[0:14] Everyone and welcome to the cty of concord council meeting. It's 630 something. 33 and I'm calling the july 28th 2026 regular city council meeting to order. >> madam clerk, will you please play the video explaining available translation services ? Yemeni this is to me there is better compartilhar information so that production not

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[1:45] we are happy to mic our meetings accessible to all community members. Translation services are available during the live broadcast in several languages. If you would like to listen to an audio translation or read a written transcript in the language other than english, please scan the qr code. Select the language and click attend.

[1:53] lastly, use the headset on your phone for audio or read the transcript on your device. Unfortunately this service is not available if you're watching a replay of this meeting. Thank you very much. And first step on our agenda is roll call. Madam clerk, will you please call the roll? Councilmember bina vat you're via zoom.

[2:15] councilmember hofmeister here and in person. Councilmember over inger herron in person. Vice mayor albano, you're mayor. Mayor nakamura. I am here. Thank you very much. Councilmember hofmeister, will you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Thank you. Please rise.

[2:42] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay, so I'm going to now open it up for a 15 minute public comment period. We. It is now july. So you know what time it is. >> we are under new guidelines from the state to resume zoom pblic comments.

[3:11] so we will be balancing the zoom with the in-person public comments. Anything beyond the first initial 15 minute open public comment period will be will take place at the end of the meeting after our business of the regularly scheduled agenda items take place.

[3:36] madam clerk, will you tell e if we have any comments on zoom tonight? >> yes mayor I have for in-person speaker cards and I have three hands raised on zoom. Oay great. So let's go ahead and allow those three in for two minutes apiece and I hink we can wrap it up by in the first initial 15 minute period. Please go ahead and call the names of the people in person.

[3:58] I have vanessa channer, raul urrutia, linda navarro and amy estella. Vanessa, go ahead. Come on up. Anyone else whose name has been called please queue up at the black ines in the middle of the floor so we can facilitate these public comments a little bit more efficiently tonight. Thank you. >> vanessa, go ahead. Hi, everyone.

[4:30] my name is vanessa china and I live in district three. I'm here to speak on behalf of monument impact and the concrete immigrant protections network. I'm here to ask you all to agenda as a discussion to include community input to see which measures concrete plans to implement and update to adhere to the passing of senate

[4:45] bill 580 and ultimately to keep our concord community safe. Sb 580 was passed at the state level requiring local governments to implement policies that limit cooperation of local agencies with federal immigration enforcement.

[5:03] we know that ice has continued to be present in our city and that the department of justice is calling more than 100 people at a time to attend master hearings at concord's immigration court. And in response to the changing landscape of our city, the concord immigrant protections network is already doing work on the ground to support our community.

[5:21] we've supported our neighbors through the loss of snap benefits by holding a food pantry every monday evening which typically serves more than 100 families a week conducting business outreach throughout the city to instruct businesses around their immigration rights and patrolling the home depot for ice vehicles to keep our to help our day laborer community feel supported. So we're doing our part to keep our community safe and united.

[5:40] and I do want to note fairly quickly that while you have a city have wanted to clarify that it isn't concord's immigration court but rather an immigration court that's in concord. If you actually walk to the floor of the courthouse you'll see that the court itself has signage in this audience that calls itself the concord immigration court.

[5:57] so it really is with this in mind that community members are looking to you as as the leaders of our city to address all the changes n the last year and a half since the city must adhere to the requirements of sb 580 by the 1st of january 2027 and we imagine that

[6:14] immigration enforcement activity will only increase. We really call on you as city leaders to put this discussion on council immediately and to include community input in the process because our community deserves to feel safe and protected. >> thank you. Thank you, vanessa. Roll. >> good afternoon mayor and city council members.

[6:33] today I am joined by a group of students many of whom like myself are their first in their families to pursue higher education. For many of us college wasn't was guaranteed. It was a dream built on the sacrifice of our parents and the years of hard work.

[6:49] and I am proud to share that the students standing with me today who have who are transferring this year have all been accepted into the university of california system.

[7:06] but as we celebrate those achievement achievements we cannot ignore the reality that many of our students including middle schools and high school students here in concord go to school carrying a fear that no, no child should ever carry the fear that when they come home their parents may not be there. That fear doesn't stay at home. It follows them into the classroom, affects their ability to learn and it takes away the sense of security that every child deserves.

[7:24] concord says that it's a it's a city where families come first. Today I ask you to mic those words more than just a slogan and I urge you to consider making concord an ice free city and sending a clear message to every child and every family in

[7:37] our community that deserves to live with dignity, safety and without fear. Thank you. Thank you. >> good evening. Council members. I'm a resident of concord and district two and work with the center's tenants united.

[7:59] I've been working with community members who live on eureka lane who have raised concerns about the safety risk that potholes and inadequate lighting pose for residents of the street especially for elderly residents, residents with disabilities and children or whom use the street to commute daily from school and work. There have been incidents where residents have fallen and been injured on the street because of the neglect and lack of inadequate maintenance.

[8:19] we are aware that the portion of eureka lane is privately owned but even on the portion of the street that is under the city's jurisdiction, the street is dimly lit and several potholes have ot been filled. We appreciate the city's timely response to requests submitted to to the request submitted through the concord connect app.

[8:38] but there are still said road repairs that there need to be made and we ask for clear guidance and support navigating the repairs process and the private portion of the street. I would also like to point out that the concord connect app is not accessible to our residents.

[8:51] many of the residents I work with have have challenges creating an account with with the amount of information that's being asked for and submitting requests on this platform. Thank you. Great. Thank you. I'm just going to ask for someone like staff to maybe connect with this speaker about the technical issues.

[9:07] if you could mic sure we have your contact info. That would be great. We'd like to be able to connect with you on that. Thank you. And may I just confirm did you that you mentioned district two but I also heard you say eureka lane is eureka so that's in district three. Yeah, I live in this. Okay.

[9:25] just when I just want to mic sure I understood here the issue was. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Go ahead and bring up the next speaker. Thank you. >> hi. Good evening, mayor nakamura and council members.

[9:42] my name is amy and I am a concord resident and I just want to talk about giving the recent uptick in ice activity in concord and the anticipated I increase of vice presidents with the closure of the san francisco immigration court and the transfer of over 100,000 immigration cases to concord.

[9:59] it is critical that the council that the city council establishes a framework for responding to ice activity and confirm that it is that it supports lies behind the community members who are the backbone of concord not the administration that is kidnaping community members and ripping families apart. > and legality doesn't always mean morality be the change in history. I beg you guys.

[10:16] and another thing that I wanted I would also like to point out are hispanic brothers and sisters. They have native ties to these to this continent. Most people were immigrants from everywhere. We're all immigrants and we would just like to point out be the change in history.

[10:39] stop enforcing this white supremacy agenda that the current administration is enforcing. We've already faced 500 years of colonial rule so we're just asking you guys to put in some of your part. It is critical that the city is vocal in its support of immigrant communities as we all are immigrants and we should be transparent in its processes for responding to federal immigration enforcement.

[10:58] we ask that the council review the policies and procedures it has in place and to take into consideration input from community members so that as a community we can be prepared and organized to face increase in ice presence. Thank you. Thank you madam clerk. Can you go ahead and call a speaker from zoom? Yes.

[11:20] the first speaker is just titled zoom user and I'll let them in. Okay. Just say no. I don't think so. >> I am not zoom user so you can see yourself I take it? Yes. Yes mayor it looks like the zoom user declined to be promoted to a panelist.

[12:04] okay go ahead and call on the next zoom speaker okay. I have gwen gilson does gwen eed to be able to do anything to me? She needs me. Okay. Yes. There we go. Thank you. I one I it's great to be able to be on zoom again and be able to do this.

[12:34] I'm in concord resident and steering team member of indivisible resisters contra costa I care about concord and its people approximately 25% of whom were born outside the u.s..

[12:56] >> members of the concord city council prominently appear at immigrant focused events in the city in order to show their solidarity with this community conforming with sb 580 is an important part of that solidarity our treasured immigrant community is under attack locally and nationwide and resources of the city in all forms must be brought to bear on providing all possible protections.

[13:12] I ask the city council to immediately agenda eyes a discussion to evaluate whether city policies and procedures meet the standards of sb 580 do not wait until the deadline. This discussion must provide the opportunity for robust community input. Our immigrant neighbors need to be centered in this process along with the organizations that support them.

[13:33] we all know that the surge in ice and border patrol actions and the associated violence are just trial runs for the implementation of the fully authoritarian state that the current occupant of the white house and his handlers dream about our liberation and safety are tied together. None of us are free unless all of us are free.

[13:52] there are few things more important in this perilous time than standing up for immigrant neighbors with all appropriate urgency. People's lives are literally at stake. Thank you. >> thank you. Go ahead, madam clerk, please call the next speaker. I have catherine durham hammer. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, we can hear you. All right. Good evening, everyone.

[14:40] thank you, city council members and shout out to the leaders who have just spoken. I'm going to echo some of the things that they said. I'm catherine durham hammer 15 year concord district four resident and small business owner here on behalf of indivisible resisters contra costa, the 7000 plus member

[14:56] community action group with thousands of members from concord and neighboring cities I'm speaking tonight on behalf of to ask the council the council for implementation by the city of concord of the requirements of sb 580 given that the transfer of thousands of cases from san francisco to the federal immigration court in concord as mentioned before

[15:18] ,we do nticipate that our city will be in the crosshairs of the current administration. And we ask that you, our city council do all that you can to prepare to keep us all safe and to uphold the basic rights and safety of all concord residents.

[15:31] one way to prepare is to comply with the implementation requirements in sb 580 under which the council must review and if necessary revise its policies and procedures with robust community input to ensure that local facilities, facilities and data are not used for federal immigration enforcement.

[15:57] indivisible resisters contra csta stands with our immigrant neighbors in concord and some of us are immigrants who are already experiencing great harm at the hands of ice. Many have been separated from their families by being abruptly abducted by ice. Many more are afraid to go to work school, the hospital and many other important places because they justifiably fear what ice may do.

[16:15] even us citizens are expressing concern to us that they could be racially profiled and targeted by ice. As ice brutally rounds up anyone who appears to belong to a group the administration has decided to target what we see happening in other communities. We see what's happening in other communities.

[16:32] we see the lives that have been taken senselessly by ice violence and we don't want that to happen anywhere and we all want that of course to happen here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, madam clerk. Please call the next speaker. I have no more hands raised. No more. Okay, great. Thank you.

[16:53] and I believe we have a couple minutes if there's anyone else here in the chamber that would like another public comment would like to mic a public comment now seeing none I'm closing public comment and we are moving on to our city council consent calendar.

[17:18] is there anyone who would like to pull an item? Yes mary I would like to pull item three a please. Okay. Pulling three a yes. Okay so we will go ahead and ask for anyone who wants to speak mic public comment on item three b we are opening public comment for that.

[17:35] is there anyone here in the chamber that would like to mic a public comment on three b seeing none the city clerk do we have any hands raised on zoom? Okay so we'll go ahead and bring it back to the city council. I'm closing that public comment on that item.

[17:53] >> I'd go ahead and move item three b second. Thank you. And madam clerk, would you call the vote on item three b councilmember benevento yes. Councilmember hofmeister yes. Councilmember brinker yes. Vice mayor albano yes. >> mayor nakamura. Yes. And councilmember obering, are you pulled? Item three a would you like to have any questions or.

[18:15] >> yes, yes. So just so I just want to mic sure so this is a professional services agreement. This is related to the conquered the the former coast guard property that's now being referred to as the concord town square project.

[18:37] and since my city council district is adjacent to this project, I have gotten questions over the past few years when the development begins and there is asbestos in the existing buildings and there will be you know, displacement of wildlife and and those inds of impacts. And so my question and I think this is probably a question for staff I had put this in the public there is a public record already.

[19:01] I submitted it in writing but I also just wanted to confirm verbally for those who don't dig into into the city council packets. So I want to confirm the scope of work that we're talking about in this agreement.

[19:21] does this include a mitigation plan for when the steel soils disturbed, you know, or you know, to prevent asbestos blowing into holbrook ast terrace etc. Does this agreement cover those kind of short answer is yes. >> okay, councilmember okay. Thank you.

[19:37] so that is all I wanted to know to mic sure that this ot on the public record in writing and verbally and so I ill be making a motion when appropriate to approve item three. Okay. So we'll go ahead and go to public comment.

[19:54] is there any other questions from the oh, we've got one other question from council member yeah I just want to confirm it just was a little awkwardly worded in the agenda but I think the way in what I understand is that the professionals services agreement the city actually engages with that through a contract. So we control that the company that does the secure work and the developer is responsible for paying us through a deposit account and ensuring that that's covered. It's not from the general taxpayer. That's correct.

[20:15] the developer has signed a reimbursement agreement with the city. Perfect. Thank you so much. Great. Okay. So I will go ahead and take public comment on this item on item three a, is there anyone here in the chamber that would like to mic a public comment? Seeing none.

[20:33] city clerk can you tell me if there's anyone online? There's none. Okay. We're going to close that public comment and bring it back to the council. Thank you. And I have made a motion for approval, mayor of item three a and I'll second that. Thank you, adam clerk, please call the vote councilmember benevento yes. Councilmember hoffmeister? Yes. Councilmember brinker? Yes. Vice mayor albano. >> yes. Mayor nakamura.

[20:56] yes. Our next item on the agenda is the city council consideration item. It is a the adoption of a resolution calling for and giving notice of a november 3rd, 2026 election on a proposed business license tax simplification ballot measure. And here to tell us more is assistant city manager justin ezell.

[21:18] go ahead, justin and I'll let you take it away from here. >> thank you, mayor. Council members justin is your assistant city manager. I'll start off the conversation tonight by providing a little bit of background information on how the city is doing fiscally or financially.

[21:36] as this council knows the city has been deficit spending for a number of years. That deficit spending has been covered by what I'll call a rainy day fund and that is our fiscal stability und that was intentionally developed by this council to to plan ahead.

[21:56] and this council saw that there would be some tough conomic times ahead of us. And so in that planning you et aside one time money is to cover our deficit spending over a number of years because of operational savings that we were ble to identify and implement.

[22:18] our deficit spending has not has been as bad as we had previously projected. For example for the last fiscal year that we just closed out. We are projecting a $2.

[22:42] 3 million deficit once we closed the books which is about $140,000 better than what we had initially projected the fiscal stability fund that I mentioned will cover that deficit but we are drawing down the funds within that fiscal stability fund and will deplete those funds by next fiscal year. >> I wanted to just sort of set the stage and talk about where we are fiscally.

[23:08] we do have that deficit spending projected all the way out through 2032 and there's going to be an average of $2.9 million per year projected all the way throughout that time period. And as I mentioned, our fiscal stability fund will have been drawn down at that point. It may or may yes, we have a question already or a comment real quick.

[23:29] I know and this is I just want to say that dominic galliano is one of the members of the ad hoc no, the committee the infrastructure and finance committee that has been working on this very, very closely with staff.

[23:49] >> so I want to give an opportunity here for you to say no thank you because it sounds like something started to interrupt mr. Zell this is good information, very clear and concise. Can you also elaborate? I like how you know, you share with the public that we're deficit spending to 2032. Can you please elaborate what's in our reserves and throughout the year? Sure.

[24:04] what that actually looks like so yeah thank you vice mayor so the city council has set a policy to have a reserve of 30% of our operating fund our general fund operating fund that reserve once our fiscal stability fund does run out. Then we began drawing down our operating fund from that 30% level.

[24:25] we are projecting that we will not go below the minimum target set by council which is 17% of our general fund operating und. So as we are drawing down our deficit spending out through 2032 we then flatten out and we begin improving somewhat.

[24:44] but we do ot at this point go below that 17% minimum threshold that this council has set. Does that answer your question or address your your point? It does, but it's also information that the public should know like this is not good budgeting for us to rely on our reserves for operations and continued deficit spending.

[25:10] so I just wanted to highlight that that we are deficit spending to 2032 which you shared with the community and that that's not a good thing and I appreciate you making that point and it's a good segway and sets the stage for why we're talking tonight or

[25:25] one of the reasons why we're here talking tonight on top of that deficit spending, the city also has a significant backlog of infrastructure investment needs. We are currently estimating that annual need at $25 million that's $25 million per year that we need to invest into our roadways, our parks and our facilities.

[25:48] of that 25,000,018 million is needed just to keep our roadways at the current condition that they're in today. All of the road work that we've been seeing throughout the community has made really significant progress in terms of the condition of our roadways.

[26:12] however, that progress unfortunately is not going to continue unless we can continue investing in our roadways. And again, just to keep the rads at the condition they are today not to mic them better or allow them to further degrade.

[26:29] we need an additional $18 million per year in addition to that we need 6 to $7 million per year for our parks and facilities to replace roofs, to replace irrigation systems, to replace plant material, to paint buildings to keep them at a quality that our our residents expect from us.

[26:51] now this is not something that we suddenly realize this is something that e've been aware of for a very long time and this council has worked hard to address these needs not only the deficit spending that I talked about but also the infrastructure investment needs that we have this this organization operates at 19% fewer staff than it did prior to the great recession.

[27:10] so since the great recession we have been come in become a much more efficient organization and a much more lean organization and we operate today at 19% fewer staff than we did at our height. We have worked with council and the community to pass previous measures to begin addressing our infrastructure investment needs.

[27:35] we are very fortunate that our voters passed measure b in 2020 which allowed us to begin investing in our roadways and that's thanks to our voters all of the work that we're seeing today on our roads is attributed to that.

[27:54] it allowed us to go out and borrow $114 million to invest into that to into our roadways and ic significant progress. Additionally we have staff who are very good at identifying and going after grants so that we can leverage the funding that we do have. Our public works team for example is very successful at getting grants millions of dollars worth of grants each year allowing us to leverage the limited resources that we do have.

[28:16] we also go after state and federal earmarks requesting funding from our legislators to help us with special projects. This council made important investments in our community, our business community and into our infrastructure when we received one time federal funding during the covid area of $27 illion and as I mentioned we become much more efficient, effective and

[28:44] creative with the resources that we have. One example that you're familiar with is bringing back in house our patch paving crew. There was a period of time where it was much more cost effective to use contractors to get to go out and do pothole patch epair but things have shifted and we can now do that

[29:02] work in house and do it much more cost effectively and that's just one example of how we're using those limited way steps that we are taking to address this unfunded infrastructure need.

[29:28] this council created a tier one priority back in march of 2025 and reaffirmed it and 2026 and that is for staff to work with the infrastructure and franchise committee consisting of vice mayor albano and councilmember hofmeister to explore solutions for addressing those unfunded infrastructure needs. We held a total of eight committee meetings. We reviewed our fiscal situation and our funding needs and potential options.

[29:51] we also discussed what it was that we've been doing since the great recession to be more effective as an organization and ultimately the committee made the recommendation that we're here tonight to discuss which is to place a ballot measure and I'll discuss what that means.

[30:08] >> every business within this city is required to have a business license and the reason for that is businesses need city services. Well we are fortunate to have our businesses operating in our city and they are the backbone of our city and our economic engine.

[30:28] there are services hat are needed to help those businesses operate and o there is a fee to operate here and in concord just like every other incorporated organization, certain commercial operators pay a tax on the total revenue that they produce that total revenue that we'll talk about is being referred to as gross receipts and that gross

[30:55] receipts tax is paid directly by the business is operating here in the city. It's not paid by residents. Our homeowners are charged to residents or homeowners. It's charged to the businesses who are here operating using city services.

[31:15] those revenues then are used for those core general city services such as roadway maintenance, police response park aintenance and other core service needs. The current business license tax structure that we have.

[31:45] it was adopted decades ago and has not changed since and not all businesses but certain businesses that ave retail sales for examples pay a fee based on their gross receipts and they pay it today ccording to this schedule and what you're seeing here when you look at this schedule is that the small businesses at the top of that range that mic up to $25,000 per year pay one tenth of a percent charge on every dollar that they mic as a as a fee.

[32:06] so $1 for every $1,000 that's produced. But the way that our structure is currently set up, the more you mic as a business the less you pay in terms f an effective tax rate to the city and we call it a regressive structure because its impacting those small businesses more than the large businesses making greater revenues.

[32:27] so small business paying a 10th of a percent or a dollar for every $1,000 made. If you look at the bottom of that chart, they're the large businesses making over $7.5 million per year pay less than half of the effective tax rate than those small businesses.

[32:46] so instead of $1 for every thousand dollars made, it's $0.45 for every thousand dollars that's made. >> this is placing a larger burden on those smaller businesses in terms of carrying that much higher effective tax rate.

[33:10] >> f you look at the number of businesses that we have operating here in concord, you can see that the majority of our businesses are those smaller businesses that are paying that much higher effective tax rate. In fact 50% of all of our businesses paying this this rate in terms of gross receipts are only making up to $75,000 per year.

[33:33] >> so again, this is a decades old structure and it puts a much higher effective tax rate on those smaller businesses is putting a disproportionate burden on those smaller businesses as again we call it a regressive rate structure and not only that, it's it's difficult to navigate it's hard to explain and it's more difficult then to administer

[34:00] then what we're going to propose to you and what the committee's recommendation is which is a uniform rate structure, a uniform rate structure of one tenth of 1% which is what those small businesses are currently paying would apply the same tax amount across businesses regardless of size.

[34:21] so that chart that we just looked at that regressive chart that went from a 10th of a percent down to four hundredths I would go away and it would be one uniform rate structure for all businesses regardless of size making it equal across all businesses.

[34:53] it would eliminate that declining effective rate that's currently present in our model . It would be simpler, more predictable and easier to administer and understand by our businesses. In addition to that it would generate approximately $3 million annually for those core city services that we're talking about and the reason why it generates additional revenue for the city because if you think back at that chart, those businesses, those large

[35:16] businesses that are paying half of what the small businesses are paying, it would now be uniform and equal across the board regardless of business size. In addition to that, we looked at the the small small businesses, the startups, the home based businesses and took into consideration how we can mic some exception for these

[35:44] businesses to help get them started, get them off the ground and get them up and running. >> while $5,000 seems like a low point to exempt a business,it actually represents 15% of the total businesses that are paying gross receipts.

[36:12] so while this seems like a small number, 15% of all of our businesses paying on our gross receipts basis are making $5,000 or less and so what we're proposing is that we exempt those businesses from paying a gross receipts tax again this will support our smallest of small businesses by reducing their operating costs and help encourage that entrepreneurship here in concord, which is what we're we're hoping to do in addition

[36:37] to all the work that we've done with the infrastructure and franchise committee, those eight meetings that I talked about, we've also been talking out talking to residents nd the business community about this proposal we conducted independent research and in february we went out and we surveyed our residents using a independent third party to see

[36:58] if there would be support for a simplification of our business license tax and in that showed that there was 66% support from our residents and putting this measure forward we went out and we talked to our businesses.

[37:21] we conducted two small business roundtable meetings sharing the same information that I'm sharing with you here tonight and getting feedback from those businesses and it was a very positive feedback that we received from those businesses and support we also held an economic advisory group meeting this group is the group that was formed under your economic development strategic plan that which you recently adopted.

[37:40] it includes large businesses and leaders within our community. We held a concord chamber of commerce business meeting. This was a meeting that the full membership was invited to attend to get feedback on his proposal we shared the same information again with this with this group and again had positive feedback.

[38:03] we held a resident community meeting to roll out the same information and get feedback directly from ur residents which again was favorable. We held a resident priorities survey.

[38:26] we sent out two mailers to the community hich I'll talk about in a moment and we had 480 plus responses from the community on that survey and then we followed up with additional independent research by using a third party to go out and statistically valid conduct a scuse me a statistically valid survey of our of our residents sentiment around a potential ballot measure and again it showed 66% support for a ballot measure I mentioned to the

[38:56] community priorities survey that we conducted we sent out two informational mailers to all postal addresses within the city asking the community what was the highest priority need that they have and those results not surprisingly had street repair at the very top of the list followed by our 911 emergency response followed by relief relieving traffic congestion.

[39:24] we thought it was important to get this feedback from the community because if we do generate additional revenue for core city services we want to know from the community what is most important to them to use this funding for.

[39:44] and so we found this to be effective in getting that feedback and I will end by discussing the committee recommendation that is before you tonight and that is to adopt that resolution that would place a ballot measure on the november 3rd, 20 2026 election.

[40:04] and I do want to highlight here as well that in order to place that measure on the ballot it would require a 4/5 vote of this council and I'm happy to answer any questions. >> thank you, justin. I'm going to ask the committee members to go ahead and weigh in here.

[40:21] I I can see dominick you have some comments or maybe questions but I know that you and councilmember hoffmeister have really done a lot of work on this eight meetings with staff is is a yeoman's job to put it in words that councilmember hofmeister you use a lot but I after reviewing a lot of the documentation and the staff reports I really want

[40:43] to thank you on behalf of myself but also that probably the full council we all appreciate how you've gotten down in the weeds on this. It's very important to the ity so I'm going to turn it over to you. >> councilmember alfano thank you, madam. Knock on thank you, mr. Zell for the presentation.

[40:58] I will say this it's been a pleasure working with councilmember hofmeister and all the staff on this issue. It's probably the most important issue that the city's actually dealing with and the decisions we're about to mic are going to affect on our community and how much we thrive and provider essential services.

[41:20] but what to the point I wanted to mic was you know, my recommendation hasn't changed. I completely support the decision that staff is recommending the recommendation that I originally had. I'm respectfully requesting that the full city council support that recommendation and for the reasons stated by mr.

[41:42] zell n the presentation the current financial situation that we are in councilmember hofmeister and I we literally turned over every stone. We understand right now the public sentiment s with increases the cost of living tax measures and what happened during the primary election with some of those tax measures. We looked at bonds. We looked at parcel tax.

[42:06] we looked at utility taxes and other things and I feel like updating something that we already have to be equitable which will also help us create a new or improve our revenue source is something that the community can agree to at the moment.

[42:34] a you saw in the presentation there was multiple committee meetings, multiple discussions with the business community which supported this idea of community surveys that showed support and and mailers that also engage the community with multiple meetings and a survey that expressed the what was important to our community and and the support that there is for this.

[42:57] so I think councilor hofmeister and I wanted to come to you guys making sure that we discussed everything and this is the best solution that we have right now for the current situation that we're in.

[43:17] this is the best solution that we have and I believe that councilmember hofmeister myself have done a good job of bringing already a lot of community engagement into this and believe that is one of the major reasons why I feel like we all can feel comfortable to move this forward. >> so thank you. Thank you, vice mayor councilmember hofmeister. Yes, I certainly think so.

[43:35] thank you, dominic, for councilmember vice mayor alioto for serving on the committee, we did go through quite a scrub of different ideas and obviously as we started this process economies nd one situation it is you know, continued to be more

[43:53] challenging and we looked at a lot of options and when it came down to it when you look at a business license fee structure we do our revenue fee structure on our city fee schedule every couple of years it's updated this hasn't been updated since 1989 and you think back back

[44:11] then I don't even know if we had flip phones yet but technology has change. Business structures have changed the types of businesses we have in the community have changed and I think this really lends itself to balancing out the needs of small businesses where they're really effective tax rate isn't going to change much or stay the same.

[44:31] plus we have an exemption for those that would be from I think it's under 3000 ow we move that up to 5000 which is a little bit consistent with other communities in our area.

[44:46] so that kind of jives with our economic development strategy plan too is how can we not only raise revenue but also be competitive in the marketplace and and provide opportunities with that revenue for our community.

[45:05] so 37 years is a long, long time to not have reviewed a ee and so shocking to me when had been that long and I think our finance director for stepping in and you know scrubbing through everything and getting all the details for us to evaluate and look at but this appears to be the best option for our community is to update our business license schedule the bigger corporate america businesses that have larger amounts of revenue will be

[45:24] paying you know, basically what I would call their fair share as we go forward and then the smaller businesses would not be affected in terms of their tax rate.

[45:41] so I think we've come to a balance that I think we can achieve some revenues for the city that will help us out and we did as was seen we spent a lot of eight meetings because what we wanted to do when we brought this forward to the council is we wanted to mic sure we had done community outreach, checked in with our business community, the small

[45:56] businesses, the big businesses because we didn't want to bring something forward if everybody was going to be all divisive on this and as mr.

[46:11] zale presented, you know, the information was shared with the chamber, the big businesses, the small businesses, some community members and they were all positive in terms of saying well yeah it's it has been done since when yeah I'm okay with the way you want to update it. That seems to mic sense to us and we support that.

[46:26] so with that we brought this forward and felt that it was appropriate o do for the election cycle coming up so that we could if successful with the public we can at least achieve the revenue stream to the community you know to our general fund and to the community services that we need to provide all the much sooner. Great. Thank you.

[46:41] and then vice mayor alfano has one more thing to add and then we're going to go to questions from the council members who weren't part of all of these sessions that you guys had.

[46:54] >> thank you, mayor knock for the last thing I will add is I just want to be very clear with the public that this isn't going to be the answer to our issues or problems at this point. This is one of multiple things that we have to do. So we are going to depending on the direction that's given by the council which I hope is a yes to move forward unanimous.

[47:13] lee there's going to be more discussions about this of how we're going to address the financial situation and other things that we're going to be looking at. So this conversation isn't over.

[47:25] but I just want to be very clear with the public that just because we're having this conversation right now doesn't mean that it's oing to fix the problem. >> right. Okay. Thank you very much, council member ben eventi. I've got a light on over here from councilmember obering but then we'll we'll turn to you.

[47:38] I don't know I can't tell if your hand is up or not but I'm going to I just wanted to let you know that we hadn't forgotten that you were out there and tv land and but I will. You're p next for questions. Okay. Councilmember obering, go ahead. Thank you.

[47:53] I don't know if this was made clear or not so I'm just going to ask the question so these eight committee meetings it wasn't just with staff, right? I mean these meetings were open to the public.

[48:08] so if a public member wanted to come and learn about what was going on, they had at least eight operative parties, correct? That's correct. In addition to our goal setting workshop. That's correct. And we did have some members at some of those committee meetings, chamber members. We had other business members. We had just some random cmmunity members that hat came.

[48:20] so they I think almost all of our meetings we had at least one person there but I know several times we had, you know, six, seven, eight people, nine people from different areas of our community. That's great. Yes.

[48:34] because again there's a lot of great work which I very much appreciate my two colleagues doing and I just want to mic sure again. Mr. Zell so there was a cross section. It was small business. It was some of our owners of some of our larger businesses it was different cross-sections of the city that were engaged. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. Okay.

[48:50] and there wasn't anybody who was vehemently opposed to this idea that you encountered. >> we did not. Okay. Yeah. Either there was silence or there was enthusiastic support for what we're proposing. Thank you. And if we started making adjustments o the formula tonight it would be we wouldn't be able to put this on the ballot. Correct.

[49:13] because this would have to go back for analysis and this is that's correct. We this has been set up it's ballot ready and and this is our last chance right to the deadline to submit this to the the county clerk is august 7th. So tonight is is the opportunity for us to place the measure. >> okay.

[49:31] thank you very much. Okay. So councilmember member event do you have some questions? >> yeah, I only have one you mentioned there's 50% of the business mall businesses that pay what is that 50%? Are we talking about our 200 businesses, 50 businesses?

[49:53] I don't know if you can ign in a little more likely to that just it it's 670 for businesses. Councilmember mic up that 15% so what was that sorry 670 for business is are making $5,000 or less per year in gross receipts that's what the 15% of the total is and they would be exempt.

[50:21] >> and I think as as councilmember hoffmeister pointed out just to to be perfectly clear what we're proposing if this does get placed, those businesses would be exempt from paying the gross receipts tax. So our smallest of smallest businesses 674 of them today would be exempt from this gross receipts tax. >> okay. Thank you.

[50:47] I have a second question. The materials reference a 2.923 million annual revenue. Is that a net of administrative and implementation costs and how reliable is a projection during an economic downturn that you mic a great point.

[51:13] yes it is net to answer your first question and the the amount of revenue that's generated will completely depend on the economy as things go up and down as will that revenue because it is paid on a gross receipts basis in a thank you for that last question since this is a tax how will the where we be the body of independent oversight or we can

[51:40] have independent oversight it will be going to be the oversight of this tax when it gets implemented if it's passed by the voters, how will residents be able to see where the money is spent each year or is this going to be just went straight to the general fund

[51:53] just as we have our measure b oversight committee that reports out to council annually to ensure that hose funds are spent just like we told the voters would be spent the $2.

[52:13] 9 million of additional revenue that we are estimating from this measure will also go to that same oversight body to perform that same audit and report out to two council to measure accurate to measure b audit the measure b oversight the same body okay es so we've the main change them simplistically this measure b we haven't thought that through to be quite on.

[52:39] >> okay okay I was just a little bit confused those are all my questions. >> thank you. Okay. And then we have another question from councilmember obering. Thank you. So it was stated earlier that this was last this information was last digested and reviewed before two of our council members were born.

[52:56] >> so what would the process be? Yeah. To you know, assuming this passes I'm not counting any chickens. I'm hopeful that this gets approved and passes. What is the process? >> how often would it be reviewed? >> I'm sorry. I just sort of I just I just thought of it.

[53:20] I mean is it is it at the will of the council basically. Okay. >> so we see how it does and then potentially mic adjustments accordingly. We're just trying to get it on the ballot and passed at this point.

[53:30] is that right? I think yeah I know what the committee we briefly touched on it and t was like well it's been 39 years. I hope it's not going to be another 39 years and I know the finance director said basically the same hing how long or how far out you know, whether it's on a ten year basis or something.

[53:45] but if things start needing to be updated it's that it's on our radar screen now passed by the voters because any future change we'd also have to take out to the voters as well. So it would be the same process we would need to evaluate and look at and put a measure before the voters.

[54:01] it is my understanding this is a 50% plus one approval because it's a general that's correct tax so I know our survey results that we had asked for during the committee process we had one done early on and then obviously the economy started gas prices went up to $5 a gallon.

[54:19] >> so we were sitting there thinking, you know, what does this mean for business person? How would this work? What's the sentiment? What's the thought of the community? And so we're really pleased when we saw the second survey results that it was still support for the concept so that it's worthy to bring this forward to the voters.

[54:37] the one thing I wanted to mic sure of mr. Zell, you talked about the oversight committee being involved but as I understand this is revenue now that comes into our general- fund. So it's tracked because we know it's comes from business license so you can actually track how much revenue is coming from business license today.

[54:59] and so with the oversight committee being looked at because I think you had 2.93 million was the new revenue right? 2.9 correct. So if I'm an oversight committee member, am I is the concept that they're just looking at the adjusted amount that.

[55:22] 93 and not the prior number that that is correct the the additional revenue that would be generated by this measure if passed by voters. Okay. Is estimated to be $2.

[55:44] 9 million and so that is the amount that we have identified as going to this oversight committee for for you know, review to mic sure that we're spending the funds exactly as we have told voters and for reporting out to council and public on use of those funds. Now that number is going to stay constant.

[56:04] and this goes back to one of the questions that councilman amber benevento had which is administration we don't want to create additional administrative costs related to this and so that is trying to pll out exactly how much additional revenue could e generated through this measure as the economy goes p and down would create a challenge for our finance department and to avoid that and to avoid the additional administrative cost

[56:21] of that we have identified the 2.9 million which is what we estimate it will be generated today from this measure passed. We'll go to that oversight body for consideration and that number will stay constant. >> okay.

[56:38] that's what I wanted to understand because of the fluctuation with the economy and the number of businesses and some of that stuff and as we go out in the future this same tax rate schedule if passed by the voters would also apply to god knows ow long much longer but in the future the base and development and business opportunities at the

[56:56] base of that 3 million and we kind of touched on it briefly at our committee meeting but the basis further out but you know some ten years out the forecast of 3 million you're looking at the existing business base we have now in the community as new businesses

[57:14] move in and establish themselves here, that's additional revenue that's not currently in the methodology numbers that we've established. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. And I did have one final question. Marriage or go ahead. So again, I had heard it emphasized in your presentation that this is one piece of this puzzle to address our structural budget deficit.

[57:38] so is the idea that next year we would look we would begin looking at at other ways to plug the the emaining $22 million. You know, if that's part of I would assume would be part of the council's goal setting workshop and priority is or what's the what were the thoughts of the committee you

[57:59] know to me at least the step one was this step to still being discussed and then to have another committee meeting mic sure we flesh that out and bring that idea back to the council o discuss that. Okay. Okay.

[58:18] so I mean I don't want to I don't want to sit here and say it's going to be this because we don't know it's going to be this or like we need to actually have some more discussion to then bring you something that we're more confident in. Okay. Sounds good.

[58:33] would that be happening this year? Well, some of the work kind of happened already in our committee meeting where we had a lot of options and we determined that this was the one that could be achievable to the to us in the timeframe that we were looking at and then other things are changes of

[58:47] state legislation that may change how you can you know, create revenue streams and what the methods are that you can ask the populace for a vote if it requires a vote on other methods.

[59:03] so we kind of parked all those on the back burner so that we could focus on this one since it was the opportunity, the time frame, the way the legislation currently stands that we could go forward to the voters. >> thank you. But I also want to be mic you guys feel confident that comes from our hofmeister and I are looking at the bigger picture of everything. We're not working in a silo. >> yes.

[59:22] you know yes, no, I want to acknowledge that and I was just trying to put the pieces together again managing the expectations of the public and quite frankly helping folks to understand that this is not going to be solved overnight.

[59:34] there's been a lot of hard work that's put in you know, we ope that this passes and that more work is going to be done over the next several years. So that was the purpose of my question.

[59:51] and I'll just add that one of the things that we were looking at also in terms of a global evaluation was we also have just recently updated our economic development strategy plan and so there's opportunities there in the future that can also lend to bringing in revenue as new businesses or new opportunities show themselves that we can also add into our future meetings and discussions to see how that looks.

[1:00:14] so this is a continuing conversation with new information always coming forward that we're always reevaluating and looking at. Thank you. I'm going to go check in one more time with councilmember benevento and did ou have any other questions? >> all good. Okay, great.

[1:00:29] so just for my part and justin, I just want to understand and you know, I know the staff report did point out that since the great recession the city has really downsized in the sense of, you know, the staffing 19% is what the staff report says.

[1:00:49] there were other things that we did were we've already done what we can looking inward. Correct. And so this is one of those things we're looking at what other things that we might be able to do with in the community and this is a a policy that is from 1978.

[1:01:06] it's kind of been sitting on the shelf since 1978. It hasn't been updated since then. >> this was 78 in the report n the we went back and forth on this as staff we want to be as transparent, as clear with the community as we can.

[1:01:24] the the schedule was first created back in 1978 as the mayor points out, it was created as an urgency ordinance and then later adopted and so that later adoption is what we've been using and you know, you could say it's nearly 40 years old or nearly 50 years

[1:01:43] old is very old and it's outdated and needs to be modernized. >> well, and I'm I'm I question why why and maybe we don't have the answers why the structure that that was done in originally in 1978 was to tax the the larger the more successful businesses less than maybe the the beginner businesses the smaller businesses.

[1:02:09] it seems like right now that the what the community and what what a lot of people are feeling is that business hasn't been paying its fair share and so there's there's the question of okay this is kind of this is a a very streamline approach and I know in the report it

[1:02:25] talked about doing maybe this you know, taking moving away from a regressive tax approach and I know the committee didn't go for more of a progressive approach.

[1:02:41] I, I like the structure but I don't know if anyone wants to speak to the the even flipping the flipping the whole structure on its head and and doing more than what what this measure is says it will do and so that's one question if anyone wants to speak about the structure and then I do have a follow up question or I can just briefly and I'm and mr.

[1:03:02] zale can add it because I think councilmember I'll bring or ask something similar was changes to what's before us tonight would require additional agendas and review and meetings and we don't have the time to mic it for the ballot in november. I'm not proposing any change. Oh okay. I'm just doing conversation.

[1:03:20] doing conversation and then questions and so okay. And one of my questions is you know, it is not about changing what's presented because I do appreciate I very much appreciate the work that's gone into this and the staff report

[1:03:33] and how it was laid out and I, I really hope that this the the public reads the staff report and takes the time to delve into it because it for me it was sort f a no brainer to do this but it also raised a lot of questions like how how have we not identified this as a

[1:03:53] something that over burdens our smaller businesses in the past and so I'm really glad that we're approaching it now and taking care of this.

[1:04:09] and I also see it as a you know, this is a this is a prong of a multi-pronged approach to take care of this 25 million deficit that we're trying to approach to solve for. But it's not we're not putting the whole burden on businesses.

[1:04:28] we are like this is a this is a11 approach and I'm sure and maybe I'm just in you can speak to this the feedback that maybe businesses gave I mean they y assumption is that they would understand that where this revenue how this revenue helps the city and how it helps them as businesses is was that feedback that was feedback that we received and I appreciate

[1:04:46] one of the points that councilmember hofmeister made earlier which is that a lot has changed since the 70s 80s when this ordinance was first created. Businesses are different, the economy is different.

[1:05:03] we have a different industry here in concord and so it's time that we now look at the way this business license is structured things will change again when the base does get developing there will be different industry out n the base and so that might be an opportunity then to look at this again.

[1:05:20] however, for those discussions with the businesses where we are very similar questions to the one that you raise which is well this is a regressive structure. We understand that's not equitable.

[1:05:38] what is a progressive structure look like or what is a different type of regressive structure look like? And so we worked with that small business roundtable to look at different options and where we came back to was this uniform rate structure that was equal across all business types had the most support and understanding and simplicity. What we don't want to do is drive business out of concord. We want to support our businesses, invite businesses to be here and drive that economic engine without driving out the businesses.

[1:05:58] and so a progressive structure we have concern that that could happen while generating more revenue. That's a double edged sword we could you know, potentially lose large businesses if if the impact is too great by whatever structure that that was created.

[1:06:16] >> but I'm also hearing that in some of the research that you did that there was an acceptance of it, there wasn't a strong pushback. There was acceptance of it. That's correct.

[1:06:34] and which is which is a good sign that our our voters can if if this is on the ballot I can feel good about this that there were really thinking this through and making the right decision for the city and how w how we're solving for some of our infrastructure funding gps.

[1:06:53] right and so one of my other questions is do we do we have a sense for how businesses looking at the city of concord might compare us to other cities based on tax structures and what other cities around us are are doing? >> yeah, the cities around us are all over the board. There's no real easy way of comparing different cities because industry is different the way fees are charged is different.

[1:07:13] some cities have regressive structure like we have today. Some cities have a flat structure like what we're proposing and some cities have progressive structures out there as well. So it really is all over the place. There's no one universal approach to how this is done.

[1:07:32] what is done is what works for the community at the time depending on the economy, the industry and what the public wants. >> great. Thank you. And then one last question about the you know, the transparency and the streamlining of it. We're in communications with the business community.

[1:07:54] did was was that a an acknowledgment? Do they understand that this is going to really streamline and simplify and and it was going to be a much more ransparent process. >> the feedback in our one on one kinds of conversations with businesses as again universal support for modernizing it and yes, this was very easy for them to understand. >> great. >> okay. Thank you.

[1:08:15] I'm going to ask my colleagues any other questions. Well, I just want to add or two to supplement what mr. Zell said. Some of the business people that I spoke to liked the idea that didn't matter how much more revenue they made, the percent formula would be the same.

[1:08:29] so it was not hard for hem to say oh I owe this amount for this amount of revenue. Now I've gotten better but I was paying a fee and I forgot that I had to be my rate structure increased and now I'm getting obese.

[1:08:44] I have to pay, you know, an additional supplemental to the city because I'm in a new bracket and you know, it's just that change based upon the income flow this was a lot easier for them to say doesn't matter how much I mic this is what the rate amount is that I pay.

[1:09:00] it's more that the business license so it's very predictable, it's very manageable they don't have to worry about is it going up, am I in the category now that it goes up or am I not in the category right or in my category that goes down and I've overpaid so they like the idea of simplifying it.

[1:09:15] they really kind of, you know, bonded with that concept and that's why I think just an even used in his presentation of the simplification you know this is a simplification as well. So that's one thing.

[1:09:31] and you asked mayor about how did we get to this and the structure and I'll just shed some light being being now we may not have an answer. It was around in 1989 but in 79 I was in high school though but but the 80s was redevelopment redevelop it came out and redevelopment was a tool that cities were using whether it

[1:09:47] was walnut creek to some extent pleasant hill concord we're all using redevelopment tools by our predecessors to create redevelopment districts, do redevelopment debt financing and the businesses we were all competing for the businesses the bank of america, the wells fargo like all of these things were occupying the offices being built and you know,

[1:10:11] coming out from oakland and san francisco and so the business license structure was one that was like beneficial to those big businesses that they could look at and say oh, here's another reason why we should come to concord and establish our office, you know, workers here in concord.

[1:10:27] so yes, there was a thought process and it was in that time and space that that was good because they got businesses and workers out here and could utilize public transit and with the redevelopment area around the downtown bart station this was all part of that concept

[1:10:45] but that was in you know, really the 80s and here we are in 2026 and things have changed as mr. Zale said and we have to go back and I think update this and keep a fresh look on it as time goes on.

[1:11:01] the other thing was in the 70s and I think the finance directors might be able to know better on this but there is a point in time where you could do adjustments to your business license taxes without taking it to the voters but legislation court cases came about and now

[1:11:19] these types of things go to the ballot for the public to vote on whereas before cities were just administratively update their business license fee schedule without really going out to the voters. So that raises a good question. This is a post prop 13 that I have.

[1:11:34] yeah is that and councilmember benevento mentioned it the oversight of this if we already have a fee structure in place but there's no oversight, why is there now why does this change the need for it? I mean yes, I'm not saying taxes shouldn't be there shouldn't be oversight over it.

[1:11:52] I'm just saying what changes why has it changed from what we've been doing without oversight to why there's oversight? Because there's a council right there. Yes. All right.

[1:12:09] I just don't well, no, but we've just yes, we are the council and we are we do have oversight but the particular type of oversight that council member ben event and assistant city manager zelle we're talking about is moving this into the measure v oversight committee but it hasn't been there in the past. So why is it not there right now? What what changed the the the purpose of taking the estimated 2.

[1:12:33] 9 million of additional revenue that this measure is is projected to generate and putting it under the oversight of the measure b committee provides confidence to voters that these funds that we are expected to generate will be used for the priorities that we discussed and so it's to

[1:12:52] instill that confidence in voters that the purpose for doing this and and what we do with these funds is in line with what we told them. >> okay. I think really the public expectations ave changed over time and just like we did with the sales tax measure, the first amount of sales tax measure doesn't go to the

[1:13:12] oversight committee. Just the additional component that was passed by the public is the part that they you know, look at. So this would be the piece that they would look at.

[1:13:26] so it's that same concept following what we did with the sales tax measure that it's consistent because the last thing we wanted to do is well wait a minute how can an oversight committees not get involved? You had it at the sales tax time.

[1:13:40] why is you're not doing it this this is still a tax this is still so for I think just for transparency to the public right to keep with what they're comfortable with and what their expectations are. This is what we felt was appropriate to put forward. >> great.

[1:13:53] and I understand that and I'm just I wonder if there were people who will have like the question like well, was there I mean yes, we the council was the oversight committee. So now we are we're going to the voters and and hey will there will be additional oversight for this these funds that we're now bringing into the city. So that's correct. The answer okay.

[1:14:09] so any more questions from my colleagues before we open it up to public comment? No. Okay. So I'm going to open up public comment. This is for an opportunity for anyone who's here in the chamber or on zoom who can go ahead and mic a public comment and we will.

[1:14:30] how many people do we have on zoom? No one on zoom. Okay. So we'll go back to the three minute timeframe if anyone would like to mic a public comment and okay, we've ot one time right I. Good evening mayor. Vice mayor council members staff my name is robin cazalet. >> I live in concord district three thanks for your work on doing this.

[1:14:56] >> I think this is a great idea, a great way to help address the budget deficit. I lso have the same concerns as the mayor. Why are we doing an oversight of additional funds that are coming in when we're not over having n oversight committee look at the entire fee structure?

[1:15:14] >> so that would be my only concern but I think it's a great idea. I appreciate your work on this and especially having the community involved. >> thank you. Thank you sir. Anyone else that would like to mic a public comment? Oh, okay.

[1:15:26] seeing none I'm going to go ahead and close the public comment and bring it back to the council for any additional deliberations or if someone would like to mic a motion I for the reasons stated earlier in this discussion I would like to mic a motion that we move

[1:15:44] for the recommendation to put this on the ballot for november 2026. Yes and second, but I do have some comments. Council member ben eventi go ahead with your comments.

[1:16:06] no, I just want to say thank you to the infrastructure and franchise committee councilmember hofmeister invites me or I mean I know I am supportive of this recommendation and simplifying our business license that structure can really mic the process clearer and easier to understand for both local and business and the public. So I also believe concord voters should have the opportunity to consider this proposal and mic the final decision.

[1:16:24] I want to thank staff and the committee who put this item forward and bringing it to the city council all together and I am supportive and I look forward to voting and for everybody voting on this year. Thank you very much. We've got a second. Okay, great. So we have a second.

[1:16:44] >> any other comments? No, I just want to clarify that that was the motion to move forward the resolution as recommended by staff, correct? Yes, it was correct. Thank you. And I just go through the mayor.

[1:16:58] I again want to thank the committee members because I know how many meetings you had and I read all the minutes because I was curious as to what was going on and it was really good work and I appreciate all the support that staff provided as well and I think that there was robust outreach that was done particularly to the business community.

[1:17:16] so that helps me to feel very confident about voting yes to put this on the ballot and again I can't emphasize how much I appreciate the due diligence that councilmember hofmeister and vice mayor alfano did to look at all of the different options and

[1:17:33] choose this option as appropriate for this time and so I look forward to further discussions about how to continue to chip away at the structural budget deficit. But I will be voting in support of this resolution to put this on the ballot. Thank you.

[1:17:52] and and I also would like to add that I appreciate all the work that staff and the committee have put into this. It's already been said we know how how deep in the weeds that committee got.

[1:18:11] I don't know if it's appropriate to to say okay now hurry up and get back to work because there's still more work to be done. This is this is one prong of a probably very multipronged approach that the city is going to need to address and I and it's it's nice to hear that we have what I'm what my sense is

[1:18:29] before we take the vote we are all in on the same page with this and I just to the voters to our residents and to the voters I hope that you will take a look at the staff report ,ask questions if you need all of us are available and we will we will mic ourselves available

[1:18:45] to ask answer questions because we want everyone to understand what the process is and why we need to be doing this and why it's going on the ballot and why it's so important to pass this measure so that we can continue to take care of our roads and our public services

[1:19:00] and our police services and our parks and recreation and there's so many things here in the city that we need to be able to take care of and this is one step in the right direction to be able to do that.

[1:19:12] and so with that I will ask the city clerk to go ahead and call the vote on this important measure. >> councilmember benevento yes. Councilmember hoffmeister yes. Councilmember bringer yes. Vice mayor albano yes. Mayor nakamura yes. Thank you. Thank you everyone.

[1:19:35] >> one last thing you may say one more thing I want to thank staff mr. Zell ms. Brown our finance director. You know, kit, there was a lot of staff members that were engaged in this conversation and it was a lot of times where they would bring an idea nd laura and I would be like we'd

[1:20:02] and sometimes ripped to shreds or you know, grill them with lots of questions and asking for more data. Yes. So thank you guys. Thank you for the support on this. Thank you. Good work. Okay. So we're going to go ahead and move on to our next item on the agenda we have correspondence madam clerk.

[1:20:23] is there are there any is there any additional correspondence? No. Mayor and reports and announcements are there any closed session announcements? No mayor there none. Are there any city manager or staff reports? No, ma'am. Okay.

[1:20:42] and I'm going to go ahead and ask we've got councilmember obering here who serves and represents the city of concord on the green empowerment zone to go ahead and give us an update here. Thank you very much.

[1:20:59] so I appreciate being appointed to represent the city of concord on the green empowerment zone board for those who don't know, the purpose of the board is to guide and oversee the development of the northern waterfront area which concord is adjacent to that. And the idea is to take a look predominantly the cities that are included are home to refineries or adjacent to refinery is like concord is adjacent to the sustainable fuel producer marathon so that is why concord has representation.

[1:21:23] the goal is to try to transition to a clean energy economy by leveraging skilled energy industry workers. So I just wanted to give an update as to what is happening there.

[1:21:46] the the body meets every other month so most recently it was not unanimous but the body took a look at the request by phillips 66 and they were requesting support for a a tax tax break essentially tax incentives for their sustainable aviation fuel initiative which uses cooking oil as a low carbon feedstock.

[1:22:13] so the body did support that and that's now being considered in a trailer bill in sacramento also we heard about the opportunity zone 2.0 program. So this had come out during the first trump administration and so now there's the 2.0 and the second administration and so that offers federal tax incentives for investment in distressed areas.

[1:22:39] so I do appreciate that member of our economic development staff does attend these meetings with me and staff has already identified some some areas that would go into the opportunity zone 2.

[1:22:58] 0 so we had to apply and so that has been done because there's census tracts I guess is how I should explain this that need to be nominated so that work has has happened also the green empowerment zone board works with the uc berkeley labor center and so they were providing an update on the needs for clean energy manufacturing and again it I what I will say is it has been challenging because the jobs that are available to refinery workers are truly family sustaining jobs and we've been

[1:23:28] going through the research and quite honestly the opportunity is there are currently available as you transition away from that work is not family sustaining so that is part of the work that the that the body is still continuing to do. We also received a presentation on environmental risk assessment. So the idea is clean manufacturing.

[1:23:54] we want to mic sure that it's not going to necessarily we have produce a large volume of hazardous waste. So they went through you know, they covered that most clean energy manufacturing technologies if we can attract them they are they pose low hazardous waste environmental risk.

[1:24:17] and finally I submitted this to city staff to review because we've been hearing issues with zoning challenges and how zoning and permitting can be a challenge for clean manufacturing and other industrial uses. And so they provided us with a chart to show, you know, where there could be some inconsistencies.

[1:24:41] so conditional permits can sometimes be a barrier so cities put them in place for obvious reasons but you know in some cases it might mic sense to to streamline those.

[1:24:58] so I provided that chart to city staff so we can take a look and see if there's any changes that we want to mic as we're as we're putting into practice our economic development strategy that councilmember hofmeister referenced earlier. So I just want people to know what I'm doing when I'm there for 3.

[1:25:17] 5 hours on a friday morning and what we're trying to accomplish and I thank you for the opportunity to be part of that and if I could also just mic one other council report please. So it is almost time for back to school and so the concord mills located on broadway right near the dollar tree, they are going to be oing a backpack distribution. They will have a lunch. They will have arts and crafts.

[1:25:39] there's going to be a petting zoo that always comes from brentwood. It's a lot of fun. So 1 p.m. On saturday, august 1st so I want to invite folks to come out and also happening in district two we're going to be congrats elating all the youth who have successfully

[1:25:57] completed another season of junior giants big big shout out to anna villalobos there's going to be graduations ceremonies at ten and 12 at the goebel fields so looking forward to that as ell thank you very much I'm going to go ahead and move on to item b

[1:26:17] which is my report out on mce and then I'll invite other council members to do any other report outs that they have. I just wanted to let the community know that amc is founding ceo don weiss his last day with the agency was wednesday june 17th and the board has formed an ad hoc ceo

[1:26:37] search committee which will advise on efforts to recruit a new ceo during the transition week and cassadee and macy's chief operations officer since 2018 will serve as the acting ceo vacant as a veteran energy professional with decades of experi science and has the expertise and institutional knowledge to support the continuity of the agency.

[1:26:59] I personally really enjoy working with him. Amc remains committed to its mission to reduce electricity related greenhouse gas emissions while providing equitable community benefits at cost competitive clean energy services to customers across its service area. And this is also I know that councilmember opener mentioned the three hours on a friday.

[1:27:25] this is also another place where I spend a lot of my my time representing the city sometimes it's thursday, sometimes it's mondays because I also serve on the executive committee. But thursday third thursdays that's where you'll see me and I will tell you we can hear the music from the top floor of 2300 willow pass.

[1:27:43] we can hear the music and I also anted to mention that on june 16th the marin civil grand jury issued a report about mce making various findings and recommendations and msi's board is required to respond and has formed an ad hoc committee of board members who will lead and

[1:28:00] oversee preparation of a draft response to the june 16th report because the city of concord is one of the members of a four county body, we have been invited o but we are not required to respond to a few of the findings and recommendations and so we're not required to.

[1:28:20] but I just wanted to mic sure people have this information in front of them and with that I have other report outs but I want to turn it over to I want to wrap that my mce report up right now and then ask if here are other reports from other council members none none from

[1:28:40] vice ayor alfano council member ben event any report ut ? Yes I just want to say thank you for you mayor and to councilmember up and group for attending the japanese summer festival here in district four. It was very ell attended and thank you for all the volunteers.

[1:29:01] it's always such a special place to attend and to bring family right in this big board so I was very happy with the outcome.

[1:29:13] a lot of people showed up so I just want to say thank you and I also since we were in recess I just wanted to acknowledge that both my the mayor and customer robin kirk we attended port chicago memorial and it was very touching. It happens every year so both the port chicago remembrance and the japanese summer festival happen every year. If you missed it, please be on the lookout for next year.

[1:29:40] it's really fun and also very touching to see the lives that were lost in portugal without those are all my council reports and I want to say oh one last thing thank you for everybody who showed up to copy with supervisor camp and to get to know what's going on in the city and that's something.

[1:30:01] >> thank you. And then councilmember hofmeister. Yes, I did attend the japanese festival. I saw apparently look like pablo working a booth.

[1:30:20] I was I saw him there with two I would you for a birthday? Yes I was getting the temper but he was back battering and doing all the stuff behind the scenes that the food was excellent. I've got one less a teriyaki steak. She asked about that at home so I'm ooking forward to that since marinating a lot longer.

[1:30:39] so it's going to be even more robust and flavorful anyways attended that and I just want to say that I also serve on the county connection board of directors and its administration finance committee and we shifted our meetings so that in the month of july we are off consistent with what we are doing here. We brought it up a while back and the body felt it was appropriate.

[1:30:57] since school starts now on august 5th I believe it is this year in mount diablo unified that having a break in july was more appropriate for the employees and the staff there that are in the district that it helps them out.

[1:31:10] I know some of the east county districts also start early in august so taking he break in july so there were o meetings. Thank you. Thank you. Excuse me for just a second. I want to do a quick check in with staff.

[1:31:23] do we need to be doing any public comments on the report out here because the two that were the agenda missed? Okay. I'm going to go ahead and do that now before we move on, is there anyone here in the council chamber? I didn't want to forget about this in the council chamber comment about especially item

[1:31:42] the council reports a and b that were agenda list. Nope. Okay. And how about anyone on zoom? Okay. Thank you know wrap that up and we will continue with ther council report outs councilmember obering or you had something else. Thank you.

[1:32:02] yes I had forgotten so I think I miscount some member have been eventi as I did tempura duty later in the evening and I was told by a volunteer that the line was slow so I invited him to join us next year. So it was it was fun serving the temperature.

[1:32:21] I was not making the tempura but council mayor nakamura and I had a chance to greet the attendees before the taiko drum presentation. Aso I want to let people know that national ight out is happening next tuesday and so there are a variety of activities but one I just want to mic sure that the public

[1:32:43] knows about is at the concord library from 5 to 7 p.m. There will be a national night out celebration so everybody is invited to join that. And then yesterday mayor nakamura and I had the chance to welcome the bay area council which is currently led by former oakland mayor libby schaaf and guy bürki led the

[1:33:06] tour our acting city manager just in his l joined us as well as josh from rookfield and two members of the contra costa transportation authority. So it was the first time that the bay area council under libby shop's leadership had been out to the naval weapons station or actually seen gil mentum and so it was a good

[1:33:25] opportunity since we were already quite honestly having conversations about potential campuses that are interested in locating near a bart station. I won't say any more about that but I just appreciated staff pulling it together and I think it was a good opportunity as we move into the next phase of redevelopment for the naval weapons station. Great.

[1:33:48] thank you. Just so everyone knows we have we've been on break a lot has been happening and we have a lot still ready to happen in the city and so that's why I think there's a lot going on here. I'm really glad that my colleagues have mentioned the port chicago remembrance the japanese-american festival.

[1:34:06] it was really fun to see the san jose taiko perform. They are an amazing tango drum drumming group. We we've you mentioned the bay area council national night out I think I heard you mention the event at the library on august 4th. Yes. Okay.

[1:34:23] and then of course 4th of july festivities were I think that it went off with a big bang. Everyone everything happened really nicely. It was a great celebration in the ity. It does feel like we've been gone for a while. >> right.

[1:34:43] and since the mayor is in charge of whether the sunset was beautiful, thank you for the fireworks so time barry is in charge of whether the japanese et's say for the japanese festival it's usually the hottest weekend of the year but that saturday at least was very nice. >> so good job, mayor. Thank you. I am doing my best. I aim to please. We do have a couple events coming up in september.

[1:35:03] there are some september of service events there will mention probably in our next meeting I wanted to share that the blue devils the oncord blue devils had a family day and celebration of their 50th anniversary of their 1976 win which was what it was the win that sparked the championship that sparked decades of championships and they are

[1:35:24] performing again their final the finals is august 8th. They are contenders to bring home a win one more time and so but it was just a fun day. The blue devils have deep roots in the city of concord. I was one I marched as a as a young child and many other people.

[1:35:47] they had what was fun as they brought back a lot of the members who were part of the 1976 team that won in in 1976 and I as a child I was probably about I was I won't tell my age

[1:36:01] but I was about yeah ten I was in the parking lot with my family when the bus rolled in and the celebration happened and it was it was so much fun.

[1:36:15] I still remember that I still have goosebumps and I wish the blue devils, the concord blue devils a very successful tournament coming up on august one little announcement here at our june 23rd meeting I raised the question of whether concord should reconsider how we solve a city a tie in a city election and I appreciate staff taking the time to research the issue

[1:36:33] and provide me and the rest of the council with the available options at this time I am not pursuing that but I do think staff for the information that they gave they provided to me and to all of us and the last thing here tonight is an adjournment with in memory of

[1:36:50] former public city public works director will tabone will turbo. Unexpectedly passed away at the age of 56 on july 19th, 2026. Will was born on april 17th, 1970 in san francisco.

[1:37:17] he graduated from sacred heart high school in san francisco and then went on to the university of san francisco will forge a successful and rewarding career in public service serving in executive leadership roles, supporting several cities throughout california. He worked for the city of benicia and the city and county of san francisco before coming here to concord in december of 2021.

[1:37:35] will served as concord's public works director from 2021 o january of this year when he left to become the city manager of redding, california. Dring his time with concord will demonstrated unwavering commitment, professionalism and pride in serving he community as director of public works will help the department find

[1:37:55] innovate innovative ways to serve residents notably bringing our residential patch paving crew in-house will made an immense commitment to the city of redding when he moved his family there from the bay area and there will be a loss at that with that agency as well.

[1:38:18] he will be remembered for his outstanding dedication to public service and results driven driven leadership style beyond his professional achievements. He was a devoted family man and a lifelong roman catholic. He was married to his wife carrie for 16 years and they have three children. William loved history theology and the san francisco giants.

[1:38:36] he was known for his generous spirit a quick wit and could often be found laughing with a broad smile. William will be lovingly remembered and deeply missed by his wife carrie darboe.

[1:38:55] his children william luca and riley and his brother his sister in law buffy and his nephew orion and his sister miranda turbo and countless friends and many many of those of us here in the city of concord. And with that I will adjourn in his honor

City Council Meeting 7-28-26

Transcript