of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So we just came out of the closed session. There's nothing to report. And let's go to agenda item three, presentations and the proclamations. 3.1, recognition of the Dublin Rotary for their donation to the City of Dublin for planting trees. Dublin Rotary made a $2,000 donation to the City of Dublin to be used to plant trees in the City of Dublin. The City Council would like to recognize Dublin Rotary with a certificate of recognition and formally accept the donation. So I would like to invite the Rotary members, Chris Hobbs, come over and all the other Rotary members. Thank you. You have a few words to share with us? I do thank you, Madam Mayor, Council. On behalf of the Dublin Rotary Club and the Dublin Rotary Foundation, we appreciate the recognition. The city's been an excellent partner to our club and our foundation, and so we're excited to be able to do this work with the city. And we're just really glad that we were able to do this. Thank you so much. And we're proud to be the Rotary member as well. And I would like to invite you to come over to accept this certificate. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for the donuts. 3.2, Employee Introductions. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council, and Fox Chief of Police. Please join me in welcoming Natalie Guerrero as our new Office Assistant II in the Dublin Police Services Records Unit. Natalie grew up in San Ramon. She graduated from Cal State East Bay with a BA in Liberal Studies. Natalie comes to the city of Dublin with 28 years of work experience in the private sector. She spent over 20 years in the mortgage industry and was most recently an office secretary with the Saramone Valley Unified School District. In her free time, she loves spending time with her husband, two daughters, and extended family. Natalie is very excited to be joining the city of Dublin and working with the amazing staff at Dublin Police Services. With that, I'll turn it over to Natalie for a few words. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I'm so happy to be working here with the city of Dublin and specifically with the police services. And I look forward to a long career here in the city of Dublin. So welcome, Natalie. We're so glad to have you here and especially join our most important, one of the most important, the safety organization here for the Dublin Police. Thank you so much. And would you like to come over? We want to present. a little gift to you. We look forward to working with you. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Tonight, it's my pleasure to introduce Brittany Miranda to you. Brittany is the newest member of the Community Development Department. She works as an office assistant to You will find her up front at the front counter helping the public as they come in. She may be a familiar face to you. She's been working on a temporary basis helping economic development with business licenses. So Brittany was born in Southern California and has lived in the Dublin area for the last 10 years. In her spare time, she enjoys spending quality time with her family, hosting dance parties with her daughter, and exploring new places. We're very excited to have her. Please help me in welcoming her. Welcome. You want to say a few words? Sure. Yes, thank you. I'm honored to be here and excited to serve the Dublin community. Thank you. Thank you. Please come over and we know you will be a great addition to our city. Thanks. So public comment. At this time, the public is permitted to address the City Council on non-agenda items. Please step to the podium and clearly state your name for the record. Comments should not exceed three minutes. Mayor, I have four speakers here in the chamber. So the first speaker is Dimitri Novokatsky. The members of City Council, thank you for this opportunity. My name is Dmitry Novakotsky. I'm with EcoGreen Solutions. We are an energy service company certified by the Department of Energy, and we're a trade professional for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. And I'm here to inform City Council about the On-Bill Finance Program by PG&E. On-Bill Finance Program, or OBF, is an energy efficiency program. that helps cities and the businesses in the city upgrade energy facilities like outdated lights, parts of HVAC, pumps, motors, some other equipment with no additional budget. No front costs, no money out of the pocket for the city. All the project costs are fully covered by the savings generated. And this program is implemented through the service companies like us. That's why I'm here to present it. And specifically EcoGreen has significant experience in this area with more than 2000 projects all across California. And currently we consume approximately 70% of OVF. And the role of the service companies is not only to get those funds from PG&E for the city, but also to initiate the process with the mandatory stage, which is energy assessment or energy audit that is also provided for the city at no cost. And the energy assessment report has all the information on the further decision making on participating in the program, which includes all the information, all the proposed improvements, as well as calculated savings, both in kilowatts and in dollars. Currently, this program is very popular. We just completed a series of Davis. City of Pacifica are currently working with energy assessment for the city of Millbrae and the Walnut Creek. And currently it's very popular due to the California bill 2208 specifically, which as we all know, like bands all fluorescent lights. And this is just another great opportunity for the city as well as businesses to get rid of this outdated fluorescent bulbs with mercury and replace it with LED fixtures at no additional cost. And due to the nature of this type of engagements that involves the utility company and the city, as a rule, they are implemented as a sole source agreement based on California Government Code 4217. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much. Thanks for bringing this good measure to our city. And if you need help with the city staff, reach out to us later. Thank you. Mayor, the next speaker is Hari Cothrans. Go ahead. Good evening, Mayor, city council members, and fellow community members. My name is Harika Thirani, and I'm here to introduce a platform I can believe can transform the way we engage with our local government. Open Governance, or opgov.ai. Every day, decisions are made in meetings like this one. Decisions that shape our neighborhoods, schools, transportation and how our tax dollars are spent. But for many citizens, accessing and understanding what's going on behind those decisions is difficult. Why? Because 80% of that effort in solving community problems is spent just trying to figure out what's actually going on. The remaining 20%, what little energy we have left, is all that's available to actually solve the problem. Think about it. We're expected to sit through three to four hours of video, dig through long, often incomplete summaries, or hunt down details that might not even be there. And if you miss a meeting or you can't attend in person, the barrier becomes even higher. That's where open governance comes in. OPGov is a website that makes city council and school board meetings easy to access and understand. For each meeting, it provides a summary of what happened, the key takeaways, a list of speakers, the video link, and the full transcript, searchable and readable. But it's more than just convenience. It's about clarity, transparency, and empowerment. This platform helps residents understand local issues, whether it's about land use, budgets, or school policy, without having to be policy experts or dedicate hours to decoding government speak. OpGov.ai enables residents to find the problem faster so we can work together to solve it better. It's a tool to engage more voices, to hold our institutions accountable, and to increase participation in local committees, commissions, and conversations that shape our city's future. Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much. Mayor, the next speaker is Zathia Gunnison. Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. Before I start, I want to thank Hari for the wonderful introduction of our initiative and its importance. And my name is Satya Ganesan. I am an upcoming sophomore at Emerald High School, as well as a passionate Dublin citizen. And I am the marketing director of this initiative, Open Governance. In any city council, Public comments are a vital part, and it's a chance for citizens to uphold the First Amendment. In Dublin's meeting minutes, the names of public commenters are listed, and that's it. This makes it incredibly difficult for residents who missed a live meeting to know what their fellow citizens said. And they would need to go through long three- to four-hour video recordings twice a month, which is not easy and possible for many. This is where our initiative, Open Governance, comes in. It makes everything easier. Our plan and platform is to use AI to summarize city council meetings, and we provide summaries, key points, and the names of public commenters. And we also additionally provide what they said in a summary format. This makes it easier and empowers more residents to stay informed, get involved, and feel heard. We invite the City of Dublin and all community members to get involved in this initiative and consider adding summaries to public comments to make it easier for our residents to get involved. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor, the next speaker is Chirag Kuthurani. Hello, Mayor and the council members, as well as the city staff. I'm here to address the key issue is the climate super fund bill, which is up in 2026. So there are a lot of the major challenge here is we are seeing the increasing number of wildfires, which affect our community directly because we are a hilly community here in Dublin. So we need to. basically address this issue and this particular bill basically take gives a extra budget for all of this by charging those polluters who have done over the period of time and it also creates a new well-paying jobs in the in the transition industry in solar industry in electrification industry this will also give a budget for transforming the electrification of the entire ecosystem Fossil fuel is known to be the most important factor to the climate change. And I would like all the council members, each and every one of them, to support this bill individually. Because when we support it, when our community is asking, our leaders should also support it. And I'm pretty sure many of you guys are aware of all the climate challenges. And I would like to hear if there is any kind of concerns from any of the city council members. I can address those as well. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. So next we progress to agenda item five, consent calendar. Consent calendar items are typically non-controversial in nature and are considered for approval by the city council with one single action. So I want to ask council members, are there any questions or comments you want to make for the consent calendars? I pull 510, please. 510. Okay. Any other comments? I was also going to pull 510. 510? Yeah. That's the only one. 5.6. 5.6? For clarifying questions. For clarifying questions. We can clarify questions. So we can approve the rest of them first, and then we go to 5.6 and 5.10. Okay. Madam Mayor, I'm happy to move that we approve the consent calendar minus items 5.6 and 5.10. And I'll second. Okay, we have first and second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passed unanimously. Let's go to 5.6, amendment to the letter of agreement with the Dublin-Saint-Romain service district for continued administration of sewer capacity assistance program. Do you have something to present, Felicia? Mayor, I don't think staff is prepared to present, but we're prepared to answer questions. Yeah, I just had a question about this. I understand this is longstanding and this is essentially giving a credit to new businesses that are trying to enter our city based on excess sewer capacity that the city and DSRSD have. Extending this for another 10 years, does that preclude us from taking some of those credits ourselves if we need them in terms of city buildings that might be going on online in the next 10 years. Excuse me. No, so I think there's kind of two things here. One is the DOEs have already been allocated to this program, but we can certainly have a conversation with DSRSD as this item requires us to have a plan for usage, and potentially we can recommend that one plan for usage is that some of these credits go towards future city projects. Additionally, we're also exploring if there are additional excess capacities on other properties that we can also allocate towards future projects. Okay, so this isn't putting the community or the city at a disadvantage by accepting this in that if we were to bring something online, we could reallocate and have a conversation with DSRSD. Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Okay, thank you. So move to 5.10. Do we want to approve that one and get it out of the way before we move on or would you rather do them together? That's what I'm doing, just trying to get together. Is that okay? Okay, 5.10, mayor's appointment. to Heritage and Cultural Art Commission and the Senior Center Advisory Committee on scheduled vacancies. You have question, right? Yeah, I do. I'll start off really quickly. Maybe you can share with us because you have better insight. We're asked to approve these folks here among a number of other applicants. and we've reviewed the applications, but that's all we see. We don't see anything else. And I was wondering if you could share with us, Mayor, the process that you went through, not necessarily in great detail, but just the general process that you went through. Did you interview all of them? What was the methodology you took to selecting these individuals? Yeah. So for the Heritage and Cultural Arts Commission, applications. There are seven applicants and I actually know many of them from different situations, from even community events or from some other situations. So as what happened in the past, it's always great for so many community members. They are active and they want to volunteer their time. to contribute to the city's work. So I really appreciate. So as long as a process, I just pick, I just have to say everybody is qualified. I don't only have a one opening. So I picked a candidate. I feel comfortable and I feel they have already done a lot of community activities and they are familiar with how things working. And I believe they can be a great team member to contribute to this commission work. Okay, then let me get a little more specific. There were some very good candidates, including the one that you selected. But there is also at least one of those candidates was very well qualified and was already an alternate. And so I'd like to get your Your general, convey to me your general reasoning for skipping that individual who I thought the application was very clear, very passionate. So I'm just wondering what was going on with that. Which one you were thinking? The heritage. Heritage? Are you thinking about alternative? Yeah. So I actually, I know her very well as well. And I talked to her about this. She talked to me, actually. And also, she also knew what I picked. She also came to me. She said, that's a very good pick. I know her very, very well. I was a young male person. I choose for this because that's what I believe is a very good addition to the overall, these art commissioners. And he's very active. He has done a lot of community engagement in different events. He spoke at different events. So I also know this young male individual very well. And that's how my decision was made. I don't know if anybody else has any comments on this particular item. Yeah, I have questions. Thank you. My question is similar, and it's about alternates. This isn't the first time that you've recommended not moving the alternate up into the voting position. And I wanted to hear more of your thinking about that process, because it's my understanding that when we decided to have alternates on these commissions, that certainly it is not a guarantee to move up, but that And when we talked about having alternates, we almost made it a guarantee that if there was a position vacant, that the alternate would automatically move up. And we decided not to do that in case there was a situation where an alternate was problematic, right? But that, you know, there should still be an application process, but that the assumption would be that the alternates would move up unless there was a problem. And so I wanted to hear your thinking on the alternate process, because this isn't the first time you've bypassed an alternate who is showing up, doing the work, well-qualified, and yet they are continuing to be bypassed for a voting role. So they can still participate in the process, but not vote. And yet a new person is basically leapfrogging them on the committee. And then, you know, that's the recommendation. So can you explain your thinking on that? Yeah. So I know we would like to give opportunities if they are already there and they still want to look for more permanent committee member position. We understand this. For this particular situation, I did look at both of them and I didn't know both of them very well. And this alternative member actually has, I have known her for many, many years and she's, I can call her a friend of me. And I just have to say, when I look at overall situation, I did look at the overall team, you know, what would make a big, team working together, working better. And I was so happy, actually, because I talked to multiple art commission members over the past couple weeks, and I know they are all welcome, these new members, to join them. They're all excited, actually, including this alternate member. Right, and I have nothing against the, you know, also, we all know the person that you're putting up, but if you elevate the alternate, that creates a vacancy that the new person can be appointed to as well. My concern is the alternates who never get a chance to vote. Do we have, I'm sorry, I'm going to interrupt myself to ask, is there public comment on this issue, on this item? I have no public comment. Okay, good. I didn't want to, I'm sorry to, I just don't want to advocate if there was public comment yet. So I'll advocate in addition to questions if you're okay with that. My concern is for the process, not the people. I think that the person that you've picked will be great on the Heritage and Cultural Arts Commission. My concern is that if we multiple times bypass the alternate, then we will suppress the interest of people wanting to be alternates because they won't feel like they are going to get an opportunity to move into the voting position. And so if we are in the habit of not... elevating the alternates, but leaving them as an alternate and putting someone else into the voting role, then we aren't creating the pipeline that was the intent of the alternate. So my concern is that this is not the first time that that recommendation has come forward. And so I would much prefer us, if we have an alternate who is doing the work, interested in moving up, that unless there is a reason that that person shouldn't continue to serve, because she will still be on the Heritage and Cultural Arts Commission, she just won't get a vote. And if we'd elevated her instead, then that creates the vacancy to still make your appointment. I see your point. Yeah, thank you. I see your point. That's exactly why for the senior center commission position, I recommend one of the alternate positions. So I take that seriously, and I do know the people very well, and I consider multiple reasons, demographically, you know, like different reasons, I think that will make this team just more complete and more engaged and more, what do you say, like active in the way they can perform their task. But I point you out. I appreciate your points. And my my point is similar to hers. It's I like your candidate. I just want to make sure that we we keep the the bench warm. We build the strength and we're not just dismissing these people. So that's really, really important. Thank you. I have your points. And is that we done with this one? Yeah. Yeah. I just as it stands now, just because of the process, I can't support this. this appointment. I would love to be able to support the person you're naming to an alternate role once we've moved that alternate up. And so when we get to the vote tonight, I'm trying to explain my reasoning that I can't support that appointment to the Heritage and Cultural Arts Commission this evening if your recommendation remains as it is listed in the staff report. Yeah, I'll remain this because I do know each of them very well. And I know our commissioners have already talked to me about how excited that they are looking forward to have this new member to join them. And including this alternative member told me how excited she would be like supporting this decision. So I will look for somebody to help to move this motion. We still have questions on the other one as well. 510 involves two different recommendations. And I wanted to point out that I believe we go through a very good process at selecting people. We have an application process. You go through and you interview people you have in the past. And I respect that because not a lot of people have that time. I also know that there are people and there are many people that are qualified. I read all of those applications. And again, it comes back to what we see, right? And in this case, you have moved an alternate up. But I was a little underwhelmed at the application, to be quite honest with you. There was nothing on there. You had another alternate. who was very articulate, very clear, and showed passion and has been there. And that person was not chosen. But this other individual, I don't know much about this individual. I hear he's community engaged. I hear he's a very good person. I don't really know that. It wasn't conveyed in the application. And so I was a little disturbed that we – while we – we are holding to process in a way, we're dismissing, in my opinion, the importance of the application. Every one of those other people submitted, contributed, invested time in their applications and said, hey, you know, this is why, right? This is why I want to be part of this team. There was nothing on that first application, zero. And to me, that was an incomplete application. Regardless of what we believe this individual is capable of or has done, I know nothing about that. All I saw was this application. And again, I was impressed with the applicants, the other applicants. And I was curious as to why that was allowed in the process. So it's a question to you on that. process. So comes another thing. I appointed both of them as alternate. Yeah. So I actually know both of them very well. And I know what they have done for the community in the past. So the person I picked, all of them are great. You know, they have done other community work and they put them out there and volunteer a lot of work. So he specifically have done a lot of volunteering work. He was recognized as a citizen of the over the city one year. I have to remember exactly how we... I forgot exactly the position, but he has done so much. He's leading that... What do you call this? Lions Association? Lions Club. Yeah, Lions Club. In the past, it's just like 20, 30 years of... a lot of volunteering work, a lot of contributing to the city's events. I just know them so well. I just have to say, I pick people for the reason of the overall team and what fitted this overall, what would be even stronger. Everybody is qualified. It's hard for me to pick each of them. like any one of them, it's hard. I have to say for everybody, I really appreciate, and I really appreciate both of you spend time looking into these applications and to think about this. I really appreciate it. It's hard for we only pick one person. I wish there were numerous, like more opportunity for everybody. But we do have a lot of volunteering positions in different city events. So for whoever applied, we appreciate you and we recognize your effort. We really want to get more chance to know you. And we do have a city volunteering events throughout the year. So Pride Week is one of the events we do. This is normally in the springtime. And also we have this, I think it's another volunteering event. to cleaning the cricks, right? What do they call this? And also we have this splatter, all these events throughout the year. And there are just a lot of things to do. And nonprofit organizations, we all need a lot of great people to be in different places. Another good news is we have this inside doubling training, like this web seminars will come in October-ish. and that's a great time to know how city works and then also a good time for us to know them. So I just want more people, everybody who applied, you know, appreciate you and there's a good engagement programs we have to join more program and to understand more how things work in the city and then to contribute more together with everybody. I appreciate that, Madam Mayor, and I do respect your position. My concern is it's not just process. When an application isn't completely filled, as is the case here, a lot of things go through your head, right? And if the process is skipped and an alternate is skipped over, You start wondering why. And if you haven't heard anything negative about these individuals, what I will say is that we absolutely need to be fair to everyone. This is not a personal preference thing. We need to avoid any inference of that. And I know and I don't want it. I'm not trying to be insulting. I just need to be clear and transparent when we make these selections. It's not about personal preference. And we need to focus on what these individuals can truly bring to the table. And you are the doorway, as far as I see. You bring them to us. But we need to have that information in front of us to make a clear decision about who we want represented. And in the end, to me, it's about making sure that the people we It's not necessarily about, hey, look, I was alternate. Nothing's guaranteed. It's about, like you said, making sure that the people that we're bringing in are the best and most qualified and experienced for that responsibility. So I'm having a little struggle here. That's why I'm bringing this thing up. Normally, you give us some good recommendations, but in this case – One might be premature. Another one I'm just kind of vacillating over. Okay. To be honest, I'm struggling a bit as well. You know, I understand the process as a whole. I'm seeing a lack of transparency in terms of the applications, right? Like we obviously, you know, the remainder of the council did not interview any of the applicants. We didn't go through that. What I'm seeing, I concur with Council Member McQuarrison, right? It's lacking in terms of that application. And if we were judging or trying to assess the qualifications of a candidate based on their application, that one in particular would score quite low. I think there's a process and we should... you know, as Council Member Josie was sort of speaking to, you know, we have sort of a set process in terms of how we would like to approach this. Obviously, nothing is guaranteed. I'd like to see a little, I would love to hear more compelling reasons as to why we, you know, overstepped alternates and went with a new applicant for full of responsibilities, right, and not kind of going through the alternate route. having been an alternate myself, right? Like I see that as a stepping stone, get involved and then move, potentially move up and progress, you know, on commissions. And with the senior one, right? Like I'm really struggling with the application just because there were hardly one-liners. So, Connie, I want to ask you, what's our record, like a normal process for appointing committee members. Well, and I'll ask Marcia to correct me if I'm wrong, but the mayor makes the appointment, which is confirmed by the city council. I'm not sure if that was the mayor's question exactly, but that is the statutory requirement. The mayor makes the appointment, but that's not all. It's not... confirmed until the council approves it. So it's the mayor's prerogative to make the initial appointment and the council's prerogative to take an up or down vote on that. But there is a process. You guys don't really vet, but you accept the applications and provide them to the mayor. Okay. And so you mentioned one thing is like you are talking about council members are not interviewed. those applicants. So has every council member interviewed any commission applicants in the past? No. Not while I've been here, John. Not to my knowledge, I'm not aware of that, has ever been a process that's been followed. We, if I might say, we did once have an interview process for an ad hoc committee, but not for a standing committee. we had a two council member committee that made recommendations to a mayor for the DEI commission. And that was a completely separate process. And that wasn't for a standing commission like this. That was for a one-off. We knew we were gonna have a ton of applicants and we knew we wanted to have them pre-screened and it was gonna be more work than a single mayor could do. And so there was an ad hoc committee of two council members to screen those. have an interview process. We interviewed 75 people. And then the two people on that committee made a recommendation to the mayor, but it was still the mayor's prerogative, I believe, if I remember the whole process. And to your point, I don't think we've ever, certainly not in the time I've been on council, had council members. That's my understanding as well. So for... Just to clarify, I was in... I wasn't advocating for the council members to interview the candidates for these commissions. The point that I was drawing is that we didn't have the ability to interview the applicants, right? The only thing that we got applications, right? The only thing that we had were, the only thing that we're basing our confirmation or denial of these applicants is based on the application, right? And so- I understand. So because I talked to other council members or other mayors in other places, And I know like different cities are handling this a little bit differently. For example, in San Ramon, they do have a council member to get involved to interview candidates. I heard of that. And then, but in the, like, I believe in Pleasanton, it's a mayor's appointment. So we were... doing the way we are doing, like may I make appointments? Because I do, you know, it's not like a specific interview for this specific situation, but I do know who I appointed very well, and I do know other commissioners pretty well. And I have a lot of chat with them, and I know... According to my capability, that's the best applicants based on their past involvement, community engagement. And I'm seeing other, I'm totally fine with other applicants as well because I'm grateful of so many people are so active and want to be part of this. I'm very grateful for this. And I know my recommendation is the best. to my capability, my knowledge, how they can contribute. But I recognize other people can be great as well. And I want to say, I would really, because I want to say like Jackson, he's here today. If you like to have a public comments, I can invite him over to, he grew up here and he's young. He's, you know, like a, And he's interested in contribution and he's going to different events. I just know he would be great contribution. And I talked to several commissioners already. They were so excited. I say those commissioners are commissioners just in the past several, like a couple of weeks. And I will say them again. So in different situations, I just want to share with you. So I heard a lot of conversations about this. Mayor. Oh, I thought you were done. You just paused. Yeah, yeah. I just want to tell you that's a good reason for, because I know people very well. I make appointment based on their past communication, you know, past involvement in the actions. So it is not on these applications. And this is a second member as well. He basically has done decades of community, like a community work. decades. And for people who knows him very well, and they just know how much effort they have make. So I feel like since you haven't done interviews or you don't know those individuals, so you may look at paper, seeing different things. But as we talk about, like, for example, San Ramon, they do have interview. going through everybody. And that's the process that Ramon was taking and maybe made an ad hoc appointment to different council members. And if we want to do this, we can talk about this for the next, because we cannot do this for this right now, because we do this process as mayor's appointment. But in the future, if we feel like our council member want to be part of this interview process, we can talk about this for our next appointment. future appointment. We could do that. You also, Mayor, could ask that the council interview these candidates. You have the ability to do that for this one. Obviously, it wouldn't happen tonight, but you could do that for this one. Certainly, we could talk about changing the process in the future. Can I get a clarification from staff, please? What's the urgency of doing this and resolving this issue tonight? I'm not aware of an urgency on these. Jackie Dwyer, could you come down to the podium, please? While she's making her way down, Mayor, I just wanted to reiterate that I have no objection with Jacksonburg, with your pick. My objection is with the process of elevating alternates, because I'm afraid that it will... have a negative effect on us, on our ability to get people to apply to be alternates. I think that the end result would still be the same if we elevated the alternate to the voting role and then there was an application to replace the alternate. I agree with you that Jackson's wonderful and that he would make a great commissioner, but I think that if we continue down the road of not elevating alternates, then we have a process problem. And also for Victoria, I think I brought her in since last appointment as alternate commissioner. She's now, I know her very, very well. She's now like I have been there for years waiting for this chance. She's also fairly new as well. I just want to make this appointment with this point. And Mayor, I'd like to ask Jackie if she knows. if it would be problematic if we didn't make these appointments tonight on the Heritage and Cultural Arts Commission and Senior Center Advisory? As of right now, no, because we already have alternates filling in for them currently. So I hope you trust me because I have done this a lot. I actually, I always pick... I'm pretty confident in knowing people, seeing their actions, and from their past many years to pick the right person for the right thing. I'm pretty confident of this. I just want you to, because we need to move on. These are not something we need to say. I think you already talked about you have confidence in Jackson. we know alternative to move on to the permanent position. I just want to advocate. I think that's the right people to pick. I'm pretty confident about this. And also, we all talk about how efficient we want to run the meeting or run the activities because we have to move on with the decisions. So I advocate is move on my selections. I'd like to make a motion that we push this out to another point. I'm not feeling comfortable right now with the information I was given. And I don't see an urgency in doing it tonight. I hear you. I get it. I respect you. But I'm just not feeling like we have enough information to, at least I don't, to feel comfortable with the selections that are made at this point in time. Can I ask a question about that motion? Yeah. I mean, if somebody wants to second it, go ahead. But what would be the point of delaying the recommendation? Well, if we turn it down, what's the – turn it down or we accept – we know what happens if we accept it. But if we turn it down, then there's no reconsideration or anything, right? How does that work? Are you advocating for reopening the application process? I am. That's different than delaying it. So if the motion is to just delay the decision, that's different than what Kashif just said, which is reopening the application, which I'm not sure I'm in favor of either of those things. Okay. Well, just to be clear, the mayor has the prerogative to make the appointment. So your role presently is to make an up or down vote on the mayor's appointment. Okay. I need clarification on that. And so – The next step would be for the mayor to make another appointment. Got it. Great. Okay. She could do that tonight if she wanted, correct? Thank you. I'll make a first motion is like approve what I recommended. I'll look for a second. I'll second it. So we'll have a roll call. Would you like to make an alternate motion? We can make a roll call. If that's impossible, we'll make an alternate. That's how things work. Sorry, because we have this 5.6, 5.10. So we do one at a time, right? Or skip that 5.6 for later. Okay. Let's go with that. Council Member Morata? Aye. Council Member McCorriston? No. Council Member Josie? Regretfully, no. Vice Mayor Khadri? No. Mayor Hu? Aye. So motion fails 3-2. So when this is failed, do we have a way to do an alternate motion? Yes, Madam Mayor. You could, I think... I heard there might be support for one of the appointments. So you could move that appointment and then, well, you could make another appointment as well. I think you had two appointments. So the recommendation was to make both appointments. So that was the last motion. It failed. I believe there's support on the council for one of your appointments and there's not support for the other one. So you could, I mean, I don't know. Yeah, we'll have a more discussion. Thanks, Council. In the interim, Mayor, would you like me to move item 5.6 and get it out of the way? Can we do this? I'll move item 5.6, please. I'll second. So we'll have all in favor for 5.6. Say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. So we'll come back to this 5.10, alternative motion. So who wants to bring an alternative motion? I believe you're the only one who can because these are your appointments. So you have to try again and see if we'll support a different suggestion. Okay. So I want to get some advice. So, Jiang, you said you believe we agree on one appointment. Which one? Well, I thought I heard Council Member Josie say she supported one of the candidates, but perhaps I misunderstood what you meant in that you didn't support it because of the process. So, Council, I think the mayor can also ask us what we think should be done. She doesn't need to go to staff, but she should elicit information so she can make a recommendation. Can I ask you, because we have a lot of discussions. On the first one, I would like to see Lou step in and nominate Jackson for Alt. On the second one, I don't have information. I'm not there with that selection, so I would have to decline. Thank you. Yep. So that's the first one. So I would like to listen to. Yeah, I mean, that that would be I would certainly be supportive of that. That would be your what your recommendation. You can I mean, you would get support for that, I believe. I don't believe from a process standpoint you can appoint Jackson as an alternate tonight. because it's only the actual vacancy that is open. And we couldn't guarantee him that seat tonight because you have to open the applications and that's the legal way you have to do that. But I certainly think that it is the intent of us to support that recommendation should it come up to us as an alternate. So I would be in support of elevating the alternate, Victoria Liu, for that commission to the seat. That's for first appointment, right? Do we want to also have you talk about second? Second. What's your opinion on the second appointment? I have no issue with your second appointment. I do. I would like... The concerns with the application process. Hang on one sec. Let me get to it first. Regis. Regis is an alternate. I was impressed with his application. And I would... recommend to you to make a recommendation. My thought is get somebody at least I'm good with process. He's an alt. He's been there. And then have, you know, work on application. This is a very important part of the application. The process to me is the application itself. It means something to me. Yeah, I do. You know, I do hear you. And I recognize both. I'll turn it. have been great candidates here. So let's make an appointment based on our discussion here. We appoint Lou as Cultural Arts Commission and Michael Regis as the Senior Center Commission. I'll second the motion. Good. We want to have a roll call. I think just to make that slightly clearer, the mayor made the appointment and then moved that the council confirm the appointments. And the vice mayor seconded it. I am confirming the confirmation by council. Thank you. So let's have a roll call, right? Yes. Council Member Murata? Aye. Council Member McCorriston? Yes. Council Member Josie? Yes. Vice Mayor Khadri? Aye. Mayor Hu? Aye. Thank you. Thank you for taking our feedback. Thank you. I think it's great. And I actually, you know, we know in the past there's other council members doing interviews. I think that could be one of the things we, if we have a lot of openings, a lot of applicants, we could consider to adopt that as well. Staff will talk about that and then we can work with you, Mayor. Actually, I'm happy we have these discussions. Thank you. Thank you. You have been great for being involved in the community activities. I'm very grateful. So we finished the... Number five, so let's go on number six, public hearing, 6.1, Assembly Bill 562, final outcome report, economic development subsidy provided to Regency Village at Dublin LLC. Good evening, Mayor, City Council members. My name is Rhonda Franklin. I am Management Analyst in the Office of Economic Development. And we're here tonight to discuss Assembly Bill 562, the final outcome report on the Economic Development Subsidy for Sewer Capacity Assistance Program for Regency Centers. By way of background, Assembly Bill 562 requires cities and counties that grant economic development subsidies to report on the outcomes of the subsidies when the subsidies are $100,000 or more. So we are to provide public hearing reports on the initial consideration of the subsidy, the five-year outcome of the subsidy, and then the final outcome of the subsidy at the conclusion of the subsidy agreement. So for this particular case, this subsidy was for Regency Centers. They are the developer of Persimmon Place Shopping Center here in Dublin. And their initial consideration of the subsidy was heard before the City Council in 2014. The five-year outcome of that subsidy was heard before the City Council in 2019. And then tonight is the final outcome report as the subsidy agreement came to the end or at its conclusion last month. So we're here tonight for the final outcome report for that subsidy. Sorry. So a little bit of background on the subsidy. In May 2012, Regency Centers requested the city, requested from the city to participate in this sewer capacity assistance program to assist in the development of the Persimmon Place Shopping Center. In April 2014, the City Council approved an agreement for the reallocation of the sewer capacity from the city for this development. It's worth noting that Persimmon Place is now home to more than 20 successful retail and restaurant establishments, and it ranks among the city's top 25 sales tax generators. The agreement assisted Regency Centers with 15.02 dwelling unit equivalents, which at the time was valued at $242,258. The agreement term, as I mentioned before, expired last month on June 8th, 2025. And the final outcome report has been posted on the city's website. Sales tax data must remain confidential. However, we are able to report that Persimmon Place as a whole has generated over $6 million in net tax revenue to the city. And an estimated 700 plus full and part-time jobs have been retained. Our recommendation tonight is to conduct a public hearing, deliberate and accept the report. That concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions. Yeah, go ahead. Thank you for the presentation, Rhonda. Just have a quick question. The slide two says the initial consideration was back in 2014. It concluded in 2025. the $6 million that was reported in terms of net tax revenue, that was over the 10-year period? That's correct, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Any more questions? Any public hearing? Hearing, right? We opened the hearing. Correct. And yes, we have no public comment, Mayor. No public comment. We closed the hearing. And then let's get back to any more discussions on this one? I think it's a great program and it's been very successful. To me, it's a no-brainer. I'm glad. And I'd like to see the city look for similar opportunities because if it's generating that kind of potential income, all the discussions we have about being financially astute and the whole thing. This is pretty straightforward, guys. Okay, so I'm just very happy with it. Thank you. Yeah, I agree, and I want to commend staff for using all of the tools in our tool chest. when it comes to economic development incentives. This just being one of them, I appreciate how well that they have worked over time. And it's always great to hear these reports about the return we're getting on our investment. You know, 15 DUEs, we had an item on consent that we didn't talk about, about sharing DUEs. And this is exactly why we like that program and why we like to do it. So really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. uh congratulations i think are in order uh it's amazing that for 242 000 we get six million in return let me re-emphasize that if i make on record uh so congrats well done yeah great great job thank you so much we're so happy to hear you um have this great program and that makes a economic impact thanks for that and do we need Do we need a motion on this? Or that's just information? Do we have action items? Accept the report? I'll move. I'll move we accept the report. Okay. At least second. Okay. Accept the report. We accept the report. And all in favor, say aye. Aye. Thank you. And finish the business. None. Number eight, new business, none. Number nine, city manager and the city council reports. We'll start with the city manager. Mayor and council members, the city and Alameda County Fire Department are together hosting a defensible space training on July 24th at 6 p.m. at the Shannon Community Center. It's a free workshop, and it will show residents how to create a buffer zone around their homes to reduce wildfire risk. important obviously if you live near open space or wildland areas and residents will get tips on staying compliant with fire safety laws and then lastly our Inside Dublin program for 2025 is open for enrollment the first session kicks off in early October we opened it up this year to the high schools as kind of a test pilot and it had an overwhelming response. So we don't have room for all of the students that are interested. So we're going to take our first 25 residents as we normally do, and then we'll just check capacity and we'll pick a number that we'll add from each high school. But it tells us something about students wanting something more from us. So we're thinking of ideas of how we can engage them further in the future and then hopefully opening it up to more in 2026. That's all I have. Thank you. Perfect. Jiang, you want to have an update? Sure. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Quick updates from me. Actually, just a couple. I attended the Cornhole Tournament for CalCities in which we did really, really well. It just didn't make it to the end. Who did win? Was it Walnut Creek? Yeah. I will leave that to you to say, Council Member. And then with regard to other committees attending AVA, Board Committee as well as Finance Committee, AVA continues to do well. There are, of course, some motions happening at the legislature that may impact fees in the future, but I'll keep the Council informed of what that may be. Hopefully not dramatically to our residents, but I'll keep you informed. Councilmember Josie. Remarkably brief given how long it's been since we've had a council meeting. My list is a little bit longer, I'm sorry. I'll start off with an event that was really impactful. It was the Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance had an event about sort of the climate of nonprofit funding right now and the crisis that is on the horizon for both federal funding, state funding, but also sort of the state of giving right now. coming together in a perfect storm and our nonprofit partners that provide food and shelter and all kinds of things are feeling the pinch and so it was a really good discussion about creative solutions to that and look for me to to have a request at a meeting in the future about that so that was a great discussion I was our rep to a bag I'll just say that I went. That's probably good enough. We had, as our economic development team, a great business visitation to Patelco. I'll let you talk more about that if you'd like, but it was a great meeting. Had multiple AFTA meetings for both the Projects and Services Committee and, of course, the full board. Multiple stop waste meetings. I'm now the chair of projects and administration for that committee. One of the things we talked about is the new food labeling laws. So I want to bring that to everybody's attention. both our colleagues and also the public that might be watching. There is a new law going into effect next year about food labeling to streamline and help prevent waste. Right now, you can see sell-by dates on a lot of foods. Those are going to be phased out. You will only see use-by dates to indicate food safety or... best by dates to indicate food freshness. Those will be the only two dates you will see on food. So if it says use by, that's a safety issue. If you see best by, that's a freshness issue. And those will be the only two types of date labeling allowed on food sold in California. Also had a... nationally good cities, public safety and crime prevention meeting, um, online and a race equity and leadership meeting online. The race equity and leadership meeting was a really good conversation, a two hour meeting about, um, sort of the, the impacts of some of the federal policies. Um, and then of course, uh, I'll be on a plane tomorrow to, um, NLC for both of those meetings in person, um, their summer meetings. As we mentioned, we had the cornhole tournament where, um, the city of Dublin went undefeated right into the, um, The championships where we did not do well. We had the Camp Parks Independence Day celebration that the mayor and I were both at. That was a really nicely done event. And I'll leave it to you to talk more about that if you'd like. Our employee appreciation event was lovely. Staff did a great job. I hope our employees feel the love. It was really well done. And it's nice the weather cooperated for us that day. Leprechauns are in the playoffs right now. So the faster I stop talking, the better we can get out there to hopefully see Marika pitch again. And hopefully we can bring home a championship for Dublin. So let's all wish the Leprechauns great success in their playoffs. And kudos to park staff for the Farmer's Market and the concert series. It's going super, super well. That's it for me today. Excellent. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to be really brief. Madam Mayor, I had two LACFA meetings during the last couple of weeks, and I had a liaison meeting with DSRSD. And I've been to a few of these other, I call it the Cal Cities event. So I won't go any further. But yeah, that's pretty much it for me. Thank you. Vice Mayor? Yeah, just two things to report out. ACMED, the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District, as well as the DSRSD City of Dublin Liaison Committee meeting. Excellent. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. I also have a lot of things to report out. So I went to Alameda Mayor's Conference last week and LAFCO regular meeting just a couple days ago as well. So one thing we want to mention about this meeting is our former council member, Georgine was recognized in LAFCO meeting for her contribution. And a new member, Peter Rawson, joined this LAFCO committee as alternate member. And we also, same thing as Council Member Jose just mentioned, we went to Rotary District meeting at the Leprechauns field. That was... Pretty cool. And we were happy to have a lot of Rotary president members come to our city of Dublin. And for Try Night, that's the event I joined with an invitation from the International Association. They bring the delegation from Korea to our city and talk about possible collaborations. in the future. So that was hosted in Trilite. That was a pretty good meeting. And the ACTC board meeting, special economic development meeting, Council Member Josie just mentioned, visitation to Patelco. That was a great visitation. So basically, we got a chance to meet the CEO of Patelco, and we were trying to understand their needs so we can meet Patelco. our business client needs better. And she's happy overall about how Citi is supporting the business. And she mentioned a couple of things I want to mention here. She talked about how we can thrive that Hacienda Crossing commercials maybe get more visible from outside because that was built decades ago. So the layout was different from the current modern commercial space. So that's one thing she mentioned. She also mentioned about when she tried to make a left turn to Dublin Boulevard, that was like waiting for several minutes. So like the red lights coordination. So that's the only manner things. So in general, she believed our city of Dublin has provided a very friendly, supportive business environment. And we also have the 4th of July celebration at Camp Parks. And that was a great celebration. Another thing is employee event. That was great, too. Thanks for inviting us. Thank you. And with that said, it's 8.15, and we'll adjourn the meeting.