[0:04] Yes, we are all set. Chair Galdo.
>> Wonderful. Well, good morning everyone.
[0:10] It is Thursday, March 19th, 2026 and we
are gathered here for the Sacramento
[0:16] board of directors meeting. I want to
welcome everyone to this beautiful
[0:19] location and thank you for being here.
For those of you that took the tour, I'm
[0:24] I'm sure you enjoyed it as much as I do
and we look forward to hearing a lot
[0:28] more about West Sacramento. this
morning. But if we could, madam clerk,
[0:32] would you start with roll call?
>> Thank you. Good morning. Director Andrea
[0:36] absent. Baines
>> present.
[0:38] » Boom garden
>> present.
[0:40] » Rollins for Branskum
>> here.
[0:43] » Bulahan
>> here.
[0:45] » Chapterene
>> here.
[0:47] » Chapman
>> here.
[0:48] » Clark Kretz here.
>> Clarici
[0:50] » here.
>> Desmond. Don Calvo.
[0:54] » Early
>> here. How
[0:57] » here. Hume.
>> Jennings
[1:01] absent. Jones
>> here.
[1:03] » Kennedy.
>> Kazowski
[1:05] » here.
>> Lauren
[1:06] » here.
>> Maple
[1:09] absent. McCully
>> Rodriguez absent. Sander
[1:14] absent. Lopez. Taffer Schaefer
>> here.
[1:18] » Soon
>> here.
[1:19] » Teter
>> here.
[1:21] » Beeramp
>> here.
[1:22] » Vega
>> here.
[1:24] » Viegas
>> here.
[1:25] » Vice chair Bradford
>> here. Chair Galdo
[1:28] » here.
>> An exeicio member attacker for a seis
[1:31] here.
>> And it sounds like most of you figured
[1:33] it out, but just in case you have u you
need some more instruction for your
[1:37] mics. When you push the button, it will
light green and that means your mic is
[1:41] live. You have to push it again to turn
it off. Thank you.
[1:44] » Except for me.
>> Except for director How to shout
[1:47] » whose light is red.
>> Oh, they the Yes, you're good. The red
[1:51] works.
>> We have a block. Thank you. If you could
[1:56] join me and for the pledge, please.
[2:04] » And I pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
[2:11] stands
under indivisible
[2:15] and justice for all.
[2:21] So,
>> thank you.
[2:24] Our next up on our agendum is an
opportunity for public communications
[2:29] and it's an opportunity for anyone who
wishes to address the board on an item
[2:33] that does not appear on the agenda.
Madam clerk, do we have any speaker
[2:37] cards for public comment?
>> There's no public communications.
[2:41] » All right. Thank you. Next would be our
opportunity for directors if they have
[2:45] any conflict. Do we have any directors
that would like to share conflict?
[2:52] All right. Well, seeing none, we're
going to move on into the the heart of
[2:56] our agenda. We're so excited to be here
in West Sacramento and really excited
[3:00] for the tour that we had this morning
and to learn so much. I've already
[3:04] learned how large West Sacramento is
that I was not aware of. Um, and so I'd
[3:08] like to introduce the mayor of
Sacramento and our former SECOG board
[3:12] member, Martha Guerrero, who's going to
share a little bit about West Sack with
[3:16] us.
[3:23] Good morning, Madame Chair and members
of the board, directors. It is such an
[3:27] honor to be here and welcome to the
beautiful West Sacramento. West
[3:32] Sacramento um is thriving. That's thanks
to your leadership, thanks to the
[3:38] leadership historically that we have
achieved over the many years um since
[3:43] the since the presence of our and future
of our region. When you look back over
[3:47] the years um when SECOG history blended
with West Sacramento, when we were
[3:53] working together, the one thing that is
very clear is that this body has helped
[3:59] move the region from planning ideas to
delivering real tangible results. And
[4:06] this change occurred in this beautiful
community that some of us have toured
[4:11] and thanks to our city manager and
wonderful team provided an excellent
[4:15] tour of some of the great things that
are happening. We are proud to say we
[4:20] are living that progress every day.
SEICOG has been a vital partner
[4:25] consistently making investments that
reflect a bigger vision. Not just roads,
[4:32] not just housing, but a coordinated
strategy that brings together
[4:38] transportation, land use, climate, and
equity. One of the transportation ideas
[4:44] that had came to fruition was via our
ondemand ride share program when Chris
[4:49] Leesma wanted to strike out and figure
out a way to reach out to the most
[4:54] underserved area of our community. That
was our initial investment in West
[4:59] Sacramento in the Bright and Broadick
area. And I'm proud to say that that
[5:03] that that pilot, that experiment that we
thought we needed to reach out to bridge
[5:08] where we see all these, you know,
barriers in connecting people, that
[5:12] particular project demonstrated that the
people in that area, our most
[5:17] disadvantaged community, the mothers,
the children, the elderly, the older
[5:24] adults were able to access grocery
store, medical care, getting to school,
[5:31] first and last mile to get to work.
These are per these are individuals that
[5:35] have only one car. These people are
living much more stronger today. Thanks
[5:40] to SECOG for believing in that
opportunity.
[5:45] So year after year through your funding
programs, you supported projects that
[5:51] improve safety, reduce congestion, and
expand mobility options
[5:57] in West Sacramento. As you've seen in
touring around, that has meant safer
[6:02] streets, pedestrian pathways over a
bridge, our beautiful sign on there that
[6:08] says West Sacramento. So, we'll indulge
a little bit and add our our flavor to
[6:11] it as well. And especially for working
families, seniors, and young people, as
[6:17] I just described, but in so many ways.
So, this has been that powerful movement
[6:24] that SEIKOG has brought. And so a shift
toward integrating housing and
[6:29] transportation is what we've seen in our
Grand Gateway project. That project that
[6:35] we see as a result of a $43 million
affordable housing and sustainable
[6:41] community funding is going to provide
affordable housing. is going to fund
[6:46] various regional um transportation
connections like our light rail and
[6:51] other forms of mobility to get people
connected and to get them out of their
[6:56] cars, but also putting them in a place
where they're going to have access to
[7:00] jobs as we're going to create more jobs.
So, it's about delivering that promise
[7:06] that growth in our region can be both
sustainable and inclusive. At the same
[7:12] time, SEIKOG, all of you has continued
to prioritize that regional connectivity
[7:17] and West Sacramento sits at the heart of
it where we have our Clarksburg trail
[7:23] that is going to connect us much farther
beyond. So these physical conditions
[7:28] that bring our region connect together,
they connect all of us. They connect all
[7:33] of us in a way that make sure that we
bring all of our communities together
[7:39] and help our residents and our
businesses. So with that, I just want to
[7:45] say we want to think about the people.
We want to think about the businesses.
[7:50] We want to think about the young persons
and the older persons because when we
[7:55] invest together as a region, we just
don't build infrastructure. we build
[8:01] opportunity for our future. So, thank
you for all that you do and thank you
[8:05] for allowing me to share a few words
here and welcoming you to West
[8:09] Sacramento.
[8:19] » Thank you. Uh thank you board members
for being here in West Sacramento. I'm
[8:22] Aaron Laura. I'm the city manager and
port CEO. Uh those of you that weren't
[8:26] able to join us on the tour, um want to
especially uh thank you for coming to
[8:30] West Sacramento to uh spend some time
with us today. I think it's very import
[8:33] uh important and and and relevant that
you're here in one of the most special
[8:37] places in our region. Uh not just uh
sitting with the backdrop of of Sutter
[8:41] Health Park, but also in the Legacy
Club. Um this was an upgrade that went
[8:46] along with many of the other upgrades
that came about last year uh with the
[8:49] stadium. But when we talk about
regionalism, I think it's it's easy to
[8:51] forget that this this project was
actually a result of a regional effort.
[8:55] Uh, Supervisor Viegas uh was actually on
um our uh he's actually on our planning
[8:59] commission at the time this came about.
Uh but Yolo County, who he represents
[9:03] now, actually had a role. Sacramento
County had a role. Uh the the this is a
[9:06] privately owned stadium. Many people
don't know that. They assume that we own
[9:09] it, but it's actually owned by the
Sacramento Rivercats, who were gracious
[9:12] enough to host us today. Um and and the
way the financing worked, it was done
[9:16] through a regional approach where the
bonds were backed by our city, Sack
[9:21] County, and Yolo County. Um that was
something that would not have been
[9:25] possible [snorts] without that spirit of
cooperation that was present at the
[9:28] time. And it was the only reason the
stadium was made possible because
[9:31] someone had to kind of back the the
possibility that hey, if the the private
[9:35] uh revenue wasn't enough to to finance
the stadium, um how are we going to
[9:39] backs stop it? And so, uh, it's because
of that that we're sitting here today on
[9:43] on this great site, Sutter Hill Park.
Uh, as you all know, uh, it's no secret
[9:48] that, you know, we have the the A's here
for the next couple of seasons, but, uh,
[9:52] we are looking ahead as well, and I want
to give a chance for, uh, one of our
[9:56] council members, your board member, uh,
uh, Council Member Early, and Supervisor
[10:00] Vega to speak a little bit about, uh,
what's next. Um, and I can't say too
[10:04] much yet, but I will say, you know, we
are definitely, um, in the game when it
[10:08] comes to looking at the future. Uh,
we're doing a lot of work at the city
[10:12] side, working on updates to our Bridge
District Pacific plan, which you, if you
[10:15] were on the tour, you heard about
earlier. Uh, working with our local
[10:18] partners on building some momentum
around what the possib possibilities
[10:22] might look like for a future of Major
League Baseball in our region right here
[10:26] in West Sacramento. So, uh, stay tuned
on that. There'll be a lot more to come
[10:30] and and many of you will be involved if
uh once that effort uh gets going. Uh
[10:35] but for now uh please enjoy the uh the
baseball season that we have coming up,
[10:39] both Rivercats games and A's games. Uh
and I will turn it over to Council
[10:43] Member Early and Supervisor Vegas. Thank
you.
[10:45] » Thank you so much to our city manager.
Thank you to our mayor
[10:52] and and I would say I I know that you
have seen both the mayor of West
[10:56] Sacramento. So, our mayor, uh, Martha
Guerrero, as well as the mayor of city
[11:01] of Sacramento talking about Major League
Baseball. So, I know our city manager
[11:05] said, "Hey, can't say too much." I'm
probably going to say more than than
[11:09] what he [laughter] said. So, we have the
A's here for the next few years and we
[11:13] are excited that they are here. The
reason why we are excited is not only
[11:18] because we have a major league team
here, one of actually the only city in
[11:22] the country that is hosting both aa team
as well as an MLB team, but also what it
[11:27] means for the future. And what it means
for the future is that we will have
[11:33] Major League Baseball here, not from the
A's, but from an expansion team. And we
[11:37] are excited about that because that's
not just our team, West Sacramento's
[11:41] team. That's not just Sacramento's team.
That is all of our team. that is
[11:46] regionally we all together will be
coming to these games and so here we are
[11:51] we have this opportunity but as great as
it is to have the A's here it also could
[11:57] be a liability because what we need to
make sure we are doing is filling the
[12:03] seats what we need to make sure we are
doing is actually having sponsorships so
[12:08] that we can show that an MLB team can be
successful in this region and I know
[12:13] they
I know they can because I've seen the
[12:16] Kings. How many Kings fans do we have
here? Everyone should be raising their
[12:20] hands. [laughter]
Pat, you too.
[12:24] The Kings is not just Sacramento's team.
The Kings is all of our team. And here
[12:29] we have an opportunity to bring an
expansion team here to this region to be
[12:34] all of our teams. Not the A's, but our
own team. But we need all of your help.
[12:39] We need your help in getting people here
and getting them excited over the next
[12:43] two seasons because when we put our
proposal in and we will be putting our
[12:48] proposal in, we need to show that we got
people here. We need to show that we had
[12:52] sponsorships. And so we're looking to
you guys. And so one of the things that
[12:55] we need from you and true SECOG fashion
is we need you to bring out get your
[13:01] your constituents and your residents
excited about baseball here because
[13:05] again this isn't about the A's. This is
about our future team, right? The team
[13:09] that will get the name, the team that
will be ours and ours alone. They will
[13:12] start here. So, we need you guys for
that. We also need you guys for the
[13:16] sponsorships. When I think about the
businesses that we have here in West
[13:20] Sacramento and here in Sacramento,
right, we've got business, but we have
[13:24] businesses throughout the region. I
think about Rockland and I think about
[13:27] Quickquack, right? Wouldn't that be
great to have that out here, right? I
[13:31] think about Pespros and Autotois. There
are so many businesses when we spread
[13:35] out through the region that could be
here helping sponsor, but that starts
[13:39] with us. When I toured two years ago and
I was looking at all the different
[13:42] suites and the sponsorships, all I
thought was, you know, there's more. If
[13:46] only we came together, as we do in true
SECOG fashion, to lift up the entire
[13:50] region. And so, I'm excited about that.
And so Oscar and I put our heads
[13:53] together and we started to think, well,
we've got these suites and wouldn't it
[13:56] be cool if we had like a city of
Rockland day here where we we had you
[14:00] guys come out with a business that would
be interested in coming? And so we
[14:04] wanted to make that pitch to you guys
over the next couple of years. We would
[14:08] love for you to go back to your city
councils and your uh county supervisors
[14:13] and say, "Hey, I want to go see an A's
game." Not only want to see an A's game,
[14:16] I want to bring someone who'd be
interested in sponsoring.
[14:19] I want to feature you guys. Guys, I want
you to come out, see the views, because
[14:22] this is not just Sacramento's team. It's
not just West Sacramento's team. It's
[14:25] all of our team. And I'm not talking
about the A's. I'm talking about the
[14:29] future. We've heard the MLB commissioner
say there's going to be two expansion
[14:32] teams by 2028. Two. One on the West
Coast and one on the East Coast. And
[14:36] guess what, guys? We are in the running.
We are part of the top five. We are
[14:40] right there. But the only way we're
going to be able to do that is together.
[14:44] Again, in true SECOG fashion. I'm going
to turn it to my veteran um because he's
[14:48] been here way longer than I have. So, we
can talk for [laughter]
[14:54] » I promise I'll only take 30 seconds and
then you get the meeting back to to
[14:58] actually conduct the professional
business. But I I wanted to just first
[15:00] of all, thank you Dante for your
leadership and all the work. And I think
[15:03] if you were on the tour and you heard
about all the kind of visionary
[15:06] components of the growth of West
Sacramento, it didn't just happen by
[15:10] accident. It was by design, by
investment, by grit, by long-term vision
[15:14] and stickuitiveness that was needed to
make this stuff happen. We didn't just
[15:19] magically show up in this beautiful
building. There was tremendous work that
[15:22] went into it. Jumping forward, we all
know what what what Sacramento what the
[15:30] region feels like when the Kings are
winning. We can rally around a
[15:33] professional team like none other. Given
today's circumstances, the environment
[15:37] that we're in, we need things. We need
things to pull us together rather than
[15:42] apart. Professional sports teams, the
Olympics, a good example. They bring
[15:47] people together in ways that people feel
really, really good about themselves.
[15:50] We're a baseball there. We're a baseball
region. There's absolutely no question
[15:54] about it. We're in this weird moment
right now where while we're hosting a
[15:58] professional team, the prospects the
prospects of a real Major League
[16:02] Baseball expansion coming to this region
and potentially West Sacramento is very
[16:07] real. Is very real. You heard Aaron give
his sort of spiel around the city. Um
[16:12] he's in part part of the discussions
around what can happen. But at the end
[16:18] of the day as we look around the room
and in Seikk we talk about what we can
[16:21] do as a as a collective region often
asking yourselves what can you do? I
[16:25] think I'll just double down on what
Dante said. The city has access to a
[16:30] suite. It's really simple but you guys
all have access to your corporate your
[16:34] business entities within your respective
region. There's no cost to you to
[16:39] contact the city to bring some of your
partners within your respective region,
[16:43] your cities, and enjoy a ball game.
Enjoy a ball game hosted by the city of
[16:48] West Sacramento in their suite and
expose your business um partners to what
[16:54] it can be like so that when the very
near future, the opportunity presents
[16:58] itself to actually submit that
application to the MLB for an expansion
[17:02] team that we're sitting in good
positions. Thank you very much for your
[17:05] time.
[17:11] Thank you. And both is your end. And of
course, I have one question. So, as a
[17:16] longtime Ace fan, there was that part
when they first came of a little bit of
[17:20] the guilt, quite honestly, the Oakland
impact. And so, I think there was that
[17:24] little bit of hesitation and then um
the lack of embrace of Sacramento. It's
[17:31] the best way to put it when and so there
was that for sponsors and that is like
[17:35] hey I mean I started making my hats long
ago I'm not going to lie I got a couple
[17:39] Sacramento hats. Um so I think for when
you're working with the MLB I'm I'm sure
[17:45] you are but that is um I think hopefully
they're they realize the the slow start
[17:51] to get the embrace those factors came
in. Absolutely. So I but I love your
[17:56] idea of having all of us as our cities
and our counties. Heck yeah. Let's do
[18:00] it.
>> I can't wait. So, you're going to be the
[18:02] first to to raise your hand.
>> I absolutely I will. I' I've already got
[18:06] several games lined up. So, uh I'll add
to my list. Absolutely. Thank you so
[18:11] much. I appreciate it.
>> Well, it's not nearly as exciting and
[18:15] fun, but let's move on for our regular
agenda
[18:18] » and we're actually going to adjourn to
SECOG and convene as the Capitol Valley
[18:22] Regional Service Authority for freeways
and expressways. Are CVR safe? Now,
[18:27] madam clerk, would you please note for
the record, are there any changes to the
[18:30] roll call since we started?
>> Thank you, Chair Galdo. We will note
[18:33] that our safe directors recommen are
absent. Excuse [clears throat] me. We'll
[18:39] note for the record that director Maple
and Sander are also present.
[18:43] » Thank you. Uh we'll move on to public
communications for the CVR safe meeting.
[18:48] And so again, an opportunity for anyone
to speak on an item that does not appear
[18:52] on the agenda. Do we have any public
comment for the CVR safe?
[18:56] » There's no public comment.
>> Great. Thank you. Then and again, do we
[19:00] have any uh conflicts that any directors
would need to disclose for the CVR safe
[19:05] portion?
>> All right. Seeing none, then I will take
[19:09] up the consent calendar. We have three
items. the minutes from the January 15,
[19:14] 2026 meeting, the extension of the
Capitol Valley Regional Service
[19:18] Authority for freeways and expressways
operation assistance, and requests for
[19:22] proposals for Capitol Valley Regional
Service Authority for freeways and
[19:26] expressways motorist aid, call
answering. Um, there anyone need to pull
[19:31] anything from this consent calendar?
>> Move to approved by Baines.
[19:34] » Bradford will second.
>> Cenfield second. I was going to move.
[19:37] » Thank you.
>> Thank you. I know they're so fast. That
[19:41] is too slow.
>> Annette, you caught that. All right,
[19:44] perfect. So, I thank you. I appreciate I
have a motion. Is there any public
[19:47] comment on the consent calendar?
>> There's no public comment.
[19:50] » All right. All those in favor?
>> I opposed abstain. Thank you.
[19:58] Well, now we get to adjourn as the CVR
safe board of directors and we will
[20:02] reconvene as the Sacramento Area Council
of Governments. Um, so we again we're
[20:07] starting off with the consent calendar.
Is there anyone that would like to pull
[20:11] anything from the consent calendar?
>> Madame Chair, I'd like to pull item 11
[20:17] from the consent calendar. Participation
in the water form agreement 2015.
[20:22] » Thank you. Did you want to have a
conversation about that or
[20:27] » I will leave it to the pleasure of staff
whether we have time to have this
[20:30] conversation today or move it to April.
>> Thank you.
[20:34] Is there any um any
rush on this that has to be done this
[20:39] week or this meeting? All right. If
seeing none, then we can move that on to
[20:43] our next meeting agenda.
Um again, any other items anyone like to
[20:48] pull off the consent calendar?
>> All right,
[20:52] » Madam Chair, I'll move the balance of
the consent calendar for approval.
[20:55] » Second.
>> Thank you very much. I do have a request
[20:59] to speak on item 18. Oops. Not on
consent. So, any uh public comment on
[21:05] consent?
>> There's no public comment.
[21:07] » Thank you very much. We've got a motion
and a second. All those in favor?
[21:11] » I opposed.
>> All right. We're moving.
[21:15] » Galdo, um I think you director Howell
had asked uh in terms of staff
[21:20] recommendation on the item pulled off.
You you are welcome to have a
[21:24] conversation on that today. There is no
rush. Uh we've been talking to Director
[21:28] Howishel and Director Kaslowski as well.
So, pleasure of the chair. If you'd like
[21:32] to uh try to have the conversation and
move the item today, you're welcome to
[21:35] do so.
>> Madam Chair, I think we can do this like
[21:38] in 90 seconds.
>> Let's do it then.
[21:40] » All right. So, I saw this and uh having
been an alumni of Water Form One, I
[21:47] thought, well, well, this is uh this is
a different lane that than SEKOG is
[21:51] usually in. So, I reached out to James
and Casey and u we had a conversation.
[21:57] So Casey, can you tell us a little bit
why uh you're asking for SEIKOG to be um
[22:05] part are you a participant or a
signatory? And if you know based on your
[22:11] answer, tell us why.
>> Yes. Uh thank you Director Howell. Yes,
[22:15] SEIKOG uh has been invited. Seikk was
first invited to participate in the
[22:20] update to that agreement. It's called
the water forum successor effort because
[22:24] the current agreement expires in 2030.
So the new agreement would go to 2050.
[22:28] Uh SECOG was invited a number with a
number of other organizations to
[22:32] participate in the public caucus. There
are four caucuses of that um uh of that
[22:37] effort and then also to become a
signatory of it. And so that's what's on
[22:42] the agenda today to sign theou which is
in the attachment there as well. The
[22:46] reason that uh SEIKOG uh participated in
it and that staff is recommending that
[22:51] we become a signatory to it as an agency
is that this is a network of both um
[22:56] water purveyors, environmental interest,
business interests and also public
[23:01] interests in uh supporting the co-equal
goals of this agreement, right, which is
[23:06] the environmental health of the American
River as well as the um supporting
[23:11] economic growth in the region. And so
those two co-equal goals we feel align
[23:17] very well with SECOG's triple bottom
line goals. It also brings us into a
[23:21] network um that is focused on uh
adaptation of the American River wershed
[23:27] over that time period. And so we would
be part of a network that understands
[23:31] what are the regional like project
priorities uh to be able to advance to
[23:35] ensure the continued growth and
sustainability of the region. And then
[23:39] finally um we find that we've
participated in other networks that have
[23:45] um similar uh environmental and climate
focuses and when we are able to be there
[23:51] coordinated we can coordinate advocacy
we can also put forth SECOG's priorities
[23:55] to get support and so we find that to be
very helpful and then lastly um we were
[24:01] invited in as well as uh an expert
agency that does long range planning um
[24:05] doing long range economic and
demographic forecasting to be able to
[24:09] contribute that to the water forum's
ongoing work.
[24:12] » And the you may have said this and yeah,
I know you said this to me this morning.
[24:17] Um some of the other public members
include
[24:19] » SAFEA. Yes. Um other public members
include uh this SAFEA. So Sacramento
[24:24] Area Flood Control Agency, American
River Flood Control, SMUD, um all of the
[24:30] cities and counties that are within the
American River wershed. So that's in
[24:34] Placer, Elorado, and Sacramento counties
as well as League of Women Voters and
[24:39] maybe a couple other non-governmental
organizations.
[24:43] » So again, Madam Chair, I wanted to
daylight this so somebody didn't see the
[24:47] agenda item and said, "Wait, I thought
SAT SEIKOG was air quality and
[24:53] transportation. Are they getting outside
their lane by going into the water form
[24:58] agreement?" Having that explanation, I
don't think you're outside. I don't
[25:04] think SECOG's outside its lane and so I
would move approval of this item.
[25:08] » Second.
>> Thank you. I have a motion to second. Is
[25:11] there any other public comment on this
item 11?
[25:14] » There's no public comment.
>> Thank you. All those in favor?
[25:18] » I opposed and stay. Motion carries.
Thank you. Next up is item 17. It's an
[25:25] action item. It's our 2026 SEIKOG
federal funding cycle. and David Pap,
[25:30] our staff will do the presentation.
>> Stay in your lane.
[25:36] » Good morning.
>> Uh good morning. Uh David Pap, principal
[25:40] planner. Um so I'll be presenting an
overview uh of SEIKOG's 2026 federal
[25:46] funding cycle. So this will include uh
funding outlook, program structure and
[25:51] implementation timeline for the
congestion mitigation air quality or
[25:55] CMAC and surface transportation block
grant or STBG funds.
[26:02] So today we're asking the board to take
three actions related to the 2026
[26:06] federal funding cycle. One is to adopt
the federal funding estimate, two
[26:11] approve the program budget, and three
authorize staff to open the call for
[26:16] projects. So together these three
actions will formally initiate the
[26:19] funding cycle.
Um before I get into the funding
[26:23] overview, I did just want to provide a
little bit of context on where we
[26:27] started and and where we've come from.
Um so as the region's designated MO and
[26:33] consistent with federal requirements and
the corrective action, SEIKOG is
[26:36] responsible for administering CMAC and
STBG funds on a regionwide basis.
[26:42] Um through a nearly two-year process,
SEIKOG staff working with the multi-
[26:45] agency working group and in coordination
with the board, many of which you've all
[26:50] participated in this, um
completed the transition from a 4count
[26:56] to a sixcount performance-based
competitive funding framework that
[27:00] defines how these funds will be
administered. So since then, program
[27:04] guidelines have been adopted, funding
assumptions for fiscal years 28 through
[27:08] 30 are in place, and the proposed
evaluation criteria and program budgets
[27:12] are finalized. So today's action really
allows staff to move from framework
[27:16] development into the implementation
phase.
[27:21] So for this cycle, it's expected we're
expected to program approximately 230
[27:26] million across federal fiscal years 28
through 30. So, this breaks down to
[27:31] approximately 102 million in CMAC funds
and 128 million in STBG with the STBG
[27:39] funds uh split between two programs at
65 and 35% per previous board action in
[27:45] September.
Um, and I do want to note that these
[27:49] figures are still estimates and assume
federal reauthorization. Um, if any of
[27:53] these numbers were to change, uh, staff
would return to the board with updated
[27:57] funding levels.
So, in terms of how the funding will be
[28:02] used, it's really structured around
three core programs that balance
[28:05] regional priorities and implement the
2025 blueprint. Um, approximately 91.9
[28:11] million of the CMAC funding will be
available through what we're calling the
[28:15] next generation solutions and clean air
program. And this focuses on funding
[28:19] projects that reduce emissions and
explan expand clean mobility.
[28:24] Um roughly 72 million or 65% of the SDBG
funds will go to the system performance
[28:30] program and that will be funding
projects that at a high level improve
[28:34] safety, reliability and the overall
function of the transportation system.
[28:39] And then finally roughly 38.8 million
will be going to the system preservation
[28:43] program to fund projects that explicitly
maintain and extend the life of key
[28:48] roadways.
So in addition to the competitive
[28:52] programs approximately 9.1 million or
27.3 million over three years is
[28:57] proposed for board directed priority
programs. So collectively these
[29:01] investments support regionwide services
targeted programs and planning
[29:06] monitoring and implementation activities
that are necessary to administer the
[29:10] federal funding and advance uh regional
policy. So this includes things like the
[29:16] uh Sacramento emergency clean air for
transportation program, sustainable
[29:21] milability, uh our new region regional
payment management program and freeway
[29:25] service patrol.
[29:29] And then as it relates to project
evaluation for these competitive
[29:33] programs, um SEIKOG will use a
standardized performance-based
[29:36] evaluation framework that will support
consistent and transparent funding
[29:40] decisions. So the proposed evaluation
criteria is included in your packet
[29:45] today and this would be applied through
a technical evaluation committee
[29:49] composed of subject matter experts from
across the region. Um but ultimately the
[29:54] final funding decisions will be made by
the SEIKOG board and at a high level
[29:59] projects will be evaluated based on
deliverability and readiness, financial
[30:03] capacity and cost effectiveness in
alignment with uh per sorry performance
[30:08] and alignment with local and regional
priorities.
[30:12] Um so in terms of timing the cycle would
begin uh with a system preservation call
[30:18] for projects. Uh ultimately we would be
opening the call today. Um and award
[30:25] recommendations for that program would
be in August. Uh the calls for system
[30:30] performance and nextg clean air would
open in June and follow a unified
[30:35] schedule with applications due in
September and award recommendations in
[30:39] December. Um the reason for the
staggered timing is to allow ample time
[30:44] for folks to prepare their applications
um and not overwhelm by doing it all at
[30:50] once. Um
let's see here. And then
[30:56] yeah uh programming activities would
begin um in February 27 for for all
[31:02] three programs.
So just to summarize, um staff is
[31:07] recommending board approval of the 230
million in CAMAC and SDBG funding
[31:12] estimate and program budget and
authorizing staff to open the 2026
[31:18] federal funding cycle call for projects.
And with action today, staff can
[31:22] officially launch the first ever
sixcount federal funding cycle.
[31:27] So that concludes my presentation.
>> Thank you very much. I know we've had
[31:31] multiple discussions on this item in our
different committees. Any other
[31:35] questions
or comments?
[31:39] All right. Seeing none, is there any
public comment on this item?
[31:42] » There's no public comment.
>> I'll bring it back and ask for a motion.
[31:45] » I'll move approval down. Thank you. Down
to Calvo and a second.
[31:51] » Thank you. All those in favor?
>> I I opposed.
[31:57] » All right. Motion carries. Thank you.
Next up is our action item number 18.
[32:02] It's our mobility zones early action
project approval and Kathleen Aziz will
[32:07] be our presenter.
>> Thank you so much, Madam Chair. It's a
[32:09] pleasure to be with you all. Always fun
to get a staff presentation at an
[32:12] off-site meeting. Um, so the item before
you is an action item. Staff and the
[32:16] transportation committee are requesting
approval to fund six early action
[32:20] projects that have been identified
through the multi-year mobility zones
[32:23] process.
[32:28] Oh, there we go. Okay, my presentation
this morning is going to have three
[32:30] sections. I'll provide you a little bit
of background on on the various
[32:34] presentations staff have brought to the
board on mobility zones over the last
[32:37] couple of years. The bulk of the funding
that is recommended for approval today
[32:42] is carbon reduction program funding. So,
I'll talk a bit about where that funding
[32:45] comes from. Um, and then I'll provide an
overview of the six early action
[32:49] projects that are recommended for
approval. Both how those were identified
[32:53] and what the six projects are. And then
we'll talk about next steps on what's
[32:57] going to happen with these six projects
and with the other 27 projects that were
[33:01] identified through the process but are
not recommended for funding today.
[33:07] Many board members will remember the
first major action that we took on the
[33:10] mobility zones project was to adopt 10
phase 1 mobility zones. You can see them
[33:16] here in pink um on the slide. There's
also a link in your staff report to an
[33:20] interactive map if you want to zoom in
on any of those boundaries. Um, and so
[33:24] these 10 mobility zones represent parts
of the region that have both a high
[33:28] level of demographic inequity, high
proportions of low-income folks,
[33:32] non-white communities, and also a lot of
transportation need places that have
[33:36] poor pavement condition, little access
to transit, difficulty walking and
[33:41] biking in their communities.
Following the selection of the 10
[33:46] mobility zones, staff and consultant
support did a need assessment of each of
[33:51] the 10 mobility zones to really
understand exactly what's going on in
[33:54] each of those places, what are their key
transportation challenges, getting us
[33:58] towards, you know, what are some
transportation projects that could
[34:01] actually improve quality of life for
these communities. So, you'll see here
[34:04] that these are some of the themes that
we heard across the 10 very different
[34:08] mobility zones in this region. Um, and
the full details of those reports are
[34:12] are linked in the attachments.
We last presented to the board in
[34:17] December of last year where we talked
about where we were on getting to the
[34:21] final stage of this process, which is
identifying the six early action
[34:24] projects that are before you for action
today. And so we started with over a
[34:28] hundred projects identified by the
community last summer and have been
[34:31] working through a multi-step process of
winnowing that down in partnership with
[34:35] city, county, and transit operator
staff. And so when we last came to you
[34:39] in December, we were at a list of 33
high priority projects. Those are also
[34:44] linked in your staff report. Um, and so
really the focus of my presentation
[34:47] today has been on the progress since
December to go from that list of 33 down
[34:51] to the six, one in each county that are
recommended for your approval today.
[34:57] As I mentioned, the bulk of the funding
that's recommended for approval is
[35:00] carbon reduction program or CRP funding.
This is a federal formula type of
[35:05] transportation funding. It's a new type
of funding that was created in the
[35:08] infrastructure investment and jobs act
in 2021. So this is sixcount federal
[35:13] funding that comes um in a formula basis
for a total of 22.6 million for the
[35:18] whole SEIKOG region over 5 years. In
2023, the board took action to direct
[35:24] how those CRP funds would be spent. And
the board's um action was a sort of
[35:29] two-pronged approach with a near-term
approach and a long-term approach. The
[35:33] near-term was a competitive funding
round. I believe attachment C in your
[35:37] staff report lists those projects that
were funded in that initial funding
[35:40] round. And then the long-term approach
is to put the funds towards mobility
[35:45] zones and trails. And so this action
before you today and one of your items
[35:49] coming next month really uh formalizes
that long-term action and implements the
[35:53] board's direction from 2023.
This is how those funds have been um
[35:58] allocated so far. just to give a
reminder of sort of the spread of where
[36:02] CRP funds have been awarded throughout
the region. So you can see in the blue
[36:06] column on the left the award recipients
from that initial competitive CRP round
[36:11] in 2024. The pink in the middle is the
recommended awards as part of this item
[36:16] and then the remaining $3.2 million will
be programmed through the trails via ATP
[36:21] and that should come before the board in
early 2027.
[36:25] All
right, all that background aside, we'll
[36:28] talk a bit about how updates since we
were last here in December on how we got
[36:31] down from those 33 high priority
projects to the six before you. So,
[36:36] looking at all three of those 33 high
priority projects, I want to be clear,
[36:39] there's no bad projects on this list,
right? We have a limited amount of
[36:42] funding and the initial board direction
in 2023 was to have one project in each
[36:46] county. So, it's been really a
multi-step process to figure out what
[36:50] makes sense to go right now with the
money that we have. And so all 33
[36:54] projects went through both a technical
evaluation, you can find the results of
[36:57] that evaluation in attachment E, and
through robust community engagement in
[37:02] partnership with our community- based
organizations. We have our teammates
[37:06] here from Civic Thread in the room. So I
just want to thank them for all their
[37:09] hard work to do such incredible
engagement on this project. Just in our
[37:13] third round of engagement in October and
November, we reached more than 2,000
[37:17] people around this region, many of them
in person, as you can see. um in just
[37:21] four weeks of that engagement cycle. So
the recommended projects before you
[37:25] really represent sort of a robust
community identified projects that serve
[37:29] these very localized communities that
were identified.
[37:33] Once we had the results from both of
those two types of evaluations, we
[37:37] brought them to the project's advisory
committees and task force. These are
[37:41] bodies that were appointed early on in
mobility zones and meet every quarter
[37:45] and have been directing the progress of
the project and developing
[37:48] recommendations that come before you at
the board. So ultimately those bodies
[37:52] recommended the final list of six
projects that's been before
[37:55] transportation committee and board this
month.
[37:59] I'll now walk you through each of the
six projects um to give you a sense of
[38:04] what they include and how much funding
is recommended for approval. The project
[38:08] in Sacramento County is a Floren bus
stop bundle project. This is a bundle of
[38:12] 13 bus stop improvements in SA South
Sacramento on both Bruceville Road and
[38:17] Floren Road. So, this adds shelters and
benches to existing bus stops in that
[38:21] area. And the recommended approval award
is $1.3 million for construction.
[38:29] The recommended project in Yolo County
is the Woodland Transfer Point Project.
[38:33] This relocates the existing Woodland
transfer point from the county fair
[38:37] mall, which is largely vacant, to
downtown Woodland, which is a a much
[38:41] better location. It's consistent with
YOLO Transportation District short-range
[38:45] transit plan and really provides a
better location for transit riders to be
[38:49] making those connections and getting to
downtown Woodland. So, the recommended
[38:52] award is 1.07 million also for
construction.
[38:58] The recommended project in Pler County
is the Bowman Road sidewalk infill
[39:02] project. Bowman Road is a frontage road
along Interstate 80 in North Auburn. And
[39:06] so this closes an important sidewalk gap
outside of uh school to provide those
[39:11] students safer access from their school
grounds into the adjacent neighborhood
[39:15] where many live and also where many
families do pick up. So this is also a
[39:20] construction recommended approval of
just under $3.6 million.
[39:26] The recommended project in El Elorado
County is a series of crossing
[39:30] improvements in Georgetown along Main
Street. So this is kind of the the core
[39:35] downtown Main Street, if you will, of
Georgetown in in unincorporated Elorado
[39:39] County. And so this improves the
existing crossings at three locations,
[39:43] making it safer both for local
residents, but also for the economic
[39:46] development that they have when they
have events in Georgetown. It's also a
[39:50] recommended project for construction
with an award of $1.75 million.
[39:57] The recommended project in Sutter County
is Sandborn Sidewalks and Bus Stops. So,
[40:01] this is at the southwest corner of Yuba
City Limits. Um, and so this adds
[40:06] sidewalks on the eastern side of
Sandborn Road as you can see in the map
[40:09] here from Nan to Bogue. Um, there's also
a bus stop at this location. So, the
[40:14] project scope includes providing some
upgrades to that existing bus stop.
[40:18] You'll notice in the bottom left of the
map shown there that this is also where
[40:21] the Sik Temple is. And so in addition to
providing access for residents in this
[40:25] neighborhood, it improves transit and
walkability access to a key regional
[40:29] destination. The recommended award is
$900,000 for construction.
[40:35] And last but never least, the
recommended award in Yuba County is for
[40:38] a volunteer driver program study. So
what this study would look at is what uh
[40:42] opportunities there are for Yuba transit
to be able to work with existing rural
[40:47] communities in the Yuba foothills to
provide um better transit access. So
[40:53] there are some very informal volunteer
driver programs that exist in these
[40:57] communities right now. Basically
neighbors loaning vans and helping each
[41:00] other get down. If you haven't been to
this part of the region, it's like 45
[41:03] minutes from Mary'sville. So if you live
up there, you know, you're 45 minutes
[41:06] from your major grocery store and
hospital and all of that. And so looking
[41:09] at what opportunities there are to be
able to formalize that um or otherwise
[41:13] improve those folks access to the major
destinations in Mary'sville and Yuba
[41:17] City. And so because it's just a study
um the recommended award is $100,000.
[41:21] I'll also note that this recommended
award isn't for CRP. It's for the raise
[41:26] funds that we have on the mobility zones
project. This just helps us use the
[41:30] funds that we have in the vest place
since this is planning work and
[41:32] stretches our CRP dollars a little
farther on the other projects.
[41:37] So, those are your six projects
recommended for approval. On next steps,
[41:42] um should the board choose to take
action and a award the six projects
[41:45] today, staff will work with the city,
county, and transit operator partners to
[41:49] get those funds programmed and get them
underway. It'll be a different timeline
[41:53] for each project, but SEIKOG will
provide that technical assistance as
[41:56] they get through delivery over the next
few years. And then really critically, I
[42:00] want to note that the other 27 projects
are still on the table. And so we'll be
[42:04] developing implementation toolkits,
doing more analysis to understand what
[42:07] those 27 projects need. Some of them are
very construction ready and and you'll
[42:12] likely see them coming through for
competitive funds through other SEIKOG
[42:16] processes. Others of them are really
early in ideation and need more
[42:19] technical assistance to get developed.
So we'll be doing analysis to understand
[42:23] what each of those 27 projects need and
what SEIKOG can do to help over the
[42:27] coming years to get more of them under
construction and funded. And so that
[42:31] concludes my presentation. I'm happy to
take any questions.
[42:34] » Thank you very much. Questions?
All right, seeing none, I do have u I'll
[42:40] open up for public comment. I do have
one public comment card. Any others
[42:44] besides this one, Madam Clerk?
>> There's no other public comment.
[42:48] » All right, then I'll call up Auburn
Bernstein.
[42:53] Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning.
Autumn Bernstein with the Yolo
[42:56] Transportation District in Woodland,
California. And I'm here today to urge
[42:59] your support for all of these phenomenal
projects um in this round, but in
[43:04] particular for the down uh downtown
Woodland transfer point project. This
[43:07] will fill a critical need in Woodland
and in Yolo County's uh transit network
[43:11] as a whole by getting our transit hub
out of a nearly abandoned mall on the
[43:15] edge of town, which is the place where
we receive the most complaints about
[43:18] safety in our entire system. Um, by
relocating this to downtown Woodland,
[43:22] it'll not only make things safer for our
bus passengers that have to transfer
[43:26] there, but also for the first time ever
have a one seat bus ride from downtown
[43:30] Woodland to other key destinations like
downtown Sacramento, the airport, UC
[43:35] Davis, etc. So, I think it's going to
really be a benefit for downtown
[43:38] Woodland as well in terms of increasing
access to all the opportunities and
[43:42] businesses in that area. And lastly, I
just want to commend SEIKOG for pursuing
[43:46] this really innovative approach um that
elevates the viewpoints of community
[43:50] members. It's not often that you get to
hear from bus riders. They're not a very
[43:53] politically active group and so really
appreciate SEIKOG for taking this
[43:57] approach to reach out to them and hear
from them along with other
[44:00] vulnerableities. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[44:04] All right, we'll close public comment
and I will bring it back for action on
[44:07] this item.
>> Lauren moves the item
[44:09] » second.
You were so fast. And we're right next
[44:13] to each other, so it just works.
Perfect. Thank you. A motion in a
[44:16] second. All those in favor. Okay.
Opposed. Extensions. Motion carries.
[44:23] Thank you. I'm excited to see these
projects.
[44:25] » I need I need
[44:30] » Oh, that's a lot of lot of work to come
up with that list. Our last action item
[44:34] is our to approve our draft budget and
overall work program and adopt the
[44:38] salary schedules for fiscal year 2627
and Loretta Sue is our presenter.
[44:44] » Thank you chair. Good morning. Um the
draft budget and overall work program
[44:48] for fiscal year 2026 27 is ready for
board consideration. This is um sec
[44:55] required annual planning and budget
documents. So this morning I'm going to
[45:00] briefly go over the overall work program
and some of the activities that will be
[45:04] carried out in fiscal year 2627.
Um touch on the draft budget for fiscal
[45:10] year 2627 and then also discuss a little
bit about the fund balance
[45:14] considerations and then I will close out
with the um request for approval on the
[45:20] salary schedule and also the request for
board actions on the draft budget item.
[45:30] So the budget and OWP or overall work
program I'm just going to use OWP
[45:35] throughout this presentation here are
required by state and federal mandates
[45:40] and must be prepared annually together
they document our transportation
[45:45] planning activity in the secog regions.
The OWP is more than just a uh more more
[45:53] detailed than a typical budget. It show
how our planning work implement the
[45:58] metropolitan transportation plan and
sustainable community strategies also
[46:03] known as the blueprint. The budget and
OWP require board approval and then also
[46:08] approval by CALR and federal agencies
for expenditures starting July 1st 2026.
[46:17] Consistent uh with prior year in
February, staff submitted a draft um OWP
[46:23] and budgets for CALR and federal
agencies for review and comment. And
[46:27] this morning, staff is seeking board
approval to release the draft budget and
[46:31] OWP for public comment. And then in
April, staff will bring back the final
[46:36] budget draft and then um for board
adoption and also followed by approval
[46:42] by CALR and federal agencies.
[46:47] So I just want to highlight some of the
work plan activities um in fiscal year
[46:52] 2026 27
with the adoption of the 2025 blueprint.
[46:58] Seikkok and its region's partner are
moving forward with implementation of
[47:02] the plan through the overall work
programs. Seikkok has identified 18 work
[47:07] programs within the five-year work plans
focusing on these priorities.
[47:12] The first priority is build vibrant
places and inclusive places. Um the
[47:18] major priority program in this priority
is housing and some of the activities
[47:23] includes support local delivery of the
green means go grants and then also
[47:28] preparations of the regional housing
needs process.
[47:32] The second priority is the next
generations of mobility solutions
[47:36] priority program include transit. This
includes um completing completing the
[47:42] SB125 funding allocation plan and also
updating to the FTA allocation process.
[47:49] And then also you just heard from
Kathleen on the mobility zone. The focus
[47:53] will basically fund projects through the
creation of the meaningful community
[47:58] engagement.
The third priority is about modernizing
[48:03] how we pay for transportation. Priority
program include the strategic quarter
[48:08] planning which includes support for
Carta and then also preparations for the
[48:13] managed lanes for future grants
opportunities.
[48:18] And the fourth priority is um building
and maintaining a safe, equitable and
[48:23] resilient transportation system. Now, of
course, you just heard from David on the
[48:28] uh federal um funding round cycle and
then also um the focus is also
[48:33] implementation of the trail plan within
the regions.
[48:38] Then also across all four priorities,
Seikko also carry out the regional
[48:42] monitoring reports which include the
publications of the AB350 monitoring
[48:47] reports and also the annual progress
report. These are some of the example of
[48:52] work included in the OWP along with
other requirement activities associated
[48:57] with Sikkok roles as MO regional
transportation planning agency and also
[49:03] at council of governments.
Before I go into the draft budget, I
[49:08] just want to point out a few thing that
is maybe unique a little bit unique to
[49:12] SEIKOK budgets. So SEIKO managed two
separate budget which first budget is
[49:18] the general fund budget which including
all the operation activity as I just
[49:22] mentioned earlier and it also include
the board and advocacy activities.
[49:27] Additionally also managed the capital
rally regional service authority for
[49:32] freeway and expressway budget also known
as the CVR safe. This budget is being
[49:37] appo approved by the CVR safe board.
[49:42] SECOG operation budget does include
significant pass through funding and
[49:47] then um also it fluctuates yearbyear
but because of these fluctuations
[49:53] sometime the actual expenditure may be
lack due to those pass through cost that
[49:59] is being submitted for reimbursement by
member jurisdictions and also sometime
[50:03] of the consulting costs assoc associated
with some of the discretionary grants
[50:09] and also I want to point out SECO often
begins the year planning for use of some
[50:14] um fund balance but with the goal of
filling that gap during the fiscal year.
[50:19] This has proven successful over the last
few years as I will go into a little bit
[50:24] more detail when I share the fund
balance um used for this budget year.
[50:31] This is just a um quick overview of all
the different revenue source that SICKOK
[50:36] receive as a metropolitan planning
organizations, RTP, council of
[50:41] government and also discretionary
grants.
[50:46] Now just a quick high-level overview of
the draft 2026 27 budget.
[50:54] So this is the total budget makeup for
fiscal year 2627.
[51:01] Total um revenue projected is 52 I'm
sorry 51.2 million in revenue and also
[51:08] use of um restricted and unassigned fund
balance of approximately 1.5 million.
[51:15] This represent a 6% increase over 25 26
budgets. As you can see from the chart
[51:21] here, the state and federal funds makes
up majority of the revenue and this is
[51:26] mainly associated with the green beans
go grant um from the federal level and
[51:31] then also from the state side.
And on the expenditure side, the
[51:37] year-over-year increase is largely
driven by the higher pass through cost
[51:41] as I noted earlier on the green beans go
program and um and other uh
[51:47] discretionary grant like the mobility
zone.
[51:52] The staff and benefits increased
slightly. This is due to the cost of
[51:56] living adjustment but it was a partially
offset by excluding two vacant position
[52:02] from the current fiscal year. But I want
to note that seikkok budget is approved
[52:07] in tandem with the OWP and then um
sikok's management exercise the
[52:12] budgetary control at the fund level. So
rather than budgeting at a fixed number
[52:18] of positions, this approach offer
management greater flexibility in
[52:23] managing sikco personnel resources
according to the work plan needs or in
[52:28] this case is to keep position unfilled
due to some budgetary consideration
[52:34] as we all heard you know obviously
there's still unknown with the um the
[52:38] federal reauthorization bill so decide
to put these two position on hold for
[52:44] now and then what might back later if we
feel that there would be a need or
[52:49] obviously there need to carry out the
work plan but then also that the
[52:53] additional funding may be secured either
through discretionary grant or other
[52:58] means
and then as you this also reflect the
[53:02] consulting cost that is slightly lower.
This is also due to ending some of the
[53:07] discretionary grant for the fiscal year
and then the near completion of the
[53:11] blueprint EIR work.
For more information, comparison
[53:16] information to the current fiscal year,
the staff report and the attachment
[53:20] offer further detailed analysis um
regarding this draft budgets. Um
[53:26] attachment A present a summary of
revenue of changes by funding source
[53:30] while the attachment B outlines the
revenue and expenditure for summary for
[53:34] the fiscal year.
[53:41] As I noted earlier, the the draft budget
includes the use of um some restricted
[53:49] and unassigned fund requests. So this um
obviously included some one-time needs
[53:56] and then also this approach is
consistent with the SIKCO policy and
[54:00] then also to maintain long-term fiscal
sil
[54:04] stability and preserve flexibility for
future years. As you can see from this
[54:09] slide here, this you show the total use
of one approximately 1.5 million in plan
[54:16] use of fund balance across the different
category which include the use of
[54:20] managed fund and restricted fund of
618,000
[54:24] for grant match and board approved
program um such as the EI and also the
[54:29] match for the mobility zone grant and
then it's also include a proposed use of
[54:35] 250,000 from the pension trust
to smooth out Kalper's unfunded
[54:40] liability payment and then lastly
included 660,000 of unassigned fund
[54:46] balance. This include both carryover of
the previously approved fund balance
[54:51] where work spent multiple fiscal year
and then also the prop sorry proposed
[54:56] use of 500,000 for the f first phase of
the travel household travel survey which
[55:02] the board approved in March for the
release of the RP.
[55:09] This is just a quick um highlight of
what the estimated fund balance as of um
[55:16] fiscal year ending uh June 30th, 2026
and also um based on the proposed use of
[55:22] the fund balance for fiscal year 2027.
[55:30] Lastly, staff is requesting approval of
an updated salary schedule effective
[55:34] July 1st, 2026, which reflect a 3.2% 2%
cost of living cost of living adjustment
[55:42] increase based on the California
consumer price index. This is consistent
[55:47] with the labor agreement SECOG has with
its employees associations. The detailed
[55:52] schedule are included in attachment K.
So the recommendations for the board um
[55:59] that the board the policy and innovation
committee recommended that the board
[56:03] approve release of the draft budget and
OWP for fiscal year 202627
[56:09] for public comment and then also adopt
the salary schedule for fiscal year 2026
[56:16] 27.
[56:20] This concludes the overview of the uh my
presentation. happy to answer any
[56:24] questions or any feedback from the
board.
[56:27] » Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I
know you've done this presentation at
[56:30] our committee, so we had an opportunity
to get into detail, but there are any
[56:34] further questions for Loretta at this
time.
[56:38] All right, seeing none, I will open up
for public comment. Is Excuse
[56:42] [clears throat] me. Is there any public
comment on this item?
[56:44] » There's no public comment.
>> Bring it back.
[56:46] » I move approval. Hey, that was like if
we do that together, that was chorus.
[56:54] » I literally I know. So, I'm looking and
I'm going to say who was it? Who was it?
[56:59] » Yeah. Please.
>> Uh I know that we are going to have
[57:03] potentially what we're seeing um is some
uncertainty at the federal level and
[57:10] still
[57:14] » in which in which area?
it feels like in all it.
[57:18] » Um, and I'm just curious, you referenced
the the two positions. Is there any
[57:24] other concerns um in regards to the
money or other dollars that we have
[57:28] already built in at the federal from the
feds um that those two could potentially
[57:33] be fought back?
>> Well, obviously um included in the
[57:37] budget is our uh formula fundings for
the um from the federal governments for
[57:41] the planning work, right? So we
basically just assuming that funding
[57:45] will be continue at the current level
with a slight increases. Um so that you
[57:50] know obviously depending on what's going
to happen with the reauthorization bill
[57:53] that may potentially aris
>> are there any um plan B's or C's in
[57:59] regards to if if there is a world where
that might change
[58:04] » a plan B in terms of uh hiring those
positions or or or going the other way.
[58:11] Um, so just got back from DC, my third
trip in 3 months where, um, I'm really
[58:16] glad hopefully all of you are going back
in April for CAP to CAP. Um, the federal
[58:20] transportation bill expires in
September, September 30th, the IIGJ. Uh,
[58:25] we will not have a bill that's nearly as
big and wellunded and robust as, uh,
[58:29] going forward. There may be a new
transportation bill uh certainly that is
[58:34] marked up in committee possibly passed
and signed by the president this year
[58:39] but highly unlikely. Um if there is a
new bill we could see anywhere from an
[58:45] increase not only in funds that come
directly to SEIKOG but funds that come
[58:49] to all of you and that funding round
item you just approved. We're working
[58:53] really hard. I know uh director Jones
came back from Niko and talked about the
[58:57] basics act. So, we have a possibility of
of putting things in the right direction
[59:02] or um probably we would likely
>> the probably the most likely outcome is
[59:10] we won't get a bill this year. We'll
have a continuing resolution. That is
[59:12] the most likely. The reason that and I
just want to put a finer point because
[59:16] the board's been very engaged the budget
the last few years. It's been great. Uh
[59:20] we basically have a balanced budget
we're submitting to you because we're
[59:23] holding off those two hires. But for the
500,000 for the household travel survey,
[59:27] we feel this is a pretty conservative
budget. If it if the bill comes through
[59:32] and gets done this year and it goes in
the right direction, we will we will
[59:36] come back accordingly with uh budget
amendments to go in the right direction.
[59:40] If not, I feel pretty confident that
what you see before you is going to
[59:44] stick.
[59:47] » Thank you. Thank you for the question. I
believe and just because you were
[59:50] closest, I heard a a motion from
director soon. Chair, I have a quick
[59:54] question um before we go on. I'm sorry.
>> Okay.
[59:57] » And Loretta, thank you for the
presentation. What are the two
[1:00:00] positions? I I don't know if I missed
that or could you tell me what they are?
[1:00:04] » Um one of the position is um for the
transportation team and then also the
[1:00:09] other one is from our data team.
Obviously, as I mentioned, um the way
[1:00:13] the budget is structured is all based at
the um more fund level. So management
[1:00:19] sort of kind of determine when a a
position is open to more looking at the
[1:00:24] overall agency needs. So the replacement
of the open position may not you know be
[1:00:29] exactly you know replacing the existing
or the you know the the open position.
[1:00:34] So
>> yeah one last check. Any other
[1:00:38] questions? I have a motion. Is there a
second? I'll second down and count.
[1:00:42] Thank you. Nobody wanted to say second
after that
[1:00:46] motion. All right, I have a motion and a
second. All those in favor? I opposed
[1:00:52] and abstensions. Motion carries. Thank
you.
[1:00:56] That is the last of our action items.
And so we are back up for our workshop
[1:01:00] on the city of West Sacramento. And so
we will going to bring director I don't
[1:01:03] know if you wanted to introduce again or
any comments, but uh we will bring Erin
[1:01:08] Thural back to do our workshop
presentation.
[1:01:13] » Wonderful.
>> Again, welcome. you've already heard um
[1:01:17] me be a cheerleader for our region and
for West. We like to say West Bessack.
[1:01:25] Yeah. Yeah. Um we are very very
fortunate to have an amazing city
[1:01:30] manager um in Aaron Laurel. He has been
with us uh well he has been city manager
[1:01:35] for nearly eight years. I actually think
you've been with us for 18 21 years. Um
[1:01:41] we've gotten to really see him grow up.
that is um unusual to have that level of
[1:01:47] longevity and um hopefully he talks a
little bit about his history here in
[1:01:53] addition to West Sacramento um because
he has been foundational. Uh, Supervisor
[1:01:58] Viegas actually noted um Erin will talk
about our EIFD and how we were the first
[1:02:03] city um in California to do that, but
what he didn't say on the tour was he
[1:02:08] wrote that he has not only advocated for
it, but he [laughter]
[1:02:12] [gasps] he is part of it. He could teach
a class on this and so we're really
[1:02:16] fortunate to have him here in West
Sacramento. And I'm uh very very excited
[1:02:19] to introduce uh my friend, my city
manager, Aaron Laurel.
[1:02:25] Thank you, Council Member Early, very
much for that was very gracious. U some
[1:02:28] of it was true. Um but no, I app I
appreciate that. I will talk about uh
[1:02:33] some of the the legacy here um that I've
been fortunate to uh witness a lot of.
[1:02:39] Uh we also refer to West Sacramento more
recently as the baseball side of the
[1:02:42] river. Uh you'll see that branded
everywhere. Uh talk about a little bit
[1:02:46] more about baseball in a minute. Um I
know some of you are going to have to
[1:02:49] leave around 11:30, but um I'll just if
if it entices you at all. Uh, Supervisor
[1:02:54] Pie did promise to open the bar if
you'll stay till the end. So, uh, so I'm
[1:03:00] gonna get in
>> the best move to adjourn
[1:03:02] » soon. Soon.
>> Okay. Uh, when I when I talk about West
[1:03:05] Sacramento, I like and and those of you
that are on the tour today got to see a
[1:03:09] good glimpse of sort of the present and
future of our city, uh, especially
[1:03:12] around the riverfront and, uh, tried to
give some historic context of how we got
[1:03:16] there. But, it's very difficult when
you're looking at it today to kind of
[1:03:20] envision what it used to be like unless
you were there. And so, and it's also
[1:03:24] difficult to understand West Sacramento
and appreciate just how far we've come
[1:03:28] and some of the reasons it took us a
while to get there uh without that
[1:03:31] historic context. And so, do the boring
stuff first. Uh we uh we are a full
[1:03:36] service city here in West Sacramento. We
uh uh do everything from uh police and
[1:03:41] fire to we are also the water uh
purveyor. Um we are a city of I say
[1:03:46] around 60,000. I think we've been
historically undercounted by the census
[1:03:49] which uh can hurt or help you in some
ways. Uh we're also a major employment
[1:03:53] center um on par with some of the major
uh centers out there like Rancho Cordova
[1:03:58] and downtown Sacramento uh just in terms
of total employment. Um I think uh we we
[1:04:03] hopefully made it clear on the tour that
you know we we were sort of formed by
[1:04:07] different communities that pre-existed
the city. Uh but we're still only a city
[1:04:11] of less than 40 years old. Uh we also
get confused sometimes um you know as as
[1:04:16] uh the name indicates we are not in uh
Sacramento County. We are Yolo County.
[1:04:21] uh we're proud of that, but we're also
proud to be uh culturally, economically,
[1:04:25] socially connected to the center of the
region and and uh downtown Sacramento.
[1:04:29] So, we very much uh cross both
boundaries. Um the organization, like I
[1:04:33] said, we are a full service city, so
employment wise, we are a larger
[1:04:36] organization. I think the most notable
thing here, two points. Uh one is we
[1:04:40] have a huge CIP. A lot of your cities do
as well. Uh but when you see some of the
[1:04:45] projects we're working on, it'll make
more sense. And because of that, um as
[1:04:48] as Dr. early mentioned uh we were one of
the early actors when it came to what
[1:04:53] are we going to do after we lost
redevelopment about you know it's been
[1:04:56] almost 15 years now um we were very
quick to act in both rebuilding uh the
[1:05:01] toolbox through different tools but
especially focusing on uh what became
[1:05:05] the EFD law I I didn't I wrote some
portions of that of that law but there
[1:05:09] were very there are a lot of people a
lot of great people that were involved
[1:05:12] in in the uh reconstitution of that uh
about 10 years ago and so uh if you're
[1:05:17] not familiar what that is it's a it's a
tax increment financing district using
[1:05:20] property tax growth to help finance
infrastructure. Um there's more and more
[1:05:24] of these uh springing up around
California. It's kind of the best thing
[1:05:27] we have. We're still working on
improving it, but uh we were the first
[1:05:30] to act on it. We also just issued bonds
for the first time. So hopefully that
[1:05:33] helps pave the way for other cities to
be able to to do that with it not being
[1:05:37] a a strange um instrument in the debt
market. Uh so we kind of overcame some
[1:05:41] of those hurdles. Um I I mentioned the
growth here. You know, we started as a
[1:05:45] city of u less than 30,000 people. Um
we've doubled since we incorporated. Um
[1:05:51] experiencing some major growth during u
the same times when you all did. But I
[1:05:55] think what's notable about us is we
still have a lot of ways to go. Um it's
[1:05:59] not just in the Southport area, which is
a more suburban part of town, but most
[1:06:02] of the growth, believe it or not, is
kind of where we are today. Um it's in
[1:06:05] the Bridge District, it's on the
riverfront. We have a lot of highdensity
[1:06:08] housing that's yet to be built uh by
design. And uh we we plan to top out
[1:06:13] around 90,000 people. So, uh, we'll
never be quite as large as some of the
[1:06:16] bigger cities like Elkrove, but we'll
be, uh, definitely, um, you know, a
[1:06:20] larger city in the region. But when you
look at us, you know, and this is a good
[1:06:24] vantage point, I think, from a modern
standard. This is looking west from
[1:06:27] downtown Sacramento. Across the river is
West Sacramento. You'll notice right
[1:06:31] away, you know, there's there's a lot of
um, vacant land still in the urban core.
[1:06:36] Um, there's it's sort of a
underdeveloped uh, setting on that side
[1:06:40] of the river. And you can't help but ask
yourself, well, why why is that? Why did
[1:06:44] West Sacramento take so long to kind of
come about and and grow to where it's
[1:06:48] kind of on the same um density and
trajectory as as say right across the
[1:06:52] river in downtown Sacramento. And there
are good historic reasons for that. Uh
[1:06:56] this is dating back. This is probably I
mean it's from a plane, so it's got to
[1:06:59] be probably at least in the 1920s,
1930s. Uh but it shows you on the left
[1:07:02] is is Sacramento. On the right is what
then was East Yolo. Um, now West
[1:07:07] Sacramento, the the Broadderick
neighborhood of the Washington District
[1:07:10] that we saw earlier. And you can see
right there, it's it's very
[1:07:12] underdeveloped. Uh, West Sacramento was
kind of the stop on the way for people
[1:07:16] that were coming up from the barrier
during the gold rush. Um, as a result,
[1:07:20] there were a lot of unsavory things that
happened on this side of the river. Um,
[1:07:23] you know, uh, bars, brothel, hotels that
were just a stop on the way for people
[1:07:28] that were getting across the river, but
no one really settled there other than
[1:07:31] that in that one little enclave. Uh part
of that was because there weren't many
[1:07:34] connections back and forth and that kind
of stayed true. The other reason um and
[1:07:38] this is something that's kind of a you
know a reality of our history. Uh if
[1:07:43] you're familiar with redlinining um West
Sacramento was actually a redline
[1:07:46] community back in the uh 19 late 1930s.
That legacy really stuck with us. uh
[1:07:51] just if you're not familiar with the
term, uh it was it was something that
[1:07:54] was uh really embedded in in in you
know, racism and and um just sort of
[1:07:59] institutional uh racism back in the the
uh pre-war days. Um this if you were a
[1:08:04] redline community, the federal
government basically wouldn't back your
[1:08:07] mortgage. And so as a as a a you know,
percentage of total mortgages in in uh
[1:08:13] communities back then, less than 2% of
them in Redline communities were
[1:08:17] federally backed. And as a result of
that, you didn't have a lot of
[1:08:19] investment. So there were other parts of
Sacramento that that saw the same
[1:08:22] history. A lot of people don't know that
West Sacramento was actually a Redline
[1:08:25] community. Um this is 1947. Kind of same
thing. You know, you look across the
[1:08:29] river and this is on the left. Not a lot
there. Um and that just sort of
[1:08:33] continued until uh we jump ahead to when
the freeways were built. So this is now
[1:08:38] looking from West Sacramento over across
the river. Uh this is roughly in the
[1:08:41] area where we are today uh at the foot
of the the bridge there. Um this is the
[1:08:46] the kind of the first highway that was
built was West Capitol Avenue. It was
[1:08:49] the Lincoln Highway. Uh if you have
other people that went on the tour
[1:08:53] today, you saw it. Um at one point we
had 35 motel. We had RV parks. We had
[1:08:59] very much autooriented uses. That was
the East Yolo economy at the time and it
[1:09:03] was thriving around the highway back
then. This is like in the 1950s. Um we
[1:09:08] had the capital in that's a real place.
Uh they had the capital. We had the
[1:09:11] capital in. This is actually on the site
where uh city hall is today. Uh and this
[1:09:16] was sort of that there were a lot of
cool structures like this, neon signs
[1:09:19] and everything. People would drive on
their way to Tahoe or points eastward
[1:09:23] and stop in West Sacramento. People
didn't drive as far back then. And so
[1:09:26] that was our legacy. That's kind of how
our our community started. Um but then
[1:09:30] the then the federal highways came
around and and this these are the big
[1:09:33] highways, you know, building the Pioneer
Bridge, building Interstate 5. Uh West
[1:09:37] Sacramento was effectively bypassed at
that point. Uh this kind of shows it
[1:09:41] illustrated where if you're going to San
Francisco now, you know, West Sacramento
[1:09:44] is kind of an afterthought. You can go
there, but you can also just keep going.
[1:09:48] And uh I always like to use this um this
comparison because people generally get
[1:09:54] the analogy. How many of you seen the
movie Cars?
[1:09:57] » Yeah.
>> Okay, cool. So when I'm doing this in
[1:09:59] other places, I'm I'm often presenting
at conferences where like the
[1:10:02] demographic is like there's like people
in their 20s. So I always have to say
[1:10:05] some of you saw it with your kids, some
of you were kids. Uh but everyone
[1:10:08] generally gets the reference. So this is
Radiator Springs on the map uh where it
[1:10:12] used to be part of the old, you know,
sort of fictional Route 66. Then Highway
[1:10:17] 40 was built. And if you remember, the
town's people were so excited because
[1:10:20] they thought, "Hey, we're like on this
major interstate system. We're going to
[1:10:24] get all this business." And uh they they
prepped and had this big u you know
[1:10:28] banner. They were going to welcome all
the travelers. And you know what
[1:10:30] happened? You know the rest of the
story. It didn't happen. Uh that they
[1:10:34] were bypassed. the economy went went to
you know what and uh and they had to
[1:10:39] figure it out. The difference is and
this was West Sacramento story. West
[1:10:42] Capital Avenue became Radiator Springs
in a way. Uh the difference is we didn't
[1:10:47] have Lighton McQueen to come along and
save us and instead our legacy was this.
[1:10:52] What happened on West Capital Avenue
back in the the late 1980s
[1:10:57] um was what would happen anywhere across
the country that experienced the same
[1:11:00] thing. the motel owners that were there,
they no longer had those traveler
[1:11:04] businesses and and resorted to things
that, you know, resulted in a lot of
[1:11:08] challenges for a young city. Um, all the
things that uh the headline was right,
[1:11:13] the crime rate was crazy here in the in
the late ' 80s. And I think West
[1:11:16] Sacramento's reputation really suffered
because of that for many years. So, that
[1:11:20] was part of the story. The other part of
the story was this. You know, this is
[1:11:22] where in the bottom right of this
picture is where we're sitting today.
[1:11:26] You wouldn't have known that that was
possible back then. This was a kind of a
[1:11:29] riverfront port. We had rail lines
criss-crossing everywhere. We had grain
[1:11:33] warehouses. We had uh highways that were
built. Uh you couldn't really come up
[1:11:37] with a worse setup to try to build a
cohesive community than what we were
[1:11:40] dealt uh back then in in the 80s. And so
this is the bridge district today. I'm
[1:11:45] sorry, bridges back then. Um uh today
it's a very different picture and and a
[1:11:50] lot of that is due to the level of
investment the city made once it
[1:11:52] incorporated into transportation uh
improvements. So, um, like I said, you
[1:11:58] know, one of the reasons the city
incorporated was around the idea, we
[1:12:01] have this awesome riverfront that has
great potential. We have great plans for
[1:12:05] it, but we really need to, you know,
double and triple down on infrastructure
[1:12:08] investment and and transform this area
into um a shovel ready site where
[1:12:13] private investment can eventually come.
And a lot of that was also in terms of
[1:12:16] building a community and connecting
those uh desperate disperate
[1:12:19] neighborhoods that were part of the uh
origin story. they were all disconnected
[1:12:24] by whether it was rail lines or
highways. And so a lot of the city's
[1:12:26] early investments were on very basic
things, rail crossings, undercrossings,
[1:12:31] um and and then that that legacy
continues today and reconnecting uh
[1:12:35] those communities into what is today a
cohesive West Sacramento. Uh so again,
[1:12:40] this was the bridge district back then.
Uh we heavily invested in infrastructure
[1:12:45] and the the first big catalyst project
that came along was Sutter Health Park.
[1:12:49] Today it was field back then. But even
then, if you remember what Field was
[1:12:52] like back in 2000 when it opened, uh the
area around it was a lot like that
[1:12:56] former picture. I think there was a hope
that, hey, we build this thing, it lands
[1:13:00] here, and we're going to have all this
investment. I think we learned the hard
[1:13:03] way that that's just part of the the
recipe. You had to then, like I said,
[1:13:07] double down on on the infrastructure
investment around it to create the
[1:13:11] environment where infill development can
really happen. And thanks to a lot of uh
[1:13:15] public investment, a lot of help from
SEIKOG grants and other other sources
[1:13:19] and then our private partners, we were
able to really make progress. This is
[1:13:23] kind of just a aerial shot of the
terraforming and all the all the big uh
[1:13:29] you know movement we had to do in the
bridge district to get the basic roads
[1:13:32] in so we could actually build the first
housing. Uh so this all occurred in uh
[1:13:37] probably about 2012 to 2015.
Uh this is kind of what you see today.
[1:13:42] though even in this picture there are
buildings the one on the right uh you
[1:13:45] saw today is is almost done uh so things
are happening very quickly now uh but
[1:13:49] there were many many years where nothing
happened because we had to make that
[1:13:52] investment to make it possible so the
bridge district today is uh slated for
[1:13:57] up to 5,000 housing units uh 12 million
ft of total development which is on par
[1:14:01] with the same kind of density that you
would see across the river and downtown
[1:14:06] um today it has many amenities that uh
people know well like the barn some
[1:14:11] regional draws. We have an old uh rice
pier that we actually converted into one
[1:14:15] of the only places you can actually get
out on the water in the river and and
[1:14:19] you know take in the view. Uh and some
of these other projects you saw today.
[1:14:22] This illustration um you can laugh if
you want, but um this actually
[1:14:26] represents if you built the bridge
district to its total density uh in
[1:14:30] terms of what the infrastructure can
support. It's not what the market can
[1:14:32] support yet, but this is what it would
look like if you built it out uh to the
[1:14:36] full density. Um, I would predict that
we'll see something that's sort of in
[1:14:39] the middle of of this uh this photo in
reality. Uh, and it'll take a while to
[1:14:43] get there, but we're well on our way uh
with the first about thousand units and
[1:14:47] a and a lot more development coming up.
>> What's
[1:14:51] in the river there?
>> Yeah. So, uh, if you know Mark
[1:14:53] Freriedman, he was the one that uh, paid
for this and designed it. So, uh, it's
[1:14:57] kind of an aspirational project, but I
think the idea was, hey, wouldn't it be
[1:15:00] great? We have the Riverwalk and then
you can walk along there and and uh take
[1:15:04] in the river, but wouldn't it be great
if we could actually have a floating
[1:15:07] pier where you could you could get in
the water? Yes,
[1:15:11] » there's causeway like that in Austin.
>> Yes, I've been on it.
[1:15:15] » Yeah. Not quite.
>> Yeah. The difference there is that's
[1:15:18] that's a sort of a river and they don't
have the the fluctuations in in height
[1:15:23] that we do, but but yeah, we we've
actually looked at that.
[1:15:25] » A real river.
>> It is. It is. But they don't have
[1:15:30] it
>> is awesome though.
[1:15:31] » I'll say as a as a Sacramento
representative um I might get, you know,
[1:15:36] beaten when I'm when I go back home. But
I I I'll say that I often look across
[1:15:40] the river and I'm um in awe and uh
inspired by the work that you guys are
[1:15:44] doing on the on the waterfront and I
often go talk to our staff at the city
[1:15:48] of Sacramento and I say, "What are we
doing? How come we can't build like this
[1:15:52] on the waterfront?" And there's a lot of
reasons for that, including one called
[1:15:55] Union Pacific. But anyway, um but you
know, it's I think it's it's a great
[1:15:59] aspiration. I think something that we
should do be doing on both sides of the
[1:16:02] river because when you look at great
cities all across the United States and
[1:16:06] beyond that are especially ones that are
on the convergence of two rivers like we
[1:16:10] are, they build up on their waterfronts,
they build housing, they build
[1:16:13] restaurants and bars and and recreation
opportunities. And I think that's
[1:16:17] definitely in the future for us. And so
I'm just really excited about all the
[1:16:20] work you're doing.
>> And we are too uh likewise in
[1:16:22] Sacramento. So, I appreciate that
comment because it does really speak to
[1:16:25] kind of the promise and and why we do a
lot of what we do on our side of the
[1:16:29] river. Uh my joke about this and uh
we'll talk in a minute about baseball.
[1:16:34] Uh but DOCO was the best thing that
happened to West Sacramento that we
[1:16:37] didn't have to pay for, right? Uh just
like everything we're doing over here,
[1:16:41] if we if we do the type of thing we're
talking about here, um it will just as
[1:16:45] much benefit downtown Sacramento. And
and that is the idea. We even though
[1:16:48] we're two separate counties, two
separate cities, our success is their
[1:16:52] success. Everything that's happening in
the rail yards is great for our city.
[1:16:54] Soccer stadium, Kaiser, you name it. Uh
but we're trying to do the same thing
[1:16:58] for that exact reason. We want to be the
regional draw for the whole the whole
[1:17:02] region to uh recreate and enjoy. Um you
know, we go back to where people live
[1:17:08] and there's a great place in the region
to live, but this is the economic and
[1:17:12] cultural center of of the region and we
want to be just as much a part of that
[1:17:15] as downtown Sacramento. Um so I'm going
to just highlight brief
[1:17:19] » Karen. Can I just jump in real quick?
Um, so this has really brought me down
[1:17:23] memory lane because I'm from Lumis and
my second job interview um at 19 was at
[1:17:30] Clark Pacific and it was Techon Pacific
back then and I will never forget
[1:17:35] getting off the freeway to this huge
billboard that said over a thousand1
[1:17:39] hotel rooms. Yeah.
>> You know, and I was like what what is
[1:17:43] this? But I witnessed I was able to work
for Clark Pacific three times over my
[1:17:47] career. My husband actually um retired
from there. But watching this incredible
[1:17:54] transformation of this city has been
amazing um since 1984 for me as I would
[1:17:59] come down here. And um I just want to
say it's just amazing and I love how I
[1:18:04] love what you've done. I love the
housing. Um it's just been a a knock out
[1:18:08] of the park. So thank you. No,
>> I appreciate that. and and uh you know
[1:18:12] it it having that uh memory of the 80s
is is especially profound when you when
[1:18:17] you reflect on what has happened here. I
think Supervisor Viegas growing up here
[1:18:21] can
>> Oh yeah.
[1:18:22] » speak uh totally to that.
>> So I have to give a shout out to
[1:18:24] Whiteies. Yeah.
>> And Club Feeasant
[1:18:30] Neym
[1:18:34] » Yeah. I think we just missed that. Um so
uh I wanted to go back to the the motel
[1:18:39] comment. So, uh, those of you who were
on the tour today, um, saw some of the
[1:18:42] work we've been doing. We did start with
35 motel and maybe at one point that
[1:18:46] billboard was accurate. They've had to
change it a few times. Um, the
[1:18:50] association actually owns it, but um, we
we very deliberately as part of our
[1:18:54] redevelopment efforts on West Capitol
Avenue have, and some of you saw that
[1:18:58] today on the tour, um, acquired some of
those motel properties, re temporarily
[1:19:02] purposed them as interim supportive
housing, uh, with an eye towards
[1:19:06] redevelopment. uh you saw today our
first big redevelopment project that's
[1:19:10] going to be resulting from that effort.
But as we go down the boulevard um that
[1:19:14] that process is going to repeat itself
uh really serves multiple purposes both
[1:19:18] uh helping the population that is
frankly kind of stuck there by
[1:19:22] circumstance. Um I talked some of the
the factors going into that um and
[1:19:26] helping people that otherwise you know
aren't getting much help. uh but also
[1:19:30] looking to redevelop those sites into um
new housing and and uh business
[1:19:34] opportunities um as we as we kind of go
east down the boulevard. So um SEIKOG
[1:19:40] has been integral in in terms of um
helping with those connections and the
[1:19:44] transportation infrastructure investment
that has led to a lot of the success
[1:19:48] stories that we've had in West
Sacramento, particularly around the
[1:19:50] bridge district. But I wanted to get
into a just to highlight a few and I'm
[1:19:53] sorry if this is redundant with some of
the tour uh but the I Street Bridge is
[1:19:57] one that's very prominent. Uh if you've
driven across it, you know the problems
[1:20:00] with the Ice Street Bridge. Uh there's
long been a plan to replace it. Uh it's
[1:20:04] very notable on our side of the river
because the new bridge, which is very
[1:20:07] close to starting construction, um it
actually lands in a different place. It
[1:20:10] lands on Railards Boulevard on that side
of the river. The old bridge uh is going
[1:20:14] to be converted into a bicycle
pedestrian bridge. Um this is the
[1:20:18] rendering of the new um whether you want
to call it rails bridge, sea street
[1:20:22] bridge, or replacement bridge. We're
still deciding on that, but it's a it's
[1:20:25] a multimodal
uh very much wider um you know,
[1:20:29] pedestrian friendly um built for future
types of transit and uh it will be a
[1:20:35] dramatic difference compared to the
current bridge. Uh like I said, the old
[1:20:38] bridge will be converted into something
like this. Um if you've been to the
[1:20:42] Highline in in New York, it's not going
to be the Highline, but it's going to be
[1:20:45] as close as we can make it to that. U
but it will be an important um
[1:20:49] transportation
uh asset for us going forward. You saw
[1:20:53] this today. This is the overpass.
There's a first pedestrian overpass over
[1:20:56] the US50 uh freeway that runs through
West Sacramento and bisects the city. Uh
[1:21:00] the most notable thing here, if you
missed it, is the the children that go
[1:21:04] to school on uh they go to school on the
left side of the bridge. Um on the right
[1:21:10] side, there's neighborhoods that were so
disconnected that it would cut their
[1:21:13] walk time by like 20 minutes. So, it's a
dramatic difference for for children
[1:21:18] that live on that side. And that's not
the only thing. I I actually live in one
[1:21:21] of these neighborhoods and just seeing
the number of people out doing active,
[1:21:25] you know, whether it's transportation or
just just health-wise, it's it's been a
[1:21:28] great addition for us, too. And I know
many of you have these in your
[1:21:31] communities. You know what I'm talking
about. Um, we have a trail system. A lot
[1:21:34] of it is a rails to trails uh
conversion. This is the Clarksburg trail
[1:21:38] out in Southport. Uh, one of the early
investments in the what was then the
[1:21:42] SEIKOG bike ped program um is now being
built out uh with additional SEIKOG uh
[1:21:47] funding. You saw this today. This is
Riverfront Street, uh the and Fifth
[1:21:51] Street, the extension that we did. This
used to be a two-lane road with a
[1:21:54] freeway on ramp. And so we separated the
bike path into a class one, uh trail,
[1:21:59] and that really made it much safer, much
more inviting for people that were more
[1:22:03] casual bicyclists, uh getting to parts
of West Sacramento that were very hard
[1:22:08] to get to places like Sutter Health Park
before. Uh so this was a dramatic
[1:22:11] difference that was part funded in part
by SEIKOG. uh the light rail project and
[1:22:15] and this one is one that you know I've
been in West Sacramento for 21 years.
[1:22:19] I've been working on this project for 21
years. Um it's getting there. U it's a
[1:22:24] big deal for us in terms of connecting
us to the regional system. Uh right now,
[1:22:28] you know, especially when you look at
where we're standing today, what might
[1:22:31] be here in the future, it's it's a key
connection to make. Eventually, light
[1:22:35] rail will hopefully head to the airport.
Uh we want to be part of this system.
[1:22:38] And so this project is is getting there.
Like I said, uh we hope that it will um
[1:22:44] you know, be under construction soon and
just connect us to the 7th uh street
[1:22:48] line in Sacramento. Uh this project is a
is a little out there, but it's a a new
[1:22:53] bridge that's out by the port of West
Sacramento uh at the Enterprise
[1:22:56] Crossing. This is the corridor. U and
the theme here is West Sacramento only
[1:22:59] has a few north south connections. It's
been one of the things we suffered from
[1:23:03] uh from a long time, not just from a
traffic standpoint, but let's face it,
[1:23:06] we're in a region that uh has flood risk
and part of it is resiliency. We want to
[1:23:10] make sure we have ways in and out in the
worst case scenario. Uh but mainly this
[1:23:14] is this is for traffic circulation. It
will very much uh in a in a abstract way
[1:23:19] help the riverfront because it pushes a
lot of traffic away from what otherwise
[1:23:23] would be coming through this corridor
and in in doing that it allows us to
[1:23:27] build higher density on on this side
where it's mostly needed. Uh you you
[1:23:31] learned today about Sacramento Avenue.
This was our green means go uh project.
[1:23:34] Um, this is being completely reimagined,
redesigned, uh, from kind of an old
[1:23:38] highway or underbuilt roadway
configuration to something that is much
[1:23:42] more pedestrian, bicycle friendly and
much more conducive to attracting uh,
[1:23:47] future development and some of the
infill sites that are available there.
[1:23:50] And I know you're all familiar with
Greens Means Go, but uh just to give you
[1:23:53] a sense of where our green zones are in
West Sacramento, it's very much
[1:23:56] concentrated around uh the waterfront
areas uh but also in our some of our
[1:24:00] lower-income neighborhoods like uh
Bright and Broadick along the Sacramento
[1:24:03] Avenue corridor.
U I'm going to close with this slide
[1:24:08] just to kind of restate the point uh
made earlier and and I know I didn't say
[1:24:12] much about kind of the work we're doing,
but I can say a little bit here. The
[1:24:15] city has been and is very much engaged
on early planning work that includes a
[1:24:20] bridge district specific plan update um
that looks at kind of modernizing some
[1:24:24] of our land use assumptions around it.
Uh we were heavy on office development
[1:24:28] in the early days of that plan and as
you know no one's building office
[1:24:32] buildings at least not much. Uh so we're
really shifting the focus more towards
[1:24:36] housing, uh retail, entertainment,
hotels, and that really tracks well with
[1:24:40] the the longerterm plans to say, hey, if
if and if the stadium happened to triple
[1:24:45] in size, uh for Major League Baseball,
that would be much more of a conducive
[1:24:50] to uh the type of development you
typically see around stadiums. Uh you
[1:24:55] can go to Atlanta, you can go to uh I
think it's in Arlington, the new Ranger
[1:24:58] Stadium. Uh they all have that common
thread. There's there's a stadium, but
[1:25:02] it's really about the development around
it. Highdensity infill uh transit orient
[1:25:06] development. Uh that's really what the
bridge district is all about already,
[1:25:10] but we're we're modernizing the plan uh
to make sure that it tracks with the
[1:25:14] opportunity that uh Council Member Early
and Supervisor Vas talked a little bit
[1:25:17] about earlier. Um and so we're just in
the beginning stages of it, but there is
[1:25:22] a really exciting regional opportunity
here that that all the all the things
[1:25:26] that were said earlier are true around
uh the importance of regional
[1:25:29] partnerships on it. Uh but the city is
doing its part in terms of the
[1:25:32] readiness, making sure that we not only
have the plans and the infrastructure in
[1:25:35] place, but also that we have the
financing. The public financing side is
[1:25:39] probably the most difficult part. You as
a local electives can appreciate that
[1:25:42] more than anybody. Uh but we are putting
together a plan that would not come at
[1:25:45] the expense of anything like our general
fund that would rely completely on
[1:25:49] revenues that would be generated by uh
the development of the stadium and the
[1:25:52] surrounding area. Um and so that'll be
part of whatever um comes out of uh this
[1:25:57] effort. So, um, I will I believe that's
my last slide. I'll stop there and see
[1:26:01] if there's any questions and I think we
might have a couple minutes for that.
[1:26:04] So,
>> thank you. And I think too you'll be
[1:26:07] around after if we have some.
>> Yes, I will hang out.
[1:26:10] » He's going to be around now because
we've asked you guys to stay right
[1:26:12] around.
>> I I I was sitting here thinking I'm like
[1:26:15] part of it is branding and identity and
I'm thinking West Sacramento, how do you
[1:26:19] get your own branding? So, I was
thinking of all these great river names
[1:26:22] and then I decided what was I thinking?
It's Bridgertown, right? They'll be a
[1:26:26] little more spicy if you were Bridget.
>> That might be trademarked, but
[1:26:31] [laughter]
>> just saying.
[1:26:34] » Um, any questions that you as a group
would or comments?
[1:26:38] » I'm sorry. I I blocked you, sir.
[laughter]
[1:26:43] » Anyway,
>> not only Whitey where P6 will be in
[1:26:48] season pretty soon.
>> But, um, I think the original nugget
[1:26:53] might be Woodland.
Thanks.
[1:26:56] » Dr. Howell, could you turn your mic on?
Thank you.
[1:26:59] » I was using coach voice. Um, so the one
of the iconic legacies of West
[1:27:06] Sacramento closed a year and a half ago.
>> Yeah.
[1:27:10] » The Pheasant Club,
>> rumors are it might reopen. Club
[1:27:13] Feeasant. Yep. Is that true?
>> Yeah. So, when uh the pheasant club
[1:27:16] announced closure, the first call I got
was actually from Dr. Early. Um and and
[1:27:22] uh it's funny sometimes, you know,
things are happening in unison and and
[1:27:25] you know, she said, "Hey, they it's
actually in her council district and um
[1:27:29] and she's very concerned obviously for
all the reasons you just said. It's kind
[1:27:32] of the West doesn't have a ton of
preserved history and that in that
[1:27:36] restaurant space is definitely one of
them. Uh so the city acted very quickly
[1:27:40] because it would have been a gas station
and a couple of fast food restaurants
[1:27:44] had we not. Um and we ended up actually
purchasing the property uh from the from
[1:27:50] the owners. Um the council from there
then approved plans to uh bring it back
[1:27:55] as a redeveloped but still preserving
some of the the building uh facades and
[1:28:00] and definitely the legacy of of the
pheasant club. Uh there'll be I believe
[1:28:04] there's seven restaurant spaces that are
that are going to be
[1:28:07] » Erin, can I can I tag in? Sure. Um
because I think this really represents
[1:28:11] the theme that we talked about this
morning of West Sacramento and and you
[1:28:15] touched on it, right, which is uh your
local government investing in the
[1:28:20] infrastructure or investing in systems
that then allow for your whole community
[1:28:25] to thrive. And I think one of the
challenges that we saw with the pheasant
[1:28:29] club was it would have turned into to
your point, we were hearing, you know,
[1:28:33] either a storage or gas station or um or
fast food restaurant. And we knew that
[1:28:40] short of us stepping in, the market will
do what the market does. And that's
[1:28:45] really been whether it is the motel,
whether it is infill and allowing in
[1:28:50] partnership with SEIKOG and others to
invest in the in the streets and
[1:28:54] infrastructure. That is what has allowed
us in a very short amount of time to be
[1:28:58] the community we are stepping in where
we need to and then stepping back.
[1:29:02] » Yeah. And so long story short, um
they're in for plan check right now and
[1:29:06] hopefully get building permits soon and
a couple years from now hopefully you'll
[1:29:09] be able to eat it. Um might not be
called exactly the same, but uh it'll
[1:29:13] it'll definitely be restaurants.
>> Thank you. Director Sunn had a comment.
[1:29:18] » Thank you chair. I just wanted to Aaron
commend you. I mean, Dante, I mean,
[1:29:24] Director Early and uh Director Viegas,
just for all all the work you've done, I
[1:29:27] think you've given us all the
appreciation of not just what you
[1:29:32] overcame, but the continuity of
leadership and, you know, your
[1:29:37] leadership as well as the councils to
get to where you are. I mean, when you
[1:29:41] say you've been here for 21 years, I
mean, that what you had to overcome is
[1:29:46] is incredible how long it takes to
rebuild the infrastructure, the
[1:29:50] entitlements, getting the, you know,
people here. So, it really there's just
[1:29:54] a huge appreciation I have for that cuz
a lot of us are dealing with at least in
[1:29:58] Elkrove, we had stuff we dealt with from
the county, but a lot of it is blank
[1:30:03] slates. So, that's that's a challenge in
of itself, but I think what you guys
[1:30:07] have done uh is just really amazing.
>> Thank you.
[1:30:10] » Yeah.
Thank you so much. I know um several
[1:30:13] folks had a hard stop, so we'll wrap it
up, but I know that you will be here and
[1:30:17] appreciate it that you'll stay for some
questions. Thank you so much. Um moving
[1:30:21] on quickly to just some uh reports.
>> Yeah, thank you.
[1:30:30] » I was hoping that Savannah Bananas were
going to be out there practicing while
[1:30:33] we were here, too. Um, a couple of
things I wanted to to share some some
[1:30:38] fun and exciting news. Um, I was able to
attend KCOG with some of the SEIKOG
[1:30:43] staff last week and they we have
received a major award.
[1:30:52] » It's the Eureka Award for regional
excellence. It was very I was very proud
[1:30:56] to accept on behalf of our team here and
uh for our engage empower and implement
[1:31:01] program and it really was an award
directed at um creative and innovative
[1:31:06] ideas that could serve as an example for
other COGS and throughout the region. So
[1:31:10] thank you to staff so much and everyone
for for doing that and making me look
[1:31:14] good when I got to accept it. Um, and I
just do a reminder that uh, April 1st
[1:31:19] form 700 and Lynette is over there
happily ready to receive your your forms
[1:31:24] as they come through. Um, and also I
have to remind you on these placemats. I
[1:31:28] do love the place mats. Um, the
information for our pure region tour is
[1:31:33] on there. And that is all that I have.
James, do you have anything?
[1:31:36] » I I would just say we've gone from the
confluence of two rivers in this region
[1:31:40] to at the late June the confluence of
two rivers in Minneapolis St. Paul
[1:31:44] because that is the Minnesota
>> dates are confusing on the placemat.
[1:31:49] » Uhoh.
>> It looks as though the uh 25th and 6th
[1:31:52] have been stricken from the calendar.
>> Okay. The peer region tour is June 24th
[1:31:57] leaving Bright and early uh staying
through Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
[1:32:00] coming back Friday evening June 26th. So
whatever it says
[1:32:05] » Thursday the 2.
>> Listen to me. Uh
[1:32:09] all right. June 24 26 registration is
open. I know we have a lot of interest
[1:32:13] from board members. Some of you
>> I'm going to do it.
[1:32:16] » Some of you I know you want to get out
of here, but you're going to have to
[1:32:20] listen to this. Uh want to bring your
staff. We have a wait list. So, we have
[1:32:24] actually so much board interest and we
can't go above too many right on these
[1:32:28] tours. So, it's great if you're
interested in bringing your staff, but
[1:32:31] there will be a wait list and I'm not
sure we'll be able to manage that. We'll
[1:32:35] do the best we can. But um got a great
we have a a peer uh agency there, the
[1:32:40] Met Council, Metropolitan Council. They
are very excited to host you uh and show
[1:32:46] off all the great things they've been
doing and working on really hard. And
[1:32:49] that first night will just happen to be
a Minnesota Twins game downtown. So, uh
[1:32:55] very transit accessible. That's my that
is my report.
[1:32:59] » Tour just got a lot more popular, didn't
it? I love that. Thank you very very
[1:33:03] much. Um, with that I think that's we've
got everything covered. Just reminder of
[1:33:08] our next meeting which I'm sure it'll be
about a beautiful 100 degrees by the
[1:33:13] time we meet again on April 16th back at
our home base at SEIKOG. And with that
[1:33:18] we're adjourned.