Consider Approving a Resolution of Support for AB31 - “The No Tampon Tax Bill” (Vice Mayor Knox White and Councilmember Vella)
What? Where do people think we could bump it up ahead of the agenda of the next agenda item? I don't think to take too long, but I'm only one person. How many speakers are there, Madam Clerk? 515. So our high school students. Or high school students equal right now anyway. So you have 3 minutes to speak. I mean, we. Could reduce the image. I know we have a bunch of staff. I get that. But anyway, it's up to you. And I don't spend too much time discussing it because that would defeat the purpose of moving fast. What do you think? I have a sure. Let's do it. I need one more. And then we could call it a majority. I think the is narrows we need for right. And I think the proper time to do this was that item two agenda changes. But I'd be in favor of it without limiting the time. Okay. Oh, I see. Limiting the time for this. Without limiting the time. Yes. Okay. So if I could propose we go ahead and take item nine A now and speakers, I would just ask you to limit yourselves. Don't feel that you have to repeat the same thoughts that the person did before. But we love hearing from our high school students and their teachers and parents, whoever are here. So, okay, let's do that with minor apologies to our fire personnel there. But I just, um, I feel bad sometimes when we get to the end of an evening in either parents with children or the kids themselves are still waiting. So. Oh, do we need to vote to do that or. I think I think we reached consensus. I kind of think it was unanimous, wasn't it? Okay. So with that item nine A. That's Rosemary Knox, a member of L.A. mayor. Maybe. Maybe you guys should take a vote on it in my motion, and that's good. I didn't want you just sitting there observing. All right. Okay, let's have a motion. He's going to move that. We have to amend the amended agenda to move. Second O favor. Okay. Passes unanimous. Thank you. You. Okay. Consider approving a resolution of support for Assembly Bill 31. The No Tampon. Tax. The. Councilmember. Are you doing this for honor? I will. I will start. This bill has a new it might have a new number, but it is not a new concept. And I think the purpose of it is pretty clear. It's the no tampon tax bill, HB 31. And this bill has come forward a couple of times unsuccessfully, and we're hoping to see it come through. You know, tampons, menstrual products are essential items. There's no reason they should be taxed. There's a lot of things that are essentially exempt from from various sales taxes. And these aren't luxury items. These are essential. I'm wearing a shirt right now that says equality, period. It's really about menstrual equity throughout the world. And while we are doing pretty well in terms of making sure that women don't have to stay at home or be isolated and confined while they're on their period, we could do a hell of a lot more for a first world country, and I think that starts with taking a step at not taxing items that are necessary for women to go about and continue their lives. It's part of overall equity equity relative to access to schools, to learning to work, all of those different things. So I'm proud to be carrying this tonight with Vice Mayor Knox White. And what we are asking is that the city council pass the attached resolution in support of this legislation. Thank you. Are there further council comments or shall we hear speakers? Two quick comment, quick. I just want to note that the four primary authors includes our Assembly member, Assembly Member Rob Bonta, who has prioritized this as one of his top items of justice this year. It's rather dismaying to know that the. Sign this, but. Okay. So we're going to go on to. And they are and you see a stick Ellison followed by. It's not just. Yes. Sorry to say so. Mayor and council members. My name is. Mayor and council members. My name is Joe Synergize Blue and I'm a freshman and Snow High School and I'd like to say items like condoms, Viagra, hard liquor and men's razors are not taxes items that are luxury. Then why are necessary hygiene products? Tampons and pads are taxes luxury items with an extra 5% tax for every box when around 46% of students from and still qualify for free and reduced lunch. It is unfair to expect those kids and their families to pay an extra tax for something uncontrollable. The pink tax is the only sex specific tax in the country and perpetuates institutionalized misogyny reflecting outdated sexist views. The average woman menstruate for around 40 years. Let's say the average period is six days long and use three pads a day. A single box costs $7 without tax and comes with 36 pads. A single period would use 18 pads, which would mean that every two months you would need to buy another box. It costs $42 a year without tax to just buy pads. It is $1,680 for a lifetime. With tax, it is $1,800. That's almost $200 more because of an unfair tax. Pads and tampons are health necessities and should not be taxed as luxury items because periods are not a luxury. Please vote to endorse AB 31 a bill that will end this unjust tax. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, my my rule. Everybody in my classroom, we don't applaud. We don't cheer. No matter how persuasive the argument is, it just helps make the meeting go more smoothly. And for some public speakers, it's really intimidating because they don't know if they're going to get booed or cheered. So you didn't know that, but now you do. Our next speaker is Zoe Erickson, followed by Lilly Carnival. Zoe, hi. Good evening. I'm Zoe Erikson, and I'm a sophomore at Antonella High School. I'd like to say that putting a tax on products women need as a direct consequence of their biology is fundamentally sexist and unjust. And in the tampon tax will help ensure that all people who need menstrual products can afford them. This tax unfairly penalizes women, and considering nearly half of the students at my school qualify for free and reduced lunch, the tax penalizes those struggling financially, which directly and greatly impacts my peers and many people in the Alameda community and around the world and in our state. Okay. Uh. Sorry. Uh. The first time I had to buy my own menstrual products was when my parents were out of town. They had only left me with a certain amount of money, and paying for these menstrual products cost over half of what they had left me. They were only gone for a night or two, but I remember being absolutely devastated that I couldn't order in pizza or garlic bread that night. Since then, I have heard complaints and I have seen directly how unjust the tampon tax is. I urge you all to support this resolution. Followed by Red. Hello. Members of the City Council. Mayor Ashcroft. My name is Lily Carnival, and I'm a senior at Onslow Junior and Senior High School in my sophomore year. My friends at Nicolosi Allison, who is here tonight, Sarah Scarth and I organized a period products drive for the existing legislation to end the tampon. We worked very hard and had some incredible conversations along the way. When I think about the possibility of AB 31 on a statewide level, I'm incredibly excited. I think about the many girls around the state of California who will no longer have to worry so intensely about affording necessary period products. I especially think about the young. Tax on period products is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Those of us working to advocate for what we call menstrual equity call for safe, sustainable, convenient and affordable products in all schools, jails, shelters, and other public places like this building. Ending shame and stigma at school and at work. Period. Education for everybody as part of a healthy approach to learning about what it is to be a human being. Now I recognize that we have a climate emergency, a devastating housing crisis. We've heard again about tonight a fragile, malfunctioning health care system and a democracy best described as under siege. We also have our local issues to grapple with, including how to reflect our values in our city's budget and how to be the community of kind and loving people that we want to be. I'll work alongside all of you on those issues, too. But I ask tonight that you do one thing. Through this resolution. Tell the women and girls of Alameda and our legislators that your allies, that you understand that gender equality can only be achieved when girls and women can be free of the burden of discrimination and stigma. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for all your remarks, everybody. I'm just going to lead off and say that I think this is just kind of like a no brainer. I don't really know why it hasn't been done yet, but I'm completely behind us endorsing the measure. And I think the resolution there is three great points in the resolution, while many but three that leapt out at me. One is and it was raised by the speakers, a disparate, disproportionate negative impact on women, which largely impacts women in low income brackets for whom sales tax constitutes a larger proportion of their income. And several states have already taken this step, including Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Jersey. I also think Ms.. Jordan just raised that. It's something I've read about lately. There is really shameful treatment of women prisoners in terms of making menstrual products available to them. So when all of you in political and proud out there as an ally want to take on yet another issue, look into that one. Just my suggestion. But anyway, any comments and then a motion because we we are waiting for our next item to so comments. A vice mayor in Knoxville because you were the coauthor. So just quickly, I'm glad I didn't speak before the speakers because they couldn't have done a better job. So I just wanted to encourage our vote. One of the reasons I wanted to coauthor this is that allow me to just enacted its own five cent or a half cent sales tax. Yeah, locally. And we have no control over what is taxed within that. Only through a 31 can we change that. But I think that we actually are in a place to to show leadership on something that we've actually our community has already taken action. And I think it's important for us to show the way. So I think all of these fantastic people who have contributed to the resolution, that's before you written it and encouraged us to move it forward. Thank you. You know, just check in with the acting city attorney. You would agree, would you not, that this item has been sufficiently an agenda to consider approving a resolution of this work for AB 31 that we could take a vote tonight? Yes, I would agree. Yes. Okay. Um. Councilman Brody, think you had some quick comments. Thank you. For all of the speakers that came out. You know, Rosemary, you've been emailing me for a while on this, so I'm glad that, you know this bill, hopefully this is the year it gets across the finish line. But, you know, it's just a start. I mean, we do provide some of these products to low income students. But, you know, we need to provide these to all students. You know, we said apparently passed a resolution today, but yet we don't do anything in our restrooms in city hall, which I think is something we need to do. And, you know, you mentioned the impact on on low income families. And, you know, that's something that that that's the next step in this battle is to make sure that these products are provided to all low income families and people that do have, you know, federal aid are able to spend that money on these products. And, you know, I think it's also important that we, you know, consider the disparate impacts on our LGBT families, because if you have two women in a family, you know, you're both, you know, family members are paying. So I think this is a great step and I appreciate and applaud the activism of these young ladies. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember de so great. Well, I just want to be brief in saying, you know, tonight was a very exciting night in the sense that young adults from Alameda High School had pushed helped push the pool issue. And to see young adults coming from Encino High School I myself graduated from. It's in our class of 1984. Right. It's good to see that, you know, young adults from Imperial High School also pushing this very important issue. So I'm happy to support this. Thank you. Okay. Do we have a motion? So moved. Do we have a second? Second? All in favor. I ask the motion to endorse AB 31 passes unanimously, and you will see to it that that information makes its way to Sacramento. All right. Perfect. Thank you. All right. I'm just going to pass this along. We have some buttons about AB 31, if anybody would like to take one. They are more than welcome today. Thank you. Thank you very much. Nice work, ladies. Okay, we are moving on to six C. Thank you for your patience on this. And Chief Reggie Rodriguez, you're presenting. Yes. Okay. We're going to say similar. Oh, I was going to read it. But then I did a resolution amending Master P resolution 122191 to add new and revise existing for our department fees and a resolution approving a workforce change and a resolution amending the budget. Okay. Thank you, Mary. Members of the council and members of the public. Before we get started tonight, if I can draw your attention to our staff report, I do want to make one clarification for the notification of the Council on the Staff report. I'm looking at the top of page four. I don't know if you have a printed copy or an electronic copy, but if everyone's on page four at the very top, you'll see the top bullet points and then the sentence that begins with the current annual cost. Everyone there. Okay. So I know this has come up in a number of questions that I've received from the council, and I'll read it as follows. The current annual cost of adding a fire marshal at the division chief level is estimated at 300.