the time is 730. This is the regular meeting of the Emoryville City Council. Madam Clerk, I'd like to know all members are still seated. Do we have a motion on the final agenda? I'm approval of the final agenda. Second. Madam Clerk, the roll. As a member, please. Aye. As a member, Solomon. Aye. As a member of the members. Solomon. I. Councillor Member Welch. I. I. I. I. I. I. There are no special orders of the day. Do we have any announcement of commission or committee vacancies? Not this evening, mayor. Thank you. Members, do we have any special announcements or reports on meeting attendants. Vice mayor. Thank you mayor. I will share my report and take a ways from the attendance at city leaders summit that I attended from April 23 to April 25 at the Sacramento Convention Center. Councilmember Debbie Baker of the city of La Palma in Orange County shared that for operational efficiencies ever since the pandemic they have had only one council meeting per month every month and along with monthly committee meetings which seems to be working really well for them. They are about the same size as the city of of Emoryville and in population as well as square footage. I'm sharing this as this is something we could potentially consider if it makes sense for us to do so operationally for purposes of efficiencies and promoting those. So the second item from that meeting that I would like to share is that city leaders to summit is oriented to meet with legislators and discuss city and regional issues and upcoming bills that the legislators are promoting are assembly member Bonta graciously mid time to meet with me in her office. She chairs the legislature's health committee and would like to start with the first meeting of the city and I would like to start with the first meeting of the city and I would like to start with the first meeting of the city and I would like to start with the first meeting of the city and I would like to start with the first meeting of the city and I would like to start with the first meeting of the city and I would like to start with the first meeting of the city and I would like to start with and I'm very much looking forward to this meeting. Grete, as this council has expressed the southern project as one of its core priorities. The third item is that the center legislative representative reached out to me for a meeting and we will be meeting later this week and I will share further updates within the brown act. Lastly, this is not a report, sorry, not a city summit report of a meeting with employers. This is about a meeting with employers on Hubbard Street. Last week and this week I met with some employers along Hubbard and at Emoryville Commerce Connection. We had that meeting with these businesses. They have expressed concerns regarding the 40th Street Project affecting their commerce. They are looking forward to an updated study session, which the city manager had promised would occur. and I one announcement. I will be attending the civic leaders conference. I think this is one of the largest conferences that happens for children and nature. I was invited to that by Susan Donaldson sitting right there. She is on the Emory School Board. I'm looking forward to that opportunity to bring back some good information for our city parks. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Any other announcements? Item seven is the City Manager's report. Thank you, Mayor. I would like to just draw the Mayor, the Council, and the community's attention to my consent item 10.5. It is my 100-day report. I have now been on the job here since stepping in this role on January 6, 2025. I'm super excited, and've written a report just so that the community, the mayor and the council can really take a quick look at the collaboration at the work that we've accomplished together with this council, with this mayor, from moving major projects forward to deepening partnerships with residents, businesses, and of course our very talented city team. I would like to just state to you all that I am genuinely inspired each day by the dedication of our community and our city staff, which is amazing. It is an honor to serve the city of Imriville. The city leads with creativity, the city leads with resilience and care. And while there is a lot of work ahead, I remain optimistic, committed to working side by side with all of you to build a livable, safe, and vibrant community. And for our community members, if you happen to stop by our city lobby hall, you will see that there is a one-page strategic plan banner there so that the community and our staff can always remain focused and always be reminded of the work that the mayor and the council has done in adopting its strategic plan. Thank you. Thank you, Latanya. Members, next is X-ake Communications. Do you have any X Partake Communications? Seeing and hearing none, oh, Member Pride Force, go ahead. I received a communication from Steve Shane, the Emeryville Historical Society. As it relates to this grant process. Member Welch. I receive the same communication. Likewise. Next we have public comment for consent agenda items or items not on the agenda. Are there members of the public who would like to make public comment for items not on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move to the consent items. I understand that we have an amendment. Is that right? Madam Clerk? Yes, Mayor. Mike Roberts is going to explain the amendment on the consent agenda. Good evening mayor, vice mayor and council members. Mike Roberts, senior civil engineer in the public works department and for item 10.4, which is the award of a design contract to place works. We are needing to create an amendment to remove some conflicting language, which is an appropriation of funds. We do not need to appropriate funds to move this contract forward. So basically in the subject line of the staff report, the last language after the not-to-excite amount of $650,000 should be struck. Similarly, in the resolution, same language should be struck from the resolution. But the bodies of both the staff report and resolution otherwise can stay. Thank you, Mike. Members, do we have a motion to approve the consent calendar as amended? I move to approve the consent calendar as amended. Second. Madam clerk, the roll. Council member Prifors. Aye. Council member Solomon. Aye. Council member Welch. Aye. Vice Mayor Carr. Aye. Mayor Mora. Aye. Motion carries. We have no public hearings and we have one action item today. This is 12.1 resolution of the city council of the city of Emoryville adopting the community promotion grant subcommittee recommendations. Welcome. Thank you. Hello. Welcome. Thank you. Hello, Mayor Mora vice-amerMera Carr and Restless City Council. I'm here to present to you on our Community Promotion Grant subcommittees recommendations. Next slide. Oh, and my name is Rebecca Sermeno and the Community Services Director here at the City. So the purpose of our grant are to fund organizations and individuals that provide programs, events that benefit our community. So the requirements and to apply for a grant include the activity must happen in Emoryville and benefit directly benefit our community. They must also obtain support depending upon location or program. They also have to sign an insurance affidavit as well as a complete a proposed budget worksheet. Next slide. Upon grant approval, they will thought we will do a contract. They will also obtain an Emoryville business licenseense. We'll submit all the COI, the Insurance Certificates and Demnification of the City, as well as a W9. Next slide. The process is these are for programs and events for 2025, 2026. We had the applications were open from January 21st through February 26th through an online application process. We had 19 applications and all were qualified and the subcommittee met on April 3rd, 2025. The subcommittee here is the first year that we've had five members last year with a recommendation from the council. We changed the makeup of the committee. This year I went and presented all the different committees and they recommended individuals to be a part of the subcommittee. And so I would just really like to make a public appreciation to these five individuals who not only had to do homework in advance, but sat and processed and interviewed and asked some really great questions of all the applicants. And up here, Mike Haggardy with the Public Art Committee, Fran Quattel with the EDAC, Andy Eggers with Parks and Recreation, Beth Rosales with Commission on Aging, and Sarah Smaga with the Housing Committee. Thanks, Lynn. The applicants were able to apply up to $10,000, and this year we have budgeted to award 73,500. This year's recipients included recommended recipients are three new applicants this year, Friends of ECDC, Miss Fet, Combat Incorporated, and Rudy's Camp Fail Cafe, and the other eight recommended have received grants previously. Next slide. This will be a grid of the recommendations. It includes the organization's name, the grant name, how much they originally requested, and what was recommended to be awarded. Next slide. It was a really competitive process. The five individuals really spent a lot of time, you know, going through the information and, but we had a lot of great applications. You can see here these were the programs and events that were not recommended for any grant money this year. And that is the end of my presentation. There are several members of those who applied for grants here in the audience this evening, but I open it up to any questions that you might have. Members, any questions for staff or any of the applicants? I do have a question, Mayor. Nice mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Rebecca, you worked with the, I am really grateful for all the work you did getting together the committee and also I appreciate the committee's efforts in doing all the hard work, total public service to go through all of it and difficult decisions to make, especially because our city is so full of talent. Right. Yes. So I understand that, appreciate it all the work. My question is regarding how that selection was made. I remember last year we had discussed about the composition of committees. There was never any, I don't remember a study session on that issue. I know that it got referred to budget and governance, but I don't think the council got any resolution about that future agenda item. How was, I guess I should ask, how was the committee composed? How did the selection occur? I'm just curious. Yeah, with the recommendation from the Budget and Governance Committee, what we were able to determine is previously, there were two members from the Parks and Rec Committee and two members of the Public Art Committee, and it really not only for members, not exactly an easy voting process, but we were able to expand the members, the people that we wanted to have help make that decision. And that included the BICAN-PED group, the EDACT economic development, and the commission on aging, which were three groups that were not previously represented in this process. Thank you to help that. Thank you. Number of pre-force. I'm sorry for clarification. So they weren't included in a process and now they are. This year they were part of the process. Yes. Thank you for doing that. Thank you. Yeah. It's great. Thank you. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's pretty much it. If you have any questions, I'm here to answer. Thank you. Yes. Come to the podium. You'll have two minutes. Welcome. Robbie Kendall, a fish nets and film. I was not able to be here at the last meeting. My direct persona was here representing me. And I hope she was. Joyful. But I do want to thank you for the joyful. But I do want to thank you for the recommendation and for allowing us to continue to shed light where there's darkness on the LGBTQ plus community. I want to say I love living here in Emoryville and what you all do for the individuals that work here, the residents and especially the artists that can help continue to make this a very diverse, vibrant community. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comment. Hi, I'm Susan Donaldson. Most of you know me from the school board. But tonight I'm here with I'm Marie Bull's Children in Nature. And so I just want to say thank you for recommending us for a grant this year as well. I've been working with kids at all ages at the school for years now. This is my seventh year on the board. But this project has been really amazing. And we are focusing on early childhood, but our pop-up events that are the focus of this grant are for kids of all ages, big, small, young, old. And it's really been amazing to see it firsthand like how much fun and how engaging and how great it is for kids to engage, kids of all ages to engage with nature. And it's exciting to be in this city and a part of this and have your support. And we feel like we're really setting an example for other small cities across the country about increasing access to nature for kids who really, really need it these days, especially. So thank you again for supporting us. Thanks, Susan. Hello, Rob Arias. I call myself the creative director of the Emeryville Historical Society, but a small organization where a lot of hats. Here tonight with Emeryville Historical Society co-founder Don Hausler, and Emeryville Police Officer and EHS Brad Randi Orton. The HSS has been creating this quarterly journal for its members for 35 years. We've added everybody behind the dius to the subscription list so hopefully you receive this. This one details Emoryville's Black History which we sent out for Black History Month in February. Thank you for the grant committee for recommending us for this latest funding which would pay for a historic walking tour along San Pablo Avenue whose history goes back before California was even a state. Our tour will focus on a strip of Sam Pablo Avenue that intersects Emoryville from 36 to 53rd in parts of the Emoryville Triangle neighborhood. We'll tell roughly 30 stories, including the city's first church. Didn't happen until 1982. Before a summer you were born. A Berkeley farm, their headquarter was Emeryville for 50 years. The bank club, it was once the Bank of Italy. Doggy diner, you might have heard that story was bombed by a leftist organization in the 70s. The original Emory High and of course veterans of Orin War post 1010, which is now the Emoryville Senior Center. So we also like to incorporate the tour into local businesses to give them a small boost. This tour will likely partner with Oak's Club or Bank Club, maybe Erasmendi or another small business along route. So this tour will be the third of five. We have planned for the city. As far created the park avenue district tour, the Greenway tour and we have plans obviously after Sam Pablo for a butcher town and Emoryville Marina tour. So anyway, it's one of, appreciate, express my appreciation for the grant recommendation. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Any other members of the public? Welcome. Hi, Mayor David Mora and Vice Mayor and City Council members. My name is Chelsea Marie Hill and with me today is Alexa Coleman. Alexa and I are co-facilitators for the Dancing in the Schools program established by Nancy Carpenter and dancers in the Dance Company's nonprofit New Arts Foundation. We are really elated to meet you all today and present for you guys because New Arts Foundation was established by Nancy and she's currently out of the country on an artist's residency in Europe. First and foremost, I want to thank you all the mayor and city council members for the generous support in the past. this support has been at the core of the success for the Dancing in the Schools program for the past 40 plus years. Thousands of students have benefited from exposure and engagement with dance in the school program. Yeah and just a little bit about what we have been doing. New Arts Foundation has made in Reville it's kind of home-based since its establishment in 1980. Our program specifically helps to fill the gap in arts education via dance. And we've done that the past four decades, before either of us were here. We are the only arts organization to consistently offer such to the students of Emeryville. And with this program, they have the opportunity to work with professional dancers, like ourselves, and we co-teach every class and then at the end of the semester students are able to walk away with a lot of pride, a lot of skills and confidence which they're able to put on display for their family, friends and their staff who've shown immense consistent support. Yeah and so we want to thank you for considering supporting our 2025 program. And thank you, City Council for the recommendations to the board. Thank you. Thank you all so much. Any other members of the public? vice mayor and city council members. My name is Haley King and I'm here on behalf of Miss Bitt Combat. This is our first time applying for this grant. We're a relatively new gym. We started in my garage. So it's really beautiful to be standing here and be taking this moment to introduce myself to all of you. I just wanted to formally thank you for the recommendation if awarded this grant you would help us extend our free community programs. Some of them which would be three hour intensive self-defense programs for the neighboring Emory Bill communities. communities. We have a lot of unravelled community members who see us as a neighborhood gym, who pop in, who have been interested in joining our gym for a long time now. And I was just here to say thank you so much and it's great to meet you. Thank you. Any other members of the public? Seeing none, I'll bring this back to the council for discussion and comment. Number Welch. I just want to say thank you to all the applicants and our staff, our committee. I'm in so much support of all of these rewards because I think it just reflects so much as what is important here in Inriville and the investment that we're making in our community music, dance, physical fitness, the arts, celebrating our outside spaces, STEM, preserving our history. These are things that we need to be investing in as a city, as a community and such a focus focus on our young people who are future. And so I am really excited to see us, just the broad diversity of what we're investing in and the applicants. And so I'm very excited and very much in support of moving forward with all of these rewards. Vice mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I absolutely agree with that. I am so grateful for this community, which brings such vibrancy to our city of Emeryville. We have I have to say we have everything from dance kids of all ages. This kid really appreciates that. So we have history, we have science, we have adventure, we have so much going for our city. I just wish we had more money to give to make this even better. So I would love for all of the recipients to have got the maximum amount of award, but hopefully we'll be able to do that. And I also support the decision made by the committee. Very grateful for their work on this. Members Solomon, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to echo what the Vice Mayor and Council Member Welch said. Thank you to Steve Staff and the subcommittee for their time in making the hard decisions around which of the excellent applicants we wanted to move forward and thank you to all of you for the time you're putting into this. you know, from many of you, this is a labor of love and know that the community is appreciative, it deepens the texture of the community and enriches all of our experiences living here and makes us one of the things that makes us such a wonderful place to live. So thank you and I look forward to taking part in all of the different experiences, events, programs that, you know, to the extent I'm eligible for them in open next year. So thank you. I'd like to just say, well, I'd like to commend all of the applicants and the recommendations of the subcommittee. I don't envy them. It was not an easy job. There's so much talent in the city. And I just want to thank you all for helping make this city the vibrant city that we all seek to create. I'm glad that we can play a role to facilitate that. But thank you for making it as vibrant as we love to see it. Member Price Force. So Rob Arias mentioned that none of us may be born before 1982 and that was born 1980 so is it too late to revoke someone a grant making me feel old. So I just want I want to say thank you all. This process is definitely, it's at its 2.0, in terms of the diversity of services that you've all provided. I was very happy to see self-defense added that in actuality there are many in the grant making space. There's a lot of support that's actually being issued to self-defense organizations and small businesses after the Asian hate crimes get to the. And so we've seen a lot of that happening. I want to give a shout out to Sobe kick, I believe, that existed in Emoryville, but they didn't survive the pandemic. And so Emoryville has had self-defense services provided, but nothing like what you're doing in terms of being supported by the city. And so I like seeing this diversity of influences. I, in terms of, you know, sorry, this is some homework from me. But the 3.0, I'd like to see, okay, you ready? So in grant making, there is this area of technical assistance. And that what sometimes happens is during the lifecycle of an organization that the organization may go through really amazing sort of boosts in terms of support, like nature and children, right? And a shout out to them. And then other organizations may go through a crisis or may not grow at that same rate. And one of the ways to sort of guarantee success is to sort of have a cohort model where some of you may be, may meet maybe once or twice a year, nothing too demanding, because you all have a lot of work to do. And then perhaps we can provide some sort of help, see where they're at, see, hey, do you need some assistance with this? I mean, it could just even be, you may be struggling with your taxes. And so the city would like to, as a part of our technical assistance, provide some tax support for you all. So you don't have to think about that for next year. So some sort of operational support that we have that would sort of allow you all to to not just receive money but receives love and support from the city so that we can constantly check you in. And this could probably also fall under EDAC because I've, right now I've taught a lot that nonprofit organizations are considered private entities. And so thus what we do should't just be small businesses, it should be small businesses and not profits. In terms of the kind of support that we can provide and in actuality, even when it comes to our numbers, when we start thinking about applying for grants, they actually increase our diversity numbers when it comes to businesses when we look into that model, right? And so I just wanted to say thank you all and we're constantly thinking about ways that we can all support you, not just one time grants, but hopefully maybe year round. Thank you. Members, do we have a motion on the resolution? I will move to approve the resolution. Second. Madam clerk the roll. That's a member of the privers. I. That's a member of the Solomon. That's a member of the Welch. Nice mayor car. I. Mayor Mora. I. I. I. I. Next we have department head reports head report from public works. We have our 2025 bike to wherever day. Thursday May 15th from 7 to 10 a.m. We'll have four energizer stations throughout the city, one at 66 and the greenway, one at Horton and Stanford Avenue, one at 40th and St. Pablo, and one at 46th and Adeline. And we will also be continuing our popular passport program from last year where if you go to all four energizer stations and get them stamped and you arrive earlier enough, you'll get a prize. Thank you. Thank you, Muhammad. Next, we have future agenda item requests, members? Yeah, I'll go ahead and put this on agenda. I'm not quite sure if there is something like this already. And if there is, please, I would like the staff to go ahead and let me know. Today, we heard in our study session that if the council and the voters do not move forward with one or more revenue measures as described in today's study session, there will be a need to consider budget cuts beyond the 5% staff vacancy factor. These cuts could be quite significant given the size of the general fund structure deficit in the next five years. This year an organization reached out to me for internship opportunities. likely because I'm sick and this was a sick organization. It reached out to me for an opportunity that was paid for by the organization it would involve our city or the council placing an intern on our staff which was paid for or sponsored by the organization. I would like to explore what we can do to utilize these sponsored internships in a way that benefits our city and how we can intentionally place talented students with such sponsored internships that both support their growth and contribute to the meaning of the city departments creating a true win-win. I know we've had paid interns in the past summer interns. Some of them, I guess, we now employ on our city staff staff because they were paid in terms. I remember Charlie telling me that be good to the insurance because they will be the future of our city. And I know that maybe we have some of these in terms who are now our full-time employees, which is fantastic. If I would like to go ahead and bring this as a study session to see what we can do to consider these type of fellowships, so-called fellowships that are paid, it would just be beneficial for a budget if you're considering it that way. So that's something that I'd like to propose. Alternatively, it sounds like this intern opportunity, it would be paid for by another organization, and it would be augmenting the city staff. So placed in some department, is this not something that could be discussed maybe with the city manager, and if it suits her and the staff, maybe they could simply enact it. I don't know that it needs council election. I have reached out by that that has there has been no response the response I got there was no such there is no such concept in our city. So I would like to explore this concept. Mayor and vice mayor, I do think it's something that should stay within the operation because it has to do with hiring of staff to the city's budget and that is within the city manager. And so that is something that we could look at without the council needing to take any action. And so I'm willing to look at that. work with the vice mayor on the details? Absolutely. Yes, we'll have the HR director check back in with her. Great. Thank you. Second item. Yes, go ahead. I would like our city to explore the La Palma calendaring model of the one council meeting per month. Plus monthly meetings that we have for committees, especially because the budget committee has met our budget and governance. It's named budget and governance. The budget and governance committee has met only twice this year on environmentally meetings. And we almost didn't have the May meeting in time for the June budget because of the conflicts. So that's what we are doing in the first part of the year exploring the budget. And I fear the items that we are sending to budget and governance under governance are going into a black hole simply because we are focusing only on budget items with no time to here the governance items. So I would like to explore that model or alternatively go back to having budget and governance monthly. One, well, members is there support for this future agenda item, but I do think it sounds like a budget and governance item. Madam Vice Mayor if you're agreeable I think that's something maybe we could look over on the budget and government's committee. As long as it doesn't go in the back hole yes. Members, is there support with a show of hands? It will be added to the agenda for budget and governance. Members, any other future agenda items? Member Price Force. Yes, I'd like to recommend the pledge of allegiance returning to the city council chamber proceedings and I will demonstrate. I would like to please please please please please please please which is stands. the one nation. Indifaceable. Members with a show of hands is their support for adding the pledge of allegiance to a future agenda. Seeing none, the motion fails. The time is either. of allegiance to a future agenda. Seeing none, the motion fails. The time is 8.08. This meeting is adjourned.