Okay, it is 701 I'm calling the meeting in the San Leonardo City Council to order it is Monday December 1st and
What we're going to do here is if you're able to stand please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance
Madam clerk, would you please take roll?
Councilmember Aguilar
Council member as a Vito present
Council member bolt here
Council member Simon present
council member Viviros Walton present
Vice mayor Bowen is absent and mayor Gonzalez present the same salient or conduct orderly meetings fulfill its mandate discriminatory statements for conduct
That would potentially violate the federal civil rights Act of 1964 and or the California for Employment and Housing Act
California Penal Code sections 43 or 415 are per se disruptive to a meeting
and will not be tolerated. Please see the City Council handbook and City Council
meeting rules of decorum for more information. Madam Clerk your
announcement. If you would like to make a public comment during the meeting you
can do so in person or via zoom. If you are present at the meeting please
complete a speaker card and submit it to the City Clerk before the item is
presented. If you wish to participate in public comment via Zoom you can do so
using the raise your hand tool when the item is called. During the public comment
session speakers will be invited to speak and will have a set time to share
their comments. A countdown timer will appear for their convenience and when
time is up the microphone will be muted. All raised hands outside of public
comment will be lowered to avoid confusion. Once public comment is opened
hands may be raised to speak. There will be a 30 minute window for public
comments which will take place under item 7 public comments as per the
published agenda. After this time is up the council will proceed with the rest
of the meetings agenda. If you have not had the opportunity to speak during the
initial 30-minute period there will be another chance to do so after item 12
City Council reports. So moving to item 3 of our agenda is there anything to
report out of closed session? Thank You mayor there were no reportable actions
taken in closed session there is an announcement that the following
announcement though will be made in that there will be an agenda item on December
8th on Vice Mayor Bowen's question or request for discipline. There is no
majority direction to consider waiving privilege on the report. That concludes
my report. Okay, so for item number four, recognitions, and this is a really
important day in the city of San Leandro. Once a year we gather to celebrate
everybody. So, yay! It's so awesome to have so many people here for such a
positive event. Our first series of recognitions are with respect to
corporate and community partners for the free, I use air quotes free, downtown events that take place
also often because as I explained last year nothing is free except for the love offered by this council
but the events cost money to put on, right? The sponsors play an integral role in what we do.
So there were more free community events this year than we have had in recent years in the past and
we estimate that over 42,000 people came downtown to celebrate and attend various events and that's
that's pretty awesome and whether it's the SL Pride at Groverfest Cherry Festival it's a wonderful
night we're talking about lots and lots of people that supports economic activity downtown it brings
lots of smiles and it builds that feeling of community so that to us is really important
because one of our council priorities is the promotion of economic development in San
Leandro, one of the things that's to me most powerful is that when people come together
for these events, they see the other person who doesn't look like them, doesn't act like
them, but they come to realize that we're all community, that we live that diversity
in shared experiences and we get to truly celebrate the power of what San Leandro is,
a diverse community that genuinely cares for all members of our community.
So we're extra, extra grateful for the sponsors that help facilitate making that happen through
their economic contributions.
There's a lot of time that goes into this, of course.
We've got student volunteers, we've got adult volunteers.
the downtown ambassadors support these programs.
And then we've got Morgan and her team
that are supporting these programs
to make sure that they happen in collaboration
with our other partners.
So thank you very much to the team at SLIA
for helping to drive this.
You know, the sponsorships of these downtown events
are a very, very visible way that companies in San Leandro
and that serve San Leandro show their broad support
for our community.
So there's some that donate product to these events,
companies like Coca-Cola and others,
and others that really open up that checkbook.
And that helps us hire the bands,
that helps us bring the stages.
That's, it's the very practical stuff that,
I don't care how many volunteers I have,
it takes thousands and thousands and thousands
and thousands of dollars to make these events happen.
So thank you very much.
Tonight we're going to recognize a series of businesses
that gave at least $5,000 in support of the many events
that we have, and we have quite a list,
so I'm gonna come down there
and individually recognize some businesses.
Okay, so do we have Martha Gill here from Chase?
Okay, do we have someone else from Chase?
So what I'd like to do is I'd like to celebrate Chase.
They have really stepped up recently
in terms of hosting events at their own site.
And it's not just doing the easy stuff,
like having people come to your bank,
but opening up that checkbook
and sharing some of their resources
with the community at large.
So I do wanna recognize Chase Bank, JP Morgan Chase.
I do know that Luana Spina is here from the Port of Oakland.
Where are you Luana?
I saw you just a second ago.
There you are, come on down.
Recently I saw, you know, Luan also sits on the East Bay
Regional Parks Board and is out there enjoying
one of those parks, just kind of minding my own business
on a weekend, and there she was, miles away from civilization,
out there running, enjoying the park.
So she not only talks about the importance of parks,
she actually goes out to check out
what's going on in the parks.
So this is going to be for you.
And so I do want to thank, she is here representing
the Port of Oakland.
The Port of Oakland is an integral partner
to our community.
Obviously, not only do we receive significant economic
benefit from the Port of Oakland being immediately
adjacent to the Port of Oakland, but more importantly,
they have repeatedly served as a community partner in schools,
helping with science programming at events
like the Cherry Festival and other events.
They have tabled at multiple locations.
So endless thanks to the Port of Oakland.
So thank you, Mayor Juan Gonzalez, City Council members,
and Morgan Rose for this special recognition.
The Port of Oakland is a proud sponsor and partner
of the City of San Leandro
and downtown San Leandro Community Benefit District.
We work directly with the Executive Director,
Morgan Mack Rose, to support free community events
that represent our amazing and diverse community.
We first met Morgan at Sled and have followed her since.
And from the San Leandro Cherry Festival
to the San Leandro Pride, the port answers the call
and supports free community events
through our community investment program
and volunteer sweat equity.
These community events not only support economic development
by encouraging visitors to patronize our downtown merchants
but also build community through shared experiences.
We wanna thank you again.
We appreciate our partnerships with San Leandro
and greatly value being part of this thriving
and diverse community.
Thank you.
So, if I can, so I would also like to recognize
two other businesses that could not be here.
We've got Prologis who supported the Cherry Festival.
You saw their name up on the banner.
they were a $5,000 donor.
And also Ray's Coca-Cola bottling,
which has their plant here in San Leandro
for a $5,000 donation and almost $2,000 free product
that we were able to, in turn,
offer to folks in the community.
Our next recipient that's present is Kaiser Permanente.
I saw Lena.
Is Joe here also?
Or, who's?
Hi.
So, come on up.
We've got, do I call you MG?
Mg. Yeah, come on up mg. And Lena's coming up. No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Come on. All right
mg. Thank you for joining
Let's see
So we had Kaiser supporting
SL pride this year and it's a wonderful night. So together as a
$10,000 sponsor to help make these events happen
Hello everyone, thank you Mayor Gonzalez, City Council and Morgan for inviting us to
this event today.
On behalf of Kaiser Permanente, I just want to say I'm really honored that we get to support
such a vibrant community and being part of San Diego leadership, this cohort, I've gotten
to see all the wonderful things that the city is doing to continue making this a wonderful
place to live.
So thank you.
Thank you, Mary Grace.
So who do we have from waste management?
I saw Virginia, and I was introduced to Sean Dass.
I learned it wrong, so I had to try to figure out how to say it right.
on up waste management. Let me read a couple of words about the fine work that
waste management does. So we've got Sean Das and Virginia Harrington. Thank you
for supporting the Cherry Festival and SL Pride and it's a wonderful night. Is
there anything else? There they help us at community cleanups. They have helped
us in a number of volunteer activities. Every time that I'm out there I see you
guys. So thank you for not only making those financial contributions, $10,000,
but also for for the sweat equity those described by Luana really just offering
your time so thank you. Thank you. Just want to say Mayor Gonzalez and Morgan
thank you so much for having us here tonight and everyone on the council
thank you. We're thrilled to support this amazing community. This is also the
community where I live and have raised my family so it's a joy to kind of have
of my job coincide with the place that I live and love.
So thank you.
On the board of the Downtown Benefit District
offering your time.
Thank you.
Virginia, Virginia.
OK, Ava Community Energy.
You are next.
Give it up for Ava Community Energy.
We've got James Cunningham here today.
Climate specialist.
Came properly branded.
For those that don't know, Ava is the default energy
provider for everyone in the city of San Leandro.
So if you've got any complaints?
He's a good guy.
He's a good guy.
OK, so you've supported us in multiple ways.
Thank you for that.
So we had support for the Cherry Festival, SL Pride,
at Drober Fest.
And I've also seen folks at other activities.
So just know that we are grateful as a city.
you are also one of our $10,000 donors.
Thank you.
That puts on a lot of programming.
Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez,
and thank you to the council for the recognition.
We appreciate the appreciation and very happy to be here.
We are, I'm a part of the outreach team
at Ava Community Energy.
So you might see us out at a table, at a community event,
and we're always happy to be invited to more places
to talk to people about electricity and renewable energy
in Alameda County.
So thank you very much.
ACI. We got Bernie here. There, all right. Hello, hello. You helped us in so many different
ways. It says Cherry Festival, Octroberfest, and it's a wonderful night. So thank you so
much for what you do. Obviously, one of the things that we take pride in with respect
to our waste haulers is that we like our city being clean.
And our waste haulers do a lot
to make sure that our city is clean.
They do their part.
Each of you has your own part to do.
Support their efforts.
Make sure that the recycling goes in the right bin, right?
But I don't wanna steal your thunder.
Thank you.
Oh, $10,000 donor.
Did I hear 10,000 out there?
Celebrate 10,000.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council Morgan.
It's been a pleasure working with all of you,
and it's been a pleasure serving the community,
and we look forward to many years of continued service.
Thank you.
Amen.
I know, right?
Woo-hoo!
Thank you.
Okay, if we can bring up Robert Herron.
Robert Herron, there you are
from the Optimist Club of San Leandro.
Quick handshake here.
This is our top donor.
$25,000 of support for the city of San Leandro.
You know, it's easy to talk about values,
but when you actually put some zeros behind those values,
it really makes a difference for helping the community
build those connections.
So thank you for all that you have done
to bring our community together, to celebrate,
and know that you are foundational to that effort.
We really appreciate that.
And it is our pleasure to be able to do that
for the community.
We operate a nonprofit business here in the community
and we funnel as much of that as possible back into it.
And for that, it's heartwarming to receive this
and our club truly appreciates it.
Thank you, Mayor.
Beautiful day.
We've talked a lot about community partnerships and resilience and obviously the two things
go hand in hand.
You are a much stronger community.
Much stronger community when people feel connected to one another.
And so that's why these events are sort of powerful.
I saw a comment today.
We get e-commits.
And someone wrote any comment that said,
stop all the parties.
Stop all the celebrations.
Stop all the fun stuff.
You have a budgetary problem, stop all the fun.
And I think that it's just the opposite,
that when things are really hard,
that's when you need to bring people together,
to find commonality at a time that it's so easy to divide.
So, extra special thanks to all of the sponsors
who made this possible.
I'm also excited to announce that we're going to have
even more programming this year.
So the second Friday celebrations,
for those of you that aren't tuned into this,
every second Friday for 10 out of 12 months,
and I think it might be going to 11 now,
to 11 months, we're going to have events.
Think about that.
A monthly event, and in some months we have two, I think.
So it's just, there is some really good stuff happening.
So again, an extra special thanks to our sponsors
who make this happen.
And this year, we're teaming up the city of San Leandro,
the library team, the public works team.
It's gonna be full scale collaboration
with San Leandro Improvement, downtown business district,
community benefit district to help make this happen
in closer collaboration with our sponsors.
So thank you to everyone that's involved.
And thank you for some of these commitments
that I heard tonight for the ongoing support.
That one-time support is OK, but it's really
when it becomes a decade, two decades, three decades,
in some cases even longer, of continued support
of the community.
If you'd like to support, if you want
to open up that checkbook, pull out that credit card,
share your Bitcoin, whatever the case may be,
Morgan MacRose is here in the front row,
and she would love to hear from you.
So wave your hand, Morgan.
I want everyone to know who Morgan is.
So thank you very much.
Very good at taking money, I love that.
That's a great way.
Okay, so let's move on to the next item on our agenda.
This is the community, the City Council District Awards
where each council member has the opportunity
to celebrate one individual
who has made impact in a district.
So we will begin with council member,
Vivierus Walton, District One.
Thank you very much, and thank you all for coming out tonight.
Today we're celebrating service, so we're celebrating
commissioners who've served, organizations and people who
have served for many, many years.
So today it is my honor to celebrate Lynn Drogo
from Teen Advocacy Going Strong.
Lynn, can you please come up?
You can bring all your crew.
You can bring the crew.
So today, I am honored to honor all of you at TAGS.
It's a nonprofit that does something quite powerful.
It creates a safe and supportive space
where young people can learn who they are
and discover what they can do.
For young people from ages 13 to 24,
TAGS is much more than a thrift store.
It's a place to develop confidence, practice
responsibility, and gain real life experience
and how a small business operates.
From customer service, to merchandising,
to budgeting and creative problem solving.
We know that young people thrive
when they have room to explore.
They need the space that welcomes mistakes,
encourage curiosity, and allows them to step
into leadership in ways that feel authentic and empowering.
TAGS also provides that space.
It is a chance for folks working there or volunteering
to try on new roles, both literally and figuratively,
and to see themselves as capable, resourceful,
and valuable contributors to our community.
This kind of environment doesn't just build skills,
it builds identity and hope.
And in a time when many young people feel pressured,
uncertainty, and or isolation,
places like tags become even more essential.
They remind us that investing in youth
is not only the right thing to do.
It strengthens our whole community.
So today we honor tags in District One
for nurturing potential and for believing in young people
and for creating a space where the next generation
can learn, experiment, and gain confidence
to build their futures.
So thank you to the staff, to the volunteers,
and to the teams who make TAG such a vibrant,
meaningful place.
Your work is shaping lives and strengthening
the community of not just San Leandro,
but of all the places that we are in.
Lynn, to the founder and to the members of the board,
congratulations on making such an amazing space
for young people, felicidades.
Thank you.
Oh my goodness.
Well, Spadey said it all.
I feel like I don't see anything.
But we've been doing this work for over four years.
And our commitment to empowering teens
through creative expression has been unwavering.
The need continues to grow.
And we just continue this work.
We serve and engage hundreds of youth through our nonprofit.
Our thrift store, art studio, and community events,
like the holiday night market we just did this past weekend
at Zocalo, is a real opportunity for these young folks
to learn hands-on business skills, creative skills,
and opportunities to engage with the community.
And that's really important.
And this brings confidence in their abilities
to shape their own futures.
So, and that's really important, especially today
when so many young people are feeling disconnected
and isolated.
So we invite you all to come down,
visit tags at 1711 East 14th Street.
We have really built a,
I wanna say artistic welcoming space
in a low income neighborhood.
And we would love for you to,
if you wanna be involved to come down
and we have lots of opportunities for everyone.
Yeah, and just a note, tomorrow is Giving Tuesday.
So if you are wanting to support a local nonprofit,
support tags, thank you so much.
I wanna take a quick photo.
Thank you all Felicidades.
Aw, you're wonderful.
Council Member Ezebito.
Hello everyone.
It's an honor to present Dan Diehlman with the Leadership
Award for District 2.
Come and join us.
He is the president and artistic director of the Sally Andro
Curtain Call Performance Arts, the premier performing arts
organization behind the success of Sally Andro's historic Bell
Theater, which is located in South Sally Andro District 2.
With over 30 years of experience as an art, cultural,
entertainment, innovator, educator, and mentor,
Dan has dedicated his career to enriching the community
through accessible, world-class art, and cultural programming.
Dan's passion for the arts began early
and led him to writing and producing music
with superstar recording artist Ralph Tresvit
of New Edition, Dwayne Wiggins of Tony, Tony, Tony.
He founded his own production company, Exalt Media,
where he continued developing original content
and even had the opportunity to collaborate
with industry legends, including Dionic Dick Clark.
Through his career, Dan has continued to champion creativity,
believing deeply that art, cultural,
and entertainment bringing people together.
As Dan shares, we all come from different paths,
but when we meet in the moment,
watching the art, cultural, and entertainment
unfold on the stage, we share a collective experience
as one community.
Beyond his local impact, Dan is also
a third generation treasure hunter,
mystic and ancient mysteries theorists,
Known internationally as the star on history channels,
Lost Gold of the Aztecs, and on Ancient Aliens.
He even has some events there, Ancient Aliens.
I've been to a couple.
Beyond Oak Island, and the proof is out there.
At his core, Dan is committed to building community
by uniting people through art, culture,
entertainment, and mystery.
Thank you, Dan, for all you do for our community.
Both of you.
Would you like to say a couple words?
Sure, sure.
I wanna first and foremost thank Brian
for recognizing the hard work that we do
at the historic bowel theater.
You heard downtown is doing so many marvelous things.
South San Leandro can use just a little bit of that equity.
So just putting, planting that seed with all of you
that we're holding it down for the south side
and we would love to have your support.
We're a nonprofit.
We have people coming from out of the state to shows.
We mentor kids through San Lorenzo Unified School Districts
and also through San Leandro.
Do internship programs, teach them live sound,
audio production, even video production.
So anyway, quick planting of a seed that we are here.
We thank Brian for seeing us.
20 years we've been doing it there.
The historic bow theater has been there since 1945, 46.
And it really is a place that I want,
I hope, especially you that are here,
that you see that space and place
beyond Dan Dillman and Gina Dillman and our team.
But that place transcends us,
and it needs you to survive
when I'm not there to do it anymore.
But bottom line is, is we appreciate the love
and support of our volunteers
because it's not a money-making business, right?
That's why we're a nonprofit as well.
And but the volunteers enable us
to keep bringing world-class entertainment to town.
We hope that if you haven't been to us ever
or in a long time that you tell a friend,
you don't have to even come,
but tell a friend, tell a family member
that something cool and exciting and safe
is happening in San Leandro at the historic Bao Theater.
And so we love and appreciate every one of you,
the council as well.
I wanna make sure that I tell this entire council,
thank you for what you all do, Mayor, everyone.
I want to call you all out and just say,
I know you all love this town.
I know all of you do.
And I hope and pray that the South side and the North side
can come together just a little bit more
and work together more for the betterment of our community.
And I want to thank my wonderful wife who doesn't talk much,
but she is my boss.
And again, Brian, thank you so much
for recognizing how much we care.
So I'm probably talking too much.
And I also am good at receiving your money
for the historic Bao Theater.
We got lots of things that can use some help.
Thank you, Brian.
Next up, we have council member Aguilar.
Well, thank you, Brian.
And like Dan Dillman had said, please
support the Bao Theater.
I think the last show I saw was Chorale
and a couple of other independent films
that were screened there.
It's a great location.
So today I'm here to honor Rob Urobbe.
Good to see you too.
So today we're honoring our districtly awardee, Rob.
Rob's services and Leandro Human Services Commission
has been nothing short of exceptional.
So his deep commitment to uplifting our residents,
especially to the work of our incredible nonprofits,
partners reflect the heart of what community is all about.
Whether he's championing services for our seniors
or bringing joy to the Cherry Festival Parade,
Rob shows up with genuine care and passion for San Leandro.
Beyond his public service, Rob brings a wealth of experience
from his work in senior care and adult living facilities,
making him an invaluable advocate
for some of our most vulnerable neighbors.
And on the personal side, his 20 year partnership
with Alex, a proud San Leandro native,
along with their crew of pets, board games and movie nights
reminds us of the love and humanity behind his leadership.
Rob has two dogs and two cats,
and he loves to watch the movie Lilo & Stitch.
We're proud to celebrate Rob,
a Louisville, Kentucky transplant
who has become an essential part of the San Leandro fabric.
And thank you so much for all you do for District 3
and the entire community, Rob.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And I'll let Rob have the mic and say a few words.
So I wanna thank you.
San Leandro reminds me kind of home.
grew up in a little small town and everybody here has always been
welcoming warming I have never had a bad experience honestly with either
working with city employees or working with the community and so I appreciate
everyone and I'm here to serve I'm here to serve the residents to make everything
better for everyone so thank you very much. Thank you very much Rob we'll go
ahead and take a picture. Thank you Rob I'll call up District 4 council member
Fred Simon. No, there we go. Would you like me to leave this mic on? Okay. Today is my honor. I
would like to recognize Melissa Wong for our leadership award for District 4. I've
known Melissa for about five years before I was on council and Melissa was
part of a group that pulled together in the manner called the Manner Task Force.
This was a group of neighbors that pulled together to address issues that
weren't being taken care of. They really took the initiative and Melissa was was
key to that group. She helped really spearhead a lot of the projects that we
were concerned about. Melissa then and the Manor Task Force joined up with their
Manor HOA to increase the support of the community, bringing a lot of energy and a
lot of new ideas. Melissa is very active and very vocal in the Manor Homeowners
Association. She brings much energy and much knowledge, particularly on the
financial side of things, bringing new ideas to bring in both money and
resources to help the city. Melissa served them the city's Community Advisory
Budget Task Force and has been a big push for a program called a
participatory budget program here in our city which she keeps pushing for and I
will keep pushing for as well. Melissa also has a sharp eye not just to help
the manner but the entire city. For example when grant funding comes up she
you may see it on the news or be reading about it
and we'll bring it to my attention to help our city.
I would like to recognize Melissa for her energy,
her fiscal eagle eye, and her caring and hard work
to make the manner in the entire city a better place.
Would I be able to speak now?
Okay, thank you Council Member Simon.
I'm really very sorry that I'm unable to join you,
the mayor, the rest of council and be there in person.
First, I wanna recognize all the awardees.
A special shout out to the Optimus club.
They are also more than a friend
to the Washington Manor Homeowners Association.
People say it takes a village
and it clearly shows at a recognition event like this.
I am honored to represent
the Washington Homeowners Association
and also the Washington Manor Resilient Hub.
There are many folks behind the scenes.
So I'm just one of many faces in the Washington manner.
I invite everyone to attend our monthly meetings.
It's the third Wednesday of every month.
We have great speakers, including the mayor, council member,
the city manager, police chief, many department directors
and their fabulous staff.
This all started with me being appointed to the budget advisory
task force.
There are many folks out there like me five years ago,
someone who has a little extra time,
join the team of folks which share interest
in city operations and contribute
to a little more budget transparency.
I just wish that I could be there in person,
especially since I'm missing a nice photo op,
but thanks again, Council Member Simon.
Okay, good evening, everybody.
My name's Dylan Bolt, District Six Council Member,
and tonight District Six is honoring Meneca.
We are known on the west side of town
to swing above our weight class.
And that's something that Meneca does time and time again.
If any of you heard or came out to participate
in the No Kings Rally, this is who we can thank for that.
And when I speak to swinging above our weight class,
some of you know I'm a union rep.
to work with union members across the Bay Area.
And I was, Meneca doesn't know this,
he was supposed to be here tonight,
his name's Bobby McMillan.
He retired last year, as we know,
we're going through a lot nationally, locally.
People feel unheard.
People feel like they're in their own silos.
And we had the No Kings, I think three times in San Leandro
before you went to Hayward.
And that's where Bobby lives.
And he was so happy that something
was going on in Hayward.
And when I told him, well, yeah, that's
San Leandro swinging above his weight class
and giving everybody the opportunity to feel together.
And all the conversations we had, it was never about her.
It was never, honestly, it was never
about anti-anything, including anti-the president.
It was about getting community together to speak
and to feel heard.
And to me, that's huge.
So a little, you know, you gotta do the formalities
with the bio.
Meneca holds a doctorate degree
and is a public policy research professional.
She believes strongly in importance of community service,
civic engagement, and ethical and responsible government.
She moved to San Leandro in 2016
And she lives by the marina, and we're very, very lucky
to have Meneca in our community down by the marina.
So thank you for all your work and what you've done this year,
but it's your time to speak.
OK.
Thank you.
Well, I left my bullhorn at home,
so I guess this microphone will have to do.
Thank you so much.
All right, I have some remarks.
Earlier this year, on President's Day,
a small group of about 10 people stood outside this very
building holding handmade signs with phrases like hunk for democracy and we
the people. We responded to a flyer to show up at city halls across the country
and say no kings on Presidents Day. What brought us out was simply a willingness
to try. I couldn't have predicted that just a few months later on June 14th the
same street would be filled with 2300 energized demonstrators. That so many
would keep coming back to Root Park month after month to stand up and speak
up, that the energy from Root Park would feed new and necessary advocacy and
service initiatives. Thank you to Councilmember Bolt and also to Mayor
Gonzalez who have been recognizing our local pro-democracy movement and
supporting it and also to the council members who have attended and stood in
solidarity with their constituents as well as the city staff and many other
people in this room. While demonstrations and elections are the big events that make
headlines, it's in the in-betweens that we deepen our individual and collective power.
If you're wondering if you can make a difference, know this. You can. Join an existing group
or start a new one with your friends and neighbors. No experience needed. Just willingness. I'm
I'm forever grateful to the San Leandro United for Democracy
crew, the SDDO Estates Resilience, Team Relentless,
the San Leandro League of Voters, and Aiden Indivisible.
These groups are made up of amazing people,
building community and friendships
around a sense of shared purpose and responsibility.
Yes, democracy is messy, and participation
takes courage and some faith.
For me, it all started with a willingness to try.
With that in mind, please join me
celebrating every person including all of you in this room who has participated already and
all those who may feel called to after hearing this speech. Thank you. Okay so it is with
I have the privilege of presenting the district five award on behalf of vice mayor Bowen. Eve
Eve King, where are you?
There you are, come on up!
So I've got a lot to say about Eve.
Vice Mayor made sure I had it all laid out, all the details.
So obviously it's my great pleasure to do this.
So Vice Mayor writes, it's my great pleasure to share why Eve King, a dedicated neighbor,
parent and changemaker in our community, is this year's recipient of the District 5 Leadership
Award.
As a fellow mother of three, Eve deeply understands what it takes to build a nurturing, inclusive
neighborhood for our families.
In 2023, Eve founded Juniper Corner, a nonprofit born out of her vision for affordable, welcoming
space where toddlers and their families can learn, play, and connect.
And what she started as a mobile pop-up, play events in our parks, schools, libraries, and
festivals, not just in San Leandro,
but in neighboring cities like Oakland, Hayward,
and Castarelli, has engaged hundreds of families
through creative, collaborative, and joyful play.
But Eve didn't stop there.
With her leadership and broad community support,
she's turning that energy into a permanent home,
a 6,000 plus square foot space at 1900 East 14th Avenue,
East 14th Street, here in San Leandro, California,
blending the wonder of a children's museum
with a comfort of indoor playground.
The plan is to open in February of 2026.
All right, looking forward to that.
This is a dream, long time coming.
Offering daily drop-in play, birthday parties,
recurring activities, parenting support,
all on a sliding scale basis to ensure access
for all families, regardless of means.
Now, beyond Juniper Corner, as if that wasn't enough,
beyond Juniper Corner, Eve is deeply invested
in our schools and youth.
She coaches basketball at Roosevelt Elementary,
supports the Jaguar speed track team,
and helps out at her children's school
during lunch and recess.
Her hands-on activity, her hands-on engagement
Models the kind of community leadership that we all value
What resonates most with vice mayor and I know with each of us here tonight is?
Eve's unwavering belief that every child deserves a safe inspiring and inclusive place to play
And it's strengthening families means strengthening our city in her work
She lives out values of equity connection and opportunity. So please join me
Vice Mayor Bowen and myself and the rest of the council in the entire state of San Leandro and
congratulating Eve
Thank you mayor Gonzalez and thanks Vice Mayor Bowen in absence and everyone here in the whole council
Sua vice mayor Bowen has been a big
advocate and ally for this project when it was just a concept throughout this whole process.
So I really appreciate her and appreciate her for nominating me for this award.
I fundamentally believe that we are all responsible for creating the community that we want to
live in and through this work, I hope that I am doing something that will help other
parents and families have a little easier time of it.
As Sua said in her talk, we've done these mobile events
in schools and parks and the library
in all different places.
And we're really excited to transform that momentum
into a permanent indoor play space.
So after you're done donating to tags and about theater,
we also would like some money.
And also Celia.
And also Celia.
I truly appreciate living in a community
with the diversity of resources and the diversity of families
like San Leandro.
And I still think that it's very hard
to be a parent of a baby and a parent of a little kid.
And so I hope that through this work,
I'm able to create something that adds to and expands
the network of the proverbial village that
helps us all help parent and care for children.
So thank you very much.
And I'm honored to, I think, hopefully continue
to take on leadership as we open our permanent space.
So thank you.
OK, so our next award is for Janine Hennelt.
Come on up, Janine.
So I think one of the most wonderful things
that you can hear from an award recipient is, why me?
Because what that shows is extreme humility.
Not realizing that you're making an impact
in so many different lives, but making impact.
And so that's why you're here, because you've
touched many lives.
Her journey began with tragedy, the passing of her son
as a nine-year-old boy, loss of life to cancer
at such a young age.
That then turned into a commitment to serve others,
to help turn hope out of grief,
to bring unity in a place where there was a lot of pain.
She ran, organized, led for over 20 years a relay for life team known as walk a mile for Kyle.
And in that 20 years, easily raised over $100,000 for cancer research.
Your compassion moves people. Your energy inspires people.
All of that's come together to make a huge difference
in the lives of people in the East Bay
and in San Leandro very specifically.
So we as a city are grateful for that type of inspiration,
because you remind us why we participate in events
like Relay for Life,
because we gather to celebrate survivors and caregivers.
We gather to honor and remember loved ones,
and we gather to fight back against cancer.
You have been that role model, that inspiration
for all that you have done impacting people
not only in San Leandro, but throughout the East Bay.
I, as Mayor of San Leandro, recognize you.
Thank you very much.
I really appreciate this.
This was a team effort, and this was our way
to do something to raise money, hopefully,
to find a cure for cancer.
Because it's just a terrible disease.
And everybody has somebody, a friend, a family member,
somebody touched by cancer.
So this was our way of doing something.
So thank you.
I'm very humbled.
Thank you.
so now we move to the next one our agenda do we cover them all okay so at
this point in time we have the mayor's Awards for excellence and we cut we have
different categories there's small organizations medium-sized organizations
large organizations and then we do have an overall award.
So I'm going to begin with our small organization category.
And for this category, we have got Palens Martial Arts.
Grandmaster Palen and Felima Palen, come on up.
Center stage.
For those of you that don't know,
and I can't imagine anybody in this room doesn't know,
They have a martial arts studio here in San Leandro,
two martial art studios, two locations here in San Leandro.
Family owned business.
Actually, going back a generation, right?
So this is the real kind of a just,
it keeps going through family bloodline.
So thank you for all that you're doing.
Focused on both the physical training,
but also the values based training.
To help develop the full person offering the life skills
such as confidence, discipline, and respect.
The curriculum includes specific programs
from various ages, from ages three to adults.
I can still go?
I can still go.
OK.
What do you guys think, Amy?
I think it's great.
So we've got after-school activities, day camps,
birthday parties.
And really what's most important, I think,
is that your structure emphasizes community,
emphasizes family-like structure.
I've seen you at so many different events
and seen so many students come up and treat you like family.
So I think building that community is incredibly powerful,
and it makes sure that we as a community
are striving to live better together.
For all that you've done, we recognize your excellence.
Mayor Gonzalez, city council, and Celia,
thank you so much for this recognition.
We at Palance Martial Arts really have two main goals
that we've always focused on.
We are fortunate to share a joint passion,
a passion that started many, many years ago.
And our number one goal, we have two,
our first goal was to create a viable business model
out of our passion, what others see as a hobby.
So it was really important for us to create this business that
can be sustainable for the years and the generations to come.
I often joke that if you walk into our dojo,
if they somewhat resemble my husband,
they're probably related.
And that's because so many of our employees are family members.
And we truly value that.
we find the most enjoyment out of being able to go to work
and see our family members
and be able to provide a sustainable career for them as well.
So that has always been one of our goals.
Our second goal, and this has to do with really
our heart and our passion,
was to create a curriculum in a development,
a curriculum and a program that is based on our core values,
two of them, one is service and another is authenticity.
For service, we really wanted to focus
on providing an engaging environment
where our family members and our students
can really feel comfortable giving back to the community
and understanding what that means.
That's why you will always see us
at every community event that Sound the Andro has to offer.
We will be there, we will perform, we will support,
we will help, we will do the work.
And that's the value that we would like to instill
in our youngest to the oldest member of our community.
Of course, with the focus on martial arts training,
empowering families and students through self-defense,
but most importantly in developing all of the selves,
the self-confidence, self-discipline,
self-respect, self-control.
For us, being able to develop a student as a whole
really is helping families develop good humans,
more than anything.
And so that as well as being able to live and work
in the community that we've raised our family in
is such an honor.
And to share this evening with all of these
amazing community leaders is truly an honor.
And thank you all so much.
So next we've got our medium sized organization.
I believe we've got Dong Shi.
I think I said that wrong, shi, Dong Shi.
Thank you for joining, from Asian Health Services.
Let me give you this.
They're going to want to take pictures and all that kind of stuff.
So we've got Asian Health Services has been growing
its presence in San Leandro.
And it's nice to see not just the most recent addition,
almost directly across the street from City Hall here,
where there's a new dental health and mental health
clinic, but we're also seeing expansion down
at Bayfair with the construction of a pace center
that we're excited to just keep hearing more about
and hoping for late 2026, late 2026.
One of the things that's very powerful
about the work of Asian Health Services
is that they focus on our most vulnerable residents.
Our lowest income residents oftentimes are immigrants
who are unable to communicate effectively in English,
and by having multilingual professionals,
are able to ensure that folks receive
the health care that they deserve.
So we're very grateful for the work that you're doing,
not only in pediatrics downtown,
in the dental work here, the health services,
the mental health services, but the new PACE Center,
that will help address some of the needs of our seniors.
Founded in 1974, they just had their 51st anniversary
this year, right?
50th last year I went to that gala
was an amazing celebration.
It was amazing to see that the founder was still around.
Just very, very powerful stuff.
It's so much more than just offering
what I call science.
You guys really are about offering care
and meeting the needs of people where they are
and helping them be healthy as an entire person.
So thank you for everything that you do in our community
and throughout the East Bay.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Asian Health Services is a community health center.
So we want to be where our patients are.
And we want to address and improve
the health of our patients, but health of the community
that they live, because that's our goal as a community health
center.
And actually this is the first time I'm actually
at this August chamber.
And the first thing I saw was that
a city where it kindness matters.
And I really appreciate Mayor Gonzalez, Vice Mayor Bowen,
the city council members, the city officials,
as well as all the residents.
Because you are actually living that model
and it's great to be in city of San Leandro.
As Mayor mentioned, we're growing,
we're betting on San Leandro.
So, we started really small.
We started with a four exam room pediatric clinic in Calon.
That was in 2019.
It's been a while and then I think it's been,
it's almost a year since we opened our dental
and mental health services across the street.
And hopefully in a year, we will have a critical service
for our elderly patients to provide them with a care
so that they don't have to go to nursing homes.
So we're looking forward to being in this great city where really you have demonstrated
that kindness does matter and it really is a welcoming place.
So thank you.
Our next honoree, large business award, is for energy recovery.
And from energy recovery, we've got Rodney Clement.
There you are, Rodney.
Come on up.
So I had the opportunity to visit energy recovery recently.
Amazing place.
Just an amazing place.
If you think about some of the technology that's
being developed here in San Leandro.
And it's not just that intellectual stuff.
They actually make the machinery here in San Leandro.
So it is that full cycle.
Very interesting, the work that you do.
Because around the world, there's
one thing that we all need, right?
We all need water.
Water.
And there are places in the world that just don't have access
to clean, fresh water.
Their work in the realm of desalination is second to none.
By using innovative technology that
allows them to extract energy from the desalination process
and re-inject that energy, they're
able to decrease the cost of desalination.
And as a result, places that didn't have clean water
now have clean water.
They use the same technique in refrigeration,
CO2 refrigeration in particular.
Use the same technique now in a wastewater treatment.
And so by taking a very clever, patented idea and doubling
down and tripling down and figuring out
what those core uses are to make the world a better place,
They are doing that from San Leandro, California.
So we recognize them for all your amazing work.
Well said.
Thank you, Mayor.
If this mayor thing doesn't work out,
you have a job at Energy Recovery.
That was a great sales pitch.
And thank you, all council members
in the great city of San Leandro.
It's crazy that I'm accepting this award,
because we just turned 25 years old in San Leandro.
And I remember moving the company here
with five employees.
So to be the large, what is this?
The large business recipient this year
is kind of a dream come true for us as a small business
and starting as a small business.
So we've done quite well.
We went through an IPO in 2008 here in San Leandro.
We've been here ever since.
Like I said, we moved here in 2000.
We've scaled our technology here.
We've manufactured here
and we've deployed it all around the world.
So I'm rarely here.
I'm usually a globe trotting
and trying to sell more pressure exchangers
and our technology globally to really make
Desal Nation affordable, make it a viable solution
for places and people that need water the most.
And that makes us extremely proud.
We've peaked at around $2 billion in market cap
a couple of years ago and we're doing quite well.
We've grown from the five employees
burning $5 million in cash to making about 150 million
in cash at very high margin,
having very strong economic growth and benefit
to the city of San Leandro.
I mean, that's really important to our investors.
But our investors aren't here.
Our employees are here.
And what's important to our employees
is that we give back to San Landro.
So we have a very robust sustainability and ESG program,
and the S stands for social.
And what social means to us
is being a part of our community,
being active member part of our community.
We've done vaccinations in times of need.
We've done COVID testing in times of need.
We clean up the park just because we're always there.
So we do things like this in the community.
whatever else I've been hearing so much stuff that I can bring back that we can
bring back to the office, yeah we can engage more into the community because
there's a need there you know there's a desire at our company to engage more and
more with the city that we we know and love. On a personal note when I did move
here 25 years ago I was a newly I was newly married we had one on the way my
home was the San Leandro Marine Inn for nine months. My backyard was the Marine
Park and my kitchen was Horatio's and I've moved I've since moved back to
Virginia where we moved the company from but I come here at least you know 15 to
20 times a year and you guys know where to find me I'm at either the sailing
marina in or Horatio's so thank you guys hope to see you guys there okay we've
got one last award the innovation the innovation and entrepreneur award I
I think we've got Cecily Lee.
Where are you, Cecily?
I saw you earlier.
There you are.
Come on up.
She's representing Core Shell Technologies.
I cannot say enough about Core Shell Technologies,
just absolutely amazing things that are happening
here in San Leandro.
They have won awards after award after award,
most recently winning a global competition
for their technology around improved battery design,
which is making them much more viable for vehicles
and vehicle transportation in particular.
I am just so proud that wherever I go,
people talk about Core Shell.
And I can say, they're in San Leandro.
So I first met you two years ago, was it, perhaps?
and have just in that time watched the company grow
and prosper, and currently looking
for even further expansion.
So there are many opportunities
for an ever more prosperous and bright future,
and we are ever so grateful and proud
of all that you are doing to revolutionize
energy storage technology here in San Leandro.
Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez,
and thank you to City Council for this recognition.
I am very honored to represent Corshell this evening.
Like Mayor Gonzales said, we are an advanced battery technology
company.
And what we're doing is we're building the next generation
of lithium ion batteries.
And the first market we're tapping into
is electric vehicles.
So fingers crossed, by 2026, 2027,
our batteries will be in some of the largest automakers
vehicles, and I'll be buying a new car.
So we're very grateful for our partnership with San Leandro.
We actually have a pilot line here
where we're manufacturing the batteries at scale
and we're hoping to get that ramped up very, very soon
so that we can have more batteries coming off our line.
And we're forever grateful for our partnership
with the City of San Leandro
and also the San Leandro Economic Development Team as well.
Thank you so much.
So the next item on our agenda is service awards.
For those that have served the city of San Leandro, in any of a variety of capacities,
be they as volunteers, on commissions, maybe as council members and the like,
they've contributed their time for the benefit of the city.
Our first one is council member, Spere Viveros Walton, for five years of service.
with the Library Historical Commission
and serving as a council member.
Just a shout out to the libraries.
That's where I got my start, so.
Woo!
So then we've also got, with five years of dedication,
Brody Scotland.
Come on up.
I said I can read this.
So the Arts Commission, first initially the Arts
Commission, then the Arts, Culture, and Library Commission
post combination thank you very much no words to be said here but we will take a picture
our next recipient is council member victor agular for a combined 10 years of service to
our community as a member of the human services commission and as a city council member
i think um you know oftentimes i lose myself in public service getting my start in los angeles
working for former City Councilmember Richard Latore,
who has passed earlier this year.
So my condolences to him and his family,
but he was the one who inspired me
to give myself to public service.
So here I am in San Leandro donating that.
Fine, thank you.
Jen Watcheson, come on up, 15 years of service.
I want to thank I am the chair for the San Leandro Senior Commission, the city, and I'm
a proud member of that for the last 15 years.
We do a lot of work here in the city, and I encourage you to please come to one of our
meetings.
We meet from 10 to 12, the third Thursday of each month, however, we do take a hiatus
in December, so our next meeting won't be until January, but we'd love to have you there.
We are currently deep in work with the age friendly initiative and we welcome all of
your comments and any improvements you would like to see in the city that have to do with
not just the seniors but with everyday life for everyone here in the city.
I would like my, one of my commissioners who is here, Commissioner Peña to come and join
me for a photo, and also our beloved secretary, the manager for Human Resources, Pedro Naranjo,
so please come up and join us. Is there anyone else here that I missed that's with us? No.
Thank you for your 15 years of service. Tom Silva, I do not believe that Tom Silva
was able to make it today, correct?
Yeah, so I don't see Tom.
But I do want to recognize just Tom
for his many years of service.
So many people know Tom as a property owner
in the city of San Leandro, and for 20 years
he has served as a member of the city's rent review board.
And really doing a pretty good job
of squeezing on other landlords to say,
hey, let's keep things in check.
so grateful for his many years of service to the city of San Leandro 20, to be precise.
So at this point in time, what we're going to do is take a very brief recess, maybe five
minutes. Come back at 8 24. This will let the room clear, if anybody wants to take some
pictures, et cetera, et cetera. We've got five minutes. Council members, we'll see you soon.
Next and a recess. Okay. It is 8.25 and we are back in session. At this point in time
we move to the consent calendar. Is there any item from the consent calendar that a
council member would like to pull? I'm going to Council Member Votis Walton.
I'd like to move the consent calendar, please. Okay. Do I have a second on the Council Member
Simon? Yeah, I'll second, but I wanted to make a
comment. Okay so we've got we've got a motion and a second to move the consent
calendar. What we will do is take public comment then we'll come back for your
comment and then we will take a vote. So do we have any public comment on the
consent calendar? Mayor we have not received any speaker cards for the room.
There are presently two hands raised on Zoom. Okay so we will close public
public comment online. Douglas, you are the first speaker. Thank you so much. I'd like
to wish everyone a merry month of December. With regards to the consent calendar, I noted
there's some really good news here. Nearly $100,000 in grants for the library. I had
question about item 5a the contract with Dillard Environmental for quote-unquote
debris cleaning I assume this is not normal street cleaning but it I looked
and I couldn't really tell what it was about so I'm curious about that and then
I had two other suggestion questions item 5f in terms of the link shadow which is
really a fabulous service but I noticed there's a I think there was a note in
there about like what can we do to increase revenues and I note it's a free
service so I'm wondering if the city has ever studied the possibility of of
introducing a minimal fare for passengers I know that the you know
businesses and the improvement district are paying for that service but with
90,000 riders per year you charge a dollar a ride you know that's 90,000 or
maybe you charge more I don't know and then also in terms of increasing money
for the Cherry Festival, item 5G, a great event for all involved. I don't know how
much it costs to be a vendor, but I wonder if that's a possibility. I don't think that
covers all the money for all the bands and all the great features of the festival, but
we can squeeze a little bit more money out, and it's not unfair to the vendors. That might
also be a possibility. So just a few thoughts for you all. Thank you.
Thank you. The next speaker is Alvaro Ramos. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay,
so I wanted to comment on item 5f. I do not personally use the Lynx program, but I wanted
to comment on trends in consumer spending habits that very well could be changing. So
From the report, it does state that Lynx serves major employers, including Amazon and Walmart.
Currently, there are multiple ongoing boycotts of Target, Walmart, Amazon, and Home Depot.
We need to trust-bust these monopolies and prioritize local business.
Furthermore, the tariffs from the trade war are increasing the prices of their business
models.
boycotting them, too, because of their loyalty to the presidential administration and immigration
customs enforcement.
Hitting the bottom lines of these companies is one method to hold them accountable.
These companies need to experience the pain the rest of us are suffering from inflation,
the cuts of healthcare and the cuts of food stamps that they supported.
Their greed made this the worst holiday we have ever had.
And I think that the future of the Lynx program should be local business.
these monopolies have no place in the city.
And at some point we have to stop subsidizing
their business models.
And so I really want to emphasize that planning must go
into how these new consumer habits will affect the future
of the LYNX program and comment.
Thank you.
Mayor, that concludes the raised hands-on Zoom.
So in closing public comment and coming back
to council members for comment or discussion,
I believe council member Simon had a comment.
Yes, I wanted to make a comment on items 5C, D and E,
similar to our public commenter.
Just wanted to give a shout out to the library department
on the grant monies received almost $100,000.
It's excellent work.
This is similar to the district
for recipient tonight, Melissa Wong.
She's always, always bringing up the issue of grant money.
And then tonight's agenda, you've got $100,000 coming in.
So hats off to library and all our other departments,
whenever you bring in grants.
We appreciate it and keep up the good work.
Thank you.
Seeing no further comments, let's have a vote.
We had a motion by council member,
that was Walton with a second by council members Simon
to move the entire consent calendar.
Please vote.
All votes are in.
The motion passes unanimously
with Vice Mayor Bowen being absent.
So for item six of our agenda, I believe we do have a report from City Manager.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening Councilmembers, good evening community members. I am Janelle
Cameron, your City Manager. It is with pleasure that I announce some events happening this week.
It's December and it is a wonderful, wonderful month. So first, tomorrow we have Cookies with
the Cops. It's kickoff to our holiday season with the San Leandro Police Department. At their annual
Cookies with the Cops toy drive event. Please join them December 2nd from 5 30 to 8 30 p.m.
Right here in front of the police department for cookie decorating, craft games, surprises,
hot cocoa, and plenty of holiday cheer. Santa and his merry crew will be there for photos
and fun. Bring a new unwrapped toy to support local families through this through the Davis
Street Family Resource Center. Next this week we also have It's a Wonderful Night
which is this Friday in downtown San Leandro. It's our 28th It's a Wonderful
Night. This event starts at 5 p.m. with a holiday tree lighting at 5.30 p.m. at the
Estadio Plaza right there on the corner of Estadio and East 14th. This is a
family-friendly event and a great way to kick off the holiday season with our
community. There will also be photos with Santa holiday performances crafts for
kids train rides a holiday market and more. The main festivities will take
place along West Wanna Avenue between East 14th and Washington Avenue. I hope
to see everyone there. And my last announcement for today is our art walk.
And while you're also enjoying it's a wonderful night check out the San
Alejandro Art Walk, an innovative augmented reality, a mural series located in the breezeways
across downtown. Using a smartphone, visitors can scan murals to see them animate and reveal
hidden stories. The project is a collaboration between the city's economic development team,
Bay Area artist, and local design firm 440 Creates. Four murals will be located in the
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
We're going to move to the
public comment.
Do we have any cards submitted?
No, Mayor, at this time,
we do not have any cards from the room.
What about hands raised online?
There are three hands raised.
Please proceed.
And for the record, we are closing public comment in person.
Please proceed online.
The first speaker is Douglas Spaulding.
Thank you.
I would also note that the Art, Culture,
and Library Commission played an important role
in getting that artwork up,
I can't wait to get there and see it myself. I saw a little preview. Well, with all the other
recognitions today, I would just like to solemnly recognize that today is World AIDS Day. And I
think it's doubly important to recognize that since the Trump administration made it to Zunatu,
in addition to gutting PEPFAR money that goes to Africa to prevent AIDS, which has
Savedness made a 25 million lives. So with that I'd like to recognize my dear friends
David stern furt egan and iran iphone who also
All died as a result of aids
um, I heard the uh
City attorney state earlier that there's no known majority to waive privilege in the matter of the administrative
uh report concerning, um vice mayor bow, uh bones complaint and
I think that's really a failure of the council. I think it's important to release it for transparency
I think it will help to to move things forward to to undo the log jam
And hopefully promote some resolution
Through a
Restorative restorative process
Okay, so the third thing I want to comment on is the citizens committee
that
has
done some work to to put together 150 million dollar a parcel tax proposal and i'm concerned
that um it it circumvents the well-established process of prioritizing infrastructure projects
using objective scoring rubrics by the department of public work so i have an alternative and i guess
So I will propose that during item 10B, later.
Thank you, sir.
Your time has elapsed.
The next speaker is San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.
Hello, everybody.
This is Emily Grago.
I am the CEO with the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.
And I know we're supposed to talk about things
that are not on the agenda,
but I just have to say congratulations
to everybody who was recognized this evening.
many of those who recognize our chamber members.
And so I just want to pause for a moment
and just recognize how much industry contributes
to San Leandro and its viability
and everything that happens in supporting our community
and so much more.
So I couldn't be more proud to see
so many chamber members recognize this evening.
We've recognized them for business of the year
and so many other things, but it was just really wonderful.
And then also, Jen Watcheson, who's a long-time volunteer
at the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.
She is such a gem to our community
and she is a gem to the senior commission.
So just want to say congratulations
to everybody who was recognized.
You all do so much for our community.
I also want to invite everybody
to a couple of chamber events that are happening.
Number one, on Thursday, we're having a tri-chamber mixer
with Castro Valley and Hayward.
Number two, we're having First Friday open for business
at a local business here in San Leandro.
Please register to get the location.
And then third, Best of San Leandro
is coming around the corner.
At the end of January,
we are starting to promote all of the business.
Everybody can nominate a business
and then it will also be open to the community
to vote for those businesses.
So please be on the lookout for the save the day
and all of that information.
And then of course, reach out to the San Leandro
Chamber of Commerce for any other questions you might have.
But again, congratulations.
Industry means so much to this community and brings so much.
And I'm just very proud of everybody
who was recognized this evening.
Thank you, your time has a lot.
The next speaker is Jesse.
Jesse, are you there?
I am. My name is Jessie Rubin and I'm a member of the League of Samoyantra Voters. My comment
today is about two ongoing questions. First, what to do about the report on council member
Aguilar and council member Simon's behavior? And two, what to do about the FBI charges
against council member Acevedo? First on the report. Just because Simon and Aguilar won't
allow it to be released publicly doesn't mean you can't do something meaningful as
counsel to address its findings. I want to remind you that your credibility is
tied to following the handbook you adopted. This is about governance, not
politics. The fastest way to normal business, or to business as usual, is to
address the issues at hand and then move on. The worst thing you can do is nothing
at all. Second, on the on the FBI charges against Councilmember Acevedo. Councilmember
Acevedo, I sincerely appreciate that you do great things in the community and are very
well-liked. You are also of course innocent until proven guilty, but even if you are not
convicted, the evidence against you constitutes a breach of public trust and an ethical failure.
Your continued presence on this council is dragging it farther into corruption and scandal.
the good of the city, please step down.
Your failure to do so suggests strongly
that you care more about your own ego
than what is in the city's best interest.
Mayor, this concludes our raised hands on Zoom.
So we will close public comment.
At this point in time, we will move to our next agenda item,
which is number eight.
There are no hearings today and similarly for number nine,
there are no public hearings.
We do have two action items.
The first action item consists of a limited waiver
attorney-client privilege on some work related to the June 2024 revenue measure tracking
survey results and we've got deputy city manager Eric Engelbart here to present and in short what
we'd like to do because this request came from myself or from council Moravatos Walton and
and perhaps from others we just if you can very briefly describe the item and I know that you and
and I reviewed that document today
just so that there's some context
about we're not waving everything
about anything that's been done,
but it is a very specific document, please.
Good evening, mayor and council members,
and certainly Mayor Gonzalez, as you just noted,
per that request that originated from yourself
as well as Council Member Verus Walton,
included in the packet tonight,
is a resolution for the council's consideration.
If you all decide to adopt that resolution,
it would authorize the waiver
of the attorney and client privilege
for the draft June 2024 community survey results.
Just a little bit of further background on that,
as you may recall,
that draft document was prepared last summer
and a little over a year, almost a year and a half ago
in June of 2024, per the direction of the city council.
And as part of the city's efforts at that time
to explore the possibility of placing revenue measure
that could have appeared on the November of 2024 ballot.
Now, if you recall, however, at the July 15, 2024 Council meeting, the City Council
ultimately directed staff to cease all efforts associated with placing such a measure on
that November 24 ballot.
As a result, those draft community survey results that were derived from a community
survey work in partnership with our consulting team, essentially that document was never
finalized or made publicly available.
Call under the California Public Records Act such privileged communications are exempt from public disclosure
however, the privilege of
You know exempting them from public disclosure ultimately belongs to the City Council and that privilege may only be waived by the City Council
And so if you all were to decide to adopt by majority vote tonight that resolution in the packet tonight
It would release just that one document that would be made available to any member of the public seeking it
And the only clarification there just to make clear
There has been one or more requests for that document. That is correct
We did receive a specific public records request for that document
And so if you were all if you all were to adopt the resolution tonight, that would give us the ability to release it
Okay, are there any questions from council members about this? I will begin with council member
Bold, I think you want to ask a question. There you go. Thank you. Please proceed
so
The request was for
For a document and that's the document that we have the ability to release liability on we're not going to really not liability
I'm sorry
We're not going to release anything else and it will
And if this action goes through it will
Give the requester what they want
And it's not it's not like we're gonna you know give up something else that they're not asking for that's correct
The resolution is crafted that it's constrained to just this one this one record and that record is really just a it's a draft
presentation document that
Summarizes the other results of a community survey work that was conducted in the summer of 2024
Okay, thank that would be the sole document. That would be released correct
Seeing no other questions. We'll get a public comment on this item
Mayor, we have not received any speaker cards in the room. However, there's one hand raised on zoom, please proceed
We will close public comment in person open public comment online
Douglas balding you are the first speaker
Wow, very generous three. Oh, it's down to oh now. It's a minute 58
well, I
Love a good mystery as much as the next person and so I'm wondering why we're dancing around
on the question of who is it that made this request
and for what reason, I'm gonna guess maybe it's related
to the Citizens Committee's efforts
to put together this $150 million parcel tax,
in which case, as I read in the item,
I also would like to request a copy of the document
because I have an alternative proposal.
So I don't know if that's sufficient
make an oral request or if I need to make my request in writing and how and where I would do
that. I will yield the remainder of my time. Thank you. The next speaker on Zoom is named Sarah.
Hi this is Sarah Bailey. I oppose the release of data beyond what's already public. Are the
results of any survey or community engagement performed by the city for the revenue measure
was considering. That information was collected on behalf of my elected representatives, not
for every Tom, Dick, and Harry, and every Evelyn, Steve, and Cat and Anne, so they can sell their
unjust, unfair, and dishonest, so-called citizen-led parcel tax measure to the people of San Leandro.
If you release that information, you have to take immediate action to replace it, release it to
everyone or you will show residents that you believe that only the wealthy and those willing
to twist the truth should have the right to transparency and that what they want trumps
what's right thank you thank you mayor that concludes the raised hands on zoom okay so close
public comment and madam clerk i'll come to you because i know that on our city website
If someone would like a copy of a document they can request it. Is it on the city clerk page, the PRA?
Thank you mayor. Yes, that's correct. We have a form on the city clerk section of the city's
website where requests can be submitted. They can also be submitted via email to clerk at
stanley and road org thank you madam clerk any comment on this item
council member of both please and just to address the last one this will be
available to anybody we're not we're not scoping it down saying only one person
gets a copy this is going to be available for the entire community
anybody that wants it will have the opportunity to read it correct that is
correct following submission of a public records request for that document okay
thank you very much okay seeing no other comments I will I'm up into a motion
council member go to Swelton I'm looking at the actual action item I'd like to
move to item 10a so I've got a motion by council member
Viveros Walton, with a second from Councilmember Bolt, to adopt a resolution to prove an authorized
city manager as listed in item 10a of our agenda. Any questions? Any comments? Seeing none, please
vote. All votes are in. And the motion fails with three yeses, two abstentions, one no,
and Vice Mayor Bowen is absent. Okay what does I'm gonna go so by
parliamentarian what is the process for a roll call vote because I want to know
who voted which way. I'm asking you. Oh it says up in the corner. Okay would you
please read the votes Madam Clerk. Yes beginning with councilmember Simon
abstain mayor Gonzalez yes councilmember Aguilar abstain councilmember Viviros
Walton yes councilmember Azzavado no councilmember Bolt yes and again vice
mayor Bowen is absent okay so just to be clear for the record I will be asking
for reconsideration of this vote for our next meeting.
It will come to our next meeting,
which is our special meeting of December 8th.
Okay, so we're clarifying with the parliamentarian
with respect to when we will reconsider this vote.
So we are holding temporarily while we figure out
when the reconsideration vote will take place.
So we'll have a reconsideration vote
at our next regular meeting.
At that point in time, we will vote again on this item.
That will be the meeting of December 15th.
So two weeks from today.
At this point in time, we will move to item 10B.
So for this item, we've got deputy city manager,
Dustin Claussen and finance director,
Nicole Gonzalez here to present.
Good evening, mayor and council.
Thank you for the opportunity to present to you this evening.
We're going to be providing a brief presentation
about exploring potential revenue measures,
referring to the election in November of 2026.
So we will start with a little bit of a brief history.
Nicole's then going to present to you
all the preliminary results for fiscal year 2025,
the results for the general fund,
and then we'll look at next steps
and ask council for their recommendation to staff.
So back in February of this year,
at the special meeting,
the council supported exploration
of a potential bond measure,
sorry, revenue measure on the 2026 ballot.
And so during the budget process,
this previous process that we just went through,
staff proposed an allocation of $500,000 to do that work.
At that time, council denied that request,
but asked us to return at a later date
when we had the year-end results for you
all to consider how the picture looked
and whether or not it would be appropriate to devote
those resources at that time.
So then further in July at a meeting,
Director Marchesis presented one of the plans
was a potential revenue measure related to infrastructure.
So that kind of brings us to where we're at today.
I'll turn it over to Nicole to present the year end results.
Thank you, good evening mayor, members of the city council,
Nicole Gonzalez, finance director.
Wanting to provide an update back during the budget process,
we did discuss with council bringing back
preliminary year end results once they became available.
I will state that these are still unaudited.
We are currently going through our audit process right now,
but feel very confident in the numbers
that we are seeing today.
So when we look at column B, that is the amended budget,
which council adopted and authorized
during fiscal year 24-25.
At that time we projected a use of reserves of 20.7 million
with a beginning balance of 75.5 million
with that projected use of reserves
bringing the fund balance to 54.7 million.
A result of a number of things occurring
throughout the year.
Our revenues did come in significantly higher
than we had thought previously.
And then we ended with a projected use of fund balance
of 5.8, almost 5.9 million.
That does not include the 9.1 million,
which were encumbered in fiscal year 25
based on authorized budget authority.
Those funds have been carried over
to the current fiscal years
that we can continue to do that work.
But just wanting to reflect the projected ending balance
reserves for fiscal year 24 25 is 5.89 million leaving a projected ending fund
balance of 69.6 million. I'm gonna go ahead and turn this back over to Deputy
City Manager Claussen who will continue on the presentation. Thank You Director
Gonzalez. So what we're here tonight to discuss is whether or not council would
like for staff to continue to explore a potential revenue measure, the potential
next steps we would do some community outreach all working towards a potential survey to
figure out how feasible it may be and what might be supported and what priorities that
the community would place with those funds, how to use them.
So we've got $20,000 for that community outreach.
would be doing a mailer for an annual report,
go out and do community listening sessions
to hear from the community.
And then the 92,000 would be for survey work
and leading some of those listening sessions
and outreach to the community.
This gives a more detailed potential cost estimates
for work that would go into it.
At this point, we're not asking for the entire amount.
We're just, we're here discussing the 92,000
and whether or not council would like us to continue
with that effort, but we do have additional costs
that if council were, if the city were to go all the way
and put a measure on the ballot,
the things laid out here we think would help
to position the city for success with the measure
that goes to the ballot.
All in all, we will have the costs for the election
no matter whether or not we have a measure on the ballot.
And then this other amount
is what council could consider moving forward.
On the left column here, this was the timeline
that was discussed at the July 14th meeting
when the discussion of the potential infrastructure
measure, on the column on the right,
we've updated it for if we are to move forward this evening,
looking at the timeline.
The timeline doesn't change all that much,
although we are certainly, we've lost some time from July
to now, which has really sort of compressed
the timeline on the right that would lead us up
to November 2026 election.
We've taken out a second tracking poll,
because we don't think the amount of time between a survey
would give that much of a meaningful difference
and provide the information in a way that
would make it worth the squeeze, if you will.
So that's the timeline that we would be looking at.
We've got about 10 or 11 months to make a decision.
A decision will be made this evening
as to whether we continue to explore or not.
And then we would come back in May or June of next year
to actually, you know, develop a question
and have a council vote as to whether or not
they would like to put it on the ballot.
So tonight, what we're asking from council
is one of two directions, right?
Adopt a motion directing staff to either
continue to explore potential revenue measures
that could appear on the November 2026 ballot,
including a consulting services agreement
with Clifford Moss for outreach and survey work
consider feasibility or to cease all efforts associated with placing or have a new measure
on the November 2026 ballot. That's the direction we're seeking. We're happy to answer any questions
or address any comments you may have. Thank you for your presentation. At this
point in time we will take clarifying questions. Councilmember Simon, please.
Thank you for the presentation. A question for you. On your schedule on page six,
the conduct tracking poll is out for the current proposal. Is there any polling proposed?
Correct, yeah. So that would really be the next steps. We would go out and do a survey.
That's the one here for on the second line in January of 2026.
oh engagement survey okay that's okay all right and then your slide
let's see your financial slide slide three
and just isn't yeah there's spreadsheet and can you summarize one more time
this is showing that we have adequate funds
to fund this proposal any funds authorized would be coming from fund
balance so what this is to demonstrate we did say to council in June of last
year that we would bring forward an updated year-end preliminary report to
show what we used as far as projected fund balance is concerned right now we
are showing that we are using when you look at the 5.9 million in addition to
the 9.1 about 16 million dollars in use of reserves which is less than what we
had projected we had projected 20.7 so there's remaining about 4 million that
we did not use that council did authorize us to use should we need to
got it thank you the next person is councilman Resavito thank you for your
presentation when did we take the poll last time when the when the community
denied didn't want to put the measure for it sorry excuse me when when did we
put it forward last time the poll I would look to deputy city manager
Engelbert for that information thanks councilmember Azavito for your question
that was conducted in June of 2024 June of 2024 was the last time we took a poll
That's correct. Okay. Thank you
Councilman bolt
Yes, but it's on this slide. So what I'm hearing is
We projected
To go 21 million, but we're 16 million, but this is of reserves
this isn't so we're taking out of our
reserves to do this, so it's not like we
We need to keep that reserve up so for all the other good reasons and and so I think for us
We need to make sure that
We're using these reserves in the correct way, but it's not a surplus of money
We are taking down our reserves to do this. What I would clarify is the $92,000 that we are
Requesting this evening to continue engaging with the community
That is already currently authorized as part of an existing contract
So it would not change the fund balance as you see it today
In that nine point one million that you see that we said carry forward
92,000 of that is already included in that as part of an existing contract with Clifford Moss
So in essence we could save
$92,000 we could have council chose not not to move forward. We have one bit of clarification or expansion by city manager
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to clarify your question, Dustin, if you can go to the
total cost with the 300,000 on there. So, Finance Director Gonzalez's answer is correct.
That's only because of what they're asking for to spend today. But as this slide shows,
if the polling is successful, if we go all the way, it's all of this and that's where
the number gets a lot bigger. So, I just want to super clarify that record.
So we already have an existing allocation for the cost, the $92,000, and so depending
on what happens at the end of the $92,000, you're just telling us we may end up spending
more.
At this time, are you looking for generalized direction or are you specifically looking
and for direction that authorizes all of that.
No, we're not looking to authorize the entire 321.
We'd come, like last time we'd come back and say
the polling tells us that the community supports
or doesn't, at that time you can tell us to move forward
or not the long run.
Really today it's to let you know that we would,
if you were to tell us to continue with this work
with on the path of hopefully placing a revenue
new measure on the November 2026 ballot, we would spend the $92,000 that is already authorized.
We would work on the outreach $20,000 and we would then come back and see how it continues.
Or today, you tell us we don't want to put a revenue measure on the November ballot.
So cease that work altogether.
Thank you for the clarification.
Councilmember Aguilar?
I just had a question with regards to this I mean I know the city of Berkeley
kind of ran two measures simultaneously measure FF and measure EE one was one
was citizen-led the other was city-led but the city-led bond prevailed so I
think in this sense you know the citizen-led has specifics of what they
would like to address I think the city led what you know we would conduct with
the community and have the speaking sessions do we I know it's kind of tough
to say but I think what you're saying is we already allocated $92,000 with
projected costs we would somewhere in the ballpark are you saying need to get
reserves two hundred and twenty nine thousand dollars by two hundred twenty
nine thousand five hundred if we were to execute things as you know as as shown
here yes that's it that's essentially what we would end up well that's
essentially what we would end up doing is is looking you know if we came if we
went and did a survey and we felt that the the measure was viable we would
likely come back to Council and say we'd like to you know we'd like to to do
these other things this would be the cost we would go out and get proposals
for that work and then come back to Council and I think given what happened
in Berkeley you know I would like to see you know what you know one bond measure
versus the other what would you know the city led the city bond measure encompass
versus the citizens bond which would be pertaining to a certain community certain communities and
especially some of those folks who don't have a voice or are not connected within the community so
um you know i think uh what we have here with us with with regards to the outreach um
i would like to see some i would like to see an option to move forward that's my comment thank
Thank you, so we go to Councilmember Boldt.
Next for more questions.
Yeah, and one clarification.
There was two in Berkeley and both prevailed.
The citizens one did too.
So we're looking at that option here.
If we want to spend the 321,
we can have two parcel tax,
which I think is a little dangerous, but hey.
When we're talking about this,
If if we get to the 90 or say we authorized tonight the 92,000
Where's the off at which one of these is the off?
I mean, I would hate to spend 321,000 when we have the opportunity to do this on the citizen side save this money for the city
But where is the off-ramps all at for us going forward?
Yeah, so I mean the if we were to go out and do a survey and let's just say
You know, the results came back,
which I wouldn't expect this,
but I'm just saying an extreme case.
We went out and 10% of the folks would say,
yeah, we'll do it.
And the other 90% say they would not support it.
That would be where we stopped, right?
We would do that work and we would come back
and say, hey, we don't think this is likely to be successful.
The council could still choose to advance it
and do with or without this work.
but there are off-ramps really everywhere here. We can do you know the first work with the 92,000
and then the community outreach and then we would come back later after we had the results of those
to come have the discussion with council to see whether or not you want us to you know continue
to do the informational provision. Okay I appreciate the answer but looking at this
and being a part of these things in my daily job,
I personally feel like community,
we send a survey out, yes, I agree, that's the off-ramp,
but after you pass that and we think we're going,
we're all in.
When we start doing outreach
and you got a couple of naysayers that show up and say no,
I doubt we would then decide to stop doing the mailers.
We don't know what's gonna happen,
we're not going to stop online informational provisions.
None of these are saying none of these would be triggers back to us as council
or in city, you know, uh, your guys' daily jobs do it every day.
Nothing would be a signal back to you to go, Oh man, we might want to pause.
This isn't going to go well where so once we say yes to the 92,000, we may
spend another 20 or we would spend another 20,000 at that point, we'll
really have to make a decision.
but then we're at a hundred and something thousand dollars
and we're making the decision where we could just say,
now let's set the community.
You know, let them spend their money.
Council members Simon, please.
Just a clarifying question.
Looking at what other cities have done around,
I heard some Berkeley information here,
some Berkeley information there.
The staff know, I mean, I think I know,
but I just want to understand what happened in Berkeley,
What, the citizen measure versus the city measure?
Yes, so there were two very similar measures
on the ballot in 2024 in Berkeley.
They were designed a bit differently,
but the intent was very similar
to rehab deteriorating roads in Berkeley.
The city had their, sponsored their measure,
which was which ultimately was approved and then this the citizen led measure was not approved
It did not get passed. However, they I know had
had language
that
Would have given preference
Uh to I believe the citizen. I'm sorry the city led measure if both had passed it wouldn't be it wouldn't be both
but
The the city sponsored measure did pass
and they were able to get the funding. Okay thank you. Next question is a polling
and I see as a next step where's it go slide oh $20,000 the outreach that's what the cost
for polling is? No the polling is included in the 92,000. Oh it's in the 92. Correct.
Okay, approximately how much of that 92 is polling? The majority of it. Okay, has there been
exploring other cities around, well stepping back a little bit, we all know we need the money here.
Approximately how many millions of dollars are we short to deficit? Well, I think there's two
different things that we're looking at. We're looking at where we're at from an operational
standpoint and then of course where we have some structural or lack of funding
for infrastructure needs so two kind of different areas right now we are looking
at closing a gap in our operating budget of 15 million and this would not
necessarily address that concern because this potentially is more focused on
infrastructure needs and infrastructure funding. Okay I'm just gonna let city
manager elaborate Thank You mr. Mayor director Gonzalez can you give an
approximate number of the shortfall for infrastructure needs I can get that
information but we are talking probably in the hundred millions because we're
talking about both roadway we're talking sewer we're talking also
buildings facilities parks as well all those are included in the city's
infrastructure as well. I just want to make sure I heard that quickly said
hundreds with an s correct hundreds of millions. Okay so our roads I think are
at least 250 so we're we're upwards over 300 million. We say hundreds. I'd have to
look at the data. I don't want to provide an inaccurate number but I'm happy to do that and provide that
information to Council. Okay it's a it's a big number. It is a very large number. The city is a very old city with very old infrastructure. Right. I
i recognize it and i think everyone does on the council and we desperately need that money to
keep our streets alive to keep our buildings alive i mean we we need it it's not like it's
a nice to have um just like owning a house your roof we need a roof we need many roofs
so i guess why i'm saying that is this is really important this measure to properly fund our city
and why i'm asking this $92,000 question is
do you need polling if the city really needs this money
if we need this to function to actually keep our city running
are there other cities that have gone out without polling and just said we
need this money that's the question to you yeah i mean i
think it's been done uh many many different ways
and no you don't have to do a poll to to put a measure on the ballot
It just helps to make an informed decision, right?
It gives us a temperature check of the community,
what levels they may support attacks,
and what may be more than they are willing to bear.
And you can kind of get some information
to make educated decisions off of.
But certainly, I have been a part of placing measures
on ballots that we didn't do any polling on.
And they they have been successful in some cases and not in others
Okay, my next question is
if we decide to proceed
the other items listed on your
cost breakout of the 321k
When can the council get more detail on what's included in them?
For example, the public affairs or the informational mailers like a discrete more description of what's involved in those
That way the council can decide do we want to include the full
321 would we like to
Thin it down a bit sure. Yeah, I mean I when we you know when we get the the
results of the first survey or the survey we would then come back to council provide that information and then go out, you know
and and
We would ask council whether they want us to do that work
And if they they do we'd go out and get proposals and and be able to provide information as to what exactly they would be
Going out to do
Okay. Thank you
Okay on the clarifying question side
Is it your intention or the way you're thinking about this at this work would be done under attorney client privilege?
You know, I think that's really up to the council
What's your recommendation?
Okay, come in as city manager
Mayor, we need a more specific question because it's depending on which part.
So when we do this work, we do come to council in public to ask them a question.
If you're asking what was privileged before, will they be...
That's not my question.
My question is, is this work going forward as envisioned, right?
You're coming to us for some guidance.
that currently envision to be done under attorney client privilege? I can't answer
that question without more specificity as Deputy City Manager Clafson has
mentioned when we get to the next decision point we will be back in
chambers to talk to the council about that and asked for direction. Will there
be other things? I don't know. Okay. I'll have comments on that later. Other
questions for this work coming back to council member Bolts off-ramp. Do you view
it essentially is two phases the first phase through basically the end of
February early March and then we're all in if it's a positive result yeah I
think that's how I would look at it okay perfect at this point in time we will go
to public comment on this item do we have any cards for the room Mayor we do
not have any cards okay so then do we have any hands online yes there are
currently three hands raised let's proceed online please douglas balding you are the first speaker
thank you so much well um you know i looked at that uh that budget summary and it seems
like we're already uh 10 million in the whole nearly 10 million in the whole for the current
fiscal year uh money is tight we need to raise funds and so i encourage the city council to
continue exploring the possibility of a November revenue measure. I don't think we need two revenue
measures. I much prefer the city to put forth its own bond. To me, that's the off ramp from the
citizens committee proposal. In the 2026-2035 capital improvement plan, you know, there are
funded projects and there are unfunded projects, and they're all pretty worthy, but we live in a
I think the only solution is to go at this at this incrementally. So I said I have an alternative proposal and and and the problem I see with the citizen community is we have a potpourri of projects from all over the city trying to garner votes from every every district. I'll tell you right now. I'm not going to vote for it because I see Lake Chabot Road as a body in the city, and I think this is what we're going to have in the city of Lake Chabot Road, and I think this is what we're going to have in the city of Lake Chabot Road, and I think this is what we're going to have in the city of Lake Chabot Road.
a waste of money. I would like to see a narrower focus. I think if the city were to put forth a
public safety bond that focuses on the three firehouses that either need to be repaired or replaced
and also we make sure we take care of Neptune Drive, a debacle of the city's own making we
should never have built there but I think we owe it to those residents to allow them to get flood
allow them to get flood insurance even though the levy ain't gonna work. We
could do it for less than half the cost of what the the Citizens Committee is
proposing with, you know, a whole panoply of projects. So that is what I'd like to
see you all explore. Thank you. And you know, we need two thirds. Thank you, Sir.
Your time has elapsed. The next speaker is named resident. Hi, good evening. This is
Karina Lopez. I'm so glad that this is on the agenda this evening. Historically, you know,
these polls have been important to inform what the public's willing to pay for how much,
what the priorities are. So without this, you know, going into doing a polling and, you know,
really exploring and actually investing the money. And I know it's a lot of money to do. Overall,
It's an important investment in ourselves and I hope that you'll go forward with this.
I do hope also that any results that are posted are posted publicly, the city can only do the
informational campaign portion of the work, the community at large has to do the actual campaign
to the public. So that information is important for the public to work with and know how to posture
Campaign literature that is mailed out to the community. So please do consider that as well
Um, our needs are very big and there are certainly many
Throughout the community and we really owe it to ourselves to invest in ourselves
and I think that if
The polling gets it right when I believe it would with this consultant that we can really be informed and and really
know what
And what the community and how much the community willing to pay to meet that meet that threshold which is obviously very high but we've done it before in terms of getting the voters to sit to yes, I think we can do it again.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next speaker is Sarah.
Hi, this is Sarah Bailey.
I believe San Leandro residents would vote
for a public safety and roads revenue measure
that would rebuild the Manners Fire Station on Fargo
and repair and rebuild roads throughout San Leandro.
Don't bother with a survey.
Everybody knows that's what people want.
Use that money for a campaign that informs residents.
Community leaders like myself stand ready to call meetings,
knock on doors, phone bank, ask our firefighters to help
because no one can resist a firefighter.
The Manner's Fire Station is falling down behind the ears.
We need 15 to 20 million to replace it.
I say for the people here and at home,
because you guys already know the score,
San Leandro's roads rank lower than those
of only a couple other cities in the East Bay.
We need 15 and a half million each year for decades
improve them just a little bit. By the way, Lake Chabot Road included in that tax measure
would eat up all of that first year's money. I say go for five years worth rounding up
to $80 million. That puts us at $100 million total, not too bad and with the potential
for real progress. Save places and pathways for people to walk as a top priority for everyone
in San Leandro, from families to seniors. Everyone wants our roads fixed. The people
in the manner need our help. I am confident that a public safety roads and sidewalks revenue
measure that is fair, that supports everyone in San Leandro at once will win enough votes
to pass. Please just do it.
Thank you. The next speaker is Jenny Madsen. Sorry, Jenny. Are you there? Can you hear
me now? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you.
This is Jenny Madsen and I just want you to listen to what Sarah Bailey said, this comment
and her previous comment. I've spent time tonight trying to look up my responses to
the 2024 survey. And I don't know why that one, I think it
was because you guys didn't want either didn't get enough
response or you didn't want to want the responses you got. But
I agree with everything that Sarah just said. I don't think
you're going to get any more information. Because you guys we
still don't know how to do outreach in this city. At least
the city doesn't thank you I can be done now thank you mayor that concludes our
raised hands on suit so we're closing public comment online coming back to
council members for further discussion no discussion no comments councilman
regular thank you mayor Gonzales I think you know with with regards to this idea
of a ballot measure to support,
you know, whether we call it public safety
or what have you, you know, we need to fix our streets.
We have aging infrastructure.
I mean, I think we have over $350 million
in unfunded infrastructure repairs
and, you know, ongoing maintenance with regards to that.
We have our fire stations that need repairs.
We have a police department.
I mean, the police building, you know,
the police officers in the basement and have to duck to go into the restroom and you know,
I've been down there and just the smell of what that entails. I think there's a lot that we can do
with regards to public safety. I think we need a, you know, I think City Hall, we need a new City Hall
and new police station, all over fire stations replaced. I think that's what makes the city
uh uh a safe place uh and and also to repair streets but
and we we have to gain the public trust and work together to figure out you
know we have folks who are saying what we need um not a select few just
speaking out of like hey we need certain you know uh fixes in our area um with
not you know without polling you know with
other folks who don't have a pulse on the city or you know how to
how to speak to the city and outreach in multiple languages to find out what you
you know, what really matters to the community.
I think public safety is one of the main concerns,
and I think, you know, we have a pulse on that,
you know, there's, with our response time
and compared to other cities,
I think we need to make sure that we're working together
to put forth a measure, you know,
whether it be a user utility tax,
a bond measure, a bond measure, a tax measure,
figure out what that looks like.
But I think in essence, you know,
it's something that we need to figure out
what is gonna be feasible,
what is gonna work with the community
and what will benefit everyone, not just a select few.
So I would support continuing to explore
potential revenue measures that could appear
on the November 2026 ballot,
including a consulting services agreement
with Clifford Moss for outreach and survey work
to consider feasibility.
Thank you at this point.
I'm gonna council member Simon.
Yes, I'd like to second Council Member Aguilar's motion and I'd also like to comment, I agree
with everything that he has said, we are a major deficit and at some point we have to
face reality. If we want to live in a nice city and our residents expect it and they
deserve it, they deserve nice roads. I ride my bicycle throughout town through the Manor,
of Vista downtown everywhere and there are streets and I know the city is doing their
best with the means that they have but it's just not a way to live. I mean we should imagine
your driveway at your house crumbled just gravel everywhere in your driveway of your
home. Imagine that. That's not a way to live. So we really have to take care of our city
and the longer we let this go the more expensive it gets. I think that's one of the things
that we're kind of missing here if you do not fix a road the longer you wait
the costs keep going up and up and up and that's something that we're not
really realizing I know I've heard it from staff I've heard it but so Sheila
thank you for constantly reminding of this and we just want to take a little
bit of it but taking a bit we're never going to catch up we're never going to
catch up and it's time at some point this council has to take a stand at
some point. And if that means we're not reelected, so be it. But let's do the
right thing. Let's support our community by giving them the infrastructure,
whether it's roads, fire stations. I've been through the Manner Firehouse and it
is, I don't know how they live in there. I mean people actually live in this place
and that people are firefighters who protect our lives. They live it and they
should not live in those type of conditions. They should not. I wouldn't
want to live in those conditions and they do because they care and they fight
for us and we have to fight for them and not just the manner but all the fire
stations that need it we shouldn't just choose pick and choose certain areas we
should protect everybody and I think we can I really do if we prepare this
properly and I think our staff can do it I think it's going to pay dividends I
see this as an investment not as just we're throwing money out we're gonna
to save money in the long run. If we do this, we really are and I support this. Thank you.
Okay, so I'm going to go next. Councilmember bolt before doing so. I just want to be very
clear about something. I didn't hear a motion. I heard that you just had general support,
but I'm going to hear from all the council members and then I'll come back for a motion.
vote. Yes, thank you. I agree 100%, we have to do something. And I'm supporting whatever
we can do to get something on the ballot, whether it's a citizen led, a city led, it
doesn't matter to me. We're failing the community because we don't have the resources. Everybody
wants to do their job, but it's so hard to do your job when you don't have the resources,
so asking the community for more money, no matter who asks, we see it time and time again
across the Bay Area. You put a bond measure, you put something in front of the community.
They vote yes. They feel these roads are crumbled. But I have a question to you, city manager,
This something you guys are willing like if we go down this path and all the work that goes in because it's not easy
And you're gonna have to some things are gonna have to be pushed aside to do this
Is this something you guys really want because I support who?
Whatever group it doesn't matter to me. We need to get you guys some funding so you can go forward
So so is this something you guys really want to do right now? Is this something?
Thank You councilmember bolt. I
appreciate the question of is this something that staff wants to do but I'm
afraid I can't answer your question because this is really direction I need
from the City Council. You know your residents better than I do and as
Councilmember Simon alluded it's a political decision it can be successful
and it can be great and it cannot be successful and there can be political
thoughts about that from the community and so for us you've told us it is a
priority. It is currently on your infrastructure work plan, understanding
all the reasons why the council at the time in June did not decide at that
moment to fund it. It wasn't a no, it was a let's hold for a second and see if we
can actually do this. But right now we need the answer from you. That's why we
don't have a recommendation here. Our recommendation is just to give us
direction on what would you like us to do. But whatever you tell us to do, we
will do. I appreciate those answers, you're good at your job. I've told you that before.
Honestly, if it be, you know, I hear you, it's political. But what does that mean? Like,
it's the it's the group, it's the citizens that want to vote on it. If they say no to it,
they say no to it. Like, if they say yes to it, which I think they will, because they feel,
they see and feel the pain that we're discussing you know it's not like we're speaking of this in
a silo and all of a sudden we're we're manufacturing bad roads in our minds like they drive down these
roads i agree a safety uh led initiative um bond you know to rebuild firehouses yes um all of these
things is what our community wants and and so now it's about who do we want to
do it and I'm looking at spending $400,000 close to $400,000 you know and
that's just an estimate we don't know what it could be in the end and I get
nervous when I when we have someone on the outside saying hey we'll spend our
money to do it so that that's where I mean I'm gonna support whichever one's
going to get us there. But I'm trying to think of our bottom line in the city and not want
to spend this money up front. But here we are.
Councilmember Azavita, please.
Okay. All right. I'm going to take a different stand on it than the rest of my colleagues.
I believe that the citizens already said they didn't want to raise taxes. And I believe
that they don't want to raise taxes. Taxes are too high here in San Leandro. With SNAP
benefits running out and now they have to reapply. I don't believe that they want to raise taxes and
I believe that we should seize all efforts on that. That's my opinion. That's it.
Has everyone spoken that wants to speak? Okay so what I'd like to do is offer my own thoughts on
this. I think it's it's really clear that we have hundreds of millions of dollars of need.
One of my first commitments was to make transparent to the residents of San Leandro the total cost of
running the city. I think that as we've dug in, we have serious things that we need to
address and that only can be addressed with money. I think that polling is instrumental
in assessing what residents would be willing to pay for. Would they be willing to more
likely to support a utility tax? Or would they be more willing to support a parcel tax?
would they be more willing to support an increase in sales tax? You only learn that by talking to
residents, by polling residents. And so I think it's paramount that we do that if we're going to
have the city put a ballot measure potentially on the November ballot. We may learn, for example,
that, yeah, they'll support a tax, but only support a tiny tax that raises $50,000, $100,000,
in which case, I would never support spending $400,000
to convince people to raise $50,000 a year for the study.
That'd be silly.
So I think understanding where residents are,
what they're willing to support,
we know that they support public safety.
We know that they support infrastructure roads.
Survey after survey after survey shows that.
But that's not really the question on the table.
The question on the table is,
how much would they be willing to pay
to address some of these issues and perhaps what controls would they want in place to
make sure that when we pass a tax that it gets used for those purposes.
That all being said, I am supportive of a measure to further explore, to let this run
for the next couple of months, propose to run through those $92,000.
already have the money in a contract, let's explore based on what we learn at
the end of that exploration, we can meet again in these chambers and have the
discussion. With that in mind Councilmember Azvito did you have another
comment? Please proceed or ask your question and then I'll come back to
Councilmember Aguilar. Okay I just got a quick question. In June of 2024 how much
did we spend when it when we didn't have the votes for it the polling wasn't in
our favor was it 300 and some thousand then also how much did we spend last
time that when it failed counselor we can we can look up that number but I can
I can a term like affirm that it was definitely not 300,000 we stopped much
earlier than that in the process we essentially conducted that one poll and
did somehow reach efforts and then ceased efforts so there was because I
I remember there was a contracting or consultant
that we were gonna pay 300,000 or something for it,
and then it got approved, I voted against it.
Correct, and there was funds left over on that agreement
because we ceased all efforts.
Okay, okay, that's all my questions, thank you.
Council Member Aguilar coming back to you.
Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez, I believe,
I read the item A, but I'd like to make a formal motion
to continue to explore potential revenue measures
that could appear on the November, 2026 ballot,
including a consulting or consulting services agreement
with Clifford Moss for outreach and survey work
to consider feasibility.
Would you be willing to add into that,
that this work would not be under attorney-client privilege
so that the public can see the results of this work?
That it would not be, I would like to defer
to our city attorney to ask whether or not,
if that's something that would be recommended.
Okay, so I'm gonna start with the city manager
and then I'm gonna come to city attorney
so they can both weigh in.
So it makes me extremely nervous to preemptively say
that something can't be under attorney client privilege
when I have no idea what that something could be tomorrow.
and that could put the council in a position
where we're stuck with being in public on an item
that we should first discuss privately.
I don't know what tomorrow holds,
and I don't know what will hold through this process
and what we will learn.
And sometimes concerning things happen,
I need to talk to you privately about those things.
And that would just be my consideration
as going into the mayor's question.
Okay, come into city attorney,
and then I'm gonna have some thoughts on this too.
Thank you Councilmember Anguilar,
Richard P. Arrota, City Attorney.
My only comment to that is,
and it's not in conflict with your city manager's advice,
is that this, whatever's attorney-client privilege,
would need to be spelled out in a contract.
And the contract would define what is and what would not
be privileged according to the work product
that's generated by the consulting service,
the consultant that's attached here.
So I think to the city manager's point,
we'd want to be specific if that's the council's wish
and explicit about what and what would not be
under a privilege.
Thank you for clarifying that.
So I would like to move forward as is without releasing
attorney client privilege just to you know with I want to be very clear I'm
sorry this says nothing about the work being done under a client turn I understand
are you adding this is I have the floor thank you I it stands as is that's my
motion is there a second I'm clarifying the question this says nothing about
attorney client privilege are you saying that this work that that should be
modified so that it says the work will be done under attorney-client privilege.
If that's the, if that's your ask under attorney-client privilege, then yes.
Well, I'm asking you, you're making the motion.
You just asked me a question to not add attorney-client privilege.
And then I withdrew that question.
So now let's start from, start fresh.
Are you asking to only adopt what's there?
Because what's there says nothing about attorney-client privilege
So what you're asking?
So I get where you're going with this. So I'd like to continue to explore
With attorney-client privilege and then we as a council can later decide whether or not we'd like to release that privilege
at a later date
Thank you councilmember Simon
Two parts one. I I think I want to second that but I got a few questions
Back to this attorney-client privilege situation
so if
It moves forward the way council member Aguilar originally
presented and
I think this is for the city manager or the city attorney if it moved forward as shown as item a option
What would what would have been the assumption?
What stance would the city manager or city attorney have taken on the work product? I want to start with city manager
So what's in front of you doesn't answer the question of what exactly is attorney-client
privileged or not.
What we would move forward with is completing the work.
We would come back to you in open session at a later date sometime, I think February
marches with a timeline ad, about the question of with that information, where do you want
to go next?
Do you want to move all the way to November or not?
just like anything we do, you know, there are times I do have to come to you in closed
session and I don't know that months in advance. These things are presented to me. I then need
to have those discussions with you. Sometimes we do them in closed session as a group. Sometimes
we do them in two, two, threes. Sometimes there's detailed information that due to its
sensitivity, we want to discuss in detail and go have some further exploration with
Council I don't know what that could be I just know that we do this work all the
time and there are instances when we have to go into closed session and
sometimes we have to have two two threes. Okay so the way the motion currently is
been clarified still meets your objective or your needs that you had
originally proposed? Yes the motion currently is I understanding is that it's
what's in front of you on as with a plus it's all confidential so nothing would
coming back to you until we meet in a closed session confidential space. I'd
have to come to meet with the city attorney as we go through this. There's
some things that can't be discussed in closed session but those things can be
brought in two two threes. Okay I need to clarify that though because that's not
the motion that I heard. I heard a motion that it's a being conducted under
attorney-client privilege. Not that it's confidential but that it's subject to
to attorney client privilege,
and that's something that's very different
than just calling it confidential.
So subject to attorney client privilege.
Okay, and just so I understand, with the city manager,
this meets your needs to conduct the work.
That is correct.
Okay, I second the motion.
Okay, any other questions or discussions?
Council Member Bolton.
Can you clarify the motion, please?
So the motion is to continue exploring
potential revenue measures,
but that work will be done under attorney-client privilege.
So it's not accessible by the public,
unless we waive privilege.
Any other questions?
So I've got some questions, if there are no other questions.
Okay, so I'll begin.
What is the legal basis for saying that work
that's not done in anticipation of litigation
can be subject to attorney-client privilege
as for a city attorney.
So there could be a number of bases,
Mayor, amongst them being analysis of,
I'll just sort of hypothetical situations,
real property negotiations and how-
I'm sorry, we're talking about a survey here.
This isn't a real property negotiation.
I wanna know about the context for a survey
for it to be subject to attorney-client privilege.
If the monies were to be used for a certain action,
a certain project, let's say it's a parcel tax,
and the special tax requires 66%,
66.7% or 66.9%, whatever, needs to be done,
two-thirds vote majority,
and it was intended to be used
for purchases of property, for example.
Absolutely closed session, I mean,
absolutely closed session privilege.
In addition, there could be deliberative process privilege
where under deliberative process,
the council went consultation with my office
and with staff would want to analyze further
how much certain dollar amounts would be
with the community bear.
That could be privileged,
it could be deliberative process as well.
So there are a number of possibilities
And I think what the city manager is saying,
I don't wanna foreclose any of those potential discussions
on the money, the use of the funds,
what potential projects could be involved,
what purchases, what divestments,
all of those things could be confidential
and have input or information from a survey.
You just haven't determined what the survey could be for.
So I don't think it's not foreclosing any options at all.
Certainly it's a council choice.
So there are two considerations, deliberative process privilege.
That would be disclosing information that we discuss in our considerations of that,
but not the actual survey results.
How is the actual survey result the fact that 52% of the people approve of something?
How is that reflecting our deliberation?
Well, of course, as we sit here now, I can't say that it is.
But I think that in consultation with your consultant,
you can ask a number of questions.
What if this, then this?
And some of those possibilities could certainly
be worthy of consideration that could be privileged.
Because it involves, again, some sort of negotiation.
So attorney client privilege,
attorney work product privilege.
And it's my understanding that that only applies
to when there's litigation or anticipated litigation.
Is it broader than that?
No, but I certainly think that if the council were
to choose some possibilities, that could be controversial.
Again, I'll just use the hypothetical
as it pertains to investment in property or not,
and we're taking some investment out of property
to fund something else.
That could be a possibility.
But we're not making investment decisions here.
We're talking about survey results
of a possible tax on property.
Can you point to other examples where doing survey work
has been considered in anticipation of litigation
when you're thinking about passing a tax measure?
I don't think that I have anything on the top of my head,
but it certainly work product.
Okay, just generates risk management,
that generates potential risks, certainly.
So I'll just state publicly that I'm very concerned
about the potential misuse of attorney work product
privilege to cover survey work. Councilmember we go to Swalton.
Seeing that we're nearly at the end of our time I think I would like to provide some
feedback in terms of the presentation of the June 2024 survey results. I think those were
really general and I didn't really get a really good idea of kind of where were some of those
were some of those points. So just in terms of the presentation should the
motion be successful and actually I don't know that there was a second there
was a motion or but not a second there was a second. If it does pass I would
like to see a presentation with more detail than what was presented to the
Council so that anyway so somewhere in between something more detail than what
the presentation that we received from the June 2024 survey results that I
think could get to kind of being more transparent with the community about the
of findings and let the community explore those findings
in a detail that is appropriate for that level
of analyzing and or just deciphering
what was in the survey results.
And I would actually, we're almost at the end of our time,
so I'm tempted to.
Can I just ask, so just to be clear.
I 100% support a revenue measure.
I 100% moving forward with this idea.
But I cannot support, especially given today's vote,
I cannot support a survey process
where we refuse to be transparent with the public.
I do not believe that this work is covered
by attorney-client privilege.
I do not believe that a survey is covered
by deliberative process privilege, period.
I don't believe that.
And what I saw here today is an unwillingness
to share with the public information that's two years old.
So I have no reason to believe that we will share
that information with the public in the future.
I will support a motion that says it's done
outside of attorney-client privilege,
but I will not support a motion
that says it's done under attorney-client privilege.
So I'll make one final ask,
would you be willing to change your motion?
Okay, I see no interest in making this fully transparent
to the public.
Any other interests?
So please vote.
All votes are in.
And the motion fails with three yes votes,
two no votes, one abstention,
and Vice Mayor Bowen absent.
And so to be clear,
I will be moving for reconsideration of this item
at our next scheduled meeting, Madam Clerk,
you should anticipate an email from me on that.
At this point in time, I'll move to item number 11.
Do you have any items that have been submitted to you?
City Manager.
Okay, item number 12, City Reports Calendars
and other announcements.
Council Member Aguilar.
Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.
So on November 20th through 22nd,
I attended the National League of Cities,
City Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah,
which I paid for out of my pocket.
So I attended the opening general sessions,
I attended Hilo, the Hispanic elected officials meeting.
I also attended the Housing as Economic Strategy,
aligning growth, affordability and opportunity
with regards to housing and homelessness
and what Bridgeport did to help change zoning codes
on waterfronts in industrial areas
to help bring in residential,
bring in affordable housing and just housing in general.
I also attended the LGBTQ local officials membership meeting
where we talked about preemption of local LGBTQ initiatives,
the vendor ban on affirming care,
a flag ban that happened in the state of Utah,
where Utah found a loophole
to basically present their own flags
and put their brand of,
I believe it's a iris on their flag to promote at City Hall.
So they have a transgender pride flag
and a LGBTQ pride flag.
I attended the League of City's receptions,
opening and closing receptions,
And I will consider, I will be still on the board
as the immediate past president for the LGBTQ low
since my president of LGBTQ low put in his resignation
due to time commitment
and some other overlapping issues on his agenda.
But I would also like to announce
that today is a World AIDS Day.
We remember the loved ones.
We lost and uplift every person living with HIV.
And I just wanna be clear that our community
didn't survive decades of stigma and neglect
and loss just to be dragged backwards
by this current administration
and their hateful, ignorant regime.
While they tried to slash funding, undermine science,
and erase LGBTQ plus people from public health conversations,
we kept fighting and we won't continue and keep fighting.
Today, we honor resilience, demand justice,
and refuse to ever let bigotry guide policy again.
We're still here and we're still unbreakable.
Those are my comments, thank you.
Council Member Asavito, please.
Okay, I also attended National League of Cities
in Salt Lake City.
I attended meetings about drones in action,
practical innovation for cities and towns,
how they're using drones in different cities
to identify whether there's garbage or potholes
while they're being considered on people's privacy
without looking in their backyards
and making sure that they're doing proper privacy.
I also attended building bridges through service,
how volunteerism strengthens communities.
I also attended supporting afterschool programs
in your city luncheon,
building a better system to respond to homelessness,
and also the dignity index, overview and applications.
those were the meetings I attended a National League of Cities.
And then I also attended my commission meetings on November 18th,
operation and maintenance meeting for EBITDA.
And then on November 20th, I attended the commission meeting for EBITDA.
That's all. Thank you. Council member bolt, please.
I too attended National League of Cities. Uh, some of the,
there were many each day, but, uh, the power of the people,
workforce investment drives community outcomes, just focusing on local
leadership and in the way we could help revitalize. Building bridges through
service which was a volunteerism strengthens communities, so me and Brian
did that. Workforce development innovation, ways to to innovate the workforce to be
excited about going to work and and you know we do a lot of great things here in
the city I know we do and I've talked to the city managers about a few little
things that that they brought up and I was happy to hear that some of the
things we do or the same things they're suggesting also making policy happen and
and navigating policy life cycles, which was brutal.
Bridging our divides, strategies for civil leadership.
That was a great session, and it spoke about diversity,
but it really spoke about how councils can work together,
And we failed tonight, flat out, didn't pass nothing.
We had a great time here with our community
and did some great awards, and I love that.
I really do.
I wore one of my favorite sweaters
and then immediately after we did this.
So I also attended my Alameda County Veterans Commission
and the Fire Commission, a lot of good work going on and I look for the brighter days when we work
together to get some good stuff passed for our community. Seeing no others in queue, I'll just
highlight three quick things. First, I want to congratulate First Presbyterian Church of San
family, the family, the family
and on the 100th anniversary of
their sanctuary, literally 100
years ago.
It was so nice to give a
proclamation and saw so many of
the congregants who are part of
the April showers program.
So it was nice to make that
connection.
Really grateful for city staff
and for the team at Spectrum for
putting together an excellent
also served both take out and in the room. There was live music. Thank you, Councilmember
Boldt. I know you were there, Councilmember Burswall, I believe you were there also at
the cleanup. So thank you for all of your help and the many volunteers who supported
city staff. Also had the opportunity to speak at Leadership San Leandro. I think you spoke
there too also, right? I think there was just seeing the energy of so many people in our community
coming out to want to develop their talents further. Building community as a cohort was
just really powerful. So very grateful for the work that the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce does
in promoting leadership San Leandro to their instructor Brianna Hatcher to Natasha Martinez
who is one of their administrators, who is just getting stuff done. Very well attended.
Excellent energy. And so with that, we are adjourned at what time is it? 10.03. Have a good evening.