Okay, it is 701 and I'm calling this meeting of the San Leandro City Council to order. It is Monday February 2nd
2026 please join me in our Pledge of Allegiance
So we've got on our next item, please take roll madam clerk
council member Aguilar present council member as a Vito present council member
bolt present council member Simon present vice mayor Viviros Walton
present council member Bowen present and mayor Gonzalez present the city of
San Leonardo conducts orderly meeting so let's try that again the city of San
that are conducts orderly meetings to fulfill its mandate.
Discriminatory statements or conduct
that would potentially violate the Federal Civil Rights
Act of 1964 and or the California Fair Employment
and Housing Act, California Penal Code sections 403 or 415
are per se disruptive to a meeting
and will not be tolerated.
Please see the city council handbook and the city council
meeting rules of decorum for more information.
Madam Clerk, your announcement please.
If you would like to make a public comment during the meeting, you can do so in person or via Zoom.
If you are present at the meeting, please complete a speaker card and submit it to the city clerk before the item is presented.
If you wish to participate in public comment via Zoom, you can use the raise your hand tool when the item is called.
During the public comment session, speakers will be invited to speak and will have a set time to share their comments.
countdown timer will appear for their convenience and when the time is up the
microphone will be muted. All raised hands outside of public comment will be
lowered to avoid confusion. Once public comment is opened hands may be raised to
speak. 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. At this
point in time I do not believe we had a closed session today therefore there is
no report for closed session. But we do have recognitions today we will proclaim
February 2026 as Black History Month here in the city of San Leandro.
And Tiana, would you please come up?
Where are you?
Just a little bit of intro.
So we know that Tiana's a longtime resident of San
Leandro, so we're especially grateful that you're here
today, a local business owner for the DC Dance Center, which
empowers community youth through inclusive arts education.
And I know you've been involved in all sorts of activities
supporting our Cherry Festival.
You even did leadership San Leandro, is that right?
So, I mean, actively involved in our community,
and so thank you for all that you do,
and thank you for being here to receive this.
So now I'll just read the proclamation
and give you a chance to say a few words.
Whereas African Americans have made significant
political contributions to the artistic,
economic, educational, literary, political,
religious, scientific, technological advancements,
and many more in the United States.
And whereas, the observance of Black History Month calls our attention to the continued
need for community action to end racism, to extend mercy, and develop equity for everyone.
And whereas, we honor the men and women of the African-American descent, including past
generations who advocated for the ending of slavery and the enactment of civil rights
of civil rights laws, going on to educators who have answered free people's call for
a free mind, and to ongoing efforts to press towards a brighter and more equitable future
for everyone.
And whereas the city of St. Landry continues to work toward becoming an ever more inclusive
community in which all residents are respected and recognized for their contributions to
our community, our state, our country, and the world regardless of the color of their skin.
Now therefore, I Juan Gonzales III, Mayor of the City of San Leandro, do hereby proclaim
February 2026 as Black History Month in the City of San Leandro and encourage the public to join
us in commemorating this important occasion in recognition of the numerous contributions
made by black and african-american communities here locally, nationally and globally.
Thank you. Thank you so much. I am deeply honored. Thank you to the City of San Diego and Mayor Juan
Gonzalez. I am truly happy to be here today. I grew up at DC Dance Center at the age of five.
I stepped in, and I was welcomed with warm arms
under the director Debbie Cabral.
And I grew up dancing all the way up until high school,
and she instilled the love of dance and the passion of dance.
And she saw in me leadership, and as I grew older,
she put me in a mentorship, in a leadership position,
And I am truly thankful for her.
In 2021, I bought the business
and I've been running the business since then.
And just like Ms. Debbie,
I want to keep DC Dance Center a warm
and embracing studio and community for everyone.
Black and brown students,
DC Dance Center has always stood in diversity and inclusion
and I wanna keep that going.
So thank you so much to the city of San Leandro
for recognizing me.
I've been putting in a lot of work and a lot of effort
into the studio and into the community.
And I love giving back.
I'm very passionate about youth and the work that I do.
So again, thank you so much to the city and to the mayor.
And I'm gonna keep this proclamation forever.
And again, I am truly honored.
I'm glad I can represent black people and black youth.
And I am a voice for the city of San Diego.
Thank you guys so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
At this point, we will continue with our consent calendar.
Are there any requests by council members to pull an item?
If not, I will go to public comment.
Seeing none, let's go to public comment on the consent calendar.
Mayor, we've received one comment card on the consent calendar,
and there's one hand raised on Zoom.
Please proceed.
In-person.
The in-person commenter is Mike McGuire.
Hi there.
I'm referring more to item 5A than the other ones
on the consent calendar.
People point out it caused something to set up
a rent stabilization program.
And I just wanted to give some comparative figures
for what we do, we as individuals, and we as a city
do spend money on.
One guesstimate for what the yearly rent stabilization fees
would be is $50 each per unit.
Can you hold on for just a second?
I'm just trying to make sure that your comment
is aligned to the item.
So just give me just one second please.
I just want to make sure that you're focused
purely on the registry software, correct?
Right.
Okay, keep the comment focused to the registry software.
Okay, okay.
All right, so anyway, some just comparisons
to things we can spend money on as individuals or the city.
If we are paying
Well, if we're paying the average rent in San Leandro, we are paying
$19,200 a year that's
1600 a month times 12
And in terms of other things the city could be doing
Even if we borrowed money to get the program started for software
The only year where I'm sorry
I'm trying to edit as I go along.
I'm fumbling here.
So we are talking about money to buy software.
We do spend, however, $33 million on the Fire Department,
$14 million for other city computer operations.
Of the IT budgets, some $9.8 million is for services.
And IT annually pays out double the total cost
of the proposed rent stabilization software
just as its category other.
I'm sure there were good things in that category,
but just the miscellaneous IT spends a lot of money.
And then there's other city departments,
2.7 million for HR, 5.7 million for recreation.
We consider that money pretty well spent.
So I'm just saying, keep what we're spending
to get rent stabilization going
and the software in particular in context.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That is our only in-person comment term.
Okay. So we are closing public comment in person and we will open public comment online.
The first online speaker is Alvaro Ramos. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. So I wanted to
comment on item 5B. And I wanted to start by saying that I definitely want the driving
experience and the pedestrian experience to be improved just as much as the next person.
And I think that rectangular rapid flashing beacons help. So I want to be clear that I'm
not speaking against that. But I am speaking in opposition to the pedestrian hybrid beacons,
which as far as I know are also known as high intensity activated crosswalk or Hawk signals.
These specific beacons, I don't find them intuitive, and I find them very confusing.
I'll give you an example. I was driving in Berkeley on Ashby Avenue up to Highway 13.
There is one hawk signal on that road. I was in my car. I had the sun visor to block the sun,
and then it also blocked the visibility of the hawk signal, unfortunately.
And then once I saw the signal instructions, they were poor because they were too small,
and they were hard to read and I had my glasses on. And I think that as a driver trying to drive
safely to avoid accidents, I found that the signal provided poor communication of what
action I needed to do when I got to the intersection. And I think that these are
reasons that make Hawk signals ineffective and dangerous. The design of our signals and
signs calls into question the human factor in engineering of traffic management. Drivers
and pedestrians have to make quick decision-making. Therefore, people need to have shorter reaction
times. So my advice for council and for public works is to keep it simple and use the most
reliable and traditional methods that have been proven to prevent accidents. Use a traditional
stop sign or traffic signal. Red, yellow, green is much preferable than Hock signals.
Thank you. Your time has elapsed. The next speaker is Douglas Spalding.
Good evening council members. I'd like to speak on items 5A and 5D. Let's start with these one. 5D,
Thank you Mayor Gonzales for filling the two empty at large seats on the arts library
and culture commission as well as the community police review board. The CPRB seat has been
really not filled for months and months and it's important that we have full commissions and that
we get the benefit of a citizen input.
I also want to talk about the registry program for a moment.
This is the foundation of the larger housing stabilization program we're in the midst of
implementing.
And while there are many estimates of, you know, 7,000 plus renters and whatnot, we don't
have solid data.
So this is really important information that will help us to refine the program as it goes
forward.
The one thing I am wondering about is, you know, it's supposed to be self-reporting,
Landlords Report, and there's a penalty if you do not, but I think it might be even more
effective if there was some kind of tenant portal where tenant could just make a call
and say, hey, you know, I want to make sure that my landlord is registered in the program
so that my, you know, my unit that I'm renting has the benefit of the rent stabilization
ordinance. Thank you.
Thank you. The next speaker is Willow.
Hi, this is Willow Idewild. I am speaking today from my capacity as the president of
of S&D US states.
We want to express our gratitude
for putting the crosswalk in at Arbor and Dutton.
As a car-free advocate, I would love to see
even more radical ways of highlighting pedestrians
and bicyclists, but this is really gonna make it
much easier for us going to and from the Safeway
and to and from some of the businesses
at Dutton and Bancroft.
So just wanted to express some appreciation.
that's it from me, thanks.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Rachel Radin.
Hello, thank you so much for letting me speak today.
My name is Rachel Radin and I too,
as the previous caller said,
I'm very excited about the potential for these crosswalks
to improve a pedestrian and driver safety.
To speak to the earlier gentleman's comment
regarding Hawk light specifically.
I will say that as a pedestrian,
who walks frequently around San Leandro,
the Hawk light that's on Davis street,
I have without fail never had an incident
of any type of safety concern.
Cars are always, always stopping, very respectful.
I find it's a really ideal type of situation,
particularly when crossing a street like East 14th,
that's extremely busy,
even with crosswalks that are unlit people,
very rarely if ever stop.
So I just wanna reiterate my excitement
for the possibility of these hawk lights coming about.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Mayor, there are no more raised hands online.
So we will close public comment online,
come back to the council to see
if there's any discussion or a motion.
Council member Aguilar.
I'd like to move the consent calendar.
I've got a motion from Council member Aguilar.
Council member Azvito.
I'd like to second it.
So I've got a motion and a second.
discussion please vote all votes are in and the motion carries unanimously
thank you this time we go to our sixth item I do not believe any city manager
or city attorney reports but I'll turn left right that is good then let's move
on to general public comment so we're taking public comment on items that you
wish to address us on that are not on our agenda this would not be do not come
and talk about items that are on the agenda. Here we talk about items that are
within the subject matter jurisdiction of this council but not agendized today.
So at this point in time how many cards do we have? Mayor we've received three
cards. Okay and how many hands online? Two hands raised. Thank you. Let's proceed in
person. The first three in-person speakers are Karen Silva, Nancy Raffala,
and Jenny Madsen. Karen are you here? Hi City Council and Mayor I'm sorry I'm not
a polished public speaker. This is on behalf of Councilmember Fred Simon
representing Washington Manor. I'm speaking personally to say that Fred is
someone who shows up and does the work he reads the material asked that for
questions and genuinely listens to each of his community members even when
conversations are different or opinions differ his leadership doesn't make
headlines but builds trust and stability throughout this city what I admire most
about Fred is he is a devoted family man a neighbor in an upstanding community
member whenever I call on him he answers he follows up and returns a call and
always keeps his word something I find that doesn't exist very much throughout
the council or throughout the city leadership he treats people with respect
fairness and a steady moral compass those values guide his decisions and
commitment to doing what is right it's always heartfelt he speaks from the
heart public service takes resilience humility and a real sense of
responsibility to others. He brings that daily. He authentically cares deeply
about this community and its residents and shows that throughout his
consistency and his sincerity and he's one of the few people in this community I
find that is extremely sincere. Our city is better because of leaders like Fred.
I'm grateful for his service character and his continued commitment to this
community and as you can tell everyone in Washington matter loves Fred so I'm
just speaking heartfelt how I feel about him. He's an amazing man. Thank you.
Thank you. The next two speakers in the room are Nancy Rothlop and Jenny Madsen.
Go ahead and put down just a little. That's fine. There you go. Thanks. Good
evening everyone. Fred Simon, I'm talking about Fred Simon, is an honorable and
respectful family man. Fred goes out of his way to help his community. This
investigation is a witch hunt filled with heresy, misinformation, and errors in
the report. What strikes me the most is you couldn't work out your differences
amongst yourselves. You wasted $135,000 with a false report. This
This clearly is a biased character assassination to a good and honest caring man respectful
to all.
At a recent Oreloma meeting, Sheila Young pointed out a false statement involving her
and Fred, which is in your report.
Again, it's a shame that the city's complaint resolution procedure couldn't resolve this
before it became so costly for the city.
I hope the rest of you never have to face this.
Thank you. The next speakers from the room are Jenny Madsen and Laurence Abbott.
So my name is Jenny Madsen and this may not start out sounding like I'm talking on topic,
but I am. So I spent, actually I've spent several weeks of my life over the past five
years sitting in Department of Water Resources meetings. There was three days of them this
week and hundreds of people came out and spoke about the importance of the
science what the science is telling us and that we need to keep the flows in
the rivers or we will all suffer this is basically for the Bay Delta plan and at
the end of this there were a handful of let's say paid representatives for net
growers in Southern San Joaquin County or San Joaquin Valley that were there
who spoke oh no we can't do this but Newsom is very much in favor of the
voluntary agreements he wants to let them figure it out and the people are
not do not believe this but all the commissioners that stood up there and
looked out and said well we really can't we can't we can't go with what the
people want. We have to we have to do what the politics are telling us and all
I want to say now because I have a problem with that investigative report I
do not think it was unbiased but you can fool some of the people all of the time
you can fool all of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the
people all the time and you guys need to the city needs to remember that when
they do studies because too many, I've done so many in my time in San Leandro
and the questions are just written so that you get the answers you want and
I'm not the only one that thinks this way so that's why I said that I hope you
guys can stand together because this is important it's a tough job but what
you doing is important. Thank you. The next speaker is Lawrence Abbott. Good
evening. Hi my name is Lawrence and mine also might start off sounding like it
it's not applicable that it is. So I just wanted to say that I'm a proud Union
member. I represent my Teamsters Local 70 Union on the Alameda Labor Council, the
AFL-CIO, and I've been an off and on again political organizer with the
Labor Council. And a lot of people don't really know what a union is. A union is
just working people standing together and then, you know, they're standing
together for a purpose, for a power, for a balance of power with their employer.
And the reason I bring that up is because that's sort of at the root of
fairness for workers because employers can be incredibly powerful and workers
typically aren't. And I love San Leandro's slogan, a city where kindness
This matters.
Kindness and fairness go together for me.
So when I think of renters, first of all, they really do need that balance of power.
And when I think of you folks on this board, when I think of fairness and I think of kindness,
I think that you guys have the ability to work together.
I remember hearing from one of you how important it was for you guys to try to reach consensus
on important issues.
And I was terribly disappointed at the last city council meeting where it was almost unanimous,
One of the primary people that always talks
about working together and reaching consensus
voted the opposite way.
And I see a similar thing happening now
with certain people on this council being picked on.
Well, as a political organizer,
we vet all the candidates that we support.
We've supported three candidates here.
I've walked door to door with my union,
with Teamsters Local 70, with other laborers.
We vet them very carefully and make sure
there's not a bone of gender bias in these people.
And I know it's really going on.
It's political, it's terrible.
It's the antithesis to fairness.
It's the antithesis to kindness.
Please, we can do better.
Thank you.
That concludes the cards from in the room, Mayor.
So we'll close in person,
pull the comment and move online, please.
The first online speaker is Douglas Spalding.
Good evening, council members.
Greeting from Summit Medical Center,
where I just set up the alarm
for the shifting in my hospital bed.
This is my second time in a hospital.
On Thursday I was at San Leander Hospital after my dog
took me down, tripped me with her tether
and I face planted on the curb of my own sidewalk.
And I just wanted to say I am so happy
that we still have San Leander Hospital open in town.
and I want to just call attention to the wisdom
of the many people who work to keep it open
under the ages of Alameda Health Systems.
And that includes, from the very beginning,
Stephen Cassidy and right up to current day, Ed Hernandez.
And if you ever have a chance,
I was in the emergency room, or if you stay overnight,
and you talk to the people that work there,
you'll find that there's a great pride among people
who work at San Leander Hospital.
Second thing is I wanted to, just one more time,
celebrate the commemoration of Stephen Taylor's
Sanctity of Life Park last weekend.
And really it was an amazing, an amazing event
that once again underscored this community
that has arisen from the tragedy of Stephen Taylor's death.
and especially if you didn't get to stay
until the latter part of it,
our own students at the Social Justice Academy
of San Leandro High, they really showed out.
One of the things about Steven is he loved music.
And so the culture that they brought to the event,
both in terms of singing, dancing, and spoken word,
and just their spirit, it was amazing.
we're very lucky to live in this community
with multiple generations of people.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Melissa Wong.
Hi there.
Good evening.
I'm speaking on the investigation
into council member Baldwin's complaint.
I'm aware of that public comments
or deemed opinions from the public.
Concerning this situation, it isn't about opinions.
It's about facts or the lack of.
More than a few people who are mentioned in the report
have publicly refuted statements in it.
Many other examples were missing basic research
or even logic.
A $135,000 investigation heavily leaned
on the former city manager,
mentioning her 78 times,
over 25 more times than second witness.
Yet if for allegation alleged,
The conduct would have occurred after November, 2024.
The city manager had already been settled in Florida
with no more official capacity in San Leandro.
Actually, half of the witnesses
the investigator charged time for
had not been in any official San Leandro capacity
for at least one year, if not more than two full years.
The investigator already interviewed a dozen witnesses
and waited four months to interview Councilmember Aguilar
and Simon.
Then went back to the former city manager one last time
before ending her interviews.
These are the facts you can see in the report.
The investigator failed to interview a facilitator
that would have witnessed a large misconduct
in an often mentioned planning session.
An example of lack of basic research and logic.
I am perplexed how the investigation was done
to fairly review the allegations
and ask the council to make sure you have facts
before you take any additional steps.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Mimi Dean.
Hi there, this is Mimi Dean,
and I serve on the Oro Loma Sanitary District
with Council Member Simon.
I have to say that I have known Council Member Simon
for quite a while now,
and he is in the words of Mayor Amoritis,
Sheila Young, a decent man.
Um, I, I feel like, um, the report that you guys approved and recognized at your last
meeting was totally full of innuendo and baseless accusations against not only Simon, but also
Aguilar.
Um, you know, I don't know how you guys decided that that report was acceptable.
You know, when we have someone like Mayor Emeritus Young
saying that she didn't say these things
that you guys have in the report,
that says a lot to me because I believe Mayor Young.
So I just think that you guys need to do
a little bit of soul searching here
and you need to realize that, you know,
this was not the place for this kind of report.
And I hope that you're going to do what's right for our communities and you're going
to take another look at this and you are going to realize that Fred Simon is a very decent
man and neither he nor Victor Aguilar deserve this kind of treatment from our beautiful
city of San Leandro.
And I want to say thank you very much and I concur with Mr. Spalding about the beautiful
celebration we had down at the marina for Steven Taylor. Thank you so much for listening.
Bye bye. Thank you. The next speaker is Ed Hernandez.
Hey, good evening. Mayor, council and staff. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. On
January 13th, I submitted a formal written request asking for clarification and review
the residency and domicile requirements for survey on this council. I have not yet received
a response and understand staff may be managing the heavy workload. However, the issue goes
directly to the integrity at district-based representation, and the public deserves clarity.
The City Council Member Hanbok and California Government Code are clear.
Council members must reside in a district they represent for the duration of their term.
Government Code 244 defines domicile as a place where a person actually lives and intends
to remain.
And Government Code 36502 requires continued residency and voter registration in a district
term throughout that term.
A council member's primary residence in their district, and mine as well, has been recently
sold.
That same council member was absent from the recent meeting on rent civilization, residential
rent caps, a major policy decision affecting thousands of residents, and they were also
scheduled to participate remotely in the upcoming meeting of an appointed body.
None of these facts alone determine eligibility, but together, they make it reasonable to ask
the City to confirm continued compliance, residency, and domicile requirements.
They respectfully ask the Acting City Clerk and City Attorney to review the matter and
provide guidance to the Council and the public where the residency and domicile requirements
continue to be met and what process that he follows when their primary
residence has been sold. It is not about assumptions or conclusions. It's about
transparency, continuity, and public trust. Thank you for your time and for
your commitment to accountable governments. Good evening. Good night.
Thank you. That is the last hand we have raised online, Mayor. So we have we will
close public comment at this point in time and we'll move on in our agenda. We
We don't have public hearings or presentations today in our first item under action items.
There's a second reading to adopt ordinance number 2026-001 to amend the San Leonardo
Municipal Code to add chapter 4-46 to establish residential rent stabilization.
Director, Community Director, Development Director, Tom Liao, is here.
There you are.
Thank you, Mayor and City Council.
So as the mayor noted, we are here today for the second reading of the residential rent
stabilization ordinance. Before we get that I did want to just provide a kind
of brief update based on some comments from the first reading there was some a
few members the public mentioning public noticing and them not receiving that so
I just wanted to address that for you all as you know housing protections has
been public priority and publicly noted since 2023 and rent registry and rent
civilization have risen to the top of the priority list through the council
last couple of years but I did at least want to provide you all the assurance
from the city side that we have these maintain a wide and consistent outreach
process since a noticing process since 2023 so going back to that time we have
had seven rules committee meetings we've been agendized for seven rules committee
meetings we have been agendized for eight council meetings we have had four
citywide community meetings and we have had six stakeholder related meetings
particularly for interested parties like the providers and the tenants and so
wanted to share that with all those public events or those public meetings
they've all majority have been noticed in bilingual in Spanish and Chinese we
have used our growing an extensive database of providers tenants and
advocates and individuals throughout all of those meetings I wanted to also note
that they've we've done flyers and notices that have also been posted both
on social media the city housing website at community facilities such as the
library and community center as well as in community service organization
locations as well and I would say in critical junctures throughout this
process we've also gone through the media with press releases and
publications in the local paper as well for this item so I think it's been a
very public item would also say we did some extensive work thanks some
recommendations in the Rules Committee last summer with some of that outreach
to look into areas where Asian and Spanish-speaking populations frequent
such as shopping areas and businesses so I just wanted to mention that thank you
for the opportunity and I'm gonna hand that back to the mayor. So at this point
in time are there any questions for Director Liao before we go to public
comment on this item. Seeing none let's move to public comment. How many cards
do we have and hands raised? Mayor we currently have 21 cards submitted and
there are three hands raised online. Okay let's see please if you're gonna speak
online please raise your hand because if there's only three we're gonna take
those first four. This is a call in for the people online five. Okay last call
for people online. I want to start with online public comment. Okay so if you can take a
screenshot and those will be our online public commenters and please proceed online then
we'll come to the 20 some odd people in person. The first online speaker is Douglas Spaulding.
you so much council members you're on the verge of a significant and important
victory for the working people of San Leandro do not delay this decision
delaying the decision may mean we just never get around to it and we've we've
come so far and you have worked so hard and staff has has has expertly gotten us
to this point. Now we've been warned by the landlord lobby that you pass it and
the sky is falling. We've been told that this ordinance is extreme, that it will
have disaster outcomes, and I want to address those for a moment. There have been
many fallacious claims. One is that this rent stabilization ordinance is going
to harm those mom-and-pop landlords and really that's kind of undercut by
the exemptions and the ordinance itself for the golden duplex for ADUs for
smaller units you know if you got eight or more units you're not a mom-and-pop
you're a business and that's fine there's nothing wrong with being a
business but come on we've been told that there will be no new construction
and well that's true but it's not due to this rent stabilization awareness is due
to the highest cost of construction
all over the place, not just in San Leandro.
And we also know that when construction happens,
it's not going to be beholden to this.
That has an exemption to self under the Costa-Hawkins Act.
So that one's kind of a straw argument.
We've been told that, OK, landlords
are going to stop doing maintenance.
The units will depreciate in value.
They're gonna take them off there. Come on. That doesn't make sense either because they're just devaluing their investments
So please this is good for the city. Let's thank you your time has elapsed. The next speaker is Gordon Galvin
Good evening mayor and council members
Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Gordon Galvin, and I'm a small housing provider in San Leandro
Someone who invests in maintains and relies on rental income to keep my property safe and habitable I
Support tenant protections, but I'm deeply concerned that this proposed rent control ordinance
particularly the 3% cap or
65% of CPI could have unintended consequences that actually hurt both tenants and small landlords
Let's talk about what that means in real numbers
According to recent CPI data, US inflation has been running around 2.7% annually.
Under your proposed formula, 65% of 2.7% is roughly 1.75%.
In simple terms, even if costs go up nearly 3%, a landlord can only increase rent by 1.75%.
That may sound modest, but for small housing providers, costs don't rise in neat 2.7% increments.
insurance premiums, property taxes, utility expenses, roofing, plumbing, earthquake,
retrofitting, pest control. Many of these increases far more than CPI, sometimes double or triple
CPI in a single year. So when you factor in maintenance, emergency repairs, city compliance
costs, and state laws, the real cost of owning and operating safe housing often exceeds the CPI rate.
By locking allowable rent increases to by tying them to the 65 percent of CPI this ordinance would force landlords
To consent continue absorbing costs year after year
So I'm not here to block protections, but to push for a reasonable compromise
Eliminate the 65 percent of CPI restriction. That's what the vice mayor suggested at the first reading of this and
and it didn't get any traction,
it didn't get any debate
because the city attorney said that-
Thank you, sir.
Your time has elapsed.
Okay.
The next speaker is Eva.
Hi, my name is Eva Poon.
I was at the previous,
I was at the previous hearing
and I felt that many of the council members
actually disagreed with the 65% of CPI.
I'm also a housing provider
and I also am against it.
Many of you feel that it's unusually strict to landlords.
I urge you to make the right decision, not the easy decision.
Yes, you're going to have to pretty much go back to
the drawing board as mentioned by the previous speaker.
But I do think that maybe
a 5 percent cap is much easier to
calculate for both myself and my tenants.
Much easier to explain.
Many of my tenants are non-English speakers,
so this would be much easier to calculate,
and it would just be much easier
for pretty much everyone involved.
The way the ordinance is currently structured,
I feel that many housing providers are
incentivized to increase the rent as much in as soon as
possible before it takes effect in the 2027,
which is something that I really don't want to do to my tenants.
We're a small housing provider,
and we've kept our rents low and pretty much haven't
increased it in the past couple of years,
and we want to continue doing that.
But if we lose our ability to increase our rents in the future,
then we have no choice but to do that right now.
So City Council, please do not pass this ordinance.
Please don't hurt my tenants.
Please don't hurt my fellow housing providers.
And please rewrite this to be much less confusing
for everybody involved.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Jim Prola.
Hello, Council.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay.
I remember last time I told you that it was in the paper that 82% of retired seniors in
the Bay Area rely on Social Security as their main source of income.
But Social Security percent increases does not actually cover retired seniors' actual
cost of living because the rent increases have gone up much higher.
And the cost of living increases doesn't measure the pharmaceutical costs and the medical
costs that they're going to be subjected to in the next fact in this year and in the next
few years.
So, I think it's important to keep the 65% in there or the 0.65% in there, along with
to 3%, whichever is lower, because the seniors cost of living is much higher than what is
given to them by Social Security. Like I say, the medical care is going to go up by I don't
know how many percentages. It's already put a lot of them into positions where they can't
afford to even get their medical insurance anymore, because that's not measured adequately
for seniors and retirees in the Social Security cost of living. I was a small landlord, and I know
the deductions and the tax breaks you get. And believe me, it's considerable. I think you need
to go with what is that you passed the first time, and if it doesn't work, you definitely have
an ability to change it later on. So treat the seniors like you would treat your own parents
if they were only relying on social security. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Alvaro
Ramos. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, so I am again calling in support of the rent stabilization
ordinance and I've been reading the room. There are a few perspectives that I have on it. First,
there is prosperity at all costs, even if it means a high cost of living. And the result that we have
is high inequality, unbridled growth and unrestrained productivity. The problem is that hoarding wealth
does not circulate in the society. When the economy goes bust, the bottom falls out and the rest goes
with it, society collapses without regulation. And then we've tried the incremental approach.
It is not far reaching because it accommodates the market. There is nothing empowering about
households making painful choices between do you pay for housing, do you pay for healthcare,
do you pay for energy utilities or for food, all of which have increased in price. And that is a
failure to invest in the futures of the next generation.
Both approaches have failed to satisfy the ambitions
of the rich and meet the needs of the poor.
And we're living in a cost of living emergency.
That's what we're in right now,
accelerated by a tyrannical federal government.
People without spending power cannot drive market growth.
Governments need to deliver resilience
so that the market prospers.
that stability to weather the storm.
We are here to prevent market failure
and to mitigate the negative effects if that happens.
Fairness is what this is about.
It's about reducing inequality for everyone.
In this way, fair housing is stable
for property owners and renters.
And I feel like for some reason we've forgotten
about the tax cuts and the benefits cuts
that have come along from the budget bill
that we had last year.
Those are benefits as well.
Those tax cuts, that's it.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Mimi Dean.
Hey, it's Mimi Dean again.
And I'd like to say I agree with the last two speakers,
especially about all the benefits that property owners get,
you know, when our taxes come around.
And also I'd like to agree with Jim Prola
about the whole social security thing, right?
Because social security recipients are not getting increases,
these big increases every year.
So you guys probably don't know this about me,
but I am a little mom and pop landlord.
I did not anticipate this happening,
but life changes made it happen.
And I have a couple of women that have been living with me
for a really long time.
And I have to say that it's really important to me
to have wonderful, good people that live with me.
And I know that I could count on them
just like they can count on me.
I have to say that as a property owner,
I feel like I am so lucky.
And I don't feel like I need to be greedy
and keep asking the people that I live with
to keep giving me more and more money.
I feel like I'm the one that's getting the asset, right?
Like when the mortgage gets paid off,
I'm the one that has something tangible
that I can touch, that I can call my own,
that I can leave to my heirs, right?
Like the person that's paying the rent
isn't getting those things.
They're getting a place to live,
but they're not getting some permanent generational wealth
that they can pass down.
So I think it's really important to remember
that us landlords, we're getting some really great stuff.
We're having other people help us pay for our property
that we will then pass down to our heirs.
I would like to say that I'd like the city council
to do the right thing
and stand by the tenants of San Leandro
and promote this red stabilization ordinance.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mayor, that concludes the six hands that were raised
so we're closing public comment online please proceed in person the first three
speakers are John Sullivan Athena Stanford and Kate how fun good evening
Americans all us and members of the council I'm John Sullivan and tonight
I'm going to be wearing two hats number one is way back in the 1960s on
You know, we've worked here in
San Leandro as a real estate
broker and later a housing
provider.
I always had a stake in our
city.
Your actions, voting for extreme
rent control, it turns away
investors to our city and we're
not able to develop the housing
that we really need to be built
in San Leandro.
And, of course, causing real
estate tax revenues, the life
flood of our city, and I'm
the lifeblood of our city to fall.
So it will cause backlash when really
with the voters later on when they realize that.
Now, the second hat, I and other home providers, housing
providers, I know too well that it costs a small fortune
to renovate and upgrade our older apartments here
San Leandro our departments were built way back in the 1940s to the 1960s. By
your action depriving us of funds for those older complexes for remodeling them
and so forth and it will eventually lead to some blighted areas if we're not
able to do that. Obviously as happens so often in severe rent control areas that
affects the vibrant housing areas of San Diego that we're so proud of too.
So the bottom line please pay attention to the long-term effects. To continue
this upgrading etc we need to hold towards somewhere towards our state rent
control regulations. Dropping maybe down to five percent and may work but we will
We must delay time has elapsed the next three speakers are Athena Stanford
Kate Halpin and Evelyn
Olivera
Good evening mayor council members. Thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is
This is my first time ever at a city council meeting to speak
Sorry
Good evening mayor and council members
My name is Athena Stanford and I am here on behalf of Golden State trailer park
located at one five one one
150th Avenue if any of you have ever driven up and down a hundred and fiftyth Avenue, you've certainly driven by this property
I'm sorry to say it is an eyesore. It is certainly
Not a good mark on our city and I grew up here by the way
So I am here to ask you to please please reconsider
Some of the provisions in your rent control ordinance
specifically
We need to do capital improvements at our park and if you doubt what I say feel free to stop by
We have 18 spaces. I believe we're probably the smallest trailer park in the city of San Leandro
We have 18 spaces
Currently six are occupied five are paying rent one is not
We desperately need to upgrade the park
We're not able to rent the spaces. So currently our community is suffering by not having this affordable housing
We cannot rent these spaces until we upgrade our electrical our plumbing our sewer new fencing and paving
so in relation to the
maximum on the rent control amount. Let me just say that in eight years, we have only
raised our rent $102 in eight years. We've not had the money to do the upgrading that
we desperately wanted to do, and we're now at a critical point. My property owner that
I represent, he is losing money. I have his tax return, $7,000 out of his own pocket.
He is a low income immigrant senior.
He has no more money.
Thank you.
Your time has elapsed.
The next three speakers are Kate Halfon, Evelyn Olivera,
and Anthony Adesi.
Good evening.
My name is Kate Halfon, and I am the broker and owner
of Welcome Home Property Management.
Thank you for taking the time tonight to hear our concerns.
I'm here in opposition to the proposed rent stabilization
ordinance, because the rent cap is too restrictive
and ultimately unsustainable.
For over 20 years, I've managed properties
for small landlords who typically own just one home
or a small multi-unit property.
These are not large corporations.
They keep rents modest and address issues responsibly
as they arise.
I've seen firsthand how extreme rent control pushes owners
to sell, often removing those homes from the rental market
and making the housing shortage worse.
For example, we manage a small multi-unit property
in Berkeley where tenants pay anywhere
from $863 to $2500 for identical units.
With these extreme rent control measures,
tenants paying $863 today will still be paying
under $1000 in 2040, an unsustainable model
that creates huge disparities.
In San Leandro, another small complex saw tenants
unable to pay rent for over a year during COVID
with no way for the owners to recover those losses.
Over six years, rent increased just 3.55%
while PG&E rose 12.4%, water 9.7 and garbage 15.4,
not including taxes or maintenance.
Insurance is requiring a much needed electrical update
and the bid is close to $250,000.
Continuing to place the burden on small landlords
will only worsen the crisis.
People mention generational wealth,
but as these older properties pass down
to the next generation, the property taxes are reset
and their costs increase drastically.
And I've seen those children be forced
to sell those properties
and they leave the rental market.
I encourage you to work with those of us.
Thank you.
Your time has elapsed.
The next three speakers are Evelyn Olevara,
Anthony Adesi, and Jenny Madsen.
Hi everybody, good evening.
My name is Evelyn Olevara, and I am a renter.
I'm a government employee and a union leader
here in the Bay Area.
Been living in San Leandro
will be my 30 year anniversary this year.
I have followed this process from the beginning,
and I'm here to say something simple and important.
I believe in you.
You did not come into public service for comfort or applause.
You came because you understand the leadership
means standing for people, even when the stance is tested
by pressure, money, and threats.
Right now, the pressure is loud.
Lobbyists are skilled at making their interests
sound inevitable.
Resistance feels risky but volume is not authority
and money is not morality.
Legitimacy comes from ethics and powers come from resolve.
You have already shown both.
Every time you stand firm, you strengthen the public's trust.
Every time you refuse intimidation,
you prove that this council answers to the community
and not to fear.
Most of the people relying on your courage aren't in this room.
They don't have lobbyists, they don't make threats.
But they are watching, and they are counting on you all
to hold the line where they cannot.
Pressure fades, integrity lasts.
History doesn't remember who pushed hardest.
It remembers who stood steady.
So continue without fear.
You are not alone.
Your ethics are seen, your resolve matters.
Please stand firm, thank you, good evening.
Thank you, the next three speakers are Anthony Adesi,
Ginny Madsen, and Emily Rich.
Okay, good evening, mayor and city council members.
I actually agree 100% with the previous speaker.
I think that this is a big decision
that is going to affect the way that San Leandro operates
for a very, very long time.
I think the easy thing to do would be to continue
with the second reading and pass this ordinance
in its current form.
I think the hard thing to do,
which a couple of council members were trying to do
last time, would be to stand up and say,
hey, we got this far, but it would be tragic to continue
with the ordinance in its current form.
I see two fatal flaws in this ordinance,
one being the start or the base year of 2025.
This will become a legal and documentation headache
for the city.
What about leases that were renewed
where tenants agreed for another 12 or 24 months rent
to keep their housing stable
and maybe higher than the increase
that would have been allowed in the ordinance?
Who's gonna govern that?
How is that gonna flow through?
What about landlords like myself that replaced a roof,
all new double pane windows and added new safety railing
so the children don't fall through them last year
with an increase that funded that capital improvement.
How is that gonna be maintained?
How are those disputes gonna be governed?
More importantly, when you have such a strong ordinance
put in place, it puts landlords against tenants
instead of working together.
Today, when a shower has a minor leak,
instead of repairing it in the cheapest, most possible way,
replace it because we know if we're operating negatively we can make the
money back if we have to. Good landlords are not the problem here, good tenants
aren't the problem here, but the ordinance in its current form will have
a lasting effect and probably will be the most important thing you guys pass
in your tenure here. So please do the right thing and say let's revisit this
and get it correct. The next three speakers are Jenny
Madsen, Emily Rich and Jimmy Kelly. So I'm back again. You all know that I've
been coming and talking to you about this for well for as long as you've been
on the council in some cases longer than that because I've been talking to Tom
Liao about this since 2014. I'm stunned that people still haven't read the
ordinance they don't know what this ordinance actually covers they don't
know what covers doesn't cover mobile homes I wrote a rather long thing and
put it in the e-comment but I figured it out there is regardless of how many
units a landlord owns the difference in annual rent that they will collect if
the percentage of CPI is taken out of the RSO is truly negligible. There is
simply no reason to amend the rent increase and the rent stabilization
ordinance you passed in January 12th because look part of it is I've been
working on this since 2023 really hard like on a regular basis but part of it
is as I see if you push this down the road any farther it's not going to
happen and I think you all know that. I think you'll lose resolve. I think you'll
lose the sense that you're building something and that would be a mistake
because you are building something. I don't know how to point out to landlords
that they get to deduct all of the operating expenses for managing,
conserving, and maintaining the rental property fully in the year they
are incurred. This includes all of the things that they say are going up. That
the landlords have a great thing and this ordinance is going to allow them to
review and make a request for a fair return on investment which will be
reviewed properly. The next three speakers are Emily Rich, Jimmy Kelly and Craig
Williams. Hi, Emily Rich. Rent control in the US started as emergency wartime
measures in the 1910s and the 1940s to combat profiteering enabled by housing
shortages. These first-generation controls covered roughly 80% of rental
housing, strictly froze rents, and were largely abandoned after World War II due
to housing booms that eased prices. But in the 1970s, inflation and housing
shortages led to a resurgence of rent control
in our major cities.
Experts agree that developers have
failed to create adequate housing for the past five
decades, causing housing costs to rise precipitously.
Given this market failure, many cities
have enacted policies that permit inflation-indexed
increases, allow landlords to reset rents on vacant units,
and permit landlords to apply for exemptions.
In 1995, the California legislature,
persuaded by the landlord lobby, limited
the scope of any rent stabilization in the state.
State rent stabilization ordinances
must exempt any housing built after 1995, single-family homes
and condominiums.
As city staff has pointed out, because of this largess,
only about a quarter of San Leandro's rental housing units
will even be subject to any ordinance the council enacts.
And yet, the landlord lobby claims the sky is falling.
Although many landlords and landlord representatives
claim they love their tenants and do not
raise their rents annually, as staff's presentation showed,
median rents in the area have increased by 82%
in the last 15 years, while CPI has increased only by 44%.
Obviously, somebody has been raising somebody's rent.
Please approve the second reading of the proposed ordinance.
Thank you.
The next three speakers are Jimmy Kelly, Craig Williams,
and Jennifer Rizzo.
Brothers and sisters of the community of the council
and staff, I want to say that in the 20 years since I retired,
the rents had eaten up my income.
I used to be able to pay my rent with just my retirement
from the postal service.
And over the years, I could pay for the food and utilities.
But yet, I did not take my social security right away
because I didn't want to use that money
until I really needed it, and now I do.
But even with social security, I can't make it.
I have to dip into my savings to live here.
The problem is rents are out of control.
This is not rent control.
This is just trying to give us stabilization.
I'm a union member.
I'm a retired letter carrier, a retired teacher.
I also work as a current musician and as a sales rep.
I'll probably work till I die,
but hopefully in the meantime,
I won't have to exhaust my life savings.
When I pay my taxes, I get a renter's check,
big, big, 50 bucks a year.
That's what you get for being a renter.
I don't know if any of you are renters,
but I bet you get bigger deductions on your income tax.
You investors, you'll make your money.
You got Prop 13, you got Contra Costa.
What do we get?
We get 50 bucks.
Yeah, renters.
Your deductions, you get your interest deductions,
you get all kinds of benefits.
Meanwhile, as a tenant, I'm paying off your mortgage.
Now I want to thank the City Council
for the almost unanimous decision with the exception of one.
I hope in the case of Unity that our mayor says he stands for,
he will join the rest of you and support this,
because that's what we need.
We need Unity, we need to respect renters,
and we need representation.
if you want a little bit of kindness, stay with us.
Stay with your guns and support the people,
the renters in this community,
who pay off your landlord's bills.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speakers are Craig Williams,
Jennifer Rizzo, Rob Rich.
Hi, my name is Craig Williams.
I'm a resident and a tenant advocate.
I wanna show the city council this chart.
This is a chart of what happened to housing
after the 2008 recession, the great recession.
Housing starts dropped by 80%.
Construction jobs were down by 2,500,000 jobs.
So that was the first part of the crisis that started.
The second part, which people usually aren't aware of,
is that because of that, there was a lot of collusion
within the industry.
The top builders in the country, 25 years ago,
controlled 30% of housing.
Now they control over 50%.
And the strategy is not to build,
to make more profit by not building.
It's a supply and demand issue.
And so when people talk about,
well, you're gonna have rent control
and it's gonna de-emphasize investment.
Well, in fact, that's not what the builders want.
The builders wanna limit production
in order to maximize profits.
And also the third thing is the tech boom.
with the tech boom, you know, housing prices went up.
Karina Lopez, several occasions said, you know,
we created five times as many jobs as we did housing.
One other point I'd like to make is that, you know,
as homeowners, as it turns out,
we make our wealth is 40 times what renters' wealth is.
So, show a little 10 of the.
Thank you, your time has elapsed.
The next speakers are Jennifer Rizzo,
Rob Ridge, Carol Haber-Cross.
Good evening, my name is Jennifer Rizzo
and I'm with the California Apartment Association.
We respectfully oppose this proposal
to enact additional rent control measures in San Leandro.
The proposed rent control formula of 65% of CPI,
or 3%, whichever's lower is significantly more restrictive
than the existing state law.
At the first reading, several council members
raised concerns about this rent cap formula,
and those concerns are valid.
As we know, rent control has unintended consequences.
When rent caps are set too low, they discourage investment,
reduce maintenance and reinvestment,
and ultimately tighten the housing supply.
that reduce supply, harms residents,
especially the working families and the seniors
by making rental housing harder to find and more expensive.
And there's no evidence that rents in San Leandro
are increasing at a rate that warrants
this level of government intervention.
San Leandro already has a rent review board,
and according to their own annual report,
it received only 28 inquiries,
many of which were just questions and required no follow-up.
There were zero cases, zero hearings,
and the report states, quote,
the city has experienced a decrease in cases
since the adoption of the Assembly Bill 1482,
thus demonstrating that the current state
rent control law is already working here.
The proposed rent control ordinance
also undermines the San Leandro housing goals.
San Leandro fell significantly short of its prior
Rina goals particularly for very low low and moderate income housing and the city's new
housing element emphasizes the preserving of existing housing and incentivizing new
development yet this ordinance undermines these goals precisely when the supply is needed
so we respectfully ask you to vote no on this costly and no time to your time has elapsed
The next three speakers are Rob Rich, Carol Haberkos, and David Stark.
Thank you Mr. Mayor, Ms. Vice Mayor, members of the Council, I'm Rob Rich and I'm lucky
enough to live here in San Leandro.
I'm speaking tonight in support of the rent stabilization ordinance before you.
While I was hoping that the first reading would have passed unanimously, I understand
and respect the concerns.
I am thankful that it passed with only one no vote.
I urge each of you to vote yes on the second reading tonight and then review its impacts
carefully over the next year.
If you decide that there needs to be any tweaks to improve it, please make them at that time.
It has been a long road leading to tonight, yet more work remains, enacting just cause
protections and revisiting our mobile home park rent stabilization ordinance.
I've been reflecting on how we arrived at this moment.
A quarter century ago, the council created what turned out to be a toothless rent review
Board, followed about a decade ago by a tenant relocation ordinance. The majority decided
that was enough. And then a corporate landlord purchased a local mobile home park, jacking
up rents and kicking out long-term low-income residents. An octogenarian, John Bush, decided
enough was enough. He made what John Lewis calls good trouble, initiating a campaign
of non-violent civil disobedience, he was evicted, arrested, and jailed. Along the way,
he inspired many who worked on both this and the mobile home park ordinance, including
folks like Ginny Madsen and Carol Haber-Kross. On this day, I'm thankful for John Bush's
courage, vision, and sacrifice, for the diverse coalition of renters, including mobile home
park renters, community organizations like the Big Tent, and ordinary residents who pushed
this issue forward. I'm thankful for the work of staff. I'm especially thankful
for your leadership. Tonight I'm respectfully requesting that you approve
the second reading of this ordinance. Thank you. The next three speakers are
Carol Haber-Koss, David Stark and Chris Longoria. Good evening City Council, mayor
and staff. Just a very emotional time I think for a lot of us right now as we
are on you know this is going to make or break renters basically. First of all I
want to thank Tom Lau thank Tom Lau he's done so much work he's been there
all the way hard work steadfast support so I really want to thank him for all
the work you've done and I respect all the City Council for your votes and
And thank you for passing the first reading and I'm
I'm expecting everyone to pass also vote for on the second reading
And I respect you all for your diligence and compassion always. I have total respect for you all
So i'm a renter that's not covered by this ordinance
However, I care about this for all the renters in san leandro
That need the stability and fairness of this ordinance. I do believe there would be more renters here
But there is fear of retaliation
And I think that's why a lot of renters are not coming to these meetings
These housing providers want our city council
council not to pass this ordinance
The housing providers want our city to stay with ab 1482 with a cap of 10 rent increases for renters
They think it's okay to raise the rents that high 10%.
What was the increase in social security this year?
2.8%.
What is the minimum wage in San Leandro?
$16.90 an hour.
It's wrong to have this high rent hike that will happen.
The rent stabilization ordinance is reasonable,
necessary, and justified.
It has passed.
Your time has elapsed.
The next three speakers are David Stark, Chris Longoria, and Bill Espinola.
Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of City Council and City staff.
I'm David Stark representing the Bay East Association of Realtors.
Your vote on this ordinance during the January 12th hearing didn't tell the whole story.
It was clear that some council members had and may still have serious concerns about
this ordinance. Example concerns about capping rents at 65% of CPI. Perhaps
after reflecting on it you also have concerns about unintended consequences.
We've been working on this issue for a long time and I understand that you want
to be done with it. However, please be thoughtful. If you know that an ordinance
will be approved and if you know that this ordinance will take effect January
first 20 27, you have time to be thoughtful. You have time to reconsider
the C P I limit. You have time to reconsider a strong and clear exemption
for mom and pop housing providers and a clear exemption for single family homes
and condos.
You have time to identify a legitimate funding mechanism for this ordinance.
You have time to be thoughtful. Please take time to adopt an ordinance that
not only feels good to you but makes sense as well. Thank you. Thank you. The
next three speakers are Chris Longoria, Bill Espinola, and Tuan Ngo. Good
evening Mayor, City Council, Ms. Cameron, Councillor. I would like to acknowledge
the Loni people whose territory of Hawkin we occupy. I am a 40-year resident
and renter of San Leandro. I'm one of thousands of renters here in San Leandro
that are also voters. I urge you to vote yes on the second reading of this
urgently needed rent ordinance. I recently attended the MLK event as well
as a Stephen Taylor dedication. Some of you were in attendance. Gratitude for
showing up. Both events had many renters in attendance. They were there to
support their children who were performing for us, as well as the youth
at San Leandro High Social Justice Academy, who continue to hold it down
for our lovely city. A city where kindness matters. The diversity at both
events really shows the change of our city, the rich culture that now exists.
Our youth are leading us for a better San Leandro as their parents work two
jobs in order to pay the rent. I want to thank you dear relative our dear
relative Jenny Madsen for her dedication to this rental issue for over a dedicated.
gratitude Jenny I Chris urban reslife Longoria along with 53 community members
that I met at both of those events whom are renters and who also are afraid of
retaliation could that would not show up but they are supportive also I have the
support of the California native vote projects they stand in solidarity with
this rent ordinance and an approval of this second reading I urge you to move
forward with in with this ordinance so that we can move forward. The next three
speakers are Bill Espinola, Twan Noh and Mike McGuire. Good evening my name is
Bill Espinola. I'm president of the Bay's Association of Realtors and I'm also a
San Leandro resident. My family's been involved in, lived in San Leandro for
many years. I went to San Leandro High, bank property went through the Halcyon
yes elementary school, been involved in lived in San Leandro for a long time.
I'm also a housing provider, a mom-and-pop housing provider. Before I got
into real estate I was what I was a blue collar worker. I learned I was in the
automotive trades. I was a proud union member 1546. So not all of us housing
providers are what you would say corporate landlords.
Um, last time I was here, I spoke about the 65% CPI. That's, that's not enough. Um, I
know rents are high in San Leandro and in the Bay Area. Um, it's, we live in a high
cost area. Um, cost of maintenance is expensive. Um, as a housing provider, I know what it
cost to replace a roof. I know what it costs to be have my insurance canceled
very expensive and having to go find new insurance. Our housing stock here in
San Leandro 40s and 50s high maintenance I mean it's just the way it
is. I would urge you to vote this ordinance down. Let's come back with a
the more balanced ordinance.
Something that works for the mom and pops as well.
So I think we could do better.
I hope you guys will consider that.
Again, the CPI, I feel is just not enough
to keep our properties properly maintained.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next three speakers are Michael.
I'm sorry, Twon, no, Mike McGuire and Lawrence Abbott.
I have been working with the community over public safety,
housing, a number of issues, locally and also countywide.
And I've talked to hundreds of regular working immigrants,
a lot of blue collars, a lot of Asians
who are fearful, retaliation,
and don't wanna appear in a public space
in front of government officials.
But consistently, the people who immigrated here
to provide, many of them provide housing,
and I organize them doing the eviction moratorium
to appear with you by the hundreds and across the county.
They, many of them, do not speak English,
yet they provide housing.
They don't own the homes.
What they do is they save up borrow from their family
for a down payment, and that allowed them
to make a monthly mortgage and provide labor
that go into the essential service of housing.
They're fixing plumbing, one leaky pipe at a time.
They're in crawl spaces, fixing and troubleshooting
electrical wiring on when it's raining,
they're out on the roof.
They make sacrifices every weekend,
long hour days during weekdays
when there's a plumbing stoppage, they are there to fix it.
That's why they have equity because it's wet labor
on weekends, on weekdays from people who don't speak English.
And when you did the eviction moratorium,
it was labor theft.
When you pass extreme policy, it is labor theft.
They cannot keep up with inflation.
65% of inflation means every year,
35% below inflation in perpetuity,
when you know drywall went up
and plywood went up 300% during the pandemic,
and insurance went up 100%,
yet you decide to pass something so extreme
that it takes away labor
from the working class, the middle class.
Thank you, your time has elapsed.
The next three speakers are Michael McGuire,
Lawrence Abbott, and Kay Lee Figueroa.
I think immigrants get ripped off by landlords a lot more
than immigrant landlords get ripped off by anybody.
Well, you're a fucking, excuse me.
You're right, of course.
Okay, no, no, no, everybody stop, everybody stop.
You're a landlord.
Everybody stop.
So it's gotten a little bit chippy in here, right?
A little bit of, I hear some chortling on one side
and some snappy back on the other side
and we need to keep it professional.
Okay, so consider this our first warning.
Let's start with you at two minutes.
So let's get you started again
so you can get your cadence and all of that.
Immigrants read two, they don't only own.
And I'd say what we're seeing here tonight
is let's come up with any possible excuse
to stall this bill that we've been working on for two years.
Let's pretend we cannot operate a pocket calculator
and figure out what 65% of the CPI is.
I could show anyone how to do that
if it's really a problem.
It's that people can calculate rent increases just fine.
You know, they just, when there's a limit on it,
is where their calculator seems to break.
A little bit of math here.
The 65% figure comes from the percent of the CPI
that does not already count housing.
You don't want to double count it.
You don't want to count the rent increase that just,
the housing increase that just happened
when you figure out how much it can go up next year
as a percent of that, be double counting.
if you did that.
That said, if you want to pick a round number,
I'm fine with it.
But the 65% is not a mysterious number.
It's the non-housing part of the CPI.
There is a claim that our rent control is extreme.
People who don't want something reasonable to pass,
something that just lets people plan their lives
like normal people, say, oh my god,
it's extreme if you limit anybody anyway in what they
would like to do otherwise.
In just a second here, what we're trying to do
is have rents go up at about the same rate
as the retiree social security does.
That hardly strikes me as extreme.
Extreme would be rolling back rents
to where they were before all those rents got jacked up
just before the pandemic.
And windfall profits were made by landlords.
And it would be putting the people evicted then
who were current in their rent,
but landlords just wanted more back in their apartments.
We are not doing anything extreme.
We are just trying to keep things steady with inflation.
Thank you, your time is up.
The next three speakers are Lawrence Abbott,
Kay Lee Figueroa, and Kathleen Parsons.
Thank you so much.
I wanna say that so many people have already said
exactly what I wanna say, so I won't repeat it.
But of course you know that I'm for this rent stabilization.
The one thing that I didn't say is to really thank staff.
I know staff worked really hard on this.
And this will make a huge difference.
Appreciate you all so much.
Thanks.
Thank you.
The next three speakers are Kay Lee Figaro, Kathleen Parsons,
and Vanessa.
Boy, I had no way to start here.
I will start off though with one of my own personal stories, okay?
Let's look at the last 10 years.
In the last 10 years, my rent has gone up $600.
In the last 10 years, my Social Security minus my Medicare Part B expenses came to $49, okay?
How am I supposed to keep up with these outrageous rent increases?
I didn't also have a pension, I would be homeless because I could not afford the rent with just
one or just the other. It's the equivalent of having two jobs and even though I'm not
working, these landlords and I sent an email to the city, people have said this many times
this evening. They get all kinds of tax write-offs. You will see they even get double dipping
tax write-offs. Where? Even if they get tax write-offs for their utilities and they pass
the costs of that along to the tenants, they get both. What do I get? The state gives me
a lousy $35 at the end of the year for being a tenant. I mean, you know, what? I could
go to Starbucks with that money,
I mean, and then these landlords are talking about,
oh, you know, what they wanna do
is then criticize the amount of money for a rent registry,
but yet they're all willing to spend a ton of money
to have recalls on council members
that are maybe not enough in their pockets.
Thank you. The next three speakers are Kathleen Parsons, Vanessa and Tyler Gonzalez.
Hi, I'm kind of in the same situation as the last speaker. Last week I got my third
annual increase of rent which was the maximum of approximately 7.8 percent. If
I get the one next year, which I assume I will, I will now be spending my entire
social security check on my rent. Luckily I have a small pension from UC, however
Medicaid costs went up, not Medicaid, Medicare costs went up this month, this
year and that ate up all but thirty dollars in the 2.8 percent that they
gave us. My insurance premiums went up a hundred and fifty percent for my
Medicare Advantage plan. It's still very low cost because I have it through the
University of California retirees, but it still went up 150 percent. In March, I'm
facing the increase that PG&E is going to put on everyone because they're now
separating the cost of the electricity used and the cost of generating that
electricity. And because I use very little electricity, I'm going to end up
paying $20 to $24 more, which is what they're going to charge everybody for
the generation cost. After hearing some of the speakers tonight I think what I
have decided is that I'm not welcoming San Leandro anymore because I don't own
property and I don't have a family and I think that it's probably time for me to
move despite the fact that I've moved here lived here since 2009 when I moved
down here from Oakland to take care of my mother and I'm just kind of sad.
Thank you. The next two speakers are Vanessa and Tyler Gonzalez. If you can
move to the side but I'm like thank you. So I'm not a landlord, I'm actually a
resident of San Leandro, gosh for over 20 years so I come here to speak on
behalf of those residents. I cannot be here because we work really hard and
We have to come home late to pay for, you know, for our kids and
This program, you know will require a loan from our general fund that we simply cannot afford. I
Urge it tonight not to pass the rent civilization ordinance instead
I moved at the council table this proposal for at least the next year
Your first moral obligation is to the financial stability of San Leandro
And as it turns out, you cannot provide safe neighborhoods or paved streets with moral
stances that ignored the hard math.
It's an abdication of your primary duty, which is budget responsibility.
The city is currently facing a multimillion-dollar deficit in committing to a general fund loan,
which is what the council is planning to use to start this program.
It's a violation of your duty to maintain fiscal stability until the deficit is closed.
I therefore ask that the next year,
you first prioritize an in-depth fiscal impact report
that specifically analyzes the risk to the general fund
if the fee revenue proposed under performs.
Second, provide an economic study of the impact
that this rapid change will have on the deterioration
of available rental housing
that could potentially create slum conditions
caused by the low caps.
I formal request that the council direct the city manager
to provide a sustainable forecast
before approving new departments,
given that the current data is insufficient
to prove the program won't drain emergency services.
And the city has not met the burden of proof required
to justify a more restrictive local ordinance
when the existing administrative remedies
rent review. Thank you.
Your time has elapsed.
The next speaker is Tyler Gonzalez.
Good evening, Mayor Gonzales and council members.
I wanted to thank you guys for your time,
as well as the housing providers.
My name is Tyler Gonzales
and I'm a San Leandro resident and a former tenant.
I am standing here tonight to urge a no vote
on this ordinance because it has shifted
from a balanced proposal to one
that is mathematically unfeasible.
If we look at the initial draft from July 2025,
the city originally proposed a flat 5% annual cap
and a program where capital improvements
allowed a pass-through to tenants.
That original ordinance recognized
that owners need a predictable 5%
to keep up with inflation and a way to recover the cost,
to keep up with inflation and major repairs.
But tonight, you've replaced that with a major cap
as low as 0.9%.
and no pathways at all.
When the cost of concrete, lumber, and labor is rising
at 5% or 10%, an $18 rent increase
won't even cover a basic service call.
This creates a dangerous economic reality.
The longer a tenant stays, the less a provider
can afford to invest in that unit,
because now that you have banned banking unused increases
and eliminated the cost recovery
that was in the first draft,
The only path to a financial survival is a vacancy.
Why would you pass a law that makes a long-term tenant
a financial liability?
You are creating a deferred maintenance mandate
where the math works better to let a unit decay
until it's vacant, so the rent can finally
be reset to market rent.
By moving away from the 5% or 65% of CPI or 3%
and repair pastures and original drafts,
you are ensuring that our aging apartments
becomes the slums of tomorrow.
Please protect the quality of our housing
by rejecting this unsustainable proposal.
Please vote no.
Thank you.
This concludes our speaker cards in the room, Mayor.
So we will close public comment,
then we'll come back to council members
for any clarifying questions or is there any discussion?
I'll just start there.
Is there any discussion,
anything that folks would like to speak about?
So there will be no discussion.
Is that what I'm hearing?
Okay, we'll go to Council Member Aguilar.
Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez,
and thank you staff for working on this
and all the time that you put in
and for the folks to come out
and speak so passionately for and against.
I just wanna, my question is for the city attorney.
And I think my, with regards to our last meeting,
the first reading, there was a question asked
whether or not if CPI was removed
from the reading, the first reading,
that we would have to go back to a first reading.
Was that true?
City Attorney.
Thank you, Mayor.
Yes, under state law,
if the ordinance on the first reading is altered,
then it cannot continue into a second reading
and has to come back for a new first reading.
Okay, thank you.
That's my question.
Thank you.
Any other questions or comments?
OK, so by tradition, the mayor always goes last.
I promised you that I would explain
why I'm opposing what we have here today,
and I'm going to do that.
So first, thanks to everyone who's
come out and talked about the concerns that they have.
I have proposed through time various ways
that I think could address the challenges that we face.
In particular, I've looked for income testing as a method.
I've also discussed with a city attorney and with council
how we might be able to address the specific condition
that seniors face.
And big picture without going into the detailed advice,
it's you can't and you can't.
So without, you know, when I see it in other cities
where I see housing projects that are dedicated
to certain groups of certain ages,
when I see housing that's dedicated
to certain sexual orientation.
I wonder how it is that we cannot design
a process that does address protected groups like seniors.
But that's neither here nor there
because today that's not the choice in front of us.
The second thing is that I ran for mayor
on a promise of balance.
I was very clear, and if voters don't want that,
if the landlords are unhappy with me
or if the renters are unhappy with me, that's fine.
You know, I won't be mayor,
but I ran on a platform of balance.
The state has a 10% cap,
and as I listened to the different arguments
and saw the evolution,
I remained focused on trying to find a solution
that didn't rely on the state.
And in fact, I proposed a 50% cut
on what operates in the state of California.
And as I'll talk about at the end of this,
that was actually supported
by some of our most progressive individuals in the city.
And so it's interesting to see
how this discussion has changed through time.
I have heard that housing supply or housing rents, et cetera,
the housing market doesn't comport to economics.
There have been a number of public speakers
who have come here and said that,
and I simply disagree with that.
Extensive studies in economics,
all of my training, all of my life experience
says that initially, you might be able to fool the system,
but through time, the basics of supply and demand
always work. At the U.S. Mayor's Conference this last week we spoke
specifically about the primary cause of housing challenges in the United States
and it's all about supply. Knowing that from the very beginning I was very
supportive of San Leandro's efforts to become a pro housing city by designation.
I've been highly supportive of housing but I also recognize the need to
compromise and that in the long run what we need is we need more housing in the
city of San Leandro. We don't need to create economic uncertainty for
potential investors in our city that you know are we a pro-business city or not a
pro-business city and so it's very important to me that we come across with
a balanced piece of legislation that will not be characterized as extreme.
Lack of data. So we've had a number of public speakers today and in the past
that support this legislation who have said we lack data and that's why we need
to do this but for me it's just the opposite and that's specifically why I
proposed and council approved a rent registry so that we can get the data on
which groups are experiencing what rent increases. One of the things that I've
heard over and over and over and over is that primarily for existing tenants that
are paying their rent, landlords endeavor to specifically keep those rents highly moderated
in terms of the rent increase.
As a young economist back in Boston, I didn't understand that because I thought, well, it's
all about profit maximization, but what I heard from a landlady was very simple.
A good tenant that pays rent is far more valuable than a new tenant that may or may not pay
rent. And so having access to the data that tells us what it is that the rent
increases our four existing tenants, that's really important and that's why I
led with that proposal. We then came to this this concept. We had many people
tell us, well it's all about evictions, that when people don't pay their rent
they're going to get evicted. Well that's the primary cause. It's not because the
rent is too high. The evictions in Alameda County Superior Court are driven by
non-payment of rent. Not your $20 short, your $50 short, your $100 short, it's
non-payment of rent. And that was exacerbated by the eviction moratorium.
I'm gonna continue and wrap up because I saved my time from last time. As I
promised, there is not a connection. We have not seen the data that shows a
connection between the rent increases, the rents in San Leandro, and that as a
a cause for homelessness. So I can't agree with what the language is in the
resolution. Based on my experience in the point in time count a while back and my
point in time experience this time I do not believe that it is the rents in San
Leandro that are causing homelessness. There are many other causes and we need
to address those but it is not the rents that are being charged. In the end this
does not increase housing supply that's what will lower rents. Berkeley
experiences as they've built new housing that new housing has been expensive it's
been nice certain groups of people have moved into that housing decreasing the
demand for the older housing stock and that has moderated rents in Berkeley so
housing supply does work. I am concerned that this is a taking that this is a
regulatory taking it is so extreme in nature that flat out I view that as a
real legal risk and my job is as a fiduciary I need to be mindful of that
risk to the city why do I think that it's extreme I called it extreme last
time why do I think that it's extreme I think that any any regulation that says
you can't even charge inflationary increases, you can't help out tenants by
not increasing their rent this year, just do it next year and take that extra
and apply it to next year as you help them out with a difficult time right now
in the absence of banking. No capital pass through, you have to go to a hearing
and you have to have someone who's not involved in the industry potentially make a determination
whether what you're doing is reasonable.
Those sorts of things are very difficult, particularly in a world where we don't really
define fair return other than to say, if you have a profit and loss statement and you're
making a profit, we're going to assume that that's a fair rate of return.
Even if by objective evidence that's not the case.
And the other thing that I find I guess most compelling or disturbing, I don't know what
to call it, is that a number of advocates have before identified that something like
a 5 percent was quite reasonable.
I heard let's do 3 percent plus inflation from a tenant advocate.
We also had an email from a tenant advocate who literally wrote to us 5% is reasonable
because we have cost pass-throughs.
That's why it's reasonable.
But what's happened here is that as the number of votes for extreme rent control have increased,
then the position of the advocates has changed.
And so the same people who said that 5% was reasonable
then say, oh, guess what?
It's not reasonable.
That's political power.
And that doesn't bother me.
That's the reality if people have different opinions.
But what I want to be clear about
is that that's not based on data.
It's not based on an analysis.
It's based on what's the lowest number that we
can get with the most votes.
And so with that, I struggle because I
that what I proposed initially was a good compromise, it lowered the state cap
by 50%, it actually increased the visibility to data by implementing a
rent registry so that we can make an informed choice. The current approach
costs us millions of dollars, millions of dollars. What the City Council voted
in its priority session was to give teeth, the most number of votes, was to
give teeth to the rent registry. If we had just given teeth to that rent
registry to make it binding and impose a 5% cap, we could do that this a lot more
inexpensively and get the data to see if we need to make further adjustments. So
That's why I'm opposing this tonight.
Councilwoman Bowen.
I apologize for going after you.
I realized that I had made a commitment
to some constituents to share some of their perspective
that I wanted to get across.
And I recognize that my colleagues on this council,
we have been having this conversation for a very long time.
I really want to call out Council Member Renes,
Selena Renes, I remember we spoke in depth about this
when she first got on the council as a passion of hers
and how we could work together to try to further this.
And this was the first meeting I sat on on rules
was to discuss this ordinance
that had been sitting in rules for some time.
And then I recognized that this has been a long time coming
and this decision is hard for everybody
as I think all decisions that we make on this council
because we are really making decisions about trade offs
of how the things that we pass as policy affect human lives.
And what I want to share that I told a resident
that I want to share,
he's a housing provider in San Leandro,
a small housing provider.
And he just wanted to say, you know,
sometimes in this process,
and I recognize Tamil for, you know,
the outreach ed staff that they've done on this
for a long time, but there is a real feeling
whether or not it's when people join another conversation,
but that it can feel adversarial on both sides.
And just to recognize that the humanity and all
of the parties involved, people own the homes
that others are renting.
And people are renting the homes that others own.
And it's really basic.
But I think that that's a really important piece of it.
And so the only other thing I will say about this
is the two things that I had asked for throughout our Rules
Committee meetings and at the last meeting.
But the implementation piece is really important,
and the outreach and education piece is really important.
So for all of the impacted stakeholders,
we've talked over the last two years about many of examples
from Berkeley to Long Beach to Hollywood about ways
that they educate and provide information to both landlords
and to renters.
And then the second piece of that,
and obviously to do with language as well,
because we do have such a diverse population,
but also that second piece about the ordinance
coming back after a year of implementation
to understand whether or not it is effective
and what some of the consequences
or impacts are intended or not.
And then I know staff had mentioned
that it's already embedded into the ordinance,
but I do, I will send over some measurables
that are included in the ordinance
that I wanna make sure that we get data on afterwards
so that we can make, ensure that this policy is effective
and address as many of the concerns that people do have.
Council member Boldt.
I'd like to move this item.
And Council member Regulier.
I'll second.
Okay.
Seeing no further discussion, please vote.
All votes are in.
The motion passes with six yeses and one no.
Mayor Gonzalez voting no.
At this point, we'll move to item 10B.
And we've got Chief Information Technology Officer Michael
Siner to introduce the item.
OK, given the length of the presentation,
why don't we take our break right now.
We're at the two hour mark, then we will come back.
So we will take a break for 10 minutes.
So in about a minute, we are going to proceed.
If we can take the discussions outside,
we will continue with our business here in one minute.
Thank you.
Okay, we are coming out of recess,
and we're going to continue with item 10B.
We've got presentation
by Chief Information Technology Officer, Michael Seiner.
Tonight's update I'll be providing is on Project Elevate.
This is the city's multi-year effort
to modernize our core internal systems.
These are systems that support payroll, human resources,
finance, budgeting, and reporting
across all city departments.
You might have also heard us refer to this project
as Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP,
We also call it the Workday Project sometimes
because Workday is our main software vendor.
Here's how I'll walk through tonight's update.
I'll start with the goals of Project Elevate
and why this investment is needed.
Then I'll talk about what the community can expect,
who's doing the work, where we are today
and briefly touch on budget
and a consultant amendment at the end.
And then I'll close with how we are managing
this project overall.
note on the consultant amendment. I'll start out just so everybody knows we're
not asking for any funding related to that additional funding it's within the
overall project budget. Okay so project elevate goals. Three simple goals
modernize, improve, and strengthen. We're modernizing the systems that support city
operations. We're improving accuracy, reliability, and data quality and
ultimately we're strengthening the foundation that supports services to
the community. These systems may be at times invisible to residents in the
community but they directly influence how reliable city operations are and how
efficiently staff can respond to community needs. So why is this
investment needed? The city's core internal systems were implemented
over 20 years ago. They were designed for a very different time. When paper forms,
manual approvals and disconnected systems were common. Over time, vendor
support has become limited and staff have had to rely more and more on
manual workarounds to keep things running. That increases staff
efforts, staff time, and operational risk as well. In addition, limited integration
between HR, payroll, and finance constraints reporting, analysis, and the
city's ability to adapt. This investment's about addressing those
underlying challenges before they turn into major service issues. So what is the
city investing in? In response, the city is investing in a modern integrated ERP
platform. This platform brings HR, payroll and finance together into a single
connected system, allowing for a standardized process aligned with best
practices. It also includes significant improvements in data and
and reporting.
So we're not just replacing software,
we're redesigning how work is done.
So what can the community and staff expect today?
Expectations have changed significantly
over the last decade in 2026.
Today's workforce and community expect routine tasks
to be completed digitally, not through paper forms,
mail or manual follow-ups.
For example, employees expect to change direct deposit
information online, instead of filling out paper forms.
And many workflows are expected to be handled
on mobile devices as well.
These efficiencies benefit the entire community
through stronger service capacity,
better use of staff time,
and improved transparency in reporting.
So this slide has a lot, it's our city project team.
This doesn't really represent everybody
who's working on the project.
Highlights leadership and accountability.
Lot of people involved beyond this even.
So at the executive level,
Assistant City Manager Michael Ewan
serves as our project sponsor.
He helps ensure alignment with city priorities
and supporting timely decisions,
especially when trade-offs or escalations are needed.
Our human resources and finance directors are the primary business owners of this system.
They define the requirements, lead key functional decisions, and are accountable for ensuring
that the solution supports city operations.
From an IT and delivery standpoint, CTO, myself, and our project manager, Reggie John, and
the project management team, coordinate overall program across the systems, also across vendors,
the technical dependencies including integrations, data conversion, and
security. Change management and training leadership, that group focuses on
preparing staff, supporting adoption, and making sure people are ready to work in
the new system, not just on day one but throughout the lifetime of the system.
It's also important to note this project includes dedicated full-time staff
assigned to the program as well as many additional SMEs or subject matter
experts that contribute. So that's the city side. We also have a very robust
partner project team. So we're supported by several partners each with a very
clearly defined role. Workday is the software provider. Cognizant is the
primary implementation consultant. Barry Dunn is a consultant that has been
with us since the early days of this project in 2021. We'll talk about them
with the amendment at the end, but they provide independent project oversight,
risk management, and change management support. Their role is to help City
validate progress, surface issues early, and maintain alignment across all parties.
We also have Robert Half supporting staff needs where specialized expertise
or additional capacity is required, and cognitive, not to be confused with
Cognizant. They provide specialized help on payroll. CanAm is another software
provider that's related to cashiering and payments and finally this
multi-partner approach reflects the scale and complexity of the
program, allows the city to bring in the right expertise at the right time. Okay
I'm gonna go through a few slides on a roadmap. One slide how we got here and
and then the next where we're going.
This project, the key to this side,
this project did not start with implementation.
It begins several years ago
with needs assessment and planning,
followed by a formal RFP vendor selection
and contract negotiations.
Implementation began in October, 2024
after all of the initial groundwork was completed.
And since then, the focus has been on planning,
design, configuration, and testing.
So where we're headed, looking forward,
2026 is focused on continued testing.
The continued testing is taking place
with the human resources,
human capital management and payroll.
We're also working on finance configurations
and then moving into testing for the finance pieces
and then training and readiness.
Based on what we know today,
the project is trending toward a July,
2026 citywide operational transition.
We use that word operational transition.
Sometimes we say go live,
but operational transition is a phrase that
kind of insinuates that the work does not end at go live.
This is a continual improvement process,
but we will be using this system for a long time
and so the work isn't gonna end at Go Live.
We are on target for this execution
against that July 2026 date.
The roadmap is designed to ensure
a stable citywide transition with HR payroll
and core financial operations already at Go Live.
Next slide is a little bit of a deeper dive
into our current status.
This shows three things.
What's largely complete, what we are actively working on,
and what comes next.
We're, because the natural question right now at this time
is, you know, how far along are we really?
And you know, especially with items
that are still in progress.
So for HR and payroll, foundational configuration
is largely complete, and most testing is complete.
It's a big step, payroll being the most complicated,
complex aspect of any government ERP solution.
So, and payroll is the primary remaining
functional area for testing.
We're in what's called parallel payroll testing right now,
where we test payroll in parallel with our existing system.
We're using real data to validate real world scenarios
and pain roll is actually in those final stages of testing
as we work towards full accuracy.
And just a note on payroll, it's one of those areas
where their accuracy approaching 100% is needed.
Committing to 100% accuracy on anything
is a difficult thing to do,
But the way we like to explain it is we
need to approach 100% accuracy with payroll, which
is different than any other technology system.
That kind of accuracy usually isn't needed.
You can go live with 95% and then perfect over time.
It's a reasonable solution with a lot of technology,
not with payroll.
So for finance, configuration and design
are actively underway, progressing
as expected for this phase.
This work is moving through what we call structured confirmation
sessions and validation checkpoints.
So overall, based on the milestones completed
and testing currently underway, the project
is tracking in line where we want to be,
where we expect to be at this point in the schedule.
Having said that, July remains the target.
There are four watch items that we came up
with that still could affect timing.
So those things that we're paying very close attention
to are payroll testing, finishing,
and achieving the accuracy we're looking for.
Financial testing, so we'll be moving out
of confirmation systems into unit testing
and end-it-end testing for finance.
And then resource capacity and potential
for operational disruptions are all things
that we worry about with a project like this
to try to keep it on track.
These are all tracked regularly and managed
through to testing and readiness plan.
This slide shows some highlights
of our change management and training tasks.
Shows our Elevate Central, which is opened in August 2025.
This is our, we're very proud of our space.
It's been very nice.
The team loves it.
It's great for training, change management.
It's a big bonus to have a space
where everybody can work and collaborate
and train together.
On the right you can see our departmental champions
doing user experience training in December.
These are champions are beyond the original project team.
In each department we have champions
that are helping with the project
and promoting the project as well.
And then there's a little picture
of our Project Elevate Intranet site or SharePoint site.
Upcoming activities, we have in-person and teams training.
We're developing training videos and job aids.
And one thing to note about our Elevate Central.
We are going to staff that for the Go Live
or operational transition.
So it will be a place where everybody can come.
All right, running a little bit behind.
I'll speed it up here.
Project budget, all the work we've
been assessing, configuration, design, testing, training,
change management, and transition
requires discipline, planning, and funding.
This slide shows the total budget, council approved,
and how we're tracking across software implementation
services, consulting, training, and other project costs.
Second table shows actual city staff labor costs
for 24, 25, 26.
We include this for transparency
because this is a big internal effort
across HR, finance, IT, and other departments,
so it's a real part of the cost here.
Key takeaway is that we remain
within the approved multi-year budget
and have sufficient capacity to complete the remaining work
and support the transition to operation.
One important clarification, when you see remaining balances,
work's not ending in July, some of the things,
that's just the operational transition point.
Software subscriptions extend beyond that
and are covered in the project budget for 2027 as well.
All right, coming out of budget view,
the practical takeaway is that we still have
meaningful funding to finish the work
with approximately 3.3 million remaining.
We can maintain continuity through GlowLive
and the stabilization period.
That remaining capacity is intentional
and supports final testing cycles, readiness activities,
post-go live activities, and the oversight needed
to make testing-driven decisions
as we approach the transition.
So next steps.
The action before Council tonight is to approve
an amendment to the Barry Dunn contract
in the amount of 98,800.
It extends support through December 31st, 2026,
covering Go Live and post-Go Live activities,
and it's fully funded from the ERP budget
already approved by Council,
and no additional appropriation is requested.
Just a couple notes on Barry Dunan and their role.
We're working off an original contract with them from 2021.
They started as an advisory partner
when we first started investigating this,
and then we used them to support,
They did a great job on our ERP planning,
our P-development, vendor selection,
and contract negotiations.
And they're currently providing independent oversight
on the tail end of that contract from four years ago.
And this amendment is to keep them going
through the go live and beyond.
And with that, I'll answer any questions.
So thank you for your presentation.
I had to use the word presentation
without focusing on action items.
So just to clarify, in case there's any confusion,
this is an action item.
So we'll proceed to questions first,
then we'll take public comment.
Councilmember Aguilar.
Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.
Thank you, Michael, for the great presentation.
I know that's something that we've been
advocating for for a while.
I don't have any other comment,
but I'd like to move item 10B.
Okay, we'll get to that in just a little bit.
Any other questions at this time?
Seeing none, let's take, okay council member Bolt.
Yes, when you said moving towards 100%,
is there a threshold that you say okay,
we're good moving towards 100% or is it strictly just,
I understand the concept like you can never be 100%
and that would be really hard,
but I also do struggle with the vague moving toward,
you could be at 70 and now you're at 72,
hey, we're moving towards 100%.
Yeah, 72 is not going to work.
Not good, okay.
That's a start.
When we're talking about moving towards 100%,
we're talking in the 99s, you know.
Fair enough.
I figured that much, but I needed to ask.
Yeah, if we have a handful of errors
that we have to correct in payroll,
it's very difficult to implement any kind of solution
without dealing with one error.
But if we have to deal with a handful,
that may be something that we have to deal with,
but we don't want dozens of errors.
At this point in time we'll take public comment
on this item.
Mayor, we have not received any comment cards
and there are no hands raised online.
So we'll close public comment.
Any further discussion?
Council Member Acevedo please.
Yes, I would like to second 10 B.
Okay, so we've got a, I will accept the prior motion.
Council Member Aguilar with a second Council Member Resavito. Seeing no for
the discussion please vote. All votes are in. The motion passes unanimously. So
moving to item 10c. This is to adopt a resolution to call for a special
municipal election in June of this year with respect to the district-based
elections that we have talked about before. Acting City Clerk Sarah Bunting,
Madam Clerk will present here for a few minutes. Thank You mayor. My name is
Sarah blending acting city clerk for the city of San Leandro. The item before you
this evening calls for a special municipal election to place a measure on
the ballot in June 2026. The item implements prior city council direction
from 2025 to transition to district-based elections for council members
through a voter approved charter amendment. The resolution before you
this evening accomplishes several items. It calls for the special election for
the purpose of submitting the proposed charter amendment to the voters. It
requests the Alameda County services to consolidate and conduct the election. It
provides the ballot measure question and the city attorney's impartial analysis
and it establishes the procedures and timelines for submitting written
arguments in support of or opposition to the measure, including authorizing the
mayor or the vice mayor or other council members to draft arguments. Following
adoption of the resolution, information about submitting measure arguments will
be posted on the city's website. There are sufficient funds budgeted for the
special election which we anticipate will be approximately $500,000. If approved
by the voters this change will update the city charter so that the November
2026 election is the first with the new voting system in place. And with that I
am happy to answer any questions. Okay having had lots of discussion on this
before. I'm actually going to take public comment on this item first.
Mayor, we've not received any comment cards. There's one hand raised on Zoom.
Please proceed online. The first speaker is Douglas Spalding.
Thanks, Eric Clark. Thank you for your presentation. I'm so happy to see this coming forward. And
And I hope that it's approved and goes to election in June and that we are able to have
our first district elections in a very long time, if ever, in November.
It is a matter of state law.
It is a matter of equity.
I know there's, you know, the romantic feeling some have for our kind of our form of government
where you represent a district, but you're elected by all the members and whatnot.
And I think that San Leandro will continue to have that character.
I believe even though these will be district elections that the council people that we
elect in the future will continue to represent the city as a whole.
I'm not at all worried about beefdoms or people, you know, gangpiling or, you know, stacking
up against the poor district over here or over there.
So bathing in the good feelings of item 10A, I hope that you will also pass this item 10C.
Thank you very much.
And thanks to Robert Boulatau for making it happen.
Bye.
Thank you.
Mayor, there are no further hands raised online.
So let's pull a comment.
Hi.
Councilman Brezzavita, please.
I would like to move item 10C to adopt the resolution to call for a special municipal
election to be held June 2nd, 2026 for submitting to the voters a proposed charter amendment
measure.
And do we have a second councilman Breguillet?
Thank you Mayor Gonzalez I would second.
Okay I've got a motion and a second is there any further discussion seeing none please
vote.
All votes are in the motion carries unanimously.
moving to item 11 we had any submissions yes okay city manager good evening mayor
council members yes we have had two submissions from councilmember Simon that
he would like to share I have to the first submission is I believe that we
have a major flaw in our ethics and our discipline policies ethics standards are
principles and values that guide moral behavior,
defining what is considered right or wrong conduct
for individuals and organizations
provoking integrity, fairness and trust.
I do have a concern and I would like to add this
to the 3-7-26 council retreat
that would prohibit the accuser from voting on the accused
in the ethics and discipline policies.
The accuser should not judge the accused.
That's a fundamental tenant of justice.
That is a fair trial requires an impartial judge and jury
free from personal bias or stake in the income
to ensure evidence is weighed objectively.
That's my first item.
My second item is first I'd like to give a shout out
to staff on their excellent job
on the Stephen Taver Sanctity of Life Pavilion.
It's very beautiful work that they've done,
especially with the limited budget that they had.
There was a lot of planning and community outreach
that happened up front that took away quite a bit of budget.
So there were a few things that were left out.
So I'd like to propose some enhancements
to the Stephen Taylor Sanctity of Life Pavilion
and would like to add this
to the 3-7-26 Council Retreat.
That would include stage street art,
which would be essentially painted on the stage
where the Justice for Stephen Taylor
and San Leandro High School Group
does many of their events.
And there's some similar art that's
at the Albany Bowl in Albany.
And there's local artists that do this.
It's really beautiful art that recognize people
that have lost their lives, not just Stephen Taylor.
But there's even three San Leandro High School students
that I understand have lost their life in the past 10 years.
So there's others that we need to recognize in our community.
And I think that would be a beautiful way
to recognize them and cost effective
from the actual construction.
not construct the painting would be cost effective but there would be some
staff time of course I would like for us to consider that as well as some
signage additional signage to describe a bit more about the life of Steven
Taylor what the city has went through what we've accomplished to make our
city a better place those are my two thank you thank you that would be it
okay so we'll move to item number 12 City Council reports calendar and
we're going to take a look at
the last plan in the city of
mansion.
And announcements.
Please proceed.
Please proceed.
I didn't submit an item but I
didn't submit an item but I
didn't submit an item but I
didn't submit an item but I was
wondering what is the last day
to
wondering what is the last day
to submit items for
consideration for the March
planning
consideration for the March
planning
retrieved.
retrieved.
Is that city manager.
Is that city manager.
Thank you.
Thank you mayor.
Yes, councilmember, I was
Yes, councilmember, I was
actually working on my e-mail
actually working on my e-mail
to all of you today.
to all of you today.
The last day would be February
The last day would be February
before the packet for February 7th,
I'm sorry, for the March 7th retreat goes out.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, item number 12.
Council member Bowen.
Thank you, mayor.
I just wanted to flag,
I know staff has been in communication with Stop Waste.
At our last meeting on January 28th,
we had another presentation
on a proposed regulatory fee that would add
for a single family who owned 30 cents per account per month,
so less than $40 a month.
Multifamily would be $1.10, commercial would be $1.10,
and debris boxes would be 25 cents per cubic yard
from call collection, and this is just to cover
some of the regulatory work that StopWaste has to do.
It was passed by the board and will be on second reading
consent for our next meeting,
but I know that a stopways is gonna work
to ensure education and outreach around the fee
and the presentation is very thorough
and I'm happy to share that with the rest of the council
so that they know because it will be an additional cost,
albeit a smaller cost,
but still something that is going to impact families
or homes and businesses.
Secondly, I attended the Cal City's
community services policy committee meeting.
I was appointed to the committee,
the policy committee by the Cal City's president
and I've been wanting to go on that policy committee
for a long time and we actually had a really robust
conversation about the work planned for the year
and the policy work that Cal Cities wants to do.
And I just want to share that the focus is on childcare,
youth and family services,
parks and rec and senior services.
And one of the interesting things
that we actually ended up doing
because housing and homelessness
is so much part of all of the work
around community services.
We actually removed it as a priority
and then embedded it underneath each of the other areas
so that you were working with
to refocus some of the policy work on areas
that were not often uplifted,
but to also still include housing and homelessness.
The last thing, or the other thing I wanted to share
is that the president of the National League of Cities,
I just received an email,
did appoint me to the Human Development Committee,
so along the same lines, community services,
and I'll attend that first meeting next month.
And then I think at the end of last meeting,
I had, and really appreciate,
and I don't know if it was, or something already,
the mayor had been meaning to do,
but obviously recognizing
Rene Good and what happened.
And it's so sad that since that meeting,
we have yet another person that has been murdered by ICE
and so much of what is going on.
And I know that there is a lot of activity right now
in preparation for the Super Bowl
because it has been established that ICE will also be here.
and just wanted to let the community know
that one of the best things they could do
is reach out to other members of the community
in their neighborhood because I can guarantee
that there are neighbors that are actively working
to find ways to organize and be of service.
And so to try to plug in, whether it's through the schools
or through the neighborhood association,
or if you want to reach out to me,
there is proactive activity and it's something
that is definitely on top of people's mind
going into this weekend.
At this point we'll go to Council Member Regulard.
Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.
I attended the ribbon cutting
for the Stephen Taylor Memorial.
It was a great event, long overdue.
There were so many people there.
I stayed afterwards to listen to the San Leandro.
the Social Justice Academy do performances,
but I was extremely disappointed
in the fact that council member Simon
was unable to participate since he was the one
who actually spearheaded and brought this idea forth
and not being able to speak at that event.
I seen some email exchanges and just wanted to have him
express his freedom to speak as a council member.
trying to understand why he was not allowed to do so during that time. I also
like to recognize what is happening all over the world with ICE coming to our
various states and targeting these major cities and councilmember Bowen had
talked about what happened in Minneapolis and the lives that have been
lost and a lot of the folks that are being kidnapped and taken into these
these so-called camps and being held against their will being kidnapped and
there's a woman who was taken in and the city of El Monte where I grew up over
this past weekend and to have folks ice come in and and do that and and
kidnap these folks they need to stay out of our neighborhoods they need to
stay out of our towns and I know Super Bowl weekend is coming on Sunday so we
need to make sure we're vigilant and have folks have access to resources to
help protect them to have any questions that they may have to reach out to the
city or to our council members. That's my comment, thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor
Viveros-Walton. Thank you. I wanted to just, one, I wanted to confirm, although I had
send an email to the clerk that I will be absent from next Tuesday's meeting I
have a work commitment in Sacramento and I will not be able to join even join
remotely so I will be absent from next Tuesday's meeting and just a note to the
public next week the meeting is on a Tuesday not on a Monday correct yes so
just a way. I also attended the SLEA board meeting and wanted to update both the council
and the community that they are currently we are currently searching for a new executive
director for SLEA and we're in the process of interviewing candidates and doing some
of that vetting so hopefully we'll have some news soon. I also attended the
Stephen Taylor Sanctity of Life event last weekend. I want to thank staff for
both staff that kind of brought this vision to life, also the community that
envision this and I know that it was a labor of love for many many people
involved and it was a very touching event and it was very very well done.
Appreciate staffs diligence and attention to detail that morning and and
that is it for now thank you. Okay seeing no others I'll make my my
announcements first February 17th will be our date for submissions because of
the delay of the meeting date. I also want to remind folks in the city of
San Lander that we have the GLEANing program as part of our sustainability
effort that's harvesting fruit from trees here in the city of San Lander. We
need to continue to have more volunteers to help with those picking efforts. Great
opportunity for you know Girl Scout troops youth groups etc to just get out
there and harvest fruit that can go directly to the food banks food pantries
here in the city of San Leandro also attended the Stephen Taylor
sanctity of life Park I will clarify for the record since there seems to be a
misunderstanding that we do have a protocol for who speaks at ribbon
cuttings and that is the mayor and the council member from the district as a
matter of courtesy I asked councilmember Simon to cut the ribbon and so as
you'll see in the photos he was literally the person who cut the ribbon
as a sign of respect for his efforts bringing those efforts forward
participated in the point in time count very powerful experience meeting with
unhoused residents our particular zone was south of the Senior Center down to
the bowel theater and over to the Union Pacific railroad tracks had the
opportunity to work with city staff conducting interviews and grateful for
all the people that were involved including Madam Clerk thank you for your
efforts in supporting that. We've got just an FYI you know Alameda County
Transportation Commission that I sit on and that Councilman Bowen represents
Supervisor Tamellon. There will be work on San Leandro railroad crossings as
part of the rail safety improvement program and that will be happening in
the first half of this year unless there's there's some pivoting so just be
aware start putting it in your mind that there will be a weekend similar to what
happened last year the year before where a major intersection will be shut down
so that the entire rail can be replaced and upgrades to the signal arms etc. take
place. And then the last thing that I'd offer is that I'm grateful to the
residents of San Leandro for sending me to the U.S. mayor's conference to
represent you. A lot was learned in this session. One of the more powerful
sessions was a leadership development session where we sat in with army cadets
and we took the wisdom of what they're learning at West Point and combined it
with the lived experience of mayors across the country
to trade ideas about leadership, leadership development,
and alternative models of leadership.
So that was quite nice.
There were other sessions that proved very useful.
And I think as the city manager will attest,
I was sending texts and emails and just probing
on how we are doing certain things.
It was nice to see continued focus on AI,
continued to focus on security, hearing from mayors in the Minnesota, the state of Minnesota
about what's happening on the ground and hearing that in an unfiltered form, not on
X, not on Facebook, not in CNN or MSNBC or Fox, but hearing it directly from the people
that are experiencing those concerns.
That has led to some outreach to both city attorney and city manager as we continue to
explore scenarios about how we will handle things here in the city of San
Leandro should things evolve in certain directions that would be undesirable.
Significant attention was paid to continued evolutions and technology
particularly the impact of data centers and exploring how different cities are
approaching the benefits and challenges posed by data centers and I think that
it's important to recognize that there's a balance in a city like San
lander that has significant electricity supply connected to historical
production, industrial production. There may be an opportunity to avail ourselves
of data centers and data center expansion. Had an excellent
opportunity to meet with our state senators and to see their commitment in
particular around housing production and specific commitment to making sure
that there are additional controls placed to ensure that constitutional
liberties in the United States are protected. The last thing that I'll leave
with is that I'll end with is we have a variety of guest speakers and one of the
more interesting one was Trey Young from NBA basketball. He played for the
Hawks, I think has been traded to the Wizards recently, and he had a telling
quote, if you're doing it right, you're going to get it from both sides. And so
I'm very grateful for the insight that came from him and from others as they
kind of helped guide us as we make our decisions. With all that being said, I
will say that as I was driving out to the airport, one of the things that I
saw has moved past the VA was a memorial that had been built to IC
Nurse Pretty. Very powerful. In the snow, flowers, and just acknowledgement of the
tragedy. So what I'd like to do is end our meeting tonight in honor of IC Nurse
Pretty. If you would take a moment of 10 seconds of silence. So it is 9 47 and we
are adjourned.