Good afternoon and welcome to Stockton City Council closed session on September 9th. Let's go ahead and take roll. Council Member Blower. Present. Council Member Enriquez. Present. Council Member Ponce is absent. Council Member Padilla. Present. Council Member Villapadua. Present. Vice Mayor Lee. Present. And Mayor Fugazi. Present. We have a quorum. Okay, so we don't have any additions to closed session today. This closed session is authorized pursuant to Section 54956.9, Subsection D, Subsection 1 of the Government Code. We are also authorized pursuant to Section 54956.9D, Subsection 4 of the Government Code. and authorized pursuant to Section 54957.6, Subsection A of the Government Code, in order to meet with legal counsel regarding existing litigation, initiation of litigation, and labor negotiation. So, City Clerk, do we have any public comment? We have received no cards. Okay, well then. Okay, good evening everyone and welcome to Stockton City Council meeting on the ninth day of September. We are going to go ahead and call roll. Councilmember Blower. Present. Councilmember Enriquez. Present. Councilmember Ponce. Present. Councilmember Padilla is absent. Councilmember Villapedua. Present. Vice Mayor Lee. Present. And Mayor Fugazi. Present. We have a quorum. Okay. So now I would like to invite up Pastor Stahl. There he is from First Baptist Church to go ahead and do our invocation. For the privilege of getting to pray for all of you, we do pray for you, specifically even by name at First Baptist Church, that God would just bless this city council and give great leadership. So let me pray. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for an evening to get to come together. We thank you for a great country that we live in and the ability to have the freedoms that we do and the democracy and republic that it stands for. the input that we have from great citizens in our land. And so, Lord, pray for the leadership on a national level. We pray for the leadership right here in this room because we know we have a great city as well. And so we thank you for the calling that you have on each of these people's lives who sit on this city council. Lord, that's not to be taken for granted. And I thank you for the great leadership that they provide for our city. We certainly pray for unity across the land with the issues that we deal with. God, we pray that people will look to Stockton And say Stockton is leading the way in how they care about people, love people, love a city, and they have great people in that land. And so we pray for that unity. We pray for that peace. We pray for that love to abound. And Lord, may your presence be right here in this very room as vision and discernment and wisdom is given to these leaders as they hear and listen to the people. And Lord, ultimately follow you in your ways. And so again, thank you for your calling upon each of them. And for this time this evening, may your spirit be very, very present. And we pray this all in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. little bit about this young lady she is ranked number one at stag high school she was also involved in the yes program over the summer so she was a lifeguard over the summer and then I would let you know that she helped draft the cell phone policy that Stockton Unified School District adopted. So she's a phenomenal young woman. Attorney, do we have any reportable action from closed session? We do, Mayor. In the matter of Yang Zhong versus City of Stockton et al., San Joaquin County Superior Court case number STK-CV-UAT-2022-4637, City Council voted unanimously to settle this matter in the amount of $150,000. City Council also authorized the initiation of litigation under government code section 54957.1 subsection A2 by a 5-2 vote with council members Fugazi and Villapadua dissenting. The action defendants and the other particulars may be disclosed upon request after the action is formally commenced. There are no other items to report. Okay, so we have no additions to tonight's agenda. We're going to move on to recognitions, announcements, and reports. So we're going to start then with H2O Hackathon. So for those on the college team that won the H2O Hackathon, if you could please come forward. Come to the podium. Hi, my name is Andres. We're going to read it first. Hi, my name is Joshua. Oh, we're going to read one of the certificates for you. And what I want you to do is explain what the hackathon, what is the reason why we have the hackathon and how it is that you became involved in it and what you won. One moment. Andres. I'm sorry. In recognition of your exceptional skills, creativity, and perseverance demonstrated during the 2025 H2O Hackathon, 404 Cryptos Not Found has emerged as the winning team at the collegial level, showcasing outstanding problem-solving abilities, teamwork, and technical excellence in the field of coding and technological innovation. Okay. My name is Andres. I came to know about the hackathon through college, just being on, just being aware of everything that's going on. And the reason the hackathon goes on is to, is for innovation and to conserve water. It's a real crisis going on, so it's a competition that drives for innovation. And where do you go to school, Andres? Delta. Okay. Hello, my name is Noah Singh. That was my first Hegleton that I participated. I'm very happy that we won. I feel it's something that inspires a lot of overall coding people that like the language coding. I think it's a language completely different from everything you will learn in your life. And it also is something that it can help in the future more than everything is technology now. I feel it's something that it needs to be seen for everyone. It's something that's going to help in the future. Hi, my name is Joshua. I'm Noah's younger brother. I'm a senior in high school. For me, Hackathon, they told me that you get to create, you can create things that will help or will be able to help people in the future. And for me, coding and all that stuff, I'm still learning about it. But when they told me that you can get creative, I'm a very creative person. So I'm just trying to help my teammates on how to create it. My name is Long. And to me, Hackathon HEO is a great opportunity for students for problem solving, like for water. Because right now, water is one of the main problems in our society. And I think it's great for college students or high school students to be in the community and join the solving the problem. Okay, so where do you go to school? College. Okay, and what did you guys win? We win first place. What? First place. I know, but what did you get? Did you get something? We got a prize. What was it? We won prize money. How much? We won... It was... I'll get them out. It was 2,000 holes. It was 2,000 holes. Okay. Congratulations. Because they split it up differently this time. Andres? Oh, no, sorry. I did the wrong one. That's right. What? They're going to show that? OK. Now they're going to show their app to everybody real quick. I can talk about the system. You can talk about the app. I can explain how it's going to work. He coded everything. OK, guys. Let's go. I'm self-coding. OK, so this is WaterGuard. We didn't have the visuals for the actual app demonstration, but this was the attachment that came along with WaterGuard. This would be attached in your home on the pipes, and it worked as kind of like a valve. It would close and open, releasing less or more water pressure depending on how much water you've been using to conserve more water. And the app was very interactive. It would tell you all the, like, statistics of your home, how much you've been using, and how much you need to conserve. So. Well, last thing. The app was very good. The main thing that we focused on was, I know nowadays people don't like to order stuff. Easier you put it to people, the more they get into it. So the app, you don't have to do basically anything. You just get in, log in, and the device does the work. So once something happens under pressure, the device will close or open, depending on what the app says. You shouldn't have to do any touching to like, I want to lock it or unlock it. You can do it, but that's not the reason. The reason is easier life for people and solve the problem. So if you leave the house and the water was on, you could turn it off? From the phone. From the app? Yeah. Okay. Go ahead, council members. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to say first congratulations again. It was an honor to be there to present you the certificates on behalf of the city and to see the camaraderie, the team spirit that you all had sitting down but going up on stage and showing it. I even asked Esperanza, I said, I thought you all were doing this for months. And come to find out when I got there, you literally did it that morning and presented it that afternoon and won first place. So the ingenuity and the fact that you are a youth here in our county and our region says a lot. So just very impressive. And folks, please take the time to look through the app because it's very impressive. So congrats. Thank you. Yeah, that's our future. Thank you. Moving up now, we are going to Ms. Ransom. RODESIA RANSOM'S OFFICE IS DOING A PRESENTATION FOR US THIS EVENING. GOOD EVENING, EVERYONE. GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, VICE MAYOR, AND COUNCIL. MY NAME IS JASMINE GUTIERREZ. I AM A DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE FOR ASSEMBLY WOMAN RODESIA RANSOM AND ALSO A PROUD DISTRICT SIXTH PRESIDENT. I'm here to provide some legislative updates on what our office has been working on since we've been in office since December of 2024, so just a few months now. Since taking office, the Assemblywoman has authored 12 bills, and we're very happy to report that of those 12 bills, they've all continued to move on. Unfortunately, some have not, but we have some really good news. Two of our bills are headed to the governor's desk, which will be the first of the bills for Assemblywoman Ransom to get consideration from the governor. These are our lithium battery bills, AB 696, and the honeybee health plan, AB 1042. Additionally, despite a very difficult budget year, the Assemblywoman was able to secure local funding for us here. So I don't know if you guys have heard of our Family Justice Center here just a few blocks away, but we're very, very happy to announce that she was able to secure $10 million for California Family Justice Center. So that's going to help us here locally. If you haven't heard... If you haven't heard of what they do, they have been able to help 70,000 survivors each year throughout California, and there's a surge of over 40%. They help victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse, and more. We've also been able to secure, alongside Senator McNerney, $8 million for Beam Circular's Bioeconomy Innovation Campus. Additionally, if you guys have heard of the Delta Tunnel Project, the Boondoggle Project, we have continuously been proactive about trying to prevent this from happening. The Assemblywoman and our team launched a audit to the Department of Water Resources. And unfortunately, we didn't have all the votes that we needed to be able to pass this audit because it is going to cost us millions of dollars. And we don't know where that funding is going to be coming from. Prices continue to raise and they're not being accounted for in this budget. So we are continuing the fight for our water and making sure that it's not shipped to Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Additionally, we help with constituent services. So if anyone ever needs help with any state department, state agency, our office is here to help. Since December, we've been able to secure $410,000 for constituents. And this is a culmination of... EDD cases, a franchise tax board, but not just monetary wins. We've also had wins for people who haven't heard from in regards to their nursing license and being able to get a job. We've been able to help our local real estate agents so that 200 of our agents here in San Joaquin County don't lose their job due to the lack of response of these agencies. So if anyone needs help with these agencies, we're here to help you. And then we also have an internship program. Just this summer, we had nine interns from San Joaquin County, ranging from high school students to college students. We currently have four interns right now. Our interns have had the opportunity to join us out in the community this summer, and they participated in local events like press conferences, chamber mixers, ribbon cuttings, and also they've joined us at our events. They've gotten hands-on experience in public service while also supporting our office's outreach efforts. And the last thing that I'll say before I end is we have a new program that I encourage you guys to look at. It's called There Ought to be a Law. And this is a program where we are welcoming constituents to submit proposals for ideas for the upcoming legislative session. the community myself the assemblywoman we constantly hear about great ideas in regards to statewide reforms revision to existing laws new policies budget requests you name it so this is the opportunity to make your voice heard and let the assemblywoman know what changes you want to see in your community your idea has the potential of becoming law across california Lastly, I recommend that you all stay connected. We have so many different events coming up. Just last month, we had Get the Scoop with Assemblywoman and special guests. And we're going to continue to have meet and greets throughout the next few months. We also have a State of the Health Care in Assembly District 13 coming up on September 20th that we invite you all to. And thank you so much. So now we have a proclamation for AVID Day. And for those of you that don't know what AVID is, Advancement Via Individual Determination, a phenomenal program that helps prepare the next generation for the rigors of college by taking care of it now in elementary school and throughout high school. So I will let you go ahead. If you are part of AVID Day, please come up to the podium as we're about to read the proclamation. AVID, Advanced Via Individual Determination, is a nonprofit founded in 1980 at Claremont High School, dedicated to the belief that every student can live a life of possibility. And AVID has grown from a single elective class into a comprehensive college preparatory system, serving thousands of schools across the United States, Department of Defense Education Activity, Canada, Australia, impacting millions of students. AVID partners with K-12 educators to foster academic success and prepare students for college, career, and life readiness. And AVID works to close the opportunity gap by equipping all students with the skills, support, and agency needed to achieve their aspirations. And over 45 years, AVID has helped millions of students succeed in rigorous coursework, expand career opportunities, and gain confidence in their ability to achieve. And AVID has empowered educators to build equitable, student-centered learning environments, break down barriers to achievement, and advocate for students' long-term successes. And AVID alumni are four times more likely to graduate from college than their peers, with 42% of first-generation, low-income students earning a four-year degree within six years compared to 11% nationally. Now, therefore, I, Christina Fugazi, Mayor of the City of Stockton, and members of the Stockton City Council, do hereby proclaim September 12, 2025, as AVID Day. going to be a little bit of a repeat from what was just read but good evening on behalf of starting unified schools district affiliates students and educators is an honor to celebrate avid day in our city avid advancement via individual determination is more than an academic program for students preparing for college or the workforce it is a culture that equips students with the skills strategies and confidence they need to thrive not only in school but in college careers and life my name is Lindsay Kent and I am a proud member of the Stockton Unified District, and an avid coach. Joining me today are my colleagues Kelly Leonard, also a district avid coach, as well as August Elementary's principal, Robin Capella, and program specialist Sandy Miai, along with our director of ed services, Laurie Risseau. Their dedication and the commitment of many across our district has transformed classrooms into places where writing inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading are at the heart of learning. Through AVID, we have seen students who once doubted themselves grow into leaders, critical thinkers, and first-generation college attendees. Teachers, too, have embraced AVID strategies, raising expectations, and ensuring every student has access to rigorous, supportive learning environment. The impact of AVID is felt across Stockton Unified. 40 schools currently implement AVID, including 35 K-8 campuses and six high schools. August and Cleveland Elementary have earned the... AVID national showcase title and Edison High School, our first AVID site 27 years ago, has proudly maintained its status as a national demonstration school for the past decade. It is also no coincidence that all three of our educational services directors previously led AVID showcase or demo schools. This program transforms not only students' future, but also the work of teachers and leaders throughout the district. We continue to embrace AVID's mission to close the opportunity gap and prepare all students for college and career readiness. The results are clear. Higher attendance, more students enrolling in advanced placement and dual enrollment courses, and an increasing number of graduating students that are A through G compliant and ready for college. Our students are also shining on a larger stage. This past summer, a Chavez High student was one of only two invited to speak at AVID's 2025 Summer Institute, sharing the profound impact AVID has made on her life. Student leaders from Edison along with third graders from Cleveland Elementary also represented Stockton Unified via student panels. These stories highlight how AVID empowers learners at every grade level. We are deeply grateful to Mayor Fugazi and all the council members for recognizing the impact and declaring September 12th as AVID Day. This declaration is not only an honor, It is a powerful affirmation of the work happening in our classrooms and the bright futures being built through AVID. Thank you for your continued support of our students, our schools, and the AVID mission. Together, we are opening doors to opportunities and inspiring determination in the next generation of leaders. WE APPRECIATE IT. YES, IF EVER YOU WISHED FOR A CLASS THAT TAUGHT YOU HOW TO TAKE NOTES, AVID TEACHES YOU HOW TO TAKE NOTES. IT TEACHES YOU HOW TO READ CRITICALLY FOR INFORMATION IN TEXT, AND IT ALSO HELPS YOU TO DEBATE THROUGH SOCRATIC SEMINARS, WHICH GIVES YOU DEEPER UNDERSTANDING AND LEARNING OF SPECIFIC CONTENT. SO MOVING ON TO THE NEXT ITEM. SO FORENSIC SCIENCE APPRECIATION WEEK. Whereas thousands of dedicated members of the forensic science community, namely evidence technicians, serve the citizens of the United States of Canada daily by collecting physical and digital evidence, documenting crime scenes, and providing analysis and testimony to exonerate the innocent and identify the guilty. And the critical functions performed by professional evidence technicians also include those related to many other operations performed by federal, state, and local government agencies. And the professional evidence technicians community plays a critical role in public outreach and crime prevention and is evolving in its role as an important member of the criminal justice community. And our professional evidence technicians have exhibited compassion, understanding, and professionalism during the performance of their duties in the past year. Now, therefore, I, Christina Fugazi, Mayor of the City of Stockton and members of the Stockton City Council, do hereby proclaim September 14th through 20th, 2025 as National Forensic Science Week. Good evening. I am Lieutenant Damon Underwood. I oversee the Investigations Division at the Stockton Police Department. I want to say thank you to the Council for recognizing our Evidence Identification Unit. They're an integral part of our Investigations Division. They process thousands of crime scenes a year. They do fingerprint and ballistic analysis and a myriad of other things that assist our officers and our detectives and without them our investigators would not be able to solve as many crimes as they do. So on behalf of the police department I'd like to thank all of our evidence technicians and their supervisors for the work that they do and do day in and day out. So thank you. We would like to thank you Mayor Fugazi and council members for this proclamation recognizing Forensic Science Week. I'm honored to accept it on behalf of my team. Our work often happens behind the scenes, but it's made possible because of the support we receive from our department and from our city. We appreciate this recognition of the dedication, professionalism, and commitment of forensic scientists. Thank you again for acknowledging our work. Okay, so we are now moving on to public comment and I have a little bit of a longer speech or should I say script to share with you. The city of Stockton invites public participation in multiple forms. You can provide your comments using one of these methods. You may email your comments to the city clerk. at city.clerk at stocktonci.gov. You can leave a voicemail message at 209-937-8459. Your message will be transcribed and included in the meeting records. And if you have any questions regarding any of these forms of participation, please contact the Office of the City Clerk. Now this time is for citizens' comments, announcements, or invitations. You may comment on any subject within the jurisdiction of the City of Stockton, including items on the agenda. Members of the public will have an opportunity to comment on specific agenda items, such as consent, new business, and public hearings, as we take those items up. To ensure sufficient participation and conduct, the agendized city business, the public is limited to two minute comment opportunity. Citizen public comments are not a time for discussions with the council regarding subjects not on the agenda for this meeting as the Brown Act prohibits such discussions. Comments made by members of the public may not reflect the viewpoint of the members of the council. We ask that you maintain the rules of the decorum that are outlined in the city council meeting decorum policy title four chapter four four point zero seven paragraph two which reads persons addressing the council should not make personal impertinent unduly repetitive slanderous or profane remarks to the council any member of the council city staff or the general public nor utter loud threatening personal or abusive language nor engage in any other conduct that disrupts or otherwise unreasonably impedes the orderly conduct of the council meetings. Any person who makes such remarks, who utters loud, threatening, personal, or abusive language, who is unduly repetitious or engages in extended discussions of irrelevancies, or who engages in disorderly conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise unreasonably impedes the orderly conduct of the council meeting, shall, at the discretion of the presiding officer or majority of the council, be barred from further participation during that meeting. In short, we do not allow personal attacks. Therefore, please be respectful of these chambers and all who sit here and of the viewing audience. The rules of decorum set forth above shall be enforced in the following manner. First thing is warning. This actually is a preliminary warning. Warning. The presiding officer shall request that a person who breaches the rules of decorum be orderly and silent. If, after receiving that warning from the presiding officer, a person persists in disturbing the meeting, the presiding officer shall order him or her to leave the council meeting. If such person does not remove him or herself, the presiding officer may order that any law enforcement officer who is on duty at the meeting to remove that person from the council chambers. Okay, so with that, city clerk. we have any comments from the members of the public this evening we do mayor i just for um our regular speakers i want to draw your attention to the fact that the location of your time clock has changed it is now over on this other side sitting up here um just that you're aware of where it's at may i have to the podium um adriana cruces and before she speaks uh council member enriquez Yes, thank you Madam Mayor. Just for clarification and just so the audience knows too that I just want to ask two things just the way the public knows. I want to ensure that, and again you said it really eloquently Madam Mayor, that the decorum applies to both sides of the dais and the audience. So I want to remind my colleagues to also be mindful that if there's any comments that you want to address, please be mindful to not address to the audience. And if you want something that you notice in the audience, please direct your concerns to the presiding officer and the presiding officer would do her job to ensure that there is a quorum on both sides. Other question, just for clarification, I think I know the answer. That timer is on the side for both sides, which is great. Two sides for public comment. Madam Mayor, will you be having a five minute limit on each agenda item or just selective ones? No, each agenda item, each council member will have a five minute. Perfect. And then, thank you, Madam Mayor. And then last question is, will you be putting a time limit on council comments since we weren't able to give comments for two meetings in a row? We'll see how tonight goes. But I'd like you to be able to comment. I would like to be able to comment as well. Great. So we look forward to it. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. And I echo what my colleague to the right just said. But the one thing that I want to point out is that I know these are new. uh... rules or this is a new script that i none of us have seen prior to the start of this meeting so i would request is that each of the council was get a copy of this so we can actually go through and understand it also want to just point out that you know the the the enforcement of this process decorum is it's a tricky thing right because we want to make sure that were welcoming public comment that were uh... in in you know encouraging people to use their constitutional rights to advocate for their needs and all of us that are representing our respective districts are here with the responsibility and obligation to represent the voices of those who may not be here and that elected us to do so. So I think it's just really important, and this is to all of my colleagues and the mayor, that as we enforce this decorum rule, that we be very clear on two things. One, that it's enforced even-handedly, so that way people can't point fingers. And two, that we be very mindful and respectful of why we are all here tonight, and that is to advocate for all of the needs of our community. So with that, I just want to make sure that each council member gets a copy of these rules they are being emailed to you now and also these they can all be found online as well and I know that at the beginning of the year our attorney provided them all to council members and it just point of clarification and is this script the same script that we've been reading every meeting until tonight or is this a new script It was the script that Mayor Lincoln read. Okay. So, yeah, because we've not heard that prior to tonight and haven't been able to review it, I would like to take a look at that. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Councils. This is my first time here, and I apologize. I don't speak fast, but I come with a white flag in hopes of getting your support. 45% of the citizens in this city are in Latino-Hispanic heritage. My understanding is the Hispanic heritage Latino month begins September 15th. And I want to know what the city has planned for commemorating the history that such large population has helped to make this city happen. So I want to know how we're being supported. I do want to let you know that there is a very important ceremony happening here with Comerciantes Unidos, and if you guys can please corroborate on September 30th, it would be right here next to City Hall. Also, Dolores Huerta will be joining the city at Delta College, and I would really like to see City Council present. That's just one of the reasons why I'm here. I want to be represented. I've served for this community for 40 years. I'm celebrating my 40th year as a volunteer in this city, 20 years as an educator, and I don't know how many endless nights. and reaching out after my contractual hours to the various Chamber of Commerce to bring in youth programs, to bring in leadership that are welcome into my class to empower children. I personally have put in my application to become part of the Arts Commission where I know that there's five openings that I've not heard back because I want to have youth REPRESENTED IN OUR CITY. THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO MURALS IN NORTH STOCKTON. I'VE TRIED TO CONTACT DISTRICT TWO FOR THE PAST SIX MONTHS AND I'VE BEEN IGNORED. SO I REALLY NEED YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE ARTS PROJECTS AND THE YOUTH. THANK YOU. MATTHEW LESTER. Hello, Mayor, City Council, everyone. Great to see everyone again. It's on. Sorry. I want to speak on item 12.1 on the agenda regarding the removal of Patricia Barrett, who is, I've known her for only a sure amount of time, but what I've seen is a highly respected member of our community. Patty has demonstrated outstanding commitment in our city through advocating for the LGBT community, her tireless work with our unhoused community that I've seen with my own eyes, and her helping the citizens that had to move out of the encampment on Trinity Parkway. I feel this is retaliation because Patty has given valid criticism about certain individuals. There's nothing wrong with giving construction criticism, and it's only, and it's... Sorry, and it's okay to admit when you've made a bad decision. I've urged you to reconsider what appears to be a blatant act of retaliation. Removing Patty not only harms the Planning Commission, but sends another chilling message to others within the city who else wants to give valid criticism. That's all. Thank you. Pat Barrett. Friday night I felt like a famous person. About every seventh person that I passed at the 175th year gala, someone was saying that I need to keep up the good work at city council and that what I was expressing is so true and proud of me for speaking the truth even though they felt bad for not coming. And because the way I am going to express myself in a few seconds, it is why they don't show up. I want to speak about retaliation through me towards our vice mayor. Since you have no grounds to stand on to pull me, and that since I am seen as a white person for which my family is Mediterranean, you feel safe attacking me without having the race car pulled. Our vice mayor, along with other council members, were doing the right thing about not hiring the ICM you wanted. You have lived a lifetime of certain demeanor as a teacher, principal, vice principal, versus student behavior. You have to chastise him and other council members. At the last meeting, you demanded that the four of your left push their buttons to give you the vote. We are not students. It has already been voiced that you are reflecting racial discrimination. I am assuming... THAT NOW YOU ARE REFLECTING REVERSE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION BECAUSE YOU THINK THE FOCUS IS NOT ON THE PEOPLE OF COLOR, YOU ARE SAFE. YOU'RE NOT SAFE. I'M BEING TARGETED AS A VICTIM THROUGH THIS. WITHOUT PROPER CAUSE, AND SINCE THE COMMITTEE DOES NOT REFLECT THE DISTRICT, YOU SHOULD BE PULLING THE TWO WHITE MALE REPRESENTATIVES, FOR THEY DO NOT REFLECT THE DIVERSITY OF OUR CITY IN TRADES AND DEVELOPMENT. REMEMBERING, 42% OF OUR COMMUNITY IS HISPANIC. WE HAVE GREAT LEADERS THAT ARE HISPANIC AND ASIAN DEVELOPERS WHO ARE PRONE TO BE MORE ENVIRONMENTAL MINDFUL. NEEDLESS TO SAY TRADES DONATED OVER 5 GRAND TO YOUR CAMPAIGN. Hello, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council members. My name is Donald Tafoya, and I've lived in Stockton for 67 years. I've worked on farms, harvesting various crops, and attended all my schooling here. I served as a Stockton police officer from 1973 to 1976 under Chief Cicchetti, excellent chief. Since 1978 to present, I am a licensed real estate agent. In the real estate industry, we have an obligation to uphold fiduciary relationships with our clients, placing their best interests at the forefront. I intended to address several critical issues facing our community, including crime, homelessness, affordable housing, and sanctuary city status. However, I need more than two minutes. I have been focused mostly on state and federal politics, not enough on local. Lately I've been following the city council members and I believe that you must also embody the principles of fiduciary responsibility, honesty and integrity towards the residents of Stockton. Unfortunately, I do not see these values reflected in this council. Instead, I observe troubling trends of mutual patronizing followed by disparagement among yourselves. All the diversive and destructive behavior that plagues this council, we are witnessing outrageous antiques, backstabbing, and unfounded attacks on social media. All council members, oh, correction, this, excuse me, This conduct is wholly unacceptable. Anyone that demands $25,000 in an apology is an extortionist. Thank you, Mr. Tafoya. Thank you. You can submit your comments if you want, and we'll put them into record. Sure. For the city clerk. Sure. I redid this because there are some things I changed. Oh, okay. I'll just send in an email. Okay. Thank you. Next. Mary Elizabeth. Point of order. Point of order. Thank you, Mr. Tafoi. Mary Elizabeth. Somebody's phone is here. That's all right. I didn't want you to lose it. Mary Elizabeth, Stockton resident. I have come here and spoken with you about the loose animal situation. And we have in my neighborhood in the last five years just walking. I have been... a dog came up to me and bit me and in one case required me to have to go to the doctor for some prophylactics. So I see this as a public health problem. I put in a Public Records Act request and there are currently 14,474 dog licenses and 2,098 cat licenses in the city of Stockton with a population of over 320,000. According to standard statistics for California, we should be having 140 dog licenses at 40%. I look around my neighborhood and about 40% of the people in my neighborhood have dogs. The city needs to do better. There is licensing that is required. People say, oh, well, you know, the police department should be doing more than picking up loose dogs. Well, maybe we need to take animal control out of the police department and put it where it has its own department. and takes care of this situation because it's out of control. And let the police department focus on those red lighters that continue to go through red lights right in front of the city hall today. 134 East Harding Way is still in operation. I put in a Public Records Act request. It is not licensed. Thank you. Alyssa Leyva. Alyssa Leyva, Stockton Stans. I saw a recent article about an incident with a 16-year-old being accused of I believe hitting an officer. And I know that last time we were discussing about how crime is down, I mentioned of just having better transparency with infographics that have the sources of actual data. But I know we have a community advisory board within the police department. I really hope that it's not a form of bureaucracy that implies bias recommendations from people who already work with the police. I think that... There is a similar model in Modesto where we have an actual community advisory board where people are appointed and the public has more transparency and accommodation to speak on actual accountability for law enforcement. And also too, since Stockton Unified, this was a 16-year-old and the youth comprised of a large number in our city, there is an oversight board appointed with the DOJ due to the excessive force of law enforcement at Stockton Unified. But today I ask just for more transparency, why is it that our law enforcement was not able to de-escalate with the teenager? We are supposed to be implementing procedures and policies that are reflective of the diversity of our city. This 16-year-old was a minority. She was a young woman. And I understand maybe there was some vandalization or whatever, but there's a reason why, you know, our students and our youth feel the need to rebel when they don't feel represented and it's not safe and you guys act this way. Thank you. Cynthia Gail Boyd. Thank God I'm still alive in this dangerous city, my father gone. A covenant is just like the oath. that each one of you took. It's an agreement that you respect us just like we respect you all, right? Some things I got to come back to talk about because this little two-minute limit doesn't give us much time to do this. I've got to revisit. Why do you even have the preachers to come up here and pray when you're back there slinging blood? Back there, and then when you get up there, it makes no sense. Isaiah was a great prophet, but he felt that his mouth was too foul. And so a descending angel came down, Miss Padilla. Please direct your comments through me. I want her attention. Thank you. Some of that. A descending angel came down and put hot coals to his mouth. before he became a prophet. Immediately last meeting I was here, Ms. Mayor, and talking about y'all eating and carrying on. I thought you were talking to me. Okay, she's getting too hungry. Soon as I said about you eating, Ms. Mayor, she began right away, maybe she needs some hot coal on her lips. Mr. Vice Mayor, come on my brother. Through me. I'm looking at you. It's still about him. What do you want me to say, Ms. Mayor? I'm talking about him. To me. Don't get me started. On one of his Facebook posts or a public post, the vice mayor was admonishing some newspaper person, I understand that it was. I don't want people representing me that says, I might be the vice mayor. You want to fit? No, thank you. Cut it out. He said... I MIGHT BE THE VICE MAYOR, BUT I WILL F-U-C-K YOU UP. GET OUT OF HERE WITH THAT NONSENSE. MARK STEBBINS. HOT COLD. MS. BOYD, THAT'S YOUR FIRST WARNING. I GOT YOU. THANK YOU. Mark Stebbins. In 1974, Councilman Tom Madden sat on the council bench and stated that Southeast Asian immigrants were eating dogs, pet dogs. No one on the council. rebuked him. No one spoke. Everyone was silent. Fifteen years later, Patrick Purdy took their silence for permission and murdered six children in Cleveland School, Southeast Asian children. Eight months ago, the council sat on the bench and was silent. about naming the Northeast Stockton Library after the Ottai family. In being silent, you ascended to 100 years of segregation and discrimination. Don't let that ascent turn into acts of racism, acts of violence. against the citizens of Stockton. Make this city a city that affirms, not denies, the ethnicity of all of its people. Thank you. Andy Abbott. All right. Well, I didn't want to be here. But after watching the mayor belittle the work and the independence of the civil grand jury at the last council meeting, I got a little worried. And then, just last week, just days later, what do we have? Let's see here. Got a little visual aid. Oh, there we go. We have our mayor casually posing for a selfie with the star of the 2024 Civil Grand Jury Report. The Grand Jury Report goes out of its way to decry the influence and harm of 209 times. It in no uncertain terms says keep 209 times well away from the workings of our government. And here's our mayor not a care in the world. How can anyone take your commitment to honest government and transparency seriously when you're cozying up to the powers keeping the city down? This council needs to get all of the findings of the civil grand jury implemented now, specifically those about outside influences. Let's start with the Bay Area policies of disclosures from political consultants. Michelle Padilla was quoted as saying, well, if... consultants were forced to make transparency disclosures, some of them wouldn't want to work for us. Well, guess what? You unintentionally hit the nail on the head. That's the point. Anyone who won't make those disclosures shouldn't be working on campaigns. It takes three council members, I think, to get something on the agenda. I see three of you that shouldn't mind doing the right thing. Get it on there. Get everyone on the record. And let's see who votes for good government and who votes for furthering the rot in City Hall. And what you're doing to Patricia is shameful. Shanice Daniels? mayor vice mayor city council members i just um came off the cuff my daughter asked me to come with her um she's in a program with chamber leadership of stockton and i personally wanted to come and thank each of you i've seen most of you at several of the events going on in the city in the last couple months and i'm very proud to say that it looks like the city when you show up it is a diverse council it is people that believe in their in their rights to make a change. And I'm very proud of each and every one of you. Whatever your regular day jobs are or were, I appreciate you taking the time out to come out to visit with your constituents, show up at National Night Out, show up at Stockton Black Family Day, show up at all these beautiful events, United Way cohort graduation. I've seen you at just about all the events that I've been at. in the last couple of months and beyond that. Mayor Fugazi, I've seen you at several different things and I'm just proud to say that finally I'm looking at a council that actually represents everyone in the city. We might not all have the same backgrounds as far as culturally, but I see that you guys are working together, especially during times where it's difficult. Having uncomfortable conversations makes things happen and I appreciate that you are now doing that. It was not done before. I've been coming to city council meetings for a long time. I had to take a break. But in the past, it's been one, two, maybe five people in here. And this, with an overflow, represents what cities should look like. It represents each and every district. And I'm just proud to say that I know you guys. Thank you. Lan Fong Nguyen. Good evening, Mayor Fugazi and city council member. I'm here today as president of Papa San Joaquin chapter, and I would like to thank Vice Major Lee, Major Council Member Enrique, and Council Member Badia for attending our town hall event last Saturday. And we really appreciate you for your presence there and your you know, sometimes very difficult answer to difficult questions from the community. But a lot of attendees after war, they expressed the gratitude that, you know, at least we provide them the platform for them to meet the council member and ask questions. So we really appreciate you. I also want to touch on a point like today, Brad, I mean, just hear comments here because I'm an appointee from Major Fugazi to sit in the Major W Commission, even though we haven't met. But just from reason, you know, how do I say it, policy that, you know, we can remove the commissioner from whatever office that they got appointed. I certainly feel afraid when I attend a meeting or what should I talk or how I behave because I can be removed. So it's just my general feeling. So I hope you council member take it into account when you vote for this. Thank you. That concludes general public comment. Okay, so we are moving on to the consent calendar and I want to first start off with council. Are there any items that you would like to pull? 12.1. Okay, I'd like to pull 12.5. 12.8. 12.8. Okay, and then... the public? We have comments for 12-1, 12-2, 12-6, 12-7, and 12-8. So you said 12-1, 12-2, 12-6, 12-8? 12-7 and 12-8. OK, so we have two. OK, so we have three. Actually, we only have three. then, right? 12.3 hasn't been pulled. Or on four. 12.3 and 12.4. I mean, excuse me. Yeah, 12.3 and 12.4. Okay, so I will take a motion to approve 12.3 and 12.4. Move to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries 7-0. So starting at the top, 12.1, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I think it's important and educational for the public to know that we don't see the agenda until it gets posted for the public. So when you see it, we see it. We don't set the agenda items unless we do it in the public. And so I didn't know that this item was coming until I saw it, and I didn't get a chance to review the agenda until yesterday. I want to go to what Lan just said with respect to commissioners and people who are volunteering their time to advocate for the needs of their community, their constituents, their neighbors, that they feel afraid to speak. I think there was something powerful in what she said. When I look at national news, when I look at what's happening coming from D.C. and the amount of pressure on our country, on the world, on states, and now in cities, I'm just really concerned at how we are getting closer to the national conversation around censorship and retaliation or perceived retaliation versus inclusion and really welcoming people who are the best advocates for our community. I had a conversation with Pat specifically around her advocacy for the district because District 6 is a hard district that needs tough people fighting for it. I endure lots of people who come up and say whatever they want about me, and the mayor does a great job at shutting down this direction to me and taking it directly to her like she did a second ago, and that's fine. But I welcome people to come in and say what they need to say because this is your time to come and be heard. I hear, and I don't want folks to applaud because really this is not an us versus them thing. This is not a blood and crib conversation. This is a conversation around democracy, civic engagement, and encouraging people to use their voices. I do not ever want to be leading a city where we are making people feel as if they need to be concerned or afraid to advocate. Once we go there or once people believe that they can be retaliated against because they come up and say what they feel, then we become a different city than the city that made me. The other thing I will say is there is a sense of responsibility, though, when we do advocate for our communities or when we do fight for an issue that we aren't overtly, personally attacking people or making accusations. I am somebody who sits up here under an investigation now for something that I wasn't even under an investigation for as a result of people throwing things around, right? But, you know, I have an opinion about it, but I'm not out raising money to recall any of my colleagues. I'm not out telling people they shouldn't vote for them. I'm not out trying to get them removed from their office because they did what they needed to do, and I weathered the storm like I have my whole life. District 6 is a district, and I'll wrap this up because I want to make it really poignant here. District 6 is the most affected district as it relates to climate and environment. we know that we know the warehouse conversations we know all of the asthmatic rates we know the life expectancy of a child in district six is ten years less than those on the north my concern is twofold i didn't recommend nor have a prior conversation about pat be removed uh... the second part is district six would have no representation in this very important committee And then the third point is we're then going to set a bar for any of us that want anybody removed for anything. And then all of a sudden now everybody's commissioner and volunteer becomes a target or potentially removable. So I just think that there should be a pause on this topic. We should have some conversation about fairness and equity and then make the right decision, whatever the council feels that is. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I want to begin by recognizing Pat as being knowledgeable and a dedicated community member, and you've given your time, you've given this city knowledge, you've advocated for this city, and we're truly grateful for all your contributions. However, with that, this city has policy, and within that policy, it's very clear that the mayor is able to make appointments. And I believe that she is exercising her right. But going forward as council members, we need to remind ourselves of this policy and respect the discretion that it provides to each of us. So our focus should remain on supporting our committees and carrying out its important work for the city. Thank you. councilmember enriquez yes thank you madam mayor first i just want to say and just echo what the vice mayor has shared so far in terms of pat barrett's advocacy and the fact that she brings years of institutional knowledge in this city who's active on the county and the city who represents district 6 and when we talk about climate action plan advisory committee we need someone in district 6 to represent and to have someone that's not being replaced and not having a district 6 voice is a disservice to THE VICE MAYOR AND HIS CONSTITUENTS, BUT ALSO FOR ME, IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT COMMUNICATION, RIGHT? WE'RE ALWAYS THIS BIG TALK ABOUT TRANSPARENCY. SO I WOULD SAY IN ANY CONVERSATION, AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THIS COMMITTEE HAS EVEN MET, THERE HAS TO BE A REASON. AND WHEN THERE'S NOTHING ON THE RECORD AS TO WHY TO ANY OF US MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHY WE'RE REMOVING SOMEONE, THERE HAS TO BE A REASON. I WOULD GET IF IT WAS BREAKING A POLICY, IF THERE'S OUTRIGHT DOCUMENTATION I KNOW MYSELF OF BEING ACCUSED OF NO DOCUMENTATION, SO I KNOW THAT VERY WELL, BUT I WOULD HATE TO SEE THAT HAPPEN TO THE PUBLIC. IF THERE IS INFORMATION, DOCUMENTATION, WHICH HOPEFULLY WILL BE SHARED AS TO THE REASON, THAT'S GREAT. BUT I KNOW FOR US AS A COUNCIL, WE DON'T ALWAYS HAVE THAT INFORMATION. SO IF THAT IS PRESENTED, I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING THAT. BUT AS OF NOW, I THINK THERE'S, YOU KNOW, ESPECIALLY IF THIS COMMITTEE HAS NOT MET, I JUST FEEL LIKE WE JUST VOTED THIS COMMITTEE IN WITH THE RECOMMENDATION OF thought leaders at the mayor had recommended initially which i think this council did support and we all did vote these folks in but again there's no actual reasoning so i i can't support this in terms of removing pat on this uh... again half baked idea thank you council member blauer thank you mayor uh... i too was surprised when i saw this uh... this issue uh... this item on the agenda uh... i've known pat to be just a fierce advocate for the environment for environmental issues over the last several years. And I guess to kind of echo what Councilmember Enriquez said, I don't understand this. I don't have a, you know, I don't see a reason. I don't see any reason why we should do this or, you know, a justification for removing somebody from that. I know there's a perception of it looking like retaliation. And I, you know, I certainly hope that's not the case. But there is that perception out there. So I can't support this without some valid reason to do this. Thank you. Okay, so I would like to just point out that this was a policy that ledge committee approved and pushed on to city council. So let's start there. There is also a creed for council members and commissioners that we are all held to, us included. We, however, you know, we're elected in and we have to monitor ourselves in that effort. There are different categories for this advisory group. We had somebody represented from labor. We had people represented from nonprofits. So there were different categories that people were selected. to represent it wasn't by district it was by area of I want to say expertise so to speak and I have as the person who appointed I do have the authority to put people in there that I think could do the job and the individual actually has done extensive work in a district six They were part of the Visionary Home Builders group that was doing housing in South Stockton, also the plans for a piece of land in that area that is now up for development that has been fully funded. And so this person, like I said, has done extensive work in this community, and I'm looking forward to them bringing more to the table than maybe we've seen from other individuals. So, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I want to just speak to Councilwoman Padilla's point that, you know, folks having the right to do things or not do things, just because we have the right to do things doesn't always mean we need to do those things. I think we need to always use discretion. I think we need to think about fairness. I think we need to think about equity because what's good for one should be good for all. I think we should think about the current climate of our community right now and the frustration that people are feeling that we're weaponizing this platform that is here to serve the people's business. uh... elected somebody to fight for them if you know this is again i've said to pat and i'll just share very openly i think pat is a greater activist and she needs to be serving on any commission i think that she should continue to come up here fighting for what she believes because she's a strong fighter and she's doing a lot of work on behalf of the community all across the board here's why i don't support this and i and i don't want us to go back to our last meeting because that last meeting was an embarrassment of for all of us What's good for one person has to be good for all. We're not up here entertaining a censure for how people behaved in our meetings last time. I intentionally went on social media and said some crazy stuff to be censured so that way we can talk about why one rule applies to one and not another. And again, if the decision of this council as a whole decides that Pat should be removed and we still don't even know why she's being removed. I just want to be very clear on this slippery slope that we are now opening up this potential for applying to anybody who has a commissioner anywhere. And then the idea that people should be concerned if they overstep in their advocacy that they too can become a target. I don't support this, but I'm one vote and I appreciate my colleagues who agree. Public comment? Julie Dunning, please. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. In the spirit of seeking first to understand, I'm questioning the proposed action before Council regarding the Climate Action Plan Advisory Committee. On November 4th, 2008, as part of a settlement agreement for litigation against the 2035 general plan, the city council appointed the first climate action plan advisory committee. Though the settlement agreement required only five members, the city elected by resolution to expand participation to 10 members. The membership consisted of two members from each five of five specific categories, environmental, nonprofit, community organizations, labor, business, and development. this ten member committee structure remained in effect until september thirtieth two thousand and fifteen when the last terms expired From that date until July 15, 2025, the committee appears to have been inactive except for one meeting in 2016 and two meetings in 2018. When the new committee was formed in July, it was reduced to seven members for reasons that are not transparent to us and appears to have a different focus. As stated under the new committee roles and responsibilities, members are tasked with sharing experiences with regional context. Member Barrett is the only member from South Stockton, the heart of the AB 617 region, and the only committee member who can bring that experience to the table. As the newly elected chair of this committee, I'm at a loss to understand why she should be removed. And because I'm not going to make it in two minutes, I'll skip to the end. Therefore, I'd like to propose that you amend the action to add Ms. Williams but leave Ms. Barrett in place or withdraw this item at next council meeting and add both Ms. Williams and the Native American representative, which is why I was told I was being removed. Doing so would make a nine-member committee more consistent with the original committee and would be in the best interest of the city. Thank you. Pat Barrett. ON JULY 15, I WAS NOMINATED ON THIS COUNCIL FOR CLIMATE ACTION PLAN COMMITTEE BECAUSE I FEEL THE REQUIREMENTS OF EITHER ENVIRONMENT, NONPROFIT, AND SINCE I WAS CLIMATE LEADER FROM DISTRICT SIX IN THE TCC PROGRAM LIVING WITHIN THE AB617 AREA AND NOW A RESIDENT REP FOR THAT SAME PROGRAM AND A NONPROFIT INVOLVING NON-GMO ORGANIC PLANTS, I ASSUME IT WAS BASED ON MY LIVED EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE WITHIN THE REGIONAL CONTEXT FOUND ON PAGE 101 OF THE FILE. SORRY, COPD. VERSION ONE, ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS. YOU MISSED THAT PAGE. AND THAT REFERS TO WHAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT. WHEREAS NONE OF THE OTHER MEMBERS NOW OR NOMINATED OR REQUESTED, AS YOU PUT IT, TRIBAL APPLICANTS, FOR WHICH I WAS TOLD WHEN I WAS TO BE REPLACED AS ANSWERED WHEN ASKED THE REASON, ARE NOT FROM DISTRICT SIX. AND SINCE THE TRANSFORMATIVE CLIMATE COMMUNITIES PROGRAM EMPOWERS COMMUNITIES MOST IMPACTED BY POLLUTION TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN GOALS, STRATEGIES, AND PROJECTS TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AND LOCAL AIR POLLUTION, THE TRANSFORMATIVE CLIMATE COMMUNITY PROGRAM FUNDS DEVELOPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS THAT ACHIEVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS IN CALIFORNIA'S MOST DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES. DISTRICT 6 IS THE MOST VULNERABLE DISTRICT IN OUR CITY, WILL NOT HAVE A REPRESENTATION FOR WHICH, AGAIN, YOU ARE DISCRIMINATING AGAINST BECAUSE THEY ARE INVISIBLE NOT NEEDED THE REAL REPRESENTATION THROUGH RETALIATION RIGHT NOW THE CLIMATE ACTION PLAN IS NOT REPRESENTING DOWNTOWN SOUTH SOCKTON AREA FOR WHICH THE COMMUNITY COMMITTEE IS SUPPOSED TO BE BECAUSE WHETHER A DEVELOPER IS APPOINTED OR NOMINATED THE DEVELOPER SHOULD HAVE A STRONG ENVIRONMENT INVOLVEMENT IN THESE DISTRICTS THESE ARE TWO WHITE MEN THAT YOU ARE NOT REPLACING THEY ARE NOT A PICTURE OF OUR COMMUNITY GREEN AND EMISSIONS. NOT THEIR PROBLEM, BUT THE BUYERS. THEY JUST WANT TO BUILD AND SELL. TO POINT, I FEEL THE VIOLATION OF THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ARE FOR THE PEOPLE THAT THE COMMITTEE IS SUPPOSED TO FOCUS ON AND BUILD A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE. TELL ME. BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL FROM ONE, TWO, AND THREE. CYNTHIA GAYLE BOYD. THAT OLD NONSENSE OF THE MAYOR SHUTTING HER DOWN. What do you do when you find that the council are acting up? It shouldn't have to be over here. I'm addressing something that affects the whole public. I will F you up, but yet when I stand here, you shutting me down? Get out of here with that nonsense. First of all, how did Ms. Barrett qualify in the first place? Then you're going to take it back from her. did you even notify her about let's work it out problem number one i see is this this and this give her a chance to correct whatever you miss maya since you're the one said you pointed her might be able to correct the problem i've applied for a committee now i don't expect for y'all to play nice with me and that's just fine because i'm still going to do what i do Uh-huh. But I think once a person has applied for one of these little fancy committees, that at least you should send them a little thank you note or something or other. But you don't even get that, okay? And talking about qualifying, it's too bad, Ms. Mayor, that the Vice Mayor ain't sitting in his seat. I was born and raised in Stockton, California. I cut the ribbon for the Crosstown Freeway to be opened. I was the first Ms. Black Stockton. I founded Inner City Theater, the only multicultural theater in Stockton. I formed the first ever successful jazz on the waterfront. I'm a poet. I could go on. And yet I haven't been considered for the cultural committee. When you talk about background, come on with it. Uh-huh. You're playing unnecessary games. It is too bad, Miss Mayor. THAT THE VICE MAYOR IS NOT SITTING UP HERE. WHEN YOU'RE OUT SHAKING HANDS AND KISSING BABIES ON YOUR CAMPAIGN TRAIL, WE CAN LOOK AT YOU. WE CAN TALK TO YOU. AND THEN SOME OF THEM SIT UP HERE, MISS MAYOR, AND I HAVE NEVER HEARD ONE WORD FROM THE PERSON SITTING NEXT TO YOU. Good evening, Mayor Fugazi, Vice Mayor Lee, and council members. I am also equally concerned about this agenda item being placed. While something may be within the direct purview of Mayor Fugazi's discretion, sometimes that discretion not ought to be fully exercised. And what I mean by that is even though she can do this, she can take away Ms. Barrett's position on this committee and renominate somebody as an alternative, there lingers the question as to why. may forgot the place there uh... blessing if you want to miss barrett to be on this committee she nominated her accepted her and there were no hiccups there i can not only imagine that miss barrett's vocal opposition to interim city manager steve colangelo amongst other uh... other uh... pitfalls that she's seen in there for god's leadership cannot be separated from the fact that now she's being considered for removal from this committee Miss Barrett is a talented activist. She speaks up for South Stockton, and she has done a great time and a great service to our community. When we send a message, a chilling message, to those in this audience and beyond watching on TV, watching online, that when we say things that this council, the mayor, the vice mayor, whoever may be in these positions of power on the other side, on the dais, that we don't agree with them, that their nominations may be taken away at a moment's glance without notice is concerning. So before we make the decision to remove Ms. Barrett from this committee, let us consider the implications of said removal. Are we just removing one voice, or are we sending that other voices can be removed too? When APAPA's President Lan spoke just moments ago about her fear, I think that we ought to really be cognizant of the decisions we make. And when we look to that, you know, I don't know what to call that, that little brown thing that says how y'all voted, will you be proud of how you voted, or will you be sending a message to Stocktonians that even if you disagree, you may be removed without anyone's notice? Thank you. Mary Elizabeth? Mary Elizabeth, and I am also a member of the Climate Action Plan as the Sierra Club member for the committee. I had made my own sign. I walked around City Hall. You know, I have been advocating for an update on the Climate Action Plan for years. Chilling, I would say that that was pretty much an apt description of, you know, my feelings on this because, you know, I oftentimes speak and they're not, I seldom, people seldom vote in my, as I would like. But I speak nevertheless because that's what the Lord put on my heart. And always being polite, I'd like to say and commend Christine Williams. I worked with her on a housing project with the San Joaquin Community Foundation, and she is a wonderful person. She does good nonprofit work. I would like to see her as the developer. instead of the developer that is appointed that doesn't even live in Stockton. Let's have a lower income affordable housing developer be representing us because that's what we want to uplift. We want to have affordable housing. We want to have, you know, all of those measures that help with our community, and one of them is affordable housing. I agree that very easily more is better. Alyssa Leyva. I wanted to speak on this because I think that this issue of having just a council person or appointee with no discretion prior for removal is something concerning and it's also convoluted with the sitting in crisis report especially since today in the beginning of the meeting we were talking about well there's parliamentary procedures that really haven't been fully transparent and disclosed until today. Well, I used to work with Pat Barrett at Public Health Advocates. I was actually her boss. And she is a strong fighter. Unfortunately, when I was doxed by 209 Times, which, again, you guys work with, I faced political violence and retaliation from municipal stakeholders, and I still deal with that today. I would just ask, I know that there's, and I don't want to make it about me, but I'm also from District 6, and I think it's just... A layered ongoing thing that not only I've experienced but other people have really stated is like people are scared to come here to speak and speak their first amendment right. It isn't just with Mayor Fergazzi. This was under Mayor Lincoln too. But I just ask that this goes back to the ledge committee and also just continue to overview what it is that you guys are supposed to do with Rosenberg's rules of order which under Mayor Lincoln we were under Robert's rules and that wasn't disclosed either. To overview what it is that we're doing when it comes to free speech, I stand with Pat Barrett, but if she can get a warning if she's out of turn, because sometimes she can attack other members. Yeah. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Okay. I don't know how many of you had the opportunity to actually open the agenda item and look at the attachment regarding the uh... qualifications of miss williams and the extensive work she has done uh... in this community but it is it is it is something that we can benefit from so if if you haven't read it i would recommend that you do and since this is my item i will go ahead council member blauer Mayor, I just want to say that I did read that, and I do think that Christine Williams sounds very qualified, and I've heard good things about her. One of the things that I heard from one of the people that talked, which to me seems like kind of a win-win, is do we really need to kick Pat off in order to add Christine? Because one thing I heard that I was not aware of in the past is if this used to be a 10-person committee, to me it doesn't seem like it would be a real big deal to add one person. So while I agree with you, Christine Williams sounds like she would bring a lot to the table, I don't think that you need to take somebody off in order to put her on. I think that would be a good compromise. Is that something we can do? City Attorney, is that? This is a council-created committee, and so if you want to change the makeup, you absolutely can. Okay. Well, I like that idea. I'd like to make a motion that we don't remove Pat, but we do add Christine Williams. I'll second that. And I would like to make a motion to uphold the recommendation of item 12.1, uh... moving forwards that's my motion not second that point of point of information uh... so do we now discuss the motions or just okay uh... would you have your personal i'll just go back to you know what a lot of the folks have said so far i really appreciate the public that i share their comments about this matter and you know again it goes back to just because you can doesn't mean you should and we've seen that a lot in the last couple of months and i think we all are very smart and can see exactly what's going on and i would just say when any of us can do something always provide a reason i think most of us have been able to provide a reason as to however we lead however we make decisions not just on the dice but out in our districts and throughout the city so when we don't have answers it makes it really difficult to create public trust So, all we say up here about transparency is all talk, then, if we can't really give specific reasons and follow up. If you can't be on the record to give why you're doing something, then you're not transparent, you're not truly honest, you're not leading with integrity, you're not being the leader that we want, that you see in us. And that, to come to a point, becomes really frustrating. Through Ledge, we did pass policy, which I am very clear of, so thank you, Mayor, for educating the public on that. But yes, this is something that we created because we wanted to be able to give ability for council members to make decisions but also with that the hope was and maybe we have to make an amendment to be more clear for the for my colleagues who don't understand the specifics is that we provided that which we voted on that we can at least provide some context I would get if we made a decision and it was context and documentation I read through it I would say you know what that makes sense I support this there's been two three violations of this member I get it and I will support that but when it comes out of the blue as the vice mayor has shared this agenda WE GET IT WHEN YOU ALL GET IT. I READ THROUGH IT ALL IN DETAIL, SO I WOULD SAY THAT ADDING MORE PERSPECTIVES MAKES THAT COMMITTEE EVEN BETTER. WHY TAKE AWAY AND, YOU KNOW, WE TALK ABOUT ADDING AND MULTIPLYING, SO WHY DON'T WE JUST ADD THE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE? BUT AS OF NOW, WE HAVE AN INDIVIDUAL UP HERE WHO'S REMOVING SOMEONE WITH STILL NO REASON ON THE RECORD, SO IF YOU CAN PROVIDE THAT, PLEASE PROVIDE THAT, BUT WE HAVE YET TO HEAR THAT. AND FOR ANY OF MY COLLEAGUES WHO HAVE NOT SPOKEN ON THIS MATTER, Please give your reason as to why you're supporting this. Councilor Villapuerto, we haven't heard from you. Councilor Ponce, you seconded it, but we'd love to hear the reason. Point of order. That's all I would say. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah. I mean, I echo everything my colleague said. And again, as somebody, he's the chair of the ledge committee. I'm also on the ledge committee. So I want to speak specific to this policy because we created it. In fact, the city clerk can confirm. in that conversation i give you a little history uh... council council member villa food was uh... planning commissioner came in and lost a lot of allegations in a public forum there was a quick a question of whether or not he resigned or didn't resign he was put on the agenda to be removed we have lots of extensive conversation at the ledge committee saying very specifically to this issue if there is an appeal over person feels like they're under attack or being attacked how do they handle that because We know that there are often claims or optics that people are weaponizing positions or authority. And so I'm not saying that is or is not happening. I'm just saying if the optics are there, that's 99% of people's reality. And so that is a concern. Today when I came in and I heard that there were going to be new rules in the council and potentially there was a meeting about how to remove me with the police department. I mean, just imagine the vice mayor getting drug out by the police. It puts everybody in a bad position, right? uh... because because censorship or means to control people uh... who are here to advocate on the best interest of our constituents is something that is a constitutional obligation uh... here's the deal i don't want to start pointing fingers because this council really does at some point need to move forward i'm tired of these type of agenda items being put out here for us to fight over that creates further division we should be figuring out how to strengthen the bond between everybody in our community If there's no explanation why she's being removed, which I think she's entitled to, we're entitled to if we're going to vote, and the community is entitled to, then I don't know why we would remove her. If we do remove her, then I think we as a council need to be extraordinarily clear during the middle of a campaign season what message we're sending to people who will potentially volunteer in the future and for people who are concerned about restrictions that are coming down from D.C. Because you can't change your legislative record. All you can do is own it and stand on it ten toes down. I don't support it, not because of any political reason. I don't support it, and let me be clear, for two reasons. One, I represent a district that's impacted the most from the environment that this committee is addressing. And I do trust the mayor's choice of people that she puts on it, but I do think a member of the community gave us a really good... OPTION HERE AND THAT IS WHY DON'T WE ADD ANOTHER PERSON TO MAKE THIS A STRONGER COMMITTEE TO MAKE OUR COMMUNITY BETTER. AND SO I'M IN SUPPORT OF THAT OPTION. THANK YOU. COUNCILMEMBER VILLAPUTOIS. THANK YOU MAYOR. I WASN'T REALLY GOING TO SPEAK ON IT BUT NOW I AM. YEAH I DID HAVE A COMMISSIONER THAT WAS ALWAYS OUT OF POCKET WHO WAS SAYING THINGS WHERE HE HASN'T. AS A COMMISSIONER You're always supposed to stay in your lane. And I'm not saying you can speak what you want. But that certain person attacked me and some of my council members. So there's policy. There's rules that we stand by. Now, I never said that she's not doing anything good in her community. I'm not saying she's not ever done great as a commissioner. But come in here. attacking me and tucking others there's a limit and there was consequences when my planning commission was here so obviously it was coming to vote we didn't stand out so now we're here with her and i believe now um i made my comment and i believe there's a motion on the floor correct Yeah, thank you, Mayor, and I appreciate that perspective. The only distinction that we need to be very clear is that Councilmember Villalpudo put his own planning commissioner on the agenda. The member representing my district was put on the agenda by somebody else. And so while it is in the mayor's discretion to put people on the agenda, and we all have that discretion, we also have the obligation and took the oath. to represent all people and we have to be very measured in how we use our discretion i mean think about the seven people up here control a billion dollar budget and all the functions of our city and everything in it looks to us for leadership leadership is not easy leadership sometimes isn't matter of inconvenience i want to thank the mayor for allowing us to have a healthy debate over this topic because that is an indication that she heard our concerns of being able to do that so thank you And the conclusion of it is going to be what it is. But what's important is that all of the people watching, all the people that are civically engaged, and thank you to whoever acknowledged that there's more people tuned in now than ever. Hey, at home. Vote. This is why you have to vote responsibly. You know, we are in a time right now where this community is very vulnerable, and we need each other more than ever. We don't need matters like this that divide us. And although, again, if Pat is voted off by this group, which I strongly recommend everybody up here to vote no, I encourage her to continue to be a staunch advocate for our district and to continue to fight for all the people who are not heard. So I'm done and ready to vote. So there is a motion by Council Member Blauer, then there's a motion by me. As the second motion, that's the one we vote on first, correct? That's correct, Mayor. There are two motions currently on the floor. The last in time motion gets voted on first. That motion was made by you, Mayor Fugazi, and seconded by Council Member Ponce. As I understood it, it was to remove Patricia Barrett from the Climate Action Plan Advisory Committee and appoint Christine Williams for a four-year term effective immediately ending on January 31st, 2029. That's correct. And so if there's no more discussion, then you just need to call for a vote. Council members, please vote. Motion carries four to three. Moving on now to item 12.2 that was pulled by the public. 12.2 is adopt a resolution to award a professional services agreement to Wallace Roberts and Todd LLC. for the Downtown Stockton Master Plan and Visioning Project. So who from the public pulled that item? I'm actually glad. Jane Chamberlain. It's Stein Camp. Sorry, Jane, push your mic on. You can't hear me in my teacher voice? Come on. Okay, Jane Steinkamp, Jane Chamberlain, here on 12.2 in support of the downtown master plan. I am wanting to express one concern. So there's two wishes that I have for Stockton. One of them is the revitalization of downtown Stockton. I've been here many times to address that. I am a little concerned about the fact that we're... recommissioning a new plan. I do know that there was a study done in 2015 by Mithun and Solomon. It's an architect out of San Francisco. I understand that there's money connected to this, so it isn't a matter of... not having the money to do another redevelopment plan, but it is a matter of time. And I would encourage you to take a look at that plan and wondering if there couldn't be a faster progress to actually developing a redevelopment plan, not having to start from scratch again. It's a very comprehensive plan, 55 pages of great information. I WOULD SAY, TOO, I'D LIKE TO VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING RELATED TO OPPORTUNITIES TO SPEAK ON DOWNTOWN AND THIS MASTER PLAN AS A FORMER RESIDENT, AN INVESTOR, A CONSUMER. I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE WHAT MY EXPERIENCE WAS WHEN I LIVED IN DOWNTOWN STOCKTON. Also, I would hope that this does not delay any current permit-ready projects for housing development in downtown Stockton. I believe that there are some in the pipeline. I do not want this to be an excuse for why we can't move any of those projects forward. We don't need to wait for the redevelopment plan in order to look at projects and decide if they're good for downtown Stockton, especially as it relates to housing, which is extremely important. So I'm hoping to encourage you to continue to look at those permit-ready projects and move them along. My second wish is just that I can come here. I've been coming here since I was 16 years old, 46 years. Thank you. We reset it for you just so you could do it. Okay. We've got one more. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Mary Elizabeth? Mary Elizabeth, and I'm a little bit concerned because I submitted comments yesterday in regard, a front and a back page in regard to this item. I'd like to start right here. Our displacement avoidance must be front and center when considering redevelopment of the downtown core. Our community has historical scars FROM THE REDEVELOPMENT OF DOWNTOWN TO ACCOMMODATE THE HIGHWAY FOR CROSSTOWN FREEWAY. THE OUTREACH THAT WAS PLANNED HERE AND LISTED IN THE PRIOR THAT YOU REFERENCED IN THE RESOLUTION, THERE WERE SOME STRATEGIES THAT COULD BE INVOKED. I'D LIKE TO ASK THAT THE COUNCIL CONSIDER SOME MORE REQUIRED SHALL specify that multiple study sessions are held with the Planning Commission, Cultural Heritage Board, and Stockton Rising Steering Committee. Please also specify that there'll be opportunities to review draft sections of the comprehensive plan rather than a large document which includes final language for all aspects of the visioning plan. I SPECIFICALLY REFERENCE AND PROVIDE A LINK TO THE DISPLACEMENT AVOIDANCE PLAN THAT WAS PREPARED AS PART OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE TCC. I ASK THAT THE SIERRA CLUB HAVE A REPRESENTATIVE ON THERE. because the Sierra Club, having initiated litigation and settlement around the 2035 general plan, resulted in changes in the housing policy with an emphasis on infill. Thank you. Sorry, that concludes public comment for this item. I see Jordan here, but a couple points I'd like to make on this item. First of all, it is money that we've received from SJCOG, correct? It is a grant that we've received. And it's to, to Jane's point, accelerate infill housing development. So those are things that we want. Also to create an entertainment district, which I know the vice mayor has talked about quite a bit. We have the waterfront. You know, we can have a river walk. If San Antonio can have one, so can we. And I do agree with Mary Elizabeth in terms of, you know, and Jane both talking about being able to provide input on this. And I know with the 2040 general plan, you know, we went out and we had several community meetings, but it needs to be widely noticed. And if you provide it to me, I'm happy to put it out through my contacts. But I would say looking at Mary Elizabeth's points here, she has great ones there that I do support with those strategies. It's on page one. She's got two, four, six, eight strategies at the bottom of that. And I see the online survey, and I know this kind of spurred out of online survey I mean there's been a number of them going on so anyway I'll turn it over to you Jordan Thank You mayor Jordan Peterson Economic Development Department so just to respond to some of the comments there is whenever we're doing a plan like this we always look at existing documents past documents so that way we're never starting from scratch we always want to build on any momentum from the past so rest assured anything that's occurred in the past 25 years, we're gonna look back, we're gonna look at some of the insights from those and integrate that into the plan. In terms of impacting existing projects, this will have no impact on projects that are already in the pipeline, have permits, entitlements. This is to look at what do we need to do to move the needle on vacant, underutilized sites. The city now owns the Wells Fargo building, so how do we activate that space, build housing, build mixed income, mixed use housing? And then, Mayor, as you mentioned, there is a lot of outreach integrated within the actual contract itself, and we will absolutely coordinate with leadership and the public to make sure that folks know about surveys, forums, discussions, workshops, anything and everything. We'll make sure we get the word out to the community. Okay. Thank you. Vice Mayor? Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Jordan. uh... just in full transparency and i i did send you know jane we've definitely should like connecting uh... i know that was a license thank you but let me say this i know just a full transparency that i introduce staff to people and they wanted to potential explored brings opportunity here uh... that also included economic development uh... how does that work in relation to this so say for instance if the meetings with people progress they want to develop residential commercial whatever how does that work do they then have to apply for this or I don't know that works or is it yeah so as part of the process we would engage with a number of stakeholders including prospective developers existing developers community members nonprofit organizations that are engaged engaged in affordable housing development so it's going to include anyone and everyone that wants to be a part of the revitalization of downtown Stockton so they would they would get the contract to do the master plan envisioning and then if FIFA or whoever comes into play they then work with them to figure that out or what you know that that's part of separate things it's two separate things but it is related in the sense that you know we're seeking council's approval to award a contract to WRT and and then as we progress with the non-housing related aspects of this so this is the you know the arena area the vacant arena parcel that the city just purchased that's when we're going to have you know these side conversations so to speak about what do we need to do to activate amenities that are non-housing related so you know additional amenities um things for families to do within the downtown area if that makes sense okay so they would we would award them the contract and they would come back in what time frame with something So we have a pretty robust schedule. I think it's exhibit F to the contract. It is about a year-long process, but there are going to be varying touch points where they're going to look at past plans. They're going to compile that. June 30, 2026. June 30, 2026, I think, is what we currently have. The contract itself is 930. And those deadlines are kind of in flux because the state did approve legislation to extend the REAP 2.0 expenditure deadline. And this is for residential only or the whole downtown? It's going to be a large section of the downtown. A lot of the focus is on housing production because that is the source of the funds. It's focused on infill housing production. That is why, as part of the action, we're requesting a budget amendment from the redevelopment fund to focus on those non-housing related things because we always want to draw that line in terms of the source of the funds and how they can be used. So I just want to be careful. Then I guess the question that I have, and maybe I asked it and didn't ask it the right way, does this prohibit any other opportunity that we may discover or that may come to the city that may want to develop downtown? No, not at all. It'll all feed into it and be a part of the process. Yep. And I will add that the property in between the water and the arena has been measured and a league-sized soccer field could fit there. Just saying. Throwing that out there. It's been measured. Okay. Any other? Council, bring it back to council. Any comment? I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. So we have a motion and a second. Council, please vote. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you, Jordan. Okay, 12.5. This is an item I pulled. I remember going to the county board of supervisors meeting. This is approve a motion to execute a new five-year advanced life support ALS services agreement with San Joaquin County. Oh good, Chief Carr, you're here. Chief Carr is obviously our chief for the fire department. But when I went and spoke there, five years ago, I want to say. It might have been six years ago. You know, this was a very hot topic. You know, we had paramedics. We had us. You know, we had private. I should say private. We had us. And the continuous comment on that was, like, we need to be able to provide life-saving measures, whoever gets there first. And if an ambulance gets there first, okay, but if fire gets there first, we need to have the personnel available that can do that. And that's my concern, the personnel available to do that. And so my question is, as we go into this five-year agreement, I want to make sure that we don't enter into something that we can't follow up on, that we can't... What's the word I'm looking at? We can't deliver on. That's what I want, deliver on. So can you get council up to date on what an ALS service agreement is and what our obligations are and whether or not we can do it? Certainly, Mayor. Good evening. Brian Carr, Fire Chief. Yeah, thank you for the question. So there was some concern recently as I came on board. I started to look at our... processes and what our service delivery model looked like, what we could actually do and what we couldn't do. As you know, we've entered into and are attempting to do a public-private partnership for the ambulance transport to work with AMR and do that. But more importantly, I think what a lot of people don't know is that we have paramedics on all our fire engines and fire trucks. And the paramedics are the ones that can get on scene and provide drugs. do cardiac defibrillation, look at cardiac arrhythmias, provide medicine for those types of things. I started to look at our numbers. Three years ago when I was in charge of our EMS division, we started a program where the city started collaborating with us and we were able to get money to send our EMTs to paramedic school. So I kind of assumed that we were on the right trajectory, things were going to be fine. uh... recently as i looked at our numbers i realize that to put a paramedic on every fire apparatus i need about fifty five to sixty paramedics that fall in three ranks captain engineer firefighter uh... currently when i look at those numbers i've got fifty seven so i'm very very close this five-year agreement is with the county ms agency that says we will provide ala services ideas in Full transparency, I wanted the council to know just where we are on a numbers basis with regards to our paramedic staffing. So at some point, if I don't continue to either train more EMTs to the paramedic level or be able to recruit more paramedics at the entry-level position, the numbers will just continue to drop. Of the 57 that I have, over 60% of them are captain rank, and captain are my most senior positions. LINE PERSONNEL. SO AGAIN, JUST COMMON SENSE TELLS ME THOSE PEOPLE ARE PROBABLY THE ONES THAT WILL BE TIMING OUT AND RETIRING SOONER THAN MY FIREFIGHTERS. I HAVE 75 FIREFIGHTERS BASICALLY STAFFING TOTAL IN THE DEPARTMENT. THAT DOESN'T INCLUDE MY ENGINEERS OR MY CAPTAINS. BUT THE POINT THAT HIT ME AS I WAS GOING THROUGH OUR DATA WAS THAT NINE OF THOSE ARE PARAMEDICS OUT OF 75. So we've had a really hard time getting paramedics at the firefighter rank. That's what's kind of brought that number down. We tend to lose paramedics that retire, or sometimes paramedics leave and go to another department. I'll just throw it out as anecdotal. Post-COVID or during COVID, a lot of paramedic schools shut down. So post-COVID, our paramedic numbers availability-wise, who's out there as a paramedic, is down. So then you take all the fire departments in the state of California who are hiring, and they are, those paramedics are in high demand. So for an example, we do recruitments, EMT and paramedic. My paramedic recruitment never fills up. I had 50 people apply in this summer. I'm down to eight that potentially uh... could get a final job offer but i don't even know yet until next week how many pass their interview so the numbers are very very low uh... again we will do everything we can as a department to attempt to put a paramedic on every apparatus and that has been our goal from day one uh... we've been providing paramedic services for fifty years since nineteen seventy five and and i will know because a number of us went through the ops, the fire ops program, that we saw on the board how many lives were saved, you know, that had flatlined, that were brought back, how many babies were delivered. So you guys are out there saving lives, you know, getting people out of their cars, using the jaws of life, tending to them, to their needs. So I guess, again, back to my question, you know, What could this mean for our future? So I don't know. I'm actively, actively pursuing ideas out there to recruit and retain paramedics. I'm in that process. My staff's in that process. We're all in and all committed. I just felt it was necessary to let the council know where I am on those numbers, that I'm very, very razor thin. And if I have a retirement group, if I have a selection of paramedics that decide to pursue service at another department, then I'm falling below being able to put a paramedic on every piece of apparatus that we have. To answer your question specific to the five-year agreement, we can enter the five-year agreement. There's absolutely no issue with that. all the county EMS agency requires is that if I change the level of service, it's not that we'll be found in breach, the county won't sue us, I just have to notify the county EMS agency that I have to change my service model, that I'm not putting a paramedic ALS on every apparatus. Well, I would appreciate it if you let us know what those numbers are and anything we can do to help in that effort. Um, I know that there are programs out there, you know, whether we get the candidates from that, I know you guys are out recruiting actively as well. Um, I don't know what all the requirements are to be certified as a paramedic. Uh, but anybody that's watching at home or I see young people out here, Hey, it sounds like a pretty great job to be saving people's lives, uh, here in the city of Stockton. So I just thought I'd put there, I don't know if any other council members have questions. public comment sorry Mary Elizabeth please oh I'm sorry I'm sorry that's correct no we're okay okay thank you thank you so no questions from council I I I move to approve second council please vote Motion carries 7-0 and we need more paramedics. Let me just put that out there. Okay, 12.6 was pulled by the public, which is adopt a resolution to approve the 2531 sewer system management plan updates. That one is Mary Elizabeth. So as a registered environmental health specialist and a former water quality scientist, this is of great interest, and I want to make sure that everybody knows that the plan that we had needed to be updated because we had a new permit. And when I read through that information, also as a former water advisory group member appointed by Paul Canepa, I value the opportunity that the Water Advisory Group has to provide information for the people and the City of Stockton Groundwater Sustainability Agency should be providing regular updates in the Water Advisory Group. Two questions. WHY DOES ONLY ONE RECLAMATION DISTRICT RECEIVE SANITARY SEWER OVERFLOW NOTIFICATIONS AND NOT ALL THOSE THAT ARE LOCATED IN THE CITY? SO I PROVIDED YOU A MAP OF ALL OF THE RECLAMATION DISTRICTS AND YOU SEE THAT THE ONLY ONE THAT IS AFFORDED NOTIFICATION IF THERE'S A SEWER OVERFLOW THAT CONTAMINATES SOME SURFACE WATER IS THE ONE ASSOCIATED WITH BROOKSIDE. And there may be some reason for that. Maybe the other reclamation districts declined a notification, but it was pointed to me that only one was included. Another thing that I think should be included in that sewer plan is a notation that commits the municipal utility district to notify the water advisory group on a regular basis. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Is Dr. Lytle here? I'm assuming Dr. Lytle. I saw him earlier. There he is. Hello. Oh, there's two of you. So Mary Elizabeth again brings up a good point. As I pull up on the map, there are a number of reclamation districts that border obviously our city. And is there a reason why only one was noticed? Dr. Lytle from Municipal Utilities. I'm not certain of that but we can check in on that and give you an answer. Okay and then will this then be reported back to WAG where you know with regular updates how we're doing with the plan. It can be on a periodic basis. Typically we we provide information with that's essentially within the plan like reporting out sanitary sewer overflows and things of that nature that collections is very much acutely aware of. And we usually report those out in our quarterly reports. And so we aren't necessarily drawing the plan documents out and looking at that all the time, but in our quarterly reports we bring out information on how the utility is doing, collections, sanitary sewer overflows, consumer complaints, things of that nature. And so that type of information is brought forward. Well, because this is going until 2031, and I might not be here until 2031, I'll be, you know, in the community, but maybe not here. You know, it is important. We make these plans. We go out. We have people help us in crafting them. We, you know, get a contract with somebody to do it. You know, and then we... It seems like, oh, now we've got a new plan. So getting those periodic updates is important. I, too, would like to have the quarterly reports so that I can stay abreast of what we're doing. We'd be happy to provide that. And I may not be here in 2031 either. Well, I hope so. Well, at least you can come visit. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any questions from council? Do I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and second. Council, please vote. Motion carries 7-0. Okay, moving on to item 12.7 that was pulled by the public. Adopt a resolution to award professional services contract for the El Dorado Street Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Connectivity Project. Mary Elizabeth. I hope it's something good. Mary Elizabeth, I was so grateful recently to have gotten a visit from my relatives back east. That part of the family had moved back east and they came and visited me and Mama. And one of the things, you know, that they noticed right away is, you know, there's no place to park your bikes. And, you know, it's a problem. And I speak with others that ride their bikes. I lived in Sacramento for many years and never had a problem parking my bike. I'm like a fearless rider, you know, following the rules of the road, using my hand signals. And when I see what happened to California Street, it's horrible. is horrible and you know there's there's no way to clean the gutter you know where the bikes are relegated and you know i just would like to see you know some plan before it's approved by uh... city staff you know that the people get a chance to look at it not you know this is it and never come back and look at it The other thing that I'd just like to mention is here we are entering a contract, and maybe some of you have read it. I read in the online newspaper, Stocktonia, about the contract overruns. I know that you all are looking at audits and ways that we can control these contracts, but we have a lot of contracts. And monitoring those is very difficult. And I'd like to see a no come back for any more money on this design. And let's live to work in our budget, not rely on the 6% utility taxes that the disadvantaged people of Stockton pay. That concludes public comment for this item. SO I KNOW THAT THE FUNDING FOR THIS IS COMING FROM THE HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. OBVIOUSLY WE WANT TO BE RESPONSIBLE, FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR, YOU KNOW, MAKING SURE THAT OUR PROJECTS ARE DONE ON BUDGET, ON TIME, AND DONE RIGHT. AND THE COMMENT REGARDING CALIFORNIA STREET, I WILL SAY, HAVE YOU LOOKED AT CENTER STREET? CENTER STREET HAS A NEW BIKE LANE. there is there's you can still clean the gutters it has it is it's different I think we've learned from California Street and we have made some changes since then but the one thing that I am happy about is the fact that kids who go to McKinley school or want to go to the park there will have hopefully by this project you know a safer way to get there because it is for those that are pedestrians and bicyclists. So I see this as something good. I definitely would like to see the plans as well as we move forward on that. But like I said, and City Manager, correct me if I'm wrong, have we not learned our lesson on bike lanes and parking? Yes, we have. Deputy City Manager Reeds here for you. With the big binder. Yeah, it's getting bigger every meeting. I'm sorry what was the question you know you know are we changing the way we do our bike lanes now as opposed to what happened on California Street in some areas because like I said I look at Center Street and things are different there but that is a concern and then as well as making sure that you know kids and families have a safe route to get to McKinley School and McKinley Park along that corridor YEAH, ABSOLUTELY. AND EDISON HIGH SCHOOL. CAN'T LEAVE OUT EDISON HIGH SCHOOL. I'LL LEAVE EDISON OUT. SO, YEAH, SO WE HAVE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF BIKE LANES THROUGHOUT THE CITY, RIGHT? SO WE DO TRAFFIC STUDIES AND WE LOOK AT, YOU KNOW, FATALITIES AND POINTS WHERE, YOU KNOW, PEDESTRIANS CAN COME INTO DANGER WITH CARS, RIGHT? I THINK ONE OF THE COOL THINGS ABOUT THIS PROJECT AND WITH CALIFORNIA STREET IS IT'S DIFFERENT, RIGHT? but it actually provides more safety to the bike rider having the buffered lanes. And so it's just something that we need to get used to. And we probably need to do a little bit more outreach. And there is outreach in this project. I believe the project is estimated to be completed by 2027. And so there will be multiple public outreach opportunities to, educate to show the preliminary design and how we got there and the data that backs it up and i i see vice mayor's light blinking because i know he's great at getting information out and this is in his district so i'll move it over to the vice mayor thank you mayor definitely good to get information out um okay the bike lanes on airport i know we had talked about infrastructure issues with broken with the bike lane kind of painted over a broken infrastructure how are we we thinking about that ahead of time absolutely um and a great example of that is california street um another example is center in el dorado and then this as well so what we have to be cognizant is when we go after these grants they don't include maintenance right so what it's like it's it's like putting icing on a cake right well if if the if the cake itself is cracked and broken then the icing looks good for a little bit and then it falls apart right and so what we're doing with these projects now is we're improving um the roadways using our operations and maintenance so we're looking at like base failures we're getting those repaired ahead of time so that that way when we come through and we kind of put the icing on it not only is it going to look good but it's going to stand up over time is there going to be a study done in that area so would there be an opportunity to see what staff find in terms of what work needs to be done prior to starting this work so there's been a preliminary safety study done that's what was able to allow us to get the grant money we'll physically walk or drive the site to identify where base failure is at and then we'll make those repairs before we start making the end improvements. And then the only request I would have is that the staff include me in the outreach effort so I can help to amplify that. Yeah, absolutely. We, like council, know when there's outreach meetings, welcome to attend. Okay, great. Thank you. Yep. I'd like to make a motion to approve. Second. Council. Motion carries 7-0. Okay, 12.8 has been pulled by Councilmember Villalpudua. It is to adopt the final initial study mitigated negative declaration for the Van Busker Park revitalization project. Yes, thank you, Mayor. I just want to say that, you know, there's a lot of good things that have been happening. Obviously, McKinley Park with the new pool. vice mayor and obviously victory park which is last week a lot of great things so van bersker you know life is coming back um thank you chad for all the updates that i've been emailing you harassing you on it you're welcome um all the time but phase one is coming and i'm just um want to thank everyone was was part of it you know all the constituents vice mayor uh fugazi former um VICE MAYOR KIMBERLY WARMESY AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT WAS PART OF IT. I WAS VERY SAD AT THE TIME WHEN VAN BURST COULD SHUT DOWN BECAUSE THAT GOLF COURSE HAD A LOT OF HISTORY FROM MYSELF, MY UNCLE'S, AND IF YOU DIDN'T PLAY, YOU KNEW SOMEONE DID PLAY. SO I'M JUST GLAD IT'S COMING BACK AND, YOU KNOW, SO THIS IS A GOOD DAY FOR DISTRICT FIVE. jack can you speak about some of the things that are going to be coming into phase one for us yeah absolutely and if i may just take a second um this project is huge and it's taken a big lift on by a lot of staff right so uh grant and his environmental sustainability group is deeply committed to this and heavily invested in getting us money as is chris farrow our CSD team, and then our public works team. So they've been pretty passionate about this. You guys have done a tremendous job. Thank you. Thank you. So some of the amenities we're going to see is a new skate park. We're going to see a bicycle pump track, bicycle trails, a new splash pad, a community garden, and a new multi-purpose lawn area. And more. And more. Yeah. Yeah. Those are kind of the high-level pieces, yes. Yeah, those will be for phase one. Yep. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you very much for everything. Thank all my colleagues as well. So it's a big win for our community. We have public comment on this item. Mary Elizabeth? uh... these comments were as summarized on page four uh... the delta sierra group has requested that secret notification via and as stockton category be initiated as a simple means to improve public outreach yet the city staff continues to rely on minimum required public notification one posting on the second floor of the county building on weber avenue where the san joaquin county clerk is located and to a newspaper announcement. After multiple requests, we did receive notice 7-31-2023 that the LeBaron Project NOP was available, but that was a one-time notification and did not happen again, even for projects that we had previously submitted comments and for which I submitted $500 of personal funds for a tentative MAP appeal. We are unaware of the opportunity to comment on the CEQA document. These minimum practices for outreach and notification do not advance transparency and trust in our community. The City of Stockton has a robust bid notification system because there is an interest in obtaining bids, but not so for public comments. We support the comments that were submitted by American River and Restore the Delta that were dated 7-25-2025, and they included several important concepts regarding water sport access, gentrification, and continued public outreach, which we support. There were some concerns submitted by a nearby neighbor. and the last of my comments here i'd like to call your attention to the city of stockton or response and how the city of stockton staff considers these comments when performing the finest final design is unknown not transparent and there is not a process by which the city of stockton seeks input from residents when making those final design decisions arty valencia Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Artie Valencia. I'm the Flood and Land Restoration Program Manager with Restore the Delta. We support the Van Buskirk Park project with the hopes that it'll promote public health, recreational access, and enhance flood protection for South Stockton. While we generally are supportive, we believe that there are some considerations that constrain the merit of the project. example that includes the consideration of water access infrastructure engagement with the unhoused community and risks of gentrification related to the park development despite the park's proximity to the water there is little to no planned infrastructure to promote water access for recreational opportunities like boating kayaking and fishing water recreation is a top priority for residents as we surveyed in 2022 There's a growing demand for equitable, safe, and convenient aquatic infrastructure access, whether that be through a dock, shoreline, or levee trail. Second, it is unacceptable to move forward with a major park redevelopment project without a clear, humane, and publicly available plan for working with the unhoused people currently residing in or around the park. We urge the city to release a plan for engagement. transition of unhoused individuals that includes providing verbal and written notice at least 30 days in advance in multiple languages ensuring early and regular communication about shelter storage and housing options and giving at least two full days for residents to pack and relocate you can refer to our comments for more best practices and then third While green gentrification or green infrastructure and park improvements are vital, there's also the risk of green gentrification surrounding those neighborhoods. And with improved amenities, property values may rise and push out low-income working-class people. So the city should commit to an anti-displacement plan, including a robust outreach strategy to impacted neighborhoods before, during, and after construction, regular ongoing communication channels with engagement materials available in various language, and partnership with community-based organizations already doing this work. WE TRULY APPRECIATE THE CITY'S ENGAGEMENT WITH THE NORTHERN VALLEY YOKUPS TRIBE AND URGE THE CITY TO GO BEYOND THE CEQA MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS. THANK YOU. MARK STEBBINS. QUICK COMMENT REGARDING THE PREVIOUS ITEM, CENTER STREET REVISION Makes it real nice for bicycles now, all two of them. The rest of us residents have a hell of a time trying to navigate those new changes. But I came tonight to talk about Van Buskirk Park. It should never have been closed. The golf course should never have been closed. It was closed without conforming to California Environmental Quality Act. It was closed. in blatant discrimination against South Stockton. So Swenson Golf Course remained open only on the condition that South Stockton Golf Course, Van Buskirk, be closed, even though Van Buskirk was a better golf course. So you need to go back and completely erase everything that you did and move toward reopening Van Buskirk Golf Course as a full golf course that would rival Augusta as a Masters Golf Course West. Cynthia Gale-Boyd. I just want to clarify something. And I heard my councilman give credit to Ms. WARMSLEY FOR THE WORK THAT WAS DONE BEFORE VICE MAYOR LEE CAME ON BOARD BECAUSE A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK THAT ALL THESE GREAT THINGS WERE DONE BY THE VICE MAYOR, BUT KIMBERLY WARMSLEY NEEDS THAT CREDIT, SO THANK YOU. I'M GLAD TO SEE THAT THE PUBLIC CAN GET THINGS ON THE AGENDA AND HAVE THEM ACTUALLY VOTED UPON AND DISCUSSED. SHO WOULD LIKE TO HAVE SOME OF MY STUFF PUT ON THE AGENDA. MR. VALAPUDA. I THINK EVERY MEETING THAT I'VE BEEN TO IN THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS, I'VE SAID, WHEN DO I GET A CHANCE TO HAVE IT PUT? I'M SORRY, I'M LOOKING AT YOU. MS. MAYOR, THE LAST TWO OR THREE MEETINGS, I'VE SAID I'D LIKE TO GET SOME OF MY STUFF ON THE AGENDA, BUT THAT HASN'T HAPPENED YET. AND TALKING ABOUT WONDERFUL IMPROVEMENTS, I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN THE SAME DISTRICT THAT I LIVE IN, AROUND THE CORNER FROM STRIBLY PARK. And we have absolutely nothing. I spoke to you about that when you were the council member for, what was it, eight years? And all we got at Stribble Park was a flushing toilet hole. Uh-huh. And some light. Oh, yeah. And some light for some handball. Don't ever see nobody on the plant. When do we get anything? That's what I want to know. When does Stribble Park get anything? It's a big community where we live. And mainly... You know, Hispanic people live there. But still, I'd like to see the children out there with some new equipment and stuff and tell Mr. Belenaputa that we need to get rid of those dead trees that I've sent him pictures about. It's on Hazelden Street. And while I'm at it, ask Vice Mayor if they got rid of that dead tree over there at McKinley Park. That concludes public comment for this item. Vice Mayor. I was writing about that dead tree. Let me first start by saying that it's obvious that we didn't open McKinley Park by ourselves, right? Like a lot of us have advocated for it for years, so there's a lot of work that went into it. Susan Eggman also, just to acknowledge her contributions to the parks. I will say it's so great to see all of our parks that are historic coming back to life. We were at Victory Park Pool. uh this past was a week or i don't even know the days days are running together mckinley park is thriving driving by seeing family swimming and stuff is really exciting and van buskirk i mean this is a iconic park so i'm happy to see that um the one thing i've i've heard about um public engagement on the design and all of that i mean to really make this a community experience we have to involve the community i don't know historically what that's looked like But I know we're talking about muraling coming. I know staff have done a really great job of engaging me to make sure that I'm clear on the muraling and the culture coming to McKinley Park. I'm not a fan of just, and I'm not pointing fingers or saying this happened, but I'm not a fan of just posting something or putting something in the news. And I really like community engagement because one thing that we need our community to do is protect our parks when we get them active again. The other thing is somebody mentioned something about the homelessness having an opportunity to get notified to move out the park. I'm going to tell you straight up right now, nobody better be staying in our parks. The parks, I don't care what anybody feels about any particular issue, these parks are not. a hotel. It is not a place for people to live. We already have ordinances protecting our parks and our PD and our staff are doing the best to protect our parks and we should be enforcing that. Anytime I see people sleeping in the parks, I do email the city manager and I do call folks to make sure our parks are clear and I'm going to tell you why. As much as y'all get up here and start complaining about the parks not looking good and not working and this and that, the minute they go backwards, then you're going to be up here saying we're letting the parks run into the ground. So the parks belong to our kids and our families, and we're going to do everything we can to protect our parks. They are beautiful, and they need to stay that way. So I just want to comment on that, and just for the record, because sometimes we often dodge some of those comments, and I want to make sure to hit it straight on. Okay. A couple of questions. There's 192 acres. Correct. This is Phase 1. There are future phases. BECAUSE LIKE I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE GOLF ACADEMY BECAUSE MY CHIPPING AND PUTTING GAME IS AWFUL I DRIVE FOR SHOW AND YEAH YOU PUTT FOR THE DOUGH BUT I UNDERSTAND MR. STEBBINS POINT THIS WAS EDISON HIGH SCHOOLS PRACTICE THIS IS WHERE THEY PRACTICED SO THAT THEY CAN COMPETE AND SO WHEN I LOOK AT THIS WHEN OKAY WHEN WE GET THE MONEY THAT'S WHEN WE'LL HAVE FUTURE love when you answer your own okay yeah that's what i was going to get to but uh another point is yes water access when when western ranch was built they were promised a marina they were promised all kinds of amenities that never happened not that it's the city's responsibility to do that but i think planning forward with that we should we should have like a nature wildlife section with native species with little markers so people can learn the names of them and and uh what uh you know bring back the elderberry bush so then we get the bugs then and that's what the bird species you get the riparian you know i mean there's just the the options are limitless uh for this and i know i have somebody in the community that has been on me about you know bringing great america because they're closing down or marine world africa usa here because they're And I think about it, and I see Pandora out here, and I know Pandora, I'm surprised she didn't pull a comment card. But, you know, I think about the traffic implications of something like that, something big like that, and the noise and the lights and, you know, pollution that could potentially happen. But, you know, in the future, we will have more meetings. I mean, I know there's kind of a plan that's already out there, but... If I could just comment on that for a second, just to provide a little bit of clarity. I'll take a breath. No, no, no, it's all good. So the project started in 2020. Since 2020, we've had six stakeholder meetings. We've had four community engagement meetings, and we've had two online surveys that have been available for the public to participate in. We're at 60% design right now, and we'll have another outreach meeting as we get close to the end of completion of design. Okay, well, let us know. We'll promote it because I remember going in the little room and they only thought like 10 people would show up. And then there was like 40 people in there and we were all crammed in there like sardines. That's what we want. But I would say that that neighborhood does show up. So if it's out there, we just need to make sure other people in the community who want to access and use that park as well. Because how many parks do we have? 64? How many city parks are there? So that's really up for debate right now. It's 66 to 67. 66. Well, because I just was interviewed today and I said 64 and the person was like, what? Yeah, we have that many parks in the city of Stockton. And guess what? Parks don't generate revenue. They don't make the city any money, but they cost the city money. And this is taxpayers' dollars hard at work where they can feel it and they can be out there and enjoy it. And that's what we want. We want people out in our parks enjoying it. So I'm excited about the progress for Van Busker. It's been a long time coming. And, you know, hearing that there's going to be more water activities. It's a splash pad, not a pool. But if we can get into the water, I see progress. further west in van busker that there are water feature like according to the drawing the concept map that there is there but again the other thing yes we want them to bike it yes we want them to walk it we need to have lighting adequate lighting but for people who are driving from somewhere else we need to make sure we have a place for them to park as well so those are my final comments on that anybody else Council Member Villaputua? I'll just make a motion to approve. Okay, you make a motion to approve. Second. And we have a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you, Mr. Reid. Okay, now we're moving on to new business. Item 16.1, approve a resolution to adopt the 2025 Parks and Recreation Master Facilities Plan. There's a theme here. Parks, parks, we love parks. Ms. Ocasio. Good evening, mayor and council members. How are you today? Great. Okay. Just getting myself together here. Apologies, my notes are right here. Stephanie Ocasio, Director of Community Development. Before you tonight is the draft 2025 Parks and Recreation Facilities Master Plan. The Master Plan supports the city's future build-out of parks and recreation infrastructure. I really want to emphasize that this plan does not reflect recreational programming. It's none of our programs or any of lessons, clubs, anything like that. This is to support the funding mechanism through PFF where we can draw the nexus between a park's impact fee for development, their fair share, and this is what it's based on. This plan identifies park and recreational facility growth in accordance with the general plan. So just want to put that out there. The plan identifies existing amenities, gaps, and future needs through the 2040 build out. It also serves as a foundation for the PFF parks and community center fees that will be included in the update that you'll be seeing within the next, well, by next year. The proposed master plan is consistent with the general plan and exempt from CEQA environmental review as it's consistent with the general plan. It incorporates the 2024 aquatics plan, implements general plan policies and goals, and utilizes public feedback in its analysis. The key components of the master plan include an updated inventory of parks and recreation facilities, a gap analysis between existing and anticipated 2040 conditions, community engagement and identification of needs and priorities, and benchmarking for future development and service level goals. As mentioned earlier, this master plan incorporates public input received during the community engagement process. This included online surveys, community meetings, which were advertised via social media, the city's website, and direct outreach to stakeholders. This is just a brief timeline that just shows we started consultations in April of 21. We had surveys later that year, about 239 responses, which doesn't sound like a lot, but that's pretty good. It's pretty good. Multiple community meetings for feedback. We had that feedback then shaped it into policy recommendations over the next two years. We then brought it to the industry working group this year. They did not have any significant content changes. They asked for some clarity, so we have that handy for them. And then it was recommended for approval by the Parks and Recreation Commission on July 28. The technical analysis is focused on the facility inventory and service level assessment, the identified gaps in coverage, and recommendations tailored for the projected growth and funding strategies. And these recommendations tie in with the general plan goals as well such as five acres for every thousand residents and the different types of parks that are available and that could be developed. These findings will be integrated into the PFF nexus study for park and community center fees and that will in turn determine new developments fair share. So this is... bigger than their fair share. It's showing like our general needs over the next few years. But this also helps us calculate what fair shares, I'm sorry, new developments fair share will be. PFFs, or development impact fees, require that fee nexus to justify fee amounts in accordance with growth projections and fair share calculations for new development. This is required by AB 1600. And this plan needs to be adopted prior to establishing those fees because this serves as the foundation that we build upon. Therefore, staff recommends that the city council adopt a resolution approving the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. I'm happy to answer any questions. We also have our consultant, Chad Kennedy, from Westwood, formerly Odell Engineering, who prepared the plan, and he's happy to answer any technical questions that you may have. I see Vice Mayor's light on, so. Sure. Thank you, Mayor. The last time that I approved a plan, The budget ended up in investigation. I saw the book downstairs today that's like this thick on the parks. Now we're going to approve it, and I don't know what's in it. So I just, I don't know what I'm approving. So how do I understand in the time allotted for us tonight to understand what I'm actually approving? Sure. So I think you have a few options. You can certainly continue the item to give yourselves time to go through the document if you'd like. I can answer questions and our consultant can answer questions regarding the components. We're happy to do that. I will defer obviously to the council. Well, the reason why I ask the question is I don't know what's in there so I don't know what I'd be approving. Okay, sure. So Cliff's notes and I will defer to Chad here shortly because I think he can provide a little bit more technical information. This is going to show an inventory of our existing parks and what we have. That's going to help establish a level of service. Here's what we currently have. Here's what our general plan says we should have. Here's what we provide. Here are deficiencies. Here are some gaps that we have. Here's input from the community that participated in the outreach process of what they want to see. It also includes information from city's plans like the aquatic plan that was recently updated. That was integrated into this document. So it's like a holistic picture of all the facility infrastructure needs. for recreation related items through 2040. And the Parks and Rec's commission or committee, they're involved in this process? Well, they recommended approval, so we presented this plan to them and they recommended approval of it to you. There was a number of stakeholders early on. I can't confirm whether it was any Parks and Recreation commissioners, but we had done a lot of outreach. But I can always bring that back to you if you'd like me to provide a list. I just put that out there because I don't know what I'm approving. It's just to be very transparent. So I'll look to my colleagues to see what their thoughts are. But I just see it was a really thick book, and I haven't turned the pages. If I may, if there is a level of discomfort, this is not time sensitive. I mean, we want to bring this to you because we are making significant process in our overall PFF effort, and we want to get this adopted so we can move on with establishing fees. But if two weeks... Gives you the time to be comfortable. I don't feel comfortable voting on something that I haven't had a chance to sit with, so I would like an opportunity to go through it if I can. I think that's completely reasonable. Council Member Villalpudo. Yes, second mayors. Talking about all these fees, you know, really, are they increasing? And if they are increasing, how much are they increasing? So this is not the subject matter of this item, so it would be inappropriate of me to answer that question right now. This is the foundational document that will help calculate those potential fees that would be worked out publicly through outreach, through IWG, and through stakeholder meetings, and also ultimately brought before you. I agree with the Vice Mayor. We need more information on this. For point of clarity, if you can tell me what that information is so we can have that for you. Just more time. Oh, understood. Thank you. The book is quite big. It's big. And I would also like to recommend, you know, it used to be documents were available at the public library, you know, instead of having to come here to City Hall and see it. If we could have copy at at least one library, it would be nice at all the libraries. But there are parks distributed all over the city. And there are a number of parks that that were supposed to be built that weren't because there wasn't funding available. And I think about Charter Way and Fresno Avenue, there was a development there and the developer was like, yeah, I can't do it. And the city said, yeah, and we can't maintain it anyway. they were to build it and then the one off of mariposa road because these were once in my district so off of mariposa road past the county pocket there was a development there and they had land set aside it's still vacant that was supposed to be for a park and yeah it never happened and so i think it's great to identify the gaps that are there and if we have the funding in order to build them and as well as maintain them that's a win-win for everybody in our community but I agree as well and I would support and I to to continue it but I know we have public comment as well so I will yes if I may so I will say that we have copies available online and we were happy to print out copies and send them to all the libraries I will get on that thank you I appreciate it Mary Elizabeth Well, Mary Elizabeth, I met Mayor Fugazi there in the city clerk's office while I was sitting on the chair with that big book in front of me. I have some notes here. I appreciate the fact that it's going to be made available online. That would have been much more convenient. I had sent an email to the THE CITY CLERK ON FRIDAY WHEN I SAW IT ON THE AGENDA AND THERE WAS JUST A PLACE THERE THAT SAYS YOU MUST GO TO THE CITY CLERK. THAT'S WHERE IT'S AVAILABLE. IT WAS NOT MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE. I'D LIKE TO CALL YOUR ATTENTION TO STOCKTON AND SACRAMENTO. THEY HAD A COMPARISON IN THERE. STOCKTON, WE HAVE 320,000 PEOPLE. SACRAMENTO, 528,000, so about a third more. We have only 1,142 acres. Sacramento, just a third more, has three times, 4,205. Now, this is where we get into the contracts. THAT THE CITY RELIES ON INSTEAD OF HAVING GOOD WAGE JOBS FOR OUR PEOPLE. THE CITY OF STOCKTON PAYS $790,000 A YEAR IN MAINTENANCE. SACRAMENTO, $1,300,000. SO THREE TIMES AS MUCH BUT CERTAINLY NOT THREE TIMES THE MAINTENANCE. SO I THINK THAT THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE SHOULD GENERALLY LOOK FOR. Also, there was nothing there about more pool hours. All of our pools closed on the end of July, except for Victory Park this month. It's crazy to end before even summer is over. I live in a park desert. Okay, so, oh, is there more public comment? Okay, so there was a recommendation to continue it. I don't know if that's a formal motion, but it would need to be a motion. Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to continue. I'll second. Okay, motion and second. Council, please vote. So October 14th meeting, would that work? Would that work for everybody on council? October 14th, okay. Yeah, and some individuals like copies of the book as well. We can distribute copies to the whole council. We'll send them out to local libraries. It is online. I verified that. Actually, since June, we did have a weird error on our website, but that's been corrected. So, yeah, we'll get that to everybody that wants a copy. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Ms. Acasio. Okay, moving on then to 16.2. Review and approve response to the 2023-24 San Joaquin Civil Grand Jury Report, City of Stockton Crisis in Government Case 0123. Is that you, Ms. Asuncion? It's actually going to be Catherine and I. We're going to tag team it. Oh, sorry. Wrong person. Wrong charter office. It's both of us. I'll go ahead and start out with my part just because Laurie has a little bit more in depth where you need actual decisions to be made. So the section that I was assisting with is the finding from or the recommendation from the grand jury REGARDING THE CITY ESTABLISHING A POLICY FOR ADDRESSING THREATENING COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTED AT CITY OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES. SO CITY POLICY IS DEVELOPED UNDER ADMIN DIRECTIVE HR 64 WHICH ADDRESSES WORKPLACE VIOLENCE CRISIS MANAGEMENT POLICIES. AND SO THE CITY RESPONSE THAT LEG COMMITTEE HAS FORWARDED AS RECOMMENDATION FOR RESPONSE WOULD BE The city acknowledges the grand jury's recommendation R1.2. City of Stockton Administrative Directive HR64, Workplace Violence Crisis Management Policy, addresses the procedure for handling threats received by city officials and employees. The city further developed written workplace violence prevention plans in accordance with guidance received from Cal OSHA. And that would complete the response for that item. Can I ask council if they have any questions on that? Absolutely. Does anybody have questions on that? So just for transparency, we talk about that all the time. I will say that Councilmember Enriquez, Vice Mayor, myself, and Councilwoman Ponce, we were not on council when all this transpired. That is correct. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So I don't know the history. So to the Mayor's point, I don't know the history of how all this came about. uh... but i've of course have seen the cliff notes of it all i can only speak for myself when i've received uh... threats or things that are concerned to me i just forward to our police department is this now creating a policy where if we receive threats they go straight to the district attorney so under the Cal OSHA guidance, I, it's, ours is for employees and staff. I don't know the specifics on how it would be handled for yourselves. Okay. But for staffs, each department has developed their own very detailed policy of chain of command structure and how those get reported. Okay, so when this, oh, shoot, I messed up. Okay, where, I said shoot, by the way. I said shoot. Where, where this says, I'm sorry here, okay. By October 1st, 2025, the Stockton City Council should establish a policy for addressing threatening communications directed at city officials and employees. The policy should include forwarding threats to the district attorney's office. Does that mean that's not council members, that's any staff, any... Can you clarify that for me of who this relates to? I didn't know if... I can address that. So I think what Catherine was talking about was there is a Cal OSHA rule that says that all cities had to pass or create a policy for addressing workplace violence. The city does have a policy that does that, but it pertains only to employees. When there's an elected official involved, you send those over to PD, and then we deal with them in an adjacent fashion. So it's like a workplace violence policy. adjacent process. So it's almost the same but not quite because it doesn't involve the same people meeting to initiate, discuss, investigate, and address. So I'm familiar with Cal OSHA as it pertains to employees in the workplace. So what we're saying is the policy or the response to the grand jury's recommendation is that we're going to follow Cal OSHA's policies or process of reporting workplace violence type concerns that may come from people from the public. BECAUSE I THINK CAL OSHA. I BELIEVE THAT'S CORRECT, YEAH. OKAY, DOES CAL OSHA EXTEND TO, BECAUSE IT'S STILL A WORKPLACE CONCERN OR, OKAY, I SEE WHAT YOU'RE SAYING. OKAY, THANK YOU. COUNCILMEMBER HENRIQUEZ. THANK YOU, MADAM MAYOR. YEAH, TO THE MAYOR'S POINT, THE FOUR OF US, YOU KNOW, THIS IS FAIRLY NEW TO US, BUT I KNOW IN THE LAST COUPLE MONTHS THERE'S BEEN INFORMATION. CITY ATTORNEY, IF YOU REMIND JUST THE PUBLIC, I KNOW IT CAME UP AT A COUNCIL MEETING, I WANT TO SAY APRIL, MAY, AND THEN I KNOW IN LEG COMMITTEE THERE WAS SOME DISCUSSION ITEMS THAT WE APPROVED IN TERMS OF SOME OF THE REC Sure, so you're stealing my thunder, council member. So this originally came to the council in May. Because there were so many new council members, you voted to continue the item so that we could bring back better discussion, something that had been vetted a little further. We did go to, we did come to the council on June 3rd. At that time, there were, I think it was six or seven outstanding items that remained. And some of those were addressed, and you did vote to forward that over to the grand jury, the responses that we had. There remained three outstanding, which are the three that we're addressing tonight, and this will be the last and final submission if it's approved. And then what you're referring to is the items that I'm going to address next are the ones that went to ledge committee because they required more direction and input. And now that it's been to the ledge committee, it's now here to the council with recommendations for the council to decide on. I missed one point. Again, I wasn't working. Okay, it's on. Okay, thank you. I wasn't here when this all matter happened, but what I will say is that when I look at the grand jury report, it almost seems as if this whole thing pertains to one person or one group versus my interest is making sure that whatever policies we develop pertain to any and everybody that's a threat to the government, right? So, for example, if, you know, one person that's not subject to the creation of this, whatever this came from, I don't, I'm... I'm trying to find a way to make sure that all the policies that we implement don't just pertain to one person, meaning any threat to the government, any threat to staff, any threat to the institution should be handled in accordance with whatever we're developing. Is that fair to say that's what we're doing? That's correct. Okay. Okay, continue. Okay, my turn. So I'll skip past the... history we just went through it this third and final follow-up response as i said it addresses the remaining items the one that you just heard from catherine on the workplace violence restraining order policy and now the the other two remaining i'll start with the first one there was a recommendation by the grand jury that the city adopt a policy that all findings from any brown investigate brown act investigations that are initiated by council THAT THOSE FINDINGS BE SUBMITTED TO THE GRAND JURY WITHIN SEVEN DAYS OF RECEIPT BY COUNCIL. SO ON AUGUST THE 25TH, THE COUNCIL EDGE COMMITTEE CONSIDERED AND APPROVED FORWARDING A RECOMMENDATION THAT COUNCIL ADOPT COUNCIL POLICY 3.15. YOU, IN YOUR PACKET, YOU'LL SEE IT AS ATTACHMENT C, AND THAT REQUIRES THAT ALL FINDINGS FROM BROWN ACK INVESTIGATIONS BE SUBMITTED TO THE GRAND JURY WITHIN SEVEN DAYS BY THE COUNCIL. IT'S PRETTY SHORT AND SWEET, BUT YOU CAN TAKE A LOOK AT IT. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, I'M HAPPY TO ANSWER. VICE MAYOR HAS A QUESTION. THANK YOU, MAYOR. YOU KNOW, GIVEN THE FACT that the district attorney just rejected our last Brown Act submission claiming that there was, you know, it was too general and vague and that it had an attached document that people have to fill out. I think we should amend this policy to include that document ahead of time for at least the district attorney since the council passed that any violations be forwarded to them. It has to be forwarded, I would assume, with a document where people sign under penalty of perjury. So can we include that in this document? So I guess I don't understand what you're saying. The last council, we passed a process. Remember, we had a lengthy discussion. You made referrals, yes. You directed me to send referrals. Right. But we also established that any future Brown Act violations, that your office would forward those to the district attorney and to the grand jury. Correct. What we've since seen is the district attorney, at least, not knowing the other party's process, rejected our submission, claiming that we need to – fill out a form and sign under perjury penalty of perjury i'm saying to amend this with adding that form as well right so no this policy pertains only to the grand jury it was the grand jury's ask that if the city initiates any more future brown act investigations we're not required to but if we do that those findings be turned over because they could not be turned over previously as you know they were privileged and this the privilege had to be waived by this council earlier this year so the ask is that if there are any future brown act investigations initiated by this council that within seven days we turn that over to the grand jury but i think what we agreed and remind me remind us if i'm wrong uh... is that we're going to preserve taxpayer dollars and not do them in-house we're going to refer them out and so that sense has changed since we made this recommendation that's correct but this policy doesn't require us to do and it doesn't require the council to initiate an investigation it says that if you exercise that discretion and you do at some point in the future that it's not going to be privileged as to the grand jury that it will be forwarded over yes i'm confused yeah so um you want a hamburger you can get a hamburger to in and out or the habit they're right in the same location okay So, but if you buy it in and out, you don't get a Habit hamburger. I know, I'm making this more confusing. You're making me hungry. But what I'm saying is, what I'm saying is though, is the fact that this isn't the district attorney, this is civil grand jury, so we have to address the civil grand jury and we don't put in the district attorney. Yeah, no, totally understand that. Here's my point. My point is that at the last council, and thank you for the analogy. we developed an internal process to avoid spending taxpayer money to pursue Brown Act claims. And so what we said we would do is we would refer that, actually I think what the recommendation was, was that they would go to your office and then you would then, as a dispatcher, send them out to these agencies. Correct. Okay, so now we're on the same page with that, so I'm going to get to the hamburger. Now, we've sent them out, now that it's been sent to you, and my question is, is that now... looking at this policy, does that change anything here? Because you don't have to include the DA, but we're sending it to the grand jury anyway. So I guess I can easily change the wording to say to the grand jury or the DA. This policy will only ever apply. It's not like we're going to do investigations every time for all the reasons you articulated. But if the city does, the grand jury specifically asks that it go to them. If you want it to also go to the DA, you have that authority, sure. The policy is before you for adoption. So what we're saying is, because I just want to be clear, we're developing policies and giving direction and then we're sending out a report. So what we're saying is that if for whatever reason a Brown Act claim happens, it comes to your office, and you do decide to pursue it internally, you'll then notify the grand jury of that. Yes. So, okay. Are you going to get to three, the grieving process? So the first ask is whether or not the council would like to adopt this policy 3.15, because that's one of the responses, and then we can move on to the next one. I'll make a motion to adopt. So we don't need a motion yet. The motion will be as to the entire response. But I do need to know, you know, I need to know from the council that that's the direction we're headed so that I can include it in the motion. Okay. And then the third and last final item for us to address. The grand jury recommended that the city hire an independent third party to investigate the city's ethics hotline process to regain employee and public trust in the system. It's a direct quote from the grand jury report. On August 25th, the alleged committee considered that recommendation that was presented to issue an RFP and hire a third party consistent with that grand jury recommendation. AFTER EXPRESSING CONCERNS REGARDING THE ADDITIONAL FUNDING REQUIRED TO ISSUE THE RFP AND HIRE AN OUTSIDE PARTY, THE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED THAT THE COUNCIL CONSIDER AN ALTERNATE RESPONSE TO STATE THAT AN INTERNAL REVIEW WOULD BE CONDUCTED TO KEEP THE FUNCTION IN-HOUSE. BOTH ALTERNATIVES ARE PROVIDED FOR COUNCIL CONSIDERATION TONIGHT, SO YOU JUST HAVE TO DECIDE WHICH WAY YOU WANT TO GO. AND I WILL, WHEN I WAS ON AUDIT COMMITTEE, MARK WOULD TALK ABOUT THE 800 NUMBER A LOT, AND I'D SAY, WHAT IS IT? WHERE DO YOU FIND IT? I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHERE IT IS. uh... because it we always talked about it means that we didn't get any complaints who knows the number so it's on the city's website just so you know yes i i i get that but i i i'm thinking you know in every department there needs to be a you know, where the break room is, where they talk about the laws regarding workplace, you know, that it's there. But we need to do a better job of making sure that people have it when they get onboarded. If we have a card, we can give them. If you have any concerns, you can call this number. It is completely confidential because people do. I mean, it is, it's, people have to feel like they can safely make, like a bunch. sure and our former auditor actually did do training in-house with every employee they did them over a series of weeks they did remote training so everybody did get the full spiel and everybody knew and it was a very active line for about a year so we need to keep that up vice mayor yeah thank you yeah to the mayor's point I mean there was a lot of conversation in the committee about where do we handle this do we send it to an outside and staff and at the time had voiced concerns over the process, confidentiality, protections, and we just thought it would make sense to handle it in-house, let the city attorney's office handle it. I think there was a conversation, though, around resources on how to do that or whether or not there are enough resources to do that. But that was, I think, the concern. But wherever it is, making sure that staff feel safe, protected, covered enough to have a confidential experience in advocating for a safer work environment. Councilman Villapudua. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. City Attorney, you mentioned that a ledge made this up. What was on the ledge on their language? The recommendation came from staff, and it was just consistent with the grand jury's recommendation that we issue an RFP, hire an outside party to monitor and respond to that line. The committee presented an alternate option to do some sort of an internal review and keep it in-house. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Councilman Blauer. Thank you, Mayor. SO IT SOUNDS LIKE THE GRAND JURY IS RECOMMENDING THAT WE DO HIRE SOMEBODY OUTSIDE. DO WE HAVE AN IDEA OF THE BALLPARK OF, LIKE, HOW MUCH THAT'S GOING TO COST? THAT'S WHAT I ALWAYS WANT TO KNOW, LIKE, HOW MUCH ARE THESE THINGS GOING TO COST? SO I DO NOT. WE WOULD DO THAT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE, AND I DON'T WANT TO PUT THEM ON THE SPOT. I DON'T KNOW IF THEY HAVE ANY CLUE WHAT THAT BALLPARK ESTIMATE MIGHT BE. I WANT TO HOLD YOU TO IT. YOU CAN'T BALLPARK? I DON'T EVEN HAVE IT. WE DON'T DO THE RFPs. THEY WOULD BE DONE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CMOs. CITY MANAGER? I'M WAITING ON A RESP Ms. Christie. Good evening, Courtney Christie, deputy city manager. So as the city attorney mentioned, Moss Adams, our former auditor, was in charge of handling and managing the ethics hotline, both online and the phone calls. So the process was very much removed from anybody in a direct chain of command. We, right now, we are preparing to issue, we will be coming back to the audit committee and then coming back to council eventually. We are preparing to issue an RFP to find another city auditing firm, an outside city auditing firm that can handle those internal controls processes and part of managing the ethics hotline is included in that scope of work. So I would ask for a little bit of flexibility right now if we can kind of, you know, I know the city attorney's office workload being what it is right now everybody's trying to keep their head above water but it is included in the RFP we do hope to get that out in the next few months so hopefully by the you know first of the year late winter we will have a path forward with another auditor but I think it's one of these that we can continue to check in on month to month and keep it going but it is a process that we do intend to push back out to it to a third party internal controls auditor as we continue to move forward through this process so until such time it will reside with the city attorney's office who has i mean i know i know they're drowning but right now it it's confidential it's outside a direct chain of command for the majority of staff um so our office the city manager's office will continue to work with the city attorney's office to make sure that we're not putting more pressure than needed and and if we do get to a breaking point then we can you know quickly pivot because we're really good at that council member blower So of the two responses, the one right here, by October 1st, 2025, the Stockton City Council shall hire an independent third party to investigate the city's ethics hotline process to regain employee and public trust in the system. So it sounds like we're kind of leaning there, but there's no way we can meet that deadline, right? So yeah, so okay. Well, I think we can provide the response and tell them our plan. And the plan, I think if it's incorporated into the RFP for the new auditor, then we would modify this response to reflect that. Perfect. Okay. Public comment? Yes. David Sengtai. Good evening. I'm Mayor Fregazi, Vice Mayor Lee. I APPRECIATE THE DISCUSSION WE'RE HAVING IN RESPONSE TO 2024. OH, MY GOODNESS. IS THAT STILL ON THE RECORD? BUT GOOD EVENING, EVERYONE HERE. I JUST WANT TO APPRECIATE AND SEND MY APPRECIATION FOR THE DISCUSSION WE'RE HAVING TONIGHT ABOUT OUR RESPONSE TO THE 2024 GRAND JURY REPORT, WHICH INDICATED THAT OUR CITY GOVERNMENT WAS NOT FUNCTIONING TO THE BEST OF ITS ABILITY. AND I ALSO WANT TO MAKE NOTE THAT ONE OF THE CLEAR CONCERNS MADE in the grand jury report was the associations of council members with 209 times. I want us to be very cognizant of that as we move forward with this new administration. I would hate for us to receive another grand jury report that shows to us that we are still operating not to the best of our abilities because of our associations with 209 times and its related affiliates. As per what's being discussed tonight, uh... i also to share uh... i appreciate the legislative committee for the recommendations they brought forward i understand uh... i would prefer however that the uh... review of the ethics hotline be done third party but i'm also uh... compassionate and willing to compromise in the fact that we don't always have the money for outside third-party investigators to perform said audit of the ethics hotline so i will uh... i would like to hear more about the pricing and the uh... concerns over how much it may cost the city before we move forward. But as it stands, I am in favor of the recommendations set forward by the legislative committee as it is presented to council tonight. And I also want to again say that we must be very cognizant and clear that, again, a lot of the report discussed concerns and concerns a lack of trust within City Hall because of known affiliations and alliances with 209 Times. As you come to our City Council meeting and you walk into City Hall, remember that 209 Times did not vote for you. The citizens of Stockton did. And when you sit in your seats and make these decisions, you're held accountable to the public, not only the folks here, but also those viewing online and afar as well. Thank you. lisa harrison good evening mayor for that is the vice mayor lee and city council so with regard to two oh nine times i've been uh... very confused by the uh... relationships that some council members continue to have with these individuals who are consistently spreading misinformation, something that they've done for years on end. You know, MoTak will let you know. It's in print in the LA Times that he does lie. And he's relying on people's ignorance to trust and believe what they put in print. When you talk about truth, trust, and transparency, I wonder how you align that with that social media site and how you align integrity with an individual who is the opposite of anything that speaks to truth, trust, or transparency. I wonder if the alliances, if the relationships are based on personal interests, your interest in power, your interest in personal gain and opportunity, because that is not what us as residents of Stockton, California, have any interest in, is your relationships with these individuals. And I know some of you use them as... I don't know, campaign management. So it's kind of like you can't have it both ways. These two things cannot be true. You cannot speak to trust, truth, and transparency and maintain relationships with the individuals of 209 Times. Melissa Leyva? I'm Melissa Leyva, community organizer, also a fellow victim of the retaliation and political violence of 209 Times. I'm with Stockton Stands, which we ran a campaign against the intentional disinformation in our marginalized communities through 209 Times. My message today really isn't to you because we know your alliances are clear and as last meeting it's showing that you guys are throwing under the bus, which I love to see it because it means justice is coming soon. really the grand jury needs to be called county in crisis because the DA Freitas is also integrated in 209 times so again as I've reiterated many times if these recommendations and implications of workplace violence can also be under the foresight of Attorney General Rob Bonta because this violence has also integrated into the partisan play of our local unions, of our municipal stakeholders. And I'm very disappointed in Michael Blower's comment last time about the implication of how much money it costs when workplace violence is a form of trauma that our employees are now having to carry, the hostility. I know from lived experience of, from my advocacy of experiencing that. These grand jury reports are also related to the ones from Stockton Unified School District with the fraud audit. And I want to know if that's going to be integrated with their workplace violence as well. I would really be in support of the teachers unions and their representatives suing. And then another thing, what was I going to say? Yeah, so third party, hope this goes to Bonta. Inshallah, we will be free. Pat Barrett. As to Vice Mayor Lee, he said that this was directed towards one person, one group. That one group, that one person is your friend. You told me before you were elected you will not give up your loyalty. My point earlier was I feel vulnerable due to just being able to be pulled out of a hat, my dismissal, and now you have made me a victim to be targeted by your friends. Will you go home and call in and find ways to attack me? Will I wake up and my car is not destroyed? That I won't go outside? Do I feel safe coming here? Is that what your point was? Are you shaking your head yes like that? Or as you read the public notes about how public should behave, is it vice versa? How the diocese should act? You have made me a target by expressing my saddened heart of saying the things that I had to say to a friend because I loved her so much that I believed in her. and her candidacy to be mayor to lead this city. You thought it was easy for me to stand up here and say what I said that day? Do you? I just want you to understand, now you have just pulled the rug out from somebody that deals with PTSD, that now has to look over her back all the time because of your shadow government and your friends. Thanks. I CAN'T EVEN CALL YOU MAYOR ANYMORE, I DON'T FEEL YOU'RE MY MAYOR ANYMORE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, I JUST NEEDED TO SAY THIS BECAUSE MY TWO MINUTES RAN OUT TOO EARLY FOR THE DOLLARS THAT I PAY FOR TAXES TO BE CUT MY TONGUE. CYNTHIA GAYLE BOYD. TTT. I experienced a violation of the Brown Act way back with the serial killer. The cat got out of the bag. Then I was called the next day and said, take it off of social media, but I do know for him. of social media, so I wasn't the one that posted it, so I couldn't take it back. So it not only happens in the workplace or with you all, but I've experienced, and some people have a puzzled look, I've been to the town hall meetings, asked the chief of police who is currently here, asked the city manager, Mayor Lincoln and whatnot, what happened during the serial killer. Now listen here. That's like sleeping with the enemy. with that 209 business. I'm just wondering also, it's like when you hand in a citizen's complaint, say against the Stockton Police Department, and it's okay, well, we looked into what you said, but you're never going to know what the decision was. So I wonder if you do hire an outside independent contractor, do you get the results back? Does the public get to know? And my scoreboard is running over with threats about send him to, Send him to the grand jury. Send her to the grand jury. Investigate him over there. What is the score right now? Which one of, if you can say it, you don't have to tell me, but maybe at the end in your comment, can you kind of update it? We know about the murder. One of my cousins, unfortunately, was shot in the face over the weekend. And so he's probably like homicide 25. But my scoreboard ran out of which one of y'all is under investigation and under the Brown violation. If you can, let us know because my scorecard is all out of whack. That concludes public comment for this item. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry. I appreciate everybody's comments. Let me first start by saying I don't want my comments as somebody who's new to government in this role to minimize anybody's position or thought or investment in making sure that your voices are heard. I hear every single comment. I just want to be very clear. I can only speak for myself. I'm aligned with the people who voted me in. I can't speak for everybody else. I don't have an alliance up here where us three are going to vote this way, us three are going to vote this way. I don't negotiate my votes. I don't even get on the phone and talk about my votes. I call people and tell them what I believe, but I don't call more than two or else you end up in an investigation. With respect to the matter that's here right here, When I say that I think this should apply to any influence, this community is extremely distracted by the politics that get in front of the work we need to do for the people. There's so much opportunity in this community. And I have to tell you, as somebody who's lived in different parts of the country and that's traveled the world, that's seen communities thriving, we deserve better. And we are in this pit that I have struggled with trying to figure out how to dig us out of, I'll be honest with you. I do agree that there should be no influence of any individual up here other than the people that we serve. That is just natural. You voted us in. That's why we're here. And that isn't to make any allegation of anybody up here. So I just want to be very clear. And I'm not choosing neutrality. I'm saying that in public, in front of all of you, the media, and my colleagues, that we should all be making decisions based on what is in the best interest of the people who put us here. That said, when I make it clear that I don't think this should apply to one party, It's because oftentimes if I go over here, it's 209 times. If I go over here, it's the developers. If I go over here, it's this party. At the end of the day, we should all decide what our compass is, and our compass is you. How does whatever we're going to do serve the best interest of you? So I just want to put that out there. The second part is that there was questions about whether or not this should go to Rob Bonta or Ron Freitas. I don't really want to politic, and please hear me when I say this. I don't want to politic anything. all the enforcement agencies that are out there doing really hard work on behalf of our county, our city, and our state. But I will say to one of the members, I think it was Alyssa asked the question, Rob Bonta's office is fully aware of anything you've ever heard me say on social media or up here with respect to investigations, claims, concerns, Rob Bonta's office has it all. Ron Freitas' office. I can't speak to all the things that he has, but I know what I've sent over to them, what I've sent to the grand jury, what I've sent to the attorney general. But there was a point where I was concerned about this institution, and I made sure that everybody was aware. And however it plays out, it does play out. So I'm in full support of uh... the recommendations that discount that this council is considered that uh... our committee did a lot of work to make a sure responded and i do want to support my colleague michael blowers point about saving money as much as people want us to launch all these investigations one investigation can be a minimum of a hundred grand that is a hundred and i'd rather figure out how to get to the food bank i want to figure out how to go building conway i want to figure out how to give to you know fix our roads make sure kids have after school programs like Investigation, investigation, investigation. Every time we sit up here and say we want to launch all these investigations, these attorney firms are getting paid lots of money. And we just saw what happened when we got it wrong with Kurt Wilson. Not to say we got it wrong. I don't even want to open up that camera. But $2.4 million is a lot of taxpayer money that could be going towards other things. So I just want to say that because I think that's where he's going. And I agree. We need to figure out ways of... holding ourselves accountable to our commitments to the community, but also policing our behavior, making sure that we keep you at the forefront of every decision. And I would like to piggyback off that. I do agree with the Vice Mayor. And there isn't just one entity. I could talk about the cabal who's been, yeah. I could talk about the Stockton View. I could even talk about things that are on next door. And I could talk about groups that are in this room tonight that inaccurate information has been put out. I know I've called editors and I've sent them the correct information. But in terms of personal interest gain opportunity, I think we have up here made it very clear who we serve. And if you look at the progress that has been made despite anything that has been said here, there, or anywhere, This city has moved forward. There has been progress here. And as far as my record, I'd say go back and look at the eight years that I was on council. I was raised a certain way and I continue to abide by that. And I understand people's concerns. I do. And I know that the grand jury has their uh decision on this and we um up here are going to embrace the recommendations of the city clerk and the city attorney and we're going to move forward that's my opinion so you making a motion yeah i'd like to make a motion to accept Second. So if I can clarify, there are two different actions that have to be done. So the first is a motion to adopt a resolution approving council policy 3.15 of the council policy manual regarding Brown Act investigations. So I need a motion, second, and vote on that first. Motion. Second. Council please vote. Motion on 3.1 passes 7-0. Okay. And then the second action is, I need a motion to approve the city's third and final response to the 2023-2024 San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury Report entitled, City of Stockton Crisis in Government Case Number... which will include a response to R1.2 as presented by the city clerk, a response to R2.3, which includes the newly adopted Council Policy 3.15, and a modified response to Item R3.1 that reflects the city's intent to issue an RFP for a new external city auditor, which will include in its scope the monitoring and investigation of the fraud, waste, and abuse hotline. authorizing the city attorney to submit all approved responses to the San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury on behalf of the city and council. Motion. Second. We have a motion and a second. Please vote. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you. Okay, now we move on to city manager's update. Okay, so it's that time of year again. Monster Mash at Pixie Woods coming October 25th. Presale tickets are available now. Well, we'll start on September 15th at the events office. Get your tickets in advance. So come and have fun. Municipal utilities. So on Thursday, September 25th, the City of Stockton Municipal Utilities Department will hold a groundbreaking for the Delta Water Treatment Plant Groundwater Recharge Project. When complete, the groundwater recharge project will allow city to directly recharge groundwater basin. Water recharged into the groundwater basin can be stored and pumped during dry years and extended droughts. The basin will also help balance groundwater levels and critically overdrafted eastern San Joaquin groundwater subbasins and help meet the region's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act requirements. The ceremony will take place from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 11373 North Lower Sacramento Road. That's all I have. Okay, thank you. Moving on to Council Member's comments. I know there's some people that are chomping at the bit because it's been two meetings. And he didn't chime in first, so Council Member Blauer. Thank you, Mayor. At the last meeting, I did ask for a moment of silence to end the meeting, and we all know the meeting ended somewhat abruptly, so I'd like to reiterate my request that we end this meeting with a moment of silence for Terry Hull, Sr., as well as Dr. Elizabeth Blanchard. And I'm going to be real quick tonight because I'm curious to see how early we can get out. Had a... A cool experience yesterday, I happened to be in Concord, and I was very close to Flying Colors Comics. And so I stopped by because I wanted to meet Joe Field. Joe Field is the owner. Joe Field is actually the guy that was a DJ here in Stockton at KJOY back in the day. And in 1985, he started the push. to get Stockton, California officially recognized by Marvel Comics as the home of the Fantastic Four. He was successful. On February 27, 1986, on the steps of City Hall, Stan Lee came and presented a proclamation to the city designating us as the official home of the Fantastic Four. Joe moved his shop recently. And while he was doing that, he came across copies of the proclamation. And I purchased one. So I've got one that I framed and have at my house. I asked the city clerk where the original was. And unfortunately, it was apparently, according to Joe, had been displayed here in City Hall somewhere. And at some point, it got put into... STORAGE, BUT IT CANNOT BE FOUND. SO, WELL, IT HAS DISAPPEARED. BUT I JUST WANT TO THROW OUT THERE THAT FEBRUARY 27TH OF NEXT YEAR WILL BE THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY. SO I'D JUST LIKE TO THROW IT OUT THERE THAT I THINK WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING WITH THAT. HAVE JOE HERE. MAYBE WE SHOULD BUY ONE OF THOSE COPIES THAT THEY HAVE. AND I'D LOVE TO SEE THAT DISPLAYED IN THE NEW CITY HALL SOMEWHERE. WHAT'S THAT? Just really quick, I have been in communication with Joe, and I'm working on moving forward. Excellent, excellent. Then quick reminder, September 19th coming up is the Feast at the Fox. That'll be at 6 p.m. Visit Stockton. I believe there are still tickets available. Wonderful event. The kitchen will be doing the food in conjunction with the Culinary Arts Department at Delta. And then, Jen, just for my... Fellow council members, September 25th will be the Cal City's Central Valley Division General Membership Meeting, and that's going to be at 6 p.m. It's in Modesto. Could really use some of you to show up. We're going to be voting on the bylaws. I served on the committee with a few of us that updated the bylaws. We worked hard on getting that. That's September 25th. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is COG. And we're also doing elections. So if any of you can make it, would love to have you there. And that's all I have. Okay. And if you have that written up, I know that I've spoken to members of our offices, charter offices. They would love to have a copy to enter into the record. Okay. Just point of order really quick. You're putting a timer on our comments and that hasn't been publicly discussed and that needs to be a decision or at least communicated out. We're going to see tonight how. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. It was Vice, excuse me, Councilwoman Padilla. Sorry. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank my colleagues for attending with me this weekend. We celebrated the teams of Delta Sunrise Little League. They had a wonderful celebration and I think they were extremely happy and all the accolades were well received. In my district over the past few weeks I've received a growing number of calls and messages in regards to residents that there is an abundance of mail theft as well as wheel theft. or tire theft particularly those cars of Honda's and Toyota's are being targeted so these incidents are not only costly for our families but also our neighborhoods are feeling very vulnerable so I know I just want the community to know that we take this very seriously and I strongly encourage residents to report any type of theft or vandalism because that helps our department report the reporting is critical because it gives our officers the data in order to use to track patterns and direct resources to those particular areas where things are happening at the same time I would had put this in here as a note I wanted to ask staff to explore preventive measures and public awareness campaigns or partnerships such as neighborhood groups or neighborhood watch but I know that late this afternoon or we got a meeting from staff in regards to they were going to be reaching out to different districts and building those relationships so that should be forthcoming throughout our city safety and and peace of mind in our homes and neighborhoods must be our top priority with that I would also like staff to offer our constituents a place or where they can where they can obtain information on the police community advisory board I'm not sure if it's on the city website or if they have to contact the police department in regards to that but I know it was mentioned in our public comments so if that could be addressed and that's all I have this evening Thank you. Okay, Council Member Enriquez. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm going to be quick, I promise, but there's a lot. But first, I'm going to go into infrastructure, so everybody get ready. There was a stop sign that was fixed on Pershing and West Mariposa Avenue. I did let some of the constituents that live there know. I want to thank our team. We also got a pothole repaired on West Poplar right around the corner of Yosemite Street Village. Again, it's a really popular neighborhood, so that street, you always feel the bump no matter what. ALL THE FIXES FROM THE LAST AUGUST MEETING FROM THE 26th. WE CONSTITUENTS KNOW THAT ON THE CORNER OF NORTH STOCKTON AND MAGNOLIA WAS FIXED. ALSO OFF THE MONTE DIABLO RIGHT BY LEWIS PARK. AGAIN, A VERY POPULAR PARK. A LOT OF OUR LITTLE LEAGUE KIDS PLAY THERE. SO THAT WAS A FREQUENTLY USED ROAD ON THE SOUTHERN END OF THE PARK. CORNER OF WEST WALNUT AND PERSIAN AVENUE. CORNER OF NORTH YOSEMITE AND WEST WILLOW STREET. AND THEN ALSO ANOTHER POPULAR AREA FOR THOSE THAT KNOW MARCH LANE NEXT TO IN-N-OUT BURGER, THERE'S MAIN ENTRY HOMEWAYS OF WINDING RIVER CIRCLE AND SOUTH OF MARCH LANE. SINCE THAT'S THE MAIN ENTRANCE, YOU ALWAYS FEEL THE BUMS NO MATTER WHAT, SO THAT WAS FIXED. IN TERMS OF GRAFFITI, I WANT FOLKS TO KNOW THAT WE HAVE A GREAT GRAFFITI CLEANING TEAM, AND IF YOU SUBMIT IT USING ASK STOCKTON, YOU'LL NOTICE THAT THEY WILL BE ON IT RIGHT OFF THE BAT. SO PLEASE, AS USUAL, LIKE THIS COUNCIL ALWAYS SAYS, IF YOU SEE GRAFFITI, DON'T JUST ASSUME SOMEONE ELSE IS GOING TO DO IT FOR YOU. HAVE THE APP, TAKE A PHOTO AND SUBMIT IT AND I GUARANTEE YOU WITHIN A COUPLE DAYS, GIVE OR TAKE, IT'S GOING TO GET CLEANED UP. IT'S TRULY THAT EASY. WE HAD ABOUT SIX GRAFFITI FIXES IN DISTRICT FOUR. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT IT'S KEPT CLEAN AND SAFE IN ALL OF OUR DISTRICTS. ROSEMARIE LANE ALONGSIDE AN APARTMENT COMPLEX. WE GOT A YELLOW TRAFFIC SIGN FIXED ON THE CORNER OF COUNTRY CLUB AND WISCONSIN AVENUE. Traffic sign in Green Bench near Yosemite Street Village on the corner of North Yosemite and West Willow Street. Also the T&M Market off Ride Avenue off Monte Diablo Freeway exit. The whole wall had graffiti. That was all cleaned up. And also on North El Dorado and West Jamestown Street fixed as well. IN TERMS OF DISTRICT FOUR PROJECTS, WE OBVIOUSLY HAD A GREAT WIN WITH VICTORY POOL. I WANT TO THANK ALL MY COLLEAGUES THAT SHOWED UP IN SUPPORT, ALSO THOSE THAT WEREN'T ABLE TO MAKE IT, JUST YOUR SUPPORT NONETHELESS MEANT A LOT FOR US TO BE THERE IN UNITY. I KNOW IT TOOK A LOT OF INDIVIDUALS OVER THE LAST 12 YEARS AND EVEN BEFORE FROM COMMITTEES TO FORMER ELECTEDS, SENATOR EGGMAN, COUNCILWOMAN LENS, MAYOR FUGAZI WHEN SHE WAS COUNCILMEMBER AND A LOT OF OUR CITY STAFF, BUT IT WAS A GREAT CELEBRATION AND We had so many people, we had to recalibrate the chemical because we had so many people that wanted to use it. And that Sunday, I went at 11.30 a.m. We had 20 kids waiting for them to get into the pool again. And they had said they had gone since Friday. They had gone every day because of how excited they were. So to see that meant a lot. And at the end of the day, I would say this. Just like Vice Mayor Lee and I, you know, we opened up McKinley Park and Victory Pool in our respective districts. We know that a lot of people played important roles to make these projects happen. So for me, I'm not one to say that I'm taking any credit, but I'm happy to know that at the end of the day, for me, those kids smiling, that's the win for me. That's what I want to celebrate and enjoy. So I could care less who did the most for what this and that. I just care about our kids having fun and our families having a good time. That's what's important. I want to thank Chad and his team. We have our hot light system also by Victory Park. Should be ready. We're looking at October, but I'll be sure to let my constituents know, as I know that we have a lot of accidents on Pershing and Dan Richardson, if you're watching, this is for you, but also to Miguel Guillen and a lot of supporters and advocates that want to ensure that we're slowing our roads down all throughout the city of Stockton. In Oak Park. We did put up a brand new fence up. We have two exludes that are being built. And this is the really frustrating part when we talked about parks earlier about, you know, we don't get money back, you know, we don't make money off of our parks. But when we're investing in our parks, let's preserve it. You know, we had an exlude that was not even built yet and the wall was already damaged and the fence was taken down and it hasn't even been opened yet. This is for the community. This is for all of you that get to go to Oak Park and enjoy it. So I know we put the fence back up, but we also started our parking lot project, which I want to thank my colleagues for voting unanimously to do the resurfacing for the parking lot by our little league or baseball field. And then that will also have another bathroom. So by the end of it, we will have three bathrooms and a resurface parking lot for our kids and our families in Oak Park. So I want to thank our staff and again, my colleagues for supporting. Going back to Victory Pool, for those that have been asking, we do have the World War II plaque. We have it. It's here in this building. And right now we're working with our staff and some architects to be creative on how we can place that in a respectful way back at the Victory Pool area. So once we know more, we'll be sure to let everybody know. I want to thank our now new chair, Mayor Fugazi, on the Council of Governments, and my colleague, Councilwoman Ponce. in two big wins we're on sj cog and we get to learn a lot about infrastructure and how measure k funding is spent and the three of us as well as the the dais of different electives of the county two specific things i want to highlight we approved two-year but free bus transfer pilot program so now riders can transfer between local and inner city bus operators between the county and also agencies will be reimbursed through measure k funding And then also we extended funding for the Vamos Easy Hub mobility app. Please download it if you haven't already. Vamos, V-A-M-O-S, Easy Hub. Providing real-time bus tracking and stop mapping. Again, we all know that not every family has a car. People have to get to work, drop their kids off. So this is just one of many ways that the three of us and the COG group is really advocating, again, to make it easier for all of our families to move throughout the county. I also want to thank the mayor's office for giving me the opportunity to provide two proclamations, one to the International Overdose Awareness Day to a nonprofit just down the street, as well as honoring our 250th Navy anniversary led by the Daughters of the American Revolution right across the church from UOP. And again, we had someone from the public just really say how much they appreciate THAT THE CITY COUNCIL, THIS CITY COUNCIL IS REALLY THROUGHOUT THE CITY. YOU KNOW, WE'RE NOT JUST TIED TO OUR DISTRICTS, BUT WE MAKE OUR BEST TO SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER IN OUR DIFFERENT EVENTS AND BE THROUGHOUT THE CITY, AND IT SHOWS. SO I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT FOLKS FROM THE AUDIENCE NOTICES IT. BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, IT'S A THANKLESS JOB. WE DO OUR BEST. WE HAVE FULL-TIME JOBS AS COUNCIL MEMBERS, AND WE TRY TO GO TO AS MANY EVENTS AS WE CAN TO BE SUPPORTIVE FOR EVERYBODY. Um, we had a really productive town hall. I want to think Delta college and the civic. Alliance that hosted me in the vice mayor as two new electeds in nine months in office. And I think just the conversation and just how productive, and we talked about policy and we got hit with the hard questions. And I think that's really what government is about when we can be not just in this building, we're out in the community responding to what you're most concerned about. And I think it was just a great discussion. I think the two hours flew by. It felt like 20 minutes. upcoming events for District 4 I have my Mario on the Mile on September 17th from 6 to 7 at Valley Brew I want to thank Kelly the owner for hosting us and again an opportunity for you all to share your ideas and also for the first time mornings with Mario September 28th 10 to 11 at Terra Coffee at Yosemite Street Village also want to thank Laura and her husband the owners for hosting us And September 30th, people have been asking what's going on with the Miracle Mile money, the 20 plus million dollars that was approved. We did approve this council, Siegfried, our engineering company, and we will be having our first community meeting regarding this project on September 30th at University of the Pacific, and then more details to come. But this week we're finalizing some communications with our city, that way we can all let you know. And again, you can come out and see what the first phase is gonna look like, and I think it's gonna be a really big win for not just the district, but for all Stocktonians. And then last thing would be, two last things I lied. We're almost there. Hey, you know, there's a couple. Almost, almost. A couple, we have ledge coming up, but I want to say that this upcoming ledge meeting on Monday at three o'clock, we have seven items. And I think fairly most of them we can get done pretty quickly because a lot of it already went through our city clerk and our city attorney's office. There's be a lot of important legislation that we want to be able to tackle and I know I've been really transparent and communicative of how my stance is on immigration. I've said it from the get go and people know where I stand on that issue but we are going to be exploring some policy regarding that because again I'd rather be proactive than reactive and I think that should be any policy that this city council implements but I'm just one vote. But please attend at three o'clock and then I'll be sure to provide a summary. Other than that, upcoming travel I will be at Tehachapi Bakersfield this weekend for my third session of my water policy program and then as usual please connect with me pothole fix light broken you want to meet share any concerns ideas my email is dist4 at stocktonca.gov and my cell phone which does go to my phone is 209-645-2711 so I don't check next door up I don't always check Facebook so These are the best avenues to reach me, so again, if there's any issues, I'm happy to help. And thank you again, and have a good night. Vice Mayor. Okay, I timed mine. It's going to be shorter than his, but nonetheless thorough. First, let me say that I am a name dropper, so I'm going to drop a name really quick. Because I didn't know what this meeting was going to be today or how this was going to go down. But I want to say we should be proud of ourselves because we're getting out here early. But Rihanna said, make me proud. And I hope that I did. And all my best behavior. And to my colleagues, I appreciate us having a pretty productive meeting. But before I begin, I did kind of outline what I want to say so I make sure I hit every point. I want to take a moment to talk about the importance of civic engagement and encourage our community to get more active. I mean, seeing new faces, hearing new voices come to council and say, hey, I've never been here before, but I want to say X, Y, Z, or me stopping and running into people in the community who are like, hey, I'm watching at home. I just want to say to everybody watching at home, everybody that's come down, new faces. faces that we know we appreciate you continue to share uh... with the community that this isn't a reality show although it does seem like one sometime uh... cynthia gail boyd is a star online if you haven't seen we do we do want to continue to encourage people to come down because your government's only going to work if you get involved the other thing is over the last few weeks i've had the opportunity to participate in two community forums as my colleague says one with the papa and the other at delta college to have two hours two two and a half hours of dialogue around community concerns, taking questions from the media, from people in the community, just having no preparation, just being very raw and real. People appreciate that. I want to do more of that. So if there's other opportunities, I think you should encourage us to continue to get out there. Because that's where I find the most fun in this work, is being with the community and hearing directly from you what you want and what you need. And although, you know, one of the conversations that we had was, you know, one of the questions was, how has it been over the last nine months? I can say this has been like a roller coaster, right? There's lots of ups and downs, there's lots of exciting times, and then there's times where you're somewhat scared or concerned. And I think we have worked through that. I mean, when you ask about how many investigations there are, there are several investigations happening, but I think those are all investigations that are important and that are dealing with the matters that happened in the past. I'm hoping that we don't have any new ones as we move forward because ultimately they have been very distracting to the work that we need to do for our constituents. And so I hope that we're all very mindful of that. And this also is an important month because September 17th is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. And we see in the national news that our Constitution is continually threatened, and the citizenship of people in this country and in this city are also threatened. But what's important about the 17th of September is that it is a day where we acknowledge the development of our government and the responsibility to not only govern, but to make sure that we have people participate in it. And today we heard about folks who feel like they, you know, have concerns about this government working or not working. I would ask my colleagues to continue to be open-minded to how we can improve and how we ensure that all voices are heard. Now I want to get specific to my district. You know, we did a clean city initiative and we have a beautification program we're developing called I Love South Stockton initiative that will be rolling out soon. And the reason why I say that is because staff have worked really hard to get our community clean in partnership with the county, sheriff's department, our code enforcement officers have done a good job, but I drove throughout the district with my commissioners this week and I was extremely disappointed at how filthy my district is. uh... the one thing that i was proud of early into my uh... start as a council person was located saying mom look how clean the district's post on social media they're really pro proud of how uh... uh... visibly clean the district was i had to go into businesses this weekend and say where's your general manager y'all gotta go clean this up this is unacceptable and we are going to do everything we can to hold you accountable to keep our community claim but i also want to remind the public that we can't be put in our couches refrigerators uh... in all types of so one of my neighbors i had a knock on his door for he went from oh my god it's you tonight get your couch get it from in front of this house because there's no it's not a living room it's a front yard so we have to do a better job so if you see something say something use the ask stockton app please help us to do that and thank you to staff for following up on that um you know the last meeting we talked about uh... uh... the wilding out investigation in that investigation started i'm i'm like the mayor can't wait till it's over in the mayor said something to me she said look get go through this clear it up and everything will be done and will be able to move forward i'm happy to say two things one i'm looking for to that into the promoter who brought while in out here uh... has reached out to to to me to say hey i still want to do work in your city and i said don't do anything else until we get through this mess And then if you want to, you can deal with staff. And don't call me no more because I don't want to be in no more investigations. But what I love is that people are not turning their back on Stockton. And I'm not going to turn my back on continuing to bring opportunities here because that's why I ran and that's my commitment. And I will continue to do that. But I did give staff direction last meeting with respect to Hunter House. And I don't think I was clear on the instruction of what I want. So I want a presentation, but like the mayor, I think there are concerns where we should have the option to refer to an agency to look into to make sure that everybody's clear. And so I do want to give staff the updated direction. Do I need a second for that, Lori, to update that direction? Yes. Okay. Can I get a second, please? I'll second. Okay. Thank you. So as part of what I plan to do in getting my district more civically engaged is I'm going to literally take the city council structure to my district. So we're going to set up what's called District 6 Council. It's going to have public comments. We'll be able to go through all the items that we're doing in our. My apologies, Vice Mayor, but I think that the CMO needs a little more on that direction so they know what it is that you're looking for. Okay. Going back to Hunter House. Okay, so there's lots of history around Hunter House and how that project was denied funding and then approved funding. There's been some conversation about whether or not council people, the mayor, have been involved with reversing the denial on the funding and then the approval of the funding, whether people got campaign donations or not, sent them back or not. uh... and i think it's important to review the entire process to ensure in public whether or not something was done wrong just as similar we did with while now in every other matter and then if not we move on to another new item and if so then we refer it out but that'd be a council discussion so you're not asking to refer it out now or just one oh no because you're going to come back and present the whole thing to us there's a history of where they may have been denied funding improperly, or I don't know the details, and I don't think a lot of us know, so I think it would be important to see that. Do we have a date on that? You all took the item, so I think... Okay, I'll go back and look. Okay, thank you. uh... okay so but as i was in the district six council so what was so for people in district six has been lots of conversation around how unorganized the district has been there's western rest is the corridor and then their services southeast octane we're going to have meetings in each of those areas pertaining to those specific areas And then leaders from those areas are going to report up to the District 6 Council that I'll be a part of. And that's really to teach young people, their families, civic engagement, to really drive home more organization and an effort to really focus on resourcing to my district. So if I do have partners or people that I know that I want to refer to the city, instead of bringing them in and not being able to stay in control of how they are investing in my district, which is what I ran for, I'm going to make sure I bring all those resources to my district. And so in preparation of Toys for Joy and all the things that we do annually, we're going to be preparing a whole rollout. So the first meeting is October 12th. And I don't want to say the location yet, but it'll be 6 p.m. I'll come back and I'll be very visible about where that is. And that's where we'll be rolling out things like the beautification program and all of our programs that we plan to bring to the district. Now, since taking office, we started an economic and community development plan with staff. Staff have done a great job working with me and the commissioners putting that together. I really want to build some more meat around that as we prepare for our meetings with community stakeholders, developers. I'd like to get on the calendar once a month a meeting, no more than an hour, to just really get updated on the progress in which we're doing so we can keep this train moving. And I want to thank John Beckman from BIA and multiple developers that have reached out to learn more about how they can build in my district, but also the infrastructure challenges. And so I just want to say that the first process will be us meeting with all of the developers. We'll be inviting them to a meeting to talk about what my vision, what our vision is for the district, and then see where we can get buy-in to develop and how we can continue to build momentum in and outside of Stockton with developers. I also want to thank staff who worked on the CESP extension. uh... for at our last meeting and the subsequent emails going back and forth between b i a n n double a c p around the the section seven of the agreement uh... the previous agreement where they're supposed to develop a process to ensure that their jobs created in all of this future development with people from marginalized communities particularly mine and others uh... and there seems to be a commitment and i want to thank miss acasio who is uh... uh... taking the lead in and getting those parties together for me tomorrow the mayor and i We're going to be participating in the BeWell Campus. Groundbreaking. This is a huge, huge, huge deal. Some of you may remember when I was running for office and I would come in here and say, hey, my friend at the state is leading the efforts of BCHIP and Prop 1 funding, and we should be trying to get this money. Well, Councilman Padilla and myself introduced him to Genevieve and Paul Canep at the county, and they got a $132 million grant, the largest grant for our county, and we'll be doing a groundbreaking tomorrow with folks from the state. So I just want to acknowledge that work and hopefully we get some money here. The last thing, and this is The last thing, but like you, I'll probably have one more thing. You know, the last, so I have traveled around a bit, and I have lived in different places, as I said earlier. And in those communities like Los Angeles, Miami, New York, larger cities or traveling around the world, I've noticed that race is an embraced thing. Cultural differences is an embraced thing. I love, my mom, I say my mom is white, she's Italian and Greek, my daddy's black. But I've never, being in Stockton, I never saw race like I just saw my neighbors. But I do talk a lot about race because as I've been an advocate and an activist, race is a thing that is important specifically to me. And so as somebody who was elected and who went around and talked about racial disparity or lack of inclusion, you know I've been advocating for DEI. uh... and just had as a part of my show this week we talk a lot about racial disparity in this country so i didn't know where i didn't i wasn't aware that the word race for the theme of race was such a triggering thing in this community it is had a ripple across social media i have received so many calls people praying for me keep calling me tell me be careful don't do this i just want to say that uh... race for me is not a bad thing. So I'm not going to ever apologize for discussing race. I'm never going to apologize for making sure that when I develop policy recommendations or talk about equitable distribution of resources or the need to, as the mayor would say, those who are First should be last and those who are last should be first. I will never, ever, ever apologize for it, but I'm not weaponizing race to divide people. I'm actually using race as a way of calling people into a conversation about equity. And my goal is not to align with any divisive national narratives that are dividing the country, that are making neighbors look at each other weird or feel some type of way. The guy got up here earlier, had a hat on that said 45 and 47. That ain't an address. I know what that is. But I listened to him. I heard what he had to say. I don't necessarily agree with 45 or 47. And if he tried to give 48, I ain't going to agree with that either. But that doesn't mean that I'm turned off by the conversation that he may bring to the meeting. And I just ask all of my colleagues to be very open-minded as we talk privately about inclusion, that we embrace it publicly. Councilmember Enriquez and I met this morning with Dr. Rodriguez from El Concilio about creating a community and culture conversation. And that would be something to embrace, bringing people into the fold to have a conversation about how we embrace the diversity that makes this city one of the most beautiful cities in the world versus using it as a means to divide us. And then after that, we talked about having a meeting called The Invitation. So we invite other people into the conversation so that way they can become a partner as we continue to look at social justice and issues like housing. My colleague and I had a meeting about housing justice and looking at how we can protect those who are on the way to homelessness and how we can develop policy recommendations and ideas to protect struggling families to make sure that they don't end up on the street. The other thing is I just want to, before I close, and Mayor, this is the last thing I promise. Thank you for giving me more than five minutes because I chimed this thing down and I knew I was going to go over it. I want to acknowledge the obvious and it's been the noise and the dysfunction and the distractions that have surrounded this council. I don't want to act as if I haven't participated in it. I don't want to act as if I'm never ever going to have a voice on social media or off social media or in the news or press conference or whatever. What I will say is we know that the community sees it and it's weighed heavily on the trust people place in us. And I know that I see a lot of you saying enough is enough. You've taken the mayor's statement and used it against us all. because you're tired of it. We're also tired of it. And I will say that it's rare that you see me come out here and talk about something that I haven't tried to talk about privately. So what I would encourage is that when we have these private conversations in trying to rebuild trust or talk, that we do that with an open mind because if we're not heard privately, we're going to talk about it publicly. And then the last thing I will say is, for my part, I will always remain open to working collaboratively with anybody committed to moving the city forward. That has been my posture since day one and will continue to be. And I'll use Michael Blauer as an example. When I first got elected, I came in committing to not liking this man. And we joke about it, right? Because now he has me preparing for pickleball tournaments. And then he called me the other day and asked me if I knew Jacquees. I'm like, how do you know Jacquees? But anyway. You know, we were talking about, you know, I called Wayne Brady saying, hey, I want you to come to Stockton. Let's do a pickleball tournament with my colleague. And it's just the funniest thing that, you know, somebody that I may not have a lot of personal similarities with, we've been able to find a common ground. And it's not rooted in any political positioning or promises or obligations. It's just that we're open-minded to how we move forward together. And I had a quick meeting with the mayor today, and we talked about that. And, again, I opened that up to all my colleagues. And so I sincerely hope that all my colleagues choose to set aside any personal differences we have in politics to focus on the progress that you all deserve. And thank you for allowing me to have more than five minutes, and thank you for coming out. I'm done. Councilwoman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So on the last two council meetings, we didn't get to do council comments, but I want to begin by extending my heartfelt appreciation to Stockton PD and to the staff. Thank you for your support on my first National Night Out event. I'm grateful that Madam Mayor visited my district and engaged in meaningful interactions with my constituents. National Night Out truly provided an opportunity for us to come together, build relationships, and strengthen the unity of our neighborhoods. I had the privilege of connecting with many of you to listen and to learn about the things that matter most to our community. My son and I had a great time. I also want to remind the residents in District 2 that we have a free recycling event taking place September 20th at the San Joaquin Delta College Shima Parking Lot 2 from 8 to 12. So please come by, drop off your electronics, mattress, tires, and appliances. Please take advantage of this free event and don't forget to have your ID because they will be checking for you to be a City of Stockton resident. I also want to acknowledge Hispanic Heritage Month beginning September 15th. I am proud to be a Latina and I want to recognize that significant contributions that Hispanic and Latino Americans have made in the U.S. and I'm hopeful that the City of Stockton can recognize and plan to have a culture celebration. Thank you. Councilman Villapudua. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank the community for coming out here tonight. One night we're going to get out early. But I just want to thank the city staff, the chief police, fire station police as well. Looking forward to Thursday with Mr. Crew. We're going to have our one-on-ones. So, Ms. Boyd, I'll be calling you to talk about Stripley Park. Um, as well, I want to recognize on, uh, let's not forget about nine 11, all the people that, you know, if you lost that loss and for not be forgotten, uh, Tuesday, 16 at my office hours. So anyone comments in the Monday four to five, come here and talk about anything. Um, um, I'm open to anything you guys want to talk about. Um, also just a lot of great wins. I'm going to, Think about Van Berskert. It's a new thing coming in. I want to thank my planning commissioner, Pandora Crowder, you know, from Conway, for being a great constituent of making that happen. So I didn't forget about you. So I just want to thank my colleagues because a lot of big wins tonight. So let's keep it up. I want to wish everyone a great week. Thank you. Okay. Public comment I want to address, you know, regarding thank you notes for commissioners. Actually, I did even more than a thank you note. I did a whole plaque recognizing my commissioners. Council Member Villaputua was one of them. I just tried to recognize them. let them know how much I appreciated their service to our community. Moving on, I wanna really thank Stockton Police Department in terms of our enforcement of smoke shops. So there was a smoke shop that had no license, was selling flavored tobacco and marijuana. It was all seized and the business was cited for possession as well as operating without that license. There was another store that had 2,445 flavored vapes that were confiscated, $67,000 worth of product that was seized. Employee was cited and the business was also cited. Revocations, we have four revocations that are up. One of them is the one that Mary Elizabeth mentioned, and then there are three additional. One that's right by Stagg High School that I'm happy about. Yes, very much so. There have been several applicants to get a license, and seven of them have been denied. I also wanted to let council know that I have recommended to our acting city manager, as well as to Chair Canepa, my request for a full council and county supervisor joint meeting so that we can talk about things like smoke shops, illegal dumping, vacant lots and buildings, and making sure that our policies align because you literally cross the street AND IT'S A DIFFERENT POLICY, BECAUSE THAT'S COUNTY AND CITY IS ON THE OTHER SIDE. I ALSO WANT TO THANK SUPERVISOR GARDEA. I GET A LOT OF QUESTIONS ASKING ME ABOUT KENNEDY PARK. WHAT'S THE CITY DOING WITH KENNEDY PARK? WELL, KENNEDY PARK IS IN THE COUNTY. THERE ARE LOTS OF PLACES WE GET ASKED ABOUT THAT ARE IN THE COUNTY. AND THERE IS A LOT OF THINGS THAT ARE GOING ON AT KENNEDY PARK, AND I WANT TO THANK HIM FOR THAT. SO THERE ARE They're going to clean up the park. They're working on landscaping design elements. They are working on the irrigation system because there's a lot of dead grass and trees there. There is housing going in there, but all the work is scheduled over the next few weeks. uh... and the team uh... with their park administrator is really working on balancing priorities not just with that park the parks on the east side to that i get asked about uh... as well uh... and the parking lots at kennedy park will be fenced uh... as they are uh... doing this scope of work uh... and uh... moving forward and then I want to also thank the crews who resurfaced and lined the streets of El Dorado and Center. I know that these are two of many streets that are being fixed across the city. I saw asphalt being put on Park Street just yesterday. Two guys were out there with their truck and it went down to one lane so that they could drop that, but they will be getting resurfacing on both and Oak Street but I want people to pay attention to the lines because the lines have changed so if you're going north on El Dorado here once you pass the library if you were in the far left lane you had to turn left you don't have to turn left anymore okay however if you're going south on Center Street and you want to get on the crosstown freeway going west There's only one lane now, not two lanes. So please be mindful of all these changes that are happening. The lines are bright. They use the thermoplastic street lighting, which I've been asking for, asking for, asking for. So thank you so much. And it's also supposed to make it. safer and easier for those who do ride their bikes and I know a teacher at Edison High School that rides his bike every day down Center Street because I would say I'm gonna beat you and he says oh no you're gonna go caught at the light and we sometimes he'd win sometimes I'd win getting to campus I also want to let people know that the mayor's office has established the Delta Action Network group And this is to oppose the Delta Conveyance Project. And for those of you that don't know what that is, that's the tunnels, or I should say tunnel. THE DELTA TUNNEL TO BRING WATER DOWN TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. MEMBERS FROM THE GROUP ARE FROM THE STATEWIDE SIERRA CLUB, ENVIRONMENTAL WATER CAUCUS, OUR REGIONAL PARTNERS, AS WELL AS GROUPS FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. I BET YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE THAT WAS COMING. BUT THERE ARE PEOPLE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, GROUPS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WHO AGREE THAT THIS IS NOT THE ANSWER. THIS PROJECT WILL COST APPROXIMATELY 20, OVER 20 BILLION with a B, billion dollars, to bring water down south. And there are alternatives that haven't been fleshed out, haven't been thought about, haven't been considered, such as wastewater recycling, stormwater capture, upgrading current infrastructure, because believe it or not, like we have oil pipes, they have oil pipes down there, and they're leaking. And if they could get those fixed with their redoing their infrastructure, potable water would not be lost. And I would say that we can't afford to have this mistake happen that will not only cost us billions of dollars, but it puts our community at risk. We'll have saltwater intrusion, compromising our drinking water, environmental degradation, and it will choke, literally choke our economy and our farmers who literally feed the world with the produce that's grown here. I want to thank Dr. Lytle. I would like to thank our acting city manager, Will Crew. I'd like to thank Alex Bailey, other members of the city of Stockton, Osha Mercer, Dante Nomolini, and many others who have been part of this effort. We are moving full steam ahead to stop this because it... Nobody from Northern California is telling anybody from Southern California that they don't want it, but guess what? Now we are. Running red lights, I shared something with the city manager's office regarding Manteca. Manteca has put in red light cameras because people, we did red lights, flashing red lights on Pacific and Harding Way, and people thought, oh, it's like on the freeway. you know, when it's green and then red. Oh, no, I can make that one, too. So two or three cars are going in a row through that red light. But Manteca, they charge $490, and in the first month, they issued 916 tickets. 916 tickets, okay? Before that, the month before, before they had these cameras, it was like 42. So from 42 to 916. So I'm just saying maybe we need to reinvestigate that. And then going back to some points that have been brought up, yes, there's been a lot of unnecessary drama playing out in the public. I have done my best not to look, not to listen, because I want to focus on the work. as many of us here appear all of us up here want to do uh... it's not my desire to you know get people to to put negative uh... comments or lights or not likes or anything like that uh... or negative stories to the media as most people know i've been elected for nearly nine years now in that the people elected me as mayor uh... and The credit doesn't go to just one individual. Even though I'm the candidate, yes, there were a lot of people that helped make that happen, but it was ultimately the voters that made that happen. And the people know my work ethic because it speaks for itself. I show it. I go over the council agendas. I'm out in the community. I'm doing my best. Also, I took an oath, and I stand by that because that was the way that I was raised. And if you know me, you know me. And if you don't, you don't. The narrative being pushed out is not true in many respects. It is disrespectful, and it is embarrassing at times to our city. But as most people know, forgiveness, it's not an emotion. Forgiveness, it's not a feeling. Forgiveness is a transaction of obedience. And for me, forgiveness is an act. Not for those that I feel have harmed me. It's for me. And so I forgive freely. So if you don't see me necessarily responding, because I really haven't, to the nonsense, it's because it distracts me from the work that I believe needs to be done. And it has no currency for me. The city or the people who live and work here, they need this city to move forward. And to the vice mayor's point, yes, we do. We need to do things that move this city forward. So please know that I'm here to work with any and everyone. I've tried to convey that as best as I can because we need to make our city safer, cleaner, and healthier because the people of Stockton deserve that. So just know tomorrow is a new day, and I am here to work with all of you to push our city forward. And with that, I will take a motion before our moment of silence, so I will take a motion and a second for that. Motion to adjourn. Motion and second. Council, please vote. And before we go, we will be doing a moment of silence for Terry Hall Sr. and Elizabeth Blanchard. 9.35, meeting is adjourned.