City Council Regular Meeting - June 16, 2026

Transcript

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Are we ready to start? Yes, we are. Great. And City Clerk, are we ready to start? We are. Terrific.

good evening. Welcome to tonight, Tuesday the 16th of June regular meeting of the

Brenda City Council. We will start with Call to order and roll call. Uh, I would note for

the record that Vice Mayor G has an excused absence. So Councilmember Hoxie here. Well,

Connie here. Riley here and Mayor Iverson here. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll have

the Pledge of Allegiance please stand.

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.

And while we're being patriotic our item for the good of the city tonight is a proclamation honoring

America's 250th anniversary. We have a proclamation that I would like to read because I thought it

did a particularly good job of bringing

what is a national holiday to the local Orinda significance

and the spirit of why we're celebrating

with a great big parade on July 4th

and a proclamation tonight.

Whereas on July 4th, 2026, the United States of America

will commemorate the 250th anniversary

of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

And whereas this historic milestone provides an opportunity

for communities across the nation

to reflect on our shared history,

honor the diverse individuals who contributed to our independence, and renew our commitment

to the enduring ideals of liberty, equality, and representative government.

And whereas, the semi-queen centennial encourages educational programs, civic engagement, historic

preservation, and community service that connect past, present, and future generations.

And whereas, Arinda's residents have long demonstrated a commitment to volunteerism,

public service, and community engagement, reflecting the democratic principles and civic

spirit celebrated through America's 250th anniversary. And whereas commemorating this

historic anniversary offers an opportunity for a wounded residents of all ages to learn about our

nation's founding, recognize the ongoing pursuit of a more perfect union, and celebrate the freedoms

and responsibilities shared by all Americans. And whereas local heritage and civic organizations,

including members of the Akalani's chapter, National Society Daughters of the American

and Revolution are helping promote educational and commemorative activities in support of

America's 250th anniversary. May therefore be resolved that I, Brandon Iverson, mayor of the

city of Arunda, do hereby proclaim 2026 as the celebration year of America's 250th anniversary

in our community and encourage all residents to participate in appropriate commemorative and

educational activities. Vanessa Cruz from the DAR chapter, I would love to invite you to say a few words.

I would like to thank you for

having me. I would like to

thank all of our Council

members. Can you hear me? Yeah

Yeah. On behalf of the

alkalones, chapter of the

National Society, daughters of

the American Revolution. Thank

you for this proclamation,

recognizing the 250th

anniversary of the Declaration

of Independence. As we

approached this historic

milestone, we remember the

In 1776, no one knew how the struggle would end.

Those who signed the declaration, served in the militia, supplied provisions, or pledged

their loyalty to the new declaration, the new nation, took real risks in support of

liberty and self-government.

America 250 provides an opportunity not only to reflect on our nation's founding, but also

to celebrate the enduring ideals of freedom, civic engagement, and service that continue

to unite our communities today. We're grateful for your recognition of this important anniversary

and for your support of efforts throughout Orinda to commemorate America's 250th birthday.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for coming to receive this on behalf of

and I just add that we have multiple events going on. If you just check out

you are in the historical society windows. The chapter did those windows last week and they

feature a set of China that was given away in 1976 by grocery stores. People all over the country

collected Liberty Blue China. So that window features that. We have an author coming August

6th. She's been traveling around the country promoting her book when the declaration was news

because if you think about it, they didn't have the internet. So how did they find out about the

declaration? So that should be very interesting. We're putting an exhibit tomorrow up in the

Urundel Library that celebrates patriots of color and women patriots. So we call that E Pluribus Unum,

right? And we'll be here at the Fourth of July. Then I invite you all to come and sign the

the Declaration of Independence with us.

We have a copy and we want everyone to sign it

and we'll be handing out copies of the Declaration

to anyone who wants one.

So thank you so much.

This is awesome, thank you.

Before we do our own comments,

I'll see if anybody else from the audience

would like to come and say a few words.

So now I'd ask if anybody up here at the dais

would like to say a few words.

Why don't we start with Ryan.

Vanessa, thank you so much for coming tonight

and thank you for your commitment and your leadership.

and I just love the windows and I'm so excited that you're putting such a splash on the celebration.

Thank you.

Thank you all for everything that you're doing as well.

Thank you.

Council Member-

I just wanted to echo the things too, D.A.R.

You know, I was introduced to a lot of your work last year and you brought us proclamation

I'd like to say thank you to

We'll be back in October

because we'll be celebrating

the anniversary for the statue

of liberty. Please please let

the count. I think all of the

council members would love to

continue to hear about events

where that are open to the

for public forum. Thank you.

Does anybody else want to say

anything on that one? With

that, we will move along the

agenda to public form. Um Uh,

before I read the whole spiel,

is there anybody here would

like to speak for public form?

Uh it's where we can anyone

can speak on any items that are

not on the agenda. Since we

have a lighter crowd tonight,

I might move. On seeing none

So I had the pleasure today of meeting with Suzy Pack, who used to be on the Lafayette

School Board and is now involved with the Lamorinda Senior Village.

And I've just been learning about the activities of the Lamorinda Senior Village.

They have a good partnership with the city of Lafayette, and they want to expand.

They serve over 100 seniors in Orinda currently, but they want to increase those numbers.

And they provide social gatherings.

They provide transportation,

partnered with the Lamarin to Spirit fan.

They provide resources.

So we talked about different ways we could partner.

You know, one of my concerns is emergency preparedness

for seniors in our community.

They do have go bags that they give seniors who are members

and participate with them.

They provide some exercise classes,

all sorts of activities, social and health conscious,

and helping seniors live a fuller life.

And so I think it would be interesting going forward

to see how we could also as a city partner with them

and hopefully we'll be bringing back more

about that in the future.

But it was great to meet with Susie

and hear about what they're doing

and what they hope to do more of in our community.

Thank you very much.

I agree.

Anything else since our last meeting?

Councilmember Huxley, was there anything else?

Council member. No. I'm OK. Uh

Captain Raul Connie. Yeah, I

just wanted to give a report. I

attended, um, the as Lee is on

the S S T O C meeting last week,

and, um, there was a, um, there

was it wasn't agendized, but

there was in the context of the

report reporting back a

discussion about our Ladras

meeting, and I usually don't

say much doing the meetings as

commissioners were, were, I thought could be answered by the presentation that we received and our discussion or could be helpful. So I just encouraged everybody to watch it. And I am trying to recall staff may know what else was discussed that I needed to report back on but yeah, that's nothing, nothing major is, is not a major.

to be a part of our training.

I loved the back roads tour that we got of the narrow pathways to Wilder and there was one park

I'd never seen before which is in behind Pine Grove which is a really good well it looks like

a really good park for little guys and then I went to the dog park that was fun I haven't been there

yet very very nice it looks great I don't know if you guys have been there yet but it's lovely

on the terms of the Fourth of July I learned that we're not having the run

but we are having the pancakes so I think we'll be okay. Let's see then I

went to the art in public places and we have yet another new statue this is

called hoist and if you go down to the plaza you might notice a new spider a

I'm going to go to the next. A

I'm sorry.

I forgot.

No, this is all open season.

I went to the historical society,

the historical landmarks commission meeting on 610,

and there are two properties that they're considering

that are starting the process

of becoming historical landmarks.

And then one property we all thought

had been already designated

was the yellow house on Moraga Way,

but in fact, they never finished the process.

So they're going back and looking at whether they want

to actually finish the process for that property.

So that was interesting.

You're interesting.

Anyways, sorry.

No, that's great.

A reminder, Juneteenth is formally celebrated in horrendous.

So that's going to be a city holiday

in addition to a national holiday.

The Friday, June 26th, just before our next meeting

is the Sabrina UNESCO gym dedication.

The ceremony just kind of in everybody's welcome family

festival from 4 to 6.30.

And the ceremony will be at 5.30.

And again, that's Friday, June 26.

And then there's a fundraiser for one

after it's seven that's a ticketed fundraiser.

So I encourage anyone to attend any of that that they can.

I went to the Central San 80th anniversary party.

The All Things poop and colons.

It was awesome.

I did my duty.

It was really educational in addition to being a lot of fun.

A lot of families came and learned that if there's one thing

that I can bring as take home value,

they don't just recycle,

there's all the hazardous waste drop off there.

They don't just recycle it, I mean dispose of it safely.

They actually reuse all of it.

They have people come by and use them for, you know,

people who are household cleaners,

people who make dried paint into retaining walls.

I mean, everything, everything gets reused and repurposed.

So any ability we have to get the word out

about all those sort of used, you know,

paint and household items, it's not just a disposal.

It's a wonderful resource.

So learn to ton.

And then the last thing, just a fun fact,

from our library report from the last mayor's meeting,

they've had 225,000 items checked out year to date

by Arenda residents, and 124,000 people have come

through the door of the Arenda Library

just in the first five months of the year.

So it's an incredibly well-used, well-loved resource.

And with that, City Manager, over to you.

Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council,

This Thursday night is Thursday nights in Arinda,

it continues and the Good Time Collective

will be the band this Thursday.

I can tell you they're an excellent band

and you will enjoy yourself if you come.

How Arinda Works is still looking for members

of the community who wish to learn more.

It's our new Citizens Academy, sign up is available

on the city's website.

So please, if you're watching, consider joining us

for How Arinda Works starting in August.

Focus groups for wildfire preparedness

happening right now over in our city buildings. We're information on that. Hopefully we'll have

some information to share with the council and with the SSTOC as a result of the feedback received

from this set of focus groups. And just a reminder again, notifications for residents to get meeting

notices has changed. If you wish to continue to receive notices for upcoming meetings, please

go and subscribe to the new system on the city's website.

That's my report.

Thank you very much.

Anything else?

Yeah.

Could I just ask a follow-up question?

I know we had some kinks with that new system.

Have we worked those out?

Do you know?

Yes.

Okay.

What we're trying to.

Just a reminder that our next meeting,

we will start receiving Zoom public comments again

on our July 7th meeting.

So just wanted to remind everybody

that that was starting again.

Thank you very much.

She reminded me to say that and I forgot.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

And I assume there'll be some sort of communication

with the agenda about how people should do that.

It's just, it's been a while.

There is, thank you.

Terrific, thank you all.

And just before we move on to consent calendar,

I'll see if there's any public comment

on any of the council or city manager reports.

Seeing none, we will move to the consent calendar.

And before I ask if we have a motion to approve,

as a reminder, these are items that we vote all

in one motion.

I'll see if anybody wants to pull anything

for discussion or questions.

Seeing none, I'll see if we have a motion

to approve the consent calendar.

So moved.

A second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, great with that we unanimously approved the consent calendar and we'll move on to our policy matter K one legislative update from Townsend public affairs on the bike.

Casey Elliott to come up and please present.

Good evening, Mayor Council members Casey Elliott Vice President Townsend public affairs.

Tonight I'd like to provide you with a brief update of kind of what's going on in Sacramento and DC focused on a couple of areas, namely state budget.

pending legislation that the city has taken positions on and then a brief overview of

what's going on within the federal appropriations process.

Starting with the state budget, I'll give a little context for where we are right now.

Nearing the, nearing the kind of the end of the state budget process, the governor issued

his January budget proposal at the beginning of the year, followed up by his May revise

in mid-May.

The May revise really kind of kicks off the last leg of the budget process where the state has the actual

Better revenue numbers coming in from tax receipts and whatnot as part of the governor's

May revise he put forward a budget plan that closes budget deficits in the exists in the current year as well as in next year

The budget itself is based on additional revenue beyond what was anticipated in January

over kind of the three year budget window.

The state's expecting about 16 billion

in additional revenue beyond what we had anticipated

in January, largely due to the strength

of the stock market at the end of last calendar year.

As part of the governor's May revise,

really not a lot of expansion of programs,

really just kind of reinvesting in the actions

that have been taken to date.

So we don't really see any new major initiatives

being proposed, not significant expansions

of existing programs outside of caseload

and various adjustments.

Where we do see the governor put a lot of focuses

in mitigating impacts from recent federal legislation,

namely HR1, particularly as it relates

to health and human services programs.

Some of those federal requirements

are gonna increase administrative burdens

on the state and on counties,

as well as have the impacts on who can receive services.

So the state's doing what they can

to kind of backfill some of that.

So a lot of that unanticipated revenue

or new revenue was really being focused

within the health and human services area.

And additionally, I should note with additional revenue

based on Proposition 98,

about half of any new revenue goes over to schools,

TK through community college.

So a large portion of what the governor's proposing

goes over into the education side.

The kind of a visualization,

the governor's budget may revise has about 14 billion

in what we would refer to as budget solutions

to kind of address these struck what would be the,

otherwise would be the deficit of this year.

As you can see from the pie chart,

we're still kind of in that phase

where we aren't really doing a lot of reducing

on program expenditures, but more borrowing,

differing payments to our reserve accounts,

using special funds.

So still a lot of accounting maneuvering

and not necessarily a lot of program cutting.

The bar chart on your right is what would otherwise

be the state deficits in the out years.

So as I noted, the governor's May revise

basically eliminates the deficit for 2627 and 2728.

However, the state is still looking at

your budget deficits beyond about in the ten billion range assuming that we

don't have any significant economic downturns or whatnot so that's where the

May revise is as of about 21 hours ago we have a legislatively approved budget

I'm going to refer to it as a two-party agreement and those two parties are the

assembly in the Senate most notably not the governor not the Department of

finance. Last night the legislature passed AB 109, which meets their constitutional requirement

to pass a budget by June 15th. There were a couple of other trailer bills that create

some of the revenue solutions that the legislature assumes as part of their budget. Well, I'll

talk about the process in just a minute. The legislature's budget, similar in overall spending

to the governor's number. It has a $253 billion general fund. The legislature uses the May

revise revenue assumptions for the budget year. However, they do allocate $5 billion

more in the current year. So the legislature's budget spends a little bit more than the governor

just but those are based on revenue assumptions. Similar to the administration, the legislature

is proposing putting significant dollars into the state's rainy day reserves in anticipation

for those out year deficits. So the legislature's budget creates about 36 and a half billion

between the state's three major reserve accounts. The legislature, as I noted, they do and they

do account for a little bit more revenue than the administration in their budget. And as

such they spend it. They did propose some significant funding adjustments within the

housing and homelessness space, 400 million for HHP, which is the state's primary homelessness

program, as well as another 700 million in housing, spread across low income tax credits,

multifamily housing programs. So the legislature is definitely putting more of a focus on on

housing programs. Additionally, the legislature's budget goes above and beyond the administration's

as it relates to those health and human services programs.

The legislature proposes differing a lot

of the administration's impacts and service reductions

and fee increases in the health and human services.

They proposed delaying them by a year,

so effectively funding them out of the general fund this year.

So a significant portion of the revenue difference

goes towards health and human services.

And then also the legislature put in about 375 million

total for public safety programs,

including an additional 50 million

for the implementation of Prop 36.

Beyond Prop 36, we're looking at substance abuse programs,

mental health programs,

workload adjustments for county probation,

those types of items.

So I said we're almost through the budget,

so we have a couple of more steps to go.

As I noted, the legislature met their constitutional

requirement yesterday, so they will continue to get paid.

They did send AB 109 to the governor's off,

to the governor last night for his consideration.

So the governor will have until June 29th

to act on the budget.

So really now that's kind of the budget window

we're looking at.

We would anticipate the administration and the legislature

to reach an agreement prior to that June 29th day,

which would constitute the three party agreement.

So everyone's on the same page.

we would then anticipate the release of budget trailer bills,

probably 20 budget trailer bills in the various areas,

transportation, public safety, education,

health and human services,

as well as what we would call the budget junior,

which would make modifications to the bill

that was approved last night.

We would anticipate that action to happen

in the legislature, either on June 29th,

which is a Monday or the Thursday prior.

So that's kind of the window.

That said, there are some outstanding items

that will hang out beyond the end of June.

Most notably cap and trade, the GGRF program,

there have been some major modifications

over the Air Resources Board

that's impacting the revenue generation from that program.

The legislature and administration

would likely defer to August

before they try to solve the spending of those dollars.

similarly proposition for the Natural Resources Bond.

Those spending conversations will likely

move over into August.

Those are both notable

because those are both proposed large sources of funding

for wildfire, Cal Fire Administration.

So some of those conversations, again,

will continue into August.

While the budget conversation is going on in June,

we are also still moving through legislation.

We are now in the second half of the legislative calendar.

So all bills have moved out of, that are still active,

have moved out of their house of origin

and now are being contemplated in the second house.

So all of our assembly bills are in the Senate,

Senate bills in the assembly.

The second half of the legislative session

moves much more quickly than the first half.

So what took from January to June in the first house

will now happen between June and the end of August

with a one month recess.

So everything moves much more rapidly

the second house. The all bills have to move out of their policy committees by July 2.

So that's the deadline that the legislature is pressing up against right now. Just as

kind of a highlight, these are some of the bills that the city has taken positions on

thus far in this session. All of these bills that I'm going to mention are still active.

They're still moving through. They're still being considered by the legislature. There

are a couple of bills within the wildfire preparedness space, both Mr Bennett's bill,

would establish a statewide structure for home hardening certification. So those activities

can be done in a manner that's effectively gone through an approved program at the state

level. If that bill goes into effect, then that program would need to be up and running

by the beginning of 2028. Ms. Petri Norris's bill, that would make some modifications to

some existing grant programs so that regional cooperatives could apply for regional grants.

It wouldn't have to be, for example, a single city or a single special district being a

fiscal agent beyond for a community project. Something like you could have a la Marinda

group apply for funding as opposed to a single city. So that bill is moving through just

recognizing that a lot of the work that needs to be done for preparedness is on a community

basis, not on necessarily individual property or an individual jurisdictional basis.

In simultaneously, obviously a big, big major importance is property insurance, the ongoing

property insurance conversations, two measures in which the city is supporting one by Ms.

Bauer-Cahan, which aims to build on the sustainable insurance strategy done over at the Department

of Insurance.

This would require CDI to annually reevaluate the distressed areas that are eligible for

catastrophe modeling.

The obvious idea is allowing insurers to use catastrophe modeling and providing getting

people off of the fare plan.

The zip codes that went into effect on that under regulations have been, the list has

been promulgated, but there's no requirement within those regulations for those areas to

be revisited.

legislation would allow would require that to be revisited every year. It would also

lower the overall threshold of properties that are on the fair plan to be considered

a distressed zip code. And then as some of the members excuse me Senator Allen's bill

deals with non renewals providing folks more information as to why they're being non renewed

if they're being non renewed and giving them more time. So obviously still trying to provide

additional resources to those that are impacted from nonrenewals.

Also, we have the red flag warning bill that Mr. Grayson is running.

That bill continues to move through, I believe it's actually up in committee tomorrow in

assembly education, which would allow for fire districts to excuse me, to allow school

districts to close down at the recommendation of fire officials for red flag warning days

and still collect ADA.

So they would not be financially penalized

for sending students home if there's adverse conditions.

Everyone's favorite e-bikes.

There was a number of e-bikes bills introduced

at the beginning of the year.

Some of them are moving through,

some of them are not moving through.

Two measures that are still moving through.

Ms. Davies' bill really focuses on the education component,

bringing together public safety and schools

to establish training programs that could be administered

for students who want to ride their e-bikes to schools.

That bill is continuing to move forward,

as well as Ms. Wilson's bill.

Her bill takes a lot of the recommendations

from the Maneta Institute report last year

and puts them into codification,

particularly related to speed limits,

manufacturer safety requirements,

have to have headlamps, those types of things on the bikes.

There are a number of bills that were introduced

related to e-bikes that did not move out

of their house of origin.

For example, Ms. Bauer-Cahan had a bill

that would have required registration through the DMV.

There were a couple of other bills

that would have aimed to cap the power of e-bikes.

While those were not successful in moving forward,

both the transportation committees

have expressed continued interest in this

and wanting to look at this in a more holistic way.

Talked about informational hearings over the interim.

So I think it's likely that we will continue

to see more e bike bills, irrespective of what happens this year, going into future

years, hopefully we can kind of get away from one county was able to do something and more

of a statewide approach. So I think those are going to be conversations that will continue

through the fall and into next year. Also, as it relates to transits and roads funding,

a couple of bills that are continuing to move SB 922 that was the bill that was introduced

response to the Redlands decision that would still allow franchise fees to be continued

to be used for local road maintenance.

That bill has moved out of the Senate, continues to progress through the assembly.

And then Mr. Arreguin is carrying the legislation which would allow CCTA, well, would allow

CCTA to put a revenue extension measure on the ballot and not have it count towards the

county's sales tax cap.

So that bill is continuing to progress through the assembly, I believe it already moved through

it's in local government tomorrow and they don't have to go to revenue tax.

So a number of a number of revenue measures, measures that would allow local agencies

to put reg revenue measures before voters are being considered by the legislature this

year, including the CCTA measure.

And then the last measure, so the note is Recycle Smart had reached out with a number

of bills that they were looking at and taking positions they had encouraged the city to

to consider supporting those one that the city has taken a support position on is 2253

by Assemblymember born or this bill relates to having recyclable if you're gonna make

claims of recyclable content that actually the products have to be made with recyclable

content not just that you have recycled content within your overall portfolio but more just

product and ensuring that their products are what they say they are.

And then lastly, I just wanted to briefly touch on the federal appropriations process.

Working with the city, we submitted, the city submitted two projects to Congressman Dessaulnier

as well as the senators for consideration for, for district spending.

Both of those projects were selected by his Congressman, I keep wanting to say it, send

member, Congressman DeSaunia, both the Camino Pablo pathway rehabilitation project, as well

as North Arinda Shaded Fuel Break. Happy to say both of those projects were included in the House

T-Hut markup worth noting that the Camino Pablo project had their amount of funding that we had

requested was reduced by the committee. The congressman put forward the full request that

that we had asked for, but politics being what politics

are, that overall amount was reduced.

But the $250,000 is in that earmark.

Similarly, the North arendition.

A fuel break was included in the agricultural ag markup bill

within the House.

That was full funded.

I believe that might have been Congressman DeSonia's only

project that was fully funded at the requested amount.

Based on prior years, the last handful of years that we've been doing federal earmarks,

typically what happens is when we get to the end of the process, those bills that are included

in the House markups are incorporated by reference.

So the fact that these projects and the funding are included in the markups already is fantastic

news.

Given that it's an election year, unlikely that we'll have appropriations bills prior

to the beginning of the federal fiscal year on October 1st, more likely that we'll either

have a lame duck session after the November election, or perhaps in beginning of January,

which would be when we would expect to see all of the new appropriations bills approved,

and the projects would go in through reference that way. So also was going to mention, Moraga

has a request that they did for public emergency communication radios on behalf of the three

Bla Marinda Cities that was also included in the T. HUD markup for I think seven hundred

and seventy five thousand dollars. So there'll be three different sets of of federal funding

that the city will benefit from a year from now is realistically what we're looking at.

And with that I am happy to answer any questions on any of these items or any other items related

to Sacramento RTC.

questions. Thank you. I'm I'm

sure there are a lot of

questions. Um, you'd like to

leave us off anyone. That's

perhaps it was that it was

out of no, or was it? Please.

I have a bunch of questions I'm

happy to go married. Go ahead.

Okay. Thank you so much. Um,

for the report, Casey, I just

made some notes as you were

going through it. Um. So I

have questions about a few of

the home hardening certification.

I know it's something that I know that the mayor

and I were looking at each other

because we expressed I think it varies for him.

So this is, there should be some sort

of standardized certification.

It's a voluntary, it's not yet.

Do you know if through the process there has been any buy-in

or indication that there might be buy-in

from insurance companies as to appreciating this process?

Have they opposed it?

I'm just sort of curious about that background, to know.

No, it's a great question.

Actually, I had the opportunity to sit down

with the Senate Emergency Management Committee last week

and asking these exact questions.

It's obviously having the home hardening in part

is trying to get insurers comfortable with re-insuring.

So at this point, I do not believe

that individual insurance carriers

or their statewide association are opposing the measure.

that said, I don't believe they're supporting either.

So I think they're just kind of watching,

but there is also a portion of it that if providing

residents, homeowners, you know,

that if they're going to invest

in these home hardening activities,

that the contractors that those are doing the work

are being held to a level standard.

So there's a consumer protection element of it as well,

obviously wanting to bring insurers back in and provide.

There were a couple of other bills earlier this session

that were more direct,

that if insurance carriers did not come back

to folks that had done home hardening upgrades,

that there would have been some penalties

for those insurers.

That bill did not advance.

So kind of the direct of what you're talking about,

that bill unfortunately didn't move through,

but 1934 is still advancing.

And just a quick follow-up to that.

was there any sense that the certification process

that is envisioned by the bill,

I don't know if the language would necessitate

trying to achieve some consistency with the IPHS guidelines

that the insurance industry puts forth or not?

It was kind of structured in such a way

where it tries to provide general parameters

for the state agencies

and then effectively says go forth and develop.

so it's not quite that prescriptive,

but so I don't think that that type of specificity

is within the language, but yeah, obviously,

there wants to maintain some continuity with existing,

and given that there would only be one year

to establish the certification program,

it would obviously behoove the fire marshal

and all of the other impacted state agencies

to be drawing off of existing models.

Great.

I have other questions, but I don't want to hulk.

I have a whole ton, so why don't we go,

we'll go back and forth.

I have a vocabulary question.

For Barracay hands, Bill, you talked a lot

about what it means to be a distressed city

and I couldn't remember what the significance

of the distressed area.

No, I apologize.

So the Department of Insurance passed

their sustainable insurance strategy through regulations.

that two years ago now.

And part of that is catastrophe modeling,

which would allow insurers to change the model

by which they adjust their rates

to anticipate potential hazards.

In order to use that rate modeling,

the regulations require insurers to have,

I wanna say it's 80% of their portfolio

within distressed areas,

which are defined as areas that have 15% of properties

on fair plan or there's a lot of rural areas,

but effectively pulling people back off the fair plan

or other people that would otherwise be at risk

of moving to the fair plan.

That's largely North and East.

There are pockets.

There is a county definition.

So unfortunately, a render wouldn't qualify

because there aren't enough properties

within Contra Costa County.

So then it goes to, there's a zip code eligibility as well.

And so that zip code is what this is focusing on,

the regulations establish eligible zip codes one time,

but there's no requirement to the frequency

with which those get revisited.

So her bill basically says that the Department of Insurance

for the purpose of this catastrophe modeling

to trying to get insurers to offer private policies

and pull people off the fare plan

that we should reevaluate annually

what areas would be best targeted.

Okay, and just to really dumb that down.

What you're saying is if they want to be able to price,

to use the catastrophe modeling for their pricing,

they have to be pulling people off the fare plan.

That's a quid pro quo,

and this is getting into all the rules of how it works.

Correct, yeah, and the idea that Ms. Bauer-Cahan is doing

is trying to make it more attractive.

So communities like Arinda would be eligible

to be on that incentive list for the private insurers.

Your turn, or anybody's turn.

I have one about SB 1301.

I'm curious to know if this requires insurers

to give homeowners a chance to correct,

so that if the insurer says,

we're dropping your coverage because you haven't done X, Y, or Z,

and the homeowner corrects,

does the insurer have to keep them?

I'll have to go back and double check that.

I don't believe so, but I'll go back and double check

and through staff, I can get you an answer on that.

I don't wanna give you wrong information,

but I can get that for you.

Thank you.

I remember looking at that earlier,

and at that point, I don't think it does.

It doesn't, it doesn't have to be positive.

It does not.

It doesn't have to be positive, but yeah,

I don't think it does.

It's those nice things, but it doesn't do.

It really won't do much unless

because it actually gives homeowners an opportunity

to correct whatever deficiencies are identified

and then the insurer keeps them.

Yeah, that's good.

Well, it's more time.

It's more time and more specific notice, which-

It gets things on the books for the next round.

It's a step.

Yeah, it's not as big a step as we need though, I think.

Just like the certification, is noticing a theme?

Yeah, are we still in wildfire or do we wanna move to e-bikes?

Anything, I mean, I've got a bunch of questions

all over the place.

and there was a group of

young men riding their ebikes

right down a window way.

The lead guy was doing a

wheelie. It clearly was an

emoto and not a real ebike.

They were not 16. They may

have been 14 or 15. They were

wearing helmets. But, you know,

everyone around town is seeing

the e-bikes because they were

wearing helmets. They were

around town is seeing this behavior. We're told that, you know, it really has to be a fix from the

state and it doesn't look from this legislation like the state is really doing anything other

than saying, you know, educate the parents. Yeah, it's been frustrating in how slow it's been moving.

That said, this is probably the most aggressive e-bike year we've had to date. The 2436, it was

just amended yesterday, but it would allow local agencies to implement and upon the type

of path or roadway specific speed limits 10, 15 and 20 miles an hour. So it provides

a little bit more discretion. There are there have been the last couple of years some county

specific legislation that allow jurisdictions within San Diego and San Mateo County to do

to do some local ordinances to prohibit younger riders

on certain types of vehicles.

I can tell you last week I asked the committee

to add Contra Costa to that and was politely told no,

but there are conversations ongoing.

We're trying, we try.

But so yeah, it is frustratingly slow,

but I will say it feels like there is a statewide lifting

of the issue beyond what we've seen in previous years.

So even a year ago, we tried to get committees to hold interim hearings over and they didn't

want to do it and the fact that they're committing already. I think they understand that there's

going to be more than just whatever happens this year. We're going to have to continue into next

year. Thank you. Can I ask another e-bike related question? There, you know, we had these extensive

seminars, I think some of us were there, including the Cal Cities briefing that was the first

council is dinner presentation revenue wanted to keep talking instead of going to eat at after war

after 8 p.m. but um but there were some bills that were sort of starting to address that

e-bikes might need to be regulated at the point of sale right by the manufacturer and what i thought

i just heard in this presentation is those didn't make it out so far those have died and i was

curious if you could talk a little bit about just sort of your perspective about, you know,

what you think the issues are there and what we might look be what we might expect to see

in the future from the state with e-bike regulation, because I do think that now,

unlike before, I do think the state legislature is really listening on this. I think they are

really frankly as confounded as we are really about what to do. Right. Yeah, I think that it's

interesting the conversations of all evolved over even the last couple of years from e-bikes to now

we hear you know pedal assist, full throttle, moped, so it feels like the vocabulary related

to e-bikes is becoming a lot more nuanced and refined and I think that almost makes the

legislation harder as they understand like oh it's not just a product that we can throw

a sticker on or it's a single thing that there are these delineations between oh this is

a good e-bike, this is a e-motorcycle that we're calling a bike. So I think that's where

a lot of it's coming in. We are getting pushback from not only manufacturers but resailors

that don't want to necessarily have the liability for selling the wrong product. So you are

are getting some pushback there.

There are still concerns from bicycle advocates,

people that are still,

e-bikes are a valid mode of getting people outside of cars,

that getting them access to public transportation.

So we said that the conversation has kind of moved

from a year or two ago of like,

oh, this is a San Diego problem, like you deal with it,

to now really kind of trying to understand the nuances

and craft policy that's really targeted at some of the,

that actual problems.

So I think that's part of what's taking so long.

And then that doesn't really account

for some of the enforcement issues.

I know that when we were talking about

the Bauer K and registration bill,

was, well, it's gonna cost the DMV money

or it'll be a state where it's like, well, yes,

but it also provides local law enforcement,

a tool by which if they don't wanna chase,

you know, an adolescent riding on an e-bike

through the streets, they can at least have an address,

they can go and speak to parents or hold the, you know,

so some of those are unfortunately

just gonna take time.

But they are starting to look at it

from a more holistic perspective.

And I think that we will get to an enforcement angle

probably next year.

I think we'll probably start seeing some more tools

on what can be done for enforcement as well.

And will it be age-related?

I mean, obviously an adult writing,

something that's more of an emoto

is a whole different issue than a 14-year-old doing wheels.

Right?

Yeah, the San Diego pilot, for example,

and the one that they're trying to do in San Mateo

would allow local jurisdictions

to prohibit anyone under 12, for example, from riding.

Once you kind of get in that murky kind of middle school,

high school age, it becomes a little bit more difficult.

And then obviously, once we're talking about adults

riding bikes, then it becomes helmets, lights.

You know, just kind of more safety devices, yeah.

So it's really kind of that middle,

that middle school to high school to 16.

Yeah.

Okay, I'm gonna jump in with just,

we all have a bunch of questions.

SB 1408 was confusing and I'm sorry that Vice Mayor G's not here, but it sounds like there's a cap on how much counties can sales tax and CCTV just passed a law to say it doesn't apply to them. That sounds strange. Could you explain it?

Yeah, so a lot of times when Sacramento gets involved in these local tax bills, it's because

there's a state law that says we have our state sales tax, we have our local sales tax,

but then kind of your add-on pieces can't total more than 2% total.

So in Contra Costa once you have a, you know, a BART, you know, regional housing measure,

the city may have a half cent or something that we get to this 2% really quickly.

And so agencies will often come to Sacramento and say we want to run a local revenue measure,

in this case with ccta an extension of existing measure, but in the interim the sales taxes

overall in the jurisdiction has risen to the point that they wouldn't be able to run it,

other than having an exception to that 2% cap.

So ultimately, that's where Sacramento comes in.

So like bills like we just did one for the, the county health measure that was on the

June ballot that was through state legislation did that and a similar one in LA. There's

another bill that Mr. Aragon's running for I want to say like a dozen cities that are

looking to put stuff on in fall. So it's really kind of getting around this 2% cap threshold

still requires in this case the CCA CCT a board to approve voters to approve so it still

goes through the normal process but otherwise it absent specific legislation CCT a wouldn't

be able to collect the revenue because it would be over the state cap.

So that's kind of where these outside of all the local politics that go into these measures,

that's generally why Sacramento gets involved in these ones.

Okay.

The federal appropriations so far have been really exciting.

I'm looking at our city manager because I know that our city manager and staff had a

lot to do with all of that.

So, super exciting.

It reminded me of a question I've had for a while. And since it's in the realm of legislative advocacy, I think this is appropriate and relevant.

Linda has never been participating with the National League of Cities.

Why is that? And should we be in terms of legislative advocacy?

I probably can't help you with the first one.

The second half, I know that from our colleagues in Washington, DC, the National League is

similar to the California. They'll host, I want to say it's maybe five days to a week

out on the Hill where people will do the kind of the Capitol Hill delegation meetings and

whatnot. I think it's similar to Cal Cities in that depending upon the issue of the time,

there may be, I'll say more value.

That's not exactly what I'm trying to mean,

but there may be more focus.

For example, we had in California,

we had the small cell tower legislation that went through

and we had everyone from Cal Cities

up at the final week of session and it was great.

And then that issue kind of moved out of California,

but it moved over into the FCC.

So Cal Cities may have provided updates on it,

but from the National League, it was like,

all right, well, let's take this coalition

built in California and join up with the coalition from Florida and Texas and Georgia and wherever

and then amplify those voices in front of the FCC. So depending upon the issues, there

can be a lot of value in that. I would say generally the last six years, we haven't had

a lot of legislation moving through Congress, just kind of given the politics of Congress

and the administration. So there haven't been as many opportunities to kind of directly

engage, but we do still see those large things around, you know, surface, transportation

reauthorization programs, various large funding programs that have, trying to think of the

last couple years, been a lot of folks at home and CDBG. And when we've got a presidential

budget talking about potential cuts within the HUD programs, kind of mobilizing a nationwide

network of cities. So in that, in that respect, it's very useful, great networks to be having.

I would say a lot of times it can kind of just the peaks and values based on kind of

the issues going on in DC at the time.

Thank you.

I realize it's not agendized.

I didn't, but I just wanted your perspective on it as it relates to.

I would say that we, as someone who does a lot of federal advocacy work with California

clients, we probably work, our DC team probably works with the National League a similar amount

as my California team does with CalCities.

In the dare to dream category, we need seven cycle numbers.

I've been asking who set the number to begin with.

So before we're slicing the pie, who sets the pie?

And I've been told we need to, well, not that they'll listen,

but that HCD sets the numbers.

How do we get a conversation with HCD?

Who are they?

How can they be related to,

I mean, how can we influence that process?

Yeah, HCD will help set the number with input

from the Department of Finance and their demographics folks.

I know on the SCAG side, that's starting now,

their year ahead on their arena cycle.

David Scissor is the guy, he's kind of housing.

David, Z-S-I-S-S-E-R.

He heads up a lot of the housing and oversees

a lot of the arena and housing elements.

So he's where the conversations would start.

If you asked how does that position

look next year after an administration change,

I do not know.

That's one of those positions that's kind of at

the pleasure of the governor.

So we could be seeing some changes in HCD after November,

kind of regardless of the outcome.

So it probably makes sense to begin conversations

sooner rather than later in the executive office of HCD,

but also with the understanding that that conversation

might need to be revisited in February, March, next year,

because we may have some new personnel over there.

Very helpful.

And a quick follow up.

Is that only a mathematical exercise

or is there also a political element?

Thank you.