[6:26] Good evening, everybody. It is past six o'clock. We're going to go ahead and get started today. Thank you for joining us for our regular city council meeting of June 23, 2025. We continue to offer in person and remote options for our city council meetings.

[6:41] The city welcomes public comment on topics within the city's subject manager's section and members of the public may provide comments in person during the meeting or by email to public comment at rovidcity.org as outlined in the agenda.

[6:54] In person speakers must turn in a speaker card to the city clerk at the days to be recognized to speak.

[7:01] Please be sure to indicate the agenda number which you'd like to address.

[7:05] In person speakers will be called in the order in which their speaker cards were turned in.

[7:09] And comments that were received via email after a gender publication through five o'clock today may be read aloud time permitting,

[7:16] but in any case we made part of the final meeting record.

[7:18] And if there's a high volume of public comment this evening, we may decrease the time

[7:23] allotted for each comment or limit the total time for public comment.

[7:27] In the event that this occurs, please feel free to send your full comments to the City Council

[7:31] at public comments at redwoodcity.org.

[7:35] And I'll now turn it over to the City Clerk to conduct our rule.

[7:39] Good evening.

[7:41] Council Member Chu.

[7:44] She is joining us remotely this evening and I believe she is still joining.

[7:47] Councilmember G.

[7:49] Councilmember Howard.

[7:51] Councilmember Padilla.

[7:53] Here.

[7:53] Councilmember Sturkin.

[7:55] Here.

[7:55] Vice Mayor Akin.

[7:56] Here.

[7:57] Mayor Martinez.

[7:58] Thank you.

[8:00] And with that, we'll move to the Pledge of Allegiance.

[8:03] Councilmember G.

[8:04] Can you lead us in a pledge?

[8:05] Please.

[8:05] If you would rise and join me in

[8:07] including the flag of our country, please.

[8:29] Thank you.

[8:30] Councilmember.

[8:32] And with that, we will move to presentations and

[8:34] knowledgements, starting with a very special presentation, a proclamation, recognizing national

[8:40] immigrant heritage month.

[8:43] June is National American Heritage Month and it's a special time to acknowledge the cultural

[8:48] diversity as one of the historical characteristics of our country.

[8:53] We're a nation of immigrants and the evidence, the impacts of previous generations, people

[8:58] who came to this country looking for a better life and building a home here is all around us.

[9:03] And continued immigration has shaped the daily life of our communities strengthening their multicultural, linguistic, and economic heritage.

[9:12] So on behalf of the Redwood City Council, I present the following proclamation.

[9:17] Whereas immigrants in Redwood City served in every sector of our society as educators, as business owners, health care workers, artists, public servants, and neighbors strengthening our city through their talents, their values, and their hard work.

[9:31] and whereas honoring immigrant heritage means acknowledging both the struggles and the triumphs

[9:37] of those who have sought a better life here, recommitting ourselves to equity, opportunity,

[9:42] and compassion for all. Whereas Gassas Yucculo Gupta Laugh is a grassroots community-based,

[9:49] multidisciplinary art organization dedicated to creating bilingual arts, cultural and educational

[9:55] programming reflective of the experiences of the San Francisco Bay area of life.

[10:00] The Latino communities, who have brought extraordinary events to Revit city, including the other

[10:06] Los Nios event that we had just a few weeks ago. Performances at Kisot's materia, their flagship

[10:13] events, downtown, that everyone looks forward to in October with the other Los Quartos, and

[10:18] whereas Kisot's circle all together with its dedicated volunteers and families from around

[10:23] the world have contributed and made a profound and positive impact here in Revit city, underscoring

[10:29] the value of rich, cultural, diversity in our communities and our nation.

[10:34] Now, therefore, be it was all that I, Elmer Martinez of Ios, Mayor of Redwood City, on

[10:38] behalf of the City Council and the people of Redwood City, do hereby proclaim the month

[10:43] of June 2025 as National Immigrant Heritage Month in Redwood City, and encourage all residents

[10:49] to celebrate immigrant, ingenuity, and perseverance that strengthens our city, and redefines

[10:55] So it's possible to drive the country forward toward a more dynamic and inclusive future for

[11:00] all of us.

[11:01] And with that, it is my pleasure to welcome the founder of Gassosit Colo, Veronica Scamas

[11:07] to the podium to accept this proclamation and to share a few remarks.

[11:11] Thank you all for being here.

[11:25] Good evening, Mayor Martinez-Sevayas, council members and everyone here today.

[11:30] Thank you so much for this special proclamation on National Immigrant Heritage Management.

[11:35] It is a known order to accept only half of Casa Circula cultural and the many migrant families that work with us every day.

[11:44] This month reminds us that significant contribution in migrants have made to this country.

[11:50] We come with hope with dreams and with a deep love for our families.

[11:54] We work hard, we are deeply and we bring rich cultures that make our communities stronger and more beautiful.

[12:02] At Casa Circula Cultural, we see this every day, in the laughter of the children and the music and the stories and in the bright people feel when they can be seen and hear just what they are.

[12:15] As an immigrant myself, I understand how challenging it can be to begin in a new place, but I also know how strong creative and loving our community are.

[12:25] And this, I came to this country with hope, like so many others.

[12:30] And now, I stand here grateful, because Redwood City

[12:33] welcome us and celebrate our roots.

[12:36] Thank you for this recognition.

[12:38] It gives us a strength to keep going and remind us

[12:42] that we belong to Redwood City.

[12:44] Thank you.

[12:52] Thank you again, Veronica, for all the great programming

[12:55] the events that you do to help private city

[12:57] and our downtown looks so vibrant.

[12:59] Before we let you go, I'd love for us to get a photo

[13:01] as a council and with any of the gossip volunteers that you brought here today. Thank you.

[14:58] But we're going to let all of our friends.

[15:00] We've got some critical leave. It's incredible. We'll be able to just acknowledge an organization that's bringing a slice of home to so many people in our communities, so very special to start the meeting that way.

[15:12] Now, we will move on to item number five, public comment on the consent calendar, matters of council interest and items not on the agenda.

[15:19] We'll now take public comment on the consent calendar matters of council interest and items aren't listed on tonight's agenda

[15:25] and I'll turn it over to the City Clerk to facilitate public comment.

[15:29] Thank you.

[15:31] At this time, we have seven speaker cards.

[15:35] So if anyone also would like to give comment this evening on general public comment,

[15:39] we'll take them now.

[15:43] Okay, so we will now close the list and we'll begin with our first speaker, Rajesh,

[15:48] who will be followed by Marjorie Ruiz Hidalgo.

[15:52] Welcome, Rajesh.

[15:59] There's a timer on the podium.

[16:01] The orange blinking light is your 30 second warning,

[16:03] and the red light with the beat means your time is up.

[16:06] You'll have two minutes.

[16:07] I'd want to take too long.

[16:09] Thank you for inviting me and letting me know my concern.

[16:15] I'm a small business owner in Red Mercedes on El Camino Real.

[16:18] I'd operate Togos and Baskin Robbins under Franklin Street

[16:21] department's building and on June 8 last year certainly the city decided to take away a parking

[16:29] and over a few months later they replaced it with a bike lane and that is caused a huge

[16:37] disruption in my business in flow. I am really struggling to financially survive

[16:45] And I'm working with the Hawaiian company and city at the same time to figure out if there

[16:53] is a way to allow parking in front of my store so people walk in and have confidence

[16:59] that they're not going to get ticketed if they're parking in a red zone.

[17:04] So this is something that happened last year which impacted me greatly so I have passed

[17:09] on some of the figures of how the inflow traffic reduced because of this change.

[17:17] So, I would request you guys to consider, uh, wait for me to survive and keep people happy.

[17:24] Thank you.

[17:27] Thank you.

[17:28] Our next speaker will be Marjorie Ruiz Hidalgo, who will be followed by Pamela Estes.

[17:39] Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, council members, gave me,

[17:42] I've had the pleasure of meeting some of you already,

[17:44] for those of you that I have not personally met. Hi, I am your new PG&E representative for the

[17:51] Peninsula covering all 21 jurisdictions. So to prod your memory, I am the new and improved

[17:56] bill chain. This means that I am your day-to-day single point of contact, including department heads

[18:02] and senior staff. Some of whom have already had the pleasure of connecting with. I started late April.

[18:07] I am still learning the role, but I am here to publicly commit to you that I am available to

[18:11] help serve the constituents in the hometown of Redwood City.

[18:16] Now thankfully, I do not do this role in this job and this task by myself.

[18:20] I am part of a whole PG&E team based out of the St. Carlos Service Center and this includes

[18:24] gas and electric, vegetation, emergency response, service planning, and everyone responsible

[18:30] for the experience.

[18:32] I have left my card with your city manager and your city clerk, please feel free to use it.

[18:36] available. Feel free to reach out. I look forward to scheduling coffees, walks, either

[18:42] or both with you in the near future, especially as wild fire season approaches, and I know

[18:48] PSPS is right around the corner. Please feel free to reach out. I'm available. Thank you.

[18:57] Our next speaker is Pamela Estes, who will be followed by Lauriana Castro.

[19:04] Good evening, Mayor Martinez, Vice Mayor Ikin and Council members. I Pamela Estes

[19:09] with the Redwood City Parks and Arts Foundation, and I just wanted to talk to you about the

[19:13] lineup of events that I hope you'll join us and maybe help spread the word. First of all,

[19:18] is the Chock full of fun. It's our annual Chock Festival that will be July 3rd and 4th at Courthouse

[19:22] Square. On July 4th, we hope you'll come down to see the stunning Chock creations. We've hired

[19:28] 21 professional artists, and it's centered around this year's theme, celebrate California, a tribute to

[19:33] our beautiful states, 170 fifth anniversary of statehood. We have 104 Chock squares on

[19:39] Hamilton Street that are free to participants that register we provide all the supplies and as of this morning

[19:45] We had 60 spots still available anyone interested should register in advance and they can go to our page on the website rwcpaf.org

[19:54] We also need volunteers for this event and so we still have room for 14 more volunteers

[20:00] Members who can start as early as July 2nd and 3rd and 4th to be part of this event. Next, we have the brave

[20:06] maker film festival, which takes place July 10 through 13, and we're going to be co-hosting a special

[20:12] panel on Friday, July 11 at 630 at 2011 Broadway Street of film and TV production designers,

[20:20] how they source art for screen, and television, and this will be a great topic for our local art community.

[20:26] The tickets are $10, which includes beverages and small bites, and you can purchase those tickets on the Brave Maker Film Festival website.

[20:33] Finally, I wanted to talk about Family Campout.

[20:36] I'd like to say more, but we are already sold out.

[20:39] So, if you are interested, and you want to scholarship, there are scholarships available, and you can check out the website Family Campout page for that.

[20:47] But we still need 27 more volunteers to come and be part of the fund and make this.

[20:52] really special for families. Many of them who are bringing in their little ones for a first-time

[20:56] camping experience. And finally, one of our care calendars for our stylish event of the

[21:02] year picnic on block. It returns on Saturday, August 16th. This is our pop-up picnic in dance party,

[21:09] which is a fundraiser for a community need, which we collaborate with the Parks Department on.

[21:14] So thank you for supporting the foundation, and we hope to see you at one and more of these events.

[21:19] Thank you, Pamela.

[21:21] Our next speaker is Loriana Castro, who will be followed by Tony Gapastone.

[21:37] Honourable Mayor Martinez-Solios, Vice Mayor Ikin, and members of the Council.

[21:42] It's nice to see you all tonight.

[21:44] My name is Loriana Castro, and as a longtime resident of Redwood City,

[21:49] and a longtime member of the San Mateo County Historical Association,

[21:54] I want to let everyone know that the San Mateo County History Museum located in Courthouse Square has a new

[22:02] Rotunda exhibit in celebration of Juneteenth. It is called Reflections of the Great Migration, a Journey and Art.

[22:13] This temporary exhibit closes on July 20th, so see it soon. The History Museum is open to the public daily except Mondays from 10am to 4pm

[22:24] General ignition is $6 students and seniors are $4 members and children under five or free.

[22:32] As the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words.

[22:36] So I've read along a one-minute video about this unique exhibit to peak your interest.

[22:42] Thank you.

[22:54] At the San Mateo County History Museum, community isn't just who we serve.

[22:58] It's who we are.

[22:59] We bring untold stories to life, stories that shaped the peninsula and even changed America.

[23:06] This Juneteenth, we invite you to step into reflections of the Great Migration.

[23:11] This inspiring new exhibit honors one of our nation's most transformative journeys.

[23:17] From 1916 to 1970, more than six million African Americans left the rural south,

[23:24] searching for dignity, safety, and opportunity.

[23:28] Every artwork tells a piece of that legacy.

[23:31] You'll see it in powerful portraits and photographs

[23:33] that echo stories handed down for generations.

[23:37] Coupled with our immigrant gallery,

[23:39] you will experience stories from our local peninsula families.

[23:43] Living links to the great migration, right here at home.

[23:47] We're committed to making history accessible, inclusive,

[23:51] and alive for everyone.

[23:52] So join us. Celebrate the power of art to carry history forward.

[24:01] Thank you once again

[24:03] Thank you, Ariana. My next speaker is Tony Gapaston, who will be followed by Alex Bellenson.

[24:11] Hi, everyone. Council Mayor Vice Mayor. I would say the I love this community so much. I'm a 27 year

[24:17] Citizen not year old. Although I feel like it. I love the city so much and Bravemaker is seven years old

[24:25] we've been from the ground up as creatives and as artists really believing in the power of

[24:29] story so I love that there's so much synergy you heard Pamela and the History Museum elevating

[24:35] this opportunity for artists to really unite together and I believe that what we're doing here

[24:41] with the arts is going to impact the the community and the business we're bringing thousands of people

[24:46] here July 10 to the 13th hopefully you've seen our sign a signage on someone's lawn or downtown

[24:54] would city hanging around. I want to invite you to please come out. I'm so proud of what we have

[24:58] accomplished here with very little.

[25:00] A little resources as things continue to dwindle, partnering with the library and other organizations and really hundreds of volunteers.

[25:07] We are doing great things in the city to draw attention to it, to say it is a place you want to come.

[25:13] Flying into San Francisco and then drive down to 111 to come here. That's what we're saying in this year.

[25:19] I'm very proud that in the Fox Theatre we have Marley Matlin's new documentary.

[25:23] We're not confirmed that she's going to be here yet, but we think so. Marley Matlin, Oscar winner, the first death actor to do so.

[25:29] will be here opening night. I'm offering you free tickets and you all free tickets. If you want to come,

[25:34] you need to email me, Tonyabravemaker.com, Tonyabravemaker.com, Tonyabravemaker.com, to get your free

[25:41] tickets. I will give you free tickets for opening night. But please check out all of our films or open

[25:46] captions for the Deaf community. We have a Latino creative meetup on Saturday, July 12th at Cone,

[25:52] Asukaar. Again, trying to support local businesses. And we care about the LGBT community and all

[25:57] the store clicks, included people, invoices, please join us.

[26:00] All of our things at the library, downtown in the square are free,

[26:03] and there's lots of other tickets that you can buy to purchase

[26:05] and support my small business, called BraveMaker.

[26:08] Thanks so much.

[26:10] Thank you, Tony.

[26:11] Our next speaker is Alex Bellenson,

[26:13] who will be followed by Wade Painter.

[26:41] Actually, both speakers are for item eight beats,

[26:43] so we'll wait until that item is called,

[26:44] and there was no written public comment back to you, Mayor.

[26:48] Thank you Madam City Clerk.

[26:51] We will now move on to the consent calendar, items 6, items on the consent calendar are routine

[26:57] in nature and are approved in one motion.

[26:59] Are there any items on consent from which council members are accused?

[27:04] Not seeing any items on consent, which council members would like to pull for discussion.

[27:13] I'd like to pull item 6, be just for a comment, I don't know if we need to pull it

[27:19] from the consent calendar, if I can just speak to it, but it's something I'd just like to

[27:26] let the public know about. That's all.

[27:30] We'll pull it just to be, actually, safe, but it's got some or how it's six feet, and that's

[27:35] been done.

[27:36] Yeah, I'm just going to thank you. I'd like to pull item six J is in June and July, just to

[27:41] some comments on it please. Thank you.

[27:46] Great. With 6B and 6J, pulled for discussion, is there

[27:52] a motion to approve all items except for 6B and 6J? It's so moved. Second. That was a motion

[28:01] from Council Member Howard, a second from Council Member G. Could we get a electronic vote please?

[28:07] I'm sorry, roll call vote. Thank you. We'll start with Council Member Chu.

[28:12] Yes. Councilmember G. Yes. Councilmember Howard. Yes. Councilmember Padilla. Yes. Councilmember

[28:21] Sturkin. Yes. Vice Mayor Aiken. Yes. And Mayor Martinez Elios. Yes. The motion passes unanimously.

[28:28] Great. Thank you for that. Everyone. We'll go to Councilmember Howard for Item 6B.

[28:33] Thank you, Mayor. We're asked tonight to adopt a resolution supporting the Bay Trail.

[28:38] Seaport Boulevard multi-use pathway project and authorizes the middle of an application

[28:44] to the San Mateo County Transportation Authority for Measure W Regional Transit Connections Program Funding.

[28:52] And the Seaport Boulevard path is an important first last-mile connection to the future

[28:58] very terminal in downtown red in down by the port in Redwood City and I just wanted to

[29:06] I saw up Lauriana Castrop left. She's a port commissioner and I knew she'd be interested

[29:11] in this also. The Redwood City Ferry Terminal Project is in the environmental phase right now,

[29:18] thank goodness, and is planned for construction in 2027 and it aligns with the schedule for the proposed

[29:25] path project. Those of you have been waiting for very service and redwood city we are so close.

[29:32] So I just wanted to give you that update that we're really pleased and if you'd like to write

[29:37] a letter to the TA the transportation authority encouraging them to give us the money so that we can

[29:42] do this path that would be very helpful and would be happy to give you information about that. Thank

[29:47] you.

[29:51] Thank you. Thank you Councilmember Howard and could we get a motion on item 6B?

[29:57] It's almost.

[29:58] Is there a second?

[30:00] I'll second that. Perfect. That was a motion from Councilmember Howard, a second from Councilmember Sturkin. Could we get a roll call vote, please?

[30:08] We'll start with Councilmember G. Yes. Councilmember Howard. Yes. Councilmember Padilla. Yes. Councilmember Sturkin. Yes. Councilmember Chul. Yes.

[30:18] Vice Mayor Aiken. Yes. Mayor Martinez the Bios. Yes. The motion passes unanimously.

[30:25] Thank everybody. We'll go to Councilmember G for item 6.

[30:28] Jay. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to pull item six, Jay, which is amendment number five for

[30:35] services with Gilbain Building Company for project management services and amendment number

[30:40] seven to the limit for services with ELS architecture for the Veterans Memorial Building

[30:45] Senior Center, William C. Project. This is not about Gilbain or ELS architecture. It's about

[30:51] the added cost due to delays in the project and the funding for it.

[30:58] As you can see in the staff report, you know, for ELS architects, their fee from their base fee

[31:05] is now 94% of the base fee and for Gilbain, 64% of their base.

[31:11] And when you look at the previous staff reports about the time extension to this project,

[31:16] the rather significant for both parties.

[31:19] I think it's safe to say for ELS, it's over a million dollars.

[31:24] And for Gil Vain, it's coming close to two million dollars.

[31:28] And hopefully the project will be complete shortly.

[31:31] At least substantial completion and certificate of occupancy.

[31:34] And we can come visit the completed project later this year.

[31:39] But I want to highlight what I've argued and advocated for earlier.

[31:43] As these projects get bigger,

[31:44] Construction is not about construction only, it's also about risk management.

[31:50] And when I advocate for a contingency, a program contingency for things beyond the control,

[31:57] direct control of the city, the city needs to pay the service providers.

[32:01] No question about it.

[32:02] They're providing services to the city to get us to the finish line.

[32:06] But in interim, we've got to find the funds to pay the service providers.

[32:09] And we need to budget a contingency for it.

[32:13] And the project contingency does not cover this substantial amount of delay here.

[32:20] I mean, we're talking, this project was supposed to be completed about two years ago, per contract.

[32:26] And we've had over two years of delays.

[32:29] And so, as we move forward in different budgets, whether it be this year or next year's, there are a number of things that we are living that are outside the direct control of the city.

[32:39] And the city usually pays first, and then seeks recovery, but in the meantime, our service providers

[32:46] should not be financing our projects.

[32:48] We need to pay them for services that they render, and that's what this item is all about,

[32:52] but we're talking about big numbers here for a project.

[32:56] And the bigger these projects get, the bigger the risk management opportunities are required

[33:03] to make sure nothing like this happens on a routine basis.

[33:07] So I just wanted to illustrate that and share that with my colleagues.

[33:11] This is not new, it happens, but we need to fiscally plan a contingency, whether it's a program

[33:19] contingency, a CFP contingency.

[33:22] This is just one project, but if you can imagine managing three or four of these at the same

[33:26] time, the risk management and the financial park gets a little larger.

[33:32] I don't know if our city manager or Derek would want to offer any comments, but those

[33:36] my thoughts when I saw the Samfighter.

[33:43] Only two to agree and we are looking forward to the substantial completion in the summer

[33:49] and opening later this year but it has been a long road and in the meantime there are bills

[33:54] to pay so we appreciate the council's support tonight to proceed with with paying and enabling

[34:00] us to continue to have the services we need while we finish these last stages of construction.

[34:05] Thank you.

[34:07] Do you see Derek going up to the podium?

[34:11] Good evening Mayor Vice Mayor Council members, Derek Wolfgram, interim parks recreation community

[34:16] services director also just wanting to put in my agreement with that that we have definitely

[34:24] incurred substantial additional costs and we are continuing to do so until the project is complete.

[34:30] We do have an agreement with the contractor that beginning March 1st, they are responsible

[34:35] for these ELS and galvanic costs but we are the we are the float in the interim we are paying

[34:42] our contractors and then seeking reimbursement from Thompson the general contractor so hopefully

[34:50] this will end up from here on out not being in that cost to the general fund but in the interim we

[34:56] you have to bear that cost.

[35:04] Thank you for that background, Derek. There's nothing else on this.

[35:08] Oh, it comes on our circuit, please. Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick question.

[35:11] What is the typical contingency that we build into contracts such as this?

[35:17] It's about, is it typically see 10% accurate?

[35:22] Yes, we're welcome.

[35:27] Having come in in the middle of the project, I do know that the contingency on this project was a 5% contingency.

[35:33] I do not know the history of why that was a 5% because I have often seen 10 on other projects.

[35:42] Yeah, would a great 10% is more common, but wouldn't as I cover this kind of expense.

[35:51] Thank you, Councilman.

[35:52] Thank you.

[35:55] Thank you.

[35:56] With that, Mayor, thank you for indulging me to pull the item.

[36:00] I'd like to make a motion to provide him 6G.

[36:03] Great.

[36:03] Is there any second?

[36:05] Second.

[36:06] So we have a motion from Councilmember G and a second from Councilmember Howard.

[36:09] Could we get a electronic vote?

[36:15] I'm going to start with Councilmember Howard.

[36:17] Yes.

[36:18] Councilmember Padia.

[36:20] Yes. Councilmember Sturkin.

[36:23] Yes. Councilmember Chu.

[36:27] Yes. Councilmember G. Yes.

[36:29] Vice Mayor Aiken. Yes.

[36:31] Mayor Mothina Sabayos. Yes.

[36:33] The motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

[36:35] Thanks everybody.

[36:37] I will now go ahead and read the items that we're just approved.

[36:40] Six A Award of Contracts for on-call as needed environmental professional services with

[36:46] David J. Powers and Associates Incorporated LSA Associates Incorporated and Montrose

[36:52] Environmental Solutions Incorporated Six B grant application and project approvals for

[36:59] Cemetery County Transportation Authority's Measure W Regional Transit Connections Program,

[37:04] Baitrail and C-portable of our multi-use pathway project,

[37:10] 60 annual report on internal controls and enterprise risk management,

[37:15] 60 except annual report from the Redwood City Improvement Association or RCIA,

[37:22] 60 purchase of irrigation controls in an amount not to exceed $129,830

[37:29] and dollars to replace end-of-life equipment,

[37:32] six F purchase of five Ford F-150 light names

[37:35] from town motor company, DBA town fortails

[37:40] in the amount of $290,914 to replace end-of-life equipment

[37:46] and support additional staffing

[37:48] furthering the city's climate action goal

[37:50] and supporting the EV first policy.

[37:54] Six G approval of agreement for emergency medical services,

[37:57] EMS coordination with the Woodside Fire Protection District 6-H amendment

[38:04] number 8 to agreement for services with Cherry Road technologies to

[38:09] authorize the option to renew cloud and subscription services for one additional year

[38:14] and extend software support services and expertise support hours for the

[38:27] to agreement for services with Revit City,

[38:32] a PAL Center to implement the purposeful action,

[38:35] create and engage or pace program for transition to age,

[38:40] youth through June 30th, 2026 using grant funds.

[38:44] Six, J, amendment number five to agreement for services

[38:47] with Gilbane, building company for project management services,

[38:50] and amendment number seven to agreement for services

[38:53] with ELS, architecture, and urban design

[38:56] for construction administration services for the veterans memorial building slash senior center at

[39:02] WIMCA project for extended time and services due to construction delays 6K approved the

[39:08] second amendment to the individual water sales contract with the city and county of

[39:13] San Francisco 6L I will read its recommendation from our staff to wave the first reading

[39:22] introducing ordinance repealing ordinance 2477 authorizing deferrals of payments for city fees

[39:29] associated with development projects and adding red city municipal code chapter 18 local

[39:35] improvements and planning article. Let's see here 27 development feed deferrals and a

[39:43] pending section, the 18.258.C.

[39:47] Imposition and Payment of Park Impact fees for Internal Consistency.

[39:52] 6M, Wave 2nd Reading, and Adopts, and Ordnance Retitling,

[39:56] and Amending, Redwood City Municipal Code section,

[39:59] 12.

[40:00] 0.7.1, regarding designation of fire hazard severity zones. Six and approve June 9, 2025, city council minutes.

[40:09] And finally, 6.0, approve claims and checks from June 23rd, 2025, to July 21st, 2025, and the usual and necessary payments through July 21st, 2025.

[40:22] I'm almost going to do the whole off of that.

[40:25] With that, we are now at a public hearings beginning with 7A.

[40:28] A dopsity of Redwood City, fiscal year 25 to 26 budget.

[40:32] City of Redwood City's five-year cap-on-proven program and

[40:36] assessor agency to be City of Redwood City redevelopment agency,

[40:40] fiscal year 25 to 2026.

[40:43] City manager Melissa Stevens and Diaz will give the staff presentation.

[40:48] Thank you very much, Mayor.

[40:49] and for members of the Council and members of the public.

[40:51] We appreciate you being here.

[40:53] If you could go to the next slide, tonight's action

[40:58] is the culmination of many months of work.

[41:01] And we will very briefly go over the highlights

[41:04] of work that you have directed us to do

[41:06] over the steps dating back to February

[41:08] through a series of meetings and study sessions.

[41:13] Next slide, please.

[41:15] As we discussed in more detail on June 9th

[41:17] during the study session.

[41:19] This budget is grounded in the framework

[41:21] that you adopted in February

[41:24] and has focused on our strategic plan,

[41:27] as well as the city's financial stability.

[41:30] We also considered all of the feedback

[41:31] that we received last year from the community

[41:33] as we were doing extensive community outreach.

[41:37] This budget directly responds to that feedback

[41:40] which included priorities from community members

[41:43] around both our operating and capital budgets.

[41:46] As you recall, we heard a lot from residents about maintaining public safety services, something

[41:51] that's in our operating budget, as well as improving streets and sidewalks, things that

[41:56] are funded out of our capital budget.

[41:59] So in your consideration tonight, our activities to advance all of those key activities that

[42:06] residents expressed last year.

[42:08] Next slide, please.

[42:11] At our last meeting on June 9th, the Council requested two changes to the recommended budget,

[42:17] and these are incorporated in the materials that are before you've heard option this evening.

[42:22] The first change was to redirect $2 million from our proposed economic stability reserve,

[42:29] and to transfer those dollars into our pavement management program for next year.

[42:33] This change will leave just under $3 million in the economic stability reserve and increase the total general fund support for payment management to $6 million for next fiscal year.

[42:48] The second change is to add a goal for the city manager's office to evaluate opportunities for us to apply for proposition one funding for permanent support of housing.

[42:57] So, we intend to provide an update to the City Council on this work by November 20th.

[43:04] And last, the materials before you tonight also include the ports in your budget and a series of small technical changes, including fixing a few typos.

[43:14] Next slide, please.

[43:18] With some significant economic uncertainty and the changes at a federal level having unpredictable impacts for us locally,

[43:27] We have employed several strategies to develop this year's budget.

[43:32] First, we've spent the last year really strengthening our forecasting capabilities in looking for opportunities to free up funds that we can use for one-time investments.

[43:43] We've also taken a hard look at our revenue forecasts and developed a more realistic forecast to better align with our past trends.

[43:50] That includes acknowledging that this year we do expect and hope to receive repayment from the state of property tax that is owed to the city.

[44:01] But we also build that into future years, knowing that's not a given, but also knowing that historically we have received those funds.

[44:11] Additionally, we continue to appreciate voter support last year for Measure BB, which provides additional funding through our business license tax.

[44:21] Because we expect ongoing and increased funding from that source, we can reliably increase funding for public safety to maintain and improve those services.

[44:31] Also, building on needs that we have in other critical city departments.

[44:36] And as I mentioned, we will establish the new economic stability reserve, which is in addition to our normal 15% reserve.

[44:46] And this will be helpful so that we can not only have a little buffer extra buffer with the economic uncertainty,

[44:52] but also have some resources in case things do not play out with the state budget in the way that we currently expect.

[45:00] Next slide please.

[45:04] The operating budget assumes $407 million revenues from all funds and $397 million in expenditures.

[45:13] It also includes 634 full-time employees.

[45:18] Most of the cities budget is in the general fund which is in the dark blue circle and the dark blue column on the right.

[45:24] This is our means for funding for paying for core services such as public safety, libraries,

[45:30] parks, recreation and community services, and then we have smaller funding sources

[45:35] which are dedicated to specific needs.

[45:39] Next slide, please.

[45:43] Looking at our general fund forecast for the next 10 years, we have good news for the next

[45:50] several years and some work to do ahead.

[45:52] So, this line is showing both our current year and projected revenues and expenditures.

[46:00] Currently, we are expecting balanced budgets for the next four years, through fiscal year 2829.

[46:08] We are obtaining that because we are using prior year operating balances both this current year as well as next year.

[46:16] So where you see the gray lines that drop below, the horizontal line, that's our planned use of one time funds to help us balance our current needs.

[46:27] And that strategy which you approved a few years ago has really helped us to weather the storm as the economy recovered from pandemic impacts.

[46:37] And then, in the third year, 2627, we expect that we'll have an ending balance of about 9 million.

[46:45] And that's the black bar that shows above the line.

[46:49] For the subsequent years after that, the next three years after that, we will be in a better position

[46:55] because we are also using funding that we set aside several years ago in our pension trust

[47:02] to help cover rising costs for pension obligations.

[47:07] Use of that fund corresponds to the peak timeframe

[47:11] that we current expect peak time,

[47:13] the peak contributions that we expect to need to make

[47:17] to helpers in order to cover our pension obligations.

[47:22] And then if everything we predicted in the forecast

[47:24] were exactly accurate, then in the latter half of the forecast

[47:29] you will see we have a number of operating deficits and so if that were exactly where we were at

[47:36] several years from now we would need to make adjustments either on expenditures or on revenues.

[47:42] As we have shared before we give every diligence and effort at really strong forecasts and they

[47:48] become dated fairly quickly so we don't think it's going to look exactly like this but it gives us a

[47:54] understanding that our trends are in a good direction for the next several years and we have

[47:58] some confidence in the next several years, but like most agencies we still have long-term trends

[48:05] that we need to pay attention to. The last thing I would say about this forecast is you know

[48:11] that we can't actually have multiple years of deficits unlike any other levels of government we do

[48:17] have to present a balanced budget each year. So we would not actually ever be in a position where

[48:22] would see multiple years of deficits.

[48:27] Next slide, please. So turning from our operating

[48:31] budget to our capital budget, this slide is estimating for the next five years our revenues

[48:38] from all sources and those are shown in green versus our costs for capital projects which are shown

[48:46] in blue. And you will see for the this coming year 2526, it is balanced but we do have gaps

[48:53] for the next several years after that, particularly in in 28 and 29.

[49:00] All together over five years, we have a gap of about 243 million dollars in the needs

[49:07] that we have for capital improvements versus our expected funding.

[49:11] We do plan to work with the City Council's finance and audit subcommittee over the next year

[49:16] to help us develop strategies to increase funding for these longstanding capital needs.

[49:23] Next slide, please.

[49:27] And as I mentioned, unlike the general fund, which

[49:29] can be used for nearly any municipal purpose for capital

[49:33] projects, we are working from specific sources that

[49:36] have very strict limitations.

[49:39] In the next year's budget 2526, the council is being

[49:44] asked to allocate almost $75 million in capital improvement

[49:48] fund dollars.

[49:50] Most of this, as shown on this chart,

[49:52] We'll support transportation projects and I want to be clear the category of transportation includes bike and

[50:04] And that amount of 33.3 million doesn't include the additional $2 million that you asked to be dedicated at your last meeting.

[50:16] Turning now to the next slide. We have two slides that I reviewed at the last meeting, talking about the proposed use of one-time funds. This first slide is in capital projects, and the next one will be in operating projects.

[50:33] I won't go over all of these, as I mentioned them in more detail on June 9th, but I do want to flag that the row shown in gray is where you see the additional amount going into pavement management as you requested.

[50:46] Next slide, please.

[50:49] And then on the operating side, you see the corresponding decrease in the proposed economic stability reserve.

[50:56] Next slide, please.

[50:58] I mentioned at the last meeting that this budget does include new positions and I do want

[51:04] to highlight that three of those are being proposed out of funding that's from the one-time

[51:11] funding. We call that bridge funding because we think as we phase in the business license tax

[51:16] that we will be able to fully fund those positions with the second year implementation of the business

[51:27] that are currently already filled. If we have those employees working for us today,

[51:31] but they were funded initially by grant funds. A good example is fire positions

[51:36] that were funded by a federal grant. Those funds are expiring and we are now building

[51:41] those positions into the budget. So it's not bringing us new bodies to work, but it is

[51:46] making sure that we can continue to maintain their services. And then just under 12

[51:52] positions 11.6 are new positions that are being brought into the budget. Most of these are based

[51:59] on the studies that we've completed looking at our departments.

[52:05] Next slide please. At the

[52:08] last meeting, I flagged a few changes that we had made based on the feedback that you provided

[52:13] to us and we can circle back to that if you like. Next slide please. And with that, we would

[52:21] for the Council to take all of the actions that are listed here, overall. We're pleased to

[52:27] present this balanced budget and long-term planning for the city and we're happy to answer

[52:31] any questions you have after the public hearing. Thank you.

[52:38] Thank you for the great presentation

[52:40] and with that we'll open the public hearing. Thank you. I don't have any speaker cards or written

[52:46] comments at this time, so the last call to the audience or any public comment on the budget.

[52:55] Right? Seeing none, I'll turn it back to you, Mayor.

[52:58] Okay.

[52:58] Thank you, City Clerk, and we will open it to the council.

[53:02] Or any clarifying questions or comments.

[53:11] Councilmember Trudeau, did I see you on the mute there?

[53:15] You did, but I won't.

[53:16] Okay.

[53:17] If we'll circle back to you.

[53:19] We would like to get us started.

[53:24] I'll start with you. Thank you, Councilmember.

[53:26] No, that's no problem.

[53:28] First of all, I did want to.

[53:31] I don't think we can say thank you enough.

[53:33] If I did want to thank the business community for working with us so well and enabling us

[53:41] to bring the business license tax to the voters, 2024, if I'm remembering it, yes, okay,

[53:49] good.

[53:51] We had so much good outreach with the businesses, we tried to reach everyone and multiple

[53:59] times.

[53:59] And I just can't thank you enough if you're listening, we really appreciate it.

[54:04] What this money is going to enable us to do is bring staffing up to levels where we can

[54:10] start taking care of a lot of business and revenue city that hasn't been done for some

[54:15] time, keeping up on infrastructure and certainly in public safety.

[54:21] So I thank you so very much, it's going to give us the additional income so we can hire new

[54:27] employees to work for the city where I would

[54:29] city to continuing offering the services that people

[54:33] have come to expect. And we're hoping that they will benefit

[54:38] also. They'll see the benefit and what they have done.

[54:41] So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The other slide

[54:45] before I just wanted to ask Melissa if you could

[54:48] bring that slide up about that starts with we're going

[54:51] to start taking care of trees with water.

[54:58] Because I

[54:58] I don't think a lot of people...

[55:01] We work with city trees to plant new trees in Redwood City, and we have decided that we're taking on watering

[55:09] newly planted trees and have community participation programs for the future to help city trees, but also to make sure

[55:17] that our trees stay healthy and vibrant once they're planted. I wanted to ask our city manager, she wouldn't mind

[55:26] Also, highlighting questions that have come to me and I'm sure others what else we're doing in the area of trees.

[55:33] I know that you're working on a fresh inventory.

[55:37] I'm guessing TK, excuse me, from public works would be able to answer that.

[55:42] But I think the public would really be interested in knowing this information and may have missed it at our last meeting.

[55:48] So, thank you.

[55:49] TK for being here this evening.

[55:51] Thank you.

[55:52] Good evening, Mayor.

[55:52] and vice mayor, city council member, this is Terence Jordan. You're a director of public

[55:56] work services department. When it's come to the oven forest management, we do have a

[56:02] tree ordinance in the book, but the thing is the books, the ordinance been quite some time,

[56:09] at the early 70s, we developed the Austrian ordinance so that we are in the process of updating the

[56:16] ordinance. At the same time, we recently finished up the citywide tree inventory,

[56:24] the tree inventory, the trees that are in public spaces, so that we call it public tree,

[56:30] or the community tree, they are approximately 32,000 tree throughout the city. Those are the

[56:37] the requisite public works are tree section employees, a system with the outside contractor

[56:44] maintain annually. And also after the, we finish, we hope to finish the tree ordinance

[56:52] by Ali Nakes here, along with Ivan Forest Management Plan. So that is a kind of like the whole

[56:59] holistic suites are all thing tree that we are working on.

[57:03] Is that the master plan that I was reading about?

[57:09] So, yes. So, when is the three-step tree inventory?

[57:14] Tree orders update of enforce management plans.

[57:19] And we'll be working with city trees and probably any other organizations who'd like to work with us or volunteers,

[57:28] as far as making sure that it's successful.

[57:30] Yes, City Tree is one of the primary, the nonprofit organization that is planting many trees throughout the city.

[57:40] I believe the plant is somewhere around, maybe around, but somewhere around 2000 tree they planted.

[57:46] And then the watering that we are talking about is somewhere around 300 trees.

[57:51] Those are what we call it newly planted tree, tree that less than 3 years old,

[57:56] that recently planted and they require regular water

[58:01] in doing this some of the months.

[58:04] Thank you, I appreciate it.

[58:05] I know we have a designation as Tree City, USA,

[58:09] and we take that very seriously.

[58:11] So I'm really glad, and I wanted to highlight it,

[58:14] so people know that we are making an effort

[58:17] to make sure we take care of our trees

[58:19] in Redwood City.

[58:20] With the winds, the high winds that we've had,

[58:22] I know we've had a few trees that have blown off

[58:25] blown over and we'll probably need to replace but I did want to let the public know that

[58:30] we do have a program in place during in the easements of Redwood City in front of your home

[58:37] that you can call the city an apply for a replacement tree and maybe something that fits

[58:42] more properly into the easement that you have. I think we're really being careful about that also.

[58:49] Yes, thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you TK and thank you.

[58:55] Councilmember Howard for highlighting that work. It's important that it continues especially there.

[59:00] We're so focused on planting injuries and equity neighborhoods.

[59:05] Thank you for that.

[59:06] We would like to go next.

[59:13] Councilmember Chu, we'll go to you.

[59:17] So I just wanted to echo Council Member Howard's comments just thanking staff for all of their hard work and just how wonderful and amazing it is that the city does support our trees.

[59:32] That's rare. And it's so important as an equity issue as a health issue for a number of beauty, you know, all kinds of reasons. So really really appreciate the city staff being willing to be thoughtful and creative about that.

[59:45] And then just a comment, so, you know, as Melissa noted, noted that we did request a $2 million increase in the payment management plan, but the thought around that.

[1:00:00] That was number one that when repaving happens, that we make road safety improvements, so the hope with that was that for just a little bit of money that we could see real advances in moving towards vision zero.

[1:00:14] The second was the hope was that we would reduce costs ultimately in that if pavement falls below a threshold of 70 as I understand it.

[1:00:25] that, you know, it's more costly to repair.

[1:00:27] So just reiterating that that that that was the thinking behind that was improvements

[1:00:32] and safety reductions in cost and improvements obviously in pavement quality.

[1:00:38] And then just in thinking about the large share of our capital budget that is transportation,

[1:00:44] the more we can save our roads and enable people to either drive less or select alternative

[1:00:53] forms of transportation. The difference in roadwear is in the tens of thousands. We really

[1:01:01] save our roads. We're going to make it safe to walk and bike. And then I just wanted to comment

[1:01:06] as well that Council Member G's point was well taken. That when we do things, we really have to

[1:01:12] think not about what it costs in the near term, but the long-term maintenance costs. And I'm sure

[1:01:17] in the coming years, we're going to have to be very creative thinking about what the long-term

[1:01:22] cost anything that we take on. But overall, really amazing job and certainly really appreciate

[1:01:28] everything that staff is done.

[1:01:33] Thanks for your comments, council member,

[1:01:38] council member Shurkin.

[1:01:39] Thank you, Mayor. I'll ask a couple of questions here. So beginning with the pavement that the

[1:01:51] pavement program, did we ever get an answer since our last meeting and I'm looking to

[1:01:57] structure of Werner about what PCI we need to achieve to just maintain our road quality

[1:02:08] and if that 70 goal that we discussed that our last meeting is the mark or if it's

[1:02:14] falling short of the mark or did we have an have any more information on that?

[1:02:31] Thank you so much for the question.

[1:02:36] It really depends on what level the council would like to set the policy at.

[1:02:44] A PCI pavement condition index of 70 is considered good.

[1:02:49] But in order to maintain that PCI of 70, we do have to pour in about $7 million per year in pavement over the next five years.

[1:02:58] If we'd like to increase it so that we're at the higher end of the good range, then that's just more money that we have to pour into it.

[1:03:08] So a PCI of 70 is consistent with our county.

[1:03:12] It's a good level. However, there is room for improvement.

[1:03:17] Thank you. That's very helpful to know that 70 is on par with the county.

[1:03:22] And that is, at least in the short term, that five years, and with the resources we have an achievable and helpful goal.

[1:03:35] Thank you.

[1:03:40] And then on the highlights page, I think it was slide 13.

[1:03:45] Thank you for including looking at parking management funding strategies.

[1:03:50] Again, I just want to go on the record and say that we need to stop stable or subsidizing

[1:03:56] our parking program using the general fund and to a tune of almost a million dollars a year.

[1:04:03] So I'm really glad that we're looking at considering how much we would need to increase parking

[1:04:11] fees in order to get there in collaboration with our business community.

[1:04:16] So thank you very much for directing the finance audit so committee to look at that in the future and

[1:04:22] First off taking the time to look at that as well and study that so those were

[1:04:28] A couple initial questions I have and I'll chime in later. Thank you.

[1:04:34] Thank you Mr.

[1:04:39] Mr. Mayor.

[1:04:39] Melissa thank you and the entire team. This is a pretty heavy lift literally because these things are about

[1:04:45] 15 pounds each and printed and thank you for making the adjustment space on the council

[1:04:52] conversation at the last meeting. I just had a couple clarifying questions on slide 8 when we have

[1:05:00] At the CIP, you came up with a number, and that number is, I believe, the difference between the blue bar and the

[1:05:08] light green bar, and that you just took the total in the slide. Is that correct?

[1:05:14] Yes, that's correct. And 243 million.

[1:05:16] But these are static numbers as of June 23rd that doesn't mean there won't be more project needs next year or two years or three years out.

[1:05:26] So, unless there's more new money, I would say that the light blue numbers, that's made

[1:05:32] a need is just going to continue to increase over time, unabated, if it's abated, that's

[1:05:39] great, but I don't see capital needs ever going away, I mean, streets get older, pipes get

[1:05:45] older, buildings get older, means more work, more investment, more renewal.

[1:05:49] So I think that's, as I said last time, that's a policy statement that the council needs

[1:05:54] provide direction on number one, what condition we want our buildings to be, and then how

[1:05:59] do we fund it?

[1:06:01] Because this number is just going to get bigger as a time goes on.

[1:06:04] And then to follow up, I'm not going to change with the majority council voted for, but

[1:06:12] I think between now and next year's budget, whether it's the finance and audit committee or some

[1:06:17] other ad hoc committee, the mayor wants to put together, we need to come up with these policy

[1:06:20] statements so that the budgets can be put to it.

[1:06:24] As many of you said, you know, the pavement condition PCI index of 70 based on, you know,

[1:06:32] good enough.

[1:06:34] Maybe that is the right number, but I know other counties aspirations are to get to 75 for

[1:06:40] longevity and things like that.

[1:06:42] So, rather than have that conversation at the day as whether 68, 69, 72, 70 is, I prefer

[1:06:50] to base our policy decisions on homework, studying what that means from a longevity versus

[1:06:57] an initial investment, return on investment, life span of the investment, and what are

[1:07:03] other counties in the region doing?

[1:07:05] We should not, just because San Mateo County is doing 70, across the county in line, and it's

[1:07:11] 75, it shouldn't be that start.

[1:07:13] We should be somewhat as a region in line with what the region is trying to aspire to do.

[1:07:20] So, I hope that I guess is going to go to the Finance and Audit Committee, Melissa.

[1:07:26] So, yes, the Capital of Funding Strategy will go to Finance and Audit and then the discussion

[1:07:32] related to Parking, we're bringing forward as a study session item in the fall, the parking

[1:07:37] event.

[1:07:38] But with the metrics about how we want to manage our physical assets, which committee,

[1:07:44] Well, let me put this way, think about between you, Mayor and Vice Mayor, where that policy

[1:07:50] conversation goes and belongs, so that when we are here next year, we have great clarity

[1:07:56] across the DS, but we're trying to do it, we're trying to get to, rather be a 30-year

[1:08:02] building, a 100-year building, 20-year roads, 50-year roads, whatever they may be, so that we can

[1:08:08] have great clarity on how we should be budgeting and financing these capital improvements

[1:08:12] in renewal. So, whether that's an ad hoc, whether it's when an existing committee, I'll

[1:08:18] leave it to that conversation. But I just want to thank you for bringing the adjustments

[1:08:24] forward from our last meeting. And from the entire team, Bath and it's not Bath and News

[1:08:30] Bath, it's Bath. For doing this all this work because it is a lot of work. And the crystal ball

[1:08:37] forecast. I don't care who's out there. It's a little fuzzy. It's not precise, but we

[1:08:43] have to plan and we have a plan for now. Thank you very much.

[1:08:50] Thank you, council member.

[1:08:54] I'm just I think we had a pretty robust conversation on our last meeting, but I'll just echo

[1:08:59] everyone's sentiments that this was a huge undertaking and appreciate all the work and it's

[1:09:04] not lost on me that we're in, you know, a much better situation than a lot of neighboring cities.

[1:09:09] So the decisions we got to make that we had,

[1:09:11] those monies to play with, and to help our city,

[1:09:14] just grateful that we're in that position.

[1:09:17] Thank you, Kelts member, that's fair.

[1:09:20] So I'm seeing Beth Fair and the audience,

[1:09:24] the intrepid and Michelle Katziyoka and the audience,

[1:09:28] and of course Michelle, the other Michelle Flerity,

[1:09:32] just the intrepid soldiers, Chris, you brought,

[1:09:36] Can you hold up the budget? I didn't bring my budget. You did. Oh, okay.

[1:09:51] You're holding an award-winning document. Beth, you inherited a legacy of excellence.

[1:10:00] In Redwood City awarded by peers and other jurisdictions.

[1:10:07] And the awards are, I mean, okay, an award for a budget or whatever, but for

[1:10:13] sustainability, clarity, ease of reading. We set such a standard of transparency here

[1:10:23] in Redwood City. And we all up here. Oh, you a great debt of gratitude. We know how hard

[1:10:31] you worked. And you're standing on great shoulders and you're setting it even better

[1:10:38] standard just in terms of those things and so thank you thank you thank you. I didn't do it

[1:10:47] today I did it last year. There's a part of this budget and I really I really invite the

[1:10:53] public to it's scary it's a 400 page document or so it's kind of scary but it is tabbed

[1:11:00] And there's one tab that kind of describes some of the highlights of all that we do.

[1:11:08] And I was just dazzled a couple weeks ago when I looked at it all.

[1:11:14] And I wrote down notes and I don't have them with me today.

[1:11:18] But looking, I see we have Sarah Latura, who's in charge of our library.

[1:11:23] And just, I was speaking with a member of the community last week.

[1:11:29] Just in Juneteenth alone, someone referred,

[1:11:33] oh, go to the website of all the activities just for Juneteenth.

[1:11:39] Jun 15th of 2016.

[1:11:43] 19th. Okay, thank you.

[1:11:46] Just for, well, for the month of June,

[1:11:49] I could not believe how many events and activities

[1:11:54] that the Redwood City Library is spearheading or co-partnering with or co-leading.

[1:12:02] In just that one thing and when you look year-round all of the things that we do,

[1:12:08] reading at the library, the events at the park, it really makes me proud.

[1:12:15] This is a really important moment where we not only have a balanced budget, but we have a budget.

[1:12:24] And that's going to guide us every day for the next 365 days.

[1:12:29] We couldn't do it without you.

[1:12:31] And I want to thank my colleagues as well for...

[1:12:35] We hammered out some tough decisions last time.

[1:12:38] What we thought was in the best interest of the community.

[1:12:41] But you all did a wonderful job in the City Manager as well.

[1:12:47] And also Parks and Rec, Lucas, and Derek just couldn't be prouder, and public works,

[1:12:59] OTK is hiding. Oh, there you are. You have a really big budget line, but you do so much for us.

[1:13:09] And we couldn't, you know, you're responsible for all our roads and all our sewers and all our water pipes,

[1:13:15] and that's not even much of it.

[1:13:19] So all of you, thank you very much.

[1:13:24] Thank you, Vice Mayor, any other thoughts?

[1:13:31] Oh, I see Councilmember Chu.

[1:13:35] I'm just really briefly.

[1:13:36] I wanted to respond to Councilmember G's suggestion.

[1:13:40] And I think it's an excellent suggestion.

[1:13:43] But related to that, I think it's worth thinking about,

[1:13:46] you know, sort of, why cities evolved.

[1:13:48] They evolved to reduce transportation costs to agglomerate markets and to make, you know, sort of reduce the costs of all of those things, housing transportation etc.

[1:14:00] And so I think even in the modern era it's worth really thinking about what, you know, because one of the things as a city we really control is how can we use our land.

[1:14:09] And so I love to in tandem with what Councilmember G suggested is think about what land use patterns are the most productive economically.

[1:14:19] What land use patterns are basically not productive economically.

[1:14:25] And how can we think about land use as one of our most valuable assets and mechanisms by which to have a sustainable city and a sustainable budget?

[1:14:38] So my hope is, you know, obviously these costs would always go up, but that the cost per capita could either be stable or even come down.

[1:14:45] So the cost and the absolute terms for sure will probably always go up, but I don't think the cost per capita necessarily have to.

[1:14:55] Thank you council member.

[1:14:58] Bye.

[1:15:01] I just want to, one additional comment, I'm really pleased with the additions to staff.

[1:15:09] Cities provide services, services are provided by people, skilled people, trained people, knowledgeable

[1:15:16] people. It is noteworthy and wonderful that we are improving our ability to provide services to the community.

[1:15:26] And it's been a long road ahead and we're transferring some of the employees from grant-funded

[1:15:35] employees to city-funded employees and some one-time consultants into permanent employees.

[1:15:44] But that was kind of a maybe a slow on ramp to be cautious because of uncertain times in the pandemic.

[1:15:51] But I really owe it to staff to have, I feel very good about the sustainability, even though we are adding

[1:16:00] a lot of staff members, I feel very good about that they are going to be efficient, they're going to add to services and that it's sustainable.

[1:16:10] Well,

[1:16:14] you've got a smear.

[1:16:15] You got a smear.

[1:16:16] I'll go to you.

[1:16:17] Well, thank you, Mayor.

[1:16:19] I guess one thing I wanted to just think staff for doing is

[1:16:25] trans modernizing our permitting,

[1:16:27] specifically for those really small skill permits

[1:16:31] with the, I forget the name of the new program.

[1:16:33] It's something, something go.

[1:16:35] It was in counts of connection.

[1:16:36] But anyhow, thank you.

[1:16:38] And I appreciate the staff as well for clarifying

[1:16:41] the kind of the reduction in the budget for kind of processing those subdivision maps

[1:16:50] and intensity maps and all those things is just matching kind of the flow, the Edben

[1:16:58] flow of development in the city and not a reduction in capacity for processing proposals

[1:17:07] in the future.

[1:17:08] So I was really glad to hear that clarification.

[1:17:12] And then I wanted to also just ask a quick question about the therapy dog.

[1:17:18] I know at a last meeting, there were some my colleagues expressed enthusiasm about having a converting the K9 position to train and a company that therapy dog for the city to events and help build.

[1:17:39] relationships in the community and to help manage stress levels within the department.

[1:17:47] But I did just want to ask the question.

[1:17:49] Are we paying, is that a sworn officer position?

[1:17:53] And we'll be paying them the same amount,

[1:17:57] a salary as if they're on patrol.

[1:18:01] Yeah, thank you for asking.

[1:18:03] The final contours of the program are still being developed.

[1:18:05] So, it could be one of two paths, one would be similar to the model for current K9 officers,

[1:18:12] where the officer is responsible for their care and training and ongoing everything, you know,

[1:18:18] 24-7, including off duty.

[1:18:19] And they do receive additional pay in those circumstances.

[1:18:23] Sometimes, however, the approach is that the animal is assigned kind of to the station.

[1:18:29] And so, as staff on duties, circle through over the course of the week, there are designated people

[1:18:34] that are helping with that care, and so there might be a much smaller sort of recognition

[1:18:39] for that, but that not the same kind of single person responsibility and accompanying compensation.

[1:18:48] So that's something that we'll sort out kind of the best approach later on.

[1:18:52] Thank you. I appreciate the consideration of a rotation, if you will, just to kind of spread out

[1:18:59] cost of offering that service to the department and to the community just because ideally

[1:19:07] if we're going to pay a sworn officer to add that salary, they should be on the trip,

[1:19:14] because we're hurting for enforcement in the community, especially traffic enforcement

[1:19:21] and parking enforcement, so I just wanted to lift that up, but I appreciate the consideration

[1:19:27] of my comments. And then my final comment is, you know, back in February, I, you know,

[1:19:37] urged my colleagues here to consider funding this speaker program, core of a community's

[1:19:42] overcoming relationship with these, at the tune of $5 to $10,000, pretty nominal. You know,

[1:19:49] that doesn't even, not only, you know, that amount of money would not even cover my rent

[1:19:55] I mean, that's, so it's, and the reason why I bring that up is because

[1:20:00] The incident, the Department of Violence that happened last year in Redwood City and the data in this book here, that says that we've had 113 incidents of crimes against persons, including the best of violence incidents in the city of the past year, and only 41% of them were cleared.

[1:20:22] you do to capacity issues and other things, not to, and I appreciate the efforts of our department

[1:20:28] to clear as many as possible. But I want to just emphasize that, you know, that's only what is

[1:20:34] reported, right? And I think we really do need to meet the moment where we are seeing a rise

[1:20:40] in into the partner violence incidents, especially as the economy continues to be uncertain. We saw

[1:20:48] increased during the COVID era and that hasn't gone away and this program has been very

[1:20:54] successful in educating the community with our business partners about Chorra's essential

[1:21:02] services for the community and this is only a pilot. I really do think we need to spend just

[1:21:11] five thousand dollars from the the reserve to fund this just to see if you know how

[1:21:18] successful it could be in the city we've seen great success in our neighbors

[1:21:21] and Carlos several other cities in the county who have adopted this program as a

[1:21:26] pilot and I also want to just emphasize that well typically for you know grant like

[1:21:35] contributions allocations like this we would go through the HSFA or the CWG or the home

[1:21:40] funding process. But yeah, I'd respect for the recommendations that the Housing

[1:21:46] Human Concerns Committee has already made. And that we already approved for CDBG

[1:21:50] and Home Funds. I don't want to reopen that box when I respect the recommendations

[1:21:58] they have made and suggest deducting that 5,000 from the reserve instead.

[1:22:07] And you know,

[1:22:08] This

[1:22:10] is personal and that, my neighbors in my apartment complex experience of ongoing

[1:22:22] domestic violence kind of situation that one of my neighbors had to intervene during

[1:22:28] a fight.

[1:22:29] You could hear the yelling that the arguments ultimately ending in that relationship

[1:22:38] ending. And so it's close to home for me. And so I would really like to urge my colleagues

[1:22:48] to consider just making this one time exception. Again, I introduced it back in February.

[1:22:53] We talked about this several times at this point. I know that the mayor and the vice mayor

[1:22:58] he would express the enthusiasm about the program in the past. And I hope that there's still

[1:23:05] and enthusiasm tonight,

[1:23:10] so I'll leave it there and turn it back to my colleagues.

[1:23:17] Thank you.

[1:23:17] Councilman Resurkin.

[1:23:21] I will respond to that first.

[1:23:25] And I'll save my comments for later.

[1:23:33] I think you're right.

[1:23:34] I think there has been an uptick and we saw the uptick during COVID with sort of incidence

[1:23:40] of domestic violence and partner violence, right?

[1:23:44] Family violence as poor people were stuck at home, right?

[1:23:47] And we've had some clear examples of where

[1:23:54] there have been missed opportunities to intervene, right?

[1:24:00] And so I was fighting to preserve

[1:24:04] that resilience funds that we talked about last week

[1:24:08] or at our last meeting, but you know,

[1:24:11] I would be open to taking $1,000 to invest in this program and, you know, I wonder if this is something that's, you know, our economic development manager would be able to champion or tie in our promoters to work with since those folks are out in the community a lot, but I'll leave it there and I'll go to my colleagues.

[1:24:38] This really, thank you, Mr. Sturkin, and your care and concern is well noted. I guess my question is for staff.

[1:24:50] I mean, we're here today with a $200 million general fund budget and a $350 million,

[1:24:59] 400 million

[1:25:00] In budget overall, I'm concerned about the process of,

[1:25:09] I mean, this $5,000, I, you know, we've got the

[1:25:14] HHS subcommittee, the CDBG, I

[1:25:20] don't, it's more a process question for me. You know, then what's

[1:25:28] to stop all of us there, thought,

[1:25:32] can staff help me a little bit with this process situation?

[1:25:38] So, you know, we try starting in February to kind of elevate what are various ideas and

[1:25:43] where is their majority council interest in reacting to the framework that staff developed

[1:25:51] for developing the budget.

[1:25:53] And I know this program was mentioned at that time.

[1:25:57] At that time, we did not hear a majority council support for it, so it was not built into the budget.

[1:26:03] So you do have flexibility to make changes from a staff perspective.

[1:26:08] We often hope for that to be at the June study session, which was the last meeting, but you have some flexibility.

[1:26:16] I think one thing you might think of, in many years, we have the Human Services Financial Assistance Awards

[1:26:23] at the same time as the CDBG Awards. And you just made the approvals at last meeting for CDBG funds.

[1:26:32] You'll see the HSFA recommendations a little bit later this summer. And while the Housing and Human

[1:26:39] Concerns Committee has already developed their recommendations based on the criteria for this year,

[1:26:46] perhaps, you know, depending on the council's will tonight, you might think about providing some

[1:26:51] guidance for what criteria could be used next year, because that might give a chance to

[1:26:57] broaden the kinds of categories toward which we use, HSA, HSFA funds, and it might kind

[1:27:05] of give that direction in that policy ahead of the future work for developing next year's

[1:27:12] awards. So that I would suggest as an alternative to council acting tonight, which you are

[1:27:18] certainly for you to do.

[1:27:20] Thank you.

[1:27:21] That's clarifying.

[1:27:23] You know, Cora is partnered with the county.

[1:27:27] Cora provides many, many service.

[1:27:30] Cora provides services to the county for women in need and families in need.

[1:27:40] This is an area that's, you know, is well known to be in need of

[1:27:48] societal support, nationally,

[1:27:53] 2% of rapes are prosecuted only 1% of rapes result in conviction.

[1:28:02] The statistics are so horrible that the federal government doesn't even keep them.

[1:28:07] There's a private organization that keeps them.

[1:28:10] So to just kind of cherry pick, you know, to say that there's a need for support for

[1:28:18] battered women, for harassment, this is a nationwide city-wide statewide societal problem

[1:28:27] that Corea has been working with for years, and it's already partnering with the county,

[1:28:32] And yes, it's a need, and I just, I feel that that it really is in the hands of the house,

[1:28:42] those other subcommittees and that when we're here tonight with a $354 million budget, we just can't be, I like your suggestion city manager.

[1:28:59] Just for ease of administration and for just getting our budget over the finish line.

[1:29:11] That's part of the deal.

[1:29:13] Oh, thank you.

[1:29:15] I guess I want to apologize because if it was brought on our earlier, as I guess I didn't understand,

[1:29:22] and I do recall Council Member Sturkin addressing Quora, but I guess I wish that I was then more vocal

[1:29:28] because I would be in support of a program like this,

[1:29:31] because I don't think it's not just abuse women,

[1:29:35] it's families, it's children, it's far reaching,

[1:29:38] it's the neighbors who are telling, turning up the TV,

[1:29:42] so whether they call the police or they pretend

[1:29:44] that it doesn't happen when they're explaining it to their children.

[1:29:48] And I think I don't understand why we can't do both,

[1:29:51] why we can't do what Melissa suggested and create a format

[1:29:56] or guidelines for the future, but at such a, what are we, what are we, what are we, what are

[1:30:00] I think that is if it's caused $5,000 to show that we support this cause that is right now, I think to your point, is probably going to be on an uptake. The economy is bad. Statistics know that when the economy is not doing well, there's a lot of violence in the homes. People are not good at work. They come home. They take it out on their families. I just, I don't even think we need to waste time on it. I think it's such a small amount to show good faith. And I understand about process.

[1:30:30] But I think we can do both.

[1:30:31] We can fund this and then focus on processes.

[1:30:34] To Jeff's point, he talked about processes that we funded to a much higher level without

[1:30:38] having that.

[1:30:39] So I think this is important to our entire community.

[1:30:43] Thank you.

[1:30:44] Thank you.

[1:30:45] Council Member.

[1:30:46] Council Member Albert.

[1:30:48] Thank you.

[1:30:48] I served on the housing and human concerns committee for over 10 years.

[1:30:53] and routinely we would just get together and say let's talk to the council or let's hear what

[1:31:03] the priorities are. We were always paying attention to what the priorities were for council,

[1:31:09] so that we were sure that we were putting the money in the right places to help the right agencies.

[1:31:15] And I do remember and we probably should get a refresher. There are a number of agencies

[1:31:23] that are really working hard to help families and children and people who are in situations

[1:31:29] where they are abused.

[1:31:31] I mean, there's one agency that I believe they get funded by the HSFA Human Services

[1:31:38] Financial Assistance, for teens that are in very crisis situations in the home, dangerous

[1:31:45] situations and they find, and it's a home, but it's not listed what the address is,

[1:31:53] and those teens I went to visit and I was impressed that those teens are safe.

[1:31:59] So there are a number of agencies doing this kind of work.

[1:32:04] So I have the only problem I have is I want to fund everybody, but you can.

[1:32:10] And we're one of the few cities that have the funds that have this pot of money and a housing

[1:32:17] in human concerns committee. There are many cities that do not do this work. I think we

[1:32:22] may be the only one actually who has the NHSFA fund and we support that fund. I would

[1:32:28] like to suggest that as we go forward and look into our money situation that we do two things,

[1:32:36] one is maybe increase the amount of money that goes to housing and human concerns because I

[1:32:43] I don't think that's been increased for quite some time.

[1:32:46] I could be wrong on that, so.

[1:32:49] But they never get a lot.

[1:32:51] We know that.

[1:32:52] I think it's like 100,000, or I'd be happy to just

[1:32:57] interject and say it.

[1:32:58] It has been 100,000 for 10 years.

[1:33:00] And with this budget, it will be $150,000.

[1:33:03] Well, that's good to hear.

[1:33:04] Thank you.

[1:33:06] I had forgotten that.

[1:33:08] But I mean, it's such a valuable service.

[1:33:10] and housing and human concerns spends months interviewing these agencies and being fair.

[1:33:18] They can't give everyone everything but they sure do help these agencies leverage so they

[1:33:24] can get other funds.

[1:33:26] So I always have a problem with picking one because there are many very, very well-deserving

[1:33:34] agencies so if anything I would suggest that we say to the Housing and Human Concerns Committee

[1:33:41] that we have a particular interest in helping those at risk from violence and things such

[1:33:48] as that and then let them do the research because I wouldn't be surprised if they'll inform us

[1:33:54] that it's more than Korra because I do know that there is a hotline for abused people who are abused

[1:34:02] they can contact the hotline, the hotline helps them get into the services they need.

[1:34:07] There are a number of other agencies I've become familiar with.

[1:34:12] So I just have a problem with picking one.

[1:34:17] Because I just don't think we need to spend some time ourselves and learn what is out there.

[1:34:26] What is Redwood City already doing?

[1:34:29] What is the community doing? What kind of agencies are out there? Because if you pick one, I wouldn't be surprised if an agency comes before us and said

[1:34:38] Well, gee, I'm doing similar work and I wish I'd known about this because I would have asked I'm a little concerned about that

[1:34:46] And I think we've always been fair and reasonable and I think there's probably a better way to handle this, rather than choosing one

[1:34:54] as well as as good as the work they do and I've listened to them speak before they

[1:35:00] We came to a women's club and they're really, very, very good. But I just struggle with this because I would

[1:35:10] like to help all agencies who are helping people out of violent situations. And in the past, we didn't

[1:35:16] have those agencies and now we do. So I guess I would suggest that we don't do the $5,000 that we let housing

[1:35:25] human concerns committee that we've had this conversation that we're worried about the

[1:35:30] escalating violence and families and children and that you are getting an increase in budget

[1:35:36] and we hope that maybe you can come back to us and give us information on how you'd like to

[1:35:42] help that situation. It probably would include Korra because I think they do fund Korra.

[1:35:52] I'm pretty

[1:35:53] support, setting aside, because what will happen the next time we do our budget, I wouldn't

[1:36:00] blame any agency for getting up in line and speaking to us and say, how about me, because

[1:36:06] I really am doing this kind of work, and I want to be helpful to, and I really don't think

[1:36:12] that's going to be a path that we want to take.

[1:36:17] I'm sorry.

[1:36:18] I'm very supportive, believe me, but I'm not going into anything personal,

[1:36:24] but really

[1:36:25] need to think this through.

[1:36:27] Thank you, Councilmember Howard.

[1:36:30] Councilmember Sworkin.

[1:36:31] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:36:31] I just like to make a motion to approve what is before us.

[1:36:35] The staff recommendation to three and four.

[1:36:40] Excuse me.

[1:36:41] We haven't heard from the mayor yet.

[1:36:44] I'm so sorry.

[1:36:45] He said he was going to.

[1:36:48] Yeah.

[1:36:48] Thank you, Councilmember Howard.

[1:36:50] What do you want to move last?

[1:36:53] I'll save my comments for the end of this discussion, but I'll just chip in.

[1:36:57] Okay, Councilor G. Thank you, Mayor. I'll be brief. My recollection, seeing

[1:37:03] managers, that there was going to be an item about HSFA, finding coming later this

[1:37:08] year. When is that coming? It's coming this summer, Tether, the July

[1:37:11] August. We'll write around the corners. Correct. We only have one meeting in each

[1:37:15] one public meeting in each month. So it's really close. And this is based on 10 years of

[1:37:22] a hundred thousand. This is what happened 10 years ago in Council ahead of surplus. We

[1:37:27] designated an additional million dollars for HHSFA funding. And we need to be more strategic

[1:37:35] about how we, if we do this, how much what level things like that. So my recommendation is

[1:37:41] when that item comes you for a council, whether it be July or August, that we also combine

[1:37:47] it with a steady session with housing and human concerns, so that we can have a conversation

[1:37:53] about expanding or whatever categories that the council wants to provide direction, because

[1:38:01] there are things in domestic violence, human trafficking, youth, there are a number of categories

[1:38:07] and whether or not it's a 150,000 per year, maybe it's 175, whatever, so that we can have

[1:38:14] a conversation that's scheduled planned and other agencies and partners can be here to offer

[1:38:19] their thoughts and opinions about what $5,000 could do for them, or $10,000 or whatever,

[1:38:27] and then we as a group, as a council can say to staff, this is what we would like to do over

[1:38:32] next several years in supporting our community and the

[1:38:36] incidences in our community and how we can make a positive difference.

[1:38:40] So that would be my recommendation.

[1:38:42] Rather than every one of us saying we went this group for that group,

[1:38:46] let's do it in July or August, as the agenda allows.

[1:38:53] Thank you, Councilmember.

[1:38:54] Councilmember Chu.

[1:38:58] You know, I just wanted to echo the comments of several of my colleagues.

[1:39:02] I don't think anyone has any doubt that the work that Corea does is important and that this

[1:39:07] is an incredibly salient and important topic.

[1:39:11] And yesterday earlier, I also had a community organization where I was like, you know,

[1:39:15] for a very little bit of money, we could get immense value, you know, and I really wanted

[1:39:20] to go to that for them.

[1:39:21] But I think what I realized is, you know, my responsibility is primarily to be a good fiduciary

[1:39:28] of the city's resources and not necessarily to see, you know, people who I know are doing

[1:39:34] good work benefit from them. And so sort of where I landed on that is I know how good

[1:39:41] of these organizations that I really care about are. I know how productive they are and how

[1:39:46] effective they are and what a good value they are and in a competitive transparent process they

[1:39:51] are going to win because they're really good at what they do and it just kind of gave me calmness

[1:39:56] so that I could trust both the process and the outcome.

[1:40:00] Now, it's more indirect. You know, it's not, you know, it takes a little longer. It's more work on there and on there. But I do think that way, you know, we can all feel good that, you know, kind of what the city funds is really of the fruit of a very transparent process.

[1:40:20] And again, it's not a question of whether or not that that's worth that much money or that's

[1:40:26] worthy or any of that, I think given that it is so valuable in a transparent competitive

[1:40:34] process, they're going to do all and so I think, you know, if we can hone our processes

[1:40:40] and our criteria and how we evaluate the effectiveness of programs, that'll put us in a really

[1:40:46] strong position to make the most effective use possible of our scarce funding.

[1:40:55] So I would I would support having this brought up at the HHS FHA meeting that's coming

[1:41:03] up very soon.

[1:41:09] Thank you, Councilor Rochew.

[1:41:11] Anyone else?

[1:41:13] Councilor Rochew.

[1:41:14] I was going to say I really appreciate Councilmember G's suggestion.

[1:41:19] And we haven't had a study session with the Housing and Human Concerns Committee.

[1:41:25] I can't even remember.

[1:41:27] And there's such a valuable asset.

[1:41:29] They do such wonderful, wonderful work.

[1:41:32] So I really would look forward to a study session and have this very open discussion with

[1:41:38] them so that we can set priorities and help them be effective in their job and in the use

[1:41:45] of funds as Council Member Chu said.

[1:41:48] I would agree with you, when this all comes out, it'll make it a much fairer and untransparent situation, and I would be very supportive of that.

[1:42:03] Thank you.

[1:42:03] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:42:06] I also want to echo support for Council Member G's suggestion to host a joint studies session, and then also echo support from what the City Manager suggested to

[1:42:19] evaluate the criteria for the HSFA funding, but just to clarify that the way that housing

[1:42:26] human concerns is currently evaluating their recommendations is perfectly fine.

[1:42:34] So I'm just want to emphasize that we're not saying it's there's anything wrong with

[1:42:39] their current process but that it's been several years and so like with any other program

[1:42:44] And we have we asked for reports and for updates and just to look at the criteria.

[1:42:51] Thank you.

[1:42:55] Thank you to my colleagues for this really important discussion.

[1:42:58] Council Member Stirkin for raising this item again.

[1:43:01] And my colleagues were talking about process.

[1:43:03] I think there's no doubt that this work that Cora is doing is so incredibly important

[1:43:09] and the resources that they're providing are important.

[1:43:12] And so I will really look forward to having a joint session with our HACC counterparts and talking about what our priorities are for funding, especially in the fall when we have a better picture of what life is like and what grants are drying up and even the longer being offered, so I think that's going to be really helpful.

[1:43:33] And I think that's really at the center of what my remarks are when I think about this year's budget is that I'm very proud that this is a really people centered budget.

[1:43:45] And it's really focused on the services that we're providing our community members.

[1:43:51] And we a year ago, we're not so sure about what our financial future was going to look like.

[1:43:57] You know, thank you to our voters, our businesses, who supported, measured BB, who went to meetings and had conversations with all of us, and I know that was a lot of dialogue, but it has certainly helped us provide the services that people expect our city to do well and often.

[1:44:19] You know, I think the big question mark is just, you know, we've talked about how we fund our capital needs,

[1:44:26] but it's how we fund the people power that we still need to provide the services as often as we're seeing them being requested.

[1:44:37] And, you know, I love the idea of having a conversation about our policy on building and renewing our capital needs

[1:44:48] and what those improvements are, I think that would be important and worthwhile for us to

[1:44:52] flesh out some more.

[1:44:55] And then, you know, I think I'm just very excited for a few things I wanted to highlight.

[1:45:00] Our economic mobility plan is, I think, something that we're going to be looking back on and being very proud that we did that.

[1:45:08] I think the way that we're approaching how we support our most vulnerable community members is, it's going to just be a great piece of legacy, I think, for this council.

[1:45:19] Aside from that, I'm also really excited that we've, for my colleagues, support around Prop 1 and exploring the permanent support of housing,

[1:45:27] funding opportunities at the state's giving us.

[1:45:31] I know I saw it here will get an update in November.

[1:45:34] I hope we can hear sooner.

[1:45:36] I think the deadline for the application is in August.

[1:45:41] So we'd love to just kind of hear how that progresses.

[1:45:44] A little sooner if we're going to make that deadline.

[1:45:46] But I think as we talk about our anti-camping ordinance,

[1:45:52] You know, our ability to bring these units online should go hand-in-hand, right?

[1:45:57] This is providing those units for the people who are in most need of extra support and, you know,

[1:46:05] and hands-on care that I think they'll get through these sites.

[1:46:07] So I appreciate the support there.

[1:46:10] And then just lastly, I am also very excited.

[1:46:14] I think that this budget is showing us where there are lots of opportunities for us to make a difference for a community

[1:46:20] where we can still make a significant difference in what everyday people are experiencing life

[1:46:29] like in Redwood City. So thank everybody for working on this path, the finance team, all

[1:46:35] of our staff who contributed because every department feeds into this. Anyone else the vice mayor

[1:46:40] forgot to mention earlier? I know there's lots of people, so just thank you for all this hard work.

[1:46:47] I know Council Member Sturkin made a motion, so if there's a second.

[1:46:54] Second.

[1:46:56] That was a council member, a motion from Council Member Sturkin, a second from Vice

[1:47:00] Mayor Haken, could we get a electronic quote?

[1:47:02] Well, I'd like to know what the motion is because I don't remember hearing exactly what it was.

[1:47:07] From Council Member G, I heard a suggestion, but if Council Member Sturkin would like to, that would be helpful.

[1:47:15] Just speak to the motion what what it is.

[1:47:21] Okay, so I'm thinking a motion to approve the staff recommendation.

[1:47:25] That's items two, three, and four, there, and what one, two, three, four.

[1:47:30] And with the directing staff, as Council Member G suggested, to schedule a joint session with the Housing Women's Concerns Committee.

[1:47:41] And then also we're stuck to bring back the consideration of the HSFA criteria, is that correct?

[1:47:56] Anybody else want to try making the motion?

[1:47:58] Yeah, I think the other stuff was our conversation.

[1:48:02] I think the formal motion is one, two, three, four.

[1:48:05] Staff heard our conversation about the other stuff and our recommendations, but that's not part of the formal motion.

[1:48:14] Okay.

[1:48:15] And City Manager is up at the City Attorney.

[1:48:18] I could just add I heard majority support for us today's session with the HHCC and for taking a fresh look at the criteria.

[1:48:24] So I will already plan to work on that.

[1:48:28] But I don't think we needed in the motion.

[1:48:35] So to be clear, the motion, and I would like confirmation both from the motion maker in the

[1:48:41] second.

[1:48:42] The motion is to approve the staff recommendation as is understanding that there will

[1:48:46] be additional work on HSFA.

[1:48:48] But the motion is for the staff recommendation.

[1:48:53] Is that your motion?

[1:48:56] Yes.

[1:48:56] Okay.

[1:48:58] I second that specific motion.

[1:49:02] Great.

[1:49:02] Thanks everybody.

[1:49:03] Let's get on the electronic boat please.

[1:49:05] Council Member Padilla.

[1:49:08] Council Member Sturkin.

[1:49:10] Yes.

[1:49:11] Council Member Chu.

[1:49:13] Yes.

[1:49:14] Council Member Chi.

[1:49:16] Council Member Howard.

[1:49:17] Yes.

[1:49:17] Vice Mayor Aiken.

[1:49:19] Mayor Martinez Tobias.

[1:49:20] The motion passes unanimously.

[1:49:22] Thank you.

[1:49:23] But in congratulations.

[1:49:24] It's kind of bad for the whole team.

[1:49:25] Thank you.

[1:49:26] Everyone who worked on this.

[1:49:28] We will move on to item eight R staff reports,

[1:49:31] beginning with a city council appointments,

[1:49:33] to the Police Advisory Committee.

[1:49:36] City Clerk, Joseph Castro will give an overview of the item,

[1:49:39] take public comment, and help facilitate the appointment

[1:49:41] for the Police Advisory Committee.

[1:49:45] Thank you.

[1:50:07] Good evening, city council, Jessica Castro City Clerk, and tonight you're being asked to make appointments to fill seven seats on the Police Advisory Committee.

[1:50:17] The recruitment was conducted earlier this year to fill seats on the Police Advisory Committee, along with five other advisory bodies, and interviews were conducted on April 21.

[1:50:26] At the April 28, City Council meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to introduce an ordinance making modifications to the member composition for the pack, including reducing the number of members from 11 to 7, and modifying the manner in which members are appointed.

[1:50:44] The ordinance was adopted on May 12 by unanimous vote and became effective on June 12.

[1:50:51] Under the new ordinance, all PAC members will be appointed by a majority vote of the City Council.

[1:50:58] Because all seven seats on the PAC are currently vacant, the City Council will appoint four members to four year terms

[1:51:06] expiring May 31st, 2029, and three members to three year terms expiring May 31st, 2028.

[1:51:15] Commencing in 2028, all seats will be appointed to four year terms to ensure staggered term

[1:51:22] expiration is moving forward. Additionally, staff requests that the applicant pool for the

[1:51:28] pack remain open through January 31st, 2026, and be used to fill vacancies that may occur on

[1:51:35] pack between now and the next recruitment period provided there are at least two applicants

[1:51:40] for each vacancy.

[1:51:43] All appointments tonight will be made by Roll Call Vote, a candidate must receive a majority

[1:51:47] or four votes in order to be appointed.

[1:51:50] If a majority vote isn't reached or if there's a tie, we'll proceed with additional rounds

[1:51:55] of voting.

[1:51:56] We'll take the vote to fill the four year seats first followed by the three year seats.

[1:52:03] Before proceeding to the voting and appointments, I'll take any counsel questions and if there

[1:52:08] aren't any questions, I'll move forward with public comment.

[1:52:13] Any questions on the process tonight?

[1:52:17] I'll see you any.

[1:52:19] Oh, I swear.

[1:52:21] I'll just be really, really quick.

[1:52:24] How many, I'm sorry, how many two-year seats are we filling?

[1:52:27] We're filling four four-year seats and three three-year seats.

[1:52:33] I want to tell you sheets that you have in front of you will tell you what we're on and we're going to start with the four year and then move on to the three year.

[1:52:45] So we should pick four people for four year seats first.

[1:52:50] Thank you.

[1:52:55] Any other questions?

[1:52:57] Thank you.

[1:52:58] Thank you.

[1:52:59] So I can move on to public comment and we don't have any public comment on this item either in person or written as well to a last call.

[1:53:12] All right.

[1:53:12] We do have one public comment.

[1:53:23] Hi, my name is Tito Alvarez.

[1:53:24] I am the Youth and Primary Specialist

[1:53:26] for Edwitz City Pal, and also the founder of J.S. Love

[1:53:30] and in sheltered outreach organization,

[1:53:31] helping the in sheltered here in Redwood City

[1:53:33] in the Bay Area.

[1:53:35] And I should quickly one Sam honored

[1:53:37] to serve the pace program and to be able to be an advocate

[1:53:40] for Joy Magna.

[1:53:41] She's one of the youth in our pace advisory board,

[1:53:44] and I think she would be an amazing candidate

[1:53:45] to be nominated in the Police Advisory Committee.

[1:53:49] She's currently in our second year serving, and she's also one of the, what I'm

[1:53:53] not thought as for the Redwood City together program, so I think she's just an

[1:53:57] amazing advocate for not only the youthful, but for also low-income communities

[1:54:02] in Redwood City, she's with purpose, experience, and she's really rooted into the

[1:54:07] community, but wants to be part of civic engagement.

[1:54:10] So I think she is the next leader in our community, and I would just really

[1:54:15] appreciate to be able to have her voice part of this advisory committee as well. Thank you very

[1:54:19] time.

[1:54:23] Thank you, Tito. Okay, last call for public comment on this item. Okay, and no written public

[1:54:29] comment either. So we will move forward with the appointments.

[1:54:44] So we'll start again with the four

[1:54:46] year terms. And I'll read all the candidates that are available for consideration. Austin bake,

[1:54:52] Kristie Chang, Lou Kovey, Clara Juggle, Samantha Kelly, Asteris Lane.

[1:55:00] Joy Magana, Michael Mansour, John McMullen, Kathy Petrick, William Reach, Nuvia Sharda, Daniel Turunian, and we have two additional applicants that selected the police advisory committee as their secondary BCC but they had applied for another one previously. So when I call your name, please state four names and four names only. We will start with council member two.

[1:55:32] Austin Bakes, Lou Covey, Samantha Kelly, and Joy Lagana.

[1:55:40] Thank you. Council member Chu has selected Austin Bakes,

[1:55:44] Lou Covey, Samantha Kelly, and Joy Lagana. Council member G.

[1:55:54] Austin, whoops, who's right. Austin Bakes,

[1:55:57] Christie Chan, Hester Sling, Dendo Turinie, Turinian.

[1:56:02] Thank you.

[1:56:04] Councilmember G has selected Austin Bake, Christie Chang, Astros Ling, and Daniel Turunian.

[1:56:12] Councilmember Howard.

[1:56:14] Austin Bake, Christie Chang, John McMullan, and Daniel Turunian.

[1:56:24] Thank you.

[1:56:25] Councilmember Howard has selected Austin Bake, Christie Chang, John McMullan, and Daniel Turunian.

[1:56:32] Council Member Padilla.

[1:56:43] Sorry, I have Austin Bake, and then I have

[1:56:50] Christy Chang,

[1:56:56] John McMullin and Kathy

[1:56:57] Petrick.

[1:57:01] Thank you.

[1:57:02] Council Member Padilla has selected Austin Bake, Christy Chang, John McMullin, and Kathy

[1:57:08] Petrick.

[1:57:09] Council Member Sturkin.

[1:57:13] Austin Bake, Christy Chang, Clara Jekyll, and Kathy Petrick.

[1:57:21] Thank you.

[1:57:22] Council Member Sturkin has selected Austin Bake, Christy Chang, Clara Juggle, and Kathy Petrick, Vice Mayor Akin.

[1:57:34] The Samantha Kelly, Clara Juggle,

[1:57:42] Daniel Turunian,

[1:57:47] and Christy Chang.

[1:57:50] Thank you.

[1:57:53] Vice Mayor Aiken has selected Christy Chang, Clara Jekyll, Samantha Kelly, and Daniel

[1:58:01] Terunian.

[1:58:03] Mayor Martinez-Abios, please.

[1:58:07] I'll send Bike, Christy Chang, Clara Jekyll, and Joy Magania.

[1:58:16] Mayor Martinez-Abios has selected Austin Bake, Christy Chang, Clara Jekyll, and Joy

[1:58:24] Magania. Give us a moment while we tell you up. Thank you.

[1:58:53] Thank you. So for this round, we are appointing Austin Bake with six votes and

[1:59:00] Christi Chang with six votes. We'll need to take another round of voting to

[1:59:04] select two additional members.

[1:59:19] And we'll start with Councilmember G, two names.

[1:59:22] Please. All right. Clara Jaco and Daniel Turiniam. Thank you. Councilmember G has

[1:59:29] elected Clara Jekyll and Daniel Turinian, Council Member Howard.

[1:59:34] John McMollin and Daniel Turinian.

[1:59:38] Thank you, Council Member Howard has selected John McMollin and Daniel Turinian.

[1:59:43] Council Member Padilla.

[1:59:48] Sorry, never turned it off.

[1:59:48] John McMollin and Kathy Petrick.

[2:00:05] Thank you. Council member Sturkin has selected Clara Jackel and Kathy Petrick. Council member Chu.

[2:00:17] Council member Chu has selected Joy Magania and Daniel Terunian. Vice Mayor Aiken.

[2:00:29] Um, I will go with, um, Clara Jackel in Daniel, to Runean.

[2:00:37] Thank you.

[2:00:39] Vice Mayor Aiken has selected Clara Jackel in Daniel, to Runean.

[2:00:43] May your Martinez-Abiose.

[2:00:46] Clara Jackel and Kathy Butcheric.

[2:00:52] Okay.

[2:00:52] One moment.

[2:01:01] Okay.

[2:01:02] So with that round, we were able to appoint the two additional four-year term seats.

[2:01:07] Clare a juggle and Daniel Turunian and these will be for four year terms expiring me 31st, 2029.

[2:01:15] Thank you.

[2:01:16] We'll now move on to the three year terms.

[2:01:19] Excuse me, what was the second name?

[2:01:21] I miss Daniel Turunian.

[2:01:24] Thank you.

[2:01:28] Okay, moving now to the three year term seats that will expire May 31st, 2028.

[2:01:40] I'll read the applicants.

[2:01:41] Petra available for consideration.

[2:01:44] Lu Kavi, Samantha Kelly,

[2:01:47] Astrosling, Joy Magania,

[2:01:50] Michael Mansour,

[2:01:52] John McMullin, Cathy Petrick,

[2:01:54] William Reach,

[2:01:55] Nuvia Sharda,

[2:01:57] and the two additional Marseille Gratedge and James Cowan.

[2:02:05] We'll start with Councilmember Howard,

[2:02:08] three names, please.

[2:02:11] Astrosling,

[2:02:12] Michael Mansour,

[2:02:14] and John McMullan.

[2:02:16] Thank you.

[2:02:17] Councilmember Howard has selected Astra Sling,

[2:02:20] Michael Mansour, and John McMullan.

[2:02:23] Councilmember Petia.

[2:02:26] Can you repeat?

[2:02:27] Councilmember Howard is Ling McMullan and what was her last one?

[2:02:31] Mansour.

[2:02:39] Thank you.

[2:02:41] My three are Cathy Petrick,

[2:02:45] John McMullan, enjoy McGonja.

[2:02:49] Thank you.

[2:02:49] Councilmember Padilla has selected Joy Magania, John McMullin and Kathy Patrick.

[2:02:56] Councilmember Sturkin.

[2:03:02] Samantha Kelly,

[2:03:06] Esther Sling and Joy Magania.

[2:03:08] Thank you. Councilmember Sturkin has selected Samantha Kelly,

[2:03:12] Esther Sling and Joy Magania.

[2:03:16] Councilmember Chu.

[2:03:23] I think I'm going to go with Joy Magania,

[2:03:28] I'm sorry, is Mansour an available?

[2:03:33] Yes, Mansour.

[2:03:34] Yes, Mansour.

[2:03:35] Thank you.

[2:03:36] Council Member Chu has selected AstraZeneca, Joy Magania, and Michael Mansour.

[2:03:41] Council Member G.

[2:03:45] AstraZeneca, Michael Mansour, John McMullin.

[2:03:50] Thank you.

[2:03:51] Council Member G has selected AstraZeneca, Michael Mansour, and John McMullin.

[2:03:56] Vice Mayor Akin.

[2:04:00] Samantha Kelly.

[2:04:02] Kathy Petrick.

[2:04:07] And John McMullen.

[2:04:11] Thank you.

[2:04:11] Vice Mayor Akin has selected Samantha Kelly.

[2:04:14] John McMullen.

[2:04:15] And Kathy Petrick.

[2:04:17] Mayor Martinez-Abyos.

[2:04:22] Magania.

[2:04:24] McMullen.

[2:04:27] And Mensour.

[2:04:31] Thank you.

[2:04:32] Mayor Martinez-Abyos has selected Joy Magania.

[2:04:36] Michael Mensour.

[2:04:37] And John McMullen.

[2:04:38] One moment, please while we tell you.

[2:05:09] Okay, so we did receive,

[2:05:15] we have a three-way tie with four votes, that is, AstraZling, Joy-Magania, and Michael Mansour, and we have five votes for John McMullen, who we can appoint to one seat. We'll need to go to another round for the remaining two to break the tie. Okay,

[2:05:46] so I'm just going to read the names one more time for consideration, Lou Covey, Samantha Kelly, AstraZling, Joy-Magania,

[2:05:57] Michael Mansour, Kathy Petrick, William Reach, Nubia Sharda, and then Marcel Gratich and James

[2:06:04] Cowling as the Alternative.

[2:06:08] We'll start with Councilmember Padilla.

[2:06:13] How many names are you giving me?

[2:06:14] Three?

[2:06:15] Two.

[2:06:20] Joy McGonja, Kathy Petrick.

[2:06:24] Thank you.

[2:06:25] Councilmember Padilla has selected Joy McGonja and Kathy Petrick.

[2:06:30] Councilmember Strykin.

[2:06:45] Thank you, Council Member Sturkin has selected Astra Sling and Joy Magania.

[2:06:51] Council Member Chu,

[2:06:58] Council Member Chu,

[2:07:06] Council Member Chu has selected Joy Magania and

[2:07:08] Michael Mansour, Council Member G.

[2:07:14] Thank you, Councilmember G has selected Astra Sling and Joy Magna.

[2:07:19] Councilmember Howard.

[2:07:22] Astra Sling and Michael Mansour.

[2:07:25] Thank you, Councilmember Howard has selected Astra Sling and Michael Mansour by

[2:07:29] Mayor Akin.

[2:07:31] Samantha Kelly and Kathy Petrick.

[2:07:38] Thank you.

[2:07:38] Vice Mayor Akin has selected Samantha Kelly and Kathy Petrick.

[2:07:43] Mayor Martinez Ios.

[2:07:47] Joy McGonja and Kathy Petrick.

[2:07:51] Thank you.

[2:07:53] Mayor Martinez Ios has selected Joy McGonja and Kathy Petrick.

[2:07:56] One moment.

[2:08:05] Okay.

[2:08:05] We are able to appoint Joy McGonja to the second seat for three year terms.

[2:08:14] We will have to move forward with one more round of voting to select the one remaining seat.

[2:08:43] All right, so I'll read the names one more time that are available.

[2:08:46] Luke Kovey, Samantha Kelly, Astrosling, Michael Mansour, William Reach,

[2:08:51] Nuvia Sharda, and then Marcel Gradyidge and James Cowling.

[2:08:56] We'll start with Council Member Sturkey, please. Just one name please.

[2:09:03] Kathy Petrie.

[2:09:10] Thank you, Council Member Sturkey, and has selected Kathy Petriek.

[2:09:14] Council Member Chu.

[2:09:47] Kathy Petrick.

[2:09:50] Vice Mayor Aiken has selected Kathy Petrick.

[2:09:54] Mayor Martinez-Aviles.

[2:09:57] Kathy Petrick.

[2:09:58] Thank you.

[2:10:00] Mayor Martinez-Abios has selected Kathy Petrick and with four votes, Kathy Petrick is appointed to the third three-year term seat,

[2:10:09] expiring May 31st, 2028, and I'll now just read back the names of the seven appointees this evening.

[2:10:18] For the four-year terms, we have Austin Bake, Christy Chang, Clara Jekyll, and Daniel Turunian.

[2:10:30] For the three-year terms,

[2:10:34] we have John McMullen, Joy Magania, and Kathy Petrick.

[2:10:42] Thank you very much.

[2:10:45] We do have a one-action item for the Council.

[2:10:48] I'll turn it back to the mayor to call the vote for that item.

[2:10:51] Thank you for your help, City Clerk.

[2:10:53] Lastly, we do have one more council action to use the current applicant pool to fill any additional vacancies on the police advisory committee.

[2:11:02] I'm made a curb between now and January 31, 2006.

[2:11:06] Provided that there are at least two qualified applicants for each vacancy for city council consideration.

[2:11:12] It's just an important piece that we want to make sure everyone knew about, is there

[2:11:19] a electronic, I'm sorry, a motion.

[2:11:21] I'll make that motion.

[2:11:23] Great motion from Councilmember Howard, has there a second?

[2:11:26] I second.

[2:11:27] And a second from Vice Mayor Aiken, could we get a electronic book, please?

[2:11:32] Thank you.

[2:11:33] We'll start with Councilmember Chu.

[2:11:37] Councilmember Howard.

[2:11:39] Yes.

[2:11:40] Councilmember Padilla.

[2:11:42] Yes.

[2:11:42] Council Member Sturkin. Yes. Vice Mayor Aiken. Yes. Mayor Martinez Abayos. Yes.

[2:11:50] And Council Member G to keep the applicant pull open until January 31st, 2026. Yes.

[2:11:56] Thank you. The motion passes unanimously.

[2:11:58] All right. Thank you everybody. We will now move on to item AB, which is to consider

[2:12:04] future remin with out front foster interstate or OFI on

[2:12:10] the digital placement of a digital billboard at 350 convention

[2:12:13] way. We have Assistant City Manager of Patrick Heisinger here

[2:12:17] who will give a presentation.

[2:12:19] Thank you, Mayor. Good evening. Patrick Heisinger, Assistant City Manager.

[2:12:24] One thing I just want to say, the start of tonight's item is nothing

[2:12:28] being approved tonight. Really what we're just doing is concluding an RFP

[2:12:32] process and then checking with the council to see if the council wants to proceed. So I just want to kind of level set there. Next slide, please.

[2:12:42] As far as the presentation outline, we'll go over a couple of questions. I've got a couple background slides.

[2:12:48] And then really dig really deep into the solicitation process and then talk about next steps. And then we'll offer a staff recommendation. Next slide, please.

[2:12:58] So, the three questions for City Council does the City Council have questions about the

[2:13:03] solicitation process, a question number two does the City Council have questions or comments

[2:13:07] about any of the proposed terms for the billboard if approved in the future, and number

[2:13:12] three does the City Council have feedback about the recommended next steps. So, jumping into background,

[2:13:18] there's been two key study sessions that staff in the Council have had in the last year or so.

[2:13:24] The first was back in April of 2024, and that was the same night that the two year economic development work plan was approved,

[2:13:32] of which further investigating whether or not the city should pursue a digital board was included in the two year work plan.

[2:13:40] But in the discussion, there are three policy directives that staff had received from the council on that night before it went and did a bunch of analysis.

[2:13:47] One is the council was really only interested in looking at digital billboards on the 101 corridor

[2:13:53] Two, the council was only looking to up to three digital billboards potentially and then the third was

[2:14:00] What is the council open to a digital billboard either being on city control property or private property and the council said either again

[2:14:08] Just in the early exploratory phases of that process

[2:14:12] So, next slide please, then in October we returned, so once we had those parameters, we came back with a lot more information and we got really more detailed policy direction from the city council.

[2:14:24] One council said if we're going to go down this path, we want to be really sure that we're taking a new account health and safety.

[2:14:30] So that's folks driving up 101, that's folks that may live by signs, really want to make sure that we're abiding by all relevant environmental considerations.

[2:14:39] so things about lighting, how does affect the animals, the coastline, all those things.

[2:14:45] Also interested in revenue generation for the city. Back in October, folks may be aware

[2:14:50] that we were in the middle of that measure BB discussion. This was an item that we were also

[2:14:54] looking to see if we could generate some revenue on our own as a city. Fourth element was we have

[2:15:00] I've been approached by many businesses who are interested in digital billboards, you know, really highlighting businesses in Redwood City. Obviously, one-on-one quarter, there's many major car dealerships on that thing.

[2:15:11] There was a big discussion around is there a way to reduce the number of static billboards. You may recall during the study session, we had preferred several cities had found ways to utilize issuing new digital billboards as a way to get some of the static billboards removed.

[2:15:27] So that was one of the council's key objectives.

[2:15:31] And then the last one, what city versus private sector,

[2:15:34] what that means is we talked a lot about,

[2:15:36] hey, before we embark on this process,

[2:15:39] we could do a lot of analysis on city control property.

[2:15:43] That might take a lot more months.

[2:15:45] It would take us away from other economic development issues,

[2:15:48] or we could put out a solicitation and let the experts

[2:15:51] that do this every day tell us what are viable sites.

[2:15:54] And I raised that because as we get into this discussion,

[2:15:57] and you'll see some many of what was submitted

[2:15:59] around city control sites and those many of them have problems.

[2:16:04] But I'll go over that, not proud to say conflicts

[2:16:07] that we'd like to address so, but it was really a business

[2:16:10] decision saying, hey, private market.

[2:16:13] Let us know what sites may work and then we'll be back later

[2:16:17] to see if any of these sites may work.

[2:16:19] The final thing I'll say about that meeting

[2:16:21] is you may recall, Napoli Council said,

[2:16:23] hey, let's consider up to three.

[2:16:24] Council is very clear at the October meeting.

[2:16:27] Let's focus on one as a pilot.

[2:16:29] So that's really what we're here to talk about now.

[2:16:31] Is it, you know, doing everything down to one next slide, please?

[2:16:37] As far as the, it was actually a request for information, the RFI process.

[2:16:42] So we released it December 18th and it was due March 17th.

[2:16:47] In between there, we did have a deadline to submit questions.

[2:16:49] We did issue an addendum and then staff did their process of reviewing and just having conversation

[2:16:57] with several of those that submitted proposals leading up to tonight's city council meeting June 23rd.

[2:17:03] Next slide, please.

[2:17:05] So of the proposals received received eight individual proposals on six different sides, so you can see there's two sides that have two proposals.

[2:17:16] So one is on a city controlled side at 1581 Maple, another city controlled side at 1580 Maple, the veterans,

[2:17:24] This bull of our pump station, two proposals, the redwood, we call it the redwood creek

[2:17:29] parcel, so there's a little sliver land that the city controls near redwood creek, and then

[2:17:33] a double street pump station in another two proposal.

[2:17:36] And then the only submittal on a private property was 350 convention way, which is the

[2:17:41] Monterey Credit Union property.

[2:17:44] Next slide, please.

[2:17:47] This is just a simple map that shows starting from north to south where the veterans pump station

[2:17:52] is then the credit union property, the red red creek,

[2:17:56] parcel, 1580 and 1580 maple, essentially adjacent

[2:18:01] parcels, and then the Douglas Street pump station.

[2:18:04] All along the 101 corridor, and all eligible under

[2:18:08] other counter-ans, all the other requirements.

[2:18:12] Next slide, please.

[2:18:15] I've kind of alluded to this already, but again,

[2:18:17] seven of eight proposals were in the city right away.

[2:18:21] Going to the second bullet, all of the city control sites do have some complications and I'll go through those right now.

[2:18:30] So the two pump stations are in line to actually be redesigned, especially the Douglas Street.

[2:18:36] We know the Douglas Street pump station is very close to being redesigned and definitely needs to be upgraded.

[2:18:41] We already know that we believe veterans will probably need to be upgraded down the road as well.

[2:18:46] We're not entirely sure it's definitely a priority too, but our thought was, is why would we

[2:18:51] introduce an electronic bill board or planning around it when we stop our own planning

[2:18:56] to do?

[2:18:56] Was our thought on the two pump stations?

[2:18:59] Similarly, 1580 maple, which is if slated to be a future 100% affordable housing project,

[2:19:06] that's the big project that we're helping to spearhead with in partnership with the

[2:19:11] county and mid-pen housing, is finally starting to get some traction.

[2:19:15] As is the formerly known as the strata development at 1548 maple, which is very close to 1581 maple and introducing an electronic billboard for either those two developments could be problematic for both of those development teams to achieve their development objectives.

[2:19:33] So again, rather than saying hey, let's over complicate two projects that have been really stuck because of this market.

[2:19:39] Let's just avoid it, especially if we have a viable backup option, which is 350 convention way at the Monterey Credit Union property.

[2:19:48] Next slide.

[2:19:51] For those who may not know, here's a little illustration of the property.

[2:19:56] I'll try to set some a little bit of context.

[2:19:58] So hi, we want to one. I'll say it this time.

[2:20:00] Top of the page was essentially is the east. Redwood Creek to the south. And then you have convention way, which

[2:20:06] you really on the west side of the property. And then the ex shows kind of where the, I would say,

[2:20:13] Mosulmenos were the applicant is saying it would be there. So if you've ever been there, you

[2:20:17] walk through the, the nice positive there and it's kind of up there kind of off to the side. So

[2:20:22] more or less that's where it'd be, but I'm sure an engineer would probably drill down a little bit more

[2:20:27] specific. Next slide, please. As outlined in the staff report, the proposed or suggested

[2:20:34] terms were really for the RFI process. It wasn't our, we weren't directed at that time

[2:20:39] to negotiate heavily with the applicants. We really just want to get an overview and a feel

[2:20:44] from each of the developments of what would you offer if we were to partner with you on this

[2:20:50] endeavor. I also want to preface it with very similar real estate. I mean, this is real says,

[2:20:55] Every site has its own different analysis.

[2:20:58] So as you can see in the attachment,

[2:21:00] there were other proposals that actually

[2:21:01] proposed more revenue for the city.

[2:21:03] However, they came with those other complications

[2:21:05] that I had hit on before.

[2:21:08] But with regard to the out front foster interstate proposal

[2:21:11] is what they submitted with RFI was a 20 year duration,

[2:21:15] an annual payment of either the higher of $250,000

[2:21:20] or 30% share of advertising revenue.

[2:21:23] They did offer a one time payment for each of the existing billboards so a total of 300,000 in order for them not to be removed.

[2:21:35] There is a there would be provision in there that the city would have 10% of the would have access to 10% of the advertising time that we could do for whatever city purpose.

[2:21:45] And then there was language put in their proposal about certain content, restriction, and we put that in the staff report.

[2:21:52] I think I've thought my head I think at least things like no tobacco, no cannabis.

[2:21:57] A lot of those things could be negotiated if the applicant so choose and could be handled through the negotiation process if the council had other thoughts on that.

[2:22:06] So again, I just wanted to reiterate staff is not proposing if the council wanted to move forward with this.

[2:22:11] That this would be the terms of saying what was submitted.

[2:22:14] next slide please. So with regard to next step, really what we're recommending to the city council is that the council direct staff to prepare and sign a letter of intent to confirm the city's interest. Really what that would do is let out front know that yeah we're serious about this because as you can see the next steps they would have to then go down a process and start incurring costs and start doing some due diligence and before doing that I think they want to have a you know a symbol from the city that.

[2:22:43] that there is some interest there.

[2:22:45] Staff is seeking direction if the council

[2:22:47] does agree to the first bullet to send letter intent.

[2:22:51] That staff then further negotiate with the applicant

[2:22:54] on terms for potential billboard.

[2:22:58] And then as far as process, there's still

[2:22:59] a lot of process ahead of both the city and the applicant.

[2:23:03] Have to go through an environmental review process.

[2:23:06] We won't know the exact level of environmental review

[2:23:08] until an application is submitted,

[2:23:10] But we've heard loud and clear from the Council for both study sessions about how important the environmental process is.

[2:23:18] The applicant would lead their own community outreach process, and then we would have to make some amendments to the city's sign ordinance.

[2:23:26] With that being said, we think that those goals could be accomplished in roughly nine months.

[2:23:32] Yeah, and so with that, next slide, please, with that, and I'll just leave the recommendations.

[2:23:38] Really, the recommendation number one is to draft an issue, a letter of intent.

[2:23:44] Number two is authorizing staff to negotiate, and then three is to, for staff to return once the due diligence is done.

[2:23:51] And then move forward with updates to the sign ordinance and then bring all the final turn for council consideration.

[2:23:58] next slide please and then the same questions for the council. I won't read them again and then

[2:24:06] next slide. I think it's just the chat side and then I didn't want to let folks know there are

[2:24:09] representatives from out front here if there's questions that get a little bit more nuanced and I may

[2:24:14] be able to handle tonight but with that I'll turn it back to the mayor. Thank you. Thanks for the

[2:24:20] great presentation Patrick and we'll go ahead and open the public hearing thank you for the

[2:24:25] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:24:27] We do have two speakers in person.

[2:24:31] We'll start with Alex Belenson and Alex will be followed by Wade Painter.

[2:24:42] Good evening, Mayor.

[2:24:44] Vice Mayor.

[2:24:45] Council staff.

[2:24:47] Alex Belenson without front foster interstate.

[2:24:49] Appreciate your consideration this evening of our proposal.

[2:24:55] We look forward to working with staff to complete.

[2:25:00] Police and prepare entitlements. And we're here to answer any questions. And I just also would like to introduce our landlord partner, a wait painter from Monterey, credit unit.

[2:25:12] Thank you, Alex. Anyway, yeah, good evening Mayor, vice mayor, council members.

[2:25:20] I'm pretty sure most of you are well aware of the credit unions support of and commitment to the community here.

[2:25:30] I just wanted to thank you for your consideration of the potential placement of the Digital

[2:25:39] Bill Board on our on our property at 350 conventionally.

[2:25:45] Thank you.

[2:25:50] Thank you both for being here and sticking with us.

[2:25:54] Are there any comments or questions for council?

[2:25:58] I'd like to go through that.

[2:26:01] That's a very good year.

[2:26:02] Thank you.

[2:26:03] This one was really interesting to me, so I thought, you know, I don't always start it off, but let's change it up.

[2:26:10] Okay, I have lots of questions.

[2:26:16] And some just general thoughts.

[2:26:20] Just to clarify Patrick, mark current ordinance as is bands billboards.

[2:26:29] I would say bands digital billboards.

[2:26:32] or creating new billboards as well.

[2:26:36] Is that correct?

[2:26:37] Okay.

[2:26:37] Thank you.

[2:26:39] So I was thinking about this.

[2:26:41] And I also, I drive on 101.

[2:26:44] I drive on 101 with my family.

[2:26:46] I drive on with my daughter.

[2:26:48] And then I was thinking about the times that we're in now.

[2:26:51] The political climate, the way we are with our neighbors.

[2:26:55] And I can recall in a not so far off history,

[2:26:58] They're being very divisive ads or divisive billboards, so I am very

[2:27:07] wary when I see content restrictions to me. It's like Pandora's box.

[2:27:14] You know, we'll say we're not going to advertise this, but we'll do this.

[2:27:18] I think we talk about the environment, but there's also a community and a mental health.

[2:27:24] You know, when I drive on the freeway, I'm not opting in to see that billboard, that's just

[2:27:32] I have to see it.

[2:27:33] I'm in traffic.

[2:27:34] I'm at a standstill.

[2:27:34] I'm not going on to the news or selecting what I want.

[2:27:37] So I want us to be thoughtful in the fact that this is not something that the public opts

[2:27:42] in for.

[2:27:43] It's being right there in their face.

[2:27:49] I mean, we've addressed light pollution, but I, yeah, I said, I think that this digital

[2:27:56] billboard may represent a modern day Pandora's box, once opened difficult to contain and

[2:28:02] laid in with consequences that reach far beyond their initial promises of modest revenue.

[2:28:08] These towering screens demand attention in ways the public has not consented to.

[2:28:13] Unlike online spaces where one might choose what to see, digital billboards impose themselves

[2:28:18] on everyone, indiscriminately and relentlessly.

[2:28:20] They fill our shared visual environment with content.

[2:28:24] We do not opt into, often divisive, distracting.

[2:28:27] And also just physically distracting, signs, I just think, when we constantly talk about

[2:28:33] road safety and now it's like, let's put something shiny and dazzily to create more

[2:28:38] risk.

[2:28:39] I don't know how I feel about that.

[2:28:42] I think that our city is beautiful, rich in culture and character and community.

[2:28:46] And tomorrow that with glowing advertisements would sacrifice the unique soul of this place

[2:28:50] short-term financial gain. I think that this would actually, I know that it claims to encourage tourism,

[2:28:58] but I think this visual clutter would detract from the charm and authenticity visitor seek.

[2:29:03] When people come here and I was just at art in the square music on the square, there was a woman

[2:29:07] here staying from Maryland visiting for a grandchild's graduation. They love our sign, they love the

[2:29:13] connection, they love that it doesn't feel like a big city. So I'm worried about what that would change

[2:29:20] for our city,

[2:29:24] talked about the distractions, the dangers, and also, yes, I think the light

[2:29:29] pollution it looks very close to a body of water that is not lit up, and I saw that in

[2:29:34] personally, I will full disclosure when I used to run marketing in a private jet company

[2:29:38] I negotiated with clear channel, and I took out billboards for people to fly private jets.

[2:29:44] So this proposal to me doesn't seem ready to move forward for a letter intent. It doesn't seem like it's giving us a lot. I know you said percentage, but if you read the actual thing, it says, you know, up to this amount.

[2:30:00] If available, the languages very loose, I don't think the fees are in line. I just don't think this is a strong proposal, so I personally just think this is not enough for our community to even go there. Personally, I would not even want to go down to this path, given our current climate. I want to work on building unity and not so we can see it's a division in our community, and I think that this might be a slippery slope.

[2:30:26] That's it for now.

[2:30:29] Thank you, Council Member.

[2:30:31] Vice Mayor.

[2:30:33] I wanted to say, you mentioned the sign that we currently have, which has climate

[2:30:39] best by government test.

[2:30:43] What else are we called the Valley of Hearts Delight?

[2:30:46] This is such a beautiful, beautiful area.

[2:30:49] You go along the 280 corridor, there's not one billboard, and that's not by accident.

[2:30:57] Our former late congressman, Pete McCloskey, along with a gown named Lady Bird Johnson,

[2:31:07] the first lady wife of Lyndon Johnson.

[2:31:11] She made her mission to beautify highways which were new in the 60s.

[2:31:17] And she said, hey, this new thing, highways, let's make sure they're beautiful.

[2:31:21] That was her mission.

[2:31:22] Pete McCloskey, so it's not a coincidence.

[2:31:24] and what are the towns along 280? You know, some of the most expensive residential real estate in the world.

[2:31:33] They know what they want. They don't want billboards. It's not even contested.

[2:31:40] I'd like to go to slide 10 if I could please. Redwood City exists because of this thing called Redwood Creek.

[2:31:48] back in 1850. First of all, the Bay came all the way up to Broadway. And if you look,

[2:31:57] that's Redwood Creek. It's sort of hidden behind 101 and a lot of concrete,

[2:32:05] but it is our birthright. And this is the gateway to the Bay. And we are just now embarking on

[2:32:14] is really exciting, visioning process of the inner harbor.

[2:32:19] We started it about 10 years ago, and then it was stalled, and we got distracted, but

[2:32:24] we're starting again with the inner harbor visioning.

[2:32:28] And Redwood Creek is not only historic, but it's the gateway to our bay.

[2:32:33] And right now it looks pretty sick and ailing.

[2:32:36] On Sunday, I drove on the opposite side from convention way of Redwood Creek and the

[2:32:46] Coles parking lot and the super,

[2:32:51] the sports store parking lot.

[2:32:54] So along the opposite side of Redwood Creek is, you know, the equivalent of maybe three

[2:33:01] four or five blocks of a parking lot that's empty except for huge,

[2:33:09] smelly, dirty garbage cans and trash that isn't already in the garbage cans,

[2:33:15] industrial garbage cans. It's in sore need of tender loving care and I think it's

[2:33:22] going to get it with our visioning. We should be celebrating our river, we should be

[2:33:28] celebrating our bay.

[2:33:32] And, you know, this sign is just doubling down on 20th century notions

[2:33:39] of just freeways, advertising. It's not really 20th century. As per safety, you know, you're

[2:33:50] going 60 miles an hour and the billboard changes every eight seconds, 12 seconds. I don't

[2:33:56] how safe that is, that concerns me. I do want to note that number one our ordinance currently

[2:34:05] says no digital billboards. So there has to be like in my mind to change something that

[2:34:13] already exists to devote staff time. You know, Council has already opined fairly recently

[2:34:21] study it and said no digital billboards. So for us now to say, let's take a

[2:34:27] you turn and let's devote a lot of staff time to changing what the council has

[2:34:36] as on record is saying, my thinking is let's have an overwhelming compelling reason

[2:34:42] to revisit that already studied opinion and back in April of 2024,

[2:34:56] we said that one of our

[2:34:57] was to reduce the number.

[2:35:00] Of billboards, along the bay, and this outdoor sign company currently has three billboards, along the bay, not digital billboards, but billboards, and one of our requests to staff was, could you explore reducing the number of billboards, along the bay?

[2:35:27] And this staff report says, no, the owner of these three

[2:35:32] staff signs is not willing to reduce its three billboards.

[2:35:40] And it's private property.

[2:35:41] There's nothing we can do about that.

[2:35:44] But certainly, we don't have to say, oh, sure, go.

[2:35:48] Have more in this fragile, beautiful,

[2:35:53] exciting part of our city,

[2:35:59] so I think I'm almost done, tourism, I can't imagine in

[2:36:07] my wildest dreams, why a digital billboard, along a 12 lane freeway, would

[2:36:15] increase tourism. I don't understand that. And let's let's have some

[2:36:22] in our baylets. Let's have some pride in the natural beauty that is our legacy and let's

[2:36:29] restore it to the best of our ability and not double down on past century ideas.

[2:36:38] Oh, just let me make sure I'm done for the moment.

[2:36:49] That's one of them. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you both so much for everyone for staying up with us.

[2:36:57] I just have a few questions.

[2:37:00] So as was mentioned, you control three other billboards along, east of 101, between, you know,

[2:37:09] this location in St. Carlos, it sounds like those are the three billboards that are right

[2:37:14] along right now on the march there on Long Bear Island, right?

[2:37:20] Okay.

[2:37:22] Yeah, I remember when I were to hit housing, we put out a billboard there.

[2:37:27] So, thank you for coming at me and expecting when I want to work.

[2:37:31] Anyway, you know, to my colleagues' point about having pride in their bay, I know it's

[2:37:38] a lot to ask for you to remove a billboard from your own property and I don't know what your

[2:37:46] revenue is.

[2:37:47] For any one of those billboards, I don't know how big of a hit it would be, you know, if there

[2:37:52] a net benefit to controlling this electronic billboard, even as you take away even just one

[2:38:01] of your static billboards across the highway, but I think I would like to see some type

[2:38:09] of exchange, at least a one for one.

[2:38:14] If at all possible, again, I know that's a lot to ask, and I think if I had more information

[2:38:19] about like what it would financially cost, you know, you as a company and I would have more

[2:38:26] thoughts,

[2:38:28] but that was one question. And then I guess for Patrick, you know, maybe in

[2:38:35] those prohibitions of content, maybe, you know, there could be, I don't know, there's possible

[2:38:41] the ban, you know, political ads or anything like that, it kind of gets to customer for the

[2:38:46] point,

[2:38:49] you know, maybe that's possible, it could help reduce the exposure to the community.

[2:38:58] And then, what does the outreach plan look like?

[2:39:01] I know it was mentioned that it would be applicant-led, I appreciate you taking the time

[2:39:06] and the energy and the resources to delete that, or is that something that would be determined

[2:39:12] later, after we have, if we submit a letter, if I may just really quickly speak to a portion

[2:39:23] of the second question and maybe reframe it for Council Member Sturkin. You asked whether

[2:39:29] we could ban political ads and the city cannot ban political ads. We cannot regulate speech

[2:39:39] itself or the content. However, the company that did respond to the RFQ did offer topics

[2:39:49] that they would not use the billboards for and definitely staff can continue to have

[2:39:55] conversations if the council gives us direction and negotiate with them.

[2:40:00] You know, answering the question out right. However, it's definitely a discussion that can be had and we did hear now from, from two council members in interest in revisiting the content and what they are offering the city.

[2:40:18] Oh, sorry. I just wanted to, oh, sorry.

[2:40:22] I can come back.

[2:40:23] No, no. I just also wanted to say that I would, I would echo going down the list.

[2:40:28] I know there was one provided the tobacco easings offensive,

[2:40:31] but I would like us to revisit that in the proposal.

[2:40:34] What those items, those contents are. Thank you.

[2:40:38] And I didn't mean to skip over question number one

[2:40:40] and in case the out front representative would like to speak to that.

[2:40:48] Sorry, which was the question?

[2:40:50] there were so many. I may have been the one for one. I know it's a stretch.

[2:40:56] So that economics of the seal just on allow for that. This is actually one of the most

[2:41:01] will be the most expensive billboard on the one-on-one corridor. We do have two landlords,

[2:41:06] and we'll be paying the city, but we're also paying monetary credit union. So there's a lot

[2:41:11] of money going out. Half the revenue is going out before any of our expenses before our capital

[2:41:16] cost. And so it's really, I guess, a valuable site, not going to deny that. You know, that's

[2:41:22] why we're here. But because it's such a lucrative and expensive deal to benefit of the city

[2:41:28] to the landlord, there's just, it doesn't, it doesn't cancel to remove those signs. Now, all

[2:41:35] the signs are out of the city. There are no surface tree signs. And that's typically what happens

[2:41:39] with relocation agreements. The old poster signs get removed from the city. And there are,

[2:41:44] not again in Redwood City.

[2:41:49] Thank you very much. That's very helpful. And then there I think

[2:41:52] must like question about the outreach plan. Again, this is the proper time to ask about that.

[2:41:58] Yes, so we would work with staff to determine exactly what type of outreach if it's community meetings,

[2:42:03] amaler. This is not an extra residential, so this is in a very commercial area, so it's a different

[2:42:10] type of neighbor outreach would like to also point out with respect to the

[2:42:15] creek that was brought up earlier the positioning of the sign between the

[2:42:20] parking garage and the headquarters building it really does orient the sign just

[2:42:25] to the freeway and really does limit the visibility from the creek and the

[2:42:30] lighting does dim with the ambient lighting conditions so it's just above the ambient

[2:42:36] light point three foot candles so that it's visible to the passing motorists, but it

[2:42:41] not like a car dealership sign. It doesn't light up the sky. It doesn't light up the

[2:42:45] neighborhood at night. It just stays just above the ambient light. Thank you. And then also

[2:42:51] it would be off between 12 p.m. and 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.

[2:42:56] So it's currently proposed is a 24 hour sign. We can certainly work with staff to determine

[2:43:01] and how we can restrict that.

[2:43:04] Again, because it's a revenue share, it will impact revenue

[2:43:06] to the city, revenue to the landlord.

[2:43:09] But we can look at that.

[2:43:10] Typically, if we do have dark hours,

[2:43:13] it's typically between anywhere from 2 to 5 a.m.

[2:43:16] or midnight to 5 a.m.

[2:43:17] So we would look to try to keep it consistent with the standard,

[2:43:20] just from an add sales standpoint

[2:43:22] to minimize the impact to revenue.

[2:43:24] And that's something we can work out with staff.

[2:43:26] Again, I think the plan is that we would negotiate

[2:43:29] all the terms of the agreement. So when we bring the entitlement back to you with the

[2:43:35] Secla report with the community outreach with the negotiated lease with the ordinance

[2:43:40] change, you'll have everything to look at and that will be your opportunity to vote to approve

[2:43:45] the deal. But you get to see all of those terms in there including the content restrictions and

[2:43:50] everything else. Thank you very much and appreciate the consideration of what is standard

[2:43:56] And then Patrick, just a one last question, sorry.

[2:43:59] So looking at the revenue here, I mean,

[2:44:06] I'm just trying to think we had this lengthy conversation

[2:44:09] at our last meeting in the now tonight

[2:44:11] about the gap for our capital needs.

[2:44:18] And so this would that gap is pre-substantial,

[2:44:23] I believe it was millions,

[2:44:26] but I mean it.

[2:44:28] You know, we only have so many options in terms of revenue, in terms of revenue generation, and we're expecting or we're expecting a reduction in sales tax revenue

[2:44:39] which are

[2:44:40] Alongside property tax are

[2:44:42] Principal revenue stream, so can you just explain a little bit further contextualized this in terms of our city budget?

[2:44:51] Yeah, thank you

[2:44:51] Yeah, I would say it would be one tool in a tool belt, right?

[2:44:55] It's definitely not going to solve all the cities, luckily, measure being.

[2:45:00] A city manager outlined tonight, put us in a really good position. Next four years we're on pretty solid ground after that. We're going to have to find some other sources of revenue. This would be something that would help, but definitely is not the silver bullet. But with economic development, if you could do that, you know, other things you can kind of, you know, put some things to get over time when you look at the revenue over time, that's significant money over time. But, but again, it's not going to solve all the problems and it's being, I would say, one tool in the tool.

[2:45:30] Well, let us speak.

[2:45:31] Thank you.

[2:45:32] And I agree with what you just said there is no

[2:45:35] a silver bullet.

[2:45:36] And so we do need to use as many of the tools in our toolbox as possible.

[2:45:40] Thank you.

[2:45:43] Don't remember Howard.

[2:45:45] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:45:46] I have some questions.

[2:45:50] So my understanding, there's three static billboards

[2:45:53] that the gentleman spoke about.

[2:45:57] And you're saying it just wouldn't pencil out,

[2:46:00] if you were to take any one or any of them down.

[2:46:04] Some of my question is, I think I know which ones they are.

[2:46:09] Would there be something we could negotiate

[2:46:11] where you could actually improve the appearance of the ones you have?

[2:46:18] We could certainly look into that.

[2:46:19] There are a number of limitations.

[2:46:22] Part of it is the city ordinance that regulates

[2:46:24] and limits what we can do to the structure,

[2:46:27] But we could certainly look into what type of enhancements beyond just the customer and repairs.

[2:46:35] Did you have something specific in line?

[2:46:36] We could look at that or certainly maybe as better head of offline.

[2:46:39] Something beautiful, but still boards are not beautiful usually.

[2:46:44] But no, I just, if it's the ones I'm thinking of, they looked tired.

[2:46:48] And I, I just thought, if there was a way, I mean, Redwood City,

[2:46:52] we pride ourselves on the efforts that we have to beautify our city and if that effort could

[2:46:59] be put into those static signs then it wouldn't be quite the sticking point shall I say you're

[2:47:07] putting an effort into making something more attractive for our community so maybe there's some

[2:47:12] negotiation we can do on the three certainly and I'll leave it at that I mean we're not negotiating

[2:47:19] tonight but I understand this is your offer that the city has encountered yet and that's why

[2:47:25] we're discussing this tonight so I thought I'd bring that part up. I also want to know what are

[2:47:32] other cities doing as far as what are they asking for the annual I mean for the one time

[2:47:40] fee and annually I was hoping I could get some information about that because I feel like what's

[2:47:46] offered here is rather low.

[2:47:51] Yeah, I'll take a shot and then you can help

[2:47:53] supplement some sure you know the industry a lot better. Back in October when we

[2:47:57] came on the state session we did have an attachment that looked at we got the

[2:48:02] numbers from San Carlos we got the numbers from some South City. What we don't

[2:48:06] know is the exact you know like I said every terms every terms is different right

[2:48:12] but so we don't know we have the gross numbers for example what we talked with

[2:48:16] South City is there was some replacement numbers up to a million dollars. I don't know if that's per sign

[2:48:23] if that's four or five signs or what not. What we would do after tonight is if we got direction is we go and talk and meet with folks

[2:48:31] What's working? What's not really trying to understand? So again, I'm not saying that it's a million dollars a sign at all

[2:48:38] But when you look at the annual payment or whatnot, I would say this is above many of them

[2:48:44] It's really the one-time cost of front, and then, you know, some jurisdictions build

[2:48:49] and escalators, others don't, so there's some nuance on terms like that.

[2:48:55] But, and then what we really did is we compared it up among the other ones that were submitted.

[2:49:00] It was really interesting to go through this process that I had never gone through one.

[2:49:02] But to hear that, well, 1580 maples really and ideals, but it's on what, you know, it's really

[2:49:08] interesting.

[2:49:08] And I would say, those ones were, so I think three were higher.

[2:49:12] I think the question is, why are those higher?

[2:49:15] You know, can they match that?

[2:49:16] Maybe they can't, because that's on the other side

[2:49:18] of the freeway, and we don't want that or whatnot.

[2:49:20] So I think there's definitely a full spectrum.

[2:49:22] We'll forward, if the full council will

[2:49:24] like the attachments that we had on the October

[2:49:27] staff report just to refresh your memory.

[2:49:29] And I'll invite, I just want to come provide a,

[2:49:32] if you want to negotiate against yourself right now.

[2:49:35] Happy to share, this is all public information.

[2:49:37] Happy to share, it really varies by city.

[2:49:39] some cities have a one-time fee $70,000, some have an annual fee, some have an in-lue,

[2:49:48] so like in this situation, we're not taking a sign down, we pay the fee, which is what we

[2:49:52] offered in our proposal, the $100,000, and so it varies South San Francisco.

[2:50:00] It's a relocation agreement. We didn't have any signs to take down, so we paid the one-time fee, and then there's a nominal annual fee that's paid to the city, essentially administrative fee.

[2:50:10] South San Francisco happens to be right after the airport, so it's capturing the airport traffic to the city. So each segment of highway, each part of the Bay Area has different value propositions to advertisers and different economics.

[2:50:22] We just did a program in Oakland, we're paid $100,000 a year per site.

[2:50:29] So you're getting more than double that here.

[2:50:33] So again, it really depends on the economics on the city.

[2:50:38] Some cities, again, was it Santa Cruz, what 70,000 Jeff?

[2:50:43] So it really varies city by city where we just went through process in San Jose.

[2:50:50] And it's, again, not anymore close to what the terms are here for, uh, for our city.

[2:51:01] Well, recognizing that you may be the pilot.

[2:51:06] I want to be sure that we negotiate the best deal for our city.

[2:51:09] I'm just going to be up front with you because the others will follow.

[2:51:14] And I don't want others to come in and think this is the deal.

[2:51:17] Because I agree with Mr. Painter, what you're proposing, the site, you're proposing is magnificent.

[2:51:24] I mean, I love the building of Monterey, Credit Union, and I think as St. Carlos's done blending it into the buildings,

[2:51:33] it's quite an attractive look if you're into billboards.

[2:51:37] I'm just saying, I wouldn't want to set our bar low. This is really important to us, and it's our first time.

[2:51:45] So, I want to do all the research we can do and make sure that we ask the money that we feel that we should be given.

[2:51:52] I believe in cost-descalators, I do, and so I would definitely want that part of the negotiation.

[2:52:00] It's in the proposal. We do have an escalator in there.

[2:52:04] That was part of the proposal.

[2:52:08] You got the competitive bid, so that kind of gives you an idea of where the market is at.

[2:52:12] And that's how it shows you, you know, the different economics, you can see some variety in those proposals.

[2:52:19] The difference on the Monteira one is we have a second landlord that we're paying.

[2:52:24] But we did submit the pump station proposals as well, so you can see those numbers what they were.

[2:52:30] And I think we were at the top of market there.

[2:52:32] We beat everybody else. We're 50% revenue share to the city for that.

[2:52:36] And so you can think that going forward, you know, does set a bar and then regionally depending on if you go out for two more

[2:52:44] At some point in the future how the economy is doing typically these deals go up they don't go down

[2:52:50] So, you know, you're setting a bar and

[2:52:54] It's true but

[2:52:57] I'm just not sure a community has the appetite for multiple billboards. That's why we decided to do a pilot with one

[2:53:04] And let's see, if they are okay with the one, I'd want to be really careful before we wanted to entertain others may not be necessary.

[2:53:15] But anyway, I also think that if we do approve at the end of the day approve this, we should probably revisit it in one to two years just to see how is it working, how is our relationship going?

[2:53:28] have we had complaints? That kind of thing. I don't see that in there, but we probably should

[2:53:34] put it in there. Just to check in, make sure that things are going well. I was hoping for

[2:53:41] an overnight shutdown, but if you're saying ambient light, I would think that implies

[2:53:48] at night time it would be much less.

[2:53:50] Very much, yes. So it's 0.3 foot candles over ambient, and each side has its own light

[2:53:56] So the south facing, when the sun is on it, will be brighter than the north facing.

[2:54:03] So again, it's just enough for the motorists as they're approaching, for people as they're approaching,

[2:54:07] to be able to make out clearly what the copy is.

[2:54:11] It's not too damn.

[2:54:11] It's not like the cardiovascular signs that are super bright at night lighting up.

[2:54:15] Could you give us a place, maybe you could, maybe not tonight, but let us know of an address,

[2:54:21] or that's somewhere where I could drive by and take a peek.

[2:54:23] I'd like to see one of your signs on the 101 and see what it looks like.

[2:54:29] So we have a couple of signs in South San Francisco.

[2:54:31] We also have signs in San Carlos.

[2:54:34] So either direction on 101 also one in Santa Clara.

[2:54:38] So as you go through just look for it, it says,

[2:54:40] out front on the imprint underneath the ad display.

[2:54:43] So you got the main display and then there's the logo underneath.

[2:54:47] Anyone that says out front is one of ours.

[2:54:50] Maybe you can even give us an address for San Carlos.

[2:54:53] Sure. Jeff, do you happen to have that?

[2:54:57] Okay. A 50 Britain.

[2:54:59] A 50 Britain.

[2:55:00] Because I may just park somewhere and look at it.

[2:55:05] Just don't park on the freeway.

[2:55:06] No, I wouldn't think that would be a good idea.

[2:55:11] Let me see, we're going to find out what other cities are doing and get that information.

[2:55:17] I think that answers my questions,

[2:55:22] but I'd be willing to consider it if, in fact, it looked like something

[2:55:26] we could improve the appearance of the static billboards if there was a fee negotiated that was

[2:55:34] good for us and was comfortable for us. I do like the idea that city has 10% advertisement time.

[2:55:43] I certainly would like to have a content discussion as best we can legally and other than that,

[2:55:51] I think that's answered all my questions, but thank you very much.

[2:55:56] Thank you.

[2:55:58] Can you Council Member Howard, any other response?

[2:56:03] Oh, I see.

[2:56:04] Council Member Chu's put her hand up and then we'll go to the vice mayor.

[2:56:09] So thank you so much for that presentation and just sort of a new way to think about potential

[2:56:15] sources of revenue for the city.

[2:56:17] I did have a one question for the city attorney and I think you've answered this, but

[2:56:26] want to make sure that we're clear. So if we don't ban certain topics, are we allowed to

[2:56:33] circumscribe them? Meaning okay, these signs are for the following topics and nothing else.

[2:56:39] So it's not banning things. It's allowing, or would that be considered a ban?

[2:56:46] So again, we cannot regulate content. And so we have to start off. Okay. That's that there's no end runs.

[2:56:54] Okay.

[2:56:54] Go in.

[2:56:55] Run around that.

[2:56:56] Okay.

[2:56:56] We have to be content neutral in our regulations.

[2:57:00] Okay.

[2:57:01] All right.

[2:57:01] You're enough.

[2:57:03] I could just.

[2:57:04] Sorry to interrupt.

[2:57:05] If I could just add that we are able to voluntarily regulate certain content within

[2:57:10] limits.

[2:57:11] Okay.

[2:57:11] And so that's something where we try to make sure that things are appropriate to the

[2:57:17] widest possible audience and that we don't learn.

[2:57:21] Particularly inappropriate copy.

[2:57:23] Okay. Okay, that's helpful. So that's the first thing. The second thing is just a comment.

[2:57:29] So I actually live, you know, very close to 101 in one of the neighborhoods that about 101.

[2:57:38] And, you know, I'll just be very direct. That part of the freeway is just not pretty at all.

[2:57:44] And, you know, though I certainly agree that I wish that our Bay and our freeway was glorious and beautiful like 280.

[2:57:53] What makes it not pretty isn't the signs that it's surrounded by surface-lots, garages, and industrial uses.

[2:58:02] And so, you know, obviously I'd be very interested in pursuing other uses around the freeway.

[2:58:07] I think they'd be much more aesthetically pleasing, they'd be better city environments, probably more economically productive.

[2:58:12] But I don't know that the sign is going to make her break the beauty of our freeway.

[2:58:19] I think also from an environmental perspective again, the 900-pound gorilla of harms to the

[2:58:42] So again, it certainly am concerned about the ambient light or the light from the signs,

[2:58:48] but in the context of where it's located, it's kind of a drop in the bucket, I think.

[2:58:54] That said, I do want beautiful signs, and I do want us to take steps towards a more

[2:58:59] beautiful freeway and a put towards a more beautiful bay where we can, and so I would

[2:59:06] interested in, you know, sort of thinking up to Council Member Howard's point about examples of really

[2:59:12] beautifully done signs if there are those that have been integrated into buildings and they look

[2:59:16] really nice, that would be great. You know, I would love to have a conversation about content,

[2:59:23] obviously, we can't ban anything that sort of have a discussion about things that we would

[2:59:28] refer to see more of or less of if there's room for that discussion. And then, you know,

[2:59:35] wanted to echo the wish to see as good of a deal for the city, as we can get, and that we would

[2:59:43] have what is reasonable and customary that if other cities are getting more favorable terms

[2:59:48] that ours would be kind of at that level, and just that it would be as beneficial to the city

[2:59:54] as possible. And then I also really appreciate that I think what it...

[3:00:00] 10% of the ads are for the city itself, but did I understand that correctly?

[3:00:04] Correct, up to.

[3:00:06] Yep. That's great. I mean, that's a terrific use of the sites. And then I also did a quick

[3:00:10] lit search. I didn't, the evidence on distraction. There's no gangbusters evidence

[3:00:18] that popped up, but I think it's worth definitely considering them looking at, like if a certain

[3:00:23] kind of sign has a longer look time. We should have kinds of signs that have a short look time.

[3:00:29] like and and definitely look at that if if that's a concern then that to me would be a deal

[3:00:38] breaker like if this is going to result in crashes then I don't think we should have them

[3:00:43] but if there's no evidence that this contributes to it then I'd be fine with them. So I'll

[3:00:49] leave it there.

[3:00:53] Thanks. Thank you, Kelsey. I'll go to the best way. I'll just say two things really

[3:00:58] quick, I've already spoken, but this is really to, in my mind, and just for our councils, I

[3:01:04] want us to think of it this way that the threshold question is, do we want to change our

[3:01:10] current ordinance? That's the threshold question. And then, if you say the answer to that

[3:01:17] is no, that's the end of it. If you say the answer to that is yes, then you start talking

[3:01:23] about money, but if we want to be, I want us to be looking at the idea and not just

[3:01:29] well, we'll like it if it's a lot of money, but we won't like it if it's not enough.

[3:01:33] I don't want us to be negotiating money tonight, or I don't, I mean, staff can do that

[3:01:37] later.

[3:01:38] It's just my thought.

[3:01:42] And the only, and then I'll let Councilmember Tito, I just wanted to say one more thing,

[3:01:48] And that is, everyone's asking like, what are other cities doing,

[3:01:55] and sometimes things go

[3:01:56] in fads and 10 years ago, everyone wanted to do hotels, and then that fad went away

[3:02:04] and then we started buying up the hotels because they weren't profitable and turning

[3:02:08] them into navigation centers.

[3:02:12] So let's not just do it because other cities are doing it.

[3:02:16] Let's do it because it's what we want to do on our 101 corridor.

[3:02:22] That's the second thing I would say, and I'll leave it there.

[3:02:28] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[3:02:29] Councilor Reggie.

[3:02:31] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:02:34] Let me just start off saying, Patrick, thank you and the team for getting us to this point.

[3:02:39] When we had this conversation, at least the majority of Councilor Reggie, we're interested.

[3:02:43] And when we said that, you went out the RFI request for information and consequently, Alex

[3:02:51] Thank you and your team and thank all the other teams for submitting proposals and response

[3:02:56] to the city.

[3:02:57] submitting a proposal isn't cost money and effort and so I appreciate all the teams and all

[3:03:03] the proposals that came in seeking interest in the possibility of placing a digital billboard

[3:03:11] Redmond City and let me make sure I'm really clear here the staff recommendation is a letter

[3:03:20] interest not a letter of intent because it's two very different things from my standpoint.

[3:03:27] A letter of interest means that we can then go have a conversation about details versus you know

[3:03:33] intent means we're ready to go sign

[3:03:36] absent a couple details so maybe Patrick you can pick up from that point. It's a very good point

[3:03:44] I would say interest would would have been a better use of word. Yeah, and then it definitely has a stronger

[3:03:49] notion of real estate. So I believe we're interested in the proposal that was presented here. That staff is interested in to continue the feedback

[3:04:01] going forward

[3:04:03] Before I continue, I just want to back up at Alex, just a couple of questions here for you.

[3:04:10] You know, this is a potential 20-year term here, what's the trend line for advertising?

[3:04:15] I mean, advertising rates going up, going down, constant flat, what's your projection for 20 years?

[3:04:22] You've got a higher of two numbers and things like that, but is it advertising rates going up?

[3:04:28] What goes up, and it goes down, but I think the long-term trend line is, at least for our industry, is upward,

[3:04:38] but there's a variability to it, and that's why we kind of gave you the protection proposal.

[3:04:44] You've got the downside protection guaranteed money that you can put on the budget, you can pre-allocate it, and then the upside participation.

[3:04:52] So you never lose out on a strong market that revenue share ensures that you'll always be scaling

[3:05:00] With us as the industry grows. But, you know, if there's a downturn, you're protected, you can count on that in the budget, while everything else is also probably getting squeezed.

[3:05:10] Appreciate that. There's been conversation here at the day as about.

[3:05:16] I don't want to get trouble with our city attorney here, because she's going to listen very carefully, but how people apply to place ads? And so can you kind of talk about how your firm,

[3:05:28] If someone's interested in placing an and put the process you go through might be to say yes, or maybe

[3:05:35] consequently say no

[3:05:37] Certainly, so we have sales teams out front of sales teams across the country

[3:05:41] Bay Area office reaches out to all the the major national advertisers

[3:05:47] Regional advertisers local advertisers. They can also find us through the website. They can call us

[3:05:54] Google it's in the yellow pages on the phone book

[3:05:57] That's part of the reason to have the out front imprint right on the science, so they know how to find us

[3:06:03] And so that's kind of the reaching out to salespeople

[3:06:07] But it's a two-way street, right?

[3:06:09] There's salespeople going out reaching out to businesses pounding the pavement and knocking on doors and then people can also call in and then the future

[3:06:17] The business so one of the great things about digital billboards is the ability to change copy

[3:06:23] So for advertisers, they love it because they can change their messages, not every four weeks like a traditional bill of work, but practically, you know, every day, every hour, every ad is a discrete unit.

[3:06:35] So it allows you to change copy, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It allows for emergency alert interruptions, amber alerts. If there's an earthquake, if there's a power outage, all these different services are tied in, so we're able to communicate.

[3:06:49] If you have to get off the 101 because there's a tsunami warning coming into the bay and

[3:06:54] run for the hills, we can get that on the sign.

[3:06:57] So that's one of the great things about these digital boardes that are able to change the

[3:07:01] copy frequently city messages, promoting events for the weekend, but you don't want

[3:07:07] to be advertising it on Monday and Tuesday and next week.

[3:07:10] You want it to stop on Sunday after the event is over, we're able to do that, switch it out

[3:07:15] to new message.

[3:07:15] So it becomes a much more effective and efficient use of the space, and that's one of the trends

[3:07:21] where things will become a more and more programmatic, like what you would find within

[3:07:25] ad sense with online ads, where you're able to really manage your inventory much more efficiently,

[3:07:31] get more advertisers, and also more small businesses.

[3:07:34] You know, the gentleman who has speaking earlier today about having difficulty because of the

[3:07:38] parking in front of his stores, you know, advertising on the sign creates a top of mind,

[3:07:44] can put a humorous message on there, gets people thinking about coming in and stopping in,

[3:07:49] and bring their skateboard, bring their roller blades, all the different ways they can

[3:07:52] visit a store.

[3:07:53] We could do that cost efficiently because he's buying just a segment of add time on it just

[3:07:58] way.

[3:08:00] Thank you.

[3:08:01] And we'll just want to take it one step further.

[3:08:02] And the staff report says there are certainly terms that would discourage certain product

[3:08:10] advertising.

[3:08:11] So how do you do that?

[3:08:12] You know, let's say I wanted to come and put cigarettes up on the, you know, on the digital

[3:08:19] billboard.

[3:08:20] How do you control that?

[3:08:22] Every advertiser is coded, so they have a category code, a content code on there, and it's

[3:08:28] checked visually.

[3:08:29] So people are checking it.

[3:08:30] We have people in the Berkeley office that are looking at the ads as they're getting posted

[3:08:35] and so there's a vetting and a screening process to see what that content is.

[3:08:39] And so the human element is critical to that and so that's that's a part of the process.

[3:08:47] It might be an acceptable advertiser but unacceptable content.

[3:08:51] They will catch that content, flag it and not kind of go up.

[3:08:55] And if it doesn't go up or if it does, it can take it down pretty quick if someone missed it.

[3:08:59] Pretty much instantaneously.

[3:09:01] So some copy went up that was we got a complaint or something that wasn't supposed to be up for our agreement.

[3:09:07] We go in there, pull it out, it doesn't go up the next location.

[3:09:12] Rotation is every 64 seconds, by the way, so it's eight ads, eight seconds each, instant change.

[3:09:18] So again, you know, we can change that super quick.

[3:09:21] All right.

[3:09:21] Thank you.

[3:09:22] Thank you, Alex.

[3:09:23] I've got a couple of thoughts for Patrick and the team, you know, as many indicated,

[3:09:30] you know, if we were going to do this, we'll need to modify our sign ordinance.

[3:09:35] And for me to get to that place, this is very helpful as a starting point.

[3:09:41] But I would like to kind of, if the council does agree, encourage your conversations with

[3:09:47] Alex and his team on a couple different, maybe several different points, and even coming

[3:09:54] to the right with City from where I live, I go past six digital billboards for it.

[3:10:00] Five in St. Carlos, four of them, relatively new one, old, the one by the old circle star. And the delmont one. And so I see those. And then I'm probably one of the unique council members. I usually have a early morning flight out of the San Jose Airport at 6 a.m. So I see what's lit going down one-on-one between rabbit shores and the San Jose Airport.

[3:10:23] The digital billboards aren't the ones that are providing the light pollution.

[3:10:28] They're usually dark from 12 am to 6 or whatever the right hours are or very low lit.

[3:10:35] The more distracting lights at that hour are the fixed billboards in the building signage.

[3:10:41] Those aren't turned off. They're 24-7 or all that long.

[3:10:45] So it's to the extent staff can come to an agreement with

[3:10:51] Out front here for lower lighting levels at night would be great somewhere even off

[3:10:56] Which are even better in those hours because and anyone want to go with me to the airport for AM after you're 11 o'clock counts of meeting

[3:11:04] You're fine to join me and come with me because I see them

[3:11:09] So that would be encouraging

[3:11:12] number two

[3:11:13] I understand the math that's the work, I get it, I mean, I know colleagues will say me doing

[3:11:20] math here at the, at the day of some times. I would be interested if there was, at least

[3:11:28] maybe a potential phase out of one fixed sign over the term of the 20 year lease. I understand

[3:11:36] the cost, the initial capital cost of front, et cetera, all the math. But I would ask you to

[3:11:43] sharpen your pencil and maybe in the year 11, one sign on the east side, they come out when

[3:11:49] the map catches up or something like that. Sometime over the 20 years, it doesn't have to be day one,

[3:11:55] I'm open to look at it over time. So those are some of the important things that I would be looking

[3:12:02] for, and then to Patrick and to our city manager, I mean, the staff report is suggest funding

[3:12:08] goes into the general fund, but we just had a conversation about an hour ago about HSFA

[3:12:13] funding.

[3:12:15] I think Council has the possibility of saying where that funding may go. We can

[3:12:22] say the floor goes into HSFA and the delta between the floor and the higher the percentage

[3:12:30] could go someplace else. I mean, that's a council decision, I believe.

[3:12:34] Yeah, absolutely. It could be there, it could be capital needs. Yes, you would have

[3:12:38] hold this up.

[3:12:38] So we have that flexibility. So as we look at constraints on our financial revenues and

[3:12:44] where we wanted to go, this could go to court, it could go to pay, it could go wherever we

[3:12:50] wanted to go, and that's part of the future conversation. So I think I remain interested

[3:12:56] And if we can find the right adjustments to the proposal through the next nine months, I don't

[3:13:04] consider this too much of a precedent for if we do any more, but I think this is a good

[3:13:11] opportunity to begin to have those more serious sharpened pencil, which is not 21st century

[3:13:17] because I know we're used tablets now, but I think if we sharpen the pencil, we can find

[3:13:23] agreement that Pope Park works for both parties.

[3:13:27] So this is my thoughts right now.

[3:13:29] But thank you, Patrick, for taking this out to market.

[3:13:33] And to all the proposals, proposers,

[3:13:36] thank you for making that time and energy

[3:13:38] to respond to the city's inquiring.

[3:13:44] Duke Council energy.

[3:13:47] Let's see any other hands.

[3:13:51] Oh.

[3:13:52] All seven of the lights came up.

[3:13:53] It's worth the deal.

[3:13:54] We're going to be first.

[3:13:55] I just want to mention that I had asked for a copy of our current sign ordinance as I thought it was pertinent to this conversation.

[3:14:04] And when I review it, it seems like we would have to amend quite a bit of our current ordinance, and I think that we shouldn't take that lightly.

[3:14:13] I think, to council member, you can point, you know, there's things about message neutrality.

[3:14:21] It is the city's policy at the intent to regulate signs in a manner which is consistent with

[3:14:25] the speech freedoms above the United States and California constitutions by enacting regulations

[3:14:30] which are content neutral while recognizing the differing levels of protection to non-commercial

[3:14:35] and commercial messages.

[3:14:36] So I just, I bring this up because there's a lot of important points in this ordinance

[3:14:41] and when I go back to the slippery slope in Pandora's box about how in I too I'm a firm

[3:14:47] believer in freedom of speech but I also believe in protecting our community and I worry about the

[3:14:54] forums that we provide so for doing this are we condoning that there have been and maybe they can speak

[3:15:00] If they are not their billboards, but I know in the past there have been some very controversial and divisive ads, and I'm not sure if they are for this particular company's billboards, but I just want, I would like for everyone to go, I would ask that everyone read our current ordinance. Thank you.

[3:15:19] Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Schirken.

[3:15:24] Thank you, Mayor. I'll definitely read the ordinance, absolutely. And I just wanted to support Councilmember Jews comments. Thank

[3:15:34] you.

[3:15:35] No, there are lights,

[3:15:39] thank you, Patrick, Alex Wade for the great information.

[3:15:42] I do have a couple of quick questions, you know, first with the 10% of time that the city would get.

[3:15:52] I saw on the staff report that that was a 1-8 second slide for every two weeks for every quarter was out of right.

[3:16:00] I might actually have Alex talk about this works in practice.

[3:16:05] Thank you.

[3:16:07] So the idea is that it would be effectively one spot in the rotation.

[3:16:13] So every 64 seconds a city ad would come up and that would just it'd be available to you to use.

[3:16:20] And there might be occasional times where there's something with emergency messaging or something happens where it blocks out the sign

[3:16:27] for a particular advertiser for a short period of time.

[3:16:31] But for all intents and purposes, you're one out of eight

[3:16:34] and 10% is very close to that.

[3:16:38] Okay, great.

[3:16:39] Thank you, Alex.

[3:16:40] And this 64-second loop is just going on all day.

[3:16:44] It's not been switched out with a real B.

[3:16:47] That doesn't include a city advertisement.

[3:16:50] No, you'd be in the loop.

[3:16:52] You wouldn't be just on Saturday mornings between five and seven.

[3:16:55] It would be in the loop, and if there's an unsolved ad spot, then the loop

[3:17:00] collapses to seven, so you're one out of seven instead of one out of eight.

[3:17:04] So, you know, it could be even more frequent, but given the one-on-one corridor or the

[3:17:09] expectation, it'll be, you know, actively son after sign, if we do our job selling, you know,

[3:17:15] one out of eight is, I think, the way to plan it.

[3:17:18] Yeah, okay, thank you Alex, that helps and then, you know, on driver distractions,

[3:17:27] you know, I, I wanted to just confirm that this is, you know, meeting

[3:17:32] CalTransistanders, I know that they have guidelines for you all that you have to not be, I guess, distracting in certain ways, right, that might get a driver's eyes off the wheel on the billboard, right?

[3:17:45] Correct. Highly regulated industry at the federal and state level, FHWA has approved of the operating standards that we follow, which is the lighting conditions, the instantaneous change,

[3:17:58] state law actually allows you to change the ad message every four seconds, we do every eight.

[3:18:04] So it's with half the frequency.

[3:18:06] And again, we follow all the federal and state regulations.

[3:18:09] Just great. Thank you for that. Back in my day, when I was a state staffer, we had a dentist's

[3:18:16] office who wanted to adopt a part of 92 and I had a reach out to Kelterans because they

[3:18:21] are the folks who set up the measurements for that, right? We'll give it a thumbs up the

[3:18:27] thumbs down if it's too distracting or if there's too much signage on that stretch of the

[3:18:31] highway, the ones to kind of, you know, put that in a stop. But thank you for that. You

[3:18:38] aside from that I heard a, you know, and escalators been built into the staff or into the

[3:18:45] agreements, the proposal today. You know, how often are folks who are advertising with you

[3:18:53] having to renew their contracts, is that going to be in line with sort of what the city's agreement

[3:18:58] will be or what that can bear? It varies. Again, we have the business model based on experience and

[3:19:05] revenue forecasting, the escalator's 12.5% every five years and so that's guarantee to

[3:19:11] the city.

[3:19:12] We know that the ad market goes up because down and that's built into our model and that's

[3:19:18] again what you have the revenue share participation to make sure you do capture those peaks.

[3:19:24] But we know that some ad contracts are annual contracts, some are six months, some are for

[3:19:30] two weeks and so it's just, it's constantly cycling, it's like a hotel.

[3:19:34] Just constantly trying to sell the rooms if we don't sell them. It's lost revenue

[3:19:38] We sell them. We capture something during that time period and so we're always looking to fill in an occupancy with the different advertisers that are coming in

[3:19:47] That's really good to know. I

[3:19:49] Hope that's not the situation where you're not able to fill out everybody, but that's an opportunity for the city if if I've were to happen, but

[3:19:58] You know aside from

[3:20:00] I guess I will agree with my colleagues and their thoughts around this. I think, you know, it's, they're definitely trade-offs. To move forward with this, I do think it's a conversation we're having.

[3:20:14] You know, I, I'm very familiar with 350 convention way and that building and that creek pathway and, you know, walked that creek pathway a lot.

[3:20:25] and I know that building is really blocking where this billboard is being proposed and I think

[3:20:32] that would be less visual impact on people who are walking along the creek side where it

[3:20:37] is a lot more sort of a lot more clear. There's less sort of office space, less parking on

[3:20:44] that side of the road, so I do think that would help. Aside from that, I thought to comments the

[3:20:53] work to make the ambient lighting conditions just a standard would be really important.

[3:20:59] You know, I know that this will be playing 24 hours a night, but I think the combination

[3:21:05] of fact that it's mainly a commercial area in our part of town, right, even across the highway.

[3:21:11] Combining that ambient lighting conditions is going to make those visual impacts a lot less than I think we see with, you know,

[3:21:20] what is the card dealerships that we have just

[3:21:23] to cart down the way.

[3:21:25] But aside from that, I wanted to just support some comments

[3:21:28] I heard from my colleagues like looking for ways

[3:21:32] to just continuing to either improve the existing billboards

[3:21:34] we have that are on the other side of the highway.

[3:21:37] I think that makes a lot of sense.

[3:21:40] Or even finding a really creative solution

[3:21:43] to maybe doing a trade-off where we do it one for one trade

[3:21:46] or we phase it out over time, right?

[3:21:49] as things get better or the market changes but I do think if we can try to reduce the overall

[3:21:57] amount of signs that would be really helpful but the last question I had on the billboards

[3:22:05] was none of these billboards the actual advertisements although it's digital they won't

[3:22:10] be video ads or anything like that it'll be static content correct there's static messages

[3:22:16] they cannot change, they cannot mimic traffic signs, you know, they can't be creating a hazard.

[3:22:24] Okay. So we're not gonna have the, something like this. No video, no motion. No, you are

[3:22:29] none of that. Okay. Great. Perfect. Thank you for that. And then, you know, this is just on

[3:22:35] Councillor Merripe, he doesn't know what about looking at the ordinance carefully, I had seen

[3:22:41] a car driving down middle field the other day with a small digital billboard on the back end

[3:22:48] of this truck and they were just going down and wood side and kind of going around town.

[3:22:53] So I know that this isn't a part of our conversation today but as we kind of think about updating

[3:22:59] the ordinances that could be a driver distraction right where they're probably not being regulated

[3:23:04] the same way that you know these other billboards are.

[3:23:07] So, just something for us to think about, but those are my comments for today.

[3:23:13] Oh yeah, please vice mayor.

[3:23:16] Thank you. I correct me if I'm wrong, colleagues. I heard for of us, or more, express the opinion

[3:23:27] that we wanted to reduce the number of billboards on the east side of 101. So, I just

[3:23:36] that noted for the record that this applicant isn't doing that, that's not part of their

[3:23:44] offer but that four council members are saying four or more saying that is of interest and I

[3:23:52] did want to note that in our October when we looked at this October that there were six categories

[3:24:00] according to the staff report. One of our reasons for wanting to update our current

[3:24:09] ordinance is to reduce the billboards on the east side of 101. And so I just want to note that

[3:24:18] if we pursue this intent, as Mr. G called it, not interest, not intent. If we pursue this

[3:24:26] interest. We need to be aware that this applicant is not offering to reduce billboards

[3:24:33] on the west side. And then I just had one question. What happens if it's, and thank

[3:24:43] you, Alex, I've learned a lot. But what happens if you don't have eight ads per minute,

[3:24:52] what if you only have 5 ads per minute? Do they get 12 seconds or is it blank for...

[3:25:00] For 16 seconds, or what happens if you don't have all the advertisers that you're hoping for?

[3:25:08] The loop collapses. They stay eight seconds each, and then instead of going one out of eight, you're going one out of five.

[3:25:15] So you're frequency increases. So it is expandable and collapsible up to a maximum of eight.

[3:25:25] Well, I've already made my position clear, so I'll stop talking.

[3:25:31] Thank you, Vice Mayor.

[3:25:32] Again, thank you, Alex Wade, for starting this important look at Patrick.

[3:25:37] Is there a motion?

[3:25:41] Councillor Osirgin.

[3:25:43] Thank you, Madam.

[3:25:44] I'm sorry.

[3:25:44] I just want to clarify.

[3:25:45] I think what I heard as well is that there's openness to having a conversation about basing out a billboard over time and working on the lighting as well.

[3:25:56] I just want to clarify that.

[3:25:58] You know, we'll have to go back and look at the economics and the process staff and that can be part of our conversation.

[3:26:05] Thank you.

[3:26:06] All right.

[3:26:07] I'm happy to make a motion to move this that recommendation.

[3:26:14] I'm going to do this for a second.

[3:26:16] I'd like to second that.

[3:26:17] But I'd like to find to this a little bit.

[3:26:21] And I'll look to this the attorney and Patrick.

[3:26:23] Under item number one, maybe perhaps the better word is a letter of interest.

[3:26:28] That's that I've been tent what I'll print and to all the comments made by from the council and Alex thank you and your team for being here.

[3:26:38] I would just offer whether it's removing one or removing three or changing the lighting. I would just say not yet.

[3:26:45] But if we do say the most you provide direction that the teams will get to get our team and your team to see how far down we can the road we can do and making this happen.

[3:26:58] based on what you've heard from Council.

[3:27:00] So that's why I just liked to tweak this a little bit

[3:27:02] with the maker of the motion that I said a letter

[3:27:05] and a letter of interest without front.

[3:27:07] And that you've heard the feedback

[3:27:09] and hopefully sharp pencils can come to some solution

[3:27:13] that we can all agree to.

[3:27:17] I agree with that.

[3:27:18] Thank you, Council.

[3:27:19] Thank you.

[3:27:19] Great.

[3:27:20] That's a motion from Councilor Sturkin.

[3:27:22] The second from Councilor Ruchi,

[3:27:23] could we get a electronic boat please?

[3:27:28] Certainly.

[3:27:28] We'll start with Councilmember G.

[3:27:32] Councilmember Howard.

[3:27:33] Yes.

[3:27:34] Councilmember Petia.

[3:27:38] No.

[3:27:40] Councilmember Sturkin.

[3:27:42] Yes.

[3:27:43] Councilmember Chu.

[3:27:45] Yes.

[3:27:46] Iismayer Aiken.

[3:27:48] No.

[3:27:51] Mayor Martinez Ios.

[3:27:53] Yes.

[3:27:54] The motion passes with five votes.

[3:27:57] Councilmember Petia and Vice Mayor Aiken opposed.

[3:28:01] Thank you.

[3:28:01] Thank you everyone for that great discussion and again, thank you Alex Wade, Patrick for the presentation today.

[3:28:08] We'll now go on to item 9 items from City Council's subcommittees.

[3:28:13] Beginning with 9A, approving updates to the City Council policy 2018-1,

[3:28:19] a guide to City Council communications and business as recommended by the City Council's governance subcommittee.

[3:28:25] And our city clerk, just your cash roll, we'll have a brief presentation and we'll take public comment after that.

[3:28:33] Thank you.

[3:28:35] Jessica Cash, just a city clerk and I do have a very brief presentation for you on proposed updates to Council Policy 2018-1,

[3:28:44] which is the Guide to City Council Communications and Business.

[3:28:47] This is a document that sets forth the manner in which the City Council shall conduct business and communicate with the public,

[3:28:53] City, staff, and fellow council members.

[3:28:56] The proposed updates were recommended by the City Council's Governance Subcommittee,

[3:29:00] comprised of council member G, Vice Mayor Aiken, and Mayor Martinez-Sibyos,

[3:29:05] and informed by council discussion at the Offsite Meeting in February of this year.

[3:29:13] The two questions before you are whether clarifications are needed on the changes

[3:29:18] to the council norms and communications,

[3:29:21] and whether you have any questions about the process that was used to develop

[3:29:24] and review these changes.

[3:29:30] So the proposed changes are on the screen here. We're adding

[3:29:33] two sections under section 7A of the guide, which provide the space and time for council

[3:29:38] members to provide feedback at public meetings. We're also updating section 8A3 to ensure accuracy

[3:29:46] in city council staff communications. And we're also updating section 9 related to city council

[3:29:53] public communications to clarify with staff what information can be shared publicly and to also provide.

[3:30:00] We will provide a list of examples of public communication methods.

[3:30:06] Again, the questions for you on the screen,

[3:30:11] and happy to answer any questions, and take public comment if we have any.

[3:30:17] Great, thank you so much to the clerk, any clarifying questions.

[3:30:22] I'm seeing any of you go to public comments.

[3:30:24] And we don't have any at the moment, so last call, and no written public comment either may or so.

[3:30:30] back to you. Thank you. So with we will open Council discussion, Council member Howard.

[3:30:36] I just have one question. The guide has many things in there and we just picked a couple

[3:30:46] at that point. I know that it's a lot of work to review it, but I was wondering if the governance

[3:30:51] committee wouldn't mind over time maybe looking at the book and seeing if there are any other

[3:30:59] items that you feel are outdated, need to be brought up to modern times.

[3:31:04] I'm just thinking, would you like the council to read the book, thoroughly, and make

[3:31:09] suggestions?

[3:31:11] I'm not looking to put a big workload on the governance committee, but I just thought

[3:31:14] there may be other things in there where you say, gee, that really doesn't belong.

[3:31:18] It's kind of like, outlet, it's usefulness.

[3:31:21] So I just wanted to know if anyone else felt that way that it might be a good exercise

[3:31:26] just to review it and see, is it current, is it relevant in this time? I'm thinking of the letterhead,

[3:31:35] the letterhead notation that's in there that came about because of one person about 20 years ago

[3:31:40] and you just wonder if it really needs to be there at all.

[3:31:46] I don't need you to do that right away.

[3:31:49] Thank you, councilmember.

[3:31:51] Good evening, just like there actually was some conversation at the governance committee.

[3:31:55] So, I do think that's something that we can fit in over time to provide some updates.

[3:32:01] Thank you.

[3:32:03] Thank you.

[3:32:04] Council member.

[3:32:06] Anybody else?

[3:32:08] Yes.

[3:32:08] That's what we're doing.

[3:32:09] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:32:10] Just for Council to, as a reminder, I mean, many of the changes that are in here are reflective

[3:32:15] of some of our conversation at the off-site earlier this year.

[3:32:20] And so, you know, thank you, Council member Howard for asking the Governor's committee to kind

[3:32:24] I keep up to date with this, but we can also take feedback through either the off sites,

[3:32:30] any of the off sites, because the world is changing pretty quick.

[3:32:35] We may have to add a section about how we use AI, I don't know, or if I can be an avatar,

[3:32:40] I, you know, whatever, things are changing pretty quickly that we do need to stay current

[3:32:46] and contemporary, so that we don't get too far out of step.

[3:32:50] So I think there are many points in time

[3:32:52] we can calibrate and then take a look.

[3:32:54] So thank you for that.

[3:32:58] Thank you, Councilor Argy.

[3:33:00] Any other thoughts?

[3:33:02] If there are no questions, I'll never mind.

[3:33:06] Bye, Square.

[3:33:07] I was just going to point out.

[3:33:08] Thank you, thank you both.

[3:33:10] And I was just going to point out that on where I just

[3:33:15] on page. Oh, where did I printed? Oh yes, on page

[3:33:29] 15 of the code of conduct. There's

[3:33:35] just a footnote. We amended it says what the public communication, media, social media,

[3:33:42] standards would be, and then we added a definition of, as Mayor, as Council Member G mentioned,

[3:33:53] we updated this to your point news Howard, we did update this to define communication

[3:33:59] because the world is changing, and so you'll see there's a footnote at the end of

[3:34:04] the title of public communication to just say what does public communication define, and

[3:34:12] And, you know, it's not just, you know, talking, it's not just email, but it's written correspondence letters, memos, online communication, social media, electronic newsletters, and on and on, so that was bringing us to Mr. G's point up to, we have these standards, whenever we have our city council,

[3:34:40] or could be perceived to be representing the City Council in any type of media,

[3:34:46] whatsoever these standards apply.

[3:34:52] Thank you, Kyle.

[3:34:53] Vice Mayor, excuse me.

[3:34:55] Any other thoughts?

[3:34:57] Council member, please.

[3:35:00] Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to appreciate the governance of committee for your discussion. I did watch the video, the recording, and I just appreciated the discussion about the distinguish between pre-speech and official messaging, especially in terms of social media. So thank you, city attorney, for clarifying that for the council.

[3:35:28] And also appreciate the discussion about how we communicate with constituents and social media being one of the right ways we can do so.

[3:35:40] And I also appreciate just

[3:35:46] preserving kind of the ability of individual council members to explain their votes in their own way, whether that be on the days or otherwise.

[3:35:58] So I just appreciate the robust discussion and the clarifications from that so you turn it. Thank

[3:36:07] you.

[3:36:08] Thank you, Councilmember.

[3:36:10] A lot of seeing any other

[3:36:15] Councilmember Howard.

[3:36:18] Thank you. I'd like to make the motion to approve the staff recommendation and thank the Governance Committee for their work.

[3:36:25] I think councilmember Howard is there a second second second second from councilmember G motion from councilmember Howard could we get to electronic vote please.

[3:36:34] We'll start with councilmember Howard. Yes. Councilmember Pitya. Yes. Councilmember Sturkin. Yes. Councilmember Chu. Yes. Councilmember G. Yes. Vice Mayor Aiken. Yes. Mayor Martinez of Ios. Yes. The motion passes unanimously.

[3:36:53] Thanks again everybody, and I'll go to item 10 matters of council interest, beginning with 10A city council member reports of meetings and conferences attended by smair.

[3:37:09] On Tuesday, May 20th, I spoke to the San Mateo County newcomers club, which has been around since 1946, on the history of Redwood City.

[3:37:19] Later that day, I represented the Council on a panel discussing San Mateo County's Child

[3:37:25] Advocate Program, Police Chief Christina Bell, and Redwood City together executive director

[3:37:33] Raphael Avandondo, also represented Redwood City on the panel.

[3:37:38] One of the things that was interesting to me is that when youth are paroled out of juvenile

[3:37:46] hall on the condition that they immediately return to school, this can be problematic because

[3:37:52] if they've been gone from school for a long time, they can't just go back to school. They

[3:37:57] have to have an education plan through the schools administration department, and that can be

[3:38:05] hard to coordinate, and it's actually quite a problem. So that was one of many things I learned.

[3:38:11] And then on Wednesday, June 4th, I attended the San Francisco Round Table Airport Nose Noise Committee meeting.

[3:38:20] Among other things, we discussed the progress on funding to soundproof older homes near the airport.

[3:38:27] On June 11th, I represented Redwood City at the San Mateo County Emergency Management Board meeting.

[3:38:33] We received a presentation from the county's health director as well as an update from Cal Fire that predicted a relatively mild summer fire season.

[3:38:48] Vice Mayor.

[3:38:50] Does anyone else have something to report?

[3:38:53] I would say any we will move to item 10B City Council Committee reports.

[3:38:59] Starting with homelessness ad hoc committee.

[3:39:01] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:39:02] The homeless this at-hot committee comprised of myself and council members,

[3:39:07] Chief of the Sturcan, we met for our six-time on Friday the 13th,

[3:39:11] that Amy realized it was a Friday the 13th.

[3:39:14] The committee has been considering whether to recommend that the city council adopt

[3:39:18] an ordinance to limit camping on public property.

[3:39:22] At the June 13th meeting, we reviewed the governor's proposed model for cities and counties

[3:39:26] to address encampments, discuss anti-camping policies in relation to sensitive areas.

[3:39:32] as, for example, schools, childcare facilities.

[3:39:35] Discuss penalties that may be applied

[3:39:37] if an anti-camping ordinance were adopted

[3:39:40] and directed staff to conduct additional community

[3:39:42] on-risk outreach and directed staff by a two-to-one vote

[3:39:47] with Council Member Sturkin dissenting

[3:39:49] to return the city council with an anti-camping

[3:39:52] anti-camping ordinance on July 21st.

[3:39:56] And Mayor of that time, the consent calendar

[3:39:58] may be in double letters.

[3:40:00] I came close this evening but it was like a full agenda for July 21st. I concludes my report.

[3:40:07] Thank you to council member G. We will now go to 10C City Manager or roll day. Thank you very much and building on council

[3:40:15] Remember, she's report on note that the community meetings related to the potential anti-camping

[3:40:21] ordinance have been scheduled, so those are July 1st and July 2nd.

[3:40:26] They are online, and it's the same content, both meetings, July 1st at 1 p.m. to 2.30,

[3:40:33] or Wednesday, July 2nd, 6th to 7.30 p.m. Spanish translation is available, and people can also

[3:40:40] provide comment by email.

[3:40:42] So, if you go to our website, you can find all the details about how to register and how to

[3:40:47] otherwise provide comment if those dates don't work for you.

[3:40:51] Second, and also related to homelessness, we've had a regular series of blog posts providing

[3:40:56] community information about how we are tackling challenges related to homelessness and providing

[3:41:01] services and the latest dropped last Friday. So folks may want to check that out.

[3:41:06] This one does speak to programs in partnership and county community outreach that we are doing

[3:41:12] In particular, coordination we do with the Redwood City Outreach and Provider's group.

[3:41:18] And then last, as we head into the real summer, which only happens after the budget is adopted,

[3:41:24] we have July 4th to look forward to, and we're excited to once again have a full range

[3:41:29] of activities in Redwood City, and folks can check out all this schedule.

[3:41:35] Also, on our website, but it's pancakes, parade, festival, choc fest, and then for this year

[3:41:40] the first year a very cool drone show. So looking forward to seeing folks there. Thank you.

[3:41:48] Thank you, City Manager. With that, we will adjourn. The next city council meeting is scheduled

[3:41:55] for July 21st, but really quickly I'd like to just adjourn our meeting this evening in

[3:42:01] memory of Minnesota State Representative, Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. As we know,

[3:42:06] they were killed in a horrific act of political violence with the gunmen also seriously injuring

[3:42:11] State Senator John Hoffman and his wifey that,

[3:42:15] April, political rhetoric, and violence have no place in our democracy.

[3:42:18] And in Revit City, we have long sought to build connections across our community,

[3:42:23] recognizing our residents have a wide range of experiences and perspectives.

[3:42:29] And recently we had someone reach out to us asking why United Against Hate,

[3:42:34] why hang up those posters.

[3:42:36] And unfortunately, this is a sad and horrific example of what happens.

[3:42:41] when we allow political discourse to evolve and turn into violence.

[3:42:46] So as we remember, Representative Hortman and Mark Hortman's

[3:42:49] lives of service and more and they're lost to their family and their state,

[3:42:53] I urge a Revit city community to reconstructive dialogue that allows us to work together

[3:42:59] across our differences and support a community that allows everybody here to thrive.

[3:43:03] So thank you for helping me honor those who we've lost and please stay safe.

[3:43:12] We will see everybody here July 21st for a very long meeting, but hopefully one with lots of actions.

[3:43:18] So thank you.

June 23, 2025 City Council/Successor Agency/Public Financing Agency Regular Meeting

Agenda

Transcript