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Okay. Hello, everyone. Good evening. I'm calling to order the special meeting of the Berkeley City Council today is Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025. Already, can you believe it? Clerk, could you please start with the roll? Okay. Councilmember Kester Wani. Here.

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Here.

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Dapplin.

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Here.

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Councilmember Bartlett is absent.

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Tregum.

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Present.

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Oki.

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Blackaby.

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Here.

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Moonapara is currently absent.

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Humber.

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Here.

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And Mayor Ishi.

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Here.

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Okay.

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Quorum is present.

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Very good.

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There is a supplemental on the dies here, folks.

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And we need to vote to add it.

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Is there a motion to do so?

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Okay.

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So moved.

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Second.

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Okay.

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And is there any objection?

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No.

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Okay.

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There's no objection and no objection.

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All right.

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Very good.

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Motion passes.

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Okay.

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We will add the supplemental.

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Very good.

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Okay.

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So on our action calendar, very exciting.

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So I'm very excited for this special session.

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Infrastructure is one of my top priorities.

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And it's something that we just don't get a chance to talk about enough.

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This isn't about just the streets and sidewalks.

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It's also about our sewers and storm drains, parks and playgrounds, pools and piers, old

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city hall and veterans building, places that really should be community gathering spaces that

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fill us with pride, but instead are decaying, unfortunately, before our eyes.

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We hear you to the many community members who regularly advocate for better infrastructure

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in one way or another. My council colleagues, and I know that this is an issue that impacts

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all of us. Upon taking office a year ago, I was well aware of the Vision 2050 framework

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for a sustainable and resilient infrastructure, passed in 2020. And it was also apparent that

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many things had changed since its passage. The elevated threat of wildfire and other climate

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related issues, the effects on the economy from the pandemic, the pandemic, shifts in federal

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policies on inflation and tariffs, the passage of measure FF for safe streets and sidewalks,

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just to name a few. Berkeley still has more than $1 billion, $1 billion with a B, an unfunded

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infrastructure needs, and our challenges from climate change, including sea level rise,

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are only increasing our needs. Due to these changes in the significant gap in resources,

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I reconvene the mayor's vision 2050 task force to update the report and refresh the recommendations.

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Well, yet, and Margot Schiller, both of whom have decades of experience in infrastructure,

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and I've worked for over a decade as volunteers,

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far over a decade, I should say,

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dedicated to improving Berkeley's infrastructure

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served as co-chairs, providing leadership and continuity

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along with many other former and current task force members.

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Many of whom are today.

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Thank you all for being here.

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The task force met several times during this year

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and produced a concise update to Vision 2050,

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which they're calling realize Vision 2050,

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and recommendations to address Berkeley's infrastructure.

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These recommendations are comprehensive and include considerations on integrated planning using new technologies, improving maintenance, providing new funding to address needs and better engagement with the public, something that matters a lot to me.

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They helped organize a very impressive team of resident experts and produce the important report in your packet tonight.

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So council members, I really just want to say first of all, thank you so much to this

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impressive team of experts for their work. Thank you all so much for being here and

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I'd really love if you could just stand so we can recognize and acknowledge you for all

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the work that you've been doing over this past year. So, Ray-Yep, Margot Schuler, Council

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Members Taplin and Traygub, Weldon Bradstreet, Karen Prolek, former council member Gordon

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John Wazviak, John Cainer, Sasha Constantine, Allison Levante, Sophia Scoda, Dan Linheim,

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Chris DeTernay, John Elliott, Kenny Chisoka, Christina Hill, and Larry Henry, if you could

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all stand, we want to acknowledge you.

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Thank you all so much, we really appreciate all the work that you do, Berkeley is filled

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with amazing residents who have so much knowledge and information, and it's really such a joy

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that we get a chance to pull together a bunch of experts to learn more from you.

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So thank you so much and I'll invite Margot and Ray to say a few words.

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Mayor Ishi and distinguished council members, my name is Ray Yepp.

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I had the privilege of co-chairing the original vision 2015 initiative back more than five

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years ago, along with Margot, my colleague here co-chairing that.

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I'd like to tell you that the second time around is way better than first time.

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And it's a privilege to have that opportunity to review what we've done and to make improvements.

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So here's at least three reasons why it's way better.

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Number one, the word realize.

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So we call it the Realize Vision 2050 Initiative, the Realize Vision 2050 Task Force.

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Realize means we're here to get things done.

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We're here to take action.

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And we follow that direction from Mayor Ishi.

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And so we're here to get things done.

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That's an important word.

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second reason, the report is only eight pages long. You only have to read eight pages, but those eight pages are golden.

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So we also took initiative to not prepare a very lengthy report, make it concise, make it actionable.

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So in those eight pages are five strategies along with goals, action items, and performance measures.

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You can get everything you need out of those eight pages.

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Third reason is we got it done in six months.

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We started in March and delivered the report in October.

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And so realize how urgent it is to address our infrastructure, we took that to heart and made it an urgent effort to work with such distinguished and qualified as members as these to get it done with some urgency and to deliver it in October that we did.

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We thank you for the opportunity, Mayor Issy, to serve on this task force.

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I thank Margul to be co-chair with myself, and I also thank the task force members, many of who are here, some who couldn't be here for their experience and their time and their dedication to the city of Berkeley.

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Appreciate it.

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I also want to thank you all and my colleagues and urge the city and the staff and the elected

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officials to really dig into those eight pages.

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Go back to the 2020 report for all the background information for those of you who weren't involved

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at that time and make that the basis of your upcoming really serious funding and policy

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and project decision making.

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And, again, integration with nature, integration with innovation, the climate is changing fast,

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and unless we change our infrastructure, we're going to be stuck with what we've got for

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the next 100 years, and it won't work.

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So looking forward to watch the changes.

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Thank you.

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Thank you, again, Ray and Margo, I really appreciate all of your work and your effort, and wrangling

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all the cats.

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It's always a big task to do that.

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So, and thank you all so much really appreciate it and I know you're looking forward to the next item so I'll move us over to item number two.

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I really also want to appreciate the great work that City staff do every day to maintain and improve our beloved community assets with the limited resources that they have.

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And I think one of the things that's most impressive and exciting about the City Manager's report is the leveraging with previous measures.

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T1, OU1, et cetera, and measure FF is also now being collected for street sidewalks and

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safety.

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So really just want to call that out and appreciate the city staff for doing the work

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of leveraging and also just for the voters for approving these items because again, infrastructure

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is something that we don't get a chance to talk about enough and this is really our opportunity

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to highlight and say look we've done all this great work and we also have a lot of need.

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So, I'm going to turn it over to our city manager and to our city staff.

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And I realize also I neglected to thank Terrence Davis, who also joined us for the last

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couple of meetings for our vision, our 2050 task force, so thank you very much for that

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as well.

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Thank you, Mayor Ishi.

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We have staff coming to the table now to go through a presentation for you.

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So, I think assistant to the city manager Herandondo is going to set up the presentation.

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So, I'll just start talking while she's getting it set up to say that.

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We're excited to be before you tonight.

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As was just mentioned in the previous item, there's a lot of different maintenance on infrastructure.

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There's a lot of needs for fixing, replacing, rebuilding, creating infrastructure in the city.

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And there has been a lot of good work that has been done in the past in that regard as well.

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So we want to acknowledge and honor that as well.

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You can go to the next slide.

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So I want to just I'll just walk you through a little bit of what the agenda is before you tonight.

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I won't read through all of this, but we will start off with more of that context and background.

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Talk a little bit about a potential community survey for which we've already done in RFP.

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And then a big part of this is looking at potential infrastructure items for your consideration

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in a potential $300 million general obligation bond.

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So you'll see in your packet that you have at the end a list of projects that fall into three buckets.

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One is critical infrastructure and other is public safety and the third is community facilities and quality of life.

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And we spent a lot of work as staff putting that together and our team will go through

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that.

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Finally, not finally, but we also will talk a little bit about the geobond analysis, both

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from the perspective.

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We'll look back on what a bond is.

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We'll go through potential tax rate implications.

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We'll talk through timelines and then leave you all with some questions to consider and

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we very much look forward to the discussion and direction from you all regarding this.

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We have a terrific group of staff who are going to present tonight.

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Deputy City Manager David White, Assistant to the City Manager, Kerry Haranando, our

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Parks Director Scott Ferris, several people will be online and that's Parks Director Scott

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Ferris, Public Works Director, Terence Davis, our Finance Director, Henry Oyakami, and our

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Fire Chief, David Sprague, as well as our municipal advisor from NHA Craig Hill.

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So all those folks are going to be online.

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They'll all have a piece of this presentation that I'll be available for questions at the end.

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And with that, I will hand it over to Deputy Senior Manager David White.

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Thank you, City Manager.

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And good evening, Mayor and City Council.

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As our City Manager mentioned, I'm David White, your Deputy City Manager.

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And as the Mayor well stated just a few moments ago, the city has significant unfunded infrastructure needs.

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more than a billion dollars, and today's discussion is all about setting the stage to

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seek your direction on moving forward to determine the feasibility in pursuing a revenue

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measure in 2026 to generate much-needed resources to invest in our infrastructure.

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More specifically as we move through this presentation, we will be discussing a variety of projects

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to apply to a general obligation bond in an amount up to $300 million.

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In the past, Berkeley voters have approved several bond measures and with those resources,

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the city has been able to modernize numerous facilities, increase the supply of affordable

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housing, address deferred maintenance needs, invest in street improvements and green infrastructure

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for more sustainable and resilient future, and overall improve the community's quality

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of life.

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We are going to definitely touch on all of this tonight at a high level.

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In addition to the bond measures that have been adopted, there have been several parcel

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taxes that have been adopted as well.

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Measure FF in 2020 and 2024, Measure P in 2018 and 2024, and an increase to the parks

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tax that was measure Y in 2024.

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And all these have enabled the city to strengthen its emergency response, expand programs and services

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to expand housing opportunities and address homelessness, maintain our cherished parks

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and open spaces and continue to make safety improvements to our road network and pedestrian

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paths to achieve our vision zero objectives.

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As we look to the future, we are cognizant that to address our infrastructure needs, we

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need a focused, coordinated approach, and the work of the Vision 2050 Task Force provides

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We await the potential for a bond measure in 2026.

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So how will we gather community input? As indicated in the staff report, we intend to launch a community engagement process in early 2026. And while the details are still being worked out, this will be an opportunity to hear about community priorities. In addition to that, we would like to implement one if not two community surveys that would be designed to gather the input of Berkeley voters. This slide in front of you provides some

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Some of the details, including trying to connect with 500 likely November 2026 voters.

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The survey itself would be designed to gauge voter sentiment about city services, and

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to understand the priorities and potential support for bond measure on the November 2026 ballot.

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Should the City Council authorize us to proceed?

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Once the survey is completed, we would return to City Council with the results over the survey.

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So,

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what have we done with the resources the voters have adopted in the past?

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This slide and the slide that follows highlights just some of the improvements that we,

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as a city, have been able to achieve with previous bond measures and partial taxes adopted

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by Berkeley voters.

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There is no way that we will be able to shine a light on all the projects, but this and

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the slide that follows provides a high-level overview of investments made throughout

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the totality of the community.

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This particular slide highlights the recently completed Willard Clubhouse upgrades to the Rose Garden,

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revitalized North Berkeley Senior Services Center, and new affordable housing opportunities.

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The next slide builds on the previous slide and demonstrates public safety enhancements

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and the work we have done to address homelessness with adopted parcel taxes.

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Also, a couple of green infrastructure projects that have been implemented are also noted for you.

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Given the city's infrastructure needs and that existing bond measures have largely been

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exhausted, we spend some time developing a proposal of projects for city council's consideration.

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These projects in detail are listed in the staff report as attachment 5.

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In developing the list of projects, we look to a number of criteria summarized on this slide,

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including public health and safety, community use and equity, as well as external funding

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funding opportunities which means that should a bond measure be successful, similar to

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all of our past work, we would look to leverage these resources and fund such that the investment

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in the community would likely exceed the $300 million raise to the proposed bond.

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Finally, it is worth noting that the criteria that we developed to develop this list of projects

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is harmonious with the Vision 2050 task force.

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What ultimately resulted from our work to develop a list of proposed projects for City Council

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consideration is a logical grouping of projects in the three categories.

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Community facilities and quality of life, public safety and critical infrastructure and accessibility.

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Each category roughly consists of numerous projects that roughly totals $100 million.

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And now I would like to transition to a more detailed discussion of each of the categories

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and the projects that are proposed.

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We're going to start with our Director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Scott Ferris

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to discuss community facilities, then we'll transition to our fire chief who will discuss

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project proposed under the public safety category, and finally our director of public works

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Terrence Davis will discuss the project to comprise the critical infrastructure and accessibility

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category.

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Okay.

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We'll meet perhaps our director of public works is having some trouble connecting.

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So I'll just pick up from here and then transition to our fire chief.

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So in looking at these projects, what we tried to accomplish was really looking at a number

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of different important community investments.

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So as you can see on the slide for, you can go back to slides.

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Thank you.

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And first of all, we looked at upgrading our Frances Albuyer Community Center.

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This is a much needed improvement to this facility in our community.

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We looked at a high use pool, which is King Pool and Locker Room, and upgrade to the turf

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at Harrison Field, which is critical because this will allow the field to be used year-round,

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365 days a year, as well as lighting and improvements to livo courts, simpablo sports field, as

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well as we hear overwhelmingly about the need for enhanced and increased number of dog parks

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throughout the city.

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And then there are also important park restroom upgrades throughout various parks throughout

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the city.

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In addition to that, we looked at upgrading our open spaces, as well as addressing a number

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of projects to address issues of resilience and sea level rise.

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And this slide highlights just some of the projects that we put into that bucket and

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category.

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The Adelaide Quarter Open Space Improvements, Aquatic Park, which would include improvements

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to DreamLine Park.

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Scott's on now.

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I

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can keep rolling.

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Yeah. As well as you can see a number of other improvements down in the marina. A couple

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of projects I want to point out that are specifically designed to address sea level rise, which

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is the Bay Trail Marina Boulevard, as well as University Avenue Bike Park, which we anticipate

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will be incredibly well received. And all the details of these projects are in the packet

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for council. So now we'll turn it over to our fire chief to talk about the public safety

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category. Good afternoon, Council and Mayor. Today, I want to briefly walk through the major

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capital projects proposed for the fire department. These projects are rooted in the city's comprehensive

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fire facilities master plan completed in 2023. That plan lays out the condition of all existing

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facilities and provides a city a long-term strategic roadmap for all the needed reinvestment in these

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critical pieces of infrastructure. Most of Berkeley's stations were built in

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the 60s and have received partial seismic upgrades in the 1990s. While those

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efforts were important at the time, our stations are now no longer meeting

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current health safety and operational standards. They're not designed for a

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modern emergency response system, nor for the demands placed on firefighters,

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parameters, paramedics, or the community.

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We now have conceptual designs for all our fire stations

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that was completed in the fire facilities master planning

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process.

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And the need to begin with these four projects

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is important as it's going to take approximately 10 to 20 years

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to complete all nine projects in the fire facilities master

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plan.

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This means every year we delay, we push

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the entire sequence of projects further into the future.

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So to review the four projects before you, fire

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station four at 1900 were in requires a complete rebuild. The fire, EMS, and

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community emergency response training center currently located at 9997

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Cedar Street is undersized, incapable of supporting modern training needs and in

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the middle of a residential neighborhood which is really problematic. The city's

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emergency communication center at 2,100 MLK that's our 911 dispatch center.

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It's

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dispatch operations and finally the firehouse at station six at 999 Cedar Street.

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You'll note that for both the training center and fire station six there's a note saying

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we hope to move this to the new fire headquarters facility and when the fire facilities master

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plan was complete, we didn't have that facility under construction so we're proposing that

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we do an analysis to actually modify and improve that facility and acquire the remaining third of that block to allow for both those facilities to exist there instead, which would then free up the Cedar Street facilities.

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So replacing these facilities is essential to ensuring that Berkeley Firefighters paramedics and dispatchers can continue to respond quickly, safely and effectively to the needs of our community.

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This bond would allow the city to complete four of nine critical infrastructure projects and we envision a second bond at some point in the future would allow us to complete the remaining five projects and I'll pass it off to Terrence.

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Thank

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you, Chief. Good late afternoon Mayor Council community. Terrence Davis director of public works and so in this last category or bucket as the deputy city manager indicated for these public works projects. We really focused on improvements to the civic center but also to accessibility to these kind of high use civic facilities.

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And so these are not only modernization, as I'll go through the list, but also really

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around accessibility and making critical improvements to activate some underused or

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poorly used facilities that don't have access because of their lack of modernization.

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So this first group is really what I would consider some of the first phase requirements

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of a civic center vision to really activate these three facilities that right now all lack adequate

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seismic upgrades. So the Modell-Sharag building, the Veterans Memorial Building, and then also MLK

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the Civic Center Annex, which is the building adjacent to 2180, used as a high-need, specific

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facility, also houses, our Permix Center, etc.

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And so these projects would be for just bringing these three sites into current seismic

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standard. They're all historic buildings and like that. So those resources would be used

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to bring those facilities into compliance. The second list here is, and there's some

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overlap between the facilities, but really modernization of these high use civic facilities.

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So again, 2180, which is obviously a key building for city business when, you know, holds council

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offices and other key city offices and that building frankly just the interior and the envelope

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of that building requires a modernization and some upgrades. Many folks who are occupants

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in that building know we've recently done some improvements around our water system and also

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around the paint and the facility so more of those facilities in terms of investing in the plumbing

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electrical and other building systems to really bring that system to standard.

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Excuse me, that building to standard. Similarly, the Public Safety Center has

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an aging facility, some of the finishes, some of the electrical HVAC of that facility also have

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been deferred for some time, and same case with the animal shelter, an aging facility that through

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of the years, we've just not made the adequate investments

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that we need.

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So there's quite a bit of deferred maintenance there,

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very similar in terms of drainage improvements,

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HVAC lighting, et cetera.

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So really just some modernizations

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to make those facilities,

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to bring them up to current standards

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and really make them the shining examples

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of our community service that we think is so important.

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So next is really focusing on our ADA and accessibility programs, two categories here.

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So these are, most of these projects come from either existing customer demands.

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So I'll talk about the 50-50 program second.

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But the ADA accessibility improvements, these are citywide improvements to civic facilities.

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and these are derived from the city's ADA transition plan and that consists of the city did a complete assessment of all of its facilities and right away through that process that did a very careful cataloging of all of the what we would call barriers and those are anything in the either right away or in our facilities that do not meet ADA standards.

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And so that deferred lists told us about $48 million of improvements that need to be made in our right away and also in our facilities to bring those facilities to ADA code and also just really improve and increase accessibility for all of our community members.

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members. The second is the city's 50-50 program, which is our partnership with community

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members and property owners who can do some cost share with the city to do repairs in

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front of their properties to bring to alleviating the trip fall for other disrepair in the sidewalks.

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And that program right now has a pretty significant backlog. The city, you know, has invested

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in that program over the years but through our CIP program but ultimately we haven't been able to

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keep up with the demand. There's quite a few that sit in queue now so there's very high demand but

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the city's match is not available to really accelerate that program and this is what we think is a

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very good way to make some very quick improvements throughout the city for a program that has demonstrated

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and success, but just unfortunately lacks all of the resources necessary to complete all of the projects.

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And with that, I'll turn it back to Deputy City Manager White.

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Thank you, Terrence. I appreciate it.

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And so now I want to talk about...

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The money side of things, how do we achieve these vision and these projects? And so as we've talked about on a couple occasions this evening, we want to talk about the opportunity to put a general obligation bond onto the November, 2026 ballot. And so with this slide really is trying to do at a high level. It's just really call out sort of the fundamentals of a geo bond and I know council is well familiar with this. I won't spend too much time on this, but just try to call out a few different of the bullet point.

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points on the slide that I think are particularly pertinent and relevant,

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particularly to the next slide that we'll get to in a moment.

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So first of all, the costs are based on the assessed value or property.

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Importantly, in order to pass a general obligation bond, it requires two thirds of voter approval,

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and they're typically repaid over about a 30-year time frame.

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What they can be used for is specific.

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They can be used for major capital improvements,

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And in the far right hand column of the slide in front of you, you can see a very high level list of the types of projects that a geo bond can support.

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And they cannot be used to support regular maintenance needs that we have as a city. They have to go into capital projects.

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So the next slide and what this slide is really designed to help us understand is what

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a proposed general obligation bond would mean for taxpayers with this following key assumption

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that we issue $100 million as issued every five years and that issue in commences in

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2027 and this slide really does two things for you first it provides a historical view of

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tax rates associated with general obligation bonds previously approved, and secondly, it

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provides a prospective view of a proposed 300 million general obligation bond that we

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are discussing this evening when combined with bonds that have already been authorized.

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So when combined with existing authorizations, a new $300 million general obligation bond,

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Assuming, again, $100 million issued every five years, is estimated to require an average

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tax rate over 40 years of 0.0441% or roughly $44 for 100,000 MSS value.

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Based on the median SS value for home and Berkeley today, that would translate to an average

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tax rate of roughly $242 per year.

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I would also note the following.

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This figure indicates that the resulting projected average tax rate when combined with

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existing authorizations from 2027 to 2067 is less than the historical average tax rate

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from existing authorizations until they are anticipated to be paid off, and that's the time frame

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1993 to 2056.

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Also, this figure demonstrates that the combined average tax rate for the new $300 million general obligation bond,

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plus existing authorizations, is less than the tax rate in the late 1990s in early 2000s when initial bonds were issued.

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All of this to say that what is being proposed is well within the range of historical tax rates that the Berkeley community has experienced.

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So lastly, I just want to talk about the timeline of what is in front of you.

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So tonight, obviously, we're here with the initial work session to get input and feedback

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from the council.

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In January of 2026, I mentioned we want to initiate and launch a community engagement

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process.

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And then depending upon the feedback we received tonight, we've held the site potentially

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coming back to the city council towards the end of January in another work session.

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and again, that's if needed and necessary.

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With the feedback we received tonight,

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our intention would be to start development

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of the community survey as soon as possible.

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If we can get the consultant on board,

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we'd start that in January

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because council may likely have to approve that contract,

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that work would begin in February.

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In March, we would like to come back to you

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with the first results of that initial survey.

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And then depending upon what are the results of that survey

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and the feedback we get from council,

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We could envision doing a second survey in April of 2026 and coming back to you in May with the results of that second survey and additional feedback from council and

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Assuming that all goes well. We'd be seeking specific council direction in June to start drafting ballot language. All of which has to get done and submitted to the county by no later than August 7th, 2026.

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26. We obviously would like to get this done within the timeframes that Council meet.

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So July 28 would be the last meeting of Council when we would seek final adoption, if necessary.

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So that's the totality of our presentation for you this evening. We're certainly available

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looking forward to the discussion and questions from Council. In this next slide, we did prepare

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some specific questions that we would like to garner feedback on. So the first question

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is whether or not we should proceed with a community survey, we would like Council

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feedback on that and certainly any input and feedback of what should be in that survey

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that we may not be including at the moment.

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And then as it pertains to the specific geobahn, a number of very specific questions that

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we can come back to, does the City Council wish to explore a bond measure for infrastructure

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improvements? If so, a City Council supportive of evaluating an amount up to $300 million

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dollars for inclusion in the survey. Are there any additional projects that staff should

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evaluate and consider adding to the proposed list of projects? And then on the flip side,

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are there any projects that should be removed from the proposed list? So with that, I'll turn

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it back to you, Mayor. Thank you very much. What I want to do is start

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with questions from council and then do public comments and then have us come back for council

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comments as well. And thank you and then I'll ask you probably to pull up that slide again

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and so we can make sure we answer those questions.

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Thank you so much for to staff,

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for just all of your work on putting this together.

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I really appreciate it,

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and I'm gonna see if any of my council colleagues

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have questions.

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Yes, council member Humbert.

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00:36:23,070 --> 00:36:24,410
Well, thank you Madam Mayor.

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It's hard to believe I'm the first one to click.

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Really, I just have one question in it,

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and I have a number of comments,

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But I just have one question about the community's survey.

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Would any thought be given to asking the community about a range of amounts?

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In other words, we're talking here about 300 million would it make sense to ask the community

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about lower amounts or even higher amounts?

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It absolutely would and that would be part of the process because we'd want to understand

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and voter support is at that level and then understand because it could be that there

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isn't support and we'd want to understand what the threshold is lower.

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If there's direction to look higher, we could do that as well.

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Okay.

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Questions next from Council Member Blackaby.

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Thanks, Madam Mayor and thanks to the staff for putting out this wonderful presentation

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and to the Vision 2050 team as well for coming with the framework that helps us evaluate

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this.

436
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A couple of questions.

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One is just stepping back one more level and the mayor referenced it earlier which

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is we've got this billion dollar plus infrastructure backlog that's accumulated over time and I like a lot of the benchmarking in here about the tax rate.

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What I'm interested is how do we kind of benchmark the $1 billion goal for a city of our size? And I know it's impractical impossible.

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We would never drive that to zero. It doesn't make sense to spend and drive our infrastructure backlog to zero.

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00:37:55,120 --> 00:38:00,040
But one other kind of at least reference point for me in terms of how big the bond should

442
00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:04,360
be or this and the next bond is what's our goal for what we want to take our backlog

443
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:09,540
down to and is that the right way to think about it?

444
00:38:09,580 --> 00:38:12,600
It's the way I'm thinking about it, but is that the right way we should think about it?

445
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:18,720
Because if we do this $300 million bond, we've got a billion dollar infrastructure backlog

446
00:38:18,720 --> 00:38:22,860
Now, you know, we'll accrue more infrastructure over that time period.

447
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:27,620
So, you know, is there a way to think about that benchmark that the other cities?

448
00:38:27,620 --> 00:38:28,840
What should the goal be?

449
00:38:29,060 --> 00:38:32,980
I know it's a kind of a big question, but it's something I'm kind of wrestling with as I'm thinking about this.

450
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:37,440
I would like to see if our public work structure has any thoughts on that one, Terrence.

451
00:38:41,380 --> 00:38:44,240
Yeah, it's a, it, Councilmember, it's a great question.

452
00:38:44,720 --> 00:38:51,480
Certainly, we can benchmark in terms of looking at other municipalities in terms of what they're

453
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:58,880
general backlog or unfunded liabilities are and see kind of where we compare and use that as a

454
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:08,940
metric. I don't know that we can pursue investments in capital in that way directly in that part

455
00:39:08,940 --> 00:39:14,820
of the problem will continue to run into is that billion dollar number as we it's very difficult

456
00:39:14,820 --> 00:39:20,520
for us to project out into the out years given all the variability around construction pricing

457
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:25,340
and materials pricing and prioritizations that shift.

458
00:39:25,860 --> 00:39:27,860
So I think it'd be very difficult

459
00:39:27,860 --> 00:39:29,640
to chase that into the future.

460
00:39:30,260 --> 00:39:33,020
I do believe that the strategy

461
00:39:33,020 --> 00:39:35,540
we're taking around kind of prioritization

462
00:39:35,540 --> 00:39:37,980
of categories of projects is important

463
00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:40,880
and then measuring that over time.

464
00:39:41,020 --> 00:39:43,300
And we can certainly kind of try to project out

465
00:39:45,020 --> 00:39:48,980
beyond a five-year look or beyond even a seven-year look,

466
00:39:48,980 --> 00:39:55,740
But if we try to get too far out, I think that that number becomes very kind of amorphous

467
00:39:55,740 --> 00:40:00,260
and very difficult, in my experience for us to really make it real.

468
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:06,860
So we would just be pursuing this number that's kind of floating out there and been morphing

469
00:40:06,860 --> 00:40:09,420
and changing and very difficult to predict.

470
00:40:10,540 --> 00:40:10,960
Okay.

471
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:12,200
I appreciate that.

472
00:40:12,340 --> 00:40:16,320
And then I think I tend to agree that the more tangible projects anyway are the things

473
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:19,140
that are going to make voters stand up and say,

474
00:40:19,300 --> 00:40:20,700
hey, this is something worth doing or not.

475
00:40:21,060 --> 00:40:25,180
It's not, you know, people don't vote based on getting a billion,

476
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,600
down to 800 million, like that doesn't inspire much participation.

477
00:40:29,220 --> 00:40:30,480
But it is an interesting context.

478
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,220
At least, I think it may give voters some confidence

479
00:40:33,220 --> 00:40:36,040
that we are on the right track or that we have kind of a,

480
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:38,640
this fits into sort of a big picture strategy

481
00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:40,780
or that how we kind of shape up with, you know,

482
00:40:40,860 --> 00:40:42,900
are we a little bit behind or a little bit ahead

483
00:40:42,900 --> 00:40:44,740
in terms of these sort of obligations.

484
00:40:44,740 --> 00:40:50,740
So anyway, I know we don't have necessarily the answer tonight, but I would love to continue that part of the conversation at some point.

485
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,240
I don't think that's the big driver, but I'm interested in that.

486
00:40:54,040 --> 00:41:02,640
And the second thing on the tax rate, the bond analysis, and I see Gordon and the audience, and we had a similar conversation of this over a coffee a few weeks ago.

487
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:12,260
But looking at the total kind of annual payment, and let me see what, I don't know what slide that is, but the chart that had all the years.

488
00:41:12,260 --> 00:41:24,460
I note that this is basically talking about the debt service piece to the taxpayer and

489
00:41:24,460 --> 00:41:31,280
looking at how if we add the $300 million of bonds in five-year tranches, what this

490
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:38,940
will do to the average tax rate, which is useful, I did find in the staff report when we looked

491
00:41:38,940 --> 00:41:43,060
that the total tax bill to be really instructive,

492
00:41:43,100 --> 00:41:45,140
because I do think that most people,

493
00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:48,580
at least the folks I talk to, in my district

494
00:41:48,580 --> 00:41:49,820
about these sorts of issues,

495
00:41:50,380 --> 00:41:53,780
don't necessarily discern between the debt service part

496
00:41:53,780 --> 00:41:55,280
versus the parcel tax part,

497
00:41:55,420 --> 00:41:56,720
versus the school districts part,

498
00:41:56,900 --> 00:41:57,780
versus the county's part.

499
00:41:57,900 --> 00:41:59,560
They just look at the total number at the bottom.

500
00:42:00,700 --> 00:42:05,980
And so I do think that like this does tell us

501
00:42:05,980 --> 00:42:11,020
that we probably under leveraged our bond capacity over time, so there's more room.

502
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:17,800
But I'll say I think most voters won't just think about it from this perspective, because

503
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:22,260
one thing this probably doesn't show maybe is what has actually happened with parcel taxes

504
00:42:22,260 --> 00:42:27,840
since the 90s until now, which in my presumption not seeing the data is probably have more parcel

505
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:29,500
taxes now than we did back then.

506
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:36,280
So, anyway, so I just, again, I also would love to see some of this that looks at the

507
00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:44,260
total kind of average tax payment for a resident and also a business for that matter over

508
00:42:44,260 --> 00:42:44,560
time.

509
00:42:44,860 --> 00:42:49,040
Because, again, I just think that context is going to be really useful as we try and communicate

510
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:49,760
this.

511
00:42:51,140 --> 00:42:53,620
Anyway, that's, I think that's it for my questions now.

512
00:42:53,720 --> 00:42:53,960
Thank you.

513
00:42:54,100 --> 00:42:54,260
Okay.

514
00:42:54,620 --> 00:42:55,080
Thank you.

515
00:42:56,140 --> 00:43:02,860
Thank you. I have two questions. I'm curious if these surveys typically include the other measures

516
00:43:02,860 --> 00:43:08,160
that are likely or confirmed to be on the ballot, measures that are not proposed by Council

517
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:11,980
like voter initiatives or regional measures to kind of gauge voter fatigue?

518
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:20,200
It would, it is not standard that we would include other tax measures, whether they're citizen

519
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:25,120
related to be on our community survey, but it would be very typical if there were other

520
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:29,240
measures that the council wanted to advance that we would include those as well in the

521
00:43:29,240 --> 00:43:29,940
community survey.

522
00:43:30,740 --> 00:43:35,520
I guess I met more questions such as if this, if these are the things on the ballot, would

523
00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:38,560
you still vote for this bond measure?

524
00:43:39,340 --> 00:43:42,820
You know, when you frame it that way, I do think that's something I'd want to bring back

525
00:43:42,820 --> 00:43:48,340
to our consultant because I think it is important that we want to explore whether or not the cumulative

526
00:43:48,340 --> 00:43:52,420
of effective measures that we were aware of could impact someone's ability to vote on something,

527
00:43:52,580 --> 00:43:56,540
so that's feedback I would want to bring back to the consultant to see how we could integrate that.

528
00:43:57,220 --> 00:44:02,120
Okay, great. Thank you. And my other question is about Old City Hall. I might have missed it,

529
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:07,100
but I didn't see it on the list of projects, and I'm curious if there's a reason why or if I just missed

530
00:44:07,100 --> 00:44:14,600
it. Which one? Old City Hall. So that did show up on there. It's only a piece of the project,

531
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:23,020
which is where we refer to the Modell-Shire Act building where we're talking about investing in seismic improvements into that facility.

532
00:44:23,580 --> 00:44:24,560
Okay, thank you.

533
00:44:26,240 --> 00:44:28,660
Okay, Councilmember Trayga.

534
00:44:32,620 --> 00:44:33,940
Thank you so much.

535
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:43,500
I think some of the questions I had may have been partially answered.

536
00:44:43,500 --> 00:44:47,520
I wanted to ask this in a different way.

537
00:44:48,380 --> 00:44:53,960
So I appreciate your historical representation

538
00:44:54,870 --> 00:44:59,780
of the projected average tax rate.

539
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:27,920
Shared with the council, as well, of certain properties having a property tax rate that seemed to increase pretty dramatically. And it turned out that BCEPT and I think measure FF and one more were partially responsible for those increases.

540
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:31,460
There were some decreases as well.

541
00:45:33,420 --> 00:45:43,380
So my question is, is there an opportunity for the benefit of the council and maybe

542
00:45:43,380 --> 00:45:59,220
the public as well to do a representation of the overall basis and not just the bonding

543
00:46:06,300 --> 00:46:20,860
I was wondering if it was demarcated, even just to city and BUSD-based bonds in parcel

544
00:46:20,860 --> 00:46:21,340
taxes.

545
00:46:21,580 --> 00:46:25,880
That is something that could be calculated as a historical average.

546
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:38,300
So what we can do, I want to bring it back to the team, but I think what we can do is in, as Councilmember Black will be noted, in the staff report, we did an analysis looking at the total tax bill.

547
00:46:38,820 --> 00:46:52,960
So I think what we could hypothetically do is, you know, assuming all else equal with partial taxes and we could see what we could make assumptions around the school district and their indebtedness, but we could model out if these additional bonds were added.

548
00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:57,020
how would that impact the total tax, but I think that's also why I was asked previously.

549
00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:01,540
I do believe that is something that we could make a set of assumptions and we could produce

550
00:47:01,540 --> 00:47:05,760
that and provide that information to the council when you're evaluating this request.

551
00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:16,440
I think that would be very valuable. My other question, well my other two, one was the

552
00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:36,980
Within the priorities that were stated, was that basically how you got to the $300 million or were there further priorities within my

553
00:47:40,980 --> 00:47:49,340
question is basically is, is what was presented around the

554
00:47:50,220 --> 00:47:56,300
community facilities and quality of life, public safety and critical infrastructure and accessibility.

555
00:47:56,940 --> 00:48:04,680
Were those the types of projects that rose to the top as priorities or were there for

556
00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:13,840
their prioritization that could be done within that list or needed to be done to get to the 300 million?

557
00:48:16,020 --> 00:48:23,680
I'll add a couple of things to answer to your question, so those are the elements before

558
00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:29,960
you were also looked at in regards to the potential for them to have other funding associated

559
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:41,860
with them, the geographic dispersion throughout the city, health life safety concerns, so we

560
00:48:41,860 --> 00:48:48,400
We did use some of those envisioned criteria in coming up with the total group that we

561
00:48:48,400 --> 00:48:54,760
put before you and it could definitely could be changed if you all have, if there's projects

562
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:58,420
and that's one of the things we'd like to hear from you, if there's infrastructure that

563
00:48:58,420 --> 00:49:01,700
you don't see on here that you feel like would be important to include or if there's something

564
00:49:01,700 --> 00:49:07,740
I hear where you feel like maybe not, it'd be good for us to get that direction and thought

565
00:49:07,740 --> 00:49:08,380
from the council.

566
00:49:08,380 --> 00:49:10,080
So, thank you.

567
00:49:10,580 --> 00:49:16,360
And then my last question was on the 50-50 sidewalk repair program.

568
00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:26,580
What is the current backlog, I think somewhere I've heard two and a half to three years?

569
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:29,740
Is it that?

570
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:30,420
Is it longer?

571
00:49:30,420 --> 00:49:35,800
Public Works Director Davis can open on this more, but I will say that when we started going

572
00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:40,040
through this exercise of putting this all together, we had a lower amount for the backlog

573
00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:40,920
for 50-50.

574
00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:44,560
And then we decided that, you know what, it's officially important that why don't we

575
00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:49,500
just put the entire backlog on here so that if we were to fund this, and correct me if

576
00:49:49,500 --> 00:49:54,320
I'm wrong, director Davis, if we were to fund the 50-50 program at the amount that we put

577
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:56,200
in here, that would cover the existing backlog.

578
00:49:57,580 --> 00:50:01,900
Now, how long that would take is a different question, but from a thousand cents perspective.

579
00:50:02,200 --> 00:50:04,060
And I'm sure director Davis can add a little bit more to that.

580
00:50:04,060 --> 00:50:23,000
Yes, City Manager. That is correct. So that what's represented there is the fun will entire amount. I do have both our city engineer and deputy director should be in the room as well who can give you the specifics on the backlog amount.

581
00:50:23,580 --> 00:50:30,860
I don't want to misspeak, but I know that somebody either on the panel or why he may have that specific number.

582
00:50:45,260 --> 00:50:48,780
Good evening, everyone, we're here to meet your deputy director for public works.

583
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:57,520
Currently, we have approximately 1,100 locations that have been logged into Director Davis' feedback.

584
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:06,740
The SMA that we provided would bring us fully compliant or remediated the issues up to 2025.

585
00:51:06,740 --> 00:51:17,760
And that will clear out all of the backlogs and bring our sidewalks back to in the state of good repair, ADA compliant and so forth and so forth.

586
00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:20,780
Thank you.

587
00:51:23,450 --> 00:51:27,410
So you're okay. So moving on to Councilmember Kaplan.

588
00:51:28,130 --> 00:51:29,890
Thank you Madam Aaron. Thank you.

589
00:51:29,890 --> 00:51:36,110
Senator Routin-Higgin, Director Sprague, Davis and Ferris, Deputy Director White, Deputy Director

590
00:51:36,110 --> 00:51:38,230
Amiri and Kari and everybody.

591
00:51:41,690 --> 00:51:43,170
I just have one question.

592
00:51:45,630 --> 00:51:50,650
Will we be including the City's unions in our community engagement?

593
00:51:54,540 --> 00:51:57,220
In our community engagement as we move forward through this process?

594
00:51:57,560 --> 00:51:57,700
Yes.

595
00:51:58,060 --> 00:51:58,640
Yes, we will.

596
00:51:59,240 --> 00:52:02,780
Our intention is to have a pretty robust community process, which would include talking

597
00:52:02,780 --> 00:52:04,080
with our labor partners as well.

598
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:05,400
Wonderful.

599
00:52:05,580 --> 00:52:06,080
Thank you so much.

600
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:08,520
Thank you.

601
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:09,460
Councilmember Kessar-Wani.

602
00:52:09,980 --> 00:52:11,240
Thank you very much, Madam Mayor.

603
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,660
Thank you, Deputy City Manager White, for the presentation.

604
00:52:14,940 --> 00:52:19,340
Thank you to the Vision 2050 task force for being here.

605
00:52:20,240 --> 00:52:23,140
And for all of your work over many years.

606
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:29,860
And thank you to the Mayor for reconvening that group and having this time to talk about infrastructure.

607
00:52:30,300 --> 00:52:38,940
So, I just wanted to, well, first, I know this is a question time, but I did want to just second something council member Humbert had said about looking at a range.

608
00:52:39,700 --> 00:52:48,380
So, I am in support of the community survey. I guess we're going to do those comments later. So, let me just say that I thought a range was important.

609
00:52:48,380 --> 00:52:57,760
And, you know, I appreciate getting all of the possible projects that could be funded.

610
00:52:58,020 --> 00:53:01,000
Obviously, I assume we can't fund all of them for 300 million.

611
00:53:01,540 --> 00:53:06,840
So I think what would be helpful moving forward, and I can say this as a question is, you know,

612
00:53:06,900 --> 00:53:09,220
what are the highest priorities for repair?

613
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:15,220
For streets, we know that the longer we wait, the greater the cost is, because you have

614
00:53:15,220 --> 00:53:17,400
to fully rebuild the street.

615
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:30,720
So I'm wondering is there anything here that, you know, the longer we wait, the more costly it is or, you know, there's a safety or health risk to the community, I was thinking maybe of some of the climate resiliency work.

616
00:53:31,780 --> 00:53:38,000
So I think that would be helpful moving forward to get a sense of what should we be prioritizing of this long list.

617
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:46,140
And then on, I know Sidewalk, the 50-50 Sidewalk program is mentioned and I do want us to be careful.

618
00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:52,500
I have a question because I know MeasureFF provides funding for Sidewalks at 15% and I was just

619
00:53:52,500 --> 00:53:57,380
looking at the language there on our website. It says 15% for Sidewalks and pedestrian paths

620
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:05,640
until the backlog of damaged Sidewalks and pedestrian paths is eliminated. So I just want to be careful here.

621
00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:12,580
I'm worried about putting sidewalks in here again when the voters just approved a significant

622
00:54:12,580 --> 00:54:16,160
parcel tax that were the big piece of it being sidewalks.

623
00:54:16,240 --> 00:54:20,320
I think we need to calculate, you know, how much are we going to get from that?

624
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:22,280
How much will that go towards sidewalks?

625
00:54:22,760 --> 00:54:25,340
And is there any left over that we want to fund through this?

626
00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:31,340
And I'm kind of inclined to just not do it because we already did something focused on

627
00:54:31,340 --> 00:54:32,020
streets and sidewalks.

628
00:54:32,020 --> 00:54:33,600
But I think it's still worth the analysis.

629
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:46,420
And so I did have a question sort of what if we had thought about that when we put sidewalks in here that is it because we still believe that there's a need beyond the FF funding.

630
00:54:48,420 --> 00:54:51,200
Although for director Davis you want to comment on that.

631
00:54:53,020 --> 00:54:57,700
Yes, Councilmember, we thought about that and did contemplate that there's some overlap

632
00:54:57,700 --> 00:55:04,560
and we were very careful in proposing these projects with measure FF funding, having

633
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:11,920
not been even deployed yet and really having that resource for our streets and sidewalks.

634
00:55:11,920 --> 00:55:21,960
I will say that measure FF funding by formula is fairly limited and so and we also have other

635
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:26,900
accessibility and sidewalk improvement projects that we'd like to do around the city so this

636
00:55:26,900 --> 00:55:35,700
would be another force multiplier but certainly if it was the council's prerogative to move away from

637
00:55:35,700 --> 00:55:40,840
50-50 and just focus on other ADA barrier removers that are not currently funded.

638
00:55:41,200 --> 00:55:48,880
We could certainly do that if that was the desire or it was an interest in kind of taking

639
00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:54,440
a look at what measure FF projected over the next few years would actually be able to accomplish

640
00:55:54,440 --> 00:55:59,040
in terms of funding that backlog, but as you know, there's quite a bit of pressure on

641
00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:03,500
measure FF already as we contemplate the first, you know, a couple rounds of projects.

642
00:56:03,500 --> 00:56:10,480
and so it's very unlikely that with the entirety of measure FSI,

643
00:56:10,720 --> 00:56:12,920
while funding dedicated to 50-50,

644
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:16,040
we'd be very limited in doing other safety projects,

645
00:56:16,740 --> 00:56:17,960
or making other improvements.

646
00:56:18,940 --> 00:56:20,540
Okay, I understand.

647
00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:25,100
So I think that we may want to flush that out more

648
00:56:25,100 --> 00:56:28,900
and get an understanding of how much can be done

649
00:56:28,900 --> 00:56:32,000
on the 50-50 program with the measure FF funding.

650
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:36,080
and then it sounds like you're talking about sidewalks

651
00:56:36,080 --> 00:56:38,180
but some specific ADA upgrades.

652
00:56:39,220 --> 00:56:40,440
So maybe that is slightly different.

653
00:56:40,540 --> 00:56:42,020
So I don't want to take it off the table

654
00:56:42,020 --> 00:56:45,000
because I do think sidewalks are something everyone uses

655
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:50,500
and it's very important to have them be walkable.

656
00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:54,220
People use walkers, they use mobility assistance devices

657
00:56:54,220 --> 00:56:57,040
and they can't navigate our sidewalks right now

658
00:56:57,040 --> 00:56:58,440
because they're so bumpy.

659
00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:04,220
So I think it's important, I think we need to just be clear about what it is we want to do with this versus FF.

660
00:57:04,620 --> 00:57:06,000
So that's why I wanted to ask that.

661
00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:09,180
And then I think Council Member Trigger was getting into this issue.

662
00:57:09,300 --> 00:57:13,760
And as was Council Member Black, the concept of how much is this really going to cost?

663
00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:20,260
I know it's complicated because there's certain older bonds that are expiring.

664
00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:27,500
And so you're saying, when you say $44 per $100,000 of property value,

665
00:57:27,500 --> 00:57:35,180
value, that's everything, right? That would be this bond plus all the other bonds, right?

666
00:57:35,940 --> 00:57:40,700
Correct. That would be the average over about a 40-year timeframe.

667
00:57:41,300 --> 00:57:47,680
Okay. So, in California, we've been asking this, I think we have to think in the survey,

668
00:57:48,300 --> 00:57:52,580
I assume we're trying to get at voters willingness to pay, right?

669
00:57:53,060 --> 00:58:03,060
And so I think we need to be careful because this actually could be a lot right to I mean because of 1.5 million dollar home value median home value.

670
00:58:03,440 --> 00:58:07,340
So this is over 500 dollars right for that that sounds like a lot but.

671
00:58:08,640 --> 00:58:18,260
But I don't know if there's any way for us to think about well how much is this if we don't do this in the absence of this like sort of what is the incremental cost of this.

672
00:58:19,080 --> 00:58:22,360
maybe that's what we would ask the voters. I know we have time to develop the question,

673
00:58:22,580 --> 00:58:29,600
but I think we just need to clarify a bit. I don't know how we've done this question in the past,

674
00:58:29,720 --> 00:58:36,760
because I know we've pulled for bonds in the past. I'm not sure how exactly we get at the incremental cost

675
00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:42,800
of this one. I'll have to take a look because we have, as you said, we have surveyed this in the past,

676
00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:46,560
so I'll take a look at that in terms of how we've talked about that incremental cost.

677
00:58:46,560 --> 00:59:14,980
Okay, because I think that's probably, that's how I would think about it, you know, as somebody who gets the privilege of paying that bill, so I think maybe that would make sense, so I just wanted to ask you, but for our purposes, okay, so you're saying, and I think that I want to thank you for that chart, as I had asked for us to have something like that, because it puts it in context of sort of where we are, and where we have historically been with paying down

678
00:59:18,220 --> 00:59:22,580
the bond. So that's all I have in terms of questions. I kind of veered into comments. So thank

679
00:59:22,580 --> 00:59:23,220
you very much.

680
00:59:26,350 --> 00:59:30,510
Just so we're clear, I want to make sure I use something about $500 counts

681
00:59:30,510 --> 00:59:36,390
a member. And then I think that you would say something about $242 or something. I just

682
00:59:36,390 --> 00:59:42,650
want to make sure I'm understanding the amount that voters might have to pay for, homeowners

683
00:59:42,650 --> 00:59:43,490
might have to pay for.

684
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:23,920
Before I home, so the assess value will range from folks who've gone to home for many, many years and have a low basis to someone who just bought a home. So obviously the actual amount will vary widely based on what is someone's actual assess value. The figure I quote it was just based on looking at the median assess value for the totality of the city. And what was that 550,000? 550,000.

685
01:00:25,700 --> 01:00:26,780
That's the media.

686
01:00:27,680 --> 01:00:27,860
Yeah.

687
01:00:28,220 --> 01:00:29,340
All right.

688
01:00:30,140 --> 01:00:30,900
Got it.

689
01:00:31,360 --> 01:00:31,880
Okay.

690
01:00:32,960 --> 01:00:33,660
Thank you.

691
01:00:33,740 --> 01:00:35,700
Now, I appreciate the numbers.

692
01:00:35,900 --> 01:00:36,140
I know.

693
01:00:36,280 --> 01:00:36,600
Gosh.

694
01:00:36,680 --> 01:00:37,060
I don't have.

695
01:00:38,800 --> 01:00:39,320
Anyway.

696
01:00:40,280 --> 01:00:42,260
So I have some questions.

697
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:45,060
I know everyone's now thinking about their property text bill.

698
01:00:46,200 --> 01:00:51,660
Could you speak a little bit more about the community engagement that you're hoping to do in January?

699
01:00:51,660 --> 01:01:10,560
So we have not fully developed it, but we've talked about wanting to speak to specific commissions, and so, like I said, we just haven't fully put all the meat on the bones yet, but in essence, we want to try to do some engagement, use our commissions and try to just get out there and hear from the community outside of a survey.

700
01:01:11,280 --> 01:01:15,080
What are their perspectives on these proposals to projects, et cetera?

701
01:01:15,760 --> 01:01:21,960
Got it. Okay, great. And could we also make sure that the RFP gets the firms?

702
01:01:22,240 --> 01:01:27,660
I know you said it's already been out. Does the RFP have the firms?

703
01:01:29,260 --> 01:01:33,040
Sorry, I'm not sure I understand what's written here. I'm going to skip that question.

704
01:01:35,480 --> 01:01:39,280
I'm wondering, I think I'm feeling really nervous about the timeline.

705
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:59,960
I'm just knowing that things aren't going to be finalized until quite late into 2026, and so I'm wondering if it's possible for Council to give direction to move forward on an agreement with a firm but then come back for retroactive approval, which I know we sometimes do with things that happened during the break.

706
01:02:02,220 --> 01:02:26,160
I think we can do a contract with the survey firm in the interim that would allow us to do that. It might have to be a smaller contract and we'd have to come back to you later to get council authority to increase it, but yes, we could do that.

707
01:02:26,560 --> 01:02:26,880
Okay.

708
01:02:27,020 --> 01:02:29,800
And in fact, that would be fantastic if we could do that.

709
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:33,880
Yeah, that would be great because I think the later we, you know, get a firm, the later

710
01:02:33,880 --> 01:02:36,100
we get the poll, the later, you know, all this stuff happens.

711
01:02:36,320 --> 01:02:37,820
So that's great.

712
01:02:37,940 --> 01:02:38,600
Thank you very much.

713
01:02:38,700 --> 01:02:46,820
And I think that this question here is around if we've asked these, in the RFP if the firms

714
01:02:46,820 --> 01:02:56,760
have experience on resiliency and climate change related surveys?

715
01:02:57,720 --> 01:03:02,580
No, we didn't ask that specifically, we just asked for their totality of experience

716
01:03:02,580 --> 01:03:09,600
doing community surveys, but we didn't focus on the one any particular topic.

717
01:03:10,800 --> 01:03:14,740
Okay, and then the other thing is some of the council members brought up the question for me

718
01:03:14,740 --> 01:03:19,220
about how many of these projects, 300 million, will cover.

719
01:03:19,800 --> 01:03:21,520
I just want to make sure I understand that.

720
01:03:21,780 --> 01:03:26,160
Well, the total number of projects we have listed is,

721
01:03:28,160 --> 01:03:29,580
it's got to be more than 31.

722
01:03:30,360 --> 01:03:32,900
I mean, I think the key point is the total number of projects listed

723
01:03:32,900 --> 01:03:34,580
equals about 300 million.

724
01:03:34,800 --> 01:03:36,880
So this is the full group that we're talking about.

725
01:03:37,000 --> 01:03:40,700
It's a little lower than 300 million, but that's essentially the group that we're talking about.

726
01:03:40,880 --> 01:03:43,660
Great. I just want to make sure everybody understands that,

727
01:03:43,660 --> 01:03:48,880
because I think that's important, because I think this is actually the short list, not the long list of projects.

728
01:03:49,320 --> 01:03:55,120
So, great, thank you very much for that. Any other questions? Oh, Council Member Blackambe, you have followed?

729
01:03:56,640 --> 01:04:04,220
One last one, and it was spurred by your question. And I noticed in the Vision 25th Report, there was a question about whether this is a 2026 or 2028 kind of decision.

730
01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:13,340
Obviously, the sooner we do it, the sooner we have the bonds, the sooner we can start making investments in infrastructure, but it could be some considerations for what's the best ballot,

731
01:04:13,340 --> 01:04:14,780
what's the best electorate kind of all that.

732
01:04:15,560 --> 01:04:17,360
What's, you know, if you thought about the timing

733
01:04:17,360 --> 01:04:20,600
and what's driving the 2026 in particular?

734
01:04:22,420 --> 01:04:27,660
Mostly the huge backlog of infrastructure needs

735
01:04:28,080 --> 01:04:29,820
and wanting to get on that two years sooner.

736
01:04:30,580 --> 01:04:34,500
And I will add some other considerations again to mind.

737
01:04:34,500 --> 01:04:37,800
So as we talked about measure T1,

738
01:04:37,880 --> 01:04:39,620
we're gonna do our final issuance of that

739
01:04:39,620 --> 01:04:44,160
in early next year, and those projects are already called for.

740
01:04:44,320 --> 01:04:50,140
So basically at this point in time we have other than measure FF, we have very little

741
01:04:50,140 --> 01:04:53,040
new resources coming into our infrastructure.

742
01:04:53,400 --> 01:04:58,680
So we're also just trying to be thoughtful about we want to keep reinvesting in our infrastructure

743
01:04:58,680 --> 01:05:04,560
because I think that the point was made before the more we delay, the more things deteriorate,

744
01:05:04,660 --> 01:05:07,520
the streets example was used, that's very similar for buildings.

745
01:05:07,520 --> 01:05:17,760
So, we're trying to think about with all of our existing measures coming to an end, this would provide an opportunity to keep that machine going and keep us invested.

746
01:05:18,600 --> 01:05:23,940
Like the last thing I would add to that is that things become more expensive, so two years from now it's just going to be more expensive.

747
01:05:24,260 --> 01:05:24,720
Yeah, makes sense.

748
01:05:25,160 --> 01:05:32,160
I guess the survey will also help be a guide, because if the feedback is folks are not ready, then we get the message.

749
01:05:32,160 --> 01:05:48,100
I mean, so again, I know we'll be open and receptive to that because I mean, getting to 67% is a high bar in any election, and so, anyway, so I know most of the time you're driven by that we need the resources to start doing the capital investment, and I appreciate that.

750
01:05:48,320 --> 01:05:52,120
But I also assume we'll be sensitive to what we hear from the public.

751
01:05:52,120 --> 01:05:57,800
Thank you. Councilmember Trigger, did you have a follow-up question?

752
01:05:58,780 --> 01:06:07,020
Yeah, on survey development, is that something that typically goes to the council just in

753
01:06:07,020 --> 01:06:13,160
terms of wetting the questions, or do you just move forward with the questions?

754
01:06:15,380 --> 01:06:18,520
I think we would just move forward with the questions once we got the direction from you.

755
01:06:18,520 --> 01:06:29,800
Okay, then just because this is my first time going through this particular development of potential bond measure.

756
01:06:31,060 --> 01:06:48,500
I wanted to ask is in the survey, how typical is it to provide some contextual questions around do you feel that the city is moving in the right or the wrong direction?

757
01:06:48,500 --> 01:06:57,160
direction or do you feel better off now than you were five years ago or things like that?

758
01:06:57,640 --> 01:07:01,500
It's very typical for us to ask some contextual questions like that in the survey.

759
01:07:02,460 --> 01:07:03,160
Okay, thank you.

760
01:07:04,780 --> 01:07:05,900
Okay, great.

761
01:07:06,200 --> 01:07:06,680
Thank you so much.

762
01:07:06,760 --> 01:07:10,720
I'm going to open up for public comment and then we'll come back to council comments.

763
01:07:11,220 --> 01:07:12,220
Is there any public comment?

764
01:07:12,360 --> 01:07:17,020
We'd love to hear what you folks think about this project, et cetera.

765
01:07:19,980 --> 01:07:27,780
I'm trying to get a sense of if anyone else is going to speak, but I think you can have

766
01:07:28,200 --> 01:07:31,360
two minutes because it looks like we've got time for it.

767
01:07:31,480 --> 01:07:32,360
So go ahead, two minutes.

768
01:07:36,160 --> 01:07:46,080
Mayor Issy and council members, I recall standing in front of the city council in 2022 when

769
01:07:46,080 --> 01:07:49,140
a similar discussion was held on a revenue measure.

770
01:07:49,140 --> 01:07:57,400
I want to bring to your attention that a number of pertinent information was presented

771
01:07:57,400 --> 01:08:02,860
by staff at that time to counsel that are relevant and may be helpful to you now.

772
01:08:03,940 --> 01:08:09,740
One in particular was staff presented an acid management program to you.

773
01:08:10,240 --> 01:08:18,440
This is a life cycle maintenance management program that would help keep that billion dollars

774
01:08:18,440 --> 01:08:20,900
at a billion dollars or going down.

775
01:08:21,660 --> 01:08:27,120
So maintaining facilities is as important as fixing them.

776
01:08:28,140 --> 01:08:33,240
So that document was brought to Council in 2022.

777
01:08:34,400 --> 01:08:38,480
And another document that was important was a program plan.

778
01:08:39,320 --> 01:08:42,540
And that was brought in, I believe it was in May of 2022.

779
01:08:43,140 --> 01:08:47,700
That information is all still available and relevant to your discussion.

780
01:08:48,440 --> 01:08:53,680
A program plan is looking at everything that you're trying to deal with.

781
01:08:54,200 --> 01:08:55,340
How do you maintain it?

782
01:08:55,660 --> 01:08:56,960
How do you prioritize it?

783
01:08:57,060 --> 01:08:58,180
How do you sequence it?

784
01:08:58,620 --> 01:09:02,180
Because what you're dealing with is just kind of like the short list.

785
01:09:02,640 --> 01:09:03,480
There's a longer list.

786
01:09:03,620 --> 01:09:05,040
How do you deal with longer lists?

787
01:09:05,700 --> 01:09:09,640
So the program plan made a first task at that

788
01:09:09,640 --> 01:09:15,720
And also tried to address the question of the organizational requirements that you might

789
01:09:15,720 --> 01:09:17,220
need to implement the program.

790
01:09:17,900 --> 01:09:22,280
So I think there's more to the discussion that could happen that you're having right

791
01:09:22,280 --> 01:09:28,300
now, and some of these passwords in 2022 would be helpful in that context.

792
01:09:29,940 --> 01:09:30,940
Thank you.

793
01:09:34,730 --> 01:09:36,550
Good evening, Mayor and Council.

794
01:09:36,550 --> 01:09:41,950
So I'm wearing my hat as coordinator for Community for Cultural Civic Center,

795
01:09:42,470 --> 01:09:48,190
DBA, and neighbor, three blocks from the park and the Civic Center.

796
01:09:48,710 --> 01:09:52,390
I just want to say, you know, the renovation of the Civic Center Park,

797
01:09:52,390 --> 01:09:56,510
I think everyone has recognized as a tremendous success.

798
01:09:57,090 --> 01:10:00,790
And it's laying the groundwork for renovating the entire Civic Center and

799
01:10:00,790 --> 01:10:02,050
what is possible.

800
01:10:02,470 --> 01:10:04,390
And we need and want to continue this.

801
01:10:04,390 --> 01:10:09,950
I want to thank Eleanor, I want to thank parents and his staff for their great work.

802
01:10:10,510 --> 01:10:13,970
I also wanted to remember that we, I think only three of you were here.

803
01:10:14,190 --> 01:10:20,330
In March 22nd, 2022, we presented an innovative seismic study.

804
01:10:20,970 --> 01:10:25,510
The CCC paid $14,000 public works, paid $14,000.

805
01:10:25,570 --> 01:10:31,890
We've got a low-bonal proposal that showed we could drop the cost of the seismic renovation

806
01:10:31,890 --> 01:10:34,530
by 51 to 54%.

807
01:10:35,150 --> 01:10:39,410
So we've done an incredible job already showing how we can do this affordably.

808
01:10:39,790 --> 01:10:43,590
We really need this money in the budget so we can get the FEMA grant.

809
01:10:43,890 --> 01:10:45,370
We need to have the match.

810
01:10:45,850 --> 01:10:52,210
So let's build on our success, let's realize, I know it's a challenging budget situation,

811
01:10:52,350 --> 01:10:56,870
but I really appreciate it in the last, but I think some great foundational works have been

812
01:10:56,870 --> 01:10:58,730
done that the community can build upon.

813
01:10:58,850 --> 01:10:59,630
Thank you so much.

814
01:11:00,370 --> 01:11:01,250
Thank you, John.

815
01:11:01,670 --> 01:11:01,950
I

816
01:11:08,160 --> 01:11:15,620
want to thank the Council for taking up this and listening to what Mayor's task force

817
01:11:15,620 --> 01:11:16,220
has proposed.

818
01:11:16,460 --> 01:11:21,020
We have a big problem around infrastructure on a long term, and as they say in the long

819
01:11:21,020 --> 01:11:24,400
term, everybody dies, but there's always other people.

820
01:11:24,980 --> 01:11:27,340
There's going to still be people in Berkeley, okay?

821
01:11:27,440 --> 01:11:28,560
So we need the infrastructure.

822
01:11:29,020 --> 01:11:33,620
We need to invest in it because it costs more to delay these things.

823
01:11:33,620 --> 01:11:41,960
And there are, I would say, there's a great example of how to do bonds right, and that's the Berkeley Unified School District.

824
01:11:43,100 --> 01:11:50,680
Every 12, 10 or 12 years that go out for a large bond like you're doing now, they list the projects you're going to do.

825
01:11:51,200 --> 01:11:56,680
And in 2020, the voters passed a $380 million authorization for the school district.

826
01:11:56,680 --> 01:12:03,560
They don't, or Berkeley, the city tends to go out with a lot of little projects, and they go out every other year or something like that.

827
01:12:04,120 --> 01:12:07,800
And I think it's really important to set up a model like the school district.

828
01:12:08,000 --> 01:12:12,180
School district has less infrastructure that is responsible for than the city does.

829
01:12:13,040 --> 01:12:18,220
But it issues, it has $300 million of outstanding bonds, where the city has $200.

830
01:12:18,680 --> 01:12:23,780
So somehow they're doing a better job at dealing with their infrastructure problems, and the city does.

831
01:12:23,780 --> 01:12:25,460
and we could learn a lot by studying,

832
01:12:26,080 --> 01:12:27,920
consulting with them and how they do that.

833
01:12:28,920 --> 01:12:32,000
The other thing I would say is that there's some good news

834
01:12:32,000 --> 01:12:34,200
in this person in the staff report,

835
01:12:34,520 --> 01:12:37,240
particularly the leverage that they got with T1.

836
01:12:38,140 --> 01:12:41,460
They got 80%, well, they got a $300 million bond

837
01:12:41,460 --> 01:12:43,900
and 80%, that's another couple hundred million dollars

838
01:12:43,900 --> 01:12:47,440
and that helps, but if you don't have the money,

839
01:12:47,580 --> 01:12:48,320
you don't get the leverage.

840
01:12:49,040 --> 01:12:50,320
And in fact, for the housing,

841
01:12:50,520 --> 01:12:53,060
the leverage was even much better, it was like 400%.

842
01:12:53,060 --> 01:13:06,520
And so the city should celebrate, this is a good thing, I did a good job there, they were able to leverage taxpayer dollars and so we should try to do the same thing and hopefully we can do as well or better in the future.

843
01:13:07,600 --> 01:13:12,380
The last thing I would like to just say is that the city's done a great job.

844
01:13:12,420 --> 01:13:13,680
Sorry, does someone want to give him a minute?

845
01:13:14,080 --> 01:13:14,440
Just a minute.

846
01:13:14,440 --> 01:13:18,680
The, the, someone will get, you've got another minute, go ahead.

847
01:13:18,820 --> 01:13:25,740
Okay, the last thing I would say is that the city's done a great job on solar, building up solar capacity.

848
01:13:26,300 --> 01:13:28,160
They've done a really poor job on wind.

849
01:13:28,820 --> 01:13:34,380
And if you look in the report, there's a great picture in there from the, the Vision 2050 showing.

850
01:13:35,100 --> 01:13:41,380
There's this huge wind power that comes through the Golden Gate and it's directed exactly straight out the Berkeley Marina.

851
01:13:41,380 --> 01:13:41,480
Yeah.

852
01:13:41,700 --> 01:13:43,720
We should put some windmills down there, okay?

853
01:13:44,320 --> 01:13:47,420
Because sometimes when the sun doesn't shine, the wind blows very hard.

854
01:13:48,040 --> 01:13:48,720
So thank you.

855
01:13:49,380 --> 01:13:50,100
Thank you.

856
01:13:50,720 --> 01:13:50,920
I

857
01:14:02,760 --> 01:14:04,760
almost need a ladder to pull that thing down.

858
01:14:04,980 --> 01:14:05,860
Oh my God.

859
01:14:06,760 --> 01:14:07,080
All right.

860
01:14:07,360 --> 01:14:09,120
So I give great thanks for all of you.

861
01:14:09,240 --> 01:14:14,020
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and enjoy your holiday the next month.

862
01:14:15,200 --> 01:14:19,440
I'm really thrilled that you're focusing on infrastructure.

863
01:14:19,440 --> 01:14:27,160
I really tried to prevent harm and I've worked on projects where they didn't want to do

864
01:14:27,160 --> 01:14:31,320
a $300 roof leak and $30,000 later.

865
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:29,640
I think it's behind it and you wouldn't know. I worked on a project upon the spruce street. The entire house was folding, collapsing. The hill behind it was sliding. The pipes, the sewer lines, the water lines were breaking. It's like things were changing and was hukif, things to get more expensive if you defer maintenance. And the gentleman who said,

866
01:15:29,640 --> 01:15:32,320
and it's much better to maintain things.

867
01:15:32,860 --> 01:15:36,020
I mean, I do periodic checks all the time

868
01:15:36,580 --> 01:15:38,540
because it's so much more cost-effective

869
01:15:38,540 --> 01:15:40,500
than that brings me to the sidewalks.

870
01:15:40,800 --> 01:15:42,040
And I do have an extra minute

871
01:15:42,040 --> 01:15:43,860
from my friend back there.

872
01:15:45,080 --> 01:15:46,580
He'll raise his hand, I'm sure.

873
01:15:46,860 --> 01:15:50,580
Okay, look, I've found in a bunch of times

874
01:15:50,580 --> 01:15:52,600
I'm already in kind of rickety shape.

875
01:15:53,340 --> 01:15:56,240
One more fall that I'm starting to cry.

876
01:15:56,400 --> 01:15:57,420
It might do me in.

877
01:15:58,360 --> 01:16:02,260
Therefore, I get down on my knees and I grind sidewalks.

878
01:16:02,420 --> 01:16:11,580
I go to the transportation department and say, how can I find out what you all use for

879
01:16:11,580 --> 01:16:18,620
grout, that white, cementitious, non-concrete thing that you can just level off the sidewalk?

880
01:16:19,060 --> 01:16:21,500
Or what about the asphalt that you use for speed bumps?

881
01:16:22,080 --> 01:16:25,940
Well, they tell me that she has an extra minute, Ros.

882
01:16:25,940 --> 01:16:31,000
Thank you, you know, they give me the name of the materials and of course, you know, I'd have to buy

883
01:16:31,000 --> 01:16:38,160
truckloads of it, but I'm literally, I got spray paint in my car. It's like it released alert people.

884
01:16:39,860 --> 01:16:42,120
Okay, so prevent harm.

885
01:16:44,460 --> 01:16:48,490
Thank you for everything that you have been doing. A lot of the streets have been striped painted,

886
01:16:49,060 --> 01:16:52,740
so that at least people know where to turn, but speed bumps.

887
01:16:52,740 --> 01:17:00,140
they're not getting repainted and you know I'm just about losing my head almost rolls off my neck

888
01:17:00,140 --> 01:17:03,300
if I hit it too fast because I don't see it.

889
01:17:05,360 --> 01:17:09,680
Yeah so and the fire department good god

890
01:17:12,580 --> 01:17:19,420
buildings I've seismically retrofitted things because again you don't want them to collapse but the

891
01:17:19,420 --> 01:17:26,260
ambulances and the paramedics and the fire engines need to be able to travel.

892
01:17:26,880 --> 01:17:32,840
We have idiotic, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful, traffic lights.

893
01:17:33,940 --> 01:17:38,180
We have two way streets, there are only one way, barely.

894
01:17:38,860 --> 01:17:46,320
It's like we've got to get prepared for when people need medical help instead of having

895
01:17:46,320 --> 01:17:51,920
the literally leave town, move out of the country because they know the ambulance wouldn't

896
01:17:51,920 --> 01:17:59,440
get to them in time, it's like okay so infrastructure is definitely quality of life like we should

897
01:17:59,440 --> 01:18:05,420
be, I will stay alive, we should not have to get injured, we should help each other out and I really

898
01:18:05,420 --> 01:18:10,100
appreciate everything that you're doing and again I sincerely hope you have a great,

899
01:18:10,100 --> 01:18:12,620
It's a great holiday given that this is the last meeting.

900
01:18:13,240 --> 01:18:13,940
Happy Thanksgiving.

901
01:18:14,480 --> 01:18:14,600
Bye.

902
01:18:15,380 --> 01:18:15,980
Thanks, Freya.

903
01:18:21,030 --> 01:18:21,390
Hello.

904
01:18:21,590 --> 01:18:22,010
It was for the council.

905
01:18:22,190 --> 01:18:23,770
Thank you very much for everything you do.

906
01:18:23,930 --> 01:18:25,110
I think this is my first time here.

907
01:18:25,190 --> 01:18:26,310
My name is Sophia Scota.

908
01:18:26,910 --> 01:18:30,250
And in my day job, I work for all of you at East Bay Mad is the finance director.

909
01:18:30,870 --> 01:18:32,150
Thank you for paying your water bills.

910
01:18:32,730 --> 01:18:36,130
So I did want to say, thank you for your focus on infrastructure here today.

911
01:18:36,270 --> 01:18:37,810
That's also what we are doing at East Bay Mad.

912
01:18:38,150 --> 01:18:42,970
And I wanted to say, I hope that you'll consider as you look at how you're going forward with

913
01:18:42,970 --> 01:18:47,670
this important infrastructure fund and the bond funding, looking at parcel taxes as

914
01:18:47,670 --> 01:18:48,730
well as Geobons.

915
01:18:49,870 --> 01:18:56,710
Geobons, one of you brought up a $1.5 million average sale price today, so a Geobon puts

916
01:18:56,710 --> 01:19:01,450
the burden of the infrastructure on young families rather than more evenly across the community.

917
01:19:01,950 --> 01:19:05,090
So just kind of looking at those considerations and there are things that can be done to

918
01:19:05,090 --> 01:19:10,890
kind of bracket around maybe parcel size or square footage or things like that that could

919
01:19:10,890 --> 01:19:19,730
be a parcel tax but the geobahn on a 550 median assessed value means that one part of

920
01:19:19,730 --> 01:19:24,870
the voter base is getting a significant benefit. I think it makes a lot of sense for things

921
01:19:24,870 --> 01:19:29,830
like schools where again that nexus is closer with who's paying and who's receiving the benefit

922
01:19:29,830 --> 01:19:33,590
but perhaps a parcel tax could make sense. Thank you very much.

923
01:19:33,950 --> 01:19:36,810
Thank you. Are there folks online?

924
01:19:37,850 --> 01:19:45,470
No hands are currently raised, but this is the time to provide public comments on the discussion regarding potential ballot measures.

925
01:19:46,150 --> 01:19:51,650
So if you're participating online and you'd like to speak, please raise your hand.

926
01:19:57,240 --> 01:19:59,820
Okay, but there are no speakers.

927
01:20:00,560 --> 01:20:05,960
Okay, very good, we'll go back to Council for Council comments then starting with Councilmember Dapplin.

928
01:20:06,760 --> 01:20:14,540
Thank you very much and please allow me to first express my gratitude to Mary E. Sheep for allowing me the opportunity to serve on the task force.

929
01:20:14,800 --> 01:20:25,880
It was an honor to work with you and Councilor Teghub and Ray and Margo and everybody and like the mayor, I also have a great love and

930
01:20:25,880 --> 01:20:33,620
passion for infrastructure and it was one of the first things I began to think about when I entered my life as a public servant in this way.

931
01:20:33,620 --> 01:20:40,040
I strongly support moving forward with the survey and with the exploration of the number

932
01:20:40,040 --> 01:20:46,640
of 26 bond up to 300 million. I'm not interested in the personal tax for capital. I would like

933
01:20:46,640 --> 01:20:53,160
for the survey to pull fire projects separately and also the larger set together, just to see if

934
01:20:53,160 --> 01:21:01,160
that changes or is different. And I do think it will be important for us to avoid the shortfalls

935
01:21:01,160 --> 01:21:06,340
of measure L, namely a high-dollar amount combined with an ill-defined scope of improvements.

936
01:21:07,120 --> 01:21:13,300
And to that effect, what makes sense to me is to create clear nexus around immediate safety

937
01:21:13,300 --> 01:21:17,380
consideration, disaster and climate resiliency and recreational equity.

938
01:21:18,260 --> 01:21:24,960
And to list off projects, I feel like exemplify that among the current lists for immediate safety

939
01:21:24,960 --> 01:21:28,380
the Frances Altbrier, the South Coast Seawall replacement,

940
01:21:28,760 --> 01:21:31,500
the veterans building, model Shregg Old City Hall,

941
01:21:31,780 --> 01:21:33,560
the 5050 Sidewalk program backlog,

942
01:21:33,980 --> 01:21:37,460
the MLK Civic Center Annex, fire stations 4 and 6,

943
01:21:38,340 --> 01:21:40,880
the police fire remastered dispatch center remodel,

944
01:21:41,480 --> 01:21:43,160
the Harrison Street fire training facility,

945
01:21:43,640 --> 01:21:45,800
and then the disaster and climate resiliency category,

946
01:21:46,380 --> 01:21:49,180
the Marineville Vardt sea level rise and betrayal project,

947
01:21:49,400 --> 01:21:51,780
fire stations 1, 2, 3, 5, 7,

948
01:21:51,780 --> 01:21:54,520
and in their recreational equity category,

949
01:21:55,280 --> 01:21:57,620
aquatic park improvements, Harrison Park,

950
01:21:57,960 --> 01:21:59,060
Asperger Field Conversion,

951
01:22:00,020 --> 01:22:01,900
I align corridor open spaces,

952
01:22:02,440 --> 01:22:06,940
King Pool, a Sam Pablo Park Sports Field irrigation drainage,

953
01:22:07,380 --> 01:22:08,940
the University of Avenue Bike Park,

954
01:22:09,280 --> 01:22:12,220
and the city wide dog parks.

955
01:22:14,820 --> 01:22:16,460
And I have a lot more time,

956
01:22:16,540 --> 01:22:18,660
I thought I would, but when I just closed by saying,

957
01:22:18,820 --> 01:22:20,540
I do think it will be important to engage

958
01:22:20,540 --> 01:22:24,820
as wide of a sample of the community as possible,

959
01:22:24,880 --> 01:22:27,580
including our labor partners, the commissions,

960
01:22:28,180 --> 01:22:31,040
the neighborhood groups, our community groups,

961
01:22:32,060 --> 01:22:35,960
and I want to just offer any support

962
01:22:35,960 --> 01:22:42,200
that my office can provide, and I know it will be tough

963
01:22:42,200 --> 01:22:45,540
to give in to people, but I'm proud of what we've done,

964
01:22:45,540 --> 01:22:52,580
And I'm willing to fight and knock on every single door and make every single phone call.

965
01:22:52,980 --> 01:22:59,760
Despite my millennial aversion to phone, I can text for sure, yeah.

966
01:23:00,460 --> 01:23:06,160
But I say I believe in the city, I believe in our staff, I believe in our community.

967
01:23:06,900 --> 01:23:13,660
And having heard from my constituents and people throughout the city for years about a number of these projects,

968
01:23:13,660 --> 01:23:23,000
I am fully committed to seeing these over, over the finish line, if it takes one cycle, if it takes 10 cycles, I feel like I have to see the stuff done.

969
01:23:23,240 --> 01:23:23,440
Thank you.

970
01:23:25,790 --> 01:23:28,250
Thank you, Councilmember Humbert.

971
01:23:29,650 --> 01:23:30,730
Thank you, Madam Mayor.

972
01:23:31,290 --> 01:23:35,870
And I want to, there are two items on the agenda this afternoon.

973
01:23:36,630 --> 01:23:38,810
I guess we're almost into the evening.

974
01:23:39,870 --> 01:23:43,390
And so I want to address the first one more fully maybe.

975
01:23:43,390 --> 01:23:54,310
I want to thank Vigorous, thanks to the Mayor's Vision 2050 task force for the report

976
01:23:54,710 --> 01:23:57,450
and the Mayor for reconvening the task force.

977
01:23:57,830 --> 01:24:00,690
I haven't had time to review the report in detail.

978
01:24:00,850 --> 01:24:07,050
I know Ray says it's only eight or 12 pages, but it's their tremendous number of appendices

979
01:24:07,050 --> 01:24:07,670
attached.

980
01:24:08,230 --> 01:24:09,750
And I want to spend some time with it.

981
01:24:09,750 --> 01:24:16,270
I appreciate all the work that went into it and the contribution of time and thought by

982
01:24:16,270 --> 01:24:25,070
luminaries such as Ray Yepp and Margot Schuller and Larry Henry and all of you there sitting

983
01:24:25,070 --> 01:24:27,170
out there in the seats.

984
01:24:28,610 --> 01:24:34,870
I do really appreciate the emphasis on permeable infrastructure and life cycle maintenance which

985
01:24:34,870 --> 01:24:43,210
both Mr. Yap and Ms. Schuller have emphasized over many years, really critical, critically

986
01:24:43,210 --> 01:24:47,850
important things. I think the challenge we now face is determining how to translate

987
01:24:47,850 --> 01:24:52,850
the report and its broad recommendations into concrete actions in the context of highly

988
01:24:52,850 --> 01:25:00,070
constrained resources. The report discusses what criteria we might use to prioritize projects,

989
01:25:00,570 --> 01:25:04,310
but it seems a hard work of identifying those priorities and potentially having to leave

990
01:25:04,310 --> 01:25:09,710
some projects to a future time wise ahead of us and actually we're dealing with that I think

991
01:25:09,710 --> 01:25:18,610
with the bond and again thank you all for all this good work. With respect to item number two,

992
01:25:19,150 --> 01:25:26,470
I want to thank the city manager and all of our city staff and David White for their incredible

993
01:25:26,470 --> 01:25:32,030
work on this effort and this report. The information is helpful, thorough and very well presented.

994
01:25:32,030 --> 01:25:37,010
I especially appreciate the graphs of tax rates over time as other folks have mentioned.

995
01:25:37,990 --> 01:25:43,070
And I'm very heartened by the timelines presented for developing these potential ballot measures.

996
01:25:43,510 --> 01:25:48,290
We're really ahead of the game compared to what happened in 2022, for example.

997
01:25:49,850 --> 01:25:55,290
You know, there was then really a rush for the finish, but this time if we can stick to these timelines

998
01:25:55,290 --> 01:25:59,290
or even accelerate them as the mayor has suggested.

999
01:25:59,290 --> 01:26:03,690
I think we're well positioned to have more deliberative discussions and submit our ballot

1000
01:26:03,690 --> 01:26:06,730
language well ahead of the deadline, knock on wood.

1001
01:26:07,410 --> 01:26:12,990
I think the list of projects is a great start, a really good list, but, and I agree with

1002
01:26:12,990 --> 01:26:18,970
about 80 or 90 percent of it, I mean, I personally am really excited to see the 50-50 sidewalk

1003
01:26:19,610 --> 01:26:21,030
repair program listed.

1004
01:26:21,970 --> 01:26:28,430
The backlog for this program shows how valued and successful it is, and having previously

1005
01:26:28,430 --> 01:26:31,870
Actually myself put forward budget referrals to get it fully funded.

1006
01:26:32,390 --> 01:26:37,810
I'd be thrilled to see the 50-50 program get fully funded by a general obligation bond

1007
01:26:37,810 --> 01:26:44,550
taking into account the concerns of council member Kessar Wani about how we dovetail that

1008
01:26:44,550 --> 01:26:45,490
with FF.

1009
01:26:46,250 --> 01:26:51,890
I'd also like to see, not necessarily on this list, I'd like to see bus shelters.

1010
01:26:51,890 --> 01:26:53,530
I think those are really important.

1011
01:26:53,530 --> 01:27:03,170
and other transit improvements as we move from an auto-focused city to one that walks and

1012
01:27:03,170 --> 01:27:09,230
bikes and takes transit. I have to say, and people might not be very happy with this,

1013
01:27:09,550 --> 01:27:15,970
I'm less enthusiastic about including the seismic retrofits of the Modal Shurek and Veterans

1014
01:27:15,970 --> 01:27:21,130
building on this list. I strongly support having downtown projects on the

1015
01:27:21,130 --> 01:27:26,610
interest, but I also want a better future for these buildings and I do, but candidly

1016
01:27:26,610 --> 01:27:31,610
I'm not convinced the currently envisioned uses for the buildings are the way forward

1017
01:27:32,070 --> 01:27:37,090
or justify the level of investment necessary to put them back into top shape.

1018
01:27:37,650 --> 01:27:42,510
Looking at the projected costs for these projects, it strikes me that at the very least it would

1019
01:27:42,510 --> 01:27:45,970
eat up a disproportionate share of the $300 million.

1020
01:27:45,970 --> 01:27:50,930
dollars. Right now we're struggling to keep our existing well-established cultural

1021
01:27:50,930 --> 01:27:55,930
uses of float. We've already seen the closure of the jazz conservatory in the Aurora

1022
01:27:55,930 --> 01:28:01,610
Theater, investing significant funds to create more arts spaces at a time when we're

1023
01:28:01,610 --> 01:28:07,790
having trouble keeping our existing ones filled is not fiscally wise. And I think most Berkeley

1024
01:28:07,790 --> 01:28:13,730
residents have other facilities that would be higher priorities. I went to the Berkeley

1025
01:28:13,730 --> 01:28:18,510
We wrapped the other night and it was about a third full and I think that we ought to be

1026
01:28:18,510 --> 01:28:23,790
focusing on keeping the Berkeley rep in business rather than creating new art spaces.

1027
01:28:27,400 --> 01:28:32,160
That said, if staff and my colleagues feel it's important to pull on those projects, I

1028
01:28:32,160 --> 01:28:36,380
wouldn't object because if we're going to keep old City Hall and veterans in the running,

1029
01:28:36,380 --> 01:28:41,540
I do think it's important that we get a sense of where they fall in the priority list of

1030
01:28:41,540 --> 01:28:42,240
Berkeley residents.

1031
01:28:42,400 --> 01:28:46,420
Again, thank you a lot, you know, tons of thanks for all the hard work that went into

1032
01:28:46,420 --> 01:28:46,720
this.

1033
01:28:46,980 --> 01:28:47,480
Thank you.

1034
01:28:47,960 --> 01:28:48,960
Thank you, Councilmember.

1035
01:28:49,700 --> 01:28:52,120
Moving on to Councilmember Blackbeat.

1036
01:28:53,160 --> 01:28:53,900
Thanks, Madam Mayor.

1037
01:28:54,520 --> 01:28:59,360
And just again, add my thanks to you for reconvening the task force, Demargo and Ray and the whole team

1038
01:28:59,360 --> 01:29:03,640
for participating and for the city staff for all the hard work that's gone into bringing us

1039
01:29:03,640 --> 01:29:04,220
to this point.

1040
01:29:04,740 --> 01:29:10,760
I'm excited that we are kind of on the cusp of moving forward with kind of a major investment

1041
01:29:10,760 --> 01:29:16,100
and Berkeley's infrastructure, we need to do it, we know we need to do it.

1042
01:29:16,280 --> 01:29:20,380
It's just a question of sort of how, when, how much, and what's involved.

1043
01:29:21,280 --> 01:29:23,140
But I think we have a lot to work with here.

1044
01:29:24,180 --> 01:29:28,340
So to work kind of very quickly through the questions that you left with us,

1045
01:29:28,840 --> 01:29:31,140
totally support moving forward with the survey.

1046
01:29:31,920 --> 01:29:35,820
As council member Luna Parra mentioned, I am interested as part of that research,

1047
01:29:35,820 --> 01:29:40,080
making sure we look at this potential measure in the context of other things that are likely

1048
01:29:40,080 --> 01:29:44,980
going to be on the ballot, we already know that the arts parcel tax may very well be on the ballot.

1049
01:29:45,540 --> 01:29:49,840
Maybe there's a local transit measure as well as a regional transit measure, potentially a

1050
01:29:49,840 --> 01:29:55,760
regional housing measure. So again, I just putting the context of what we're asking for up against

1051
01:29:56,300 --> 01:29:59,960
the other things that may also be on the ballot, I just think makes sense.

1052
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:29,980
There, but it might be interesting to look at fire separate from parks and waterfront separate from public works and just understand where people's heads are at with respect to those. I'd also say if part of the survey is I know in previous years we've gotten some public feedback on the types of infrastructure projects that people support. We should again ask and just make sure that what we are putting in the package kind of ranks highly on what we

1053
01:30:29,980 --> 01:30:35,400
here in the survey and just be ready to adjust the list if what we're hearing from the survey

1054
01:30:35,400 --> 01:30:39,940
guides us in a slightly different direction. I know we will be, but you know, I just, I want the

1055
01:30:39,940 --> 01:30:48,800
data to kind of be our guide as we go forward. On the size, it's Council Member Humbert mentioned.

1056
01:30:49,180 --> 01:30:53,680
I think looking at a 300 million, it feels like it's not too hot, not too cold, just right. I mean,

1057
01:30:53,840 --> 01:30:58,820
it feels okay, but looking at a range, maybe it's a little bit less, maybe it's a little bit more

1058
01:30:59,980 --> 01:31:03,900
based on the survey, but also on some of these other benchmarks that we were talking about earlier,

1059
01:31:05,080 --> 01:31:10,160
what should we be, what do we need to be investing to at least stay at parity if not actually

1060
01:31:10,160 --> 01:31:17,080
make a dent in the $1 billion kind of backlog? That should be kind of one of the macro guides that

1061
01:31:17,080 --> 01:31:23,820
helps us inform the size. And then on a micro level, I think, again looking at the average tax payment

1062
01:31:23,820 --> 01:31:29,020
of a resident and a business, and maybe by the way, it's not just the median, but also what does it

1063
01:31:29,020 --> 01:31:33,840
look like at the 70th percentile or 90th percentile because we'll get a wide range of this.

1064
01:31:34,900 --> 01:31:39,960
So I think all of those sorts of things, both at the macro level as well as the individual

1065
01:31:39,960 --> 01:31:44,620
resident kind of tax piece, should inform the size.

1066
01:31:45,680 --> 01:31:51,500
But at first blush, 300 million seems a little about right, but again we might look more

1067
01:31:51,500 --> 01:31:54,620
or less depending on what we learn and how we benchmark ourselves.

1068
01:31:56,740 --> 01:32:04,020
One other piece I would encourage us to test in the research is leaning into sort of the

1069
01:32:04,020 --> 01:32:09,180
oversight and kind of the spending management and just the responsibility part you've given

1070
01:32:09,180 --> 01:32:15,180
a lot of really useful information already on how previous bond dollars have been invested

1071
01:32:15,180 --> 01:32:21,400
in the results and I think really taking some pride in that and pushing hard on the fact

1072
01:32:21,400 --> 01:32:39,380
that we are responsible stewards and will continue to be responsible stewards and baked into the bond itself is what's the oversight function look like and what is sort of the management function look like just to show taxpayers that we will continue to be responsible and effective with the money that they're good enough to share with us.

1073
01:32:42,240 --> 01:32:49,760
I think the list of projects for now I was very comfortable I like the range of what was in it but again be open to adjusting based on what we hear and what we learn.

1074
01:32:52,800 --> 01:32:54,880
Yeah, and I think that's, that's where I got back.

1075
01:32:55,020 --> 01:33:07,460
Again, I appreciate this opportunity to participate, to hear from members of the public and to move forward because I think, again, this is an important step for the city.

1076
01:33:07,920 --> 01:33:11,980
We know we have a lot of work to do, and I look forward to embarking on this journey, so thank you.

1077
01:33:12,580 --> 01:33:14,020
Thank you, Council Member O'Keefe.

1078
01:33:16,520 --> 01:33:16,980
Thank you, Mayor.

1079
01:33:18,220 --> 01:33:20,960
First, I just want to echo, I think everyone else has had a chance to say this.

1080
01:33:20,960 --> 01:33:25,180
I want to echo the thanks for all the hard work that's gone into both of these items.

1081
01:33:25,880 --> 01:33:31,060
And also, thanks in advance for all the work that's coming, because this is a huge undertaking.

1082
01:33:31,760 --> 01:33:32,980
But it's also, it's really worthwhile.

1083
01:33:33,880 --> 01:33:38,760
This is one of the most impactful things that any of us may work on if it happens.

1084
01:33:39,640 --> 01:33:43,360
So, good job and thanks in advance.

1085
01:33:45,100 --> 01:33:49,320
Just to providing the polling, I just want to echo the suggestions that have been made

1086
01:33:49,320 --> 01:33:54,440
that we really are careful to make sure we get information about how people feel

1087
01:33:54,440 --> 01:33:58,360
about additional taxes in the totality of everything that's happening.

1088
01:33:58,520 --> 01:34:02,440
I know that's already been said, but I think that's a really, really important lesson.

1089
01:34:02,780 --> 01:34:07,140
And, you know, I wasn't around for measure L, but whatever lessons there are to learn

1090
01:34:07,140 --> 01:34:13,040
from that, I'm sure we'll learn and act on those because I think, yeah, I really hope this

1091
01:34:13,040 --> 01:34:18,280
works out. So that's my only comment about that. In terms of the project, I

1092
01:34:18,280 --> 01:34:23,540
agree this is a great list. A lot of I appreciate the sort of spread of

1093
01:34:23,540 --> 01:34:27,460
different different kinds of infrastructure in different ways that it could

1094
01:34:27,460 --> 01:34:33,020
improve people's lives, you know, from safety to quality of life to see

1095
01:34:33,020 --> 01:34:40,040
level rise. A lot of really good projects. The only suggestion I have that's

1096
01:34:40,040 --> 01:34:44,820
sort of more categorical that I have some specific examples is I'd like to see some

1097
01:34:44,820 --> 01:34:53,220
more like placemaking kinds of projects. It's easy to overlook it because it's creating

1098
01:34:53,220 --> 01:35:00,160
something new as opposed to refurbishing, but there are a lot of places in our city. I'll

1099
01:35:00,160 --> 01:35:04,660
give you two examples from district five because that's my area. There's a lot of areas

1100
01:35:04,660 --> 01:35:09,840
where there's sort of like nothing and there could be something and that's a category

1101
01:35:09,840 --> 01:35:11,460
that I want to make sure we don't overlook.

1102
01:35:12,020 --> 01:35:14,980
And one example is, my predecessor,

1103
01:35:15,480 --> 01:35:16,920
formal accountant of Erhan,

1104
01:35:17,360 --> 01:35:20,800
has submitted, I think, twice a budget referral

1105
01:35:20,800 --> 01:35:22,560
to redesign the top of Slano.

1106
01:35:23,480 --> 01:35:24,740
And, you know, Slano up there,

1107
01:35:25,120 --> 01:35:27,220
it's a stupidly wide street.

1108
01:35:27,700 --> 01:35:30,000
You know, it's not a high traffic area.

1109
01:35:30,200 --> 01:35:31,980
Cars don't need so much space.

1110
01:35:32,420 --> 01:35:33,990
And that whole area could be redesigned

1111
01:35:34,440 --> 01:35:36,420
to be a really lovely pedestrian plaza

1112
01:35:36,420 --> 01:35:37,980
that would really enhance the area

1113
01:35:37,980 --> 01:35:41,060
and the experience of every single person enjoying that.

1114
01:35:41,600 --> 01:35:45,240
And I'm actually going to resubmit that budget referral again,

1115
01:35:45,460 --> 01:35:47,620
and that there's maybe like a glimmer of hope

1116
01:35:47,620 --> 01:35:48,960
that maybe one day it could happen.

1117
01:35:49,140 --> 01:35:52,760
I think things like that shouldn't be overlooked.

1118
01:35:53,040 --> 01:35:57,760
And then another example also in District 5 is that that weird

1119
01:35:57,760 --> 01:36:03,380
like triple street area on Shaddick at Rose next to the CVS,

1120
01:36:03,500 --> 01:36:04,240
if you guys know what I'm talking about,

1121
01:36:04,240 --> 01:36:06,260
where the farmers market is, like what is that?

1122
01:36:06,260 --> 01:36:08,540
Why are we using our space that way?

1123
01:36:09,580 --> 01:36:16,360
That could be a place for people to stand and sit and lie down maybe and really enjoy it.

1124
01:36:16,480 --> 01:36:19,160
There's no reason for that there to be three different streets.

1125
01:36:20,080 --> 01:36:30,180
There's probably a lot of examples of that around the city, but I want to make sure we kind of think about creating as opposed to just making fixing.

1126
01:36:31,460 --> 01:36:31,960
Those are my comments.

1127
01:36:31,960 --> 01:36:37,480
Oh, I'm sorry, Alex will come if I don't say, we also need bathrooms at Indian Rock Park.

1128
01:36:38,300 --> 01:36:42,120
There's actually quite a bit of demand for that, so throw that on the list.

1129
01:36:42,600 --> 01:36:42,840
Thank you.

1130
01:36:43,760 --> 01:36:44,460
Thank you.

1131
01:36:44,700 --> 01:36:47,820
And actually, could I have you pull up the questions that you have for us?

1132
01:36:47,920 --> 01:36:49,120
I realize we don't have those up.

1133
01:36:50,040 --> 01:36:50,900
Councilmember Traca?

1134
01:36:54,070 --> 01:36:55,730
Thank you, Madame Mayor.

1135
01:36:56,590 --> 01:37:02,470
The benefit of going fifth is a lot of what I was going to say has already been said.

1136
01:37:03,210 --> 01:37:08,410
and in more eloquently than I would have said it.

1137
01:37:09,310 --> 01:37:12,970
I wanted to just touch on some, a few points.

1138
01:37:13,700 --> 01:37:20,390
First of all, I would be remiss in also not expressing my gratitude to the mayor for

1139
01:37:20,390 --> 01:37:29,170
pointing me to the task force to Council Member Tafflin for co-convening it and for way

1140
01:37:29,170 --> 01:37:39,570
and Margo for spearheading it so ably and I did skim the report and have

1141
01:37:39,570 --> 01:37:45,450
confirmed that all the changes that my chief of staff who I also want to

1142
01:37:45,450 --> 01:37:51,110
thank for for participation in the task force have been incorporated and it's a

1143
01:37:51,110 --> 01:37:58,830
really good document and I think the most important piece that I really wanted

1144
01:37:58,830 --> 01:38:07,190
to call out, because so many times this is not the case, but in this case, there was an

1145
01:38:07,190 --> 01:38:14,230
informative statement by staff that what is being proposed as this potential bond matter

1146
01:38:14,230 --> 01:38:21,930
is in alignment with Vision 2050. I think that's really important, that gives me a lot

1147
01:38:21,930 --> 01:38:32,090
of confidence that this really is a plan that is more than just a concept. It is actually

1148
01:38:32,640 --> 01:38:38,570
also going to be implementable. It is not going to be gathering dust on a shelf like

1149
01:38:38,570 --> 01:38:48,330
so many plans, unfortunately, do. And I do want to, I appreciated all the public comments.

1150
01:38:48,330 --> 01:39:00,510
I wanted to appreciate what Ray said about documents that past councils looked at, that

1151
01:39:00,510 --> 01:39:07,290
guided past councils and that can also guide our council as we embark upon this process.

1152
01:39:08,790 --> 01:39:17,790
And I can say the same thing about measure L. I think we're all better off for measure

1153
01:39:17,790 --> 01:39:26,770
L having been attempted, and I just want to voice my appreciation to the past Mayor and

1154
01:39:26,770 --> 01:39:29,630
Council for also having the vision around that.

1155
01:39:33,350 --> 01:39:45,470
It has already been said, so I'm just going to put a finer point on it is important in

1156
01:39:45,470 --> 01:39:53,330
the polling to look at, yes, definitely what is the Goldilocks range? Is it 300 million? Is it

1157
01:39:53,330 --> 01:40:03,850
something more or less? But also really trying to get at how pervasive the it all adds up argument

1158
01:40:03,850 --> 01:40:14,470
is because I certainly have constituents that are feeling it and I am empathetic to

1159
01:40:16,030 --> 01:40:31,250
homeowners, particularly newer homeowners that have felt the weight of tax increases and other property assessment increases on their property tax increases on their bills.

1160
01:40:32,090 --> 01:40:36,750
But also it is important to try to quantify as best we can.

1161
01:40:36,750 --> 01:40:40,030
What is the cost of delaying it further?

1162
01:40:41,150 --> 01:40:48,710
And that gets me into a point I wanted to make, and this is one area where I'm going to

1163
01:40:48,710 --> 01:40:54,950
depart with much respect to my colleague, Council Member Hamburg.

1164
01:40:54,950 --> 01:40:59,250
I believe that we have the

1165
01:40:59,250 --> 01:41:02,730
lotation and the seismic

1166
01:41:02,730 --> 01:41:06,210
the seismic improvements of

1167
01:41:06,760 --> 01:41:09,750
buildings like Modell-Shirack and

1168
01:41:10,380 --> 01:41:14,030
the veterans memorial building are

1169
01:41:14,820 --> 01:41:18,450
hugely important to me, to my

1170
01:41:18,450 --> 01:41:20,530
constituents, and I think to the

1171
01:41:20,530 --> 01:41:23,250
Berkeley community because these

1172
01:41:23,250 --> 01:41:32,370
These buildings are the foundation and cornerstone of a city's democracy, frankly.

1173
01:41:33,150 --> 01:41:41,850
And so how we are able to maintain them is going to be important and is going to reflect

1174
01:41:41,850 --> 01:41:46,610
of how we feel as a community about what we value.

1175
01:41:47,390 --> 01:41:54,210
So, I want to at least get that pulled, and I will say I wish that we had been able

1176
01:41:54,210 --> 01:41:59,090
to start that, had measure L passed, there were reasons it didn't,

1177
01:42:01,150 --> 01:42:02,930
we would be on our

1178
01:42:02,930 --> 01:42:03,210
way.

1179
01:42:04,870 --> 01:42:13,390
And I will, I have a 30 second comment about sidewalks, I understand Council Member Kessir

1180
01:42:13,390 --> 01:42:23,930
one is point and I would support whatever gets us to closing out the back lock on the 50-50

1181
01:42:23,930 --> 01:42:30,290
sidewalk improvements. This is a top five area we hear from from our constituents. I myself

1182
01:42:30,290 --> 01:42:41,210
have tripped and fallen on our sidewalks, so I certainly appreciate how important it is to me

1183
01:42:41,210 --> 01:42:49,390
as an able-bodied person who has the privilege to get up and especially to those who are not.

1184
01:42:49,610 --> 01:42:54,090
So thank you so much and I look forward to supporting this process as it continues.

1185
01:42:54,450 --> 01:42:55,970
Thank you, Council Member Bartlett.

1186
01:42:58,330 --> 01:43:04,110
Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you finance team and the infrastructure team for putting

1187
01:43:04,110 --> 01:43:08,170
this together and doing the work on this. I know it was a lot of work and thanks to the city staff

1188
01:43:08,170 --> 01:43:13,850
for a point together in terms of omnivus wide reaching effort here.

1189
01:43:14,630 --> 01:43:22,490
And I do support the litany of elements within here, by and large, very wholeheartedly.

1190
01:43:23,170 --> 01:43:27,370
I think we should do a survey, and I know our service in the past have been really well

1191
01:43:27,370 --> 01:43:27,670
done.

1192
01:43:27,970 --> 01:43:29,730
We have some good people in our arsenal.

1193
01:43:30,430 --> 01:43:31,770
We're good to work them again.

1194
01:43:31,770 --> 01:43:39,210
You know, so looking at the list of elements here and being cognizant of the fiscal pressures

1195
01:43:39,210 --> 01:43:49,010
that our taxpayers are confronted with right now in the current economy, you know, when

1196
01:43:49,610 --> 01:43:54,990
the one that failed measure L, it passed in my district, but I remember when I was advocating

1197
01:43:54,990 --> 01:43:59,230
for it, talking to people, I could feel the reticence, I could feel the, like I was treating

1198
01:43:59,230 --> 01:44:05,670
a personal favor for them before it felt like. And of course it did fail. I passed my

1199
01:44:05,670 --> 01:44:12,850
district, of course. But it was not easy. I went out there a lot. So I feel there's a

1200
01:44:12,850 --> 01:44:17,530
lot of competing elements here mentioned in Councilmember. Black have been mentioned

1201
01:44:17,530 --> 01:44:25,790
as well as other measures. So think about that. In terms of persuading people to sort of

1202
01:44:25,790 --> 01:44:28,850
the trigger on yet another debt load for their families.

1203
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:06,540
Of the really serving the future as opposed to the purely maintenance style language, because

1204
01:45:06,540 --> 01:45:12,260
that's less exciting for people. And so, in the, to that instance, you know, which makes me

1205
01:45:12,260 --> 01:45:18,620
think about the Civic Center projects, it looks like they're total close to $50 million

1206
01:45:18,620 --> 01:45:28,770
of the, of the 300. And it seems like the, the, the, the, the seismic retrofitting of the

1207
01:45:28,770 --> 01:45:34,430
buildings is great. It's necessary. However, is that the fun on use of those buildings?

1208
01:45:35,430 --> 01:45:39,750
And this is wrapped up in a larger conversation around the Civic Center in total.

1209
01:45:41,010 --> 01:45:45,570
Like what is the new Civic Center going to look like? Will it have a water fountain like we have up there in the hills?

1210
01:45:45,930 --> 01:45:51,710
Like we want, like I want. Will they have these new buildings and other theater, all et cetera?

1211
01:45:51,830 --> 01:45:57,870
There's a vision for the Civic Center that I think demands its own sort of special finance district.

1212
01:45:58,770 --> 01:46:12,330
And so these buildings within it will probably need to change or evolve or be retrofit to suit a new purpose which would be better off to just break that off into its own finance district.

1213
01:46:12,330 --> 01:46:18,070
There are many, many forms of increment districts available to us now, they're very flexible.

1214
01:46:18,590 --> 01:46:24,790
We deployed one in Adelaide corridor for the development there, the EIFT, worked on

1215
01:46:24,790 --> 01:46:26,590
so well with the Jordan Planning Department.

1216
01:46:27,690 --> 01:46:28,610
That's my suggestion there.

1217
01:46:28,910 --> 01:46:35,850
To free up $50 million to make the sidewalks better everywhere for everyone, and whatever

1218
01:46:35,850 --> 01:46:36,790
else we need to do.

1219
01:46:36,790 --> 01:46:46,250
And also embracing the coming hospital shortage, understand we're going to be losing significant

1220
01:46:46,250 --> 01:46:48,690
amounts of Medicaid funding, Medicare funding.

1221
01:46:49,330 --> 01:46:53,490
So we're going to have a dearth of people without access to health care.

1222
01:46:54,330 --> 01:46:59,510
And these will be ordinary seniors that live in our district, people with conditions.

1223
01:47:00,230 --> 01:47:04,430
And so it would be interesting to think about embracing sort of an evolution of the senior

1224
01:47:04,430 --> 01:47:07,630
center model to be a place where people can get care as well.

1225
01:47:08,770 --> 01:47:10,310
We have three of them, four of them?

1226
01:47:10,770 --> 01:47:11,150
How many do we have?

1227
01:47:11,730 --> 01:47:11,950
Three?

1228
01:47:12,730 --> 01:47:13,390
Senior Centers?

1229
01:47:13,950 --> 01:47:14,110
Two?

1230
01:47:14,210 --> 01:47:14,490
Just two?

1231
01:47:15,390 --> 01:47:15,610
Okay.

1232
01:47:15,750 --> 01:47:16,110
We need three.

1233
01:47:17,590 --> 01:47:24,250
So, you can envision a scenario in which this extra $50 million that comes out of the Civic

1234
01:47:24,250 --> 01:47:29,390
Center goes into making the South Senior Center and the North Senior Center and the future

1235
01:47:29,390 --> 01:47:33,890
third one somewhere into a real place where seniors can go and get care.

1236
01:47:34,590 --> 01:47:37,010
And get treated and there's all these new forms.

1237
01:47:37,310 --> 01:47:39,690
We explored this over at our building and university.

1238
01:47:40,350 --> 01:47:48,190
That's my suggestion and that's more, I think, more exciting for people because it spells out a future vision of the city that takes us to another level.

1239
01:47:49,550 --> 01:47:54,530
And of course, it always be reminding us of this, Mr. City Manager, you know, you were there.

1240
01:47:55,210 --> 01:48:01,650
2017 we passed the Berkeley Inclusion and Diversity Index, some called the Bendex, not my nickname.

1241
01:48:02,430 --> 01:48:08,270
And this is a supplier diversity program that has a stand legal muster and its purpose

1242
01:48:08,270 --> 01:48:14,730
is to help us partner with new companies and new developers and new entities when we

1243
01:48:14,730 --> 01:48:17,030
do these massive expenditures.

1244
01:48:18,070 --> 01:48:23,830
And so rather than going with the same firms we use with this $300 million, let's get new

1245
01:48:23,830 --> 01:48:28,730
people in new local businesses, women on businesses, people on business who have been shut out

1246
01:48:28,730 --> 01:48:29,450
the last decades.

1247
01:48:29,450 --> 01:48:31,050
So, that's really important.

1248
01:48:32,130 --> 01:48:32,330
Thank you.

1249
01:48:33,150 --> 01:48:34,150
Thank you, Councilmember.

1250
01:48:34,410 --> 01:48:35,310
Councilmember Kester Wani.

1251
01:48:36,390 --> 01:48:37,850
Thank you very much, Madam Mayor.

1252
01:48:38,530 --> 01:48:41,570
Thank you again, Deputy City Manager.

1253
01:48:42,570 --> 01:48:46,850
So, in terms of comments, so I think this, I already made this clear, but I'll just repeat myself.

1254
01:48:46,950 --> 01:48:49,410
So, I think we should proceed with a community survey.

1255
01:48:50,410 --> 01:48:58,950
I generally think that the list of projects is reasonable, and you know, I've been thinking about it more as hearing other folks talk.

1256
01:48:58,950 --> 01:49:05,710
I'm thinking about, you know, what we expect in November, 2026, there will be a number of revenue

1257
01:49:05,710 --> 01:49:14,950
measures. I think one important one will be the sales tax increase for public transit. I know

1258
01:49:14,950 --> 01:49:19,170
there's talk about other ones. We've heard about signatures being gathered for the arts

1259
01:49:19,730 --> 01:49:27,410
in Berkeley. And so I think we just need to be careful on the amount. I know I had our express

1260
01:49:27,410 --> 01:49:33,890
I think I'm more interested in testing for lower amounts actually, then going higher because

1261
01:49:33,890 --> 01:49:37,550
I'm thinking about the totality, but of course, you know, in the survey, we have the option

1262
01:49:37,550 --> 01:49:43,430
to do various things, and so I just wanted to make that clear that I think we may need

1263
01:49:43,430 --> 01:49:48,890
to look at something lower, and in terms of exploring something lower, obviously, we will

1264
01:49:48,890 --> 01:49:55,530
be guided by the results of that survey, but I just wanted to note, you know, and I was

1265
01:49:55,530 --> 01:50:10,250
I was remiss earlier when I asked about prioritization because I do want to acknowledge the tables towards the end of the report where there is some prioritization, you have the department priority and you have whether the project is an immediate safety consideration.

1266
01:50:10,430 --> 01:50:14,850
And so I think others have talked about polling fire facilities separately.

1267
01:50:14,850 --> 01:50:22,370
I want to I think fire facilities and there's a couple there are a couple of others that are considered an immediate safety consideration.

1268
01:50:23,310 --> 01:50:29,490
So I think maybe we could pull on those and I think that would bring us to a lesser dollar amount.

1269
01:50:30,370 --> 01:50:38,410
Because I think we need to be just really clear with the voters on what the need is and why it's necessary.

1270
01:50:38,410 --> 01:50:44,410
I think, you know, someone who was here for measure L and that was, you know, it's hard

1271
01:50:44,410 --> 01:50:48,350
to say not successful because it did get far greater than a majority.

1272
01:50:48,570 --> 01:50:51,050
It needed two-thirds and that was what was difficult.

1273
01:50:51,970 --> 01:50:58,070
Measure FF came back as a citizens initiative and was targeted for streets and sidewalks

1274
01:50:58,070 --> 01:50:59,530
and was successful.

1275
01:50:59,930 --> 01:51:03,790
I don't believe it got, well, I don't want to, I need to check on how much it got.

1276
01:51:03,870 --> 01:51:05,570
I don't know if it cleared two-thirds.

1277
01:51:06,990 --> 01:51:08,730
So it also didn't clear two thirds.

1278
01:51:08,810 --> 01:51:14,610
So I think we're talking about a very tough threshold with two thirds, trying to get two thirds.

1279
01:51:14,830 --> 01:51:21,550
So I think we need to be very targeted with it, and I think we can test for that with the survey.

1280
01:51:21,770 --> 01:51:23,490
So I just want to encourage us to do that.

1281
01:51:24,230 --> 01:51:33,250
And one way we might want to break out, one way we might want to sort of test a subset of this is with that perhaps with that safety consideration

1282
01:51:33,650 --> 01:51:39,990
And see what the public is feeling about that because I think there's the revenue measures

1283
01:51:39,990 --> 01:51:40,730
that will be on the ballot.

1284
01:51:40,810 --> 01:51:46,950
But there's also just the general economic climate, which I think is very tough for people

1285
01:51:46,950 --> 01:51:47,430
right now.

1286
01:51:47,670 --> 01:51:49,990
So I think we need to be sensitive to all of that.

1287
01:51:50,770 --> 01:51:52,690
And let me see if there's anything else here.

1288
01:51:54,310 --> 01:51:58,170
No, I don't have anything that I think should be just completely removed.

1289
01:51:58,870 --> 01:52:00,010
I just want to reiterate.

1290
01:52:00,010 --> 01:52:10,570
I think what I'm looking for is just like a better understanding of how much we can do on the sidewalks with measure FF and then what's remaining and I know we talked about ADA upgrades.

1291
01:52:10,570 --> 01:52:19,390
I think it's just getting a little bit more understanding offline from staff about what we're talking about there would be helpful for me.

1292
01:52:20,750 --> 01:52:35,490
and that's all. Thank you very much. I appreciate that we're having this discussion, that we're having it quite early so that we can not be rushed next year when we have to do a lot more work if we're going to put this on the ballot. So thank you very much.

1293
01:52:36,590 --> 01:52:41,430
Paula, she's for laughing. I'm just like, oh, I feel like we need to do a sooner. But

1294
01:52:41,430 --> 01:52:44,830
I appreciate your comments. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Littleparah.

1295
01:52:46,070 --> 01:52:51,050
Thank you. And I want to also thank everyone involved in all the work on this. I know it's

1296
01:52:51,050 --> 01:52:55,990
plentiful and dense and I'm very appreciative. Along with my colleagues, I think that we

1297
01:52:55,990 --> 01:53:00,170
should proceed with the survey. I would love to see a two-year survey as well with numbers

1298
01:53:00,170 --> 01:53:04,210
below and above 300 million. And I only have a couple things to add.

1299
01:53:04,210 --> 01:53:08,390
I wanted to mention the success of the telegraph and chaining public restroom,

1300
01:53:08,550 --> 01:53:11,810
partly funded by T1, and would love to see the inclusion of more public

1301
01:53:11,810 --> 01:53:14,290
restroom projects like that in the survey and the measure.

1302
01:53:15,410 --> 01:53:19,290
And I also agree with Council Member Humbert that we should be prioritizing

1303
01:53:19,290 --> 01:53:22,890
the 50-50 sidewalk program and Council Member Trigger that we should be prioritizing,

1304
01:53:22,990 --> 01:53:24,170
the 50-50 sidewalk program.

1305
01:53:25,230 --> 01:53:29,370
I also wanted to add that our office has been thinking through and working

1306
01:53:29,370 --> 01:53:34,750
with AC transit on a possible parcel tax revenue to raise funds for AC transit lines and infrastructure

1307
01:53:35,310 --> 01:53:41,030
and Berkeley specifically and hoping to restore some of the Berkeley lines cut during the pandemic

1308
01:53:41,030 --> 01:53:47,890
and in real line as well as to improve frequency on high ridership lines. I wouldn't want this to

1309
01:53:47,890 --> 01:53:51,730
impede on our other priorities so I would love to add some questions around this on our survey.

1310
01:53:52,770 --> 01:53:56,330
We're still working through the numbers and we'll continue to work with staff on that but I'm hoping

1311
01:53:56,330 --> 01:54:00,390
that we couldn't include some guidance around including this measure idea in our motion.

1312
01:54:01,010 --> 01:54:01,190
Thanks.

1313
01:54:02,330 --> 01:54:03,190
Thank you.

1314
01:54:03,510 --> 01:54:04,890
Any other comments from council members?

1315
01:54:06,010 --> 01:54:06,390
Okay.

1316
01:54:06,570 --> 01:54:09,470
I have a number of comments, so I apologize in advance.

1317
01:54:10,510 --> 01:54:14,810
But first of all, I'm just curious if you could just address Sophia's question earlier about

1318
01:54:14,810 --> 01:54:18,010
why we're recommending a bond versus a parcel tax?

1319
01:54:22,820 --> 01:54:30,200
So, with the parcel tax, that could be used for a wider rate of uses like maintenance,

1320
01:54:30,480 --> 01:54:35,680
but we would have to ultimately bond against, so we can only bond against the revenue that

1321
01:54:35,680 --> 01:54:38,340
comes in, so it's a bit constrained in that way.

1322
01:54:38,480 --> 01:54:43,820
So, once we go with the parcel tax, let's say it generates revenues of $8 million, where

1323
01:54:44,300 --> 01:54:48,220
we reach a cap in terms of how it's weak and bonkers, that will create the ceiling for

1324
01:54:48,220 --> 01:54:52,660
at service, so the bond doesn't provide us with that opportunity, but we can come back

1325
01:54:52,660 --> 01:54:54,700
and flesh that out more for you as well.

1326
01:54:55,600 --> 01:54:56,500
Thank you.

1327
01:54:56,800 --> 01:55:05,060
And then also, I know a bunch of council members have brought up concerns around funding

1328
01:55:05,060 --> 01:55:10,520
for the veterans building and the old city hall, and I'm wondering if you could just speak

1329
01:55:10,520 --> 01:55:16,960
to why now we're looking at this around the seismic retrofitting for those buildings.

1330
01:55:16,960 --> 01:55:23,800
So a couple of reasons, there was one reference letter that we have proactively applied for a

1331
01:55:23,800 --> 01:55:29,520
themagrant that does require a city match to that, so it would be very timely if there's

1332
01:55:29,520 --> 01:55:33,760
an item that were supported by the council and Berkeley voters to be able to support that

1333
01:55:33,760 --> 01:55:39,340
mission. We have a long standing vision for that area of the city and its core to, you

1334
01:55:39,340 --> 01:55:44,160
know, supporting downtown revitalization. So, you know, we're very attuned to the need

1335
01:55:44,160 --> 01:55:49,800
to continue to reinvest in that part of the city as well, so that also was part of our thinking as well.

1336
01:55:50,460 --> 01:55:56,880
Thank you. I appreciate you covering that. So first, I want to say about this. Yes,

1337
01:55:56,920 --> 01:56:00,680
absolutely. I think we should proceed with the community survey. Thank you all so much for

1338
01:56:00,680 --> 01:56:05,820
doing the work to get us here. I also want to acknowledge what some of my colleagues have brought up

1339
01:56:05,820 --> 01:56:11,000
about the tax burden, that there are many people who are struggling financially and are concerned about

1340
01:56:11,000 --> 01:56:17,260
an additional cost. And at the same time, I also want to acknowledge that in the graph

1341
01:56:17,260 --> 01:56:23,820
that we showed earlier, that actually, you know, as bonds kind of expire, there are

1342
01:56:23,820 --> 01:56:28,620
opportunities there for us to sort of replace them as opposed to just thinking of this as

1343
01:56:28,620 --> 01:56:33,180
like we're asking for more and more, actually, you know, it kind of reaches the equilibrium

1344
01:56:33,180 --> 01:56:38,900
at some point. I want to address also what my colleagues are saying about measure L-L

1345
01:56:38,900 --> 01:56:46,460
measure L because I understand that there's some nervousness around that and I acknowledge

1346
01:56:46,460 --> 01:56:52,280
that for some folks it might be kind of sore and I get that and I also have a lot of faith

1347
01:56:52,280 --> 01:56:57,540
that our Council is really united on focusing on this issue of infrastructure. I think this

1348
01:56:57,540 --> 01:57:02,700
Council is like very pro infrastructure and cares a lot about these different things and I think

1349
01:57:02,700 --> 01:57:08,420
that our community has shown that they also care about infrastructure and that these

1350
01:57:08,420 --> 01:57:12,340
These projects here have the themes, you know, community facilities and quality of life,

1351
01:57:12,620 --> 01:57:15,220
public safety and critical infrastructure and accessibility.

1352
01:57:15,720 --> 01:57:18,480
And I think that these are things that people can get really excited about.

1353
01:57:19,160 --> 01:57:22,680
And then I also want to acknowledge something I was said about FF.

1354
01:57:23,320 --> 01:57:28,100
I know that maybe it didn't get a full two-thirds, but just keep in mind that there was also

1355
01:57:28,100 --> 01:57:32,100
an opposing measure, so that might be something to keep in mind if you're a little bit concerned

1356
01:57:32,100 --> 01:57:36,160
about the amount of votes received there.

1357
01:57:38,900 --> 01:57:43,060
I want to also encourage us to be thinking a little bit more broadly

1358
01:57:43,060 --> 01:57:44,480
when we're talking about this poll.

1359
01:57:45,000 --> 01:57:48,100
I think it is still important to include the 50-50 program

1360
01:57:48,100 --> 01:57:52,080
in the polling and I agree with my colleagues about thinking

1361
01:57:52,080 --> 01:57:53,320
about a range here.

1362
01:57:53,800 --> 01:57:58,500
I really want to make sure that we're bonding as fully as we can

1363
01:57:58,500 --> 01:58:01,100
because I also think even though there's some nervousness,

1364
01:58:01,100 --> 01:58:05,840
we don't want to just leave money on the table. The purpose of doing this poll is so that we can see

1365
01:58:05,840 --> 01:58:10,780
what people's level of comfortability is, right? So, and I think similar to what council member

1366
01:58:10,780 --> 01:58:16,040
Blackbeard was saying, you know, we're talking about following the numbers here, right? So it's not

1367
01:58:16,040 --> 01:58:19,280
that, you know, we're going to do this poll and we're going to say, oh, people are really concerned,

1368
01:58:19,480 --> 01:58:24,180
let's just do it anyway, right? I mean, we're going to use this as information to figure out how

1369
01:58:24,180 --> 01:58:29,740
comfortable are people, how high can we go? And I'm saying this is someone who recognizes and

1370
01:58:29,740 --> 01:58:35,080
You don't want to talk about being newer homeowners, I'm a newer homeowner and I understand

1371
01:58:35,080 --> 01:58:37,760
that that means that we'll have higher tax bill.

1372
01:58:39,900 --> 01:58:46,300
I also want to just again say the importance, the importance here of having this so that

1373
01:58:46,300 --> 01:58:51,240
we can leverage these funds, keeping in mind that, okay, if we are able to get this $300

1374
01:58:51,240 --> 01:58:56,000
million, that I know that our staff is awesome and they're looking for grants and opportunities

1375
01:58:56,000 --> 01:58:57,300
to be constantly leveraging.

1376
01:58:58,060 --> 01:59:01,960
I know that Carrie, you've done an excellent job of that, so just to call you out and say,

1377
01:59:02,280 --> 01:59:04,660
you know, I know you and others on staff have done that already.

1378
01:59:04,980 --> 01:59:09,860
So we really want to have these funds available so that we can take advantage of the leveraging.

1379
01:59:11,140 --> 01:59:17,140
And just in my general feedback, let's see, I'm also supportive of this amount.

1380
01:59:17,320 --> 01:59:18,460
We talked about the range.

1381
01:59:19,160 --> 01:59:23,120
And in terms of the projects, I really appreciate this theme, this idea of themes.

1382
01:59:23,120 --> 01:59:30,780
I think these are really essential themes to just general Berkeley lifestyle, really a dog

1383
01:59:30,780 --> 01:59:32,420
person, so I'm excited about the dog parks.

1384
01:59:34,120 --> 01:59:38,600
Let's see, plus one to making sure we're considering the impact of other taxes on

1385
01:59:38,600 --> 01:59:40,780
a potential bond, which I know is brought up many times.

1386
01:59:42,500 --> 01:59:48,100
I'm also interested in knowing how strongly voters in the survey feel about projects that prioritize

1387
01:59:48,100 --> 01:59:51,420
has adapting to climate change and resilience.

1388
01:59:52,580 --> 01:59:54,820
And again, just going back briefly to the model,

1389
01:59:55,020 --> 01:59:57,340
Sherick, the old city hall building and the veterans building.

1390
01:59:58,140 --> 01:59:59,900
There's just really so much opportunity.

1391
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:29,980
Committee here that I think is really exciting. I know many people have complaints in me about the downtown. These are really central buildings in our downtown and two buildings that are completely underutilized. Really could just be a home for arts and culture and entertainment. And then just, you know, with the respect I want to say that, you know, given that there are current struggles in the art community, I think that's why we as a city should be prioritized.

1392
02:00:29,980 --> 02:00:34,880
a home for that. That's really stable. Knowing that some folks might lose their physical

1393
02:00:34,880 --> 02:00:39,540
home in terms of their performing arts spaces but still need a home to do their performances.

1394
02:00:40,120 --> 02:00:45,540
And we really don't have facilities that are large enough in our city to have larger scale

1395
02:00:45,540 --> 02:00:48,900
events. The veterans building really was that space.

1396
02:00:52,820 --> 02:00:57,320
Oh, and you're just keeping in mind that there really is a safety risk. We have Berkeley

1397
02:00:57,320 --> 02:01:03,420
community media that's actually in there right now. We used to have our winter shelter there,

1398
02:01:03,660 --> 02:01:07,700
right now our winter shelter is somewhere else. So these are all opportunities that are missed by

1399
02:01:07,700 --> 02:01:17,160
not having these buildings have, you know, be seismically retrofitted. I want to ask, let's see,

1400
02:01:17,420 --> 02:01:24,980
voters. Oh, I'm interested. I understand what people are saying about separating out, but I really

1401
02:01:24,980 --> 02:01:31,080
want to advise against that. I do think that it's stronger. I don't feel that these things

1402
02:01:31,080 --> 02:01:36,500
are far enough apart from each other, that they shouldn't be included together. And I actually

1403
02:01:36,500 --> 02:01:41,980
think thinking of this as infrastructure as a whole, as one issue, is really going to make

1404
02:01:41,980 --> 02:01:47,020
the bond stronger. I think separating out fire, of course, fire is going to be successful no matter

1405
02:01:47,020 --> 02:01:52,740
what, but I do think that having these things together will help to unify this as a singular issue

1406
02:01:52,740 --> 02:01:58,200
of infrastructure in our city and I want to make sure that the city manager knows that

1407
02:01:58,200 --> 02:02:02,800
I support moving forward with a contract to start the survey process and potentially

1408
02:02:02,800 --> 02:02:09,260
get it out in January and come back to council to just approve that retroactively so that

1409
02:02:09,260 --> 02:02:10,820
we can move forward with our timeline.

1410
02:02:11,020 --> 02:02:15,300
I know this is earlier than normal and at the same time I want to make sure we have enough time

1411
02:02:15,300 --> 02:02:19,060
because it's going to be important that we get community buy-in and that we talk to people

1412
02:02:19,060 --> 02:02:20,920
when we start moving forward with this process.

1413
02:02:22,240 --> 02:02:23,980
And then I also think it's really important

1414
02:02:23,980 --> 02:02:26,080
to incorporate questions about accountability

1415
02:02:26,080 --> 02:02:28,340
and oversight as part of the questions.

1416
02:02:28,840 --> 02:02:32,260
I know that we haven't pulled as well about that

1417
02:02:32,260 --> 02:02:33,960
in the past, so I really wanna make sure

1418
02:02:33,960 --> 02:02:38,360
that we're clear with our residents and the voters,

1419
02:02:38,940 --> 02:02:40,760
that we're gonna have strong accountability

1420
02:02:40,760 --> 02:02:41,640
and oversight measures.

1421
02:02:42,700 --> 02:02:44,240
So, okay, thank you for bearing with me.

1422
02:02:44,300 --> 02:02:45,120
I know there was a lot of comments.

1423
02:02:45,380 --> 02:02:47,000
I really appreciate you all have been steeped

1424
02:02:47,000 --> 02:02:48,020
in this for like last year.

1425
02:02:48,020 --> 02:03:01,740
So thank you all so much for your time and for everyone, for being here, coming from the vision 2050, realizing vision 2050 task force, and thank you so much for staff to just the presentation and all the work you've put into this.

1426
02:03:03,340 --> 02:03:04,220
Okay, great.

1427
02:03:04,840 --> 02:03:07,640
Do you need, you don't need anything else, you're good, right?

1428
02:03:07,640 --> 02:03:10,480
I think we are with, but I do have one question.

1429
02:03:11,040 --> 02:03:15,740
The general feedback is all in line with the report, and I think we're all good with that.

1430
02:03:16,160 --> 02:03:25,280
The one question I wanted to ask Council Member Louis Pares, is you raised the potential for polling also on parcel tax support increased AC transit routes.

1431
02:03:26,340 --> 02:03:37,460
And I wasn't totally clear, so I wanted to just talk here your collective feedback, but from you first about like, is that something you were wanting to have be like a separate poll that we start working on right away.

1432
02:03:37,460 --> 02:03:43,660
or bring back more information to the January 20 meeting and then give us direction then I just

1433
02:03:43,660 --> 02:03:49,980
want to get a little bit more clarity on that. Yeah I have no I don't if this is not the best place

1434
02:03:49,980 --> 02:03:55,480
to add it we definitely don't have to add it now because the item asked Council to bring forward

1435
02:03:55,480 --> 02:03:59,320
other measures that we were thinking about I just I thought that I would be a good idea to bring it up

1436
02:03:59,320 --> 02:04:08,130
now but I'm also happy to workshop it more if that's if that's easier for staff depending on what

1437
02:04:08,130 --> 02:04:09,750
the rest of my colleagues think?

1438
02:04:09,850 --> 02:04:11,370
I would say what's most important to me

1439
02:04:11,370 --> 02:04:13,690
is that this doesn't delay our poll.

1440
02:04:14,450 --> 02:04:15,950
So I would say like, you know,

1441
02:04:16,050 --> 02:04:18,390
if everything's ready to go and you've got all the pieces,

1442
02:04:19,110 --> 02:04:21,110
I'm personally okay with including it.

1443
02:04:21,350 --> 02:04:23,650
I just want to make sure it doesn't delay anything.

1444
02:04:24,530 --> 02:04:25,230
That's where I'm at.

1445
02:04:25,770 --> 02:04:27,890
And I think it's also a question of how deep the dive is.

1446
02:04:28,090 --> 02:04:29,210
It's one thing, this sort of,

1447
02:04:29,290 --> 02:04:30,990
it's one measure among other things

1448
02:04:30,990 --> 02:04:31,830
that could be on the ballot.

1449
02:04:31,970 --> 02:04:33,290
But as we know, when we go,

1450
02:04:33,470 --> 02:04:34,930
when we're testing our infrastructure piece,

1451
02:04:35,030 --> 02:04:36,630
we're going to go very deep into the components

1452
02:04:36,630 --> 02:04:39,370
and maybe sports sample various pieces of it.

1453
02:04:39,490 --> 02:04:42,370
And we probably can't in a 15 minute survey

1454
02:04:42,370 --> 02:04:45,050
do the same level of detail on another topic.

1455
02:04:45,050 --> 02:04:47,870
So I think it'd be more just sort of maybe kind of a thumb

1456
02:04:47,870 --> 02:04:49,170
in the wind kind of a,

1457
02:04:49,650 --> 02:04:52,670
in terms of how it's doing relative to our infrastructure thing.

1458
02:04:52,670 --> 02:04:55,230
And whether it clutters the ballot in a way

1459
02:04:55,230 --> 02:04:56,890
that would make ours more vulnerable.

1460
02:04:57,330 --> 02:04:59,230
Anyway, that's my perspective.

1461
02:04:59,510 --> 02:05:04,990
Yeah, I feel similarly as like a one or two question insert.

1462
02:05:04,990 --> 02:05:09,930
Okay. I think that's fine. If it's just a couple of questions to test the waters on that,

1463
02:05:10,430 --> 02:05:14,990
that seems reasonable. If it's a deeper thing, then that's a different poll. But yeah,

1464
02:05:15,410 --> 02:05:18,910
that's the helping. Thank you. That's helpful. Thank you, Councilmember Trigger.

1465
02:05:20,310 --> 02:05:29,590
Yeah, and I definitely support the intent here and would also support testing the waters. I just,

1466
02:05:29,590 --> 02:05:49,750
I want to just plead for some caution to, you know, if it's in the context of other potential ballot measures or priorities, including saving the arts, and that campaign has conducted its own internal problem.

1467
02:05:49,750 --> 02:06:00,650
but it's I just don't want us to go down the road of doing something for one

1468
02:06:00,650 --> 02:06:09,790
particular potential measure that is not this one at the in the absence of

1469
02:06:09,790 --> 02:06:17,010
doing it for general priorities that are additional to these.

1470
02:06:17,010 --> 02:06:19,130
Thank you. Council Member Bartlett.

1471
02:06:20,350 --> 02:06:26,250
Thank you. It's going to say, regarding customer Louis Pannas, as part of his idea, I'd rather than I would suggest

1472
02:06:26,250 --> 02:06:33,250
that you could take a lot of time to come back with this, just include a transit component to this infrastructure

1473
02:06:33,250 --> 02:06:42,970
piece. And that's that. This is bus shelters, bus plasas, bus elements. It's a transit column for consideration

1474
02:06:42,970 --> 02:06:45,390
in this milieu, because it fits.

1475
02:06:46,410 --> 02:06:49,610
I don't know if we will want it, but it fits thematically.

1476
02:06:50,310 --> 02:06:51,710
I think we're just talking about

1477
02:06:51,710 --> 02:06:54,030
something larger scale, is that right?

1478
02:06:56,070 --> 02:06:59,850
Yeah, I mean infrastructure is part of the idea,

1479
02:06:59,990 --> 02:07:04,870
but it is a larger concept of bringing back the lines

1480
02:07:04,870 --> 02:07:08,410
that were removed during the pandemic

1481
02:07:08,410 --> 02:07:12,230
and increasing frequency on highly used routes

1482
02:07:12,230 --> 02:07:17,950
which I don't think necessarily would or should fit into this bond, especially because it has the opportunity to

1483
02:07:19,270 --> 02:07:21,910
to tank it which I don't want that to happen.

1484
02:07:23,650 --> 02:07:26,770
Oh, I see you're suggesting we fund another jurisdictions business.

1485
02:07:28,470 --> 02:07:34,450
It would be a very very specifically to the city of Berkeley in lines that only cover the city of Berkeley.

1486
02:07:35,670 --> 02:07:37,450
I can't improve council member humbers.

1487
02:07:37,990 --> 02:07:38,230
Sorry.

1488
02:07:38,230 --> 02:07:39,770
All right, Council Member Humbert?

1489
02:07:40,030 --> 02:07:47,370
Yeah, just kind of following up on what Council Member Bartlett was just discussing.

1490
02:07:47,530 --> 02:07:55,270
I think it does make sense to add a transit and pedestrian realm improvements element to our polling.

1491
02:07:56,330 --> 02:08:04,510
You know, bus shelters, things like that, making transit easier and safer and more enjoyable.

1492
02:08:04,510 --> 02:08:13,370
I'm thinking about the transit, Plaza, downtown, Berkeley, surrounding the BART station, it's a wonderful, it was a wonderful improvement.

1493
02:08:14,130 --> 02:08:24,690
I think that would fit in as another infrastructure element, and I think this should remain focused on infrastructure.

1494
02:08:25,570 --> 02:08:26,990
So those are my thoughts, thanks.

1495
02:08:28,370 --> 02:08:29,990
Yeah, Councilmember Chaplin.

1496
02:08:29,990 --> 02:08:36,590
I do just want to point out that we have been discussing facilities that are

1497
02:08:38,070 --> 02:08:42,710
identified in current existing plans and that these are projects that have

1498
02:08:44,650 --> 02:08:51,990
advanced to some degree through their completion process. So I am a little

1499
02:08:51,990 --> 02:09:03,070
a little reticent to pull on potential theoretical projects that staff has not contemplated or

1500
02:09:03,690 --> 02:09:04,090
presented.

1501
02:09:11,220 --> 02:09:12,020
Yeah.

1502
02:09:12,480 --> 02:09:12,960
Yeah.

1503
02:09:14,060 --> 02:09:14,860
Yeah.

1504
02:09:16,480 --> 02:09:21,960
I see what you're saying, yeah, so that these other items have been part of a process and

1505
02:09:21,960 --> 02:09:25,840
included before so you're concerned about including them. I would agree with that.

1506
02:09:27,260 --> 02:09:32,380
I think it is important that we take into account the work that was done to prioritize

1507
02:09:33,060 --> 02:09:38,840
these current items and I appreciate your comment. I don't do you have clarity around.

1508
02:09:40,340 --> 02:09:47,260
I mean, I still have a little bit of measure L regret around including both housing and

1509
02:09:47,260 --> 02:09:51,380
infrastructure and one big poll and one big measure. I know that's not what's being proposed

1510
02:09:51,380 --> 02:09:58,240
but I'm just saying that I do have that that said I think we could work with the polling

1511
02:09:58,240 --> 02:10:03,440
firm that gets selected to say hey we are curious about transit do you feel like adding

1512
02:10:03,440 --> 02:10:07,440
a couple of transit questions to this survey would throw things off or put people off in

1513
02:10:07,440 --> 02:10:11,100
a way that influences the rest of the survey negatively or do you think it's fine to ask

1514
02:10:11,100 --> 02:10:16,160
a couple of transit questions if they say yeah we think that's fine then it sounds to me

1515
02:10:16,160 --> 02:10:21,000
like you all would be open to that being a part of it and if they say it seems like a separate

1516
02:10:21,000 --> 02:10:23,840
thing we could come back to you and tell you that and you could give us further

1517
02:10:23,840 --> 02:10:28,960
direction. Since this is Council Member Lennon-Paris's situation, I'm going to let her go first.

1518
02:10:29,080 --> 02:10:34,060
Go ahead. Thank you. Yeah, I think we might be getting a little confused here because there's two

1519
02:10:34,060 --> 02:10:40,460
different things that we're talking about. The transit measure is an, the idea is an entirely

1520
02:10:40,460 --> 02:10:47,540
separate thing from the bond versus the idea of bringing in transit infrastructure into the bond.

1521
02:10:47,540 --> 02:10:51,500
So I just wanted to clarify that we're talking about two different pieces here.

1522
02:10:52,500 --> 02:11:17,000
Yeah, and I think given what you're just, you've just said, Paul, I would be inclined since we don't actually have anything in front of us right now, I think it would probably make sense to move forward with this survey without including anything about this AC transit potential measure just because I feel like it would be easier if we had more clarity around what it looked like to figure out if it made sense to include it or not.

1523
02:11:17,000 --> 02:11:21,060
And since we don't have that, I think it's better to see if we can address that separately.

1524
02:11:21,720 --> 02:11:23,480
But I'm open to having that conversation.