Recommendation to Reorganize the City’s Parking Management Program and Parking Fund; Adoption of Resolution Amending the Fiscal Year 2021-22 Parking Fund Budget to Restructure the Parking Fund; and Adoption of Resolution Amending the Salary Schedule for the Alameda City Employees Association (ACEA) and the Alameda Police Officers Association, Non-Sworn (PANS) to Move the Two Parking Enforcement Positions from PANS to ACEA and Reassign Two Full-Time Parking Enforcement Position Allocations from the Police Department to Public Works. (Public Works 265) [Not heard on November 2, 2021]
A recommendation to reorganize the city's parking management program and parking fund and adoption of related resolutions. All right. And so. Look. At that. Like magic, they appear. So who is? And I just want to say to Miss Smith, who I know we had a conversation maybe a week ago, and I told you we'd hear your item today. We did it. All right. Look at all of you. Hi. Hi. We've got Captain Jeff Emmett from HPD. We've got our public works director, Aaron Smith. We have our planning bill and transportation director Andrew Thomas and Lisa Foster, who has a title in transportation that is escaping me at the moment. But she'll introduce herself. Who's going to take the lead on this? I'm going to jump in. It's Andrew. Thomas, my planning. Director. There's more. Listen, the. Board. Where this has been a multi departmental effort, some just want to recognize and thank the public works department and the police department for their help on this as well. It's really been a big team effort. And I'm going to turn it over to Lisa Foster, who will present our joint recommendation for moving forward with the reorganization of the parking program here in Alameda. Take it away, Lisa. All right. Thanks for that introduction, Mr. Thomas. Good evening, Madam Mayor, and members of the Council. I'm Lisa Foster, senior transportation coordinator with the City of Alameda. And I'm here with colleagues to represent the staff recommendation that the city council approved resolutions to make two things happen, and those are to move parking enforcement, parking enforcement from police to public works and establish a single inclusive parking management fund. And both changes were endorsed unanimously by the Transportation Commission. And since we haven't spoken about Parking Management Program as a whole for a while, I wanted to put this effort into context. Public parking and curb space usage are part of the transportation system in the public right of way. And when we manage parking, that is part of managing transportation and can be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If we can use parking, pricing and time limits to achieve an 85% parking occupancy goal, which means that a driver is able to get into a space more quickly, thus reducing circling and double parking. And it can also be used to create incentives for people to use other modes. Managing parking also increases safety whenever we reduce circling. That's less time for drivers driving across crosswalks in dense areas. Reducing double parking keeps vehicles out of bike lanes and red zones, and many of those red zones are there for very important safety reasons. We can increase economic vitality by ensuring parking space availability for visitors and facilitating loading and short term parking. We support transit by reducing double parking and incentivizing transit use, and we protect the environment not only by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but when we enforce street sweeping that can help prevent stormwater pollution. We have several plans that call for parking management, the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, the Alameda Point Transportation Management Plan, and the Transportation Choices Plan. All call for parking management, including paid parking at all ferry terminals, adjusting pricing to 85% occupancy. And then the Commercial Streets program that you discuss the council discussed at the last meeting speaks to have a new short term disability and loading zones on Park and Webster. So in 2019 and early 2020, staff were working on improving the parking management program in general and gearing up to meet the increasing needs of Alameda Point and City Council approved expanding the parking enforcement program with two new full time parking technician positions and continued use of part time positions. Council also approved amending the Alameda Municipal Code to enable mobile payment and electronic permits and to set parameters within which the Public Works Director can adjust hourly parking meter rates to achieve an 85% occupancy target of the code. Also defined specific uses for excess parking rate funds, including alternative mode programs and painting curbs for loading and facility parking. And then the pandemic hit. And, you know, it changed everything in our lives. Parking is a small part of it relative to everything that was going on, but it did impact the parking program significantly. So with the shelter in place, order meter revenue plummeted 92% between April 2019 and April 2020. And then at the request of businesses, the Commercial Streets program shifted almost all of the parking along core business areas of Park and Webster to free 15 minute pick up and drop off. Our meter revenue has increased in 2021, but it's still about 40% lower than we had in a similar month in 2019. So the results are we have not filled those full time parking enforcement positions. We haven't established paid parking at our very terminals. And we had to decommission multiphase meters on two blocks of Park Street because they were old machines and it wasn't worth paying the monthly fees when we weren't using them. So having the parking program so diminished provides an opportunity to think about how best to rebuild the program and what structure would best help the city achieve its goals related to transportation, safety, economic vitality and more. And staff from police, public works and transportation planning have collaborated to develop a plan, two steps of which were taken to tonight. First to create a public works parking enforcement program. This would move public parking enforcement from police to public works, allowing a greater focus and connection to transportation goals. Unlike moving violations like speeding, parking enforcement does not need to be done by sworn personnel. And it's very common for parking enforcement to occur in departments that are responsible for transportation or public works rather than law enforcement. The Public Works Parking Enforcement Program would have a new look and feel with a new logo. New uniforms with a feel of more. Speaking more to parking as a service rather than about law enforcement. The public works parking enforcement technicians without clearance to access personally identifying information which simplifies hiring, training and privacy. But because you need to be able to run a plate to tell those technicians to coordinate with police when a vehicle needs to be towed because it's in the driveway or in front of a fire hydrant, etc.. This is also another common setup. So to support that, police would retain for those for currently filled part time positions for this, as well as traffic control and other police support. Second, we recommend creating a single parking fund. An effective program requires financial planning and the ability to allocate resources to improve the program. Currently, program revenues and expenses are tracked in separate funds. Parking revenues from meters and larch are placed in the parking fees of civic center garage funds. Expenses for parking enforcement are in the police department. Budget and parking citation revenues go into the general fund. So staff recommends bringing these together into one fund with three divisions as shown here. We see several benefits of this. It would allow financial planning across all facets of parking management, with the goal of meeting no general fund support in the short term citation revenues being in the mix will help the parking fund recover from the pandemic revenue losses and invest in the equipment and staffing needed to meet the growing needs in commercial corridors, ferry terminals and Alameda Point. In the long term, we expect the fund to generate excess revenues, which council can decide where to direct. So the next priorities that we see are to establish that public works enforcement program and equip it, recruit the enforcement positions, reestablish parking management and enforcement on commercial corridors, and begin paid parking at Seaplane Lagoon. Prioritizing that particular terminal because of the AC Transit pilot bus line that is going to that terminal and will go away if people don't take the bus. Achieving these priorities will include steps that require more involvement from council moving forward. So this is just the first step. Things like we might need to change the Alameda Municipal Code to allow non-police employees to enforce parking violations. Approving rates for seaplane, lagoons, purchasing meters and more. And we we do plan to include additional budget allocations for these things in the Midcycle budget review. So in summary, we recommend that the City Council approve this to recommend these two resolutions, and I will close there. As you heard, there are many staff members here to help field questions and join in the discussion. Okay. Good timing with 37 seconds left. But he wanted to say anything quickly. How about if I will? Let me ask this, Madam Clerk, do we have any public speakers on this item? Yes, a few. A few. Okay. Counsel, do we have any clarifying questions before we go to our public speakers? Councilmember Harris Spencer. Thank you. In regards to the theory, parking, any moneys received, do they get split with Rita or what happens to money collected for ferry parking? That if if the city initiates parking fees at the ferry terminals, that the revenue would all be coming to the city. Into this parking fund. It's not split with we. Thank you. Okay. And other clarifying questions. Let's take our public comments. We have five right now, so they still get 3 minutes. The first is sack bowling. Good evening, speaker bowling. Evening Council. I just wanted to voice my support of moving parking enforcement out of the police department into public works. I'm also in favor of ferry terminal parking fees to help limit excess parking at that facility and encourage more bus and transit usage to the ferry terminal, which should help spur at least some encouragement to AC transit that that line, the new 78 bus line that we have installed is going to be widely used and not competing with car traffic. And I'll leave my comments there. Thank you. Thank you. Your next speaker. Amanda Chair. Good evening. Speaker Cheer. Thank you. Thank you to staff for the presentation. It was really thorough. I didn't catch who was doing it, but it helped me understand the issue a lot better and just appreciate the time that you spent on it. I just want to support this move from parking enforcement to its public works out of PD. As you all know, a parking employee and slash volunteer slash wannabe cop is a person involved in the murder of Mario Gonzalez. So it's very clear that APD doesn't really have the capacity to handle managing that particular staff. I appreciated that separately. The vision was also outlined in your presentation about how this ties into a larger transportation issue. And I would encourage, as you move through these issues council and it comes up again and again that traffic also be considered in this traffic stops are really deadly for black and brown people and in our country. And we all know that because, you know, you just have to watch the news to know that and and that this be part of a larger conversation of how we can move away from traditional policing and think about different ways to keep our community safe. But definitely support this and appreciate you taking the time to hear it tonight. Thank you. Our next speaker. Ryan read. Good evening, Speaker. Right. Good evening, Madam Mayor and city council members. I am calling because while I am in favor of that and of of the parking being being part of the of the new program, I am against the paid parking at the ferry terminals. And the reason why is because the ferry tickets are already quite expensive and increasing the cost of people's daily commute is extremely burdensome on families and it continues to create inequities in our community. So I ask that you take that into consideration where we what we would likely see are wealthy residents being able to park their cars at the ferry terminals and maybe the average resident who is trying to make their way. Maybe also people who have other other financial stressors wouldn't be able to do so. And especially as people are dropping their kids off at school or, you know, trying to do other things for their families anyway. So I'm I'm against the paid parking at the ferry terminals. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker. Ju, dara abrams. Good evening, speaker dara abrams. Hi. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor and council members. I just wanted to offer some brief positive comments on this proposal. A good complement to the item two weeks ago from remembering last meeting on a parking parking maximums. And so I got to offer some positive comments on that, both as a resident of the East End and a co-owner of a small business on Park Street in a built in a building that has no off street parking. So it's really great to see these programmatic levers that the city can potentially make use of to now make better use of the parking that is built. So very much glad to see this coming along at the same time as the changes that remove parking minimums and replace them with parking maximums. I just want to very briefly offer one additional thought in case it isn't under consideration by city staff that thinking of a parking brokerage model for the business districts where I know lots of folks have talked about how they park in other businesses lots when those businesses are closed. Technically speaking, you look up at that sign and it says, legally, you can't park here. There are ways that the city could make that more straightforward for businesses to pool their parking, whether it's in a parking lot that is legally branded as a city facility or through another means. Because I think as the city makes parking easier for residents and shoppers to use, there are other ways to expand and brand other parking lots as well. And finally, I do also want to echo the comment made earlier that a good goal that out of way out of context or scope for this item. But I think a good ultimate goal is also moving traffic enforcement out of the police department and looking at traffic and transportation issues in a more holistic manner. So thank you for taking this feedback. Thank you. Our next speaker. We have three more speakers now, which puts us at the seven limits of the speakers we'll get to. And next is Morgan Bennett. Morgan Bellinger. Good evening, Speaker Bollinger. Good evening. I applaud the city's efforts to bring as many services as possible out from under the purview of our violent police department. I have a simple question for you all. Who should pay for parking? I can tell you who pays for it now. When we use the general fund to pay for parking maintenance expenses, all Alameda taxpayers pay for it. Even seniors and folks who can't afford a car. When we fail to enforce daylight and bike lane violations, cyclists and pedestrians pay for it with their bodies. When we declined up zone because it would impact street parking, the unhoused in Alameda paid for it. I'm begging council to go beyond the proposal in front of you. It's clear from comments on numerous items tonight that we need to separate our parking problems from our housing problems. Parking as a function of public works is a great first step, but why draw the line for 85% occupancy at the business districts? Some of you know how hard it is to find a spot at night when neighbors have no motivation not to park six cars on the street. Please consider implementing street parking permits from 2 to 4 a.m. across the entire island so that people who use parking can be the ones who pay for it. This will allow us to build housing while limiting the number of cars and traffic that prospective residents bring with them. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker. Jim Strelow. Good evening, Speaker Strelow. Also on staff California law enforcement transactions class does not allow non sworn law enforcement officials access to their vehicle data. Thus, illegally parked vehicles blocking bike lanes or streets cannot be checked for stolen or all points. Bulletin status. All the public works can do is just take up that vehicle, move along when the police could have run the vehicle for its history. Yeah. Your put public works employees and general public at risk with the inability to check license plates for crimes. As a public works employee approaches the vehicle, that employer will be at risk if the vehicle was reported stolen and the driver of the vehicle's occupants are potentially dangerous. I trust law enforcement officers. I do not trust elements of public works, discriminatory practices of favoring bicycles against vehicles. Well, public works employees choose to not ticket illegally parked bicycles. Bad guys from Oakland and other nearby cities can also double dump their stolen vehicles or parked their vehicles in Alameda parking spaces. How does this program reduce circling and double parking when parking spaces are not available in the city continues to reduce the number of parking spaces . I see Amazon, FedEx, UPS, double parking throughout the city daily, particularly blocking bike lanes because you must coordinate with police for towing vehicles. It will then take paying to Alameda City employees to enforce towing when it used to take just one employee. Also, I'm against paid parking at Seaplane Lagoon in order to promote fair use. There is no paid parking at the Main Street Ferry terminal now. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker. And that's our it'll be our final speaker, Dennis Anderson. All right. Good evening, Speaker Anderson. Good evening. I just wanted to echo Savannah and say that I support this. I think that the fewer. People on the street with guns interacting with our community better. And I also wanted to say that I don't support paid parking up a very maybe some at some point in the future. But right now, I don't think that it's appropriate. And we never did it at the Main Street terminal. And when somebody doesn't, to my knowledge, go out there on the weekends, which is when it's really popular to be used. So I get somebody working. Thank you, Adam. Thank you. Okay. We had one more speaker right there speaking. Evening. Speaker Jeopardy! Good evening, council members. I'll keep this really brief. I know it's a long night. I just want to say that bipoc alameda strongly support staff's recommendation, especially around the paid parking at the ferry terminal. Yeah, it's true. We haven't had paid parking at the ferry terminals before. We also haven't had transit access to the ferry terminals before. And it's also my understanding that this paid parking would only be during the week. But I could be wrong about that. But anyway, we strongly, strongly encourage anything that will help us capture some of the the costs that we are supporting as taxpayers now, where we're subsidizing driving in Alameda by providing free parking. So strongly recommend this proposal. Thank you. Thank you. Any last speakers, Madam Clerk? No more. Okay. With that, I am going to close public comment on item seven. D. And we will return to the council. So, Councilmember Harris Spencer. Thank you, Mayor. I want to follow up on some of the comments that were made from the public speakers, and I'll I'll try to remember them. And you might remember better than I do. In regards to currently the police is that sworn officers that are doing the checking the meters. Oh, no. Right now. Okay. Where we left the map did better. Thank you. And by the way, I'll call on the people to answer. Captain Emmett, can you address us? Yes. So small officers can enforce parking violations. We try not to use word officers for that. We are a little short on the parking technician side, but when we have them available, we do use our parking technicians or our police service technicians, which are also professional staff. They're not sworn police officers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. So when there's a car. So how do we know? Like if someone does have a stolen car, do they do well? Will these people now be able to run the license plates or will they have the I think some cars, some of our police cars, these have the cameras so that they can check to see if they're still already here, if they have a plate on it, what followup will there be when it's moved over to public works? Captain Emmett. Well, I'll speak to the police involvement side. When a public works parking enforcement employee finds a vehicle that they believe is stolen or comes back as stolen, they will contact the police department. If a vehicle is stolen, it will necessitate a sworn police officer to respond. If it is a vehicle that needs to be towed for blocking a private driveway or that needs to be cited for parts on private property, which would require to run the license plate to identify the registered owner, they would be able to call the police department and we would send an employee out that has access through Platts to run that license plate to identify the registered owner. And Captain Emmett. How would you? I'm assuming you'll do some or APD will do some obstruction. How? How would a public works parking enforcement person suspect that a vehicle was stolen? Outlet public works. Take that and fill. My understand. Actually. I've got. Okay. Public works. Go ahead. Go ahead. Matt Smith. You go first. And so my understanding how that works is the police department will be able to give us what's called a hotlist. So those are license plates that can be loaded into the handheld device that although the public works parking technicians aren't certified and aren't seeing any owner information, we are able to confirm if it on the hotlist and then coordinate with the police department as needed. Thank you. Go ahead, Councilor Spencer. Thank you. So we get, you know, Amber Alerts on our phones with those be immediately put into this hotlist then. As stolen vehicles are entered into flats by the agency that takes the initial report. It depends on when that originating agency puts the vehicle into the system. So sometimes it's immediate. Sometimes it could be several hours after the report is taken. It depends on the agency. And Captain Emmitt, if I could just ask you to tell us what the acronym stands for, if you would. It's California law enforcement telecommunications system. Thank you. Okay. Yes, it's going normally. Okay. Since I made this information, I go to the police, LAPD, but now it goes from APD to public works. So does that happen seamlessly somehow whenever APD does find out? Ever. Yes. Miss Smith, do you want to talk about the devices that you referenced? But what will these parking enforcement folks be using? I can speak generally. I will say I don't have the level of detail that Councilmember Herrera Spencer is getting out, but it is an item that we will work out the details on. So tonight, obviously, we're seeking direction for this transition. So we've done a lot of a lot of legwork to assess the viability. Of moving in. This direction with the specifics of how frequent the hotlist will upload to the handheld devices. I don't have that answer for you tonight, Councilmember Spencer, but I know we will work out those details. But when I'm mentioning a handheld device, I had the opportunity to go on a ride along with actually our existing police technician, parking enforcement technician in the police department. And they are the devices that issue the tickets we might get into the discussion. It's the license plate reader that's different than the automatic license plate reader policy that's being talked about separately. This is literally just a handheld device that is able to scan the license. And then instead of the technician having to punch that license plate into the handheld device that issues ticket, it puts it right in there and it enables the parking technician to take a couple of photographs to document. Situation and. Then to issue the ticket, print it right from the handheld device. So that's the unit that I'm talking about in the specifics of how that hotlist gets on to that, we will, following this meeting, work out those those details. Okay. And do the cars currently of our parking technicians have cameras on them? No. No. Okay. Okay. So there's no loss of services in that respect. Someone raised the issue of. If we have. Anyone that's getting a ticket that is not happy to be getting a ticket. Will our text from Public Works somehow be trained similarly to the text that we have from our police department currently? Yeah. Many are. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. I was calling on you. That's fine. We have Waiting in the wings following the nine Dixon Consulting, their parking experts that we will be developing a program manual that will include training specifically training generally and specifically to target issues of any sort of altercation while issuing a ticket. Okay. And then the parking meters that we used to use pre-COVID, they would operate, I believe, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and then people could parking spaces before or after those hours for no charge. What is the city's plan moving forward in regards to hours of me having the meters, the active? We don't we don't and haven't gotten to that level of detail. And that's something that we don't plan on changing any and in the immediate future. And it's not not been brought up at all. I mean, I think our immediate priority is is going to be enforcement of of what is the the ferry terminal has been talked about that's not being voted upon tonight. That's going to take a separate effort in and of itself to establish those rates. Okay. So. But tonight, are we being asked to approve paid parking at the site? No, no, that's not what I'm things. So in regards to what we're being asked to approve tonight, it. So the first would be to transfer it to public works. And then there's this budget. And can you go over how much more money is is going to cost the city? The next hour. I missed you, Thomas. Yeah, I'm. In terms of how much more. Okay. I think. I think Miss Smith had a go ahead. It's all right. She's right above you. My script. Was taken. We're actually voting on is the establishment of a new fund. So single parking funds, like an umbrella fund where they'll be three divisions within there. The program is anticipated to be self-sufficient, so we're not infusing money. And as the program continues to grow, it's going to take us a bit to kind of constitute the program, but it'll generate sufficient revenue and then they'll likely be excess revenue, which will be a council policy decision on what to do with that excess revenue. And when I say excess, meaning the revenue will support operations and then anything above and beyond operational needs would be able to be transferred elsewhere for other purposes. And so I won't add one more item. So for tonight, we again, we're just seeking direction that this is acceptable to council. We do have a bit more work to do to really detail out the total cost of the program, transition, things like. So I keep bringing up the handheld device, but it is one like the police department has four of them and well they will, they need to keep two and we need to buy two. Like there's just some real specific stuff that we didn't. Want to get. Too far down. There's also vehicles that have come up. We will we do anticipate needing additional vehicles as the program grows, but we're not asking for any money tonight. We'll do some homework. And Lisa, I thought your presentation was awesome. There's one thing at the end. Where you said mid-cycle I think will probably be coming at mid-year with any sort of budget, new budget appropriations for any program expenses, because I think by February we'll know what we need. So will you be coming back? Also, when you the current rates do use the meters. Will that be changing without just fluctuate whenever you think 85% is there or is that part of what we're being asked today? We're not asking for any change in meter rates this evening. Thank you. Okay. As their council comments are a motion council vote next Friday. Phil, I see your hand about to go up. Thank you. You seem to do a lot of clicking without hitting that. But I want to I want to both thank our staff for the great presentation and work I as a point of personal privilege, I'm just going to recognize I think I have done this in the past, but Miss Fosters has been a part of some of the US kind of leading parking policy and program development and operations around, around the country. And so I just want to say we have, you know, we have so many great staff working here, but I want to recognize her specifically in this in this arena. I plan to support this. I really want to encourage our staff as we're starting to put together the work program, to really think about how we can make other cities like San Francisco do use these parking control officers to address issues like double parking. Well, just parking in the middle of a traveling around schools. Right. So we know that would middle school 15 minutes before school gets out. You know, you have cars in both directions on Grand Street just parking in the middle of the street and waiting to pick up their kids. You know, they're not moving. They're double parked. We can we can issue double parking tickets for that and address some of the key safety concerns that are being raised by parents around those schools using these parking tickets at a time when when other parts of the city are less used and they probably need less and less parking enforcement. So I just I want to encourage us to really think about how we can deploy these folks in ways that other cities do to address a wide, very wide range of different. Issues. And then also just want to encourage that as as necessary. You know, we we know that before the pandemic, you know, this this will allow us to start putting into place our parking pilot, our parking program. But we know that parking was heavily impacted in the evenings. It was very hard to find a parking space around Park Street and Webster Street Street at seven or 8:00 at night . And people complained that they were they were leaving. We can use parking pricing in those hours to actually make sure that there's always spaces to be found for people who want to pick up food, etc.. And so looking for ways that we can have those policies kind of come back as a part of our economic support, you know, outside the current hours, I think will be really important. So yeah, I'm happy to say I. Want to make was a motion. To make a motion motion that we approved that we adopted the staff recommendation. We don't start with seconds. I want to make sure. And vice mayor of. That a second. So I have a recording. Okay. We've had emotion. We've had a second. I'll say a couple things. Councilor Woodside, go ahead. Right. Well, thank you. I think that parking enforcement is better left in the hands of our police department. I think they're neutral. Unbiased. Individuals who just want to enforce our parking laws. And I think that's what the residents need, is people who are able to enforce our parking laws in a neutral, unbiased manner. So I'm not going to support the staff's recommendation. I'm I'm going to just chime in as I'm not so muted right now. I'm just cause I'm the keeper of the council rules on meeting conduct. I get a bit concerned when I hear what sounded like an inference that some of our city staff are biased. I mean, there may be reasons you think that police should continue doing this. That seemed a bit accusatory. So I will express my dismay because we try not to our council falls state that we do not make personal attacks on each other, staff, members of the public. So I would just ask all of us to please bear that in mind. Councilmember Herrera. Spencer, you have your hand up. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. I'm not sure that I heard the comments the same way you did, but I wanted to get back to in response to our police, it's my understanding that our police is agreeable to transferring this responsibility to public works and after and I don't know if our police you do if you review the program that you could give any reasons supporting why you think this could work as opposed to having police here. But if you are in fact supporting this transfer. You're asking Captain Emmett. Captain Emmett, please. Yes, we do support it 100%. And it's going to be a process that we're more than happy to help them to be successful. And we have training outlines and training programs that we can provide to public works to help them create their own and to train their staff and to take on the responsibility. And for us, it's we've had a difficult time hiring for those positions in the past. And I think transferring it over to public works hopefully will be the city will be more successful in being able to staff those positions. So we do we do support it and we plan on being there to support them and help them through the process. Thank you, Captain Emmett. Yeah. Okay. Offer you say thank you. And I really appreciate that insight in regards to the hiring. And I thought that was a very important point that I hadn't thought of. So thank you. And I found a supportive. Thank you. And I just want to say that I also support this and thank you to all the staff members for bringing this forward. We talk about how short staffed we are in police, in the police department. And so this is a better utilization of resources. And I have no misgivings about transferring this responsibility over to the to the public works department and that the training sounds more than adequate. So we've had a motion, it's been seconded me. We have a roll call vote please. Come from member station. Career Spencer. High. Next light. High valley. High. Near as Ashcroft High. That carries 4 to 1. Thank you. Okay. You all can go home or you're home. You can go to bed or do whatever you want. Pat, Liz, hug while. Sure. I mean, it's fine with me. Yeah. Why not? Tuesday. Right. Okay. Going once. Going twice. Tuesday, November the 30th. You don't get to vote. Tuesday, November the 30th, 5:00 start. And remind us again what we're we're going to do the housing element and the general plan. Is that the plan. DNC? Well, I'm just making sure council tax rate raises. So is that was that you're thinking you can unmute. Yeah. It was nice. Yeah, I think it was everything. We did move to item six. I mean, if we wanted to think about some of the things we moved item six and just get them all out of the way. So then we're really moving into Vision Zero on the seventh, which I just think is going to be a big one. Yeah, I think we should give lots of time for the housing element in the general plan, myself and not you, and not keep people up to all hours doing it because that's, you know, that's that's also not as accessible as we'd like to be howsoever Harry Spencer thank you. I agree with just limit it to the housing element and the general plan but I would ask that staff really try to push out to the public that we're starting at 5:00 that day, that we're having a meeting that day on these items because that's unusual, right? We know we don't normally meet on that Tuesday. So everything the staff can do to really alert because we're going to have the same problem we had earlier today, people not knowing what we're doing. Okay. And, Madam Clerk, you want a motion? I mean, you want to vote on this or. That would be fabulous. Fabulous. Can't continue it specifically. Council member in Knox White is going to make that motion, right? Yes. I move that. We schedule a special meeting for November 30th at 5 p.m. to hear items currently or that were identified as items seven B and seven C on the current council agenda in that order. And Councilor Harry Spencer, you're going to seconded, aren't you? Your muted. Now. I'm happy the second. Thank you. I thought we had to push it out. Right. Okay. Let's take a roll call vote, please. Councilmember de thank. Right or center. I Naxalite. I well, i there is Ashcroft and I'm just laughing. I wasn't shaking my head. No, my neck is just stiff. Yes. Bye. Yeah. Yes. Okay. So Council, we move now. To. Man and agenda gets really dogged by the end of a meeting. So we go on to item eight. City Manager Communications. Mr. Levitz.