City of San Jose, CA Must See, 11 Apr 2022

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From YouTube: APR 11, 2022 | City Council Special Meeting - General Charter Review Commission Recommendations

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City of San José, California
City Council special Meeting on General Charter Review Commission Recommendations April 11, 2022

Pre-meeting citizen input on Agenda via eComment at https://sanjose.granicusideas.com/meetings.

This public meeting will be held at San José City Hall and also accessible via Zoom Webinar. For information on public participation via Zoom, please refer to the linked meeting agenda below.

Agenda https://sanjose.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=936226&GUID=9DD77836-6B54-4064-B2FA-C07C2558880A

A

And ok, I'm seeing problems,, I'm not hearing him. uh,.

B

City clerk, I'm getting a text message from council member esparza that they're unable to hear.. That is not me., ok,.

C

Carlos,, can you hear me now?? I can hear you now. thank you.

C

Ok, so already over at pimentos you're best, but I look at it.

C

Cohen called bavis here as the here airiness bulle here I.

C

Am here doan's licadho, you have a quorum. thank you.. So now.

D

I'm going to turn it over to staff to kick off the meeting.

D

Thank you vice mayor lee, wilcox assistant city, manager.,.

B

I want to welcome the council and members of the public to.

B

The special meeting. we can get the presentation going to be.

B

Great, as we starts to do a few quick round of introductions.

B

Joining me in the box today and part of the presentation is our.

B

City on tabor city auditor, joy, royce,, our director of.

B

Administration policy and intergovernmental relations, saraswathi and assistant to the city manager, michelle mcgirk.. I.

B

Also want to start by thanking fred pereira, who is in.

B

The audience,, which is the chair of the charter review commission.- and I want to give a special thanks to michelle mcgirk and mark vanney for a lot of hours of work to get us.

B

Here with these memorandum and this presentation and all.

B

The analysis that accompanies accompanies it., so thank you very much.. On january 11th of this year, the council directed.

B

Staff to return with the proposed ballot measure to change the timing of the mayoral election and further directed that staff schedule and facilitate a special.

B

Meeting for the remaining charter review commission.

B

Recommendations for the purpose of prioritizing additional.

B

Ballot questions for november eight of two thousand and.

B

Twenty two for this year and providing additional direction.

B

From council on additional recommendations for further evaluation and implementation should be noted that the.

B

Rules committee approved direction to separate out.

B

The recommendations from the charter review committee.

B

Specific to public safety, which will accompany or follow.

B

Recommendations from the reimagining group on public.

B

Safety and secondly, the expansion of municipal voting.

B

Rights has been scheduled for april twenty led by the city.

B

Clerk. the city charter serves as the city's constitution. the.

B

First city charter was adopted in nineteen. Sixteen in.

B

Nineteen sixty five, a city charter commission, produced the charter that is in effect today, with larger changes happening.

B

In nineteen seventy eight nineteen, eighty six now in.

B

Two thousand and twenty two- the council considers several recommendations. From the commission.- this special meeting has been designed to meet councilor ction, provide a.

B

Research and analysis and provide a structure to help you.

B

As a council facilitate your own decision making as you work.

B

Through this. in our research of the recommendation, the city.

B

Manager, city, attorney,, city, clerk and city after city.

B

Auditor have offered information important context.

B

For your decision making policy alternatives. and as we go into.

B

These policy alternatives, you'll see several layers of.

B

Law and policy, starting first with our city charter,.

B

Accompanied by possible ordinances that can follow or.

B

Substitute or where you can meet the intent of the.

B

Commission's recommendations with council policies. so as we've worked through this you'll hear those as part of the presentation as we go through the prioritization,.

B

Sarah will discuss how we're going to discuss and prioritize this as handed over to her next and the second.. I do want to.

B

Highlight something important from the staff memorandum is.

B

That the item selected today by the council for further.

B

Evaluation and work will be brought forward to the.

B

Prioritization of the city road map on may 16th, with the.

B

Council, so that this work can be prioritized against the other critical work already directed by you. As a council.-.

B

We are doing this because it is important that the.

B

Administration can focus over the next several months on our collective work and objectives are and the objectives of not.

B

Only identifying work that needs to be done, but prioritizing it against everything else that we need to do as an organization, including our homeless, emergency housing.

B

Or pandemic recovery and relief, police reforms, work plan and.

B

Community safety initiatives such as vision, zero, federal and.

B

State advocacy to push our needs forward for the problems facing our residents and the other priorities approved in the mayor's march budget message. By this council.- with.

B

That I'd like to turn the rest of the presentation over to sayres around murkily. good afternoon, mayor city council,.

A

Members of the public, my name is sarah.. I am the director.

A

Of the office of administration policy and intergovernmental relations., as noted by lead previously,, today's.

A

Presentation is but one piece of a three part direction from.

A

Council on january 11 requesting analysis of.

A

Recommendations offered by the charter review commission.-.

A

The city already returned to council in february, with a.

A

Proposed ballot measure for june seven to move the mayoral.

A

Elections the same year as presidential elections, beginning in twenty twenty four and the third piece, a second.

A

Study session is scheduled for april twenty nine to examine.

A

Extending municipal voting eligibility to all city.

A

Residents on april, first, several council appointed.

A

Released memos providing the council implementation factors.

A

Related to the fifteen recommendations that included costs, policy alternatives and other practical considerations.

A

. today, we'll summarize the memo within the same context.

A

And provide the council with an additional discussion framework.

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To further categorize and prioritize this work. key.

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Guiding questions we posed for categories include: is the.

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Recommendation an urgent matter that should be considered by voters this november?. Can the core issue be addressed by.

A

Means other than a charter change and thereby give this.

A

And future councils, more flexibility should the.

A

Recommendation be explored further by a future charter review commission because of any complicating factors or the.

A

It may be a very worthy idea should the recommendation be.

A

Declined at this time, these questions are categorized.

A

Into four buckets now next later and decline,.

A

Recommendations categorized and now require a charter amendment.

A

And will be included in the draft charter amendment for.

A

November or the november 8th. twenty twenty two election.

A

Those in next may or may not require charter amendment, but.

A

Likely require additional staffing consultants, help.

A

Additional policy work, additional resources or.

A

Significant community engagement., these will be.

A

Placed on the list for consideration during the upcoming citywide road map exercise or may require other.

A

Work to be considered for future ballot measure if, in the.

A

Later buckets, the recommendation will be referred to a future charter review, commission or other future.

A

Dates if the recommendation is declined, it does not move.

A

Forward through any additional process., the 15 recommendations.

A

We will review today span four categories, including.

A

Governance, voting, inclusion and accountability and other.

A

Policy., some require charter changes, while others have.

A

Alternative implementation paths that could offer the.

A

Council additional flexibility while meeting the intent of.

A

The recommended. lastly, others for various reasons, may.

A

Require considerable additional community engagement. and.

A

Now I'll turn it back to to begin our summary.. Thank you.

B

Sir., so I'm starting with recommendation one from the.

B

Commission, which was to maintain a council manager.

B

Government structure but allow council members to make.

B

Nominations for city manager, with the present form of.

B

Government and the charter, the mayor is assigned duties beyond.

B

That of the council, including that the mayor shall.

B

Nominate one or more candidates for consideration for the appointment to the position of city manager. does not specify.

B

This for other council appointees. however,, the.

B

Commission stated that the purpose of this recommendation was to provide more equitable representation in the applicant.

B

Pool for city manager., however,, past and current practices in.

B

The city have often had the mayor informing the council.

B

Through closed session and seeking feedback not only on the process, but the selection of candidates to be brought forward and interviewed by the full council.- in my own.

B

Examples having worked in the mayor's office,, this has happened with leads to city manager, searches and to.

B

Independent police auditor searches within the last six years. in addition, best practices and human.

B

Resources and recruiting dictate that is essential to have a clear recruitment process for police, as.

B

Recommended by the commission.- now multiple recruitments could.

B

Cause confusion for candidates, the organization and the.

B

Council as a whole, if the council wishes to change the current approach, council could revisit this through council.

B

Policy versus changing through the charter allowing greater.

B

Time and to research and more flexibility and possibly.

B

Include all council appointees, if a council policy were to be.

B

Passed moving on a recommendation to from the.

B

Commission that it states establishing future charter.

B

Review commissions be put into the city charter. currently.

B

The charter allows the council to convene a charter review.

B

Commission, at any time that deems necessary. however, by.

B

Adding a mandate in the charter, it does tie the council's and.

B

At those intervals with this requirement void of any context.

B

Or circumstance at that time, such as need budget or existing.

B

Priorities that the organization is facing.

B

Because of this, we would think that if council would like to move forward, you could address through other means..

B

But again, council has the ability to appoint such a commission at any time, but that I'll pass the rest to michel..

E

Good afternoon council members., I'm and vice mayor, I'm michel.

E

Mcgirk, assistant to the city manager and I'm pleased to talk.

E

To you briefly about recommendation number three.

E

Which is to expand the city council to fourteen council.

E

Districts., the charter review commission stated that they.

E

Wanted to bring the number of residents per district to a.

E

Ratio that was in line with where things were at in.

E

Nineteen eighty, when the council was expanded to its.

E

Current size of ten members plus the mayor at that time.

E

There were about sixty three thousand residents per.

E

District. however,, looking back at the history, we did discover.

E

Council members, that at that point in time, had a budget of.

E

About fifty fifty thousand dollars and one aide per.

E

District as outlined in the staff report. we looked at the.

E

20 largest cities in the us to see where san jose fits in.

E

Terms of council, size and ratio of residents, as well as to look.

E

At what other folks were doing with the with their.

E

Population changes from the twenty twenty census., the.

E

Average number of residents per district currently is one.

E

Hundred six thousand in this list of the top 20 cities and.

E

San jose currently has a rough estimate of one hundred.

E

And one thousand residents or district ongoing costs.

E

Are currently one million dollars per year for district and one time costs to implement this proposed.

E

Change, including redistricting and reconfiguring.

E

City hall and the council chambers, including the dyas.

E

Which doesn't seat? Fourteen members are estimated at a.

E

Minimum of two point: five dollars million in one time.

E

Costs., when we looked at other major cities that are expanding.

E

Their council sizes, two examples emerged both fort.

E

Worth,, texas and columbus, ohio are currently undergoing an.

E

Expansion, but they timed their expansion and redistricting.

E

Efforts to the 2020 census and their next election cycle.

E

Which is actually in twenty twenty three one.

E

Policy alternative would be to revisit this issue in the.

E

Future, given that san jose just went through redistricting.

E

This past cycle- and it is important to note that the.

E

Earliest that we could foley implement, this recommendation would be the twenty twenty six election cycle when council.

E

Members who are elected this year will either term out or be.

E

Eligible for reelection., so with that we'll turn it over to.

E

Toni tabor city clerk or recommendation number for it.

C

Afternoon, council and vice mayor., my name is toni tabor city clerk recommended or from the charter review.

C

Commission is ranked choice. Voting rank choice. Voting is an.

C

Election method that allows voters to rank their preferences for candidate races on one ballot,, eliminating the.

C

Need for a separate, runoff election.! For that reason, it's.

C

Also called instant runoff voting. the benefits of rank.

C

Choice voting include cost savings from eliminating an.

C

Election, reduce negative campaigning and promoting.

C

Diversity on the city council challenges include voter.

C

Education, the effect on other ballot items such as the timing.

C

Of general tax measures, which must be consolidated with the.

C

Regularly scheduled general election for members of the.

C

Governing body. several bay area jurisdictions currently.

C

Allow for rank choice, voting such as san francisco,, oakland,.

C

Berkeley and san leandro. in an off agenda memo released on.

C

March 4th,, the county of santa clara registrar voters. Note it.

C

Would take, it would need 12 to 16 months to complete all.

C

Necessary due diligence and develop and execute an.

C

Implementation plan after decision made., an alternative for the city council, is to wait to implement rank choice. Voting for the decision of the county board of.

C

Supervisors on their own elections. next slide a.

C

Recommendation from the charter review commission is to elevate the board of air campaign and political practices to the city.

C

Charter, along with planning, commission salaries setting and the civil service commission currently to be fcp is codified.

C

In the municipal code., therefore, the city council can make changes to its scope. If any council meeting through passing an ordinance allowing the council flexibility.

C

Eliminating the commission to the charter level will require a ballot measure to prove and a ballot measure to make future changes to the scope or any other changes. The fcp. I'm.

C

Turning this back to michelle. all right. council members,.

E

Recommendation six is a big complicated. It has three.

E

Parts around making changes to reform boards commissions part.

E

A recommends allowing non-citizens to serve on boards.

E

And commissions., currently, the three charter.

E

Commissions, the planning commission,, a civil service commission and the salary setting commission require.

E

Members to be registered voters in san jose change, changing.

E

This requirement would require a charter change.

E

Additionally,, the municipal code requires the members of.

E

The board of fair campaigns and political practices to be.

E

Registered voters. all other boards and commissions, which.

E

Are enacted by ordinance do not have citizenship or voter.

E

Registration requirements. part b of recommendation six.

E

Recommends additional training for commissioners in a number of areas.. This will require time to implement, as we.

E

Discussed in the report, given that there are more than twenty boards and commissions and approximately two hundred and.

E

Thirty nine commissioners, part c recommends paying stipends to.

E

Commissioners and a few of our commissions currently do.

E

That such as the planning commission and the.

E

Retirement audits and a few others, as discussed in the.

E

Report at two hundred and fifty dollars per month, which.

E

Is what planning commissioners currently receive this.

E

Recommendation would total approximately five hundred.

E

And ninety seven thousand five hundred dollars to cover all.

E

Boards and commissions., this is not required to be done by a.

E

Charter amendment., however, a charter amendment would make it.

E

Permanent versus putting it in the municipal code. so with.

E

That we'll go to recommendation seven, which is to add a.

E

Native land acknowledgment to the city charter, adopting a.

E

Native land acknowledgment, whether within the charter or.

E

In other elements of the city's work., as we discuss in our.

E

Report would build upon the steps that the city of san.

E

Jose has already taken to acknowledge and honor the.

E

History and experiences of native americans in santa fe.

E

Beginning with our recognition of indigenous peoples day as.

E

A city holiday staff appreciates the charter review.

E

Commission's engagement with the community and with the malama aloni tribe, to develop the draft native land.

E

Acknowledgment. however, concerns arose near the end of.

E

The commission's meeting process, with testimony from other tribal stakeholders who had not been included in the.

E

Development of the land acknowledgment best.

E

Practices for the development of such acknowledgments require significant community engagement,, particularly with.

E

Various native and tribal groups, preferably.

E

Facilitated by a third party to ensure that genuine efforts.

E

Around meaningful, dialog healing reconciliation and.

E

Trust building between those who have been impacted and the.

E

Government entity. any draft and final land acknowledgment.

E

Would then need to go through in-depth review from tribal.

E

Groups to ensure agreement staff looked at the ten largest.

E

Cities in california, as well as entities such as san jose state.

E

University and found a variety of approaches to honoring.

E

And acknowledging local tribal groups and their history and.

E

Experiences., as we discussed in the staff report,, this work.

E

Is important and staff recommends a thoughtful approach., so recommendation eight is to update gender.

E

Language in the city charter and other city, documents. city,.

E

Staff is in the process of working to make city documents.

E

Gender inclusive and gender neutral.. If council chooses.

E

To place a charter amendment on the november, twenty twenty two.

E

Ballot or on another future ballot, we can update the.

E

Charter language to be gender neutral at that time,.

E

And know with that will turn it over to sarah for recommendations, nine and ten recommendation. Nine is a.

A

Detailed three part recommendation part a as a.

A

Statement of values to the charter that defines social equity, inclusion and racial and social justice as.

A

Guiding principles for the decisions, policies, budgets,.

A

Programs and practices of the city. part b outlines.

A

Objectives intended advance values through the areas of.

A

Safety,, environmental, health,, water and sanitation,.

A

Parks and recreation, mobility and transportation. economic.

A

Development., housing standards, . workforce protection and.

A

Housing amenities. part c requires that an equity.

A

Assessment be conducted for the annual operating and capital.

A

Budgets, as contained in the recommended budgets.

A

Generated by the city manager. each fiscal year and for major.

A

Policies and programs to be decided upon by the city?

A

Council.- this latter piece can be triggered by a majority.

A

Vote of the city council or by a submission of a petition.

A

With at least twenty five hundred signatures from city residents.- and it also outlines very specific elements.

A

That must be included in the assessment making. These changes.

A

In the charter would require approval by the voters if.

A

Desired. however, other options are available, including for.

A

Example, a council policy ordinance or resolution. this.

A

Was noted in the commission report regardless of method.

A

Chosen if this recommendation moves forward additional more.

A

Robust community engagement is recommended similar to that.

A

Followed for the racial equity definition to ensure that the.

A

Values and standards proposed reflect the community voices.

A

Of those most historically and currently marginalized,.

A

Or disadvantaged. importantly,, this recommendation builds.

A

On existing work as a city is currently undertaking.

A

Significant work to address racial equity, as described in.

A

The accompanying staff memo with much more planned and.

A

Being rolled out in the coming fiscal year., if the.

A

Council were to pursue a policy alternative to achieve the to desired by the commission,. The work would.

A

Require staff, time and resources to engage the.

A

Administration, departments, elected officials and most.

A

Importantly, our community, and it would need to be evaluated.

A

As part of the future budget process,.

A

Recommendation ten builds on the previous recommended by further aligning department statements of policy.

A

And city budgeting processes with the values, standards and.

A

Equity assessments of recommended shehnai., as noted.

A

In the commission, report, legal research would be required to.

A

Ensure there are no legal barriers to implementing this.

A

Recommendation similar to recommendation nine if a.

A

Charter change is pursued, it would require approval by the.

A

Voters the same policy. Alternatives are also true.

A

As stated for recommendation nine,, the city has been.

A

Progressively increasing explicit consideration of.

A

Equity into its service delivery and budget approach.

A

This was specifically seen in the allocation from the.

A

Coronavirus relief fund and the american rescue plan.

A

Fund targeting support to the community's most vulnerable.

A

And disproportionately impacted residents., the twenty twenty.

A

To twenty twenty three budget balancing strategy guidelines.

A

Also require the administration to propose explicit.

A

Considerations of equity, including who benefits and who is burdened when considering changes to city services, to.

A

Operationalize, this approach, the office of racial equity and.

A

The city managers budget office have developed a budgeting for.

A

Equity workshy as a tool for department departments to.

A

Apply equity. lenz's, of course, much more capacity building is.

A

Necessary to foley scale this approach and again, if the.

A

Council were to pursue a policy alternative at a more aggressive pace,. The work may require additional staff time.

A

And resources, as previously mentioned and now I'll turn it.

A

Over to our city, auditor, general royce. good.

F

Afternoon., your city auditor recommendation eleven mandate.

F

Regular department, wide audits, without a significant.

F

Increase in ongoing audit resources, adding mandated regular department, wide performance audits to the city.

F

Auditors work plan would severely impact the office's ability to conduct performance audits identified through our.

F

Regular risk based process. as a result, proposal, risks.

F

Focusing limited audit resources on areas where areas.

F

Where they do not have the best value., the residents of I do on.

F

Note this was noted in the the final commission report also.

F

Because of the size and scope of services of the city's departments and because services are often coordinated.

F

Across departments, a large scope department, wide audit.

F

Would carry great audit risk or the likelihood we would not.

F

Identify areas for improvement within a program or service in.

F

The context of the many different performance aspects of our city- departments. lastly,, no other prominent.

F

Audit office in california or other large cities that we surveyed arm and audit that described in the commission's.

F

Proposal in summary,, however, well-intentioned the.

F

Recommendation is, there's a great risk that the proposal would weaken rather than strengthen the functioning city.. For these reasons, I recommend council does not.

F

Before this proposal, as summarized in the memo.

F

Submitted to turn to michelle. all right council members,.

E

The charter review commission had four additional policy.

E

Recommendations that are not related to the city charter., we.

E

Refer to these, as the other policy recommendations., the.

E

First is to create a 17 member climate action.

E

Commission,, the environmental services department and san.

E

Jose clean energy have reviewed this proposal and recommend.

E

That, if council wishes to move forward in exploring this.

E

That, rather than creating a new commission, you could expand the.

E

Scope of the existing san jose clean energy advisory.

E

Commission. and as our report notes at the proposed.

E

Size of seventeen members- this would be one of the largest city commissioners and would require additional staffing.

E

To manage the workload., if you wish to move forward, we.

E

Could explore this further in a manager's budget agenda during.

E

The budget process- that's so recommended and 13 is to.

E

Explore a community opportunity to purchase this work is.

E

Already on the housing department work plan, as discussed in the staff report,, no action is required as the.

E

City council already endorsed this work, with your approval of the housing crisis, work plan and twenty twenty.

E

City wide resident residential anti displacement, strategy.

E

However,, if the council wish to formally endorse the commission's recommendation, you could do so and.

E

Recommendation 14 is to explore new policies to support the.

E

Purchase of affordable housing by low income, san jose.

E

Residents, while not impacting existing policies or resources.

E

Available to support, affordable rental, housing or.

E

Its residents., the staff report, discusses how the housing.

E

Department is already addressing this work and again.

E

Like recommendation, thirteen no action is required as the.

E

City council already has endorsed this policy work with.

E

Your approval of the housing crisis- workplan however,, if you.

E

Wish to formally endorse the commission's recommendation, that is action you could take. and so finally, we are at.

E

Recommendation; fifteen, which is to expand membership on the.

E

Smart city advisory board to include neighborhood.

E

Representatives and nonprofit. the staff report.

E

Provides status update on the various boards that have been convened around it and innovation issues in recent.

E

Years, including a smart city advisory board and provide.

E

Some information about how this work could be expanded or.

E

As an alternative, given large number of neighborhoods and.

E

Neighborhood associations in san jose one potential.

E

Alternative would be to ask the neighborhoods commission to.

E

Designate a member to serve as a liaison to these.

E

Innovation bodies., another alternative would be for the.

E

City and innovation teams to engage with the neighborhoods.

E

Commission, via an annual verbal report or when there is a.

E

Matter pending that needs broader neighborhood, input.

E

So with that, this concludes staff presentation and the next.

E

Step is to hear public comment .. Thank you, staff for that.

D

Presentation, toni., well, I'll, take public checking for in.

C

Person cards., my first feature is tessa woodmansee, anami.

C

Yes. ok, good thank you. yeah, I'm commenting on our only.

G

Thing that we should all be talking about, which is our climate crisis and the idea of not creating. I don't have a two.

G

Minute thing, so, basically thank you.. You know well the.

G

Your environmental services who have not been affected because.

G

As the science has just reported to the ipcc,, the.

G

Intergovernmental panel on climate change,, we are in a.

G

Crisis that needs we need to be reducing our fossil fuel use by.

G

Half by twenty twenty five and by zero by twenty thirty., so.

G

This is a degrowth program that needs to be implemented and.

G

Nobody is implementing it, and that is why we are going to.

G

Have they say a half, a half of humanity will not be able to.

G

Adapt., that's four billion people to the crisis. That's.

G

Happening,, the climate crisis that's happening now and as we're seeing around our world right now in the southeast and.

G

In the they're having so many storms that are really.

G

Impacting us., so this is where we're having climate change and.

G

We're not making the changes and so to say that we need to.

G

Put it into a city. the thing about clean energy,: it's not.

G

Only about clean energy,, it's degrowth how we have to like.

G

Like marshall, woodmansee is saying that we need to look at.

G

We need to make san jose a food garden again and keep fossil.

G

Fuels in the ground, because that is what the science says: that's his father, who has been advising us about our climate.

G

Crisis as a biologist and climate scientist keep it in.

G

The ground., that is how we need to go forward and from there we.

G

Can make the decisions and whether or not the 17 people.

G

Body they have to understand the science which is to keep it.

G

In the ground- and we move forward from there and make.

G

Decisions about how we go forward from keeping it in the.

G

Ground that we have no fossil fuel budget left and we must.

G

Change calling or to yeah. thanks thanks for taking my.

F

Call. appreciate all all the hard work you people do down.

F

There. city hall: it's just amazing what you know what you guys do, pat yourself on the back and I'll clap for all the.

F

Hard work you people do down there., it's just amazing. What.

F

You're doing and I'll tell you what I like this proposal.

F

For the native american people and I'll tell you why? Because.

F

The next step is to bulldoze city hall and build build those.

F

Beautiful truly domed huts that the native american people.

F

Built out of the stuff from the ground, you know, test of it.

F

Nancy would like to see on the tulley's and redwood bark.

F

It would definitely be an improvement to the eyesore of.

F

That deathstar., I mean you walk in that building,. You want to.

F

Blow your brains, out., it's so horrible and so depressing to.

F

Look at to walk in and out of you think you're going into some like science fiction movie, where you're going to be.

F

Tortured or something bring back a native american architecture and and ways the city hall put that that.

F

City hall to the earth,, make it just dirt and let's start over.

F

With those tools that would be so much better and why we're at.

F

It. get rid of the city council, bring in the tribal.

F

Council. then we're going to get back to we're going to get back to basics here in san jose. thanks a lot, david.

H

Holtzman, greetings. san jose council members. nice to be.

H

Able to speak to you.. Thank you for going through a charter to.

H

Review commission process. I've been through a few of them in.

H

The past. I'm my name's david holtzman and I am a former.

H

Present believe it or not, of the league of women voters of.

H

Los angeles.- and I can tell you that while I was involved with.

H

The league I had a nice time in san jose because we had a.

H

Statewide league of women voters convention there. so I.

H

Am in zooming in to remind you that the league of women voters.

H

Advocates ranked choice, voting or instant runoff voting.

H

Largely because it would increase the amount of fairness.

H

And freedom for voters in elections, so I will tell you.

H

Like the previous comment,, I really appreciate your apparent.

H

Commitment to civic engagement., I had a very nice tour as part of the league convention from ashkar over there of your city.

H

Hall told me to demolish it, but I do see I do appreciate.

H

Your commitment to civic engagement and I can only tell.

H

You that a little more freedom and fairness for voters,, the.

H

Right choice, voters, the right choice, voting or instead of.

H

Voting would only strengthen your commitment to civic.

H

Engagement. so again,, thank you for your time and thank you for.

H

Considering this recommendation. really.

H

Appreciate robert brounstein. good afternoon., I'd like to.

H

Speak in support of the proposal regarding equity.

H

Values, equity standards and an equity process for major policy.

H

Issues. a proposal like this really demonstrates the.

H

Flaws in the methodology that city staff is using in.

H

Evaluating these proposals, because the most urgent.

H

Category, you have is now, and this proposal is decades.

H

Overdue decades overdue to finally place exclusivity and.

H

Equity at the forefront of the values that the city holds and.

H

Incorporating them into the charter. also, the methodology.

H

Has a section that talks about funding that's needed in order.

H

To implement the measure, but there's no section that talks.

H

About the costs of failing to put this in the charter., the.

H

Costs of having families continue to be second class.

H

Resident of san jose of families continuing to not.

H

Receive equitable services as people in other parts of the.

H

City receive the costs of a younger generation once again.

H

Seeing that there are reasons there are always reasons why.

H

Equity should be put on the shelf and should not be treated.

H

As a priority. also there's a thrust in the staff.

H

Recommendations that emphasizes the value of flexibility., but.

H

The fact is, when you're talking about a measure that.

H

Assures that certain people will not be considered.

H

Continually second class residents of this city.

H

Flexibility is not a virtue.; what we need is finally.

H

Language in the charter that affirms both the values and the.

H

Standards of inclusiveness and equity- and we simply can't do.

H

It fast enough. thank you for listening,, rebecca gado., hello,.

F

. thank you.. I am a resident district in the three and I'm.

F

Coming to express support for the recommendation to grant.

F

Grant choice voting for san jose.. I thank one of the.

F

Biggest benefits of franchise voting is that we do this type.

F

Of voting will reduce the racial turnout gap and the.

F

People that show up in primary elections are substantially.

F

Different from the people who show up from the for the.

F

General election. and so jack is voting by allowing us to.

F

Remove the usage of their primary elections and just go.

F

To a much higher turnout. general election will increase.

F

Voter representation, a lot for our city., it's it's a system.

F

That has been tried by other cities and other states, and it.

F

Works perfectly everywhere., and so I completely support the.

F

Implementation of this, and I hope the council will adopt this.. Thank you very much, maria fuentes. come on down.

C

This is not the is right now I realize, as soon as I said, it.

C

Just go straight to the microphone. good afternoon.

F

Run. yeah, ok,, so I'm ready for this and I'm one of the.

F

Members of the charter review commission.- there are others who are now listening and I'm not sure if anybody else is.

F

Going to be speaking, but I would like to appreciate some.

F

Of the comments that were made by the public, and particularly robert ron brownstein, because I hope that all of you will.

F

Really take what we have recommended seriously.. I.

F

Appreciate all the comments that were made by staff and the analysis that has been done., it would have been helpful to have.

F

This information so that maybe we could have commented, you know,, our commission is no longer in existence., but I just.

F

Want to really emphasize to please take all of our.

F

Recommendations seriously, in spite of some of the comments.

F

That are made that maybe we don't need to do this. we're already doing it.. This is duplication. trust me that we.

F

Did not look at it that way.? We feel that what we put on there.

F

As recommended, and please note how unanimously our.

F

Work was voted upon. you know, just about every recommendation.

F

Was approved unanimously by a very diverse commission.

F

That you appointed., so please consider how strongly we feel.

F

About what we're recommending and please consider adopting.

F

Everything we recommended, or at least ask us for more.

F

Information or see how you can go as closely as.

F

Possible to our recommendations., it is truly about the future of our city, as bob bouncin pointed out,,.

F

There is not equity here. people are suffering here.. The.

F

Opportunity that used to be in san jose many years ago that.

F

Many people have been able to benefit from is no longer here.

F

And so we are trying as much as we can to see how our city can.

F

Can really make a difference and and change course, equity.

F

Was our main theme- and I think all of you know why that.

F

Is so so thank you. thank you. koruna, herrera, laura., yes,.

G

Hello., my name is loida.. I'm a resident of district five,, a.

G

Member on alicea and also serve my community as a school board.

G

Member for the rock union elementary school district. in.

G

Addition, I am as a descendent of the dragon. We told nation.

G

An active member of the local indigenous community. I.

G

Am here to urge and ask for your support to support all the.

G

Recommendations put forth by the charter review., I can.

G

Assure you they did long extensive interviews,.

G

Invitations to the local community to ensure that our.

G

Voice was heard.. I ask you to take on and vote to, amend the.

G

Charter to include a native land acknowledgment and.

G

Support also the non citizens to be able to serve on.

G

City boards, as well as all the other recommendations.

G

Put forth by this charter review., I am available for.

G

Any additional questions comments also as a local native.

G

Indigenous person that has a long standing relationship with.

G

The miwok malony leadership, especially charlie vanishment,.

G

And we've been working and collaborating with our local.

G

Indigenous people here of this land., thank you so much.

G

Aleena. good afternoon commissioners., I am in support.

I

Of all of the proposals, one through 15, and particularly I.

I

Want to speak in support of reforming boards and commissions.- we wouldn't be here today, if it weren't, for the will of the people to have a democratic process when it comes to lawmaking.. I'd also like to add that, in regards to.

I

Citizenship, the move would also align with senate bill. Two.

I

To five at the state level that has removed citizenship.

I

Requirements for all state boards and commissions., I think this is particularly important when we think about for example, the planning, commission and certain decisions like the fleamarket.. What would that have looked like if there was more broad representation regarding.

I

Decisions that really impacted a lot of our undocumented.

I

Communities?, I think this policy would greatly increase.

I

Civic participation within the commission, which currently.

I

Has an annual vacancy of 40 to 60 seats a year by investing in.

I

The infrastructure of boards and commissions,, we can take a collective action to improve civic participation across so.

I

Many facets of our government.. I also support committing to.

I

Climate action, either through a new or combined with.

I

Preexisting- commission.- but it must have residents seat.

I

Participation, I support the equity. Values are shared by bob.

I

Brounstein and lastly,- you know we are discussing here today- is.

I

I think is nothing short of amazing and an historic, and I trust that the people of san jose you know, can come together to review the charter every ten years.. This is.

I

What is the most equitable and inclusive, and it affirms that.

I

Council values our input and they are creating.

I

Intentional room and process to enable that, through a charter.

I

Review commission.- and again, we're discussing so many.

I

Historic amazing things right now and it wouldn't be that way.

I

If we didn't have this commission- and I think that the people of san jose deserve to be able to look at the guiding.

I

Principles in this really important document, every 10.

I

Years. thank you,, elizabeth. hello.. My name is elizabeth.

J

Marcellus, I I'm a lifelong resident of san jose over.

J

Thirty five years been a resident of district six.. I'm.

J

Calling in to express my support for the recommendation from council members coming in homeowners to put forward a ballot measure on implementing reentries voting in san jose.

J

This reform will simplify our elections, increase voter turnout across all communities and improve representation at.

J

City hall., currently san jose's, poorly, attended primary.

J

Election elections examiner regional turnout cap among.

J

Voters of color this doubles the general election well white.

J

Turnout increases by only one point five times the result.

J

These turnout disparities that white voters make up a larger portion of the population and the electorate primary elections than they do in general. Elections, therefore dictating who we get to vote for in the general election.

J

Adopting rank choice voting would be a significant step towards closing this turnout gap and instead holding a.

J

Single round of elections in november, candidates will face.

J

A larger and more diverse electorate., I hope that city.

J

Council supports this charter commission recommendation as.

J

Well, as all the others, but this one specifically as a.

J

Standalone bad ballot measure, we must work together to remove every day possible to a political participation in.

J

Order to have the highest level democracy, possible., thanks,,.

C

Larry. bakeman, where we can. thanks for the meeting today., I.

K

Guess to start off a reminder for better or for worse that we.

K

Have a really important commission report on the future.

K

Of the commission process coming out in june that for.

K

Better or for worse, we can navigate your decision, making today., of course, for more openness and accountability.

K

With technology and how the public can be involved with that process., it's really important to me and the.

K

Neighborhood commission process is interesting and nice.. I.

K

Think I'm looking for just a bit more and what can be how we.

K

Can further the concepts, direct contact between community and.

K

Government in the country and how to build the future of a.

K

Community technology, surveillance and data collection., it is a hand in hand, relationship that will be.

K

Walking through together in the next few decades that I just.

K

Hope we just know how to grow.. It will just feel good to grow.

K

Basically, good luck! How we can do that openness is important. I.

K

Guess I wanted to what I wanted to offer. I know about there's.

K

Such a good body of work with this., oh yeah., the the auditing.

K

Process the auditors did not agree on what could be good.. I.

K

Think there needs to be a consideration of other people's.

K

Auditing idea., where were a community, can be involved in.

K

The future of the auditing process., how that develops good.

K

Luck that as a whole sort of process we're working on here,.

K

How can the community be a more part of the government process.

K

Not the other way around words dictates from our.

K

Government to conclude good work: how, with all the good.

K

Thought we have going today how we can talk about the future of.

K

Policing and the good commissions that can help.

K

Government with cui tranh. good afternoon, council members.

K

We train- I was appointed by council member david cohen, to serve on the charter review commission and I appreciated.

K

The opportunity to do this important work. I come here to.

K

Speak specifically in support of the recommendation to adopt rank choice voting., I know the staff is recommending that ought to wait to see how the county places out, but how it.

K

Plays the county level., I don't really think that ties in to.

K

How it is implemented here at the city level., I mean county's.

K

Going to be administering it regardless and the.

K

Recommendation did build in a bit of time for us to to make.

K

That the system works out well before it gets implemented.. So.

K

I would urge the council to adopt the recommendation and.

K

Put forward, excuse me, put forward rank choice voting to the voters.. I would also bring attention to the recommendation.

K

To elevate the fair campaigns board and that discussion.

K

Actually came with other recommendations that included.

K

Shifting some of the responsibilities giving a bit more authority as well., and I think that was important.

K

Because there was discussions around how we as a city can address campaign finance reform and to do that, we needed some.

K

Kind of infrastructure that had that ability to do the oversight needed., so I do think that if there to the extent.

K

That we can have that conversation and look at what.

K

Other abilities and powers can be afforded to the fair campaigns board to ensure that kind of enforcement oversight.

K

Of campaign finance and just campaigns in general, we thought.

K

That was important to to look at.. So it's not a standalone.

K

Elevating the fair campaign board as it is, but look to look at what we can get, what powers, not always we can give to a.

K

Fair campaign board so that candidates work to try to.

K

Follow the rules that there's some mechanism to ensure that the campaign rules are followed. thanks to all and.

C

Appreciate it. nazeem noorie. hi, thank you.. My name is.

F

Necessary and I'm calling today on behalf of the green party of.

F

Santa clara county in strong support of implementing rank.

F

Choice voting in san jose through a standalone ballot measure. ranked choice. Voting has been in the green party's.

F

Platform since our inception, because it is more democratic,.

F

It is more fair and actually results in better turnout and.

F

Most importantly, better representation of the voting population of san jose. mencius voting has proven itself to be.

F

Simple to understand and after being implemented in many.

F

Sitting, cities across the country, it's actually made it.

F

Clear that it does result in better representation.. I am.

F

Also, a resident of district four., I want to express my thanks to both council member cohen and gim nez for putting forward this memo.. I do urge the council for to actually.

F

Support this commission's recommendation that our amazing.

F

Recommendations that the commission has come up with and.

F

In particular, I also want to urge the council to push.

F

Forward to the next steps, the community opportunity to.

F

Purchase housing is an incredibly important crisis.

F

Right now in our city, and that is one way to ensure that.

F

Displacement is kept at bay.. Thank you very much.. Please.

F

Support these recommendations. there is a lot of work. That's gone into it with an amazing effort in getting community.

F

Information and participation in these recommendations. thank.

F

You sandra. thank you.. Thank you to the city clerk and the.

G

Staff who worked with the charter commission, the commissioners in city staff that have worked on the presentation material as you consider the items to bring.

G

Forward for public vote,, I requested the wording of any.

G

And all ballot measures be transparent,, clear and concise.

G

Text tideline should avoid the pitfalls that we have seen.

G

Recently in the ballot measures adopted by valley water. in my.

G

Personal opinion ranked choice, voting will representation on the council by people who did not receive a.

G

Majority of the first choice: votes. additionally,, the cost.

G

Of this recommendation is to be considered, we are not.

G

Adequately, funding city core services such as safety, roads,,.

G

Libraries and others, and there have been issues in other.

G

Locations such as new york, city ., the racial equity proposal.

G

Should not be in the charter as conditions change and, as noted.

G

In public comment and written comment,, the current definition.

G

Is flawed.? We should work on it at the level it is now and not.

G

Enshrine it in the charter again., I want to thank everyone.

G

Who has worked on these issues, examined them and appreciate.

G

The time of the staff that have worked on these issues.

G

Thank you all nine one, nine six press star six there you.

C

Go., my name is pat lang.. I'm calling in favor of ranked.

F

Choice voting and the reason I think it's a good idea is.

F

Because it's easier for voters to understand how to pick what.

F

They really want, and a lot of effort seems to go into.

F

Strategizing how you should place your vote, rank choice.

F

Voting voting makes it quite simple.. You have a first choice.

F

And if that person does, when you get to say, oh, you have.

F

Second choices or third choice, so it's just easier to get.

F

Across the message you're trying to get across and I.

F

Believe it also reduces negative campaign., so I'm.

F

Encouraging you to have franchise voting on the ballot.

F

Measure. thank you,, stephen. hi there.. Thank you so much.. My.

C

Name is stephen crane and I'm a research scholar at.

C

Stanford and I'm also calling to express my support for the.

C

Recommendation from council members, cohen and gim nez to.

C

Put forward a ballot measure on implementing ranked choice.

C

Voting in san jose. and I've been very heartened to hear so many voices in support of that as well, and I believe this.

C

Reform will simplify our elections, increase voter turnout across all communities and improve representation at.

C

City hall. and while rank choice voting would be new for san jose,. We do have the benefit of many years of data from more than forty us cities, demonstrating that this.

C

Is a reform that voters both understand and prefer by and.

C

Large,, nearly two decades ago, after their first rank choice.

C

Voting eighty seven percent of voters in san francisco said.

C

They understood it very well and similarly, last year in new york city, ninety five percent of voters found it simple to complete. it's worth pointing out that this level of understanding was consistent across all subgroups.. So this.

C

Shows that everyone is capable of understanding rank choice voting.. I hope that the city council supports this.

C

Commission recommendation as a standalone ballot measure., we.

C

Must work together to remove every possible barrier to.

C

Political participation, in order to facilitate the highest.

C

Levels of democratic representation.. Thank you very.

C

Much, carol. lotte's central nanomoles carol, residents of.

F

The voters of san jose,, santa clara and of the lakes, has.

F

Several positions that talk about how we present about.

F

Voting and number one, that the language should be precise,.

F

Clear,, understandable and meet standards of readability and.

F

That there should only be a single subject on ballot, measures. why?, because senate can vote yes on one subject and.

F

Vote on another. other positions that we have include.

F

Maximizing effective voting and minimizing wasted vote and also.

F

We want to promote sincere voting over strategic voting.

F

We thank you so much for establishing the charter review.

F

Commission and for considering all of these recommendations.

G

Our members are following this discussion today and we are going to continue to follow it through all of the rest of your.

G

Meetings., thank you very much,, jeremy bruce. hi. good.

F

Afternoon,, mayor council,, this is jeremy bruce and I had the.

F

Distinct pleasure and honor to serve as a commissioner on.

F

The san jose charter review commission, twenty twenty one.. I.

F

Just strongly urge the council to consider the.

F

Recommendations put forth by the commission, like my fellow.

F

Commissioners, tran and fuentes had shared the commission I'd.

F

Put dozens and dozens of hours into research into.

F

Meeting with various subcommittees, bringing in.

F

Guests speakers, talking to city staff,, talking to.

F

Experts to help form and shape these recommendations that.

F

We've put forth., so I strongly urge that you consider them.

F

There's a lot of time and effort and research and.

F

Studies that were put into this also on uplifts council.

F

Members, humanities and coin's memo supporting rank choice.

F

Voting.- and I just want to thank you for your time- today.

F

Thank you,, heidi riley. hi.. Thank you so much for giving me.

F

The time to speak today and thank you for your rank choice.

C

Voting., that's something I'm very passionate about and I am.

C

Really glad to see that it is something being considered.

C

Right now for san jose, which could be very influential.

C

Seeing as such a big city ranked choice, voting has a really strong track record of helping women candidates break.

C

Through structural barriers and get elected. recent rank choice.

C

Voting success stories have come in new york city, which just elected its first ever majority female city council.

C

And in las cruces, new mexico, which elected an all women city,.

C

Council, for the first time in its history, nearly half of all.

C

Mayoral positions and city council seats decided by rank.

C

Choice voting are held by women., put simply, electoral.

C

Outcomes for women are better in places that have implemented.

C

Ranked choice voting., so I hope the city council supports this.

C

Commission recommendation as a standalone ballot measure.

C

Because we must work together to keep removing all the barriers to political participation and you know,.

C

Let's get the best democratic representation possible and I.

C

Urge you to put this out there for the voters to decide.. Thank.

C

You so much, gloria gomez,. Can you hear? yes. yes. hirsche.

C

To him my name is gloria gomez and I'm a member of the most.

F

Lonely tribe, the aboriginal tribe,, the san francisco bay.

F

Area which includes a city of san jose and I'm asking the city council to vote, to amend the charter to include the.

F

Native land acknowledgment specifically acknowledging the.

F

Mueck malony tribe. we've submitted the land acknowledgment that we are requesting to be placed in the charter and are willing to work with the charter to revise.

F

Anything, but we definitely want our tribe included in that.

F

Also, the more money tribe agrees that there needs to be a climate change commission comprised of the residents and.

F

Our tribe would gladly accept to have two seats on this.

F

Commission., thank you for checking on cat woodmansee.

F

Unmuted. yeah,, I'm also commenting the handling of the.

F

Climate crisis commission, how that's being rolled into an.

F

Existing city department., I think this is an opportunity to.

F

Recognize that this isn't how we handle the coming crisis.

F

The existential crisis that humanity is being spun into is.

F

Really not a departmental level approach decision you, we really should be on a war footing.. I know that sounds extreme, but.

F

It's just it's just it's just the reality of the situation.

F

And this isn't going to be something that when department needs to look at it,, our response will cut across all.

F

Departments, all levels of government. there will be requirements coming down from federal departments and levels.

F

Of government for us to deal with and it's time to.

F

Basically get our head out of the sand and recognize that.

F

This is going to be the biggest thing to hit us as humans in.

F

Probably twenty thousand years.- it's not about clean energy.,.

F

It's not about alternative transportation,, private equity., it's about anything., it's about survival and making sure that.

F

We're throwing every resource we have at this now and every.

F

Time any topic comes up that we're that we understand our.

F

Responsibilities to the people. it is for the people. it is for.

F

The future. we have to do this.. We have to put everything we have on the front line., we are at war and we have to take it.

F

Seriously. thank you., gabriella lopez. good afternoon., as I.

J

Mentioned,, my name is gabriella chavez lopez., I'm the executive.

J

Director of the latino coalition of silicon valley at.

J

A new district present as a strong advocate first for.

J

Expanding democracy for all people.- I am today sharing some.

J

Perspective on how rank choice, voting advances and strengthen.

J

Civic participation and political parity, particularly.

J

For women and latinas in our region and to share my strong.

J

Support for all the recommendations put forward by the charter. Review. Commission.- thank you for all your work and.

J

Ranked choice elections. as stated earlier, women win.

J

Represent women reports that, across the us, women and people of color continue to run and win in higher numbers and rank choice elections also without fear of splitting the.

J

Vote or playing spoiler multiple candidates from the same community can run for the same seat, which ultimately.

J

Drives up that community's voter turnout and participation count of candidates also benefit from.

J

The elimination of the runoff fundraising cycle,, thus.

J

Removing additional financial barriers for anyone running for office. the sba progressive alliance projects that.

J

Implementing our cv in san jose would increase citywide voter.

J

Turnout by seventy nine percent and increase the electoral.

J

Power of latino voters by three point: six percent after san.

J

Francisco implemented, our voter turnout increased by two point.

J

Seven per cent or times I'm sorry, two point seven times and.

J

Socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods, voter turnout.

J

Quadrupled now who wouldn't want that?, all of us to say.

J

That we believe that this change to our election structure would ultimately increase civic participation and remove barriers for underrepresented groups to participate more foley and deeply in our elections and campaign process throughout the city of san jose.. Thank you so much to council, member gim, nez and cohen for uplifting this issue.. We look forward to participating actively and.

J

Deeper voter engagement and education and the and.

J

Expressing our support for the benefits of this change.

J

Thank you so much kyle jordan. hello.. My name is kyle.

L

Jordan and I'm a resident of district ten., I'm calling to.

L

Express my support for a potential ballot measure to.

L

Implement ranked choice voting in san jose., this measure is an.

L

Incredibly important path forward to allowing freer and.

L

Fair elections in the city of san jose as of april twenty.

L

Twenty two, fifty five cities, counties and states are.

L

Projected to use our kvi for all voters in their next.

L

Election. these jurisdictions are home to approximate ten.

L

Million voters and include two states, one county and 52.

L

Cities. additionally,, military and overseas voters can cast.

L

Ballots in sorry, ballots in federal, runoff elections in six.

L

States with ranked choice, voting. both candidates and.

L

Voters can choose to vote their conscience instead of just.

L

Strategically voting for who, they think will win. there's a.

L

Good case to be made that the election systems in alaska and.

L

Maine made it easier from senators, murkowski and collins.

L

To show support for judge kantaras brown jackson's.

L

Nomination to the supreme court, that's especially powerful.

L

When you know that murkowski is up for reelection this year and.

L

Faces republican rival,, it's very easy for candidates to.

L

Vote their conscience, rather than just stick to party lines.

L

When they're up for election in an r.s.v.p. jurisdiction.

L

Recommendation to wait and see as unnecessary. san francisco,.

L

Oakland, berkeley, san leandro all use ranked choice, voting.

L

Via san jose falling behind here., thank you shirado.

C

Laura. good afternoon,, mayor. members of the city council.

C

Charter, commission members, my name is shirado loida. I am a.

F

Resident of district five and I'm the director of development and communications for the indian health center of.

F

Santa cervelli, where we serve over twenty two thousand patients that represent the vast diversity of our great city, including members and descendants from over 80.

F

Federally recognized american tribes from throughout the united states.. I appreciate the work of the commission and.

F

Asked that you adopt all commission recommendations as submitted in particular, I am a strong supporter of the.

F

Inclusion of the native land acknowledgment in the city's charter and stand in direct support of the ongoing efforts.

F

Of the melony tribe of the san francisco bay area to.

F

Organize the ancestral descendants of their people on behalf of their future generations. thank you.. I yield.

C

My time. monica ariano monica. hello.. Can you hear me? yes.

F

Can ok to reconnect, I got monica viviano, which is called.

M

Colony tribe of san francisco bay, area., hello., good day.. I greet you in her native church, your language., I'm monica vitaliano,, the vice chairwoman for the equality tribe at.

M

The san francisco bay area, which includes, are some aloni.

F

Speaking tribal area of san jose., I'm asking the city.

F

Council to vote and accept the native land acknowledgment recommended by the city charter. Commission, specifically.

F

Acknowledging malony tribe and our family ancestral speaking ancestors and tribal area.. The charter work.

F

Extensively to be inclusive on this land acknowledgment that we support and that they you voted on unanimously and.

F

Passed., we ask that you, please accept all of their.

F

Recommendations for the charter . also the moyock malony tribe,.

F

Agrees that there needs to be a climate change, commission comprised of san jose residents and the moyock malony tribe.

M

Would gladly accept to have two seats on? This commission.-.

F

Heatwole shekinah,, thank you so much., steve chessen. thank.

C

You. my cangemi yes, thank you.. My name is steve. Chessen.

F

I'm a member of the santa clara county citizen's advisory commission on elections.. We were the body that forwarded.

F

The recommendation to the board of supervisors that the county.

F

Change its elections to rank choice, voting the county amended its charter in nineteen. Ninety eight to allow the board of supervisors to authorize changing county elections to rank choice voting.. It does not require another amendment to a county charter. that recommendation.

F

Is currently under consideration by the county's finance government operations? Committee.: it will be back on.

F

Their agenda in august, so we'll not go to the full board until after then, at which point the full board could decide.

F

That the county should go to rank choice, voting in twenty twenty four.. I want to point out that the deadline for san.

F

Jose to put a charter amendment for san jose to decide whether.

F

To put a charter amendment on the november, twenty twenty two ballot is early august.. If you wait for the county to.

F

Decide to move to rank choice voting you will miss the window.

F

Of opportunity to change san jose's elections to rank choice.

F

Voting for the twenty twenty four election cycle and the.

F

Earliest that you would be able to choose rank choice voting would then be twenty twenty. Sixth, I just wanted to bring that to the city council's attention.. Thank you very much.

F

Jonathan diaz. hello., yes, I was jonathan davis and I'm.

N

Calling to affirm the recommendation for rank choice voting as a I'd like to particularly note the benefit.

N

To the deepening of democracy, without creating significant gaps in voter's understanding of the electoral system across.

N

Demographic groups, data consistently shows that everyone is capable of understanding choice voting.. I.

N

Hope the city council supports this commission recommendation is standalone ballot measure to remove barriers to participation and promote the deepening of our local.

N

Democracy.. Thank you for my time. Carmen carmen., sorry.

C

About that continued, so I'm coming bremer and I'm calling.

C

To first of all, thank a charter review team, the resident of.

F

San jose and all the others who participated in this charter review and recommendations.. I do support the charter team.

F

Recommendations, especially the rank choice, voting the.

F

Community opportunity purchase act, equity, inclusion in the.

F

City programs and budgeting and elevating the board of fair.

F

Campaigns and political practices in the city charter..

F

I stand in support with all the other community speakers and I.

F

Especially appreciate the comments from bob brounstein.

A

Thank you, mira. hi.. Can you hear me?? Yes, hi? My name is.

J

Mira, karthick and I'm a resident of district ten., I'm.

J

Calling to express my support for the recommendation for council members kohnen homeowners to put forward a ballot measure on implementing rigorous voting and cenizo. I.

J

Believe that this reform will simplify our elections, increase voter turnout across all communities and improve representation at city hall and as a lot of people had.

J

Said,, I think that working twice voting is incredible because it provides benefits for both candidates and voters.

J

And specifically, for in relation to voters, it.

J

Eliminates low turnout. primary elections will improve voter.

J

Participation, especially within racial minority groups, as we said before, and there are proven benefits for minority candidates and communities as well, because without the fear.

J

Of splitting the vote or playing spoiler,, multiple candidates from the same community can run for the same seat and that's really an important feature of today's voting, especially in a city as diverse as san jose.. Along with.

J

That, candidates also benefit from the elimination of the runoff fundraising cycle and by consolidating two.

J

Elections into one through ranked choice voting we can have a much more meaningful and better process democratic.

J

Process of voting and having that in san is incredibly.

J

Important to take our next step into our new democracy and.

J

Setting an example for other big cities around the united states.. So I really do hope that you take this proposal to consideration, because it means a lot to a lot of different.

J

Community members around san jose and that definitely has the potential to create huge changes going forward for our.

J

City. thank you,, lord. hi, there. good afternoon. council.

O

And community. my name is fawad heider., I'm a resident of district one, and I'm calling in to express my support for the.

O

Recommendation from council members calling inhibiters to put forward a ballot measure implementing rank choice voting in san jose.. This reform will simplify our elections,.

O

Increase voter turnout across all communities and improve.

O

Representation at city. I want to start by also echoing the.

O

Comments from mr. steve chessen about the relationship between.

O

The city staff recommendation regarding waiting for the.

O

County's input., I really do think these are separate.. It just makes a lot of sense. What mr. chessen has said as well.

O

That we can make our decision here at the san jose level and.

O

We know that the public process is really great democratic, but.

O

It takes time., so why would we put ourselves in a situation.

O

Where we can't make the decision now, when the council.

O

Is considering it? we've done the studying now and we don't need to redo that work in the future., and I also just.

O

Want to state that I think that the decision to put any of these recommendations, which I support, all of them from the.

O

Charter review, commission: I is tuning into a lot of the meetings as just a community member in d, one just to stay in.

O

Touch and keeping in touch with commissioners about what they're working on as much as I can, and we can put things on.

O

The ballot, without necessarily saying oh, we support this.

O

Ourselves., I do support our receive and I support a baffsky.

O

Elevation. I support the noncitizen voting.. I support the land acknowledgment all of those recommendations., but I.

O

Also, just think that if we have these recommendations.

O

They're already ready to go for the ballot, because the charter.

O

Review has had their own process and unless there's any significant problems that you can find, then we should let the.

O

Voters decide., and so I appreciate all the work that's been done. Like other people have said,, our city is going in.

O

Berkeley, oakland, sf mandro other places, not even just for.

O

Like city elections, but other levels like statewide and.

O

Certain julie, domingo's gorrostieta. he's got really.

C

Dom nguez. hi everyone., my name is julie. Domingo's, I'm a member.

F

Of and with melanie tribalistic francisco bay area, also a resident of the city of san jose., and I just want to echo.

J

The words of my vice chair, monica ariano, as well as member.

J

Glorianna and support show support for our land.

E

Acknowledgment recommendation.. Thank you for your time.

C

Chris logan in person of name.

F

Is chris logan. I'm an organizer of sacred heart meeting service. we serve tens of thousands of community.

F

Members per year. just wanted to quickly highlight the charter recommendations that our members have identified as.

F

Important to them. the recommendation on boards and.

F

Commissions, training, stipends and language access as.

F

Recommended unanimously unanimously by the charter.

F

Commission adopting equity principles.- this can be done.

P

Through council action, but if we go that route it could be.

P

Undone or even just ignored through council action, and we.

P

Think it's important that it be included in the charter.. We.

P

Should require an annual equity audit of departments as well as.

P

Equity analysis of budgets, the annual priority setting and.

P

Before major policy decisions are made by council- and we also.

P

Support the language regarding access in the charter.

C

Recommendations as well like charlene fouch through this.

F

Is certainly najma., I'm the chairwoman for the mueck malony.

F

Tribe, the san francisco bay area.. I strongly urge the.

F

Council to adopt all the recommendations that was put.

F

Forth by the charter review commission, specifically the.

F

Native land acknowledgment, a genomic dna study was just.

F

Released by stanford and illinois, researchers that prove.

F

A genetic link between current malekula members and.

F

To 11 year old, aloni, ancestor burial, site. and I believe it's.

F

Time for the cities in our aboriginal territory to.

F

Acknowledge the malekula people and their contributions to the.

F

Thousands of years of human history on these lands.

F

Including the city of san. thank you., that was our final.

C

Speaker, but I would like to call the chair of the charter.

C

Commission for our forward, thank you for the prayer that I.

P

Had the honor of serving as chair of this commission.- I.

P

Wanted to save just a few comments to close today's.

P

Public hearing or the public comments, piece. first of all saying thank you to the staff from the city who worked so tirelessly with us.. Our commission met for over almost.

P

A year with over one hundred hours of meetings, sub.

P

Committee meetings, lots of research, as speakers have said,.

P

Wanted to thank toni taber and her staff and the city.

P

Attorney's office for their their partnership with us as a.

P

Commission of a residence. secondly,, I want to say thank you to my fellow commissioners, the twenty two folks that you.

P

Nominated and put on to this commission worked hard and.

P

They spent a lot more time than I think any of us thought they would., but they really did take their job incredibly seriously.

P

Both doing research a follow up meeting with the public,.

P

Listening to the public, and finally I want to say thank you to the public.. So, just as today, we had a number of people.

P

Respond to this commission's work throughout our process, we.

P

Spent hours and hours listening to the public and really trying.

P

To figure out ways to not only engage the public and our.

P

Community, but also then to be responsive to them in the.

P

Recommendations., I think that the memo that you sent to us originally, that was there- was written by penned by vice mayor.

P

Jones and council member hermanus really asked us to look at these issues of governance, which I think we did at the very beginning and really had answers to those very specific questions. You ask., but your last part of your.

P

Memo where you asked increased availability from the community.

P

Around equity, accountability and transfer at city hall is.

P

Where we spent the majority of our year- and I think it's an important aspect of the work of the charter commission- that we.

P

Really were focusing in on trying to hear from the community. what were the issues of equity, accountability and.

P

Transparency at city hall and I have great respect for the.

P

City's staff's response to us today and I do feel like two.

P

Things. one,, I think a lot of these questions should go to the voters to make. Let them have the decision.. That was certainly clearly what we heard from the public throughout our year. and secondly,. I think that the spirit of the.

P

Recommended actions really are: how do we increase the issues of equity within our community?? I think that the great.

P

Debate that we can start on all these issues is one that I'd.

P

Love the city to have, because I think, in the end, equity will be.

P

The thing that is the victor. again,, thank you for the the.

P

Time and the effort and the energies you're spending today and the actions you take forward on our all our recommendations. thank you. thank you, fred. and thank you.

D

To all the members of the charter review, commission and.

D

Also for all the public speakers who came out and.

D

Offered their opinion on all the different recommendations.

D

Before I go to my council colleagues, really, I just have a.

D

Just a process question., so, let's, let's take like one.

D

Particular recommendation like rank choice. Voting. can you.

D

Walk me through step by step, what happens if we vote to move.

D

That forward now and then walk one step by step terms. If we.

D

Vote to have it go next in the distinction between the.

B

Two? sure. thank you. vice mayor., so with the example of.

B

Ranked choice voting um if you were to put that into the now.

B

Category as a council, it would give us direction all three.

B

Appointees, actually, the city, manager, city attorney and city.

B

Clerk to work on the seventy five word ballot statement and.

B

All of the work that goes behind a ballot measure and our.

B

Goal would be to bring that forward to the council for.

B

Approval and placement on the ballot by the last meeting.

B

In june., um as one of the speakers noted, the deadline to.

B

Play something on the ballot as early august., so our goal would.

B

Be to get that in front of you by the end of june separately,.

B

Other items I would say, and the now category and rank choice.

B

Voting is probably its own thing.. There are several recommendations here um that were to move forward under the.

B

Now category that could be placed together in a single.

B

Measure., I don't believe twice voting is one of those, but.

B

Several measures could be combined into one measure., it would accomplish several of those and we would do the same work.. We would be working with the attorneys office to put that seventy five words and all of the various legal documents.

B

Together to bring forward by the end of june, in line what.

C

Happens about the next first. Second part of the question.

B

Correct., I was just pausing there to get my breath. Sorry.

B

uh For the next category., um so those would be items that.

B

You may want to consider for um uh charter changes in november.

B

Twenty twenty four twenty twenty six or as we've.

B

Articulated in our staff, memorandum could be accomplished through ordinance or council policy and.

B

So if the council places something in the next category,.

B

We would be analyzing it, but bringing forward those select.

B

Things that you place in that now bucket to the may 16th.

B

Priority setting as part of the budget study session road map exercise so that those can be then prioritized against all.

B

The other work that has already been directed to the administration., so I understand you said the now budget. Did you.

D

Did you mean the anything in the next budget? yes.? So I'm.

B

Saying now is for you know, the road map exercise that will be.

B

Taking place on may 16th is is for post june 30th.. It's our.

B

Next fiscal year., so the road map is intended to focus. That's.

B

For next year. anything that you decide to place on the ballot now in that category wouldn't go into that roadmap.

B

Process, because it's it's not that the timing doesn't.

B

Line up., so the council directs staff to prepare things for the.

B

Ballot measure., this team is as well as marc van in the audience will will have to work those issues through.

B

Between now and june, if that is feasible. and what I'm.

B

Saying is as another example, if you place something in the.

B

Next category, it would go through additional workload.

B

Analysis, participation. ok,. That was the clarification that.

D

I'm sorry now thank so I'm going to go to my first council.

D

Colleague, council member cohen. thank you.. I want to.

Q

Start by thanking the members of the charter, commission, kefraya and everybody else who was on that commission for the.

Q

Incredible work,, the detailed work, all the research and.

Q

Thoughtfulness that went into it. it's a long overdue process.. Obviously the committee city hasn't had such.

Q

A thorough review in a long time- and I think it's a very valid thing- to have make sure that we do regularly to have.

Q

People look it over and and be very thoughtful about. It.

Q

And I you know,, I don't, as I think you pointed out,, a chair.

Q

uh The I don't know that anybody expected this much work.

Q

When you started,, but I think it was important that you did all that work, because now we know that what with comes what came was was really thoughtful and well reasoned.

Q

Whether we agree with all of them or not., I think that it's clear that there was definite there were definite reasons behind every recommendation.. So I want to thank you for that.. I.

Q

Have a couple of questions before I kind of move on the memo that council member romanies and I wrote first one what is remind again, what is the cost to the city to put.

Q

Something on the ballot for each measure?. The first measure.

C

It's about six hundred thousand dollars. I can. I can pull it.

C

Up and give you the exact numbers and just give me a minute., I mean I don't need an exact number.. Ballpark is good.

Q

So about six hundred thousand dollars per measure, and so I I think one of the things that I was thinking through was you looked at. This, was you know, for the first and nevertheless.

Q

I guess for other measures. right., if you do more than once,.

C

If it's a standalone, there's no mayoral election, it's like a.

C

Million and a half. right.. So if you have another citywide item, that's about six thousand and then each other one is just.

C

A little bit less than that, but yeah half a million a.

Q

Second. yeah yeah.. So so I think it's important to be thoughtful about priorities and timing, because we don't.

Q

Necessarily want to first of all, we don't want to overload the voters with too much at one time, because I think that it's.

Q

Complicated enough to understand one charter, amendment versus three versus seven and then obviously.

Q

Trying to make sure we're not spending a lot of city money all at the same time as well.. I think it's important., so the.

Q

Idea of consolidation, I think, is- is important. One. You.

Q

Mentioned the idea of rolling things together into one, and I you can see in the memo that we wrote that we.

Q

Suggested that what are your thoughts about items six through ten?? They mostly deal they deal with the land acknowledgment equity, gender, neutral language in the charter.

Q

Things that I think many of us can agree with., but my.

Q

Opinion would be great to be able to accomplish through a single measure, since they kind of relate to one another. are.

Q

There any thoughts yet about what could be consolidated or not yet?. What has the city attorney to jump in?, but we.

B

Have in the past, I think it was in 2008 or twenty eighteen. We.

B

Had a charter, modernization thing,, a measure that did a few.

B

Different things., so I think six through ten, probably.

B

Could be combined into a modernization or update into.

B

One single measure., um, yes.. We think that that can probably.

C

Occur under that rubric. ok, thank you., all right., so.

Q

Just now, to get a little bit on the specifics of our memo and make a motion. So so, and I also appreciate leigh and your.

Q

Office for the for the process that you put in place for voting., I think I think doing that might have might have.

Q

Helped us, but I think, actually having a starting point for discussion, is, is more helpful, being able to specifically.

Q

Talk about recommendations and without sort of an arbitrary.

Q

Vote at the beginning., so I'm going to move a memo and that.

Q

Motion will include supplanting that prioritization voting.

Q

Process as part of it, the motion no item. No one places.

Q

Rank choice voting on the ballot for this november., we.

Q

Believe that it's something that should align us with the.

Q

Other big cities in our area, in addition to the save the money.

Q

Cost savings for the city, which I think which is significant,. I it's about three dollars million to hold a primary election. Without holding the primary election.. We save the city, three dollars million every two years.. It also allows.

Q

With our council's objective aligns with the objective of maximizing voter participation., we have a ballot measure this year to move the mayoral election for that purpose, having all of the voter, all the candidates here.

Q

On the ballot in the general election, when voter turnout is highest, provides the most input that the voters can give as.

Q

To who their preferences are? So that's that's my feeling for.

Q

Why we're including that? Second, one moving forward with ballot.

Q

Measure to elevate the board of fair campaign and political.

Q

Practice to the city charter that one because of the question of timing when we want to., but how many ballot measures on the ballot we left it kind of open ended as far as whether it's a now or next, because of having too many.

Q

Things on the ballot at one time, consolidating charter.

Q

Revisions: six through ten into one ballot measure, is recommendation number three, with the caveat in their.

Q

Language that says any charter revision adopted by.

Q

The council, which means the council, would have to have a little bit of conversation, whether to her in the future, about all the specifics in there, because there may be some.

Q

Specific that are better we can leave out, but not all of us.

Q

Agree with, or that are things that can be done through.

Q

Ordinance and other action and don't necessarily need to be on the ballot, and we want to maximize the chance of getting the most important things passed without worrying ballot.

Q

Measure a number for I think it's important for us to have a.

Q

Conversation about what the appropriate size of the council is as the city grows., it's not obvious to me what the right number is, and I have been thinking about things like.

Q

Scaling the automatically scaling and the charter the number of seats based on population as the city grows. It would trigger automatic changes every census, so you don't have to do this regularly. Every so often when you decide the.

Q

Council is too small., but, given that we just did the.

Q

Redistricting process in the next one won't happen until twenty thirty. there's no hurry.. So I recommend bringing this back in twenty twenty five, so we can decide whether twenty twenty six or twenty twenty eight would be the right time to go to the ballot to make that change.. No I'm going.

Q

To skip number five for a second number: six, the.

Q

Components that do not require ballot measure would be.

Q

Included. number: six: we would bring those to the roadmap discussion and decide which ones are important to us and.

Q

Have that discussion there. number five declining numbers.

Q

Two and eleven from the charter review and not.

Q

Moving those forward. I'm adding to that., I didn't put it in the memo we didn't put in the memo., but I want to add to the motion declining number one,. No one isn't really a.

Q

Most of it isn't a recommendation.. Most of it is to leave the system the way it is. and then my feeling is.

Q

That the process for hiring the city manager is something.

Q

That can be handled through board through council policy and doesn't necessarily warrant going to the ballot.. So I will.

Q

Move my move, our memo and add declining number one and.

Q

Two to it as well to item number five. so.

D

Thank you, council member cohen., a.

D

Quick clarification if I was trying to categorize each one.

D

Of your items, so I have another one. Is the now item number two.

D

Is the as the next item number three? Is the next item for.

D

Later item five decline in item six later that correct. well.

Q

Yeah kind of I mean no, I think number three is a now too, but I.

Q

Did actually forget to ask this one question of staff, which is it's complicated to take, that put it all into one ballot.

Q

Measure, consolidate everything,, write the language and get it back to us by june.. So I did want to ask about the.

Q

Amount of time it would take and whether we could have a ballot measure ready by june on that item, for which item.

B

For number three, which is the consolidated six through 10.

Q

Yeah., so I would say that depends on the council.

B

Conversation. um, there's an awful lot of specificity in.

B

Some of the recommendations from the charter commission that I think we would need to work through.. um You know just as an example, because so many speakers spoke about it.

B

You know as an example, recommendations, nine and I.

B

Believe it's nine and ten that deal with equity. there's a.

B

Certain level of specificity in detail in the.

B

Commission's report, which is great. um and in in our.

B

Analysis, the commission says, you know,. This doesn't all naturally need to happen in the charter., it can happen elsewhere, and so it references the code of ethics in the.

B

Charter of section six or seven,, the charter section six.

B

Seven around code of ethics.: it has these high level goals.

B

And then attaches to a city ordinance that you guys over.

B

Time can go ahead, modify versus the recommendations around.

B

Some of the objectives and measurements around equity are very specific., so you know the through the conversation.

B

Here,, one alternative would be to include those higher.

B

Level goals and then allow us to work it out through ordinance or policy and bring it back to you., and so things like that, where it's a high level goal, you know,, it's.

B

Probably easier for us to combine through a single.

B

Measure and bring it back in june versus if there's a lot of specificity in additional policy review to work out.

B

Between now and say, the end of june., that is a tough exercise.

B

For staff,, especially around the legal work and the seventy.

B

Five word testing that we want to do.. So that was my concern.

Q

And but if I were to have my preference to answer your question directly, I would put no one in three as now., but I.

Q

Also, I think we made some comments in the in the body to.

Q

Say that's part of the conversation.. I don't think.

Q

That we, as authors of the memo, we're totally wedded to any dates for any of them, except to say that we think these are our priorities and depending when they can be done. And what the.

Q

Council thinks is the right approach to spacing them out,. I.

Q

Think we'd be amenable to that conversation. thank you,.

D

Council member., as far as the thank you., I also would like.

R

To thank the commission and shout out to chair fred farer.

R

I think it's, it was a lot of work, a lot of time and I.

R

Think it has raised some really core issues in the city.

R

Around equipe in twenty nineteen, five of us brought.

R

Up equity to the council, and while some of that work.

R

In twenty twenty, the council unanimously voted to create the.

R

Office of racial equity- and there is some work ongoing.

R

Frankly, I think equity is and and really embedding this.

R

In the city's processes is it's some of the most important.

R

That we can do because that will live beyond us and.

R

That's really what we fought for., we didn't fight for an after school program.. We didn't fight for a specific project.

R

We fought for the entire budget and the choices the city.

R

Makes on what moves forward,? What doesn't, how we decide to.

R

Fund certain things. and in fact recently, I brought up.

R

Earmarked the fact that we had initially gone through an.

R

Equity process on the earmarks for millions of dollars that we.

R

Advocated for successfully for the city., and so that is.

R

My preference being one of the council districts that.

R

That has a lot of inequity. I district five in district, seven.

R

Where the most imbalanced council districts in the city.

R

In a lot of ways, I I did want to ask a question I'll.

R

Move forward actually I'll get to that in a little bit.

R

I I do think I support the idea of meeting and reviewing around.

R

The census process and how that works out with those.

R

Twenty twenty five or twenty twenty eight, as we get closer.

R

To census, so that we we look at some of these changes that we.

R

Might need to make around that I think is important to do.. I.

R

Agree with elevating the fair campaign for political practices., I do support reform boards and commissions, but I.

R

Had a question so when we, when I look at the.

R

Recommendation and then, when I looked at the budget, there's a.

R

Dollar amount to that and and it's one point- six million is.

R

That correct for the total cost of of moving this for a.

C

Standalone ballot measure without another citywide.

C

Measure is about one point: six million; a ballot measure where.

C

There's already another citywide measure or item like.

C

The mayoral election, the six hundred and forty four thousand.

C

And that's per measure. so each measure, but does that.

R

Include the cost of stipends that that had been raised for.

R

The ok? no council member, as far as the the cost for the.

B

Stipend specifically, that would be an ongoing cost.. It would need to be absorbed into the city, budget. ok,. I I wanted to.

R

Give my thoughts on this, which, when we initially proposed.

R

The equity there was a graphic attached to that that I know a.

R

Lot of folks are familiar with, but it's because whenever we.

R

Talk about equity, we invest blekko conversation invariably.

R

Goes to a quality versus equity, and I have pointed.

R

Commissioners that have come to me and and have said yeah,. I.

R

Don't make a lot of money and I'm spending a lot of hours.

R

Hours, time and and it's a concern for them and and I also.

R

Believe one of my other commissioners is one of the low.

R

Income commissioners right., where they have to check a box .. I think, there's a lot of wiggle room here in terms of.

R

Does every commissioner need a need or want a stipend?, how.

R

About we make that money available for folks. You know.

R

That that need it, that want it, and so so that that was a.

R

Question that I had. do we have to does this city require us to.

R

Do that on an equal basis to all commissioners or could.

R

They request it to member as far as that's my understanding.

B

That you have flexibility and we have flexibility on how we would implement that. As an example you'll be taking action.

B

I believe tomorrow for dc., will you be providing a stipend to.

B

The individual, that's added that is house with the.

B

Experience so that you can be specific around some things.

B

That we probably need to work on with the attorney's office around income level or need if this were to progress? ok,. I.

R

Think it's an important issue.. We do have working families.

R

That sacrifice a shift for some of the commissions and.

R

Others are able to do it and that's a blessing.. It really is a blessing.. I know a million years ago when I served as a.

R

Commissioner, I was very earnest and super excited about spending two evenings a week and all day saturdays, and I.

R

Know there are other folks that may or may not be able to.

R

Get that much time because of child care or the need to.

R

Cover some shifts., and so I think that's we have some room.

R

There on the costs, I I wanted to give some feedback.

R

On the acknowledging the native land in the charter., I I.

R

Hear that that is going to take a little bit more work to.

R

Make sure that we are doing that with other tribes, that.

R

Have reached out and said hey, we are included in that process.

R

And we need to include them and I think it's still the right.

R

Thing to do and that we can figure out a way to do that.

R

Same on the gender inclusive language, I did have a.

R

Question on the expansion of city and and the timing of this.

R

And the fred is still there. I'd like to hear from the.

R

Commission, one of the things that really jumped out to me.

R

Was representing a high need district that when, when we.

R

Studied this at the council, we learned that the commissions.

R

With the higher I'm sorry, the districts with the most.

R

Diverse and low income populations were specifically.

R

Put on off year cycles to diminish voter participation.

R

And so I was surprised not to hear a recommendation from the.

R

Charter to flip the odd number of districts.

R

Particularly looking at d, three d, five and seven have some of.

R

The highest need communities in the city.. Why and why wasn't.

R

What was the thinking on that?? Thank you, council, member, for.

P

Your question., I think, if you go to the report and you look at professor at that from san diego state, there was a.

P

Number of studies that were looked at in terms of voter participation and what they showed was that there wasn't a.

P

Decrease in participation in those out years as much as.

P

There was an increase when you added it to the other place., so.

P

That was one of the questions that came up in public as well as from the commissioners., and I think, if you go to the report and look at professor percival's study and the attach.

P

The amendment that was put in there, you'll see the analysis.

P

That was done in terms of voter participation in presidential.

P

Years and then in the out years, because that was the challenge was: if you go to people who have everything in a presidential year, you move the mayor's election.. What happens turns out districts and they didn't show a negative impact.

P

On that, as much as the greater impact on the mayoral election . thank you., and I know that that was included in the.

R

Last study session that we had or was it a study session or.

R

Council item where we discussed the turnout and that was tied.

R

To the mayoral race., but I I have seen with the past.

R

Elections, particularly young voters, getting more engaged.

R

Which is super important and would like to continue that.

R

Trend. just a couple of comments on the expansion.. I.

R

Think that any expansions of the council districts should be.

R

Done with redistricting, because it was a painful process for us.

R

Under redistricting, and if we're going to do that, this.

R

Should be done together., I can only imagine what it would be like for us,, for example, right now to expand and to make.

R

Some of those hard decisions that would be required., so I.

R

Wanted to get to my comments on ranked choice voting. I have.

R

A lot of concerns about it and, in fact the latino community has had a lot of concerns about this in recent years.. I.

R

Don't know if my colleagues have remembered particularly.

R

Those active in the democratic party, but a lot of the latino.

R

Organizations had participated in previous discussions, a lot.

R

Of discussions and meetings on this in years past due to those.

R

Concerns and those are my concerns.- I represent some of.

R

Those high needs community.. I talk to my voters a lot and.

R

I do think and have done a little bit of research on.

R

Other cities, generally, the academic research, produces.

R

Mixed or inconclusive results concerning communities of color.

R

And and one in a study with the twenty sixteen study.

R

By researchers at the university of missouri. now.

R

Similar levels of socioeconomic and racial disparities in voter.

R

Participation in plurality and ranked choice, voting elections.

R

., another study pointed out a large amount of ballot.

R

Exhaustion in california elections using ranked choice,.

R

Voting and age and education related turnout disparities.

R

Are more pronounced in san francisco after the adoption of.

R

Ranked choice voting.. I also wanted to add that in new york.

R

Many members of the city council's black,, latino and asian caucus opposed rank choice, voting and, in fact, sued.

R

To delay its rollout. so did the naacp.. They argued it.

R

Burden communities already struggling due to the pandemic.

R

And had concerns that voter education didn't reach seniors.

R

Non english speakers, people without internet access and.

R

Council member miller, co-chair of the caucus stated it is.

R

Sophisticated voter suppression, but it is voter suppression,.

R

Mayor eric adams noted in reference to rank choice.

R

Voting., that's not the reality when english as a second.

R

Language, that's not the reality for eighty five 90 year old.

R

Voters who are trying to navigate the process every new barrier in place, you are going to lose voters in the.

R

Process., I knew that was going to be a problem and it turned.

R

Out to be a problem. new york state, naacp, present hazel dukes.

R

Also called ranked choice voting voter suppression in.

R

California., we saw the number one voter concerns.

R

Around lack of a democratic process, because no one voter.

R

Folks that got the number one vote in fact did not win.

R

And in fact, in some of those elections there were campaigns.

R

To try and get the number two in effectively kind of gamed.

R

The system so that the number one voter vote getter did not.

R

Win. I'll tell you one of my concerns. After reading the memo.

R

Representing districts that I've been having some of the city's most low income communities is, I've spent a lot.

R

Of time, a lot of time going door to door in my.

R

District to help folks., I have gone door to door in the.

R

Businesses. I've gone door to door in neighborhoods the.

R

Census, where districts, five and seven had the least turnout.

R

It was, it was us city, workers, part time, parent us workers.

R

Council, member crosspost officetel and my office staff.

R

Who went out door to door to talk to folks to get them to.

R

Fill it out during the pandemic, we've had to go door.

R

To door and actually open up a rental assistance center in.

R

District: seven to make it easier for the east side. Folks.

R

To come and get help in their language and sit down with.

R

Someone to go through to ask their questions to get some.

R

Help filling things out because during a pandemic.

R

Especially, it's been really hard. and so having we're.

R

Switching we're proposing switching a system about.

R

Representation in months and we're doing it and what this.

R

Council has already determined has less of a voter turnout of.

R

People of color and we're so concerned about that as a.

R

Council we're moving mayoral elections to presidential.

R

Elections to get more voter turnout., but we're we're.

R

There's a proposal to put that in november this year,.

R

While communities like mine are still struggling tremendously,.

R

With a pandemic. in fact,, there was a news article today about.

R

The increase in folks needing food at one of the food.

R

Distribution sites, in my district, of which I still have.

R

Many., so switching the system, while we're still struggling to.

R

Get out of this pandemic, talk to the very voters who are.

R

Impacted the most is a concern., it is not a now for me. The.

R

People in my district are struggling to survive or.

R

Struggling to still stay alive, and so I'd like to ask.

R

For an amendment, if I may on no one to bring this back.

R

To council to discuss placing the ballot on the mayoral.

R

Election november, twenty twenty four ballot, the very election.

R

That this council has voted, that is acknowledged. Will.

R

Have a much higher voter turnout of by minorities,.

R

Women and young people- and that's that's the amendment.

Q

I'm willing to consider., but I just want to also just answer some of the questions that were asked in your comments, councilmember.. I didn't ask for it. yeah,. I didn't ask I know., but I mean some of the some of the study information. I have some some other studies. I wanted to bring it talk about, but I'm willing to, and I I acknowledge that their mic yeah.

Q

I understand so I mean I'm not saying no, I'm not saying yes yet. I just wanted to be able to. I could be able to vote.

R

For it., I would have to vote against your. I would have to.

R

Vote against you against it, if, if that could not be.

R

Accommodated council members, I was actually going to ask.

D

Council, member cohen, to bifurcate item number one anyway., so I think that would address your concerns. so.

D

Councilmember cohen, I'll go ahead and make that request.

D

Right? yeah. yeah.. I assume that that would be a reasonable.

Q

Thing to do in this list that this one would require more discussion than some of the others., so I'm willing to do.

Q

That. is that all right with all right. thank you, mayor.

R

Vasiljevic thiele's., so we're bifurcating. The measure number.

R

One, and are we changing the date from number one to.

R

November, twenty twenty four to bring it back to council for.

R

Discussion for the november twenty twenty four colet so.

D

Right now it's just a bifurcates. We can have we'll be able to have that discussion in terms of ok I'll. Take the.

R

Total and then I'll I'll take the total and then come back to number one. thank great lakes, council member folie.

S

Thank you. first, I want to thank the charter. Commission.

S

For the many, many hours of time and dedication you gave to.

S

All of these thoughtful issues.. I truly appreciate that and.

S

Appreciate your thoughtfulness and I've had conversations with some of the commissioners at least my two.

S

Commissioners and I appreciate their dedication to the process.

S

As well., I really I came in with mixed feelings about.

S

The rank choice, voting and then after council member far.

S

As articulated so well, what I didn't have the the.

S

Language to articulate the effect on seniors, the effect.

S

On other populations, who may have difficulty in.

S

Understanding the ballot makes me very concerned about the.

S

Rank choice, voting and and moving it to twenty twenty.

S

Two. but since we're bifurcating I'll talk about the.

S

The rest of them- and I actually would support moving it to.

S

Twenty twenty four: if that came forward, twenty twenty four.

S

To be placed on the, let's put it that way, I do have some.

S

Questions I and I appreciate council, member collin and.

S

His is your your memo because it kind of focused our.

S

Conversation a little bit and- and I appreciate that.

S

Direction., I have a question about the item. Number six.

S

Which is a reform. well,, not on your memo., it's from your memo.

S

It's item number two consolidate any charter.

S

Commissions and six through 10, I'm fine with that except I'm.

S

Concerned about item number six, because I feel there's three.

S

Points there which staff articulate. the first one.

S

Requires a charter amendment., the other two do not, and.

S

Perhaps should be separated and investigated immediately to see.

S

If we can implement them. the stip end and then the training.

S

I see no reason why we should delay on the training and no.

S

Reason to delay on the stipend the stipend requires.

S

In my mind, investigation the budgetary level to see, but we.

S

Know it's an implication of around six hundred thousand, but.

S

It is that all commissions, all charter, or just the.

S

Charter, commission, the those commissions that are under the.

S

Charter, who would benefit from the stipend, nor would it be all.

S

Of all of our commissioners, and I'm not opposed to one or.

S

The other, but I do think we need to investigate that that.

S

Further and so I consider more of a later than a or a next.

S

Rather than a now, because I'm afraid, if we put it on the.

S

Ballot we're putting six items or several items on the.

S

Ballot with seventy four in combined together with seventy.

S

Five words and it's going to be very confusing to our voting.

S

Population. I do like and support the idea of if we.

S

Put rank choice, voting on the ballot that be a separate.

S

Item., I think that's really critical and that the other.

S

Items can be combined., I don't have a concern about combining.

S

Them, except that the language becomes confusing over each of.

S

The items- and I think they are all important, particularly.

S

The native land acknowledgment of the gender inclusive language is really,, really critical, and while I hear the.

S

Concerns from staff, we can't wait on those amendments or.

S

Those changes., neither can we wait on establishing equity.

S

Values, et cetera, addressing equity, inclusion in programing.

S

And budgeting. we've we've already stated that those are.

S

Important and by putting them on the charter on the.

S

Ballot to be voted on in november shows that they truly.

S

Are a priority to us and just emphasizes how important.

S

Inclusive city is to us., so I I support much of them all memmel.

S

I'm not sure about the rank choice voting yet and would.

S

Like to see it come back in twenty twenty four really based.

S

On all the really insightful arguments made by council.

S

Member esparza, I had a couple of questions. I think.

S

Actually, most of my questions were answered as we were going along.. In fact, I think. Oh, oh, the one question I had was was.

S

Regarding around the the native land acknowledgment.

S

That the comment was made that we should delay and investigate.

S

Further because of concerns or involvement with other.

S

Tribal groups., but could we not put it on the ballot and engage.

S

Other tribal groups in their discussions as well? is there a.

S

Reason, I don't see this to be an either or I see this and and.

S

So how can we put it forward and continue to have.

S

Discussions with the other tribal groups and can you share.

S

With us, what the concerns of the other tribal groups that.

S

Have come up are council member foley, mr mcgurk.

E

Especially the city managers office?, we we can engage.

E

Between now and and june 30th, when we bring back the ballot.

E

Measure so that that's something that staff would need to be assigned to do and could could add that very.

E

Quickly to our work, plans., the concerns came at one of the.

E

Final meetings, if I recall, and the city clerk and a city.

E

Attorney's office could share as well, and it was just some testimony from groups who had not been part of the process.

E

So we don't know the full extent of additional engagement.

E

That might be required and so staff really just wanted.

E

To ensure that whatever process in developing.

E

Because the charter is something that can only be changed by the voters. We wanted to ensure that the process.

E

Would be inclusive and and in depth not to diminish the.

E

Work that the charter review commission did., they did a phenomenal job of outreach. however,. This was one of the 15.

E

Recommendations we're discussing today- and there are you know,, as as we've talked about many, many recommendations in addition to the ones we're talking about.

E

Today. so because these concerns came quite late in the.

E

Process, we staff was erring on the side of caution and.

E

That's because the charter is a much more permanent document.. We could do something through ordinance.

E

More quickly and and bring that forward or which is what.

E

Other cities have done and then bring the charter forward.

E

Later., that's one possibility or we could you know,. So we.

E

Presented what we found from our research of the 10 largest.

E

Cities in california in the staff report,, the charter is a.

E

Very valuable place to do this, and so we just want to get.

E

It right., so I hope I hope that's helpful.. No, it.

S

Doesn't and thank you and I agree that we want to get it.

S

Right., so between now and the time we have to vote to put.

S

It on the ballot, can we have those conversations with.

S

The other tribal groups? yes, we most certainly can make that.

E

Part of our work. ok,. Thank you. Then. I have a question.

S

For council member colen regarding item number, four of.

S

Your memo memmel on return to council in twenty twenty five.

S

For the discussion about the appropriate size of council.-.

S

That actually seems premature to me.. I I would be happy to.

S

Support that, if it said twenty thirty or connected to the.

S

Next census process, because it seems to me to have this.

S

Conversation in twenty twenty five really doesn't make.

S

Sense., we don't have the data that we need.. We, we don't.

S

As far as the census is concerned, and we're going to.

S

Have a discussion over the census and redistricting in.

S

Twenty thirty or not we, but so some people may, in this.

S

Group be on this on this. dyas, I'm not sure in twenty.

S

Thirty about redistricting and that's the time to have the.

S

Discussion also about redistricting and increasing.

S

The number of council members. so 2025 just seems.

S

Early and the the item is to bring back to council, so I'm.

S

Not sure what kind of a discussion we will have at council in in twenty twenty five., can you articulate why.

S

Twenty twenty five and why it should come back to council before it instead of going someplace else. First, before.

S

It comes back to us such as redistricting, and we talk.

F

I'm sorry, actually, if it works, ok go ahead.. Ok, one council.

E

Member sure I so council, member foley, when we looked at.

E

The process there is a very specific timing that the other.

E

Cities that are expanding their councils go through, and so we get the we get. Data from population data from.

E

The census and other sources., the california department of.

E

Finance on a regular basis, the final numbers come in.. You.

E

Know the census takes place on the decade and then we get the.

E

Data in and launch redistricting. there's some.

E

Timing around decision making to redistrict for the.

E

Particular size., so what we look at, what fort worth and.

E

Columbus did they decided in advance that, if their.

E

Population grew to a certain amount, then they would expand.

E

The council in the redistricting process., but you.

E

Need they, you need to go to the voters to get that authority.

E

First.- and so I don't know if twenty twenty five is the magic.

E

Year but we would need to develop a work plan to say, like.

E

This is the point at which you would you would do it in advance so that when you start redistricting or redistricting,.

E

For a council of 12, 14, etc. and then that takes time of.

E

Course it's much more complicated to do. Redistricting.

E

When you're doing whole new council districts versus if.

E

You're, just changing the borders of ten existing council.

E

Seats., I I didn't you know when we did the research.

E

And looked at columbus and fort worth, they are actually.

E

Getting got perilously close to the final deadline for their.

E

Elections, which are in twenty twenty three to adopt the final.

E

Maps with their new council districts., it's it's hugely.

E

Complicated because of how it impacts the seats on the.

E

Council that are already in process. so, as we said in our.

E

Memo,, the earliest that we could implement anything is.

E

Twenty twenty six, if we were to start redistricting today for.

E

Fourteen seats because everybody who's running right.

E

Now, in twenty twenty two will be in office until twenty.

E

Twenty six., so that's they have a four year seat that they are.

E

Running for in november, so we would have to go to the.

E

Voters and have those seats and the attorneys office could probably explain the legalities of that a little bit more than I just did.. But you know it's similar to why you.

E

Put the mayoral the change of the mayoral election timing.

E

On the ballot in june., so everyone running for election.

E

In november will know whether they are being.

E

Seated for a two year term or a four year term., so I hope.

E

That's how they're very helpful. thank you., so we.

S

Really need to have the discussion before we put the.

S

Item on the ballot to determine whether the voters want to.

S

Expand the number of council members from ten to whatever.

S

The appropriate size is. so then I guess my my question and.

S

I appreciate all of that, michel,, that was very helpful, is to council member collin. The your memo asks for this to.

S

Come to council to have this discussion, should it come go to.

S

A committee first and then to council and because it seems.

S

I guess it's council discussion. absolutely., but and.

S

Staff has to prepare a recommendation, so maybe just.

S

Directly straight to the council is a good idea unless there's a committee that should vet it before it comes to us and I'm not sure there is so do you have any thoughts about.

S

About about it coming directly to council before it goes through committee? I'm open to that. I mean I don't think I.

Q

Was we were being prescriptive on what that process is.? It was.

Q

More about the timing- and I think, there's a lot of other elements to the timing that michelle didn't mention.. If you were to expand, there would be some runway needed in order to.

Q

Build the build out space in offices and in order to.

Q

Figure out how we're going to budget for more offices., so I believe that twenty twenty six ballot measure to say.

Q

That, after 2030 there'll be a bigger council makes sense, because it gives the city time to prepare for the impacts which are significant and therefore that's. Why. I.

Q

Recommended twenty twenty five as as a time to have that.

Q

Discussion., but I also, I think in our in our discussion.

Q

We said that at that time we would decide whether twenty twenty six or twenty twenty eight is the appropriate time to go to the voters. But it just gives the council time to to.

Q

Figure that out.. Having said that, if there's a committee that you recommend to go to first, I mean that that part is.

Q

Reasonable, if there's an appropriate place, I'm not sure what that place is though. yeah. thank you.. I'm not.

S

Either. I was sitting here thinking of which committee would it go to?? I don't. I don't really know. it's not. I don't.

S

Know some council. Ultimately we have the all. We have to say.

S

Right. so coming to us makes perfect sense and it is a huge.

S

Decision to me both from a representation standpoint but.

S

Also from a monetary standpoint and logistically how you.

S

Would handle whatever that right size of city council.

S

Members is so, I guess I'm fine with it as it is moving back to.

S

Item six item: not not item six of your memmel item three and.

S

Including six through 10., what are your thoughts about.

S

Excluding or including a friendly amendment amendment.

S

That allows immediate implementation or of the.

S

Fact that the two parts of the the training and the.

S

Investigation into the stipend away from a budget of.

S

Ballot measure thinking that those two items really don't.

S

Need to be in the ballot measure? well,. My answer would.

Q

Be yes,, I think that's fair and ask staff. Can we have an mba as.

Q

Part of this year's budget process to do those things? and then I would amend the motion to include those as that is.

Q

The action to get an mba, so we can move forward with those items. If council member come and I think, a manager's budget.

B

Addendum is the most appropriate form they're, both a.

B

Resource questions for you guys to make, so they don't.

B

Need to be added to the ballot, so you know,, I think what we.

B

Would do is prepare our manager's budget addendum. That shows the cost, but we could also certainly include criteria.

B

And and more formalized costs around if it went to everyone versus if we went to a distribution method based off.

B

Of income level or something else to address council.

B

Member as far as this concern as well. great., would you.

S

Accept that, as a friend friendly amendment in council, member tollan., yes., ok thank you. without my comments are.

S

Concluded. thank you.. Thank you is alright. With the.

D

Seconder councilor member david, thank you and I want to.

T

Thank council member esparza for her comments about rank.

T

Choice voting is very helpful.. I also have concerns about.

T

Rank choice: voting. one of the things I didn't hear mentioned was the mail ballots and how how that may impact.. I have.

T

Heard that studies have shown that that mail ballots for.

T

Rank choice voting have a much higher rate of errors because.

T

There aren't election helpers or scanners that can.

T

Help explain it and no replacement ballot possible.

T

And I know that in santa fe, when they change to rank choice,.

T

Voting they spent three hundred fifty thousand.

T

Dollars on education in two languages. that election had.

T

Only twenty thousand voters and they had a six hundred fifty percent increase in spoiled ballots.. So that's a concern.

T

Since everybody gets a mail in ballot and I think most.

T

People fill out their ballot and drop it off as opposed.

T

To going to a voting center., so that's an additional concern.

T

I have for for rank choice voting and I would I'm just.

T

Not ready to to support going to the ballot with that, yet I.

T

Have some other questions and concerns about the the.

T

Items six through ten, I think it it looks like there are.

T

Some alternatives to a few of them. and just.

T

Piggybacking on council member folies concern about having.

T

It's five six, seven, eight, nine,, ten five items and.

T

Seventy five words only per ballot statement getting those.

T

In when we could do- and there is work already underway for.

T

Some of these for for documents going forward and for.

T

Council policies or resolutions., so I noticed in.

T

Particular for recommendation nine and ten.

T

Work is already in progress, for these are in process, and I'm.

T

Wondering if we could rather direct staff to accelerate that.

T

Work instead of putting it into a ballot measure, because I do.

T

Have a concern that this is a lot of a lot of issues to to.

T

Put into one. so I appreciate that items b and c for the for.

T

Item six are not included in there, but we still have part of.

T

Item six we have then so that's about the charter.

T

Commission's in the native land, an acknowledgment gender.

T

Inclusive language, I'm not sure exactly or with that one.

T

It says it's in process for city documents going forward, but it does require a charter amendment.. Can you explain that.

T

A little more? does that make it retroactive?. Is that what.

T

That would mean? no. the charter amendment for gender.

E

Neutral language would just be simply editing the charter.

E

To where there's a reference to he or she any kind of language.

E

I think there would it would require the city attorney's.

E

Office and the city manager's office, the clerk's office, to.

E

Go through and just change those to gender neutral.

E

Terminology. ok,, so it's just to change., so the charter.

T

That the measure that would be placed on the ballot would just.

T

Be to change the charter language itself to be gender.

T

Neutral, if that's what we could do. and what we're.

E

Proposing to do is if council wishes to update the.

E

Charter to have gender excuse me, gender, neutral language,.

E

When, with whatever other measure, we would because you.

E

Have your updates to the charter,? We would just go.

E

Through and update the language at that time., and so it.

E

Wouldn't it's not it's not quite the same as something.

E

That has a really complicated policy decision for the voters.

E

It's more an editorial action to update the charter.

E

Language, ok, and it's a one time, cost first time, yeah.

E

To do it would it would be, and it's not terribly extensive.

E

I think it just is that it is some pretty heavy duty.

E

Proofreading, because staff can, you know, wants to make sure.

E

We we would get it all right, but yeah, but we've talked about.

E

That with the attorney's office, and it would it would.

E

Be quite doable., it would be something different if you.

E

Wanted us to say: go back and change historic council.

E

Memos written from nineteen seventy five or something like.

E

That., I don't think anybody wants to know, but if you that.

T

Sentencing to someone to a dungeon of microfiche, I.

T

Think is unnecessary, but but our practice is we are trying.

E

To go forward and train staff to use gender neutral language.

E

In staff reports and and city documents going forward and.

E

So the charter is one of those documents we could edit, but.

E

It does require voter approval., so we've done things like that in the past, where we've updated our kathleen.

E

Language and the council- that's just been part of the overall.

E

Change. ok, and then for four recommendations: six just.

T

To clarify the the charter, amendment would be to allow.

T

Non-Citizens to be on the three charter: commissions,.

T

Right? yes. the charter, the remaining out of the remaining.

E

Commissions, 18 out of the remaining 19 commissions, do not.

E

Include a requirement to be a registered voter or a.

E

Citizen. they might just require sanho. They see. Ok,.

T

And I'm sorry, I don't have it at my fingertips, which are.

T

The commissions do require and do they require citizenship.

T

Or do they require being registered voter or will they.

E

Require being a registered voter?, I believe the planning.

E

Commission specifically refers to citizenship and civil.

E

Service commission and salary setting commission both.

E

Refer to being a registered elector of the city of santa fe,.

E

Or a registered voter and the non charter commission, the.

E

Only one that requires it is the board of fair campaign and.

E

Political practices which is pertaining to elections. it.

E

Requires the members to be registered voters. ok,, so I'm a.

T

Little bit torn about whether that should go along.

T

With the issue that we're discussing on the twenty ninth about non-citizens being able to vote in local.

T

Elections., they seem to kind of go hand in hand to me and.

T

Then, in terms of the, I think.

T

I understand the the native land acknowledgment would be.

T

Added to the charter., obviously, the gender inclusive language.

T

Sounds relatively easy., I think honestly, the.

T

Recommendation nine and ten about equity inclusion. I think.

T

Our going to be tough to put into would be tough to put into.

T

A seventy five third ballot statement, just by itself. and.

T

So I'm not I'm not in favor of having these all together..

T

It's just very concerning to me that we won't be able to.

T

Have a discussion about the individual merits of these.

T

Pretty weighty issues, because it's it's a big change.

T

To to talk about equity versus equality in in our.

T

City and that's not a fulsome discussion, we've we've had.

T

We've started to have it: we've had a couple of discussions.

T

And putting it to the ballot already without knowing what.

T

That means and how it will impact our budget.. I just it.

T

Seems premature to me so I'm concerned about that as well.. I.

T

Look forward to hearing more from my colleagues. thank you.

D

Council member carrusca. hi there. thank you.. Give me a.

M

Second, to figure out what I'm doing within just a minute., my.

M

Apologies., I can't make this work.. Thank you so much and I.

M

Really appreciate the the discussion, that's that's being.

M

Had. well,, first of all,. Let me let me thank the the.

M

Commissioners, for their time and and all the hours that they.

M

Put in., I know that this was a very long process and it was it.

M

Was not an easy process., it is quite a lengthy amount of time.

M

That you spent really dedicated, and I really appreciate your.

M

Dedication and and your commitment to the work that.

M

That was being done and to the really the the depth of the.

M

Of the discussion it, it also caused the council to have many.

M

Conversations as you can see, and I also really want to.

M

Extend an appreciation to council member esparza., I think.

M

We need to rename her as our our historian of the council.

M

Because she she's got an unbelievable memory that.

M

Allows me to to remember things that that had fallen off.

M

My radar or or I had kind of skipped some chapters and.

M

She really brings it back in for me and refocuses me., so I.

M

Appreciate, council, member esparza's, unbelievable.

M

Recounting of events as they unfold it., I'm rounding out my.

M

Eight year so sometimes it's difficult to remember absolutely every single thing that that we did or or how it.

M

Took place., I appreciate that so thank you. council member.

M

Humaneness and council member calling for your memo., I.

M

Have to say that you know,, I agree with much that has been.

M

Said on the council regarding one particular item: that for me.

M

Has been of great concern and, and I've had quite a bit.

M

Of conversations and and that's on the on the rank.

M

Choice, voting and- and I want to say this to the public- to.

M

All those that called in today., I appreciate the time that you spent on the phone waiting and and getting on and giving your.

M

Opinion. but but it is very concerning to me, as the.

M

Representative of district five,, the east side of san.

M

Jose, truly one of the poorest performing districts.

M

When it comes to elections, and when it comes to passing some.

M

Of our measures, when we look at the entire city as a.

M

Whole, district five really struggles to pull out its.

M

Voters, for whatever reason and we've and we've done a.

M

Number of things to to try and get our our voters to to come.

M

Out and to vote and and slowly we increase those.

M

That voter participation., but one of the the the issues that.

M

We've had in, and that includes even the census. One is the.

M

Language barrier, cultural disconnect, sometimes life gets.

M

In the way and and and we're just busy working can't make it.

M

To the polls., thank god that that we now have the ballots.

M

That come directly to our house.. It's made it easier.

M

It's made it more accessible., it's made it a lot more. It's.

M

Made it a lot more possible for us to engage- and I say us.

M

Because this is my community., these are my families.. These are my neighbors, and so so I appreciate all of the efforts.

M

And all the ways that we're looking to see how we increase.

M

Voter participation. one of the ways that we're looking to see.

M

How we do that is also how we increase voter participation.

M

Reflecting the the highest ranking official in the city.

M

Of san jose, which is our mayor and and we've seen from the.

M

Studies we've seen from what other cities have done, that by.

M

Changing that election to a presidential cycle that that.

M

It's that we're going to get more voter participation.. We.

M

Had a very lengthy, sometimes unpleasant, debate on this.

M

Council.- nonetheless, it was provocative., it is. It was deep.

M

It was, it was thought, provoking and not everyone was on this.

M

Council. but but but it definitely was a a very long.

M

Several session type of conversation., but it was meant.

M

More than anything, to figure out how we were going to increase voter participation and and I'm glad that after.

M

All of the studies that have been presented that one of the.

M

Ways I think it's one of the easiest ways is by just simply.

M

Moving the election to the presidential cycle, like council.

M

Member as far as I'm dumbfounded by by the fact.

M

That the council, the are council elections, were not.

M

Considered in terms of moving them., if we know that.

M

That increases voter participation, then I would.

M

Imagine that that would also increase voter participation in.

M

The council races, if we were to flip those districts, that we.

M

Know have a low turnout, three,, five and seven. If we had done.

M

The exact same thing- and we know that the the even.

M

Numbered districts happen to be the districts that are.

M

Better off tend to be more educated,, have a higher.

M

Income, et cetera, et cetera., and so we've also seen.

M

That that those tend to have higher voter engagement.

M

District 10, district six, district eight,, they have very high voter participation.. You don't struggle the way that we.

M

Struggle in in five three seven, three four, and so so so I'm.

M

Just a little confused as to why the the information that.

M

Was presented didn't follow that kind of logic. so anyway, so we are where we are. I have to say I haven't seen.

M

Enough research to prove to me that that the ranked choice.

M

Voting is the the panacea to increase voter participation.. I.

M

Haven't seen it as the end all be all to making sure that.

M

Women communities of color are senior citizens.. Those with.

M

Limited english abilities or those who are either new to the.

M

Voter world are or are going to have a thorough.

M

Understanding as to how they can increase or elevate.

M

Their voices, when they're choosing their candidate. in.

M

Fact I would think that that there might be actually an.

M

Opportunity of ending up with a an individual that they weren't.

M

Necessarily there wasn't there, no one, as we've seen in some.

M

Campaigns where, where people have campaigned on being number.

M

Two- and this is the way that they ended up winning the.

M

Campaign so I I'm just not thoroughly convinced, you.

M

Know., furthermore, I want to say just as a person who is who's.

M

Been for the last eight years representing a district with.

M

Many challenges- this is just the last eight years., twenty five years before that working in the same communities, whether.

M

It was in district, five,, district, seven or district three,. I worked in these communities with families who were really struggling with so many other issues. Simplicity,.

M

Simplicity,, simplicity is the name of the game.. You have to.

M

Give families opportunities to engage in whatever it is that you want them to engage,, whether it's voter participation or whether it's a parenting class. it. The simpler.

M

You make it the easier it is for people to participate.. I.

M

Just think that, having to go through such a sophisticated.

M

Way of voting is going to make it incredibly difficult., so I'm.

M

Glad that we're bifurcating., I do have a question regarding.

M

No new number by the way, thank you for no number. If the.

M

Recommendation number seven adding an acknowledgment of our.

M

Native land, I think it's long overdue, but number eight,. If.

M

You could give me an understanding of what gender inclusive language is going to look like. council member.

E

Cresco michelle mcgirk care, it could be as simple as.

E

Changing a reference that says he or she to they. You know,.

E

It's really editing the document to not specify and use.

E

It might be something a reference to a committee having.

E

A chairperson rather than a chairman., ok, and and and I'm.

M

I'm I'm a very open to that.. I guess I'd like to know how.

M

You're going to deal with ethnic terminology such as.

M

Latino, latina, filipino.. I can do a quick search on the.

E

Charter here and see, if there's any reference in the charter to.

E

Any language that might I have it on my computer here.

E

., I don't know that there's there's nothing that is in the.

E

Charter that refers to particular groups like that.

M

Ok,, thank you so much.. I appreciate you doing that so quickly and, of course, and.

M

Of course, just the the policy recommendations, I know that in.

M

The memo that was introduced, those are going to be referred.

M

To the to the roadmap., the one thing that I just want to add.

M

Regarding that, the policies that were addressed through the.

M

Charter review,, I really appreciate our commissioners.

M

Taking that on and and without having been there.

M

Specifically for all the meetings, my staff was there and, of course, we sat down and we talked about it., but these.

M

To me, speak truly about how we're going to as a city really.

M

Face head on issues of equity and when we, when I look.

M

At creating a climate action commission,, of course, I've been.

M

Talking about the lack of canopy greening the east of.

M

San jose,, how it's a heat island and how we're so much.

M

Warmer on the east side than you would find in other.

M

Sites of the city and and of course, opportunities for.

M

Families to be able to stay here and not be displaced or.

M

Communities to be gentrified opportunities to build.

M

Permanency and make sure that their children have a legacy.

M

Here in the city of san jose., this speaks to me about equity.

M

It speaks to me about giving families truly an opportunity.

M

To continue to thrive, both in terms of economic stability and.

M

In terms their health., and so I do hope that that, as we move.

M

Forward, we will look at it through that lens and I.

M

Appreciate the commission having taken that on. lastly,, I.

M

Introduced a memo just this morning, I apologize for being.

M

So late. it's come to my attention that there is one.

M

Commission that is not aligned with the rest of the commissions if, if, for whatever reason, we wanted to remove our.

M

Commissioner, from his her or their duties,, their duties, they.

M

And I apologize for not using that terminology. Correct.

M

I will learn exactly how to use it, but we're unable to because.

M

We that commission is governed by the charter., so there is.

M

Very specific charter, language, if we were ever to change.

M

That,, this would be the time to do so in simply what I'm asking.

M

In my memo is that we align the planning commission with the.

M

Rest of the commissions- and it gives us more opportunity.

M

And frankly, control of who sits and who doesn't sit on the.

M

Commission and so and nora, we just you, just dropped.

C

Off the meeting. ok, well um well, when she gets back, let her.

D

Continue. so I'm going to go to councilmember braless. uh,.

N

Thank you. I've been having some connectivity issues as a kind of windy storm, but hopefully she is back. all.

N

Right, I'll pass., I'm sorry, my computer died on me.. It has.

M

No warning whatsoever., no mechanism. no.. If you could.

M

Just give a brief overview in terms of what we have now for.

M

The planning commission,, I'm sure council member. thank you.

C

The charter currently provides- and this is in charter.

C

Section one thousand that the council may remove a member.

C

From office., this is a member of the planning commission.

C

At any time for misconduct, inefficiency or willful, neglect.

C

In the performance of the duties of his or her office and.

C

There's a process, that's included in the charter for that., so this charter section limits the council's ability to.

C

Remove a member from the planning commission to certain.

C

Acts in the performance of the duties of that office and not.

C

Some of the more general language for the other.

C

Commissioners., thank you so and with what my memo is.

M

Requesting is that staff come back with language.

M

Appropriate and be able to put this also on november ballot in.

M

Order to change that that the in order to make that charter.

M

Amendment., so with that, I don't know if I need to make a.

M

Friendly amendment or just move my memo., that would be a.

D

Friendly amendment. I'd like to ask for the amendment to.

M

Include my memo. no,, I'm not gonna, accept it as a friendly.

Q

Amendment. ok,, thank you so much david.. Then I'm going to.

M

Make a substitute motion to include my memo, along with the.

M

Previous motion that was on the table, second. all right.

R

. we have a substitute motion that was moved and seconded so.

D

That's the motion currently on the floor is that the is that.

D

It councilmember carrusca?, that's it for me.. Thank you.

M

So much chair or thank you so much, vice mayor and thank.

M

You so much council member con for not accepting my memo.

D

Councilmember rawlence. thank you, vice mayor and I know.

N

We're without our mayor today, but I do think it's his.

N

Birthday so I'm going to offer him a happy birthday and I.

N

Wanted to first go to a little bit of a process question.. I.

N

Know, city staff had like a voting process set up, but we.

N

Have a motion we've had some amendments., we've now got a.

N

Substitute motion that is, in my it looks like it's.

N

Superceding that process and it's kind of because it's even.

N

Going a little bit more detailed into some of the direction.. Would that be correct and where are we? Are we eliminating that process at this point? uh, council.

B

Breathlessly willcocks yes. at this point with the motion on the floor and you're able to work through the various.

B

Recommendations,, we would no longer need the prioritization process we were putting in place. ok, great.. It was. I.

N

Guess maybe intuitive to try to understand that as we had a.

N

Motion hit the floor, but I don't know how many my.

N

Colleagues were aware of that, or certainly the members of the community how much they were aware of what that process was.

N

Going to look like. and then in that regard, because it is.

N

Getting a little nuanced on some of the different items.

N

Specifically, we have a substitute motion, so I'll start.

N

There, with that one and I'll ask councilmember carrasco.

N

First and then maybe staff was there a place. You were thinking.

N

About fitting that in?, were you thinking of recommending that.

N

As a standalone item or potentially safe fitting into the, what is your recommendation? Six on the.

N

Reforms of boards and commissions, maybe squeeze in language in there,, you know, in terms of how it would play.

M

Out in the ballot? is that what you're referring to? yeah,? No, I.

M

I'm not the one that's going to draft the ballot, so I would leave it up to the two staff to come back with it. If, if.

M

That's where, where it's most appropriate, then that that's where I'm ok with it.. Ok, I'm stuffed, and I see that as a.

N

Potential spot that recommendation could fit into.

N

I know we're working on the fly here, but I'm curious on staff's response to that council. Member, probably willcocks again.

B

I would defer to nora and marc on the actual section of the.

B

Charter, where that existing language lies., but I think.

B

If we're moving forward with a whole measure around.

B

Recommendation six through 10 um,. It obviously would be.

B

Included in that measure., I'm not exactly sure the specific section of the charter um that would change that would ask in.

B

Order to type in their ok but that more or less does.

N

Answer a question of how it would fit within that six to.

N

Ten ballot language, of course, lead with that. Now I'm curious.

N

Staff's response is: is there too much going on there?? I know we've heard that from some of my colleagues. I would agree. I don't know if you know that's too much to be squeezing into.

N

One ballot and one initiative in and hoping that our.

N

Community members gather each component of that was that.

N

That's staff's thought as well. we would we'd be able to.

N

Squeeze that much into one initiative. yeah., so I think, as.

B

We are changing the recommendations, it's something that we need to look at. Obviously, it's important that.

B

Our seventy five words and our descriptions are as transparent.

B

As possible and we're clear with the voters., so I certainly.

B

Think from a policy perspective, it makes sense that all of.

B

These are in one measure because it is modernizing and.

B

Updating the charter in a variety of areas that overlap.

B

Whether we can be totally clear in those seventy five words.

B

And the discussion remains to be seen as we kind of work.

B

Through that over the next several weeks., so then you.

N

Would potentially come back and let us know hey, we don't think.

N

We could you know, fulfill the seventy five word requirement.

N

And and make this completely clear, and we may need to split it up that that's a potential outcome. you're saying that is a potential outcome and that would be.

B

Consistent with um work that michelle and I presented to you.

B

In twenty eighteen, where we're one of the measures became too much and one of the policy alternatives that we presented.

B

Was to break it up and do two separate measures.. So um if.

B

Directed to put all of this into one measure that would.

B

Certainly be in the back of our mind and something that if we felt we needed to do, we would recommend.. But, as I do want.

B

To be clear,, there is additional cost to that.

N

Yeah. and I recognize that each each individual item would.

N

Have its own cost., I I am at the moment trying to get an.

N

Understanding of like how many this would actually turn into.

N

And I guess we wouldn't know that today.. We also wouldn't.

N

Know it today because we haven't finished our study.

N

Sessions on some of the other conversations like expanding.

N

Noncitizen voting and the the the laundry list of.

N

Recommendations within police oversight and reforms and are.

N

Reimagining task force is not through with their.

N

Recommendations, either. and I know timing may impact some of.

N

These to where they wouldn't make it to the the ballot anyways in november., so that may not not be a major issue.

N

But I still would be very interested in seeing where we.

N

End up with how many initiatives we we have on the.

N

Ballot and the concern is, is confusion to voters and you.

N

Know, down ballot fatigue with voters., it just really we're.

N

Only talking about our own potential changes and.

N

Initiatives. we're not talking about what the rest of the jurisdictions all the way up to the state and federal.

N

Government, everything that would be included., and so I am.

N

Legitimately concerned that that's a that's a real issue.

N

And I appreciate comments from council member as far as in.

N

Regards to wanting to potentially recommend some of these, like the ring choice, voting not for this election.

N

Cycle but a couple of years from now when we would be.

N

Having a presidential election as well., and I do think, there's.

N

Merit there in regards to some of these pretty significant.

N

Changes. would we would we want more voters to turn out for them then?? I would agree that we would and I'm not completely.

N

Sold on everything here., I I am willing to move forward on.

N

Something that I'm not totally sold on. for instance, like ranked choice, voting., I'm I haven't sort of taken a side on.

N

This one way or the other. I've been doing some homework on it as well as it came up through the charter revision. Commission.

N

And and have heard the conflicting arguments, I think.

N

Councilmember member, as far as to make some strong ones- and I know councilmember polling- was saying that he has a.

N

Potentially- and he maybe he'll share those later, but some of.

N

The opposing arguments to that I have heard seen that as well.

N

And most importantly, I think I just haven't been bought and sold that that that is going to be something that we should.

N

Implement., but even if I landed at that point, I would not.

N

Necessarily be against putting it to a ballot for our voters to decide, because, ultimately, that's who it's up to., I would.

N

Agree, though, that we, we want to be considered a win, and I would.

N

Be much more interested in regards to a later date. did.

N

That get accepted into the original direction, or was it a.

N

I don't know, councilmember as far as if that was a friendly amendment made if that was accepted? no,, because it was.

D

Bifurcates, so that's going to come up and when we spoke about it separately, ok,, so we're not talking about that. Just.

N

Yet., that's correct. ok,, so we'll vote on that one. Maybe.

N

Second. ok,, but my understanding of council member.

N

As far as those comments were that she wouldn't support it, unless that was accepted, and I would agree with that. so once we get to that, that be the stance that I would.

N

Have as well., I actually do agree with having the.

N

Establishment of a future charter review commissions and.

N

You know, I'm not necessarily hooked on what the date might.

N

Be., I know ten years sounded like a good number and I.

N

Appreciated the commission's input on that., you know,, it had.

N

Been so long since we'd had one previously, where I'm nervous.

N

About is that, you know, years to come, and the council doesn't.

N

Necessarily take advantage of that., I will tell you, as a council member, I was not aware that that was something that we.

N

Could call, and it wasn't until we had a pretty lengthy and.

N

Heated debate over the summer a couple of years ago, where I.

N

Learned about that opportunity and learned that that was.

N

Historically, where we made pretty significant charter changes and especially to our structure of government and.

N

It made the recommendation at that point to do so.. Ultimately, what started this whole process,? What got us going down this, but I would say it didn't seem as though that that was something that the council was was ready or willing to to to.

N

Enact as needed,, which is what we're recommending here. and I.

N

Think councilmember cohen, is suggesting that we we eliminate.

N

That as a requirement- and I know, staff was saying as well.

N

That the council can pull together. This commission.

N

Whatever it wants., I just don't think that that's hasn't been.

N

The reality, though, of what this council has done. and again,.

N

For whatever reason, I know what my own personal reason is., I don't know that that opportunity existed for the first number of years. I was in office, so I do think it's.

N

Valuable to have something as important as you, and I think we.

N

All see the laundry list of recommendations that have been.

N

Brought forward. I'd rather not have it be where it appears as.

N

Though we wait until it's like a volcano. right. and it just.

N

Erupts and we've got lists and lists things that people want.

N

To change in the charter, and and now we run into this.

N

Conflict., I think if we had a regular cycle say every ten years, then we would have a better conversation and there.

N

Would be less items I think we'd be discussing and it's.

N

Just a recognition of the fact that that there should be some.

N

Periodic look at how we want to update our charter., so I.

N

Actually would prefer that that get included, and I'm not.

N

Necessarily, I don't think that has to be analogous. we're not.

N

Doing the doing the the the ranking of voting., so I.

N

Wouldn't necessarily say hey: we have to do that now, but I would like that to come forward.. I would like this council to approve that being that this charter review commission.

N

Recommended it, but I don't necessarily think that has to come forward now on the ballot this coming year or this year.

N

So I'll ask council member cordasco at this point you have.

N

The motion, would you be comfortable of re, including.

N

That recommendation number two with a caveat that it doesn't.

N

Have to come forward for this ballot, but I would like, for it.

N

To be included on a future ballot, and it could be two.

N

Years from now. I'm, actually I don't think it necessarily has to because we're talking about something that happens every ten years. So I think we have a little bit of time with this one, but at least that it wouldn't have to come this year.. Would you be comfortable with that friendly? Am I on.

M

Mute?, I can hear you now. so so your recommendation is to get.

M

It on for what year? I actually am not suggesting a year, but if.

N

You'd like me to, I could suggest two years from now, but I'm just saying. I don't think that that one has to happen.

N

This year. there's no rush on on recommendation. Two., yeah, ok,.

M

That's fine I'll! Thank you. Good.! Ok with the second.

N

Year., yes, in fact, it might be time for the oh gosh, the.

R

Twenty twenty five, where we return to the council about the.

R

Appropriate size just to tie that in there., so the mid.

R

Mid sort of mid census between our our census ten years to.

R

Kind of check in and include that so that makes sense. I'm.

N

Pumping I'm fine with that with that with that specificity, that.

N

Ok, council, members, ok, that's fine! Thank you.. Can you.

D

Repeat that again? I understand yeah.. So if I understood it.

N

Correctly, let me know councilor as far as the, but we had a recommendation three, which was as discussed, I believe in the.

N

Current motion that we would actually come back to have a.

N

Discussion on that to go on a future ballot and that discussion would have been for a ballot in and twenty coming.

N

After twenty twenty five. and so council member spa's is now saying, as I've asked for the recommendation to to be re.

N

Included, which is the charter review commission coming onto.

N

Being required every ten years that that come back at that.

N

Same time, it's number four on the coen gim nez memo.

R

That helps anyone. It does. Thank you. got it.. Thank.

N

You. thank you. and I'm sorry for our clerk.. Hopefully.

N

There's there's got to be a seventh or eighth and rudisha rendition of the the notes at this point on the motion.. So.

N

And then, actually, as far as expanding the council to.

N

Fourteen districts,, I actually don't support that, but I would.

N

Be comfortable with that discussion coming back., I do think the fourteen is two too many.. I did have a question for.

N

Our chair is, is he still here for yes he's here my.

D

Friend., so you coming down? yes,, mr hi.. Thank you for your.

N

Service and for being here through the discussion where.

N

And if you could speak for the commission, where were you as commissioners aware of some of the what what staff just.

N

Presented in regards to what it looked like for a council.

N

Member back in with maybe only one staff, minimal budget and.

N

There are other things have come in to augment the you know,, the the council, members that serve the district, as the numbers have gone up. Population is going to yes. council member.

P

We spent a lot of time in this discussion and this came back.

P

To the commission twice., it went back to the subcommittees.

P

After further discussion and came back again. again,, what.

P

We're looking at is: how can a council member really be able.

P

To represent more and more people?, and if you go back to.

P

Those early days, there was a lot of things that were different in terms of the staffing of the city, but there was just less people there to be represented. if you're.

P

Looking at more diversity and more issues that are coming,.

P

Folks in the community are saying: I'm not feeling heard and so trying to expand the council itself, one of the.

P

Things that the commission did was. We chose the number fourteen, because we asked the subcommittee looking at this to.

P

Come up with a number because if you just say expand, then it.

P

Becomes like well about how many, so there was no magic in.

P

The fourteen, but we were trying to do, is say if we used a.

P

Criteria like the old census data when there's seventy five.

P

Thousand folks, then maybe that would be whenever that that.

P

Metric is hit, then you would expand the district. The number.

P

Of districts, I do think, though, the challenge is really trying.

P

To understand what is it really mean to expand inclusion in.

P

Terms of representation., so when folks brought up things.

P

Like well, the dais doesn't fit for fourteen,. That's me that.

P

The count the commission did not think those were the kinds of arguments that were really valid. if you're really talking.

P

About the expansion of inclusion and represents, then.

P

How do you become more representative?, so there were budget concerns, but again the commission felt like that is.

P

The best way to spend money is to really understand how do we.

P

Represent our community better, and especially those folks in.

P

Those districts with that felt not represented well in the.

P

Current way of looking at equity and within the city., so there's no magic to the fourteen.. We did believe that.

P

The census and redistricting and that's why we're looking at.

P

Having the commission be in charter to start every ten.

P

Years but it would start in the eighth year for those two years.

P

Before redistricting., so all the issues would come from the.

P

Community would come in that first year that second year could be looked at.. How do we develop the the ideas,, the.

P

Plans, the suggestions, the recommendations and then that would be ahead of redistricting so that any of the charter.

P

Amendment ideas would go to redistrict before that., so we.

P

Did believe in that same timeline, you're suggesting, which is that we're talking about the next census? But what.

P

Are those things that we want in place to make sure that that happens rather than wait till then, and then it doesn't actually happen?? I hope that helps. yeah. yeah it does.

N

Help. thank you.. Thank you very much. and I, I,. I think that.

N

For me, when I looked at this because I do agree that in.

N

Certain circumstances with certain districts: it's not.

N

Equitable and it's you know it's much more challenging. for.

N

Instance, I know councilor coruscant. I share this conversation, often throughout the years in regards to the.

N

Number of gang hotspots, for instance, that we have are.

N

Extremely low income, neighborhoods, violent, neighborhoods and know councilmember esparza fits in that category, and we talk about this with things like the.

N

Significant development of low income housing in certain.

N

Districts and not others., and I think it for me this, where at.

N

Least this item was was was going. I actually felt that.

N

There's a better way of getting there and that this sort of.

N

Expanding the council districts, but still having the same number of constituents per district actually doesn't doesn't solve the equity issue.. It's that's an inequality.

N

Solution that just says: well, let's just drink everybody and and that'll help. yes,, that's true., but it actually is not.

N

Going to help in regards to the districts or the neighborhoods.

N

That need it. The most. and I know member carrasco brought.

N

This up recently, where the idea could be, do we actually rather.

N

Than than look at the the number of constituents, because.

N

We have that today, based on the census, where we're more or less.

N

Required., but that census doesn't say where everybody gets the same amount of, you know,, challenging.

N

Neighborhoods,, low income, communities or communities that.

N

Have higher levels of violence.? There's you know,, that's that's.

N

An impossible task., but what we can do, that is possible, is.

N

Allocate allocate more equitable resources to the.

N

Districts that need it and we can utilize those measures to.

N

Do so. we can look at the things like what how many hotspot areas do you have? how many low income housing.

N

Projects, do you have? how many homeless, encampments or.

N

Population?, what is the population homeless in your community? and look at these real numbers that we know drive.

N

Real community need calls for service a higher level of of.

N

Responsiveness from the council office that not every council.

N

District has and in my mind we could do that, and that would.

N

Be a better way of of being more equitable in how our each.

N

Council district is served versus just just lowering the.

N

Overall constituency in each district by by adding some more.

N

Council members, so that's why I didn't I don't. I haven't really.

N

Thought that was the right approach., but again,, I'm I'm.

N

I'm one opinion here and I think that if we wanted to move forward with that in a future ballot, I was ok with that.. So I.

N

Think, as the motion stands, I'm fine with that., but I do think that there may be a better way to resolve that in the years to come, and maybe that doesn't end up on it on a ballot. At some point last question what was really in regards to the native.

N

Land acknowledgment- and I know council member folie, asked.

N

This question I just want to reiterate: it was with city staff.. Could you could you reiterate what the challenge was there? you mentioned that there was sort of a last minute appeal, or there was some was this from other native groups.

N

And if you could just walk me through that, a little bit better on what what happened there, we're going to ask.

E

Fred to talk about it is perfectly fine. yeah. thanks.

N

For coming, on. thank you, sir. sure., so we worked with a.

P

Subcommittee worked with our local native american community.

P

To be able to they, we asked them to help draft the actual.

P

Land acknowledgment, they testified before a commission.

P

And went back and forth with pretty good consistency., we got.

P

Great public feedback. there are a number of professors that are working with them from stanford, for example,, who also.

P

Kind of verified it., so we felt really good about. This- was a.

P

Strong recommendation., we thought we had done an authentic and transparent process with the community of.

P

Our local native american community and, at the very end.

P

When we are about to vote, there was one individual who claimed.

P

A challenge challenged the the legitimacy of that.. We had the.

P

Stanford professor at that time then came back and said kind of.

P

Reiterated the legitimacy of the process of what we had and.

P

The recommendation., so there was only one individual member.

P

Who person, who actually was against that, and so the.

P

Commission had the ability, at that point to say well wait,, let's do something different., but after we heard there is additional testimony we continued on and the vote was taken and was and was passed with, the strong support.. So I.

P

Don't know if there's other communities that the city staff.

P

Has recognized or been come to them but, as you heard from the.

P

Testimony today, as well,, there wasn't any other testimony.

P

Against moving forward, except from that one individual to the.

P

Commission. again,, I don't know what the staff came back with, but that's the experience that we had of the commission level.

P

it wasn't. There wasn't controversy at all, except at the end, with this one person.. Thank you for that that that.

N

Does help highlight things.? Is there anything else that staff wanted to add?? Was there somebody else or other groups that came forward or their concerns you had because it.

N

Read as such that there was greater concerns in the memo?.

E

Council, member no,, we just staff, understood that this is a.

E

Very important process, and because we as staff, had not.

E

Been engaged with it,, it was a subcamp of the commission, the.

E

Office of racial equity had not been involved. city manager's,.

E

Office had not been involved., we just wanted to be very cautious in our recommendation and rather than saying that.

E

This acknowledgment is you know,, it hadn't gone through.

E

The process, we would normally go through to bring something.

E

To council.- it was coming directly from the commission to.

E

Council., so we were just being very cautious in our staff report and wanting to you know, it hadn't gone.

E

Through we hadn't had public hearings of the council or of.

E

Council committees and so um and and hadn't we outlined.

E

What we would do if we were to engage in this process? um,.

E

And, and so it wasn't in any way, a critique of the work of.

E

The charter review commission.- it was just an acknowledgment that they had so much work that they were doing and.

E

And it was an independent process, and now we were looking at it and not knowing all of the factors.. So hopefully that.

E

It's helpful to you. councilor. yeah,, that's helpful and it.

N

Makes sense., I mean staff, didn't do this work, so you you couldn't necessarily put your stamp of approval on it in the.

N

Same way, maybe you would have done it., but but but we as.

N

The council can decide on that if we do or not, and so I am.

N

Comfortable with that recommendation, from the commission.- and and lastly, I do agree, and I know it's in the.

N

Motion which is was to eliminate recommendation eleven.

N

And thank you to joe, our auditor for for the explanation.

N

On that., I do agree with that.. Those are my comments. thanks.

D

Thank you, council member.. I was just informed that council.

D

Member cascos memmo cannot be heard today because.

D

It wasn't part of the agenda and a topic of discussion., so.

D

We're going to have to refer to rules., so I just want to make.

D

Everybody aware of that., so obviously that impacts the.

D

Substitute motion., but I know there were some other changes.

D

To the substitute motion., so council members, nightmare. yes.

M

Could you give me some clarification on that?? Was that, were you informed by yeah. I'll have to give you the legal.

D

Answer. thank you. vice mayor and council member carrasco, the.

C

Section or agenda item three point: one is limited to.

C

Recommendations from the san jose charter review. Commission.-.

C

So, council member, your language, could I can't can't.

C

Isn't properly noticed for today., you could either have.

C

The language go to rules which I think is probably a better.

C

Way to do it and just have it come forward with all of these.

C

Other recommendations, if approved by rules or it's.

C

Possible do to do a request to the city manager and, in my.

C

Office., but I think it's the safer way in terms of the brown.

C

Act to bring this forward given at the current agenda is tied.

C

To the recommendations from the charter review, commission would.

C

Be to have all of it to have your proposed amendment. Come.

C

Forward with the other items, whatever gets voted on today to.

C

Come back to council for consideration that those items.

C

That were recommended by the charter review commission, the.

C

Your issue and your blue memo could come forward with those.

C

Coming out of rules could be put on that agenda and we can.

C

Work with that language., but because the agenda today is.

C

Tied to recommendations from the san jose charter review- commission,, that's the the better approach. ok,, so.

M

You're saying that the better approach is to get us.

M

Through the three rules, or which you say to refer it to.

M

Cmo either way, but rules is the is really technically.

C

The the better way and it could and it could come through.

C

Rules to come back on the same date as everything else. yes.

B

Yeah., if I could just jump in, I think we would need direction.

B

As a city manager's office to pursue this by the council, so.

B

uh Council member willcocks happy to help with that.

B

Memorandum at rules with the the needed language, so you can.

B

Bring that forward, if you want to go that way. ok, we'll go.

M

Ahead and do that and same with our office council member.

C

So, do you want to revise the motion to move your memo to.

C

Rules and approved the previous motion on the table.

C

Along with the friendly amendments, you've accepted from brollies? yes. we'll go ahead and do thank you. all.

D

Right. thank you. council member.. I did see councilor.

Q

Man's hand is up, so you want to go to him first, since he hasn't.

Q

Spoken yet. councilor mann, thank you. yeah,. I appreciate.

O

That councilor. um, thanks to I'll, add my thanks to the.

O

Commissioners and city staff who supported the process., I know it was an exhaustive and probably exhaustive process for.

O

Everybody involved, but the thoughtfulness certainly shines.

O

Through in the document, albeit brief, because a lot has already.

O

Been said- and I appreciate my colleague's comments., I do have.

O

Some concerns about the motion on the floor. Not not not.

O

Related to councilor crosscuts substitute at all, but just the.

O

A couple of the elements of what I understand were voted on.

O

On rank choice, voting., my personal view is that academi.

O

Cly it is, it is it mathematically, it is a fairer.

O

And better vote but, of course we know in practice things.

O

Don't always work as well as our academic or mathematic.

O

Models may suggest, and so my mind has always been that.

O

Rachel's voting is, is a good system to move toward if it's a.

O

Company with a lot of education and community engagement and.

O

Has done very thoughtfully and deliberately., and so if moving.

O

This to twenty twenty four allows us to do that fine.. I.

O

Will say personally, I actually liked staff's model, and I and I.

O

Do appreciate I very much appreciate council members, kohnen humanos, putting together a starting point for us.. I do.

O

Think that's generally a helpful thing to do so. I don't mean to undermine that at all, but I just whether it's moving.

O

It to twenty twenty four or it's calling this next meeting.

O

That we're going to have more discussion, deliberation as a council and gain a better understanding that that would be my preference, because I do think we have to be very.

O

Thoughtful about how we move it forward, though, again in the.

O

Abstract I've always been a supporter of rank choice, voting.

O

And I've used it.. I lived in san francisco and voted with so.

O

There are, I do think, there's some advantages. You can implement it properly.. So I want to show that that makes me.

O

Concerned about that first part of the motion we'd be voting on.

O

And then, on the remainder I thought, councilor davis brought up great questions and, while I I support at least in spirit.

O

The various things we might be moving together,. I also have a.

O

Hard time imagining how we would do these four or five.

O

Recommendations: justice in single seventy five word ballot.

O

Measure and message., so I guess the question for staff on.

O

That is if we were to if that passes, and we move that forward.

O

To the ballot,, can you just clarify again what the next.

O

Step would be, what we would see and what options we would.

O

Have?- and let me just say before you answer to me as I.

O

Read the five recommendations, it could be potentially bundled.

O

Together, here. some feel more straightforward in the sense.

O

That they are language changes and others feel a bit more.

O

Substantive and may have other more significant implications.

O

That we haven't really discussed at council.. So if I were using the staff model here, I probably would have said next.

O

As in I would like more council discussion before we agree to.

O

Put it on the ballot, given the motion on the floor is to move.

O

It to the ballot this november,. I would like to understand what.

O

Further options for discussion, we would have as a council.

B

Council member mehan willcocks first, I think your division.

B

Of of all of these is probably accurate. the process.

B

For us next is to do the research we need and and work.

B

With the attorneys office to develop the seventy five words and the accompanying charter changes., we would be bringing.

B

That forward to you., as I stated, earlier, sometime in.

B

June., um and that would be your decision point whether you.

B

Place it on the ballot or not. um part of our analysis.

B

However, um as I said before, I think would be: does all of this.

B

Fit within one measure, so we could develop. Seventy five.

B

Words in one measure or to be frank, we could be coming to you.

B

Or saying that's not feasible., here's two measures or provide a policy alternative where there's two., so I think we'll be doing that research to make sure either a all of this can.

B

Fit in one measure successfully and still be clear and transparent, or offer two measures for your.

B

Consideration that achieve that goal. thank you.. What was.

O

The timing again on that ultimately we'd like to do this.

B

By the end of june, um so that either a third or fourth.

B

Meeting in june we'd be bringing these forward, and I.

B

Can feel the rest of my team staring at me as I say that, because I know that the tight turnaround, but how we're going.

B

To attempt to do that., ok, um,, I guess personally, I'm I'm open.

O

To moving the conversation to that point and discussing our.

O

Options and pros and cons. I do share the concerns outlined by.

O

Councilor davis on whether or not we're actually going to.

O

Pull those together and whether or not we should., but it sounds.

O

Like there would be ample opportunity for us to discuss.

O

To debate that and make a final decision, so I guess I'm ok with.

O

The second half, as I understand the motion on the floor. I just.

O

Want to make clarify a chair or the maker of the motion. there.

O

Are two components right now we have bifurcated right choice: voting. I've expressed at least my concern with doing that.

O

Without ample time and investment in community engagement and education. and then the second piece is.

O

Everything else that's been discussed. is that correct?.

D

That is correct. ok, ok.. Well, thank you again to my.

O

Colleagues for the robust conversation and thanks to our.

O

Commissioners for the great work that you all did., that's.

O

All for me. thanks.. Thank you, councilor, recalling that.

D

Council member menezes', I d d, want to let him my question.

D

Was answered had to do with the other motion that sort of went.

F

Away from the other part of it. all right., I can't remember.

D

Coenraad all right thank you.. I want to spend the robust.

Q

Discussion that I expected so I thank all my colleagues for it, and I knew that this was not that these were not easy decisions and not an easy discussion to have.. So I appreciate all of the input I do want to mention just a.

Q

Couple of things before I talk a little bit more about rank choice. Voting. there was there was a recommendation.

Q

About a climate action commission, which I think we can implement as a council.- I'd like to I'd prefer to call it a sustainability commission if we do it., I also think it fits.

Q

That perhaps they could be part of our recommendation coming out of our discussion on june 7th. As we talk about.

Q

Trying to get carbon neutral by 2030, we might, that might be one.

Q

Of our strategies is to implement a commission to help.

Q

The community achieve that goal so not necessarily asking.

Q

For a specific recommendation on that today, but just to.

Q

Plant the seed that that's a reasonably good conversation to have on june 7th. As far as council size,, I know, there's.

Q

A lot of back and forth, I think I think that there's a legitimate question to answer simply about what is an optimal size and how do you best serve people, and how do you get people who are willing to serve., and this ties in to one of the key issues that I think also rank choice voting.

Q

Addresses,, which is it's a very difficult challenge for.

Q

People to run for office when you have such a large district.

Q

If you want to open up the pool of candidates,, you want to make.

Q

It something that's doable for people to be able to to.

Q

Participate. and if you make it so expensive and so large and so time, consuming, it's hard for people, for example, with jobs or without the resources to be able to compete against other candidates.. So to me, that's an important part of the consideration and this ties into rank choice. Voting as.

Q

Well because I've talked, we've talked a lot about the effect.

Q

On voters,, although there's a lot of studies that I'll get.

Q

Into about the improvement of voter turnout., but what we.

Q

Also know from the from the experiences of other cities is that it's been shown to boost candidates and elected.

Q

Officials, that get elected from communities of color, people.

Q

Who don't have to commit to an entire year long cycle with.

Q

A primary and a general election are more likely to.

Q

To run for office. people don't have to raise money for two cycles in order to win are more likely to run off run for office., so yes,, there's a cost savings, the city of three million dollars each election cycle. there's also a cost savings to candidates to have a single cycle of choice.

Q

Voting and the studies are very clear that you get more candidates of color and in fact one of the studies showed that.

Q

Due to that, having more candidates of color running, you.

Q

Actually get a boost in turnout of voters from those communities in the places that have done it because they're.

Q

More likely to see people that they want to vote for running for office.. There was a twenty eighteen study that was.

Q

Done that showed a nine percent increase in the number of candidates for minority communities., a twenty sixteen.

Q

Study found larger increases, the number of candidates color.

Q

So there's two a couple of studies there and then a.

Q

Twenty nineteen that he asked voters about from from all.

Q

Backgrounds about their understanding and engagement with ranked choice voting, and it showed little evidence.

Q

Of racial and ethnic differences in their understanding of rank, choice, voting and there's also a.

Q

Substantial body of research showing that voters don't have.

Q

Trouble understanding rank choice, voting across ethnic.

Q

Lines and and for various other demographic measures., the.

Q

Same goes for turnout study in minneapolis before and after.

Q

Implementing rank choice, voting found no increase in turnout, disparity between white voters, voters of color., the twenty.

Q

Sixteen study of san francisco similarly found no decrease in latino turnout after rank choice. Voting was.

Q

Implemented. studies also often point like I said communities.

Q

Of color are more likely to vote when candidates and their.

Q

Communities run and the more candidates of color have been.

Q

Winning elections in places with ranked choice voting., I will say that was one one set of data that does bear out.

Q

Some of the things that have been said for senior voters., there is slight evidence to show a slight negative impact on senior voters that seem to suppress turnout a little bit.

Q

On the study., those same studies show a very large.

Q

Increase in young voters and we've had a big issue, of course, in our elections, of not having significant young voter.

Q

Turnout- and I think one of our objectives has always been to.

Q

Try to increase young voter participation, so studies show.

Q

That this can be helpful. exit polls from santa fe in the most.

Q

Recent election showed that there was overwhelming support.

Q

From voters to continue using choice, voting and, in fact,.

Q

The first rank choice, voting mayoral election in santa fe had historically high turnout.. So there's no evidence there.

Q

That turnout was suppressed and I have faith in that. voters in.

Q

San jose, just like they are in other cities, I will have no.

Q

Trouble understanding rank choice, voting. having said that,, I understand this is a new. This is new for people and.

Q

When things are new they're a little bit unsettling and difficult for people to to wrap their head around just like it.

Q

Took two years for us to sort of come to consensus on moving the mayoral election that was brought up a couple of years, ago. and and we finally, I think we had a pretty.

Q

Overwhelming support for putting it on the ballot this year., now after two years of working towards building a.

Q

Consensus,, I think it's very reasonable to spend a couple of.

Q

Years, building consensus around this issue as well., so you know,, if it had, if it were still my motion, I at this.

Q

Point would accept the friendly amendment to move me to put.

Q

Off this item to twenty twenty four., I think the motion still includes that is a now. So I will ask the current holder of.

Q

The motion she'll accept the friendly amendment at this point to move the that item to twenty twenty four for.

Q

Potential ballot measure.: what is your your request? Council? No.

M

Coin on the item for rank choice voting the motion on the.

Q

Floor was that you that you rolled into your motion was.

Q

Still the language in the memo that says bring them back to.

Q

Rank choice, voting ballot measure for this year's election and I'm asking to defer that to twenty twenty.

Q

Four for potential ballot measure, two years from now,.

F

And I thought it was bifurcated.. Well, it's.

Q

Bifurcated, but I'm ok, so it's two, I'm asking it all together we can vote separately, but it's a bifurcated motion.. Yes,.

D

Countermovement coin, can we just keep that separate, keep.

Q

That separate vote on the most on the floor and then we can.

D

Yeah, I think I was trying to save time with that. I mean I.

D

Appreciate that.. Ok, so that's that's fine.! So I'm I'm done.

Q

With my comments., I'm happy that we've reached the point., I think that we can all agree on the bulk of the items for the.

Q

Charter. Review. Commission.- thank you., so we have a.

D

Substitute motion on the floor, which is not to vote on voting.

D

But on everything else in the motion. I see councilmember.

D

Foley has her hand and raised the government properly.

S

Yes,, just a clarification. did, it include so are voting on.

S

The substitute motion- less the planning commission decision?.

S

Is that correct?, so it added back in the friendly amendment.

S

Or includes friendly amendments from council member braless.. Is that what we're voting on? yes,? That does.

D

Include that for me. ok, yeah., I just want to be clear. It is.

C

Officially, moving it to rules. no, we're not talking.

D

About the planning committee.- oh yeah., I'm sorry.! You have to.

D

Correct that it's going to move it to rules. got it.. Thank.

S

You., thanks for the clarification. all right. any.

D

Other questions? council member hairiness. thank you.. I'm.

J

Supporting the motion on the floor., I know that there, the.

J

Conversation has already been very rich and I agree with.

J

Some of my council colleagues, in terms of how it's in the.

J

Ocean is shaping up.. I wanted to just think a lot of the.

J

Community has come out to speak on the different aspects.

J

Of the work that were we have before us today and with that, I.

J

Know that it reflects a lot of the hopes and dreams for our city,, especially embracing equity and housing, that us as a.

J

Principal that we move forward with, regardless of whether I.

J

Don't know that that we need to always think about well what.

J

Will it cost the city in terms of equity, because I think.

J

What we have seen so far is that cost to our community.

J

In terms of having generational poverty.

J

Inherited within communities and especially communities of.

J

Color., and so I want us to make sure that we always make.

J

Our our decisions, not only just based on on principle but but.

J

Also, taking a look at the past policies and how we are doing.

J

Some of those past policies and not to say that we are not.

J

Going to be fiscally responsible., of course, that's.

J

The commitment that we have to our community to make sure that.

J

We we are responsive with their taxpayer money.. We also have.

J

To make sure that those investments that we make now will benefit generations to come and undo some of those.

J

Policies that have come before us., and so I'm really proud of.

J

The work that we're doing., I'm absolutely proud of our.

J

Commissioners, who have brought so much before us so.

J

Much that we have to bifurcating and and you know,.

J

We just have to scaffold some of these conversations because there's just so much to discuss and I'm I'm grateful for for.

J

Their proactive conversations taking a look at our city as.

J

A whole. I'd also just want to thank our chair, commissioner,.

J

Fred frare, as well as the commissioners in my district.

J

Maria francis and gerard bruce,, thank you so much for all the.

J

Really great work., I'm sure that many of my many of.

J

Those folks serving are just as wonderful and thank you for the.

J

Service that you've provided our city and that's really all.

J

I wanted to say. thank you. thank you. council, member. and.

D

I don't see other hands raised or any names on those on the.

D

Board. so toni, we have a motion. Can we have a roll-call.

D

Vote please?, yes., parleys, yes. cohen. I carrasco. I know as.

C

Far as the yes arena, yes. foley foley, I man know jones. I.

C

Thank you. motion passes eight to two. all right., so we have.

D

um The bifocal motion on the floor, which is the the.

D

Conversation on rank, choice, voting. and I just want to.

D

Start out by you know,, I haven't really expressed my.

D

Position on rank choice voting.. I want to commend actually.

D

Councilmember esparza., I think he was very eloquent in her.

D

Feelings and description about rank choice voting.. I.

D

Also want to commend toni for your analysis at all the the.

D

Pros and cons., I think that you brought out a lot of strong.

D

Points you, you brought up points for and you brought points against uh and we could probably engage in.

D

Dueling polls and doing surveys., but I also know what I.

D

See when I vote every election and what I see are.

D

Ballots that have numerous elections, numerous.

D

Propositions, numerous ballot measures- and it just goes on.

D

And on and on., and one of the things that you learn particularly in the world of business, is more options.

D

Creates more complexity and so intuitively, you know,.

D

Someone who is engaged in the voting process, you know our.

D

Residents who vote every every election cycle and have to go.

D

Through these very again extensive ballots., it's just.

D

Counterintuitive that if you layer on more complexity,.

D

There's going to be easier for the voters. um, council.

D

Member esparza brought the issue in terms of gaming. The.

D

System., I remember when we were um at least I was up in arms.. I.

D

Know a lot of other folks that I know were up in arms.

D

During the san francisco election, where two of london.

D

Breed competitors colluded to game the system to try to.

D

Get one of them elected over one breed who had the most.

D

Votes., we also are familiar with what happened in oakland.

D

With jean quan, who was elected, no under ranked choice, voting.

D

And you know, conventional wisdom is that it really.

D

Hampers her ability to govern the city of oakland and it led.

D

To her not being reelected, because she did not have a.

D

Majority of the voters in the majority of the support., I'm.

D

Sure you know,, if you go into some of these other cities, that.

D

Are engaged in minority voting,, I'm sure you could come up with other examples and I'm sure you could also come up with.

D

Examples like councilmember coingate up with in terms of.

D

The benefits. I sometimes question some of these polls,.

D

You know, because again I know what I read, but I also know.

D

What I see and you know, it's often brought up that,. You know.

D

, these initiatives or process benefit communities of.

D

Color and again, I just wonder who they're talking to.

D

Or who they're polling? Because you know,? If you go out into the community and you explain ranked choice, voting,.

D

You're going to have people are just going to throw up their hands to say, hey, you know,. This is way more complicated.. I just want to be able to go into the voting booth and vote for a.

D

Candidate and hope that they win. so again,, I'm sure we can.

D

Come up with surveys and polls, studies that can support.

D

Whatever position we want to take., but as as you know,.

D

People who understand human nature,, it's really.

D

Counterintuitive., so I've never been a supporter of ranked choice, voting again.. I think it just makes things too.

D

Complicated. we're trying to encourage people to come out.

D

And vote and when you make the process more and more.

D

Complicated, you're intuitively, discouraging people from from.

D

Participating., so that's that's why I'm not a big fan of it.

D

Again,, I think councilmember cohen,, you know,. You made some.

D

Good points but again,, I just don't think that it matches the.

D

Reality that we see every day., so I can't I can't support.

D

The motion and I just hope that if it goes forward that you.

D

Know, there's an expectation that we're going to dedicate a.

D

Lot of resources to educate and train the community to be able.

D

To vote and if you have a process where it's going to.

D

Require additional resources for people to be able to do.

D

Something, then, you really should question why we're doing.

D

This process., so that's all I have to say on that., so.

D

Again,, I would not support the motion on the floor and.

D

I see council member carrusca yeah.. I wasn't sure.

M

If you could see my hand., I was having trouble raising it.

M

Thank you so much vice mayor.. I really appreciate you saying.

M

You making these last final statements, because I think that.

M

They're really important., I'm not going to support this.

M

Motion for all of the reasons, and so much more for all the.

M

Reasons that you stay in for so much more., you know,, I I.

M

Again, for whatever it's worth I've, I've represented a.

M

District for the past, almost eight years in this capacity.

M

But I've worked in this district and in district three.

M

And in district seven and and in district eight, the the.

M

The areas that have had many, many challenges actually.

M

Have worked throughout the entire city of san jose and throughout the county of santa clara county., and I will tell you that you said it. You said it best. Simplicity is best.

M

And, and this is a very complicated way of voting and.

M

You know,, I guess I appreciate what council member.

M

Cohen said that everybody understands it., I don't agree.

M

With that., I myself have a very difficult time: understanding.

M

The logic behind it and how I'm going to actually get my my.

M

Choice voted into power when I have to strategize. it's.

M

Like playing chess, almost. and, and I think that for someone.

M

Who has worked for the almost three decades? I've.

M

Worked almost three decades. I know I'm dating myself, but I'm very proud that just a few days ago I fifty five so for almost.

M

Three decades I've worked campaigns. I've worked campaigns.

M

For the senate., I've worked local campaigns.. I've worked.

M

Campaigns in some of the toughest areas in california.

M

Like los angeles, and I have worked mostly in communities of.

M

Color., it's a little insulting to have someone from.

M

A district that does not have the kind population that I've.

M

Been working with tell me that they know better or that.

M

They've got all of this body of research that tells them.

M

Something contrary to what I've experienced,, what I have lived.

M

Through for almost 30 years,, what I have seen and if, if it.

M

Were that simple, then I invite you to come over and solve this.

M

Voter engagement problem that we've had historically., I mean.

M

You should have run for mayor council, member and truly because it sounds like you've got all the answers and I'm telling you it's insulting when you go out and you interact.

M

With the community and you engage with the community,, then you can come back and you can tell me hey, people of color,.

M

People who have lower incomes, people who are really.

M

Interested in having some sort of say-so in the political process, but don't know how to engage,, I managed to get.

M

Them engaged, then we can go ahead and have a real conversation., but throwing these numbers in these stats.

M

And research papers at me without having the lived.

M

Experiences is really insulting., so I'm going to vote no on it.. Thank you so much for bringing the memo forward.. It's.

M

A no thank you council, member cross-class, is a second oldest.

D

Person on the council.- you're still just a baby. all right.. I.

M

Can appreciate that., I do not saying the oldest is on the.

D

Council.- I do not think you know. I do know that council.

D

Member rollo's can we just clarify what the actual.

N

Motion is right: now?, council, member collin, you want to was.

D

The most important I mean it's, it's the to move item, one of.

Q

Of conservatism, memo with moving it to, I guess it.

Q

Would just change to say with instead of saying for this.

Q

Year we just say for twenty to bring it back in twenty twenty four to discuss to to consider placing it on the ballot for for that year or future years of something.. I.

Q

Mean it's just for bringing back the discussion in twenty twenty four for potential ballot measure. Ok, so that's.

D

That is a change from the original that was well. That was.

Q

The change right that well did you. Actually, I shouldn't.

Q

Say that I asked for that, and then you said that that wasn't the right time to ask for it. So I guess we haven't actually made that change to the motion, right?, that's correct., so you're, making it you're, making it now? yeah. I mean that's.

Q

That was the that was the change I asked for before to the main to the motion. ok,. So it's your motion., your.

D

Motion so it's my motion., ok! Well, then I'll make the change.

Q

To my motion does that all right with the all right we got.

D

That, right out all right, ok, just that's why I was asking.

O

Wasn't this is one of the council member carrasco substitute motion this. This is still my motion. well ok.. So.

D

Council, member crosby,, you made a substitute motion on.

D

Council member koans. yeah. motion that was bifurcates.

D

There were two pieces to it, and so I assume that you make a.

D

Motion to the second piece, which was basically everything else, besides ranked with voting., so so this is the.

M

Bifurcated motion right., and this is the motion that this.

M

Was the part of the substitute motion that I made. so we're.

M

Still voting voting on I'm voting it I'm voting it down.

M

But it's still my motion. ok,, so I need either nor or toni to.

D

Help me out on this one. so who who's motion is it.. Yeah is.

D

It I attorney advice on this one if the motion, if the.

C

Substitute ocean included this bifurcated piece and I just.

C

Don't recall, I'd have to go back and try to look at that.

C

But it sounds like from council member carrasco that was her intent. Then this would be uh a substitute motion. yeah on.

M

My second piece, all my is to move her memo rules along with.

C

Approving the pre now motion on the table., so that's that's the.

M

Motion as it was being as it was evolving., but when I, when.

M

He wouldn't accept my motion. I went ahead and if you recall I.

M

Said I'm making a substitute motion with everything? That's.

M

Been included in the previous motion., so that included the.

M

Bifurcates motion. ok, and then someone, I don't know who the.

M

Other council member was asked if I would move it to twenty.

M

Twenty four four, I said: yes. council member farzat second.

M

It that that from the amendment ok, well, that's that then, and so.

C

The vice mayor that my cryptic notes that does the.

C

Peer to be what was in my cryptic notes, also, ok, that.

D

Doesn't say anything so so n, though, who? Oh so you said it.

D

Does confirm? Ok, I'm confirms it and I said: oh, that's great.

M

Vice mayor confirms, I heard it wrong, so ok, we're good we're.

D

All on the same page now do I have a clear understanding. It's.

D

Across roscoe's motion, I ask for clarification. sure, because.

D

There is a so now I'm asking councilmember mclaughlin in.

N

This case, I just want to make it clear that what we're.

N

Bringing back for twenty twenty four is just a consideration of.

N

Placing us on a ballot that we're not actually voting today,, that it goes on the twenty twenty four that that.

N

Was if you can clarify that that was my understanding that.

M

We were going to bring it back for discussion., I'm still not going to vote for it. yes.. I just want it because I am going.

N

To vote for that, if that is the, if that is the verification., so.

N

If that is then, then I'm good with ok thank you.. Ok, so.

D

That's the clarification that they would come back for.

D

Discussion in twenty twenty for any other questions.

D

Andre no uh toni amarnath yes. braless, yes cohen. I.

C

Carrasco know, davis, no esparza, no arenas, no, no, actually, no and.

C

No jones no motion failed: three, yes, stefano's and.

C

I'll share the screen, so the vote is visible.. Yes, that.

C

Motion failed. Ok, motion fails uh that is it right. We're done.

D

Yes., ok! Well! This meeting is adjourned till we have open.

C

Form on the agenda, I we usually we don't have open forum. Do.

D

You., oh yeah., all right up on the open forum, open forum.

C

Needs to be items not already discussed on the agenda.. This.

C

Needs to be new items or the council, not items that were.

C

Already discussed today, player big hi. uh blair, beekman.

K

Here, uh thanks for the meeting, today. um,, I guess a reminder. I.

K

Have two minutes to speak that my two minutes time just a.

K

Reminder of the importance of working towards a future of.

K

Peace in our communities, and that are are measures are.

K

Geared towards a full community effort., I think I think it's.

K

Creating a community effort, a whole community effort with.

K

Public oversight and such that creates a future of sustainable.

K

In much better terms, that, I think, is a promise of an.

K

Interesting future for ourselves., so good luck in.

K

Those efforts and how we're trying to define sustainability.

K

At this time- and I think it's to the open democratic process.

K

And we tried to do that a bit today.. I hope that there are.

K

Fifteen measures that we can better talk about in the.

K

Upcoming future and another issue, I hope this can be a time.

K

Now that we're going through this part of the process that we can eventually be talking about a racial equity, special.

K

Study session coming up soon., we talked about it often. there.

K

Were a few study sessions we were talking about march that.

K

Didn't happen that could have that. I hope can now soon and.

K

Good luck how we can do that.! It was mentioned here a few times that we don't talk clearly enough about racial equity yet and we're trying to learn how to some few more.

K

Open study sessions that were canceled in march., good luck.

K

How we can do that in the upcoming months. thank you.

K

That's woodmansee. yes, thanks.. I wanted to reiterate what.

G

Blair beekman just said that a an ideas of peace and that we.

G

Would have going forward and, as we are facing every day on our.

G

Television and media that is being covid is the war in.

G

Ukraine. and what we're seeing that in that war is the this is.

G

Wars for fuel for oil and gas- and this is where the changes.

G

That we need to make as a as a species for our survival.

G

Literally, as we see the death and mahan that's going on over.

G

Oil and gas in ukraine by russia that we need to be.

G

Changing and to get off of fossil fuels, completely. and.

G

This is what europe is being faced: with. we're all have blood on our hands from what's happening there, because we are.

G

All addicted to fossil fuels- and this is the change that we.

G

Need to have and we're seeing it. you seeing it in the most.

G

Grotesque realities of of of death and mahan of russia.

G

Towards ukraine and so and the and the dislocation of four.

G

Million people that is going to create these- these are climate.

G

Refugees really because it is over oil and gas that we're.

G

Fighting about and that's the main thing that they say we are.

G

Fueling, the russian military one billion dollars a day is.

G

Being fueled., that's how much he makes putin makes and so.

G

That's what's fueling his war machine., so we do all have blood on our hands for being addicted to fossil fuels. and.

G

So, what's going forward is really sustainability is a is a.

G

Weaker word., it's really survival is what my husband is.

G

Saying today about the climate crisis is that it's survival,.

G

It's not sustainability. it's food,, clothing and shelter and.

G

That's what we have to focus on going forward is our basic.

G

Needs and for the people and to be free of fossil fuels back to.

C

The chair. thank you, toni. meeting is adjourned.