Special City Council Meeting November 7, 2023

0:00:02Okay, thank you for everyone's patience. When the mayor comes back we are ready to begin. I probably should have looked up before I said that

0:00:50okay.

0:00:55The November 7, 2023. Special City Council meeting is called to order at 7 24 Pm. Will the city clerk please call roll council here may have pretend councilmember Fideli here councilmember Kinto here. Councilmember licenger. Here we have a quorum.

0:01:14The first. Okay, we do not have any requests. I'm confirming. We do have no requests under. That is correct. So we'll go on to. The next item

0:01:25is the next item is oral communication. The next item is pledge allegiance. Now, I'm sorry

0:01:35that is not on the it is not on the script, so do I have the right one.

0:01:47That was the closed session for sure.

0:01:52Okay, you should be on page 3 of 7. Okay, I'm sorry I was

0:01:57because I have this. Should I have ceded the time to Mayor protem so she could report out on the special with closed session. First, she can do that under Council community communications. My apologies

0:02:12and we'll do the pledge of allegiance.

0:02:15I pledge that she is a super glad United States of America.

0:02:36The next item on the agenda is teleconference and public comment instructions from our city clerk. Thank you, Mayor. This hybrid meeting provides an option to participate in person, or via zoom for closed caption services. Meetings of the city council are subject to the Brown act, and are held for the purpose of conducting city business. The Brown Act also ensures the public's right to be heard, and while city Council is not able to respond to your comments directly, your comments will be heard prior to council taking action

0:03:03for members of the public who wish to provide oral testimony, the mayor will announce the time for public comment on each applicable item.

0:03:09Public comments will be taken in person, and a request to speak, may be submitted to the city clerk by completing a Speaker card. The Council's adopted rules of order and procedures specify that public speakers address the city council in an orderly and respectful manner, proceed their comments with their name and city of residence, and be respectful of time limits. That concludes my announcements. Mayor. Thank you

0:03:30you. The next item on the agenda is Council Staff Communications. I'll first turn it over to Mayor Portem to report out we had a closed session at 5 0 PM. For which Mayor Motoyama was recused. There is no reportable action from the meeting.

0:03:48thank you. Mayor, proteom city Manager. Do we have any staff communications. Certainly. Thank you, your honor. I'm city manager, Karen Pincus. I wanted to start off by saying that, as the Council knows, and as the community knows, we had originally intended to have a presentation regarding the library tonight that has been moved to the next meeting. Staff needs more time to put some information together for the presentation.

0:04:11So we appreciate your patience. We've also received many questions since our community workshop last month, and so we aim to answer those questions as well, so we will have information for the Council and the public at the next City Council meeting on November 20 first.

0:04:27Next, I would like to call up our chiefs our fire Chief sellers and Police Chief Keith. As you know, we had a grass fire last Thursday, and I'd like them to break the council on the incident, and then I'll provide some more comments after they finish.

0:04:41Good evening, Mayor and council members. I am Eric, sailors. I'm your fire chief.

0:04:46So last Thursday we were dispatched to a fast-moving grass fire originated from 75, 17 Portrao Avenue, just west of Motorcycle Hill. We were dispatched at 14 5. We arrived on scene at 14. 8. That was a 3 min response time.

0:05:03So I'm going to repeat that from time of dispatch to time of arriving on scene was 3 min. That's phenomenal.

0:05:12We encountered a fast-moving grass fire moving uphill towards the homes on Julian Julian Court.

0:05:18Unfortunately we had a fuel break on that hill with a fire road, and we had some prescribed fuel reduction. Pushing the grass back 20 feet off the road, and then from the road up the hill to the homes we had forward. Progress stopped in 15 min.

0:05:36that was with an ample

0:05:37response model, pulling all of our engines out of El Cerrito, and then also relying on our partners next door, pulling the

0:05:44Griggs from Richmond, and also

0:05:47on fire with Crew 12, which showed up with almost 24 members to help cut lines around the fire and take down a burning tree. So once again the forward progress was stopped in 15 min. We didn't started overhaul and overhaul, went for a little over 3 h, which is where we turn over every stomp and make sure that there's no chance of a rekindle, and that there's no possibility of that fire moving again.

0:06:11So that was a quick refresh of that fire. It was less than an acre, and our crews did a phenomenal job, saying the fire was service. There is no perfect fire, but this one was near close

0:06:22lot of it was a result of the training our crews are dedicated to over the last year. They just completed some wildland training. A lot of our command staff had created command training. They're prepared for a fire like this. They division it up very quickly, and they had a very good handle on where the fire was going, and they had contingency plans in place. If it had reached those homes they had rigs up on that hill ready to protect those houses.

0:06:46So we are continuing to work with our neighbors and make sure that we have those relationships, so that if they need help we help them, and vice versa. When when we need help. They're here in a timely manner, and as a result, we saved about 8.2 million dollars in property value of just the initial homes on the front end of that fire.

0:07:08Few minutes later it would have gotten those fence lines. But your response model was there in time to hold it, and it couldn't have been possible without your continuing support. So thank you for keeping the constant staffing of the fire department which is needed to control a fire like that and keeping public safety number one.

0:07:26Thank you.

0:07:30And good evening counsel. I'm Paul Keith. You are chief of police

0:07:33so when I responded from my office last Thursday and saw this fire I immediately was struck that next week.

0:07:40on Thursday, November sixteenth, we have an evacuation drill planned.

0:07:45and I didn't realize we'd already be looking at the possibility of evacuation in El Cerrito after our fire department was on the scene very quickly, and managed to knock down the fire. But our residents must be prepared for the possibility of significant fires that need moot that require the need of an emergency evacuation.

0:08:03So next Thursday, we're doing a city wide evacuation drill.

0:08:09It'll take place sometime during the morning on November sixteenth. Now we're not gonna be asking the entire city to evacuate all at once. We're gonna be selecting a neighborhood within the city to evacuate so that our city staff can evaluate the process of the evacuation to be able to make recommendations about things like parking rules, but develop some data about what an evacuation looks like in El Cerrito.

0:08:33We now and then we're asking all of our residents to within their family or housing unit develop an evacuation plan to create an evacuation, go bag with their needed supplies in the case of an emergency.

0:08:47to ensure that they have supplies to persevere through a disaster

0:08:52and to register their cell phones with cws. That's the count, the community warning system, this administered by Contra Costa County.

0:09:01So to register your cell phone.

0:09:03you go to Contra Costa County Cwos. And there's a link on that website to register your cell phone that ensures that in case of an evacuation or other emergency, the C. Ws has multiple ways to contact you. They have tools like using cell phone towers and hitting every phone within a radius of the the towers. They also have direct dial tools. And when you register your cell phone, you're ensuring that you're gonna get the notification directly to your cell phone.

0:09:30We're also encouraging residents to follow the L. Streeto police department on nixol.com. That's NIXL. e.com, because on November sixteenth there will be some evacuation drill related messages that come from our nixel service.

0:09:45So we're also asking them to do that. This fire last week was small and was effectively handled by our fire department. But we really need to be cognizant that our community is vulnerable to fires during our dry seasons, and we need to be prepared.

0:10:02Thank you very much.

0:10:05Oh, Mayor, it's our question.

0:10:08I just want to thank our chiefs. Yes, councilmember Feder's chief. Police chief

0:10:17number 2.

0:10:18Thank you for this. 2 2 2 questions. Well, we'll follow up to the council members as to what our role might be in this evacuation

0:10:28and for sec. Number 2 is, can you send all of us information that we can put on social media so we can get it out to our residents about what you just said for question number 2. Yes.

0:10:40for question number one. I don't like answering a question with a question. But however, council members would like to be involved. You're welcome to participate. For the most part, we're gonna have an identified area for residents to evacuate to where we're gonna be processing evacuated residents and

0:10:58asking them survey questions and also checking in with them on how the evacuation process went. So the main role that you could play to help would be to get the word out. So we'll get you an email script so you can connect with your neighbors and constituents, I would say that would be the most important role to play, as well as also making sure that you yourselves are prepared for an evacuation.

0:11:22And I was just wondering is the sixteenth what council members were required to get Fema registration

0:11:30educational classes for cause. That was a lot of hours, is this, see. So I'm wondering if are we gonna play a role since we got these new

0:11:37so not in this particular drill? The fema training was so that in the case of a major disaster the city can get money back for any time that our staff spend responding to an emergency. So that basic training is required of all emergency responders. And as employees of the city and representatives, you are emergency responders. However, on the sixteenth this is just a drill to test our community's readiness, and also to test the effectiveness of our

0:12:07learning communication system. So to see how many people get the notification from cws, and to improve our outreach around that.

0:12:15And chief sailors, I had one question, a few. There was no no water supply issues or problems. No, no, they they hand Jack, which will call hand Jack, as they they physically pulled hose up to the nearest hydrant, hooked up and had plenty of water.

0:12:33Thank you.

0:12:35Councilmember Quinto. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to say thank you to public safety, both police and and fire. On this I did receive a Nixel, and as soon as I got that I put that out on social network I put it on my acts or Twitter feed. I put it on my Facebook feed and board got out, and and both of you got to me and the city

0:13:00manager. So this is how we do it. And we did this, and we did it fast. So congratulations! And this is the importance of making sure. When it comes to public safety, we need to have both our police and fire at 100%. We are in an earthquake fire zone. And I've been saying this for years. So we're gonna do things differently. And

0:13:25Serita, because we are in a danger zone for earthquakes and and wildfires. So I want to reiterate that and and say, Yeah, we have other cities that don't believe in public safety. But this city certainly does, and and we're doing it our way. And I know our residents appreciate that. And we're going to continue supporting our police and fire at 100%. Thank you.

0:13:52So II do have a additional question as well for 2 sailors. I was wondering, this is this is the second fire that we've had in the hillside natural area, and I was wondering if there's a cause. Was it? Pg, need this time, what what is going on? And if there's anything additional that we should know.

0:14:11for the causes of the fire were undetermined.

0:14:14so not strong enough evidence to figure out exactly what the cause was.

0:14:18Yes, no cameras, no witnesses, so they're both classified as undetermined. But they were sets.

0:14:25Yes, right. They weren't. They weren't spontaneous combustion, right? But when you investigate a fire, you're basically looking at something that's happened in the past, and you're looking for any form of evidence that you can conclusively draw on what caused it, and both of them do not have enough evidence to say. This is exactly what it was.

0:14:47And then you mentioned that we were really fortunate to have that fire break in this area was that part of the fire break for the clearance work. That was. Yes, yes, it's purposeful, yes, to maintain the grass off the fence lines to give us enough time.

0:15:02defensible space, and it's managed every year. A little over 2 years ago the city of El Cerrito cleared most of the major brush off that hill, but every year the fire department manages 20 feet off that fire road that is, on that hill, and then between the fire road up to the fence lines, and it gets cut down very short. So you're looking at grass less than an inch tall

0:15:23within that 20 feet of that fuel break, or that fire road that we stopped the fire on, and if you walk that trail you can see the fire came right up to that fire road and stopped. Because that's where we're waiting for it, and that's where we were positioned ourselves was between the homes and that fire.

0:15:39Thank you very much. Welcome.

0:15:42Yeah. So I just sort of wanted to follow up on that because I was in a very unique position. Last Thursday I was leaving the Elstree Rotary meeting up at the Country Club and heading back to the office and saw the column of smoke and came down the hill and saw all of this happening. The fire trucks coming up the hill

0:16:01the police department was on scene, doing track control, working to notify the neighbors, so I was able to be on the scene as an unfolded quite accidentally, and pretty much the entire incident, at least the

0:16:13what I would say sort of the danger zone was about an hour from start to finish, and I was looking at my picture. The first picture I took was at 2 14, and you talked about, you know, when they got there. So but you know, 15 min later it was smoldering. So I mean, it was.

0:16:28This response was incredible. And I was so impressed by the entire operation. So I just wanna thank our fire department special shout out to be shift our police departments, our neighbors, who provided mutual rich women and on fire, though amazing. And I'm so proud to work with all of you.

0:16:48I also want to note this is also certainly a way to call for all of us.

0:16:51Open the CPU organization, and in the public we have to be ready for an incident like this. However, what I witnessed firsthand, if there's any doubt at all that our first responders are indeed ready, since, like this, they

0:17:05ready. There's also no doubt that we benefited from some luck that day. It was good weather, not a lot of wind. but because our first responder team is prepared and trained.

0:17:15and excellence the return on that. What kind of a return on investment was really high, and we were able to to handle that like you said efficiently and effectively. I also noticed I was on the scene, and I was thinking everyone to a person. Every single person, I think, was like, that's just my job. I'm just doing my job. Well.

0:17:34them just doing their job, saved lives

0:17:37and save our city. So again to our police department, to our fire department, to all of our first responders, so proud to work with you. Thank you so much for all of you do. And with that your honor and my remarks.

0:17:53Okay. thank you. So are there any announcements from any of the council members.

0:18:02Councilmember Fideli. Yes. Last Friday we had the senior fair resource fair in the Community center, which was a big hit, slow lots of seniors coming, lots of services, provided

0:18:18I wanted to note that I heard last year

0:18:23the Condolia is sold at the credence

0:18:26on San Pablo Avenue. So there is a demand here in El Cerrito for housing.

0:18:32and I just wanted to be happy to announce also that the sixth year of the community sponsored. San Pablo holiday lights is on in the theater district, so it's lit up for us down there. Thanks.

0:18:44Is there a date for the lighting? And not yet. I don't think I'll let you know. Thanks.

0:18:53Okay, I have a couple of announcements. So a Veterans Day, November eleventh will be the Alliance Club. Observation of Veterans. Day at Sunset View Cemetery at 8 30 in the morning

0:19:05on the November nineteenth, will be the Saint Peter. See me Church's seventieth anniversary celebration at 11 Am.

0:19:13Is Sunday.

0:19:14the nineteenth, nineteenth. Okay.

0:19:16so the next item is oral communications from the public. Now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding matters not on the agenda. Consent items and presentation items requests to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card.

0:19:33public comments will be taken in person. Only please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence. At the beginning of your comments. Siegler. Please proceed. Thank you. We have 2 speakers at this time, so we'll call it Prospecti Bashar, followed by Sheri Gotner.

0:19:59Hello, Council members, and thanks for all your work. Let's see if you could. Please try and speak into the microphones, so those on the call can hear you as well. Hello, perfect! Thank you.

0:20:08councilmembers, and thank you for your work.

0:20:12I'm Betsy Basher. I have lived in El Cerrito for a little over 30 years, and I'm interested in the library. I want to thank the city manager and staff for the community meeting that we had a few weeks ago. It didn't answer all the questions I

0:20:31which I'm hearing tonight. But I thought that there would be discussion of the library tonight, and I'm disappointed that there wasn't since I had saved the time I came down. Anyway.

0:20:42One of my concerns is that

0:20:46There will not be much time now between discussion at the city council of the proposed measure and voting on a proposed measure.

0:20:55And I think it's really important to have the most public participation that we can. I've been hearing from my neighbors, both in person and I'm next door that people are trying to get hold of certain kinds of information about the proposed ballot measure, and don't want to really be presented with a as a French major, I will say a fetum plea, so that everything has already been decided and worked out. By the time that the measure is discussed

0:21:24in front of the public and in particular, II heard there was a financial analysis that was done that isn't being released to the public, that there was a survey, a community survey that was done in May that isn't being released to the public, and that more surveys and polling may be being done now. So I think

0:21:47anything to do with this really should be public. I mean, it's going to be our library if we approve it and our tax money. I also wanted you to consider

0:22:00a couple of things that just concern me. This is just my personal opinion. I'm concerned about the parking. I've tried to discuss it with the library foundation, and my neighbors have all brought it up. As we understand there is 0 dedicated on-site parking for this library that includes employees that includes disabled people. And

0:22:23I'm very concerned about that. I wish something could be done to change it. Then another thing is, we heard at the most recent meeting, that it might be a forever tax for the library, and that was puzzling to a lot of people, because we were told that the library should cost about 22 million dollars. Then there's the question of how much it would be with the financing. But why would we need money forever then for the library?

0:22:47We heard it wasn't for staff time, but if there are going to be more library hours we would probably be paying staff of the county and agencies that aren't even ours right. There's no El Cerrito Library. There's only the L cereal branch of the Contra Costa Library.

0:23:03and we don't really have control over a lot of the decisions affecting staff. And if we're gonna buy materials, are we gonna buy the materials for the library? So there are a lot of questions. And I just wanted to bring some of those to your attention, and I hope that you'll be very, very open with any information that you have

0:23:21about this issue. Thank you. Thank you next Speaker sherry dragner.

0:23:30Okay, you send my email repeated again. I'm Sherry Grover, and with El Cerrito. So that's a perfect segue. because I wanted to talk about the library of the tax measure.

0:23:43I don't have a lot to say, except that I feel a little sad because I'm hesitant to champion the funding for the new library right now.

0:23:53I hear I hear some of my concerns. So the last speaker just brought some of those concerns to the forefront. I worked in management in Alameda County Library for 18 years

0:24:05in an additional 13 years with the city of Richmond's library. I've developed a lot of different library programs from, you know, abort whether you see family overseas, girls, overseas driven overseas after school programs

0:24:18and civic participation. But some people have a very narrow

0:24:27conception of other libraries are nowadays, but it's they're not just receptacles for books.

0:24:35and computers. That manage the lives of so many, and I really do want to save the library, so we can amplify the work of our existing library inter excellent library staff.

0:24:47And as I'm so common about the nature of the discussion about you and the fact that

0:24:56When I got in requests and information from the committee for New Plaza Station Library. I would love to work with them, but I still have this like hesitancy, because of the questions, the sharing of questions and concerns that have either been answered or answered differently many times.

0:25:16and so I'm I'm time.

0:25:19So I'm hoping for the next meeting that the senior talked about that we need to discuss the proposed tax measure on how that we get a really comprehensive presentation that incorporates all the questions that have been left unanswered.

0:25:36The tax measure comes at a time when there seems to be so many

0:25:40like questions of trust and confidence about transparency and accountability. So these questions are really apart from the discussion about a need for new library.

0:25:51So our city council members please ask questions for us. Our city's democratic system doesn't give us a lot of opportunity for dialogue. I can come up here and make my speech to you.

0:26:04We can't answer or say anything to me. so just take all the responsibility and get us not only

0:26:12you know, sort of surface answers, but really help us get an understanding of the situation. So we have a context and a big picture. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our request to speak.

0:26:25Thank you.

0:26:27Okay. The next item is adoption of the consent calendar, which includes the following items

0:26:37of minutes

0:26:39united against hate, week proclamation, transgender, day of remembrance, proclamation, and cooperative funding agreement between the city of El Cerrito and West Contra Costa, Transportation Advisory Committee, Wyptac for the Oloney Greenway uptown District Improvements project.

0:27:01So are there any questions from the Council

0:27:06oops that's the wrong one. Do we have any questions? Or does anyone want to pull an item?

0:27:14I mean, I like to pull. Item C, okay.

0:27:19and I'd like to pull. Item B,

0:27:22okay.

0:27:32And we do have the representative here to speak and accept the mission for it to be as well. Okay.

0:27:43okay. So

0:27:49So for the representatives, we who are here to speak and receive the proclamations that will occur after adoption of the consent. Calendar.

0:27:59Okay, so

0:28:04do I have a motion to approve

0:28:07the minutes. I wanna just take care of those. Okay. Second, hey? We have a motion council member Pinto, and a second by

0:28:16mayor pro tem. I did submit to city man, a city clerk and city manager some typo corrections. So I'm hoping that they are incorporated by reference.

0:28:28Yes, and I can read those, if you would like, for the record, just modify a modification for accounts. Communications on 9, 19 to correct the language, to read event on all. I ship both of anti-semitism following a Jcrc. Event, and we're muchamus comments as well as the October 17 min.

0:28:49Again the item 10 for Council reports

0:28:54for attendance at the Albany Film Festival Fest gala at the end of May Chiama's comments thank you to those have been incorporated, and with a motion, and a second, all those in favor. Please allow aye any opposed motion carries.

0:29:09So then next let's go to questions about item B, or comments about Item B. From councilmember Fideli. I'll keep it very brief. I think, united against hate week. I'm so glad that we do this in El Cerrito. I'm glad that we're doing it. In the entire region. It seems most cities are participating. I wanna affirm to the community of El Cerrito that we do stand united against hate, that these are very polarizing and divisive times, and best thing we can do is stand together as a community and support everyone in this community, and that everyone is welcome.

0:29:44and that we will not alienate anyone in our community. Everyone here is welcome. Thank you.

0:29:51Yes, thank you. And I obviously agree with that. I'm I was just hoping to

0:30:00insert, insert a a an additional motion for an additional comment on on the seventh, whereas I will go over on record and historically say, and I would like to say that the city of those who has experience public racist comments through public comment process.

0:30:19I was deeply committed to inclusive

0:30:22and remains committed to inclusivity. There's nothing about what we just went through in this resolution, and I just want the simple message that we've experienced it, and we need to move on this. I don't know what the rest of the Council feels about that

0:30:37I will second that. Okay. Can I reread that

0:30:41if you would, that would be great. So on the seventh, whereas and then any other comments or changes are welcomed, whereas the city of vessel has experienced

0:30:52racist comments through its public comment process and is.

0:30:57remains deeply committed to inclusivity.

0:31:02Okay? So there's a motion by Councilmember Quinto. Is there a second?

0:31:09Oh, you are making a motion, really, I'm sorry. Motion by councilmember, Fidelian. Second by councilmember Quinto.

0:31:18any post motion carries.

0:31:24and so now we're at. Item C.

0:31:28Thank you so much. This is for clearing

0:31:38transgender

0:32:03to let the community know that so far, in (202) 022-3025 transgender and gender people have lost their lives into violence and interpersonal violence. And of those 2588% of those victims or people of color. 52% were black transgender women. 72% were killed with a gun. 37% of those victims.

0:32:27We'll be with a non killer who killed by a romantic sexual partner, friend or family member, and 48% of those people will miss gendered or detonate by authorities in the press after they were murdered. So it's important that while we want to affirm, our transgender community that were remembered is in the 4 reason. So I would. I would hope that next year that in that proclamation we did include the fact that these people were murdered

0:32:52because there so transgender immigrants transgender stay out of

0:33:18community members.

0:33:36Thank you.

0:33:40Mayor Protemp, thank you for those words. Council Member Weissner, it's really important. Also, we don't have it reflected in this proclamation, but also the acknowledgement of how important affirming care is, and that affirming care is especially for youth who are experiencing gender dysphoria.

0:33:59Affirming that we also, in El Cerrito recognize that we we do not want to add more names to that list, and that is affirming care is a really important way to avoid having more names on that list.

0:34:11Councilmember. Keen, too, I echo what my colleague councilmember, Weissenker said. But I also wanna let folks know that we have prominent folks that do live here that are part of the transgender community. Here in El Cerrito we had a poet laureate who's transgender that a few years ago, and I wanna honor my colleague and dear friend, the former

0:34:37Vice President of the League of California Cities, and I just took her place, and that is a former mayor and current council member for Palm Springs, Lisa Middleton, who is also on the Calpers Board, and who gave a presentation in Oakland just recently a Calpers update for our East Bay division. So they are in the military. We do have a

0:35:06the current or past general

0:35:11in

0:35:13can't remember what the name is, but but the Surgeon General is transgender, so know that they are in every part of government in this country, and as elected officials here in California and part of our society, and growing up here in El Cerrito. I knew a transgender

0:35:36woman who was our who bust our kids all through West County to Fairmont Elementary School. So that was the first transgender woman that I met, and

0:35:50proud to work with all of them that we have here through quality, California. I am on the Board of Equality, California. So know the importance of making sure we honor all of our members from the LGBT community, and that includes the transgender community. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a motion?

0:36:13I make the motion that we approve the proclamation declaring, moving between 20 transgender day of remembrance. Second, El Cerrito, okay, and motion by council. Member Weissenner, second by Mayor pro temp. Please say aye, aye, any opposed motion carries. And now I'd like to ask Rebecca Currie, chair of the Hrc. To speak and accept the proclamation for United against Hate weeks.

0:36:37Mayor, just to make sure we circle back. We have not yet approved. Item D on the consent. Calendar.

0:36:44Okay, well, we'll come back to that. We'll let you stay right there. Thanks very much. Can you hear me?

0:36:52Yes, Hi! I'm Rebecca Curry. I'm chair of the Human Relations Commission here in El Cerrito, and I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the city's proclamation, making next week, November twelfth, through the eighteenth. The United against Hate week in El Cerrito, united against Hate week is a call for local civic action to stop hate and implicit biases that

0:37:16threaten the safety and civility of our neighborhoods and cities. At this moment in our history.

0:37:23It emerged from a poster campaign.

0:37:25and I loved the image of you all, responding to that horrible, hateful experience you had here you were ready because you had those posters right here, and that is the United against Hate campaign.

0:37:40providing that support and making institutions stronger in the face of this hatred. This was created by Bay Area cities in response to white supremacist rallies in Berkeley and San Francisco in 2017.

0:37:58sorry, a little choked up, and remembering those rallies, my own son was threatened by them. I had to make an emergency call to my husband to say, Don't go down there. They were on their bike on the way down, just to play tennis at at Cal.

0:38:15and all of a sudden we hear these horrible, violent people are in our community. Sony.

0:38:22catch my breath. The founding communities committed to an annual week of action and awareness.

0:38:29Since its inception the United against Hate Week has spread to over 200 communities, including El Cerrito, and it has been championed by faith-based groups, Lgbtq organizations and human rights organizations. And it's beginning to take off not just in California, but across the Us.

0:38:49With hate crimes on the rise nationwide. And unfortunately, in California it is all the more important to stand with this campaign today the goal of united against hate is to empower local residents.

0:39:03to take action on their in their own communities, and in doing so to alter the course of this growing intolerance.

0:39:11As the campaign says on its website, when cities and their residents work together against hate, we can restore respect and civil discourse.

0:39:21we can embrace the strength of diversity.

0:39:25and build inclusive and equitable communities for all.

0:39:29Thank you. Thank you very much.

0:39:33We have a proclamation for you. Rebecca, do you want to do a quick photo and we can provide you with the proclamation and then get you a revised one?

0:39:46We do.

0:40:32Now we're onto item D councilmember Fideli. Yes, just very quickly and obviously support support this being given a grant to us, or for the only Greenway uptown District Improvement Project, and this $180,000 will support a good chunk of the design effort of the 1.5 million dollar project

0:40:59that will be up toward the Kinto's North City, so we'll get that all taken care of. So I'm very happy about that. Thank you, Council Member Fideli, and for folks on the North Side we know that our neighborhood has been the depth for a lot of reasons. And what's going on right now, we've been to forgotten neighborhood, and you see the difference between

0:41:29south part of El Cerrito and you go up to the northern part of El Cerrito, and it's quite

0:41:34different, like night and day. So this will add hopefully, safety in the northern part of El Cerrito. Better riding and look forward to seeing more kids riding their bikes and more people out exercising. And there's an article that I put out on my Facebook and Twitter feed about seasonal depression. And I know a lot of folks get that

0:42:00So

0:42:02let's go outside this winter and exercise, and hopefully we'll all feel better. So thank you for that, and thank you to wy Tech for supporting that.

0:42:13If we haven't moved that I'll move that also. Just thank you. And I think this is one of the ways that we show the value of our serving on all these different committees like Wicac, and I really appreciate your being at that table and bringing us as funding staff, especially Yvette and others on that and others. Yeah. So we have a good team.

0:42:36Thank you. Thank you. So would you like to make the motion, I'll make a motion. Remove that second second motion by councilmember fidelity, second, by mayor, protem all those in favor, please say aye, aye, any opposed motion carries.

0:42:51hey? The next item is consulting services. Agreement with place works to update the city of el Cerrito safety element. Maybe please have the staff report.

0:43:13You feel better.

0:43:30Good evening, Mayor Modella Council members. I'm Sean Moss, the city's planning manager.

0:43:36So the item before you tonight is a contract award for an update to the city's safety element.

0:43:43But I wanna start I actually wanna take a little step back and start with a slightly broader topic.

0:43:52I haven't had the pleasure of being before the council in a while to discuss, and especially this current city council to discuss the general plan. So I wanted to kind of take a step back and talk about the city's general plan. What our general plans? In general. So general plans are required in California of all cities and counties.

0:44:18And what is the general plan? A general plan? Plans for the city's future development through development of goals and policies. And it provides a rational process for decision making, which II know, might sound not that significant? But I think before.

0:44:36before general plans were required. Land use. Decisions, and other decisions were were not always made on a rational basis. They were kind of sometimes made on a on a whim. So th, this is an important framework

0:44:51and then general plans get implemented through ordinances. That that implement, those policies. So through the zoning ordinance, the subdivision ordinance streets, ordinance, other other ordinances that are included in the municipal code and and other policy documents.

0:45:09So there are 7 required elements which you can. Kinda you can think of the the topics that have to be included in the general plan. They're usually in most cities general plans. They are organized as independent chapters. And those topics are land use circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise, and safety.

0:45:36So what does the general plan get us? What? What are the benefits of the general plan for the city for our community. Decisions of the city council of the city should be evaluated in light of general plan, goals and policies. So as I said before, provides a decision making framework. A lot of cities. Can have general plan, consistency sections and their agenda bills. To have, you know, to give the the Council that information. For consideration, as they're considering

0:46:10various items.

0:46:11By establishing goals and policies now. We can make ourselves more competitive for grants. So a lot of times. You know, you find on grant applications that we can score points because we already have various policies in place and then there's a significant opportunity. So fo, when the general plan is prepared. It's almost always required that you do an environmental impact report for that general plan.

0:46:41and then you can tear up of that general plan eir for for other projects in the future. So in El Cerrito. Most of our development projects, most of our development will continue to happen in the San Pablo Avenue specific plan, and so for those projects those will continue to be evaluated under the San Pablo Avenue specific plan, Eir. But for other projects that are outside of the

0:47:05specific plan area that might not be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. Those could potentially tear off of the general plan the Ir also. Similarly, other citywide plans and policies. Other large policy documents like the

0:47:22I was gonna say, like the Climate Action plan. But the climate Action plan is actually exempt from sequos. So that's not a very good example. But other plans like that could tear off of the general planning Ir for their sequo analysis.

0:47:37So little bit of information about El Cerrito's current general plan it was adopted in 1,999 and the previous general plan before that was adopted in 1,975. So you know, it's generally kind of held that the the lifespan of a of a general plan is about 20 to 2025 years, you can see the previous general plan lived almost exactly 25 years, from 1,975 to 1,999, and our current general plan is kind of coming right up about the 25 year mark

0:48:09and it was amended, notably in 2,014. That was one of the the largest amendments to the general plan that we've done in order to accommodate the San Pablo Avenue specific plan.

0:48:23Our current general plan is organized into a series of chapters which do not exactly track those required elements that I shared with you on the previous slide. Which is, you know, slightly

0:48:37different. And yeah, I'll just say it's just slightly novel. So you can see the first 2 chapters are kind of introductory chapters, a guide to the General Plan Strategic Framework Planning background. Then chapters 4 through 7 you get into. That's where the the meet and the bulk of the general plan. And that's where all of the the required elements reside.

0:49:04So chapter 4 is called Community Development and design. That houses components of the land use element. Interestingly enough, the in 1999. It has the housing element that's now the housing element has become so. There have been so many requirements placed on the housing element

0:49:24that it it lives in its own standalone document now. So. But it was just interesting. Going back to the general plan to find that originally the housing element was housed in Chapter 4, and then also the growth management element, which is something that all cities in Contra Costa County are required to do as a part of obtaining transportation funding that's available through our county transportation agencies.

0:49:51And then, chapter 5, is transportation and circulation. That is the one chapter that actually tracks with a stand alone. Element, that is the circulation element. Check. Chapter 6 is public facilities and services that contains elements of the safety element. The conservation element, the open space element and the land use element. Chapter 7 is resources and hazards that contains

0:50:15components of the open space, conservation, safety and noise elements. And then the conclusion. Chapter 8. Putting the plan to work.

0:50:24So what is

0:50:27a safety element?

0:50:29A safety element identifies hazards. In a community. Those hazards are typically fire, earthquake, landslide, flood, drought, climate change, etc. But there can also be hazards that are unique to a particular community. And then it establishes policies to reduce the risk of injury, death, property damage and social and economic dislocation from those hazards.

0:50:56So why are we doing an update to the safety element now? This slide highlights, some relevant state legislation. Notably. Sb, 1035, requires that cities and counties update their safety element upon the next update of the housing element, and, as you probably remember, the City Council adopted the updated housing element in August. So here we are.

0:51:20sp, 379 requires that local agencies address climate adaptation within general plans. the city is currently undergoing. We're currently doing an update to the client what was called the Climate Action Plan and will be called the Climate Action and Adaptation plan. To acknowledge climate adaptation. That plan is currently being updated.

0:51:51That plan will it is anticipated we'll do most of the work required to be compliant with however, the safety element will review that work, and we'll do any supplemental work that is required to bring the city into full compliance with

0:52:11requires that evacuation routes and their capacity, safety and viability identified under a range of emergency scenarios and also related to evacuation routes, requires

0:52:30identification of residential developments in hazard areas that do not have at least 2 points of access or 2 points of emergency evacuation.

0:52:44So this would be the first comprehensive update to the city's safety element since 1,999

0:52:50and I've just highlighted here some of the new plans and policies that have been adopted since 1999, which will be incorporated into the safety element and acknowledged in the safety element. So, as I mentioned before, the San Pablo Avenue specific plan was adopted in 2,014 and updated in 2022 that focus most of the the city's.

0:53:13or just acknowledge that most of the city's development potential and most of the city's growth would be in the San Pablo Avenue corridor the Climate Action Plan, which was first adopted in 2,013, and the Update is, as I said, is in progress. And II talked about the role of that in conjunction with the safety element the local hazard mitigation plan, which was which was prepared

0:53:37at the county level by a consortium of agencies. It has. El Cerrito annexes specifically that was adopted in 2,018, and the and the county is just beginning a process to update that plan. The city council in 2,009 adopted a seismic hazards, identification and mitigation program to mitigate the risks of unreinforced masonry buildings

0:54:05and the city adopted its most current emergency operations plan in 2022 additionally, with regard to the scope of the safety element update. I also intended to highlight on this slide that this project will include an extensive community outreach and community engagement process.

0:54:27So the the process for this contract award that's before you tonight is that the city? We issued an Rfp. And on August 20 ninth submissions. Proposals were due. On September 20 sixth, consultants were interviewed on October seventh we received 4 proposals before that deadline

0:54:50the interview panel consisted of staff from the Community Development Department, the Fire Department and the Public Works Department, and those are our key staff members. From public works that are leading the effort to update the the cap from the fire from the fire department. It was our

0:55:10our fire marshal and from community development. It was myself and our sustainable transportation program manager, who's also managing a local road safety plan for the city

0:55:23and from that process place works was selected as the consultant.

0:55:29So place works, has prepared safety elements for some of our neighbors. Arenda, Lafayette.

0:55:37Benisha, and Windsor. I'll just note these are all all of these communities are, incredibly similar in size to El Cerrito. They are all also in very in a fire hazard areas, and all of them, except perhaps with the

0:55:57perhaps, for Windsor. Have similar topography as El Cerrito. So I think there's a lot of kind of commonality. With this effort and the and the safety element update that we will be embarking on

0:56:11the proposed budget for this. Yeah, yeah, the proposed budget for this project is 167,000 plus a 10% contingency which brings the total to 184,269 and the proposed timeline is 16 months concluding in early 25.

0:56:33So that concludes my presentation, I'm happy to answer any questions that the Council may have. Thank you for that. Presentation is very thorough, and thank you for setting that context. Are there any questions from council members?

0:56:49Councilmember Fideli? Yes, the local hazard.

0:56:56update plan. That's that's that will be part of this safety plan.

0:57:01It would, that is, and what is included in that. So local hazard mitigation plan will be a separate document. That was in in 2,018. And the update are being led by. It's a county wide effort.

0:57:19So there is.

0:57:22There is legislation that allowed local hazard mitigation plans to be incorporated into a safety element, but because ours is being led by in in a multi jurisdictional effort. It will not explicitly be incorporated into the safety element. It may like will be referenced in the safety element. But not, will not be an integrated part of that document.

0:57:48And what exactly, is a a definition of local hazard in this context, so local. Hazard mitigation plan. Is something that has a lot of overlap with fema requirements. I got my certificate, though, so that should be here.

0:58:07Oh, I'm sorry, Phil, that's right. So we're not talking chemical hazards or oil pollution, or oh, or what fire or

0:58:18it's it's yes, it's a lot of the same, a lot of the same hazards that the safety element has to look at. III know the the 2 efforts can seem duplicative. But they do each have their own set of requirements that need to be addressed.

0:58:34I'll trust you on that.

0:58:36I just don't get the difference between the broader safety and what what's in local hazard?

0:58:43Yeah, I mean a, as I said, you know, if if the local ha like, if we wanted to prepare the local hazards mitigation plan. In House, just for else to Reno it could be incorporated into the safety element update similar things. Similar. Yeah, okay.

0:59:02thank you.

0:59:05So II do have a couple of questions. One is, it seems like the climate action and adaptation plan is really kind of overlapping a lot with was in the safety plan. And you know, I guess

0:59:20I understand that they're doing like they're relooking at all the work we're doing for that climate, action and adaptation plan? Kind of kind of

0:59:28like that duplicative part. Can you kind of separate out what they're doing as opposed to our climate action and adaptation plan. Yeah, so there's a lot there is overlap like you said. It's not duplicative. The the climate adaptation analysis. So we could have chosen. When when we we're ready to issue the Rfp. For the cap, we had a decision to make as to what, whether to include that analysis in the cap.

0:59:53or whether to include it in the safety element, since the cap was ready to go at that time. And that process was starting first. We're elected to include it in the scope of work for the for the cap and so there will need to be some coordination between and and staff will facilitate this coordination between the city's consultant for the cap Cascadia

1:00:17and the consultant for the safety element update place works. And so what is envisioned is that Cascadia is in the in the process of preparing some of these documents. We've already seen it.

1:00:33an administrative draft of the vulnerability analysis that they've done. So place works. We'll need to to look at what Cascadia has prepared and determine if it fulfills all of the requirements of, or if there are any tweaks or supplements that are needed in order to bring us into full compliance, I just thought it was really interesting that in all the materials that the place works sent us, their leads

1:01:00are really focused on climate action. The the staff. So I'm just concerned that there's going to be this bleeding over and

1:01:09duplicativeness of the work. So I do see Director Mintz at the podium. Not surprisingly. This is something we grew up with as well. So if you go back, as Mr. Moss said.

1:01:22planning wasn't always as popular and as cool as cool as it is right now, is always as cool. So since we're all on the same page there.

1:01:35we talk about this a lot also. Right? Cause what one of the things? It's a big effort, a general plan. And yet you don't wanna overdo it. It used to be, and also in places changed a lot. There was the need to get everybody together in one comprehensive since then.

1:01:49partly because that's such. It's kind of a big clunky process. So there's been lots of other plans, and Mr. Mas in the past, he seems to have adapted to it. It used to drive him crazy that we were doing separate individual plans rather than a full general plan. I think, as we're looking at it. And again, as you'll see, as you know, in the strategic plan. You're talking about the general plan, which hasn't been done, too. So we definitely don't want to do

1:02:15duplicative work. I am hoping that what's going to happen a bit is it? Pulls it all together. One of the things that happens when we do all these individual ones. So, for example, you heard tonight, police is doing an excellent job doing evacuation plan. Everybody's doing their work. But where it intersects

1:02:31isn't analyzed when you do that right? So is there something in the Climate Action Plan that intersects, for example, with the way that we do housing or so, I think we will be looking constantly, both in in the safety element as well as when we look at the other elements.

1:02:45How do you bring it together? So anybody can also pick up one thing and see it all together as a snapshot in time, but that the cross-referencing is there too, because otherwise I do think we kind of. We move nimbly when we do it separately. But then it doesn't often look at like, well, what else did that impact? And do we own it collectively?

1:03:03Does that help a little bit. Yes, we wouldn't. We analyze like we're gonna use their analysis. We wouldn't do that. But then there, it might just be kind of somewhat where there is something. And then also, of course, the safety element didn't used to have

1:03:17climate adaptation, and when we did our first climate action plan, we didn't have adaptation as a piece of it. So it is an evolving piece. So for cities that don't have climate action plans. Obviously the safety element needed to require that. So I hope that helps a little bit. It's going to be a bit. Well, yeah, we'll try to be as streamlined as possible.

1:03:36Okay, nice. Thank you. And then I had just. I know I asked this in in writing, but just maybe you can go over it again about the dynamic traffic assignment analysis. It says it's optional, but it seems like it's sort of necessary. I just want to make sure that we don't have some additional costs coming later.

1:03:57it's not required. So we will be doing the evacuation route planning and the traffic analysis that is required by I think it's Ab, 747. So there, as I indicated to you earlier in my response, there's there's some uncertainty right now. With regard to how to analyze impact

1:04:22to emergency evacuations under Sequo, the California Environmental Quality Act.

1:04:28So actually went to a very educational session at the recent state planning conference a couple of months ago. And what we learned is that so if you remember the State required that we shift from a level of service metric in sequo, which looked at

1:04:54level of service, which is sort of a grade that you gave intersections about how well that they handled traffic right? And so we shifted to a vehicle. Miles traveled standard which just looks at how ma, how many miles are vehicles traveling as a result of a project?

1:05:13What that doing? Is it? Kind of vehicle miles traveled is not a useful

1:05:20metric. When you're look when you're analyzing evacuations, right? You need something more like level of service. So because we we can't use level of service anymore to analyze traffic impacts. It left this kind of uncertainty with regard to analysis for emergency evacuations. So there's there's this uncertainty. And so as

1:05:47as kind of a conservative approach. The consultant team, included that as an as an optional item, it's not required. And given the given that it's not required and given the additional expense of it in the proposal. We're not recommending that that'd be included.

1:06:05that we can get to the same information we need for our evacuation planning without doing this fancy.

1:06:13Yeah, it's just. It's a less complicated model. The the modeling that would be done is is that's complicated. But yes.

1:06:23great and I know that the California Geological Survey is going to be releasing new hazard maps for us. Will those be incorporated into this work. Kind of yes, thank you for bringing that up. I meant to mention that in the in the presentation, actually yes. So the the Geological Survey has has already shared some draft maps with staff

1:06:48and requested comments on them by later this month. And yes, those maps. We expect to become public soon, and they will be incorporated into the safety element. Yep, great. I think the public will be quite surprised, because

1:07:05it looks if you look at the current maps, it looks like there's no hazards, because they didn't map them yet in our area. When you go from like Almeda county north

1:07:15on the online map. So I think people will be a little surprised when they yeah, I think what they did is that they they pulled the old maps when they launch their prep project process to update them. So yeah, II think you're right. If you look at them, there's just no data. There now. But I mean II wouldn't say there are no mapped hazards. If you have just it looks if you compared to like Berkeley, it looks like we have many fewer hazards.

1:07:43you know, because it's more intensely mapped on that side. So

1:07:47yeah, we did the lobby. We do have the special study hazards, map which is was done from some studies that are now fairly old. But that map landslides that has the Aquis pro earthquake zone. And we actually should be using them those maps from the geologic Survey with regard to building permanent requirements

1:08:11when soils, reports are required, etc. I will note the the draft maps that we've seen are fairly different than the than the hazard map that we currently have. So there are. There are some reductions, but in well, first of all, there there are 2 layers that they they map both landslide areas and liquefaction zones. So our current map doesn't map liquefaction zones. So that's entirely

1:08:36fairly new. And then the landslide areas are fairly different. There are some reductions. But in in total. It's it's a pretty large net increase of landslide areas.

1:08:49Thank you.

1:08:52One more quick question I was gonna ask you. With all these reports, you have to do. How do you get your other work done? But it leads to. We're gonna be voting on you paying money, us paying money for a contractor. Can I ask you what percentage of time? And you will vote to this project with a contractor such as this?

1:09:12Yeah. Good question. Bo both of them. So take away what

1:09:22I have 10%. Well, so II will point out that we have from an opening in the planning division recently. So we we do have a a new senior planner who started just a few weeks ago. So that actually will. A allows me a lot to manage. Probably, you know, long range planning projects such as this. And so yeah, it's really nice

1:09:49nice to be fully staffed. And

1:09:55yeah, I'll just leave about that. Yeah, we're getting there. Thank you.

1:09:58Thank you. So now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding this item, request to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card. Public comments be taken in person. Only please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence at the beginning of your comments. City clerk, please proceed.

1:10:19We do not have any requests to speak on this item. Mayor. Okay, any final comments from council members.

1:10:26Okay, do I have a motion to approve? So moved, hey, there! Seconds. Second motion by Councilmember Quinto, second by Councilmember Weissinger. All those in favor. Aye, any opposed motion carries with council, mayor. Pretend magnic, absent. Okay, thank you. The next item. Thank you, Staff, or the report. The next item is city council, local and regional liaison assignments.

1:10:54Are there any Council reports?

1:10:59Thank you so much. May I just wanted to report that I did take participate in the West Contract Community school system change collaborative. We had our quarterly meeting just last Friday. Thank you so much to Supervisor Julia, who have who is hosting

1:11:21our meetings, and really makes it possible for some of us elected to have day jobs to make it to the meeting, especially hosting here in El Cerrito, and I hope that my day job is not listening in those where I was on Friday, talking about in the district in this county, seeking how we can incorporate a community schools model in all of our schools, I mean, and it's interesting to me as having

1:11:46worked in the district the only community school in the district at that time to see how we can expand the capacity to to support more community members and more families as a city working with the the county and district thing that we talked about this week with chronic absenteeism.

1:12:04I mean, it is so great to see that El Suito does have a having the the least amount of client absenteeism. But I was also very happy to see, when we go into the race statistics, that I won't get to find the reason. I will say that

1:12:18our tonic absentee don't look like the stereotypes thing that they do, which is important to me, which shows that even I'm going into this process. El Cerrito students are very supportive, but we also have to know a good chunk of our El CID. The High school students are not El Cerrito residents. Which is why this initiative is so important across the county, because a lot of our students in all of our cities, whether it's at El Cerrito, the

1:12:41are attending based on our transfer system. So we're talking a lot about how we can reduce chronic activity. Some of the issues that we're seeing in the school sites, systems, and how we can support that the city and county level. We also talked about investing in our joint facilities model.

1:12:58and considering that El Srido has the best Wcc. Usd. Facilities in the district. I'm so excited to know that

1:13:06John Joy is looking into how we can reduce the amounts that community members are having to pay to use those facilities. So this will support if it's around soccer teams and football teams who don't really have places for kids to practice after school. So I'm looking forward to our next meeting, which is in January, and just continuing this this opportunity to just support families here in El Cerrito.

1:13:33Thank you. Councilmember council member. Keen, too. Thank you, Mayor. I did attend as vice chair of Mce. Marine. Clean energy. We did just get a 1 million dollars.

1:13:47grant from the Department of Energy. But unfortunately, it's not going El Cerrito. It's going to underserved communities in the Mc. Area, which includes Contra Casa County.

1:14:01Napa County and Solano County. So disadvantaged communities in and Elserita is not included. So also in the next meeting of one clean energy we will have a discussion on and a vote

1:14:19on the city of Hercules, and the possibility of having them join more and clean energy. And when they do, what if the vote comes in favorably in

1:14:32for Hercules to join marine clean energy? They'll have A couple of years to get up to speed to what? The other cities in West Contra Costa, so very proud to let everyone know that every city in West. Contra Costa is part of Mc. When

1:14:52perfectly joins us. So right now the other cities that are not members are the city of Rwanda, and I believe it is Brentwood. Also I did attend the Executive Committee meeting in Sacramento for the League of California Cities, and we look forward and working with our new speaker and the new head of Senate for California. We're gonna have at least a 40 million dollars budget deficit. Excuse me, deficit. So

1:15:30when we have huge deficits. You know, we'll have things to cut then. Usually the things that they cut first are housing and

1:15:40environmental legislation and things regarding improvements on the environment. So

1:15:49we have difficult times ahead. So know that I look forward and working personally with all of them in Sacramento as well as our local officials in all cities in California. We're here to make sure that we work with the other cities across California when it comes to public safety. We're going to work together to make sure

1:16:15that our partners in Sacramento do the right thing and work on fentanyl addiction wiping out fentanyl dealers out of California, cause they are ruling our major cities in California. But also we wanna work on changing Pop- 47 and committed to doing that, that there was bipartisan legislation that. Unfortunately, our Democratic Assembly

1:16:41we're not a shop because they don't want to deal with it, but they know because of the bad press that they got Speaker Rivas will definitely work with us now on these important issues to get cities back to being safe once again. It's ruining families. It's the most difficult

1:17:04drug to get rid of. And recently we had a police officer that fainted because he was putting, just collecting this stuff that was close by, and emergency services had to go

1:17:18and and help yeah, with making sure he comes up he came to. So there's so many things that I'm excited about working on, and look forward to working with my colleagues here who are on policy committees next week City manager and I will be flying off to Atlanta for the National cities

1:17:41and I'm part of the Committee dealing with interviewing Board members, and the next executive committee the new President will be from California and Rancho Cordova. So looking forward to the working with our leaders on the national level.

1:18:01there are so many cities that don't have the money to have a lab list. So this is what the small cities are able to do is join the ridiculous National League of Cities, and they are lobbying us on the Federal level, and there's a lot of things available that I know. The city of Estrida would be interested in like libraries and what the Public Safety grants dealing with new buildings. So

1:18:29look forward to working with our partners on the national level.

1:18:34Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Councilmember filling.

1:18:37Okay, I have a few report outs. On October nineteenth I participated in the city's required Dei training. On October twentieth I participate in the city tour hosting Assembly, Member Buffy wicks

1:18:53on October the 20. First I attended the ribbon cutting for plank and power our new Pilates studio in town. On October 20 Si attended the Naacp Freedom luncheon, honoring our chief, Paul Keith, as well as Mina Wilson, of our Hrc.

1:19:11On October 20 fifth I attended the Tom Bates Field, Jpa. Meeting. I have a couple of report outs for that. One of the things is that Uc. Berkeley has taken back Fielding Field, which had hosted 500 to 700 soccer players, soccer players, so that there will be impacts as they try to reschedule the use of different fields.

1:19:35The IA pedestrian bridge at Gilman street as will be complete at the end of the year, and the big project at those fields, which is a field house with a bathroom and meeting space will start work in April of 2025, and be completed in 26, along with the 7 pickle ball courts.

1:19:56I know is really important to a lot of people. October 20 sixth. I attended the West County Mayors and Supervisors meeting, where we received a presentation from Green trip and a presentation on A. B 6, 17, about community path to clean air.

1:20:12On October 20 sixth I attended the Elserido Chamber, best of El Cerrito event at El Cerrito Honda, which was a really great and well attended party. On October 20 seventh I attended the Mayfair Halloween event, as well as the tiny footprints show your Halloween event along with the El Sr. Fire department.

1:20:30On October the 20 eighth I attended the strategic plan workshop as well as the Dolly's Tavern ribbon cutting. So we have another wonderful new business in town, and on October the 20 ninth I attended the Junction Avenue Street party, and was able to have a lot of great conversations with the residents there and bring back some of their concerns to staff.

1:20:51Okay.

1:20:53I did. I was busy. I'm a little tired now. Okay, so

1:21:01it is now 8, 44 PM. And we are adjourned. The next regularly scheduled city Council meeting is Tuesday, November 20, first 2023 at 6 PM.

1:21:12Thank you very much.