the time is 717. This is a regular meeting for the City Council in the city of Emoryville. Adam clerk, please note that all members are still seated from the previous meeting. I do have one modification to the final agenda to reorder the agenda to take item 12.1, the action item before 11.1, the public hearing. So with that modification, do we have a motion to approve the final agenda? I move approval of the final agenda as modified'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I Islander, AAPI Heritage Month, a time to honor the contributions and cultural heritage of Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States. And Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have enriched the cultural fabric of our nation with their diverse histories, traditions, and values while making significant contributions in all areas of American society, including business, government, education, arts, sciences, and community leadership. The history of the AAPI community in the United States dates back to the early 19th century with the arrival of the first Asian immigrants. And since then, AAPI communities have been an integral part of the country's growth, contributing to the advancement of social, cultural, economic, and political life. The city of Emeryville with its rich cultural diversity is home to many AAPI individuals and families who continue to contribute to the vibrancy and success of our city, and we celebrate their cultural traditions and contributions to our community. We recognize the challenges and struggles faced by the AAPI community, including the need to continue advancing social justice, equity, and inclusion for all people, and honor their resilience and strength in overcoming adversity throughout history. This month provides an opportunity to reflect on the share of the history and celebrate the ongoing contributions of AAPI individuals in Emeryville, the Greater Bay Area, and beyond, while also reaffirming our commitment to an inclusive and welcoming city for all residents regardless of race, ethnicity, or background. And now therefore it be that the City Council of the City of Emoryville hereby declares the month of May 2025 as Asian-American Heritage Month in Emoryville and calls upon all residents to celebrate and learn more about the rich history, culture and contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. And be it further resolved that the city council encourages all residents of Emeryville to participate in community events and activities that highlight the AAPI community's heritage, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of the diverse cultures that make up our city. Proclaimed by the mayor of the city council of the city of Emoryville at the regular meeting held Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. If members would like to make any comments, feel free to chime out. Sure I can. Vice mayor. Thank you, mayor. I am grateful that our city recognizes these heritage months, which is very, very nice, because I think it celebrates the inclusivity and the welcoming of all residents regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity. So really grateful we do not only this one, we'll be having Juneteenth and hopefully Pride and other celebrations of the diversity and inclusion in our city. With regard to this particular one, I'm very happy we are going to have Benihanna and Tokyo Central as another Asian-American business in our community. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Anyone else? Number, pry force. I just want to, uh, recognize, um, uh, this month and of course, every month, um, the historic, um, uh, position that, uh, that Vice Mayor car has on this council, this council and that since joining this council her perspective which she brings that is of course culturally informed makes Emoryville a greater place when we add cultures and perspectives that are traditionally or maybe even be historically marginally unrepresented. And so I just want to recognize this month the Vice Mayor the car's historic presence on this council. Thank you, council member. Any other comments? A member Welch. I just want to echo those sentiments as a woman of color. I'm having the honor to serve alongside you. Vice mayor is both a privilege and an honor. And I'm glad as women who come from communities that have been historically locked out of public service, just you and I being here together being able to serve, I think is such a monumental moment and us having a not outside of council having a what I would consider a friendship and a dedication to our communities is something that I not just only enjoy but cherish and so thank you for your continued service to our community. Thank you, council member. And I'll just add one note from my perspective. I feel extremely privileged and proud to be part of the city and part of the diversity and just the welcoming that we do for people of all backgrounds. And I think we do that with more than just words, looking at do put our actions where our mouth is. Okay. Next we have announcement of commission and committee vacancies. Thank you mayor mayor and council we have the annual recruitment clothes yesterday at 5 p.m. Council will be making appointments for all of those vacant. Excuse me annual positions at the June 17th meeting. We had a pretty good turnout of applicants and It was nice to see how many people applied Thank you Thank you. Next we have council member special announcements and reports on meeting attendance I have one Go ahead. Thank you I attended a five day conference last week in the land of 10,000 lakes. Our state of Minnesota. This is a large, large scattering every year of nonprofits and civic leaders. To connect children in nature. I was invited by our own very own, with the Emery Unified School Board member, Susan Donaldson, who has been working passionately with National League of Cities and Children and Nature Network to make our city of Emeryville more nature friendly and accessible to children between the ages of zero and five. We have some council members here who have children between the ages of zero and five. So we were actually honored to have inspiring remarks delivered by the Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota Peggy Flanagan. We made site visits and attended many conferences in Rice Park and open nature around wellness, children nature and climate adaptation. So I have to say this was a very unique conference. We had less screen time and more nature time and there were so many people attending. So it was very, very unique conference. We should have more of those. I was thinking of maybe having a council meeting in the park, but continuing on, many cities included San Francisco, shared their ideas and policies, some of which I hope we can use in our city. Emory board members Susan and I will share more information with staff and our appropriate committees to maybe enforce some of these ideas or implement some of these ideas in our city. Thank you Vice-Smare. Next we have the City Managers Report. There's nothing to report this evening Mayor. Thank you. Members, next we have X-Party Communications. Do you have any X-Party Communications to report? Seeing and hearing none, now is the time for public comment for items on the consent agenda or items not on the agenda. Seeing no members of the public, we now have the consent calendar. Members, do we have a motion on the consent calendar? I'll move approval. Thank you. Madam Clerk, the roll. Council Member Prifors. Aye. Council member Solomon. I. Council member Welch. Vice Mayor Carr. I. Mayor Mora. I. Motion carries. Next we have our action item. This is the proposed 2025, 2026 state and federal legislative agenda. Welcome. Thank you very much, Honorable Mayor by Madam Vice Mayor and Council Members, Nicolo Delucan from Townsend Public Affairs. First, thank you for moving the item up. Really appreciate it because I do have to get back to Sacramento. Before you this evening, it's a draft of legislative platform for 25 and 26, which I like to say serves as our playbook as to what items, what policy topics we want to focus on for the upcoming near. Once this is adopted, then I will work with city staff to bring back specific state legislative bills for you all to take a position on with our recommendations. But first, I wanna say, I recognize almost all of your faces, of course, it's great to meet everyone. It's great to meet the new council member. Some of you might be wondering like, yeah, who are you? You know, you get our awesome weekly updates. I do want, and I kind of got sent a mental talking to the city of Manjaro about this before. We've worked with the city since 2008, and it's been a great time. We've had over seven city sponsored bill signed into law, which is pretty impressive. Range from affordable housing to some small business support to other items. We've also worked with the city to secure over $11 million. I was trying to the math on your population, but I wasn't able to do it in time. But it's really, we're very proud of the partnership we've done to get you all some much needed funding. There's just kind of just some overall background on who we are. We work with you all in Sacramento and in D.C. we help on some funding efforts. So just kind of want to provide some context. So today the legislative platform is here for your feedback. And once we get your feedback and gets adopted, then we focus on what we want to work on. Items will come, items will go because that's kind of the nature of where things stand right now. And I do just want to highlight the, we broke them into policy topics to make it easier to follow. And this is based off of past year's ledge platforms. So the policy topics are homelessness and behavioral health, housing and greater access, economic development, transportation and infrastructure, public safety, climate resiliency, and then miscellaneous which which is kind of a catch-all on things like brown act and things of that nature. And then you'll see, under each heading, we have policy priorities, and then we have funding priorities. And then we also towards the very end, one-time state and federal funding priorities for what we'd like to call member requests. We've worked closely with your staff and we are very grateful to work in partnership with the new Congresswoman on resubmitting a funding request for 40th Street and unfortunately the way that the state budget is looking like this year there's not really an opportunity for state funding a direct allocation. In years past we've been successful working with you all, but then as only women wigs and then assembly of women bought to on some direct allocations to the city. And then we're happy to come back and give live real time updates whenever you all see fit. I would recommend probably August because we're getting closer to the end of session. And then of course year end wrap-ups and then working on what we want to focus on in 26. So again, would love your feedback and love your comments. This is what I like to call our playbook for the upcoming year. And once this is adopted, and I'll work with the city team to come back and highlight maybe 10, 15 bills that we feel are relevant for the city to weigh in a good opportunity for you all to highlight What your priorities are and what you care about Something that I like to say when we do support letters or any comment letters. Yes, it's to that authors office and that committee staff There's also a great way to Celebrate and advertise all the good work the city of Emeryville is doing It's a great way to really highlight some of your forward-thinking policies and some of the projects that you're really proud of. So that is what is before you today. Happy to take any comments, any feedback, and then come back work with city staff on a bunch of bills. One other item is, of course, you all know we're in the May revise so we're kind of beginning the budget negotiations. Happy to talk about any of those matters and we're also on Friday is the Appropriations Committee hearing for both houses. So we call it first house. So the Appropriations Committee is a very powerful committee, the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee, where they look at any bills of a fiscal impact and the committee decides if the bills stay in committee, which means they don't move anymore, or are amended or move forward to the floor and then they continue that process. So I will stop speaking. I'm happy to answer any questions. I do want to make it clear you all have been great to work with and really appreciate all of your support and our great partnership. Thank you. Thank you, Nicolo. I just have one clarifying question I want to lay out there. So I know what we're talking about is kind of a conceptual framework for what the city or this council wants to support. And as far as this, I think we're all aware of some of the very specific bills that are making their way through the state legislator and nationally. Do, when did you say that would be a good time for us to weigh in on the specific bills? So when will you come back to us? I would love to come back here all very soon and I'll work with the clerk and the team as to when. We're gonna know more on Friday. It's what's going forward, but more importantly, what's been amended. So hypothetically, I don't wanna recommend a bill right now that you all take a position on because Friday it could change dramatically, and then I don't want you all to then retract that. So I'd like to get through this week. I already have a couple bills in mind, and then I'll work with the clerk and the city manager as to when to get it to you all. I'm thinking like, I mean pretty soon, I'd love a meeting in June, so we could start weighing in on those bills. That's what I'm getting at, because if we do take the time and trouble to discuss and stay the position, we definitely want it to be as impactful as possible. Absolutely. Okay, let's open it up to questions members. I think we were all provided the the framework which touches on. I think some of the big topics that we care about housing, economic development, climate resiliency, public safety is there and transportation and infrastructure. I just want to make sure there's no questions because I know we don't have the slide up. All right, let's take it to public comment. Seeing no members of the public, we can now discuss. Thank you, good. Go ahead. Member Solomon, go ahead. I'm Michael Ful. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you, Nick Lowe, for the overview and helpful explanation of what your role is in the process here. So I just have a couple of, I would say, within this framework sub-bolits that I want to either emphasize or suggest we add if the council is amenable. So I'll just kind of run through those. So the first is in this could either be in housing or climate resiliency. I know insurance, housing insurance has been a major topic of discussion in the state, both the cost and the availability. So I think that's something I would be interested in learning more about what bills are being discussed. The second, and I think this is probably included in transportation infrastructure and funding for riding transit. I know SB 63 is probably fits into that category of bills that could be amended in ways that will dramatically change whether or not we want to support them but would be very keen on learning more about that. And then another thing that I didn't, I don't know exactly where it fits in here, but air pollution is something that I care a lot about, especially since I-80 runs right through our town. You know, even relatively small changes to numbers of electric vehicles, number of electric trucks, even electric trains has a big impact on, you health outcomes for our residents. So we'll be interested in both policies and funding around that as well as building decarbonization, air pollution inside buildings, whether that's policies around gas stoves or water heaters, et cetera, or that is funding for those. Well, and then my final item kind of touches on similar topic, but coming at it from a funding perspective, and other discussion around how do we pay for all of these great things that we want to do, so both the budget, but there's also been discussion around, you know, a polluter pay type model. I think it's SB 684 that I think could be in a time when we have a very limited state budget, could be an option that I would be interested in learning more about and understanding the fate of that bill. Thank you. Nikola, based on the items that members Solomon brought up, are there any that you see as already included within our agenda or do you see a need for modification? Honorable Mayor, really appreciate that. I will definitely highlight insurance under housing and greater access. I will under transportation and infrastructure make it a little bit more clear about not just transportation but transit agencies and SB 63. And I'm happy to talk about about that one too. I'm feeling air pollution and building decarb could probably go under climate resiliency. And then thank you for the gentle reminder. Cap and trade has gotten really hot all of a sudden. So I probably might put that under cap and trade that really would recommend the city weigh in with some type of comment letter which a good idea. I think that's a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. Maybe we could have a show of hands from the council, whether we have support for updating the priorities to include the insurance cost and availability, the air pollution topic, and what was the other one, the polluter? I think the polluter pays would include cap and trade under alternative methods of funding climate priorities. Yeah. Okay, I see majority support for making those updates. Members any other updates? Member Welch. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Eglow, thank you for this memo. I appreciate all the work. It's very comprehensive, which is one of the benefits of working with towns and for so long they understand and reveals values and focus and this is very much a reflection on our values. Public safety, that's really focused around implementing technology and not additional criminalization, especially of vulnerable communities. And we know that the governor is just you know, moving a little bit more moderate. We'll just say that on some items around homelessness and public safety and really focusing on public transit and economic development, tourism, of those things that we are very interested in and I'm very supportive and appreciate members Solomon bringing up the insurance issue that we have actually heard from our residents is a very big concern and very much in support of that. I wanted to note around the economic mobility piece, which typically includes workforce development. But if there was any legislation around guaranteed basic income, if the council was agreeable, if that was something that folks would be interested in supporting as well, I know that has been very much a local push and they've had, you know, I was a part of mayors for guaranteed income and now that they've expanded and they're now doing that for state legislators as well. So that might not necessarily happen this cycle, but I wanted to flag that because I feel like that is something that now that it's been many pilot programs have happened within partnerships between local governments and nonprofits, they are now focusing on the statewide and federal level space and wanted to see if the council was interested in supporting or being interested in hearing legislation that's focused on guaranteed basic income as well. Just to clarify, is this to study basic income or something that disperses to the broader population? Not specifically. There's been a lot of movement on the local level, but now advocates are focusing on statewide efforts to potentially have pilot programs or have a legislation around guaranteed basic income. I'm not for sure what that might look like at the moment, but I think as far as our values as a city would be an alignment of where guaranteed basic income pilot programs and legislation focuses as far as investing in people, trusting households and individuals with lower income with their own agency around what to do with the money and understanding that poverty is a policy issue, not a personal feeling. Nicola, do you see that falling under any of our existing ones or where if it had to be updated where we would put it? Noble Mayor, I would put that under economic development and what I could do is that last point, point five, support legislative and other efforts for programs, the great pathways out of poverty, build that out a little bit more and highlight guaranteed income. As the councilwoman mentioned, it had been a hot topic when there was some of the COVID funding coming and the state did do a guaranteed income pilot program and their folks have kind of been waiting now, not in a bad way, but what's the next shoot, a drop, or what's gonna happen next? So we can definitely clarify that. And then just one other point, what I will do is, since this is a draft, once we're done, I could do submit two copies, a clean copy, and then a track changes copy, so you all can see where we made the additions. That sounds good. Members are their support for, maybe with a show of hands, support for exploring universal income as a, I guess as I guess as an alternative to kind of a welfare program that is that accurate. Well, not necessarily, sorry, Mr. Mayor, not necessarily an alternative, but in addition to the kind of standard programs that are funded and available when we think about pathways for individuals to get out of poverty. because it can include things like workforce development. It does include social safety net programs, but it univates so basic income programs or pilot programs I've been quickly becoming a part of anti-poverty measures for many cities. Got it. So this is universal income as augmenting social safety net. Members, do we have a majority support for that update? Other comments or requests? Member, a pry force. I first want to start by my appreciation for Townsend for preparing this list of legislative strategies and general priorities. Typically my role on this council is to voice community concerns that may be historically overlooked by this council. take my role very seriously and so I want to distress that with with sometimes the general priorities. and so I want to distress that with sometimes the general priorities that the the the the the spills roll out that they're that they that they may not necessarily address some of the the wills and needs of Emeryville residents. So, so for example, a listed under the priorities was reasonable perform to Sequa. And I don't know how many coffee shop conversations I've had with residents that that should be prioritized as I think that it's a little bit more politely motivated, especially if the if it unintentionally accelerates gentrification, displacement, or environmental harm. However, AB 1157 by Assemblymember Calra, which was a little bit more of a little bit more of a sort of with the57 by Assemblymember Calra, which was widely supported by tenant organizations that sought to lower California's rent cap significantly. Even though that was pulled, it may come back in 2026. So I'm thinking along that line along that line as relates to housing and greater access. And then there's measures like Alex Lee's AB 2584, which is aimed at preventing large institutional investors from further converting single familyfamily homes into rentals. And, or SB 295, which is the California Preventing Algorithmic Collusion Act, which is designed to combat rent gouging by corporate landlords. These are the kind of detailed legislative efforts that I believe our community would want me to express an interest in our city supporting. So I want to also include my concern about or my confusion around lowering the cannabis, lowering taxes for the cannabis industry, which has proven to be a valuable revenue source for every bill. And so I'm a little confused about why our advocacy is focused on that as a priority, especially when our focus could be directed towards Senator Wahab's SB332, which is aimed at capping utility rate hikes. I believe that a member of our budget and governance committee has expressed that that has been a concern sort of PG&E gone wild. And how that has affected our residents specifically our seniors. It's been a so capping that would be would be a tangible relief to emerald residents and businesses. But of course, I look forward to June 6th or any date that where you can come back and we can do a little bit more D-dive. And so I just appreciate your work and thank you for looking out for the small guy. Absolutely. And if I may, through the mayor, so Councilmember, just to be clear, you're expressing type of some type of favorability towards the Alex Lee bill on kind of tenant protections and what have you and then the rent gouging building things of that nature. Yeah, yeah, good. Perhaps since this is kind of a framework if we're talking about updating the framework, we can maybe, I know there's a lot of specific bills, but I think one thing that member Bry Force is getting at is the reducing the cost of housing, whether it's rent, right? So, and I know a lot of bills, they claim to do something and they might not actually do it. So we won't know till we see specific bills. So what I would propose is bills that really try to bring us stuff that's gonna move the needle on the cost of housing and lower rents for the people living in the city. So members, do we have support to make that more explicit within the legislative framework? Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I, Nick, thank you again for coming. I also would like to know more about SB332 under, yeah. Yeah. And whether or not it is something that we could express support for. And I think it would follow under one of your categories here. So it would be helpful. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Madam Vice Mayor, something that I'm thinking would be when I come back whether it's a six for the following council meeting probably have three buckets one would definitely be support one would be considering opposition but sometimes opposition and I'm probably opposed to cemented and then another one of watching or monitoring the watching sometimes sounds so passive but it's a work on it without a position. And if it goes one way or another, then we either move to support or oppose. So thank you, because I triggered it with thoughts. So thank you. Member Price Force. Well, it would also be helpful for our next meeting is by sharing the sort of not just the sponsors, but who is supporting and also who's in opposition. In opposition? Yeah, because I want to make sure that I'm not ever on the side of those who are looking to do harm and have a reputation of doing harm to the folks in Emeryville. Absolutely. It had a funny, quick story. The former city manager, many city managers ago, we talk about bills. And then Chiodoiz asked where one different association was. If I would say support, it's like cool, let's oppose. So. Thank you. Members, any other comments for modifying the policy framework. I just had one I wasn't sure if it was explicit under the climate we talk about supporting electrification of buildings construction. and it kind of also touches things like gas stoves. I think one of the main impediments to electrification is simply the cost of electricity. We pay more under PG&E than virtually anywhere else in the country. And I think those very high electricity cost rates are actually slowing down the adoption of more sustainable green technologies, EVs. So I think something that moves the needle on helping bring down the price of electricity, whether that is a transmission line permitting or some sort of fostering competition among generation or distribution. I don't know what the answer is. I just know that we should not be paying the highest rate in the country. So, members with a show of hands as their support for adding an explicit line item about the affordability of electricity. Yes. Sorry, Mr. Mayor. Is your question? Because I believe that SB332 that vice mayor car and I mentioned, but are you specifically focus because I believe believe that the governor mentioned either today or yesterday that they were, that California's not expanding sort of our grid. And so are you more focused more on sort of infrastructure in terms of electricity or like actual, like what we're paying? What ever drops the cost for us? I don't care how we do it. Let's focus on just focusing on the outcome. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Nikolo. We are looking forward to the specific bills, recommendations, the watch list. Absolutely. Thank you all. I got my homework. I'm going to go back to Sacramento. We'll get cracking on this. I'll work with the city clerk at the City of Meanger on the next most expedient time to come back with a list of bills. And thank you all very much. Thank you. Safe travels. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. here to present the annual report of the city vacancies and our recruitment and retention efforts next slide. So on September 22nd 2024 Governor Newsom approved assembly bill 2561 that requires public agencies to present annual reports on the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts during a public hearing. It further states that the public hearing is to be done before adoption of the budget and that bargaining units are allowed to make presentations should they choose to do so. Next slide. So this slide shows the employee groups included in the report. We have the four bargaining groups of SEIU, Camp, POA, and PMA, as well as the unrepresented regular full-time benefited positions. So note that unrepresented part-time seasonal and temporary employees are not included in this report. Next slide. So we're here, we have the number of hires and terminations last year. As you can see, the city hired nine regular FTEs and had 11 regular FTEs separate, bringing our overall turnover rate to 8.9% during calendar year 2024. We started with 19 vacancies at the beginning of the calendar year and ended with 21. Next slide. So here is a chart of the budgeted positions and the vacancies by bargaining group. You see the 21 vacancies here broken out. Vacancy rates for the bargaining groups vary and range from 5.4% to 16.7% with the exception of EPMA, which was, which is made up of three positions and two classifications, which will be addressed in a later slide. Next. So now we're going to look at the vacancies and recoupments by employee group. Next. SCIU has a 16.7% vacancy rate. And here I list the 10 positions for the 11 vacancies. Next slide. This next slide shows the status of those 11 vacancies. As you can see, we recently filled two of them. Police Services Technician and Teacher Assistant, both starting in June. We currently have open and ongoing recruitment, the building inspector or senior building inspector, and the police communications dispatcher, and then the other six positions are pending recruitment. Next slide. So camp has also a 16.7% vacancy rate and four vacancies. Next slide. There are two current recruitments right now, one for management analyst in community development and one for public works, and then the other two are pending recruitments. Next. So POA has only 5.4% vacancy rates, only two vacancies both in police officers. The recruitment is current and always ongoing. Next. So, PMA as previously discussed in an earlier slide was established in 2023 to remove the sworn positions of Captain and Lieutenant out of camp. PMA has to vacancies, Captain who resigned last October and Lieutenant who retired in December. Next slide. The unrepresented group has a 14.7% vacancy rate with two vacancies. I am very happy to report that we recently filled the finance director who will be starting June 2nd, which will bring our vacancy rate down to 7.3%. And then we plan to open the HR analyst position next fiscal year. This vacancy is currently being filled by our retired note. So next. we're going to discuss recruitment and retention effort citywide. Next, for this calendar year, which started January 1 through mid May, the city hired five FTEs and had five FTEs separate. So we're still at 21 vacant positions, 14.6% vacancy rate. The HR department continues to meet regularly with its department heads, all of the hiring managers to partner and work with them prioritizing upcoming recruitment and ensuring that we meet these staffing needs for each department. We have seen increasing or next slide. Sorry. We have seen increasing numbers of applicants for vacant positions. As you can see from 58 applications for public works, operations and facilities manager, which we recently filled. All the way to over 300 applications for HR assistant. So this is in part due to the increased activity of HR on LinkedIn and social media as well as targeted postings and advertisements based on positions. Additionally, the city has recently seen improvement in the acceptances of our offers. And then future we continue to open, we will continue to open the requirements for vacant positions. Next slide. So the city is quite competitive with its compensation and benefits as your council knows we successfully negotiated contracts with its four bargaining units, which included three and a half percent colas, plus one and a half percent recruitment and retention increases over three years totaling 15% wage increases. and retention increases over three years totaling 15% wage increases. In addition to that, we did bring all positions in SEIU and camp to the median following a salary survey with our comparator agencies. Additionally, the city offers competitive benefits as listed here. These significant changes I believe have greatly improved the ability to attract and retain employees as seen by the increased number of applicants and acceptances. With that, I'm here for questions. Next slide. This concludes my presentation. Thank you, Lily Bell. Members, any questions? Let's take public comment. Seeing no members of the public, I'll bring this back for discussion. Members, any discussion or further comments? And I believe this is an informational item. Mayor, this is a public hearing. So if you could just open the public hearing, call for speakers again and then close up. Yes. Thank you. The time is 803. The public hearing is now open. Seeing no members of the public. The time is 803. The public hearing is now closed. Members, any discussion? Seeing none, thank you, Lily Bill. Member Priforce, go ahead. I just want to apologize again for reposting a job post that it was an absolute nightmare for everyone, but I just want to say thank you for using mediums like LinkedIn and others in ways that have attitude or recruitment. So I'll just say thank you. And Lily Bell if I can just add, I do really appreciate how much you look out for the city, keeping us competitive, and we love telling people that we are a great city to work in and work for, and I think you make that true. So thank you. Okay. Next we have department head reports. No report this evening, thank you. Future agenda item requests. Members, do you have any future agenda items? I have one. Vice mayor, go ahead. Thank you, mayor. So at the conference, the children and nature Conference last week in Minnesota, many cities including San Francisco shared resolutions in support of children's outdoor bill of rights. I like what San Francisco did and it appears to be doable in the same manner in Emoryville with the resolution as a policy statement only. With that background, we could send it to parks and recreation and even sustainability committee if appropriate. It would help reinforce our city's commitment to parks and to becoming a family, a friendly city and an also reinforce or reaffirm one of our goals of a livable, safe and vibrant community that prioritizes recreation parks, events, and engaged communities. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Maybe just some input from staff. What would be the most appropriate venue to consider a policy statement like that. Thank you, Mayor Mora. Leave the Director of Community Services good chime in as well, but I think the idea would be that there would be a resolution brought back to the council supporting the children's Bill of Rights and then that would be referred to the Parks and Recs Committee for further follow-up along the lines of that organization's programming. Members, is there support for a children's outdoor Bill of Rights? The motion passes. Members, any other future agenda items? Member, pry force. So, there's not a whole lot that I agree with Mayor Lurie, I was on Francisco, but one I do, as supervisor, Felder also agrees is the idea of permit reform. And I do admit that I haven't bounced around our staff about whether or not we, for example, wanted to permit form, reform initiatives that the mayor is doing is around public permitting tracking tool that use real-time insights for residents and merchants. I don't know if that's something that we currently use and utilize. But there are a couple of initiatives that he is proposing and so it's not something that we could prioritize in terms of like, you know, agenda wise, because maybe it's a good idea to see what they do first, and then we follow suit, but it's definitely something to take a look at, which is to focus on making it easier to open and run small businesses and even helping small businesses expand because that has been a issue that has been raised to me by several small businesses is how difficult or they felt that our permitting process was a bit too political in Emoryville. And so anything that could help, I guess make that more simplified before I use the language of streamline, but just at least making more simplified, which I believe is that's where Marellory is going. Maybe the staff could comment on any initiatives or efforts either in the past or ongoing streamline permitting? Yeah, we're always interested in making things simpler for the business community and for making the permit process easy to administer an efficient on the specific point around public access to the permitting system. We are already underway with that. The contract with Tyler Technologies includes a component allowing for online submittal and tracking of permits and communication with the inspectors through that tool that's going to take us some time to roll out admittedly, but we are already on that pathway. I can't speak too much to the other specific, you know, without specifics about, but I am, like I said, I'm always interested in efficiency with permitting. Yeah, I did see that news story as well. Maybe is it fair to say that the developments in San Francisco relaxing some permit requirements? That's something that you're also tracking. that's a very important thing to be able to do with the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of so but I am interested in that. Yeah, and it kind of depends on the local specific barriers that those businesses are facing. But I'm happy to copy any ideas because I do wanna stay one step ahead at least of San Francisco's permitting process. Thank you, Chad. A member of Pride Force, would you be okay connecting offline with director Sm, regarding any specific permitting reforms as we monitor continuous improvement. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Members, any other future agenda items? Member Price Force. So there's an ongoing issue related to our testing are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are an ongoing issue related to our testing of hazards that tenants are experiencing. And so I've shared with the staff that the idea of a program that would allow for tenants to request testing, sort of bare bones testing of some of the most hazardous issues that they face, which is lead asbestos and mold. And I believe that it would be sort of an expansion of what we currently do. That Chad was able to enlighten me that for buildings built prior to 1978 that we do require lead testing. And so it'll be, I believe, an addition to that it should let issues do come up that for buildings after 1978, that that is something that a tenant can request, that the city test. And so it necessarily wouldn't be on the city to enforce, and that would be more so focused on the county, But sometimes we leave it to tenants to pursue issues privately, private litigation. And we say that we don't get involved in that. But for them to be able to test, for the city to test, and that become a public record document, is that sometimes they need and and being able to move forward with private litigation and so that is something that Would be a gap because we don't have public health department but in how we do things in this in terms of our city comparison to other cities, that kind of programming is actually, there are no other cities around us that do something like that. So it is actually taking a step into an unknown. And so that's something that I want to bring before this body for us to explore is testing that residents can request that the city can make around lead as bestos and and mold and and and and and and and just be that just just testing get get the results and then and then what they do with that, they is what they do with it. And staff comment on any existing recourse that residents can do regarding these well-known hazards. in, yes, and I'll try to be brief with this. In cases of mold and lead, when the building predates 1978 and there is observed flaking paint, that paint is presumed to be lead. In mold, if it's visible, it's presumed to be an issue. And in those cases, attendance can request an... the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the personnel and following the proper work channels to get that done. So that is our existing program as regards asbestos, that would normally be dealt with through permitted demolition work is that is the activity that makes asbestos dangerous. And that work is regulated by us through our permitting process, but in conjunction with the air district, which as a condition of our permit, we require them to get the clearance from the air district. And so that is in a nutshell, is what we do currently. It's not clear to me what the gap is, member of PryForce. Could you clarify what your ask is? So just to clarify with Chad. So at any moment, a resident in Emeryville can request for that inspection, that test to be made as it relates to those three factors, specifically when it comes to lead and mold, and that test could become public record for them to, you know, we're not gonna do a test as a part of what the doctors to be clear. If the complaint comes in, the building is old enough, and the paint is flaking, so that's something that's easily observed by a code enforcement officer. There's no special scientific testing required. We presume that it's led, and we tell the contract in the owner to remedy the situation. Same with mold. That's observed. Go fix it. And so they are required then to prove up to us that they have accomplished that work by hiring the certified personnel. There isn't in any of that what I just described. Any requirement for a test to be. Precured necessarily just that the condition be remedied. Thank you, Chad. Member, is that address your concern? No, it's still pretty confusing. I mean, I'm right. Vice mayor. Thank you, mayor. I just want to clarify from Chad. Chad, the 1978 pre-19s, is that applicable to all housing in Emoryville, including Multipam? All buildings. All buildings. Okay. So then thank you for the clarification, Chad. There are some recent laws that came out and I don't know if our ordinances are up to date with that, those laws, they specifically address substandardized housing and that those laws are related specifically to multifamily housing that not only includes lead issues but also pest issues and I know that some of the older buildings have pest issues. So those laws would require the cities to update their ordinances and I think it would be a good idea to explore what ordinances we currently have to see if we can use those laws to update our ordinances. It might require a study session. And we could even put this item to the government, but budget and governance committee to explore it further. So since we're talking about the compliance with laws, possibly new laws that address these concerns, maybe we could send this to budget and governance with the council be amenable to that with a show of hands. Actually, could may I make a suggestion? Could yes go ahead because because of the confusion could could I go back and forth with Chad and so we can like clarified and then bring that back to the council or are we doing something different in terms of focus a little bit more on ordinances. If you think it's this is a gap that does not come from compliance with a new law, then you can bring this back as a future agenda item at a future council meeting. Once you get more clarification if this is something that you'd like to pursue. So then can we treat these as two separate issues? Because I'm really fascinated in what. Vice Mayor car is proposing. But when maybe treated as going to budget governance and any other maybe treated as sort of going to chat to get some clarification if that makes sense. Number Welch. I just wanted to note that Amriville is covered by Alameda County Healthy Homes and we that there is offers free consultations for a property based led safety consultation that is available to property owners, that they can utilize there's financial resources that are available to help with remediation. So that is something that is available. You can, as the tenant fill out the form to get the consultation and tell the property owner that this is available to them, free cost to come through and then there would be financial services available to help remediate if there is lead found within the property. So I think that is the bigger concern here is that tenants don't have the, there's an assumption that tenants don't have the access to help drive the forces around remediation and getting to a safe and healthy home and that's not exactly true. Now as a tenant you do have limitations on whatever changes and things that you can implement within your rental property but that is something that is available and that can be implemented by the tenant. The staff have a recommendation on how the best handle the concern raised by member pry force? Thank you, Mayor. Since this item has not been agindized tonight, I think if Councilmember pry force could continue to work with myself and Chad to discuss this because there are some components as Councilmember Welch mentioned that are applicable here. There are also the county, also the state. And so it might be a matter of us getting the information out there. But if we can work with the councilmember and then potentially come back, that would help us. Thank you, Latanya. The number of pry force does that suit you? Yes, and I just want to make it clear that the current mechanisms that we have in place that that we're currently dealing with an issue of tenants who felt that the mechanism that we have in place have have been addressing that particular need because I believe that that act is based on the good faith of the property manager to be able to provide or prove that level of consultation. And so this is really important in terms of tenant landlord dispute that the tenant is in power to be able to have this testing done and have that public record document made available to them rather than going through the property manager and so that's that's so that is what I'm concerned about and that's what's been presented to me so that's why yeah so it asks to your question yes I would be happy to work with our staff on that on this issue. Thank you. Vice mayor. Thank you mayor. I just want to. So councilmember privers thank you for making these separate items. I thought that this was also related to that ordinance so we can you can have your discussion with the staff, but I just want to make sure that the item that I proposed to update the sub standardized multi family housing. Update those ordinances are is still going to go to the budget and governance committee for consideration. Madam Clerk, can you confirm that that agenda item, which received a full support is moving to budget and governance, or do you need another show of hands? No, if it received full support, that's fine. Thank you. Members, any other future agenda items? Number, pry force. So I'd like to present before this body, the future agenda item of the Pledge of Allegiance, being discussed as returning to our proceedings, and I will demonstrate. A pleasure to use the flag of the United States of America. To the Republic for which it stands, one nation, individual, for liberty and justice for all. Members with a show of hands, is there support for bringing back the Pledge of Allegiance? Seeing none, the motion fails. The time is 823. This meeting is adjourned.