[1:55] staff ready? Is the balcony ready? The balcony is always ready. Okay, it is 530 on the dot. So, I am going

[2:05] to call this meeting of the City Council to order. Good evening, everyone. It is Tuesday, September

[2:14] for his 226 and we are about to go into closed session, but we will start with the role call

[2:23] Madam Creek, Laura Weissiger, would you please call the role?

[2:27] Council Member's Baller, Vice Mayor Pryor, Mayor as the Ashcraft, here is the President and

[2:31] hopefully Council Members, the Day Sagan Jensen will be here shortly.

[2:34] Okay, have you heard from any of them?

[2:35] Neither of them, but I'll check in with them quickly.

[2:38] Right, so we go next to the consent calendar and that's for the consent calendar for the

[2:42] session, these are routine items that will be approved by one motion unless removed by council members.

[2:50] Madam Clerk, we've got two consent calendar items, could you introduce them to us?

[2:55] Yes, they are designating negotiators.

[2:57] The first is designating negotiators for A, which is building 24 at 23 on one mark, and

[3:05] two B is designating negotiators for Pierce 2 and 3, which is 40.

[3:09] Thank you.

[3:10] Do we have any public comment on the consent?

[3:13] I'm the consent calendar.

[3:15] So I'm looking for a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar for the closed

[3:20] session.

[3:21] So moved.

[3:23] It's been with the Vice Mayor Michelle.

[3:24] Prior seconded by Councillor Member Grape-Volour.

[3:27] All those in favor were approved in the consent calendar for the closed session.

[3:32] Please signify by stating aye.

[3:35] Did I have five eyes?

[3:37] It'd be great if we spoke into the microphone.

[3:38] Thank you. So then we will move on to the I and then Madam Clerk. Do we have public comment on closed session items we do and she submitted to speaker slips that you just get to speak once under public comment. So it's Mary and Morgan

[3:54] All right, come on up and I'd like to say make the mic from there and come on up and make the microphone yours at mouth level and we'll be able to hear you welcome. Okay. Thank you

[4:03] So I just received this afternoon late this afternoon and noticed that this was happening and I wanted to come down and say that there is concern in the community about some of the companies that the city will be

[4:23] to negotiate with, some of them are military involved, and especially AI, there's concerned

[4:32] about data centers, and anything that supports AI without further community input as to what

[4:45] the range of that negotiation might be and what we're talking about here, so I just wanted

[4:52] to come in and speak for the community that we are concerned.

[5:00] Thank you, thank you so much. And is that the last of our public comment?

[5:06] Yeah, nobody remote us.

[5:07] No, no, no, no, no. Okay, we're good.

[5:09] All right, so then I'm with that I will close public comment on the closed session items.

[5:14] And we are about to adjourn two closed sessions to consider two items.

[5:19] The following two items that I'll ask the city clerk to please introduce.

[5:22] At M4A, as conference a through a property negotiator's pursuant to government code section

[5:26] 54956.8, the property is 23.01, Monarch Street Building 24.

[5:31] City negotiators are the city manager, base recent economic development director, base

[5:35] reuse manager, acting city attorney, and the managing JLL managing director, Christy

[5:40] Chilters.

[5:41] And negotiating parties are the city of Alameda, American Real Ink, Deliver Corp, Apollo,

[5:47] Atomic's, Adelaire Corp, Bullcorque Dynamics, Adelaire Corp, Gig Energy Ink, Adelaire Corp.

[5:53] Mark Key Ventures Management LLC, Adelaire LLC, RP, Menlo, and Equities LLC, and Faceline Investors

[6:03] LLC, a California LLC, Under Negotiation, a price in terms of lease or sale for B.

[6:08] It's comforts with real property negotiators pursuant a government code section 5495.6.8.

[6:12] property appears 2 and 3, and adjacent property at Alameda Point, negotiators of the city manager,

[6:18] base reason, economic development director, base reason manager, Jones laying the

[6:23] sale, Christie, Chilers, and acting city attorney, Lynn, and negotiating parties of the

[6:29] city of Alameda, and water emergency transportation authority, and mancing construction company

[6:33] under negotiation, are a price in terms of lease.

[6:36] Thank you, I just for the record, Madam Clerk, and I am for a, I believe it's a giga energy

[6:41] Thank you.

[6:42] Thank you.

[6:43] Thank you.

[6:44] Thank you for introducing his items with that.

[6:48] We will all staff and the council, staff has involved in this item and council will all

[6:52] adjourn to room 391 is our intention to be back before the council at 7 p.m. this evening.

[6:59] So we'll see you then.

[7:00] Okay.

[7:00] Thank you.

[10:12] Okay, everyone, nice to see you. We'll be starting in five minutes, five minutes.

[13:25] All right, Ryan and Trun, are you ready in the balcony? I see two thumbs up. If the balcony is ready, we're all ready. Good evening, everyone. And welcome to the City Council meeting.

[13:38] Allow me to city council meeting.

[13:42] This is Tuesday, September 1, 2026.

[13:47] It's like the first day of school

[13:48] because we just returned from summer break.

[13:53] And the council has just returned from the closed session.

[13:58] So I'd like to call the meeting to order and start

[14:01] with roll call.

[14:05] Is that what I'm starting with, Matt?

[14:06] Can we do the closed session now for a really long time?

[14:08] That's too easy. We've just returned.

[14:10] Let's see, we've just returned.

[14:12] Sorry, break.

[14:14] How do we run a meeting?

[14:16] Let's get it.

[14:18] We announce the actions of any taken in

[14:21] Closetion. Madam, would you announce

[14:24] Actions of any taken in Closetion?

[14:25] Yes, regarding four A, which is real property

[14:27] and negotiators for building 24.

[14:30] Staff provided in operation and council provided

[14:32] direction with no vote taken.

[14:34] Regarding item four B, which was also real property

[14:36] negotiations, but for peers 2 and 3, staff provided an information and council provided

[14:41] direction by unanimous voice vote five eyes.

[14:44] Perfect.

[14:45] Thank you.

[14:45] And with that, we will adjourn the closed session City Council meeting, and I will call to order

[14:51] the special joint meeting of the City Council and the successor agency to the Community Improvement

[14:57] Commission that used to be called the Redevelopment Agency.

[15:00] And we will start with the pledge of allegiance. I'd like to ask my colleague, council,

[15:04] retrace e. Jensen, to lead us in the pledge. Please rise.

[15:09] All right.

[15:10] Let's go to the audience to the flag of the United States of America.

[15:14] And to the Republic for which it stands.

[15:17] My nation under God.

[15:19] We're going to just a little liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

[15:22] Thank you, council member, Jensen.

[15:25] Madam Clerk, would you call the roll please?

[15:28] Council members, Boller?

[15:31] Jason?

[15:31] Yeah.

[15:32] Prior.

[15:33] Mayor, as the Ashcraft?

[15:33] I'm here.

[15:34] Five, President.

[15:35] Thank you.

[15:36] And next, we go to the consent calendar.

[15:39] But this again is the consent calendar just for the special meeting of the City Council on the

[15:44] Successor Agency.

[15:46] These are routine items that will be approved by one motion unless Council members

[15:51] slash commissioners.

[15:53] I'll remove items for discussion and those items will be called after the agenda items.

[16:01] We have a motion.

[16:02] Is that you Council Regentson?

[16:03] Okay.

[16:03] I have a motion to prove the special joint meeting consent calendar by Council Regentson.

[16:10] Seconded by Council Member Roller.

[16:12] We're going to move this along.

[16:13] All those in favor of please signify by stating aye.

[16:16] Aye.

[16:16] Okay.

[16:16] We've passed the consent calendar unanimously and that was all we had on that agenda.

[16:22] So we adjourn the special joint meeting, and I call to order the regular City Council meeting

[16:30] Madam Clerk roll call roll calls, but not at five present.

[16:33] Thank you.

[16:34] Madam Clerk, do we have any agenda changes this evening?

[16:37] We do not.

[16:38] All right.

[16:39] So then I am scanning the room because the next item is a proclamation.

[16:45] It's not a proclamation.

[16:47] Hello, it's the first day back.

[16:48] This is a presentation of a Domestic Violence Prevention video by Alameda Family Services Youth Advisory Board.

[17:00] And I'm looking around the room.

[17:02] Catherine Schwartz, are you here?

[17:05] Anyone from Youth Advisory Board?

[17:08] She's from New York.

[17:10] Okay.

[17:11] That was, do I have anybody from the Youth Advisory Board in the room?

[17:16] Any students?

[17:18] No.

[17:20] That's okay.

[17:23] Madam, why don't you, if you would.

[17:27] So what this is, everybody.

[17:30] Actually, does Katherine want to speak?

[17:32] She doesn't have her hand up.

[17:33] Okay.

[17:34] Let's call on Katherine Schwartz is the Executive Director of

[17:40] and assistance to individuals, families, youth, and I would love her to introduce this item.

[17:51] Are you there, Catherine?

[17:54] Yep.

[17:55] Hi, I'm here. Can you hear me?

[17:58] I can hear you.

[18:00] Hi, good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council members.

[18:04] I apologize I'm not able to be there in person.

[18:07] I wanted to let you know that Kyle Sincoff, the school-based services division director is also

[18:13] with you remotely. And we had hoped that maybe one or two of the teams from the Youth Advisory

[18:20] Committee would join us, but I'm not certain if they have. In any case, I am happy to share with you

[18:30] that we finally were able to complete our video.

[18:37] This has been a year-long project

[18:42] which has been a really amazing collaboration

[18:46] between Alameda Family Services and the City of Alameda.

[18:53] It originated, the idea for it originated

[18:56] and Madame Mary, you may, of course,

[18:59] want to speak more to this,

[18:59] but it originated out of the tragedy that occurred when the family was murdered by the father.

[19:09] I think this was maybe even two years ago now and at that time Madam Mayor spoke with

[19:18] myself and several other members of the community who were involved in behavioral health services

[19:24] to see if there would be the capacity to create a video that would raise awareness around

[19:35] just signs and things to look out for with regards to domestic violence.

[19:41] And what we decided to do was to bring this project to the Youth Advisory Board, which is a board made up of

[19:51] teens in the various high schools here in the district, and we had a lovely group.

[19:56] We had about eight students that worked on it for, you know, over the...

[20:00] Here, many of them have actually graduated or now off at college or at various other things so are available.

[20:08] But this video is really in every way of the vision of the teens who helped craft it.

[20:17] We started off, you know, having it have words and then they really decided they wanted it to be as accessible as possible to as many different people.

[20:29] and they thought, and you'll see it soon, but anyway, this was their vision, and we feel that

[20:37] it came out really well, all the teams that we have been able to show it to are really pleased

[20:43] with it.

[20:44] So I don't know if there's anything else you want me to say.

[20:46] I just thank you for, thank you so much, you did a great job explaining.

[20:50] I'll just add, it was such a pleasure to work with Katherine Schwartz, the high school

[20:55] students and they were very busy with their classes with their exams, with college visits

[20:59] and as Katherine noted, some of them have gone off to college now, some are still in high

[21:04] school. And then we had wonderful assistance from a videographer whose last name, some

[21:11] of you will recognize that he'd been around the city and that is, he's Phil Matoresse. Phil's

[21:17] dad, Frank Matoresse and I, first met when we co-chair the library campaign, we'll probably

[21:21] little before that, but we coached the library campaign to build the new main library that's

[21:27] turning 20 this year, and that was in the year 2000. But Frank had twin sons, and I had a

[21:33] son and a daughter, his kids are older than mine, and both twins became independent filmmakers,

[21:39] and so this, one of them fell mad at her, so there's an alameda, and now has two young kids of

[21:45] his own. He assisted the kids on putting this all together. And then before we show it, I'm just

[21:51] We're going to ask our city clerk Laura Weissiger to read a bit of a disclaimer because this is very serious topic matters, so city clerk.

[22:00] This is a short video on the topic of domestic violence designed to raise awareness about the importance of social support in combating the stigma and silence surrounding abuse.

[22:09] It may bring up difficult feelings for some viewers. Please take care of yourself and feel free to step out at any time during the video.

[22:17] Thank you. Madam Clerk and with that if we're ready to roll, let's do it.

[23:57] that the students produced and I think they did an excellent job but I do just want to say

[24:03] to everyone who's listening here in chambers and listening remotely that if you are in a

[24:09] difficult and abusive, a dangerous relationship no matter what your age is, there is always

[24:15] help, you're not alone. Alameda police department is available 24-7, Alameda family services, building

[24:23] futures and even the City of Alameda has a victim services coordinators so I'm

[24:29] don't hesitate and reach out. Thank you so much. Okay, so then we are moving on to

[24:38] item 3B.

[24:39] 3B is San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority

[24:43] Presentation of a Resolution of a Appreciation for mayor is the Ash

[24:52] I'm really glad to be here to be able to present this resolution, acknowledging your career

[24:58] of public service here.

[25:00] Allamida. Look, it feels very early to be doing this. I'll be the first one to say that. We know it's fairly even September, but our board.

[25:08] By the way, I know who you are, but the rest of the room, I know.

[25:11] I'm not sure.

[25:11] Our board wanted to make sure that we were the first or among the first to be able to congratulate you on an amazing career here in Alameda, doing everything that you can.

[25:26] So many accomplishments that have made Alameda's lives better, especially out of Alameda and

[25:31] Ferry writers.

[25:32] I think you took office the same year we took over operating the Ferry service in Alameda.

[25:39] And we've just seen things go so well for this service.

[25:42] We've seen it become really a community defining benefit.

[25:46] We think for the residents of Alameda we couldn't have done that without your help.

[25:51] We've been able to open a brand new maintenance facility obviously with your leadership

[25:56] employees, a hundred folks at that maintenance facility.

[26:00] It's made our services much more efficient,

[26:04] and been able to at a lot of us operate more service

[26:06] for our limiter residents.

[26:08] We were able to launch our newest route

[26:11] and see plain lagoon, our newest Trans Bay route.

[26:15] And it's quickly become one of the more popular routes

[26:17] on our system.

[26:19] I think it has the highest ridership of any of our East Bay routes

[26:22] and we definitely need to operate more service.

[26:24] it's a good problem to have. We wouldn't have been able to do that without your help.

[26:29] And then the Woodstock Alameda Oakland Estuary Service has been just a pleasure to operate.

[26:35] Obviously, you led the effort to make that happen. And I remember the first date when we started

[26:41] operating that service. And we had so many riders. It was really high ridership right from the

[26:47] beginning. The first week was stellar ridership. And I remember thinking, I wonder if this is going

[26:52] And I remember using no it won't, and you were right, because it's just continued to be one of the higher riders ridership routes in our system.

[27:03] And we are at a point where we need to figure out how to keep it around permanently, how to expand the service so that it's every day service.

[27:09] And we look forward to working with the city to find ways to do that.

[27:13] So thank you for all of that everything that you've done and wish you all the best in your next.

[27:18] Thank you so much.

[27:19] I'll come down and receive that. Thank you very much.

[27:53] In Alabama, we love all forms of transit, but I have to say fairy writers are the happiest

[27:59] campers out there. I'm on the fairy, at least twice a month, usually more for my MTC meetings.

[28:06] And someone once said to me, may or doesn't it seem like this commute is too short, and I said,

[28:11] no one's ever said that about a commute before, but she said, you know what I mean?

[28:15] It's just so pleasant on a beautiful day, and they're all beautiful days, right?

[28:19] So thank you very much. I'm honored to receive that proclamation.

[28:24] So then moving along, we come to item four or our communications.

[28:29] But before we start with our communications,

[28:32] let me just take a minute to remind everyone

[28:35] that the ground rules for conducting a city council meeting

[28:38] since it's been a while since we've done one of these.

[28:42] I like to remind everyone that this is a business meeting.

[28:46] it's not theater, it's not a sporting event, we are conducting the business of the city

[28:51] of Alameda, your business, the people's business.

[28:55] So that's why I ask please, no applause, no booze, cheers, cheers, we don't do the wave.

[29:03] We just listen respectfully when others are speaking and when it's our turn to speak, we

[29:09] get up and when the timer goes off or before, we sit down because in the reason I ask

[29:16] for this respect is that public speaking is one of the most stressful things for many people

[29:21] to do. Maybe not some people like me who've tried a few cases in my day and in great

[29:28] bolder home sitting next to, but it can be very stressful. And we never want anyone to feel

[29:33] so intimidated that maybe somebody was booed or jeered that they're not even going to get

[29:38] up and express themselves. That would be terrible because we all have a first amendment right

[29:43] free speech. And also we want to set a good civic example for young people and hello, young people, I see you in the audience. Thanks for coming.

[29:54] So let's set a good civic example of how we conduct the people's business. We don't have to all agree.

[30:00] But we can do whatever communicating we do civilly. And I just want this to be a safe place for people to share their views. And again, we don't all have to think alike, but we should respect each other. And finally, if you want to hold that sign, that's also your first amendment, right? And I just asked, and let's just continue that far back row. Don't hold them up over your head where they might block someone else's view, because everybody wants to see.

[30:27] And then I also have to read this magic language that I hope I don't need to rely on California

[30:35] Pino Code Section 403 states that it is a criminal offense for any person to without authority of law

[30:42] willfully disturb or break up any assembly or meeting that is not unlawful in its character.

[30:48] Other than any, than an assembler meeting referred to in penal code section 302, our elections code 18340.

[30:58] First, violations will receive a warning and continued violations will require additional action, which could include police intervention.

[31:06] But we want me that tonight. And so with all that in mind, Madam Clerk, I'm doing have speakers under oral communication.

[31:13] Not in these are, again, or authentication item is not on the agenda. We'll get to the agenda items next.

[31:21] We just got our ninth speakers website. We are over the 15-minute time limit.

[31:25] And we'll have to do a random drawing to pick who gets to speak.

[31:29] And we have to remote as well.

[31:32] Okay.

[31:34] So I should have probably added that that we take 15 minutes now at the top of the agenda for speakers

[31:41] and because the speakers will get two to minutes each

[31:44] matter clerk? Yes, two minutes each so we can do seven or eight of

[31:49] Facebook. And yes, sometimes people might not take the whole two minutes

[31:52] but they might. So okay, so then you'll just start picking by

[31:57] random names and we'll have to do quick splits for the room.

[32:00] All right, so if you're in the chambers when your name is called

[32:05] Coming up quickly, so we'll keep things moving.

[32:08] His our first name, Madam Clerk.

[32:09] One, one, one.

[32:11] Sorry.

[32:12] We've got one more.

[32:18] We don't have to do this in a while.

[32:20] No, no, no, no, no.

[32:26] We don't

[32:35] have to do this in a while.

[32:35] You don't have the trick or treat bowls to drink.

[32:37] No, I don't want you to bring the trick.

[32:39] I don't want you to bring the trick.

[32:39] It's the first name back.

[32:41] Yes, indeed.

[32:47] All right.

[32:48] First up is Josh Altieri, followed by, I'm sorry,

[32:53] this person from the Marina Shores each way.

[32:55] I think it's 11, maybe it's the last name, and then Sid.

[33:00] Welcome to Speaker Altieri.

[33:03] Good evening council members.

[33:04] Thank you all for your service.

[33:05] I'm Josh Altieri with the Housing Authority City Valmedia Communications and Community Programs Manager.

[33:09] Here to do a quarterly update.

[33:11] Housing Authority is busy serving operating our housing choice voucher programs.

[33:17] Over 3,000 loan can residents in 1,800 voucher households.

[33:20] We also partnered with 350 city of Alameda landlords to create more affordable housing opportunities for a housing choice voucher holders, and I invite any rental property owner here in the city to contact us to learn more about the benefits of our housing choice voucher landlord program.

[33:35] And I'm also here to acknowledge and thank the council city leadership and city staff of their partnership throughout the years, a partnership that started in August 1940 and continues to this day.

[33:45] And I wanted to quickly highlight several active community partnerships that are occurring.

[33:50] Tomorrow, we're going to be hosting a tour from the city's housing human services team.

[33:54] We'll do a property tour and share information about our housing programs.

[33:58] That information and knowledge will be transferred onto the populations that the housing human services team serves on a daily basis.

[34:05] Look forward to that.

[34:06] We also have an call with the Alameda Free Library staff to explore our reach efforts to our properties.

[34:11] could possibly include book donations at our family and senior properties, as well as them

[34:16] tabling at the same properties to register our residents for library cards and find out

[34:22] more information about library programming. The Zero Waste Program from the Public Works

[34:27] Department, they visited 12 housing authority properties, distributing compost bins,

[34:32] replacements, recycle totes, and outreach materials to promote landfill diversion. We've been

[34:38] able to use significantly reduce some of our

[34:41] Alameda County industry trash pickups that those properties.

[34:44] And Alameda Reckon Parks coming out to our largest family property as well.

[34:48] Massic senior center coming to our senior properties.

[34:50] We're going to host another series of dates later this year.

[34:54] Alameda Municipal Power Auto in rolled 600 housing authority households into their ender.

[35:13] I would like to respectfully remind the council that the staff recommendation to modify

[35:24] comment to have a new between paru and entrance to allow for a two-way traffic is to

[35:29] is likely to move forward in September unless the Council refers that decision for review.

[35:35] Now, I know that there was some great outreach by city staff back in July, and a lot of

[35:41] the feedback was received, and I think, even since then, we've had some discussions with

[35:44] Scott Wickwitstrom, where we made another proposal to establish a two-way traffic pattern

[35:52] with Westbound trucks on cement and eastbound trucks on way in the vista, which would allow

[35:56] for that drug traffic to pass without modification of either a road and in fact will be beneficial

[36:02] in both cases of actually allowing narrowing of boat streets and implementation of better

[36:06] traffic coming on boat streets without removing parking or trees or pedestrian crossing

[36:15] bullbeds. You know, while no option is without impacts, this alternative appears to offer

[36:20] the possibility of bouncing and reducing impacts on the various local neighborhoods and residents

[36:24] and vote corridors, rather than concentrating impacts on a single street.

[36:28] And so given the significance of the overall issue to the neighborhood, I believe a

[36:34] cancer referral would be very beneficial or a referral would allow transparent evaluation

[36:38] of all viable alternatives and a extraordinary final decision reflects the most complete

[36:44] information available, accordingly I respectfully ask the cancer to provide a referral in a

[36:49] timely manner so that these alternatives can be fully considered before the September

[36:55] implementation proceeds. Thank you very much for your time this evening. Thank you. Our next speaker is Sid and then Amis White.

[37:02] All right, and Sid is in person. Yeah, hi, come on up.

[37:13] I would love to start off by thinking you met a mayor members, the council and the members of public for the opportunity to speak and your time and attention.

[37:20] So as many of you may have noticed there have been quite a few new clock cameras popping up in recent months,

[37:24] so I want to take some time to address some of the main arguments for flock. Let's start with a big one. It stops criminals.

[37:29] While admit that these cameras do hold a potential to reduce crime, that is never before been

[37:34] a valid excuse for an assault on citizens' rights.

[37:36] In the carpenter of the United States, the Supreme Court ruled out under the Fourth Amendment,

[37:39] police require warrant to access someone's phone location history.

[37:42] Vlog cameras do the exact same thing, tracking where you go at all times, except without

[37:46] your consent, and without requiring a warrant.

[37:48] I, and many other Alamideans, feel less safe being surveilled by the government 247.

[37:53] The second main argument for Vlog is that there is a low potential for abuse.

[37:56] This could not be further from the truth.

[37:58] The Institute for Justice has catalogued over a hundred incidents of misuse of flood cameras going back all the way to 22.

[38:04] However, it took up until just recently for flock to implement safe guards against this.

[38:08] Against this, no matter how the cameras are being used now,

[38:11] there are very existence puts Americans at brights in jeopardy.

[38:14] The third main argument for flood and the most important of all is that if you're not doing anything wrong,

[38:19] you have nothing to worry about.

[38:20] This has been used throughout history by authoritarian regimes to justify crackdowns and surveillance.

[38:24] They start by implementing the systems to catch wrongdoers in our case.

[38:28] This is flawed.

[38:29] And then they slowly change the definition of what is considered wrong going after dissidents

[38:32] in the opposition.

[38:34] I would like to finish off by reading a quote from Benjamin Franklin, one of our founding

[38:38] fathers and one of those important men in the history of our nation.

[38:41] Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve

[38:45] neither liberty nor safety.

[38:48] We cannot call ourselves a free country if we allow mass surveillance.

[38:51] that are mutually exclusive ideas.

[38:53] Floc betrays every value of freedom that we hold as Americans.

[38:56] I urge this Council and the strongest possible terms

[38:58] to end this contract with Floc and end this surveillance state.

[39:02] Do your duty and protect El Mietans' rights.

[39:05] Thank you. Our next speaker.

[39:06] Anis White, then we have our remote speaker, then Chris Blair.

[39:10] Welcome, speaker White.

[39:14] Thank you.

[39:15] Good evening.

[39:16] I'm here to urge caution on any proposal to cite an AI data center in or near our neighborhoods

[39:26] or the city of Alameda. Research on data center impacts nationwide, 0.25 recurring harms.

[39:36] First, water consumption. A single facility can use up to 1 to 5 million gallons of water per day.

[39:43] for cooling, straining our island's limited freshwater supply, the western states, as many of you may know,

[39:50] just most recently have received the cut back, and are currently facing a drastic cut back,

[39:56] to say in our water allocation.

[39:59] On second.

[40:00] Electricity demand, a typical AI data center uses as much electricity as 100,000 households, risking rate hikes, and grid strain for residents, third, air quality, and public health. The sheer number of backup generators that they have, unit pollutants, link to asthma, respiratory illness, and drive up if you will, our climate emissions, or our carbon emissions, fourth noise pollution for cooling systems in generators.

[40:29] a documented source of residents of residential opposition in cities like Naperville and Santa Clara.

[40:36] Fifth inequitable community burdened data centers are often built near communities less

[40:42] equipped to push back while benefits accrue elsewhere.

[40:46] Again, the Western of Alameda.

[40:49] Given our quality of life in the fact that we are in island facing the real threats

[40:54] of climate change, I ask Council to reject all proposals to consider the location of an AI

[41:01] data center in our city limits.

[41:04] Thank you.

[41:05] Our next speaker is remote at Anna Mayer.

[41:08] Welcome, speaker Mayer.

[41:15] Yes, hello.

[41:16] I'm here.

[41:18] Hello.

[41:18] Thank you for calling on me.

[41:22] My name's Anna Mayer.

[41:24] I am a resident of the Marina Shores H.O.A.

[41:30] I live on Buena Vista Avenue and Stanton Street.

[41:37] So I've been directly on the truck route on Buena Vista since I moved here.

[41:41] I'm also the parent of two young children and I have a dog and I just wanted to share a bit of context about the waterfront property that's been built out

[41:52] with the Cross Island Bike Trail with a playground which is used extensively by local families

[41:58] and especially the youngest children in the neighborhood because it's a smaller and

[42:02] calmer playground than the other bigger ones nearby. Volunteers from the Humane Society are walking

[42:08] their dogs. There's many, it's just a very well-used and well-loved area and so I really urge

[42:16] the council to take a step back, think about all of the different options that would not

[42:23] involve narrowing the bike trail, reducing pedestrian, reducing pedestrian safety and

[42:32] widening the street. So I think that's going to lead to speeding. It's going to make it harder

[42:35] to cross the street. And I would urge the council to think about our priorities around vision 0 and

[42:42] around a bike access which is part of what makes

[42:45] I want you to so special.

[42:47] So thank you for considering our request to refer the issue back to city planning for more consideration.

[42:57] Thank you, Annette.

[42:58] Are you next speaker?

[43:00] Is Chris Blair then caught Jim Marcy?

[43:03] And is in person?

[43:04] Okay, yeah,

[43:07] hello.

[43:11] Mayor, council members, thank you.

[43:14] I was alerted this afternoon.

[43:17] that there was a meeting being held here, closed door session, and it was to address

[43:27] negotiations with some of the property out on the West End.

[43:32] And I read into it a little bit more, and I see one company that seems to be an umbrella

[43:39] corporation, and that is Delaware Corporation.

[43:42] And I'm just wondering, as far as citizens of Alameda,

[43:49] when do we get to know what the city is doing,

[43:53] negotiating in our name?

[43:55] And what is, who are these people?

[43:58] And what are they doing here?

[43:59] So I just wanted to get on record as to saying,

[44:02] I'm opposed to having Apollo, Atomics,

[44:09] Giga, Energy,

[44:10] board dynamics and American rail. They're all Delaware companies and I'm just

[44:17] I'm kind of surprised that the city is up to this without us being aware of

[44:22] it as citizens. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is

[44:27] Katia Martha, then Doyle Sailor. Welcome. Go ahead and bring that microphone where

[44:34] you'd like it to be down a little?

[44:36] Hello, Councilenir.

[44:37] Hello.

[44:38] I've been a resident of a homeowner for 35 years,

[44:44] very close to the base and retired earthen environmental science.

[44:50] So I'm teachers.

[44:51] So I'm very concerned about the transparency

[44:57] of your closed or meetings today.

[45:00] With what I would consider some pretty nefarious companies that might not have residents or the island's residents in any of their considerations.

[45:16] I agree with Amos and Chris, and I hope that you can represent us as a community with transparency. I appreciate you. Thank you in advance.

[45:28] Thank you. Our next speaker, Doyle Sailor.

[45:47] Hi there. Hello, Madam Mayor and

[45:51] Alameda City Council. I'm a Doyle Sailor.

[45:55] And just quickly, I just wanted to thank the city clerk for their help.

[46:00] I thought they were doing an outstanding job, so I just wanted to bring it to your attention.

[46:05] I object to permitting a data center being created at Alameda Point.

[46:10] This AI industry is a financial bubble generating an unnecessary monopolistic need for a bad data center technology.

[46:19] In Pittsburgh, California, further the city council signed a non-disclosure agreement for an unnecessary data center there.

[46:26] And that NDA is completely unacceptable for a public body to do. Thank you.

[46:33] Thank you. Our next speaker.

[46:35] This will be the last one, and it is my line me, my money.

[46:48] And then we'll continue the organization on agenda items at the end of the regular agenda.

[46:54] Hello.

[46:55] And thank you, Mayor Ashcraft, and members of the City Council for giving me a platform to speak.

[47:02] My name is Maylani She-Han, and I'm here to tell you that Shelby She-Han killed my grandmother, and she killed my pets.

[47:14] When her mother got sick, she got a power of attorney, canceled her treatment, and increased her morphine to make her die faster.

[47:21] And then she took my pets to the Pound, and had them all to stroke three cats, three dogs, and two birds.

[47:37] Yeah, I'm

[47:40] even on staff able to go out and check on her please, thank you.

[47:47] Did we use up all the time? Madam.

[47:49] Yes, the time is up.

[47:50] Okay, all right.

[47:56] Okay, so we move on to the consent calendar.

[48:01] And these are routine items that will be approved by one motion.

[48:06] and list council members, remove items for discussion, remove items are called after the

[48:13] agenda items after the regular agenda and council members may speak for up to three minutes

[48:21] on the consent calendar. So first off, council, are there any consent calendar items that council

[48:29] wants to pull. Seeing none. Does Council have any questions on just clarifying questions that

[48:38] don't require a point in item on any of the consent calendar? Okay. Madam Clerk, do we have

[48:44] the speakers on the consent calendar? We have none. Councils, do we have any comments or a

[48:51] motion in a second to approve the consent calendar? Can I make a comment, please?

[48:55] And I'll make the motion to approve the consent calendar with the comment just just appreciating that we will have increased

[49:03] Authority to cite to cite vehicles in our bike lanes. I think that's a great thing. So with that, I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar.

[49:13] All right. Second. Okay, and we're there in the comments. Okay, we've had a motion by Councilmember Jensen seconded by Vice Mayor Prior to approve the consent calendar with the comments.

[49:23] noted by Councilmember Jensen, all those in favour please signify by stating aye.

[49:27] Aye.

[49:28] Okay, that passes unanimously.

[49:30] All right, Madam Clerk, with that, we move on to a regular agenda.

[49:38] And this is agenda item 7A.

[49:42] I'm Council before we get started and staff are going to come forward who are presenting.

[49:46] And the staff has asked for additional time, this is a long and complex.

[50:03] So, rather than the usual ten minutes for staff presentation, I'm asking us to allow twenty minutes for the staff, there's several different staff who are going to present.

[50:13] So, I need four affirmative votes in order to add the time. Do I have a motion to grant?

[50:19] Twenty minutes for staff. Is that you councilmember, councilmember. Okay. So, I'm moved by councilmember.

[50:29] Okay, so I'm going to turn to City Manager, Jerry Boot, and to start, you all have twenty minutes to divvy up any way you like.

[50:39] All right.

[50:40] Thank you.

[50:40] Good evening, Mayor.

[50:41] Vice Mayor, council members.

[50:43] Tonight's staff recommends providing a commitment letter to mid-pen housing for the

[50:53] supportive housing at Alameda Point Project, also known simply as reshape. I appreciate the opportunity

[50:59] to share some introductory remarks before I turn the main presentation over to the city's

[51:03] base reuse and economic development director, Abby Thorne Lyman and our financial advisor,

[51:09] David Vargas. I'm going to start with some things that are obvious tonight. The world of affordable

[51:16] housing is extremely complicated. These projects require a myriad of funding sources. The regulations

[51:22] are like a web and they often take years and require agencies at all levels of government to work collaboratively.

[51:29] At the same time affordable housing and large-scale redevelopment projects are achievable.

[51:34] What does that look like?

[51:36] It takes leaders and collaborators who are growing together, looking for ways to make it happen,

[51:41] not finding reasons to stop it.

[51:43] The city and its public sector partners, including county-hcd, state-hcd, SFB ferry, the Navy,

[51:51] and the federal government more broadly, along with our affordable and supportive housing

[51:55] partners, mid-pand housing, alameda point collaborative, operation dignity, building futures,

[52:02] and our market rate developer, a development partners, Kateles and Brookfield, are all solidly

[52:08] behind Stardust Gardens and the city's larger efforts to provide much needed mixed income housing

[52:13] and new infrastructure investment to revitalize Alameda Point.

[52:18] The housing authorities should be on this list in support of Stardust Gardens.

[52:22] Yet, after nearly a decade of work on reshape, and after three years, or it's been

[52:27] three years since the city approved the project, Stardust is still not a part of the housing

[52:32] authorities' project pipeline.

[52:35] How does that happen?

[52:37] It turns out when you're not looking for solutions, you can find a lot of reasons.

[52:40] The housing authority is suggested that it didn't know that mid-pand would need vouchers for

[52:45] start-ast.

[52:46] Something the historical record just doesn't show to be true.

[52:50] The housing authority is suggested that the city and mid-pand are asking it to break rules.

[52:55] Also not true, particularly when we see other housing authorities in the region working collaboratively

[53:01] with housing entities like mid-pand to achieve successful outcomes for projects like this one.

[53:07] The Housing Authority has suggested that it cannot issue a commitment letter because it may

[53:11] have budget constraints, and yet there are voucher commitments and other funding earmarked

[53:16] for undeveloped housing authority projects that are less ready than start us gardens.

[53:22] To evaluate the budget concerns that have been raised, the city has invited our consultant

[53:26] David Vargas, former senior federal executive who now consults and advises on these topics

[53:31] to join us tonight, and he'll share more later in the presentation and in the Q&A portion

[53:36] And there was also a supplemental memo that went out today on the topic.

[53:41] The Housing Authority has also stated that this project wasn't ready.

[53:45] However, the state has independently demonstrated its confidence in Stardust Gardens and it's ready to move forward.

[53:51] In December of 2025, the state ranked Stardust Gardens, the highest scoring project in the state of California, in that round of affordable housing and sustainable communities grant applications, and it awarded funding.

[54:04] I'm going to conclude my introductory remarks by noting a few really important points.

[54:09] This is about people, some of the lowest income in our community are living in housing

[54:14] that is at the end of its useful life, and start as gardens and reshape will fix that.

[54:19] Federal vouchers are designed for exactly this need.

[54:22] The housing authorities leadership and priorities need to recognize broader city priorities.

[54:27] tens of millions of dollars in grant funding, and private money is being put at risk, thousands

[54:33] of housing units and significant infrastructure investment, including new utilities and

[54:37] roads are being held up because the housing authority so far has not looked for solutions

[54:43] and ways to support a start-ast, or to make room for it in its development program.

[54:49] I truly appreciate working with the innovative team that are here tonight.

[54:53] It's been we've been able to create an option before the Council to keep

[54:57] start us and so much more going at Alameda point.

[55:00] And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Director Thorne Lyman. Thank you.

[55:03] Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council.

[55:06] Abby Thorne Lyman, Director of Base for Use and Economic Development.

[55:09] Here tonight to discuss the possibility of issuing a commitment letter to provide an operating subsidy to start us gardens.

[55:16] Start us gardens is the first phase of the reshape project, also known as rebuilding existing supportive housing at Alameda Point.

[55:24] This together with the market rate and mixed income project next door, which is known as West Midway, being built by Catelis and Brookfield, will comprise 810 units of new housing at Alameda Point, founded by Main Street, Panemway, West Tower and West Midway Avenue.

[55:41] This is a huge commitment on the city's part, 41% of the project is supportive housing.

[55:48] It's an incredibly complex and interdependent set of projects.

[55:53] These are two separate projects,

[55:54] Re-shaped and West Midway with two separate DDAs with the city,

[55:59] but they rely on each other to get done.

[56:02] The Alameda Point Collaboratives Current,

[56:05] outdated Navy era housing sits within the footprint

[56:08] of both the Re-shaped and West Midway developments.

[56:11] In order to build those projects,

[56:13] the Alameda Point collaborative residents who we intend to retain and relocate into the first phase

[56:20] start us garden, say the unit project. We'll need to be moved so that that dilapidated

[56:25] Navy era housing you see on the right can be demolished. Kateles and Brookfield have stated they

[56:30] cannot start the first phase of their project, which is at the corner of Main Street and West Midway,

[56:35] unless they have a date certain by which they can complete the third phase of the project,

[56:39] which is where these residents live. So it is critical that we get all of the pieces

[56:43] moving in the same direction.

[56:48] I want to just step back and talk about supportive housing.

[56:51] At Alonita Point, we have a requirement under the conveyance agreements

[56:55] to serve formerly unhoused individuals and families or those at risk of experiencing homelessness.

[57:02] We serve them with supportive housing, which is a combination of housing with wrap around services

[57:06] to help families and individuals who are dealing with complex challenges to live with stability and dignity.

[57:12] There are two kinds of subsidies needed for these kinds of projects.

[57:15] One is development and construction subsidy.

[57:17] Let's get the building built.

[57:19] The second is operating subsidy.

[57:22] Supportive housing residents often do not make enough money to pay an affront to actually fund

[57:26] the operations of the building.

[57:28] So they need some kind of ongoing source of subsidy to keep the building operational.

[57:32] In the case of Stardust Gardens, they have almost completed their development subsidy.

[57:36] They've raised over $60 million to get this project done.

[57:40] And the last phase, the application do, for the tax credits on September 8th, which would secure them the final $27 million to get the project built.

[57:50] But what they lack is the operating subsidy.

[57:53] And without the operating subsidy, they cannot serve enemy-to-point collaborative residents.

[57:57] They simply not enough money to operate the building.

[58:01] So what formed is the operating subsidy take?

[58:03] It takes the form usually of project-based vouchers.

[58:06] These are federally funded vouchers that provide the difference between the regulated rent

[58:12] amount by HUD, and 30% of the residents' actual income.

[58:17] Typically, the one that most people know is Section 8, but there's lots of different kinds of

[58:21] vouchers, but just to give you a point of reference.

[58:25] The Allemina Point Collaborative already has project-based vouchers.

[58:28] In the footprint of this project, they have 25 project-based vouchers.

[58:32] And what we mid-pen in the city are looking to ask the housing authority to do is

[58:37] terminate those 25 project base vouchers and reissue them to start us gardens and add

[58:42] an additional five vouchers.

[58:44] That is what we were asking and what we were asking specifically and what we were asking

[58:48] was for September 8th deadline, was for the housing authority to issue a letter of commitment

[58:53] stating that when the time came they would do that.

[58:56] They would make that commitment to cancel and reissue those vouchers.

[58:59] This, this from city's perspective, is a nominal cost, right?

[59:04] That's already exist.

[59:05] APCRD secures $785,000 in operating revenue annually.

[59:10] So we believe it's a nominal cost.

[59:12] Now those residents do have the option to go wherever they like.

[59:15] We give them the choice, and some may choose to leave.

[59:18] But it is very unlikely that they will choose to leave.

[59:21] And in addition, because Alameda is such a desirable place to live,

[59:25] other voucher holders could come to start us gardens,

[59:28] backfilling that gap.

[59:31] This is a long history and the city manager gave a little bit of it.

[59:35] This project has been in the works for over ten years.

[59:38] Midpen was selected as the developer for the project more than ten years ago.

[59:42] And we have taken a lot of twists and turns and made a lot of creative decisions over those ten

[59:46] years to make this project happen, including loaning the city loaning the developer

[59:50] $9.5 million to do the infrastructure for the reshape campus.

[59:54] So we have done our part to try to make this happen.

[59:57] Over the course of that decade, let's-

[1:00:00] We have had numerous conversations with the housing authority that have not resulted in vouchers.

[1:00:05] I want to talk about the timeline moving forward, which is critical. This September 8th tax credit application is instrumental to keeping this project and the West Midway development on track.

[1:00:17] If we successfully submit this application and show these vouchers, the project could be under construction by next June. We could have residents moving in early 2029.

[1:00:27] So we are recommending today that Council consider issuing a commitment letter only.

[1:00:33] No funds would be expended until fiscal year 2829 when the project is actually operational.

[1:00:39] This is also really critical in terms of interdependencies because we actually have a legally binding agreement recorded to the property that we're talking about.

[1:00:46] That is a three-party agreement between the county, the city, and APC, requiring that we provide the housing for these households that are at risk of homelessness.

[1:00:55] We cannot have that agreement released from the land unless we can prove that we have replacement housing for those residents.

[1:01:04] The housing authority has stated the rationale for delaying vouchers is that they anticipate a future budget shortfall.

[1:01:10] I will cut this short slide short because we do have a financial expert, a CPA, on Zoom, who will speak to this.

[1:01:16] We will just say that, again, this commitment is for future years and we do think the cost is nominal.

[1:01:21] We also learned last week that the San Francisco Housing Authority just took an action on Thursday night,

[1:01:30] identical to what we are asking for from the Housing Authority.

[1:01:33] The San Francisco Housing Authority agreed to issue a commitment letter for 60 project based vouchers

[1:01:39] with the understanding that 60 project based vouchers currently providing subsidy for use of the Navy

[1:01:45] area housing on Treasure Island would be terminated. In their staff report, they state this

[1:01:50] action does not present a significant financial exposure for the authority. Further, they use

[1:01:55] the AHSC competition, which our housing authority has stated they are unable to use because they

[1:02:00] should project base vouchers, as the competition for issuing this award. They've done exactly what

[1:02:07] we've asked the housing authority to do, that the housing authority has said we can't do.

[1:02:11] So with that staff recommend that Council authorize the City Manager to sign a commitment letter for $1 million annually over 20 years with a 2.5% escalation for a total of 25.5 million starting in 2029.

[1:02:26] We would ask the Council further amend the motion for what was in the staff report to state the letter will be substantially similar to what is in exhibit 1.

[1:02:33] In case we have some minor legal tweaks to make between now and Friday when it is due.

[1:02:38] Again, we think that this will really enable us to deliver the 810 units, keep both projects

[1:02:44] on track, and hopefully act as a stop-get measure over the next two years, while the city

[1:02:50] and the housing authority work through their differences, hoping the housing authority will

[1:02:54] come to the table and issue the project-based vouchers, at which point the city would not expend

[1:02:58] any money.

[1:03:00] The source for the $25.5 million would be the Alameda Point Fund.

[1:03:05] There would be no impact to the city's regular operating budget.

[1:03:09] However, there are trade-offs to us allocating this money, as you know we have over $800 million in infrastructure needs that allow me to point.

[1:03:17] So what we would end up doing is we are currently trying to sell properties to generate money for the phase 2 reuse area infrastructure.

[1:03:24] shown in the deferred box on the right hand graphic, we would probably end up delaying the

[1:03:30] reuse area infrastructure improvement because we would need to raise an additional $25 million

[1:03:35] for that. We would set that money aside for this commitment. However, we would not delay the

[1:03:42] infrastructure improvements of West Midway and Main Street, Orion Street and West Tower Avenue, all

[1:03:47] of which the developer is obligated to improve when they build their projects. So we are getting

[1:03:51] some infrastructure but trading off other.

[1:03:54] If we do not make this commitment, there is a trade-off as well.

[1:03:57] The AHSC application included a commitment to see playing very electrification of over $7 million.

[1:04:04] And if we failed to deliver the Stardust Gardens project on time, we would be potentially

[1:04:10] sacrificing that commitment to weda or the city would end up having to occur it.

[1:04:15] So with that, I will turn it over to David Vargas, our CPA and HUD consultant to present on this

[1:04:21] pause. His budget analysis. Thank you, Mr. and Lumen. Are you ready?

[1:04:27] Yeah, David should be able to clean.

[1:04:30] Yes. So thank you, and good evening, this thing which

[1:04:33] may are in council members. My name is Dave Vargas. I am the CEO for Vargas for your corporate

[1:04:38] consultants. And together with our president and all else in it, we bring over 60 years of technical

[1:04:43] and executive experience that's just that has to have some programs specifically the

[1:04:47] House Insurance.io program.

[1:04:49] Also, I want you to know that I'm a former tenant who understands the importance of

[1:04:53] these programs.

[1:04:55] This is more than a job for Belinda and I, let's mention, has been a passion for us for

[1:04:59] plus two.

[1:05:00] 30 years. Prior to a matter of time, from earlier, I was tasked with the development implementation of the emergency housing budget program in HV.

[1:05:09] It was under the American Rescue Plan Act, which was system 100,000 homeless families nationwide with both housing and supported services.

[1:05:18] I'm now responsible for the revival of a civil and dormant vascular program that helped provide housing and supported services to our homeless veterans in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

[1:05:27] We also want to highlight healthy, you know, let the health response to Hurricane Katrina,

[1:05:33] Rita, I came to staff to provide housing and support services to over 100,000 families

[1:05:38] displaced to the wild the United States.

[1:05:41] Now, I wish I could find the worst to go made, the difficulty I have seen with housing, homeless

[1:05:46] families in the probabilistic market.

[1:05:49] When you have before you a developed project, with most of its funding already in place, with

[1:05:54] the exception of the 4% tax credits.

[1:05:56] What this project needs is a low risk commitment,

[1:05:59] either DVDs or a city commitment,

[1:06:01] to get the necessary points that are most likely

[1:06:03] given the edge in receiving the 4% tax credits from the state.

[1:06:07] On the other end of the rainbow is an 80 unit,

[1:06:09] affordable housing development with 30 units.

[1:06:12] Already set aside for homeless families

[1:06:14] with supported services right there to help them succeed.

[1:06:18] Now generally, this project-based regulatory commitments

[1:06:21] are given by a housing authority, specifically to assist extremely low-income families gain access

[1:06:26] to quality housing. Now, the financial and other issues are raised by AHA for not providing

[1:06:32] a commitment that has been associated with this development, and not just taking full on to resolve.

[1:06:37] So, it is now to the point where a commitment is needed now to make this a temporary

[1:06:42] deadline for tax credits. I can tell you as a former director of the sectioning program,

[1:06:46] have calculated and provided funding calculations for our 23 sectioned agencies nationwide.

[1:06:53] I understand the nuances of funding have helped clients with shortfalls, calculations and management

[1:06:59] of the shortfalls. I have reviewed a Chase fiscal year 2025. What I spent quite a bit of time

[1:07:05] on that. The budget for presentations and other publicly available information can say this is really

[1:07:12] about shortfalls, but about potential risk, which I believe to be minimal based on our

[1:07:18] review of which is finances. The risk associated is that the 25 families that are currently

[1:07:24] living in all their styles unit will no one to move next door to this new development and avail

[1:07:30] the set themselves to the support services. The risk is that this 30 new units will support services

[1:07:37] can find back the holders willing to move to start off the gardens, and then the risk is

[1:07:43] that with hundreds, if no thousands of veterans and previously homeless families or a risk

[1:07:50] of homelessness in the metropolitan area will not find its use desirable enough to bring

[1:07:54] their vouchers to that development. The risk is just low. Now I and I have talked a little bit about

[1:08:01] the risk and why a chain keeps racing funding concerns. So financially healthy agency would

[1:08:07] or 22 million an over-strip the cash,

[1:08:09] and nicely cash-fed on properties.

[1:08:12] We just struggled with the reason.

[1:08:15] There are new to work agencies,

[1:08:17] which means that AHA has substantial more flexibility

[1:08:20] in how managers explore them in its finances.

[1:08:23] They still have reviewed the financial information

[1:08:25] in our background with housing authorities.

[1:08:27] In our opinion, the risk to weigh HHA

[1:08:30] with provision is commitment is minimal.

[1:08:32] I hope to get a chance to discuss that in more detail

[1:08:34] during their next AHA board for directors meeting.

[1:08:38] Now, I would like to urge the city of Alameda

[1:08:41] to not let this opportunity pass.

[1:08:44] I understand any potential concerns

[1:08:46] over the financial risk to the city,

[1:08:49] or this particular commitment, right?

[1:08:51] But as we see it, based on our 60 pulls use of experience,

[1:08:55] the risk of the commitment before you

[1:08:56] is low and the reward to great.

[1:08:59] We have provider analysis of the available financial information

[1:09:02] and it should have a report to the city.

[1:09:04] At a later point, we can work with City and HHA to address their concerns or the issues

[1:09:10] of a PV commitment and work towards replacing the City commitment with a PV commitment.

[1:09:15] I want to thank you for your time and I am now available for questions.

[1:09:21] Thank you so much.

[1:09:23] I miss that.

[1:09:23] The completion of the staff report.

[1:09:25] It's too late.

[1:09:26] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:09:26] All right.

[1:09:28] So, Council, I know we have a lot of public speakers at least emphasizing we do.

[1:09:32] So, are there any clarifying questions you would like to ask now?

[1:09:37] Should we take our public comments first?

[1:09:41] Can't vice mayor prior?

[1:09:43] Okay, just from what I'm understated.

[1:09:47] Part of what we are asking is to transfer 25 current vouchers,

[1:09:51] and then we're also asking for an additional five vouchers.

[1:09:54] So, financially, are we really just asking for five additional vouchers?

[1:10:02] So, in technical terms, we are not allowed to transfer. So I just start with that. That was part of the confusion. We've had over the last few months. They were, the vouchers would be terminated. The residents would be allowed and notify that they, they have been notified that they, they're allowed to leave. They can go wherever they want or they can go to start us gardens. If they leave, they take their voucher with them. So there is a risk that we wouldn't, then reissue 25 vouchers, because some residents may not choose to stay at LME to point. So we are asking for the termination of the

[1:10:32] vouchers, the reassurance of them to start us gardens, as well as five additional vouchers.

[1:10:38] And I have to go back to my seat, but the numbers of the dollar amounts that we're talking

[1:10:42] about, the net difference of terminating an issuing 25, and then adding those five is in the

[1:10:47] supplemental.

[1:10:48] So I'll go find that.

[1:10:49] Thank you.

[1:10:52] Any any other clarifying questions before we go to public comment?

[1:10:54] Yeah, so on the 25 vouchers, so we're starting off by first, let me just clarify, the 25 vouchers

[1:11:06] that are referring to are right now, 25 project-based vouchers. Is that correct?

[1:11:13] Yeah, I believe there are all projects that I'm, yes.

[1:11:16] So the 25 project-based vouchers as a correct to say are tied to specific units, somewhere

[1:11:25] at Alameda Point.

[1:11:27] Would you mind, Mayor, if I have Midpen come up and add to the question?

[1:11:31] Thank you.

[1:11:31] I just want to make sure I get the details correct.

[1:11:36] And just before you speak, if you would, before you speak of you, just introduce yourself.

[1:11:42] Good evening.

[1:11:42] I'm Abby Goldworth-Pottlery with Midpen Housing.

[1:11:46] The answer is yes, this is a project-based contract that is attached to certain units at Aluminum Point Collaborative, and kind of spread out throughout, so it's not just one single building.

[1:12:00] It's in a lot of different areas as you know the housing is it.

[1:12:04] So one of the virtues of project-based vouchers relative to housing choice vouchers is that you can leverage that for financing.

[1:12:14] So is it possible as the housing authority done that such that that might be a reason why it's difficult for them?

[1:12:24] No, that's not my understanding.

[1:12:26] I know we've represented the housing authority here.

[1:12:28] So the contract is with Alameda Point Collaborative,

[1:12:31] and Andrea and Executive Director is here today as well.

[1:12:35] The way that the vouchers are really used

[1:12:37] at Alameda Point Collaborative is to cover operating expenses,

[1:12:41] as we've talked about residents are supposed to be very little.

[1:12:44] So no, I don't believe there's any debt being leveraged

[1:12:47] from the project base voucher.

[1:12:49] So but you're aware that that is the difference

[1:12:51] between PDVs and ACVs, right?

[1:12:54] That's correct.

[1:12:55] Okay,

[1:12:59] so are you then contemplating that the PVVs would then be ended at wherever they are now?

[1:13:10] And then they would become project-based vouchers at Stardust Gardens? Is that your contemplative?

[1:13:16] That is correct. Yeah, a new award. So terminated and a new award made that would be in the form of a project-based contract.

[1:13:24] Okay.

[1:13:24] That's a 20-year term.

[1:13:28] So whatever financing that the housing authority wanted to obtain via the PVVs at the original

[1:13:41] place, they're not going to be in a position because they're...

[1:13:46] The housing authority is not...

[1:13:49] The housing authority issues the contract, they provide the funding to allow me to point collaborative

[1:13:54] Right now, they are not currently leveraging those vouchers for their own benefit.

[1:14:00] It's all a transaction via a contract with all of you to point collaborative.

[1:14:04] So what you're saying is it's a PVV, but they're acting as a, they're creating a more like

[1:14:09] an HCV.

[1:14:11] It's just a robbery.

[1:14:12] I mean, I would just stop you there two things for all of us to remember, please don't

[1:14:17] start speaking when the speaker is still speaking.

[1:14:21] And if you're going to use acronyms, please say what the acronyms stand for.

[1:14:28] So back to you, Councilmember, you threw out some acronyms, want you to tell us what they mean.

[1:14:33] Section 8 is broken down into at least what I'm aware of two different types.

[1:14:38] There's housing choice vouchers, which is the classic section 8 that we're aware of, where the subsidy goes with a tenant and the tenant can go wherever.

[1:14:48] housing is available that receives Section 8.

[1:14:52] Section 8 is also project-based,

[1:14:55] so the subsidy is attached to the unit and oftentimes.

[1:15:01] Housing providers or developers like the PVVs, because they can leverage it for financing, so the question is clear of fine questions, and which is your clarifying question?

[1:15:13] Oh, I was just clarifying the ACVV. Okay, okay, yeah.

[1:15:16] So, I think that's enough. Thank you. Appreciate it.

[1:15:19] All right.

[1:15:19] As there's clarifying questions, we did a public comment. Council.

[1:15:23] Okay, let's go to public comment, Madam Clerk.

[1:15:25] Okay, I'll call three at a time so that they can

[1:15:27] have some of the team in front of me.

[1:15:30] Okay, 16 so that leads to get two minutes.

[1:15:33] Yeah, okay, they're more raising hands remotely.

[1:15:36] So I'll call three to ten.

[1:15:37] Abby, Goldware, Pat Lori, Matt Franklin, and Andrea Erton.

[1:15:42] All right.

[1:15:43] And that order, come on,

[1:15:48] Matt.

[1:15:48] Hello, again.

[1:15:51] I'm going to shorten my comments a bit because of the little less time.

[1:15:54] So I just want to reduce myself.

[1:15:56] Abby Goldware, Pat Lori, senior vice president and co-head

[1:15:59] of housing development team at mid-Pen.

[1:16:01] I've had the privilege of working on working with our partners

[1:16:05] at Alameda Point Collaborative, building futures,

[1:16:08] operation dignity, and the city of Alameda

[1:16:10] over the last 10 and a half years.

[1:16:13] Personally, have been involved in it since the start.

[1:16:16] And many of you know this new community

[1:16:18] has reshaped, and we're literally doing just that,

[1:16:21] as you've heard today in the presentation.

[1:16:23] Housing development is not always linear,

[1:16:26] and we've definitely had twists and turns

[1:16:28] to arrive at this moment. That being said, there are definitely facts about this new

[1:16:32] community that have not changed from day one. From our earliest months to this very evening,

[1:16:37] we knew that permanent supportive housing, serving, extremely low income households,

[1:16:41] would require a rental operating subsidy. As was described today in the presentation,

[1:16:47] this is because the homes we're building will serve people with little or no income,

[1:16:50] an operating subsidy is required to operate and maintain the community.

[1:16:56] This expectation was communicated early to the

[1:16:59] Alameda Housing Authority.

[1:17:00] And as is the case in other cities where we work,

[1:17:03] we often have early conversations with key partners

[1:17:05] like the Housing Authority and expect opportunities to

[1:17:08] collaborate and coordinate as a development proceeds.

[1:17:11] Over the years, I was often told that the project's schedule

[1:17:14] and projected start date would not make it possible to

[1:17:17] receive vouchers.

[1:17:18] And in fact, we were unsuccessful in an earlier

[1:17:20] competition for vouchers because of project readiness.

[1:17:23] I was recently asked why we applied for critical state funding without a commitment of vouchers and what exactly was our plan.

[1:17:32] I want to be clear here tonight. Our plan was to secure as many competitive funding resources resources for reshape and the city of Alameda as possible and advance

[1:17:41] our desk gardens. And in total, mid-pen, together with the city, secured 48 million in up front

[1:17:47] funding, four and a half million for bike pedestrian infrastructure, and seven million.

[1:17:51] Thank you. Our next speaker is Matt Franklin, then Andrea Erton, then Keith McCoy.

[1:17:57] Good evening. All right. Thank you very much. I'm Matt Franklin. I'm the president and CEO, mid-pen

[1:18:02] housing. Thank you for considering this item. As Abby said, we were lucky enough 10, 10, 11 years ago

[1:18:10] be selected by our incredible partners to be their development partner.

[1:18:15] And it began this journey that we feel so fortunate to be part of, to be part of this ambitious

[1:18:21] reuse of the base. It's been a pretty incredible journey that the four of us, along with you and

[1:18:28] your staff have gone through. You can see in the staff presentation that we negotiated a very complex

[1:18:34] land swap. We together exerted a lot of patience while the market was kind of coming and going a

[1:18:40] little bit. We've, you know, over the last several years observed really incredible

[1:18:47] entrepreneurialism and agility and responsiveness and measured but important critical risk

[1:18:53] taking by the city that has advanced this plan and it's just been wonderful to be part

[1:18:58] of it. Throughout the entire 11 years we've had the privilege of a first hand observation

[1:19:03] of the incredible work that our partners do providing housing to 211 households.

[1:19:10] under tough conditions, but they're providing very high quality housing, top in class resident

[1:19:17] services to a population of clients that have very high needs. It's incredible life-changing work

[1:19:24] that they're doing and where you feel super fortunate to have been part of the work with them.

[1:19:30] We've also worked together to plan and to entitle 332 units and a campus to be developed in

[1:19:39] faces. Mid-Pan has invested in addition to the 11 years of work. We've invested $2 million in all

[1:19:47] of the planning and pre-development of Stardust Gardens and another million in the pre-planning and

[1:19:53] design of the subsequent three phases. We are committed to this work. We are going to be committed to see.

[1:20:19] I'm going to switch up my talking points because you're going to hear from a

[1:20:29] a lot of people. So, of course we are here to ask you to say yes to the staff recommendation

[1:20:38] for this commitment letter to mid-Pen tonight. One of the reasons why this is so important

[1:20:44] right now and not later on is that many of you have been to the base recently and you've seen

[1:20:50] the state of the housing. You could clearly see that in some of those photos from the staff report.

[1:20:56] So, I want to be clear just some of the basic costs.

[1:21:00] It costs us on average between eight and eleven thousand dollars to turn one unit.

[1:21:05] And that's a normal turn.

[1:21:08] So if it's an excessive turn with a lot of damage, it can be fifty thousand dollars.

[1:21:13] Last year alone, I want me to point collaborative as a nonprofit.

[1:21:16] spent $168,000 to upgrade our plumbing infrastructure, and we didn't even do it all.

[1:21:28] So, the extreme cost to operate this housing just speaks to the need to have it torn down

[1:21:36] and new housing bill.

[1:21:38] We also look at what's best for our residents, so clean, dignified housing, clearly safe housing.

[1:21:45] And finally, we also look at what our residents want and need and that's to stay here where their home is in the city of Alameda.

[1:21:54] If you look at the numbers, 79% of our current residents have been living here in Alameda for over 10 years.

[1:22:03] They are Alameda citizens and they matter.

[1:22:06] So thank you for your consideration to this matter.

[1:22:09] Thank you, our next speaker.

[1:22:11] Keith McCoy, then Lisa Maxwell, and Timothy Evans.

[1:22:15] Welcome, speaker McCoy.

[1:22:16] Good afternoon.

[1:22:18] Good afternoon.

[1:22:18] Good evening.

[1:22:19] As you asked, I have to count some members.

[1:22:21] Thank you for having me today, and just thank you for everything you're doing with regards

[1:22:26] to Elamita Point Collaborative.

[1:22:28] You have been a longtime supporter of this project of our community.

[1:22:32] I've been a board member for almost 15 years now.

[1:22:37] I came on even before this project started.

[1:22:40] So it's been a journey, as Matt said, but just to echo a few things that your city manager said before he started, this is all about people.

[1:22:50] You know there's it's very complicated to real estate project. There's lots of integrated financing issues.

[1:23:00] There's issues with the housing authority which I'm not sure what has happened there, but hopefully we can get that back on track with your assistance.

[1:23:08] But, you know, this is about people that live in dilapidated housing here in Alameda.

[1:23:14] And I'm just ashamed that they're still living in those situation.

[1:23:18] As a board member, we've been pushing very hard to get this project moved forward.

[1:23:22] Now we're finally at the precipice that's making it happen.

[1:23:26] We need this a little bit of assistance from the city, which hopefully we can figure out how to change that.

[1:23:32] So you don't have to spend any more money on us.

[1:23:34] But we just need this commitment letter to move it forward and I just plead with you too to make it happen tonight

[1:23:40] So thank you again

[1:23:42] Thank you, our next speaker Lisa Mackwell, Timnie Timothy Evans and Lauren Guelarty

[1:23:48] Madam Mayor city council member. Thank you for letting me speak tonight on this really important night of I'm Lisa Maxwell

[1:23:54] I'm the current board president for allow me to point collaborative and I'm here to encourage you to support the housing

[1:24:00] commit that we have that has been requested by staff as you have heard and I will not

[1:24:05] repeat my repeat all the other important things you've learned this evening.

[1:24:10] We were pretty surprised to learn that the Alameda Point Housing Authority that the Alameda

[1:24:14] Housing Authority was not interested in sharing these vouchers with the brand new construction

[1:24:20] status gardens. This came a surprise to us and now we're here before you asking if you're

[1:24:25] assist with filling that funding gap. We are on a short deadline so that we can get that tax-credited

[1:24:31] application in and not lose the opportunity for further funding. And we're simply here so that we can

[1:24:37] keep our Alameda residents housed and continue to provide supportive, dignified housing for those in our

[1:24:43] community. They've been longstanding members of our community and that's why we're here to discuss this

[1:24:48] with you. Thanks for everything you do for Alameda Point Collaborative. We really appreciate it and for

[1:24:53] your support over the years and we're hoping for a little more support tonight. Thanks.

[1:24:58] Thank you. Our next speaker, Timothy.

[1:25:00] The heavens, loing, loing, alarm, t-then, t-heel, pardon.

[1:25:04] Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council. Thank you so much, my name is Timothy Evans. I am the Executive Director

[1:25:10] of Operation Dignity. I'm here with my colleague, Laura Ross, who is a current

[1:25:16] aluminium. On the coast. And so, Operation Dignity has provided low income housing for the city

[1:25:28] about 20 years ago. Since then we are committed to the difference in West and West Alameda.

[1:25:36] We continue to partner with our organizations to develop and operate affordable housing

[1:25:41] with the mid-pin reshape project. We are in collaboration with all of my great

[1:25:47] fine colleagues behind me. The former housing has served an important purpose.

[1:25:55] It has given

[1:25:55] The shelter safety and a place to begin rebuilding their lives, but these buildings have never

[1:26:00] been meant for final housing.

[1:26:03] And now we are pushing to ensure that mid-pin housing and the reshape program continues

[1:26:08] to move forward, and we have the assets and resources needed to ensure that all families

[1:26:14] are stable in the living environments.

[1:26:17] The residents that we serve currently are in the commitment to the reshape program.

[1:26:24] My colleagues and I are pushing to ensure that all residents receive a safe, dignified, affordable housing that will, that would welcome them long term.

[1:26:36] I am not here to point fingers. I am here because the residents need leadership partnership and a clear path for projects like this are complex.

[1:26:44] they require coordination, compromise, and persistence.

[1:26:48] So tonight, I respectfully ask the City Council and

[1:26:52] Alameda County, sorry, Alameda Housing Authority,

[1:26:55] to continue working together, to provide a solution,

[1:26:58] for start-ups guarding, guarding, moving forward,

[1:27:00] and to support the next phases of housing

[1:27:03] for those in need within Alameda.

[1:27:06] Thank you, perfect timing.

[1:27:08] Glock, I'm a speaker, good late.

[1:27:11] Good evening, Mayor, and members of the City Council.

[1:27:13] My name is Lauren Galardy and with San Francisco Bay Ferry. San Francisco Bay Ferry strongly supports

[1:27:18] the city's recommendation to authorize the city manager to provide mid-pinned housing

[1:27:22] and the Alameda Point collaborative with a temporary operating subsidy for this project.

[1:27:28] We recognize that the proposed subsidy is a significant commitment for the city and that a lot

[1:27:34] is connected to this decision. San Francisco Bay Ferry was awarded a $7 million grant for the

[1:27:43] and that is connected to the provision of these federal vouchers.

[1:27:47] The C-plane lagoon ferry service is supported by the development of new housing.

[1:27:52] That is long overdue.

[1:27:53] It is critical to keep making progress on the first several developments that will add

[1:27:58] 2,300 units to allow me to point housing that will support the success of the C-plane lagoon ferry service.

[1:28:05] We thank the city for making the hard call to consider this.

[1:28:08] To consider providing this operating subsidy to ensure the development of these housing

[1:28:13] units proceed on schedule and urge the City Council to authorize the City Manager to sign the

[1:28:18] commitment letter for this critical operating subsidy. And we look forward to making progress

[1:28:23] on our transformative project to electrify the C-plane lagoon ferry terminal and develop the first

[1:28:27] high-speed zero-mission ferry service in North America. Thank you. Thank you, our next speaker.

[1:28:34] Teal Harden, then Josh Rodend and Joe Ernst. What does speaker Harden? Good evening, Council

[1:28:40] My name is Tila Hardin. I am the executive director of the Alameda Food Bank.

[1:28:45] Alameda Food Bank. We see that every week food insecurity doesn't happen in isolation.

[1:28:49] Today we're seeing about 1,700 families come in to access food from us each week.

[1:28:54] And those families are navigating the interconnected challenges of food, housing, and transportation, and other basic needs.

[1:29:01] For households that are living on a limited income, housing and food are deeply connected.

[1:29:06] When housing is unaffordable or uncertain families have fewer resources left for groceries and when families are displaced from their homes in their community that instability can have consequences that it's but extend far beyond housing.

[1:29:20] The residents of Alameda Point collaborative are members of the same community that we serve at Alameda Food Bank.

[1:29:25] So when we talk about replacement housing, I think it's important to remember that we're talking about real Alameda residents and families who deserve the opportunity to remain rooted in the community while moving into safe permanent housing.

[1:29:36] What's especially important to me about this proposal is the sequencing.

[1:29:40] Start as gardens is not just one housing development.

[1:29:43] It's an important first step in a much larger vision for

[1:29:46] Alameda Point.

[1:29:47] One that includes replacement housing infrastructure,

[1:29:49] new streets and public spaces.

[1:29:52] And housing doesn't exist in isolation from infrastructure and services.

[1:29:56] As more businesses and residents move into Alameda Point,

[1:29:59] we create critical masks.

[1:30:00] Supporting stronger public transportation and other neighbourhood serving resources. That matter is not only for people who live at Alameda Point but the broader Alameda community as well.

[1:30:10] Alameda Point is home to the important services and destinations including Alameda Food Bank that people rely on and need ways to access those services.

[1:30:20] A more connected and populated Alameda Point can help sustain transportation commerce and neighbourhood services. Thank you for considering.

[1:30:26] Thank you, our next speaker.

[1:30:29] Josh Rodin Joe Ernst Carly Grove.

[1:30:32] All right.

[1:30:32] What can speaker Rodin?

[1:30:37] Good evening, Mayor.

[1:30:38] I'm Josh Rodin with Brookfield Residentials.

[1:30:41] Speaking on behalf of our Westwood Way partnership with Katelis.

[1:30:44] I'd like to first thank and compliment the city staff for their leadership

[1:30:48] persistence and creativity in bringing forward action to keep Stardust,

[1:30:53] Stardust Gardens moving.

[1:30:55] We strongly support 7A as a keep Stardust Gardens on track

[1:30:58] and preserves momentum for a series of interconnected and public benefits at Alameda Point.

[1:31:04] Approval tonight helps secure critical financing.

[1:31:08] Advances replacement housing for existing residents and sports, the infrastructure investments

[1:31:12] needed to deliver both reshape and west midway.

[1:31:16] We respectfully urge your approval for seven a.m.

[1:31:18] Thank you.

[1:31:19] Thank you.

[1:31:21] And your words.

[1:31:22] And then Carly Grob and then Vanessa Cooper.

[1:31:29] Good evening, Mayor Ashcraft, members of the Council.

[1:31:33] My name is Joe Ernst, resident of Alameda and have been active in Alameda point development

[1:31:39] for many years.

[1:31:40] We've heard tonight how critical this housing much needed housing is, but I want to

[1:31:46] talk about the consequences for Alameda point with this decision.

[1:31:50] It's been 12 to 15 years since this council has approved foundational plans for Alameda

[1:31:56] point. It's been that amount of time since, you know, the original RFPs for SIDA and Enterprise District

[1:32:02] were issued. We've made progress, but it's been very challenging for the last five, six years.

[1:32:09] We've had major disruptions. Infrastructure costs continue to go up. The cost of development continues

[1:32:15] to go up. I think it's really admirable that these developers had the courage and the ability

[1:32:21] to go forward during this environment, but I think we've heard loud and clear tonight what will

[1:32:27] happen is delay and more deferral. And that is expensive, very expensive. We are actively in

[1:32:35] the capital markets every day talking about Alameda. The perception amongst many institutional

[1:32:41] capital markets and Alameda point is can they earn a risk adjusted return at Alameda point.

[1:32:47] That conclusion is still to be determined and so I just think I don't I can't speak fully to the relationship between the housing authority and the city

[1:32:59] but

[1:33:01] For such a consequential project

[1:33:05] I just this feels like a self-inflicted wound if if this can't be supported

[1:33:11] So I urge you to support this

[1:33:14] hoping that it's a stop gap, and that we can continue to make progress at L. Me to point. Thank you.

[1:33:21] Thank you. Our next speaker.

[1:33:23] Carly Grove, then Vanessa Cooper, then Sylvia Martinez.

[1:33:26] Welcome, speaker group.

[1:33:28] Thank you.

[1:33:29] Good evening. My name is Carly Grove.

[1:33:31] I'm the current board chair of the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.

[1:33:34] And I'm speaking on my own behalf tonight.

[1:33:36] I'm not speaking on behalf of the board.

[1:33:38] Tonight City staff have presented and correct and incomplete information to escape the

[1:33:43] housing authority. I support the city committing funding for operations, but I'm disappointed

[1:33:48] how the city has approached the Stardust Gardens project, spending months making demands

[1:33:52] and threats instead of using time and resources to figure out a backup plan to find operating

[1:33:57] subsidies. For months, Ahahah has communicated the same message to the city and the developer,

[1:34:03] regarding their inability to provide PBVs to the project. HUD has confirmed that if Ahahah

[1:34:08] were to commit vouchers at this time, we would be in violation of HUD regulations governing

[1:34:12] project-based vouchers. Over the past several weeks, the city has pressured Ahas staff to

[1:34:18] sign a commitment letter that would provide vouchers to the Sardis Gardens project before

[1:34:22] September 8th. I would characterize many of these communications as bullying, harassment,

[1:34:26] and threats, including one persistent threat that the city will take back the housing authority.

[1:34:32] This leads me to one of the state-adult alternatives in the staff report,

[1:34:36] which recommends directing staff to explore structural modifications to the city's relationship

[1:34:40] to the housing authority. I respectfully request that you do not take this recommendation.

[1:34:46] This project is demonstrated how the city council can politicize the housing authority and

[1:34:50] a way that may be actually damaging in the long run. When it comes to Sartas Gardens,

[1:34:54] it's not clear how the city's management of the housing authority would result in a different

[1:34:58] scenario than we're in today.

[1:35:00] Assuming the city wanted to follow the law, the city did sign a commitment letter for vouchers they couldn't issue, then we may never see those vouchers, and in a worse case scenario we leave mid-pen in a large that they don't have, if then they don't have them in the future.

[1:35:14] And we deteriorate our standing and our reputation with HUD regulators. If we break the rules, we politicize the process, it only makes it harder to deliver functional affordable projects in the future.

[1:35:24] I appreciate all of the collaboration that the city and Aaha have completed in the past and I appreciate your time.

[1:35:30] Thank you.

[1:35:30] Thank you. Our next speaker.

[1:35:32] Vanessa Cooper, then Sylvia Martinez, then Tushant.

[1:35:34] I'm a very serious agenda.

[1:35:36] Welcome, speaker.

[1:35:37] Cooper.

[1:35:38] Good evening.

[1:35:39] Good evening, Marash Croft and Council.

[1:35:41] Thank you for your time.

[1:35:42] I want to begin with what matters most.

[1:35:45] The housing authority, the city, and mid-pan are aligned in wanting to see

[1:35:48] Stardust Gardens built and deeply affordable housing delivered at Alameda Point.

[1:35:52] I'm here tonight to confirm AHA's commitment to work with mid-pan and the city to get this project across the finish line.

[1:35:59] But we must do that in a way that complies with federal law and protects the approximately 1800

[1:36:05] elements who are already subsidized under our program.

[1:36:09] We submitted a detailed memo as part of public record and we brought paper copies for you tonight.

[1:36:15] I would briefly like to clarify the board's August 19th decision and then focus a little on next steps.

[1:36:21] So, on August 19th, that very short notice, the H.A. Board considered a request to commit

[1:36:25] 30 project-based vouchers to start us gardens. The Board could not approve the request

[1:36:31] at that time for two reasons. First, federal regulations require PVVs to be awarded through

[1:36:37] a qualifying competitive process or other HUD approved process. No qualifying PVV competition

[1:36:44] had been conducted. Similarly, we need to have available funding.

[1:36:49] AHA could not confirm that sufficient funding would be available for the new vouchers, and it

[1:36:55] must protect those 1,800 alamudans who are currently subsidised by the housing authority.

[1:37:00] When we look at our two-year tool through HUD, my current projections show a deficit for

[1:37:06] 2027, which is when these vouchers would be realized when they are committed under HUD.

[1:37:12] And that is even without the vouchers.

[1:37:14] We are already facing a deficit.

[1:37:15] But the board did not close the door.

[1:37:18] It directed staff to return at the September 16th board meeting with updated financial projections

[1:37:24] and information about whether the housing authority could run a competition.

[1:37:31] So moving forward, the board's decision does not reflect a difference in priorities between

[1:37:36] AHA and the city, it reflects an obligation to provide.

[1:37:40] And we have your written comments.

[1:37:43] Our next speaker.

[1:37:44] No, the emergency.

[1:37:45] Thank you, Sean.

[1:37:45] I'm R.C.

[1:37:46] You're with us.

[1:37:46] Welcome, secure Martinez.

[1:37:50] Hello, good evening.

[1:37:51] Mayor and honorable city, Council of Alameda.

[1:37:53] My name is Sylvia Martinez.

[1:37:55] I'm the Housing Development Director of the AHA and my family

[1:38:00] or residents of Alameda.

[1:38:02] I'd like to congratulate, reshape, and their team

[1:38:06] on solving the problem of funding the construction cost

[1:38:09] of this important project to bring in

[1:38:11] over $50 million in awards over the last nine months.

[1:38:15] The team now has the gift of time,

[1:38:17] nearly three years, to fund these operating costs.

[1:38:21] And we all need to be creative in this current environment.

[1:38:25] And in my three, almost four decades

[1:38:27] of affordable housing experience,

[1:38:29] you always need several backup plans.

[1:38:31] Given the current state and particularly the constrained federal funding environment that we are in,

[1:38:38] many affordable housing developers, these days are relying on a combination of operating

[1:38:43] subsidies and rental subsidies.

[1:38:45] These could include various sources, such as VA, Proposition W Funding from the County of

[1:38:51] Alameda, the city's proposed operating subsidy.

[1:38:54] The state has a new financing agency that commits to fully fund projects, especially those

[1:39:00] with agency and other state funding, all of these can be brought together to lower rents and

[1:39:06] support operations.

[1:39:08] Yes, it will be challenging to get these funds, but being in construction actually makes

[1:39:13] you project more viable and more attractive to many of these sources.

[1:39:21] In the meantime, the team can focus on the existing residents, all of whom will get a housing

[1:39:30] these residents are able to get a voucher that allows them to make real choices under the protection

[1:39:35] of the voucher program and I just want to make that out there in case any tenants are listening.

[1:39:40] They're not being canceled. They're being extended a housing choice voucher which will allow them

[1:39:45] to move back into Stardust Gardens or another appropriate place as they choose. We also think

[1:39:51] Thank you so much. Our next speaker is Dishana Marasura, right in it.

[1:40:00] Okay, leave the mayor and see the council members. You are facing a very difficult challenge. It's taken a big amount of money or enabling a project that has been long in the works.

[1:40:11] And I hope you consider one main thing, which is the people that we enable to stay here. That is, at least to me, the most critical factor of any of these decisions.

[1:40:24] And I want to just reiterate how right now we start us gutterns is a real project with real plans, real time lands and a lot of real funding that will positively improve 80 families.

[1:40:38] Now, I also want to raise one other big issue.

[1:40:41] The city put out a survey earlier this year asking what Allen meetings really value.

[1:40:48] 71% said that housing is their biggest concern, the cost of housing is their biggest

[1:40:54] concern by far.

[1:40:56] And I think this is a chance for us to tackle that very directly by not only enabling this

[1:41:04] project, but enabling the domino of other positive projects, including up to 2,300

[1:41:11] market rate and moderate income housing that can follow on. Lastly, I think it's clear from just

[1:41:20] observing from the seats back there that there are structural issues at play with how the

[1:41:27] Alameda Housing Authority and the City of Alameda are communicating and collaborating and I hope

[1:41:32] we use this moment to figure out how we can ease those connections and make them more productive.

[1:41:37] And I hope you also use this as a moment to push upstream towards our representatives and

[1:41:43] Congress and its state agencies to fix these funding streams.

[1:41:47] These are complex and it is widely concerning that one little thing can ripple into lots

[1:41:54] of projects including a fairy terminal.

[1:41:57] So I hope you move forward with this subsidy and thank you.

[1:42:01] Thank you so much.

[1:42:02] Next speaker, Vadim Sedolikov?

[1:42:05] Welcome, speaker Sedolikov.

[1:42:10] Thank you.

[1:42:11] Good evening, Mayor.

[1:42:12] Vice Mayor, prior members of the city council.

[1:42:14] My name is Vadim Sedolikov.

[1:42:16] I'm Vice Chair of the Alameda Housing Authority.

[1:42:18] I speak today as a resident.

[1:42:21] But I will remind you that you appointed me to this board.

[1:42:24] To the Alameda Housing Authority board six years ago,

[1:42:26] and I've served in that capacity.

[1:42:28] I support the continued development of affordable housing,

[1:42:31] and particularly supportive affordable housing.

[1:42:34] On the base and throughout the city of Alameda, I do not think the record supports the suggestion that the city staff have made that the housing authority have fundamental differences and priorities when it comes to housing and particularly affordable housing.

[1:42:48] The housing authority's position has been consistent and its staff have been telling the city staff for quite some time as you heard tonight that the housing authority is operating close to its available voucher funding and that new project base vouchers award might.

[1:43:03] must comply with hydrocarbons.

[1:43:05] As you heard earlier tonight, our staff, myself,

[1:43:08] have spoken with hydroregulators,

[1:43:09] and they have told us that some of the things

[1:43:11] that city staff have requested are clear

[1:43:13] and prohibit them under hydroregulations,

[1:43:16] and we could not make action that is contrary

[1:43:19] to that they would put the housing authority at risk.

[1:43:20] Nor do I think he would want us to do that.

[1:43:24] The last few weeks have also demonstrated

[1:43:25] why the two agencies need to work together

[1:43:27] for the same information.

[1:43:28] We were repeatedly told by the City staff and mid-Pen that mid-Bent could not accept its MHP award without

[1:43:36] housing authority commitment by August 21st.

[1:43:40] Mid-Pen then accepted on August 20th without the commitment of the housing authority that

[1:43:45] MHP award. Before deadline is used to drive a major public decision, we should know precisely what

[1:43:52] requires and so should you. In conclusion, I urge you to approve this item tonight, and I also

[1:43:59] urge you to encourage city staff, the Housing Authority staff and mid-pen, to use this time to work

[1:44:05] directly through the remaining issues and find a solution moving forward. Thank you.

[1:44:11] Thank you, our next speaker. Now we'll go to remote speakers at Joshua Humb.

[1:44:19] Well, thank

[1:44:22] you, City staff and City Council.

[1:44:26] My name is Joshua Hahn.

[1:44:27] I'm a resident here at Alameda Point.

[1:44:29] Speaker, remotely, and support of the Staff Regimentation to support the reshape project with the stop debt funding.

[1:44:34] I know it's significant funds to commit, but I don't think that housing authority is being malicious here.

[1:44:39] I appreciate them being thorough because it sounds to me like there are some complex requirements on how

[1:44:43] determining and issuing these vouchers should be done which sounds really difficult to navigate and

[1:44:47] a company that the city housing authority and city staff will be able to secure the project-based

[1:44:52] vouchers when the time comes, but even in the worst case scenario where that doesn't

[1:44:56] come to pass, I still think this makes a lot of sense for the city even.

[1:45:00] For example, here I live at Alameda Point site A, there are about 130 recently constructed homes on just two blocks that bring in about two and a half million dollars per year in property taxes for various jurisdictions.

[1:45:11] And the West Midway redevelopment project that filled that will have nearly 480 new homes that could bring in over 8 million, I think, in new property tax revenue for the city, the counties, school districts, etc.

[1:45:23] the development of these homes will also demonstrate the viability for actual housing

[1:45:28] construction at Alameda Point in 2027, hopefully, that could unlock the

[1:45:33] installed development at site A over here I live where there are many plan

[1:45:37] developments that are on pause because of macroeconomic, economic force

[1:45:40] measure of classes and development agreements, and I'm hoping that we can point to

[1:45:44] the next would-way missed West Mid-May development and then ask the site A

[1:45:48] developers like, hey, what's your excuse to get building? You know, so we can

[1:45:51] to continue the infrastructure redevelopment element of point and meter housing element goals for producing as much needed housing as we do.

[1:45:58] But none of this is going to happen unless the start of Scardons project begins construction.

[1:46:03] That's the domino that must fall to put all this in motion.

[1:46:05] So I ask the council to please approve the staff recommendation.

[1:46:07] Thank you.

[1:46:08] Thank you.

[1:46:09] Next speaker.

[1:46:11] Sophia Dewitt.

[1:46:12] Welcome.

[1:46:13] Reverend Sophia Dewitt.

[1:46:16] Good evening Madam Mayor and council.

[1:46:19] Reverend Sophia DeWitt Chief Program Officer at East Bay Housing Organizations and also

[1:46:25] proud resident in the city of Alameda.

[1:46:29] You have heard from many of our member organizations tonight already as they've talked about the

[1:46:37] Re-shaped project and this item. I'm almost sorry that I'm not there for the party in person,

[1:46:44] But I wanted to add my voice and say that we at Ebho support the city stepping in with this bridge financing for the operating expenses for the

[1:47:14] during the extra time afforded by this bridge financing the city and the

[1:47:21] Alameda Housing Authority can finally come to an agreement over the use of

[1:47:27] project-based vouchers to help finance the important project. This project is

[1:47:33] important to the city. It's important to the people who badly need the housing

[1:47:39] And as has been stated, the affordable part of the project and the market rate and commercial part of the project are linked together.

[1:47:52] So unless this can be resolved, all parts of the project are in jeopardy.

[1:47:58] And some of the funding that has already been secured for Stardis Gardens would also be in jeopardy.

[1:48:05] So please move this forward tonight, and I hope a final agreement can be reached in.

[1:48:11] Thank you so much.

[1:48:12] Thank you.

[1:48:13] Our next speaker.

[1:48:14] It's a pilot, Kilmarcy.

[1:48:18] If you recognize your name, I welcome.

[1:48:22] And help us with pronunciation if that wasn't spot on.

[1:48:28] Good evening.

[1:48:28] This is Secretary of Commerce C senior management analyst at the Housing Authority.

[1:48:33] The Housing Authority has regularly communicated with the city and reshape across the last decade regarding different possibilities for this project.

[1:48:44] The Housing Authority has reviewed federal regulation and confirmed with the Department of Housing and Urban Development

[1:48:50] that the current PBV contract with Alameda Point Collaborative cannot be transferred to the new development

[1:48:57] And the Housing Authority also cannot use the projects multi-family housing programs application to commit to a PVV award because of its reliance on PVV.

[1:49:09] The federal government has not changed its stance on these regulations in the last decade and the Housing Authority has informed the city and reshape of its inability to pursue these avenues several times.

[1:49:21] Since 2015, the housing authority has held five competitions for PBVs and reshape has applied twice to these competitions.

[1:49:32] The proposals were forward by both housing authority staff and staff members from other housing authorities,

[1:49:39] and each time reshapes forward the lowest amongst competitors and was not awarded PBVs.

[1:49:45] Due to budget concerns in the lack of available funding, the housing authority has not held a PVV competition since 2022.

[1:49:54] The housing authority has been reviewing its current and projected financial position and more information.

[1:50:00] About the agency's financial position will be presented during its September 2026 Board meeting.

[1:50:07] The housing authority has also provided council in the city with a statement that provides additional information,

[1:50:14] and has presented this information in more to its own Board of Commissioners during the August 2026 meeting.

[1:50:21] Thank you for your time.

[1:50:23] Thank you. Our next speaker.

[1:50:25] Douglass Gwaren and is that remote or in person?

[1:50:30] They're all remote.

[1:50:31] Douglass Gwaren?

[1:50:33] Gwaren?

[1:50:34] Yeah, it's Gwaren.

[1:50:36] Thank you.

[1:50:37] I just want to give a perspective of a normal citizen in Alameda.

[1:50:41] I moved here with my family in March of this year.

[1:50:46] And I'm very supportive of the plan.

[1:50:49] I hope that the city passes this.

[1:50:51] I also hope that the city and the various entities and housing authority can figure this out

[1:50:58] because I do think the funds that the city would have to give could be better spent in other ways

[1:51:05] if possible, but I think this is the the best possible way to spend funds right now.

[1:51:12] So I just want to give a normal citizen's perspective that I hope the council passes.

[1:51:17] This is thank you.

[1:51:18] Thank you.

[1:51:19] Next speaker.

[1:51:20] Molly Avella from Council Member and Vice Mayor.

[1:51:24] Speak of Ella.

[1:51:28] Thank you and good evening.

[1:51:29] I want to first start by thanking staff and coming up with the solution to keep

[1:51:34] startups, Commons and help ensure reshape becomes a reality.

[1:51:39] Masking Council to support the staff recommendation and to urge and work with the

[1:51:48] based vouchers assigned to this project. This project has been discussed and worked on for

[1:51:53] close to a decade, and it is an essential part in meeting our renegals that cannot be delayed.

[1:51:59] With 231 just around the corner, we cannot afford to put a project this critical and tied

[1:52:04] to this many units at risk. Nearly a decade ago, and over the years, we were closely with our

[1:52:10] partners at Alameda Point Collaboratives, as we were determining the need to offer some of these units

[1:52:14] impacted residents. And my hope is that we can see this come to fruition. This project is not

[1:52:21] the secret. Aha has had four years through run a competitive process, but it did not.

[1:52:27] And as recently as July, the board canceled its meeting rather than address the voucher issue

[1:52:32] while deadlines loomed. We had similar issues back in 2017 when there was a referral before the council

[1:52:38] to consider governance changes that may help in expediting and streamlining the process for our

[1:52:45] meetings to allow for more transparency and more direct involvement by an elected council.

[1:52:52] Our need of residents expect the city council to resolve housing issues which have continued to grow

[1:52:57] and residents are best served by having clear access to and influence over the policy makers

[1:53:03] for operations. The elected council acting as the AHOP Board provides well-known and

[1:53:08] familiar access and direct accountability to the residents of Bala Mita and this was something

[1:53:13] that we had prior to 2011.

[1:53:16] My hope is that we perhaps look both at the short term and the long term as we address

[1:53:20] these issues.

[1:53:22] Thank you.

[1:53:23] Thank you.

[1:53:23] Our next speaker, Zach Bowling, welcome speaker Bowling.

[1:53:29] Even Councillor Mayer, tonight I'm speaking on behalf of East Bay and B. And first of

[1:53:35] I just want to say thank you to staff.

[1:53:38] Whatever failures got us to this last minute funding problem,

[1:53:41] we can't let it hold this up with these thousands

[1:53:43] of desperately needed homes.

[1:53:45] And I say that because we strongly urge council

[1:53:48] to approve this funding tonight to start us

[1:53:50] as a ADD team clean affordable homes.

[1:53:54] But then it's the first domino in a much bigger housing pipeline.

[1:53:58] 478 was the name potentially 2,300 at Alameda Point.

[1:54:02] And I can't stress this enough

[1:54:04] how far behind Alameda is with facing our renaubligations that we can't afford to lose or delay

[1:54:10] any housing that is already this far along in the pipeline. So I'll keep it brief. I'm traveling.

[1:54:16] I wish it could be there because of how important this issue is. But I wanted to call in quickly

[1:54:20] to reiterate our support as an organization for making sure that these homes get built as soon as possible.

[1:54:27] So, thank you.

[1:54:29] Thank you.

[1:54:30] Thank you.

[1:54:31] Our next speaker.

[1:54:32] Sorry about that.

[1:54:33] Michael Pucci in person.

[1:54:36] Welcome, speaker Pucci.

[1:54:38] Thank you, Mayor Ashcraft, and members of the city council.

[1:54:41] This is bringing back some very bad memories of 2004 when the housing authority experienced

[1:54:47] a great shortfall in Section 8 funding due to the way HUD recalculated our funding formula.

[1:54:54] And I sat in several meetings in this room and city-class.

[1:55:00] Clerk, may recall those as well as former Housing Authority Commissioner of Michael Tory, where the room was full of people chanting, no peace, no justice.

[1:55:12] And only here, but in front of the city hall in city parks, also picketing in front of my own hall, because we had to terminate tenants from the Section A program.

[1:55:23] Now, the housing authority director mentioned that she did a two-year projection which shows

[1:55:28] a shortfall of funding in 2027 and that's a very dangerous place to go.

[1:55:34] We don't want to be there.

[1:55:35] So, you have to be very careful.

[1:55:37] You have to listen to her about funding for the future of the Section A program because

[1:55:42] you don't want to be there.

[1:55:43] I was there and I'll tell you it's a nightmare.

[1:55:46] But one of the causes of that nightmare was a person that was hired by the city.

[1:55:52] and I wasn't planning on speaking here tonight, but I had to come and speak at the podium

[1:55:57] because one of the obstacles, the greatest obstacles that we experienced, was through a

[1:56:03] HUD representative by the name of David Vargas, who the city, unfortunately hired to look

[1:56:08] at the housing authorities, I guess there's Section 8 funding, which I'll tell you, the guy

[1:56:15] has no credibility. He thinks he knows more than he does. But again, what I'd like to do is

[1:56:21] to say, yes, support this project.

[1:56:25] I think it's very well-needed, but on the other hand,

[1:56:28] you need to listen to the housing authority

[1:56:30] and what their calculations are

[1:56:34] for the Section A program in the future.

[1:56:36] Thank you.

[1:56:37] And at this moment, I am going to just interject to say

[1:56:41] that what I just heard was a slanderist statement,

[1:56:45] and it was made about someone who is not present

[1:56:49] to defend himself, and we are asked to believe if you will, what was just said, this is

[1:56:59] not a court of law. If it were that testimony, it wouldn't be allowed. But again, you

[1:57:05] have first amendment rights to say within reason what you choose to say, but as with anything

[1:57:13] else the city council here is we can assign a particular way to what we hear.

[1:57:19] Do we have further speakers?

[1:57:22] All right, so with that, we're almost at the two-hour point of the meeting, we're always

[1:57:30] take a break because staff needs it, everybody needs it, the psychiatrist at UCSF, say a

[1:57:36] meeting shouldn't go longer than two hours without a break.

[1:57:39] So it is almost, it's 8.53.

[1:57:43] Let's come back at 9.10 to get started again.

[1:57:46] Thank you, everyone.

[1:59:43] All right, Ryan and John, are we ready?

[1:59:46] We are ready.

[1:59:46] All right, everyone, please take your seats.

[1:59:49] This meeting is starting.

[1:59:51] All right, please take your seats or stop talking.

[1:59:56] This meeting is going on.

[1:59:58] Thank you.

[2:00:00] So, council, I just want to take a minute. We, we don't often have an issue that is this content.

[2:00:12] But I do want to commend 99% of you for keeping your comments civil and courteous. It just goes to shows that we can express different points of view without maligning one another.

[2:00:28] And, nor do we need to because if you think your strongest argument is attacking someone else,

[2:00:38] you don't have a very strong argument, but I do understand that emotions are running high.

[2:00:44] I have taken the time to meet with two of the housing authority Board of Commissioners who were willing to meet with me.

[2:00:52] At this point, after eight years is being mayor,

[2:00:54] I have appointed literally every one of them,

[2:00:57] and they're all very accomplished individuals.

[2:01:01] I also met with Vanessa Cooper, who I've known

[2:01:04] for many years, last week in her office

[2:01:07] with Carly Grob, her, the board chair.

[2:01:12] And just to be clear, we are not trying to demonize anyone.

[2:01:18] I think that there has certainly been a significant level of frustration that has been reached

[2:01:25] because of the deadlines.

[2:01:29] But here we are now, and we have a significant decision to make under a short time frame.

[2:01:39] And the questions that I would like answered and battered around maybe among the Council,

[2:01:48] although I think some of them need to come, well, that we just need to consider is,

[2:01:55] we have heard it said that, we'll all wait to see what happens at this September's 16th,

[2:02:01] Housing Authority Board of Commissioners meeting.

[2:02:09] As we were told, the Board gave direction to staff to return in September with the possibility of a competitive process.

[2:02:20] When I asked the Housing Authority Executive Director Ms. Cooper, if it was possible that the Housing Authority would also enter that competition for vouchers.

[2:02:30] she said yes. So it's just something to consider how level is the playing field. And then I was

[2:02:39] very intrigued. I told the city manager more than once in the last week or so that it's just

[2:02:44] like unpeeling and onion. The more we dig, the more we learn, the more twists and turns they are.

[2:02:50] There are, but just last week on Treasure Island, as we heard in the staff presentation, the

[2:02:58] I was in authority of the City and County of San Francisco did this very transaction that

[2:03:03] we're seeking from the City of Alameda housing authority.

[2:03:08] I haven't heard anyone suggest that perhaps the housing authority of the City and County

[2:03:15] of San Francisco is violating federal law, violating head regulations.

[2:03:20] That was able to be done and that's what I believe that people of good will can do.

[2:03:26] I do not pretend to have the level of expertise and knowledge, actually have none when it comes to head.

[2:03:34] I read up and try to learn, but there are so many had regulations out there, so many,

[2:03:42] and then oftentimes there's a way forward.

[2:03:44] I want to just pause for a minute and note that the environment we find ourselves in

[2:03:52] with this particular administration,

[2:03:54] certainly adds to the complexity.

[2:03:56] This is not an administration that has been friendly

[2:04:00] to affordable housing.

[2:04:02] And so that's certainly something to take into consideration.

[2:04:07] And yet, the city also has been mindful

[2:04:11] of financial challenges that housing authority might face

[2:04:15] in his offered ways to alleviate that.

[2:04:19] And to the suggestion that we're asking or we're doing something illegal, just not get off,

[2:04:27] please let's just try to have a rational decision.

[2:04:30] Discussion that's just not helpful.

[2:04:33] No one at this dias is asking for anything illegal to be done.

[2:04:39] If I didn't have such a six skin, I would be offended by the inference, but after 14 years

[2:04:47] in elected office, there's very little that really attends me.

[2:04:51] However, I would be horrified to think that

[2:04:55] well-needed, badly-needing housing doesn't move forward.

[2:05:00] To that end, let me just say that housing should not be weaponized, that those who hold vouchers now should not be threatened, that they might somehow lose those vouchers.

[2:05:13] I'm just asking that we move forward as rational people, people of goodwill, we may see things differently, but we're all coming from a place of just wanting to problem solve, I believe.

[2:05:28] But we also have to look at what this commitment means to the city, especially, I mean, the

[2:05:35] part that just stops my heart, it doesn't really, but it gives me heart room, let's

[2:05:40] say, it's not just a million dollars, it's funny these days, you know, a million dollars

[2:05:46] here a million dollars there. No, I'm not making a light of that, but we could come up with

[2:05:50] a million dollars. But this letter says 20 years, although I did here, Abby Thornlime,

[2:05:57] We have Abby Square during the front.

[2:05:59] I call them, I'm in the front row.

[2:06:02] I mentioned that we might be asked to approve a modified letter.

[2:06:08] And so I do, because it's made very clear in the staff report,

[2:06:15] there's a lot of things we will not do that are needed

[2:06:18] to be done at Alameda Point.

[2:06:20] Now, this comes from the general fund.

[2:06:21] This is all from revenues.

[2:06:23] We're receiving from Alameda Point.

[2:06:26] But if you read the staff report, it's like balance.

[2:06:29] We bring in this legend.

[2:06:30] We spend that same amount.

[2:06:33] So something's got to give.

[2:06:34] Something's not going to get done.

[2:06:35] Some maintenance is going to get deferred.

[2:06:37] It's not good.

[2:06:39] So I want to feel that we've got a partner in the housing

[2:06:44] authority.

[2:06:45] I meet with them quarterly.

[2:06:46] I applaud all the projects they've been able to do.

[2:06:50] I want to see them bring that same level of dedication

[2:06:55] and competence to helping this project.

[2:07:00] Even it didn't originate as a housing authority project.

[2:07:05] At the end of the day, we've all got the same goal.

[2:07:08] Let's house people who need housing,

[2:07:11] especially the ones who badly need housing.

[2:07:14] And that's what started as gardens is supposed to do.

[2:07:18] So, Council, what are we going to do?

[2:07:21] who's got thoughts, ideas they'd like to share, who wants to start.

[2:07:27] Councilmember DeSug, I'm trying to read that.

[2:07:30] Expression is at a yes, I'll go next.

[2:07:32] Yes, happy to go.

[2:07:33] Let me just begin by saying, honestly, I think,

[2:07:38] I think this matter just involves far too much drama.

[2:07:43] You know, to see what's going on,

[2:07:45] read about this and the San Francisco Chronicle,

[2:07:48] you know, see the different official documents being sent far too much drama. So I really encourage

[2:07:58] I really encourage us to dial down the temperature in the room between city hall staff and the housing authorities

[2:08:07] staff. I think we should just simply keep our eyes on really what's the most important

[2:08:12] price, and that's building star dust gardens, as soon as possible.

[2:08:18] And if that means, you know, bridge financing, stop-gap financing of a million dollars this

[2:08:24] year, you know, I think that's what we need to do.

[2:08:30] Yes, the staff report does indicate that the base reuse fund is operating on thin margins,

[2:08:36] you know, $14 million coming in, and then $14 million is expended on each year.

[2:08:44] But there, you know, we don't come into this without resources, though.

[2:08:48] I mean, the base reuse fund has approximately 28 million dollars in reserves.

[2:08:54] So there is flexibility, but the flexibility can't go on forever.

[2:09:02] This stop gap financing, the bridge financing really is meant for us to really sit down,

[2:09:09] our staff and the housing authority staff to buy time for them to sit down and figure out

[2:09:17] the permanent solution.

[2:09:20] In terms of the $28 million in reserves that the base reuse fund has, let's bear in mind

[2:09:30] that the base reuse fund often is subject to immense amounts of swings in expenditures such

[2:09:41] that the base reuse reserve goes down dramatically from one year to the next now and then.

[2:09:51] But, you know, over the past 10 years it's gone from 3.7 million dollars to 7.9 million

[2:09:57] to $41.2 million.

[2:10:30] So we have reserves that gives us time to play, but we can't rely on those reserves forever. So let's move ahead with bridge financing and whatever stop get financing.

[2:10:47] So that the star does, guard this project and move ahead. But let's definitely dial down the temperature in the room.

[2:10:55] let's not be threatening the alameda housing authority of a city council take over.

[2:11:04] For me that's not on the table. I had the pleasure of serving as the housing commissioner

[2:11:14] as a city council member way back when, and I enjoyed it very much, but I also like having

[2:11:22] The quasi-independent housing authority that we have now, I think it's a great approach that we're doing.

[2:11:34] And the reason why I think it's important for us to move ahead with Bridge Financing and stopgap financing.

[2:11:39] And I first supported the homeless collaborative, now called the Alameda Point Collaborative,

[2:11:49] way back in 1995, it's 29 years old, and it's a commitment that I've made, and it will

[2:11:56] continue to make.

[2:11:59] And I think building housing for the most vulnerable makes Alameda Point such an exciting

[2:12:06] place that we're not just building housing for people who can afford

[2:12:09] vapor as welcome as vapor residents are, thank you very much.

[2:12:15] But we need to continue with our commitment not just to the military when it comes to

[2:12:23] base closure, but our commitment to making a new society where we're building

[2:12:29] modern housing for people of all incomes and backgrounds.

[2:12:33] So, let's dial down the temperature, let's just focus on bridge financing and stop-capped financing.

[2:12:42] But we make our decisions with eyes wide open, you know.

[2:12:48] So, that would be my support.

[2:12:50] And I really encourage us not to, you know,

[2:12:54] threaten take over the housing authority.

[2:12:56] I like the way.

[2:12:58] I like their quasi-independent nature.

[2:13:01] Thank you.

[2:13:01] Thank you, excuse me down the road, you ready to go?

[2:13:05] Sure, I'll go.

[2:13:06] So tomorrow, I walk across the street.

[2:13:09] I go to the Alameda Free Library.

[2:13:12] I find 20 people randomly, I'm going to do a conference room,

[2:13:15] and I say, hey, I want to tell you a story.

[2:13:17] And I tell them the story about some residents, future residents,

[2:13:20] potentially of a place called Star Get to Start as Gardens.

[2:13:24] And I talk to them about the fact that there's this whole world out there

[2:13:27] in the regulatory world where we have these different types of voucher programs.

[2:13:32] And what should we do with these vouchers?

[2:13:34] And we hear about the story about the collaboration

[2:13:36] between the various partners that have been

[2:13:38] involved over the years in this, the timeline

[2:13:41] of how much efforts gone into it.

[2:13:42] And it's been by the efforts of lots of communications

[2:13:45] with the housing authority, with the city,

[2:13:48] but the nonprofit partners, the developer,

[2:13:51] the admin point collaborative operation dignity,

[2:13:55] the different people that have put a lot of investment

[2:13:58] into these residents and you hear their stories,

[2:14:00] do you hear their life stories in this meeting in the library?

[2:14:03] 20 random people, right?

[2:14:05] And say, what should we do?

[2:14:07] If we had the vouchers, what should we do with these vouchers?

[2:14:10] And you tell them further about the grant applications

[2:14:13] that have been made over the years, and the fact

[2:14:18] that this project has gotten through one of the grants,

[2:14:23] the number one ranking in all of California.

[2:14:26] And you tell them about the environmental side of this project

[2:14:29] And how there's going to be this collaboration with electrification for the ferry and this infrastructure and how we're trying to create a more walkable community that is

[2:14:41] honoring the dignity that we want to give to all of me to residents, including those who are extremely in need.

[2:14:51] And I think you're going to find that I could probably get everyone to agree that these vouchers to the extent there's vouchers are out there without even mentioning the fact

[2:15:00] Act that they already have vouchers should go to these residents.

[2:15:05] And it would just be wonderful wouldn't it if everyone in the room who was part of that conversation

[2:15:10] would just say, we're going to make this happen. And I know there's limits to what you can

[2:15:13] say and there's rules. There's reasonable differences on those. I completely agree with the

[2:15:19] comments of the mayor, the council member, day-slog, as well on this. We can work together

[2:15:24] and make this happen. And that's needs to be the spirit of the conversation going forward. One

[2:15:29] And then things I do want to make sure as part of this is that if there are subsidies, because

[2:15:38] there was some talk in the conversation today about other potential subsidies that could

[2:15:43] be applied.

[2:15:44] If anything like that happens, I want to make sure that the city gets credit to that.

[2:15:48] Because the city is going out of line.

[2:15:50] This is a bit of really strong leadership on the part of our new city manager and his staff

[2:15:59] to get here today.

[2:16:02] This was not an easy path to follow.

[2:16:06] And I want to make sure that our commitment as a city

[2:16:08] is very much restricted to exactly what the intent is.

[2:16:12] So for example, if alternative funding sources

[2:16:14] can reduce the city's commitment proportionally,

[2:16:16] it doesn't have to be that the entire amount

[2:16:19] has to be duplicated elsewhere in a different way.

[2:16:22] That if there's like, for example, instead

[2:16:24] of tenant-based vouchers, if there's project-based vouchers,

[2:16:28] if there's tenant-based vouchers

[2:16:29] that can be applied, that those will be an offset for us.

[2:16:33] If there's any, it was mentioned, veterans type voucher funds

[2:16:38] like HUD, VAS, H, batch, yeah, vash, which is Veterans

[2:16:45] Affairs Support of Housing, or if there's Alameda County

[2:16:48] Measure W funds that we've heard about a lot about, in terms

[2:16:52] of where the county's going to be spending on this type of resources.

[2:16:55] is grants, red offices, is anything about the deals with the project income count, anything

[2:17:04] like that.

[2:17:04] So I have some proposed language to add to the mix that we could put up at some point, but

[2:17:09] I just want to make sure that there's some guardrails, and it's really clear that this

[2:17:13] commitment.

[2:17:14] And I fully expect in the spirit of that meeting that could be best.

[2:17:17] I don't want to see that.

[2:17:19] We haven't even had all the accounts, I'll comment.

[2:17:21] Thank you.

[2:17:22] in the spirit of, you know, that needing happening at the library, right? I just, I just want

[2:17:30] to make it clear that the city wants to do its part, but ultimately we don't think we're

[2:17:37] going to need a spending money on this. We want the federal funds to go to this purpose.

[2:17:43] That is why we're here tonight.

[2:17:50] All right, so I'm choosing not to apply in about some of the comments I heard here tonight

[2:17:58] because my biting remarks will change no hearts or minds.

[2:18:02] But I do want to stress my trust and respect for Abby Thorne Lyman

[2:18:06] and our city manager Jerry Bodink and our community partners and I could go on and on.

[2:18:13] because so many people have been working diligently to get our

[2:18:18] our Alameda residents into new homes and just like Council Member Bullard

[2:18:23] just said, we can work together and find a way forward.

[2:18:30] And part of that is tonight, this vote, I just want to say that I completely

[2:18:34] support staff recommendation, high quality and safe homes, tell these

[2:18:39] families who will move in to start us gardens that you matter you are important and you belong here.

[2:18:50] That's it.

[2:18:52] Thank you.

[2:18:53] Council member.

[2:18:54] I'm sorry.

[2:18:55] Vice member.

[2:18:56] Council member.

[2:18:57] Jensen.

[2:18:59] I could also post many questions to city staff and housing authority leaders and I could ask what happened.

[2:19:08] and I could ask why their positions are so far apart, and I could ask what we and the housing

[2:19:17] authority could have done better, how we could have communicated better. I probably get

[2:19:22] very different answers as we've heard tonight, very different answers on all of those things.

[2:19:28] But if I ask both parties, both the housing authority and a city staff and city leaders,

[2:19:33] and anyone on this council about their commitment to expanding housing opportunities for vulnerable

[2:19:39] element of residents I would get I would get agreement I'm sure we would we would agree

[2:19:45] that that is what we are committed to doing and so that's my focus too and tonight I'm going to support

[2:19:52] the interim funding recommendation with that in mind and with the intent and and and and

[2:20:00] Objective to make sure that that reshape housing continues, that this project continues, and that all

[2:20:07] of the housing that's been planned, is comes to fruition. And so that those residents, currently

[2:20:14] at Alameda Point collaborative and other residents, can receive the necessary housing that

[2:20:20] they deserve. And from there, what I can help for and what I trust will also happen is that

[2:20:30] City staff and the Housing Authority will work together.

[2:20:33] We'll turn the page and work together and make sure that this doesn't happen in the future and that we can all address and recognize that we have the same commitment.

[2:20:46] We have the same goals and we can work together.

[2:20:48] So that's my hope and I appreciate staff of bringing this forward to make sure that the reshape project does not get stopped.

[2:20:57] So, I have a question for whomever on staff wants to answer.

[2:21:01] I am concerned that if we make this commitment to fund a million dollars a year and then

[2:21:09] with an accelerator, or for them, represents increase over the years, then the housing authority

[2:21:18] We will just say, they don't need any stop-gap funding, the city can cover it, and what's

[2:21:24] our protection from that?

[2:21:29] There isn't any direct protection from the housing authority deciding not to move forward

[2:21:35] with vouchers.

[2:21:36] We do have two years to work through those details, and in reality we haven't till the end

[2:21:43] of the year.

[2:21:43] I'll just be really candid that at the point in time when mid-pen accepts the funding, should

[2:21:50] they be the successful 4% tax credit, recipients, recipient, that project is often running

[2:21:58] in that commitment is now a real thing because when the project is complete, those operating

[2:22:03] dollars are necessary.

[2:22:05] What I would say is that the housing authority exists at the pleasure of the city council and

[2:22:11] Council priorities and pipeline planning needs to be more cohesive and collaborative and and so what the guarantee there is no guarantee that the housing authority will do what what they're authorized to do by through the federal voucher program and we have offered to backstop financially

[2:22:33] There is no guarantee but again the housing authority exists at the pleasure of the city council and ultimately if we're not able to get

[2:22:41] If the project vouchers are going directly to allow me to housing authority projects and not being offered

[2:22:48] To these kinds of projects, then I think we're going to have an alignment issue because we're on phase one of four of the reshape project and every cycle is going to need vouchers

[2:22:58] Okay, and Abby Throne Lyman was there anything you wanted to add?

[2:23:03] You're good. Okay.

[2:23:05] So I would suggest we take things one step at a time, maybe not get too far out ahead of ourselves.

[2:23:12] I think all eyes or many eyes will be on the housing authority meeting, which will be the six teams of September.

[2:23:23] And so that's actually the day after our next city council meeting.

[2:23:26] So even I, and what would we hope for from that, what would be the best possible outcome

[2:23:34] from that meeting?

[2:23:36] A commitment to run a competitive process or to decide to use the previously approved

[2:23:41] ASIC grant as the competitive process, like the San Francisco Housing Authority had done,

[2:23:46] one of those two alternatives would work for mid-pen housing and for the city.

[2:23:51] Okay, and I think we've heard from some sources we talked to you that the competitive process

[2:23:58] can be initiated rather quickly.

[2:24:01] Correct.

[2:24:01] Yeah, ideally we'll have a response again by the, I believe it's December 8th is when the mid-pen

[2:24:08] would have to accept the 4% tax credit.

[2:24:17] And so, Mr. Onlineman, you had indicated in the beginning and you was staff report that we

[2:24:24] might be asked to approve a modified version of the letter. Do you have any thoughts about

[2:24:30] that at this point?

[2:24:32] Yeah, thank you, Mayor. We really just, per council member, ballers, comments and concerns

[2:24:37] regarding ensuring that the letter provides the ability to have other sources come in and

[2:24:45] that we are the, you know, that our commitment reduces when those other operating subsidies

[2:24:50] come in.

[2:24:51] We just want to try to work collectively with our city of acting city attorney to just try

[2:24:57] to finesse those words in the letter to me.

[2:25:00] Make it very clear that we will be, we are the safety net for if there is no operating subsidy, the besides ours.

[2:25:07] Okay. So with all the respect to my colleague, I know as an attorney, but as a district, the deputy district attorney, I'm going to ask that we let the legal staff of the city of Alameda and our base views and economic development.

[2:25:19] Department, I'm sure they will take your suggestions into consideration. I really don't want to do the wordsmithing tonight on the dias.

[2:25:27] Sure, I think as long as it's some language that gives them flexibility I think that's

[2:25:31] I think that's what I just heard Ms. Thorne Lyman say.

[2:25:35] Are you an agreement with that?

[2:25:37] Mr. Acting City Attorney?

[2:25:39] Yes, Madam Mayor, the Council could direct staff to move forward with the commitment letter

[2:25:45] in substantial conformance with what has been presented tonight.

[2:25:50] So, adding the Ms. Thorne Lyman just made.

[2:25:52] and taking into account the remarks Mr. and Lime in just made.

[2:25:56] Yes, Madam Mayor.

[2:25:59] Would you like to say?

[2:25:59] I'm going to ask you a question with that direction.

[2:26:01] I'm going to permit you to.

[2:26:03] I've shared some language with the acting city attorney, the city manager, the clerk, and so I think it's all understood.

[2:26:11] It sounds like based on this comment.

[2:26:12] I think that's great.

[2:26:13] I prefer not to do that words, Mr. and the Dias.

[2:26:17] Councilmember Dessis.

[2:26:18] Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to accept staff's recommendation

[2:26:22] as expressed in paragraph one, understaff recommendation of the staff report, with the

[2:26:30] provisional regarding making sure that the commitment letter is, I think you said,

[2:26:37] it's a substantial control conformance council member. Yes, substantial conformance with what was

[2:26:42] expressed this evening, and I think if I could add one more minor amendment and just have the

[2:26:49] manage your regular report back to us and what's going on.

[2:26:53] Oh, that's a solution.

[2:26:55] You can just let's just hear from Mr. and Lime,

[2:26:59] and quickly about anything you would add to that language of the motion.

[2:27:04] I think that sounds fantastic.

[2:27:07] Okay.

[2:27:07] If you want to read to us, you have a paper with you or?

[2:27:10] No.

[2:27:11] No, I just pulled it to slide.

[2:27:13] Yeah.

[2:27:14] But yeah.

[2:27:14] The potential conformances is exactly what we were aiming for here.

[2:27:19] Yeah, thank you.

[2:27:20] Okay, and incorporating the Crimson's Express by Council Member Bowler as well.

[2:27:24] Correct?

[2:27:25] Yes.

[2:27:25] All right.

[2:27:26] And if I can make a comment, I made a motion.

[2:27:28] Yes.

[2:27:28] You can make a comment.

[2:27:30] Okay.

[2:27:31] Oh, let's get a second to the motion.

[2:27:33] Then you make a comment.

[2:27:33] Seconded by Council Member Bowler.

[2:27:35] Make a comment.

[2:27:36] My quick comment is.

[2:27:37] So in the SAS recommendation, paragraph three is an alternative

[2:27:42] that indicates that city council wishes to explore the possibility of making changes to the housing.

[2:27:49] So that's not the reason why I made emphasis on paragraph one is to de-emphasize paragraph three.

[2:27:55] Thank you. So, appreciate it.

[2:28:01] Yeah, I would say that's part of the let's take one step at a time. We'll get there.

[2:28:07] Okay, we've had a motion. We've had a second and you further discussion.

[2:28:11] Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by state I.

[2:28:16] Any opposed?

[2:28:17] Your abstentions?

[2:28:18] That measure passes unanimously.

[2:28:20] Thank you to staff, especially the city manager.

[2:28:25] I'll be throwing my men, city attorneys office.

[2:28:28] All of our partners for working so hard.

[2:28:32] And let's keep working to get to yes, because this is just not something

[2:28:38] cities should be squabbling over and all we need to do is look across the bay.

[2:28:43] It's a short ferry ride to Treasure Island and see what they're able to do with their

[2:28:49] development with their housing authority and I think that's a great model to emulate and

[2:28:55] one of my favorite mayors around the country is Mayor Lurie in San Francisco.

[2:29:00] So let's do a San Francisco model.

[2:29:03] All right, everybody. Let's move on to item 70.

[2:29:07] Madam, I'm quick with you. I do just that item first.

[2:29:09] Please recommendation to provide direction on and authorize the city manager

[2:29:13] to finalize and transmit the city of Alameda's response to findings and recommendations

[2:29:17] contained in the 2526 Alameda County Civil Grand jury report entitled the call for readiness

[2:29:22] improving the city of Alameda's emergency preparedness.

[2:29:27] Thank you. And are you taking that? Let's give just a minute for the group to leave.

[2:29:35] Okay. Okay. Let's go on Mr. City Mayor.

[2:29:41] Thank you Mayor Vice Mayor, Council members. The recommendation on this item this evening is to provide any feedback that you may have on the draft response to the grand jury's report.

[2:29:51] That report is called a call for readiness, improving the City of Alameda's emergency preparedness, and then ultimately authorize me the City Manager to finalize.

[2:30:00] The rise and transmit the response to the presiding judge. Council adopted an updated emergency operations plan in April of

[2:30:07] 2026, the first update that had happened in about seven years. And that was following a consultum led process that began in May of 2025,

[2:30:17] which was before the grand jury convened on this topic. Multiple items in the grand jury report were flagged as already being addressed through the EOP update.

[2:30:26] So I want to just call that out to start off our presentation this evening.

[2:30:30] Staff agree with several aspects of the report and have already acted on a number of things like the EOP is flexible and the update was overdue.

[2:30:39] We agreed that a five-year update cycle is something that we'll move forward with.

[2:30:45] We agree that we don't have an outdoor siren system in the city and that social media messaging during 2024 and 2025 to tsunami events did have room for

[2:30:55] improvement. There are some areas that we did not agree like the grand jury recommendation

[2:31:01] to discontinuing discontinue having a disaster registry. This is essentially a list of people

[2:31:06] who may need some additional help during an emergency. Cal OS doesn't prohibit these

[2:31:12] registries. They only flag the challenges that may come with them and they have published guidance

[2:31:17] for maintaining these kinds of lists and we believe it adds value for post-disaster welfare checks

[2:31:22] for resource allocation alongside instead and maybe not instead of community partnerships.

[2:31:29] We'll also note that the grand jury said that the EOP doesn't require

[2:31:33] after action reports for actual emergencies. We disagree with that. There is a section in

[2:31:38] REOP that explicitly requires after action reports and those after action reports were completed

[2:31:44] after the COVID-19 pandemic emergency operations center in the 2024 tsunami warning.

[2:31:49] We partially agree with the finding related to a lack of training and exercises.

[2:31:55] Our EOC last specific exercise was in June of 2024.

[2:32:01] But we're not starting from zero here.

[2:32:03] There are four scenario-based EOC trainings that were already built into the 2026 EOP.

[2:32:08] And we'll be beginning those training sessions this fall.

[2:32:12] Moving forward, we intend to make training and preparedness part of our work.

[2:32:15] We will be looking into the feasibility of a siren system and we'll be reporting back on those findings.

[2:32:23] We do intend to have Citywide Preparedness work for the community starting to happen in October of

[2:32:31] 2026 when we'll be doing some direct mail communications manager having that position filled permanently.

[2:32:38] We'll be helpful and we'll be coordinating additional social media protocol for informing our community about

[2:32:44] emergency preparedness and particularly during an emergency and then the EOC roster and training sessions

[2:32:50] again starting this fall. Our goal is to have about two tabletop exercises per year, improve

[2:32:56] coordination with our ADA coordinator and our commission on persons with disability to make

[2:33:01] sure that we're being inclusive in our emergency planning efforts and then emergency management

[2:33:07] staff are developing in-person emergency preparedness training for the community, not just for staff,

[2:33:14] I'm just going to close by by appreciating the grand jury's review.

[2:33:21] It gave us an outside perspective on our program.

[2:33:23] This is something that we will take very seriously.

[2:33:27] The community does rely on the city as a resource and as a primary responder,

[2:33:34] but not just to the emergency itself, but to any recovery efforts that are necessary.

[2:33:38] And so we want to be as prepared as we need to be to best meet the needs of the community.

[2:33:41] And with that, I'll conclude staff's presentation and myself and our fire chief, Nick Lubby,

[2:33:46] are here this evening to handle questions on this item.

[2:33:49] Thank you.

[2:33:50] And Chief Lubby, was there anything you wanted to add?

[2:33:53] Come on, Ed.

[2:33:54] Thank you.

[2:34:02] Thank you.

[2:34:03] Good evening, Madam Mayor.

[2:34:04] Fellow council members, Nick Lubby, fire chief for the City of Alameda.

[2:34:07] I will just echo what the City Manager just shared with everyone that we are always

[2:34:13] open the feedback. The grand jury's efforts in time and was a year-long process. We do value that.

[2:34:21] We put a lot of thought into the response and working with the same manager in the response.

[2:34:29] And I will say, personally, there is always going to be room for improvement.

[2:34:35] We're never going to be perfect and we're going to take what we agree with and what we feel that we can make improvements.

[2:34:42] and we're going to move forward with it and act on them and make this community that much better.

[2:34:48] That sounds good. All right. Thank you.

[2:34:52] Council any clarifying questions from either a chief Loubier and City Manager?

[2:34:58] And councilmember Boller?

[2:35:00] Thank you. Just point a clarification with the technical requirement in terms of if a recommendation has been implemented, will be implemented or requires further analysis. If you look at the 20, number 29 and 30, if we're getting a hypothetical on that, it doesn't, I don't think I see that exact language, so we might want to consider adding that.

[2:35:25] So one more time if that's a question if we should consider out and what was the reference

[2:35:29] what parents I'm 29 and 30 the last two the recommendation or the recommendations right for

[2:35:35] the last two.

[2:35:41] And I apologize we should have achieved all start. Okay. So 30 is regarding

[2:35:49] requiring after action reports and that is one where we we disagree we actually already we

[2:35:56] require that in our emergency operations plan, and regarding recommendation 29.

[2:36:05] It's also related to after-action reports, and so I think there was a miscommunication

[2:36:09] with the grand jury in terms of what the city's updated emergency operation plan required

[2:36:16] with respect to after-action reports.

[2:36:18] We do that. It is a requirement of the plan, and we've actually had recent after-action reports

[2:36:25] that we're not acknowledged in the report?

[2:36:28] Thank you, and I'm probably getting too technical, but I'm just wondering whether or not

[2:36:33] the language of this precise language has been implemented needs to be in there to satisfy

[2:36:38] the...

[2:36:38] I see.

[2:36:39] We can do that as part of our, we can talk about the fact that it has been implemented,

[2:36:43] if that's helpful.

[2:36:46] Now, you get what you're saying?

[2:36:46] Yeah, that's all.

[2:36:49] The language criteria given by the grand jury of the three different got it.

[2:36:53] Thank you.

[2:36:54] Thank you.

[2:36:55] Thank you.

[2:36:55] Okay.

[2:36:56] Anything further counsel?

[2:36:58] And Councillor Regentsan?

[2:37:00] Thank you.

[2:37:02] It's with regard to one of the responses, I will ask this.

[2:37:07] It's not actually a technical question, so I could hold off.

[2:37:11] It's not my opinion either, so I'm just trying to.

[2:37:15] What is it you want to ask?

[2:37:16] With regard to the finding 2645 regarding the in-person disaster preparedness training and I don't have the, I see that we're responding that outreach, with regard to the outreach that's been done but is there additional information about actual training?

[2:37:41] I

[2:37:45] mean, I mean, what are you on?

[2:37:47] Do you want to start talking about?

[2:37:49] Which number is 2645?

[2:37:52] 2645.

[2:37:53] Thank you.

[2:37:54] The discussion is about outreach.

[2:37:56] The response, partial of brief.

[2:38:00] Don't be taken.

[2:38:01] Yes, please.

[2:38:02] I'm still looking for it.

[2:38:05] So finding 2645 city of Alameda has failed to conduct any in-person disaster

[2:38:09] preparedness training since 2019.

[2:38:13] Our response to that.

[2:38:15] And there's also a recommendation, I believe correlates with that.

[2:38:18] We looked at it two different ways.

[2:38:22] One city staff, EOC staff, that we, as St.

[2:38:26] Manager Bowden said, we already have built that into the EOP project.

[2:38:30] And we have upcoming training that we're working on in scheduling,

[2:38:33] and we're actually going to be expanding that training for city staff.

[2:38:37] On the other side, for Reach Outreach and to the community,

[2:38:42] we already do that.

[2:38:43] we do use our cert team, our cert team was out this Saturday, our cert volunteers are out in the

[2:38:49] community, our wine festival, our hospital events, providing that, but we are committed to

[2:38:55] taking it to the next level, and you'll see emergency management staff is developing a

[2:39:01] basic workshop format that we will take to the community or look at using some kind of format event

[2:39:07] right invent event right register for it and so we will keep it as a small group and we will

[2:39:14] offer those to the community. I like a four hour workshop because we do a lot with the

[2:39:19] cert and we get people cert trained but part of this we did it realize there is a gap or

[2:39:25] someone may just want to come and get four hours of instruction on how to prepare how to build a

[2:39:31] disaster kit what to do and a disaster how to communicate during a disaster. So that is being

[2:39:35] developed right now, and that will be rolling out this coming fall for the community.

[2:39:40] Is that helpful?

[2:39:41] That answers my much of my question.

[2:39:43] That's for the community.

[2:39:44] And I would just, as I read the response, so I just, I wanted you to add, I know that

[2:39:49] Sert is mentioned as active engagement.

[2:39:54] But Sert is actually, it seems to me that Sert is actually an in person disaster preparedness.

[2:40:00] Program, that we've offered for? Yes, it's like a number of years. That is correct. It is a disaster preparedness

[2:40:11] program, shall we say on steroids. You know, it's a, you got to go through eight modules online and as some of you have already completed it.

[2:40:19] Thank you very much for participating and then you do the weekend commitment. Where we think we may have a gap and where we think the grand jury was saying is, you know,

[2:40:29] and commit two days on a weekend, we're trying to find a smaller module of four hours where

[2:40:35] you can just come and trust me when they come, we'll be encouraging them to go through search,

[2:40:40] but just trying to give another option, so you don't have to do such a lengthy process to get

[2:40:46] certified. Thank you. Although I'll just interject that I do encourage people to do the search

[2:40:53] training. It is, both online is that she said and you can't move from one module to the next

[2:40:59] to pass all your tests, but it was really thorough.

[2:41:02] Would this be a good place, a good time to mention,

[2:41:06] what is coming up on October 17th

[2:41:08] in conjunction with Supervisor Tams Office?

[2:41:12] I would love to mention October 17th.

[2:41:15] So in conjunction with Supervisor Tams Office,

[2:41:18] we will be hosting a disaster preparedness workshop.

[2:41:23] We will be doing it for 300 residents.

[2:41:26] will be kept at 300 residents and the sign-ups for that will be starting soon. We're working closely

[2:41:32] with the supervisor staff to coordinate that and that will be, I like to call it kind of like

[2:41:37] a back-to-school night. I don't have four different modules that will take place during four to five

[2:41:42] hours session, 30 to 45 minutes in each module and then you get up and you move to the next presentation,

[2:41:49] disaster preparedness. I'll be probably in emergency medical, stop the bleed,

[2:41:54] We're still developing the curriculum, but yes, and October 17th is also the anniversary of a big earthquake, if you all remember.

[2:42:04] So it just happened that it just happened that way that we are landing on an anniversary date.

[2:42:08] So what better time to come out and learn more about being sure, make sure you're prepared.

[2:42:13] And for every household that completes the four modules and lunch will be included.

[2:42:17] For every household that completes the four modules, you will get a disaster prepared in this backpack, all packed with supplies, so anyone listening, keep an eye on.

[2:42:28] He said the city's website is that we're going to have some.

[2:42:30] We'll work with them.

[2:42:32] Keep an eye on that.

[2:42:32] There's staff and we will get it.

[2:42:34] We will get the information out.

[2:42:35] Thank you.

[2:42:36] It's sort of a jeopardy style question.

[2:42:39] What is it?

[2:42:40] Any more clarifying questions and then Madam Clerk, do we have public comment?

[2:42:45] We have none.

[2:42:45] Okay, with that, we will close item 7B and move on to item 7C, and I'll be.

[2:42:54] Oh, I'm sorry, sorry, yes, try to be efficient here, people.

[2:43:00] Could I have a motion?

[2:43:01] Thank you.

[2:43:02] Ms. Ms. By, Council Member Jensen, seconded by Vice Mayor prior to authorised city manager to finalise

[2:43:09] transmit city values, response, the findings, recommendations,

[2:43:12] contained in the 2526, I'm an attorney, civil

[2:43:15] grand jury, report and title the call for readiness and

[2:43:18] proving the city value is an emergency preparedness.

[2:43:22] So we have a motion in a second.

[2:43:24] And comment by the city manager.

[2:43:26] I will add 26, 29, and 26, 30 will add some clear language to

[2:43:31] meet the grand jury language in that motion.

[2:43:33] It's okay with the measure.

[2:43:34] Sure.

[2:43:35] Thank you.

[2:43:36] Clear is always better.

[2:43:38] So, with that motion, second, all those in favor, please see if I'm by stating I, I, okay, that was unanimous, thank you.

[2:43:47] Now we can move on to item seven, Steve. Madam Clerk, would you like to do that item please?

[2:43:52] Introduction of ordinance authorizing the city manager execute a second lease amendment for a portion of building 41 with door marine operations located at 650 West Mall Tower Avenue at Alameda Point, Alameda California, for an additional term of six months.

[2:44:06] with two six-month extension options.

[2:44:10] This item requires four affirmative votes.

[2:44:11] And according to the California Environmental Quality Act,

[2:44:13] this action is categorically exempt from further environmental

[2:44:16] view, pursuant to seek look guidelines, section 15301

[2:44:19] existing facilities, and 156013061B3, common sense.

[2:44:27] Welcome.

[2:44:29] Thank you.

[2:44:30] Good evening, Mayor and city council.

[2:44:32] My name's Alicia Straug.

[2:44:33] I am one of your base reuse managers here for the city

[2:44:36] Alameda. I am presenting for you tonight, a second lease amendment with an existing tenant of the cities do or marine operations for their continued occupancy in building 41 on Alameda point. I don't know if I'm close enough. There we go.

[2:44:52] So building 41

[2:44:56] building 41 was constructed in 19

[2:45:00] A 45 by the Navy, it is a contributing historic structure. It is a very highly desirable building. It's located near the entrance to our adaptive reuse area at Alameda Point. Right on the corner of West Tower in Panam.

[2:45:16] The building has a beautiful open interior layout. Really great clear height. It has two hanger doors, one facing east and west.

[2:45:24] It's also serviced by a new infant structure, which was installed under the city's master infrastructure plan or mid.

[2:45:32] Council direction as part of our overall strategic disposition plan has been to continue to

[2:45:41] continue to lease building 41 until it is fully conveyed by the Navy.

[2:45:46] Right now it is kind of sitting in that PFAST remediation limbo.

[2:45:52] And really our end goal is to be able to sell this building.

[2:45:57] So, depotion, exploration and research or doer marine operations.

[2:46:02] They're a marine consulting firm.

[2:46:04] They've been located in Alameda Point for over a decade

[2:46:08] in this portion of building 41.

[2:46:10] It really houses their office space,

[2:46:13] some workshop area that they use for engineering assembly

[2:46:17] and testing of undersea marine vehicles

[2:46:21] and technology. The premises also provides them space where they host educational offerings

[2:46:27] and they also have a retail dive shop in the front that is open to the public.

[2:46:33] So, doers currently agreement it recently expired and I'm here today to recommend

[2:46:40] a council to approve a second amendment to that lease. What it's going to do is it's going to add a

[2:46:50] renewal options after that. So there is a total of 18 months and duration that's possible,

[2:46:56] but it's really important for the council to understand that the two renewal options will

[2:46:59] require mutual approval. So do our could exercise it and we asked that the city manager would

[2:47:05] have the authority to mutually agree to it. So we think that this is really going to give us the

[2:47:12] flexibility that we need to kind of see how the conveyance works out with the Navy and also continue

[2:47:17] to move forward with our plan which is to continue to market this for a long-term lease and perhaps a purchase option because our goal as I said before really is to sell this building.

[2:47:31] The monthly rent for the first six months will stay consistent with what doers have been paying now, but each extension option will have a 5% escalator on it.

[2:47:43] And so with that I am asking that the City Council consider approval of the ordinance authorizing the City Manager to execute this lease amendment.

[2:47:53] And it's really supported by the reasons that I've discussed here and there's a lot more detail that is in the staff report.

[2:47:59] So with that, I will.

[2:48:02] Any questions?

[2:48:03] Thank you for that. Nice report.

[2:48:05] Does anyone have any questions?

[2:48:07] Councillor questions?

[2:48:09] No.

[2:48:10] We have a public speaker.

[2:48:12] Yes.

[2:48:12] Elizabeth Taylor?

[2:48:13] Yes.

[2:48:14] Welcome.

[2:48:16] Speaker Taylor.

[2:48:17] Got your email.

[2:48:20] Hello.

[2:48:21] I'm here.

[2:48:21] Thank you so much.

[2:48:23] I just would really wanted to convey my gratitude to the Council and to study staff for working with us on this least as many of you have been to visit us and know that we really have these multi year projects that go on.

[2:48:37] and are very committed to staying in Alameda.

[2:48:41] And particularly, this one's we can possibly stay where we are,

[2:48:45] and continue to grow our educational elements

[2:48:49] and community outreach been working very hard to bring the B-CAP program.

[2:48:55] It's Northern California, which is the Blue Green Economic Development Partnerships with Community Colleges.

[2:49:00] And really, again, extreme gratitude for your consideration, and I'll just keep it short there.

[2:49:09] And I know it's been a long night for you guys.

[2:49:11] Thank you.

[2:49:12] Thank you.

[2:49:13] Our next speaker.

[2:49:14] That was it.

[2:49:16] Was that a motion from you?

[2:49:18] Council member.

[2:49:18] Okay.

[2:49:18] Council member.

[2:49:20] Okay.

[2:49:22] Council member.

[2:49:28] as a favor of this signify by Stating I and that was unanimous. Thank you. Okay and then we move

[2:49:35] on to 70. Introduction of ordinance authorizing the City Manager to execute a third lease amendment

[2:49:41] with faction brewing company LLC, California Limited Liability Company for Building 22 sweet 200

[2:49:47] located at 2501 Monastery at Alameda Point, the Center for Care for Fertifers. All right. Welcome. Good

[2:49:54] evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor and members of the City Council.

[2:49:57] My name is Annie Cox.

[2:49:59] I'm an analyst.

[2:50:00] With the base reuse and economic development department. And I'm here tonight to seek your consideration for a third lease amendment with an existing tenant, faction brewing for a portion of 2501 monarch street, which is also called building 22.

[2:50:18] constructed in 1941 by the Navy as a maintenance hanger. Building 22 is approximately 65,000

[2:50:27] for hundreds where feet. It also is a historic contributing structure. It has those beautiful

[2:50:35] 50-foot clear height spans. It is divided into two bays and fully occupied so currently gold bar

[2:50:44] experiences in one suite and faction brewing is in another suite. Both tenants have exclusive

[2:50:51] patio in yard space that's a budding federally owned property and due to their proximity to the

[2:50:58] nesting site of the protected California lease turn colony, there are outdoor use restrictions in

[2:51:06] Since it's opening in 2020, excuse me, 2012,

[2:51:11] faction has established itself as a well-known bait area of brewery,

[2:51:15] drawing visitors from across the region to enjoy the tasting room and events.

[2:51:20] The current rent is $25,525 a month, approximately 79 cents per square foot,

[2:51:28] and the current initial term of the least expires in 2028.

[2:51:35] So, a little history on the amendments, in October of 2020, faction and seven other

[2:51:42] spirits Allie tenants received COVID-era rent deferral, faction was able to repay all

[2:51:49] deferred rent early, meeting the obligations of amendment 1.

[2:51:53] In April of 2024, Council approved a second amendment for a retroactive three-month

[2:51:59] different deferral, after faction proactively approach city staff with financial concerns.

[2:52:06] Some of these concerns stemmed from the Bury Industries sluggish recovery from the pandemic,

[2:52:12] particularly for in-person tasting room sales and events, coupled with road closures that

[2:52:17] allow me to point for infrastructure improvements and severe inclement weather.

[2:52:22] In late 2024, faction became unable to make their payments per the second amendment and proactively

[2:52:31] again reached out to city staff.

[2:52:34] Over the last two years, staff have worked closely with faction and twice engaged city

[2:52:39] council in closed session.

[2:52:42] Direction from city council was for staff to continue to work collaboratively with faction

[2:52:46] on certain required actions.

[2:52:48] to support factions effort to develop a feasible business plan and for

[2:52:53] faction to make specific improvements to their space.

[2:52:57] And these would be conditions of consideration of a third amendment.

[2:53:01] Faction has met all those required actions.

[2:53:06] In summary, at the time of the publication of the staff report,

[2:53:11] the tenant owed a total of 222,036 dollars in a combination of

[2:53:19] So, concurrent to the negotiations over the past two years, staff and economic development have also made efforts to support

[2:53:30] Alameda Point businesses as a whole, developing a website to promote food, drink, and recreation activities at Alameda Point.

[2:53:41] Additionally, staff worked with the biological consultant and structural engineer to get approval for the installation of shade structures on the western portion of spirit's alley buildings, which is the portion that faces the least-turned colony.

[2:53:56] The approval they received from the US Fish and Wildlife Service allowed spirit's alley tenants to apply for a facade grant to assist with exterior improvements such as shade structures and signage.

[2:54:11] The proposed third amendment extends the initial term by three years, plus replaces the two-year renewal options with one-two-year renewal option.

[2:54:22] It memorializes a repayment schedule providing a mechanism to recover unpaid past-do rent.

[2:54:29] It issues a one-time conditional credit if the tenant successfully completes the installation of the new shade structure and exterior signage.

[2:54:38] And it maintains the same monthly rent and 3% annual escalator.

[2:54:44] The amended term with option generates 1.8 million in revenue.

[2:54:49] So while negotiating this lease amendment,

[2:54:52] I would like to report that the tenant has begun paying the full rent

[2:54:56] and that's since February of 2026.

[2:54:59] They've me.

[2:55:00] We changes to their business model, increased product distribution, expanded marketing, and increased

[2:55:06] hosted events. Additionally, they have designed and received permit approval for a permanent

[2:55:12] shade structure for the back patio and updated signage. The installation of the patio is

[2:55:18] pending the end of the lease-turn nesting season. However, you can see in this photo here

[2:55:24] that the updated signage has been completed.

[2:55:33] Staff recommend approval of the first reading of the ordinance for a third-least amendment with faction on the terms described in both the staff report and the proposed third amendment.

[2:55:44] Thank you so much for the opportunity to present this item to you.

[2:55:48] I'm available to answer any clarifying questions.

[2:55:50] Thank you, nice to have many clarifying questions. Council, Councilmember Jensen.

[2:55:56] Thank you for the presentation.

[2:55:57] So, you mentioned that the faction had recently begun paying the full amount of rent.

[2:56:05] Correct.

[2:56:06] February of 2026, and that was for closed session direction given by City Council.

[2:56:12] So, but they're still in a race by 222,000.

[2:56:16] That's correct.

[2:56:17] And so given that outstanding rent, staff consider a shorter term lease, or would that be feasible?

[2:56:23] So, the adjusted extending the initial term by three years gives us a full five-year runway for the repayments to be scheduled out for that amount of time, which makes it a low enough payment that was amenable to the tenant.

[2:56:40] And do we have any, what's our ability to, to terminate if the, if factions unable to continue to pay the outstanding balance or the current meet the currently storms?

[2:56:56] This amendment does not change or reduce our ability to terminate or seek a UD if they were unable to meet the payments.

[2:57:05] Thank you.

[2:57:05] that was an unlawful detainer if you're sorry yes. Thank you. Well I want to commend staff for

[2:57:12] working with this long time. Elamedic business. They have run through gone through economic hard times

[2:57:19] but they are such a vibrant part of the spirit's alley complex and so I'm glad to see them

[2:57:35] comment? No public comments, so then what I'm looking for is a motion in a second to approve the

[2:57:41] sort of an authorizing senior manager to excuse. Through this amendment with Section

[2:57:45] Brain Company, et cetera, et cetera, is that you vice mayor prior? Yes, so moved. All right,

[2:57:51] so moved by vice mayor prior. Senate, by council member, bolder, all those in favor,

[2:57:55] please see me by stating aye. Aye, that was unanimous. All right, then we move on to item eight

[2:58:06] Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to keep it really short tonight. I want to thank everyone who came

[2:58:09] up to Alameda Fire Department's 150th celebration last Saturday. It was fun, family friendly,

[2:58:16] and I know that the fire team put a ton of work into that, and it looked like a good time was

[2:58:22] had by also. I want to appreciate that and acknowledge the 150 years of service. Also,

[2:58:28] for those who haven't had a chance yet to meet our new library director, I just want to call out

[2:58:33] Mary Abler, Mary started on August 3rd, and since we had the August break, this is the first

[2:58:40] time that we're able to call it out. But yeah, Alameda Free Library has a new director.

[2:58:46] It works out to welcome Mary, and if you see her in the halls of city hall or here at a

[2:58:50] meeting sometime soon, please make sure you say hi. With that, it's been a busy night, and

[2:58:56] I'm going to conclude my comments. Thank you very much.

[2:58:58] Thank you and I'll just tag on to that that if you read my September news paper article in the Eastway Times and the Almeda Post

[2:59:07] Idea feature on the new library director. It's also very photogenic. We had Maurice Mammate's take some photos

[2:59:15] And one of them. I just sent the photos to the editors and said I can't choose you to choose, but it's just yes. She's very exciting

[2:59:22] New addition to city staff

[2:59:25] Madam Clerk, we have number nine as our recommendations.

[2:59:30] Please do have a speaker, Katie Kahlo.

[2:59:32] Welcome, okay.

[2:59:34] A long patient.

[2:59:38] You get the prize for the longest waiting for you.

[2:59:42] Welcome.

[2:59:43] Thank you.

[2:59:44] Yeah, I always end up speaking in the middle of the night to hear some help.

[2:59:48] Hi.

[2:59:49] Good evening.

[2:59:50] It's Megan. I am speaking to you tonight because I want to talk about the decision of who's going to occupy.

[3:00:00] That fabulous waterfront building that Rockwell was once in, and I think it's more than just about filling a building.

[3:00:09] I think that that's such an amazing spot, and who we choose for these kinds of spaces is really a decision about

[3:00:20] So this place it's on the beautiful waterfront, it's a site with history.

[3:00:25] And it has a connection to the space that Alameda occupies in the bay.

[3:00:32] Rockwall really understood that it was an important location.

[3:00:35] People want to be here.

[3:00:37] They want to gather, experience, strength, celebrate, create and connect.

[3:00:43] So I feel that kind of place making really matters when we think about who our tenants

[3:00:48] are going to be in all of these waterfront spaces, a city is not defined by its buildings,

[3:00:53] but it's the places where people come together. Really tell us about who we are. So I think

[3:00:59] there's a real opportunity, you know, just as a house making makes a home making makes a house

[3:01:05] a home, a place making really makes a space a place. And people want to reason to leave their homes

[3:01:12] and connect with people in their community.

[3:01:16] Arts, culture, restaurants, small businesses, creative enterprises.

[3:01:20] Those are all reasons for people to come out

[3:01:22] and be together in the community.

[3:01:24] These are destinations and experiences

[3:01:27] that make this city feel like our city.

[3:01:31] So a data center, a defense contractor,

[3:01:34] these kinds of things they might serve economic purposes,

[3:01:37] but it really fundamentally changes the potential

[3:01:40] of what could be in those waterfront spaces, and it doesn't require or inspire people to come

[3:01:49] there to gather, connect at all. So I hope the council will ask themselves, you know,

[3:01:58] what is it that Alameda wants that Western waterfront to be? And it's not just choosing a tenant,

[3:02:05] it's choosing on behalf of us, the residents of Alameda, what kind of city we're going to be.

[3:02:13] So our beautiful space is going to be utilitarian buildings over, um, are they going to

[3:02:18] be destinations where people are connecting and experiencing and making memories?

[3:02:25] We don't have infinite opportunities to shape places like this, and this is one of those

[3:02:30] opportunities. So I hope you think about choosing a tenant that can recognize the value of the location,

[3:02:38] the value of people connecting with other people and having that be at the center of what happens there.

[3:02:46] Thank you. Thank you. That was all.

[3:02:50] I'm sorry. One more person remote.

[3:02:53] Yes. Welcome.

[3:02:54] Yes.

[3:02:54] I don't know what is allowed and I'm going to see it.

[3:02:57] Leo.

[3:02:58] Wait a minute.

[3:02:59] Not an oral communication non-agenda.

[3:03:01] Oh, yes.

[3:03:02] That changed a lot as you want to explain.

[3:03:05] So starting July 1st.

[3:03:08] Leo Escalamando.

[3:03:12] Welcome, speaker.

[3:03:16] Hi, can you hear me?

[3:03:17] Yes.

[3:03:19] Hi.

[3:03:19] Good evening, Mayor.

[3:03:20] City Council and staff.

[3:03:21] My name is Leo Escalamando.

[3:03:23] I live on an Avenue and entrance in front of the Fortman Arena.

[3:03:25] And I'm a homeowner in the Marine Insurance neighborhood where there's proposed truck route planned by the city engineer, which is true.

[3:03:33] I cannot support the truck route proposed by city engineer on climate avenue and we hope the city can study safer alternatives.

[3:03:41] The community meeting that the city hosted had over 30 concerned residents like myself.

[3:03:46] really talking about the safety of this truck route as a father about five-year-old daughter. I'm really

[3:03:50] concerned about the safety especially at the park. Earlier speaker mentioned earlier tonight.

[3:03:56] The city's general plan was drafted in the 90s before a thriving neighborhood was developed and now

[3:04:01] 4,000 families call this area home. The city developed a marina watercolor park. It's really a

[3:04:07] toddler playground and there's a new crosswalk warning. We have at least 500 young children in

[3:04:13] area. A lot of our kids are young and five years old. So I think nearby speeding 65 foot commercial

[3:04:20] size trucks would pose a considerable threat. This child safety and crossing climate

[3:04:25] have. I believe the truck route puts the city directly in conflict with the priorities

[3:04:31] as vision zero in reducing traffic deaths and injuries and we need the city to look at

[3:04:35] safer alternative routes to avoid harm. Yes, as HOA members we signed a truck route disclosure,

[3:04:40] but we did not agree to narrowing the bike lane of the cross alley meet a trail and widening the street.

[3:04:47] So public taxes were used to build a waterfront park and a trail, but now we're being asked to use additional public resources to undo these improvements in response to conflicting city planning priorities over the past decades.

[3:04:59] So it feels like we're...

[3:05:00] Really, I'm doing public city investment. Our neighborhood, we're willing to continue conversations and have more engagement with everyone and and staff, especially from climate A, and want to be on keeping one of these possible truck route. So, respectfully, I ask the city council and city manager of referral to consider alternatives to the truck route designation between Sherman and Grand before any staff recommendation happens in September.

[3:05:29] We hope we can continue to meet with the staff and you all, and please work with us as residents to explore safer alternatives.

[3:05:37] I consider a limited general plan and then.

[3:05:40] Thank you for listening, I know it's a late night.

[3:05:42] Take care.

[3:05:42] Thank you.

[3:05:44] Not that late.

[3:05:47] Okay.

[3:05:48] So then, yes, that is a change in state law that we now can have our communication on agenda item from remote speakers.

[3:05:56] So, we don't have any council referrals, but we can go on to council communications.

[3:06:06] I'll start on the left council member, Jensen.

[3:06:11] I mean, to say 11 is council communications.

[3:06:16] Oh, and then I'll do my nominations after.

[3:06:19] Yeah, so let's take council's communications and then I'll do 11A.

[3:06:30] I want to make one comment first of all before I talk about what I've been doing during the

[3:06:38] recess.

[3:06:39] But I want to talk a little bit about Elmie's economic infrastructure tonight.

[3:06:44] We made some decisions this evening to extend Lisa's and support expanded housing.

[3:06:49] But unfortunately there are still places in Alameda that are in need of support and I'm talking

[3:06:56] about the Harbor Bayland and shopping center.

[3:06:59] The three restaurants at the site have been closed for some time now due to code violations

[3:07:05] and I just learned that LaValle's pizza won't be reopening, it's closed for good.

[3:07:11] So depending on what happens with the other two restaurants there, it may be that just

[3:07:17] way and the UPS store are remaining, and I want to appreciate this city manager and economic

[3:07:25] development staff for reaching out and working hard as well as could compliance and could

[3:07:31] development staff for ensuring that safety for staff at the sites, people who work there

[3:07:38] and patrons. But this is just unacceptable, and I want to urge the city manager and staff to keep

[3:07:46] working hard to working with the owner of Harbor Bay Landing and working with other potential

[3:07:55] buyers of the site and whatever we can do because this is a resource for the community

[3:08:01] for especially for Bay from Ireland, but for all of our community and hopefully we can get

[3:08:05] something done to bring it back to support, to provide support in the retail that our community

[3:08:12] needs. So that's my editorializing. I also wanted to mention that I returned this afternoon

[3:08:22] from the California Resource Association Conference in San Diego, where I participate

[3:08:30] as part of stop waste, the group from stop waste, and there were other almeda participants,

[3:08:38] including Ruth Abbey from Casa, who did a great presentation about resource hubs.

[3:08:47] So I learned a lot and I'll spend some time talking to RZWIP staff and public works

[3:08:53] to identify ways that Elamedic can keep moving forward and keep using recycling and

[3:09:00] diverting as much as we can from the landfill.

[3:09:05] Thank you.

[3:09:06] Nice mayor, prior.

[3:09:09] Oh, hello.

[3:09:11] So I already, I don't have the dates, but I went to a Burger King grand opening.

[3:09:20] And it was huge.

[3:09:22] There were firefighters there, and Alameda police officers there.

[3:09:27] I did an a DJ.

[3:09:29] I thought it was going to be this little thing.

[3:09:30] And I was like, oh, my gosh.

[3:09:32] It was pretty big.

[3:09:34] Um, yeah, that's kind of fun. Um, and this is great. Uh, for the second time, uh,

[3:09:42] second year in a row, um, the mayor was out of town doing other important things. And I got

[3:09:48] to, uh, introduce, uh, representative Latifa Simon. Um, she's, uh, spoke at one of our Alameda schools.

[3:09:56] She did her town hall, and she is...

[3:10:00] Fantastic. She did mention. She said, your great mayor calls me every week to talk about getting the, uh, the vets, um, building, uh, complete the VA at the clinic in column bar.

[3:10:16] Yes, sure, yes. And so she's like, I'm working on it and don't worry, I'll admit that she's like, your mayor calls me every week.

[3:10:23] But yeah, it was great, it's always great to hear her speak, but also that she gets things done for our community.

[3:10:34] Thank you.

[3:10:35] Councillor Roller.

[3:10:36] Oh, thank you.

[3:10:37] I just want to echo what council member Jensen was saying.

[3:10:41] And if there's anything I can do to help support city staff, I live in Hyberbay.

[3:10:47] I've been talking to people about the concerns about Hyberbay landing.

[3:10:51] and even at one point had a meeting there where with the help of city staff, 300 people

[3:10:58] showed up and were concerned about the time and there was an application. There's no

[3:11:03] application now to do development there, but hopefully there are plans coming and anything

[3:11:09] I can do to help. I would like to offer my help.

[3:11:15] Yes, I'm July 28th. I attended the all island community meeting put on by the

[3:11:24] Alameda Police Department at Massics in your center. That was a very well-attended

[3:11:30] meeting after our police officers answered questions from members of the public.

[3:11:42] I believe

[3:11:44] range of equipment and one of the equipment that was fascinating was the aerial drone and

[3:11:52] the video that it was did. The live video, it was taking in how from such a height up above

[3:11:59] it can take a very nice picture down below. So that was July 28th and August 4th, like many others,

[3:12:09] as National Night Out, so attended West End sites, so that was fun, especially to see the electric

[3:12:21] bicycles used by police, quiet and fast, so that was nice. And let's all, yes, this

[3:12:30] past weekend. The August 29th was the 150th Anniversary of the Alameda Fire Department,

[3:12:37] that was very fun to attend, so how the mayor there as well as a supervisor and lean

[3:12:44] a tam for more council member, so that was nice and I appreciate the metal that they gave

[3:12:52] out was very beautiful on both sides, so that was the things that I recall over the past

[3:12:59] August.

[3:13:00] Thank you.

[3:13:01] So, I'll go last, yes, I was, and I think my daughter was visiting, so we were both there for a little bit and then we had to go to somebody's house, but did you also remember the gun detection dog, one of our officers, has a German shepherd who is specially trained to detect, it's I guess, the smell of gun, so if someone has thrown again while they're running through a park, I'd like to get rid of evidence,

[3:13:31] of a crime, that dog can go and detect it or in buildings. It's pretty sick and it just adores

[3:13:41] its owner or handler officer, Fester. And yes, I did. August 4th was Coast Guard Day. I'm

[3:13:50] so I was at Coast Guard Base Alameda and spoke to the group, met the new commanding officer

[3:13:57] and helps cut the very large cake and then that evening was national night out and I made

[3:14:03] stops at three different locations across the city. And August 7th was the ribbon cutting

[3:14:11] for wood middle school. The new middle school is just beyond gorgeous. We some of this

[3:14:18] had a little tour of it. They did manage to unpack everything and if I think there's so

[3:14:23] of energy judges on it is lovely space for the students and also for the special needs students.

[3:14:29] They've really done a nice job and just putting them right in the center of the campus so they're not

[3:14:35] off and away from the other kids but right in the middle.

[3:14:40] And on August 12, I was up in Sacramento, lobbying with these Bay Division of the League of California cities,

[3:14:47] but getting a lot of lobbying for measures to get through the legislature and up to the governor's desk for signing and then August 20.

[3:15:00] The last week I guess I attended, very nice, I'll be pleased to come and spring in in a word ceremony.

[3:15:08] And then August 29th, Council Member Day Psycho and I both attended the 150th birthday party at

[3:15:16] I'll need a fire department. I think a lot was going on back in those days, because next year in

[3:15:22] between seven, the element of free library turns 150.

[3:15:27] So look for another party in huge cake, can't all that.

[3:15:32] And next month, no November or October, something

[3:15:36] next month would be October.

[3:15:39] The library that I have to stop calling the new main library,

[3:15:42] because it's turning 20.

[3:15:43] We have to call it something besides the new,

[3:15:45] the new or main library.

[3:15:47] So, yes, lots of things going on, even during break, and then I'm just going to segue

[3:15:55] right into item 11A, which I'm just announcing nominees for three different boards and

[3:16:05] commissions, which you all will then meet either in person or on screen at our next meeting

[3:16:10] and vote to hopefully approve them.

[3:16:13] So for the civil service board because one of our civil service board members, Sylia Warren,

[3:16:20] is about to be sworn in as a spirit court judge in Alameda County, so I've just got

[3:16:24] to step down off the civil service board that I have appointed Alec Chavez to take her place

[3:16:33] And for the planning board, we had two of our great planning board members were termed

[3:16:43] out.

[3:16:43] They served two consecutive terms, but we had great applicants.

[3:16:48] It's always challenging for me to choose these, and I always interview with whoever

[3:16:51] staffs the Board of Commission, because we have such qualified people, but we chose

[3:16:56] I chose Jimmy Lee and Katie Fried, you'll meet them next time.

[3:17:01] And then on the Transportation Commission, we had several incumbents were eligible to be

[3:17:09] re-appointed and I did re-appoint Sarah Vonis's and Sarah I first met Sarah Vonis when

[3:17:16] she was a transportation planner with Alameda Kennedy Transportation Commission, also Jason Kim who

[3:17:24] actually works for, I want to say it's VTA,

[3:17:28] college transportation authority in the South Bay,

[3:17:31] is an incumbent Maria pointing,

[3:17:34] and then in Jeffrey Johnson, also Jeffrey Networks

[3:17:37] for Cal Trans, but we have a new member, I'm appointing,

[3:17:41] and she's a strong bicycle advocate

[3:17:43] and mother of elementary school kids, and that is Maria Piper.

[3:17:48] So again, we will meet all of them,

[3:17:51] hopefully you will vote to confirm them at our next meeting.

[3:17:56] And so we come to the adjournment as a City Council meeting.

[3:18:00] If I could have everyone's attention for just a minute, we're going to end

[3:18:05] on a sombra note because our colleague, Tony Day's

[3:18:09] song, lost his mom this past Saturday evening, and her name was

[3:18:16] So Taco, Desag, she met Tony's dad in Japan, where she came from, and where you were born, and no, my sister's for both of us, but she's white.

[3:18:29] You were born, oh, okay, okay, but the military family like that.

[3:18:33] Yeah.

[3:18:33] My brother was born in Virginia.

[3:18:35] Okay.

[3:18:35] That's obvious, right?

[3:18:38] No, those are all military locations.

[3:18:40] And anyway, I had the pleasure of meeting Tony's mom before, and devoted mother, I believe

[3:18:48] she was still living in the home where you grew up in the West and correct.

[3:18:53] And so we are going to just take a moment of silence and remember, and send our condolences

[3:19:02] to the day-side family on the loss of their beloved memory.

[3:19:05] Their beloved mother, Satakko, Desak.

[3:19:09] Thank you.

[3:19:10] Appreciate it.

[3:19:11] All right.

[3:19:13] So take care, Tony, and with that, this meeting is adjourned.

[3:19:18] Thanks everyone for all your good work.

[3:19:20] Travel home safely.

[3:19:21] We'll see you soon.

[3:19:23] Thank you.

City Council on 2026-09-01 7:00 PM

Agenda

Transcript