Regular City Council Meeting October 21, 2025

0:00:20The October 21st, 2025 regular City Council meeting is called to order at 6.01 PM. Will the City Clerk please call the roll? Mayor Weisinger? Present. Mayor Pro Tem Quinto?

0:00:31Councilmember Kitzanes? Present. Councilmember Motuyama? Here. Councilmember Saltzman?

0:00:36We have a quorum. All right, the first meeting… I'm sorry, the first item on the agenda is consideration under AB 24449. City Clerk, do we have any requests? We do not, Mayor. Okay, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance or a moment of silence.

0:00:52I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

0:01:06The 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 with closed captions available. Meetings of the City Council are subject to the Brown Act and are held for the purpose of conducting city business.

0:01:24The 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. For members of the public who wish to provide oral testimony, the Mayor will announce the time for public comment on each applicable item.

0:01:39Public comments will only be taken in person, and a request to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card.

0:01:46The Council's adopted Rules of Order and Procedure 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.

0:01:58Thank you, Mayor. That concludes my instruction. All right, the next item on the agenda is Council Staff Communications. City Manager, do we have any staff communications?

0:02:06Yes, thank you, Your Honor. Again, I'm Karen Pincus, I'm the City Manager. It was great to be with the City Council two weeks ago at the League of California Cities Annual Conference, and once again, I'd like to congratulate Mayor Pro Tem Gabe Quinto on being selected as President of the League of California Cities. Yeah?

0:02:25Yes, and it's a very big deal, especially for a small city like El Cerrito, to be represented. This is a very important statewide organization, so again, congrats to our Mayor Pro Tem and to our entire council. I'm excited to announce that El Cerrito was awarded a $510,000 grant

0:02:42As part of a joint grant with the City of Albany from the California State Coastal Conservancy, this funding will help implement the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area Fire Resilience and Forest Conservation Management Plan by removing approximately 190 eucalyptus and pine trees from the Quarry Hill.

0:02:59Followed by a comprehensive restoration effort. This initiative is aimed at enhancing sustainability and boosting fire resilience across our community, so thanks to everyone who was involved in getting that grant.

0:03:12We do have a couple contests to bring to your attention. First, thanks to our Economic Development Committee and our Community Development Department, we are partnering with local businesses on the El Cerrito Flavor Fest.

0:03:24It's a fun-filled, foodie bingo event that spotlights all of our local restaurants. It's going on now, and it ends on November 30th, 2025, at midnight. You can download your digital bingo card from elcerito.gov slash eclflavorfest, one word.

0:03:41Or pick up a paper bingo card from City Hall, the El Cerrito Community Center, the Recycling Center, or at any of the sponsoring businesses. So get your bingo card soon, and take advantage of all the flavors that El Cerrito has to offer.

0:03:54We also are having… our El Cerrito Police Department is holding a holiday card art contest. It's a tradition for police departments to send holiday cards to each other, and this year, we would like to help… we would like help from the children in our community to create a unique art for the holiday card. The deadline to enter is November 16th at 5 p.m. The contest is open to all children, kindergarten through 6th grade.

0:04:18who live in or attend school in El Cerrito.

0:04:21The winner will receive a set of cards with their artwork, a gift card, and will be displayed on our social media. So please go to elcerito.gov slash holidaycard to enter.

0:04:31And finally, I want to acknowledge a very special honor for our Assistant City Manager, Alex Orologis. Last week, the Municipal Management Association of Northern California awarded Alex the Wes McClure Outstanding Assistant Award. This award is MMANC's highest honor.

0:04:50It recognizes outstanding achievement, exemplary commitment, and dedication to the local government management profession. It was very special to be able to see Alex receive this award from her peers last week in Monterey.

0:05:02And as I said then, there truly is nobody more deserving than Alex to receive this award. So, I won't embarrass you any further, but I just want to say, on behalf of all of us at the City, congratulations, Alex.

0:05:17And that concludes my remarks, Your Honor, thank you. Thank you so much. Do I have any announcements from Council? Councilmember Motayama?

0:05:25Thank you, Mayor. First, I'd like to congratulate Jean Marie Asaturo for her induction into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame on Saturday. She is a KQED announcer and former radio program teacher at ECHS, and an El Cerrito resident.

0:05:43Also, on October the 24th, this Friday, there's a Senior Resource Fair from 10 to 1 at the Community Center.

0:05:52And… I want to,

0:05:55call out that the first annual Public Path Festival is going to happen on November 1st and 2nd. There are five different hikes by the El Cerrito Trail Trekkers, and you can go to their website, ectrailTrekkerswith2Ks.org, for more information, and I do see one of the

0:06:14trailed… hike leaders in the audience, so thank you for putting this together.

0:06:21Can't show it on the case.

0:06:24There you go. So, it should be a really great event. Thank you.

0:06:30All right, Mayor Pro Tem?

0:06:33Thank you, Mayor. I want to congrat… I want to be the first to congratulate Elsarita Mayer Carolyn Weisinger.

0:06:41She is El Cerrito's Woman of the

0:06:45And this is so huge, and oh, okay.

0:06:52Now you gotta start over. Now I have to start over, so I want to congratulate El Cerrito Mayor, Carolyn Weisinger, who, was nominated and is El Cerrito's Woman of the Year, and, this is, something huge, and,

0:07:07Mayor, you are, making your mark in history, and to have the Congressman,

0:07:13you know, choose you out of, all of the women here in El Cerrito. I want to say how, how,

0:07:22This is something that, is really fantastic for the city of El Cerrita. I want to say thank you for representing El Cerrito and our community. You are our 2025 Woman of the Year, so congratulations.

0:07:41Does anyone else have any announcements?

0:07:44Okay, well, first of all, I was going to announce that I have to thank you so much, Mayor Pro Tem. I was also going to congratulate you on being the president of the League. As the City Manager said, it's a very, very big deal up and down the state. He's going to be representing us in cities that a lot of us have not even heard of, but who look to cities like El Cerrito to see the things that we've done as far as balancing our budget and just, you know, managing to have a city where

0:08:0781%, I believe, of our… of our community members love to live in, so congratulations. Thank you again. I'm excited, not necessarily

0:08:16El Cerrito Woman of the Year, but one of John Garamini's congressmember John Gearamendi's Women of the Year, so thank you so much for that. If anyone would like to view the ceremony, it will be on Friday at 9.30 a.m, and it will be streaming on all of his social channels on Instagram and Facebook. You can search his name, and you will find them.

0:08:34Also, well, that only leads me to re-announce what the city manager announced, which was El Cerrito Flavor Fest.

0:08:41I have to have our city attorney look into the rules, because I feel like they're part of the rules that I did not complete, but I've already bingoed, like.

0:08:49Two times. I've been to Masa, and I've been to… I'm gonna mispronounce the name of the Korean restaurant here on the corner of Central and San Pablo, but I've been there, and then I went to Masa again, and then I went to Nation, so that's a bingo.

0:09:04But also.

0:09:06But also, we can… you can also go to Dolly's on Saturday… no, Sunday, I'm sorry. Sunday, they'll be having their anniversary starting at 11.30am. So if you want to get your first Flavor Fest block, you can get it at Dolly's on Sunday. And that is the end of my announcements.

0:09:24The next item on the agenda 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. Public comments will be taken in person only. Please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence at the beginning of your comments.

0:09:47City Clerk, please proceed.

0:09:51Turn on your mic. I have to turn on my own mic.

0:09:53Thank you, Mayor. We have one request to speak, so I'll just invite Janet Byron up.

0:10:02And now you have to turn your… someone's turning on all… off all the mics. Does that mean I can speak for 30 minutes?

0:10:10Oh, no. My name is Janet Byron, I'm an El Cerrito resident, and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the Public Paths Committee of El Cerrito Trail Trekkers.

0:10:21I want to thank Lisa Motuyama for Councilmember Motuyama for mentioning that El Cerrito Trail Trackers is having its first Public Paths Festival on Saturday and Sunday, November 1st and 2nd.

0:10:35And this is a new counterpart to the Trail Trekkers' beloved Hillside Festival.

0:10:42Featuring public paths and stairways in El Cerrito that are outside of Hillside Park, so in our community. It's free, everyone is invited.

0:10:52Each of the council members should have a copy of the schedule in front of you, and members of the community. You can find it at ectrailTrekkers.org, that's with two Ks.

0:11:03And, it's under Events.

0:11:05There'll be 5 walks over 2 days, highlighting El Cerrito's public rights of way, which… many of which currently, or basically all of which currently have no signage to inform the public that these are public paths for them to use.

0:11:20So Trail Trekkers Public Paths Committee.

0:11:24is ready with funding and volunteers to make a new public path at Tasahara Park that's safe for everyone to use.

0:11:33This is a pilot project for what we hope will be a robust path-building program

0:11:39Similar to the one in Berkeley, where the Berkeley Pathwanderers Association has built nearly 40 treaded dirt paths for public use.

0:11:50The trekkers are prepared to build a path at Tasahara Park to replace wood steps that are long gone.

0:11:57The path would have two switchbacks, and it would connect the basketball court park area to the field above.

0:12:04At the request of the Public Works Director, we developed a detailed plan for the Tasahara Path

0:12:11Which we will tell you more about at the November 4 Council meeting.

0:12:15So, this new proposed Tasahara path will be laid out with yellow tape during walk number 4 on November 1, between 1 and 3. So we're going to lay it out on the ground.

0:12:30And, David Giorke, who's… will be the head of our El Cerrita resident, who will be the head of our path building team, he's going to lay it out with yellow tape so everyone can see what we have in mind, and that'll be between… during that walk time, 1 and 3, on November 1st.

0:12:48And, we're really excited to, meet with the Public Works Director in a few weeks to plan our next steps.

0:12:55And we look forward to seeing everyone at the Public Pass Festival on November 1st and 2nd.

0:13:02And again, more information on the Trail Trekkers website. Thank you.

0:13:08Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our request to speak.

0:13:11All right, the next item on the agenda is presentations, starting with item A, 2025 Legislative Update. Dane and Ethan from CPPG are here online, so if you can please have the presentation.

0:13:27Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Good evening, Mayor and Council. Maybe one moment here.

0:13:32Folks, See my screen?

0:13:36Yes, you're good, Dean.

0:13:38Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Fantastic.

0:13:39Alright, let's jump into it. So, just doing a quick look back on 2025,

0:13:47The legislature concluded their business on September 13th, and because of that, supposed to be September 12th, they waived some procedural rules and, were able to get it out on the 13th, which then extended the governor's signed veto line deadline out to October 13th as well.

0:14:07In total, just to give folks a sense of how many bills were introduced, 2,800 plus bills were introduced, in 2025, 917 of which

0:14:19reach the governor's desk. You know, 794 new laws coming in January, and so lots to digest, many of which have, you know, some tangential impact on city government.

0:14:33There were 123 vetoes, primarily based on, budgetary concerns or policies that allocated or, you know, required more budget that was allocated than what was allotted in the state's budget.

0:14:47However, there were a few that were based on the governor's policy rationale, and we'll highlight a couple of those towards the end of the presentation.

0:14:59You know, I think from a thematic perspective, we saw a lot of, you know, sort of California versus Trump, that posturing between, you know, state sovereignty and federal, you know, sovereignty.

0:15:14We saw stuff, you know, we don't need to belabor it. I think if you open up your Politico feed, you can pretty much see exactly what's happening across the nation. But I know that the governor and legislative leadership really did try to draw a line in the sand this year on a host of policy and political issues.

0:15:34more germane to the city, you know, housing, CEQA overhaul, local revenue measures, and local, you know, bills that would have perhaps

0:15:45stripped the city of local revenue, things were really percolating this year, and then a host of issues on government operations. And then, sort of breaking here, not in the presentation, and we will certainly dig into this more, but it was just announced at the California Chamber of Commerce

0:16:03has submitted a ballot initiative, to do yet another CEQA overhaul, which would have a disproportionate impact on, development across the

0:16:16State of California. So, literally, just announced, about 15 minutes ago, and so we'll… our team will, of course, dig in and provide, Council with a full analysis of the proposed measure that will then go for title and signature.

0:16:30But with respect to another big policy area having an impact to the City Capit Invest, this was one of the deals that was brought together at the end of the legislative session. One of the,

0:16:44policies that was inserted into the Cap and Invest program was an ongoing appropriation of $1 billion to high-speed rail, ongoing.

0:16:51As well as, additional revenues that will go towards clean transportation, housing, and other areas of import to, the city, a lot of which, actually are,

0:17:05Converted to competitive grants, and, can be, competed for within the region.

0:17:14Dane Hutchings (CPPG): So, one bill that I wanted to spend a little bit of time on is a bill that I think if folks who went to the League of California Cities conference probably saw League of Cities do a version of this, for those who were not there, and for others who are interested.

0:17:28This is one of those bills that, you know, never technically saw the full light of day, but one is one of those gut-and-amend bills that happened really about 4 days before the end of the legislative session. And the reason why I say I want to be specific on the timing is because by the time this bill was actually in print.

0:17:48there were only 3 days left, and because of the 72-hour print rule, once the bill was introduced in its final form, if you will, it could not be changed or amended. However.

0:17:59The drafts, legislation that was being circulated and was poised to go into Senate Bill 423, was a bill that really went after one of the heart, hearts of a critical revenue source for the city of El Cerrito. More specifically.

0:18:15The proposal would have impacted every charter city who has a real estate transfer tax.

0:18:21Both on, multifamily, commercial units, and in some circumstances, even single-family homes. we… we got wind of this, about 6 AM, the day, that it all sort of went, sort of going…

0:18:37crazy, and then by about noon, we started seeing these drafts go through, and I have to give an incredible shout-out to your exemplary management team.

0:18:47both Alex and Karen, who I think I may have startled while she was on vacation in another time zone. So I do, I do apologize for waking her up, but, it was one of those where we, when I say, you know, three-alarm fire, it really was a three-alarm fire.

0:19:02Because the idea here was to postpone or otherwise eliminate

0:19:09all of these real estate transfer fees for 15 years, which is a considerable amount of revenue that goes directly to impacting and providing critical services. Also want to give a shout out to Councilmember Saltzman as well, who we also, you know, was a direct conduit to your delegation.

0:19:28Really did fantastic work, team effort all together, but frankly, our team, put a tremendous amount of pressure working with, you know, a ton of impacted stakeholders.

0:19:43What ended up in print was a bill that was a watered-down version, only applying to the City of Los Angeles, who had, I guess, requested this policy direction.

0:19:54And, and frankly, the folks, other folks who, who were, were in support of this.

0:20:00since it was only Los Angeles, it just wasn't really worth moving it forward, and so they abandoned their effort. But I will tell you, and why I wanted to spend a little bit more time on this, was number one, El Cerrito had a massive hand in helping defeat this legislation before it ever came public, and number two, we are just getting started. One of the policy trends that we're looking at for next year, as is

0:20:25this issue and others that will directly attack local revenues, and so being vigilant, being active, and being able to engage immediately was incredibly vital in our efforts, and, you know, El Cerrito had a big seat at the table, and so I just, I wanted to spend a little bit of time on that, and certainly move on to

0:20:47Next bills, but didn't want to spend a little time on that one.

0:20:51Dane Hutchings (CPPG): And I will kick it over, to Ethan.

0:20:55Ethan Nagler (CPPG): Thank you, Dane, and good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. It's a pleasure and an honor to be with you tonight. My name is Ethan Nakler, and I work with Dane and the rest of the CPPG team

0:21:05to advance your state policy interests here in Sacramento. I'm going to cover some of the bills that the city positioned on during the 2025 legislative session.

0:21:16So, first up is AB330 by Assemblymember Chris Rogers. This bill continues a system where prepaid wireless surcharges are collected at the point of sale with funds distributed to local governments.

0:21:32And the bill extends the sunset date of that system to January 1st of 2031, ensuring local governments can continue to receive these revenues.

0:21:43The City supported this bill. It's going to provide continued stability and reliability for the city in the collection of these essential funds, and the bill was signed into law. Next slide, please.

0:21:58So next up is AB382 by Assemblymember Mark Berman, and this bill authorizes a city to determine a speed limit of 20 miles per hour in a school zone when a school speed limit sign

0:22:14states that children are present. And the city supported this bill, because it will enhance safety conditions for children traveling to and from school.

0:22:24As well as pedestrians. And that bill was also signed into law. Next slide, please.

0:22:33So, next up is SB456 by Senator Angelique Ashby. This bill exempts muralists from being required to obtain a contractor's license to perform their work. And the city supported this because the bill is going to help beautify neighborhoods, celebrate community identity, and preserve cultural heritage. And the bill was signed into law.

0:22:57Slide, please.

0:23:00So, next up is Senate Bill 63 by Senator Scott Weiner. This bill creates the Transportation Revenue Measure District.

0:23:10and authorizes that district to place a retail transactions and use tax measure on the November 2026 ballot to fund Bay Area transit operators. The district will include the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Francisco.

0:23:30And the tax will have a 14-year duration.

0:23:33And the city supported this because if the measure is passed by voters, by voters, it will help sustain critical transit services in the Bay Area, including BART. And we're happy to note that part of the city's support letter was featured in the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee analysis.

0:23:53for the July 14th hearing.

0:23:55And a bill analysis is a public document, and the city's letter was deemed so compelling by the committee

0:24:03that they chose to quote it directly, to demonstrate, you know, why an organization may support the bill. So, very happy about that. Raising the city's profile. And this bill was signed into law also. And I will pass it back to Dane.

0:24:21Dane Hutchings (CPPG): And I wanted to highlight two bills here that were vetoed by the governor, and as I alluded to in the beginning, most of the bills that the governor chose to veto were in and around budget conditions. This one.

0:24:34I think there was a sense that, you know, he does state that HCD declared that this was gonna cost, you know, $11 million in new costs, but frankly.

0:24:46what is, I feel like, is a bit concerning or challenging from the local level is that we have been really trying to work in collaboration and partnership with the state legislature to address the state's housing needs. One of the issues that's been clearly defined is, number one.

0:25:02how tight the timelines are, and creating this incredibly comprehensive housing element analysis. Over 6 years, we've had over 250

0:25:11bills pass that layer on planning requirements and shorten timelines and require your city staff to really do anything and everything under the sun to try and complete this document. And if they don't get it done in time, they're in builder's remedy.

0:25:25And one of the big issues that we've ran into time and time again, both from pro-housing jurisdictions and, you know, non-pro housing jurisdictions.

0:25:33is working with HCD to say, okay, well, this is our interpretation of the law, can you please provide us, if you disagree, can you please point to the area of law that you're citing, so… to help guide us through the process? That's simply what this bill did. It allowed for more time for the new housing element, seventh cycle.

0:25:51And number two, it required HCD to simply point to the area of law that we could then base our revisions on. And, that simple request, HCD felt that that was going to generate $11 million in new costs for them.

0:26:08which I think is, frankly, an overstated cost, but, you know, what the governor wrote back saying, I'm concerned that this bill would inappropriately shift responsibility for preparing the housing element to local jurisdictions, to HCD, our interpretation, League of Cities, who sponsored the bill's interpretation, and the author, Assemblywoman Papin.

0:26:26Did not feel that we were trying to shift responsibility. We're trying to really codify the partnership and have two-way communication and timely communication.

0:26:34Thus allowing us to, you know, meet the moment here. And so I was disappointed in the governor's veto, but given some of the budget issues, not surprised, but just wanted to highlight maybe perhaps still the ongoing disconnect we're seeing from the administration.

0:26:49And in that same vein, AB 1026 by Assemblymember Wilson, the original bill not only required… had more stringent timelines by which an IOU was required to meet, the original bill actually held IOUs under the Housing Accountability Act.

0:27:06and really kind of brought out maybe a stick towards other actors besides local jurisdictions, recognizing that there are many other factors, not just local planning, that is leading to challenges with getting more housing on the market. You know, and so this one, we were also disappointed to see. The city did support it, recognizing that there are other aspects

0:27:31That are at play with respect to

0:27:33you know, why more folks aren't in homes, some of which are out of the city's control, but at the end of the day, the governor vetoed this measure, using really the same rationale with respect to shifting responsibilities. And so, certainly think it's

0:27:51Worth another conversation. Perhaps, frankly, when the administration changes over to see if we can have, you know, another, you know, conversation on balance there.

0:28:05And then, you know, the city did not position on this bill, but Senator Weiner's SB79 was signed into law. This bill was, you know, amended

0:28:18gosh, I want to say about 13 or 14 times,

0:28:22I think 5 or 6 times in really the last week of session, or 2 weeks of session, our team pulled together a very comprehensive analysis of the final bill that was signed by the governor. There are still, I would say, you know, connect with your legal or outside legal, with respect to applicability, because

0:28:41There are a lot of definitions that are unclear with respect to what counts and what doesn't. I will say, I think on the whole.

0:28:50El Cerrito's already doing this work, and so I don't think… in practice, there's a lot of applicability for the city, but… but…

0:28:59It's a very comprehensive bill, and it's been described sort of as this sort of Swiss cheese approach, where there's just holes everywhere, and so I would say, at the very least, consult with Council, ensuring that the city effectively plans, coordinates, and works with

0:29:15All stakeholders, as the bill, you know, certainly,

0:29:21you know, starts to be applied. And, you know, there's… it says that, you know, this whole issue here with 15 fewer passenger rail stations, that's actually one of the issues that's up for, perhaps, legal interpretation. So, wanted to highlight that as well.

0:29:40Dane Hutchings (CPPG): I'm gonna pass it back over to Ethan to wrap it up.

0:29:43Ethan Nagler (CPPG): Thank you, Dane. So, continuing on with bills that the city did not take a position on, AB476 by Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez. This bill enhances reporting requirements for metal recyclers and junk metal dealers, and increases fines for violations. Cal Cities was a sponsor of this bill, and it was signed into law.

0:30:08Next slide, please.

0:30:11AB339 by Assemblymember Liz Ortega. This bill requires public agencies to give a recognized employee organization no less than 45 days written notice regarding contracts to perform services that are within the scope of work represented by that employee organization.

0:30:33And that bill was signed into law also. Next slide, please. So AB992 by Assemblymember Jackie Irwin. This bill requires police officers hired after January 1st, 2031,

0:30:50to obtain a degree in modern policing within 36 months of obtaining their basic certificate from the Commission on Peace Officers, Standards and Training. And this bill was signed into law. Next slide, please.

0:31:05SB 672 by Senator Scott Weiner. This bill makes it a crime for a law enforcement officer to wear a facial covering in the performance of their duties.

0:31:15and requires any law enforcement agency operating in California to maintain and publicly post a written policy limiting the use of facial coverings, and this bill was also

0:31:27Signed into law by the governor. Next slide.

0:31:30Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Ethan, just one quick thing here. I think there's been some questions arising whether or not the feds, federal government's planning on adhering to the law. You could probably guess where they're coming from on… or not where they're coming from, but what their response was.

0:31:45I believe it's already in litigation, and you know, there's been public comments from members of the administration saying they do not plan to comply with this law, which is unfortunate. It puts our local

0:31:59law enforcement in this very precarious position, but nonetheless, I do think it was a bill from Senator Weiner that was very much a statement bill on California values, and certainly, I think, garnered a lot of national attention. But I wanted to make that clear that as of right now, the federal government has indicated that they do not plan on

0:32:23complying with this state law. So, you know, local governments and local law enforcement is one thing, but the feds are saying otherwise.

0:32:35Ethan Nagler (CPPG): Okay, next up is Senate Bill 346 by Senator Maria Durazzo. This bill allows local agencies to require

0:32:43short-term rental facilitators to report the address of each rental, and would also provide cities audit authority for transit occupancy taxes. The main sponsor of this bill was Cal Cities, and it was signed into law. Next slide, please.

0:33:03So, SB707 by Senator Maria Durazzo. This bill requires city councils in certain population categories to allow remote public comment during all open meetings.

0:33:17The bill also creates and extends additional teleconferencing flexibility rules. The bill's requirements do apply to the City of El Cerrito, and those requirements go into effect on July 1st of 2026,

0:33:32and sunset on January 1st of 2030. Also, the bill's teleconferencing flexibility rules go into effect on January 1st. So, starting January 1st of 2026,

0:33:44you'll have, some more flexibility, and then the remote public comment for City Council meetings is not required until July 1st. And this bill was signed into law. Next slide, please.

0:33:58Sb 827 by Senator Lena Gonzalez. This bill requires local agency officials to participate in at least 2 hours of fiscal and financial training.

0:34:10Every two years.

0:34:11If that local agency official makes decisions or recommendations regarding financial administration, budgeting, or the use of public resources, or if they are an executive or administrative officer. So this bill was modeled on the currently existing ethics training, and it's going to be similar to that in requirements. And this bill was also

0:34:35Signed into law, and I will pass it back to Dane.

0:34:38Dane Hutchings (CPPG): And the last thing, if we… if you'd like, we could either take a… I have one more slide, just sort of giving you a prognostication of what we think is coming. Happy to just wrap up, and then we can go to questions, or, can do… can,

0:34:53take a break here, but I will… looking like I'm going… let's go, last slide.

0:34:57So, just key dates, so January 1, unless otherwise stated, you know, as Ethan just, you know, illustrated with 707, there's some delayed implementation on parts of these bills, but unless otherwise stated, all bills, that were, enacted will become effective January 1.

0:35:17of 2026, the legislature comes back on January 5th, and we start Jumping right back into…

0:35:23year two of the two-year session, and then, you know, the first big key date would be January 10th, when the governor will release the new, his budget proposal, 26-27. Now.

0:35:35with respect to policy trends, you know, I can't say this enough, local taxes and fees.

0:35:41they are, you know, it is open season. There has been this, you know, last year we saw the theme in the legislature about affordability, affordability. Everything's too expensive. And frankly, and this is me perhaps being a little…

0:35:57defensive here of my clients, local governments, but when the legislature was enabled to

0:36:04do anything else to lower affordability, they look and say, well, it's cities, it's cities that their fees are what are driving affordability issues in the state. And so, we saw sort of a hat tip on SB423,

0:36:21We've seen other measures that were passed in law that require local governments to disclose how much of a percentage of a certain retail, you know, your real estate transfer tax, how much of that is going to affordable housing.

0:36:37production particularly. So we're seeing more, sort of, camel's nose in the tent, if you will, on the state asking.

0:36:46Local governments to be, to, to modify their spending, and, and in fact, even reduce, eliminate, any sort of, you know, fees or charges.

0:36:58Ceqa reforms, there were some unfinished, you know, sort of business or unfinished things that, that were not accomplished. This, this new sort of breaking news with Cal Chamber.

0:37:07may just completely rock the boat here. Oftentimes, what we see is ballot measures, particularly if it's being backed by the Chamber, meaning that's going to be a lot of dollars to collect signatures behind that.

0:37:18Assuming it were to qualify, that changes the whole paradigm with respect to negotiations with the legislature. So, you know, the crystal ball just got a little foggy.

0:37:30But we'll provide a detailed analysis of the bill. The Legislative Analyst Office will also be required to highlight costs associated, so

0:37:41more to come on that. And then anything and everything to do with local government operations, you will start seeing, as it's…

0:37:50as we normally see in even-numbered years, we see very, spirited debates and creative proposals that make it much more difficult on local governments from an operational perspective. And so, in my…

0:38:0416, 17 years of doing this, that kind of happens every even-numbered year, and so we anticipate more of that to come. And so, with that, that concludes our presentation. Happy to answer, take any questions, and thank you so much for giving us so much time. I really do appreciate it.

0:38:22Thank you so much, Dane and Ethan. Questions or comments from the Council?

0:38:26I'll start with Mayor Pro Tem.

0:38:28Thank you, Mayor. Dane and Ethan, I just want to say thank you for all of your work, especially when it comes to SB 423. I want to thank Alex, especially.

0:38:42Who, kept us, abreast of what was going on, and it was,

0:38:47conversation after conversation after conversation. I know Rebecca was part of the conversations as well, and… and working with our lobbyists at CalCities, and thank you for working with Ben Tripo and… and…

0:39:00CEO, Carolyn Coleman, and you know, phone calls from different mayors, from the Oakland mayor, to the LA mayor, to the Sacramento mayor, it was just all over the place, so…

0:39:11And this shows the commitment that we have as city leaders to make sure that,

0:39:21you know, you are advocating, and Council City is ad… are advocating for us, so again, thank you on that. I… I'm concerned about, the reintroduction of that next year, and looking at the crystal ball, and look at our… we're going to have,

0:39:36more years of deficits ahead of, because of what's going on in Washington, and

0:39:41I just have a question regarding, what you see on the horizon for, 2026, 2027, regarding,

0:39:51Deficits, and the governor is not telling us everything.

0:39:56And he's a lame duck for next year, so what is your take on

0:40:02What cities have to look for, and be prepared for.

0:40:06What should we do to prepare for this?

0:40:08Dane Hutchings (CPPG): So,

0:40:10Well, it's somewhat encouraging that the last 3 months we've been getting very positive reports at the Department of Finance that state revenues are exceeding projections, but one of the fatal flaws that we've seen in the state's budget process is that

0:40:27It is very closely tied to the success of the stock market, and more specifically, look, not to go all macroeconomic here, but when you look at the S&P, 40% of the valuation of the S&P is made up of about 7 AI companies based in California.

0:40:43Stocks are overvalued, overpriced, and it's leading to larger, you know, in short term, larger gains, capital gains that the state's able to collect, but when the bubble pops, and it will, we're looking at the out years of these budget deficits. So, while

0:41:01you know, I think the governor is trying to project, you know, we've got reserves, we've got fiscal strength. I think, you know, the numbers say a little bit differently with respect to some of the out years. The spending has increased, and even in the out years, it's exceeding the budget, the dollars that are coming in. I believe that the deficit is $16 billion in revenue coming in, $20 billion of revenue going out, so that leads to that structural deficit. And with that.

0:41:26what we have seen time and time again from the days of elimination of RDA to certain jurisdictions having their VLF shortfalls erased off the board when they have that deficit issue, to now, you know, looking at bills that either, you know, cap, reduce, eliminate any sort of mitigation fee or development-related fee.

0:41:49to now the real estate transfer tax, which seems to be the fee du jour that folks are looking at. All of these things, I believe, are on the table.

0:41:59One of the other little kernels that was passed in this very comprehensive housing package that went through, and it went through the budget process, not the policy process, was the creation of a VMT state-run bank, and one of the wallets right now, as of today.

0:42:19They deem Team Bank as voluntary, local jurisdictions can opt in.

0:42:24one of the challenges that we've seen is that in these similar models, the state will operate the VMT bank. Developers can then pay the state a VMT bank fee, thus depriving the local jurisdiction of the developments happening of that critical revenue, and then that revenue is packaged up and then distributed through grants. So, that's something that also concerns me in the next year or two.

0:42:47But I think fundamentally, what we're seeing with the Howard Jarvis taxpayer ballot measure, which isn't gaining a lot of steam, but still is out there, with, you know, the broader narrative being reduced down to its local fees, that is what's, you know, the barrier to affordability, versus looking at some of these macro or global

0:43:09issues, you know, local governments need to be on the watch and the defensive. And one of the things that we are already working on with your team in preparation of next year is getting the data to really solidify and convey to our lawmakers

0:43:25look, we charge exactly what we need to, here's all of the, the nexus studies that we have to do. I mean, we're under such scrutiny and transparency about what we can assess, and here's how the dollars are being spent, and really trying to educate our lawmakers and the delegation at large about how critical these revenue sources are, because I would say.

0:43:44If you take away these local revenues, how are we supposed to then provide the critical services that our residents rely on?

0:43:50And that's the key message that we really want to drive home. So it's preparation, it's data collection, and it's just, frankly, squeaky wheels get the grease, and we will continue to be that, that squeaky wheel, ensuring that

0:44:04You know, it's the first thing and last thing that your delegation and the legislature at large is hearing on these issues.

0:44:11Thank you for that. One more question regarding Prop 36, where 70% of voters in the last election supported overwhelmingly for Prop 36, and you see the governor not funding Prop 36, and you see the difference with our AG.

0:44:28who, wants us funded and supports Prop 36, because it is the will of the people. What's your take on,

0:44:35That is, do you think the governor is going to,

0:44:39change his mind, or be forced to change his mind on this? Or, is Trump gonna bring the National Guard to all cities in California?

0:44:47Dane Hutchings (CPPG): you know, I'd…

0:44:50I wish Prop 36 was written a little bit closer to, like, Prop 98, where you had a guaranteed funding mechanism. Unfortunately, it was not. Nonetheless, I do not see the governor changing his tune.

0:45:02On, changing his tune on, on the funding mechanisms, going to Prop 36. He continues to.

0:45:12double down on funding Prop 36, undermines Prop 47, and it leads to increased cost. And so, this administration, I don't see, you know, changing tune on the funding mechanisms.

0:45:27I think now that the governor has one year left and is

0:45:31you know, perhaps eyeing, you know, his next office. I think this is going to be one that may… this may be an issue that may be tackled again in a new.

0:45:46gubernatorial administration.

0:45:49One more thing regarding, we're seeing an uptick on foreclosure rates, especially in the Central Valley. Stockton is ground zero. You're looking at Sacramento, Bakersfield, Fresno, Inland Empire.

0:46:03We're seeing two Californians with one side of California being forgotten and not being taken care of, and then you see on the coast where they think everything is just going great.

0:46:17Do you see any future legislation, next year on, trying to make sure that, we keep our homeowners in their homes? And… because we are seeing an uptake of, homelessness, especially with our senior population?

0:46:36Dane Hutchings (CPPG): It's a tough one in the budget crisis, you know, it really is. I think one of the questions, and I know, actually, frankly, your Assembly member, Assemblymember Wicks, has tried to…

0:46:47It's a different angle here, but it's trying to create a more comprehensive registry, your data registry, to identify some of the homes that are being sort of gobbled up by

0:47:00Private equity and large institutional investors.

0:47:04Because as we know, another… since the last 12 years, I think, I want to say that the number is about 750,000 units have essentially been taken off the market, by these, you know, between Airbnbs, private equity firms purchasing homes, and not even filling the vacancies.

0:47:24And other institutional… large institutional investors who just simply securitize the asset, create the scarcity, and the prices continue to rise.

0:47:32I would say that perhaps there may be

0:47:36if I were to… I'm trying to kind of look at, like, what's a solution that is going to be tough politically, but doesn't necessarily cost a lot of money, would be to shine transparency on those opportunities or those institutions that are gobbling up those foreclosed homes. But…

0:47:54They've tried, and they've run up against some pretty big forces to stop that type of transparency in the private market.

0:48:02With respect to any sort of direct dollars, that will be, you know, we will see the governor's proposal on January 10th to see if he proposes new dollars to be allocated towards existing programs.

0:48:14But that sounds more like a budgetary issue than a policy. I know there's policies in the books to help homeowners stay in their homes, so more to come in January.

0:48:23Thank you very much.

0:48:25Any other questions or comments? Councilmember Sosman?

0:48:29First, thank you, just, I won't repeat what,

0:48:34Mayor Pro Tem Quinto said, but thank you for all your work on SB423. Just a question about something you said. You were talking about SB79, and you said there was some questions about the legal interpretation.

0:48:48I believe you mean, and how it could be inter… Applied to Contra Costa County, which my understanding is now it doesn't. So, what…

0:48:56What is that legal interpretation about?

0:48:59Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Well, I'll start off by saying, I am not a lawyer, and I don't pretend to be a lawyer. I just, you know, want to put that, you know, very, you know, very clearly there. When… in sort of the last sort of throes of the legislative session, there were… the bill was amended several times.

0:49:17there was never a, you know, uniform carve-out for a specific county. Some of the, from what we're hearing, some of the, definitions around rail,

0:49:31Some of it can also include, perhaps, commercial rail as a… as going towards that overall count.

0:49:40And so, again, I, you know, I don't know if… it depends on which, you know, legal mind you talk to, but, some folks say there could be some confusion. We tried to work with the author's office in getting

0:49:55You know, some of these…

0:49:57these outstanding issues clarified in a letter to the journal to clarify author's intent, but I think because there were so many aspects of the bill that were a bit confusing with respect to, you know, applicability or not.

0:50:13Another issue was that, you know, Tier 3 was, in effect, eliminated, but because of some of the cross-references still in the bill, that even though… so Tier 3 may not actually be eliminated.

0:50:25which is another issue. And so, again, you know, they have this saying where they go, well, we'll fix it next year in a cleanup bill. So, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't an SB79 cleanup bill to clarify some of the definitions here that are outstanding. My only point with that was just to say.

0:50:41I think that folks should, instead of just saying, oh, yeah, we have a clear carve-out, take a second look at it, look at the interpretation, and talk to lawyers, all of whom are much smarter than me with respect to applicability, but did just want to flag that we have had jurisdictions,

0:50:57from all across the state go, we think this applies to us, wait, wait a minute, this cross-reference makes us think it doesn't apply to us, or it does. And so, it's just, that's sort of the sausage-making that happens in those last few days of session when the bill was amended so many times.

0:51:11So I understand the cross-reference issues, but the commercial rail issues, I don't understand. Are there commercial rail stations in Contra Costa that aren't passenger rail stations? So, that's a great question. I'm not… I'm not privy to that. I'm just… I don't believe so.

0:51:27Dane Hutchings (CPPG): And if not, then yeah, and believe me, like I said, you know your city and your county better than I.

0:51:32I don't know every part of the county, so…

0:51:34Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Well, but you know a thing or two about transportation, so, you know, probably more than I, and so I don't, I don't want to, you know, cause alarm or anything like that. I just would say, you know, what do the contractors say? Measure, measure twice, cut once, so just, you know, let's, you know, take a hard look at it before we, you know, think that we've got a clean carve out here.

0:51:54Okay, I mean, I don't think it would have a huge impact on El Cerrito anyway, because as I said, we've already upzoned quite a bit near transit. It would probably just affect a few more blocks, so… but it is good to know if it will apply to us. And then this is more for our staff.

0:52:09When will we receive an update on how and when we're going to implement AB707?

0:52:18I can answer that, Councilmember Saltzman. This is something that we have been reviewing, what requirements come with 707, because there are quite a few.

0:52:27We have been working actively with the ad hoc related to updates to the Council's policy and rules of order and procedure, and so currently it's with Sky, with the list of what I believe we need to incorporate, and we're looking at that red line so that I can meet with the ad hoc again, and we can look through the information in there and make sure it complies with all the requirements.

0:52:47Do you have an estimate of when that might come to Council? Before the end of the year.

0:52:53Is my guess. It depends on how long it takes for legal to get back to us. Okay, great, thank you.

0:53:00Any other questions or comments?

0:53:03Councilmember Cassanis? Yeah, thank you.

0:53:06I reiterate the thanks that you got from other council members, thank you both. I won't…

0:53:11Say more than that, but I appreciate your hard work on all of this.

0:53:15I have two questions that are more about process than any particular bill.

0:53:19Yeah, it's just sitting on this council, I'm sure we have differences of opinion about different bills, and different cities within your portfolio of clients probably have different positions. I'm curious how you handle that. When you have legislation that El Cerrito might have one feeling about, but another city might have a different feeling about, and you're representing both of us.

0:53:37How do you… what's… have you encountered that? And if you do, how do you… how do you navigate that?

0:53:42Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Yeah, that's a great question. Frankly, a very common one in Sacramento is there's a lot of cross-pollination with multiple jurisdictions.

0:53:49We have, as baked into our scope of work and our proposal, and I believe it's also solidified in the contract, I adopted a very strict, conflicts policy, and so it's… it goes in three steps. Step one.

0:54:03is if and when we are aware of conflicting positions, by which I mean you have one client that takes a, you know, support position on a piece of legislation.

0:54:12one client that takes the opposite or opposed position on the piece of legislation. At that time, we inform both clients of the known conflict. We then assign that bill or those issues specifically to independent lobbying teams within our organization.

0:54:28create an internal firewall where we do not discuss any strategy, you know, anything that we're doing on either side of that bill. And if, for some reason.

0:54:40either client is not satisfied with that result, which I would hope that they would trust in our integrity as professionals to honor our clients' wishes, but should we get to a point where the client feels as though, hey, you know, I'm not satisfied with this, we would then work with one of those impacted clients, identify a suitable subcontractor who

0:55:04does not have, you know, that same conflict, and we as the firm would honor and pay for that contract, so no additional money comes out of the city's budget or pocket for that.

0:55:17And so… but to answer your question.

0:55:20we have not yet gone to step three. There have been some times, where we have had clients take opposing viewpoints on legislation. We've had to enact, sort of, steps one and steps two, but thus far, even prior to California Public Policy Group, even in my former, the law firm, we never have had to then take that next step, but it is something that we're open to and willing to do.

0:55:44And it would be a subcontract specific to that issue area or that bill, and then when that said bill is resolved one way or the other, you know, we would, you know, resume our normal level of engagement.

0:55:56Okay, thank you. And my last question,

0:56:00I'm kind of a late convert to your… to the value of this process for our city. I'll admit that when you first came to us and the proposal was made to have you do grant writing and advocacy work in Sacramento.

0:56:13I saw the value in the grant writing, and I questioned the value of the advocacy work.

0:56:19And I had a very interesting conversation with our city manager, Karen Pincus, about how they intertwine. And I'd like to… and I…

0:56:26I'm sort of late to the party, but I'm on board now.

0:56:29And I'd like to hear more from you about how they intersect, and how one supports the other, and the type of relationships you build through the advocacy work that actually could open doors for grants.

0:56:40Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Well, you know what? I love a softball. I'm gonna try and do my best to rip this one out of the park here. So, look, we, there absolutely is, crossover between both our grants team and our lobbying team on a couple of different factors. Number one.

0:56:55We get… you have at your disposal now a team of technical experts that really can dig into funding requirements, matching requirements, working with your team on, you know, certain capital stacks and strategy, and how to compel… write the most compelling

0:57:13grant applications. Conversely, I work with your grants… with your grants team, even when we're talking about advancing a piece of a policy or a specific budgetary ask. And so, when our team is going out and reaching

0:57:28trying to work on doing perhaps a state budget earmark, which is not a grant, but that's more my world. I'm working with Jake, I'm working with Mary and the team on specific data, specific narratives, what's most compelling, because they talk really, I mean, much more frequently than we do.

0:57:45on sort of the nuts and bolts of your specific programs. And so we work together on messaging, and we work together on strategy, both on the budget side

0:57:53And on the grant funding side.

0:57:55Number two.

0:57:57having, you know, sort of having that built on as our foundation, it allows us to work with, with your team in sort of a multifaceted approach. And so, as City Manager mentioned, we've had some success on the Hillside Natural Area. We also are parlaying that success, you know, as we have, organized, direct advocacy days with your council, continuing to,

0:58:20engage with, you know, CAL FIRE and other agencies, trying to advocate more for increased dollars on the back end. You know, Jake and team are working to address some of those technical concerns that are being expressed, or, you know, maybe not even concerns, but hey, we'd love to see this in your next application.

0:58:38he's getting that feedback and working it in to close that loop. And we believe, and, you know, I don't want to have the cart before the horse here, but we feel like we've had very positive conversations on moving another project forward, which would yield another

0:58:52I believe, $800,000 for the Hillside Natural Area, so we're very close to locking that down as well.

0:58:59And finally, kind of putting it more tangibly, working both with the grants team, your technical staff.

0:59:07folks at Caltrans.

0:59:09and on the lobbying side, working with your state delegation, we've been able to have really, really compelling conversations with District 4, on the San Pablo Avenue, project, and have, we believe.

0:59:26Using both our technical side from the grants team.

0:59:29our, increased and sustained advocacy on the advocacy side. We've had some very, very promising, conversations and some commitments even to, to, honor some of the big, earmarks we've asked for, to, to get that… that project completed. So, you know.

0:59:49we really do work very seamlessly together, although we do have two really distinct lanes. But whenever there's crossover, we really try to maximize that. So, one certainly helps the other.

1:00:02Thank you, thank you for relieving my skepticism.

1:00:06I'll pass it on to Lisa? To Mira. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a question about the real property transfer tax, and you know, it seems to be, you know, there's a… there's a target on it. How,

1:00:22prevalent are, you know, real property transfer taxes for charter cities? Is it a relatively small group, so that it's going to be easy for the state to try to take it away, or is it pretty broad so that there'll be strong advocacy for it?

1:00:40Dane Hutchings (CPPG): I'm glad I did my homework. There are 23 cities that have real estate transfer taxes. However, while that does seem relatively small by number, by population, it's nearly 12 million Californians.

1:00:52And so we have large cities that have, you know, large swaths of our population. It was also reported today

1:01:00that the City of Sacramento is actually looking to do this exact thing next year on the ballot, and so, you know, tack on another million or so residents, another large

1:01:08city that's looking at this. And so I don't think, I don't think that this is something that is going to be incredibly easy. You have, cities like Riverside, the city of Riverside, so you have conservative jurisdictions.

1:01:21more progressive jurisdictions, and everything in between that have this. And I think where it really, I think.

1:01:29kind of cuts both ways is, or I should say, you know, resonates in all jurisdictions, is specifically

1:01:35the commercial… the commercial piece, which is a huge, huge driver of revenue, and so I think that while there's… there's, you know, maybe a small amount of jurisdictions by number, by population, the number's quite large, and I know there are several jurisdictions that are looking at this for 26,

1:01:52As a potential means of, of, generating revenue.

1:01:57Thank you very much, and thank you for your presentation.

1:02:01Well, thank you so much, Dane and Ethan, and I just want to say that, you know, kind of opposed to what Councilmember Cassano said, I was a huge proponent of you all coming on board this year, because I knew, you know, coming into this year, that El Cerrito was on the precipice of doing the great things that the city has done

1:02:19through this… through this year, and one of the things that we constantly heard all last… or two weeks ago at Cal Cities was, El Cerrito's doing big things, El Cerritos making a name, El Cerrito's doing this, El Cerrito's doing that, and you all are a huge, huge part of that.

1:02:33As we are, you know, Will and I will be talking about our State of the City for the end of this year, and as I look at the things that we've done this year, and I remember our, you know, our city made a mark in March, I can't believe that was March of this year, where this council took to the front page of the Chronicle to lay out our vision for what we saw El Cerrito being able to do as a council, and the fact that you all were able to be the ones going into Sacramento, going into the

1:02:58legislature, making sure that our voices were heard on these critical bills, and also helping us put together, as I said, a bible of what were our standards? What did we want to stand for politically? You know, there is an Instagram content creator out there.

1:03:13who has spent a lot of time here in El Cerrito, but they made a viral video where they said that El Cerrito is not a city.

1:03:19Now, I know, and one of our former mayors know that they've been here a long time, but

1:03:23That's neither here nor there. But you know who does know that El Cerrito is a city? The governor's office knows that El Cerrito is a city. The state senator who's gonna be gracing our chambers coming up soon knows that El Cerrito is a city. Our assembly member says that El Cerrito is one of her favorite cities.

1:03:38And a lot of those are relationships that you all have helped us to manage, whether it's relationships with our legislatures, and also fellow mayors that I've had the opportunity to speak with, whether it's the Oakland mayor, the Los Angeles mayor, who, again, now know that El Cerrito is a city who's doing important things.

1:03:53advocating for cities, and even I have learned through our work with Cal Cities and through working with you all, how this is not even just about El Cerrito, but it's about us being able to advocate for local cities.

1:04:05So, I want to thank you. As a first-time mayor, I thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us to manage these relationships, these important relationships that are going to be helping us go forward.

1:04:15As a city, I didn't know if I was going to have an opportunity to say that to you guys again before the end of my mayoral term, so I'm thankful that you all are here, and glad that I got to say that to you. Any other comments from the Council?

1:04:28Well, thank you all again, CPPG, and we will see you all very soon.

1:04:32Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Thank you. Thank you very much.

1:04:34Ethan Nagler (CPPG): Thank you.

1:04:35All right, the next item on the agenda is a second presentation, item B, which is a presentation on transit-oriented communities, TLC policy, and housing element implementation. Can we please have the presentation?

1:05:21Good evening, Mayor Weisinger, Councilmembers. I'm Sean Moss, the City's Planning Manager, and I'm here tonight to give you an overview of the City's implementation efforts with regard to

1:05:31the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's, or MTC's, Transit-Oriented Communities Policy, or TOC policy, and the City's housing element.

1:05:42And how these, two efforts, overlap a bit.

1:05:52Sorry, there we go.

1:05:55So what is the Transit-Oriented Communities, or TOC, policy? The TOC policy is a policy framework that was adopted by MTC, that cities need to comply with to be eligible for One Bay Area Grants, or OBAG.

1:06:13Starting with the next OBAG cycle, which will start in 2026.

1:06:18It was developed, to advance four goals that they're highlighted there in those purple boxes.

1:06:23It applies to areas that are within half a mile of major transit stations. So you can see in the, exhibit to the… on the right there, those are the city's two BART stations and the half-mile radius around those stations.

1:06:40And there's a scoring criteria that's currently in development, that will evaluate how cities score with regard to this policy, and that will drive how the policy gets implemented.

1:06:54You can see… so you can also see on the exhibit, the black outline represents the city's San Pablo Avenue-specific plan area, so you can see these half-mile radiuses stretch quite a ways outside of the boundary of the specific plan, which is where the city has envisioned the majority of its growth.

1:07:14So to date, the city has received almost $10 million in OBAG funds.

1:07:20And those have gone to support efforts such as, improvements to the Ohlone Greenway, the Del Norte,

1:07:30BART station Precise Plan, Del Norte Complete Streets project, and Carlson Boulevard and Central Avenue Paving Rehabilitation.

1:07:46Oh, and there's a link there. If you… if you want to know more about the TOC policy beyond what I'm sharing with you tonight, you can… you can visit MTC's website there.

1:07:59So these are the four policy elements of the TOC policy. It deals with density, affordable housing, parking management, and transit station, and transit station access and circulation. So, I'm going to give you an overview of each of these policy areas.

1:08:17We're going to be coming back to the Council, as I'll highlight in the presentation, with greater detail on efforts related to these policy areas, but this presentation is just meant to give you an overview of the TOC policy with regard to these policy areas.

1:08:34So the first is density.

1:08:37So…

1:08:39within… because El Cerrito, our station areas are considered Tier 2 under the TOC policy, that means that there are, at least two lines that stop at our two stations. So based on the Tier 2 standards in the TOC policy.

1:08:55These are the density standards that the policy would have us adopt. Again, there's a scoring criteria that's in development, so we don't have to achieve complete compliance with all of the things that I'm going to highlight tonight.

1:09:09But this is just to give you a sense of, of…

1:09:13the overall policy and the items and standards and policies that it would have us, implement. So, with regard to our Tier 2 station areas.

1:09:26The TOC policy wants us to establish a minimum density… a minimum average density, the average part is important, of 75 units per acre. So that would be an average

1:09:38Of all of the… the…

1:09:42what do I want to say?

1:09:45the properties in the, in, in the TOC areas that the policy applies to. So, notably.

1:09:55this would exempt

1:09:57properties that have existing residential uses on them. So this is applying largely to vacant properties and properties that right now have only commercial uses on them.

1:10:10And so you can see the average minimum density standard, the average maximum density standard, which is an average maximum that we would have to allow of at least 100 units per acre, and then some average floor area ratio standards for office development.

1:10:31So, with regard to parking management.

1:10:34There are also some maximum and minimum parking standards.

1:10:39You can see those here in the middle column, that they're highlighted. We've also provided our… the exist… the existing standards from our San Pablo Avenue-specific plan. We think we already comply with all of these parking standards, except the one that is

1:10:55Highlighted there in the darker orange.

1:10:58that's the parking maximum. We also, you know, we do have concerns. I'm gonna get into some of the implementation, challenges later on, but we do, you know, we do have some concerns about these policies. This being one, we do have some concerns that

1:11:16this, minimum… I'm sorry, maximum parking standard might, make…

1:11:23development of certain types of multifamily residential housing, such as condominiums and townhomes, less feasible, and so we continue to talk to MTC staff about all of these, you know, various concerns that we have, and work through these issues.

1:11:40In addition to these standards, the parking section of the TOC policy requires that we implement

1:11:47at least one complimentary policy. Those include things like TDM policies for new development, a curbside management strategy, a parking benefit district, demand-responsive parking pricing, and just price parking in general.

1:12:05So, I bring that up because many of those elements are going to actually be coming to the City Council in the future. We expect them to, as part of the development of the Parking Management Action Plan around the El Cerrito Plaza area that responds to, parking demands.

1:12:23With regard to the development of the TOD at that site, and, just, you know, in general, the existing residential neighborhoods, commercial uses, all of these various needs.

1:12:34We're developing that program now. We expect it to bring… to include some of these elements. As well, we're also working on a TDM policy right now, a TDM kind of strategy with the City of Richmond.

1:12:47Can you please, explain or say what… I'm sorry, yes, the acronyms stand for. Yeah, I'm so… thank you. So TDM is Transportation Demand Management.

1:12:58And so that, that's, it's sort of various measures that get implemented, to, just to do that, to manage, transportation demand, with regard to residential development. And so, BART actually got a grant.

1:13:16To help us, think through some implementation of TDM programs with… along with the City of Richmond, and that's a project we're currently working on now. We expect to come back to the City Council with an update on that as well.

1:13:32Moving along. So, this is the affordable housing

1:13:36portion of the TOC policy.

1:13:39It establishes kind of a menu of 28 different policy options. We have to implement at least two policies from each of the… each of the… for each of the three P's, which are production, preservation, and protection of affordable housing.

1:13:55We've highlighted here the, policies that, you know, just on a first glance, preliminary basis, we think are achievable.

1:14:04And, we also would need to implement at least one policy with regard to commercial stabilization.

1:14:10And there are… some of the policies that are identified within this menu have funding commitments, so you'll see that on the next slide, actually, if I move on to… this is the entire menu of the 28 policies. The ones that are underlined are the ones, are things that we are actually currently working on.

1:14:29And the asterisks, denote things that have, funding, requirements, and those funding requirements are listed at the top of each of those columns.

1:14:46So moving on to the, transit station access and circulation portion, these bullet points represent the requirements for that section. The top two, so notably, we think we have assessed that we're compliant with all of these, requirements already, currently.

1:15:05The top two, I think, are pretty self-explanatory. We've already adopted a complete streets policy as part of the San Pablo Avenue-specific plan.

1:15:13We already have an adopted active transportation plan.

1:15:17And then we… we believe that those, documents also, implement the… the bottom two bullet points as well. So all of these things remain to be… we… we need to…

1:15:26We will begin soon submitting information to MTC so that they can verify our compliance with these various things, but in our preliminary assessment, and we've also conferred with MTC staff at times, this is… we believe we're compliant with these.

1:15:43So, moving on, so what is the housing element now?

1:15:47So the housing element is a required element or topic area of the City's General Plan. So it's one of, it's one of seven required elements of the General Plan, but it's a little bit different than other elements of the General Plan in that it's required to be updated every 8 years.

1:16:03And it's also required to be certified by the State Department of Housing and Community Development to ensure compliance with state law.

1:16:11And…

1:16:13The housing element contains a series of programs, actually, I'm sorry. One of the things that the housing element is required to address is the City's Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA. That's an allocation

1:16:28of units, that… are,

1:16:33It's an allocation of housing units at various income levels that the city needs to accommodate based on state and regional growth and demand for housing. And you can see the numbers there are the numbers that we have been assigned during this current RHNA cycle.

1:16:50And so the housing element then, you know, accommodates, the development of those units, and also identifies opportunity sites, which are either vacant or underutilized sites that can help us achieve the development of those units.

1:17:06It also contains a series of programs, that are required to be implemented. Those programs, implement these five goals of the housing element. So, just quickly, the goals are to accelerate housing production, support affordable housing, and special needs housing.

1:17:26Conserve existing housing and prevent displacement, affirmatively further fair housing, and energy conservation and sustainable development.

1:17:36So, this is just a sample of

1:17:40programs that we are required to implement in the short term, so through the end of 2026. We did actually compile all of these, all of the

1:17:51programs that we're required to implement. It took up three slides, so in the interest of time, I've condensed it down to one and just highlighting these programs, but just to give you a sense of the scope of what we have to do before the end of next year, it's, you know, three times this amount of things.

1:18:08So, that includes things, like modifications to our, to our inclusionary zoning ordinance to make sure that it, you know, is achievable and, and actually, requires an amount of

1:18:24Affordable housing that the… that the market can support.

1:18:29That's something we're currently working on.

1:18:32That, that overlaps with the TOC policy also, so if we can demonstrate to TOC that we already have an inclusionary zoning ordinance, and then that zoning, and that that has included some market analysis, feasibility analysis.

1:18:50Then we can be compliant with that portion of the TOC policy. Also, tenant protections is another one that overlaps with the,

1:19:01with the TOC policy, we need to do things like, modifications to our density bonus ordinance to be consistent with… to bring it into consistency with state law and modernize it.

1:19:14We need to create procedures for reasonable accommodations. You know, those are things, like, accessibility accommodations, etc.

1:19:25And then we also need to, adopt objective design standards for the areas of our city that are outside of the San Pablo Avenue-specific plan. The San Pablo Avenue-specific plan already contains objective design standards, but the zoning ordinance for the rest of the city, does not always. And, that is actually something

1:19:44So we… we applied for and were awarded, as you may remember, an MTC planning grant to help us with implementation of the TOC policy, and this is one of the things that was included in that grant.

1:19:57So this is a timeline to just kind of show how the two things overlap, the housing element cycle and the TOC policy. So the TOC policy was first adopted by MTC back in 2022.

1:20:10At that time, we were… we were in… beginning the development of… of the housing element. So the… you can see our housing element was adopted.

1:20:20about a year later, in August of 23. And then MTC

1:20:25released administrative guidance for the TOC policy in September of 24, so that's really kind of the bulk and the meat of the policy and how it gets implemented. As I said, that administrative guidance and the implementation of the policy continue to evolve.

1:20:42But this is just to kind of show how these, you know, these two cycles and these two efforts didn't completely align. And I'll get into that a little bit more on the next slide. So, as I said, we were awarded an MTC Planning Assistance Grant that was in February of this year. You may remember the Council passed a

1:21:02a resolution to enable us to accept that grant. And we expect to kick off the work pursuant to that grant next month.

1:21:11Adoption of OBAG at the MTC level will happen, sometime in 2026. As I said, that's the… that's the grant funding cycle.

1:21:20And then there will be, you know, between… between then and when our housing element, cycle… our new… our next housing element cycle begins in 2023… 2023… I'm sorry, 2032,

1:21:34There will be a series of ongoing preparation and adoption of implementation of policies and programs pursuant to both of these efforts.

1:21:45So, as I mentioned, some of the challenges and constraints that we face with regard to all of these implementation efforts. One just being staff capacity. You know, with regard to the

1:21:57Sorry, let me just get caught up in my notes here. With regard to the TOC policy, for example.

1:22:04You know, we, we basically have one,

1:22:08We essentially have one land use planner primarily working on the land use pieces, one transportation planner primarily working on the station access pieces and transportation pieces, and one affordable housing program manager working on the affordable housing

1:22:24program pieces, and then myself and the community director, community development director overseeing a lot of these efforts, so it, you know, it's just limited staff that we have, and, you know, on top of all of the other staff, functions that we're required to fulfill.

1:22:39In addition, just as I mentioned, you know, the timing of these two efforts hasn't… hasn't synced up as well as we might hope. So, you know, for example, if the

1:22:50If the TOC policy had been more fleshed out when we were developing our housing element, we could have integrated some of those policies into the housing element programs, but that wasn't… wasn't able to happen at that time.

1:23:03And then, you know, there's just condensed timelines for all of these things. As you can see, you know, I'm highlighting things that need to be implemented by the end of 2026, basically. So that's, you know, a fairly condensed timeline for all of these efforts.

1:23:16As I mentioned, the TOC policy continues to evolve. You know, just this week, there have been some… some new evolutions with regard to how the scoring criteria is going to work.

1:23:29So, you know, it's just challenging as these things, are still… we're trying to start our implementation of some of the TOC items.

1:23:39as some of the scoring and other things are still evolving, so it just makes it really challenging to know exactly what we're responding to and what we're implementing at this time. That will solidify as time goes on, but it's still a challenge at this time.

1:23:54Then also, obviously, you know, we have existing conditions in our city.

1:23:58We have the unique, market, constraints of our city and our region. And I've, you know, I mentioned some of the challenges with regard to feasibility of development and the implementations of these policies already, but that does pose a constraint. And then, you know, just land use patterns within our TOC area, so I highlighted on that first exhibit

1:24:20how much of the specific plan area overlap the TOC areas. There's large areas that are outside of that. So, you know, these are areas that are, you know, some commercial areas, but largely single-family residential areas.

1:24:35That, you know, right now don't take on the land use patterns that this policy is kind of pushing us to have.

1:24:43And then there are challenges with regard to the funding of the affordable housing, items that I highlighted. They do, you know, some of those items do require, dedication of local funds, as I said.

1:24:57And then there's just, you know, the particular kind of program requirements of the TOC and how the TOC would have us, kind of develop those programs. May or may not be exactly how we would develop them otherwise.

1:25:14So, what are the next steps? So, with regard to the housing element, there's… I highlighted some of the programs that we need to implement. We're currently working with a consultant to help us, develop many of the zoning updates that are required pursuant to those programs.

1:25:30That effort… those… that package of zoning updates will be going to the Planning Commission.

1:25:35In the coming months, and then, after that, we'll be, coming back to the City Council, we expect in the first half of 2026 for your consideration. So, this is to kind of say all of these efforts, will have, public processes around them.

1:25:52That, you know, that's the… would be the public process for that effort. With regard to the MTC grant will be kind of similar. We expect to start working with a consultant, a different consultant that MTC is hiring very soon on those pieces. Those will be developed, there will be public engagement, they will go to the Planning Commission.

1:26:11There will be environmental review that's required, and once the Planning Commission makes a recommendation, we expect to bring that back to you, as well, probably sometime next year.

1:26:24So that, and then there will be other pieces that lie outside of those two efforts that I mentioned that are required to comply with the TOC policy. So, for example, we expect to come back to you, to talk to you more about affordable housing and which affordable housing programs to implement, etc.

1:26:45So, that concludes my presentation. I know that was a lot of information, and I'm happy. I have, there's other staff here as well. Jeff Ballantyne and Jarrett Mullen and Aisa Ashuri and Melanie Mintz, all from the Community Development Department are here.

1:27:02And are also available to answer questions if, if needed.

1:27:06All right, we'll start the questions with Mayor Pro Tem Quinto. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. You know, on the north side, with the almost completion of that affordable housing project, really excited about the opening on that, and, you know, good to see our city leading the way.

1:27:24regionally when it comes to the building of affordable housing. My question is regarding the parking, and you see a lot of folks at the Mayfair building that have parking, and they're using the BART station parking lot. My concern is with the folks moving into the

1:27:42The affordable housing project next door, the addition of more renters,

1:27:51You know, keeping their cars,

1:27:53what do you see in the future of that? Will you be working with BART.

1:27:59And setting up a deal for these renters to, rent those parking spaces that no one's using right now.

1:28:08So we, we did pursue that angle. We did have some communications with BART staff.

1:28:15There were a lot of obstacles, so, I'm actually gonna say if, you know, if the, if the council, has any, you know, if you think you can lend any, leverage to that effort, please,

1:28:30please let us know. We, yeah, we did explore that. Yeah, it just… it's… it's difficult. There's… I don't want to go too much into all the various challenges of that, but

1:28:41I will say we are, you know, we're looking at various efforts to support sort of the TDM… some of the TDM, measures that I mentioned. We're looking at various efforts to support

1:28:52development, that is coming forward that, that, that has lower parking ratios, right? So, you know, that, that takes a variety of forms. This, this,

1:29:05TDM project that we're working on with the City of Richmond, has been helpful, looking at, you know, can… can, WCTAC, which is the West Contra Costa

1:29:15Transport… What, I'm gonna…

1:29:18Transportation Commission thing? Yeah, okay, thank you.

1:29:22Which, you know, can WCTAC play an increased role in implementing TOD programs and policies in our West County subarea?

1:29:32Things like that. So, yeah. Yeah, I do see the importance, and I know BART needs every cent that they need, so,

1:29:40you know, look forward to working with the BART Board and WCTAC to see if we can have some temporary solutions for our renters that live there and the future renters living in the affordable housing project. It's so important, and number one is that

1:29:54We don't want them parking in our neighborhood, so we have that 4-hour parking space, and I know

1:30:01Our parking group here with El Cerrito Police Department will be giving out tickets if they start parking in those neighborhoods. That's not acceptable. So, TOD is TOD, and they signed up for it. Thank you.

1:30:16Any other comments, Councilmember Sosman?

1:30:19Thank you for the presentation. I understand it better now than when I read it.

1:30:25On slide 4, explain this to me more. The… the density threshold, you said, is for new residential, and the way you explained it, I'm not totally clear. So, obviously, if there's a vacant lot, but say there's a home that's been vacant, and that gets sold, and they want to build

1:30:42some units there. This new density doesn't apply, because it was already residential, or it does apply?

1:30:48I don't… you know, that's a good question. I don't know in the… in the case of a demolition, is that what you… is that sort of what you're asking about? I don't know if the policy applies in the case of a demolition. That's something we'd have to look at. I don't know, Jeff or anybody else, if you have an answer.

1:31:04We can certainly look at the policy more. I mean, it definitely, like I said, applies to vacant properties and properties, other properties that don't have existing residential uses on them. In those areas, not the ones on San Pablo, but the areas that we haven't already rezoned, there aren't that many vacant or commercial properties. So, like, I'm just trying to understand the actual impact of this. Maybe there's something I'm not following, so please tell me if so.

1:31:27Yeah, I think it's mostly going to apply… so we, you know, we have a hand… oh, actually, in fact, I can show you. Why don't I just do that?

1:31:33We have some hidden slides in this presentation.

1:31:37Oh, and, okay, thanks. While you're finding that… Jeff Ballantyne, Senior Planner with the City. So yeah, my understanding is basically it's sort of a point in time of the vacant lots of when we're doing this effort for the rezoning. So whatever's vacant at the point in time that we're doing this, those would be the lots that apply. So if it's at some point in the future that somebody were to demolish.

1:31:56it wouldn't matter so much, if that makes sense. I just… I guess I don't understand MTC's intention here. It's gonna impact so little, and we're gonna do this whole process. I'm all for rezoning and upzoning, you all know that, but, like, this doesn't really do almost anything for El Cerrito, right? Am I missing something? It's very on the margins.

1:32:17It might be on the margins. I mean, so here, look at the… look at the exhibit I put up on the screen. Most of that's on San Pablo, which has already been rezoned to higher, you know, higher density than this is requiring, or at least the density. So that's why I'm just… maybe for other cities, it'll have an impact, but it feels like for El Cerrito.

1:32:38we're going to jump through all these hoops to have a very tiny impact, is that correct? And if so, can we share that with MTC so they're just aware that this isn't going to be the huge impact that they… I think in other cities, it will have an impact, because not everybody has a San Pablo-specific plan. They haven't already upzoned, but we have, so…

1:32:57I don't… I just want to make sure we're communicating that

1:33:00with them, if that is the case. If I may, I think one of the big things in here is that the minimum average density of 75 units per acre, that's… that's a game changer. A lot of our developments, such as Credence at Eureka and San Pablo.

1:33:16That would not comply with that minimum density, to kind of give an example. So it's not just in the zoning, they actually have to do it.

1:33:24Yeah, it's a minimum density. I see what you're saying. Okay, that's how it changes it. So you… it's not that we're allowing for bigger projects, it's we're requiring them. Right, because, for example, right now… Yeah, we don't have a maximum density in the specific plan area right now.

1:33:40So we definitely comply with the maximum requirements in the specific plan area, but it's, yeah, it's the minimum that's challenging. Besides credence of the other projects either built or proposed, are there other ones that don't comply with this? We have a slide just for that question. I do. Great. I want to… if you can send me these slides, I want to see them all.

1:34:03Very, very interested in this.

1:34:06So, Sean's pulling that up.

1:34:14You want to go over it, Sean? Yeah, so this… this shows, the densities that were achieved by some of the recent development in… in El Cerrito.

1:34:24So you can, yeah, you see 1715 Elm, that's outside the specific plan area. So is El Dorado Townhomes. Village at Town Center was developed before the specific plan was

1:34:36Was in place.

1:34:38Metro 510 is an interesting one. It was… it was, entitled before the specific plan, but, built after the specific plan was adopted. But you'll see, yeah, so Credence, right, is… is… that's the example that Jeff just highlighted.

1:34:53That's, 32 condominium units right at San Pablo and Eureka.

1:34:59You know, you look at the building, you know, it looks like a reasonable density for that transit corridor, but it doesn't, you know, its actual density is 56 units per acre.

1:35:12So, you know, we would either have to…

1:35:18kind of allow things like that, and then make up that density somewhere else to… for the average, or… But you could, with everything else that's going on. You could, it just gets challenging, you know, because we're applying zoning, like, across zoning districts, right? So it gets…

1:35:35Challenging of, like, then where do you do that, and where do you require higher densities?

1:35:40Right, it's… it's, again, at that point in time, we're picking which parcels, which minimum densities apply to which parcels, so we can't come after the fact and say, hey, look at all these projects, they average out

1:35:51Sure. Right. It needs to be pro… but if you… if this had happened a couple years ago, it would have averaged out to be compliant, so…

1:35:59Yeah, I know it weren't… it's impossible to predict the future, but it looks like we would have actually been okay on this. Yeah, I just wanted to also respond to something else that you said in terms of

1:36:10jumping through some hoops, and how effective it might or might not be. So, in the first slide, when Sean showed the specific plan area and then the half a mile radius, the specific plan area did coincide with what our former redevelopment area was, and it was looking where our real opportunities

1:36:28For change and growth were.

1:36:30When you do just a half a mile, it's not looking at that, so that was one of the challenges that Sean pointed out in terms of the…

1:36:37context of the land uses. The other one, that you've heard referred to is we do, as a part of the upcoming work in the MTC grant, we are going to have an economic analysis done, too, and a market feasibility, because some of those minimums that we were just talking about

1:36:53might not be feasible on certain sites. And, and we've expressed this to MTC, they could actually slow us down in the short term, and we don't think that serves transit or MTC, and yet we all agree

1:37:06as I'm sure you do too, that certain sites, and I've heard this from MTC, you really want the higher density, obviously the BART sites, which is, I think that one's showing 160.

1:37:15Or a couple are showing.

1:37:17That. So, as we get into it, we'll be looking at those averages, but we might come back to the city manager and you all, and in your discussions with MTC, we do think that some of it might be at cross-purpose

1:37:31for the next 5-10 years, and we think that maintaining momentum with even things like Credence and El Dorado townhomes, that kind of density.

1:37:39Works… has worked well, and gets the real estate comps that could actually keep, especially also in this time of, as we've talked about last time, of market challenges.

1:37:50And we are hearing, for example, I mean, we do have a project right now that's looking at mass timber, so we have things that are looking at how to bring down the cost, but we are also knowing that some of the more simple construction methods might be the things to pencil over the next several years.

1:38:04So, we are looking for potential

1:38:07Once we kind of submit points and the scoring keeps happening, we're going to keep monitoring it, and some of it might take, some higher political involvement with MTC. Okay, and just while you're still up here.

1:38:19This also might be an opportunity to talk to the developers that have projects that maybe don't meet this level of density that might be required at some point to say, get your projects going now, because then they won't be subject to this, correct?

1:38:33Yeah, so we have shared that as well. That would be an important message. Thank you, that's all I have on that one. And then on parking,

1:38:41maybe… this might have been on the slide, I don't know. What… you said there's some developments that might not have complied with this and had more than one parking space? Oh, yeah, that… so…

1:38:52which ones? So Credence also. So Credence, you know, so we've found that developers of condominium units

1:39:00usually want at least one parking space, per unit, because… There's almost no condo development happening anymore, so is that that big of a concern? I mean, it's just the reality.

1:39:10at this moment in time, but I mean, you know, just thinking, I mean, you know, we do still want to encourage development of ownership units in the future, just to broaden our ownership opportunities.

1:39:23So, you know, we're just concerned as the market changes that we, you know, remain flexible enough to allow that.

1:39:29The market could change, too. I mean, there have been multiple articles that came out this week about car debt, and how

1:39:36fewer and fewer Americans are going to be able to afford… I mean, the car prices have just, like, grown astronomically over the past 5 years, like, in a way they have never grown before. And so, in 5 years, there's going to be a lot of people who all of a sudden can't afford to replace their car. It's not that they want to be car-free, it's that that won't… like, I think things are going to shift a lot in the next 5 to 10 years, so I just want to make sure we're not…

1:39:59we're gonna have to go to bat on a bunch of different things for MTC, and so I just want us to be thoughtful that it's, like, this really the thing, when I just think the car ownership model's gonna just drastically change over the coming years, both because of the cost of cars, because of

1:40:14Autonomous vehicles, because of a whole lot of other trends happening that are totally out of our control.

1:40:20So, I think, just to build on, Planning Manager's comments on that, so we agree, and, I think that you've heard, we want to make sure that

1:40:32We're careful with being prescriptive, and that was a part of what the form-based code intended to do, was to give us enough flexibility to let the market interact with

1:40:41some very strong goals that we and the region share, and I think what you just brought up is a part of

1:40:49what MTC is dealing with, and obviously to support the highest density as possible around transit for transit sustainability. But one of the things that we didn't talk too much about, but this… the policy was started in 2019, the TOC policy, and it was

1:41:03I don't need to say much more than that, right? And it took a few years for it to develop, and then it changes slowly, so I think one of the things that I wouldn't mind just kind of continuing to frame is, can it be somewhat evolution, right? So as the first five years look one way? And we have heard from condominium… and we do, as Sean said.

1:41:21ownership units, you know, obviously the majority of what we're going to build is not ownership, right? Just looking at the two BART properties alone. We do think that continuing to add those, that really does diversify who can get into the market. Someday we'd love to even have ownership units that were affordable. And so… and we have heard that for them to be able to sell the units at what it…

1:41:41would take that not having a parking space until, like you said, once in 5-10 years, it will change. So I do think that looking at it, I hope that we can try to kind of work with them to look at, like, yes, we all know that in 10 years, but what is… what's the best move for the first 5? Okay, thank you.

1:42:02Thank you, Mayor.

1:42:04So, I… I see the challenge here, you've laid it out really well, about staff time, capacity, and money.

1:42:15So, we don't have that, all three. So, what is the penalty for not doing this?

1:42:25I mean, we're doing the right things. Do we have to participate in the TOC program? Because we want those $10 million? Is that… is that kind of the…

1:42:33Well, yeah, I mean, so we think this is an important source of transportation dollars for El Cerrito, and we want to continue to be eligible for OBEG grants, and we think… so based on the most recent scoring criteria that we have seen, we think that we are within striking distance of

1:42:53compliance, or of, I should say, sufficient compliance to make us eligible for the

1:43:00the OBEG funds, with our existing policies. We don't… we don't think we're that far off.

1:43:07Okay, I do have questions about…

1:43:10Scoring criteria, but they don't exist yet. But is it the kind of scoring criteria where there's not a

1:43:17You know, you have to, achieve a certain amount of everything before you're eligible, or is it just a, you know.

1:43:257 out of 10, or…

1:43:27How does it… how has it worked in the past, and how is it looking like it's going to work going forward? Yeah, so the model, as I understand the latest, is… is a… you would score points for partial compliance, and different, you know, and more points for full compliance, and then, you know, with… there would be a scale, right? So the way that MTC originally laid it out is… was kind of a

1:43:51three-tier system. So, the bottom tier, you know, if you score under a certain number of points in total.

1:43:58cities would not be eligible for OBAG funds, they would only be eligible for MTC funds to help them get into compliance with the TOC policy. Then there would be this middle tier, which is where… where they're expecting, most cities to land.

1:44:15We had an earlier slide at one point that said, I think they're, like… And you put us in Tier 2. Yeah.

1:44:21And so,

1:44:23That would be a tier that would basically qualify us for the same level of OBAG funds that we've been eligible for in the past.

1:44:33And perhaps this is what we're not exactly clear on, but perhaps the higher you score, there might be a threshold in there that if you score over a certain threshold, then you get a higher priority for OBAG funds. That's all still kind of in development.

1:44:50And then there might be a top tier, also, that would…

1:44:53you know, qualify us for extra funds on top of OBAG. But again, I don't think MTC is expecting, based on the criteria that they're developing, that many cities are gonna fall in that category.

1:45:07I'm gonna jump in for a moment. So, you had on attention that we've been working through, which is we do want to make sure that as your planners, that we're making sure that this aligns with the

1:45:20adopted goals and policies and intentions that you've been sharing. So we're making sure that we don't just do something that's asked if we think it's a cross-purpose with something that we want, just to

1:45:30score. On the other hand, like Sean said, we do believe that it's an important source of funds.

1:45:35And if you, so that was a part of what we wanted to do through this presentation, because we are planning to work forward through it, work through it, go forward, but also monitor

1:45:46Where we find that there's a rub.

1:45:48And then just to add a little bit to that criteria and the tiers, even within those, of course, it's competitive, so

1:45:55there's a limited amount of money, so even if we're in the second tier, if we're… it happens all sorts of ways. They either award all the… as you know, having worked on a lot of grants.

1:46:05they either award it all, or they decide everybody gets partial. There's all kinds of ways, and I think we just got an email today from MTC. The Commission itself is having a study session on the TOC policy implementation. Sean, do you know when that is? I think it's…

1:46:20It's tomorrow and Thursday? So tomorrow and Thursday, and I think on their webpage right now, they actually did just… I haven't had a chance to look at it, but in the email that came out, they do have their study session materials, and they are looking at, I think, these sorts of things, scoring criteria.

1:46:35And, various other, another just one that I'd like to point out, because we are looking at this, and you might all have some opinions, is Sean said, we're in Tier 2 because we have two transit…

1:46:48we have BART, but the two lines. So that puts us in a certain area, and back to Commissioner, to Councilmember Saltzman.

1:46:56long-term transit sustainability looks at those areas in a certain way. Yet, as you also said, that circle doesn't look the same here as it does somewhere else, because we've already identified where our biggest opportunities are, and Fremont, that might look a certain way.

1:47:10So we're also just looking at that, like, is…

1:47:14we don't know that there's any mobility within that, but we are looking, as we move forward over the next couple months, looking at, like, what just works really well here, and what's something that doesn't, that could work better, that still achieves the goals that we're all looking for. So it's a problem with broad brush prescriptive, even though there's a menu of options.

1:47:33that Tier 2 defines where we fit, and if it doesn't fit with our land use patterns, then it's not meaningful. So that's just to kind of introduce that. Thank you.

1:47:45So, you know, looking at the affordable housing criteria, we can't… we don't have a dedicated source of funding that is going to generate $350,000

1:47:58a year? So how can we achieve it? Is it that if we get OBAG funds, we can use it for that?

1:48:06Good, good question. So some of the programs, that are identified, on that slide, such as the

1:48:17Get back to it here, hold on.

1:48:21I can also chime in while Sean's pulling that up. Hi, Ayesha, Cherie, nice to see you all. So as you know, with our inclusionary, that is an obstacle that we brought forth, at the September meeting. So one of the things that we're looking at, to kind of fit in more immediately

1:48:38Is, for example, our inclusionary is not generating any affordable housing funding, so we're looking to satisfy the production requirement.

1:48:46By demonstrating, that our existing inclusionary program would qualify under that, although it's not at 15%. We do have our financial feasibility study that we conducted in 2018 with Kaiser Marston to demonstrate that.

1:49:01So under the protection… protection category… protection, we are looking at that as a way to satisfy it, as well as, the streamline and objective standards, because we realize that is another conversation that we need to have in terms of what our future does look like for Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

1:49:19with the lack of market rate development. So, that would be some, like, low-hanging fruit that we could use to satisfy the policy right away, and of course, come back to you all at a future date, because that is a conversation that does need to happen with the Council.

1:49:33Great, thank you. So it doesn't mean that we have to commit it to get

1:49:40the points in this category of production. We do think there is a conversation to be had, and we're going to have to have it. What we're looking at, I think, with what Aisha just said, we are looking for the things that cost the least and are already as close as they could possibly be.

1:49:58However, as you've heard us say, in terms of being able to even let… so we're down to our last $90,000 in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, so when we do come back in the new year, we…

1:50:08You can see these have a per year, so we are going to look to see if we can get to that minimum threshold here.

1:50:16First.

1:50:17first layer is to get there so that we can compete for these funds, but this is… it doesn't stop after 2026, and to meet our housing element.

1:50:26and maybe future TOC production goals and our own RENA goals, we are going to have to have that conversation, and this kind of creates a baseline to have that conversation.

1:50:36We've talked about if market rate gets going, again, we've talked about EIFD, which we're structured in a way to make a small annual contribution to the trust fund, so we do think that conversation is still one to be had, but we think at this point, that first column

1:50:51And…

1:50:54Can't see them exactly, but out of 3 of those columns, we're lucky now, the development team at the TOD and AESA included funding to be able to do… what is that third column?

1:51:06the anti-displacement policy, we actually have some funding from the ASIC grants to be able to do that, so we actually are able to do the monetary. So, like you just said, if we could find another source for that monetary, although at times, I'm not sure if it is now.

1:51:21Sometimes they do write local source of funding, and they're not actually even going to consider an outside source.

1:51:26which in the production category would be a local source, whereas in the anti-displacement protection, we could use the ASIC program funds, as well as

1:51:38in consideration with our housing security funds, for example, that we are using for the, core program. So that is something that we would… are also going to be exploring with them, since we are technically allocating a portion of that to some form of rental assistance.

1:51:53But you're touching on something that's

1:51:55super challenging. As you know, affordable housing costs money, and, redevelopment was one form that cities were able to do that.

1:52:04As everyone is looking at how are we going to meet these all, we often do bring into the dialogue that what… it is the same amount that's required for a large city as a small city. I don't think that there are… is there…

1:52:16based on our arena, for our size city, our arena's high because of our stations and our opportunities and our performance. So I do think that these conversations are going to be ongoing. In the meantime, we'll try to comply without asking for any of those funds.

1:52:33Thank you so much. It's… I know you guys have spent a lot of time trying to figure all this out, and I really appreciate you bringing it to us.

1:52:42Yep, yep, thank you. Just, I wanted to go back to the condos and all that, and the importance of making sure that we lay the foundation in the future for our young people to be able to start building wealth

1:52:58So, you know, we're seeing condos in Lafayette and a lot of cities in Contra Costa. I want to make sure that we continue to, you know, have that available.

1:53:10And once the market gets better, hopefully, we can still continue with that. And I, again, agree with what Melanie mentioned about

1:53:20affordability, and it was the Flatlands back in the day, where I grew up, that were, that was considered affordable housing back in the day, which are now a million dollars plus now. So, you know, we want people

1:53:36to, you know, who are renting now, if they want to live here and purchase a home, they'll be able to. Now, also the importance of luxury housing as well.

1:53:46We have developers that wanted to develop, housing in their properties that they own, and there's a lot of infill available. I know a lot of people that would like to live here closer to the bay instead of living on the other side of the hill. So, you know, providing that, and I think that will

1:54:03add to the, availability of our diverse housing, needs that we need here in the Bay Area and El Sprito.

1:54:15Any other Council comments? Councilmember Cassanis? All right, thank you so much for this receiving file. We truly appreciate you. Thank you.

1:54:25All right, the next item on the agenda is the adoption of the consent calendar.

1:54:31Which includes the following items. Unity Day Proclamation, Monthly Disbursement and Check Register Report for September 2025,

1:54:41FY25-26 First Quarter Cash and Investment Report, and established all-way stop at Manila Avenue and Norville Street intersection. Are there any questions or requests by the Council to pull items off the consent calendar?

1:54:56I have questions about item D.

1:54:59Okay… Councilmember Motiamo? I have questions about 7B and 7C, as well as 7… a comment about 7D. Okay, any from this side of the desk? No? All right, let's go ahead and start with item C, Councilmember Motiamo.

1:55:16Oh, B, I'm sorry, go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. I have a… just a couple of questions about the check register. First is,

1:55:25the Economic Development Food Bingo, I see that we are paying for something, and I know that we got a little bit more information about it, but if,

1:55:35If there's anything else you'd like to tell us about the food bingo, I would really like to hear it, because it sounds really interesting. It doesn't sound, like, completely obvious what we're supposed to do, and…

1:55:47This happens if we participate in it. So, Aisa, I think, just walked out, but she is the champion and the EDC liaison, but…

1:55:57So the… Ec Flavor Fest, which just launched and goes through the end of next month.

1:56:04is a way of supporting our small businesses. Economic Development Committee,

1:56:09often brainstorms and tries to think about how we can do that. As you know, the Maker's Fair is one of the ways that we do it with kind of small producers, but we also wanted to be able to kind of give exposure to our brick-and-mortar

1:56:20businesses. The Economic Development Committee, thought about it for a while, and we did decide to, I thought for some good per… you know, we talked sometimes about some of the chains, and thought, you know, either way, they're… they're a part of what makes El Cerrito what it is.

1:56:35But they did decide to focus on this… on the non-chains, because this is the only place that you can get to those places. So they were like, come to El Cerrito, because you can go to X, Y, and Z.

1:56:45Then they decided to make a game of it. Some of them are…

1:56:49You know, there's lots of different ways you could do it. So one, we did think just through Instagram, and today they've broadened it to be able to be Yelp Reviews or Any, which is just using social marketing to put El Cerrito on the foodie map.

1:57:01And so the way you participate is either through a digital, bingo card, or there's some, I believe, in the lobby and at a library and recycling center.

1:57:11And you go to the restaurants, and you… if you are somebody who does social media of any kind, you take a picture of yourself there, and you spread it to your friends. I was at Little Kathmandu last week, and it was delicious. And you basically play, and you get, either receipts or use your posts to demonstrate that you have

1:57:30you know, bingo. So, lots of different ways to win. You don't need to be present to win, but we're going to be doing a drawing at the Maker's Fair.

1:57:38And I know that… I think that we will be doing, actually, some advertising, doing a small advertising campaign, so the expenses have been minimal, but we did, have the art drawn up, which you'll… I want a t-shirt that, that shows that. You can see. It's really incredible once we did a list of all of our local restaurants for a small town. It's quite…

1:57:58a collection.

1:58:00So does that… Answer?

1:58:03Thank you very much. So, and there's a… there's a prize at the end of this? Yes, so several of the, businesses donated prizes, so I think that the sponsors are on there. I think you can see Dolly's, and Llama Bar, and El Cerrito Natural Grocery, and…

1:58:17Pendell Bakery, and probably Well Grounded, and some others have donated, prizes, and so there will be prizes for those that submit, so…

1:58:26you know, just yell bingo first, you all submit, and then there's a drawing on the different categories. Thank you. So I encourage people to go to the webpage, look at the… just get inspired by that list of restaurants, and the idea is that you go to more than you normally would, and that you try restaurants, of course, that you haven't tried, and you help tell your friends about them.

1:58:43If I can add one thing… Yeah, I wanted to add one thing, and I want to encourage all of our, our staff liaisons, because some of the things that are coming out of the commissions are really, really great community activities, and a lot of times the council… I mean, we find out about them in community, or… I mean, I found out about the art festival by coming to City Hall and seeing the flyer out, so just making sure that we're letting the council know, because, I mean.

1:59:07I'll hardly cook anymore. I have gotten, like, 3 bingos already, but I have not followed the rules because I didn't know that we were doing the Flavor Fest.

1:59:14So, and we know that I'm on social media all the time. I will go ahead and backdate and make fake posts, but I just want to kind of…

1:59:21all of the commissions, you know, our commissions are doing so much work to try and engage our public and come up with these great contests and everything. Make sure that the council knows so that we can promote them and also take part in them, and, you know, again, I eat too much to not be able to win this contest. So I love that you asked that we do have a chance, and it is… it did just launch

1:59:41Friday or something, so we have time to keep kind of getting the word out. It is a five-week event, and I do like the tagline when you… it's just about, you know, there's global cuisines in our backyard, and that includes

1:59:51And also, does no change mean that nations doesn't count? Because I've been there quite a bit. This time it does, so it doesn't mean we don't want you to go to Nations, you're just not gonna… so next time… but for this one, we… you could go to Nations in Pleasanton, which is great for nations, right? So this one was, like, you have to come to El Cerrito to… I only go to the El Cerrito Nations. Anyway, I digress. Thank you.

2:00:12Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And thanks to the Economic Development Committee and AESA for their work on this. All right. Councilmember Motiam, Item C. I still have one other question about the… the Walnut Creek Ford for a department vehicle, and I was wondering if, City Manager, you can tell me just what department that vehicle is for.

2:00:32I will have to look that up, I'm sorry.

2:00:35Thank you. And I will let you know. Okay. And then, so on 7C,

2:00:42I noticed that the interest was doing something interesting, so it was,

2:00:50For the money market funds, they had a really

2:00:56big July interest, and then it kind of tapered down, and… but on the 115, the interest rate was very low in July, and then went up, and then, just kind of wondering why

2:01:07That was.

2:01:09Hi, Crystal Reams, Finance Director. So yeah, we had a large amount in the money market account, because we made our UAL payment, so we had a pretty large balance in there, which would, accumulate more interest, and then the change in the Section 115 was the additional deposit.

2:01:27So that we had, increased, interest for that, too. Okay, thank you.

2:01:33Alright, and item D, we'll start with Councilmember Salzman.

2:01:37Yeah, I don't have… I'm supportive of the recommendation, but I understand, because I asked…

2:01:46why was only this stop considered? And my understanding is that

2:01:50the study, or whatever you want to call it, looked at other treatments at other places, so I wanted to know if you could tell us what other safety improvements are moving forward, or could get us that information.

2:02:03Good evening, and Mayor, Council, Yvette Ortiz, the City's Public Works Director. Yes, I can tell you,

2:02:10We, receive requests from the public, residents, businesses, and combined with requests from the public, including when there's several concentrated requests, combined with, our adopted plans, such as the Active Transportation Plan, we look… take a close look at those intersections.

2:02:28As part of this recent, batch of, evaluations, we evaluated Waldo and Liberty.

2:02:36Which is… Waldo has a…

2:02:40sees more traffic, because it provides, like, a direct connection between San Pablo and to the east. And then, so we validated Waldo and Liberty, although a stop sign, always stop, was not recommended at that intersection. There were other improvements that were, but those can be done at a staff level.

2:02:58Such as enhanced signing and striping. And then, we also evaluated the intersection of McDonald and Alta Punta.

2:03:07And, looked at whether, an always stop or traffic circle would be an appropriate treatment there. The consultant recommended some enhanced signing and striping, which we're installing as part of the 2025 slurry seal project.

2:03:24And we're going to continue to evaluate a traffic circle there. I know that has been some community backlash at a nearby location in the city of Richmond. I think it was at Barrett and…

2:03:36somewhere along Barrett. Just visually, it was, there was a lot of delineators and pavement markings, and I just wanted to just, spend more time evaluating that and reaching out to the community about a traffic circle device, so we're not moving forward with the traffic circle at this time, but we're continuing to explore it.

2:03:55How can we get updates about what's happening with street safety until we actually, like, see it going in the ground? Because I… like, when I was at National Night Out, the number one safety issue I heard about was about, like, streets and the concern about cars. So…

2:04:11how can we have more visibility, both to the council, but to the public, about what's being done?

2:04:17Yeah, I, I, I can think of as,

2:04:21I have to think about it, but I know maybe we can add more information in the CM updates. We do add information, we have a road safety corner, and we'll announce, like, when we're doing, red curb markings, or we can expand that to provide more information. But what I'm saying is, we don't tell people until it's, like, already happened, or happening, so it'd be good

2:04:43for people to know that, like, the city is planning. It did study these intersections to show that it's responsive. Even if you decide that that treatment doesn't make sense, I think it would be helpful to

2:04:55tell the public that this is being taken seriously. For sure. When we get the request from the resident or the business, we do let them know that we're evaluating it, but I hear you, and we can provide more information to the community about it. And then I just wanted to share here what I shared with Karen when we met about this.

2:05:14Seeing the optional warrants and how this intersection qualified for a four-way stop.

2:05:20makes it extremely clear to me that every single intersection at the Ohlone Greenway would qualify under this, because the pedestrian traffic there on the Greenway is significantly higher than the counts in here. So I know that's something that I've gotten a lot of requests from residents about looking at the

2:05:37stops on the Ohlone Greenway. In Albany, all of the intersections on the Ohlone Greenway have stop signs.

2:05:45So I hope that's something that can move forward. I understand there's some discussion about it, but I think that's very important. I mean, I was kind of surprised relative… it was still, you know, some good pedestrian traffic, but…

2:05:59I think every crosswalk at the Ohlone Greenway has probably 10 times that pedestrian traffic during the rush hour, so…

2:06:07Clearly, we need to be looking at that, if that is what it takes. I do want to make a note about this particular intersection, that one of the things that we looked at was the balance of traffic volumes entering that intersection, and there was only a 10% difference between both streets. So that was a key consideration.

2:06:25And we stop at that intersection, and that's why we evaluate a combination of factors.

2:06:31And that would not necessarily be the case along the Loani. We are evaluating… On streets, it probably would, like, you brought up Waldo. Waldo, for example, there's a lot more pedestrian and bike traffic through there than car traffic on Waldo. So anyway, there's… I think it's important to look at. It is something we do get asked about a lot, so I thought it was worth elevating here.

2:06:50Thank you.

2:06:51Councilmember Motayama? Thank you, Mayor. I, just wanted to just comment on the four-way stop, staff report, because I think what it told me is that it's not just, you know.

2:07:06Director Ortiz walking out there and saying, oh, this seems like a good spot for a four-way stop. It's very, very technical, and it… my understanding is we have to do this kind of study every single time, and so I do appreciate how complicated it is, and, you know, how much you do get done.

2:07:25addressing, you know, these concerns, because I know I've sent you, community concerns, and they're pretty much addressed pretty quickly. So, I just wanted to say thank you for all the work that goes into doing this, and I noticed that there's a lot of, curb

2:07:43work happening, in my part of El Cerrito, and I assume you're doing sidewalk

2:07:50repairs because of tree roots and things like that, and it's kind of, you know, I hope we get new trees, but it looks like it's a lot of work that you're doing, so thank you for that as well.

2:08:01Thank you. Yes, that's part of the 2025 Access Modifications Project, where we're doing curb ramps and repairing sidewalk displacements, and we will be replanting trees. Thank you.

2:08:12All right. All right, so do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? I'll move. Do I have a second?

2:08:19Oh, Karen, I'm sorry. That's okay, Mayor Weissinger. I just wanted to say, Councilmember Montyama, we did find that purchase, it is the purchase for a police department hybrid vehicle.

2:08:30Thank you. All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Rotayama. Do we have a second?

2:08:35All right, so a motion by Councilmember Motiamo, seconded by Councilmember Salzman. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? So the consent calendar does pass. The next item on the agenda is public hearings.

2:08:50Starting with item A, revisions to the adopted fiscal year 25-26 master fee schedule. Can we please have the staff report?

2:09:02Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Claire Coleman. I am your Budget and Financial Services Manager. I just have some brief notes for you this evening about the Master Fee Schedule updates that are proposed. As a reminder, the City adopts our master fee schedule on an annual basis, as per the City's municipal Code.

2:09:20This past year, leading up to the adoption in May 2025, the city did a big overhaul and a revision of our master fee schedule, using the services of the consulting firm Will Dan. First, they did a cost allocation plan, and then they blended that into the master fee schedule. And the purpose of that was to make sure that all of our fees citywide were accurately calculated, that we're including overhead correctly.

2:09:44That we are compliant, and we had an OMB, an Office of Municipal Budgeting, which is a federally compliant,

2:09:51cost allocation plan for grant purposes, and that all of our fees were as accurate as possible so that the Council could make decisions about what to subsidize and what to charge full-cost recovery.

2:10:01As a reminder, fees in California are, limited by state law. The primary fee… primary laws that govern it are propositions

2:10:1413 to 18, 26, I think, are the primary ones. Am I missing one, Annie, Sky? Those are the big ones. 26 is really the big one, and that, basically says that

2:10:24Fees must be limited to cost recovery, with few exceptions. So that really was the basis of our fee study. So this evening, we have a few amendments, that staff are recommending, and these have come up over the last 5 months since the master fee schedule was adopted.

2:10:39Several of them, you'll notice, are from new state legislation. So, particularly on the planning side, as you've heard earlier this evening, there's a lot of new legislation coming through for the planning department and for transportation, and so we have to create some new classifications of fees to adhere to state law.

2:10:54We also have some, fees that are recommended to adjust based on staff's experience with,

2:11:05the fee payers. So, one of those is the public works encroachment fees. Now, that is a bond.

2:11:12So it's not actually a fee that the city keeps, but it's the level, it's the bond that is paid by a contractor, so that's to make sure that our small businesses, our small contractors, are still able to do business in the city.

2:11:23But as noted in the staff report, the Public Works Department does have the discretion to increase that if they feel that the project is higher in value and has a higher risk that would merit a larger bond amount.

2:11:35And then, we have a couple fees that were either omitted in error or had a few typos, so we're recommending corrections to those.

2:11:43And then finally, there are some adjustments recommended to the recycling and environmental services fees, particularly for the event stands. Those are those recycling, you know, if you ever go to a special event outside and you see there's the trash, compost.

2:11:56And recycling, and that helps make sure that we're meeting our

2:11:59environmental goals as a city. So that is a brief summary of the fees recommended this evening. Staff recommend that you adopt the adjustments to the master fee schedule, and I'm happy to answer any questions. All right, any questions or comments from Council? Councilmember Motiamo?

2:12:14Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the…

2:12:17very brief, but very clear summary. So…

2:12:22I noticed that there's a 13% reduction proposed for the STMP and the TIP fees, and I know that we just went through this whole exercise of eliminating those for, for new developments that are permitted. So.

2:12:40Is this, reduction, you know, gonna be in addition to what we, you know.

2:12:47How does this overlap with that for those projects?

2:12:50And, is this basically, if we want to do any kind of incentive in the future, it would be in addition to this 13%? I will defer to my planning colleagues on this one.

2:13:13Sorry, I, didn't hear the first part of the question, but I am in a conversation with WCTEC, so I think I… so the 13%, Jarrett or somebody else might know exactly how the study

2:13:25landed at that. Well, I think it was pretty clear in the staff report. Perfect. So, I did talk to… so, way back when we were doing, Mayfair, Holiday did challenge whether they should be paying the stimp fee as it was, and thought they should have a discount, since it was the same fee, whether you were in

2:13:44on San Pablo Dam Road, or right at the Del Norte BART station. At the time, the Nexus didn't support there being any difference. I find that often what the City of El Cerrito does and what the state does, we're thinking similarly, so they required that discount. So I was talking to

2:14:01WCTAC staff, this week, because we also have AB937, in which we have to defer fees for

2:14:11All the qualifying projects, including affordable housing projects.

2:14:15So we are working right now with their city attorney and our city attorney to figure out that. While I was talking to her, she said they are about to do another Nexus study, for the stimp fees, and did say, are just beginning that process, and…

2:14:30are going to be looking at things. Obviously, the stimp fee is for congestion management, and you could argue that incentivizing projects to be built right at transit is a great congestion management tool, so a different fee should apply. So there will be a nexus study.

2:14:45because, the current discount already accommodated some of that, that will all be woven together. Does that answer? Yes, thank you.

2:14:55All right, any other questions or comments from Council?

2:14:59Alright, the public hearing is now open.

2:15:03Now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding this item. Requests to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card. Public comments will 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. Thank you, Mayor. We do not have any requests to speak on this item. All right, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved.

2:15:26Alright, do I have a second? Well, I heard Mayor Pro Tem, second by Councilmember Motayama. All right, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? So, the hearing is now closed. Any final comments from the Council?

2:15:43Alright, do I have a motion to approve? I'll move. And do I have a second?

2:15:48Hi, Kim.

2:15:49So, moved by Councilmember Motayama and seconded by Councilmember Salzman. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? So, the item does pass. Thank you so much, Claire.

2:16:02All right, the second item on the agenda is second reading and adoption of building and fire code ordinance. Can we please have the staff report?

2:16:18Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. My name is Cindy Lucas. I am the Interim Assistant Building Official here at the City of El Cerrito.

2:16:27On October 7th, 2025, the City Council approved a resolution and waived the first reading of an ordinance to adopt the 2025 building and fire codes.

2:16:39This hearing serves as the second reading for the adoption of the 2025 building codes with local modifications, as outlined in the ordinance.

2:16:49And once adopted, the building codes will become effective January 1st, 2026.

2:16:56That is all I have.

2:16:58All right, do we have any questions from the Council?

2:17:02Okay, the public hearing is now open. Now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comment regarding this item. Request to speak and be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card. Public comments will 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.

2:17:21Thank you, Mayor. We have no requests to speak on this item. All right, do I have a motion to close the public hearing?

2:17:26A move? I'll second. All right, so moved by Councilmember Motayama, seconded by Mayor Patinko, to close the public hearing. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? So the hearing is now closed. Any final Council comments?

2:17:41Just one. Yes, go ahead. I just thought it was very funny that in the solar permitting section that you still call for facsimiles. Oh. That does not seem updated to me. Okay, noted. Thank you.

2:17:57All right, do I have a motion to adopt the ordinance? So moved. Second. All right, so moved by Councilmember Salzman and seconded by Councilmember Motuyama to move the ordinance. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? So the ordinance is adopted. Thank you so much.

2:18:14All right, so the next item on the agenda is policy matters, starting with item A, approval of a memorandum of Understanding between the City of El Cerrito and the United Professional Firefighters, Local 1230. Can we please have the staff report?

2:18:31I am checking with our HR manager. She's presenting the staff report, but I do not see her in the room.

2:18:36Okay.

2:18:41We'll turn the page slowly.

2:18:45Or her.

2:18:48Would it help to… I'll be quiet.

2:18:52Mayor, do you want to take a 5-minute recess? Do you want to take a 5-minute recess? Yes, 5-minute recess.

2:19:06Oh.

2:24:25Alright, so we are ready to resume with item 9A. May we please have the staff report?

2:24:38Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Shannon Bassey, Human Resources Manager.

2:24:43I have before you this evening a request to adopt a resolution to modify salaries, benefits, and conditions of employees for the City's United Professional Firefighters Local 1230 Bargaining Unit, also known as Local 1230.

2:25:00For context and background, there are currently 31 full-time budgeted positions in this bargaining group. They're governed by an MOU, which is approved by City Council.

2:25:11Positions in this group include, sworn personnel, such as fire captains, fire engineers, and firefighters. And recently, the most recent classification was fire prevention officer, which, came about through the class and comp study.

2:25:28So now I'd like to cover a summary of the, agreement with Local 1230 that's presented, for you tonight. So the term is, effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028.

2:25:44There were several salary increases, which are also known as cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs.

2:25:51Effective each fiscal year, July 2025, July 2026, and July 2027, the base monthly salaries for all the classifications in the bargaining unit will be increased by 3% for each of those fiscal years.

2:26:08In addition, there were, agreed-upon market adjustments to align the salaries with the current market data.

2:26:14This was to align market data with our comparator agencies, and so a market adjustment of 1.5% will be applied to all the base monthly salaries,

2:26:27For the classifications, I just mentioned, firefighter, fire engineer, and fire captain. And this will be effective each January for all three fiscal years, 2026, 2027, and 2028.

2:26:40There will also be a one-time payment that will be issued for all the employees in the bargaining unit who were employed with the city on September 1st, 2025. That one-time payment will be $2,400.

2:26:55And then,

2:26:58After that one-time payment, all employees who are actively employed with the City as of July 1st of 2026 will receive a secondary one-time payment of $2,500. That will be issued in July 2026.

2:27:13And then lastly, a career incentive program was implemented in this agreement. Effective July 2026. Employees who hold a associate's degree will receive a 3% differential.

2:27:28And those who hold a bachelor's degree will receive a 5% differential. Those percentages are not compounding.

2:27:35And just to cover the financial components of this agreement, which was outlined in the agenda item, this resolution is asking for an appropriation for authority to spend an additional $120,116 over the current authorized budget for this fiscal year 25-26.

2:27:56The increased cost, for 26-27 fiscal year is, approximately $661,352.

2:28:06And for fiscal year 27-28, the approximate, cost is $964,837.

2:28:16Those,

2:28:19Increased costs for 26-27 fiscal year and fiscal year 27-28 will be included in the biannual budget process, and as usual, will be formally adopted by City Council for each 26 and 27.

2:28:35Also, I wanted to mention that having said those financial considerations, it is important to note that, the City of El Cerdo has an agreement with Kensington Fire, and Kensington pays approximately one-third of the fire department costs.

2:28:50In closing, I'd like to thank Local 1230 for their leadership and engaging in a successful negotiation with the City, and that concludes my report. I'm available for any questions.

2:29:02All right, are there any questions from Council?

2:29:05Or comments from Council? Yes, Councilmember Motiamo.

2:29:09Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say thank you to Shannon Bassey, our HR Manager and staff, and Glenn Berkheimer, as well as Local 1230, because I know that you've worked on this for a long time. This was quite a long negotiation, and I'm very appreciative, especially of Local 1230, for the staged implementation of these increases, because

2:29:32I think it just helps our budgeting process, and it was really important to us. And so, we appreciate the cooperation and partnership in this. So, thank you.

2:29:44So I'll start with Councilmember Cassanis, and then Mayor Pro Tem. Okay, I will. Thank you for your work. I'm going to address this question to the Karen, or City Manager.

2:29:53We talked about this before, but just to sort of reiterate our conversation, I was concerned about the $120,000 coming out of the general fund balance.

2:30:03And my first thought was, you know, we are often in a situation where we have structural deficits, and is that $120,000 going to be something bigger next year, and bigger the next year after that? So we discussed that, and I wanted to give

2:30:17City Manager Pinkos had an opportunity to talk about that.

2:30:20she did alleviate my concerns when we talked, so I think it's helpful for everyone to hear that. So, why… why is there a deficit coming from the general fund balance this year, but possibly not, if you choose? Sure, sure, and I know that Claire and Crystal can also jump in on this as well. Essentially,

2:30:40Because these are… this, this agreement…

2:30:43would quantify an additional $120,000, over what was budgeted. And again, as Shannon reiterated, that's another point to make, is that for the city, that's the total cost. The city's cost is approximately two-thirds of that.

2:30:57What we're asking for is appropriation authority in the event that this salary, is allowed… allows us to be able to spend that for the fiscal year.

2:31:09In the past, sometimes we have done an adjustment at mid-year, for example, on where the salaries are trending.

2:31:16We have done this in the past, actually for the police contract in December, to put out the appropriation as, you know, to be much more transparent as far as this is what the additional salary will cost for this fiscal year. It's an additional just for this year. We will budget for the next, those ongoing.

2:31:34Should we need that? Again, that could happen throughout the year. There could be vacancies, there could be less expenses that are necessary.

2:31:42We might not need that full amount to come out of the general fund balance by the end of the year, but allowing us the authority to be able to spend it, is what's important, and that the Council understands what that means for the, for the budget and the salaries for this budget, so…

2:31:58any… Anything else that could? I would just say, we talked about also

2:32:06Part of my concern was, does this 120

2:32:08jeopardize any of the reserve ratios and reserve requirements that we have. Right, and we don't believe it does, and as we'll talk in the next item about some of the items that are looking at some of the discretionary funding that we've been recommending, particularly with the pool and other capital expenditures, and as I've shared with the City Council.

2:32:26The, waterfall, financial policy that you all adopted a couple of years ago.

2:32:34That outlines what would happen in the event of a surplus, as we did have a surplus at the end of this fiscal year. Once that audit is complete at the be…

2:32:43end of this year, beginning of this, when we present that to the Council, then we can discuss specifically how the waterfall would go. Obviously, the first part of the waterfall needs to make sure that the 17% minimum is met.

2:32:56which would happen. The next part of that would be that the 13% emergency fund was met, and then after that, whatever is left, if there is anything, one-third of that minimum, according to the policy, would go to the Section 115 trust, and then the rest would be

2:33:12the Council's discretion, the City Manager's recommendation, capital expenditures, which is all of the things that we're talking about. So, we have integrated that within the… including the scenarios that you've seen. You will see in the next item, this $120,000 is included in those projections.

2:33:31Thank you. Thank you. All right, Mayor Pro Temp Keith? Just briefly, I just want to reiterate and echo what, Councilmember Motayama mentioned, and I want to say, you know, for the past, 11 years, I have worked closely

2:33:45with Vince Wells and 1230, and just appreciate the working relationship, the open conversations that we have had through the years, and

2:33:55And the trust that, we have in this, long-time working relationship. Again, thank you. It means a lot to the Council and, and, and to me especially. So, during good times and bad, very much appreciate your leadership. Thank you again.

2:34:13All right, any questions, Councilmember? Okay, all right.

2:34:16Now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments. Requests to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card. Public comments will 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.

2:34:33Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. We do have speakers on this item, so I'll invite Anthony Stevens up to put you in.

2:34:47Good evening.

2:34:48Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council, Anthony Stevens, Vice President, Local 1230, I rise before you tonight to speak in support and favor on behalf of the firefighters of the tentative agreement in front of you tonight.

2:35:05We believe that, it's a

2:35:08fair MOU, with all things considered, and some of that tiered effect going into it. We'd like to thank and recognize the city staff for all the hours that have been put in to get us here tonight. We appreciate it. We appreciate the recommendation for adoption.

2:35:25As well. And despite everything going on on the national level, it is refreshing to still see being able to collectively work together here on the local government level to effectively take care of our essential workers and the community, firefighters.

2:35:41We, have a long-standing, positive relationship with the Council through good times and bad financially here in the city. We appreciate it, we don't take that for granted, and, we hope to have your support here tonight. With that, just like to say thank you, have a good evening, and thanks for your time.

2:36:00Okay, Mayor, that concludes our request to speak. All right, any other final comments from Council?

2:36:05Oh!

2:36:08You can.

2:36:11I didn't fill out a card.

2:36:13But, Norman LaForce, [address removed], and I didn't know if this was on the agenda until I came down here. I would just like to say that,

2:36:23you know, we moved here in 1983. I served on the City Council, as you know, and on all these years,

2:36:29All I can say is that my experience, and the experience of anybody I know, is that, the fire department

2:36:36People are professional, very competent, and people have a just great respect and appreciation for the firefighters and what they do, and that when I was on the council and we went through rough financial times.

2:36:49We had a very cooperative working relationship with them in getting us out of the financial hole we had then. So, I'll leave the messy financial details to you all, but I just wanted to let you know that we have an excellent fire department, and I greatly appreciate that.

2:37:05That concludes our request to speak, Mayor. Okay, any… I saw you leaning towards your mic. I just wanted to say to our firefighters, and I know that there were several of them that were here, and then they got called to a

2:37:17call, and then they came back, and then they got called again. So, I'm glad to be able to put this together for you. I do want to also echo what Mayor Pro Tem said about, thank you to the local 1230 who entrusted us to make sure that we were doing the best that we could to give a fair agreement to our firefighters. Thank you to, our Wentz Wells, who definitely advocated

2:37:40for our firefighters. I know that as a working mayor, I'm always sometimes hard to get in contact with, but just entrusting that we were doing the best that we could to make sure that we were taking care of them, not just now, but, you know, for the future of who we're recruiting into El Cerrito. I love our fire department. As a person who lives on the avenue and is on public transportation, I run into our firefighters quite often.

2:38:03And they have gotten used to me running up on them on random calls that I am not involved in, just to tell them thank you every time that I see them in the street. So, thank you all again, and it's a pleasure to go ahead and support this item tonight.

2:38:15So, do I have a motion to approve? Approve? Everybody wants the motion to approve. So, the first one that I heard was Motiamo, and then Councilmember Cassanis jumped in before anybody else can say second. So, and I know I heard you, Mayor Pro Tem, but, you know, we gotta defer. All good. All right, all in favor, please say aye.

2:38:33Okay. Any opposed?

2:38:35Any abstentions? So, the item does pass. Congratulations to our local 1230. We love you here in El Cerrito. Thank you so much for your service!

2:38:44All right, the next item on the agenda, item B, is study session, update on swim center, lap pool renovation options, and discussion of capital expenditures. Can we please have the staff report?

2:39:23Alright.

2:39:24I think the city manager's kicking it off for us.

2:39:34Okay.

2:39:35There we go. Okay, so thank you. Thank you, Chris, and thank you to the City Council again. I'm Karen Pincus, the City Manager. I'm just gonna start off by kind of setting the… setting the stage a little bit, as the Council knows, and I've spoken with each of you.

2:39:50About this item, as we've been working on it, since the August, City Council meeting, where we came to the Council and discussed the various, issues and options.

2:40:02for the swim center and the renovation, and the City Council directed us to come back in two months with some updated information, and so we have done that, and we'll go through this,

2:40:14We'll go through this presentation and discuss that with you.

2:40:18However, we're not going to, bring to you information only on the Swim Center, because we want the Council and the public to understand, actually, as we were discussing earlier, in the earlier item from Councilmember Cassanis discussing the general fund balance.

2:40:36While we do have a… we are… we are balanced, we have a good… we had a good surplus last year, and we have some discretionary funding, we do have, as the Council knows, many, many needs, especially capital expenditure needs.

2:40:50And a couple that have risen to the top of our priority list that

2:40:55We cannot, as the staff, bring to you just the renovations budget in a vacuum. We do have some other items that we would like to discuss with you further and ask for your direction. So, with that, we have all of the various staff here that are willing to… are ready to answer questions and to discuss their portion of this presentation. And with that, I will kick it off with

2:41:18Our Recreation Director, Chris Jones.

2:41:21Thank you, Karen. I'm Chris Jones, your Recreation Director.

2:41:25I'm here again to talk about the lap pool project, which started at this big, plaster bubble, and it's led to all this work and presentations.

2:41:37Just to recap a little bit.

2:41:40On August 19th, staff presented a number of options and phasing options in order to not only address the plaster situation at the pool, but also

2:41:52the pool as a whole. We engaged with consultants to get… do a needs assessment.

2:42:00Who really determined that we had needs both the pool plaster, parking lot, ADA-related items, with that, as well as a need, eventual need for a deck replacement and, work inside the

2:42:14swim center to come up to code in terms of ADA and egress.

2:42:20Council gave direction to proceed with the replaster and parking lot.

2:42:25Portion of the project, and to come back with variations on the deck replacement and interior work scope and funding strategies.

2:42:35So, while we've been working on those, variations and funding strategies, we've also… we've moved ahead with the replaster in the parking lot.

2:42:44Scope. Permits have been approved for the replaster by both the county and the city. Parking lot permits are pending.

2:42:54Bid documents are being prepared.

2:42:57We're hoping to come to Council with at least the replaster Award in December.

2:43:04and, construction should start in January.

2:43:09replaster done hopefully by March, and parking lot hopefully by May. And so, we're in the purple zone, I guess, on this graph, for replaster, and towards the, hopefully, the tail end of the orange zone for the… for the parking lot. And so we… we're still within the… our established timeline.

2:43:29In terms of the deck replacement and interior work scope.

2:43:34We originally came to you with an estimated budget of just over $2 million.

2:43:40That work includes replacing the pool deck.

2:43:44Renovations within the locker room, egress upgrades, and water slide installation.

2:43:51We've since spoken several times with our architect and our consultants, as well as the, building official.

2:43:59And, we've identified some cost savings, architectural cost reductions, and about $122,000, and that involves a mainly,

2:44:10Reusing what we have, as opposed to new finishes and new lockers, as well as identifying another egress solution that requires less engineering costs.

2:44:21That brings that original cost down to about $1.9 million, and then if we were to take the water slide out of the scope.

2:44:28Including construction and soft costs, that would… that could reduce the project by another $409,000 to about $1.5 million.

2:44:39So, looking at the whole project, full scope.

2:44:44If we were to, do the full project, With, the water slide.

2:44:51That would be about $4.35 million. Accounting for a previously approved funding of $700,000, that'd be about $3.65.

2:45:01If we take the water slide out, that number changes to about 3.125.

2:45:08And if I'm going too fast, please let me know.

2:45:12So now we want to bring, up, Chief Sailors and Holly to talk about other, time-sensitive capital expenditures.

2:45:23Thank you.

2:45:24Good evening, Mayor and Castle, I'm Eric Silas, I'm your Fire Chief.

2:45:27So, as we know, we've been talking about for a while, we're replacing Engine 52, which is up on the hill. The reason for this replacement is it's the… it's the fiscally responsible thing to do, because this engine is past its useful life.

2:45:40The NFPA national standard for the life of an engine is roughly 15 years. It's not a mandate, it's a recommendation. Recommendations are based on safety standards that are put into the fire engine.

2:45:52But also what happens at that time is the cost of maintaining a fire engine starts to outpace the cost of buying a new one. And I just, reaffirmed my numbers this morning. We were 78% over our maintenance budget on this engine last year. It's only going to get it worse next year.

2:46:09In addition, when this engine is out of service, we are putting wear and tear on our reserve engine, and that is running over budget for maintenance as well. So, the cost of maintaining it will be required if we keep it on the street, and it will start to outpace the cost of replacing it.

2:46:26So, right now we have a bid that, is for roughly $1.6 million.

2:46:34Unfortunately, the manufacturer that we use closed their book… will close their books at the end of October and start their next annual

2:46:42book in November. They will not give us a quote past the end of November. Sorry, past the end of October.

2:46:48So this price is good through the end of October. After that, we expect somewhere around a 15% increase, because they will redo the entire bid based on the tariffs and the steels, the steel that they've ordered for their next fire engines, and the new cab that they'll have to build, and the new engine that they'll have to put together.

2:47:08So, what you see before you right now is the current growth that we have. It's good through the end of the year.

2:47:14And the financial constraints we have for maintaining our current engines.

2:47:18Do I have any questions on this item?

2:47:22Sorry, you just said October, but then you also said it's good through the end of the year, which is… No, no, the end of October. Okay. They will start their new book in November.

2:47:36Any questions for tree savers from the Council?

2:47:39Councilmember Motuyama? I just want to, just check in about the, breathing apparatus.

2:47:46That is not as critical as the truck. So the breathing apparatus actually is mandated, but our timeframe on that is 2028. So that is mandated by the Department of Transportation for carrying those compressed bottles, and they have a life of 15 years, but we have till 2028 on that.

2:48:03Thank you. You're welcome. I think Councilmember Salzman, did you have a question for Chief?

2:48:11I'm just… I guess I'm not clear. If it's gonna go up so much, why are we not voting tonight to do, like, our… so we're gonna… the expense is gonna go up, right? So whatever's gonna come back later will be higher?

2:48:24Yes, actually, that's what the City Attorney and I were just discussing, if the Council were to want to make a motion tonight, because I was not aware that the… Or do we need a special meeting? This was that this was going to happen at the…

2:48:38within the… within the, the November timeframe. I wasn't clear on that, sorry about that. Well, there is the ability under the Brown Act to, add an item to an agenda when there's a need for immediate action, and that came to the attention of the Council after the agenda had already been posted. It's not… the agenda was not set up clearly for Council to take action on this, but, if Council, at the end of, all of this decides

2:49:03that you do want to authorize,

2:49:06moving forward, to execute documents to, acquire the fire engine tonight, I can… I can walk you through the process to add that to the agenda. I think we should discuss that. I mean, I need to calculate it, but a 15% increase on such a big expense is a lot of money, so it seems absurd for us to come back in a couple weeks and then…

2:49:26be talking about paying 15% more, which we clearly can't afford, so… Right, and we don't have any guarantees from the manufacturer, they…

2:49:34told us last week their book will close, and then they'll reassess everything, reorder all their steel. More than that. And we're, yep, we are at… we are at that mercy. Yeah, so, yes, that would… after all the other discussion, I hope that we will move forward with doing whatever we need to legally do to add this to the agenda and vote on it tonight.

2:49:53Let me go ahead and take Councilmember, and then I'll come back, Councilmember. Go ahead. Thank you. I'm just curious, is there a market for the used fire truck?

2:50:01Is there any salvageable? There is a market, and we do sell them. We sold our last used fire truck, or sorry, fire engine. These are fire engines, not fire trucks. They're, we got a few thousand dollars for our last used fire engine.

2:50:16There's not a lot of purchasers out on the market because they recognize the fact that they require so much maintenance to keep on the road that they're more expensive.

2:50:23No.

2:50:25Okay, Councilmember Multiyama?

2:50:29I just wanted to confirm that the cost estimate of the 1.6 is an actual…

2:50:38formal estimate, not just a ballpark on the back of a national… Oh, that's… that's… that's the last quote we got. We tried to extend it past October, unless we found out the book closed. Yes. So they've issued this quote, probably four times since we started this process on a 30-day window.

2:50:54Yeah, and that's our last and latest quote. Okay, so it is in a format that we can be assured that if we approve, moving forward with that, that's the price. Yes.

2:51:05Thank you.

2:51:07All right, so to stay in order, let's go ahead, and you said that it was Chief Sailors, and Holly also needs… so let's go ahead and let Holly present. We'll come back to the item about the fire truck after we've completed the vote on, what Chris is talking about with us tonight. So go ahead, Holly, please. Thank you, Mayor. Holly Charlotte here, City Clerk.

2:51:26I'm going to be providing you a brief overview of the capital expenditure need to replace the audio-video infrastructure in the City's Emergency Operations Center, which also serves as the City Council Chambers.

2:51:37As we've all experienced sitting in council meetings, as well as other public meetings held in this space, the AV infrastructure over the past several years has slowly become less reliable and efficient with the current technologies out there.

2:51:51The equipment is original to the construction of City Hall back in 2007, and as the equipment has continued to age, the functionality has continued to degrade.

2:52:01Because of the age of the system, some of the main components of the operating system are no longer available to replace or repair. In recent months, we've had some new, significant system failures that have increased the need for Council to consider upgrading the equipment.

2:52:18This includes one of the cameras that is one of the primary cameras used for running these meetings. This one over here is no longer functioning and cannot be replaced. The other one, which is even more critical, is our… we have two control panels, which serve as the brains of the… for operating the system.

2:52:38The one that was here has failed, and the one that we have in the AV room, is not even recommended to be used because there's too high of a risk of it failing. This component can also not be replaced or repaired.

2:52:52Should the other control panel fail, the technology in this room would be reduced to in-person meetings only, with audio amplification from mobile sound systems and visual presentation through a mobile projector and screens.

2:53:04Further failures could also significantly hinder the effectiveness and ability to communicate with other agencies and organizations during an emergency, should the city need to open its EOC.

2:53:16Finally, in 2020, in response to COVID, temporary modifications were implemented to allow for hybrid meetings, which the original infrastructure is not designed to support long-term. As you heard earlier tonight, SB707 has now

2:53:30Implemented new regulatory requirements for us as an eligible legislative body to provide hybrid meetings.

2:53:37with public participation by July 1st of 2026. That requirement requires a more permanent and reliable solution to provide hybrid public meetings.

2:53:49The estimated cost to purchase, install, and program a newly designed AV system is estimated around $314,000. This is not an expense that is currently budgeted.

2:53:59The recommendation for funding would be a one-time expense that would be paid by the general fund, as well as 9% one-time contribution from the Integrated Waste Management Fund, which pays for a small portion of the City's general operating costs.

2:54:12If funding is allocated and the project moves forward, it's expected that the potential disruption to the meeting space would be roughly 4 to 6 weeks, with a goal to complete the project no later than the end of the fiscal year in order to comply with the new regulations. With that, myself and Eric Ning, our IT manager, are both here and available for any questions you may have.

2:54:32Alright, any questions from the Council?

2:54:37All right then, Chris, let's go ahead and continue with the presentation. All right, and we'll hear from Claire Coleman, our budget manager.

2:54:48I don't know.

2:54:49Good evening, Clerk Coleman, Budget Manager.

2:54:53This evening, we'll talk to you about a few of the funding options. At this time, all three of the projects that you've heard about today are almost entirely funded through the General Fund. We have discussed other funding opportunities, including from Measure H,

2:55:07But all of the funds in Measure H are currently in use for approved uses, so everything, from parks and recreation operations and swim center and other maintenance needs citywide. So if we were to use Measure H funds for the swim project, the swim center project, we would need to reallocate those costs elsewhere.

2:55:26Staff recommend using one-time general fund dollars for these projects.

2:55:31Some… there were some questions raised about debt financing, and at this time, due to current interest rates and other debt obligations that the city has, we do not recommend debt financing because we think it would be significantly more expensive than using, other forms of… than using general fund.

2:55:47Dollars.

2:55:51We have prepared 3 different scenarios, so we have visuals from the City's long-range general fund forecast. These show a few assumptions. It does include the contract that was approved already this evening for Local 1230. It does assume use of the City's Section 115 trust.

2:56:10Based on the recommended smoothing that was presented to the Council by NHA several months ago.

2:56:17So that's where you see on the graph on the left, you'll see in each slide that the silver portion, decreases, and that's because the, Section 115 trust increases as the city makes contributions, and then decreases once those contributions begin to be used as the city's UAL and pension liability peaks around, 2032.

2:56:38As you can see, this is the first scenario. This includes, the pool, the swim center repairs that have already been, approved by Council, and so that was what was called Option 2 before. That does not include the additional recommendations, or the, addition of the deck

2:56:55And things in the out years, so this is just the current year swim center repairs.

2:57:00As you can see, this also includes the fire engine and the EEOC Council Chamber's audiovisual. So you can see that it would have this, general fund reserve dip below the 17%,

2:57:11That's the graph on the right, so that's where you see the unrestricted dips below the 17%, that's the blue line. But on the graph on the left, you can see that the city at no point in time gets anywhere close

2:57:21to risking its fiscal solvency. We have very robust reserves in the EDRF, in the Section 115 trust, and with the 17% policy level for unassigned general fund reserves.

2:57:33If we look at the second slide.

2:57:35you can see it's nice when they flip to the next, and you can see that it dips lower, and so if the Council were to recommend, that the City pursue the option including the pool deck, this is what those graphs would look like.

2:57:47If you switch quickly to the third slide, you'll notice that it looks almost identical, and that's because the impact of the water slide relative to the full cost of the other swim center projects is relatively small. It's not a small

2:58:02Dollar amount, it's several hundred thousand dollars, but relative to the several million dollars of the rest of the projects, that's why the graph has, less of an aggressive change in the

2:58:13Visual.

2:58:15Excuse me, so those are the three scenarios. I'm happy to talk about any of them in more detail, or any of the assumptions in the forecast.

2:58:21Hey, Councilmember Paul Salzman?

2:58:25Do these assumptions assume that at some point on this chart, we will make the investment, or no?

2:58:33Sorry, which investment?

2:58:35the rest of the swim center investments, because as it's been presented to us is, let's wait and do it in the next 2 years, so yes.

2:58:43Yes, so the section… sorry, if you go to the previous one, to Scenario 2.

2:58:48So Scenarios 2 and 3 both include the full scope of the swim center improvements, and those primarily hit in fiscal years 27 and 28. So they… it shows… No, I know 2 and 3, but what about 1? Does it assume we will never do those investments? That's currently the assumption in the forecast.

2:59:05So, it's just… it is a little confusing, because what we're being presented in the item is, don't do it now, but we're gonna put it in the next couple of years, but this is telling us, no, we're never gonna have the money to do it. So I'm…

2:59:17It's a little bit of a mixed message, now that I'm thinking about it.

2:59:21So, what is the actual recommendation? Is the recommendation, we're not going to do it until we identify some other funding source, or what…

2:59:29I guess I'm just trying to understand, because it's a difference between saying we're not going to do it now, but we'll do it sometime in the next couple years, or we're just not going to do it because we're not going to have money.

2:59:40So…

2:59:44Yes, all of those things are actually true. So, we do need… we recognize that we do need to do the deck replacement, and so Funding Scenario 2 or 3 is actually the full scope, and that was why we wanted to demonstrate that. What we are recommending is that… and this also assumes that we do start that funding

3:00:02In the next biennial budget that we start actually doing the work.

3:00:06What this projection tells me is that my recommendation remains the same, that we move forward now

3:00:14and start to put this in the CIP so that we can identify funding. That doesn't mean necessarily we'll start it next fiscal year. It could be the following fiscal year. And so, with that, this also… Claire is, also very modest in how conservative she is as far as revenue.

3:00:32projections as well, which I appreciate, and I expect.

3:00:36But that also, knowing that this is a moment in time. So that does give us time over the next biennial budget to identify funding. Maybe we do have other issues that we can do with Measure H. For example, some of this grant funding that we've received has off… may offset

3:00:53some of the… some of what we're already allocating to Measure H.

3:00:56So it gives us another opportunity to look at this, put it in the CIP. Whether or not we fund it in the next fiscal year, I would think it would… might… we have, according to your consultants, Chris, they think it could probably be another 2 or 3 years that we could

3:01:13we could get away with it, if you will. So we have to watch that, but what we want to do is… is come back to you in the biennial budget with better understanding of where we are with the trends, so that we can better plan for that duck replacement.

3:01:29It makes me nervous, because the cost will go up, so it could just be…

3:01:35that this chart gets worse, because we have to do it anyway, and if we don't find some other funding, or if the economy gets worse, or if there's all sorts of things we can't control. And then the other thing that worries me, that's just worried me about this project the whole time, is

3:01:49Yes, we think it's gonna last 2 to 3 years, but what if it doesn't? And then we have to shut down the pool.

3:01:55That is a really big concern, too, both for residents, and everybody loves the pool, but also for our revenue. So we could both be faced with an emergency project that makes it cost more, costs having just naturally escalated.

3:02:10And the pool is shut down. Right. So…

3:02:14I'm okay with going forward with this recommendation tonight, but I… I don't want to wait a lot longer to figure out a plan. Like, I think we need to move

3:02:23we need to plan for this ahead of the rest of the CIP, it's just, we're gonna get in a worse situation, and unlike a lot of the other things in the CIP, a lot of those aren't revenue generating. Absolutely, and as the director and I have been talking about as well.

3:02:39even spacing out, even if we wait an additional year, helping to space out revenue loss would be helpful as well. So, what we are not… we know that we do need to do this, we know that we need to fund this. This would give us, instead of

3:02:55Putting to… putting this all in one basket, if you will, and agreeing to this this year, using up all of our discretionary

3:03:03fund balance, that is what we're not recommending. We're recommending that going forward in the next

3:03:09fiscal year and the next biennial budget, we will indeed be planning for that. We will indeed be putting this in the projections, and we will indeed be looking for all of the funding and bring back a recommendation. We're just not recommending that we do… that we… that the Council allocate money to do that now, because we do have other needs, and we don't want to use up all of our discretionary funding on one project.

3:03:31I understand. I just… I think we can't assume that we will have discretionary funding in the other years, because we just don't know, so this chart could just get worse, and we'll still… still have to do it. We can't have the pool closed for years, like, that's not an option for a lot of reasons, so…

3:03:47I'm struggling with this, because we're… As are we. It's, like, all bad options, as are we, and that's why, you know, like I said, I agree with you 100%, and I think that our struggle is

3:04:01Do we out… do we… do we promise all this money now, or do we at least space it out a little bit so we can do… sharpen our pencils a little bit more and see what we can come up with in the next biennial budget?

3:04:12Okay, I guess I'll just say now, I'm going… I'm gonna be really, like… I'm not gonna approve the next budget if we don't have the funding for this. Not because I think this is necessarily the most important project, but given all the other things I said, like, this is just gonna get worse and worse, and we can't… I don't think we can defer it beyond the next budget. Even if things look bad, I think we're just gonna have to find other things to cut, because we just have

3:04:36to do this. So, just stating that now, so it's not a surprise, no matter what's going to happen in the next budget. And we… we do want to make sure that we're going over all of the priorities in the capital improvement program that we're going to be bringing back to the Council as well, so…

3:04:51hold that thought? We just can't keep letting things fail. I mean, when we came in, whatever, May or June, and we talked about the budget, and one of the things that was laid out was the council chambers, and I said at the time, like, I really think we should invest in this, and everybody else said, oh, no, it's not that big of a deal, and now it's failing. So it's… I don't know, I think we…

3:05:10We're kind of…

3:05:11I get it, we're in hard financial times, we're getting out of the harder financial times, but I think at some point, when we know something's gonna fail with the next couple of years… I mean, you know, we didn't know that about the council chambers, but, like, we know that, like, they're telling us that. We just… we have to do it, even if it's hard, even if it means…

3:05:31Making other hard decisions.

3:05:33I have Councilmember Motayama and then Councilmember Cassanis. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for all the trending.

3:05:41Ms. Coleman, I really appreciate it. I think… I want to rephrase, kind of, the question that Councilmember Saltzman is, proposing, which is, if we push it out, does our,

3:06:00General fund scenario looked like Scenario 3.

3:06:03Because this doesn't have… Scenario 2 doesn't include the water slide. I know it's, like, nominal, but I… I don't want to lose track of the water slide, because it's…

3:06:13too easy to, like, oh, well, it didn't make it into this one or that one, and I think we've already bought it. We really need to implement it. So, if this is the scenario of pushing out

3:06:28I think in the funding scenario, in the detail, it was, you know, we wouldn't start

3:06:35the deck repair for at least a year, and then it had, like, another closure period in that time frame, I think, Director, that you put forward, before. So, it sounds like Scenario 3 kind of captures

3:06:53the impact on the general fund balance. Is that… Correct. Okay, and…

3:07:01So, at the… do you have, like, the percentage at the worst point of our general fund of the biggest dip? How low does our fund get, percentage-wise? Because I know we…

3:07:15Or, you know… Dude.

3:07:18I don't have the percentage top of mind, I'm sorry, but I can get that

3:07:23Okay, so I think that's kind of… I would like to know.

3:07:28you know, how bad it gets. I think the staff has done a phenomenal job of each year coming up with a little bit more extra money than we were expecting, so I think that, you know.

3:07:42If that's the track record, hopefully that will continue, so that maybe

3:07:48I'm hoping that this is kind of the worst case.

3:07:51scenario. Yes, I absolutely believe that that is the case. I mean, again, all things… this is a moment in time at this point, and agreed. And, you know, Claire and Crystal and Chris and I have been talking about this incessantly.

3:08:04For the past couple of months, and we also have other… there's, you know, other scenarios that we can explore as far as funding. We've… we've talked to CPPG. Are there grants out there for not maybe the pool, but for things like

3:08:18the ADA, or some of the parking lot, or some of the other, items that are out there, is there a way for us to leverage Measure H better? Financing against some of that? So, I mean.

3:08:32you know, I agree with you. I don't want to jinx it by saying, oh god, a big something happens, and we have to handle that, but at the same time, that is why the Council wisely

3:08:43put aside all that money in the EDRF as well.

3:08:48to be able to handle any sort of an emergency. So, you know, I do think it's important to remember that as we have this discretionary funds, that, you know, what we're dealing with is limited resources, but also understanding that, yes, if we do have

3:09:03These types of issues that if we want to balance our budget, we want to make sure that we maintain that 17%,

3:09:10we will have to make changes in order to make that happen. This is what it looks like right now, but in order to stay above 17%, there are other actions that we may be able to take that we will have to… that's exactly what we want the time to be able to, to bring that to the Council and work that out within our capital improvement program.

3:09:29If I can add, we are in the process of doing a major overhaul of our capital and asset, programs citywide, and so we recently kicked off, we were doing,

3:09:41a huge revamp, and that includes every single department, and so our plan for the next budget cycle, and I say next budget cycle, our plan for this current budget cycle that we have already really started internally, is to have

3:09:55a lot more information, and a lot… getting back to what the city was doing in 2018-2019 with a really detailed CIP, consolidating and really improving how we're doing our vehicle and asset replacement program, because we have a lot of the planning happening citywide in various places, but it's not centralized. And so,

3:10:14This is a point in time This… these graphs…

3:10:17will change, and they will look different, because this is just the information that we have right now, but with this updated CIP, all of this will be included, but as a part of the bigger conversation about all of the different assets, fleet, and CIP citywide.

3:10:32Okay, thank you. I appreciate all the work on the CIP and the procurement.

3:10:41So… Is it possible, then, for our…

3:10:49Budget discussion to have some kind of inflation factor for the cost of the pool, so that we can see, you know.

3:10:57like Chief Saylor said, 15% increase for, like, the next fiscal year, and then another 15% for the… to cover the time that it's implemented, and then we can understand what the impact is. Is that something you can request? Absolutely. …for the future? Okay. I can say that we've mentioned in our

3:11:17reports before that current estimates are 5% per year for the… for these projects, using the economics of today. Yeah.

3:11:26So that does, in 2 years, get to 10%. Okay, so, I… I am comfortable…

3:11:34moving forward with this, because I think the…

3:11:38And City Manager, you talked about it a little bit, but… We… can…

3:11:45We need to not have these reactive… emergency costs.

3:11:52And to do that, we really need to start

3:11:55Putting additional funding into what is basically our reserves. And if we do…

3:12:03The scenario that we have discussed, which is…

3:12:08Scenario 1 in this case, which was option two in the prior discussion.

3:12:14That we do have some surplus left.

3:12:18So that…

3:12:19like City Manager said, said, put through the waterfall. And I want to just clarify and reiterate that, because what we mean by put it through the waterfall means that we will take a portion of that surplus and put it into the Section 115 trust. So.

3:12:36If we choose all the funding, I mean, it would be great to use it all and get it all done.

3:12:42we will not have that option, and I think over time, that will make this, curve worse.

3:12:51So, you know, I'm comfortable moving forward with this, as proposed by staff, and, you know, we'll… we'll keep working on the… the out years to get the deck done.

3:13:02Thank you.

3:13:05Yeah, I mean, I'll state right away, I'm not comfortable with it. I… I…

3:13:10I mean, looking at it, we're looking at a decade before our reserves get back to what our targets are.

3:13:14And… let me just…

3:13:16quite frankly, I think we can't afford the pool. I mean, if that's, you know, for all these other things that we're spending money on are our priorities, then the pool is not.

3:13:23And… I, I just, I find… There's no discussion about

3:13:30you know, what else can be cut in order to make room for the pool? And I think that's a fair discussion to have. It might not be a pleasant discussion, but I think we have to have it.

3:13:38I hear a lot of discussion about, well, maybe Measure X, maybe we can explore funding somewhere else, we can apply for grants. I think all that has to happen first, so we know where we really stand.

3:13:46And those, to me, they're… I don't want to say false promises, but they're false hopes, or potentially false hopes.

3:13:51I think we really need to know what is realistic.

3:13:54And, just on the side, like, can someone explain to me

3:13:58Since we already own the slide, why does it cost half a million dollars to install the slide? I mean, that's well more than the construction cost of a house.

3:14:07Yes, so…

3:14:09When we purchased the slide, we were under the impression that we could reuse the existing columns and footings.

3:14:17And the Public Works Director can jump in if you want more explanation. But we then had to do some additional testing because Cal OSHA regulates water slides, and they dug bores into the columns, and they discovered insides

3:14:32it was disintegrating, you know, looked fine on the outside. Inside, not so much. So this triggers much more work than we anticipated, meaning we have to demolish the columns, and we have to rebuild them.

3:14:44And all, all things, including soft costs.

3:14:49Come out to 409,000 estimated.

3:14:53I just find that mind-boggling. I do too. Yeah, absolutely. If that's the cost of a pool, then again, my feeling is we cannot afford a pool where we stand right now.

3:15:03Okay.

3:15:05Anything, Mayor Pro Tem, before I…

3:15:08So, I… I am also very, very uncomfortable, you know, and I'm feeling a lot like Councilmember

3:15:16Salzman, because we've heard me speak ad nauseum about my analogy of the car, the car breaking down, well.

3:15:25My sister, who lives in Texas, last Tuesday, her car broke down. My sister is a gig share driver and a caterer, and when she doesn't have a car, she doesn't make money.

3:15:35She called me the day that her car broke down, and she said, well, Carolyn, I bought a starter, and I got a guy who's gonna put in the starter, and he's gonna come tomorrow, and I'll be back on the road, and I'll be back making money. The guy flaked out. She found another guy, that guy flaked out. She found another guy, that guy flaked out. She just got her car fixed today. That's 7 days that she thought she was gonna be making money, and she's not.

3:15:54Because she did not take care of maintenance that she should have taken care of. And then the guy that fixed her car today told her, hey, I got under your hood to put in the starter, and I found 3 more things that need to be fixed.

3:16:07And she says, well, Carolyn, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that for the next 3 weeks, and then I'm gonna go ahead and get those fixed. And I'm… we're fighting about that right now.

3:16:16That's how I feel about it. I know that, in theory, we can't afford it, but at the same time, the pool outside of real estate transfer taxes is one of the biggest money makers in this city. We can't afford to not have the pool be functional. We can't afford to not have the pool be safe.

3:16:33And we have a water slide that's sitting there and not being used, which means we purchased something and then figured out we couldn't even use it.

3:16:41So

3:16:43I'm uncomfortable, but I understand also that these are things that need to get done as far as also the fire engine, which is a vehicle that needs to get fixed. So I'm in the vein of Councilmember Salzman, like, I know that

3:16:56we need to go ahead and vote on this tonight, but I wouldn't be comfortable not really having a very hard conversation about it in the budget year, because I don't… I mean, just sitting here tonight, we found out that we just found out in a week that if we don't order the new fire engine, we're gonna have at least 15% more cost than that, so that happened tonight.

3:17:15And there was something else that happened tonight that I can't remember, but we're getting all these things in real time, and we're not… we're not appropriately having conversations about how to get the maintenance done and stay solvent.

3:17:28So, I just want this to voice how uncomfortable I am voting on this tonight, because I'm the type of person that if whatever needs to get fixed, if we got the money in the bank, we need to pay it, or else we're gonna end up paying more money, period.

3:17:41But I also don't… our previous council members have also worked very hard to get us back into a solvent situation and get us off of the… the auditor's list.

3:17:51It's a no-win situation. None of these things are fun.

3:17:56Go ahead, Mayor Pro Temp. No, I agree with you, and I,

3:18:00Yeah, I know the importance of the pool, and, you know, I feel like this is a curse of Larry Damon again, because it was done all wrong in the beginning. So, you know, the importance of doing this right, but also making sure

3:18:17that, we do have the funds to do this, and we really don't. So,

3:18:23This is something that I look forward to in January, when we speak about our budget, and and in our retreat, we can,

3:18:34you know, look at what we can, do and make some sacrifices to get this work done. So, look forward to working with all of you in that. Perhaps, you know, we can,

3:18:47look at, council traveling budgets and stuff like that to… to, you know, just, you know, we gotta… we gotta look at everything, I guess, and… and just to make this sacrifice to make sure we get this engine done, and we get

3:19:03And we get everything else done. So that's where I stand on it, but I'll be supporting, the decision.

3:19:09So, one last comment, and then we'll go to public comment. This is… Claire, am I correct that the… this… the green line, or…

3:19:17It doesn't reflect any kind of assumptions about other draws from the reserves. That's correct. So, between… over the next 10 years.

3:19:26we're basically saying nothing bad's gonna happen that's gonna be similar to a pool or a fire truck or something like that. Yeah, the forecast is built off of the information we have now, and so absent information for that. That's important to know, because, I mean, obviously, many things have come before us in this brief period of time. I don't think it's a reasonable expectation that

3:19:44That's not gonna happen. There'll be another fire truck, there'll be another something else.

3:19:48So it… in that… with that in mind, I suspect it'll dip even deeper.

3:19:53Not because of the pool, but because of all the other things coming along that we aren't anticipating right now.

3:19:58Okay. I'll say it does include our current debt schedules, so everything that… so it's not absent any CIP, it's just additional significant.

3:20:08Castle Mayor Motiamo?

3:20:09Thank you, Mayor. Like you said, Ms. Coleman, that

3:20:16that we're only good… this projection is only good from where we stand today. And that's the nature of these kinds of projections.

3:20:26I think it's, again, I want to say that it's really important that we,

3:20:32start to address these immediate needs, but also to start putting aside money so that we are not just reactive all the time. I think we really need

3:20:44to add to the general fund, so we can finally get to that place of balance, of, you know, we've finally taken care of what we need to, and we're prepared for what's coming, because I think if we keep saying, oh, it's a crisis, we gotta take all the money and spend it, I think that that

3:21:03skews kind of how we think about our fund reserves. So, one of the big changes from before is that we do have the EDRF, which is, you know.

3:21:16$9 million.

3:21:20It's a significant… it just… and it sits there. It's a cushion. Like I said, when I started in 2020, it was negative $110,000.

3:21:28That's why we have all these deferred maintenance things. So.

3:21:35This is the best we can do.

3:21:38We have to do it this way, because we didn't have money then.

3:21:42We are doing much better now, and now is where we need to make that prudent balance. You know, we have to look at revenue. We have to maintain revenue. We have to look at efficiency and push on that. We have the service delivery study.

3:21:58to look at, you know, find us that million dollars of structural deficit and eliminate that. That's not counted in here. And I fully expect staff to be able to bring back that million dollars.

3:22:12That's why we're spending the money for the study.

3:22:15So… There's no not doing it.

3:22:20I cannot imagine a scenario where we would close the pool.

3:22:25That not only takes away an amenity for this… for all of us, it's a revenue source, and that's a whole lot of jobs that you're eliminating in the city.

3:22:36So, I think that that is…

3:22:39extremely drastic. If we had no fund reserve, I could see us going there, because we would have to, but even through the worst of times, even through the pandemic, that pool was open, it was a jewel.

3:22:53And we got written up in the New York Times about how great we were running these things during the COVID pandemic, so…

3:23:01I just want to make sure that… you know.

3:23:07We know what's important in the community, and the pool is one of those things.

3:23:12That…

3:23:14It's hard. This is… this is our job, to balance all these hard things, but we have to do it.

3:23:20And, you know, I'm not thrilled that our general fund balance is gonna dip, But…

3:23:26we do have that safety cushion now, and I think that this is… this is what we have to do.

3:23:32I want to thank you, Councilmember Motuyama, for… that… what you said is very, very important, and it's a good reminder for me, you know, as a working class person, you have those dips where, you know, your phone almost gets cut off, and, you know, maybe you don't have cable for a month, and then you finally do get the money, you worked hard, you've gotten the money, but you have to now… this is the bounce back.

3:23:53So, I think… I thank you for reminding me of that. It's not fun, but this is our bounce back. So, having said that.

3:24:00Now is the time for members of the public

3:24:03Who wish to provide public comments regarding this item? Requests to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card. Public comments will 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. Can I make one more comment? We're going to have another section for a council comment after this, yes. Go ahead, City Clerk. Thank you, Mayor. We do have one request to speak, so I'll invite…

3:24:26Maybe two, but Norman LaForce?

3:24:30Good evening, Norman LaForce.

3:24:33[address removed], I think you expected me to be here tonight.

3:24:39This is a hard decision. I appreciate the… the questions that Councilmember Saltzman and others have raised, and the need to plan out ahead. I think we do need to go forward with the replastering and the ADA.

3:24:53And then work on how you're gonna do the rest of the repairs. I would urge that somehow we find in there that the water slide gets put in, because the water slide's great. Everybody loves the water slide. It was a great amenity.

3:25:08And I appreciate…

3:25:10the comments that most of the Council have said about the importance of the pool. This community made a decision in 1999 to rebuild the pool. We could have closed it. We could have bulldozed it, Mr. Castanis, and had no pool. And we made the decision not to do that.

3:25:30In 2019, we went on the ballot and put a tax measure to help fund the pool for this very purpose, and that won by 79% of the vote.

3:25:4279%.

3:25:45And it was a permanent tax, not a sunset clause, none of that. Permanent tax at $60 a parcel.

3:25:52All right? I've never seen that in El Cerrito before.

3:25:55So, this is a pool that is important to this community. The community has spoken over and over again about the importance of this pool. It's an amenity of this community, it makes this community what it is, and it improves property values if you want to get financially

3:26:11into the weeds about it. So, we need to go forward with making sure that the pool remains a priority and an important amenity of this community.

3:26:23and if…

3:26:25the decision's gonna be not to do that. There's gonna be… there's gonna be an uproar, I guarantee it. So I appreciate… I appreciate the difficulty you're in. Every time I come down here, I'm… I'm relieved that I can leave and let you guys make the decision, and I don't have to.

3:26:40But this is really important, and I appreciate it. I think the fire engine's important. I remember we had our issues with the

3:26:47with the fire department when we, when I was on the council. And one last thing, I don't want to appear nonchalant about

3:26:53the budget, but when I was on the council, we had zero reserve. You have 17%.

3:27:01you're, like, in, you know, you're in… you're now in Beverly Hills, I mean, as far as I'm concerned. I think there's ways you could work this out that, protects the city and ensures the future of the city for what the people here want and… and have… have…

3:27:15voted for. Thank you. May I respond to it? During council comments. We have another… our next request to speak is Anthony Stevens.

3:27:28Good evening again, Mayor, Pro Tem, and the Council. I'm just rising to speak in support of moving the timeline up and the procurement of a new fire engine, and I think Chief Saylor has made a lot of excellent points, and even some of the discussion had tonight.

3:27:45by the members of the Council. Some of the things I would like to just give some food for thought, too, of the difference of maybe just a reliable vehicle that we have to be able to respond to emergencies.

3:27:58But a fire engine is very different than just a vehicle. Typical passenger vehicle could be 4,000 to 5,000 pounds. Fire engine is 40,000 to 50,000 pounds, responding code 3 lights and sirens through the community. So it is imperative for the safety of the members of the community and our

3:28:16Firefighters that have a new, reliable fire apparatus.

3:28:20The topography up here, especially with the hills, is challenging, and does take its toll on apparatus, and time doesn't stand still, and like some of the points that were made.

3:28:31All the rest of the apparatus will continue to be aging, too, and be in a difficult position, and it is important to be able to have

3:28:39spare apparat, something that is made to respond to the types of emergencies that we are, too. So, with that, just wanted to make some of those points. Another point that… good point that Chief Sailors brought up was some of the clean cab, and taking bottles out. Today's fire service is ever-changing.

3:28:58We're facing a whole new realm of issues in sense of, lithium-ion batteries out there. Almost every house is containing them, cars and everything else, and finding products of… byproducts of combustion, such as hydro…

3:29:13Hydrogen fluoride out of those batteries that

3:29:16We're saturating our gear, they're odorless, colorless, and…

3:29:21can not be pulled out of things, so people are breathing that in the apparatus. Cancer is a rising pandemic within our profession, so just wanted to point out a couple of those reasons, too, and give some more food for thought. Thank you for your consideration.

3:29:37Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our request to speak. All right, Councilmember, we'll start Council comments with you. Okay, I want to… Mr. LaForce, I want to thank you for your comments, and…

3:29:47One thing you said really struck with me, you talked about the community support, and that the community voted for a $60 parcel tax for this… for the pool.

3:29:55And my question then is.

3:29:57why don't we have those funds to use for the pool? And I think that's, you know, it reveals a deeper problem.

3:30:04And I don't have any doubt that the pool is important. I don't have any doubt that the community supports the pool.

3:30:10Not… and I'm not… Suggesting closing the pool. I'm trying to point out that

3:30:14All these choices are a matter of choices. We're having to prioritize.

3:30:19And… If the pool is our priority, which

3:30:23I accept that it is, and other things can't be at the same time.

3:30:27And if there's a $60 parcel tax that people are very unapproved to go towards a cost like this, why aren't those funds here to use for this?

3:30:36That's… All right. All right, I can answer. Okay.

3:30:44I can answer, I can answer, and so can, and Claire, if maybe you can back up on this. Measure H generates about $600-some-thousand dollars a year, and to Chris's credit, he actually has been setting aside money from Measure H to… for this project. It's just impossible over time to

3:31:02to put $4 million together simply from that, with all of the other, expenses that Measure H is paying for. So, for example, the design that we have done so far was paid for from Measure H Fund Balance. So, Measure H is contributing to this project, and we assumed

3:31:19Kind of, again, as a worst-case scenario, if you will, we did assume the general fund would pay for this entire thing.

3:31:25Being… looking… we will be looking at Measure H being able to contribute more. This is just showing what… if we used full general fund, but for example, again, since we've been receiving some grant money to help us offset some of the costs that Measure H are currently paying for with H&A, remember that Measure H did expand the scope of what the funds could be used for.

3:31:50And so they are currently being used for park and recreation operations, maintenance. They're all approved, and authorized uses.

3:31:59And the swim center, currently the maintenance, the, the, you can share with, what it is paying for, swim center current costs.

3:32:08So, we are stretching Measure H as far as we possibly can. So, we are not… but unless we try to do some debt financing against Measure H, which

3:32:19I've been talking with finance staff with looking into for the future to do some… we have an entire park and rec master plan that needs to be addressed as well. That is a future discussion, but as Claire pointed out earlier, if we do that, we do need to

3:32:33You know, and you're absolutely right, we do need to prioritize what is currently being spent there, and do we have other funds

3:32:40to supplement that, or spend those costs elsewhere. So, again, Measure H is being used for this, it's just not enough, because it only generates about $600,000 a year for us to be even be… even if we put that aside since it passed, we still wouldn't have

3:32:56If we spend it on nothing else since it passed in 2019, we wouldn't have the full cost of this project.

3:33:02I'd like to add one thing. Councilmember Montayama pointed out, that during the worst of the worst, the pool was kept open.

3:33:09Yeah, to me, that's… That's important to recognize, that

3:33:14There was an ability to keep the pool open while we made other cuts, because we made that priority. We made it a priority to keep the pool open.

3:33:22In my mind, we're kind of at the same place now. If that's our priority.

3:33:26Then other things have to be cut.

3:33:28And there's been no discussion about that. It's all been, well, there's other revenue that could be here, other revenue there. Well, that may be true, but that's not where we are right now.

3:33:36Boom.

3:33:39Any other Council comments?

3:33:42All right, and I want to first say to Norm, you know, I recall when Chris and I were students at El Cerrito High School, how the swim center was the only way that

3:33:52El Cerrito swim students were able to actually participate. I don't know what… we didn't have a water polo team, but we had, like, a swim team and all that kind of stuff. So, similar to how the field is used for El Cerrito baseball, I mean, that swim center has been very integral to this community for so, so very long, and I always like to honor

3:34:09you know, Norm, because he was on the council when I was at the high school, so I know what he had to deal with.

3:34:13on council. And my last comment is that when my sister got her car fixed, it was triple what she was supposed to pay.

3:34:20That's the last comment.

3:34:23You are that young, Norm. Go ahead, Councilmember Motiamo. I'd just like to make a…

3:34:30interim motion for the fire truck? Okay, should we handle that now, or should we wait until after this item? That's what I was intending on. So what staff, what staff was seeking was, again, the, no… to take no action necessary at this time on the deck replacement.

3:34:50And to provide direction, which I believe I've heard at least the majority of you say, if you wanted to do it in a motion, that staff will place the deck replacement in the capital improvement program and seek

3:35:03Initiate looking for, you know, to, provide funding for it in the out years of the capital improvement program.

3:35:11Which we had planned to do anyway, so you could make a motion if you want, but that's already what we have been seeking to do. And then also provide direction on the fire truck, or the fire engine, and the

3:35:23AV, and again, with this new information that we were given this evening, Sky can talk about how we do that.

3:35:35I guess, just for the sake of efficiency, I guess I would, suggest if Council is comfortable that, that staff has already received direction on everything other than, moving forward with the fire truck.

3:35:53If you want to give… if you want to give direction on anything else related to that, then I can… I can… I can, read a motion to actually authorize action on the fire truck, so that… just so that I don't have to repeat it again.

3:36:07So I want to make sure I have it correct. So for the actual item for the pool, we don't have to make a motion, because that's basically reiterating the action we already took earlier in regards to the pool. That's correct. And then in regards to the AV, we don't need a motion for that, because we already gave direction on that as well.

3:36:25If… well, if you… that one you haven't discussed, so if you were to make a motion to provide direction to staff to come back.

3:36:33at a future meeting, probably when some… within the next couple of meetings, I would assume, with, authorization, contract, or just give us direction to move forward with, with the AV, and we will bring that back to you. Okay. So, Councilmember Motiamo, would you like to make a motion in regards to direction regarding the trip?

3:36:54The AV… the AV first. Can I… okay. I would like to make a motion that…

3:37:02Confirm staff direction on Scenario 2…

3:37:09And that staff will come back.

3:37:11With the additional costs of pool deck.

3:37:15and slide, I'm saying slide specifically, full deck and slide to be included in the CIP, in the next biennial budget discussion.

3:37:27And…

3:37:29Do you mean Scenario 1, Councilmember Mochamos? I think you were referring to the previous one. Option 2, Scenario 1. Sorry. I understood it.

3:37:39I got it. I did. But, so…

3:37:46Option 1 now, and then the rest of the pool deck and slide to come in the biennial budget, and…

3:37:56Would like to have staff bring back

3:37:58A scope of… or a contract, or move forward with whatever it takes to get the audio-visual system upgraded.

3:38:07And… Okay. So, and, a motion to amend

3:38:15item 9B to add in the action proposed section,

3:38:23So it would state, conduct a study session to receive updated report on swim center options and provide direction to staff regarding use of general fund balance for fiscal year 25-26

3:38:35Including authorizing the city manager to execute documents necessary to secure the acquisition of a new fire…

3:38:46engine prior to the end of October 2025, including… so that would be what would be added to the agenda, or to the report.

3:38:59The motion would also include a finding that, the need to make this amendment to Item 9B came to the attention of Council after the agenda had been posted, and that there's a need for immediate action to add this to the report

3:39:16In order to, incur the savings, that are available on the fire truck prior to the end of the month.

3:39:24Yes, that. I'm gonna… can you clarify exactly what the pool is? So I want to make sure… wait, hold on one moment. Okay, first of all, does… does Councilmember Motayama need to restate all of that? No, ma'am, I have that. So we have the commotion by Councilmember Motuyama.

3:39:41It's already been seconded by Mayor Pro Tem. Councilmember, you had a question. I'd just like clarification on exactly what direction we're giving for the pool, just to come back with a report.

3:39:51on what the cost would be? We're making… we're giving direction for the staff to go ahead and continue with the replastering project and ADA that they've already started, and to come back with the estimates at the biennial budget for the water slide and… Deck repair. And deck replacement.

3:40:08All right, so motion by Councilmember Motayama, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Kinto, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Opposed.

3:40:17Okay, any abstentions?

3:40:19Alright, so the item does pass, with Councilmember Castanis being opposed to the item.

3:40:25Thank you so much, staff. I believe that we have completed that business, have we?

3:40:29Yes, ma'am, that was a lot of business. Okay, so the next item on the agenda is City Council Local and Regional Liaison Assignments, and just a heads up to all those in the public, the entire Council did attend the Cal Cities Conference, so you will be hearing a lot about Cal Cities and all the great things that the Council did there, so I'm just going to start at the end with Councilmember Salzman.

3:40:53Thank you. Yes, I did go to the Cal Cities Conference, so I'll leave the details to others. I also attended the Environmental Quality Committee this month.

3:41:05I went last week to the Car Free Happy Hour, which was hosted for the first time in El Cerrito at Los Moles, and

3:41:14more than 40 people came with, dozens of bikes in that, like, kind of outdoor inside space of Los Molis, because there's no bike racks there. And it was great to bring so many non-El Cerritans to El Cerrito, most who had never been to Los Moles, so it was a lot of fun.

3:41:31And then I just had so much fun in El Cerrito this weekend, I don't know why, but there were so many great family activities, so I'll just…

3:41:40list all of the ones that we enjoyed. We never left El Cerrito this weekend. We went to the Pumpkin Splash on Friday, we went to the No Kings protest on Saturday with thousands of other people. We went to the Harding Elementary's Carnival, and we went to the Free Folk Festival, so it was just…

3:41:58So much fun that in such a tiny city, you could have so many things happening all at once.

3:42:03That's it. All right, Councilmember Motayama, thank you, Mayor. I did also attend the Cal Cities Conference in Long Beach, and one of the things that I spent some time doing was just learning more about AI applications for, city government processes, so I'm hoping that

3:42:20Those, ideas can be incorporated into the

3:42:24Service delivery study, and hopefully have some good impact.

3:42:30Also, on…

3:42:32Saturday, I attended the No Kings Rally, and I really want to say thank you to all the organizers of that event, because I think it was… it was very nicely organized, it was peaceful, it was fun.

3:42:45And it was pretty large. I mean, it was a really good showing. I heard people say that it was even bigger than the previous one. And, thank you to all the staff.

3:42:54That helped, out and had to work that rally as well.

3:42:59Alright.

3:43:00Okay, Councilmember, we'll come to you last thing, Mayor Pro Tem. Councilmember Cassanis. As with everyone else, I attended the…

3:43:07The Cal Cities?

3:43:10form. I also attended No Kings. I want to also add to Lisa's thanks to thank the police department. I saw four police officers there in

3:43:18Looked at most of them, and again, it was…

3:43:21Like, I think the biggest risk was traffic, and as far as I know, things went well.

3:43:25I also attended the Free Folk Festival.

3:43:29on… Sunday? Saturday? Sunday? Sunday? And I want to thank the Arts and Culture Commission for their work, and the San Francisco Folk Society, because I think together, I don't know who did what, but seemed to have been sponsored jointly by both of them. I thought it was a great success. I had a chance to do the

3:43:44Asian Zytocode two-step at the very end, which I was thrilled to do. Here's some Louisiana music.

3:43:49I want to let people know that there is a West Contra County Integrated Waste Management Authority meeting here in this very building on Thursday, and if you want some excitement about trash, please come.

3:44:00Unfortunately, part of the excitement might be your rates going up eventually, or soon.

3:44:05Ram.

3:44:06You're welcome to come, it's at 6.15 on Thursday.

3:44:10I continue to have my first and third Saturday coffee time at El Cerrito Natural Foods.

3:44:17For what it's worth, I'm expanding the time slots from 30 minutes to 45 minutes, because it feels like every time I schedule someone for 30 minutes, we go longer.

3:44:24And… that's about it. The other design reward… design… design review board, and…

3:44:31Urban forest can be met prior to the last council meeting, so I won't mention that.

3:44:36That's all.

3:44:37Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. I'm just going to be brief. I'm getting over a cold, so I've been, home the last, week, and, but I just want to say thank you to our staff. It was a great surprise to, see that, video that,

3:44:55Karen made, and all of you, and El Cerrito Values, and, and Will. Thank you, Will, and,

3:45:04And, you know, all the departments. It was, great to, see El Cerrito on a statewide level and what we were doing. And, you know, we have difficult times ahead.

3:45:17So my request to our residents is we need to take care of each other. We're going to have a lot of things happening on the federal level that,

3:45:27many residents don't know about, but it's on the pipeline, and these are not good things. These will affect the poor communities of color, and our seniors the most.

3:45:39So I'm hoping that in the future, that we all volunteer and help our neighbors.

3:45:46This is a time when,

3:45:48You know, when government is not working on the federal level.

3:45:52It trickles on down to the state level, and then the county level, and then it, affects us. Our senior population, I, my heart goes out to them. You look at the people that use Medi-Cal.

3:46:09In order for them to save their homes and their asset, as part of asset protection, when your spouse has to go to memory care, we are concerned that all that is going to go away.

3:46:22So, the importance of making sure that, families,

3:46:28you know, we all work together, and that we take care of each other, and this is what, you know, is good about El Cerrito is, all of our volunteers. So, again, difficult times ahead. What we see across, state,

3:46:45Across this country, you know, it's gonna happen at a local level.

3:46:48Hopefully not Cameron El Cerrito, but, you know.

3:46:53just want to prepare everyone. On the state level, we're going to have deficits in the next few years, so it's important that we get our house together. And, again, I mentioned about there's a foreclosure crisis that we see in other parts of the state.

3:47:10We're okay here in our bubble here in the East Bay, but you know, we don't know what's gonna happen in the future, but we need to pivot when we're ready to pivot, and

3:47:21We all need to work together. So, again, thank you, everybody.

3:47:25All right, and as with the rest of my council members, I did also attend the Cal Cities Conference. Again, congratulations to Mayor Pro Tem, who became the president, and it was just great. I wish that some of our community members could see the great respect that, city leaders across this state have for El Cerrito, have for our Mayor Pro Tem, and have for our city manager.

3:47:45And just hear a lot of the conversations that they were having around different, infrastructure projects that we're already doing in El Cerrito. So they're asking us

3:47:54How did we do this? How did we get fiscally solvent? How did we become a pro-housing city? How have we been effectively using AI and other tools in, you know, in our police department, in our fire department, etc. So I had a great time at the Cal Cities Conference, and I look forward to seeing our National League of Cities leaders

3:48:13in November in Salt Lake City.

3:48:15And with that, I do want to adjourn in the memory of Ms. Major. Ms. Major was a titan amongst titans in the LGBTQ leadership. She was one of the last living, if not the last living, member of the Stonewall Rebellion. She fought for trans rights, for prison abolition, and for the lives of Black queer and…

3:48:37Black and Brown folks, and I, as a Black queer person, I would not be here if people like Ms. Major did not survive, because remember, Stonewall was a rebellion that was essentially whitewashed later on in life, where people forgot that Black and Brown people

3:48:50started this movement, so I want to honor her tonight as we adjourn.

3:48:55At 949. The time is now 949. We are adjourned. The next regularly scheduled City Council meeting is Tuesday, November 4th. That's Election Day. I won't tell you what to vote for on Election Day, but it's Election Day at 6 p.m, but you can drop your ballots outside to y'all. We have a ballot box. Yes.

3:49:13And voting at Hannah Gardens. Good night, everyone.