Regular City Council Meeting June 2, 2026

0:00:13The time is… 610, and

0:00:18Madam Clerk, we are ready for the June 2nd regular City Council meeting. Please call. Mayor Canton? Yes. Mayor Clutton Saltzman?

0:00:27Councilmember Gonzanes? Here. Councilmember Mochiyama? Here. Councilmember Weisinger? Here. We have a quorum.

0:00:33Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance, or a moment of silence.

0:00:39I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

0:00:44And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

0:00:57Teleconference and public comment instructions. Thank you, Mayor. This hybrid meeting provides an option to participate in person or via Zoom.

0:01:09Sorry.

0:01:16Meetings of the City Council are subject to the Brown Act and held for the purpose of conducting city business. The Brown Act ensures the public's right to be heard, and while City Council may not respond to your comments directly, your comments will be heard prior to Council taking action.

0:01:29For members of the public who wish to provide oral testimony, the mayor will announce the time for public comment on each applicable item. A request to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing the speaker card, by selecting the raise hand feature on Zoom, or by dialing star 9 if calling in by phone. In-person speakers will be called first.

0:01:47The Council's adopted rules of order and procedures specify that public speakers address the City Council in an orderly and respectful manner, proceed their comments with their name and city of residence, and be respectful of time amendments. Thank you, Mayor. That concludes my request, or my instructions. Thank you very much. Next, we have Council Staff Communications.

0:02:06We have, City Manager Karen Pecos. Thank you, Your Honor. Just a couple of things. First, I want to highlight that, tomorrow.

0:02:16We are going to have a community workshop on the districting process. It will be between 6 and 7 30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, so this is to help assist community members in drawing potential maps and providing other input, so if you have any

0:02:32Oh, that's loud. If you have any questions on that, I think Will is in here. Wave Will, okay? Please see him for any questions you have on that process, or our city clerk, Holly Charlottie.

0:02:43And then I do want to address, something. I know that the…

0:02:48Sorry, that's giving a weird echo. There has been, several public comments that have been provided to the Council yesterday and today, and, regarding, Peregrine software that is,

0:03:01that is going to be purchased by the police department. There is clearly confusion and incorrect rumors regarding the software, and I'd like to clarify that, and I'll invite the chief.

0:03:10Up to say a few words. Last night at the Community Safety Committee's regular meeting, the police chief made a presentation regarding PereGreen software, which is a tool that we plan to purchase for the police department. It is a data integration software.

0:03:24It does not create a database. It allows for queries into the data that we have in various systems and put them together like a search engine, as a closed query system. As you probably know, all city departments collect data with every public transaction, such as permits, inspections, medical calls, etc.

0:03:42And we have software in every department.

0:03:44that helps us overlay the data to collect and create a workflow that allows for data analysis. In this case, the technology will help our police department better analyze crime and other forms of data that we currently already collect.

0:03:58Chief Keep brought this to the committee at their public meeting in the spirit of providing transparent information to the community. It is unclear how and why the inaccurate statements about what this software is and what it will or won't do.

0:04:11has resulted in these public comments, so I'd like the Chief to please, to take a few minutes and describe to the Council and to the community, what this software actually is.

0:04:21Thank you, Ms. Pincus.

0:04:23Good evening, Council. I'm your Police Chief, Paul Keith. I'm before you tonight to provide you with

0:04:28since I am before you, with information on some recent crimes, as well as give you information on how the police department plans to maintain its effectiveness following the termination of license plate reading camera program.

0:04:40On Wednesday, May 27th, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, an elderly resident was walking home on the Ohlone Greenway, north of the Donorte Place Apartments, having just finished running errands.

0:04:49She was attacked by a woman wielding a box wrench as a weapon. Suspect smashed the victim over the head and then continued to beat her with a wrench, knocking out 6 of the victim's teeth, as well as causing extensive traumatic injuries.

0:05:00After the brutal assault, the woman fled with the victim's purse, swallowed, and cell phone.

0:05:05Luckily for us, Richmond police units were nearby when the crime occurred. They located the victim and found the suspect hiding in the bushes behind Red Onion.

0:05:12Officers responded to the scene, arranged to have the victim taken to a trauma center, took custody of the suspect.

0:05:18Presented this case to the district attorney's office, and they filed serious charges against the suspect.

0:05:23Charges for robbery, attempted murder, mayhem, and torture.

0:05:27My entire career, I've never seen charges for torture. This is the most brutal robbery we've had in recent history.

0:05:33That incident kicked off a challenging 24-hour period for officers. That evening, we arrested a multiple offending rapist. After that, the driver attempted to run over our patrol sergeant during a police pursuit.

0:05:44Good news is that our officers safely arrested and charged each person.

0:05:48This 24-hour period is a good reminder to all of us that despite how we might like to view our city, it's not necessarily considered a safe city. The city has a high crime rate.

0:05:57Higher than the state and nation average. In 2022, out of 19 cities, we had the 6th highest violent crime rate in the county, second highest rate of crime overall.

0:06:07In 2023, we were once again 6th highest in violent crime, and remained the second highest in overall crime in the county.

0:06:142024, we had the 5th highest violent crime rate, ahead of Pittsburgh and behind Concord, but we dropped to the 4th highest crime rate overall, primarily because of the deteriorating situation in Antioch.

0:06:24Region-wide data for 2025 is not yet available, but we'll find out at the end of this month how we did last year.

0:06:31El Cerrito is not nearly as safe as I want it to be as an El Cerrito resident, an El Cerrito parent, and an El Cerrito employee.

0:06:38The unfortunate reality is that we can't really consider El Cerrito to be a safe city.

0:06:43On May 5th, Council voted to end our use of the Flock license plate reading cameras, and those cameras will go dark in 4 days.

0:06:49Since that meeting, staff has been working, with some amount of desperation, to find additional technological tools to help us maintain the progress we've made on solving serious violent incidents.

0:06:59Talked with many trusted law enforcement leaders in our county and beyond.

0:07:03All of them have recommended Peregrine Technologies as a top-tier solution.

0:07:07In our region, Chief Joe Vasquez from the Hercules Police Department, Chief Brian Boubar from the San Pablo Police Department, and Chief Tim Simmons from Richmond Police Department all recommend Peregrine without reservation.

0:07:19Peregrine is a data integration tool to allow us to get the most out of our remaining in-house data systems.

0:07:25I would not normally be before you to talk about the police department using a new software tool, but unfortunately, there is a lot of disinformation and misinformation that's been spread online about the company we intend to work with. Unfortunately, these are the times we live in.

0:07:37So, first to dispel some rumors.

0:07:40Peregrine Technologies is not a surveillance system, it's not a mass surveillance company, it does not collect data, except on

0:07:48agency users.

0:07:50It is not generative AI, although they, like many other technology companies, have a generative AI option you can pay for. We don't plan to add it. It's not predictive policing.

0:08:02It does not connect us with or share our data in any way with federal agencies.

0:08:07It is not owned by, connected with, or partnered with Palantir Technologies.

0:08:12And it does not create a database, it only allows us to better search our own.

0:08:16So let's talk about what it does. To start with, it makes crime analysts more effective.

0:08:21Or in the case of agencies like ours that can't afford crime analysts, it puts powerful analytic tools into the hands of detectives, officers, and administrators, and chiefs of police.

0:08:31It has robust security features, it's fully compliant with state and national criminal justice information system standards, and it tracks all user actions.

0:08:40To help detectives solve crime and save time, eliminating the need to individually search a variety of siloed data sources.

0:08:49Helps detectives make connections between data points so that they can understand interrelated crime trends.

0:08:55It's a tool to help employees make meaning out of numerous data points their current systems collect.

0:09:00You can think of it like a search engine that we would search our own data with.

0:09:06I, as an analogy, I was thinking about it today, and it's kind of like using the search bar on the Windows operating system down in the lower left, instead of searching manually, folder by folder, for the program or the file you're trying to find.

0:09:22It also allows us, in connection with the District Attorney's Office, the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office is also a customer of Peregrine.

0:09:30It allows us to do digital case filing with the DA's office.

0:09:34Which can save at least $35,000 annually in staff time. Staff time spent driving to the district attorney's office, waiting around, following an appointment with the district attorney, waiting for paperwork to be completed, and then coming back to the police department.

0:09:48And our calculation is that it will save at least 53,000 pages of paper.

0:09:53So, it's a bit over 1,000 pages a week that we've estimated we send over there. And once you get into the 50,000 zone on pieces of paper, you are talking about literal trees that you're no longer cutting down.

0:10:05Peregrine, for most departments, is part of normal police department functions, which include buying tools to make staff more effective, drive down crime, and also reduce our carbon footprint.

0:10:14In the meeting last night, the Community Safety Committee endorsed the planned use of Peregrine technologies for data integration.

0:10:21I have aggressively negotiated with Peregrine to provide the best possible cost to the city, and as a result, they provided a bid that is within the City Manager's spending authority.

0:10:30This is not, like, something Chief Keith did just last week. I've been in negotiations with Peregrine for probably…

0:10:38Four years now.

0:10:40Of taking what was once a six-figure price for the software, and over time, chipping away at their bid until they got to a place where we could afford it.

0:10:50We intend to pay for the program using COPS grant funding.

0:10:55So, I hope this brief helps bring you up to date on some recent serious crimes, as well as how your police department intends to leverage technology to solve them in the future.

0:11:03And I'm always available for questions if the Council ever has them.

0:11:08And I would just like to follow up by saying that

0:11:11you know, the Chief and I have talked extensively about this, especially since yesterday, and we understand that people are absolutely concerned about technology, especially when it comes to the police department. We understand the times we live in. We heard everyone's concerns about Flock.

0:11:27And we take that very seriously, which is why we wanted to make sure that we were addressing this right now to make… to ensure and… and for all… not for just for the Council, for the community.

0:11:40that this is a very different type of system. Not every single type of technology is the same, and this is completely different than what we had been talking about with Flock, or collecting data, or surveillance, or any of those things, so…

0:11:55Again, we, you know, this is STEP Communications, it's not on the agenda, but we just wanted to make sure that we provided that to you, and I will also say that community members are free to contact the Chief. The Chief is extremely responsive. Please feel free to email him directly. His email is on the website.

0:12:12And, we'll be happy to, you know, to help try to alleviate any concerns. We share the concerns, and we want to alleviate those. So, thank you. I have one last check.

0:12:24Chief, can you, give us an update on the El Cerrito Plaza, catalytic converter,

0:12:32situation that… that… happened recently.

0:12:38Well, I have to admit that I may not fully be up on the speed on the most recent catalytic converter case down there. My Kensay catalytic converter theft has fallen dramatically in the last few years. We still get them occasionally, but as an overall trend, it is down significantly, so…

0:12:55I'd be happy to look into the case around El Cerrito Plaza and get back to you on that. Okay, thank you very much.

0:13:04Yes, Mayor Pro Tem.

0:13:06Just thank you for the more detailed update this evening. I appreciated, too, the City Manager's email to the Council today

0:13:14which had some good information, but not nearly as much as you just shared, so is there any way to get that to us in a memo? Because a lot of residents did write to us, and I would like to respond to them, and would like to provide the information, so if that's possible, that would be great.

0:13:29Absolutely. Thank you.

0:13:32Any other updates, City Manager? Okay, thank you very much. We'll go to, mayoral announcements.

0:13:39On May 27th, I signed a letter of support of funding the acquisition of the Golden Gate Fields Open Space Project. So, the open land that you see, that,

0:13:52had different, plans through the years. It's gonna be part of the East Bay Regional Parks.

0:13:59I'm very excited about that, and congratulations to everyone who worked on that. June 2nd, I signed a mayoral proclamation in recognition of the accomplishments of former Mayor Rich Barkey on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

0:14:16I want to congratulate my mentor, Mayor Bartke.

0:14:20Played a huge role, many, many years until just recently.

0:14:25So again, happy birthday to Mayor Rich Bartkey, and, he truly was one of my mentors, and I wish him all the best on his birthday. Tomorrow, June 3rd, at 6 p.m, in City Council Chambers, there will be a community workshop.

0:14:43on the distixing process, I encourage all residents to attend and to provide their input on communities of interest and potential district boundary lines.

0:14:55We also have a special council meeting scheduled on June 9th at 615 to review the draft maps for districts, and I encourage the community

0:15:06to attend.

0:15:09Regarding, today's meeting, earlier at 5 o'clock, we have a closed session, meeting with the Council, and, nothing to report at that meeting.

0:15:21Looking at my colleagues, any announcements? I'll go to Mayor Pro Tem.

0:15:27Just wanted to say Happy Election Day, and anybody watching who has not yet turned in your ballot, you have about an hour and a half to do that. There are a lot of drop boxes and polling places around the city, so please get that in by 8pm. And also, happy Pride Month, and just want to thank

0:15:45the staff, the mayor, the council members, and all the residents who came to our pride flag raising yesterday. And I think our first ever gathering in the park afterwards at Castro Park, which several dozen people, including a lot of kids, came to and was a lot of fun. So, thank you all.

0:16:02Okay.

0:16:07Thank you, Mayor. I just want to make a brief, announcement about mail-in ballots. If you want your ballot to be counted, it would be better to go vote in person or drop off your ballot in a ballot box, because if you mail it, it may be too late because of some changes in election law at the federal level, so…

0:16:27Please get those ballots in.

0:16:30Gonna go to my left. Councilmember Weiss.

0:16:33Yes, and thank you so much, Mayor Pro Tem, for, you know, talking about the flag grazing, and I always just love to talk about that because, you know, we are leaders in our community.

0:16:44in our… the way that we observe Pride here in El Cerritos, so thank you all so much to the council and community that came out. Also this year, and… and we've been discussing this

0:16:54is we're working with staff to have our first Juneteenth flag raising. Now, the staff may not be able to put it together on a staff level yet. I've committed to Will, Karen, that even if staff can't participate, at least me and Ms. Pat Durham will be there.

0:17:09So keep your eyes open either on the 18th or the 19th. We will gather here at City Hall when the staff does raise the flag. And just a little note about the intentionality regarding that. As a community, we have always supported Richmond Juneteenth for the decades that goes on in Nickel Park, and that'll be actually

0:17:29be happening on Saturday, June the 20th. So the intention is that in recognition of the fact that El Cerrito and Richmond are so close together, so interwoven, as we try and build out more Juneteenth events here in El Cerrito, they don't try and impede on Richmond Juneteenth, instead can join with it by doing things that actually support it. So this year, that will include our own flag raising.

0:17:53As I said, keep your eyes open, we'll find out if it's gonna be on the 18th or the 19th, but, we are definitely looking forward to that.

0:18:00Councilmember Cassanis.

0:18:02Thank you. Do we have a flag already?

0:18:05Oh, yes, we raised the flag, we've just never had a ceremony. Oh, okay. I just want to chime in on the election. For those of you, like me, who are waiting for results, I have read out, I believe it was from John Toya, that it may not be until Friday that we actually have the library results. So if you're expecting something tonight.

0:18:22You may not get it.

0:18:24Yeah, so definitely the importance of dropping off your ballot, and you can just drop off your ballot between now and 8 p.m. at the drop box here at the El Cerrito parking lot. Until you need to get up to go lock the box. Absolutely. Okay.

0:18:41Next we will go to oral communications from the public.

0:18:46The next item is that, and now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding matters not on the agenda, consent items, and presentation items. Requests to speak can be submitted to the City Clerk by completing a speaker card using the raise hand feature on Zoom, or dialing star 9 to

0:19:05By joining by phone.

0:19:06In-person requests will be taken first. Please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence at the beginning of your comments. Venom City Clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. We have 6 requests to speak. I'll start with our in-person requests.

0:19:22Starting with Rye Crawford, followed by Megan Steffen.

0:19:38Good evening, I'm Ray Crawford from El Cerrito.

0:19:41And I am one of the people who Has concerns about another…

0:19:48Data collecting, and how we, as a community, safeguard the data.

0:19:54And this is in regard to the Peregrine tech.

0:19:57contract.

0:19:58I feel that,

0:20:01the issues that came up around flock could be potentially backed by us again. And how do we…

0:20:09know that the safeguards are in place if we don't know about them, if we haven't talked about them, reviewed them, and feel that there's adequate controls there.

0:20:20So, I don't think we… we know that yet.

0:20:24And then I feel like this is an important enough issue that it should be discussed.

0:20:29Before the Council.

0:20:31With community input, which… Isn't how it's going so far.

0:20:36So, I'd just like to ask that we do have this.

0:20:42As a formal discussion.

0:20:45With community input.

0:20:47Thank you. Thank you.

0:20:49Thank you. Our next speaker is Megan Steffen, followed by Henry Pickingard.

0:20:59Hi, I'm Megan Steffen, I'm a mom, and I live in El Cerrito. Two weeks ago, I was here because I wanted to talk to you all about trust. I was thinking about Measure C and the general atmosphere in the city.

0:21:11I'm relatively new here, so I found all of this confusing. People kept referencing vague past incidents that created a culture of distrust between residents and the city, and made citizens feel punished

0:21:23for engaging, like, they were a nuisance

0:21:26for paying attention rather than exercising their civic duty. Without examples, I have to say I didn't understand where it was coming from, but I now have the Peregrine Tech contract as my very own example of how the city sows mistrust with citizens.

0:21:41My understanding is that Chief Keith said he wouldn't bring the Paragon Tech contract until 2027. City Manager Pinkos calls citizens confused, and says that, but I think we really need to be open to the idea that, as a city, we may be too credulous. Your citizens are experts in technology. They work on these issues every day.

0:22:01Regardless about your belief about whether or not there is disinformation, you need to look not just at what the public comments say, and think about what they show. They're showing that these tools Chief Keith admits he searched for to replace flock, these flock analogs, do not make a large portion of the citizens in this city feel safe.

0:22:20I'm really disheartened that Chief Keith heard the public comment in the Public Safety Committee and didn't think, huh, I need to do more legwork here to convince people.

0:22:30I need to properly agendize a presentation in accordance with the Brown Act to show people how this will make them safe, and not just how this will make my job easier. He thought, I need to keep pushing this through. It's more important that my job get easier than we go through the correct process.

0:22:47These processes are in place to ensure that city business happens transparently and predictably, and these are the processes that are there so that citizens can relax and feel like they can trust the city.

0:22:58And look, as a victim of property theft, of racialized aggression, and sexual violence, my heart goes out to the victims of crimes that Chief Keith talked about in his comments. I wish them peace.

0:23:12and safety.

0:23:14But I would also ask that City Manager Pincos, that Chief Keith, and the Council extend the same generosity and compassion to the vulnerable residents of this city who feel less safe in a place that is opting to use technologies that were first developed in military settings between an occupier and an insurgent

0:23:33residents. I don't want to live in a city that treats its citizens as a nuisance, as unreasonable victims of disinformation, or as members of a potentially violent insurgency. I don't think that's the type of community we want to build.

0:23:47Thank you.

0:23:49Our next… excuse me, our next speaker is Henry Pinkard, followed by Bill Barrish.

0:23:56Hi, Council. I'm here today to speak in support of the letter that the Council and staff recently received in support of adding stop signs at the crossings of the Illuminate Greenway with neighborhood streets.

0:24:07So, I ride the Illumi Greenway every day, usually more than once. I carry my daughter there on my cargo bike. It's the most reliable way to make nap time happen a lot of the time. And I see that at these crossings.

0:24:19there aren't stop signs on the greenway, but 90% plus of cars will stop anyway, and there's just a general confusion situation, because bikes have stop signs, cars don't, and it's not clear who should go first. Usually the cars that stop will end up letting a bike go through.

0:24:35So I think, making this official will just kind of make what's already happening on the ground official, and clarify the situation, and I think make things safer.

0:24:44But I think there's a broader issue here, which is that,

0:24:48it seems like there's not a clear mechanism to make these kind of common sense, uncontroversial changes to the transportation infrastructure. And I've talked to multiple members of city staff about it, and the impression I got was that there needed to be a consultant who did a traffic study, even just to add a single stop sign at a single crossing.

0:25:08I… it wasn't clear to me whether this is required by a state law, or some state agency, or a city law, or if it's just, you know, our policy for how we go about things.

0:25:20So I know that the Council already cares about this and traffic safety in general. One of my friends who lives in Southeast El Cerrito, who… or Southwest El Cerrito, who has a particularly bad walk for his kids to school across Carlson and San Pablo. I know Councilmember Costanas walked with them, and I commend you for doing that, and paying attention to this issue.

0:25:39So, my ask for this would be two things. One, if there's any action you can take to… to rubber stamp and greenlight this process of adding stop signs where people are already stop… where people are already stopping, and… and making the greenway safer. And two, try to take a look at the bigger issue of what is blocking us from making

0:25:59simple, common-sense changes like this that should be easy wins for improving traffic safety in the city. Thanks. Thank you.

0:26:05Our next speaker is Bill Barrish, followed by Michael McDougal.

0:26:12Good evening, Del Irish. Still in El Cerrito.

0:26:16I want to echo what a couple of other people have said previously about flock, which in its initial appearance seemed to be

0:26:25gone. We are just weeks removed from having gotten rid of flock, and now it seems like we have potentially sun of flock.

0:26:33it is useful to have heard what the chief and what the city manager had to say. However.

0:26:43The real point is, as was already stated, this should have been… on… the agenda.

0:26:51The public should have known about it. People should have been able to show up and talk about it, to address it.

0:26:58Without it being sprung.

0:27:01As an item that doesn't need discussion, because it falls below some magic number of dollars.

0:27:11So I'd like to ask that you, in fact, do delay making any decision here.

0:27:18Put this on an agenda for the next meeting so that the public can know about it, can come in appropriate numbers.

0:27:29To discuss, ask, and get their questions answered about what this software actually does.

0:27:38I believe you understand that we don't want to be surveilled.

0:27:44We don't want to be Gaza. We don't want to be apartheid-era South Africa.

0:27:51We simply want to make sure that we are actually under the Precepts of democracy.

0:28:01And in that sense, I think you need to be more forthcoming about…

0:28:08an item like this, especially considering what you heard about Flock, and we are grateful that you took the action that you did on it.

0:28:20But we don't want that to be undercut

0:28:23by action on another piece of software that has the potential for abuse. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Michael McDougal, followed by Jiggy Geronimo.

0:28:38Hello, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council, everybody here. I wanted to maybe cover as many as three things in my three minutes. Two weeks ago, City Manager Pincos, said that it was, I think, Staff Appreciation Month, and I just let that wash over me, because I was thinking about the public comments that I was about to make.

0:28:57And I wanted to take a minute to go back two weeks ago and say thank you to the staff of the city. We have

0:29:04a really fantastic staff. I've had the pleasure of working with Crystal and Claire some more recently, on the, some of the FAB stuff.

0:29:12And I just, you know, I know that a lot of staff show up here every night, and I think we have really fantastic staff in the city, so,

0:29:19I want to apologize for letting that just sort of wash past me, last city meeting.

0:29:24What else? I spoke, in front of you to support a four-district mayor situation. I hope that I communicated that I was on the fence around that.

0:29:33And I wanted to also say that I think you made the right decision going with 5 districts, the more that I think about it, so I also want you to know that I'm somebody who can change my mind when I… when I think about it, and I think you all made the right decision.

0:29:44I wanted to keep talking about redistricting, because it's one of the things that's coming up. I think I've probably contributed about a sixth of the public maps that are up there, because I'm trying to understand the process. I really hate that we're doing redistricting. I think it's terrible.

0:29:58And at one point, I pretty much decided, once I'd worked with the software, that they were all going to be equally bad. There's a lot of challenges. The census blocks create really awkward building pieces to try to assemble a sensible map of our city. So,

0:30:16But then, the more information came out, and I'm like, oh, well, they're not all equally bad. Because one of the maps that came out, I'm sort of… I think that the premise that sits under it, so three maps have been proposed and are up on there, one of them is one based on school districts.

0:30:30which I think is sort of good.

0:30:32at a sort of surface level, if you… but when you start digging into it, it doesn't… it's not really supported for a couple of reasons. So, like, there's terrible solutions, and I actually think that's one that deserves a critical eye. And that's because, as members of West Coast Rockana County Unified School District, they look at the… the county as a county, and not as a city. And so, if we start depending on their lines.

0:30:55To draw our city lines?

0:30:57we have sort of a fundamental misunderstanding of how we're drawing the lines in our city. And also, once you start to get down to the lines, if you try to make the attendance lines line up with the census blocks, you come up with some funny shapes that just don't match up. I mean, I know the ones near my

0:31:12street particularly well, and I'm like, oh, that doesn't make sense. So, I just wanted, of the three maps that are proposed, I was… I want to suggest that you look at that with a

0:31:20particularly, critical eye. So thank you very much. Thank you.

0:31:25Our next speaker is Jiggy Geronimo, followed by Denise Sinkster.

0:31:31Good evening. Hi, I'm Jiggy Geronimo, I'm an El Cerrito resident, I'm here with two kids and my husband.

0:31:37I first want to say thank you for canceling the flock contract. I know that that was a really difficult decision, and you stayed here with us until 1AM to hear all of the public comments, and I think it was just a really important step forward in protecting our safety

0:31:52We have now learned about this new contract, with Peregrine, and I completely understand that the police chief wants to, like, make efficiencies with his data. Like, I don't fundamentally, in concept, disagree with the idea of

0:32:06making it easier for him to do his job. Like, I don't… I think everybody wants their job to be easier, so I don't disagree with that, but I think it's really important for us to just be really rigorous in our choice of vendor, and to give it the appropriate time to really understand what we're getting into, especially on the heels of the really intense conversation that we had as a community about block.

0:32:26And Peregrine is an AI-powered data fusion tool, and it does have a predictive policing option. And so it's not required, right, for the police to use the predictive policing option, but it's there, and it can be used, and that in itself

0:32:39I find to be concerning. Like, could we find a vendor that doesn't have that creepy predictive policing option? I think that's worth exploring. Peregrine is also… is contracted with DHS itself, so that's, I think, just an important data point.

0:32:51And you all were really just so intentional and thoughtful about taking in public comment and really hearing and learning as much as you could about Flock as a company, and I just think that same rigor is required here, with Peregrine.

0:33:05in order to build that community trust. I feel like someone in one of the past meetings said, like, public safety is built on public trust, and I think that's just really important for us here. So we do just want some time for us all to learn about Peregrine, what are the data, like, security measures? We don't want to end up in another weird data breach situation.

0:33:23Where we panicked, like we did with Flock. So I just want to request that we take some time, and then, because I have a minute left, I also just want to plus one the stop signs on the Ohlone Groom, a totally different topic. But I also ride a cargo bike with two kids, and it is really, like, awkward when you get to the cross… crossings, because

0:33:42You can't always really see the cars, and you hope that they can see you, and so you end up stopping, and the car ends up stopping, and it's just a really inefficient

0:33:49intersection at every single one of those crossings, and he's totally right that people… everybody just stops, and it's, like, weird, so we should definitely just give bikes the right of way, and so if there is a way to streamline and greenlight those stop signs, I'm very much in support of that. Thanks. Thank you very much.

0:34:06Our next speaker is Denise Sangster, and then we'll go to our remote request to speak.

0:34:12Good evening. Hi, and good evening, and yes, I do live in El Cerrito.

0:34:16I… I wanna… I wanna make a comment in, sort of distress about the flock contract being canceled. I don't think it aligns with what many people in the city believe and want.

0:34:29I've had an email list, which is called Arlington Neighbors, for about 20 plus years. It has over 2,000 neighbors on the list.

0:34:38I sent an email letting them know what had happened here. It's not used for political purposes, it was not used to campaign for or against the library, it's just used for information. And I let our neighbors, because we've had some pretty bad incidents.

0:34:51in the hills know what had happened. Of my 2,000-plus neighbors that are on it, 1,579 are in favor of this contract. 1579.

0:35:0416 are opposed.

0:35:07And 14 don't understand it.

0:35:121579.

0:35:15That's a pretty big number.

0:35:17Those are… those are voters that are paying high taxes that have now been disintermediated.

0:35:23by this vote, and I think it's really a shame. And what I find most frustrating is that I did go to the Berkeley City Council because I wanted to hear how the discussion over the license plate reader

0:35:35went on, and surprise, surprise, a lot of the people that were in this room that said they were from El Cerrito stood up there and said they were from Berkeley.

0:35:45So who were these people that spoke here?

0:35:48Is there any way to validate who these people are, when you're taking a really controversial vote? I think it's really important, and that's not… I'm not trying to be…

0:35:57antagonistic about this issue, but if these people are saying they're from El Cerrito, and you're believing they're from El Cerrito, and in fact, they stand up

0:36:06two days later, at the Berkeley City Council, and say they're from Berkeley, to try and sway them, who then… that didn't work because Berkeley supported it. It's… there's something not right here, so…

0:36:181,579 neighbors want this up on the hill. That's a high percentage of the email list. High percentage. I would ask you to rethink this.

0:36:28I've spent my entire career in tech. I am not at all concerned about the software that the chief has talked about. It is not a scary thing. I'm much more worried about my cell phone and what the government is doing tracking that. I'm more concerned about my flight patterns.

0:36:45on United Airlines and others, but I'm not concerned about the flock camera. It's… it's one of the least obtrusive tools that is being used today, and that's the fact. That's not hyperbole, that is a fact. I'm sure every one of you has a cell phone. I know you carry yours.

0:37:04And you're concerned about this, and I just find it ironic that people that voted against that yet carry a cell phone.

0:37:12Thank you. Thank you very much. We're gonna go to our remote request to speak.

0:37:17Starting with… with Ryan Lau?

0:37:21Ryan, you should be able to unmute and begin your time now.

0:37:25Ryan Lau: Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Ryan Lau, here to share an update, sorry, Ryan Lau with AC Transit, the key piece of information.

0:37:36I'm here to share a critical update on the future of our service. On Wednesday, June 10th at 5pm, the AC Transit Board of Directors will be considering a reduction in service

0:37:49due to significant budget shortfalls. A state loan has stabilized our next year's budget, but AC Transit still faces a 4-year, $200 million deficit starting in fiscal year 2027.

0:38:0528.

0:38:06Without new sustainable revenue, we're facing the possibility of a reduction of service of 16%, accompanying, 300, personnel loss.

0:38:19AC Transit has started to prepare for worst-case scenario planning, and if new funding is not secured, service reductions will likely take

0:38:30effect as soon as June 2027.

0:38:33I do want to be clear that there has not been any decisions made about any particular routes that may be affected, but we are reviewing all lines in the system,

0:38:45Given the fact that we're facing that considerable budget shortfall.

0:38:51Wallets are…

0:38:53priority to preserve current service levels, we do just want to be, transparent about the challenges that we do face. Ac Transit, again, will be, the Board of Directors will be considering a service reduction on Wednesday, June 10th, at 5 p.m.

0:39:10Directly prior to that meeting, there will be an open house where you can review the service, proposals, in an open house with a service planner.

0:39:21And that meeting will be, take place in person at 1600 Franklin in downtown Oakland. Additionally, online, you can find the webcast, along with Zoom details to participate remotely.

0:39:36As things progress, we will definitely share additional information, to keep the community abreast, so…

0:39:44Thank you for your time.

0:39:47Brian, thank you so much for the update.

0:39:50Okay, our next virtual request to speak is Nakisha. Nakisha, you should be able to unmute and begin your time now.

0:39:58nakiesha (she/her): Hi there, my name is Nakisha, I'm an El Cerrado, resident, my, second grader and I live near the Del Norte Park.

0:40:05On the hill, but, close to there.

0:40:07Echoing, the in-person comment from Megan, I really appreciate how, this community member, how Megan articulated her experience with the process.

0:40:18of how this Peregrine technology, has been brought up. And I appreciate that there is any transparency about the process, but it seems like it's a bit of an afterthought once the community made it known that they were paying attention.

0:40:30What I learned through the process, with Flock.

0:40:34Is that the presentations, like the one we got this evening from Chief Keith, is inherently biased. Like, of course it is, and it's okay that it is. His point of view is, based on his research, his expertise, life experience, and the people who report to him.

0:40:50Having it on an agenda… as an agenda item, would give…

0:40:56a chance to hear from community and other experts and other, you know, very, very qualified, voices, from the community. And, that is something that I would really appreciate. I appreciated it during Flock, and was able to.

0:41:12come to my… my own ex… my own, feeling on this subject, and my, my requests for the city, based on what.

0:41:23that kind of balance of things. If we only hear from the police chief, we are really hearing one very biased, and again, of course, it's biased purposely, so that's fine, but we need to hear more, so I request that the

0:41:39Council would, make it an official, like, an agenda item, and I'd love to hear what others have to say.

0:41:45That's all.

0:41:48Thank you. We'll go to our next request to speak, which is Cindy McPherson. Cindy, you should be able to unmute and begin your time now.

0:41:56Cindy McPherson: Thank you. My name is Cindy McPherson, also a resident of El Cerrito. I attended the Community Safety Committee meeting yesterday, and I am concerned about Police Chief Keith's decision.

0:42:08to contract with Peregrine Technologies, yet another surveillance company for the $45,000 for a one-year trial, implementing their AI and data analytics platform.

0:42:21I'm concerned because Peregrine brings military-grade surveillance tactics and software into local municipalities. It's driven by billionaire investors and former Palantir executives. I think it matters to look at the company and who's behind it.

0:42:37enabled by AI, its primary function is to compile and analyze information that's collected across all of our police data systems, from police license plate readers to officers' body cameras, drones, and other data sources. The software also does include a predictive policing feature.

0:42:56And I just really feel like other… with other AI-driven tools right now, that it's emergent technology, and without robust safeguards, it risks perpetuating bias and undermining individual rights.

0:43:10And on a side note, I'll say that paper saving, which might be an advantage of using Peregrine for, doing criminal reports, is unrelated to losing the license plate readers.

0:43:23The presentation to the Safety Committee, I will say it left more questions than it answered, and the Community Safety Committee did not make any substantive review of Peregrine or what the contracted services will be.

0:43:37like many of my neighbors, I think that any new contract that puts our privacy in jeopardy should have a chance for public input and city council consideration, and so I also ask

0:43:48that Chief Keith and the Council put the Peregrine contract on the City Council agenda so that public can properly comment, and lingering questions about safety and transparency and predictive policing can be answered. Thank you.

0:44:04Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our request to speak.

0:44:07Thank you very much.

0:44:08And thank you to our residents.

0:44:11Next, we will go to adoption of the percent.

0:44:16just…

0:44:21Did you have a question?

0:44:23Okay, just a sec.

0:44:26Okay, we have, A, Financial Advisory Board recommendation, we have B, Loving Day Proclamation, and we have, a guest here that will accept and accept the proper

0:44:39the proclamation, and we'll speak. We have C, Economic Development Committee Appointment. We have D, authorization to purchase a 2023 EV.

0:44:50Ford E-Transit 350 Paratransit van. Would anyone like to pull anything. Mayor Parker?

0:44:58I'd like to pull item A.

0:45:00Okay.

0:45:01I also would like to,

0:45:05Alright, I have some questions on item 60, the paratransit van.

0:45:10Okay.

0:45:13I'm looking to my left, would anyone like to pull anything?

0:45:17Okay, we'll start with, a Financial Advisory Board recommendation. Go ahead. Well, I'd like to hear from anybody who's here from the FAB about the recommendation, and also would like to hear from staff about their perspectives on the recommendation.

0:45:39Hello, good evening. David Carvell, Chair of the Financial Advisory Board.

0:45:44I'll walk through each of the recommendations that we made.

0:45:47First two are very similar. It's all in support of the internal service fund creation that staff has been working on. We champion that, with staff, and they've been very diligent, and we think it's really important, as we said last meeting, to fund that, again, to avoid one-time expenses and really get our budget back in line.

0:46:06That's really the first one, is supporting that direction. The second recommendation

0:46:11is to have them come back with the list of items. So if you think about your internal service fund, you've got vehicles, you've got apparati and equipment, like the breathing apparatus.

0:46:20fire truck.

0:46:21what we would like staff to do is, by the end of the year, have done their inventory, and we know that they're on it, and they have said that they think that's a reasonable timeline to come back, so we have a full list. Okay, we've got

0:46:33three fire trucks, we actually have four, one that Kensington pays for, but now we've got three fire trucks that each cost a million dollars. That's going to be X amount each year in the Internal Service Fund. We've got breathing apparatus, we've got police equipment, whatever it might be, buildings. So we want them to come with a,

0:46:50The items are listed here, but contribution schedule, so what's the target balance if you're trying to get a million dollars from a fire truck?

0:46:57And that's a 20-year useful life, right? X amount needs to go in every year for the 20 years. What are the rules to draw that down? So when can you use those internal service funds? And then the asset replacement schedule, so the life of the items.

0:47:10We at the FAB have requested the opportunity to review

0:47:14That schedule and the additional information by your

0:47:18sending it to you for adoption. Staff has said that an end-of-the-year draft is doable, so we, put that here in our motion.

0:47:28The third… is, We wanted… this is a little bit… we didn't get the…

0:47:38additional rationale added to this, but some members of the FAB Wanted staff to develop

0:47:45key performance indicators, so things like, our staffing to expense ratio, things like what's the cost of internal labor versus external consulting labor that we use. So trying to develop

0:47:59And we would work with staff, you all could work with staff, staff obviously has their own ideas, but

0:48:06the thought was to develop some type of key KPIs, key performance indicators that you would all… that we in the city would all use to help understand the health of our city.

0:48:17We left that pretty vague. We didn't want to assign any KPIs this time. Really, we wanted it, again, to be a dialogue between City Council and staff, staff.

0:48:25and FAB, as we work to identify what KPIs are actually really relevant to you all. Think of it like a dashboard in your own businesses. You know, what are the 5 or 10 key metrics that you want to look at to ensure the health of your organization?

0:48:39And then the fourth is really supporting, again, the work that the staff has already done, but we wanted to acknowledge all their great effort. The…

0:48:47They did a whole bunch of additional work on the projects that are listed in there, and we really appreciate that extended review of all of those projects. That budget book is really extensive.

0:48:59having all those projects there. What you'll notice also is that not all of them are funded, right? But at least we know what they are, and what some of the next steps are. So, we thought that was a really great addition.

0:49:10to the CIP, to the budget book, and we want to see that continue in, future budget books.

0:49:18Thank you. I would love to hear from staff, especially… I mean, I think recommendations 1 and 4 is kind of…

0:49:26Saying, yes, we like what you're doing, let's keep doing the same, but on 2 and 3, it would be helpful to hear from staff.

0:49:36We want to acknowledge…

0:49:41Good evening, Mayor and Council, Clark Coleman, Budget and Financial Services Manager. My, colleague, my boss, Crystal Reams, Finance Director, and I, both, support the FAB and staff their meetings. We…

0:49:55like the recommendations, we think they're good ideas, with some possible adjustments that we might recommend. In particular, that the ISF policy be specifically a policy at a higher level. In particular, after some discussion over the last couple of weeks.

0:50:13We think that including it in the comprehensive financial policies that the FAB reviews is probably the best approach. There's currently a section there already regarding internal service funds, but ensuring that that still meets the Council and the FAB's recommendations and direction for the City. Some of the nuances of an internal service fund policy, like

0:50:33amortization schedules, and, like, very detailed components of the accounting side of things, we recommend being an administrative policy. And the reason for that is that some of this is a relatively new process for the city, and so

0:50:48There will likely be some level of iteration.

0:50:51And, and so, developing a very strict

0:50:54Council-adopted policy at this time could really hamstring staff's ability to actually determine the best path forward for the city over the long term. So, obviously, something we could reconsider and reevaluate at a later date, but at this time, because this is a program that we are building virtually from scratch, we recommend retaining that flexibility through an administrative policy rather than having that level of detail be at the Council approval level.

0:51:15Obviously, all of this can be discussed, and the funding schedules are things that are included in the budget, and all kinds of financial discussions that ultimately are the Council's policy guidance, but the detail, ultimately, we recommend keeping as an administrative policy.

0:51:30And then on the second one, is there anything, Councilman, City Manager Nikkos? Okay. On the KPIs.

0:51:38I love data. I am in this role because I love data, and I'm a huge nerd, and anyone who talks to me, I think, Alex and I'll sometimes go, data, I really love it. That being said, good data takes a lot of work, and so if we pursue a KPI program, cities that do this best.

0:51:58spend a lot of time on it. The City of San Rafael, I think, has at least two full-time data scientists who run their very beautiful, flashy program, and congratulations to them for having the revenues to fund that. But with the staff that we have.

0:52:10we would have to be very intentional about choosing what we can do well, because I would much rather do fewer things well than many things poorly, because I don't think that gives you any information. So if we

0:52:21If Council directs staff to pursue some form of key performance indicator program, what my request will be is that you tell us what questions you have.

0:52:32What is it that you want to know? What is not already clear from our materials? What can we clarify? Because each indicator

0:52:42requires work to be something of value, otherwise it's just putting more numbers on the page, and Lord knows you have a lot of numbers in the 400-page budget book in front of you, so…

0:52:51making them data points that have meaning and purpose takes time, and I would rather do fewer and do them well. So if you would… if you do, direct us to do that.

0:53:01Please tell us what you want to know so that we can do this well.

0:53:06And I would just also add that, you know, thank you, Claire, for, for providing that. You know, a lot of

0:53:13you know, a lot of what the fabs

0:53:16purview is, is related to policy direction, and I think that, as Claire indicated, there are ways within the FAB's duties each year. They annually review and update, or make recommendations to update the comprehensive financial policies. I think that that…

0:53:34this naturally fits within that purview, so I would certainly also say that the, upcoming review, I know, again, FAB does it annually, they've brought you different recommendations over time. The next time that they do a comprehensive review, that that could be something that they

0:53:52That they build out and suggest and make a recommendation to the Council when they are ready to update the comprehensive financial policies.

0:54:00Thank you. I have either a request or a motion, but I looked like other council members wanted to talk, so I can wait. Okay, Councilmember Motion.

0:54:10Thank you, Mayor. I'm the liaison to the FAB, and so I had the pleasure of attending this meeting where these recommendations were developed. I do appreciate staff input because, we are trying to do a whole lot of things at once.

0:54:29So my… I would… I think, you know, we have a great process, and I really appreciate the FAB taking the time to create recommendations for us so that we can have this more robust discussion.

0:54:43So, I would like… you know, these are your recommendations. I… do we need a motion?

0:54:51for this, but I think in terms of, guidance to staff, I think, you know, I really would like to see this as part of the financial plan, for the ISF policy, because that's part of your regular work.

0:55:06I also would like to give staff leeway to develop any KPIs or process for the internal service fund. I think, you know, as you said, we have incredible staff, and

0:55:21you know, Crystal and Claire are really good at this, and so I would like to give them enough time and, you know, leeway to kind of come up with what will work best, because they know our systems best. So that would be my…

0:55:37My guidance for staff.

0:55:40Is there anything else you need?

0:55:43Mayor Pro Tem, go ahead.

0:55:44Well, I guess I'd like to make a more formal request, and if it needs to be a motion, that's fine too, but that staff returns to the Council sometime in advance of the mid-cycle budget update, so, you know…

0:55:57early-ish next year. It doesn't need to be December. I know we have a lot going on right now, and so December's actually gonna come really soon, with an update on any progress on an administrative policy, and also,

0:56:12progress on, you know, what things are looking like with the contribution schedules, and what the asset replacement schedules are, and all these pieces. So, not telling you how to do it, but just to give us an update on what's happening internally so we have some visibility on it.

0:56:28And then, yeah, same as Councilmember Motayama said, to come back and just let us know what you're thinking about KPIs, although you've told us some today, but that might become more clear as you flesh out some of this other information. And we can commit to that. Great.

0:56:46Thank you. Okay, next. Councilmember Motayama, you had a question on…

0:56:51Yes, I wanted to understand, what happens. We're purchasing a new electric paratransit van, but we have this current van that sounds like it hasn't been used very much. What happens to the van?

0:57:12Good evening, I'm Chris Jones, your Recreation Director. You're correct, we haven't… we… the last time we had a Class B driver who's qualified to drive the van you're speaking about.

0:57:24was in late… was about 2 years ago. So we essentially haven't been driving this van since then, and just for some context.

0:57:32The… the market for Class B drivers, it's all about supply and demand. There's not a lot of supply, there's huge demand. You know, like, air porter services will give $5,000, $10,000 signing bonuses. We're looking for someone that's available 15 to 18 hours a week, and…

0:57:51Just haven't had much success there. We have had success in recruiting,

0:57:57Class C license, drivers, and so that's why we're trying to make this shift to this 9-passenger van.

0:58:05So what would happen to the van we currently own, per kind of standard practice, is that we would bring it to auction.

0:58:14An auction that were public, You know, assets are…

0:58:19are distributed. And the money that we receive would go back into the paratransit fund for future, paratransit needs.

0:58:29Thank you very much. You're welcome.

0:58:32Okay, anyone else?

0:58:34Okay, do I have a motion to, support the and approve the consent calendar A through D?

0:58:42I move.

0:58:45Okay, I have a motion by Motiamo and a second by Kosana. So all in favor?

0:58:50Aye. Any nays, abstention, motion passes. Next, we have the Loving Day Proclamation, and we have a special guest here, our Human Relations Commissioner.

0:59:02Champagne brand.

0:59:03We'll, come up to the podium and, say a few words.

0:59:11We all wondered why our HRC chair was here.

0:59:15She doesn't usually grace us with her presence. We're happy to see her.

0:59:20Really, Carolyn.

0:59:24Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Pro Tem, and good evening, Council. My name is Champaign Brown, and I serve as your Human Relations Commission. I won't be giving words tonight. My co-chair, Diane, will be giving words tonight, so I'll defer to her.

0:59:40Good evening, Chair.

0:59:42Good evening, everybody. We are here to share a poem on behalf of the Human Relations Commission in honor of Loving Day. It's called Blended Color of Love by Nicole Miller.

0:59:54Our love transcends beyond any blank canvas, to mix the colors of care and create a portrait of our own.

1:00:01Our paintbrushes and heartbeats are identical to a blended affection.

1:00:06Though eyes pierce our cognition as we paint together, we retreat to the winds to fly on clouds uplifted in a peace of knowing. The compassion goes beyond a limited art view. Will we return?

1:00:17Only to celebrate a mosaic love and open gallery. Thank you.

1:00:22And with that, we are complete. Thank you.

1:00:25Thank you both. hold on, we're going to have a, a picture with the Council, and, let's…

1:00:33Would anyone like to make, any comments first?

1:00:37Okay, we'll head down.

1:00:47I'll have you stand up right up here.

1:01:25There you go.

1:01:30Next, we'll go to Policy Matters, and A is a draft proposal

1:01:35For 2026-27 and 2027-28 biannual budget.

1:01:41We have a step report.

1:02:04Here we go.

1:02:06All right, thank you, City Council. Again, I'm your City Manager, Karen Pincus, and we are pleased to present to you and to the community the proposed biennial budget for fiscal years 26-27 and 27-28.

1:02:22Are you gonna drive?

1:02:24Can you drive?

1:02:25I don't have a clicker. Great.

1:02:27So, obviously, tonight, this is what we will be providing to you. We're going to provide an overview of the biennial budget. We're going to discuss the process, the public engagement process, especially, that got us here.

1:02:40We will talk about all funds, which would be including all of our special funds, our enterprise funds, and other such… all of the funds that make up the entire city budget. Then we will talk specifically about the general fund, which of course is the majority of our funding.

1:02:56We will have a long-range general fund forecast, we will talk about our capital improvement program, which we're very excited about this year, and what happens next.

1:03:07So at this point, obviously, we've been talking about the budget for quite some time. We've engaged in a lot of processes you'll hear about in a second, but just as a kind of a refresher for those who are watching, maybe for the first time, or not sure of how the budget works. So, for the municipal code, we are required to adopt an annual budget each year. The fiscal calendar begins on July 1st.

1:03:30Note, while this is a biennial budget, meaning that we are adopting a two-year budget, however, each year before July 1st, the Council does adopt a specific resolution that outlines the spending authority for that fiscal year. So while we will… this is the big two-year budget, we will come back before July 1st of next year

1:03:50to go over a mid-cycle, we'll have another presentation, and we will have the Council adopt the next fiscal year budget separately.

1:03:58Listed here are the major types of funds. Again, the general fund is our biggest fund, and the fund that supports most general government functions. It is an unrestricted fund, meaning that we can use general fund money to spend on any

1:04:12Specific… anything, that the… that the local government, is… has the authority to…

1:04:17We can use that for any… it's unrestricted. Special revenues are restricted for special programs or use. For example, gas tax can only be used for streets or road-related programs. It cannot be spent on anything other than what is there, and many of these are defined by statute

1:04:34Either state or local law.

1:04:36An enterprise fund is a self-supporting fund. We have one, and that's our Integrated Waste Management Fund.

1:04:43And each year, you have a separate public hearing to set fees for that fund, and it's supported specifically by the user charges, and that is also restricted

1:04:53to, charges that refer to the city's solid waste program. Our Capital Improvement Fund, this is a fund that we use, that we track capital projects out of.

1:05:04But it is built up by a variety of funding sources, the majority of which are grants. Our debt service funds.

1:05:11Our two big debt services are for our street improvement program and City Hall, so that is any major debt would go through that fund. And again, the internal service funds, as we've been talking about, these are funds that we'll set aside for future expenses.

1:05:27So, I won't read through all of this, because I hate reading, reading PowerPoint presentation slides.

1:05:35But essentially, the overview of the budget process is that the staff begins, we develop, revenues first, we start to look at trends, what the past actuals were, we do forecasting, and anything that we take into consideration, including fees that the City Council, as you know, recently adopted the master fee schedule.

1:05:55We start with personnel costs, about

1:05:5875% is about right, is personnel costs. You've heard me say it before, I will say it again, ad nauseum. People equal services, and services equal people. The services that are provided by the city and delivered by the city are done by the people, and so that includes

1:06:16Salaries, benefits, pensions, and, other compensation.

1:06:21We look at non-discretionary expenses. A lot of, there's a very small percentage, actually, of our budget that is

1:06:29That is non-discretionary, or that is discretionary. A lot of things like utilities, we don't have any control over those costs. Fuel, we don't have any control over those costs. Insurance, you know, we have some marginal control over those costs and how we try to prevent things like injuries or claims happening.

1:06:47But rates are… are often out of our… a lot of out of… out of our control, and so…

1:06:52The non-discretionary expenses are what we look at first, and then whatever is left essentially tends to be what we have

1:07:01any discretion over. And this year, and I have to, as you know.

1:07:06as you have said many times, so I will echo our excellent finance staff and a team that we have built over the past few years. I'm extremely proud of all of you and all of the work that we've done together. This year, we implemented what we're calling, what is called target-based budgeting. So, those discretionary funds, each department then, based on the revenues and all of the non-discretionary costs received.

1:07:28a target.

1:07:29And those proposals were based on that target for them to meet. We didn't just

1:07:34take all of our last year's expenses and add a percentage to it to inflate it. We went through each line by line, and programs and projects, and looking really at everything so that we could really, truly assess

1:07:49and right-size the budget, as the Council has been talking about, and we've been talking about for quite some time.

1:07:55So we're really proud of the work that we've done with our departments, and I have to give a shout out to all of our departments and all of our managers who worked extremely hard on this.

1:08:03So, we also had a community process. As you can see, we had public meetings, workshops, we,

1:08:10We talked about budget priorities. We had in-person meetings, we had Zoom meetings, and we have also had several meetings and study sessions with the City Council.

1:08:19to… and also with the Financial Advisory Board, so that we could have the input on budget priorities. A budget is a reflection of what we deliver as services, our city's values, our city's vision, and we do that through the funding of services and programs that are directly related to our strategic plan.

1:08:39And then it… it is my job to present this budget to you officially. It is… it is in the municipal code that the city budget… the city manager provides a budget to the Council for approval every year. And so, what I do is I go through the whole thing, I look and I review and I approve, or I…

1:08:55With my little red pen. And we, look at how we can balance the budget, and I'm proud to say that this year we have achieved a balanced operating budget.

1:09:05And then we're… now we're at this point where you… actually, we took a step back, and as we talked about at the last few meetings, about the scenarios and the budget solutions proposals that we brought to the Council on how to balance maintaining services, and of course, one of the biggest things that we have been cognizant of and paid attention to over the last several years is our general fund reserve balance, ensuring that we have heard

1:09:30healthy, and that we are able to, be fiscally sustainable.

1:09:36So, these are the principles, and you've seen these before. We have been working with these principles for several years, and just kind of a review again, fiscal sustainability is a huge guiding principle for us.

1:09:50one city and one general fund, what that means is that, you know, departments aren't in necessarily competition with one another, although sometimes I think they think they are. But general fund revenue is a shared resource, and all of the departments, are able to,

1:10:06Use that resource.

1:10:07Transparency, as we've talked about a lot, and that is part of… through our public engagement process, what we've put online. We have certainly used software to develop and provide updates to the budget for the public to much easier understand what the budget looks like, what it means. You should be able to look at our budget and read through our budget and understand what the city does. Not just how we spend our money, but what

1:10:32Why we spend our money.

1:10:34One-time uses for one-time revenue, this, we've talked about this a lot. We don't use, general fund balance for ongoing costs. We don't, use

1:10:44Like, if there's some sort of windfall or some sort of surplus, you know, we have a whole process for that, but we do not use one-time money for ongoing costs.

1:10:53And again, as you can see, making sure that we are completing our budgets, that we're budgeting to the bottom line, that the city manager and the finance director, we are in lockstep about how we, control expenses.

1:11:07And then, of course, as we have been getting better and better at, and this, I think this budget is the best we've done. I've worked for the city for 25 years. I feel like this budget is the best that we have done to date.

1:11:18to plan and prepare for our long-term needs, and be able to set some money aside. And the Council's been going toward that. As you know, you've set money aside in the Section 115 trust for pensions. You have set money aside in an emergency fund for emergencies. Now we are setting money aside to plan for those equipment and maintenance needs. So, I have to thank you for your leadership and for your direction.

1:11:41And again, I believe that this is the best budget that we have been able to plan for the future that I've seen, that I've been involved in.

1:11:50And everything dates back to the strategic plan. This is our roadmap, this is our True North, this is what guides us, and this is the strategic plan that was adopted. It's from 2024 through 2029. This was a community process. This is a process that we engaged in all sorts of different areas to come up with a plan, a shared community plan.

1:12:14of our goals. You see the five goals there. You see this on every single staff report, what these… what the program, project, or funding, or anything that we're requesting of the Council to make a decision on.

1:12:26how it directly relates back to the strategic plan, and you will see that in each department, you will see a very long list and a very long table of each thing that we're doing in each of those departments, and exactly how it relates to the strategic plan. So that is

1:12:42Absolutely.

1:12:43That is… that is non-negotiable. What we do is in relation to the strategic plan.

1:12:50And here's an org chart. As you can see, the residents of El Cerrito guide everything. They are up at the top. The City Council reports to the residents of the City of El Cerrito. The City Council has two attorne… two, employees.

1:13:06the City Manager and the City Attorney, the Boards and Commissions are also serve as advisory to the City Council. And then the City Manager, I, as the, the Chief Administrative Officer, I oversee all of the departments.

1:13:19So the public engagement, again, we did a budget survey, and of course, Will is here to be able to answer any questions on that. We had… we asked specific questions and, provided comments. We did provide all of this data to the Council on the 21st.

1:13:35And then we had workshops, so in-person workshop, and we did record… we also did a virtual workshop, which is recorded and on the website, and we did a couple of activities, which was very interesting. We did a review of the city's finances, but we also had an interactive session with the… with the people who attended, so…

1:13:56And I should also add that, the budget has been discussed and was discussed, certainly, I know at the last Financial Advisory Board meeting, which is a public meeting and will be discussed the next Financial Advisory Board meeting is Thursday.

1:14:08So…

1:14:11I feel like this odd echo, okay. You don't have to be quite as close to these mics? I don't have to be as close? Yeah, that might help a little.

1:14:18I'll try again? Okay.

1:14:20So, as you can see, these are the factors that we considered, with the budget. Obviously, we have a very volatile and uncertain economy. Wars, tariffs, interest rates, consumer confidence, inflation, insurance, all of that is impacting,

1:14:38These global things, these national things, these state things, they all come down to the local level and impact our budget.

1:14:45The insurance markets, you have heard, from our Assistant City Manager, who sits on our Municipal pooling authority board of what's happening in the insurance markets, and this is happening all over and for all types of insurance. The underwriters.

1:14:59With a lot of the, the disasters and pandemics and all of these things going on, the insurance industry itself is very stretched.

1:15:08the pension costs there, you can see by a,

1:15:12you can see our projected pension costs there when the peak, that is meant to hit around 32, and I think, Claire, you can explain that little funky, thing there.

1:15:26We are approaching the peak, though. That's going to be within the next 10 years or so, and we do expect our classic costs that go down. As you know, we have two types of pension tiers here at our city. We have what's called Classic, and those are long-time employees that have been part of the pension system.

1:15:46And then, the… oh, I can't remember. Public Employees Pension… Which…

1:15:53Reform Act, thank you, also known as PEPRA, that was… that became,

1:15:59In effect in 2013, so any employee hired after 2013 has a different pension contribution, as well as a different pension formula that is much more stable, and it does actually increase the pension age.

1:16:15I would say, actually, probably about maybe 50% of our… I know that in our public safety, which are our most expensive pension costs, those have tipped over to over 50% in those departments, so that is going to really

1:16:27materialize. We knew when PEPRA was passed that it wasn't going to materialize right away, but you can see by the chart that PEPRA is going to have a major impact in the next 10 to 20 years.

1:16:38So, and then, of course, unfunded mandates and state requirements. We love those, and we keep getting them, you know, despite all of our best efforts, but we keep trying to hopefully influence our legislators and

1:16:50have them go easy on us when it comes to unfunded mandates. And Claire, did you want to talk a little bit about the

1:16:57that graph.

1:16:58Sure, can you hear me alright? Yes. Oh, wow, these bikes are really good.

1:17:03So…

1:17:04we've talked a bit about how our pension liability works, our unfunded liability, and how it's like if you layered a new mortgage on top of each other every single year. So what happens in this case is

1:17:16it's like, base… effectively, there was a really good year, an exceptionally good year, that brought our UAL way down. So it brought our funding status really high, our long-term costs came way down, because we had a really excellent year. The year after, immediately after.

1:17:34was significantly worse, and it brought our costs up. So what happens here is, in tandem, they're going down over time across our full UAL, but the good one expires first, and so the costs

1:17:47go really high the subsequent year, right after, when that really good one expires, costs go up, and then the subsequent year when the really bad one expires, they come back down. So it's…

1:17:57A very weird little peak.

1:17:59It… it… there's no expected change, there's no…

1:18:03policy that's happening, it's just the quirks of the way that these all get layered. And so, as we go for the next 10 years, I wouldn't be surprised if we have another random peak that suddenly shows up, because if we have a really good year this year, then a really bad year next year, maybe 3 amazing… let's manifest 3 amazing years in a row, and then maybe one medium one, then we'll start to see those peaks as well. But it's… it's just a quirk of the way that the amortization schedules work over time.

1:18:28And with that, actually, I will leave it with you.

1:18:33There we go. I broke it. Okay. Okay, and we'll start discussing the numbers. So, Claire and Crystal.

1:18:40Alright, so…

1:18:41Hopefully you've had a chance to look at either the PDF version or the online digital budget book. For anyone who hasn't had a chance to look at it, both are on the city's website. I personally really like the digital budget book, because it allows you to drill deeper into a lot of different things, but there is a PDF available, and you can always download your own version if you prefer.

1:19:00Not to break in on you, Claire, just… I want you guys to look, and I actually tried to return to it today, and it was offline, so I don't know…

1:19:07But, yeah. So, we published a new version. So the link on the city's website is live, and it will bring you to the right place. What probably happened is you had the link to the, original version, and we published… so we published a version.

1:19:21a little over a week… about a week and a half ago, to the Council before the long week, before Memorial Day weekend, and then last Thursday, when we published the Council agenda, we actually published a new version, and we can't…

1:19:33the software's a little quirky, so we couldn't just update the one that we had. We had to actually technically publish an entirely new version completely. But the goal was to fix some typos that we found, add a couple of tables, there were some things that we thought would

1:19:45benefit and improve the book. No numbers changed, it was just at… yeah, no numbers changed. It was just adding a couple of tables, adding some charts that we thought would be useful, and fixing more typos than I would like to admit, but we fixed some.

1:19:58So…

1:20:00Talking about citywide, so this is the full city budget, not just the general fund, taxes are still significantly the largest component of the city's revenues.

1:20:08We have property tax, which is the largest piece, at $19.2 million projected. I will say the numbers in the text are all referencing fiscal 26-27. Now, of course, there's a two-year budget, so we have the numbers for both years in the budget book, but as the Council considers the budget for adoption at the next meeting on June 16th, you will, of course, be considering the first year of the budget book. And then, as Councilmember Saltzman alluded to earlier in the meeting.

1:20:33We will come back for a mid-cycle adjustment this time next year for any needed adjustments to what's in the budget book, but effectively, the plan is we have the numbers for the next two years.

1:20:43Property taxes are at $19.2 million annually, that's about a 5% increase, and that's…

1:20:48pretty typical for what we've seen here in El Cerrito. It's a little high, actually, relative to some of our peers. A lot of that is because El Cerrito still has really large impacts from properties that are being reassessed from pre-Proprop 13 values to today's market values. One of the beautiful things of the El Cerrito community is people stay.

1:21:09And so many of those properties have been in… with those people for 10, 15, 40 years, and so,

1:21:16that has a pretty significant impact to the city's property taxes when those get reassessed. And we're also starting to see some of the impacts of successor agency dissolution. Predicting timing of that is a little hard, but we expect that to certainly be within the next 2 years within this budget.

1:21:31On the sales tax side, we expect, $12.4 million annually, which is about a 2% increase.

1:21:36The transactions and use taxes, so the locally adopted one, the Measure G, formerly known as Measure R in the General Fund, and then Measure A for streets in the Streets Fund, those actually behave slightly differently than the 1% Bradley Burns, but effectively, across all sales taxes, we expect about a 2% increase.

1:21:54Property transfer tax, we're expecting about $3.4 million annually, which is a 6% increase,

1:22:00it's pretty stable. We had a couple of really exceptionally good years there, where we were getting $4.2 million a year. That was in 22, when, I don't know if you remember, people were buying houses over market, sight unseen, all conditions and inspections waived.

1:22:14We're not really in that market anymore, but we are stable, very much stable, and we're expecting to slightly exceed our property transfer tax budget this year.

1:22:21Utility users tax at $4.9 million. I want to say that 32% increase is not… it's… that's the calculated increase from fiscal 26 to fiscal year 27.

1:22:32But the actuals, we expect to be a much smaller percent increase, and the reason for that is that we have determined over the last 2 years that the budget we developed two years ago was probably too low in utility taxes. With the data from the past three years since Crystal and I have been on the team, we have now updated those utility tax numbers to more accurately reflect the real actuals that we receive, but we still expect that to be an increase of about 15%.

1:22:54Over the current one, and that's for a couple of reasons. One is that we are seeing pretty significant increases in energy and water-related, utilities. Many of you will have seen your energy bills going up, your water bills going up. We actually know our water rate increases already for East Bay Mud, and we have… do our best to estimate the others.

1:23:11The other piece is on the video user tax. We've seen that decline over the last few years. There's some work that staff are doing right now to evaluate a recent court case decision. We don't want to over-celebrate things before we know that they're real, so we're going to bring more information back to the Council when that's available. But for those reasons, we're starting to see those revenues recover from what we have lost over the last 10 years.

1:23:31And then finally, on the fee side, we're expecting about $48 million citywide for fees and other revenue. It's a 60% increase, which sounds enormous, because it is, but most of that is in grants. So that's citywide, that's a lot of major transportation grants, there's, an affordable housing grant that's really a pass-through, so there's a lot of major grants that the city is processing citywide. Grant, as a reminder, those are not in the general fund, necessarily.

1:23:55But they are citywide grants.

1:23:57And this is a table that shows the same information as the graph, it just also shows the changes over time. It's a little hard to have a slide with just quite so many numbers, but we wanted to highlight this information. One of the big numbers, I wish I had a pointer, but, the 27 million, if you go to the 1, 2, 3, 4th column, and you go almost to the bottom, you see 27 million over the 9.6 the year before.

1:24:20That's primarily due to grids.

1:24:22So it is an enormous change.

1:24:25That also does come with significant staff time to manage these very, very large, very significant programs, but it's also something to celebrate all of the hard work that has gone into the many different programs at the state level, at the federal level, that staff are managing, that staff are applying to. Do we want to celebrate any grants while we're on this, before we keep going? We'll just… we'll keep going. We'll bring back more grants in the future. This is a big presentation.

1:24:48So overall, we're seeing a pretty big increase from 26 to 27, but again, a lot of that's from grants, and some of that is one time in the next fiscal year.

1:24:57On the expenditure side, as City Manager Pink has noted, the general fund is the largest part of the city. Special funds include gas tax funds, street improvement funds. We actually have two different gas tax funds for the two different types of state sales taxes that we get, two different

1:25:12Or really, they're gas…

1:25:14There are excise taxes on gas, not sales taxes, that's separate. And then we have several different parcel taxes and local assessment districts, so we have LAD, the Landscape and lighting district. We have the Measure H parcel tax for parks and recreation facilities. So there's a lot of different special funds doing a lot of different things.

1:25:30IWM, of course, as was noted earlier. So you can see each piece of this. I know that the writing on the graph is a little hard, but the green one is the general fund.

1:25:38Blue is the special revenue funds, and then yellow is IWM. And then red is the capital fund, and so that one especially fluctuates, but that one is definitely benefiting from a fair number of grants.

1:25:50Expenditures by type. As City Manager Pincus noted, people are services. Personnel is a smaller piece of the citywide budget, because most of personnel are in the general fund.

1:26:02Citywide, you have a lot more spending on, purchase property services, and that typically are things like capital projects, maybe professional services, which are going to be, the professional services to manage those projects, and all kinds of other specialized services, especially in the capital funds, and especially on the grants.

1:26:21Side of things.

1:26:23Staffing,

1:26:25Unfortunately, I have to admit that there is a typo in this table. It is fixed in the budget book, and in the version online now. The final totals for fiscal 26 is actually 169.3, and then in the following, the two budget years, it's 169.44, which is…

1:26:43It's… the numbers here are all correct, it's just the totals that are incorrect at the very bottom. There are no changes currently to staffing proposed. The only change that you may notice is the .14 increase in public works, and that's a part-time staff person who's going from .5 to .64.

1:26:59Personally would totally vouch for that person, they're phenomenal. But it's… the staffing is expected to remain exactly the same from the current budget year to the future budget years.

1:27:11On the expenditures by department, the largest change that you'll see from 26 to 27 is community development. I've noted those grants a few more times. That's where those live, is in the community development department, is some of the largest ones. There's an over $8 million pass-through grant, that I believe is from the ASIC,

1:27:28SC program, that's gonna be in fiscal 27, so that's where that one really gets large, and then comes back down to closer to where it typically stays.

1:27:39So, some of the major structural changes that we've talked about so far as we've gone through this process, and I have sat before, I think this is my fourth meeting in a row getting to talk with you all about the budget, so some of this may be repetition for you, or for some of our listeners. We like to hopefully repeat in case there's someone new who wants to learn this information for the first time.

1:27:57Some of the major structural changes, we've talked about internal service funds, and I'll, review how those work on the following slide, but, we really have increased our investment in internal service funds. We have at least four,

1:28:08excuse me, I believe $890,000 towards internal vehicle and equipment internal service funds. We also have $300,000 for capital projects internal service fund. So it's a very significant investment in our equipment, in our vehicles, and in the knowledge that we have long-term costs that we want to plan for so that we can respond.

1:28:26We have updated cost allocations to special funds using our new cost allocation plan. We updated the budget methodology for insurance, especially for insurance, workers' compensation, and one-time payouts. The big piece is what we've done is shifted insurance from the HR division, because

1:28:44In the past, people have sometimes asked, why is your HR division $3.5 million when you only have two staff? Well, it's because insurance resided there, and it really was distorting the division, and it wasn't accurately showing the citywide costs.

1:28:55Where they belong. So we've shifted those to non-departmental because they are not specific to a department, they're specific… they're… the insurance covers the entire city. So you'll see that in some of the later slides about the general fund, of where that shift has happened.

1:29:06But I want to highlight that because it is a very large number, and so it does make some of the graphs, especially the comparisons year over year, look a little different. The costs have not materially changed other than insurance going up by quite a bit, but they have shifted in their location.

1:29:19The same is true for one-time payouts. Historically, we've tried a few different things of how we budget for one-time payouts. In the previous budget, we added one-time payout budget for the first time. We hadn't actually budgeted for it in the past. We know it's coming, we don't know who's gonna retire, we don't know who's gonna go get a great new job somewhere else.

1:29:34But we know people are going to leave at some point, and there are payouts, vacation, all kinds of different things, and so…

1:29:40We budget for that now in non-departmental, so what will happen is, when somebody actually does retire, that cash out and that… those one-time payouts will be in their department. It will be where they actually are. So what'll happen is, quarterly, finance will go through, and we'll actually do with, City Manager Pincus's approval, because she's,

1:29:59authorized to make adjustments between departments within a fund, we'll actually transfer the budget to where the expenses actually occurred. So the actuals will always be where they belong, so we keep the cost accounting. You can still see the costs in the place where they belong and where they occurred, but we're not,

1:30:15either inflating budgets incorrectly, or giving a department a budget that they could never possibly, meet by saying, you know, you have to have this budget for this thing, but there's only two people, and if nobody leaves, then they're in a pickle. So, it allows us to centralize costs, but still show the costs where they actually belong when they happen.

1:30:32And then finally, workers' compensation. We just made a couple of adjustments, to continue massaging our policy and our practice for how we allocate workers' compensation across different types of employees.

1:30:43On the budget reduction side, this is the result of the many conversations we have had with you over the past two months now. These are reductions to non-personnel budgets citywide, including supplies, equipment, professional services, and maintenance.

1:30:57We have decreases in professional communications and facilitation support. At the last council meeting, the City Council recommended that we decrease the, Council Retreat Facilitator, not eliminate it entirely, but decrease that budget, which we have done.

1:31:10It also includes the decrease to City Council travel and training that was recommended. And then some reductions in programs and events, including a reduced city contribution to the 4th of July event, so reduced by 50%.

1:31:21And then canceling the advisory board member dinner, holiday light installation, and some recreation special events.

1:31:27Per the City Council's direction, it does not include any impacts

1:31:32to landscape maintenance services, and it also does not include cuts to library hours, and it keeps that 50% contribution for the 4th of July. So I just want to confirm that those… that was the direction that staff heard, and that was the route that we took. We did our very best to implement the guidance that the Council has provided us to date.

1:31:50We keep talking about internal service funds. For anyone who has not been able to attend a council meeting in the last few months, this is what they do. Internal service funds allow us to set aside money each year over time to save up for very large expenses. So this graph shows an example. This is a 10-year schedule. I think SCBAs really are on a 15, but you set aside

1:32:09Fund each year over 10 years, and then you pay it off, and the fund goes all the way down, and then you start paying again.

1:32:16One of the things that, Director Reams and I will be working on and figuring out is there are different methods of how do you calculate how much you set aside per year? Do you do a straight line? Do you do an escalator? There's all kinds of different ways to do it, different ways to estimate future costs, so we'll be evaluating the best ways to do that and determining, what we recommend as an administrative policy for the city.

1:32:38Citywide fund balances. I'll have a lot of detail on the general fund balance. I do not expect anyone to actually read this table, but it is in the budget book, and so if you want the detail, unfortunately, it is still tiny in the budget book. We did our best to try to get it all onto one page, but if you have a good magnifying glass, or you zoom out on your computer or your iPad.

1:32:56Hopefully you can read this. It is the full detail of every single fund in the city.

1:33:00And so there's a lot of information there. And I do want to emphasize the general fund is projected to remain above the 29% unrestricted reserves in both years.

1:33:1031% in the first, 29 in the second, we'll talk about this shortly. But that's 13% in the EDRF, 16% unassigned, which is… the 20… 29% was the Council's direction at the most recent meeting, and it does exceed the FAB's recommendation, which was to keep it above 26% combined.

1:33:30This is the general fund. So we're switching to the general fund. It's often our main focus. We like to talk about all of our funds, because there are a lot of very important things happening, but the general fund is often our primary focus.

1:33:41This is the overview and the summary of the next two years, in addition to the most recent actuals.

1:33:52I'm gonna look at that. So the…

1:33:562728, I want to clarify, it does not include the one-time expenditures, so those are separate from the operating… this is the operating budget only, it does not include the major one-time expenditures that are discussed separately, but those are, and will be in the official decision made by Council and in the official resolution, and those one-time expenditures are included in any of the forecasts and the fund balances.

1:34:17So what this means, on the revenue side, as you can see, property and other taxes are an even larger component of the general fund.

1:34:23That's because most of our taxes are unrestricted and used for general purposes. We also have a significant amount of charges for services, fees, the various things that the City Council adopted on May 19th.

1:34:34And then, a number of non-departmental revenue licenses and permits and other kinds of things that the city receives as well.

1:34:43This is that revenue by type.

1:34:46We're gonna keep going.

1:34:48On the expenditures by type, you can see personnel is the largest component of the city's budget. That's consistent over time, and to keep echoing the same phrase that people are services, these are the people who are doing the work for the city every single day.

1:35:06I do want to mention that the other financing uses in fiscal 24, that orange bar that got really large, that's the $9 million contribution to the EDRF that happened in fiscal year 24.

1:35:16Which is also, on this slide, the same contribution that happened in the non-departmental in fiscal year 24. So that's why that one is an outlier. That was the $9 million investment and…

1:35:27Beginning of the EDRF that year.

1:35:30This is the expenditures by department. They're relatively consistent over time, as you can see.

1:35:37And then, same on this page. The non-departmental revenue, we're no longer using those lines on the expenditure side, but we can't change our past audited actuals, so it's still here as a residual from those past years, but it will eventually no longer be included in these graphs, because we don't plan to use it moving forward.

1:35:57For major one-time expenditures, we've discussed these a few times. These are the SCBAs, the self-contained breathing apparatuses, and the fire engine. These are two major pieces of fire equipment.

1:36:07They are one-time expenses at this time, because we did not historically have internal service funds.

1:36:13Now, we do know that we will have to replace these in the next 15 years, according to our, useful life schedule, and in the SCBA's case, there's actually a very specific and very, clear federal law when they must be replaced, and so we will start

1:36:28seeding, we'll start funding the ISF and contributing towards it annually, so that in the future, this becomes a part of our operating budget, as opposed to a one-time. So many of the ISFs are… contributions are part of the operating budget now, and we will continue to make sure that those are contributing in the ways that we need to, in the ways that we can afford to support our long-term needs.

1:36:49The long-range general fund forecast. So, on the next slide, I'll actually show you the comparison to the last conversation that we had, but first, we just want to show you the high-level summary, which shows that the forecast, does dip below that 30% briefly for a few years.

1:37:05And then comes back up in the long-term future. It stays above 29% in all of the forecasted fiscal years, and it does include an assumption of the use of the Section 115 model to use that as the UAL reaches its peak over the next 10 years.

1:37:23This is the comparison to the versions that you saw at the last meeting. So, there's B-plus on the left, C plus in the middle, and then the proposed on the far right. As you can see, the proposed is

1:37:33in between, scenarios B plus and C+, which is, the direction that staff had received from the City Council, at the last meeting.

1:37:42It does maintain reserves higher than B+, and lower than C+.

1:37:55Would the City Council prefer to…

1:37:57pause or continue through CIP and then come back for questions. We'll keep going. All right. So, one of the things we're most excited about in this budget is the CIP. It was a… an enormous staff lift, and I especially want to celebrate and highlight the work of our incredible Public Works Director, Yvette Ortiz, and her staff member, Ashanti Coleman. They did incredible work on getting this up and running. It is no small feat to get that many projects in. A ton of departments submitted projects.

1:38:22ton of work, and so it was a huge lift to get this information. We've had conversations already that there are things that we plan to do as a city, with the City Council, as finance and public works and the City Manager's Office, to continue to refine and improve our prioritization and our processes,

1:38:39But we are really excited and want to first celebrate a more transparent, a more dynamic.

1:38:44And a very robust capital program that provides a ton of information about all of the different projects. There's a lot. I do want to note that it is quite normal to have, a rather

1:38:58potentially terrifyingly large number of potential future costs. It seems scary

1:39:05And it is incredibly normal and standard for cities to have this, but we show all of the projects because we want to be transparent, and to show that our team know that those things are on our list, they know that we have them, they know that someday they may need to be repaired. But it's not $200 million today, it's $200 million

1:39:24someday, potentially over the next 50 years to a century. So it's… it seems very scary, but it is actually quite normal, and any city who has a robust CIP that includes long-term unfunded projects will have a list. One that we looked at a lot was Campbell's, because they use the same software, on a very similar list. It's… it's the reality of public infrastructure.

1:39:44It's to show we know all of the things that are there, but not to make anyone panic or to say that we have a bill due today, for example. So with that, I want to turn it over to my colleague, Yvette, to talk about the CIP.

1:39:55Good evening, Council, Mayor. I'm Yvette Ortiz, City's Public Works Director, and thanks, Claire, for that introduction. It was definitely an effort across departments to put this, CIP,

1:40:08update together, starting back at the end of calendar year 25. And I'll walk through that development process in a bit, but first I wanted to give you an overview of this capital improvement program. It is a planning tool that the community uses, city staff and council use to plan for

1:40:28Public infrastructure improvements over a 5-year horizon.

1:40:32It's updated at least annually as priorities change, as funding opportunities come up, as there's schedule adjustments, and cost changes. So we do update it annually, but it's been a while, at least,

1:40:47Five years since we've done this comprehensive, update with a detailed project listing.

1:40:52And as you'll see, it… the projects are organized by type, such as park and recreation facilities, transportation,

1:41:03buildings that are not recreational. Partly that's because funding is also, aligned with those types of facilities, so the projects are categorized both by project type and funding source.

1:41:18And then, as Claire and, City Manager Pinkos previously described, is the CIP, although it's a 5-year, horizon, only the first year is appropriated for expenditures by fund source.

1:41:32And then the remaining years are really a planning framework, so which projects have been funded over that 5-year time frame, and how, what resources are available to implement those projects.

1:41:44As the public looks through the detailed project listings.

1:41:48They'll contain, like, a general description of the project, the need… what the need for that project. It might have been, which might have arisen or been identified as part of an adopted city plan, and then also how it aligns with the strategic plan, what goals it meets.

1:42:04Additionally, some projects have more detailed information on the costs, the schedules, and the funding source. Not all projects do, because as Claire mentioned, we really did want to provide a comprehensive list of projects, and this year, our…

1:42:18Many of our departments submitted a long list of infrastructure needs and facility needs, and we still need time to develop those costs, but

1:42:27A lot of projects have more, thorough costs if they're in, like, an engineering phase of development, while other projects have planning-level costs, as they were presented in, planning documents.

1:42:40Let's see, if you could go to the next slide. Oh, wait, actually, go back.

1:42:47I wanted to talk a little bit about, the project, development process. Departments, again, submitted requests. City staff, public works, working with finance, evaluated those requests.

1:43:01To see how they aligned with City Council adopted plans, and goals. And then also, we looked at, the criteria listed here, to prioritize those projects.

1:43:13And if a project met multiple criteria and had funding, they were included in the CIP.

1:43:20And depending on grant deadlines or other legal requirements, they were scheduled in the years that we had either funding available or they were legally required to be completed.

1:43:32As Claire mentioned, this is our first year using ClearGov, and it really is a very interactive process. I encourage all council members in the community to click through those links for all the projects.

1:43:47And we will continue to improve it, the details of the information that's provided, as well as the presentation of that information in the budget book.

1:43:58So, this slide, summarizes the first year of the capital improvement program, and in fiscal year 27, we're estimating about $10 million in expenditures, with 30 active projects. Most of those, expenditures are related to grants.

1:44:18And most of those really are transportation grants that, transportation grants are transportation funding sources that are available to the city through such, funding sources as the City's, Measure A for street improvement, as well as SB1, and then grants that the city has been able to secure

1:44:36Both that are related to, previously adopted plans, such as the Richmond Street Complete Streets.

1:44:44Project, and more recently, the city, working with BART and the development team at the El Cerrito Plaza BART station, secured a significant amount of state funding to implement, transportation improvements.

1:44:57Around the Plaza Park Station. And so, that's what you're seeing here in terms of the state, grants, which is one of the biggest funding sources in the fiscal… in fiscal year 27. And then the next big… biggest is the city's, Measure A Street Improvement Fund.

1:45:15Just, just going back a little bit.

1:45:17Claire, thanks. And then, we also have a variety of other smaller parks and facility projects. Really, those are funded by a lot of the city's, internal, funds, such as,

1:45:30the Measure J, or,

1:45:33I'm sorry, Storm Grain, the Measure J, we have two Measure J's. Measure J Storm Grain and the Integrated Waste Management Fund, and then also the, Capital Internal Service Fund that is being developed.

1:45:47Okay, next slide.

1:45:50This, I just want to kind of…

1:45:52emphasize here, in fiscal year 27, we have a lot of transportation projects, because of those funding sources. Another way… and they vary in sizes and our participation in it. Some are led by the city, and some were of developed, like, regional collaborations to implement, because

1:46:10We have a smaller city team that, can implement, projects, so we really are relying on some of those, relationships with Caltrans, with, City of Richmond to develop some larger-scale projects.

1:46:25And then, this… this, slide summarizes expenditures over that 5-year horizon. You'll see, again, fiscal year 27 is quite busy. It's one of the busiest I've seen in 15 years. And last…

1:46:38This current year is one of the bus… the busiest, and this year is about $8 million of expenditures. Next year, $10 million.

1:46:46And so definitely, you know, we're doing all we can, the best we can, to deliver those projects and move them forward.

1:46:54And some projects will be in design in fiscal year 27, or planning stages in fiscal year 27, and then move on to 28 and 29.

1:47:03A lot of the projects that you'll see in these next two years are already in under development, so they've been in various, like, either planning or preliminary engineering phases.

1:47:15And that's it. Thank you.

1:47:23Thank you. Whoop.

1:47:25All right, thank you to our awesome team. And again, just as a summary, we are presenting to you a proposed budget that we believe reflects the City Council's priorities and the community's priorities, including all of the feedback that we received during the budget development process, and it, again, is in alignment with the City's strategic plan.

1:47:45Our revenues will exceed expenditures for the operating budget. That is, again, a result of a lot of hard work.

1:47:53We are hoping for, a modest surplus. At least that's what we are planning for, and we're… again, that was,

1:48:03Reflecting a lot of hard work by all of the team, but also of the City Council's direction and leadership. Combining 29%, 13% EDF, and 16% unassigned at this time.

1:48:15And again, it allows us to provide those key services, those essential services that our residents expect, a few changes to some programs here and there, but the essential core services are what we have focused on, and they remain.

1:48:30So next, we are here to answer any questions. This is, an overview, again, of the proposed budget that has been provided to you. We provided it to the Council and the Financial Advisory Board, and it was published originally on May 22nd.

1:48:45No action is being requested this evening. Again, this is a presentation, a study session.

1:48:52But we will certainly are available for questions, any comments, any additional direction.

1:48:57Once that is, provided to us over the… and we also, again, as I said, the Financial Advisory Board will be meeting on Thursday. If there is a recommendation about the budget that comes from the advisory… the Financial Advisory Board, we will provide that to the City Council. The next meeting is June 16th, so we will present the final version after the budget book is finalized online.

1:49:20And, that is the first opportunity for the City Council to adopt the budget.

1:49:26Of course, if the City Council needs additional meetings or time to be able to do that, the budget just needs to be adopted by June 30th. And of course, I want to thank, again, of course, the City Council. Thank you for engaging, thank you for your leadership, thank you for your feedback.

1:49:43Thank you for your detailed questions. They make us better as a staff team.

1:49:49And speaking of the city staff team, you're awesome. Thank you for all of your hard work, thank you for what you bring to the city, and thank you especially to Claire and Crystal, and Alex.

1:50:01For putting the kind of final pieces together over the last couple of weeks. And of course, I do want to thank the El Cerrito community.

1:50:10The input that you all provided was heard, it was developed, it was included, and we take, again, all of the input that everybody provides us very seriously so that we can put this into place

1:50:24into this spending plan, and so I just want to say thank you to everyone. Very proud of where we are coming from, especially thinking of several years ago when we were in a very different financial position.

1:50:38This was a budget that I have been pleased to work on, if you will, because we are from a… we are coming from a position of stability, we are coming from a position of strength. There are cities out there right now, as you all know, with this volatile economy, that are facing serious budget deficits.

1:50:58we…

1:50:59We went through that. We went through that several years ago, and so we've put ourselves in a position to weather this current storm, again, coming from a stable position, this city, this community, this council, our staff team.

1:51:17We are resilient, and I'm just very proud of all of the work that we have all done together. So with that, I want to say thank you, and that is the end of our presentation.

1:51:27Okay, appreciate that. Let's bring it back over to the Council. I wanted to check to see if anyone has any questions or comments to staff or city manager. I'm looking to my left.

1:51:39I can go first, because I… my comment is very short. I just wanted to… I'm sure the rest of the Council will probably say as well, you know, just appreciate all the work that you all did, and really

1:51:51Taking very seriously what we said as far as being more transparent, and really taking a long view so that we can start riding the ship.

1:52:00And start being a little bit more intentional in the way that we do our budgeting, and really looking into the future, so I really appreciate that. And the question that I had, I think you've already…

1:52:11answer, Madam City Manager, because I wanted to talk a little bit about how our obligations that we have, how you all were going to balance that, in this really cautious cycle, but I heard you talk a little bit about that. I know this is a study session. This is going to come before us again, so I won't really ask the question, but that was really what my question was going to be, is we do still have obligations that we need to

1:52:33you know, remain cautious of, but we want to continue to provide the services that we can, have historically provided. And also, a lot of community identity is tied in with a lot of the things that we do here in El Cerrito.

1:52:46So I look forward to our next conversation about this, because I think you all have leaned into that enough for me on tonight, so I just want to appreciate the fact that we are taking such a hard look on knowing we are going to have a couple of more cautious years coming up in front of us, but even the reason that we're able to have this conversation is today, that at least going back to the time that I came on council four years ago, we were already saying in 2026 that we're going to have

1:53:11to start making hard decisions, so I appreciate the work that you all did, because we were in a mess, and I remember in 2022, we were in a mess with the staff we had at that time, and we didn't know if we would be able to

1:53:22Have such a sophisticated look at this, so thank you again.

1:53:26Very good, thank you. Councilmember Cassanis, do you have any questions or comments?

1:53:31Thank you very much, I really appreciate all the work that went into this, and both

1:53:36the content and the presentation, they're both very, very helpful, and I…

1:53:40I'm very grateful for it. I have just a couple questions.

1:53:44You talked a bit about the operating…

1:53:49Revenue exceeding operating expenses, and that…

1:53:53I took to me removing the fire truck and the…

1:53:57I forget the name of the equipment. What would… what would be the terminology if you were including those? What would you call it?

1:54:03I mean, I just think of it as general fund expenditures and general fund… Yeah, the revenue, and…

1:54:10we're… our goal is to be more transparent about the ongoing costs of running a sustainable city. And so.

1:54:18one-time costs are very typically, in many, many agencies, separated out, because, like, very large one-time. Obviously, there'll be some time, you know, an office chair here and there. There'll be small things in the operating budget that ebb and flow, but the very large ones distort the budget, because it's… it's a one-time expense, whereas the… so it would… it might…

1:54:38It changes the understanding of what a sustainable long-term operation looks like versus a one-time expense.

1:54:44So, we say kind of an operating budget, it's the ongoing expenses, it's the things that will continue to reoccur over time. Total, I would just call it the total citywide budget. The total budget is… and the total fund balances and the appropriation action made by Council

1:55:00will include both. So, if we go back to the… I'm gonna go back to the forecast.

1:55:05This includes the one time. So when you think about use of fund balance, it's saying we have an… we have a,

1:55:14a balanced operating budget in that our ongoing revenues are higher than our ongoing expenditures, and so if we didn't have the one-time things, we'd have a balanced budget and we would be putting money towards our reserves, but we are then choosing to use those reserves that we would otherwise build up to spend on these one-time things.

1:55:36Okay, just sort of my back-of-the-envelope calculations, looking at 2028, if you include, I think it was 1.5,

1:55:43Million 1.513.

1:55:45Of one-time expenses that were not included.

1:55:48So, is that correct? Is that… So, so the operating budget surplus is… oh, I don't have the exact number. The surplus I got was $300,000 for that year. It's, the… the use of fund balance is about $250,000 in each fiscal year.

1:56:06And that includes the one-time expenditures. And so the part of the goal with the one-time expenditures is by using an internal service fund, so that the city's costs are escalating quickly year over year over the next 5 years, up until we reach peak UIL.

1:56:20So that's both from insurance, but also from our pension. UAL is increasing very rapidly. If we look at… oh, I'm gonna go all the way back.

1:56:28I like… I like graphs, so I don't just gesture, because I think people at home can't see. As we reach the peak, it's escalating very, very quickly. So from fiscal year 27, the first year of the budget, to the second year of the budget, our costs are increasing very quickly, completely out of our control. And so if we set aside a larger portion of the one-time costs.

1:56:46through an internal service fund. So it's setting aside basically most of what we need for the fire engine. Almost all of it, we're gonna basically pay in the first year.

1:56:53on the expenditure side. We're going to set that aside out of the general fund. That means that we only have to spend a little bit more in the second year, and what that does is it smooths the impact. Because otherwise, what you would have is, like, a $700,000 surplus, or a $500,000 surplus in the first year of fiscal 27. I apologize, I don't have the numbers at the top of my head. There have been so many in the past.

1:57:13Yeah, so it's that operating surplus of $700,000 in the first year, and then you would have a huge deficit in the second year.

1:57:23it's… doesn't… like… Accounting-wise, it doesn't make a huge difference, but from understanding a…

1:57:31sustainable budget, we thought it would be nicer to set it aside in the first year, rather than have a giant swing, because I just personally don't think… oops, excuse me, I don't think giant swings are very helpful, so it's setting it aside the one time

1:57:43early, so that we can smooth the impacts. Okay, but in actuality, that first year, then, there is a deficit when you include it in that year, correct? Of, yeah, $250,000, and each fiscal year is $250,000, as currently proposed.

1:57:56And we could push it. It could be a surplus of $700,000 in the first year, and a deficit of…

1:58:02Oh, I'm not gonna do that math in my head. I get it, you weight it different. Yeah, it's just weighting it differently, but the… ultimately, it's just trying to smooth it, but the… the… if you look at, in the city manager's budget message, there's a summary table of the general fund balance, and that,

1:58:17includes the total deficit, or use of fund balance, I would say, in each fiscal year. And it's about $250,000 in each fiscal year. Okay.

1:58:26What would it have taken to avoid that?

1:58:29$150,000 deficit. Landscape maintenance, library hours, and potentially looking at positions.

1:58:35Or, we end the year better with revenue. We have also been conservative, as realistic as possible in our revenue, but if we end the year better than as projected, then that would go directly toward our surplus. Absolutely. Yeah, and it's entirely possible.

1:58:49Okay, thank you.

1:58:52Yeah, I'm looking to my right over here. Mayor Pro Tem, go ahead.

1:58:57So first, thank you to, I'm sure, basically all the staff in the city for working on this budget. I'm supportive of the direction of it, and really appreciate the CIP, which I read in detail.

1:59:13it is both great and also concerning and depressing, and I understand there's always going to be things that are underfunded or

1:59:22unfunded, but there's a lot in there that I think if we had more revenue, we'd be funding this year or next year.

1:59:32So it is just, you know, the challenge we go through at trying to figure out

1:59:36What we spend our limited funds on.

1:59:39With the CIP, I think with the budget, we had a great process, we had lots of opportunities for public input. We're gonna approve the CIP with very little public process, and I understand it was a lot to put together, and it's new after not having it for so many years.

1:59:57So, I'm not saying we should delay the budget or delay approving the CIP, but I would like to see later this year a more holistic process.

2:00:08For residents to be able to weigh in, including residents who might not read the… I don't remember how many hundreds of pages the CIP was out of the whole… this really closer to 500-page budget book, not 400-page. So figuring out ways we can kind of visualize it

2:00:27Beyond just, like, you know, this much to transportation and whatever, bring out some highlights, like.

2:00:34I think some residents will be very happy to see that over the next 5 years, we have $0 allocated for playground equipment. That's very concerning to me, especially as we've had

2:00:46lots of playground equipment fail over the past few years, and I did get an email today, because I'd asked about, like, well, what are we going to do if another slide fails? It sounds like we do have some emergency funds set aside for things like that, but still, like, at some point, we're going to be spending all this money on this patchwork of repairing these playgrounds that are

2:01:05getting close to the end of their life, and then what is the longer-term plan when in the next 5 years we have nothing? So I'm not asking you to answer this tonight, I'm just sort of raising this and suggesting that

2:01:19Some of these things that are really of public interest, we need to highlight it and show the real problems here and the challenges, and

2:01:27and have a discussion with our community about, you know, there are some other things in the CIP where it's like, well, $30,000 here and 40,000 here, like, are these the right things? Sure, if they're state grant funded, that has to happen, that's… but if they're not, like, what are the decisions we're making, and how are we making them?

2:01:48So I think we need to have more of a process to just ensure… I'm not saying that the proposal you put forward is lacking, I'm just saying we need to have the discussion to determine that and figure out if there are maybe slightly different priorities. The other thing I wanted to point out that I'm extremely concerned about

2:02:08is the Street Improvement Program, which I had noticed

2:02:12there's, like, a huge dip in 29 and 31, and so I asked about this, and was told it's because, you know, costs are coming in higher, and I understand that. That's happening with a lot of things, so now we're essentially gonna go to a two-year plan instead of doing a big street repaving.

2:02:29or not always repaving, but fixing the streets every year. So that means now our 5-year program, I don't know if that turns into a 7- or 8-year, whatever it does, but that's extremely concerning about how do we

2:02:42in the streets, that's a really basic thing. No matter how you're getting around town, you're using our streets. So anyway, those were two that jumped out to me. I'm sure there are other things that jump out to other people, so I would just like to see us come back with a…

2:02:58longer… process that's more involved with both Council and public input about the CIP.

2:03:06I know, you know, the next two years are pretty well baked, but looking out to the 2 years beyond that, you know, how we're gonna make those decisions.

2:03:17And where we're gonna really fight for grant funds. I know for some things, like playground equipment, there probably isn't grant funds.

2:03:25other spaces there might be. And then there's been other things even brought up tonight that don't appear anywhere in here, like stop signs on the Ohlone Greenway. So there are probably other capital ideas out here that are not yet in the CIP, and maybe that could fit in another category. That's just one thing. So…

2:03:43It's a long way of saying I'd like to see more of a public and council process around the CIP moving forward. Again, I'm not criticizing the CIP. I think it's great that you put forward what you did, I just think we need the next step now.

2:03:57Thank you very much. We'll go to Councilmember Motion.

2:04:01Thank you. And thank you for all your work.

2:04:04I appreciate I sent a bunch of questions, and you already answered all of them. But I do still have these other ones, which I am going to be meeting with you to follow up on that. So,

2:04:19I have just a few questions, I… in the interest of time, I have called them down. So, regarding the UUT,

2:04:28You mentioned the lawsuit, and what I'm not understanding is which way, you know, is it the city of Santa Barbara wants to tax streaming, and there's… or it's, like, Disney is, like…

2:04:43not wanting to… it's… I can't… is that exactly, kind of, like, what it's… what it is, or… I will be happy to take that one. Okay.

2:04:52So…

2:04:54cities that have UUTs that tax video services, have had text in place for a long time that they believed, should apply the tax to video streaming services.

2:05:06The video streaming services were not going to voluntarily apply the tax to themselves, so somebody had to be the first city to take a swing at it, and Santa Barbara was the one that decided to do it.

2:05:19They went through an administrative appeals process.

2:05:21the California Superior Court and Appellate Court, and at every level, the… including the retired judge who conducted the administrative appeal, the judges ruled that… that their ordinance, as written in… and…

2:05:37which was updated for them in 2008, did apply to streaming services.

2:05:42And, Disney did attempt to appeal that to the California Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. The case has now been returned back down, and so it is a final decision under California law and some provisions of federal law.

2:05:59there's a chance that they may still attempt to file a federal case, but under California law, and as to the issues that were adjudicated in that case.

2:06:10Santa Barbara's UUT does apply to streaming services.

2:06:14We have undertaken an evaluation of El Cerrito's ordinance.

2:06:18It is not exactly the same, but we believe there are enough, similar elements in place that the city has a good argument that its UUT should also apply to those streaming services, and so we were working with finance and the city's consultants, HDL, to get notices out to the streaming companies to tell them that we believe they need to start collecting the tax from their customers.

2:06:40Excellent.

2:06:42And then, I did have, a question about the insurance. So, you mentioned that the insurance costs are now in the non-departmental.

2:06:55So, in the budget details, some departments do have

2:06:59smaller insurance amounts. So, is that some departments are prorating already, and some aren't, or how is that… Different forms of insurance. So, in a few cases, typically, I think the primary that I can think of is IWM. There aren't many, but there are a few cases where there are very specialized forms of insurance for things like very large vehicles that are separate from the city's MPA, which is the Municipal Pooling Authority.

2:07:24MPA is the insurance that we mostly talk about, and that is

2:07:28general liability, cyber, what… I'm gonna remember, I'm gonna forget the 15 different versions,

2:07:37We have a lot of different types of insurance. I… I can list them out if you're interested. Yeah. Some of it is, like, cyber, it's property… Property, auto. Yeah, so it's auto, but certain types of auto, and then there's some very large specialized vehicles and equipment that are not included in that. So the insurance, all of the MPA costs.

2:07:58are in non-departmental in the general fund, and I pulled up this slide to show, I… can you see my mouse? Oh, kind of.

2:08:04So if you look at non-departmental, you'll see it… it jumps Rather significantly,

2:08:12This is where this is…

2:08:13The general fund, yes. Whereas in the past, you see that… whoops, excuse me.

2:08:19that it… administration is going down by quite a bit, and then you see non-departmentals is going up. So that's really where that lives, is that

2:08:31Insurance, and so it's…

2:08:34the tiny… we're not prorating it to departments. It is allocated to special funds through the cost allocation plan. So you won't see specific lines, you'll just see the cost allocation transfers.

2:08:45Okay, and the internal service funds, so I see some… in parts of the budget, there's, like, vehicles or equipment, so…

2:08:56what goes into this overall internal service fund, and what stays out in the different departments? So, and please jump in if I get this wrong.

2:09:06internal service funds for a vehicle and equipment. So, so capital we are treating as a transfer to a new fund that we have, or resuscitated and renamed Fund 302, which is one of our capital funds. That's the, basically, set-aside where we're actually transferring from the general fund to 302 in the set-aside. There's a table

2:09:25in the budget document, especially the new version, that shows all of the interfund transfers, you won't see an interfund transfer for vehicle and equipment. Typically, internal service funds are not a transfer, they're a contribution. So what you'll see instead is in each line of a department's… in each department's budget, there's actually a line that will say, I think, vehicle and equipment

2:09:45ISF, I believe, is what the line is called, and so it's… it's actually… it's considered a charge for service, and so what that is, is it's an expense in each department's budget, and it'll show as a revenue in Fund 601, and that's in a revenue line called ISF Contribution.

2:10:01And so it's… it's not a transfer, so when you look at the table for transfers and you're looking for the ISFs, that's not where you're going to see them. They're in charges for services. But if you want to see the best summary of the ISF transfers, that's in Fund 601. That is the vehicle and equipment

2:10:15internal service fund, and so that's where those will go. And each

2:10:19contribution stays in a division-specific line, and so they're not all going to be pooled together. They stay with the division. The funds that the police department contributes to fund 601 stay in the police department lines. Fire department, same thing, stay in their lines. So there's… we're not going to commingle those, because obviously they're for separate purposes. So 601 is the funds that you'll want to look at. Okay, thank you. I will…

2:10:42keep it to that. I do hope that we will get the chart of the details so that, you know, there was the

2:10:49detailed, you know, chart for B and C, so that we know what's really in them. So I would like to know what's in the

2:10:57our B-minus, or whatever you call this new one, because I think, you know, I did see the library funds, and also in non-departmental

2:11:07And I'm assuming those are the library hours, so I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't said it, and if I hadn't seen it. So it's kind of… I don't want people trying to guess what we've included and what we haven't. And so I would really appreciate that.

2:11:22But overall, you know, I think it was a wonderful budget. It's, you know, I don't really like this, you know, web-based one where all the tables, you have to kind of scroll, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. It's super irritating, but I, you know.

2:11:38I really love the detail level and the clarity that you guys were able to get. And on the CIP, you know, the ability to click on the, you know, click on, what is this, and you click on it, and you can, whoops, sorry, see the

2:11:51the project, the photos, information about what it's… what it's doing. I think that's amazing compared to, when I started here. I think the CIP was a photocopy of a photocopy.

2:12:03And it was stuck in the back of a binder.

2:12:06It was, really. So I think this is really amazing. I think,

2:12:12it would be nice to get community input, as Mayor Pro Tem has mentioned in the CIP, but I don't want to lose,

2:12:20track of the fact that we have a criteria, particularly that health and safety and legal, and so maybe what might be not this year, but kind of going forward, in the CIP somehow to shade those a certain color, so to know that those are non-negotiable.

2:12:37And then that will help lay out, kind of, what's…

2:12:41a little bit more discretionary, and I know that sometimes it's a small dollar amount, but it's an extreme amount of staff.

2:12:49And so, you know, I hope that when we have a discussion like this, that, you know, that we get a clear view of what we're asking, particularly, you know, Public Works to do.

2:13:01So, thank you.

2:13:03Thank you very much. You know, I'm going to be brief because my questions have been answered, and in my 12 years in office here, this is the most transparent,

2:13:16presentation that I've seen.

2:13:19So, again, congratulations, well done. I want to congratulate staff, public safety, public works.

2:13:27I thought I saw Chris here earlier. Oh, there you go.

2:13:31Well done, and

2:13:33This is something that, you know, we work very, very hard on. And, you know, with the majority of the 483 cities in deficit years ahead, huge deficits.

2:13:48it's great to see small cities like El Cerrito that are doing great things, and we're going the other way, and we're doing much better.

2:14:00You know, you're looking at the cities that play politics and continue to play politics, and they have to make deep, deep cuts on their budgets by laying on hundreds of people. We're not doing that here at El Cerritos, so…

2:14:15I want to thank, City Manager Karen Picas and her team, for,

2:14:21you know, making sure we are nonpartisan at all times, being transparent, and just doing the work, and staying away from ideology. Ideology got us in the way, last time, and almost brought us to bankruptcy.

2:14:34I remember in 2016, when I had the state treasurer,

2:14:39back then, John Chung, speak on unfunded liabilities, and many of our staff members were at that meeting. And, I'm just calling it again. And the arrogance of the past, group that was in charge here.

2:14:56you know, going the other way and not listening to the state treasurer. So, we've learned our lesson. We're not going to go that way again, and we're not going to copy, what, our cities around us in this progressive bubble, but know that, we are doing the right thing here in El Cerrito.

2:15:14And I encourage my counsel

2:15:17To, look at what other cities are doing and what they're doing wrong. And you look at the successful cities in Contra Costa County, follow their lead. Don't follow what the cities around in this part of the Bay are doing it. They're doing it wrong.

2:15:34And they… and huge, layoffs are in store in these cities that have been doing this wrong all the time. So I hope this teaches this city a lesson, and our residents, that good government is being nonpartisan.

2:15:50And being transparent. So we're going to continue doing that. I want to thank the FAB Committee for just being there, being here time and time again. Thank you for your leadership. So, let's go to…

2:16:02The City Council, local and regional liaisons, so… Mayor, before we move on, we do need to take public comment on this item. Okay. Do we have public comment? We do have a couple…

2:16:15How many do we have? We, we have two speakers. Okay, let's do it. So our first speaker is Michael McDougal, followed by David Carvell.

2:16:28Hello, I'm Michael McDougall, I'm a proud resident of El Cerrito. I'm also on your financial advisory board.

2:16:33I'm gonna speak in support of this draft budget. I want to start by thanking Crystal and Claire. They got us a budget early on the 22nd, and I think I spent, like, 20 to 25 hours that weekend trying to, like, get my head around it, and then on the 28th, they gave us another one, with all of the

2:16:50things taken in, and I really appreciate it. I think they've done a fantastic job. I won't be able to be at the FAB meeting on Thursday, but I hope that FAB supports a resolution that you adopt this draft budget. I think it's really good.

2:17:03And then, with all that said, I'm gonna get a little grumpy, and it's not.

2:17:09to the staff. I think we have fantastic staff. But I want to get a little grumpy about some of the public comments that I hear week after week after week in this thing. A familiar voice in these meetings will spend 3 minutes, perhaps twice a night.

2:17:25advancing a narrative where the management is overpaid, that the city hall is bloated, and the public is not getting the full story. And I'm just… I just… it's been… I'm hearing it long enough that I wanted to speak out just against that voice.

2:17:42It's a powerful narrative because it offers a simple explanation about what's going on in the city in a time when costs are rising, that pension obligations are growing.

2:17:52Services feel stretched, and it's natural to wonder if the problem is simply too much administration, or not enough delivery.

2:18:00And I've spent probably 40 hours looking at this budget, and when you get into the numbers, this is not a story about a city that is, like, mismanaging, or fat, or anything like that.

2:18:11If, staff costs are about, $47 million. The…

2:18:18Purchase services, including, like, things that they're managing, are about $42 million.

2:18:23And about $25 million of that is grants and other things that are being brought in

2:18:28So, that's not a picture of a staff that's casually adding overhead. It's a picture of a city that's responsibly managing a very large portfolio of outside spending. And I'm not talking to you, you know this. I just want to say, push back publicly against some of the things that I hear.

2:18:47Someone has to manage contracts and consultants. Somebody has to oversee construction projects, inspections, maintenance programs. We don't have a coroner. We have to pay the coroner in another city, and someone has to manage that relationship.

2:19:01So, I just really want to… I think, looking at this budget, you can make a straightforward conclusion that we should probably be building more stacked Slack.

2:19:14in the staff side. We should not, I think, at any point when we're looking at this budget, think, oh, we need to shrink the staff. I really do think that what we need to do is provide enough slack for our amazing staff to do the work. Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is David Carvell, and then we'll go to our remote request to speak.

2:19:35Hi, David Carvell, citizen of El Cerrito. I do want to just, bring attention

2:19:42to one of the largest areas of the budget, which is salaries. Salaries for almost all of the departments are going up 10-20% in this budget.

2:19:51That's a lot. That… and except for you all, who are not getting any salary adjustments, everyone else is getting, quite a bit. There may be reasons for that, but as City Council, your job is to hold the city accountable for that, not only to

2:20:07high salaries impact the budget, but they also impact our pension and all of our other liabilities that happen later on. So,

2:20:15I think it's worth special attention really looking at, salaries. Thank you. Thank you very much.

2:20:22Thank you. We'll go to our remote request to speak.

2:20:25Megan, you should be able to unmute and begin your time now.

2:20:29megan: Hi, thank you so much. This is Megan Steffen. I was at the meeting earlier, but I had to go home to put my children to bed.

2:20:38I just wanted to say thank you so much to city staff for that really detailed and helpful presentation about the budget.

2:20:46And thank you. I think I heard correctly that somehow we didn't cut landscaping, and we didn't cut

2:20:54the extra library hours, and that's really amazing, and I think I also heard that because of that, we'll be running more of a deficit than

2:21:02we want to, and, you know, like everyone else, I'm just praying for a revenue rainfall. I did want to say to the Council, just in general, again, as someone who's relatively new to the city, and who's, like, new to the narrative, and who also has been, like Michael, listening,

2:21:21To, sort of, like, just this, like, strangeness that's growing about, like, trust in city processes and, like, where's the money going?

2:21:30I think, like, Council, you all are politicians, and I think there is a need for a sort of political counter-narrative to go out into the community.

2:21:43like, I had someone explain to me that the reason that we have to make cuts, the reason that, you know, like, we are not doing a part… what, you know, Mayor Quinto calls a partisan thing, or, you know, we're not playing politics, or however you want to describe it.

2:21:56But that, like, this is a reality that all cities are facing.

2:22:00And it was described to me in really plain terms, that it's,

2:22:04police salaries and firefighter salaries. I've heard that from, you know, multiple people speaking very plainly. Like, we don't speak that kind of plain language here in this meeting. Like, I'm sure there's really good reasons for it, maybe Brown Act reasons, maybe, like, reasons of decorum. But I think, like, outside of City Council, like, I am really hungry, and I think the community is really hungry for

2:22:28Just the budget to be explained in really plain terms for the sort of macroeconomic

2:22:35You know, Councilmember Kitzanis has talked about the structural reasons, that we have a deficit, like, for these things to be laid out so that people

2:22:45can't understand these things. I think, watching this process happen has been a little bit like European Union-style transparency, where you get all the data, and then it's just like, you know, figure it out.

2:22:58what I'm looking for from my city leaders is a narrative about this. You know, why is it happening? Why is it this way? I know that it's hard to say these things directly and to say them in public forums,

2:23:11Because making a narrative means making an interpretation, and it might be unpopular, or it might require saying something unpopular, but…

2:23:18That's my request going forward. I think the city and the community really needs it. Thank you so much.

2:23:26Thank you, Mayor. That concludes a request to speak.

2:23:29Thank you very much. Again, I want to thank, staff for this great report, and one thing I wanted to say, and, that

2:23:38The chair mentioned something about salaries. We had a comp study just done recently. We are not at the top, we are not at the bottom. We want to be right there in the middle.

2:23:52And that's where we truly are. You know, inflation is happening because of what's happening in the federal government, which is causing a huge hole

2:24:01on the state budget, which is trickling down to the, county budget. If we don't get this tax passed, that the county is… has on, today's bell…

2:24:13ballot this evening. The county is going to have a $1 billion deficit.

2:24:18So, that will be more cuts, hundreds of cuts on the county level.

2:24:24Especially when it comes to healthcare, especially when it comes to, you know, homelessness services and, and, everything else. Healthcare, mental health care, housing, everything. So, you know, El Cerrito has always been very, very pragmatic, at least, the five, seven years, now, when we are in

2:24:48Truly, a much, much better place.

2:24:50And I want to thank the FAB for, you know, advising the councils of the past, and including this council.

2:24:58For, your advice on this. So I wanted to point out, with our residents, the importance of making sure we have a great staff, which we do. And they wear many, many hats, so I defend my,

2:25:12staff, they, were not… if you look at the other cities, and everyone wants to compare us to Berkeley, we are just one-fifth the size in population of Berkeley. We will never be at Berkeley.

2:25:25Yeah, so we're El Serena? We're a small town. Small towns are having a difficult time. They'll have even more difficult times in the future, because we have two more years of this federal government that doesn't, care.

2:25:40about the middle class on down. So, you know, and I wanted to, get… I heard what previous speakers said, as someone who

2:25:51you know, works regionally, that's how small cities survive, in collaboration, in collaboration with

2:26:01our regional boards and committees. So that's how we survive. So, it's a group effort. I want to thank my colleagues for doing their homework always.

2:26:12And, again, I'm just very, very happy with this, and again, thank you, for this presentation. And we'll move forward and, look forward to, the next meeting.

2:26:23Now, can we go to City Council Local and Regional Liaison Assignments? I'll look here to my right, Councilmember Martiano. Thank you, Mayor.

2:26:32On, May the 21st, I attended the ABAG Executive Board meeting, where candidates for,

2:26:42President and Vice President of the Executive Board were discussed, which will be ratified at the General Assembly meeting coming up in June 18th.

2:26:52On May 26th, I attended the FAB and got to hear a little bit more in depth their thoughts about the draft budget. On May 27th, I attended the East Bay Wildfire Coalition meeting here in our chambers, and

2:27:10We discussed the budget for the…

2:27:14East Bay Wildfire Coalition itself, and a communication strategy. And on June 1st, I attended the Pride flag raising, and I'd like to thank my colleagues for having it be a great event, and staff as well.

2:27:30Mayor Pro Tem?

2:27:32On May 22nd, I attended the WCTAC meeting, and the most important thing we discussed was the allocations for the Cycle 3 of the Sub-Regional Transportation Mitigation Program, otherwise known as STIMP. I won't go through all of the allocations, but two of them are important to El Cerrito. One is to the City of El Cerrito.

2:27:55$1.425 million for Safe Strides San Pablo Avenue, bringing

2:28:02safety upgrades here on San Pablo, and the city's gonna put in some funding, and it also has a state grant application, so trying to leverage these local funds to get

2:28:13many millions more to provide those safety upgrades on San Pablo, and as well, BART received $600,000 for El Cerrito Plaza Station LED lighting and signage upgrades, so a lot of good news for El Cerrito.

2:28:30Okay.

2:28:31I'll go next. I flew down to Ontario on May 20th.

2:28:36as president of the League of Cities, and visited the Riverside, Inland Empire, and Desert Mountain Divisions. Three divisions, all at the Ontario, Convention center.

2:28:51You know, mind you, also, that, we are paying the highest plane rates, so when you're flying and you look at

2:28:59Prices are double the price.

2:29:01For flying for business. So, you know, these regional meetings, it's all adding up in cities' bottom lines. Thank goodness Cal Cities is paying for this, because I know I would not be taking $600 round trip,

2:29:16one-hour flights, it's ridiculous. So I, we had a special

2:29:22public safety forum with, chief of police down in that area, and with, gubernatorial candidate, sheriff,

2:29:33Bianco, and with Sheriff Picos in San Bernardino,

2:29:38It's a very conservative area there, but we all agreed the importance of public safety, and and supporting and asking and demanding to our governor and our legislators in California and Sacramento

2:29:55to fund Prop 36. So, I want to thank, my colleagues down south for their kind hospitality on that.

2:30:03I also attended a nominating committee for the board of directors of Cal Cities. This weekend. I drove up to, Fort Bragg with a stop at, Cloverdale. Didn't get a chance to,

2:30:20speak to our former fire chief, but spoke to, the mayor.

2:30:24former mayor over there, and wishing her all the best in her election for county supervisor there, Melanie Bagby. I did, have a meeting in Fort Bragg with the mayors and council members.

2:30:38from Cloverdale all the way to the Oregon border, and to listen to what small cities have to go through. They are wearing many, many hats. They also run the nonprofits that run everything in their small towns. Difficult times ahead.

2:30:56So this will include difficult times ahead for El Cerrito because of what is happening in the federal, government right now. So.

2:31:05You know, we need to support each other and, make sure the neediest of our population are taken care of always. So, that's where we stand with the League of California Cities. They're, you know.

2:31:22If we're going to have about 15 tax measures in the November election, and we can't say yes to all of them, so I urge residents, when we get to the November election, to look and educate

2:31:36yourself wouldn't up or down, move it or don't move it, but know that it will affect everyone. So,

2:31:45I'm wishing all the best to, county, people. I, voted yes and supported that tax measure because this will help the neediest of our population, and, especially folks on Medi-Cal.

2:32:01We're going to see more homelessness, and we are going to see, you know, difficult times for our seniors because of the cuts on Medi-Cal.

2:32:12And that is a shame. Shame on the federal government for doing that to the neediest of our population. So, that is my, update. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, June 16th, 2026, at 6 p.m. Meeting is adjourned at,

2:32:30443. Have a good night, everyone.

2:32:33Sorry, 843. Thank you.