Special City Council Meeting March 3, 2026

0:00:28Wait a minute.

0:01:34Good evening.

0:01:36The March 3rd Special City Council meeting is called to order at… Fair enough.

0:01:45Okay.

0:01:46Can you hear me now? Yes.

0:01:50The March 3rd Special City Council meeting is called to order at

0:01:56606, Bound Clerk, please call both. Mayor Kinto? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman?

0:02:03Councilmember Katsanis?

0:02:05Here. Councilmember Mojiyama?

0:02:07Councilmember Weisinger? Here. We have a quorum.

0:02:11Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

0:02:15I pledge allegiance to the flag.

0:02:36Next is, Council Staff and Communications, City Manager Karen Pecos.

0:02:43Thank you, Your Honor.

0:02:45I just have one announcement, and then I would actually like to call the police chief up to give another staff communication this evening. I'll start off with, our budget season. Our budget process is underway, and coming up on March 7th, which is Saturday at 10 a.m, right here in Hanna Gardens, we're going to be hosting a community workshop so that we can discuss with the community, talk about the budget.

0:03:08how the budget process goes, how we adopt the budget, what's in the budget, and then hear from the community about priorities and get some feedback on the next two-year budget. You can also, if you can't come on the 7th, please go online, and you can answer our budget survey.

0:03:24You can go to elcerrito.gov slash budget and find all sorts of information. So, we hope to see some of you on Saturday, or hear from you, over the next few months. And with that, I would like to hand it over to Police Chief Paul Keith.

0:03:40Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Paul Keith, your Chief of Police.

0:03:43Here tonight to talk about our Flock Safety License Plate Reader System.

0:03:47Last Thursday, I put out a community bulletin about our flock safety system. On Friday, I did two interviews with some local news stations. Each interview was about 7 to 10 minutes long, and I think each station used about 20 seconds from the interview. So I was hoping to take some time tonight to kind of fill in the gaps of the things that were not broadcast on Friday.

0:04:07So just some background. Our license plate reader system takes photographs of the back of cars.

0:04:13Reading the license plate on the cars, records the date, the time, and the location the photograph was taken, and retains data for a 30-day period.

0:04:21We have 40 cameras spread around the city of El Cerrito, and they have a dual purpose. First, they act as an early warning system.

0:04:29They alert our officers when a wanted vehicle enters town, whether that's a stolen car or a robbery suspect vehicle. That also gives our officers the opportunity to intercept the car and apprehend the driver.

0:04:40They also act as an investigative aid after a crime has been committed. So after a crime has been committed, our officers can access the system and attempt to develop information about a suspect vehicle that might be associated to a given crime.

0:04:53The system was approved by Council in March of 2023.

0:04:57The first installations of cameras began in June of 2023.

0:05:01And the police department began administratively controlling the system in August of 2023.

0:05:08Last month, in January, we read some articles about local agencies, the Richmond Police Department, the Mountain View Police Department, the Los Altos Police Department, having issues with their data. So we decided to take a deep dive into our own data.

0:05:20So I, along with other staff members, did a complete audit of access to our network.

0:05:24And we discussed the results with flock safety, and I mean, we looked at

0:05:28Basically, every day of… every month that the system has been active for us.

0:05:35So this is what we found. When Flock began installing cameras, the cameras defaulted to sharing data outside of California, including with federal agencies.

0:05:44When we took control of the account in August of 2023, we set sharing guidelines that did… that did not include out-of-state or federal agencies.

0:05:52So during that initial installation period, four federal agencies had access to our data. These include the FBI, the ATF, the National Park Service, and the GSA, the Government Services Administration.

0:06:06Also, many out-of-state agencies had access, agencies from Georgia and Michigan, various states across the country.

0:06:14Now, from August 2023 onward, sharing was significantly restricted. This is after we set our sharing controls.

0:06:22Our audit found no instances of out-of-state sharing, and 2 instances of federal sharing.

0:06:27These were…

0:06:29Period between September and November of 2023, where the United States Postal Inspector's Office had some access to our data.

0:06:37And two days in May of 2025, where that's kind of a mouthful, the Loma Linda Healthcare Systems Veterans Administration Police Department did two searches accessing our data.

0:06:50So, what we learned from the USPS, in 2023, Flock found a loophole that allowed some federal agencies to search in state databases. Basically, they would just change their location in the system and allowed them to drop into some states and access data.

0:07:05They fixed that access loophole with the federal agencies. For the Veterans Administration, it appears that this was a human error, that when the police department was set up in the system, it was originally misidentified as a California agency and not as a federal agency.

0:07:19The VA, like I said, conducted two searches of our database, and I actually talked to their chief of police on Friday morning about their use of the system.

0:07:27He says they use it for patient and staff safety, they do not use it for immigration purposes. I think it's also important to note that of our audit of the system overall, we did not find any instances of federal immigration agencies using the system.

0:07:43So, on Flock, they've continued to improve their systems over the last 3 years. Current version of their software, it's really tailored for California law enforcement environment, where there's stricter controls that prohibit access by out-of-state or federal agencies.

0:07:58Our system has had some very significant successes for us in the last 3 years. 2023,

0:08:04Helped us solve a homicide case that occurred in Capitola, where the suspect lived in El Cerrito, provided crucial details about the suspect's movements, both before the homicide and after the homicide.

0:08:15In 2024, it helped us solve a fatal hit-and-run on San Pablo Avenue.

0:08:19At the time of the collision, the only evidence we had to go off of was a very blurry picture of the side of a pickup truck from a nearby business.

0:08:27We were able to use that information to search our database and locate suspect vehicle, and within 24 hours, using Concord's database, we're able to locate the suspect vehicle in the city of Concord and apprehend the owner.

0:08:40In 2025, it helped us solve a home evasion robbery that led our detectives to Dixon, California.

0:08:46Using our license plate readers in town, we were able to identify a suspect vehicle. Using Dixon's system, we were able to identify that the vehicle had last been seen in the city of Dixon. Because we operated… because we moved fast within that first 48-hour period, we actually found one of the suspects in the vehicle in the city of Dixon.

0:09:02Following the crime.

0:09:04In 2025, we had a 40-year low for burglaries.

0:09:08stolen vehicles, and we had the second lowest year we've ever had for robberies. Pretty tremendous results.

0:09:14Much of that is attributed to the, the usefulness of our license plate reader system.

0:09:21Next week, on March 10th, at 4 o'clock, right here at Hannah Gardens, we're going to have a public meeting to give our public… our community members the opportunity to ask more questions of the police department about the use of the system, also to express their concerns about the use of the system. We plan to take a lot of notes.

0:09:36And bring that information back to Council when we come back for a flock safety contract renewal on April 21st, 2026, before City Council.

0:09:46I have to tell you that I believe that Flock has been responsive to the issues that we've identified with their system, that they have improved the system's security, and that they remain a very valuable public safety partner. They have helped us solve some very serious crimes that otherwise would have been very difficult or impossible to solve.

0:10:04So that is the information I have to report out for you tonight. I am available for brief questions.

0:10:11Or more in-depth questions, whatever you'd like to do. Okay, let's go to my left with, Councilmember Weissicker. Thank you so much for that report, Chief, because I know that we've been receiving,

0:10:22concerns and questions from community since last year about flocking, making sure that our, partnership with them did not kind of slap in the face of our… our stance in regard to St. George Cities. So I did before, prior to your report, and I don't… I don't know if we knew we… you were going to do a report, but prior to your report, I was looking into the cities that have actually had more robust community conversations around this.

0:10:45Did… were you able to meet…

0:10:47one thing I wasn't able to see is the cities that did get rid of flock.

0:10:51Were you able to at least look into the reasons why they did that and make sure? Because I think the concern would still be continuing to making sure whatever this loophole is, has been passed. It's not something that can recur, it's something that someone can find and make bigger. We know how sometimes tech is. So we have… we looked into that?

0:11:09So, I'm gonna try not to get too technical, but there were some cities, like Mountain View, my understanding is that, they have city policies that restrict their sharing to only within Mountain View, and not outside of Mountain View.

0:11:22And they had activated a feature in the software that allowed them to share with the state of California in violation of city policies, so that's kind of Mountain View's issue. Other cities had similar experiences, where it wasn't necessarily sharing with federal partners, but it was sharing unintentionally with state agencies that they didn't intend to share with.

0:11:43I should also note that we do have on our website our list of all of our sharing partners, so…

0:11:48It gets updated in the moment. If you look for El Cerrito Police Flock Transparency Portal, it lists all of the agencies we share with in California. It lists all the agencies that share with us. It also provides a 30-day audits, so you can go back in time 30 days to review El Cerrito's use of the system.

0:12:06It has our policy on there as well, it has the location of all of our cameras, it's a pretty data-rich website for those people that are interested.

0:12:13So, each agency had kind of differing reasons. Some of them…

0:12:17I will say that there's elements of the system that weren't very user-friendly early on. They've really simplified it now for California agencies, but early on, it was not as user-friendly, so you could make the mistake and think, I'm not sharing with anyone, but you have a setting active that allows a basic search for all of California.

0:12:36And the difference is, you can do a robust search of the system, which means you can search for makes, models, colors of cars, or you can do a basic search, which is only for a license plate query. Like, you have to have the exact license plate. So, my understanding is the setting that they had turned on allowed for that license plate search across California.

0:12:54Well, again, thank you for that report. I know even when we were initially authorized, that was one of the number one questions we asked, was making sure that we were not sharing this in some way that would harm our community. I didn't… also didn't know that our renewal was coming up, so I look forward to actually having that conversation, because once I did see your memo, that was the first question, is when will we as Council be able to actually discuss this again? So thank you so much, and I look forward for your report back.

0:13:18Great, thank you. Okay, Councilmember Cassanis. Actually, I was going to ask you about the renewal and the opportunity to have a more in-depth conversation at that time. So my understanding is that sometime in late spring, is that correct?

0:13:29Yeah, I think it was April 21st, is the, second meeting in April. So…

0:13:34Presumably, a couple weeks before that, we'll have a council meeting where we can discuss it. Yes. Okay, that's all. Okay, or at that meeting. Sorry.

0:13:42Mayor Potem.

0:13:43First, just want to thank you for the memo that you put out last week that was very extensive, so I didn't learn much new tonight, because I had read that, and I encourage anybody who… this was, like, a lot to take in right now to go look at that memo, because it has all this information there, and I appreciate how transparent you were about what's happened.

0:14:02Is it possible, and maybe we could talk about this in our renewal, for us to be reviewing this more frequently, so that we will know if there's an issue again, if something changes, and all of a sudden a federal agency gets access? We're certainly changing our practice around audits, whereas before, we would just kind of spot check, you know, a month of data.

0:14:21The… the two individual searches by Loma Linda really pointed out that, you know, if we didn't search that period of time and pick up on those two searches.

0:14:30Then we might not have. And initially, Loma Linda… now Flock has an identifier in the system that identifies every agency as federal, so it's easy to spot them on a search. But before, that wasn't the case. You kind of had to…

0:14:42go through a list of agencies and see if you can spot the federal agencies in there. So, going forward, our new price is going to be monthly audit of the system. We're talking to the city attorney about what kind of data we can publish as a result of those audits. Obviously, we don't want to publish anything that's law enforcement sensitive.

0:14:59But to the extent that we can put things out there to the public, we're gonna do that.

0:15:03So that is going to be our… our change in practice going forward. We, we don't want any more surprises. Great, that's good to hear. Thank you. Okay. Councilmember Motayama.

0:15:12Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the report and all your diligence and, like, going through everything for us. I do have a question about the VA human error. Yes. So, it was, who coded it as not federal?

0:15:26That is not super clear, and I don't know what feature they, you know, I don't know how they identify that at account creation, so I don't know if it was on the flock side or on the VA side.

0:15:36The VA police chief was pretty transparent that their system is… they have 3 cameras, and it's really for the safety of veterans, particularly for suicidal veterans, and the safety of staff, so…

0:15:48That's pretty much their only use of the system. So it's hard to say whether it was, you know, their data entry or Flock's data entry. So, was that the same loophole as the Postal Service? No, it was… This was totally different? It was more of a human error. Okay. So somebody…

0:16:04hit the wrong button or typed in the wrong thing. And it sounds like, from Flock, that the Loma Linda search hit most of the agencies in California, so…

0:16:13That is something that will probably show up as other agencies go through their audit process. They're gonna find those two searches from Loma Linda.

0:16:20Some of our neighboring agencies have those same searches that we identified as well.

0:16:25So, for example, if a federal agency called themselves a California agency, would they slip through, kind of, the screening of the system? I think Flock's got that on their radar now. Okay.

0:16:38I think the name of the Loma Linda Healthcare Systems Police Department, you know, it doesn't necessarily immediately trigger that automatic federal tag, you know, in my head, but

0:16:50That is one of the things that Flock is aware is now… aware of now as an issue that they really have to be careful about going forward. They've gotten a lot of pressure

0:16:59from city councils and cities, and I have to say, they are really trying to bend over backwards to be helpful. They offered to be here tonight to answer questions. We probably will have them at the April 21st meeting so that they can answer specifics about their response to the group. So, they are really,

0:17:16trying to do all they can to win back some trust, because, certainly I was…

0:17:20dismayed to find this information. I was very disappointed in the system. You really hate to see that… you have great intents going into a system, and to see the way that it was set up, and the way that it was executed. Not up to our standards.

0:17:33And I know it's illegal, but does… do you know of any instances where cities share the data themselves with federal agencies?

0:17:43In what sense? Oh, like, they, they…

0:17:46Federal agency contacts them and say, can you look this up for us? And they use the flock system and give that information to a federal agency. So, the restriction in the law is that they can't have direct access to the database. It does not prohibit California law enforcement agencies from doing joint investigations with federal law enforcement partners.

0:18:05On criminal cases they're both investigating. So, like the member, California law enforcement officer who's a member of a task force can use the system and help develop information for joint investigations. That is allowed. Direct access of the database is not allowed.

0:18:22So they have to have a California law enforcement agency or officer as the actual user of the system.

0:18:30But it doesn't preclude any bad actors from, again, sharing data.

0:18:34About residents, too.

0:18:37like, immigration.

0:18:39agencies. Well, it is against the law to share data for immigration purposes. That's why I said criminal investigations only. You can't… it is against California law to share information for immigration. It would get somebody fired, could get somebody, you know, criminally liable or civilly liable for sharing that information.

0:18:54The current system has…

0:18:56a big, disclaimer about the use of the system, and the fact that it is illegal to use it for those purposes, so that is strictly prohibited. And we put a California law enforcement officer in really hot water, just like

0:19:09accessing DMV records inappropriately could get somebody fired or charged.

0:19:15Okay, and maybe this is a question for…

0:19:19the 10th or the 21st, but… I'll take… I'll give it a shot.

0:19:24How much of the reduction in crime is strictly attributable to the license plate reading cameras, and as opposed to, like, the general reduction in crime that we have been seeing as a kind of an overall

0:19:38improvement? There are a lot of cities that have also had reductions in crime. They… most of them, from my early check-ins with them, have not seen it to the same degree that we've seen it.

0:19:49How much can I explicitly attribute to the system? That is hard to say, but there's certainly a,

0:19:56a moment in time where we did the system, and then we've seen decreases year over year since then. So, it certainly plays a role. It's going to be hard to quantify exactly how many crimes that meant, you know, was it 10 crimes, or was it 100 crimes?

0:20:09But it has made us much more effective in the follow-up of crimes, and I can talk to specific cases. We have a number of them, where it helps solve a case that we would not have otherwise solved.

0:20:20And this is… slightly off-topic, but I did notice that catalytic converter thefts are

0:20:27showing up in the Nixle report, and I was wondering if you will be sharing the information about the… how you can acid etch the

0:20:35Vehicle license number, whatever it is, on the… on the catalytic converters.

0:20:40I'll be happy to put out a public piece on that to remind everybody about some steps they can take.

0:20:46Thank you.

0:20:48Chief, I want to thank you for taking all my calls the last few days, especially on the weekends, regarding this issue. It's a serious question.

0:20:58I know with all the 19 cities here in Contra Costa, our city has always been… had one of the highest property crime rates, because we have two BART stations, and we're

0:21:10right next to two freeway entrances and exits. So, you know, I personally have seen, less crime in my neighborhood and, and less Nixle reports, so, I truly believe that this is,

0:21:25Yeah, I look forward to our talks coming up later this month, and to have Flock join us at a future meeting in April. So, again, thank you for this presentation.

0:21:36Great. Thank you very much.

0:21:40Okay, so, we are going to do,

0:21:44Council Announcements, and I'll check over here to my right.

0:21:50Any updates?

0:21:52Good. I just have a couple. February 18th, I signed a letter of support to BART's BUILD grant application. I also signed a mayoral proclamation in recognition of the March

0:22:06on March 10th, 2026, as Tibetan National Uprising Day, and I will, hand it over to the members of TANK in a future event.

0:22:18We'll go to, oral communications for the public, but before that, I want to, introduce again our city clerk, who will give us, teleconference and public comment instructions.

0:22:33Thank you, Mayor.

0:22:34So tonight's meeting is a hybrid meeting that does provide an option to participate in person or via Zoom, and closed captions are available for those that are participating on Zoom. Meetings of the City Council are subject to the Brown Act and are held for the purpose of conducting city business.

0:22:48The Brown Act also ensures the public's right to be heard, and while City Council will not generally respond to your comments directly, your comments will be heard prior to Council taking action.

0:22:58For members of the public who wish to provide oral testimony, the mayor will announce the time for public comments on each applicable item. Public 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.

0:23:13Those on Zoom can request to speak by using the raise hand feature, and if you are dialing in by phone, you can select star 9 to request to speak.

0:23:22In-person speakers will be called first, and at this time, we will… this item is for public comments for items not on the agenda, items on the consent calendar, and items on the presentation calendar.

0:23:35Mayor, at this time, we have, 12 requests to speak. If you can please confirm the 3-minute time limit for me? 3 minutes, please. Thank you.

0:23:52Okay, I'll invite our first speaker up, Michael Cohen, followed by Gerald Fagoni.

0:24:09Good evening.

0:24:11Good evening, I'm Mike Cohen, I live on Galvin Drive.

0:24:15I was surprised to see text used in the description of the library tax measure. The penultimate words

0:24:23were senior exemptions. I'm talking about this item.

0:24:32I find this wording very disingenuous.

0:24:36There are no senior exemptions in this measure.

0:24:39Who chose these words? I was told it was the city attorney.

0:24:44Nevertheless, The measure actually uses the word exemption.

0:24:48Later in that section, the measure mentions two specific so-called exemptions. The first is the Gonzalez, etc, property tax assistance law.

0:25:00This is a California state program funded

0:25:03Last, in 2009, not accepting applications. It's inactive.

0:25:08The second is known as the Senior Citizen Property Tax Postponement Law.

0:25:15This requires that the owner be low income, and the house is owned free and clear. It places a lien on the property, which must be repaid.

0:25:25When the property is sold. This is a loan. This is not an exemption.

0:25:30Apparently, the wording for this section in the library ordinance was chosen by copying a section

0:25:37from Measure H of 2019.

0:25:41The Measure H summary, however, did not mention the word exemption.

0:25:45In that box I showed you, there was no word exemption.

0:25:51I use the word disingenuous because no person in El Cerrito has qualified for either of these so-called senior exemptions for Measure H.

0:26:02Thus, I question the purpose of describing the library tax measure in the short summary as being a property tax with senior exemptions, when there's no chance of receiving an exemption.

0:26:15I wonder what non-factual wording does to the validity of an election.

0:26:21I ask that the ballot description language be changed so that there is no chance of confusing or deceiving the citizens. Thank you.

0:26:34Our next speaker is Mike… Sorry, Gerald Fagoni, followed by Bill Barish.

0:26:43Good evening, everyone. Nice to see you.

0:26:46So, I'll start this with dangerous for children and seniors.

0:26:53And, all pedestrians.

0:26:56Talking about Fairmont Avenue between Richmond Street and Liberty.

0:27:02It's where BART is, of course, and across the street is El Cerita Plaza.

0:27:06You can imagine motorcycles, cars, buses, trucks, e-vehicles.

0:27:14It's crowded all the time, and busy.

0:27:16So, the intersection of Liberty Street and Fairmont Street, the entrance and exit to the plaza.

0:27:25is the busiest intersection in El Cerrito that's not on San Pablo Avenue.

0:27:30And the intersection of Richmond Street and Fairmont is a close second to it.

0:27:37So for those reasons, I'd ask you to pick a location for the library that is not in this area.

0:27:44Thank you.

0:27:46Our next speaker is Bill Barish, followed by Brian Richmond.

0:27:56Good evening. My name is Bill Barish, and I still live in El Surviv.

0:28:02I am here once again to address the library tax initiative.

0:28:08It's now scheduled for June.

0:28:11And I'd like to ask the city attorney, city manager.

0:28:16And all other city officials or personnel to stop asserting or implying

0:28:23that El Cerrito would own the proposed library at the BART Plaza.

0:28:29In the same way that it owns the current library.

0:28:34The city keeps claiming ownership.

0:28:37Because it would own the furnishings and books of the library within the confines of the building.

0:28:45This is no different from any other person, organization, or commercial entity

0:28:53That rents a space from any landlord.

0:28:57All unattached furnishings within the space belong to the leasee and can be taken when the leasee leaves for another location.

0:29:07The terms of the initiative specify that the city would pay a $1 per year rent to the building developer or owner.

0:29:18Therefore, the city would be a leasee.

0:29:22You cannot simultaneously pay rent on and own a physical parcel of real estate And any improvements thereon.

0:29:35Period.

0:29:37So, once and for all, Under the terms of the current initiative, the city would never

0:29:45Own any part of the land or the building where the library would reside.

0:29:53Because the city would never have the deed of trust to either the land or the building.

0:30:01Please stop misleading public.

0:30:06about the city's ownership relationship to the library that you so desperately want to waste our money on at the BART Plaza location.

0:30:20Any statements to the effect that the city would hold title to the facility are patently false. Thank you.

0:30:31Our next speaker is Brian Richmond, followed by Laurie Schrey

0:30:42Hi, I'm Brian Richmond. I'm a long-time El Cerrito resident, president of the Trail Trekkers.

0:30:48been coming to the last several City Council meetings, and I just wanted to give a brief update, and I wanted to thank Karen Pincus and Yvette Ortiz for meeting with the Trail Trekkers about our push to try to improve the public paths in El Cerrito, and we were

0:31:05Basically told that, after consulting with attorneys in the insurance organization, that

0:31:11For liability reasons, they don't want volunteers building things on city infrastructure.

0:31:17And so we… we hear them. We're disappointed that the trail truckers are not going to be allowed to build some of these, but there may be room for us to continue to help maintaining in the long term, things like that. But it's still… our main disappointment is that after 15, 16 years now, there still hasn't been any movement in actually doing anything to improve those public paths. So we're… I'm just here to advocate again that we make this a priority.

0:31:42make it a priority in the budget, in the capital improvement plan. For example, we got an estimate that it would cost

0:31:48Between $35,000 and $40,000 total to put signs

0:31:54on all of the public paths, and many of those are not even really visible right now. They're an important public resource, not only for people to enjoy and navigate neighborhoods, but also it could be really critical in an emergency evacuation for, you know, earthquake, fire, whatever, if people are not able to get out in cars and other ways.

0:32:14that could be by far the fastest way, up or down a hill in a neighborhood. So, again, we're looking at costs here that are very small relative to other capital improvement projects, but could have a really big impact. So I'm just here to, again, advocate for that.

0:32:31And advocate for, hopefully, a more robust partnership between city and nonprofit volunteer groups, because we do have a lot of

0:32:39passionate and very capable residents in El Cerrito who want to make it a difference. So, thank you for everything you do.

0:32:48Our next speaker is Lori Schrey, followed by Stuart Sonatina.

0:32:59Good evening, Mayor and City Council, and all of you back there.

0:33:03I know you're getting tired of listening about certain things within this library, quote, tax initiative.

0:33:13And to tell you the truth, I signed the petition. And you know why I did? Because I understood from when it was out there to the public, there was a senior exemption.

0:33:24I'm a senior, and I am really upset that now it's been

0:33:29On your discretion that a senior exemption may be possible, but as Michael Cohen had said, there's a lot of information out there that has never taken place.

0:33:42And I understand that the petition, along with

0:33:46how it was presented to people, there's a lot of other seniors that probably signed this petition with the same understanding that I did.

0:33:55So, that's really disappointing to me.

0:33:58And to rush this through on a June ballot.

0:34:02Spending $80,000 more of our taxpayer money

0:34:06it just feels like, and I keep hearing this out in the public.

0:34:11that the council is losing trust within the community, and people are watching. They're watching what you're doing, they're the ones that voted you in. It's kind of more of an important thing for when you go to, you know, want to re-up your council membership and want to be voted again.

0:34:30You may seem like you're hearing, but where I grew up, there's a difference between hearing and listening.

0:34:37You're not listening.

0:34:39El Cerrito deserves better than what we've just been handed with this library.

0:34:46parcel tax initiative. Thank you.

0:34:49Our next speaker is Stuart… Stuart Sonatina, followed by Zlivano Sonatina?

0:34:59Hello. Stuart Sanatino.

0:35:02El Cerrito parent since 2019.

0:35:05This is a request. I'm asking council members and city staff to walk or bike with my kids and myself to school.

0:35:14One day, any day, we leave from Yosemite Avenue just after 8 o'clock, and we cross Carlson and San Pueblo.

0:35:22It's distressing, often terrifying, and the main reason I often find myself angry about the lack of action by city staff to reduce vehicle speeds in El Cerrito.

0:35:34Since moving to El Cerrito in 2019, I've been awed by the number of cars slamming into trees, buildings, and people.

0:35:44I have a whole slew of pictures of the aftermath of car collisions just from happening upon them around town.

0:35:51But I assure you, if you ask around, you'll find it's easy to gather stories of cars destroying something on nearly every block.

0:35:59And then I… go on to talk about how I,

0:36:04I feel like we have demonstrated

0:36:06public desire for traffic calming in El Cerrito, and we have seen very little action.

0:36:15And I encourage, this is in regard to the local road safety plan.

0:36:22I encourage us to, instead of continuing to pour money into the pockets of Florida traffic consultants, let's use that money to install some quick-build traffic circles.

0:36:32We don't need another survey or study. The results are in. We need raised crosswalks, narrower lanes, protected paths, slow streets, and corridors, so people can get around without their 2-ton freeway machines.

0:36:46Again, I'm asking members of the council or staff to walk with my kids and me to school while I point to the spot where one of them got hit on my street and the mechanics bank driveway where a kid got hit in a scooter a couple months ago.

0:36:58The tree that got knocked down by a car.

0:37:01The corner where a car got T-boned.

0:37:04And after that, we can talk about

0:37:07how long we have to continue to wait to fix El Cerrito streets.

0:37:12And finally, I… we have a friend who wasn't able to make it tonight, but she just had a scary incident with her 3-year-old on,

0:37:20Lincoln here, a few blocks away, and she's looking to get a stop sign, but we said it's actually very difficult to get a stop sign at specific intersections, so instead we're looking to change the process

0:37:34to be similar to how Oakland does it, where they have a, kind of a predetermined map that allows them to make decisions much faster.

0:37:42So we're asking that.

0:37:43for that as well. Thank you.

0:37:46Excuse me, our next speaker is Ilvanio Sonatina, followed by Gaia Sonatina.

0:37:56Hello, my name is Zill, and I ride my bike to school every day. We cross Carlson and San Pablo.

0:38:03At Carlson, cars never, never stop.

0:38:06And at San Pablo, cars go faster than… on yellow lights than they do on red lights.

0:38:12I think we should make sure… make cars go slower.

0:38:16Thank you.

0:38:18Thank you. Our next speaker is Gaia Sonatina, followed by Janet Byron.

0:38:35And the whole family out tonight.

0:38:36Oop.

0:38:38Woo, sorry.

0:38:40Like that.

0:38:41Think so?

0:38:43Hello, I'm Gaia.

0:38:46Good to see you all again. It's been a minute. This evening.

0:38:51I would like to encourage you, again, I think I've recommended it in the past, but please read The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.

0:39:01It's a wonderful book, and it encourages people to make changes that support our youth and their ability to

0:39:09You know, grow into people who can do things.

0:39:13Children today are missing out on vital skills and experiences.

0:39:20We don't often see that they're able to walk comfortably to their neighborhood schools.

0:39:29They're not really able to spend time in safe public spaces without constant supervision.

0:39:38Are they able to be contributing members of the family by walking to the store to run quick errands for parents?

0:39:45We live in a really small, wonderful town, where there are so many opportunities for community.

0:39:52But a lot of it is inaccessible because of the way of our street… because of the way our streets have been built.

0:39:58Danger races by in neighborhoods. It bowls you down in driveways and crosswalks.

0:40:05And our children are losing out on learning lessons that earlier generations were granted because of the way

0:40:12Our world has been built.

0:40:18It prioritizes high speeds and efficiency for traffic, but not for people.

0:40:26I would like… To implore you, to…

0:40:33Give our youth the opportunities to navigate their world with independence and autonomy.

0:40:38Mixed-use neighborhoods, streets that support people, not cars. And third spaces, like plazas, parks.

0:40:46And other public places that aren't just parking lots.

0:40:50you know, let our kids have the opportunity to do things on their own in a safe environment, and I really

0:40:57hope that we can make these changes sooner than later. Thank you.

0:41:02Our next speaker is Janet Byron, followed by Betsy Basher.

0:41:10Hello, I'm Janet Byron. I'm an El Cerrito resident. I have a bunch of different things on my mind tonight. So the first one is that, regarding the public paths, we're disappointed that trail trekkers won't be able to build trails on public rights-of-way.

0:41:26For the public benefit, due to the city's liabilities concern… liability concerns.

0:41:32But we will continue to advocate for the public paths and the…

0:41:37capital improvement plan and the budget process. Brian mentioned that

0:41:42There's an estimate… the city has an estimate that to put up the sign and install signs on all the public rights-of-way in El Cerrito would cost about $38,000.

0:41:53And the paths provide

0:41:55important evacu… evacuation routes in the case of an emergency. If people don't know that the paths are there, they can't use them. And a lot of… I do know a lot of people who are in the hills who really just don't recognize the path in front of them as a public right-of-way.

0:42:12So I just implore the city to,

0:42:16To put up signs on the paths.

0:42:19The second is regarding the traffic calming,

0:42:23I just want to remind the Council and staff that two years ago, 125 people signed a petition from North El Cerrito that they wanted more traffic calming in that part of town. We really haven't seen anything happen with that.

0:42:40The local road safety plan survey that was conducted over, I think a year and a half ago, found that 9 out of 10 residents want slower streets.

0:42:50We haven't seen the results of the… that survey. They haven't been published.

0:42:57I asked the city… I did a public records request, a FOIA request, and, was told that there are sort of notes that are not,

0:43:09They're not… it's not… they're not done yet, but…

0:43:12The city did do a survey, and we'd really like to know what the results… like, have the results available to the community, because there was a lot of strong support for

0:43:23Slower, safer streets.

0:43:25And then I also just wanted to say that, regarding the library, I am just very excited about the opportunity to vote yes on the library initiative in June. Libraries are a public good, and if we value them.

0:43:41Then we all have to pay for them, and El Cerrito deserves a new library and an excellent facility, and I'm very excited to vote for this initiative. Thank you.

0:43:53Our next speaker is Betsy Basher, followed by Kimberly White.

0:43:58Good evening, Councilmembers. Nice to see you. I really just had a question from reading the consent calendar, and I hope that you will have a discussion about the

0:44:09change in the funding for the Richmond Street project, which seems to have gone from $8 million to $12.7 million, and I would like to try and understand that better. Thank you.

0:44:23Our next speaker is Kimberly White.

0:44:38Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, members of the public. My name is Kimberly White, and I'm here as a individual resident.

0:44:46I've lived in El Cerrito for almost 25 years, and I care deeply about the long-term financial health of this city.

0:44:55We have a structural imbalance, a gap between revenues and expenses, and this is not A one-time issue.

0:45:03Over the years, I've been attending these meetings and watching them.

0:45:08At home.

0:45:09And I've noticed that when the discussion becomes difficult, the conversation tends to swing between two extremes. Do nothing, and rely on reserves, or float an extreme nuclear option. How many people are we going to lay off? What services are we going to cut?

0:45:28And most recently, maybe we cut healthcare.

0:45:32We have got to stop doing that.

0:45:35We should not have to choose between a nuclear option and good governance.

0:45:40There are some trade-offs.

0:45:42There are respons… there is a responsible middle ground.

0:45:45other cities, Nearby are managing expenses without dramatic disruption.

0:45:53We should be consulting our peer cities, benchmarking on salaries.

0:45:58Staffing, cost control, and learning from what is affected elsewhere.

0:46:03Let's focus on credible, data-driven steps that protect our employees, protect our services.

0:46:11and restore financial stability. Thank you so much for your time.

0:46:16Mayor, that concludes our request to speak. We do not have any virtual requests tonight.

0:46:21Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

0:46:23We will go now to presentations.

0:46:27And I want to introduce to you our,

0:46:31State Senate, and that is, Jesse Aragin. Senator Aragin is the former mayor of Berkeley, and I want to welcome you here to El Cerrito. You're the first senator that has made a presentation in El Cerrito in many, many years, so grateful that you are meeting with our residents here at El Cerrito, so thank you.

0:46:50I much appreciate that. It's a pleasure to be here, Mayor Quinto and members of the El Cerrito City Council and El Cerrito community.

0:46:59It's a pleasure to update you on my work as your representative in the California State Senate last year, and to give you a preview of some of the work we're going to be doing this year, as we are in month 3 of the 2026 legislative session.

0:47:12First, I just want to address, some of the comments that we heard in public comment around road safety in El Cerrito, and I'm literally submitting today a letter to the California Transportation Commission to ask that we move the proposed pedestrian safety improvements

0:47:28On State Route 123 on, San Pablo Avenue.

0:47:32That were part of the 2026 shop.

0:47:37program.

0:47:38that we not delay those for two years, but rather move that forward now, because of the concerns we heard today, that, San Pablo Avenue in particular is very unsafe for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross, and this is extremely important as well, with the development that we're having at the,

0:47:55the BART station down the road. I think this is a really critical component of making sure that we have safer neighborhoods and safe mobility options for people in El Cerrito, so…

0:48:06We'll be advocating in partnership with you, that the State Transportation Commission expedite that project and not delay it, because it's shovel-ready and it's going to make an impact, albeit there's more work to be done, but make an impact right now to improve the safety of San Pablo Avenue.

0:48:22And I'm controlling the slides.

0:48:26Is this on?

0:48:31Yes, it is. Okay. So I want to just talk a little bit about the work that the state has done to support El Cerrito in the past year.

0:48:39And first, I'm very excited by all the progress that's being made at El Cerrito,

0:48:46BART station, to plan for and to build transit-oriented development.

0:48:52I really think El Cerrito is a model, for, many communities in the Bay Area, not just,

0:49:00leveraging BART's, land to, help

0:49:04build affordable market rate housing that's so desperately needed in the state of California and in the Bay Area, but the potential as well for a new library as well, as was talked about in public comment.

0:49:17And so last year, as you know, El Cerrito was awarded $34.9 million from the Strategic Growth Council's Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program to help support transit-oriented development at El Cerrito Plaza.

0:49:30And I just want to also, acknowledge the work we did last year as we were reauthorizing the state cap and trade program now, which we call Cap and Invest.

0:49:39To continue, our commitment to make the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program a continuous appropriation, in the Cap and Invest program, and to increase, the commitment for

0:49:52the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program to support and catalyze affordable infill housing at bar stations along major transit corridors in the state of California. I really look forward to working with you on advancing these new developments to serve the needs

0:50:07of, the El Cerrito community and make sure we expand housing opportunities for people at all income levels. With housing, obviously, comes improvements to infrastructure.

0:50:16I just want to also, acknowledge the multiple grants the state has provided, totaling $1.3 million for the Richmond Street Complete Streets project, which is also critical to provide safe mobility options for people that will be living at these new homes at the BART station.

0:50:34And to improve safe, connections to our BART station as well.

0:50:39Additionally, making communities more resilient to the growing threat of natural disasters is a critical priority. I want to thank El Cerrito for being a founding member of the East Bay Wildfire Coalition of Governments. I worked with some of you to help launch that a few years ago when I was the mayor of Berkeley.

0:50:55And I know that there's critical work being done to, advance projects, that will support, the East Bay Hills,

0:51:06Congratulations on the State Coastal Conservancy Award of $850,000 for the Albany-El Cerrito Wildfire Resilience Demonstration Project. I was very happy to provide support for that, that grant application to provide fuel… fire fuel vegetation management and ecological restoration in these communities.

0:51:25And we'll be working to make sure that as the state rolls out other grant opportunities, I think we had, committed several billion dollars of Prop 4 bond money and general fund money for, fuel,

0:51:40removing fuels and, for fire prevention work in California, that we're gonna try to make sure we get our share for projects here in the East Bay communities as well.

0:51:50On immigration, obviously, the Trump administration's war on immigrant communities,

0:51:58not only impacts communities in Los Angeles and the Central Valley, but even right here in

0:52:03West Contra Costa County, and we learned last year the shameful arrest and deportation of a Hercules resident who actually worked in the city of Berkeley, at a Sari store for many, many years, 73-year-old grandmother Harjit Kaur.

0:52:17Who just showed up to, a… an appointment at,

0:52:24the immigration offices, and was arrested, was detained, and locked up in a detention facility, was denied access to medication and care, and was deported to India.

0:52:39And somebody who just has long-standing ties to our East Bay communities who, was… was kidnapped and was.

0:52:48Wrongfully deported back to their home country.

0:52:51This is impacting so many people in communities throughout the East Bay.

0:52:55And so the California state legislature has really led in pushing back against the administration's harmful deportation agenda in a number of ways. One of the first votes I took as your state senator, in January 2025 was allocating $50 million, for,

0:53:13Emergency response, $25 million to, enable our Attorney General to file lawsuits against the administration for,

0:53:22any attempts to freeze federal funding or to advance unconstitutional or illegal actions. And to date, there have been well over 40 lawsuits. We have over a 70% success rate in challenging this administration's actions.

0:53:35They tried to freeze hundreds of billions of dollars to the state of California, that's money for healthcare, money for transportation grants, money for essential services.

0:53:45That California rightfully deserves. We're the largest donor state of any state in the Union, and these were illegal actions by this administration to deprive California of critical funding that we need to support our communities.

0:53:59And then we also, of that $50 million, $25 million went for rapid response and legal defense for immigrant communities that are impacted by the administration's immigration enforcement.

0:54:11We are committed to continuing this critical funding to help ensure that anyone who's facing deportation has legal representation. The odds of you successfully fighting deportation are much higher if you have an attorney who is able to support you in those deportation proceedings.

0:54:28And to make sure that our communities are prepared if there is an escalation of ICE enforcement here in the East Bay.

0:54:35I was also proud to author a bill, Senate Bill 81, which was signed by Governor Newsom last year to protect hospitals and health facilities from ICE enforcement. This is part of a package of legislation that the legislature passed to protect our schools, to protect sensitive areas from immigration enforcement.

0:54:54And we… there's a whole slew of bills that have been introduced this year, particularly in light of what's happened in Minnesota.

0:55:00working to hold ICE accountable. We actually just advanced a bill, about a month ago, to give people civil remedies to sue federal agents if they… if there are violations of their constitutional rights, or any, abuse of power or use of force, illegal use of force by federal agents.

0:55:18And we're going to continue to do everything we can to hold ICE accountable. And that includes a bill that I was proud to join author, Senate Bill 627, that was also authored by my colleague Senator Weiner from San Francisco, which prohibits, certain law enforcement agents from wearing masks or concealing their identity.

0:55:36in the course of their official duties. We've seen countless times how masked secret police, have been taking people off the streets into unmarked vans.

0:55:46And at the core of creating safer communities is ensuring transparency and accountability of law enforcement, and this significantly erodes the trust that we've been building between immigrant communities and communities throughout California and law enforcement in the state of California.

0:56:02So, with that, I'll transition to public safety. I was honored last year to chair, and I'm honored this year to be the chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Public Safety. Any bill relating to changes to the Penal Code, to the Department of Corrections, or any legislation relating to public safety falls within my committee's jurisdiction.

0:56:19And it was a very active year. And obviously, one of the first issues we were responsible for is the implementation of Proposition 36, which was passed by the voters of California in 2024. There was no funding tied to that proposition.

0:56:34And the administration, Governor Newsom, did not include funding in his proposed budget, but the voters have spoken. I think voters, I think over 70% of voters in California, including here in Contra Costa County, voted to support this measure to increase penalties for,

0:56:50repeat retail theft offenses and certain drug-related crimes, and we want to make sure that this measure works, and it works in a way that

0:57:00Is consistent with the intent of the voters, which is, one, to expand treatment, to make sure that we're getting people connected to treatment and not having people crowd our jails. And secondly, that, we have the tools, to help

0:57:12Police departments, address the issues of retail theft that are impacting communities, including here in El Cerrito, with the El Cerrito Plaza Shopping Center.

0:57:21That will continue to be a priority. We allocated $100 million in the state budget as a one-time initial investment for the implementation of Prop 36, and we are engaged in discussions with the administration on continuing funding for implementation of Prop 36 as well.

0:57:36Many public safety bills made it through the legislature last year. I just want to lift up two that I authored, Senate Bill 704, which would regulate the separate sale of firearm barrels.

0:57:45So we know that ghost guns account for roughly 70% of the guns that are

0:57:53That police confiscate in law enforcement operations. Increasingly, ghost guns are common weapons of war that we're seeing on our streets. And now you can 3D print many components of ghost guns. One thing you cannot 3D print is a firearm barrel.

0:58:09So, criminals have gotten very creative and have been purchasing firearm barrels online or through licensed firearm dealers, in order to complete

0:58:21the creation of illegal firearms. And so my bill would require that the sale of firearm barrel, with some exceptions, including for law enforcement, would have to be done through the normal licensed firearm

0:58:32process.

0:58:34And also SB524, with the growth of AI in assisting, local governments,

0:58:41Police departments are using AI in the process of developing police reports. These are official public records that are used in the criminal legal process, and we want to make sure that there are guardrails around the use… not prohibitions, but guardrails around the use of AI in police reports.

0:58:56I just want to lift up the importance of regional collaboration, and we had a meeting just this past Friday with many chiefs and the CHP,

0:59:04We're hoping to restart something that we started a couple years ago called the East Bay Public Safety Roundtable to bring

0:59:11policymakers and law enforcement together to identify opportunities for greater collaboration and policy coordination, and to advocate for resources from the state and federal government, and look forward to El Cerrito's engagement in that process as well.

0:59:28And I just want to lift up a bill that I have introduced, Senate Bill 948, that we introduced this year. If you move into California, or you're trying to import guns into California, you do not have to… you don't have to go through the process that any new gun owner would have to.

0:59:42which is you have to get a certificate and undergo certain requirements. This… we would ensure under…

0:59:48SB 948 that you would have to go through the same requirements that anyone who's buying a gun in California would have to go through to make sure that there's certification, that people are aware of their rights and responsibilities, so that people are safely

1:00:00owning and using firearms in the state of California. On health and human services, you know, the big backdrop is obviously the deep cuts in H.R. 1 to our health and social service safety net.

1:00:13I know that today the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors voted to put on the ballot in June a potential sales tax measure, and I'm working with my colleagues in the legislature, to give the legislative authorization to allow for that county measure to go forward, because it requires an increase in the sales tax cap

1:00:32for, certain communities in, Contra Costa County. But,

1:00:37The impact of this will be devastating, particularly for West Contra Costa County, which has the greater proportion of Medi-Cal recipients and people that benefit on these essential safety net programs.

1:00:47It's estimated that anywhere between 2 to 3 million Californians will lose their healthcare coverage as a result of the legislation H.R. 1, and certainly hundreds of thousands throughout the state will also lose essential nutrition assistance benefits.

1:01:02Our priority is to make sure that we do everything we can to mitigate the harm, and to provide the support to counties, to make sure that we keep as many people eligible for these benefits as possible, while hopefully changes happen at the federal level to reverse this devastating policy, which is harming so many people, at the expense of tax breaks to billions.

1:01:21Let's keep that in perspective.

1:01:23So, part of that is, as we are developing a balanced budget for the state of California next year, looking at revenue options as a way to augment our state budget to fund critical

1:01:34critical programs, including, helping fund Medi-Cal.

1:01:38And so there are a number of proposals that have been introduced, including by my colleague Asimra Bonta, to establish a surcharge in large employers whose employees are using Medi-Cal and who do not provide healthcare coverage for those employees as a way to provide additional funding to the state of California to fund the Medi-Cal program.

1:01:57Seems like there's a nexus between

1:02:00Multinational corporations and billionaires who are getting huge tax breaks from H.R. 1.

1:02:05and taxing them to be able to fund healthcare so that nobody loses healthcare in the state of California.

1:02:10So there's gonna be a number of conversations on closing corporate tax loopholes and generating revenue. We will do everything we can to be responsible and manage our state budget.

1:02:20But we know that the cuts are going to have a disproportionate impact on health and human services, because that's the lion's share of the general fund.

1:02:26And so we have to look at how we augment our budget and grow revenues, especially at a time of great economic uncertainty in the state of California. Not impacting the middle class, but rather the people that are benefiting from these corporate tax loopholes.

1:02:42On transportation, obviously we know that the Bay Area faces a fiscal emergency for BART, AC Transit, and major transit operators, and so that was a key focus of our work last year, not only

1:02:56To secure a loan.

1:02:58Which many of you may have heard about from the state of California, to provide 18 months of funding for our major transit operators, and we approved that loan, just a few weeks ago, $590 million. That is actually coming from

1:03:11Money that the state already allocates to our transit agencies is not new general fund, so there is no new fiscal impact to the state, it's just

1:03:21Reprogramming those dollars so that they can be used to address the immediate operational needs of those transit agencies.

1:03:27But that will only give us 18 months.

1:03:30After those 18 months.

1:03:31I think we know what's gonna happen. BART will close stations, will significantly reduce service, and that will have

1:03:37an impact on our region that will be catastrophic. It will… it will clog our freeways, it will increase congestion, and it will impact the quality of life of everyone in our region, including essential workers who need our major transit systems to get to work.

1:03:52So, that's why we worked to pass Senate Bill 63.

1:03:56to allow the Bay Area to place on the ballot this November a regional sales tax measure, half a cent in most… in four counties, and a full cent in San Francisco County, to provide 14 years of funding for our major transit agencies while we are working

1:04:12On efforts to…

1:04:14improve efficiencies to make the system more affordable and seamless and connected, and also, while we're working to help these transit agencies get on a path to financial sustainability. A key component of SB63 was, one, a financial efficiency review of all the major transit operators looking at

1:04:32efficiencies and cuts and ways that they can better manage their budget. We don't just want to throw money at the problem, we want to make sure that they're making the… that they're doing a really deep dive at their budget and are making the critical decisions to ensure that their budget is right-sized and are on a path to fiscal sustainability.

1:04:50And then the other component of it is, as part of the expenditure of the dollars,

1:04:56Five counties. This measure would,

1:05:00encompass 5 counties, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara.

1:05:07there are certain performance metrics and benchmarks that we are requiring the operators to meet, and if they don't meet those benchmarks, that up to 10% of the funding could be withheld until they demonstrate compliance with meeting those benchmarks. That's one of the things we heard from, San Mateo County in particular, but from,

1:05:26Many of the counties, was that we want to make sure that there are There's… there's clear incentives.

1:05:32And, accountability measures to ensure that this money is being spent effectively, and that we're achieving the results that we need to achieve.

1:05:40So that's just the Bay Area. Big picture, the state woefully underfunds public transit.

1:05:46And while we were able, as part of Cap and Invest, to get an ongoing commitment for certain programs, for capital funding and operational funding for transit, it's not enough. It's not enough to help sustain transit and grow transit.

1:06:00And also to accelerate and advance the state's climate goals, so there's more work that we have to do. On climate and the environment,

1:06:07I talked a little bit about the billions of dollars that we were able to allocate, and this really was in response to the devastating wildfires in Southern California.

1:06:15Which really demonstrated that urban wildfire risk is real, that this is not a seasonal issue, that it isn't contained to rural wildland areas, that it can devastate urban areas. And we, all of us who live along the East Bay Hills know

1:06:30the extreme risk that we face, which we saw in 1991 during the Oakland-Berkeley Hills firestorm. So, $1.5 billion of Prop 4 and $4 billion of cap and invest money was earmarked in last year's budget.

1:06:42to… for grants for fuel reduction and vegetation management and fire prevention throughout the state of California. Now our job is to make sure that that money is equitably distributed throughout the state to address the fire risk in the urban and wildland-urban interface in California.

1:06:59There were other bills that we passed around, rebuilding, mitigation, home hardening. I won't belabor those, but it was part of a package of efforts that we… that we advanced around fire prevention and fire safety. And I talked about cap and invest, which is the state cap and trade program, which we extended.

1:07:18Which will provide $63 billion in reductions to utility bills.

1:07:22And roughly $60 to $90 billion in infrastructure investments for affordable housing, such as the Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities Program for transportation projects, and for water as well.

1:07:33on housing and homelessness. To close, I'm honored to be the new chair of the Senate Housing Committee.

1:07:39Which is, I think, going to be really critical to advance the work that we're doing here in the East Bay on housing affordability and housing production.

1:07:46And a lot has happened over the past year around housing, from CEQA reform to the passage of Senate Bill 79, to upzone, areas around BART stations and along major transit corridors.

1:08:00that staff minimum densities in those areas. We are working on some language to clean up some aspects of Senate Bill 79, just for the record, with the author, and with some of our MPOs in local jurisdictions.

1:08:14That I'm very actively engaged in as a Senate Housing Chair.

1:08:18And key to building housing isn't just regulatory reform, streamlining the rules to make it easier to build ADUs and to, and to build new market housing in California, but the funding.

1:08:30And I often hear from elected officials, the state is mandating that we have to rezone, and we have to, build all this housing.

1:08:39But, you know, where are the carrots? You know, where are the dollars to help support the production of affordable housing and the investment in critical infrastructure to support those new communities? And so I think that's absolutely critical.

1:08:54And so, one of the things that we are working to advance this year, is, one, not just an extension of existing funding for certain housing programs, such as the multifamily Housing Program, which, funds are exhausted, we have to

1:09:10reallocate funding as part of the Budget Act this year.

1:09:13But also the HCAT program, the Homeless… Housing Homelessness Assistance Program, which is flexible dollars that our communities use to address unsheltered homelessness.

1:09:24And I'm leading the budget ask for restoring those critical housing and homelessness programs.

1:09:29But we're also working to get a housing bond, a statewide housing bond, on the ballot to provide ongoing funding for these critical affordable housing programs that will allow the developments at the El Cerrito Plaza, and at all of our BART stations, and along San Pablo Avenue, and in communities throughout the state of California to happen.

1:09:48providing the matching funds to be able to make those housing projects happen. So that… that is now in the State Assembly, and we're working with the Newsom administration to negotiate the final details of the housing bomb, which hopefully will be on the November ballot. And I just want to lift up

1:10:01Prop 1, which, you know, the governor had an announcement, I think, just yesterday, about,

1:10:08Some Prop 1 funding, and care… the implementation of care courts.

1:10:13And, money is already out the door to help support permanent supportive housing and expanded mental health… behavioral health beds, in communities throughout the state of California, and this is, I think, a really critical part of the state's response to homelessness.

1:10:26That was a lot. In closing, it's really an honor to serve as your representative in the California State Senate. I welcome the ongoing partnership.

1:10:35And, want to hear about your priorities, not just in terms of legislation, but also budget priorities, and,

1:10:42Look forward to serving you this year in Sacramento. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's see if we have any questions here from our Council. We'll start to my left. Councilmember Weiss.

1:10:51Thank you so much, Senator, for that, and

1:10:54I do want to thank you, because as the mayor said, you are the first senator to come here in many years, and I know that in supporting you in running, that that was one of the big things, is as you, as the former mayor of Berkeley, I wanted to see you here in Contra Costa County, and you have made good on that promise, so thank you. And you… one of the things that I also want to say, and it's not my question.

1:11:14But you leaned into it a little bit. We… we saw you, I know myself, Mayor Pro Tem, I'm a mayor, saw you at the East Bay Division meeting a couple of nights ago, and you were talking… you were saying the thing that you said tonight about Prop 36, and I wanted to really commend you for saying what you said, especially as the Chair of Public Safety, because I remember when Prop 36 was on the ballot, and I remember telling someone, you know, I don't really

1:11:39know if I support that.

1:11:40And people were very upset with me, and I said, well, you know, I know a lot of, you know, legislatures of color who are not supporting that as well, because there is a possibility of leaning a little bit more into mass incarceration. And someone said at that meeting, I won't… someone said, when we voted for this, we didn't vote to return to mass incarceration.

1:12:00But you rightly brought up the fact that, number one, as you said, this bill did not come with money. There was basically an unfunded liability, or I'm sorry, unfunded mandate, but also it still is resulting in people sitting in jails right now. So I wanted to commend you for being brave enough to say that in that particular room, because I know a lot of people didn't want to hear that.

1:12:18So thank you, so thank you so much for that. And you did also lean a little bit into my question, around housing and infrastructure. You know, as the legislature is actually ramping up with SB9, and giving us more ability to build more housing, something that's passionate of mine is that we're building housing, but our infrastructure is being far outpaced by the way… the rate that we're building housing.

1:12:42So, do you ever anticipate… I know you talked about

1:12:46the infrastructure component in the legislature. Do you ever anticipate a time where, with those housing mandates, we will also get a lot more funding for infrastructure, such as parks, such as libraries, and other sort of things? Because one thing that I always say is that we're trying to create communities, but right now, we're just building density with more housing.

1:13:05So do you see a time where that housing element and those housing mandates will come with a little bit more funding? Not just for more housing, or not for unhoused folks, but actually for the community

1:13:15third spaces, like my Ms. Sanatina brought up earlier, that are gonna be in those communities.

1:13:21Certainly, Councilmember, And there's work happening right now to try to centralize

1:13:27the application process and the funding for, housing projects in the state of California. Right now, it's an alphabet soup. You have to apply for all these different grants to really just have, kind of, one process.

1:13:39So we can bring in the affordable housing, sustainable communities cap and invest money, which goes not just to supporting the actual physical construction of housing, but also transportation infrastructure and investments.

1:13:54the Mayor Pro Tem knows all about this from her previous work at BART. Funding BART cars, funding, complete streets improvements, bicycle pathways as part of that project.

1:14:07So, making sure we continue to have the funding in those different programs, and that we centralize the process to make it easier for developers to be able to leverage those resources.

1:14:19And as I said before, we significantly underfund transit, and we significantly underfund the,

1:14:27the state program that funds… the ATP program that funds bicycle and pedestrian.

1:14:33projects in the state of California, and we need to do more. And there are some bills this year, including from Senator Grayson, who was my colleague representing Contra Costa County, that will look at leveraging some potential financing mechanisms to provide more resources for infrastructure improvements. Fundamentally, I think we need to go back to

1:14:51bringing back some form of redevelopment in California so that the communities have the tools, but obviously with a very clear focus.

1:14:58And having, you know, clear guardrails to make sure that we have ongoing sources of revenue to help fund affordable housing, critical infrastructure improvements.

1:15:06Thank you, Senator. And I forgot to mention in closing that, my staff, Gabe Sandoval, who many of you know, is, representing us here in Contra Costa County, out of our new office in Richmond, just down the street at the Richmond Civic Center.

1:15:22One of the things I promised, as you know, when I ran for Senate, was that we will have a physical office and presence here in West Contra Costa County. I may be from Berkeley, now I live in Oakland, but I care about every one of the 14 cities in my district, especially El Cerrito.

1:15:38And you know, we're very committed to… to be present, and to… and to be able to advocate on your behalf, in the legislature.

1:15:47Okay, we'll go to Councilmember Motayama next, and then the Mayor Bundown.

1:15:51Thank you, and thank you for this presentation, and you know, you always impress me at how hard you work for all of us. It's just impressive how much you get done in a year, so thank you so much for all your hard work.

1:16:03I have a couple of questions. One is, I know that the real property transfer tax is,

1:16:10Under discussion in terms of

1:16:12having it go away, and for us, it's like a significant portion of our general fund comes from RPTT, and so I hope that you can, like, help us keep it.

1:16:25Yeah, as you may know, I opposed that legislation last year.

1:16:31And it did not advance at the end of session. I share the same concerns.

1:16:37Because communities need… They need the tax revenue that's been authorized by the voters.

1:16:44It's not something that the sacrament is coming down saying.

1:16:47you know

1:16:48this is the tax increase that's being imposed. The voters approved this, and committees need the flexibility to leverage these revenues to be able to support

1:16:56essential services, so I agree.

1:17:00And my second question is, maybe… I'm not sure you're the person to ask, but I'm sure you can push for this.

1:17:07Is there any precedence for having extra points or a weighted approval for projects around transit that are already underway? I think one of the concerns that I have is that we started

1:17:21with one site, but we want to keep going. We want to complete the whole vision, and is there, sort of.

1:17:27Presidents were, like, saying, fund the whole package.

1:17:33Well, I'll just first say that, we… we advocated, last year that the State Tax Credit Allocation Committee change their scoring process, as you may know, for projects in urban infill areas that are not high resource.

1:17:49And so many communities in my district, whether they are in Richmond, I'll just also note we have a bill to amend the Surplus Lands Act to allow for publicly owned land, to be, disposed for

1:18:01Commercial and multifamily housing, in, approved business improvement districts and distressed communities, and that will help us unlock

1:18:11blocks of vacant land on McDonald Boulevard in Richmond that is being underdeveloped because of the current legal barriers that restrict the public-private partnerships to be able to redevelop those properties. But that is an aside.

1:18:26I understand there has been progress at TCAC to… to change the scoring process, to have a little bit more favorable

1:18:36Weighted scoring for those non-high-resource communities, and that's important.

1:18:41Well, we tipped into high resource about 2 years ago, and it's been a detriment to our project. I mean, it serves… it's a regional… regionally serving project, but we got dinged points for that.

1:18:56And it's not like we're… It's not like we're a Rinda or anything, but that…

1:19:02this incremental shift has put us at a disadvantage. Well, I think…

1:19:07By continuing some of these housing pots, whether it's ASIC or MHP or LIHTC,

1:19:14One, we'll just know that we have things that developers can apply for and leverage, but there is prioritization for the types of infill projects that you're proposing, and MTC as well, as part of, as you know, as part of their transit-oriented communities policy, is prioritizing

1:19:32I hope they did not.

1:19:35significantly reverse that policy that we worked hard to develop and adopt a few years ago when I was president of ABEC, where that gives preference for

1:19:45pro-housing communities like El Cerrito, and we know that your pro-housing designation gives you significant, favorability in the scoring of some of these programs, so I think El Cerrito is well-positioned.

1:19:57And we're also happy to advocate for more money for your projects, so… Thank you so much.

1:20:04First, just thank you for coming here tonight, and for everything you do. I mean, on every issue you talked about tonight, it's like you're leading on everything, so really appreciate that, and want to second what Councilmember Motayama said. It's really impressive what you've been able to do in your first year, and

1:20:21We'll see lots more from you. Just following up on the comments about the affordable housing funding, the most frustrating thing, I think, for me, and a lot of people involved in the project, was we scored really high in the ASIC process last year.

1:20:39we outscored almost all of the projects that got funding. So it's not even… even though, yes, we got… we missed some points on things, the points aren't the problem. So we have our staff, BART staff, developer staff, jumping through all these hoops to get these points.

1:20:54And then it doesn't matter. It's like, is it based on vibes? Like, what is it based on? So I think that's something we could use your help with, is trying to get some clarity, like, should we bother trying to get every last point, or does it not ultimately matter? What are the decisions made on? And they didn't really explain it. I know some of it was geographic equity, but there's nothing we can do to do that. The East Bay is putting forward a lot of good projects we should…

1:21:19I know you know this, we shouldn't be penalized for that, just because some regions are putting forward fewer.

1:21:25Anything you can do on that would be super helpful. You've already done a lot on housing.

1:21:31And on transportation, you've already done a tremendous amount, and really thank you for that.

1:21:36Something that you heard about tonight that's a core issue for us is San Pablo Avenue, which obviously goes far beyond El Cerrito, and I was just thinking, sitting here, I think you're the only elected, appointed, any kind of official besides statewide that represents all the cities that have San Pablo Avenue, so you're kind of uniquely positioned, but…

1:21:58Most of our traffic fatalities in El Cerrito are on San Pablo. A lot of just the crashes are on San Pablo, and this is true in the other cities in your district as well.

1:22:11And there are some projects that are really exciting, but they're getting delayed. The one, you know, here with, El Cerrito and Richmond, that's, like, maybe a decade away to see bus-only lanes, maybe bike lanes, other improvements.

1:22:26a minimum a decade away, and then the project in Alameda County is quite delayed, at least till 2030.

1:22:33we can't wait for those big projects while they're very important, so I think we could use your help on how to be more creative and get the cities to work together. Something I've talked to our staff about is, can we work with the other cities to try to get Caltrans to lower the speed limit? I just found out today that Oakland is working on lowering the speed limit on their portion of San Pablo, because not all of it is a Caltrans highway. But I think that's something we could really

1:22:56work together on. It's hard for us as a small city to

1:23:00Get all the other cities together on that,

1:23:03But, you know, getting attention on that. And then the other issue related to San Pablo is the bus service. I mean, I think

1:23:11West Contra Costa County really got the short end of the stick in the AC Transit realigned, and I said this at many meetings along the process. I know some other cities, like Berkeley, actually got some improvements. That's great for them, I'm excited. The new data just came out last week on the ridership and how that was impacted, and you can see the biggest drops were in West Contra Costa, the 72R, which was switched to the 72L and went from

1:23:3515-minute service to 30-minute service.

1:23:38Dropped… ridership dropped by half.

1:23:40The 7-line ridership that went to our service, which is basically unusable, dropped 72%.

1:23:49So, anyway, ridership, we're really getting impacted in West County, but again, San Pablo is sort of an area of your district that you're kind of uniquely positioned on, but we really need the 72R.

1:24:01back. I was going to chair the WCAC meeting last Friday, had planned out my bus route, because my wife was using our car, I didn't have any other way to get there, and I looked, and the next two buses were canceled.

1:24:15So, and since it's, you know, 30-minute service, there was… there was no way I had to take a lift. So anyway, it's become really unusable. I had that option. Other people are just going to be late for work and maybe lose their job. So…

1:24:26whatever you can do to help us with San Pablo, with speeds, with safety, with the bus service, San Pablo needs a lot of love, and I know that's true well beyond El Cerrito. Yeah, thank you for that. I'm happy to follow up with your staff, about learning a little bit more about

1:24:43the, the scoring.

1:24:46And the application process for the project, and what that may inform in terms of our conversations with the state agencies.

1:24:54And I'll just say on San Pablo, I mean, we were on the Alameda County Transportation Commission almost a decade ago.

1:25:01When I represented Berkeley.

1:25:03We were just launching the San Pablo Corridor project, and here we are, and we're like, But…

1:25:10Years away from seeing the actual

1:25:13Like, shovels in the ground and the actual physical, like, improvements happen.

1:25:18So I share the frustration, and certainly I took notes, happy to follow up on the speed limit issue. You are correct, Oakland is looking at that.

1:25:25And have more discussions on the, the transit.

1:25:29schedules and route changes that happen as part of Realign,

1:25:36I did advocate to kind of preserve those routes in Berkeley when I was the mayor of Berkeley, but I represent the whole region now, and West County is significantly under-resourced in terms of transit connectivity.

1:25:49not just in the service area, but connecting to some of the feeder systems as well. So, happy to talk to you more about that, especially in the context of the bigger revenue conversation we're having with these agencies, if we're going to provide

1:26:03emergency money and critical, like, ongoing operational funding, we should see the commitment and investment of resources and service in all parts of our county. So, happy to… to talk to you more about that and advocate.

1:26:16Thank you.

1:26:18Senator, thank you for being here. I know, it's been a long day for you. It does take a mayor, a former mayor, who gets… so for you to be here in El Cerrito, and I'm telling you, I've been in office since 2014, you truly are.

1:26:33the first.

1:26:35Senator.

1:26:36And that has visited our city hall

1:26:39our temporary city hall here, so I want to say thank you for that, and thank you for working for Cal Cities and, collaborating with us.

1:26:47If you have any legislation that you would like to have.

1:26:51Cal City-sponsored, just reach out to me, or our lobbyists over there. I know later this month, we'll be meeting in Sacramento at your office. Yes. And we look forward to that talk, and we will, discuss, things further. So, I have a request for you. Being the first senator in many, many years, would you mind taking a photo

1:27:11with the El Cerrito Council. Certainly, certainly.

1:27:15Let's come on over here by the flags and everything.

1:29:18go to our next… we have, we have a special, another presentation. I have a…

1:29:28proclamation, so I want to go next to…

1:29:34On the consent calendar is G American Red Cross Proclamation.

1:29:41Do I have a motion to…

1:29:45So I have a motion by the Mayor Pro Tem and a second by, Councilmember Motayama. All in favor? Aye.

1:29:53Any abstentions? Nays? Motion passes.

1:29:57So I'd like to present an American Red Cross Month proclamation. I believe we have a guest here.

1:30:05Come on up.

1:30:12Good evening. Why don't you give us a few words?

1:30:15Thank you. Huh.

1:30:17Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members, my name is Suzanne Garrett. Sorry for my allergy voice. I am a volunteer with the American Red Cross.

1:30:29I've met Karen online before.

1:30:33I'm delighted to be here with you during March, which is our national American Red Cross time, where we talk about our humanitarian commitment and to serve a community such as El Cerrito across the United States and around the world.

1:30:52So,

1:30:54Did you want to read any of the proclamation, or did you want me to continue? Go ahead. Okay.

1:31:02Well, thank you, first of all, for your continued support of the American Red Cross. When help can't wait during emergencies, the American Red Cross volunteers step up to ensure those in need to receive relief and care. So we

1:31:20Enjoy a long history of partnering with El Cerrito to benefit your community.

1:31:26And so here are a few things that we did in, 2025, specific to El Cerrito.

1:31:35Probably most significantly is that we responded to two multifamily fires.

1:31:41Here, we opened 56 cases, and served 144 residents.

1:31:50With comfort, hygiene items, as well as financial assistance.

1:31:55In one case, we offered a shelter to one set of those residents in neighboring Richmond.

1:32:04Other than that, we also offer our free smoke alarm installations, and we had two of your residents take us up on that in 2025, and we installed 6 smoke alarms to make them safer.

1:32:22And, these are just a few examples of the types of activities that we offer, and hope to continue to engage in, in the upcoming years. We hope to partner with your city on events,

1:32:39and continue our relationship, and improve our relationship in the future. Our community counts on the Red Cross for help every day, and supporting our community is at the heart of what we do.

1:32:54And working with partners such as the City of El Cerrito helps us continue our mission and to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.

1:33:13So, I want to, again, thank the city and the Council for standing with the Red Cross and allowing us this proclamation.

1:33:22Thank you very much. Any questions to our guest?

1:33:28Well, I want to thank you. I wanted to find out, is it possible to have a photo with you? I would love that. And can I give someone my phone so I can get a photo? Come on up. All right, thank you.

1:34:53Again, I want to say congratulations and thank you to the Red Cross. During the holidays, when I did get a phone call while I was on vacation.

1:35:03I did speak to the representative who has been assisting our residents that were victims of that fire caused by an EV bike that was being charged. So, yeah.

1:35:17Yeah, we often… we often don't hear why a fire has occurred, we just…

1:35:24try to rush and help the people that were affected by it. Okay. Again, thank you very much. Thank you.

1:35:42Okay, so now we're going to go to the adoption of the consent calendar.

1:35:51Let's see, we'll go to… okay, we have, the Financial Advisory Board recommendation, B, the Environmental Quality Committee recommendation, C,

1:36:01Monthly Disbursement and check register report for January 2026, D, economic development committee appointment, E, Arbor Week Proclamation.

1:36:12F Women's History Month proclamation, We did G already with, the Red Cross Proclamation, and H…

1:36:21amendment to cooperative agreement with Contra Costa Transportation Agency for the Richmond Street Complete Project Streets Improvement Project. Would anyone like to pull

1:36:32An item.

1:36:34Yes, sir.

1:36:34I would like to pull… B and C, and then just make a comment about A. Sure.

1:36:43Anyone else here?

1:36:45Mayor Pro Tem? I'd like to just pull A altogether,

1:36:49And he's already been pulled, so that's good.

1:36:52Okay Let's go with the ones that we can…

1:36:57Yes, I don't know if B has been pulled already? Yes, it has. Okay, and then H.

1:37:10Okay, I have a motion to approve, the ones that have not been pulled, and that is D,

1:37:17E.

1:37:20And F.

1:37:23Do I have a motion?

1:37:24So moved. Second.

1:37:26So, a motion by Weisinger and a second by the Mayor for Town. All in favor?

1:37:31Aye. Any abstentions?

1:37:34Nays, motion passes. Okay, we'll start with, letter Ray Financial Advisory Board Recommendation.

1:37:45Yes.

1:37:47Well, I just wanted to get, first.

1:37:50a better sense from staff about how we're going to move forward. It sounds like we need to bring this to a future meeting, and then I'd like to hear from FAB, not about, like, the grammatical changes, but about the one policy change that's recommended.

1:38:05So, it is… Karen Pincus, City Manager. So it is part of the FAB's,

1:38:10enacting ordinance that one of their duties is once a year, at least annually, they review the comprehensive, annual… the comprehensive financial policies, and so this fits within their purview for that. And at that…

1:38:26at this point, because this was a proper recommendation from the FAB, per our City Council guidelines, we bring it back to the City Council on consent. But knowing that this is not just part of their work plan, but part of their duties.

1:38:41staff has already planned to bring it back to the Council for discussion on March 17th, so that would be the time that we would come back with

1:38:51the policy and any staff, discussion or recommendations, and then the City Council could, to deliberate on to whether or not you wanted to adopt the recommend… the recommendations or any revisions to the policies would be on the 17th.

1:39:06Thank you. Then I'll probably save my comments for the 17th, but I did want to see if anybody from FAB, I think I saw the chair here, wanted to speak to, again, not all the grammatical stuff, but the main recommendation in 3.2. Good evening. Hi, good evening, David Carvell, chair of the FAB.

1:39:24Yes, happy to share more about the reasoning behind 3.2.

1:39:29So, we changed the word goal to policy. We thought that having a little more, stronger language in there would actually

1:39:39encourage the city to make it a policy, rather than just some kind of amorphous goal. So that was something that we thought was important, is tightening up that language so that it's not just, a goal doesn't have any…

1:39:55weight in your decisions, right? We can ignore a goal.

1:39:59And override it for a variety of reasons.

1:40:02I think the second thing we looked at was, should the projected budget

1:40:07general fund reserve fall below 17%, so that's exactly what's happening in the current cycle. The projected budget is set to go below 17% in the next few years.

1:40:19And then, exactly like what you're doing is, in this budget cycle, you'll then develop a plan that will get us back above that 17% cycle. That's really what this is entailing, or encouraging you to do.

1:40:30So in the next budget cycle.

1:40:33Which, again, you're going through right now, you will…

1:40:38City will adopt a plan to restore the reserve percentage to 17%. So that's really trying to codify

1:40:45The process that's happening now in stronger language versus just kind of letting

1:40:50things happen as the City Council, sees fit, along with the staff.

1:40:56Thank you. Again, I will have probably a lot of comments when it comes back on the 17th, but I will just save them for then. Thank you. Sure.

1:41:05Any other questions for our chair?

1:41:07Thank you very much. See you on the 17th.

1:41:11Okay, C.

1:41:14Mayor, we do… excuse me, we do need to take action on A, because it was… On this one runway, we can't wait.

1:41:23Oh, yeah.

1:41:24That's certainly an option. Apologies. See.

1:41:29Oh, B. Okay, let's go to B.

1:41:33Thank you, Mayor. I have a question about the program.

1:41:38Particularly, you know.

1:41:44there's a little bit short on details, and I know there was some additional detail in the letter from the chair of EQC, so I'd just like to understand this program better, and I would like to ask, howdy some questions as well.

1:41:59Perhaps he can come first, just because I know that the EQC received the presentation from the program, and I can answer any other questions that Council has afterwards. Thank you. Yvette Ortiz, the City's Public Works Director.

1:42:13Howdy. Good evening.

1:42:15Good evening, I'm Howdy Gowdy, and I'm a member of the EQC, not current chair, but yeah.

1:42:23So, can you just briefly summarize the program, and maybe tell us what, you know, generally, neighborhood-wise, where the 100 addresses that this would apply to would be?

1:42:33Sure, so, the program is called Electrify My Block. It is a PG&E program, that's, being administered by,

1:42:45But… Building Decarbonization Coalition or something.

1:42:52And so it's important to recognize that this is a utility

1:42:57Initiative, based on their financial analysis of

1:43:03maintaining the current gas infrastructure. So, basically, they're looking at the liabilities they have to,

1:43:11Replace aging gas infrastructure, and realizing that there are key

1:43:18At this time, pretty small, localized areas where

1:43:24The savings that would be realized by not replacing the gas infrastructure that needs upgrade, could generate quite a large amount of money. It's projected around $35,000 per household.

1:43:39To provide electrification.

1:43:42So that…

1:43:43the gas infrastructure doesn't have to be, retrofit. And, that fits squarely within the city's, you know, climate action and adaptation policy to electrify, and it also provides an

1:44:02Sorry.

1:44:03a uniquely large, funding source to help with electrification, which, you know, can be an expensive thing, and, and so it's…

1:44:14only applying to about 96, addresses in El Cerrito right now. I should say this is kind of a pilot program, and

1:44:23El Cerrito is unique, and some other areas in Contra Costa are unique in being sort of the first areas where this program is being rolled out. There is a, another

1:44:37layer of pilot activity going on, as a result of State Bill 1221, which is doing the same thing on a

1:44:48potentially larger, basis, but still being called a pilot, and so this…

1:44:53This theme in trying to transition infrastructure is a…

1:44:58emerging, area that's, I think, important for us to engage and prove the concept so that it can scale and, you know, reach some,

1:45:11You know, larger, Application, but, but it is…

1:45:16Localized, and it's… it's highly, you know, targeted based on…

1:45:24infrastructure conditions. And there is a important, you know, fiscal aspect to it, which is

1:45:32You know, if this transition weren't to happen, the,

1:45:39The ongoing cost of the gas infrastructure would be spread on a, you know, smaller and smaller,

1:45:48number of ratepayers to pay for it as, you know, transitions are happening, and gas prices have been escalating, and so there's a lot of reasons that help,

1:46:01motivate the program. Is it possible to find the addresses somewhere? Are they listed somewhere? So, yeah, it's a little bit… you know, there are some,

1:46:14privacy issues, but, if you… when… I wrote a letter, that was on the previous,

1:46:25council agenda, public comment, it had a link to the presentation that was given to the EQC by the,

1:46:34the program administrator, they included a pretty detailed PIN map of the addresses that are targeted in El Cerrito, and I would say, just in generality, I saw most of the clustering

1:46:52Kind of around the, I'd say Pertrero,

1:46:59and maybe, one block up from Richmond. So…

1:47:07that was one area that I saw the most clustering, but, there, there were some others, and it varies from,

1:47:16you know, some of these, what they call zones, I think.

1:47:20can be a single address, or they could be 20 addresses. And at this point, the program does require, 100%, consensus in agreeing to the program, which is a very big challenge in anything, I'm sure you're aware. I think I read that the… the coming,

1:47:40SB 12221 has… has changed that to, like, a two-thirds, threshold.

1:47:47But for now, it's 100%, agreement, and so, you know, the challenge with, the outreach that's going on is they…

1:47:57they need to engage those customers and get everybody in the zone to agree for it to proceed. And so, the EQC received this presentation in January.

1:48:09We are very positive about it.

1:48:11The main reason you're receiving this recommendation from us now is because at our February meeting.

1:48:18we were told the city was going to take no action on it, and we felt like it was an important thing to follow through on, and so we wanted to bring this to your attention as something that the EQC recommended further action in. You know, totally understanding there is

1:48:33Limited staff resources, but we saw this as primarily

1:48:38an opportunity where the city could just provide its endorsement and support and messaging. Not a lot of staff effort, but basically kind of co-branding on outreach materials, things to make the residents feel more secure that this was

1:48:57Supported not by the… just the utility, but also the city, and so that… that was our motivation.

1:49:04And is there any conflict with, our status as an MCE community.

1:49:11No, not… In terms of, like, the billing, or just the switch, you know, does it take us out of MCE? No. No, so as a MCE community, we are still a PG&E community, too. I mean, they are our infrastructure,

1:49:27manager, and… and so, all customers in, El Cerrito, whether they are

1:49:34getting power from MCE or PG&E can avail themselves of programs from either PG&E or MCE. They're ratepayers, all those ratepayer funds are,

1:49:47something that should come back to them. So, so yes, it doesn't conflict with MCE. I mean, MCE doesn't really have any

1:49:55Involvement in gas infrastructure, so they're not gonna…

1:49:58be involved in that, but they certainly do encourage electrification and have their own programs in those areas, so it's certainly consistent with what they're doing.

1:50:11Thank you very much. Howdy. Go ahead, Mayor Pro Chapo.

1:50:15Thank you, for your work on this. I've said this to many other commissions and committees that have approached us asking Council to do something. It's…

1:50:25very helpful if you can give more information. So I read this, and I read it a couple times, and I still didn't understand what you were asking us to do until you sent out another email today, but to say to endorse, what does that even mean? We don't have a resolution before us.

1:50:40So it'd be really helpful

1:50:42If you ask for something specific. I also would say, I don't know if we can get the contact info for whosoever the lead on this program, but PG&E has a ton of staff.

1:50:52the city doesn't, and council members don't have any staff that are just dedicated to us, so I can't, like, go to my staffer and say, hey, put together some communication. It's, you know, it's all of us doing it. So if they could put together language that we can share on social media, that we can put out there, the city and the council

1:51:10That would be really helpful, their resource. We can kind of be validators to people who are like, what is this thing? But we need… I think we need them to lead on it, and kind of

1:51:20shepherd this through. I imagine they're having to do this for the other cities, so I don't know how to… who at PG&E is the person to talk to

1:51:29But it'd be really helpful if we had something more concrete that we were able to do. I'm very supportive of the program. At first, when I saw the map, before I zoomed in, I thought it might be my street, and I got really excited. It's fantastic!

1:51:42So, yes, anything I can do to support, I want to support, but it's just not clear from this that's before us what we as a council should do.

1:51:51All right. Howdy, I did speak to Councilmember Barnacle, and we had a robust conversation regarding this.

1:52:00Marine Clean Energy, MCE Clean Energy. As a former vice chair, we support this program, and right now it's on the grassroots level, but is it PG&E that's taking the lead on this?

1:52:14Well… It's certainly motivated by their analysis of their infrastructure and finances, and I think, you know.

1:52:24the state and the CPUC have clearly gotten involved and are, you know, envisioning growing this, so it's… it's not just PG&E behind it, it's… it's really… I mean, there was a state law passed, but, so…

1:52:41But yes, they are… it's fully authorized by PG&E that they see it as what is most viable for their infrastructure going forward.

1:52:51Well, I very much appreciate that. City Manager, I'm wondering if we can,

1:52:57look into this and see if who's taking the lead. If it's PG&E, I would like to have PG&E do a presentation regarding this project, if this is their project. I know on the air board, we definitely support electrification.

1:53:17And that's the one thing that we're working on, are the new rules, the NOx rules, and when it comes to, getting rid of,

1:53:27You know, things like, old stoves that are leaking gas and old water heaters. So, this was not passed at the Southern California Air Board. We'll be looking into this again. I spoke about this

1:53:42This past month's,

1:53:45air board meeting, and we will further discuss this into the month of May, and, but, definitely want to look into this. Well, as we discussed at, I know at the, EQC level from the staff liaison, and even as, Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman indicated.

1:54:05Public Works staff is down some significant staff vacancies. As you have not noticed, Will is here. Will is our Public Information Officer who does all the social media. He is off until the end of April on parental leave.

1:54:18We are really short-staffed right now, and so to be able to do a partnership with an outreach program is just not

1:54:26possible at this time. That doesn't mean that we won't do it in the future, it's just that right now, we are very short-staffed. Having said that, we do understand that this program

1:54:36as, some of their, some of their… the people involved in the program going door-to-door. So we did want to make sure that we did put out some information, or that people could at least

1:54:46look up and do some research on their own. So, I have something that was placed in the city manager update that went out last week with the links to the presentation that Howdy referenced, as well as information on PG&E and the link to this program specifically. It did go out this past weekend in our green newsletter, so we're doing what we can.

1:55:10And so we intend, you know, again, we're not… I'm not saying that, no, we can't, but right now we're a little short-staffed, and so we will do what we can when we're able to do it. We're at least trying to at least let people know and, and provide some links and some information if we can, and then we can, have people do the

1:55:29if people have questions, then we can direct them to our Environmental Services staff. So I really appreciate the Environmental Quality Committee's patience and understanding, with our staffing issues right now, and we will work together on this when we can.

1:55:44Very exciting, because, I did speak to, MCE's, CEO,

1:55:51Don Weiss, and they are looking into this. A lot of cities, like our neighbors in Richmond, they are looking at this as well. So I'll do some digging in.

1:56:02I'll get back to you, to see who exactly is, entering into this. Yeah, so, I mean, the presentation the EQC received was from the Building Decarbonization Coalition, who's administering the program for PG&E. The presenter was, Brian, Barnacle, and… He's my,

1:56:24my colleague on the Bay Area Air District. Yeah, and so his… Councilmember in Guadalupe.

1:56:30Yeah, so you've got the right contact there, then. And just to respond to, Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman's,

1:56:38comment about…

1:56:40you know, specificity in the recommendation, I was just gonna say that, you know, I would have loved to have the EQC recommendation be more specific, but we were quite, you know, caught off guard in that

1:56:56we… We're at our,

1:56:59we had the presentation in January, we were excited about the program, we went to our February meeting expecting to be able to follow up on it, and were told there would be no action, and so we were kind of caught off guard, and the only thing we could do within the, you know.

1:57:14Brown Act meeting constraints we had was to write something on the fly, which I'm sure you know is very difficult to do in a meeting situation. And so, that's… that's what you're receiving, and I apologize that it can't be better, but I…

1:57:32Wanted to share that, presentation that went,

1:57:37along with, well, it was presented to the EQC, because I think it was a pretty informative presentation. It provided a lot of background on why the program's happening, where it's happening in El Cerrito, and, and it even had a slide

1:57:52with specific asks for the city, and one of those was, you know, co-branded materials and a letter of support. And those are things that I think fit within this,

1:58:03limited staff structure, and it helps when they're doing the outreach, not city staff, but when the program administrator does the outreach, they'll see the city's logo or a letter of support and see that the city is

1:58:19behind it as well. Okay, thank you very much. Thanks. I have a quick question. Oh, I'm sorry. Howdy. Sorry about that. That's fine.

1:58:26Yeah, I, I just want to say, I…

1:58:29also wanted this poll largely to have this conversation. And I was responding largely to your email, where you expressed frustration about collaboration and communication with the city, between the advisory board, and I… following up on what Councilmember Salzman said, it is obviously helpful to have specific actions.

1:58:47And I just want to reiterate that.

1:58:49But also, just ask you, do you feel…

1:58:52this forum right now is a step towards that, and has it been helpful? Well, I certainly appreciate you taking the time to have, you know, a question and dialogue, on the topic. So, yeah, it's very, productive, I think, and, I guess my,

1:59:09I mean, I don't want to speak for the whole EQC on this matter, but, I will say, just as a member of the EQC,

1:59:19I, you know, without making a formal recommendation like this that results in this kind of back and forth, there isn't a lot of dialogue with staff, because we have, you know, one point of contact, it's once a month, it's just, you know, there's…

1:59:36I think there's a lot of barriers to doing a good collaborative interaction, and I don't want to, you know, overburden your time in these meetings with recommendations to get to this point. I think we could

1:59:50potentially have similar interactions in other ways, or I'd be interested in Council's

1:59:57thoughts on how that could happen more efficiently, but but yeah, I think there are some challenges in getting to this point of dialogue, so yeah.

2:00:06Thank you. Thank you very much. I know, you know, I lived through the 94 earthquake, and all the fires in the Los Angeles area, were caused by gas breaks, and that's what happened in the 1906 earthquake as well, when we had all the fires. They were…

2:00:24gas, pipe set that just leaked. So again, thank you for speaking. I appreciate it.

2:00:32So we are done discussing, so do I have a motion to approve… Mayor, we still have a few items that were pulled. I'm sorry. We still have a few items that were pulled. Item C… We did not do C yet. Oh, okay. C, my apologies.

2:00:51Let's go to C, and I know we have, who… who asked for this?

2:00:58You can go below.

2:00:59Councilmember Katsanis. I'll be relatively quick. Okay, and I know Crystal is here, and

2:01:08I just… I'd like to ask a question. Okay, I'm… I'm actually gonna…

2:01:12not ask most of my questions, but I want to explain why. I've said this before, and just… I want to reiterate, sort of, the process that we go through. We get the packet, same time it goes to the public, which is usually at the end of the day on Thursday, end of the business day.

2:01:25And then, for myself, at least, I spend some time on the weekend going through it. And, for example, on the payment registry, I don't know if you can see my yellow lines, I go through everything I'm not quite sure about. Actually, it's not everything. Things that stand out to me that I'm not sure about. There's lots of other things that I don't know what they are.

2:01:39But if, you know, if the amounts are not high, don't think much about it, but the ones that are

2:01:44I have an odd description, or an unusually high amount I pay special attention to.

2:01:49And then all of us have a conversation with the city manager once a week.

2:01:53And I think a lot of us, when this registry information comes, we pose those questions to her, who then forwards them to Crystal.

2:02:00So, everyth… every question I've had.

2:02:04I could spend hours on them, but I try to condense it to a half hour or so when I speak to the city manager.

2:02:10I've had my curiosities or concerns, whatever, addressed already. So if I come before the public and say, well, what about this one and that one?

2:02:20You know, in fact, I already know the answer.

2:02:22And… and I've done that for this month, and I've received satisfactory answers for everything that I had, so I don't feel the need to go through it again. If there was something that I felt still unsure about, or felt maybe the public had a concern about, I would do that. So I would encourage the public that if you see things that you're not sure about, contact one of us, and we'll certainly highlight it.

2:02:41But I'll leave it at that, because I've… I'm satisfied.

2:02:45Thank you.

2:02:46Councilman. Thank you, Mayor, and

2:02:50Thank you, Finance Director, for answering my questions. I know that I… this is tedious for everyone, but I have questions. So, I think that I'll… I'll keep it short, because I also put these questions to you

2:03:06beforehand, and I have gotten very nice answers, but I think of the questions I had, I think that most,

2:03:13interesting to the public would be, the 95912 Dixon check for a parking management plan. Is there any update? And, can you tell us where we are on that?

2:03:27Never take that one? I'll take that one. And yes, we were… we provided this information,

2:03:34to the Councilmember when she had asked. So, I'll show that, be happy to share. So, at this point, we… there are several different, things that are happening with the parking management plan. So, right now, approximately half of the expenditures to date involve data collection, processing, and analysis, which will be included as part of the existing conditions report.

2:03:55And that has also taken longer to complete than anticipated, requiring more time to review budgets, policies, and organizational conditions across multiple departments.

2:04:05And of course, as part of the theme of the night, staff capacity, we've got some other transportation projects going on that you're all aware of and have talked about tonight, and we've worked to balance time to advance those projects with safety features and schedules controlled by other agencies. We are certainly

2:04:21All concerned about the Caltrans San Pablo Avenue paving project that, you know, they're threatening to delay, and we've been working very hard to ensure that they don't.

2:04:30Next steps plan to be over the next month or two to publish a project webpage with a project schedule and scope information, May and June to finalize the parking alternatives for the public outreach process, and summer to start the public outreach process. So it is in process, maybe going a little bit slower, but it is going.

2:04:49Thank you.

2:04:51Next is H.

2:04:58Okay. Go ahead. Okay.

2:05:01Thank you. So… I… this was really confusing.

2:05:08And… I think…

2:05:12I had to have this explained by a city manager to kind of get what is going on. Is there… can you, like, summarize what this money is for? And…

2:05:23The fact that it is additive.

2:05:27Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, Yvette Ortiz, the City's Public Works Director. Yes, there's a long history to these projects.

2:05:35all these large capital projects do take many years to develop and take time to assemble funding.

2:05:42But, so the project budget, funding plan was initially established in September of 2023, when the, City Council adopted the original CC agreement with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority.

2:05:57Subsequent to that, as part of fiscal year adopted budgets, there was additional funding that was introduced to the project.

2:06:06And so, it went from initially $10 million to $11 million as part of the adopted budget. And the $11 million is what is currently posted on the project website. That's been communicated to the community as part of the, project development process.

2:06:23The current, proposed amendment that's before Council tonight is to reflect, those, previous budget amendments.

2:06:32As well as additional supplemental funding that's available through the SB1 Local Partnership Program, the Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities Program, and some additional funding that we received from East Bay Mudd.

2:06:47So, it's to supplement the previous funding, and really to account for the cost of additional scope that was introduced to the project as part of the

2:06:59project development process. We added additional curb bulbouts, raised intersections, speed tables that really add significant cost to the project. That's the concrete and pavement are significant con…

2:07:13cost items. So the additional funding can account for both the additional scope and cost escalation.

2:07:19And so, at this point, we need to amend the funding agreement.

2:07:24with the CCTA, to move forward into the construction phase of the project. I hope that helps. Yes, that helps a lot, because when I first read it, I thought what it meant was that we were supplanting other funding, but this is just…

2:07:38straight up adding scope and adding funding. And then I know that this, funding also includes, or…

2:07:46The funding from AHSC also includes some Ohlone Greenway improvements. When will those start?

2:07:53So, just to clarify for the public, it's the Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities, Round 8 funding that was associated with the El Cerrito Plaza Transit-Oriented Development Parcel A South. And so, the package of improvements, the transportation-related improvements that were part of that development included Richmond Street Complete Streets, included, Ohlone and Greenway,

2:08:16improvements, sidewalk improvements, and also east-west bikeway improvements. Those are all still, you know, part of the improvements. There's still $4 million that are available for that package of improvements, as well as additional funding from other grant sources for those.

2:08:35In terms of the Ohlone Greenway improvements, it's, related to some additional connections near Eureka and, the Ohlone.

2:08:45And, that project, we're working on developing those projects, as we haven't necessarily kicked those off, yet, as we're working on finishing these, or at least advancing these other projects that are in the pipeline.

2:08:57Thank you, thank you.

2:08:59Yes. Yes.

2:09:01So,

2:09:03I, too, was very confused when I read this, and re-read it, and re-read it, and re-read it, and I'd give it a lot of thought, and it was very helpful to speak to the city manager, to walk me through it a bit.

2:09:14One of my initial reactions was when the Richmond… when we were discussing the Richmond project months ago.

2:09:22One of my concerns and hesitations was that

2:09:25it was essentially a $10 million project for which we were getting a federal grant, roughly $8 million. And there was some other money that came in there, but I still saw a million dollar gap, and I think it was mostly related to what was happening around the intersection of Richmond and Mosier.

2:09:40So I had this concern about, well, where's that money going to come from? Of course, you know, things are gonna come… I heard, well, we can get grants, I might get grants, and then being a bit of a skeptic, I thought, well, we might or might not, and probably it's going to come out of the general fund. So I was just concerned about the fiscal impact

2:09:54And what it was… the discussion was, we got this grant, which covered most of it, but didn't cover all of it, and a million is pretty significant, so…

2:10:01When I saw this, I… I, in my head, thinking, well, we get… we have $9 million for something that costs $10 million, and now it costs $13 million. So my first reaction was, oh my god, that gap just grew from a million to $13 million.

2:10:14As I dug into it deeper and compared the different time periods, because as of 23, 24, and current.

2:10:21I saw that

2:10:23That's true, the cost had gone up significantly, but so too, you know, there's been a reshuffling and increase of some of the funding, as you just said.

2:10:31So, like, my question is, Given all of that, where are we now in terms of a gap?

2:10:38So, just, to clarify, there is no general fund support. It's all transportation dollars and grants, and so, there… right now, with this proposed amendment, there is no gap. The funding plan covers the current

2:10:52project cost estimate. Oh, that's good. So the entire $12.89 million? The 12.9 million, so if you look at page 50,

2:11:02Page 50, top of the page is the project cost estimate. The current one is $12.9 million, and then the sec… the second table at the bottom of that page is the project funding plan. The total, project funding is also $12.9 million. Okay.

2:11:21It is… thank you, this is good news.

2:11:24Was there a specific source of funds that dealt with the intersection of Mosier and Richmond? I think there was plans for

2:11:30a bus turnoff and stuff like that that wasn't part of the original grant. So, that was part of the… the Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities, Round 9 included, additional funding for protected intersection bicycle treatment at Richmond and Mosier. We were not successful with that Round 9, as we discussed earlier when, the Senator was here.

2:11:53So really, the funding right now is just for the rest of the project. That was the protected intersection at Richmond and Mosier was proposed

2:12:02as, an alternative if that Round 9 funding was, secured, but the current scope of the project does not include those protect… that protected intersection treatment. So just… so the… the gap that I saw originally that was on the poster presentation by the consultants.

2:12:17And they made a point of pointing that out, that it wasn't funded.

2:12:21That's not a concern now, because that piece of the project is not going to be developed as originally planned. Correct. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Good news.

2:12:29Not that it's not developed, but that there's not a gap.

2:12:32We have a time.

2:12:34I wasn't gonna speak on this, but since you brought up that intersection, I'd say it still is very much a safety concern. I happened to cross that intersection almost every single day, often many times a day. It is treacherous.

2:12:46Just last week, I almost was killed when a driver came barreling down Richmond more than 40 miles per hour, driving in the wrong direction.

2:12:55And I was crossing with a green light through Mosier, across Mosier, and if I hadn't have been paying attention and jumped out of the way, I would have been killed.

2:13:05And then that was, like, an extreme thing that's only happened to me once.

2:13:09But just today, a right turner just decided they got the right-of-way instead of me, and if I had stepped into that crosswalk, I would have… I don't know if I would have been killed, because he was going slowly at that point, but I would have been hit. And that happens all the time. So, I hope we still… I'm very supportive of this item, but, like, let's not lose track of that intersection. It's incredibly dangerous, and a lot of students cross at that intersection. It's right near ECPC, it's right near

2:13:34the…

2:13:35school that's over on Portola, it's like, it's a very… there's a lot of kids crossing there, and it's extremely unsafe. So, I hope we will keep focused on that and find funding for that project.

2:13:48We are making improvements at that intersection. I'm sorry that that…

2:13:53happened. We are making improvements at that intersection, so there will be enhancement, it's just not the full protected… I know, I just think we should keep our eyes on the prize and look for, ultimately, funding to make that fully protected, because it's really bad, and people come barreling down really fast, both Richmond… Richmond, we're gonna…

2:14:12prevent some of that with the rest of this project, but we're not doing anything in this project for Mosier, and people come barreling down Mosier, too, so it's a big safety hazard. Thank you. One more question or comment from… this is actually almost a comment for the police chief, but now we're talking about dangerous intersections.

2:14:30When you're going down San Pablo, where the bike lane is approaching the East Shore Freeway.

2:14:36turn onto the freeway. There's a red light to stop cars from turning right, and gives bikes right away.

2:14:43I have been at that red light waiting for it to turn. It's kind of a slow light, but I don't mind that. Many times, people have driven around me to go through it and go right through the red light. That's why I say it's perhaps a…

2:14:53an issue for the police department, but it's seriously a safety concern, especially if they're going around me, and there happens to be a bicycle there, they're not seeing the bicycle because I'm there.

2:15:01No, thank you for that comment. That is part of the improvements that were implemented as part of the Del Norte Complete Streets project. We are still fine-tuning that intersection. Caltrans has asked us to make a few more modifications as part of their final inspection of that

2:15:15intersection. Once those are done, Caltrans is going to come back and fine-tune all the time… Signal timing, because I know some of those red lights, especially for those right turners, is very long right now, and that's…

2:15:26Causing drivers to be impatient, and so they will fine-tune that to make… to optimize the timing and make sure it's not… I've both had people honking me because I'm standing at the red light, and just whip around me. Thank you. Thank you.

2:15:39Okay, anyone else?

2:15:42Okay.

2:15:43Do I have a motion to approve, the consent calendar A, B, C, D, E, F, G,

2:15:51and H. Mayor, the only items that still remain to be approved are A, B, C, and H. Okay. I move to approve A, B, C, and H. I second approval of A, B, C, and H. Okay. All in favor? Aye.

2:16:08Any nays? Abstention.

2:16:10Motion passes.

2:16:11Thank you very much, everybody.

2:16:14So next we have, Policy Matters.

2:16:19And this is, Municipal Pooling Authority Joint Exercise, Power Agreement.

2:16:27Do we have a staff report? Yes, we do, Mayor. Good evening, my name's Alex Orlogos. I'm your Assistant City Manager, as well as the City's Representative on the Municipal Pooling Authority's Board of Directors.

2:16:42This evening, I want to give a quick overview of the amended and restated Joint Exercise Powers Agreement.

2:16:50for the Municipal Pooling Authority. Before I go forward, MPA is the acronym I'm going to be using for Municipal Pooling Authority, and JPA is the acronym for the Joint Exercise Powers of Agreement.

2:17:04So, after my presentation, I will turn the presentation over to Linda Cox, who is the Chief Administrative Officer for MPA, and she'll talk more in depth about the programs and services MPA provides. So, as noted in the staff report, El Cerrito and MPA have been together for almost 50 years. It's been a really long

2:17:27standing relationship. El Cerrito was a founding member of this pool. The pool brings

2:17:3421 member cities together to purchase risk and to pull risk and to share insurance costs, rather than the city trying to purchase insurance on its own in the private insurance market.

2:17:49a majority of the members of MPA are actually located in Contra Costa County.

2:17:56So, as Linda will note, MPA provides coverage and administration for general liability, workers' comp, vehicle physical damage, and short-term disability. And through our membership, through MPA's membership.

2:18:14We also have access to additional programs, such as property, cyber insurance, employee benefits, along with other safety and risk management services.

2:18:26So, MPA recently did a large, comprehensive review and update of the JPA agreement, which is… serves as the governing document for the JPA.

2:18:38And this document was last approved more than 20 years ago by this council.

2:18:45This amendment has already been reviewed by member cities, it's been reviewed by our city attorney, and was subsequently approved by the MPA Board of Directors, and now needs approval from each member city.

2:19:00So the amendments before you are largely clarifying, and they're governance-related, and were developed as part of MPA's regular review.

2:19:11So, I will just mention a few high-level changes or updates to the JPA agreement.

2:19:19Under Section 5, Creation of MPA, there's updated language that clarifies that MPA was previously formed and is continuing under the current government provisions.

2:19:32Under Section 8, titled Powers of MPA,

2:19:36This section clarifies the scope and limitations of MPA's powers as a JPA, and also includes additional language based on the California Association of Joint Powers Authorities accreditation Program, which MPA is accredited.

2:19:54Under Section 17, member responsibilities, language was updated to clarify a member's responsibilities, including the obligation to provide information and support during claims investigations or other related matters.

2:20:10And last but not least, Section 23, the effect of withdrawal or Expulsion.

2:20:15That clarifies if a member withdraws or is expelled from the JPA, it does not eliminate any obligations related to claims or any other commitments that occurred while the agency was a member of MPA.

2:20:30So, overall, these updates are intended to prove clarity, to reflect current government practices and laws without changing

2:20:41without changing the city's participation in MPA.

2:20:45So with that, I'm going to invite Linda Cox, here at the podium from MPA, to provide a brief overview of the organization and its progress.

2:20:54Linda? Thank you, Alexandra. Good evening. Welcome. So, yes, we are MPA. We've been around almost 50 years.

2:21:03We're pretty darn excited about that. We're one of the original pools in California.

2:21:08So what I want to tell you, as Alexandra did indicate, El Cerrito is

2:21:14Sorry. How'd we go. I like my voice, I don't want you all to hear it, though.

2:21:21El Cerrito is one of the founding members of MPA, and as she said, MPA was developed to save money. If you look back into the 70s and think about what was going on in the 70s with the insurance industry, pulling of general funds to provide these coverages was a big deal.

2:21:41With that, the pool… like Alexandra said, we have 21 members, the pool was developed originally for general liability.

2:21:50Over time, we added workers' compensation, we added, property coverages, vehicle damage program we have. These are all self-insured. I'm sorry, the property is not. The vehicle program is self-insured, the workers' compensation program is self-insured.

2:22:06And, the general liability program is self-insured. We also have short-term disability that we provide to members, which is also self-insured. The others are pass-through programs. MPA has 21 members, primarily in Contra Costa County, however, we have some outliers.

2:22:24But they have also been long-term members of MPA. Our newest member, though, is Mountain House.

2:22:30So we're very excited to have the newest city in California in our pool.

2:22:36MPA is the only pool in California that provides an on-site wellness program, and El Cerrito participates in that.

2:22:44We have been approached by other cities just to be a part of our wellness program only. It is a… one of the few hands-on wellness programs, and that El Cerrito employees get to enjoy.

2:23:00So, MPA's governance

2:23:02process. We, like I said, we have 21 members. There's a primary and alternate board member designated from each city council who is part of that board. We meet,

2:23:13Five times a year. Then we also have an executive committee, which is made up of seven members.

2:23:19Which Alexandra is a part of.

2:23:22And we have a number of documents. We have our… we also have our Coverage and Governance Committee. The Coverage and Governance Committee is the committee responsible for reviewing all of our governing documents. The JPA agreement before you is one of those documents.

2:23:37The, in addition to that is our bylaws, our memorandums of coverage. We have three memorandums of coverage. Our GL memorandum.

2:23:47our workers' compensation memorandum and our vehicle memorandum. The board works to define those memorandums with coverage and governance recommendations.

2:24:00services. Alexandra did a good job at mentioning all of the services we provide, but we do…

2:24:06Provide workers' compensation claims administration and litigation, liability claims administration and litigation, our vehicle program, our property program. We also provide benefits.

2:24:17Dental, vision, short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance. Again, our wellness program. We also provide risk and safety training support to all of the members.

2:24:29Public Works and Safety Risk… Public Works and Safety Risk Committee say that 5 times.

2:24:37And the Police Risk Committee, these are very active committees. All of our cities participate in these. They're really committees for the city employees, for the police officers, for the public works.

2:24:51employees to give them the tools and training that they need. They tell us what we want, what they want, and we provide those through these committees.

2:25:00We also have a very comprehensive ergonomics program where we provide ergonomics evaluation to all employees.

2:25:07Just request it, and your employees will receive it.

2:25:10And we also provide those ERGO evaluation trainings. We try to do a little bit of the train-the-trainer for our cities. And in addition to that, another program we have, it is not ours, but it's the only way you can access it, and that's IRMA. That's our employer's,

2:25:27liability risk program, that's your employer's liability coverage. You can only access that by being a member of MPA.

2:25:36In addition to that,

2:25:39are layers of coverage. So, what do we provide? So, we… we provide up to $500,000 of coverage for workers' compensation.

2:25:48Zero… from zero to $500,000. We take on the… the administration of that claim. The excess, then it goes from there, goes to an excess pool. There's a lot of pools in California where any of those claims in workers' compensation that exceed that $500,000, they go to that next layer.

2:26:05Moving over to the general liability coverage, we provide up to a million dollars of coverage, and Citi's SIR ranges from

2:26:135,000 up to 100,000.

2:26:16Then we have layers of excess coverage through

2:26:19Karma, which is our, excess liability pool that provides us up to

2:26:29$32 million in coverage, which is not here.

2:26:33This, this, we provide up to $32 million in coverage in total. We don't. Karma does. Combined together, it's all of us.

2:26:43However.

2:26:45planes these days, we… you've all heard of the nuclear verdicts that are happening, and we're doing everything we can to

2:26:51find ways to provide more coverage. It's getting harder and harder to do, I must point that out.

2:26:59But we're also doing what we can to help our members keep those claims costs down.

2:27:06But the cost of insurance, those exit cover… the excess insurance is just rising.

2:27:12So what do we do with the money, though? The bigger part of this is we collect premiums from our members every year based on experience and exposure.

2:27:20This board has… the MPA board has been incredibly conservative in the past 10 years. My tenure with MPA is 10 years, and when I first came on board, we were only funded at about… for our workers' compensation program, we were only funded at about 75%.

2:27:36And in that… and in the past 10 years, we have increased our funding from, funding at 85% up to 90% for our workers' compensation program. That's a big deal.

2:27:49We are very well funded, and we're very proud of it. And that is a MPA staff, our investment partners, and our board taking that very conservative approach.

2:28:00Moving over to the general liability program, we've had the same experience.

2:28:05In which we were…

2:28:08funded, again, about 70%, and we've rolled up to about 90% funding. This is where we're funded at the 90% level. We collect 85%, but we're funded above that. Why is this a big deal? This means we have almost all the money in the bank to cover all the claims.

2:28:25But what we've added is another layer of a form of investment to continue to enhance our investment strength, and we've added a captive in July of this year, which was a big deal. And that has given us the ability to invest more strongly, to

2:28:43offset the rising cost of insurance in California. California's being hit very hard, and, we started that

2:28:52captive in July of this year, and it is doing very well. I will leave it at that. I'm going to save the true numbers for our executive committee, but we are…

2:29:02Those investments are increasing, and it's been a very, very profitable, successful

2:29:09Transition that the board has, opted to… has approved.

2:29:15So, these are the programs that we provide that El Cerrito participates in, and as you can see, there's an X by almost all of them, except for vision.

2:29:25Perhaps you get a better deal than we can provide for vision. And then, the DMV pull notice, that is a ancillary program which can be obtained directly from DMV, so it's not necessary to participate with us. But other than that, you participate in all of them.

2:29:43And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Okay, got any questions? We'll start with, Councilmember Gonzalez. Thank you very much.

2:29:52Thank you very much for your presentation. I have a few questions, make sure I understand things correctly. So, MPA, you're not going out and negotiating with other insurance companies for coverage based on having a pool and

2:30:06No. Economies of scale. You're actually providing the… you're actually an insurer. MPA is the insurer.

2:30:12So to speak, because we're self-insured, which is a different model than if you were to buy your farmer's insurance, for example. The board decides how and what we cover.

2:30:24But, so it's… it is… the money is pulled, the board of directors looks at those memorandums of coverage and decides how we're going to provide coverage for general liability. Workers' compensation is outside of that. The laws…

2:30:40Yeah, it's statutory, you have to provide the coverage according to the law, but for the general liability program and the vehicle program, the board has some control over what is covered and what is not.

2:30:53And just one other question. Given…

2:30:56the rising cost of insurance, and I'm sure that… I'm assuming that reflects rising expenses and risks that the insurance companies face. Why haven't you faced the same pressures and be… and…

2:31:07Forced to increase your costs similarly. Beauty of pooling. So, we share the cost with, the city shares the cost with 20 other members.

2:31:15the cost, I promise you that, I think we can ask Crystal, the cost has increased as far as premiums go for each member city, but we are able to

2:31:26mitigated in some ways, because the cities, all the cities, all 21 members share that cost, so no individual member is hit with

2:31:37a direct relationship of claims versus cost. It is… it is spread, it is shared.

2:31:43If that answers your question. Every city has a cap on the cost of their claims, and then when you hit that cap, everything over that cap is spread amongst all cities, and so that helps diversify and spread that cost and… and keep it down somewhat.

2:32:02But we have experienced increases, absolutely.

2:32:06Okay, thank you very much.

2:32:09Ma'am Clerk, do we have any public comment online or here at

2:32:15I do not have any cards, if I… just quickly, if anyone is on virtually and wishes to provide public comment on this item, now would be the time to raise your hand.

2:32:29I am not seeing any hands, Mayor.

2:32:31We'll bring it back to the Council. Any last comments?

2:32:35Okay, do I have a motion to approve?

2:32:41Fair.

2:32:42We have a motion by Motiam and a second by Mayor Pro Tem. All in favor?

2:32:47Bye.

2:32:48Any nays? Abstentions? Motion passes. Thank you very much for the great presentation. Thank you.

2:32:56Next is B, discussion on Library Tax Task Force.

2:33:02And, we have here our City Manager, Karen Pincus.

2:33:07Along with our city clerk colleagues, Sean.

2:33:10Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, City Council. Holly Charlotte, the City Clerk.

2:33:15On February 17th, the Council took action to create a library task force and requested that staff return with recommendations related to a mission statement and criteria for the application and appointment process.

2:33:28Staff has drafted recommendations in several areas for Council's consideration, including mission statement, application information, member selection process, interview questions, and is also requesting direction on an assigned council liaison, which was indicated in the resolution for forming the task force.

2:33:47So, to start, I'm just going to provide a very brief overview of the recommendations, starting with the mission statement.

2:33:54So, based on the information that was in the adopted resolution for forming the task force, staff drafted the following statement to present to the Council for a starting point for discussion.

2:34:06And, that language is, the mission of the Library Task Force is to advise the City Council with informed recommendations relating to planning for a new or updated, modern, safe, accessible, and sustainable library in El Cerrito.

2:34:23Moving on to the application, there was some concerns expressed at the last meeting that the standard boards

2:34:31Commission and committee application may not ask for all relevant information that would help assist the Council in the selection process for the task force. So in order to gather more relevant information, staff recommends that the Council considers the following information be included on the Task Force application.

2:34:49Name, contact information, residential address, including length of time in El Cerrito, as well as Contra Costa County.

2:34:57Owner, renter, or other status of that, that residential address.

2:35:04Current occupation or most recent if retired, how frequently the applicant uses the El Cerrito Library, as well as giving a selection of all of the existing library services that they can select and share what they use.

2:35:21And then, as the,

2:35:24task force makeup included a… at least one member to be a youth applicant. We would also request

2:35:31additional information from the youth application submitted, including if they are a resident or an El Cerrito High School student, as well as information related to a parent or guardian, because we do have to get

2:35:45Parental consent or guardian consent because of the age of the applicant.

2:35:51And then in the area of demographics, so there was some conversation about wanting to have diversity among the applicants and who was appointed to the task force.

2:36:03Staff's position is to not include demographic information as a specific criteria for selection, which is consistent with what we do on our job applications for the city.

2:36:13This can become a legal issue if the Council bases their selection on things such as age, gender identity, or ethnicity. The information can certainly be requested, however, we would not recommend that it be required, and any data collected could help inform the Council, as long as it was not used as a basis for selection of the members on the task force.

2:36:33And to be consistent with what is on the city applications, we would suggest that we ask the same… mirror the same information that's asked on our city employment application on the task force application.

2:36:47The third area is the selection process. So there was also some discussion at the last meeting about potential ways that we could do initial screening of applicants to help

2:36:58aid the Council in… in their determination, but ultimately, because this is a political appointment, we… this… the recommendation by staff is that Council

2:37:10Or a subset of council members be solely responsible for the selection process of the task force members.

2:37:16There's several ways that the Council could approach doing this.

2:37:20You can follow the typical process that we follow for boards, commissions, and committees currently.

2:37:25And then there's a couple of options that we outlined, options 1, 2, and 3. If there is a high number of applications, as some options for you to be able to pare down the number of applications that are considered for appointment.

2:37:39So option one and option two are very similar, in that Council could consider an ad hoc committee that could do kind of that initial screening of information for applicants. Option 1 would be to do actual interviews with that subcommittee.

2:37:55And then that subcommittee could forward recommendations that the full council interview that smaller subset of individuals, or option two would be just an initial visual screening of the applicants without conducting interviews, and then recommend that subset of applicants to the full council for interview.

2:38:13Option 3, is a different approach, where each member of the Council could individually review all of the applications, and they could put forth a selection of a set number of applications that would then be forwarded, would move forward in the process to be interviewed by the full council.

2:38:30So there's a lot of flexibility in how the Council chooses to do that. We, we wanted to give you some options so that you could consider different circumstances, meaning if we get a very high level of applications, you may want to take a different approach than if you get a lower number of applicants.

2:38:51And then the final area for consideration or direction to staff is just to, provide us with the information of who would be the assigned council liaison, as that was one of the criteria that was adopted in the resolution.

2:39:05So the City Manager and I are both available for any questions, and following public comment, we would just request that the Council kind of go through each of those five areas and discuss them, and provide staff directions so that we know how to move forward with

2:39:18populating the task force that the Council has formed.

2:39:24Who would like us?

2:39:26We'll go with the mail.

2:39:30Thank you. Thank you for putting this together. I know we only gave you a certain amount of information last time, so you weren't going on a lot. I think this is a good start, and I would like to see more.

2:39:42It's hard because we don't know how many applicants we're gonna get, so if we get, like, 10 or fewer applicants, I'm fine with us just interviewing all of them. But if we get more than that, we'll probably need one of the other options. I don't know that we can decide that today without

2:39:55knowing how many we have. But if we do get to the point where we're not interviewing everybody, I think we need more in the application, and I actually would argue we're asking for

2:40:06less relevant information than we ask for in the regular, kind of, commission application, because in those, we at least, like, ask them the relevant background and things like that. So if I got, you know.

2:40:1820 of these, or 30 of these, and then I had to pick my top 3. I don't know how I would do that based on this information, unless I knew the person, but then we're advantaging people who are kind of in the know, and…

2:40:29We might have some great people who we've never met before, never heard of before, and so I don't want to disadvantage them. So the first thing I would recommend is that we take this question from the interview questions. Please describe why you feel you are a strong candidate to serve on the task force.

2:40:44and add that to the application, so they… they can make the argument about why they should be interviewed. I think that's the fairest way to do it, is they tell us why they should be interviewed, which is essentially what they're saying, and answering that.

2:40:57And then I also think we should ask more about their background, so in the regular commission application, we ask about

2:41:06their, you know, current occupation, other types of things they serve on in the community, and then they have the option of providing a resume. I think that's

2:41:16I've always found that to be really helpful, and just kind of grounding the person and who they are in the community, so why not? The other thing I would say, and this has always made me feel a little weird in our process.

2:41:28I don't really know why we ask whether people are an owner or renter. I've never seen that come up in our interviews. It doesn't seem that relevant. The number of years seems to tell us plenty. If you've lived here for 10 years and you rent, or you've lived here 10 years and you own.

2:41:43I guess I don't see any difference. We all pay taxes here, whether we rent or own.

2:41:49So… I'm…

2:41:52I'm not gonna, you know… if everybody else wants to keep it in, we can keep it in, but I'd prefer to keep that out.

2:42:01Okay, Councilmember Orteo.

2:42:03Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for putting this together with

2:42:07As, Mayor Pro Tem said, very skeletal information from us.

2:42:11So, I agree with much of what she said. I would like to have also, you know, a question about any specific qualifications.

2:42:23Such as being… having been a librarian, or an architect, or interior designer. You know, what, you know, professional qualifications might you have that might be particularly ac…

2:42:34Applicable to this process.

2:42:36Also, I didn't see, references,

2:42:40listed as part of the application that's, present in the advisory body, applications, and I think, for this, it would be great to have references that are local.

2:42:54So, your neighbors, you know, local people as references, because this is not a professional Application?

2:43:03So, I think that would be really helpful.

2:43:09I do have a concern about the homeowner and renter in this case, because we're talking about a parcel tax that impacts people a little bit differently. So if it's all homeowners, or if it's all renters, that would have some

2:43:24bias, I think, in, in this discussion. So, I think that should stay in, and…

2:43:32In terms of how many people we get, I think that will drive how much work we have to do.

2:43:38So, I… I'm inclined to… you know…

2:43:43I would be inclined to have all of us read every application, or at least look at them, so that we have a sense of who is out there as a whole.

2:43:52Okay.

2:43:53Councilmember Weissick. Thank you so much, Mayor, and you know, as I said at our last meeting, my big concern was making sure… and I think we all said this, I don't put this all just on me.

2:44:03We all said that we want to make sure that we had a fair balance on both sides of this conversation. This is a conversation that certainly brought out a lot of very, very strong feelings.

2:44:14And I don't know if this recommendation I'm gonna make is gonna go over well. I don't even know if it's something that we can do.

2:44:20But we've had a lot of people come before us and be very vocal on what they like or don't like about this initiative, or about the library itself, etc, etc. I want to know about the possibility of having the name redacted.

2:44:35I don't… I don't want to… I'm sorry, can you repeat that? …having the names redacted, because I don't want this… we know that this… we… whether we like it or not, it's going to be a very political process. I don't want anyone being able to come back and say, well, I think that the, you know, the council just put people that they like, or the council just put… I want to make sure that we are

2:44:54people know that we are solely looking at qualifications, looking at their investment, and making sure that we're creating a modern library, or investments on what's gonna be there, where it's gonna be, all of those things, and I don't want this to get marred in who did or didn't make the

2:45:14the committee.

2:45:15Is that something that is even legal, before I even… So, yeah, as the city and I were just… city attorney and I were just talking, we cannot reject the names. However, what we… what our current practice is, is that we do not publish the applications with the packet.

2:45:30Those are in the city clerk's office. They are indeed public records, and if someone had requested them, we would redact

2:45:35personal information, but, like, addresses and the like, but we would not be able to redact the names. But if I may,

2:45:43Comment on a couple of things, that, you know, have been brought up already.

2:45:49When we suggested this task force, when I suggested this task force, this was not meant to be about the ballot measure. This is about the library, and

2:46:01ballot measure passes, this task force could be helpful in moving forward with the process, discussing the sites, discussing all of those things, design moving forward. If it doesn't pass.

2:46:15I'm gonna need this task force to try to help me come up with what we're gonna do next, because we have a substandard, decrepit, falling apart building that we need to deal with, that we know will cost upwards of $10 million just to fix it. So…

2:46:30which we don't have the money for either. So, what I would need from this task force is to discuss the future of the library. And so, I would also, in the interview process, I think it'll probably become pretty clear, once you start talking to the applicants.

2:46:46What side they're on.

2:46:48But to… if I'm trying… maybe I'm sounding super idealistic here, but this is meant to be about being on the side of the library and helping us figure out what the library is… is going to do next. So we… and Holly and I, as we went over this, we really… even in the mission statement, we really tried to make it just about the library and not about

2:47:09if you, you know, if you… I mean, you must be interested in a library if you're intending to apply for this task force, I would hope. So, I just kind of wanted to put that out there, too, because this… this was not meant to be for the ballot measure, this… and there have been a couple of comments that said, why didn't you do this 10 years ago? And quite frankly, I wish I had.

2:47:27I wish I had done this 10 years ago. I wish I had suggested this or come up with something sooner, because I really feel like this is the way that we can engage the public.

2:47:37in a… in a process-oriented way, and get education out, and… and I do wish I had thought of it sooner. And I just want to say, Madam City Manager, you know that I understand that.

2:47:48And I just want everyone to understand that. So that was me kind of maybe being… not necessarily mama bear, but, you know, being protective of the process. So I get everything you just said.

2:47:59That's work socks.

2:48:00I just want to quickly comment on the renter versus homeowner distinction. I think one thing that it does do is it provides a little bit of economic diversity, socioeconomic diversity. We, you know, we can't ask someone what their income is, but

2:48:13you know, we can get a very general sense of things if they own a home or if they rent, so that it does have value. I'm reminded that my mother was a researcher, and one of the questions she asked in her research was how many bedrooms and bathrooms you had in your home, and that was her way of getting around it.

2:48:28The inability to ask what people's income was.

2:48:30Again, it's imperfect, but it's… there's information in it.

2:48:35And I do apologize, Council, when I was doing the overview, I actually skipped right over the interview questions, but they are in the staff report, so certainly feel free to ask if you have any questions.

2:48:48And I want to give a brief comment on this. I heard what my colleagues said here, and, you know, I appreciate what you had to say, Mayor Prodem. With

2:49:01The choosing of

2:49:04individuals, I would like to have, like, a number of homeowners and renters, just to keep it balanced.

2:49:14And, so, I… My concern is if we have all renters.

2:49:21It'll all pass, and and if we don't have any homeowners, they… our residents will be very, very upset.

2:49:28Because they'll be paying… they're the ones that are paying for this parcel.

2:49:33Well, yeah, but… I'll pay more.

2:49:36You know, so, yeah, just wanted to, to put that out.

2:49:42And… Yeah, so looking at this,

2:49:48I… I support, the report that was given.

2:49:52And and I understand why you said… why…

2:49:57you spoke about, redactions, and, I understand that. I just want to make sure that

2:50:05you know, we don't have any personal… I don't mind names, but addresses and phone numbers, I just want to make sure that's not included, social security numbers, everything.

2:50:16Yeah, so, keep it, keep it high level, and keep it, professional… And, So…

2:50:25you know, I'm supporting this. Is there anything that you would like to suggest and to add.

2:50:33To the instructions.

2:50:34We'll start with Lisa.

2:50:38I think I already listed out the things that I would like to see.

2:50:41And I'm taking notes, kind of, of what you guys are all sharing in your feedback. Mayor, if I can make a suggestion, we do have a couple of requests to speak on this item, so perhaps we take public comment, and then we can kind of go one by one and get consensus or action by the Council on how you want to move forward in each area? Sure. Okay, so we'll go…

2:51:01Perfect.

2:51:05Do we have any? We do have a couple of speakers. Okay, quick question. Do you feel you've gotten sufficient feedback from us? Yes, and I will need to get more clarification, but I'm just suggesting that we fin… like, finish that part of the conversation after you hear from the members of the public.

2:51:21Okay, now's the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments on this item. Requests to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card using the raise hand feature on Zoom, or dialing 9 if joining by phone.

2:51:36The person requests.

2:51:37We'll be taken first.

2:51:39Please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence at the beginning of your comments. Mayor City Clinton. Thank you, Mayor. Our first speaker is Michael Fisher, followed by Betsy Basher.

2:51:55Bye.

2:51:58Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council.

2:52:02My name's Michael Fisher, born and raised in the East Bay, and lived in El Cerrito since 1997.

2:52:14Our library is 75 years old.

2:52:17too small… seismically unsafe.

2:52:21And not accessible for the disabled or the elderly.

2:52:26This measure, which was placed on the ballot with an all-volunteer effort.

2:52:31Will cost the average homeowner less than $6.50 a week.

2:52:38Even at the initial maximum tax.

2:52:41Of 17 cents per square foot.

2:52:45The money can only be spent on libraries as monitored by an independent oversight board.

2:52:54There is a senior exemption, which

2:52:58The City Attorney has noted can even be expanded by the City Council.

2:53:06Tonight's agenda asks you to consider the very important task of how to choose the task force that will be an important part of the public engagement on what the library could be.

2:53:23The California State Library notes that the following results Happened from a new library.

2:53:32Learning programs that can improve children's reading scores.

2:53:39Closing the opportunity gap.

2:53:42By connecting people to services and resources.

2:53:47Bridging the digital divide by providing free internet and computers.

2:53:55Providing a safe space for residents during a crisis or natural disaster.

2:54:03Increased spending on nearby retail and restaurant businesses of an average of 23%. Their figure, not mine.

2:54:14And increased property values, often up to $10,000. Again, their figure, not mine.

2:54:23It's important that all members of that task force understand this.

2:54:30Even more important, the members must understand the intrinsic value and importance of a library to the community.

2:54:40It's essential that the entire City Council ensures that the persons they choose for the task force know this.

2:54:52Thank you.

2:54:53Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Betsy Basher, followed by Linda Cain.

2:55:00Hello, Betsy Basher, El Cerrita resident.

2:55:03I just am wondering, is the, makeup of the task force, in terms of how many members that you would have total, has that

2:55:13been decided, as it was mentioned in a memo earlier. And, then what will be the timeline after this for moving forward with the task force, if you have a chance to discuss it later? Thank you.

2:55:25And then our final speaker is Linda Cain.

2:55:32Good… good evening, City Council and City Staff.

2:55:36It's really been a long evening for all of you, and I appreciate your attention to all of these matters, trying to keep the program moving along, and indeed having the opportunity to speak with our state senator, that was very

2:55:48I see why you wanted to make the most of that opportunity, and we all did. Anyway, I appreciate the Council's discussion and ideas about… can you hear me well? About putting together a balanced task force for, our library in balance, including homeowner versus non-homeowner, and,

2:56:07experience, qualifications such as design, or, like, being a librarian, or a teacher, whatever they might be. I'm… I'm really thinking,

2:56:18It's very important what the city manager said about if the tax does not pass, that what will the task force do, and that it would then be their situation to deal with

2:56:30What can we do with the existing library, or with other funds, or with other taxes, or what, you know, what is the backup plan? Because I don't think that's been discussed too much.

2:56:40And then, I also wonder, because one of the EQC representatives said.

2:56:45sometimes their commission, and I've sometimes felt that way for another commission, they don't always have open communication with the council, and they don't necessarily know if the Council is really listening to them and their suggestions, even though

2:57:00as a commission or committee, you were chosen for having some knowledge on the community and the aspect of the community. So I'm just hoping that if there is a really good task force formed, and if you all read all the applications and they're qualified people, that they will have

2:57:17an ear from the City Council, and that they will know

2:57:21that they have a chance to influence the process and make this a better city for whatever kind of library we end up with. So, thank you. I forgot to tell you, Linda Cain, El Cerrito, 31 years.

2:57:33Thank you. Okay, that does conclude our request to speak.

2:57:37So Mayor, if I may, I would suggest we just… I can help guide the Council back through those, various areas where Council needs direction.

2:57:46So, we can… So, we'll just start with the mission statement. I didn't hear any feedback from the Council, so, unless anyone has any final comments, we can take that as consensus that the Council is okay with the recommended mission statement.

2:58:03Okay, perfect. So we'll move right along to application. So, what I heard, in addition to what was already listed, is, to include education and experience, as well as an option to attach a resume.

2:58:17There was also the recommendation to consider adding,

2:58:22The suggested interview question to the application about why the applicant feels they would be the best fit as a member of the task force.

2:58:30I also have, a question related to any specific professional qualifications that would be applicable to the charge of the task force, so somewhat along the lines of education and experience, and that can certainly be wrapped into the question of education and experience that is specific to what the task force is tasked with doing.

2:58:50As well as adding back in, or adding in personal local references.

2:58:55And then it sounds like there was consensus of a majority council to go ahead and keep the owner-rentor question in.

2:59:03Is there anyone who is not in agreement or okay with those revisions to the application information, or have any other further comments?

2:59:14comment. You used the word, why someone's the best applicant. I prefer something that's not competitive, is why you're a good applicant.

2:59:22Yeah, I think the… I think the question…

2:59:25that was posed by, Mayor Pro Tem was to use the first, please describe why you feel you're a strong candidate to serve on the task force. Yes. But that would go from the interview questions onto the application.

2:59:38Yes.

2:59:39just, I'm fine with including the owner-rentor. I'm not fine with saying we're gonna have an

2:59:46an exact even split. I think we should see what candidates move forward, and who is best qualified, and if it's slightly weighted one way or another.

2:59:56I think that's okay if we pick the people who are most qualified, so I don't… I don't want us to have a quota.

3:00:03And at this point, the Council does not have a specific selection criteria. This is just the information to… that we would be using to collect the data that the Council could look at and use to make a determination of who they would want to move forward in the process.

3:00:20Okay, so I think I'm good on the direction for the application.

3:00:26And then… and also just confirming that the demographics would mirror what we asked for on our employment applications, and it would be optional, not required to provide that information.

3:00:36Okay.

3:00:37Selection process is the next section. So, there are a couple of different options. One of the things that the city manager and I also talked about, based on some questions that came up from Council members, is the Council could

3:00:51choose to do one process if there is a, for example, a low level, a low number of applications. So, say you receive

3:01:0110 or 15 applications total, you may choose to have staff move forward with the typical process for the Council to interview all of the candidates.

3:01:09Or, if you have a high level, you know, over a certain number, you guys can give us direction to do some other method of trying to pare that number down before we do full. So you can kind of mix and match, choose your own adventure, so to speak.

3:01:24In her… in how you want to move forward, and I didn't hear much comment one way or another, so I would… certainly would like to hear from the Council.

3:01:34Yes.

3:01:36I think 15 is too many for us to hear all of them. I mean, just thinking about, we usually give 15 minutes apiece, plus we have a little bit of stuff at the beginning, and then we might have long discussions at the end if it's competitive. So we're talking about, you know, like a 5-hour meeting if you have 15 people. That seems like we will…

3:01:55we wouldn't give fair focus to the folks at the end, so I think if it's…

3:02:00either 10 or 12 or something like that. If it's more than that, we need one of the other options. I'm…

3:02:07I don't have a strong opinion on what the other option would be if we had more candidates, so I'd love to hear from others.

3:02:14Lisa?

3:02:16Thank you, Mayor.

3:02:17Like I said, I think we should read all of them.

3:02:21I think reading all of them should, you know, just, you know, however many there are, I think that will, better inform who our applicants are. I think that, you know, sort of culling that down if it's a big number, I think in terms of interviews would be,

3:02:39good. I don't know if we have to have a subcommittee to do that, or we can just…

3:02:48I don't know how we… how we would do that, but I think it would be, you know…

3:02:54some way of, you know, reducing it to the… some finalists, but I think, you know, the question that, Ms. Basher brought up about how many members, I think we've always said seven, but, you know, is that…

3:03:08If we have 50 applicants, would we want to increase that number? Or, you know, some…

3:03:14Well, the resolution that you passed last meeting says 7, so the Council could certainly change that if it wanted to, but you would need to revise the resolution.

3:03:25And if I may, I think what you're suggesting is a version maybe of option 3, where if each member of the Council reviews all of the applications, we said recommend up to 3, but that could be 5, or, you know, if…

3:03:39again, depending on how many people were, actually applying, if that would… that sounds like what you're saying is some version of option 3, where everyone would review, and then you could submit to Holly, your

3:03:53Top 5 or something, for example.

3:03:55And going back to your earlier comment, Mayor Pro Tem, about the length, the reason that I had actually initially recommended 3 was thinking that would be potentially up to 15, which is about 4 hours of interview, which is usually about the cap I do for annual interview process, because it can be very lengthy, so…

3:04:15And if you did choose that type of an option, for example, it may not be 15 candidates, because the applicants that you all choose to move forward may be similar across the board, or there may be some overlap, but…

3:04:31Yes. Communication 7 does not include the council members.

3:04:34No, that is correct. The council liaison is… is not a voting member of the task force.

3:04:41But it does include one youth member.

3:04:44And I didn't really have a question. I just was going to agree with Councilmember Motiamo

3:04:50I'm very pro-option 3. I think that

3:04:54to my continuing concern about protecting the process, I think the idea of all of us reading them and just kind of coming up with however many that we read, or how we bring them in after that, is important to the integrity of this, so I definitely advocate for option 3.

3:05:11And… yep, go ahead.

3:05:14what do we do if we all suggest 3, and there's, like, 5 total candidates? I mean, it's possible. It is possible, yeah. That's the one thing about this that makes me a little bit nervous, is, like, yes, if we put a higher number, then we could end up with 20 people, but we could also end up… like, there will be some… I would be shocked if there was no overlap.

3:05:33would be very surprising. One of the things that we could potentially do is… is we could say that the count… each individual council member could put forward, say.

3:05:425 to 7 applicants, and they put them in priority of those that are most important to them, and then we can establish maybe a cap of the number of applicants that would move forward. So then if there are duplicates.

3:05:53We could continue down the list of the individual council members to get to that cap.

3:05:58In terms of the total number of individuals who would be interviewed by the full council.

3:06:04I see a lot of head nodding. Yeah, I think that would be a really good way to do it.

3:06:09And that way, if it's a little bit more flexible and fluid, it gives staff a little bit more ability to

3:06:17We understand the intent of what you guys are wanting to do, and then we… once we actually close and have the deadline, and we know how many applications we have, it'll be a lot easier for us to understand, kind of, how we need to move forward, because if we have.

3:06:3110 applications or 12 applications, it's gonna be different than if we have 50 applications, so…

3:06:37I think that might be a good approach if they're ranked in order. That way, we can determine how many from each council member would move forward.

3:06:46Yeah, I appreciate that. I support that.

3:06:49We did already agree on the number 7.

3:06:54So, I agree with,

3:06:59Everything that was mentioned by our colleagues here, and look forward to, moving forward on this.

3:07:08Yes, sir.

3:07:09Good.

3:07:10address Betsy's other question, do we have a better sense of a timeline yet?

3:07:14the timeline for… well, I'm getting all the direction I need from Council tonight. The hope is that we'll be able to put everything together in one, maybe two weeks' time. We should leave it open for at least, I would recommend, 30 days to gather applications, and then getting, depending on the number of applications.

3:07:32that process may take a little bit longer if we have to do kind of this initial vetting, to reduce the number, and then hold interviews, and then once interviews are held, everyone can be appointed fairly quickly, and then once the city manager has assigned a staff liaison, then we can get that group together. So, I would say at the very, very

3:07:53longest time frame forward, no later than probably July 1st.

3:07:58One… one other comment I have about that, I think it's good to not convene the task force until after the election, so that people don't believe they're going on to a task force that can shape the election.

3:08:12I mean, given the process, I don't expect necessarily that it'll take until July 1st, but I think at the maximum amount, so it will be close to the election, and so we can certainly

3:08:24if Council would like to give us that direction, we can hold off to having that first meeting scheduled until after the election date. People might lose interest, like, if their side didn't win, they might say, well, forget this.

3:08:36I agree with that, we can, we can do that.

3:08:40Are you all in agreement on this?

3:08:44Okay, so just to… yeah, so just to clarify, we're gonna move forward with

3:08:50Option 3, if more than 12 applications are received, if 12 or less applications are received, we would move forward with the typical process of interviewing all of the candidates, correct?

3:09:03Yes?

3:09:04Awesome, okay, yes. Can you… so just to confirm, you're modifying option 3, so not recommending 3 applicants, but rank ordering

3:09:137 or 10 applicants? Yeah, and I think the number that we'll ask from you guys will depend on the total number of applications that we receive, trying to keep within that kind of general, like, no more than 4 hours worth of interview window, which is about 15 to 16 applicants.

3:09:30Thank you. Kate. Is it possible… with… this discussion.

3:09:36That we can discuss, because a lot of folks have been asking questions about exemptions.

3:09:43And I'm wondering if we can…

3:09:46look at that and discuss that. For the senior exemptions? Yeah. So we wouldn't… the Council wouldn't be able to discuss options for senior exemptions under this agenda item, because it's not covered in the description, so it wouldn't be okay.

3:10:00Correct, but if you're… if you're interested in the committee providing recommendations related to senior exemptions, is that what you're referring to? That's certainly, I think, within the scope of what this item covers, but I'll let the city attorney…

3:10:16As in having the task force?

3:10:19opine on this, or provide a recommendation to the Council?

3:10:23You certainly can. I, was just reflecting on the City Manager's comment about the task force being focused on the library and not on the measure. And also, I… if… if Council wanted to,

3:10:41provide clarity for the public about their intentions prior to the June election, then waiting on the task force to provide a recommendation would be too late. So I think it's… so, which is fine, the Council can certainly do that, but if you… if you did want to,

3:10:57express an opinion about Council's intentions about what… about the exemption question prior to the election, which is a legally legitimate thing for the Council to do.

3:11:08Then you may want to have us bring something back to you, you know, this month or next, so that you could discuss it and take action.

3:11:17Councilmember Lotiami, yeah.

3:11:19I would like to request that we put on the agenda a study session for the tax senior exemption.

3:11:30I guess it would be helpful to see if there's other… if there are council… Speak a motion to have a study session, at the next, you know, next possible city council meeting to discuss the senior exemption. Second.

3:11:44We have a motion by Motayama and a second by Weisinger. All in favor?

3:11:49Aye.

3:11:50Any nays, abstention, motion.

3:11:53Oh, you're upset. Okay.

3:11:55I'll see how I'll vote on the thing. I don't really know exactly. I'm abstaining for now. I could have a longer conversation and maybe get there, but it seems not worth it. Okay.

3:12:05It's not true.

3:12:06Okay.

3:12:08Okay, so the next area is interview questions. The only feedback I had heard on that is that we removed the first question and put that on the application, so that would leave 1, 2, 3,

3:12:22four questions.

3:12:23Remaining for the interview process. Is there any additional questions or modifications that the Council wishes to make to that list of interview questions?

3:12:34Yes, go.

3:12:35Thank you, Mayor. When we send out the application, will we have a sense of how many meetings there will be? Because it would be good to give people the opportunity to know that this is going to be a year-long thing with a meeting every week, or every month, or what, you know, what are they going to, you know, what are they committing to when they apply?

3:12:54Yeah, the resolution does outline no less than every other month, and what the City Manager and I talked about is that would be one of the very first things that, when the task force convened for the first time, that they would kind of work with staff and set that meeting schedule in advance, so…

3:13:12we're certainly going to be providing information. We're going to have a dedicated page to the task force, just like we do all of our other advisory body

3:13:19sites, so that information will be.

3:13:23put out there with the task force application, but certainly if you guys want to have a question related to that, or, you know.

3:13:31I would go with the regular advisory body question to say, can you… do you commit to,

3:13:38Participate the whole way through.

3:13:40Because I think if we have, you know, we go through the… we have a lot of applicants, we go through this effort to cull it down to 7 people, and 2 of them just don't show up, it would be terrible.

3:13:54Any other requests, modifications to that information from Councilmembers?

3:14:01Okay, perfect.

3:14:02And then the last item for staff direction is who would be the assigned council liaison.

3:14:08So the resolution, just as a reminder, it indicated that a member of the City Council would serve as a staff liaison, attending and providing input as a non-voting invitee at task force meetings. So it's not a seated member of the task force, it's just someone that would be attending all of the meetings.

3:14:24And kind of be there as a source of information similar to the county librarian and a representative of the Contra Costa Library Commission.

3:14:33Yep, I would like to,

3:14:35nominate the mayor pro tem to be the liaison.

3:14:38For this committee.

3:14:42Okay.

3:14:43And do you want to, I guess, probably for this.

3:14:46do we need to take a vote? Because usually council liaisons are assigned by the mayor, so…

3:14:51It's my fault. Okay, so Mayor Pro Tem, do you accept?

3:14:55Okay, so we'll move forward with Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman as the Council Liaison, and make sure that you're included in all of the information, so…

3:15:03Thank you, this has been very helpful. I think this gives us everything that we need so that we can move forward and get all of the information out there, start doing outreach and collecting applications, and then I will be in touch with the Council along the way to get scheduled, you know, depending on the

3:15:19a number of applications received and things like that, getting in a special meeting on the calendar to do interviews and things like that. Yes, and thank you all so much. This is way more in the weeds than I think.

3:15:31since I've been manager, that we've really gone through something like the council, but I do think that it's really helpful, particularly for this task force, but maybe even additional, you know, a lot of good information that the clerk and I have been talking about with all task forces, boards, commissions, and committees. I think this has been a really good discussion.

3:15:48So, thank you for digging through the weeds with us. It's very much appreciated. Right. Well, thank you both, Ben. I very much appreciate the discussion on this.

3:15:57So next we'll go to, City Council.

3:16:00local and regional liaison assignments. Who would like to start?

3:16:05Councilmember Watson.

3:16:07Okay. No?

3:16:10Okay. Okay. I went to my first community safety meeting last night in this room, and Very fascinating.

3:16:20You have… things coming to you before the council, eventually they… Been coming from them.

3:16:25And I have a meeting next Monday with the Urban Forest Committee.

3:16:31And…

3:16:32I continue to meet with people at the El Cerrito Natural Foods, usually twice a month, first and third Saturdays.

3:16:38I've started promoting it a little bit more on my email responses to people, so I've gotten a lot more people interested in signing up.

3:16:47Yes, I, along with Mayor Pro Tem, and Mayor, did attend the East Bay Division meeting of League of California Cities on the other night, as I mentioned, State Senator Aragin, as well as State Senator, let's see, Wahab.

3:17:03and Grayson, and I'm missing one of our… McNerney did present to us, and so I look forward to, actually, we're… we're going to be talking in our…

3:17:13committee meeting and the public safety committee meeting at the end of the month about some of the public safety measures that the league is going to be considering supporting. I look forward to working with Senator Aragin as the, as he said, the chair of public safety.

3:17:28And supporting, or… or not supporting with the bills that we're going to be doing in League of California Cities.

3:17:34Thank you for that. We'll go to Councilmember Motion.

3:17:38Thank you, Mayor. On the 26th, I attended the swearing-in late, because I missed the time, so I apologize for that, but I did attend the reception, and it was really nice to meet some of the new officers. And on the 19th, I attended the CalCception at the Berkeley

3:17:57Country Club, and thank you to Mayor for inviting us.

3:18:03I also attended the Cal Cities Board Dinner, and also the Cal Cities Division meeting.

3:18:09And the police department swearing in an awards ceremony, which was…

3:18:15really nice. It was… I really just appreciated how the chief brought forward all the new folks coming in, and gave us some information about their lives and their motivations, and it was just really nice, and all their family there, and then, of course, the awards and all the amazing things that these officers have done, so that… that was a great event.

3:18:35And then last week, we had the West Contra Costa Transportation, meeting, and I was elected as the primary alternate to CCTA, so we have two

3:18:48appointees, and now I'm the alternate.

3:18:50And then also, very exciting for El Cerrito, we allocated $12,000 for 21 bike racks at El Cerrito Plaza Shopping Center.

3:19:00this has been in the works for, like, years to try to get good bike cracks there, so I'm very excited about that, and city staff worked with advocates for a long time on that, so very excited. And then another exciting thing is we finally have our new slides at our parks. I know this is something that…

3:19:18staff labored on for a long time, and we… me and my wife organized a gathering of kindergarten kids at Cerrito Vista over the weekend, and people were really excited about the new slides, and using them quite a bit. So, just, yeah, thank you for your perseverance on that. It has paid off. Yay!

3:19:38So, just a quick update, I did, drive out to, Sacramento last…

3:19:47Monday or Tuesday, I guess. But I did, get a chance to interview and speak to former Mayor Antonio Villagosa and to, Betty Yee, former controller and Board of Equalization.

3:20:02On their vision, but I also discussed to them, what are they going to do about, deep deficits this year and next year. So, again, Mayor Villagosa, who is also the Speaker Pro Tem, you know.

3:20:20I had a very good conversation with him, because he said to me, that…

3:20:25You know, he was aligned, he was a proud progressive, very, very progressive, and aligned himself with Tom Hayden, Tom Bates, you know, Lonnie Hancock,

3:20:36The, the progressive left of,

3:20:39the party, and he's moved on to that, and he said to me that in order to be governor, you have to be pragmatic, and he's moved on. He stands right in the middle now on

3:20:54Everything that he does, because he has a lot of work to do when he's governor, and the days of

3:21:02being a super progressive is from the past and the last generation, and I'm quoting him on that, so, it gave me a smile to my face, because, we look at the things that,

3:21:15That were done years ago, and this is why California is the way it is. So, he, does not like the polarization that's going on right now, and, we need to build bridges and move it back to the middle. So, that is…

3:21:31the highlight that I had with, Antonio and with Betty. Betty was in charge of the budget for many, many years under Governor Gray Davis.

3:21:41And she remembers those days of working in recession years, the dark years of, and the years of Republican, leadership.

3:21:52So, very impressive, both of them. Later on this week, I'll be interviewing, with my executive committee, a Republican, sheriff.

3:22:06from Riverside County, and I look forward to meeting with him and asking him the same questions, but also with Katie Porter as well.

3:22:17So, that'll be done on, I believe that's Thursday, after our shovel ceremony, so a busy week ahead.

3:22:26I want to thank my colleagues here for filling in for me at the Mayor's Conference. I look forward to attending my first Mayor's Conference on Thursday. So I am no longer on the Executive Committee.

3:22:39of the Contra Costa Mayor's Conference, and I look forward to, you know, my colleagues over here stepping up. That's a very rewarding, position, and that will get you to, be, chair of the Contra Costa Mayor's Conference, and we haven't had

3:22:55too many in the history of El Serena. So, looking forward to, all of your future regional leadership, and I want to congratulate the Mayor Pro Tem for

3:23:06getting into CCTA, we saw, you know, some conflicts with, the City of Richmond and with John Joya trying to get in there, and I'm so glad, we have, pragmatic leadership coming from El Cerrito and to have El Cerrito part of CCTA.

3:23:26proud to see you do that. So again.

3:23:28That is my update, and our next

3:23:33meeting will be on Tuesday, March 7, 17, 2026, 6 p.m. The time is, 9…

3:23:4327, and meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.