Can I please have a roll call?

Councilmember Coleman.

Here.

Councilmember Nogales.

Here.

Councilmember Nicholas.

Present.

Vice Mayor Adiego.

Here.

Mayor Flores.

I'm present.

Next item.

Um tonight we're honored to have Scott Sr.

lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Scott is a proud member of our South San Francisco community and serves as a dedicated volunteer with our community emergency response team, also known as CERT.

He's also a passionate advocate for disability awareness and inclusion.

Please join me in welcoming Scott to the podium.

And if you are able to, yes, and if you are able to, please stand and place your right hand over your heart and follow Scott.

I pledge allegiance 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.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Proceeding with the meeting.

Next uh item, please.

Agenda review.

Uh Mayor Flores, we do have two changes to the agenda this evening.

Uh, first, item number 24, which is the proclamation recognizing United Against Hate Week.

Uh, we'd like to move that up to follow the last proclamation.

So it would be uh proclamation number five.

And then the second item is during our closed session.

We noticed two workers' comp hearings, and we'll only be hearing the one that's not doesn't have the name of the individual.

Very well accepted and uh taken into the record.

Next item, please.

We'll move along to Libine Act Disclosures.

Does the council have any reporting?

None.

Move along to announcements from staff.

Great.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members.

I was looking for um library staff, but I'll fill in here to talk about the film screening song of the fireflies is this Saturday, October 25th from 11 a.m.

Oh, it's there's two screenings, one's at 11 and one's at two.

And his second announcement is the trivia challenge, 32nd annual, and it is Friday, November 7th.

It's being held at the conference center.

Um, sixty-five dollars general admission, and it's so worth it.

It's super fun, and dinner's delicious.

And um, if you're interested in having a team, teams of three, it's four hundred dollars with dinner and contact Project Reed for any other questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any of the Mayor Eddie, members of the council, uh Richley, your assistant city manager.

Well, on behalf of Councilmember Nogales, I want to invite the South San Francisco community to a senior scam stopper seminar that's going to be held on Tuesday, November 18th at the social hall in the LPR.

All are welcome and certainly want to promote this loud and clear.

Um, wanted to perhaps uh offer the council member an opportunity to further um elaborate on this uh event.

Thank you, Rich.

Um I wanted to put this event together because I got a frantic phone call from my parents because they received a call who they allegedly was claiming to be a uh a police officer claiming that my sister was in a severe car accident.

And as the conversation was going on, it was very clear that this person was trying to scam my parents.

Thank God my parents were smart enough to realize uh to hang up the phone.

But unfortunately, there are people who get scanned by this, and so I thought it was important that we partner with our police department to put together the scamstopper event to educate our residents about um scams that are going on in our community and how to prevent those.

So uh I I thank our uh Chief Campbell and our PD uh to partner with me, and I invite the community to come out and learn um some really really important information.

So on Tuesday, November 18th, please uh come and uh we'll we will definitely uh educate the our public about how we can prevent scams in South San Francisco.

So thank you, Assistant City Manor Ridgley.

Thank you for bringing that up.

You know, um myself and Councilmember Coleman, we held these same in our district.

Um this was probably one of the largest attended community meetings I had in District 5 as well.

Um they were very pleased of the information, and it is uh definitely worth uh doing every year.

So thank you uh to my colleague for doing that.

And this is also part of our action plan for the age.

Thank you for highlighting that.

Thank you.

All right, any other announcements, staff announcements.

Yes, hello everyone.

Um good evening, Greg Mediati, Director of Parks and Recreation with two quick announcements.

Um, first, all are invited to attend our annual holiday boutique and makers fair, which takes place on Saturday, November 1st from 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

here at the LPR.

Um, we invite all to come and support local vendors, enjoy a day of shopping, which features unique one of a kind handcrafted jewelry and other items and refreshments will be provided.

And secondly, next slide.

Um, we encourage all to join us for our 52nd annual um Thanksgiving fun run, which will take place on November 22nd at Oyster Point.

The run will begin at 9 a.m.

sharp.

Uh participants will be awarded prizes for top finishers in each age group and pre-registration is required by November 15th.

Um, for more details on both of these events, you can visit our website, SSFCA.gov slash rec.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome, Chief.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor Eddie, Vice Mary Audiego and Council members, Matt Sampson, your fire chief.

Um, for those who are not too tired after Thanksgiving fun run on the 22nd, um, the fire department's inviting the public to fire station 61 for the opportunity to take a picture with Santa Claus on a fire engine.

We're doing a little bit earlier this year.

Uh, for those that are looking for ideas for their holiday cards, they can grab a picture with the family with Santa on the fire engine from one till three on the 22nd.

Um, the event is free, and we are asking those who can to help with this with our diaper donation um as part of this ongoing process we're doing now with the city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Hello, and it's Marie Pate again with the city manager's office with three final announcements.

The first is um please join us Thursday, November 13th for the state of the city luncheon at the South City Conference Center.

It's from 11 30 to 1 30, and this is a public meeting, so all are welcome.

And we do have a luncheon for $55, and you can purchase tickets through Eventbrite or stop by City Hall and see me.

Mayor Eddy will reflect on accomplishments from 2025, and we'll incorporate a preview at the November 12th council meeting here.

So scan the QR code for additional information.

The holiday food and toy distribution plans have begun.

Thanks to our fire police YMCA Community Resource Center.

The ball is rolling towards another wonderful holiday season for community members.

Toys for infants through 11 years old can be brought to our police station or fire department beginning November 14th through December 12th.

Monetary donations are welcome for South San Francisco kids ages 12 to 17, because we'll be getting um target gift cards.

And if you or your family need food or toys, please visit YMCA at 1486 Huntington Avenue.

And if you're interested in volunteering, I'll be sending a call for volunteers eblast out early November, or email me at Marie.patea at SSFCA.gov.

And if you're a business that wants to have a bin for donations, Mary Ann Spidiachi at our police department is your best contact.

And lastly, on behalf of Mary Prem, who's our CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, she's inviting everyone to one of my most favorite events.

Um next slide, please.

Um, is Taste of South San Francisco.

Tickets are $65 and can be purchased through the chamber's website.

If you haven't been before, this event is a it showcases our restaurants and caterers from the area, and you get to sample delicious food, and often we vote for our favorites too.

And this is taking place on Thursday, November 6th, from noon to 2, and tickets will not be sold at the door, so please pre-purchase.

It's well worth it.

And that is it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any other staff announcements?

We did do the library one.

Thank you.

Thank you, Adam.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Adam.

Thank you.

Alrighty.

Lots of activities, as you can see, from trivia to eating out to uh lots of celebrations and holiday stuff coming up.

If you're anything like my family, we have about a week of October left, November 1st, officially Christmas starts, right?

Next item, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

Move along to presentations.

Item number one, 2025 fire prevention poster contest winners.

Thank you very much.

Both my colleagues to my right and left said, wow, Eddie, you really know how to pack a room tonight.

Well, it's a special night because I always really get excited as an educator when we have our youth, our leaders uh in our in the room, and of course, welcoming parents and guardians and our community.

It's really exciting to be here.

I'm gonna do a few shout outs.

I see uh Principal Debbie uh Mert from Monty Verde, uh Principal Craig Ramage from Bury Bury, and our own trustee Lamb from the school board here to celebrate our kiddos, our scholars uh tonight.

You know, it's a joy to be here to be able to recognize South San Francisco's most creative and thoughtful young minds.

This is our 2025 fire prevention poster contest winners.

All of you have uh been thoughtful, and all these students uh that we're honoring tonight, um, their artwork didn't just show their talent, but it showed really their heart for South San Francisco.

It showed their imagination for what they see our city to be like and a real understanding in their mind at their level of how important fire safety is in our homes.

Now, this is a very important aspect because at learning levels, every kid kind of sees the world in a different light.

And of course, um, incorporating what that means in terms of fire safety for their schools and their neighborhoods.

Um, and I want to thank each one of uh the uh contest winners.

I want to particularly thank the parents, the guardians, the family members who are our community and are here supporting and making sure that those entries were submitted, because all of you together have helped uh put together and spread a message, a message that could really save lives.

And you did it with creativity, you've done it with color, and you've done it with courage.

So even those who were volunteered and probably didn't want to submit one, but you did it anyway.

Here you are, being recognized by the city council and the mayor of South San Francisco.

So again, to the families, the teachers, the supporters here tonight.

Thank you for encouraging these young artists, our leaders here in our community, and helping them shine.

Um, and I'd like to mention uh into the record each one of them.

Uh the following are this year's 2025 contest winners.

Um, Andrea Sanchez Govea, Ona Sang, Lillian Gudale, uh, Theo Ramirez, Ariel Nicolas, Ava Ramirez, Valeria Gutierrez, Alexandra Castanera, Eric Yoon, Charlie Spey Sumerling, uh, Kashi Sasha, and Cailla Arellano.

Now, as we call all of you up, you'll receive a certificate, and I want to make sure that all of you see what you're getting in the parents.

Um, a certificate of recognition to each of one.

We'll also take a picture as a group picture with the entire city council.

And each certificate recognizes uh the name of the student, their uh school, as well as their grade.

Uh, in some of them, uh they're teachers, uh, which class they're in.

Uh, the City Council of South San Francisco does hereby congratulate you on being a winner, a true winner on the 2025 fire prevention poster contest.

We wish you success in your pursuit of your dreams, aspirations, and future career.

It's presented on the 22nd of this month and is signed by myself as mayor and all the members of this city council.

In addition to that, because of course you are the future and our bright shining leaders, um, all of you are also getting the special uh city pin, which you can all wear.

Uh it's a special distinction.

It has uh it's a brand new uh version, it has City Hall engraved and a little tiny key to the city.

So all of you, um, as you not only treasure this certificate and put it up in the wall in your bedrooms, know that you have the key to unlock uh the success and the future leadership here in South San Francisco.

So please help me welcome every single one of these winners up to the podium and let's give them a big old South San Francisco shout out.

All right, so boys and girls, if you could line up right here, and I'm gonna call your name.

And uh as I call your name, you're gonna come and grab your certificate, and then we're all gonna do a big picture.

Is that understood?

Yes, okay, great.

All right.

Uh Charlize Bay Sumerlin.

Charlise.

There you are, congratulations.

Kakashi Sasha.

Saha, thank you.

There you are.

Caia Ariano.

Kaya, there you go.

Eric Jin.

Eric.

Okay.

We'll make sure Eric gets it.

Um, Andrea Sanchez Govea.

Alexandra Castanera.

Valeria Gutierrez.

Ariel Nicholas.

Ava Ramirez.

Theo Ramirez.

Congratulations.

Lillian uh Goodal.

Congratulations.

And Ona Sang.

All right.

So now, if I could invite the members of my council, if you all could come up and we're gonna get right here in the middle, and I want you all to open up your certificate.

So look at me so you can see what I'm doing.

Open it up so that in the picture, your name comes up.

Make sure it's upright.

Yes, and we're all gonna move this way.

So scoot down this way to your right, to your right, scoot down that way.

Keep walking, keep walking.

More, more, more, more, more, more.

Keep walking.

Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going.

All right.

All right, now I want all the certificates to be right here.

Don't cover your face because I want your smiles to go up.

All right.

How about the stage?

Okay, would you like to recover?

Yes, yes.

Let's get let's go all of you up on the stage.

Can you guys do that?

Yeah.

Of course.

Make sure everyone has their certificate.

All right.

Oh no, we'll smile.

All right.

Here we go.

Cameras ready.

All right, congratulations.

All right, exciting.

Thank you all for attending and being here present to witness that.

We'll move on to the next item, please.

Item number two is a proclamation recognizing October as Disability Awareness Month.

Thank you.

And I've asked Councilmember Coleman to make this presentation.

Oh, before that, I also wanted to recognize Panda Rosa principal.

I think she was here.

She stepped out.

Julie Ersking was also here.

Councilmember.

Great.

Thank you so much for the honor of presenting this proclamation.

Commemorating Disability Awareness Month here in South San Francisco.

And this is something that is personal to me as you know, I was growing up through my childhood.

For those who don't know me, my father uh fell down the stairs when I was five years old and suffered a traumatic injury that left him largely paralyzed from the waist down, and uh he remained disabled until he passed away 10 years later, uh, when I was at the age of 15.

And growing up with that experience, it um made me realize you know how important infrastructure is, how important um policy is in ensuring that everyone is able to live their lives with with dignity and to the fullness of their ability, uh regardless of their ability.

Um disability awareness month is a time to reflect and to recognize and recommit ourselves to building a more inclusive and equitable community for all.

And every October, we join communities across the country in observing nationally national disability employment awareness month.

This month was first established by President Truman in 1945 and later strengthened by the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

This month reminds us of the essential contributions that disabled Americans make to our workplaces, our economy, and our nation.

This year's theme is celebrating value and talent.

It is a powerful call to action.

It reminds us that when we create workplaces and communities that welcome the talents of all people, including those with disabilities, we are building a stronger, more vibrant society.

Yet we know that there is still more work to do.

Studies have shown that Americans with disabilities still face many barriers to fair pay and economic advancement.

That's why this month and every single month, we must continue the legacy of generations of disability rights advocates who have fought for equal opportunity, integrated workplaces, and economic self-sufficiency.

Tonight, I'm especially proud to recognize someone who embodies a spirit of service and inclusion that we strive for, Scott Sinor.

Scott is a proud resident of South San Francisco District 4, and he's also a passionate advocate for disability awareness and inclusion.

He serves our city as a dedicated member of the South San Francisco Community Emergency Response Team, CERT, and his leadership and commitment to public safety, community engagement, and accessibility are deeply appreciated.

Earlier this month, Scott's artwork was featured in the disabilities art showcase in Redwood City, which is a powerful exhibit that gives voices to artists with disabilities and reminds us of the beauty and strength that comes from diverse perspectives.

Scott's work and his presence in our community are a testament to the value and talent that we celebrate this month.

So tonight, on behalf of the City of South San Francisco, I am honored to present this proclamation, recognizing October as Disability Awareness Month, and reaffirm our city's commitment to equal opportunity, full participation, and independent living for people with disabilities in our infrastructure as well as our policy.

So please join me in welcoming and thanking Scott Zennar.

Let's give him a wrap.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Flores, Vice Mayor, City Council, and guests.

I'd like to thank you for just selecting me as a recipient of for the proclamation recognizing October's Disability Awareness Month.

I also want to thank the members of the CERT who are here, Kenny Anderson, Chief Samuelson for giving me the opportunity to join their cert team in 2013.

I also want to thank my parents and Carrie for their ongoing support.

As a member, uh in 2013, I heard that South San Francisco had a volunteer community emergency response team.

As a child, I've always loved uh fire trucks and ambulance and stuff like that.

So I decided to inquire.

Uh so um, knowing about the physical qualifications, I didn't think I would qualify.

But I qu I passed through an acquired obstacle course, which entailed going through a tube on your belly with forty 40 pound pack of emergency price and a backpack, and it made it through with applause.

As far as I know, I'm the only physical chat physically challenged person to join the CERT team, as far as I know.

Since I have lived in South San Francisco, I have come along the city has come a long way, making the city accessible for people with this special needs as a curb cuts and accessible buildings and signages.

But we, as we all know, we still need more designated parking uh spaces for disabled downtown.

Once again, I thank you for selecting me and presenting me with this disabled uh proclamation tonight, and thank you very much.

Thank you, Scott.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Coleman.

Next item, please.

Item number three is a proclamation recognizing October as breast cancer awareness month.

Thank you, and I've asked Councilmember Nogales to make this presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, as we gather here this October, we are reminded that this month holds a very special meeting.

It's breast cancer awareness month.

It's a time we come together to honor survivors, remember those we've lost, and reaffirm our commitment to education, early detection and research.

Breast cancer touches so many lives, mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, and even men.

It doesn't discriminate, and its impact is felt in every community.

But there's also hope because today, thanks to awareness, research, and early testing, more people are surviving breast cancer than ever before.

Early detection saves lives.

It's as simple and as powerful as that.

Regular screenings and mammograms can find cancer at its earliest stages when it's most treatable.

Too often people delay testing because they feel healthy or because they're afraid.

But taking that step, making that appointment can make all the difference.

We must continue to spread the message that getting tested is not just about taking care of yourself, so act of love for your family, your friends, and your community.

When we encourage others to get screened, we are helping to protect futures to preserve memories and to give hope.

And thank you to our amazing fire department for bringing breast cancer awareness stickers.

And finally, I want to take a moment to thank the incredible doctors, surgeons, nurses of medical teams who dedicated their lives to caring for those battling breast cancer.

Their expertise, compassion, and tireless commitment bring comfort and hope to patients and kindness made all the difference toughest times.

They are unsung heroes in this fight, and we honor them today and every day.

Especially the person who will be accepting this proclamation.

Dr.

Alice Ye, who operated on my mom and saved her life.

Thanks to healing our medical team, my mom is right there in the audience, and she can say she's a breast cancer survivor.

So thank you.

I'm gonna stop crying now and ask Dr.

A to come up and take this receiver's proclamation.

Wonderful.

Welcome both.

We're going right here.

I know you'd like to stay long, but over here.

Stay with me here.

Stay with me.

Thank you.

Councilmember Nogales, Mayor Flores, members of the city council and city staff.

I'm quite emotional too.

Thank you for this opportunity to be here in recognition of breast cancer awareness month.

I was truly touched by your kind words, and grateful for the opportunity to care for your mother.

Gina is very special the moment I met her.

And she did all the right things.

She got a screening mammogram, which detected her early breast cancer.

And I'm proud to say and very happy also that she's free of her cancer, and she's a breast cancer survivor.

Thank you.

Compared to the national average, Kaiser Permanente's screening rates are 12% higher than for breast cancer.

And we pride ourselves in preventing cancer in the first place with our evidence-based approach to health care, which emphasizes wellness and prevention by catching the cancer early.

So just for Gina, we help our patients get the prompt access, treatment, and a multidisciplinary fashion, which leads to better outcomes.

And so now it's several months after her surgery, and she's doing well.

Since I had always been wearing a mask.

So I'm very, very proud to be a Kaiser Permanente staff member and caring for our community.

And I'm so proud of what Gina has gone through.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you both.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Very meaningful.

Thank you, Councilmember Nogales.

Next item, please.

Item number four is a proclamation recognizing October as Italian Heritage Month.

Thank you.

I have the privilege of doing this.

I checked in and got the blessing from my colleague here to the right.

But you know what makes it so beautiful here in South City is that we're all really our cultures are really united.

And that's not just an initiative.

Uh, Councilmember Nagales moved forward during his year as mayor, but also it really resonates to the culture and the fabric of South City.

Um I continue to say that this city was built and brought together on the backs of our immigrant community, and that also includes the wonderful and cultural heritage that our Italian community did in the early years as this city was founded.

We recognize October as National Italian American Heritage Month because of the rich history, uh, the enduring values and the countless contributions that Italian Americans have given to our nation and locally right here to South San Francisco.

President George H.W.

Bush first proclaimed this observance in 1989.

And since then, October has served a moment of reflection on the journey of more than 18 million Americans of Italian descent, whose stories are woven really into the fabric of our regions and in our country.

From the early explorers to the 5.5 million working class immigrants who arrived between 1820 and 2000, Italian Americans have helped to shape the U.S.

with resilience, with creativity, and an unwavering commitment to a family and a community.

Here in South City, we're proud that our Italian American roots, including the legacy of David Rato, who in 1936 became the first Italian American to serve as mayor of our city.

And across the country, Italian Americans have left really an indelible mark in every field, from Dr.

Fauci's leadership in public health to Mario Capecci's Nobel Prize winning work in medicine to cultural icons like Frank Sinatra.

Hey, including Lady Gaga, yes, and Guy Fieri.

We all us foodies love Guy Fieri.

But really, beyond the headlines and the history books, Italian Americans here at a local level, it's about the heritage.

It's about the community.

It's about speaking loud and eating those big, beautiful Sunday night meals.

These values have helped communities like South San Francisco inspire generations and contribute to the arts, to education, to science, to business, and of course, as well to public service.

Tonight, our city council proudly claims October as National Italian American Heritage Month, and we encourage the community to take time to learn more about the rich history.

I myself love the history here in South San Francisco and being able to see all the cultural significance of what the City Council was and brought in the early 1900s and through the 30s and 40s and 50s as well.

And within that, there's a strong presence here, and that's the Italian-American Club of South City, SSF IACC, which was founded also in 1936 by a group of uh Italian immigrants who wanted to create a space of fellowship of cultural preservation and of civic engagement.

And over the decades, the club has really expanded, has played a vital role in supporting our local community, celebrating our local heritage by having now, you know, the big beautiful festa italiana.

If you weren't able to catch it this past September, it was beautiful, it was loud, it was boisterous, it was cultural, it was all that we wanted it to be.

And of course, they contribute to charitable causes as well.

This organization has been a hub for social events, for scholarships, and for partnering with our South City residents all across many generations.

So tonight I'd like to uh issue this proclamation on behalf of this city council.

And joining us to accept this proclamation is Mr.

Manny Garcia Garcia, who's the vice president of the Italian American Citizens Club, and also joining him is the chairman of the board of directors, our own former mayor Rich Garbarino.

Please give them a warm welcome as they come up to the party.

Thank you.

Honorable mayor and city council.

On behalf of IACC, I accept this award with very very gratitude.

I have been a member for the bocce club for over 15 years now.

I'm also the Spacey Sports Director, which I run all the events through me, all the tournaments, everything, plus summer camp for the kids for summer.

And I had to stop the special needs program this year because of my health problem.

I have some health problems, but I'm gonna start it up next year.

So I'll be having the Building Path Association Community come back, and I'll have like six classes that I will be teaching myself because I love it.

I love special needs people, and I'm happy to tell you tonight that I got an email that they want to have a special um tournament which is gonna run close to two to three months for the Olympics.

So it'll be going on from April to like June.

And it'll probably be running it because of my schedules and stuff on a Saturday.

And they're very flexible on time and stuff like that.

But I just want to mention that also that we are so proud of the Italian American Citizen Club.

We have almost 400 members now.

And our club is growing.

We are partnership with Park and Rec.

We're having all kinds of things being constructed over there right now.

They took away the garden, and we're building a barbecue area plus a area where people come in and enjoy the sit down when we have like dinners and barbecues and stuff like that.

And so anyway, I I'll keep it short, but thank you very much for your award.

Thank you, Mr.

Gas.

Thank you.

Please, I did again thank you for this award.

I just want to say, as a hyphenated citizen, Italian American citizen, we stand proudly with our brothers and sisters who are also hyphenated citizens because we have all contributed so much to this country and to this city.

It means a lot to us to exceed this tonight.

Thank you for recognizing this.

We really appreciate it.

And thank you for the work that you all do.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next item, please.

We'll move along to item number 24, which is a proclamation recognizing United Against Hate Week, October 19, 25, 2025.

Thank you.

And I've asked my colleague, Councilmember Nicholas, to uh make this presentation.

Thank you, Mayor.

As we all know, South San Francisco stands for diversity, inclusivity, and respect for all, regardless of your race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or abilities.

When cities and their residents work together against hate, we can restore respect and civil discourse, enhance the strength of diversity, and build inclusive and equitable communities for all.org to combat hate effectively.

On behalf of the entire city council, I would like to present this proclamation to one of our volunteer extraordinaire, a CERT member, who not only has love for the city but to all.

I would like to call on Sonny Koya to meet me at the podium and accept this proclamation recognizing October 19th to the 25th as united against hate week.

Let's welcome Sonny up.

Thank you very much.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Nicholas.

Thank you all for allowing me to receive this proclamation on behalf of everyone in South San Francisco.

And I share this with everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'd also, before we move to the next item, wanted to call out the posters we all have received as well.

South San Francisco Stands United Against Hate, Sur San Francisco, Permanes Unido en Contra de Lodio.

These are as well going to be promoted through our social media and whatnot.

And if you want one, please come to the city manager's office and we'll give you information on what that looks like.

Thank you again, Councilmember Nicholas, for making that presentation.

We'll move on to next item, please.

We'll move along to council comments and request.

Awesome.

Who'd like to kick us off and start this evening?

I think I'd like to go first for a change to mix it up a little bit.

So you may not know, but one of my um simple pleasures uh on Sunday morning is to actually pick up and enjoy the Sunday newspaper.

And I'm of an age where I still enjoy newsprint and getting my information in that manner.

Because all week long I'm dealing with this.

So on Sunday, it's a little bit different.

And imagine my surprise when on September the 28th, I picked up my favorite section, is Insight, which used to be called the editorial section.

Imagine my surprise where I saw that there was this tremendous article written by Carol Matsumoto, someone that I had the well, both the pleasure and the challenge of serving with for a number of years.

And the article um was about her early life, the challenges that she had as a Japanese American infant being sent to Manzanar.

And and the article was talking about an executive order that our president had recently uh made back in March, where uh anything that was disparaging to America or its peoples or its past needed to be removed from websites or from the parks or any type of building, so nothing disparaging.

And um, and she talks about um that, and I really do need to give this justice.

If you'll indulge me, there's a couple of paragraphs that complete her editorial that I think are um simply borderline brilliant.

So um, and these are her words closing her article.

I have walked the dusty paths of Manzanar as a former prisoner, public official, and citizen.

I have stood before generations of young people and told them the truth about what happened there, not to divide us, but to remind us that democracy is fragile.

Justice must be guarded, and freedom is never guaranteed if we forget how easily it can be taken away.

To suggest that acknowledging the harm done to Japanese Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, or other others whose histories had been marked by injustice, is anti-American, is to misunderstand the very essence of America.

We are not a nation made weaker by our reflection.

We are a nation made stronger by our resolve and active efforts to do better.

And Carol, I thought this was brilliant.

I wanted to share it with my colleagues in the community, and it's a lot, it's a lot to um to consider, you know, as we move ahead and deal with challenges to our democracy.

Thank you.

The next item.

Um, our mayor is sometimes called out of town to attend um conferences, and and as the vice mayor, sometimes I'm fortunate in that he's called away when there's a great event to go to.

So on October the 7th, there was a great event in South San Francisco.

There is a resident who lives at Westboro Royale, a retirement home.

His name is Edmond Bodonave, and he was a veteran of uh is a veteran of World War II.

Um he was born in 1923, so he is now 102 years old.

And on June the 6th in 1944, he found himself on the beaches of Normandy participating in the D-Day invasion.

Uh he was either 20 or 21 on that June day.

Um so he received um the French consulate, set the consul general and some staff uh to our town to present him with the French Medal of Honor.

And um, and I arrived with the uh the city pin, the one with the key, it's not the French Medal of Honor, but I I wanted to tell you that when when I read the certificate that the mayor had given me, and he was naming October 7th as Edmund Bordonave Day in South San Francisco, the assembled residents of Westboro Royale really cheered for that.

So we had our moment, uh Mr.

Mayor.

But um I just wanted to um uh to share with the community that um it really was like being in a room with a little bit of history.

I know you would have enjoyed it, and um, and I made the most of it.

Um, moving uh moving ahead, received some communication from the South San Francisco Women's Club.

Um, and they are putting together a fundraiser.

Um, if if uh it has to do with the Veterans Day, Veterans Day is coming up on the 11th.

Seems like all of my comments are like very historical, and yeah, anyway, that's where I find myself at 70 years of age.

Um, so they're doing a fundraiser for the veteran's home that's in Colma that we stay actively involved with.

And um, your your donation of ten dollars will result in a flag being placed uh in the front um portion of uh the women's club on Grand Avenue.

Um, and you can dedicate it to a uh a veteran who's here or a veteran who has passed, and you can put a little message with it.

And um I think that um it's a wonderful uh we all have um veterans in our families that uh at least have served in the past, and it's a great way to remember them.

So if you're interested in participating with that, it's kind of a short time frame, they've got to have the information within the next 10 days, and the South San Francisco Women's Club.

If you go to their website, it's and you go to events, and there's a printable flyer that'll tell you everything you need to know.

Um, and I think that um that's it for me.

Thank you very much, uh, Mr.

Vice Mayor, and also for standing in and representing um on our behalf.

Uh that indeed was a very significant, very important uh recognition, and we're proud that we were able to recognize when when he's still alive as well, too.

Thank you, thank you.

Councilmember Nicolas.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, and and uh thank you to Vice Mayor Ediego.

I had text uh our former colleague Carol Alfabeto about the article, and I was actually gonna read a portions of this.

He kind of beat me to it, so I went first.

So um, but it kind of helps me pivot to a couple things I wanted to say.

Um, I've been deeply concerned by the reports that are coming out that um that the president's gonna be sending ice to the Bay Area.

These reports have caused fear, confusion, and anxiety in our communities.

Families are worried about loved ones being taken away, children are afraid to go to school, and people who contribute every single day to our neighborhoods are feeling targeted simply because of where they were born.

Let me be clear.

Here in South San Francisco, here in South San Francisco, we stand with our immigrant community.

We'll always have and we always will.

Our city is proud of its diversity, it's what makes us who we are.

Immigrants help build this city.

They opened up small businesses, strengthened our school, care for our elderly, and contribute to the progress that defines South San Francisco today.

We understand that this is our frightening time.

The threat of raids and enforcement action creates trauma that ripples far beyond anyone's household.

And undermined trust, trust between residents and law enforcement, between families and the schools, between communities and their government.

That's not the kind of fear we will ever accept here.

Our city will continue to stand for compassion, fairness, and dignity.

He will not turn our backs on our neighbors.

We'll not allow fear to divide us.

We will keep working with our partners, our local organizations, and our residents to ensure that South San Francisco remains a welcoming and safe community for everyone, for everyone.

No matter where they come or what language they speak or what papers they carry.

To all our immigrant families, you are seen, you're valued, and you belong here in South San Francisco.

So now I'll get off my soapbox, Mr.

Mayor.

It's been a while since we've kind of seen each other.

And there's been a lot of events that I attended.

Along with Councilmember Nicholas, we got to celebrate Jamel Ray.

I'm sorry, Councilmember Coleman, thank you.

We got to celebrate uh Jamal Ray's 70th birthday.

He was the owner of Fort McKinley.

And I gotta tell you, that place, if you haven't gone, you should really go.

Uh it's a lot of great events, especially great food.

Uh, I want to thank staff, uh, especially public work staff.

Um, if you travel up Westbrook Boulevard and pass Westboro Middle School, you'll see this kind of um curb extension.

And that came out out of the safe routes school audit that we did, where we walked with several teachers and and parents to talk kind of see what we can do to improve safety on Westboro Boulevard.

And it's been a big hit amongst the students there and also parents.

So thank you, staff and Anginette also as well for putting that video together.

It was really, really important.

Um, I've been kind of doing this on-site tours with residents with specific areas in Westboro, where there's been a lot of traffic concerns and safety concerns.

I want to thank um Eugene Kim and Assistant City Manager Rich Lee for going with me to Wexford, and then on Friday, we're going to Avalon Drive.

On my side, uh Mr.

Mayor, Mr.

Gambarina, we're on my side of Westboro, where we've seen some speeding up on Avalon.

So we're gonna go there with staff.

So I want to thank staff.

Uh uh, along with Vice Mayor Adiego and Councilman Woman Nicholas, we attended the Kawana's installation dinner, and congratulations to all the incoming um officers that look forward to working with you.

And um we all attended the chamber installation dinner.

Uh, I gotta say that was such a great event.

Seeing um the community come together and recognize all our amazing um businesses in South San Francisco.

And I gotta tell you the walk-up music for each awardee uh was phenomenal.

I think that should be played every time at every event.

Um, and then uh also there's the uh Northeast Medical Services, NEMS, is a new medical facility just just opened in the downtown South San Francisco, and you might recognize them.

They're uh well known in San Francisco and they have a facility in Daily City.

They opened up a new hospital here in South San Francisco, and I gotta tell you, it is a phenomenal site, and the fact that there's additional health care being provided in our community is so important, especially since there's a fear by a lot of people that their health care coverage is going away.

So thank you to NEMS for coming to South San Francisco and stepping up and providing essential health care coverage, not only to South San Francisco, but really for the North County.

And then along with several of my colleagues, we attended the future lab anniversary, which was the 10th anniversary at Genentech, and we were um greeted and welcomed by our state superintendent Tony Thurman, and it was such a great event, and congratulations to Genentech and Future Lab and really all our students who have the opportunity to kind of go through this ability to learn about STEM.

And want to thank also staff for the truck treat event.

Um it was funny, both the city manager and the assistant city manager were both dressed up as ringmasters.

I thought that was really hilarious, especially since I would think I was thinking about gonna dress it as well.

So, and then lastly, I wanted to adjourn in memory for someone that I know well, and I know that Councilmember Nicholas knew well was Marico Enriquez.

Uh, he was what probably one of the first Filipinos um in San Mateo County to ever be appointed to a countywide commission.

And he was really well known in the community and bring people together, and he also put together the big POSIC event.

I think many of us have been invited to, where it's kind of an all-day event where you kind of go the service, and you come to then you come to the ceremony at the end.

But you know, it's it was just great to see the community come together, and Marika was really a person that kind of put that together.

And so I wanted to adjourn in his memory and to thank him for all his many years of service, and may his memory be a blessing to all that new.

So uh Mr.

Mayor that's all I have.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Councilmember.

Councilmember Nicholas.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I would like to echo your concern about the current news uh about the immigration enforcement here in the Bay Area.

And uh, you know, it's sent down chills my uh down my spine because I grew up in the Philippines during martial law and all this threat that um the uh ICE people and and uh the National Guard will be deployed here really brings me back to those unpleasant memories.

Um thank you to the library staff, namely Bobby, Rachel, Jesse, and Luella, who made it possible for us to usher in the celebration of the Filipino American History Month through the special story time that was held last October 11th.

We are also very grateful to the for the participation of Bautista books.

Lloyd was a very was very generous in sharing his books and also bread basket that donated a lot of pandesales.

Umgratulations also to the chamber of commerce, the newly installed officers and award winners, the galas, uh council member Nagales was really um something to to be raving.

Uh people are still raving about how everything was handled.

And for the NEMS, we all attended the opening of that one.

And uh that's also I was told by their CEO that they also um take care of uninsured and uh low-income families.

And uh during my conversation with him, he also is very interested in affordable housing.

They're also into housing development.

They actually of all places they had uh housing development in uh Oahu.

So affordable housing in Oahu, that's great.

Uh and then also, two tenth year anniversary of amazing community partners here was celebrated last Friday, the YMCA community resource center, and Genantex Future Lab.

We also had two very successful events at the Orange Park, Orange Memorial Park last Saturday.

The community came out for the Halloween extravaganza.

Congratulations to our Parks and Rec department, and also we had our annual flu vaccine.

Many of our city departments also participated in the trunk or treat, and it was really a great job.

We took advantage of the fun and ensure that everyone is ready for the flu season.

We also hosted the also student council at City Hall yesterday.

Was it yesterday?

It seems like so many things are happening.

The young student leaders had a city hall tour and got their questions answered regarding local government.

I was amazed with the questions they ask.

Um, and also I would like to uh adjoin the meet uh request the adjournment of the meeting in memory of Rufal Makaraeg who lost his battle with lung cancer.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Coleman.

Thank you.

Um I also want to join in and uh react to the recent news of um CVP, ICE and potentially National Guard.

Uh being used politically to strike fear in the city of San Francisco and and the entire Bay Area.

Um Trump ramping up attacks on our cities to divide us, distract us, and really cover up their failures.

They said they would focus on criminals, but they lied.

Instead, they are tearing families apart by detaining moms, dads, and hardworking people.

And now they're flooding our communities with troops and checkpoints to further terrorize our immigrant communities and make us all feel afraid.

It was never about safety, it's about political theater.

Prices are up, life is becoming more expensive, and they are threatening cuts on all of our health care.

What they are trying to do is induce fear, and issue retribution to our cities for standing up against an administration.

While our working families struggle, they're spending a million dollars a day deploying the military into our streets, and 75 billion dollars on ice.

This isn't just an attack on immigrants, it's an attack on our entire community.

What they want us to do is they want us to blame our neighbors.

They want us to blame our immigrants, blame our trans siblings.

They want to pit us against one another.

But we all know that true safety does not come from armed troops that harass our neighbors.

It comes from good job-strong schools, affordable health care, and communities that trust each other.

Our message is clear, and that is the National Guard does not belong in our cities.

We will not be intimidated.

Instead, we'll be united, fighting for a future rooted in care, dignity, and real safety for all.

Many organizations and advocates and those who are working as a city staff here, we have spent many months preparing for this day.

We have held know your rights trainings.

We have sent out resources to our community.

And I hope that we can do another round of that.

I hope that we can do another round of neuro rights resources sending to our distribution and communications lists, our social media.

And I would also ask if our city staff could look into mailing red cards to and other information to every single household in South San Francisco to ensure that our residents know what their rights are.

Moving forward, I also want to bring to attention uh our most recent Peninsula Clean Energy meeting.

Um they have presented another round of REACH codes for cities across the county to adopt.

And these reach codes are, you know, big shout out to the city of San Mateo, as they were the first to adopt it.

I believe they are the model uh for the model.

Um, and they're looking at policies that would affect two-way air conditioning, electric readiness, flex path, uh for both um residential as well as commercial buildings, and I hope that we can study that as a city and potentially implement that here as well.

Um addition to that, um, I had the opportunity uh to attend many events over the past few weeks, one of which was a Cal Cities uh convention, which I attended along with the mayor and with our assistant city manager, uh, I believe our city attorney was there as well, uh, attending panels related to finance, child care, and immigration, which is especially important in our current time.

And I also want to um uh say congratulations to our mayor, Eddie Flores for chairing uh the Cal City's Peninsula Division over the past year and doing such a good job at it as our Peninsula Division events have been very well attended, and and your advocacy there has ensured that peninsula-related interests are well represented for the whole organization of Cal Cities.

Um I also had the opportunity to attend the South San Francisco Chamber Business Awards night, and I also want to give a big shout out to uh the CEO Mary Prem, who has truly transformed that chamber and has brought together so many new members for the South San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, uh, small businesses and biotech companies alike, um, and really turned that organization to being very community-oriented, and I think just you know, seeing that the breath of the organizations honored that night, including you know the South San Francisco Women's Club and many others, just shows that many great things are coming to South San Francisco.

Next, I, you know, last Friday there were four events, and I was running around like a madman.

Um I start off my day at housing leadership day, which they held at the South San Francisco Conference Center, really highlighting the various policies and the strategies we can employ here in San Mateo County to better meet the housing needs of our populations, from young people all the way to seniors, and how we can prevent uh displacement of our longtime residents.

After that, I ran over to Orange Park where I attended the YMCA Community Resource Center 10th anniversary, as YMCA is the primary organization that provides resources to our communities in need.

And it was a great celebration where many members throughout our community, I think a few hundred uh community members ended up attending, and we celebrated the staff and the volunteers that make the work that the YMCA does possible.

After that, I ran all the way back to East 101 area for the future lab celebration, celebrating much of the work and the contributions that Genentech has to our students, starting from when they're very young in elementary school all the way to high school and beyond.

And then I ran all the way to San Carlos, where uh our chamber CEO, Mary Prem, uh had a Diwali celebration.

So I also want to wish, and I got a henna on my hand, which is uh Indian kind of like a temporary tattoo.

And the saying goes, this is what the artist said.

The saying goes is the deeper it stains and the longer it stains, the deeper the love of your spouse is for you.

And I told the artist that I'm not married yet, and she said it's time, and so maybe that's a sign.

But but seriously, uh happy Diwali for all those who celebrate.

Um, and if you have the opportunity, please attend the celebration uh some somewhere in the Bay Area as they are very beautiful.

And um, what Diwali stands for is the triumph of light over darkness, which is a very beautiful thing.

So that's all I have for today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Coleman.

And to all my colleagues, I just want to express my gratitude.

You know, we are indeed a very active, very busy council.

Um I see many of these events come across my inbox, and I want to uh thank you all for representing for for doing and putting in your flavor, your presence on them.

I I try to uh come on on some of these, except I'm doing my own bunch of these as well, and but but to highlight not only that we're busy just for the sake of being busy, but because we find these events to be very uh impactful for the community, for the future of South San Francisco and the current, the present of South San Francisco.

And I want to start off by acknowledging and thanking staff because I have profound admiration for everything that you do.

Marie Patea, the city manager's office, everyone for keeping us coordinated on time and all these certificates, trust me, it's it's a factory of certificates of recognitions and proclamations.

Um, but we do it with with heart, and that's what we do as this as a council.

We lead with purpose, we lead with heart.

Um I want to just highlight some of the events, not to repeat all of them, but I want to uh mention a few that weren't uh mentioned.

Uh Councilmember Coleman and the South San Francisco Chamber.

We also welcomed another new business to South San Francisco.

I think this year we've gotten many new businesses, not just in one district, but all throughout.

Uh this one, if you haven't seen it or partaken, it's right across the street, folks.

Um it's Sourdough and Company, a um a franchisee, and it's uh we welcome them here to District One.

It's uh soups and sourdough, right?

What makes Bay Area and San Francisco known for sandwiches and salads, so definitely partake in in welcoming them.

Um they could have chose any city.

In fact, they have another restaurant already in Pacifica, but guess what?

They bring it over here to South San Francisco.

Um, one exciting opportunity that I had is I attended and met with members about 15.

We have we're currently at 13 of our youth commission, our youth commissioners, and I want to thank library staff for supporting that.

It's great to be able to uh partake and get ideas.

These are our leaders, not our future leaders.

These are current leaders.

Um they're very engaged.

Many of them are even um already leading nonprofit that they've helped established.

Um it's remarkable that talent, the caliber that we have amongst our students uh here.

And um, there's really exciting things coming.

I can't just share yet, but they are really uh looking forward to engaging further, and not just them, but um all over uh South San Francisco, our youth as well.

Presented as well as the events that I attended with some of my colleagues here, a certificate of recognition to Skyline College Middle High School.

This is a dual program with our school district.

It's 10th year now.

It's graduated.

Not only do you graduate from high school with your high school diploma, but you also uh graduate from your associate degree.

So think of that.

So what ends up happening is they go into college as freshman years with about 60 units already.

So they're able to graduate even you know at a faster pace and still, you know, move forward.

So it's a savings, it's an impactful program.

Uh we started it here in collaboration with other neighboring cities.

Uh so we were uh really honored to be able to celebrate uh the recognition of of the alumni there as well.

Uh the chamber awards was mentioned.

Thank you to Mary Prem for everything.

But what I really want to call out again, a first is having uh the first uh Filipina to lead the board of directors, uh Danny Fandino is is now leading the the great work that the uh board of directors in the chamber continues to lead on.

That's a first for South San Francisco.

The chamber has been here I think more than a hundred years.

Um it's a staple, and and I as I called it out that evening.

Um it takes a great leader to not compete with other local chambers, but believe it or not, all the other chambers were there, present, and they had bought a table and they were engaging, and that's really impactful of the work uh that uh uh President Fandinho and also uh the chamber CEO is uh engaged in.

Uh more will come on the future lab and the impact that uh has had on our school district and our students, uh the partnership that we've had with Genentech, and that's uh coming up uh soon.

Uh I believe at the next council meeting, we'll be able to recognize them.

Um YMCA as Council Member Coleman, our core uh North County Core Social Services Agencies.

We've partnered with this agency during the pandemic.

They provided great resources, uh both financial and otherwise.

Uh council um at that time vice mayor and then mayor uh Nogales was able to lead our um initiative with them as well and do a lot of other work that we're doing, including uh rent relief and others, so we were able to celebrate them too.

I attended a neighborhood discussion about safe streets uh and and the different considerations happening between District 5 and District 3 at Martin Elementary.

That was a really well uh passionate discussion to say the least, discussing the new improved pedestrian and vehicle speed reduction strategies around Martin Elementary and Hillside.

Uh I want to thank uh our city staff as well as the school district and our residents for being engaged and for coming out and sharing their input and being able to dialogue and not be divisive, but really share their feedback and share their opinion.

This was a great demonstration of how uh we all can uh learn and provide uh uh new ideas to make things work and and for the better of our community.

Um, as well um earlier this month, uh, like council member Coleman said um with our city staff and uh we were able to join uh elected officials from across San Mateo County at the League of California Cities Annual Conference.

In fact, other cities here in San Mateo County, their entire council, yes, all five members attended uh and engaged in really in meaningful uh dialogue.

And what this brought about was uh various um opportunities to continue to further engage.

What this means is this is how we advocate, for example, the vehicle license fee that we were able to champion and bring back home and and be able to uh solicit uh funds, financial funds.

This is how we champion also climate resiliency for our East of 101 and Bayside uh areas, our planning for civic engagement, how we tackle also emerging technologies in local government.

These were some of the breakout uh sessions that I was able to uh really gain practical tools.

It's uh the opportunity to not have to recreate the wheel, but be able to be efficient uh in uh using our resources as well.

Um, I do have a request, and I want to direct it to our city manager and her staff.

Um, and this is regarding uh the growing presence of food trucks in our downtown area, particularly in district five during the early evening hours.

Um let me be clear before I even start with my comments.

Um I support food access, especially now in this day and age.

I think the board of supervisors just approved even additional funding for Semateo County residents that are um dependent and receive uh uh services from CalFresh.

So I am all about addressing food insecurities.

But I believe also that no one in our community should go hungry.

Um, and that's not the intention, but addressing food insecurity is a moral impetitive.

Um, but we also have the responsibility as leaders to ensure that all our vendors, mobile or brick and mortar, are operating safely.

Again, I want to repeat this, safely, legally, and also fairly.

Recently, I heard from a local business owner who's been here a long time.

She gave me a call in District 5, who has followed every rule in terms of her business, obtain her business license, secure the necessary permits, doing wonderful job as a strong clientele, and now finds herself compete competing with some food trucks that are not playing by some of those rules.

Many of these trucks are not based uh in South San Francisco or even in San Mateo County, some are not visibly displaying required permits, and this is a concern for myself, and also for others, as this presents public health compliance issues and trash management as well.

Uh, this isn't just about competition, it's really about fairness, it's about safety.

So I understand, and if we could continue pursuing this, Madam City Manager to really do outreach.

First of all, try to assess, get a get a count of who is uh within uh our area.

Um, again, focusing on District 5, it could be all over the city, and being a proactive outreach, not to penalize, but really to get a sense of um uh becoming more of a uh informational and educational so that they are aware and we can extend some grace.

Um, and if we don't see improvement, then um we can continue to explore other opportunities and possibilities, but I want to make sure that the safety of our residents is important.

So if we could follow up on that, please.

Mayor Floyd's staff will be going out next week on Wednesday evening starting at 8 o'clock, visiting the food trucks downtown to start off with.

And they have a flyer and more information about the permit requirements that they'll be sharing.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate that very much.

Um, I also want to take a moment to address and correct some of the misinformation that has been circulating about this year's state of the city.

Uh let's start with the facts.

This is a public event and is free to attend.

No one is being excluded, and no one is being asked to pay to hear from their mayor or their city leadership.

The city is hosting a luncheon as part of the event, and those who wish to join the meal are welcome to purchase a lunch.

But let's be clear: you do not need to buy lunch to attend.

You can come, listen, engage, participate at no cost at all.

And this is not new also.

Previous mayors have held the state of the city at the conference center at Hotel Focus and even as a luncheon.

In 2022, our former uh city manager at that point and mayor Nagales gave a version of it at a breakfast for the business community.

This year's format continues that tradition, and in fact, we're offering multiple ways for our community to engage, including having a Wednesday night city council version free to the public, open to attend, and the Thursday uh version at the conference center is designed to welcome our business sector, our education, our health care partners, many of whom are also based in District 5 and are helping to face uh, sorry, to shape the future of our city.

In fact, if you haven't seen or read the news, we have a noble prize winning uh just won the prize in medicine uh this December, right here in District 5 in our life science corridor.

This is not about hiding anything or not speaking to residents.

In fact, it's quite the opposite.

We're expanding access.

I'm actually doing it two times to different areas of towns and constituencies of stakeholders.

So I look forward to seeing everyone there, whether it's Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon or both.

Lastly, I want to clearly mention that three, if not more, of members of this council.

We are immigrants.

I am a proud immigrant.

I was born in El Salvador.

I didn't arrive to this country until I was a child.

I didn't learn English until probably when I was seven or eight years old.

Many of the uh folks I see around in this room are also proud immigrants.

That says a lot about South San Francisco.

And I will tell you that as mayor, I've gotten text messages as I've gotten calls.

And what we will continue to say and continue to do is first of all, we're South San Francisco, seven miles south.

And next, we're going to continue to say that we are a diverse city, an inclusive city, a powerful city that stands on the fabric of inclusion, and at no way and no means will we ever back to tyranny.

Will we ever back off to intimidation tactics or anything else in South San Francisco?

Our immigrant community, whatever country that has come from, is really the essence, whether it's the business community, whether it's our teachers, our educators, our coaches, our city staff, our neighbors will continue to affirm that South San Francisco is strong.

And also want to reassure and commit that this city council as well as our police department and our safety teams adhere by the rule of law, which has been applied in the state of California.

And that means that we are not collaborating with ICE.

We are not pushing people to get arrested.

Our South San Francisco police department are professional, dedicated individuals who know what's at stake and understand our community and have grown up to our community.

So I want to make sure that folks know that as we move forward in the next maybe 48, 72 hours, things are gonna look different.

But rest assured that here in South San Francisco, this council stays committed.

This council knows what to move forward on, and we will not back down.

Safety is important, of course.

Um, our First Amendment, anyone and everyone can use it, but we also want to protect our cities and make sure that our residents, when you need to call our police department or our fire department, aren't fearful to pick up the phone to dial 911, but understand that the situation at the national level also affects us indirectly and sometimes directly here.

So as mayor, I'm committed to continuing that.

Um we will be monitoring heavily what will be transpiring in the next few days, if not weeks.

Um, and as my colleagues have shared, uh we are not going to just sit on our hands.

We will be vocal, we will be smart about it, but we will protect first and foremost our community and our residents here in South San Francisco.

All right, thank you.

I think we've spoken a lot.

We're ready to move on to actual city business.

So with that, Madam U City Clerk, we could go on to the next item.

Thank you, mayor.

Our next item is public comments, and we have six individuals signed up to speak.

We'll begin with Clifton Birch.

And before we do that, just want to make sure that I put this statement.

Uh the city acknowledges that the members of the public have the right to be heard, but the city also wants to emphasize that we have a zero tolerance policy for discriminatory and harassing conduct.

The city denounces any hate speech, that me may be vocalized during public comments and speakers making public comments, are not expressing the views of the city or the city council.

Great.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Council members of South San Francisco.

My name is Clifton Birch.

I am a consultant to a general contractor out here in South San Francisco.

And we did a project for you guys back in 2020.

I believe the project number was SS and Sam T S and Tom, 1601.

It was the Linden phase one traffic, uh, street calming, and we didn't get compensated for that work.

So we've been around, we went out of business, we've been trying to reach out to the city.

So what I'm asking for the council on the Mr.

Mirror, you could do is audit that project for me, and then we can look at how we finance that city project off our backs.

So we have several, over 20, over 20 PCOs or change orders that haven't been compensated for, uh 10 of them in which uh the city of South San Francisco requested and work performed and completed.

Uh we just haven't gotten compensated.

We wasn't treated fairly.

No city administrator when we called.

Uh the attorneys were moving from Oakland to Redwood City and from Redwood City to somewhere else.

Uh it wasn't the project manager, was brand new, didn't know really too much about construction.

It was a it was a mess.

So all I'm here is to say is somebody can look into the project, audit the job, and see if we can get uh compensated for the work performed and completed.

Thank you for a comment.

Yes.

And we'll make sure to reach out.

Thank you.

Next comment.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is anything.

Council, I just wanted to um I would be happy to provide um a little more information now if you're interested.

I can also send a follow-up email with a summary of what transpired around this project.

Your pleasure, Mr.

Mayor.

Yeah, let's follow up afterwards.

Thank you very much for pointing to.

Next speaker is Annie.

Good evening.

So during the June 25th, July 9th, August 13, and August 27th City Council meetings, I raised concerns on the process data and selection of the women of the year awardees this year.

And during the June 25th meeting, Mr.

Flores called it a disgrace for me to even bring this up.

And today, after having waited almost four months, we finally received our public records request that proved that the entire event from soliciting the public to nominate a fellow South San Francisco woman to the selection of the awardees were nothing but a total fake facade of democracy and a deceptive political coordination between the city manager's office and Mr.

Flores.

Um to put women in the inner circle to the limelight.

So Mr.

Flores, it is truly a disgrace, a conspiracy, and a proof of nepotism and totalitarian totalitarian at the highest level.

Here, what I I actually learned from all of these email exchanges.

So on June on April 7th, and um there was an exchange of email between Mr.

Flores and communications manager, Ms.

Lau.

So Mr.

Flores asked Miss Lau if there were four winners and one on honorable mention then, who were the four winners referring to last year 2024's women of the year recipients.

Ms.

Lao responded, just four, no honorable mention.

Amanda Anthony, Ava Romero, Dana Le Jun, and Lydia Pompelso.

The number grew because Dana and Amanda nominated one another, and it felt fair to recognize them together.

Lydia and Ava had multiple nominations each.

So what this demonstrated was that Mr.

Coleman, who was in charge of that last year, clearly it went from one woman of the year to four women of the year.

And I actually looked up, you know, the two people who nominated each other and you put them on.

They were both on your website as endorsing you.

They serve as um, I think the school board.

So congratulations.

I think this was really well well done for helping you win the election last year.

So another change between Miss Mr.

Flores and Ms.

Lau was Mr.

Flores, actually uh director Ms.

Lau.

I will be making the final selections, but we will not share that out.

We would just say nomination will be reviewed and considered.

Nomination period this week's through the end of the month, which is April.

VBU final selection and notification, first week of May.

Thank you for your comment.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Cheryl Peruchetti.

Good evening.

My name is Cheryl Paracetti, and I reside on Arroyo Drive.

I lived in South San Francisco since 1964.

I'm here to discuss the issue of unleashed dogs at Burry Bury Park and the importance of adhering to the leash regulations to ensure safety and enjoyable environment for all.

Recently, my family experienced three incidents involving unleashed dogs regarding police reports in a matter of two weeks.

Several incidents recently involved violence.

I will give you three examples.

My husband had an issue with the man with the unleashed pit bull and he got a gun pulled on him.

The second issue, my husband had a dog, our dog on leash, and a pit bull viciously attacked our dog and we had a large vet bill.

Luckily, our dog didn't die.

Third incident, a man had a dog off a leash, another pit bull, and got into an argument with another gentleman and had a knife pulled to his neck, all because his dogs were off a leash.

When and how does this end and how?

And if there are no consequences for the people who let the dogs roam freely, the police need to at least issue citations to individuals who think that rules don't apply to them.

Given the current global climate, prioritizing the safety of South San Francisco residents is crucial.

When police respond to safety concerns, they typically issue warnings, which are often disregarded by park visitors.

I propose that new large signs be posted at Burrybury Park, accompanied by a thousand dollar fine for non-compliance.

The park is utilized by children, elderly individuals and others, and fail, failure to follow rules has led to continuous confrontation amongst park visitors.

This measure will encourage accountability and responsibility amongst park visitors.

By working together, we can create a safe environment and more harmonious community space.

I urge you to consider installing larger and more prominent signs and imposing the fine, empowering us to drive positive change and ensure a better future for our community.

I was at the park today, called the police department.

There was a large pit bull running around the back of the playground where at least 10 children were playing.

Since I left, no police showed up.

I understand it's not the first priority of the police, but someone is going to get hurt.

So I am here to put you on notice, and I will be calling the police every time there's an unleashed dog at Burry Bury Park.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment, Miss Paracetti.

Can you provide your contact information to the city manager if they don't already have it?

Just so we could follow up with you as well?

I will.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Tom Carney.

Sam, if you can hold up that picture.

Two years I've been calling this in, and as you see here, there's um over here so that people on the TV can see it.

So as you see here, a big building was built.

Several city officials day in and day out, go by that.

These businesses, there's five restaurants there.

You see the blight, you see the trash.

Nothing, nothing.

The second one is James.

Um the proclamation you just read for ADA disabled people.

Sorry to hear about your dad.

I have written to City Hall, I've written to Council.

Here we go.

Here you have a ramp that's been replaced three times.

Council, you called me out.

You said it wasn't true.

I provided you with the pictures, the dates and the times.

Uh we have pictures here of 15 years.

The city manager, former city manager, come out, he had the money fully funded to replace the busted sidewalks.

And as you see here, you get in a wheelchair, you go out into the middle of the street, and then you can't get up the curb.

I've sent you this, and I've been working with you guys for five years.

City Hall wrote back to me and told me in writing, not our problem.

Take your problem somewhere else.

Well, I'm here tonight.

So now, hopefully, we can get something done.

Um, the trash in District 5 is deplorable.

Now, you guys told me a couple of weeks ago that the bins on Grand Avenue are not yours.

That's a lie.

It's untrue.

There is one San Trans bin.

Yes, it's a mess, but you have about 20 bins, that's a bigger mess.

And why won't you do something about it?

Every second door on Grand Avenue is closed.

They pay a business license, they get health inspections, they pay rent, and they make landlords rich and they struggle to survive.

So why won't you acknowledge that we have a problem?

And back at the back of the rear of the job center, there's a few homeless sleeping and they're struggling in sleeping bags at night.

Could the job center bring them inside and help them?

We're funding that with our tax dollars.

Uh, sidewalks.

There is no sidewalks.

I bring it to you and you ridicule me.

Why?

We have almost half our population is over, is is is seniors.

You know, if one if you spent a day on crutches or in a wheelchair, maybe you take this serious.

Why won't you take it serious?

Why do you ridicule people that come before you to speak publicly about our infrastructure failing and are blighted downtown?

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you for thank you for allowing me to speak.

Madam City Manager, um, when is uh council going to be briefed on the uh parcel business improvement districts initiatives?

Um is that any time that we will be looking at that?

Are you talking about the PBI?

Uh huh.

Yeah, we're happy to bring you an update on that.

Okay, maybe we can bring an update on that as that's uh a direct action item that will be improving and addressing all of this stuff.

Great, thank you.

Uh next item, please.

Next speaker is Barbara Earhart.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, and guests.

The state of the city address that highlights the past accomplishments and future direction of South San Francisco for its residents has become a business and political donors only club.

We are right now in this 170 million to 210 million dollar community building with a debt service.

That's interest only of 6.6 million dollars annually, albeit the MSB a safe building until former city manager Mike Fitrell started saying it might be seismically unsafe.

Should continue to be used, especially for the state of the city address using the social hall.

It was illegally stolen from the residents when the city did not do its due diligence in mitigating the senior services center in the MSB.

However, what does the business community care about our city?

This is what the Chamber of Commerce annual luncheon is for for the business community.

The residents are treated again as septchildren, but do care about the state of the city address.

And unless they each pay $60 for a meal, they're sitting on the sidelines while our elected politicians glad hand for future donations for a future assembly run whose campaign is still active or upcoming re-elections to their council seats.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Sam Chiguti.

Excuse me.

Yes, good evening, Mayor Flores.

Members of South San Francisco City Council, fellow citizens.

My name is Sam Katkooty.

I attempted to attend the special meeting on October 4th of this month, which dealt with the selection of the new city manager.

Meeting was held at 357 Oyster Point Boulevard at 1 p.m.

I'd rather drove down Oyster Point until the dead ended, then turned left onto Oyster Point Boulevard and drove to 89 Oyster Point.

At this point, I realized I had gone too far and made a U-turn and headed back to Oyster Point Boulevard.

There were signs in front of buildings giving various addresses, but not one showed the address of 357.

I then turned back turned right back onto Oyster, turned right back onto Oyster Point Boulevard.

At this point, I turned into a parking lot of a company at 349 Oyster Point Boulevard.

Here I parked and spoke to a security guard at the premises.

I figured 357 Oyster Point must be close by.

So you walked in between the garage and 365 Oyster Point Boulevard.

Alas, there was a solid fence blocking my way, and all I could do was get to the alley between the garage and 36 point 365 Oyster Point Boulevard, no further.

At this point, the security guard returned and told me that she could not find 357 Oyster Point Boulevard, nor could she see any signage that said there was a city council meeting in the area.

I ultimately left frustrated and headed for home.

There had to be a more convenient location for the public to attend this meeting than at the furthest reaches of South San Francisco.

Thank you.

Madam City Manager, can you provide some context to that, please?

We did double check, and the HR director placed signs at the entrance and at the back door.

And many people found the meeting.

So I'm very sorry if any members of the public got turned around there, but I think the city did meet all the requirements for addressing and noticing.

And maybe it was just me as far as elected.

I had a little trouble finding the meeting and getting into the building.

So I don't think we can just carte blanche, push away the concern.

It was not the best place to have a meeting.

I just wanted to add to the city manager's comment, without without um, this is not intended to respond directly to Vice Mayor Adiego.

Um, but I just wanted to point out that that I did review the situation, it did meet the requirements of the Brown Act, and the the HR director did attempt to provide additional signage to direct people to the correct location.

Um it is unfortunate that a member of the public was unable to find it, but I just wanted to clarify that it did meet the legal requirements for the Brown Act, we'll move on to our next speaker, is Fionola, good evening, council.

It sends chills down my spine.

Meeting after meeting, listening to false virtue.

Which is indeed in no shortage from this dais.

You stand with our immigrant community.

No, you stand with illegal aliens who've violated the laws of the United States of America.

You stand with an invasion rolled out by the Biden administration on legal immigrants and American citizens to count ballots.

Some immigrants in this community are not afraid.

We're American citizens.

We came here legally, we followed the laws.

We followed every rule.

We hold the laws of the United States of America in the highest regard, and that is why we legal immigrants and American citizens are not afraid.

In fact, we're empowered, empowered to look more closely at how you deceptively conflate one subcategory of illegal aliens with another of legal immigrants, and how you fund public resources to aid and abet an invasion of our country, otherwise known in the constitution as treason.

The United States Constitution, Trump's California law, laws repugnant to the Constitution, are null and void.

Thank you.

That concludes our speakers.

Next item, please.

We'll move along to our consent calendar.

Item number five is a motion to approve the minutes of the meetings of September 24th, 2025, and October 4th, 2025.

Item number six is a motion to approve the reappointment of one Measure W Citizens Oversight Committee member.

Item number seven is a report regarding a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a third amendment to the purchase and sale agreement with Ensemble Investments LLC for the disposition of the city owned property located at 367 Marina Boulevard for a hotel development.

Item number 7A is the resolution.

Item number eight is a report regarding a resolution approving program supplemental agreement number F028 revision two in the amount of 196,205 dollars with the state of California for the bridge preventative maintenance program and authorizing the approval of budget amendment number 26.020.

Item number eight A is the resolution.

Item number nine is a report regarding a resolution authorizing an agreement with Trimble Unity Construct for Capital Project Management Software and Support Services and approving budget amendment number 26.031.

Item number nine A is the resolution.

Item number 10 is a report regarding a resolution amending resolution 109-2025 to allow city manager to utilize any unspent amount of the total project budget if necessary towards additional construction contingency budget for the corporation yard roofing project.

Item number 10A is the resolution.

Item number 11 is a report regarding a resolution to amend resolution 134-2025, authorizing a total project budget of $900,000 for the Dundee Park Remodel.

Item number 11A is the resolution.

Item number 12 is a report regarding a resolution authorizing the acceptance of grant funding of up to $5,000 from the Peninsula Library System via County of Sam Mattel Measure K funds to encourage community building in which library programs will bring people together in trusted environments where participants can explore and learn together, finding common ground and connection at the South San Francisco Public Library, amending the library department's fiscal year 25 to 26 operating budget, and approving budget amendment number 26.027.

Item number 12A is the resolution.

Item number 13 is a report regarding a resolution to accept United States Department of Transportation grant and updating TR 2501 Vision Zero Action Plan.

Budget number, budget amendment number 26.029.

Item number 13A is the resolution.

Item number 14 is a report regarding a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a purchasing agreement on behalf of the city of South San Francisco with Diamondback Fire and Rescue Inc.

in the amount of $85,491 with 13 cents to purchase two complete sets of vehicle extrication equipment, approved budget number, amendment number 26.028 to the fire department operating budget in an amount not to exceed 44,204 dollars with 13 cents.

Authorized the appropriation of 19,662 with 96 cents.

And authorized the appropriation of 24,541 dollars with 17 cents of designated fund balance and developer impact fees from the Genesis North Tower Development.

Item number 14A is the resolution.

Item number 15 is a report regarding a resolution authorizing the acceptance of donations from various community partners, totaling 179,000 for fiscal year 25 to 26, as well as in-kind donations for the park and recreation department's concert in the park event.

Item number 15A is the resolution.

Item number 16 is a report regarding a resolution authorizing the acceptance of 372,849 in grant funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development through the Permanent Local Housing Allocation Program and approving budget amendment number 26.030.

Item number 16A is the resolution.

Item number 17 is a report regarding a resolution approving the acceptance of older American Act grant funds from the Samita County Aging and Adult Services Division in the amount of 100,962 and amending the parks and recreation department fiscal year 25 to 26 operate operating budget pursuant to budget amendment number 26.026.

Item number 17A is the resolution.

Item number 18 is a report regarding a second reading and adoption of an ordinance adopting amendments to Title 20 of the South San Francisco Municipal Code to make minor revisions to sections 20.110 related to a height exception for screening for roof mounted equipment.

Item number 18A is the ordinance.

Item number 19 is a report regarding an ordinance repealing current building code regulations under Title 15 of the South San Francisco Municipal Code and adopting by reference to 2025 California Building Standards Code with certain local amendments.

Second reading item number 19A is the ordinance.

Item number 20 is a report regarding a second reading and adoption of an ordinance amending the South San Francisco zoning map to rezone the properties at 139 Terminal Court, 120 terminal court, 196 Produce Avenue, 160 Protose Avenue, 140 Produce Avenue from Mixed Industrial High to Business Technology Park High, and an ordinance adopting a development agreement to construct a life science campus totaling 1,700,000 square feet on a 17.67 acre site at 131 terminal court in accordance with title 19 and 20 of the South San Francisco Municipal Code.

Items 20A and 20 B are the ordinances.

Great job, Jasmine.

Thank you, Mayor.

Any items that folks wish to pull.

Right.

I am going to pull a few.

So if you're out there in the audience, I'm gonna pull 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, but I promise it's gonna be very brief.

We'll start with nine.

Item number nine.

And I'll I'll keep it brief.

Um I don't know that I have any questions that need to be answered, Mr.

Wilson.

Uh I just have an observation.

So this is um a contract um for support services for capital project management software.

Current contract um uh that ran from sometime in 22 until November of this year.

Um is um uh gives us little time to really uh consider any other options.

So I'm bothered by um the reference to why this is a sole source justification.

Um it may hold water, but at the same time, there's no opportunity to have any meaningful discussion on it because one contract is up and it's time for another.

Um, I guess one question I do have this contract will be for five years.

The last one was for three, is that correct?

Uh yes.

Why is that?

Um five instead of three.

So let me tell you uh just a brief bit about the history.

Um in 2017, I believe we initially had a five-year contract, and then we did a three-year extension, and there was a right right to renew this, but rather than just continue renewing it, we wanted to include um the new contract language for cybersecurity, and so we thought we'd you know start over with uh a new contract.

Um, and I apologize that the you didn't have enough.

Uh we didn't give you more time to review this.

Um, it was an oversight on my part.

Um, it was included in our operating budget on the IT budget.

Trying to peg a responsibility on anyone you I mean, I do know your name, but you've been here for a relatively short amount of time.

So we're not looking for any apologies.

I just want to go on the record.

I won't not be voting in favor of this.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Um, let's move on to item number 10.

So item number 10 uh has to do with the budget, the total project budget for the corporation yard, yes, Mr.

Gilcrest, correct.

So, I have no problem with the um the amount of money because on a two million dollar project, a hundred and some odd thousand for rot repair is is a small percentage.

Um, but having done this with other buildings, um, if you wait too long, you end up with with dry rot underneath the existing.

Did we wait too long?

I wouldn't say that the dry rod is extensive, so I wouldn't say that we waited too long, but it's certainly at the end of its useful.

I mean, I know we're never wrong, and that's that's kind of the mantra that we put out there over and over again.

But five.

But I need to understand, and probably not from you, Jake, but I need to understand maybe from public works.

Do we do any um inspection along the way when we get close to the time to to replace a roof?

I how old is this roof that we're replacing?

This roof is 25 years old, I believe.

Sounds like we waited too long.

And it's and it's actually less of a question of public works, it's it's a facility condition assessment, I think um parks and director great media using it.

I don't mean to belabor it because there's other items.

My point is 25 years is a long time, so we may have waited too long, and I need to know that there's another process.

Not tonight.

Got it.

Not tonight.

Okay.

Talk to me anytime.

Sure.

I'm retired.

Give me a call.

All right, so the way we're gonna do um, kind of if you want to line up, it's gonna be quick and brief.

So, Adam, John, uh, Aaron, Elia, and Angela.

Um, I want you to share how much it is that we are receiving and what it is for.

I would like the community and the public to know um this is this is important to be able to recognize the partners and what we're being uh using this funds for, please.

Great.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members.

Um, Adam Elschultz, assistant assistant library director.

Um we are pleased to share that we are we have been awarded up to five thousand dollars from the peninsula library system through San Mateo County, um, and uh supervisor Jackie Spear uh to do programming across the county in libraries to bring people together in perhaps non-traditional ways.

So we're looking at a range of activities, guest speakers, of course, but also tabletop gaming, um, social hours, things like that to bring the community together in the library and get to know each other.

Great, thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Johnny?

Item 13.

Good evening, honorable members of council, Johnny Wilson, Public Works Engineering.

Um, we received 400,000 from the U.S.

Department of Transportation, Safe Streets and Roads for All program to um develop our vision zero action plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item uh 15.

Aaron.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Um, parks and recreation received $2,000 from Alan Nugent from State Farm Agent, $2,000 from Kaiser Permanente.

Um both of those were for the concert in our annual concert in park to help enhance that event, um, as well as uh 25,000 dollars from Genentech um for the concert in the park, and that really went towards um our family uh fund zone area enhancing that area.

Um, and then we had our parking company of America that was an in-kind service with helping with the free shuttling for the event for that day.

Um in addition, we had a hundred and we have a hundred and fifty thousand dollar donation that is before you for um Stripe, um that would help to electrify the handheld tools for our parks maintenance, um, and the um like charging elements infrastructure to get that started for um our parks department.

And I'd love to unpack a little bit and also be able to recognize in the audience uh the team from Stripe who has been able to do this, uh, both uh Tony and and um and uh sorry, your name.

Um yes, Eric, of course, to be able to organize, but tell us a little bit more of what this actually is going to be uh helping our parks and rec department on.

Certainly, so I'll step in Greg Mediati, Director of Parks and Rec.

Um, so in 2024, uh Newsom signed into law um a bill that would require that small engine equipment be electrified.

So um starting in 2025, um small engine equipment, things that we use every day in terms of our regular uh work performance, also emergency response, um things like small generators, um uh chainsaws, we would wee whips or string trimmers, hedgers, etc.

Um, are no longer sold in California's gas um equipment.

So we started to electrify our equipment.

We found that one of the major roadblocks was the charging infrastructure.

Um, the size of the panel we have at the corporation yard, um, the amount of space we need to charge each day.

Probably more than 100 battery packs for all these units.

Um, and so we were very fortunate to be uh connected, I believe it was you, uh Mr.

Mayor, that connected us with Stripe, um, who was um interested in helping us uh move forward our sustainability efforts.

Um, so of course, in addition to law, it is what we want to do is the right thing to electrify our small engine equipment along with our fleet.

But this will give us approximately a hundred thousand dollars will go towards the infrastructure needed to add the charging equipment.

So enhancing our um our PGE panel, bringing electricity to our charging base, installing the charging base, and then approximately 50,000 will go towards the actual equipment that our staff will use in the field.

Great.

Thank you very much for that update.

I do want to recognize Stripe.

Mr.

City Manager, all of the donation is legal.

There's no issues with that.

Is that correct?

Mr.

Sorry, Mr.

City Attorney.

The donation from Stripe, it's all legal.

I'm sorry, Mr.

We reviewed this as part of the agenda review, and there are no issues with the donation.

Great, thank you.

And I just want to thank Stripe for most importantly, not only supporting our our staff and our parks and rec, but also for taking care of our environment.

This is this is what really that is, and helping our climate here and the issues that we all uh real um our real as as residents.

So thank you.

I want to recognize that as well.

Yeah, uh big shout out to Stripe, um, and you know, from the CEO all the way down to many employees.

There are many employees who live in South City.

Um many of them are are friends and and many of them are our bikers, and they're always you know emailing me, texting me thinking, you know, how can we make bike infrastructure really safe?

And so, you got something going on at Stripe, where you have really involved employees who are advocates uh for the entire community.

So thank you uh for choosing South San Francisco and and thank you for the the contribution.

Thank you again, great.

Um, moving on, uh Elia, and then we'll have Angela really quickly on these.

Um, just want to go.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members, um, and roll management analysts on the housing division.

Uh so the 372,849 dollars is grant funding from our permanent local housing allocation.

Uh specifically, this is only our year three allocation, it's a total of five years.

Uh the city's total allocation would be 1,307,000 um 307,880 dollars.

Our year three allocation will be going specifically towards um economic advancement center operating costs, uh minor home repair program and uh reimbursement for preservation activities for our uh below market rate program.

Thank you.

Angela, round this off.

Thank you.

Good evening, council members.

The city of South San Francisco has been the fortunate recipient for many years of receiving older American Act grant funds to support our senior services program, namely for the grant at hand, this funds our adult daycare program as well as transportation services.

It allows us to offer um free or reduced cost care.

So if for community members who um might consider cost as a barrier for adult daycare or transportation, please don't hesitate to contact us.

And then um also our congregate nutrition program, which has been in place since 2023, where up to 90 seniors twice a week can participate in a free lunch program.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Thank you for staff for stepping up and being able to do all this.

I wanted to just highlight for the community many times.

And I just wanted to really acknowledge uh your staff time as well, because some of these come came through grants or connections or actually uh relationships, but also the generous donation again uh from our partners.

This absolutely needs to be uh called and deserves to be called out.

So once again, I want to thank you.

Um, and this is great.

This is again moving our city forward and and impacting uh programs that improve the quality of life uh for our residents.

Um, having said that, I will now take a motion of all items except item number nine of the consent agenda.

I would move for approval of the consent calendar five through 20 with the exception of nine.

I will second.

I have a first and a second.

Can I please have roll call?

Mayor Flores.

Yes, Vice Mayor Adiego.

Yes, Councilmember Nicholas.

Hi.

Council Member Nogales.

Yes, Council Member Coleman.

Yes.

Alright.

Um, now can I move forward uh with a a motion for item number nine?

Can I have a first and a second, please?

So moved.

I have a first.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Okay.

I have a first and a second.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Nogales.

I'm not looking for any support.

This is a sole source justification.

I don't want to jeopardize it.

Yeah, it's it's like we are pregnant.

We don't have a choice.

We have to get together.

There you go.

I like that.

This is like I guess we've been using it again.

So we're pregnant, we're getting married over here.

Okay, got it.

Councilmember Nogales.

Aye.

Councilmember Nicholas.

Aye.

Councilmember Coleman.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Adiego?

No.

Mayor Flores.

Yes.

Motion passes and motion passes on the other items as well.

Next agenda item, please.

We'll move along to administrative business.

Item number 21 is a report regarding a resolution adopting the City of South San Francisco age-friendly action plan.

Thank you.

Welcome, Ms.

Armanino.

Good evening, Mayor Eddie, Vice Mayor Adiego, Council members.

As you know, in August of 2022, the City of South San Francisco began its journey in applying for the age-friendly community certification under AARP and the World Health Organization.

In May of 2023, the city of South San Francisco was formally recognized as an age-friendly city.

In May of 2024, the city, along with collaboration with CAFE, started preparations for developing our age-friendly action plan.

The city was fortunate to receive the support and expertise of representatives from CAFE who provided technical assistance, consultation, applied research, access, and community organizing guidance and helping city staff with developing our age-friendly action plan.

I'd like to introduce Karen Cunningham from CAFE, who will walk you through the process and how we got to the living document that's before you today.

Thank you, Laura.

And that's former Mayor.

I was looking at the Miss Cunningham.

He's still my thunder.

It's kind of dark over there.

I didn't realize it was Karen.

Hi, Floor.

How are you?

Yes, Karen Cunningham, former mayor of Brisbane.

And just before we start, I just want to let you know that when Brisbane was approached to become age-friendly certified, I was the person on the council who was just like, yes, this is such a great idea.

And the Board of Supervisors really wanted to have all 20 cities in San Mateo County certified.

I'm very proud to stand here today and say that 17 of the 20 cities are now age-friendly certified through CAFE, World Health Organization, and everybody else.

So Mayor Flores, City Council, staff, and I guess there's probably your task force sitting here as well as you.

Thank you.

And I just have to say, for Brisbane, it has been fabulous.

Our senior population, obviously, we're a smaller city, so it's easier to wrangle people and just go yank them out of their house if they don't want to come to a meeting and make it all happen.

It's it's a bit easier.

But our senior people who were on that task force and the people who were part of helping get Brisbane certified, are really so much more involved now than before.

And if I can impart that to you, and if there's anything I can do to personally help you with that, it's been remarkable how much we've now engaged the um the senior population who are involved.

So without further ado, how do I use this thing?

Okay, all right.

Alright, so thanks everybody, and I'm really glad to be standing here today.

And normally I don't do the presentations.

So when the World Health Organization first noticed the exponential growth in the population of older adults in 2010, uh, they started a worldwide study to learn about the unmet needs of older adults.

So now this network includes 1,705 towns and cities across the world, and 60 countries encompassing over 330 million people worldwide.

So the reach has been quite quite big.

It serves as a platform for cities to share best practices, learn from each other.

I hope we can all help each other moving forward and stay together strong, San Mateo County, and collaborate on innovative solutions to the challenges of an aging population.

Now, for everybody in this audience who's probably under 40, I have to say 40 gets there quick, 50 gets there quicker, and before you know it, 60 is on the table.

So, you know, getting people prepared for older adult life is so important for all of us to be doing.

Oh, I forgot something here.

Okay, there we go.

I just skipped over my own slides because I'm not used to doing this.

Um there are eight domains of livability in age-friendly cities.

You can all read, I'm not gonna go through them.

Um we added a ninth domain because a few cities had requested emergency services.

Brisbane being one of them, South City also being another.

So you actually have nine domains of livability for your city, which is emergency services and everything that goes along with that in our our community.

Um the age-friendly action plan is a document that encompasses your city's five-year information gathering assessment process.

Think of this as a roadmap, not something you have to stick to.

It's gonna change, it's gonna duck, it's gonna weave, it's gonna change and go one direction to another, depending on what information is brought to you.

Um the citywide survey was disseminated to gather input of the unmet needs of the older adults.

And hard copies of uh that survey were distributed or made available to everybody in your community, and this is where we are today as a result of that.

Now I have to say to everybody who filled in that survey, that was monumental.

That was the longest survey in history that was ever put out to anyone, and congratulations to everybody who filled it in.

I have to tell you, I was one of the people who filled it in as well.

So South San Francisco initially had 15 focus groups in 22, and CAFE conducted two additional engagement meetings in October of 24.

Um, and that was to discuss what might have been left out in the initial uh assessments.

Okay, to become age-friendly certified, South San Francisco focused on the following expanding free shuttle routes, rest areas, uh Sound San Francisco Rotary Club collaborated with the city, uh South San Francisco Police Department did an amazing job as well.

And the Center for Age Friendly Excellence developed an older adult community resources display at the senior center, and on and on it goes.

So I was told I only had a few minutes, and I don't want you to give me a red buzzer, so I'm gonna do it.

Okay, you're good.

Okay, so um right.

Um focus groups discussions focused on all of the eight domains in addition to um the emergency services.

Interviews with staff were conducted with various departments in February of 2025 to make sure we had all our ducks in a row and that we had everything um covered.

Uh, staff in South San Francisco were very thorough, and I really quite liked that.

Okay, so umwards.

And our domains are the outdoor domains that were really important to you.

Um, some of the strategies included um developing a senior ad hoc subcommittee to research and discuss more comfortable seating, which seating seems to be something that is in every city.

Everybody wants more benches, so let's have more benches, everybody.

Providing age-friendly furniture and designing intergenerational playgrounds.

The second domain was transportation, the bugaboo of everybody, right?

Everybody complains about transportation.

We need to improve it.

How we do that in this county is quite a challenge, but everybody's really working on that.

So we wanted to educate older adults on various transportation resources.

And I think when the resources are given out and really pushed, and as much as we do make those things available, Got Wheels program is still unknown by a lot of people, etc.

So the research, the possibilities of additional parking options and the potential of senior safety zones or age-friendly parking spaces.

The third domain was housing.

Again, something that is a huge challenge for all of us, trying to keep people in their homes and finding ways to gather information about future housing policies, is always going to be a challenge.

Social participation provides an opportunity that supports social interaction and promotes respect for all ages, abilities, and cultures.

Some of the strategies including enhancing and increasing social opportunities for older adults.

This could be achieved by offering more age-friendly social events at various times during the day and evening.

And one of the things I've heard around the entire county is trying to have some countywide social interactions.

That whole loneliness to light that came from the county, anything that we can do to make opportunities for people to get out and get together and have some fun.

The communication and information is to ensure the access to information about resources and activities for older adults is available at centralized locations, widely distributed, and in multiple languages.

And I will add one more thing over and over again.

When you ask, you know, how many times should I do it?

Do it some more.

Because we're also busy, as you well know, in our daily business when we're trying to pay attention.

But it just these things get slipped up all the time.

And you talked about avoiding scams today.

I think if we can have more scammer type of information, probably at a county level that we're all involved with.

Every scammer thing that I've been to has been filled to the brim, people waiting out the door.

So we obviously need much more of that.

And I think if we all work together, might be a better idea than having them on our own.

Increase outreach to the senior community in areas where they gather.

This can be accomplished by providing a centralized location where older adults can access brochures, activity guides, and other helpful resources, possible locations include electronic billboards, civic buildings, coffee venues, parks, restaurants, etc.

I'm trying to speed read here.

Respect and social inclusion.

And I think a lot of the older people don't feel like their input is welcome or their input is even relevant.

And I think the more we can have social interaction with them, but that's where all the brains are in some of these older people who are now retired and actually have the time to do things that they didn't have before.

So we're not using that wonderful resource, and we could do that a lot better, in my humble opinion.

Civic participation and employment.

Um that comes up a lot, and I think South City probably does a really great job at it, but it was just a reminder to say we can still do better in all of these areas.

And the eighth domain was community support and health services.

Heard a wonderful presentation earlier from NEMS, so you are already on that.

And the goal there was to provide an environment with programs and resources that support aging in the community with a positive quality of life.

And I too an immigrant, by the way, I meant to say that up front.

So slide nine, um the emergency services.

This was not part of AARP or even the World Health Organization when they brought this up, but it's come up over and over again.

So I think Semateo County is the one who's going to be pushing that as something that's very important for our older population to really understand how to be prepared better.

And you have appendices, many of them.

There's tons of information.

We're not going into that.

And in May 2024, Cafe and Parks and Regstaff met to start the process in developing the action plan.

And here we are.

Thank you very much.

And as your neighbor, I'm happy to help if you need me for anything.

Any questions?

Thank you, Karen, for the presentation.

I want to first uh start off by recognizing the members of the task force that are in the audience.

If you could just stand up and take a little recognition there, both of you, I believe.

Um so thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate the work and everything that you've done to make sure that the voices of our seniors, and I know there's other members that weren't able to make it tonight, but it was a diverse group, including many areas of our city, geographically as well as demographically as well.

Thank you both uh for being here to be able to support.

Then I want to be able to recognize and acknowledge where all this really was created, and that's uh my colleague here to the left, Councilmember Nicholas.

It essentially, I mean, it's funny you said pregnant earlier, because it is your baby.

This I I see it.

I was very um honored and privileged to be able to serve in this uh task force, but but you really led the charge here um since uh the inception when you were mayor as well.

So want to recognize you, and I also want to recognize staff, Laura, Angela, um, Greg, everyone who Devin, as well, who have uh been going through the spreadsheets and the iterations and the drafts and convening and making sure that the surveys, the focus groups, all of those details were put together.

Um so I'll turn it over to uh councilmember Nicholas to to share a few comments and uh and then open it up to the rest of the my colleagues if they have questions.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, also I would like to acknowledge the assistance of other members who were of the task force who are not here.

Edward Tolley, Maria Bersilat Lelong, Betty Batalia, and of course the two persons who are here today, Lydia Pomposa and Sani Koya.

And of course, the staff, like you said, uh had been very instrumental in putting this together.

Uh definitely I'll be there for the Brisbane age-friendly summit.

I was gonna put a plug in for that.

If anybody wants to go sign up tonight because we're almost full.

Yes, I I few few slots left.

So I'll definitely be there.

Thank you very much.

And I'm looking forward to just making sure that we implement this uh action plan that we have uh making sure that all of the seniors are aging in place, and uh this is one of those vulnerable uh population of our city, and so they really need a lot of our assistance and help, and also they are in turn helping us because of their experience and uh the beautiful things that they can um implement or or share with our intergenerational residents.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Nicholas.

Anyone else comments or questions, Councilmember Nagaz?

First of all, Karen, thank you for the wonderful presentation.

Thank you to my colleagues for putting this together and also to the committee members.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought up transportation because you know, once a person doesn't drive anymore, um that can lead to loneliness for some people because of a lack of interaction.

So I'm really glad that you put that as one of the focus, and one of the things that we do here in South City, we provide a free shuttle, which is fantastic.

But one of the things I've always wanted to look at was also micro transit.

Because sometimes, um you know the show doesn't get you where you need to go.

And you take an Uber or Lyft can be really, really expensive.

And I and um I don't know if there was every discussion.

There is a gut wheels program.

Yes, that actually I was gonna get to that to that point.

Is that our got wheels program?

I was reminded that it's oversubscribed now.

I think that's correct, right?

There are still a few spots.

Oh, good spots, okay.

And that's only what five dollars if you get onto their program, which is phenomenal.

I remember when they first came, um, they were looking for people to subscribe to, but now it's oversubscribed.

So I wasn't know if there was any conversations about microtransites uh conversations going on amongst the committee or suggestions.

There is a lot of conversations going on, I think in all the cities.

Uh we do have the transportation people coming to our event, so we can pick their brain.

Um personally, I think we should be asking the county for more money for this program, since it is so popular, and the north-south transportation, I'm sure the same in South City is great.

East-west, not so great throughout the county.

So, if we can put pressure on a board of supervisors to give us some more money for these programs, I think that is the way to go.

Um, as the age-friendly uh workshop in Brisbane will be the last one of 2025.

I think it's a really good opportunity for everybody to chat with each other and put their heads together and find out, you know, how we can work on that.

That is one of the biggest things that comes up all the time.

Yeah.

How do I get down off the hill?

Yeah.

So you should also look at the San Patio County Transportation Authority in terms of money.

Okay.

Thank you, Karen.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Yes, uh, thank you so much uh for this, and especially a big thank you to Councilmember Floor Nicholas.

When you look at the demographics of South San Francisco, uh the oldest district in terms of demographics is district four, and it's definitely uh very important uh issue.

And you know, I remember knocking doors last year.

Like a lot of folks are um like they're concerned about transportation because when you look at district four, there's not a lot of buses, there's not a lot of public transit options, and actually I was able to, you know, back when Got Wheels was looking for more clients or not or I don't know, maybe clients, right, or or constituents to utilize their service in North County.

I remember um you know, giving them those flyers and letting them know that that this service that this service exists, and and um I mean it's important, you know, to to go out to to avoid loneliness and to also just be a part of of the fabric of the South City community um at all ages of life.

And you know, I've had the opportunity to um you meet with many leaders around the county, and you may remember that a report came out, I think earlier this this year that showed that the fastest growing homeless population is unhouse seniors.

Yes, and and that issue goes hand in hand with transportation because I mean, even if you are living in a home and you have you you may not be able to to move elsewhere.

Correct.

And what if you're stuck in that home that doesn't have access to transportation?

And I think we're so lucky in South San Francisco where we have uh a very probably the best rotary club in the whole world that is really taking uh a very hands-on direct role in producing the affordable senior homes that we need here in South San Francisco.

I remember you know visiting uh Rotary uh for Rugby Plaza in the lead away and meeting with Beverly Carnage, who is the Q community services coordinator of of um of Ruby Plaza, and her saying that housing is health care, housing is everything.

Um and when you have stable housing, you can do so much more.

And if we build housing near transit, we can ensure that the communities that we're building are are walkable, that when our seniors are moving into their affordable homes, that they're able to get groceries, go to the restaurant, uh, go go to health care appointments, uh hop on BART, hop on Caltrain, right?

Go to the Giants game, whatever you want to do, um, and and really be able to continue to be um living in South City with the highest quality of life, and that's something that um that I am committed to, and I hope others can continue to see that vision as well.

Yeah, you've got your population of 60 and older, is going to dwarf your population of 18 and under in just a few years.

Um, in Brisbane, we have 55% of our community is over the age of 50 at this point, and those who live on those houses on the hill have no way to get down.

Um, what Brisbane did, and I think the program is working really well.

It came from Sal Salito is Brisbane Village Helping Hands.

And you can be a member and a volunteer.

And most of the requests for service, which is free to uh anybody who joins, is somebody can give you a ride to the doctor's appointments and any way you need to go.

So that might be a consideration in a biggest city.

Obviously, it's much more difficult to manage, but it's a thought.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Mr.

Visemor, anything?

Okay, good.

Um, just wanted to also point out something that really kind of struck with me, and that's the kindness campaign.

Um, very unique, very important, right?

As we talk about isolation, uh, we talk about the need also for companionship, and many folks don't know how to portray those feelings, how to be able to share the feelings uh during many of these um individuals' lifetime.

Mental health wasn't spoken about.

No, mental health wasn't a resource.

That was taboo right in so many ways.

So, you know, there's there's clear evidence now, even as we experience our political turmoil that hurt people hurt others, hurt people, lash out and give hurtful comments when they're themselves are in pain.

So the fact that we're addressing respect and addressing kindness, um, that's to be called out.

Um, the other thing is that there are many other, you know, subdivisions of this in the action plan.

Invite folks to to that if you are interested to definitely dive into it, but just want to acknowledge uh the work of CAFE and being able to support South San Francisco in getting to this point too.

And you're the right person to be on on this too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And you know what?

It is a living morphing document.

It's just a roadmap.

It's not like you've identified this today.

That's how it has to stay.

This has got to be a moving document.

And you know, oh gosh, we've got to do this next week.

No, next week something might come up that's very, very different.

Very true, very relevant too.

From your neighbor, call me anytime.

Thank you, Karen.

You're welcome.

Um, any public comments on this?

No public comments, mate.

Great.

I will now uh take a motion to approve the resolution adopting the city of South San Francisco age-friendly action plan.

Uh Councilmember um Nicholas, would you like to make a motion?

Yes, I would like to make the motion.

All right, and I will second it.

Can I have roll call, please?

Vice Mayor Adiego?

Yes, Councilmember Nogales?

Yes, Mayor Flores.

Yes.

Council Member Coleman?

Yes, Councilmember Nicholas.

Hi.

Motion uh passes, resolution approved.

Thank you again, Karen.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for Laura, and thank you, everyone else.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you to uh Greg Two Parks and recognition.

Yes, yes, of course.

Okay, let's move on to the next item, please.

Item number 22 is a report regarding an umd an update on launch local, the vacant retail activation pilot program, and a resolution approving a sublease agreement with K Christope and DBA Six Bicycles for the commercial space of 634 El Camino Real.

Item number 22A is the resolution.

Welcome, Miss Donner.

Hello, welcome.

So, good evening, Mayor Eddie, Vice Mayor Adiego, and council members.

My name is Katie Donner, and I'm a management analyst in the economic and community development department.

Tonight I am providing an update on launch local, the city's vacant retail activation pilot program and requesting approval of a sub-lease agreement with six bicycles for 634 El Camino.

Tonight marks an exciting milestone in the city's ongoing efforts to reduce storefront vacancies and support local entrepreneurship.

With the adoption of this resolution, staff will determine the final tenant improvement allowance of up to $10,000 as a rent credit once elegant once eligible improvements are verified.

The lease terms are consistent with the launch local program guidelines that were previously approved by council.

This sublease represents the first tenant partnership under the launch local program.

For a quick refresher on what's happened so far, the pilot program was approved by council on March 26th following a February study session.

Launch local is designed to reduce vacant storefronts and help first-time for-profit brick and mortar businesses get established.

The pilot utilizes currently vacant city-controlled commercial spaces to offer short-term below market leases.

Key terms include $1 per square foot triple net rent, up to a $10,000 tenant improvement credit, a 12-month lease, and minimum operating hours of seven hours a day, five days per week.

Priority is given to local entrepreneurs and clients of the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center at the Economic Advancement Center.

The pilot site at 634 El Camino Real excluded food service businesses during the pilot phase because the space was not equipped with the kitchen use.

Following council directions, staff released a request for interest on April 1st with applications due on May 30th.

Submissions were evaluated on concept strength, readiness, financial capacity, and activation potential.

Outreach was broad and inclusive.

We posted on the city website and social media, shared through the Chamber of Commerce, hosted four information sessions, two in person at 634 El Camino, and two on Zoom, which were recorded.

We also made materials available in English and Spanish with other translations upon request.

The goal was to ensure accessibility for a diverse range of small business owners.

Eight businesses submitted the eight businesses started the application process.

Six businesses submitted complete applications, and five met the eligibility criteria.

Applicants represented a diverse mix of concepts, including chai drinks, IV vitamin therapy and wellness, a yoga studio, a bicycle shop, a photography studio, and a maker arts retail space with entrepreneurship support.

Two finalists were invited for interviews.

Staff evaluations focused on readiness, alignment with program goals, and potential to activate the El Camino Real Corridor.

Both finalists offer strong community benefit concepts, but six bicycles stood out for its fit with the site and broader community impact.

Six bicycles is owned and operated by Christopher Nguyen, who has over a decade of experience in business development and bicycle retail.

Six bicycles will provide full service bike repairs, tune-ups, rentals, and sales.

It will also offer group rides and maintenance workshops, engaging the community and promoting safe cycling.

The location along El Camino Real near South San Francisco High School and Centennial Way Trail is ideal for a bicycle shop.

This business venture directly supports the city's active transportation, mobility, and public health goals.

It's my pleasure to introduce you to Chris, who is here tonight to share a few words.

And apologize to the new and family that we're keeping bedtime from the kids.

So laid, so so sorry, but welcome.

Thank you so much.

I'm really excited.

I've loved bicycles.

I've been really excited to start this next chapter of cycling, my cycle career with my family to have a bike shop to be able to share the community with them through that is gonna be amazing.

Yeah, I I think this opportunity is also very exciting to be able to uh contribute to my city and as well.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We're glad to have you.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

We'll proceed with the presentation.

Otherwise, is that it's a little bit more.

Almost done.

So this sublease covers 1,600 square feet at 634 El Camino Real.

Lease terms include a dollar per square foot triple net rent, totaling $1,600 per month, a 12-month lease term, a $3,200 security deposit, and up to a $10,000 tenant improvement credit determined by staff upon verification.

Keys will be provided once the sub-lease agreement is fully executed, hopefully very soon, with an anticipated grant opening in spring 2026.

Staff will evaluate six bicycles' performance and the overall program success at the end of the 12 uh month period.

The lease will generate approximately 19,000 in rental revenue over 12 months.

Six bicycles will will receive up to a $10,000 tenant improvement rent credit once improvements are completed and verified.

Minor building maintenance like restroom repairs and patchwork will be covered using existing reserve funds from previous leases.

There is no anticipated general fund impact.

Upon council approval, staff will execute the sub lease agreement and coordinate key handover to six bicycles.

Tenant improvements will begin shortly afterwards.

City staff will work with Chris to support a 20 a spring 2026 grand opening and celebration highlighting the success success of six bicycles and the launch local program and inviting the community to participate.

In addition, staff received very strong and creative applications through the first RFI request for interest process.

We're continuing to work with those businesses, both the ones who submitted applications and those who began but weren't able to complete them to explore opportunities for participation in future phases of launch local.

Staff has already begun preliminary discussions with private property owners interested in offering vacant spaces for activation.

We're still analyzing how the program could expand to include privately owned sites while maintaining fiscal sustainability and alignment with city objectives and financial goals.

Staff will continue monitoring outcomes and return to council with the recommendation on the program renewal, rent adjustments, or expansion opportunities.

This first launch local tenant marks an important step in activating the city's commercial corridors and submitting small business growth.

So thank you for your time and support of launch local, and we're looking forward to celebrating six bicycles grand opening.

Thank you, Katie.

Appreciate the work on this, leading it.

You've been uh at the helm of this initiative, so it's really exciting to see our our first uh little being able to be launched.

I'll take comments.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, um I cannot tell you how excited I am about having this bicycle shop.

Um I've been ragging on the city manager that we need a bicycle shop, we need a bicycle shop.

Um, I was tired of bringing my e-bike up the Pacifica up to their bike shop, so it's nice I can actually now go to South San Francisco for the bike shop.

So I'm just excited about this because we've been building the infrastructure uh in South San Francisco.

I hear it, people are glad that we're doing it.

Um we'll continue to build the infrastructure, but what we're missing was that bike shop, the local bike shop, and I think you're you're you're gonna be a huge hit in our local community.

Uh and I can't wait to do the first ride um to the bike shop.

I look forward going through uh Centennial Trail because it's a little dangerous on El Camero on the bike, so that's something we can work on.

I think something we can get you and I can talk about is how we can improve uh the corridor on El Clara because we did it before where we did a dedicated bike lane, and it was kind of a hit in the miss there, but I think as more and more folks realize we have a bike shop there, you're gonna see more and more traffic in terms of bicycles going on El Cano because that's probably what they're gonna use to get to your bike shop.

So um, welcome.

I can't wait, and uh much success to your business.

Thank you.

I concur with uh councilman Nigales.

Um I think that um geographically it is really the right location.

In fact, the next item I think we're gonna be dealing with has to do with what we might envision for El Camino in the first in the future.

Mr.

Wynn, I'm probably the only member of the city council that's ever had a small business.

Do you know what you're getting into?

And the reason that the reason I say that is because that first year goes by so very quickly.

So I need to understand from my staff, he's having some success there.

How do we allow him to stay longer?

Uh what's the program after that first year?

So it's it mentioned in the lease agreement that he will need to provide like just monthly updates of like especially revenues with how the business is going so we can track to make sure he's going in the right direction and not in the red.

And once hopefully when we see that positive trajectory in the right direction, um things are going well, he's liking it.

Hopefully, we could make it so it's rent is just a little bit more expensive to help the city, but also help him prepare if he ever wanted to expand and have to face a market rate rent.

Um and if for whatever reason things went sideways, um we will put him in touch with Renaissance um and other like entrepreneurship services and have that open door policy with Chris that he can come to us if he needs to when would his lease begin.

We were just talking about that outside.

Uh I'm hoping, but we will sign it within the next like four to six weeks.

Yeah, four to six weeks.

Yes, yeah.

Uh, I'm just looking at at um, you know, how recalled what it was like, and it is not unusual to be somewhat in the red initially, um, and I don't know about your business model, but that's that's really common.

Um so we can't look at just that.

We have to look at um trends.

And um I'm interested, it's a triple net lease, and normally that puts a lot of burden on the tenant.

So, how is this different from a standard commercial lease?

I assume there's no property tax because it's a city-owned building, but there's um, the assessed property tax, I believe.

Nell Sealander, economic and community development director, there is a minor property tax that is paid by businesses, all of our commercial tenants actually get a small uh property tax assessment.

Skye can definitely explain it better than I can, but it is baked into our lease that that is uh expense paid for by the tenant.

It's baked into the lease, so it's an extra charge to the tenant, it's not correct.

The the county assesses it directly to the business owner, actually.

All right.

This it's yes, this is called possessory interest tax.

So when a government agency leases a portion of uh tax exempt property to um uh for-profit enterprise, the county assessor looks at what is the um value of the portion of the property that's being used for private purposes and assesses um uh the value of that of their interest in that portion of the property for the business and then applies property tax to that.

So it's not just their improvements to the unit, it's actually the unit itself, the square footage.

Yes.

And do does he have any idea what that's going to be?

I guess I'm asking whoever put this program together.

I don't believe we've communicated that to him, no.

We don't know yet.

It's it typically takes honestly, it typically takes the county two to three years to even come up with it and impose it.

We're getting them.

You're right, they're slammed at the assessor's office.

So it it's so that might work to Mr.

Norman's advantage.

Maybe you know they won't get to it for a while, but they will go back to the time that you started.

Correct.

A good frame of references the properties on Grand Avenue that the city acquired about a year and a half ago, and we only saw the first of these assessed just this year.

So it's about a year and a half process for them to even come up with an assessment.

That had the the misfortune of being reassessed because of our purchase, um, whereas this property isn't getting reassessed with a higher property tax basis to begin with.

Okay, so this is a pretty pretty new building still, and it shouldn't have any because normally a triple net, if there's a problem with the roof or or any of the um uh plumbing or electrical, that could come to the tenant.

Can can we insulate him from that?

Absolutely.

Absolutely, we can insulate him from that.

Does the lease insulate him from that?

I mean, when you use the term triple net, that's that's uh all encompassing.

We can double check it, but can we?

We as far as I remember.

If the we were saying, like from wall to wall, he would be responsible if things came up, but if there was something like massive reef roof leak from like a residential tenant upstairs, like we would work that out.

Um, it's one of the nuances of this building is that midpen owns the improvements around it.

So if it's impacts related to the residential units, midpen is often the one taking responsibility for those.

The city has worked collaboratively with our existing tenants there when there are exterior improvements that need to be made, such as signage or parking improvements, or midpen painted the facade of the building that's a midpen expense.

Is it necessary to do a triple net lease?

No, it is not.

It's a very new building, and so maybe we shouldn't.

Yeah, when we if he damages something, that's different, that's outside of correct, and we're not, I think we're using the term loosely to describe there's no services that the city provides interior to the space.

So we are not providing utilities, we're not providing maintenance, we are not providing any of those additional wraparound services.

The the frontage of the building will be his responsibility.

We won't be clearing the sidewalk, or if he wanted to you know pressure wash the windows.

We wouldn't be doing things like that.

That would be his responsibility.

So when when this when this lease starts at a dollar a square foot and it's bringing in sixteen hundred dollars, the offset for the improvements, the tenant improvements that he did undertake, does that happen on the front end, or is it uh applied evenly through the one year of the lease?

In other words, is it up front that he's forgiven rent for X amount of months to get to that magic number?

Yeah, okay, all right.

That's that's a little more generous, so thank you.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Vice Mayor.

I appreciate your expertise as as a landlord too.

This is really important to be able to flush that out.

I want to give him the best chance possible because I remember there was a bike shop on Grand Avenue, and it was starting to, you know, really come along, and the rent killed it.

But I think you're in a better location long term, and you have a better landlord, I know that.

You know, I I really envy the spirit because my parents were entrepreneurs, and I tried my hand on being an entrepreneur in the early 90s, uh, because my husband wanted to, but you know, it didn't pan out.

I went back and the corporate work because I think that's where I'm better at.

Anyhow, um I wish you the best on your uh adventure.

Um in the 38th years, I didn't think I remember having that bike shop in Grand Avenue.

Now, uh, you know, you will be the second one, and I I'm hoping because it's an enviable um location where you will be, so hopefully, we will see you thrive and and succeed.

And like the mayor said, so sorry that you know we keep you waiting here.

The kids are late in their bedtime.

Okay.

Um, so I don't know if you've attended the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition Bike Summit, but for the past couple of years, they've they've hosted it here in South San Francisco.

And remember last year, um I attended I welcomed everyone to the great city of South San Francisco, best city in the world.

And and you know, as I was socializing with with some of the attendees, a lot of them were talking about how there's a missing bike shop up in North County, and that how we really, really needed it.

And so I'm glad that this is happening, and I'm very very um I like I know we're you know we're building a lot of infrastructure, we're building those bike lanes, we're we're doing more.

We really treat Vision Zero seriously to where uh there is going to be a demand for this, and I'm looking very much forward to it.

Thank you.

Um, just want to share, you know, really what this council is trying to say is your success is our success, um, especially with a new pilot program like this.

Uh to Katie, I absolutely agree with uh reaching out to private and others.

Um, the anti-displacement ad hoc committee has blessed us as as it was per uh preferred as a great strategy to move forward on that.

Number two, that was their recommendation, so we could expand it to to private owners as well to look at that.

Um, it's unfortunate there was a speaker earlier that said everything is closed up and down Grand Avenue and doesn't realize that this are the types of initiatives and programs that we're working on to address that.

Um I also wanted to say, Mr.

Newton, happy to connect you as well with with Devin and see if there's a partnership with the every kid deserves a bike program, our chamber of commerce.

I'm sure you've heard uh about that as well, uh, the bicycle coalition and other uh business partners that you know, even with the school district, etc.

Even our parks and rec that we could make sure that uh you get the amplified exposure and visibility as well uh as we welcome you to our city.

So thank you again, as I say to every new business, thank you for choosing to invest here as well in in South San Francisco.

And with that, I believe we are moving with a resolution.

So uh do I have a motion uh to move forward with uh this item?

I'll be happy to make that motion.

Okay, I have a first.

I'll second.

I have a first and a second.

Uh well, before we do that, do I have any public comment?

No comments, Mayor.

Great.

Okay, so first and second, can I have roll call, please?

Council Member Coleman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Adiego?

Yes.

Councilmember Nogales?

Yes, Councilmember Nicholas.

Hi, Mayor Flores.

Yes.

Thank you, Katie, and the economic development team as well, and welcome.

Welcome.

Thank you all.

And it's time to get to bed, kids.

Have a good night.

Thank you all.

Next item, please.

Final item.

Item 23 is a report regarding the El Camino Real Mobility Plan and the Countywide Grand Boulevard Initiative.

Welcome.

Hi, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

My name is Megan Woolley Osdall, Deputy City Manager, and tonight we're presenting on the Grand Boulevard Initiative and the El Comino Real Mobility Plan.

So very serendipitous that we went after six bicycles.

So uh tonight, as as you can see, I'm I'm very happily joined by colleagues from Sam Trans who are leading the Grand Boulevard initiative, by uh colleague from Caltrans, who owns El Comino Real, uh, and by SMCTA, who provided funding for our El Comuna Real Mobility Plan, and will hopefully provide funding in the future.

Um, also by our consultant team, Farin Pears, and by uh colleagues in our engineering division, and we'll be providing an overview over our two projects this evening.

Uh, we're also interested in hearing from you about your initial considerations and priorities for El Comuna Real.

Um, and now I'll pass the mic over to my colleagues at Sam Trans.

Thank you, Megan.

Thank you so much, Megan.

My name is Cassie Halls.

I'm the manager of major corridors at Sam Trans.

And I'm joined by um, as as Megan mentioned, Jacob Buffenbarger, who's the system planning branch chief of Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo Counties at Caltrans Bay Area, as well as Patrick Gilster, who's the director of planning and fund management at the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, SMCTA.

Um so I'll be giving the presentation, but I will also be um giving them an opportunity to speak at the end, and also they'll be available for the QA.

So, uh just wanted to give you an overview of our Grand Boulevard Initiative, which is a multi-agency partnership to implement transportation improvements on El Camino Real and a planning study that we are bringing to our board for adoption called the GBI Action Plan, that will be published this winter.

Okay, so the Grand Boulevard Initiative is a partnership between SAMTrans jurisdictions along El Camino Real, including South San Francisco, uh transportation focused public agencies, and advocates and business groups in San Mateo County.

SAMTRANs is working with these partners to lead workshops with staff from all of these jurisdictions.

We really appreciate appreciate South San Francisco's support and attendance at all of these meetings, as well as public agencies to build momentum around transforming transportation infrastructure on El Camino.

This group is called the GBI task force and is working to advance a unified vision, focused on mobility and safety on this critical North South Corridor that serves as both the main street of local communities as well as an important regional connector.

So you can see on the slide here, we are leading this corridor wide program.

As I mentioned, we are also developing this cohesive vision from the ground up by convening this task force, and ultimately what we're trying to do is build momentum towards implementation.

So we don't want to just create another plan that sits on the shelf.

We want to make it easier for cities to make improvements on El Camino by leading a coordinated countywide process.

So this slide just represents all of the activity happening along the corridor.

So there are a lot of studies and efforts underway that are tied to the Grand Boulevard initiative effort.

The South San Francisco study, which Megan and Far and Pierce colleagues will be talking about shortly, is one of many, and so many other cities are having similar discussions as you'll be having today about what are the trade-offs and benefits that we want to see on El Camino and what do we want El Camino to be for the future.

And one thing just to note is the reason why we have both this regional effort and the local efforts moving in tandem is that El Camino is both a main street for local communities as well as this important regional connector.

So we need to move both the local and regional visioning in lockstep to ensure designs are being moved that are being moved forward, are community driven and context specific.

But we also want a seamless experience for all users of the corridor, whether you whether you are walking, biking, riding, transit, or driving.

And we're also Jacob will be mentioning this at the end, but we also are working very closely with Caltrans on their comprehensive multimodal corridor plan, which is tied to this effort.

Okay, so I'm just gonna take another couple minutes to talk about the Grand Boulevard Initiative or GBI Action Plan.

So this is a document that we are very excited to release in the next few months, and this will be the basis of the implementation process that I described.

And what this document does is it establishes a corridor-wide vision and assesses the needs in terms of, you know, injury prevention, all the type of improvements, and then establishes a cohesive vision and builds momentum towards implementation.

And the basis of this action plan is all of the input that we've received from the task force and the extensive input from both the city partners as well as the advocates and business community that have been involved.

And the action plan is intended to create a unified framework that the countywide regional and state agencies can establish, and that local agencies can have contributed to, and ultimately local jurisdictions will select a preferred design as a part of their local planning effort.

So we're not pre-discribing what cities should do, but we're establishing the regional framework.

I just wanted to take a second to talk about the vision and also the problem statements and goals that we have outlined within this action plan.

And at the end of this presentation, after my colleagues go, we'll also have an opportunity to have a discussion.

So we'll refer back to these slides.

But in our most recent GBI task force meeting, we worked together to craft a vision for the future of El Camino that can serve as the North Star of our work.

And so what came out of this is that people want El Camino to be a safe and vibrant street where people of all ages and abilities can travel comfortably.

So I think it reflects a lot of the sentiments we heard earlier today.

Okay, so through the work with the task force, we've identified the following priority problems.

So it's easy to you know identify problems.

The hard part is prioritizing them and figuring out how we want to make those improvements.

So what we've done is we worked with the working group and task force to identify all the types of problems on El Camino.

Then we narrowed it down to the top problems we wanted to solve and goals that will allow us to solve those problems.

So the problems you see here are all related to safety on top, then mobility, and then process.

So these were the top pain points that we heard from all of the cities and other partners.

So we heard that El Camino Real has an unusually high rate of fatal or serious injury crashes, particularly for people biking and walking.

And so our approach to this and what we're documenting in the goals of the action plan is to adopt a safety first mindset to eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes.

And then under mobility, we we are recognizing that El Camino Real has a highway-like design that discourages walking, biking, and transit use.

So we want to transform El Camino Real into a complete street that works for all users.

And then lastly, we're hearing from our city partners that it's too challenging to develop implement and fund transportation projects on El Camino Real.

And so we are working to create a new framework for change that aligns vision, process, and funding.

This is just an example of some of the menu of options that we are presenting to cities in terms of the streetscape changes that cities could implement.

And we're seeking for cities to have seamless facilities across city boundaries.

So we don't want a bike lane that ends at you know city of the South San Francisco, and then you know, kind of a piecemeal experience.

We want to have continuous facilities as much as possible.

So these are some of the examples.

But you know, items related to safety, you know, how can we best address pedestrian as well as auto and bike safety, active transportation, and transit.

So I'm gonna speak to this slide shortly, and then I'll invite uh the TA and Caltrans to speak to it as well.

Um, however, this slide I recognize it's very wordy and very technical, but at a high level, what this shows you is that we are on the far left side.

So we're currently in the conceptual planning phase, we're in what's called the GBI action plan, um, and then we'll be moving into the next step, which is um called the project initiation document in at the beginning of next year, and then we'll move into the design phases and construction.

So, what this tells you is that this is going to be a very long process and it's gonna cost a lot of money.

So we don't have the years on there right now, but most likely this will take eight to ten years, and it could take upward of 750 million all the way to a billion dollars.

So this will be one of the largest um projects that we undertake in San Mateo County, and it's very needed.

So, you know, we know that this is a big priority for all of our partners, um, but I just wanted to make sure that the expectation is set from the beginning in terms of how long this will take and how much it will cost.

However, the benefit of having Sam Trans, the TA, and and Caltrans at the table, you know, leading this effort, is that we can bring our skill set in terms of grant writing and seeking these big uh federal, state, local grants.

Um, often projects are more competitive when it's you know a whole corridor versus individual jurisdiction.

So we're gonna be a partner in this effort to make sure that these um components are deliverable and that we can find funds to meet this.

Um, so I'm gonna hand it off to Patrick Gilster first.

Thanks, Cassie.

Nice to see all of you this evening.

Uh Patrick Gilster, director of planning and fund management with the San Pateo County Transportation Authority.

Uh excited to be here tonight.

Uh it was important for Jake and I uh to be here to show our support for this effort and to make sure that cities understand how much the transportation authority and Caltrans are invested in this effort.

Um as you can see that's 750 million dollar shocking corridor number.

Uh, so that's the entire corridor number.

Uh it's a lot of money for context.

The current express lanes project was about 550 million.

So when we're looking at on El Camino, it's more money, but we have Gassie was saying a lot bigger hopes that when we are coordinating across city boundaries, there's a lot more benefits that can be seen from El Camino Real.

Um, the transportation authority, we have our different highway buckets of funding.

Um, so we can spend up to about 50% of that $750 million from our highway program to help reduce the burden to any one city.

Our hope with this being a larger coordinated effort is that the burden to any city is actually pretty minimal and that we can get external grant sources to actually help fund as much of this as possible, so that the rest of our funds locally can be spent on other priorities.

So that's really what we're here to help with and support is that over this life cycle that the transportation authority can help use our expertise working with Caltrans and working with Sam Trans to help either deliver or help get to the funding that you need to do that as well.

So looking forward to the continued partnerships on all of this over the years.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Jake.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Hello, thank you for having me, Council.

My name's Jake Buffenberger.

I'm the system planning branch chief at Caltrans District 4.

Uh, just want to kind of explain Caltrans role in all this.

So, first of all, Caltrans is the owner-operator of Highway 82.

Um, and we're required to engage in long-range corridor planning for the facilities that we own and operate.

And how we do that, like a lot of things at Caltrans has changed radically in the last five, 10 years.

Um we're less of a car-centric agency now as we used to be.

Now there's a lot of focus on bicycles, pedestrians, all that good stuff, transit.

Um our most robust long-range planning document is called the comprehensive multimodal corridor plan, or CMCP for short, as this demonstrated in the previous slide.

Uh essentially, this document uh explores the existing and future conditions of the facility and recommends projects to improve it.

The document tackles a wide range of issues and examines all modes of travel.

Uh while district four has completed many CMCPs for traditional uh freeway facilities.

This is our first CMCP for conventional highway.

Um, and because of the critical nature and unique features of El Camino Real, uh, we're adjusting our standard operating procedure for the CMCP, uh, because we understand that on a corridor like El Camino uh takes extensive partnerships with regional and local stakeholders, and that's why we're extremely pleased to partner with SAMTrans, the TA, CCAG, and all the local cities along the peninsula on the CMCP and the ongoing GBI efforts.

Uh we plan to directly incorporate both the vision from the GBI and the projects determined in the action plan into the CMCP, and we plan to use the GBI stakeholder framework uh to be the backbone of our engagement strategy moving forward.

Thanks.

Thank you.

So I'll just end by saying um I thank you so much for letting us present today, and thank you also to the TA for funding the GBI Action Plan, supporting funding for that effort.

Um so I'll hand it off to Taylor.

Great.

Megan.

You get me again for a while.

Um, well, thank you so much, Cassie, Patrick, and Jacob.

Um, so we wanted to speak a little more about our uh South San Francisco's El Camino Real Mobility Plan.

So um, as Cassie very clearly shared, uh GBI is really a regional effort.

So all of the communities from Daily City down to Minlo Park and actually Palo Alto as well are participating in this conversation.

But um we in South City really saw value in having a very local vision for El Camino Real.

Uh we really wanted a uh South San Francisco informed vision for our our portion of the street.

And so um myself, along with um with Matt and John and engineering have been leading this effort to um to conduct community engagement and uh help visualize what what our section really could be.

Um, so for our corridor, um our plan will focus on El Camino Real from the town of Colma city limits to down to the uh city limits with San Bruno.

Um the town of Colma is a little bit further in their process in that they are planning for a separated bikeway for their stretch of El Camino Real, and we will be tying into the uh separated bikeway with the shared use path in the northern area of of El Camino Real down to Hickey.

Um so our work is really building upon the vision set forth in the 2040 general plan that El Camino Real is a dynamic and re-envisioned boulevard that is a safe and healthy place for transit riders, pedestrians, bicyclists, and has a diverse mix of commercial, residential, and open space uses.

So we kicked off our project in July, and we're currently in our first phase of engagement.

Um, as the next step, we're going to pull all of the community feedback and all of the data together to develop initial concept designs for El Comino Real.

We'll then bring back the initial concept designs for the community's review and input in early 2026.

Our mobility plan process will wrap up in the spring, so that our initial concept designs can fold into GBI's PID process, PID process.

Oh, I'm skipping ahead on myself.

But even after that, we'll still have the opportunity to continue to refine the designs.

There is design iteration that occurs throughout the Caltrans PID process.

So we can continue to design to suit the community's needs and fold in best in emerging practices as time goes on.

And then if approved by Caltrans, as Cassie mentioned, we're hopeful we could begin construction in the next maybe six to eight years, depending on what the recommendations are for the South San Francisco portion.

So recognizing that El Comino Real is a critical north-south corridor in South San Francisco, we really want to hear from as many businesses and residents as we can about the vision for the future of the street.

So we've been reaching out to our community members.

First, it will through our boards and commissions, through concert in the park, surveys, and citywide communications, including the mayor's newsletter, through door-to-door outreach to businesses on El Comuna Real in partnership with Ernesto Lucero and our economic development division, and then also upcoming outreach to transit writers.

Just as uh sort of a snapshot, um, while we were at concert in the park, we we counted the number of um smiley face stickers that our poster has.

We spoke with um, and the the stickers total 360.

So we spoke with I would I would wager 400 community members because not everyone put a sticker, maybe one person put one for the family.

Um, and so we really heard from many community members who weighed in on their top priority for El Comuna Real, as shown on this poster, which is now difficult to see, but the participants really preferred the options for wider sidewalks and protected bikeways when we spoke with them.

So next week we're holding a community workshop on Thursday, October 30th at 6 30 p.m.

in the social hall here at the Library Parks and Recreation Center.

We really invite everyone from the community to join us.

We'll have a light meal translation and free child care, and recognizing that it's the day before Halloween, we'll also have prizes for folks who come in costume.

Our online survey is also still live for people who aren't able to join us in person for the workshop.

And um at this point, I'd now like to turn it over to our team at Farron Pierce, who's going to talk through some some considerations if we if we do reduce the number of travel lanes.

We do want to note that in the interest of time, we've kind of truncated the next couple of slides.

We've removed a couple of slides.

Um, so if you're viewing it on the PDF from the from the agenda item, we will skip ahead to the section that says road diet considerations.

All right, I think I'm the last speaker on the last item.

So bear with me.

Um, so this section talks about road diet considerations.

And before I talk about what is a road diet, I wanted to just um take a brief moment to talk about what El Camino Real looks like today.

You all are familiar, but just a couple notes.

One, um, south of Hickey, it is three lanes in both directions with a turn lane at some intersections.

It is very auto-oriented.

There is much more space on the corridor, obviously, for cars.

There are small sidewalks on both sides in most places on the corridor, but there are sections where sidewalks are missing, such as near South San Francisco High School.

So it's kind of a mixed bag for pedestrians.

In some places, there are wider sidewalks with trees.

The same is true for transit.

In some locations, transit stops have shelter, shade, great pedestrian scale lighting, and in some places there's no shelter, and kind of just the sign on the side.

So really a mixed experience for pedestrians, transit, and then the improvements to bicycling were noted at different points in this meeting, but there are some striped bicycle lanes near Kaiser, but that's a very small section and it's not protected, it's just a striped bicycle lane.

The corridor, of course, does parallel centennial for most of the trails.

That is important, centennial way trail for most of the corridor.

So that's important to keep in mind.

But the point is the general plan, which was adopted in 2022, says that this corridor is a re-envisioned corridor.

We haven't actually taken the opportunity to do that yet.

And so that's why this planning effort is so important.

We're looking to do more than make just small adjustments around the edges of El Camino.

This is really an opportunity to re-envision.

And so that's why we're kind of opening it all up and saying, is there an opportunity where we adjust what both what is happening on the curb lane as well as the potential for removing a travel lane in both directions.

Again, this is only south of Hickey.

We're not removing a travel lane north.

There's only two in each direction north of Hickey.

So this would mean we would remove a travel lane in each direction, and there would be two travel lanes, both northbound and southbound.

And what that would allow us to do is there would be more space where we could rebalance this pretty significant chunk of land in South San Francisco to better serve um residents, businesses, and travelers.

And so the curb lane today, sometimes it's just a shoulder where parking is not allowed, but you can pull off.

Sometimes parking is allowed on the shoulder, and then sometimes it's used for a transit stop.

That the second lane there, kind of closer to the other two travel lanes, is a travel lane for vehicles, buses, trucks today.

So what we are exploring is what are the two options that we could kind of pair in these two question mark lanes, essentially.

So for the options are continue to use one of those as a travel lane, or on-street parking, a wider walking pedestrian environment that would allow not only plenty of space for people to walk, but also additional street furniture like benches, lighting, trees, a landscaped buffer.

The bicycle option, we are only considering a protected bicycle lane on El Camino.

That's the only appropriate facility given the volumes and speeds.

So if we add a bicycle lane, we it will have to have a buffer.

In this case, it's shown as a planted buffer.

And then the final option we're considering is a transit-only lane.

This could be used by Sam Trans buses and by the South City Shuttle, as well as any future microtransit, if that's an option for the senior aging in place program.

But it could be used by basically high capacity vehicles and transit publicly accessible vehicles.

And so this, of course, is a presents a pretty big change for El Camino.

And we want to acknowledge that and say that a number of things could change if we did repurpose one or two of these lanes, especially two of them.

So safety could change, travel time, travel choices, the street space would be better aligned with city policies, space for walking, bicycling, transit improvements, and landscaping would all change and increase.

And then, of course, the atmosphere and really the experience would be different.

I'm gonna walk through each of these in a little more detail.

So safety.

We of course want safety on all of our roads, but it's really important that we focus on safety on this corridor because it is the deadliest corridor in the Bay Area.

And that is not an exception in South San Francisco.

And it's we Cassie mentioned that this is an especially dangerous corridor for bicyclists and um walkers.

That's true, but it is also true for auto drivers in South San Francisco.

And what we know about road diets when you reduce the number of lanes is it it improves safety.

So El Camino is a divided highway.

So it is a six-lane divided highway.

That's the blue line on this graph.

If we reduced the number of lanes to four, it would drop down to that light blue line.

That's a 50% reduction in collisions.

So this is one of our best tools to improve safety on the corridor is to actually reduce the number of travel lanes.

This will also improve outcomes for bicyclists and pedestrians, but I wanted to note that this is also about drivers.

So when I I mentioned it might change travel times.

So today there are more lanes than needed along El Camino Camino Real.

We took, we took collected traffic counts at the location with the highest vehicle delay today, which is just south of Westboro Chestnut in the northbound direction, and the amount of delay at that location is acceptable for most of the day.

That's what the columns show on the left.

If you uh move forward with a road diet and reduce one lane, the evening peak hour experience may be more congested, especially in the northbound direction.

Um but this is a worst case scenario, and that's because we just mapped the volumes we saw today onto the a future with a road diet.

And the reason we don't think those exact volumes are going to map is because every time a road diet has taken place around the Bay Area and elsewhere, they road diets reduce the number of vehicles on the road.

And that's because people shift their behavior.

Um for shorter trips, people can shift away from cars to other modes.

And on El Camino Real, 20% of trips are under three miles.

So these are trips that are are really it's possible to shift them to transit, to walking, and to biking.

Um so some of those pre those trips we were seeing, those might shift.

Another reason way people might shift is by traveling at a different time of day or by taking a different route.

So if 20% are kind of local three miles and under trips, 40% of trips are longer than 10 miles, which means they're mostly just driving right through South San Francisco.

These trips could shift to 280 or Huniparasera, and it would actually allow El Camino to really just manage local travel.

So for these reasons that people shift their behavior, and again, this is something we see time and time again with road diets, we think that actually travel vehicle traffic would be would be lighter.

So all of that is to say that we think there is strong potential for a road diet on El Camino.

We haven't decided that is going to be moving forward in the next alternatives, but we are definitely considering it.

Um and that is because all of these factors point to alignment with city policies and goals.

So a decrease in crashes, um, a potential increase in vehicle delay, but that also means decreased vehicle speeding, which is the number one cause of collisions on El Camino, and again kind of just loops back to the decrease in crashes, increased alignment with city policy, and then increased space for things that we heard a lot of excitement about in the first rounds of engagement, biking, walking, transit, and landscaping.

So, Megan?

Yes, thank you.

We're wrapping up now.

Yes, we are this we are.

This is our last slide.

So just to say, I want to say thank you to all my colleagues for their presentation, and um we are open to questions.

Uh so thank you so much for your time.

Great.

Thank you, Megan.

Thank you to all our partners to be able to be here.

Um apologies, you were kicked to the very last uh item here.

Uh lots of information there.

We will be sure to review it.

If there are any other comments from my colleagues here, our TA representative, Council member.

Thank you.

I feel like I'm having PTSD of the one-on-one management conversation.

I see road diets.

So I do have a little bit of concerns about the road diet because when I'm looking at kind of what where the time frame is, and I I do agree when you made that right turn on El Camino from Westbrook, it's a mess.

And what you're seeing is a lot of parents driving their kids to school.

And that main therapy can do South City High School or El Camino Real.

That's gonna really affect a lot of parents driving their kids to school if we if you reduce the road diet there.

Um but I do appreciate kind of what we're talking about here in terms of the seamless transit.

And one of the things I want to really harp on is kind of uniformity, the things like you say it.

And then amongst other cities, like it's great if we do like a dedicated bike lane for that corridor, but then it stops at the San Brito South City line, and then what was the whole purpose of that?

You know, you need a complete class four bike lane.

I mean, the dream is to have a full class four bike lane at El Camino Real, right?

And I'm looking at Patrick in 750 million dollars and Patrick, you're the guy who gets us money, so but you know, each city might have a different priority, right?

Us, we might want to have that class for dedicated bike lane because we just saw the previous presenter, he's gonna have a bike shop, and it makes sense to kind of have a protective bike lane along the El Camino corridor.

But San Bruno might want to have a dedicated bike, the bus lane in their corridor, and so kind of having uh uniformity amongst the cities is really really important.

Um but I am excited about this idea because I was mentioning earlier when we did kind of the test pilot, Patrick, when we did the the the one on one one, the El Camino Real dedicated bike lane, one of the things I really liked was this elevated kind of bus stop.

And I think that actually should go along the along the El Camino corridor, is something you guys take a look at to do because I actually saw people using that, and they were really excited about that.

Um, and so in terms of buses, that's something you should take a look at.

Um that's all I have for now.

I'll I'll bother Patrick later about this.

The TA meetings.

All right, thank you.

Anyone else with comments or questions?

Go ahead.

Sure, okay.

This is great.

I love this.

Um so I agree with my colleague.

Um, uniformity is key.

Um, and I'm open to the road diet, but the biggest thing is it should be uniform up and down the whole county, whether we choose bike lane, and I don't know how you're gonna do it.

Maybe a majority of cities say one thing, and then it becomes what we do.

I don't know.

Um, but I think it it really does have to be continuous.

Looking at the map, I looked at the map of the ECR.

Um so I think right now I'm I'm kind of leaning bike lane, and I'll tell you and it's because BART and Caltrain already kind of serves that north to south connectivity through transit, right?

Like you maybe you don't want to, well, some people do, but maybe you don't want to bike all the way from Menlo Park all the way up to South City, but but you can take the Cal train and then transfer to Barton, and you're still kind of on that north-south near to El Camino Real Corridor, in which case if you want to fill the need for active transportation, then it would probably be a protected bike lane that you're looking at.

And no South City, I'm thinking regionally here, right?

But I know South City we have Centennial Trail that kind of serves that.

So below South City, is there is there some sort of road, separated road like Centennial Trail.

There's not.

So that might be the need.

It might have to be a protected bike lane that we have up and down.

Um that being said, I still um couple things that so we did do a we did do um a pilot program um with the separated bus, sorry, the bike lanes, but also with bus bulbs, which were really big in terms of um of just lowering the time spent at a stop and the bus wants to merge back, and no, of course, no one wants to let the bus merge.

And and the key in a key part in ensuring that our transit systems are well utilized is ensuring that they are fast and that they are reliable, and so as much as we can make that happen with you know beautiful bus shelters that also have little signs.

I always talk about this.

They have the signs that say, oh, the next bus because it's coming in three minutes, and then you know it's gonna come, and you're not waiting there in the rain for like an hour and it never comes.

Um but making sure that we have the bus shelters, digital signs, and that our buses themselves have infrastructure that allows them to be fast and reliable.

So that's that's kind of what looking up, what I'm looking at.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh anyone else.

I just wanted to um I I know this has been talked about for a good amount of time, and some time ago there was um an idea that we might have dedicated bus lanes in the center of El Camino Real.

And um, you know, for a time, I lived in San Francisco, and while Van S was an easy way to get to my home, it was such a disaster with the buses along the curb lane, having to wait for them before you could make your right turn to get off of Van S.

And I've driven it since, and it's just it's remarkable.

And I understand that the time, you know, you talk about efficient and moving people and the safety of being in the median on a raised platform, and then for our public uh safety people, the police or the ambulances can use that same dedicated bike lane.

Now, I don't imagine whatever we do is gonna be applicable to Burlingame because they don't have the wide expanse of roadway, but certainly in the North County, if you could imagine dedicated bus lanes in the center all the way from the Burlingue-Millbrae border into San Francisco, it's it's an incredible game changer.

Thank you for that.

Um I can't tell you how many residents um constantly ask me for bus shelters, constantly, and I not only for the rain, it's actually the other opposite when it's really really sunny.

And it's that mom, you know, going to three jobs.

We talk about moving people away from cars and into transportation, and many of our um, you know, disadvantaged uh members of our communities have to work three jobs, they can't bike to all those three jobs, right?

But they do see them carrying bags, and I've spoken to Sharon many times about how else can we move about bus shelters?

So if you would ask me what the priority is in key strategic areas, particularly around the high school, around you know, key uh areas where with high foot traffic, uh, would be that and and and bus cutout cutouts too, you know.

I see it also in on El Camino, how many delays at all, right?

It just creates a big old backup.

Um, thank you.

Thank you again for hearing us for listening and continuing the partnership and the collaboration and the support on on this initiative.

Um, this is a report only item, but do we have any public comments?

No comments, Mayor.

All right, if not, thank you again.

I actually had one more question.

The gentleman that was from Caltrans District 4.

Are you the right person to talk to about um uh pavement conditions?

Not really.

Oh, okay.

Good answer.

But tell your colleague, whoever that is, that we are interested in talking to how about trash on the on and off free play on the early planning stages.

You've had a problem with that.

Also 280 on and off ramps.

Yeah, just a list of things here.

Megan, thank you again.

Uh, next agenda item, please.

We'll move along to items from council, committee reports and announcements.

Anyone have any committee report?

Go ahead, council member.

I do.

I wanted to save these towards the end just because there's a lot of things in the beginning.

Okay.

So I understand that city staff will be or or potentially our friends at Townsend will be presenting kind of like a legislative report of all the the mini bills that were passed and kind of the impacts.

Um, but I do want to kind of highlight two bills.

Um, the first one, housing related, SB 79, it upzones areas that are within a half mile of a transit station, which includes um our Caltrain station and our BART station.

Um, but what it also does is it allows us to create a local zoning plan to move densities in a way that probably that may make more sense uh for our local jurisdiction.

So I would like, you know, I've already talked to some of our ECD uh staff members, and I would like to see if that would make sense for us.

And we would probably have to do so before um July of next year, as that is when SB 79 officially takes effect.

Um second bill that um piqued my interest was SB 42, which legalizes the public financing of uh campaigns for general law cities.

Um and the reason this interests me is because I believe that um money in politics is a scourge of our electoral system, and more and more often we're starting to see outside money really flood into um our our local elections, you know not just here but but nationwide.

And what many cities have implemented throughout the country, um and usually we think of the the big cities, but what they do is they allow for public dollars to match uh the contribution to small dollar contributions of residents of that city.

And so this could what it could do is empower our residents and our neighbors if they can decide to contribute to any candidate, that they can have the dollars go farther than let's say a contribution that comes from someone who is from out of town, out of state who knows where they're from.

And so that's something that I would like to discuss with the council to see if that is something that that we could do uh in a way that makes sense, right?

Of course, we're not gonna give anyone a million dollars, you know, maybe 5,000 makes the most sense as a maximum, but that way we can have more competitive campaigns and really see democracy thrive in in our city.

Um, the third thing uh is I we had a heart uh meeting earlier today, Housing Endowment and Regional Trust Board of San Mateo County, and um they are taking a page out of the playbook of South San Francisco.

So you may remember that we passed measure AA in South City, passed by 20 points in 2022, um, and uh we were very forward-thinking in in doing so, and and I think you know it's very proud that we had unanimous support from the city council and and such a large amount of support from from the population here, uh, really sending a message saying we want more affordable housing, and we want the city to have a direct hand in doing so.

But moving but moving forward to I believe 20 was I don't even know what year it was, 2023, 2024.

We we saw that Article 34 had a very um was with a roadblock on an issue very local to our county, and now at the heart board, through leadership of the heart board, as well as the county, what they're looking at potentially is a countywide ballot measure that would authorize um the construction of of locally owned affordable housing uh through Article 34.

And what a lot of cities are are worried about is you know, many of them are are hearing about Article 34 for their first time, and maybe they're a little scared, they're a little worried.

Um, but we passed it, our city has not burned down.

We actually have our hands free, and we could do more things, and I think it's incumbent upon us to communicate that to the other cities to let them know that there's nothing to worry about, and actually this provides another tool in our tool belt to meet our reading numbers and provide more affordable homes for all of our families.

So I hope we can do that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other committee?

Go ahead.

Well, meaning we're um on you know what we can do in the future, and I'm so glad that Director Sealander has stayed here because something that's been bothering me for a good amount of time, and uh it seemed like the perfect time to share it with my colleagues.

Um about 20 years ago when I was running for office and coming back uh into the game.

Um I mentioned that I thought El Camino Real was, you know, a bit of a blight, you know, end to end.

And we've seen some improvements, you know, what's happening down at Spruce and El Camino finally.

But when I drive by the old Arby's, and I realize that it's been in that condition for 10 years, and I don't know that anybody has any plans for it, but then I drive by the old Burger King, and there are plans for that, but yet we have these dilapidated buildings that are drawing down the entire neighborhood.

Do I don't need an answer tonight now, but do any communities have any way of encouraging the raising of buildings that obviously have no more purpose on the strip, and is there some way to um to require that?

Um because I mean, 10 years in a dilapidated state is so difficult for the adjoining businesses and the neighborhood generally.

Thank you for that.

Um I wanted to update um the council here.

Um, as of this September, BART board president uh fully has re-established what he's calling liaison appointments for the San Mateo County stations.

What this means, what this means is obviously we don't have an elected BART board member, but within three BART board members, uh I believe who currently uh represent San Francisco in some um East Bay, uh, that we will have one assigned to us that we will have as a liaison.

We uh uh will reach out and connect.

Um we'll start off with um BART Director Victor Flores.

Um he will be our board liaison for both the South San Francisco station and the Colmas stations.

We will start off with a tour.

Um, city manager will schedule that, and it will be an ongoing relationship that then this council can have with the a directly elected member of the BART board.

Um wanted to make sure that you all were aware of that.

All right, anything else?

If not, we'll move on to next agenda items and wrap this up.

Moving along to closed session, item number 25, conference with legal counsel existing litigation, name of case, Brown Phillips versus City of South San Francisco, compensation appeals board case number ADJ 19626532.

Name of case, workers compensation claims numbers 2102462 and 240264.

Item number 26 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation, initiation of litigation pursuant to government code section 5495 6.94 to potential cases.

Thank you.

We will adjourn to closed session.

Thank you everyone for uh tonight.

Have a good night.