[0:13] Good evening, everyone. I would like to call the order closed session for Stockton City Council today on the 23rd of September 2025. Let's go ahead and do roll call. Councilmember Blower. Present. Councilmember Nicas. Present. Councilmember Ponte. Ponce is here. Councilmember Padilla is absent. Councilmember Vía Padua. Present. Vice Mayor Lee. Present. Mayor Fugazi. Present. We have a quorum. Okay, wonderful.

[0:42] I don't see that we have any additions to closed session agenda and then I would say that this body will be recessing in accordance to conference with our labor negotiator and I'm looking for the numbers 5-4-9-5-7-0.6-A of the government code.

[1:04] We will also be going to close session conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation, which is government code section 54956.9, and then also we will be going into close session to conference with legal counsel on 3.3.

[1:26] We anticipated litigation, pursuant to government code section 54956.9.

[1:37] Is there any public comment for closed session?

[1:41] We have none.

[1:42] Okay.

[1:42] We have none.

[1:43] Then we will be recessing to closed session.

[1:46] Are we staying in here going around?

[1:48] Okay.

[2:37] Good evening everyone and welcome to the Stockton City Council meeting for today.

[2:44] September 23rd, 2025. Let's go ahead and take roll. Council Member Blower.

[2:50] President. Council Member Enriquez. President. Council Member Ponce.

[2:54] President. Council Member Padilla. President. Council Member Vía Padua.

[2:57] President. Vice Mayor Lee. President. And Mayor Fugazi.

[3:00] President. We have a quorum. Wonderful. At this time I would like to invite up

[3:04] Chaplain Sapphal to go ahead and do our invocation. Thank you Mayor.

[3:19] I come before you today with grateful hearts for the city we call home

[3:24] because many women have served in a city hall.

[3:28] We acknowledge that the authority is established by you.

[3:32] And we ask for your divine guidance and wisdom to rest upon all our mayor,

[3:38] our vice mayor, our city council members to part of the dance,

[3:41] and every person who works to serve public.

[3:47] to make decisions to promote justice, peace, prosperity for all residents, especially those

[3:56] both vulnerable.

[3:58] And may they move that with kindness and humility, setting aside personal gender for the

[4:06] common good or our community, and break from the spirit of unity among all our fishermen,

[4:12] that they may work together harmoniously, respecting their differences as they seek to build a

[4:18] better scene. We also pray for all the dedicated staff at City Hall, strengthen them in their daily

[4:28] tasks, and bless their works for our city's work, and may they find purpose in their service.

[4:35] And be reminded that their efforts contribute to the first of our neighborhood.

[4:42] Protect our public service from temptation, corruption, fatigue.

[4:48] Shield them from harm and discourage them as they carry out their duties.

[4:55] The mind is all, citizens of the League of the Life.

[4:58] You treat one another with respect, equal to your grace.

[5:02] Lord, we ask for Your peace and blessings to be poured out of mercy,

[5:07] guide our leaders, sustain our workers,

[5:10] and as far as all to be good neighbors,

[5:13] to contribute to the growth and work there,

[5:16] and to well be in a lot of this displace

[5:19] who offer this prayer and faith,

[5:21] trust in the perfect will God,

[5:24] and the name of the Father,

[5:25] and the name of the Son,

[5:27] and the name of the Holy Spirit, hey man.

[5:30] Thank you.

[5:31] Next up, we have a member of our Youth Advisory Committee.

[5:37] We have Andrew Garcia-Watchay to do our pledge of allegiance with his proud mother, watching.

[5:44] Can

[5:48] everybody please stand up?

[5:55] I pledge of allegiance to the five of the United States of America and to the Republic for

[6:02] which is stands for a nation under God,

[6:06] indivisible, liberty, and justice for all of us.

[6:25] And just to let you know, Andrew is our secretary

[6:28] for our Youth Advisory Committee.

[6:30] I have known him since he was seven or eight years old,

[6:34] I would say.

[6:35] He was the youngest volunteer I ever had.

[6:38] Well, maybe not, but close to it.

[6:41] And he is a sophomore at St. Mary's High School,

[6:45] where he is doing big things and now he's expanding his territory and doing it

[6:50] throughout the city so congratulations Andrew.

[7:17] Now we are moving on to oh do we

[7:22] have any action to report out on close session. There's nothing to report

[7:27] mayor. Okay I can't skip skip that so moving on to

[7:31] recognitions amount announcements or reports. I know we have a number of

[7:35] of proclamations tonight, the first one for our Code Enforcement Officer Appreciation Week.

[7:41] So if we can have our Code Enforcement Officers and team head on out, and then our city clerk will read the proclamation.

[7:49] Whereas Code Enforcement Officers provide for the safety, health, and welfare of citizens of communities throughout the state of California

[7:55] through the enforcement of local, state, and federal laws and ordinances dealing with various issues of building, zoning, housing, animal control, environmental, health, and life safety.

[8:04] and code enforcement officers have challenging and demanding roles, and in recent years the responsibilities have expanded with jurisdictions increasingly relying on their expertise and training in service to their communities.

[8:16] And code enforcement officers are dedicated, highly qualified, and highly trained professionals who share the goals of preventing neighborhood deterioration, enhancing communities, ensuring safety and preserving property values through their knowledge, training, and application of housing, zoning, and public nuisance laws.

[8:31] And Code Enforcement Officers often have a highly visible role in the communities they serve,

[8:35] regularly interacting with the public, as well as with federal, state, county, and local officials.

[8:41] And now there for I, Christina Fugazi, Mayor of the City of Stockton, and members of the Stockton City Council,

[8:46] do hereby proclaim October 5th through 11th, 2025, as State of California Code Enforcement Officer Week.

[9:07] Good evening.

[9:07] This proclamation recognizing code enforcement week is a tribute to the dedicated men and women who worked tirelessly to ensure the health and safety of Stockton's neighborhoods.

[9:16] Their work often happens behind the scenes, but it is essential to building a safer cleaner and more beautiful community for all of us.

[9:24] This isn't just a recognition of our department, it's a testament to the importance of what the team does every day.

[9:30] Okay, this dedicated group of individuals are proud to serve this city and will continue

[9:35] working hard to make stock down a place we can be proud to call home.

[9:39] Thank you.

[9:45] If I may, because it's not often that we get to see all of you, I probably say the words

[9:50] code enforcement like three times a week so it's really good to see all of you and I just

[9:54] want to personally thank you for all the work that you're doing in my district and throughout

[9:57] the city because it is work that we see and it's, you know, we hear a lot from the community,

[10:03] the changes that they want to see, we always send them to ask Stockton, but we know that

[10:07] you all are doing the work, so we thank you, and I appreciate all the work that you're

[10:10] doing in my district.

[10:50] May I have the Keisha Shaw to the podium, please?

[10:54] Whereas suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States and has a profound impact

[10:59] on families, friends, and communities, and every year thousands of lives are lost to suicide

[11:03] while countless more are affected by the grief, trauma, and emotional toll that follows.

[11:08] And raising awareness, fostering open conversations, and promoting access to mental health resources

[11:14] are essential to preventing suicide and saving lives.

[11:17] And the City of Stockton recognizes the importance of community partnerships with mental health professionals,

[11:21] schools, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and advocates working to expand resources,

[11:27] reduce stigma, and support individuals in crisis.

[11:30] And during Suicide Prevention Month, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that every resident knows they are not alone,

[11:35] that help is available and that hope and healing are possible.

[11:39] And now therefore, I, Christina Fugazi, Mayor of the City of Stockton and members of the Stockton City Council,

[11:45] do you hear Brian Proclaim September 2025 as suicide prevention months?

[11:56] Hello, everyone.

[11:58] Before I get started, I did write the speech out because of time.

[12:02] And I had brain surgery, so I forget a lot of things, so I did write a speech.

[12:06] However, before I get started, I just wanted to just say the names of the individuals behind me

[12:10] because which software community it's not just myself.

[12:13] We are an organization and we have a great team.

[12:16] So this is Dr. Trevianne Jefferson.

[12:18] He is our board of chair for software community.

[12:22] We have Martela McWilson.

[12:23] She is our secretary for software community

[12:26] a realtor here over 30 years at Stockton.

[12:29] We also have Ms. Amaya.

[12:31] She is our youth and teen ambassador

[12:34] for our youth program for Summit Seekers.

[12:36] We have Janaya Coleman, she is our youth president of our youth committee, excuse me, for

[12:45] Shaw for community.

[12:47] And young adult, we have Zanobia Shaw, who is our youth lead for 209 Hikes as well

[12:53] as Summit Seekers.

[12:56] And then we have Mr. Nick Burnett, he is our administrator, moderator, and lead Hike organizer

[13:01] for 209 Hikes, another program with Shaw for community.

[13:04] So I just wanted to let you know who these individuals were.

[13:11] So good evening mayor council members and community.

[13:14] On behalf of the shop for community, I want to sincerely thank you for this proclamation

[13:18] recognizing September as suicide prevention awareness month.

[13:21] It is an honor to accept this on behalf of our organization and the many lives that have been

[13:26] touched by suicide here in Stockton, California.

[13:30] Shopper community is a local nonprofit dedicated to health and wellness serving all of Stockton

[13:34] but with the strong focus on our underserved and marginalized communities, we believe wellness

[13:38] is not just a physical, but also mental, emotional, and social.

[13:42] When people don't have access to resources, support, or safe spaces, they're overall

[13:46] health suffers, and that can lead to despair, isolation, and suicide.

[13:51] Our mission is to change that by creating opportunities for education, connection, and healing.

[13:56] This year marks our fifth annual suicide prevention awareness wellness hike, happening on September

[14:01] September, happening on Saturday, September 27th, at Black Minors Bar and Folsom Lake,

[14:06] was started as small gathering has grown into an event that welcomes hundreds of community

[14:11] members each year. It's a day of remembrance, healing, and hope, reminding people that

[14:16] they are not alone and that our community cares. The need is real, as we all know, in California

[14:21] Suicide Rates average, 8.7 per 100,000, and in San Joaquin County, that number is even

[14:27] higher at 9.2 per 100,000. Behind every number is a family, a neighbor, a loved one. And

[14:34] we know that in neighborhoods with greater social and health disparities, especially

[14:37] in areas like districts six, the risk are even higher. When poverty, limited access

[14:42] to care, and systemic inequities compound, they create conditions where mental health

[14:47] crisis are more likely and where suicide tragically becomes a reality for too many. At the same

[14:52] time we must also acknowledge that suicide does not discriminate.

[14:55] It impacts every demographic from mothers and fathers to help-

[15:00] Health workers, first responders, and even teenagers. Even those who appear strong and have it all together can be suffering silently. Suicide is a human issue, and that's why awareness prevention and compassion must reach across every community. This proclamation helps shine a light on the urgency of prevention and the importance of working together to lower these numbers. But proclamations as powerful as they are must be paired with action. It is just as important that we put action behind these words by supporting organizations

[15:29] like shopper community that are on the ground every day addressing disparities while also creating safe spaces for all individuals who may be struggling.

[15:37] Together we can ensure we are doing all we can to save lives and prevent the tragedy of suicide in our city.

[15:45] So on behalf of shopper community and myself CEO and founder of shopper community as well as a two time suicide attempt survivor.

[15:54] Thank you for recognizing the importance of suicide prevention awareness month.

[15:58] We are proud to continue this work and we are grateful to the city of Stockton for standing

[16:04] alongside us in raising awareness, breaking the silence and building a community where

[16:08] hope is stronger than despair and where every person no matter their zip code, profession,

[16:13] race or circumstance knows that their life matters. And for anyone in this room who may be suffering

[16:19] silently, as my shirt says, stay, your story is not over. Thank you.

[16:25] I

[16:39] would like to add that I am so happy that you have youth represented here because it

[16:44] is one of the largest populations of students, unfortunately, that are either attempting

[16:51] or have successfully attempted to end their lives for something that's temporary, they're

[16:57] making a permanent decision.

[16:59] And on behind the back of all of our student ID cards, we have the 800 number there for students

[17:06] that need help for youth that need help, but we all do. None of us are, you know, we all have

[17:13] bad days, but we can have a better day after that. And so I want to thank you for bringing

[17:18] this to our attention so that we can honor this month, the Suicide Prevention Month, and I also want

[17:24] to tell you I love you.

[17:52] May I have Armando Valerio to the podium, please?

[17:57] Whereas each year from September

[17:59] 15th through October 15th, communities across the United States observe Hispanic Heritage Month

[18:03] to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans, whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

[18:13] And the observance begins on September 15th in recognition of the independence anniversaries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,

[18:21] Honduras, and Nicaragua,

[18:26] followed by Mexico's independence on September 16th and Chile's on September 18th.

[18:30] And Hispanic Americans have played a vital role in shaping the history of Stockton and the Central Valley, contributing to the city's economic growth,

[18:38] cultural richness, civic engagement, and social fabric.

[18:42] And Hispanic leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, artists, workers, and families continue to strengthen Stockton through the resilience, innovation, and dedication to future generations.

[18:51] And the city of Stockton honors its Hispanic residents who make up a significant portion of the community by recognizing their lasting contributions to the city

[18:59] and reaffirming our commitment to equity, opportunity, and inclusion for all.

[19:03] And now therefore, I, Christine Fugazi, Mayor of the City of Stockton, and members of the Stockton City Council do hereby proclaim September 15th through October 15th, as Hispanic Heritage Months.

[19:24] Good evening, Mayor Fugazi, Vice Mayor Lee, and City Council Members.

[19:29] On behalf of the Mexican Heritage Center and Gallery, we want to thank you for the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation.

[19:35] is also with heavy hearts we accept the proclamation.

[19:39] Hispanics in California are experiencing fear and economic disruption due to ice raids,

[19:44] with communities living in hiding, businesses struggling,

[19:49] and some residents avoiding data life to prevent apprehension,

[19:53] even leading to a significant drop in workforce participation.

[19:58] While some businesses are taken to defiant stance by staying open

[20:02] and supporting the community.

[20:05] Many others have closed or reduced hours.

[20:08] Workers are calling in sick to avoid the risk of being caught

[20:10] in the sweeps.

[20:13] The Mexican Heritage Center and Gallery will assert

[20:16] our determination to stand tall

[20:19] and continue with our cultural celebration.

[20:21] A Dia de las Muertos on November 1st

[20:25] and invite all of you to join us.

[20:27] CESIP weather.

[20:29] Thank you.

[20:29] And

[20:42] really quick, if I can ask Council Member Sponsor by the, and via Pudua to join the mayor down in Podia?

[20:47] And just to add one more comment to that, for those that don't know, Stockton is 45% Latino, and if you go from central to southern area of Stockton, it's actually 71%.

[21:03] So these are members of our community, there are members of our council, there are members of our workforce, there are members of our family.

[21:11] So please know that, that everyone has something to contribute and we need to honor that and we're honoring today as this month for

[21:21] National Hispanic Heritage Month, thank you.

[22:11] Okay, this part of our meeting moves on to public comments so please bear with me.

[22:18] The City of Stockton invites public participation in multiple forms.

[22:22] You can provide your comments by using one of these methods.

[22:25] You may email your comments to city.clerc at stocktonca.gov.

[22:29] You can leave a voice message by dialing 209-937-8459.

[22:35] Your message will be transcribed and included in the meeting record.

[22:39] If you have any questions regarding any of these forms of participation, please contact the office of the city clerk.

[22:46] This is the time for citizens, comments, announcements, or invitations.

[22:51] You may comment on any subject within the jurisdiction of the city of Stockton, including items on the agenda.

[22:59] Members of the public will have an opportunity to comment on specific agenda items, such as consent,

[23:06] new business and public hearings as we take those items up to ensure sufficient public

[23:12] Participation and conduct the agenda is city business the public is limited to one four minute

[23:20] comment opportunity

[23:22] Citizens public comments are not a time for discussions with the council regarding subjects not on the agenda for this meeting as the brown act

[23:30] limits such discussions.

[23:32] Comments made by members of the public may not reflect the viewpoint of the members of the council.

[23:38] We ask that you maintain the rules of decorum as outlined in the city council meeting decorum policy title 4, chapter 4.07, paragraph 2, which reads, persons addressing the council shall not make personal,

[23:51] impertinent, unduly repetitive, slanderous, or profane remarks to the council, any member of the council,

[23:58] city staff, or the general public, nor utter loud threatening personal or abusive language,

[24:04] nor engage in any, excuse me, conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise unreasonably impedes the orderly conduct of the council meeting.

[24:15] Any person who makes such remarks who utters the loud threatening personal or abusive language who is unduly repeticious or engages in extended discussions of

[24:26] relevancies or who engages in disorderly conduct that disrupts, disturbs or otherwise unreasonably MPs, the orderly conduct of the council meeting shall at the

[24:36] discussion of the presiding officer, which happens to me me, or the majority of the council be banned from further participation during

[24:45] that meeting. In short, we do not allow personal attacks on that side or on this side of the

[24:52] dius. And therefore, please be respectful of these chambers and all who sit here and

[24:59] the viewing audience. The rules of decorum are set forth. Shall be enforced in the following

[25:05] manner. Warning. This is your warning. The presiding officer shall request that a person who

[25:10] was breaching the rules of decorum, be orderly, and silent.

[25:14] If, after receiving a warning from the presiding officer,

[25:18] a person persists in disturbing the meeting.

[25:21] The presiding officer shall order him or her to leave the council meeting.

[25:27] If such person does not remove him or herself,

[25:30] the presiding officer may order any law enforcement officer who is on duty at the meeting

[25:36] to remove that person from council chambers.

[25:39] members. City clerk, do we have any comments from members of the public wishing to speak?

[25:46] We do may have Pat Barrett to the podium please.

[25:56] All that percentage of Hispanics in the

[25:58] Southside and we don't have any representing in the action plan. Simply amazing.

[26:03] Pat Barrett, resident, I stand here in front of you exercising my first amendment given to

[26:10] me years before was given to any of y'all. And as we pledge allegiance to our flag, remember,

[26:16] it gave me the right to express my opinion. Take it or leave it, it is my opinion. To my far

[26:23] right, I see Sam and Steve's face. To their right, I see Sam and Pat. To their right, I see Pat's

[26:30] face. And to their right, I see Sam, Pat's Steve. And now Rob, to their right, I see Jason, to their

[26:37] right? I see Mario and to their right, I see Michael. Keeping this in mind, I can only count

[26:42] three independent votes. So with the observation of the other side is considered. This is called

[26:48] the House majority. Since I see 11, the bizarre part is only seven. So I can't see how I got 11 up

[26:57] there. Question, are four of you hiding seven from us? Are you, are you not being total 100% transparent?

[27:06] inquiring minds want to know when you vote are you voting for yourself and the

[27:11] others hiding in your pockets mice or beetles we know the joy of being a

[27:16] politician but you put yourself in the line of opinions because we stand out

[27:21] here and we look at you and we see the stripes that are trying to so hard to be

[27:26] disguised by spots.

[27:31] Darda Sauseda,

[27:48] Donald Tafoya.

[28:06] Good evening Mayor, Vice Mayor and

[28:08] all council people. Boy, I wasn't going to come here this evening because I tripped over

[28:13] my tongue and got a little bit my mixed up my notes. I did not get my point across.

[28:18] What I wanted to say closing is that I do not feel or believe in my opinion that the city

[28:27] council is working efficiently in the best interest of the city of Stockton and the citizens.

[28:35] Not meant to be an attack on anyone, but two meetings ago, the vice mayor called the

[28:40] mayor a joke.

[28:42] And when she confronted him on it, he had a backtrack or changed his story and said,

[28:47] I was talking about the proceeding.

[28:50] Either way, that does not show a quality of a good counsel person or a man.

[28:56] and I was a little bit concerned about what I've read and seen on different podcasts and social media where we can talk elegantly in here and then talk disrespectful and trashful about other associates and their personal lives and come back in here and talk so professional.

[29:16] know. I'd like to know what's the status of the $27,000 advice mayor wanted in an apology

[29:23] and I would also like to know if there's anything in the city charter that says if a council

[29:28] person is suing the city for a dollar or $15 million, do they still have the right to vote

[29:34] on city issues? And if they don't, then I mean, if you're suing the city on one hand, you

[29:41] fill your pockets on the other, I just think that maybe this thing is a joke.

[29:54] That's all I

[30:08] Good evening mayor, vice mayor, city council members. My name is Sheree Wilburn-Grimes. I am a lifelong resident, except for going away to college and coming back of Stockton. So I would like for the to respectfully request that my statement is a part of the legislative matter of record. So with that being said, I am here because I received a very disturbing phone call from Natasha Brown.

[30:37] I'm stating that she was a commissioner, that was the first thing that she stated, that she was a commissioner of strong communities.

[30:47] Actually, I didn't understand what she had said, so I had to come down here and find out what she was talking about, what she was a commissioner of.

[30:53] So, she will have since been removed from being a volunteer for stocking the FI School District as a coach because of her misconduct and calling and threatened and intimidating me for advocating for my child.

[31:12] So, I'm requesting the immediate removal of Commissioner Tasha Brown from the strong committee's commission for actions that violate Chapter 3.

[31:23] three point one three council members and commissioners conduct policy.

[31:28] Vice Mayor Lee at the September 9th, 2025 council meeting you said, I do not ever want

[31:36] to lead a city where we are making people feel as if they need to be concerned about or

[31:45] concerned to or afraid to advocate once we go there we become a different city that

[31:51] that made me your words.

[31:54] As a parent advocating for my child,

[31:56] I have the experience exactly what she warned

[31:59] against by Ms. Toshier.

[32:01] Director comments, sir.

[32:02] Oh, I'm sorry.

[32:03] Thank you.

[32:06] Demanding that I go through her,

[32:09] if I have a complaint about my daughter's school district,

[32:12] blaming me for causing wreck in her district.

[32:16] I thought it was our district.

[32:18] Demanding that I explained why I was

[32:21] at the stock unified school district district office taking care of business regarding my child,

[32:26] and she yelled at me claiming that she wasn't scared of me. These actions violate

[32:32] treating the public with dignity, courtesy and respect, reframing from inappropriate behavior

[32:37] and derogatory comments, and partially respect for and listening to the public, which I am the public.

[32:44] For the record, I first emailed the City Council on September 9th with witness and documentation

[32:51] of this concern, I followed up September 18th with the vice mayor and then I also asked for a

[32:59] public records act which I got that information back that stated that there was no MOU Memorandum

[33:05] understanding between Stockton and Phi School District in a city where Natasha Brown served as a

[33:10] liaison between the two. So she overstepped her bounds. Also a police report was made and filed.

[33:18] that's report number 25-0551, she has to be removed.

[33:26] She also has been removed, as I've said, from SUSD as volunteering, and I have a recorded

[33:34] conversation where she was informed that I was recording her available if needed.

[33:39] So under the government code and the stock to municipal code 3.04, commissioners can be

[33:46] removed for misconduct or conduct damaging to the city's reputation, which she did.

[33:52] Ms. Brown's behavior meets these standards and I urge the council to initiate the formal

[33:58] removal process immediately to uphold the accountability, public trust and

[34:04] high standards required by the commissioner respectfully.

[34:07] Hopefully.

[34:12] Mary Elizabeth.

[34:19] Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth. I'll

[34:45] take one minute now and then I'll take my other minutes. No, it's four minutes for each item. It's four minutes for everybody throughout the whole meeting.

[34:54] Okay, I thought I got four minutes for the whole meeting so I was you know planning accordingly.

[35:02] Okay, all right so greetings Mary Elizabeth. Thank you and I'll tell you you know I don't

[35:10] know how you do it but I'm glad that you do do it. I submitted comments these would have been

[35:19] within the time frame that you should have received them,

[35:24] a non-agenda comments,

[35:28] maybe.

[35:30] So I had several issues here.

[35:33] One is SEI compliance.

[35:36] You all received Delta Sierra group comments

[35:40] for the Climate Action Plan Advisory Committee,

[35:44] dated 917 2025, which sums up the situation

[35:49] with regard to compliance with statement of economic interest disclosures, which are public.

[35:56] In accordance with the City of Stockton correspondence dated 724, indicating that the Climate Action Plan Advisory Committees were identified, having to submit form 700.

[36:11] After one month, the due date for that passed and there's no provision in law for extending the due date, there's a notice on the notification letter of a fine on 917.

[36:29] We performed a search of all public statements one month after the due date and three committee members still had not submitted the Assuming Office Form 700.

[36:38] transparency of economic interest is important to build trust.

[36:44] If a committee member is unwilling to submit required information, then they should step down.

[36:51] Compliance is not better for two other committees which have been reviewed.

[36:55] Since there is no policy provision that the City of Stockton has adopted for

[36:59] committee members continuing to serve without fulfilling the obligations regarding

[37:05] their appointment responsibilities FPPC complaints have been initiated that a member of the public has to

[37:13] get compliance with appointment responsibilities seems unusual but that's the state of affairs at this time.

[37:20] I also go on to speak about the tobacco retail license ordinance with some background information and a timeline for 2025.

[37:30] 5.

[37:32] A very egregious tobacco retailer whose location was allowed as an exempted non-conforming

[37:38] business for purpose of attaining a tobacco retail license in 2023 has now been closed.

[37:46] This is where the problem with the 2024 January amendments to the municipal code comes in

[37:52] because it allows another business to occupy the non-conforming location.

[37:57] I cite the municipal code variations or citations there.

[38:05] These two pieces of code allow for non-conforming locations to continue indefinitely.

[38:11] Please consider forming an ad hoc committee to develop protected language which will allow

[38:16] overtime for the decrease in tobacco retailers in over concentrated areas.

[38:23] Also, I've received some communication regarding the alcohol license ordinance.

[38:29] I've cited three codes there.

[38:33] I previously submitted evidence that 222 North Setter, which is very near to the future

[38:38] code stack academy, has not been in operation for several more years than two.

[38:44] Yet, there is confusion about the process for revocation due to non-operation.

[38:49] There are several community members that have been expressing concerns regarding alcohol over concentrations in our neighborhood.

[38:58] And the same for the cannabis regulatory program with regard to set back to sensitive uses.

[39:05] Thank you.

[39:08] Jose Govon.

[39:18] Hello.

[39:21] I'm a business owner downtown and I just wanted to kind of bring to everybody's attention from my point of view.

[39:27] from a struggling business under downtown we frequently take a look outside

[39:34] downtown and see it's like a ghost town many many days during the week it's

[39:39] like a ghost town there's no there's nothing going on downtown people are

[39:45] afraid to come downtown people don't want to come and pay to park downtown you can

[39:50] go to first street and live in more and park for free you get free parking

[39:52] and garages.

[39:55] We've frequently reached out to city parking to see if we can get some

[40:00] assistance with validation for customers to no avail assistance with parking for our employees

[40:07] to no avail. I got two employees that got ticketed today and they don't make very much

[40:13] money.

[40:15] So I don't know, that's all I got.

[40:23] I have a card for Chris, it doesn't say what agenda item number is, and I don't have

[40:28] last names.

[40:28] Chris?

[40:29] Okay.

[40:31] I'm also a business owner and property owner and commercial buildings here and stocked.

[40:37] And kind of to Jose's point, it seems that all of these other items that we're talking

[40:44] about and are probably going to be discussed are all important items no doubt.

[40:49] But when it comes to, I guess I'd like to hear from you guys at some point more about how we're going to continue or hopefully more enforcing the homeless population.

[41:04] They break into businesses, they break into patrons' cars, which is one of the big challenges of why we don't have a lot of people downtown or in other areas as well.

[41:17] Our V's that are in license for years, but yet get parked on the street.

[41:22] We had all these code enforcement people come in, and I'm like, gosh, I wish they'd stop by our neighborhood.

[41:27] Once a week, just do a drive-by and see all the cars that have no license plates.

[41:32] And people living out of them and all the trash that's thrown on the sidewalk, that kids walk past from the school, that's two blocks away.

[41:39] So, I know that you guys aren't going to comment back, but maybe at some point could bring these things up because these affect.

[41:45] that businesses, daily lives of people, of all ages, and stocked in including kids that literally walked down these sidewalks.

[41:53] Speaking of sidewalks, I've reported on asked stocked in at least 20 times.

[41:57] The city trees that were planted probably 30 years ago have made very large tripping hazards all over the sidewalks.

[42:08] And according to everything that I can find in city code.

[42:13] If it's a city-planted tree, that's supposed to be city-maintained, and

[42:19] that roots from that cause all these sidewalk issues.

[42:22] Again, children from elementary schools are walking past on a daily basis.

[42:28] The city's supposed to take care of that.

[42:30] And it's not the property owners position to take care of that because it's caused by the city tree.

[42:36] Again, I've reported these things, the RVs, the homeless.

[42:39] not so much homeless in chemists, but just all the trash that gets left the needles.

[42:45] And sometimes it gets cleaned up, sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes it takes months.

[42:48] In fact, one time I came to the mayor's office and left report with a nice, I think is one of the clerks and

[42:53] a few days later they came through and cleaned up, so thank you.

[42:56] But I'm just in general, I think a lot of people in Stockton are wondering when are we gonna get back to

[43:02] you know, enforcing the law and order and enforcing things and cleaning up our city so that our kids and grandkids and things can enjoy and walk down the street, not trip and not see needles and stuff like that. So thank you.

[43:30] I believe I received a notice that there would be a hearing regarding the downtown Stockton Alliance tonight, but I don't see it on the agenda.

[43:38] So my first question is, am I in the wrong room?

[43:47] That item has been moved to October 14th.

[43:49] That item has been moved to October 14th.

[43:52] You should receive an additional notification about the move.

[43:55] Next month, Dan

[44:05] Richardson?

[44:10] Evening Mayor, City Council, been gone for a while, I'm back.

[44:16] I wanted to compliment the police department and the chief stand in regards to the community

[44:24] academy.

[44:25] I just completed that.

[44:26] It's the second academy they've held.

[44:29] I know Councilman Enrique has been through that.

[44:33] I don't know if anybody else has been through that.

[44:35] But we had 12 members of the public in our class who took time out for five weeks to join the police department and educate ourselves on what goes on with the police department.

[44:50] How operations are run? Do right along see equipment that the council has been so gracious to purchase for them.

[44:59] We hear a lot in-

[45:00] Negative from the public, I've heard negative comments up here at the podium in past meetings from the public, derogatory comments towards the police department. I can tell you this. I met some of the nicest human beings and their human beings in this police department. I can't say enough about Captain, I'm going to use their first names because we're on a first name basis at the academy. Captain Gary, Captain Brad, traffic officer, Chris.

[45:28] Yes, there's just so many names I could refer to.

[45:34] But if you have a chance, stop and talk to these guys.

[45:37] If you have a chance to do a ride along, if somebody offers you to do a ride along, do a ride along.

[45:43] My 10 hours of ride along was very eye opening for me.

[45:47] The level of mental issues in the city of Stockton was staggering.

[45:53] That's what I did all day.

[45:54] We went on calls for disturbances, family issues, things that involve people who had mental problems.

[46:04] And it just was a real eye opener for me of what our police department goes through.

[46:10] The board and our police vehicle was never empty.

[46:14] We went from call to call to call to call, and then they have to come back and write reports.

[46:20] I mean, these guys work so hard and there's not enough of them.

[46:25] There isn't, I said through two roll calls, both those roll calls.

[46:29] I looked around and thought we've got eight rookies in the front row.

[46:32] That meant that we probably had 12 officers who had some time in the department.

[46:38] You know, we're hiring, which is great, but man, do we need more?

[46:42] They don't have time to make traffic stops out there.

[46:44] You want to know why people run red lights, why the traffic and stocking is dangerous?

[46:48] Our patrol officers are answering call after call after call.

[46:52] That is left up to our traffic officers on motorcycles to enforce.

[46:57] And they don't work every day.

[47:00] There's not enough of them.

[47:02] We're still not back to where we were pre-bankruptcy.

[47:05] Our police department works incredibly hard and they are incredibly good people.

[47:11] I feel like the last day when we graduated they talked about being part of the family.

[47:15] I really felt like that when we left and I met a lot of new friends, one where

[47:20] this wife was in our class, Mercedes, and a number of other people, but we need

[47:26] to stop being negative about our police department. It is a great police

[47:32] department with a great chief. We need to get a contract for the officers below

[47:36] the sergeant level, but I'd encourage people, if you get a chance to go through it

[47:42] you're invited to join the Community Academy, do it.

[47:45] You will learn so much.

[47:47] I mentioned you, Councilman Enriquez, and going through it.

[47:50] And I know you had a good time with it.

[47:53] It's so important.

[47:55] And I wanted to just thank all the officers who put their

[47:58] personal time into doing this academy.

[48:01] They gave up time with their families to do it.

[48:03] They, you know, spent many evenings and days with us out there.

[48:07] So thank you, then.

[48:09] person Avenue is still not fixed. Thank you.

[48:13] Darlis Ossera.

[48:20] This is my first time as a bean here. I'm a little nervous. I had a game

[48:24] on my phone and my phone just crashed on me, so but I'm just waiting. My name is Darlis

[48:29] Ossera. I see them. I'm fortunate I'm here because my trader was taking away. I became homeless

[48:36] this because I disabled, I'm six years old, I have health issues, and I went through

[48:43] a lot in the last four years trying to stop the cops from, and I've had good experiences

[48:48] with a lot of cops, most of them were nice, somewhere rude, but as they finished talking

[48:52] to me, they understood the situation.

[48:54] Well, this new thing is going on with Trump, and usually they would warn me to be giving

[48:59] time to leave whatever, and I believe I paid a lot of money in towing all the place trying

[49:05] I'm going to find a safe place.

[49:06] I did stay at some private places and paid rent.

[49:10] And when I went to the hospital, came a moment.

[49:12] I found my trade was giving away to somebody,

[49:14] but I retreated back.

[49:16] And this last time last Wednesday, I was taken out of my

[49:23] trailer, my home, my world, everything, my pets.

[49:26] I wasn't able to get my ID, my ID card.

[49:29] I have health issues.

[49:30] I'm by myself and disabled.

[49:33] And I try to expand to the officer.

[49:34] and he was the only one I really had a problem with.

[49:38] He practically brought me driving me out of the trailer

[49:41] and I was sitting there in a hundred-degree weather

[49:44] with nothing to drink, nothing to eat,

[49:46] with my pets flying all over the place.

[49:48] There's a couple of my animals still out there,

[49:50] a pit bull, that hopefully the animal to control

[49:52] doesn't put her down because she's a beautiful dog.

[49:54] She's just a pit bull, which is a good dog.

[49:57] She was my alarm because I'm out there by myself

[49:58] without a gun, without a weapon.

[50:01] And being out there homeless, it's scary.

[50:02] I'm not a drug addict, I'm not alcoholic, I'm not a criminal, I'm just a woman that is disabled, trying to survive.

[50:10] Now I find that my trader is at the tow yard and has already been destroyed.

[50:15] I didn't get no chance to go retrieve my stuff, to get any of my belongings, my personal, my dad's ashes were in there, nothing.

[50:25] And I just, I mean, just probably what I have on it is what I have left.

[50:29] And it just upsets me that a lot of people that are homeless out there,

[50:32] there's people out there like me.

[50:34] They're not all drug addicts and not all people that are hurting

[50:37] at the people instead.

[50:38] But I've heard other people say about homeless people.

[50:40] Yeah, there is some dirty nasty, vulgar people out there.

[50:44] You know, that's people I was afraid of.

[50:46] But there you go and the trenches,

[50:47] you go into the dark places of starting,

[50:50] which I really don't think in place is safe because I barely got sleep out there.

[50:55] except for my people, my protection.

[50:57] But there is a lot of nasty stuff out there

[50:59] that people have to deal with

[51:00] and people just don't give a crap

[51:03] about other people, you know,

[51:05] good people out there, but

[51:08] we need, there's gotta be some kind of sources and stuff.

[51:11] I mean, I was left out there in the heat.

[51:13] Like I said, I had congenital heart failure,

[51:15] I have diabetes, I have a lower back injury and stuff

[51:18] and I was left out inside of the road by the killing part.

[51:21] I don't even be weathered with my dogs, my cats.

[51:24] We say, everybody, why do you have so many animals?

[51:26] I did it for protection, okay?

[51:28] But I had no means of getting food, water, anything.

[51:32] No sources, I call it Jessica Rabbit.

[51:33] She doesn't have any sources.

[51:35] Nobody has anywhere to go but you take my home.

[51:38] You, I asked her where's the paperwork.

[51:40] He gives me a little piece of paper

[51:41] and tell me, I'm doing you a favor by giving you this.

[51:44] That I mean, nowhere it was.

[51:46] They couldn't find it.

[51:47] And then when I finally got the lady to tell me

[51:49] where it was on Friday, she said

[51:50] they were exiling junkless and they destroyed it.

[51:53] So my home is gone.

[51:55] My life is gone.

[51:57] Now I'm 60 years old disabled.

[51:58] I have nowhere to go.

[52:00] The shelters are full.

[52:02] There's no resources.

[52:03] Where do I do?

[52:04] Who's going to pay for this?

[52:05] Who's going to, I mean, my whole home,

[52:07] I paid good money for this trader.

[52:09] I paid almost every $1,000 for this trader.

[52:12] And now it's just gone because we're doing this homeless thing.

[52:17] Whatever.

[52:18] And he said I'm an encampment.

[52:19] And I was inside the road, you know, I could have moved, I could have been born, I could

[52:23] have a chance.

[52:26] Thank you.

[52:26] Um, Esperanza, can you please speak with her outside?

[52:30] Thank you.

[52:31] Thank you.

[52:32] Thank you.

[52:35] Alex Lima.

[52:48] Hi, everyone.

[52:49] Uh, I'm Alex Lima, representing the Trust for Public Land, um, who are working within

[52:56] the Re events.

[52:56] I stocked in coalition as part of their parks activation efforts, um,

[53:03] you know, obviously,

[53:03] you guys are asked a lot of questions and big, big problems to solve.

[53:08] I have plenty of requests to make, but today I have a simple one.

[53:14] On coming up on Saturday, October 11th, the Re-Emen South Stockton Coalition is holding their annual South Stockton Residence Summit.

[53:22] As part of that resident summit, they're also putting on a little mini conference with three panels with the topics being health.

[53:30] Both parks as a second one and the youth as a third, part of these panels will involve breakout rooms.

[53:38] And I know for one, I'm here personally and by all of the members of the council to be there at the event.

[53:46] And also speaking directly regarding the, because obviously the trust for public land we work in parks.

[53:54] And so, regarding the specific recent city parks and recreation master plan, it highlights collaboration and community engagement as one of those priorities that are going to help the city reach those park metrics.

[54:11] And so, I would also invite the city to be a part of the panels that we've got going on.

[54:16] We're going to have local NGOs, obviously ourselves are a national nonprofit, and also members of the county and public health agencies as well.

[54:26] And so we'd love to speak with any of you guys or your staff to see if we can hopefully get the city represented on some of those panels.

[54:35] And really want to highlight and thank you guys for the recent park efforts both at McKinley and Victory and so obviously those are huge and we need more of it.

[54:45] So hope to see you all there on October 11th.

[54:51] That concludes general public comment.

[54:52] I do have several for consent.

[54:56] Okay, thank you.

[54:57] So let's go ahead and move on to public comment for consent.

[55:01] For item 12.7, may I have Mary Elizabeth please?

[55:23] Reading, this is in regards to the Union Pacific Diamond

[55:28] Grade separation project.

[55:30] So that started a few years ago.

[55:32] and they had one public meeting talking about how they were going to make the overpass if it was going to be filled or if it was going to be open.

[55:47] You know, no more follow up on that. At the meeting they said that the city of Stockton had gotten some community benefits from that project including sidewalks.

[56:01] and triple-pained windows for some residents in the area.

[56:08] And so I just want to bring that history back

[56:11] before this easement is granted to make sure

[56:14] that our community has benefited from the project.

[56:19] Thank you.

[56:22] For item 12.9, Jenny Hernandez?

[56:39] Good evening.

[56:40] I'm just going to read.

[56:44] Good evening, Mayor and Council Members.

[56:47] My name is Jenny Castillo Hernandez,

[56:48] and I serve as the president of Stockton City Employees Association, SCA.

[56:53] I come before you with an urgent concern regarding the cities of Stockton's health insurance proposal listed as agenda item 12.9.

[57:03] We recognize that the healthcare costs are rising across the nation.

[57:07] However, the proposed federal health premiums have increased 35% on top of the drastic,

[57:15] that we faced last year.

[57:18] These repeated and substantial hikes create an unsustainable burden on the city employees and their families.

[57:27] As SCA members, we are asking you to stand united with us in opposing this increase.

[57:33] While the alternative insurance options may appear to reduce monthly cost,

[57:37] they come with family deductibles ranging from 13,000 to 18,000 out of pocket.

[57:43] an unimaginable financial risk for most employees.

[57:47] These changes threaten our financial stability, reduce our take-home pay, and

[57:54] ultimately jeopardize our ability to continue serving the city.

[57:58] Without relief, we risk losing valuable employees to other employers who offer more affordable healthcare benefits.

[58:07] We are proud to continue providing excellent service to the city of Stockton and to this council.

[58:13] But we cannot do so if we are forced to shoulder unattainable health care costs.

[58:17] We respectfully ask that you direct the city to return with a resolution that provides meaningful assistance to our association.

[58:26] SCA represents employees who already earn the lowest wages citywide and these rising cost push many of us to a breaking point.

[58:35] We ask that you listen to our voices, hear our concerns, and take action to protect

[58:41] city employees from these unistainable health care increases.

[58:45] Thank you for your time and consideration.

[58:50] Continuing with 12.9, Kristina Neely.

[59:11] Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members.

[59:15] I appreciate the opportunity to speak here tonight.

[59:19] My name is Kristina Neely, and I am proud to serve the city.

[59:24] I've been here almost five years.

[59:26] I work full-time as a revenue assistant,

[59:28] which is one of the lowest paid positions

[59:30] within local government.

[59:32] Even with that, I've always done my best to show up,

[59:37] do my job with integrity,

[59:39] and contribute to the community that we all care about.

[59:43] That is why I'm here tonight.

[59:45] The proposed increase in medical insurance

[59:48] starting January 2026 would add more than $600

[59:52] a month to my costs. For me, that isn't just a line item. It's the difference between

[59:59] to build.

[1:00:00] Community and constant financial stress. It's not just numbers on paper, it's food on the table, bills paid, or not paid, and piece of mind for my family. My family has been with Sutter for years. My providers know my history, they know my children, and they've walked with us through challenges and care. So to switch providers isn't just inconvenient, it's a real disruption to my family's health and well-being.

[1:00:30] Continuity of care matters and for many of us starting over simply just isn't an option.

[1:00:37] I know that budgets are difficult, I know hard choices have to be made, but asking employees

[1:00:43] to carry this increase without adjustments or support in reality is a pay cut.

[1:00:49] It pushes people like me who are full-time workers into impossible situations, even considering

[1:00:55] second jobs just to keep health coverage that's not sustainable and it sends a

[1:01:02] discouraging message to the very people who keep the city moving. I'm asking you

[1:01:07] tonight to please reconsider this proposal or at least look for ways to ease

[1:01:14] the burden whether it's phase increases wage adjustments or other creative

[1:01:20] solutions I believe there has to be a way forward that doesn't leave employees

[1:01:25] feeling defeated. Please remember that behind every number in this proposal is a real person in a

[1:01:32] real family who will be impacted. Thank you so much for your time.

[1:01:39] Continuing with 12.9, Alexandria

[1:01:41] Solgado.

[1:01:48] Good evening. I actually was not going to speak tonight but this is too important of a matter

[1:01:54] to hold back. Our health care

[1:01:58] rises are extreme, and for me and

[1:02:01] my personal family, I actually have

[1:02:03] a little one on the way, and I am

[1:02:05] almost halfway through my pregnancy.

[1:02:07] So for my specific circumstance,

[1:02:10] if you're having these extreme

[1:02:14] increases in health care, in the

[1:02:16] middle of pregnancy, you're forcing

[1:02:19] our hand to change insurance, and

[1:02:24] And to women who understand men who have mothers or sisters, you understand how important

[1:02:30] your OB care is, your prenatal care, and halfway through your pregnancy, it's just

[1:02:36] not practical.

[1:02:38] It's just not healthy.

[1:02:41] And so there has to be a resolution to lower these costs.

[1:02:45] You know, we're in the same spot last year.

[1:02:47] And here we are again.

[1:02:49] I mean last year we came up with a reasonable, as best as we can, solution.

[1:02:54] And that's just what we need again this year, is a reasonable solution.

[1:02:57] We understand it can't be free.

[1:02:59] We understand it can't be $2, but there has to be a reasonable increase.

[1:03:04] It's just not sustainable, it's just not realistic.

[1:03:08] And you're dealing with city of Stockton families, as it was previously mentioned.

[1:03:13] These are families who stand up, show up, and take care of the city.

[1:03:17] You know, government positions are meant to be not only good jobs, but good jobs for the benefits.

[1:03:24] And when you're talking about $600 to $1,000 increase for a family, especially when you're trying to grow your family, that's drastic.

[1:03:33] That's actually very discouraging in growing your family.

[1:03:37] So we ask that you somehow consider adjusting these amounts or

[1:03:43] We're having the city work with us regarding working with our unions regarding lowering that out of pocket costs for the employees and anything that could be done.

[1:03:52] Thank you.

[1:03:54] For item 12.13, Mary Elizabeth?

[1:04:09] Mary Elizabeth, Doctan, Resident, I just wanted to offer my support for adopting the resolution opposing the proposed Delta Convans, Delta Tenoe project.

[1:04:23] people all over the state are looking at, you know, how different municipalities that are in the impact area are handling and I think it's a great opportunity for us to speak out as a united front against the tunnel. Thank you.

[1:04:46] Don't go anywhere. For 12.19, Mary Elizabeth.

[1:04:50] Let

[1:04:54] me look on the agenda here.

[1:05:02] Okay.

[1:05:02] Yeah, so when Mary Elizabeth's

[1:05:06] Stockton resident and this intersection

[1:05:11] here, Alpine Pershing and Mendocino

[1:05:15] Bicycle Pedestrian Connectivity Project,

[1:05:19] so this is just for money for a design

[1:05:21] but when they're going out for their request for proposals for this design,

[1:05:28] I ask that there be robust interactions with the University of the Pacific

[1:05:37] who has many students that are in that area.

[1:05:41] We have commuting students that go there.

[1:05:44] It's an intersection that has a lot of history and how we reform that will leave its mark for many generations, and I hope that we can do something very, very nice there. Thank you.

[1:06:06] And for 12.20, Mary Elizabeth.

[1:06:14] So this one did come in late.

[1:06:17] I was in the middle of another meeting trying to get that.

[1:06:22] So I don't know if you received my pictures.

[1:06:25] So one project on that list, I looked in my neighborhood,

[1:06:30] is 525 West Acacia.

[1:06:34] And that's Dameron Hospital.

[1:06:35] And I walked there all the time.

[1:06:37] I never noticed any problem at all with the sidewalk,

[1:06:42] none as which some people here have spoken to.

[1:06:46] And then I also gave you a picture here of 420 West Poplar,

[1:06:54] which is just on the other side.

[1:06:56] And I showed you a picture here that I took with Julie on 4 July in 2023.

[1:07:03] and it took until the last month to finally fill that giant cavern and, you know, I came

[1:07:12] to the audit committee, I talked about the risk, you know, of this, and it just doesn't

[1:07:18] make sense that you're doing something in front of Dameron, and I would ask, and this brings

[1:07:25] up the point, please consider an ad hoc committee of residents that will inventory their neighborhoods

[1:07:31] so that those sidewalks that need to get fixed get fixed so the issue came up I

[1:07:38] believe it was a budget committee meeting when city staff you know listed out

[1:07:45] you know some projects and you know said well it's first come first serve and you

[1:07:50] know our disadvantaged communities we have folks that are working two or three

[1:07:58] jobs and you know they can't be attending to one more thing by putting in an

[1:08:04] ass stockton whereas we have more privileged communities where you know they

[1:08:09] have the more wear with all to put in an ass stockton and get on the list and

[1:08:15] so it just really doesn't seem fair you know that those that don't get on the

[1:08:20] list you know can't be served when their needs are greater our community you

[1:08:25] you know needs to be looking out for some people and I put a suggestion there and I ask

[1:08:31] that you remove 525 West Acacia and put on 420 West Poplar, thank you.

[1:08:41] That concludes public comment for consent matters.

[1:08:45] Okay, so I already had one council member give me the list of items that they would like

[1:08:52] to pull from the agenda, so I'm going to do those before we do the vote on the rest

[1:09:01] of the consent.

[1:09:05] For clarity, we're, I need to know what those items are that we're going to do.

[1:09:08] So Councilwoman Padilla selected 12.3, 12.4, 12.9, 12.11, and 12.17, are there other items

[1:09:21] that would like to yes vice mayor? 12.20. 12.20. 12.5. 12.5. 12.18 12.19 12.21. Okay so mostly

[1:09:37] oh and then to let everybody know 12.1 and 12.2 will be moved to 16.1 of new

[1:09:47] So

[1:09:53] the rest of the agenda that leaves us 12.6, 12.7, 12.8, 12.10,

[1:10:08] 12.12, 12.13, 12.14,

[1:10:15] 12.15 and 12.16 and 12.22 oh and 12.22 so 12.67 8 10 12 13 14 15 16 and 22 I'll look

[1:10:31] for a motion I'll make a motion motion and second council please vote

[1:10:42] motion approved

[1:10:45] So, let's go ahead and start with Councilwoman Padilla with item 12.3.

[1:10:53] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:10:54] I have three separate questions in regards to this item.

[1:10:58] And having criteria is very good.

[1:11:02] But in the red line items when we use terms like expertise or unbiased,

[1:11:09] that can be subjective.

[1:11:10] So when we put these types of words into writing, it can open the door for different types of

[1:11:17] disagreements, meaning that one person's idea of a good communicator or being

[1:11:25] a bias might look different from someone else.

[1:11:29] So with that said, City Attorney, how could we actually measure qualities

[1:11:36] of communication, interest, and good judgment.

[1:11:41] So Council Member Padilla, as the appointing authority, it's the mayor that will use that

[1:11:46] criteria and her own judgment to interpret and decide whether or not candidates display

[1:11:50] those qualities, similar to what she does now with regard to expertise and interest.

[1:11:55] For Council Member Adhawks, the mayor knows and works with each of you, and so she can decide

[1:12:00] in her best judgment which council members might be a good fit for any given issue or topic,

[1:12:04] using that criteria as guidance so we're just putting it in writing for the mayor is that yeah my

[1:12:12] understanding and the committee members might be a better source of information because this came

[1:12:16] from them but if the the criteria was meant I my understanding was that it was meant as a guidance

[1:12:23] so that the mayor could consider these things when she makes the appointments okay thank you for

[1:12:28] pointing guidance out. And I'm going to give an example of my next question.

[1:12:34] So, Council Member Enriquez has extensive knowledge and education and policy making.

[1:12:43] So he is an excellent chair for legislative committee.

[1:12:47] Vice Mayor owns a corporation business, which makes him well-suited for chair,

[1:12:53] for the chair of the audit committee. But in my case, I never ran

[1:12:58] and a shelter, I don't own a nonprofit, so yet I serve on the homeless committee.

[1:13:06] But I have passion and willingness to learn and work for the best since its interest of the city.

[1:13:15] So my question is, how would this new criteria apply in situations where experience isn't the qualifier,

[1:13:25] but dedication may be.

[1:13:29] So, again, not to be repetitive, but it was my understanding

[1:13:32] that the criteria provided was intended to guide rather

[1:13:35] than dictate, and so if the council would like characteristics

[1:13:38] like passion and willingness to learn to be considerations

[1:13:41] for appointment, that the proposed language doesn't preclude

[1:13:44] that, you know, consideration of those characteristics,

[1:13:47] but if you would like that stated more explicitly,

[1:13:49] you can modify as you do appropriate.

[1:13:52] For example, you might say something like appointments for created ad hoc committee shall be made by the mayor with consideration given to the following criteria, as well as any other characteristics, the mayor deemed appropriate.

[1:14:03] Okay, and I'll defer to my colleagues after that.

[1:14:08] My last question, just wondering what the value of a formal written report would bring since our meetings are already streamed and publicly noticed.

[1:14:21] So whether a formal report is required or not is ultimately, as you know, a council decision,

[1:14:26] the committee specifically asked for the report, which is why it was included.

[1:14:30] I'll leave it to the committee members, if they want to add information about why they asked for it,

[1:14:34] but my own understanding was that the report was intended to close out the committee's work by providing a summary

[1:14:41] to the council to show the good work that was done and notify the council that it was complete.

[1:14:45] As an aside, I will note that there are other publicly noticed in-stream bodies like measure

[1:14:50] A, measure W, and so on and so forth that provide these annual reports.

[1:14:54] My guess is that because not everyone is able to watch these meetings in real time.

[1:15:00] But there's maybe an interest in understanding the work of the body. Citizens have the ability to view these succinct summaries of the body's activities over the year after the fact. And I'm going to defer for a moment to the city clerk because she can provide a better explanation about how those reports are submitted and how they're attached to the agenda. So previous existence council, you would actually, if you were on legislative committee or audit or any of the committees, you would actually during the city meeting come and present this is what we did.

[1:15:29] this month. So that changed to being more of a report out at the end. So right now something

[1:15:34] like lead or audit, you'll see like the minutes and everything pop up in your informational

[1:15:38] items on the agenda. And that's why. And measure A will have the report out that way, measure

[1:15:43] W will have the report out that way. So that's an easier way to communicate to the full council,

[1:15:48] what's going on in all these other boards and committees without you having to actually attend

[1:15:51] or watch the entire video is to get that summary of the report.

[1:15:56] So is this wording making it a requirement?

[1:16:00] It is making the report a requirement, okay.

[1:16:04] I will, again, defer to my colleagues if they have any comments with regards to my comments or questions.

[1:16:12] Vice mayor.

[1:16:13] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:16:15] Well, first I want to thank the City Attorney and everybody who had any part in working to develop this and my colleagues on the legislative committee.

[1:16:23] I just wanted to respond to my colleagues' question around the expertise and experience.

[1:16:29] I mean, I think we trust the mayor to use her judgment on who she selects and who she believes is the best for those committees.

[1:16:38] I guess I would just speak to, because I'm okay with the language, I guess I would just ask City Attorney,

[1:16:44] should there be an issue, or say, of Councilmember Padilla feels that maybe that person doesn't have the expertise,

[1:16:51] or maybe I have more expertise, or any person wants to challenge the selection,

[1:16:56] is there a method in which during that meeting or discussion on ad hoc,

[1:17:00] where that could be raised in versus us having to change the language here?

[1:17:03] Certainly. When these committees are created and you have the discussion,

[1:17:07] the mayor usually has an appointment list ready for you to review as a council,

[1:17:11] and during that discussion, that is the time for you to have these sorts of conversations,

[1:17:16] and I think that by adding this criteria, you know,

[1:17:19] It does raise the opportunity for the council to, you know, to discuss whether or not you agree on what these are.

[1:17:25] And ultimately, I think it's important to remind the council and the public that we as a body make the final decision.

[1:17:31] So we have to use our interest in pursuing the best people for these roles.

[1:17:38] Should there be any to have that discussion, correct?

[1:17:41] I think you provide guidance and you provide input, but the mayor makes the ultimate, like ultimately she makes the appointments.

[1:17:47] Okay.

[1:17:48] You create the body and then you ratify her decision on the appointments.

[1:17:52] Explain that.

[1:17:54] So when it comes to you, it usually has a list of the members that the mayor is putting

[1:17:59] forward for appointment.

[1:18:02] And the council, what you can have a discussion about that, you know, it's ultimately it

[1:18:07] will be the mayor's decision on the appointment.

[1:18:08] You can provide guidance.

[1:18:09] You can not create the committee, I suppose.

[1:18:11] You could stop it in that way.

[1:18:13] But ultimately, it's the mayor's decision on who is going to be appointed to.

[1:18:17] Right, so my point is that I may not just use similar to when I first got here and I was told, you know, city

[1:18:23] manager manages all the employees, you can't make any decisions and employees section 408.

[1:18:27] The section 406 gives the council different levels of authority that had never been utilized before we developed a policy on how to deal with that.

[1:18:34] Should we have concerns around issues in the organization, right?

[1:18:39] So my question is is while the mayor can select individuals for the ad hoc committee,

[1:18:45] the council can vote to not move forward on the committee if we don't believe the right individuals are on there, so I'm asking.

[1:18:51] That's correct.

[1:18:51] Okay, so yes, so again, the policy, as I read it, is saying that the mayor will use that, based on expertise and

[1:18:59] experience the right people, and the council, we have to agree as a majority that those people are the right people, right?

[1:19:06] Great.

[1:19:07] I think that's part of the discussion.

[1:19:09] Yes.

[1:19:09] Thank you.

[1:19:11] Councilmember Enriquez?

[1:19:12] Yes.

[1:19:13] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:19:13] And I just appreciate that this item is being pulled just so the public can have a more

[1:19:17] insight if you want to make our alleged committee meeting.

[1:19:19] I will say that, you know, as the city clerk and city attorney have shared, this is a way to

[1:19:23] kind of go back to what we've done in the past to really just formalize and leave things documented

[1:19:29] appropriately.

[1:19:30] That way, if some folks want to be able to view online later on, if you want to be able

[1:19:34] to get a report. Just like many of us, we get reports from our different departments,

[1:19:37] our chiefs, chief of fire department, chief of police. We get reports. It's always

[1:19:42] helpful because we get some detail that maybe might be missed if we watch it online, but

[1:19:46] it's a formalized way to just document things more, you know, intentionally for all of us

[1:19:50] to look at it. And of course, going to the mayor to use her discretion to appoint folks on

[1:19:55] different ad hoc committees. And I believe, you know, which is why we brought this up at

[1:19:59] the committee meeting. I don't know if that was the one that you had missed, Councilor

[1:20:02] but the, but okay, so it was the one, okay, so which is important, so if you do misimmediate,

[1:20:08] it's all streamed online so we can catch up with our notes.

[1:20:11] So when we come to the next meeting, we can have, we can review what was missed last

[1:20:15] time.

[1:20:15] So I would say that I appreciate the city for documenting things online.

[1:20:19] We can always refer to it if we misimmediate and I'll just reiterate that to my colleagues.

[1:20:23] I think we can use that ability to review meetings.

[1:20:25] That way we can catch up to speed on things, that way things aren't misad of context.

[1:20:29] So I think this is a good way to have things more formalized.

[1:20:32] And again, to trust the mayor will appoint the folks that she would want moving forward for ad hoc committees moving forward.

[1:20:41] Okay, so I appreciate the discourse, I would say that of the ad hoc committees that we've done, we've only done a few.

[1:20:54] The people that have volunteered for the ad hoc committee or the people that we ultimately ended up appointing to the ad hoc committee.

[1:21:01] It wasn't like everybody was chomping at the bit to be on another committee of some

[1:21:06] sort.

[1:21:07] I would say that, you know, some of the criteria is subjective.

[1:21:13] I don't know how you say, you know, whether, as Councilwoman Padilla is, you know, whether

[1:21:21] somebody's a good communicator or is committed to that particular topic, but I'm happy that

[1:21:27] that people want to serve on those reports.

[1:21:32] Yes, I reports are something that some people enjoy writing and some people don't enjoy writing.

[1:21:41] Fortunately, in today's day, we can go back and read the meeting and we can go back and read the minutes.

[1:21:46] I will support anything that this council wants to do in this area.

[1:21:52] I only had one concern, where it's a simple majority to a point and a super majority to dissolve or the time runs out or whatnot.

[1:22:04] That was my, I wanted apples to apples on that, but again, I work for the people and I work with the council.

[1:22:14] So, councilmember Padilla.

[1:22:16] Yeah.

[1:22:17] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:22:19] I may be my question in regards to the wording expertise or unbiased was not clear what

[1:22:28] I was trying to convey, because I do recognize that the mayor is capable of recognizing who's

[1:22:37] a good communicator and makes good judgment.

[1:22:41] I guess I was just reading it as qualifications like you need to have this and this and that in order to be on that committee.

[1:22:53] So that's what I was getting at.

[1:22:55] And then I just don't know how I feel about the reports on being honest.

[1:23:03] We all have second jobs.

[1:23:05] We are all busy.

[1:23:07] We have families and to do a report would this be annually,

[1:23:15] would this be quarterly?

[1:23:18] It is something that whenever an ad hoc is created,

[1:23:22] you can include in the creation documents.

[1:23:24] So, for example, if you create an ad hoc for a one-year purpose

[1:23:27] and you want them to achieve X goal or explore a particular topic,

[1:23:32] you can set within your creation documents we want,

[1:23:35] And at the end of the year, we want to know what information you have found.

[1:23:39] Or it could be, for example, technically speaking, the ledge committees and audit committees,

[1:23:43] they're a type of ad hoc of your meeting body.

[1:23:46] There's just done by reporting the minutes every time the minutes come before you, that's how it's done.

[1:23:52] So you can set that within your creation documents.

[1:23:55] Okay, just one through the chair, just one clarification.

[1:23:59] So the language that was proposed and

[1:24:01] is being recommended by the LEG committee. It does say that upon completion of the designated

[1:24:07] work the ad hoc committee shall submit a report to the city council summarizing the results

[1:24:11] of their work in practice. I think what's being done is what Catherine with the city clerk

[1:24:15] describe. And so if you want to modify the language to reflect that practice you can but right

[1:24:20] now the language is a shell at the end of the work.

[1:24:24] Okay.

[1:24:27] I don't know if my colleagues have any other comments.

[1:24:30] Vice mayor.

[1:24:31] Thank you, I'm mayor.

[1:24:32] So let me address a couple of things because to Councilman Padilla's point,

[1:24:36] she wasn't at the meeting, and I was, I wanted to address a couple of things.

[1:24:40] First of all, yes, we all have second jobs, but I think when we sign up to, when we accept the

[1:24:45] responsibility of joining an ad hoc to do work on behalf of our constituents in the city,

[1:24:50] we need to be accountable to the conclusion of that work, and that's only going to be verified

[1:24:55] or quantified through a final work product that can be reduced in writing for records.

[1:25:00] So that's number one.

[1:25:01] I think that, and I'll just use the ad hoc for the City Manager's search experience.

[1:25:06] There were two items on two reasons on there not, and I'm not, I'm just using an example.

[1:25:13] Well, I only want to get into that.

[1:25:13] Let me just say this, in establishing that, because I think that's the only ad hoc

[1:25:18] that we were a part of, there were two stated purposes, and then there became a question

[1:25:24] of whether or not the purposes were fulfilled or not, and I think the idea is that once we established

[1:25:29] by vote of ad hoc committee that the dissolution of that be clearly outlined in how we do that,

[1:25:36] and that those purposes, you know, be man-and-reduced to writing. As far as the criteria goes,

[1:25:44] I would say that we had an experience just at our last council meeting or one of our last council

[1:25:49] where the Climate Action Committee right now, my district that suffers the most from the environment does not have a person with the expertise and experience of living in, breathing in that air and having the lived experience in a district where there are reports online that the life expectancy of folks in that district are 10 years less than those on the north side.

[1:26:09] So, I would be concerned about that, but this Council voted to go in that direction.

[1:26:13] And I think that to the mayor's question of the dissolution or the removal or whatever,

[1:26:20] that supermajority, I think, if there's going to be a removal of an individual or a

[1:26:25] disbanding of something that we create because we believe it's in the best interest of the city,

[1:26:31] I mean, there would be something that would be so significant and

[1:26:36] The majority of not all of us would vote to disband or remove.

[1:26:39] So I think hopefully that clarifies those questions.

[1:26:47] Okay, so I don't have any other buttons flashing on this item.

[1:26:52] So what's the pleasure of council?

[1:26:57] Motion to approve.

[1:27:00] Second.

[1:27:01] We have a motion and second.

[1:27:02] Council please vote.

[1:27:08] Motion fails.

[1:27:09] for three with Fugazi Ponce, Padilla, and Vila Pudua dissenting.

[1:27:19] Okay, go ahead.

[1:27:20] And I would be open to bringing this back to ledge for another discussion with regards

[1:27:26] to language if my colleagues would entertain that.

[1:27:36] Vice Mayor.

[1:27:37] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:27:39] You know, I'm really just amazed at how

[1:27:45] we make decisions, right?

[1:27:46] Right, this is for me, it's not about being happier, not happy about how we vote, but I'm just unclear.

[1:27:52] I took the time to go to the Ledge Committee meeting, we are talking about accountability.

[1:27:58] We see the press that we're getting around how we remove people that makes no sense.

[1:28:03] There are council members that literally try to do it again this week with one of my commissioners that I'm so thankful that we're not having another fight over another issue that is not in the interest of the public and moving our business forward.

[1:28:14] But I'm just, I'm concerned, right, like, one, we're saying, if you look at the document,

[1:28:21] when we agree to a create a ad hoc that we reduce in writing the work of that committee,

[1:28:28] don't understand why that's an issue.

[1:28:32] We're saying that if we're going to dissolve a committee or remove a person that it'd be super

[1:28:41] majority. Councilwoman Ponce, you didn't even respond like comment on why you're

[1:28:45] dissenting, and like I'm confused at how we're not having full out debates. People voting

[1:28:53] and not even discussing rationale for the public to consider, it's almost like there's a

[1:28:58] discussion and a decision made before we get here. Anyway, that said the document as I see

[1:29:04] that the committee worked hard on was to come up with suggestions on how to increase

[1:29:09] accountability and oversight of the process rather than taking it back to the committee if we're not going to move forward with this item as outlined and

[1:29:18] suggested here. Why don't we offer some suggestions here and have a conversation because I don't think that there's major tweaks that would need

[1:29:25] to be made. And if so, then taking it back to the ledge committee would probably be a waste of time and fail anyway.

[1:29:30] Well, we did vote on it and then I would say there was a recommendation I did you have

[1:29:39] another. Okay.

[1:29:43] Thank you mayor. First of all, I just want to say I give my time and

[1:29:49] I am accountable. I did miss a meeting because I took my daughter to move back into college.

[1:29:56] So, I don't think me...

[1:30:00] I've seen a meeting, I mean, we all have things that come up in our life period. There is only one thing that I have an issue with, and I did ask for recommendations. There is only one thing that I have an issue with, and is that the reporting. We have minutes, we have streamed videos. I don't have a secretary. I mean, I am one person. If somebody has another option to

[1:30:29] to revise that, I'm open to listen to it.

[1:30:33] But nobody is giving me any suggestions.

[1:30:36] They're just putting, you know, a negative on my opinion.

[1:30:40] So, blower, do we have a comment?

[1:30:45] Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[1:30:47] Okay, so we have gone on this item.

[1:30:54] I don't know if anybody's open.

[1:30:56] You did make the comment about bringing it back to ledge.

[1:31:00] We do have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 more items on consent yet to go with the three public hearing and the three new business.

[1:31:12] So I get everybody wanting to make a comment on this, but we've taken a vote, and we can move on with council.

[1:31:23] So, one of the information if I can, Mayor, if all Councilman Padilla is asking for is that one issue an alternative, is there a process, I don't know if it's you with a city attorney that can explain if we can either reopen the item or instead of sending it back to the ledge, make a motion with the modification so that way we can address that one issue.

[1:31:42] I don't think the idea of having a report was with the intent to be burdensome, and I would also hope that my colleagues don't take me pushing back and not just rubber stamping things as a personal attack.

[1:31:52] That personal attacks are very different.

[1:31:54] I can show you that, but that's not my intent.

[1:31:56] I'm just not agreeing and going with the flow.

[1:31:58] Okay, so City Attorney, at that point when there's a motion that fails, somebody can make another motion.

[1:32:05] Could they not, you could make a motion to reconsider.

[1:32:07] Once it's voted on and it fails, then it's done, unless the body makes a motion to reconsider.

[1:32:12] Motion to reconsider, have to be made at the same meeting, so still available in this meeting.

[1:32:17] In order to make such a meeting, it has to be someone in the majority to make that motion.

[1:32:21] and it can be seconded by anyone and then you need a majority vote to pass.

[1:32:24] Okay. So then bringing that back to council is there a, well, I'd like to make a motion

[1:32:33] to reconsider. It has to be one of the people that was in the majority. I will make the motion

[1:32:39] to bring it back to the dias to reconsider modifying the wording in regards to the report.

[1:32:46] And then who has to make a second?

[1:32:50] Anyone may make the second.

[1:32:51] Second.

[1:32:53] Okay.

[1:32:54] Can I turn off all the lights because we're going to do that?

[1:32:57] Okay.

[1:32:59] So, council, please vote.

[1:33:08] Okay.

[1:33:09] Motion passes.

[1:33:13] So, at this point, with councilmember Ville Poudreux dissenting, at this point, then councilwoman

[1:33:19] Padilla, I don't know if you want to lead this discussion.

[1:33:23] Oh.

[1:33:23] Well, Council Member Blower has lights up, so Council Member Blower.

[1:33:29] Yeah, just to respond to Council Member Pidiya's question and her asked me to kind of give my two cents.

[1:33:36] I have been on things before where a report was required and what typically happens is you assign it to somebody on that committee.

[1:33:45] And it's also not uncommon for staff to help with that process.

[1:33:50] So I don't think it's maybe as burdensome as, you know, you may think.

[1:33:56] So I think if you're serving on an ad hoc and you don't have the time to do it,

[1:34:02] I think somebody on there could do that.

[1:34:04] And I think that, you know, again, staff is usually pretty helpful with those things.

[1:34:09] So I don't know if that gives some clarity or helps you.

[1:34:16] Vice mayor.

[1:34:17] Thank you, mayor.

[1:34:18] I apologize to my colleagues if I misunderstood the pushback.

[1:34:22] If the issue is a report, let me ask the city clerk, if we have an ad hoc, is that something that the city clerk's office could help with for a report or is that again something that we should just take off and move forward?

[1:34:35] Generally speaking, it depends on the purpose of the ad hoc, on who would assist with a report like that, whether it's clerk's officer staff, it depends on the purpose and the expertise of the support staff.

[1:34:46] I mean, so to, I mean, I don't think that we created this recommendation for it to down a report.

[1:34:52] I mean, I would be okay with removing the report and, you know, if, if, or leave it all to, you know, not alternative, but discretionary to the ad hoc, because when I use the example of the City Manager ad hoc, that would be a private, I mean, there's no reporting person in there, but if it's an ad hoc out here with staff, maybe we can get support, so maybe leave it.

[1:35:16] at the discretion of that ad hoc committee. Is that?

[1:35:22] Do you want at the discretion of the committee or do you want it to be something that's part

[1:35:25] of the creation document? So the creation document would be all of you deciding that this is

[1:35:30] what we want out of this meeting body.

[1:35:32] Yeah, maybe, yes, that.

[1:35:36] Councilwoman Padilla, do you have a comment on that?

[1:35:39] Oh, yeah, and I just wanted to thank Councilmember Blower.

[1:35:42] And I do take things literally when they're written.

[1:35:48] So giving that clarity makes complete sense.

[1:35:52] But when you read it, it sounds like to me I have to give a report.

[1:35:56] And sometimes I feel like a lot of us give comments in our council comments with regards to the committees that we sit on.

[1:36:05] And so, again, I'm open to suggestions if the language wants to be revised or removed.

[1:36:15] And I would say that things that come out of the ad hoc, such as the homeless ad hoc,

[1:36:23] end up coming before the whole council, usually, what happens, their decisions are made,

[1:36:32] decisions

[1:36:35] Council. So I hear that. Like I said, my only gripe is the supermajority.

[1:36:47] Go ahead,

[1:36:48] Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So then my recommendation would be based on what Councilman

[1:36:51] Padilla said, that we leave the discretion to the formation document, formation process

[1:37:00] of the committee to decide on whether or not there will be a formal report or to the

[1:37:04] mayor's point if it goes back before the council, it's there in public, so the public record will always be there.

[1:37:11] So maybe the city attorney can offer us a new wording.

[1:37:19] Okay, I believe the motion is to adopt the proposed amendment to chapter 3.06 of the council policy manual regarding the ad hoc committees with the modification of section 3.06.010 subsection.

[1:37:38] one second.

[1:37:42] For C, Roman numeral for A1, modifying the language to reflect the discretionary authority

[1:37:55] of the committee to submit a written report to the council according to the creation

[1:38:03] to capture that? That's all second in motion.

[1:38:10] Okay. Councilmember Svilevot.

[1:38:16] Motion carries 4-3 with Pugazi, Ponce, and the La Pudua opposing.

[1:38:23] Okay. Let's move on then to item 12.4, which is adoption of a resolution waiving any privileges

[1:38:31] Just applicable to any emails from the City Attorney's Office to City Council on July 30, 2025 at approximately 113 p.m.

[1:38:44] Councilwoman Fidia, you pulled that one.

[1:38:47] Yes, thank you, Mayor.

[1:38:48] Just two questions to City Attorney.

[1:38:52] Are there any alternative ways to provide transparency without fully waving privilege?

[1:38:58] knowledge. No, once you waive privilege, it's waived for all and in full. And if there is going to be, if there is a investigation or potential, a potential for investigation, would waiving this privilege, risk the investigation and put the city in liability or at risk.

[1:39:25] So I'm not, I'll answer that in two ways.

[1:39:28] I'm not aware of any ongoing or potential investigations by the city, which relate to or connected with this waiver.

[1:39:34] So I, you know, I'm not, I don't have any information on this, you know, waiver affecting anything in progress.

[1:39:40] If you're talking about future and get investigations by the city, I, you know, I have no way of knowing what impact there might be without knowing what it involves.

[1:39:52] Yeah. Thank you. I support transparency. My only, I just don't want to subject the city to any

[1:40:02] exposure that could potentially lead to financial risk. So that's all I have to say. If anybody

[1:40:09] else has any comments. Vice mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I know we can't discuss the subject of what we're

[1:40:16] asking to waive privilege for in terms of the actual item, but I do want to say that

[1:40:24] the city did receive the city council voted in a majority to send the Brown Act

[1:40:31] violations over to the district attorney's office. As a result of that, the district

[1:40:35] attorney rejected our submission of the Brown Act violations and asked for us to submit

[1:40:40] additional information and signed under penalty of perjury in order to re-submit

[1:40:45] and in an attempt of myself to resubmit with information that is directly related to what this council voted

[1:40:53] and a majority to do in public, I want us to be able to vote to waive the privilege for this document.

[1:41:00] I won't be able to follow up to the District Attorney's Office for their recommendation without doing so.

[1:41:10] Councillor Member Blower.

[1:41:13] I know that waiving privilege is not something you want to do frequently.

[1:41:19] Can you tell us how big of a deal is it to waive privilege and if we do that too much

[1:41:24] does that?

[1:41:26] I mean, where are the ramifications of that?

[1:41:28] Certainly.

[1:41:30] Waving privilege does not create binding legal precedent, you know, legal court can do something

[1:41:34] like that.

[1:41:35] It does.

[1:41:36] It doesn't compel future councils to do the same.

[1:41:38] However, as with all waivers, it has the potential to establish political or practical expectations for future disclosures under similar circumstances, especially regarding a specific subject matter.

[1:41:49] But ultimately, as you know, the decision on whether to waive or preserve privilege lies with the council.

[1:41:55] Thank you.

[1:41:57] I have a question.

[1:42:00] I didn't, I just saw that it came back.

[1:42:03] I don't know the contents of what was sent over to the district attorney, but when something

[1:42:11] is sent over, the person sending it can put down as much information as they have personal

[1:42:17] knowledge of.

[1:42:20] must it be, you know, something that you say you wrote in a message or can it just be first hand knowledge from, you know, an individual, like anybody in the audience, I know, can send stuff off right to the grand jury.

[1:42:36] It can be either.

[1:42:39] You can have first hand knowledge is great, always, obviously, but if you have documentation that you would like to turn over, you can do that as well.

[1:42:46] Okay, so on this item, what was the specific other than it said it wasn't, there wasn't enough information?

[1:42:56] I believe that the request was for direct information by people with first-hand knowledge and or, you know, any other evidence that you aren't to produce.

[1:43:03] Okay, okay, Vice Mayor.

[1:43:05] Yeah, I mean, if everybody can recall, I, I mean, let me first start by saying that I'm glad that we're finally on track and things are moving forward, so I do want to say that.

[1:43:15] I think now this is just a matter of process and everything that's been on a track is now on track, so I'm going to figure out one city attorney, I'd like to clarify.

[1:43:23] Us, we've waived privilege before, this council's waived privilege before with respect to the Brown Act investigation that occurred involving one of my colleagues up here, correct?

[1:43:34] That's correct.

[1:43:35] Okay, and that didn't set precedent for this matter or any other matter to automatically waived privilege for something just for any other reason.

[1:43:42] And this is just another isolated request as that was an isolated request, correct?

[1:43:47] That's correct.

[1:43:49] And does the, without getting into the details of what we're asking to be waived, do you see there being any considerable liability to the city if we waive privilege for what I'm asking us to waive?

[1:44:05] Nothing that I can, you know, that immediately jumps out now.

[1:44:09] Okay.

[1:44:09] And so, to the question the mayor asks, which was a great question, do we take,

[1:44:13] here say, from individuals or firsthand information we may have from talking to a person

[1:44:16] or direct evidence?

[1:44:18] I think if you're talking about, you know, O.J. Simpson killing a coal, you take the glove,

[1:44:22] you take the blood, you take everything you can because you're trying to build a case

[1:44:26] that a crime happened.

[1:44:28] That is what I think is attempting to be done here as a request of this counsel, going

[1:44:33] to that district attorney, that district attorney saying on its, on the surface,

[1:44:36] there's not enough information here. The second part, I think, that's important

[1:44:40] is that the submissions go back under penalty of perjury that we sign our name to,

[1:44:45] which I am excited to do, but I do believe that this document being waived, the privilege

[1:44:52] being waived, it does solidify a very clear example of what this council has been trying to

[1:44:58] get at it also.

[1:45:00] All the time we spent around these concerns. So, again, I think what I've heard is it doesn't create a significant impact to the city. In terms of liability, it doesn't set precedent for future waivers, and it is in direct consistent expectation that this council voted on to send this matter to the district attorney. I appreciate all those points, especially bringing up the prior.

[1:45:26] where we have released privileged information, it was at the conclusion.

[1:45:33] My concern is if this is waive, does it go just directly then to the district attorney, or is it released at large?

[1:45:42] It's released at large, once waive, privilege is waived, it's waived for all.

[1:45:45] So if you get public records, I request, if we are in, you know, and again, this is a general example, not one specific to this particular document.

[1:45:54] But if we were to be in litigation, right, and you waive privilege on a document, it becomes discoverable once privilege is gone.

[1:46:02] So it can't just go to the district attorney.

[1:46:05] It cannot.

[1:46:12] Because that's that's my concern.

[1:46:14] Because we've all experienced, you know, speculation in a new window.

[1:46:19] I don't think there's a person up here that hasn't has an experience that.

[1:46:25] So, with that information, yeah, there's no way that it can just go directly to the district attorney.

[1:46:34] There's not, we looked at this extensively when this body decided to weigh privilege with the Brown Act report,

[1:46:40] and once it's waived it's done, there's plenty of case law on this.

[1:46:48] Okay.

[1:46:52] Seeing no more lights, Council Member Enriquez.

[1:46:57] Yeah, thank you, Mayor, to the mayor's point, by the question of if he can go directly to the district attorney's office.

[1:47:03] Can we, as a council, give specific direction that that specific document just go through the city of attorney's office to the DA's office?

[1:47:11] No.

[1:47:16] Nice, Mayor.

[1:47:18] First of all, I think my colleagues for this debate in the open forum.

[1:47:23] Truth, trust and transparency, we talk about it, we email it, we put it on our social media, we go on the news about it.

[1:47:29] There's been a lot of public conversation related to allegations and I love that the mere

[1:47:35] point of that out because I'm somebody sitting here with so many allegations.

[1:47:38] I have a org chart now trying to figure out where they're all coming from and I know I'm

[1:47:43] sure there'll be more.

[1:47:44] That said, I think in the spirit of creating and enhancing public trust, we've had a lot

[1:47:51] of conversation about Brand Act violations, we've had lots of conversations about going to

[1:47:55] the DA and the district and the grand jury.

[1:47:58] We did that action to one of our colleagues up here on something that had nothing to do with the work that we're doing right now as a result of

[1:48:05] information requests that came in from somebody else and we did that

[1:48:11] in that actually subject in one of our colleagues to

[1:48:14] being exposed in a report that was before this Council even took office, so I just out of respect for being consistent because I feel again one rule that

[1:48:22] applies one applies to all

[1:48:23] Well, but looking at this incident, we have the district attorney of Salon King County asking us to submit evidence of our claims that we've made in public and to sign under penalty of penalty of perjury and provide all the relevant evidence, which includes people and all of that, but we have evidence and we're all the same group that voted, I don't even know majority, I think majority voted for it to go the district attorney.

[1:48:50] I was dissenting that we don't send to district attorney now.

[1:48:54] I'm saying let's send it all to the district attorney and I want to sign under penalty of perjury with the information I want to submit.

[1:49:00] This is a key piece of that.

[1:49:03] It doesn't set precedent again and it doesn't subject the city to liability.

[1:49:07] That's what the city attorney said.

[1:49:08] So again, in the spirit of truth, trust, and transparency and without getting into the details of it,

[1:49:14] I don't know why we wouldn't comply with the request of the district attorney.

[1:49:19] And

[1:49:22] going back, it was at the conclusion of an investigation, it was at the conclusion

[1:49:28] of a report that privilege was weighed.

[1:49:32] In terms of claims made in the public, I remember two meetings ago, or was it three meetings

[1:49:38] ago, actually this stuff, what was contained in this, potentially in this document, was brought

[1:49:45] up, was mentioned.

[1:49:47] and I just, it doesn't set precedence in terms of waving privilege, I think it does in

[1:49:57] terms of waving privilege on something that hasn't been investigated, but I understand

[1:50:01] it's because you want it to be investigated.

[1:50:04] And I don't know if the individuals could be named and those individuals could then speak

[1:50:09] with the district attorney without having to release a document.

[1:50:14] Go ahead, Vice Mayor.

[1:50:15] No, thank you, Mayor.

[1:50:16] I didn't want all of these allegations to be made in the public.

[1:50:20] I didn't want all of these allegations to be subject to an investigation.

[1:50:23] I did not create this conversation.

[1:50:26] I think it's important to note there were allegations made against my colleague and

[1:50:31] then made against me in public.

[1:50:33] And then as a way of just saying, hey, let's just put it all on the table.

[1:50:36] Let's get them all investigated so we can all move forward.

[1:50:39] And we can ensure that public knows the outcome of that.

[1:50:42] We then had a whole exercise where everybody wanted to go to the district attorney because I think they believe the district attorney

[1:50:48] Was just going to rubber stamp it and say yeah, let's go lock everybody up that didn't happen

[1:50:52] He sent it back and said nope return to sender if you want to send it to me send me evidence and sign your name on it

[1:50:59] Because perjury will put people in jail or have charges brought against them for violating the law

[1:51:03] I've or I've said many times that this platform the public the people's platform should not be used for political theater and also for

[1:51:11] political weaponization.

[1:51:13] I know there are people up here that have tried to hide under legislative immunity.

[1:51:16] You see the letters for my attorneys, that's not going to work.

[1:51:20] And so all I'm saying is, what do we have to lose?

[1:51:22] We're not going to lose anything by sending to the district attorney, but what we are going

[1:51:26] to lose with the public watching is trust because they're going to think this is a circus.

[1:51:31] And again, not trying to rehash all the old stuff.

[1:51:33] This is literally just to be able to get us on track by letting a fair and free investigation

[1:51:39] have been in, let the chips fall where they may. And if people that have said I've

[1:51:44] extorted them, or that Councilmember Rick has a volley, the Brown Act believe

[1:51:47] that and stand on it and have evidence and sign on penalty of perjury, they should

[1:51:51] send that. I want to do the same because I believe in our process and I believe in

[1:51:57] the district attorney's office and I just want to be able to do that. Now, if this

[1:52:00] Council votes majority that they don't want to support that, then I mean that it

[1:52:06] It is what it is, but I would like to just make the motion that we approve this item.

[1:52:13] Second.

[1:52:14] So we have a motion in a second.

[1:52:17] Council Member Chlizbo,

[1:52:21] motion passes 4-3, Pugazi, Ponce, Villapudua, dissenting.

[1:52:27] Okay, let's move on then to 12.5.

[1:52:31] Council Member Blower pulled that item which is appointment to Water Advisory Group.

[1:52:38] And it's your appointment.

[1:52:39] Yes, yes, I just wanted to thank Katrina, Mambula Santos for stepping up and for applying to this watery advisory group.

[1:52:49] And I just wanted to take the opportunity to kind of make the public aware that we do have these different positions that are open.

[1:52:57] And, you know, sometimes, a lot of times as a council member, you know, you find where you have to go out and kind of recruit people to get them to do to serve in a role or

[1:53:08] or to do on one of these boards and commissions.

[1:53:11] But not always, like this particular one,

[1:53:13] I didn't know this individual,

[1:53:15] but she went online and took the initiative

[1:53:19] to fill out an application.

[1:53:22] And so when I had a vacancy on this,

[1:53:25] I went to see if anybody had applied

[1:53:27] and I saw her information, read through it,

[1:53:31] did some follow-up calls with people that know her.

[1:53:34] And so just if any of you out there have a desire to serve, you want to do something with your community if you go to the city of Stockton website and you go to on the top tab, you hit government, then you go to boards and commissions, and within boards and commissions, you'll then see boards and commissions vacancies, and that's where you can then look through and see where there are vacancies.

[1:54:03] And once you click on it, there'll be another button that you can click to apply.

[1:54:08] So I just thought I'd take the opportunity to kind of point that out.

[1:54:11] And again, thank my appointee for taking the initiative and filling that out.

[1:54:17] And with that, I'd like to make a motion to approve.

[1:54:21] Second.

[1:54:22] Motion to second, council please vote.

[1:54:26] Motion carries 7-0.

[1:54:28] Congratulations Katrina, look forward to you serving.

[1:54:31] Okay, moving on then to item 12.9, right, 12.9. Employee Health Plans, the city's 2026 Employee Health Plans.

[1:54:46] Hello. Good evening.

[1:54:49] My arrest deputy director of human resources, I'm here to answer your questions.

[1:54:53] Councilwoman Fudia pulled that item.

[1:54:56] Thank you, I just want to thank staff that came here and made comments and then staff that also submitted comments to us and I just want to let you know I do unite with you and I stand with you and I hear you.

[1:55:15] So, I just want to acknowledge, we all know that there's been increases in premiums.

[1:55:24] And I was on this dius when we had the same issue last year.

[1:55:29] So my first question is, when was the finalization of getting all the premiums and costs complete?

[1:55:42] So we started the process, I believe it was in April and we got the final rates in July to beginning of August.

[1:55:52] Okay, and when do the employees or need to make a decision to sign or, I mean, are you going to need us to do this tonight because I think last year, that was the problem.

[1:56:04] I'll open on ruminate in October, October 1st through the 31st and the plans are

[1:56:09] effective January 1st.

[1:56:12] So we don't have another meeting before October 1st, right?

[1:56:16] So then, yes, we would have to make a decision tonight, correct?

[1:56:23] I'm going to clarify that if we don't approve the health benefit renewal, our employees will

[1:56:28] not have health benefits come January 1st.

[1:56:31] So that is the same challenge that we had last year.

[1:56:33] So I wanted to clarify that.

[1:56:34] Yeah.

[1:56:35] Yeah, I knew that from last year, it was like, we had to do something other than otherwise they weren't going to get benefits.

[1:56:42] Just a question, if we had the information in July, how come it took to the deadline to do?

[1:56:50] We get the final rates in July and then we negotiate with those vendors to try to get a better rate, decrease it.

[1:56:57] they did decrease it from 39% to 5%, and then we had to request formally to add additional plans to help provide cheaper plans which took additional three weeks, and then it brought us here, and now we're here for presentation.

[1:57:12] Okay, that was one of my other questions, and it was like, can we explore any other providers such as United Health Care Blue Shield Blantham, but even we went and have time to do that.

[1:57:25] We did do that.

[1:57:26] We did that.

[1:57:27] We conducted an RFP last year, we met with the union reps.

[1:57:32] We informed them that we would go forward with the RFP.

[1:57:35] We did work with our third-party administrator, and we did issue an RFP, and within the

[1:57:40] SAF report it shows that we did get declinations from multiple vendors to respond and provide

[1:57:47] a bid to provide insurance to us, and the other pools that we did go to were more expensive

[1:57:54] events have been our current rates that we have right now.

[1:57:57] Okay, so I know last year we came to an agreement to offer $2 million, a one-time bonus

[1:58:06] to offset some of this that our staff is incurring.

[1:58:12] What other options might there be besides that one-time bonus that we could look at?

[1:58:20] There would be no other options at this point other than work with the, you know, ASD financial team come the fourth quarter to see if there are any funds available to offset or support provide support to employees are impacted.

[1:58:35] So I did some little homework myself and I did some calculations and I know we always talk about long term range.

[1:58:48] And we like to do, I mean we typically offer the one-time bonus because it's just for that one-time thing and we don't want to

[1:58:59] provide something that's going to be recurring because then we're obligated to it.

[1:59:05] But it seems like last year we're here, I mean last year we had the same problem. We're sitting in the same place.

[1:59:15] I myself do not foresee premiums going down.

[1:59:21] I feel it seems like we're going to be on the same trend of premiums going up.

[1:59:29] So I was thinking, again, what other options could we provide?

[1:59:35] And I did some calculations if we did a fixed percentage, offered a fixed percentage for

[1:59:45] For example, and I just did this at 80-20 and I'm not saying that's what it has to be but I just, that's what I chose, 80% employee, 20% city.

[1:59:58] Now

[2:00:00] My numbers could be wrong, but I hope they're not. If we did that, it would only be a cost to the city 1.26 million annually. And, again, I know you're going to say that this is going to be, you know, a lifetime recurring. But with that said, is there something we could put in place? So like, maybe this is just,

[2:00:30] just for two years, a fixed percentage rate.

[2:00:35] I'm just looking at options.

[2:00:37] Okay, so first I want to go back to say last year we did not do a one time bonus.

[2:00:43] Last year, $2 million was put towards the premiums and we actually increased the premiums by 10% last year.

[2:00:50] So that was a permanent ongoing fix that we tried to implement to help employees on an ongoing basis.

[2:00:56] In addition, there was negotiations that increased the premium's additional 2% on an annual basis.

[2:01:03] So I just wanted to share that they did get 12%.

[2:01:05] So I wanted to clarify that first so that we all have clear understanding.

[2:01:10] When we talk about an 80-20% ratio, that means that we cannot estimate our future cost and

[2:01:18] budget accordingly on our long range financial plan or any kind of benefit.

[2:01:23] because we will always be hit with a percentage instead of a fixed dollar amount.

[2:01:27] So it's harder for a city to for kind of, you can't foresee the future, we could just look at what's been happening.

[2:01:35] We're seeing 20, 30% increases, that's nationwide, it's not just us.

[2:01:39] But when you're trying to budget and you're trying to look ahead,

[2:01:43] you could not do that on a budget, not knowing what you're going to incur, but on a dollar budget,

[2:01:47] You can actually budget, accordingly, look at your long range financial plan, which is 2% right now, and I will also share that prior to bankruptcy, it was percentage base, and they took that away and made it a dollar amount for one of those reasons.

[2:02:02] Why could we just do it for one year then?

[2:02:05] So you want to give it to them and then take them, because you can't take it away.

[2:02:11] Does that make sense like, if you're going to do something for a one year, you would give a one time supplemental pay.

[2:02:17] So what you would do is say, you're going to be impacted by $3,000.

[2:02:21] I want to help with that impact.

[2:02:22] I'm going to give you a one time payment of $3,000 to mitigate that impact to you, because we know what's going.

[2:02:28] Then you are going to have to look at future years based on your budget to say,

[2:02:31] how can we help you ongoing in the future, but right now, you know that we've just done cuts, we have cuts coming, that would just not be beneficial to the city to say it's ongoing, but you're right, it's going to continue to grow, and that's where we need to be strategic in our plan of how we would do that moving forward, but at this point with the budget, the uncertainty not having to see if, you know, having the challenges in our budget and upcoming, you know, potential cuts that

[2:03:01] that we may have, or not cuts, but reductions, I want to kind of reword that.

[2:03:06] We would do it as a dollar amount this year, and that's what I would just recommend to see if you do have that financial being.

[2:03:12] But if you take it and you give it to them one year and take it away, it's going to be the same thing as giving them a one time offset.

[2:03:19] And I will defer to my colleagues for any other questions.

[2:03:24] And I just was going to say, because of that 12% last year, that then was added because that was a one time.

[2:03:30] No, that was ongoing.

[2:03:32] Oh, so it's so added to their phone.

[2:03:35] So 10% was ongoing.

[2:03:37] Okay.

[2:03:37] The 2% is when it's negotiated, and they get that increase.

[2:03:41] So SEA, BNC, and the miscellaneous OE3 units have, they will get it January 2026, too.

[2:03:49] And then the fire management and SPMA will also get it because they just agreed to that come January.

[2:03:55] Thank you, Mary.

[2:03:56] Vice Mayor.

[2:03:57] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:03:58] And I want to thank my colleague, Councilman Padilla, for doing research and trying to find options.

[2:04:04] I mean, I think the one frustrating thing for me, just to be very transparent, is that, you know,

[2:04:09] and I had this experience during audit yesterday, as I feel like, we're rushed to make big decisions with no time.

[2:04:15] And I think our staff deserve time and consideration, not to say that, you know, this is not a personal attack.

[2:04:21] This is just me just being very honest that somebody who worked in the labor movement in health care for 11 years and somebody who owned a health care business insurance business, I understand that one people are very married to their providers and

[2:04:37] continuum or continuity of care is an important thing for some people.

[2:04:40] On the other hand, you know, elections do matter and there are a lot of changes happening in our federal government and in our state that are impacting health care and companies that provide health care, so I just want to acknowledge the reality of that.

[2:04:53] Open enrollment is a period, it's not a day, so open enrollment starts and ends when.

[2:04:58] October 1st is the first saying it ends October 31st.

[2:05:01] Okay.

[2:05:02] And then those benefits go into effect January 1st.

[2:05:06] So the reason why I asked the question from my colleague who asked, you know, do we have time?

[2:05:12] I'm not moved to vote yes today on this for various reasons I'll state in a second.

[2:05:17] But I do think that gives us some time to have a little bit more consideration even if we have to do a special meeting.

[2:05:23] So that's number one.

[2:05:25] The second part is, let me ask, looking at 35% just seems outrageous.

[2:05:29] Were there no other, was there no other opportunity to negotiate a better deal with them, and if not why?

[2:05:37] We did, we, our third party administrator, allyant, tried for nine months to negotiate.

[2:05:42] Okay, and so not being able to talk directly with the bargaining units, were there conversations about other providers and wanting to consider?

[2:05:52] Yes, and we did agree to go out to RFP and to ask to join Pulse, so when we looked at Monterey, we looked at Prism,

[2:05:59] We looked at CalPERS, those are the pool programs, and those rates are actually more expensive than what we have now.

[2:06:05] And they don't offer setter doctors or PPO doctors here within the Northern California Central Valley.

[2:06:13] So they would lose their doctors.

[2:06:15] And then the other providers, that's where they went out individually to even say,

[2:06:19] will you bid on us and provide a quote to see if we could add Athens or

[2:06:24] had United Health Care add, you know, health, what is it, health net.

[2:06:29] And they refuse to bid on us because Sutter does not provide experience reports.

[2:06:35] And what that means is, as a city, we have self-insured plans, and we're bill, we have usage, and that's our utilization data.

[2:06:42] So how much do we actually pay into premiums, and then how much medical payout are they actually incurred?

[2:06:50] So that's kind of like your utilization report, right?

[2:06:53] how much are they utilizing our services, and without that data, they can't quote on you, so they refuse to, so they declined.

[2:07:00] So where we kind of are today is, these are our benefits, we did go out for RFP, they reached out to different vendors,

[2:07:07] medical providers to say, can you been on us, they declined, we're not going to get additional options.

[2:07:12] But I do think that it is beneficial to bring the item to approve this item, but

[2:07:18] come back on the discussion of how can we help employees before January to see if there's some

[2:07:22] the financial resources that we can find before January.

[2:07:27] Because then we can change the city contributions.

[2:07:30] Even though our rates with the providers will not change and the plans will not change,

[2:07:35] the employer contribution that we pay towards benefits can be adjusted later on.

[2:07:40] And so I appreciate that.

[2:07:42] So how many of our, because there's a presentation here that we haven't gotten into,

[2:07:46] but let me ask you how many of our employees are Sutter Health Plan members?

[2:07:50] First.

[2:07:53] You have the numbers.

[2:07:54] And would be impacted by this increase.

[2:08:03] So would you have, let's see, about 560 employees, so half archaiser and half a setter?

[2:08:12] So 560 employees would be impacted by this?

[2:08:16] Yes.

[2:08:17] And what does the 35% increase in rates equate to dollars and cents from payroll?

[2:08:29] What is the financial impact to the employee or the overall cost?

[2:08:48] the overall impact to the employee first.

[2:08:54] So, if I'm looking here, under the Sutter HMO, these are both HMO plans, or all of them are HMO plans?

[2:09:02] So, there's certain HMO plans that would have an HMO dental, and then there's an HMO plan that would have a PPO dental.

[2:09:08] So, yes, you will see an HMO plan twice.

[2:09:11] So I'll give you an example, if we have a SETER HMO, that's with our HMO SETER and DENTLE

[2:09:19] Plan, the current monthly employee's payment, and that's their premium, is $151.78 per

[2:09:29] month. The annual amounts, so that's $1800 per year that they would pay out. The new monthly

[2:09:36] is $455.38, and the new annual is $5,464.56, so the annual difference is $3,600.

[2:09:46] Yeah, I mean, again, was there conversations with the bargaining unit around, I mean,

[2:09:55] it's obvious we've received so many emails and public comments and all that about this matter.

[2:10:00] is was there any conversation with the bargaining unit around eliminating

[2:10:06] such as an option? And of course, I don't know, was that just a no?

[2:10:10] No, so that's going to take a longer process. So that's where you actually have to meet

[2:10:15] with employees, meet with unions, have a town hall, look and address the impact on

[2:10:19] the employees and get feedback. So when you're looking at changing plans

[2:10:23] entirely, eliminating plans and doctors, you have to keep in mind there are

[2:10:27] There are employees who have current existing medical conditions, and we can't just make that decision from a city to say we're going to just cut this out.

[2:10:35] We can look at that financial impact to the employees and say here are options, but that will take about a year and a half to do because you have to hold town halls.

[2:10:43] You have to have vendors come on board, you have to talk with the employees, you have to make sure to have those one on one meetings with the vendors and the employees to ask questions to choose their provider.

[2:10:56] So you have to give employees time and adequate information.

[2:10:59] And my last question is, so there's no other alternative provider to the Sutter plan that would be competitive and better than this.

[2:11:08] They did, they refused to bid or quote to us.

[2:11:12] Correct, so no one else would offer us health benefits.

[2:11:17] Thank you.

[2:11:20] Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

[2:11:21] And just to add it on to with the vice mayor and councilman for the other asses, you know, for me it's my first year in office, so I'm just thinking of timeline and, you know, the fact that from July to now, you know, you were saying you were going through negotiations and then now it's being presented to council and now to say we're not going to, oh sorry, so we didn't do negotiations.

[2:11:38] This is not part of negotiations.

[2:11:40] Last year, we met with each union group to enter into a side letter to provide them 10% increases to the employer contributions.

[2:11:51] We do not negotiate health benefits.

[2:11:53] This is a renewal that comes here.

[2:11:55] What we did do with the unions and have an informational meeting with our third party administrator to educate them on what we did do.

[2:12:05] how we went out to RFP, what are our new plans, what are the new rates, and give them a chance to ask questions.

[2:12:10] And my quick, and I guess one of my questions is, it seems like it's a surprise to the employees, because in the last, you know, days that the agenda was publicized, we've been getting a wave of email.

[2:12:19] So it looks like it was a surprise to the employees, unless I might be wrong, but it seemed like they were surprised at that high number of rate.

[2:12:27] And then now you're telling us we have to vote today before August 1st, then we're not going to get healthcare benefits.

[2:12:32] So, we met with the unions August 21st, August 12th, where we educated them and provided them with the new rates in the PowerPoint presentation so that they can inform their members while we were still finalizing and I'm sorry, August 21st, she did give it the right date.

[2:12:49] And then after that we did get the final rates, we got the breakdown of percentages and then we sent out a communication to employees.

[2:12:56] And then once it gets approved tonight, we actually provide the rate sheets, the guides, et cetera.

[2:13:03] Yeah, I mean, I hear you, and again, that's fine.

[2:13:06] It is a short time frame, even from one ratio.

[2:13:08] And this one's even shorter because we tried to negotiate to the very last minute to get extra plans.

[2:13:13] Because we have, Sutter only allows entities to provide a certain amount of plans.

[2:13:18] And we had to get approval from their top management on to get three plans approved.

[2:13:22] So, it was just a lot of going back and forth, and we tried to the very last minute to see if there was any alternate options.

[2:13:28] And then they also took longer to negotiate 4% down from 39% to 35.

[2:13:33] And my last question would be on average, again, I ask just for context, on average in past years, is this pretty normal or is it?

[2:13:39] No, so it's been since COVID, so last year, there was a 22% across the board increase.

[2:13:45] And their justification for that was it's the inflation cost and to kind of level out from COVID.

[2:13:53] So we expected it to be much lower this year.

[2:13:55] For example, Kaiser was 23% last year, but it was only 3% this year.

[2:14:00] And we expected the same from Sutter and Sutter had 35% increase, well 39% increases this year with just the same justification of that offset.

[2:14:08] Thank you.

[2:14:09] So, and like I said before, and I'll kind of share a little bit since everyone wasn't on this group.

[2:14:13] Last year when they did approve it, they approved it at the same time.

[2:14:16] We had open enrollment, and then it came back at the 3rd, 4th, quarter, and that's when the council then made a decision on the financial availability to assist employees, and we can do that again.

[2:14:31] Councilmember Villapudua.

[2:14:32] Yeah, thank you Mayor, you mentioned tell how meetings, on this tell how meeting was there a tell meeting or was it a tell how meeting with the unions, was the employers?

[2:14:43] No, so if we're going to eliminate our current medical plans and we're going to completely cancel

[2:14:52] We're going to move to someone else and we're going to take away employee's medical plans and their providers.

[2:14:58] It would be beneficial to have-

[2:15:00] Town halls where all vendors can be included, third party administrators, employees can all come. So that's what I would recommend if we were to change or eliminate center. This time we actually, so two things happened. Last year after the city council provided $2 million to provide employees additional funding for the employer contribution. So all of a portion of what we pay, we met with each union to enter into a side letter to provide them an increase to the employer contribution.

[2:15:29] When we talk about our meeting is when we have our final rates and we talk about the changes we met with the unions August 21st with our third party administrator to allow the unions to see the presentation.

[2:15:42] Here the upcoming renewal and ask any questions with the third party administrator.

[2:15:48] Okay, more further questions.

[2:15:50] Okay, so I have just a comment observation whatnot, you know, when I looked at the outcome

[2:15:59] of the RFP and you have, let's say, no way to price, no way to price.

[2:16:04] And I realize we have 560 or whatnot that are on that.

[2:16:08] I know why I'm on Kaiser, because it's zero, it's zero cost to me.

[2:16:13] I would like to be on setter, but I'm not complaining about Kaiser, mind you, my doctor

[2:16:19] out there, if you're watching.

[2:16:21] But I go with that because I can afford it.

[2:16:24] I can afford it.

[2:16:26] So I understand why people are on Kaiser, why are majority of our employees are on Kaiser

[2:16:32] versus, versus, um, setter.

[2:16:35] I also know at the district we have like five different plans.

[2:16:37] Now, mind you, I was on Kaiser there too.

[2:16:41] but I was on the low deductible, no deductible plan,

[2:16:46] which was actually covered.

[2:16:48] I didn't have to pay any out of pocket.

[2:16:50] So I'm, you know, it's just discouraging to know,

[2:16:55] so blue shield declining because high enrollment in Kaiser,

[2:16:59] well heck yeah, high enrollment in Kaiser, zero.

[2:17:03] But there is entities that if you're 70% enrollment.

[2:17:06] We're darned if we do and we're darned if we don't,

[2:17:09] But no way to price really bothers me, that's even a comment there, and you can explain

[2:17:18] it, but I, again, all this like smoking mirrors or whatnot with people's health, health

[2:17:28] is your wealth, and I feel so bad for people that, you know, we might give them a raise

[2:17:34] with their salary, but they just, it got all eaten up by their health benefits.

[2:17:39] Actually, as it was said, they're probably going to be in the hole because of that.

[2:17:44] And if you're on the high deductible plan, which I am on my Kaiser, I got a bill for $915

[2:17:50] for a lab that I had, $915, and that was sticker shock for me, because I wasn't anticipating

[2:17:59] that because I'm on this thought that oh yeah I don't I just pay my co-pay and I'm good

[2:18:04] well my co-pay was nine hundred and fifteen dollars that I didn't anticipate so how do

[2:18:10] you have people who have a family that are having to pull out five hundred and ninety

[2:18:14] dollars and fifty eight cents from each paycheck especially if they're like I'm salary you

[2:18:23] got people that are hourly you know it's just tough and I realize our back is against

[2:18:29] the wall, which is why when we close out our fiscal year 2425 and we see those numbers

[2:18:37] in November, December, you know, we really need to take a hard look at those numbers

[2:18:42] because I know we've been saying, oh, we can use it for this and we can use it for that

[2:18:45] and we can use it for this. Well, everybody's health is affected by this and I just think that

[2:18:52] you know, we have an obligation. If we don't have employees that are healthy, then what?

[2:18:57] If we have people and I know it's not on you, it's no fault of yours other than the fact that you know

[2:19:04] This is what we have

[2:19:06] So we have to think creatively. We have to think about then that

[2:19:11] 2425 and and a one-year, you know one-time fund and then we have to work hard

[2:19:18] However, we need to and if you need me to go out and knock on some doors. I'm happy to do that

[2:19:23] I'm sure everybody up here would be happy to do that

[2:19:25] But maybe it's not proper, but we've got to figure out a way for our employees.

[2:19:31] This just is a lunacy to me.

[2:19:35] So I know it is too, as well.

[2:19:36] Vice mayor.

[2:19:37] Thank you, mayor.

[2:19:39] I want to say that in being transparent, I just say what I feel and what I'm thinking.

[2:19:46] And I'm not in any way attacking staffs.

[2:19:48] I just want to say that because I know when I came in to office, I came in hot and

[2:19:52] everybody was like, oh my God, like this guy, you know, was wrong with him.

[2:19:56] As somebody who has employees and who was working in health care and has watched health

[2:20:01] care providers and their families and seeing how hard our staff work, you know, I, this

[2:20:06] is a personal thing for me because I spent 11 years in the health care industry and to look

[2:20:15] at these rates is just outrageous. I mean, again, I don't want to go too political, but we

[2:20:19] live in a country where we don't have to pay for health care, but that's just not the

[2:20:23] reality that we experience. I do want to say, though, I don't like surprises and I don't like

[2:20:29] being put in position to vote on something with no notice, with no heads up, no along the way side

[2:20:35] bars, two by two, like, hey, FYI, that's one part. So I just want to say to staff, I don't want this

[2:20:42] experience to happen again because it forces us to have a public conversation that we can't fully

[2:20:48] have the way I probably would want to if we were having a private one.

[2:20:51] The second part is that when we do have instances where we're going to be presented with something

[2:20:58] like this that impacts our workforce, that's going to impact morale, that can impact service,

[2:21:03] impact their families in the bottom line of what they're able to provide for their family

[2:21:07] after working hard for the city and our constituents that staff come in with options, like, okay,

[2:21:13] Okay, we're asking council to approve this, but here's how we're going to offset the cost for the staff.

[2:21:20] One example I'm asking, I'm thinking is that fund, and I don't know the fund in Chaz and I here, but maybe Will knows, or maybe you know, that fund that we talked about the $8 million.

[2:21:31] What's that called?

[2:21:32] The contingency fund.

[2:21:33] It was $73.

[2:21:35] She finds extra millions, I don't know, but again, this is why I wasn't going to really pull a lot of items because a lot of the stuff we're talking about today.

[2:21:42] These folks probably have more knowledge of but but you know

[2:21:46] I would just want to be presented with okay

[2:21:48] Here's the bad news. We're we're gonna see a 34% increase for our staff

[2:21:52] But here's the work we did to provide an alternative so that way as a city

[2:21:57] Here's where we found the money to offset that impact then it's the easy no brainer so if staff have that have those

[2:22:05] Options I would like to understand them now if not we should really consider that being a part of this process

[2:22:12] Councilwoman Padilla.

[2:22:14] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:22:15] So I know you said that the enrollment date is October 1st through October 31st.

[2:22:22] However, it's my understanding that we as a city HR sets that date.

[2:22:29] Well, we have to set that date because then we have to do the enrollment.

[2:22:33] We have to do that through the online portal, EDI files, submit it to the vendor.

[2:22:38] do reconciliation and audits to make sure everyone's enrolled, enter the deductions on the payroll

[2:22:46] screen so everything is done by January 1st. So if we don't do it by October, we won't meet that

[2:22:50] deadline. So just out of curiosity, how long does that process take? It takes all the way until January

[2:22:58] 1st. I'm just trying to, I mean, I just really wish that we had, or staff had, opportunity to speak

[2:23:07] to staff and have those conversations and I just don't feel comfortable moving forward

[2:23:17] without exploring all options.

[2:23:21] Okay, so I'll just hear we explored every option for the health benefits itself the next

[2:23:25] step would just be for funding and availability. Yeah, I don't mean in regards to premiums.

[2:23:30] We, we, we have to do something I mean, we have to like vice

[2:23:37] smears that find money provide an alternative and so that's

[2:23:44] where I feel right now I just don't feel comfortable moving

[2:23:49] forward without, you know, letting our staff know, you know,

[2:23:56] they are going to get some support somewhere, so that's my

[2:24:01] Any comment?

[2:24:02] Vice Mayor.

[2:24:03] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:24:04] I mean, what I hear you saying is if we don't vote on it, well, first of all, we have

[2:24:11] until October, the end of October, which means we do have another council meeting to bring

[2:24:15] this back to, right?

[2:24:17] So, we have to give them 30 days, we have to give them an opening of 30 days to complete their

[2:24:22] open enrollment.

[2:24:23] Okay, so worst case scenario, we have seven days to do a special meeting, right, so just kind

[2:24:28] of put that out there.

[2:24:28] And again, I'm not asking for that, and I'm asking for permission because that would be a decision that we would make.

[2:24:33] Let me say this, I understand the timelines.

[2:24:36] Again, I said a whole mouthful and didn't get a response, I just wanted to say that.

[2:24:40] In terms of not liking surprises, not liking no two by two's are along the ways, heads up, and not having alternative options.

[2:24:49] So I asked a question, let me ask a specific question.

[2:24:52] And have we considered what's the fund called the contingency fund?

[2:24:55] Have we considered that fund as something that can offset the cost of that way?

[2:25:00] When we do this approval, it's also contingent on us working out those numbers and

[2:25:05] being able to satisfy this expenditure that's going to be passed on to our staff.

[2:25:09] If I may, I believe we can look at some options.

[2:25:16] And I think we can come back with some options to help this.

[2:25:20] Okay, so we will look at all those, but we need some time to get to the end of the year to look at what we have, so then we can make a good decision on what to give.

[2:25:31] So thank you, City Manager Cruz, so my question then is, so open enrollments October 1st to the end of October, these new rates won't go into effect until January, so we have time to approve condition with the condition that we go back and find a way to offset these costs working with labor, working with our staff, and then you'll come back and

[2:25:50] report to us we can give you we can put a timeline around that correct and last year just so you know we did provide employees with the opportunity

[2:25:59] To say just say someone right now

[2:26:02] So just say right now an employee changes to the lowest health care plan

[2:26:09] Because that's all they can afford and then the council is able to provide funding so they want their old plan back

[2:26:15] We have requested with Sutter to do a special enrollment and they've allowed us in the past to say, okay, now that rates have changed, we want this request for our employees to allow them to get to their old plan and we would request that again.

[2:26:28] And that's reasonable and I like that and I like being able to go back and look at solutions and like my colleague said, I think we're all on the same page with that.

[2:26:34] I mean, what we want to get to is, I mean, the mayor, I think, went through the dollars and cents looking at these numbers is just absurd, right?

[2:26:41] And we know that's not your fault, that's not our fault, it's not our staff's fault, the unions fault.

[2:26:45] It's just the big bad with healthcare agencies, and that's just what it is.

[2:26:49] So if I make them, my motion would be to, and then there's people, there's still lights, but

[2:26:53] I mean, I could accept it with the contingency that staff go back, work on a solution that you can come back to us with that would help offset that cost working with our labor part with staff and the union.

[2:27:06] And then, again, in the future, more along the way heads up conversations are two by two,

[2:27:13] so allow us to think together so that we're not surprised by something like this.

[2:27:18] And just to be clear, once the City Council does have an offset for the employees and provides

[2:27:24] additional funding, that's when HR would meet with the unions to enter into a side letter

[2:27:29] agreement to allocate those funds accordingly.

[2:27:31] So we need to make sure that the funds are available and it's not like these are going

[2:27:41] to change.

[2:27:43] I mean we can't call out to Sutter and say please because we're such good, we're such

[2:27:47] a great agency and our employees need help, they're not, you know, they're not going

[2:27:51] to say okay we'll shame another 10% off and this is just the unfortunate truth of the

[2:27:58] matter.

[2:27:59] Councilwoman Fidia.

[2:28:00] I just want to make a comment in regards to what I know happened last year, and while you're going back and researching and how to make this work, I know there was an issue with offering like this bonus.

[2:28:19] And so employees, when they got this bonus, they didn't know that it was to offset health premiums.

[2:28:27] So then the conversation came up the year when we were negotiating and

[2:28:36] premiums increased and then staff said, well, remember, you got that bonus.

[2:28:43] So I just want that information communicated clearly because two city employees and

[2:28:52] staff, the big hurdle was, well, if I knew this was too

[2:28:57] offset healthcare, my healthcare premiums, then I would have budgeted better and planned better,

[2:29:04] but it was given to them with the expectation as a bonus. And again, I'm not attacking staff,

[2:29:14] but I even saw like the email and everything that went out to staff saying, here's your bonus.

[2:29:20] And so I want that communication clearly reported out, and I see our acting city manager will shake in his head because that was an issue.

[2:29:33] Yes, total agreement. We will make sure that we have really good communication on this for sure.

[2:29:39] I actually would recommend, well, because I got a stipend for having my master's degree but it was an amount given every month.

[2:29:48] It wasn't a lump sum.

[2:29:50] So I don't know if that would probably be a paperwork nightmare.

[2:29:55] I don't know.

[2:29:55] But if there was, it was offset rot on each pay period.

[2:30:00] As opposed to a one-time, here's the, you know, if you could take, if it was $3,000, let's say it's $3,000, you break it up over 12 months, that's what $250 a month. So there'd be a $250 a month. Well, you'd have to divide it because you only, you guys get two pay checks. We only got one at school. So you'd have to then divide that into, you know, $125. So $125 each pay period. I know it's probably sounding like I'm making it really difficult, but when we have this conversation, I'm more than happy to write it out.

[2:30:29] So vice mayor can I make a motion yes, I think we had great conversation on all this

[2:30:36] I'd like to make a motion to approve with the condition that staff go back and

[2:30:42] Do whatever work needs to be done in order to offset these costs to our staff and come back within 60 days

[2:30:49] With an update on what that what that looks like

[2:30:52] They have a motion and a second council, please vote

[2:31:00] motion carries seven zero. Thank you

[2:31:04] Okay, we'll go to one more and then a bathroom break if that's okay, or do you want a bathroom break now?

[2:31:14] Okay, so we're going to do 12.11, which is, let me get to it, I got all my papers here, yes, the employee assistant program services contract with simple therapy.

[2:31:31] Thank you, Mayor, and this is just a comment, I will be quick.

[2:31:35] Somebody's probably asking why is she pulling this when it's only 3,000 a month?

[2:31:40] Well, we need to be transparent and we need to look for money, we just have this conversation.

[2:31:45] But thanks to Rosemary, she gave me data that our employees are using the health services provided.

[2:31:56] And the return on our investment is 1.5621.

[2:32:01] The only thing that they're not utilizing is training, like workforce training.

[2:32:07] So I just want people to know our city employees are using this.

[2:32:11] We are spending this money, but it's for a good cause.

[2:32:16] And so is that a motion?

[2:32:17] I will make a motion to approve.

[2:32:19] We have a motion in a second, council, please vote.

[2:32:23] Motion carries.

[2:32:23] Bringing

[2:33:05] the meeting back to order, we are moving on to item 12.11 pulled by Councilwoman Padilla, excuse me, 12.17, which is approve of a motion to authorize contract change order number three for debris removal and pick up project.

[2:33:25] No, I'm going to pass on that comment.

[2:33:28] Sorry.

[2:33:29] Okay.

[2:33:31] So are you making a motion?

[2:33:33] I'm making a motion to approve.

[2:33:35] Second.

[2:33:35] Motion.

[2:33:36] Second, please vote.

[2:33:39] Motion carries 7-0.

[2:33:41] Okay.

[2:33:41] Moving on to 12.18, pulled by Council Member.

[2:33:44] Oh, yeah.

[2:33:46] Enriquez.

[2:33:47] Resolution.

[2:33:49] To designate additional stop control intersection.

[2:33:51] and amend the stop-controlled intersection schedule.

[2:33:55] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:33:57] Yeah, thank you, Deputy City Manager, just a quick question.

[2:33:59] I was happy to know, I know we mentioned, I mentioned this at the last council meeting, my council comments that we were able to get the stop sign installed, I think three or four weeks ago.

[2:34:07] So I want to thank you and your team for making it happen.

[2:34:09] I know it was an initial concern from Supervisor Mario Guardia, and then we were able to get it installed.

[2:34:15] And then I know I mentioned last time how people are still getting used to it.

[2:34:17] Hopefully they're used to it now, but it's been up there for a couple of weeks.

[2:34:19] but the more that we have this throughout the city, the better.

[2:34:23] I was just curious, just really quick, in terms of how many requests just so the public knows that it's not just anybody can just say,

[2:34:29] oh, I want to stop sign here and there and it's going to happen, you know, this is about $1,000 and since August 22nd, 2023,

[2:34:36] it says that there have been many requests submitted, and just for context, give or take if you have an estimate of how many requests have been submitted since that date.

[2:34:45] I don't know how many requests have been submitted since that date, but I can tell you that every time one is submitted and we complete it, we come back to council for a resolution to accept it because it's our stop control intersections.

[2:35:00] The nice thing about this one was that we were able to do all the work in house.

[2:35:04] So our traffic team jumped on it and then our streets team and operations of maintenance was able to go get it installed.

[2:35:11] So yeah, it was a pretty great turn around awesome when I appreciate it. I'm good teamwork all around and I'm happy to know that folks in that area

[2:35:17] Will feel a little bit safer especially if for anyone going towards the country club, which is obviously the way to get there

[2:35:23] So I appreciate it. But yeah, those are all my questions for a 12.18

[2:35:27] There's no other question perfect motion to approve second

[2:35:30] Council please vote

[2:35:34] Motion carries seven zero moving on to 12.19 also pulled by council member Enriquez the Alpine purging Mendocino

[2:35:43] You know, Bicycle Pedestrian Conactivity Project.

[2:35:48] Mr. Reed.

[2:35:50] That one's got a lot going on.

[2:35:52] What can I answer for?

[2:35:52] Yeah, no, thank you Mayor and thank you, Chad.

[2:35:54] Just two quick questions for clarification.

[2:35:56] I just want to make sure the RRFB, there's one of three that are being put in.

[2:36:01] One is in my district.

[2:36:02] I know the other two are in the county pocket on Country Club.

[2:36:06] I just want to make sure it's on the one in my district.

[2:36:08] Is it Alpine and Grange Avenue?

[2:36:10] Just because the vicinity map didn't zoom.

[2:36:12] Obviously, you can zoom in, but it didn't give the intersection.

[2:36:18] It identifies three, it looks like one is in your intersection, or in your district, and I'm not 100% sure exactly what street that is right there, but we can follow up with the exact street naming.

[2:36:30] Okay, perfect, and then that way I can let constituents in that area know, and then also you had said here a project to start in first quarter of 2026, typical completion give or take.

[2:36:43] So this is going to be for the design phase, right?

[2:36:46] So this is where we talk about kind of 10 Mary Elizabeth's comment earlier where we engage the public.

[2:36:53] We take a look, we have community meetings.

[2:36:56] We look at design plans kind of like we're doing on Park and Oak.

[2:37:00] Well, please keep it posted, happy to support, attend and get the word out on those meetings as well.

[2:37:04] Absolutely.

[2:37:05] Thank you.

[2:37:06] No questions, motion to approve.

[2:37:07] Second.

[2:37:08] Motion to second.

[2:37:09] Council please vote. Motion carried 7-0. Moving on to item 12.20, the city sidewalk repair project.

[2:37:22] Yes, sir.

[2:37:24] Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Chad. So I look at this map and I won't lie, I was a little annoyed and disappointed because I know I take the mayor's mantra everywhere I go.

[2:37:38] the first shall be, you know, the first shall be last, the last shall be first.

[2:37:42] And when I look at this, this vicinity map, it looks like the last to last again.

[2:37:47] I don't know how in South East Doctin, there's only one sidewalk that needs to be repaired.

[2:37:53] When I drive around frequently and know that there are several sidewalks that need to be repaired.

[2:37:58] And then in Western Ranch, it looks like there's two, four, six sidewalks to be repaired with a total of seven in my district.

[2:38:04] And then I look at some of the more, and I'll use the word affluent communities are highly covered with green dots.

[2:38:16] So the first question I have kind of goes with what Mary Elizabeth had asked in terms of how are people learning about how to report it, how are we getting the information to them, how are people reporting it, is it just asked Stockton, is there a letter that goes out to every resident that says hey, if you have bad sidewalks,

[2:38:34] please let us know by following these steps.

[2:38:37] Is there a text blast to people?

[2:38:40] Is there something that goes in there water bill?

[2:38:41] I mean, I don't know.

[2:38:42] I'm just asking questions.

[2:38:43] But what is it that, and I know it has nothing to do with water,

[2:38:46] but we're sending them something.

[2:38:48] Is there some way of putting something in an envelope to them?

[2:38:51] Just trying to understand how we got here with these green dots

[2:38:54] and why my district doesn't have more green dots.

[2:38:58] Yeah, for a question.

[2:38:59] So a little bit of background, right?

[2:39:00] Right, we have numerous sidewalk locations throughout the city that need to be repaired.

[2:39:08] And what we work off of for just a fair and transparent method is a backlog sidewalk

[2:39:15] replacement list, right?

[2:39:17] So typically requests for repairs come in through a stocked in, right?

[2:39:21] So a stocked in, a stocked in, a stocked in, that's how we feed the system.

[2:39:25] We also have our public works line at operations and maintenance you can call in and we can add it to the list.

[2:39:36] Currently we have 2367 known locations of damage sidewalks on the backlog sidewalk replacement list.

[2:39:46] This project right here takes care of 455 locations.

[2:39:49] And the way that we work through the list is we go by the order in which it was reported or the date in which it was reported and we just work backwards based off of, you know, council discretionary funding, honestly, that's how we've got the money for these projects over the last five years.

[2:40:07] Yeah, I know I asked, yes, I know I asked to get a copy of all the requests for sidewalks.

[2:40:14] We still think we need that sort of I district and also to include the date I do remember at a prior council

[2:40:20] We had the conversation when it came to traffic calming about

[2:40:25] Refocusing our efforts to be those that were prior that needed priority over when submitted right I know that we had that conversation

[2:40:32] That's a different topic, but hopefully that's been done

[2:40:37] Do we look at

[2:40:39] Is there another way and I'm not asking that there's no suggestion here yet

[2:40:43] But is there another way to evaluate the sidewalk repair requests, meaning we have one where

[2:40:51] You know there's total destruction to the sidewalk or people are falling and reporting injuries or we got a claim

[2:40:57] Because I think we've even had claims here at the city people falling because of bad sidewalks

[2:41:02] Are we looking at some other method of consideration other than submission date? Has there been any conversation about that?

[2:41:09] Yes, and

[2:41:10] And we typically, if a location is going to get bumped, it usually has to do with, or

[2:41:18] I shouldn't say, bumped, but prioritized, we look at public safety, right?

[2:41:24] So comment earlier about sidewalk repairs around the hospital, right?

[2:41:28] So you take an area where people are known to congregate who may or may not already have

[2:41:33] some kind of handicaps and we try it and make sure that that is as safe as possible.

[2:41:41] The request still has to come in, so it still has to be brought in or not outwardly looking

[2:41:46] for locations.

[2:41:49] That's other than that, we've always used the data reporting.

[2:41:54] It's the most fair and transparent way we can keep track of a list and it would be difference

[2:42:02] If we had an ongoing funding source for repairs that we could work through and we just don't have the funding for it

[2:42:08] And so this is a this is the way we

[2:42:11] Yeah, this is the way we've done it. No understanding

[2:42:14] I mean again, like thinking of operates like the city does a bad job at marketing its services and itself anyway

[2:42:21] I think we can all agree to that when you think about like broken window program

[2:42:24] I see that on Instagram sometimes, but I don't know are we at family day at whatever point with a table city table with

[2:42:31] flyers that say, this is not to report your sidewalks or promoting a stock.

[2:42:35] And I don't know every opportunity that could or should be taken to promote the stock in the event.

[2:42:41] And I think about Toys for Joy that's coming in December 4,000 families coming through.

[2:42:44] I'm going to make sure the city has a table to have whatever we need to promote there.

[2:42:48] But I'm just trying to understand at least for my district and

[2:42:51] ask my colleagues to forgive me for taking a little time here.

[2:42:54] What can we do to better communicate and

[2:42:58] make accessible information for people to fix their sidewalks.

[2:43:01] Because I know I hear it from people that they want to fix it.

[2:43:03] But I want to start seeing the reflection of our efforts as a city,

[2:43:08] and the reflection of the efforts of the community to actually report in the need to get it fixed.

[2:43:12] Yeah, and to my knowledge, I'm not aware of a function where let's say public works was out,

[2:43:20] But soliciting citizens on how to enter stockings, I know we talk about it a lot.

[2:43:29] But there probably definitely isn't an opportunity for some kind of a campaign to bring more awareness so

[2:43:37] that we can get the locations reported.

[2:43:40] And then obviously we want to work towards trying to find a source for it.

[2:43:45] There's some inherent legal risk that come with some of this as well, right?

[2:43:54] What part?

[2:43:56] Well, as we track known locations, if we're not fixing the locations, then it can cause issues down the road.

[2:44:03] So we want to get everything reported as we can.

[2:44:08] We also want to make sure that we can work through it.

[2:44:11] So I'll do a better job of using my platforms to promote or over promote and ask my commission to help get the word out so people can do that.

[2:44:20] I don't know, Mayor, has there ever been, I know with the interagency, have we ever talked about maybe like a city newsletter that can go out to students and their parents?

[2:44:29] I mean, have we ever done anything like that?

[2:44:31] In the past, when people actually read the inserts in their bill, when they got their city bill, there used to be a newsletter that was in it way back when.

[2:44:38] Actually, there was a calendar that the city put out itself that had all the activities coming out numbers

[2:44:44] They could call because I have one at home from the 70s

[2:44:47] But I was thinking you know putting it up on buses a few our code

[2:44:51] You click on the few our code it'll take you there, but I mean we have people that can easily do a video and put it on channel 97

[2:45:30] We can have an audience that we can use. We just have to have something that's 30 seconds only. It goes boom, boom, boom, boom. This is how you use it. This is what you do. Or we put QR codes around, like in libraries and buses, like I said, the movie, whatever, wherever people go, congregate, we need to have the QR code. So if it's at every church, or whatnot, that's so be it. I like that idea. I mean, that's, I think what I was getting at, like if we could do a better job, because I talk about a stock than every time I post something.

[2:45:59] it's always in there and I know we all do on our social media but I think like to the

[2:46:03] mayor's point something visible even if it's whatever it could be different like just had

[2:46:07] Kaiser had the drive campaign they had different photos so yoga here broccoli here it all

[2:46:13] was centered around a stock you know if it's all centered around a stock it could be different things

[2:46:17] that $50 submission thing I didn't even know that I would ask I would submit to a stock that I mean

[2:46:22] again that would be something I would love to have more information to share but I do want to

[2:46:28] see my district get more information or just the city in general better education on how to submit these type of

[2:46:33] Request. Yeah, we definitely have the resources a little and the legal dumping isn't through

[2:46:38] City of Stockton. That's through crime stoppers. So if you apply it if you submit it, you know, you get a picture license

[2:46:45] Played all that $50 still $50. Yeah, you have your friend do it

[2:46:49] You know and then report. I'm joking. I'm joking

[2:46:52] I'm going to go to the office.

[2:46:53] So, yeah, Council Member Enriquez.

[2:46:56] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:46:57] Chad, I know I asked you when we got into the break just in terms of timeline.

[2:47:00] I couldn't see in the legislation texts.

[2:47:03] When you'll start completion, TVD, I know there's a whole lot, but I'm going to start like where are you going to start?

[2:47:08] There's so many which is great, but.

[2:47:10] Hey, you got me on that one.

[2:47:11] We did not include the working days in this.

[2:47:13] So, my apologies to council on this one.

[2:47:16] We're expecting about 48 working days.

[2:47:17] So, we'll execute the contract with approval tonight.

[2:47:21] It takes about 30, 45 days, and will be completed with the project by the end of the year.

[2:47:26] In the year?

[2:47:27] Great.

[2:47:27] Thank you.

[2:47:27] And then just another last comment.

[2:47:29] I just appreciate the list and the breakdown of the different districts that way we all know where's what.

[2:47:33] So thank you.

[2:47:33] I absolutely appreciate it.

[2:47:35] Council Member Blower.

[2:47:36] Move to approve.

[2:47:37] Second.

[2:47:38] Council, please vote.

[2:47:42] Motion carries 7-0.

[2:47:44] Okay.

[2:47:45] Our last consent item of the night, Council Member Enriquez.

[2:47:48] That's the A.D.A. curb ramp installation project, 66 curbs.

[2:47:55] 66 curbs, yes.

[2:47:57] Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Chad.

[2:47:58] Pretty quickly, just want to make sure similar to what my other colleagues are asking about the other infrastructure projects in terms of just plans moving forward for other parts of the city.

[2:48:08] You know, obviously, folks can read the text and they know where, how many is going to be where out of the 66 throughout the city, but just what are initial plans moving forward for other parts?

[2:48:18] So we have programming that we put money to annually for this

[2:48:23] through a CDP program. So the current backlog on this is about 293 locations.

[2:48:29] So this one's a little bit more manageable. Obviously, you know, very

[2:48:33] important in that it's ADA curb rent, so accessibility for pedestrians, you know,

[2:48:41] reporting damages, reporting needs, same way. The ASStockin platform, you know,

[2:48:46] So call the operations and maintenance line and we'll get it out of the list.

[2:48:52] Great, no thank you.

[2:48:53] I appreciate it and I'll be sure to let folks in my district know about the ones happening in my area.

[2:48:58] And then it says here fall 25 construction to begin completed by spring 2026.

[2:49:02] So again, thank you again.

[2:49:03] That's all I have in motion to approve.

[2:49:05] Second.

[2:49:06] Council please vote.

[2:49:09] Motion carries 70.

[2:49:10] Okay, let's move on to public hearings.

[2:49:13] So, 15.1, public hearing approve four resolutions and adopt an ordinance in connection with the proposed formation of community facilities district number 20, 25-1, Canary Park East.

[2:49:30] I declare the public hearing open.

[2:49:43] Good evening, Mayor Vice-Mayor, City Council, Carmen Maragon,

[2:49:46] Detent Treasury Manager here for 15.1.

[2:49:50] Approved four resolutions and adopted an ordinance in connection with the proposed formation of Community Facilities District 2025,

[2:49:58] Dash 1, Canary Park East.

[2:50:01] With us tonight, I have, excuse me, City Municipal Advisor,

[2:50:05] Ken Deaker with Del Rio, Associate Advisors, along with a special tax consultant

[2:50:11] from the proposed CFD Mike Medivh with Wildin Financial Services.

[2:50:19] I'll pass it over to Ken Deaker, who will present the first half of the presentation.

[2:50:22] Thank you.

[2:50:24] Good evening, Mayor and members of Council of Ken Deaker, with Del Rio Advisors.

[2:50:27] This is a continuation of an item that was first brought before the Council on August 12th.

[2:50:31] We called that the resolution of intent.

[2:50:33] So this is now the resolution of formation meeting where we actually would conclude the formation of the CFD.

[2:50:38] Should the council choose so tonight.

[2:50:39] All right, next slide, please.

[2:50:42] Oh, it's mine, didn't it?

[2:50:42] Sorry.

[2:50:45] Got it.

[2:50:46] Okay.

[2:50:47] A little bit of background.

[2:50:49] Again, this is a little bit of review.

[2:50:50] This is part of the CFD number 2019-1 Canary Park 2.

[2:50:56] That was originally formed in May of 2019.

[2:50:59] It has a fixed annual special tax with no escalator at $1,600 per year per property.

[2:51:04] The city can recover administrative costs as part of the special taxes

[2:51:08] and a services tax is also paid by the property owners within the larger boundary of Canary Park 2.

[2:51:14] There was total indebtedness approved of about 15 million and today the city's done two series of bonds for that original district.

[2:51:21] The proposed project today is a smaller boundary within Canary Park 2 and this will be known as Canary Park East.

[2:51:31] The initial boundary is just the land acquired by Jen California 31.

[2:51:36] The representatives are with us here tonight.

[2:51:39] The portion acquired, as I said, is already within the boundaries of existing Canary Part

[2:51:43] 2.

[2:51:45] The new district will consist of 311 single-family residential lots, of which 64 have been

[2:51:51] sold to Richmond American and 267 lots were sold to century communities.

[2:51:56] If formed, the CFD will help to fund the acquisition of authorized facilities and the payment of

[2:52:01] fees. The tax rates range from about $922 per year to about $2,386 per year. There's a

[2:52:08] 2% escalator. And I want to make sure that the Council understands this. The total

[2:52:13] tax rate within the boundaries of this CFD will be 1.8%, which is consistent with other areas

[2:52:19] like West Lake Village's too. The only issue here is that other parties that are in Canary

[2:52:24] Park 2 that are outside the boundaries of the CFD are still going to pay the $1,600 per

[2:52:29] So, there will be a little bit of disparity within the boundaries.

[2:52:34] On the next slide here is a little bit of the boundary map over on the right-hand side

[2:52:37] is Highway 99, 8-mile road at the top.

[2:52:40] This is the boundary to Canary Park East, all the residential lots on the lower left there,

[2:52:45] those are part of Canary Park 2.

[2:52:47] So this is what's known as an overlapping CFD where they're taking the existing capacity

[2:52:51] up to the 1.8% and allowing the issuance of additional bonds down the road.

[2:52:57] To be clear, just real quickly, I'll let her come back for the financial summary.

[2:53:03] Just to be clear, this is not approving the issuance of bonds.

[2:53:07] This is strictly approving the formation of the district tonight at the conclusion of the public hearing and the adoption of the resolutions.

[2:53:13] Any bond issues in the future will be brought back to the council for future consideration.

[2:53:17] With that, I'll turn it back to Carmen.

[2:53:20] Okay, yes, financial summary.

[2:53:23] There is no financial impact to the city for the formation of the proposed CFD, the estimated

[2:53:29] cost to form the CFD is $39,500.

[2:53:33] Special tax consultant, willed in financial services, bond council, Jones Hall, and

[2:53:38] the city's municipal advisor, Gail Rio, advisors are included in the estimated cost.

[2:53:43] Additionally, the developer has deposited with the city $39,500 to cover the estimated

[2:53:49] cost. Ultimately, when the bonds are issued, the city will receive an administrative fee based

[2:53:56] on a sliding scale of the issuing size. The city's administrative fee is a component of the cost

[2:54:04] of issuance it is paid from the bond proceeds. If the CFD is approved and when one or more series

[2:54:10] of the bonds are contemplated, the bond will be brought back to the city council for consideration and

[2:54:16] approval. The bonds will not be a debt for the city and will only be paid through the special

[2:54:21] taxes levied on the CFD.

[2:54:38] Okay, items for consideration staff recommends the City Council approve.

[2:54:42] A resolution of formation establishing community facilities district member 2025-1,

[2:54:48] Canary Park East, authorizing the levied of a special tax within the CFD and establishing an

[2:54:53] an appropriation limit for the CFD.

[2:54:56] A resolution determining the necessity

[2:54:58] to incur bonded and dampness in the amount

[2:55:00] not to exceed 15 million, a resolution

[2:55:03] calling for an election, for the purpose

[2:55:06] of submitting the levies of the special tax

[2:55:09] and establishment of the appropriations limit

[2:55:11] to the qualified electors of the CFD.

[2:55:14] A resolution declaring the results in election,

[2:55:18] directing the recording of a special notice tax lien.

[2:55:21] Staff also recommends that City Council

[2:55:23] also adopt an ordinance, adopting the levy of a special tax within the CFD. Any questions?

[2:55:31] None from council, but I do have one or two or three. So when we look at a CFD, I will

[2:55:38] tell you that there are people that live in this area that have talked to me about their

[2:55:43] parks. When is their park coming? When is their park coming? And I said, well, you've got

[2:55:49] I had to talk to the developer about that, but knowing the CFD comes our way in order for us to maintain, correct, the property at the standard that it was built in, we have this revenue to keep it looking nice, correct?

[2:56:08] Yeah, so to be clear, there's a couple of different taxes charged within Canary Park,

[2:56:13] which would also include the parcels within this new CFPROCO CFD.

[2:56:17] You pay, they pay a services tax, which in essence covers the cost of providing services to those rooftops.

[2:56:24] Once the bonds are paid off, there will be a, there's a mechanism by which a portion of what was the tax used to pay the bonds,

[2:56:31] the bonds are no longer outstanding.

[2:56:32] A portion of that tax will convert to an ongoing maintenance tax, which will be then used to maintain

[2:56:36] and all the infrastructure, including the parks within the CFP.

[2:56:39] Right, so my question is this.

[2:56:42] Now, in the picture you showed, this is east of Holman Road,

[2:56:47] but there's a whole section west of Holman Road as well

[2:56:50] that was part of this master plan.

[2:56:53] And I got cornered by somebody in Ansel Adams Elementary

[2:56:57] wanting to know why their park wasn't built

[2:56:59] and they were told to talk to me.

[2:57:01] And I said, wow, great question.

[2:57:03] Let me talk to somebody about that.

[2:57:04] So you guys are here because that just happened this week and so is it Monticello or Monticell, well you probably don't know, but it's on it's to the west of of home and road where there's currently a CFD.

[2:57:21] So if a park, let's say that the park wasn't built, who then does that fall on to?

[2:57:27] It falls on to the developer under the terms of a development agreement.

[2:57:30] So they're required to provide, so when certain number of homes are built,

[2:57:33] they're required to build certain pieces of the infrastructure,

[2:57:35] which would include the parks.

[2:57:37] So at some point, as Canary Park continues to build out,

[2:57:40] it will be a requirement, this would be R&S homes that did the development agreement,

[2:57:44] their requirement to build that park.

[2:57:46] Wonderful.

[2:57:46] I was right in my response then, and I told them, contact R&S, so okay, thank you.

[2:57:54] I don't see any other questions.

[2:57:56] So, any public comment?

[2:58:00] No.

[2:58:01] Okay, I declare the public hearing closed, bring it back to Council.

[2:58:06] Looking for a motion or discussion?

[2:58:08] Motion approved.

[2:58:11] We've got three motions to approve in one second.

[2:58:14] Council, please vote.

[2:58:16] Pick somebody.

[2:58:18] So, if I may ask us a clarifying question and this may be to the city attorney, but can they

[2:58:22] do this as a single item for the four resolutions or should they take each one individually?

[2:58:26] Absolutely.

[2:58:26] They can do them as one item.

[2:58:28] Okay.

[2:58:29] Thank you.

[2:58:30] Okay.

[2:58:30] Also to be clear, we did turn over the ballot to the city clerk, and she needs to announce

[2:58:35] the results of that ballot.

[2:58:36] Yes.

[2:58:37] The results were passed in the affirmative, yes.

[2:58:40] Okay.

[2:58:41] Thank you.

[2:58:42] Okay.

[2:58:43] Moving on to item 15.2.

[2:58:45] Did you adopt the ordinance as well?

[2:58:47] Yeah.

[2:58:48] We did it all in one vote.

[2:58:49] Okay.

[2:58:49] Great.

[2:58:49] Thank you very much.

[2:58:50] She reported out on the ballots.

[2:58:52] Thank you.

[2:58:52] Okay.

[2:58:53] 15.2, 2025 water quality public health goals report, good afternoon, or evening.

[2:59:04] Good evening, my gosh, I gotta look it's dark.

[2:59:09] All right, yeah, Dr. Leidel with Utilities, we have a short presentation regarding the public health goals report.

[2:59:18] I also have my Deputy Director of Water Resources Travis Small here to provide any answers to any questions that you might have.

[2:59:27] California Health and Safety Code requires water purveyors that have more than 10,000 connections to file a report.

[2:59:37] Well, produce a report every three years regarding public health goals.

[2:59:42] And let me go through this and try to describe what public health goals are.

[2:59:47] and go from there and bring all this information to public hearing so folks in the public can provide comment.

[3:00:00] Public health goals are just what they're saying. Their goals trying to establish sort of the benefit. Go ahead.

[3:00:11] I declare the public hearing open. Oh, sorry about that. Okay. My bed. All right. So public health goals are just that. Their goals as far as achieving better water quality, drinking water quality, because we're all concerned about the water quality that we have.

[3:00:29] we drink, we use on a daily basis.

[3:00:33] And so the Cal EPA, Office of Environmental Health, Hazard Assessment, sets these goals

[3:00:41] for various constituents that are in water.

[3:00:45] And also the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency makes the same sort of things.

[3:00:51] They make goals as well.

[3:00:52] And they're looking for people to maybe try to achieve higher goals as far as water quality goes.

[3:01:02] And so, what the report looks at is those goals, verse on particular constituents that may be in the water supply.

[3:01:13] And so, our water supply is not perfect, but it's very, very high quality.

[3:01:20] And so that's an important thing to distinguish.

[3:01:25] But when we look at our water samples, we have arsenic,

[3:01:30] we have bromate, we have radio-nucleides,

[3:01:36] and total coliforms, we typically don't have any of those.

[3:01:40] But what does that mean, that arsenic?

[3:01:43] What is arsenic?

[3:01:44] Where does it come from?

[3:01:46] Have you ever heard of people being like in Shakespeare plays and

[3:01:49] things like that are being poisoned by arsenic, okay, yeah, there you go, and so arsenic

[3:01:58] itself is naturally occurring in our water here in this area. If you go way down deep

[3:02:05] where the wells pull the water up from, there's arsenic that's laced into the gravel and

[3:02:11] things like that that's down there.

[3:02:14] Bromite. Bromite is comes from bromide.

[3:02:19] Bromide comes from seawater.

[3:02:22] And when we use delta water, some of that salt that comes in

[3:02:27] includes, has bromide in it.

[3:02:31] And we pump it in, and when we treat it with ozone,

[3:02:35] we create bromite.

[3:02:37] And so that's something.

[3:02:39] And so, when we see a lot of bromide in the water in the delta that we use, we can see

[3:02:46] that our friends that in Southern California are pumping water south a lot harder and it

[3:02:52] pulls in water from the San Francisco Bay.

[3:02:56] And so, anyways, let's go on.

[3:02:58] Uranium is another thing, total coliforms.

[3:03:02] That's a measure of how much E. coli or bad bacteria is in the system.

[3:03:08] Draw your attention at the very last bullet.

[3:03:12] City's water supply met all state and federal water quality standards.

[3:03:20] So what that means is our water meets all the standards that the state and the feds

[3:03:25] have.

[3:03:26] And so that's a good thing.

[3:03:29] But just to show you a little bit more about our snake, you can read the bullets if I draw

[3:03:34] your attention to the graphic, the public health goals are looking for something like

[3:03:41] ten, ours is six, one of the other public health goals essentially wants zero.

[3:03:50] And so those are how those public health goals work.

[3:03:54] And what they want to do is compare, okay, if I was to bring that water arsenic level all

[3:04:01] All the way down to zero, what would that cost the community?

[3:04:06] What would be the best technology that we could use to do that?

[3:04:10] And you can do that.

[3:04:12] You could use reverse osmosis treatment to make sure there's no arsenic in the water at all.

[3:04:19] But what's the, how do you balance that?

[3:04:25] What's the cost?

[3:04:27] And that's the biggest thing, the public health school's reports looks at this.

[3:04:32] And so if we wanted to look at trying to treat various constituents below a public health

[3:04:38] goal, we calculated it's about $2,000 a year extra in your water bill.

[3:04:47] And so those are things, and those are trade-offs.

[3:04:50] You look at, okay, currently we treated it six.

[3:04:54] It's below the standard by quite a ways.

[3:04:57] It's not completely eliminated,

[3:05:00] but we're not charging people

[3:05:02] in an extra $2,000 a year on a water bottle, either.

[3:05:06] And so that's how it works.

[3:05:11] A lot of the health protections that they say

[3:05:14] if you were to zero out arsenic completely

[3:05:17] or one of these other ones may or may not be quantifiable

[3:05:21] either whether or not that causes cancer.

[3:05:24] So, Dr. Leidel, I have a question.

[3:05:26] Go for it.

[3:05:26] So, you were, you know, you're talking about reverse osmosis.

[3:05:29] You know, the big conversation way back when was try how on methods

[3:05:36] and the chloroflorocarbons, you know, all that kind of stuff.

[3:05:40] So, are we still using that same treatment that we did back in 2015

[3:05:47] when we switched over ICA nod?

[3:05:49] Yeah.

[3:05:50] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're still using chloramine disinfection. Okay. Yeah. And that and that suffices. Oh, you remember that? Yeah. Okay. And also, well, half the city we use chloramines in north part in the south, we still use free chlorine.

[3:06:05] But we are very sensitive about those compounds that you discussed. One of the key issues these days is there's another one called PFOS.

[3:06:14] And that's another constituent in groundwater that we're very concerned about and looking at.

[3:06:23] One of the wells that we just retrofitted in District 6 and Ernie Shopshire Park had a PFAS.

[3:06:32] And we spent $5 million to rehabilitate that well so that we eliminated that PFAS as an issue in that area.

[3:06:43] District 6 should be happy, $5 million, there's no jump change.

[3:06:46] No, anyways.

[3:06:48] So that's what we have, we've, unfortunately for our water, our council water committee they've had to see this presentation before.

[3:07:02] So they probably have it memorized, but we've noticed this in the record, we're bringing forth this in a public hearing.

[3:07:10] and as well as the public health schools report has been in place on the website.

[3:07:17] So we're willing to receive any public comment, try to answer questions as necessary.

[3:07:23] But we would recommend that you approve the resolution to accept the 2025 public health schools report.

[3:07:32] Be happy to answer any questions.

[3:07:33] Thank you. I know we have a public comment.

[3:07:36] We do.

[3:07:37] Two public comments, maybe.

[3:07:40] Mary Elizabeth, please.

[3:07:47] Mary Elizabeth, District 5 resident.

[3:07:51] And District 5 is not served by the city of Stockton.

[3:07:57] So all of this information here has no relevance to the water

[3:08:01] that the people in District 5 and some of District 6 drink.

[3:08:06] and so I'd like to see some way that the city of Stockton can get Cal water to come and

[3:08:16] speak to us about the water that those city residents consume. Thank you.

[3:08:33] I live in District 1 and my family we spend more than $200 per month to buy bottled water.

[3:08:42] So yes, because we believe that, you know, water might not be healthy for us, so we

[3:08:49] water.

[3:08:52] But my question from today hearing that, you know, if the people know that if we

[3:08:58] spend $200 more, to have the water that we can drink directly from, you know, our water

[3:09:05] tap, then compare to we have to pay more than $200 to buy water. Because water water contributes

[3:09:12] due to waste, to the environment also, or that plastic will cost us to have it recycled.

[3:09:20] So I wonder if the city by any mean that can inform the public to see that if they

[3:09:26] willing to pay more, to have the water twisted to that drinking or not, thank you.

[3:09:33] That concludes public comment for the Senate.

[3:09:35] Yes, Dr. Lidle, I think what you were saying is the city is covering the cost for

[3:09:40] that for the treatment, correct, for treating the water, because she's, what she's saying is,

[3:09:50] they don't necessarily believe that the water's safe to drink from the tap.

[3:09:55] So they buy bottled water service, and then you talked about the customer impact

[3:10:01] to treat, and you put $1,932.

[3:10:05] dollars. That would be to do something more than we currently do. And if you live in North

[3:10:12] Stockton and South Stockton for that matter, as well as Cal Water, because Cal Water

[3:10:21] receives the same water that we serve in South Stockton as well. And but I would say for

[3:10:30] For those that live in North Stockton, I go to that water plan every day, he's intimately

[3:10:42] familiar with the treatment processes that occur there, and we provide the best quality

[3:10:48] water that we can possibly provide.

[3:10:52] So the water is possible, meaning it is drinkable?

[3:10:56] Very safe, and you can drink it from the tap.

[3:10:58] I do every day.

[3:10:59] And it's tested how often?

[3:11:02] Every day.

[3:11:04] Every day and people can actually go on to the website and or.

[3:11:09] They can look at our reports or they can look at the water quality or the reports that we produce.

[3:11:14] And by the way, it could probably save a couple hundred bucks a month if you did buy bottled water, so.

[3:11:21] Okay.

[3:11:21] Did you have a comment?

[3:11:30] I just like to add one thing here on public health goals.

[3:11:35] We have a detection limit when we have lab samples on some of these constituents.

[3:11:40] So for our SNCC, for example, we have a reportable limit of two parts per billion.

[3:11:45] The public health goal is four parts per trillion.

[3:11:48] And so we can't even test that low, so I just wanted that, and that's like that with

[3:11:54] a lot of different public health goals.

[3:11:56] Now, if somebody had concern about their water at their home because there's lots of

[3:12:01] different things that could impact that water by the time it gets to their house, it might

[3:12:06] even be their own pipes that are at that house, what could somebody do?

[3:12:11] If somebody was worried about water quality that was coming from us, for example, they could

[3:12:16] It would have a water quality complaint that comes to us being gotten investigated.

[3:12:20] But if everything is fine from us going to them, they could do things such as a house filter, stuff like that.

[3:12:27] If they're worried about Clarence means or chlorine and that kind of thing, just to make it taste better.

[3:12:32] Okay.

[3:12:32] Okay, thank you.

[3:12:34] Any questions from Council?

[3:12:37] Okay, I declare the public hearing closed.

[3:12:40] Council member Blower?

[3:12:42] Second.

[3:12:44] We have a motion and a second, council, please vote.

[3:12:50] Motion carries, 7-0.

[3:12:53] Thank you.

[3:12:54] Okay, moving on to 15.3 public hearing, the 2425 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development entitlement programs, I'll say projects, programs, Mr. McCarty.

[3:13:15] I forgot to bring your picture from high school.

[3:13:18] Well, we have that to look forward to in the future, apparently.

[3:13:24] Mayor, this is a hearing which you'd like to declare the hearing open.

[3:13:29] Please.

[3:13:34] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:13:36] So tonight, we're bringing before you the consolidated annual performance and evaluation

[3:13:40] report, I'm fondly referred to as the keeper.

[3:13:43] We love our acronyms, but it is easier to say than all of those words run together.

[3:13:48] And I apologize, Tina McCarty, economic development director.

[3:13:55] So tonight, we are not asking for allocations of additional funding.

[3:14:01] We're not really talking about process, but we're talking about tonight is where we've

[3:14:06] been.

[3:14:07] And this is the accumulation of each year after our annual action plan.

[3:14:12] I know you've heard me talk as well as Jordan about all the plans that we put together

[3:14:18] and we reach out to the community and we develop as far as this is our pathway as to how

[3:14:24] we recommend the process as we use is how we recommend allocations to you as counsel

[3:14:29] and how you then approve the allocations. That's an ongoing process that we're doing annually

[3:14:36] and I would like to give a shout out to EdD economic development because once you allocate the funding

[3:14:42] there's a lot of work that then begins beyond that. So every bit of the funding that's going out

[3:14:47] whether it be for affordable housing or to our community interest support groups there's

[3:14:54] contracts that have to be created and reviewed and submitted.

[3:15:00] There's a lot of monitoring that goes on, so constantly doing all of that with every new allocation that you're approving. Tonight, we're going to review the plans. We are an entitlement city, so we receive CDBG community development block grants. We receive ESG emergency solutions grants, and we receive home investment partnership program, and that is affordable housing, and what goes into that. So we receive allocations from the federal government, from HUD.

[3:15:29] for all of those types of funding each year, they're requiring all of these plans.

[3:15:34] So we create plans with the community, we bring them before you, we submit them to HUD,

[3:15:39] HUD approves them, and then we can receive our money.

[3:15:42] Then we're doing nofus to then create who do we give the money to.

[3:15:47] We're bringing that back before council.

[3:15:49] You're approving the recommended allocations that come from those NOFA programs,

[3:15:54] and then we issue the contracts and the cycle continues.

[3:15:56] So I say all that just to share with you is that we do have a lot of plans going on at once every year we're doing an annual action plan and then we have a consolidated plan that is a five-year plan.

[3:16:11] So this year is the end of the five-year plan.

[3:16:15] So we have what is before you tonight the paper that is actually a review of how do we do over the last year in the annual action plan.

[3:16:24] And then because we're at the end of the five-year period, it's also a view overall of the five-year period.

[3:16:30] With that, I am going to turn it over to Jordan and he's going to get in more details of how we did.

[3:16:39] Thank you, Tina, and good evening, Council, Jordan Peterson, Deputy Director in the Economic Development Department.

[3:16:45] Just a quick call back to a few months ago when we approved, Council approved the new consolidated plan for the new five years, as Tina just mentioned.

[3:16:53] And this is essentially the report card for how what accomplishes were made,

[3:16:59] accomplishments were made during the 24, 25 year, as well as over the entire five year plan from 2020 to 2025.

[3:17:07] That consolidated plan that just wrapped up had four goals.

[3:17:12] Similar to the current goals, but they were homelessness, affordable housing, economic development, and public services.

[3:17:18] So all of the activities had to fall within one of those buckets.

[3:17:22] and then there were a number of activities, and I know it's hard to read, but it's going to be in your packet, as well as for the public watching to be able to see.

[3:17:34] So this is the 2425 accomplishments vis-a-vis the goals that were established last year, and I'm just going to run through them fairly quickly.

[3:17:42] So the activity goal under homelessness was homeless prevention, 44 persons actually ended up serving 67 persons.

[3:17:51] For emergency shelter it was estimated about 43 persons would be assisted ended up serving 303 persons.

[3:18:00] So it shows you, what was the goal, what were the accomplishments?

[3:18:03] You see some of the other ones here for affordable housing.

[3:18:07] One of the key programs that the city operates is the owner occupied rehabilitation program.

[3:18:11] So that's repairing seniors, low income persons, home so that way if there's deferred maintenance,

[3:18:18] The goal there was seven and a city staff accomplished six homeowner houses rehabilitated, which was a great accomplishment.

[3:18:26] One I just wanted to call out was staff had projected being able to have 103 rental units rehabilitated.

[3:18:35] We weren't able to accomplish that within the year, but

[3:18:38] that's not to say that there isn't rehabilitation activity that's in the pipeline.

[3:18:43] It just did not get completed during that 2425 year.

[3:18:48] Moving down to supporting economic development, goal was five businesses receiving a facade ended up accomplishing four.

[3:18:56] Similarly, many are in the works, that's just what was completed during the year.

[3:19:02] It was estimated that 15 businesses would be assisted primarily, that would be through the entrepreneurship process.

[3:19:10] That was not able to get released this last year, so that's why the accomplishment there is zero.

[3:19:16] But that money is still allocated.

[3:19:18] We do have an RFP out there, which I can't speak to because it's open RFP, but that is in the works so that council is aware.

[3:19:25] Lastly, for public services, it was estimated that 115,000 persons would be assisted.

[3:19:32] Ended up serving when the reports were all submitted 46,000 persons under public services.

[3:19:42] So, this is, you know, the final year of the 2020-25 consolidated plan.

[3:19:48] So, these next couple slides show you the accomplishments over that whole five-year period.

[3:19:55] I'm not going to read every single item, but some of the key highlights were, you know,

[3:20:00] homeless prevention over the five-year period, it was estimated 500 persons would be assisted

[3:20:05] It ended up serving 333 persons through homeless prevention activities.

[3:20:11] Rental units constructed, the five year goal was 450.

[3:20:16] Through the five year period, 360 units were constructed.

[3:20:20] Again, that doesn't mean that there aren't other projects in the pipeline.

[3:20:22] That's just what got completed, what got closed out.

[3:20:26] Homeowner rehabilitation goal was 20.

[3:20:30] Homeowner houses rehabilitated, 14 got completed.

[3:20:33] And then when you'll see here that folks often talk about is direct financial assistance to home buyers,

[3:20:41] a down payment assistance program, due to a number of factors that was not able to get implemented over the five years.

[3:20:47] So that's why the accomplishment was zero during the five year period.

[3:20:55] Last couple goals over the five year businesses rehabilitated 15, we ended up accomplishing 13th,

[3:21:02] very close to being on track there, an exciting one was businesses assisted, staff projected

[3:21:09] 60 businesses being supported, ended up supporting 428 so blew that goal out of the water.

[3:21:16] Lastly, to round this out, public services estimated 37,500 persons would be assisted through

[3:21:24] public facility improvements, that number was quite a bit lower at 1100, and then a lot

[3:21:31] a lot of the activities that occur through public services like food assistance, transition

[3:21:39] to aid youth activities, we had staff had projected, sorry, 37,000 and ended up accomplishing

[3:21:46] over the five year period serving almost a million people during those services.

[3:21:53] So this slide just kind of gives council a sense of the order of magnitude of the funding

[3:21:58] that the city received over the five year period, CDBG, including program income, was an award of 25 million.

[3:22:08] And the vast majority almost all of it is either in a contract, it's been expended, it's been encumbered.

[3:22:14] There is a small balance that's still in the works to be encumbered in contracts.

[3:22:21] Similarly has ESG five year award, and there is virtually no balance there.

[3:22:27] where home funds as well kind of just giving you an order of magnitude of all the funds that come into the city and then gets distributed to the community with Council's approval with that staff are recommending Council adopt a resolution approving the 24-25 Caper Report authorizing the Department to make any updates based on any comments, Republic Feedback, authorizing the submission of the Caper and then authorizing the city manager or does a need to execute in

[3:22:57] submit all documents to HUD and with that I'm happy to answer any questions.

[3:23:02] Are there any public comments on the side of?

[3:23:04] We do have one, Mary Elizabeth.

[3:23:18] Mary Elizabeth.

[3:23:20] I submitted comments to you all earlier today, very early today that you would have received.

[3:23:28] So I'm going to go quickly over some of those comments.

[3:23:34] So this was a report card.

[3:23:39] There were questions of the community development committee.

[3:23:46] First of all, the community development committee did not receive and

[3:23:51] does not receive any presentations in advance.

[3:23:56] Those are not posted on the agenda.

[3:23:59] the issue of what the Community Development Committee is for, that's the community that

[3:24:09] they're talking about developing the plans, the NCAA, P has submitted comments, I included

[3:24:19] those comments here, that we need to empower those residents with information.

[3:24:29] and not having presentations available in advance is not conducive to that.

[3:24:36] A question came up about threshold.

[3:24:39] I bring this to your attention here because when people are talking about good jobs,

[3:24:44] I wanted you to have an illustration of how they fare.

[3:24:48] You know, they are considered low income and eligible for these services

[3:24:53] is that are more than we have money for.

[3:24:59] Second, a question that they had was how did people learn

[3:25:05] about the annual performance report?

[3:25:07] Staff responded, social media, internal press release, email

[3:25:13] blast, website newspaper, and all the city of Stockton News.

[3:25:18] So I checked all of those.

[3:25:20] There was no notices made.

[3:25:22] there was a notice to the newspaper you know this is not you know like a good

[3:25:30] thing then and you know I constantly come to you all and ask you know that

[3:25:37] there be an asked doctrine checkbox where people that want to review documents

[3:25:44] for the city and provide comments can be noticed so you know not noticing

[3:25:50] through that avenue, you know, is really a disservice to the community.

[3:25:56] So next, it referenced a Citizens Participation Plan in the report that was included.

[3:26:04] I went to that plan and listed down what it said.

[3:26:08] So that's on page two.

[3:26:10] Social media notices did not occur.

[3:26:13] I gave you a screenshot of the EDD social media.

[3:26:16] I gave you a screenshot here of the presentations.

[3:26:22] They were notified during the meeting that there was a Brown Act violation because the

[3:26:27] presentations that were presented there were not available in advance.

[3:26:32] Community member made that comment that it should be 45 72 hours.

[3:26:39] Next, I wanted to highlight rental housing because I spent most of my life in rental housing

[3:26:45] and I know, you know, that rental housing can be quite challenging and, you know, the

[3:26:55] fact that, you know, that he said, oh, you know, it was 100, but it was, in fact, 200

[3:27:02] and 10 units were for that five-year period. And out of that five-year period, there was none.

[3:27:08] I know that we have bad rental housing here. We need to, you know,

[3:27:12] So think about most of the families in our community are in need and I think I've used my time.

[3:27:21] So I did write much more and I hope that you will consider that going forward.

[3:27:29] That concludes public comment for the item.

[3:27:32] Council Member Enriquez.

[3:27:34] Yes, thank you Mayor.

[3:27:35] Just a quick question and apologies if you already mentioned it.

[3:27:38] On the 2020-25 Consolidate Plans and Goals, it was great to see the goals was for

[3:27:43] for businesses assisted 60, but instead it was 428.

[3:27:47] What did it specifically, what are the jobs created?

[3:27:49] It says the goals was 25, but we created retained two.

[3:27:52] I'll just, yeah, just an example of what that is specifically.

[3:27:56] Yes, thank you, Council Member, for the question.

[3:27:59] So those activities over the five year period was early on,

[3:28:06] early on in the pandemic, where there was micro loans

[3:28:09] that were available to small business for operating

[3:28:11] And that sort of thing, it ultimately became prohibited to be working with businesses who were just trying to survive.

[3:28:18] I don't recall the businesses offhand because it was, you know, 2020-2021.

[3:28:23] But they were, you know, small grants to businesses for operating that helped them to support the jobs there.

[3:28:30] Yeah.

[3:28:31] Great. Thank you.

[3:28:32] I know we talked before you and I have talked before about the Community Development Committee.

[3:28:39] and the hurdles that I believe are there, and to Mary Elizabeth's point, and I'm just

[3:28:47] guessing as to why those documents are not out is because, you know, then people have

[3:28:55] access to them, not that, you know, because like even if we as council, we have to go into

[3:29:00] to a room across the hall without any cell phone, any electronic device.

[3:29:06] We can bring a pad of paper and a pin and there's somebody sitting in there when we review the documents, correct?

[3:29:13] That's for no review, I just want to clarify, that's for no review, not necessarily for something like a paper.

[3:29:18] Yes, well I'm just saying in general, well CDBG funds, I mean there are, I've gone in there and

[3:29:26] and peruse them, because people in the public have said over and over again, why didn't I get funded, why didn't I, what happened to my application, you know, why am I, and then CDBG, or the community development committee, I know Councilmember Villaputo was on it, and I know that other people, you know, are on it, and the frustrations that are exhibited by those volunteers on that is that, you know, hey, here's this, here's this money,

[3:29:55] And here are these people coming before us and doing a presentation on their

[3:30:00] You know, what their needs are and there's never enough money for all of the need that we have in this city. But to her point is, like, you know, what is how

[3:30:11] are we best using the Community Development Committee to actually be a part of the decision making process? And I know you might not be able to answer that right now, but just know that that's something that's on all of our radars and the public is asking the same of us. So yeah, I don't know if I asked a question in there or not, but

[3:30:37] I just wanted to add that we are going to discuss their role and what you would like

[3:30:42] to see in more detail when we do the NOFA workshop because they are certainly a part

[3:30:46] of that.

[3:30:47] So, I believe what the public comment was referring more so is that we have not as a past practice

[3:30:55] with our CDC posted like we do for council agendas and committee, council committee agendas

[3:31:02] where we're posting a report per se, or any kind of a presentation that we are giving.

[3:31:11] So that isn't, we checked with a clerk and made sure we aren't violating brown acts in

[3:31:17] doing so we were told we are not, however, there are better practices.

[3:31:21] So we will certainly review internally and we can move forward in that direction, but that is where we've been in the past.

[3:31:28] So, onward to better improvement.

[3:31:31] Great, thank you so much.

[3:31:33] Vice Mayor.

[3:31:34] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:31:36] Yeah, I mean, what I heard in the public comment was noticing, right?

[3:31:40] And the information I think we talked earlier about it, I know we're going to get into how we're communicating with the public in a second.

[3:31:48] But I think for me in my district specifically,

[3:31:50] noticing is important, I'm a over-communicator.

[3:31:53] I think earlier this morning, you and I,

[3:31:57] Mr. McCarty, had just a brief conversation about

[3:31:58] even I think just going through the district, right?

[3:32:00] I think at some point maybe like we take a little road trip,

[3:32:02] I bring the sprinter, we load it up with some water,

[3:32:05] maybe some popcorn or something,

[3:32:06] we just ride around districts, just to really see it

[3:32:09] because it is a very unique district

[3:32:12] compared to other districts,

[3:32:14] lots of limitations and restrictions

[3:32:16] and whatever, an opportunity, I look at it,

[3:32:18] but I think just the noticing is important.

[3:32:21] The other question I have is,

[3:32:23] and forgive me if this is redundant,

[3:32:26] but I know all the way back in January,

[3:32:28] we talked about, and it's related to this,

[3:32:33] maybe I don't know,

[3:32:33] City Attorney Crick me if I'm wrong,

[3:32:35] as I start to say this,

[3:32:36] we talked about going through our exercise

[3:32:37] of understanding the NOFA process

[3:32:40] and how we're rating and all that.

[3:32:43] Is that, is that, is that, did that ever happen?

[3:32:47] I think Tina's coming up to answer that one.

[3:32:51] Because we've had so many meetings I can't remember if I don't know if it's happened.

[3:32:54] We did indeed do a study session about the NOFA process and how we and procurement process

[3:33:00] they were kind of combined.

[3:33:02] And so we did do that.

[3:33:04] I'm going to say it was around March.

[3:33:06] I was in the acting position at that point.

[3:33:08] It was one of, it was the Tina show for about an hour and a half.

[3:33:12] we did a special workshop. So we did talk about it. What we're looking to do the beginning

[3:33:17] of October, I think the 6th is our date to do another open public workshop with council

[3:33:23] is really breaking down the no-for-processes to do it here and here and then what. So a more

[3:33:29] in-depth discussion. My goal of the discussion is to take feedback from council and the public

[3:33:34] to be able to bring forward then the recommended new process to a full council for a vote at

[3:33:40] And then later after the 6th of October, I don't know if we'll make the 14th, but probably likely November 4th would be for council to then approve the new updated process that we use then for the next no fun.

[3:33:52] That's what I wanted to know. Okay, thank you.

[3:33:56] Councilmember Villa Pudua.

[3:34:03] Being on CBG, I noticed that I was at the meeting last week, right?

[3:34:10] And I was probably myself, then my newest commissioner, I believe you were there as well, and two of the people.

[3:34:18] So, I don't know if it's the timeframe, because it's from one to two.

[3:34:23] I mean, people are still working, right?

[3:34:25] I don't know if we got to change it up, but we got to figure some out.

[3:34:29] because you know there's a lot of people are complaining and get it or is it

[3:34:34] either that or it's a time frame so I think you know if we could maybe

[3:34:38] adjust it from a later time to people could get a time to make it out there

[3:34:42] you know I think it would help and impact more people coming in. Thank you. Seeing

[3:34:50] no other questions from the council I declare the public hearing closed.

[3:34:59] What's the

[3:34:59] pleasure.

[3:35:05] I voted already, sorry, motion to approve, second. Council, please vote.

[3:35:12] Motion

[3:35:13] carried 7-0. Thank you so much. Okay, now we are going on to 16.1, except by motion the

[3:35:23] independent audit of the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended

[3:35:30] June 30th, 2024. Look at this team looking mighty sharp. Let's go.

[3:35:37] Woohoo.

[3:35:43] So, Cadre, deputy director or deputy city manager, sorry, demoting myself by the

[3:35:48] second. So I want to start off by thanking council for their understanding of the

[3:35:53] delay in completing the annual annual comprehensive financial report known as

[3:35:59] the Act for and for adjusting to hear consent items 12.1 and 12.2 with 16.1.

[3:36:08] The presentation of the overall report which also includes items 12.1 and 12.2 in it.

[3:36:17] So we'd like to also thank the audit committee for its time during yesterday's meeting engaging

[3:36:23] with great questions and valuable discussion feedback to help better guide tonight's discussion.

[3:36:30] I also want to thank staff for their hard work, the hard push to make tonight's council agenda,

[3:36:36] and to Sophia with the Poon Group for all the help from her and her team.

[3:36:42] As we walk through the report tonight, it's important to remember a few key points.

[3:36:47] We have not had a CFO since May of 2024, so we've kind of talked about that a couple of times

[3:36:52] tonight. The act for in itself is a high level report on controls over financial transactions

[3:36:59] and reporting and on the city's compliance and accordance with governmental accounting standards.

[3:37:07] The Poon Group provides financial auditing services validating that the city's financial practices

[3:37:12] follow the governmental accounting standards. Process improvements are more appropriately driven

[3:37:19] by an internal controls auditor, such as Moss Adams.

[3:37:24] Once we have the internal controls auditor on board,

[3:37:27] we will work with them to identify any gaps

[3:37:30] in current practices.

[3:37:32] Lastly, I want to assure council,

[3:37:35] it is never the intent to be behind in our financial reporting.

[3:37:39] As we work to complete the 2024-25 Act,

[3:37:44] we will ensure that we meet with measure committees,

[3:37:47] He's the audit committee ahead of time to open sure everyone is well informed prior to presenting the act for the council.

[3:37:55] So now I'd like to introduce Sophia with the Poon Group to present the 2324 act for.

[3:38:05] Thank you Chad.

[3:38:06] Good evening Mayor, Vice Mayor and the council members.

[3:38:09] This is Sophia Coe from the PUN Group.

[3:38:11] We are external and independent auditors for the city's annual financial statements.

[3:38:16] So here, I'm here tonight to present the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 financial statements.

[3:38:26] So what I will go through tonight, including the scope of work, required communications

[3:38:32] in accordance with professional standards, and also overview of the financial statements

[3:38:37] and financial indicators, and some of the key pension information is our audit result.

[3:38:44] So, the scope of work includes the audit of annual comprehensive financial report, which

[3:38:53] we call as APAR, and also report on the internal control of the financial reporting and

[3:38:59] uncompliance in accordance with government auditing standards.

[3:39:02] Like Chad mentioned, he consolidated some constant item into here, so I would like to verbally

[3:39:09] add on some of the scope of work we also did for the city doing fiscal year, June 30th.

[3:39:14] which includes audit of the major AIM and major W and also agree upon procedures on

[3:39:20] core revenue, gain limit and also major A and B.

[3:39:26] So now I move on to the required

[3:39:28] communication in accordance with professional standard, we call AUC section 260,

[3:39:33] which is the auditors communication with those charged with governance, as an independent

[3:39:39] and external auditors. So our responsibility as an external outside

[3:39:45] auditors in accordance with professional standards, including form and express an opinion on the

[3:39:52] final whether the financial statements have been prepared by the management with your

[3:39:56] oversight are presented fairly in accordance with US gap and also our responsibility also

[3:40:04] include to plan and perform audit to obtain reasonable assurance instead of absolute assurance.

[3:40:11] The reason for that is because we are doing sampling and we are a professional judgment

[3:40:16] also involved and evaluating management estimates are also involved.

[3:40:22] So that's why only reasonable assurance can be obtained.

[3:40:26] And throughout the audit, we were also required to exercise professional judgment throughout

[3:40:33] the audit.

[3:40:34] We also required to consider internal control over financial reporting.

[3:40:38] However, such consideration was only for the purpose of determined our audit procedures

[3:40:44] not to provide any assurance whether the internal control and also we did not issue opinions

[3:40:52] on that.

[3:40:54] We were also required to evaluate the appropriateness of the accounting policies used and the

[3:41:00] risk of significant accounting estimates by the management as well as evaluate the overall

[3:41:07] financial presentation and we were also required to conclude in our own professional

[3:41:13] judgment whether they are any conditions or events that were triggered are going

[3:41:18] concern for the study and lastly it's we are required to communicate with those

[3:41:23] recharged with governance that's why we are here tonight.

[3:41:30] So throughout the whole entire

[3:41:31] audit we comply with all relevant ethical requirements including independence so the

[3:41:37] The independence, including independence in mind, also independent in appearance,

[3:41:42] especially related to those non-audit services that were provided to the city,

[3:41:46] which including the drafting of the financial statement based on the information provided by the city.

[3:41:51] And the city disclosed all the significant accounting policies in the notes one to the basic financial statement,

[3:41:59] which is pretty important because it really dictates how the city prepares the financial statement.

[3:42:04] And like I mentioned earlier, there's management is also required to do estimates.

[3:42:12] So there are certain significant estimates made by the management, which include investment

[3:42:18] reported at fair market value, depreciation and monetization on capital asset, as well as

[3:42:25] the right to use asset, and these receivable, these liabilities, subscription liabilities, which

[3:42:32] which came from the new gas report announcement 87 leases, and also 96 subscription liabilities

[3:42:39] which were new in the past couple years, and the last one is the net pension liability,

[3:42:45] which is a purely estimate made by the actuary.

[3:42:52] There are some sensitive disclosures in the notes to the financial statement, which including

[3:42:58] in the Note 1 summary of significant accounting policies,

[3:43:02] Note 11 found balances, Note 12 retirement plans,

[3:43:07] which is the pension plans,

[3:43:09] and Note 15, other required disclosures,

[3:43:12] Note 16, commitment and contingencies,

[3:43:16] Note 17, net investment in capital assets,

[3:43:19] and restricted net possession, Note 18 subsequent events,

[3:43:23] those that issued after the financial statement date.

[3:43:26] So

[3:43:29] the effect of uncorrected statements are immaterial both in individually and also in

[3:43:36] aggregate.

[3:43:37] So from time to time, the management might be consulting with other accountants to the

[3:43:42] best of our knowledge that the manager informed us.

[3:43:46] There were no such consultation with other accountants regarding other things.

[3:43:52] And we encountered no significant difficulties in dealing with the management.

[3:43:56] and we did not have any disagreement with the management in terms of accounting

[3:44:00] treatments or other team procedures performed.

[3:44:05] So now I will move on to the overview of the financial statements and

[3:44:11] the sum of the financial indicators. So before I move on to the next slide,

[3:44:15] I would like to mention that management is responsible for the financial

[3:44:21] and then we are the auditors looking into the financial statement and we were engaged to perform our audit following the professional standards to issue opinions on whether the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with gap.

[3:44:39] So the first set of financial statement, that's the government-wide statement and this is the balance sheet of the government as a whole.

[3:44:48] So the government, you can see we have two different activities, the first one is governmental activities which including the general funds, special revenue fund, and also your capital project fund.

[3:45:00] And as well as your internal service fund. And then the second category is the business type activities, which including your water, sewer, your stormwater, and parking. So, as of June 30, 2024, the total assets ended with $3.2 billion in the deferred outflow resources, which came from deferred loss from refunding and also the pension-related items. Ended with 190

[3:45:29] million dollars and your total liability ended with $1.3 billion then the

[3:45:36] deferred info resources which was 4.9 million which came from directly came

[3:45:41] from the pension-related items. That result in your net position ended with

[3:45:46] $2 billion. There are three different calories under the net position. The

[3:45:53] first one is net investment in capital assets which was $1.4 million that's

[3:45:59] your capital assets net with the related debt.

[3:46:02] And then the second category is a restricted net position,

[3:46:06] which can from external party and also enabling legislation,

[3:46:11] which was $545 million,

[3:46:15] and that leads to unrestricted net position $131.5 million.

[3:46:24] So the government-wide statement of activities,

[3:46:27] which is the income statement for the city as a whole.

[3:46:31] So from a slide, you can see the program revenues

[3:46:35] ended with $358 million.

[3:46:38] So the program revenue has three categories.

[3:46:41] You have charges for services,

[3:46:43] you also have the operating grants and contribution,

[3:46:46] as well as the capital contribution and the grants.

[3:46:50] The expenses was $573.6 million.

[3:46:55] That result in your net cost of services was $215 million.

[3:47:02] You are seeing a negative because the expenses was over your total program revenue.

[3:47:08] However, the city also has some general revenues, which including your tax revenue and also investment income.

[3:47:15] And that net with general revenue that result in $168.7 million change in that position.

[3:47:23] So,

[3:47:26] one of the ratio that we also want to look into, that's the governmental activities

[3:47:31] that not including the business type activity, the cost of service to the tax revenue for

[3:47:38] both fiscal year, June 30, 2024 and 2023.

[3:47:42] So the cost of service, like I mentioned in the previous slide, for the governmental activity

[3:47:48] ended with $260.6 million and again you are seeing a negative because the

[3:47:54] program revenue is less than your total expenses. And the tax revenue ended

[3:48:01] with $219.9 million. The ratio here you show is a negative 119 percent. That

[3:48:10] means your tax revenue is 42 support your cost of services. You are seeing

[3:48:15] Having a negative is because of a cost of service is showing a negative right now.

[3:48:20] And then just want to talk about that.

[3:48:23] The city also has share tax revenue to cover the expenses, but this tax revenue doesn't include a share tax revenue.

[3:48:31] Vice mayor has a question for you.

[3:48:33] All the thank you, Mayor.

[3:48:34] So are all these slides what we saw at the audit committee?

[3:48:37] Nothing's changed, the presentation's changed.

[3:48:39] Okay, okay, I'll save my questions.

[3:48:42] Next, thanks.

[3:48:44] So compared to last year is 109%, so now I move on to the general fund summary.

[3:48:54] The city's general fund ended at $240.1 million compared to last year, $212.4 million.

[3:49:02] There are five categories under the city's general fund balance.

[3:49:07] the first one is non-spendable, which can from pre-pay,

[3:49:11] advances, and the long-term receivable.

[3:49:14] And then the restricted fund balance is $6.5 million.

[3:49:17] The committed fund balance is $148.3 million.

[3:49:22] The assigned fund balance is $31.3 million,

[3:49:26] and then that's result in the assigned fund balance

[3:49:30] is $51.3 million.

[3:49:34] So the general fund revenue expenditures

[3:49:37] and change in fund balances, which is the income statement for the city's general fund.

[3:49:42] The total revenue was $349.5 million compared to last year, $335.5.

[3:49:50] And the expenditures ended with $293.2 million.

[3:49:56] And that result in your revenue over expenditures by $56.3 million.

[3:50:03] And also netting with the other financing uses which many came from the transfer.

[3:50:07] out to other funds to support their activities and that result in the change in fund balance

[3:50:13] by 27.7 million dollars.

[3:50:18] So this is the city's general fund on a sign fund balance to the

[3:50:23] annual expenditure, which we also call as a running day fund ratio. So that if we only

[3:50:30] look at the on a sign fund balance, 50.51.3 million dollars compared to the general fund annual

[3:50:37] I know it's been the chart 293.2 million dollars, the ratio is 17.5 percent compared to last year's 18.4 percent.

[3:50:47] That means the city will be okay for two to three months, if anything happened, the general fund doesn't have any revenue to come in.

[3:50:53] And then when we consider the committed assigned and assigned

[3:51:00] fund balances altogether, the fund balance went up to $230.9 million and

[3:51:08] that result in the ratio, 778.8% compared to last year, 77.7%.

[3:51:18] So now I move on to some key pension information.

[3:51:22] So, the city participated in CalPERS and also parts, so there are three different plans.

[3:51:30] The first one is CalPERS miscellaneous agent plan.

[3:51:34] From the slide you can see the funding ratio for the miscellaneous agent plan.

[3:51:38] It was pretty stable from current year compared to last year, which was about 80%.

[3:51:45] The contribution made during the year is $18.9 million compared to last year, $20.3 million.

[3:51:53] Now I move on to the CalPERS safety agent plan.

[3:51:58] So the funding ratio for the safety plan was 65.6 compared to last year 65.8%.

[3:52:06] percent. The contribution made during the year was 43.4 million dollars compared to last

[3:52:16] year for 2.5 million dollars.

[3:52:21] So the first point, this plan is a close plan and the funding

[3:52:27] ratio is 86 percent compared to last year, 77 percent. The contribution made during current

[3:52:33] in fiscal year was $1.1 million compared to last year's $854,000.

[3:52:42] So this will bring me to the financial other results.

[3:52:48] I would like to tell everybody that we are issuing a modified opinion, which is the best

[3:52:54] opinion that the CPFM can render.

[3:52:57] That means the financial statements are fairly presented in all material respects.

[3:53:02] and also significant accounting policies have been consistently applied.

[3:53:08] Estimates made by management are reasonable.

[3:53:12] Disclosures are properly reflected in the financial statements.

[3:53:17] So in accordance with professional standard section AUC265,

[3:53:23] communicating internal control related matters identified in an audit,

[3:53:28] we have three reportable findings that we would like to report.

[3:53:31] So the first one is related to the city's administrative service department due to the

[3:53:37] turnovers and vacancies, and it also led to the delay.

[3:53:42] So that also results in the second finding about internal control over financial reporting

[3:53:48] and timeliness in closing and also accuracy in financial reporting.

[3:53:53] The third finding is related to the schedule of expenditures of federal work, which is also

[3:53:59] known as CFA, so there were multiple revisions about multiple revisions on the CFA that provided

[3:54:05] to us and it also caused the delay on closing all this group. So there are three reportable

[3:54:11] findings that we after when we conclude the financial statement audit.

[3:54:18] This will conclude my

[3:54:20] presentation for tonight and then we'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have about

[3:54:29] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:54:31] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:54:32] Thank you for the presentation.

[3:54:34] I first want to start by saying thank you to Chair for the disclaimer at the onset of the presentation.

[3:54:39] I would ask at some point you conclude again with that for the record because when we got this at audit, we weren't thinking that.

[3:54:47] And of course, we've been short staffed in not having some key staff in place.

[3:54:51] We would have wanted to get this a lot sooner or at least been involved in the process sooner.

[3:54:56] and it not feels so rushed.

[3:54:59] I want to go to slide 13 really quick,

[3:55:03] and because I thought that this was a pretty significant

[3:55:06] part of the discussion yesterday,

[3:55:09] and I'm learning a lot, and I did meet with the mayor

[3:55:11] briefly today to just ask a couple of questions

[3:55:13] because trying to track everything and understand this,

[3:55:15] can you pull up slide 13?

[3:55:22] Here it says, the cost of services to the public,

[3:55:26] I mean, all the services that we provide to the city, $260,645,000 and tax revenues, $219,000,

[3:55:36] $219,000 and $864,000 and I think that was significant because if we didn't have measure

[3:55:42] A, we would be screwed in other words.

[3:55:46] And this all makes sense later on in my council comments but I think that was a significant

[3:55:51] thing that jumped off the page to me.

[3:55:54] And then also, I talked to the mayor briefly about page 15 if we can go to that.

[3:56:01] And in audit, I had, we had questions about that where we had 349,493,000 in expenditures.

[3:56:11] I mean, revenue.

[3:56:14] 293,191,000 in expenditures with the, what did we call that?

[3:56:20] What's the 56 million carryover with the 56 million, 303,000 carryover, and then other financing uses 28.567 million with a change in the fund balance of 27, a little over 27 and a half million.

[3:56:36] And I think at the audit committee, I had said that what I would like, and I think just in transparency is understanding that we have the 56 million carryover and 28.567 additional million spent.

[3:56:49] If there could be some tracking of that for the public to see, or even council, I mean, you know, to see I mean I know we approve things and things are moved around, but I think having the ability for people to understand where that money has been spent would be helpful.

[3:57:08] So you're absolutely right, and we heard you yesterday, and so as we go through this process for 2425, with more time to be able to sit and have conversations, we can easily get that information, you know, for the committees.

[3:57:23] We do have that information now, and we can share that with council.

[3:57:27] Yeah, not that we needed tonight, but I'm just saying I think for anybody that would want to know okay

[3:57:31] Well, they had a carryover balance of over 56 million where did 28.56 go?

[3:57:36] They'd be able to go to a website or point to go here

[3:57:38] They can click it and they can see where we spent the money and transparency

[3:57:41] Absolutely, but yeah, that was interesting. Let me ask a question. We're and this is for my own education

[3:57:46] Where does the 27.7 36 million then go does that go into our

[3:57:51] Reserves or where does that go?

[3:57:54] Yeah, that'll go into you.

[3:57:57] So at the end of the year when we report out,

[3:57:59] that's part of the monies that we report out on

[3:58:01] at the year in unspent revenue.

[3:58:03] So those are the conversations we're looking forward

[3:58:06] to having in November, December.

[3:58:08] This should.

[3:58:08] And then the last thing, going back to what you said earlier

[3:58:11] with the disclaimer, Chad, you know,

[3:58:14] we had said at the audit committee meeting,

[3:58:15] the people that we appoint in all of our committees,

[3:58:18] these commissioners are, to me and I, I'll speak

[3:58:22] for myself, I see it, I can't say my colleagues do, but I would bet the same.

[3:58:26] We look at them as an extension of me, so I can't be in every meeting.

[3:58:30] I can't be in every committee, but I do put people in those meetings, I have point people

[3:58:34] to be in those meetings.

[3:58:36] We have regular meetings every week, my commissioners, and I do to talk about what's happening

[3:58:41] in these commissions, what ideas they should be presenting, or they report to me what they

[3:58:47] see or hear.

[3:58:48] One of the things that I had heard early on was measure A committee folks just feeling

[3:58:53] like they weren't really as involved as they probably should have been.

[3:58:56] I think the intent was oversight when it was developed and they felt like they were more

[3:59:00] of advisory.

[3:59:01] I think when one of the biggest conversations that come up is how are we spending the measure,

[3:59:06] any money, how are we spending the measure, any money, and this audit is helpful to see that

[3:59:10] the money is being spent, how we're doing it, where we're doing it, their involvement, making

[3:59:14] sure as you said earlier that they're involved in the process of being engaged when you're

[3:59:20] developing this report would be helpful moving forward.

[3:59:23] Thank you.

[3:59:24] Definitely.

[3:59:26] And I would say, you know, looking at this, and hopefully this is a template for, you

[3:59:34] know, where we're at right now with our closing of 24-25 year, it's going to be very different

[3:59:42] because you figure at the beginning of this you're showing us the 2324 that had

[3:59:48] ARPA funding in it and then you saw kind of this decline in the 2324 so wait yeah

[3:59:58] I gotta go back anymore.

[4:00:00] 22-23, then 23-24, because we've got to go back. But we still have this measure, a, funding. And I think what we're always concerned with is, you know, holding true to our promise. And even though some of these people weren't up here when the promise was made, we still have to follow through on that and making sure that funds, whether it's general fund or not, that those funds kind of stay with where there's

[4:00:29] supposed to be, where they were intended to be, so that we don't find ourselves with

[4:00:38] holes where we can't afford to have holes.

[4:00:41] I know I'm kind of speaking in riddles, but-

[4:00:45] No, I hear you, Mayor.

[4:00:46] I do.

[4:00:47] Yeah, because it's always a difficult conversation for us to have.

[4:00:51] Kind of like the one we had earlier tonight, that's going to affect all of our employees.

[4:00:56] So having very accurate numbers making sure that we know truly where our obligations are and I know staff has been working their tails off just to get this to the finish line because that's what happens when you don't have anybody writing the ship but you've got all these all hands on deck and they're rolling as fast as they can but you don't have anybody that's yeah, but I think everybody for the work that they've done I thank you for

[4:01:25] for, you know, the PUN group for helping us get to this point as well as the audit committee

[4:01:33] for, you know, reviewing a lot of this information so that we can close it out.

[4:01:45] Absolutely.

[4:01:46] And just in closing, I just want to highlight that, you know, the important thing that the

[4:01:53] The act for highlights for 23, 24 is that our expenses are outpacing our revenue, right, and that's the big takeaway.

[4:02:02] And so we're blessed that we have a good reserve, and we just need to stay mindful of it.

[4:02:10] And in the messaging to the committees and the responsibility, we've had a lot of change over as indicated how we started right in since 2024.

[4:02:20] And it's our intent to be able to deliver, you know, transparent information and work with the communities for an understanding of the financial situation.

[4:02:29] And there's, you know, I think we've all had the independent conversations.

[4:02:32] There's nothing to hide, right?

[4:02:34] So it's just getting on the same page and speaking the same language.

[4:02:39] So we look forward to that.

[4:02:41] Okay.

[4:02:42] Vice Mayor.

[4:02:43] Thank you, Mayor.

[4:02:43] Yeah, and let me clarify my comments, it's less about pointing fingers that there being

[4:02:49] anything nefarious or wrongdoing or we're hiding money or I think this is just in the

[4:02:53] spirit of being more transparent and understanding some of our challenges even today that the

[4:02:58] mayor showed me something that nobody's brought to my attention and how do you interact

[4:03:02] some of our audits to see where we are in certain things and wanting to make sure the efficiency

[4:03:06] because I think this council is just really big on efficiency and making sure that we're

[4:03:11] We're fixing all the things that we see, some of the challenges.

[4:03:16] I'll just go ahead and take this opportunity to start the conversation I'm going to bring it later.

[4:03:20] My council comments that the thing that really scares me is how we're doing business, right?

[4:03:28] How we're doing businesses as a city, because ultimately if we strip away the taxes,

[4:03:34] these special taxes that do have a sunset date to them, we're in trouble.

[4:03:37] So like there has to be an economic engine that is driving the financial, I'm gonna say freedom from these taxes that this is just a surplus of money to go for a very specific thing, whether it's public safety or infrastructure, whatever it is.

[4:03:57] And when I just look at the business of it, I mean, I just, again, I'll say more of my conversation later that this is really helpful information for us to consider when we're looking at how we're

[4:04:07] this on the work and very strategic and methodical about how we approach turning our financial

[4:04:12] health in a better direction, so.

[4:04:16] But thank you for this very helpful and I'm going to do a question.

[4:04:20] So I'm going to read the motion that we need from Council and that's staff recommends that

[4:04:28] the City Council accept by motion the independent audit of the annual comprehensive financial

[4:04:33] report for the year ended June 30th, 2024, and do I need to do these individually, or

[4:04:42] can I name everything at one time?

[4:04:44] You're talking about the ones for the ones for the ones for the ones for you.

[4:04:47] I believe it would be best to take them separately because they were separate items, so.

[4:04:50] Absolutely.

[4:04:51] Because they were agendized individually.

[4:04:55] So we're going to do them separately.

[4:04:57] For each.

[4:04:58] Okay.

[4:04:59] Motion to approve.

[4:05:00] Second.

[4:05:08] I can read it again if that helps further the record.

[4:05:11] Yeah, because we moved 12.1 and 2 and 2.

[4:05:15] So what deputy manager read just read was for 16.1.

[4:05:19] Okay.

[4:05:20] So that's what we're motioning on first.

[4:05:21] Okay.

[4:05:22] So we have a motion in a second for 16.1 council.

[4:05:26] Please vote.

[4:05:30] Motion carries.

[4:05:30] 370, now we'll go to the restricted funds.

[4:05:36] We're going to go to item 12.1.

[4:05:38] Yeah, there's.

[4:05:39] It is recommended that the city council accept my motion.

[4:05:43] The proposition 111 appropriation gang limits agreed upon procedures report, and

[4:05:50] they agreed upon procedures applied to core revenue reports.

[4:05:53] The measure M strong communities tax fund audit, and

[4:05:58] In the measure W Public Safety Tax Fund audit for the year ended June 30th, 2024.

[4:06:03] Motion to approve.

[4:06:05] Second.

[4:06:05] We have a motion and second.

[4:06:07] Council please vote.

[4:06:10] Motion carries 7-0 and 12.2.

[4:06:13] All right, 12.2.

[4:06:15] It is recommended that the City Council accept by motion the Independent Accountants Report

[4:06:19] on applying agreed upon expenditures of measure A and B revenues and expenditures for

[4:06:26] year ended June 30th, 2024.

[4:06:29] Move to approve.

[4:06:30] Can I, before we make a motion, can I just say something just for the public that are

[4:06:33] watching?

[4:06:34] 12.1 and 12.2 are just pages within 16.1.

[4:06:38] So that way people don't think we're just not going through a presentation, just approving

[4:06:41] something.

[4:06:42] Yeah, 100%.

[4:06:43] That's how I started it and kind of my open English.

[4:06:45] But they made it.

[4:06:46] They made it.

[4:06:47] Thank you.

[4:06:49] Sorry, Blower.

[4:06:50] It's all right.

[4:06:50] So moved.

[4:06:51] Second.

[4:06:52] Motion.

[4:06:52] Second.

[4:06:53] Council, please vote.

[4:06:54] motion carries 7-0. Thank you. Thank you.

[4:07:01] Okay moving on then to 16.2

[4:07:05] presentation office of public transparency information communication.

[4:07:15] Mr.

[4:07:16] Manor you're

[4:07:20] up.

[4:07:27] Good evening Council.

[4:07:31] So it's good to see everybody. My name is

[4:07:35] In a manner, I am your city public information officer.

[4:07:38] Tonight, I am going to be presenting information about the Office of Public Transparency,

[4:07:43] and our vision for transforming how Stockton communicates with and serves its citizens through

[4:07:49] accessibility and proactive communications.

[4:08:01] First, I'd like to share with the council my role and responsibilities.

[4:08:09] City of Stockton public information officer is a charter recognized executive role within

[4:08:13] the city manager's office. The PIO serves as the city spokesperson, managing all media contact

[4:08:19] and public information to ensure consistent and accurate communications. In emergency,

[4:08:25] the PIO operates as a member of the emergency operations center command staff, providing unified

[4:08:31] messaging that protects public safety during emergencies. The role also oversees the city government

[4:08:36] management channel, manages federally protected peg funding, dedicated to transparency and communications infrastructure.

[4:08:43] The PIO ensures that all city information is accessible and ADA compliant, applying technical expertise to strengthen communication systems and safeguard public trust.

[4:08:57] I'll get this little clicker down in a sec.

[4:09:01] So, under the various roles, it is my responsibility to be the city's contact for

[4:09:11] media inquiries, press releases, and fact sheets, emergency communications.

[4:09:16] I am the spokesperson in crisis into the FEMA incident command system standards and city policy.

[4:09:22] I am here to ensure compliance with the California Public Records Act and council policy on disclosures.

[4:09:28] I oversee the use of city logos, branding and design standards.

[4:09:32] It is my responsibility to safeguard accuracy, ADA compliance and

[4:09:37] Accessibility of on city online services, managing city accounts, content retention and coordinated messaging of social media accounts, directing programming and managing federally protected peg resources for government TV and our public education and government broadcasting, establishing standards for customer service and community updates, working with the IT department to evaluate vendor system stream line city processes and share digital accessibility.

[4:10:05] And recently added to the city's cohort on artificial intelligence, which is why the PI role is becoming a more hybrid role between technology and communications.

[4:10:17] Now, why does this matter?

[4:10:19] It ensures that the city and all departments speak with one voice.

[4:10:23] This reduces miscommunication and is spread of misinformation.

[4:10:27] Provides policy compliance with the American Disabilities Act, California Public Records Act, FCC and FEMA.

[4:10:34] Strengthens public trust and transparency through accessibility and availability and helps residents to know what their city is doing and how to access services and resources.

[4:10:44] So that's me, that's what I'm doing.

[4:10:48] But recently we had, if you'd like to know a little bit about me and what brought me into this role, I have 12 years of experience in the private sector and public relations with clients across the country.

[4:11:00] dealing with big problems in small, six years in government public relations,

[4:11:05] ten years, managing branding and marketing campaigns for multiple national clients,

[4:11:10] and so on and so forth.

[4:11:11] I don't really like to brag about myself, but I've been doing this for a really long time.

[4:11:15] I've been a programmer for over 25 years, so it's a lot across a training available.

[4:11:24] Now for the fun part, the Office of Public Transparency.

[4:11:28] The Office of Public Transparency is the capacity through which the City Manager organizes staff to meet transparency and communication obligations.

[4:11:37] It's a small specialized team of software developers and design professionals working under the public information officer in the City Manager's office.

[4:11:46] This team provides expertise in ADA digital accessibility design, media and software development, allowing the City to translate complex data and policies into accessible public information.

[4:11:57] Optic also works with the IT to evaluate, the IT department to evaluate software vendors work with City Departments to develop tools and streamline processes.

[4:12:05] By keeping these responsibilities centralized and professionalized, Stockton delivers clear and consistent communication,

[4:12:11] maintains compliance with federal legal standards and strengthens public trust.

[4:12:18] Now, the Office of Public Transparency bridges the gap between Stockton City Government and its residents through six core values.

[4:12:26] These are our promises, transparency, information, and communication.

[4:12:30] We must make all legally available information accessible to the public.

[4:12:34] We must provide timely information to issues impacting our community.

[4:12:37] And we must reach the people where they are online and offline.

[4:12:46] The Office of Public Transparency bridges the gap between Stockton City Government and

[4:12:51] this residence through 6 core values that guide our mission to transform complex data into accessible information, foster open communication.

[4:12:58] build public trust through innovation, inclusive, and accountable transparency initiatives.

[4:13:03] The Office of Public Transparency is the solution to increasing public transparency,

[4:13:09] community engagement, and effective government communications.

[4:13:15] Now, the optic comms are inside the city of Stockton, our communications plan is directed by the city manager.

[4:13:23] And we recently had a meeting with the city management team and I'd like to tell you a little bit about

[4:13:28] some of the initiatives moving forward, some of the direction that has been received.

[4:13:34] So Optic will succeed by building strong internal relationships, starting with meeting with each department and building strong rapport with each director.

[4:13:42] For example, when HR, IT, ASD, and other internal service departments need to push out critical information to staff, we can't afford to mix messages or delays by working directly with directors and department communication coordinators.

[4:13:55] Optics can help shape clear concise communications that reach staff quickly and effectively.

[4:14:01] And the more we understand the daily operations across all these departments, the better

[4:14:04] positions we are to tell the city's story externally because the foundations of transparency

[4:14:09] is showing residents the real day-to-day work of their government is accomplishing.

[4:14:15] On the external side, Optics role is to focus on the operation of governance itself, delivering

[4:14:21] factual necessary information that helps residents understand their government, understand what

[4:14:26] what their government is doing for them.

[4:14:28] To be clear, the public information office and optic do not engage in political messaging

[4:14:32] or communication that only benefits a single agency or entity.

[4:14:36] Our credibility depends on being impartial and resident focused.

[4:14:39] What we do commit to is a collaboration, partnering with city and other county PIOs to make

[4:14:44] sure that when we speak, we speak with one voice and it is consistent and trustworthy.

[4:14:50] With our website and social media presence, the city website and social media are now

[4:14:55] front doors to public trust. Optic will coronate across all-

[4:15:00] The Department is to ensure consistent messaging. Our job is to strengthen our messaging so it reaches the right audiences in the right ways without leaving anyone behind. That means working hand in hand with departments on content development, updating sites as needed, and helping teams turn complex work and projects into clear accessible information. Every post, every page is a chance to build trust and demonstrate transparency. And finally, we cannot ignore accessibility.

[4:15:29] A website that is not ADA compliant is not transparent, it is, in fact, access denied.

[4:15:36] The City of Stockton is working towards meeting a federal mandated deadline of April

[4:15:41] 2026 to make sure every part of our digital presence or website or social media and our

[4:15:46] mobile applications meet federal but federal accessibility standards under the WCAG 2.1

[4:15:52] level to a guidelines. This is not an optional piece of work. It is a mandate under the amended title

[4:16:01] two of the American Disabilities Act passed in June of 2024. Optic was recruited and hired for

[4:16:08] this exact reason. Optic team is uniquely qualified to meet these requirements in a very short amount of

[4:16:13] time. We are already auditing the city's entire digital asset portfolio in communications policy manual.

[4:16:20] I'm going to slow down for a sec.

[4:16:22] And from that audit, we are building a roadmap that lays out the game plan to assure Stockton

[4:16:28] is in full compliance before the April 26 deadline.

[4:16:31] We're also working directly with Robert Hernandez and the ADA transition plan team to set up

[4:16:35] a clear schedule that aligns this work with the city's broader compliance efforts.

[4:16:39] This is not about checking boxes, this is about making sure every resident, no matter their

[4:16:43] abilities, can access city information, access is transparency and this is why these actions

[4:16:48] must be taken. We have been and be taken with such urgency.

[4:16:52] The doors to government must be open to all of our residents.

[4:16:56] This is why this work must happen now and why Optic is leading it.

[4:17:01] To introduce you to some of our Optic teammates, if this is working.

[4:17:06] This is our Optic team.

[4:17:08] We have Louis, Ernestina, and Marianne.

[4:17:10] Combine, they have 45 years of experience, each with their own particular skill set.

[4:17:16] So Louis is our media manager. He is the team lead. He has 15 years of UI, UX, front end

[4:17:23] development. These are all software engineers, if that wasn't clear. But he also has 25 years

[4:17:29] in graphic design. We often joke that you have programmers and you have communicators and

[4:17:34] there is a very slim area with those two things overlap. We happen to have a team that

[4:17:40] does exactly that thing.

[4:17:43] Next, we have Ernestina.

[4:17:44] Ernestina is explicit, I think what makes her especially

[4:17:49] special to our optic team is that she has eight years

[4:17:53] of accessibility design experience.

[4:17:55] She is probably one of the most eminent experts

[4:17:59] in our county on ADA accessibility

[4:18:01] when it comes to technology.

[4:18:04] And then we have Marianne.

[4:18:06] Marianne has her degree in child and adolescent development

[4:18:10] and is our UIUX design lead.

[4:18:14] She is exceptional.

[4:18:18] When it comes to design and creating interfaces

[4:18:20] and things that are going to make

[4:18:22] all the things around the city of Stockton

[4:18:25] as far as digital assets, more usable,

[4:18:27] she will be our person for that.

[4:18:30] Now, in addition to optic,

[4:18:32] we have our public education and government access engineer.

[4:18:37] For those who are unfamiliar with what peg is,

[4:18:40] This peg is a public educational government access channels.

[4:18:43] These are things like GovTV, our channel, what used to be channel 97.

[4:18:48] It's what the folks at home would be watching right now.

[4:18:51] Those are all managed also by the public information office.

[4:18:55] Those things and the communications and transparency efforts are partially paid for by what's called peg funding.

[4:19:03] These are federal funds, these are funds under federal regulation that are

[4:19:09] a share of broadcast revenues that are allocated out to cities based on population size.

[4:19:18] So we get a certain amount of money each year.

[4:19:20] This is what goes to pay for things like our cameras, our systems, computers, software,

[4:19:25] things of that nature that help keep all the stuff running smoothly, which we covered.

[4:19:33] Our PEG engineer is Tom Holbrooke, he is the person running the board right now.

[4:19:37] many of you know him, he's been with the city for over 10 years, but he has also worked

[4:19:42] in for a variety of network stations, including E Entertainment, Comcast and BC. He's worked

[4:19:49] on several television shows, G4, Esquire, Babylon 5. He is also a widely recognized film historian,

[4:19:59] so he's been documented in magazines for his expertise in film and production, so

[4:20:05] He is fully fitting in with the rest of the crew as being experts in their field and

[4:20:10] the city of Stockton is lucky to have the entire team.

[4:20:13] So this is your city of Stockton communications team.

[4:20:16] It's comprised of your public information officer, peg engineer in the office of public transparency.

[4:20:22] With a combined 90 years of experience and graphic design video production public relations web development data analytics in the private and public sector.

[4:20:34] Thank you so much for your time, and I'm sure we have some questions I'm happy to answer them for you.

[4:20:40] Yes, Vice Mayor.

[4:20:42] Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Mr. Matter, for your presentation.

[4:20:45] I mean, it's not a secret that I've been very critical of your department and the city manager's office for

[4:20:51] how this department even came to life.

[4:20:54] I just want to start by, before I dig into your presentation, start by saying for the sake of transparency,

[4:21:00] This department does not exist in our current budget that we approved.

[4:21:05] We did not go through a presentation of salaries, which I have here.

[4:21:12] And while I do appreciate all the experience and the presentation with staff,

[4:21:17] this is not a personal thing for me.

[4:21:19] I'm not driven by emotions around people, their experience, or slides, or any of that.

[4:21:25] I'm just a real black and white type of person.

[4:21:27] The reason why Jen dies this topic is because, you know, I want to go back to when we all got elected and I know the mayor and I had a conversation.

[4:21:38] Some of us that I can't remember how it went down, but we talked about telling the Stockton story, being able to build a narrative about Stockton that we know.

[4:21:48] So you hear things about Stockton, oh, this crime is high and this or this or that, there's all these things.

[4:21:54] But there's a lot of beauty in Stockton and I mean, I typically find them on the Mayor's page,

[4:21:58] the council members pages, but I had felt early on that we weren't telling the Stockton story.

[4:22:06] I'm not going to go through all of my experience, but I will say I've had a little bit of success in building media and

[4:22:15] and being able to build media operations.

[4:22:18] So, first I want to get into just the history.

[4:22:22] So, the city had a PIO and then I think the mayor's office has a PIO.

[4:22:26] So, the PIO for the city manager because I don't know the full history is the person

[4:22:32] who speaks on behalf of the city, correct?

[4:22:34] Correct.

[4:22:35] Okay, so that would be all the city departments, fire, whatever, anything related to city business

[4:22:39] through the city manager's office comes through the PIO.

[4:22:42] So with some exceptions, what are those exceptions?

[4:22:47] The Stockton Police Department has their own PIO and communication staff.

[4:22:50] Each department has their own communications coordinator and many of them have access to some of our communication channel.

[4:22:58] So part of that process is that they notify me when they send things out, I go back and I review them.

[4:23:03] Sometimes there is a review process, so it really depends on which department and

[4:23:10] And what level of access that they've had in the past and what sort of oversight that they require.

[4:23:15] But in general, you are correct, but like with everything, it's the doubles in the details.

[4:23:21] So the emergency operations command, what is that?

[4:23:26] So if there were an emergency, say a major flood or something like that, the EOC is activated.

[4:23:34] This is usually activated at the county level, and in that regard, my role is to coordinate communications between the EOC and the public and city staff.

[4:23:46] So say, for example, something catastrophic happened to City Hall, not only would my responsibility be to communicate with the public to let them know, to avoid the area, but also to communicate with city staff to let them know what kind of contingencies there are and where they can go and things of that nature.

[4:24:04] So I looked on the slides when you posted your qualifications, did you have to do the FEMA, PIO emergency management

[4:24:10] programs, and you got certified in that?

[4:24:12] I have three certifications so far, I have another one coming up October 4th.

[4:24:16] For how many certifications for that part of the role do you have to take?

[4:24:21] You know, I couldn't answer that off the top of my head, I know there's several.

[4:24:25] And then as far as the APR, you're certified in that?

[4:24:29] The APR?

[4:24:30] The accreditation in PR?

[4:24:32] No.

[4:24:33] Okay, I just have 20 years of experience.

[4:24:35] Okay, so let's move on to slide seven.

[4:24:38] Slide seven, you mentioned that you're involved in software development.

[4:24:43] Prior to you coming on, or maybe the mayor of the city magic can help me with that,

[4:24:48] how do we handle software engineering or software management from the PIO's department or for the city?

[4:24:55] So prior to coming in, a lot of the previously,

[4:25:02] Some of the software consulting was done through outside vendors.

[4:25:08] We did at one point have programmers in the IT department.

[4:25:12] My understanding is that we do not currently.

[4:25:16] The type of work that optics being tasked to do is a strange overlap between communications

[4:25:22] and software development with an special weight on the accessibility work.

[4:25:28] The accessibility work as a federal law, it has changed.

[4:25:32] There is a deadline coming up that we are trying to meet to bring all of our platforms into alignment with those.

[4:25:40] And there's a lot of work to be done.

[4:25:42] But why couldn't we outsource?

[4:25:43] I mean, I raised the question because when I look at the budget right now, it's $926,487 for this department.

[4:25:51] Which is, to me, it's not, I mean, I don't even know how to make sense of that.

[4:25:56] Given the needs we have for OVP, just thinking about Office of Violence Prevention, we're spending, I think $2 million to help aid preventative, you know, people preventing them from crime and we're going to, from, from being victims of crime and we're spending almost half of that in this department.

[4:26:13] But when I think about that, you know, my company, we don't have full time software engineers.

[4:26:16] We outsource what we need to make tweaks. We have a webmaster who manages the tinkering that needs to happen to keep the engine going.

[4:26:23] But we don't have a full time software developers when I look at the city of Stockton website, and I know me in the mirror had conversations about how we're not really happy with the website.

[4:26:32] What changes have been made since you started in May to the website?

[4:26:40] Well, first to address the first part of your question, your surgeon, when it comes to

[4:26:48] using outside vendors, that has been what we've been doing, and that's kind of why we are

[4:26:53] in the situation that we're in.

[4:26:54] Explain that.

[4:26:56] We are working to achieve compliance with federally mandated regulations as far as ADA compliance

[4:27:03] and we have until April to do that.

[4:27:05] Right, but why do we need to have in-house full-time coders and developers to do something that once you get in compliance, you're not going to have to do full-time.

[4:27:17] I mean, you may have to do some updates here and there, but, you know, again, just trying to understand the rationale for having full-time web developers.

[4:27:25] Sure. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to explain this.

[4:27:34] So up until this point we've been using vendors and it has put us in a position where we need to have people working on this full time.

[4:27:45] And once we reach the April that is just the first stage so we have other modifications that we need to do.

[4:27:52] I'd be happy to give you the road map.

[4:27:54] We are developing that right now on how do we get to there by April 2026.

[4:28:01] There's a lot of things that need to be touched.

[4:28:06] And to give you an example of,

[4:28:13] there's cost savings that I could explain to probably in

[4:28:18] a workshop setting that I don't know that I can give you the exact-

[4:28:21] I mean, listen, I mean, if this was PD talking to me about, you know,

[4:28:27] resuscitating life, that's one thing, because I'm not in that world anymore of probation.

[4:28:31] I don't do CPR, I don't, you know, you know, I know this world, right?

[4:28:36] So I'm just trying to understand, and it's very simple for me, but I'm trying to use this exercise

[4:28:41] to help my colleagues understand it because, again, when I look at an investment like this,

[4:28:46] and again, being very clear and transparent, we have not received a presentation prior

[4:28:51] to the implementation of this department that's front facing with the community.

[4:28:56] Go ahead, Mary, do you want to say something?

[4:28:58] No, okay, thank you.

[4:28:58] Okay, so I'm just trying to get at it, because I'll just skip straight to your presentation.

[4:29:04] If I could answer one question?

[4:29:06] Sure.

[4:29:09] This budget, these roles were open full-time employment roles that were filled.

[4:29:17] So, their positions were already in the budget, that we are calling it optic, they are just three employees that work in the city manager's office.

[4:29:27] So, I understand the structure, there is a pending investigation for the department, I'll leave that with there.

[4:29:34] But specific to your presentation here, I'll go to your optic roadmap.

[4:29:39] Month one, let's just start with, where did month one, with the department set up, start?

[4:29:44] Did that start in April, May, what month did that start?

[4:29:48] Because I want to try to go through this timeline really quick.

[4:29:50] I want to order mayor.

[4:29:51] Is this an interview process?

[4:29:53] What are we doing here?

[4:29:54] Oh, well, okay.

[4:29:56] So.

[4:29:57] So it should be reported to the city.

[4:30:00] What are you signing? What? On appropriate, the way he's acting, if he's qualified, not qualified, I mean, he has some leeway to ask questions, and then it will pass to to everyone else. And then, you know, I have a response as well, but I'm going to allow him some leeway to ask those questions, and then we will move on. All right. Thank you, Mary. It is to clarify this isn't an interview. This is actually the first time this council is a full buy.

[4:30:29] has had a presentation from the Optic Department.

[4:30:33] The department does front face with the community

[4:30:35] on behalf of the work and services being provided.

[4:30:38] Today, we had lots of conversation about making sure

[4:30:42] we're communicating to the community,

[4:30:44] making sure we're doing social media postings

[4:30:46] and creating content.

[4:30:47] And we've seen today a cost of $926,000,

[4:30:51] $487 to get there.

[4:30:53] So I think it's appropriate to ask some questions.

[4:30:56] So month one, where did that start

[4:30:57] in this optic road map that we have.

[4:30:59] Sure, and just for clarity, we use the term department as sort of a colloquialism.

[4:31:07] We are in office inside the city manager's office.

[4:31:12] I know it's a strange distinction to make.

[4:31:14] We throw around the word department, but just like the office of public performance data analytics

[4:31:20] or the office of violence prevention, office of public transparency.

[4:31:23] So it is an important distinction to make as far as the charter goes.

[4:31:27] Well, well, well, I'm glad that you brought that up.

[4:31:30] Your previous presentation that was submitted and posted to the public before the around the bench memo had department.

[4:31:37] You around the bench memo had office.

[4:31:38] What is the difference in the distinction?

[4:31:40] Because I did see that and I had a question for that.

[4:31:42] You would have sucked a city attorney about that city attorney.

[4:31:44] I just wanted to see if she's right here, city attorney, can you clarify that please?

[4:31:48] So there are only a set amount of departments, you are familiar with them from the presentations

[4:31:52] that they provide, the economic development, community development, etc., etc.

[4:31:57] But under the umbrella of the city manager's office, they do have, I guess I would call

[4:32:01] them maybe, I don't know what the right term is, but in my mind, I call them divisions, right?

[4:32:07] And so I think optic falls within one of those.

[4:32:10] Okay, so on slide two, at the first line where it says the city of Stockton PIO is a charter recognized executive role within the city manager's office, is this an executive role?

[4:32:24] Yes.

[4:32:25] Okay.

[4:32:26] All right, so going back to the optic roadmap.

[4:32:28] I mean, that's kind of where I was trying to get at.

[4:32:30] Can you just tell me where did month one start in this process?

[4:32:35] So I started here in May and just so you have some background on what that onboarding process looks like, it took three weeks to get a computer.

[4:32:48] So during that time, we were doing our best to kind of get everything situated.

[4:32:54] But we were still talking about what optic would look like if we were to move forward with that.

[4:33:01] So, what happened was some issues were brought to my attention, they asked for my professional

[4:33:09] assessment of what our digital asset portfolio looked like, what maybe some vulnerabilities

[4:33:14] might be, and what it would take to build a team that would address those issues.

[4:33:20] I came back and said it would take nine people, and I was told that we had room for three.

[4:33:26] So, in order to achieve those goals, we had to find people that were incredibly cross-trained

[4:33:33] to the point where, you know, the term unicorn doesn't seem to do a justice.

[4:33:42] So, once we started narrowing it down as to who, what we were looking for, and it wasn't me,

[4:33:48] it was the interim city manager at the time, identified criteria for what he was looking for

[4:33:54] as far as staffing, we started working on, as you see in month one through three, the initial staffing.

[4:34:02] And then, foundation building was trying to get the software installed, the computers lined up.

[4:34:09] What kind of equipment we had, what kind of resources we had available.

[4:34:12] At that time, I believe we had some significant changes in City Hall, so there was a little bit of a gap while we made some adjustments.

[4:34:22] And then the optic team was also still receiving, they had temporary laptops and weren't capable of doing what they needed them to do, so they got computers when they finally got those in, it took us into about halfway through month for content strategy development, web application strategy development, that's where we are right now, I have been here for five months, we have not reached month six, but we are all already writing out suggestions to the policy management

[4:34:52] and you'll to address some of the issues that we've uncovered.

[4:34:54] That was the question.

[4:34:55] Thank you.

[4:34:56] I was trying to get at was where are we now in this optic road map.

[4:34:59] So right now we're in content strategy development.

[4:35:03] Between web application strategy development

[4:35:06] and roll out a city comms plan.

[4:35:08] Okay.

[4:35:09] So that's helpful.

[4:35:11] I'll ask just two more questions

[4:35:12] and then I'll leave it to my colleagues.

[4:35:14] I'll ask more questions and come back if there's time.

[4:35:16] When

[4:35:20] we're looking at the slide that has the 1, 2, 3, where it talks about transparency,

[4:35:28] we must make all legally information accessible to the public.

[4:35:31] What have we done differently now than we did before with respect to this effort and tell

[4:35:40] me what that experience has been like?

[4:35:42] We can get

[4:35:46] back here since month, my month three, of that plan.

[4:35:54] Like I said, there were significant, you know what I'm talking about?

[4:35:58] One, the our promise to do and trying to find it, it's keep going.

[4:36:06] When we did our assessment of the digital assets.

[4:36:11] is it did change the direction that we needed to take.

[4:36:20] So while we're still pursuing some of the external communications,

[4:36:26] this has become a much higher priority.

[4:36:29] So what, like he explained that, like what was the idea and what was the change?

[4:36:35] What was the idea, what was the idea for optic priority?

[4:36:38] That's where it says, we must take all legally available information accessible to the public, because I know these PRAs were moved to the clerk's office, so in terms of this one promise, what does that mean?

[4:36:50] So we have, for example, we just met with our community development department, and they have documentation that was on the previous website, that's not on the current website, but it's not just a matter of copying those files over and creating links to them, because each one of those sites,

[4:37:08] 700 documents need to be made ADA accessible by law.

[4:37:15] So it's things like that multiplied by 15 departments.

[4:37:18] Okay, and then so the same question for information.

[4:37:21] What are we, are we doing anything different?

[4:37:25] I guess is what I'm trying to get at than we did before.

[4:37:27] And if so, to the public.

[4:37:29] Because here's what I, here's what I was saying.

[4:37:31] I'll just move on.

[4:37:32] When I look at what I thought when, when optic was kind of mentioned

[4:37:36] in our budget sessions, what I, what I envisioned was

[4:37:39] because we were going to, you know, if we have family day at what was that family day in the park, whatever that is, we would have a drone shot, cameras, video moments, creating the story that the American share, I can share, council members can share, city can share that people on Facebook can be sharing, sharing, sharing to see that it's not all drive by shootings, murders, homicides, and homeless people, right, because that's really, if you travel outside of Stockton, people say this about our city, when we know that's not the whole picture, right?

[4:38:08] I envisioned, you know, like where I will say like the mayor when we did the youth employment workshop things.

[4:38:17] There was a moment where like the mayor was like in her bag talking to the kids, going up and down the aisle.

[4:38:23] Like you see your elected officials in a different light that were actually engaged in the community in a different way.

[4:38:29] When I go to speak at the pop-up event and, you know, the council members me and Padilla and Mario, they're engaging a community that doesn't feel seen at times, you know, being able to have profile shots of landing her group and what we're doing, I mean, when I think of what our vision was, it was, how are we going to tell this document story in a way that transforms our community and makes people want to believe in Stockton and get an investment document? Am I right?

[4:38:57] Yeah.

[4:38:58] Yeah, so that's what I'm trying to understand, because when I look at our social media right now we have 14,000 Facebook followers, 5,000 Instagram followers, and I really don't know from this presentation what we're doing to track growth.

[4:39:11] I've asked you about pickup reports to see like what stories are being told, so those are the things that I'm looking for that I don't see, but I'll kind of yield my pursuit of this, but I think people know what I'm trying to get out here.

[4:39:22] We have a public comment.

[4:39:25] Maria Elizabeth.

[4:39:45] So I, my primary goal always is facts, you know, and a fact is I tried to get the council

[4:40:04] policies for a matter and I clicked it clicked it clicked it I couldn't get it I

[4:40:11] contacted the city clerk's office she said oh well try a different browser I

[4:40:15] tried a different browser I still didn't work and then I clicked it today

[4:40:21] because I wanted to get those municipal codes for you and you know so I was on

[4:40:26] that same page oh let me just check right nothing came up I said oh well I moved

[4:40:32] gone to my mission. So, one, you know, I'm not sure that the website is functioning properly.

[4:40:42] Social media, I talked about that already. I gave you a screenshot of the EDD Facebook page or

[4:40:51] Instagram or Twitter page TX.

[4:41:00] And then on one occasion regarding a personnel

[4:41:06] matter there was a press release that was referenced by a publication that was

[4:41:14] not found on the news release. So there shouldn't be any news releases that are

[4:41:20] going to some press that isn't posted on our website.

[4:41:27] So that is one, what the state does for the ADA, not all documents have to be reworked.

[4:41:37] I mean, that's incredibly onerous.

[4:41:40] What they do is they have a list of documents and then they ask you to contact if you need

[4:41:47] an accessible document.

[4:41:48] And so, for all those historic documents, that's what the state does.

[4:41:53] And then, also, I would encourage all of you to take some FEMA training.

[4:41:59] I do that for my registered environmental health specialist training.

[4:42:03] Cal, OES, they have wonderful training.

[4:42:06] And we need more trained, and we need a cert in our city, thank you.

[4:42:16] Do you mind if I ask a couple of questions?

[4:42:19] Okay, so was that the only public comment?

[4:42:21] Okay, so a couple of things, first of all, the website.

[4:42:27] I know that I've had comments about the website since we changed it.

[4:42:31] I actually like the old one better than the new one because I knew where everything was on the old one.

[4:42:35] But like you, I have to type into the search.

[4:42:38] So website, is that something under your?

[4:42:41] Yes it is.

[4:42:42] Okay.

[4:42:44] And was it Mayor Lincoln's website, I know because you used to be part of Code Stack Academy.

[4:42:51] And I think the mayor had somebody come in and I don't know if it was Joey or you or

[4:42:57] both of you that came in, that did a website for Mayor Lincoln.

[4:43:03] It was a student project.

[4:43:04] Okay.

[4:43:05] Mayor Lincoln.

[4:43:06] Okay.

[4:43:07] And then social media pages.

[4:43:08] Do you handle all department social media pages or do they have somebody designated, like, do you do the clerks?

[4:43:16] Bye.

[4:43:17] And I see you know, no, or-

[4:43:19] Policy, I'm supposed to be aware and

[4:43:22] I'm ultimately responsible, but different departments have different levels of access so they are able to post on their own.

[4:43:30] The city clerk's office operates also on their own.

[4:43:34] So, it's one of those things where if I see something, I can send them a message like

[4:43:40] hey, could you pull that down?

[4:43:41] These are the changes that need to be made, or this is an update that needs to be made.

[4:43:46] That's part of my.

[4:43:48] Okay, so if you don't do posting for them.

[4:43:50] Not for everybody, but for many.

[4:43:53] Okay.

[4:43:55] Videos.

[4:43:56] Yes.

[4:43:56] Okay, so I know we had one for McKinley, Victory Park, we didn't have.

[4:44:00] Yeah, so what videos have you worked on?

[4:44:04] So we have some that are still in the pipeline, and videos are an interesting thing because

[4:44:10] there are laws and requirements as far as what falls underneath PEG.

[4:44:16] So when there's a ribbon cutting, you'll notice there's usually a camera that shoots straight

[4:44:21] on, and it's to document, that's the purpose, it's documentation.

[4:44:26] You can't edit that film, you can't take anything out, you can't mess with the audio.

[4:44:30] So it has to go out as is because it is a record of a government activity.

[4:44:35] In addition to that, as you will notice from some of the other events, I'll have two or

[4:44:40] three other people running around with cameras.

[4:44:42] That is for the community outreach.

[4:44:44] So for the Victory Park pool, there is a video that's going through the review process that has interviews and

[4:44:52] impact statements from community members, different department heads on what this project meant to the community.

[4:44:59] You

[4:45:00] That goes back to what you were saying about telling Stockton's story. So we have that. We have National Night Out. We have when the young baseball players got their awards out at the ports, those kind of things that we were reaching out to try to get those pieces put together. So the public would see more about what city staff is doing on their behalf. Okay. So I don't know what happened, you know, with Connie and Tom when they put videos out. I don't know if there was a review process

[4:45:29] or not? What is the review process? Because, you know, Victory Park was August, so we'd love to have that be out. We want these things out right away. So, what is stopping you from getting those videos out?

[4:45:43] It's not that it's stopping. So, with the documentation videos, those go out very quickly. Usually, within a day or two, we do have to still bring them in and transform and get them into a format and put the bumper graphics on it.

[4:45:56] And sometimes the lower thirds where we can identify the people that are speaking were allowed to do that much.

[4:46:04] But with the other stuff because that is-

[4:46:08] Is it an internal review and extra review process?

[4:46:10] It is an internal review process.

[4:46:11] So everybody has to, everybody who is involved in it has to see it and sign off on it.

[4:46:15] And then it has to go through a review process of is this appropriate?

[4:46:20] Is there an edit that needs to be made?

[4:46:21] Is there something that was said that needs to be taken out?

[4:46:24] Because this is the story telling.

[4:46:26] And who said that that's always been as far as I know it would always go

[4:46:30] I'm just saying because Connie never and I'm trying to let you know

[4:46:35] I never got to see the video till it was out and like Paul can if I had a his tie like this

[4:46:40] With food stains on or whatever. Nobody said anything to him about it

[4:46:44] He didn't see it and I just made fun of him like

[4:46:49] Anyway, and it was like Santa Claus or something. I don't know what it was but poor Santa

[4:46:53] I'm not sure that they were doing the same kind of storytelling that we were attempting to do.

[4:46:58] So I think it is a different process.

[4:47:00] Yeah, so that's, I'm just saying review-wise, if there are additional steps that you are having to go through,

[4:47:08] because at that time Connie was a community outreach, she wasn't PIO because we didn't have a PIO.

[4:47:15] Community relations, that was voted on by the people.

[4:47:19] So, I'm just wondering if her requirements were different than your requirements?

[4:47:26] I can't speak to what she went through, the processes that we're going through,

[4:47:32] all seem very reasonable, and what it is is we need, the government is very, very picky

[4:47:38] about what the city can say from the city's accounts.

[4:47:43] So we have to be very delicate there, and that's why we have the two different kinds of

[4:47:47] We have the documentation video and that goes out onto the general city website and social media accounts, because that is speaking from the city.

[4:47:57] These other ones are because they're editorialized, there's a special delicacy to that.

[4:48:04] Okay, so then my question is for Mr. Crue.

[4:48:09] So, who was doing that for, I mean, Connie?

[4:48:15] How did Connie, how was she able to put her stuff out?

[4:48:19] Was there, did you review it?

[4:48:21] No, I did not.

[4:48:22] Did Mr. Kapoor review it?

[4:48:26] No.

[4:48:26] The Miss Christy review it, did.

[4:48:29] I think at that time, yes, he did review.

[4:48:34] He reviewed all those?

[4:48:35] I can't say all, but he did review.

[4:48:38] Okay.

[4:48:39] Okay.

[4:48:39] He reported directly to her.

[4:48:41] Okay.

[4:48:42] And so who's tasked with reviewing all of Tony's?

[4:48:46] We asked for a draft to be sent to us so we can review first.

[4:48:51] Typically we want him to work with the departments to make sure the content is in line with what they want.

[4:48:58] And basically what we've been doing is usually news releases that go out.

[4:49:02] That's what we want to make sure that that's their appropriately done.

[4:49:08] So as far as videos are concerned, I haven't seen one.

[4:49:12] So have you tasked them or has the City Manager's Office who oversees that?

[4:49:16] Have you tasked him with then focusing on making sure we're compliant?

[4:49:22] And that's the priority and these other things have to wait or what?

[4:49:25] The meeting that we had with Tony was to talk about what he just talked about, was internal, external, and then social media platforms, and then the ADA.

[4:49:39] We were concerned, really, on the internal part, to make sure that we were communicating and that he was communicating with our department, because there wasn't a relationship there, and we wanted to build one.

[4:49:51] And then the external part is making sure that we get our messaging out, that is what we need to as far as the city is concerned.

[4:50:01] Okay.

[4:50:01] So the functions, the operations of the city, that's what we wanted to focus on.

[4:50:07] And then the last part was social media because we knew that was a place where we're weak and we want to have a better presence with that.

[4:50:15] Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Councilwoman Padilla, I'm sorry.

[4:50:17] Thank you, Mary.

[4:50:18] I just have two questions.

[4:50:21] So what strategies are we using to connect with those that don't utilize social media

[4:50:27] or have any type of internet platforms?

[4:50:32] We have had, I overheard part of the meeting earlier.

[4:50:36] So we have had conversations about developing what would you call a microsite ones that are

[4:50:42] for getting information out tailored to a specific market.

[4:50:47] So all child-oriented type stuff where parents can go and see all the cool things that are happening in our city for children like family day, they would have a single repository for that type of activity.

[4:50:59] We've talked about things like going back to doing inserts with events on city billing.

[4:51:05] But that's part of an overall strategy that we're developing with city manager.

[4:51:09] Okay, and then do you or have you researched any partnerships with like our schools, universities, nonprofits for any type of projects?

[4:51:21] Because we're, I mean the city is everyone, not just us seven up here and what we're doing.

[4:51:29] Absolutely. The mayor reached out recently and asked if we would be willing to work with or use the Youth Advisory Committee.

[4:51:37] because that group touches every part of Stockton, and they're very keen and tuned into specific issues that address their needs.

[4:51:46] So, we're looking into that as an expansion, we've also discussed, and again, these are all very sort of amorphous concepts they have not been put down in writing,

[4:51:58] because we're, like I said, we reorganized to focus on this accessibility, but we did talk

[4:52:04] about reaching out to Delta College and UOP's theater arts program, see if there's folks

[4:52:09] that would like to participate in some sort of communication strategy. We did discuss and

[4:52:17] I hope you guys are as excited about this as I am because when I started doing research

[4:52:23] on this type of work in other cities, it's like less than 10 in the country that have taken this sort of proactive approach in pushing out communications in this way.

[4:52:35] A lot of them they'll try it for a couple of months and then they let go and as I'm sure the vice mayor will tell you this is something that you have to do consistently and over a long period of time for it to be successful.

[4:52:45] So as part of that, there are multiple layers over multiple years that we're building out or we would like to build out this strategy to incorporate more voices and tell more stories.

[4:52:59] But like I said, we have something that's very important that we need to address first.

[4:53:05] And I think everything else is really coming in as we have time.

[4:53:09] Let's do that to give you an example. We're headed up to

[4:53:13] Well, not I don't think I'm going but part of the team is heading up to Clear Lake because they have three missions up there

[4:53:19] They're they're doing work up there closing up for the winter time. So we're taking some marketing photos and videos

[4:53:25] There's some repairs that need to be done. So we're taking some documentation photos and videos and

[4:53:30] Then sorry, Dessie Clear Lake my mistake

[4:53:37] We've been calling it crystal lake all day

[4:53:39] if you're a movie file, but still relate, I'm sorry,

[4:53:45] and then also taking some video work

[4:53:48] of the city of Stockton employees

[4:53:50] that do a tremendous amount of work

[4:53:52] that don't really get the acknowledgement that they deserve.

[4:53:56] And the idea that these people are gonna be up there

[4:53:58] doing some very heavy lifting,

[4:54:01] people should know what these people are doing.

[4:54:03] So we're gonna be documenting that as well.

[4:54:05] So these are three different missions,

[4:54:06] we're taking care of all at the same time.

[4:54:09] Those are the types of story telling that we'd like to do in addition to making sure

[4:54:15] that we're within compliance with all state and federal regulations.

[4:54:19] So, I mean, it's very apparent that we, you know, value transparency.

[4:54:26] And I guess with 95 years of experience and the amount of money we're putting

[4:54:36] in this budget.

[4:54:39] I know I'm impatient. I mean, I would think that those two things we would,

[4:54:50] I don't know, see something, I don't see something a little bit, a change. I don't care

[4:54:57] for our website. I use Google first before I use our website. So I guess I would just see some

[4:55:05] change, and I really haven't seen that yet.

[4:55:10] Right, it's, like I said, there's been some pretty significant changes in things that are happening in City Hall.

[4:55:18] And like I said, the direction was back to some things that you wouldn't see because it's all in the code that we have to fix.

[4:55:26] And as we're addressing those things, we want to also do the regular day-to-day business.

[4:55:32] And then in addition to that, the things that were promised, I will tell you that if we were to because we used to do this kind of work, all of us being programmers we've done this kind of work,

[4:55:46] it would be more expensive to farm it out.

[4:55:49] And when you say day-to-day business, is that like press releases information?

[4:55:54] So I see press releases come across and then I see post on next or app about our coffee hours are, you know, things that are going on at City Hall.

[4:56:07] But again, I don't see the stuff that we want our constituents to see.

[4:56:15] I think it would be a fun sort of moment if you wanted to reach out to the city manager

[4:56:23] and set up time and talk with the optic team if that's an available thing.

[4:56:28] I don't, I know there's brown act things and stuff like that, but to touch base and find

[4:56:33] out what kind of things are important to you and if that's something that we can achieve

[4:56:37] right now, like I said, our core focus over the next six to seven months is ADA accessibility

[4:56:42] because we have a hard deadline that we have to beat.

[4:56:47] So we really, by April of 2026, we have to be compliant.

[4:56:51] And that's kind of what we're digging into.

[4:56:53] Now, as far as press releases,

[4:56:55] I probably get 20 to 30 emails from media day

[4:56:59] that we have to do our best to answer or for them

[4:57:02] or collects quotes or do things like that.

[4:57:06] So that's in addition to that.

[4:57:09] We have been meeting with all of our software vendors that deal with our social media and our website and things like that because we're doing assessments and evaluations, making sure that they've met the terms of what they promised us as far as the things that we've already bought to see if there's some cost savings there.

[4:57:29] We also need to find out if they're going to give us the level access that we require in order to meet that April 2026 deadline.

[4:57:36] If not, then we have to find another way to solve that problem.

[4:57:40] So there's a lot of, I want to say wrench turning that's happening behind the scenes.

[4:57:46] And it's not beautiful and it's not fun videos.

[4:57:49] It's just hard work.

[4:57:51] And that's what they're working on right now.

[4:57:54] I'd like to get that done.

[4:57:55] I'd like to, as soon as April 20th, 26th deadline, come back and tell you that we achieved the goal that we set out for.

[4:58:02] And now let's make some really fun stuff.

[4:58:06] My fingers are crossed and I'm pretty sure that we're going to make it, but I don't want to give you expectations that I can't meet.

[4:58:13] So right now my primary goal is that accessibility audit and making sure that we're compliant after that is going to be, and then the day-to-day work as well.

[4:58:23] And then after that is going to be the story telling that we would all like to see growing up and stocked and I lived in every corner of the city.

[4:58:31] and I want to see these stories told.

[4:58:34] There's cool things about growing up on 12th Street

[4:58:37] that I remember that I want to share.

[4:58:39] There's cool things that were happening out on the east side

[4:58:41] that I want to share.

[4:58:43] These are stories that you only know

[4:58:46] if you live in those neighborhoods,

[4:58:48] but I think they're valuable in the greater picture

[4:58:52] of what Stockton is and they should be told.

[4:58:55] And I understand and I appreciate the goals that you need to meet, but

[4:59:03] without, I mean, regardless of a study session, my priority is to change the narrative of Stockton.

[4:59:11] And the way I see that is through storytelling and highlighting the positive to change that negative.

[4:59:19] and again I'll say I'm impatient to me April 26th and if we can't get our

[4:59:27] story out by then we'll get some stuff out and we definitely will get

[4:59:33] some because we're passionate about everybody in that office is very very

[4:59:36] passionate about it. They're all from Stockton that was one of the criteria I was

[4:59:41] given to make sure that we have people from Stockton that are passionate about

[4:59:44] Stockton.

[4:59:47] So that's what we have. In fact, one of the members on our team, he's done a documentary

[4:59:53] about the Filipino diaspora and their martial arts.

[5:00:00] And things like that. And I don't mean to stop you and you don't mean to sound negative, but that's fantastic. I'm thrilled. He has all that experience. But we need our story told. We need to flip this narrative like tomorrow. And I will end with that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Council Member Enriquez. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Just a quick question, a couple questions, but I was noticing.

[5:00:29] the branding aspect that you had in one of your first slides and I'm really big about

[5:00:33] branding guides and as new council members or even folks that have been in office already

[5:00:38] I mean is that document available? Is that being able to have been shared? I know there's

[5:00:42] been past emails of like you can use certain things but don't use this and is that been developed

[5:00:47] or there is a logo usage manual that I've been able to find I wouldn't call it a branding

[5:00:53] guide of like the colors the the meanings the descriptions the font size familiar I've written

[5:00:58] and a minor usually 20 to 30 pages,

[5:01:00] but the one that we have is I think four pages.

[5:01:03] But we have a branding guide.

[5:01:04] And no, we have a logo usage.

[5:01:06] We have no branding guide, wow.

[5:01:07] Correct.

[5:01:08] And we do when it comes to stationary and logo usage.

[5:01:12] I think that's about all I've been able to locate.

[5:01:14] And I ask, because again, I don't know,

[5:01:17] so it's not, I'm not trying to be critical.

[5:01:19] In terms of communications, events, signage,

[5:01:22] is that based on the department's either signage,

[5:01:24] you leave the signage and that there's actually

[5:01:28] on-site events, if there's ever any need for signage, do you develop that?

[5:01:32] It depends.

[5:01:33] For example, the event that took place at Webber Point, that was part of Stockton PDs,

[5:01:40] see something, say something.

[5:01:42] All of that signage was created through Stockton PD, their communications department.

[5:01:47] If asked, we can create anything.

[5:01:50] The team is, like I said, incredibly diverse in skills.

[5:01:54] They've done conventions. I've done branch merchandising for banks and

[5:01:58] federal and credit unions across the country. You need to signage. I have signage

[5:02:03] that I created 20 years ago still inside the skyscrapers. We can handle it.

[5:02:08] Just let me know what you need. And I'm not sure to be critical with the website.

[5:02:11] Obviously, there's it's not perfect. And we all know that as folks have already shared.

[5:02:21] But in terms of just updating information across the board, so we talk about news releases,

[5:02:26] is that also then updated on the calendar section?

[5:02:29] If we have coffee hour, we have September 25, I just typed a news room and it popped

[5:02:34] up news releases.

[5:02:37] I say this because of consistency, so if you update one, you update the other, I know you

[5:02:41] And I have conversations about council member pages and then there's that extra work of like oh and I got update the news release section

[5:02:46] I got update the calendar right and this I'm really big on consistency correct

[5:02:50] So that that's really where I kind of like to or not like to I where I nitpick because I think these details really go a long way of

[5:02:56] Top terms of how we present ourselves

[5:02:59] Into the council and for the us point about the positive stuff right at least from what I've seen the last nine months

[5:03:04] We have annual events so we already know where we can plan ahead right we have the light of the tree in December

[5:03:09] We have Halloween events, I'm sure all of us are out in the community, you know, with our constituent, so we can all plan all that, you know, I think the first time I really saw was National Night Out, which I know you were out recording, you had the great videos, but to ensure that we're consistent with all the districts, and I don't know all the council members have had a video, I mean, I'm grateful because I have a video, but just a consistency across the border, we all know things are coming, we can plan ahead, going back to the media in the newsroom, make sure that's a little bit tighter,

[5:03:38] or the key events I talked about this signage.

[5:03:41] I mean, you know, highlighting the Youth Advisory Commission

[5:03:43] at the mayor's leading.

[5:03:45] You know, we have the California Economic Summit.

[5:03:46] That's a huge deal that we're hosting here

[5:03:48] in the city of Stockton.

[5:03:49] So I hope that's in your timeline already.

[5:03:52] But capturing all these things would be really important.

[5:03:57] You know, okay, all right, I want to show I have the floor.

[5:03:59] But just having all that is really helpful.

[5:04:02] But again, the more I know the better it is,

[5:04:04] the more we know, we can plan more accordingly.

[5:04:06] But I appreciate it.

[5:04:09] That's all, Vice Mayor.

[5:04:11] Thank you, Mayor.

[5:04:12] Yeah, I want to go back to everything that Councilman Padilla said.

[5:04:17] I totally agree with everything the mayor said I agree with and

[5:04:19] everything my colleague to the right said I agree with.

[5:04:22] You think Councilman Padilla is impatient.

[5:04:25] The mayor is probably neck and neck with me on impatience.

[5:04:28] We're just, it's not even an unrealistic, I mean unrealistic impatience.

[5:04:33] It's the fact that we have done a lot of amazing work since

[5:04:37] we've been here and we don't have the content to share. I will say that like Victory Park

[5:04:43] just used that example. That's gone. Like that's gone already. So like that's a missed opportunity.

[5:04:49] You know in the news world and you have people here they'll tell you like tomorrow

[5:04:55] yesterday's news is old right so like you've got to get it out timely people move on. We are

[5:04:59] in a digital world where news changes every 15 minutes. So for things that are stickier that are

[5:05:06] going to that are going to last or have impact or you know we got to get out quickly.

[5:05:11] I just want to go back to a moment that me and Councilman Ricas went to St. Mary's

[5:05:16] just for a walk through.

[5:05:17] We just did a walk through.

[5:05:18] There was no strategy to create content.

[5:05:21] Really no plan strategy.

[5:05:22] We didn't meet.

[5:05:22] We just did a walk through.

[5:05:23] We asked questions.

[5:05:24] We learned about it.

[5:05:25] But I brought my team there to walk through it with us.

[5:05:28] And then the next day or two days later we had this amazing video capturing those moments.

[5:05:33] And it's those are things where I know the mayor is outside every day.

[5:05:36] When I say outside, I mean, she's out of it and she's in the public.

[5:05:38] She's out there doing things where we're doing things that are not being captured.

[5:05:44] I just want to say for me, I don't know that we're getting the ROI for

[5:05:50] what we're investing in this.

[5:05:52] That's not an attack on people.

[5:05:55] That's just maybe an observation on process and observation on outcomes.

[5:06:00] There is a lot more opportunity here.

[5:06:02] I mean, I have something here that I, I don't know if it's appropriate here during council comments, but I just think that there needs to be a real measurable, trackable plan with outcomes and just a very clear plan from pickup reporting when we sent out a press release, we had to mean about pickup reporting.

[5:06:22] And I sent an email to Courtney Christie showing her what a sample pick up report from

[5:06:26] Hollywood and what it looked like.

[5:06:28] We sent out one press release, we got 5.9 billion media impressions, 2.0 million social

[5:06:33] media impressions.

[5:06:34] We tracked everybody that reported on it, what the outcome was.

[5:06:39] And again, we don't really have to reinvent the will as a city because the stock and police

[5:06:43] department is doing a phenomenal job of telling their story, we just as a city need to be

[5:06:47] doing that.

[5:06:47] So I don't know do we wait till council comments or okay all right cool

[5:06:54] And I'm sorry I said I was gonna be done but

[5:07:00] Councilmember Enrique has brought something up is your department in charge of our logo?

[5:07:05] Yes creating it designing it how long have we had that logo just out of curiosity?

[5:07:11] I would have to research that the only I think the only logo that we do not

[5:07:15] is the city clerk's logo?

[5:07:18] Okay, I asked that because you saw it.

[5:07:23] I created my own logo with a different color.

[5:07:26] I loved it.

[5:07:28] I loved it better than our logo,

[5:07:31] so that's my only comment.

[5:07:35] That has been a conversation,

[5:07:37] but again, all priorities have been re-aligned.

[5:07:43] Okay.

[5:07:43] So I have a couple more questions and then a history lesson, my favorite.

[5:07:48] So when it comes to a website, I don't know anything about websites.

[5:07:54] So I know that our old website and then we were told the new website is going to roll out

[5:08:00] and it will be live on Monday and I was just like, oh okay and it opened up the next day

[5:08:07] because it all had to be built first, right?

[5:08:09] And then it went up and then I was like it's beautiful and I couldn't find anything so it's it is

[5:08:16] Because you didn't have any did you have anything to do with that? No, okay, so in order to do that what

[5:08:24] That's something your department you guys can't say department. That's something that the office can do correct correct, okay, and then

[5:08:31] I put numbers on this

[5:08:36] Council Member Pages, I will say we've never had a Council Member Page, Connie would look at me crazy if I asked her to do a Council Member Vagery, I'm to say we can't have him, I'm to say no, no, no, no, but I mean it was an idea that was brought up because I want to go somewhere so the PIO and Connie's position was always through the City Manager's office.

[5:09:03] there was one time that she did something for me and it was I did a town hall

[5:09:08] because it was during COVID we couldn't do office hours anymore so we did an

[5:09:11] online like office hours and I remember she got in trouble for it because she

[5:09:17] doesn't work for me but guess what everybody's required to have counsel hours

[5:09:21] and so I said well I just was doing counsel all she did was help me set it up and

[5:09:25] we went from there Florence then kind of ran it and that's how I got in trouble

[5:09:29] with Ms. Boyd is because Florence accidentally disconnected her, it was not me, I'm just saying.

[5:09:38] And then, you know, there's been a lot of conversation about this not being in the budget.

[5:09:45] And there's a lot of things not in the budget because the budget we had was a proposed budget.

[5:09:51] It was a proposed budget budget. We haven't gotten the final approved budget book yet, but we did get,

[5:09:57] you know, our 2324 Act for, and I just want to point some things out.

[5:10:05] So in 2020, we had a new city manager come on board, and in the 2020-2021 budget they

[5:10:14] asked to add one position.

[5:10:16] August 11, 2020, we had a presentation called OPDA, and none of us knew what it was, but it

[5:10:24] It was one position, it was Katie, who was doing that job for OPDA, and that was for

[5:10:29] the city manager.

[5:10:31] And we were like, oh, wow, okay.

[5:10:33] Then during that year, because we had ARPA funds that were coming in because of COVID,

[5:10:40] two more positions were added.

[5:10:42] And then in 2021, 2022 budget, another position was added, bringing it to four people in

[5:10:51] OPDA and the most recent budget was $839,675.

[5:11:00] That was just for OPDA that didn't include Connie, Rosie, or Tom in that.

[5:11:06] So I bring that up only because the city manager has powers that we don't have.

[5:11:15] I certainly don't have, except for the people in my office, and the fact that we're

[5:11:21] even having this conversation I think is amazing because, you know, this council is showing

[5:11:28] you that there are things that they would like, but ultimately, it rests with whoever

[5:11:34] is in that seat, because you're the boss right now, yeah?

[5:11:40] Right now I am.

[5:11:44] Yeah, because when I look in here it even says it's specific.

[5:11:48] Police, fire, and OPDA.

[5:11:51] Whereas actually OVP is under, well, at that time it was Courtney Christie.

[5:11:57] Well, Mr. Crew had community development, economic development,

[5:12:01] municipal utilities, and public works.

[5:12:04] And Mr. Kapoor had admin services, human resources, and information technology.

[5:12:10] Is that sound familiar?

[5:12:12] And then our city manager at that time had police, fire, and OPDA.

[5:12:18] And so moving forward, I think that we have a lot of opportunity to grow from here.

[5:12:25] I'm excited about that.

[5:12:27] I'm not so excited about the ADA piece, but I realized we're kind of hamstrung in that

[5:12:32] and that hadn't been done for a while, which is why we are where we are.

[5:12:38] And I don't want our city to have to pay out any money for anything other than the things

[5:12:44] we want to, like medical benefits or something like that.

[5:12:48] So I just, you know, when we talk about money, we actually, we shrunk it, I mean, between

[5:12:59] Between the two areas, between OPDA and PIO, there were more positions, now there are less positions and less money, and I think I heard that you don't have any budget.

[5:13:14] There's still, well, still be sure of any of that, peg funds are different, they can only be used for the process of communicating out, and it can only be used for government communications.

[5:13:26] So, things like the National Night Out video, it couldn't be used for that, but any of the City Council stuff or anything that's critical to city resources or communicating with the public about things that they need from the city, it'd be used for that.

[5:13:44] My understanding, and I might be incorrect, but my understanding, it would cover hardware and some salary parts for that purpose.

[5:13:55] It's to be used for cities to communicate out within the FPPC guidelines.

[5:14:01] Okay, thank you.

[5:14:02] Vice Mayor.

[5:14:04] Thank you, Mayor.

[5:14:06] So there's been a couple of things that I still don't understand, just I want to put this on the record.

[5:14:11] I don't understand why we were using the Department of Optic, and then now using the Office of Optic.

[5:14:17] I am going to have several questions about that in emails, so just know that that's coming, because I want to understand that.

[5:14:23] The second part is, with respect to the process of the development of OPDA, I was not there, but

[5:14:29] I have since done a lot of digging around what that looked like.

[5:14:32] There was a lot of imagination of what an Optic Department would look like.

[5:14:36] it wasn't called optic, but even that had gone through a very specific process.

[5:14:42] OPDA, the mayor can probably confirm this or other council members did come before Council

[5:14:46] for approval.

[5:14:47] And if they did approve one person in one department and creating that department, the city

[5:14:51] manager does have the ability to take other FTEs that are in other departments, move it

[5:14:55] around into that department, expanding it, but the approval development creation of a

[5:15:04] And I will say, in the budget, we do not have the budget book, but we did approve a budget on July 15th. And unless I was confused, which I know I'm sometimes confused, but on all the time confused, July 15th, I'm not calendar says that I was sitting in this chair and voted on a budget. And although I don't have the book, I know what I ask for, and I know what I saw. The last thing I will say is, again, to Councilman Padilla's point,

[5:15:29] point, we're not waiting until April of 2026.

[5:15:32] I do want to say I think the mayor for clarifying one thing.

[5:15:35] You manage everything.

[5:15:37] You manage optic.

[5:15:38] It falls under you.

[5:15:39] Not one of us.

[5:15:40] We can give you direction as a group, and I'm sure that will

[5:15:43] come at some point, but we are not waiting until April of 2026 to

[5:15:47] tell our story.

[5:15:48] In fact, I think the kind of tying the whole thing together

[5:15:52] tonight and the theme of making a marketing stocked and

[5:15:56] better, helping to grow economic drivers.

[5:15:58] members, you know, that's all going to come from telling our story, and I know the Mary and I, and Councilman Padilla, and

[5:16:05] Mark, Councilman Rodriguez, we all came with this energy of we want to transform the narrative of

[5:16:10] Stockton, and that really starts with this work. So I'll just, I'm done on all of that, and I'll say the rest of my comments

[5:16:18] for later, but thank you for the presentation.

[5:16:20] Okay, and just to reiterate, council didn't know anything about OPDA back in 2020.

[5:16:28] The position was for an analyst, and then August 11th, 2020, there was a presentation.

[5:16:35] You can go back and watch the video if you want.

[5:16:38] I will tell you in the 2020-2021 budget, B1, there's no, in section B1, no OPDA, B4, one position.

[5:16:48] K-6 of the budget book, no OPDA, K-7 of the budget book, no OPDA, K-8 of the budget, no OPDA.

[5:16:58] In 2021, then there was OPDA, listed on B1, one more position was added on B4.

[5:17:06] K-6, it was added to the org chart, and K-7 actually had a section talking about OPDA.

[5:17:15] and so and we voted on the budget on June 24th of 2025 and did we add any

[5:17:26] positions to the city manager's office? Do we add any positions? When was

[5:17:32] that? In this last budget did we add any positions? I'd have to ask Rosemary for

[5:17:40] specifically is for optic were any of those brand new created positions or were they positions

[5:17:47] that were from like OPDA or they were they were used to positions from other allocations

[5:17:54] yeah all

[5:17:58] of them not all well oh you're still here I'm sorry hi no no it's okay I came

[5:18:08] from the back. So the FTEs were already existing within the city manager's office. They were

[5:18:15] just reallocated from OPDA into optic. Okay. So there weren't any new positions. No. Okay.

[5:18:24] So that's it then. Okay. Okay. Okay. Huh?

[5:18:30] Okay. Yeah. Yeah. 1058. Okay. Thank you.

[5:18:33] My pleasure. Your dinner. Have a great night. Okay. Moving on to item 16.3, which we were

[5:18:39] so close to not having on here, update on the City of Stockton Fire Hyderant Maintenance Program activities.

[5:19:01] Good evening, last but not least, we have a bit of a presentation to write on the Fire Hyderant Maintenance Program here in the City.

[5:19:12] I've got Travis, my Deputy Director for Wastewater, our water resources, sorry, it's getting late.

[5:19:20] and the fire chief that will help provide some information and then we'll be

[5:19:26] happy to answer any questions after that.

[5:19:32] Good evening council and vice mayor

[5:19:34] mayor. My name is Travis Maughan the deputy director of water resources. Where's

[5:19:41] the clicker? I'll give you update on the report on fire hydrant maintenance program.

[5:19:55] I'm just going to highlight this map for a second here.

[5:19:59] North Stockton, the green area, that is city water service area.

[5:20:04] The middle area is cow water.

[5:20:08] The bottom area is our south Stockton service area.

[5:20:12] And then in there, there's also a few county pockets that are served by the county.

[5:20:15] we have three water purveyors in the city, five fire jurisdictions, the city

[5:20:22] jurisdiction, and then there's four county pocket jurisdictions.

[5:20:27] And then we

[5:20:27] have over 9,000 fire hydrants in the city, 7,500 owned by us, and then there's

[5:20:32] 1,500 that are privately owned. All the hydrants have to be inspected yearly, private,

[5:20:40] it and public. Fire Department has annual inspection program. I can go through this part.

[5:20:48] There should have been a fact sheet that got sent out to Council within the last month

[5:20:52] I believe that basically listed all the

[5:20:58] listed basically. Xylem Water has three year contract.

[5:21:04] The timeline, what they do when they go out and inspect the hydrants and everything, how

[5:21:08] it gets reported back to us.

[5:21:12] What they do, they look, when the annual inspection happens, we look in our GIS map, the geographical

[5:21:18] information system map to make sure that the hydrants in the right location, right ID,

[5:21:24] summaries of the existing conditions, the inspection performed, future maintenance needs, does

[5:21:33] it operate, and accessibility for fire services.

[5:21:38] Once they're done with these, if there's a fire hydrant, it's non-operable.

[5:21:41] They report it to mud, to us.

[5:21:44] And then we report back if we have to replace it or if we just make the repair.

[5:21:50] The summary right now, we have an annual maintenance budget of $289,000 a year.

[5:21:55] We have two staff members that work on this.

[5:21:58] Currently 99.78% of the fire hydrants are operable.

[5:22:03] Maintenance lists varies daily.

[5:22:05] So, our non-operable list sometimes could be as high as 24, it's been down as low as 9, currently it's up to 15.

[5:22:13] There's a list right here that shows how many are inoperable in each district.

[5:22:20] So, right, district one, we have zero, district two, we have two hydrants out of service, one that's in cow water, one that's in the city water system.

[5:22:29] district three we have one that's out district four we have one that's out

[5:22:34] district five is the outlier here it has nine but that's 100% in the

[5:22:39] kelwater area and district six we have three that are out of service at

[5:22:43] the moment and actually that list is already outdated because I've created that

[5:22:49] week ago and we've already repaired some and found more that we're out of service

[5:22:56] two, so it varies.

[5:22:59] And then we'll get to the meet and potatoes here.

[5:23:02] We have three work order types.

[5:23:03] We have repair hydrant, replace hydrant, or vandalism.

[5:23:07] And you can see the trend here the last three years of how many work orders we've completed

[5:23:11] on these hydrant types.

[5:23:15] This year so far we've repaired 137 hydrants.

[5:23:19] Last year was 203, and you can see the year before that.

[5:23:22] that.

[5:23:24] Hyderant replacements, we've replaced 26 hydrants this year. Last year we replaced

[5:23:29] 20 year before that 16 and then we have our vandalism work orders. So vandalism could

[5:23:36] be a hit and run on a hydrant, could be unhoused tampering with the hydrants. It's just damage

[5:23:42] caused by people and this is how many work orders we have so far on this.

[5:23:49] If somebody needs

[5:23:50] to report damage to fire hydrants. They can call our 209-937-8341 number. They can report

[5:23:56] the water facts or they could send the ass stock to them. So, I ran through that as fast

[5:24:02] as I could because it's 11 o'clock. Any questions?

[5:24:09] Go ahead, Vice Mayor.

[5:24:10] Thank you, Mayor. First of all, you made the city attorney smile. So, you clearly, I think

[5:24:14] we all want to get out here too, so I want to thank you for that. I just want to acknowledge

[5:24:17] your passion and energy for the work you do, and really making sure that we're making improvements.

[5:24:24] I want to acknowledge that because I noticed that from the first time you did the presentation.

[5:24:28] The reason why I agenda this was I know that there were concerns about broken hydrants in District 6.

[5:24:33] There was the conversation about Cal Water coming on to manage our hydrants.

[5:24:36] Did we reach an agreement with them?

[5:24:38] There's no agreement reached yet.

[5:24:40] And so one of the reasons that I kind of wanted to lay this out right here, we have three

[5:24:50] water purveyors in town, five fire jurisdictions.

[5:24:54] There's a lot of layers to the sun and we have to peel back to get everybody into agreement

[5:25:03] and it's going to take a lot of effort and we've already had some past efforts.

[5:25:08] Is there a nice way, like, are you being nice about this?

[5:25:12] We're kind of at a low level right now, as far as where we need to get to it, as far as we have some things in place we're working on, but it's still at the beginning stages of the renegotiation.

[5:25:28] Is there anything that we can do to support the efforts, is there anything you need from council, is it just the process?

[5:25:34] It's just the process at this point because I mean it looks like there's been an improvement in fixing or repairing the right hydrants in my district

[5:25:43] It looks like some other districts have more challenges. Do we know why say in district five there's nine broken hydrants versus mine three or others maybe with less?

[5:25:53] Is it more is there more space or is it more it?

[5:25:58] Like for example, your your district has a lot

[5:26:00] But like central Stockton has a lot of areas that get tampered with more than South

[5:26:09] Stockton, or North Stockton.

[5:26:11] And so it's just-

[5:26:12] The mayor said that in a different way, but yes, I think we've got to understand it.

[5:26:17] So you do foresee, though, I'm us getting to a place where cow water can take on our hydrants

[5:26:23] and they manage those for us.

[5:26:25] Correct. We are working that way and what I'll say right now is they have a main replacement

[5:26:32] program and so they're working on an MOU to take ownership of the Heidernstall's part of their

[5:26:38] main replacement program and then we have some things we got to work out with the fire jurisdictions

[5:26:46] Sandlocking County and then also Cal Water to get everybody all on board on the same page.

[5:26:52] So is there a way then without me asking to put this on the agenda that when there is an update of we finally have an agreement with Cal Water

[5:26:59] Will we keep the council can get some kind of announcement or something some update?

[5:27:03] I believe if it's a negotiated item. I'm of course anyway

[5:27:07] We'll have it'll probably be in a closed session. Okay, okay. Well, that's all I thank you

[5:27:13] Councilmember blower just a couple quick questions. Yes, so 9,000 hydrants. That's a lot of hydrants out there

[5:27:19] there. Xylem dewatering solutions, so they're the ones that go in and they're out doing

[5:27:24] the inspections, right? Correct. And so, like, how many day do a day? How does that

[5:27:31] work? Like, how many people are out there inspecting them?

[5:27:36] Brian Carr, Fire Chief. Council member, try to answer the question. I don't know exactly

[5:27:41] how many a day they typically, so this is their second year doing this and they typically take six to eight weeks to get it accomplished.

[5:27:53] So they'll bring a crew, they'll sometimes the crews are bigger than others is what I've heard depending on, you know, how many people they have available.

[5:28:03] So it just kind of depends.

[5:28:05] We are getting updates kind of weekly about like the direction.

[5:28:09] They're moving where they're at in the city, generally speaking, so.

[5:28:15] So my other burning hydrant question that I've been curious about is one thing that kind of bugs me is it seems like a lot of these

[5:28:26] damaged ones or ones that are damaged because people are opening them that shouldn't be opening.

[5:28:31] Is there like do we have an ordinance saying that you shouldn't you're not allowed to tamper with fire hydrants and if so is that something that we ever

[5:28:40] I mean are there consequences for people breaking our fire hydrants

[5:28:44] So that I'd like to know if there are I'd like there to be

[5:28:49] So without being the expert on the actual enforcement side

[5:28:53] I think there's vandalism and there was a

[5:28:55] a direction that the fire department, if in fact observed it or was a witness to it that we would report it to law enforcement.

[5:29:06] That's very, it's not super common that, you know, we're witnessing these types of things.

[5:29:13] More often than not, we get a call after the fact that the hydrants open or there's water running from a hydrant where somebody's been tampering with it

[5:29:21] and then we'll go out there and shut it off with our hydrant wrench, assuming it's not damaged.

[5:29:29] So, thank you.

[5:29:30] We are looking at just a throat out there.

[5:29:33] We've, since I came in a couple months ago, we've been looking at options and alternatives

[5:29:38] that could exist to maybe limit the amount of tampering that happens to some of the fire hydrants,

[5:29:44] but we're kind of in the very early stages of beta testing that.

[5:29:48] I'm talking to other fire departments across the country and kind of what what they're doing and how they're

[5:29:54] minimizing this tampering that could be going on so

[5:29:57] We can keep you updated on that when we

[5:30:00] If and when we find this decent solution, yeah.

[5:30:06] Seeing no other questions, thank you, gentlemen, for that information. Thank you. Keep up the good work. Okay, city managers report. Nothing to report. Sorry, did I say that out loud? Okay, council members, comments, ooh, blower, first end. Yes, let's go. All right, I want to give a quick report. Last Monday, I went to DC.

[5:30:32] on a trip for Sijafka. I went with Chair Paul Canapa. He didn't get anything on his tie that

[5:30:42] I was aware of. It was actually a really good trip. There were several of us that went

[5:30:51] and the whole point of it was to do advocacy for Sijafka and some of the programs that we have.

[5:30:58] My particular part that I was in charge of at several meetings that we went to,

[5:31:03] I led the discussion on the lower San Joaquin River fled control project phase one.

[5:31:09] And what that will do is give a quick background on it.

[5:31:15] The core of engineers in St. Javka back in 2009 decided that they needed to do a study on flood protection in our area.

[5:31:25] But it took nine years and $9.1 million to conclude the study, and then in 2018 Congress did approve that project, phase one of the project.

[5:31:40] Since then there was a two 18, a prop to 18 election where the voters voted in favor of funding, and about 10% of the funds will come from local taxation of the residents.

[5:31:53] that it would be affected as well as 25% coming from the state leaving 65% of that coming from the federal government.

[5:32:06] Now we had seven budget cycles in a row where we received funding on this project where the court was able to get funding.

[5:32:14] Unfortunately, in FY25 and 26, the administration zeroed that out, which is part of why we chose to go back to DC for this particular project.

[5:32:29] The Sacramento District of the Corps has advocated for it, and what we were supporting them with and discussing with them is for

[5:32:38] For FY27, we're asking for 157 million for the project.

[5:32:44] So the groups that we've met with, we had Vance Skioch as our associates, is our lobbyist for

[5:32:55] Sajafka there in D.C.

[5:32:57] We had meetings with the US Army Corps of Engineers headquarters team.

[5:33:02] We were supposed to meet with the representative Adam Gray, unfortunately he was ill, so

[5:33:07] we did meet with his staff, we also had on Wednesday morning.

[5:33:14] We went to a California constituent coffee with Senators Padilla and Senator Schiff.

[5:33:20] So it was kind of cool, we were able to actually meet our two US Senators.

[5:33:27] And we did advocate for getting funding.

[5:33:32] I made Senator Schiff laugh when I told him I was getting the feeling that this administration may not like California.

[5:33:41] And his office, they're helping us, they're doing what they can for us.

[5:33:49] We met with Congressman Josh Harder, he has been working on our behalf.

[5:33:55] He met in June with then acting ASA, which is Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Robin Colisimo.

[5:34:07] The reason that she gave him why we got phased out is carryover funding, basically saying,

[5:34:15] well, you still have money left, you can use that to keep the process rolling.

[5:34:19] So that was the main thing that we did, we met, again, I said with Josh Harder, and then after that we went to the office.

[5:34:29] We actually had a joint meeting with staff from Senator Padilla's office and Senator Schiff's office.

[5:34:34] So I think it was a quick trip, I flew in on Monday and flew back on Wednesday, but I think it was valuable because this particular project,

[5:34:46] In fact, the phase one will provide, once it's completed, 84% protection for over 300,000 Stoctonians.

[5:34:57] And in terms of the value of just property, you're talking over 21 billion in property.

[5:35:04] So very, very important, so like I said, I think it was well worth the trip.

[5:35:10] and we're just really crossing our fingers at that FY27 budget and we will get funding on that.

[5:35:18] Okay, real quick Friday, last Friday, congratulations to visit Stockton,

[5:35:24] the visit Stockton staff, as well as Robin Camino, the CEO.

[5:35:29] This was her first big event that she was in charge of, which was feast at the Fox.

[5:35:36] It was a very good group, saw several of my colleagues there.

[5:35:40] coming up this week on Thursday the 25th, the Cal City's Central Valley Division will have the membership meeting.

[5:35:49] That's going to be at 6 o'clock in Modesto.

[5:35:52] I know that several of you are at Cog, I did talk to Diane Ney and she did tell me she thinks that one will be done by 5.30.

[5:36:00] So if anybody decides they want to go, we do have several important things that we're discussing.

[5:36:07] we are going to do a election of officers, I'm throwing my hat in again for first vice president.

[5:36:19] We are also updating the bylaws, so I served on the bylaws committee, which was in great need of updating.

[5:36:27] And so we are hoping we have a quorum, which is two thirds of the cities.

[5:36:32] So I've been wrangling some of the cities to show up there.

[5:36:36] And then finally, last thing I'll mention, this Saturday on the 27th is the 11th annual super hero run.

[5:36:45] And that is the one that's put on by Child Abuse Prevention Council, and it's for the CASA program.

[5:36:51] And registration is at 8 a.m., the run is at 9 and the kid dashes at 1015, it takes place at Lodai Lake.

[5:37:00] I've been asked to once again come and dress as Captain America.

[5:37:05] And Tim Olmer will be there dressed.

[5:37:08] He has a serious Iron Man costume.

[5:37:13] It's actually the Iron Patriot version of the Iron Man costume.

[5:37:17] The mask moves up and all that.

[5:37:20] So, there is time.

[5:37:21] If any of my colleagues would like to come up with a superhero costume,

[5:37:26] you are welcome to join us.

[5:37:28] And those are my comments.

[5:37:31] Councilman Padilla, thank you mayor.

[5:37:34] I'll keep it short.

[5:37:36] I just want to thank Dan Richardson earlier for recognizing our stocked MPD.

[5:37:42] I don't think they often get shout out, so I really appreciate his comments.

[5:37:48] This Saturday I had held my coffee hour particularly because in my district I've had an increase of mail theft and wheel theft.

[5:37:58] So the recommendation is for your wheel theft is to remove one of the lug nuts and purchase wheel locks so that will help prevent your wheels getting stolen and the cars that

[5:38:14] particularly get hit are Honda's and Toyota's.

[5:38:19] With regards to mail theft, it is kind of a hard issue because the mailboxes are owned

[5:38:29] by USPS and so they're responsible for initiating the investigations.

[5:38:38] So our police department can give them the information, however it's up to the post office

[5:38:47] this to proceed with the investigation and what we were told was that currently the

[5:38:53] post office only has two open investigations.

[5:38:58] A couple of recommendations in regards to that is pick up your mail daily because most

[5:39:06] mail thefts occur late at night after 9.30, sometimes 12.30 at night, 3.30 in the morning

[5:39:13] I mean, so don't leave any important mail in there.

[5:39:17] If you're out of town, ask a family member or trusted neighbor to pick up your mail.

[5:39:25] Again, see something, say something.

[5:39:28] There's a lot of people that have cameras.

[5:39:30] We had one neighbor that actually captured the license plate in the vehicle and turned that over to the police.

[5:39:39] So, your ring cameras are very effective and just a side note, I'm not recommending this and it was just in discussion, but one of the neighbors actually had purchased a camera that was just a notification camera and they indicated it was no bigger than your pinky.

[5:40:03] and they put it inside the door and when the door opens it notifies them and they actually

[5:40:13] caught somebody in the act because they got notified. So, but that is the post office's

[5:40:21] property. So I'm not recommending that you do that. I'm just giving information that

[5:40:29] that I was told. Lastly, my homeless ad hoc committee will be meeting on October 4th and

[5:40:38] we'll be having a discussion on safe sleeping as well as safe parking. With regards to

[5:40:46] the earlier public comment, I just want to let the city know that I am actively working

[5:40:56] on a city-wide program, I know and my colleagues know that this is a very high priority item

[5:41:09] here in Stockton and things just take time. But I am doing my best, I'm doing the work,

[5:41:18] I'm looking at all kinds of avenues, talking to other cities outside of Stockton to see what

[5:41:26] what they're doing, what's working, what's not working.

[5:41:29] So I encourage any everyone to attend my homeless ad hoc meeting on October 4th.

[5:41:37] And I hope everyone has a good rest of the week.

[5:41:40] Thank you.

[5:41:43] Thank you, council member Enriquez.

[5:41:46] Thank you Madam Mayor.

[5:41:47] So first I'll go off with events.

[5:41:50] A couple, two weeks ago the Mayor and I had a pleasure of going to the unbound stocked in ribbon cutting on September 10th.

[5:41:56] And we definitely felt the energy and the decibels we were in the front row, but it was great.

[5:42:01] All the kids were really excited and I just want to thank Philip Hahn for his leadership.

[5:42:05] I know he's been working years to make this happen in downtown Stockton, but

[5:42:09] it was great that the Mayor and I and other electives were there to support and hang out with all the kids.

[5:42:14] Also, I want to thank our veterans who hosted a 9-11 ceremony, hosted at Carl Post, over by the freeway.

[5:42:22] I also want to thank our fire department and our police for being there as well.

[5:42:24] Well, on September 12th and 13th, I'd mention at the last council meeting I was at Bakersfield Keane area for the water education Latino leaders program that I'm in.

[5:42:35] We were there learning about the water conveyance systems led by the California Water Department.

[5:42:40] And then also why we were there, we were able to visit the Cessna Chavez National Park in museum.

[5:42:45] And we got to see his grave and his old house and the car that he used to drive.

[5:42:49] But it was just very educational, especially being from the Central Valley, and farm workers are a really important part of our history,

[5:42:56] which was really great to see as well as the 40 acres location site.

[5:43:02] I want to congratulate the first congregational church of Stockton.

[5:43:05] They had their 160th anniversary on September 14th.

[5:43:09] And I also want to share that they have an upcoming animal blessing on Sunday, October 5th at 10 a.m.

[5:43:15] I know I shared it earlier with my colleagues.

[5:43:16] The location will be at their future church site, which is on the Miracle Mile, 2562 Pacific Avenue.

[5:43:24] They are promoting it as all local critters are welcome.

[5:43:28] For more info, you can reach them at 209-951-8545 and I already bugged the chief.

[5:43:34] If you want to bring any of the horses or blue or jet, they will love to see them there as well.

[5:43:41] On September 18th, we raised the Air Force flag outside of City Hall.

[5:43:44] I was joined by Council Member Blower and the next one for this calendar year will be on Tuesday, October 14th, for the Navy flag raising outside City Hall at 9 a.m.

[5:43:56] Then after that, we have the Marines in November and then ending the year off with our Space Force on December 18th, which also happens in my birthday.

[5:44:06] last week I had a memorial in the mile at Valley Brew. I had, I want to think, my 12 constituents

[5:44:11] that came out to share their ideas and concerns. Some were regular, some were new, and some

[5:44:16] were people that I haven't seen since I knocked on their door last year.

[5:44:20] September 20th we had a community cleanup park at American Legion. I want to think the

[5:44:25] constituents that came out that we've been doing it monthly to ensure that we are cleaning

[5:44:29] in our waterways alongside our park.

[5:44:32] I know the mayor was there as well.

[5:44:34] We attended our family day at Weber Point, and then also later that day, I followed it up

[5:44:41] with the Health Town Hall led by a assembly woman, Ransom, and French camp.

[5:44:45] This past Sunday, the mayor and I also attended a lot of events together, friends outside.

[5:44:50] There's 70th anniversary.

[5:44:51] We just want to congratulate the organization and the leadership for just a great event overall.

[5:44:56] and I know a lot of our city staff were there as well as well as other elected.

[5:45:03] I will be visiting a second grade class at Taft Elementary to talk to students about local government and civic engagement. And I want to thank my friend Ruby, who is a teacher there, who I went to ULP together.

[5:45:15] We have an upcoming morning with Mario this Sunday, September 28th, 10 a.m. at Terracoffee on New

[5:45:20] Semite Street Village. And then District 4 beautification event, I want to think our city for

[5:45:25] posting it as well. October 11th, 830 to 1130 at Nelson Park in the Brookside community. All right,

[5:45:33] moving on to infrastructure. Major Pottle was fixed on the corner of Riot Avenue in Acacia. That's

[5:45:40] going towards Lewis Park.

[5:45:42] If you want to see how bad it was,

[5:45:43] look at my before and after photo on social media.

[5:45:46] We also got a few scattered potholes fixed near the 4,300 block

[5:45:50] of Boulder Creek Circle area.

[5:45:53] We have some graffiti cleanups.

[5:45:54] Again, we have a stellar graffiti cleanup team here

[5:45:56] in our city, Southbound Freeway Exit Off Country Club.

[5:46:00] Also the North Side Building wall of Oak Park Senior Center.

[5:46:05] And then also we were able to fix a major concern,

[5:46:08] which I know some of the council members flaged to both the mayor and I,

[5:46:11] major graffiti and trash outside the family dollar store on 505 West Harding Way,

[5:46:16] which has been cleared and cleaned up.

[5:46:18] And then I think this morning or yesterday morning,

[5:46:21] I saw that trash was being picked up by cow trans alongside I5 Northbound,

[5:46:25] month of the Abelow entrance.

[5:46:27] It was pretty bad over the weekend, so I'm glad that they were able to get it cleaned quickly.

[5:46:31] And then also my constituents know and those that are watching that I continue to

[5:46:36] I know you talk with our acting city manager and deputy city manager about areas,

[5:46:40] Fontana Avenue by Safeway of Country Club, and then also the West Country Club area by some constituents from Pershing to the freeway our areas that I'm working on.

[5:46:51] And then also still in construction, I know Dan mentioned it.

[5:46:54] We are still working on the hot light system on Pershing, parking lot on East Side Oak Park, parking lot area, and then the X-Lew Restrooms in Victory Park and Oak Park.

[5:47:06] I just want to, again, thank the Vice Mayor and Councilman for the, you know, we do a lot in the Ledge Committee, and, you know, we tell, I mean, I said it in past meetings, if any of my colleagues, anyone in the community has any that they want for us to be able to explore, Ledge Committee is a good way to start, like the Vice Mayor said to, I'm pretty much black and white, I don't take emotions, I think I'm here to discuss policy and get to work, anything that we can amend to make our meetings more productive,

[5:47:33] to change how we do things, I'm all open for it.

[5:47:36] I mean, just because we have something, we have to continue to do it just because.

[5:47:40] But I love the fact that we can have a good, healthy debate in dialogue, ask questions.

[5:47:44] And we can kind of just go back and forth to really understand future changes we want to make.

[5:47:49] And I think that's ultimately what we all want.

[5:47:51] We all want to be able to have productive meetings and good dialogue all around.

[5:47:56] The Vice Mayor and I are going to continue, we're going to meet up with our acting city manager.

[5:48:00] We are exploring a housing policy.

[5:48:02] I know we had mentioned at the last meeting, but that's something that we're going to dive into.

[5:48:06] I know some folks in the audience had mentioned about rent prices.

[5:48:09] So we're going to continue to explore some policies when it comes to that.

[5:48:13] So we'll have some more updates in the future, as well as our compassionate city resolution,

[5:48:18] language that I've been drafting, and we've discussed it at Ledge Committee.

[5:48:22] And I know our staff is going to be working on it.

[5:48:24] So please expect that likely in November for us to discuss as a council.

[5:48:30] Of coming travel, since we're not meeting till mid-October,

[5:48:35] actually Council Member Blower and I, we're going to be pretty busy.

[5:48:38] We're going to be at the California League of Cities Conference in Long Beach from October

[5:48:42] 8th through 10th.

[5:48:43] And then before that, I would be in Los Angeles at my alma mater back to USC for a two-day policy

[5:48:48] training for elected officials diving into topics such as local government public policy sessions,

[5:48:55] such as council manager relations, budget and policy making, emergency management and communications,

[5:49:01] response to natural disasters and crisis management.

[5:49:06] Then after our conference in Long Beach, we back in Sacramento for the fourth weekend of my water well program from October 10 through the 11th.

[5:49:15] And I want to think our water department, our mud department, because next week we have a really important investment that we're making here in Stockton.

[5:49:23] And it's going to be a game changer in many ways.

[5:49:26] We have a ground breaking at the Delta water supply ground water recharge project.

[5:49:31] And it's truly an investment that's going to allow Stockton to store water in wet years for us to use in dry years.

[5:49:36] But not just in wet years, but every year, ideally.

[5:49:39] But it'll utilize engineering recharge basins to percolate surface water into critically over-drafted eastern sound king ground water sub basin.

[5:49:49] So it's going to ultimately help us to maintain sustainable groundwater levels.

[5:49:53] It's also going to help increase our aquifer storage, improve our local water supply reliability,

[5:49:59] and also the fact that we're going to be in compliance with our sustainable groundwater

[5:50:03] management act also known as SIGMA.

[5:50:06] But that will be next week, so please keep an eye out for the ground breaking as I know

[5:50:10] some of my colleagues will be attending.

[5:50:12] Other than that, that is all they have.

[5:50:14] You can always reach me at DIST4 at StocktonCA.gov or call me at my cell 209-645-2711.

[5:50:22] Thank you.

[5:50:24] Vice Mayor.

[5:50:26] Thank you, Mayor.

[5:50:27] I promise today I swear we jinxed ourselves because I thought we were getting out at 9 o'clock and we're not.

[5:50:33] Okay, anyway, first I want to say that I really do appreciate all of the dialogue that we had today here.

[5:50:41] And I want to thank all my colleagues for just all the participation.

[5:50:46] And I thank you, Mayor, for allowing us to have a really good conversation around some of these topics that have been top of mind.

[5:50:53] I typically rarely, I rarely address public comments that are made in the meeting, but

[5:51:01] there were a few today that I did want to address.

[5:51:03] So one, I want to just talk about, there was one comment made where someone acknowledged

[5:51:10] my ability to code switch.

[5:51:13] My podcast, me as an entertainer, what I do for a day job, y'all don't want me to bring that here.

[5:51:18] We wouldn't be able to handle it, there's no seatbelts on our chairs up here and our staffer, we are great.

[5:51:23] So people should be honored that I do code switch, and I do come here and understand where I'm at, and I handle myself accordingly.

[5:51:31] But I do that because my job as an entertainer, or as an entrepreneur and

[5:51:37] entertainment allows me to entertain the world one way, but this is not a, even

[5:51:43] though it feels like it at times, a reality show.

[5:51:45] This is not entertainment.

[5:51:46] This is real work, and there's a lot of people looking to us for leadership.

[5:51:50] And I just want to acknowledge the fact that we're all working very hard to continue

[5:51:54] to stay focused and grounded in the work and moving forward unless noise.

[5:51:58] So there's that.

[5:51:59] The other thing is there was a comment made from someone that there's ghost

[5:52:05] Just operatives controlling the council, I think about this council similar to, and I know I use analogies that end up in the paper, so I'll just say this.

[5:52:15] I address people who make decisions and say things up here.

[5:52:21] We are all elected, there's no individual controlling me, I can't speak for everybody else, but I would say I don't address ghosts, I don't address conspiracy theories, I address the people who make decisions.

[5:52:34] and the people who got elected with an oath in obligation to the community.

[5:52:39] So I don't really like this continuum of pointing fingers at all the distractions of why things are the way they are.

[5:52:48] I think what we need to all do is be held accountable, including myself, specifically me and my colleagues,

[5:52:55] for the decisions that we make and for the words that we use and the votes that we take.

[5:52:59] regardless of how we get there you know it is our responsibility and so I just

[5:53:05] have in these continuous comments it's just quite frustrating but you know

[5:53:08] again it's your comments they which one there was also a complaint made

[5:53:12] against one of my my commissioners and what I will say you know I I believe that

[5:53:17] you teach people how to treat you and so you know for me when I get a

[5:53:23] complaint or I see something online with people's commissioners I reach out to

[5:53:27] them and give them the professional courtesy to both get the heads up and to address it.

[5:53:31] I'm continuously not afforded that opportunity and without creating more controversy, I will

[5:53:38] just say that I do think as a team and I look at us as a team.

[5:53:43] We should do a better job of fostering open communication and sharing that information so

[5:53:48] that way we can all be better in our districts because there's enough time to finger point

[5:53:53] but we got more work to do that the people voted us to focus on.

[5:53:57] But I will say, I'm not a full-time referee on parents' disputes at school districts,

[5:54:03] that's what the school districts for, and with that particular matter,

[5:54:06] I know that they've looked into that and found nothing.

[5:54:09] Moving on, the day after our last city council, the mayor, myself,

[5:54:12] councilmember Enrique has attended the Bewell ground breaking,

[5:54:15] which I just have to say was so phenomenal.

[5:54:18] I don't want other people want to share.

[5:54:20] Yeah, I know she's probably going to say so.

[5:54:22] I mean, it was such an amazing experience to see how the county came together, working

[5:54:27] in partnership with the state to be able to bring together an opportunity for our community

[5:54:33] to get our community healthy.

[5:54:35] And I want to thank Genevieve Valentine and Supervisor Paul Campbell for their kind words in acknowledging

[5:54:43] my contribution in introducing them to Mark Fawcett, who helped with the $132 million

[5:54:49] of funding.

[5:54:49] But I say that as a reminder that there is another round coming in us as a city,

[5:54:53] should really focus on making sure that we do everything to get our share because our community needs to help.

[5:55:00] But I do want to say, thank you again to the county, being able to watch them do something like that.

[5:55:05] I know me in Councilman Padeo walked to the side and were like, we want to do this too.

[5:55:10] And I do think that we'll continue to get there.

[5:55:13] I want to thank public work staff, code enforcement teams on all the work put into developing a clean community.

[5:55:19] plan for district six. I've shared it on social media but really quick some of the current

[5:55:24] efforts crews worked on for a couple days addressing all the trash in public right away hitting

[5:55:29] all the major roadways and dumping spots and they work to have those final and address

[5:55:37] the other day. Moving forward, staff met with the debris contractor to better define clean-up

[5:55:43] expectations, assigned a supervisor to perform weekly quality control checks, and implemented

[5:55:48] in a procedure for debris, contract to report trash on private property to the city supervisor

[5:55:53] for proactive entry into a stock and I've also been promoting a lot online and again I love the

[5:55:58] mayor's idea about billboards or buses or things to promote a stock because we're doing a good job

[5:56:03] of educating my district but I do think we need to continue to do a better job of educating everybody

[5:56:07] on using that. I also want to shout out the police department and code enforcement again for addressing

[5:56:15] using all the blife and western ranch, then they put together a plan.

[5:56:17] I've seen people online saying it was the first time in years.

[5:56:20] They got a mailing telling them exactly what was going to happen.

[5:56:23] And I do see my neighbors both in person and online talking about that.

[5:56:28] So I just want to thank PD for that.

[5:56:31] But I did ask staff to focus on a plan.

[5:56:35] And so seeing the manager group, there's a plan to just expand those efforts across the district.

[5:56:40] I know the corridor needs some love, and Southeast Stockton, we need to continue to do some work there.

[5:56:48] The mayor, myself, and Councilman Padilla, we attended the Interagency Committee meeting yesterday, was yesterday, it was yesterday, which is a partnership between Salon King County,

[5:56:59] Stockton Unified School District, and the City of Stockton, and so we had asked the district to conduct a student parent survey,

[5:57:06] And it's clear from the results that a sense of belonging of our kids and their families

[5:57:11] with civic engagement are things that they want to see along with more stuff for youth to do.

[5:57:16] Those were all top party issues.

[5:57:18] And so here's a few things that we've been talking about as a small group, but

[5:57:24] I'll just kind of put out there.

[5:57:25] We talked about a youth conference in 2026 in partnership with our schools.

[5:57:30] We talked about student attendance, the where you at campaign.

[5:57:34] some ideas of getting our kids and parents excited about getting students to attend school

[5:57:39] more regularly because there is an issue with absenteeism or truancy and then as a city I think

[5:57:47] just explore more private partnerships to increase ways of exhausting use time with creativity and

[5:57:52] productive things to do. We hear that all the time so if there are partners out there listening or

[5:57:57] if we have any idea and we have FIFA coming but beyond FIFA if there's other organizations that

[5:58:02] That can help in that effort, I think that would be great.

[5:58:07] And let me see, there's one more thing, sorry,

[5:58:14] two things.

[5:58:15] One, I want to go back to the optic conversation and just say that I do appreciate the mayor for allowing us to have a lengthy conversation of Mr.

[5:58:25] for presenting. I do want to say that I think given the conversation that we had today, we all want to see the story of Stockton told in a manner that allows us to change the narrative, make people entice people to come to our city and to truly want to invest in the Stockton story that we're all creating.

[5:58:46] I think with the mayor coming in straight out the gate with a light up stocked in was an initiative that were like there

[5:58:51] would have been great to see little rills of us turning on lights and you know lighting up our city cleaning up the city kids noticing how clean it is going to school

[5:58:59] I can go on and on substations on so forth or whatever you are. Yes program

[5:59:03] There's just been many examples. So what I would

[5:59:07] Like and I would go on to give the staff to direction and hopefully get support from my colleagues is by November 18th

[5:59:13] We need just a real plan with measurable, trackable outcomes.

[5:59:16] So that way we can get on track with you on our story.

[5:59:19] I think Councilwoman Padilla saying April of 2026 is too late, I totally agree.

[5:59:24] But I do think by November 18th we should have a measurable, trackable plan with outcomes.

[5:59:31] You know, absent that, you know, I would really ask the city management department if we don't have that.

[5:59:38] That's just really a reimagine the efforts and figure out what we're doing in that department.

[5:59:43] So if I can get some support, I would love the city manager's department to come back

[5:59:48] with that by November 8th.

[5:59:49] I'll support that.

[5:59:51] Do I need one or two or three or four?

[5:59:54] Okay, great.

[5:59:55] Sounds like we got a lot.

[5:59:56] All right.

[5:59:56] And then the last thing, very last thing.

[5:59:59] Thank you very, very much.

[6:00:30] And so what I want to propose is just, I mean, to create, and I just, this was kind of something I put together, but to create meaningful change, we have to expand our tax base by being intentional and proactive in pursuing economic opportunities. And promoting Stockton, similar to what we said with Optics, should be a full-time job. But I'm speaking specifically here to economic development, focused, full-time, focused effort with clear goals and measurable outcomes.

[6:00:59] not a part-time endeavor, we do have the homeless work being done in economic development.

[6:01:06] I'm requesting staff present Council with options within 90 days on how we can better invest in Stockton's long-term economic vitality.

[6:01:15] And I just think that there should be a real emphasis and we heard today how reactive we are to certain things.

[6:01:22] I think we should be proactive in how we approach really driving the economic engine of our city.

[6:01:28] and if staff can do that, that'd be great.

[6:01:31] Can I get a second on that?

[6:01:32] I'll support that.

[6:01:33] Thank you.

[6:01:34] That's all I have.

[6:01:35] Thank you, everybody.

[6:01:37] Councilmember Ville-Boudeau.

[6:01:38] Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

[6:01:40] First of all, I want to thank everyone for staying

[6:01:43] late in the coming of these meetings.

[6:01:47] Lastly, I had my office hours, which was a great.

[6:01:51] I have my constituents talking about the daily things

[6:01:54] in my district.

[6:01:56] I want to thank the Acting City Manager, Rule Crew, for today going over all the things

[6:02:03] and helping one of my big constituents in my district, which was very, very happy today.

[6:02:10] So thank you, sir.

[6:02:13] I want to thank police and fire as well.

[6:02:15] I won't take a lot of time today.

[6:02:18] A lot of big wins.

[6:02:20] The Stockton Diamond grade separation, I think it's a big thing for District 5.

[6:02:23] So it's going to create a lot of jobs, so looking forward to that as well as last week.

[6:02:30] Myself and the mayor, we attended the navigation.

[6:02:37] What was that tour?

[6:02:40] Yeah, the next 30 days, which we were told, it should be all up and going.

[6:02:48] We saw the beds, the whole thing, so hopefully if none of my colleagues

[6:02:53] this unit please take a tour and I'm just in one last thing myself and vice mayor and mayor we

[6:03:03] got some e-mails and pictures of mormous slew which is one of the items was not true of the way

[6:03:12] they presented the picture because you know there's no water there but we need to do something

[6:03:22] But we got to come up with a major, major plan, you know, sitting down and as well as our colleagues and really come up with a big cleanup as well, finding these homeless, some shelter, some support.

[6:03:38] So somehow we could get together as well, city manager and put that on the agenda so we could talk about it.

[6:03:48] I think it's one of the biggest things in our city.

[6:03:53] So, that being said, a lot of good wins tonight.

[6:03:57] I want to thank my colleagues, I want to wish them a great week.

[6:04:02] Keep up the great job and have a great weekend.

[6:04:06] Thank you.

[6:04:09] Thank you.

[6:04:09] Just piggybacking off that Mormon slew and the navigation center when that whole campus is built out.

[6:04:16] But we're talking 606 beds that will be the largest location for people to go to that

[6:04:24] want to get off the streets and those that don't want to get off the streets, they better

[6:04:28] they got to figure out a way.

[6:04:31] And I appreciate Councilwoman Padilla and her efforts to provide safe places for the unhoused

[6:04:38] in our community.

[6:04:39] And so getting into my long list, the first thing I want to bring up is the Youth Advisory

[6:04:45] Committee.

[6:04:45] I have an amazing committee of kids.

[6:04:49] We elected our chairperson, vice chair secretary, manager, and sergeant of arms.

[6:04:55] They represent HCA, Stockton Collegiate, St. Mary's, Stagge High School, Venture Academy.

[6:05:01] And just so you know, nine students put their name in the hat and

[6:05:06] present it to become chair.

[6:05:08] Another nine students put their name in the hat to become vice chair, three for

[6:05:12] secretary six for communications manager and two for sergeant and arms.

[6:05:20] So we have a number of kids super excited about being part of the solution and I will tell

[6:05:27] you I gave them a big task to do and here is the packet of what I gave them.

[6:05:35] I gave them put them in groups and gave them $3 million to spend in the city of Stockton

[6:05:41] And then I wanted to see where they put it.

[6:05:42] And I gave them previous meetings with how much things cost

[6:05:47] and let them pick what they thought.

[6:05:50] And then they had to justify why they thought

[6:05:52] that that was a need that needed to be filled in our community.

[6:05:55] And they impressed the heck out of me and everybody else

[6:06:00] that was there for that to witness that.

[6:06:04] The next thing on here is resolution.

[6:06:07] I want to thank my council members for supporting

[6:06:10] the resolution to stop the tunnels, I spoke to Senator McNeerney who said he would chain

[6:06:18] himself to the fence and I said I don't know how many fences are in the delta but I'll

[6:06:22] chain myself too because I'm trying to figure out where that fence is.

[6:06:26] But if you vote, if you fish, if you live on a boat, I mean there's all these things that

[6:06:33] are affected by not just agriculture which is huge as well.

[6:06:39] The other thing I have started an initiative, the Stockton Energy Alliance, and that is going

[6:06:47] to be going over, you know, we've talked about Ava, we've talked about PG&E, we've talked

[6:06:52] about solar, we've talked about all these things.

[6:06:55] So, education inform, affordability and access, accountability and transparency, policy

[6:07:01] and partnership, and we are inviting, you know, other people to join us as well as Ava

[6:07:09] and PG&E, Valley Can Solar Rights Center for Biological Diversities, Reclaim Power, and technical experts so looking forward to rolling that out.

[6:07:21] And we will be having a town hall on energy so that people can get their questions answered by Ava and PG&E.

[6:07:30] Also, the economic summit huge, the economic summit 800 people from different cities in California

[6:07:40] are coming here to Stockton.

[6:07:43] They are going to be doing tours here, they are going to be going out on the Delta,

[6:07:49] they are going to be going out to the County Office of Education.

[6:07:53] They're just going to be doing a lot in this community and talking about economics and

[6:08:01] I'd like nothing more because on Friday night I spoke at a bank of America event that

[6:08:09] was about why should you invest in Stockton?

[6:08:13] And what group should we be focusing on, which is why I knew that 71% of the population

[6:08:20] from the core of Stockton into the South is Latino,

[6:08:25] which is a huge consumer base.

[6:08:27] I mean, Rancho San Miguel is no joke.

[6:08:29] If you've ever been in there, I love their fish tacos.

[6:08:32] I go there exclusively for them.

[6:08:34] But as well as the workforce, and what I said was,

[6:08:38] we, why businesses and banks should invest in Stockton,

[6:08:41] we are a logistics and trade hub.

[6:08:44] We've got the major freeways.

[6:08:45] We've got trains, you know, automobiles.

[6:08:48] What is it? Train's planes and automobiles and we have ships so we are a global we're not just you know here

[6:08:55] But we are state national and global and we are foreign trade zone

[6:09:02] We have status for that. So I just said we need to move forward together

[6:09:06] Our city doesn't just thrive on investment investment it thrives when people get involved in shaping decisions

[6:09:12] Which is what happens up here and what happens

[6:09:15] and hopefully in our community.

[6:09:19] But the summit is October 21st, 22nd, 23rd.

[6:09:23] There are gonna be some special guests here.

[6:09:25] I can't put those out just yet,

[6:09:28] but I would say if you want to be part of this,

[6:09:31] please get a ticket, please join in it.

[6:09:34] It's gonna be big for our city.

[6:09:39] Oh, great news yesterday was groundbreaking for.

[6:09:42] a medical school that is going to be opening up here.

[6:09:47] We're having a medical school.

[6:09:49] I don't know how many of you know how many medical schools are in California.

[6:09:52] Anybody?

[6:09:53] Anybody?

[6:09:54] Nobody?

[6:09:56] 4.

[6:09:58] Where New York has double digits, Texas has double digits.

[6:10:04] We're the same size as Texas and they have many.

[6:10:08] They turn out doctors like nobody's business were in California.

[6:10:12] they often go to the Caribbean to schools in the Caribbean for med school. But what's great is

[6:10:17] having a med school here and the med school is ARIA University. That's the name right now. It's

[6:10:23] going to be out where the hospital general hospital is, but people who usually where they do their

[6:10:30] residency, where they're getting their education is where they will end up remaining. And I'm excited

[6:10:36] about having our students who want to go on to med school that can come back to the community

[6:10:43] and help those because we have huge health disparities in this city and nothing better than having

[6:10:50] medical school and teaching hospital. Coastal cleanup, very successful day. I was out at the port

[6:10:55] with that. It's something, it's the third Saturday, internationally, the third Saturday of September

[6:11:02] every year around the world so it's also family day in the park they run

[6:11:09] concurrently family day in the park was amazing so many people out there so

[6:11:14] many activities free things for everybody to do the food wasn't free but

[6:11:22] everything else was music was great it was done by our high school students a

[6:11:26] strain those of you that are 49er fans or if your team is playing against the

[6:11:31] 49ers and you live in Stockton. You can take the ACE train. It leads here at 9.15. It comes back at

[6:11:37] 707 at night. You can enjoy yourself. You can sleep on it or you can cheer with other fans, but there were like 100 people that boarded the first

[6:11:47] train to the first home league home game from here. And they picked up in Mantika, lay through up Tracy all the way down to Santa

[6:11:58] And I'm going to clarify you didn't have to worry about traffic or wear and tear on your car or potential accident, not that we want to talk about those, but parking either I didn't pull 1214 I should have hard luck animal welfare advocates.

[6:12:13] We just purchased the building there on Fremont that used to be an emergency hospital and a pet hotel and I just want people to know that there is going to be a surgeon.

[6:12:26] There's 12 positions, two customer service representatives, two animal care specialists,

[6:12:32] a surgeon, a registered veterinary technician, site supervisor, a registered veterinary technician,

[6:12:40] and then three technician positions.

[6:12:44] But this is to help spay and neuter because the weight is so long in so many places and for

[6:12:56] provide at our current location we will have this and so all of you animal lovers out there the city has heard you loud and clear and we are making more opportunities to help serve as well as control the pet population in the city of Stockton.

[6:13:16] I don't know if we finalized on that, but thank you to the public and thank you, thank you,

[6:13:22] thank you to our police department for doing revocations, shutting down these businesses.

[6:13:29] If you are a legally operator, you know, in your lawful, great, we don't care, just continue

[6:13:36] to do your business, but if you're selling the kids, if you're selling illegal things,

[6:13:42] just know we're coming for you, okay?

[6:13:45] You've heard it here many times.

[6:13:48] Parking validations, I think that would be great to do that for downtown businesses because

[6:13:54] it is a ghost town, but that's why I say we need to have workforce housing, market rate

[6:14:00] housing because they are the ones that will support businesses downtown.

[6:14:04] If you have very small discretionary money in your budget, you can't go out and enjoy those restaurants that are downtown.

[6:14:15] Downtown trees and sidewalks, yes, that is something we need to look into, but 133 lights downtown were given LED lights.

[6:14:26] were replaced, it's bright, so I walked it after feast at the Fox, no issues there to

[6:14:34] get to my car, except for the Stray German Shepherd that was hungry and looking for water

[6:14:40] and I felt so bad for it.

[6:14:42] League of California cities was already brought up, but we will all, I don't know of all of

[6:14:47] us, but October 8th, 9th and 10th just know that many of us will not be here, and then

[6:14:53] And I want to thank Catherine for giving me the current logo was December of 2000 and with that I

[6:15:00] We will entertain a motion to adjourn at 11.54 p.m. We have a motion. Please vote.

[6:15:09] Motion carries. Good night, everyone.

City Council and Concurrent Authorities

Agenda

Transcript