little bit of a teaser, and there might be some increases.

Is that like a uh a wish or is that modeled out?

That's a wish.

Yeah.

There's no commitments to service increases, but um, you know, and this was why we worked so hard to try to not because we you know, an alternative would have been to do another, you know, realign or a redesign or something like that uh as part of this contingency plan.

Since that, as I'm sure you know, multi-year process was was recently completed.

We were really trying to hang on to those recently redesigned uh routes and lines uh as much as we could and just make these little adjustments in terms of frequency and hours of operation.

Thank you for that, and thank you for the presentation as a whole.

I think that there have been several asks from the uh council.

If you can, when you circulate the answers, just hit the full council.

My ask that I will add is clarity around the magnitude of this pension payment deferral and kind of a little bit about the the math of that, because my recollection is that it's a relatively large number.

And so if we can just kind of get some clarity, uh transparency for lack of a better word.

Okay.

So that thank you for coming and joining us today, and we will move on to our next agenda item.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Have a good day.

Okay, so at this point in time, we will move to item four B.

And we have got acting city manager manager Yoon here to introduce this item.

Okay, thank you, Mayor and Council.

Tonight staff will be presenting updates uh on our five priority work plans, uh quality of life, economic development, public safety, infrastructure, and housing and homelessness, uh, to give you some context and on the history of these plans, the quality of life and economic development work plans uh span fiscal year 2025 through fiscal year 27, and staff first presented these work plans to you in the fall of 2024.

Uh the public safety infrastructure and housing and homelessness work plans span fiscal year 26 through fiscal year 28, and staff presented updated work plans to you in July of 2025.

You last received updates on all of the work plans at your council annual planning session that was held in March of this year.

So we will have various staff present updates to their work plans this evening.

Uh we will discuss next steps at the end of the presentation.

Uh, but uh as further context, this is an update-on presentation.

Uh no edits are being made and no items are being added to the work plans tonight.

Uh, we will bring forward new work plans for fiscal years 28 and 29 next year as part of your biennial budget process, which will include your annual planning section uh session next year.

So we will first start off with the quality of life and economic development work plans, uh, which will cover work conducted across fiscal years 25, 26, and 27.

And I will hand it over to library director Brian Simons to kick off quality of life.

And before you kick off, um, we've had some discussions internally about how to prepare your questions, your thoughts, et cetera.

At the end of each council priority, we'll come to you for your reactions, any questions, clarifications, or commentary that you may have.

Okay, so we'll go.

So it's gonna so just be mindful that that may stretch out our presentation, but it will let you be timely to what you are hearing.

Please proceed.

And and just to be clear, after each priority or after each priority section.

No, after quality of life.

Okay.

Perfect.

Quality of life questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate that clarification.

Uh well, good evening.

Um, as uh stated, uh library director Brian Simons, and I'll be here uh this evening to present a portion of the quality of life uh presentation.

Um I'll be handing that off uh later to uh our reckon parks director to continue with the second section.

Um the quality of life priorities that uh are listed here today uh are either completed ahead of schedule or they are on track to be uh completed on time.

In part that's been made possible because the priorities have been aligned with our city's strategic planning documents.

Um so we've been able to really keep on track that way.

Um that said, many of these quality of life priorities are ongoing efforts, so there's still plenty of work to do.

Um we're going to continue to do that to continue offering these services.

Our first priority is developing and implementing an arts grants program.

Uh, this was achieved with each objective completed on time or uh ahead of schedule.

Since city council has generously funded $30,000 for the arts grants program in fiscal year 27.

This will again continue to be one of our focuses, even though we've effectively achieved it.

Again, it's ongoing.

We have to keep up with this.

Uh what we've been able to do is establish a proven recurring process uh annually.

We create a detailed budget with the arts uh culture and library commission.

We review and update the arts grants application and process.

We hold at least one kickoff reception to promote the grants and also provide opportunity for prospective grantees to get acquainted with the process and ask questions.

Uh and uh the library then library staff then manages the application process and submissions, which depending on the year can range from uh we've had as low as 10 and as high as about 60.

Uh the ACLC, the Arts Culture Library Commission uh grant selection committee then chooses the grantees, and from there the library staff then manage payments to the grantees and the grantees reporting when the project is done.

So while this is fairly time-intensive, it really does bring some value to our community.

We've also identified businesses and sponsors as possible supporters.

Library staff and the ACLC with ACLC support will explore monetary and in-kind donation requests and grant opportunities going forward.

Our next priority is expanding utilization of art gallery spaces in city facilities and establishing partnerships for installations.

The first two objectives were recently completed in June of 26, with the third currently on track for completion December of 26.

A catalog of possible city uh owned spaces as gallery spaces was created.

Um it really aligns into two really distinct and separate uh types.

We've got indoor spaces, which are really good for short-term, possibly long-term exhibits, um, and are really more focused around your wall hangings, and then our outdoor parks and facility ground spaces, which would yield themselves to more long-term or permanent exhibits, uh, which really you yield themselves well to large outdoor 3D sculptures and possibly murals.

Um what you're seeing the in the images below there, obviously the examples with art hanging are just examples, um, but also are of spaces that that would be uh of of value.

But the the spaces with no art, so for instance, the middle one there with the fenced in wood chips, um, that's in root park, and there's uh I believe three of those little box spaces, and that's where the Dahlia uh garden beds used to be years and years ago before it got too shaded.

So that's kind of ready-made to have a sculpture within a little fenced-in area.

Um, another uh example is the facility, the the city facility building at um Helsing Park, which is the one on the far right, uh, as you look at it, that perhaps uh city structures like this could uh house a mural.

Um, so our our biggest opportunity in this regard from what we've been looking at looks to be that large outdoor uh opportunity.

So where am I here?

Oh, artists, uh artist and agencies have been identified and contacted to gauge interest in exhibiting.

There still needs to be some ongoing work we have to do.

So this is the priority that, or the uh objective we haven't yet finished.

So some ongoing efforts remain to uh connect artists and agencies to commit to exhibiting.

We still need to build an understanding of the exhibit spaces and locations, so some site visits have to happen with artists.

Uh we need to detail the arts value and insurance requirements if they're going to exhibit with us.

And uh we need to acquire the ACLC's recommendations, of course.

Uh the area with the, as I mentioned on the last slide, the largest opportunities for those outdoor works, but a gap exists with the artists available and the funding available for those large uh uh pieces.

The priority to develop programs celebrating community and diverse cultures in San Leandro has has been achieved, uh, but it too is an ongoing effort.

We've created an annual calendar for cultural and special events so the public can more easily find these events on the city's website.

Uh also the library, wreck and parks, SLIA, and other agencies meet quarterly to plan for best outcomes.

One of the things that we really focus on when we meet like this is we really are now looking at trying to do a unified city response, and we try to amplify each other's efforts, whoever is taking the lead as opposed to duplicating efforts.

That wasn't always the case until we really focused in on this priority.

Now we're really working more as a team.

And uh we also collaborate to avoid automatic repeats.

So we really take a look at what's working, what's not.

There's no automatics anymore.

We kind of evaluate and see where we're at, and if it's worth repeating, then we'll we'll do so.

If it's not, then we try to look at something else.

Uh the library alone has held 945 events uh for the fiscal year at the time of creating this presentation in May.

I just looked today, and early data uh from the fiscal year shows about 1,100.

Uh examples include uh Lunar New Year, the Lucha Libre Hispanic Heritage uh event, the Black Choir event for Black History Month, Fred Koramatsu exhibit with Karen Koramatsu as keynote speaker, uh Cinco de Mayo, the MLK oratory event, and those are just to name a few of many, many, many.

I could go on for probably a half hour just listing events.

We have uh also expanded utilization of early childhood education programming.

And now, as we have done that, we also have to sustain that effort.

Uh, this focus began December of 24 and was completed in December of 25.

Through outreach, using in-person bilingual verbal communication and conducting better planning for regular communications, we've improved communication with the target audience of biolingual early childhood programs.

So, what I mean by that is more people who natively speak that language are coming to those programs as opposed to people who are coming there to try to expose their kids to that language.

Um it's shown attendance has grown.

Um we've also expanded participation in the Thousand Books for Kindergarten program.

And this focus on this program uh sparked a redesign and a greater emphasis on carrying out uh this ongoing effort for our community.

Programs like Stay in Play and Lego Robotics.

Uh we connected with uh in-home daycares as well as a lot of other library partner agencies.

And then expanding technology-based adult education priority was completed in December of 25.

However, uh, especially in this current AI environment, it's going to take a lot more continued vigilance on our part to really continue to work with our community to make sure our community uh is prepared and resilient.

And uh the way we do this is uh we teach adult uh literacy in multiple ways.

The library and senior center staff lead classes.

We have paid presenters.

The library also offers tech tutors, uh, which is a volunteer and uh patron uh that we match together.

And we also provide online self-paced offerings with LinkedIn Learning and now Fiero code.

And I'm gonna turn it over to my colleague, uh Reckon Park Director Vicente Zandega to continue this presentation.

Good evening, Council, Vicente Suniga, Recreation Parks Director.

So the first one I'm gonna speak on is expanding volunteer opportunities for cleaning streets and public spaces citywide.

Uh so staff was able to grow beautify San Leandro into a high impact program, funding 13 community-led projects and building a network of 600 plus volunteers while launching also launching the Trash Free Initiative.

Uh, local businesses like Ghirardelli have support our efforts through employee volunteer days.

A couple of questions uh pictures of uh coastal cleanup as well as Ghirardelli's Gives Day, where we had over 200 volunteers participating in cleanups.

The next one I have is design and implement a planning initiative to introduce uh native and drought tolerant plants across city parks, medians, and public spaces.

So staff was able to launch a citywide planning initiative, introducing native and drought tolerant landscapes, establishing long-term turf reduction strategies, and create a public facing plant pallet web page as a resource for the community.

A couple pictures of uh one of the projects to production as well as our city website that has native plants and resources for the community.

The next one is expand citywide tree canopy coverage.

So uh urban forestry efforts are underway.

Uh, we were all staff was also able to secure a 244,000 state grant, uh, launch a tree sponsorship program and increasing community education through workshops and partnerships.

A couple pictures, Arbor Day, um, as well as partnering up with the Extreme Heat Planning Grant with San Leandro 2050.

The next one is strategic placement of litter receptacles to maximize usage and enhance cleanliness.

Uh so staff's negotiating for some additional big belly containers beyond those uh that were included in the original contracts.

So, on top of the 20 that were downtown, staff's currently negotiating to uh to up that number.

Uh the older plastic litter cans did not perform well in San Leandro.

So we're hoping the new containers will improve durability uh uh capacity as well as cleanliness.

Develop recreation programs for inclusivity and diverse age groups.

Um staffs have been able to expand programming, nearly tripling all age offerings, increase bilingual classes, and advance adaptive recreation partnerships, partnerships with local organizations to create accessible and affordable healthy eating options, uh really focusing on low-income families.

Uh so the city was able to invest more than 180,000 and 11 community organizations to strengthen food access and food security throughout San Leandro.

Uh these partnerships had help uh provide food assistance to approximately 23,000 residents through pantries, meal delivery, grocery distribution, and daily youth nutrition programs, including the Boys and Girls Club Meal and Edible Garden Initiative.

Host health and active living events.

So city staff was able to expand community wellness opportunities by offering free fitness programs, outdoor exercise classes, and family-friendly active recreation events in partnership with local organizations, strengthening community partnerships to promote healthy lifestyles through wellness initiatives, fitness challenges, and signature events such as some of the uh five and ten case we're having at the Marina Park.

It's a picture of girls on the run, as well as free yoga in the park sessions that we had throughout the city.

Partner with uh local organizations for expanded senior services.

Um, so staff was able to expand senior senior education and wellness by partnering with tech exchange to provide uh multilingual digital literacy classes and serving roughly about 97 seniors.

Um, staff was also able to offer specialized caregiver training for uh Alzheimer's as well as dementia support services to estimated 28 participants and provide valuable education and resources.

So the last deliverable that we have on the quality of life work plan is to collaborate with schools for public use of recreation facilities.

So staffs continue to advance negotiations with San Leandro Unified School District to update the master joint use agreement to expand community access to shared facilities.

Staff has also been working and implementing a new field allocation policy to improve scheduling and maximize field utilization.

We've also expanded partnerships with schools, nonprofit organizations to increase community programming, outreach, and participation through community events.

And here's a couple pictures of some of the joint use sites that we have.

We have a junior warriors program.

It's uh robust and really popular, and so that's one of our joint use uh sites, uh gymnasiums with San Leandro Unified School District.

So we have leads and different services and activities at some of the joint use fields we have.

It's a picture of uh one of our partners we have with the Girl Softball League.

That I'm open for questions.

Thank you for the presentation on this council priority.

We will begin with Council Member Bowen.

Thank you, Mayor.

I love all of the priorities in all of the departments, but I will say really love these two.

So I'm gonna share a few things.

I wanted to give um one piece of feedback and ask that's gonna apply to the entire presentation as it relates to all of the departments.

I know we've talked a lot about um uh uh trying to present the work plans and have them scaffold up to the strategic plans and then the goals that we have.

And if we could go back to any number, any any one of the slides, for example, um, like part, yeah, um, collaborative schools for the use of recreational facilities.

To me, that's like it's a fantastic thing that we are doing, and it is because it is tied to something that is in our strategic plan.

I think it would be really helpful to just have a little um section that says what it ties up to or what plan we have, so that it's really clear to anybody that looks at the work plan, and it's really clear how this is building towards a goal we have.

Um, for uh, and I think the the in the library presentation, for example, if I look at the strategic plan you have for the library, it says our strategic priorities and four key upcoming areas, communication services, facilities, people.

That would be really great to have up there because it's exactly why we're doing this.

Like why should we collaborate with the schools?

It's a great thing to do.

But how does it tie to something that we have said we wanted or that is going to um immeasurably improve quality of life?

Like we know it to be true, but it's helpful to see that so that we can justify funding for it and say this is exactly how that's happening.

Um, and I really do appreciate that there are so many things here that I know are direct feedback from the council, or you've heard us have conversations about.

I know that there are things that I have said that I see up there right now, and I'm like, yay, it happened, right?

So super appreciative of staff.

Um so what one of the things um I also wanted to mention um uh love the library programming so much.

Really love that we have early childhood education, that we're really focusing on um uplifting and uh improving capacity for uh the childcare staff even to come in and doing it in in um bilingual ways and in culturally appropriate ways is inclusive ways so important.

Um, on Wednesdays, it is really beautiful to see the number of folks that are there and you know, and parents, caregivers, grandparents that are there.

So it really is a critical community space.

So shout out to library services for that.

It's like the number one thing I hear about from everybody.

Um, I was at the Karen Karamatsu event, and I will say that um I was really moved by one the how much it um is uh tied to San Leandro, and that also um made me think about the art, the art walk that we have, which is phenomenal.

At one point, I had given some feedback around including a history walk as part of that.

So, for example, we can very much tie in Fred Tiki Kiramatsu into the history of San Leandro, and and it's just a simple addition, so something to just think about.

Um, really also appreciates um the work around beautification and volunteerism.

We've talked a lot about that and senior services.

And I know we have the the senior friendly plan, I forget the next exact name of it that we work through, but to highlight how those things are absolutely doing that right now, because we want to give you those that that recognition.

Um, and then also really appreciate um the effort by the city to do what we can in our limited scope around food access and um and food scarcity and the partnership with San Leandro Unified School District for rec programming because that is a huge ask the community has come into with you know spaces to be able to um participate in recreation, especially now that we have this phenomenal gym for at the high school, but if we don't build up opportunities for kids to learn how to play those sports, they won't really be able to utilize that.

So um just really wanted to uplift all of that for you all.

Yeah, thank you.

And and um, yeah, you're correct.

I think there's a lot of alignment um with a lot of our strategic plans, age-friendly uh action plan, library strategic plan, recreation parks master plan, tree master plan, and a lot of those plans had robust community engagement.

And so you're seeing the connectivity uh and the synergy between council, the community, and what the programs that they want and initiatives they want.

And this is a great reflection of this plan that takes all those plans together with these deliverables.

So thank you for highlighting that.

At this point, we go to council member Bolt.

Uh thank you both for the presentation.

Um I'm gonna start with one that I know of council member Simon was here, he'd comment on, and that's the expanding seat uh citywide tree canopy coverage.

It's important to him.

I think we all believe in that, but I know he would have said something, so I'm taking the chance to say it for him.

Uh additionally, the planting of the initiate um initiative for native plants.

I seen it in some of the local parks.

I love it.

It's a great idea.

It it makes it actually feels cleaner and tighter, and I know it's better on our resources.

Uh volunteer opportunities.

I've been out to a couple of those.

We're doing the cleanups or planting trees.

Those are great.

Uh our community comes out, they feel invested in it.

Uh I've I've heard multiple people uh after the fact, hey, look at our tree, it's doing good, you know, like it's our tree, you know.

It is.

Um thing that I really love, uh, the idea of the uh art gallery spaces in the city facilities.

That's awesome.

Um I can't say enough about it.

I I will take one second to say this because my wife beats me up over it all the time.

She won an art uh uh contest at San Andreas City High when she was at in 95 or four, and it was placed down here at City Hall.

And so I hear about it all the time from her.

So I'm saying it now.

Um I think those type of efforts that we can you know connect with our uh local school districts and and do those things, it brings them in and they feel ownership of it.

Um so if we can somehow collaborate with that and the um uh gallery spaces, that would be so neat.

Lastly, I'll end with this.

Um the city uh facility murals, awesome.

When you go to different places and you see a new mural up and they look fabulous.

Um I did want to ask, like, because I feel like there was some prices kind of thrown around last time, somewhere around the two grand mark for the uh trash enclosure in the downtown area.

Um can somebody say if I'm way off or I'm close.

I see some looks right now, like, oh, let me back it up a little bit.

I'm I'm not sure if that is uh the accurate number or not.

If it's an if it's a part of the uh arts grants, I could check into that to see what the total amount was.

Um if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's the one SLIA applied for and got new.

So yeah, and it was around the trash enclosure.

I think yeah.

Um my guess, if I had to guess, I again I don't have uh data in front of me, but my guess if it was 2000, it was probably 2,000 that the arts grant applied to, and then there were other funds that they applied in addition to that 2,000.

I think it would be neat for us to maybe like a challenge even to a council member in their district.

Hey, you want to mural up at the marina park around the facility?

Let's get some people from the community to come out, see what kind of money we could raise, what kind of time we can spend cleaning up and helping reduce the costs.

But um, I would love to see more of those murals, especially around the facilities, like you mentioned for the one at uh Toyon Park.

Or not Toy, no, it's not Toyon.

It's 140, Halcyon, 143rd, right?

Um, but at the marina, we have a few of those facilities with big walls.

It would be so neat to just see a nice big mural out there, butterflies, whatever we can think of.

So um thank you for all the work that you guys are doing.

Uh it makes it a cleaner, uh, nicer place to be.

Uh, and I know we all appreciate your work on this.

Thank you.

Okay.

So I will follow up on murals.

Uh, do we have budget set aside for maintenance of murals?

Um from the arts grants perspective, we do not have uh budget set up for maintenance.

Um, the maintenance generally, the way we've talked about it with the grantees has been since it's um we're just funding it and they're they've secured the space and the the rest of the funding for it.

The maintenance of it is up to the uh either the however they structure it, the the applying agency, the artist, the the owner of the building, but the city doesn't have that responsibility as of right now.

Yeah.

It's something that I think that we should be thinking about, particularly for the ones that we view as more permanent structures um and budgeting for it explicitly.

You know, every 10 years we need to refresh the colors on the mural or whatever the case may be, particularly if it's on a city building.

Um so that's the first thought on murals.

Um you talked about the arts grants program.

Uh I know a lot of energy went into setting up the infrastructure, the process, the controls, whatever the case may be.

Now that it's established, setting aside the funding cost uh for the actual uh distributions, the grants.

What does it cost to run that program?

Thank you.

That's a good question.

Um our secretary, who is the assistant library director, spends probably nine months out of the year working, I would say a good 10 hours to 20 hours a month on that program.

Um it's more extensive than you'd think because of all of the intake of the grants and then organizing it in a way that the commission uh can uh work with.

And then also um we're the the staff level that communicates back to those who get grants and those who don't get grants.

Um, and then the uh management of the funds going out to the uh the the grantees, and then we're the ones that follow up to make sure it got done.

The art actually got done, so we don't have to um ask for our funds back.

Um and then uh if it does get done, then we're the ones that also get the reporting and we communicate.

And there's a lot of since a lot of these folks um applying um haven't ever done anything like this before.

Uh it's new it's a new process for them too, and we really have to kind of coach them through sometimes even the application process.

So it's it's a lot more working.

But let's read let's revisit that offline because I've got some ideas.

Um events.

Uh so we have providers that come in.

Do we have some sort of standard fee schedule for what we pay the puppet person or the musician that comes to the library?

Uh we we do.

Um it's I'm not asking you to disclose it even, but just we do.

We do.

That's really all that I want to know.

Uh for the bilingual events, you had something on page three.

It's I didn't really understand the comment.

It was something like people uh are coming to receive training in the native language.

So, yes.

So this is the our um bilingual story times.

So the in the past, we've seen more people who it is not their native language coming to expose their children to this, as opposed to really the target audience is if you speak Chinese or Mandarin and we're doing Mandarin Storytime, we would love if Mandarin speakers came as children and families um as opposed to people who want to expose their kids to it.

And we've we've kind of started to turn the corner there and get that uh traction with those families.

Perfect.

For the thousand books, um, I think we initiated that this fiscal year, is that right?

Or is that two years?

The 1,000 books before Kinder.

Was that this year that we initiated that?

We we've been doing it um, but at a very almost very, very passive way.

Um this last year we started uh featuring it.

Um and the feature has really helped accelerate and just it's really been the helping our staff communicate.

And it it's it that seeing the community latch on to it a little more, also inspired the library staff to say, you know, the images are kind of stale.

Let's let's re-up that the program is stale.

Let's re-up.

Approximately how many participants.

Uh it's it's hard to to I don't mean to evade your question, but it's uh it's a running program that you can start at birth and you end whenever you're done with a thousand.

I'm more like enrolled, not graduates.

On an on an A on an annual basis, probably about a thousand uh folks at a time are are doing it.

Okay, thank you.

And then just two more, one more question.

Expansion of senior services.

Thank you.

Can you put some quantum on that?

Have we double, triple, do we increase by two programs?

Help me understand what that means.

We've uh I think we have a 15% increase in services for seniors.

Um we're also currently exploring uh senior services has transitioned and as part of the now the recreation parks department.

So we have a lot of data and community feedback on additional expansion of senior services.

Um so we're taking a lot of recommendations from the uh H uh friendly action plan.

Uh for any more specifics, I I can pass it on to uh former human services director as well, too, if you did.

Fine.

So then the lot I'll end with a comment, and that's just gratitude for all the work that you guys are doing.

I think that in terms of quality of life, there's a lot of metrics that point to a significant increase in service levels.

And just repeatedly I talk to residents who say, thank you for the library, thank you for the parks, thank you for the programming.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

There's a lot of gratitude for the work that you're doing.

And I'll close with this.

I had an email that I got today specifically about the Washington Manor pickleball courts.

So I mean it's on that list of the top five pickleball courts in the Bay Area.

So, you know, we gotta bring it to when we're there.

Anyway, so thank you for what you are doing.

At this point in time, we will move on to our next uh council priority, which is economic development.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm here to introduce our economic development manager, Katie Bowman.

Katie and her team have been the primary leads.

And to Council Member Bowen's point, this the basis for this economic development project work plan is the uh economic development strategy from 2024.

So that's right.

And I took the took a moment to look up right what are our goals for that strategy.

So to grow the local economy, expand the image and identity of San Leandro, spur new investment and high quality jobs, and improve the quality of life for residents.

Um as we've talked about in economic development overall goals are to support businesses and the local economy in order to create revenue for city services and programs.

And so here in our uh work plan, we have six areas of focus.

And uh the first uh that we've talked about with you before uh to support uh growth of businesses and target industries, where through our strategy we found that they um we have a competitive advantage and they have a lot of potential for growth, including what we would call clean tech.

We have a number of battery companies, food technology, advanced manufacturing, and what I'm hearing from the businesses they now call hard tech, um, and um biomedical and more specifically uh medical device manufacturing.

And so in that area, we presented to you a deeper dive on in this area um on the innovation action plan back in March, and also to begin implementing it as well as our retail attraction plan.

We've made a number of updates to the city website as well as uh attractive and really usable flyers that you see here, and um, under the retail action plan put um list retail listings available, and uh you can see more at Sanleandro.org backslash retail.

And most recently, work uh that we have come to you to talk about is the city brand assessment, and um really doing a city place branding project, as you know, and um looking at how uh not just the imagery but the messaging behind it, and we've been hearing really great things from the community, and um we'll be moving from the input phase to initial ideation phase to put together uh bring that into concepts, which we will later present to you all in the fall.

And um, and then in the long term, the goal of that is to use that in city programming and messaging, as well as um in attraction efforts and even for the community to identify with our next area is to support development and update our zoning.

And um, we have worked on this in in three kind of key areas to engage the development community to hear about their their needs and also to attract development to um work in a number of ways improving our process as well as to work on updating our regulations and most specifically our zoning code, which as you know um oversees development standards on the outreach side.

Uh, we we held our annual uh what we call our broker breakfast or a development breakfast.

There's a picture of that there, um, and it gets a number of attendees, recurring attendees uh to come and learn about opportunities in San Leandro.

And also really the core of the work in this area has been done uh by uh members of our planning team, our building team, the public works engineering team.

And so you'll see um in the housing presentation, Wayland Lee, our planning manager will share some other things as well in this area.

And I highlight that because not only does it help commercial development, it helps housing development.

And so, with a goal to help make uh development efficient and straightforward.

And so several uh concrete things have been set up in that regard, what we call a customer experience survey where people can provide feedback on service at the permit center, as well as an interdepartmental development review committee, a more formal process to review uh applications internally, as well as an Acela Power Users Group, which that is our permitting software.

And with regards to non-residential zoning, our planning team has been working for the past year with a consultant in this area, and um was uh that zoning really work, we're working off of a structure that was set up in the 80s, and so initially they've been doing a lot of behind the scenes work related to updating the structure, incorporating amendments that have been made over the years for consistency usability, and uh next moving into outreach and engagement to try to make sure that it's understandable, includes um current uses, is modern, also reflects you know what the community and council want, um, and then also reflects some regional activities going on.

And so you will see on this one, it does show a delay of that project, and I just wanted to note that uh the proposal is for it to come to completion by the third quarter of 27.

And if you have any more questions, we can talk more about that in a bit.

The third area is uh in supporting industrial districts and addressing infrastructure needs.

And here we've worked on two projects to look at, as I mentioned, finding funds for city services.

And so we have done some evaluation projects to look at opportunities across departments and across city facilities for ways to improve efficiency, to uh generate revenue, reduce risks.

And so, starting, we just completed working with a consultant on a city real estate assessment, and really gathering all of the real estate that's managed by multiple departments.

Uh the city, not only do we have civic facilities like City Hall here, we uh lease properties and of and of course have other community centers, and um looking at best practices and ways to do uh best property management.

The consultant had shared we actually have a relatively large real estate portfolio for the size of city that we are.

And uh we are also now working with uh with the parks, excuse me, with recreation, with library, with public works, to gather the thoughts across departments and gather information on what are what are we doing right now with regards to what we call public private partnerships.

So that could range anywhere from sponsorships and vendors all the way to development agreements and partnering on developments.

And so, what what are we doing right now?

What might we consider doing and then if that's something that we recommend we would bring that forward for the council to discuss.

Fourth area working on supporting exciting retail as well as placemaking.

And in that area, we have um we completed last year the retail action plan, and then this year updating commercial incentive programs as well as uh placemaking.

And so one item that we did on the commercial incentive program is we made a program uh a $5,000 really streamlined grant process that we developed during COVID, and it was has been really popular and really useful.

And so we work to make that make a permanent process for that and make it more user-friendly.

Also, going on in downtown throughout the past couple of years is that we've been implementing some of the remaining uh ARPA recovery funds.

We're at the very end of that, and so from those funds, we have seen different things like outdoor tables downtown, those blue and yellow tables, some permanent tables, as well as that downtown art walk that you mentioned, and um and also quarterly power washing, which happens behind the scenes.

Fifth area is to support residents with workforce training and education.

In that area, we developed a workforce partnership strategy and outreach plan.

And a couple things that I wanted to highlight here is we have been working to support an effort called the San Leandro First Jobs Program.

It's really excited.

Tarani has spearheaded it, and it's a manufacturing focused internship program.

And they in another business are working interns through the program this summer and uh hope to build um more um employers for the next year.

And also the we do um, as Brian Simons mentioned, we work to we work with the chamber on um a number of programs that we support through our annual contract.

One of them is the Chamber Job Fair, and we work to amplify their work.

Um, and um also that this year, there were new headshots and all sorts of exciting things.

And finally, working to support small businesses and entrepreneurs.

And in that area, we have uh completed a resource outreach plan as well as updating materials to help make our process more understandable uh to uh different types of people and businesses.

One key way that we've worked in that area is uh through um monthly continuing monthly small free small business advising, uh, which uh is held at the chamber and is provided by the East Bay Small Business Development Center and uh continuing to work to uh do outreach to businesses about that, as well as continuing our our regular business outreach visits and our uh development team, building planning engineering have um have continued to update flyers and materials, um, update our seller uh system.

And also one final thing that's not on here that was mentioned at the beginning of the meeting is the Restaurant Week, which is also a program that we amplify through the contract with the chamber to support small business, small businesses and restaurants.

And you are complete.

Yes, your timing is literally perfect.

Very impressive.

Um that being said, we will come to council members for uh questions, reactions, comments, and the like I know.

Sorry, it um there's not an ending slide, but yes, I just had to take a breath.

So beginning with uh Vice Mayor, please.

Thank you, Katie.

Thank you, Tom, for your work and your team's work.

Um I just have a couple of questions.

Um I wanted to go to slide 39.

Um I'm just wondering um who the customer is that is being referred to.

Um develop formal process for customer interactions and feedback.

Who's the customer here?

Is it people applying for permits?

Yep.

Oh, okay.

Um, and then it's on the email um signature block for everyone in community development.

So theoretically, anyone that I work with or any of us work with could provide feedback.

Gotcha.

Um thank you for that clarification.

I also wanted to go to the workforce development slide.

Um, let me go to so it is uh goal five, slide 45.

And then on the subsequent slide on 46, it talks about there's three bullets.

Um there's a San Leander First Jobs program, but that uh uh who is the host of the San Leander First Jobs Program.

Yeah, that that is um a private initiative.

Tarani, it it is multiple multiple parties though.

Tarani is playing a role, the chamber is supporting the school district, uh, workforce development board, uh, the city.

So we've uh really it's a multidisciplinary, but the the organizations putting funding in for the internships are the businesses.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Um just something that I've been reflecting on and thinking about is, you know, I'm I'm a I would consider myself a higher education expert.

That's what I do for my day job, as well as kind of connecting workforce development with higher education, um, not higher education with a capital age, but post-secondary education that includes certifications, uh, training certificates, apprenticeships, that that whole kind of ecosystem.

And one thing that I walk away with that I don't know are if we look at industry in San Leandro and looking at the job needs of who we have right now, so that we're able to upskill and actually either support, coordinate, partner with our local community college district and with um the kind of various institutions that provide that kind of post-secondary education and and and training.

I'm just thinking about what is it that I don't know.

And what I don't know is what are the types of certificates and education that the current uh San Leander job market is asking for.

So that we're actually able to build um programs to expand access to jobs for people that wouldn't normally have access to those jobs.

And um so there's a lot of kind of already ongoing work um through some of the regional partnerships on kind of mapping out what are the industry needs.

But you know, as we talk to businesses, especially some of our larger employers, um, we know that there is a shortage of healthcare technical workers.

And so are we able to partner with our local community college district to provide those certificated people to be able to be placed locally in San Leandro.

There's HR professional.

So I'm just wondering like if we look at the industry in San Leandro and we kind of have a kind of like a heat map of we have a shortage of uh finance managers that don't necessarily need to have a college degree, but do need to have some sort of certificated training or HR professionals or some sort of like manufacturing technical skills where you have to be you have to have a uh certificated training.

Anyway, uh so what I'm trying to get at is to really understand what is the gap and certifications, career uh education, ongoing adult education to actually meet the needs of local sal industry and regional.

Um so that's just something that um kind of comes up for me.

I really I have a lot more comments and questions, but we have we're halfway through our slide deck, and there's a lot of staff waiting to talk to us.

So I'll I'll leave that at that.

Appreciate your time and your investment and to the rest of the team.

Thank you.

So I do want to be clear about our use of time because we talked about it as a team and we recognize that we may not be able to finish today.

It was a conscious decision made by certain people.

So let's just plow through with everything.

But I am very clear about this.

These are the five council priorities.

We will spend as much time as we want to on each of the priorities.

That was very clear coming into this meeting.

So I don't want any council member to feel like they cannot ask because you have to protect other staff members.

Everyone is aware of the challenge that we face.

And as we look through our time, if we honestly don't feel like we're gonna get to the last two, that's fine.

We'll just adjourn and we'll continue at our next working session to work through them.

So please do not hesitate to ask your questions.

Um, that being said, the one thing that I did want to offer uh Ms.

Bowman, if you wanted to make uh discuss a little bit some of the connections perhaps with the battery manufacturers and some of the guidance and connection that has been provided to them and or talk about Terrington College or other opportunities that you are already aware of.

Thank you.

Yes.

Um yeah, you had asked, what are we hearing from businesses as to needs?

Um, you know, an ongoing thing, you know, for for all the time I've been here is the aging out of people in the trades and other people at our businesses.

Um, and that has been ongoing and you know, and and there's still more work to be done there.

We we do, you know, talk about that with the community colleges and the Carrington College expansion is one example where they have added um electrical training there.

Uh another thing that we have heard is the need for battery technicians uh and uh with several of our battery companies that are looking to move to small stage pilot production, and uh they kind of do multi-year planning, so we don't see it yet, but they're planning for it in one um as the mayor had mentioned, you know, there um have been some discussions and concepts related to more um targeted um internship programs or programs with the community colleges and in the high school and things like that.

Um in all of these areas, uh, this first phase that over the past year has really been building those relationships or you know, and strengthening those relationships with the providers, and there's um still a lot of work to be done.

So certainly um I I hear um what you've shared.

Okay, so we will go to council member council member Bowen.

It's me again.

Admon.

I'm here.

Um and I decided to let council uh vice mayor go first because I'm like trying to cue in for everything.

Um I love economic development and I love this department.

I I had the opportunity to visit Oklahoma City earlier this year and really focus on how they've been able to build out because of public-private partnerships.

So I'm really excited that we're really focusing on that as well.

I think that the more that we can get stakeholders involved in shared goals, the more people will obviously then be committed to let the to help the community thrive.

And so I really appreciate child care as an economic development strategy and making sure that when we have businesses here, especially large businesses, that there's also an understanding that if there is no child care employees, especially women will choose to work somewhere else because they will not have a place for their children.

So really want to uplift that.

And then I know that that is part of our plan, but that that's constantly being part of the calculus when we're thinking about how to build things out.

And so I um I know we didn't talk about it in this one, and we've talked about it in the past, but in terms of that um uh support we have for small businesses and workforce development, are we focusing on um populations that are less represented?

So businesses owned by people of color or women, um also do we provide uh um that support through the um the um the association that we work with to provide um diff uh support in different languages as well.

Yeah, one example that the SBDC uh advising at the chamber, they um their advisors have changed a little bit, but at different times we're we're really working to advocate to have a Spanish speaking and either a mandarin or Cantonese speaking advisor there.

So um we currently do not have the Spanish speaking directly there, but they can definitely through the big network have access to that.

Um and um and as always, there's continued work and outreach to that community to these communities and um into reaching businesses and in general um in the ever-changing kind of communications and media landscape.

Yeah, and I and you know the chamber does fantastic work, but I know that there is also just a capacity strain and constraint, and so if we can help support the chamber and helping them reach out to new businesses, especially ones that um are Chinese speaking or Spanish speaking, because that is just I I think I've heard from the chamber as well that they do have difficulty with translations and whatnot.

And I love all the new businesses that are coming in.

Um, I had one I have to do a plug for for district five, but the corner of Dutton and Bancroft is a really exciting opportunity.

I know we have Levant was there, and I know that the the um the chef was in here today because he's he would like to be able to have outdoor tables, right?

And then that whole area that there's Chef Chen is has left, and then we have the the uniform store across the way.

But I love that we're thinking about how do we build out these spaces, not just for one business, but for the entire community, and like what would this look like and to think through like what kind of business should come in here and how can I as a council member or the community support that because we want it to be a thriving um you know um commercial district, and it would be really great if it was filled with lots of um great businesses like a wine bar and a floral shop combined together is what I would love to have come, and I've shared that with Katie in the past, but you know, anything.

Um and then the last thing I have a question on if we go to slide 41.

Um yes, I had a question around evaluate potential for industrial area specific plan to streamline environmental review and utility infrastructure upgrades, and that's upcoming.

Can you share what that what that means?

Yes, so um the the scope at this point, and it'll be finalized, but you know, looking at we currently have some evaluation going on with the with the larger community development team uh at whether and how there may be potential for financing districts in San Leandro, whether it's in TOD areas like Bayfair or downtown or the industrial area, and they have identified that there is some potential where that would pencil, and those are actually a different way for public-private partnerships in which uh additional ways to generate revenues for infrastructure.

Um, and so it would be uh taking that those evaluations to the next step.

Would that consider something like um how we have the downtown benefit districts, but to have a benefit district further north, like along this corridor of 14th Street?

Uh that study doesn't specifically look at that.

And um, and I yeah, I think as you know, those districts need a certain size to be viable.

Um, and there had been some discussion in the past as to whether the current district could get larger, which that might come back up uh as that looks towards renewal.

Okay, thank you.

Seeing no other hands raised, I'll ask a couple of questions myself.

Um we talked a little bit about the permit center and some of the troubleshooting teams, et cetera, that have been established.

Um have we developed some metrics to assess are we getting better?

What does better mean?

Um is that distinguished between small businesses that are getting permits and large businesses?

Like help help me understand a little bit when we talk about that, what that could look like or does look like.

Yeah, and I may look to our our planning manager, Wayland Lee.

I think we're we're very early in those processes, but we do have overall um performance metrics for the department for those teams.

And I'm not able to quote them exactly right now, but we could pull those for you.

So I believe on the plane, you know, looking at how many rounds of review the planning applications make, and they have a goal of a percentage to um increase the amount that have the lesser amount, and then on the building review too, the uh they're looking at how many projects have uh reduced rounds of review, but I'll only so you uh Katie summarized it well, and so we're working on both the overall process because our building team, they are the conveners of many other technical experts, and so we want the overall time to be reduced, not just one group's time to be reduced, because it doesn't make a big difference if other teams are taking a lot longer.

So this is a holistic effort between all of the development services teams within the city and our external partners.

And what about um the I'll call it concurrency of effort, concurrency of review?

I think one of the the questions or comments that typically come to me and presumably to other council members is this idea of like, well, I wish you had told me that before, because I could have fixed two things at once or three things at once.

Is that in the multiplicity of turns where you're trying to address that?

And if you can elaborate a little.

Yeah, so and we had a we had an external group come in who works in cities across the country and help us do an audit of our development services and identify our priorities.

And so we're working through that work plan and uh how we communicate with customers and how we provide information in a very timely manner so people can uh take action, even if it's involving an outside agency, which is often the cause of delays in development, um, that is a hundred percent um aligned with what we're working through in our implementation plan.

Um, absolutely, as well as communication expectations, timeliness, response times, all of those factors.

I think one thing that would be certainly useful for me and maybe for the whole council would be to lay out kind of the the current state, the outcome of the audit, and then some targets we're trying to reduce this 50%, whatever the this is, um, because then that lets us to go in and speak to the business community, like we do have standards, we do have a process, we do have expectations that we are driving towards.

So thank you about that.

Um there was a description, I think we're we're looking to make our spaces more inviting.

And so part of that I heard like tucked in very quickly, quarterly power washing downtown.

Uh recently I got some um let's just say challenging email on the topic.

And so I think the question is whose responsibility is it to maintain uh a shopping center cleanliness?

And then are there objective standards that we can enforce uh to encourage that to actually occur?

In in thinking about in private shopping centers.

Well, that's the thing.

I because I think there is oftentimes a combination of the two public spaces and private spaces, private spaces that look and feel like they're public spaces, but they're actually private.

And so, you know, just if you can talk through that just a little bit, because I think oftentimes in the public's mind, they are intertwined and intermingled.

Yeah, and and that that specific uh quarterly power washing is at this point somewhat of a limited duration with some of the recovery funds doing some supplemental um power washing on top of power washing that occurs with the downtown district.

And that would be as you mentioned just in public spaces.

So some of the sh you know outlaws of say Washington plaza the front is public.

But whereas the the main building is private um and so it depends on the space the responsibility as you know the the pavement and you know if it's on private property uh is the responsibility of the shopping center and that power washing is not occurring there by either um that one time or the or the district um and uh there are um there are standards um commercial property maintenance standards have um and uh some of my colleagues could get into that in more detail but I do think that that's one of the biggest complaints that that I receive about private spaces particularly spaces that are not occupied is the accumulated trash uh the graffiti the the dirt dirty windows and the like and so helping the public understand through probably website communication or other means maybe we do some online postings how you know what is within the purview of the city through code enforcement uh etc to make sure that all the eyes that we have out there the 89 what is that 895 899 897 whatever Pete Bullet used to say all those pairs of eyes that we have out there that that they're not creating um uh well intentioned but misdirected work because we're not clear on what they can what we can act upon and so I think that can really if we can empower the people to help us uh drive a cleaner more attractive community for investment because that's ultimately what we're trying to do is uh attractive businesses and then the last question that I'll ask has to do with the tracking of businesses that are open.

And I don't know if we have some sort of data set or we have a consultant that helps us understand for instance over the last four years we now have more child care facilities or less child care facilities.

We have more restaurants we have fewer restaurants we have more battery businesses less battery businesses something that lets us take what we're looking to do and measure and I realize from year to year you're gonna get variation but presumably over a five year period if we are in fact um achieving our goal it's not for the purpose of saying we completed a work plan but it's really to get the outcome that we have more of a certain type of business or that we have more people uh coming to do uh um coming to our restaurants whatever the case may be so just food for thought around how we may be able to measure outcomes and not process would be useful so thank you very much for the presentation and for your willingness to take our input at this point in time we will go to is it PD public safety all right good evening council members so before you get started I think a good question has been asked uh do we want to take looking down council rule do you want to take our break now or after these are less well that's a there's in in theory three more what do you think take our break now we typically take a break at nine o'clock right in fairness to you right I think two hours is a good running time we've been running for about an hour fifty so want to take a quick break seven minutes so the time is uh eight fifty four let's come back at uh whatever time that is let's come back in seven minutes so we stand in recess

Okay, we are back in session.

The time is nine oh two.

Please proceed.

All right.

Good evening, city leaders and members of the community.

Captain Ape Tang with your police department here to discuss the public safety portion of the council work plan.

All right, starting with section one.

This is our staffing plan.

As you can see, we're currently on track to meet our two incremental staffing milestones, seventy-eight percent of authorized strength by the end of this fiscal year, and eighty-two percent by the next end of the next fiscal year.

And I'll discuss more of that on the next slide.

No problem.

Our successful hiring offs of efforts have been offset by some recent uh spate of retirements and separations.

So unfortunately, the traffic unit uh replacements will have to be on hold until we can fill those positions.

Our recruitment team has found that the greatest amount of success uh occur during in-person recruitment at the written and physical agility tests for police recruits.

We've also placed an emphasis on consistent follow-ups with applicants to guide them through the process.

We found that this personal contact has been the difference between some of our candidates coming to our department versus going to another.

In the next four sections, I'll be going over the work plan priority that are uh that's broadly aimed at reducing animal control costs overall.

Section three, reducing number of strays taken to the shelters, pretty straightforward.

Um we want to reduce the number of strays that are taken to the shelter either by our staff or by members of the community.

So the total number of animals taken to the shelter from January to May of last year, 173.

For the same time period of this year, that number is currently stands at 151, which is a 13% reduction.

And in the next section, I'll go over how we've accomplished this reduction.

So shelter diversion strategy.

So we're progressing in each of our strategic milestones under shelter diversion.

We have increased the time that strays are kept at our temporary shelter at the corp yard for up to 24 hours, thereby increasing the opportunity for reunification with owners.

We've increased our social media messaging to the community to direct strays to the police department instead of taking them directly to the shelter.

We've also hosted our Pawchella pet microchipping event.

Now, while this recurring goal is still progressing, we've reduced it from being an annual event to every other year.

Our next section discusses uh filling the vacant animal control officer position.

So as you can see, we've completed two of our goals in this section, but one goal is very uh jarring in red, and that we are recommending to discontinue, and that being the internal selection of an animal control officer.

And I will discuss this more in the next slide.

So we've transitioned away from having just a single dedicated animal control officer to ensure broader coverage and increase enforcement of animal control issues throughout the whole work week.

Uh, all of our police service technicians are now trained in animal control laws and related municipal codes.

Um this starts during their field training period for any new hires.

And all police service technicians and the police service technician supervisors are sent to a 40-hour animal control training course.

And to show how this change has worked out, I'll move on to the next section, which is increased enforcement of loose dog violations.

Uh, this the numbers that I'm gonna cover here are actually gonna be all animal control related numbers, not just loose dog violations.

So we've already completed a review of animal-related municipal codes and also trained all of our police service technicians on them and incorporated this into our training program, as I previously mentioned.

As you can see, our educational and enforcement goals are both progressing and on track.

So we've taken a two-pronged approach towards increasing enforcement.

Uh, the first being educating our community.

Um, we've done this via recurring social media messaging, and we've also done it via in-person warnings that we've issued.

Um, at the same time, we've also increased the emphasis for staff to enforce violations.

So the enforcement numbers from January through May of this year currently are 70 citations and 133 warnings issued.

And this is compared to 38 sites and 80 warnings issued for all of 2025.

Section seven.

Here we have a list of community community events for both the police department and the fire department.

And this, of course, is not an exhaustive list of all of the events that uh we part with both departments participate in.

These are just the ones that have been prioritized in the work plan.

And I think I can safely speak for both Chief Crimes and Chief Bowie that you know both departments firmly believe that building and maintaining a strong relationship with our community is foundational to any success, success that we can claim.

And these pictures are just a small sample of the various events that we have.

We see national night out, we have Santa at the firehouse and a food and toy drive by the fire department.

Section eight, I'll go over encampment removal.

As you can see, we're progressing well in all of our goals here, and we are in fact exceeding some of the set expectations that I'll go over in the next slide.

So we've established recurring biweekly meetings with human services and public works to continue our collaborative efforts on encampment removals.

Currently, we are averaging between one cleanup per week to one every other week.

So far exceeding our target goal of three cleanups per quarter.

Also, instead of our stated goal of monthly meetings with the Union Pacific Railroad Police, we are now conducting them on a bi weekly basis.

And for the final public safety section, emergency management, I'd like to bring up emergency services specialist Libby Bessman.

Thank you, Captain.

Good evening, Council.

I'm Elizabeth Bessman Emergency Services Specialist.

Emergency Management has four projects.

Annually host a wildfire preparedness and defensible space workshop.

Host an annual community emergency response team cert, update the local hazard mitigation plan, and update our emergency operations plan.

I'm excited to share our local hazard mitigation plan is out for public comment and closes July 24th.

After uh after it closes, we'll make the appropriate updates to our draft, send the draft to Cal OES and FEMA.

Once the plan is approved, we'll be able to update our emergency operations plan.

Because of the Alameda County Fire Department in March, we were able to complete our yearly wild fire preparedness and defensible space workshop.

And just last month we were able to complete complete our yearly cert training.

A big thank you to our partners at the Alameda County Fire Department.

This concludes the public safety portion.

So thank you for your presentation.

We'll come to council members for questionslash discussion.

Beginning with council member Bolt.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um slide 60 with the animal control where it says uh looks like we may go in a different direction.

Um ease my fears that please that these type of calls don't are gonna go unserviced.

If if they get in a queue with all the other calls, that in my opinion, I I don't know you can correct me, but that would be like a low priority.

So it when we had the animal control unit personnel, that's what they dealt with.

But in this case, it sounds like that won't be the case, it'll be in a queue.

Is that true or false?

That's just what I feel.

So it it is true that the call will go into a queue based on priority, but I can say that and I don't have uh I don't have the metrics for it, but I can tell you that previously when we had an animal control, a dedicated animal control position, they were working, I believe it was a 410 shift.

So they were only available four days out of the week and obviously 10 hours a day.

Whereas with transitioning to having all of our police service technicians being trained in animal control, now it's 24 hours a day, seven days a week that we are able to now granted they do have other responsibilities, so sometimes the animal control we'll call them the maybe the lower priority ones will wait, but we found that ensuring a broader coverage throughout the work week is able to allow us a better services and actually it provides a lot of the employees with better confidence to be able to deal with these issues because they've all been trained since the inception of their uh their employment all the way through attending a 40-hour course.

So they're all equipped and ready to deal with these uh issues regardless of the time of day or the uh day of the week.

So it becomes a trade-off of hopefully more service.

Uh what would we do if somebody called when the animal control unit was not on duty?

Would that then fall to the officers on duty?

Yes, and it would largely depend on the uh the acuteness of the call if it's something that requires let's say it's a vicious animal in the process of attacking someone, officers will respond.

Actually, that would still be the case currently.

Um, but if it was something that uh if we didn't have a PST on, excuse me, police service technician on duty, that would fall to an officer, and that cue would be even longer than it is currently with uh the animal control responsibilities falling to the PST position.

Okay, so hopefully we're open to trying this out, see how it goes, and then maybe pivot.

But maybe it's a good thing.

Maybe having all of them available, like you said, couldn't elevate the service that we had.

I don't know.

Well, and to uh kind of augment the police service technicians and in terms of their duties with animal control.

One of our supervisors, one out of two of the PSC supervisors actually was our former animal control PST.

So he's also taken on the position of uh conducting follow-ups when there's more in-depth investigations that have to be conducted.

So in terms of that, there's not much of a drop-off.

We still have, and he works a 410.

So we still have that expert, so to speak, that is available uh during those hours, but now we just it elevated everybody else's comp competency and confidence in dealing with animal control issues.

Okay, thank you.

The next thing I have is the We've already established a biweekly uh coordinated meetings with the uh Union Pacific, I think it was uh slide 67.

I like this idea, but who's in those meetings?

Like who's who's a part of that meeting?

Currently it is uh spearheaded by our uh home we call it the homeless Czar.

It's not an actual position.

That's just a title we give them for Lieutenant Robertson, and he meets with his counterpart from the Union Pacific Railroad Police.

So the idea is to get help and not just clean and move.

Well, as you can see in some of these slides, or on the bottom slide, a lot of our encampments happen to be on Union Pacific Railroad property.

So it's more of a coordination and collaborating with them while it is their jurisdiction, but we also know that their uh their staff is not readily available to conduct these cleanups um as ours are.

So, you know, instead of having our community wait an exorbitant amount of time saying, hey, that's just you know, UPR's jurisdiction.

This kind of helps us coordinate that.

Hey, we know that this is there.

I know you guys can't, can you guys get to it?

You can't, are you okay?

We take lead on this.

Okay.

So it's more of a just communicating, collaborating.

And then we follow up with hopefully um the human services department and we try and get as much help out to them as possible.

Yeah, so these responses are all coordinated.

So we also have biweekly meetings with human services as well as public work.

So, you know, it's a it's a multifaceted approach.

It's not, you know, we're not just uh spearheading it just with the police department.

We want to offer services whenever possible, uh, whenever appropriate as a first resort uh to help people at least maybe find temporary shelter versus just hey, posting the 72-hour notice and saying, you know, we've we've tried everything, but now this is turning into a public hazard.

Thank you.

Thank you for all the work you do.

I know it's not easy.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember James Aguilar, please.

All right, yes, thank you very much.

I appreciate uh um I appreciate first the answer to Councilmember Volt's question on the animal control officer.

I I was gonna ask kind of the similar lines, and so I thank you for the clarity on that.

My question is mostly around community engagement and outreach.

Um, but first to comment on that.

I I definitely have seen in the last couple of years a big push on social media, and and I really appreciated what feels like a more human approach, right?

And making PD just just I think you said it earlier, kind of changing how we see PD, the image of PD, and I think that that's working really well on social media.

And that goes with recruitment too, making San Leandro Police Department look like the place that we need to be that you should come to, right?

And so I want to appreciate that.

My question is about the one thing that I see missing here, and that's outreach and engagement with public schools.

And so can you talk a little bit about what PD has done to reach out to schools and engage with schools in our community?

Yeah, so there was definitely a obviously a large drop off when the school resource officer program was canceled.

Um so that really limited the amount of direct interaction that we have.

Um I know that our recruiting sergeant, actually, Sergeant Watson has still gone onto school campuses after notifying them and trying to participate in certain speaking engagements, so that we still have contact with the schools, but we don't uh and we also do some of our recruiting at local colleges as well.

Um is we know that you know obviously people getting ready to enter the job market is probably a good source of potential applicants.

So that those are definitely activities that we still engage in in terms of engaging with our schools.

Totally.

Thank you.

Yeah, I would love to see us push in a little bit deeper.

Um high school is a great pathway too.

I mean, I I went to San Lorenzo High School where we had the Sheriff Explorer program, and you know, uh San Leandro High had something similar.

Um love to bring some of that back.

Um, but I think that that's my only question, because that that's something that's really important to me.

Um, and also appreciation for the work that you do.

I it is not easy.

And so thank you very much.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor, please.

Thank you for the time and attention and uh putting together such a thorough presentation.

Thank you.

Um I have two main questions.

Uh second one is an emergency management, so just on deck for that.

Um I wanted to um uh one uh priority that had been elevated several years ago was around the hiring of a data and crime analyst.

And I'm just wondering where that is.

Um I think tracking and tracking our data, but also you know, sharing it and just is it is it fully staffed?

Is it staffed at the position that it was budgeted for?

I believe it was two FTEs, or is it one?

Can you clarify?

So we I believe we are authorized for one crime analyst and one management analyst.

Okay.

Um currently we have the crime analyst position staffed.

We did not too long ago, we had the management analyst position understaffed with the second crime analyst.

Unfortunately, that second crime analyst was released from employment.

So that current position is vacant right now.

The crime analyst or the management analyst?

The management analyst that was being understaffed by a crime analyst.

Gotcha.

Um underfilled, I should say.

Okay.

Um I know that that is um something that continues to be elevated just in terms of tracking and benchmarking um our numbers across the community, just in in terms of our public safety numbers.

I'll transition over to emergency management.

What is an emergency operations plan?

So when something significant happens, okay big earthquake, large fire, COVID.

Um, all significant, slow moving, fast moving.

This is how we're gonna operate as a city.

It's not specific to the emergency operations center.

It's not specific to an incident.

This is going to be guiding our city.

Okay.

Um thank you for that.

Um I didn't.

Anyway, thank you.

Um my next question is around the hazard mitigation plan.

Um, so the uh current comment period um is currently open.

Yes, ma'am.

When did it start?

Uh July 14th.

14th.

Oh.

Uh, today's the 13th.

So probably Monday, whatever Monday was.

This Monday.

Yes.

Okay.

So it just started.

Yes.

And it ends the 24th.

I think that's what I said.

Oh, it's only a 10, like uh then the start dates wrong.

Okay.

We closed the 24th, so has to be the 10th.

Two weeks.

It's only a two-week comment period.

Only a two-week comment period.

Um, okay.

And then once the common period closes, you talked a little you briefly spoke a little bit about that process.

Um, but once it once we have our common period, how does community input actually um influence the local hazard mitigation plan?

Great question.

So I got um feedback from our consultant.

Um, and I believe feedback came through other avenues where um looking not just at wildfires, but um how are we moving people?

How are we being mindful?

So we will take all the feedback as appropriate.

We will make changes to the the draft plan.

Um evacuation is not a part of the hazard mitigation plan.

It's the hazards that we look at and how do we mitigate them, hence local hazard mitigation plan.

Um, but we will take feedback and address um the concerns.

Um mindfully, obviously.

So then once the comment period closes, you collect all of the input from the public, and then uh we have a consultant that is kind of helping us.

And then what is the time frame from uh the closing of the comment period?

Um to and my actually before I jump into that question.

So before it goes to Cal OES and FEMA, we'll do the review.

It doesn't go to approval there.

What happens is it goes to Cal OES in FEMA, there's a 45-day review period.

It comes back to us and then it comes here for approval.

We will be sending the draft to other agencies.

So Water District, City of Hayward, long list of our partners that will look at it.

So we're collaborating and making sure that everything makes sense and others have time to review.

And so from coordination and communication with other partner with other partners, what is the timeline to actually have uh updated local hazard mitigation plan?

So uh the review period closes the 24th, depending on the comments, that will take some time if it's pretty quick.

My hope is that we can do a quick turnaround.

It may not involve a lot of feedback.

I mean, I hate to give you like the I don't know exactly time frame.

Um there's no hard and fast deadline to this.

Um the big push is as things change.

Um FEMA requirements change in the local hazard mitigation plan.

They're not the same as five years ago.

We have different leadership.

So my hope is that we move this through the process correctly, but being mindful that things can change quickly.

So is it like a six-month process, a year process?

We should be done uh well before August of 2027.

So we should be done in less than I would say three months.

We should be pretty pretty close to being finished.

Assuming no big problems.

It's tight.

Yeah.

It looks, it feels very tight, just uh it's especially with it going to Cal OES and then coming back to us for approval.

But okay.

Thank you.

Just to clarify, did you say that council approves it?

Yes, it has to come here for approval.

So we pass a resolution saying we agree.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bowen, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

I love this plant though.

Um really appreciate the work.

I I mean, shout out to you, including many slides with cute animals and children.

I I understand what you're trying to do.

Um so a few questions, comments.

The the um if we can go to slide 66.

Um, yes, so encampment removals.

Um, I a few questions around that.

And then I think on the next slide, it talks about um uh the establishment of the bi-weekly meetings.

Um really appreciate, and we've talked about this before, but uh interdepartmental approach.

Um I get pretty regular emails from community members, and what I really appreciate is being able to reach out to the city manager and staff.

And I include, I think everybody that attends these meetings, or every department that attends these meetings, because there's a little piece of that that everybody kind of owns.

Um, and I'm wondering if in these meetings, obviously you know the locations of it, but is it possible for there to be some easier, more efficient way for the council members to be able to work with the team on what's going on at a particular like hot spots, just because there's a lot of back and forth with trying to answer questions from constituents.

Um, I know that you are doing work, and certainly if um uh an area or an issue um arises that you're not aware of, then you become aware of it, and then you do something.

But it's really important for me to be able to share with the community members what is happening and what's being worked on.

Um oftentimes the immediate solution isn't going to be um necessarily possible, but it's clearly something that you know um that that staff is aware of, and that we're trying to be really um holistic with our approach of you know, yes, let's clear encampments, but let's make sure that there's somewhere for them to go, or let's make sure services are provided.

Um, and so is there is I don't know if there's anything anybody can add to that in terms of what's the process when you all get together and work on an encampment cleanup or an issue area arises.

So, not personally being have having been in any of these meetings.

I can't speak to the actual process.

I just know that that something that you already touched upon and that I also spoke to is that you know we do try to make this a holistic approach.

Um it sounds like the council members wanting, are you asking for a almost like a report back uh brief back on certain problem spots that you've already communicated, but you haven't heard back?

Is that what I'm gonna do?

Yes, but not necessarily to ask for you to do more work because you're already talking.

I mean, when you're meeting, you're obviously already talking about things, but is there maybe that's the ask is is there an easier way for me to be able to communicate with you so that I can communicate with the residents that these things are happening and that we're working towards solutions?

We've got a team standing behind you clearly.

They have the other half, so uh gladly we've got backup.

Um good evening.

I'll I'll add one piece, which is that staff do develop a monthly calendar of encampment cleanup.

Um that doesn't preclude new sites from being added throughout the month.

However, if that's helpful information, um, we could share that as well.

And then I know uh Chief Bowie wanted to add some additional information about services offered.

I'll just I'll just add, I know uh Captain Ting isn't in these meetings, but um the ARU is also getting that calendar, and they often coordinate with PDE with Union Pacific.

They know all the players involved as well, and they'll go through ahead of time before a sweep comes, so offer services.

So that is happening on a regular basis.

So it sounds like I need to CCU in my emails.

You do.

Okay, we'll do it.

We'll do.

I really but yeah, I mean, I obviously just really want to shout out the for the work that you all do.

I mean, it is um the question that I have too, and I think any of you could answer it is obviously we've been talking about budget and budget constraints, and I'm wondering if there is going to be an impact on this this particular service with encampment removals or just mental health services or just the ARU.

Like, what are some things we're thinking about in this next year as we're continuing this work?

Specifically, you're talking about in budget impacts or cuts.

Yeah.

I don't foresee any changes to the way we're operating right now with um, it's part of the ARU's normal operations.

It's been built into it at this point.

Great.

Also, I don't foresee any budget changes uh having an impact on the uh amount of encampment cleanups that we're able to conduct.

Great.

Um, and then I, you know, council member Aguilar mentioned earlier about um schools that I did want to mention that I really appreciate that, especially at the beginning of the school year and it's gonna be next month.

Again, um, I think like the second week of August.

Um, I know that PD does a really great job of trying to do outreach and education to the parents um because traffic will become an issue.

We will all converge on the schools and people will still need to try to get to work.

Um and kids will still be walking to school.

So just really appreciate the additional effort you all put in at the beginning of a school year.

Um, even if that means some parents get tickets um for double parking or sitting in drop-off zones.

But I think it's a really important thing for um the for us to be able to do in partnership with the school district to ensure that kids can get to school safely.

And then the last thing that I will say is for the police department and all of the departments that um work on encampment removal and um across the departments, I've really really appreciate the responsiveness that you all have had um to my emails and the community members because um you know they're they're just desperate to be able to figure out how to help their neighbors and how to ensure that, especially when it comes to public safety, that we're addressing those needs.

So thank you so much for that.

So a few thoughts for me.

Um I think it's uh important that PD be uh tightly connected with providers such as building futures.

And so uh when we think about the operation of the navigation center, making sure that you guys are just attached at the hip.

Um you mentioned PSTs being cross-trained.

Obviously, we believe that cross-training, or at least I believe cross-training is extremely important.

It creates uh diverse job possibilities and makes work a little bit more interesting.

Uh that being said, I'm a little bit unclear on what is currently on the PST's plate.

So can you elaborate?

Yes.

So I think the best way to describe a PST position is it's kind of like a Swiss Army knife.

They engage in a lot of different responsibilities.

So one of their primary duties is to operate our temporary holding facility.

So they act as prisoner transports.

They'll do our booking processes, fingerprinting, photographing.

They'll also supplement our patrol operations by taking some of our cold reports that are lower priority.

Some of their responsibilities also include issuing parking citations, uh, abandoned vehicle abatement, um some uh uh I think some derelict properties as well, they will write up uh violations on um they'll tow vehicles, so a lot of supplementary duties that they can anyway they can take these things that don't require a police officer to respond to.

So thank you for that.

Um PD profile or PD promotion, uh you guys have been very good at uh social media engagement, and I think you have a very powerful following, significant engagement.

One of the questions, or I guess maybe comments requests of you is when it comes to things like schools, really doing a little bit more.

You did one video last year at the beginning of the school year, which that was an awesome video.

But what about more specifically with respect to our schools?

So that's just something for you to think about.

When it comes to walking, one of the main challenges that we have around our school sites is too many vehicles.

The number of vehicles creates traffic risk, uh particularly risk to young children.

Uh so what can we do to help promote walking to school?

What can PD do to make it cool to walk to school as opposed to being driven by parents?

And I think that part of that's creating that that safe environment perception, and what can we be doing to help bring uh comfort to parents?

Are we spending time with parents uh at school sites, PTAs and the like, to let them know that you know it really is safe to let your child walk to school, just based objectively on information that you have.

So finding ways to do that encouragement, that's you're you're you can be a piece of that equation.

Um with respect to the hazard, so moving on to hazard, uh, and then I'm gonna come back to fire in just a second.

So uh it's such a basic question.

But what what you said evacuation is not hazard mitigation.

So maybe you can tell me what is hazard mitigation, like help me define the parameters.

Um it's looking at our infrastructure, right?

There's a dam.

If the dam breaks, how do we mitigate?

What are what are our options?

Um we are looking at our seniors.

How do we address those with access and functional needs?

Well, they are not a hazard.

We still need to be mindful of our community.

Uh the list it gets larger.

What if there's an airplane on their way to Oakland?

It doesn't make it to Oakland, it makes it to us instead.

Um, trains that come through, um, heat, cold, uh, rain.

So as we look at how our weather is changing, how do we mitigate some of these hazards?

I hope that answers your question.

Well, I'm just gonna try to take them in pieces.

So suppose that the dam breaks.

Okay, so water's coming down east, you know, STDO or whatever wherever the water flows according to your maps.

When you think of hazard mitigation in that scenario, what what sorts of things are we considering?

Um, we're looking at the dam.

How well is it built?

How are we getting water out?

Um, who's gonna be impacted?

What are city services that will also be impacted?

Are we in the flood as the water pours out?

Uh there's a bit more when it comes to flooding.

Sorry, we're beeping.

Okay, sorry.

Um, so it's going to be what can we do to strengthen to mitigate some of these problems?

I'm not an engineer.

I can't really give you a really great answer on that, and I apologize.

Uh the smart people take care of that response.

I just need to make sure that we're looking at it.

How do we mitigate it?

What are we gonna do?

Okay, so so my ask would be to uh try to provide us before the plan comes that we need to vote on to provide us a little bit more information, maybe a draft of the plan, something so that we can start really socializing and understanding, because when I think of hazard mitigation, and I'm not an expert in this, but my first reaction was like, how can evacuation not be part of hazard mitigation?

Because when when there's a fire or when the dam breaks, what does the school would the school children need to do a mile away?

Do they need shelter in place or they need to go to the second floor?

It's like movement of people uh in response would be a mitigation to the risk that's presented.

So we might be just using different terminology.

Uh so please, if you can help us work through that.

Uh, for the fire team, uh, Chief, please.

Um what I think I heard you say is that the ARU not only responds to, let's say a 911 call saying that we have someone who uh is mentally appears to be mentally ill, at least, but also is being used to respond to encampment sites, whether it may be mentally ill or substance abuse disorder, um individual suffering from those those conditions.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay.

And if you were to break down what I call like the the emergency response versus the day to day we need to go and visit encampments or work with building futures perhaps at the navigation center or some other thing that's not a 91-one call.

Can you just roughly break that?

Is that 6040 3070?

It's I would have to check.

It's more uh I would say 80, 20, 911, maybe 70, 30.

If you could just come back with that, it's not that's not critical, but just want to make sure that we're we're framing the type of work that's being done.

Sure.

Um in the the goals up there, it didn't really see fire.

Um, and this is not about creating work plans, but I do think that are you tucked into something like recruiting or um other goals up there where it wasn't as explicit.

We are.

Um the public engagement was the one that's most front facing.

Yeah, but yes, we we have similar recruitment goals as well.

And we can work to show those also, if that would be helpful.

I think it'd be just to elevate the things that fire is doing, because obviously we're aware of the uh firehouse events and the like, but finding other ways in which you are specifically addressing recruiting challenges and diversity of recruiting, all that kind of stuff.

Um coming back to police to wrap up.

On police recruiting, um, one of the concerns that I have had all along is that you know, using corporate terminology that these goals were sandbagged.

It's not that hard, you know, in the grand scheme of things, it shouldn't be that hard to hire two or hire for.

Um but I am I I thought that we'd blow these goals away, but we're just kind of meeting the goals.

Talk to us a little bit about that.

Yeah, so as I mentioned, the we've had successful hiring uh efforts, but they've been offset, but we've had a recent spate of retirements and separations.

Now, while we can somewhat project upcoming retirements with a fair amount of accuracy, we've had several unanticipated separations that we obviously had no uh ability to foresee.

So that is really kind of set us back, whereas we would have made a lot more progress than we currently are.

So if someone wants to join the force, someone someone comes to me tomorrow and says, I want to join.

What is that process?

What should I do with that information?

So if you forward it to any one of us at the police department, we will forward it to our professional standards unit and specifically our recruiting and hiring Sergeant Sergeant Watson.

He takes the reins in terms of uh kind of walking people through the process.

But he also have we also have a recruitment team that we've established in the recent couple of years to try to augment his work.

Um again, talking about reaching out to applicants, following up on an individual and personal basis, and those have yielded a lot more successes.

So once you funnel someone to Sergeant Watson, he'll guide you through the website that you have to fill out the application for police officers specifically.

There's the Pellet B exam, the WSTB.

Um, and obviously once they pass that, there's an oral panel that they are invited to if they do pass those standards once the oral interview is done, then we may or may not send them through a background process.

That includes polygraph, medical, psych, eval, and then once that is done, um uh excuse me, before before we send them the backgrounds, they will go through a command interview as a second level of interviews before we decide if we're going to send through a background process.

So, but once that process is done through the backgrounds and they're actually hired on, then we're talking about a brand new recruit, they're gonna have to send go through a six-month academy, field training, et cetera.

I think I think my interest is primarily when someone comes to me.

Because I have made a referral, and I'm gonna make another referral, but it's like what should they expect?

So if someone could follow up with me just so that I can make sure that the expectation is what's actually happening, and if it's not, then we can close that feedback loop.

So with that being said, I think we are done with this presentation.

Thank you very much for for all three of you for stepping forward.

At this point in time, we are going to external list.

I think is infrastructure, capital I.

Infrastructure, here we go.

Mr.

Tom, welcome.

The highlight of the evening, I'm sure.

Good evening, Mayor, good evening, council.

I'm Nick Tom, assistant public works director here to present on infrastructure.

Uh a revenue measure was discussed by the city council at the July 6th council meeting, and at that time, staff was directed to defer this item.

Uh, we will revise this schedule to show a ballot measure in November of 2028.

Uh before I knew you were going to revise the schedule.

Um, we had this slide of a summary of our outreach efforts for the current um year.

We will uh revisit this again in about a year.

Uh we are moving forward with an update to our stormwater fee.

We will start this effort this month and we'll complete this on time.

Uh for background, this fee was established in 1993 and has been constant since that time.

We did an effort in 2024 to uh have the fee updated, and mail the measure was defeated by mail-in ballots.

Um next time around is going to hinge upon two things clear messaging and uh public appetite for the fee.

Um the economic conditions are not great for a lot of the community.

Um we will make a recommendation as to whether we should proceed with this fee at this time when we get closer to that.

As part of our transition to an electric vehicle fleet, we were tasked with applying for a PG ⁇ E program that covers the cost to bring upgraded electrical service to our site.

When we submitted our application, we learned that the program is fully committed and that no funds are available for additional sites.

We recommend continuing with the transition to an electric vehicle fleet, but dropping this item.

We are currently working with a consultant hired by the MTC to prepare schematic plans and a budget for our electric vehicle charging system build-out.

We're also purchasing electric vehicles, however, it has proven difficult to get them delivered.

Of the eight that we have ordered, only three have been delivered.

Uh Ford canceled our pickup order twice, and we now have ordered them through Chevy.

These tasks to support our environmental goals have been initiated on schedule and are still underway.

I have details.

Specifically, the trash-free San Europe San Leandro Initiative has been launched and used for several internal events.

Our first external user will be the vendors at the farmers market starting this month and then continuing onward.

The environmental purchasing policy has been adopted and guidelines are being developed.

It will be implemented this summer.

Two of our facilities, the Public Works Environmental Services Office and Manor Library are now green business certified, and we will continue to look to expand that to other city buildings.

We have made project on our major CIP projects, Memorial Park, Stephen Taylor Sanctity of Life Pavilion, and our fuel tank projects are complete.

Carrie Haas Bridge is in progress and is anticipated to finish slightly ahead of the deadline shown here.

Our new branch library project is on schedule.

Lake Chabot Road has been delayed a quarter due to difficulty in obtaining NEPA environmental clearance for the work near the creek.

So we're showing a one-quarter extension.

The MacArthur Superior roundabout is on schedule.

I have some pictures of projects.

Photos of the fuel tank project before, during, and after.

We have a photo of the Carrie Haas Pedestrian Bridge Project.

This is after the damaged bridge was removed.

Obviously, we haven't started construction on the new bridge yet.

And on the right, we have construction ongoing for the Mulford Marina Branch Library.

I'd be happy to take any questions.

So thank you for your presentation.

There you go.

Councilmember Bolton.

Yes.

Slide 73.

Design construction, execution, and PG ⁇ E rebates.

It says we're gonna recommend discontinuing, but then you said we're gonna stay with the submit of the.

Can you just explain that a little more for me?

I'm losing it here.

Yeah, thank you.

That's a that's a great question.

This uh goal was very narrow.

It was to apply for a specific program.

Uh the goal of supports converting to an electric vehicle fleet.

We still propose to convert to an electric vehicle fleet, but this program is just not available to us.

Funds or what what do you mean it's not a time or what happened?

Uh PG ⁇ E had a certain budget for uh assisting applicants with this uh with this work, and they received enough applications to expend their budget before we got our application in.

Okay.

But we're still on track to go to uh an EV fleet.

Uh we are still moving toward an EV fleet.

We don't have a deadline to uh convert all of our vehicles or replace all of our vehicles with EVs.

So I can't really say that we're on track, but we are still moving that direction.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council Mr.

Bowen, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yay, infrastructure.

Um I didn't realize how much I would talk about or think about infrastructure until I became a city council member, but now I really appreciate it.

So thank you so much to the public work staff and everybody for working on this.

Um I wanted to ask about um the MacArthur roundabouts on slide 77 for the major construction project delivery.

Um, is that saying that October to December of 2027, we will have a finished MacArthur roundabout?

Yes, that is the schedule.

Look at Jason's ready to explain how that's gonna happen.

Hi, good evening, City Engineer JCD Mai.

Um, I think the latest uh we just gave provided an update to facilities and uh transportation committee and the the I will do have to apologize.

The date now is January 2028, so one month off from that from that little quarter.

Um I know.

Uh, but uh we are we are diligently working past the last few um obstacles or issues, outstanding issues, I should say.

Uh let's not call them obstacles, uh, to get this out to bid uh and then to construction.

Okay.

And I know that um the residents along that corridor have been really engaged in this and continue to be really engaged in it.

Once we do actually start the project, is there going to be an effort towards just outreach and just letting the community know what's happening?

Yes.

Uh the uh the construction of a roundabout, as you can imagine, is gonna be very, very impactful to traffic around the area.

Uh the plans do include a very complex staging, multi-staged uh various traffic lanes shifts, um, detours and all that such.

This has been thought out prior.

Uh, so there is gonna be an intense uh outreach uh to the community to to advise them of upcoming traffic shifts and so on and so forth.

And what about engagement so people know how to use a roundabout?

That is uh good uh uh suggestion.

Roundabouts have been used in Northern California for several years now, uh and you see more and more of them popping up, but still people get a little confused uh when they drive them.

So uh it has been discussed uh that we would partner with our comms team communications team to uh maybe do like an outreach on how the proper way, you know, the rules of the road, so to speak, literally how to use a roundabout.

So that's a good suggestion as well.

Thank you.

And then I just also wanted to give a uh quick shout out for um slides 75 and 76 around the implementation of environmental programs.

uh when they drive them so uh it has been discussed uh that we would partner with our comms team communications team to uh maybe do like an outreach on how the proper way you know the rules of the road so to speak literally uh how to use a roundabout so that's a good suggestion as well thank you and then I just also wanted to give a uh quick shout out for um slide 75 and 76 around the environment implementation of environmental programs um I also sit on this um stop waste board and we talk a lot about different I know that they work with cities uh have meetings with the city manager and staff often about um things that are coming down at the state and how we can be better um more sustainable and and to be able to implement these environmental programs so really appreciate like all the work that you all are doing towards that and I know that again it's like just a mindset mindset shift to be able to that and also to make it easy for us to be able to do these things so I really appreciate the effort that um you all are putting in welcome okay so a couple of questions so we'll go to Vice Mayor sorry I um neglected to punch myself in uh on the queue um I would be remiss if I did not ask some questions about Lake Shabau Road.

Um so just to be clear uh on slide 77 that's only on phase one uh slide 78 is our schedule I'm sorry seventy seven ours is different oh I'm sorry we've I've been quoting the wrong numbers uh the wrong page numbers oh oh oh oh okay I was like somehow y'all managed to follow along even though I've been saying no so um this is this is the phase one repair of the two slides that occurred after the winter storm of 23 and is this updated uh um is this um is this timeline matches up to the project page or does the project page need to be updated with this timeline there was an update I think in uh June 26 I'm just wondering when I believe they're coordinated but I will double check and uh update the project page if necessary okay um so we're looking at this Q1 when I see Q1 I think January through March but this is fiscal year so um July and September.

Okay.

All right I have to that that's my only question for now um really excited about Mulford um anyway uh thank you for your work I'm it's getting late and I will leave it at that I see my time back to the chair okay here we go uh seeing no other questions I'll ask a few myself uh 1383 how are we doing are we ahead of schedule behind schedule are we super excited talk to me about 1383 I think I might need to phone a friend um you can phone a friend where's your friend it got too late for a friend yeah maybe okay we'll come back to that another time um nepa Lake Shabot Road um it strikes me that whatever animals happen to be there toads salamanders fish fruit flies whatever it is has to be protected that that's going to be true regardless of whether we're working on slide one slide two slide three slide four is that a fair assumption yes okay um right now the the upslope slide I think that's four uh yes number four but included in phase one that's fine um is that work complete no that work has not gone out to bid so the work that we have there with the rip wrap that we've put in et cetera that's that's not the final outcome no that was a interim uh measures to stabilize a slope the design for the uh full uh mitigation for that and rebuild of that slope is complete uh it's gonna be packaged with uh the the repair work at slide one so slide one and slide four are gonna be packaged together um and put out to bid okay uh I need a motion to extend councilmember bowen me again yes I will make the motion do I have a second uh vice mayor I'll second how long sure thirty minutes you can do it council member bald so I have a motion for 30 minute extension from council member bowen with a second from our vice mayor who's nodding yes to that specificity please vote all votes are in and the motion carries with

So I have a motion for 30 minute extension from Councilmember Bowen with a second from our vice mayor who's nodding yes to that specificity.

Please vote.

All votes are in.

And the motion carries with four yes votes and one no vote.

Let us proceed.

So continue with the questions.

How long so to speak is a NEPA valid?

Oh, that's a good question.

Um I think it's once it's certified, it is uh it is good, but it's only for the areas that were were studied.

So for uh specifically for slides one and four, the NEPA um uh applies to those two slides.

So if I was just say, hey, I want to do it for slides two and three as well, just loop it right in since we're apparently delayed already by our NEPA, and it's the same creek.

So talk to me a little bit about that.

Uh you would still have to do NEPA again.

Now they could build off the old NEPA survey, and uh NEPA will only be required again if there's federal funding involved.

If it's no federal funding, then we would uh result to SEQA.

But you could build off uh the study that was done before, but uh still the the biologists and everyone has to go out to that specific site to see if there's any uh environmental concerns.

Now they should be similar, you're correct.

They should be similar, but you never know, they could find something else.

But my point is the biologists can be out there once and look at both sites, no?

They could, uh, but the the work that was done was again specific for one and four, uh because that what was what the funding was for.

Okay.

We'll revisit this later.

Um when we extend um deadlines, this is back to Mr.

Tom.

When we extend deadlines, um so from MacArthur Roundabout, that deadline has extended through time.

How do we capture that in the reporting that we do?

Because I'll give you the context, because when council member Bowen and I met with the residents in 2023, we told them in no uncertain terms that the MacArthur Roundabout would be done in 2025.

And so when I come here and see green, and it's gonna be done in fiscal year 28, it makes it difficult for us.

And so it doesn't seem like it's green relative to what we communicated publicly at one point in time.

So it's really more of a process question.

I'm less fixated about this.

I'm more fixated about the color and how we communicate with a public when deadlines change.

And and I will apologize for the uh uh the misrepresentation of the color.

Uh we are updating the public on the schedule.

So the schedule on the project website is uh accurate.

So whenever there is a delay, and then there are uh examples of it on MacArthur Roundabout and Lake Chabot Road.

Uh when we say, hey, we promised this by we said the NEPA was gonna be done by I think it was a certain date.

We said there is a delay, now the due date is this.

Uh and we publicly disclose that on the website uh on the project updates website.

So our primary method of communication to the public is that uh website uh uh and we keep try to keep it up today as much as possible.

And whenever there is a delay, we'll uh we'll uh state the reason for that delay.

Because I think ultimately what I care about, and I've heard from a number of council members, but I'll let them speak for themselves.

What I've heard is that we want projects on time, on budget, and sometimes we're we're delivering things ahead of budget, and that's awesome.

And we need to celebrate that.

I think I think I've heard some really good news recently that wasn't highlighted here.

No, and this it's and I'm glad you brought that up.

I'll share that with you.

So there have been a couple of projects recently that have been delivered on uh ahead of schedule and under budget.

In comparison, those projects are completely within the control of the city of San Leandro.

They do not have any outside agencies, they don't not have any regulatory uh approvals.

Those two projects specifically were our Kerbramp project where we uh replaced over 100 curb ramps ahead of schedule and under budget.

The second one was our sanitary sewer point repair project.

That one's coming in uh ahead of schedule.

Those two projects were completely under the control of City of San Leandro.

When we start to involve other regulatory agencies like FEMA, like the Water Board, CalTrans, all these other agencies that have approval authority, that's what puts them on these major construction project deliveries.

Uh, and that's what makes them major because they're so complicated.

Uh so that one we uh some things are out of our control, and we try to react as as as uh appropriately as possible, but um, it's difficult.

But when we are able to uh control a project uh uh you know fully, uh I think uh we've proven that uh recently that we can come in on the uh on schedule or even ahead of schedule sometimes.

So we're gonna find reasons to celebrate that, trust me.

Uh but when we are behind, we need to be very transparent that we are behind.

And the other comment on that is that um on these bigger multi-jurisdictional projects.

Use your electeds to put extra pressure to make things happen.

Delays are natural, but when projects are delayed several years, that's not that's not good.

And that's where we need to, because that's that's literally costing the city millions of dollars.

So that's that's really important.

Um for the electric vehicle fleet.

Uh I know you were talking about a PG ⁇ E program in particular.

There are other programs that have been funded out there.

No, Ava Community Energy was looking for opportunities to build chargers in different cities, because I'm assuming that's charging programs, or is that for paying for the vehicles themselves?

Uh the program I'm familiar with through AVA was an initiative where they wanted to lease public parking spaces and put in charging infrastructure that would be open to the public.

Because I know that the Air District and Ava in different ways uh have been focused a lot on supporting electrical vehicle infrastructure in particular.

So let's just make sure that to the extent that we can tap into either of those or monies that ACTC is working to allocate.

There seems to continue to be this set aside of money for charging infrastructure.

And if it's only for public, then you know, just we can confirm that.

Um, but for example, um, there's been a lot of electrification of school buses, and that's clearly not public infrastructure.

So it's the money that's going to electrify the charging stations on school grounds for school buses.

So I'm just looking for ways in which we can find that type of money for this type of purpose that might be outside of PGE.

Um, and then the last one that I was uh very interested in is a stormwater fee update.

Because obviously we cannot run a city on revenue that's 35 years old.

Costs have increased full stop.

So my real question here is that, and it doesn't have to be addressed today, but I very much want to understand how we will approach this differently from last time.

That's that's really important to me.

Last time we did not have images of trash captured devices.

We did not have images of you know breaking down pipe pipes that were cracking or whatever that needed to be fixed.

So one recommendation that I have is that we be very much focused on actual images, videos, things that people can say, oh wow, I didn't realize that it was that bad.

So I think the opportunity is their residents have told us that they are willing to pay for infrastructure in particular, and this would be a fee that's specific and it's associated with a with a specific purpose.

So I think we can with that focus um help our residents see how instead of using the general fund to subsidize that it it pays for itself.

So thank you for the efforts that you're uh undertaking in that regard.

So with that, we will move to our final item.

And our final item is the fifth priority, uh, housing and homelessness.

Good evening, council, Jessica Loberon, Deputy City Manager.

Thank you all for your patience as we wrap up our final priority work plan.

Um, I'll kick off this evening with an update on our homelessness prevention rental assistance program.

As a reminder, this is a um limited subsidy for extremely low-income households that are at risk of homelessness.

Um, we're excited to share that we oh, sorry, I don't have pictures for this line.

Uh we launched this program in April of 2026.

Um, based on our first quarterly report, we have so far served eight households, of which seven are households with minor children.

Um we did a lot of work um coordinating with uh the school district to make referrals for this program.

We're excited.

One of the upcoming tasks from our partner agency is to prepare a dashboard so we'll have more lifetime data on how many households are being served.

I'll now hand it over to our housing manager Carrie Husler for the next projects.

Thank you, Jessica.

I'm here with the next three work plan items.

And first, I will go into information on rent program implementation.

I'm pleased to share that this work program item represents the successful integration of two previous council priorities.

This is the merger of the adoption of the rent stabilization ordinance and the rent registry implementation.

So we're now rebranding as rent program implementation for the purpose of the work plan.

So over the past three years, we've been building the city's new rent program division from the ground up.

That work began with an extensive community outreach effort and has progressed through ordinance adoption, staffing, software development, and implementation planning.

And as you can see here, we've completed many of the major milestones to date.

This next slide highlights the key activities currently underway as we prepare to launch the rent program this coming January.

Our efforts are currently focused on two major implementation activities.

First, developing the initial community outreach and engagement plan, and then second, completing the public-facing rent registry software portal.

In summary, we've successfully completed several key milestones, including adoption of the rent stabilization and rent registry ordinances, completion of phase one of the rent registry software, hiring of three new staff members, and then I'm also pleased to share that we are in the process of hiring a permanent rent program manager who will lead the city's rent program as we transition from implementation to full program operations this January.

Next, we are here with the mobile home space rent stabilization amendment.

Council approved a one-year extension of this work plan item through June 2028 to allow sufficient time to prepare the first draft ordinance.

Following the rent program launch this January, we will begin a phased community outreach and engagement process.

Feedback gathered during that process will help inform development of the first draft ordinance.

As shown on this timeline, the remaining implementation activities extend through 2028 and are contingent upon the identification of funding.

This phased approach provides time to evaluate the ordinance, engage the community, and develop a thoughtful first draft.

This timeline highlights the major milestones over the next two years.

Following the rent program launch in January, we will begin evaluating the ordinance.

Community outreach will begin in March 2027, and the feedback received will help shape the first draft ordinance.

Subject to available funding, we anticipate bringing that draft forward in 2028.

And now I will bring forward the local preference disparate impact study item.

So to date, staff has completed the initial phase of this effort, including background research, data collection, and analysis.

Based on our evaluation, staff recommends discontinuing implementation of the local preference disparate impact study.

Here are some key takeaways.

Moving forward will require additional consultant costs.

And there are currently no available, excuse me, and there are no current affordable housing projects that would be impacted by this recommendation.

And I will hand it off to Jessica Lobidon, our deputy city manager.

Thank you.

And to present an update on the Llewellyn Interim Housing and Drop-in center.

We will be coming to council in the fall with a more robust update on the first year of operations.

But just some of the key highlights from the first year.

In total, 618 persons, individual persons, have uh accessed the drop-in center.

36 persons have moved from shelter into permanent housing.

These are all photos of former Louelling interim housing residents with keys to their new homes.

So we're very excited about the preliminary successes of this program and look forward to giving further updates in the future.

I'll now hand it over to planning manager Wayland D leave.

Good evening, Council members.

The purpose of this work plan item is to remove the barriers and the constraints to the development of new housing in the city.

And over the past year, we've made progress on multiple fronts, including the following.

First, with regards to development impact fees, we completed a major update to our impact fee structure in the past year, which reduced and in some cases eliminated park and traffic impact fees for two key housing types ADUs and deed restricted affordable housing.

Also, as part of this effort, we right-sized park impact fees across the board to ensure that they aren't serving as a barrier to market rate housing production, which is also a create critical need for the city.

And those findings were presented to the council earlier this year in February.

And as a result, the council now has the this information as a basis to make informed housing related decisions that are based and grounded in real market conditions.

With regards to parking and TDM, our housing element identified minimum parking requirements as a constraint to housing production.

And in response to this constraint, uh staff worked with a transportation consultant to amend our minimum off-street parking requirements for the purpose of reducing unnecessary costs on housing developments and providing developers with a greater deal of certainty when evaluating whether to move forward with the project in the city.

This slide highlights uh some work that's currently in progress regarding Bayfair.

Uh staff is continuing to work hard to advance a development development plan for the Bayfair TOD area.

And that's funded by a 1.8 million dollar MTC grant.

And uh this effort is to turn decades of planning into implementation by providing a framework for transforming underutilized land into development ready sites.

With regards to project tracking, uh, as we mentioned briefly in the economic development item, um we created an Excel at Power Users Group, which is a multidisciplinary team which is working on a coordinated recommendations to improve the development project tracking system for the city.

And the goal of this effort is to reduce approval times to uh cut related staff costs and to make the permitting process work better for everyone involved.

And together, these efforts are uh building condition that'll make housing more uh more viable and achievable in San Leandro.

And with that, I'll turn turn it back over to Jessica Lobadon to finish the presentation.

Thank you again for everyone's patience this evening.

And I understand we're moving directly to public comment now.

Well, very quickly, we will take um the council questions going to council member or vice mayor of the Otiswaldon, please.

Thank you.

Um I wanted to go back to hold on, I have too many tabs open because I've been opening up the project pages for various things.

Um I wanted to go back to the rent program.

Um wanted to ask on the expanded renter protections that included just cause some of the other there was a kind of uh a legisl uh legislative package, so to speak, that included rent stabilization, just cause and a other expanded um renter protections.

It is my recollection that the council uh elevated rent stabilization based on staff capacity.

And I'm just wondering where the other expanded renter protections, where are they in the work plan or are they not included in future work in like uh fiscal 2728?

You mean something like just cause or something?

Or yeah, I think that would be something that would we'd have to bring up at a future planning session that's really not on the radar right now, so to speak.

I think we were, like you said, prioritizing the last couple of years, you know, um, between the rent registry and then rent stabilization more recently.

Um so that would be something that for council to um certainly uh discuss and bring up in the future uh priority planning sessions.

Okay, I was under the impression I'd have to look back because I was under the impression that it had been um pushed, but that's and mobile home would be also coming, you know, it is delayed as we mentioned at the March uh session, but that was actually next in the queue too.

So uh my other question was regarding um uh we have different slide numbers.

I'm looking at uh number four local preference disparate impact study is that a housing disparate impact study.

Can you clear I I'm not clear on what um what part is being delayed.

Sure.

Director Tom, did did you want to answer that?

Okay.

So this is a a study that is related to uh cities, it has to do with uh fair housing also.

Uh cities who wish to implement a local preference policy when their projects are federally and state and or state funded.

Uh about 10, 12 years ago, the federal government did actually uh pass uh under HUD fair housing that if you want to keep with federal subsidy uh a local preference policy, you'd have to go through certain sort of hoops or so to speak.

Uh the state followed suit, I believe a few years after that.

So it's been in place over a decade plus.

Um so this was uh uh an attempt to initiate that process.

What we would say here is that we have a local inclusionary zoning ordinance that's been in effect since 2004.

That is not impacted because that if that's to say Central Calan has no federal state money, city can't continue to have a local preference in the or have a developer implement that for us.

So that gives you some context about what this is because it's a selection process for tenants.

So I guess this is more of a comment.

So I'll I'll save that to ensure we have time for public comment.

Um I just I'm I'm still unclear.

I would have to look that up, but I I it just my brain and heart really goes against uh not if if a disparate impact study, which is intended to protect um uh and to ensure that uh low-income and uh low-income communities are able to not have disparate impact on policies, right?

This is the intent is to prevent disparate impact.

Uh this kind of I'm trying to kind of uh align it anyway.

So I'll just leave that there.

And if there's time for comments, I'll um add that.

Councilmember Bowen, please.

I just want to express my enthusiasm for housing and homelessness, just as I have all of the other priorities, but seriously, awesome.

Um I wanted to ask about um double home space um rent stabilization amendment, um, the timeline.

So the public review period, community stakeholder meetings due date February 2028, and then the next date is a city council work session in March 2028.

Um maybe I was getting my I was trying to uh I'm trying to figure out sort of like what's gonna happen from uh the sort of like beginning of it to the end, because it seems like a pretty long time frame from when we're like doing the work to the final you know, the second reading and it passes.

Why is it such a long period?

Sure.

I can add that we are gonna start the public outreach campaign and the stakeholder meetings in a similar fashion as the rent program work that we did a few years ago to get to this stage.

We're going to start that alongside the council hearings and inform and have a lot of feedback.

And so once we come to the program evaluation in September, we'll have more of an idea of where the ordinance is heading and what program costs and staffing and budget, and then moving into more of your questions, then we will bring forward the reality of a program towards the end of 2027 and start bringing the actual ordinances through public hearing.

That helps.

So a lot of the time will just be to um to outreach and listen to the community.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um, and then I really appreciate that we are really focused on getting people housed and obviously the picture of people giving the keys.

And obviously, the picture of people giving the keys, that's that's so wonderful.

But also that we're talking about supporting housing production because it's very much part of the same goal.

Um and I really appreciate the work that we're putting in.

I say we you all are putting in um to making this happen.

And then the other thing that I want to say so that council member bolt can get out here by 10 30 is for support of housing production.

I um love what could happen at Bayfair and for us to be able to have more housing and more folks moving in and more families.

I I just have to always plug in, making sure that we're providing resources and services to families and children as we're thinking about getting more housing in as well.

Thank you.

At this point in time, we're gonna take public comment on this item.

Mayor, we have received two comment cards, and there are two hands raised online.

Please proceed in person.

Our in-person speakers are Ginny Madsen, followed by Mike Katz Lakabe.

And if we before we can have our first speaker, if we can get a time extension for 15 minutes, please.

Can I get a motion?

Councilmember Bowen.

So moved.

Vice Mayor.

Second.

And so by 15 minutes, that meant at 1045.

Please vote.

All votes are in.

And the motion carries unanimously the five yes votes.

Two council members being absent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

At this point in time, can we proceed?

I was gonna yield my time so you got could all go home on time, but you voted.

So just cause it's still part of the the deal.

And I know it's not on the schedule, but we're not gonna forget the rent registry.

I think puts us in a better position to have some sort of enforcement of rules that have been ignored far too long by the landlords.

Because that's all I'm gonna say about that.

I work on the state and local county level about mobile homes.

I haven't forgotten about that.

It's a promise y'all made, maybe not these particular individuals, but the council has made it over and over and over again.

You got nine parks.

It is not gonna take three months to do outreach.

It's different than the tenant outreach, which was multiple, you know, a whole city full of buildings and renters.

This is nine parks in San Leandro.

It's a targeted area.

And when it comes to uh local preference, the funding has always determined who gets into the subsidized housing.

And it's rarely been any money from San Leandro.

So San Leandro residents are usually kind of down.

They don't get high priority for housing, subsidized housing.

I can be done now.

I want you all to go home.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Mike Katz Lakabe.

Good evening.

In reference to a previous part of the uh presentation, I must say that the use of the term hard tech makes me think that someone has been reading uh energy recovery press release.

But I digress.

So speaking of public safety, um, it has now been more than 65 days since San Leandro Police shot and killed a person at the San Leander Marina on May 7th, 2026, for whom police were conducting a welfare check.

AB 748 has been the law for more than seven years now, and that law requires the recordings of critical incidents involving use of force by law enforcement, resulting in death or great bodily injury must be made publicly available within 45 days of the incident with limited exceptions.

According to the department's own policy, 805.11.1.

Disclosure may exceed 45 days if the department demonstrates the disclosure would substantially interfere with the investigation.

Just to be sure I didn't miss anything.

I checked the police department's critical incidents page today and the unanswered response to my public records request.

As with previous times, which assembly in our police department has been in violation of California state law or its own policies.

I expect no accountability for this violation.

Accountability appears to be reserved for black police chiefs.

I look forward to the prompt release of the critical incident video and the report detailing this violation of law and how it occurred.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

There are no more comment cards from here in the room.

So we'll close public comment in person and open public comment online.

Our first online speaker is Douglas Spaulding.

Thank you very much.

Here here, Jenny and Mike.

I uh first want to share I I've been having a little debate on uh some social media Facebook page, someone who commented, uh the city doesn't do anything.

And um, having sat through this entire presentation, there's an astonishing, amazing amount of work uh going on.

And I I think everyone for for their parts in that.

Uh the thing I I think is missing here is a discussion of of data centers.

And I'm mindful that uh councilwoman Bowen uh raised it as an issue.

I don't think we can afford to wait for the next priority setting meeting in March of 2027.

It's an issue that touches on many of the priorities here, including economic development.

Are we updating uh zoning uh uh zone so that we can uh put in data centers as office uh buildings, uh quality of life, public safety, the whole the whole nine yards.

And the way that these uh uh data center developers are moving quickly and furtively secretly, uh, you know the the the wool might be over ours by by next smart.

So I I urge you to consider reconsider that as an urgent matter for your discussion.

And I believe the best course forward is to declare a moratorium until we know a lot more.

And mayor, I did go and have spent a lot of the last week looking at Santa Clara and uh the information isn't is not is not that great.

Uh I want to uh quickly move to the housing and homeless issue.

I I just find this astonishing uh that it's gonna take so long.

The home mobile home rent stabilization ordinance has been uh promised for a very long time.

It's not rocket science.

We know what the elements are.

Uh same with just cause.

Uh that's supposed to come after uh March of 2028.

Come on.

Uh it appears like there's some quid pro quo going on where well you got your rent register, you got your RSO, so we're gonna slow the breaks on these other things.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Alvaro Ramos.

Okay, so I wanted to uh talk about um uh how finance is a more significant issue, and it's not just about addressing the city's fiscal deficit.

I want to pull finance out of the shadows and put it into the spotlight.

We need to prioritize financial assistance.

And I saw it appear under small business and entrepreneurship, but it's too limited and it should be expanded significantly.

I'm gonna give you some examples because it's not just about money.

We need uh careful study of the 21st century Road to Housing Act that passed the U.S.

the United States Congress, the president vetoed it.

I think because Congress didn't want to pass voter suppression.

Anyways, it includes flexibility for community banks to loan money for building housing, which I found interesting.

And furthermore, I'm glad also uh I heard earlier tonight about unbanked and underbanked populations of people.

How much medical debt do people have, how much student debt do people have, how much credit card debt do people have, especially as a result of cuts from the federal government to food and health care.

Maybe this is a place where credit unions could help.

I'm open to ideas.

Let's talk about workforce issues.

So I'll argue that work access worked in the 1990s and stopped working in the 2000s, and it's a dependent on a model of economic growth and rising productivity for there to be work to be done.

So if uh if if you have economic stagnation and no significant productivity increases, there's not going to be any work.

When the Great Recession happened in 2008, work requirements got in the way of people getting access to welfare.

Work requirements have made a comeback in eligibility for melt for Medicaid.

And frankly, people will die from getting kicked off of Medicaid.

That's going to be another government statistic.

Thank you, sir.

Your time has elapsed.

Our next speaker is San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

Hello, everybody.

This is Emily Grego with the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.

I don't have any actual prepared remarks for tonight, but I was listening to the entire presentation and realized that the business community touches on every single department that was reported on tonight.

You know, there are times when we are we're pushing for something and asking questions, but we are always really happy.

I don't want to use the word happy, but we're always want to work with the city staff so that we can get things accomplished for our businesses.

There's a lovely young lady there by the name of Sarah that we've been working with, and we are going to do more.

Um we are going to do a workforce development workshop around the trade certificate programs.

We have we are in the midst of a first jobs program that is going on successfully.

Restaurant week is working out really well.

There is difficulty with translation with some of our Asian-owned restaurants and others.

So we could use some um help and some collaboration there in some way or another.

And um public safety.

Um contract that is no longer going to be in place.

That's really important to keeping our community safe.

But all in all, thank you all for the work.

Thank you for the collaboration and happy to answer any further questions on how we collaborate after this meeting to any of the city council members.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.

Okay, so we'll close public comment online.

Come back to council members for final thoughts.

Having given the opportunity and seeing no further thoughts, what I'd like to do is uh adjourn our meeting today in the memory of Supervisor Scott Hagerty.

He played uh instrumental role in a variety of things, a variety of commitments.

One of his uh legacies was helping to organize and implement the structure that we today know is that you have community energy, the joint powers authority and the wind farm Paris' name.

Primarily as a sign of respect for his commitment, but he he played a role in many different and different areas.

Um remembrance of of his efforts as a public servant for many years and with sympathy to his family who is feeling lost, probably closer than anyone else.

Uh we pause for a moment to reflect in memory of Supervisor Hagerty, we are adjourned.