Okay, it's seven o'clock and I'm calling to order the City Council meeting stand later City Council today is Monday
May 18th and it's like I said 7 p.m. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance
So at this point in time if we could have I
Guess I'll do my announcement first. So today we've got the swearing-in of an appointee
It's under section 10a. I'd like to move it to the section for recognitions if there are no
concerns seeing no concerns we will make that adjustment to our agenda and
See the city of San Leonardo connects orderly meetings with Phillips mandate discriminatory statements or conduct that would potentially violate the federal Civil Rights Act of
1964 and or the California Fair Employment and Housing at California penal code sections for three or four fifteen
Our per se disruptive meeting and will not be tolerated. Please see the City Council handbook and City Council meeting rules of decorum for more
information
Madam clerk
Thank you mayor
for purposes of our roll call
Vice mayor the various Walton
present
Councilmember James Aguilar present councilmember Victor Aguilar
President thank you. Councilmember Fred Simon present Councilmember Suha Bowen
present thank you. Councilmember Dylan Bolt here and Mayor Gonzalez present
thank you. Now for our public comment announcement. If you would like to make a
public comment during the meeting you can do so in person or via zoom. If you
present at the meeting please complete a speaker card and submit it to the city
clerk before the item is presented then wait for public comment on that item to
be called. 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 on
items not on the agenda which will take place under item 7 public comments as
as per the published agenda.
After the time is up, the council will proceed
with the rest of the meetings agenda.
If you have not had the opportunity to speak
during the initial 30 minute period,
there will be another chance to do so
after item 12, City Council reports.
So we did not have a closed session today,
so there is no item three to consider.
For item number four, we've got our 10A recognition,
motion to appoint and Rickson to the Senior Commission. We already took public comment
during the nomination process. Are there any questions or follow ups on this item? Seeing
none, I believe that we can move straight to a vote. So if you would please vote. Let
me ask a city attorney, do we need a like another motion in addition to the nomination
that could before?
Yes, we do.
Okay.
Can I please have a motion?
So moved.
And who was that?
That's Councilmember Bowen, right?
Yes.
Thank you.
Vice Mayor.
Second.
Okay, so we've got a motion by Bowen, second by Vivatos Walton.
Now please vote.
Councilmember Bowen, may we have your vote, please?
Yes.
Thank you.
All votes are in.
And the motion.
Motion.
Motion.
Motion carries successfully. At this point I would we please move to the
swearing in. So if you could just raise your right hand and repeat after me. I
please state your name. I Anne Rickson. Do solemnly swear or affirm. Do solemnly
swear. 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 the Constitution of the state of California
and the Constitution of the state of California 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
purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge that I will
well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter the duty upon which I
am about to enter congratulations thank you and thank you mayor city council for confirming and
then um voting me in thank you I really am looking forward to helping the seniors of our city
Okay, so now we are going to celebrate National Police Week,
and we've got two recipients here today.
Jose Sanchez and Ruth Canizal Villalobos.
Did I say that right? Villalobos, yes.
Where are you?
Are you in the back?
You can't receive it back there!
Come on up.
Welcome, welcome.
How are you guys?
Doing well?
Yes, about 10 seconds.
Right here, right here, right here.
Either way, whatever we want to do to this, there's so much going on here.
I'm going to give you guys a little bit of time to just very briefly introduce yourselves
at the end and talk in like 30 seconds.
We need to panic, you know, but be mentally preparing, okay?
Yeah, look at that smile.
That's how you know everything is wonderful.
Okay, so whereas in 1962, the United States Congress and the President designated May
15th, the week of May 15th or May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the
week in which it falls as National Police Week. And whereas National Police
Week honors police officers who have dedicated their lives to the service of
humanity through public safety and to the 26,950 officers who have given their
lives in service to the snowball cause. And whereas everyday San Leonardo
police officers work to protect our residents, to enforce laws, and to keep
our community safe in accordance with core values of teamwork, integrity,
professionalism, and service. And whereas, San later police officers are
proud to serve and report for duty with knowledge of the dangers they may face
and the sacrifices that they may be called upon to make. And whereas this
This week, we pay tribute to the police officers who protect and serve bravely in pursuit of
a safe San Leandro.
And whereas we locally take time specifically to remember and to honor three San Leandro
police officers killed in the line of duty, Fred Haller, Donald Spengola, and Nels Daniel-Nimi.
And whereas, in honor of all the fallen officers and their families, U.S. flags in the city
of San Leandro should be flown at half staff during Peace Officers Memorial Day.
Now therefore, I Juan Gonzalez III, Mayor of the City of San Leandro, do hereby
proclaim May 11th through 17th, 2026 is National Police Week in the City of
San Leandro and encourage residents to encourage all residents to join the
Police Department in honoring our three fallen officers by visiting the Public
Safety Memorial located in front of the San Leandro Police Department. And to
I'll just add very briefly that we did have some long riders come and visit our city. I think it was last week the week before
Traveling from across the state of California, but visiting us from other states
To really help us remember and bring tribute to those that have fallen in the line of duty
So very grateful for what they did in support of our city in particular
But what I'd like to do is pass the mic to the two of you so that you can introduce yourselves make it a little bit
real? 30 seconds so you have to go the whole biography and whatever year I was
born like two years ago or whenever that was you know just just feel free to just
tell us a little bit about yourselves you know maybe you've completed some
recent training for example hypothetically speaking something like
that. Hi everybody I'm Ruth I've been I'm probably one of the newest officers with
San Leandro I just finished the field training program and I just graduated
the academy in December and I'm just happy to be serving the community. Hi my
name is Jose I've been with the city of San Landro for two years this was my
past this past week was my two-year mark here I used to work Oakland police
before this very happy to be in this community I love the city I love the
community that we serve and we're proud to be here. At this point in time we will move
to our consent calendar items would council member was there any council
member who would like to pull something from the consent calendar and if not I
will go to public comment on this item is there someone who would like to pull
something from the consent calendar so seeing no desire to pull any of the
items from the consent calendar we'll take public comment on this item do we
have any mayor we have not received any comment cards but we do have one hand
raised online okay so we are opening public comment in person and closing it
we will move on line to open public comment online.
Our online speaker is Douglas Spalding.
Thank you, city clerk and good evening council members.
I would like to call attention to item five a consent calendar as an example of yet another
consulting contract the city is about to lean into.
I really wish that you all were taking a more careful look at these things.
From what I can tell, this is a contract that may be worth up to $1 million over a term
of up to five years, so that would be about $200,000 a year on average, in order to manage
and administer, what's it called, workers' compensation. So one question it raises in
my mind is, is that a big problem in San Leon? I know we have a large workforce, but are
there a significant number of workers' compensation claims? More than one might expect. But the
the other idea that occurs to me,
my sister used to do this kind of work.
And while it does require some specialization,
it's not like you need an advanced degree.
So things, positions like this,
I just think like, couldn't we set up a desk
in the city hall someplace in the finance department
and allow someone to take care of that?
Maybe there wouldn't be a lot of claims
and maybe that would free up the person
to do other kinds of work for the city
while they employed by the city.
But I just think like, you know,
we have problems like this that arise,
and then we think, oh no,
we don't have anything set up for that.
And so then we just sort of like knee jerk,
automatically go and find the expert
and pay that consulting fee,
which I have to believe is more expensive
than it needs to be.
So thank you for your ongoing diligence.
that's all I have thank you mayor there are no more hands raised online to close
public comment online come back to the council if there's any discussion if
not willing to accept a motion councilmember Victor Aguilar I'd like to
move the consent calendar okay so I've got a motion by councilmember Aguilar
and council Victor Aguilar and I've got councilmember Bolt next second with a
second from councilmember Bolt seeing no further discussion please vote council
member Bowen may we have your vote yes thank you all votes are in and the
motion carries unanimously okay at this point in time I do not believe we have
any executive reports so we'll move on to public comment property for the public
to comment on items that are not on our agenda that are within the subject matter
jurisdiction of the council how many comment cards have we received mayor we
I have received 15 comment cards.
Okay.
And then how many hands are raised online?
There are two hands raised online.
Perfect.
Okay.
Let's go ahead and begin in person.
Our first three in-person speakers are Susan Gonzalez, Dan Finley, and Mike Katz-Lakabe.
And if speakers can be very efficient with her time and later be standing like almost
next to the other person so that we can get all 15 of you because we do have a 30-minute
limit. And if you even want to cut your comments short by 10 seconds, then we can make sure
that everybody that's at present will be able to speak and not have to wait until the end
of the meeting. Okay? Thank you so much. Please proceed.
Okay. Mr. Mayor and council members, my name is Susan Gonzales. I'm a long-time resident
of San Leandro, and I am the Assistant Treasurer of the Citizens for a Safe and Vibrant San
Leandro. I know that we can all agree that the City of San Leandro is a very nice place
to live, and you of any group also know that there are many streets and facilities that
need improvement, and city needs exceed our resources. Our group is supporting a local
citizen-led bond measure to improve streets and infrastructure with public oversight.
And I'm hoping that the City Council will work with us and support our endeavors.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next three speakers are Dan Finley, Mike Katz-Lacabe, and Faye Clements.
Good evening, Mayor Gonzalez, Vice Mayor Viveris Walton,
and council members.
My name is Dan Finlay, I'm a resident of District One.
I'm here tonight about the 41 flock safety license plate
cameras the council approved in April, 2022.
Since that vote, a great deal has come to light
and very little of it is good.
Flock has been formally found in violation
of state law in Illinois.
The California Highway Patrol has issued a formal warning
to flock for SB34 non-compliance.
San Francisco's own audit logs documented
over 1.6 million illegal out-of-state searches of its system, including searches explicitly
tagged for ICE fugitive operations.
A Texas sheriff's deputy used Flock to track a woman who had a legal abortion in another
state.
Police officers in at least 14 documented cases have used these systems to stalk ex-partners
and strangers.
In January, a researcher showed dozens of Flock cameras streaming live to the open internet.
Stolen Flock police credentials have been found for sale on Russian cybercrime forums.
view terminated unanimously after its own police chief said Flock had quote
absolutely failed. Santa Cruz and Los Altos Hills also canceled. A California
class action suit is pending. Flock's own CEO has admitted the company didn't
build the protections it promised. Sandlander has not published its Flock
audit logs. We don't know who has searched our cameras or why. Earlier this
month I filed a public records act request seeking that information. I hope
to get it soon. I'm asking this council for a simple test in two parts. One, audit
the cameras to yourselves, direct staff to show you in public exactly what the
flock system has been used for since 2022. And if you don't like what you see,
cancel the contract. Mountain View did, Santa Cruz did, Los Altos Hills did, San
Leandro can too. I'd welcome the chance to meet with any of you on this. Thank you.
The next three speakers are Mike Katz-Lacabe, Faye Clements and Paul Wellenkamp.
Well I couldn't have planned that better. This is Mike Katz-Lacabe. Good evening
honorable mayor and city council members. I'm here tonight to draw your attention
to some other issues regarding floc that you may not know. So first floc's patent
for analyzing the images captured by its cameras doesn't just include license
plates and vehicle identifications. The patent states that floc safety will use
neural networks to identify and track humans and then filter them into
searchable databases using a person's age, clothing type, gait, posture, gender,
height, race, and weight. So the 86 cameras the city is currently paying for will be used to identify
and track people and the data from those cameras is now being used to train Flock's product to
identify and track people. Second, Flock's terms and conditions have changed to eliminate the
statement, quote, Flock does not own and shall not sell customer data. Yeah, they changed it.
The revised terms and conditions also grants Flock,
Flock quote, a limited non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual
worldwide license to A, use and disclose customer data to provide Flock services,
and B, use customer data to support and improve Flock's products and services.
That means Flock keeps the data when the contract ends and uses it however they want.
Under the new terms, Flock's liability is capped at 12 months of fees.
even if flock acts with gross negligence or willful misconduct. Maybe it's worth
reconsidering whether this is a company that should be receiving money from the taxpayers
of San Leandro. On a completely unrelated subject, since I have a few seconds, I would also like the
City Council to consider a moratorium or a complete ban on data centers in the city of San Leandro.
Data centers will compete with us with the with the taxpayer residents of San Leandro
in electricity and water and cause increased rates for all of us and obviously we can't afford it.
Thank you. Thank you. The next three speakers are Faye Clements, Paul Willemkamp, and Catherine
Lucerne. Hi council, my name is Faye Clements, Mayor Juan. I'm here to implore
the council to figure out a way to open Lake Shebeau Road for all of us. I live in Estadillo
Estates. I don't think the fire is going to get me, but I do worry about 4,000 residents
in Bayo Vista and countless others that want that road open. And I'm concerned that we're entertaining
the wishes of staff in a minor portion of our population when we've got thousands whose
lives might be at risk and an acute care hospital with hundreds of patients that can't mobilize.
And I thank you for your service to our city and count on you to be with us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next three speakers are Paul Willemkamp,
Catherine Lucerne, and Margaret Horwitz.
Thank you.
I'm here to speak about Lake Chabot Road, or speak to it.
And I'm really here to ask you, don't let the perfect be
the enemy of good.
There's a difference between fully rebuilding
the road, which is a nice project
and a nice, long-range goal, but very expensive,
simply doing what it takes to reopen the road now. What I'm going to suggest is
that it's important to find out now whether the road can be reopened
after the current project is finished. If it can't be reopened, it's important to
find out what it takes to reopen it, not to fully rebuild it, but simply to get it
operating again. You don't have that information now. You can't make a good
decision about the future of Lake Sheba Road without getting that information
now. I want to point out that Alameda County fixed similar damage on the same
road, their portion of the road, a similar slide, within six months for
$700,000. They did not rebuild that road. It's definitely not a perfect road. I
I have spoken with the Alameda County Public Works director.
They maintain country roads quite all the time throughout country, Alameda County.
And they don't maintain them by fully rebuilding them.
They maintain them by doing what it takes to fix the road, maintaining it, and repairing
it as needed.
You know, Lakeshore Road has been critically important route since it was built 150 years
ago.
abandoned it now because we can't afford to make it perfect. Thank you. Thank you.
The next three speakers are Catherine Lucerne, Margaret Horowitz, and Emily
Grago. Good evening, Mayor and staff and elected officials. We really appreciate
your time and your commitment to our city. I also support this measure for the
new parcel tax that will bring a lot of funding for our city, which I know is
needed for upkeep and I will be one of the people out there trying to get signatures on this new
proposal that's going out but I also agree with Paul I would like you guys to really prioritize
opening up Lake Chabot and initially I think it would be that geotechnical report to really see.
Last night I'm sure if you live in the city you realize that windstorm that we had it made me very
very nervous. And now to hear about this fire down in Simi Valley, we live in a
very high fire danger. We back up to those San Leandro Hills and many of my
neighbors have done everything they can to try to keep our houses safe by
clearing. I just got a new roof that's a class A fire safety, metal gates, we spent
a lot of money but we still feel unsafe. The other concern that I have is we got
an email from AC Alert saying that there was going to be a county-wide
notification system for our emergency system and San Leandro did not get that
on May 12th. I did inquire and I found out that the city had elected not to
participate in that. I don't know what the city has plans for emergency prep
but I think it's really important I was at that community meeting when we had
the gas leakage in Llewellyn and Washington, and many of our community members did not
get the proper messaging to evacuate. So I think it's really important that we have a way to let
our community know when we have something that is very urgent. Our community has spent funds on
doing our own report, and we found out it can take one to two hours for us to get out of our
neighborhood if there is an evacuation. So thank you for your time. Thank you.
The next three speakers are Margaret Horowitz, Emily Grago, and Helen Cataldo.
I want to thank the city for opening the gate on Lake Chabot Road, which would allow cars to
travel on it in case of an emergency. Though my husband and I have taken many steps to prepare
our house and garden in case of fire. Having the optimum number of evacuation
routes open is essential. I also empathize with residents on Astor and
View, though I don't live there, where cars diverted from Lake Chabot Road
contribute to dangerous conditions and road degradation on streets not designed
for this amount of traffic. I support the Citizens Lead Initiative to repair
like Chabot Road and to accomplish many other significant projects in San
Leandro. Thank you. Thank you. The next three speakers are Emily Grago, Helen
Cataldo, and Ann Cawood. Hello everybody. Good evening. I'm Emily Grago, president
and CEO of the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce. I'm here today to discuss the
proposed business license tax revenue measure that's currently under
consideration and to share concerns we are hearing from our businesses
regarding both the substance of the proposal and the timeline being
discussed. We recognize the proposal still in development and there hasn't
been a final decision made. We have requested additional data and
clarification from staff including details regarding definitions,
thresholds, exemptions, caps and multiple jurisdiction businesses. However,
businesses are concerned that a decision on whether to place this measure on the
ballot could occur within four weeks from today despite many critical
implementation details still being undefined and insufficiently vetted.
Businesses are concerned the potential financial impact could be substantial
depending on how gross receipts are defined and applied and we've reached out
to our membership in recent days and some of the comments that we have
received include our license fee would go up 50% in this model. Our license
view would double if this increase were to pass. Wrong move to punish small
businesses in town. A small service-based business with high expenses and a very
small margin, this new structure would be a big hit to us. Unfair to large
companies where the margins are small. An example is a grocery store, our grocery
store. We respectfully urge the council not to move this revenue measure to the
ballot. The proposal has not been yet sufficiently vetted. Many key
The implementation details remain unresolved and the current timeline does not allow for
the level of analysis and stakeholder engagement this issue requires.
Advancing this proposal without greater clarity and collaboration risks undermining our economic
development progress and creating long-term unintended consequences for our cities.
Thank you.
Your time has elapsed.
Our next three speakers are Helen Cataldo, Ann Kewood, and Tonday Smith.
My name is Helen Cataldo and I'm here to respectfully request that Lake Chabot be reopened to two
ways.
If you wouldn't mind just moving the mic a little bit to there, well, yeah, if you can
just stand over just a little bit, no, no, no, the mic pointing at your mouth, there
you go and just step in just a little because I want to be able to hear you
online it's touching me on this there we go let's try that again good evening
council members and mayor my name is Helen Cataldo I'm here to respectfully
request that Lake Chabot Road be reopened to two-way traffic I want to
add my voice to my neighbors who have Mitchell difficulty in evacuating the
area. I live on View Drive and I'm extremely nervous about fire danger,
particularly being blocked in my driveway due to increased traffic from
Lake Chapeau Road being closed. I also support the citizen-led local
petition in support of funding much-needed repairs for safer streets
and emergency infrastructure, as well as parks and community facilities. Thank you.
Thank you. The next three speakers are Ann Kewood, Tonde Smith, and Kewood. The timed
evacuation study we commissioned for the Bay of Vista neighborhood from
researchers aligned with the UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation studies found
that in several fire scenarios it could take almost two hours for our entire
community to evacuate in a best case. We also learned that if Lake Chabot Road is
fully open to two-way traffic, our most vulnerable population would have the
chance to escape much much faster. Almost 400 people will need more time to escape
just not just the fire but deadly toxic smoke. Our census tract contains almost
900 people over the age of 70. In the Pacific Palisades fire, 30 people died
from fire. Another 47 died from smoke inhalation. The average age was 77. We
ask that you support opening this road as soon as possible and that you commit
to the citizens led revenue measure to fix our dilapidated fire stations, our
failing streets, Neptune Drive flood prevention, the Marina Community Center,
the Casa Peralta and other infrastructure. Thank you. Thank you. The
next three speakers are Tande Smith, Ki or Kei Wu and Robert Caruso. Good
Good evening, Mayor, council members, staff, neighbors.
My name is Tondi Smith, and I live in Bay of Vista on the street that's immediately adjacent
to the hill.
I spent last week sanding and restaining my deck, and all the time I was doing it, I was
praying, God, please don't let a fire come rolling over that hillside, because the threat
is real.
But more than protecting my deck and my house, I want to protect my life and the lives of
my neighbors. I did have the pleasure of Sunday going through our neighborhood,
collecting signatures for the measure. And while collecting the signatures, I
want to tell you that we came in contact with several neighbors who
would definitely require a lot of time to try to get out. One man's hands were
so, he was shaking so much that we had to like hold the form for him and let him
prop himself up in order to be able to sign it. So he would need extra time. We
saw a lot of ramps, so it is a neighborhood where we need as much time
as possible to be able to escape. So I encourage you to do whatever research
you need to do, make whatever commitment you need to make to get the road opened.
We appreciate your commitment and your time and your interest in helping
preserve our lives. Thank you. Thank you. The next three speakers are Kaye Wu,
Robert Caruso, and Catwoman. Good evening. My name is Key Wu. I'm a resident of the
Bail Vista community. I want to say that I emphatically concur with all of my
neighbors. Our lives, our quality of our life, and the safety of our lives have
been significantly adversely impacted since the closure of Lake Chippewa Road.
We will continue to be impacted until the road is reopened. So I implore the
city please to make it a priority to reopen the road for the benefit of our
community. Thank you. Thank you. The next three speakers are Robert Caruso, Cat
woman and Brian Liebeau. Good evening City Council members and Mayor Gonzalez.
My name is Robert Caruso and I'm the owner of the John Benjamin Company and
our company is a I'm a general contractor, I'm a project manager and a
real estate developer and in 2007 our company built eight townhouses at
at Superior and MacArthur Boulevard in San Leandro.
And I'm really proud of that project.
But at the time we initiated that project,
we paid a fee to the city of San Leandro
to develop a roundabout in front of that project.
That was in 2007.
And this 19 years later, and I decided
maybe I should come downtown here
and find out what happened to that money, number one,
And number two, what's the status of that project?
And that's not the only reason I'm here.
I've got another reason I'm here.
There's an ordinance here in San Leandro
to do soft story development,
soft story improvements on homes
that are in danger of earthquake problems.
And I've tried starting in the latter part of 2025
to get a list of those properties
that are subject to that ordinance.
And I've done numerous projects in San Francisco,
numerous soft story projects in San Francisco.
And I would like to get my hands on that list
of the properties that are subject to that ordinance
here in San Leandro because I would like to have
an opportunity to bid those projects.
And for some reason, excuse me,
I'm running up against a brick wall.
For some reason, I cannot get that list.
And I think that's public information.
So thank you.
And I wanna end, but I would like to have someone
make a commitment to go find out what happened to that money for that round
about and then if I can someone can point me in the direction of getting my
hands on that list I'd be very grateful thank you for your attention to this
thank you the next two speakers are Kat Wilman and Brian Liebow good evening I
am co-chair for citizens for a safe and vibrant San Leandro and it's gonna be a
wonderful measure that will fund many of the very badly needed projects that we
have in the city, one of which, of course, is to repair and open Lake Chiboh Road.
Those of us in Bay of Vista spent most of late yesterday afternoon, last night,
and today fearing that there might be a fire. And if you looked at the news,
there's many fires. I think down in Simi Valley, they had a fast-moving brush
fire. In one hour, I think it took over 184 acres. I may not be quite right on
that but it was very very deadly and they had to evacuate 23,000 citizens. We
know from the Wico timed evacuation study which we are going to show you
that there's going to be if Lake Chabot Road is not open there's going to be
upwards of 400 residents vulnerable residents that may be exposed to toxic
fire exposure. This means death to many people. We need you to make Lake Chabot
Road a priority. We need you to show your intent that you want to repair an
open Lake Chabot Road and reject the idea that it can remain closed for just
bikes and pedestrians. You can do this by ordering a geotechnical report. You've
already got the funds to do this. It's less than $100,000 and getting the
actual cost analysis to fix the road. We don't even have that for the measure
that we're taking to our to our residents right now asking them to sign
the petition. This is critically important. Fire season is upon us and
public safety is absolutely the most important thing that the City Council
can take care of, so it's in your hands. Please help us. Thank you. Thank you. Our
last speaker card is from Brian Lebel. Good evening. We in Bay of Vista have been
living under the terrifying fear of wildfires for quite a while now. Our
community is the only one in San Leandro that is rated high and very high fire
danger. We come to meetings, we talk about it, but the city doesn't seem to hear us
or it doesn't really register that it's a matter of life and death and not some
hypotheticals in the future but could be tonight. Could have been last night. There
were four fires in the last 24 hours. There was one in Altamont Pass, one in
Fremont, one in, well I'll get to that, I can't remember. Well here we go. Alameda
Creek, Altamont Pass, Norris Canyon and one in Fremont. Any fire in these windy
conditions can ignite and travel. So we're not pretending in our fear about
this. It's a real concern and it should be by the City Council as well. So I'm
here to request that the Council get a resolution on the agenda as soon as
possible. I think it should direct staff to declare unambiguously its intent to
that the City Council should state in this resolution its unambiguous intent
to reopen this critical evacuation route ASAP and to direct staff to get a
qualified geotech report on what Lake Chabot Road needs to make it drivable.
You already have funds in the budget for Lake Chabot Road to do that so it won't
cost anything and it won't reduce the general fund. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Mayor that concludes our comment cards from in the room. Okay so we will close
public comment in person and how much time do we have left on our 30 minutes?
questions. Um five minutes and a
few seconds. Okay So let us
proceed with our first two that
you had before, and if we have
time, we'll continue. Very well.
Our first online speaker is
Alvaro Ramos. Yes Hello, Mayor
and council members. I'm
calling in to join the flock. I
speak to you as a concerned
Some I checked. We have hundreds of flock cameras in this city alone and
Thousands of flock cameras in the Bay Area and then thousands more flock cameras across the state of California
automatic license plate readers have become a staple of a policing across the United States and
these cameras scan millions of license plates daily giving police enormous unchecked power that violates consider the
institutional rights of the American people and
People are standing up to this. They've rejected these privatized utilities because flock their sole purpose is
profit-driven surveillance that's blanketing our cities or towns and communities and
You know, this is perfect example of government overreach
flocked so what I'll say though that
the City of San Leandro needs to join the movement and say no more to automatic license plate readers and comment.
Thank you. The next speaker is Douglas Spaulding.
Thank you.
San Leandro, we are giving Chicago a run for its money as the windy city, and I don't refer to meteorological phenomenon.
I refer to all my neighbors from Bay of Vista who are giving Chicago politicians a run
For their money. I am appreciative of the we go study it gives a very clear plan for evacuation
I'm very thankful for my neighbors who have trimmed their yards. I did too. I spent I don't know
$2-3,000 on arborist. I'm very thankful to PG&E that implements a PS PS under these kind of weather conditions
But the road has been closed for more than three years in
The sky has not yet fallen. We seem to have adapted and be able to have
opening, reopening the road to vehicular traffic, especially to large trucks, is only going to
accelerate its deterioration. If you want to be able to fight a fire, you need to leave
Lake Chabot Road alone as an access route for our emergency vehicles.
The difference between our half-mile segment of Lake Chabot Road and other country roads
is that it just so happens that this big thing called the Hayward Fault
crosses the road right where the Bay of Vista Swim and Tennis Club is. There is no place to build
the road stably. It is a bunch, like a pile, a kilometer of ground up rock, melange. There's no
bedrock to sink your anchors into. And so consequently, we have a little piece of road
that is exactly the same story that they have over on the peninsula. Dave will slide
After more than 100 years Caltrans gave up and they built a 500 million dollar tunnel to bypass it
And with my few remaining seconds, I want to point out the community police review board is meeting this wednesday at 6 i'm right
Everyone to come out
Unfortunately, cprb has been handicapped in recent months because we don't have an at-large member member
So I request you properly vet and appoint someone. Thank you, sir. Your time has elapsed
our next
well
Mayor, there are two more hands raised online and we have about a minute left.
Just pick one and then that's where we will end.
All right. Our next online speaker is Arthur Johnson.
Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Thank you for giving me this time. I'll be brief.
My name is Art Johnson. I live in the District 5 area. I'm part of the Citizens for a Safe and
Vibrant San Leandro committee, but I'm here to tell you a slightly different reason to support it.
We're at risk losing the most important part of our history, Casa Peralta, the historical house
museum on Estadillo. This museum tells a story of California and San Leandro for current and future
generations, yet the doors have been closed for more than seven years now. So with this measure,
we have an opportunity to move quickly to protect what remains of our history, including the Casa
Peralta, while also addressing the other critical community needs as Lake Chabot, but more importantly
the city of Toronto. We're
with the council's business.
And in particular, we move to our public hearing.
With respect to this public hearing,
we have Assistant Finance Director Felicia Silva here
to discuss various ordinances that we will potentially adopt.
All right, good evening, Mayor Gonzalez
and members of the council, Felicia Silva,
Assistant Finance Director here
with the fiscal year 27 fee schedule update.
And I will go back to the slide.
This is a reminder that it's our annual update
for our fee schedule.
We do come to you every year
with a proposed update to our fee schedule.
And quick background on the authority
for us to charge fees for services.
We are looking at Proposition 26,
as well as California Government Code Section 6614.
And that allows us to recover our costs for charging fees
as well as it limits us to making sure that, again,
that we're not charging above our fees
and that we are charging reasonable costs
to recover the cost for those fees.
Additional authority, we're looking at Proposition 218,
and that is related to our property-related fees,
such as our wastewater fee.
And we also have other fees,
such as our development impact fees,
and that's set forth by a government code,
section 66,000, 6625,
also known as the Mitigation Fee Act.
And that allows us to charge fees related to the impact
of significant development on our infrastructure
and certain findings are met,
such as the need and the nexus to that activity
and the need.
Our update, just a quick reminder that last year
we were in front of the city council
with a more significant update
where we did a fee study
and we were looking at the cost to provide services
and bringing that up to date
with our current business processes, et cetera.
That starts as the base for our fee schedule this year.
We incorporate any adjustments
that are authorized by council throughout the year.
We pull all of that together
and that makes up the base for this proposed fee schedule
in front of you tonight.
And then the next step is then we look at
what are the appropriate adjustments to propose.
We typically are looking at CPI for most of our fees.
And in particular looking at December over December.
So year over year change between December 24 and December 2025.
We also look at the construction cost index
for those fees that are related to construction activities
and we're recommending 2.8% there.
And then sometimes there are other parameters
that we're looking at when we're studying our fees,
such as some fees that may be capped by state statute
or other codes.
And then we also have some fees that we're looking at
in terms of market alignment to making sure
that we're staying within the market.
With that, I'll also note that the revenue impact
associated with the proposed fees
that we're bringing in front of you tonight
have been included in the fiscal year 2027 mid-cycle budget
that was approved by council on May 4th.
In addition to our fees,
we also do annually bring forward three different taxes
for proposed increases that are authorized
by chapter two of our municipal code.
One is the business license tax,
emergency medical services tax,
as well as the emergency communication systems access tax.
Again, looking at a proposed 3% CPI increase.
And with that, I will ask City Council
to consider our recommendation to adopt a resolution
approving the amended master fee schedule
fiscal year 27 as well as adopt a resolution approving the amendment to ordinances amending
the or yeah amendment to ordinances to allow the cpi increase for business license tax emergency
medical services tax and the emergency communication systems access tax thank you for the presentation
at this point time we'll go to council members to see if there are any questions vice mayor please
Yes, so this is specific, so one, appreciate all the work that went into the fee schedule.
It went through finance committee. It has gone, made the rounds. But I did want to,
I was trying to recall our conversation because there was one specific fee that around block
parties and the fee permit for block parties. And I believe it won from $31. And it's now
at $125. And actually at the over the weekend, I was at the I was at another neighborhood
party in SED United States and neighbors from another neighborhood were there with friends
and they were kind of just chatting about the increase
from 31 to 125.
So I recall this coming up,
we had a conversation about wanting to keep that
as low as possible so as to encourage communities
to be able to close the street, have their get together.
I can't recall where we left that off.
I don't remember if we left it at 125 or we did.
My recollection, and I'll kind of have you guys
keep me honest here.
My recollection is that it had been higher than that,
either 250 or 500, or some number that was higher.
And then we had a discussion that, well,
can't we do something that we get to 31
may not really reflect anywhere near the cost,
but can we come a little bit closer?
And I see a head shake over there
Councilmember Victor Aguilar does that sound right of kind of how we ended up
for lack of better word compromising it's something that was higher but not
where it had originally started but I'll kind of do you remember those
discussions that seems right that is correct okay so I think that's kind of
how we got to where we are okay all right thank you that's my only question
on it the rest of it I was going through the license through all of the fees and
everything else kind of squared up with what I recalled from our conversation
but that one I couldn't quite remember what our conversation was appreciate the
clarification I cede the my time back to the chair. Thank you at this point in
time I'm not seeing anybody else in queue so what I'm going to do at this
point in time is I am going to open the public hearing that we have on this it is
755 and the public hearing is open do we have anyone who wishes to speak on this
item mayor we've not received any common cards we do have one hand raised
online okay so let us continue our hearing on line please our first online
speaker is Douglas Spalding hi I'm the public and I'd like to be heard well
this is a an interesting item I gather that the deal is that the city without
having to put it to a vote can increase these fees by a nominal amount
according to CPI or some other criteria. Which sounds good. If we haven't been
doing the past we should certainly start doing that now. I do feel a bit
indicated that the CPI you're referring to is 3%. Are you sure it shouldn't be
like 65% of CPI or 3%? Oh no, that's just an inside joke. I would, my
impression because I did try to look through the fee schedule is that I think
the fees are a little bit on the low side and I would be interested to know
if a comparison was done like Stanley under fees versus Oakland versus Hey
word versus other places to have more of a marker study your story about how
you're setting the block party fee indicates to me that's more of a
divining I don't think we should be subsidizing block parties if it costs
more than that for the city to block off the street and provide a cleanup and whatnot.
We should charge more.
You know, $125 to me is not too much.
But my concern about this whole thing is if you raise the business license fee now in
May and then we put on a revenue measure for November, does that mean people are going
to say, wait a minute, you're changing it up on us, you're already raising it?
Unless your intention is to never put the business license fee on the November ballot.
I think it is important, that is the revenue measure that I support.
I think it's telling in the public comments earlier, the speaker's made very clear that
the proposed revenue, sorry, the proposed parcel tax is tied directly to the priority
of reopening Lake Chabot Road, speaker after speaker after speaker, whereas if we had money
from a business license fee, you the council members could support the priorities the public
work department is already determined.
Thank you sir. Your time has elapsed. Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.
Okay. It is 758 and I am closing the public hearing. At this point in time we come back
to council members for discussion or commentary or motion. So first but first let's begin with
any discussion or commentary because certainly I have something I'd like to say but I would
defer to my colleagues first. Okay. Seeing no commentary from my colleagues, I'll just quickly
offer a couple of things. First, am I, I think it's a question, comment, because I think I'm pretty
sure I know the answer. Fees, as to be distinguished from taxes, fees are cost recovery as a capital.
So most fees are those that are governed, for example, under Proposition 26, as well as
Government code what was sixty six thousand
Okay, so the majority of what we're gonna see on the schedules that were presented to the public our cost recovery
They are and even those that are governed by it for example proposition to 18
Based on a you know
deliver, you know cost to deliver service
model
So my comment that goes with that is I think that it's pretty exciting
That our fees would be lower than other areas because that means that our costs are either lower or that we've chosen not to
Do full-cost recovery for the benefit of the public that would that would be accurate to say okay?
I think just more broadly I
Believe we have done these CPI
increases
At least the last two or three years and probably before that
but this is, there's nothing out of the ordinary in us following up to make
sure that as costs increase our our business taxes and the like reflect
those increased costs as permitted by the ordinance correct? That is
correct. The more consistent we are with the revenue recovery for the cost to
deliver service, then the better our revenue picture is that that helps
across the board. Okay well thank you again for all the work that you guys have
done in preparing and to the Finance Committee for all the work that was
trying to think if I remember correctly from we covered a variety of fee
schedules over an extended number of meetings. Yep and so as I mentioned the
base for the 2027 fee study what our fee schedule update was based on the 2026
that we do need to look at our
business processes and the cost
to deliver service to make sure
that we are looking at that and
then looking at the fee that
we're proposing so that we can
cover those costs.
So that was last year, 2026.
That becomes then the base for
the fee study and then we apply
inflation.
We apply inflation or again, there are other
Indices or considerations. So thank you for all the work that you've done
Thank you for the finance committee for all the work that you did at this point in time. I am open to a motion
Vice mayor I
Would like to make a motion to
approve the resolution
Adopt a resolution improving the amended master's fee schedule for fiscal year 26 or for fiscal year 27 and
Adopt a resolution approving the amendments to the ordinance for the following taxes
business license tax emergency medical services and emergency communication systems access tax
And I will accept your would like to as in you are making that motion and coming to councilmember James Aguilar
Mayor I'd like to second that motion perfect. Do we have further discussion on this item seeing none, please vote
Council member Bowen. May we have your vote? Yes
Thank you
So we do not have presentations today under item 9 and for 10
Sorry, you have to read out the vote. Yes
all votes are in and
Apologies, I cleared the vote but the motion carries unanimously
We do not have any presentations today and under 10a that got moved to section 4 on our agenda
So we've got our second action item and that is the first review of an ordinance with respect to the approval and renewal of
Military equipment funding etc as stated in the agenda at this point in time
We have acting chief police acting chief of police Luis Torres here. I believe are you back there? There you are
Well, please come forward. We'll make that Mike nice and tall for you
Good evening mayor City Council
City manager members of the public. My name is Luis Torres and I still refer myself as assistant police chief
Tonight I'll be presenting our 2025 annual report on the use of military equipment
This will include an overview of the assembly bill
definitions and categories what we have how we've used it any concerns
Or policy violations. What if anything we are asking for this year?
and the outcome of our presentation to the CPRB or the community police review board.
Lastly we're asking you to once again approve our policy and renew the ordinance. As you are more
than likely aware this law was enacted in 2021 to increase transparency and oversight around certain
types of law enforcement equipment. It requires you our council to approve any acquisition and
and continued use of such equipment.
And it mandates an annual report like this one
covering usage, concerns, and any policy violations.
There are 15 defined categories
of which we have equipment in nine of those categories
depicted here, highlighted here.
I will go into a little more detail
in the next several slides,
but I will add that none of this equipment
was obtained directly from the military.
These next two slides have the categories broken down
with a specific equipment.
Category one is a tactical robot
and unmanned aerial vehicle, also known as a drone.
And I'll show pictures of some of these items.
Category two and three is our armored vehicle
that can have a battering ram attached to it.
Category five are our two command posts.
Category seven is our newly acquired kinetic breaching tools.
Category 10, these are our rifles
and accompanying ammunition.
Our beanbag shotgun and 40 millimeter launcher fall under both categories 11 and 14.
And category 12 is our diversionary devices and chemical agents, also known as flash banks on
those diversionary devices. So here's a photo of some of our equipment. The upper left is our drone.
The middle top is the tactical robot. It's basically an RC car with a camera on it
to the right upper is our some of our diversity devices less lethal and some gas and then bottom
is our vehicles so our our hostage negotiation vehicle on the left our meta back in the middle
and our command post in the far right next i'll cover an overview of our usage and non-training
settings for the calendar year 2025 our drone our drones were used are deployed 65 times in 2025
Most commonly it was used for warrant services, searching for suspects, missing persons, and
scene documentation. The armored vehicle was used 19 times in tactical situations compared to 21
times last year or the previous year excuse me. The deployments were for barricaded suspects
and armed incidents as well as warrant service and it was also displayed at four community events.
The hostage negotiations command vehicle was used three times primarily for warrant service operations.
Less lethal tools were used in limited targeted situations. The beanbag shotgun
was deployed five times with 17 rounds used. Four out of the five times the
beanbag shotgun was used to disable a camera or to break a window. In one
instance it was used at an individual who had fired a firearm at an officer.
Diversity devices were used twice during warrant service and these tools provide
alternatives to higher levels of use of force. As of this evening, we have not received any
email or phone call complaints regarding our equipment, and there were no noted policy violations.
In 2025, we acquired two ARDVARC kinetic breaching tools, which we spoke about here
last year and were approved to purchase. These tools provide a safer, more controlled method
a forced entry when necessary. And as a result of purchasing these breaching tools we've removed
several older breaching shotguns and associated rounds from our inventory.
This reflects the transition to more modern safer and controlled breaching tools.
And for 2026 we are not requesting any new equipment at this time.
Our current inventory meets our operational needs. On April 15th we held a community meeting
during the community police review board meeting and the board had no recommendation regarding
the presentation or updated inventory list. And finally our website is on our website is a
current policy and inventory as well as the draft policy and inventory that is attached to this
agenda. The only update to the policy itself is just a change in dates. Our ask tonight is to
approved is free to approve and renew our military equipment funding
acquisition and use policy which includes an updated inventory list of
the items that were added and removed this past calendar year and with that
mayor I'm open any questions thank you for your presentation so we will begin
questions with vice mayor thank you for the presentation I just have a question
regarding the deployments are based on when we when Sally and her PD deploys
some of these assets the City Council gets a kind of a notification and I'm
just wondering how many do you don't have to give me exact numbers but
proportions of how many of these were used in Sally Andrew versus in mutual
aid where we get a request from a neighboring jurisdiction to use one of
our police assets for aiding whatever it is that they're doing in another city.
What is the proportion of, for example, just in general for unmanned aerial
vehicles, we have 65 deployments, how many of them happen in San Leandro versus
in mutual aid situations? I would say a vast majority of them are in San Leandro
because most agencies have drones already.
Similar with our vehicle, our Medevac.
A majority of them are here.
It is a regional asset partnered
with Fremont Police Department.
Oftentimes they will pick up a vehicle to use it.
We'll notify counsel,
but that wouldn't necessarily be a deployment for us
since they're the ones taking the vehicle
to their operation.
And can you tell me a little bit
between the difference of the Medevac armored vehicle
versus the mobile hostage negotiations command vehicle?
So the Medevac is a ballistic rated vehicle
to safely bring our officers closer to a situation,
whereas the command posts are far away
from the incident itself, but it's a location
or a vehicle in which our staff
can navigate a situation safely.
We usually have dispatchers in there
and our on scene incident commander.
Okay, those are all my questions.
I cede my time back to the chair.
Thank you.
We'll go to Council Member Bolt next.
Thank you.
Thank you for the presentation.
I see on all these categories there's the expected lifespan.
A lot of them are in the five to 15 or somewhere in the 20.
When it comes to the weapons, what's deteriorating
that we're saying, OK, we're going
to lose this in five years or 15 years.
Can you speak to that?
Yeah, it's usually manufacturer recommendations.
Also, if we're talking about a firearm,
it's how many rounds have gone through it.
And some of it is just maintenance.
So for example, a couple of years ago,
we replaced, they were called uppers of certain rifles.
So we didn't get all new rifles.
We just replaced the parts.
part of that is is the is the maintenance piece of it okay and then
there was a another one and I lost it because I was searching through but
basically it was a collapsible m16 I don't know I forget how you guys call it
but it was a collapsible rifle that the motor officers.
So those are probably the ones
that are our motorcycle officers.
Yeah, motorcycles.
Yes, carry in their,
they wouldn't be able to have the long ones
so they have a collapsible stock on it
so that it can fit on their motorcycle.
It fits on the motorcycle.
Correct.
And then lastly, when going back to the,
timeframe, lifespan, would it be possible for us to see and hear like expected lifespan
is 20 years, we're in year two or we're in year three in the future.
So that, you know, because some of these are like the vehicles that I assume are extremely
expensive, but it would give us the opportunity to take a look and understand what may be
coming up, what you guys may be needing in 10 years or in five years, you know, because
a lot of them say 5 to 15 but we don't really know where that is so maybe in the
future if there's no rules against that letting us know where each one of these
are in that mark and in that way we can prepare. I believe some of them do have
days of purchase but you're right not all of them do. Oh okay. Lieutenant
Robertson will be more than happy to update that list for us. Okay thank you.
council member James Akular hi thank you I have a couple of questions with
relation to data I love data and I love to see whether or not the use of the
equipment actually supports public safety outcomes so my question my first
question is is there any data recorded whether it be internal or public that
shows equipment improving safety outcomes like like what kind of data
actually tracks whether or not successful there was a successful
deployment or otherwise so the in use of our whether it's a kinetic weapon so
use of force report is conducted on it and that would actually I'll go to the
injury portion so we do document whether an injury was a result of the incident
whether to an officer or to an individual the second piece for the safe
outcomes of it. We do, after every incident, we do have a report that is
that is generated so we can we can certainly moving forward compile that and
kind of give you know successful outcomes versus a non-successful outcome.
Sure yeah I would love to see that. I'm also really interested in because I'm
in the data I think the data tells stories and I think the data shows
patterns and so do you also track any kind of geographic or neighborhood based
data on where said equipment is deployed? We have the information in those in
those reports but as far as I plotted on the map we we don't have that. Okay good
and then I could just out of curiosity in your best judgment do you think that
use of tactical equipment deployment is increasing as compared to other years
or where do you think that that usage is at? On one of them for the, which one
was it that we went, it's remained I'll say steady. We did go down two usages on
the armored vehicle. Last year we used it 21 times this or in 24 we used it 21
times. Last year we used it 19 times with our drones. I believe it did go
slightly up but not not a significant amount. Okay. And ideally we would want to
with the with the drones we would probably want to increase that number
because it we use it for interior searches as well instead of sitting
officer in or using a canine which we don't have canines but utilizing that
interior drone to search a particular area for safety purpose of the officers
and the individuals inside.
Great, thank you.
I appreciate your responses.
That's all I have.
Okay, thank you.
So at this point in time,
I've got three questions that I don't think
have been covered.
Two questions, one of them you covered at the very end.
Do we audit,
internal audit for policy violations?
Yeah, so every usage in a use of force
incident does get
Reviewed internally in addition to the independent police auditor would review those as well
So if I'm understanding that correctly, so we had 19 deployments, and we'll just pick this one in particular who had 19 deployments
Would each of those be reviewed or only if it resulted in some sort of gunfire or so
force would review it if it was so there's a
after-action report that is that is conducted with in these operations here
and if there was a use of force then that would be an additional layer of
review that is that is conducted and in that case I guess what I ultimately
care about is consistency with whatever policy we have in place as part of that
after-action report is there a an assessment of consistency with policy
or does that only happen periodically I would say more periodically than than
not in some of the situations for example on a community event we wouldn't
there'd be no no review of it for the use of a of a armored vehicle it's
typically run through our chain of command so at this point it would be
Captain Khan that would get a call to seek the approval of the of the usage of
the medevac itself so we get that that approval he'll get a rundown of exactly
what's occurring and then give a year nay if it's a quickly evolving situation
it would be it would be deployment and then notification. Thank you. Does the IPA
Do an independent spot check? No. Okay. The mobile, the Medevac, there was a
question about Fremont and I wasn't quite sure about the answer. So these
17 deployments are exclusively in the city of San Leandro? Those deployments
are San Leandro personnel utilizing the Medevac vehicle and a
majority of those were in town. I can probably get you the number before the
meeting's over. I have it here on my phone. I think my curiosity goes to the
question because I know that we partner with Fremont specifically. So if we're
sharing it does that mean that they will send officers here to get it or do we
drive it down for most of the time they come up to pick up the vehicle. If it's
so if they come and pick up the vehicle and utilize it they report it under AB
41 if for whatever reason they would call us because they couldn't get it then we would report it because we're now we're taking the
Vehicle down there and we're with the vehicle itself. So it'd be us deploying that vehicle. Perfect. Thank you
I think that's all I've got in terms of questions. It would be a good time. Madame clerk for public comment on this item
Mayor we have not received any comment cards, but we do have one hand raised online
Okay, so we have open public comment in person seeing no cards
we are closing public comment in person and we're moving online to open public comment
and we have no no hands raised online we are closing public comment in person at this point
in time come back to council members for any commentary and if there is none we can move to
a motion so i'll just look for any commentary i'm not seeing any raised hands so i'm open to a
motion councilmember bolt I'd like to move this item okay and to basically
approve staffs recommendation correct okay thank you and then customer Victor
Aguilar I pull second I've got a motion councilmember bolt with the second
customer Victor Aguilar seeing no further discussion let's vote on the
motion councilmember Bowen may we have your vote yes thank you all votes are in
question.
The motion carries unanimously.
Thank you.
For item number 11, I believe we have one request to schedule a future agenda item.
That's why I will give the floor to our vice mayor.
Thank you.
I submitted a request for future agenda item to reaffirm the city council's intent to rehabilitate
and reopen, Lake Chubal Road, for community safety,
connectivity, and infrastructure resilience,
to just provide a little bit of context in terms of process.
This is a resolution that would reaffirm the City Council's
intent on the long-term future of Lake Chubal Road.
Lake Chubal Road is part of our capital investment plan.
It has been closed now for more than three years
and city staff is currently undertaking some repairs
on two of the four slides that are currently,
that were the result of a winter storm three years ago.
This particular resolution, I'm requesting it
that it be scheduled for the July city council meeting
so that we have some time to meet with the Bay of Vista community and hear a little bit
about the evacuation study that the neighborhood commission to pay for and co-managed with
the consultant from UC Berkeley that helped create this evacuation study. Again, this
would just clarify the intent of the City Council on the future of Lake Chippewa Road.
I think it provides clarity, one, to future councils and to future staff and also it also
provides clarity on the City Council and the City's position so that we're able to go and
with our county and our state partners and even our federal partners to fundraise essentially
grant funds to be able to get a plan in place to actually reopen the road. The first step
would be a geotechnical report. However, this resolution is purely reaffirming the city
council's intent on the long-term future of the road. I'll pause there and see if
there are any questions. So we'll begin with councilmember Bolt for questions
please. I guess my question would be to staff aren't we already in that position
and working to open the road? I thought the goal was to open the road and that's
why we've done these we've gone down this path already. So I'll begin with
with the city manager on that.
Thank you mayor, thank you Councilor Humboldt.
That is my understanding as well.
And so I guess to the vice mayor now,
so the goal of this item would be to reiterate
what staff is already suggesting to us.
Thank you for that clarifying question.
It would reaffirm our position and be explicit
about the City Council's long-term goal
of reopening this road.
It would be explicit that that is our goal.
I think right now, again,
and our goal in making the implicit explicit,
that's, this is a manifestation of that.
Okay, and then lastly, I'll just say this,
my only problem with this is the money.
If we're saying we don't have no money
and we can't fix this because the price it's at,
I don't want to put us in a position
where we're doing something ahead of.
So I do need you to form a question
because we're not allowed to really discuss
because it's not a gentized, right?
Let's play Jeopardy, so.
No, I already said it, so that's where I'm at.
Okay, thank you for your patience.
I saw you came out of Q. It would have been a comment, okay.
Make it a question.
Allow me to ask you some questions. Thank you.
Seeing as that we've got the city staff commitment to open the road, but that is an explicit statement.
Okay, so that's why I wanted to, so let me come back to the city manager to understand what is
explicit and I don't want nothing that's implicit.
I want to know the explicit.
Please proceed, thank you.
Thank you, Mayor.
Councilor Bolt asked me if it was my understanding
that the council wanted to open Lake Chippewa Road
and my answer is yes.
That is my understanding is that that is the council's goal.
Not that I, because I cannot, that would be illegal.
If I, Chaddell Cameron, your city manager,
went and opened Lake Chippewa Road
without your explicit direction to do so.
So there's a difference there.
that's a that's a good clarification but it is your current understanding that is
the direction of the council that the vision here is to open the road that's
what we're working towards to opening the road very well but I do want to come
back to councilmember bolt just to clarify that I didn't misstate your
question would you please proceed yes I apologize maybe I confused everything my
My question is, is the two staff, isn't it our goal on the staff side?
Are we going to separate staff and city council?
I thought it was always the goal not just by city council but by staff because of prior
communication from city council to staff was that our goal was to open it the whole way
and I'll interject into that.
Our only problem with that was during a fire,
emergency response wanted it closed
if it wasn't gonna be completely open two ways.
So that's why we said, okay, let's close it down.
I'm gonna focus you on a question.
Well, that's the question.
But I wanna be clear in what I'm asking.
We were told by parts of our staff
that we wanna keep it closed
So I'm asking, is the goal from staff to completely open the road at some point?
Not just what we've said to staff, but staff is working in that manner today.
Okay, so I'm taking that question, I think it's very clearly stated.
We've had a statement from our city manager of what she believes the council wants.
And I think your second question is,
is that what staff is in fact working towards, correct?
Yes, that's correct.
Okay, city manager, please.
So the last time we were in this room on this item,
the decision from the council,
because that is who we take our direction from
is this council, is to continue the work
which we have money with the slides one and four, I believe.
And that is what we are doing right now.
And at that point, we said when staff completes
work on one of four we would be back in front of council with where the status of the road
is at that time. It has also been made very clear every day that road moves. So the status
of it at the beginning of the project, it will be different. And so we will need to
know where it stands at that point to then come to the council and ask council for its
direction on what would you like us to do with the road depending on whatever condition
is at that point. Okay. So I will go to councilmember Victor Aguilar.
Thank you, mayor. So my question is, so your vice mayor recommending that we pass a resolution
to explicitly say that we are prioritizing Lake Chabot Road as one of our projects and
advocating for funding?
Thank you for that question. No, it is not prioritizing Lake Chabot Road. It's just reaffirming
our intent, our overall long-term goal for that road, which is to reopen it. Prioritization
means that it would be above all the other projects. And at this time, like Councilmember
Bolt mentioned, we don't have the funds to be able to do that. So it's not about prioritizing
that over all the other projects
is just reaffirming our overall direction
to the city manager who then in turns directs her staff
on the council's intent for this,
the long-term intent of this road,
which is to reopen it both ways.
And my question to staff is,
this resolution, will this go to our next planning session
or is this going to be prioritized
put in on a agenda for July like Vice Mayor had mentioned. So I will go to
City Manager. My understanding is that the Vice Mayor is requesting that this
be an emergency referral and it comes to the July, oh I got it open now, the July
City Council meeting. And for an emergency referral, what's the voting
threshold for that. I've got a city attorney for that. I believe it is five
out of seven. He has said that's correct. Thank you. Those are my questions. Councilmember
James Aguilar. Yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna try not to be repetitive but my question
Vice Mayor is with the context of all that has happened over the course of the
last three years can you reiterate why it is important for a written reaffirmation
re-affirmation of our commitment. What's the line of importance for that re-affirmation?
Thank you, thank you for that question. So to clarify, there are portions of this project
that remain unfunded through our capital improvement plan, but not the whole road. There are just
the slides that are included in it. So there are currently, there's, so there's four slides,
Two of them we have some funding from a federal agency to address two out of the four slides.
The other two slides remain unfunded.
In exploratory conversations with our intergovernmental partners, whether they're county and state,
There are some documents and or studies that need to be completed like a full geotechnical
report of the road so that we're able to pursue grant funding.
And so this particular resolution again makes it explicit that this is our goal is to reopen
it both ways. In partnership with the, with the Bay of
Vista community folks, with the Bay of Vista Association, I am
looking at other sources of funding through some philanthropic
organizations that work on resilience and fire safety, to
be able to fund this geo tech report to so that we're able to
get a clear picture of what really what's happening under
the road. We think we know, there are experts who think they know, but we haven't actually
done a full geotechnical report on the portion of the road that is under the jurisdiction
of the city of San Leandro. Is there anything in the question that I did not answer that
you would like to get clarified? Okay. Thank you. So I'm going to go to Councilwoman
Councilmember Jones. Thank you.
We'll go to Councilwoman next
online. Thank you, Mayor. Um. A
few questions. Can you, um.
Clarify I know that there is a
request from the vice mayor for
this to be an emergency
referral. But what is actually
the criteria for an emergency
referral? And would this.
Thank you, Councilmember Bowen from the City Councilmember Handbook page 16 and I'll just
read verbatim items referred by Council as urgent matters shall be prioritized ahead
of the other already established priorities and will impact staff's progress on other
high priority projects. An urgent referral must meet the following criteria and be defined
as part of the referral.
The criteria for urgency is defined as an action necessary
to immediately preserve the life, health,
and safety of the community,
or failure to respond in an expeditious manner
could result in harmful legislation,
legislative or financial consequences for the city.
No discussion is allowed on the nature of the urgency,
so an urgent referral requires a two-thirds vote,
which is a five members of the council,
to move forward with the urgency referral.
Okay, and then my second question is around
what affirmation means.
And I think some of the other council members
were trying to dig into it.
But in your last answer to council member,
James Aguilar, you said, in the future,
looking for a council member or a vice mayor,
looking for funding or affirmation around being able to
looking for ways to pay for
the other slides that have not
been currently allocated. I
think the current funding, the
$4. something million includes
federal highway funds. So we're
definitely looking for ways to
pay for it. But is there an
expectation that the council
would mean that we would be directing staff to be able to find specific funding for this
project over another project. I'm sorry, that is a question directed to
the Vice Mayor or were you looking for the city manager to answer that question?
Both. What would this mean, this resolution mean?
Thank you. So I'm going to go to Vice Mayor first.
Thank you for that question council member.
So, in terms of my response to Councilmember James Aguilar I specifically referred to looking
for philanthropic partners to fund the geotech report.
Two of the four slides remain unfunded but are included in the capital improvement plan
in terms of long term investment from the city.
In terms of the second part of the question, the resolution is not written yet.
This is a request to the resolution will come before the council should my colleagues agree
to hear this resolution in a July meeting.
And the reason for the urgency is because this does in fact relate directly to the health
and safety of the neighbors of the Bay of this the neighborhood. We are currently at
the beginning of fire season, which it has been made clear by the windstorm that we had
last morning because by our policy board policy we can't discuss the basis for urgency apologies,
but that's what we've agreed to. Other questions Councilmember Bowen. I don't want to end up
having more discussion. So I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. Any other questions?
Okay. The question that I have is as you're contemplating the resolution, it appears to
be exclusively focused on a commitment. Are you anticipating that that resolution will
also have a funding commitment? Or is this purely a a commitment, absent funding?
If I could put a financial commitment that would not impact the general fund that would either
reappropriate existing funds from the project, that's what I would like to propose. If it
doesn't have any impact to the general fund. That would be my first that if I were to be able to
choose that would be my priority number one but if that is not possible just affirming that that is
that it that it is a council's intent to rehabilitate and reopen Lake Chippewa Road
to traffic both ways. Okay so at this point in time I don't think there's there's any further
discussion. We have to take this in two pieces. Urgency first and then if it meets the urgency
criteria according to the council members, then we will move to the second part of that
is working to agendaize it. If either of those fail, we can then have a further discussion
on what we might do next at another meeting. Let's begin with a question. I do need a motion
this would be agendized as urgent. I would like to make a motion to agendize
this as an as an urgent item. Do we have a second? Councilmember James
Aguilar. I'll second the vice mayor's motion. We've got a motion by our vice mayor with
a second from Councilmember James Aguilar. Any further discussion? I guess we
can't discuss that item so my apologies for even asking the question. At this
point in time please vote. Councilmember Bowen may we have your vote? No. Thank
you. The motion carries with five yes votes and two no votes. One moment while
that comes into view. With our yes votes coming from Councilmember Simon, Victor
Agular James Aguilar and Vice Mayor Biveros Walton and no moats no votes from councilmember bolt and councilmember Bowen
And my vote and yes from the mayor. Thank you
At this point in time we go to the second question
Whether given the urgency
And I do want to go back to excited I did have my my question
really want to focus on the funding piece because I'm trying to avoid a and
I don't mean this pejoratively but a statement that has no teeth that has no
no consequence because we can make statements but is the objective of the
motion to get funding of some type? Yes. Okay. May I clarify that? You may.
Specifically to fund the full geotech report for that road so that we're able
to actually get some estimates on the on the on the repair. Okay thank you.
Further discussions on that item. So one moment please and I'll come right to you
Councilmember Bolt. So actually let me I'm going to unmute your mic so that you can
begin but if you have a question I need to ask my attorney here on the site. Okay
Thank you for your patience while we work through just some of the logistics here councilmember bolt
Yes, I want to go back to the question you just asked because I heard one thing and then I heard a response
Your question as I heard it was are we looking for funding?
If that's correct and the answer was yes funding for the geotechnical report
But to me that seems like we're gonna go into our general fund money to fund the geotechnical
but now we're getting into a discussion all that she is saying is that her as she drafts her resolution it will
Include an element with respect to funding and that's all that I was trying to get clarification on
My question then is is it outside funding or is it internal funding?
Hold on just a second
That's a question
So I'm relying on my parliamentarian
So my apologies if you're in disagreeing with the
parliamentarian. Okay so at this point in time any other questions did you want to
give something else? Yes the council has voted that this is urgency is an urgency
item and now you are just going back to what you said when do you schedule this
item the council is still within bounds to just talk logistics about when it
plans to schedule this item without having a full-blown discussion about the
merits or the merits of the topic. So it's about discussion of when do you
want to schedule this? May I just ask a scheduling question? Yes, please. So just
to clarify, the council is on summer recess for the month of August, correct?
Correct. So I will be absent the first meeting of July for the fourth of July
holiday. And so I would like to propose that it be on the second meeting of that
is not a work session of July. So to be at our second July meeting that is a
regularly scheduled meeting which I believe seven plus 21st. Please
proceed. The second meeting of July is the 13th, the third meeting is the 20th as I
look at the schedule right now it's really light so if I may ask the Vice
Mayor are you okay with either the 13th of the 20th and I work that out as we
get closer to the date just so that we don't call a meeting for only one item
if there's not enough to have both of those meetings as we get closer. It's May
so there's lots of time for these agendas to change but there really isn't
much there today. I am okay with both of those dates. Thank you very much. Okay, so just clarifying the process piece. So it will be it will come forward on either the 13th or the 20th, right 13th or 13th through the 20th or the 20th for a full discussion at that point in time.
Okay, so at this point in time I think we have some clarity up here and we're going to proceed as is
And if there's any additional clarification required and I can certainly myself
Push this item with the prerogatives that I have as the mayor under the authorities granted to me under the charter
But I think we're fine
I think we can all reach agreement given the votes that we've seen or enough of us reach agreement that we will have a discussion
On this in July with that being said
My my hand was up mayor
online I know but my question what what is Oh hold on just a second
Okay
Let's we're gonna give you the floor
Please proceed. Yeah, I just had a quiz this this
This discussion is about the scheduling of the item correct because the vote was to put the referral on as an urgent referral
So and this is the first time we've actually passed an urgent referral since we passed this new policy two years ago
So this is our first urgent that we'll have been had another one since. Oh
anyway, so
with an urgent referral
Should it not I mean, I guess I'm confused as to the urgency of it and then kind of working through what's like
If it's urgent should we not?
schedule it for like the next meeting that we can versus having a discussion about when it's convenient for different folks on schedule
Just just trying to understand what urgent means in this case
So we're gonna check right now very quickly
Let's say the attorney because I know that I don't have a copy of the handbook handy
Is there anything that talks about this precise scheduling?
it does not but
Again what I read earlier from page 16 is
that an urgency referral must meet the following criteria. We described this
criteria. So action necessary to immediately preserve the life health and
safety of the community or failure to respond in an expeditious manner could
result in harmful legislative or financial consequences for the city.
There's no statement about any scheduling. If it's not an urgent referral
then council requests for future items shall be added to the city council
priority list to be prioritized at a subsequent City Council planning retreat
or session. So there's no vote for referral it just automatically goes to
the priority setting session or planning retreat unless it's an urgency referral
which requires a vote but there's no defined time that that urgency
referral has to be scheduled to be heard. It just does it go ahead as an item for
discussion before any of the prior before a priority session or for sorry
retreat or a priority setting session understood so it's it's not time bound
but it does come ahead of any other scheduled staff work or agenda item is
that right how according to how this the handbook reads is that items referred by
council as urgent matters shall be prioritized ahead of other already
established priorities and will impact staff progress and other high priority
projects. Okay thank you. Okay so I think at this point in time we're done with
item 11. Moving to item number 12 are there reports that council members would
like to make? Beginning with council member James Aguilar. Alright thank you
mayor. Just want to point out a couple of meetings I've had with city staff. I took
a couple of meetings specifically to take tours of city facilities like the
wastewater treatment plant with dr. Morehouse and I'm not gonna lie we're
really great brain brain partners talking about science and how it all
works and so that was a really fantastic tour and meeting and I also met with
director Simons at the library took a tour of the library learned a little bit
more than I think the everyday citizen knows about the library and I really
appreciated that I'm looking forward so for going ahead I'm looking forward to
attending the youth voices public reading event this Thursday at the library. I think that's really
neat and really cool so I can't wait to see what the kids got for us. I'm also looking forward to
meeting with congresswoman Simon at the end of the month on the 31st with other East Bay elected
to talk shop but also to build a support network for new elected and new appointed officials as
as well. And that is all I have for Council reports. Thank you, mayor.
I'm going to vice mayor. Thank you. Just attended the city and neighborhood
associations barbecue this weekend. It was lovely and a well attended event. And mayor,
I don't know if you are planning to address this. But I would like to request a moment
of silence for those who were killed in the mosque shooting in the city of San Diego.
I don't know if you're already planning on doing this, but if so, I would like to add
my request to hold a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting in the mosque
in the city of San Diego. Those are all my comments. I see my time back to the chair.
Councilmember Victor Aguilar.
Thank you Mayor on Wednesday, May 13th I attended the 1,147th meeting of the Alameda County
Mosquito Abatement Board of Trustees.
We introduced a new trustee, Don McCoon, who was representing the county at large for
Alameda County and returning trustee, Lisa Grassler, who was representing the city of
Oakland.
We approved the final budget for the fiscal year.
We also had a presentation of the preliminary
engineering report for fiscal year 26-27.
We also discussed that we have no new detections
of the invasive mosquito, Aedes aegypti,
which were made by acment operations by their lab.
There was one co-found in Newark
that tested positive for West Nile virus,
but no mosquitoes were positive for the month.
Extensive monitoring for both invasive mosquitoes
and mosquitoes that can vector West Nile virus
be the focus of ACMAD's efforts in the months to come, request for service received from
the public in April, totaled 116, well below the 10-year average for the month, and that
concludes my report. Thank you, Mayor.
Okay, seeing none, no others, I will go very quickly. I had the opportunity to attend this
state's neighborhood association event. It was a beautiful day, so many families, young,
being old, everyone is running around having a good time, so very grateful for the invitation
and just glad to see community coming together. It was also nice to see visitors from other
cities coming in to celebrate. Attended the library volunteer appreciation event, Luncheon,
that was on Friday. Another great event highlighting 99 adult volunteers that support our library
system here in the city of San Leandro with a variety of programs, especially
touching was the folks that volunteer helping others learn how to read. I
represent the city of San Leandro on the Ava Community Board of Directors and as
part of that attended a Cal CCA meeting in Sacramento where the all the
community choice aggregators are coming together to work on policy, advocacy, and in particular
one of the things that's high on the agenda is transparency.
One of the key drivers to the cost of electricity is what's called the PCIA.
It's basically a kind of a make-hole charge to PG&E.
It's represented by PG&E, but it's very opaque, and what we see is big swings in this number
that's supposed to be very simple for people to understand, but it's in fact just opaque
not transparent. So we're working with the legislature to help bring clarity
and transparency because we as CCAs believe that there may be an
opportunity there to help drive electricity costs down. I also had the
honor of attending the gathering from around the Bay Area of folks from
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. I had the opportunity to spend time with a
Consul General of Indonesia and Singapore, here in our own Marina
Community Center, probably 200, 220 attendees, all sorts of beautiful
cultural expressions, and to have all that happening here in San Leandro. And
why San Leandro? The answer was simple. Location, location, location, and your
staff was really easy to work with. And so when I think of our staff making our
facilities available and that we're able to bring the Bay Area and highlight our city
in a positive way where people are having a great time and they're saying like, wow,
this is a great place, this is a great place. That's brand building also. So thank you for
all that supported that effort in particular. And the last thing that I'll identify is that
I spent time with the citizens led initiative on Saturday and a number of council members
shut up. You haven't mentioned it so I won't call you out by name but thank you
for joining to you know listen and to support efforts to increase revenue in
our city. We have some very specific needs long long long deferred
maintenance and these are very specific challenges that we need to address so
if we've got volunteers out there in the community who are helping to make a
difference you better believe that I'm gonna be there by their side helping to
support them. At this point time we will go back to item number 12 or was it
what's our public comment number seven so if we've got any public speakers who
did not get a chance to speak before this would be the opportunity online to
raise your hand because we did close public comment in person already. Mayor
I'm not seeing any hands raised from community members who did not already
speak during the previous opportunity. Very well so at this point in time we
will close public comment as part of item number seven and we will come to
our adjournment and you know anytime we see violence anytime we see violence
it's important to take time to reflect on it and try to find peace find a way
to convey peace through our words through our actions and one way that we
can convey our commitment to peace is by recognizing the tragedy, acknowledging
that it's a tragedy, and finding moment to honor all those lives that were lost.
So please join me in a short period of silence in memory for those lives that
were lost. Our time is 901 and we are adjourned in memory of those killed in
in the San Diego mosque.