[0:00] 3, 2, 1. Good
[0:04] evening and happy new year to everyone. Today is tuesday,
[0:08] january 13th, 2026, and we
[0:12] just came out of the close the session. There's no reportable
[0:16] action and we'll start our regular meeting
[0:20] at 7 0 9 and we'll cause a meeting to order
[0:25] and have a pledge of allegiance.
[0:34] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america
[0:39] to be the republic, which it stands, one nation under god,
[0:44] indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[0:53] agenda. Item two, report on close the session. We already
[0:57] reported no, um, action items. So
[1:01] mayors, uh, let me see. Council member morada is
[1:05] participating remotely via china conference
[1:10] pursuant to government code 5 4 9 5 3
[1:15] b. His meeting location was posted on the agenda
[1:19] and the agenda was posted as a attend conference location 72
[1:24] hours before the meeting. All votes during the
[1:28] attending conference session will be conducted by roll call
[1:32] vote. So agenda item three presentations, and the
[1:36] proclamations 3.1, recognition of the
[1:41] altamont cruisers car club for their donation to
[1:45] doubling police service services.
[1:50] thank you. Good evening, madam mayor council. Um, vic fox, chief of police. It's
[1:54] my honor to introduce, uh, once again from last year ken reichman and retired dublin police
[1:58] services sergeant steve iasis of the altamont cruisers car club.
[2:02] the altamont cruisers have been long dedicated supporters of youth programs throughout the tri-valley
[2:07] and through their generous fundraising efforts, they've contributed more than $1 million
[2:11] to local charities and youth focused initiatives. This year, the altamont cruisers
[2:16] have once again demonstrated their commitment to our community by donating $3,500
[2:20] to the crime prevention unit. This contribution will help fund essential operating
[2:25] supplies for the many community events that we support throughout the year. So please join
[2:29] me in welcoming ken, steve, and the altamont cruisers car club for their generosity, commitment
[2:33] to service and ongoing support of the delwood community. Yeah, thank you very
[2:38] much.
[2:45] the front, yes, please share a few words front and center. Uh, I'm
[2:49] ken. Uh, thank you for inviting us. I look forward to this every year
[2:53] as I know steve does also. Um, it's just our,
[2:58] uh, gratitude to be able to help the community and
[3:03] all the work and efforts that you guys do. So thank you very, very much. And I hope you
[3:07] come out and see our car show at the end of september. It's
[3:11] the last sunday in september, and we have over 800 cars, classic
[3:15] cars, so very cool. Wow. Thank you. You have to invite us,
[3:19] . Yes, we will. We will make a reminder on it for sure.
[3:24] you so much for your contribution, and I would like to present this recognition
[3:28] to both of you. Do you want to come over and we'll take photo with you? Thank
[3:32] you. Thank you very, very much. We give to
[3:37] yeah. Thank you. Thank, thank you. Thank you. Very, very
[3:41] once again. Thank you. Does that have to be classics? No.
[3:45] no. Okay.
[3:51] thank. Let's take the church.
[3:56] should we invite the, um, chief come over too. Chief, you want
[4:00] to come over .
[4:10] there you go. Let me, let me
[4:16] thank you. Oh, this unique.
[4:29] thank you. Thank you.
[4:34] agenda item 3.2 2025 sponsor
[4:38] recognition.
[4:44] good evening, honorable mayor dis uh, distinguished council members and members
[4:48] of our community. Um, first off, happy new year. Uh, thank you for the opportunity
[4:53] to present the city of dublin's 2025 sponsor recognition. My
[4:57] name is ivan san pedro, recreation supervisor for the city of dublin's parks and community services department.
[5:02] and tonight we are proud to recognize the businesses and organizations whose
[5:06] generous support helped make our programs, events, and services possible throughout
[5:10] 2025.
[5:18] all right, in 2025, the city of dublin
[5:22] received $100,980 in cash sponsorships and
[5:26] 18,700 and in in-kind sponsorships. These
[5:31] contributions play a vital role in offsetting the costs of producing community events and
[5:35] supporting city programs, facilities and services. On the following
[5:39] slides, we will highlight several key events and programs from 2025
[5:43] and showcase the meaningful impact of our sponsors.
[5:48] first up, uh, st. Patrick's day, um, celebration,
[5:53] our annual st. Patrick's day celebration, once again, brought the community together
[5:57] for a lively and festive event with the support of our sponsors. Attendees
[6:01] enjoyed family friendly activities, entertainment and community engagement throughout
[6:06] the day, making this one of, uh, dublin's signature celebrations of the year,
[6:13] uh, the spring extravaganza welcomed families to a fun-filled day featuring
[6:17] egg hunts, crafts, inflatables, and photo opportunities. Sponsors
[6:21] help create a safe and joyful environment where children and families could celebrate
[6:25] this. Uh, the season together,
[6:33] uh, the farmer's market and summer concert series continue to thrive in
[6:37] 2025 local vendors live music and sponsor activations
[6:41] created vibrant weekly gatherings that supported small businesses
[6:45] while offering residents a place to connect and enjoy dublin's park, especially
[6:50] in emerald glen park. Picnic flick
[6:54] sponsored played a key role in enhancing picnic licks, our outdoor movie series.
[6:59] families enjoyed premo activities, games, and giveaways, hosted by sponsors
[7:04] helping to create a memorable summer evening in our community.
[7:11] splatter once again, capped off the summer with a high energy festival featuring live
[7:15] music, interactive activities, food vendors and creative experiences
[7:19] for all ages. Sponsor supported help elevate this
[7:23] event into a true community celebration.
[7:28] at har, uh, uh, sorry. At harvest fair and ghost of dublin,
[7:33] families enjoyed fall themed activities, historical elements, and seasonal fun.
[7:37] sponsor participation helped bring these traditional events to life. While celebrating
[7:42] dublin's heritage.
[7:46] just last month, the holiday tree lighting and breakfast with santa, we rang in the holiday season
[7:50] with the annual tree lighting and breakfast with santa. These beloved events
[7:55] were made even more special through sponsor involvement, creating warm and memorable
[7:59] experiences for families during the holidays.
[8:04] and lastly, the senior center. Throughout this, uh, 2025, sponsors
[8:08] also supported senior center events including resource fairs, specialty
[8:13] programs that promote wellness, connection, and enrichment for dublin's
[8:17] older adult community. So with that said,
[8:21] on behalf of the city of dublin, we extend our sincere gratitude to all of the
[8:25] businesses and organizations that supported our community throughout 2025.
[8:30] your partnership plays a critical role in helping us deliver high quality programs
[8:34] and events that enhance quality of life for our residents.
[8:38] um, thank you again for your continued support and partnership, and we look forward to working with you
[8:42] all in 2026. Now, at this time, we would like to invite
[8:46] all the sponsors in attendance today, uh, to join the mayor and the city council members
[8:50] for a group photo. Yeah, please come over if
[8:55] you are the sponsors in the list, and we
[8:59] would like to thank you and also have a photo with you. We already
[9:03] present your certificates before the meeting.
[9:12] everyone together? Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
[9:25] oh, we'll arrange behind me. So for,
[9:57] again, following, being here, supporting the city
[10:08] agenda item 3.3, recognition of the 2025
[10:13] tax, the home holiday, home decorating contest
[10:19] winners.
[10:23] good evening, mayor and council. I'm jennifer lamarey, recreation technician with the parks
[10:27] and community services department. Tonight we are pleased to recognize the residents who helped spread
[10:31] holiday cheer throughout our community through the 2025 deck. The homes holiday
[10:36] home decorating contest
[10:46] deck. The homes is an annual holiday home decorating contest that encourages creativity, neighborhood
[10:50] pride, and community connection. This year's contest will once again showcase
[10:54] the enthusiasm and talents of dublin residents, commissioners from the parks and community
[10:59] services commission and the public served as judges. Winners were selected at the
[11:03] december 15th, 2025. Parks and community services meeting and award winners
[11:08] received a yard sign. They'll receive a certificate of recognition tonight and a gift card
[11:12] from local businesses. This
[11:16] year in 2025, we had 15 homes participating from neighborhoods across the city.
[11:20] homes were evaluated across multiple categories, recognized for creativity,
[11:24] presentation, and overall holiday spirit.
[11:30] this map highlights the location of participating homes. Residents
[11:34] were able to explore decorated neighborhoods throughout dublin, helping foster a shared community
[11:39] experience during this holiday season.
[11:44] at this time, we would like to recognize the award recipients. As each winner is announced,
[11:49] we invite them to come forward to receive their certificate and be recognized by the city council.
[11:56] first, we have the glimcher family at 7 9 5 1 peppertree road.
[12:01] the people's choice award is selected by community votes and reflects display that rest
[12:05] that resonates most with residents.
[12:11] next, we have the gron pre family at 8 6 4 5
[12:16] ardmore place. This award recognized the best use of music, movement and technology.
[12:23] there's a few that are not here this evening that for sure I know are not here, so, so do
[12:27] we. Do we want to bring them on? Just the one by one, the two that I just called are not
[12:32] here this evening. Um, so I'll move forward. Next one. The ones that I know that are
[12:36] thank you. Sorry about that. Um, next we have
[12:40] winter wonderland award with the harris, I'm sorry, spotlight award with
[12:44] the harris family at 7 9 6 4 gunshot court. The spotlight award
[12:48] is our judge's choice award, and at this time, I'd like to invite the harris family up.
[13:00] so, congratulations. You can bring your whole family here.
[13:05] oh, good job.
[13:11] okay. You kind of like that new style.
[13:24] congratulations.
[13:28] thank you. Next we have the overinflated
[13:32] award with the mccormick family at 6 8 1 5 ion way. This award celebrates
[13:37] the best use of inflatables. I don't believe they're here this evening. Uh, we
[13:41] have the deck, the halls award with, which is the ross family at
[13:45] 1 0 8 6 8. Glen glen, gary link, excuse me, the
[13:49] deck. The halls award recognizes the best condo apartment display. I
[13:53] don't believe they're here as well. Right here. Oh, oh, they're welcome
[14:04] for next year. Sorry about that. Teams.
[14:10] very fun. Very cool. It'll be bigger next year.
[14:15] yeah, we got this new thing going.
[14:24] thank you.
[14:34] next we have the dashing debut award, which is the eat family at 7 9 8 4
[14:38] cranford lane. This award highlights a first year contest entry is the
[14:42] eat family here.
[14:47] and last we have the goat award. This goat award was the greatest of, of
[14:51] all time recognized as outstanding display and excellence in cre, creativity
[14:55] scale and holiday spirit. And we have the beto family, and they are here this evening.
[15:14] you got two. So how long did it take you to take all that down?
[15:19] three .
[15:42] yes.
[15:47] thank you. On behalf of the city, thank you to all of
[15:51] our participants for helping make dublin brighter during this holiday season. We appreciate your creativity,
[15:56] community spirit, and willingness to share your homes with residents throughout the city.
[16:00] this concludes my deck, the homes presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[16:13] now we are, we are on agenda item four, public comment. At
[16:17] this time, the public is permitted to address the city
[16:21] council on non genderized items. Please
[16:25] step to the podium and clearly state your name for the record.
[16:31] have any? Yes, mayor. I have two speakers here in the chamber, and the first speaker
[16:35] is mike grant.
[16:56] good evening, mike grant, longtime resident dublin,
[17:00] owner of guns unlimited. December 16th.
[17:05] I came here. You guys did a, uh, resolution
[17:09] condemning or basically not opening up the prison.
[17:14] and, uh, this did nothing but stir up and cause violence.
[17:18] as we've seen this in la, portland and minneapolis, the city council in
[17:23] minneapolis. And the mayor, mayor stirred the pot. And this caused
[17:27] a lady to get shot for doing something stupid, trying
[17:31] to run over an ice officer. Then shortly after that, two illegals,
[17:35] I said, illegals rammed into an ice vehicle in portland. Both
[17:39] of them were also shot. This council has put
[17:44] this same signal out to the protestors, said it's okay to disrupt police
[17:48] and operations, and that's ice operations. And we even
[17:52] had a speaker calling for blocking ice at the last meeting.
[17:57] my suggestion for each of you is to immediately put out a statement
[18:01] to the protestors in dublin who come and stand on our streets to avoid interfering
[18:05] with ice operations if they come to town.
[18:10] also told you that the ice doesn't need that federal prison
[18:14] at all. They have, they have a military base called camp parks right over
[18:18] there. The n-c-n-c-o academy will, will, will be closing in april.
[18:22] and this frees up lots of space for law enforcement. Nice
[18:27] to live on the base and base out of that place. Now
[18:31] why would I bring this up? Well, with the haters following federal
[18:35] agency officers around from motels, they will be looking
[18:39] at this very soon. That was told to me last night by a few guys that
[18:43] I know in the agency. So you should probably think about
[18:47] the words that you will need to say, telling people to stand down
[18:51] and not interfere with ice operations. I'm sure you would agree
[18:56] that we don't need another ice agent attack
[19:01] attacked, or he needs to defend himself and shoot somebody in dublin.
[19:06] last, the illegals that was in bloomington, minnesota
[19:10] for 25 years was just picked up the other day, january the
[19:14] sixth, they finally told his family where he went to texas,
[19:18] and that's what they're gonna do to anybody they find around here. They're not keeping 'em around here,
[19:23] they're gonna send 'em down south someplace so they can be closer to the border and they can run 'em
[19:27] across and get rid of 'em. So I come back to you again and I tell you, stay outta
[19:31] national politics gene and follow what we said. Seven
[19:35] people spoke or sent you guys information on this stuff. Seven people from
[19:39] double and outta 72,000, and you reacted with
[19:43] the emails. I know you run your eyebrows. The emails that came
[19:47] out, I seen them. There was no reason for you guys to get involved in
[19:52] this, but you guys are on the spotlight now. Second letter went to president trump and
[19:56] christie, so hopefully they'll be out here. Have fun
[20:02] mayor. The next speaker is angela tucker.
[20:12] uh, good evening and happy nun year, uh, honorable mayor and, uh,
[20:16] city council. I wanted to offer just some very, very brief
[20:20] comments on, uh, the traffic safety issue relating to,
[20:24] uh, not dissimilar topic to the indivisible protests in front
[20:28] of the safe, uh, safeway one, I, uh, uh,
[20:33] I drive by there regularly and, uh, just last saturday, I drove
[20:37] by there again and it is getting a little bit more chaotic.
[20:41] and I personally, of course, uh, do not take any issue with people
[20:45] protesting. And while I do not follow the rationale
[20:49] of pres, uh, uh, protesting president trump in our
[20:53] city in california, that is beside the point. I take no issue with
[20:58] that, but I am concerned about, uh, the traffic safety.
[21:02] a lot of people are crossing, uh, all the time and they're very
[21:06] close, uh, to the roadway in particular. I drive,
[21:11] uh, may surprise you, but I drive a very large truck. And literally
[21:15] people with the placards, they're like inches away from, uh, from the truck when
[21:19] you are in the right hand lane. And I'm worried that if
[21:23] somebody slips, uh, goes, uh, under the wheels,
[21:28] what happens then? Right? What, what happens to liability?
[21:33] what happens? Uh, um, you know, they are in a lively way waving
[21:37] around the placards. Again, that's their right. I take no issue with that.
[21:42] uh, but what happens if they hit my truck? What, what happens
[21:46] if, uh, if they, um, wave the placards and
[21:51] get injured when they accidentally hit the truck and, uh,
[21:55] uh, and, and they injure their wrist? Right? Uh, the scenarios, um,
[21:59] don't really bear thinking about, and I would just ask that
[22:04] you consider the traffic safety again, in that particular corner.
[22:08] perhaps you can take some measures such, uh, such, such
[22:12] as barriers and, uh, just sort of attempt to
[22:17] get a little bit more, uh, uh, order into that whole
[22:21] situation and not quite so much traffic. Uh, not quite so much chaos. Thank
[22:25] you very much. Thank you. I,
[22:29] I have no more speakers slips, mayor. Okay. Thank you. Um, so moving on. We
[22:33] are on agenda item five, consent calendar. So consent,
[22:38] uh, calendar items are typically non-controversial in nature
[22:42] and are considered for approval by the city council with one single
[22:47] vote. Uh, we want to ask council members
[22:51] if you have a comments or questions on any con consent
[22:55] calendar items. Uh, mayor, I'd like to, um, pull
[22:59] item, I think it's five point, um, four just
[23:04] for, um, a couple of, uh, uh, comments. Okay.
[23:10] uh, mayor, I'd like 5.7, please pull for comments as well.
[23:14] 5.7 for comments.
[23:21] will you and oh, and mayor, I have public comment
[23:25] on 5.2 and 5.7. 5.2
[23:30] and 5.7. 5.7. Okay. So
[23:35] we have to, um, like, uh, do raw cost
[23:39] anyway. Um, so make a motion and we'll do roll cost. Have to
[23:44] make a motion for motion the consent calendar outside of items 5.2,
[23:48] 5.4, and 5.7.
[23:53] so let's do a roll call. Was there? Yeah. Oh,
[23:57] I'll do a second. Okay. Sorry, we got a second by jean. Right
[24:01] by by michael. Second by michael. And then let's do a roll call.
[24:05] council member marada aye. Council member cadry
[24:09] aye. Council member corsten. Aye. Vice mayor.
[24:14] josie mayor who? Yes. National motion
[24:18] passes unanimously. Yeah. Thank you. So let's go to 5.2 for
[24:22] public comment.
[24:26] oh, public comment for 5.2 is angela tucker.
[24:37] hello again. Um, I did not expect to be here quite so soon.
[24:41] again. So, angela, angela tucker again. Uh, I am a
[24:46] resident of dublin. I am actually requesting that two items
[24:50] be removed from the january consent proclamations,
[24:54] specifically the proclamations on ramadan in february and diwali in
[24:59] november. Failing that I would request that future proclamations
[25:03] on significant question and jewish holidays be approved once submitted.
[25:09] ramadan and diwali are both religious observances. Please
[25:13] be reminded that there are currently no proclamation for other
[25:17] religions observances included in the list of proclamations.
[25:21] for whatever reason, a city council should refrain
[25:25] from promoting only particular religions I
[25:29] bear, no ill will to, uh, towards anyone per
[25:33] the first amendment. I support every american's right to practice
[25:37] whatever religion they choose or none. Not only do we
[25:41] have freedom of religion, we also have freedom from religion.
[25:47] I expect that the intention behind the proclamations for ramadan and diwali
[25:52] is diversity and inclusion related be be that as
[25:56] it may, please consider that promoting only one or limited
[26:00] religious, uh, uh, groups does not make for conclusion it could be
[26:05] considered somewhat divisive and exclusionary.
[26:09] additionally, proclaiming islamic and hindu holidays exclusively
[26:13] does not reflect the religious diversity of our city.
[26:17] dublin has a vibrant catholic and non non-denominational
[26:22] christian community, and we have jewish residents too
[26:27] that is not at all reflected in the current proclamations. Again,
[26:31] for whatever reasons. In summary, I primarily
[26:35] request that you remove from madan and diwali from the city proclamations
[26:39] at this time and propose that you generally refrain
[26:43] from selective religious promotion. However, should you decide
[26:47] after deliberations that you want to keep the proclamations on
[26:51] ramadan and diwali, I simply ask that you are even handed
[26:55] and agree in future to adding proclamations on significant christian
[27:00] and jewish holidays such as land easter,
[27:04] christmas, yom kippur, and hanukkah. Anything less
[27:08] could probably be construed as discriminatory against christians
[27:13] and jewish people. I trust that the mayor and this
[27:17] city council would not intentionally ever be discriminating
[27:21] against significant portions of this community. Thank
[27:25] you very much for your attention and consideration.
[27:30] thank you. So 5.2 and then move to
[27:34] 5.4. City council participation in the 2026
[27:39] st. Patrick day. You have a comment to make, right? Um, yeah, I I just wanted to add, um,
[27:43] uh, one comment that, um, this year, st. Patrick's day,
[27:47] um, falls, the st's day parade and festiv fall in conjunction with
[27:52] national league of cities, um, congressional city conference. And there, um, several
[27:56] of us that may end up going to that. I know several of us are on policy committees for
[28:00] that. Um, and so yes, fully supportive of the, um,
[28:04] staff's recommendation, but also wondering if, um, in conjunction with that
[28:08] there is an appetite to move. Um, the, uh, council meeting
[28:13] that is on the 17th to the following week. There are five tuesdays
[28:17] in the months of march. And so I'm wondering if I get head nods that, um, so that
[28:21] we don't have council members that are immediately flying out, um, as part
[28:25] of the celebration. You know, some of us wouldn't
[28:30] be reading packets and all of that at the same time. John is looking at me funny. Am I outta line?
[28:34] no. Good. Okay. Um, would there be, uh, head nods to move
[28:38] our, um, march 17th meeting to the following tuesday?
[28:43] um, anybody have a problem with that? I'd be supportive of that. Supportive of that?
[28:48] yeah. Yeah. Oh, there's plan commission meeting that night. Is that
[28:52] a problem? Well, yeah, the diocese is a problem for sure.
[28:56] uh, how about their regular meeting night? But often they get canceled so we, we
[29:00] we, they can probably plan around it, right? John? I, yeah. Or they
[29:04] could move. Okay. You guys take priority . Um,
[29:08] I'm seeing, I'm appreciate that, john. Yeah. Um, so I guess my ask
[29:13] is to have staff look into it and see if that's doable for us. Be fantastic.
[29:17] okay. Yeah. Thank you. Um, so moving on to 5.7.
[29:22] sorry, uh, just quick comment. Uh, I, for 5.4, I, I
[29:26] appreciate the opportunity to walk in the parade. I was hoping we could just, uh,
[29:30] I'm assuming walking as a group, just the five of us as a council,
[29:35] we do have a, um, there is a big winner
[29:40] who has to work with, with the mayor.
[29:44] there's what there, there we had the nonprofit organization
[29:49] had a event. So they bid out walking with
[29:53] the mayor in st. Patrick day as one of the award.
[29:57] so there's a, there's a, a winner . When
[30:01] did we agree on that? It's, uh, it happened just
[30:06] a long time ago. Uh, yeah. I, I, you know, that mayor and council members, we can,
[30:10] uh, so primarily it is the city council. There should be no other groups,
[30:14] um, mayor, um, we can, we can talk about that individual offline.
[30:19] okay. Yeah. It's primarily the city council primarily,
[30:23] or exclusively, sorry. It's never been exclusively the
[30:27] city council, uh, because we've had groups sort of tag along. Um,
[30:31] it was our plan, our staff plan to control that this year. Anyway, um,
[30:37] I I'm, I'm opening that up to you to decide whether it's going to be exclusive,
[30:42] uh, here and now. And then the mayor and I can discuss so other ways for that individual to
[30:46] participate. Yeah. This is a, a nonprofit organization. They were
[30:50] fundraising and then they bid out and they, they
[30:55] actually, it it's, it's a ceo of stanford who won that bid.
[31:00] that that is the thing we kind of already promised. We who, who,
[31:04] how did this all remind yeah. And the city, I also say this way. How did, how
[31:08] did this come about? So this just the nonprofit
[31:13] ask about this specifically and I grade
[31:17] and I say I grade. Oh,
[31:22] sounds like that's an offline conversation. But yeah, it could be limited to the five
[31:26] council members. And, and then you can discuss that particular account. Thank you.
[31:32] okay. So, so, but I am not sure.
[31:37] so she, is that a, are
[31:41] you making a motion or amendment? Are we trying to do something
[31:45] here? 5.4. I think the, uh,
[31:49] staff was seeking direction on, uh, your method of participation, which is walking,
[31:54] uh, and now we've been asked to make it exclusively, uh,
[31:58] the city council. That's what I hear. Okay.
[32:05] and look into moving the council meeting directly following st. Patrick's day. Why,
[32:09] why is council meetings related to this, uh, patrick day? Because
[32:14] the, um, activities of st. Patrick's day sort of stomp on agenda review
[32:18] and all of that and traveling to nlc. It's a week
[32:22] before. No, it's, it's in conjunction. The, um, parade is on the 14th, the
[32:27] count, the packet, all of that is in the, the lead up to that meeting.
[32:31] and some of us will be flying out maybe directly from the parade to go to
[32:35] nlc. I see. Okay. Alright. Where, where do agree on that one, right? Yeah.
[32:39] okay. 5.7 doubling
[32:43] fanon. Five 80 statement of overriding
[32:48] considerations. Yes. And thank you mayor,
[32:52] uh, council member john radha attending remotely. Uh, I have some questions
[32:56] for staff if, uh, they'd be available to answer those for
[33:00] me. Yes, sir.
[33:06] okay. Uh, I by the way, I'm sorry, who am I speaking with?
[33:11] you have, uh, amy million community development director stepping up to the
[33:15] lectern. Great, thank you. Good evening, amy.
[33:19] evening. Uh, I would like to ask, uh,
[33:24] uh, about the or running statement, um, as it is
[33:28] at the moment, uh, what happens with it once we're done with
[33:32] it this evening? Where does it go? Uh,
[33:36] from a planning perspective? It goes into the, to the project file. John, is there
[33:41] a legal place it needs to go? Uh,
[33:45] no. It doesn't get filed anywhere o other than the planning files. It's
[33:49] a decision, it's a statement that's made when a decision is made and, um,
[33:54] they, you know, just part of the city's records at that point. Thank you. I wasn't sure if it
[33:58] needed to go back to the court or anything. I appreciate it. Well, technically
[34:02] we will be reporting back to the court on our compliance with the writ. So there we
[34:06] will be, if, if, if the council does adopt the statement of overriding considerations tonight,
[34:10] we will indicate to the court that we have adopt that the council did readopt the
[34:15] statement of overriding considerations. Okay.
[34:19] uh, thank you, john, for that, for the affirmation. Uh,
[34:23] therefore, I, I'm gonna take this, these, these
[34:27] questions quite seriously since they are in compliance to an action requested
[34:31] by the court. Uh, so amy, I'm going to step into
[34:36] one procedural question and, and actually, I'm sorry, maybe this will go to john.
[34:40] uh, so, uh, hold, hold, hold, hold tight. Amy , if you don't mind. So, uh, um,
[34:45] city attorney, uh, barker the statement,
[34:49] um, as it stands, uh, or, or the process around, around
[34:53] the statement, we don't have the litigant appealing
[34:57] anything at this point. Correct. And, and I'm, I, I understand this might be a, a point
[35:02] of, uh, confidentiality, so please tell me if, if I'm overstepping.
[35:08] no, uh, I, I don't have any awareness of whether the applicant or I'm
[35:13] sorry, the, the, the, the a the litig against plan to appeal
[35:18] or not. Um, the, um,
[35:22] what we have is a court decision and, uh, what's in
[35:26] front of you is, uh, staff's proposal to comply with the court decision
[35:30] and report back to the court. Um, I, I don't, I don't have any information
[35:34] about the other side, the other, the litigant's perspective on this.
[35:38] I'm assuming that, that they would, uh, agree with us complying
[35:42] with the court order. Okay, very good. Then, um,
[35:47] as a matter of course, and just because I'm asking this question in public, it's, it's a
[35:51] procedural point that we are operating in compliance to the court
[35:55] order. Uh, very good. Thank you. Um, then thank you, uh,
[35:59] john. I appreciate it. I'll, I'll jump over back to, to amy. Uh,
[36:03] so amy, I'm gonna go over some of the benefits that were noted, which
[36:07] I think, by the way, very well written, very well articulated.
[36:12] I I really like how we, we've pinpointed, um, some
[36:16] key wins for the city. Um, so let me, let me
[36:20] ask the, for the first benefit that we have, which is the build of 238
[36:25] units, um, really quickly, uh, these 238
[36:30] units, they're single family homes or they, they town homes. What's the,
[36:34] like, potential average, um, uh, uh,
[36:38] habitability or, or how many, how many family members would live in this, in these 230
[36:42] units? Uh, well, I think the
[36:47] mul technically the multiplier in the general plan, which is we average, I think it's 2.7
[36:51] people per unit. Uh, so
[36:56] I would like to pretend I'm on math whiz, but I'm not. So 2.7 times 238 would
[37:00] be tech, the technical number out of the general plan. Um, you know, we anticipate
[37:04] them to be, whether you call them attached single family or town
[37:08] homes, it's that, uh, typical multi-family sort of row town
[37:13] product that you see in, in eastern dublin. Thank you, amy.
[37:17] I did the math really quick. Um, great. So I guess the benefit of being remote is I could have a calculator
[37:21] mm-hmm . Uh, 642.6, um,
[37:25] possible extra lives we could be helping with 230 units. So,
[37:30] uh, good benefit there. Uh, the next benefit I'd like to
[37:34] ask about, uh, because we are in fact gonna be presenting this to the
[37:38] court, which is on our rena goal. So could
[37:43] you tell me, um, of our total rena
[37:48] target or the number that we were given by the state of california,
[37:52] what percentage does 238 equate to,
[37:57] or what does it fulfill in terms of our arena achievement?
[38:02] I, I'm gonna be honest, I don't remember the number off the top of my head. I think it was,
[38:07] yeah, I mean, it was, I wanna say it was somewhere between three and four,
[38:11] I believe. So it's, uh, less, it's somewhere between five and
[38:15] 10% would be my guess. Uh, that, yeah, that would
[38:19] be my guess, based on my memory of what the actual numbers were. Okay.
[38:23] so material, it sounds to me. Okay.
[38:28] all right. Um, and,
[38:32] uh, let, let me be the opposing
[38:36] opinion at the moment, which is for five to 10%
[38:41] potential achievement against arena target. If this
[38:46] did not get passed tonight, what is the implication of that towards
[38:50] our future achievement of arena target?
[38:54] so, not passing this tonight, in my opinion, doesn't have any,
[38:59] uh, substantial change to that rena contribution. John, can you speak to the
[39:03] legal ramifications of not passing this tonight?
[39:07] uh, well, um, there's a court order that's instructed us
[39:11] to adopt this statement of overriding considerations. If we don't do it, it
[39:15] could potentially invalidate the project we've already adopt. You know, the council already approved
[39:20] the project and subsequently, of course, ordered us to
[39:24] adopt a statement of overriding considerations. So if we elected not to proceed
[39:28] with adopting a statement of overriding considerations, we'd have probably a
[39:32] dispute with the applicant. Okay. Uh,
[39:36] thank you, john, for the procedure. Just again, trying to make sure we have the,
[39:41] the clarification around process. Um, uh,
[39:45] amy, uh, I'm going to rattle off some of the other benefits, which again, were awesome.
[39:50] so, 3.2 million, um, potential, uh, square
[39:54] footage for office space, 7.2 acres for parks and community,
[39:58] um, uh, projects. We have a wetlands mitigation,
[40:02] uh, there's more to it. Um, these are, again, without sounding like a
[40:07] broken record, really amazing. Uh, but I did notice that, you know, again, this
[40:11] is a statement that we will be providing and affirming to the court. So,
[40:15] um, was there any consideration for a benefit to public
[40:19] safety? Yeah, so
[40:23] I think the key part about just take, just taking a step back before
[40:28] we answer that question. I think the key piece of cqa, which, um,
[40:32] might, might be missing here, is that the purpose of ceq is
[40:37] to disclose impacts, right? So you're disclosing all of your environmental impacts,
[40:41] you go through the checklist and you look at what environmental impacts are associated with
[40:45] this project. When you find that there is a significant unavoidable impact,
[40:49] then before you approve a project, you have to approve
[40:54] a statement of overriding consideration. Because the purpose of cqa
[40:58] is not necessarily to be able to mitigate every single impact down
[41:02] to less significant, significant, right? Some projects just have impacts.
[41:06] and so the purpose of the statement of overriding consideration is to acknowledge
[41:11] that some projects have impacts, but the project has a benefit, right?
[41:15] so we are taking this very thoughtful
[41:19] consideration and saying, okay, there is a, we are making a statement
[41:23] to override those impacts because we acknowledge, uh, the
[41:28] benefits of the project. So that's sort of the foundation in which all of this is
[41:32] even happening, right? So procedurally, the court said you
[41:36] needed to do this again at the time that we approved the project.
[41:41] so from a public safety perspective, all of
[41:45] that is analyzed in the environmental document. We have to do consistency with the general
[41:49] plan. And then outside of that, there's also the
[41:53] coordination with the public safety, the fire public works, right? Everyone takes
[41:58] their review of a project. So, you know, depending on
[42:02] specifically what you're thinking of, there's many, many aspects to public safety
[42:06] and many areas of the project review process
[42:10] of the sqa process in which public safety is looked at, considered
[42:15] addressed through the process. Does that make sense?
[42:20] that's great. Uh, can you gimme an example of where public safety would be
[42:24] addressed in a sqa review? Uh, sure. So,
[42:28] um, transportation is one of them, right? Do you have
[42:32] appropriate access and circulation? Um, fire impacts,
[42:37] for example, uh, you have to look at, um,
[42:41] uh, impacts to water resources. You have to,
[42:46] um, seismic, uh, is one of them,
[42:50] uh, geological, uh, noise, right? All of
[42:54] these really fundamentally come back to, uh, public
[42:59] safety and welfare, right? All, you know, you can kind of draw a line to almost everything that
[43:03] we do on a regular basis. And every portion of a project
[43:07] review or a sql review all comes back to, uh, sort
[43:11] of, you know, the purpose of why we are here, right? Which is public
[43:15] safety, healthy, and well, health and welfare. Okay. Um,
[43:19] very good. Thank you. Uh, again, I'm, I'm simply asking, because if you're
[43:23] asking me to put my name on this, I wanna make sure I have, I get it right. Um,
[43:28] the next benefit I want to ask about is the dublin boulevard extension.
[43:33] so with this, um,
[43:38] statement, um, what benefit does it give to
[43:42] the extension and does it add any funding to the extension?
[43:47] uh, so one of the things that the project does is part of the
[43:51] entitlement is that it dedicates the entirety of the double boulevard extension through the project.
[43:56] so without a project, uh, you have to get the rights
[44:01] to that property in a different way, right? Whether it be imminent domain or
[44:05] some other process. So when you have a developer who's willing to come to the table
[44:09] with a map, also requesting a development agreement, then you can show
[44:13] that dedication on the map and the development agreement, which is included in this project.
[44:19] oh, okay. That's great. Uh, uh, when you say the entirety of
[44:23] the dublin boulevard extension, am I
[44:28] mistaken then to assume that the developer would go all
[44:32] the way to the livermore city line? I'm sorry.
[44:36] I thought that I had said the entirety through the project site. Uh, maybe I
[44:40] mentally said that, but didn't actually say that, but that's what I'm, that's what I meant to say, just
[44:44] through their project site is what they would be limited to. Got it. Thank
[44:48] you very much. Um, and then, uh, because
[44:53] the, one of the benefits sort of extended into the, into the school thing,
[44:57] um, , just entertain me for a second. Uh,
[45:02] and tell me if, if, uh, you don't have the answer, but that's okay, the,
[45:06] going over to the school side of this conversation, um,
[45:10] is there a percentage of the tax revenue that
[45:15] would be going to a new school? Uh, am I, I mean, considering that there
[45:19] are potentially 642.6
[45:24] new lives coming online here, um, that's a kind
[45:28] of a material number for potentially children too.
[45:33] yeah. So it seems like there might be somebody who wants to respond. The only thing that I will
[45:37] say, uh, commissioner mar or councilman marada, is that there are school impact
[45:41] fees associated when you pull building permits for residential units. They're actually impact fees
[45:46] when you pull them for commercial as well. They're just substantially less. So, uh,
[45:50] as they pull the building permits, they will pay the school impact fees. Is there something else you
[45:54] wanted to add? The school district gets about the same amount
[45:58] of property tax that, uh, the city does council member. So
[46:03] any development that pays property tax is gonna contribute, uh, to school
[46:07] revenue. Okay. Very nice. Again, I'm, I'm
[46:11] elated with the, the benefits to the city. Um, and then just in, in
[46:15] closing, amy, if I may, just because I'm, I'm very conservative in, in
[46:20] my assessment or, or let's, let's say me putting my name on something that
[46:24] goes to a court. Um, what are the potential risks associated to
[46:28] these overriding considerations as a statement that will go to the alameda
[46:32] superior court?
[46:37] I, uh, council member marda, I don't, I don't believe there are any risks associated with
[46:42] adopting the statement of overriding considerations. This is just, uh, a procedural process
[46:46] that the court asked us to proceed with. Um, I think the risk would occur
[46:50] if we chose not to proceed with adopting the statement of overriding considerations,
[46:54] and then we might face a dispute with the, with the applicant. Um,
[46:59] I, I, I just wanna make one thing clear to you that the court asked us to adopt the statement
[47:03] of overriding considerations. The court's not gonna review the statement of overriding
[47:07] considerations. The court's just gonna confirm that we, that
[47:11] you made the policy decision to adopt the statement of overriding considerations. That's all
[47:15] the court's seeking from us. Okay. Uh, good distinction.
[47:19] thank you, john. Uh, amy, no further questions. I appreciate
[47:24] your time. Uh, mayor, I hand it back to you. Thank you. Um,
[47:28] quick question. You have one more question? Yeah. Okay, go ahead. Just one very quick question.
[47:32] um, you mentioned, uh, sharing, you know, the, our compliance
[47:36] with, with the court. How is this communicated with either, uh, you know, the
[47:41] readopting and, and reaffirming this, um, statement of overriding considerations? Is that given back
[47:45] to the community, future residents, current residents? How, how is that communicated
[47:49] out? Uh, well, this council meeting is, is really the only communication we're
[47:53] gonna have with the public about, about the statement of overriding considerations, that that's, that's how
[47:58] the process works. And then there's a return to the writ where we, uh, just
[48:02] file a pleading in court and say, your honor, we comply with the writ by doing
[48:06] x, y, and z. Uh, we file that. And, um, if the other side
[48:10] wants to say, oh, you didn't do that, or challenge it in some way, they can do that. But it,
[48:14] I think that'll be the end of it. We file it and, and the ca case will be resolved.
[48:20] perfect. Thank you. Go ahead. Just ask a quick follow up question. Um, we
[48:24] are not adopting new statements of overriding consideration tonight. Correct. We are
[48:28] reaffirming statements of overriding consideration that were already
[48:32] approved in subsequent or in pri prior sqa reviews.
[48:37] that is correct. Through eastern, eastern double specific plan, uh, et cetera, et cetera. Correct? Yeah. We kind
[48:41] of lost that point in the course of all the, all the questions that came up. But basically what
[48:45] happened is tradition. So, so in 1995 or
[48:49] 1994, when the, when the city council adopted the eastern dublin specific plan,
[48:54] um, there were a number of impacts, uh, that that couldn't be mitigated.
[48:58] and so the council at that time was required to adopt a statement of overriding
[49:03] considerations, and did, and we've relied on that statement of overriding considerations
[49:07] ever since. And, uh, the, the petitioners in this particular
[49:12] case challenged that, and asserted that we're required to
[49:16] reconsider and readopt those, uh, statements of overriding considerations every
[49:20] time we approve a project, when we're relying on the old, or the,
[49:24] I, sorry, I should never say old eir, the, the 1995
[49:28] eir. Um, uh, and it is,
[49:33] uh, a procedural matter that we have to do that. But what we were really doing is
[49:37] sort of ratifying what the council's done in the past. And
[49:42] in, in this particular case, we, we, the, the statement of overrun
[49:46] considerations is basically what we did before, but we tailored it ever so slightly to focus
[49:50] on, on what's involved in this particular project. Okay. And, um, we've looked at it
[49:54] more than just 1995, correct those statements. We've looked at 'em
[49:58] since 1995. Right. We reconsider them every time and make sure there's
[50:02] no additional impacts and everything's within the scope of the original
[50:06] im, uh, the impacts that were considered previously. So that's something we
[50:11] evaluate. Every project we consider, we review the checklist and make
[50:15] sure that, uh, there isn't any impacts that haven't previously been considered. Perfect.
[50:19] thank you more. No, that's it. Happy to make any more
[50:23] comments. So we have two, um, public comments, um, speaker slips on this item. So
[50:27] the first one here is here in the chamber, and that's tom evans.
[50:39] good evening mayor council and the staff. I'm tom evans, longtime
[50:44] resident. Um, I don't have a problem with a statement
[50:48] of considerations, but the way it's
[50:52] written, I'm not particularly comfortable with it, starts out saying the city
[50:56] council has prepared the following statement. And I'm curious if that's
[51:00] true. Did the five of you get together and hammer the statement
[51:04] out? Or was it prepared by staff and you're approving it? And if you were just
[51:08] approving it, it might be nice to change that word. Um,
[51:13] there's a few benefits, and of course, it's up to the council to decide whether the
[51:17] benefits outweigh the, uh, impacts. Well, actually, that was already
[51:21] done as council member josie pointed out. Um, but
[51:26] some of these that, that have been brought up just far, not benefits, I mean, a
[51:30] benefit would be okay, might provide more jobs. That's a good thing, provides
[51:34] revenue for the city, those, that's a benefit. Uh, parks and such
[51:39] benefits, I could see all those. But stuff like, um, development
[51:43] of 126 acres of commercial and,
[51:47] uh, well complete development on the last remaining undeveloped portions
[51:51] in eastern dublin. I don't see
[51:55] how that's a benefit. If you're saying we had vacant
[51:59] land and now we've filled it up, isn't that great? It's,
[52:04] I don't see the benefit. In fact, if anything, it's probably not nice,
[52:08] uh, to look at as, as the rolling hills are. But again, it's just not a benefit. So
[52:12] it shouldn't be in there. Uh, roadway improvements, dublin
[52:16] boulevard, you know, if, uh, if dublin still has to pay for dublin
[52:21] boulevard, I don't see how this project is providing a benefit.
[52:27] um, streetscape, this one, I, I just can't get over.
[52:32] they're gonna provide curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and landscaping.
[52:37] I mean, I, I, I think I have to dig pretty deep to pull that into
[52:42] a benefit. Um, marina, uh,
[52:46] this says it helps with reina. I disagree. Uh, uh,
[52:50] we don't have any trouble filling the market rate
[52:54] requirements for reina. That's easy. It's the, you know, if
[52:58] this was providing significant low cost housing, then
[53:03] yeah, then, then you're helping out with rena. But I don't think this project
[53:07] is, I haven't heard any, seen any, uh, low cost housing,
[53:12] um, further urbanization
[53:17] of eastern dublin as planned by the city. Um,
[53:21] I don't know. Why is that a benefit? You know, just, just the fact that you're
[53:25] doing it, that's, it's not a benefit, uh, contribute
[53:30] funds to construct schools, parks, and other community facilities.
[53:34] well, how much are they contributing? Uh,
[53:39] historically, the school districts come up short. You know, you, you get
[53:43] so much per student, but they have to build, uh, buildings to accommodate them
[53:47] to me. Tom is, you are over time. I'm out of time. Yeah, you are over.
[53:51] yeah. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks so much. And
[53:55] mayor, the next speaker is on zoom, and it's shirley lewandowski.
[54:01] good. Thank you, marsha. This is shirley. Loki.
[54:05] good evening. I'm a longtime dublin resident. Good evening mayor. Council members
[54:09] and staff, you are being asked to adopt the six page writeup
[54:13] by staff on the dublin fallon gh bpa five 80 project
[54:18] regarding statements of overrun in considerations in order to comply
[54:22] with the alameda county superior court's writ from november 19th, 2025,
[54:27] to provide a new and more clarifying statement of overriding
[54:31] consideration. This writeup doesn't clearly
[54:35] state the reasons for overriding the environmental impacts. It refers to a lot of
[54:39] generalities, repetitive rhetoric and references, the older
[54:44] document. So my questions are, if a public is just reading the
[54:48] six page document, do they even know what the benefits are to override
[54:52] the negative impacts? I don't see it from this writeup. As
[54:56] the alameda county superior court reviewed and approved it, apparently a writ has
[55:00] to go back to the court. And I can't believe the court will not review it,
[55:04] and may probably have other comments. Has the company who filed
[55:09] a lawsuit, king kingswood owners association, reviewed and approved it?
[55:13] they as a filing, uh, applicant for this lawsuit. They
[55:17] have a right to review it, and I'm sure they would wanna make a comment whether or not
[55:21] they agreed that the city has fulfilled what the court had asked. Has
[55:25] this project received all the appropriate agency permits to move it forward,
[55:29] such as the us army corps of engineers, fish and wildlife, et cetera?
[55:34] where can I find data, real data information where the city has monitored
[55:39] and prove statements of overriding considerations from past projects,
[55:43] past development projects that have proven the benefits they claim then
[55:48] have outweighed the negative impacts? Is that information available?
[55:53] I would appreciate responses to my questions as you further deliberate. Thank
[55:57] you. Thank you.
[56:02] I have no more speaker slips on the side. Thank you. So, um, let's come back to,
[56:07] to this 5.7. Any more comments about 5.7?
[56:11] no. Okay. So, uh, we, we have, this is a
[56:16] constant canada, so we have a 5.2, 5.4, and the 5.7
[56:21] we need to, um, vote on. So,
[56:25] uh, I want to say, do we want to vote each of them separately?
[56:31] actually, something just, I thought, what, 5.7? Yeah, five seven. Okay. Just to sort come back
[56:35] 5.7 for john, um, there seems to be
[56:40] this document, uh, is there a,
[56:45] uh, consideration or could there be a consideration for reviewing the, the, the,
[56:50] the wording and assessing what those benefits are? And
[56:54] to clarify? Well, yeah, I mean, the, the council could certainly
[56:58] alter the statement of overriding considerations if it
[57:02] chose to. I mean, these are, these are, these are your statements of overriding
[57:07] considerations. The thing I would, I would remind the council about is this
[57:11] document is based on the original statement of overriding
[57:15] considerations from 19 95, 19 94, actually. And so
[57:20] it's just been tailored to focus on the project. Um,
[57:24] it, this is, is a procedural matter, but if the council
[57:28] has concerns about the statement, it they could cer it could certainly be altered.
[57:33] the, at the end of the day, the question is whether or not
[57:37] the council believes that the project, uh, the
[57:42] benefits of the project outweigh the environmental impacts that, uh, can't
[57:46] be mitigated.
[57:51] I mean, there are a number of benefits articulated in the statement of overriding
[57:55] considerations. I heard, I heard some, um, members of the public,
[57:59] um, indicating that, that they found some of the, some of
[58:03] the statements that are listed, uh, not to be benefits or not to
[58:07] be that significant, but I didn't hear anyone say that, that
[58:12] all of the benefits together didn't, didn't override the, the environmental impact.
[58:16] so I, I don't know. I think that's a judgment for the council. Ultimately it,
[58:21] okay. Uh, I just wanna make sure that it's
[58:25] not, and, and this is my, my wording, that we're not just taking a document
[58:29] and repeating it, and that we are, um, for procedural
[58:33] matter, and that we are actually looking at how we're saying and how
[58:37] we're phrasing, and to be clear with what, um, what those
[58:42] benefits are. And that's the only reason I'm bringing this up, is if there is
[58:46] not clarity, um, then is there
[58:50] any harm in tweaking it or is there some kind of a, uh, issue with doing that?
[58:54] I'm not gonna get, you know, pull up, go down a hole
[58:58] here. I just want to see if there's a way to look at this document and say, hey, you
[59:02] know, okay, maybe we weren't so clear on this.
[59:07] uh, maybe we could elaborate on this. Uh, that's my only question, just
[59:11] to be clear and trans a little more transparent. If, if that is the will,
[59:15] uh, or, or there, is there any issue with, with doing that
[59:20] there's no legal issue with, with, um, making some changes
[59:24] or clarification to the, to the statement? If that's the counsel's desire?
[59:29] um, I would, I would like, uh,
[59:33] another re uh, another look at that. Um, if it
[59:37] doesn't need to be done tonight, um, I, I'm not, you know, I'm just throwing this
[59:41] out here for, for thoughts here. Uh, and if you have, I'd like to
[59:45] hear the rest of you. What are you thinking? What, what are the consequences of not doing this tonight?
[59:50] what, what did the court ask us to do? Uh,
[59:54] well, we have to return to the court. Um, but we, we do have time. We could, we could bring it
[59:58] back at the next meeting. Um, you know, it, it, so,
[1:00:02] so we do have time to revise it. And how much staff work is that
[1:00:06] to revise it based on direction that you haven't yet gotten? I understand you
[1:00:10] may get direction of specific changes you want, but
[1:00:15] for us to say, we're not gonna do this tonight, please take another
[1:00:19] swing at this and bring it back to us without specific direction. Well, we
[1:00:23] did hear some comments from the public tonight, so we'd evaluate, uh, the,
[1:00:27] the statement in light of those comments and any other direction you gave us.
[1:00:31] I don't know. It's, it's a, a little, it's, it's some work. I think the applicant's
[1:00:35] gonna end up paying for it. So it's not gonna, it's not gonna cost the city
[1:00:39] a lot of money, but it would be, it would be some staff effort required to get it back on an agenda
[1:00:44] at some point. So we've heard, and, and not to minimize
[1:00:48] public comment, which I very much appreciate the people that come all the time, but that would've been
[1:00:52] taking direction from the public in writing a statement of overriding considerations,
[1:00:57] which I don't think is probably the will of the council. I think we would, we would want to
[1:01:01] decide which of those comments we agreed upon and which ones we don't.
[1:01:05] um, and we've already discussed this project at some length
[1:01:10] when we approved it. Discuss the eir, uh, uh,
[1:01:14] the planning commission has discussed. The eir, the, um, council discussed it at
[1:01:18] least twice. And I, my recollection, recollection is more than twice.
[1:01:22] um, uh, so I, I'm not really sure what
[1:01:26] your purpose in rewriting them is when it's not going to
[1:01:31] material in, I mean, I'm not, I don't if necessarily disagree with it's material or not. I don't necessarily disagree
[1:01:35] with you. I'm just not really sure what the purpose would be at this point. 'cause it's not gonna change
[1:01:39] the project. It's not gonna change whether the project goes forward.
[1:01:44] um, and to, uh, council member mcc, I'm sorry, council member, uh,
[1:01:48] cadre's point these two meetings. If, if in
[1:01:52] fact it becomes two meetings are the points at which we are going to communicate this
[1:01:56] out to the public. So it's not gonna go, it's not like we're gonna then publish them
[1:02:00] other than in the project file and then mail them out to the
[1:02:04] residents mm-hmm . Um, for, you know, new statements. So personally, I don't
[1:02:08] really see the point of going down that road when we've already sort of made
[1:02:13] the statements of over in consideration. And so I, I'm not really sure why we, we need to have
[1:02:17] a van coming back. I guess my point is, um, are we just,
[1:02:21] uh, through routine just cutting and pasting something and not paying attention to
[1:02:25] how we're saying it? So it's more of how we're saying it than, uh,
[1:02:29] the fact that, hey, it all says the same thing. It really doesn't matter. So I, I, I think
[1:02:33] all I'm saying is if we wanna be clear in our documents,
[1:02:38] uh, and uh, then, uh, maybe we should take another look at this. That's
[1:02:42] all. And I don't think it's a, a big deal. It's a big ask. That's all. That's
[1:02:47] all it is. Yeah. I don't, I don't think it's a t terribly huge ask either. Yeah. But I don't think wordsmithing
[1:02:51] is gonna change much, and I'm comfortable with, with it the way it is.
[1:02:57] you're fine. Okay. I'll see. So I'm sure it could
[1:03:01] be wordsmithed and improved. Uh, perhaps we give direction to
[1:03:05] staff to, you know, anytime this comes back in, in the future, they take a closer look
[1:03:09] at it. But I'm, I'm not sure if it has any material impact or, uh, if it, if
[1:03:13] it really changes anything and, and it, and
[1:03:18] next time we approve a project and we rely on the eastern dublin specific plan, um,
[1:03:22] it's likely we will be, uh, bringing back a statement of overriding considerations
[1:03:26] in compliance with the, the, you know, the court order doesn't apply to future projects, but,
[1:03:31] um, I think we've followed the direction the court gave us. So, so we will have
[1:03:35] an opportunity to do that, that wordsmithing you're talking about on future projects.
[1:03:41] so, um, so we're done discussion on this item. I agree
[1:03:45] with all of you. Like, uh, we can improve, but maybe
[1:03:49] we don't have to, um, for this scenario, because we all make a material change.
[1:03:54] I, I totally agree with this. So let's just, uh, make a roll call for
[1:03:58] each of those 5.2. Maybe we can combine 5.2
[1:04:02] and 5.4, um, and then 5.7 separately.
[1:04:07] sure. Happy to make a motion for items 5.2 and 5.4 on the consent
[1:04:11] calendar. Yeah. So let's, uh, vote on this. Uh, um, 5.2.
[1:04:15] you need a second? Yeah, I know. 5.2 and 5.4. And
[1:04:20] then we have a, a motion you to go second. Yeah, I second on those. We have
[1:04:24] a michael at second. Let's do the roll call. Council member
[1:04:28] marada. Aye. Council member cadre. Aye.
[1:04:32] council member mccarsten. Aye. Vice mayor josie. Aye. Mayor
[1:04:37] who, aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. I make
[1:04:41] a second motion for item 5.7. I'll second. So we have
[1:04:45] a motion. I second for 5.7. Let's do the roll call
[1:04:49] council. Miranda abstain.
[1:04:54] council member cadre. Aye. Council member corsten. Yeah.
[1:04:58] yes. Vice mayor josie? Yes. Mayor who? Yes.
[1:05:03] motion passes. Board zero. Great, thank you.
[1:05:08] so moving on to agenda item six. Um,
[1:05:12] I'm sorry, mayor, did I just hear city clerk say motion passed at four to zero
[1:05:16] or four to one? Four to one? It's four to four to zero to one.
[1:05:20] what? Zero. Oh, got it. Thank you. Sorry, the abstain. Yeah, the council
[1:05:24] member abstain. So he didn't vote. No, he,
[1:05:28] he abstain. So we would, we were gonna list it accordingly in the minutes.
[1:05:32] okay. Yep. Sorry, my mic went out for a second. Thank you for clarification.
[1:05:37] okay. Thank you. So agenda item six, public
[1:05:41] hearing. Nine, seven. I'm finished the business nine,
[1:05:46] agenda eight, new business 8.1.
[1:05:53] good evening, honorable mayor and city council members. Jordan fos, senior management analyst. And this evening
[1:05:57] I'll be providing an informational report on dublin's safe and sane fireworks program.
[1:06:02] uh, this report is in response to a june 17th, 2025 request
[1:06:06] from the city council to receive an informational report on the city's program.
[1:06:13] so to start with some historical context. Uh, since dublin's incorporation in 1982,
[1:06:17] the city has been regulating fireworks over the years. The sale of safe and sane
[1:06:22] fireworks has been addressed through ordinance amendments by the city council, as well
[1:06:26] as operational policies, uh, that balance community benefit and safety compliance.
[1:06:31] furthermore, the sale of safe and sane fireworks has been voted on through two advisory ballot
[1:06:35] measures. The first in 1982 and the second in 1988,
[1:06:39] both ballot measures were to ban the sale of safe and sane fireworks, and both were
[1:06:44] defeated by the voters. In 1987, the dublin municipal code chapter
[1:06:48] 5.24 was published, uh, incorporating various ordinances and amendments
[1:06:52] on the sale of safe and insane fireworks into one chapter. Uh, in
[1:06:56] 2002, the city council at the recommendation of the city's then assigned fireworks committee
[1:07:01] approved the designation of four city parks for safe and sane fireworks use
[1:07:05] on july 4th only. I do want to note that these actions address
[1:07:09] safe and sane fireworks, um, and a illegal fireworks are banned by state law.
[1:07:14] so illegal fireworks are considered explosive and or aerial in nature, and
[1:07:18] it is a misdemeanor or felony to possess or discharge those anywhere unless permitted
[1:07:22] by a state licensed power technician, pyro technician.
[1:07:28] the sale of safe and same fireworks is allowed with a permit in commercial areas of the city
[1:07:33] based on the city's current population and regulations listed in the municipal code,
[1:07:37] which allow for one booth per 3000 residents, not including group quarters
[1:07:41] populations. Uh, it allows for up to 23 booths to be permitted.
[1:07:46] uh, the city does operate a lottery system when the number of applications exceed. What we allow
[1:07:51] for booths and for organizations that would like to apply for a sales permit,
[1:07:55] they must be a nonprofit with 5 0 1 c3 status. They must be based
[1:07:59] in dublin for at least one year, uh, and have 20 resident members. They
[1:08:03] must serve the dublin community, and they must have an active business license with the city.
[1:08:08] lastly, the sales period for safe and san fireworks, uh, runs
[1:08:12] from noon on june 28th to, uh, noon on june on july 5th.
[1:08:16] struggled to get that out. Uh, and sales take place daily during this period between
[1:08:21] 8:00 am and 10:00 pm
[1:08:25] so the use of safe insane fireworks are permitted at four designated parks, which I mentioned
[1:08:29] on july 4th, only from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm those parks are alamo
[1:08:34] creek park, dublin sports grounds, emerald glen park and shannon park. Furthermore,
[1:08:38] the city's practice allows for the use of safe and sane fireworks in residential neighborhoods
[1:08:42] with single family homes, as well as commercial areas with the consent of the property owner.
[1:08:47] safe and sane fireworks are only allowed to be used during the designated sales period.
[1:08:52] again, illegal fireworks is defined by state law, are strictly prohibited at
[1:08:56] all times in the city.
[1:09:01] so dublin police services is responsible for fireworks response as well as suppression,
[1:09:05] uh, police activities. So annually, dps utilizes a suppression
[1:09:10] detail to respond to fireworks complaints, provides security at our designated parks, and
[1:09:14] then proactively seek illegal fireworks use. The detail is staffed
[1:09:18] on overtime and is supported by alameda county sheriff's office. Um,
[1:09:22] in 2025. The suppression detail consisted of 21 personnel in addition to the
[1:09:26] standard patrol. And on average, dps receives approximately 55 calls
[1:09:30] for service each year related to either illegal fireworks noise issues,
[1:09:35] uh, potentially the improper use of safe and sane fireworks, as well as public safety
[1:09:39] concerns. Additionally, suppression details have confiscated more
[1:09:43] than 1600 pounds of illegal fireworks since 2020. And in 2025,
[1:09:47] the suppression team confiscated 100 pounds of illegal
[1:09:52] fireworks. Alameda county fire department also plays an important
[1:09:56] role in both the sale of safe and sane fireworks, as well as emergency response related to
[1:10:00] fireworks. A cfd is responsible for the booth application process inspection,
[1:10:05] and regulation of fireworks booths and overall code enforcement for the operation of these booths.
[1:10:09] a cfd is also responsible for emergency response, which,
[1:10:14] uh, which does strain resources in the event of any, you know, active large mutual
[1:10:18] aid fires that are, um, occurring in the state at the time.
[1:10:22] since 2020, there have been four documented fire incidents in non-designated park
[1:10:26] areas. There have been two vegetation fires, one caused by illegal
[1:10:30] or improper use and or disposal of the safe, insane fireworks. And then
[1:10:35] one tree fire that was the result of illegal fireworks. No injuries or
[1:10:39] structural damage was reported from these fires. In addition to these incidents,
[1:10:43] a cfd also extinguish extinguishes fireworks firework related
[1:10:47] dumpster fires at our designated parks, um, each year during the
[1:10:52] july 4th period. So
[1:10:56] there is a financial impact to the sale of safe and insane fireworks in the city as well. Uh, the
[1:11:00] table on the screen illustrates the 2025 city expenditures as well as revenues.
[1:11:04] so total expenditures include direct personnel expenses and operational support across
[1:11:09] departments that provide public safety, maintenance, permitting, and inspection
[1:11:13] services, as well as general administration. Overall, the city's total expenditures
[1:11:17] were $79,707. Uh, police made up approximately
[1:11:21] 51% of those expenditures. Fire makes up approximately 22%.
[1:11:26] uh, maintenance makes up approximately 17%, and the remainder falls within
[1:11:30] street sweeping, um, a vi for the trash bins or garbage
[1:11:34] bins, um, staff time. And then, um, as well lost revenue
[1:11:39] due to facility closure. Specifically at the shannon community center.
[1:11:43] the city does bring in revenue as well from booth application fees and deposits.
[1:11:47] and so this year in 2025, the city brought in $5,535 in
[1:11:51] revenue. So it leads to a net city cost of 74,172 for
[1:11:55] the 2025 period. Okay,
[1:11:59] so that was a summary of the city's current programs, but I do want to also highlight the nonprofits
[1:12:04] that apply to operate boosts in the city. So each year, the city approves approximately
[1:12:08] 15 boosts for the sale of safe, insane fireworks. And while the city does not
[1:12:12] collect information on the sales from nonprofits over recent years, some
[1:12:16] organizations have shared this with staff that they are facing challenges. So
[1:12:20] these challenges can include declining net revenues due to the high operating cost,
[1:12:25] uh, which include rental space, generators, equipment, et cetera.
[1:12:29] firework products, uh, revenue generated also appears to vary by booth
[1:12:33] location, where it's been reported to staff that obviously in higher traffic areas you're gonna have higher revenues,
[1:12:37] lower traffic areas, you'll have lower revenues. Some organizations have also
[1:12:42] reported difficulty in finding enough volunteers to run the booth, leading to organizations
[1:12:46] partnering to ensure adequate volunteer support. Um, and that has basically
[1:12:50] kept the number of booth applications fairly stagnant over the years.
[1:12:54] lastly, some organizations are finding it more difficult to find locations for firework booths.
[1:12:59] this is likely due to the development of previously vacant commercial sites, as well as increased
[1:13:03] rent prices. Furthermore, some property owners currently allow, uh, allowing boost
[1:13:08] have shared with staff that they're considering removing rental access in future years, which
[1:13:12] would have an impact on the amount of sites available.
[1:13:16] I had also like to share some identified environmental and community impacts from the use of fireworks.
[1:13:21] so fire risk remains the city's most significant concern during summer months, primarily
[1:13:25] due to our proximity to wildland, um, areas as well as significant summer
[1:13:30] weather conditions, extreme heat, low relative humidity, as well as strong winds.
[1:13:35] all of these conditions increase the risk of fast moving vegetation or structure fires in the area
[1:13:39] during this period. Fireworks also can create secondary
[1:13:43] impacts to the community, such as noise related disruptions for veterans and other sensitive
[1:13:47] populations, stress and harm to pets and wildlife and light pollution.
[1:13:53] uh, and also then to get a better picture of how dublin's program operates in the bay area, staff
[1:13:58] also researched surrounding cities. So overall, there are 10 cities in the bay area
[1:14:02] that allow the sale of safe and insane fireworks, and they're listed in the chart on the screen.
[1:14:06] newark and union city are the only two jurisdictions in alameda county that allow safe
[1:14:10] and sane fireworks, uh, and they are very comparable to dublin. So that's really where staff
[1:14:14] focused. Both newark and union city allow the sale of safe and sane fireworks
[1:14:19] at boost throughout their community. Similar to dublin, they both have firework suppression details
[1:14:23] with similar responsibilities to dublin, and then they both contract fire suppression
[1:14:27] services through a cfd as well. Uh, I
[1:14:31] do wanna highlight just a couple of notable differences, um, between these communities in dublin.
[1:14:36] so newark city council established a process where fireworks boosts were capped and then they
[1:14:40] decrease through attrition when an organization chooses not to renew their permit or,
[1:14:45] uh, they no longer meet the city's requirements. Dublin's cap is based, as I
[1:14:49] mentioned earlier on the population, so it increases and decreases based on the population of
[1:14:53] the city. Newark also includes, uh, illegal fireworks
[1:14:57] and their social host ordinance, allowing police to cite the property owner where illegal fireworks
[1:15:01] are seen to be used to compare double dublin's. Uh, social host
[1:15:06] ordinance only covers underage drinking and does not include fireworks.
[1:15:10] union city differs from dublin with their fee structure as they charge permit fees based
[1:15:14] on a percentage of gross revenue, uh, from the sales of fireworks. Dublin
[1:15:18] has a set inspection and application fee, and then union
[1:15:22] city calculates this to an estimation of reasonable city costs to administer permits
[1:15:27] and to then operate the program. And then they divide that by the gross revenues derived from the
[1:15:31] sales of fireworks in the city of the previ for the previous year.
[1:15:37] so while this report is informational only, it does raise potential areas the city may consider in
[1:15:41] the future to enhance safety and help recover the city's expenses related to fireworks
[1:15:45] management. So these include implementing a new fee structure for permit fees that
[1:15:49] could be structured to align with the city's costs, which is similar to what union city has done.
[1:15:54] it could include expanding the current social host ordinance to assign responsibility to
[1:15:59] property owners and assess fines accordingly. And also capping the number
[1:16:03] of boosts to allow for current nonprofits to maintain their sales booth, while also
[1:16:07] controlling the expansion of fireworks in the community.
[1:16:11] so that concludes, uh, the informational presentation and staff's recommendation is
[1:16:15] to receive the port and we receive the report, excuse me, and we're happy to take any questions you have.
[1:16:21] thank you. Thank you, jordan. That's a very comprehensive study.
[1:16:26] um, start with the questions.
[1:16:32] the button wasn't working there for a second. Um, thank you for the
[1:16:36] comprehensive report. Um, a few questions. Um,
[1:16:40] the financial analysis that was up there are all of those costs,
[1:16:45] most particularly fire and police strictly due to
[1:16:49] safe and sane fireworks? Not strictly. So fire will
[1:16:53] be, the majority of it will be because it's really gonna be your inspection services, code enforcement,
[1:16:58] um, services. The police number though, like, especially if you're looking at suppression
[1:17:02] details mm-hmm . Those totals will be impacted by looking for illegal fireworks
[1:17:06] as well. Okay. And the, the suppression number, the police number included
[1:17:10] that suppression detail? Correct. Okay. Um, alright, that's good to know.
[1:17:14] um, the, I know we've asked this in
[1:17:18] the past, and this is I think the third time we've talked about fireworks since I've been on the dais.
[1:17:22] um, we have not seen an
[1:17:27] increase in illegal fireworks in
[1:17:31] the city of dublin, um, compared to our surrounding
[1:17:35] cities. Is that correct? I couldn't speak directly to our surrounding cities.
[1:17:39] I can say, uh, in 2020 we did confiscate, I believe a thousand pounds
[1:17:43] worth of illegal fireworks. Since then, it's been fairly consistent year over
[1:17:47] year. Um, so it's not like we're seeing a, a increase year over year in dublin necessarily.
[1:17:52] um, I don't know if the chief wants to speak to other communities. Um, yeah, I I
[1:17:56] I we've had that, I know you probably don't have that reward in front of you. We've had that question
[1:18:00] asked in the past, and the, the answer we got was that, um, our,
[1:18:05] uh, the, the calls for service based on illegal fireworks and what we're seeing
[1:18:09] is comparable to surrounding cities is and, and maybe sometimes even lower. Is that,
[1:18:13] is that a, do I have that right? Do I remember that correctly? Uh, vice mayor, I
[1:18:17] don't have the, the info this for the surrounding cities. I can tell you from working these details previously when
[1:18:22] I was assigned here, um, our arrest numbers are about the same. They're
[1:18:26] very low. Um, the amount of fireworks that we seize every year is pretty consistent,
[1:18:30] and a lot of the fireworks that we do seize come from undercover operations with our detectives.
[1:18:35] it's not necessarily always picking up the fireworks off the street, but, um, I, I don't
[1:18:39] know what the surrounding agencies are picking up okay. Or what their numbers are.
[1:18:43] all right. Um, do you have any recollection of those reports that we've had
[1:18:47] in the past? Okay, thank you. Um, I, the 2020 year
[1:18:51] we talked about it then, um, because everybody in california
[1:18:56] was appalled by the illegal fireworks, and it was because of all the professional shows being canceled and the
[1:19:00] black market being flooded with, um, the illegal fireworks. And
[1:19:04] so that, I'm, I'm, that was an anomaly mm-hmm . Um, so
[1:19:08] I'm, I'm not, that's not the number that I want us to all be thinking
[1:19:12] about so much. Correct. It's more the current years mm-hmm . Um, okay. Thank
[1:19:16] you. The, um, you said that the cap is based,
[1:19:21] the, the, the number of boosts goes up and down, but I think what you meant was the cap goes up and down
[1:19:25] based on the population, correct? Correct. The cap. The cap, the allowable number of boosts,
[1:19:29] our cap, uhhuh is based on the, is based on the population. It's one per every 3000,
[1:19:34] uh, minus anybody in group quarters. And the, the last few years
[1:19:38] have we had enough booths that we were bumping up against that cap so that we had to do the lottery
[1:19:42] draw? We have not, no. Do you remember when the last year we had to do the lottery draw? Was, I believe it was in
[1:19:46] 2015, was the last time we did the lottery draw. Okay. And last
[1:19:50] year we had 15 booths, is that right? 15 selected, 16 applied. And there were,
[1:19:55] how many could we have had? How many could we have had based on the cap?
[1:19:59] uh, 23. 23. Okay. Thank you. Um, and then, uh, the,
[1:20:03] the booth locations for each nonprofit, how were those booths selected?
[1:20:07] the locations? You, you had a slide that talked about the locations. Yeah. And, um,
[1:20:12] I'll let bonnie come up and answer that. Okay. Chief tara, she, I think will have more information
[1:20:16] on that specifically. Okay.
[1:20:26] good evening. Council division chief tara with the emily county fire department. Um,
[1:20:30] the city does not, um, dictate booths. Those are established
[1:20:35] between the fireworks provider and the organizations,
[1:20:40] or the organizations themselves secure their booth locations.
[1:20:44] what we do is when the booth locations are submitted, we ensure that the
[1:20:48] location meets the regulation standards for distances from things
[1:20:52] like gasoline pumps, buildings, um, lithium
[1:20:57] ion, battery charging stations, those types of, um, things. But
[1:21:01] we do not pick or determine where the booth locations are.
[1:21:05] and obviously the property owners here within the community determine whether
[1:21:10] they want a booth on their property or not. Okay. Um,
[1:21:14] and, uh, when was the last time the ordinance itself was updated?
[1:21:18] was that 82? Do I have that right?
[1:21:23] uh, the ordinance, there were multiple amendments that had happened over
[1:21:27] the years. Um, not specifically just in 1982. Okay.
[1:21:31] um, I don't have that exact information in front of me right now, though. I apologize.
[1:21:35] the last update I saw in writing on here was 82, but you think there was things that
[1:21:39] were updated since then? There were multiple, or there were multiple amendments that occurred? Lemme
[1:21:43] pull it up. My, my recollection
[1:21:47] is that there have been a number of amendments, but they're mainly related to the, the way
[1:21:51] the fireworks, uh, sales permits process works. You know, who's qualifying
[1:21:56] and things like that. Um, there the fundamentals around, uh, safe and
[1:22:00] sane fireworks haven't changed. That's 82. Does that sound right? Yeah, that sounds right.
[1:22:05] okay. It appears that the most recent update was in 2012. Okay.
[1:22:10] okay. That's it for my questions right now. Thank you. Thank you. Very good questions anymore?
[1:22:15] good. Um, thank you for the presentation. Uh, just got one
[1:22:20] question, uh, kind of dovetailing off of, uh, the vice mayor's questions. Is there, do
[1:22:24] we have the capacity to, uh, break out the suppression detail on,
[1:22:28] for police and fire between illegal and legal, uh,
[1:22:32] activities or fireworks rather?
[1:22:36] um, so council member cadre, so we already do that. So part of our suppression detail, uh,
[1:22:41] goes to cover four parks or safe and sane fireworks are being, um,
[1:22:45] used. So we typically, um, I think we put about two officers at each
[1:22:49] park. So part of that suppression does cover the safe and sane.
[1:22:54] got it. Okay. So two per four, so eight officers
[1:22:58] during that 12 hour window? That's correct. Roughly. Okay. Uh,
[1:23:03] can I piggyback? Sure. Question. Um, but the police costs
[1:23:08] for safe, insane fireworks are more than just those officers at the park the night of
[1:23:13] fireworks. Right. And so I think, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I think your question was,
[1:23:17] um, really for the, the, uh, police cost
[1:23:21] associated with fireworks mm-hmm . Um, can we
[1:23:26] get a full breakdown of, you know, this is how much it costs for police
[1:23:30] services to support safe and sane fireworks? Yeah. I think we, we put together,
[1:23:34] I know captain campos put together a, uh, sheet detailing all the costs, including costs
[1:23:38] for, uh, you know, inspections and stuff, or any, any types of response
[1:23:42] to a fireworks booth. Mm-hmm . And also including, um, the staff that
[1:23:46] was dedicated to suppression on the day of 4th of july. I see. Okay. So we may have just
[1:23:50] misunderstood your answer, . Okay. Thank you. Thank you,
[1:23:55] michael. Yeah, thank you, mayor. Um,
[1:24:03] what, uh, what has prevented us, uh,
[1:24:07] from, and you may have mentioned this, but I wasn't clear on this, uh,
[1:24:13] requiring or, or enforcing a, a reporting mechanism
[1:24:17] from the nonprofits. Why have we not been, let me rephrase it. That's
[1:24:22] where I wanna go, but why have we not, uh, um,
[1:24:27] received good information over the years? Because essentially, regardless of
[1:24:31] whether, uh, you know, we have breakouts or not on the data,
[1:24:35] uh, we are, uh, we are subsidizing
[1:24:40] this process by $74,000 a year, which, which
[1:24:44] is great. Um, but I would think that we'd want
[1:24:48] to be able to pinpoint what those benefits are
[1:24:53] to the community. And I know, um, the community for, obviously for many years,
[1:24:57] this has been a, a very, very good revenue source, uh, to
[1:25:01] support the schools. So what I'd like to see is, is
[1:25:05] also, is to, uh, see how successful we can, uh,
[1:25:09] be in requiring, uh, whether it's the, uh,
[1:25:14] how, wherever that information's coming from, whether it's the, the, uh, fireworks
[1:25:18] provider or the nonprofits. And, uh, I know that they
[1:25:22] know how much they're making, uh, but we'd like, I'd like to see kind of a gross
[1:25:26] revenue, uh, or, or something that says, hey, look, we're,
[1:25:31] we're, uh, willing to provide this. This is, this is, you know, this is what we're putting
[1:25:35] up as a city, and, uh, here's, here's how
[1:25:39] it's benefiting our, our schools. And I think that would be, um,
[1:25:43] a first start as far as I'm concerned. Um, the other
[1:25:47] thing is, uh, and, and I'm, I'm going to digress and
[1:25:51] say I thank you for the report. I, I often fail to thank you,
[1:25:56] , and I wanna do that because you actually identified, um,
[1:26:00] a couple of comparatives. And, um, what I'd like to understand
[1:26:04] is what do you think, uh, their rationale or
[1:26:09] how successful have both newark and
[1:26:13] union city been over the year, and where do you think they're going, uh,
[1:26:18] on that? I mean, I can say like with union city specifically, uh, or excuse me, newark
[1:26:23] specifically with the cap, and, you know, obviously reducing the number of boosts to attrition mm-hmm
[1:26:27] . I believe they've reduced by two or three boosts over the past,
[1:26:31] gosh, how many years it's been, it's been five plus years.
[1:26:36] so there has been a little bit of an attrition there. The cap was originally set at 14, I believe
[1:26:40] they're down to 12 or 11 booths at this point. Mm-hmm . So that's been successful
[1:26:45] for what I guess their council was going for. Um,
[1:26:49] I, I couldn't really speak to how successful union city's been with, with
[1:26:53] their specific, uh, fee structure. Yeah.
[1:26:57] um, I, you know, we'd have to reach out to them and, and really sit down, what, what are, yeah.
[1:27:02] or how much are they subsidizing or, you know, yeah. We would've, we'd
[1:27:06] have to reach out to them directly to get that, that detailed information, which we're happy to do
[1:27:10] if, um, I, I would appreciate that.
[1:27:14] um, and then, um, I think that's,
[1:27:19] those are the, the basic questions for now that I'll, I might have a couple more later,
[1:27:23] but thank you. Yeah. So, john, council member marada, do you have
[1:27:27] any questions? Um, yes. I, if I may, just two
[1:27:31] very quick questions for jordan. Um, uh, jordan. Great.
[1:27:36] great. Uh, research and, and in depth, uh, the first
[1:27:40] question is, um, as a city, uh, fundamentally
[1:27:44] we provide this as a service correct. To,
[1:27:48] to our residents, both the fireworks permitting process as
[1:27:52] well as the, uh, coordinate off area for where fireworks can be
[1:27:57] lit off in the parks, correct? That is correct. Okay. Thank
[1:28:01] you. Uh, just a point of clarification. And then, uh, second question
[1:28:05] is, uh, during the
[1:28:09] evaluation, and, and, uh, actually, let me take a step back. I, I actually agree with,
[1:28:13] uh, councilman horten because he and I come from a very similar business background.
[1:28:17] so we're always about kpis and metrics. Um, but to that
[1:28:21] point, which I'm leading into jordan, uh, we as a city
[1:28:27] do not engage with the applicants on
[1:28:31] either commercial discussion around foot traffic,
[1:28:36] sales volume, or anything of that sort. Correct. We, we simply accept
[1:28:40] the permit process, term permit and provide a service.
[1:28:44] correct. They're not required to report anything back to the city, um, specifically
[1:28:49] surrounding their sales. Okay.
[1:28:53] okay. Um, thank you. Therefore, I, um, I, I, I think it's,
[1:28:57] it's important to note that, you know, as a city, uh, again, we provide a service,
[1:29:02] um, the data around, uh, the commercial
[1:29:06] aspects of running a booth and the number of booths, those are all
[1:29:11] extra data points. Um, but maybe at, at some point it becomes
[1:29:15] a deliberation as to do those become points
[1:29:19] of discussion and adjudication as we, you know, look further
[1:29:24] about the support of this service. Uh, but as of now, I, I'm going to
[1:29:28] just say that this, provide this, continue to provide the service. It, it was a great report.
[1:29:32] um, but we don't necessarily need to look at, uh, volume of,
[1:29:36] of sales as a determining factor for the number of booths we have in the
[1:29:40] future. So, thank you, jordan. Your report is accepted and I appreciate it,
[1:29:45] council member. So thank you. Good work. So, I, I,
[1:29:49] I actually know some data points, I'll say. So I think a, some
[1:29:53] number of non-profit organizations, they made a significant,
[1:29:58] uh, revenue from these sales, um, because they, they, sometimes they
[1:30:02] reach out to me, and actually I was a volunteer selling,
[1:30:06] uh, fireworks in the past years. So I, I kinda have that information.
[1:30:10] so it's a significant for non-profit for many of them. And
[1:30:15] also, um, also depends because it's not easy to
[1:30:19] sell as well. So that's why the numbers of nonprofit
[1:30:23] apply for these permits, like reduced over years, because
[1:30:28] it's not easy. But for some pfcs for those, you know, they have a lot
[1:30:32] of, um, associated, uh, supporting groups,
[1:30:36] they do rely on this. Um, so I, I do have a
[1:30:40] question. And the question is, uh, so
[1:30:44] I say like a, it has been on ballot in the past
[1:30:49] a few times, so I'm just, uh, curious.
[1:30:53] so if we want to change anything, we also need to go to the ballot,
[1:30:57] is that right? I'm gonna let john answer that
[1:31:02] question. You don't have to place it on the ballot, but, uh, it's
[1:31:06] been done in the past to inform the city council's decision about it.
[1:31:11] go ahead. Yeah. Uh, that's, that's absolutely correct. I'm just gonna
[1:31:16] unpack it slightly. It was originally, the policy was originally adopted by the
[1:31:20] city council. Um, so it can be changed by the city council. I think it's been controversial
[1:31:24] in the past. Um, and so the council had put it on
[1:31:28] the ballot as an advisory measure to just ask the public, hey,
[1:31:32] do you wanna keep it or do you want to, do you wanna get rid of safe and sane
[1:31:36] fireworks? Uh, so that's why it was on the ballot. It wasn't actually an initiative measure, it was just a,
[1:31:41] a question, do you, do you want to retain safe and sane fireworks in dublin? Okay.
[1:31:45] cool. Thank you. So that's all the questions. And do we have
[1:31:49] a public comments? Uh, yes, mayor, I have,
[1:31:53] um, it looks like six speakers on this, um, topic, some here in
[1:31:57] the chamber, and one on zoom. So the first speaker is james bowling.
[1:32:13] hi, um, I'm james bowling, and, uh, I represent, uh, dublin
[1:32:17] high school music boosters. Um, so I'm just gonna go ahead and speak
[1:32:21] really quickly about revenue. It is a major revenue source for us, um,
[1:32:26] for us. I'll give you some specifics since you were kind of asking.
[1:32:31] um, net revenue for us is
[1:32:35] about $25,000 a year. What does that do? That allows
[1:32:39] our band to go down to fresno for a two day competition, uh, to compete
[1:32:43] with all bands from across california and nevada and oregon.
[1:32:47] it's a huge competition that they do. Without that revenue, we're not going.
[1:32:52] um, and it also makes up 25% of all fundraising
[1:32:56] that we do. So it would be a significant cut within
[1:33:01] our program. The other issue would also be, and I would
[1:33:05] like to kind of put some things into perspective. That's our perspective and
[1:33:09] what it would do to our organization. Um, your guys'
[1:33:13] budget is $171 million. From what I read up on your website, that's
[1:33:17] 75,000 is four tenths, I'm sorry, four, one hundreds of a
[1:33:21] percent of your overall budget. That to me, is not a very significant
[1:33:25] savings for the city. I do appreciate that you guys being fiscally
[1:33:30] responsible as I am as well. Um, however, I would implore
[1:33:34] you to not look at this as an expense, but to look at this as an
[1:33:38] investment on the children and the organizations that serve your community.
[1:33:43] that's the perspective I would like for you guys to think about before you make any type of
[1:33:47] decisions. Um, to add a fee,
[1:33:52] you guys were talking about adding it to the gross, if there was a fee to
[1:33:56] cover up that cost, I'm just telling you that that would probably
[1:34:01] cut us, that would cut our revenue made from the, by the boost
[1:34:05] by about 10%. From what I saw in the report, I saw
[1:34:09] a possible fee being charged. And so that I just kind of did a quick thing on
[1:34:14] how much that would actually cost us. Um,
[1:34:18] and also to kind of go to the safety,
[1:34:22] if in the past two years you've had two responses, and one of them
[1:34:27] was improper use or disposal of safe, some safe and same fireworks,
[1:34:31] and one was for illegal, I don't see a necessary
[1:34:36] measure to ban them as, I don't think that that would actually reduce
[1:34:40] safety concerns that the city has. I understand
[1:34:44] the concerns that the city may have, but I don't think that would be a
[1:34:48] significant safety improvement for the city. 'cause people are still going to bring
[1:34:53] in illegal fireworks. I come from modesto where they
[1:34:57] let off safe, insane fireworks, but those are way outnumbered by the
[1:35:01] illegal ones, . So I can tell you that it's not gonna change
[1:35:05] a thing whether you get rid of it or you don't. Thank you.
[1:35:09] thank you, mayor. The next speaker is mike grant.
[1:35:27] good evening again, mike grant, longtime resident.
[1:35:32] I'm concerned you get a hundred pounds of illegal fireworks that you compensate.
[1:35:37] and I, I'm more concerned about, uh, why don't you guys
[1:35:41] start finding these people $200 a pound for every pound of
[1:35:46] fireworks you find on 'em, and give 'em a little deterrent. They won't do that anymore
[1:35:50] and stick it to 'em in the pocketbook. That's what you're trying to do most of the time to us.
[1:35:54] so let's go ahead and do it to them. Maybe they won't bring the fireworks in town anymore,
[1:35:58] not a big deal. Chief would go ahead and write the ticket to 'em, and we will
[1:36:02] haul 'em away to santa rita motel, and we'll collect the cash
[1:36:06] from 'em. That's how we'll stop that. So as far as
[1:36:11] the city, the $74,000 to this city's chump change,
[1:36:15] we see it all the time. We spend more money. I see people driving around with, uh,
[1:36:19] cars going to lunch, and these little cars hiding out and stuff in the street.
[1:36:24] it's not a big deal, the city cars. So if we can afford to do that,
[1:36:29] we can afford to let these people make a profit,
[1:36:33] just like the gentleman just said here for the school. Just leave it alone,
[1:36:37] move on. Look for something else to save money on, like go after
[1:36:42] maybe these protestors and raise their permit fees. Thank you,
[1:36:47] mayor. The next speaker is inga houston.
[1:37:00] good evening mayor and city council and staff. Um, before I start,
[1:37:04] I'm gonna, uh, talk from a business point of view, but I, I would like to point out
[1:37:08] that, um, in the revenue funding, um, did you take
[1:37:12] into consideration the potential sales tax income that comes in on the
[1:37:16] sales tax that is charged on the, um,
[1:37:20] fireworks. So if the fireworks go away, that sales tax will go down? So that's something
[1:37:25] to consider. Uh, the thing is, is, uh, my name is inga houston.
[1:37:29] I'm president, ceo of the dublin chamber of commerce. Um, I'm
[1:37:33] speaking tonight on the behalf of the business, um, community,
[1:37:37] uh, local businesses that invest in this community, employer, residents,
[1:37:41] um, and partner closer with both the city and the nonprofit organizations.
[1:37:47] from a business perspective, with a lawful nonprofit
[1:37:52] fundraising mechanism, if it's eliminated, the financial
[1:37:56] need does not disappear. It shifts and the
[1:38:00] shift lands directly on local businesses. If nonprofits lose
[1:38:04] a significant source of revenue, businesses will face increased donation
[1:38:08] requests, sponsorship asks, and emergency appeals
[1:38:13] to fill that gap for small and mid-sized businesses already
[1:38:17] managing rising costs and labor insurance, rent and compliance.
[1:38:22] this creates a financial strain. This is not
[1:38:26] theoretical, it is how funding gaps are filled.
[1:38:30] if the average firework booth nets $30,000 times 15
[1:38:35] booths, that's $450,000 that our nonprofits here in
[1:38:39] dublin are going to be seeking from our community. The city's
[1:38:43] support of firework sales over the years has created awesome fundraising opportunities,
[1:38:47] and I applaud the city for, for this, uh, program.
[1:38:52] and also it's a multi-generational fundraiser.
[1:38:56] I also wanna emphasize the role nonprofits play in our, in the overall
[1:39:00] business climate nonprofit, um, nonprofits provide
[1:39:04] youth programs, safety education, school support, family
[1:39:09] support services, and community engagement that helps make dublin
[1:39:13] a place where businesses wanna, where businesses can attract employees,
[1:39:18] customers, and investment. When nonprofit funding is reduced,
[1:39:22] pressure shifts back to the city and the private sector. The business community
[1:39:26] support strong enforcement against illegal activities,
[1:39:30] but we do not support the elimination of a regulator program that is
[1:39:34] working and shifting unintended costs onto the business and public
[1:39:38] safety resources. Respectfully, the chamber believes the
[1:39:43] most effective path forward is to preserve this nonprofit
[1:39:47] fundraising activity. This approach protects
[1:39:51] community services and avoids placing additional financial strain on dublin
[1:39:56] businesses. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, mayor.
[1:40:00] the next speaker is gary leach.
[1:40:07] hi, ms. Mayor, city council. Thanks for having me. I'm gary leach. I'm the
[1:40:11] executive director of doublet partners in education. Many of you
[1:40:16] know that d pi has been around for about 30 years. We support schools
[1:40:20] with afterschool programs and nonprofit, or excuse me, uh, summer programs.
[1:40:25] but what a lot of people don't realize is the amount of money that we give back to
[1:40:29] the community, directly to the students for student programs,
[1:40:33] to the schools and the school district. This year, this current fiscal
[1:40:37] year, we'll be giving $280,000 back to the schools
[1:40:42] school community, and for school programs for fireworks
[1:40:46] specifically, we gave $19,000 to middle
[1:40:51] school and high school music programs. We love music. We love
[1:40:55] music programs. We know what it does for children. We know
[1:40:59] not only is it like learning a whole foreign language, and so it requires
[1:41:04] a lot of thinking and self-confidence to be able to play music
[1:41:08] in front of hundreds of parents, but it also helps
[1:41:12] with anxiety. So if you think about the stress that
[1:41:17] is both because of academic stress and peer pressure
[1:41:21] that our middle school students and high school students experience music is
[1:41:25] a fantastic outlet for that. That's really why deep, I
[1:41:29] really strongly supports music programs. So that night, where did that
[1:41:33] $19,000 go that we gave to the middle schools and the
[1:41:37] high school emerald high school this year? I'll tell you where it went. So,
[1:41:41] wells middle school, uh, mr. B, as they call him the fantastic music
[1:41:46] teacher, he said by us giving him money, it allowed
[1:41:50] a cost to help their trip to disneyland. So
[1:41:55] let's put it this way. Middle school kids play in a marching band,
[1:41:59] get the dream of marching down main street in disneyland and playing at
[1:42:03] disneyland. That's fantastic. We don't want that to go away.
[1:42:07] um, what does it also do? It allowed us to give
[1:42:12] a electric guitar and an amp to a student who was learning music and
[1:42:16] learning how to play guitar, and she really wanted to learn electric guitar. So that allowed
[1:42:20] her to do that. Um, what is it doing to emerald highs music
[1:42:24] program? It's allowing that brand new high school to be able
[1:42:28] to buy instruments and musical equipment to support schools.
[1:42:33] so what happens if fireworks goes away? Um, that $19,000
[1:42:38] that we gave to those middle school and high school programs goes away. It
[1:42:42] goes away. And we will try to find other ways to make up that money.
[1:42:46] but we want and deep, I wants to continue to support music
[1:42:50] programs because the benefit to the dublin students, the
[1:42:54] children of dublin, and particularly to help the anxiety
[1:42:58] and, you know, the stress that kids are under, music is a fantastic outlet.
[1:43:03] thank you very much. Thank you, mayor. The
[1:43:07] next speaker is dennis rel.
[1:43:20] good evening mayor, members of the council. My name is dennis val, I'm president of without
[1:43:24] communications. And for the more than three decades I've
[1:43:28] worked with california cities, counties, fire
[1:43:32] agencies, law enforcement, the office of the state fire marshal, uh,
[1:43:37] on fireworks, safety enforcement, and public education.
[1:43:41] I submitted a detailed letter to you regarding tonight's staff report, and
[1:43:45] I appreciate the opportunity to briefly summarize its key points.
[1:43:50] let me start with what I believe is the most important issue, and I want to compliment
[1:43:54] jordan for the addition in the powerpoint because initially the staff
[1:43:58] report did not clearly distinguish between the impacts caused
[1:44:02] by illegal fireworks versus those associated with state fire marshal
[1:44:07] approved, safe and sane. The distinction matters because it
[1:44:11] drives policy, it drives enforcement, it drives the strategy,
[1:44:15] and it drives the cost allocation. The overwhelming majority of police
[1:44:20] and fire deployment costs described in the report are driven by illegal
[1:44:24] aerial fireworks, not the ground-based, safe and sane products sold
[1:44:28] by dublin's nonprofits. Those enforcement costs would largely
[1:44:33] remain, even if dublin banned safe and same fireworks altogether.
[1:44:37] cities that have done so can attest to that. Which brings me
[1:44:41] to cost of recovery. The staff report points to union cities a potential
[1:44:45] model. I wanna make very clear about the example. Union
[1:44:49] city had previously attempted to recover its full 4th of july, police
[1:44:53] and fire deployment costs through public records requests and legal
[1:44:58] analysis under proposition 26 and the sinclair paint case,
[1:45:02] the decis, the decision, uh, was to change the
[1:45:07] approach because the previous, uh, approach had
[1:45:11] improperly shifted. Costs driven by illegal activity onto the
[1:45:15] backs of the nonprofits. Union city ultimately refunded
[1:45:19] approximately $45,000 to its community nonprofits.
[1:45:24] and the nonprofits through the ab 1403
[1:45:28] paid approximately $38,000 the last three years each year,
[1:45:33] uh, to cover, uh, to help supplement and cover city costs. Union
[1:45:37] city now relies on ab 14, uh oh three, which
[1:45:41] authorizes up to 7% surcharge on gross sales to
[1:45:45] fund enforcement without reducing nonprofit proceeds. Equally
[1:45:50] important, dublin currently lacks one of the most effective local enforcement
[1:45:54] tools throughout california, and that's a fireworks social host ordinance
[1:45:58] with a stacking provision in it. I would respectfully suggest the
[1:46:02] city council direct staff to focus on a fireworks social host ordinance,
[1:46:07] an administrative sign, excuse me, citation with stacking
[1:46:11] at a a thousand dollars per violation per device
[1:46:15] cost recovery from the violators, and a lawful use
[1:46:20] of ab 1403 revenues, which could result in as much as $71,000
[1:46:25] annually for the city, with no impact on the revenue generated
[1:46:30] for the non-pro profits, plus another $10,000 in
[1:46:34] sales tax. I'm happy to respond to any. Thank
[1:46:38] you, mayor. I
[1:46:42] have one speaker on zoom and that is sumit agrawal.
[1:46:48] thanks for having me. Um, can you guys hear me?
[1:46:52] please? Go ahead. Okay. Um,
[1:46:56] my name is samita gral. I'm a dublin resident for over
[1:47:01] 13 years, and I'm here representing the tri-valley minor hockey association,
[1:47:06] which is a nonprofit that has served this community for over
[1:47:10] 20 years. We serve youth hockey kids aged
[1:47:14] six through 18 and help kids build a love for hockey, teamwork
[1:47:18] and discipline. I, myself, am an immigrant at the united states
[1:47:22] and never seen ice hockey before I came here. And through this club,
[1:47:27] both my children have learned to play ice hockey. I have a 10-year-old daughter and
[1:47:31] a 15-year-old son, and both are proud hockey players. Today,
[1:47:35] the funds we raise, support, travel, hockey equipment, and access for many
[1:47:39] families who otherwise could not have afforded it. There is no replacement funding
[1:47:43] sources for this work. And fireworks is by far our largest
[1:47:47] single fundraiser. Every dollar goes back to the program.
[1:47:52] I've participated in this fundraising for the past two years, um, and
[1:47:56] I have celebrated it myself at emerald park. One thing I can say for
[1:48:00] sure, it truly brings our community together.
[1:48:04] so my call to action is simple on the morning of 4th of july.
[1:48:09] please stop by the fireworks booth. It is easy to forget the
[1:48:13] positive vibe and the connection that it creates in our communities,
[1:48:17] and that in the parking lot with the buddhist set up, I fully support the
[1:48:21] strong enforcement against illegal fireworks. Illegal fires
[1:48:25] are a real problem, but I hope that the council does not
[1:48:29] punish community nonprofits here for something they did not create. Please
[1:48:33] help us keep safe and sane fireworks and focus the enforcement where it belongs,
[1:48:37] which is an illegal fireworks. Thanks for your time. I'm happy
[1:48:41] to answer any questions you might have. Thank you.
[1:48:46] I have no more speakers slips, mayor. Yeah, thank you. We'll bring back to our council
[1:48:50] for further, um, discussion on this item.
[1:48:54] you want to go ahead? Sure. Um, happy to go first. So thank you for the, uh,
[1:48:59] to the six speakers, um, for, for sharing their thoughts. Um,
[1:49:04] uh, yeah, so I, I see, excuse
[1:49:08] me, I see fireworks, um, as like, as a, as a very american
[1:49:12] thing. Uh, you know, apple pie baseball hotdog, in my case,
[1:49:16] veggie hotdog. But, um, uh, I, I don't, I don't see,
[1:49:21] I don't really see the need to, um, change what we have going.
[1:49:25] I think the social host ordinance piece of it is something
[1:49:29] that we should look at in specifically around the illegal fireworks
[1:49:34] and, and try to curtail that. I, um, I actually think
[1:49:38] getting rid of safe and sane is gonna increase illegal fireworks 'cause people still
[1:49:42] wanna celebrate and, and it's gonna create more, more of a fire risk. Um,
[1:49:48] uh, second point is just around, uh, kind of digging
[1:49:52] into the numbers of illegal fireworks and some of the surrounding areas and, and kind of tracking that.
[1:49:56] I, I don't think dublin is immune to that, uh, or it clearly is not.
[1:50:01] um, but I'd, I'd be concerned just, or I, I would, uh, I
[1:50:05] would recommend just sort of tracking those numbers and, and making sure that those aren't going up within
[1:50:09] dublin and, and in surrounding areas. Uh, I think the fee
[1:50:13] structure is worth exploring at some point. Um,
[1:50:18] I think we should get a handle on, even if it's in ballpark numbers, what type
[1:50:22] of community benefit we're providing through this. Um,
[1:50:26] you know, if it's in the range of 30 k times
[1:50:30] 15, right? Uh, $450,000, that's great. Um,
[1:50:34] you know, they're doing the hard work. They're, they're, they're out there. It's long grueling, sometimes
[1:50:39] hot days , um, and, and, uh, and it's a great way
[1:50:43] to support it. But if it's, you know, single digit thousands times 15 is like,
[1:50:48] we're, we're wasting money, right? Like, we're, we're, we're wasting 75 and
[1:50:52] not capture, or the nonprofits aren't being able to, um, to capture the, capture
[1:50:56] the benefit. So I, I would, I would be supportive of looking at the free fee
[1:51:00] structure, at least capturing ballpark figures in terms of what their revenues
[1:51:05] are, um, where the net is, uh, and
[1:51:09] looking into the social host ordinances and looking at surrounding areas
[1:51:14] and what we might be able to do to curtail, uh, some of the illegal fireworks.
[1:51:21] yeah, go ahead. Thank you. Um, I agree with an awful
[1:51:25] lot of what you said. Um, you can't live in dublin for very
[1:51:29] long and not have worked a fireworks booth. I don't think there's been a year since at least
[1:51:34] 2007 that I haven't spent multiple shifts in fireworks
[1:51:38] booths for multiple nonprofits. I mean, it is as much a part of dublin
[1:51:42] as anything else at this point. Um,
[1:51:47] but that doesn't mean we don't look at doing things a little bit differently. I wanna be very clear before
[1:51:51] anybody loses their minds. I'm not in favor of banning safe and st. Fireworks . Um, but I think that
[1:51:55] we, we do want to, um, make sure that we are
[1:51:59] doing it in a way that reflects the, um, current reality
[1:52:04] as opposed to the way we started selling safe and insane fireworks in the, um,
[1:52:08] the, uh, 1980s, which, uh, clearly was not uncontroversial
[1:52:13] since they put two, um, advisory measures on the ballot at that
[1:52:17] time. Um, I do think we need to look at, um, uh,
[1:52:21] potentially a different fee structure. Um,
[1:52:25] I wanna make sure that we are truly capturing the city's
[1:52:29] actual costs for truly administering
[1:52:33] safe and sane fireworks. Um, I think we've heard a couple of things tonight to make
[1:52:37] me say, was 74,000 really the right number? One is, um,
[1:52:42] the public safety piece is, are those the
[1:52:46] right numbers? Um, two, uh, have we accounted for sales tax
[1:52:50] revenue because it, you know, let's make sure that we're really capturing
[1:52:54] the whole thing. But having said that, once we do have a number, um, I, I think that it is,
[1:52:59] um, it's worth exploring. What,
[1:53:03] what are we, what are the people who are not part of those 15 nonprofits?
[1:53:07] um, what are we asking those residents to pay, particularly in light
[1:53:12] of the projected deficit down the road. Um, so I think
[1:53:16] it's worth exploring that. Um, I do think it's worth looking at the social host
[1:53:20] ordinance, um, for multiple, multiple reasons, not just for
[1:53:24] fireworks. I think that, um, what I would love to see is to have the social host ordinance
[1:53:28] come back to us as a separate item so that we can update it. Because I know, um,
[1:53:32] right now it's only about underage drinking. We would like to look at it, um, as it pertains to
[1:53:36] fireworks. I think we would like to look at it as it pertains to, um, potentially
[1:53:41] e-bikes and things of that nature. And, and there may be other things that we wanna, um, make
[1:53:45] sure that it's, um, truly, uh, working for the city of dublin. So I'd love to see
[1:53:49] that come back to us. Um, uh, one of the bulleted
[1:53:53] items in the staff report talks about, um, capping the number of booths available. I think the cap that we
[1:53:57] have currently is fine. We're not bumping up against it now. Keeping it,
[1:54:01] um, tied to the population I think is, is fine. Um,
[1:54:06] the, I can't read my own handwriting here. Oh, that says
[1:54:10] locations. Um, we've heard a bunch of numbers thrown out about
[1:54:15] the amount of money that each nonprofit is making. Um, I
[1:54:19] heard somebody say 19,000. I heard a number, say another, say 25,000. Somebody
[1:54:23] said an average of 30, which I don't think data we have supports, but we don't really know.
[1:54:27] I'm part of a nonprofit who would love to see those numbers. Um, and hasn't, hasn't
[1:54:32] been anywhere near that. And I believe some of that might be tied to location. So I'd love to see,
[1:54:36] um, more information about, um,
[1:54:40] an equitable assignment of booth locations across nonprofits so that
[1:54:44] everybody has an opportunity to be hitting those kind of big numbers. Um,
[1:54:50] you know, if we're doing a lottery for booths, there may be some way to, um, leave
[1:54:55] it less up to chance about which locations. Um, so if the, the staff has any
[1:54:59] ideas around that, um, I'm intrigued with the administrative citation.
[1:55:03] um, I'd love to see, uh, police services come back with, um,
[1:55:07] information about, uh, putting more teeth into, um, the
[1:55:12] illegal fireworks, not just the social host ordinance, but, um, being able to have increasing
[1:55:16] administrative citations on other state law restrictions on how much you can find through
[1:55:20] an administrative citation, but, um, doing as much as we possibly can about that.
[1:55:25] um, and then finally, and, um, I, I do think that it's time that we,
[1:55:29] uh, put an advisory ballot measure out about, um, and
[1:55:33] I'd like to to word it in the affirmative. Do we want to continue the
[1:55:37] sale of safe and sane fireworks in the city of dublin? I think if it hasn't been since the
[1:55:41] eighties, we get multiple emails every year, um,
[1:55:45] to counsel around the 4th of july. Why on earth are we still allowing this? A
[1:55:49] lot of those emails really do tend to be about the illegal ones. And so I'd wanna make sure that
[1:55:53] the ballot language was clear that we were ta that we have no, that it is already
[1:55:58] illegal to, um, shoot off safe and sane, but, um, weigh in
[1:56:02] from the members of the public. Um, and we can talk about if there's
[1:56:06] support for that, whether we want that to be truly advisory or whether we want that to be. I think we would rather have
[1:56:10] an advisory personally, um, whether the public is interested in continuing safe and
[1:56:14] sane. 'cause I do agree that, you know, it's a big part of what makes dub and 4th of july
[1:56:18] double and 4th of july. You know, we, um, and then my last point
[1:56:23] is that, um, with fire and the dumpster fires, I hope that there's a way that
[1:56:27] we can, um, perhaps have park staff, um,
[1:56:31] pour water in those dumpsters every 10 minutes or 15 minutes so that they don't catch on fire in the first place.
[1:56:36] um, and then we don't have to have a firetruck come out. Um, we still are gonna monitor it, but
[1:56:40] hopefully there's a way that we can, um, prevent those fires, um, from catching in the
[1:56:44] dumpsters in the first place. So I think that's, those would be my, that's what I'd like
[1:56:48] to see us do. Thank you. Yeah. You want to make some comments? Yeah. Yeah, sure.
[1:56:52] um, thank you both for those comments. Uh, I agree with a
[1:56:56] lot of them. Um, and I'm just gonna get right down
[1:57:00] into what I think is where we should be focusing. Um,
[1:57:05] and one is focusing on illegal fireworks. Okay.
[1:57:09] um, I was reading the ordinance right now put, and you said it, I was gonna say
[1:57:13] it too. You put more teeth in it. Let's really go after this. That
[1:57:18] is probably the major concern. Uh,
[1:57:22] and, uh, we should put our resources in in, um,
[1:57:27] building that out. Okay. The other thing that, uh, I don't have
[1:57:31] a problem with, and I brought this up, uh, we have a reporting gap. Uh,
[1:57:35] and I, that's the way I'm phrasing it, is that it would be really,
[1:57:39] really good to understand how beneficial, um,
[1:57:43] these services are to the nonprofits. And I would bet that
[1:57:48] these nonprofits would be more than willing to
[1:57:52] provide, uh, information, uh, on, uh,
[1:57:56] how successful they've been. Uh, it's, it's not about the 75
[1:58:01] grand, and it's not about the 0.005, whatever percent. It's
[1:58:05] about incrementally looking at what we're providing
[1:58:09] regardless of what that cost is. And I think this is great.
[1:58:13] I think the multiplier, what I'm, if we're figuring that out, that's a fantastic
[1:58:17] multiplier, but I think it's more about, um, building
[1:58:21] up a little more reporting, uh, with, with the
[1:58:25] nonprofits. And, uh, that's what I would like to see on
[1:58:29] the other side of the coin. So, um, yeah. Very good. Yeah. Thank
[1:58:34] you. Um, council member, marada, do you want to make some comments?
[1:58:39] no additional comments, mayor. Mayor, I wholeheartedly agree with many of the comments made
[1:58:43] by vice mayor josie and council member co, uh, cadre and council
[1:58:47] member mccarsten. Um, I love the deliberation, the focus on what we need to
[1:58:51] do next. So, um, I have no further comments. Thank you. So
[1:58:56] I'll make sta for my comments here. So I heard a lot of good comments
[1:59:00] here, and I do feel we need to focus on the illegal
[1:59:04] fireworks and make sure safety, um,
[1:59:08] fire. We, we want to make sure that's not the issue for us.
[1:59:13] and I do want to say there are a lot of benefits, community
[1:59:17] benefits, as we heard from, um, our, um, public
[1:59:22] speakers today. And I love to hear this. Um, that's a part
[1:59:26] of the things we talk about. We want to find out more now the, now the owning
[1:59:30] about how much you have made from these cells. Also, the stories
[1:59:34] you told us about where you use the money, how that change
[1:59:38] our kids life, how we make our community a better place.
[1:59:42] so we love to hear that in the future. And, um,
[1:59:48] and I, I do want to say beyond what we just talk about, I do feel it's like
[1:59:52] a community spirit. It's like, uh, we celebrate independence
[1:59:57] day, we celebrate the holiday, and we are together because
[2:00:01] I went to parks during that night, and I do see a lot of
[2:00:05] crowd. We get together. We even, we don't have to buy the,
[2:00:10] the save anything fireworks, but we can always watch. So
[2:00:14] I, I feel that's very important to our city, um,
[2:00:18] as a community getting together and celebrate independent
[2:00:22] day together proudly. So that's beyond, um, just a raising
[2:00:27] funds for the non-profit. And so just a, just
[2:00:31] come back to this, um, a few items we want
[2:00:35] to talk about here. So, so I don't, I don't feel we need
[2:00:39] to recover our fees from, from this, um,
[2:00:44] fee structure. The reason is, you know, we celebrate
[2:00:48] st. Patrick day. We celebrate sp splitter. These are cost,
[2:00:52] and this, this, uh, these are the cost for the community. These are
[2:00:57] the cost, um, from the number we put here,
[2:01:01] 70,000. I think it's comparable or it's reasonable compared
[2:01:05] to other events, other community events. We, we provide, um,
[2:01:09] the, the finance support. And, but I do care
[2:01:13] about, um, this second item here, the city's social host
[2:01:18] ordinance. I think it will be, be a good idea to look into
[2:01:22] this. Uh, we want to help people, um, responsible especially,
[2:01:27] um, we want to be cautious about this
[2:01:31] illegal, um, fireworks. We want to do educational programs
[2:01:35] as well. So those are the things we think, uh, we, we can look
[2:01:39] into. And for the numbers of both, um,
[2:01:43] I think the number is, is, is already kind of, uh, worked out
[2:01:48] on its own right now. It's not growing up.
[2:01:52] uh, and it's not easy actually. It's not very, very hard, hard work,
[2:01:56] um, and a good network in order to make the nonprofit fundraising
[2:02:00] to work. So I don't think we, we need to do anything there. Um,
[2:02:05] but for the better measure, I don't, I don't feel right now we need a better measure
[2:02:09] to look at this. Again, I don't feel we need this.
[2:02:13] that's how I, I, my comments is, so this is, uh,
[2:02:17] um, just the receive the report, give comments, so we don't need a motion.
[2:02:22] well, it sounds like I, um, there's some direction being provided. So if I could just go through
[2:02:26] yes. Each one. Can I go ahead. Can I add, go ahead. Um, thank you. I forgot
[2:02:30] to mention the fact that the ordinance itself, um, needs a little bit of cleanup.
[2:02:35] it's from 82 ish. Um, and there are, there are
[2:02:39] some things in it that are very outdated. Um, and there are at
[2:02:43] least two practices that are in there that we don't follow, um,
[2:02:48] regarding who can be in the booth, who can work the booth, and the profit sharing in the booth. So
[2:02:52] I would also like to see that come back to us so that we, um, can
[2:02:56] update it. Um, for example, the, um, the deposit,
[2:03:02] put it, take that out, put it in the fee structure, um, so that it, it rises with inflation, if
[2:03:06] that's appropriate. Um, who can work in the booth? Does it really have
[2:03:10] to be only a parent or a spouse of a kid that's in that nonprofit? Um,
[2:03:14] 'cause that is not our current practice. Um, there's another piece in there that I brought up
[2:03:18] to staff earlier that I really don't wanna daylight in public that I think is super problematic. So there, there's
[2:03:23] some things about the ordinance that, um, should come back, um, to us, I think as
[2:03:27] well if, if, um, folks are amenable to that as well. Okay. So mayor,
[2:03:31] council members to, to recap and then I need direction on a couple things. Um, the
[2:03:35] soc social host ordinance, uh, we'll look at expanding that. Okay.
[2:03:39] and, uh, cleanup items only on the fireworks ordinance to make sure it's
[2:03:43] current. That makes sense. Um, fee structure. Uh,
[2:03:47] am I being directed to explore a new fee structure?
[2:03:57] okay. For, for now,
[2:04:03] I see two nos and one, yes,
[2:04:07] I am. I, I'm indifferent to that. I think for me
[2:04:11] it's more about understanding what the benefit is to the community.
[2:04:16] and, and that's on my list as well. I mean, is that something you want me to
[2:04:20] explore in conjunction with the benefit to the community? Look at the fee structure or no,
[2:04:25] I have, I have no problem looking at the fee structure. One, two, and,
[2:04:29] uh, council member marada, uh,
[2:04:33] not this time. Okay. Uh, the next thing is,
[2:04:38] uh, getting information on revenues. Uh, we can make
[2:04:42] that part of the application process, but that's part of that
[2:04:46] is understanding the benefit that's provided by the nonprofits. Right.
[2:04:50] can I ask, um, actually the mayor brought up something that, um,
[2:04:54] oftentimes when, um, and I've seen applications before for, for
[2:04:58] other, you know, for healthcare services and the whole bit, and there was it,
[2:05:02] there was the, the benefit, the analytics, and then there was also the stories
[2:05:07] mm-hmm . Okay. Uh, how was, how do you perceive this to be benefiting?
[2:05:11] so I, you know, I don't wanna get too much into the, you know, paperwork
[2:05:16] of all this because, because it can be very toxic, but, um, I didn't have
[2:05:20] a problem with that either to share with us some of the stories us share
[2:05:24] this, like the ones they share we use for the student going to this
[2:05:28] trip. Just, just generally. Yeah. Where, how this another thing,
[2:05:32] I, I, I don't know all the nonprofits, so if they don't want to share,
[2:05:37] it's okay to, you know, like we want to keep, if they want to keep the number
[2:05:42] confidential, that there's sometimes people want to do that.
[2:05:46] so we're not gonna make it part of the application process. Is it optional? Yeah, optional. Yeah.
[2:05:50] it, it gives clarity. Some people don't want to share that number.
[2:05:55] I'd, I'd prefer just having it as part of the application. Yeah. If we're
[2:05:59] collecting data, we need to collect data or, or we, we keep it confidential because I,
[2:06:03] I do see this can be some number financial numbers. People
[2:06:07] may not want to share with the, everybody. Nonprofits have reporting
[2:06:11] requirements on their, you think it's okay if, if they feel okay.
[2:06:16] uh, okay. Next, um, explore
[2:06:21] allocation of booth, um, assignments of locations.
[2:06:25] I, how is it done right now? It's, it's,
[2:06:30] it's . Well, we don't have anything to do with it right now, so we would just have to investigate.
[2:06:35] would we have any control over? I think, I think part of it, uh, according
[2:06:40] to the, to the staff report, part of it is, is the nonprofits working
[2:06:45] it out with a property owner directly. Mm-hmm . So there, there wouldn't be
[2:06:49] a a that can't be equitable. , a lot of it is not them working it out with the property owners. A
[2:06:53] lot of them is working. My understanding of it, having been on that end of it is working it out with
[2:06:57] the fireworks seller who often is the one that contracts with the
[2:07:01] property owner. Oh.
[2:07:06] I think that's investigated the issue of, if you want me to explore it, that's what I'm asking
[2:07:10] for, is to explore the issue. Sure. Okay. Uh, more teeth
[2:07:14] in the admin, uh, citation. Okay.
[2:07:19] advisory ballot measure. I just wanna say a couple things on this. Um, it wouldn't cost us
[2:07:24] anything to put a, a ballot measure on, except the translation
[2:07:29] services, as I recall, are about $15,000 into several
[2:07:33] languages. Uh, if we were to do any outreach to the community in
[2:07:37] the form of postcards, um, off of one we have done in the past, there
[2:07:41] are about, uh, $10,000 per issuance
[2:07:46] of postcards. I'm not saying we would go that route. We obviously would use online methods
[2:07:50] as well, but, uh, those would be the general costs. I wouldn't, we could put that input,
[2:07:54] maybe we put it into like a community survey. Could do that. Yeah. My, my issue,
[2:07:59] my only issue with the community survey is that it's, um, it's less scientific.
[2:08:03] we get the people who are already engaged and not necessarily the people
[2:08:07] who email us after the fact. And we get a lot of that, um, my
[2:08:11] interest in putting it on the, um, the ballot, and, and to
[2:08:15] be clear, I was interested in the general for 2026, because it lowers the cost and ups the
[2:08:19] participation. I wouldn't want us doing any particular outreach around
[2:08:23] it. Yeah. Just asking the question to minimize the cost as much as possible. Yes. There would be translation
[2:08:28] costs. We would be translating ballot measures anyway.
[2:08:32] this adds language that we'd have to translate. And obviously it adds a little bit of, um, john's
[2:08:36] time, um, to make sure that we're wording things in a, in a legal way.
[2:08:40] um, I think that's a fairly small amount
[2:08:45] to make sure that we're reaching all of the community that doesn't come to the meetings, but,
[2:08:49] you know, has weighed in. Um,
[2:08:53] I, that's all I'll say about it. I'm not, I, I think we've asked, we've
[2:08:58] asked advisory in the past, we have a very different community than we had before. I have a feeling I know how
[2:09:02] it's gonna come out, and that's why I'm so interested in, in making sure that we're doing this right, going forward.
[2:09:06] but I don't know for sure. So, um, that's why I think it's worth asking the question on
[2:09:10] this one. Go ahead. Sorry. Um, I'm a little
[2:09:14] slow on this. You wanna, you wanna put something on the ballot? Is that what I'm saying?
[2:09:18] and, and I'm, I'm still seeing that it very difficult to understand
[2:09:23] what it is that you're trying to get at and how that would be phrased. Because when
[2:09:27] you put something on the ballot, you're saying either yes or no. Right? How would, how
[2:09:32] I'm missing something? Um, but you can put a measure on the ballot, and john, if I explain
[2:09:36] this incorrectly, please obviously jump in. You can put a ballot on the measure
[2:09:40] on the, you can put a measure on the ballot, which is binding, and then if
[2:09:44] councils ever wanted to change that in the future, it would take another act of voters.
[2:09:49] um, or you can put an advisory question on a ballot where you're
[2:09:53] getting the input from everybody who votes on that ballot. And so
[2:09:57] my, my ask is that we put an advisory
[2:10:01] question on the general 2026 ballot where we know there's gonna be high participation
[2:10:05] saying, do you support, as an advisory question, do you support
[2:10:09] the city's continued sale of safe, insane fireworks? Because that puts the measure
[2:10:13] that puts this to rest for, you know, quite a while, once we've
[2:10:18] got that answer. Um, that yes, the community is, you know, but it's not something
[2:10:22] that I want the city advocating for one side or the other. It's not something like
[2:10:26] when we've put measures on the ballot where we're saying, this is, this is the city's
[2:10:30] position that we think this is a good idea, and we're going out and, and, you know, we can't
[2:10:35] advocate for once it's on there, but we, we spend a lot of time putting out informational
[2:10:39] postcards and me mess messaging and that kind of thing. I'm simply saying,
[2:10:43] I think we should be asking the question. We do that
[2:10:47] information. Well, then we would have the, we would have
[2:10:52] the opinions of, you know, more than 15
[2:10:56] nonprofits on what they think we should be doing. Because we've heard quite
[2:11:00] a lot that the environment is just different than it was in 88, 82 when the last time they
[2:11:04] asked this question. Um, you know, climate change is different. Wildfire risk is different.
[2:11:08] the, the demographics of dublin or significantly different. Um, and
[2:11:12] we get this question every year. We get emails from people, you read them asking us
[2:11:16] to ban fireworks. So I, I think it's worth asking the question, and I don't
[2:11:20] think it's a very big cost to ask an advisory question. It is still in the hands of council whether
[2:11:25] we take that advice or not. I ask question. Yeah, go ahead.
[2:11:29] if I may comment, john. Oh, I, hang on one sec. John,
[2:11:33] you wanna go for it? Go ahead. I'll let you go and then I'll, I'll follow you.
[2:11:38] okay. Um, I, so I, I don't disagree with, uh,
[2:11:42] uh, vice mayor's request to, to collect the data and, and, and survey. Uh,
[2:11:47] I do think there are multiple avenues in which we can collect the data, because if
[2:11:51] we just put it on the ballot, it is a segment of the population who are
[2:11:55] registered voters. Not everybody is a registered voter in, in, uh, in, in, in
[2:11:59] our city. So we need to also be accounting for their opinion as well, because
[2:12:05] although they may not be registered voters, they have money in their pocket to go buy fireworks.
[2:12:09] so we have to extend and expand the survey to, to get
[2:12:13] the true number and opinion of what we think our residents are feeling.
[2:12:18] so, uh, that's, that's simply my comment. Um, I think there are multiple avenues.
[2:12:22] so we should pursue and have a dialogue about what those avenues
[2:12:26] could be and have staff research them and get back to us on multiple approaches
[2:12:30] to get above the statistical curve of a, of, um, of
[2:12:34] a confidence level of what we think the citizen opinion truly is.
[2:12:38] um, to thank you. Thank you. Um, council member marada, go ahead. Uh,
[2:12:42] so this question is for, for, for john. Um,
[2:12:47] have we done, uh, anything in the nature of an advisory,
[2:12:51] uh, question on the ballot in recent memory?
[2:12:56] not in recent memory, but there have been at least I think, two fireworks, uh,
[2:13:00] advisory measures. And there may have been other in the history of dublin, other advisory measures.
[2:13:04] I'm looking at, marsha, those are the only two we're aware of as
[2:13:09] three of us here, I would advocate for looking
[2:13:13] for outreach methods. And it, it's pretty much what john just said. Uh, at least what I picked
[2:13:17] up from that was that we don't know what the right approach is,
[2:13:21] you know, whether we're hitting the right people, uh, through various
[2:13:26] methods. I'm not sure that, uh,
[2:13:30] a ballot, uh, advisory is the sole
[2:13:34] for best reason. And I think if, if we can just maybe spend
[2:13:38] a little bit of time on, on discussing that, um, a little bit,
[2:13:43] uh, more to flush out what that best method is, because I, I, I agree with
[2:13:47] you. I think the question should be asked, but, uh, I mean, we,
[2:13:51] we can't go about our business and not ask that question. As you pointed out very clearly,
[2:13:56] uh, things have changed since 1982. Um, and, and
[2:14:00] in all fairness, uh, we would be, uh, uh, deficient
[2:14:05] in our ways if we didn't ask these questions. This is what
[2:14:09] we, this is what we're pay the big bucks for, right? So, um, I would
[2:14:13] advocate for, um, talking a little bit more about
[2:14:17] what that method might be. Yeah, I'm fine with that. I, I just wanna make
[2:14:21] sure that we, we come back with a method that is, um, statistically significant
[2:14:25] as opposed to simply, um, an opt-in survey on a website or something
[2:14:29] like that. I think the beauty of capitalism is that the dollars speak,
[2:14:33] right? If if people are buying, then they're supportive of it. So,
[2:14:38] and, and also about the questions we have to, um, consider,
[2:14:42] because I heard you just mention question is, should we sell
[2:14:47] the safe thing? And for
[2:14:51] me, it's not about we sell or we don't sell it. For me, it's a,
[2:14:55] like, do we allow the fireworks to, in
[2:15:00] our city, in the city parks and the yeah, I meant, as opposed
[2:15:04] to wording it, should the city ban ban? I meant to, to my
[2:15:08] question. I wanted it to be on the I see. I see. Yeah. So, so another
[2:15:12] information I want to bring to you, because I actually, I, I, I did a multi years
[2:15:17] of volunteers on this thing. I, I know it's important for a lot of people,
[2:15:21] and I know it's, uh, it's, it's, it's a spirit for a lot of
[2:15:25] people. And I actually don't say, what are the additional information
[2:15:30] we, we were trying to get out of this. We already heard speakers today, and we say
[2:15:34] emails, we talk to people, and we can always go
[2:15:38] on analyst, you know, put a lot of effort, a lot of, for, that's additional
[2:15:43] stuff, time and additional cost as well to, we can, we can
[2:15:47] go down the rabbit hole to dig into data, get more.
[2:15:51] but I don't say like how effective we use our time, just trying
[2:15:55] to get more data, get everything from what I heard, discussion of
[2:15:59] the consult today. From what I heard from the public speaking today,
[2:16:04] I think we, we like to keep, that's what I heard too. We like to continue
[2:16:08] the, the fire, the safe financing, fireworks. We want to
[2:16:12] focus on illegal, like managing the illegal ones. I, I don't
[2:16:16] see how does that information, like, because
[2:16:20] if information is always comes with a cost,
[2:16:24] I don't say why. That's a focus of what we, we trying to do. Put our
[2:16:28] money and effort on that. So that's my, my
[2:16:33] argument of putting a ballot there. Um, if we put in
[2:16:37] a survey questions, I don't say why not? Because we do surveys every year. We
[2:16:41] do this anyway. And I think that's easy way and not disturbing
[2:16:46] way, um, to get the information. That's how I
[2:16:50] feel. I just want to, want to add advocate for that. If
[2:16:54] we do need that information for me. I don't feel we need that information.
[2:17:01] I'm good with direction. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
[2:17:06] we're good. Okay. Uh, should we take a, because
[2:17:11] we do have another item about the safety thing.
[2:17:15] should we take like three minutes break?
[2:17:19] I don't think we can run through very quickly. We have more questions. So we have
[2:17:23] a very important agenda item. Let's take a three minutes break and come back.
[2:17:28] thank you.
[2:17:49] well, this is tv 30. I'm gonna count you in in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
[2:17:57] I'll continue our, um, discussion on this new
[2:18:01] agenda. Item 8.2 to
[2:18:06] w library, civic center, public art mural project,
[2:18:10] artwork, election. Uh, good evening. I'm
[2:18:14] mayor I, members of the city council, sean kowski, parkland community services. Um,
[2:18:18] I'm gonna do my best to power through this without coughing all over the microphone. Um, the item for
[2:18:23] you tonight is the dublin library, uh, public art mural project. Um, I'm gonna,
[2:18:27] it's kinda a two part presentation. I'm gonna run through some background, and then I'm actually gonna turn
[2:18:31] over to the artist. Um, we'll let them run through, uh, their proposal.
[2:18:35] uh, so this project kicked off with the adoption of the 24, uh, through 29,
[2:18:40] uh, capital improvement program, uh, which included, uh, project pa 0 1 2 5,
[2:18:44] which is outdoor murals. This project earmarked funding for,
[2:18:49] uh, planned in future projects. We kind of, we had our eyes kind of on this, uh,
[2:18:53] location on this mural opportunity. At the same time, you know, there potentially some
[2:18:57] future mural opportunities. Um, so this kind of set aside funding resources,
[2:19:01] um, for us to kinda hit the ground running, um, in early 25, uh,
[2:19:06] staff, recent rfq, uh, we received 31 responses from muralist,
[2:19:10] uh, that were interested in this project. And then potentially future projects,
[2:19:15] um, in may of 25. And I, there's an asterisk here. This is, um, kind of a, something
[2:19:19] new that we tried, uh, with this project. Um, we took an item to the heritage and
[2:19:23] culture arts commission to, uh, present to this spec talk more
[2:19:28] about specifics of this project. Um, so from that meeting, uh,
[2:19:32] with input from staff, from the, uh, from the library, we developed
[2:19:37] a project theme, uh, some, uh, specific project goals. Um,
[2:19:41] those are included with your staff report. I'm gonna show 'em a little bit on the next slide as well. Um, but
[2:19:45] really just trying to be specific and kind of hone in where we wanted to go with this project.
[2:19:53] um, that brought us into the selection committee phase. Uh, first meeting,
[2:19:58] uh, was in june. And at this meeting, the selection committee, which dan hoc
[2:20:02] meeting, uh, um, made up of, uh, community members. They
[2:20:07] reviewed the project goals that were developed and the 31 artists, uh,
[2:20:11] portfolios. Uh, from there, they selected five finalists who were invited
[2:20:15] to develop site specific proposals. At the second
[2:20:19] selection committee meeting in august. Um, again, they reviewed project goals and
[2:20:24] received presentations from the five finalists. Um, at that meeting, they
[2:20:28] recommended three for consideration. Uh, that brought us to
[2:20:32] september 25, which was the, um, some, again, with the matric
[2:20:36] there. Something new that we tried was a public outreach kind of, uh, comment period.
[2:20:41] um, so the goal of this was really just to, to bring awareness to the project.
[2:20:45] um, try to, you know, drum up some engagement, you know, educate the
[2:20:49] community on the city's public art program. Um, and an overwhelming response. Over 700
[2:20:53] responses, um, were received. Um, I do wanna note that obviously, that the data
[2:20:58] 700 comments was a lot. You know, it's not statistically valid. Um,
[2:21:02] we have no necessarily guarantee that these were dublin residents,
[2:21:06] um, and they were really just looking at renderings.
[2:21:11] they weren't really seeing the full artist proposal. Um, so like, I think
[2:21:15] what you'll see tonight is you'll see the pictures, but you also hear kind of the narrative in this story behind it, which
[2:21:19] I think kind of helps maybe frame, um, you know, where, where the vision is.
[2:21:23] um, that brought us to, uh, the november 25 heritage and call
[2:21:27] arts commission meeting. Again, we reviewed project goals and objectives. Uh, the heritage commission
[2:21:32] reviewed the three finalists proposals that were recommended by the s committee,
[2:21:36] and they ultimately selected the recommend or the selected the proposal
[2:21:40] by rough edge collective, um, is the recommendation, um, tonight. So,
[2:21:44] uh, brings us to the last bullet point, is tonight, uh, here for city council review
[2:21:49] and, um, approval.
[2:21:56] um, again, this is a, it's a lot of text up there. Uh, but the, the theme
[2:22:00] for the project was, our story begins with imagination. And just kind of, kind of highlight
[2:22:04] some of the, um, you know, some of the words here, writing the represent representation
[2:22:09] of cultural diversity, generational change, you know, a mural that conveys,
[2:22:13] you know, growth, imagination, collective journeys, um,
[2:22:18] you know, controlled vibrancy. Um, one of the things that really stuck out
[2:22:22] was, uh, the heritage commission was, please, please, please don't let this just
[2:22:26] be a, you know, a painting of the inside of a library. You know, we don't want to just see, you know,
[2:22:30] bookshelves full of books and, you know, computers, whatnot. Um, so
[2:22:34] again, you know, a mural that conveys, you know, or inspires imagination, wisdom, knowledge,
[2:22:39] um, you know, a mural that can be interpreted, you know, from different perspectives. So again,
[2:22:43] this was, this was included of the staff report, and this was kind of the basis of all
[2:22:47] the, um, you know, the, the selection process.
[2:22:52] uh, just for a little bit of context, uh, about 25 foot long, uh,
[2:22:56] 12 by 14, uh, wide or tall and wide. It's about 950 square
[2:23:01] feet, um, all around.
[2:23:05] and again, I, I included this. This is from the city's public art master plan. Um, you know,
[2:23:09] as we're looking at artists and, uh, artwork selection, you know, works that
[2:23:13] obviously are qualified professional harvest, high quality, appropriate to site enhanced public spaces,
[2:23:18] uh, permanence, um, that includes, you know, resistance to
[2:23:22] vandalism, you know, it can be maintained. Um, work
[2:23:26] is consistent with city and community values and city's mission vision. And then obviously,
[2:23:30] work that's, you know, safe for public display.
[2:23:36] um, that concludes, uh, my presentation. And I want to introduce, um,
[2:23:41] mj and joshua from the rough edge collective, and they're gonna run through,
[2:23:45] um, their slides.
[2:23:50] hello. Um, okay. Thank you for having
[2:23:54] us. Um, here's a little background on us.
[2:23:58] my name is maria jose mj lindo lawyer, and I'm joshua lawyer.
[2:24:03] and, uh, we're really excited to have the opportunity to come, uh,
[2:24:07] talk about a proposal. Um, we're really, really,
[2:24:11] um, excited about the work, and yeah, thank you.
[2:24:17] and this is, um, kind of the long rendition of, of stories
[2:24:21] told. Our story begins
[2:24:26] with a child completely immersed in a book, transported beyond the page, into
[2:24:30] new worlds, new ideas, and the lives of people from different cultures,
[2:24:34] beliefs, and experiences. This design seeks to honor the
[2:24:38] quiet, extraordinary power of stories, the way they reach across borders
[2:24:42] and differences. To touch something deeply human in all of us, books become
[2:24:47] more than pages that become portals weaving connection through curiosity,
[2:24:51] empathy, and wonder. Here we celebrate not only what unites us,
[2:24:55] but also the vibrant spectrum of what sets us apart. In our shared
[2:25:00] stories and our singular voices. We find the true beauty of being human.
[2:25:07] the second figure, the oracle is submitted for approval. This design has been
[2:25:11] revised in response to feedback from the arts council to more accurately represent
[2:25:15] the diversity of dublin's population and the cult. The city's cultural, and,
[2:25:20] I'm sorry, the city's historical and cultural heritage. We anticipate potential
[2:25:24] changing of some of the figures as well as further developing some visuals,
[2:25:28] um, such as the birds.
[2:25:32] the third figure become, uh, the third figure comes from a distant place wrapped
[2:25:36] in the stories of her ancestors. Myths and legends passed down through generations,
[2:25:41] blending memory with magic, history with imagination. Her stories
[2:25:45] immortalized through poems, through, through traditions, through songs,
[2:25:50] epic tales and short stories. She's the mystery that is honest
[2:25:54] and true. The fourth figure
[2:25:58] is a woman defined by strength and unwavering purpose. She moves through the world
[2:26:02] like a force of nature, part superhero, part visionary,
[2:26:06] unafraid to stand for what's right and shape what's possible. She's the one you root for in
[2:26:10] every story, the kind of cool that doesn't chase attention, but commands it. Her confidence
[2:26:15] lingers like a spark you might hope to catch, so you can, you too can
[2:26:19] step forward with the strength you never was yours.
[2:26:24] each of these figures lives in a different world. Yet through the timeless power of storytelling,
[2:26:29] they are connected, finding common ground in the shared language of humanity.
[2:26:33] our goal was to depict figures that felt historic and magical stories that
[2:26:38] captured myths that feel, felt familiar as if someone we grew up with.
[2:26:42] but more importantly, to highlight the importance of storytelling and how this human
[2:26:46] trait allows us to truly find freedom, adventure, and understanding.
[2:26:53] we introduced local birds to add a sense of movement throughout the piece, while a
[2:26:57] red ribbon weaves through the narrative subtly and symbolic symbolically
[2:27:01] connecting the figures across our story.
[2:27:06] uh, the following sides are superimposed images, so you can see kind of how the,
[2:27:10] the piece moves and the narrative. Um, so the narrative starts, and
[2:27:15] you kind of are meant to follow the piece around.
[2:27:24] we wanted, um, this side to feel organic and to transition from
[2:27:28] a cool tone to a warm tone. We wanted the door to remain visible in order,
[2:27:32] um, based on the chemical placard and the understanding that if any issues happen, the
[2:27:36] fire department and any emergency agencies could have easily find the door.
[2:27:43] and that's it. , I've been help. Sorry,
[2:27:48] do we, they here for questions or
[2:27:53] to do that much faster than that thought. Uh, . So happy to, uh, obviously
[2:27:57] on staff and aren aren available for questions. Thank you so much. Thank you. You, congratulations
[2:28:02] for, for being here. Thank you. Because I know it's a lot of process, a lot of sub
[2:28:06] machines, and so great to see you in person because
[2:28:10] I read about you. I was like, wow, you know, thank you for working on this project
[2:28:15] for us. Thank you. So we'll start with the questions. Thank you
[2:28:19] for the presentation. Um, sean, and, and to the two of you. And thank you for
[2:28:23] staying so late. Uh, I just had one question. Um, you, you mentioned the
[2:28:27] red ribbon. I, I didn't see that. I was hoping you could just explain that a little more.
[2:28:32] uh, yeah. During, uh, our, our initial proposal, uh,
[2:28:37] we kind of had potential concepts to pursue. And one of
[2:28:41] the ideas was, uh, to introduce birds as a way of,
[2:28:45] of creating movement through the piece. And kind of, uh, helping with, uh,
[2:28:50] a viewer understand the direction of the narrative. Uh, and we had
[2:28:54] a, a bird carrying a string in. One of our things we mentioned
[2:28:58] was maybe we could have, um, this idea of how you could
[2:29:02] thread each figure through, through this rope that, uh,
[2:29:07] or through this, uh, red string that the bird was carrying. And,
[2:29:11] uh, the arts council mentioned that that was a, a good idea. So we,
[2:29:15] we took that and we kind of had little, little details of each figure
[2:29:19] where they have, uh, a red kind of a string
[2:29:24] in on the character. So each character that the, uh, child
[2:29:29] is reading about and that kind of, um, uh, that color is matched on,
[2:29:33] on the jacket. So this idea of like, they're all kind of,
[2:29:37] there's a through line between them all. Got it. Okay. So more interpretive, less,
[2:29:41] um, yeah. Yeah. Concrete . Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. I
[2:29:46] thought I was missing thing. That'll detail. There's, I appreciate that. And you
[2:29:50] can see it on the last figure too, on the door there.
[2:29:54] yeah. And we, we, we did a redundant bird here,
[2:29:58] uh mm-hmm . But we are gonna replace that bird with another native bird.
[2:30:03] that's the goal. Very nice. Thank you. Thank
[2:30:07] you. Thank you. Questions. I have several. Thank you.
[2:30:11] um, first of all, I really like it. Um, my
[2:30:15] questions are probably more for sean, um, a little bit procedural.
[2:30:19] um, the, the selection committee is
[2:30:23] made up of community members. Is anybody from heritage cultural arts on that selection committee?
[2:30:28] yeah. So we're, we're trying to be intentional. Um, you know, when we put this selection committee together,
[2:30:32] we had a representative from the heritage commission served on that mm-hmm . Um,
[2:30:36] to kind of who would be a liaison mm-hmm . Uh, between, um,
[2:30:40] but then it was, we had member of the del arts collective. It was local, you know, art school,
[2:30:44] business owners. Um, so we're, we try to put together a diverse panel,
[2:30:49] um, of community members. Okay. But only one from, uh, heritage and cultural
[2:30:53] arts. It's not like a subcommittee of heritage and cultural arts that's on that committee in addition to the rest of the
[2:30:57] selection committee. Okay. Um, just from a process standpoint.
[2:31:02] um, and nothing about the art that was selected, just so don't be nervous, ,
[2:31:06] just the, um, the, the process of the art
[2:31:11] selection committee designing the criteria, but not being the decision makers based
[2:31:15] on that criteria. There's something about that that, I mean, I know we continually refining the
[2:31:19] process, um, but maybe having two from heritage and culture arts on
[2:31:23] the selection committee when we are the next time we do this. 'cause I know we've
[2:31:27] had emails, maybe not about, we've had emails about artists that were like,
[2:31:31] we were given criteria. We, we designed to that criteria, and then the people making the choices
[2:31:36] were making choices not based on that criteria. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well,
[2:31:41] I think we tried to be strategic. That's what we went to the heritage commission first. Uhhuh developed
[2:31:46] the criteria. Okay. That carried over. So the selection committee
[2:31:50] saw that. Okay. So the selection committee didn't design the criteria so much, the heritage culture arts
[2:31:54] did. They provided perfect. Okay. Uh, they had an opportunity at the first meeting
[2:31:58] to look at it and weigh in, be as they were developing or looking at the first round mm-hmm
[2:32:02] . But by that point, I mean, it was already there in the second meeting when they were actually making
[2:32:07] a recommendation mm-hmm . That, that was already established. Okay. So they came back to the
[2:32:11] heritage commission meeting or commission. It was all the same, the same criteria shown.
[2:32:15] okay. Good. And then, um, as it, the,
[2:32:20] the public comment process, um, you said it wasn't statistically
[2:32:25] significant and it, um, maybe wasn't even double in residence. Can you talk just
[2:32:29] a little bit more about how, how and where and through what methods we
[2:32:33] collected that public comment feedback? Um, it's traditional. See, we put
[2:32:37] out a news flash, you know, so it gets, it gets broadcasted out. Um, primarily
[2:32:41] I think when a lot of feedback came from actually participants at the library. So we had it displayed as you
[2:32:45] walked into the library. Okay. Um, and it was just, it was an easy qr code to scan, and
[2:32:50] it was just a simple, you know, to be honest, it was a microsoft form. So it was, it was real simple,
[2:32:54] real easy. You didn't need to log in and you mm-hmm . You know, and I don't
[2:32:58] anticipate, you know, you can look at the entries and the data, you know, you can think somebody just stood there 30 times
[2:33:02] over and, you know, put in the same comment. Um, but what we really did, we took
[2:33:06] all that feedback, you know, the 700 plus comments staff, we really tried
[2:33:10] to identify, you know, consistent themes and kind of narratives mm-hmm . And that was then
[2:33:15] provided to the artist, um, ahead of the heritage commission meeting. So that's
[2:33:19] where you saw, you know, the addition of the, the oracle figure. Mm-hmm . Um, you know,
[2:33:23] there was some opportunity there to kind of solicit some of the feedback or take some of that
[2:33:27] feedback into consideration. The heritage commission also saw that
[2:33:31] feedback, and so as they were reviewing the proposals, we're able to, to
[2:33:35] have that as for consideration as well, uhhuh. And what was, um, what was
[2:33:39] at the library, you said it was more conceptual, so it wasn't as polished
[2:33:44] as this, it, it kind of pictures of a printed, I
[2:33:48] don't remember how big on like a display board in the display case, but pictures,
[2:33:52] but similar to similar, yeah. Similar to this as, I mean, obviously not
[2:33:56] these final ones, but this sort of, this, this amount of detail, this amount of
[2:34:01] proposal. Correct. Okay. And then, um, you said the heritage cultural arts commissioner,
[2:34:06] the selection commission saw, was it select committee or heritage and culture arts saw the
[2:34:10] feedback, the heritage commission. 'cause the feedback came
[2:34:14] after, after the select committee. Okay. Um, and you said they saw all the feedback? They saw all the feedback,
[2:34:18] or they saw a summary of the feedback? Summary of the feedback. Okay. Um, so they
[2:34:22] didn't actually get to see the actual comments that were made? No. They didn't see the, the 700
[2:34:26] uhhuh raw comments? No. It was a and why, why not?
[2:34:33] no, I just think it was, you know, staff was looking through the, you know, through
[2:34:37] it and trying to, you know, just, I don't know, maybe consistency, trying to highlight just consistent
[2:34:41] themes, you know, narratives that were there. Mm-hmm . Okay.
[2:34:46] I think there's, I mean, looking at this, there's maybe opportunities. I mean, it's the first time we try something like this, I think. Right.
[2:34:51] you know, thinking through it, you know, maybe there's opportunity like, hey, instead of just doing a survey, you
[2:34:55] know, maybe it's a, you know, night on zoom, you know, with the artists present, you know, so it was, it
[2:34:59] was really us trying to get this, you know, give the community another opportunity.
[2:35:04] yeah. Yeah. We've done a lot of feedback. I mean, I appreciate the idea of going out for feedback, right.
[2:35:08] we've done that in a lot of ways, whether we've done it at, um, uh, something like splatter where we have
[2:35:12] dot boards for a new park, or, you know, lot, lots of different ways we can, um,
[2:35:16] get feedback, which I applaud. I'm just wondering how we're then using that feedback, right. How are
[2:35:20] we, um, giving it to the, you know, how are, how was the
[2:35:24] committee that's recommending to us taking that feedback that we asked for? Right. Um,
[2:35:29] I think that's the extent of my questions for right this minute.
[2:35:33] thank you. Yeah. Thank you. So, questions,
[2:35:38] comments to the lawyers? , I very much appreciated
[2:35:43] your use of colors. I like them a lot. And I like the theme,
[2:35:47] uh, sean question, , thank you. Get
[2:35:51] you guys up. Um, so
[2:35:56] getting back to process, you know, what, what these, these, uh,
[2:36:00] the, the lawyers are very talented, and I think this is, this is
[2:36:04] beautiful. Um, how much, uh,
[2:36:08] I mean, it was a very methodical process, the rfq process, how much effort
[2:36:12] was placed on, uh, seeking out local,
[2:36:17] um, artists from around the tri-valley?
[2:36:22] and, and I, I guess, I mean, you're gonna tell me, but I, I'd like to see,
[2:36:26] I maybe, maybe I'm leading to you, is like, I'd like to see more effort
[2:36:31] in doing that in the future. But how, what was the process? Was it just
[2:36:35] very, very, hey, you got some very talented folks here and yeah. These guys are
[2:36:39] good and let's go with it. Right. That that's part of it. Yeah. Um, I mean, we definitely,
[2:36:43] we, we try to go as broad as possible. Um, you know, a lot of, you
[2:36:48] know, project goals, budget kind of drives where some of the interest is coming from. You know, if we're
[2:36:52] doing a, a $300,000, you know, sculpture project, you know, we're gonna start
[2:36:56] getting international artists that are gonna mm-hmm . Maybe, you know, pique their interest.
[2:37:00] um, I mean, that's something I, I think will kind of open to that.
[2:37:04] we have, and I know some agencies will kind of, depending on, you know, the skies and
[2:37:09] scale of a project, we'll limit it to the nine bay area counties, the state of california,
[2:37:13] you know, western united states. I mean, so that is, that is something we could consider.
[2:37:17] yeah. I'd like to encourage, um, folks, there's some talent in this
[2:37:21] valley and it would be great, uh, where wherever that source is,
[2:37:25] you know, it could be professional artists, it could be even, you know, some of the schools, whatever. Uh, just
[2:37:29] throwing stuff out there. Yeah. Local arts organizations, you, you get some really talented people
[2:37:34] and it would be great, uh, uh, to have folks like that involved in
[2:37:38] other projects. And we do, right. We have 'em various other projects, but
[2:37:42] because they're part of the, they're part of our broadened community.
[2:37:46] right. And I'd like to see that. Yeah. Consideration in,
[2:37:50] in the future is part of the process. That's all. Great job. Thank
[2:37:55] you. . Yeah. So council member marada. Um,
[2:37:59] hi. Thank you, mayor. Uh, sean, two questions for you. And then, uh, one question
[2:38:03] for the artists. Uh, the, uh, first question is the
[2:38:07] location of the, uh, the shed.
[2:38:12] if that, if, for lack of a better term, um, I know where that is. Um,
[2:38:16] uh, what's your consideration for lighting so that, uh, we can
[2:38:20] continue to, to, to share the vibrancy of the colors of the, of
[2:38:24] the artwork? Uh, no direct lighting is planned for this. It'll just
[2:38:29] be, you know, pathway overhead lighting, um, you know, parking lot, safety
[2:38:33] lighting at night that'll, you know, potentially on, on some been on the backside
[2:38:37] pathway lighting, but no additional lighting is planned for this project.
[2:38:41] okay. Is that, uh, just for budget reasons, or we just didn't think about
[2:38:45] it yet? Um, it's, there's definitely a bud. I mean, we, if there, if
[2:38:49] that's of interest, I mean, it's something we could definitely pursue. It's, I mean, obviously there's a budget impact there.
[2:38:54] um, probably significant, you know, in terms of the, of the overall scope
[2:38:58] of this project. Uh, but it's something we could
[2:39:03] okay. Um, that's fine, sean. I'm, you can make it the,
[2:39:07] the, the lower end of things, uh, to consider. Um,
[2:39:12] question number two for you, sean, is, uh, once again, the location of the, of
[2:39:16] the shed. Uh, have you considered how this
[2:39:20] would either be additive to or complementary to
[2:39:25] the, the marketplace that we have during st. Pat's, as
[2:39:29] well as, uh, other, uh, other events that we hold within the, the parking
[2:39:33] lot? Yeah. I mean, it's ultimately when the, the enclosures
[2:39:38] there. Now, it's built, I mean, we definitely lost a little bit of, you know, real estate for st. Patrick's
[2:39:42] safe festival. Um, I mean, my hope is this would maybe enhance that
[2:39:46] a little bit, you know, by bringing art, you know, as people are walking, you know, through the vendor rows
[2:39:51] um hmm. Opposed to just a, a big
[2:39:55] cmu wall. Uh, so maybe bring a little bit of art into st. Pat's
[2:40:00] or it okay. Yeah. Um, you're, you're on the same page
[2:40:04] as me. Um, I'd hate for the, the, the popup tents to, to cover
[2:40:08] the art. That's all the, because of the location, just with circulation and
[2:40:12] fire access. There's no, no tense vendors right in front of that, that
[2:40:17] that stays open. Ah, fantastic. Very good. Thank you,
[2:40:21] sean. Uh, and then, uh, if I may address the artist, if that's possible.
[2:40:25] yes, yes, yes, I would. Please. Uh, good evening. Um,
[2:40:30] I have, uh, just one quick question. Uh, did I hear correctly that
[2:40:34] there are still some efforts and research to finalize on
[2:40:39] the figures themselves? That is correct, yes. Uh,
[2:40:43] I mean, we're gonna be working with the art council and kind of going through that process, which is pretty
[2:40:48] standard usually, at least for us, when we're working on a project, just fine
[2:40:52] tuning everything and being as thoughtful as we can be.
[2:40:56] uh, fantastic. I love it. I just wanted to clarify that, uh, you'll perform
[2:41:01] your own necessary due diligence to, to understand, learn, and to
[2:41:05] observe the diversity of the people, the culture, the dress, uh, of our
[2:41:09] people, of, of dublin. Okay. Uh, uh, that's it, mayor for
[2:41:13] me. Um, I will save my closing comments after public comment.
[2:41:17] okay. Thank you, council member. So thank you. Great work. Thank you. Thank you, jean.
[2:41:22] so I do have a, a couple of questions to ask. So how long
[2:41:26] this kind of, uh, like a artwork can, can stay
[2:41:30] there? Like a, there's a rain, you know, there's a all kind of weather.
[2:41:34] yeah. So, uh, whenever we are painting a mural, our goal is
[2:41:38] to have it last as long as possible. Sun damage is always kind of the pri
[2:41:42] uh, the main issue. And that's kind of the life of
[2:41:47] the paint. And we, we prioritize high quality paint, uh,
[2:41:52] that's meant to be, uh, have additional pigments
[2:41:56] so it can last as long as possible. So, uh, we
[2:42:00] always say like a safe estimate being like 20, 25,
[2:42:05] maybe 30 years, depending on, uh, how much direct
[2:42:09] sunlight it gets. Oh, that sounds good. Yeah. And, and the pigment we use
[2:42:13] is approved by like, caltrans. We've done projects with them where it's like, it's approved,
[2:42:17] it's an approved, um, used material. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you.
[2:42:22] um, so it's just make a small suggestion. You
[2:42:26] said that we are still looking at those, uh, like figures, right? Like the people
[2:42:30] there, we can make some tricks. So I, I trying to balance that.
[2:42:34] we see like three females, one male, you know, one little boy. Maybe
[2:42:39] we can also balance female and a male somehow just for,
[2:42:43] for, for something to consider. If we cannot, we cannot, it's okay.
[2:42:47] okay. Go ahead. Like three minutes, definitely. Yeah. Yeah.
[2:42:51] okay. Yeah, that's just my quick comment, but love the artwork. Thank you. Thank
[2:42:55] you so much. Thank you. Thank you. And do we, do we have public
[2:43:00] comments? I have no speaker, so, okay. So we don't have a public comment that's come
[2:43:04] back. Any more comments we want to make on this one? Yeah, please.
[2:43:08] um, I really love the work. Um,
[2:43:12] I love the colors, I love the theme. I love the idea of the kid reading,
[2:43:16] and then sort of all of these things. Um, I like the explanation of,
[2:43:21] um, what the characters represent. Um, I did ask for and got right
[2:43:25] before the meeting, the, um, the feedback from the public. And,
[2:43:29] um, I know you're still tweaking things. Um, I know you,
[2:43:33] you've read the feedback mm-hmm . The public comment, which the heritage cultural arts kid, and
[2:43:38] I, I hope that you can get that to everybody else on council. But the, um, the
[2:43:42] comments sort of overwhelmingly, the, the theme through the comments, um,
[2:43:47] were, everybody loves it. They love the vibrant colors, um, but the characters
[2:43:51] themselves don't necessarily say dublin to them. Um,
[2:43:55] and so I, I, I love the concept, and I'm hoping that when we get the design
[2:43:59] back, that they will really be reflective of dublin.
[2:44:04] um, because I think that that's the, the, the piece that
[2:44:08] the 700 commenters were saying, this is great, but is it dublin?
[2:44:12] um, and so the, the theme is fantastic. Um, the, the,
[2:44:17] I love the bird. I love the, the thread. I love the fact that, you know, it's
[2:44:21] very clear that his mind is being expanded to all of these
[2:44:25] different things that are not necessarily him, um, through,
[2:44:29] through the artwork. Um, I just, you know, that seemed to be
[2:44:33] the overarching theme that we need these people to be dublin.
[2:44:37] um, I'm not sure exactly what that means, but
[2:44:41] I'm looking forward to that when it comes back to us. Thank you. That's good. Thank you.
[2:44:45] yeah, thank you. Any more comments? More comments from you?
[2:44:50] you sure? Yeah, yeah. Council member ri, so, eight, I appreciate,
[2:44:54] uh, appreciate the artwork. Uh, I really appreciate the outreach and, and public engagement.
[2:44:59] I think that that piece of it's really important. Um, I like the
[2:45:03] playful movement, almost whimsical. Um, I,
[2:45:07] I see the story, and, and it's something that you could, you know, it, it sort
[2:45:11] of unfolds. And the fact that it's gonna be on, on, uh, on the multiple sides, it,
[2:45:16] it's, it's intriguing. Um, yeah, if there's a way to
[2:45:21] make it more dublin, great. Right? Um, I, I don't know. Like,
[2:45:25] I don't want to, uh, sort of force my,
[2:45:29] my thoughts, which, which are probably like a little more literal and less abstract,
[2:45:33] but you're the artist and, and, and I love what you've done. So thank you.
[2:45:39] um, council member morada, uh, thank you, mayor.
[2:45:43] uh, yes. Uh, simply, uh, one comment for sean, and then one for the artist, uh,
[2:45:47] sean, perfect timing, by the way, considering what monday is, uh,
[2:45:51] as a national holiday. Um, great timing on bringing this up. So good work.
[2:45:56] uh, and then comment for the artist. Um,
[2:46:00] I really like how you're using the idea of, of a,
[2:46:04] of a protagonist, uh, learning. And then also the other characters themselves
[2:46:09] are protagonist in their own story. Um, keep it up. That is,
[2:46:13] uh, that is, I think, a very assertive way. Not, not in a bad
[2:46:17] meaning, assertive meaning. It's, it's a great way to show and inspire
[2:46:22] our kids that they too can inspire to be the pro protagonist
[2:46:26] of their own story and be the leaders that they aspire to be. So, thank you very much.
[2:46:31] thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. But we
[2:46:35] do need to make a motion. Do we, we need to make a motion. May
[2:46:39] I approve? I, I move. We approve the conceptual design of the artwork proposed by rough edge collective for the outdoor
[2:46:43] murals project. Thank you. Oh, second. We got the first and second. And
[2:46:48] do the roll, roll call. Councilman marada.
[2:46:52] aye. Council member cadry aye. Councilman horten.
[2:46:56] aye. Vice mayor josie. Aye. Mayor who? Aye. Thank you. Thank
[2:47:01] you so much. Thank you. Wow, that's a good work.
[2:47:05] so, let's move on to agenda item 8.3,
[2:47:10] taking on police activity and ongoing
[2:47:15] public safety efforts.
[2:47:26] well, good evening again, uh, counsel vic fox, uh, chief of police counsel.
[2:47:30] this item is a, uh, an overview of police activity and ongoing public
[2:47:34] safety efforts from dps to protect this community. Um, I have a lot of
[2:47:39] information to go over. I'm gonna try to get through this as quickly as possible.
[2:47:45] so, just for background, um, we track and analyze, uh,
[2:47:49] our data all the time, uh, our operational data to evaluate our service demands,
[2:47:53] allocate resources, and inform our strategic planning. Uh, this
[2:47:57] information is shared with council, provide transparency, highlight trends, and demonstrate how
[2:48:01] dps is responding to community safety needs.
[2:48:08] so, we're gonna jump right in. Sorry about that. We're gonna jump right into police
[2:48:12] activities, so police activities or any operation to
[2:48:16] enforce laws to maintain order and protect the community. And those include our investigations,
[2:48:21] our emergency responses, enforcement of laws, and community policing.
[2:48:26] for this, cate, for this table just below, police activities are divided
[2:48:30] into one of two categories. Community initiated and officer initiated
[2:48:34] community initiated our calls for service that a cso dispatch receives
[2:48:39] from individuals. Uh, reporting an incident within the city of dublin,
[2:48:43] an officer initiated activities or activities that dps officer initiates on their
[2:48:47] own. Now looking at the data from 23 to 24,
[2:48:51] there was a slight increase in community initiated activity, and then it dropped
[2:48:55] off, uh, a little over 6% in 2025.
[2:49:00] officer initiated activity, uh, saw a sharp decrease from
[2:49:04] 23 to 24, um, just over 29%, and
[2:49:08] then decreased again in 2025, uh, 12,766,
[2:49:12] or 15.67%.
[2:49:20] let's talk about, uh, call priority levels. So when a call comes in to emergency
[2:49:25] services dispatch, or when an officer takes, uh, a self-initiated activity,
[2:49:30] our, our dispatch program assigns it a priority level. Now,
[2:49:34] the priority levels range from zero to nine. For the purpose of this
[2:49:38] presentation, most of our crime data, the priorities run from one through
[2:49:42] five. I'm gonna go over the other priorities really quick, just so you know what they are.
[2:49:48] so, priority zero are unit emergencies, and these are self-reported
[2:49:52] emergencies by an a cso or dublin police services staff member. Those do not
[2:49:56] come from the community. Uh, for 2025,
[2:50:00] uh, we had seven priority zero calls.
[2:50:04] uh, most of the time, that is an inadvertent activation of the
[2:50:08] emergency button on the officer's radio. So it's just, it's, it's an
[2:50:13] accidental activation. So we have seven of those in 2025
[2:50:17] priority ones. Those are our calls in
[2:50:22] progress. Um, those will
[2:50:26] require immediate response due to imminent public or officer safety issue,
[2:50:30] and they involve injury. And those are gonna be our assault with the deadly weapons,
[2:50:35] robberies, domestic violence, 9 1 1 calls, medical
[2:50:40] emergencies, and even silent commercial alarms, such as those that come from a bank, a panic button.
[2:50:47] moving on to priority two. Priority two are also, um, calls
[2:50:51] that are in progress or just occur, but do not pose an imminent threat.
[2:50:56] and examples of these calls include petty thefts, disturbances,
[2:51:00] suspicious persons, or vehicles, uh, audible alarms,
[2:51:04] traffic collisions with no reported injuries and traffic stops.
[2:51:09] so, um, traffic stops by our officers. Those are priority two incidents.
[2:51:18] so priority three through five. Those are used for, uh, reports,
[2:51:22] uh, and other activities. And these are for incidents that have already occurred. There's
[2:51:26] no threat to the public and no reported evidence of a suspect
[2:51:31] being present. So most of the time it's for our, it's for our cold reports,
[2:51:35] and those would include, uh, auto burglaries, vehicle thefts,
[2:51:39] patrol checks, illegally parked vehicles. That's three through five
[2:51:44] priority six through eight. Those are discretionary used when no other activity codes
[2:51:48] exist. I can tell you for 2025, we had zero incidents of these priority levels.
[2:51:53] and priority nine is used as a test code.
[2:51:59] sorry, it's blocked by the, uh, council member. We're on a screen. Uh, but this table
[2:52:03] right here breaks down, uh, all the calls for service based on
[2:52:07] priority level and for simplicity purposes. Um, those calls
[2:52:12] three through five, we're calling those three plus. So, priority one calls
[2:52:16] from 23 to 24, declined, um, 10.61%,
[2:52:21] and they declined, uh, just under a half percent last year.
[2:52:27] priority two calls, um, also declined, uh, 2.91%
[2:52:31] from 23 to 24, and then declined again. Uh, another
[2:52:36] 10.38% in 2025
[2:52:40] priority three plus, again, most of those are reports. The reports
[2:52:45] declined, uh, 28.29% from 23 to 24,
[2:52:49] and declined again, another 12.93% in 2025.
[2:52:53] so less paper, less reports are being taken.
[2:53:00] so response times. So response times are defined as the time, uh, uh, the dispatcher
[2:53:05] dispatches the call and the time the officer arrives at the location.
[2:53:10] so, for the purpose of these stats, we did not include
[2:53:15] officer initiated calls, because the time that the officer sees a
[2:53:19] violation to the time that they are on the detail is almost zero. So that's
[2:53:23] gonna include a business check, a patrol check of a street, or
[2:53:27] a traffic stop. We do not include those in these stats for response
[2:53:31] times. So for priority one calls, uh, as I just discussed,
[2:53:36] uh, there was a slight decline in the response time from seven minutes and 20
[2:53:40] seconds to six minutes and 42 seconds in 2024.
[2:53:45] and that increased about 6% in 2025 to seven minutes and eight seconds.
[2:53:52] priority two calls, uh, increased very slightly from 23 to
[2:53:56] 24. And then in 2025, they, uh, increased to, uh, seven minutes
[2:54:01] and 54 seconds, 6.76% increase.
[2:54:12] moving on to reports. So every month, uh, by the
[2:54:16] 10th of the month, I believe dps reports all of our data and all of our reports,
[2:54:20] the california department of justice, their crime reporting system, it's called the california
[2:54:25] incident based reporting system, or cybers. And it's aligned with the
[2:54:29] fbi's equivalent, which is the national incident based reporting system, or nbrs.
[2:54:34] nbrs captures a national, uh, snapshot of crime. Cybers captures
[2:54:38] california crime. When the information goes into cybers, uh,
[2:54:42] it is sorted out. And cybers classifies crimes into three
[2:54:46] broad categories based on who or what is primarily harmed.
[2:54:53] the first category is, uh, crimes against person. These are offenses where, uh, the
[2:54:57] victim is an individual, and the crime involves, uh, threatened physical harm. So,
[2:55:02] homicide, robbery, assaults, those are your, your violent, uh, felonies
[2:55:06] for the most part.
[2:55:10] number two is crimes against property. Uh, these offenses, offenses
[2:55:14] involve taking of damage to, or destruction of property, rather than direct
[2:55:18] physical harm to a person. So examples are burglary, theft,
[2:55:23] vandalism, motor theft, fraud, embezzlement,
[2:55:27] et cetera. Just for a few examples. The last is crimes against society.
[2:55:32] and these are offenses that primarily affect public order and
[2:55:36] community safety, rather than, uh, targeting a specific individual or property.
[2:55:40] and these are gonna be drug related offenses, duis, prostitutions,
[2:55:44] public drunkenness, weapons violations.
[2:55:52] so here's our reports for by, by those cybers, uh, classifications,
[2:55:56] those three categories, and again, and I think I may have mentioned
[2:56:00] it, but the stats that we're giving you, uh, for this
[2:56:04] presentation, or through the month of november, as I mentioned, those stats
[2:56:09] are due to the state by the 10th of the month. So the 10th of january
[2:56:13] would've been for december. It was too late for the staff report. So
[2:56:17] crimes against persons declined 1.17% from 23 to 24,
[2:56:22] another 3%, 3.5% for 2025
[2:56:27] crimes against property, uh, increased slightly from 23
[2:56:31] to 24, 7 0.36%, and then it declined, uh,
[2:56:35] 20.78% in 2025 crimes
[2:56:39] against the society, uh, decreased from down
[2:56:43] 8.65% and then decreased substantially
[2:56:47] in 2025, down 28.53%.
[2:57:00] sorry about that.
[2:57:04] okay, so these are reports taken by type. Uh, these are
[2:57:08] specific categories. These are not all the reports that dublin police services took. These
[2:57:12] are the categories of reports that the city publishes annually in the annual report.
[2:57:18] uh, before I go over these numbers, I do wanna mention that
[2:57:22] all the numbers that were given you are not always necessary
[2:57:26] singular events. For example, aggravated assault for 2025,
[2:57:31] it shows 70 incidents. Um,
[2:57:35] so if, for an example, so if we go to a domestic violence call, we
[2:57:40] had twenty, a hundred twenty nine of those, uh, and the victim is injured
[2:57:44] and, and sustained an injury, that incident is gonna count as a domestic
[2:57:48] violence and an aggravated assault, if that makes any sense.
[2:57:52] so it may not just be 70 incidents of aggravated assault. Aggravated assault
[2:57:56] also includes assaults on officers. Uh, if we arrest somebody for
[2:58:00] ddui, and there's a child in the car that's aggravated assault, so
[2:58:04] those numbers might be a little bit misleading, but just how the, the data is inputted and
[2:58:09] reported. So, aggravated assaults, um,
[2:58:14] decline slightly and then raised to 70 last year, 12%
[2:58:18] increase. Arsons remain relatively the same, eight to six to seven,
[2:58:24] going down to burglaries. Uh, the burglary line represents
[2:58:28] all the burglaries that occurred in the city of dublin. Those are commercial burglaries. Those are residential
[2:58:33] burglaries, burglaries from the school, you name it, it's all of them.
[2:58:38] so those increase, uh, from 23 to 24, 18
[2:58:43] 0.18%, and then it declined to an overall number of 77
[2:58:48] for 2025, or a 34.19% decrease in
[2:58:52] total burglaries in, in the city of dublin.
[2:58:56] now, we differentiated of those numbers, uh, residentials. So
[2:59:00] residential, uh, increase by one from 23 to 24,
[2:59:05] uh, 2.63%, and then increased to 43 for
[2:59:09] 2025, or a 10.26% increase.
[2:59:14] moving on to domestic violence has stayed relatively the same. 1 22 to
[2:59:19] 1 21 and then increased to 1 29 in 2025,
[2:59:23] 6% increase. Uh, homicides
[2:59:27] have stayed the same for the last, uh, three years. I do want to note that the 2025
[2:59:32] homicide in delvin was a tragic case of a drug overdose by one of our, our
[2:59:36] citizens. Um, and due to prop 36, uh, laws,
[2:59:41] if an individual sells illegal drugs that result in death, they can be charged with
[2:59:45] homicide. Uh, rapes have
[2:59:49] gone from eight to nine and 2324, and then increased,
[2:59:54] uh, to 12 in 2025. Moving
[2:59:58] on to robberies, uh, robberies went from 43 to 41 in 2024,
[3:00:04] and then went down to 40, uh, estimated in 2025.
[3:00:09] what I do wanna note is the line below that says sds. Now, sds is a
[3:00:13] type of robbery that's, that's recognized by california law.
[3:00:18] and, uh, estess robberies generally originate from
[3:00:22] a simple theft. So if a subject walks into a store and they steal
[3:00:26] an item, it's a misdemeanor theft returns into a robbery is if a
[3:00:30] store employee, or if a loss prevention agent confronts that person
[3:00:35] and they're threatened or they're assaulted, that now becomes,
[3:00:39] uh, a robbery. So if you take estess robberies
[3:00:43] that occur from simple theft from our total robberies, 40 minus
[3:00:47] 21, that's down to 19 robberies.
[3:00:52] sex offense is, uh, went from 21 to 20 and
[3:00:57] 2024, and then increased to 26, 30% increase in 2025.
[3:01:03] shoplifting increased significantly from 23 to 24, and
[3:01:07] then dropped significantly in 2025. It dropped 31% last
[3:01:11] year. Stolen vehicles, uh, went from
[3:01:15] 1 37 to 1 59 and then had a good decline
[3:01:20] in 2025, down 25.79%.
[3:01:24] theft from a motor vehicle or auto burglaries, 1 79 down
[3:01:28] to one 30, and then another decrease down to 1 28 in
[3:01:32] 2025.
[3:01:43] 'cause another, the council likes comparisons. Uh, this is how we measure up with our
[3:01:47] neighbors. So, uh, green means improvement. Red means it got worse. Yellow means
[3:01:52] it stayed the same. So looking at, uh, aggravated assault,
[3:01:56] uh, we rose slowly, slowly, livermore improved. And then
[3:02:00] pleasanton and san ramon, uh, did a little worse last year.
[3:02:05] arsons, um, we went up by one. Livermore
[3:02:09] improved. Pleasanton and san ramon did worse
[3:02:15] burglaries, as I mentioned. We went from one 17 down to seven. Seven. We improved.
[3:02:19] livermore improved significantly. Pleasanton improved. They went from
[3:02:23] 1 55 down to 1 42, a lot higher than us. And then san ramon,
[3:02:28] uh, rose a. Little bit. Residential burglary,
[3:02:33] we went from 39 to 43, didn't do better. Um,
[3:02:38] livermore got worse. Pleasanton got worse, and so did san ramon.
[3:02:47] uh, homicide, uh, we stayed the same. Livermore
[3:02:52] reported zero homicides through november, but they did have a one in december. So they finished the
[3:02:56] year with one. Uh, pleasanton went from one to two. And
[3:03:00] san ramon, I believe I not looking at my slides, I think they went from
[3:03:04] zero to one total robberies.
[3:03:09] uh, we went from 41 to 40 improvement. Livermore
[3:03:13] improved. Uh, pleasanton improved slightly, and ceremony
[3:03:18] improved
[3:03:23] sex offenses. Uh, double went up by six. Livermore
[3:03:27] improved pleasanton, um, a little more than doubled. And
[3:03:31] san ramon, uh, went up by five stolen vehicles. We
[3:03:36] had an improvement there. Livermore had an, uh, a good improvement.
[3:03:40] pleasanton had an improvement, and so san ramon saw all four cities
[3:03:45] did well, uh, and then auto burglary. We improved.
[3:03:49] livermore improved. Pleasanton improved, and so does san so improvements in those two
[3:03:53] categories.
[3:03:58] again, arrests. This is a table of our arrests that are included in the annual report.
[3:04:02] not all the arrests. These are the ones that we report every year. So,
[3:04:07] uh, our aggravated assaults in 2025, we had 55 arrests
[3:04:11] up from, uh, 35, uh, 82 arrests for domestic violence up
[3:04:15] from 84. Uh, duis declined 34%
[3:04:20] down to 84 from 1 28. Firearms
[3:04:24] possession went from 29 to 33. Narcotics possession
[3:04:29] went from one 12 to 1 44.
[3:04:33] uh, cases of shoplifting arrests went from 5 44 down to 4 72.
[3:04:39] uh, our warrant arrests also declined from 3 95 in 2024 down
[3:04:43] to 2 81.
[3:04:51] and firearms data. So firearms possession arrests,
[3:04:55] uh, those went up a little bit. Those are basically individuals that
[3:04:59] we catch in. Car stops with, with firearms, they're not supposed to have. Firearms
[3:05:03] recover is a little bit, it depends on how you interpret the data. So you can
[3:05:07] see firearms recovered in 2023, went from 180 5 down to to
[3:05:11] 56. Well, in 2023, we did have a case where we seized
[3:05:15] 130 firearms in one, in one case. That kind of skewed the numbers.
[3:05:20] and then 2025 we recovered. 116. I can tell you there's
[3:05:24] one case we recovered 12. So we're recovering multiple firearms
[3:05:28] from, from some of these cases. So those numbers are a little hard to interpret.
[3:05:33] so carrying on
[3:05:37] some of our, uh, proactive strategies, um, we, we are heavily
[3:05:42] involved in our neighborhood watch program. We currently have, um, 85 block captains,
[3:05:47] uh, around, around the, uh, the town. Um, and that, that program
[3:05:51] has reduces crime opportunities and builds trust between the community and police. It's
[3:05:55] a resident based program, but we've had it for a long time. It's done very well.
[3:06:00] our business watch program is something we started within the last year. It's
[3:06:04] a, a partnership between dps and local businesses to improve safety in
[3:06:08] commercial areas. Um, we give businesses guidance on
[3:06:12] crime prevention and environmental design. Uh, the businesses will authorize
[3:06:17] us to enforce trespassing laws after hours, and they sometimes
[3:06:22] will volunteer their, uh, security cameras that we can use in investigations.
[3:06:29] uh, dare has been around for a long time. It's offered all sixth graders in the city of dublin. It's
[3:06:33] taught by trained dps officers. It focuses on substance abuse prevention,
[3:06:38] violence reduction, and decision making skills, uh, supports long-term crime
[3:06:42] prevention and youth safety. Our
[3:06:47] public safety cameras have been around for, um, about eight years right
[3:06:51] now to solve crimes. They, they help us locate stolen vehicles, uh, uh,
[3:06:55] missing persons and suspects leak to serious crimes. Uh, they provide
[3:06:59] real time information during emergencies, allowing us to respond faster
[3:07:03] and more safely. In 2025, we have been transitioning over
[3:07:07] to flock technology, replacing old infrastructure that's been around for eight years.
[3:07:12] uh, those cameras, that project should be pre done, done here pretty soon.
[3:07:16] and when that's done, we're gonna have a network of 90, uh, cameras,
[3:07:20] both, uh, a lpr and situational awareness.
[3:07:28] our real time, uh, crime center is our hub over at the pd. Uh, we have a crime technician
[3:07:32] that monitors camera, feeds, license plate data, calls for service, and does
[3:07:37] crime analytics in one location. Um, she's able to provide
[3:07:41] officers with real time intelligence on their way to calls for faster
[3:07:45] response times, better situational awareness, improved officer and public
[3:07:49] safety.
[3:07:59] so
[3:08:04] peregrine technology is a new platform that we're working on now. We're building it out to,
[3:08:08] uh, to, to where we want it. Uh, peregrine is basically a program
[3:08:12] that interfaces with our current systems. It interfaces with our report writing system, with
[3:08:16] our dispatch system, and with county networks, and basically takes all the information
[3:08:21] and provides it into a format that makes sense. It provides it in,
[3:08:25] in, in a way that we can run these crime stats very quickly.
[3:08:30] um, it helps identify crime patterns and repeat
[3:08:35] offenders. It improves investigations and, and, uh, decision making, especially
[3:08:39] with the deployment of our resources. Uh, it reduces time spent
[3:08:43] on, on manual reporting. So traditionally, our officers every month
[3:08:47] provide a stat sheet that they, that they fill out monthly. Once we get
[3:08:51] this peregrine uh, program up and running to where we want it,
[3:08:55] we can run all the officers stat sheets, uh, to get their numbers and
[3:08:59] not have to rely upon them the self reporting. And I think that'll improve some of our officer
[3:09:04] initiated activities that we were talking about earlier.
[3:09:09] so other ongoing prevention measures. Um, dps
[3:09:14] conducts regular retail theft operations with local businesses. We have great
[3:09:18] relationships with dick's sporting goods and target, and we work with them to
[3:09:22] prevent retail theft by, by, uh, doing targeted enforcement there.
[3:09:26] uh, we do enforcement on tobacco and alcohol related, uh,
[3:09:31] um, establishments using our grant funding. Our
[3:09:35] crime prevention unit supports detectives, serves, warrants and assist patrol.
[3:09:40] and, uh, we've also, uh, reassigned many of our swing vehicles to kind of
[3:09:44] ups staff some of our patrol beats that are experiencing, uh, increases in crime
[3:09:48] right now. Those are some of the proactive measures that we're taking.
[3:09:57] uh, I think that's it. There we go.
[3:10:02] that I'll be happy to take your, uh, questions. Thank you
[3:10:06] so much. It's a lot of effort. It's very comprehensive report.
[3:10:10] thanks. Uh, so we start with questions. I
[3:10:14] you want to go ahead council member? Sure. Thank you for the presentation chief.
[3:10:19] um, got, uh, a couple questions.
[3:10:23] um, so the first is kind of going through, uh,
[3:10:27] going through the, the, the numbers. The thing that stuck out is residential
[3:10:32] burglaries are up, shop shoplifting is down. Dui is down.
[3:10:37] um, what could we be doing more of on the residential burglary
[3:10:41] side? Uh, I know you mentioned the neighborhood watch program, but beyond that,
[3:10:45] what, what could be, what could we be doing more of to, to kind
[3:10:50] of get numbers like the shoplifting and the dui, you know, get going in the, in
[3:10:54] the negative trend? So the, the residential burglaries,
[3:10:58] um, it, it, it, it's tricky 'cause it, it, it fluctuates between the
[3:11:02] west and east side of town. And what we found that works is saturating areas with
[3:11:06] high visibility of patrols to deter crimes. So I think if
[3:11:10] criminals see enforcement action taking place, if they see
[3:11:14] cars parked in the area, it's gonna deter them from, from doing
[3:11:19] something in that area. It just involves reallocating our resources and leveraging
[3:11:23] what we have, uh, using even school resource officers
[3:11:27] in the crime prevention unit to up staff certain beats to get
[3:11:31] more staffing up there. Um, and, but that, and working with our neighborhood
[3:11:35] watch programs, I think will, will be beneficial to, to
[3:11:40] lowering some of these numbers. Uh,
[3:11:44] and any, any thoughts, uh, around drone technology and,
[3:11:49] uh, trying, trying to aid in, in some of, some
[3:11:53] of the recovery or, or prevention?
[3:11:57] so, drone technology is a tricky one. Um, we,
[3:12:01] we use a lot of drone technology when the situation warrants it.
[3:12:06] um, our policies are very specific about the use of technology.
[3:12:10] um, we can't arbitrarily fly a drone over neighborhoods.
[3:12:14] um, some people will consider that invasion and privacy. We do, however,
[3:12:18] use drones heavily when there is a call. Um, and, and we have several
[3:12:23] operators within the department that have drones that can use that technology. But we have to be
[3:12:27] very careful when we deploy that technology 'cause we have to report that every
[3:12:31] year, um, to the board of supervisors. Got it.
[3:12:36] uh, and then my final question is, um, kinda going back to the
[3:12:40] public safety cameras. Uh, I know the information
[3:12:45] that the crime statistics are reported to the state and make them
[3:12:49] make their way up to the, to the fbi mm-hmm . Databases.
[3:12:53] um, could you talk about how the public safety
[3:12:58] cameras are used and, and where that data might go? The
[3:13:02] public safety cameras? Right. So the public safety cameras, you have
[3:13:06] the, um, you have the a lpr, the license plate readers, and then you have,
[3:13:10] um, the situational awareness cameras. Um, I'll, I'll address real
[3:13:14] quick how they might be used. So we, um, we have a
[3:13:18] network of cameras and within california, california
[3:13:23] agencies are allowed to share with one another. Um, our policies
[3:13:27] say that we can't share without a state. We can't share with immigration. We can't,
[3:13:31] uh, aid investigations for people seeing, seeking gender affirming care
[3:13:35] or reproductive care. So within the state of california, we can all share
[3:13:40] the agencies that have cameras, we can share the data. So I
[3:13:44] can share a story that we kind of explain how the stuff benefits us.
[3:13:49] um, about a month ago, we had a,
[3:13:53] a grand theft at dick's sporting goods, where four individuals went in there and they stole
[3:13:58] $5,000 in nike apparel. A witness got
[3:14:02] a, a good license plate on the car. Uh, that plate was
[3:14:06] put in to our system as a suspect vehicle. Um,
[3:14:11] 10 minutes later, that vehicle hit in the city of livermore going towards brentwood.
[3:14:16] so we were able to get units looking after that car. We had a, um,
[3:14:20] alameda county sheriff's office airplane and the air heading towards,
[3:14:24] uh, brentwood. That suspect vehicle ended up going to antioch. And we were
[3:14:28] able to coordinate with antioch pd, with the alameda county sheriff's office, playing with our
[3:14:32] units to, to successfully apprehend all four of those individuals and return all that property.
[3:14:37] so that's one example of how those cameras can help. As far as
[3:14:41] the data goes, the data belongs to us for the, um, for the
[3:14:46] lprs. Um, that data is retained for 30 days unless
[3:14:50] it's used for an investigations purpose. Um, and the same thing
[3:14:54] with the situational cameras. That data is retained for 30 days. If we pull it for investigations,
[3:14:58] it has to be for our reason. Got it. So if, if I could
[3:15:02] summarize, um, the information is used solely by
[3:15:06] dublin and then across california agencies,
[3:15:11] but does not go beyond that. Correct. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah,
[3:15:17] thank you. Um, thank you for, uh, this very detailed
[3:15:22] report with a ton of data. Um, yeah, as somebody mentioned earlier, council
[3:15:26] is data nerds. Um, and so we love to see our data. Um,
[3:15:30] and you gave us a lot of it. This report had a lot of what,
[3:15:35] but not a lot of why. Um, and
[3:15:40] without a narrative to go along with data, sometimes we draw our own conclusions.
[3:15:44] so there's a, a few questions I wanna ask you. And if you don't know the why, that's okay. Okay.
[3:15:48] sometimes we don't know, um, the, there's a
[3:15:52] huge drop in officer initiated contact or officer initiated activities.
[3:15:56] sorry, I chose the wrong word there. Um, do you have a narrative around why that is?
[3:16:01] did we change a policy or people just behaving themselves and the officer aren't, or
[3:16:05] the easy answer is we're, we're we're doing less activities, stopping less cars.
[3:16:10] no, I, I, um, I, I've pondered that for the last month since
[3:16:14] we started getting these preliminary numbers. I don't have an exact answer, but I do have some,
[3:16:18] some what I believe are contributing factors. If you'd like to hear them, I'd love to hear them. Okay.
[3:16:22] so, um, as far as like, let's start with, uh, community initiated activities.
[3:16:27] so those, those are down a little bit, and I think one of the reasons why is, um,
[3:16:31] you know, I think crime down, I don't crime is down in the state of california. And
[3:16:35] if you look at the california doga report from 2024 about state of crime in
[3:16:39] california mm-hmm . It's down. Mm-hmm . Um, violent crime's down 6%,
[3:16:44] property crime's down 8.4%, homicides down 10%, aggravated
[3:16:48] assault, six and a half. Motor vehicle theft, 15% burglary,
[3:16:52] statewides down 9.1% and robberies down 6.3%.
[3:16:57] so that's just starting there with statewide stats. Um,
[3:17:02] contributing factors, um, there's a few that I have. Uh, number one,
[3:17:06] uh, our officers and officers statewide.
[3:17:11] um, there is a, a, a very heavily increasing administrative
[3:17:16] burden on them in their day-to-day activities. Um, they have a
[3:17:20] lot more reporting requirements in the reports. They have to constantly
[3:17:24] look at their body-worn camera footage and annotate it. Uh, they have to
[3:17:29] spend probably another three to four minutes after every car stop putting in stop data
[3:17:33] that's required by the state. Uh, talking to my officers,
[3:17:38] booking somebody at the santa rita jail, a process that used to take 15 minutes.
[3:17:42] now it takes 45 minutes to an hour just waiting for medical clearance. That's, if
[3:17:46] you think about that, that's a lot of time spent out outside of their car.
[3:17:51] um, our officers are also doing a lot of the early stage investigative work
[3:17:55] for, um, the agencies. So before a report goes to investigations, they're
[3:17:59] trying to get most of the investigations leg work done. So they're reviewing footage,
[3:18:03] they're, they're seeking out cameras, looking for witnesses, so they're spending more follow-up
[3:18:07] time on those calls. Um,
[3:18:12] another contributing factor is that, uh, proactive work
[3:18:16] or self-initiated work is done. Uh, when we don't have pending calls, our
[3:18:20] priority is to get to the community and answer calls to the community. And I can tell you
[3:18:24] working day shift, um, a lot of our calls are
[3:18:28] priority two calls. Uh, we're going to, to to a, a suspect in
[3:18:33] custody at target. We send two vehicles to that. So a lot of the calls we're
[3:18:37] sending multiple officers, so there's less time for that beat to
[3:18:41] go do proactive work. Um, and officer safety
[3:18:45] is another reason why we send two cars. Um, that's, that's another contributing factor.
[3:18:50] and, and another contributing factor is I, I believe, 'cause I'm not doubting
[3:18:54] productivity among my officers, I think they're under reporting stuff. I
[3:18:58] really do. Uh, when they go in to get a sandwich, when they go in to use the restroom,
[3:19:03] that's a business check. We've always, we've always,
[3:19:07] uh, logged those. If you're in seven 11 or a convenience store or what,
[3:19:11] name a store, we logged it as a business check. If I'm
[3:19:15] driving through a, a neighborhood on the east end or the west end, that's a patrol
[3:19:19] check just driving down the street and not, not, uh, accounting
[3:19:23] for your work. We're, um, we're underreporting this stuff.
[3:19:27] uh, doing routine, routine patrol through neighborhoods and
[3:19:31] commercial areas, uh, doing high visibility in hotspots,
[3:19:36] parking your car in high crime areas, uh, preventing a crime that didn't
[3:19:40] occur. That's hard to measure, but those are things that are being done.
[3:19:45] um, you know, and, and, and I'm not saying that this is an issue, but you know, nationwide,
[3:19:50] uh, I think there's a decline in, in, in productivity amongst all
[3:19:54] officers nationwide. I think after, uh, 2020,
[3:19:58] I think officers just became risk averse. So
[3:20:02] that's, that's been a problem. Um, I, I think we've turned that corner.
[3:20:06] I do have a lot of ideas and the captain does as well, uh, to improve
[3:20:10] these stats. I I can guarantee you these stats will be a lot higher next year for officer initiated
[3:20:15] activities, but I, there's many contributing factors. I can't point to this
[3:20:19] one thing. Okay. Thank you for that very detailed answer. I wasn't necessarily highlighting
[3:20:23] it as an issue. I was just curious as to why the, the, the big drop. And,
[3:20:27] um, I wanna make sure that none of my questions sound like criticisms
[3:20:31] in any way. Um, I'm really no, they're, they're low vice mayor. I, I, I, I would
[3:20:35] like to see those numbers improve. Oh, okay. I, I'm genuinely just asking questions, but one of the
[3:20:39] things that you said was that, um, you know, crime is down throughout the state.
[3:20:43] we're seeing that we're seeing it, um, nationwide, actually. Um, you know, you,
[3:20:47] you know, I said on the public safety policy committees, and we look at a lot of these things, um,
[3:20:52] and also the newspapers are reporting crime despite what, anecdotally, you might see
[3:20:57] the statistics say crime is down nationwide. Mm-hmm . Is that because,
[3:21:02] you know, the old adage of if you don't test for things, you don't find them, is crime down because
[3:21:06] we're not reporting the crime? Or is crime truly down by that percentage?
[3:21:10] I mean, clearly crime is down, but is is,
[3:21:14] are those percentages, do you think, accurate in your opinion? I know you can't speak
[3:21:18] to the statistics. Are you talking about for dublin or for
[3:21:23] the state? I mean, I'm, I'm just in general trends, it, it's hard
[3:21:27] to say mm-hmm . It, it really is hard to say. I, I like to think that the
[3:21:31] crime numbers are just down mm-hmm . Right now, and that, that we're doing a better job of
[3:21:36] policing our communities and, and there's just less, less crime occurring. Mm-hmm . But it's hard
[3:21:40] to say. I don't know a hundred percent why. Okay. But I think if our numbers are showing a downward
[3:21:44] trend, I think the state's showing a downward trend. I think there's a, there's something going on. Yeah.
[3:21:48] fantastic. Um, the, I actually, I'm
[3:21:52] gonna do this a little bit out of the order I have, because this one pertains to what we're talking about, but the, the
[3:21:57] dui, um, decline that, um, council member cadre brought up, um,
[3:22:01] just to fully put a period on that theme.
[3:22:06] is that because we did fewer stops? Um, or do we really think people are,
[3:22:10] you know, checking themselves before they get behind the wheel? I think there's, I
[3:22:14] think it's both. Um, so we've, we, we haven't reduced the number of
[3:22:18] checkpoints that we've done. Uh, we've, we've done our checkpoints, but I will say that our
[3:22:22] checkpoints that we do, we don't net a whole lot of arrests. Okay. Good. Uh, we had checkpoints
[3:22:27] last year. We had zero, we had checkpoints where we had one, we had a checkpoint in
[3:22:31] december, we arrested four people. Okay. So those are hit and miss. Um,
[3:22:36] we've used our, our cannabis grant and our ots funding to put saturation
[3:22:40] patrols out for duis. And, and some nights they're lucky and some nights they
[3:22:44] don't get anything. Mm-hmm . Um, I, I, I will say this
[3:22:48] and I'll bring this up. We did, we did look at some statistics and actually,
[3:22:52] um, I'm not sure if you knew this, but duis, according to the national highway traffic
[3:22:56] safety administration, or down significantly from 2005,
[3:23:00] in 2005, they reported 1.4 million arrests nationwide.
[3:23:05] and in 2024, that number dropped down to 805,000, uh,
[3:23:09] state of california. And, uh, 2005, there was
[3:23:13] a 180,000 dui arrests, that number dropped down to
[3:23:17] a to 120,000. In 2024. Um,
[3:23:22] the national highway traffic safety administration, they, they, they attribute the, uh,
[3:23:27] the decline to, um, obviously less consumption of alcohol,
[3:23:31] but also the increased use of ride shares and options. I mean, these days,
[3:23:36] dui is a, is a, is truly a choice. If you don't
[3:23:40] take advantage of these things and you get caught, that's shame on you. Right.
[3:23:44] um, and, and, and one more thing I'll add. I'm, I'm not sure if you guys have heard,
[3:23:48] but if you look online, um, there's, there's numerous articles
[3:23:53] about genzer. Yeah. They just don drink, uh, 1997
[3:23:57] to 20 20 12, uh, including an article in new york post that was, I read
[3:24:01] today actually, that, um, genzer are just
[3:24:05] not interested in drinking. They, they're losing interest in drinking after they try it for
[3:24:10] the first time. So, so that demographic, that's gonna be the young ones
[3:24:14] that are potentially going to bars, they're not, they're not out there.
[3:24:19] um, so yeah, I think dui is one of those things that I, I'm not
[3:24:23] saying that they're not out there. Right. Um, just I don't, we're not finding
[3:24:27] them. Uh, dui compasses other things behind besides alcohol, correct.
[3:24:31] oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dui it could be, uh, uh, drugs, uh, prescription drugs,
[3:24:36] um, other illicit drugs. Yeah. Gen z's not drinking, but I'll
[3:24:40] just, I'll just leave it at that. Okay. Um, moving on. Um, the, uh,
[3:24:44] priority one calls, um, that seems
[3:24:48] like just from a raw number, a surprising number to me. Maybe I'm the only one
[3:24:52] that went 2,400 priority one calls. What the heck? Um, that's seven a day.
[3:24:57] um, but medical calls are part of that. Yeah. Is, is,
[3:25:01] are the medical calls a big percentage of our priority one calls here in dublin?
[3:25:05] I would say they are. I don't know what the exact percentage is, but we
[3:25:09] do respond to a, a number of medical calls. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Um, and
[3:25:14] the same is true for priority two calls and, um, traffic collisions,
[3:25:18] correct? Yeah. So just, just for, um,
[3:25:22] for reference, so remember I said priority two details include traffic stops.
[3:25:26] so of those priority two calls, we, we did 5,951 traffic
[3:25:30] stops last year. Okay. And also traffic collisions are priority two. Correct.
[3:25:35] okay. Well, it depends on if there's injury or not. Okay. So if there's injury, it's
[3:25:39] priority one. One. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um, can you give me just a, you know, I, we
[3:25:43] don't, in the interest of time, you know, a brief description of the difference between
[3:25:47] priority three, four, and five. Sure. So priority three, as I mentioned in the, in
[3:25:51] the report, those are, those are our reports. Uhhuh, , uh, most of 'em are for
[3:25:56] reports. I actually have the list from dispatch. It's right here.
[3:26:00] I have three, four, and five. So those are our reports. There's a couple instances and
[3:26:04] priority threes where it's not a report, um, for instance, a security check,
[3:26:08] a vacation check if somebody's outta town. And then, uh, a parking violation
[3:26:12] is a, is a priority three. Um,
[3:26:16] priority fours appear to be administrative act, or they're administrative, or
[3:26:20] they're activities that don't require a report. Uh, getting gas,
[3:26:25] ah, civil standbys, um, business checks,
[3:26:30] patrol checks, stranded motorists, uh, reporting that a traffic light is out.
[3:26:35] that's a priority four. Um, priority fives,
[3:26:39] uh, we have seven on my list. Four
[3:26:43] apply to what we do here in dublin. And they include a, an abandoned boat, ,
[3:26:48] an abandoned bicycle, uh, fireworks and use of force.
[3:26:52] that's it. Okay. But for the most part, priority three is
[3:26:57] the, the lion's share of our, our reports. Okay. Um, thank
[3:27:01] you. Mm-hmm . In the response time. Um,
[3:27:05] and maybe it's just a, a false memory on my part, but it's seems to me that our
[3:27:10] response times when I started this job used to be sub five minutes.
[3:27:15] um, did we used to report the officer initiated activities
[3:27:19] as part of our response times and now we don't? Or are our response times getting
[3:27:24] worse? We did. Okay. Thank you. So we, so
[3:27:28] we noticed that we are reporting, uh, officer initiated activity in
[3:27:32] our response times, which remember what I told you in the presentation. Right? It's
[3:27:36] zero. Right. So if I see a car vi a vehicle violation, I'm
[3:27:40] stopping the car. It's, it's not, it's, it's instantaneous, almost, almost
[3:27:44] mm-hmm . So the, the time seems a little bit high mm-hmm
[3:27:48] . But we didn't think it was fair to report self-initiate activity into our overall
[3:27:53] response time. It's not accurate. Um, if we include those officer initiated
[3:27:57] activities that seven minutes and whatever it was, I can cut that number
[3:28:01] in half. Okay. If not more. Okay. Thank you. Because I,
[3:28:06] I'm comparing apples to apples, and all of a sudden I'm comparing apples to oranges and it freaked me out a
[3:28:10] little bit. So I actually prefer that we are using
[3:28:15] transparent data. So I, I applaud you for putting
[3:28:19] the real number in there. Even though it, if people
[3:28:23] look at, at as a comparator and other agencies are using their office or initiated activities
[3:28:28] as part of their average, um, it's gonna make us look like we have slower response time. But that is
[3:28:32] a true, accurate picture. Um, do you have a sense of
[3:28:36] where that puts us in neighbor compared to neighboring
[3:28:41] agencies? And do you know whether they use what metrics they're using? I, I can
[3:28:45] find out, um, what their, what their times are. I, I, I don't
[3:28:49] believe there is a, um, a national benchmark for response times.
[3:28:53] I think it's something we can always work on improving. I will say this, if there
[3:28:57] is a true emergency, our response time is gonna be significantly less.
[3:29:02] and the reason why is because we have lights and sirens and we can, we can, uh,
[3:29:07] get away with, uh, not following the traffic laws legally. Um,
[3:29:11] so our response times to an injury collision or to a true crime in progress,
[3:29:17] I don't have the exact number, but I can guarantee you it's 50% of what you're seeing. Okay.
[3:29:21] um, now going back to that, not all priority
[3:29:25] one calls warrant an emergency response. 'cause the vehicle code, uh,
[3:29:29] is very specific as to when fire or police
[3:29:33] can, can have their lights and sirens on. We have to be, be responding to a fire.
[3:29:38] we have to be responding to an emergency engaged in a re rescue operations,
[3:29:42] or be in pursuit of a law violator. Those are the four reasons. There's
[3:29:47] many instances on priority one calls that are priority one, but
[3:29:51] we can't establish that there's an emergency. Uh, um,
[3:29:55] the number one example I can give you is the 9 1 1 hangup. Uh,
[3:30:00] we've all inadvertently dialed nine one one on our cell phone. We respond to those.
[3:30:04] but if it's a static line, uh, if, if we can't determine if there's an emergency,
[3:30:08] we're still gonna go. But we have to obey the rules of the road.
[3:30:13] so that's gonna slow our, our times down. We have to stop at stoplights and follow the rules
[3:30:17] of traffic. So those mess with our response time as well. But what I can say is that
[3:30:22] if there is a true emergency, we're gonna get there very fast. Okay. Perfect.
[3:30:26] and then, um, the last question, I'm sure everybody's pleased with me saying that. Sure. The
[3:30:30] last question I have is the, um, the, uh, flock and
[3:30:34] peregrine, um, information and the, um, information about rtcc.
[3:30:38] all those together for me. Um, I have a whole host of
[3:30:43] questions about data and ai and integration and, and all of those things.
[3:30:47] we've asked for that to come back to us. Can you, do you know when that's coming back? That's coming back
[3:30:51] february 17th. Okay. 24th, no,
[3:30:56] february, march. March is, yeah. Perfect. Thank you. Little
[3:31:00] little misunderstanding over there. Thank you very much for the report. That concludes my very long-winded
[3:31:04] questions. Thank you. But good questions. Thank you. Any more questions?
[3:31:09] good. I do mayor. Yeah. We'll let him go. We'll let him, so go,
[3:31:13] go ahead. Um, council member marada. Thanks. Uh, I have,
[3:31:17] uh, one question, nine parts for chief. Just kidding.
[3:31:22] uh, actually, just, just one question. Uh, so on, uh, chief, on slide
[3:31:26] eight, uh, I was somewhat taken aback by some of the numbers.
[3:31:30] uh, so, so a question that I'll ask and, and please respond with
[3:31:35] the necessary level of discretion, uh, which is in some
[3:31:39] of the categories, uh, notably aggregated aggravated assault, uh,
[3:31:43] domestic violence, sex offense. Uh, is there a specific at-risk population
[3:31:48] that, uh, you noticed or caught a trend around? And if so,
[3:31:52] how are we helping them? Uh, do we, you know, apply for grants?
[3:31:56] do we have programs? Just gimme a sense of the, the proactive
[3:32:01] things you're doing to service the at-risk population. Thanks. That's
[3:32:05] it. So, uh, council member,
[3:32:09] marti, you mentioned aggravated assault as an example, or is that, is that what
[3:32:13] you wanted the answer to? Well, can you address for
[3:32:17] me all of the line items on slide eight
[3:32:22] that have a positive net change in 2025?
[3:32:29] see if I can get to it. Yeah,
[3:32:40] this is the one right here. Perfect. Yes. Is there, I, I'm,
[3:32:44] I'm asking for more of a summary chief, which is, of all the net
[3:32:49] positive line items, is there an at-risk population that
[3:32:53] you found through your research, through your analysis, that we should, could be concerned
[3:32:57] about? And if so, how are we serving them? Um,
[3:33:01] not that we've identified council member marada. Okay.
[3:33:07] thanks.
[3:33:12] uh, no further questions. Back to you, mayor. Thank, thank you. Uh,
[3:33:17] yeah, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Um, so
[3:33:21] I'm glad I'm last because about 90% of my questions
[3:33:25] have already been asked. Right. I, I, and you've responded very well, the response time
[3:33:29] and the, the trend and the statistics. I guess what I, I'd
[3:33:33] like to know is, um, and incidentally, um, there was, there
[3:33:38] was the use of data, and maybe you can explain how you've,
[3:33:42] you've modified or filtered out on flock,
[3:33:46] um, uh, over the last year or so. Of my understanding is
[3:33:50] at one time that we, we were kind of open and that we've made some changes
[3:33:55] recently. Uh, with regard to that would be the first question. Maybe you can identify, maybe
[3:33:59] elaborate on that, and then I'll get back to the stats a little bit.
[3:34:04] is that something you want to address tonight? Or, uh, is this, is this for the 20?
[3:34:08] I think that's more in line for our next presentation and we'll on on, push it out.
[3:34:12] push it out. That's fine. Um, and then,
[3:34:17] you know, the, I had very similar questions, like the trends. You know,
[3:34:21] these, these statistics, they're going up and they're going down and they're going up and down.
[3:34:25] and, uh, you know, are these within range? Uh, are
[3:34:29] you, are you satisfied with, with these, um,
[3:34:33] numbers? Um, and as council member marada said, there's some that are
[3:34:37] going up and, uh, you know, assault, assault, sexual
[3:34:42] violence, et cetera. Um, you know, do we know the reasons for
[3:34:46] those trends? Uh, um, for
[3:34:50] all of 'em, not necessarily. I think you can attribute, um,
[3:34:56] some of the, the shoplifting and the, the,
[3:35:00] the burglary, especially commercial burglary to, to maybe some changes
[3:35:04] in the laws due to prop 36. Ah, um, it's changed the laws.
[3:35:08] it's made a lot of cases a felony where they would normally have been charged with a
[3:35:12] misdemeanor or not charged at all. Um, I think that's a contributing factor. 'cause
[3:35:16] you see burlar went down 34%. Yeah. Um,
[3:35:23] I am, I'm satisfied with some, there's obviously some, I, I don't like seeing
[3:35:27] sex offenses. I don't like seeing domestic violence or any violence whatsoever. I think we
[3:35:31] can always improve on all those. Um, but some of the property crimes,
[3:35:35] I'm, I'm very satisfied with. I, I do wanna work on our, our residential
[3:35:39] burglaries and our, and our, and our burglaries in general. Those are important to me.
[3:35:44] they're all important. Actually, that actually was my next question is where,
[3:35:48] where is your focal point? And is there anything that, that
[3:35:52] we can do to support? What areas would be more supportive
[3:35:56] to you, whether it's, uh, technology or, or anything else?
[3:36:00] uh, you know, where do you see that, that need? Uh,
[3:36:05] from a strategic standpoint? I think from a strategic standpoint, the city has
[3:36:09] always been very supportive of the pd. And so is the city, uh, the city manager
[3:36:14] and, and getting us the equipment that we need. We have a lot of technology that a lot of cities
[3:36:18] don't have, and it's very beneficial for us when it comes to solving crimes or
[3:36:23] investigating crimes. Um, so I think we have what we need
[3:36:27] right now. Um, but our focal point right now, and, and my
[3:36:31] priority right now is lowering residential burglaries. Uh, that's a, that's a, a big,
[3:36:35] big problem in my eyes. And, uh, I want that number to come down substantially.
[3:36:40] okay. Well, I think, uh, the other council members, uh, have very
[3:36:44] well answered or asked the, the right questions, and I don't have anything else
[3:36:49] right now. Thank you. Yeah. Any questions? You're good.
[3:36:53] okay. Awesome. So thank you so much. Um, I have, uh,
[3:36:57] just a, a couple of questions here. So I, I, I'm looking at
[3:37:01] the comparison to other cities, and thank you for putting that together. Mm-hmm
[3:37:05] . And most of the numbers are, I, I feel are fine, uh, except
[3:37:10] like one number we ask significantly higher than other cities
[3:37:14] that is a robbery.
[3:37:19] that's like on second page of that, uh, compared so,
[3:37:24] so mayor, I'm not sure how the other cities are reporting robberies.
[3:37:29] um, like I told you when I was explaining the statistics,
[3:37:33] we had 40 robberies, um, but 21 of those robberies
[3:37:39] involved retail theft where, um, a loss prevention person was maybe
[3:37:43] threatened or pushed, which elevates it to a robbery. I don't think it's the, the
[3:37:48] it, you know, it's, it's a felony, uh, but I don't think it's the, the
[3:37:52] robbery that, that most people will think of, um, that occurs on the street.
[3:37:57] these, these originate generally in retail stores. Mm. Um,
[3:38:03] starting with, uh, basically simple theft. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That I understand
[3:38:07] both. Thank you. So, uh, a couple things. So I just, uh, uh,
[3:38:11] I, I, you know, we heard this residential, um,
[3:38:15] community, um, burglary happening. And,
[3:38:20] um, I want to to know like how many communities in
[3:38:24] our, in our city, do they already
[3:38:29] have flock cameras, and like,
[3:38:33] how can we, like, how much they can help with this, uh, um,
[3:38:37] crime, um, situation and how we
[3:38:41] can help out to get the message out or just, uh, help to
[3:38:45] get the footprint connected to our police?
[3:38:50] um, information? Well, the cameras are very helpful.
[3:38:54] um, and as far as communities that have them, um,
[3:38:58] I know that they have 'em in shafer ranch now. They have 'em, um,
[3:39:03] in the pinnacles development up off of, uh, fallon. Uh, there's several communities
[3:39:07] that have them. Um, but the, the cameras are not, they're not
[3:39:11] cheap. So I, I wouldn't expect every community in, in town to be able to
[3:39:15] afford that. Um, but the communities that have,
[3:39:19] um, purchased one, that, that information is helpful for us. Um,
[3:39:24] and may serve as deterrent too for, for residential burglaries. Okay.
[3:39:28] thanks. Another thing is we, we got, um, like many people
[3:39:33] through the past two, now, they'll always ask, do we have enough
[3:39:38] swan officers, uh, like a national data use, like 1%
[3:39:42] or one out of, um,
[3:39:46] I, I don't know the statistic I, so if strictly
[3:39:50] use that number, we are like a fewer number than that number
[3:39:55] indicated or something like that. I just want to want to hear from
[3:39:59] you, like how you always look at this numbers of officers
[3:40:03] to make sure we have enough, uh, coverage for our city.
[3:40:08] so the, the, the number here often is there should be one officer
[3:40:13] per thousand residents. And, um, I, I don't know where that number came
[3:40:17] from. It's not from the international association of chiefs of police. Um,
[3:40:21] I think staffing levels in the department depend on a lot of things. It depends on call volume, it
[3:40:25] depends on, it, it, it's unique from community to community.
[3:40:29] um, we'll take all the officers you want to give us, but I'm also
[3:40:34] mindful of the city's resources. Um, so I, I, I think we're
[3:40:38] sufficient and we have to use the resources we have and get creative with our staffing levels
[3:40:42] and just leverage those resources to deal with problems. So
[3:40:46] residential burglaries, we have to up staff certain beats with more cars.
[3:40:50] we have to maybe pull from our school resource officers or our crime prevention
[3:40:55] unit to supplement that staffing level. I think our staffing levels are sufficient
[3:40:59] right now. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that's all my questions. And
[3:41:03] do we have, do we have a public comments? I have no speaker slips
[3:41:07] on the side. Mayor. Alright. Thank you. And, um, this is just for
[3:41:11] information only. So I want to ask, are, are there any additional
[3:41:16] comments we want to make on this one? Anybody has any
[3:41:20] comments? I would say great, great job. Um, definitely wanna see some improvements and
[3:41:24] I think you have some ideas in, in terms of how, how to make those improvements. Um,
[3:41:29] uh, yeah, looking forward to, to seeing, seeing more green,
[3:41:33] uh, in, in subsequent years.
[3:41:37] thank you. Any comments? You know, this was already brought up by a council member, uh, and
[3:41:42] that is maybe a little more explanation on trends.
[3:41:46] um, you know, because the numbers mean something, right?
[3:41:51] and, and the trends mean something. So maybe some idea
[3:41:55] of what, what would these numbers really mean in terms of the, the,
[3:41:59] where we're going as a city? So that would be my only comment.
[3:42:05] any comments? The report? I, I thought that you included, um,
[3:42:09] a lot of data. I love this comparison, which we've never seen before. Um,
[3:42:14] it's presented in a way that's really easy for us to follow, um, and for the public to
[3:42:18] follow. Um, so I just, I appreciate all the information you gave us tonight. Thank you.
[3:42:24] um, council member marada, any comments? No further
[3:42:28] comments, mayor. Okay. Thank you. So I want to thank you for great work
[3:42:32] and it's very comprehensive data and we learn a lot. And also
[3:42:36] the strategies you mentioned about the focus are all like,
[3:42:40] uh, right things for us. And I want to thank you again and thanks
[3:42:44] all the enforcement, um, officers there, and
[3:42:49] which is look, looking forward to working together and support
[3:42:54] all, all the needs of our community. With that said, thank you again.
[3:42:58] so we'll move on to agenda item nine,
[3:43:03] eric council members. Um, we have our volunteer recognition
[3:43:08] event on february 25th, and I just wanna, uh, remind the
[3:43:12] community that you've got three, four more days to get in your nominations
[3:43:16] for citizen, young citizen and organization of the year for 2025. The deadline is friday.
[3:43:20] that's all. Perfect. Thank you. Um, who wants to
[3:43:24] start first? Michael, you want to start first?
[3:43:28] you know, I, I'll be real quick. No, I don't have anything. Okay. Okay, perfect.
[3:43:33] so you want happy to go? Yeah. Um, I don't think I said it earlier.
[3:43:37] so, happy new year's, uh, attended the opening for kaji kin
[3:43:42] ramen, which is right in front of emerald, uh, really great food. They have, uh,
[3:43:47] at least one super delicious, uh, vegetarian option on the ramen,
[3:43:51] which was, which is great. And it's a, it's a breathless ramen. So,
[3:43:55] uh, new, something new for me to try. And then, um,
[3:44:00] attended, uh, a cfd, so the alameda county fire department rescue boat presentation, which
[3:44:04] is a lot of fun. Uh, went out on a boat in, uh, through
[3:44:08] san san leandro marina and, and, uh, got to see what they're up to. So,
[3:44:12] great, great experience. You want
[3:44:16] to go ahead? Oh, no. So john, you want to start?
[3:44:21] uh, of course. I'm happy to go, mayor. Thank you. Uh, I too will go fairly quickly.
[3:44:26] the, uh, two items I have is the attendance of the alameda
[3:44:30] county library, um, uh, commission. Uh, I'd like to ask
[3:44:34] everybody to join me in, uh, welcoming deb
[3:44:39] sika. Debra sika, who is now the, the, was appointed
[3:44:43] as the new county librarian. So she'd been serving in that role,
[3:44:47] um, as interim and, uh, then she was officially appointed. So congratulations,
[3:44:52] deb sika. And then, um, also at, uh, with, with
[3:44:56] regard to ava, uh, I'll take just a little bit of extra time. Mayor, I, I,
[3:45:00] I apologize. I know it's getting late, but I, it does, does, does warrant a little bit of explanation
[3:45:05] to the public, which is that, uh, there were two articles written in the
[3:45:09] independent about the ava energy bill credit. So allow
[3:45:13] me to explain the context of what that was, because
[3:45:17] I don't think the independent gave e enough to, to, uh, credit to that.
[3:45:21] so in the summer of last year, uh, ava,
[3:45:26] um, forecasted a surplus of $137 million.
[3:45:32] the board, uh, and also the, the, uh, customer advisory council,
[3:45:36] uh, voted to give 10% of that surplus
[3:45:40] back to the public as a bill credit, which would've accounted to about
[3:45:45] $13.7 million, or for us specifically of
[3:45:49] residents, about $80 off of your energy bill. That was the
[3:45:53] summer in the fall when we actually did our financial
[3:45:57] analysis as well as our pursuant budget. We found that in
[3:46:01] 2026, uh, there is a potential for ava to
[3:46:05] be at a $250 million deficit.
[3:46:10] so that came at the heels of the rate changes by pg
[3:46:14] e, which when pg e reduces rates,
[3:46:18] ava loses money as well. So that's the part that I don't think
[3:46:23] the articles explained very well. So in order to fulfill
[3:46:27] that deficit, we had to remove the bill
[3:46:31] credit. We also had to, um, trade back some
[3:46:35] of the local development dollars that we had originally, um, allocated, but they were unmarked.
[3:46:40] uh, so they were un they were not earmarked. So we were able to return those.
[3:46:44] but then also there was a 25 basis point increase in energy,
[3:46:49] um, cost as well, that all together,
[3:46:53] uh, and I I, I hate to be the bare bad news, but that altogether was far
[3:46:57] less of a financial impact than the 5% that we would've
[3:47:01] had to pay to borrow money in order to keep the company running.
[3:47:06] so as mayor jack bch had provided during his, um,
[3:47:10] his, his, um, uh, commentary was that we should
[3:47:14] not be debt financing operations of the business. Uh, so
[3:47:18] that is the commentary. Uh, and I'll close out on that simply by saying that, um,
[3:47:22] I feel we made the right choice. I do apologize to the public that you
[3:47:26] will not be getting that energy credit that we had originally promised in the summer.
[3:47:31] but, um, it is something that we had to do in order to maintain
[3:47:35] the, the sustainability of eva energy. That's it.
[3:47:39] mayor, back to thank, thank you. Um, so, so lot of
[3:47:43] activities before the christmas, um, yeah, including
[3:47:47] that, uh, grand opening of the ram place, like that,
[3:47:51] and also meeting. And also there's
[3:47:56] a new year's celebration. There's a lots of things going on. Governor's office
[3:48:00] have a representative representatives visited us
[3:48:05] and itv board
[3:48:09] meeting, so lots of meetings. With that said, we'll adjourn our
[3:48:13] meeting at, did you, did you want me to give a report? Oh, I forgot.
[3:48:17] sorry. That's okay. That like a okay, please. That's okay. Yeah. Um,
[3:48:21] just very briefly, we did have, um, a couple of stop waste meetings, um, where we're
[3:48:25] talking budget as well. Um, and then also lta, um, talking
[3:48:30] about the hydrogen. The original plan for lta to meet the
[3:48:34] state's mandated, um, zero emissions bus plan was
[3:48:38] to get hydrogen buses. Um, we are rethinking potentially that
[3:48:42] plan, so if you're interested in that, um, come see either
[3:48:47] mr. Mcc or myself. Thank you so much. So we ajour meeting
[3:48:51] at 11 4:00 pm.