Regular City Council Meeting February 3, 2026

0:00:12Okay

0:00:16the February 3rd, 2026 regular City Council meeting is called to order at 6 p.m. Will the City Clerk please call roll?

0:00:26Thank you Mayor Crinto? Here. Mayor Pro Ten Saltzman?

0:00:31Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Here.

0:00:32Councilmember Kassanis? Here. Councilmember Mojiyama? Here. Councilmember Weissinger?

0:00:37Councilmember Wysinger: Here.

0:00:38We do have a quorum, and I do need to disclose both Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman and Councilmember Weisinger are participating in this meeting remotely under the Just Cause exemption due to a contagious illness that prevents in-person attendance.

0:00:52As a result, for this meeting only, all votes will be done by roll call, and public comments will be taken both virtually and in person. Thank you, Mayor. We may proceed. Okay, please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

0:01:06I pledge allegiance.

0:01:11And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under all, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

0:01:26Teleconference and public comment instructions. Madam 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.

0:01:43The Brown Act also ensures the public's right to be heard, and while City Council may not be 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.

0:01:59Public comments will be taken in person and virtually via Zoom. A request to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card, or by selecting the raise hand feature in Zoom. In-person speakers will be called first.

0:02:12The 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. Thank you, Mayor, that concludes my announcements.

0:02:25Okay,

0:02:27Next item on the agenda is, an update for… from our city manager, who is here via Zoom

0:02:35I want to introduce you to Karen Pincus, City Manager.

0:02:39Go ahead.

0:02:40Thank you, Your Honor. I don't really have any, upcoming announcements other than I do want to remind everyone that, beginning next City Council meeting, for the next few council meetings, we will be meeting at Hanna Gardens instead of in the Council Chambers, and

0:02:56If the City Clerk would like to elaborate that, she may. Otherwise, I do not have anything else.

0:03:03Certainly, I would just add that, we will be meeting in the Hannah Gardens location, which is directly across from, on the other side of the parking lot from City Hall, for not only City Council, but all of our city boards, commissions, and committees beginning tomorrow, and that is expected to go through March 24th.

0:03:21Very good.

0:03:22Thank you.

0:03:24Any announcements from the City Council? I will start here. Councilmember Motuyama.

0:03:30Thank you, Mayor. I just want to, let El Cerrito residents know that Summer Camp Discount Day for the 10% off starts on Tuesday, February 10th.

0:03:41So, please be aware of that date if you are applying.

0:03:46Okay, next we'll go to Mayor Pro Tem Saltz.

0:03:50Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Thank you. I just wanted to announce that there's a fun event starting in El Cerrito this Saturday, February 7th.

0:03:59At 4pm, there's a bus party happening on the Line 7 line, starting at Del Norte BART. So if people want to join, everybody's welcome. It's being run by the Magnificent Seven Bus Riders group and the East Bay Transit Riders. I will be there, some Berkeley City Council members, some AC Transit directors, and lots of community members. It should be a lot of fun.

0:04:24Any other, Updates, Councilmember Weisinger.

0:04:29Councilmember Wysinger: No, I was actually going to say the same as Mayor Pro Tem, I will also be there for the 7 Bus Party, so I look forward to seeing you all there.

0:04:38Okay, thank you very much. For mayoral announcements, I, wanted to let folks know that I did not attend, the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C.

0:04:52this last week, or the National League of Cities, because of, the winter blizzard that they had there. So, I look forward to, being back there, sometime in the month of March when the weather gets better. So let's next go to oral communications from the public.

0:05:13Inbound City Clerk.

0:05:16Certainly. The next… now it would be the time for members of the public who wish to provide

0:05:21Oral communications regarding matters not on the agenda, consent items, and presentation items. Requests to speak can be submitted here by completing a speaker card or via Zoom by selecting the raise hand feature. In-person requests to speak will be taken first. Please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence at the beginning of your comments.

0:05:40So we will start… With our in-person speakers.

0:05:47There we go, so we'll first, have Joanna Pace, followed by Ira Shernau.

0:05:56Good evening, Mayor and Council members, staff, and members of the public.

0:06:01My name is Joanna Pace, I live up, near Arlington Park, and I want to thank Councilmember Saltzman and Weisinger for highlighting the Line 7 bus party. Indeed, we, number 7 bus riders, want to get people on the bus, and especially want to get people on the number 7 bus.

0:06:19So, we're gonna meet at Del Norte on Saturday.

0:06:23We're gonna take the bus that leaves at 4.30, so yes, come a little early so you don't miss it. And, AC Transit Director, our new AC Transit Director, Harpreet Sandhu, will be on the bus.

0:06:34Along the way, we'll pick up, Berkeley City Councilmember Igor Trigoup, and then when we get to Yeti Sports Bar, it's South

0:06:43Berkeley. We will meet the mayor of Emeryville, the Vice Mayor of Emeryville, and AC Director, Transit Director, Ward 2 Director, Gene Walsh.

0:06:55So, I have the invitations here for those of you on the dais, and the staff members, and I have a few more. There's a QR code where you can sign up on your phone to RSVP. It's free, except for, of course, you have to buy your bus ticket, and

0:07:10There'll be free food, there'll be door prizes, including a $50 Clipper card that we're gonna raffle off.

0:07:15And it's gonna be lots of fun, and it's gonna be your chance to look a complete sender in the eye and say.

0:07:21don't cut our buses any further. So, I hope to see you on Saturday afternoon. Thanks. Thank you.

0:07:28Thank you. Our next speaker is Ira Shernau, followed by Lori Shree.

0:07:34Good evening. Good evening. Ira Sharonau, El Cerrito. I ask that Council members address those of us who post on social media in an orderly and respectful manner, as we are the ones who are transparently informing community members about tax finances.

0:07:53Speaking of the proposed tax, which would give the Council the right to raise taxes every year for 30-plus years.

0:08:01The proposal before you is infeasible.

0:08:03The library was supposed to be built in Plaza Parcel C West.

0:08:08An affordable housing building. There is no Parcel C West.

0:08:12You cannot put a library in a non-existent building.

0:08:16Then there is the issue of the debt service coverage ratio.

0:08:20The tax will supposedly bring in $2.7 million per year, according to management.

0:08:27Management said operating costs will be $900,000 per year.

0:08:32That leaves $1.8 million for bond payments.

0:08:35But the bond payments will be over $2 million.

0:08:39Oops.

0:08:41But to get a good bond rating and lower interest rates, the tax would need to bring in another $3 million or so.

0:08:49The recommended debt service DSCR is about 2.0.

0:08:55But the actual petition restricts the ratio to 1.15, which is basically around junk bond status.

0:09:04The city hires a lot of consultants.

0:09:09Oops, I'm not used to doing this. The city hires a lot of consultants. Before you put the proposal on the ballot.

0:09:16We need to hear from a bond underwriter. I think that's critical. You need to understand the finances, and rather have different people offering opinions and complaining about those on social media, offering our opinions.

0:09:31Why not bring in the bond underwriter and get a definitive opinion on what's affordable with the proposed taxes?

0:09:40Finally, I would like to know what is up with the Richmond Street bike lanes.

0:09:46Parcel C East did not get funded.

0:09:49So how did that impact the Richmond Street project? I hope you realize that the Richmond Street bike lanes were part of the Parcel East proposal for, like, something like, I don't remember exactly, about $900,000. That money did not come in

0:10:05How does that impact the bike lanes? We should be told the answer to that. Thank you very much. I appreciate you for listening.

0:10:12Thank you. And by the way, I want to thank the Mayor for,

0:10:17taking roll call votes even when not required. I appreciate the transparency on that.

0:10:22Thank you very much.

0:10:24Our next speaker is Lori Shree, followed by Greg Lyman.

0:10:35Good evening.

0:10:36Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you this evening. My name is Lori Schrey, and I'm a resident of El Cerrito for the past 23 years.

0:10:47I feel we all agree that we want a new library, but…

0:10:51I oppose the current tax initiative as it is written.

0:10:56Among many problems, the price tag is projected to be as much as $100 million over the next 30 years.

0:11:03There's no guarantee the library will get built.

0:11:06There's no dedicated parking as it currently stands. Will seniors be forced to park on residential streets and carry books for blocks?

0:11:16And what is the rush to push this onto a ballot in June at an additional cost of $80,000 of our taxpayer money? Why not wait a few months, add it to the November ballot at no cost?

0:11:31Again, I see that you do not care that you are spending our money, so please do not waste our money.

0:11:38Before February 19th, I urge you all to consider pulling this initiative off the ballot completely.

0:11:47Until a comprehensive fiscal impact report is completed, including all operational costs.

0:11:54A thorough parking study, and how to fully fund the bond from day one.

0:12:01Please do your homework before imposing upon us with another forever tax.

0:12:06Until that time, I will work tirelessly to educate the residents of El Cerrito and oppose this parcel tax. Thank you.

0:12:16Thank you.

0:12:18Our next speaker is Greg Lyman, followed by Michael Fisher.

0:12:22Mayor, council members, Greg Lyman, El Cerrito. I just want to be clear, talking on behalf of the tax measure tonight. This is a 30-year tax measure, for a new library in El Cerrito.

0:12:35I'm sure when you do engage your bond advisors, you will find that at 5%, a bond sold at $36 million would result in $2.3 million annual payment for 30 years. That would be 15 cents per square foot.

0:12:53The operating costs that have been discussed tonight are unknown, and can't be determined by the county librarian until they know whether it's a single-story or a two-story building. So at this point, it's, there's no point in saying how much the operating cost would be.

0:13:11A yes vote would fund either Scenario 2 or Scenario 3 construction.

0:13:18Scenario 2 being at the current Stockton, the two-story library at the current Stockton site, and Scenario 3 being a single-story, 20,000 square foot alternative at the transit-oriented development at the corner of Fairmont and Liberty.

0:13:34A yes vote would allow the city to cover the cost of the June election.

0:13:41So, a yes vote would not drain any of the general fund down.

0:13:47So we look forward to ongoing progress on the task force and, ballot measure, the selection of the ballot date on the 19th.

0:13:56And encourage everyone to visit us at a newelceritolibrary.com.

0:14:04Thank you. And our next speaker is Michael Fisher.

0:14:12Good evening. Mayor, members of the Council.

0:14:15My name's Michael Fisher. I've been a resident of El Cerrito since 1997, and it's the East Bay since I was born at Alta Bays Hospital.

0:14:26I'd like to talk about the library.

0:14:30Our library needs to be replaced, as it is too small.

0:14:35Hooray.

0:14:36Not seismically safe, to name just a few problems.

0:14:41Everyone claims to be through the library.

0:14:45But some, unrealistically, don't want to have to pay for it.

0:14:51We have come up with a means to pay for the new library in a manner that nearly all civic problems are paid for.

0:15:00A fair, limited, targeted tax.

0:15:04As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes has famously

0:15:09To have said, taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.

0:15:16Those opposed to the measure say it is no good.

0:15:20But seem to just be anti-tax.

0:15:23As they don't say what they would do.

0:15:27The proposed measure is not a blank check.

0:15:32No money is collected until planning is undertaken.

0:15:37It lasts only 30 years after the issuance of construction bonds.

0:15:43And the money can only be used for library purposes.

0:15:49Our City Council will decide where the library will be after considering public input.

0:15:56I don't even measure all options are open.

0:16:01But without funding, all discussion is just talk.

0:16:06The library measure provides funding, nothing more and nothing less.

0:16:13If you want a new library, this measure is how you will get it. If you oppose this measure, then you cannot honestly be in favor of a new library.

0:16:25Thank you.

0:16:27Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our request to speak.

0:16:30Very good, thank you very much. Next, I'm going to switch things around here. We have… before presentations, I'd like to, pull consent item

0:16:44and that is number… C, and it's a proclamation recognizing a young man, Mario, Babalde.

0:16:56And, this is… so I'd like to pass this motion to approve a proclamation recognizing Mario Uvalde for his outstanding performance in the 2025 Olympic Hopes International Youth Diving Championship that was held in Budapest, Hungary.

0:17:15So… I'll move. Okay, I have a motion by… Councilmember,

0:17:23to my right, then, and a second from Councilmember to my left.

0:17:27May I have, a roll call, please? Certainly, Mayor Kintill? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman?

0:17:33Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Yes.

0:17:34Councilmember Katzanis Councilmember Motayama? Yes. Councilmember Weisinger?

0:17:41Councilmember Wysinger: Yes.

0:17:41And apologies for our remote participants, just a reminder that before the vote, you do need to make your disclosures, so if I can go back to, Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman?

0:17:54Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Yes, no one is present in the room with me, and I vote yes.

0:17:59Thank you, and Councilmember Weisinger?

0:18:00Councilmember Wysinger: No one is present in the room with me, and I vote yes.

0:18:04Perfect, thank you so much. Motion carries, Mayor. Very good. I would like to, read the proclamation, commending and congratulating Mario Ubalde for an outstanding performance in the Olympic Hope's International Youth Diving Championship in Hungary.

0:18:22Mario Ibalde, a student and lifelong resident of the City of El Cerrito, has distinguished himself through dedication, discipline, and excellence in the sport of competitive diving, and whereas at the Amateur Athletic Union, AAU,

0:18:37National Diving Championship. He won silver medals in both the 1 meter and 3-meter springboard events, thereby achieving all-American status in the event. And whereas.

0:18:50Through the exceptional multi-metal performance at the National Championships, he earned an invitation to represent the United States as a member of the AAU national team, and whereas, as a member of the national team, he traveled to Budapest, Hungary, where he

0:19:09proudly represented the United States at the Olympic Hopes International Youth Diving Championship, and whereas at the Olympic Hopes International Youth Diving Championship, he placed fifth overall, the highest finish attained by an American competitor

0:19:25in his division. Now, therefore, the City of El Cerrito and the City Council does hereby commend and honor Mario Uvalde for his outstanding athletic achievements in diving, his commitment to excellence, and for his being, bringing distinction

0:19:44to our city of El Cerrida through his accomplishments at both the national and international levels. This is dated February 3rd, 2026.

0:19:54Congratulations, and would you like to say a few words over here at the dais?

0:20:05Good evening.

0:20:06I'd just like to thank the City of El Cerrito for awarding me this proclamation, and I'd like to thank my family and my coaches for

0:20:15giving me the possibility to go to Hungary, and I'm just really grateful for all that. Thank you so much.

0:20:21Yeah, we are very, very proud of you. Would anyone here would like to make any comments?

0:20:27I'll just make a brief one.

0:20:29Thank you, Mayor. I just want to congratulate you, and also, I want to appreciate your dad that sent in the request for proclamation. I think it's really great for us to have the ability to honor and celebrate great things in El Cerrito, and

0:20:46you know, your recognition and your hard work, really shines a nice light on El Cerrito, so thank you. Thank you.

0:20:54Council. I just want to congratulate you as well, and…

0:20:57Thank you for representing the city of El Cerrito so beautifully. I'm curious, when you were in Hungary, did you get a chance to do any sightseeing, or was it all work, work, work? Well…

0:21:07I didn't just go to Hungary, I went to 4 other countries, and I got to go to many sites. I got to go, and I think I got to see a great, big clock tower, and it was really great, and lots of, lots of food.

0:21:23Very well. Congratulations. Thank you. Let's go to our Zoom meeting here.

0:21:33Any comments from my council members on Zoom?

0:21:37Okay, so, we are going to do a group photo, so, I'm sorry you guys are gonna miss this one.

0:21:46You can do by the picture if you want.

0:21:50Let's do that.

0:22:19Nice moment.

0:23:25First, I want to say congratulations to you and the family. I want to just have a shout out to Mr. Ovalde Sr. Thank you for your long-time service, as an educator elected official in Solana County. One of the longest,

0:23:43running local elected officials from the Filipino-American community. I salute you and thank you for your long-time service.

0:23:58Okay, next, we do have some, presentations, and the next is the auditor presentation on 2024-25 Audit and financial statements.

0:24:11You're going to receive and file this presentation. We have, Crystal, our, Finance Director.

0:24:19or a presentation.

0:24:22I thought Sheldon was gonna do this.

0:24:24Don't know who's gonna enter the present soon.

0:24:30Okay, just give me a second.

0:24:46Apologies, we need one minute for a technical setup.

0:26:45Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. I'm Crystal Reams, Finance Director, and this evening, here with me, virtually, I have Sheldon Siobhan. He is, Sheldon Siobhan's CPA, Managing Partner and Founder of Siobhan & Associates LLP. We are in our third year of our contract with Siobhan & Associates, and here tonight.

0:27:04We are going to be talking about the audit results.

0:27:07So, as you're aware, we finalized our fiscal year 24-25 audit and our annual comprehensive financial report, the ACFIR.

0:27:15We are really excited about this one, because this is the first time since 2013 that we have completed the audit and the ACR in time, so it's… that's a 12-31 deadline. So, we have submitted that to the Governmental Finance Officers Association for their Finance, Financial Reporting and Excellency Award.

0:27:35So we are really excited. I want to thank staff.

0:27:38And all the departments that have helped us compile this document, we are… we're extremely proud to bring you, accurate, timely financial information.

0:27:48So the ACFRA was posted to the City's website on 1-5, and it was presented to the Financial Advisory Board at their most recent meeting on January 27th.

0:27:58So with that, I will turn it over to Sheldon for his presentation.

0:28:04Sheldon Chavan (Auditor): Good evening. Can you please confirm you can hear me okay?

0:28:08Yes.

0:28:09Sheldon Chavan (Auditor): Alright, excellent.

0:28:10Here we are, once again, but this time we're looking at June 30, 2025,

0:28:15And as I typically like to do, we're going to talk about the audit process, and then the standards that we follow, and then we'll touch on the results, the most important part.

0:28:25And leave it open for any questions that you might have. So, first and foremost, the audit process, it's a four-phase audit process. The first phase includes the audit planning and preparation, which encompasses the risk assessment, which is driven by internal control documentation and testing.

0:28:40The internal control documentation includes walkthroughs and the identification of significant transaction classes. We're looking at different departments and the transactions that are material and significant at those departments, and we're looking at the city overall.

0:28:55We're focused on identifying key controls that will impact the audit, and that will help us plan the audit as we move forward.

0:29:02In Phase 2, we work with that audit plan, and we test the balances of the city for year-end.

0:29:08So we're looking at cash and investments and capital assets, accounts receivable, long-term debt, accounts payable. We spend quite a bit of time looking at cutoff, meaning what transactions should be recorded in the fiscal year June 30, 2025 audit period, and what should not. And then we also look at classifications, such as how fund balance is classified.

0:29:34Excuse me. The last part of that was the reporting phase, and the… Follow-up phase, sorry.

0:29:41I'll give you a cue on when to move forward on the, on the,

0:29:45slides, if I'm going too slow, go ahead and move forward. That'll tell me to keep… to talk faster or move faster. So we're doing this now, the audit reporting, and then, of course, the follow-up, which is, if there are any questions that result from the reporting, then we can answer those questions. Next slide, please.

0:30:00The standards that we follow include generally accepted auditing standards.

0:30:03in the United States of America, which are…

0:30:06are provided by the AICPA, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Generally accepted governmental auditing standards, GAGIS, that's provided by the GAO, the Government Accountability Office.

0:30:20And…

0:30:21Under these two standards, we have the same objective, and that objective is to express an opinion on the financial statements.

0:30:28The opinion that we express actually includes multiple opinion units within those financial statements, and this is the one time of the year that you actually get to have a reporting package that includes your consolidated balance sheet and income statement, otherwise known as your statement of net position and statement of activities.

0:30:48The statement of net position includes a government-wide presentation, including capital assets and long-term liabilities, such as your net pension liabilities and general obligation bonds, compensated absences. It includes things that we don't really like to mention out loud, deferred outflows and inflows for pension adjustments.

0:31:05And then statement of activities is really that long-term approach. It encompasses that full accrual accounting that we all want to see in the public sector, but from a government point of view.

0:31:17The responsibilities that we have in an audit is to provide our opinion using reasonable assurance. We can't absolute… we can't provide absolute assurance in an audit, because we sample and we don't test everything.

0:31:27Our audit, as I mentioned before, is risk-based, so we're trying to identify where the risk might be, that the financial statements might be materially misstated.

0:31:35Materiality is a concept that has evolved over the years, and we've finally settled into a point to where we can identify dollar amounts and thresholds, but then we also want to consider the qualitative aspect of what people might think is material.

0:31:48And of course, I mentioned before, internal controls, they're really the backbone of helping us perform our risk analysis and identifying what audit procedures we want to perform. However, we don't actually issue an opinion on internal controls. We issue an opinion on the financial statements.

0:32:06Next slide, please.

0:32:08The ACFRA includes a few different sections. It goes above and beyond what the Governmental Accounting Standards Board requires.

0:32:16The Section 2 is what's required by GASB.

0:32:20Right? That includes the financial statements.

0:32:23Our auditor's opinion letter, of course.

0:32:26The management's Discussion and Analysis, which is technically required supplementary information, and it's not audited, but it includes audited information.

0:32:36the notes to the financial statements. Section 2 is actually the financial section, by the way.

0:32:41And the required supplementary information, which includes the

0:32:47A budget to actual schedules for the general fund… general fund and major special revenue funds. And it also includes the net pension liability schedules that has a 10-year history, and the other post-employment benefit schedules.

0:33:00Supplementary information includes combining fund statements, so those non-major funds that aren't significant enough to present separately get combined. In the back, you can see the details for those. Now, Section 1 and Section 3 are what's extra.

0:33:12for the GFOA award, the Government Finance Officers Association Award, which was great that you made it on time, 1231 for that award. And so Section 1 and 3 include that additional information that's required to be able to receive that award.

0:33:28Next slide, please.

0:33:32A little financial information for you in a chart that will just give you an idea of what those government-wide financial statements look like from June 30, 2025, as compared to 2024. As you can see, 2025 is the blue graph, and 2024 are the red lines.

0:33:50fairly consistent from 24 to 25. You can see, really, capital assets went up, so that shows that you're spending money in areas of infrastructure and capital projects that need to be spent. It's really difficult to play around with the deferred inflows and outflows and get an idea of what those really mean, because those come from actuarial assumptions.

0:34:08Those plans are a year behind, but we're required to measure those a year behind and present those in the current fiscal year. And so if discount rates change, interest rates change, cost of living changes, things that go into those assumptions could really impact those deferred inflows and outflows. But the most important thing really is that

0:34:27unrestricted net position, and how that impacts the city is it's a long-term perception. So you want to think of the statement of net position and your net position overall as a 30-year approach. Those net pension liabilities really impact your net position as a city, as it does in California.

0:34:45For most cities, it puts you into a deficit position. Fund balance, though, is really the key to looking at the next 3 to 5 years, and maybe even 10 years, in terms of affordability of your pensions and your employees, and how you can provide services to the city.

0:34:59Next slide, please.

0:35:01Sheldon Chavan (Auditor): Total government revenue by category. Again, this is on the government-wide presentation, so all your funds consolidated, combined, and presented on a full accrual basis.

0:35:10So, charges for services, again, 2025 is the blue, and 2024 is the red, so charges for services are slightly up. Operating grants and contributions were up significantly in terms of percentage.

0:35:22Capital grants, again, up significantly in terms of percentage. Taxes were just a little higher, but your other revenues, which includes a lot of miscellaneous items, like local contributions and just those missed items that you'll find throughout the year, were slightly lower.

0:35:38Next slide, please.

0:35:41The expenses by function for the government-wide financial statement, so this is what you'll find in your statement of activities.

0:35:50were…

0:35:53In line with revenues overall, so you can see general government went up slightly, but the most significant one was public safety. That went up quite a bit. Now, these are impacted by those pension conversion entries, pension adjustments for assumptions and whatnot.

0:36:09So if you look at your fund statement of revenues and expenditures and changes in fund balance, and compare it to the statement of activities, and go line by line and look at your programs by department, general government, public works, recreation, community development, public safety, you'll see they're different.

0:36:24Right? And that's because of those different methodologies, different presentation bases for… that's required by GASB for each of those statements.

0:36:33Next slide, please.

0:36:35Looking at the integrated waste management, business-type activities, so charges for services were up a little bit, and then the operating expenses overall were up almost in line with the charges for services, which is what we're… what you like to see, is that that business-type activity is self-sustaining.

0:36:54Next slide, please.

0:36:56-Oh, we gave you the audit results all in one? We're supposed to give… have those come out slow, so we don't just…

0:37:01Give it to everybody too soon.

0:37:03It's like giving the steak before the potato, right?

0:37:06Or if you're a vegetarian, maybe some, something like the eggplant or the potato. So, getting you to the point, the audit results are great, no exceptions in the audit opinions. This means that we issued an unmodified opinion, so when you look at the independent auditors report, which is at the front, probably page 40, I think, maybe not quite that, page 35, sorry, I apologize, page 12 of the audit report, I would think.

0:37:26You'll see the very first paragraph of that independent auditor's report talks about our opinion, and it says that it's unmodified. We feel that the financial statements are free of material misstatement. We didn't have any material weaknesses to report to the Council.

0:37:41Nor did we have any significant deficiencies. And you can have a material weakness without having material auto-adjustments, and you can have significant deficiencies without having material weaknesses, but in this case, we have neither.

0:37:53Management was nice to us this year, like they are every year, so they didn't disagree with any of our recommendations.

0:37:59And we did not have any significant pass-on adjustments. A pass-on adjustment is really…

0:38:04it's more in depth than materiality. We take materiality, and we go really low to identify a threshold, of items that we want to accumulate, because what our concern is, if you have an established threshold for materiality, but then you have numerous items that

0:38:23do not meet that threshold, they pass.

0:38:25Well, the aggregate might become material, and so we established this very low threshold to evaluate the aggregate of those items, and so we didn't have anything, and then we'd be required to report that, too, if we found something of that nature, so we didn't have anything that met that requirement.

0:38:40So there you go, you get my stamp of approval on the audit. It went very well during the year, and again, just one number I wanted to touch on is that the pensions were fairly consistent, so your net pension liability is fairly consistent from 24 to 25. Actually went down a little bit, so we'll see what happens this year as we move into 26.

0:38:59Any questions or comments, I'd be happy to answer them.

0:39:02Thank you very much. First, we'll go to the Zoom

0:39:07And, do any of my, colleagues have any questions? Or Crystal, or the auditor, Shelton?

0:39:18Okay, no ques… Yes, Councilmember Weisinger?

0:39:21Councilmember Wysinger: Thank you so much, Mayor. I just had a quick question about, our reserves, and I just want to, you know, give a thank you to our city… city staff that's been so diligent coming from where the city has come from before we got on the Council to bring us to this point. Just to… to you all, given where our reserves are, and that they do exceed the best practice thresholds.

0:39:44What do you think should guide us when we do and don't draw them down going into the next cycle?

0:39:54Sheldon Chavan (Auditor): So, Crystal, would you like me to answer that question? I think it sounds more like a management…

0:39:58Question there?

0:40:00Sheldon, if you wanted to provide your general feedback, I think the Council would appreciate that, and then I can answer specific questions.

0:40:08Sheldon Chavan (Auditor): Absolutely. I think your reserves are terrific.

0:40:10You have an emergency reserve that's set up, an emergency disaster reserve that's set up. Now, it's not a committed amount, by the way.

0:40:17So, from an accounting standpoint, governmental accounting standards, if you don't have it as an emergency reserve or a stabilization reserve set up as a council commitment, then it automatically diverts to unassigned.

0:40:31but classified as a subcategory of unassigned.

0:40:36you know, it's a technicality in the presentation of the audit report, but overall, the same concept is there, is that you've set aside $7.5 million as of June 30, 2025, to fund emergency disaster relief. Now, that is…

0:40:51You know, that technicality affords you the ability to move that money around a little easier, because had it been committed as a reserve instead of, unassigned.

0:41:02classification reserve. You would have a little bit more…

0:41:07policy to go through in terms of moving that money around, so if your concern was that your reserves are too high compared to other cities, then you have more flexibility there at June 30-25 to move that money around as needed. There is quite a bit there for you in unassigned to

0:41:22allocate to commit, so I am a fan of if you have the opportunity, and that's… that's the one thing that you… you get when you start to see the… the city's records and the… and the presentation and the accountability and the financial statements.

0:41:36You know, everything's moved in the right direction. Everything's gone a lot cleaner over the last couple, three years. And so it gives you the opportunity to now work on some of the finer details, like, okay, maybe we need to commit more money.

0:41:46maybe we need to assign more money. And so I think that's a good idea for the city moving forward, to look at those concepts of, can we commit something towards future needs, more so than we have in the past?

0:41:59Thanks, Sheldon. I'll just add a little bit onto that, Crystal Raine, Spanish writer.

0:42:05we're ending with the 24.3 unrestricted, which does include, or the unassigned, which does include what Sheldon said, the 7.5.

0:42:13But looking at our long-term forecast, we still know that we have, some structural issues that we need to take care of. So, on the budgeting side, that is our main focus for… for this fiscal year. So, we know we're in a stable situation. We have reserves to cover, you know, emergencies, but now we need to gear ourself more in that proactive.

0:42:36Versus being reactive, so including, including our deferred maintenance costs, including our equipment and asset replacement costs.

0:42:43And showing those and starting to allocate more of our funds in a responsible manner towards that. So while we do have a stable… a stable reserve, now we need to work on keeping it stable and maintaining, maintaining and improving and stuff.

0:42:58Stop being reactive and focus on being more proactive.

0:43:01Councilmember Wysinger: Thank you for that, and Crystal, while I got you, I didn't know if that was Crystal or Claire, because I can't see you. But, you know, we're looking around and seeing a lot of different cities in different financial positions, and we're all kind of struggling with the pension cost and how it's going to be affecting our budgets. You know, can you talk a little bit about how it's going to affect our general fund flexibility, say, over, like, the next 10 years?

0:43:25Especially if we're… if we have a… any economic downturn or any shakeups such as that.

0:43:32Yeah, of course. As per our general fund forecast, the next 10 years are, are a little rough for the pension, and that's where, we've worked with NHA advisors.

0:43:43and with, utilizing our Section 115 that the Council has dedicated funds to, I think we're right about $3 million in that fund right now. So utilizing, that, which is a restricted portion of our general fund that can only be used for pension-related expenses. So using that in a strategic way to help smooth out our pension contributions over those years where it really,

0:44:07really peaks is going to be key to maintaining, maintaining any sort of general fund balance through this time.

0:44:15Councilmember Wysinger: Thank you.

0:44:16Hey, Councilmember Cosanas.

0:44:19Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Sheldon, for your presentation, and Crystal, congratulations on… Thank you. Meeting all the deadlines, and…

0:44:28Impressive. I just have one question. At the very beginning, it was mentioned that it was presented to FAB, and I'm just curious, was there any feedback from FAB? Was there any kind of report come from them, or…

0:44:39What did FAB say? Of course, yeah, no, they did, they made a recommendation or comment, but we did not make it in time for, to submit that for this agenda. I'm not sure if our FAB chair is in the audience.

0:44:55They, they did have a statement prepared to, to convey, but I mean, it was all positive things. They did review it. I don't believe they had anything negative to say, but you will see that in the next, they'll come as a consent item in the next council meeting.

0:45:08Thank you. Councilmember Motillama.

0:45:14Thank you, Mayor. I have just a few questions. I'll keep it short because I see there's people waiting in the back.

0:45:24I just wanted to, understand on page 12, recycling revenue was only 12 cents? Is that a typo?

0:45:35So I… that one, I didn't see…

0:45:38which page… page 12, I don't think my page numbers converted to your page numbers, but if it was 12 cents, no, that is not correct.

0:45:44The recycling, so let's see, the recycling revenue, was not included on my page 12. The recycling revenue is included in the charges for services on page 14, and it was just over $4.3 million. So it was on… on the slide that Sheldon showed, it was under the business-type activities, charges for services.

0:46:03Thank you. And then… Because the unfunded liability is so important to us to understand.

0:46:11There's all these percentages that are shown, like in page 93 and 94, to say what percentage of the pension cost

0:46:21is covered. So, it looks like, for example, for safety, that it's, 93% of pension costs. So what exactly does that mean?

0:46:35Perfect, that's a very, very good question. So on page 93, that is the schedule of pension contributions, the normal and the UAL for the past 10 years. And so, what that 93.96% that you're referencing, what that is, is the pension contributions reflected as a percent of the covered payroll. So, covered payroll means

0:46:56any payroll expenses that are subject to CalPERS.

0:46:59And so, our required

0:47:01Pension contributions for safety were equivalent to 93.96 of the covered payroll expense, meaning we almost paid as much in pension costs as we did for, normal pension costs.

0:47:17Thank you, and then, the other percentage is on page 94, which is the 833%

0:47:25of salary for net pension liability, and I'm… again, I'm picking on public safety, but it's just a percentage that jumped out at me. So what does that mean? Yeah, of course, so the one… you were looking at the 833%, which, yes, that's a very… that seems very outlandish. But again, so that is a comparison, and so one of the,

0:47:44requirements is that we break out these pensions by safety and non-safety, and I hate to pick on safety, but safety is the more expensive, and so this table is showing the breakdown of miscellaneous and safety, and it's the portions of the net pension liability as a percentage of that same covered payroll. And so, because they're a larger portion, they are… they are…

0:48:07Absorbing, or they are responsible for, a larger part of that net pension liability.

0:48:12Okay, thank you. And then,

0:48:16One last question. On page 113, it goes into a breakdown of Measure H funds, so it looks like there's only $50,000 in capital expense, but there's other costs, so what… what were those other costs? Was it… I think there's a criticism that all these things go to staff.

0:48:35Is that correct? No. So actually, for Measure H, there is no staff, staff time charge there. This fund covers the landscape and park maintenance services, infrastructure repair, maintenance services, and utilities, and so none of those are actually considered capital costs. They don't extend the life or improve the life of any of the assets.

0:48:55And so those are just directly expensed. There is a small portion that goes to, to capital projects.

0:49:02And that was what you're seeing, and that's the roughly $50,000 in the… in the capital outlay. But again, there's no… no staff charges, there at… for fiscal year 25. It's just all of the contracted services that we contract out for, this type of maintenance.

0:49:16Thank you.

0:49:18Okay,

0:49:19I just want to say congratulations on this audit, and I want to thank Sheldon for your continued service in being one of our auditors. Very much appreciate that. And I remember through the years, we were told.

0:49:34To, you know, let's, let's try different auditors, like, perhaps every 5 years, so that seems to be working, and, Sheldon, thank you for,

0:49:47this presentation, once again. So we're… this is going to be filed

0:49:52And, we'll go to,

0:49:56Sheldon Chavan (Auditor): Our next.

0:49:58Thing, which is, 6, we're gonna move things around again. I have a…

0:50:07First, we're going to approve a proclamation honoring Firefighter paramedic James Van Wyck as Firefighter of the Year in the City of El Cerrito.

0:50:17Do I have a motion? I'll move. Do I have a second?

0:50:20A second. So I have a motion and a second. Madam City Clerk, please call roll. Thank you, Mayor Kintill? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman?

0:50:28Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: No one is the… is in the room with me, and I vote yes.

0:50:31Thank you. Councilmember Kitsanas? Yes. Councilmember Motiamo? Yes. Councilmember Weisinger?

0:50:37Councilmember Wysinger: No one is in the room with me, and I vote yes.

0:50:40Thank you. Motion carries. Great, so I want to invite, Chief Eric Sailors and Firefighter Vendwick to the podium to provide comments and receive the

0:50:54Good evening. Thank you.

0:50:55Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Eric Silors, I'm your Fire Chief. This is one of my favorite days of the year, when you get to recognize our Firefighter of the Year.

0:51:03So, how we do this in the fire department is we actually do a survey, because the Firefighter of the year is feedback based on our fellow firefighters. We send out a survey, and we ask for feedback and comments, and I was not surprised when, overwhelmingly, the survey came back for a firefighter paramedic James Wick.

0:51:20He has done so much in the short time that he's been here, it's actually surprising, and it was hard to fit onto the proclamation. So not only does he volunteer to manage our EMS funds and all of our EMS ordering, but also when we purchase those EKG monitors.

0:51:37A few years back, he stepped up and volunteered to configure them and develop curriculum and train the entire fire department on them, because they were a new device.

0:51:45Coupled with also the mechanical CPR machines. And then, when we started upgrading our records management system and getting our electronic patient care system up into the 21st century, he volunteered to help us configure that as well, learned both of those systems, then helped

0:52:02Train other firefighters.

0:52:04So, he has done all this in his first 5 years, which is phenomenal, because it's one heck of a high bar to set for a firefighter who has just stepped into this career.

0:52:15And it is a reminder to me that fire department only has two civilian staff that work for it. That means all the other administrative processes have to be carried by other firefighters.

0:52:28And it is unique to this fire department, where almost everybody has some sort of external job that is, in addition to responding to calls, staying competent at their job, going into burning buildings, and then they come back and they do some sort of administrative task.

0:52:44And it is just an honor and a pleasure to work with firefighter James Van Wyck, and to see him succeed so much in such a short period of time. And I want to give him the opportunity in case he wants to say anything.

0:52:56Thank you, James.

0:53:05Good evening, Mayor Quinto, and the entire City, El Cerrito City Council, and City Staff.

0:53:11I am humbled and honored to receive this distinguishment from my fellow firefighters tonight.

0:53:16I would first and foremost like to thank my wife, Haley.

0:53:20who has shown her unwavering love and support and patience in this journey through the fire service, and with the additional projects I took on last year.

0:53:29I'm thankful to be in an apartment with such excellent group of mentors and leaders, and without their guidance, I would not be the firefighter that I am today.

0:53:38I'd like to recognize and thank Captain Trezerek for leading by example and demonstrating every day what it means to be a firefighter.

0:53:45You are truly a man of integrity. I'd like to thank Captain Figueroa for being the pillar in establishing the paramedic program here in El Cerrito, and for always lending advice and perspective when needed.

0:53:56I'd like to thank Brendan Navalier, and not only congratulate her again on her retirement, but to thank her for how integral she was in aiding in our department and the EMS staff assignment.

0:54:07I'd like to thank the Battalion chief staff and chief sailors.

0:54:11For all the time they've had dedicated to making this department better each and every day.

0:54:16And I'd like to recognize and thank all the firefighters here.

0:54:19Not only in this room, but in our fire department, for all the work that they do. We are a team, and this recognition tonight is a reflection of our department

0:54:29as a whole, And… The work with my fire… the work that my firefighters have done collect…

0:54:36The work that the firefighters have done collectively.

0:54:39And I would like to thank the community and the City Council for their continued support to the Fire Department in ensuring that we have the resources and budget to be able to live up to the standards set forth in our mission statement, to serve this community, to ensure high-quality patient care, and to save property.

0:54:58I've taken a lot of pride in the EMS staff assignment, and…

0:55:03Chief Sailors was kind enough to highlight some of those things.

0:55:06Notably were the cardiac monitors that went into service, the new documentation platform, and implementation of new equipment video laryngoscopes.

0:55:16And all of these changes have a positive impact on the community.

0:55:19And I'd like to take… I'd like to highlight one call in particular of many that stood out in 2025.

0:55:27On September 19th, 2025, Captain Yoon, Engineer Sesmat, and Engineer Thatcher

0:55:34All responded to a cardiac arrest call in the middle of the night for an adult patient.

0:55:39They delivered high-quality CPR, defibrillated with the patient's heart with the new LifePak 35 monitors that was included in the budget process.

0:55:48They restored this patient's heartbeat, blood pressure, and circulation prior to being transported to the hospital.

0:55:54Less than two weeks later, this patient walked and knocked on the front door of the fire station.

0:56:00He was able to thank one of the members on that call.

0:56:03It is because of the professionalism and excellence of these firefighters and the use of reliable medical equipment

0:56:10That this call had that outcome that it did.

0:56:13Tonight reflects the teamwork and accomplishments of all of the firefighters here at El Cerrito, and your continued support. Thank you.

0:56:44Do we have any, comments for,

0:56:47our honoree. We'll start here with, Councilmember Motion. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for all you've done. It's clear that you're not just a firefighter, you have this immense

0:57:00Systems brain, so thank you for saving people, and also for making the fire department more efficient, and congratulations on your award.

0:57:10Councilmember Cassanis. So, similar thoughts. Thank you very much. One thing that struck with me as you said your thank yous, it just kind of sunk into me more and more about how complex your job is.

0:57:21And I really appreciate that as a learning opportunity. Your thank yous went beyond thank you, they went into education.

0:57:29Congratulations.

0:57:31We'll go to our, Zoom, here. Any comments from… we'll go to, Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman. Go ahead.

0:57:39Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Just briefly, thank you so much for your service, and

0:57:44Everything you said that showed that the department is really a team, and all of the accomplishments there are really a team effort, and you're a big part of it, so thank you and congratulations.

0:57:57Councilmember Weisinger.

0:57:58Councilmember Wysinger: Yes, I just wanted to say congratulations, and I'm always, you know, very heartened by how much of a… not just a team, but a loving team and family that our fire department and all of our public safety is, so thank you again for your service.

0:58:15Great. I, I want to read the, the, two whereas, Firefighter Van Wyk.

0:58:22Consistently demonstrates professionalism, humility, integrity, and a positive attitude.

0:58:30Earning the respect of his peers and being selected by his colleagues as the 2026 Firefighter of the Year for his exemplary leadership, dedication, and service to the department. Now, therefore.

0:58:45The City of Council of the City of El Cerrito does hereby commend and congratulate Firefighter James Van Wyk on the occasion of his recognition as Firefighter of the Year.

0:58:58The City Council extends sincere appreciation to Firefighter James Venwick for his devotion to the community and residents of El Cerrito. This is dated today, February 3rd, 2026.

0:59:13Go have a photo with them, and then we'll do a group photo with the firefighters.

0:59:59A group photo with our… one of the firefighters.

1:00:05I personally hope so.

1:00:11I'm like, yeah, me too. You want to step forward and support online?

1:00:32Come here, Joe. All right, hang on. Okay.

1:01:03No worries, thank you. Thank you very much.

1:01:23Okay, next we will go to… Adoption of the consent calendar.

1:01:35Okay, we have…

1:01:41A Black History Month Proclamation, B, Lunar New Year Proclamation.

1:01:46E, 2025, meeting report for Boards, Commissions, and Committees. F,

1:01:51Second quarter cash and investment report. G, resolution expressing solidarity with the City of Minneapolis.

1:01:59H, amendment to existing agreement with Avila Project Management for on-call engineering and project management services. I, amendment to existing professional services with TRB Associates for on-call inspection, plan check, and other jurisdictional services.

1:02:19Would anyone like to pull an item from the consent calendar?

1:02:24I have questions. Okay, questions on…

1:02:29Mayor Quinto, there is a hand for the request to pull items. Oh, sure, sure. Well, okay, Councilmember Weisinger.

1:02:38Councilmember Wysinger: Yes, I wanted to, give comments on item G.

1:02:43Item G, okay.

1:02:49Yes, go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I would like to make a comment on item A.

1:02:56And… I have a question on item F.

1:03:02And I have a comment on item G.

1:03:05And I have a question on item I.

1:03:08Okay, why don't you go first? Okay, thank you. On item A, Black History Month Proclamation, I just want to let people know that the City Hall Gallery has an exhibit on the art of the African diaspora now through March 2nd.

1:03:22And the reception will be on Friday, February 20th, from 6 to 7 30 p.m, and if you have a chance, please go look at it, because it's really wonderful.

1:03:34Nope.

1:03:35And then… okay.

1:03:37Did I keep going? Yes. Okay.

1:03:39And then on item F, I have a question,

1:03:49Thank you, Finance Director.

1:03:53So, I have a question. So, it looks like we have two accounts at Mechanics Bank. One is the money market fund, and it does have a higher interest rate, and then the… just a regular account, and I was wondering why we can't consolidate those two and have more interest on that smaller account.

1:04:10Because it's small, but it's still $2.8 million. Oh, okay, so yes, you're referring to our general checking, and okay, so the general checking, we keep enough in there for payroll and outstanding,

1:04:21outstanding checks. So, I do try and monitor it on a daily basis to keep the cash balance as low as possible, so that way it is then transferring it to the money market account, where it does earn more interest.

1:04:35We can't combine them because of the type of accounts that they are, but we do… we do monitor and try and only keep a small amount in our general checking, but

1:04:44usually at the end of the month, it's usually payroll, and, depending on when checks are issued, would you have to keep money in there for outstanding checks, because there is no automatic sweep feature. Okay. And then, on the 115 trust, is there, like, an annualized return, or… I know…

1:05:02we said we wanted to invest in something moderately conservative. Is it invested now, and how is it performing? It didn't look so good. Yes, so the Section 115 is invested in a moderately conservative index, which was recommended by the Financial Advisory Board and presented to the Council, which the Council did adopt.

1:05:22That is the moderately conservative

1:05:26portfolio is, based off of time. So because of the, timeframe that we were going to be expecting to use the Section 115, it's advised to put it in a lower risk, so it's a little bit more stable. The…

1:05:44I do want to start including, there's a quarterly update that comes with the,

1:05:50from our… from PARS and, our investment advisor.

1:05:55But unfortunately, it does not come out in a very timely manner. So we can either delay bringing the cash and investment report, where you can kind of see some of the overall trends in that, or we can also provide it at a later update when it's issued. It still hasn't been issued. But the actual returns, because it is subject to a little bit more market volatility, the one-month investment performance was a good

1:06:20only a gain of about .03, and the 3-month was, 1.49%, and the 1-year was a 10.58. So there is a little bit more fluctuation in, in that, because it's in a, it's in a portfolio, so it's not just a standard, interest rate that we're, that we're receiving.

1:06:40Thank you very much. Okay, did you have a question on G?

1:06:46Yes, so… or it was more of a…

1:06:50comment on G, but I can hold my comment until Councilmember gets honest.

1:06:55Okay, Councilmember Weisinger, do you have…

1:06:59Councilmember Wysinger: I can also hold my comments till after Councilmember Cassanis.

1:07:03Councilman Cassandra. I don't really have any comments beyond the…

1:07:07resolution, except that I want to thank and acknowledge Councilmember Mayor Pro Tem Salzman for her help with it, and feedback and suggestions, and it was a collaborative effort.

1:07:18Thank you.

1:07:22Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. My comment that I want to make on this item is just that

1:07:27I want to get the word out about our county resources for immigrants. So, Stand Together Contra Costa is our rapid response legal services and community education program to support safety and justice for immigrant communities, and you can call them

1:07:43at 925-900-5151 to report ICE actions, or you can go to their website, StandTogethercontraCosta1word.org, to get more resources. So, I want to make sure that people have that information if they need it.

1:08:00Thank you very much. Councilmember Weiss.

1:08:03Councilmember Wysinger: Thank you so much, Mayor, and I definitely want to,

1:08:07overwhelmingly support this resolution. I wanted to make sure, because we've kind of set a standard here at El Cerrito, that when we do such resolutions, that we're making sure that we are either highlighting processes and policies that we already have towards this effort, because it's clearly in line with our values, or talking about how we can update our policies and practices to strengthen them. And I remember last year when

1:08:31there was, initial escalation of possible ICE presence in our city, we did go ahead, I, myself and our, our city staff, Will Provost, put out a statement that reiterated our sanctuary City policy and how it did, it did,

1:08:48seek to protect our community members in these type of situations, but we've also seen a further escalation, not just in Minneapolis, but here in Contra Costa County, not even specifically of just ICE themselves, but of, unfortunately, of bad actors who are using this as an opportunity to pose as ICE or to put fear, and everything in such communities. So I wanted to, on top of just supporting

1:09:13supporting the resolution, I wanted to make sure that we are not just supporting Minneapolis, but that we are looking at ways that we can strengthen our efforts in this, regard. I was… I know that Pinole did actually do a, a legislative item in regards to ICE presence in their city. I wasn't really able to find theirs, but I was able to find, the policy packet that Philadelphia put together called the ICE Out Packet.

1:09:37I was very proud that actually a lot of the things that they have in their packet are things that are already contained in our sanctuary city policy, but I wanted to, kind of impress upon or encourage our legislative team and possibly our city attorney to look into some of the items that I'm not certain if they are covered under our sanctuary city policy. So things like prohibiting use of unmarked vehicles or concealed identities and enforcement actions, that's one of the big ones.

1:10:02I remember last year, some community members reached out and said, I think we saw ice at Home Depot, and it turned out that it wasn't. It was actually individuals who were concealing their identities. So we want to make sure that we have language in our policies and ordinance in regards to that, making sure that we have the correct language in regards to limiting collaboration between local agencies and federal enforcement bodies, which I believe that we do.

1:10:25But just, you know, again, also looking at that and making sure that we have that.

1:10:29Protecting access to city services regardless of immigration status. I know that that's in our sanctuary city policy, and also restricting use of city-owned spaces without judicial process. I'm pretty sure that that is also in a sanctuary city, but again, what I just want to make sure that we're doing is in this time of escalation, that we're making sure that every effort that we have to protect our community members in this time of great concern, that we have done that, and that we're always

1:10:54being processed forward, because that's what we normally do when we're talking about supporting efforts in other cities or other jurisdictional areas, making sure that we are strengthening our policies and procedures here in El Cerrito. But otherwise, I definitely support this item and looking forward to voting for it.

1:11:11Thank you very much. I will note… go to Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman.

1:11:16Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: First, just want to thank, Councilmember Cassanis for doing the hard work on this. I helped a tiny bit, but he really did the heavy lifting, and I appreciate him bringing this forward. Obviously, I'm going to support it. And then, just to Councilmember Weissinger's comments about Pinole, I just happened to see, Councilmember Sasai on Thursday night after this had already been submitted.

1:11:41And got to chat with him about what Pinole did, and I think that is a model to look at. So, he has shared that with me, and Councilmember, I'm happy to share it with you, and something I might be bringing forward at a later date.

1:11:55Wonderful. For my comment, I want to say thank you to Councilmember Casanis for all the work that you have done on this. El Cerrito continues to be a melting pot and a diverse community, and we'll welcome all

1:12:09people to El Cerrito, to live, to work, to play, and a place to work. So, again, we're all in this together. You know, I have, deep, deep concerns regarding due process and,

1:12:25And that is missing there on the federal level, what we are seeing. I know they have a job to do, but racial profiling does not include, and the harassment of our communities of color.

1:12:40This is not acceptable, not acceptable here in the City of El Cerrito. So,

1:12:47Thank you for that again, and thank you to Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman for your work on this. So, I want to see if I have an adoption of the consent calendar. Do I have a motion on A, B, E, F, G, H, and I? I'll move.

1:13:04Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Exactly.

1:13:04We have a second. Okay, we have a motion by, Motayama and a second by Saltzman. Madam City Clerk. Thank you, Mayor Kinto? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman?

1:13:14Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: No one is in the room with me, and I vote yes.

1:13:17Councilmember Katzanes?

1:13:18Yes. Councilmember Motuyama? Yes. Councilmember Weisinger?

1:13:23Councilmember Wysinger: No one is in the room with me, and I vote yes.

1:13:25Thank you. Motion carries. Okay, great. Now we'll go to,

1:13:30Policy matters. We have the 2026 state legislative platform.

1:13:35Do we have a staff report? Yes, we do, Mayor. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Alex Zorlogis, your Assistant City Manager. We are bringing forth tonight the proposed 2026 state legislative platform for our great city.

1:13:52As the City Council will recall, this is the City's second year with a formal state legislative platform, which was first reviewed in a study session back in February 2025, and formally adopted that April.

1:14:06This platform builds on that foundation and reflects current legislative activity and the city's priorities.

1:14:14It also provides a clear framework for state advocacy, allowing the city to engage proactively and consistently on legislation and budget issues that may affect the City's programs, operations, and fiscal health.

1:14:29Key updates proposed this year, and CPBG will go into this more in depth, include explicitly adding the city's opposition to efforts that would limit local authority

1:14:41Over real estate transfer taxes and strengthening positions related to first responder preparedness and emerging risks associated with electronic vehicles and lithium-ion batteries.

1:14:54And adoption of this platform also reaffirms the city's advocacy process. This includes when advocacy letters may be signed that are clearly consistent

1:15:06with the legislative platform, and alternatively, when items falling outside of the platform need to return to the City Council for consideration.

1:15:16I have a great example of this platform in action, which occurred in the final days of the 2025 legislative session.

1:15:25As you may remember, SB423 was a gut and amend bill being circulated at the last minute to limit cities' abilities to impose real estate transfer taxes, among other things, which in turn would have had a huge, significant impact to our city.

1:15:42But, thankfully, because we had this legislative platform in place, CPPG was able to work with staff, to work to coordinate with then-Mayor Weisinger to formally oppose the proposal within hours, and work with various statewide partners.

1:15:58That's really a simplified version of what really happened that happened late into the hours of the night, and it reflects the work of many people, especially Councilmember Saltzman, who was instrumental in reaching out to Assemblymember Wicks and Senator Aragin's offices that evening.

1:16:16With that said, I want to thank you in advance for your input and consideration this evening, and I'll turn it over to Dane and Ethan with California Public Policy Group to walk through the platform in more detail and highlight the key changes proposed for 2026. Thank you.

1:16:35Ethan Nagler (CPPG): Thank you, Alex, and good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. It's a pleasure and an honor to be with you. I'm here with Dane Hutchings to present your 2026 legislative platform.

1:16:47as well as an overview of 2025, and looking forward, to the rest of this year. So I'm going to share…

1:16:57My screen here.

1:17:12Okay, so first I'll be going over some of the highlights of the 2025 legislative Session.

1:17:20So we had more than 430 individual touchpoints for the city in 2025, and a touchpoint means any time we connected with your staff or with the legislature or the administration on the city's behalf.

1:17:35In terms of legislation, we tracked more than 910 bills on behalf of the city, and we achieved the desired outcome on 62% of the bills that the city positioned on.

1:17:46So here are some examples of legislation that the city either

1:17:51Tracked or positioned on in 2025.

1:17:56excuse me, we tracked Assembly Bill 339, which requires public agencies to give a recognized employee organization no less than 45 days written notice regarding contracts to perform services, and that was signed into law.

1:18:12We also tracked SB707, which requires city councils in certain population categories, including the City of El Cerrito, to allow remote public comment during all open meetings, and that was also signed into law.

1:18:29The city had a support position on Senate Bill 63 by Senator Scott Weiner, which authorizes a new special district to place a sales tax measure on this year's general statewide ballot to fund public transportation in the Bay Area.

1:18:44Including BART.

1:18:46The City also had a support position on Assembly Bill 330 by Chris Rogers, which continues the collection of prepaid wireless surcharges

1:18:56at the point of sale, the revenue of which is then distributed to local governments. And at this point, I will pass it to Dane to discuss SB 423 and transfer taxes more generally.

1:19:10Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Hey, thanks, Ethan, and good evening, Mayor and Council. As Alex from the team already mentioned, this was

1:19:18certainly a team effort, and, you know, was one of those ones that happens, you know, more often than we'd like. As I've said before, I wish that the state legislature had the,

1:19:31was as deliberate as local government was in policymaking, and as thoughtful as local government is in policymaking. But nonetheless, you know, I think… and the reason why we wanted to shine a light on this one was because

1:19:45what you actually saw in print, SB423, that was actually the victory. That was the… that was what the end result was. What you didn't see.

1:19:55In the hours leading up to this bill being formally introduced in the 11th hour were the three draft non-public versions of the bill.

1:20:04running through, being heavily lobbied by very powerful interest groups that would have essentially put on ice, for 15 years, your real estate transfer taxes, undermining your voter-approved, initiative locally. And that one was, I mean, we, we really…

1:20:23You know, we fought very hard in driving awareness on this and saying, look, if there are certain jurisdictions that want this authorization, let's limit it to those jurisdictions.

1:20:35And so when you… so what you saw in SB423 was limited just to the city of LA and them alone. And of course, at that point, it did not garner enough support to advance, but let us not, you know, let us be clear. This issue, will not, be going away. There is efforts underway by both

1:20:58Southern California lawmakers and Bay Area lawmakers to introduce a bill very much like SB423, so it will be coming back, given the city's just absolute stellar record on

1:21:13Housing, housing production, the things that you are doing to incentivize housing in your communities.

1:21:18We felt that we wanted to propose this statement to really make a clear message to our delegation where we stand on this, and then provides us an opportunity to provide greater education about what we're doing and how we're doing it. And so it's one of the reasons why we have

1:21:33That is a proposed amendment to the platform this evening. And with that, I'll kick it back over to Ethan, and then I'll wrap it up once he's done.

1:21:47Ethan Nagler (CPPG): Thank you, Dane. So, wanted to go over a little bit about, what we're seeing in 2026 and looking ahead for the rest of this year. In terms of the major policy themes this year, we're seeing, local government revenue, as Dane just, discussed, e-bikes.

1:22:04Has been a big thing popping up very recently. Housing and land use, of course, always a big issue. CEQA cleanup, election year politics, and also immigration.

1:22:15In terms of legislative update of what's already happened this year, the 2026-2027 budget proposal was released by the governor on January 9th, and that budget proposed a $348 billion general fund.

1:22:31and included a $2.9 billion deficit, and we will likely see those numbers change slightly by the time the final budget is adopted in June.

1:22:42As of today, about several hundred pieces of legislation have been introduced so far. We are anticipating at least another 2,000 more bills over the next 3 weeks

1:22:53to be introduced by the bill introduction deadline, which is on February 20th.

1:22:57And finally, Senator Monique Limon from Santa Barbara has assumed the office of the Senate President Pro Tem.

1:23:05This happened, very recently. She took over from Senator Mike McGuire out of the, Santa Rosa area.

1:23:16Oh, I'm sorry,

1:23:18Wanted to go give you a brief update on your legislative delegation. Senator Jesse Aragin is the new chair of the Senate Housing Committee, and he remains chair also of the Senate Public Safety Committee.

1:23:32He also remains a member of the Senate Local Government Committee, which is one of the committees that we track most closely.

1:23:39Assemblymember Buffy Wicks remains chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, and she is also the chair of the newly formed Assembly Select Committee on Housing Construction Innovation.

1:23:53So now I wanted to just give a brief background on the legislative platform before we dive into those, specific statements. The platform is aligned with the City's Strategic Plan 2024 through 2029,

1:24:08And it has, really, two purposes. The first is to communicate the city's state policy priorities to the public, the legislature, and the administration.

1:24:18And the second purpose is to provide direction to city staff and state representatives regarding the city's funding and policy.

1:24:25priorities. And so this year, there are no modifications of existing legislative platform statements. There are three

1:24:34statements being proposed, and we chose these statements based on emerging legislative trends that we're seeing. So I will now pass it back to Dane to discuss those three statements.

1:24:48Dane Hutchings (CPPG): Thanks, Ethan. Go ahead, next slide.

1:24:52So, as we…

1:24:54As we discussed, you know, we're proposing the following opposed legislation or ballot measures that would reduce, eliminate, or otherwise limit the city's authority to levy real estate or document transfer taxes.

1:25:08Now, technically, the document transfer tax happens at the county level, but the city is a recipient

1:25:12Of, of that dollar, of those, of those dollars. document transfer taxes was also one of the other

1:25:20key components in these, in these drafts that were circulating, and in the 11th hour last year, so we wanted to really make sure our bases were… were covered, on that, and so that's… that's the, the first, statement. Next slide.

1:25:41The next two, you know, really are not only wanting to recognize some of the emerging policy trends, but also a reflection of our conversations with your fire chief, and as you all recognize the excellence of your department, really fascinating, just…

1:25:58one of the smartest people I've ever had a chance to connect with, but really trying to understand

1:26:03some of these issues, and then around EVs, you know, of course, want to be, want to move to EVs, want to move to zero emission, but, you know, we want to also recognize that there may be some environmental impacts if there are challenges or, you know, combustion fires and things like that. So, support legislation and funding that provides resources, training, and protection for first responders exposed to toxic substances resulting from electric vehicle and lithium-ion

1:26:28rate incidents.

1:26:29Next.

1:26:32and support legislation that aligns building codes, fire codes, and product safety standards with the unique fire and explosion risks associated with electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery charging infrastructure. And this one is more specifically when we're talking about the placement of EV chargers. One of the examples that the folks from your department brought up was.

1:26:54you know, the unintended consequences of putting an EV charger in an underground parking structure.

1:27:01It was news to me, but it makes sense. You know, when these things go up.

1:27:05especially in a confined space, it can pose a massive health and safety risk to your first responders. And so, you know, we want to take this opportunity to educate your delegation, you know, maybe even push for reforms if the timing is right. But really, I think we… the lion's share of this platform, with your buy-in last year.

1:27:28And with working with… diligently with your team, really built it out mostly last year. We're making some additions here and some tweaks around the edges, but certainly looking forward to the discussion. But at this point, that, concludes our presentation. Thank you very much.

1:27:46Okay.

1:27:47Thank you. Do we have any questions or comments to… are, Our partners here.

1:27:55We'll go to, Councilmember Mattiona.

1:27:59So, I do have a couple of

1:28:02items I would like us to consider adding. First is the monitoring of the allocation of e-commerce sales and use taxes, and, advocate that those taxes are allocated to point of delivery.

1:28:17The Cal Cities is also working with the City Managers Group to, do some, you know, some, legislation, but I think, we're… under that scenario, we would be a significant winner.

1:28:33And because we do stand out in Contra Costa County as getting a larger share of this, I just want to make sure that it doesn't get eroded with other, you know, diluting legislation.

1:28:48Okay. Sorry, one more. Okay, go ahead. And then under, livability and belonging, I'd like to add support for regional housing funding measures, so that we have additional resources to enhance the ability of El Cerrito to provide housing for all.

1:29:07Okay, next we'll go to Councilmember Cassanis.

1:29:11Yeah, thank you for the presentation. This is just a request. When your services were

1:29:17Unless there, you know, there's two parts to it. There's the legislative part, and there's also the grant writing.

1:29:22And I was sort of a reluctant supporter of the legislative part. I didn't feel like it was… of the two, it wasn't my priority. The grant writing and the fundraising was more my priority.

1:29:31My request is, don't want to downplay anything that you've done. I think you've done a great job, and I appreciate it.

1:29:36But my request is, can we have a similar type update on the status of grants?

1:29:42Maybe go through whatever number they are, 10, 12, whatever number you've applied for, and just give us kind of a quick synopsis of what the status of each one is, and amounts requested, and likelihood of getting it or not, and that kind of thing.

1:29:54Thank you.

1:29:56Okay, Mayor Pro Tem.

1:30:00Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Thank you for the presentation and for the updates, and I want to second what Councilmember Cassanis just said. That would be really helpful to have the same kind of update. I just wanted to state that just like last year, I'm going to be voting against our state legislative platform, and

1:30:17I know all the council members know why, but for members of the public, just to restate, and I'll do it more briefly this time, it's not…

1:30:26necessarily about the specifics in it. I think some of the statements are pretty vague, and could be taken in a lot of ways, and I'm not comfortable with the process

1:30:36of not having the council vote on each piece of legislation. Legislation is complex. It can be read in different ways by different individuals, even if we might agree on a lot of things, and so I just… I don't think it's the way to do it. I would…

1:30:52I would like to see us take positions on measures just as every other board I've ever served on has done. So it's about the process less than the actual statements in the legislative platform, so I plan to vote no, but I do appreciate the update.

1:31:08Councilmember Weisinger.

1:31:11Okay, can I ask a question real quick? One question, go ahead. I just want to ask a question to Mayor Pro Tems-Hallsman.

1:31:20How could you envision doing it differently?

1:31:23within the resources and confines of CPVG.

1:31:28I give a lot of examples… kind of think, well, how can it be different?

1:31:32Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: I gave a lot of examples last year, so I don't want to take up too much time, because I didn't have the votes last year, and I get it, I get where the majority of the council stands, but I think…

1:31:42some good examples of small places with not a lot of staff that I've been on the board of. It's… BARD is different, they have a lot of staff, but I was on the Alameda County Transportation Commission, and they just had, like.

1:31:55two-sentence write-ups of a bill and brought a proposed position, and then the board voted, and often just voted what staff said, but sometimes had questions and sometimes wanted it edited, but it wasn't, like, a long, involved

1:32:07two-page or three-page summary. It was just a couple sentences about a bill, and it was on us as the commissioners to do our own research on it, so something like that.

1:32:16is what I would want to see, where those were brought, we'd have it, you know, monthly on the agenda, and anytime we needed a position, we could take one.

1:32:27Thank you.

1:32:28I concur. I would prefer that sort of process.

1:32:32Okay, good. Next, we'll go to open comment. Now 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, or by selecting the raise hand feature on Zoom.

1:32:49In-person request to speak will be taken first. Please remember to identify yourself and the City of Residence at the beginning of your comments. Madam City Clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. We do not have any requests to speak, either in person or virtual for this item. Okay.

1:33:05Very good. We'll bring it back to the…

1:33:08Council. I have a comment. After meetings in, Sacramento.

1:33:15and meeting with members of the Assembly and Senate and leaders in Sacramento. I hear that e-bikes are the number one thing that beach cities, coast cities, and, cities like El Cerrito

1:33:31are looking at… I did speak to Senator Blakespeare, who will have,

1:33:37legislation on e-bikes, also, with Assemblymember Pappin.

1:33:43She, plans to have, legislation on e-bikes.

1:33:48I heard what the beach cities in California had to say, and that's the number one thing that they are very concerned about. Young people that don't have licenses that are doing

1:34:00you know, stunts on their e-bikes and speeding, down, in their beach corridors. So I'm sure we will see a number of,

1:34:12e-bike legislations, locally as well. So, hoping we can see, local ordinances like that in the future, but I'd like to see that happen on the state level first.

1:34:25And, I just want to, also say that, with

1:34:32The things going on with,

1:34:36e-bikes and with, EVs, would love to see more legislation on that. We see car manufacturers, letting

1:34:47Car owners know that they do not recommend to have their particular cars charged in the garage, and they'd like to have it more out in the open. We did have a recent fire here in El Cerrito where

1:35:00An apartment building was, has,

1:35:04fire damage enough to have the whole apartment building closed. So we have 28 residents that are not living in their apartments right now because of EV fires. And it was an EV bike that was stored into an apartment

1:35:23So, hopefully we'll see, legislation in the near future.

1:35:29That will, be at the state level. So, you know, these…

1:35:35Things that are happening up and down the state can be

1:35:38you know, we will have, less accidents like that. And, Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman, do you have your hand up?

1:35:48Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Yes, I think…

1:35:51e-bikes are a great example of how situations can get sticky, and maybe our legislative platform isn't clear enough about what position to take on a bill, because it's a stickier situation, and there's diverse opinions on it. But I just wanted to make clear, a lot of the

1:36:08a lot of the concerns around e-bikes are really around emotos, which are either things that are sold as emotos, or e-bikes that have then illegally been converted to go faster, and so it's just, like, it's very important to think about what we're talking about. If you look around El Cerrito and the use of e-bikes.

1:36:27That is the future for our city. It is mostly parents with children on their e-bikes, carting them around to school and activities, and almost all of those people would be driving otherwise. So I know we don't want them all driving, we don't have room on our roads, and…

1:36:43climate change is real, and we all care about that, so I think this is an area that I would encourage our mayor and city manager and our lobbying team to be really thoughtful about, because there's

1:36:55A lot of, people reacting and not…

1:36:59all of the legislators may be fully understanding the situation.

1:37:04Obviously, the batteries, those need to be regulated more, and our local shops are not selling the bikes with the, you know, faulty batteries, but online sellers are, so that's a problem. So there are definitely issues here, I'm not trying to say there aren't, but I would encourage you to be

1:37:21really thoughtful about positions on those bills, and make sure it's not going to impede, I think, what is a really wonderful thing happening in our city, which is more people not having to depend on a car for every trip to get around.

1:37:35I completely agree with the Mayor Pro Tem on this, and, you know, once our TODs are built, I do see the future of more bicycles and scooters, and, hopefully we'll have,

1:37:49a bike set will take us to the last mile home. We did have Lime at one time, but the surrounding cities did not use

1:37:59Lyme, and, it was, showing up at, at our largest city and, in the middle of ponds and swimming pools. So, you know, hopefully we will be able to, use a bike share program that,

1:38:14The city's,

1:38:16Berkeley and Richmond, and, Albany will be able to use all together. So, again, I want to thank Dane and Ethan for that. So, do I have a motion to approve?

1:38:32I'll move. Okay, do I have a second?

1:38:36Okay, we have a motion by Motuyama, a second by Weisinger, Madam State Clerk. If I could, please clarify, is that a motion to adopt as presented, or with the recommended modifications that Councilmember Motiamo

1:38:48had shared. With the recommendations. With the recommendations. With the recommendations. Okay, so just to clarify, we would be adding one item under a high-performing organization, and one item under livability and belonging. Yes, correct. And… and apologies, that was a motion by Councilmember Motiam and a second?

1:39:05By Councilmember Weisinger, was that correct?

1:39:08Yes. Thank you. Mayor Kinto? Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman?

1:39:13Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: No one is in the room with me, and I vote no.

1:39:16Councilmember Katsanis?

1:39:19This is a difficult vote for me, but I will vote no.

1:39:22Councilmember Motiami? Yes. Councilmember Weisinger?

1:39:26Councilmember Wysinger: No one is in the room with me, and I vote yes.

1:39:29Thank you. Motion carries with Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman and Councilmember Ganzanes voting no.

1:39:35Thank you very much to, Dane Hutchins. Appreciate your leadership on this, and also to Ethan Nageler. Thank you.

1:39:47Okay, next we'll go to the,

1:39:50second quarter general fund budget update through December 31st.

1:39:55We're gonna receive and file this.

1:39:59Do we have a staff report? Yes, we have… Claire Coleman is with us virtually tonight. Okay.

1:40:05Good evening.

1:40:10Good evening, Mayor and Council. Are you able to see the PowerPoint presentation?

1:40:14We are, and we can hear you loud and clear.

1:40:16Excellent, thank you so much. Good evening, Mayor and Council, Clerk Holman, Budget and Financial Services Manager. I apologize that I'm not there to give this presentation in person today. I have also fallen victim to whatever virus or thing is floating around town. So, happy to be with you today virtually, and grateful for the technology that allows it.

1:40:34This evening, I will give a brief overview of the City's General Fund as of the end of quarter two, which is also halfway through the year, so mid-year, and that's through December 31st. So we are now, of course, in the beginning of February, but the process for closing,

1:40:49a month or a quarter is quite extensive, and so by the time we get the actual books closed and then write the report, that gets us to the first meeting in February. So we're excited to be here today with this information for you.

1:41:03There we go.

1:41:04Overall, our second quarter performance is comparable, to our performance in fiscal year 2024-25. And again, we're in fiscal year 2025-26. The report that was provided to Council provides an overview

1:41:19Of the performance of the city in the current fiscal year compared with the prior year, and also our current performance relative to the budget.

1:41:28As a reminder, city finances on both sides, both revenues and expenditures, are highly cyclical. Many of our revenues are received on a lag, sometimes a significant lag.

1:41:38And many of our expenditures are paid at different points in the year, depending on program needs. So that might be, expenditures paid early in the year for certain types of, programs, like recreation, or,

1:41:51Some, excuse me, some,

1:41:54Insurance costs, but then also some expenditures we know and expect to be paid later in the year, depending on the workflow.

1:42:00This report includes approved uses of one-time fund balance through December 31st, and I'll touch on that at the very end of this, and that use of one-time fund balance has now increased the projected year-end deficit, because that is exactly what the Council intended when, using fund balance.

1:42:19So, in reviewing, the revenues, I'm gonna talk in more detail about taxes on the next slide.

1:42:25On licenses and permits, we're trending similarly to budget, but lower than the prior fiscal year. In almost all of these categories, this is very similar information and very similar trends to what you saw in the first quarter. So in fines and forfeitures, we're again trending above budget and above the prior year, and that's because we're seeing higher citation activities.

1:42:43In use of money and property, again, similar to first quarter, we're trending higher due to the investment returns from the Section 115, which, as a reminder, we didn't receive in the first quarter of fiscal year 24-25 because we hadn't invested the fund yet.

1:42:57That decision was made in November, so for this entire year, we do expect this category to be higher, just because we didn't have the returns from the Section 115 for that first portion of the year last year.

1:43:07And then on the charges for services side, we're trending on budget, but lower than the prior year due to changes in permit activity and lower recreation program revenue. There's more detail about this in the report, but I'll just restate, on the planning permit side, we're seeing similar volume of permits, but we are seeing,

1:43:26Difference in the fee rate of those permits, and so what that means is the fees paid on a per-permit basis are lower, and that's just based on the type of activities that are being done.

1:43:38Most of our community development fees, if not… the vast majority, are cost recovery basis, which means we charge only what it costs the city to provide the service, if not less.

1:43:48So, some of the lower revenues will be offset by lower expenditures, but the city does have fixed costs that we still have to support, even if lower permit revenues come in.

1:43:56The other piece of lower charges for services is lower recreation program revenue, and that's primarily due to fewer weeks of summer camp this year. It's due to lower childcare revenue due to the closure from the school strike, and some of the refunds or deferrals of childcare program fees that were occurred as a result.

1:44:15And then also due to some changes in childcare program demand so far this fiscal year.

1:44:23On the taxes side, taxes are highly cyclical, and they're often received quarterly, biannually, or on a lag. And so, many of these, even though we are now halfway through the year, we're still

1:44:34several months… I won't say behind, because we're trending exactly as we would expect, but we haven't received 6 months' worth of those revenues. So, for example, property taxes are received primarily in December, April, and June. We now have received our first major tranche of property taxes, and they're trending exactly as we would expect them to.

1:44:52Sales taxes are received on a 2-3 month lag, so they're also trending as we would expect them to. I will note that El Cerrito is currently continuing to outperform statewide trend on sales taxes. We have more information. We are limited in what we can make public due to state regulations around business privacy.

1:45:09But we have, public reports about our sales tax data available on our website.

1:45:13And those are updated quarterly. And so, residents and community members can see updates on the progress of the city's sales tax and how we're doing.

1:45:21On property transfer tax, we were trending on budget. As I've noted in the past, this is a very highly volatile revenue source, and so one major property can make a very, very big difference. And so as of December 31st, the revenues that we had received are trending how we would expect, but again, one significant property,

1:45:39Even just one can really make a big difference, in the positive, typically, for this revenue area.

1:45:48By department, this is the same total information that you saw previously, but just broken out separately so you can see where it's allocated by department. The overwhelmingly largest amount is in non-departmental, because most of our revenues are general purpose, general fund. So that's where you see that $38.9 million in non-departmental.

1:46:05The city is trending as expected with standard increases that we would expect to see due to property taxes, property transfer taxes, sales taxes, and all those other measures, all of those other types of revenue that I noted.

1:46:17As I noted earlier, both in the recreation and community development side, we are seeing slightly lower revenue than the prior year, and we believe we will still come close to budget this year, so we do not currently have concerns about being able to meet our revenue targets, but if that does occur, we will come back to Council and have that conversation if any adjustments are recommended.

1:46:36Public Works is seeing, actually, higher permit revenue than the prior year, and so it's just a difference in the types of work that are being done, and the types of permits that are being pulled by, the development community in El Cerrito.

1:46:50On the expenditure side, personnel is increasing, how we would expect, due to the new, negotiated cost of living and merit and step increase changes, and those are due to the chain… the new bargaining agreements that were signed by the city and its bargaining units over the past couple of years.

1:47:06Professional and technical services are trending almost exactly as they did last year, and that is, again, pretty cyclical, depending on the project timing and temporary support needs citywide.

1:47:17Other purchase services include citywide insurance premiums, which are paid at the beginning of the year, and it also includes the Council AV project that was approved earlier this year. And that's why you see a significant increase

1:47:28in other purchased services from… in fiscal 2026, the current year, versus the prior year. That increase is due to higher insurance premiums. We saw a 17% increase in our insurance premiums.

1:47:39And then also due to the additional Council AV project that was budgeted.

1:47:44In property and capital, we are trending a little bit lower. That's primarily due to purchase timing, so we may have ordered a vehicle, but it may not have arrived, and until that vehicle is received, we don't recognize that expense on our books.

1:47:56And then other financing uses includes transfers out of the general fund, including the transfer that was approved already this year for the pool replastering project, and that is separate from the one under discussion today, but that was an $183,000 transfer that was approved, and that's what's falling under other financing uses, and that's why that's trending significantly higher than the prior year.

1:48:18Another lens on the same information are expenditures by department.

1:48:22I noted in the Quarter 1 report as well, administration increased primarily due to insurance premiums. Those are insurance premiums that are paid for the entire city.

1:48:32But they are housed in the administration department, so that's our general liability, and that affects the entire city, but because it's in the administration department, when there's a 17% increase, it looks like a very large increase in administration costs, but that's for citywide insurance. There were also some increases in software subscription costs.

1:48:51In the police department, the 5% increase over the prior year is due to negotiated, bargaining agreements that are new.

1:48:58And then the non-departmental expenditure increase, that 42% that you see, that's where those transfers are housed. And so, when that increase of the transfer to the CIP fund for the pool replastering project, that's a non-departmental, and so that's why that's significantly higher than the prior year's expenditures at this point in time.

1:49:19This is an overview of the budget amendments that have been approved by December 31st. This does not include any discussions that are being had either today or at future council meetings, but these are the amendments that have already been approved by the City Council.

1:49:33These are… the additional expenditure increases of $912,646 are offset by the original projected surplus of $15,774.

1:49:45$74. So the expected use of general fund balance for the current fiscal year is $896,872.

1:49:56There is an item, I believe, under discussion today, so this… these numbers may change, but this is the current status in the current budget as of December 31st.

1:50:07Reviewing fund balance. The one change here is that this fund balance table does include

1:50:14the possibility of the Council adopting the use of fund balance for the pool renovation. If the Council does not decide to adopt this, we can issue a new table to reflect that. But based on Council direction to date, when this report was written, we included that in the fund balance projections.

1:50:30So this is for…

1:50:32Fiscal year 25, we ended at $24.3 million, as you heard from our auditors earlier today, and now we're projecting to end at $22.6 million in general fund balance. This includes the EDRF, which is the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund.

1:50:47And it also includes a Section 115 pension trust.

1:50:50And then finally, it also includes the 17% unassigned reserve, and then any discretionary on top of that. That discretionary is currently estimated at $2.7 million, and again, that is already including the possible use of fund balance under consideration this evening.

1:51:05That… Result is in a 22%

1:51:10unassigned fund balance, not including the Section 115 pension trust or the EDR. So that's the 17% policy with the additional $2.7 million discretionary.

1:51:21This table is a summarized version. There's a much, much longer table in the report that details how staff calculate these numbers. It's just a really big table for a presentation, so we like to keep it brief.

1:51:34So overall, in conclusion, we are trending similarly to the prior fiscal year, and we are trending

1:51:39Board's budget in a way that we believe will keep us on budget in both revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year, based on the approved amendments by Council to date.

1:51:48The staff plan to come back to Council at the next Council meeting, which will be the February 17th meeting, with potential adjustments to the general fund and some special revenue and enterprise funds. So this evening is the update. We're not recommending any

1:52:01mid-year adjustments in this report. This is just the update, and then staff will come back at the next meeting to discuss any recommended adjustments.

1:52:09Thank you.

1:52:11Thank you, Claire. Okay, we're gonna go back to the Council, Councilmember Motayama.

1:52:18Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the presentation, Claire, and I realize I did not say thank you to anybody, because I was just jumping into my questions this evening, so thank you for everyone that came before.

1:52:29I have a question,

1:52:34regarding the, non-departmental expenditures, in the table that I was looking at, there's a narrative that implies that this is mostly library hours, but that number seems very high, so can you break that down a little bit?

1:52:50Absolutely, and that's, partially my error. I just omitted the, addition of the pool costs, which would transfer out to CIP.

1:52:59So non-departmental does include, library services, debt service, and operating transfers out to other funds. The library services, debt service, and most of the operating transfers are

1:53:12very closely in line with what was budgeted. Some of the library expenses, there is a change in timing of when some of those were paid in the current year versus the prior year, so that's one of the reasons that that

1:53:23non-departmental line seems higher than the prior fiscal year. But the primary change and the primary reason for the change, to your point, Councilmember Moriyama, is the addition of the transfer to the CIP fund for the pool replastering, and that's the

1:53:38If I go to the… I believe it's on the following slide.

1:53:42That's the 183,000… $300 that was approved earlier this fiscal year.

1:53:51Okay, thank you very much. Okay, next we'll go to Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman.

1:53:56Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Thank you, for the update. Just one question. I understand that the revenue from childcare went down because of the summer being shorter and because of the strike refunds.

1:54:07But it was also stated that the demand went down outside of those things happening. So does that mean fewer people are signing up for aftercare or other things, or what is… what does that refer to?

1:54:23Do we happen to have Director Jones on the call? He would be better able to speak to that than I can.

1:54:29Yes, Director Jones is on the call. Chris, are you available to respond to that question?

1:54:40He may have stepped away from the computer.

1:54:48He's coming in person, just one second, Claire.

1:54:51Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: It's surprising to me, anecdotally, so that's why I just wanted to check what's really happening, and if it is actually happening, that's concerning, especially if it continues.

1:55:00Absolutely, and in developing these reports, we work closely with departments to understand their trends, so that's why I defer to them, because they're really the experts in the program areas.

1:55:10Good evening, I'm Chris Jones, the Recreation Director.

1:55:15You know, so in general, big picture, all…

1:55:18Programs kind of ebb and flow, they have peaks and valleys.

1:55:23Childcare this year, we are seeing slightly lower enrollment, and we're used to childcare increasing, year over year. Last year, we actually beat our projections, so I think… which I think is actually part of the 11%

1:55:38number, so we're not forecasting to beat our revenue projections, but hopefully we're in line with our projections. But we are seeing a little bit of lower enrollment at Harding. Harding now has a free school district program alongside ours, and so there's a little bit more competition there.

1:55:58And,

1:56:00our program at Fairmont is off a little bit as well. So we're not necessarily going down, but it's more like a plateau.

1:56:08Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Got it. I think that's something we should keep our eyes on, and especially as we go into the budget process.

1:56:15we need to be able to have some good projections there, because I can have an impact. Thank you.

1:56:21Thank you.

1:56:22Okay, Councilmember Weisinker, do you have any questions?

1:56:25Okay, thank you for that. Now's the time for members.

1:56:31Of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding this item.

1:56:35Requests to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card or by selecting the raise hand feature on Zoom. In-person requests to speak will be taken first.

1:56:46Please remember to identify yourself and your City of Residence at the beginning of your comments. Madam City Clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. We have one request to speak. Ira Sherna?

1:56:59Good evening. Bye.

1:57:00Irish Arena, El Cerrito. First, I want to say, as a bicyclist on the Ohlone Greenway, I'm terrorized by those electric vehicles, and I really hope something can be done on that… about that. I'd like to see the police department

1:57:15So I allocate some funding at the police department and monitor those, those, the Ohlone Greenway.

1:57:22I think the finance department needs to make predictions

1:57:26When the budget is passed, so the community and the council can assess how the budget is performing.

1:57:33The general fund has increased since the state auditor's report.

1:57:38But in recent years, the pavement Condition Index, PCI, has decreased from 83 to 65, which I think is pretty serious.

1:57:47In subtraction, the Ohlone Greenway is in disrepair, and believe me, I can feel it when I'm bicycling.

1:57:55And it's also risky

1:57:57Because I have to go around the cracks while there are pedestrians in these electronic vehicles, making it a very dangerous situation for a slower bicyclist like myself.

1:58:09It seems that the general fund has increased at the expense of, of, infrastructure maintenance.

1:58:18And, of services, mostly The, in particular, is in the lack of a senior center.

1:58:25So there's just a trade-off there.

1:58:27The actual increase is not real, in spite of the millions of dollars in extra revenue that the city is now collecting due to macroeconomic conditions and the real property transfer tax.

1:58:42In further subtraction, Sweet.

1:58:51In front of subtraction, The parcel C East, project was not funded, as we've discussed.

1:58:59And so, the Richmond Street bike lanes appears to not have been funded.

1:59:05At least from reading the, Round 9

1:59:10application, it would be nice if someone actually said what's going on with that. The website said, there was about, I don't remember the exact number, but something like $900,000 allocated from that project that was not approved.

1:59:25by, the Strategic Growth Council, we should at least be told what happened with that.

1:59:30You know, whatever your position is. I think we need transparency on that.

1:59:35So, also, we need to know, again, about the proposed $80,000 to hold an a tax proposal In June.

1:59:48when there's no money to actually fund the building, and clearly the proposal just lacks. I certainly hope you'll allocate money

1:59:58To have a bond representative… Thank you very much.

2:00:03Thank you. Appreciate it. That concludes the request to speak, Mayor. Okay, we're going to bring this back to the Council. Any last words?

2:00:12Anybody.

2:00:14Okay, Claire, I want to thank you very, very much for this presentation.

2:00:20Right. So, no action is needed, and receive and file. So, again, thank you, Claire.

2:00:26Feel better.

2:00:29Okay, next is the award of construction contract for the Swim Center Accessible Parking Improvements Project.

2:00:35And that is City Project Number C3050.

2:00:4110.

2:00:43Do we have a staff report?

2:01:42Good evening, Mayor. Good evening. Council members. I can't see you being there, but, yes, Yvette Ortiz, the City's Public Works Director, here tonight to discuss the Construction Contract Award for the, Swim Center Accessible Parking Lots, Improvements Project.

2:02:01And tonight, City staff is asking Council to take several actions related to the Construction Contract Award, as summarized here.

2:02:09Including awarding the construction contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, authorizing the city manager to enter into construction contract for the amounts shown here, and then appropriated a one-time allocation from the general fund. And I'll get into more details in the following slides.

2:02:30First, to recap, where we've been, in terms of, presenting to Council, we presented, like, comprehensive repairs and upgrades that were needed at the Swim Center, both in August, in Council meetings in August and October of 2025.

2:02:48And, at that time, the City Council, authorized the city staff to move forward with two components, the replastering work.

2:02:58and parking lot ADA and related improvements. At that time, the total cost for design and construction of those two, phases was about $2.3 million.

2:03:08So, we have moved forward with, implementation of

2:03:13the replastering, and we came to Council back on December 2nd to award that construction contract.

2:03:21And, provide funding for that. And then, construction started, this month and is well underway, and is estimated to be completed in March.

2:03:30Tonight, we're asking Council to award that second phase for the parking lot ADA unrelated improvements, and then the construction schedule for that is anticipated to begin later this month, if all goes well, and then be completed by June.

2:03:48And then, just to highlight, we wanted to move forward with the replastering as soon as possible, because that's when the pool is out of service, and so the winter is the least busy, and would be least impactful in terms of revenue.

2:04:02So, the current, the scope for the parking lot project includes several elements. The first, of course, is the reconstruction of the ADA parking, shown here to meet current codes and provide additional spaces.

2:04:16And also improve the path of travel from the parking to the entrances of the community center here at the top, and, the, swim center here to the right, as well as improve the path of travel to the public… closest public street here on Mosier, over here to the left.

2:04:33And then, in addition, all this repaving of both the pathways and the parking lots requires us to install stormwater treatment facilities to meet state mandates, and so we are converting one of the landscape planters into a stormwater treatment facility.

2:04:50In addition, we're installing electrical vehicle charging infrastructure and two dual port stations, as well as,

2:05:00rehabilitating the pavement for the entire parking lot. That was added as an additive alternate, funding the bid prices being within available funding for these improvements.

2:05:16So, the city did advertise the project, in December, and, in the West County East Bay Times, on two times, December 10th and the 17th, and we made the notice and contract documents available on an online plan room, as well as the City's website.

2:05:36Two addendum were issued, as described in the agenda bill. Notably, addendum number one included alternate number 2, which was to provide, to route the conduit for the electrical wheel.

2:05:49Electrical vehicle charging over the locker room, so we wouldn't disrupt it in case of a future full deck replacement project.

2:06:01So, we received a total of 12 bids.

2:06:04Which is remarkable. And we received 12 bids by the bid opening day of January 4th, 2 p.m.

2:06:14And, they were publicly read, and then we reviewed them all for responsiveness. And the apparent low bidder, at the time was GrayTech, and they were determined to be both responsive and responsible.

2:06:27And their bid was well below the engineer's estimate, likely due to several factors, strong competition, but also just contractor efficiencies, that they're available to do the work, and they have subcontractors that are available, and that are familiar with the type of work.

2:06:44We had one bidder, one bid that was non-responsive from Build Pork Inc. They did not, use the right, bid proposal form.

2:06:55So, as shown here, the grade text-based bid, plus ad alternates are about $662,000, which is well below the engineer's estimate, which is about $995,000.

2:07:10So at this time, staff is requesting that Council award the contract to GrayTech, and approve change orders of approximately 15%, or $100,000. Yes. Just a quick question. When the bids are being placed, do the bidders have knowledge of the engineer's estimate?

2:07:29They do. They do, okay. They do. It's part of the notice, inviting bids. Okay, thank you.

2:07:36Any questions? Oh, just one… just one more quick slide, just to recap the funding, the cost for the project.

2:07:43And, the funding approved by Council to date. As previously mentioned, the original, cost estimate for design and construction of

2:07:51the replastering and the parking lot was about $2.3 million. With this bid for the parking lot projects, the current estimate is,

2:08:01About $1.6 million, which is a difference, a decrease of about $666,000 from our original estimate, which is great news.

2:08:12And then…

2:08:13So, Council has previously approved $883,000, both from the general fund, as previously mentioned, by our finance, staff.

2:08:24And, was it $200,000 from Measure H and $683,000 from the General Fund?

2:08:33This leaves a balance of about $762,000, so we're asking Council to appropriate that additional

2:08:42Around from the general fund unassigned balance.

2:08:46That concludes my presentation. Chris Jones, our Recreation Director, and our consultants from Suinerton Management and Consulting are available to answer questions. Albert, Weggy, and Bob.

2:08:58Robert Addiego (Swinerton): Diego.

2:09:00Thank you very much for the presentation. Councilmember Motiona.

2:09:06Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the presentation. I think this is great news that it did come in lower, so kudos to you for getting the

2:09:14cost in, way under budget. My questions are just about the vetting of the contractor. You know, whenever I see that we take the lowest bid, it makes me a little bit worried, and can you

2:09:28Talk about that a little bit. For sure. We're definitely following public contract code to award to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder, which Greg Tech was, and we go through a pretty thorough

2:09:40Review of their bid, and part of their bid proposal includes a technical statement of their experience and abilities, and we required them to submit

2:09:51five, at least five projects, similar projects for public agencies in the last five years, and Gray Tech did have that, recent projects.

2:10:00For two, local agencies, and as well as, a park district and a school district.

2:10:06And we did check their references. Swinerton, Albert, here on our screen, did check their references. And GrayTech has performed work for the city in the past. In 2020, they did a pavement rehab and sidewalk rehab project, on Eureka and Lexington.

2:10:26And they completed the project, within, the contract terms and the project budget.

2:10:31But, I think generally, that's why we have Swinerton on our team, to closely monitor the contractor's work. They… when they check references, they just hear about the contractor's performance and

2:10:44And, Albert did contact them, or, and they'll just be closely monitoring. The team of Swinerton is really helping us. They helped us with the advertisement and design, bidding out this project, so they've been a key team member, and will be there. We're meeting weekly, to talk about all these projects.

2:11:05Great, and…

2:11:06Because you got 12 bids, does this mean that the, sort of, the landscape of construction costs has changed? Are people hungrier now?

2:11:17Well, it… for the last two, the… the previous three plastering project, we got, you know, I think those are specialty contractors, maybe, I… maybe, but, we'll see, but this was really specific parking lot work, paving, so…

2:11:32We'll see. Okay.

2:11:33Thank you very much. Okay, Councilmember Cosampus. Yeah, I just have a broad question. Could you explain a little bit what the role of Swinerton is? I'm a little bit… I was a little surprised to see the name there, and then as you… as they talked, clearly they've been part of this process, and I don't object to that. I'm just sort of curious of

2:11:49How this team was…

2:11:51formed and what roles people play. Right, so, our S&M are designers, and they have sub-consultants that work with them. Sooner 10, we did do a request for proposals, for, consultants that specialize in public school projects.

2:12:07And they are, project managers and construction managers. So they're making sure that the project is moving along, on schedule. It was really important for us to keep this project on track, so we had to augment

2:12:20staff resources, and with experts in pool projects. So, they're managing the project, and they're also, during the construction phase, providing a resident engineer. They're providing oversight to the contractor, doing weekly construction meetings, just making sure everything stays on budget and on track, given how

2:12:40Tight the timeline was to complete these projects.

2:12:43Thank you. Okay, any questions, for our Zoom council members?

2:12:51Okay, thank you.

2:12:54Albert Wege (Swinerton): Now we'll go to open comment. Now is the time.

2:12:58I'm sorry.

2:13:01Now 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 or by selecting the raise hand feature on Zoom.

2:13:13In-person requests to speak will be taken first. Please remember to identify yourself and your City of Residence at the beginning of your comments. Madam City Clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. We have one request to speak on this item. Betsy Basher.

2:13:31Good evening.

2:13:33Good evening. I actually just had questions. I'm wondering, will the entire parking lot be closed?

2:13:41How long will it be closed?

2:13:46Will people still be able to use the swim center, during this period that lasts until June, or what will it be like there? And was a grant obtained, or will it be obtained for those EV chargers? That was what I had heard earlier. Thank you.

2:14:04Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our request to speak on this item.

2:14:07All right. Would you like to, answer those questions?

2:14:13Yes, so we are definitely going to be working with the contractor on minimizing impacts to the public, and so we… one of the first, steps the contractor needs to provide us is the,

2:14:26their construction schedule, and so we'll, swinerton will be working with them to… and with the Recreation Department staff to minimize impacts.

2:14:35Once the, the pool will be available once the, the, the replastering is done. And so that's one. We are going to, be applying for the,

2:14:49EV charging station grants, so that's a follow-up step, and we have a larger grant that we applied to for access improvements, but that's for the pool replacement project, and we… not the full replacement, the deck replacement component, and we won't know about that grant application until June.

2:15:09Thank you for that. Any, last comments?

2:15:14I don't see any. I just want to say thank you, Yvette, for answering the questions from the public.

2:15:22I want to say thank you to Yvette. Thank you for this presentation. Do I have a motion to approve?

2:15:32I'll move.

2:15:33Do you have a second? Second. Okay, we have a motion by Motayama, a second by Cassanis. Madam City Clerk, please proceed. Mayor Quinto? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Feltzman?

2:15:43Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: No one is in the room with me, and I vote yes.

2:15:46Thank you. Councilmember Gonzanes? Yes. Councilmember Mochiyama? Yes. Councilmember Weisinger?

2:15:53Councilmember Wysinger: No one is in the room with me, and I vote yes.

2:15:56Thank you, motion carries. Okay, I want to thank,

2:15:59The folks at Swinerton, thank you for the support on this, and look forward to collaborating with the completion of the updates that are pulled. Thank you.

2:16:12Albert Wege (Swinerton): And thank you to Yvette.

2:16:15Next, we will go to.

2:16:19City Council Policy Subcommittee report and recommendations.

2:16:26Thank you, Mayor. Holly Charlotteier, City Clerk. I'm going to start this item off with a brief overview on behalf of the Council Ad Hoc Committee, which is comprised of Councilmember Motuyama and Councilmember Weisinger. Then I will turn it over to the subcommittee members to provide their comments.

2:16:43The City Council's adopted Rules of Order and Procedure was last revised in 2020, and in early 2025, the City Council discussed the desire to return to remote public comment and participation, and formed an ad hoc committee to review and propose modifications to the policy.

2:17:01In addition, in October of 2025, Senate Bill 707 was signed into law, which made several modifications to the Brown Act and required additional modifications to the Council policy in order to comply with the new regulations.

2:17:14The proposed recommendations before the City Council include recommendations from both staff as well as subcommittee members, and is presented in the manner that was agreed upon by the subcommittee for discussion with the full City Council.

2:17:28In brief, the proposed modifications include the following.

2:17:32Reorganization of the document to provide logical grouping by topic of information and remove any duplicate information.

2:17:40Removal of content that is more appropriately included in city administrative policies, which are approved by the city manager. This is things such as details regarding the specific preparation and distribution process for meeting materials.

2:17:53Clarification regarding ways in which matters are brought before the City Council. Aligning processes with the new legislative platform process that was adopted by the City Council in 2025.

2:18:05Inclusion of an optional yet structured process for reduction in time limits for public comments, as well as reiterating the Mayor's discretion to make such a determination.

2:18:17Adding a section for teleconferencing technology that both complies with SB 707, as well as provides safeguards to minimize meeting disruptions.

2:18:25And that includes language relating to suspending remote participation if conditions exist that impact the ability of the city manager to provide a harassment-free work environment for staff.

2:18:37As well as conditions that impact the ability for the City Council to conduct the business of the meeting.

2:18:42Clarity around decorum by council members, as well as speaker decorum.

2:18:48Enforcement of decorment was also expanded to better define what is considered a disruption, in particular language related to verbal conduct denigrating individuals based on a protected category.

2:19:01Any other modifications are administrative in nature, attempts to clarify, create consistency, or otherwise create a more comprehensive cohesive document.

2:19:11The proposed revisions are presented tonight with a resolution that does allow adoption of the policy as recommended, or the Council may discuss and provide staff direction to return with additional modifications.

2:19:23Finally, with regard to SB707 implementation, while the policy recommendations before you do include language to ensure that the City Council complies with requirements with what is

2:19:36a newly defined term of an eligible body under the new regulations. It does not contemplate the additional optional regulations under 707 that pertain to what is defined as a subsidiary body, and that is something that includes our city boards, commissions, and committees.

2:19:54The staff recommends that the City Council consider forming a separate City Council ad hoc committee to discuss 707 with regard to subsidiary bodies, as well as review policies and other recommendations in effect for advisory bodies, as decided and determined by the subcommittee.

2:20:11With that, I'll pass it over to the members of the subcommittee to provide their comments regarding proposed recommendations, and I am certainly available for any questions that anyone may have.

2:20:19Okay, Councilmember Motayama. I'd like to invite, my co-subcommittee member, Councilmember Weisinger, since he's on, remote, if you have… like to make any opening comments.

2:20:33Councilmember Wysinger: Oh, thank you so much, Councilmember. Thank you so much, staff, for putting so much work and time into this. I know originally when we discussed this item, it was mostly to focus on remote participation, but I think that anytime a body has an opportunity to update its policies and procedures, it should definitely take the opportunity to do so. And, you know, thank you so much, Councilmember Motayama, because we really went through a lot of information regarding

2:20:58so much of how our chambers, our council, works and functions in cooperation with our staff.

2:21:06And with the public.

2:21:07I'm looking forward to… I know we did a lot of updating to the participation bylaws, as was requested, but this is becoming a large conversation. I don't know if I remember if I mentioned it in my update after we went to the National League of Cities, but there was a huge panel in regards to public comment and how the landscape is changing in the ways that,

2:21:31the councils and bodies interact with the public, what is considered as harassment, as city clerk has mentioned. So, you know, that particular… that thing on its own is a continuously evolving topic. I know that one thing that will eventually come down the pipe, maybe not today, but maybe in a year, two years, three years, is how will AI play a part in the way that people are interacting in our city councils and our chambers.

2:21:56So I thank you again, Councilmember Motiamo, for taking the large amount of time that it took to do this work.

2:22:04I look forward to us as a body continuing to revise, how we interact with each other and how we interact with the public.

2:22:14Go ahead. Thank you, Councilmember Weisinger. It was, yes, we did a lot of work to get this, and I think the… our goal was trying to thread the needle of

2:22:24having public… robust public comment, and maintaining the ability for the council to do work, in a civil way. So, I would like to thank Holly, our city clerk, for all the work that she put in, and our city attorney.

2:22:42I think part of what took so long in getting this done is that we had to also conform to SB707. So…

2:22:50I think, you know.

2:22:52Again, it was great to be able to revise something that was very, very clunky.

2:22:58And kind of odd before, so it's something much more streamlined now. So, I think hopefully, you know, it will make more transparent for the public as well, why we do things, or what we are expecting of ourselves and the public.

2:23:13So, and I also hope that, the Council will take into consideration our recommendation for further discussion of the advisory bodies and their role, with public comment.

2:23:29Good.

2:23:30Any questions to our subcommittee members? We'll start with Mayor Prodem Saltzman.

2:23:37Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: First, thank you to the subcommittee and to staff for work on this. You clearly looked at everything, the rules, and I think that was the way to go. I have a few questions and comments about specifics.

2:23:50On page 14, I think either there's a typo, or maybe I don't understand something. So it says, any items not completed at a regularly scheduled City Council meeting shall be continued to the next regular business meeting, or by a majority vote of the City Council to an adjourned

2:24:10regular meeting. An adjourned regular meeting is the part, I think maybe is a typo, because how could we continue something to an adjourned meeting? So, that'd be helpful if staff or committee members have thoughts on that, what that is about.

2:24:27I can take that one, Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you for pointing that out. It does appear that that was an inadvertent carryover in the language update.

2:24:38The intention is actually that it states something… some… something along the lines of, by a majority vote of the City Council, to a future meeting. So, unfinished business can be continued at the next regular meeting, or any other future meeting by a vote of the City Council. So, we will make that administrative correction.

2:24:58And I think the city attorney may have something to add.

2:25:01I just wanted to add… so, adjourned regular meeting is a type of meeting that is defined in California law. If City Council meeting adjourns a regular meeting to a specific date and time, and then posts proper notice of it.

2:25:18It is treated as a continuation of the meeting that was adjourned, so it is actually something that is occasionally done, but I think the city clerks

2:25:26Proposal is actually better because it's more flexible, because it basically says it can be continued to any future meeting, which would include a special meeting, an adjourned regular meeting, or a future regular meeting.

2:25:39Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Okay, great. And then on page 22, it says Council members shall not respond to comments by members of the public in order to ensure that a Brown Act is not violated. And I spoke to the city manager about this.

2:25:53I agree that we shouldn't do, like, substantive comments, and I think this council has a really good culture about not doing that, but for example, you know, our mayor just asked

2:26:04staff to respond to a public commenter, and I think that is appropriate, or for once in a while, when somebody has a really.

2:26:12difficult story that they're sharing. I think for us to say, wow, I'm really sorry you went through that, and we'll have staff follow up. Like, saying something like that, I think, is appropriate, and not against the Brown Act, so I'd like to see some more specific language in here about not having a substantive conversation, but being able to

2:26:31But not saying we can't say anything. So, it'd be helpful to hear from the committee or staff on that.

2:26:39And I can chime in here, and then certainly the subcommittee members can follow up. The city manager and I did kind of talk about the language in this section, and we came up with something that we thought may

2:26:51address your concerns. So, if we add at the end of that section something along the lines of, after public comment has concluded, council members may request staff to address or follow up on a concern, question, or request heard by a member of the public. Certainly, our intent is not to have

2:27:10any communication with the public. It is just to help ensure that there's not a dialogue back and forth with the public, especially when it's an item that's not on the agenda, because then there's that challenge of making sure that you don't

2:27:24violate the Brown Act. So that is something that,

2:27:27is a potential solution that the city manager and I spoke about.

2:27:30Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: And I prefer to see it not have to be at the end. I mean, especially, like, if there are 30 people signed up to speak, if somebody shares something challenging or an issue that really needs to be addressed, I don't want them to speak to us, hear nothing, and then leave the room, and then we can't follow up. So I…

2:27:49I think we need some flexibility. It's limited situations, but we've seen several of them come up in the year plus I've been on the Council.

2:27:57It looks like Councilmember Weisinger wants to weigh in.

2:28:02Yes, go ahead, Councilmember Weisinger.

2:28:04Councilmember Wysinger: Yes, and I would be agreeable to… I agree with, what Holly put forward as far as the part about staffs, or such as Mayor just did just now, as far as asking staff to respond. I think that we actually… that… those type of questions about

2:28:22how to…

2:28:24be more… how to show more empathy or compassion in situations such as that is actually something that we struggled back… struggled back and forth with in the process, because how do you…

2:28:36articulate that in a document such as this. There have been times, I remember last year when a particular community member came, and they were talking passionately about, I believe it was an ordinance or something, we were passing, abatement ordinance, I think it was, and where we kind of took a little bit of a liberty to say something afterwards. I'd be honest, I don't know the best way to put this in such a document

2:29:01such as this, say, oh… you can't say, oh, in case we're being compassionate, unless you're being… showing care. So I would definitely love to hear what Councilmember Motiamo or Holly

2:29:11have to say about it, but I do agree with you, Mayor Pro Tem, and we did actually discuss that. We just never really figured out how do you… how do you legislate empathy and compassion in a policy document?

2:29:25Exactly. Yes, go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Weissinger. That really, you know, gets at some of the things that we're trying to do. And also, there's a question of, you know, equity, because

2:29:39Some things that might…

2:29:41feel like, to one council member requires a response, may not feel that way to someone else. And, by having something kind of on the cuff or arbitrary.

2:29:54settled in the policy, it makes it very difficult to,

2:30:00be fair to everyone. I think that's a, you know, public comment seems weird, because we… people talk at us, and then, you know.

2:30:08And they oftentimes leave. But,

2:30:11I really don't want us to set the expectation that somehow there will be more discussion from us, because we will not be able to get through public comment.

2:30:24Before 10 o'clock at night. So, that's… that's kind of the trade-off. So I think we… we all feel, moves once in a… you know, at rare moments to… to make a comment.

2:30:36I think that our judgment is pretty good here on Council, and I think we can just rely on that, rather than trying to

2:30:46put something super complicated into, the, the administrative or our council policy. So, I… I think what Holly said, our city clerk said, makes sense. I think that we could add that, but I… I'm really leery to…

2:31:05to go too far down this road, because I think it will ultimately end up, unfair to some people. Councilmember Cassandra.

2:31:15My question's been addressed. Okay, Councilmember Weissick, If we have that.

2:31:21Councilmember Wysinger: I'm sorry, Mayor, that's an old hand, I lowered.

2:31:23No worries. Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman.

2:31:27Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Thank you. I just want to say, I understand the challenges of writing this,

2:31:35I don't know. The way it's written is very prescriptive.

2:31:39And so I'm concerned that we're just gonna be violating our own rules. I don't know, maybe there's something at the discretion of the mayor. I don't know if I can figure out the language right now,

2:31:49I'm not at my sharpest, I'm not feeling great, but I do… it does worry me that we're gonna put this in here, and later on, it's kind of gonna be confusing, any new people coming in, and what does it mean, and there are these special circumstances, so I… I guess I'd like there to be some kind of…

2:32:08It should not be this prescriptive and not say, shall not.

2:32:13Or if it says, shall not to be more specific about what we shall not do, which is really get into this back and forth and have the substance of conversation. But I… I guess I just don't have any problem with every once in a while somebody expressing empathy, or passing something to staff, or something small like that, and…

2:32:32again, all the other places I've served, we've done that, and I think it's okay, like, and I don't think we should have something written in that we're not going to follow, so I don't know if this can be figured out, but I'll move on, because I have a couple more comments.

2:32:47On page 23, the total time for public comments may be redu- may be reduced. I'm against this part. I'm not against the, like, sometimes it's 3 minutes, sometimes it's 2, sometimes it's 1.

2:33:01we have to do that, or some nights we would never get out of here, or we'd just have to adjourn the meeting without finishing business, so I'm all for that. But I think if, you know, 50 people come on an item.

2:33:14we should hear them, and if we can't get to all them, we need to figure out how to restructure the agenda. We can usually somewhat predict when an item is going to be really big, and I think our staff does a pretty good job in the mayor of, like, managing those agendas, but I think we should hear from people.

2:33:30So I'd like to hear more from the committee about where that came from, and I see that the discretion is still to the mayor, so the mayor could say, no, I'm gonna let everybody speak, but just would be good to hear from the committee on that one.

2:33:45Okay, Madam City Clerk, do you have any other comments?

2:33:49are…

2:33:50I would let the… I would refer to the subcommittee members on this one. Okay. I would say that,

2:33:58and I'm sure Councilmember Weisinger, as being most recently passed mayor, has experienced this more recently, but, you know, I think when we have a lot of speakers.

2:34:11I don't want… I think this is a way to make it less arbitrary, so that it doesn't, feel like it's limiting speech.

2:34:20So the other part of the language here is that limiting the time of the speaker, or the total amount of time allowed for public comment. So that's another way to say, you know, if we have 50 speakers.

2:34:35But we need to keep things moving because there's a big, you know, bigger discussion we need to have so that we approve something or not approve something. We can limit the total time, and that's happened before. But I think what, in the past, there might have been times when it seemed very…

2:34:55arbitrary, and I think that's what we wanted to move away from. Councilmember Weisinger.

2:35:00If you have any additional comments?

2:35:02Councilmember Wysinger: Yes, I mean, the thinking here, and the most important thing was what was more important, the amount of time that people got to talk, or that everyone got to… got to at least say something and have… you know, even if you have to limit your piece to one minute, you got to say your piece.

2:35:19And I think that, especially in a city where we don't have the staff to get a lot of the work done that we need to get done, I mean, we're looking around our, you know, in our nearby cities where people are spending whole, whole council meetings.

2:35:34on public comment, and I… I personally, I can't speak for the rest of the council, but I want to also make sure that people are getting their voice heard, or at least get to say it, if even of a piece of their piece, but also to get the work done. So I think that that was the thinking as far as having the waterfall effect with the time, the cap time, versus the limited

2:35:56our reduction of speaker time. So people do get to see the council, they do get to, even if they have to reduce their speech, get to say something, but we also gotta make sure that we're leaving time for the council to get the work done. That was the thinking of the…

2:36:10Committee, at least.

2:36:12Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman.

2:36:17Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: I just think it puts people in a challenging situation, because we could have a situation where, like, there's… we say we're limited to 30 people, and 25 of those 30 are on one side, and then there's another 25 people who don't get called on to speak that are on the other side. I just…

2:36:35I don't… I guess I don't see how it makes it more fair or predictable to people. It makes people really stressed about having to get their speaker card in super early. I don't know, maybe some people on really controversial items will line up, like, an hour before the council meeting, I'm not sure, and I don't know how we're gonna then…

2:36:52prioritize, and I'm not sure exactly how you all did this before, in-person versus Zoom, and I don't know, I just…

2:37:00it makes me nervous. I know it's still at the discretion of the mayor, so I think, at least for this year, you know, mayor, you'll have to kind of figure that out. There aren't that many items we have come up where that many people speak, but it does happen, and…

2:37:15I… I just… I don't like the idea that the, you know, the…

2:37:195 extra people don't get to speak just because they happen to sign up later than the 30 people before them. It doesn't…

2:37:26Doesn't seem like a great way.

2:37:27Check it.

2:37:29Sorry. There's no limitation on the number of speakers.

2:37:35So, it's not that if there's 30 or more that they can't speak, there's no limit to the number of speakers in this language.

2:37:43It's just trying to have, sort of a clean way to kind of assess how many minutes to allocate, depending upon the number of people in the chambers that want to comment. So I don't think, you know, this is not about

2:37:59cutting off speakers at number 30. There's nothing here that would do that. I think it's… it's up to the discretion of the mayor.

2:38:07you know, we can either limit the total time, or limit the number of minutes per speaker, but those are not necessarily both at the same time, but that's the… that's the call of the mayor, given the audience that we have. So.

2:38:22I think the time… You know, the number of speakers and the minutes that we are suggesting

2:38:31you know.

2:38:32that there's a language that says they may, you know, the mayor may choose to adhere to the following process. It's a may, it's not a shall. So we're not trying to tell people

2:38:43Or, sorry, not people, mayor, what to do. But it's just to say that there's a reason why we're saying, okay, today, 2 minutes.

2:38:52And it's not arbitrary to have something to fall back on, because I think

2:38:57Many people prepare their 3-minute statements.

2:39:01And maybe there's 45 people in the room, which we've had that before, and not 45 people can't speak for 3 minutes, and still have us be able to get

2:39:11through the council agenda. So that's… that's what we're trying to get at with the minutes. And again, this one is, I think, more clear on the discretion of the mayor.

2:39:22Councilmember Wysinger: And Councilmember Voltiama, to add on to what you said, that was really the crux of what we had to get at, because prior to this, the mayor did not have any direction of how they did it. And unfortunately, previous mayors, were criticized for that, and they were accused of.

2:39:40doing it at their own personal discretion based on what they personally felt about the issue that was at hand. So we definitely needed to give some direction to the mayor as far as saying, this is what… this is what is prescribed in our bylaws. Mayor, these are your options as far as the way that you can move. Remember, as the mayor, your… your main job, more than anything, is to move the agenda forward.

2:40:04And so the mayor didn't have that at that time.

2:40:10Okay. Mayor Pro Tem, do you have any.

2:40:13Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Yeah, I just want to make it super clear. I support most of what was written here, the 3-minute, 2-minute, 1 minute.

2:40:21But in reality, if you're limiting to 30 minutes, you're limiting to 30 speakers, unless some people just decide, like, they're a minute apiece, unless you're giving people, like, 30 seconds or 20 seconds, which I didn't see that in here, or unless a bunch of people just decide they're not going to take up their full minute, which…

2:40:37when you're only giving them in, it doesn't happen that often. It just doesn't. So, in reality, you are limiting to about 30 people. So I just… I want to make that clear. That is what the impact is. Again, it's up to the mayor, and they can have discretion, they can see there's 35, and just decide, well, let them all speak.

2:40:54But that is the impact, is you don't allow some people to speak if you are limiting to a certain amount of minutes.

2:41:02And I saw it on the night I was sworn in, and it was just like, well, now we're done, and it was… it's a… it's a hard break, and I… it's just… it's challenging. So, especially, you know.

2:41:16When people have been waiting for a long time to speak, and then all of a sudden, there's… the time's up.

2:41:23Okay, Councilmember Cassones. I was just gonna say the same thing that Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman just said, that it did happen last year, where there were people… there was a meeting, I didn't realize it was when we got sworn in, but there were people out in the hallway waiting to speak.

2:41:38And we set a time limit, and immediately in my head, I thought, well, that's not enough time for everyone to have whatever number of minutes they were allotted. And sure enough, we stopped at that time limit, and there were lots of people who were very upset because they were not allowed to talk.

2:41:50Yeah, I don't think we even really got a sense of it, because they were all out in the hall.

2:41:54Yep, one more. Oh. Yeah, so I think,

2:41:58you know, this is trying to make a path forward, and you know, when you have your turns as mayor, you know, you can make us sit here till midnight and just get public comment, if that is your… that's where you're going. So I think that, again, it's about the discretion, I think

2:42:16We have pretty good discretion. Again, hearing comments, you know, responding or not, how much time they have. It all depends on the context. And that's, you know, we have the best perspective on that from the days.

2:42:32So, I think, you know.

2:42:36if… I think the example that you're using, Was, you know.

2:42:42on a night that was really not a forum for public comment, it was a changeover of council members, and, you know, it was really full here. There were altercations in the lobby. There was a lot of things going on, so…

2:43:00That was the mayor's discretion at the time, and you know, I think we can all do things

2:43:07a little bit differently with some of these guidelines. Okay, very good. Let's go to open comment now. Now's the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding this item.

2:43:20Requests to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card or by selecting the raise hand feature on Zoom.

2:43:27In-person requests to speak will be taken first. Please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence at the beginning of your comments. Madam City Clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. We just have one request to speak. Ira Shirna.

2:43:39Thank you. Ira Sharonel El Cerrito.

2:43:42This is a really big issue for me. I guess I'm from New Jersey originally, but in terms of public policy, my experience was in Madison, Wisconsin, which is a much bigger city than El Cerrito. It's the capital of the state, and there were a lot of people who were there to speak.

2:44:01I'm looking around here, I don't see very many people here, and I think the Council needs to really think about how it treats members of the public, especially those who don't agree with management.

2:44:17We just had an experience today.

2:44:19I came up and I asked what was up with the, Richmond Street project. People didn't respond, nothing.

2:44:28On the other hand, another person who asks questions that are more favorable

2:44:33to what the Council was appreciating, got an answer.

2:44:38That just doesn't seem right to me.

2:44:41It just doesn't seem right. There's a lot of inequity here in terms of how the Council treats people.

2:44:48And people who disagree with the Council are treated very badly, in my view. And I can tell you, you know, you don't want to hear about

2:44:56what goes on on Nextdoor, but basically people feel they get stonwalled from the government, they can't get answers, and then council members and sometimes management start criticizing people for trying to provide information.

2:45:12So let me tell you about Madison. On principle, on the form that people filled out.

2:45:18They stated whether they were for or against the position, and then the mayor called people, there was an elected mayor.

2:45:25call people alternating, but the people also could state whether they were there to speak or not to speak, so they could register an opinion.

2:45:34just by saying yes or no, the four attacks, against attacks, they didn't have to go up there and speak. So that could be a big time saver. But also, they stated whether they were available to answer questions. And believe me, there were questions.

2:45:48I worked on, as you can imagine, very controversial issues. The mayor at the time was an attorney.

2:45:56who just really just laid into me. He was, like, cross-examining for, like, 20 minutes.

2:46:02Because they interacted. I appreciated my opportunity to talk about what I thought was improper behavior.

2:46:09Here, you just, like, FOMO, you don't get answers. And then people say, well, you send too many emails, and the management doesn't respond at all.

2:46:19So you gotta really think. Again, you look at the room here, there's no one here. And quite frankly, I used to speak all the time. I used to be much more active than I am now, if you can believe that.

2:46:33And I was much more hard-hitting, because I think I was dealing with drug dealers.

2:46:39But you have to ask yourself why… Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Okay, thank you. That concludes our request to speak, Mayor. All right, thank you. We'll bring this back. I believe there are two things we need to work on, a resolution.

2:46:56Do you want to read that? Do you want to do your resolution? And we'll vote on that, and then

2:47:03If I may, there's also a hand… has her hand up. No, no, I'm Saltzman.

2:47:08their question?

2:47:09Or comment.

2:47:10Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: I still had more… I just had one more comment. I had several, I said that at the beginning. So I'm supportive of most of what the committee has come up with, except the small changes I was looking for. I am going to vote against it, because it does

2:47:26again, put into writing the legislative platform that I don't support, so that… that is the one part of it I…

2:47:33there's no way to really change that, except taking that out, that I would support it. But I just want to make clear, I support most of these rule changes, but I will be voting against the resolution.

2:47:44Thank you for that.

2:47:46We have, something to consider, and I do want to, create an ad hoc subcommittee to discuss advisory body policies and implications of SB707. Do I need to name those now, or can I wait?

2:48:05At a future date.

2:48:08I don't know if that's a yes or no, sorry. I'd say, I mean…

2:48:11you could name them later, but ultimately we'd need to report out about who was appointed, but… so if you're not prepared to make an appointment tonight, we would just need to make sure that it was recorded publicly later. Okay, so I am not prepared to, set the ad hoc committee yet, but we'll do that at the next council meeting.

2:48:29And, Councilmember Motayama, go ahead.

2:48:35I think… oh, so I would like to move, the resolution of the City Council of the City of El Cerrito to adopt the City Council Policies and Rules of Order and Procedure… Superseding Resolution 2020-59. I would also

2:48:54like to take, Councilman or Mayor Pro Tems,

2:49:01Suggestion regarding the shall… the… the language regarding, responding?

2:49:09Alright, scrolling through, trying to find it,

2:49:15So that is not so… quite so prescriptive, and… but maintains, Mayor, discretion.

2:49:25Okay, do I have a second? Thank you. Can we vote on it before that language is settled? And I'm… yeah, I… can I have some clarification of what language it is that you're recommending we revise to? Because that's a little too broad for us to administratively do. So, you had some proposed language, can you repeat that?

2:49:41Certainly. So I… I had drafted, after public comment has concluded, council members may request staff to address or follow up on a concern, question, or request heard by a member of the public.

2:49:55Yes. That's the language you're referring to? Yes, so… but I think the… the change is really, council members shall not respond to comments.

2:50:08So I think it's, like, that's… that's the part that we're saying that then we will. I think your language is great, and it should be added, but I think that council members shall not respond is a little…

2:50:24Too strong, in this case.

2:50:26So… Can we say, Council members shall not engage in dialogue with, Members of the public?

2:50:40Councilmember Wysinger: If that is agreeable to what Councilmember Salzman suggested, I would be agreeable to that.

2:50:48I was just gonna suggest also you could change it to council members will not generally respond to comments. Okay. And then I think in terms of the wording that, the city clerk proposed, but, perhaps making a very small change to also respond to one of,

2:51:04the Vice Mayor's other comments would be to change it to after any public comment, so then Council could, respond, request

2:51:12answer questions, ask for more information after any public comment is made, rather than waiting until the end of all public comments. Okay. I think that would be…

2:51:22the additions that I would make. Okay, so just to clarify, then that section, the first paragraph would be revised to read, Council members will not generally respond to comments by members of the public.

2:51:34And then…

2:51:36At the end of that, there would be an additional paragraph that reads, after any public comment, council members may request staff to address, etc, etc, as read before? Yes. Okay.

2:51:48And that's the motion? And is that the only revision that was included in your motion?

2:51:54Yes. Okay.

2:51:56Councilmember Wysinger: Okay, I like to second that.

2:51:58Okay, we have a motion by Motayama and a second by Weisinger, Madden City Clerk.

2:52:03Mayor Kincho? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman?

2:52:07Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: No one is in the room with me, and I'm voting no.

2:52:10Thank you. Councilmember Quetzanes? Yes. Councilmember Mochiyama? Yes. Councilmember Weisinger?

2:52:16Councilmember Wysinger: No one is in the room with me, and I'm voting yes.

2:52:19Thank you. Motion carries. Okay, thank you very much, everyone.

2:52:22Next, we'll go to City Council Local and Regional Liaison Assignments. Any updates?

2:52:29I'll start over here to my left. Yeah, no updates. Okay, to my right.

2:52:34I'm sorry. Okay, well, go to Councilmember Weisinger.

2:52:39Councilmember Wysinger: Yes, I did attend the League of California Cities Policy Committees, just a few weeks ago, as I was appointed to the Public Safety Committee, and I will say for a first meeting, it was a very sobering experience.

2:52:54I think our colleagues in the East Bay Division, we have a lot of work to do as far as making sure that we are putting forward pragmatic public safety policies that the League can put forward.

2:53:06We understand that there's a lot of folks in different areas of our state who don't see the same things that we see on the ground. I recall at one point, we were explaining the new trend amongst our youth as far as puffing nitrous oxide, and there were people in sections of our state who didn't even know what that was.

2:53:24And we were supporting, policies put forward by the board as far as restricting, where people can buy that, and that is something that's important, something that's definitely affecting our youth here in our more urban areas. So, even though it's gonna be very hard work, especially for a hothead like myself.

2:53:41I'm looking forward to continuing to doing that work and representing our city. Along the same lines, I was recently reappointed to the National League of Cities Public Policy Committee, and also a new appointee to the REAL Council, which is the Race Equity, and I forgot what the AL means in REAL, but that is also a committee there on the National League of Cities.

2:54:04So, looking forward to continuing to work with our… to represent our city and working with cities across our nation in those important policy discussions.

2:54:13Okay, congratulations. Well, next we'll go to Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman.

2:54:18Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman: Thank you. Just wanted to report that on January 23rd, I attended the West Contra Costa Transportation Commission meeting, and I was elected as chair of the Commission, and Richmond Council Member Cesar Zepedo was elected as the new vice chair.

2:54:36Congratulations.

2:54:38Mayor Pro Tem… I mean, Councilmember Motu. Thank you, Mayor. On January the 23rd, I attended the Cal Cities Policy, meeting for the Revenue and Taxation Committee, and that was really, you know,

2:54:56very deep into that, point-of-sale e-commerce tax. And, you know, I had served on this committee about 2 years ago, and that… that discussion was still going. So, hopefully, you know, the…

2:55:12Calcia's board will be, coming out with the finalized language that the whole CalCities can support.

2:55:20Again, you know, they had some estimates of how much sales tax we would be receiving, and it would be, much higher.

2:55:30For us. So, it's a good thing to keep our eyes on, and I think that, there are many possible changes that could happen in legislation that may take some… take that

2:55:43almost entirely away. So, it was good to be there. And then on January 27th, I attended the FAB meeting and reported out about our retreat.

2:55:54Very good.

2:55:56let's see, I'll give my update. I did attend the, Bay Area Air District Board Meeting Retreat, and that was, in downtown Oakland, and,

2:56:09And then I attended the El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce Installation and Luncheon Annual Meeting.

2:56:19I brought a guest,

2:56:22And, one of the partners at TK Auto Body, I want to congratulate

2:56:28The new, directors.

2:56:32And I want to thank, staff member Aisha Suri and, our staff here at El Cerrito for,

2:56:41Having me attend that, and to,

2:56:44see a new generation of entrepreneurs and small business leaders. Many of them are women, and many of them are women from communities of color, so it's great to see El Cerrito take the lead on that, and I look forward to having more of our small businesses

2:57:02join, the chamber. I know there are a lot of, Asian American and Latino

2:57:08small businesses, and I want to make sure that,

2:57:11they reach out to, all of the businesses here in the City of El Cerritos. Again, congratulations to President Kevin O'Neill and, his new, board members. So, I spent the week,

2:57:29the other week, in Sacramento, meeting with leadership in, the Assembly and Senate, And,

2:57:38asking them point blank, is it $3 billion or $18 billion? And, I just have a feeling, after speaking to them and speaking to the other side.

2:57:50It's probably somewhere in between. So, my personal opinion, we're not going to get anything done this year on the state. A lot of the things that, we plan on doing on… on energy, is,

2:58:06And if, we shall see if this stuff will go forward. I'm not sure, because of our huge deficit. Whoever is going to be governor next year will have to clean up this mess. So a lot of the things that,

2:58:22That cities stand for and advocate for, like, homelessness.

2:58:27and PLOP 36 funding, we're still going to continue on that and call them, the leaders out and the democratic leadership, to, you know, let's, work together, collaborate together,

2:58:43So that was, my Sacramento trip. Friday, I spent the evening with the,

2:58:51Peninsula Division for Cal Cities, where I gave, an award to Assemblymember Patan.

2:58:58Who, was voted in as, best legislator, and I appreciate her leadership. She will be working on, legislation on, batteries and e-bikes and EVs. So, that is my update.

2:59:17For this week, later on this month.

2:59:21My board of 57 will be meeting in the city of Berkeley, and we'll have a dinner at the Country Club in El Cerrito on the 19th.

2:59:31So I look forward to that, and having mayors and council members from up and down the state of California to visit El Cerrito for the first time. So, it's… it's promoting, East Bay, El Cerrito.

2:59:45And, you know, I hope, they enjoy their stay, up here in, El Cerrito and Berkeley area.

2:59:53I'm hoping we'll have a hotel built the next time we ever have something like this. We're not able to

3:00:00accommodate our people because, we don't have a hotel and, space large enough, for this venue. But hopefully in the future, fingers crossed. So, that's my update, and I want to make sure that I give,

3:00:19the next date for the City Council.

3:00:24Yeah. The next, regularly scheduled City Council meeting is Tuesday, February 17th at 6pm, and this will be held at Hana Gardens 10870 San Pablo Avenue. That's right next door.

3:00:39And the time is 9 o'clock sharp. We are adjourned. Thank you very much for attending and listening.

3:00:47Councilmember Wysinger: Good night!

3:00:49Have a good night.