mic doesn't it's pretty loud.
>> How do we turn the volume down on that?
A little better.
Thank you.
>> Right. Right. Good evening. Um the
Hillsboro City Council meeting is now
called to order. Um the time is um
3:32
and um February 9th, Monday. City clerk,
may we please have the roll call.
>> Thank you. Mayor Cole Adams,
>> present.
» Schwang,
>> present. Kle,
>> present.
>> Braxdale,
>> present.
>> Cole,
>> present.
Um the first item um today is actually a
study session which is why we are
starting at 3:30 and we will be
returning after close session for the
regular city council meeting at 6 p.m.
The study session today is on um water
rates cost of stud of service study
which will be introduced by finance
director Jen Cook. She's here with her
entire team. Um I'm happy to call their
names. Uh Rick Simmonson, vice president
HFN and H Consultants. Gibb Sasser,
project manager, HF and age consultants
and lufti karof partners special
districts and public finance practice
groups best and creger are available for
questions. Okay, Jen, good afternoon.
>> Good. Good afternoon.
So, we're here today to study the the
water rates. This is a very draft
preliminary view and there's no action
that is required today but we are asking
for any feedback from the city council
so that we can then prepare a more
detailed uh technical report and bring
that back for review by the city
council. Um so just a couple of things.
Um these would be maximum rates that
would be considered and um should
circumstances in any one year uh when if
these were adopted um be more favorable
then uh city council would have a choice
of not adopting the maximum rate for
that year. So again, remember that this
is a study session, but at some point
when we get to a proposition 218 notice
where you will will would be um adopting
a maximum set of rates. Those would set
the rates for the five years, but each
year you you will come back we'll come
back with a resolution on how much would
be adopted and it could be anything at
the max rate level all the way down to
anything like zero should there not be a
rate needed in that one year and a rate
increase in that one year.
Also just to note on on uh rate study
overall that uh the total rates cover
the costs of the system. This is not a
profitm
uh situation where one set of rates
would give you a different answer than
another set of rates. We're going to be
showing you two different options here
tonight and they would both end up with
the same resulting revenue and
expenditures. It's just a matter of how
those rates are configured. And so just
to keep that in mind as well. And with
that, I'm going to hand it over to our
consultants.
>> Good evening. Rick Simson, senior vice
president with HFNH. So we have
conducted a water and sewer rate study.
I'll first start with the water and ask
uh for feedback. If along the way you do
have a question, please do not hesitate
to stop me.
See this way.
There we go.
So, the purpose of this discussion is to
uh highlight our preliminary findings
for our cost of service study with rates
to become effective July 1 of this year.
We are we have in projected revenue
increases for the next five-year period.
Again, these are revenue increases 6% 6%
followed by 3 5% to cover increasing
costs. Again, when we do rate studies,
the maximum allowed is a five-year
period. So, we're recommending for the
next five years.
Part of this review does look at
restructuring your current rates. You
have four tiers for your volutric water
rates. We are presenting here tonight
the results of bringing that to a
two-tier or a uniform system. Uh there's
been recent litigation and court
findings throughout the state of
California that has led to refining how
water rates are sent and they can be in
conflict with one another. So there is
still some discretion if you have a
uniform or two tier and that's why we're
presenting both here tonight.
What is driving those initial revenue
increases over the next five years?
First rates have not increased since
last January. So we know some sort of
increase will be due this year and we're
projecting for July 1, 2026 of this
year. One of the town's main costs is
the cost of the water coming from the
San Francisco Public Utilities
Commission in which you have an
agreement to purchase water from them.
Those costs are increasing just this
year 9% and over the next five years
they'll increase 23%. So rising water
costs along with regular inflationary
increases for your operations and
maintenance costs including capital
expenditures and we'll highlight some of
those projects in the forthcoming slide
at about 2.9 million per year. In
addition, there's still current debt uh
that the city has for past projects that
will continue through this 5-year
period. But something that's helping
offset some of these costs is a about a
$400,000 reduction in that debt service
payment in the last year of the next
five years. So for fiscal year 3031,
I mentioned the SFPU and their costs
rising. So this is something that over
the last few years they've been
increasing their rates annually. They
went through a period uh from 2017 to
2022 where they kept rates the same.
They were utilizing their reserves to
pay for their projects, but they
realized that was not sustainable. So
those costs have been increasing as of
late and are projected to continue to
increase. They look at their rates on an
annual basis. So they've given us some
projections of what to expect over the
five years. As I mentioned, 9% this year
and it'll continue to increase over the
next five years. The last time rates
were set were in 2022.
So that's the time where they started
when we set the rates back in 2022. We
know they were increasing to that 475,
but not sure how they would handle those
increases moving forward. You can see
some substantial increases increases
since the last time rates were set.
In addition to rising water costs, uh we
have seen the town uh residents and
businesses using less water, which is a
good thing. Uh however, that means
revenues are decreasing along with it.
Uh you'll see the historical peak uh
about 13 14 years ago was quite high.
This is 1.6 6,00 cubic feet and 100
cubic foot is about 750 gallons. So
there's been a lot of conservation uh
which is a good thing. We've seen that
decrease since the last time rates were
set again in 2022. Took a bit of a dip
and it's on the rise again. But for this
rate setting uh five years we've taken
the average consumption of 1.13 million
HCF per year and projected that moving
forward. So not a significant increase.
We're trying to be conservative and say
water even though we're seeing an uptick
in water sales for this purpose. We're
trying to be conservative and not bank
on having those uh increasing sales. So
it it is in line with the average over
the last seven years. So we're fairly
confident.
Looking at the capital expenditures,
uh there's about a million dollars per
year for just water main replacement.
These are the the main with under the
street delivering to the households and
businesses replacing that at a million
dollars per year. There's a couple more
significant projects. uh pump station
generator Clark Concar about 1.6 million
as well as the Daryl pump line rehab and
replacement. So these types of projects
come along uh periodically so they have
been included here as well about 3
million 2.973
per year and that's what's included in
this analysis. So some major uh rehabs
and repairs.
Let's get to the crux of a cost of
service study. Uh the first thing we
look at as we're analyzing the rates are
uh staff meeting with staff to
understand the on andm costs which are
depicted here in the light blue. Admin
and O and M costs in the stacked bar
chart.
Purchase water costs on the bottom dark
green there. We want to make sure we can
cover those costs as well as debt
service. As I mentioned, there's
outstanding debt service. So, there's an
obligation to pay that back and that's
on the dark uh darker green and the
light green are capital projects. This
is a bit more discretionary, but as I
showed on the previous slide, there's
necessary projects that should be done
over the next five years. So, they get
this gives us a visual of what the total
costs are over the next five years.
We've overlaid on that the solid black
line there which are your revenues at
current rates. So if you did nothing
with your rates you can see even in this
current fiscal year we are covering
those costs that must uh occur the on
andm the debt service purchasing the
water and most of the capital projects.
So we know there is a shortfall that
needs to be bridged over the next five
years as that continues to go up and by
3031
uh we would not be covering the debt
service as well. So we know some sort of
increase is necessary
and some of you may be familiar with
this chart as we look at this to
understand how much revenue needs to be
generated and taking into consideration
not just those expenses and revenue at
current rates from the last slide but
understanding you have reserves. So
whenever revenues come in more than your
expenses, they're held in a reserve.
They can't be used for other town
purposes. So within the water reserve,
we're starting uh in June 30, 2025, so
the end of fiscal year 2425
just $7 million. So we can utilize some
of those reserves. And that's what's
occurred in 2526
since there hasn't been a rate increase
uh this fiscal year yet.
So you see the solid green line which
depicts the fund balance at the end of
each year assuming the percent increases
in revenue you see across uh the bottom
there. If you do nothing, we've depicted
that with the dotted green line there,
you'll dip below what we call our
operating minimum reserve before the end
of fiscal year 2627 and it'll be fully
depleted by the end of 2728.
So we use these as guidelines as
operating minimum. That's for day-to-day
operations, keeping in reserves. you can
pay for uh staff on a day-to-day basis
as revenue comes in only when build. So
that's a minimum we never want to see uh
the fund balance go below incrementally.
On top of that is a capital reserve to
help pay for those capital projects or
emergencies that can come up during the
year. And that's depicted in the solid
blue line. So, as we're crafting the
necessary revenue increases, we try and
keep that solid green line above that
red line and approaching the target as
we do so here by the end of the fifth
year. So, that's how we got to the
percent increases you see there.
Now, revenue increases are different
than rate increases.
In this particular case, when you do a
cost of service, you need to allocate
costs to each of the respective charges
and customer classes.
So currently, how we read this table,
the current revenue from 2526 rates show
we get about 12.6 million from
residential volumetric charges. So
that's based on how much water you use
and the non-residential less than a half
million. The service meter charge is
that fixed charge before you turn on
that faucet paid by all customers. So
roughly currently you're getting about
71% of that revenue from the volutric
charge and 29% from the service charge.
As we've done the cost of service, we
see costs have shifted between
residential and non-residential
volumetric charges where residential's
coming down, non-residential going up,
but a large shift of those costs to the
service or meter charge increasing to
36%
of the cost that should be recouped from
the service or meter charge. So we are
seeing a shifting of those costs which
happened during a realignment of a cost
of service. So though we've mentioned
and you see there at the bottom right
hand corner that there's a 6%
revenue increase
the rates will change in a different
manner. Some higher some lower.
So what does that look like? And I did
mention we have two different scenarios.
Whoops.
First on the left side of the slide
you'll see the service or fixed meter
charge. These are charged to your
customers regardless of how much water
they use. But it is dependent on the
capacity in the system that they have
which is measured by the meter in which
they need. So it is graduating. The
smaller the meter, the less fixed charge
you pay as you're uh using less capacity
in the system or need less capacity in
the system. You need a smaller system if
you have a smaller meter, a much larger
system to be maintained if you have a
larger meter. So we are seeing as I
showed in that previous slide a shift
and an increase uh more than the 6% in
the service charge going from 16118 to
23795 for the 3/4 inch meter.
looking at the tiered volutric charges.
We're looking at reducing just a one
customer class instead of separating by
monthly by residential and
non-residential.
Currently residential has a four tier
system and non-residential is uniform.
We've looked at two different scenarios.
On the right hand side top you'll see we
have allocated the costs and developed
tiers with breakpoint of 42 HCF in a
bimonthly period for customers that are
build on a bimonthly period
and that charge would be $9.32
until you hit 42 units. If you hit 42
units during that billing period, the
following units are charged $14.75.
And that would be the same for the
monthly customers, which there's a
handful of residents and the commercial
businesses. And since that's done on a
monthly basis, that breakpoint is half
of the bimonthly. So once you reach 21
units, you would charge be charged a
$9.32
and 1475 once you go over that 21.
Or alternatively, and as Jan mentioned,
both of these scenarios generate the
same revenue.
So it doesn't harm city staff and doing
the work they need to get done. that if
it's a uniform, all customers would be
charged for each unit of water. Again,
an HCF is 750 gallons at $11.50.
So, as you can imagine,
uh there was a different bill impact
between which scenario was chosen,
though again overall the same revenue
will be generated just differently by
each customer.
So with that I have a few slides of
showing the bill impacts and they can be
quite significant.
Here we're showing just those customers.
There's uh 12 that are build on a
monthly basis. These residents have
chosen to be build on a monthly basis.
So we know what their bills are
currently with the four tier system. And
if they use the same amount of water in
the same months that they did
previously, we're showing the impacts of
the two proposed scenarios. First, the
two-tier and then the far right two
columns for the uniform charges.
So, it does vary depending on how much
water you use and when you use it during
the year. So, you'll see a significant
decrease in customer F of about 28,000
for the year. Again, this is for the
year or it could be an increase of $922
for customer J. Again, it depends on how
much water you use within that each
monthly period depending on do you hit
that tier where you pay more or not.
There are
also large changes to bills if you go
uniform. So, we can't avoid uh having
significant changes, but they do differ
from customer to customer.
As large as a $42,000 reduction in their
annual bills for customer F and 1,400
for customer J.
We also have a limited number of
commercial customers that we've shown
here as well. This is each commercial
customer because there's just a handful.
Again, it does matter which of the two
scenarios of chain or which of the two
scenarios
are chosen.
$82,000 increase to customer A
or 24,000 if you choose a uniform.
That's how you read this table. So
both options are reasonable and
defensible,
but we wanted to make sure you had full
disclosure of the impacts of both of the
decisions.
So give you another second to peruse
this.
And it's a bit more difficult because
the rest of your customers that weren't
on those last two slides are
residential. So there's nearly 4,000. So
it's a little bit difficult. We can't
put them all on one slide and show each
individual customer's impact. So what
we've done here on the top, if you look
at the horizontal line and you look to
the left, those are the number of
accounts for each of the two options
that would see a
decrease in their bills for the year in
buckets there. So, starting from that
horizontal line and looking to the left
and looking at the two-tiered rate row,
that's 398
customers would expect to see a decrease
in their annual charge between zero or
$1,000.
As you go to the left, you'll see the
numbers of customers begin to decrease.
114
would see a decrease between 1,00 and
2500 and so forth.
Looking to the right of the horizontal
line, these
oh I've been saying horizontal instead
of vertical.
So from the vertical line number of
accounts with annual bill increase
the bulk of your customers about 85%
under the two tier will see a bill
increase
one to $500 is 1,128
of that 85%.
501 to a,000. Most of the residential
customers, 2,249
out of the 3988
and 32 could see increases greater than
a thousand.
You look at the uniform rate uh for
the second option again you will see
significant increases about 82% in
total. will see an increase and 18%
would see a decrease in the numbers you
see there. So there is a bit of a shift
with the uniform where there's greater
decreases for example in the 20,000 plus
one customer in the two-tier versus
three in the uniform. You'll see a
similar change as the impacts shift
to make it a little easier for those uh
that know their water use. On the bottom
here we have shown uh average water use
which is 240 HCF or high water use which
is two times or low water use half of
that. Wherever you fit within that
category you can get an idea of your
annual impact. Again it depends on how
much water you use during the year. It's
those high water use customers under
both options that will see the decrease.
So that was a basis of our initial rate
study. What we always do once we've
identified what the necessary revenue
increases are, we look at the
sensitivities. As you know, water use
can change from year to year. So we like
to see what could occur with what we're
recommending, which is depicted here in
the solid blue line there in the middle.
what could occur to your fund balance if
water sales increase or decrease? So,
we've just shown a couple here. I think
it gives us comfort when we see
something like that this that even if
revenues
increase because there's a lot more
water sales and what we projected your
fund balance is still under the target
till that fifth year but it remains
healthy. So, you may contemplate having
something less than what was projected.
for example, this 5% in the fifth year,
you may be able to do something less if
water sales improve. But we're more
concerned with what if there's more
conservation, less water sales, what
would that would do to the fund balance
to fund the operations and capital. So
we also depict that as well. the dotted
orang-ish and reddish lines you see
there some various sensitivities
still above that minimum operating even
if we see consistent reduction in water
use. So with what we're recommending, we
do have the two options, but we are
confident with our projections that
regardless how the water sales go over
the next 5 years that you'll be in good
shape. And if they increase
significantly
when you're setting rates, those are
just the maximum. You can always do
something less, which was the case about
six years ago where council decided not
to increase the rates because it had
sufficient revenue.
So that's the details of our study and
our preliminary results. I just want to
give you a a timeline of what we will be
doing with next steps. So tonight we're
here with a council study session. We're
looking to meet with the FAC in March
2nd, followed by coming back to the
council either March 9th or April 13th
to get approval to send a proposition
218 notice, which is a notice that is
required whenever you're going to
increase rates. So, you notify your
residents and businesses.
At that time, you would decide which of
the options.
If we do not decide that tonight,
it would be printed on that Prop 218.
Following at least 45 days, which is a
requirement before you have the public
hearing, that would occur either in May
or June, depending on when the notices
were mailed out. Again, this is all in
an effort to have rates effective July
one of this year.
» Thank you, M.
>> So, let's circle back just real quick.
Circle back to what we're asking you
for. So I'd like to just summarize uh so
a new rate study was conducted of the
preliminary results that I presented to
you here today for rates to be effective
July 1st. We are uh looking for feedback
questions how we may uh answer any of
those questions and get your feedback on
which of the two rate scenarios you
would like us to come back with.
Typically we will have a full report
based on the selected scenario. You can
see more of the details how rates are
calculated.
» Thank you.
Mr. Simson. Sorry to cut you
off earlier.
>> Um I um I suspect the council have some
questions, right? Any of my colleagues
have any clarifying questions for Mr.
Simson? Starting with Council Member
Muang.
>> Thank you. Uh thank you. Great to see
everyone in person. This is fantastic.
Um so thank you for your presentation.
My question is this. Um we're looking at
basically the
purchasing price of the volumes of water
that we need to purchase um and the
capital improvements that we have. And
based on those two factors and the
consumers uh even if we purchases the
consumers paying for them right and so
based on that that's how we come about
factoring into
um the unit price is that is that that's
correct
>> is that in the nutshells how how I
understand this
>> yes
>> okay so my question and this this may be
more to our public or director And that
is in the capital improvements. I
noticed that there are several items
that talk about the demolishing of the
tank and so forth. Are those
a long-term capital improvements? Are
they the demolitions will be placed with
a new tank? Is is that how
I I guess I'm trying to figure out what
is the cost for us to have quality
water.
Hello. Good evening, Madame Mayor,
members of the council. A great
question. So, like for example, the
demolition of the tanks. It's fully
considering our new tank that's in
service, the Daryl tank, as well as uh
anticipation of our future high water
line, which would make some of our
mid-level tanks um redundant or not
necessary. These are 1950s era tanks
where we have not spent money to
continue to keep them up. And so our
goal would be to fully decommission them
and not have to continue to spend money
on keeping them.
So that's for that one item,
>> right? And and I guess what I what I'm
trying to uh look at is that for the
duration of the next uh five or six
years that we're in this cycle of the rate increase uh studies um are
those in the in that time frame uh
necessary
and and I said it loosely. I'm not
questioning your professional adjustment
or assessment on that. uh not to where
it's emergency, but it it's good to
remove them if they're in threatened uh
state to where they'll be structurally
deficient or could
again if they're unused then you just
don't let the tank sit there and rust or
fall fall apart. So our goal would be to safely decommission that. Uh could we
defer them for a short period of time?
Absolutely. We can look at that if
that's you know one thought. Um items if
you're asking what items maybe the other
way is say what items here are
absolutely essential. Uh then the water
main replacement program is essential
because as you know we have pipes that
are in our system. We've been here for
over a hundred years. We have pipes in
our system that have been here since
we've been incorporated that do need to
be replaced. uh the
water coding improvement project. That's
essential because those are tanks that
we want to continue to serve the
community that are are prone to for
excessive rust and need rehabilitation.
So
>> okay, that's the other way. So uh the reason I asked is because again you
know uh there are different
uh uh perspectives regarding uh water
conservations versus uh you know uh the
payments that we uh pay toward using and
maintaining the high quality of a water
and in the sort of in the sales with the
uh water purchase of uh SFPU
Is there a practice of advanced payments
like anticipating how much volumes that
we will be using um say in the in the
summertime is a higher volumes in the
winter time is a lower volume. Is there
a sort of a predium as to the price
break or that was not the practice?
>> I can answer this unless you try. So,
um, SFPU does their best to predict and
I think there was a slide here. If you
go back to the SFPU rate,
you'll see between 2017 to 2022, they
had the same exact rate every year.
Although they incurred and they were
underway on their water and improvement
program which was a billion dollar
program
they when they had to balance out and
came back to us they hit us with a big
charge. Uh so unfortunately I think the simplest answer is they don't
forecast quite the same way we do. We
try to anticipate over the next five
years all of our projects. they've come
back to us with one year unveiling of a really big amount and that's when Bosa
advocates for us and they say can't ask
for a 60% rate how have you spread this
out over the next five years so they've
given us kind of a early look but what
happens is there's an annual meeting
that happens in the end of February with
all the water managers and account
holders and that will occur in the next
two weeks and then they'll unveil just
this year's rate increase no guarant
guarantees beyond that.
>> Thank you. That's all I have right now.
>> Thank you, Council Member Schwang.
Council member Adams, any questions?
>> Uh, yes. Thank you. Um, Paul, don't go
too far. Uh, wouldn't it make some sense
for us to have that information about
what this year's rate is going to be if
it's just two weeks away?
» Great question. I think timing is
everything. Um certainly before we have
our next meeting, we'll get the official
stamp on that.
>> Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Uh I have a
couple more questions.
>> Thank you. Very nice to meet you in real
>> IRL. Yes. Um
uh the projected increases
that you have on this same slide vary
quite a bit uh from 53 cents to 19 cents
to 20 2020 20. So those are all
suppositions correct
>> with the exception of the 2026. This is
July 1, 2026 rate that will be charged.
They've received, the town has received
notice of this is the maximum that it
could be charged. They're still hedging
their bets that it may be less, but this
is the maximum they said they will
charge. And then we've looked back at
some of the increases and tried to
project around a 3 to 4% annual
increase, not knowing exact. Uh so
that's at least built into the analysis.
And there is a provision in Proposition
218 that once we divulge what the
assumption is, if for example it goes up
by one dime over the $6.52
in 2028, the town can pass that through
without going through this process again
since it's a pass through cost.
>> And are these then reflected in the
66555%?
Yes.
>> Okay. So on a chart like this when it
doesn't say percentages, it would be
great to include that information.
I'm new, so I I get to try to sit there
with my little calculator and figure
everything out. Um,
on the next slide, water demand has
declined from previous rates study
uh except for last year. Last year we
increased we actually were beyond our
projections.
So how are we to decide whether that's a
trend or an anomaly?
>> That's the difficulty because of mother
nature with a lot of precipitation, less
water use. So we have to do our best
with the projections.
>> But in fact we had a lot of water. We
had good rain and in fact we sold more
water which is I think what we want to
do is sell the maximum amount of water
>> from the Oh absolutely. Uh you can't
control how much people use. Um the last
study when this was looked at the
assumption moving forward is 1.2
million. So that's where I mentioned
we've seen a decrease even though it's
increased the last couple years. Will it
ever get back to that amount? We are
projecting at this point the best guess
1.13 million.
>> I mean historical a historical peak of
this magnitude would be an anomaly that
you'd throw out in a study because
>> Oh, correct. We did not include that.
>> Yeah. So, uh, the next slide, uh, you
have future capital projects and you
don't have any until 2030,
at which point uh, you project $2.5
million worth of capital projects.
How how did you come to that?
>> Yeah, absolutely. So working with the
town, they have a current five-year
program, but this is this 2627 is the
second year. So it goes through 2930.
And speaking with staff looking to
project for 3031 since we are looking at
a fiveyear, that's the average they've
are projecting to spend over the next
four years. So it's just uh extending
that uh average to the fifth year.
So no specific projects have been
identified for that 2.5 million though
in 2030 that's why it's escalated to 2.9
million. So the specific projects if
Paul has some in mind I'm sure he can
elaborate on that but again the
five-year CIP only went through 2930.
» Okay. Um, the next question is on
uh slide, it's hard for me to say. It's
either page 10, slide nine, or page
nine, slide 12. I don't know.
>> I'll go slowly. You can tell me
>> that one.
>> This one.
>> All right.
Uh, this is an interesting way of
presenting this material because you
really have to think through what you're
trying to tell us here. Um, in actual
fact,
tell me about this difference at the
end. That's that's the really critical
part.
>> Yeah, absolutely. So, the reason we
include this in all of our studies, we
everybody asks what's the rate increase
and that's why we're careful to say
revenue increase for a cost of service
year. And so, this ties back to we keep
saying 6% 6%. So this demonstrates that
overall what the town will see is an
increase in revenue of 6%.
But it will be borne by the rates in a
different manner depending on which rate
we're talking of. So we read this as the
residential volumetric charge the
revenue generated from that currently
exceeds the cost of service. So those
volumetric charges, revenue from those
rates will actually bring in less money
that's being uh covered by an increase
in the non-residential
and an increase in the service or meter
charge. So again, it's at the cost of
service, you have to allocate the cost
into the services that are being
provided. So we know it's not always
exactly 6%. Some's going to be higher,
some's going to be less. In this year,
it's quite a disparity. Um, the service
meter charge is going up significantly,
bringing in 36% of your revenue because
of
a fire service that had previously been
collected through the volumetric charge
for public fire protection. Uh, the
courts have said, you really need to
look at those, discern what those costs
are. they should be paid equally by each
customer and you do that through the
fixed charge. So those costs now are in
the fixed charge where previously they
were in the volumetric. So that's why we
see this realignment.
>> Well, the next slide shows the fixed
charges.
>> Yes, it does.
>> And this has an interesting
for me. uh if you look on the service
charge the proposed charges don't
actually all go up. There's a point and
in fact when you explain this you said
the larger the meter size the more it
will go up but in fact it doesn't. It
actually at a certain point at 3 in goes
down in your projection and in the six
inch and the 8 inch.
>> Yeah. So, let me Yeah, I should have
explained that while I was on the slide,
so I'm glad you brought it up. And my
comment about that it's increasing is
specific to the rates that are increases
with the size of the meter regardless.
So 161, it's going to get larger as you
go down. Not the increase is going to
get larger. So I apologize if my I
misspoke because you're right, some are
increasing, some are going down. So when
we develop the fixed service charges,
it's made up of two components. A fixed
component within that fixed charge that
regardless of how much flow you have,
you should pay the same as your
neighbor. Whoever has an 8 in should pay
the same as somebody with the one inch.
Those sorts of costs, customer service
billing, you get one bill with the same
stamp on it than your neighbor does,
regardless of your meter charge. And
those fire flow costs are also included
there. Everybody's getting the same
protection. Therefore, they pay the same
amount for those costs. Then there's a
capacity component based on the size of
the meter. The capital costs that you're
maintaining. You can picture as if
everybody had 3/4 inch meter and didn't
use much water, you could have a pipe
this size. But if you've got 8 inch
meters, they have a lot more demand. You
need a pipe this size that's in the
ground to serve both of those customers.
Well, who should pay more for having to
maintain a larger system and that's why
it's graduated and gets larger. So, this
is a realignment again from the last
study that occurred to how costs have
changed and how they should be recouped.
So, there's more on that fixed kind of
account charge that everybody should pay
for. So you're seeing increases in the
smaller meters but decreases in the
larger meters.
» So the larger meters, what you're saying
is, if I get it correctly, the larger
meters are going to pay more obviously,
but relatively they're going to have a
smaller
increase. In fact, they won't even have
an increase. They're going to have a
>> for their service charge. will have a
decrease and then their volutric
depending on how much water they use
they'll see an increase on that charge.
>> That's over on the right. Correct. I'm I'm still trying to figure out the
left. Yes. Okay.
>> Um
All right. And then if you go three more
slides, I think we'll get to customer
bill impacts.
This This is the one.
>> Again, I'm with my little calculator.
>> Yes. at trying to do an Excel
spreadsheet so that I can really look
at not what the current bill is,
but exactly and and not what the current
bill is annually, but what the customer
is going to see on the bill they
receive, whether they're bimonthly or
monthly.
So, I'm I'm dividing these up to really
see the impact that is going to be
reflected in the bill.
And I would like you to do that for me
so that I'm not trying to figure that
out because I think that's going to be
where we're as a council going to hear
from people when they look at that bill.
They're not going to think about the
year. they're going to think about right
now.
So, that's information I would like to
see presented. I also would like to see
the mean
because that will help us see how many
calls we're going to get and u just be a
little more accurate because we're
talking and I'll just say my
perspective.
We've been wrestling with this since
2020. We've been going to court. We've
been losing. We've been trying to figure
out the right thing. We have neighbors
who've been advised that they should go
with a flat rate.
We're trying to figure out very specific
things. So the more data we have,
the better we will protect our citizens
and also make it possible for us to make
the very best decision. So sorry to go
through all the slides. I didn't even go
through all the slides that I had
questions on. But the more data we have
that is the way our customers, our
citizens are going to see it,
I think the better decision we'll be
able to make.
>> We we appreciate the comments. It It's
always nice when you get a fresh set of
eyes. As we're in this day in day out
for 25 years, we sometimes forget to see
it through the lens of a rateayer. So
those comments are much appreciated.
Thank you, Council Member Adams. Um,
Council Member Crow, any questions?
>> Thank you. Yes. And I'll try and be
brief because I know we have to get to
sewer, too. Um, so to try and be fair to
the large water users. Um, uh, we've talked about this before that
there may be some who have large
properties who are actually using less
water per acre than people with smaller
properties. Are we able if we wanted to
calculate that and charge them at a
lower rate if they are in fact
conserving or under 218? If they're
using that much water, we have to charge
them at that rate.
» Um, thank you for the question. I can
weigh in on that one. So, Proposition
218, unfortunately, it does not allow
for conservation to be used as the basis
for how you allocate costs. So um
generally you have to calculate the cost
on a parcel basis. Whatever the size of
the parcel
>> so whatever they're using that's the
volume that Thank you. Right.
>> And then uh to build on that we brought
this up before we have some customers
who have 2inch pipes that they were
inquire required to install for their
fire sprinkler system but they actually
don't use water at a greater rate. But
it can we give them relief on their
service charge?
>> Yes, that is something that you can have
a policy to reflect that this is upsized
for that fireflow if they can
demonstrate they don't utilize that. And
typically in the jurisdictions that
we've seen it that's monitored. So if
they oops I accidentally went over. So,
it is monitored to make sure you can
stay within that smaller, but you can
make a policy to
um utilize that when it comes to the
service charge so you're not paying that
full amount.
>> Thank you. I think that would be fair.
And then just I think that I'm sorry to
interject. Um
>> I'm sorry. Could you just finish your
question then you can comment?
>> Interject on based on her questions. I I
think that we over the years have adjust
uh because of the the pipe size that
people were concerned that we did adjust
it. Um
>> we were looking at it. We were looking
at we haven't we haven't apology.
>> Yeah. Just um one uh council member at a
time speaking please. Um go ahead Paul.
Do you have
>> to clarify both uh we looked into it. We
know all of those folks that are
impacted that have the larger pipe, the
larger meter, but that use water at a
smaller volume comparable to an inch
meter. So, we have that information,
>> but we haven't enacted it.
>> Yeah, I would recommend we enact that,
but so thank you. I'm glad that you
thought that we were doing it already.
And then one last quick question. If we
don't approve these increases, would
that affect our bond rating?
It's probably a jam question
because we do have we still have our AAA
bond rating, right?
It's some we will need water rate
increases. Um and the question would be
when would that become critical for our
bonds, right? Um so you can see on on
this slide here at the bottom the debt
coverage ratio
uh goes from 2.15 upward. And so we need
to keep a ratio of of 1.2. So we're well
within it with this scenario. This um
the rates as proposed here are going to
be more about covering our operations
and our capital needs um because it does
appear that we're going to be within our
debt service coverage. It's a great
question though.
>> That's all I have. Madam
>> and thank you, Council Member Crowley.
Um Vice Mayor Rexdale.
>> Thank you. Um again uh like others have
said so good to see you in person and uh
thank you for the detailed analysis and
also thank you for giving us the slides
in advance is always um super helpful to
see them in advance. Um I'm going to try
to ask uh questions with quick answers
because I I know um we're maybe running
out of time and we need to get to sewer.
Um first question is um we usually do
this the bigger cost of service analysis
every five years and this for water not
sewers is we're on an earlier schedule.
Is that
>> that's correct?
>> Um and um I understand there's probably
many reasons for that so we don't need
to go into that. Um, I noticed in the
capital improvement projects the
highline wasn't up there. Is that
because it's
under a different budget category?
Thank you. That's a great question. Uh,
we actually have assumed that that would
get approved, you know, for for
assumptions of this rate study and that
the it would be financed with a
short-term loan during the last two
years of this analysis. So, it's not
known as a capital spending because that
would be what we spend, but we would
actually be getting in proceeds from the
short-term loan and paying debt service.
So, that's why it's not shown on here.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Um,
okay. This is a question I've had for a
long time and this is goes in the
category of there's no such thing as a
stupid question, I hope. Um, we talk
about pipe size and we talk about meter
size. Is that the same thing? I think
the meter is the little the thing
outside your house that can be read, but
that's not a pipe.
>> So, it connects to a pipe, what we call
a service, and that size of that service
>> is different for each meter size about
the capacity of what you can get.
>> So, it's what is on the other side of
that pipe that has the other side of the
meter that has a different size.
>> That's correct.
>> Because I'm like, I think our meters are
all the same size. Okay. Uh thank you.
Um that is helpful. Um then um with
regard to I think this is this the same
question I have for two different
things. um one is the um the
service charge and one is the two-tier
and given uh the various court opinions
and all of that um how do we justify
different service charges and different
potentially if we went this way
two-tiered
um different charges based on meter
I don't know if you want to answer it be
legal.
>> Yeah, I can I can weigh in. So, there
are a lot of different court opinions
floating around sort of in the
atmosphere right now and they've all
kind of had different approaches as to
how you allocate costs. Uh, with respect
to a two-tier structure, um, there's
kind of two general principles that that
would hopefully accomplish. Number one
is that you want to make sure that
you're allocating costs based on the
proportional cost of service which
includes you know the cost of the
infrastructure particularly your storage
your pumping and your distribution
that's designed at a larger level in
order to meet varying levels of demand.
Um doing it in a two-tier structure
tries to kind of simplify it a little
bit and makes it really focused on the
data that the town has. Um, there's also
the other side of sort of the various
court opinions that have been
circulating, which is that you have to
make sure not only that your larger
users aren't subsidizing your smaller
users, but also that your smaller users
are not subsidizing your larger users by
having, for example, this the cost of a
system that's already been built, but
that was built to accommodate multiple
levels of usage
Latin for everybody. So the idea behind
the two-tier structure um as would be
explained in the rate study would be
that would be a means of accomplishing
both of those goals.
>> Could it could it be argu Thank you. Uh
could it be argued that under a uniform
rate structure really you would want
uniform service charges? So the service
charge is a little bit different because
the service charge looks at the size of
the meter that serves the parcel and it
takes sort of the maximum
demand that that could place on the
system and so as the meters get larger
they have the capacity to place more
demand on the system and those go only
to the fixed costs that the town incurs
in order to meet those varying levels of
demand. So the way that they're
increased, those are based off of what
are called meter capacity ratios that
look at the maximum demand that each of
those meter sizes can place on the
system and increase them exponentially
based off of what you know as you get
larger. It's not like a one to two sort
of ratio. It's
bigger because it's a you know it's a
circle. Um and so so that that has
actually not really been an issue in the
courts. Um I think the courts have been
pretty comfortable with those thus far
where the courts have had differing opinions is really on the
volume side.
>> Okay, that is extremely helpful. Thank
you. Um sir uh the last thing quick
comment on uh your presentation the
customer bill impacts by monthly
residential
uh slide 13
on the bottom where you have um are you
very low low average and high um I found
that super helpful so I I love council
member Adam's suggestions also for um
rateayers but um I think this maybe
adding to it a little bit for her
suggestions like where where am I? I
don't know right how many how many I use
but you know I kind of have an idea
where I fit and so I I just I found that
super um helpful and thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Um thank you Vice Mayor Rexdale. Um
thanks for the presentation. Um just a
couple of clarifying points and thanks
to all the questions posed by my
colleagues. Um what I didn't quite
understand in the presentation is the
actual cost for the actual operating
cost to have a larger volume. I mean was
that embedded in the on&m?
» Apologies.
>> I think it's I think
>> so reviewing are you referring to a
two-tier system? What costs are there
the incremental costs in order to charge
more per unit? Correct.
>> Yes. Those are on andm costs and even
some capital costs that are necessary
for a larger system for when there are
times of peaking. So you only pay that
when you actually need to utilize that
larger system.
>> Okay. I think what I would like
clarification on is if everyone was on
the two-tiered system, what would the
capacity
what would be required in terms of
capacity? How how would that affect our
total expenditures
comparatively?
Let's just assume everybody uses a
thousand cubic feet. I don't know I
didn't have the right units here.
>> It's it's based on historic water use
and when they peak
>> so it's also using peaking, not just
volumetric.
>> Yes.
>> Okay. the volumetric
>> because sort of what I'm hearing is
given that there's certain factors that
are beyond our control such as how much
rain we have, how much water storage the
state has, that is well obviously the
state can't control that either to some
degree. The cost of purchasing the water
is really going to be beyond our
control. That's going to continue
historically it's continued to go up
even by smaller numbers. So if the cost
continues to go up and we were to hit
another drought session, which is
inevitable because of weather patterns,
>> yeah,
>> the demand will continue to fall even
more precipitously. So your gap between
your revenue and your expenditure will
continue to grow. So I think what I
would like in our subsequent
conversation is what infrastructure
costs because that's all we can control.
What infrastructure costs can we
mitigate on the front end to stabilize
or never be able to stabilize 100% is
the point I'm trying to make, but at
least to predictably say
this is what it's going to cost us to
provide unlimited amount of water for
whoever wants to demand unlimited amount
of water because we can't cap how much
water everyone has.
>> If you want 10 times more than the next
door neighbor, you can have it. But what
costs are embedded in that cap in that
infrastructure? Because that it seems
like that's all we can control the cost
of water from the states
>> can control.
>> We can control that. How much water we
have yearto year, we can control that.
>> Um and certainly we can control the
demand. I mean if people want to use a
lot of water and they want to pay for
it, that's fine. So I think I would just
like more information on the
infrastructure. Yeah. what what costs
are we able to manipulate or change to
create some predictability with regards
to our cost. Um but anyways, excellent
presentation. I don't have any further
questions. I understand we have to move
on to um the other study session unless
there's additional comments from staff.
I see our city manager is looking at me
like um he wants to tell he wants to
clarify something for me. Oh.
>> Oh, go ahead, Jen, please.
Yes.
>> So, just to summarize a bit, uh when we
bring this back, we will be putting in
more transparency on bill impacts. We
will be looking at um like a usage that
is below like a policy as described by
uh council member Kick. And um we will
be
looking just one last time today to see
if there is any kind of initial
direction on one of the two avenues for
um going with a uniform rate or a
two-tiered rate. If there is not, we'll
be writing a report and bringing that
back with um with more analysis and um
transparency.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. Yes. Council I miss Vice Mayor
Rexdale. A quick question for that. Um
I don't I think I know the answer, but I
wanted to ask because I actually don't
know the answer. Um, is there a way like
we could like if we decided we want to
go with the two-tier and then the
government, the California Supreme Court
says no two no two-tier ever not allowed
that we could come back and change to
uniform in in a year the next time we
discuss rates or is that a five-year
situation?
It would just require a new 218.
Okay, thank you. Um, the next president.
Yes, Council Adams. Okay.
>> Yes.
>> You know, Jen, we actually didn't really
have much conversation about which of
the scenarios we would like you to come
back with. Is there a possibility that
we could just come back again with both?
Because I think there were questions
about details that would help us with
that analysis.
I'm just raising.
>> Yeah.
>> And that's a very good thought. Um we
have um uh sort of goal setting,
strategic planning. Is there any
possibility we can elaborate on the
subject at that point? Um certainly our
consultants could join us remotely if
possible, if needed. I'm not sure in
terms of the calendar, but that's a good
point. Maybe we can look into it to see
how we can come back with more details.
Yeah, I would say the goal initially for staff and our and our experts over
here, the goal was to pick a direction
as to which way we want to sort of
invest the remainder of our experts time
here to bring forth something, whether
that be a uniform or two-tiered. If if
that's not a decision that we're
comfortable getting into today without
some more information, we would set up a
future meeting to answer some of the
questions that you brought up. But if
you're asking what was staff looking
for, it it was one one of the two, but
it sounds like we're at a position now
where we're having a an understanding of
the two of them, but we need some more
information. And I would ask our experts
here, do you have the enough information
from the council to come back with with
some of the questions they had?
» Yes, we do.
>> Yeah. And I think you you're right in
summarizing it. We do need more
information and thanks for looking into
it further.
>> Yeah. And as to the methodology of that,
whether that's at a at an additional
study session or maybe setting some
additional time at a at a future
meeting, you know, we can certainly get
together with these uh experts and come
up with a plan for it.
>> Okay. Thank you, city manager. Okay,
we will now move on to
sewer rates. Thank you. Hello, Mr.
Santgo. Good afternoon, Madam Cole. Um,
and council. So, the other portion of
the study session is the sewer rate
study. Um, just a quick background, the
last time we adopted a 218 for the sewer
rates was June of 2021. We did use all
five years of the rate series. We
adopted the last one in July. And so,
that's why we're doing the new study
again with HF&H and Gabe will be uh
presenting it.
Good evening. I'm Gabe Sasser, project
manager with HFNH. I want to apologize
in advance for how quickly I might go
through these slides.
I'll look forward to your questions.
So, the purpose of today's presentation
is to present our preliminary analysis
of the five-year schedule of sewer
rates, which would be implemented as
early as July 1, 2026.
Uh there's two main takeaways from this
presentation. One, projections indicate
that the revenue increases
ranging between two and three% are
needed over the next 5 years. And I'll
provide more detail as to why. The
second takeaway is that in looking at
the cost of service, we reanalyzed the
residential indoor water use.
And in doing so, uh, this is going to
result in commercial bills increasing by
more than residential customers bills.
And that is because, uh, sewer charges
are based on a single family dwelling
equivalent, what's known as one .edu.
And that one .edu is reflective of the
average indoor residential household
water use.
Residents are charged one unit for sewer
service as their flows are fairly
consistent throughout. But in contrast,
commercial customers,
their flows vary significantly. And so
their charges are reflective of the
actual flows of that commercial parcel
relative to the average residential
customers.
And when we last or when this was last
studied, uh the indoor water use
standard was based on 14400 cubics cubic units of water use annually.
And this was reanalyzed this year and
that figure has declined to 78 units of
indoor water use. And so what this means
from a billing perspective is that if a
commercial customer used 144 units, then
up until now they were build for one
unit of uh in terms of their sewer
charge, which is $4,311.
However, at that same level of flow, if
we use the new standard of indoor water
use, reflective of conservation and
changes in residential patterns over the
years, this means that customer, that
same customer would now be charged 1.85
units for the same levels of flow. And
for numbers,
that's $7,975.
So, a significant increase. So,
something to preview for you. To take a
step back, as Rich touched upon, sewer
rates were last studied in 2021, and
this resulted in five years of
consecutive 4% annual increases. This
sewer rate study covers the upcoming
fiscal year 2627 through 2033.
In terms of where we're going, uh the
rest of the slide shows that capital
improvements uh to be cash funded
average $5.1 million per year and that
public works continues its efforts to
reduce inflow and infiltration through
pipe replacement and addressing
homeowners deficient laterals.
These are four bullets associated with
the costs uh in projecting the revenue
requirement that the sewer rates uh must
address. First, there's annual operating
costs which are increasing by
inflationary measures and no additional
headcount is anticipated in those
numbers. This is the largest cost
category which ranges between 6.7
million up to 7.7 million over the
5-year period. Next, there is Sanonteo
Burnley treatment costs and those are
increasing 5% annually. Those are costs
really outside the city's control as
these are the treatment costs and the
costs required to treat every parcels uh
collected sewer discharge.
There are the capital expenditures which
I touched upon and I'll be showing you
on the next slide. And then finally
there's debt coverage. There's $3.8 8
million annually through the first four
years and then in the fifth year uh that
amount reduces by half a million due to
a reduction in the schedule of the 2023
refunding bond payment. Of that 3.8
million, 1.9 million is the Sonteo clean
water portion that the town is
responsible for paying that they share
with other agencies.
This is a uh overview of the capital
expenditure projections. Uh again, this
is a five-year program and four years
were available. And so as a result for
20 3031, we used the average of the
four-year spend. So if you took the
average of those first four columns of
the subtotal, that's what generated the
4.6 million in the fifth year. And then
those construction costs have been
escalated to account for
historic changes in labor and material
costs. Collectively,
from an escalated standpoint, that's
$5.1 million per year that rates will
pay for. This does not include the
Macadamia Storm project as that project
staff has determined may be funded
through FEMA and insurance and thus
rates would not need to uh pay for this
project.
This is an overview of uh the forecasted
expenses shown by the stacked bars.
There's four cost categories. There's
the on andm expenses which include uh
salary, uh labor, benefits as well as
materials and services the town provides
for the collection services. There's the
treatment costs. Those are the external
costs for the Sanonteo and Berling game
treatment plants. the debt service which
I touched upon briefly and the capital
improvements.
Um for uh clarification, the capital
improvements shown are based on the
actual amounts to be spent on the last
slide and not the 5.1 million on average
each year. So that's why if you're
looking at the size of those bars, they
vary from year to year. We contrast that
with the revenue at current rates, which
is the black line. Currently revenues
are sufficient to meet the expenses for
the current fiscal year. But as you can
see that expenses are outpacing revenues
at current rates in future years and
some level of reserves use of reserves
and revenue increases will be necessary.
And that brings us to our five-year
schedule. This is the financial plan. Uh
Rick touched upon how the minimum
reserve and target reserve are derived.
So I'll go ahead and bypass that
portion. But the goal is to set rates
such that the reserve fund balance, the
dark green line, maintains a threshold
above or at the target reserve. And so
with the recommended revenue increases
that you see on the horizontal axis, uh
the town can maintain and meet that
goal. absent any rate increases. Uh the
reserve fund balance would follow the
dashed lighter green line
with uh the recommended revenue
increases in 2627.
We evaluated the cost of service which
is shown on this next slide.
And so in looking at the cost of service
uh we established the rates that you see
in the first table. So per equivalent
dwelling unit
uh each residential parcel would pay
$4,39347
and you can see the $8247
increase in that first year and then
thereafter they would see um increases
to their annual charge u mirroring that
of the revenue increases.
Now this is where the indoor water use
analysis comes into play and in
relooking at that and updating that
assumption uh this is what's causing the
commercial bill difference that you see
in the second table. So specifically I'm
pointing at um that four that final
column on the right hand side overall
generating a 3% increase but residential
customer bills would collectively
increase by 2%.
However, commercial customers would
increase by significantly more uh given
their uh share of the overall flow and
the change in the water use assumptions
which are a proxy for sewer flows.
And so to provide context, uh we looked
at what commercial customers are
currently charged. And so those uh 12
customers are shown.
And then there's two and I'll note
and sorry um
sorry uh so we have the current charge
in the second column and then that's
compared to the revised water use. So
this these would be the bills uh for the
same levels of flow as what they're
currently being charged under the new
indoor water use assumption. And you can
see the dollar difference that those
customers would pay. And then for
context, uh maintaining the same water
use standard, which is not reflective of
current conditions of the system, uh you
could see would lead to significantly
lower increases, but again would not be
reflective of the current cost of
service, which is the goal of this
study.
Taking a step back, this is the timeline
for rate adoption in order to implement
rates July 1.
uh with the intent to return to council
in March to receive approval to initiate
the 218 process for a public hearing to
be held in May.
Uh at this time uh we request your
discussion and feedback regarding the
preliminary rates presented and for
reference again these are the rates.
Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Um,
I will take it to the council. Um,
was just going to go in order so we all
get a chance to comment. Um, council
member Adams,
I have very few questions. Yay. But, uh,
the slide that is the most difficult is
the second the one right before the rate
adoption timeline where you talk about
the actual increases for the customers.
an increase of uh
you know a jump of $67,000
that's going to be pretty well noticed.
So we don't have that many uh commercial
customers. So are these the 12 basically
is this
>> these are all
>> this is literally all right. So these
are schools country club and
racket club.
Yeah. Okay.
There's no other question other than
that's going to be interesting to see
how that will be accepted, but no
questions.
>> Thank you, Council Member Adams. Um,
Council Member Trang.
>> Thank you for your presentation, Gate.
You're on point. Um question is on the
second slide deck that you talk about um
our uh treatment plan contract or
services from San Mattel Berlin gain
uh you you allude to the fact that it
cannot be predictable
that's not true right they should the
agency should look at their capital
improvements and their business business
model anticipate like we do about the
five years out how they're going to be
expecting their operations and so forth
and as a courtesy share that with
customers which we are right uh to their
services. Is that the the fact or is it
not?
>> Yes. So just to clarify um I was stating
their external cost. So, you're right.
They're uh external agency under their
control and the information that we have
includes what the town has budgeted thus
far and uh we'd have to revisit what
they've communicated how far in advance
of what those costs are.
>> All right. So, is that a questions for
um Jan or Paul regarding the
conversation with our sister cities?
Great question and uh the details are
all covered in the the joint hours or
the multi-ity partners agreement uh one
for Sonteo and the clean water program
that just was signed recently and then
uh recently also for Berlingame the
annual cost for CIP are very direct and
any increase beyond what's allowed there
has to come back to you or the other uh
cities for changes beyond on that
regular CPI cost for actual operations
um and uh staff is also in there. So
you're correct. Anything beyond those
parameters needs to come back to you the
appointing bodies for significant
improvements. So since the new both
treatment plants went through a CDO
recently I don't expect uh any changes
on that.
>> Thank you. So it's just a comments I
mean it's really it's the operation and
you're helping us to shape um you know
in terms of the cost of operation it is
a pass through we're not anticipating to
make revenues on this. So to the extent
that we can anticipate and be able to um
understand the other agency, we rely on
them to be able to calculate those
factors, I think it's the better for us
to have a a clear clarity on our um
charges. So thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Trong, Council
Member Crowley.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a
question for Paul and while you come up
just one comment um to build on what
council member Adams said we said this
before with the commercial sewer rate
increase we are a small town and it's I
think the the the importance of personal
outreach to each one of those um
customers will be really important and I
think the city manager had um city
manager the city manager city manager
had noted that before the importance of
personal outreach to our commercial
customers. Thank you. So Paul, I just
have one question. Um, how many years
does the sanitary sewer master plan span
and where are we in that timeline?
>> So, initially, I think we first started
in 2013, it was a 20-year plan and we've
recently in the last two years, Natalie
canir, we've gone back just to make sure
we're on pace uh to meet those goals.
When we initially started it, the town
was under a cease and desist order where
we had to do certain improvements. And
we've checked off all those boxes. We're
no longer under a microscope. We still
do get annual visits from the regional
board. But since we do have a program
and a plan of how to fix the system and
continue to improve it, we haven't faced
any other, you know, fines or or
anything.
>> Is it a 20-year plan, 25 year plan,
30-year plan? It's it's a 20-year plan
that we but we continue to review it
every few years to make sure that we're
on pace.
>> So it's so originally
supposed to finish up around 2033.
>> So no, that that's a great question. We
wish engineers wish we could do
everything in 20 or 30 years, but in
most cases it's more like a hundred
years before you could replace it
because if we're only replacing a mile
of pipeline a year and we have 98 miles,
well it's going to take a long time. But
what we do similar to the streets is we
pinpoint the worst performing areas, the
areas that have INI that are prone for
environmental damage and we fix those
first.
>> Okay. So it's ongoing basically.
>> So not in my lifetime.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Is that it?
>> Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Crowley.
Vice Mayor Rexdale.
>> Uh yes. Uh thank you. And again, thank
you for the slides in advance. Super
helpful. you didn't go too fast because
we had them in advance so that was
great. Um, a quick observation I guess
with regard to the Berlin game and San
Mato, you know, I presume we can we can
at least look at what they are charging
their customers to know if they're
having a big increase. Then we can we
can say what's up with that. Um, so we
won't hopefully be too surprised. Um uh
I had a question with regard to the
decrease in the residential use.
Do we know are is it a post pandemic
people are not home during the day? Uh
is or and or is it the increase of
lowflow toilets or do we not know? Yeah,
the quick answer to that is that the
current analysis takes into account the
last three years and it's more informed
than ever with the town's work with CADC
who looked at a more precise
representation
uh to determine indoor water use. um how
it was previously set is something that
was done before 2016 and not something
that uh really HFNH was a part of. So
it's been you know over a decade since
this was last analyzed at a minimum.
>> Oh since the rate of use but it has
changed.
>> Exactly. It's gone unaccounted for,
right? I mean, so I don't want to say
unaccounted for, sorry.
It was not looked at during the previous
cost of service study,
>> nor in 2016 as well.
>> So there's been a lot more lowflow
toilets installed since then,
>> right? in and in in a way it also um
correlates to the water use patterns
that Rick showed during the water use
presentation where you had that peak in
2012 2013 where um water use whether it
was discretionary or indoor was u at a
premium.
>> Okay, that's super helpful. Um then I
was wondering um back to the commercial
customers
um is there an opportunity and I don't
know who this question is for um is
there an opportunity for them to
challenge the assumption since there are
so few and say you are looking at our
water use and basing you know guessing
our sewer use
off of that. Hey we never flush the
toilets. we only water our lawn or we uh
do a lot like maybe the racket club we
do a lot of dishes and we have like two
tiny little bathrooms that aren't really
used that much. So I don't know is there
a way for them to um uh challenge that
assumption.
>> I'll just speak first to the fact that
the same folks that calculated the
indoor water use for residents are doing
that on an annual basis for commercial
customers. So that's been the current
practice. So they're using the same set
of assumptions,
but as far as the challenge, maybe I'll
turn it to Jen
>> and and also it's using the AMI data
from our own from our own measuring
system as the as the back background on
that. That's also uh more precise,
right, with the
>> and that shows how much water they're
using but not how much they're using the
sewer
>> indoor use.
>> Yeah.
Oh, so we're so indoor use. So
then it would really be like the racket
club saying we have two small bathrooms
but we do tons of dishes.
Maybe not so much the country club.
Yeah, I I do believe that we have a uh
formula that we're factor in the three
uh month of the winter sessions and the
formula to calculate the sewers, right?
So, it's pretty consistent and in fact
some of the schools have
uh lower in terms of their uh sewer uh
or water usage. Correct. Yes, there is a
so first it's using the AMI data time of
use and then there's a formula that CADC
is that um developed to look at taking
that usage and then applying it to
indoor usage. So we're not able to say
that sink was on at that hour and they
use that shower on that day. um but they
have taken a very good look at their
data to come up with these assumptions
that um would be used for this rate
making purpose. Um I think if someone
really wanted to understand on an
individual basis, you know, that
analysis, we could absolutely sit down
with them and and talk them through
that.
>> Okay, that that's super helpful to know.
Thank you so much.
>> Thank you. Um I have just one more
question um regarding the treatment
costs. Was that ever factored into the
sewer rates in the past or has it it has
it continues to be factored into the
sewer rates?
>> Yes. Yes, mayor.
>> Okay. Um
I really don't have additional
questions. I appreciate the other
questions that's been submitted so far.
And we actually need to hear from the
public before we adjourn. So, um, I
don't think we've had a chance to ask
the public for their opinion on this. Do
we have anyone from the public waiting
to, uh, comment?
>> Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor Cole.
I'll just ask if there anyone on Zoom
would like to provide comments
and I don't see any a raised hand. Thank
you.
» Um, yes, you may go ahead.
>> That was all for you guys. Any other
questions? Other than that, we'll just
take your direction and move forward.
Any additional questions from the
council or any specific
>> the mayor?
>> Yes, go ahead. Mayor Rex,
>> if you are seeking direction on sewer
rates, my guess is we probably might
feel more comfortable than with regard
to the water rates to give you
direction. Uh I don't know if I I don't
want to I can only speak for myself. I'm
comfortable with the recommendation on
the on the sewer.
>> Um okay.
>> So we we um support the recommendation
that's presently in front of us
regarding the sewer rates. Thank you. We
will now adjourn this uh study session.
Thank you very much. Thanks for the
presentations. Excellent.
We will be joining a close session. Um
let me
Mayor Cole,
>> I'm trying I'm trying to call. Well, if
you guys will stay seated, I will.
>> Would you like me?
>> Okay. I am I was curious why everybody
got up and walked away. Okay, we will
turn to close session. Um so let me do a
public announcements of the close
session items. Item A, conference with
legal council existing litigation. Town
of Hillsboro versus all persons
interested in a matter of the
proceedings for resolution number 22-83
adopting maximum rates for water service
charges.
Item B, conference with legal council
initiation of initiation of litigation
pursuant to uh government code section
54956.9.
Print D, print 4, one, potential case,
consideration of appealing in existing
litigation noted above. Item C, public
employee performance evaluation pursuant
to government code section 54957, pin B,
pin one, city manager. Item D,
conference with legal council,
anticipated litigation pursuant to
government code section 54956.9,
print D, print two, one or more
potential um cases.
All right. Um any members of the public?
>> Thank you, mayor. Call
>> on any of the close session items?
>> No. No public comment. Thank you.
>> Okay. We will now adjourn to close
session. Thank you.
Good evening everyone. The regular city
council meeting is now called to order.
February 9th, 2026. The time is 6:12.
Um, city clerk, may we please have the
roll call.
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole. Adams,
>> present.
Crow,
>> present. Ragdale
>> present.
>> Cole
>> present.
>> Thank you.
>> Um, please stand for the pledge of
allegiance.
Welcome everyone. It's good to see you
all in chambers tonight. Um,
do we have any report from close
session? City attorney Diaz.
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole. Just wanted to
announce for the public that the council
did convene in close session and
consider four agenda items um as noted
on the agenda and direction was given to
staff, but otherwise there was no
reportable action under the Brown Act.
Thank you.
>> Thank you. Um before we move on um the
next item we have a couple of
proclamations and I have asked my
colleagues to join me in reading the two
proclamations for the month of February.
The first proclamation is um Black
History Month for February 2026 and we
will all take turns in reading this one.
Whereas Black History was first
acknowledged 100 years ago in 1926 as
part of an initiative by writer and
educator Dr. Carter G. Woodson to
recognize the heritage and achievements
of black Americans and to enhance
knowledge about black American history.
And whereas the 2026 Black History Month
theme, a century of Black History
commemorations honors the 100th annivers
100th anniversary of the celebration
initiated by Dr. Woodson. The milestone
theme examines the impact of marking
black history, culture, and life on the
status of black people today. And
whereas work work is at the very center
of much of black history and culture. Be
it debates among black educators on the
importance of vocational training,
self-help strategies, and
entrepreneursship
in black communities or organized
labor's role in fighting both economic
and social injustice.
can
>> whereas black history is American
history and understanding and
appreciating the experiences of black
individuals is crucial to understanding
the full story of our town and our
country. And
>> whereas today, black Americans lead
industries and movements for change,
serve our town and nation at every level
and advance every field across the
board, including art and sciences,
business and law, health and education,
and many more. And
>> whereas the town of Hillsboro believes
every person has the freedom to feel
valued and respected and condemns racism
in rhetoric or action. Now therefore, be
it resolved that the city council of the
town of Hillsboro hereby proclaims the
month of February 2026 as Black History
Month, signed by Sophie Cole, mayor,
February 9th, 2026.
>> Thank you. Um the next proclamation um
is um National Slavery and Human
Trafficking Awareness Month and um again
I will ask my colleagues in joining me
to read this proclamation.
Whereas since 2010 the month of January
has been proclaimed as National Slavery
and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
And whereas human trafficking is a human
rights violation and a violation of both
federal and California law. It also
promotes the breakdown of families and
communities, fuels organized crime,
deprivives countries of human capital,
undermines public health, and imposes
large economic costs. And whereas the
crime of human trafficking is present in
every country and every US state and
whereas San Monteo County is considered
a high-risk corridor for trafficking
because of its proximity to
international airports and location
along major north south transit routes.
And
>> whereas although human trafficking is
illegal, victims often do not recognize
their victimization, do not know that
help is available or where to seek
assistance. And
>> whereas public awareness about human
trafficking still needs to reach broader
communities and communicate more
information about the nuances of this
crime. And whereas the town is committed
to increasing public awareness of the
injustice of force, fraud, and coercion
that is used to exploit the victims of
this heinous crime and to provide
resources and support to victims through
the county of San Mato Human Trafficking
Prevention and Enforcement Initiative.
Now therefore be a resolve that the city
council of the town of Hillsbor hereby
proclaims the month of January 2026 as
national slavery and human trafficking prevention month signed by
our mayor Sophie Cole dated February 9th
2026.
>> Thank you all. Thanks to my colleagues
um these are not just words they do
reflect our values and our principles in
a town. Thank you very much. Much
appreciated. Um the next um item that is
um town update
by our city manager, Doug Davis.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
We have our H&N speaker series that's
coming up. This will be uh Wednesday,
February 11th, and it starts at 6:30
p.m. And our speaker this time will be
Heather Vandenberg, who's going to come
in and talk about her experience uh
during the Paradise Fires and uh or I'm
sorry, Palisades Estates. Uh she
evacuated from that area. And if you've
never heard her presentation, it's quite
harrowing all the stuff that she went
through. A lot of lessons learned that
are there. It's it's a great
presentation. I've seen it before and
I'd encourage anybody to come down and
see this. Uh February 11th, 6:30.
We have our Hillsboro Youth Commission
is going to be taking an ebike survey
and putting it out to the community. So,
the deadline to get that in will be uh
March 1st. And they're encouraging all
of our school people, fifth graders
through 12th graders, to fill this out.
So, it's a a chance for them to get a
kind of a an idea of exactly how they
feel about ebikes. It's a controversial
topic that's that's pretty uh front and
center right now with everyone. and
they're working with our city council,
city manager's office, and the
superintendent of schools as well. And
later on tonight, you'll hear our
assistant city manager, Mandy Brown,
talking a little bit more about ebikes
as well. On that same topic, there's an
ebike video contest uh held by the Cal
Associ California Association of Youth
Commissions. And uh this deadline is uh
looks like March 10th and it's a $500
prize for anybody who turns in a 30
secondond video that gets selected as
the best video in there. And again, you
can refer to the website there to see
how to submit that. Um and it's open uh
for students to submit grades 5 through
12.
The Samaritan House is having their
annual youth coat drive. Uh this will be
January 4th through March 2nd. And we
have a box right out here at town hall
there. Most of the town halls here in
Sonteo County have this as well, but
ours is located out front. If you have
any coats that you would like to donate
towards the youth, uh that would be
where to do it. Again, sponsored by
Samaritan House.
We have a joint venture with U Hillsboro
and the city of Berlingame. And this is
for if you've ever been to the voting
booth and you get the I voted today
sticker. Uh this is to create a design
for that. It's for students uh age 18
and under are encouraged to enter the I
voted contest. So they'll be uh writing
artwork for the I voted sticker and
residents 19 and older will be making a
sticker for future voters. And these are
the ones that are handed out to some of
the children that attend the voting
booths with their parents and it's a
sticker that they can place on them as
well. The deadline for that is April 6th
and you can enter the contest at the
below email address there.
And our leadership council or LEAD is
having uh an event on February 19th uh
and that'll be at uh Pholi and this is a
uh worldclass gardens and an immersive
art and culture day that'll be held
there at the grounds. Obviously many
people have been there. It's a beautiful
area to have there and there's going to
be a couple of uh creativity and
leadership practices that are going to
end there and also some mindfulness
training that'll happen there as well.
Our SER program is still running. This
will be February 3rd through the 28th
and this is for residents of Berlingame
Milbury and Hillsboro put on by our
central county fire department. If
you're interested in joining this and
getting into that first stage of citizen
and emergency response team, I encourage
you to go to the website there or use
the QR code as well.
And finally, we have the El Camino Rail
Roadway Renewal Project that is still
ongoing. Uh the dates here aren't set in
stone, but it's looking like it'll be
February 23rd through March 6th will be
the time period that'll probably most
impact our residents here in Hillsboro.
I want to thank our uh public works team
for working closely with CALR to
mitigate the traffic as much as
possible. Uh unfortunately the El Camino
is a main thoroughfare so in the end it
will be a much better uh roadway that
we'll have. There will be some slight
inconveniences that are happening during
that time. For more information you can
go to the Department of Transportation
website which talks about the project.
And then our slide for upcoming events.
I would just highlight that uh February
there, February 23rd, we're going to
have our annual goal setting session
with the city council which is open to
the community. And this is where we set
our goals for the following year with
our city council. So it'll be staff and
city council talking about some of the
projects they've worked on over the last
year and what they're doing in the
coming year as well. And finally, our
slide here for all our notification
programs, SMC Alert, Genesis, Nixel,
Watchd Duty, and MyShake. Uh again, as I
always say, if you're going to pick one
that you're going to join, I would say
SMC Alert is probably the most
important. I would also say that Nixl is
probably the easiest to use. And from
there, you can choose your entry point
as you like.
>> Thank you.
city manager Davis.
Appreciate that. Um next item is um
public comment on items that are not on
the agenda. Do we have any um anyone
either in chambers or remotely with
public comments?
>> Yes, Mayor Cole. John Lockton.
>> Hello, Mr. Lockton.
Welcome.
>> Thank you and thank you for the
opportunity to address you. Uh I have
been at this podium along with members
of our group uh since the spring of 2015
talking about water rates. You believe
2015? And I understand that uh you may
be looking at uniform rates now. uh
array of hope. Uh thank you very much
for looking at that. Uh but I'm here uh
really about uh uh a hope on our part
for settling this terrible litigation.
Uh it has wasted a lot of town money.
It's wasted a lot of money of our group.
Um we wish it hadn't started. Uh my
purpose in being here today is to say
what I said in an email to you uh which
is uh I am here now. Our group is ready
to talk. Uh we would uh we're open to
anything. Um we u we believe maybe
wrongly that uh Hillsboro when you
brought this action had some sort of a
plan what you would do if uh you didn't
weren't successful. We're happy to
negotiate off whatever your plan may be,
but we'd like to uh start the
negotiation, which is why we're here. Um
just just as an aside, uh uh we do not
understand why the litigation was
brought. Um we wouldn't have sued and we
were barred from suing by a statute
which said that you had to sue within uh
60 days and that time had passed. So, we
couldn't sue and you brought this suit
and uh uh had you not brought it, you
would have been able to take uh the same
rates for five years without any uh
challenge. Uh but anyway, it's happened
and we would like to uh uh move ahead
and have a negotiation.
Whoever gave you that advice to bring
the suit, I think gave you poor advice.
We we we didn't need to have that suit.
we didn't need to spend all Hillsboro
money. Um, if they're giving advice on
an appeal, please don't. You're going to
lose an appeal. I assure you, I'm not
going to get into the legalities of it,
but uh that is that's what's going to
happen and it'll just be a waste of more
money. So, we hope you don't appeal. We
hope you'll uh talk settlement to us and
we hope uh there isn't a lot of
animosity towards us. You know, a
validation um proceeding is an
invitation of the town to participate in
finding the facts of something. Um we
didn't sue. This was the town wanting to
find truth about the water rates. And uh
in such a proceeding, the town is
invited to participate and we
participated. and we gave our views of
the facts and you gave your views of the
facts and the town came down uh in one
direction and uh could have come down
the other direction. But uh we love the
town. We do not want anything bad to
happen to the town. We are as I said
very unhappy the water rate suit was
brought because it's wasted a lot of
money and had it not been brought uh we
would have uh not sued you.
>> Thank you.
>> Now I just want to reate reiterate that
I'm we're willing to talk and thank you
very much for the time.
>> Thank you so much, Mr. Lton. Any
additional comments from the public on
items that are not on the agenda?
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole. I'll just check
to see if there are any raised hands on
Zoom and I'm not seeing any. Thank you.
Okay, I will now close um public comment
and the next item on our agenda is
announcement of conflicts of interest.
Um do any of my council members have a
conflicts of interest to disclose
related to any item on the agenda?
Seeing none through the mayor, I do have
on agenda. I'm not jumping ahead but the
agenda item nine. Uh I am recusing
myself from agenda item nine on
tonight's agenda. Um as I have a real
property interest within 1,000 ft of the
1200 Jaclyn
drive.
>> Thank you council member Chuang.
Um
any other conflicts of interest?
Um so city attorney, will we um remove
that item um before we vote on the
consent calendar?
>> Yeah, thank you, Mayor Cole. Agenda item
nine is actually a public hearing, so
you'll hear that item and when we get to
that item, uh council member Chuang will
step out of the room and the rest of the
council can decide that the matter.
Thank you.
>> Okay. Um
any items to be removed from the consent
calendar? I
>> Council member Krley,
>> I just have a question on item one uh
and a comment on item six, but it's a
quick question. I don't think we need to
remove it.
>> I through the mayor.
>> Any other items?
>> I also have a comments on item five,
but not doesn't have to remove it.
>> Um any items to be removed specifically
just these are just comments on item
one, five, and six and six. any
additional items to be removed.
» Okay. Um we we will um so
>> we're not removing any of these items
except for item nine which council
member council will recuse. So item one
council member question for the city
clerk on uh under on the minutes on page
44 in our packet at the top of the page.
It's under um old business item 11. I do
have the last name of the resident on
Moralboro Road. Is there a reason why we
don't want it published?
>> I didn't include it because he didn't
state it for the record.
>> Um and so I I just I didn't include it
for that reason. When he was at the
podium, he didn't. Um I noted that I
said it out loud, but then he didn't say
it out loud, so I chose not to include
it in the minutes.
>> Okay, that was my question. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Okay. Um item five.
>> Item five. Thank you. Um, I just want to
um commend the staff for continuing to
really identify the HMGP
program grand funding for the Highland
project. I know that Highland project,
Highline project has been a very
important project for our town. It was
most unfortunate that FEMA grant the
brick grant did not come through and it
is a a huge project, $45 million. So,
thank you so much for identify those uh
grant funding and continue to move
forward with this project. Thank you.
>> Um I echo those statements.
>> These are
>> Yes, I think we all echo those
statements
>> and we're very grateful.
Mandy. Thank
you to you and the team for working on
that item six.
>> And I just wanted to say that even
though it's on consent cal calendar,
these cyber security controls are so
important. So, um, I thank you, William,
and for pursuing those.
And with that, I make a motion to
approve the consent calendar items 1
through eight. And we have a second.
>> Second.
>> Okay. Um, all those in favor say I.
>> I.
Um we have unanimous consent for the
consent calendar.
» You're moving into agenda item nine.
>> No.
>> Yes. Okay. We will start with um agenda.
We'll move on to public hearing for um
agenda item nine.
All right. Uh, good evening, mayor. Good
evening, council members. My name is
Doug Belchick, and I am the associate
civil engineer for the town of
Hillsboro. And tonight's public hearing
item is for council to consider the
adopt adoption and summary vacation of
easements at 1200 Jaclyn Drive. um
staff, property owner, property owner
rep, and uh other technical staff are
available for any questions after the
presentation.
Uh so getting started, the red dot shown
on the screen is the approximate
location of the property. As you can
see, it's in the northernmost portion of
Hillsbor, right along the border of
Berling.
The property itself consists of three
parcels shown here on the left. Um it's
the current and existing conditions.
The applicants recently submitted an uh
lot line adjustment application that
would modify the existing three property
shown on the left to something that
would look more on the right. Um, as
part of that lot line adjustment, the
applicant is proposing to vacate and
relocate existing easements shown here
in red. Um, as well as dedicate some new
easements, which are depicted here on
the right. Effectively, this would place
public utility easements along all
interior property lines, which is more
consistent of a typical property in
town.
The reason we're here tonight is because
of code section 163650D,
which states that if the proposed lot
line adjustment includes the dedication
or abandonment of easements, the city
engineer shall not approve the lot line
adjustment map until city council has
accepted the offer dedications or
abandonments in a public hearing. Uh so
in short, council must consider and
approve the easement dedications and
abandonments before the city engineer
can consider the law line adjustment.
Again, tonight uh tonight's public
hearing item is for council's
consideration of the easements, not
considering the lot line adjustment
itself. Acceptance of the easements will
permit town access for future
installations, operation, and
maintenance of any public utilities. As
of now, there are no current public
utilities that the town owns. Uh other
public utility providers have confirmed
acceptance of the easements. Um they as
well don't have any any u uh any
utilities. Uh and town staff have
addressed inquiries regarding the lot
line adjustment and process and have
also clarified that no development is
being proposed at this time.
And with that, I can take any questions.
>> Thank you, Mr. Pilchic. Um, any
questions from the council regarding the
presentation?
Yes, council member Crowley.
>> Thank you, Doug. Can you go back to the
map, please?
>> So, on the left, the current, that
yellow slice,
and the orange slice. So, who do they
belong to?
>> It's all part, sorry, it's all part of
1,200 jackling. Uh it's one property but
three parcels. Actually it's technically
four but the lot line adjustment is just
for three.
>> So the property belongs to 12200 Jaclyn
but there's a utility easement
>> existing. Correct. The red line it goes
pretty much all around the existing
orange property.
>> But we don't actually have any utilities
there. Is that what you're saying?
>> Correct. It was probably done when the
property was subdivided at some point.
Uh but the town hasn't had any need for
it as of yet.
>> Okay. So there's no change in ownership.
>> All right.
>> Correct.
>> Uh thank you.
>> Thank you. Um Council Member Adams. Oh,
any question?
>> Um just a comment. I really appreciate
having this public discussion. I think
it's obvious where this probably will
lead and I think it's really good for us
in terms of transparency
to be talking about the importance of
the easements but also the importance of
understanding the changes uh that this
will represent. So I appreciate this
opportunity to again have transparency.
» Thank you. Um, Vice Mayor Rexdale.
>> Um, two questions. One, just to follow
up on Council Member Kick's question.
So, is it probably that in the past on
the left, that bottom left portion maybe
was an individual lot and that's why it
had easements all around it and then it
was bought up and combined.
>> Correct. It could be any number of
different things, but yes, most likely.
>> Okay. Um and then my question is um if
it if we accepted the uh new easements
and the vacation of easements um and um
then the lot line was not uh the lot
line change was not approved by the
public works director.
What happens to those easements? They
can they can just stay the new easements
or do they that's just a separate issue?
>> That is a great question. Uh my guess is
that they most likely will not get
dedicated. Uh they need to be stamped
and signed and and there'd need to be a
whole bunch of processes. This is just
to to accept them. Um they haven't been
approved or or anything like that. Um
that would take a whole a whole separate
process which is what would happen after
if they do get approved.
>> Okay. Oh, that that's a good answer.
Thank you.
>> Um thank you. Um just a quick followup
regarding the modifications in the
easement. It looks like we now have
access potentially if infrastructure is
needed or easement is needed um within
the property as well. So I assume the the width of those access is
appropriate for the work we may need to
do in the future if necessary.
>> Yeah. Uh it's a typical 5 foot wide
public utility easement that is across
town
>> and and and that access would be deed
indefinitely for the town. In other
words, the town owns that 5-ft access.
>> They have the right to access it. It
would still be part of the property. Uh
it's just that the town has access to to
it.
>> Okay.
>> And and that access basically belongs to
the town indefinitely is your Yeah.
Until the council abandons it or
approves abandonment.
Okay. Um All right. Those are the
clarifying questions. I have any um
Go ahead, Council Member Crow.
>> One more question. Looking at this,
Doug. So, the street on the left,
looking at this, that's Fagan Drive,
right? Is that Fagan?
>> Yes.
>> And then the street at the top is
Armsby, right?
>> Correct.
>> So, h how did we get 1200 Jackling out
of that? And does is the is the address
going to change?
Uh yes, there is a there is an
application for an address change to
make it more current
at some point. I believe the subdivision
was done in 1960 something.
>> Um so it's most likely that the access
was off of Jaclyn at some point, but
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Subdivide.
>> Any additional questions? Okay. Do we um
have a motion to accept this? Um,
>> Mayor Cole, uh, this is a public
hearing, so we'd want to open up the
public hearing and see if there's any
public comment.
>> Any public comments from the public?
>> Yes,
my name is Gordon Newman and I've been a
resident on Pagan Drive since 1974.
>> And um, I also am a civil engineer with
a professional license. state of
California. I have built thousands of
homes and apartments in the state of
California and in the uh other parts of
the country. Um I have some concerns and
I represent some uh residents of Fagan
Drive that have similar concerns. We
understand this is a preliminary
hearing. We also understand that
ultimately the homes will be built and
most probably be approved by the city
council. We have one major concern and
that is the uh ability of uh Fagan Drive
to allow emergency services to be uh
accessed to Fagan uh during this perhaps
four-year construction period of the two
homes. Um I have spoken to Chief Colola
and she has similar concerns about
emergency services during that
construction period. Um, I would
therefore like to recommend to the city
council
uh if possible uh during the approval
process that a construction easement be
provided to the present homeowner and
developer of these lots so that the
construction vehicles and necessary
parking etc be on their property not on
Fagan Drive which would interfere with
emergency services. Thank you.
Um,
>> any questions?
>> Um, just for clarification on your
comment, I I realize your time is up.
Specifically, you are asking for the con
uh an exception for the construction
vehicle to be located within the
property as opposed to Fagan Drive.
>> Yes.
>> Okay. Just wanted to clarify that. Any
questions for the neighbor? No. Any
other comments from the public?
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole. I'll Is there I
just checked to see if there's anyone on
Zoom who would like to provide comments
to raise their hand. And if there's
anyone in the room who would like to
provide comments, you can
>> complete a speaker card or let me know.
I'm not seeing any raised hands on Zoom
and I'm not seeing anyone else in the
room who would like to provide comments.
» Okay, seeing no additional questions I
have qu I have um coming back to the
council um could we put the map up
again? Um and also I guess the question
is for you Mr. Belch or Paul.
Have we ever asked the developer or
builder to um not use the right of way
and provide access for construction
vehicles within the property itself? Is
that a reasonable requ?
» Yeah. Uh it's it's uh it is reasonable.
I will say that typically during
development the contractor will choose
the the most appropriate way um which is
all taken cons into consideration during
design review. Um if the properties were
to get developed they would still go
through the proper design channels and
have to go through ADRB and and planning
building engineering all the permits. Um
and at at that time if um if there were
concerns about access off of Fagan, we
can definitely condition the project
that the contractor come through off of
Arms Beer or any other way not to affect
any anything off of Fagan.
>> Then just to add a little bit to what
Doug Belch has shared, um the
application before you is really a lot
line adjustment. Um so really just
moving parcel lines on the various
parcels. No development is proposed at
this point with the application, but the
opportune time I think for council or
ADRB depending on where it lands in
terms of the approvals. If there's
future homes that are proposed, that
would be the appropriate time for either
of those bodies to basically impose a
condition as outlined by the commonour.
But tonight it would be a little
premature just because if you if if
ultimately you approve the easements and
accept them and let's say our city
engineer does approve the lot line
adjustment, these lots could sit just as
they are without any development for
decades. Um and so I wouldn't want you
to impose the condition now, but I think
when it does come back for future
development and homes are actually being
proposed at that point. I think our
director of building and planning is
hearing the comment tonight. Um, and so
they will ensure that obviously ADRB
looks at that. If it ultimately comes to
you at the council level, that's
something you can impose at that point
as a condition of approval.
» Um, any question? Yes. Um, council
member Adams. Thank you, Christopher,
for that clarification, but I think your
question was, do we have a precedent or
have we ever done that? And I saw some
head shaking. So, in time, that would be
a good thing to make sure that we don't
forget and that we hear from you again.
So, um I think we're ready to take a
vote.
>> Yeah. I I think to to respond to the
resident, it's a it's a valid concern
and for the the neighbors on Fagan when
if construction commences on these lots,
it's a narrow entrance to the road and
um building and planning um I think
should and will take that into
consideration and make sure that there
is a plan that is safe and the least
amount of disruption possible for the
neighbors.
» Thank you. Any additional comments?
Okay. Then do I have um and no questions
from the public? No additional questions
from the public. Correct.
>> No, Miracle. Thank you,
>> Mr. Belchick. Do I um recommendation is
to adopt a resolution accepting a 5 foot
wide public utility easement on three
parcels at 1200 Jaclyn Drive, APN's
number listed. um and contingently
summarily vacating an existing public
utility easement on two parcels at 1200
Jaclyn Drive
pending relocation under secret
guidelines.
>> So move second.
>> Could we take a roll call please?
Council member Adams.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Kwick.
>> Yes.
>> Vice Mayor Rexdale.
>> Yes.
>> Mayor Cole says yes. Thank you.
Mr. Belchure.
>> It's a very special property. Good luck
with that.
>> Yeah.
Hey,
the next item on our agenda is a
discussion on ebikes andformational
updates and that will be presented by
assistant city manager Mandy Brown.
Good evening, Mayor Cole, Vice Mayor,
and council members. Uh the E stands for
efficient. Tonight is a very efficient
meeting. Moving right along. Um I'm here
to present a briefformational update on
ebikes. Uh trying to provide a broad
overview of what's the landscape is and
uh open the discussion for council and
residents to provide some feedback and
ideas. Um and also just to promote that
there are this is the beginning of the
conversation. There are lots more
discussions to be had both at the county
level and higher. Um so uh if if we do
not capture everything tonight uh we
will continue the conversation.
This is just to provide um an overview
of the different types of ebikes. Um I
will note that it may be difficult to
tell with the eye when you're seeing
these ebikes go around whether it's a
class one, class 2, or class 3. Um but
these are the technical definitions and
it's also included um as a chart in
attachment one um just to give an
overview of what we're talking about and
the speeds um pedal assist and there's
some other details but this is really
just a high level
again not meant to be exhaustive but
just to say why are we having this
conversation ebikes do have a lot of
benefits especially for a town like
Hillsboro where there is a a challenges
with that last mile connectivity between
homes and transit stations like Cal
Train station or bus stations. They're
very helpful to improve accessibility
especially on our beautiful hills um
here in town. And it's also a very nice
uh alternative to vehicular traffic,
getting people out of their cars um and
just be having more access to different
places.
That said, they do come with some risks
because they do go fast and they are so
efficient. there is a greater increase
of injury especially when you're not
using proper helmets um if you're
speeding. Um also there are ways to
modify the equipment to make them go
faster than they're supposed to be um
ridden and so that increases uh injury
as well. lack of education and training.
Unlike driving where you're required to
get a license and go through specific
training, uh there isn't necessarily
formalized training and education,
though this is improving and I'll go
through a couple of those resources
tonight, but it's not mandated the same
way it is um with driving vehicles.
Um and then the enforcement of the
regulations. Um our uh wonderful HPD
does a wonderful does a great job of
making sure that they have resources and
they're going out proactively to the
community. Um but there are a lot of
ebikes um around town and so uh HPD
can't be everywhere. And so um also
offering some tools to uh just increase
the public education for some self-p
policing as well.
Just a broad overview of what I'll talk
about tonight. The staff report has a
lot of detail. I've kept it a little bit
higher level for the PowerPoint. Um, so
I'll just go over kind of big to small
what's being done at the state level,
some other counties in the state, what's
being done in Samonteo
County in the town, and then offering
some tools and resources.
So there is a lot that's been done um at
the state level and also continuing to
be done even since we did this published
the staff report. Um there is new
legislation that we're actively
monitoring and will uh continue to
monitor. Uh but the first three bullet
points are a summary of some of the
ebike laws that passed and have gone
into effect this year. Um, so
prohibiting the selling a class 3 ebike
to anyone under 16, requiring the rear
red reflector, um, and then prohibiting
the sale of applications to modify an
ebike speed capabilities. Um, and I
think we've talked about the rear red
reflector in the past and whether or not
that's really a feasible way to promote
safety. What it does is it um it does
sort of give HPD um the opportunity to
begin the safety conversations if the
reflector is not there. Um so it does
help with enforcement and at least um
some education uh in that way even if it
the rear reflector may not on its face
seem like the the most efficient safety
measure. Um so new proposed legislation
AB1557
um by PAPEN is there's a multitude of
things. This is really just a high
level. Um we did link um the full
language um in the staff report. So
giving local law enforcement clear
authority um to address these ebikes. Um
and then Davies some ebike safety
requirements at schools which is being
done in our Sono County uh schools
resources. um it's just not required
right now.
There are some other counties uh in
California that have obtained pilot
programs uh to limit uh safety
regulations. So um Marin County and San
Diego County you'll probably hear about
a lot and this is allowing jurisdictions
to essentially opt in to more
restrictive age restrictions. And these
pilots are really supposed to run
through January 1st, 2029 with the idea
that once the pilot period concludes,
they will consider rolling it out to
other counties. Um there has been a lot
of interest from counties that are not
in the pilot program to be allowed into
the pilot program or to develop their
own. Um and so we are monitoring seeing
how these are going and the various
cities within these counties are uh in
the process of sort of adopting those
measures. And so I've provided a a
summary of the cities that have have
joined in. But there's a lot of
interest. I think most of the cities in
San Diego County are at least discussing
it if not taking tangible steps towards
um joining the program.
Santo County is also doing a lot in
terms of resources. The San Monteo
County Office of Education has a whole
library of ebike toolkit and trainings
um with webinars and resources for
parents uh translated into multiple
languages. Um and I'll speak a little
bit more about the town's efforts, but
this is something that has been promoted
both through our school district as well
as through town communications.
We also hear a lot about other cities
that have passed regulations or ebike
bans locally. We hear about Berling game
and we hear about Milbre. Uh these it's an important clarification that
these um ordinances prohibit the
operation of ebikes in public areas uh
and in park or recreation areas or
sidewalks. They do not prohibit their
use on the actual roads. So those are
governed not by town ordinances. So the
town of Hillsbor does not have a large
number of parks or trail system. um that
would be what an ordinance if we were to
adopt something would really govern. It
would not impact riding ebikes along the
actual streets of Hillsboro. So, I just
wanted to make that clarification uh
because I do think sometimes it get
could become confusing in news articles
um and word of mouth.
Um, again,
some cities that that don't uh haven't
have opted to not adopt an ordinance do
have moreformational
resources and then additional town halls
and listening sessions. Um, I think our
weekly bulletin has been 60% ebike town
halls lately um promoting them. Uh, we
had Josh Becker, Diane Papin had one
with um Ana um the lead of our Hillsboro
Youth Commission speaking at it. Um
there's two events tomorrow on ebikes um
that Vice Mayor Ragn and I are tag
teaming. So it it's continuing to gain
some traction and so hopefully that will
result in some some meaningful change.
Now what is being done at the town
level? So we are tracking that
legislation at the state level meeting
with our legislative consultant. Our
legislative platform does have language
uh to limit the ability for users to
alter ebikes. We also are doing this
through the League of California Cities.
Um they have a strong initiative to
monitor this legislation. Um, but having
that in our platform means that as these
proposed bills are moving very quickly
through Sacramento, we are able to write
letters of support um, and be very
nimble to make sure that we're showing
um, that we want to see that legislation
pass. And so that's very helpful um,
making sure that our voice is being
incorporated in that conversation.
As you know, uh you guys passed and
adopted the bicycle and pedestrian
master plan, uh with a huge thanks to
the public works and building and
planning staff for helping spearhead
this. Uh this master plan contains some
policies for consideration to be um
adopted by the city in the future,
including prohibiting riders from riding
unsafe speeds, encouraging safety
courses, um and additional helmets and
bike lights. Uh, I do want to address I
know the council received a public
comment regarding some infrastructure
improvements and the bike and ped master
plan does contain um some some
infrastructure improvements. Uh so
was not ignored. Uh it was meant to be
captured. Each one of these bullet
points could probably be their own
presentation in themsel. Um so we're
just trying to capture it at a high
level. But the bike ped master plan does
also have recommendations for physical
barriers and improvements and things to
improve safe biking in the town of
Hillsboro.
I mentioned HPD before. They have done
three specific trainings on ebikes and I
did include their PowerPoint as an
attachment to the staff report um most
recently just in January. Um and and had
very good attendance at Crocker Middle
School.
Um, additional public education
outreach. We have a ebike website. So,
hillsboro.net/ebikes
which just has a summary um of a lot of
the information here tonight. All of
those resources from the county and
otherwise the HPD presentation is on
there as well. Uh and so it's a easy
place uh to and as we get more
information uh and these webinars come
out we'll make sure to update it with
the record links to recordings the youth
commission survey uh for example we'll
make sure to plug here just so it will
be a living library of ebikes in
Hillsboro.
I did to want to just while we're on the
topic um offer a couple of just best
practices uh both for parents and for
kids uh not just ebikes but um all
biking uh in town. Um ensuring that
you're wearing a helmet and that it
fits. Um making sure that you're
practicing passenger safety. Um and
reminding that carrying a passenger is
legal only if your ebike has a seat for
another person. I know that we often see
that is not the case riding around
Hillsboro. I know I've seen it. Um and
so just making sure that everybody's
aware of the legal rules.
Being responsible not just as a a bike
rider but also on in a vehicle. Um being
aware of ebikes and being responsible,
predictable and visible, wearing bright
colors and lights uh when you can and uh
slowing the speed. So higher the speed,
the higher the risk. So, I'm just
encouraging folks to ride at safe speeds
and please do not modify your ebike to
ride at an unsafe speed.
This is another resource from safe
routes that we'll link um on the
website, but uh specifically geared
towards parents. So, a lot of these
resources are geared towards specific
audiences.
Again,
just another plug for our our website
and this is the basic information of
what is on our website. So, the rules of
riding an ebike, ebike and bike safety
tips, how to report illegal or
concerning bike behavior. We do get that
question a lot and then access to that
library of tools and resources.
So, with that, I'll open up uh for
discussion or questions to keep the
conversation going. Thanks for your
time.
>> Thank you, Mandy. Um, thank you so much
for the work you've been doing on this.
And before I open it up to my
colleagues, I would like to first also
take the opportunity to thank our vice
mayor, uh, Leslie Ragdale has been not
only representing the town quite well in
moving this discussion forward, but
she's just been very diligent and
persistent working with HPD as well as
the school, the the schools and the
stakeholders at the school to move the
education and information on this
project. Thank you so much, Leslie. I've
been quite impressed with the speed and
elacrity you've moved this whole
discussion forward. Um I will now open
it up to my colleagues for questions for
clarifications on the presentation. Um Caswell Adams and just a quick
question about the ordinance that uh is
in Berling game about restricting
driving to roads.
We have a few places in Hillsboro that
would be tempting that are off-road. Um
would it be within our purview to create
legislation
similarly that you must use these bikes
on roads?
» I can look into it especially if you
have specific areas and we can work with
the city attorney's office to see what
capabilities we have. Certainly.
Council member uh Trunk,
>> thank you. Um thank you for the
presentation and thank you Vice Mayor uh
Rexels for um you know um spearheading
it. Um there are certainly a lot of
discussions regarding this and my
question is this one. Um and that that's
sort of dubtail to uh our uh chief. Uh
perhaps you can come up to the podium
and talk a little bit about um the um
the meeting with um the students, the
Kroger students. I think um the
education piece is fantastic and the
peer-to-peer discussions with the
officers has been very effective.
>> Yes, that's correct. Uh we had our first
session uh in the beginning of the
school year and that was uh widely
attended. A lot of kids came. Uh we had
our second session uh last week or the
week before sorry and uh that was also
uh very well attended. uh the officers
give a wonderful presentation
and uh really give that personal uh
level to the to the students. Um we
recently had a uh parent uh before
Christmas break for the kids for the
parents who are going to buy uh bikes
for the students just to give them heads
up and what to look for and you know
most importantly it's the education for
the students and uh to help them make
right decisions
>> and and I I I maybe you want to talk a
little bit about the assembly that you
intended to push push out uh maybe at
the uh later of this year uh so that
people would actually bring their bikes
in and then be able to have u sort of a
pure conversation
um among the students with parents and
also with the officers.
>> Correct. So we're going to have we're
not calling it a a bike rodeo. It's more
like a skills session where the officers
will be there. where they'll be able to
check the students bikes and make sure
they haven't been modified or if they
have any questions on how to ride them.
Uh we'll put them through a little kind
of an obstacle and just be there for the
students in case they need any help. And I think this is would be a good
point for me to just kind of bring it
up. One of the observation I had is when
you have more than three cyclists
um on the road literally they're the you
know the formation of a size of a
vehicle and as drivers we don't know how
to approach them. you don't know how to
pass them or you want to follow them
behind them and they also seem like that
they are not sure exactly how they are
able to move forward with their
formation. So I think that that would be
something either in our website or in
the presentation to have conversation
regarding the formation so that they
will keep themselves safe and it's also
uh less of a frustrations for the driver
trying to pass them by and create
potential accidents.
>> Sure. And that is uh something that they
discussed during the uh presentations
that we gave earlier.
>> Thank you. Thank you chief.
>> Sure.
>> Thank you chief. Um, Council Member
Kwick,
>> thank you. Thank you, Mandy, for the
presentation and also thank you, yeah,
Leslie, and and everybody that's been
working up for and and Chief, and that
is all the things that have been done so
far to try and keep our residents and
especially our youth safe. So, I just
have two questions, Mandy. Um, it said
class one, no throttle, class two
throttle, and then class three is no
throttle again.
So why is um what makes class three I
assume that's more powerful?
Let me pull up them. There's an
attachment with a bit more um
specificity. Um the attachment one which
has
I'll have to get back to you. I I'm
still learning a lot of these these
terms and stuff. There's kind of its own
world.
>> I didn't mean to play stump the deputy
city manager. Yeah.
>> All right. So, we'll we'll table that.
And then my second question is for
Christopher. What what uh our city
attorney, what parameters are we
permitted to set around this?
>> Yeah, it's a complicated question and I
know Mandy's done some of the research.
Uh Leslie attended a call with one of my
associates who's dug into the ebike
regulations. We have seen some
ordinances that we've adopted uh for
certain cities within the state limited
kind of um scope um and I could probably
bring more to you if you are interested
in looking at an ordinance just kind of
what the parameters would be um but yes
it is limited the state has set some of
the requirements um and you don't want
to deviate from what the state has set
but there are certain things that we can
regulate and I can come back with more
specificity if if that's desired of the
council.
>> Thank you. Those are all my questions. I
have thoughts but that's after public
comment. Um, Vice Mayor Rexdale,
>> um, uh, with regard to class three, they
they're age 16 and up by state law. Um,
but they can go up to 28 miles per hour.
And I'm not sure if you have to pedal
assist on a class three. I think you
might just be able to ride it with the
throttle
and and not pedal assist. You do have to
pedal still on the three. Okay. But
on the three, that's the thing that
confuses me. Well, there's a lot that's
confusing, but yeah. So, the class three
um can go up to 28 miles per hour. And
when they talk about miles per hour, if
you're going downhill, even not
modified, even a legal bike, you you you
could be going faster. Um so, um
I have more opinions than questions, so
I'm going to wait. But I just want to
thank you so much, Mandy, for this
amazing presentation that I've already
mentioned to a couple of people. Um and
point out um in case everyone leaves
before my opinions um that the town hall
tomorrow is at 2 o'clock um with the
county supervisors led by supervisor
Spear and uh Supervisor Muller at 2
o'clock tomorrow um down in Rabbit City.
>> Thanks for that reminder. I will get to
you in one second. I I just have one
clarifying question for Mandy or whoever
has the answer regarding the pending
legislation. um that is looking at age.
Are they actually talking about license
that would prove the age that you are?
Is that included? I think this is the
Papen um legislation. Do we know?
>> Yes. And and at her most recent town
hall, I believe she received quite a bit
of feedback on on this legislation. So,
I I hesitate to opine on on what that
means in terms of the actual
enforcement. Um, and I do I do
anticipate and our legislative
consultant anticipated that there may be
some
changes coming and and what has been
proposed based on some feedback that
she'd received. So, we'll um get a an
update and we'll either make sure to
include it in the legislative report
that is in your packet each month or um
send it um to you separately.
>> Okay. Thank you. And I will um turn it
over to uh
>> Hi. Hi.
>> Good evening. I'm Naen Taylor Barnes, a
longtime Hillsboro resident.
>> Hello, Nadine.
>> And u the reason I'm here is also to
help with the hopefully help with the
ebike issue. I've been working a lot
with UCSF and then also with Marin
County. We've been in the middle of all
of of this for quite a while. Uh and
also I have had to learn a lot. But
basically, uh, I do want to thank
Christine because I got her attention,
uh, also on this issue. And then Leslie,
I haven't met you yet, even though we've
emailed extensively. Uh, and then of
course Anna and even Brody who've done a
lot of work on the upcoming article. I
think that will really help matters.
Okay? Because you have to educate the
parents. They are buying these bikes.
They don't know um, they don't know what
they're buying. All right? The kids are
saying, "Oh, my friend has this. Please
get it for me." This is what we saw in
Marin. Uh there is actually even fraud
where uh bikes are being sold as ebikes,
but they're not. They're much more
highowered. You have the software that
can modify even the the legal bikes. So,
this is very very confusing for parents
and you know, we can wait for the
legislation. And there's a lot of
legislation. There are a lot of studies
now. But I think you have to get to the
parents and to the kids, which you know,
it's so good to see the extensiveness of
this of the program that Hillsboro is
planning. And let me tell you why.
because I don't know how many of you
have seen the big New York Times uh the
cover story, the Sunday magazine cover
story uh with Amelia Stafford who was 15
at the time. My son operated on her when
she came into the hospital in Marin um
having just suffered you know an ebike.
She was on they think a class two which
was a legal you know illegal ebike but
she had jumped on just to try it just to
go down the block. She fell off and had
severe traumatic brain injury and this
is the thing. This is what parents have
to understand. the injuries are far more
you have more injuries much more in the
way of traumatic brain injuries and then
on top of that you know you're talking
about extensive hospitalizations you're
talking about u rehabilitation
uh and so and that's if you survive okay
you're looking at a lifechanging event
it's not one and done and then of Of
course the death rate is so much higher.
They found in Marin one in eight you
know and then now some new statistics
are that two to three you know this is
just on the the ebikes uh two to three
times more likely to have traumatic
brain injury and then the death rate
four to five times more. Now part of why
I also wanted to discuss this is because
the misnomer it's called an ebike and in
Europe uh all of almost all of what is
sold here as ebikes would be classified
as mopeds and under strict regulations
in Europe. So you have the misnomer
where parents are feeling maybe more
casual about it. uh you have fraudulent
advertising and then on top of that now
what Marin encountered and also we're
seeing at these presentations
is the ebike advocates are trying to say
the problems are with illegal bikes and
it's not the case. You have legal bikes
and they're being used improperly and of course you know kids not having
the education and whatnot. Okay. Um,
Nadine, thank you for those comments.
I'm not sure. Have you written anything?
We're happy to include that into um our
records. Did you submit anything in
writing? I appreciate everything you
just stated. Well, everything you just
stated is recorded. That would be part
of the record as well. But thanks thanks
for the information you just provided.
It's extremely helpful and thanks for
your work in educating the community
about this subject. Thank you so much.
>> You're welcome.
>> Any any other additional public comments
on this issue? Thank you, Mayor Cole.
I'll just ask if anyone on Zoom would
like to provide comments on this item.
I'm Oh, yeah. Yes, please.
» We started Abe Matar 110 Redwood Drive.
Um, we started a petition and we have
over 800.
>> Do you mind just stating your name? I
have met you before, but do you mind
just saying your name for the record?
>> Yes. Abe Matar.
>> Okay. Sorry, I didn't hear it. Go ahead.
>> Uh, so um I'm passionately against
ebikes.
My kid doesn't ride one, but um I had
two friends die on motorcycles growing
up and uh I see these kids how they use
them on the streets. It's really
horrible. Uh one of my my son's friends
got injured on a bike and it forced us
to come up with this petition that Amar
presented. We have over 800 people in
Hillsboro out of 3600 homes that are
very opposed to having ebikes without
permit. If I need a permit to drive a
car and a motorcycle needs a permit to
ride a motorcycle, you should have
anybody who's riding something faster
than a regular bike use some kind of
permitting. So, uh, the petition we we
put out was you need to be 16 or older
to ride, I think, you know, bikes and,
uh, I think they should be banned,
especially in Hillsboro because we have
no bike lanes like they do have in San
Diego with all these new developments.
We have no bike lanes. have up and downs
and you see them going to school in the
morning and it's you know you see them
like somebody was saying three at a time
and they're they think they're cool and
they're just you know what are we going
to wait for them to die before we make a
change. I mean we ban you know we ban
jeweled and we don't want our kids to
smoke but we want them to ride bicycles
at 30 miles an hour makes no sense. Um
so I I'm very very much supportive of
banning ebikes in Hillsboro. Thank you.
>> Thank you Aiden. Um, any additional
public comments before we move forward
with a discussion on this?
>> Thank you, Maricole. I'll just ask if
there's anyone else in the room who
would like to provide comments.
>> No, Miracle. Thank you.
>> Okay. Oh, yes. Um,
» yeah. Hi. Uh, my name's Mitch Wong. I
didn't really prepare anything here, but
it was my son Katon Wong that was riding
to school
uh down Chateau. I guess this was in
October. And then he basically I was out
of town. So then his mom let him ride
the ebike. It was her ebike. And so he
took the ebike down Chateau and then had
an accident on Chateau. blocked the
whole the whole street
and an ambulance came rushing to him and
took him to Stanford Hospital.
He had abrasions on his head, his face.
He lost two of his the two top of his
front teeth. Uh he missed a week of
school. Um, I mean, he's 12 years old
and all, ever since he's been in fifth
grade at South, all he's been dreaming
about is, "Dad, when are you going to
buy me an ebike?"
Yeah. So, the kids all want ebikes.
Uh, parents want to buy ebikes
to make it convenient for themselves.
We have so many ebikes in our homes now.
We don't even want to use them.
I think we have four ebikes.
We would go from the slow ebike, the
class one, and then say, "Oh, the kids
would be saying, "This is not fast
enough, Dad. This is not fast enough,
Mom. Let's get a class 2 ebike where you
have the throttle." We have that
throttle. I know what you're talking
about. So,
I mean, yeah, we have this petition. I
would definitely think that kids should
have to go through some sort of
education
and I think they should have some sort
of age requirement because I mean
driving around Hillsboro taking our kids
to school, we see these ebike kids and
they're, you know, they're popping
wheelies going down up and down the
street. They're really at like Ape says,
they're like treating it like a
motorcycle.
So I think uh if you know whatever we
need to do we will be happy to support
and help convey this message to uh kind
of we don't want to ban it but we want
to have some sort of
kind of some sort of monitoring and we
don't want kids to just be you know I
mean at South I remember when my kid
Katon was riding he wanted a ebike.
Other kids were like I think they were
fourth or fifth grade and they already
had ebikes.
>> Yeah.
>> And those ebikes are extremely powerful.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm out of town. I
>> That's okay. Um I just also would
encourage um you Mr. Wong um Keith,
right? Is it
>> Katen Wong?
>> Ken Wong um and Abe as well as Nadine if
you haven't done so already just to be
able to reach out in the future if you
could if you wouldn't mind filling out
the yellow form so we'll have a contact.
It could be your phone number or email I
suppose is what we usually request. But
um I really we all really appreciate you
being in here today and sharing this um
this you know sharing this information
with us. Um as Naen pointed out I
completely agree. The traumatic brain
injury is not just a one time and it you
recover especially these young
individuals whose brains are still
developing. They can have very long-term
consequences as a physician. I've seen
that on the front line as well. So, we
will continue to um work on this issue
and and note for now um I haven't
commented. So, as we move into
discussion, I've been in close contact
with um Vice Mayor Ragdale on this. We
every time we run into a state
legislature, this is often the first
discussion we have with them. What are
they doing in Sacramento to move this
issue as quickly as possible? As a city
council, we're somewhat limited in terms
of legislating. for example, permits.
That was my first reaction the first
meeting I went to. I said, "Well, why
don't we just have everybody have a
permit?" Well, we don't have the
authorities outside of our jurisdiction.
However, some of the other issues that's
come up in terms of maybe banning it in
certain areas that could restrict that
could significantly restrict students
writing it at out of the house in the
first place. That's something our city
attorney and our staff will continue to
look into. and um just want to reassure
you that we are really all in on this
issue and doing the maximum we can to
constrain this in addition to education
of course um and I will open it up for
further discussion or comments from any
of my colleagues but yes um and and I'm
going to and I I realize I'm not
following the rules at this point but I
will ask Nine to go ahead and make a
comment. Yes.
>> The um I think uh when we were all
learning how to drive, right, and you
would see um a car that had crashed.
>> Use the mic so we can
>> Okay. Sorry. Recording.
>> Um I think there's one photograph that
was in the New York Times that if
parents saw this, you know, it it would
speak and and have them understand the
gravity of what we're dealing with. The
photograph is uh a replica of Amelia
Stratford's skull. And this is the piece
that my son had to remove from her skull
in order to save her life. And I think
if parents saw that one photo, you know,
photo is worth a thousand words. I think
that would do it. Because when I saw
that photo, I said, "Oh my god."
So, you know, before because I know
legislation takes time and and in fact
with Marin, they had so much push back
and it was so it got so limited to a
pilot and they wanted so much more. So,
there's a lot of resistance
>> but but the feedback we're getting from
the state legislature is they also
starting to move more quickly,
especially in the past couple of months.
I think is um
>> I think it was Mandy who pointed out
even as of the past 3 or 4 days there've
been new legislation. So I think they
finally getting the message from the um
communities and from the ground up
saying they need to move more quickly.
Um any additional comments otherwise um
thank you all for being here and and
nudging us along. Oh, I'm sorry. Vice
Mayor Ragdale.
>> Oh that's right.
Um, okay. I'll try not to take up too
much time, but I have a lot of opinions.
Um, I want to start though by thanking
you guys so much for your public
comment, for your advocacy, for the
petition, which this was something we
had already been talking about, but I
think the petition, and I'm so sorry for
your son's injuries. Um, but that
petition did wake us up to be u more
motivated on this issue and to press our
um supervisors and our state legislators
even more. And so thank you. And um we
happen to all be parents. Four of us are
grandparents. One of us is not. Um and we hear you. One of us raised a
doctor. So very good job. Um but anyway,
so thank you so much. I hope that um if
you can't go tomorrow, I know it's two
o'clock in the middle of the day, but
they uh usually have online comment
available. They're calling it a town
hall. I I presume they will also still
have online comments available um before
Supervisor Spear. She's also um very
accessible and you can email her and um
I have the email of her legislative aid
who's working on this if if you want
that. Um, I would hope that you would
also contact Diane Papin's office
because she is working on this
legislation, which is great and which is
limited, but hopefully less limited now.
um especially after the um town hall
that she had and there were a lot of
council members there and we all felt
the same that
Marin had a pilot and that pilot uh they
tried to get it statewide and there was
just too much resistance from the
manufacturers and the biking community
and um we're like all of us are like we
want that pilot. San Diego has a pilot
also. The San Diego pilot is um age 12
and up for all ebikes. The Marin pilot
is age 16 for class two. Um I'll have
more on that in in a minute. But um but
anyway, this issue has has risen up uh
and uh we are we are doing what we can
but keep keep doing what you can and um
you know you are the you are the voters
for uh you know Senator Becker, Assembly
Member Papen, uh Supervisor Spear and
they want to hear from you. Um you know
we we have some say and some sway but uh
your your stories are especially
valuable. Um, I I want to also say that
wanting to regulate ebikes doesn't mean
we're anti-bicycle,
doesn't mean we're anti-kid
independence, doesn't mean we're um
anti-ex exercise, getting out of the
car. It just means these particular
they some people call them emotos. I
know Bob Middle and and Moran calls them
emotos.
They are, unless they're illegally
modified, they are legal. And our kids,
a nine-year-old can legally ride one of
these. And that's crazy. Uh, in in my
opinion, um, and I think in a lot of
people's opinions, you can be very, um,
supportive of um, bicycling and bike
lanes and safety and everything. Um but
also want regulations
on ebikes and who can ride them and how
they can ride them. Uh our schools and
our uh Hillsboro Police Department are
working so closely together and I went
to the presentation for parents. There
weren't tons of people there, but the
ones who were there really heard it. Uh
and hopefully they spread the word, you
know, and it was before the holidays.
was such smart timing that uh you really
need to think about what you're buying
and if you buy one just buy a class one
and make sure your kid is not modifying
it. And you know I think the first time
we ever heard about modifications was
when we when we had our um bike ped
first meeting and one of the middle
schoolers who's this amazing kid who's
also working on this issue told us and
we're like what we didn't we didn't
understand you can modify it so easily
with an app or a dongle. Um and then um
Anidal, the chair of our youth
commission and and Brody are working on
an article for our newsletter about the
topic and through the California
Association of Youth Commissions, uh
city manager had mentioned there's a
survey of kids. They've already gotten
some responses uh fifth grade through
12th grade. They are focusing on the
teen perspective, which is so important
because the kids know they're supposed
to ride a helmet, wear a helmet. They
know they're not supposed to ride
recklessly. They know if they don't have
a seat behind them, they're not supposed
to take a friend and they're definitely
not supposed to take a friend if they're
don't have a helmet to give them. They
know they're not supposed to do leaves.
So, she's trying to get at this in this
survey.
Why do you do this? I mean, there's peer
pressure and all of that, but um I think
that's so valuable. Education is is
important. Education, educating the
parents, or the ones who buy the bikes
is so important, but this teen
perspective, I think, is really crucial.
And I'm so happy that she spoke at um
Diane Pepin's uh town hall and um and uh
is on this issue. Um so, just a couple
other things. Um
well,
I will give you okay one thing to note
that just people don't talk about but um
I didn't know until I started going to
these different webinars that electric
scooters apparently there's tons of them
I don't know if they're at our schools
but there's tons of them at schools this
man who's working on it Bob Middlestad
he's a lawyer in Marin who's he's a
bicycle advocate but he said he went
around to different schools in Marin
County San Monteo County he sees these
electronic scooters
they're actually illegal unless you're
16 and you have a driver's license. So,
that was something that I didn't know.
Um, but that's just something also
spread the word about that. The e
scooters, no, actually just not allowed.
Doesn't matter. There's not a class,
there's not anything not allowed. So,
that's just something that I think it's
important to get the word out there. Um,
if your kid has an ebike, just I think
you should tell them whether or not you
can they can fit a person behind them,
tell them don't. They're too heavy. So,
even if you have a seat and even if your
friend has a helmet, they're very very
heavy vehicles. And, you know, just
don't don't ride with a friend. Uh,
don't ride three a breast either. And
don't do wheelies. Now, the police can
pull you over if you're driving in an un
riding your bike in an unsafe manner.
The police, they will they will do what
they can, but they're also not going to
unsafeely chase a bunch of teenagers and
cause them to crash. So, we have to
understand that there's only so much
that we can do. And the more tools that
we give them, for instance, the
requiring a reflector, etc. the more
tools that we give them um the easier it
is for them to have these um these
conversations.
I think um the last thing that I will
say just because
here I am with my wish list that I sent
to Diane Papen, I can only hope that
maybe maybe some of it will go into her
legislation. Um, but this is this is my
wish list um for the state of California
to combine the San Diego and Marin um
pilot age restrictions and don't wait
until the pilots are over and we have
data. Oh, that did that is one more
thing I want to talk about. Um, don't
wait on that because that's a long time.
And Diane Papin really seemed to get
that from just the look she was getting
from the council members in the audience
that we want the pilot now. And they and
they know um that we want these age
restrictions because they did try to get
it uh statewide. Um but anyway,
uh I would like to combine. So for class
one age 12 and up, class two age 16 and
up and uh class three is is already 16
and up. So no changes. I would actually
like to outlaw tandem riding. I don't
care if your bike can or not. I I think
it's really unsafe. Um, I think they
need to add enforcement, uh, teeth for
the retailers, uh, and really look at
some national legislation with regard to
online retailers because a lot of these
bikes are bought online and you can put
them together in your garage. They're
not that hard to put together. Um,
because these bikes can be so easily
modified. and you you go online and you
can see that they say, "Oh, this this
one will go up to 45 miles per hour,"
which is not legal, but they put it
online and they tell you how to how to
modify it. So, I think we really need
help also on the national level. Um, one
thing that um, in the discussion from
Diane Papin's uh, session, people were
talking about, you know, you're just
walking along or you're driving, all of
a sudden they're doing wheelies or
whatever, but also you don't hear them.
And remember when they made the when
Prius was the first electric car and
they made them make a noise because all
of a sudden it's upon you. They should
make a noise. So, uh, especially, you
know, you're walking along, you're you're older and all a sudden
there's this bike there. It could make
you fall. Um, so I think they should
make a noise. Um,
in some places, including the
Netherlands and New York City, they have
said ebikes should not be allowed to go
over 15 miles per hour.
I I think that's something that should
be considered. Um, they just can't go over. Again, ebikes are there.
It's it's fantastic to get up our hills,
but we need to just keep our kids safe
and our adults safe. Um, and um, with
regard to the modifications,
uh, I think that the state and national
can work through the app stores because
the app stores actually have to approve
your app before they'll sell it in the
store. So, there shouldn't be apps where
you can modify an ebike illegally. Uh so
I think that that there should be
legislation on that. Again, town of
Hillsboro really can't do that, but this
but we can advocate for it with our
representatives. Um and then oh the last
thing I just wanted to say uh with
regard to data, you had mentioned data
collection in the packet. Um it would be
helpful um if there is an accident if
to have data on what class they were
riding you know their age what class
they were riding um and as many details
as possible uh because there is some
push back from the Manetta Institute
report
basically said oh well cars are cars are
so much worse and um we really do need
the data and I know in Marin and they're working on UCSF is working on um
making sure that data is collected when
people end up in the hospital. But even
if there's a you know someone gets
really scraped up on the side and HBD is
there and helps them up, any data that
we can have I think would be really
helpful. And now I'm done with my
opinions. Thank you. Thank you for
indulging me.
>> Yeah. Thank Thank you, Vice Mayor
Rexale. Um any additional um comments
from the council?
Okay, Council Member Crowley.
Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank Thank you
so much to the parents who are here and
um Naen, I think what Blake is doing is
incredible. Blake Taylor went to went to
school, went to Crocker with our kids
and and we have wonderful children, but
they're not neurosurgeons. So, thank
you. Um and and I hope that Ethan has
recovered. Um and I applaud that you are
out here trying to help other people
avoid what what he went through. Um, you
know, my initial thoughts about this
that I jotted down before listening to
public comment, um, was that if we, um,
try and craft some Hillsboro focused
legislation around this that it either
has to be bottom up from our residents
or top down from the state. And so here,
you know, we're hearing bottom up that
this is something our residents are
asking for. you know, um I don't know if
you've ever heard this as a physician,
but I have heard that physicians have
called motorcycles donor cycles because
so many of their organs when they do
organ um transplants come from uh
relatively young victims of motorcycle
accidents because on a motorcycle you're
not protected. There's no airbags around
you even with a a helmet. And the
thought of putting our children on a
motorcycle, which is essentially what
we're allowing to have happen, is
ludicrous. I mean, we're just, no matter
how much training we're giving them,
that's not going to mitigate the the
inherent danger of being on a vehicle
that goes very fast with no protection
around you. So, I think that a lot of
parents in Hillsboro would be relieved.
And I think some kids would be relieved
too. Remember we had that safety session
when you were police chief still Doug
and you sat down and talked to a couple
of kids or maybe you were our new city
manager at the time but just coming off
a police chief there are kids Crocker
kids who were asking um for us to get
the word out that these they were
worried about their peers riding on
this. So it seems to me a class one is
plenty. If it was up to me, it would be
a class one up to age 18, but I don't
know how much discretion we would have
around this. But, um, I'm really glad
that we're having this discussion and
really grateful for your advocacy. Uh,
you know, one of the things that I think
gives us more responsibility,
um, just as is the case with Marin,
we're an affluent community, so our
families can afford these at a greater
percentage among our youth than many
other communities. So, I think we really
do have a responsibility to be
aggressive and to lead the way on on
safety on this. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Um, Council Member Adams.
Thank you, mayor. Uh, just three things.
First, do not discount the wonderful
comment about photos. When I saw your
presentation, Mandy, there was a picture
of some police officer lecturing to a
bunch of students who were sitting
there. It was all text.
This does not communicate doesn't
communicate to most humans, but
definitely not kids. So real pictures
are the story we need to tell number
one. So that was a great comment. Number
two, a police presence at commute hours
for the schools. Just a squad car, just
a presence might discourage some of this
as an idea. But third, I think you're
hearing that we're really committed to
doing something before we have to name
the law after the person who's gone.
We're not doing that. We want to do
something now. And I heard us ask or at
least I heard a nice offer from our city
attorney to give us the full menu of
things that we can do. Even if they're
incremental and small, we want to see
that menu. And that's a at least a a
start at showing our real seriousness
about this.
>> Thank you. Um any additional comments?
>> Just really quickly, I mean I think I
think that you speak volumes in the
audience regarding the incidents that
you experienced and I think you speak
volumes when you speak to other parents.
I think that is gradually now come to
all the family members and you know
adults or kids that ebike is a misnomer
uh is really a motorcycle uh in disguise
um because of the speed and because of
the throttle. So I do applaud that um
our police uh departments have been on
the forefront to do the outreach uh to
the students. U Crocker kids are perfect
age groups and maybe now we need to look
into you know fourth graders and fifth
graders because that that that that
whole group needs to have the
understanding and I think often times as
much as we're approaching this
multiprongs
with the regulations with the
legislators with the enforcement for
that matters I think the self-awareness
and then self sort of you know in terms
of the the group trying to you know
understand this better um so to keep
themselves safe is important so I also
applaud uh the chief to talk about the
future assembly where there's
opportunity for the Crocker students the
middle you know the fourth and fifth
graders come together and then to be
able to actually actually experience
what are the proper ways what are the
proper rules to keep themselves safe
when they use the the e- motor pets or
whatever that we want to name them. We
have to name them so that it's not going
to be a bicycle as we like to say but
need to understand that and then you
know multi-prongs approach with the
advocacy
with the education with the practice to
keep our community safe. So
>> thank you. Um the only thing I will add
is maybe staff could also including HPD
reach out to the all parents group to
expand the education to the parents
directly. I think APG um when parents
hear the stories like Nadine is talking
about as well as hear what's in the
pipeline and what can be done. Um just
being able to discuss with all the
parents who are many of the people on in
APG are very involved in the schools.
they want the best for all our students.
That would also be another platform we
can continue the education. So, we'll
work on bringing the information to the
all parents group as well. Um, no
additional comments and I will you have
a comment?
>> Yeah, one more quick one. I'm sorry. Um,
and uh vice mayor alluded to this. I
don't think it's a an eitheror issue
about promoting uh walking and bike
riding. It's a both and. We can promote
bike riding and keep it safe. Yeah.
Thank you. All right. So, um, thank you
for being here. Um, we hear you and
we're working aggressively with all the
stakeholders to move this issue. Um, and
keep continue to focus on the safety of
our students and our children. Thank you
so much. The next item, what public
comment, well, we already did public
comments and you guys are here. Nothing
on Zoom, correct?
>> That was correct.
>> Okay. Um,
oh, I'm sorry. It looks like someone
just um
>> It looks like Yeah, it looks like Mike
Swire just raised his hand.
>> Yes. And I don't mind. Yeah, let's let's
take that. We may have just missed it
because we were involved in our
discussion. Hello, Mike.
>> Yeah. Hi. Can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Awesome. Sorry, I I thought came in late
and I thought I missed it, but um yeah,
thanks for taking my my message. Um, I
didn't hear everything, but um, I do
want to applaud the council for being
proactive and trying to address
proactively um, street safety and
prevent um, crashes from happening. Um,
I've attended all the city council
meetings and all or sorry the um, the
legislator meetings and also we've
discussed this at the CCAG BPAC. Um, and
I just wanted to um reiterate that the
largest problem we face on our streets
is um is drivers hitting people on foot
and people on bike and that includes
people on ebike. And if you read the
Manetta Institute report, they show that
the majority of crashes, although the
data, as you said, is not perfect, uh,
involve drivers hitting kids on ebikes.
And there's a lot of reasons that
happens, including kids not knowing how
to control the machines. But um I do
find it a little frustrating. I'm not
talking about you because it's happening
everywhere that um we're spending so
much time and energy on um ebikes and so little on the larger problem um
of pedestrians and regular bicycle
riders uh dying on our streets. Um I've
talked to two different families in the
last two weeks um that have uh lost
loved ones. Uh uh one was a a 4-year-old
boy who died on a sidewalk in
Berlingame. The other was a 63-year-old
grandmother of 14 grandchildren who was
crossing El Camino and San Mateo and was
um uh run down while in the crosswalk.
Um these are uh fatalities. If you look
at nationwide, we have about 40,000
people dying uh getting hit by cars or
in cars. Um, ebikes are rising, but it's
still only a couple hundred. That
doesn't mean we don't focus on it, but I
do think that we have to think and be
data uh driven and focus on where the
problem is because everything that we do
to make the street safer makes it safe
for all users, pedestrians, cyclists,
and ecyclists. And again, a lot of the
problems with ebikes is we don't have
safe places for kids to get around. One
of the things that these things one of
the reasons these things are so popular
is because it provides kids with a sense
of independence and they don't have to
rely on mom and dad to to get
everywhere. Um we need develops to
develop safe spaces for them to do so
hopefully on machines that don't go more
than 20 m an hour. Um but the problem
the larger problem that we face is uh
the streets are not safe and I applaud
the bike and pedmaster plan that we've
recently developed but my understanding
is there's no funding for for those
projects. I haven't heard of more
projects coming out of that. So in
conclusion I just uh in addition to this
energy that we have here I'd really
encourage you to focus on street safety
because it benefits all road users. Um
and uh I think that's where we're going
to get the most bang for the buck.
Thanks so much.
>> Thank you, Mr. Squire. Mr. Swire, those
are um great thoughts and and feedback.
Appreciate that.
>> Um ML, if I could just summarize the
council direction. Um just make sure
that I heard it appropriately. Um that
we the city manager's office will work
with the city attorney's office to
return with a menu of options for um
what ordinances or policies um the town
could take advantage of. Um, as part of
that report, we could con could include
some additional data collection or at
least information on what data is
collected um, now and moving forward and
then also some reports on additional
education and enforcement activities
that were summarized tonight. Does that
capture everything?
>> Um, as well as any feedback from the
state legislature between now and then.
Yes, I'm sure that that will certainly
guide us in terms of what we can enact
locally at this point.
>> Sure. Great. Thank you.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> I just want to point out um and I do
applaud Supervisor Spear for doing the
town hall, but anything that the county
does only applies to unincorporated
regions of the county. It's up to every
city in the county to adopt their own
regulations.
>> Right. Unfortunately, that's sin. That's
Yeah. Um, so next item is um city
council items um which would would allow
us to comment on any activities we may
have been involved in as uh city council
members in the county or at large.
Starting with council member Adams.
>> Thank you very much.
Um, you'll notice pictures speak loudly
in my presentations. That's just my my
pitch for that. Uh, this is a winter
scene from my backyard January. What did
I do? Uh, for our council. Next slide.
Uh, met with the Hillsboro
Beautification Foundation. They are
planning their 2026
uh calendar now, working on Celebrate
May. But I want to draw special
attention to the daffodils that are
poking up right now uh all over
Hillsboro thanks to Hillsboro
Beautification Foundation. Next slide.
Uh I am on the board for Rethink Waste.
And just as if you don't know how that
works, there are two parts, two
components to what Rethink Waste does.
It collects the garbage and then it
processes the waste. And those are done
by two different companies under
contract with rethink waste or in the
case of collection there it is done by
recology but with separate contracts
with 11 different cities or entities. So
rethink waste manages this relationship
but there are a variety of contracts.
Recology is currently in labor
negotiations with its collectors uh now
after the end of the previous seven-year
contract. So, we'll see how that works.
That is not something that Rethink Waste
is involved in those negotiations. That
is strictly with Recology and its
contracts. Uh I'm was pleased to see uh
new members of our board. Uh Jackie
Spear is part of the board now and Lisa
uh Diaz Nash is also a new member. Uh
and the new appointments have come out
and I've been appointed to the finance
committee in addition to the outreach
and education. Next,
uh, council duties and meetings, uh,
working on the subcommittee of Tobin
Clark, committee ordinances,
telecommunications, and undergrounding
utilities. I just have to compliment our
assistant city manager, Mandy Brown, has
done just a wonderful job on working on
that. But as commissioner of public
works, I want to do a special shout out
to public works uh for some of the night
work that they get to do during this
season and do so quietly and
efficiently. Next slide.
Uh leadership council San Mateo. Uh this
was a day in Halfoon Bay to visit NOS's
which is just so inspiring. Uh this is
the uh Half Moon Bay Library which has a
community space which is just wonderful.
Um but mostly we walked from there to
the wonderful places that are helping
our citizens in San Monteo County uh
with all of their variety of needs at
the moment. Next
and again a winter sky in the morning. I
just after a year uh want to thank the
town of Hillsboro for this opportunity
to serve. And also I want to thank my
fellow fella, my girly uh council
members
uh for being such great colleagues, but
I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge
that anniversary for me. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Adams. I think
I could speak for all of us. So, we feel
the same. Um, council member Trunk.
No, no, no slide deck. Um, I attended
the emergency service council on behalf
of town of Hillsboro and I also attended
uh Sam Trans.
Um, so both um actually both agency uh
focus on human trafficking. um this this
year actually I think that it's because
of the Super Bowl this past week, FIFA
uh in this whole year um and just the
various activities I think that just
brought to the forefront in terms of the
human trafficking um awareness
announcement
um you know training their staff to
notice the uh uh the the situations and
to be able to report it and and render
helps. Um so it was critical. Um and I
also want to applaud uh the emergency
service council for um uh activating the
uh emergency um uh IO IC. I think that
that's what they're doing um for the
week of uh the Super Bowl um focusing on
the safety of Cal Train and um our
former chief uh Nelson Cordaway was uh
very much involved in that and so it was
um really nice to know that you know it
we're in good hands um that they were
really paying attention uh to that. Um
the other thing that I want to mention
is that um Sam trans I mentioned last month that uh Sam Tran is
celebrating its 50th anniversary um or
birthday for that matters. It started
July of 1976.
So there are going to be events that is
coming into place namely uh on September
1st there will be riding the buses for
25 cents kicking back to the 76. Yes.
And then the other thing is um on the
26th of September there will be a uh
more of a a festive events um at their
new headquarters in Milbury. Um so that
would be really exciting. Um the other
thing that I want to mention is that for
people who are interested in riding um
buses, Cal trains, there are Clipper
cards. you now will be able to use it
and you can have a app to use that and I
think that is really helpful. Um then
you can add money to it. It's
counterless and then you can you know
hop on the train, get onto the bar, hop
onto the bus and it's seamless. So
hopefully more more and more people will
get out of the ebike and use um the
public transit um to go to places. So
that's the end of my support. Oh, and
um H&N's um speaker series
um Wednesday, this Wednesday, Nove uh
not November, I'm sorry, uh February
11th. I know. Uh please do come. We have
up to 65 RSVP right now and we have more
rooms uh for people to come and please
come and and hear the speakers. As our
city manager says, she speaks from her
own experience as to what works and what
not. And I think it's it's going to be a
really heartfelt discussion. So, please
make time to come 6:30 to 8.
>> Thank you, Council Member Chuang. I'll
go slightly out of order. Um,
Vice Mayor Rexdale,
» I have a a few visuals. Um, okay. Next
slide.
Uh, ebikes. You've heard enough from me
on ebikes, so I won't go into it. Um, I
attended two, uh, webinars, uh,
sustainable San Monteo County put on.
They focus on a different issue every
year, and this year is plant-based food
policies. Um, and as you know, I'm a
vegetarian. I'm not going to impose that
on everyone. Don't worry. But it is
interesting to learn to learn about
there are options especially for big
towns. West Hollywood where my daughter
lives um they have for any town event it
plant-based is the first option for
food. So it's a subtle way to go but
again I'm not going to impose it on
people. um uh the ad hoc ordinance
committee. We had a great meeting um
working with um assistant city manager
or assistant city attorney Mark Hudach
and um council member Adams and we um
will be coming back before the council
before long. Next slide.
uh Peninsula Clean Energy, you've
probably you guys all read the E-News,
but um PG Gene rates went down. It's a
little complicated, but PG& rates went
down and so Peninsula Clean Energy, we
voted to also to change our rates um so
we would continue the 10% discount um
for now to um it's not only clean, but
it's also a savings from PG&'s um
electricity. Uh they officially signed
the lease for their new location. I've
mentioned the new location a couple of
times, but it's in downtown San Monteo.
They're hoping to move in in October. Um
I joined the legislative committee,
which I'm so excited about. Um there was
a quorum issue because I'm on the
executive committee and and one of the
people on the executive committee uh
decided he could he could go off and I
got to join. So I'm very excited. Um and
for um Bosa um I'm now the chair of the
board policy committee. So very very
exciting. Uh next slide. Um oh um the I
did the homelessness count which is
super easy. I I know that you've done it
before. You guys have probably all done
it before. Um getting up reporting there
at 5 in the morning is hard because you
really don't sleep because you're
worried you won't wake up. Um but it was
super easy. The hardest thing was how
old I felt because this pregnant young
woman was my daughter's best friend
since kindergarten and uh she's one of
the people in charge of it. So, um Loi
Saba, she's fantastic. Um anyway, um I
do recommend it. It was it was super
easy and they train you really well. Uh
next slide.
Um oh, again, ebikes. Sorry.
Um, but this was just one of the slides
from our amazing uh, youth commission
chair Anya Dal and she just brought such
a unique perspective and talking about
picture being worth a thousand words.
This video contest I think is really
going to be fantastic and she's offering
a $500 prize. So that's um you know
people will enter and um you just just
think about scared straight and all the
things that that um we learned when we
um learned how to drive a car. I think
this is going to be helpful. And I think
that might be it.
>> Okay. Thank you, Vice Mayor Rexdale. And
I will um go next and I will have uh
Council Member Cruic go after me. Um I
don't really have much to uh report.
Thanks to all of you. Um, and I did meet
with several residents on issues
pertaining to town that the staff is
working very hard to help us address,
but otherwise um the town continues to
work very hard to uh keep things fur,
keep the town working in perfect
condition as best as as possible. So,
I'm actually going to um uh before we
adjourn final adjournment, council
member Crowley has asked me that we
adjourn the meeting in honor of the
memory of someone special to her that
has passed recently. So, I I will ask
her to provide comments at this time.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I
just have two activities to report on.
First, we had ADRB on January 26th um
where we went over uh design review
guidelines. um they are design we're
looking at those and they will come
before council I think um as part of a
transparent process for fairness and
consistency in those and then s uh San
Francisco airport noise roundt the uh
technical working group is working on
the fly quiet program and um and the
airport director reported that 2025
uh number of passengers is almost back
to 2019 levels um and Whimo has a pilot
programmed to SFO they are dropping off
and picking up in the rental car area.
Um but now for my um personal note and I
do want to thank the mayor for allowing
me to pay tribute to a close friend of
mine of over 50 years. We met when uh I
was 12 years old. She was the new girl
in the school. We became fast friends.
She spent her life in my hometown of
Doylesstown, Pennsylvania and was
essentially a member of my family. My
father considered her another daughter
and she was like a sister to me. Um but
more importantly she was a dedicated,
creative and beloved elementary school
teacher for almost 40 years making a
positive impact on over a thousand
students. Um she passed away in January
at the age of 69 from cancer and left
behind her wonderful husband and there's
those three spectacular daughters. Um,
so I uh respectfully request that we
adjourn tonight in honor of my dear
friend Claire Hennean.
Oh, deepest sympathy.
With that said, this meeting is now
adjourned.