All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the San Jose City Council for the Jose City Council for the afternoon of April 21st. Toni, would you please call the roll. Toni, would you please call the roll. Kamei. Kamei. Campos present. Campos present. Tordillos. Tordillos. Here. Here. Cohen here. Cohen here. Ortiz. Ortiz. Present. Present. Mulcahy. Mulcahy. Here. Here. Doan. Doan. Candelas. Candelas. Here. Here. Foley. Foley. Here. Here. Mahan. Mahan. Here. Here. Casey, do you have a quorum? Casey, do you have a quorum? Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Now, if you're able, please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Today's invocation will be provided by the Piedmont Middle School Choir, and the Piedmont Middle School Choir, and Council Member Cohen will tell us more. Yes, well, as you know, I like to highlight the music program in the Yes, well, as you know, I like to highlight the music program in the Berryessa Union School District, and we've done our instrumental performance. But we also have an amazing. But we also have an amazing. choir. The other half of our music program is an amazing choir program, The other half of our music program is an amazing choir program, award winning award winning choir. always willing to oblige. And whenever we need performances in our area, And whenever we need performances in our area, Celeste Wilson and her class are Celeste Wilson and her class are always willing to oblige. So I'm happy to have invited them to come and join us today, and I'll let join us today, and I'll let Miss Wilson take it from here. My name is Celeste Wilson. Good afternoon everybody. Good afternoon everybody. My name is Celeste Wilson. Good afternoon, mayor and honorable city leaders. My name is Joe and I'm from the Advanced Choir of Piedmont Middle School. journey. And I want to share about how Miss Wilson has helped me in my choir journey. Thanks to Miss Wilson, I discovered a passion for music which I never knew I music which I never knew I had back in elementary school. Now, singing with my classmates has become one of the best moments of my day. Because I love singing. Because I love singing. I chose both advanced choir and performing arts for my electives to make my electives to make it all fit in my schedule. I have to wake up at 6:50 a.m. every morning for zero period p, but honestly, honestly, I don't mind at all because of the passion of singing and it's worth it. I have to wake up at 6:50 a.m. every morning for zero period p, but completely worth it. try new things. Hi, my name is Victoria Pipe and choir makes me feel independent and safe to try new things. self-esteem by discovering new opportunities like solos, being a leader in class, and so many more things. I've come out of my my shell so much since sixth grade and also improved my self- esteem by discovering new opportunities like solos, being a leader in class, and so many more things. choir, in any and every way. I find that my happiest moments are when I get to I find that my happiest moments are when I get to help out the people in my help out the people in my choir, in any and every way. It's such a fun experience. It's such a fun experience. Hi, my name is Michaela Molina. Hi, my name is Michaela Molina. Performing in choir is really important to me as I can show my. I can show my vocals growing and I can improve. Help improve my choir. And it's really just the fun of all of it. Hi, my name is Linda Nguyen. Singing a solo makes me feel brave. I like choir because it gives me a chance to express myself in a way I of. I like choir because it gives me a chance to express myself in a way I can't really do in other classes, and it's just a great community to be a part of. Hi, my. Hi, my. Name is Aliya Asper. Name is Aliya Asper. My favorite memory of choir is when my first performance in sixth grade. I don't remember everything that happened specifically, but I remember be something I want to do for the rest of my career. I don't remember everything that happened specifically, but I remember the feeling I had after was like this feeling of like, yeah, this is going to be something I want to do for the rest of my career. Because having an amazing teacher like Miss Wilson has like brought out the best person I can be. teacher like Miss Wilson has like brought out the best in me and like the And I met so many wonderful and amazing people because of her choir and her like people because of her choir and her like helpfulness to make me a better person. We're going to do a small. Performance for you. This song is called Peace Like a River. I got peace like a river. I got peace like a river. I got peace. Like a river in my soul. I got de like a river. I got speed like a river. I got de la a river in my soul. Are God's blood like an ocean. I God's love like an ocean. I got love like an ocean. In my soul. I got love like an ocean. I God's love. Like an ocean. I. God's love. Like can ocean in my soul. I got joy, joy like a fountain. I got joy, joy like a fountain. I've got joy, joy like a fountain in my soul. I thought joy. Like a fountain. I got joy, love a fountain. I got joy. Like a fountain in my soul. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you for providing our invocation. That was beautiful. Piedmont Middle School choir, everyone. Thank you again. Great way to start our meeting. We're on to our ceremonial items. Councilmember Cohen and Councilmember Kamei, if you would join me at the recognize and proclaim April 22nd as Earth Day. Cohen and Councilmember Kamei, if you would join me at the podium, we will Today. We recognize and celebrate Earth Day and reaffirm our shared responsibility to Earth Day and reaffirm our shared responsibility to protect the environment here in San Jose and beyond. Services Leadership Team. I am joined today, Council Member Kamei and members of the Environmental Services Leadership Team. Julie, Julie Erlandson, John Tang, Deputy directors of Integrated Waste directors of Integrated Waste Management and Water Services. Jeff Provenzano, director of environmental services, and Marnie Commission here in San Jose. Jeff Provenzano, director of environmental services, and Marnie Buechler, who is going to be a member of the the Our youth member of the Climate Commission here in San Jose. The first Earth Day on April 22nd, 1970, brought millions of Americans together the Environmental Protection Agency. The first Earth Day on April 22nd, 1970, environmental protection to a national priority and sparking the creation of brought millions of Americans together to raise awareness and advocate for Healthier planet, helping elevate environmental protection to a national priority and sparking the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. I am proud of the City of San Jose's programs and services across our wastewater reduction and watershed protection in the Environmental Services more pedestrian friendly to our public works department and making City Hall Department to our transportation department, making the streets safer and the first in the nation to achieve Leed platinum certification for an existing building. I am proud of the City of San Jose's programs and services across our departments that protect our environment, improve public health and educate our community about environmental stewardship from wastewater reduction and watershed protection in the Environmental Services Department to our transportation department, making the streets safer and more pedestrian friendly to our public works department and making City Hall the first in the nation to achieve Leed platinum certification for an existing building. This work touches every neighborhood and every resident. This work touches every neighborhood and every resident. The residents of San Jose also play a critical role through everyday actions by conserving water, reducing waste, choosing sustainable transportation, or supporting supporting local environmental efforts. The residents of San Jose also play a critical role through everyday actions by conserving water, reducing waste, choosing sustainable transportation, or supporting supporting local environmental efforts. These small actions, taken together, create meaningful change. These small actions, taken together, create meaningful change. As we recognize Earth Day in San Jose, I urge all residents to take action and participate in programs and activities that protect our environment, strengthen our community, and preserve our planet. As we recognize Earth Day in San Jose, I urge all residents to take action and participate in programs and activities that protect our environment, strengthen our community, and preserve our planet. And just a little local plug. And just a little local plug. Tomorrow on Earth Day in District four, Penitentiary Creek Park will be planting three trees and having a ceremony to recognize a thousand trees that we've planted in district four since Earth Day 2022. Tomorrow on Earth Day in District four, Penitentiary Creek Park will be planting three trees and having a ceremony to recognize a thousand trees that we've planted in district four since Earth Day 2022. Today, with Councilmember Kamei and City Council, I'm pleased to invite Marnie Buccola, student leader with Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, to accept this year's proclamation. Today with Councilmember Kamei and City Council, I'm pleased to invite Marnie Buccola, student leader with Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, to accept this year's proclamation. Marnie is a junior in high school from council, district three youth director and San Jose team co-lead for the student led nonprofit Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action and serves on the City of San Jose's Climate three youth director and San Jose team co-lead for the student led nonprofit Advisory Commission. Marnie is a junior in high school from council district Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action and serves on the City of San Jose's Climate Advisory Commission. He has been a climate advocate for the past five been a climate advocate for the past five years, pushing for strong climate years, pushing for strong climate action that we need at the local level. He has action that we need at the local level. Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action is a youth led nonprofit that empowers teens and young adults to combat climate change with impactful interdisciplinary policy and education initiatives. Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action is a youth led nonprofit that empowers teens and young adults to combat climate change with impactful interdisciplinary policy and education initiatives. They were recently awarded a Zero Waste Innovations grant from the City of San starting with one of its most common and overlooked contributors to landfill Jose for a new campaign that's focusing on waste prevention at the source, sngle use cups. They were recently awarded a Zero Waste Innovations grant from the City of San Jose for a new campaign that's focusing on waste prevention at the source, starting with one of its most common and overlooked contributors to landfill single use cups. Through this initiatives, through this initiative, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action will promote reusable alternatives, support community and business engagement, and advance practical, scalable solutions that align with San Jose's zero waste goals. Through this initiatives, through this initiative, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action will promote reusable alternatives, support community and business engagement, and advance practical, scalable solutions that align with San Jose's zero waste goals. Now here's Marnie. Now here's Marnie. Thank you very much to the mayor and City Council on behalf of dozens of today. Thank you very much to the mayor and City Council on behalf of dozens of climate advocates and especially young people who weren't able to be here today. Thank you for this proclamation and for the commitment that it shows to meeting today's environmental crises with urgency. Thank you for this proclamation and for the commitment that it shows to meeting today's environmental crises with urgency. moment. I'd like to get this a little bit of grounding about why we are here I'd like to get this a little bit of grounding about why we are here at this at this moment. My climate journey, like those of so many other people of all ages here in began in 2019, and it accelerated in 2020. journey, like those of so many other people of all ages here in the Bay area, In 2019, the youth led Fridays for Future Movement awakened us to the struck closer to home, with some of California's worst wildfires in our history, searing into our memories. In 2019, the youth led Fridays for Future Movement awakened us to the outrageous global inaction on climate change, and the next year, the crisis struck closer to home, with some of California's worst wildfires in our history, searing into our memories. Orange Sky day dozens of lives have been lost directly here in California due to wildfires. Orange Sky day dozens of lives have been lost directly here in California due to wildfires. and the now annual air pollution from wildfire smoke has harmed the health of In addition to uncountable others due to smoke, extreme heat and other impacts, us all. In addition to uncountable others due to smoke, extreme heat and other impacts, and the now annual air pollution from wildfire smoke has harmed the health of us all. So this story highlights a crucial truth, which is that climate change isn't a distant or or theoretical abstract problem. So this story highlights a crucial truth, which is that climate change isn't a distant or or theoretical abstract problem. It is an immediate and local crisis in our community's health and safety. It is an immediate and local crisis in our community's health and safety. unfortunately, the Trump administration now has taken a wrecking ball to our at all levels of society and of government, and unfortunately, the Trump administration now has taken a wrecking ball to our nation's climate action, along with so much else. budget cycles, and not for an easier or more convenient moment. But climate But climate change does not wait, not for federal administrations, not for change does not wait, not for federal administrations, not for budget cycles, and not for an easier or more convenient moment. And 2019 was also a landmark year for our local response, which has continued to the present. And 2019 was also a landmark year for our local response, which has continued to the present. Here in downtown in San Jose, downtown in particular. Here in downtown in San Jose, downtown in particular. But we understand that climate action begins in our own communities and local governments, and there's an enormous amount left to do. But we understand that climate action begins in our own communities and local governments and there's an enormous amount left to do. pledged to reach carbon neutrality. There are only three more earth days There are only three more earth days left until the year 2030, when we have left until the year 2030, when we have pledged to reach carbon neutrality. So we understand that we need to move faster. So we understand that we need to move faster. We have picked many of the low hanging fruits and we need to accelerate our efforts. We have picked many of the low hanging fruits and we need to accelerate our efforts. All of us in this. All of us in this. Together, we face major challenges both in resolving our contributions to climate change and in adapting to its effects that are happening now. Together, we face major challenges both in resolving our contributions to And we need leadership from City Hall and all levels of local government to government to make this happen. want us to take away from this Earth Day. So that's what I want us to take away from this Earth Day. So that's what I protect a livable present and future for young people today and those of all generations here in our San Jose community, but most importantly, I want present and future for young people today and those of all generations here in our San Jose community, but most importantly, I want us to remember what is so wonderful about this holiday. harms, but also to envision and to build a more beautiful future together. It's It's about people coming together not only to fight today's environmental about people coming together not only to fight today's environmental harms, but also to envision and to build a more beautiful future together. One where everyone, where no one suffers from air pollution, from polluted air, where everyone, where no one suffers from air pollution, from polluted air, and housing, and where our communities are healthy, vibrant and thriving. One where everyone has access to safe streets and affordable transportation and housing, and where our communities are healthy, vibrant and thriving. This future is within our reach, and I want us all to remember that the path to building it, to reaching it, goes through climate action. This future is within our reach, and I want us all to remember that the path to building it, to reaching it, goes through climate action. on climate initiatives at our local level. Thank you very much to the City Thank you very much to the City Council and to city staff for working tirelessly Council and to city staff for working tirelessly on climate initiatives at our local level. The City Council for providing the direction and resources to do so. The City Council for providing the direction and resources to do so. And Happy Earth Day. And Happy Earth Day. All right, Councilman Candelas, if you would join me at the podium, we will right, Councilman Candelas, if you would join me at the podium, we will recognize Prevention Week, and I'll invite our guests to come on down as well. All and I'll invite our guests to come on down as well. Thank you. Thank you. and proclaim April 20th to 24th as National Youth Violence Prevention Week, And I'll also invite any of my colleagues who wish to join me to commemorate this occasion as well. And I'll also invite any of my colleagues who wish to join me to commemorate this occasion as well. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. National Youth Violence Prevention Week. National Youth Violence Prevention Week. Today, the city of San Jose is proud to proclaim April 18th through the 25th as Youth Violence Prevention Week is a coordinated citywide initiative designed coordinated citywide initiative designed to support our youth, strengthen based violence prevention strategies. Youth Violence Prevention Week is a partnerships, and advance community based violence prevention strategies. doing just that. As you can see from behind us, we have a coalition of people As you can see from behind us, we have a coalition of people who are dedicated to who are dedicated to doing just that. And this week, the San Jose Youth Empowerment Alliance is collaborating activations and community engagement events. And this week, the San Jose Youth Empowerment Alliance is collaborating with local schools and engagement events. partners to deliver eight days of school based youth activations and community As a matter of fact, today they hosted the Oakland Ceasefire and the Department relationships. As a matter of fact, today they hosted the Oakland Ceasefire health strategies for reducing violence and strengthening community police and the Department of Violence Prevention right here at City Hall to discuss proven public health strategies for reducing violence and strengthening community police relationships. And so that's that's why it is especially meaningful to present today's it is especially meaningful to present today's proclamation to Cora Molina's a lifelong devotion to, quite literally saving lives. And so that's that's why champion, a San Jose champion for lifelong devotion to, quite literally saving lives. founding catalyst of the Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force, where she helped with accountability. And so her legacy began here in the city of San Jose in build a national model for youth intervention that balances compassion Force, where she helped build a national model for youth intervention that the early 1990s as a founding catalyst of the Mayor's Gang Prevention Task balances compassion with accountability. Her work was so impactful that the white House recognized her as a champion for change for youth violence prevention. Her work was so impactful that the white House recognized her as a champion for change for youth violence prevention. The fruit of Cora's longstanding advocacy can be seen in the rapid expansion of different citywide initiatives. The fruit of Cora's longstanding advocacy can be seen in the rapid expansion of different citywide initiatives. Two years ago, I championed expanding opportunities for youth, specifically in my district, which ultimately created a Saturday Night Lights program. Two years ago, I championed expanding opportunities for youth, specifically in my district, which ultimately created a Saturday Night Lights program. department, the school district, we have been able to grow this program not just And thanks to different community partners, the earthquakes, our police for my district to eight sites citywide. And thanks to different community partners, the earthquakes, our police department, the school district, we have been able to grow this program not just for my district to eight sites citywide. school and high school students. And this past weekend, we kicked off our And this past weekend, we kicked off our second year of bringing futsal to middle second year of bringing futsal to middle school and high school students. a big impact on my life, and I get an opportunity, and a lot of our community me incredibly proud because sports has had a big impact on my life, and I get partners get to bring that to, to families. This is something that makes an opportunity, and a lot of our community partners get to bring that to, to families. the competition and that energy is something that gives me hope for our And being there on Friday and Saturday nights, seeing how active the kids are, future. And being there on Friday and Saturday nights, seeing how active the kids are, the competition and that energy is something that gives me hope for our future. And, you know, violence prevention is truly a daily, weekly monthly daily weekly monthly commitment to our families. know, violence prevention is truly a I'm proud that our city initiatives go beyond recreation. I'm proud that our city initiatives go beyond recreation. They are about building trust, confidence in our youth and showing them that this city is invested in their future. They are about building trust, confidence in our youth and showing them that this city is invested in their future. without further ado, I'd like to welcome Cora to share a few words. You got a So without further ado, I'd like to welcome Cora to share a few words. So whole entourage behind you, Cora. You got a whole entourage behind you, Cora. You want to give me this microphone? Take it on. Take it on. Are you sure. Are you sure. You want me? You want me? Okay. Coming here today is like coming back home. And it's pretty emotional for me. I haunted this halls for our children. So first of all, let me say to the youth that are here, how very proud we are of are of you. yourselves because you are engaged. And if you are here, you can pat yourselves because you are engaged. You are a part, a vital part of this community. You are. The pillar of all the programs for in youth and the whole community. The pillar of all the programs for violent, for the prevention of violence in youth and the whole community. So let me first of all, that was just part one. So let me first of all, that was just part one. First. First. First of all, let me thank Council Member Candelas and the whole City thank you for all your efforts, for your dedication and commitment to our children and families, their safety, and especially especially to the prevention of violence committed against our young people. First of all, let me thank Council Member Candelas and the whole City Council for inviting me to come and be able to speak, to speak to you mainly to thank you for all your efforts, for your dedication and commitment to our children and families, their safety, and especially especially to the prevention of violence committed against our young people. Thank you for supporting the programs, and we have so many programs. Thank you for supporting the programs, and we have so many programs. Thank you for holding your staff right here who are in the trenches, who works in the trenches, who works in the trenches. Thank you for supporting them. Thank trenches. Thank you for holding your staff right here who are in the City Council that you do have a covenant with the community. I think maybe sometimes it behooves us to remind the City Council that you do have a covenant with the community. You do have a mandate from years back that violence. You do have a mandate from years back that violence. Cannot be prevented by just arresting everybody. Cannot be prevented by just arresting everybody. You need a whole gamut of programs from of programs from intervention to. intervention to. You need a whole gamut Yes, enforcement, but you also need that part. Yes, enforcement, but you also need that part. That last part, that aftercare for those who make mistakes. That last part, that aftercare for those who make mistakes. That was the mandate. That was the mandate. It was the community realizing that both that both the perpetrator and the victim are all ours. ours. It was the community realizing And violence cannot be prevented by just They are all our children. They are all our children. enforcement. And violence cannot be prevented by just enforcement. Rather, I think we should remember. Or at least I remember. That a hug usually does a lot more. Than. Being. Giving corporal punishments. So I say to everyone and to the City Council today, please. Let us remember. That hate is only defeated by love and that love. That love. That love is for everyone, but especially for the children. So when you go home tonight. So when you go home tonight. Don't let the pain that's happening nowadays. Don't let the pain that's happening nowadays. Keep them out. Keep them out. Keep them out. Keep them out. Do not let the children feel the pain. Do not let the children feel the pain. Too long for want of a hug. Too long for want of a hug. Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening. Mayor, will you please present the proclamation? Mayor, will you please present the proclamation? Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Thank you for your inspiring words. Thank you for your inspiring words. I think we have a second. I think we have a second. We can give it to PRNS. Want to take it? Angel, take Olympia. Give it to Olympia. Yeah. I got you. Here first, and. Then we'll make our way down. Okay? One second, one second. Okay. One big smile. One two. Three. Three. One. Two. One. Two. One two. One two. Awesome. Awesome. And. And. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Thank you. Cora, thank you for the reminder. It's always good. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for thank you for honoring. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. So happy to see you. All right. And last but not least, council Member Mulcahy. I see you're already here. Let's recognize Spire autism. Thank you. Mayor. I just want to say how proud I am that San Jose, for the first time has say how proud I am that San Jose, for the first time, has stepped forward to recognize April as Autism Awareness Month. I will recognize my colleague Pamela Campos, who last week recognized another organization in our in our in our city, doing great work in this community. will recognize my colleague Pamela Campos, who last week recognized another So it's an honor to be here today to recognize a powerful force for good in for good in our community. Martin Slyngstad and Spire Autism. Martin Slyngstad and Spire Autism. Martin's story is one of resilience and purpose as an autistic individual individual pursuing a degree in speech pathology and graduation is just around corner. Martin's story is one of resilience and purpose as an autistic the corner. I think Martin has turned his lived experience into action, supporting through his work and his book chatterbox, he has helped many families feel seen and supported through Spire Autism. I think Martin has turned his lived experience into action, supporting others, educating communities and advocating for greater understanding through his work and his book Autism. Martin and his mother, Stella, have created something truly impactful. chatterbox, he has helped many families feel seen and supported through Spire Martin and his mother, Stella, have created something truly impactful. Their mission goes beyond awareness. Their mission goes beyond awareness. It's about acceptance, inclusion, and equipping our community with the tools to better serve individuals on the spectrum. It's about acceptance, inclusion, and equipping our community with the tools to better serve individuals on the spectrum. Whether it's training first responders creating sensory friendly spaces, or speaking with educators and families, their work is making a real difference. Whether it's training first responders creating sensory friendly spaces, or speaking with educators and families, their work is making a real difference. Awareness and Acceptance Month and expanding exclusive spaces across our Here in San Jose, we've seen that impact through efforts like observing Autism city. Here in San Jose, we've seen that impact through efforts like observing Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month and expanding exclusive spaces across our city. Their vision is clear a community where individuals with autism are embraced and supported to thrive. Their vision is clear a community where individuals with autism are embraced and supported to thrive. Autism for their leadership, their courage, and their commitment to building a more inclusive future. On behalf of the City of San Jose, I want to thank Martin, Stella and Spire Autism for their leadership, their courage, and their commitment to building a more inclusive future. Congratulations and thank you for all that you do. Congratulations and thank you for all that you do. I would like to invite Martin to say a few words, and then the mayor will present the commendations. I would like to invite Martin to say a few words, and then the mayor will present the commendations. Martin. Martin. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. Thank you. Wow. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone. First, I'd like to thank Mayor Mahan, Council Member Mulcahy and city staff. It's unbelievable. You know, I could not have done this without God by my side. Truly, I would not be standing here today without his grace. And what a month it has been. If I had to describe advocacy in one word, it would be difficult. It is a journey filled with highs and lows, with moments of hope and moments moments of doubt. Before I became an advocate, I often wondered whether people would listen or listen or hear me. But after releasing my book and receiving meaningful feedback, I knew receiving meaningful feedback, I knew this was the path I was meant to take. and the battles with self-doubt. Despite the roadblocks and the battles with self-doubt. Despite the roadblocks During my first overseas speaking engagement in Dubai, this one moment has Dubai, this one moment has stayed with me ever since. After I shared my speech, an autistic adult who speaks only by singing raised singing raised his hand. He was trying to speak regularly and was struggling. He was trying to speak regularly and was struggling. You know, you don't have to. You know, you don't have to. I told him, it's totally okay. I told him, it's totally okay. And then unexpectedly, he began to sing a song, expressing his hope that the gap parents, their children and society would be bridged. unexpectedly, he began to sing a song, expressing his hope that the gap between I was stunned, it was one of the most moving and beautiful moments I have ever I have ever experienced. Then later, while speaking to a club at UC Berkeley, one of the members came up one of the members came up to me and said they felt more comfortable sharing with peers and coworkers. Then later, while speaking to a club at UC Berkeley, about their autism with peers and coworkers. impacting others. After hearing my message, I did not realize then how After hearing my message, I did not realize then how deeply I would be deeply I would be impacting others. And now here we are. And now here we are. journey has been uplifting from Her Excellency in Dubai to former New York Mayor Eric Adams, to our very own Mayor Matt Mahan, Council member Mulcahy Senator Dave Cortese, Assembly member Ash Carla and others. As I receive a commendation from my city, meeting so many people along my journey has been our very own Mayor Matt Mahan, Council member Mulcahy Senator Dave Cortese, Assembly member Ash Carla and others. Columbus Seattle Portland New York, new Jersey and many more in the future. This is truly been a wonderful journey meeting so many others like me in This is truly been a wonderful journey meeting so many others like me in Columbus Seattle Portland New York, new Jersey and many more in the future. I look forward to continuing this work with courage and commitment for those who do not yet have a voice. I look forward to continuing this work with you. courage and commitment for those who do not yet have a voice. Thank you. Thank Together we move. Together we move. This way, we'll get the flags in the background. This way, we'll get the flags in the background. Come over here. Come over here. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. You must be so proud. You must be so proud. I am very proud. I am very proud. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, oh oh. I'm sorry. Oh, no. Oh, no. That's okay. That's okay. I think we're out of time. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. It's great to have you all here at City Hall. It's great to have you all here at City Hall. Thank you for the work you're doing. Thank you for the work you're doing. Thank you for everything. Thank you for everything. Oh, team. Oh, team. Thanks. Thanks. All right. Thank you, colleagues, for those inspiring ceremonial items. We're on to orders of the day. I don't believe there were any requested changes to the printed agenda. Just checking here. Just checking here. Seeing none, we will move on to the closed session report. Seeing none, we will move on to the closed session report. And there was. And there was. No closed session this week. No closed session this week. There we go. There we go. No closed session this week. No closed session this week. Thank you. Thank you. Susannah, let's go on to consent. Susannah, let's go on to consent. I understand Councilor Candelas would like to pull item 2.13, councilor Kamei. I understand Councilor Candelas would like to pull item 2.13, councilor Kamei. Item 2.18. Item 2.18. Are there any other requests? Are there any other requests? Okay, we'll just go in order. Okay, we'll just go in order. Council member Candelas, we'll start with. Council member Candelas, we'll start with. You. You. Thank you. Thank you. You know, I just you know, I'm really excited for this micro transit service to come to reality for our residents in East San Jose. You know, I just you know, I'm really excited for this micro transit service to come to reality for our residents in East San Jose. And, you know, Palante or shorthand for forward in Spanish is a long time coming and represents a major step towards transit, equity and opportunity in our city. And, you know, Palante or shorthand for forward in Spanish is a long time coming and represents a major step towards transit, equity and opportunity in our city. I, you know, while we've recently seen major progress on long overdue transit investments, including the regional connector project that is continuing to move along, you know, you know, there are some challenges that, you know, VTA and those of us on the council who represent the city on VTA still needs to work through. I, you know, while we've recently seen major progress on long overdue transit investments, including the regional connector project that is continuing to move along, you know, you know, there are some challenges that, you know, VTA and those of us on the council who represent the city on VTA still needs to work through. I think it's important to uplift this program as a meaningful way to enhance our family's ability to get to and from work, school, doctor's appointments, grocery stores, or what have you. I think it's important to uplift this program as a meaningful way to enhance our family's ability to get to and from work, school, doctor's appointments, grocery stores, or what have you. And, you know, that being said, I did have a couple questions for staff. And, you know, that being said, I did have a couple questions for staff. So, John, while you make make your way down here, you know, I know we don't have an official launch date for Palante yet, but when will our residents begin to know that this service is coming for for our community? So, John, while you make make your way down here, you know, I know we don't have an official launch date for Palante yet, but when will our residents begin to know that this service is coming for for our community? And what's the launch strategy? And what's the launch strategy? Thank you. Thank you. Council member John Rizzo, Director of Transportation Yes, we're excited to get this service going, too. Council member John Rizzo, Director of Transportation Yes, we're excited to get this service going, too. We've still got a lot of work after the hopefully the approval today to actually get the vendor, contractor and vehicles all set up and then do a lot of outreach. We've still got a lot of work after the hopefully the approval today to actually get the vendor, contractor and vehicles all set up and then do a lot of outreach. So we're looking at towards the end of this calendar year. So we're looking at towards the end of this calendar year. Okay, great. Okay, great. And then just I just want to make sure that the outreach plan for our residents, considering it's a, it's a limited program, it's a time limited program that we are surgical in our approach of how we're engaging our community and making sure it's multilingual, making sure that we're that staff is doing everything they can to make sure our residents know that this Microtransit service is available. And then just I just want to make sure that the outreach plan for our residents, considering it's a, it's a limited program, it's a time limited program that we are surgical in our approach of how we're engaging our community and making sure it's multilingual, making sure that we're that staff is doing everything they can to make sure our residents know that this Microtransit service is available. Thank you again. Thank you again. And yes, that's exactly what we're doing. And yes, that's exactly what we're doing. We've actually done quite a bit of work to develop this with the community. We've actually done quite a bit of work to develop this with the community. And then once we get the chance to actually start launching, we're going to be using a lot of community based organizations to help us with that, both in focus groups, outreach, their own materials that are going to be needed really to have the people know about this service and also then be able to use it. And then once we get the chance to actually start launching, we're going to be using a lot of community based organizations to help us with that, both in focus groups, outreach, their own materials that are going to be needed really to have the people know about this service and also then be able to use it. So we're looking forward to this is really a service that fills that gap between what VTA doesn't do now, used to do, but vta's funding it. So we're looking forward to this is really a service that fills that gap between what VTA doesn't do now, used to do, but vta's funding it. So we're really we're glad that we're able to get those grants for that. So we're really we're glad that we're able to get those grants for that. Right. Right. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you John. Thank you John. And then lastly, you know, making sure that we're emphasizing, underlining emphasizing you know, making it crystal clear that our outreach needs to be in Spanish, Vietnamese digital physical their hotline. And then lastly, you know, making sure that we're emphasizing underlining emphasizing, you know, making it crystal clear that our outreach needs to be in Spanish, Vietnamese digital physical their hotline. If somebody calls, I want to make sure that we are dotting the I's and crossing the T's. If somebody calls, I want to make sure that we are dotting the I's and crossing the T's. So if if absolutely. So if if absolutely. Way more than I can even describe here. Way more than I can even describe here. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And and yeah, that's all I have, mayor. And and yeah, that's all I have, mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Councilmember. Thanks, Councilmember. Councilmember Ortiz did you want to comment on the same item? Yes. Councilmember Ortiz, did you want to comment on the same item? Yes. Thank you so much, mayor. Thank you so much, mayor. Thank you, colleague, for pulling this item. Thank you, colleague for pulling this item. I want to just thank staff for bringing this forward and for the work that's gone into designing this pilot, this vision for this project began about three years ago through conversations with San Jose leaders and advocates, including former VTA chair and then County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, council member Candelas and community leaders from the Mayfair Castle Plateau Royal, Welch Park and Ocala neighborhoods. I want to just thank staff for bringing this forward and for the work that's gone into designing this pilot, this vision for this project began about three years ago through conversations with San Jose leaders and advocates, including former VTA chair and then County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, council member Candelas and community leaders from the Mayfair, Castle, Plateau Royal, Welch Park and Ocala neighborhoods. I just want to thank staff and those community leaders for bringing all this work forward and just all the effort gone in to this pilot. I just want to thank staff and those community leaders for bringing all this work forward and just all the effort gone in to this pilot. This item is about launching an on demand, community based Microtransit service in East San Jose, flexible and designed to meet people where they are. This item is about launching an on demand, community based Microtransit service in East San Jose, flexible and designed to meet people where they are. It's meant to fill the gaps in our in our existing system, especially for residents who can't easily access traditional transit or are traveling to areas that aren't well served by our current transit system. It's meant to fill the gaps in our in our existing system, especially for residents who can't easily access traditional transit or are traveling to areas that aren't well served by our current transit system. And that's exactly why projects like this one matter. And that's exactly why projects like this one matter. We know that San Jose is one of the most transit reliant parts of our city, but it's also an area that hasn't always seen the level of investment in transit infrastructure needed to meet the needs of our working families. We know that San Jose is one of the most transit reliant parts of our city, but it's also an area that hasn't always seen the level of investment in transit infrastructure needed to meet the needs of our working families. This kind of investment helps close that first and last mile gap, making it easier for seniors, workers and young people to get to their jobs, schools and essential services. This kind of investment helps close that first and last mile gap, making it easier for seniors, workers and young people to get to their jobs, schools and essential services. Now, I saw I experienced that last mile gap and lack of access to alternative transit during the Viva Cal event over the weekend where I couldn't I couldn't rent any rental bikes throughout the whole pathway. Now I saw I experienced that last mile gap and lack of access to alternative transit during the Viva Cal event over the weekend where I couldn't I couldn't rent any rental bikes throughout the whole pathway. And so I realized wow we really need to do better on the east side, making sure that we have these scooters and bikes that are available for the rest of our our residents. And so I realized, wow, we really need to do better on the east side, making sure that we have these scooters and bikes that are available for the rest of our our residents. It's also about something bigger, making sure that as we invest in transportation, we're doing it in a way that is equitable, community driven, and responsive to actual needs. It's also about something bigger, making sure that as we invest in transportation, we're doing it in a way that is equitable, community driven, and responsive to actual needs. Supportive of this pilot, I want to thank Councilmember Candelas and everyone else who worked on this, of course, our staff, for bringing this forward. Supportive of this pilot I want to thank Councilmember Candelas and everyone else who worked on this, of course, our staff, for bringing this forward. Thank you. Thank you. And do we have to move this item? And do we have to move this item? We'll take the calendar as a whole, I think. We'll take the calendar as a whole, I think. Sounds good. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate the comments and agree. Appreciate the comments and agree. This is a great innovation and glad we're investing in it with our partners at VTA. This is a great innovation and glad we're investing in it with our partners at VTA. We'll go now to item 218. We'll go now to item 218. Councilmember Kamei. Councilmember Kamei. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I want to begin by thanking Vice Mayor Foley Council Member Campos for their thoughtful partnership in bringing this resolution forward and to Councilmember Candelas for your support in recognizing the importance of this effort. I want to begin by thanking Vice Mayor Foley Council Member Campos for their thoughtful partnership in bringing this resolution forward and to Councilmember Candelas for your support in recognizing the importance of this effort. The farm worker movement is a defining part of our region's history and identity. The farm worker movement is a defining part of our region's history and identity. It was built through the collective action of workers, families and communities who organized to demand dignity, fair wages and safe working conditions. It was built through the collective action of workers families and communities who organized to demand dignity, fair wages and safe working conditions. This resolution aligns the city of San Jose with the state of California's recognition on March 31st, as Farm Workers Day, and provides an opportunity for the city to formally honor the generations of farm workers whose labor and leadership have created lasting change in our region and across the state. This resolution aligns the city of San Jose with the state of California's recognition on March 31st, as Farm Workers Day, and provides an opportunity for the city to formally honor the generations of farm workers whose labor and leadership have created lasting change in our region and across the state. By moving this resolution forward, we affirm the City of San Jose's commitment to equity, dignity and inclusion, and we take an important step in ensuring that the legacy and contributions of farm workers are recognized not just today, but as an enduring part of our shared civic history. By moving this resolution forward, we affirm the City of San Jose's commitment to equity, dignity and inclusion, and we take an important step in ensuring that the legacy and contributions of farm workers are recognized not just today, but as an enduring part of our shared civic history. Again, I want to thank my colleagues for their support and partnership on this item. Again, I want to thank my colleagues for their support and partnership on this item. I'd like to move the entire consent calendar second. I'd like to move the entire consent calendar second. Great. Great. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to thank my fellow female colleagues who coauthored this memorandum with me. I'd like to thank my fellow female colleagues who coauthored this memorandum with me. Council members Kamei and Campos. Council members Kamei and Campos. But I know that all the rest of the council members will be supportive of this item as well. But I know that all the rest of the council members will be supportive of this item as well. There's been a lot said about Cesar Chavez and the horrifying allegations that have come to light regarding his conduct, but this resolution is not about him. There's been a lot said about Cesar Chavez and the horrifying allegations that have come to light regarding his conduct, but this resolution is not about him. This resolution is about recognizing March 31st and honoring labor organizing, farmworker rights, and those who helped advance dignity for thousands of workers, women and families were foundational to this movement and played a critical role in its advancement. This resolution is about recognizing March 31st and honoring labor organizing, farmworker rights, and those who helped advance dignity for thousands of workers, women and families were foundational to this movement and played a critical role in its advancement. However, as women, my coauthors and I know that all too often the contributions of women are overlooked not only by their contemporaries but also by history. However, as women, my coauthors and I know that all too often the contributions of women are overlooked not only by their contemporaries, but also by history. This resolution seeks to right that wrong by centering the women and families of the farm workers movement, while also taking the lead of the state by renaming the Holiday to Farm Workers Day. This resolution seeks to right that wrong by centering the women and families of the farm workers movement, while also taking the lead of the state by renaming the Holiday to Farm Workers Day. Thanks, vice Mayor. Thanks vice Mayor. We'll go to Councilmember Candelas. We'll go to Councilmember Candelas. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, mayor. Thank you to my colleagues on this item. Thank you to my colleagues on this item. I had a question for the administration on a couple of weeks ago. I had a question for the administration on a couple of weeks ago. The mayor, Council member Tordillos Ortiz and Campos, I believe, and I brought forward brought forth the memo on the renaming of city facilities. The mayor Council member Tordillos Ortiz and Campos, I believe, and I brought forward brought forth the memo on the renaming of city facilities. Staff provided an update on that and see where we're at with this. Staff provided an update on that and see where we're at with this. Absolutely. Absolutely. Staff has completed the first inventory analysis of all the assets within the city with that name, PRNS City Manager's office, as well as some of the offices within the manager's office, are now coordinating on next steps around a community engagement process for the Rules Committee direction. Staff has completed the first inventory analysis of all the assets within the city with that name, PRNS City Manager's office, as well as some of the offices within the manager's office, are now coordinating on next steps around a community engagement process for the Rules Committee direction. So our hope is to release an info memo in the next few weeks outlining what that process will look like. So our hope is to release an info memo in the next few weeks outlining what that process will look like. It'll be a little bit different for some of the parks per municipal code. It'll be a little bit different for some of the parks per municipal code. And the charter park renaming has some additional steps. And the charter park renaming has some additional steps. So we are targeting the parks Commission in August, right after the holiday, right after the July recess. So we are targeting the parks Commission in August, right after the holiday, right after the July recess. And so that would be forthcoming. And so that would be forthcoming. Some of the park renaming in September to the full council. Some of the park renaming in September to the full council. Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you. I look forward to that info memo and ensure ensuring that a robust list of community partners and community engagement is specified in that. I look forward to that info memo and ensure ensuring that a robust list of community partners and community engagement is specified in that. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Great. Thanks, Council member Toni, let's vote. Thanks, Council member Toni, let's vote. Wait, I'm sorry, we haven't had public comment, have we? Wait, I'm sorry, we haven't had public comment, have we? I have no cards for this item. I have no cards for this item. We did have a motion in a second, but we did not have public comment. We did have a motion in a second, but we did not have public comment. Do we have any? Do we have any? No, we have no cards. No, we have no cards. Okay, then we can vote. Okay, then we can vote. Motion passes unanimously. Motion passes unanimously. Great. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Item 3.1 report of the City Manager. Item 3.1 report of the City Manager. Thank you very much, mayor. Thank you very much, mayor. I do have a report today. I do have a report today. As we all may know, April is earthquake Preparedness Month is an important reminder for all of us in San Jose as our city sits on or near several active fault lines, including the San Andreas, Hayward and Calaveras faults. As we all may know, April is earthquake Preparedness Month is an important reminder for all of us in San Jose as our city sits on or near several active fault lines, including the San Andreas, Hayward and Calaveras faults. One of the many responsibilities of the Public Safety City Service area is to build resilient communities that are ready to respond to emergencies. One of the many responsibilities of the Public Safety City Service area is to build resilient communities that are ready to respond to emergencies. The City Manager's Office of Emergency Management plays a key role in keeping San Jose safe, prepared and ready every day through ongoing efforts. The City Manager's Office of Emergency Management plays a key role in keeping San Jose safe, prepared and ready every day through ongoing efforts. That office provides clear and practical preparedness education to help residents get ready for emergencies like earthquakes and fires. That office provides clear and practical preparedness education to help residents get ready for emergencies like earthquakes and fires. At the same time, the team continues to strengthen partnerships across city departments and regional partner agencies to ensure a coordinated response when it matters most, with an emphasis on our most vulnerable communities, we know that preparing for emergencies takes our whole community. At the same time the team continues to strengthen partnerships across city departments and regional partner agencies to ensure a coordinated response when it matters most, with an emphasis on our most vulnerable communities, we know that preparing for emergencies takes our whole community. That is why, for the month of April, the city manager's Office of Communications launched a campaign to provide residents and businesses with practical tips to prepare for an earthquake. That is why, for the month of April, the city manager's Office of Communications launched a campaign to provide residents and businesses with practical tips to prepare for an earthquake. Last year's earthquake campaign successfully increased sign ups to alert SEC by over 3% in under registered neighborhoods of San Jose. Last year's earthquake campaign successfully increased sign ups to alert SEC by over 3% in under registered neighborhoods of San Jose. Thus, we are employing similar tactics this year, including a social media series titled 30 tips in 30 days. Thus, we are employing similar tactics this year, including a social media series titled 30 tips in 30 days. We encourage you to reshare these posts across your platforms to help expand their reach. We encourage you to reshare these posts across your platforms to help expand their reach. A multilingual brochure was also mailed to four zip codes 951119511695117 and 95122. A multilingual brochure was also mailed to four zip codes 951119511695117 and 95122. With registration rates of less than 5%. With registration rates of less than 5%. For alert sec. For alert sec. The brochure will also be distributed at outreach events such as Viva K. The brochure will also be distributed at outreach events such as Viva K. We just had Viva Escala and Music in the park in San Jose. We just had Viva Escala and Music in the park in San Jose. Earthquake preparedness is an integral part of our comprehensive emergency planning efforts. Earthquake preparedness is an integral part of our comprehensive emergency planning efforts. As we prepare for major events that bring visitors and economic activity to our city, we also strengthen how we coordinate across agencies and focus on reducing risks. As we prepare for major events that bring visitors and economic activity to our city, we also strengthen how we coordinate across agencies and focus on reducing risks. These efforts help ensure we are ready to respond no matter what the situation. These efforts help ensure we are ready to respond no matter what the situation. Building on lessons learned from past major events like the Super Bowl and March Madness, the Office of Emergency Management has led an after action reviews with city staff and regional partners to improve coordination, strengthen communication and refine emergency response plans. Building on lessons learned from past major events like the Super Bowl and March Madness, the Office of Emergency Management has led an after action reviews with city staff and regional partners to improve coordination, strengthen communication and refine emergency response plans. This work is already shaping how the city prepares for the FIFA World Cup and the variety of Fan Fest events scheduled to take place around match days. This work is already shaping how the city prepares for the FIFA World Cup and the variety of Fan Fest events scheduled to take place around match days. We are actively working with the City of Santa Clara and the County of Santa Clara to enhance regional coordination and deliver timely, proactive emergency messaging for both residents and visitors. We are actively working with the City of Santa Clara and the County of Santa Clara to enhance regional coordination and deliver timely, proactive emergency messaging for both residents and visitors. I would like to thank Ray Reardon, director of the City Manager's Office of Emergency Management, and Karolina Camarena, director of the City Manager's Office communications, along with their teams, their leadership helps prepare our staff, residents and businesses for emergencies. I would like to thank Ray Reardon, director of the City Manager's Office of Emergency Management and Karolina Camarena, director of the City Manager's Office communications along with their teams, their leadership helps prepare our staff, residents and businesses for emergencies. I truly believe that when we work together we build a stronger, more resilient San Jose. I truly believe that when we work together, we build a stronger, more resilient San Jose. But before I finish, I want to extend a special congratulations today to our own Ray Reardon. But before I finish, I want to extend a special congratulations today to our own Ray Reardon. We just learned he is receiving the California Emergency Services Association's President's Award in recognition of his strong leadership and commitment to advancing emergency management through his work as a chair of the association's legislative Affairs committee. We just learned he is receiving the California Emergency Services Association's President's Award in recognition of his strong leadership and commitment to advancing emergency management through his work as a chair of the association's legislative Affairs committee. I want you all to know that 2026 marks 40 years for Ray in this profession, and he's contributed so much to not only San Jose, but the emergency management community at large. I want you all to know that 2026 marks 40 years for Ray in this profession, and he's contributed so much to not only San Jose, but the emergency management community at large. Thank you again, Ray, would you please stand so we can give you some applause for that? Thank you again, Ray, would you please stand so we can give you some applause for that? And that. And that. Concludes my report. Concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor and City Council. Mayor and City Council. Thank you Jennifer. Thank you Jennifer. Thank you Ray. Thank you Ray. We will go on to item 3.3 review of the Retirement plans pension and Post-employment health Care plan. We will go on to item 3.3 review of the Retirement plans pension and Post- employment health Care plan. Actuarial valuations as of June 30th 2025. Actuarial valuations as of June 30th, 2025. We have a staff presentation. We have a staff presentation. The last part. The last part. Good afternoon, mayor, city. Good afternoon, mayor, city. Council members. Council members. John Flynn, director of Retirement Services. John Flynn, director of Retirement Services. With me today is Bill hallmark, the retirement board's actuarial consultant from Chiron. With me today is Bill hallmark the retirement board's actuarial consultant from Chiron. The actual report's before you today cover the pension and post- employment benefits or Opeb plans. The actual report's before you today cover the pension and post- employment benefits or Opeb plans. As of June 30th, 2025, these reports were prepared by the board's actuarial consultant, Chiron and were developed in accordance with generally accepted actuarial principles and practices consistent with the Code of Professional Conduct and the applicable actuarial standards of practice. As of June 30th, 2025, these reports were prepared by the board's actuarial consultant, Chiron and were developed in accordance with generally accepted actuarial principles and practices consistent with the Code of Professional Conduct and the applicable actuarial standards of practice. The funded ratio on the actuarial value basis increased for both retirement systems. The funded ratio on the actuarial value basis increased for both retirement systems. The improvement was driven primarily by growth in the actuarial value of assets that increased reflects the asset smoothing methodology, where the investment gains are recognized over five years. The improvement was driven primarily by growth in the actuarial value of assets that increased reflects the asset smoothing methodology, where the investment gains are recognized over five years. While actuarial liabilities also increased, the actual. While actuarial liabilities also increased, the actual. The asset values increased at a greater rate, which resulted in improved funded ratios for both plans, the chart shows. The asset values increased at a greater rate, which resulted in improved funded ratios for both plans, the chart shows. In total, pension assets were approximately $8.76 billion, with about 2.91 billion in unfunded actuarial liability for combined pension funded ratio of 75.1%, which is three percentage points higher about 2.91 billion in unfunded actuarial liability for combined pension funded ratio of 75.1%, which is three percentage points higher than last year. For Opeb, the funded ratio shown is 55.2%. For Opeb, the funded ratio shown is 55.2%. And I'd like to note that the Opeb figures relate only to the explicit subsidy. And I'd like to note that the Opeb figures relate only to the explicit subsidy. This is 2.7 percentage points higher than last year. This is 2.7 percentage points higher than last year. Total annual contributions across all stakeholders increased to $632.1 million. Total annual contributions across all stakeholders increased to $632.1 million. The largest component is the city's contribution towards the >> Captions by Wordly.ai << We created a cross-departmental data center development team with staff from Economic Development. We created a cross-departmental data center development team with staff from planning building fire public works, energy, water supply and the Office of Economic Development. This team oversees large energy projects in the city's development pipeline. This team oversees large energy projects in the city's development pipeline. large energy projects. We also added two positions to work with developers and We also added two positions to work with developers and facilitate permitting for facilitate permitting for large energy projects. regularly with developers to maintain a coordinated, city wide approach. The The team tracks projects from early planning through construction, and meets team tracks projects from early planning through construction, and meets regularly with developers to maintain a coordinated, city wide approach. To reiterate, all of these projects will be considered individually through their entitlement and permitting processes, which include public hearings. reiterate, all of these projects will be considered individually through their While there is special attention on facilitating these projects, they are attention on facilitating these projects, they are not being expedited or skipping steps in the process. Under the implementation agreement, city staff meet with PG&E every two weeks to meet with PG&E every two weeks to review substation upgrades, transmission energization timelines. Under the implementation agreement, city staff planning and project specific energization timelines. better align city permitting and development timelines with PG&E ease. This coordination helps reduce uncertainty, identify risks earlier and This coordination helps reduce uncertainty, identify risks earlier and better align city permitting and development timelines with PG&E ease. Planning and construction schedule. Planning and construction schedule. The team also monitors PG&E performance each quarter. The team also monitors PG&E performance each quarter. Projects are formally scored against the milestones established in the agreement. Projects are formally scored against the milestones established in the agreement. As of today, two projects have been energized and the remaining ten projects energized and the remaining ten projects are slated to be energized by 2030. In addition to these 12, there is interest from developers in adding interest from developers in adding another six projects to the agreement. As the city continues to improve infrastructure readiness and attract concerns associated with data centers. As the city continues to improve infrastructure readiness and attract large energy users, it is important to be clear about both the benefits and concerns associated with data centers. Large data centers represent a significant fiscal opportunity for San amounts of electricity, they generate stable, predictable revenue that supports the general fund. Large data centers represent a significant fiscal opportunity for San Jose, particularly through property and utility tax, because they consume large amounts of electricity, they generate stable, predictable revenue that supports the general fund. generate roughly 3 to $7 million annually in revenue for city services. For example, a 50 to 99 megawatt data center, once fully ramped up could For example, a 50 to 99 megawatt data center, once fully ramped up could generate roughly 3 to $7 million annually in revenue for city services. Unlike many other forms of development, data centers add little traffic and require limited, ongoing public services. Unlike many other forms of development, data centers add little traffic and require limited ongoing public services. Once operational. Once operational. Keeping these projects in San Jose allows the city to capture more of the city to capture more of the financial benefit of the digital economy while infrastructure investments. Keeping these projects in San Jose allows the building on existing infrastructure investments. process. I'll turn it over to Chris Burton to speak about our environmental I'll turn it over to Chris Burton to speak about our environmental review review process. Thanks, Erica. Thanks Erica. environmental review in conjunction with CEQA as part of the city's permitting process. As with any private development project, data centers go through a thorough environmental review in conjunction with CEQA as part of the city's permitting process. Separately, the backup generators often associated with these projects are also projects are also subject to Bay Area Air District permitting, and the that they impose. Separately, the backup generators often associated with these operating limits that they impose. Through our process, we look at our project's full environmental footprint, infrastructure to identify and disclose any potential impacts for each of these projects. Through our process, we look at our project's full environmental hazards, noise and infrastructure to identify and disclose any potential footprint, including air quality, greenhouse gas emissions utilities impacts for each of these projects. That review is supported by a detailed technical studies that are completed by consultants, typically on things like air quality, energy use, and noise. That review is supported by a detailed technical studies that are completed by consultants, typically on things like air quality, energy use, and noise. It's important to note that as a project passes a threshold of 50MW, that the environmental review then shifts to the California Energy Commission. It's important to note that as a project passes a threshold of 50MW, that the environmental review then shifts to the California Energy Commission. But the city remains aware of, and a participant in that process as they move through. But the city remains aware of, and a participant in that process as they move through. And then we will often tear off of that environmental clearance as we do our own land use approvals. And then we will often tear off of that environmental clearance as we do our own land use approvals. With that, I'll pass it back. With that, I'll pass it back. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Continuing with the environmental theme, water supply on the table on the right assessment. Continuing with the environmental theme, water supply on the phase is required to do not only the environmental review, but a water supply table on the right list, the thresholds for when a data center and coming through the planning phase is required to do not only the environmental review, but a water supply assessment. The water supply assessment will identify how much water is intended to be used and where that water is going to come from. The water supply assessment will identify how much water is intended to be used and where that water is going to come from. We have two types of water supply here. We have two types of water supply here. Primarily one is recycled water, the other is potable. Primarily one is recycled water, the other is potable. There's a strong interest in the data center development community to utilize recycled water when it's available. There's a strong interest in the data center development community to utilize recycled water when it's available. It's their primary source of water supply that we've seen so far. It's their primary source of water supply that we've seen so far. With potable water being a backup or the only option if they're too far away from With potable water being a backup or the only option if they're too far away from water supply perspective, most of the water comes from our groundwater table. water supply perspective, most of the water comes from our groundwater table. the recycled water system, potable water supplies here are very healthy from a Of all the data centers that we have lined up in development now, or the planning phase now, they'll account for less than 3% of our total San Jose water usage. Of all the data centers that we have lined up in development now, or the planning phase now, they'll account for less than 3% of our total San Jose water usage. So very small. So very small. water they're going to use at any moment in time. The bigger concern is and The bigger concern is and challenge as we work with data centers, is how much at any moment in time. If there's an impact on the neighbors around them. If challenge as we work with data centers, is how much water they're going to use there's an impact on the neighbors around them. So we work with the data centers, data center developers in the very early wells. So we work with the data centers, data center developers in the very early larger pipelines, bigger reservoirs, onsite storage, on site groundwater larger pipelines, bigger reservoirs, onsite storage, on site groundwater phases of planning to identify improvements in water systems such as ensure that they have the water supply that they need, at the same time that wells. Then we provide a range of options that they can invest in to options that they can invest in to ensure that they have the water supply they're not impacting the neighbors around. Then we provide a range of that they need, at the same time that they're not impacting the neighbors around. Them. Them. Okay. Okay. about our proposed electric rule 30. We filed this with the commission. We I wanted to talk about our proposed electric rule 30. I wanted to talk filed this with the commission. This is the California Public Utilities Commission on November 24th, 2024. This is the California Public Utilities Commission on November 24th 2024. And the reason we did that is typically utilities have distribution rules, customer needs to make. And the reason we did that is typically utilities have distribution rules, essentially that dictate what the cost differences are, what types of upgrades customer needs to make. up to 20MW, sometimes more off of distribution. But typically they don't But typically they don't have a transmission one, because you can serve have a transmission one, because you can serve up to 20MW, sometimes more off of distribution. And we started seeing so many large data centers and as well as EVs, some transmission. And we started seeing so many large data centers and as well as EVs, some manufacturing and healthcare biomedical industries wanting to connect at transmission. lot of discussion, negotiations that were taking a long time and was slowing taking a long time and was slowing down the process. And that necessitated a interconnected entities. So we filed what we put together as a rule for down the process. So we filed what we put together as a rule for transmission This is not for data centers alone. transmission interconnected entities. This is not for data centers alone. This is for anyone who wants to connect to PG&E transmission system. This is for anyone who wants to connect to PG&E transmission system. And we put in some cost constraints in rule 30 that lays out what customers are that lays out what customers are responsible for, what we're responsible charges would be levied on them. And we put in some cost constraints in rule 30 for, what types of minimum demand charges would be levied on them. And I wanted to walk through this slide. And I wanted to walk through this slide. We have four types of upgrades on our system. We have four types of upgrades on our system. one is where you connect the customer, the individual customer. Type one is where you connect the customer, the individual customer. Type It's the line connecting the customer from their substation to a PG&E asset, connecting the customer from their substation to a PG&E asset, which could be a substation, or it could be a switching station. Type two are the upgrades we need to make to either a switching station or switching station or the substation? A substation typically knocks power up or down a switching stations, like a knocks power up or down a switching stations, like a protection system cut off power in case there's something that goes wrong. A substation typically that'll open up a switch like it does in your house and cut off power in case there's something that goes wrong. And then a type three is connecting that switching station or substation to the station or substation to the broader network transmission. So the Caiso system, the California Independent System operator is Caiso system, the California Independent System operator, is connected throughout California and then outside of California as well. So that's the broader system that that type three connects the customer to. And what we did in rule 30 is we said the individual customer that wants to would be refunded once they come online and generate revenue. And what we did in rule 30 is we said the individual customer that wants to connect to the grid should pay upfront for types one, two, and three, and they would be would like 100MW. And so, for example, if a data center says, hey, I want to be And so, for example, if a data center says, hey, I want to be a, you know, I a, you know, I would like 100MW. So we do the upgrades, they pay for them and they only ever get up to 20MW and do not generate enough revenue to cover the costs. We would not refund them, which means it would never go into customers rates. So it's a cost protection mechanism that we have in there for type four upgrades. This is the broader network we think PG&E as a whole should upfront fund those. And that should go into rates because that benefits all entities that are connected to the Kaiso grid. We also added some additional protections, including a 15 year minimum contract fee, exit fees, if someone were to cancel their project and move out of state, as well as a minimum demand charge of 75%. So if your data center and you say, I want to or EV or anything else, and you say you want to be online and you want to, you know, you want 30MW, you need to pay at least a minimum demand charge, equivalent to 75% of that 30MW. the costs are recovered appropriately. Back to you, Erika. Thank you. Karen. Zooming out, we wanted to tell you about some of the major transmission upgrades that are planned between 2028 and 2034, building out more than 2000MW of planned regional capacity, first, as as Karen mentioned, Kaiso is the California Independent System Operator. They are a state agency that oversees the state's electric transmission grid. I want to give a bit of an analogy here to help. So you can think of the transmission grid as freeways. They have lots of lanes to move, lots of electrons all over the state. These transmission lanes can compare to the smaller distribution lines that PG&E maintains in your neighborhood. You can think of those as like the residential roads that are bringing the electrons to your doorstep. So. So back to the map here. The yellow lines that you see here are two kaizo projects that are expected to begin construction this summer and will be in service in 2028. These are being built by LS power. There are two additional high voltage lines planned. The one in blue at the top will connect the two yellow transmission lines, and that one will come online in 2030. Time frame. We recently learned that this project has been awarded to LS Power to Build, and then a fourth line is slated to come from Central Valley into South San Jose around 2034. This Metcalf to Manning project is also expected to improve access to renewable energy from the Central Valley. Overall, this reflects a significant regional grid expansion that can help support future electrification growth in San Jose. The March 2025 Council action and the subsequent implementation agreement with PG&E created a more structured and accountable framework for advancing electric infrastructure delivery in San Jose. That framework is intended to support large scale development, protect the city's fiscal interests, and hold PG&E accountable for performance. This partnership is especially important given San Jose's strategic position in the regional transmission grid. Large energy customers can generate significant city revenue, and when data centers are built in San Jose, they are generally built and operated more cleanly than in other states. I also want to note that the city is actively tracking proposed state legislation related to data centers and potential impacts on development energy use and local policy considerations. I will turn it back to Manuel to close. Yeah, just excuse me. Just wanted to do a few closing comments. And first, I do want to acknowledge we received a lot of public comment on on this informational update. And when I emphasize once again, and I know the team has already that today we're not approving any projects, any future projects will have to go through the appropriate CEQA appropriate outreach and everything else that's required as part of that. Before I go, I do want to note two things that over the last year, the team and the team includes people in this table, but as well as many other people have been working really, really hard to really get us to this point today where we are developing this infrastructure that's going to create and give some of that so many opportunities. And I really just want to acknowledge, because it's been nonstop effort from our end and working with PG&E, as well as our regional partners to get to this point. You know, I was just talking to Chris before this meeting and as we're looking at San Jose, I think, Chris, you've been there for about 25 years. I've been around for about 29 years. There's some opportunities here for San Jose that we haven't seen in the past to be competitive with our neighbors in a way that maybe we weren't as competitive for manufacturing, commercial, industrial development. That's pretty exciting. It's not just about data centers. It's about every possible development opportunities that we can fit into our in the city. That makes sense. That's going to work. That's going to go through the process and figure out how all those pieces fit together. But the work that's been that's been happening is giving us that opportunity. And like I said, be more competitive than I think we ever been in the past. Thank you. Great. Thank you for the status report and all of the progress. And I agree, it's exciting that we're in a position to compete for economic development and jobs and tax base in a way that we have not always been. Toni, I understand we have comment cards. Why don't we move now to public comment? Okay. Rosemarie Grantham okay, let me start. Sorry, it's been a while. I'm going to call about five names to start. You're going to line up first person to the microphone. Start speaking. You do not have to speak in the order that you're called. So I'm going to start with Rosemarie Grantham. Chad Johnston, Lisa Charpentier, Manny Bacchelli and F Li. Again, you come down in no particular order. Hi folks. We don't want more data centers like these companies. They'll say like, oh, the cooling system is, you know, we're only going to use recycled water. You know, when available, that when available is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Y'all don't have a guarantee that you can that you can absolutely use required, like recycled water over the potable water that we all need, right? I mean, this is California. We are known for having droughts. Water is a precious resource. So and yeah, and of course, you got these expensive facilities that have expensive cooling systems and you're not going to want to put water with impurities in those expensive systems to cool the data centers. You're going to need clean, pure potable water. So also, I mean, let's face it, we're in a time where we're in the beginning stages of an energy crisis due to the president's illegal war in Iran. We're already paying like what, like five, $5 a gallon for gas, at least at this point. And we know that data centers in other parts of the country have dramatically increased the costs of utilities for normal, everyday people. And that that always that always hits hardest on folks that have the least amount of power and the least amount of resources. So. We also know that frequently these data centers will result in polluting our resources. And, you know, item 1.1 was about recognizing Earth Day. Feels feels pretty weird. We already have 23 Superfund sites within the borders of Santa Clara County. Thank you. That's your time. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is Lisa Charpentier, and I'm a district three resident and a member of the California Donut Economics Coalition. And Mothers Out Front. And I wanted to thank you for the status report, but I think that it's very important that while you are giving this information in this report to our council members and to the city, it's hugely important to involve the community as well, because the community has grave concerns about this, and this is going to affect our quality of life in a large way. And before we can be prepared to go ahead with moving forward with data centers, we need to develop a process by which we can find them acceptable and not just acceptable to bringing in money to the city, but acceptable to the residents quality of life. It's so important because this is going against if it's done wrong, it's going against our climate goals. It can be polluting to our water, it can increase the temperature in our cities. It can increase the noise in our cities. And it also takes resources that could go to other, other companies or other ways to bring in money and good jobs and good ways to bring in money into the discussion in a large way. Not everybody can come down here when they're working and be able to give their comments. And so we need to be able to do that, prepare ahead of time, and we be the community, be the ones driving this communication, this conversation not the, the those who want to build the data centers. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. I'd also like to call D Houston Dash Leeds and Frank Austin to come on down. And I'm a high school student from district three and co-lead of Silicon Valley Youth Climate Actions, San Jose team data centers are not an exception. They, like every other development, should be a net benefit to our city. And unless serious reforms are made, they seem like they very well may not be. If they raise households electricity bills, as they already have in other parts of the country, they do not support our residents. If they increase our reliance on electricity from polluting and increasingly expensive fossil fuels, they do not improve our city. And if they destroy bayland habitats that are crucial not only to the survival of endangered species, but also to our resilience in the face of rising sea levels, they do not help San Jose, and if the diesel generators or other infrastructure add dangerous air pollution to already overburdened neighborhoods, they do not serve our communities. Please take all available steps to ensure that all new data centers pay their way fully, and do not raise utility bills in any way. Do not increase our burning of fossil fuels. Do not pave over sensitive habitats, do not pollute our air. We must learn from the long history of environmental injustice. Communities must have full transparency, outreach and debate about these projects, with the potential to significantly impact our city. It is far, far more important that technological developments in our city happen well than that they happen quickly. When we need to slow down, we may need to slow down a bit to make sure we get this right. So let's do it. We can see around us that the nation, around the nation, that communities of all political stripes are waking up to the dangers of reckless data center development. Please listen to the public and make sure that these concerns are addressed before moving forward. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Next speaker. Sorry testing. Hello, my name is F Li. I am a resident of San Jose and everyone has made pretty good points. And I would like to reiterate that tomorrow is Earth Day and we only have one planet. We have just witnessed the success of NASA's Artemis mission, and we are learning more than ever how important it is to take things more slowly. I understand as humans, we are very conscious of our lifespans and we want to do things quickly. We want to be the economic powerhouse. But if we do not set the example for the people, then others who might want to follow our footsteps might go downward rather than upward. If we do not learn to work with what we have here, with nation, with start with nature, then if we just keep building on top of it, then how are we going to deconstruct that more funds will going will be going towards that. And I wonder if the funds that are going towards this kind of construction could go towards somewhere else first, if we could take the time to consider social services and other other services that. I'm sorry, I believe everyone has made a good point and I think I will end it here, but thank you for your time. Thank you for putting together the presentation. I know that's you know, that's so stressful. And thank you to everyone else in the audience for coming out here to speak on this topic. Thank you. Thank you. Next, speaker, I would like to remind, for those of you who aren't used to coming to our meetings, that we ask you not to applause. So you guys make sure you can hear me call other names and you can hear people speak. We do suggest if you would like to show your support, you do it in a visible way. We like jazz hands. You could go thumbs up some other visible way to show support rather than a noisy way so we can make sure we hear what people are saying and people can hear their names called thank. You. Good afternoon, Mayor Mahan and council members. My name is Frank Austin. I'm the assistant business manager for é local 393. We represent over 3100 members of the plumbing, Pipefitting and Hvac industries. Many of our members and their families live right here in San Jose. I'm here to speak in support of the status report and commend the city's efforts to create the infrastructure needed to generate data center and other large energy development here in the great city of San Jose. Not only do these customers and the projects that go along with them generate significant general fund revenue for the city, they also create high quality construction and permanent jobs, while typically requiring fewer ongoing city services than the revenue they create. It should be understood that the need for data centers is not going to go away anytime soon, and I would like to applaud the vision of Mayor Mahan and the City Council to recognize the importance of doing everything that they can to ensure that those projects are able to be built right here in our community, ensuring that San Jose stays at the forefront of the economic and even global development. And Santa Clara, we built close to over a dozen data centers without major incident of workers or residents. Those were all built with skilled and trained workers. They were not only built, but they were also designed by our contractors. In- House engineering for mechanical, electrical and fire sprinklers. Our contractors build what they design and these designs have been used across the country. Today, I ask that you support us and accept the status report as delivered. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. I'd also like to call Edmundo Escarcega. Brian, pause and Oliver to come on down. Go ahead. Well. I I'm just wondering how this large amount of data is going to affect humanity. I'm wondering if you take that into consideration and I've got the opportunity to vote for the mayor and vice mayor, and I appreciate all your work here. I've lived in San Jose for generations, and as a child I would play in the creeks and the cherry orchards, and my parents would pick fruit during the summer. And slowly but surely, our natural environment has been taken away from us. And now I have a small backyard garden that on some days I'm not even allowed to water because of the drought. And so I'm trying to comprehend why we would give all our precious water that means life to us, To. Data centers. Okay. And as we stand together on Earth Day, I hope that you find it in your conscience. Because I have seen big corporations move here in the past and pollute our groundwater and then leave the mess for us to clean up. So I hope that you're considering the cleanup that these data centers will leave us with. And I've seen the list of chemicals they use in the process of their huge computers, including the PFAs, the never ending chemicals. I'm very concerned about that. Getting into our groundwater. So I want to thank you all for your work. And please protect your community. This will be your legacy of the future. And I know a lot of communities are standing. Thank you. That's your time. Next speaker. Hello, my name is Dasha leads. I'm a D3 resident and conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club Loma Prieta chapter. You have not given San Jose residents a seat at the table. Where is the voice for community engagement on this council? San Jose should pause its plans to ensure that residents have the right to community engagement. About all 34 data center plans in your development pipeline. Go out into the neighborhoods that are going to be affected and conduct extensive multilingual outreach first. These council meetings are not accessible for working people. Alviso residents have not been meaningfully engaged, and yet you've already authorized the city manager to negotiate and execute a development agreement to build data centers and open space near the community. You continue with your plans. Meanwhile, PG&E is paying you to do extensive outreach with the data center companies. The public never saw the final agreement with PG&E until it was executed in private. Disclose the environmental, public health and financial risks and give residents the opportunity to shape the decisions that affect them. Our communities deserve the right to know, and we deserve the right to say no. I ask again, where is the voice for community engagement on this council? Thank you. Next speaker. I'd also like to call Shaun Alexander Noffsinger Serena and Mailline. Come on down. Hello. My name is Oliver. I was born in this county, and the health and well-being of everyone who lives here is important to me. The first thing I want to say is that I think it's important to make clear exactly what these AI data centers even are. A traditional data center is called upon when you do something like a Google search, and AI data center consumes anywhere up to 15 times as much energy as that. What we're really talking about here is a network of AI supercomputers. There is no end in sight to the foreseeable energy consumption. These projects will demand, and the system of carbon credits and water credits is supposed to offset the energy consumption by paying off other companies that consume less. Members of the council. Would it be fair if I were to pollute in your own backyards and then pay somebody in a separate county to clean up their backyard? And if that doesn't sound fair to you, then why would you treat us, the people of the city, the same way? Some of us may want these companies to build here, and I think many of us do not. But none of us need these companies to build here. So I would remind the council not to forget what the people of the city actually need. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. Thank you for your time and for your attention today. My name is Mundo Escarcega. I'm a lifelong resident of San Jose. Thank you. I've worked here and in the surrounding areas for my entire life, and much of my family still lives here and works here too. I'm here to ask each of you to join me and support the present and future workforce of our city. Growing up here, I've watched how San Jose has grown and continues to evolve into the great city that it is today. But as we all know, the cost of gas and consumables is way up with the electricity more than doubling in just the last few years. Having data centers will increase access to more affordable electricity and stimulate our economy. I ask that you support our community with which the. With the much needed increase of electricity and the building of data centers in San Jose. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi. Good afternoon, Mayor and council. My name is Brian Powers and I am also with UA local 393, representing over 3100 plumbers, pipe fitters, welders and Hvac service technicians who are our local. And I'm very proud of my skilled and trained status and the 10,000 hours I spent during my apprenticeship ensure that these get built safely and protect this community. And I am honored to take that training into the future and continue to build these safe, safely. And being born and raised in San Jose and raising a family here, this is very important to me, both as far as safety and as far as progress. So I look, we've been building and maintaining these for decades, and we look forward to decades more. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker. The implementation of these AI data centers in San Jose is an immoral and irresponsible undertaking. It's helping those who don't who need it's helping those who need it the least and hurting those who are most. Most in need. You want A3X. Our city's energy consumption siphon millions of gallons of precious water. Use our land and our money to create these clamorous facilities that fuel artificial intelligence. The same AI that's being used by Ice to kidnap US citizens, the same AI that's being used to spy on American people, and the same AI that's being used to commit genocide in the Middle East. Over the past several years, we've witnessed the testimony of those who live by AI data centers in America their health, air, water, and soil were all negatively impacted. Matt, you're from Watsonville, where the families are dealing with chronic disease and health issues due to mass use of pesticides and other poisonous additives. Additives of food. One would think that a mayor from that background wouldn't be enthusiastic about poisoning the air, soil and water of the city. He serves. The people of San Jose believe that family comes first. We don't want these AI data centers poisoning our water, poisoning our air misusing misusing and poisoning our water, and raising the price of our electric bill. We won't pay for these facilities that are displacing us and taking our jobs. You all need to venture to the depths of your hearts and make the right decision. Thank you. Next speaker, I'd also like to call Ziggy, Joe and Isaac. Come on down. Good afternoon everyone. I'm a student here in San Jose from just a few roads down. My concern with the building of data centers is the environmental impacts that it will have, including a potential decreased access to potable water and the release of pollutants into the air. Air quality is one of my main concerns as a native Californian. During wildfire season, the air quality already drops due to smoke from wildfires, an increase of pollutants in the air released by data centers will only add fuel to this metaphorical fire, according to time magazine. Data. Centers in Memphis, Tennessee, have already caused a significant decrease in air quality, with the average concentration of nitrogen dioxide in the air increasing by 3%. The city currently claims that recycled water will also be prioritized in these data centers. When does the option of recycled water become obsolete? How will noncompliance be acted on accordingly? After all, California is already a drought prone state. Potable water will become less available for the living and breathing residents of San Jose. When large data centers turn to freshwater. When decisions like this will affect the well-being of all residents of the city, the impact should be more well studied. In California, we already facing a housing crisis, a weak job market and the prices of everything has already gone up. I feel like these resources to build these data centers could be redirected elsewhere. I want to be certain that I can continue to grow up here in San Jose, where my access to fresh water and clean air is not affected. I understand that San Jose is a city of technological advancement, but it should not be at the cost of our collective health. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello, my name is Serena. I'm a resident of district six and a biologist and a volunteer in the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance Environmental Action Committee. I wanted to talk about the impact to wildlife and the environment from the data centers, the location of the potential data center at Alviso is directly next to one of the last remaining populations for the Western burrowing owl, and they've nearly been extirpated from the Bay area by development of their habitat. Through the work of many partners and volunteers, including myself, we have supported this population from a low of ten owls to now over 100, and the council has demonstrated the importance of protecting wildlife by conserving Coyote Valley and Co-locating, the low power, high voltage converter directly next to the Metcalf Station. So there's precedent and the. This data center will. In Alviso and all these 36 other ones that I didn't know about will directly endanger the owls. And the success that we have made in supporting and rehabilitating this population. Also, Alviso is at sea level and our restoration site literally floods every year, according to projections of sea level rise. For a high warming scenario, we have 6.6ft of sea level rise by 2100, and my nephew is probably going to be alive during that time. And this area where many of these data centers north of 237 will regularly flood. So our shoreline can either protect humans and the habitat from rising seas and increase flooding, or it can be a mall. So I ask the council to pause any plans and invoke a moratorium on data centers until the full impacts of the environment and the community. And San Jose ratepayers are fully disclosed. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. My name is Alexander. I study digital media art at San Jose State University. I'm additionally a member of the San Jose Students for a Democratic Society, San Jose State branch. I appreciate the update to the PG&E from PG&E on large scale power users, and I additionally appreciate the city's consideration of water usage power usage, air noise, and heat pollution. Evidently, public outcry is high for these data center constructions and opinion is divided. My main concern is that tech and power companies have proven over and over that they confront the cost of fines and settlements for disregarding regulations as a cost of business, and continue functioning the same way environmental protections are useless. If this is the case, I'd urge the city to consider a comprehensive and cumulative study on their environmental impact and their effect on San Jose water systems, or the framework for repeated studies on the health of nearby residents during their potential construction and operation, with the goal to adequately hold the companies that operate these centers accountable. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next, speaker Sandy Perry and Tiffany T, come on down. Hello, my name is Isaac. I live in district two. My notes are a bit rough right now because I only learned about this last night through Instagram. This information has not been sufficiently conveyed to the public. We have a severe lack of studies on the environmental impact that is going to be affecting our communities by these data centers. However, we do know that cities like Memphis, Tennessee have experienced increased asthma rates in the youth living near these data centers. We also know that. There's been also documentation that run off from these data centers affect drinkable water, and people in their houses cannot use their drinkable water. They have to buy water from the store. Let's see. Mentioned today, you said that there was a limited. Once the once the data centers were made operational, there would be limited or limited public services required to maintain operations. There is no promise there for sustainable employment, especially given the pattern of downsizing that we have seen across so many industries. I do not want our potable water, our drinkable water, to be even considered for the use of a machine when we are still in a water shortage in California. I also do want to thank some of our council members, including Campos and Ortiz, who have spoken out against these data centers, and I hope that other council members will also do the same. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello. I do have to admit, although I've done a lot of public speaking, my heart is pounding and I am shaky. And it's not because I'm scared. It's because I'm terrified that you will not hear what we have to say. And for that reason, I want you all to look at me when I'm speaking and not down at your phones or talking to each other. I want you to listen to us. I'm a recent graduate of San Jose State. I was born and raised here in San Jose, and I work at a local high school. I work with the youth, and I just want to tell you what the youth is talking about right now. The youth does not trust you. Their youth does not trust in their future because they see that you're putting money over their needs. They joke about the water wars coming in the future. We've seen how data centers have affected the water in other communities. Sir, can you please look up at me when I'm speaking? Because this might be just another meeting to you, but this is our youth's future that we are talking about. I don't really mind if San Jose can make more money, but if we're going to value competitiveness over the drinking water of our future, I think that's absolutely ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous how we can all sit here and not everybody can attend, because we have to go to our jobs. I heard people online saying, I want to be there. There's no online commentary for this hearing, and I understand, but you need to center the the future for the children. They they talk about it every day. They do not trust in their future. They've almost given up. But it's not too late to change. We do not have to do this. We do not have to do this. The future is not set in stone. We can make protections for our future. And I really implore all of you, I'm humbly begging you. Begging you. To consider the water. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. I'd also like to call Chef Khan Chen Jiang and Drew Siegler to come on down. You all heard. What happened to Sam Altman. You probably heard what happened to Ron Gibson in Indianapolis on the seventh. I assume you don't want this to happen. To. You. So tread lightly and do. The right thing. And don't compel San Jose to make drastic decisions. Not because you're good people, because you're not, but because it's better to lose your career than to lose your home to a fire. Or worse. I promise you that action will have exponentially larger reaction. How the day you deserve. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi. I'm a concerned citizen residing in district 19. Earlier, you had a wonderful youth activist speaking about the importance of protecting the future and highlighting the environmental crisis. I'm a confused. I'm confused as a member of the community as to how opening up data centers protects our future as well as as they are well known to affect the environment, particularly water usage. You mentioned earlier that recycled water will be used when available but the wording gives me precedence that there is a possibility to use mostly clean water that could otherwise go towards the community. Are you absolutely sure that these particular data centers won't affect our drinking water, amongst other environmental factors? So far, the benefits shown have been economical and having a competitive edge, but I am unsure if that outweighs the risk to our quality of life that these centers have been shown to impact, and that the status report hasn't been able to address our concerns. Considering the amount of people who have voiced their opinions so far. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, council members. I'm Sandy Perry. I'm AD3 resident, and I usually stick to housing and homelessness issues, but this city manager memo and the entire process is so wrongheaded, backward and unacceptable, I have to speak out about it. And I will point out that data centers will have an impact on housing because they're going to drive up land and housing prices and rents. First, let's be clear the council must reject this status report. It must enact a moratorium on new data centers, and it must begin a robust public process around the whole question of trying to bring 34 data centers into San Jose. The memo is based on the lie that data centers create high quality jobs when everyone knows they're only empty warehouses full of computer equipment, there's a reason why they won't have a traffic impact. And the reason is because nobody's working in them. And even aside from issues like surveillance and military uses, the. There's no guarantee that AI will even succeed, and it may even end up. We may end up with huge data centers and a bunch of bankrupt tech companies unable to pay for their. Unable to pay their PG&E bills, much less pay taxes. And even if it succeeds, there's no guarantee that AI will not end up eliminating millions of jobs and destroying our economy, not building it up. A few years back, we had a process around the Google development. There was rigorous public debate. There was a stakeholder advisory committee that met every single month, and a lot of back and forth public involvement. And even then, that didn't turn out so well. San Jose can do no less this time around, and we need an economic plan that's based on meeting human needs, not enriching the tech billionaires. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, I have called all of the cards that had names. So if you did not hear your name, please go ahead and line up. Hello everybody. Thank you for your time. I just want to give. A shout out to district member or council member Campos. I voted for you. Thank you for doing your job. And council member Ortiz. My parents voted for you and I see you in the community. Thank you for your work. You do. I'm a lifelong San Jose resident. I work in tech. I grew up here, and I'm lucky enough to have bought a home in the past few years. When I saw in that report, there's some data going around. There's a Google Drive with a lot of information about what's happening here. I went through and read all of it. I was shocked to see that there is a proposed backup center that's going to be built near my home that I bought ten minutes away. We live in a beautiful part of San Jose, South San Jose. There's bald eagles flying through the air there. I don't want that area to be potentially destroyed by the impacts of a backup generator. There are so many impacts people have talked about better than I have. There's biologists that have spoken, students who are experts in these fields. I'm just a community member. But when I see that PG&E is involved with this, I don't have a good feeling about it. We all know what's happened in Burlingame. We know what they did there. We know their involvement with the fires. I just don't have a good feeling about it. And I think everybody else here feels that way, too. At least many of the people behind me, except for three guys that spoke. And you know what? I don't understand why they said what they did. These will create some jobs. However, the jobs that I think they'll create will be involved in building them. And after that, they'll lie empty. As a man who just spoke before me said, as somebody who has been laid off in the tech industry, I just don't see a viable future that these data centers will create. I feel that they'll energy from us. They'll destroy the land around them and not really generate much in the way of economic prosperity for us common citizens. We want some stability and safety. We've been through so much these past few years. I think that's all what we're asking for. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi everyone. My name is Chen. I'm a little nerve wracking being up here, but I am a homeowner in South San Jose District two. Shout out to Council member Campos and it is my first time here to be a part of this and I am representing so many others who could not make it today because it is a work day. It is Tuesday in the middle of the day. They wanted to take time off. It was such short notice. I would like to be clear, I oppose the building of these unprecedented 2000 megawatt data centers without a much more robust third party research and audits and a lot more public input. I think that message has come across loud and clear today from the people who are here. We are impassioned about this. This is happening in our backyard. Last week, my neighbor texted me a photo of a bald eagle. I live right across from Metcalfe Park. Did you know we had bald eagles in San Jose? Pretty cool right? That bald eagle, which I've hopefully not the only one, but I've also seen bald eagles on that trail is ten minutes away from a proposed data center. Literally, this is the symbol of America. This bald eagle is going to be affected by these data centers. And we need to show that it's going to be safe for them and us and our children and our families to live and continue to live in San Jose. Data centers, unfortunately, have a track record of environmental damage and higher utilities for everyone involved. I implore everyone here sitting today, he's sitting here today to align with your community members, prioritize transparency and public accountability, not vague promises of economic growth. Please do it for your neighbors your America. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi, my name is Pranita. I was born and raised in Santa Clara County. Many of my friends and family still live here, and many of them are starting families or continue to raise the are continuing to raise the children that they do have. In regards to the production of data centers. It's a great concern to me that the city could be prioritizing the technology industry over prioritizing the health and financial well-being of the people in Santa Clara County. We still do not know the potential health hazards and environmental issues that may develop as a result of building out these data centers, especially at this scale. We would also need to understand the equivalent amount of energy usage and the potential effects on our water supply. It does not appear that we will be able to use recycled water anytime soon. So exactly how much water will be used, and also if any part of this increased usage is falling onto residents, I believe the community should not be forced to pay. If that amount is greater than any estimate that PG&E provides. During an initial planning for any individual data center, the city and PG&E need to provide these numbers and more importantly, allow the public to scrutinize them so that we all understand and agree that what the potential risks are. It is my sincere hope that we do not move forward with these with these data centers, for the sake of everyone in our community. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello everybody. Good afternoon. My name is Drew Siegler. I'm a member of Showing up for Racial Justice Santa Clara County. I don't have anything prepared for this, but it's just one of these things where it's like, it's like folks get hypnotized. Just absolutely like, like they get dollar signs in their eyes is like, what do they get? $7 million? Oh my God, maybe, you know, according to PG&E, which, you know, trusting PG&E is,se guys, those guys are, you know, just stand up. You know, they do a up job of their reports and their safety and everything like that. I mean, like, you know, you know, Paradise ask, ask the people of Paradise. They, they, they, they love PG&E. So. You know, just think of the quality of life. I mean, just the, the water usage alone is absurd. And, you know, like I, you know, I know people that ration their showers you know, I, I like, I, I turn the water off when I'm setting up, you know, like, like, you know, water is a precious commodity. Like, as Mark Twain called it, you know, whiskey's for drinking water is for fighting in California. And, you know. We, we, we've got this valuable resource that we got not enough of just for our own daily use. And we're going to, you know, use it to, you know, keep, you know, it's a cool data center. I mean, it's just ridiculous. So 34 data centers, excuse me. So really just consider the impact on the quality of life and the fact that the people that you're dealing with are. Just not so trustworthy, you know? PG&E. Anyway, take care. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi I'm. Luis Salas, district seven. It would be nice to know that you have to fill out a card before you come up here. This is my first meeting, and there was no one explaining that, but I'm opposed. Of AI data centers. It uses a lot of resources and it pollutes the the surrounding area and environment. And I just wanted to share one of my favorite quotes of Earth Day. I think all of you should watch The Lorax because it feels like some of you haven't. Only when the Last Tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will. We realized we cannot eat money. Thank you. Back to council. Thanks Toni. Thank you to all of our public commenters. Coming back to the council. We'll start with Council Member Ortiz. Thank you mayor. First off, I just want to thank staff for bringing forward this report. Of course, both. I want to thank PG&E, everyone speaking in support and in opposition to data centers. It's very important that we have as much community input as possible. And, you know, as council members, we need as much information as possible. I think that was a part of why we had this conversation today. And so I'm glad that we're able to have a dialog here. I want to start by acknowledging that data centers could play an important role in addressing our budget deficit at a time when we're facing difficult financial decisions, the ability to generate new, stable revenue and potentially avoid cuts to critical city services is something we have to take seriously and evaluate thoughtfully. You know, we do have a very serious budget shortfall, and I don't think, well, cities don't make money. No decisions are being made to make money. But we do have libraries to keep open. We do have community centers to keep open. We do have intervention programs. We just had gave a commendation for youth intervention. All those services cost money. And unfortunately, we are going to have to make some tough decisions this budget cycle. And that's front and center. I know for all of my colleagues, at the same time, I want to acknowledge that many of our residents are bringing real and legitimate concerns to this conversation. Our community has seen the impacts that large load facilities like these can have on neighborhoods across the country, whether that's pressure on energy costs, environmental impacts or strain on local resources. These residents have legitimate concerns and deserve to understand how we are handling and addressing these impacts. Here in San Jose, it's their right as residents. So with that in mind, I do have a few questions that I'm hoping staff can clarify in regards to our approach, and to speak to some of the concerns we're having. We're hearing from our our residents. I just wanted to confirm today's item. It's a it was agendized based off my previous request for a study session. Correct. Okay. So the answer is yes. Yeah. It was as part of the Commission, there's a request that was made to bring an item to Council for discussion. There was a follow up that we were going to have it as part of an agenda item. So this is why we're back. It was my request for a study session, you know, and I was hoping for a more robust conversation that would keep put our our residents at at more of a ease. But to be honest with you, I think public comment was longer than the whole That's a that's an example of why I bring so many memos to the Rules Committee, because if I'm not specific with my asks, I usually don't get I have my have my expectations met. And so I just want to, I want to flag that I was, I was hoping to have a robust conversation to talk about what's, what's happening in other states. Why are we seeing that level of pollution in other states and what we are doing in other. In order to avoid that? Because from our conversations, we are doing things. I just don't feel like we've gotten to that full length that the. Our constituents would like to see. And I would like to raise that as, as a part of feedback. You know, we've seen in other parts of the country that large low data centers have put up upward pressure on energy rates in the areas where they've been built. And so what makes our situation different and what steps are being taken to prevent that? What we're seeing in other areas, I think Memphis was mentioned in regards to environmental impacts. What steps are we taking to prevent that from happening here? Ortiz, I think I heard two, two questions in that one once was related to environmental impacts, and the other one was related to rates. So myself and Karen will take the rate question and with two different perspectives on it. And I'll pass it over to Chris to just talk about CEQA and the process that you have to go through in California as part of the environmental analysis. So I'll start. And as many of the council members know, previous to coming to San Jose, I ran Silicon Valley power as chief executive officer in Santa Clara and in Santa Clara, there were currently 60 data centers and is currently expanding there, doubling the size of the utility probably going to be at 70 to 75 data centers. Just to give you a perspective on that, currently, we have about 20 data centers in San Jose. There are about 18mi2 for 180mi2. So we have a neighbor to the west. That's a good example of kind of data center development. Just say that because certainly I read all the articles about the rest of the US and kind of what's happening there. And I don't think you can just pick and choose without getting into all the details of each one. If you look at other states, in many cases what's occurring that the data centers are coming in and they're becoming the largest user by far, both from an energy perspective and a water perspective. And that puts different pressure points on both rates and water use and environmental use. So kind of when we look at California, because we have limitations on the size of the data centers, we also have CEQA that we're required to do that other states don't have. And we also have already a large infrastructure for energy load. We have a capacity that, depending on what example you look at, it might not be applicable specifically for San Jose. And, and cost. I'll pass it over to her. But she did go through route 30 at length and talked about the capital costs associated with that, but I'll pass it over to add any more details. Sure. So rule 30, as I mentioned, is still pending before the California Public Utilities Commission, where we've said that the types 1 to 3 costs that the customers pay for upfront, we would not put those in rates until the data center comes online or EV or whoever it is, or, you know, medical facility comes online and is actually generating revenue that warrants us returning their money and putting it into the into rates. So rule 30 is not about rates. It's just about who pays upfront and what are the requirements. The California Public Utilities Commission, also in early April launched an order instituting rulemaking, where they're asking all three investor owned utilities to come and talk about various rates. Also large load rates being one of them. So they will be examining those to see like, for example, if you have you know, $10 million that are network upgrades, how do you split those up amongst commercial, industrial, residential, how will those rates be set? That will be an upcoming proceeding in front of the California Public Utilities Commission. So nothing's finalized yet. We haven't necessarily know. It's not finalized. I mean, currently we do have a B 20 transmission rate. So if a data center comes online tomorrow or an EV entity or whatever comes online, they, they do have rates that they pay, but the, our interveners within at the California Public Utilities Commission said, hey, let's look at this more deeply. We agreed. And the commission is launching in a. All right. Now, I just wanted you know, we have a lot of residents that maybe may not be experts in data center or data center lingo. And so I guess I'll just reiterate my my question to what can there be a situation in which our rate payers are are ending up on the hook for paying for increased rates due to the level of infrastructure being planned here in San Jose for data centers. What what we're trying to do is actually reduce rates, not even have it be break even, actually. Right. But is there a situation where that may not be the case and it is an impact of rate? I don't think so because the network upgrades those, those actually benefit everyone the type for upgrades. But the types 1 to 3, we would not put those into rates until they generate enough revenue to warrant it. Okay. Thank you. A few more questions. Can staff walk us through how we plan to engage residents who live near these data center projects? Yeah, I'll pass it over to Chris to answer both the environmental question as well as the community outreach question. Thank you. Councilmember. So as with any private land use approval, you know, data centers go through permitting authority. If they're in our industrial districts, which is where we expect most of these to be located, they'll go through a special use permit process. And as a discretionary permit, they'll be subject to secure. So on the part of public outreach and public noticing, with any sort of major project that we see like this will hold a community meeting and we'll notice residents and community members in surrounding areas. We often work closely with the council district that those projects are located in. And then as we go through the process, there are, you know multiple points at which we'll try and engage the community. Ultimately, it will come to a public hearing before a decision maker and that'll be the point at which, you know, we'll then also take public record, public comment on the record. Now, depending on what that process looks like and depending on the environmental path that it takes through Seqra, that might be at a director's hearing, right? Which is a typical sort of staff level hearing. If there's an EIR with impacts associated with the project, that might make it all the way to city Council, which we've seen with some of the bigger projects as it relates to that process. I think, you know, without speculating too much on what's going on in other communities, I think the safeguard of CEQA is an important thing to bear in mind. So we do do rigorous analysis with all development projects, but especially those that present opportunities that could have negative impacts on the environment and was really about analysis and disclosure of impacts. So we always approach that with looking for opportunities to mitigate any potential impacts related to development. And if there's nothing you can do to mitigate that impact, it goes through that full process and comes before city council, which is where you would make a determination as to whether or not the project outweighs those impacts. So, you know, we do have a very rigorous process. It's backed by, yo know, a lot of very technical consultants that prepare reports and analysis based on that. And it does have very transparent opportunities for the public to comment throughout. All right. May I have two more questions. Or did you want to go for other others first? So I'll circle back to you. Thanks for checking, I appreciate it. Closing closing comments. Before I come back, I just want to just, I guess, elaborate on my position. I'm not against 100% any new data centers. I just want to make sure that if we are moving forward with data centers it's done right and that there is an impact on our residents. Thank you. Yeah, I think they're very reasonable questions to ask, important for all of us to understand, as well as members of the community who understandably have questions and doubts. Thank you. So let's turn now to Council Member Candelas. Thank you. You know I. Just want to begin my talking points by by thanking everybody who came out to voice your concerns, questions and a lot of you for the first time. And I think, you know, as somebody who sits up here, we come here every Tuesday. It's, it's it's nice to see more of or residents get engaged on issues. And, you know, we understand it's a difficult time. 1:00 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. We get it, I get it, I understand it, but but either way, it's valued. And I and I do along with my colleagues, we do hear you. And so, you know, it's again, important to underline that there is no particular project that we're actually voting on today, that that's important. This is this is a good opportunity to have this public dialog on some of the concerns we heard. And that is, you know, the quintessential question on balance you know, moving forward on opportunities for revenue generation without raising taxes, which hurts a lot of our most vulnerable residents. But against balancing, you know, potential unintended consequences. And or how do we mitigate these impacts to our, to our, our community? You know, I guess the first, the first thing that I want to flag for staff is something that I heard repeatedly. And that's pertaining to water usage. I sit on the Santa Clara Valley Water Commission on behalf of the council. And, you know, in a former life, I did government affairs for the Santa Clara Valley Water District. So water reliability and the water world is something I know well. And, and I just I want to also particularly emphasize, you know yes it is a scarce resource that's pushing our state into an ever increasing cycle of droughts. And it's becoming more expensive year after year because of that scarcity. And so we have to act with special diligence on this as in respects to our the fresh water supply and the groundwater supply everywhere, whatever kind of water we're providing these, these applicants or these, these data centers that we're looking to bring online. And so, you know, I saw the attachment in the memorandum on taking the steps to urge data centers to use recycled water. But I'm curious, from staff's perspective, how can we strengthen these requirements as a city? You know, any feedback that would be appreciated? Thank you. Thank you for the question. Councilmember. It really it's a policy question right now, which is recommendations when we work with the data centers, when they come in on a range of water options and energy, water and energy are they go hand in hand, more energy, less water, less energy, more water. And that and the type of infrastructure that each particular one has to put in when we meet with the data center developers, certain ones, they they're very particular. It varies to them on the exact location of what resources are around the infrastructure they have to put in. That's what they're very early in the planning stages. They're looking at. Is it viable to build here? Or if there's no water nearby, you know how much energy is nearby and how that how that all comes together. But from a perspective of do we want to require a certain type of water usage? That simply is a policy question for council? Yeah. I mean, one, one of the requirements is, is requiring the use of recycled water where we see feasible. That is, that is in the in the document. And, you know, obviously not not the purple pipe infrastructure doesn't go throughout our, our city. I mean, it comes into my district and we do have industrial and commercial land that could be potentially identified without overly imposing these infrastructure costs. Obviously, that would be borne by an applicant. So I guess I would I would recommend that to the extent feasible, that staff is actually prioritizing, you know, having conversations with, with with folks in areas that, you know, have purple pipe and recycled water nearby, it would make common sense to, to, to prioritize them and ensure that they're ready to go with recycled water nearby. And if you want to share thoughts, meanwhile, you look like you're ready. Yeah. Just, just some thoughts. So certainly I think as projects go forward, those are conversations we're already having with the data centers. And obviously they want to be as cost efficient as possible as well. And potable water is more expensive than recycled water. So they want to take advantage of those opportunities. So let me assure you that the team is already having those conversations with the data center. But based on the feedback today, we'll continue to emphasize it as future projects come along. Yeah. And then a question on the water demand project analysis. It's the the that analysis is required for any project with over 500 dwelling unit of demand. How many, how many MGD or acre feet of water is that? I'd have to get back with the exact number, but a usually dwelling unit can fit multiple people. So that'd be about a million gallons of water based on the math. About a million gallons. Okay okay. All right. So it would be about 73 million gallons annually if it's anywhere between what, 100 to 200,000 gallons per day on, on a 500 unit property, right? That's, that's what the minimum is, right. I have to get back. To you on the exact math, but what we're seeing right now from the data center proposals coming in, is there around 500 gallons per minute as a usage. Okay. Yeah. So that that is all the more reason of why, you know, I think it's important to emphasize as much recycled water as we can. I hear from other commissioners, other council members and other cities when we when, when I go to these water commission meetings, like, hey, you know, how, how, how is the demand on water rates going to be affected by, you know, all these new data centers that San Jose is bringing on board? And I just want to be able to, to, to ensure folks that, yes, the water supply question is one thing, but also the fact that we are doing our due diligence as part of the review process that we are pushing and using recycled water to the to the best that we can and or, you know, being a little bit more stringent about it. I guess the next and then the next question ties into that community outreach question. And what kind of outreach has been done outside of the development review and public notice process that typically happens per project? Are we doing any like FAQs or is there any public awareness information? Because I heard a lot of questions and comments from from folks, and I just want to make sure that we, you know, we have to be rooted in fact and something that we all can agree on. And so I'm wondering what the administration's perspective is on this. Yeah. So, so we do have websites within the city that talk about the work we're doing, what we're doing from electrical infrastructure perspective and additional information with regards to large load customers and data centers from a pure outreach perspective, we're really focused as projects come along because each individual project is pretty unique. It would be hard to say we are going to do a outreach meeting for data centers, considering that we have, I believe, 20,000 acres of commercial and industrial land. Right. And a proposal in North San Jose. In what part of North San Jose would be very different than a proposal in Edenvale, as an example. So each individual project has to be analyzed individually. We have to do the sequel. We have to figure out what the water requirements will be. Is it going to be recycled, portable, air cooled, what those options will be, and then what the power needs are. In some cases, there was existing capacity for projects. In some cases, very large infrastructure. Electrical projects have to be built to be able to accommodate them. So our focus is, as projects come along, being able to outreach because they are pretty individual to each one. And we can't do, you know, we're 180mi2 right? Depending on where the data center proposal is, it's going to have different, different items to consider. Yeah, I would just encourage staff to think about, yes. Having an FAQ and having an informational website that's linked to the, the technical documents that are submitted. Absolutely. But a lot of it is very technical and very jargony and very heavy. And somebody with a master's degree that I look at and I'm like, what are we trying to say? And so I would hope that we're trying to put put things into, into tangible, like things that we, that folks that, that, that our community can digest. And actually, you know, process. And I just, I hope we lean into that. And even, even if it's a couple town hall, town halls on, you know, this is what, this is what the city's perspective and this is what our approach is. And to let folks know that, yes, we as, as policymakers have concerns around our water supply, we have concerns around the impact to the ratepayers. We have concerns on, you know, environmental concerns to our community. And so I would just urge the administration to think about that and how we moving forward, how we do that in articulated in the next steps for our residents. Thank you. Thanks, Councilmember. Let's go to Councilmember Cohen. Yeah, thank you. And thank you for bringing the report to us. This this was was asked for just a summary of what our current knowledge is about the impacts and, and things. And obviously there's no action today to approve or deny any project. There's no proposal for any new project that comes with this. This is just a general update. And I hope that we continue to have these updates regularly, because this is clearly a topic of interest to us and to the public. And I think the more information we have, the better. I'm going to start actually by comment, by by commenting on, piggybacking on what Councilmember Candelas was talking about related to public outreach, we we have a data center proposal in Alviso, not on the on the wastewater land. So we're not even not even at the time yet where that project could even be considered for outreach. There was a. All we did as a council was provide was, was offer somebody the opportunity to come forward with a proposal that would then have to go through the rigorous outreach process, project process. But Google does have land that they already have development in there. They're doing outreach right now on a data center proposal. And I just wanted to make it very clear to the public, because we have a community meeting in mid-June, and notice has gone out by mail to every resident within a distance of that project. And it's the typical robust community outreach that's occurring. And this will occur for any project that comes forward so that we get feedback from the residents of that community before anything comes to council or before any decisions made on that project. So I just it's a real example of a project that's being proposed and that is going through that outreach. So there's been no proposal here in this report that I've seen to eliminate the outreach process, just to bypass anything. Clearly, we've heard that the, the the environmental impact report across the process will happen for every one of these projects. We also, if they're large enough, have the requirement that they do a water report as well. So all these things would happen for every individual project. Today's was more of an aggregate report of how these things in general impact the infrastructure. I want to ask a question, though, about the rates. And because there's a very legitimate concern the public has, and it's real because it's happened in other places, that the result of these large projects is that rates go up. And I know, you know, Manuel, you have experience, obviously, in Santa Clara, where there's 60 plus data centers. Is there any evidence that rates in the way we do these projects in this area that rates have been going up as a result of them? Yeah. And, you know, once again, based on my experience, which is right, right next door, and it's not in another part of the country, which functions very differently, kind of my experience and just to give perspective for everybody, Santa Clara has a their load, their electric load is 65% data center. And that's going to continue to increase. It's probably going to go from about 60 data centers. My guess would be as the plan gets implemented and completed in 2028, I go to 70 or 75 data centers within their 18mi2. The experience we had there is because we had such large load customers, and we could sell so much power to them. That actually helped us manage the cost of the residents, because those large load customers would buy power without a lot of power, without requiring as much service as, say, a residential neighborhood would. Just to give you an example, this is the example I used to use one 50 megawatt data center that was served by a transmission line in a substation was the equivalent of every residential service in Santa Clara. So all those thousands of poles, wires, you know, transformers that I had to maintain and operate were the equivalent to one transmission line. And I would sell the same amount of power that. So it really was a way for us to manage cost. Whenever we added those large load customers. And I will note that although there have been price increases over the last few years in California for power, there's natural gas crisis that's happened a few years ago and everything else, because we had those large loads when I was working there at the time, we were still able to manage costs and at 65% data center, Silicon Valley Power still has the lowest rates of any utility in all of California. For residential customers. That has more than 10,000 customers. So being able to sell more, being able to spread all those capital costs across those large customers, being able to have large customers that could be served with minimal O&M regularly helped us actually lower the rates and keep those residential rates lower. Obviously, PG&E is going through a transition right now, adding large load customers, and I think that's what you're hearing from them, that their expectation is that that that theory will also apply as PG&E grows their load and has large load customers for buying power with without as much infrastructure. Okay. Thank you for the answer. And you made a comment, I think in answer to I think it was Councilmember Ortiz's question when you mentioned the the fact that we have a limit to the size of data centers in California, I think it's important to also explain that data centers in California are maxed out at 99MW, whereas in other parts of the country, they're building them at hundreds of megawatts and gigawatts even. In fact, I've had conversations with data center companies who say, I wish California let us build bigger. We actually limit the size of data centers here. Is that correct? Yeah. That's correct. Councilmember Cohen and I appreciate the the question because I think when we when we think of data centers, in my mind, data center built in San Jose looks and feels very different than a data center built in other parts of the country. And I, you know, I really empathize with the comments made today. I think there are real concerns happening with these thousand megawatt data centers in other parts of the country. And San Jose's data centers, like you said, we're not seeing them more than 100. So it's a 10th the size. And as a result the impact of those are going to be a lot less. So. Yes, in California, the California Energy Commission has a small power plant exemption process that regulates backup generators and essentially means that if they have this this process for between 50 and 99 beyond 99, you're regulated as a power plant. And most data centers don't want to be regulated as a power plant. And so there's this artificial threshold that that really limits the size. And so many of the data centers that we see in our pipeline are, you know, there's a handful that's 99, but a lot of them are at 49, you know, and there's a range. Okay. And then the last question I'm going to ask is about the data center being built right now in Alviso next to us by Microsoft. That project is using 100% recycled water. Is that correct? Yes, yes. That's correct. Right. And so obviously, in certain parts of the city where we have recycled water infrastructure, we have been insisting, and I hope that we. Will and I certainly will be continuing to insist that we use 100% recycled water on all those projects. With that, I'm going to move that we as a council accept the status report today. Great. Thank you. Second from Candelas. Let's go now to Councilmember Campos. Thank you, mayor. And thank you. Staff. For bringing. This status. Report to Council. I also want to thank the community members who showed up to speak on this item today. The infrastructure that exists in our city and that is planned for construction in our city matters tremendously to our residents and to our neighbors. And so I just want to start off by sharing a cautionary tale because it our own history validates the concerns that we heard today. Yesterday, while participating in an environmental justice workshop I learned that in the early 1980s, Fairchild was one of several Silicon Valley tech companies that was involved in a lawsuit brought on by residents of Los Paseos neighborhood in south San Jose. And in 1981, investigations discovered that an underground storage tank containing waste solvents had failed, releasing chemicals into the ground and a public drinking water supply well that was located approximately 1800 feet downgradient from the site, was impacted by the contamination, designating the area a Superfund site in 1988. And I recognize that the technology is different, but in San Jose, we are known for innovation, right? It's innovation is exciting, and it's what our region is known for. But wisdom is knowing that we are on no one's timeline but our own. And so as we adapt to new technologies with the potential to change our environment, this process cannot move forward without more robust public input and community outreach. Because as we move into the future, we cannot brush off our history. We must learn from these lessons, and we must do better. And so my colleagues have already asked a lot of the questions that I was going to ask. I just have a couple remaining. The first is with several environmental risks that have been identified, including air quality, water, energy and habitat impacts. How is the city approaching and mitigating these risks, and are there other risks that we should be thinking about or considering? Yes. So Councilmember obviously we look at the individual circumstances of any individual project and go through that typical CEQA process. So there's a checklist for all the different categories that we assess under CEQA. And to the extent that a risk or an impact can be mitigated, that's identified relative to a specific project that's required as a part of the project. Now, to the extent that there are impacts that we cannot mitigate to a reasonable level, then that pushes us into a different approval process. That requires an EIR, which includes a considerable amount more disclosure and more public outreach, and then ultimately would come to the city Council for a statement of overriding consideration, if that's the path that council wanted to go in. So it's built into that process naturally, that we're sort of assessing those risks as these projects come in, and exploring all feasible mitigations as a part of that process. Thank you, Chris, for that. And I know we were hearing some discussion earlier about water use and so is staff able to estimate the cumulative energy demand, water use and land use footprint of the data center projects. And how does the energy demand compare to the current energy demand of San Jose? So yeah, so so I can speak to the energy demand and I'll pass it over to Jeff with regards to water usage. So there's a couple clarifications I do want to make because when we talk about data centers, we talk about the peak load associated with them. 99MW, 50MW, which is typically what we see in the Bay area. Typically what I saw in Santa Clara as well, that's their peak demand. That demand is going to vary, although it's pretty flat for data centers. It does vary throughout the day depending kind of what the weather conditions are and how things are functioning. Currently, San Jose has about a 1000 megawatt peak, and as we add projects that peaks going to add to those. So 50 megawatt would get us to 1050, 99MW to 1099. There's questions about how much of that power data center will actually use, right? If you have capacity for 99MW, it doesn't necessarily mean they will use all 99. Historically, prior to the newer ones. We usually say that if you had 99 megawatt data center, it would actually only get about 60% of that. To use. One clarification I want to make is because we keep using the 2000 number, which is a good number to have. That's really a capacity number that's being developed. And for capacity in the South Bay and San Jose is at the forefront of trying to figure out how we become the most competitive with that. That is not committed to San Jose in any way. Our other neighbors could use that power. So I cannot tell you that it's going to be 2000MW in San Jose and it's going to triple. It's really going to depend on how many projects come into the city, how many projects go through the approval process, and how many projects get approved. Parallel to that, I'm aware that other cities are pursuing similar type development, and they have the opportunity to also use some of that capacity that's being created by those projects we described. So we don't have a final number. When we say that's what we say up to 2000, because that's the kind of capacity that's being created for the South Bay, but that is not committed to San Jose. So we'll have to figure out. It really will depend on what projects get approved and when they get approved and what all the other cities around us decide to do as part of their development process. Thank you Manuel, appreciate those responses. And I'll wrap up my comments with this statement. Because protecting our our community is a city priority and having our chambers full of residents is exactly how we know that our strength is truly local. So I hope that everyone here today remains connected to City Council because every week we're in here making important decisions. And civic participation is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. The city of San Jose does want to empower every resident, regardless of their background, to get involved in local government and have their voice heard. So I'm going to plug the City of San Jose Civic Masterclass. If you all haven't heard of it or checked it out online, I highly encourage you to visit our website. It is available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. It is a course that is at your own pace. It tells you how to show up to city council meetings, how to make sure your voice is heard. Talks about the process of public comment, why you fill out the card, and why right now it's not available online because we do want this to be a fair, open and transparent process for our community. So again, it is called City of San Jose's Civic Masterclass, and I encourage folks who are ready to stay engaged to sign up and take that course at your own pace. Thank you. Thanks Councilmember. Appreciate that. PSA. Let's go to Council Member Tordillos. Thank you, mayor. And I want to thank staff for the presentation, as well as all of the members of the public who wrote in to provide public comment and came out to City Council today. My first question was really elevating something that I think you just kind of alluded to in response to my colleague, council member Campos, but it's about the fact that in the presentation, I think there's really like multiple work streams that are somewhat independent. There's the notion of this new transmission line capacity that's bringing the new two gigawatts of capacity to the greater San Jose area. And then separately, there's the city's initiatives to try to support, you know, drawing some of these operators and developers into the city to leverage that power to build data centers in San Jose. So I want to just touch base, make sure that that's correct. And then also say that even if the city does not move forward with its attempt to draw some of these providers into the area, that would do nothing to prevent other neighboring cities from leveraging that new power capacity, is that correct? That's 100% correct. Thank you. So I think what that makes clear to me is that this is not really a question about whether there are new data centers in the South Bay. It's a question about whether San Jose gets any benefits economically from the new data center interest in the South Bay with this new power capacity that's coming online, I think residents raised some very real concerns based on the way that we've seen data center construction play out in other parts of the country. I think it is not hard to look across some of our neighboring states and see the wrong way to go about building these sorts of facilities, but I think staff has done a good job of explaining the ways that the city's approach is already very different from some of the worst examples that we've seen across the country. Staff already explained that the data centers proposed for San Jose would be either a 10th or a 20th, the size of some of the largest data centers that we see elsewhere. And they would also be powered much more cleanly. Public comment repeatedly referred to some of the air quality impacts, health impacts that we've seen from the Memphis data centers. In particular. My understanding is that all of those data centers are powered by essentially just large natural gas burning plants, which is not how they would be powered locally. And to Councilmember Cohen's point that he's reiterated before by the city having an active role here, we can help to guide the development process towards more sustainable development practices that ensure that we protect against some of those negative health consequences. There was also this notion from some of the public comment that we should be focusing on investing in our children's future, as opposed to just chasing money. I think the difficult question here is that investing in our residents future requires money. If we want to invest in youth services, we want to invest in our libraries and our community centers and broadening social services. Those are things that all cost money. And as Councilmember Ortiz noted, we are facing a significant budget deficit. In the coming weeks, we will get the first look at the city manager's proposed budget, where we start to see some of the really difficult trade offs that we're going to have to make in the months ahead in terms of how we close a $56 million budget deficit while minimizing the impacts to our employees and our residents in terms of critical services as much as possible. And I think data centers are one approach. They're not the only approach, but they are an approach to generate additional revenue to address those structural budget shortfalls so that we have the revenue available to invest in high quality services for our residents. And in the process, have the opportunity to generate some good paying union construction and maintenance jobs. As some of the members of the trades who came out to spoke, attested to. Finally, I wanted to address a couple specific questions and comments based on some of the feedback that we got from residents today. The first one is for Toni. There was a notion that these meetings are not accessible, which I agree with, and pointing to the lack of remote participation and remote public comment, my understanding is that remote participation in public comment will be coming back this summer, is that correct? Correct. That is, I think, long overdue. It is something that we've been hoping to see, you know, all the way back from my time on the Planning Commission to make these meetings more accessible to our residents. So I'm glad to hear that that will be moving forward next. Real concern that I had was around some of the questions and concerns raised by residents about potential impacts down the line on rates for Non-data center customers. I appreciated the slide that staff shared about the different types of infrastructure investments that would be made to facilitate these sorts of developments and growth in the overall grid, and how three of those four would specifically be set aside as things that any new data center developer would be on the hook for paying, as opposed to residents. That still does give me some pause, just because I think, as some folks in the audience, you know, attested, I think there's a lack of trust with the rate setting process we've seen in previous years. Rates continue to go up. So my question was really about this tentative rule 30 and what enforcement mechanisms might actually exist. I know it's a draft rule, but if you could speak a little bit to the enforcement to ensure that down the line, you know, rates don't go up ostensibly in that type four category of transmission network upgrades that might have any underlying sources from data center construction. Thank you. Yeah. So let me just start by saying the Kiso, which is the California Independent System Operator, annually does a, a, what they call the TPP transmission plan that they put out on an annual basis. And the one that they just put out recently shows that data centers account for about 18% of the load growth in the Caiso controlled grid in California in PG&E service territory, there are about 38% of the load growth. So it's a little bit bigger in our service territory than the other utilities. But the majority of the load growth is due to building electrification, which many cities have plans to do. EV's climate change and general load growth. And there's federal precedent. Ferc has ruled on this, as well as various courts, that any any upgrades you make to the bulk system benefits everyone. So, for example, it's called essentially the ISO tach, the transmission access charge. So the lines that you saw on some of the slides where it showed less power is, you know, putting lines here in the South Bay, Southern California entities will actually pay for 60% of those costs. So the way the tach is split, like SVP pays for it, PG&E pays for it. Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric. And the way it's roughly split is 40% PG&E, 40% SW, 20% San Diego and the other utilities are very small, so I'm just giving you a rough estimates here. And so it's vice versa if something is actually built in Southern California that benefits the broader grid. We in Northern California also pay for that so that those costs that are above the 200 kV are split up that way. But we anticipate on rule 30, which again, it's about who pays upfront. It's not about rates. The. That will. We believe in Q3, we'll have a final decision from the Commission maybe in Q4. And then we're just starting the proceeding on rates at the Commission with the. Oh, I anticipate that going. It can depend maybe a year, maybe two years until that is resolved with the California Public Utilities Commission. Thank you for that detailed explanation. I think part of my concern here is just that the rate setting process is so opaque. You know, obviously to us on the dais here, but also to all of our community members. So my hope is just that as the final form of rule 30 kind of comes into clearer focus that you all are I.gor team can really make sure that we are doing everything we can to advocate for a rule on behalf of our residents that has as much information as possible to make sure that they don't end up bearing any of the costs of this new development. My final comment here is related to one of the recent projects that we reviewed last year with Prologis. I think that that one points towards a positive example of how these things might play out in the future. I appreciated the fact that as part of that agreement, thanks to the memo from Council Member Cohen, that was the direction for Prologis to proactively pursue community benefits and workforce development agreements as part of their exclusive negotiating agreement. I think that can hopefully be a pathway towards making sure that as these data centers come into our community, that they have to engage with residents and that there is a clear way to demonstrate value to our residents, both in terms of the good construction jobs that we can create, but also in terms of other community benefits that will benefit everyone in our community. So thank you. Thanks, councilor. Appreciate all those questions and comments. Very well said and well. Did you want to interject something or were you? I just wanted to do one quick. Note about rates because I think it is important. It's something you mentioned earlier in the conversation that from a PG&E perspective, you know, they are taking the right approach. And I think you know, it has shown in the area that having larger customers does benefit. I do want to note, as you said earlier, that whether those data centers happen in San Jose or they happen, I'm going to throw out city names even though I don't know anything. They happen in Milpitas, Hayward or Fremont. Those rate concerns still apply. So it's not just applicable to projects happening in San Jose, it's projects happening in PG&E territory. So we just have to be aware of that. That's part of the decision making process. It's not like we say no to data centers in San Jose and those concerns go away. So we got to make sure we continue to work with PG&E and following up what they're doing to make sure we're protecting the ratepayers. That's a great point. Thank you. Councilor Kamei. Thank you very much, and thank you for the update. And, you know, I want to emphasize that this is an update. And as has been mentioned from my colleagues, I hope that you continue not just through T&E, but keeping the entire council and mayor informed about this. This is something that we know is coming, and we certainly want to be prepared on it. I also want to thank all the community members who came out to speak. These decisions are important. They're not just for today, but they're also for the future. You know, I was wondering about, you know, requiring the I know that there's no project today, but as projects come in project level, EIR type analysis would be done for each data center. Correct? There would be. CEQA analysis for each of them. Depending on the impacts. Related. It may be either a negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or an EIR. Okay, so I think that there's. Some uncertainty as to whether or not it's going to be a full EIR analysis. Is that what I'm hearing? Well, it's typically on a case by case basis. So depending on the scale of the project and the impacts related to it. So yes, there's, I think there's just multiple paths through CEQA. They all require some amount of disclosure and outreach, but the final determination is made through that process on an individual case by case basis. I guess I would I would ask that as these updates come to us, that that's something that we keep an eye on and whether or not it would be appropriate to also have conditions of approval as they come through and, and see, you know, in terms of what concerns either the community has, other people have we have as something that to keep in mind. Okay. Thank you. Thanks Councilmember. We'll go now to Councilmember Dewan. Thank you. Mayor. Thank you for the updates. I just have a couple of questions. I know that a lot of these data centers use a large amount of water, but I know that the newer data center use what you call closed loop system that doesn't require water. Can we strengthen our policies in order to require that type that we have here? Yeah, I would say we are. You know, the interesting thing about kind of what we're presenting today is this is just the starting point of the work we're doing. And like I said, I'm very proud of the staff and the team and what we've done over the last year to get us ready. I think we are still early in the process. When you compare us even to, say, Santa Clara, who are up to 60 data centers already to start setting policy and dictating specifically what might be best for each one, I think we need to work with each one individually which is kind of the way I have done it in the past, whether it's recycled water, potable water, closed loop systems, whatever that might be, we probably need to take just take a step back for now and let us continue down the path to see what the best options will be. We're still very early on. I think we're set up to have options in the future, so we're competitive, but we're not quite there yet where we should be dictating exactly how each data center should be built. Well, thank you for the answer. You know, as a the consumption of electricity from our residents and businesses continue to rise. And I know with the new transmission line and commitment from PG&E and less power is two gigabyte. Have we predicted in the future how many data centers can we sustain and. And can our infrastructure and our environment can sustainably support. No, we have not studied, you know, what, 2000MW of data centers would be. I think I go back to my earlier answer that at this point, it would be premature for us to fully know exactly how many data centers will be built in the city. There was no commitment to San Jose that that capacity is committed to San Jose. That capacity can go to any city that can have access to it in the South Bay and can build their own projects. So it really is going to depend how many data centers we can build and we want to build based, of course, on policy, right? Kind of what makes sense from a policy perspective, but also how they get through the development process and how other projects in the South Bay are also moving to the development process, because we're not the only ones who are going to take advantage of that power capacity. You know, like I said, we are currently the city has about approximately 20 data centers. Right now. We have about 30. Was it 20,000 acres of commercial and industrial development sites. So there's a lot of opportunities, but we have to start the process once again. I think we're beginning you know, it's not like Santa Clara has been building data centers since the 90s. That's why they're up to 60. We're starting that process now. Well, thank you. And I would hope that we we do some type of study to, you know, predict ahead. And that will give us some type of indication how many and, and how much power that would be using. I hear our. Speaker one of multiple concerns about nitrous oxide. Can you tell me a little bit more? Why is data center producing nitrous oxide or. So I think you may be referring to the nitrous oxide that's coming from the backup generators. So data centers have backup generators in case the grid goes down. Generally speaking, those those backup generators are run for maybe 1 or 2 hours a month for maintenance. They're not used very often. And in any of that backup generation, those are all regulated by the Bay Area Air District. Those backup generators, all of their emissions are highly, highly regulated. And in the Bay Area Air District monitors that. So what I'm hearing is it's only when there is an emergency shutdown and there's no power to the data center, then the backup generator will run. They also they also do have monthly testing as Thing is limited by their air district and they can only run at a certain number they want to be cost effective. So they run it the least amount of time to make sure that the system is effective. I will say that most large data centers, typically because they're served by transmission lines and they're usually have multiple connection points. They don't usually go down very often because transmission lines tend to be have higher reliability than distribution lines. Thank you. And as a former fire captain, I know that majority of our fire station have a you know, the backup generator. And it's very stringent. You know, following the guidelines of the EPA and the environment and so on. And so I do understand. Thank you for answering the question. I yield my time. Thanks, Council member. Okay. I don't see additional hands. I just want to thank staff again for the status report. It's clear to me that on the one hand, facilitating large load customers which can be data centers, can be manufacturing other large load users of all of this power that is coming to the South Bay grid, whether San Jose uses it or not. On our existing underutilized land that's been zoned for employment is a potentially very good thing for our city in terms of jobs, tax base revenues that can be used for after school programs, longer library hours better infrastructure maintenance, all of the things that we want at the same time, as I think folks heard from every member of the council who spoke, and I really appreciate my colleague's great questions. We are cognizant of the reality that economic development comes with impacts, and I would say that we, in my view, do a better job in California generally. And in San Jose specifically, to think ahead about what those impacts might be and how to mitigate them. And I would just remind folks that should we simply say no and push investment in growth and innovation, health elsewhere, it is far less likely it will be managed as carefully as we will in San Jose. So we absolutely need to ask the tough questions and be very thoughtful and incentivize the highest standards around emission, low emission energy. Ultimately, hopefully, GHG free energy completely. We've pushed the envelope. There have been a leader, closed water systems and ways of reducing water impacts and shape this growth to be as good for the environment and people as possible, but simply saying no sadly means it will just happen in a neighboring city or even worse, in a in a state or another place that really doesn't have our high standards for environmental quality. So I appreciate that we're taking a thoughtful, balanced approach and really trying to find ways to manage growth responsibly. Thank you again to my colleagues for all the great questions. We did have a motion from Councilmember Cohen and Toni. I think we're ready to vote. Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. That passed unanimously. Thank you all. We are on to our next item. Thank you to the city team. We will go on now to item 3.5. And we have a brief staff presentation. So Matt Leisch, whenever you're ready take it away. Good afternoon, Mayor and council members. I am the Director of Public Works. Today we have a brief presentation just to kind of level up what's in front of you. Today I am bringing you a revision to Council Policy 3.3 the city's Living wage policy. So a quick background. The city's living wage policy was created in about 1999, 1998, and then it was modified several times throughout the years. Multiple revisions, clarifying what the intent was, some liquidated damage and labor piece items. And in 2008, the airport adopted its own living wage ordinance. That's in the municipal code. In 2010, the airport Living Wage amended theirs to adjust the methodology of increase or change to align to the consumer Price index. The current living wage methodology. So one of the challenges and the reason why I'm here is the administration of this policy has become a bit challenging in recent years. And this is the purpose of my recommendation that you'll see at the end is to ease that administration of this policy. In 1998, council told us to look at the federal poverty income rate of a family of three, apply some geographic assessment factor without any detail of what that would be, and then they would generate the San Jose's living wage rate. Historically, that living wage rate we'd get from a vendor, and it was very consistent over the first 20 years or so. around Covid, and we started digging into it in the last couple of years. And it really changed the methodology became really not understandable and unclear to all of us. And so we wanted to make it clear and make it transparent. So we studied a little bit what's going on in other jurisdictions. Just to see what is going on in other areas. There's about 21 counties and cities that have some sort of living wage type thing. They're not all exactly the same. We attached them all as an attachment to our memo, so they're all listed there with how we got those references and what they're exactly included. Not exactly apples to apples, but they're very, very similar in in those sorts. So San Jose is the highest at 26.73, 26, 73 this year. And Ventura is the lowest at about 1543. All city counties besides US use consumer price index. They use one, some of them use CPU and some of them use CPI W. And I know there's been a little bit of conversation. So what's the difference between those two. The CPI you does provide geographic specific KPIs. It was it's about 50 years old. It represents a very broad swath of the residents. And it's most commonly used measure. And it's the one used in the city most broadly than everything else. CPI w it's about over 100 years old, has a smaller subset of the city, and it's one of the country and is used for Social Security colas. Of those 21 cities that I was referencing in this prior slide, get the slides to go back of the 21 cities, a little more than half use CPU, some and a little less than half use CPI W. So just to get to the punchline, our recommendation is again for the purpose is for administrative ease is to use the same methodology that is used in the airport living wage policy, which is a CPU, and that would be effective as of July 1st. And that's effective on the current rate of 2673. And that staff recommendation and our presentation. I'm ready for your questions. All right. Thank you. Go to public comment first if we have any. Yes I have ten cards. So I'm going to call you. You don't have to come up in the same order that you're called. But when you hear your name, go ahead and make your way down. Louise Auerhahn, Mark Maloof, Sarah Julien. Desire. Kyankyan. Martha Adami. And then I'll call more names. Go ahead, come up. I'll call more names as you come down. Hi. Good afternoon, council members. Mary Louise Auerhahn with working partnerships. The living wage was one of the first issues that working partnerships took up way back when we were founded. It was that and universal health care for children. And that was because those were the top priorities for community members to keep San Jose a livable city and to try to steer us towards a future not of mass inequality and displacement, but of shared prosperity and inclusion. It's almost three decades later. A lot has changed, but the need for a livable wage and for responsible and culturally competent city services and inclusive and equitable city where our kids can grow up and families can stay. We need that more than ever. The San Jose Living Wage is one small but important piece of that puzzle. It's raised the floor for a generation of contract workers and private companies. Fair pay and in government contracting is also essential to pay equity. As you might know, government employment and government contracting is one of the largest industries for workers of color, for women of color in particular. So setting fair wages here reduces the gender and racial pay gap. But with all that history, it's true. The San Jose living wage does need to be updated. And so I thank city Staff Matt Loesch and the Council for bringing this item forward. We support the move to use the Bay area CPI. However, this fix was needed several years ago and we actually raised this issue first in July 2024 and again more urgently last July. And that delay means that workers paid the living wage, have now gone ten months with a zero increase, and will end up missing a full year. If that missing year is not accounted for, workers will end up with a permanently lower baseline going forward. That's why I urge you to support the memo from council members. Candelas, Campos, Ortiz and Casey to include a catch up adjustment and for the future, urge you also to look at the airport living wage so those workers can reach parity. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is Mark Maloof. I am a business agent with Teamsters Local six six, five, which represents parking workers in the city owned garages here in San Jose. The city's living wage policy is intended to ensure that employees working under city contracts receive fair compensation. That keeps pace with the high cost of living in our area. However, the application of the current methodology for fiscal year 2025 through 26 resulted in no increase to the living wage and the rise in the resulting adjustment was set at $0 $0. This resulted in the lowest paid workers on city contracts not receiving any cost of living adjustment, despite continued increases in the already astronomical cost of housing, food, transportation and other basic necessities across the region. In addition, the previous annual increases amounted to a dollar total over the past three years, which is unacceptable for any city, let alone one as expensive to live in as San Jose. In light of this, the proposed update seeks to restore the intended function of the living wage adjustment by incorporating a one time catch up mechanism. By applying the catch up adjustment, the city can more accurately reflect the cumulative changes in the cost of living, while maintaining a perspective on the approach that avoids administrative and fiscal complexities associated with retroactive pay adjustments. Finally, if the Bureau of Labor Statistics continues, discontinues publication of the Bay area CPU staff will return to City Council with the proposed substitute, including analysis of the likely impact of that substitute on annual wage adjustment amounts. Therefore, we ask you to please consider the catch up adjustment for the San Jose Living Wage Ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker Marcelina Cruz, come on down. And David Rodriguez. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Sarah Julian with Unite Here Local 19. I am proud to represent San Jose workers, including about 500 workers at the San Jose Mineta Airport. We want to thank the council and the staff for all of your hard work and ensuring that the City living wage has an accurate cost of living adjustment, and we push to ensure that the city living wage matches the reality. In San Jose. We want to note that the San Jose Airport living wage is currently more than $6 lower per hour than the city living Wage. Airport workers are the front line ambassadors for the city and are often the first and the last people that visitors interact with. During a trip to San Jose. These workers provide services as retailers, food and beverage attendants, security officers, parking lot attendants, shuttle bus drivers, rental car agency staff and janitors, to name a few occupations that fall under the airport Living Wage ordinance workers under both living wage ordinances should be able to afford to live and work in San Jose. However, the current disparity between the two risks San Jose having a second class living wage and treating airport workers as second class citizens we recognize that there are structural problems at the airport, and we would like to be part of a long term effort to fix them. We ask the council and staff to direct attention to the airport Living wage to reach and maintain wage parity with the San Jose City Living wage. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening everybody. My name is Marta. I'm a San Jose Residents. I work under San Jose Airport. For four years I've been. A wage is important to me because I'm making 1975 per hour and me and my husband, we paid $3,500 per month for rent, plus my very expensive utility bills. I feel so frustrated because I got a feeling the HMS airport employees. We are not important. Increasing the living wage at the airport to match the city living wage will help keep experienced workers at the airport. It is important that San Jose fairly compensated and retain experienced workers who serve as frontline ambassadors for the city and its airport. I ask that you please align the living wage at the airport with the city living wage. Appreciate all your time, guys. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker aura Jiron. Come on down. Drew Siegler and Vanessa Tapia. Got the new council members. My name is David Rodriguez, business agent for Teamsters Local. 350. I represent over 500 members that service your community's. The city's living wage policies intended to ensure workers on city contracts receive fair wages that reflect the rising cost of living. However, the fiscal year of 25 2026, the adjustment was set to $0, meaning that these workers saw no increases despite continued spikes in housing, food and transportation costs. Additionally, the total increases over the past three years have been minimal and do not reflect the reality of living in San Jose. We respectfully urge the city to adopt the proposed catch up adjustment to better reflect the actual cost of living increases, while maintaining a forward looking approach. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is Marcelina Cruz. I have worked at the San Jose airport for 22 years. After 22 years, I'm only making $20 per hour. Covered employees at the airport should not be subject to a second class living wage. I asked that you please align the living wage at the airport with the city. Living wage. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Dia and I'm here with Unite Here Local 19. First off, I want to commend the council and its staff for its reflective adjustments to the city living wage and urge the council to ensure there's a catch up adjustment and accountability and transparency throughout this process. These changes reflect what I know is true about our city, that we want to be a place where all workers can afford to live and contribute to the vibrant diversity of San Jose. We now urge you to look to the improvements necessary with the San Jose Airport Living Wage to make sure that these workers are not treated like second class city workers. Workers who are providing the same services under the city living wage are getting paid $6 more than those who are servicing the San Jose airport. This disparity poses a serious threat to retaining experienced workers at the airport, and it can risk contributing to a downward economic spiral at the airport. Neighboring cities, Oakland and San Francisco have the exact same living wage calculation for both city and airport workers, and this makes sense. Workers living and working in their city face the exact same rising cost of living. Furthermore, we recognize that there are structural problems at the airport, and we would like to be part of the long term effort to resolve those problems. We asked the City Council and city staff to adjust the airport living wage ordinance to reach and maintain wage parity with the city living wage and we're happy to offer assistance to the city staff, including research. Thank you, and thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Vanessa Tapia, and I'm an organizer with the South Bay Labor Council, representing over 100,000 workers and their families. And we urge you to support the memo from council members. Candelas, Campos, Ortiz and Casey. Right now, the the San Jose living wage is falling behind. Since 2020, the cost of living in our region has increased by over 20%. But the living wage has only gone up about 15%. That gap has real consequences for workers, providing vital city services who are already struggling to afford basic needs. And then in July 2025, the city got excuse me, the city got worse. The city set the cost of living adjustment to zero, a zero increase in the middle of an affordability crisis is just absolutely unacceptable. We appreciate the city's effort to fix the formula going forward by using the Bay area CPI, which is an important step, but keeping the zero increase in place creates a permanently lower wage baseline and continues to penalize workers who already lost nearly a year of pay. We cannot allow that loss to become the new normal, so we urge you to support a catch up adjustment to restore the Living wage baseline for 2026 and beyond. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon again. My name is Drew Siegler. I'm with showing up for racial Justice Santa Clara County, and I'm a district three resident, and I'm just speaking in solidarity with the workers. Please support the memo from Candelas, Campos, Ortiz and Casey. You know, like this. This city is next to impossible to live in when on when you're not earning enough. And so just need the baseline. You know, meet, meet the alignment with the, with the rest of the city living wage. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Buenas tardes. Mi nombre es. In Girón. I am a resident of San Jose and have worked at the airport for three years. My name is Laura Girón, I am a resident of San José and I have worked for three years Airport. ES importante tener un salary of Because I face the same affordability crisis as other workers in the city of San Jose. It's important to me. Because I'm dealing with the same Crisis as other workers in the city of San Jose. I ask that you please equalize the living wage at the airport with the living wage in the city. Rely on the living wage at the airport, with the living wage for San Jose City. All right. Thank you. All of our Coming back to the council. We'll go to Councilor Candelas. Oh, I believe there's somebody who. I think we had someone we forgot, someone who was unintentionally skipped. Sir, come on down. Yes. I don't know if you submitted a comment card or not, but we'll go ahead and quickly take your public comment. Yeah. Okay. We must have missed it. Come on down. Go ahead. Sir. Well. Thank you. No problem. And until Emily, I finally got down here. Okay great. James, are you here to talk about a mobile home? Are you here to talk about illegally parked motorhome mobile homes? Because that's open forum. Oh, I do the wrong one. Yeah. We're still on the living wage. Wage? Did you want to talk about living wage or the mobile home? Yeah. So you would be open forum. All right. No problem. We'll let you know when it's open forum. We're getting there. All right. Glad we cleared that up. Candelas. Thank you mayor. Thank you. Everybody who came out to speak on this item. I also want to thank my colleagues. Council members Campos, Ortiz and Casey, as well as the mayor for for their collaboration on this. And then obviously, Director Lesh, for your work and your team's work, not just informing us, but helping us craft a memorandum along with, you know, folks, you know, our key stakeholder, key stakeholder groups like working partnerships. You know, I want to make this point very clear. You know, this proposal will have minimal impact on our city's budget, our largest service contracts like janitorial and security workers are already paying well above the proposed living wage rates, and thus they will not be impacted. And more importantly, living wage policies already apply primarily to certain service contracts above that threshold, meaning that impacts are targeted and not system wide. I think the most substantial aspect of this policy is making sure that we are raising the floor for our lowest paid workers, many of whom are struggling in one of the highest cost of living regions in the entire country. And even with the recent increases, wages often lag behind the true cost of living in Silicon Valley, where incremental wage gains still translates to modest annual increases. You know, the living wage policies are intended to ensure that full time work provides a basic level of economic stability and and dignity quite frankly. And, you know, the memo that we wrote was, you know, intended to respect her in agreements and avoid disruption to ongoing service or contracts. So that was pivotal. And just a quick question for for for Matt, for the director is, you know, maybe you touch a little bit about what happened over the last few years that made our methodology a little murky. So as I said in the presentation, though very briefly, the vendor that we used to help set us that geographic assessment factor had been very consistent over several decades, decided to change their formula for generating that geographic assessment factor that didn't make it so that something we could really understand or even line up to history. And so we tried to validate it multiple ways. And even with their assessment factor and looking at different rates of housing and so forth, looking at our housing department's data, we did not come up with the federal poverty rate, plus that geographic assessment factor to go above the current set rate. And so there is no direction in the policy to lower it. So we didn't lower it. But history shows us 3 or 4 other times in the history of this policy. They just kept it flat and didn't raise it. And so it's not stuff isn't really given any judgment in terms of how that policy was set up. So the, the vendor that we had used, and so we'd like to no longer use them. We'd like to use CPI. And so we just hadn't found the consistency in that through thread for the last 25 years. Thank you. And then, you know, that's that's the perfect setup for the second recommendation or memorandum, which should the Bureau of Labor Statistics cease to publish that Bay area CPU, your CPU, that staff will inform the Council via information memorandum and give us all the information needed to to be able to act and, and and inform our administration on what we do next. So that being said, thank you again, director. And with that, I'll move the memo authored by Council members Campos, Ortiz, Casey and myself. Great. Thanks. Council member, Vice mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Matt, for the presentation. I'm sorry I went to the back room, but I appreciate the briefing that you gave to me earlier and I appreciate the the thoughtfulness in bringing this forward. This update really brings clarity to and consistency to how we can how we calculate the annual living wage. We've had this formula that is confusing and complicated, and the airport uses a different formula that we are proposed to adopt in this. And in the in the memo, I think this is a clear way of creating uniformity doesn't create uniformity in the doll, in the fees that are paid, or the hourly wages that are paid at the airport. That's a different discussion. This is how it relates to the contracts here at the city. And and how you're going to increase those wages on an annual basis going forward. So I support that. I support the memo. I appreciate my colleagues for their thoughtfulness in the memo. And considering the impact of zero wage increase last time around and able to do sort of a true up, I think is, is an excellent idea. So can you tell me I've heard that the impact of the troop is minimal. Can you confirm what that might look like on a budgetary standpoint? So what this does is it changes the wage rate of the workers that are within a contract. It doesn't change the set contract amount. The next time we would negotiate that contract, we would assume that that contract rate would be higher than the current rate, just because they're using different underlying wage rates. So the current rates, these current contracts that are rolling through, they would not be impacted. But the next negotiations will see them. And we're talking about $0.70 or a dollar an hour not talking gigantic raises. And the largest number, the largest contracts that we have are our janitorial contracts and our security guard contracts. And they aren't impacted by that because they're the rates that we have with those vendors are far, far higher than the even proposed living wage rate. So even like the largest contracts, they're not impacted. And the ones that are smaller that in size, they'll be they'll be impacted, but by several, maybe a dollar or so an hour in the next negotiation in future years. So how will the memo affect current contract employees? Well. Effective July 1st, they'll have a new wage rate as the floor from which the that they have to pay the workers that are in those contracts. But there's no back wages. Correct? That's correct. That's what's proposed in the memo. Okay. So they'll just see it going forward. July 30th. July 1st. They'd have a different wage rate. Yes. Regardless of what the contract says. Correct. Okay. All right. Thank you. That that truly helps me. I appreciate that, and I completely support the memo. And thank you for my colleagues for their thoughtfulness. Great. Thank you, Vice Mayor. We'll go no to Council Member Doan. Thank you. Mayor. Thank you, director, for the presentation. To the speaker up there, I, I feel ashamed that you work 20 years and your wage is only $20 an hour. Anyway, the city of San Jose is one of the most expensive places that that, you know, live here in the country. For many of our residents. And homeownership is out of reach and too many families are living paycheck to paycheck. A contract workers deserve a fair, livable wage. There should be no debate about that. These are the custodian or janitorial who take care of our buildings. The security officer would keep our facilities safe, and the tow operator would keep our streets clean and moving. They do essential work to keep our city running every single day, and often they don't. They don't get recognized for it. Many of these workers are immigrant, and they have the responsibility to. And we we have the responsibility to advocate for them. Last year, these contract workers didn't receive their living wage adjustment raise. Yes. That's a gap we cannot ignore. We must do better. And to start with action like this, ensuring our policy protects workers and uphold dignity regardless of their job titles. I urge my colleague to move forward with this resolution and continue working towards a system that truly supports the people who keep San Jose running. Thank you and I yield my time. Thanks Councilmember. We'll go now to Councilmember Ortiz. Thank you mayor. I also want to thank Matt Lush for last week's briefing on this very important item and for his team's thoughtful approach to addressing the inconsistencies in our previous methodology. And of course, all the other worker advocates, union members who are here today sharing your lived experience and the need for worker support by this council. At its core, this conversation is about creating a more consistent and understandable approach to adjusting our living wage year over year. When we rely on clear, transparent metrics such as CPI, we give workers, employers and the public a predictable system that accurately reflects the cost of living in our region. What we saw this past year were our living wage didn't increase at all. Underscores why this matters. Under the current methodology, the adjustment came out to zero, meaning some of the most lowest paid workers on city contracts saw no increase, even as costs continued to rise across the board. That's not the intent of this policy and it's not an outcome we should be comfortable with. That's why I want to express my support for the memo that I've signed on to with council members Candelas, Campos and Casey. It builds on this effort by ensuring that as we transition to a more reliable methodology, we don't leave workers behind by incorporating a one time catch up adjustment, we're acknowledging that gap and ensuring the policy delivers on its promise. To me, this is about fairness and follow through. If we're going to modernize how we calculate these increases, we also have a responsibility to make sure workers actually receive the benefits that change. I just want to thank our staff or our workers who are contractors at the airport. Before I was a council member, a couple years before I was a council member, I was actually a union organizer that helped organize workers at both the airport and at City Hall. And I had the opportunity to sit down with many of these contract workers, discuss kind of their their shortcomings on the job, whether that's protections or worker benefits or rate of pay. And I definitely support making sure that what is provided to City Hall contractors are also provided to contractors at the airport and look forward to future discussions. Thank you so much. Thanks. Council member. All right. I don't see any other hands. Appreciate the memo. The work from director Matt Leitch and our public works department. And with that, I think we're ready to vote. Motion passes unanimously. Great. Thank you. Okay. We are on to item 5.1. This is Connect North San Jose Multimodal Transportation improvement plan. I'll turn it over to John and the team. Thank you. Mayor and Council. John Russell, Director of Transportation with me today is Ramsis Madou, division manager, and Peter Rice, our project manager for this plan. And we're going to try to jump right into the presentation as soon as Pete's ready. Go ahead. Pete. All right. Thank you John. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. I appreciate this opportunity to be here to share connect North San Jose with you all. This is our North San Jose Multimodal Transportation Improvement plan or M tip. It's our fourth tip that we've brought before Council for adoption. Today I'm going to walk you through what the plan is, what we've heard from the community and the improvements that we're recommending. So at its core, this effort is about identifying the transportation improvements that we need in North San Jose that align with community priorities and help us meet our safety and climate goals. At the same time, we're expecting significant growth in this area, which makes these changes necessary and also gives us an opportunity to shape how the transportation system evolves. So that leads directly to our vision statement. For the plan, we envision a safe, equitable and climate friendly transportation network that connects communities within North San Jose and better links it to the rest of the city and region, while supporting economic vitality. To help translate that vision into action, we focused on three goals for this plan access for all 20 minute neighborhoods and reducing driving. These goals are grounded in Move San Jose, which is our adopted citywide transportation plan, and they reflect what we heard early on from the community about what matters most namely safe convenient access to everyday destinations and real transportation options. Beyond driving and across all of this, everything we're recommending is guided by the city's two core goals improving transportation safety and advancing our climate goals. So we spent a lot of time making sure this plan reflects what people actually experience on the ground in North San Jose. That included engaging over 700 community members through workshops pop ups, surveys and stakeholder interviews, all in multiple languages. And importantly, that input didn't just get collected, it directly shaped the recommendations you'll see in the plan. So a few themes came through clearly in our outreach, people want faster, more reliable transit. They want safer working conditions and better bike connections, especially east west connections across major barriers. They want better access to everyday destinations and more places to go, like grocery stores, gathering spaces and other community amenities. And overall, people want real, reliable transportation options, so they have choices in how they get around. So in response to those themes, the plan recommends 29 projects, including eight larger, transformative big moves. Together, these projects improve transit, make walking and biking safer, strengthen local connections, and improve regional access into and out of North San Jose. These are the priority projects that rose to the top based on what we heard from the community and where we think we can make the biggest impact. So first we have the North First Street Transit priority project. This focuses on improving speed and reliability of light rail along North first, while also making it safer and easier for people to access the stations, as well as making it more comfortable for people walking and biking along North First. Next, we have the Slow Streets and Paseo Network. This idea focuses on breaking up the large blocks by adding new local streets and pedestrian connections over time. As the area redevelops. This will make it easier and more direct to walk and bike between destinations. Next we have the Montague First Street grade separation. This project addresses one of the biggest bottlenecks in the transit system by reducing delays at Montague. And first we aim to improve travel time and reliability for light rail, as well as for the vehicles on both corridors. Then we have the Zanker road bicycle and Pedestrian Connection project. This will improve a key north south corridor by making Zanker safer more accessible for people walking and biking, all while maintaining its role in supporting vehicular travel. And then finally, we have the Charlotte Avenue Bicycle Priority Project and the 880 Overcrossing project. These two strengthen a critical east west connection by upgrading shortcut for safer biking and adding a new crossing over 880, making it much easier for people to travel across one of the area's biggest barriers. So what's next? Looking ahead, this plan positions the city to move from planning into implementation. That includes pursuing grant funding to design and build projects coordinating with private development as the area grows, continuing to work with our regional partners like VTA and Caltrans, and advancing our big moves into implementable projects all together, gives us a clear roadmap for how to move forward. Thank you again for your time. Happy to take questions and comments. Thank you. Sorry, just making a quick switch over here. Do we have any public members of the public who wish to speak on this topic? No public comment. Oops. Then do we have any colleagues who wish to speak? No. Is there a motion for approval? I don't see your hand. Council member Cohen okay. Cohen yes, I did. I disconnect you. I'm sorry. Did you reset everything? I'm so sorry. I want to I want to thank you. I mean, obviously this is an important project for North San Jose, and we've been years in the making. And while there's no public comment tonight, there's been a lot of public outreach events after event after event over the years to try to get input about what's important to the residents there. And I'm glad to see some of the things that we've been talking about on this list. Obviously, the two big projects are an overcrossing for light rail. I'm glad it's made the list. I remember when we, right at the beginning of my time on council that I was redirecting that. We'll talk about that in a second, but the shortcut overcrossing and said the more important thing is to get a light rail grade separation. That actually was the conversation when we were settling the lawsuit with San Jose, with with Santa Clara County over north San Jose. They had thought in their infinite wisdom that there should be a flyover at Trimble and Montague, but it's far more effective to improve North San Jose to get grade separation at first and Montague. And so I'm glad that's on the list, and I hope that we'll be able to figure out how to get that funded, because to me, that's really important. Getting more people on light rail in North San Jose is should be a goal. There's a lot more housing getting built, a lot of jobs up there, but it takes twice as long to get there by light rail as it does to drive when you come from downtown. And that's a problem. So we need to fix that. By the way, just to, to, to comment on the Trimble Montague thing, I drive that all the time and I will say there's no backup at Trimble in Montague. The backups are at McCarthy and First Street, and traffic moves smoothly through Trimble. So the fact that the county held out so long for that interchange just shows that they weren't even looking at their own expressway very much. And I also want to make it clear that and actually, I think only Vice mayor and I would have would have trauma over the mentioning of a overcrossing because nobody else was here on this council. When we went through the back and forth on that. But I'm very proud of the fact that when I joined the council, we I got eventually got the agreement of the council to undo a previously approved project there. I see this on the list, but I know what you're talking about now is a bike pedestrian over crossing over 880 at Charco. Is that correct? Yes. And that would be great to do that and get a good bike connection, but not have a road jumping off next to Orchard School. And in North San Jose. So thank you. And I'm going to move approval of the staff recommendation. I have a little PTSD over that conversation, but was glad when you came on to council that we could overturn a previous council's decision. I was I voted no the first time and I voted with you the second time around. So I'm glad to see it come to fruition. Fruition, actually. Council member Mulcahy. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just wanted to recognize the great work on this and district six benefits, sort of as it swoops down in and around the airport and just having spent a week on a learning journey with the folks at reimagining the Civic commons, the fact that we're integrating, you know, other ways to to sort of establish, you know, bike lanes and pedestrian corridors with greening our community. And with all due respect, not just pylons and paint. And I just the more we can do that, I think, you know, the better off we will be in the long run because it really is a intentional way to, you know, improve our environment and also improve our pathways for people and bikes. So I just want to recognize the great work and look forward to implementation of this as we, as we move forward. So thank you. Thank you, Council Member Tordillos. Thank you, vice Mayor. Also just wanted to thank staff for all of the work on this. Particularly excited by some of the improvements proposed for North First Street with the Transit Priority corridor, as well as the light rail grade separations. It always frustrates me when I'm traveling that way and I see light rails just stopped in traffic waiting to move forward. I think over time these will really be important investments to both connect people in downtown, up to a lot of the job centers that are developing up in North San Jose, as well as collecting, connecting a lot of the residential capacity that we anticipate in North San Jose to all of the amenities that we have downtown. So very excited about this work. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no other hands. Let's vote. Motion passes unanimously with all present. And Mayor Mahan is absent. Great. Thank you. Next is item 8.1, establishment of the East Village Business Improvement District. Do we have a presentation? No. Okay then. Is there any public comment? I have no cards for this item. Okay. Council member Tordillos. Continue to be very excited by the potential of the East Village Business Improvement District to generate some funds to invest in beautification and marketing for this important business corridor. So with that, I will move approval. I have a motion and a second. Is there any comment? No. Changed your mind? Okay, then let's vote. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. Moving to the last item of the formal agenda. Item 8.2 providing Access and transforming health capacity and infrastructure transition, expansion and development. Intergovernmental transfer grant funding for California. Advancing an innovative Medi-Cal readiness and implementation. That's a mouthful, but that gave you enough time to get down to the box. Thank you. Councilmember. I'll go through a brief presentation regarding our implementation. Plan of the Cal. Grant that we had received as a partial grant. The matching funds we're going to provide and how we're intending to build out the administrative infrastructure to receive these reimbursements beginning at just three sides, and then building it out system wide. So first very quickly. So Cal aim is just it's Medicaid. It is just a reimbursable for how the state of California provides these services to our lowest income residents, particularly those who are unsheltered and how we're going to be building that into our delivery of service system throughout the entire 22 sites within our city shelter system. And this reflects the continuing work that we do around our focus area for reducing unsheltered homelessness, as it'll be an additional revenue stream for service reimbursement. Overall, what the past grant presents is an opportunity for us to pilot out the administrative framework for how these reimbursements will work. Our three targeted sites will include Sironi, which is our most recent site that we opened, followed by Cherry and Evans Lane. The goal is to build out this administrative framework so we can test run what choline reimbursements for both our housing, navigation and housing services side, as well as what's called our ECM or direct Emergency billable will provide, which is the services for medical and behavioral health that we're providing to residents at the site and then receiving, according reimbursements. So the quick overview of the grant, what we're asking for authorization today is the 1.3 million that we received from the state grant, the matching funds that will be providing for a total funding of 2.6 million to help support this administrative build out. The timeline is the next over the next 12 to 18 months, we're beginning to work with our service provider partners, as well as a number of other technical assistance consultants as and the county to build out this administrative framework. What we're doing is effectively medical billing and coding, and we're providing a service. We're billing that back to Medicaid. That's effectively in a very simplified form. What this program is and how we would look to launch the site. The intended outcomes for this is to first build out an effective system that is efficiently run, as well as effectively run under our healthcare systems provided within the county. Then two look at ways in which we can optimize this to set up a scalable model that can grow to all shelter sites. And then lastly, once that framework is in place, we will then look to set up year one targets for rolling out this program throughout the entire system with an anticipated revenue sources that were working through some financial modeling. Now as to how much minus expenses net revenue will be able to receive within the system. And so this grant is just basically providing that opportunity to fully explore under the council direction as committed to within the focus areas to build up our framework. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak on this topic? I have no cards for this item. Okay. Very good. I'll move back to council then. Council Member Campos. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And thank you, Eric, for the presentation. I just have one quick question for clarification. The report indicates that the city owned emergency interim housing sites will use the county's coordinated entry system. So does this mean that residents from other cities outside of San Jose are going to be placed in the. I s? So the build out an agreement with the county as we look to synchronize the shelter system is to continue to prioritize. San Jose residents. Could there be occurrences where there are non San Jose residents within the system? For those identified beds, that is a probability. But given that San Jose residents typically make up over 70% of the current here for you hotline waitlists, that probability is relatively small. Thank you for that. I agree. I think it's sometimes a little known fact that a lot of people who are experiencing homelessness in our city and our county. Are living in the zip codes within our city and our county. Prior to that experience of homelessness. And so I appreciate the confirmation that we are prioritizing San Jose residents at all opportunities and acknowledging that there is a slight chance, though very limited, that we might not get people from San Jose. I know this council is really looking for all opportunities to make sure that our our residents and particularly our for myself and some of my colleagues, agree with me that our youngest residents trying to stabilize them in our city. So thank. You. Councilmember Candelas. Thank you, Vice Mayor Eric, thank you for your presentation and your work on this. With regards to the Kelim system, I guess, you know, obviously this work is complex, but one that's necessary in achieving the long term financial viability of our of our shelter system. And so, you know, in the long run, how much do you think we stand to save on our overall shelter costs through this implementation and direct like city dollars? So we are going through the financial modeling for that. Now, what I mentioned is, as I've shared with many of you during our one on one meetings, this is not provide an enormous stream of revenue, but it provides a significant stream of potential revenue based on the build out of it. What we're looking at now is somewhere between, I guess, 7 to 9 million a year. Again, it very much depends on what is the how many high users of the system. There are enrollment within the system. So there are a lot of variables within this build out. And that's part of the work of this pilot is to better refine. How do we efficiently ensure we enroll 100% of everyone who's in the beds at any given time? How do we then ensure that their access to services were properly medical billing and coding that so we can receive the reimbursements? So there's a lot of administrative work. Again, it's not a large stream, but it's a significant stream that could potentially look to reduce some of our existing shelter costs. Totally. And you know, this, this also takes, you know, city city investment as well, upfront funding and, you know, 7 to $9 million per year is $79 million that can go towards libraries, prevention programs, police officers, firefighters, etc. you name it. So I appreciate, I appreciate your work on this. And, you know, I think this is obviously part of the broader conversation. As Council Member Campos mentioned, you know, collaborating with our partner, government agencies like the county and the state is and how we as a city play a role in our overall housing continuum of care, if you will. And I appreciate your work on this. And I look forward to to seeing this this program fully, fully up and implemented that. I don't think anybody's moved this item. So with that, I'll move approval of the staff recommendation on this. Item. Thank you. I have a motion and a second council member. Mulcahy. Thank you, Vice Mayor Eric, thank you so much. You continue to bring efficient opportunities to us. And thank you for that. I'm curious how the three pilot sites were determined. If I missed it in the report, I apologize, but if you could articulate the three sites in particular. Yes. So the three sites were picked based on three general factors. One is what is the potential needs of the existing residents at the site? Where are they effectively on the Vespa scale. So they are either going to be highly eligible to enroll. Two is existing providers. So Home First operates those two sites. They have experience with doing an ECM Medicaid bill out. So they were also a good candidate for this. And then three, looking at where the locations within the sites are there for the administration of these services and for building out some of that administrative capacity. Some of this is actually putting some efforts into locations to build out this medical building. So those three factors were the primary considerations for the selection of these three. That's not to say there are other sites that didn't meet this criteria. However, we just chose these three sites because they're of significant size to show whether or not, you know, our revenue projection models are going to be met. Given the just the size of these three sites. So in the case of Evans Lane, more family kind of driven, does that did that come into play as well? The, the, the different folks that are being serviced at these different sites? So Evans Lane is a family site just presented a new opportunity to sort of look at this from a different perspective and not just an individual service delivery, where we can also capture some youth who are at the site. In addition, path, who is a service provider there has had some exposure to this work in their work in LA. So we're effectively testing two different service providers with the build outs are so we can get a comparable test run. Regarding the administrative build out, what are some efficiencies and effectiveness we need to look at as we do a multi provider system across the entire shelter system. Got it. Thank you. That's helpful. And then since it is a pilot, what is your expectation of how much how much time you'll need in order to sort of, you know, give us a report back? Hey, this is how it's working. This is what we're thinking about for further rollout. What's your timing? I hope that by the end of the first 12 months, we will have a good sense regarding how effective is this is in building out the administrative framework to are we able to achieve our revenue projections that were originally built into the model? And then three, based on those revenue projections and administrative modeling, what rollout at the different sites would look like on a time schedule. So we're going to learn a lot from this pilot. I will also just ask this, that we could also learn that maybe this isn't as effective as we thought it was. As we kind of go through this. I don't foresee that happening, but anything is possible as you're going through a piloting site, as we're dipping way into sort of direct service delivery around health care provision and medical billing and coding. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no other hands raised. Toni, let's vote. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Now we move into open forum. Toni, how many comment cards do we have? Oh, I didn't count. I think it's ten. I'm sorry. Ten. Okay. Thank you. 12. 13. 15. Actually, it's 15. When I call your name, please come down. First person the microphone. Go ahead and start speaking. The others line up behind. I'll call about five names at a time. And then I keep an eye on this little mirror and continue to add names as the line gets smaller. James. Greg, I think it's Greg James. You came down already. So Eamon Gormley, drew. Siegler, Shanti Thomas and Kim Guptill come on down. Yes. Thank you for listening to me. My name is Jim Gray. I live on Akron way, way, so everybody knows it's a narrow street except 311. And the motor home that parks in front of my house is one foot into the emergency lane, and it's been there for three months. And I'm tired of it. And I tried last time I was here not last, but the time before and got this started. The code San Jose code 1136 050 says there has to be ten feet from the center of the road to the edge of the road and that is the emergency lane. And that is not to be. Since parked on and this is maybe a small little deal because motor homes only parked one foot onto the emergency lane. So maybe we shouldn't worry about it. Except if there's a wreck and somebody in that motor home gets hurt. I think it's going to be the city of San Jose that pays the bills. And for me. I want to be able to have an ambulance come to my house when? On Saturday, when all the cars are parked and there's no room. I want to be safe too, so that is my. Thank you. Council lady. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi Council members. My name is Shanti Thomas. I'm from the jungle. Why don't y'all build tiny homes at the jungle and start taking it away from the jungle? That's where we live. That's what we love. Can you leave us there? That's all I want to. Know. Thank you. Next speaker. I'd also like to call Azazel Holmquist, Batman and Rachel. Mina. Come on down. My name is Drew Siegler. I'm from Santa Clara County. I'm a resident of D3, and we have a bunch of people here today for Open forum that are currently being swept in the jungle. And I hope you really listen to what they have to say and take heart and, and take action and what they're calling for. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi, I'm Kim Guptill and I am a resident of D6 and I am a member of showing up for racial justice. And we are here to simply ask the mayor and the city Council to keep their promises. I would say more strongly, we demand that the city leaders stop sweeping humans from their places of refuge like so much garbage. That's how they're being treated. You know, the demand pause, the sweeps until folks have received written notification that's been confirmed of their status and in their spoken language. I'm sure you've seen this so that they can plan accordingly. It's just kind of basic human decency. I think you guys understand that. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello. Good evening, City Council members. My name is Azazel Holmquist. I'm a member of surge, and a resident of district six in San Jose. Please pause the abatement at the jungle camp until everyone is adequately placed, meaning tiny homes or motels are up to code and safe with access to bus passes. Transportation costs are unavailable and will trap residents in Sironi path is not able to reach everyone and more time is needed. Not everyone has been helped. The agreement for housing is unreasonable. Also, if a person is suffering from systemic abuse, it is met with the kind of terms the city is asking is unreasonable and it is doomed to fail. Back to the drawing board please. I have lived unhoused experience six months. Interim housing is nowhere near enough time to heal and to get on track. Multiple resources are needed. We need whole person care and the need for resources that are adequate that are adequate, and needs the needs to be addressed in the very near future. There are also many different aspects to being unhoused. Medication issues for mental health. That takes time to address trauma. PTSD is very different than PTSD, and we're dealing with people with PTSD. Addiction is not viewed correctly. Addiction is a disease. It is something that we choose to do to avoid the emotional distress. It is not something we are trying to have fun in. The lack of equal education and information. Homelessness is an institution. It needs to be treated differently than it is being is being treated currently. When I first got housed after being homeless, I slept on the balcony of my apartment that I got from the YWCA from June until until November, because my brain could not adjust. Please take these into. Consider these into consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. So accountability is a term that we hear thrown around all the time when we're discussing homelessness in San Jose. I believe that accountability is a two way street. I believe that if you want to hold someone accountable, you are equally accountable to that person. I have noticed a severe lack of accountability on the part of the city of San Jose. When it comes to the jungle encampment sweep. over 109 people signed up for housing and city services. They went through the proper channels. They did everything they were supposed to do, and many people are now finding that they're going to be denied aid. In one case that I was present for an individual who was on the list fr housing had all of their belongings taken from them and destroyed. Because your contractors refused to check the list for her name. If you don't understand, the process is if you've signed up for housing, you get to stay where you are until you get picked up and brought to your location. That did not happen and that has not been happening. People are doing their best to cooperate with your demands. I say demands very intentionally. People are doing their part. They are owning their accountability. You are failing them. I am demanding that you stop sweeping people without first housing them. I demand that you hold yourself accountable or you will be held accountable. Thank you. Next speaker. I'm Filomena, come on down. And Jasmine Berry. Good evening, City Council. My name is Rachel. I am the acting directing attorney of the health program with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. I am also a San Jose resident and a member of district six. I'm here on behalf of the Law Foundation and in support of organizations and jungle residents who are requesting a temporary but immediate halt to the encampment sweep. I have been on site at the jungle multiple days over the last two weeks, and I have witnessed the actual harm the sweep is having on humans. Many jungle residents have requested but not received necessary accommodations to allow them to move safely. And I'll repeat that they've requested, but have heard nothing from the city in response to their reasonable accommodation requests. The city of San Jose is required to actively engage in the accommodation process, and a halt to the sweeps would allow the city and the jungle residents to properly avail themselves of this legal right. Other jungle residents have been promised housing. However, the city has failed to fulfill this promise. Some folks have housing, but many other folks who are living at the jungle have been placed on a waiting list for here for you, or have been sent to junk to Tent City. This is not housing. the jungle. This is an inappropriate stopgap. This is not actual housing. Moreover, certain jungle residents are being moved. As you may know, to Sironi, which is not ready to house folks. For example, we've heard reports from Sironi directly that their electrical panels are not sufficiently prepared to house multiple residents. These issues, as well as many others, need to be resolved before the sweep continues. There's no reason why a halt temporarily. I'm sorry your time is. Up next. Speaker Angel, Emma and Lori, come on down. My name is Angela. Was recently housed at Villa del Oro Tiny homes until I got incarcerated on January 24th. For past legal matters, their policy. After 21 days of no physical contact with staff or away from the facility, you are considered to have abandoned and forfeited your spot at the tiny homes. So I got out of jail on April 9th and went back to the Coyote Creek encampment, and there was a lot of people that are now wanting and ready to transition to the tents or tiny homes. I was mistreated and discriminated against by the tiny home staff prior to my incarceration. I was not given my right to have my emotional support animal on the facility, the Fair Housing Amendment and other laws that protect people with disabilities physical emotional, and mental health issues. I was told that the encampment at Watson Park encampment was not a priority anymore, but I believe that everyone has been and are that are still living near the creek and in the Meadowlands of the Coyote Creek should all be priority until we get everyone away from the water and allow us to transition into the community and be provided with services that protect people and guide us with this life changing opportunity to be able to enter back into the community and become law abiding citizens and future taxpayers. And I was deeply affected in this. And emotionally, my dog died. And because I wasn't able to have my my animal there, they violated a lot of my rights. And I can't really speak for myself because I have so many emotions. And I'm glad that I got my, my legal matters taken care of because now I can step up, but I just don't know how. I'm just so, so hurt and so untrusting. And I want to let my other friends know that this is a good place and I want to. I want them to know that it's a good future, you know, to to be. Thank you. That's your time. Hi, I'm Jasmine Berry and I've been homeless for now 20 years in your guys's community in the jungle, no less. On and off. I've been a helper of my community for many, many years. Nonstop. Like it's it's. And I also got housing too. But what I, what I was complaining on is basically whenever you house us, you have, let's say, okay, the 109 people that, that signed up and then you have 168 units in Sironi. And why couldn't we just house the whole 109 and, you know, finish your guys's supposed goal of housing the community, right? So it just numbers to me, I think of numbers 100 and 968 units. And then there was only, there was another placement of 90 people that were not from the jungle placed in Sironi, which didn't make sense to me. And now we are lacking of like 48 you guys, 48 people that haven't been housed. So now I jus