Okay, it's 701 and I'm gonna call this meeting of the San Leandro City Council to order today is Monday, April 6th
Today is Monday, April 6th
2026
Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance
So at this point in time, Madam Clerk, would you please take a roll?
Vice mayor Viviros Walton present
Council member James Aguilar present
Council member Victor Aguilar present
Council member Fred Simon is absent
Council member
Sue a bone is absent
Councilmember bolt here and mayor Gonzalez
present
tonight with the appointment swearing in of it our new member of the arts culture and Library Commission, so I'd like to move that item up to
Section 6 recognitions in the interest of time
Immediately following our other recognitions which include the oath of office for our district to councilmember
Councilmember James Aguilar and the National Autism Awareness Month proclamation. Any concerns about that?
Seeing none the City of San Leonardo 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 City Council Meeting Rules
Meeting rules of decorum for more information
Madam clerk your announcement
If you would like to make a public comment during the meeting you can do so in person or via zoom
If you are present at the meeting
Please complete a speaker card and submit it to the city clerk before the item is presented
If you wish to participate in public comment via zoom, you can use the raise your hand tool when the item is called
During the public comment session speakers will be invited to speak and we'll have a set time to share their comments a
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
Item three in our agenda is a report closed session action taken was there any report election taken?
There was extensive discussion and
Guidance provided to legal counsel at this point in time we're going to move to the recognitions portion of our agenda
And we'll begin with a swearing-in of James Aguilar
City Council district who
If you would come down to the front
Thank You mayor we will be also joined by Jennifer Brohard who will be administering the oath of office to our incoming council member
We raise your right hand I
Do solemnly swear?
That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States
And the Constitution don't mind hold on just second so we're gonna do a pause because we can't hear you online we can hear
There you go. So we're gonna do is we're gonna share it. We're gonna have two mics
Because we want everyone to record this video and who downloads it and clips it and all that have the full thing nice and clean
Raise your right hand. I
Do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States
That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of California and the Constitution
of the state of California
Against all enemies foreign and domestic against all enemies foreign and domestic
That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same
That I take this obligation freely that I take this obligation freely
Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully
And that I will well and faithfully
Discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter
May I mayor?
Yes, you may have a minute to share your thoughts and excitement
Thank you all for being here. I I see so many of
The people that help I'm gonna try not to cry
Um, I see so many of the people who have helped build me into who I am today
Here in the audience and I genuinely appreciate your support
This has been an interesting journey in my life in which I started on the school board and now I'm here and all of you
In the room are just are a very important part of my life and I appreciate you for spending the time to come here
And be a part of my journey
And I'm I'd be remiss to say that I'm excited for this
I'm excited for the opportunity that San Leandro has to move forward and so that will only happen with you in
Partnership and so I appreciate you all and I'm looking forward to what's to come and I'm ready to get to work
Okay, you can go ahead and leave that open madam clerk because I'm coming right on down because next we've got a proclamation to declare
April as National Autism Awareness Month here in the city of San Leandro and
I think we've got to run K show Deepa
Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to our chambers
Someone let you hold this
this side right here. And so this is our associate director from the regional
center of the East Bay. For those of you that don't know the regional center is
the largest nonprofit here in the city of San Leandro and are responsible for
distributing a significant amount of state money to organizations that
support individuals but I won't steal all of her thunder because you'll get a
a moment at the end to share a few thoughts.
Okay. So, let's just read through the proclamation very quickly.
So, whereas autism is a developmental disability characterized by
atypical development in socialization, communication, and behavior,
and whereas children typically display
autism symptoms before turning three years old,
and often exhibit abnormalities in cognitive functioning, learning,
attention and sensory processing, and whereas, according to the Autism and
Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, a program funded by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, autism affects one in every 31 children
in the United States and can affect anyone regardless of race, ethnicity, or
other socioeconomic factors. And whereas, parents, relatives, caregivers of
of individuals with autism are commended
for their dedication and sacrifice
in providing for the special needs
of individuals with autism.
And whereas worker training programs that are tailored
to the needs of autistic individuals are vital
as people with autism can often serve
as productive members of the workforce
and exemplary members of the community,
especially when given appropriate support,
training, and early intervention services.
In whereas, the United States, House and Senate both introduced concurrent resolutions on February 25th, 2008,
recognizing the importance of autism awareness, of the need to support individuals with autism,
and of the family members, teachers and physicians, and other professionals who care for individuals with autism.
In whereas, individuals with autism, like all others, should have the opportunity to realize their ambitions.
and lead rewarding lives. Now therefore I, Juan Gonzalez III, Mayor of the City of San Leandro,
do hereby proclaim April 2026 as Autism Awareness Month in the City of San Leandro as a symbol of
our commitment to creating a culture of disability awareness and inclusion for all members in our
community. Thank you Mayor Gonzalez. Thank you City of San Leandro. Our organization, Regional
of the East Bay is one of 21 agencies statewide
that's mandated to provide services for individuals
with intellectual and developmental disabilities,
and we are proud that we are based here
at our headquarters here in San Leandro,
and this is the first time that we have been called upon
to do this.
So I commend you and thank you for doing this.
Our population has grown,
grown whereas before maybe 15, 20, 30 years ago, the individuals we served with autism
were maybe a third or maybe a quarter of our population, which right now in both counties,
Contra Costa and Alameda counties, we serve about 29,000.
Now it's about 70% of who we serve.
So we do know that it has grown and it's important that we all are aware so that individuals
and families can get the support that they need.
I thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Did everybody get the pictures that
they wanted? I just want to make sure. One more. Whichever side you want.
Now we will move take our item 10a which we moved to this section of the agenda.
Madam Clerk would you please briefly introduce this item. Thank you mayor. The
item before you this evening is a motion to appoint Mike Bryant to fill the
District 4 Vacancy and the Arts, Culture and Library Commission. After council
makes the appointment, Mr. Bryant is in attendance to receive the oath of office
this evening. Perfect. Councilmember Simon. Yes, I'd like to move this item.
Perfect. Councilmember or Vice Mayor of Yavotas-Walton. Second. Okay, so at this point in
time, we've got a motion to second. Any discussion? Because it's just a
administrative minute order, we do not need public comment on this. That was
available the last time when the nomination occurred, so please move to vote at this time.
We're experiencing a brief moment of technical difficulty. Council Member Aguilar,
James Aguilar, may we have your vote please? You can just vote verbally on the mic.
That was a yes. Yes. Thank you, sir. With that, all votes are in and the motion
So to be clear the vote carries with a vote of 6-0, correct?
But if I can get a head nod, the vote carries 6-0.
Yes, 6-0 with 1-1-1-1.
Thank you.
Chuck, thank you.
So at this point in time, we will move to swear in Mr. Bryant.
Aye. Please state your name.
I, Michael Bryant.
Do solemnly swear or affirm.
I'm so sorry.
Go ahead.
Do solemnly swear or affirm.
Hold on, Miss.
Madam Clerk, can we get him a mic as well
so that he can be heard online?
We sure can there.
Thank you.
I, please state your name.
I, Michael Bryant.
Do solemnly swear or affirm.
Do solemnly swear or affirm.
That I will support and defend.
That I will support and defend.
the Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution of the United States.
And the Constitution of the State of California.
And the Constitution of the State of California.
Against all enemies.
Against all enemies.
Foreign and domestic.
Foreign and domestic.
That I will bear true faith and allegiance.
That I will bear true faith and allegiance.
To the Constitution of the United States.
To the Constitution of the United States.
And to the Constitution of the State of California.
and to the Constitution, to the State of California,
excuse me, that I take this obligation freely,
that I take this obligation freely,
without any mental reservation,
without any mental reservation,
or purpose of evasion, or purpose of evasion,
and that I will well and faithfully discharge,
and that I will well and faithfully discharge,
the duties upon which I'm about to enter,
the duties upon which I'm about to enter.
Congratulations.
At this point in time we move on to item number five on our agenda which is our consent calendar.
Would anybody like to pull an item from the consent calendar?
Councilmember Aguilar.
I have nothing to pull but I would like to move the consent calendar.
Thank you.
Councilmember Aguilar.
Mayor, I'd like to second.
At this point in time we will move to any public comment on the consent calendar.
Thank you Mayor.
At this time we've received one comment card and we have one hand raised online.
Okay, please proceed with the comment card.
Our in person speaker is Robert Rayburn.
thank you. Thank you. Good
evening. Mayor Gonzalez Council
members and welcome James
Aguilar as our newest council
member. My name is Robert Ray
burn. I'm art director for
district four, which
encompasses both San Leandro
and Bay Fair stations. I'm
speaking tonight with regard
support the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities grant for
developing Bay Fair apartments. I look forward to a solid partnership in this
endeavor as we move through the coming years. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Mayor, that concludes the comment cards we received in the room. So we will close
this. All those public
comment in person, please move
online. Where we open public
comment. Our first online
speaker is Alvaro Ramos. Hi.
Can you hear me? Yes. Okay I
wanted to comment on item five
I didn't really find any details.
Heck, I was trying to figure out where the lot was.
And I just wanted to emphasize that I think that I wouldn't
want to just see housing.
I would want to see mixed use development that
faces East 14th Street.
I mean, it should be kind of obvious to most people
that having some ground floor for business
the city. I don't think it's
going to make sense on that
street given it has that
downtown atmosphere. But I
just don't want to see not
just housing but a mix here,
right? That ideally would
improve human traffic. On
ease 14th it's always felt I
guess it's the parking
minimums that have really
stunted any sort of
And I was looking at the Pacific West website.
I don't know how good of a presentation their pictures are
of their projects, but I'm really wanna see more
about maximizing density and not a suburban approach
to the architecture.
I mean, I've complained about suburbanism before
and I will continue to do so
because I really think that this is generally
what's holding back the city.
And I think that more of that more mixed use
and high density would be very helpful
and bring at least more human traffic on East 14th.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Chris Urban Res Life.
Good evening.
First, I'd like to acknowledge the Ohlone people who's territory we occupy in San Leandro,
known as Hakien.
I'd like to welcome Mr. James Aguilar to the city council, and I'd like to wish all of
us in San Leandro to continue to walk in a good way, and that we bring our city back
vibrant, and that hopefully we can now get to work.
Ahoa, thank you.
Thank you.
Mayor that concludes our online commenters. So we are closing public comment. I
Apologize. I missed a card earlier that was submitted timely for this item
Thank you
Then if you could so we are done with online public comment will come back and briefly reopen in person public comment for this one
Card, thank you mayor the in comment in person commenter is Douglas spalding
Thank you mayor. I appreciate your grace
Hi council members
It's nice to be here in person for once although it was a little hard final two of the final four
But I haven't been here since the new countdown clock was installed and it kind of has the feel of it
Right over the mayor's head there. I had a few questions reading over the consent calendar items
So I'll start with item 5c which is nearly a two million dollar item and
Given our budget difficulties here in San Lorenzo,
I wonder why we're spending so much money
to adjust traffic lights.
I haven't detected a problem or traffic backing up
in any intersections, unless they're doing railroad work.
So it's, you know, one of those things I wonder,
is this something that could be delayed?
Item 5F, I'm in favor of recycling too.
I have been a recycler since I had it as my college job.
I hate to put out $215,000 worth of cans and watch them fill up with garbage, which
is what happens not only in our schools but in our public places as well.
I'm wondering if there's any educational piece that's going to go with that to help people
understand the importance of it.
There are places like Germany where recycling works very efficiently.
That's because you get fined if you don't sort correctly.
My son would be out a lot of money doing that.
I was surprised to find that there's such a thing as a payment cut impact fee.
And I'm wondering whether we currently have anything like that in place.
I don't know any information about it, any more information about it, but I'd be curious
to know.
It makes sense to me that when you cut up the road that it doesn't last as long.
And then finally, in terms of your budget adjustments, you know, it's not much of an
adjustment less than a half a percent in adjustment the revenues and expenses
wash out it's just the seven million dollars and transfers and I would like
to be reminded what those are. Thank you your time has elapsed. Mayor that
concludes all of our comment cards. Okay so with that we'll close public comment
just for the benefit of our public speaker on item 5C. This is related to I
I believe as Director Marquez is back there.
I think this is ACTC funded specifically for when 880
shuts down and we run detours through the city,
this was discussed at facilities
and transportation a little bit ago.
So it's not general fund money
that we're reallocating to time lights.
It's really how we deal when there is a problem on 880
and we have external funding to make sure
that the detours work effectively
don't disproportionately impact our residents. So with that I'm going to come back to council
to see if there's any further discussion. Seeing none please vote.
Apologies while I work through this technical issue. Council Member James Aguilar if we could
have your vote by verbal please. Yes yes thank you. All votes are in and the motion carries unanimously
with six yeses and council member Bowen absent.
Okay, so for today we don't have an item six, anything to report, so we will move
to public comment. It's time for public can address the
council on items that are not already on our agenda
that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council.
Madam Clerk, how many cards do we have today?
mayor we have received seven comment cards okay so what we'll do is we'll
begin with a public comment in person the first three speakers are Jeff Kerry
Lynette Bailey and Brian Rooney Jeff Carey Lynette Bailey and Brian Rooney
yes I'm Jeff Carey I'm a real estate person in San Leandro we've been
involved with the city for over for a long long time I'd say a hundred years
but anyway the reason I'm here is we have a downtown parking area that's
basically on the east side of East 14th Street anywhere from right across the
the street from City Hall on the north side of the bridge all the way over to
Dolores Avenue on the east side of East 14th Street. That area has metered
parking. The metered parking is not easily understood by the resident by the
people using that area. That area of East 14th Street is made up of small
businesses you have accountants you have you have people that sell eyeglasses you
have people that that take care of pets and they're all small business unit users
we and those people rely on people coming in and dropping their their and
doing their business within a short period of time they're there for a short
out here at the park. A lot of
people don't want to go to the
park for a period of time. They
see their accountants, they see
their eye doctor, they see their
pet groomer or they see someone
else there. And that area is now
saturated with parking meters.
Those parking meters are very
tough to understand. If you want
an education, just go down there
and try to go ahead and use one
of the parking meters. I've been
17 feet to find a meter. And the first question the meter asked me is, what is my license
flight number? So I have to turn around, go back to my car, write down my license number,
come back and try to use it. But people are not happy with it.
Thank you, sir. Your time has elapsed. Thank you, sir. Your time has elapsed. Yes, sir.
next the next three speakers so so one thing that you'll learn about me as the
chair of this meeting is whether I agree with you or disagree with you we don't
have a lot of cheering and hoopla and all that kind of stuff in the chambers
we keep it very professional so that's just kind of a first pass warning how's
that if we can come on to our next speaker please the next three speakers
And for those of you who
haven't seen this before,
our speakers are Lynette Bailey,
Brian Rooney and Ed Harris.
Good evening, mayor and
council members. I am an
accountant and a tax preparer
and I am in the best building
and I want to thank you for
your time today. But, um, I'm
here to speak about the impact
of the paid parking and now
many choosing to go elsewhere where parking is free and simple. A large
portion of my customers are elderly. For them it isn't about the cost, it's about
the accessibility. Many struggle with the payment systems whether it's apps or
kiosks and finding the process of confusing or overwhelming. As a result
they're not coming back. This policy is unintentionally driving
away vulnerable members of our community, and hurting small businesses like mine.
We believe a balanced solution is possible, one that supports both the city and the community.
We ask for at least two hours for our customers to drop their tax information off to me and
not go down and find a $50 ticket on their car, which, by the way, they're asking me
to pay because I didn't tell them because nobody told us it was going to be paid parking.
We never got a notice or anything about it. So I want to thank you for your time and your
consideration. Thank you.
Thank you. The next three speakers are Brian Rooney, Ed Harris, and Marroqueda Banks.
Hello. I'm here about the best building parking as well. We've been told that this is a zero
some game while the city is also facing a $2 million deficit. Yet the proposed solution
seems to be charged for parking as a fix-all. It isn't. Our city already carries one of
the highest sales tax rates in the Bay Area. At some point we have to acknowledge that
we cannot tax and feed our way to prosperity. Increasing the financial burden on residences
and businesses will not create a long-term stability. It risks driving away the very
people that and enterprise that keep this city strong unless businesses are
the backbone for the community when they are weighed down by raising sales tax
business license fees state taxes and excessive regulations they begin to
leave and when they leave they don't come back we have we have seen the
impact of these policies at the state level that many view as unfriendly to
business policies that have to contributed to companies relocating or
scaling back. We should not repeat those same mistakes locally. The city is
proud with rich history and strong identity. We should be doing everything
we can to support and retain our businesses, helping them grow and
succeed because when the businesses succeed, the city succeeds. Now is the
time for strong independent leadership. Leadership that stands up for the local
economy learns from what hasn't worked elsewhere and focus on sustainable
solutions instead of short-term revenue fixes. That is why we oppose your parking
restrictions on the best building parking lot. Thank you for your attention
to this matter. Thank you. The next three speakers are Ed Harris,
Council. Thank you. Mark. We
know banks and Bob Jones. Good
evening, Mayor. Members of
Council. My name is Ed Harris.
I'm banker with Fremont Bank
located at 14 80 East 14th
Street corner of East 14th and
Wanna. I am not a city of San
Leandro resident, and I'm not
speaking on behalf of Fremont
Bank tonight, but I am somebody
who has worked at that location
reiterate some of the comments you've already heard we're all very stressed
out and very disappointed by the changes to the parking situation. It's made it
very difficult for my clients to park on the private surface lot that's located
at the corner of East 14th in Juana. A number of other individuals who are
trying to avoid getting ticketed on Juana who are not wanting to pay for
parking in that area who are used to the two meter zones that were there are
using our lot and it's created a real burden for our customers, for a number of
my colleagues many of whom work in San Leandro and shop in San Leandro as well.
I urge you folks to reconsider the changes that were made to make it easier
more tenable for folks who are shopping in San Leandro, for folks who are living
in San Leandro, for folks who work in San Leandro to be able to park and enjoy
the San Leandro downtown area. To their credit, deputy city manager Engelbart
and Cynthia Battenberg met with us within the past couple of weeks. We had a very
constructive conversation about things that we could do to to ameliorate the
issue, to make the situation better and I'm optimistic that going forward we can
find a more tenable solution but again I urge you to reconsider the situation
that we're in currently. It's not sustainable, it's not good for residents
of San Leandro and for people who want to make San Leandro succeed.
Thank you.
Appreciate your time.
Thank you.
The next three speakers are Maracueta Banks, Bob Jones and Douglas Spalding.
Hello.
I'm here on behalf of most of the neighbors in my area.
I currently live at Bancroft Towers, which is on Bancroft across the street from San
Leandro High School.
I've kind of been getting the runaround over the last month about who to come to regarding the issue
Recently, there has been some new no parking signs that has gone up
all along Bancroft
From Monday through Saturday
From 7 a.m. To 5 p.m. Once again including Saturday
In that area. There is three
Large apartment buildings and a nursing home. They have taken away all of our parking
One of the apartment buildings one from East 14th all the way over to Bancroft
So for example, just last week, my son was home sick
I work from home sometimes in our unit in our building. We're only allowed one parking space per
Apartment building per household
It was a Saturday and my son got a ticket on a Saturday. Once again, he was homesick last week. So we had to take a chance on
Him getting another ticket, which is a little outrageous
I've spoken with City Hall City Hall is pointing to San Leandro
Hi saying they're asking for the signs to go up. I spoke with San Leandro Unified School District. They're saying it's not them
That's asking for that. It's up to the city for this to go up
It's very dangerous to even come home late on a Friday evening
Because we have to be up either at 6 in the morning to move your car by 7
Which there's no parts because people are still asleep on Saturday mornings at 6 o'clock
so all of our parking has been taken and I
Live where there's older residents. So I told them I will come today to represent them to see how to get the ball rolling
Thank you.
Your time has elapsed.
Our next two speakers are Bob Jones and Douglas Spalding.
I'm Bob Jones.
I grew up in this town.
I'm a real estate broker.
I have an office on Joaquin right next to East 14th.
So all the space behind me, Joaquin to Estadillo,
now has the paid parking.
One of my tenants is a chiropractor who says,
all his patients just are really upset
about this paid parking.
It's, you go to the other side of East 14th,
you don't have paid parking.
So why this is so anti-business at a $47 fee
if you don't pay?
I mean, the whole thing's absurd.
We want to encourage business in this town.
And what I see from the council
was really an anti-business attitude.
Just like, for example, the rent control.
I've had owners with low interest rate loans,
five-year fixed, and they kept their rents low
for their tenants.
Now the five-year fixed loans have gone
and they've jacked the rates up 50%.
plus the insurance rates have skyrocketed.
Do you have any clue about that?
And the state's already got, you know, rental rules.
Why do you have to be so anti-business,
anti-investment in San Leandro?
It just makes no sense.
Anyway, this part, I'd like to get rid of the parking fee
if you can, I appreciate it.
Thank you our last speaker card is from Douglas Spalding
Thank you
While I disagree with mr. Jones on the rent control ordinance through the chair
I'd just like to thank him for taking care of the eucalyptus trees on his side of the creek
But I'm here to speak to the disturbing stories that have been on the news the last week and mayor. I appreciate your statement
Clearing firing that an investigation had been made into this troubling incident whereby
Individual was not arrested but taken into custody and then driven to the neighboring city of Oakland and dumped off seven miles from where he's picked up
So I don't have any more information about it
But but I assume in the comments that there was a consequence as a result of investigation
And it would note that the commanding officer in the incident no longer works for the SOPD
So maybe I'm reading too much between the lights or not. I'm not so concerned about the hit and run
I've done that before too and not realized it
but
To me it's much to do about not much and I assume the assurance companies would will will sort it out
But what I do want to draw your attention to is the source of these two stories and I would be very leery of
sergeant Michael Olivera
a long time president of the San Leandro PD POA.
This is the same playbook they used
to jettison our former chief, Abdul Pridgen.
And my fear is that now they're going after
our current chief and of course there's plenty
of comments in social media like,
well, what about the chief?
What about the chief?
What about the chief?
I'm here to stand for the chief unless,
until we have a lot more information
that implicates her in some way,
but it seems like she's doing exactly what she needs to do.
And I'm sorry that Channel 7 Dan Noise picked it up,
but they like to do that because it gets ratings
and syncs progressive people everywhere.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mayor, that concludes the comment cards we've received.
So we will close public comment in person
and we will move online.
we currently have four hands raised.
And the first speaker is Jenny Chang.
Hello, can you all hear me?
Yes.
Hi, I'm Jenny Chang.
I'm a longtime resident of San Leandro, 43 years to be exact.
I'm just wanted to chime in and offer my congratulations
to James Aguilar for being the new district two council member.
I just hope I wish James the best
and hope that he can work together
with the rest of the council
in getting District Two on the right track.
It's gonna be a lot of work,
but I believe he'll be able to do it.
That's it, have a good evening.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Melissa Wong.
Hello?
Hello.
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see a note, okay.
Thank you very much, good evening.
I appreciate the earlier comment
because I was gonna duplicate that,
but I have a little bit more.
Okay, so I'm a member of the board,
I'm a board member of the Washington Homeowners Association.
So I also want to welcome the newest council member
to the council, council member James Aguilar.
Congratulations.
Although we are district four,
we of course look forward to your contribution.
And so far, I like your enthusiasm and your energy.
And I think everything's going to work out well.
And I hope that the council will work together
and move forward.
I was encouraged by the number of applicants
and appreciate each person who apply.
So I hope that they will continue to apply
where there's an opportunity.
It was a thorough process and I thought it was very fair.
Okay, onto a separate and different note.
I wanted to give a shout out to the Manor Library.
I'm always an advocate of the library,
in particular the Manor Library,
because that's in my neighborhood.
In this case, they have two volunteers, Kit and Sky Wu,
who have been teaching Chinese Mandarin
as a second language in the library on Wednesdays.
The mayor and council member, Simon, have also attended.
I encourage everyone, not only council,
but anyone who's interested in learning
a little bit more about the Chinese culture.
They not only teach Chinese culture,
but they have interactive and interesting activities.
So I wanna acknowledge them,
but in particular I wanna thank the library
for having this ongoing course.
And I welcome anybody to join.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Bernard Ashcraft.
Yes, Bernard Ashcraft, 31 year resident of San Leandro and his civil rights.
I'm here to speak on behalf of many people, including the big tent.
We now know that an effort has been made to get rid of our police chief, Angela Alvarez,
But you're also bumping up to another level where you're trying to also push
out our city manager, which we will not stand for.
And I'm here to let you know that misdemeanor vehicle accident
that was happened is not a felony.
And we know also that St. Andrew has been known as a sundown city,
not mourning black folks here after dark.
Well, that policy has still been activated
and either people are gonna stand up
and we're gonna fight for a sunshine city
where there's an open policy for everyone
regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity.
We know that the POA and others now
are using the old Republican MAGA playbook to get rid of top Black employees.
We will not stand for it, and we want to put you on notice that we will fight you
forever, and we will go to whatever court we need to to stop this madness.
I hereby suggest that you knock it off and
turn the city into a sunshine city.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Carol Haberkoss.
Hello.
Can you hear me now?
Yes.
Oh, hi.
Good evening, Mayor and City Council.
I want to congratulate James Aguilar for his new seat.
He's in my district, District 2, so I'm really happy about that.
The other thing I want to bring up
is I'm very concerned about the story about the homeless man
being dumped. I've been reading a lot about it. I feel that, um, it needs to be investigated.
It seems like the report wasn't completed. Apparently this police handcuffed a homeless
man and then dumped him and then apparently laughed about it. So I feel like, um, there
wasn't a thorough investigation that I saw. And it seems like there's a lot of missing
pieces to this, and I think it's very, very serious for our city to be handling people
that are in need.
I have worked in a nonprofit many years with many people who needed help, and we would
never ever dump somebody and then laugh about it.
That is just really, really shameful.
So I hope it is investigated.
I would like to know more about it.
I think the public needs to know
and to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next speaker is San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.
Hello everybody, good evening.
It's Emily Grego,
CEO of the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.
First and foremost, James Aguilar, congratulations.
Happy to see your appointment.
And we certainly look forward to having an ally
in your district a business ally in your district as I don't really think that we had one in the past so
Um looking forward to that. I also want to speak on the parking situation
I we the chamber has been advocating behind the scenes, uh regarding
the parking situation and we've talked to a couple of different department heads and
had discussions and I will say that we've generally been in favor of some parking because we have also seen
The opposite happened where people park in the free parking
for hours and hours and hours on end and then they don't leave.
And so we've saw that being fixed over at Pelton Plaza
when there were meters that, you know,
customers were able to cycle through the parking
once there was meters installed.
But I do understand that that best building parking lot
is somewhat unique.
And I also understand that we want to encourage people
to park in the parking garage.
but there's a lot to be happening in the parking garage
and trust to be earned so that people feel safe
to park there, meaning employees long-term
so that the customer parking is available.
But I hope that you all are listening
to everybody's feedback and I'm also offering our feedback
via email regarding the meetings that I've had.
So I think that there's more to this
and more conversations to be had.
And especially when there's free parking
right across the street.
I do see the point that it's kind of hard to justify
paid parking on the other side.
So there's a lot to be worked out and figured out
and we're here to be part of the solution.
So happy to continue the conversations
and get something that works for business.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mayor, there are no more raised hands online.
So at this point in time, we'll close public comment
and come back into the chambers for our next item.
At this point I'm we do we'll move to item 8 which is public hearings
But we don't have any scheduled for today and similarly for presentations, you know, just one quick thought about public comment
So when items are not
Agendized we are prohibited by the Brown Act from discussing them in response
So we can't respond to your concerns in this forum today
But we have taken note and a number of us have taken notes so we can discuss with city management
So just be on standby be aware that we are hearing your concerns
okay at
You should anticipate further discussion in outreach both directly and through
The folks that you've been chatting with already so at this point in time
We'll move on to our next agenda item, but thank you for coming today to share your concerns
So we will move to item
10 I see it as a 10 B. Is that a typo? Oh
We moved 10a to the top. Thank you
10b
so 10b is a
Resolution that I have put forward. I raised this the council agenda setting two years ago
And in particular that the problem that's being addressed here is that all of our residents in San Leandro are being
Defalted to the most expensive form of electricity
in contrast to cities
Other cities in Alameda County our residents have lower median income as was pointed out during the rent control discussion
What I have what I'm a proposing here is
That we focus on defaulting people to the cheaper power and then if they want to they can upscale and pay a higher price
Voluntarily we know that a number of our residents are born in foreign countries
they have English as their second language and navigating systems to upped
up and upped out and all that change is just something as a practical matter
that's not something that they can do. Originally we had forced folks into the
more expensive power approximately five years ago because the Ava community
power for bright choice was not so clean. Over the last five years that has
changed materially. It's between 90 and 95 percent carbon free, GHG free, two day.
So what I have proposed is that we default people into the less expensive power, which
is pretty doggone GHG free. It's not completely GHG free. Part of what I have done in touching
base with the community has spoken with the number of environmental advocacy folks to
to just get their vibe, this is something that's okay,
given the trade-offs, because ultimately,
I have described this as an equitable outcome,
that's economic equity is the way that I'm framing it.
But I'm happy to answer any questions,
and then if you don't have any questions,
we'll go to public comment,
and then come back for any remaining discussion.
Not seeing any questions,
I'm gonna go to public comment on this item.
Mayor, we have not received any comment cards,
and there is one hand raised online.
okay so we will open and close public comment in person and we will open now
public comment online our first online speaker is Alvaro Ramos can you hear me
yes okay so I think my concern is the increased price of oil due to the oil
shock which I'm talking about affecting the cost of transportation production
and not just as a fuel in the bright choice mix
as sort of something that could be happening
in the background.
We're not feeling the full effects of oil shock
but they should be expected to hit us in full swing
this year.
And I mean, these are the consequences of overspending
on defense and bad decisions on the United States
foreign policy.
I think renewable 100 is the way to bypass
the negative effects of that situation.
solar and wind minimize the effects of an oil shock because they're least dependent on it.
And they've also become competitive to the other energy sources right now. China is way ahead in
the United States on green energy. And the United States is the least prepared country to deal with
an oil shock because of our oil dependency. I mean, if anyone here remembers the oil shocks
of the 1970s, I think now would be the time to talk about it. Because I didn't experience that,
but maybe some folks here have. I'm also concerned about a green washing of Diablo Canyon nuclear
power plant energy, which does run on a nuclear fission. And as far as I know, that creates
uranium waste and it sits on the coast and drums and there's no proper waste facility to deposit
it and then and that's because there's no recycling upgrade to the nuclear power plant,
probably because it's expensive to do it. And then hydroelectric power is unsustainable. I mean,
one only need look at the Oroville dam spillway that failed in 2017 and then the state of
California had to go and fix that one. There's no effort here to tackle specific gas and electric
greed. Privatized energy utilities are the problem. It's the hundreds of dollars for PG&E
and households keep cutting back again and again and again.
Thank you sir your time has elapsed. Our next speaker is a phone number
it appears it starts with 134 and ends in 941. You can unmute yourself.
So hi can you hear me this is Ginny Madsen.
Yes. And I don't have a working microphone on a computer anymore so
I got given a phone number today to call in.
And this whole issue with Bright Choice and Renewable 100
is very close to my heart.
When I could not afford it, I signed up for Ava Energy.
It is the closest I will ever come to a Green New Deal
in my lifetime.
And when I was finally able to sign up for Renewable 100,
it was worth it.
Even though PG&E is now charging me three times more for delivery than they are for
the electricity that I use through Ava, I'm still going to hang on to my Renewable 100,
but I understand the mayor's thought process on this, and I know there are a lot of people
who just don't know the difference between it. They don't know what this is at all,
And let's push them to something that'll save them a few cents.
Because with the latest change in PG&E bills
where they're charging low income, low users, a huge.
I mean, my PG&E bill tripled because of what I'm paying now
for delivery.
And I'm still willing to do it.
And I still think it's a good idea.
So I ask you to vote yes on it.
Thank you.
Thank you. Mayor that concludes all raised hands online. Okay so a close
public comment and come back to council member for any further discussion or
questions that you may still have. Okay seeing none I will move the item do I
have a second? Council member Bolt? Second. Okay so there's a motion by Gonzalez a
second by Bolt. Seeing no further discussion please vote. All votes are in
the motion carries unanimously with six yeses and council member Bowen absent
moving to item 10 C we have a presentation regarding a potential
future revenue measure we've got deputy city manager Eric Engelbart introducing
this item good evening mayor and council appreciate the opportunity to be with
here tonight and to revisit our ongoing dialogue we've been having related to
pursuit of a potential revenue measure that could potentially appear on the
upcoming November 2026 ballot. Tonight we'll be hearing some survey results as
well as a related request from staff to authorize additional funding associated
with community outreach efforts and related next steps. Just a reminder for
how we got here tonight you may recall back in February of last year at the
special annual council planning session the council directed staff to explore
potential revenue measures that could appear on the November 26 ballot. Then in
June as part of the FY26-27 budget adoption process staff proposed
including a $500,000 allocation to explore the viability of such a measure.
The council did not include the funding in the adopted budget though council did
concurrently direct staff to return to council once year-end fund balance
estimates were available. Those estimates were subsequently provided. Then on
December 1st of last year the council did consider survey work though the item
did not pass and was reconsidered on December 15th at which time council did
direct staff to proceed forth exploring a potential measure including conducting
community outreach and as well as conducting a feasibility survey also
known as a scientific community survey then you'll recall just about a month and
half ago on February 17th. We presented to you all various revenue measure types
and ultimately you all directed staff to proceed three of them for testing
purposes right now through that scientific survey which I'll get into in
a few moments. This slide and the next two ones should look familiar to you.
Similar ones to this were presented just like six weeks ago at that February 17th
meeting. Just a quick overview of this for folks who may not have an
opportunity to see this or those in the audience, a little refresher. Business
license tax as you recall we already have one in place it's currently based
on a flat rate based on business type and number of employees over the past
or in the FY 2425 we received about six point nine million dollars in general
fund revenue from that existing tax. With that said our structure there is a
number of other structures that we're seeing as regular practices throughout
here in Alameda County and is becoming more typical through a business license
tax modernization effort and the more typical structure we're seeing
nowadays is a gross receipts model and taking for an example a rate of a dollar
and a quarter per thousand thousand dollars of gross annual receipts could
potentially net the city about anywhere between 3.8 to 4.3 million dollars
annually of course with such a modernization as well lends the
the opportunity to consolidate various business types,
make a more streamlined, less confusing tax structure,
as well as also incorporate some market reductions
in the annual tax rate for small businesses
here in San Leandro.
Also worth noting though, of course,
like many taxes, it is inextricably linked
to the broader macro economy.
And so there is some volatility there
with the ebbs and flows of the market cycle.
This such tax also is only requires a simple 50% plus one approval.
And although we could not prior to this effort identify any polling data that
have been conducted here in San Leon, this effort in a few moments we'll be hearing
from Brian Godby, our consulting services partner, who will be providing an overview
of the recent polling data that was just derived from the survey work that just took place.
Next up, as you remember, we talked about parcel taxes.
city does not currently assess any parcel taxes though there are other
agencies here in Alameda County that do and in our part of our analysis of that
tax recall there's different ways of structuring a parcel tax including a
per-parcel rate or also a square footage rate and as part of our testing effort
part of that scientific survey work you're about to hear about from Brian
you'll hear that we split sampled different structures of that notably
though of course these taxes will ultimately be her per state law require a two-thirds super majority in order to pass and
Then last up we had the vacancy tax we covered that in detail at the last
Discussion in February you'll recall Oakland is the only city municipality here in the United States
We could identify with such an attacks fully in place
And we'd also discuss the although Burke the city of Berkeley currently has such attacks technically in place
it is facing some potential legal hurdles or jeopardy in the future. I'm
unclear how long that tax will remain in place there. As we noted the administration
of the tax is highly complex, requires an appeals process, and a lot of the
revenue that's derived from it will be offset by the additional staff that are
needed to administer it. Notably since last time this is new information, we
actually, through additional research and legal evaluation of it, we believe it
actually does require a two-thirds super majority to pass, not a simple majority.
on this, Um. Majority is noted
last time, and we did test this
both in 2020, which through an
informal polling that tested out
of a little over 61% and you'll
hear more about the latest from
Brian. And with that, I will now
turn things over to him who is
joining us via zoom. Great.
Thank you, Eric. And, uh, good
evening, members of the Council.
I'm pleased to be here this
evening, and let's jump right
So this is just a brief overview about the survey.
Obviously, we've worked with the city in the past
and we've looked at some of these issues as well,
previously, and we'll see that as we go through the data.
The survey began with a question to test the perception
of city's provision of services
and management of taxpayer funds.
We then turned to a hypothetical parcel tax
and business license tax measure,
we did what's called a split sample.
So within the sample, we had two random samples
and one group got the parcel tax
and one group got the business license tax.
We do that because if you say,
what do you think about a parcel tax
and then a business license tax or vice versa,
the second one always does worse.
So it's important to split that
and get as clean a read as possible.
In addition to the ballot questions
that you'll see in a moment,
we looked at a variety of things
we might spend the money on
and ranked the respondent priorities.
We tested both informational positive arguments
and critical statements on the support.
And then we looked at the respondents forecast
for the direction of the economy in the fall.
Of course, the data in the survey is based on a wealth of demographic and behavioral characteristics that we use to segment the sample up front and then validated on the back end to make sure that is representative of the City of San Leandro.
Next slide, please. The next slide gets a little bit more into the methodology data collection was phone and online. Yes, there are still a few
people who answered landline calls to participate in a survey, more obviously from cell phones,
but the vast majority is from a text or an email invitation to do an online survey.
The universe was likely November 2026 voters. We were in the field March 9th through the 19th.
The average phone survey was 25 minutes long. That's still the way we measure length of a survey.
and then the sample size was 600, our goal was 600 rather, and we completed 607 which gives us a
margin of error for this overall survey where we're not splitting the sample of 3.94 but the ballot
question splits are plus or minus 5.6. Next slide please. So the next slide is that initial
satisfaction with city services and when you add the very favorable and somewhat favorable together
here, our top bar is the current survey. You see 59 percent have a favorable view of city services,
21 percent somewhat unfavorable, and only 9 percent very unfavorable. There's also about 10
percent in round numbers that don't know. When you compare that to the survey that we did for the
the November 2024 voters was actually conducted in June,
but the universe was November.
You can see that it's at 56%
when we add the variant somewhat together.
And so, you know, that's a nominal increase.
It's not statistically significant,
but it's going the direction we would expect it to.
And it's what we've seen repeatedly throughout the Bay Area
as the further we get from the pandemic,
favorability on these kinds of measures improves.
Next slide, please.
The next slide is the favorability of the job
the city is doing to effectively manage public funds.
This is always lower for every city
because there's a larger don't know.
And that's also common throughout the Bay Area.
So again, adding the very and somewhat favorables together,
you see we're at 43% favorable total versus 41% in 2024.
So, again, a small increase, but it's certainly going the right direction.
Next slide, please.
So, the next slide is the first of the two ballot questions
that we tested throughout the survey.
And you can see the wording on the right-hand side of the slide.
This is the parcel tax measure.
The wording conforms to the statewide legal requirements.
It can't exceed 75 words.
It has to have a tax rate, which is $95 per parcel.
It has to have a term, which is until ended by voters.
And then it has to show how much it would raise annually
about $6.9 million.
Some of the other things are up to the council
if they want to put those in, annual adjustments,
independent oversight, those sorts of things.
And then you see a bulleted list of the things
that we thought from previous surveys
might still be the best items to include in the 75 words,
understanding that we only get 75 words.
So by definition, it is just a high level summary.
There can be a lot more detail
in the full text of the measure.
So we presented this item to them.
We then asked definitely yes, probably yes,
probably no, definitely no, don't know.
And you can see when we add the probably
and definitely yes together, we're at 53%.
As Eric mentioned earlier, a parcel tax
requires a super majority of 66.7 in round numbers.
And this has got a long way to go.
Next slide, please.
The next slide, and again, just to reinforce,
this was the other part of the split sample.
So this is the two are separate.
You either got one or the other.
Again, the wording is in the right hand
side of the slide. And it has all the components that make it
legal and meet the statewide requirements for business
license tax. And then again, when we add the definitely and
probably together, you see we're at 63% in round numbers, this
requires a 50 plus one majority. So obviously, we've got a cushion
there. The next slide, please. The next couple slides I'm going
to go through quickly in deference to the Council's time.
but in these questions this is a list of all the things we might spend the money on. There's some
split sampling going on here as well and that's why the bars are different colors but not to dwell
on that. The point is to present these in a random order and figure out which things are the priority
for the voters for the proceeds from either one of these measures. At the top of this list you see
repair potholes and maintain streets. It's 1.09 on our intensity scale, which is how we rank them,
and 77% at least somewhat more likely to support the measure. So that's very important to the
residents. Maintain public safety infrastructure to ensure rapid emergency response is second,
and then third in our top tier, which each tier is statistically tied within it,
but different than the one below it. The third item repair and maintain critical public safety
infrastructure to ensure rapid emergency medical and fire response at 71 percent. So again with
the margin of error you can see how those are grouped together. In our second tier we have
provide updated life-saving fire and police equipment, maintain park infrastructure and
use services, maintain emergency and disaster preparedness, maintain neighborhood police
patrols enhance senior and youth programs, all in the mid to high-ish 60s. So those are
really solid for a simple majority threshold, but for two-thirds, they're right at the two-thirds
threshold. Next slide, please. And the next slide continues that second grouping with provide
violence, drug, and gang prevention to maintain school safety, repair and maintain parks and
and recreation facilities provide services
to reduce homelessness, again, in the mid to low 60s now,
certainly good for a simple majority measure,
but for a two thirds measure,
they're not reaching that level.
Then we're into tier three,
and these items, while important, obviously,
and we don't wanna diminish that,
but they're just not the priorities
that the first slide was.
Next slide, please.
And so the next slide switches gears a little bit.
Instead of what we're gonna spend the money on,
we're now talking about actual statements
that are essentially positive in nature,
but they're things that people need to know
about the measure.
Methodology is largely the same as we just discussed.
Large businesses and corporations will pay their fair share
so homeowners don't shoulder the entire cost
of repairing and keeping potholes safe.
That's certainly true for the,
And you can see the split sampling here.
That's true for the business license tax.
Then we have under the measure,
large corporations and major commercial businesses,
not small businesses single out,
will pay the largest tax amounts.
That's for the entire sample.
The measure ensures that the businesses
pay their fair share.
Measure requires strict fiscal accountability,
protections including financial audits and public disclosure.
And then large property owners will pay their fair share.
So homeowners don't shoulder the entire cost.
And again, we're testing different wording
of the same idea, but they really tested at the same level.
And all of these are in the high to low 70s.
So again, for either a two thirds measure,
they do exceed the two thirds,
but they far exceeded for a simple majority measure.
Next slide, please.
This question was continued.
It was certainly a longer one.
and this is the remainder of the top tier.
And that is the measure will give San Leander
local control, another accountability measure,
requires citizens, independent citizens oversight,
yet another accountability component.
Measure is more, San Leander has more than 509 miles
of streets and this measure will help prepare those.
And then finally, ending tier one,
we need to fix pottles in the neighborhoods
prevent accidents and damage to cars, et cetera.
Then we're into tier two,
and now we are at the two-thirds threshold,
so these things for a parcel tax aren't as helpful.
And next slide, please.
And as you can see here, you start at that two-thirds level
and we then go down into the low 60s,
which for the simple majority business license tax
is certainly good information,
but for a two-thirds parcel tax, it's just not there.
And next slide.
So, the next set of questions, we switch gears and we look at the other side of the coin.
These are the negative statements.
Now, not only are each of these question sets randomized internally, but half of the respondents
got the positive informational statements first, half got the critical statements, and
then the other set.
And we do that because we don't know how people will wind up hearing about the measure in
real world and so we're kind of randomizing it to make it a little more fair on both sides.
At the top of this list and the higher it is the worse it is so this first item is
the measure if this measure approves a permanent tax that will continue forever taxes should
include an end date so that voters can determine if they still are still needed in the future
that's 66 percent at least somewhat more likely to vote no. With continued high inflation rates,
tariffs, gas prices, grocery prices, etc. at virtually the same level. The city has increased
real estate taxes, sales taxes, and utility taxes, now they want to do it again. Voters are facing
a Bay Area regional transportation tax for BART and this new city tax. We can't afford all these
new taxes. A city can't be trusted is lower down the list and then this is just another property
tax that places burdens on homeowners. That's of course asked only of the parcel tax and the measure
is a new tax on local businesses which is business license tax and it'll make them hard to maintain
jobs in the city of San Leandro at 56 percent. So that's getting closer to that simple majority
threshold so clearly not as strong as the top of the list but still over the simple majority
threshold and something to be aware of. Next slide please. So this question set two was a longer one.
Here you see the remainder of tier, that was it for the critical statement, sorry.
And now we come back to our ballot questions a second time. Again, this is split sample A,
the hypothetical support for the parcel tax measure. The bar on top is the first test at 53.
With the positive information and even in the face of the negative, we get up to 56.
But again, this requires a two-thirds super majority, so it is not going to be successful
and I'll likely do it. Next slide is still split sample A, but it is a different version
of the parcel tax. So instead of the $95 tax rate, this is six cents per parcel per square foot.
And this one doesn't do as well. When we add the definitely and probably together,
we're only 50%. So people like the flat rate, they like knowing how much they're going to
have to pay rather than having to do the math, figuring out the square foot rate. Next slide,
please. So the next question is the other split. So this is the other half of the sample, and this
is the business license. And again, we started at 62.6. And then after the information, we again go
up and this time we're at 64.7, nearly 65 percent in round numbers. Certainly 15 points above the
simple majority threshold gives us a nice cushion even with the margin of error. And like the
parcel tax next slide, we had an alternative which in this case isn't a different rate on the
business license tax but is the vacancy tax that Eric talked about at the beginning and you can
see the wording again here. This one assuming it's a simple majority measure as Eric can, no sorry,
it was a simple majority we thought but then we found out it's two-thirds. So this is at 61%
and you can see that we're not reaching the two-thirds threshold. And then last question,
or second and last question, two more, sorry. This is the AB 1416 list and what that means is
every election, every registrar can decide whether they want to include people on the ballot,
the actual ballot that are supporters and opponents. So in this case, we're testing
the people that might be those supporters and opponents to see which ones are most important
for either side of the coin. At the top of the list you see firefighters, local small business
owners, then police officers, Chamber of Commerce, Alameda County Taxpayers Association,
the mayor and council, and then next slide please. And the next slide is our final question. This
was that forecast on the economy that we talked about. If you focus on the burgundy portion of
it. That's the people that think it's going to be worse. Again, November this year is at the top
bar and it's 54 percent. I think it's going to be worse in the fall in November of 24. That was just
39 percent. So it has gone up significantly with all of the economic trials that have happened
since the survey in 24, it's not surprising. And we see this pattern virtually everywhere,
and 54% is about the middle of the pack. We've seen it in the Bay Area as high as 64,
and probably as low as 46. So you're kind of grouped with most of the cities in the Bay Area
that we've done this same question for. So that's the data that I have for this evening.
can turn it back to Eric. Okay well thank you so much Brian and just to wrap
things up here we appreciate all that insightful information that Brian just
shared in terms of just next steps as well as covering an outreach plan so
based on council direction tonight and and to the extent the council does
authorize additional funding as part of the staff recommendation we'll get to in
a few moments staff is prepared to commence with community outreach and that
could include examples such as things
you see on the sub-bullets there,
community listening sessions with those interested parties
and local stakeholders, distribution of community outreach
and informational flyers.
We could also do some additional non-scientific survey work
through our communications team,
as well as online informational messaging.
And we would also be prepared to, if so directed by you all,
to return to council in maybe the June or July timeframe
with a proposed ballot package for adoption
which would then elevate it to the November ballot.
So just to summarize in conclusion,
our recommendation from the staff level
is that the council direct staff to proceed forward
with the community outreach and engagement efforts
associated with the business license tax in particular.
And that recommendation is based on
the polling results information
that Brian just outlined for us.
And then related to that is also a request
to adopt the resolution that's included in the packet tonight,
which is if adopted would appropriate up to $185,000
to conduct community outreach efforts.
I would also note and as Sherritt stated,
in the staff report, we of course,
as always given our budget circumstances,
we'll do everything to constrain costs,
and to the extent we don't spend that 185,000,
we will of course leave,
or goal would be to leave money on the table
and to restore it to fund balance,
and then that could be channeled through an existing contract.
And that concludes our presentation.
And then I would note that we do still have
Brian Godby on the call for more technical questions
related to the polling results.
And we also have Bonnie Moss from Clifford Moss
available online as well.
And that will wrap things up,
happy to answer your questions.
Thank you so much.
I think what we're gonna do is we're gonna take
public comment on this item and they'll come back
for questions and discussion.
Mayor, we have received one comment card from in the room
and we have two hands raised online.
Please proceed.
In person.
Our in-person comment card is from Sarah Bailey.
Welcome, Council Member Aguilar.
You may be the only person on the dais
who doesn't know how strongly I support
investment in city infrastructure.
A few weeks ago, I asked the mayor and council
to undertake a ballot measure
that supports road repair and public safety.
I told the council then that I thought these two things for what people in
San Leandro cared about the most.
Please vote all of you as city staff recommends to continue community outreach
about a measure that would modify the business license fee.
I want to point out that it actually lowers the fee for most small businesses.
It requires only 50% plus one to pass just like the citizen led measure.
And progress would call that one a Christmas tree
bill with shiny ornaments or specific infrastructure
projects selected in a cynical effort to induce support.
This one wouldn't tie the hands of professional city staff
in public works and engineering.
They prioritize projects by their own intricate scoring
system that's based on the city's named value system,
not by popular vote.
Please vote now with City staff's recommendation.
I'll help get out the word any way I can.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mayor, that concludes the comment cards from in the room.
So we'll close public comment in person.
Please move online.
Our first online speaker is Douglas Spalding.
Well, hello from the virtual land.
let's go, business tax.
It's no secret, the city needs money,
and so I'm right now putting it out in April, no fooling.
The people of San Leandro need to support this measure.
Not only does the city need to move forward,
but then when it's on the ballot,
the people of San Leandro need to vote for this money.
I'm interested in the vacancy tax.
It seems like we're a little ways away from that.
Maybe that requires some work a few years down the road.
What would be interesting to know is how would this stack up against the citizens' measure
that's anticipated that, you know, it would also be on the ballot?
Does that draw votes away from them?
Is it possible that both measures would pass?
I don't know.
I appreciate the citizens' efforts.
I would support their measure except that it doesn't conform to the city's well-publicized
priority list of capital improvement projects, which as Sarah Bailey just pointed out is determined
through a very rigorous rubric. And in contrast, the projects on the citizens list are designed to
just get votes from every one of the districts. In fact, it's antithetical to the priority list
because these are projects
that didn't rank so highly on the priority list.
So in essence, they leapfrog all of the work
that was done by our professionals
and the city of public works
under the guidance of Director Marchesis.
To me, that is undemocratic.
I would venture to say it's unethical.
And as much as I, you know,
I think there's more money coming that way,
I have to say vote against that one.
Vote for the business tax.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next speaker is Alvaro Ramos.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay, so I wanted to, maybe one of your presenters
can provide some more information
on the age of your participants
and the demographics of the sample collected.
I noticed that landlines were a minority
of what was in the sample,
which is probably a good thing because that means,
senior citizens is not the majority maybe,
but we still need to know more about that
because how do we know that the data
is representative of the city population?
And I'm also thinking about communication
within the business license tax.
I think I saw some language thrown around about simplifying
and I'm just wondering, is that flat taxes?
Are we talking about removing tax tiers?
And those are things that have to be talked about.
I mean, I don't know if a parcel tax would pass or not,
maybe if you made the period of time less,
like less than 30 years,
but the polling show there wasn't sufficient support.
And I think there's a lot of unanswered questions
around the vacant property tax.
I mean, I remember from the last presentation,
it kind of felt like it was more about empty housing,
but I don't know if that also is about like empty
storefronts like for businesses or is it gonna,
it could be both.
And then of course there was a concern of legal disputes
with that one.
You know, I think that the one thing that, you know,
that really irks me is that, you know,
based on what I had learned about the city's budget,
that police is like one third of that.
And so if one penny goes to the police,
I would just vote no quite literally
if it was funds for the police.
You just can't have guns and butter.
And I agree with Sarah Bailey on infrastructure needs,
but I also think there needs to be
re-prioritization of funds.
Just as a reminder, taxes are a tool
for steering the economy to stability
and limiting excess demand to control inflation.
And that's what the federal budget failed to do
when Congress passed tax cuts.
Thank you, your time has elapsed.
The next speaker is a phone number ending,
beginning in 134 and ending in 941.
So hi, this is Ginny Madsen again.
And I used to have a landline in San Leandro,
but AT&T took it away, like they take away many of them.
So now I have a cell phone, a crummy cell phone,
but 341 is the new 510.
I was told I could not get a 510 phone number.
So that said, that's enough introduction.
I feel very strongly about the business tax.
In all the cities in California,
and I've lived in a few, particularly in the Bay Area,
everyone is struggling to maintain their infrastructure.
They haven't been able to do it ever since Prop 13 passed.
And what Prop 13 did was give businesses
the same low tax rate.
So most of these cities only get 20% like San Leandro,
only get 20% of their operating budget off of parcel taxes.
That is not the way to go.
And I think the business tax license is a good idea.
I live in the industrial part of town.
I drive past big warehouses all the time.
San Leandro was for many, many, many years,
home of big square footage with hardly any employee businesses. And I think the city
is missing that these these businesses are not supporting the infrastructure. They're
driving on the streets, they're dealing with they're using the city infrastructure and
they need to pay for it. So I feel pretty strongly about this. And thank you for listening
to me again. Thank you. The next speaker is San Leandro Chamber of Commerce. Hi everybody, Emily
Gregor, San Leandro Chamber of Commerce. So this is what I was talking about at one of the last
meetings. Every topic that seems to come up here at City Council is always about the business
community and then the business community has some challenges and we've got to you know do a lot of
advocating to to get the help that they need. So it's just it's a frustrating place to be.
You know our membership does consist of really small businesses and some of the larger businesses
so um and not everybody does reside in San Leandro but their businesses are here so they don't always
have you know a vote in this. I would just like to ask for more outreach to the community.
I would like to also get some more information out to our members. Perhaps they feel like
maybe this is a good thing to keep the city moving forward. I doubt it, but you know, I wish that an
economic plan was really just focused on about how to grow businesses and not just always taxing
them. So if we could find some balance there and get Bayfair up and running with some really great
support and some businesses around there and we could figure out the shoreline and get a business
in the shoreline, which doesn't seem to be happening. That would be fantastic. But you know,
I don't know, there's doesn't seem to be a huge focus on just growing the local businesses and
inviting new ones in for a real strong focus of, you know, 10 years. Instead, they get taxed a lot.
But you know, I would just like to ask that there's more outreach so that we can find
out how the business community is feeling about this.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.
So we close public comment online and come back to council members for questions, discussions,
liberation.
We'll begin with council member bolt.
yes thank you for the presentation a couple of things pop out to me potholes
potholes potholes it's it's no wonder that's where we're always at flat rate
that's that was interesting to understand the difference there so thank
you for that then the other one on slide 23 where it said the least important
people to hear from is us. That stuck out to me. I do have a question about when I
said us, the mayor and the city council, they aren't gonna sway any votes in this.
But slide 18, that was reasons for a no vote, correct? Like at the top it was...
That's correct. Okay, all right. And then, so the way I'm reading this in D, that means
66% are at least somewhat more likely to vote no. If there's not a timeline. If they hear
that argument, that's right. So if they hear the argument that we have zero timeline, you
throughout 30. We'll just go with that. If we don't put a
timeline, a sunset on this tax, they're more likely to vote no.
That's correct. Right. As an individual item. And the
reality, of course, is that they look at the positives and the
negatives not in isolation, but together. And that's why we ask
the second ballot test. So while you see that some of our
positives are much higher, some of these negatives sort of
offset that. And in both cases, the parcel tax and the business
license tax, we got an incremental increase from the
first test, which suggests that the positives are outweighing
the negatives, even though some of the negatives are strong, some
of the positives are equally and actually more stronger.
Understood. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I was just, is that
something typical that you're seeing in the other cities that you do this as
well because I hadn't pinned that down in other areas. Yeah, to simplify it, the
forever tax is almost always the top argument against any municipal measure.
And when we're discussing D, we're talking about a business license tax,
correct? No, that's the entire sample. Burgundy was asked of everybody. Sample A, the green bars
are the parcel tax and the blue bars, sample B, are the business license tax. Oh, okay, all right,
that makes no more sense. Okay, I confused that in my brain and I was interested to hear that. So
So thank you, and that's my question.
Next we'll come to, I see no other questions here.
I do have a couple of questions myself.
So I noticed that some of these are, maybe I should frame it as a question.
Is there a material difference between, so just take the slide that we're on right now.
Is there a material difference between 1.14 and 1.0?
Is that something that's exciting to me?
Does that really matter?
Or all of these are basically statistically the same?
The difference between 1.14 and 1.04
is not statistically significant.
It needs to be a 0.2 difference or greater,
either direction, up or down, for it really
to be statistically significant.
And you can see that when you look at not getting
into the margin of error for the different splits here,
but 66 plus or minus means you gotta be 56,
or in reality more below 56
for it to be statistically significant
because that 5% margin of error is plus or minus.
So that means you need a 10% differential
from high to low for it to be significant.
So everything on slide 18 is essentially tied from a statistical perspective.
There are of course numeric differences and at the end of the day if we're looking at
the positives or the features that we might spend the money on you've got to come up with
an order when we're putting together a measure and so using the order even though it is not
statistically significant has been our rule of thumb for 30 years.
Second question, when we think about critical statements and we are going to do all of this
outreach potentially that we're being asked to consider funding, is the outreach to drill
down into these critical statements or is it for another purpose?
The outreach and I'll let Bonnie comment on this as well, but from a survey perspective,
It's not the critical statements that drive the outreach messaging, it's what are the
top things people want to spend the money on and what are those informational statements,
they're all factually correct, that are at the top of the list and so this would be on
slide 15.
So it's the top four or five at most that we want to focus the informational messaging
on rather than trying to debate back and forth with the critical statements.
Okay, so just if you can drill down into that. Are you saying that because we have a now
slide 15 up on the screen, right? Are you saying that that outreach is to amplify awareness
of these? Well, it's to amplify the awareness of factual components of the measures. Yes,
do it. So elaborate. So just
You know, we're gonna go spend
potentially $200,000. Give me an
example in a day of what you're
doing, Bonnie. You're happy to
do that. And even Good evening,
Mr Mayor and Council members
Bonnie Moss with Clifford Moss.
Um. The way I look at the
The way I look at the poll is that this research helps us by simulating the real conditions
in an actual election window should a measure go to the ballot, so that's why we strive
to understand both the positive informational messages and the negative informational messages.
But as we go out to tell the city's story, we have a responsibility to tell that story
accurately with facts and information and also using this research to help inform that
conversation.
And, of course, our goal is to elevate the exchange that happens with the community.
and we do that through opinion leader work, whether it's meetings, stakeholder meetings,
town hall meetings, individual one-on-one conversations, we do it with direct mail,
we do it with digital, we do it with thought-provoking invitations to weigh in
and ask the community to give us feedback whether online or in a response return
card back to us, but by doing that we find that we get good information. It is not unlike the poll,
but let's remember the poll was with 607 people, not thousands who live in the community.
And we also get to hear what the community is really favoring in all of these different
situations that I've just described. So that's perfect so just to make sure
that I'm understanding so if I'm right now we're looking at slide 15 letter C
which is number number the second item at 1.31 so if I'm understanding you
correctly you will meet with groups of folks and as part of those meetings
you'll say well as part of this measure large corporations and major
commercial businesses not small businesses or single-family homeowners
will pay the largest tax amounts. Tell me about what you think about that and
it's in their verbalization that you will be learning more about this okay
thank you. At this point in time I'm going to come to council member Simon
please. Two questions for you the first one is on this business of this
license tax the amount of revenue isn't very much it's like four to six
million annually? Something like that. 4.3 million additional in addition to what
you currently hear. Right but just comparing that to what our needs are in
the city which are vastly in excess of that. What is our plan? I mean it sounds
like this is a viable solution it's just not enough money. Have we thought about
you know what will this really do to help us out of our infrastructure deal
our infrastructure needs? I'm happy to comment here. Good evening council member. The environment
that you have described just now is reflective of what most cities are struggling with. There will
never be a measure that solves all of their challenges and problems and meets all of their
needs in one measure. And so, most cities, and San Leandro fits this profile as well,
simply need to go out for a measure, do what they say they're going to do, earn the support
from the community, perform and keep their promises that were suggested in the measure,
And then go back out for another measure and leverage that more.
We just simply do not see a lot of measures or a lot of communities who are willing to
do one mega measure in a community to meet every need in one fell swoop.
We just don't see it.
Thank you.
And my second question has to do with the vacancy tax.
And it looks attractive from the polling like it would pass if we proposed it.
However, it looks complex, like we it would be difficult to administer.
So I'm curious, I mean, we can get the support for it, it looks like, and it makes a lot
of sense because it brings in money and it removes blight from the community, two things
it takes care of.
Is there a way that we can, even if we don't have the solution right now, how to administer
it but we can get approval for it and we will figure this out how to administer it.
Brian do you want to comment on? Yeah from a polling perspective we get 61 percent we need
two-thirds and the margin of error is plus or minus uh sticks in this case so we could be at
59, we could also be at 67, it's unlikely we're at 67. In most of these revenue measures that we
go put on the ballot, we're within the margin of error on election day, but it's usually on the
downside. So I would say that the vacancy tax is actually not viable at the two-thirds level.
If it could be a simple majority measure, it's a different story.
Okay I hear you I'm looking at an older slide my bad no what no worries thank you
at this point we will come to vice mayor. Thank you to the team who put all of this together
I definitely see our input in the presentation. I have a question regarding I'm just looking
ahead in the funding horizon and the question is if this were to go to the ballot assuming best
case scenario the voters approve. When does this actually hit the books in
terms of fiscal year? Brian or Bonnie, feel free to chime in but my
understanding on the implementation timeline for the business license taxes
after they once the vote has taken place and it's affirmed through the
official election results and the council has accepted those results that
That is sufficient authorization to implement.
That's correct, I would say.
And, but the parcel tax is a little bit different.
The parcel tax has to be placed on the tax rolls.
So you can't start collecting that as soon
because the county assessor's got to put it on the tax bill
for fiscal 27-28, not 26-27.
that would take longer for a parcel tax?
So, let me just clarify my question.
I was specifically, and I'm sorry to not make it clear,
I was specifically asking regarding the business license tax
because there was talk about streamlining
the business license tax, which means kind of,
there's implementation time on the back end.
So again, the question is, if a business license tax
were to be approved by the voters,
do we have an estimated fiscal year
or when it would actually hit the books?
What I would say is typically our standard protocol here
is business license tax invoices go out
in January timeframe and that's when they would go out.
So presumably also typical certification deadlines
for elections is well prior to that
and after the election November election.
As to whether or not we would be able to implement that
that January outgoing I would think so I think if I may I think we would begin to
see the revenue start coming in in fiscal year this next fiscal year right
it would start coming in in January February you know and then throughout I
think we would really see the effects of a full year the following so we're just
to be clear we're looking at a I'm just thinking about looking ahead what's
before us in terms of council decisions on the budget, really, it would be a nominal
increase to the fiscal year. So we're looking at the current fiscal year. So we're looking
at the same kind of variables in terms of that decision.
My other question was regarding a possible citizen proposal
and its interaction with this.
Has that been part of the analysis
in terms of what if both of them are voted positively,
if both of them pass?
I guess we don't know what they're doing, so.
No.
Yeah.
OK.
Thank you, Ms. Maria, because the citizen initiative staff
is not involved in it.
Okay, I'm just wondering if that having that on the ballot
at the same time would change
what our probability looks like in terms of passing it.
I mean, it sounds like the business license tax
has a lot of kind of leeway and a lot of slack,
so to speak.
I'm just worried that if there's two,
that folks might just be like, no to everything.
My analysis of that, and again, as Eric said,
we're not privy to the Citizens Initiative,
but to the extent that it is a property-based tax,
I think it's similar to the parcel tax that we tested here.
Now, this was a parcel tax
that the city would sponsor in the survey,
but it only got 56% in round numbers,
second test with a 6% margin of error.
So it could easily be below a 49% threshold.
The business license tax, of course, got 65%
with a 6% margin of error.
It's at 59.
So it has a cushion.
I would say, and Bonnie Kekama and us too,
confusion is our enemy.
And confusion will result in both measures
getting less than we were looking at here
if they were on the ballot at the same time.
I think that means a property tax type measure
probably fails and we could probably,
if we do our job, the business license tax
could be successful because it just has a bigger question.
Thank you.
I agree with that.
Council Member Aguilar.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Steph, for that presentation.
My question is with regards to the business license tax.
For every, what is it?
1.25 for every thousand dollars of grocery seats. Did we did we toy around with?
Increasing that number of
1.5
To see just to try to maximize. I'm just trying to understand. How do we come up with that 1.25 numbers?
Thank You council member I can I can share with you some of the background on this we
Were aware we're as always we're always looking at what other adjacent and other cities neighboring jurisdictions here
in the East Bay and an Alameda County are doing. The city of Union City in a
recent election cycle just went through a similar exercise with a business
license tax modernization and so the structure that's before us here largely
mirrors that one although I would share that that rate in Union City is actually
slightly lower. I believe there's this like a dollar a dollar per thousand
square foot I'm sorry a dollar per thousand dollars of gross annual receipts
in Union City which when you do the math that that markedly reduces that
figure of additional revenue we're seeking and so it was kind of a
balancing to see you know we certainly mirroring the structure made sense
because Union City has a well-tested model in terms of the structure. Needed
to recognize though we also needed a measure in order to make the juice worth
to squeeze a larger rate and this 3.8 to 4.3 million dollars would also make a
a market beneficial impact to the city's general fund bottom line and also helping to mitigate
our ongoing structural deficit and then also again providing you know potentially more
funds annual funds to provide the important services that our community members rely upon.
Got it thank you and with regards to the the vacancy tax I know we don't have any financial
numbers do we have some sort of ballpark estimate what this could
potentially I mean the numbers are you know with the margin of error it may or
may not pass but with the revenue estimates not presently available do we
have like a ballpark figure as to what this could potentially bring in we did
and we you know in order to have done the survey work they had to in the
question to make a valid question had to include a dollar amount and so we did
that based on based on the experience in Oakland and you know acknowledging that
if we were to go down this route we would certainly engage an expert in this
area spend the money to get the you know a more accurate projection but we based
it on the you know a comparison to the number of parcels assumed the same
vacancy rate in Oakland to what we have here and then extrapolated to to the
amount shown and the other piece had add on to what does deputy city manager
Colson to shared knowing that the per state law the ballot language just talks
about how much total revenue it's going to derive in a given year but it's not
taking this number is not taking into account all the costs of what I call a
basically an overhead which is unique with this tax because we literally would
have to hire staff to administer it and to have that appeals process, identification
of the parcels, a notification process in the business or any property owner has
the ability to contest it and say no no I'm not actually vacant for XYZ
reason, identify reasons that are eligible and then provide a hearing
officer if they want to appeal that decision so there's quite a lot to that
for context in Oakland I think they have three and a half FTE administering
their program now on a net basis Oakland is still it is still a net revenue
generator for the city of Oakland but one has to basically this three million
dollars you have to take that with a pretty heavy grain of salt knowing that
a good chunk of that is going to be basically offset by the cost of
administration of the tax and that's what's just complex makes this
particular tax more complicated than all the others thank you for that
explanation I think those are those are my questions thank you councilmember
Aguilar thank you mayor and thank you for the presentation this evening I want
to drill back into methodology a little bit adjacent to mayor Gonzalez so on
slide 8 just to throw that up there real quick I think an important statistic
that matters to me at least in how I see this presentation how I see the data
that you've presented is something that's in the footnote that I don't see
on here. Can you tell me a little bit about the age spread of those 607 folks? I mean, historically,
18 to 25 is a group that doesn't turn out as much as, at least we're seeing climb a little bit,
but with the reality that standing under residence, at least the voting population,
is an older population. So I just want to get a good idea on the spread of age in your methodology.
Yeah, sure, good question.
Just at an overall level, the sample is stratified
and then weighted based on 14 different variables,
including gender, age, ethnicity, presence of children,
education, homeowner status,
and let's see, as well as individual party,
household party, gender composition, voting frequency, as well as city council district,
which is really important because that's geographic. But to answer your question directly,
it is weighted to the likely voter universe by age 18 to 29 is 10% and I'm rounding 30 to 39
is 16%, 40 to 49 is 15%, 50 to 64 is 26% and 65 plus is 33%.
And I'll just add that one of the reasons why
we appreciate God be research is they put so much attention
on creating a mirror image of who we expect
to turn out in a November election here in this case.
So it matches like a mirror the demographics of who votes in San Leandro.
Fantastic.
Thank you.
That was my one question.
Thank you.
At this point, we'll go to Council Member Simon.
Yeah, I wanted to follow up on the vacancy tax again, so much of Council Member Aguilar.
understand the numbers don't look positive based upon that slide 61%
compared to the two-thirds that are necessary but my what I really like about
it and I heard it from my colleagues before is it just cleans up cleans up
our city we have a lot of blight in our city and this is not just bringing in
money but it's it's helping to improve the look of our city which can help us
in so many other ways so my question is if we if we did move forward with a
business license tax. If we went for this one at the same time, even though the cushion wasn't
there or it didn't look very likely, what would we have to lose if we're already going out for
measure if we went with one that had so much benefit to our city? I'm happy to comment on that
by simply saying we're in a very turbulent economic and political environment.
And that's one of the reasons why we are recommending the early listening and pre-electoral
conversation. So we can certainly have that conversation in the pre-electoral window.
One of the risks of public agencies putting on more than one measure that are sponsored by that
public agency is that voters may misinterpret the measure and say, well, they're just, they want to
go for it all. So we're not in the mood for that. And we're voting no on everything that can happen
in this environment. So we would say if there is interest still in both understanding where the
numbers lie today that we would really be including that in part of the conversation
with voters and community prior to coming back to you with a final final recommendation. I mean we
want to listen and we want to share with you the council what we've heard but there is some risk
to doing that. Thank you yeah I do see the risk I hear it. I mean I do see the business license
tax where it would get a lot of support because it's not impacting the normal voter. It's
impacting the business so they'll likely vote for it because it doesn't impact them. And
I can see the vacancy tax in the same way where they don't have a vacant property so
they'll probably vote for it. I'm just trying to, I see a parallel in those two and I don't
see it in your numbers up there just in how someone would think through this.
That's pretty good. Brian,
what do you think? Yeah, I
think that you're correct that
there is a similarity between
the 65% we got on the second
test of the business license
and the 61 for the vacancy.
But again, the thresholds are
what it's all about. The
business license is a 50 plus
1. So it's a 15 point cushion.
a five, six point deficit.
So I just don't think you're gonna,
even though voters, the average voter
doesn't pay a vacancy tax,
we're not gonna move the needle six points
to get it over there.
It's just not gonna happen.
Okay, I just, I mean, I see that the theme here
is just cleaning up our city.
And I would really hope we would get more support
from our community.
I mean, your numbers aren't showing it,
but I really hope that these wouldn't tear each other apart
and neither would pass, but we're in need of money.
We really are.
And I'm concerned we're not going for enough.
Thank you.
Coming to Vice Mayor.
I don't have any more questions or comments.
I actually wanted to move forward with a motion,
but I know- Please do.
I didn't know if you wanted to have some.
All right, I'd like to make a motion to direct staff
to proceed with community outreach and engagement efforts
associated with exploring the viability
of a business license tax modernization
and adopt a resolution that appropriates up to 185,000
to conduct community outreach
and authorizing an amendment
to the existing consulting services agreement
with Clifford Moss.
Council Member Aguilar.
I'll second.
Okay, so we have a motion from Councilman from Vice Mayor
Lovato-Sawalton
The second by Councilmember Aggie-Ladd. Is there any further discussion?
Seeing none, please vote.
All votes are in and the motion carries unanimous
unanimously with six yeses and the council member Bowen absent
Okay at this point time we will take a 10-minute recess
For our 9 o'clock hour and we will be back at 10 minutes from now per the timer
on the clerk's clock
We are officially in recess
Okay, so having exhausted our break
We are back and the time that we were coming back on the record is 9 19 at this point in time. We move to item
10 D
discussion to consider restorative justice mediation for the Council and
Councilmember Simon you have the floor. I wanted to bring this item forward this
was in the middle of the discipline hearings that we were having and we
heard this from the public too how restorative justice mediation would be a
good way to help resolve issues early on and resolve them more effectively and
And just wanted to read something here
about restorative justice mediation.
What it does, it helps restore gaps in empathy,
trust and respect between professionals
and those they deal with in the workplace
and calls attention to the need for more strategic
and practical ways of addressing interpersonal conflict.
Restorative justice is an evidence-based practice
commonly used in education and criminal justice context
that focuses on bringing individuals
with ongoing conflict or tension into direct mediation,
focusing on the seemingly illusionary idea of closure,
restorative justice forges through discussions
of how people impact one another,
with the night towards recognizing
and tending to wounds that have arisen.
Restorative justice mediation focuses on accountability,
healing, and prevention as part of the iterative process.
So that's kind of a concept in a nutshell
of what it's about.
And there are different groups throughout the Bay Area
that provide this type of mediation training.
In Berkeley, there's at least two of them,
agencies that provide this type of mediation.
And one thing that I think,
or actually total of three things
that I recommend we do as a city or as a council.
One is that we implement this retortive justice mediation
but we implement it in the process
of updating our discipline policy
because they go hand in hand.
You have to have the restorative justice
melded into that discipline policy.
But those two take staff time and they take costs.
So I recognize that.
And we just had a workshop looking at cost savings
and this did not rise to the level, the discipline policy.
But the third thing I think we can do,
and I'd like to move this item tonight,
which doesn't require cost,
is to take down the online discipline items
that have been up, some of them for two years now,
and the items of interest under the city clerk's page,
items one, four, and five.
Because those items do not lend to us moving forward.
Okay so just very quickly on the last item, I'm going to come to city attorney because
I don't think that's agendized so I don't think we can talk about that today but I'm
just going to get a read from city attorney.
That's correct that's not agendized but the council could provide direction to agendize
it for future meeting.
Okay thank you.
So just if you don't mind I've got three things you said there were three points one is to
possibly implement restorative justice mediation during a discipline policy
update and then I had this last item what was your number two item well the
first was the council agreeing that restorative justice mediation is needed
thank you second is it's needed however it must be implemented as part of the
discipline policy that's number two and the third is I'll make that motion for
us to discuss that later perfect thank you I appreciate the clarification other
questions for councilmember Simon okay I'll ask one other I'll ask one of the
quick question the distinction between restorative justice mediation and just
mediation I don't have a direct answer for that okay vice mayor please yes
Thank you. That actually does was part of my question because it's my and I
don't have that in front of me but it's my understanding that that part of the
disciplinary process does involve some sort of mediation on behalf of the mayor.
Am I misreading that? Am I misremembering? I can bring people together to have a
discussion like I have individual conversations with people. Right, right.
Okay, so it's not so it's mediation but not restorative mediation because restorative me. Okay, I I understand
I
I
Don't have questions. I have comments. So this is the time for questions
Any other questions at this time before going to public comment?
Okay, seeing none. Let's take public comment. Okay councilmember Aggie lad, please
talking more about this and thinking about it, so the
Considering we start of justice mediation for the council. I my question is how
How would this be I think
Based on there that as Wilson had mentioned, but how would this be?
handled is this gonna be through a third party or is this
For the mayor to kind of get involved in or
Hire a consultant
May I answer that? Please proceed. Thank you. Yes. There's I've been doing some research online and there's several
agencies in
Berkeley that run this and have done it for a number of years a UC Berkeley in particular does it for Berkeley?
But there's some other
agencies that do it and they have training that they advertise in mediation for other agencies or corporate corporate
different companies
So that's I would recommend we would outsource that when the need arise, okay. Thank you. That's my question
councilmember bolt I
think you just answered my question, but this would only be in a scenario where it's
councilmember to councilmember
And and at that point we would look to hire
outside staff to do remediation
Please proceed. Yes
and this would be part of a
Tool bucket we have to use not guaranteed. We're going there
But this is something, you know, we can vote on as a council and say
Why don't we try this method first before?
something else
Yes, okay
Okay at this point we'll come to councilmember Aguilar
So I don't know if this is a question for council member Simon or mayor you can help me direct my question
But my thought for right now as I have other thoughts is around this idea of having that third-party mediator is
my question is do we as a council take ownership over the decision on who that person is or
What does that look like? I just want to throw that out into the air because that could also
Take some time for discussion that could also take an extended
conversation beyond
When and where and the details that's that's something that concerns me about this is who is it?
That's running the the process and so I know you have suggestions. I know you have an idea of who that might be but my concern is
Where how does that process happen? So first of a few questions. I think I have for now
If you could just go ahead and leave your mic on, okay. Yeah, I would say when we're updating the discipline policy
this is something that we could flush out and
perhaps we
could
have someone on call
Every year every two years that we have vetted different companies and they're ready to go if we need them
Is that the only question? Okay. Perfect coming back to vice mayor
Thank you I guess I'm I was under the assumption that this was that the
restorative justice mediation
based on the background on the
On the background on the on meeting central it is specific to
The
investigation and
The subsequent disciplinary hearing it was specific to that process
What I'm hearing now is more of the it's not related to that
but just to have something on deck in the future
so I'm confused because the the background is is is specific to that
whole cycle of events and subsequent disciplinary hearing and action
Can you clarify if this is a time and point?
mediation or what are you proposing is to
not do
mediation regarding to that specific is not an S in it but more of a
anyway to that
Situation or are you saying that's no longer the case you just want to have someone on deck or an organization on deck to mediate future
conflicts that arise
Yeah, that's what I'm leaning towards is future I think if the council so chooses we can do this for the past
Incidents that have occurred we can do that
But I see more value and the staff
Time that we've got it's pretty stretched thin
That will could help us
Resolve future issues more effectively than we have done in this past one
Okay, so if what we're looking at then is
The scope has now changed and we as a council then want to have a
Restorative justice mediation approach or
Philosophy towards conflict resolution. I believe that should go to Rules Committee
Because if it is to be included in terms of our our official approach that we want to take to conflict mediation
As it stands right now there's not enough there there for me to
To do that because that means we have to submit an RFP have
Organizations or
Folks who specialize in this submit the RFP. I mean it staff time
It's staff time to do the work to get someone on deck
Just in case something else comes up
I
I'm not there yet
So before going into too much commentary would like to do is take quick public comment and then come back for council members to share their
their views on this
Mayor we've not received any comment cards in the room. However, there are two hands raised online
Okay, I think we are receiving one in the room. So let's proceed online first
Our first online speaker is Douglas Spaulding
well, hello, dear friends, I've been advocating for a
restorative approach to
issues that have
Been ongoing on the council now for more than a year
To respond the question of how does restorative meat? How is restorative mediation distinct from mediation?
Mediation I think of as a negotiation for example me
Me
Negotiating with my ex about how much I'm gonna pay her to buy her off of my title
Restorative mediation focuses on harms that are done
It's more akin to truth and reconciliation, which has been done
successfully on big big scales, but I think can also be done on
the scale of just the City Council. I don't think of this as a process that is between
two or more council members. I think of it as a process that is among all of you as a
council. In other words, all of you are sitting in the circle and contributing and expressing
all of the harms that you felt and really trying to hear what the harms that have been
done to other people. It turns out that Council Member Aguilar probably is the best trained
among you in conflict resolution of this type. But he shouldn't do it, nor should the mayor.
It should be a third party. I think you need it for the current circumstances. And I would
counsel you to give it a try and try it and see if you like it and if it's effective.
And then if it's effective, then maybe think about adopting it into your, you know, crimes
You know, I think the first
step is that someone else in
addition to council member
Simon needs to call up and get
more information.
I know there's a concern about
closed session, private
process, and you can't do this
in open session.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your time has elapsed.
Our next speaker online is Bob
Bailey.
Hello, Council, Mayor et al.
I'm speaking on this in part because I
have a background in mediation, a past president of two
community-based mediation organizations,
both in Berkeley and San Francisco.
First of all, I think it should be clear
that it requires third-party neutral to mediate.
So you're on the right track there.
think the idea of mediating as a group, frankly, is not what restorative justice mediation
is usually designed for. It's to when there's a claim of harm caused by one individual to
another, then the idea is to bring in the third party. And what makes it restorative
justice, it's about healing and trying to repair the harm. That means preconditions
for entering into any kind of restorative justice mediation requires that it be voluntary
for both parties, that it be confidential, that it be respectful.
But particularly important is that it's about the party who has been accused of producing
the harm has to accept responsibility for the impact of their actions.
Not having to, you know, it's not about whether they intended the harm or not, but they have
to accept responsibility for the impact of their behavior.
And then the intent of the mediation is to seek a remedy that addresses that harm.
So I hope that's helpful.
I would think it does make sense if you do change your disciplinary process procedures
For the council that this be one of the options available for the parties involved. Thank you
Thank you
Mayor there are no more hands raised online so we'll close online public comment. We will open in person public comment
We've received one comment card from Jeff
Thank You council members
I'm gonna speak to Fred directly. I don't think you've
presented something that's worth consideration it's a vapid. I'm going to ask you. I'm sorry to be rude, but
We try not to direct to specific comments to specific people if you wouldn't mind addressing the body. Thank you
proposal has been presented without any supporting evidence
the
part that Fred presented today
appeared to be nearly word-for-word Google AI for those three terms together.
I think the questions that are asked by the council members here support the idea that
there's just no information.
This is a really vapid presentation.
Frankly, I think it's still a vague responsibility.
That's all I have to say.
you mayor there are no more comment cards so we will close public comment in
person and we'll come back to council members for discussion if there's any
kind of motion you know I'll certainly look to to council to initiate a
suggestion councilmember Simon we begin with you first I'll make a motion for
future discussion to take down the online online discipline items from the
items of interest website. Councilmember Aguilera. I'll second. And next as far as
so we're gonna take that motion right we've got a motion on the floor we've
got a motion by councilmember Simon to adjust the information on the website
under I believe it's called items of interest is that correct okay so what
questions if any do council members have for council member Simon okay at this
point in time council vice mayor please so this is for future discussion was
there a submittal of any kind of background information on this follow our
process I want to come to city manager thank you mr. mayor thank you vice
Vice Mayor this item is coming as a question to the council within a different item so
there is no previous process that is required for the council to consider agendizing this
question on a future item. Okay. I'm not supportive of it. It's pure on process. There's a format
and a process that we follow. We want to have something agendized. Submit a proposal. Send
to the city manager and then we talk about it at the end of the meeting and then if we have the
votes to do that, I don't think this is the right process. It's two totally different things.
So I'm not supportive of it just based on process and how it's being presented kind of nested in
between another issue that is not necessarily related. I'm going to come to the city attorney
because how how is this related to the topic of restorative justice mediation
because it seems to be that otherwise you can agenda it's you can offer a
motion on any topic so I'm just trying to get the nexus to restorative justice
mediation I'd probably defer to council member on on how he views the nexus in
terms of this particular process you know it it seems to fall outside the
counsel's typical procedure I will just note that there can't really be any
substantive discussion on the substance of the request to agenda eyes it's just
procedural so all of my comments for that okay I think I know what you see
from the chair here is I am struggling because this item talks about restorative
justice mediation it does not talk about our city website it does not talk about
a prior investigation so councilmember Simon I will afford you the opportunity
to try to make a connection this point in time to what's been agendized for the
public sure I think restorative justice mediation it looks at a different method
to solve problems to solve issues rather than punitive discipline rather
than harsh discipline and I think that posting the investigations on the
websites for up to two years is the opposite of restorative justice. I think
that it doesn't help heal anything by having it up there so that's the nexus
is we want to heal things on our council and I think having a discussion on
pulling that down is one step to helping us heal which is part of restorative
justice so I would request that we could take a vote please okay so I'm
gonna come back to you you had told the council earlier that as you were
thinking about restorative justice it was about something going forward and
that that was your intention and now I'm a hearing emotion that's not directly
related to restorative justice but it points backwards so again I'm gonna come
back to City Attorney and ask given the descriptions provided thus far is this
an agenda item it is not part of it is not this agenda item okay this is a
request for a future agenda item so what we're gonna do is we're going to take
this item under item 12 is it and item 11 and we'll explore how that's being
handled there because it's it's not part of this agenda item I believe you had a
second motion that you wanted to make yeah the second motion is to and I would
agree with vice mayor to bring this to rules to have a discussion how to
implement restorative justice mediation into our discipline policy so that's my
motion I'm gonna go to councilmember Aguilar point of order clarification I
can't comment on the last motion because you put that under 11 correct yes okay
then I'll wait for that thank you councilmember bolt now I'm getting
confused where are we at what are we doing right now what are we going
backwards there's currently a motion to take the to have a restorative justice
mediation the possibility of incorporating restorative justice
mediation within our discipline policy to have that discussion occur at rule
So it's kind of a motion to move this discussion to rules as we contemplate our discipline
policy.
I'm going to stop and ask is that a fair summary council member Simon yes and going forward
adding is a toolbox for future issues that may arise so that's the motion do you have
a second for that not currently I will second taking this conversation to rules okay council
council member Aguilar. I was going to second but thank you. Okay I get a sense
that we will have consensus on this but let's let's just kind of take a quick
poll if it's just moving this to rules so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna have
unity it appears so maybe we need to take one moment please. Okay so I think
that we're going to go ahead and take a vote. I just thought maybe we could get
a quick quick unanimous consent sort of thing but we can't. So let's go ahead and
vote on this motion to take this discussion as laid out by Councilmember
Simon. Move the discussion to rules. Please vote. All votes are in and the
motion carries with six sorry five yes votes and vice mayor
abstaining and councilmember Bowen absent and so coming back to councilmember
Simon does that close out your item yes okay so we have item 10 D closed and we
and they're moving on to item 11.
And we had any item 11s submitted city manager.
Just because you're not on a mic,
I will repeat that the answer was no, no, sir.
So the answer is no.
By our process, then we move to item number 12,
city council reports, calendar and announcements.
It appears council vice mayor, please.
I wanted to thank staff for a fantastic ribbon-cutting
of our farmer's market at the library.
It was a rainy day that was cold,
and we still had a lot of people that came to the market.
And also for folks out there, there's
a whole bunch of new food options at the farmer's market.
So there's a couple of the old favorites,
but there are some cool new options.
So if you're hearing, please join us every week
at the farmer's market.
And then I'm also planning on doing some tabling sessions
at the farmer's market.
I'll make sure to announce them publicly.
I have them every year since I started,
and that's the end of my comment.
Thank you, Council Member Aguilar.
Thank you, Mayor.
I just wanted to have a word of appreciation
for the Council, Mayor and staff for a really warm welcome.
In the last couple of weeks,
I've been meeting with folks in the city staff
on Council for advice and how do I do this, right?
But nonetheless, I've gotten such a warm and inviting
and lovely welcome and I appreciate that
from the bottom of my heart.
And so I'm looking forward to working on this team
because I know we have a lot of work to do, right?
And I'm looking forward to being a part
of those conversations and helping to push
the conversations forward,
helping us really enforce governance
and protocol procedure
because that's the world I come from.
But in addition, I also wanted to say
just a shout out to the business community.
I went to the taste of San Leandro just the other night.
And that was lovely.
And I hadn't realized how many great diverse options there
are in our city and what that says about us as a city
and who our people are, who our business community is,
who makes up San Leandro.
And so you'll see me ask data questions just related
to that, like I did today on methodology,
is who are we having these conversations with?
who are we gathering data from,
that's important to my worldview.
But just otherwise, a gratefulness
and a thank you for the welcome
and I'm looking forward to doing the work.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you.
Councilmember Aguilar.
Thank you, Mayor Gonzalez.
On Wednesday, March 11th,
I attended the 1,145th meeting of the Board of Trustees
of the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District.
We passed a resolution to honor our county
at large trustee, Kathy Roach.
We also move forward with the dissolution,
dissolution of the ad hoc policy review committee.
We also appointed an ad hoc manager evaluation committee
for our general manager.
We also approved replacement of a 2015 Nissan Frontier,
four by four with a leased 2026 Nissan Frontier four by two.
We also went through the state of California
master mutual aid agreement.
And with regards to our lab reports,
surveillance in February, 2026 indicates
Alameda County remains in a low winter season
public health risk period.
Arbovirus testing for West Nile virus,
St. St. Louis encephalitis virus and Western equine encephalitis virus remains negative across all birds and
Mosquito, so the collections were dominated by kulix tercelus and kulis seta
Inorata the species that commonly remain active during winter conditions, so that I have no 80s Egypti
To report or that were detected during February and
No, West now virus to report. I also wanted to touch base on
The National Naked City's conference. I attended that March. Oh
I have it on my counter
anyways, I attended National Naked City's conference and DC with my some of my fellow colleagues to
advocate for for federal funding we got to meet with
staffers from
Council with congressman Latifah Simon's office and
congressman Eric Swalwell's office and I attended the
ITC meeting
LGBTQ meetings and various sessions at the national neo-cities conference. So that's that concludes my report
Thank You councilmember Simon, please
yes, I also wanted to give a shout out to the local businesses like
James councilmember James Aguilar as I went to the taste of San Leandro last Thursday night
It was an incredible event to see so many different businesses and sample. They're great foods and great great
Beverages, it was very nice event and met a lot of people a lot of people from the city staff were there
Community members were there. Of course business was there. It was a wonderful event
I'd encourage I would encourage everyone to go out next year. It was really good. I
I also attended the National League of City Conference
with my colleagues, March 14th through 18th.
One of the good programs I went to
was a opening session for the youth program.
And it was really, really exciting
to see high school students from around the country
that were presenting their involvement
with local government.
And there was youth here from right from the Bay Area,
one from South San Francisco, another one from Novato,
and just hearing how the youth are making the voices
of the community, making policy stronger
from the youth level and hoping that we can perhaps
do that here too in San Leandro.
I also went to a session on looking at solutions
to help in homelessness that was very powerful.
Also using housing as an economic development tool.
And it was really great to meet our representatives,
Senator Padilla's representatives and shifts
to help bring in money for some of our projects,
such as the Llewellyn Boulevard,
multimodal safety and complete streets project.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Council Member Bolt, please.
Yes, thank you, Mayor.
I would just quickly say I also attended
the taste of Sadly Andrew.
It was a great event, there were a lot of good options
and I appreciated the business community coming out
and sharing that with everybody in one place
and giving us the opportunity to really look
into seeing they're going to their facilities.
And a lot of them I had been to before,
but it was neat to be there and hear the conversations
around what they're doing next.
with the appointment to EBITDA, East Bay Discharge Authority.
On the 17th, I did my first operations
and maintenance committee,
understanding the role that EBITDA plays
and all the different aspects that go into what they do
along with the overall commission meeting,
So the 17th and 19th and then on the 24th,
I took a tour of San Leandro's facility down at Davis.
Really enjoy the opportunity to learn about this
and uphold our values on that committee.
I will be working hard and making sure
that what we're doing is legit and in line
and any opportunities we have
To support what we do here in the city is a really important role that I didn't, you
know, just going through this.
How much goes into it is amazing.
The amount of water they move is just insane.
And I will be setting up another tour because it consists of a lot of other areas in the
East Bay, so more to come on that and how we can help support them.
And that's it
councilman perky letter
Thank you, Mary. I'd like to inform the public that I will not be at the April
Monday April 20th meeting because I will be on the flight in
Flight from Hawaii back to Oakland during that time. So I will not be able to attend in person
Thank you for that
Okay, so just for me quickly to wrap us up
Remind folks that we have state of the city on April 28th
Doors open at 6 at the San Leandro Senior Center. So it's not about I've said about three weeks from now
I sit on the Bay Area Equality Management District and one of the things that we have been focused on is
Streamlining the permitting process and making sure that we can keep driving
Economic development within the nine Bay Area County region
Like my colleagues I attended the National League of Cities
In mid-march. I think we were highly successful at moving along
Our two requests are now sitting at the appropriations committee. So thank you to all the council members
For the good work
East Bay EDA East Bay Economic Development Association
Had awards last week that we attended in to San Leandro companies were recognized fuse technologies
based here right at Catty Corner to Kaiser for their work in the fusion space and be three investors for the
Work that they have done to revitalize revitalize and transform
Spaces and so, you know, it's a good night for San Leandro. We were proud
Attended an Alameda County Transportation Committee, but I want to focus on a specific element namely the Central County connection
It was a sub meeting that we had.
So there is a corridor running along Llewellyn
all the way out into Castro Valley.
And ACTC has been focused on how to make it more accessible
for pedestrians and bicyclists.
And there's a discussion about different projects
that are going to be prioritized in that corridor.
And it afforded us as commissioned members
that are within that region to provide some feedback
sure that the work that Public Works does is aligned with the work that we're doing
and so that we're coordinated and making sure that we're being responsive to resident needs.
A fun activity was attending the Coca-Cola bottling plant. They invited all of us to
attend. I did carve out a little bit of time to go visit and take a picture with a FIFA
trophy. And that was fun. Councilmember Bowen was there as well. A taste of San Leandro.
I'm glad that so many people made it.
I was not able to make it,
but my wife and I were able to sponsor.
Last couple of things,
there are significant number of commissions
in Alameda County that are desperately in need
of folks to volunteer to serve,
whether it's the Commission on Aging,
or I don't know about the Veterans Commission,
if you have openings,
I regularly get a list of commissions,
and perhaps, city manager,
maybe we can even put the list up on the city website
or someplace, just because there are so many opportunities
to get connected and to offer your talents and experiences.
And all I can tell you is when I go to the mayor's meeting,
there's always openings.
They're always looking for people to support.
And so I know we've got a lot of talented people
and the opportunity is there.
Okay, so I'm gonna just close by,
I know this is the Easter, we've got Passover,
Ramadan finished not too long ago.
It's kind of a, just a heavy religious time of year
for many members of our community.
And so in recognition of all that,
and really hoping that those religious focused celebrations
help to drive peace and healing,
not just here in the United States,
but really around the world.
So in the search for peace,
we're gonna adjourn in the name of peace.
Have a wonderful evening, and the time is 10.01.