Recording in progress.

Just be ready to the South San Francisco Council to order, and we'll begin with Thank you.

We'll begin with a roll call.

Council Member Coleman.

Here.

Council Member Flores.

Present.

Council Member Nicholas.

Present.

Vice Mayor Nogales.

Here.

Mayor Adiego.

Here.

And the next item, Madam Clerk.

Moving on to Pledge of Allegiance.

So, um, as it happens, um, Councilwoman Nicholas is in Boston this evening.

Hopefully, for pleasure and work.

And uh no pleasure, it's over.

Okay.

But um, I think the significance in this um, you know, 250th anniversary of the founding, you're in Boston where the revolution began, so you're going to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, we'll do it.

I pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stance.

One nation indivisible under God.

It's okay.

What time is it in Boston?

Nine thirty.

Okay, well, we're gonna get you through this.

Very good.

Um, the next item.

Thank you, Mayor.

Moving on to agenda review.

Mr.

Mayor, not aware of any changes to the agenda.

No changes, there's not much to move around, is there?

Yeah.

Okay.

And uh the next item.

Moving on to uh Levine Act disclosures.

Does the council have any conflicts to report tonight?

Thank you.

And now we move on to announcements from staff.

And we wanted to invite um Valerie Summer, uh, up to the podium, and she's helping us kick off this um semi-quinn centennial year with a special event planned shortly.

Thank you.

So we are waiting for something to come up here.

Sure.

Well, I oh, here we go.

Okay.

Okay.

That's loud, that's loud.

There we go.

Right, right.

There we go.

I am not throwing away my shot.

I can't throw in away my shot.

Hey, yo, I'm just like my country, young young scrubby and hungry, and I'm not throwing away my shot.

I'm again a scholarship to King's College.

I probably shouldn't drag my dagger, maze in a signage.

The problem is I got a lot of brains, but no polish.

I got a hollow just to be heard of the furry bird.

Powers page, unimpeachable.

Only 19, but my mind is so.

Good evening, everybody, Mary A Diego, Vice Mayor Nogales, City Council members.

I'm Library Director Valerie Summer.

And I'm a pleased to highlight our first program honoring the America 250 celebration, the 250th anniversary of the signing of Declaration of Independence.

This Saturday, January 17th, we will be screening Hamilton here in the city council chambers.

This is the same movie that has been showing on the Disney Channel, a live action film of the play.

This is the 10th anniversary of the play of Hamilton.

Screenings are at 10 30 a.m.

and 2 p.m.

Seating is on a first come basis.

The library has screening rights to Hamilton for several months, so we are able to schedule additional screenings as needed.

Thank you and happy America 250.

Valerie, thank you.

Thank you for kind of leading off what I hope is going to be a series of events celebrating the 250th, and uh what better way than something that's uh modern and current and hopefully will fill the hall.

Um is anybody interested in going?

You might want to put in an RSVP with Valerie now.

10 30, Valerie.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, Mr.

Vice Mayor, members of the council, Rich Lee or Assistant City Manager.

I have three announcements uh this evening.

The first is that on Monday, January 19th, the city offices will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.

Day, except for of course our police fire and water quality, who always work 24-7.

Uh the second is uh our youth in government program.

Uh the program began over 40 years ago, and it was 1981, it was the first year.

Uh, this was a collaboration with former council member, mayor, assembly member Jean Mullen, also uh South San Francisco High School uh educator, and former mayor and council member Roberta Seritelia.

Uh past participants include uh former um not former, current council member Coleman, uh Congressman Kevin Molman, and myself.

Uh the city is currently accepting applications from juniors and seniors who attend high schools in South San Francisco.

Uh it provides program participants with an opportunity to learn how local government is managed and operates uh directly from those who manage it.

Uh participants will be paired with leaders from all departments and have the chance to shadow their counterparts, tour city facilities, and participate in a mock city council meeting right here in these chambers.

So the application period opened today, and they will be accepted through Wednesday, January 28th.

And those who are interested can apply on the city's website at SSFCA.gov.

My third and final um announcement this evening is the City Council strategic planning workshop, which is scheduled for Saturday, January 25th, uh January 24th, excuse me.

Uh, be located at one tower place.

So the map uh overhead uh satellite image is on the left with the location in the red um indicator there, and the street view that you see on the right side, that is the view from Airport Boulevard.

So you can see the two towers there, uh one tower place being on the left side of that.

We will have directions uh to the location on the city's website again at SSFCA.gov.

We'll begin the day at 8 30 with a little breakfast, start the meeting at 9 o'clock, and we should be wrapped up by 1.30 and uh happy to uh answer any questions from council.

Questions for Mr.

Lee?

Okay, thank you, Rich.

And um yeah, we're hoping uh a different venue kind of changes the uh the uh energy, maybe and um uh just so the public knows the original development agreement for these buildings included um uh the city being able to utilize uh the facility free of charge uh four times a year.

So we're taking full advantage of that this year.

And uh so is that's the end of announcements from staff.

We can move along to the next item, Adam Clark.

I believe we have one more from Mayor Nestle.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Mr.

Lucero.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, uh City Council members.

Uh Ernesto Lucero, Economic development manager.

Uh tonight we're excited to announce the 2026 uh South San Francisco Lunar New Year Night Market, and this will take place on Friday, February 20th, downtown.

Uh it'll be along the 300 block of uh Maple Avenue between Grand and Miller Avenues.

Uh last year the city um held this night market in the breezeway in the economic advancement center.

Uh we had some uh great attendance, nearly a thousand attendees last year uh moving in on Maple Street.

We're hoping to double the size of the vendors, bring in more uh South San Francisco uh businesses, some nonprofits, um, as well as uh a lot of food vendors that celebrate the lunar new year, so it should be um a great evening with uh line dance performance and um a lot of great uh food for the for the community.

Uh so this will be between uh three and nine p.m.

and you can find more information on the city's website or um anybody can click the QR code link as well.

And thank you for the announcement on this so people can read the word.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ernesto.

That completes the uh announcements.

Okay, yes, it is, Mayor.

Moving on to presentations item number one is a presentation from San Mateo County Health on social determinants of health, sharing understanding across public health and cities.

You were looking for backup, is it just you?

I was looking for backup.

Um Vice Mayor Ruben Abraca is gonna be joining from uh East Palo Alto.

So I think I was thinking he might be at the one of our favorite.

So hopefully he makes it.

Yeah, we uh is it is there opportunity to switch agenda items or do we need to go with this one?

If you want to go a lot later, uh how much later would be a lot later, I don't know.

I mean, we we we have one item that we'll power through and then uh we'll come back to you.

Okay, so I'll we'll move on to council comments requests.

Well, I just wanted to um if I could uh maybe take the lead on this.

Uh the city of South San Francisco um lost two spectacular retirees uh recently, and um, so I'd like to um uh tonight close this meeting in memory of both of them.

Uh Sylvia Socorro Portillo was with the um human resources department uh for about 27 years, starting in 1991, and um she um she passed away um in December, right at the time of our our last meeting.

So that's why we're a little late in remembering her.

Um and it was a uh a case of cancer.

Um Sylvia, you know, only made it to 60 years old, and um so she is missed by many people who are still with the city.

And then um, a gentleman by the name of uh Edward John Perazzi, who um uh was born in 48 and uh he passed away just a week ago, and he was uh an army veteran in Vietnam, and then uh became an employee uh with the city of South San Francisco in public works uh maintenance, where he served um thirty-seven years, uh ending up as a lead public works maintenance worker.

Um he is um uh, you know, back in those days, um it really was we talk about the city being a family.

Well, it really was families because Mr.

Parazi's wife was part of the Bordy family, and the Bordie family.

Um, the connection now to um South San Francisco is through Marie Patea that many of you know, and this was Marie Patea's godfather who recently passed away, and just by chance tonight she is in Roseville at a service for him.

So uh we um wanted to make mention of Edward John Perazzi's passing, and we'll close the meeting in memory of him also.

And now we'll mayor I join you in that um commemoration of memory of uh Edward Pirazi, whose wife uh Superazi was a long time teacher aid at Old Souls.

The Pirazi family was also a long time member of Usos community.

Okay.

Thank you, Flora Florida Floyd.

Did you want to?

Did you have anything else that you wanted to share?

Uh council comments.

Like you, I just have um a request to uh join the meeting in memory of many people.

Um Rika Lewan at Ivan Hilista, who uh 43-year-old mother who died of uh breast cancer.

Uh Simeona Maria, who's one of the founders of the Filipino-American National Historical Society, Cynthia Liwa Grueda, and Justado Banatao, a Filipino businessman and engineer in the high-tech industry, credited for developing the first 10 megabit at Ethernet, and he is credited to be uh the one who made it possible for us to now have the GUI accelerators for personal computers.

That's it for me, Mayor.

Okay, thank you, Flora.

Um, James, would you like to go next?

Sure.

Um happy new year, everyone.

Uh, I'll just be brief.

Um, welcome to our new city manager.

Um, I want to extend, I mean, it's beginning of the year, so not many things have happened, but extend big congratulations to uh supervisor Noelia Corzo, who just uh got sworn in as president of the board of supervisors, and also uh big congratulations to our council member here, Eddie Flores, who got appointed to the county charter review committee, and he'll be tasked with reviewing the county charter and making very important changes potentially uh to that.

Um, this past week I also had the opportunity to um speak on uh a panel put on by the California Teachers Association uh about the effect of medical cuts uh on our schools and our community.

And something that I learned um on that panel is um medical health cuts are effectively also cuts to our school districts as a lot of our schools are able to get reimbursements for uh special education, mental health care, their school nurses, uh behavioral health from uh Medi-Cal, and when they are receiving those cuts, they're still required to provide those services, which means that they're cutting from other areas.

And so our schools um, you know, because of federal cuts will be suffering from that.

And that what our CTA is really looking for is increased uh collaboration between our school district, our city, county, and state, um, to make sure that we have enough funding.

Uh, one for healthcare, of course, but also for our schools, and so I hope that we can continue that conversation in South San Francisco.

Um, and lastly, I want to just give a big congratulations to Cocina Milonga, which is an Argentinian um empanada restaurant in South City.

It is a real hidden gem in South City.

They have incredible, incredible empanadas, and they are recently featured as I think a top uh 100 restaurants in the peninsula.

So big congrats to them.

Um I saw them on my social media, and I went there to have lunch today, and I hope many others uh can have lunch there as well.

Thank you.

And James, share where they're located because I don't know where they are.

Yeah, because Cocina Milanga is located in uh the best district in the city, which is District 4.

And it's right next to not known for its culinary fair, though.

And it's right next to Binkabites, so it's in Brentwood, uh near Smart and Final, but a little little hidden.

So it's a real hidden gem.

Okay.

Thank you, James.

Um, Councilman Flores.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, wanted to uh set us go back quickly to 2025.

Um, at the end of the holiday week when everyone's kind of wrapping up, um, we were able to do a thank you holiday celebration uh with El Concilio of San Mateo County to many of the families that are served by our own promotoras program by also the the YMCA and together with Job Train, the Economic Advancement Center, our staff from ECD, as well as many of the toys from um our um fire union 1507, we were able to do a great mini celebration for many of the families that are actually uh residents also of district five.

So I want to appreciate that.

We also had a great celebration at Morelos Hall to be able to celebrate um the Posada, which is a Mexican traditional uh religious connection to um the nativity and the birth of Jesus, and we were again uh overwhelmed with over 500 individuals were there together at Morelos Hall, uh families eating tamales, eating uh ponche, which is a traditional Mexican drink, and um it was great being able to celebrate in community.

Um, and again, thank you because this is all in due to the many donations that many residents, including many here, and of course, the great love because it is a labor of love that our firemen put together, firefighters put together um every December.

Um, many of the families were able to receive toys and gifts.

So I wanted to put a um give a special thank you and give a shout out to everyone on that.

Um I will be joining.

I was uh recently invited by Kaiser South San Francisco this coming Monday, it's MLK Junior Day of Service.

Uh South San Francisco Kaiser, I guess um, the Northern California Kaiser has selected Spruce School uh to do a service project.

So we will be beautifying Spruce School uh located in District 5, but um it's uh a really um noteworthy uh day of remembrance of what uh Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy called all of us to do, and it's a day of service.

Um traditionally they do other areas, regional uh regions down south, and uh they selected South San Francisco, so I will be joining them as well.

I was joined by our new city manager for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors uh reorganization of the board.

Uh, we attended.

Congratulations as well to President Noelia Corso and Vice President Ray Mueller, who will be leading the Board of Supervisors.

Um, that is it.

I will have more to share later during um uh community uh committee reports and announcements.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Eddie.

Um Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I'll be brief.

Um first I just wanted to welcome our new city manager, Laura Schnyman.

Um, this is week two now for you.

Uh and she is already doing a fantastic job, and I know she's implementing a lot of the projects and um kind of our vision for the city, so I really really appreciate you being here, and I look forward to working with you and for you to getting out there getting to know our great city that's here in South San Francisco.

And lastly, um, I didn't know this, but um, Dave Bachhaus retired after 31 years with the city, and he did it quietly.

And I think we should recognize that Mr.

Mary, if you can write a letter, just thanking him for his service to the city.

I think we should recognize, you know, when the rains came, public works was out there, you know.

They made sure that the lights were working and and the street lights.

I mean, they are our Unsung heroes.

And Dave was one of those individuals, and I think we should.

Dave was very quiet about it.

You didn't want to tell anyone, stuck away.

But you know, I want to make sure we recognize him.

So if we can just do a letter, thanking him for his many years of service.

I think something we can do.

I think we can.

I actually had the opportunity to speak to him a couple days before his last day, I think was the 30th.

And um, and Mark, I know you had the same um uh rapport with Davis.

Something needed to be done, and you put it on his lap, it happened right away.

And so we're looking for more of that from public works.

We just don't know who that contact person will be quite yet.

Um, I think that um uh Dave Bachhouse, it was not easy for him to leave because he had been talking about retiring for years, and uh and he finally was able to pull the plug, but uh good luck to him on that next chapter of his life.

And now we go back to um the presentations.

We're going back to presentation number one, is a presentation from San Mateo County Health on social determinants of health, sharing understanding across public health and cities.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

So we're very happy that um uh councilman Ruben oh Vice Mayor now, excuse me.

Vice Mayor Ruben Rica from East Palo Alto, who is one of my favorites on the peninsula, was able to find his way all the way from EPA to Little South City.

So thank you for being here, Ruben.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, mayor, vice mayor, city council members, uh, news city manager, congratulations, and city clerk.

Uh, my name is Curtis Chan.

I'm the deputy health officer for San Mateo County, and with me already, you all know Ruben Abraca.

Uh, we represent we are part of the social determinants of health work group that's part of the community health improvement plan for San Mateo County.

And so we're gonna describe what that all means.

And we're here to engage you.

Uh, our you know, important city of South San Francisco.

You're the local policymakers on the social determinants of health.

Well, mayor, vice mayor, council members, new city managers, staff, and community.

I guess as my member, I went to the old building.

How could I miss this beautiful place?

So my apologies for that.

But I'm part of the uh, you know, one of the work groups from from the public health.

And so our purpose right now, presenting to you, and we did it in East Palo Alto, we might do it with a few other cities.

Is we want to, you know, led policymakers such as ourselves, I'm including myself, um, to keep learning more about the social determinants that affect health.

So but also to get your input on ideas, suggestions that you have about how we could expand that and uh, you know, come up with uh better more strategies to uh also help educate ourselves collectively as policymakers, and that includes also, you know, other elected officials, but uh definitely we're starting we're starting with ourselves.

So we'll keep going here.

Oh, we do twice, okay.

Did I push the long button?

Okay, one more time.

Sorry, there you go.

Yeah, so just to give you an overview, uh, you know, the the this is the first time that uh San Mateo County Public Health is really has developed a uh community and health improvement plan, which is more of an action plan rather than uh you know the statistics, which have always been good, gives us a lot of information, but the uh now there's there's sort of an action plan to try to have more impact on the on the whole system.

So and uh other other obviously, you know, other other counties, other health agencies in the country are doing that.

But so this give you just a little list of the who has participated in it.

If you if you notice there are two cities, Redwood City and East Palo Alto.

I'm actually not officially representing East Palo Alto.

I just snuck in as an interested person at the time when they called the meeting, and uh then there was somebody who worked uh with a city manager in Redwood City at the time.

So we were both kind of city people in a certain way, and so we added you know our perspective to to this, but there's a whole group of organizations as well as the major sort of health agencies in the county, right?

Um, and so you know, I remember that we when we got together, there must have been about 50 or 60 people.

Uh, they gave us homework right away to identify like the like the top three areas that we felt we could focus on because they're like nine or eleven areas that the county has identified, and these were the three that came up access to health care, uh, and then social determinants and uh mental health.

And I know that some of you, I think the mayors recently over the last few years have already, you know, taken the lead on that in the county kind of focusing on mental health, but this is uh so that the we're sort of we're part of the social determinants of health, and then there's two other working groups.

Uh, and again, you know, we we're sort of advocating for us to keep uh, you know, being on the council, you've been on the council.

It's like we already do some things, our staff already does things that are related to these, and so we're just trying to uh expand the knowledge to more uh elected officials and also try to improve whatever practices we have, or maybe try some new ones in this.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, um, yeah.

I think this is your turn now.

Sounds good.

Thank you so much.

I'm, you know, learning more.

Well, I I think as Ruben highlighted, you know, this is an effort not just of the health department.

We do have health department staff here, but it's that combination of the um university hospital, the health plan, the community benefits arms of the nonprofit hospitals, the community-based organizations.

This is a both the recommendations for some of these agencies as well as a requirement that they're participating in this collective effort to figure out what is it that is going to make the residents of San Mateo County and each city more healthy?

And one thing, so I'm a physician, trained initially as a pediatrician.

We all know that clinical care only affects 20% of outcomes.

More than 50% of the outcomes are the really the social determinants of health.

Some of these ways in which you're so you're convening, such as the wonderful um announcements by the library of convening people together, education, as you highlighted already, engaging young people, economic uh stability, social and community context.

And like I said, health care quality is only 20% of outcomes.

So and the thing is for um my role as a physician or as the deputy health officer, we realize you all are the decision makers that could legislate new policies, and um the administration here and the city manager and the department leads uh are the ones that could actually implement and enforce these policies.

So we really appreciate that, but how do we actually learn what policies are the most effective and how do we implement them?

So we're at the county and we're just saying we don't know.

We want to learn what's the best long-term or medium-term process for us to understand, you know, how do cities look up their health statistics?

Do they look at our website?

Do they look at a website from the National League of Cities that I'm showing right here?

The City Health Dashboard.

Do staff have time to look at the inequities?

Um so you know, I I've worked in uh local government for a long time.

We're constantly juggling many um urgent needs.

So this is you know, these are kind of the questions that we want to have in our in our discussion.

You know, how do you use these dashboards and how do you assess these disparities within the city?

And again, I think this slide was initially for Ruben, but um, but so these are the organizations that participate in our social determinants of health work group.

These are the people and some of the experts who could help us understand what are the policies that would actually and the practices that would improve again the social determinants of health and change uh um health equity.

Um again, this is um a framework from all the local health departments in the Bay Area, and the question that we have as as public health officers are right there in the middle.

You all are the people that really determine, help us determine the living conditions, and how do we actually modify those living conditions that impact disease, infant mortality, life expectancy?

Um I want to just move on further because I actually want to get to the questions and um the to the actual discussion.

These are some city policies from the Kaiser Permanente and the D.

Beaumont Foundation.

We know that South San Francisco has been leads in things like um alcohol policies, tobacco policies, uh advocating for green space.

You know, these are some of the policies that national experts set forth.

And um from city health, there's ways in which you know cities can participate and earn medals too, bronze, silver, gold.

Is this something that our 20 cities in San Mateo County are interested in?

The uh city health program is really for the 75 largest cities, but you can see that Santa Clara County here has its own program of healthy cities medals, and you can see all their cities lined up and they have ratings for them.

Is this an approach that elected officials want to help design for San Mateo County?

Is this worthwhile?

Would particularly elected officials want to learn what those policies are and develop our approach?

So this is our question.

This is our question, Ruben.

You want to come up again?

These are just three general questions for our planning, and not just for the health department, but you know, all the different health institutions that participate in our chip.

The first question is how can we further increase your knowledge and our knowledge on the impact of local policies on social determinants of health and health disparities?

What's the best process?

The second question, I'm just gonna read these all out and then we'll have a discussion.

What policies are you considering to improve the public health of San Francisco?

You can maybe highlight some things that you've already done as well, too.

And number three, um, how should the health experts, such as I mentioned, the health plan of San Mateo, Stanford University, Stanford Medical Schools involved?

How should health experts and institutions support local legislators in developing policies that improve public health?

So those are general questions that's our overweek view.

Love to hear your advice or any anything that we can do to help clarify.

Yeah, I think I think in fairness to the council, you know, this has just kind of been dropped on us as a presentation, and I need a little bit of time to ruminate on some of these possibilities.

If there's any questions, we certainly should from the council entertain them tonight, but um I guess I'm not quite understanding what you would like to see as the next step by a body like this.

Can you share?

Yeah, maybe I'll just you know, share what uh so we had a presentation in Ispao Alto, and then uh you're right.

This uh there's not the time to really have a lot of discussion.

But if uh any council member or city manager have any questions of public health, you know, on this topic.

Uh what we did in EPA was at some point down the line uh there was a little meeting between the city manager and uh some members of public health just to sort of follow up and talk and brainstorm.

Um I would say, you know, from my perspective, one reason why I got involved in this, I've always had an interest in this, but coming out of the pandemic, I felt that to the degree that public health and city governments could really uh improve their communications, find out how we're working together, you know.

Uh hopefully we'll never have another pandemic or another emergency, but I think we all learned that uh we were really scrambling to kind of connect up and do that.

So, so that's really it, you know.

That uh we want to present these and then uh you know, have people follow up if they wish, or individually too, you know, to do that.

So that's really there.

Well, thank you, Ruben.

I think that you know uh we who have both served so very long.

If you roll the clock back, um we just defaulted to the county when it came to social services and this type of activity.

So now you're looking for partnerships, which is really the best way for us to um does anyone have questions for the presenters?

Yes, I do.

Okay, Flora?

Mr.

Mayor, I would just like to find out the dashboard that was shown um when was that information gathered?

Uh can you give us a date range?

You know, the dashboard for South San Francisco.

Yeah, I think some range, I think the latest date is probably 2023.

It's um put together by uh one of them is Temple University.

Um some of them date back to 2018.

So there's a there's a range.

We have some data in our um website as what as well, too.

Um, altogether better, San Mateo County.

So I I think just in general, I think that's a great question from the mayor.

Just wondering if you have some immediate reactions, like, so we're the community health improvement plan.

We want to know just generally how do cities create healthier policies?

That's the general.

I think there's uh thoughts from from Ruben that you know, maybe that there's a learning cohort of elected officials who want to learn in depth with like an academic partner like UCSF or Stanford, you know, is that something you're interested in?

Is it learning, or is it like you want to participate in uh a like award program, a medal recognition program?

So we want this to be a public question, and um, you know, I think we can always you can always contact us as well too.

Okay, okay.

I think um first the vice mayor is pulling rank or something, so you have some thoughts.

Maybe a suggestion.

I look at the the slide here is city policies with evidence of health impact.

And just looking at this, I feel like we've done many of these, but I think for council, maybe if staff can provide a list of things that we've accomplished and see what we're missing.

That's where I think we can start the conversation, and we can go from there, see what we've done already, and be kind of do a self-evaluation.

Okay, this is what we've done, what can we do to improve?

I think that's the way to kind of have this conversation.

Okay, a lot of it did look familiar.

Yeah, yeah.

But Vice Mayor, uh, from another vice mayor.

Um, your thoughts is actually something that we when we met, we we talked about, you know, because we know like in this palato, we have a lot of issues, but we've done things, right?

Like South San Francisco, you've done a lot of things, and so just kind of getting up to date, like what have we done?

Uh in any of these areas, are there any other things we could do?

So, yeah, I think that's a great suggestion.

Well, if I'm thinking like Reuben, I must be doing something good.

That's yeah, exactly.

Um, Councilman Coleman?

Sure.

Um, I do have a question.

Um, if you could maybe tell me more about the origin of how the social determinants of health work group came to place, and and I see a lot of organizations are participating in this.

I think it's great.

Um, but I just want to know, like, you know, what's the origin?

Like, how does this start?

Yeah, so um it's part, you know, I think it dates back more than 10 years that um nonprofit hospitals are required to do a kind of community improvement assessment as well as an improvement plan.

So then for you know, 10, 20 years, we as a health department have been working with community benefit programs to to actually put that together.

Um in the last three years, so there's been now national standards um in which both nonprofit hospitals, medically managed care plans, um, and this is like a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences says that we need to start thinking about this collectively together so that all these community benefit dollars, they're actually transformed, we're actually able to transform communities in a more organized, coordinated way.

So, I mean, obviously, I have a lot of ideas where what what we could do, and people and staff have a lot of ideas, but part of the process is you know, and and this chunk, this this community health assessment and community improvement plan, there's a new improvement plan every three years.

So this is in this is in part legislated and part like standardized so that we're constantly in these cycles trying to develop the best approach, and to to your point, uh Vice Mayor, like if other cities are wondering the same question of looking at this rubric of you know what qualifies as a um city that's protective against uh tobacco, for example.

Does it make sense for each city manager to review all the policies themselves?

How do we as a group of 20 cities and a county uh, you know, how are we being able to assess this together like over three years, over six years, over nine years, right?

So that's just I mean, I think that's a great question, and this is why it seems like we're not looking for something right away.

This is there's no bird flu that's happening, but this is like part of the process.

We should be coming to elected officials and asking how would you all like to be involved?

How should we design things differently?

Okay, great.

Thank you.

And just from my perspective, like I'm really interested in doing things, like taking action, and so um I agree very similarly to the to the vice Mayor, where like I would like staff to kind of, you know, put their heads together, see where we're at.

What are we doing?

What can we do, and then uh you know, really see some actual policies.

Maybe you have some some model ordinances or or some some sort of example where we can pull from and just continue um to do good on you know the community of South San Francisco.

And I I love the work that you're doing.

I think so much that you know when it comes to um health, like it is it comes from the the environment that that people live in, and it's something it could be something as simple as, you know, how easy is it to get fresh produce, how easy is it to get to a gym or or to go bike and access to parks and so on, and uh as much as we can improve on that, I think is a really great thing.

Thank you.

Well said, Councilman Flores.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you, uh, Dr.

Chan and Vice Mayor Abrika.

You know, back, I think back to 2020, um, I think about EPA, I think about Bellhaven, uh, North Fair Oaks, and South San Francisco, where unfortunately, and I have to call this out, the county wasn't stepping out to even testing.

It was testing before we even thought about uh COVID vaccinations, and a lot of community, especially my district were severely um affected and infected and passed away because of uh the lack of response.

So absolutely, it hits very close to home.

Um I think about uh council member Nicholas and myself have graduate training in public health.

We understand what this looks like, but also there's the understanding that mental health, homelessness, and including, you know, to some degree um uh this this health is is the responsibility of the county.

Um, having said that, you know, and I think as cities, we do need to partner and also stay um aware of the current and latest data.

Um, madam uh city manager, for example, when we write the latest grants, when we cite prevalence, when we cite mortality in South City, where are we pulling that data from, right?

Is it the most current when we write the grants, when we want to, you know, position uh ourselves for for a particular initiative?

We want to make sure that we have the latest and most informative information.

And I think about if I was to look at prevalence versus incidence, do we even know that?

Do we even know the difference between that here in South San Francisco and some of the questions?

So I think it only um uh benefits us in the long term, right?

Um, the county has been a great uh partner in being able to provide the mobile health ban um as well across the street.

We have the new clinic opening up in about a year, uh Kaiser down the street.

So there's a lot of synergies.

Um UCSF Health is coming to town to Oyster Point uh next year.

Uh so there's a lot of good um collaboration that could exist.

So looking forward to that and and seeing where this grows too.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilman, and um Dr.

Chan and Vice Mayor, um, thank you for reaching out to South San Francisco this evening.

Thank you for your time and thank you for your time.

Good work.

See you soon.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

Moving on to public comments, I do want to uh inform the council that we did receive two e-comments tonight, one from Avine Sharma and Maud Eggstrom, and we will start with our speakers tonight.

Cynthia Markopolis.

Happy New Year, Miss Marco.

Happy new year to each of you.

The South San Francisco Citizens Coalition had requested the receipts of the 75 credit card holders having to make a formal complaint to the San Mateo District Attorney's Office after a year and a half with 15 extensions that was initially requested on July 14th, 2024.

And so far we only received 29 holders for one year's time period.

As Mayor Adiago stated a few meetings ago, everyone in the biotech industry knows South City.

So why are so many staff members attending biotech conferences?

Two staff are needed to table for our presence, but there's expenses transportation, flight, hotel, meals, events, registration, and we see for the Boston convention, 11 attended, and one meal cost the taxpayers $903.28 cents.

Yearly, the taxpayers give staff with a holiday lunch, and this year city departments were closed.

You are planning a parcel tax for this year, but the more you tax, the more you spend.

As we review the receipts we received, we see $500 for 30 bottle openers, $260 for two hours at Brentwood Bowl, two custom office chairs for the same employee, $2,188.

Food paid for food for a well paid staff employee, $3,212.74, including $1,036.28 cents in Costco snacks.

Gift card, staff give to each other, $150, $50 bottle of bourbon.

Jin Ying gift shop, $103.

$401 per night at Marriott Hotel, $831.24 cents for a hotel in Spain, $1,639.60 for the Renaissance Waterfront Hotel in Boston.

Tuition reimbursement $67,161.1 cents.

Several have no receipts or are not itemized.

One executive staff member had a total of $3,057.

Another executive staff member had a total of $1,427.64 cents reimbursed with no receipts.

And we're beginning just to comb through the receipts.

There's more to learn.

And you want to burden the taxpayers with a parcel tax, tax and spend.

The more taxes you get, the more you spend.

As former finance director Karen Chang stated, quote, the gap between revenue and expenditures remains unsustainable without structural change, end quote.

Thank you, Cynthia.

Moving on to Tony Allen.

Uh good evening, uh, Mayor Adiego, uh, city council members, uh, city manager, and uh community members.

Um, I want to thank the city council employees and my neighbors for creating a city of inclusivity.

All right, where people feel welcome to visit, work, right, and live.

We are a diverse community, and that not only makes us special, but it makes us strong.

So I would like to repeat a request that was made not long ago by my neighbor Patricia Althouse.

And in her message, she warned that federal agents who had been given permission to racially profile residents of our of our country.

Now we've seen abuse, illegal detentions, deportations, and violence in action.

Our South City neighbors, workers and visitors, could be detained, deported, or even killed.

Federal Asians have proven that they are ignore our constitution and our bill of rights.

There are ways that we can help protect ourselves and our South San Francisco families, neighbors, workers, and visitors.

For ourselves, everyone should have the San Mateo Rapid Response number in their phone.

That's uh 203-666-4472.

If you see something that may be an ICE action, you can call the number.

We can do our part to help each other by speaking up.

Also, we should all know our rights and help our neighbors know theirs.

So we appreciate Mayor Flores for having this information in his newsletters throughout the year, last year, and we hope it continues.

And now for you, city council members, again we ask that you take action to keep South San Francisco safe for our residents, their families, our visitors, and everyone who works here.

We cannot afford to be reactive.

We must be proactive.

Like San Jose, you can pass an ordinance stating that ICE agents must show their faces and must show identification, such as wearing a uniform and badge with a number and name.

Also, like San Jose, pass an ordinance banning ICE from using city properties and facilities for immigration and enforcement.

Like Chicago, you can pass an ordinance that allows our police department to arrest ICE agents if they act outside the law.

Finally, pass an ordinance that states ice cannot be within a certain distance from our schools.

Places of worship, and government buildings.

Our diversity makes us who we are, South City and South City cares.

We are smarter together, we are stronger together, and we are safer together.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Maud Agstrom.

Good evening.

Mayor Mark Aliago and Vice Mayor Mark Nagels.

I would like to address Assembly Bill 413, also called daylight parking.

And that contains 20 feet of corners should not be parked.

The city has painted some corners red.

They have painted half the corner.

The other corner is not painted.

So now you are inviting people to park right smack in the corner.

And I live on Bethman Way.

And that's district two for Mayor, Vice Mayor Mark Nagels.

And there is a stop sign on Greendale.

And if they park in each corner, I cannot see going into Bittman Way.

I cannot see going out of Batman Way.

And people don't stop at those stop signs.

So it is really a hazard.

It's just a time when there's going to be something big there.

And I also did a request form for traffic for the traffic advisory committee.

And I can give you a copy of that.

Today, for example, in three of the four corners was a cars parked illegally.

And one car was there for three days.

Okay.

Thank you, Ms.

Eckstrom.

When I can't comment, I can't comment on that, but I am familiar with that space.

And we have, like you said, put some red paint on some corners, but if I could have staff look into that a little bit more.

So who do you want me to do?

Let's give it to the city manager and the assistant city manager for the half.

Yeah, I think I think I'd like to, you know, at the beginning of this daylighting situation, we were led to believe that we were going to be out there not initially ticketing but warning people that they could no longer park on those corners, and then we would follow up with some red paint.

I'd like an update on, I guess it would be in the last contract to get out there and do the noticing on corners.

Um I've not seen any improvement in um in the district that I reside in.

And on the weekends it's even worse for people are right on the corner hanging out, making it very difficult for pedestrians to safely cross.

Mr.

Mayor and and Madam City Manager, if we could look into that, because um Miller and Chestnut, same thing happening and all across Miller.

One side of the street is red, the other isn't.

So there's an update to understand.

That is that is true.

We'll get you some more information that actually I know it sounds odd, but that is the law in terms of it it depends on sight lines and where you're coming to compete.

So it is um it is not a mistake, uh, just to let you know that only some of those parts of those corners are painted red, right?

Uh but the daylight laws for every corner?

No.

No.

We'll get you more information.

Okay, okay.

On the right side.

Do you have any problems in your district?

Not that I know of.

You don't really have any problems in your district.

It's just so well managed.

It's remarkable.

It is the best district, apparently.

What can I say?

I've had to go out of my district with with staff to look at corners, and we've had to have tack, kind of review those corners.

And that's particular area, there's been streets.

You've had to go back and put red corners on.

So I'm not surprised that the that's a continuing issue in that area.

So your district's out of control.

Yeah, yeah.

So uh councilwoman.

Um uh Nicholas, do you have any uh anything to add?

What you've read what you've seen in your neighborhood?

Uh yeah, there it continues to be a problem everywhere, I think.

And it's just that uh a matter of implementation of uh the new law.

Right, right.

So I think we just have to deter them from doing that by making sure there's uh a warning.

Okay, thank you, Flora, and thank you, Miss Xram for bringing that back into our um into our realm.

Um any other speakers?

We do.

I have Annie twice, but I'm you're gonna speak once.

Ms.

Lowe, welcome and happy new year to you.

Thank you.

Happy New Year to you too.

Thank you.

So I share my concerns at City Council meeting in the past regarding the lack of transparency and adequate record keeping on the city council meeting minutes since September of 2020, when public comments are now only recording the speakers' names, but not the subject of the matter that they have brought forward to the council, just like what we heard.

Prior to September 2020, all prior city clerks diligently recorded not only the speakers' names, but also a summary of the overall topic, such as Mr.

Jones spoke in opposition to Project X, etc.

So City Clerk Acosta responded to me that the City Council established that action minutes would be used to record proceedings of the legislative body, and in 2021, the City Council handbook reaffirmed that process.

Additionally, the California Municipal Clerks Association, CMCA, provided a guidance uh or actually guidelines for preparing meeting minutes that is efficient, succinct, and cost effective for all government agencies in California, and this is one of them.

Now, per government code 59 54953 C2, the city's minutes shall report the action taken on the vote or abstention on that action of each legislative body member present, listing only the names of members who provided public comment.

I looked up that government code, but did not find any verbiage, citing that listing only the names of members who provide public comments.

I reached back out to City Clerk Acosta regarding this issue and asked for more information on the CMCA guidelines by submitting a public record request back in September 2025, but never received a response on that particular question.

So I submitted another request in November 2025 and received a response of no responsive records on the government code cited by the clerk.

And that I should reach out to the uh CMCA regarding the guidelines, which I did, and I talked to the executive director, and uh what surprised me is that he does not even know who was responsible for drafting the guidelines, nor did he know the history, including the founders of the association, even though it claimed to be have been around for about 50 years since 1977.

I asked him to reach out to his board members and was told that he had, but nobody knew anything about what I was asking for.

So he also told me the guidelines are actually, you know, have been has been taken down from the website, and that CM CMCA members were not required to implement what was in the guidelines, which was drafted and distributed without any input or comments from the public.

So I believe both the city clerk and maybe assistant city clerk are members of CMCA and are probably going to attend the annual conference at Disneyland Hotel this April to early uh May.

So I just want no Mickey Mouse business here, please.

Thank you.

Gotcha, very good, very clever.

I have time.

Um Sky, could could you at some point um share with us um you know how this came to be and kind of give us a refresher course?

I think we're going to get a perhaps get into the handbook at our retreat coming up, and this might be an opportunity to see if we're really on the page that we want to be.

Yeah, it would make sense to cover uh this topic as part of the hand book when it comes to council.

We can address a few topics that have come up.

Okay, thank you, Sky.

Absolutely.

And uh Vinola.

Happy New Year to you, and to you, sir.

Thank you.

We have documented proof that this city is far from inclusive.

In fact, it's run by exclusive circles of people that if you don't fit the criteria, you're not in the circle.

We prove that when Mr.

Flores decided to take it upon himself and collude with staff to conspire against the people in the women of the year event in 2025.

It doesn't matter what the community says, it only matters what people in the exclusive circles say and can do for for one another for political purposes.

Well that's not a record because there's documented proof that there's much longer than 15 extensions going on with this city.

You know, I wouldn't be surprised at all that there's a lot to hide.

In which case, what we need is an authority with subpoena power to come in here and clean out the rot and the corruption.

I wouldn't be smirking, Mr.

Coleman.

If I were you, I start doing the right thing.

It's never too late.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is that complete public comment?

That completes public comment, Mayor.

So um we can move along to um, we'll move along to consent calendar item number two is a motion to approve the minutes of the meetings of December 9th, December 10th, and December 16th.

I'd like to make the motion to approve the consent calendar.

Okay, a motion on the floor.

I'll second.

And a second by Councilman Coleman.

Thank you.

Roll call.

Councilmember Nicholas.

Aye.

Mayor Adiego?

Yes.

Councilmember Colman?

Yes.

Councilmember Flores?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Nogales.

Yes.

Thank you.

We will now move on to administrative business item number three.

Is a report regarding a resolution approving budget amendment number 26.057, appropriating 7,867,409 from the commercial linkage fee fund in support of the first phase of the proposed Rotary Gardens affordable housing development project located at 500 Linden Avenue, authorizing staff to negotiate loan terms and return to city council for approval of a loan agreement and any related documents and authorizing the reduction of select city development impact fees.

Item three A is a resolution.

So happy new year, Mr.

Noche.

And I wanted to let the ECT know that I think you're very brave.

This is the one item on the agenda.

The council has been well rested from the holidays, and we're ready to bear down on this issue.

So it's your show.

It's a pleasure to be here, Mr.

Mayor.

And good evening, Honorable Mayor Adiago.

Vice Mayor Nogales and City Council.

I am the housing manager in the economic and community development department.

I am joined this evening uh by members of the development team from the South San Francisco Rotary Club, as well as Beacon Development.

Uh this evening we have a recommendation for a funding appropriation and uh reduction of impact fees, and I'll get into details for you.

I'd like to start with a brief overview of the Rotary Gardens development.

This is the two sites that this development is planned for.

This is 500 Linden is the first phase.

They are both 100% affordable.

Phase one is specific to senior households, and phase two will be focused on family housing.

Phase one will have 80 units, primarily one bedrooms, and phase two will have 64 units.

We'll have a mix of bedroom sizes.

And this is on Linden Avenue.

This is a visual of the senior building at the primary point of the photo here.

And I'll show that momentarily.

And as mentioned, this development is a collaboration between Rotary and Beacon.

This same development team developed the Rotary Terrace Building at 310 Miller.

And many years before that, Rotary Plaza at 4.3, excuse me, 433 Alita.

Both of the buildings that are part of Rotary Gardens, that's 500 and 522 Linden, were ministerially approved on July 2nd, 2025.

That's due to state law AB 2011, and that focuses on the development of commercial zoned areas and commercial properties, allowing for ministerial approval for housing development, either 100% affordable or at a percentage of affordable units being included in the development.

As mentioned, I think the only items I didn't touch on for both phases is the amount of parking that is included.

There'll be 52 parking spaces in phase one, the senior development, and 61 spaces in phase two, which is the multifamily.

We'll now get into the current funding that is committed to the project.

Money that was committed to the project.

Loan agreement was approved by a council and the funds were encumbered.

This comes from the state's permanent local housing allocation.

That is a source of those funds are from real estate fees that are collected annually, and we receive a portion of those fees every year.

A couple years later, after pre-development, and that's when architecture engineering and the building design is underway, the development team came back to the city, being very close to that entitlement timeline in July.

So just before that, we came to city council in June of 2025, seeking a funding commitment of roughly 2.3 million dollars.

This essentially put the development team in a very the project itself or phase one of the project, excuse me, uh, in very good standing for an application to county funding, which would be shortly thereafter.

So they received some a commitment from the city in June, entitlements in July of 2025, and then entered into application process for county funds.

And I'll I'll go into that in more detail shortly.

What you see before you here is the current unencumbered affordable housing funds that we have.

Housing trust fund, our low mod income housing asset fund, as well as the commercial linkage fee fund.

The funding before you this evening is uh meant for uh allocation from the A23 account at 15.3 million.

That number is slightly higher than what was in this reported to you in the staff report.

Uh it was conservative conservatively increased uh based on uh Genentech DA funds that came in in December of 2025, uh and we wanted to be as accurate as possible for you this evening.

Uh the city, as you see there, is as part of that same development agreement is set to receive 4.5 million in December of 2026, but we have not received those funds to date, of course.

So the current funding request before you, and I know there's a lot of information on this slide, and I apologize for that, but I wanted to show current funding commitments toward the project and coming toward uh all these different sources, and this is quite common for 100% affordable projects.

Uh tax credit equity would actually make up almost 40% of the funds toward the project.

Uh and then you have city-committed funds, as I mentioned, the PLHA and Fund 238 for 2.8 million.

Uh, the Rotary and Beacon development team, they both organizations have significant funding toward the project, uh, including the purchase of the land.

Uh, that's approximately 17 million in funding.

And San Mateo County, uh, as I mentioned, they went through uh the development team went through the application process and they they were successful in their award and received 16.8 million uh which I believe is a record amount uh from that source of funds from the county.

So a sizable amount of funds were received.

Uh those funds are conditioned on an increase of funding because it the county knew looking over the performer that there would be still a gap remaining of funds that would be needed for this almost shovel ready project to move forward, and that amount is 6.7 million.

So the county's funds are contingent on the city's increase increase of funds, or another partner potentially, but we are the most ready to go, and I'll I'll explain some of the timing behind that, and that's it's really related to the tax credit award, which the next funding site or the next application cycle for tax credit award is in February of this year.

So right around the corner.

So the current gap, and I'm gonna break this down uh a little bit, is 6.7 million is the request to the city of the remaining gap.

Uh we have the 2.3 million that was already committed, but we had planned to return to council to affirm that amount.

We are now seeking to increase that amount uh in support of the project, uh 5.5 million for a total uh cash reward of 7.8 million, or appropriation rather, and 1.2 million in impact fee waivers that was across of the development team uh in conversations that would soften the amount of eight fund 823 uh funds that we would be putting toward the project.

Uh and staff did meet with uh other departments on making that decision on what what was palatable and potentially supportable to present to you this evening.

Uh and I'll I'll break down the impact fee waivers here on the next slide.

So what is uh the recommended approach is a 50% reduction for library, parks and rec, public safety, and transportation.

We would one reduce the entire fee for the child care impact, being this is specific to 500 Linden, and thus a senior project and would have minimal impact on child care.

We are not recommending any reduction in the sanitary sewer capacity, as we think the development should pay its fair share of development impact fee for that.

And part of our conversations with the development team has been this is a substantial increase in city support.

We want to ensure that there's benefit to the to South San Francisco and our community here.

51% of the units would receive the live work preference for South San Francisco.

We have also the development team is supportive of the city being the master leaseholder for the commercial space on the ground floor at both 500 and 522 Linden for a minimal amount, one dollar per year.

And you'll see the square footage of each of those spaces on the slides, on the slides, excuse me.

No future requests would be awarded in regards to any request to reduce the parking.

We feel that the parking amount should remain, and the development team is supportive of that as well.

That way, if through the development process, as a developer is layering their financing, if you can be the last draw, there could be some percentage that remains, and that could support future projects, even phase two, of course, at the discretion of council.

The factors that I have listed on this slide are not meant to persuade, but I'd be remiss if I didn't bring them up to you this evening.

A UCSF study I think that came out in 2024 speaks to that in greater detail as far as throughout California.

I think the median age for uh the homeless population is now risen to the age of 47.

So we're seeing an increase in the age of our homeless population throughout the state.

Generally, evictions and also specific to San Mateo County have remained high after the pandemic, and seniors on a fixed income are often at great risk to rising costs.

The county award, as I had mentioned, is a uh contingent on a further local commitment that is a puts the city in a very powerful position in regards to the uh this project moving forward.

Uh, without city funds, it would likely be a one to two year delay to the project.

Uh the next round of tax credits, as I mentioned, is right around the corner, February 3rd.

And uh I don't think we would, staff wouldn't be as supportive of what we're presenting you this evening if Rotary and Beacon didn't also have a good amount of funding going toward this project.

Uh, the current timeline that, and this is with city support uh this evening would put construction commencing as early as October of 2026, but by the end of the year is what the development team is targeting.

And that does get us closer to phase two.

So they would build phase one first before phase two would be able to move forward.

And they would be actively searching for funds on phase two as well while all of this is going on.

So uh just to reiterate the action in front of you this evening, it's $7.8 million appropriation.

Uh there is a budget amendment that is listed in the staff report and resolution.

And that those funding uh the source would be fund eight two three, and then a 1.2 million dollar impact fee waiver.

The loan agreement itself would come back to council uh just also in full transparency and wanting to show total dollar amount that is going toward this project or being contributed.

I've listed the total for phase one as well as phase two.

So in total city support, that's PLHA commercial linkage fee fund and the value of the impact fee reduction.

We'd be uh providing 9.6 million dollars toward this project.

And then there is one million dollars that was uh already earmarked and approved uh for phase two.

So that would remain earmarked toward that phase of the project.

Uh again, the development team is here this evening.

I am happy to answer questions, and thank you very much for allowing me to speak to you.

Thank you, Mr.

Noche.

Why don't we hear from the development team and if they actually could all come up and introduce themselves?

Some are well known to us and um but I you know um we are indebted to our rotary partners for what 60 years worth of investment in the community for housing for people that um desperately need it.

So again, uh thank you to our rotary partners and uh so my name is Bruce Wright, been a member of the Rotary Club since 1994 and been part of the housing uh project for Rotary since 2000.

Okay.

My name is Brian North.

I'm a uh board member on our foundation.

I've also been a member of the club for about eight years and a Rotarian for about 15.

Uh Mateo Rizzo, member of the Rotary Club and the uh our clubs foundation, and I've been a member for since around 2016, I think.

Hi, I'm Matt Almonte, project manager with Beacon Development Group.

Good evening.

I'm Peggy Lichthart, development director for Beacon Development Group, but uh a human good company, and um yeah, I'm here to answer any questions.

Wonderful.

It's great to meet you all again.

And uh let's see what direction we're gonna go in tonight.

I'm hoping for great things, but we're gonna start with um uh councilman uh Flores because it is his backyard, it is his district.

And I'm sure he has lots of questions and thoughts.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, I have been tracking this for quite some time now, um, even going back to when uh Rotary Terrace was first getting off the ground.

I uh truly really understand the need, um, not only um in this project, but in the project that just went up recently, most recently across the street.

Uh residents would ask me how do I get on the lottery?

How do I get how do I sign up?

Um it's unfortunate that that's the question that everyone's kind of uh wanting answers to immediately.

Um now that it has been known around the community that this is going to be a housing project, and in particular for seniors, there's already questions of how do I get on the on the on the list, right?

On the on the wait list and whatnot.

I I want to say that um uh this is the opportunity for the city to be able to match.

Um I was very very not only excited but really surprised at the delivery and the action that the county took in being able to move this forward unprecedented um historical in nature of the amount, being able to understand the conversations that happen.

I know that they could have split the money, um, given it to others, even though they did fund other projects, but we were at the top there in the list.

Um understanding what the motive is of our commercial linkage fee fund, understanding uh these three funds and and what the purpose of it of it is, and understanding also everything in scope, right?

Where can we build?

When does it make sense?

The market rate, um, our housing element numbers that we're accountable as a city uh to the state, and understanding the dire need uh that housing um is absolutely needed, um, not just in this area of town.

I'll emphasize this because for many many years this has been the one area, and I'm not the first one saying this from this day is that building has happened time and time again.

I believe that other districts and throughout the city, it should be spread just like we did in your district where Rotary Plaza, Councilmember Coleman.

Um I believe that other projects should be looked at as well.

But um having said all that and looked at these numbers, I I looked at the funding request.

Um I I appreciate the way it was presented.

Thank you for for laying out all the important numbers that I was going to ask questions.

Um so at this point I am in favor, I am supportive, I am appreciative that this city is also able to partner.

And thank you to staff also for being able to to witness and see an opportunity, and I think it's incumbent upon us to be able to deliver for the 16 million that the county is also moving forward as well.

Okay, thank you, Eddie.

Let's um let's switch over.

I think it's getting close to the 11 o'clock hour in Boston, and uh we usually stop at 11 o'clock.

So why don't you go ahead, Flora, if you have any questions or comments on this project?

Yeah, I don't have any question, but I would like to also uh thank the row three and the beacon development uh group for partnering with the community, and this um senior housing will be another contribution to our age-friendly action plan.

Thank you very much for partnering with us.

Thank you, Floor.

Um this and next, maybe the vice mayor.

Thank you.

Um quick comments on a few questions.

I think this just shows how expensive it is to build affordable housing.

It's extremely expensive.

And you know, people sometimes complain about well, there's all this development that's happening.

But the back end of this is how much it costs to build.

You look at how we're paying for this, we're using commercial linkage fees.

The development that you've seen in terms of RD or other things, it's help paying for the affordable housing that's coming to South San Francisco.

So I wanted to highlight that.

Um I really appreciate staff in terms of the making sure that the work live work preference was a priority.

I know the county with their they wanted housing is a regional issue, and so the fact that it's still 51%, that's with terms of our making sure our live work preference is still kind of majority.

I really appreciate that.

Um I'm fascinated about the commercial space.

The 500 lending, you got 1300 square feet of commercial space.

Has staff kicked around, but because we're at we're gonna control that space.

Has staff kicked around the idea of potentially what we can use that for.

It's a great question.

Uh so we've had some preliminary thoughts, but we haven't had conversations with other departments.

Uh we think there's definite avenues, either for city-related services, park and rec services, uh, potentially even an extension of our our downtown business uh incubator, program totally blanking on the name of the program that Ernesto runs.

I've heard it a hundred times.

Those are those are great.

So, we'd be open to feedback on that.

We we're at the very early stages.

Very early stages, and I was thinking the same thing in terms of programs.

The one program I would like to kick in there is child care.

There's been studies that have been done when there's child care implemented below a senior housing that actually benefits both the residents and the children, and I know child care is uh high demand everywhere, and that might be another space to have other.

Um, in terms of uh the council member um uh Flora's mentioned in terms of the the kind of the demand for when we and folks can start asking to be put on the wait list.

That was actually answered.

And so I know typically the way that list opens up prior to opening.

Do we have a timeline of when that's gonna be?

Because you said that the construction's gonna start the fourth quarter of 2026?

I haven't quite heard when the projected when the building is gonna be completed, and then when you're gonna open up the list for people.

I'll answer.

Yeah, thank you.

I don't have the exact dates, but it usually takes about 17 months to construct the building, and we will start um open the wait list probably six months prior to finishing.

Okay.

And I'm pretty sure it you will there'll be a high demand for it.

Yeah, and then I know we're talking about phase one, but I don't want to forget about phase two.

Really quickly, we're we already committed about a million dollars into phase two.

Do we have any projections of what it's gonna cost to complete phase two?

That's very similar.

Approximately, it's very similar, approximately 70 to 80 million.

70 to 80 million dollars to fill that gap.

Okay.

Okay.

And I'm it sounds like you will continue to look out.

That's what I wanted to make sure.

So we're gonna go to the county and we're gonna um work uh with Mike and Nell uh for ASIC funds.

So in April.

Yeah.

I just again thank you to everyone involved, Rotary Beacon.

Um, these are projects that we just love.

Being able to see these projects come out from the ground and helping our residents provide affordable housing.

Um just kudos, and thank you for believing in South San Francisco and being part of this great community.

So, thank you, Mark.

Uh, councilman, sure.

Uh, what a lovely way to start uh 2026.

Uh could not think of any meeting that could be better than this.

Um so brief question.

Um what's okay?

So I I see the AMI of the units for the senior portion of the project is 60% AMI.

Um could you describe the unit sizes?

Like are they studios, one bedrooms, and so seniors, it's um we only have I think it's only five studios, and then the rest are all one bedroom.

We always have one bedrooms for our seniors.

Great, and then for the family, what AMI and also what is the split.

We're not gonna go, we're not going higher, nothing higher than 60%.

Um we're still putting that together, but there'll be two one bedroom, two, and three bedrooms.

So um one thing I did want to note is that we uh we're going as low as 15% AMI on the seniors.

We have 20 units for uh homeless and special needs.

So just want to let you know that.

Great.

Um we're hitting very, very deep levels of affordability that can sometimes be very very tough to hit.

Um, and so I just want to thank our rotary club here.

I always tell people that we have the best rotary club in South San Francisco, and it's because you tackle these issues uh head on, and you've been doing it for decades.

And I believe your your first project was in uh district four South San Francisco, and everyone loves it, and so we're very much looking forward to your third project and your fourth and your fifth, and and for so many more here in South City.

So thank you so much.

Just really quick.

When you say AMI, we know what the percentage means.

I just have this pet peeve where you have to actually say what the actual dollar amount is because when people are listening to this, they don't know what 15% AMI is, they don't know what 30% is.

Could you just really quickly say what that is?

So the people who are listening to this who are excited about the project know.

I can tell you right now, is yeah, 15%.

We get this question every meeting.

You think we'd be prepared with a slide.

Okay, so four so sixty percent um of the area median income for a family.

Well, let's talk a two-person household is around eighty thousand dollars.

So for a two-person household making less than eighty thousand dollars, this is the project for them, and how much rent would they?

The rent would be, um, so I've got calculated the like a about sixteen hundred dollars a month.

About sixteen hundred dollars a month for those higher income.

The 15% AMI will obviously be much lower.

Right.

And that's really important because we have actually have heard from our residents saying, you know, even like qualifying turns on AMI, the rent is actually a lot higher than they expected it to be.

Right.

So this really is gonna help a lot of individuals in the um uh in the in the in that kind of income level.

So, yeah, the beacon team was just mentioning that the fifteen percent AMI units will be perhaps even below five hundred dollars a month, so very, very truly affordable yeah that's great.

Um I was listening closely to the vice mayor's remarks on the cost of housing, and uh, he knows as a homeowner that um you've had your house for how many years eight years now eight years and if you could buy one for that price today you would probably jump at the chance yeah yeah and and my point being that while it is a lot of money today to build this the these amount of units fast forward 10 20 and the life of the project and uh this you know this amount of money that we're collectively putting in um uh becomes smaller and smaller with with time and um I think that uh that's the the power the secret power of uh our local rotary is that they started doing this 60 some odd years ago and um that allows them to um uh put some of that you know equity behind behind the the effort um I think that um we are so fortunate that uh the council previous council put together this commercial linkage fee which really takes the place I'm remembering back 636 El Camino Real is is a pretty large project and at the time with redevelopment dollars the city was able to put easily push in 14 million dollars to bridge a gap to make that happen and and that 14 million dollars was uh money well spent because it it has provided housing for I guess we're coming up on at least 15 years over there on El Camino Real so this is exciting stuff as Councilman Coleman said it what a great way to start the new year and I just wish we didn't have to wait two or three years for the family portion because while I understand the need and the numbers reflected with what's happening to seniors in our community I know of many families that are living um too many families to a single home and and it's just not a um you know when you talk about the uh um the the health equities and such it's uh all related to the way we live sometimes so anyway um we're looking for uh oh any um public comments on this item no public comments any more comments or questions from the council oh I just want to say it's uh it's a beautiful building we need more architecture like this so I'm a big fan so you like you like the um the like the old San Francisco architecture yeah and many people have commented um the same way on the other project that was built on Lyndon Avenue and for some reason I enjoy the modern look but uh apparently I'm more and more in the minority um so anyway we're looking for a uh a resolution uh Mr.

Mayor I'd like to move this item um in approval okay motion on the floor I'm happy to second Mr.

Housing seconds it and a roll call mayor and diego yes council member Nicholas aye council member Flores yes Vice Mayor Nogales yes and council member coleman yes thank you motion passes I didn't congratulations and I just say one last thing I really uh want to thank uh Nell Salander and my noche staff um and you all I really appreciate it yeah we put together the commercial linkage I do uh their hard work really appreciate it thank you thank you I just wanted to add that in addition to the housing the housing has allowed us to have a foundation our foundation last year gave away two hundred and fifty three thousand dollars which 163 thousand was directly here in South San Francisco so it's not just the housing there's other impacts as well thank you it's a beautiful thing thank you Bruce Bruce I thought you were retired I retired from accounting to a rotary job yeah exactly exactly thank you for being with us tonight and for all the good news and the good work and uh have a good evening um next item moving on to items from council committee reports and announcements and we do have item number four is two thousand twenty six uh twenty twenty six city council committee assignments discussion and approval.

So this was put together as a as a proposed draft, if you will.

I'm trying to speed up the process um and sometimes it's difficult to get to each and every one of you separately.

And I'm up to any changes that you might want to make.

I think for some reason um I had Councilman Coleman on my mind.

So I twinned him up with me on a lot of committees, which he may not be up for and and I would respect that.

If there's anything you want to change, you can communicate to me this evening or I have thoughts and suggestions of the process.

And sometimes we get bogged down in the committees and we stay there, you know, for a set number of years.

And I'm wondering if it makes sense if we rotate.

So instead of like which committee do you want to do, do you want to stay on there?

Maybe after a certain number of years, because I think it's actually beneficial to us to provide like fresh perspectives, and just also that we don't burn out in terms of being on the commission, that we rotate after a certain number of years.

Because I I have not served on a couple committees, and I don't know if if my colleagues have served in other committees, but I think just to have that kind of conversation, maybe after three years we switched.

I'm not talking about like the regional committees where you're like uh have to be voted on by council of cities, like that's a different altogether.

But I think maybe we should talk about that.

And then I I was thinking about how Councilmember Flores is really connected with the housing authority as their liaison.

And I'm wondering if it makes sense if we have liaisons to various committees as well, not so much we sit on them, but if let's say Park and Rec have questions about council direction or about something that maybe they know okay, we can go to this council member.

Just thoughts, just a suggestion.

And then I was also thinking about like work plans for the for our committees for the various citizens' committees.

Sometimes I think they rely on us in terms of the direction, but maybe if they had some sort of work plan in terms of organizing what they want to do for the year, that might provide them more direction in terms of having a more fulfilling and more filling out what their goals are and trying to achieve those goals, maybe doing that.

And I think that maybe having a discussion, I think we're gonna have a discussion about the handbook at some point.

And maybe that's that's maybe when we have that discussion.

But I was just thinking about this, like how can we be more efficient in terms of this conversation?

Uh I mean, there's a lot of merit there, um, obviously, and I think that um, you know, um uh taking some first steps to move in that direction, and then by the time you're mayor, you'll be able to incorporate that new way.

What I did basically was I tried to get a sense of of um as much as I know you what you're most interested in, so I would never take PCE away from Councilman Coleman, and and I would never take some of the housing um and transportation away from um uh the vice mayor.

Um, but but some of this I just mixed up to mix it up because um, you know, like the conference center, uh a couple of us haven't served there for a long time, and so now we will.

But I mean I'm open to any if if if I've offended anybody by removing you, and it's something that you will miss, let me know.

And then there's some there that maybe we really should be looking at um letting them evaporate.

So there's an airport noise insulation program project.

Um those funds went away a long time ago, and we turned them over to to the um to SFO uh for their aggressive program.

So uh we need to really look at what these committees uh are doing, and and that's one that really I think is um is history.

Mr.

Mayor, I'd like to point out to this council that we're in a very unique, almost special position because of the fact that this council does not have term limits, and because of that, even the non-council of cities or city selection committee um regional uh bodies are looking to us for leadership.

Many of us, I know that perhaps you and myself are in line for vice chairmanships and even chairmanships in some of these.

Um so I would just like to note that if we move ourselves off of that, we're looked as the new freshmen in the in the even though we've been at the table for a while.

So I'd like to just reconsider um the vice mayor's uh request on that because um it will benefit the city to have leadership in this roles.

Um put that aside, I wanted to make an announcement that I think uh miss my my colleague to my left stole my thunder, but it's okay.

Um yes, I was uh appointed by the Board of Supervisors, and I want to publicly thank the board of supervisors uh to the Samateo County Charter Review Committee.

Over 46 individuals applied.

I am uh have been appointed to represent cities, um, which is a pretty large endeavor, it gets reviewed every eight years.

Some of the things considered are term limits for the Board of Supervisors, uh, the authority to remove the sheriff forever, um, and other things.

So it's a it represents various stakeholders, seniors, youth, labor, schools.

I represent cities.

Um in addition, uh, the first Monday we came back into the new year.

I received a phone call from the League of California Cities President, current president who is the mayor of El Cerrito.

Uh, interesting enough, I'll tell this really quick story.

Christmas or not Christmas, New Year's Eve, when all of us are focused on something else.

The County of Santa Clara had a special election, and everyone was voting and up and down.

It was for assessor, county assessor.

Vice Mayor uh Nisa uh Fleiger from the City of Los Altos was elected.

Um this was the I guess the general election because they had the the primary in November.

She held a seat um at large in the statewide Cal Cities Board of Directors.

Um President Quinto Um asked me if I wanted to join, and he has appointed me uh to the state board of Cal Cities, which um a previous mayor uh Rich Garbarino was not only on the board for many years but also uh came up the ranks to serve as president.

Um so because of these two new endeavors that I will be representing and advocating and pushing, and trust me, uh it's very important right now to be on the Cal League of Cities.

Uh there's a lot of bills, not only VLF, but the prop four climate bond um funds that could potentially come down, uh SB 79 sequa um and all of this.

So I will be very monitoring that.

I I say all of this and share this with this council uh to just uh confirm that your moves and because I think I was the one that was most affected.

I'm completely okay, 100% okay with them because I I need to have bandwidth to be able to support this.

I think had over 15 16 subcommittees yet last year.

Yeah, it was a lot.

I was aware that you were coming off a pretty intense year.

You seem to have endless energy, but at the same time, I thought I might be doing it.

Thank you.

You are um happy to you know serve as alternate, but the ones you have assigned me, I'm good with them.

Thank you.

Okay, any other thoughts from Councilman Coleman on honored to be serving with you on so many boards.

I'm looking forward to 20 years.

We'll see how that goes.

It's my last opportunity to get to know you a little better.

So that was that was actually my thought.

Great, thank you.

There is one board that uh you took yourself out from that was the Cal Train modernization.

I I have a shameful attendance uh record with that.

I'm the alternate, so I I'm happy to move forward with that because they are meeting seriously.

So I wanted to make sure to train of some kind.

So it's not my train though, but no, no, but it's you know, it's all it's all related.

Okay, so for the most part, we're okay on that.

And um I don't see any reason maybe Skye or or the city manager can um uh at some time look at the airport noise insulation program project that we had a committee.

I don't think it's necessary.

But yeah, I there've been some sort of low-level ongoing examination of some aspects of that to try to figure out exactly what is still around on the city's plate.

So that's it's a relevant conversation.

Okay, thank you, Sky.

And Mayor, could uh we also have some clarification if you'd like to include some other discussion topics uh uh that were mentioned previously when we talk about the council handbook in relation to the citizen advisory committees.

Would we like to entertain some of the discussions about just to have a discuss a future discussion about the possibility of things um such as liaisons or work plans related to the citizen advisory committees?

Um is that something that we can incorporate?

I guess the retreat is pretty full.

The retreat is very full.

So this is more with the workshop.

If I may, mayor, um I will be out of town for the council's retreat, so I won't be in attendance to have the discussion on the handbook.

We have traditionally held special city council meetings to discuss the handbook if that is something that you uh choose to do.

But if it is discussed at the retreat, then I would get back to the council if you have any questions on the formatting of minutes and the discussion on the public records requests.

Okay.

But I mean, certainly we could do a first pass on it, right?

But okay.

All right.

So if there aren't any other um items from the council, then we're adjourned at um, is it really 8.07?

Oh, it is 8 15?

Okay.

Oh, the clock is not bad.

Not bad.

Thank you.

Recording manager Snyderman.