Diversity & Cultural Commission Special Meeting

While we do have a quorum, we are going to wait a couple more minutes for the chair, vice chair to arrive. So this meeting will start momentarily. Thank you. Recording in progress. All right. Cool. Let's begin with a call to order and Pledge of Allegiance. All rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. We'll move on to roll call now. Staff, please call roll. Chair Dr. Tracey Edwards Moore is absent. Vice Chair Gwyneth Gilkey. Present. Commission member Loraine Brittingham. Present. Commission member Luka Afonine. Present. Commission member Vana Tran. Present. Commission member Steve Boulingui. Present. I heard your present. I will work on our program sources to turn up your volume. If you could also turn up on your side, I would appreciate it. And we'll figure that out. And then commission member Marcos Barajas. Present. We have a quorum. Excellent. We have a civilian statement. As your Diversity and Cultural Commission, We will treat each other and the public with patience, civility, and courtesy as a model of the same behavior, we wish to reflect in Martinez for the conduct of all city business and community participation. This includes respect for everybody's First Amendment right to voice their opinion on matters within the city, subject matter jurisdiction, even if that opinion is different from our own. The decisions made today will be for the benefit of the Martinez community and not for personal gain. Typically, we would then move on to public comment. Though, today, public comment is for items on the agenda only. And we have only one item on the agenda, special meeting agenda item. So we're going to actually begin with that this evening. The item on the agenda is related to the sister city initiative for the 150-year anniversary of City of Martinez, and we are going to be receiving a report from staff regarding perspective sister city candidates. Thank you. Before I begin, I'm going to be standing over there away from the computer. So before I do that, Commissioner Boulingui, would you mind saying a couple words just so I can see if I got our sound fixed. Can you guys hear me well? Perfect. Thank you. OK. Good evening, commission. Thank you so much for agreeing to get together on a special meeting day. Really appreciate everyone taking the time, not only to be here, but to review the materials, so that way, we can move forward with this exciting initiative. So just as the background that you all already know, we are in our 150th year. And as part of the 150th celebration, the mayor would like us to have a new sister city that reflects Martinez as it is today, and as it is growing. At the last meeting, you all gave some great feedback about criteria that we were looking for and that you felt would be important in order to reflect Martinez today. And the overview and objective for tonight is to choose a candidate sister city that would honor the sesquicentennial year. So after some work, which I'll describe really briefly, we did pull together some candidates for you to review. And at the end of the meeting, my objective is to have a ranked list of these candidate cities, including, if some of them are excluded or not. But just so, that way we know where each city would be standing in terms of preference. As I mentioned before, there were four main candidates sister cities that were brought forward to you for review. There was actually a total of 22 cities that were taken into account throughout the research process. There were 15 cities in Mexico, two in Bolivia, four in Colombia, and one in South Korea. And these were all the cities that fit the region criteria that the commission asked for. Out of these 22 cities, six were on significant bodies of water, either coastal or on a river. Four of these were the right size by an order of magnitude. And I had to be very flexible when we were comparing sizes, because we're apparently a very unique size in terms of, at least, the sister cities or cities that are looking for Sister cities. What I decided to go with was cities that were, by an order of magnitude, almost our size. So just so you're aware that was a little bit of a tricky situation, and I did add one city that fell out of that criteria because it was so close to another city that was meeting criteria. Whenever I was researching one, the other one kept popping up. At the end, I had all the information. And other than size, it still seemed to be a good candidate possibility. So I did add it to the list. And then I took one off from the list through research because it had a lack of information. And even though it was on a body of water, it did not seem to have that as part of its identity. It seemed to be much more agriculture and forest-based. Whenever I was reading about it, those were the things that were being referenced, even though it was right next to a river. It was referencing the bridges, but not the river. It was very interesting. So I decided to simplify the list a little bit because we did say two to three candidates. So that's how we got to the four that we have today. And with that background, I know that you all have already read it. And I'm really just seeing if anyone had any first initial thoughts or opinions, either about the process or any follow-up questions before we started talking about each city. And while you're talking, I'm going to go grab my pen so I can take notes. It seems like we're pretty light on comments at the moment, just from my perspective. Looking through the cities that were selected, I thought they were all very well chosen. So I appreciate it. I think my input would be the existing sister cities that the city of Martinez does have does not include any in the country of Mexico, which this city might be named after, Mr. Ignacio Martinez. So I would like to insert my bias that we do not yet have a sister city with our founder's country. So that would be something to take into the consideration. OK. Noted. Also, I'll put plus one on each one of those ones. Let's see. I am bringing up on your screens the agenda. And I'm going to go into the attachment A review, just so that way, you can have all of these right in front of you, at the same time, or, at least, the summary. As you noticed, everything is an almost perfect fit. So we have, like I said, four great candidates. Does anyone else have any strong initial impressions other than focusing on sister city potential in Mexico? I do. Hi, it's Loraine. I just wanted to uplift La Macarena in Colombia. Yes, they are smaller, but one of the best ways to learn is to teach. And also, I think we could learn a lot from that city. I like that, it's a lot like it's closest in size to us, even though it is a lot smaller. The rest are so much bigger. Thank you. I would like to also mention La Macarena. I thought the fact that they have a strong ecotourism was an important aspect of it. I think the conservation is really important. And I think this can go a long way in the future as a sister city. That was my first impression. OK. Well, first, I wanted to thank staff for providing such thorough information about each of the cities. This comparison that's up on the screen, the map, and also the information that each city provided about themselves, about what they were seeking, was really helpful. I know in our last meeting, we talked about some shared characteristics and values, and I see that you have highlighted those. So that's especially helpful for us. So that includes the waterfront identity, the age, the size, environmental stewardship, and then working class or industrial roots. So I see that you have highlighted those in all of the cities. So thank you for that. One thing that, as I was reviewing the candidates, one characteristic that stood out that we did not necessarily highlight as a shared value is tourism. And one of the candidates has a very strong tourism background. And that is Solidaridad, Quintana. And so this is a very popular area for beach travel. Many Americans travel there. And so it is very extremely touristy. So that city, I think, sees a lot of resorts and people coming in to enjoy the snorkeling, the beach, and things like that. And so in that particular city, I did not feel that there was that strong of a connection, because that type of tourism is so strong in that city. And I don't see that for us. I mean, I know we're talking about rebuilding our waterfront area. And so we may see some tourism. So there's an opportunity there that we could learn. But I don't see it going to that level where we're going to have people coming from other countries, and it's not going to be resorts. So it's a different type of tourism. So that is the one city that stood out to me as maybe not the best match for us. Yeah. Going off of that, this location happens to be in close proximity to Cancun, which I would like to echo, Mexico is much more than its resorts. And I don't feel that it has strong cultural ties to our specific city of Martinez. I do understand that it's geographical place next to the coast. We're also pretty close to the Bay. But other than that, I do think that the similarities charities end there. So while I can vouch that any body of water has cultural significance to the people that live there, I don't think that this candidate in Mexico is one of the stronger ones. I've been hesitant between La Macarena and what's the, Gómez Palacio. La Macarena also being a pretty smallest one of them like our previous speaker said before. La Maracana is more like projecting in the future. There's potential there. And then it reminds me of our own situation. We're talking about developing our waterfront, making activities here. So we're on the same boat per se. And then Gómez Palacio, I like it because it's a pretty old city in terms of being a sanctuary, looking at industrial agriculture, which is a lot of similarities of what we have here. What we say is moderate, but I think there's a lot of potential there. I was really tempted at Solidaridad for being a coastal town. But yes, also the strong tourism there, this gives us some taste that it might be too little, too much. But yeah, I'm really between Gómez Palacio and La Macarena. OK. Thank you for that feedback. That's very helpful, everyone. Any more first initial impressions before I summarize that first round? Oh, yeah, we haven't even done the summarization of these candidates yet, have we? Oh, that's OK. If you've read it, we all know it. We don't have to be so formal as to go over each document. We're good. It sounds like most everybody has done their homework beforehand. I did just want to provide a slight foil to the conversation on Solidaridad. One of the things that stuck out to me in reading their profile was they were offering to be a teacher, a guide in terms of marine resource conservation. They have coral, they have beaches. And the thing that struck out to me, is it seemed like their profile was very geared towards, we value our resources. We try and preserve those in a way that we can then turn those around to the people in our communities. So that to me spoke very loudly. But I do hear people, a lot of tourism, and that's potentially a large negative. The thing that stood out to me about La Macarena, beyond its focus on nature and ecotourism, was very much the inverse of Solidaridad, where they were looking for guidance instead of offering guidance. And I have to question whether or not this is a situation where La Macarena and Martinez are both in a similar situation of we need guidance, and we might not be the best fits for each other from that perspective of yes, we both have a lot to offer, but we don't necessarily have the experience necessary to offer to the other participant in that equation. If I'm just being honest, Gómez Palacio and Torreón were my three and four. But it sounds like from everyone's argument, it's wide open race for any of these cities, really. OK. Yes. And it was an interesting option, especially when you are comparing La Macarena and Solidaridad. Since this is a sister city conversation, it feels like you have the opportunity to be the big sister or the little sister in this relationship, where you're either helping someone that seems like they are fairly new. They're still getting themselves together. They're smaller. And helping them be that first step out or where we have the opportunity to, in the next phase, really try to bring more in. So I did appreciate that you have multiple options about which way do you think would suit Martinez best at this next chapter or this stepping forth, where the commission thinks that we should be focusing. From my perspective, I see Martinez as more of the little sister in that equation. So I would be curious to hear how other people are thinking about that. I think my input would be, one of my commissioners just asked me what my preference might be on the remaining cities in Mexico. I'm actually not sure. But the thing that I think ostracizes them from the option in Colombia is these remaining candidates in Mexico are very much landlocked. So for myself, I can't imagine myself ever living in a place that is landlocked. And it is very different from our city of Martinez, where the water impacts us whether we like it or not, or even pay attention to it, whether we like it or not. However, I think while they may not be similarly obvious to our city here in California, I do feel that they I'll still have to familiarize myself with these two cities more so even after our meeting, even after a decision is made. However, I still do feel that they may be better than our Colombian option. I do understand that they are close to a river. They're actually pretty close to the coast too, and I am not discounting them simply because they may not have an obvious option of telling us, well, we don't really know how to aid you. And Martinez may have that obstacle as well. I think that's just fine, because two parties that are lost may very much find that their companionship could help each other. However, I think if we are to pay attention to the cultural aspect of this all, it's not only environmental, it's the people that inhabit the city that we are, in a way, representing. I think that to finally have a tie to where all of us come from, which is the country of Mexico, it may have more of an impact than some people may think it does. So as I'm saying that, I don't have an option between the two, but I may in about five minutes. And I would like to, note I am not an expert on any of these cities. I do, however, pay $3 a month to Wikipedia. So we can certainly pull up the website, if you have very specific questions that I'm not able to answer, as you're trying to start comparing different cities. We can look into that. And I don't see a reason why we can't make it more of a live discovery session as to help, if you guys are looking for more specific information, we can put that into it right now. One other point I would just call out for everyone is we do have agency in this process. We don't have to take everything they have to offer. If there are things that are beneficial to us that we want, we can ask for those things. And if things are not aligned with our priorities, we can say, no, thank you to those sorts of things. So we don't have to get into a situation where everything that's on the list is what we get, and everything that's not on the list is not what we get. And also, I do want to just make one more note on the process. It is after we do have a candidate or candidates that we prefer in an ordered list, we will go out and ask them if there's a mutual interest. So just to stop the matchmaking vibes, but just as a reminder that is part of the process. So we don't have to feel like we have to make the right decision as much as we have to figure out what we think would be preferred. I don't expect anyone could ever turn us down. How could they? Not in our 150th, for sure. Well, in that case, what I'm hearing is, there's some preference for cities in Mexico, but we are not sure if something with the strong tourism base, and in the Cancun region, would be a good fit in other ways. Is that a consensus? Or is that an opinion? Do we want to talk about Solidaridad a little bit more to see if there's any sustained interest? And let me go ahead and bring that one up onto the screen, just so you can see a little bit more. One thing I did, when I went through these profiles, I think I did look more like a recruiter. The more details I see, the more confident I feel because I feel like I have more information to see. That's one of the reasons why I was hesitant between La Macarena and Solidaridad. Solidaridad has a lot of details that give us an idea of who they are. There's a lot of detail. Thank you. If we're talking sustained interest, I have sustained interest in the city. I still think it is my primary choice, but I feel like I'm probably solo in that. It sounds like we have a fairly varied opinions. I wonder if there's any way we can possibly vote and do the democratic thing and put it into that. Yeah, I think between the choice of the four cities, this is probably the candidate that is most easily dismissed. I do understand that they are about basically conserving their coast and their eco life under the water. However, I believe even seeing the city of Martinez emblem, I understand that our identity is very closely tied to the Marina. I believe we are much, much more than that. So I think that this candidate would probably be my first choice of dismissing amongst the four choices that we do have. OK. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to start making a nice little graph on my piece of paper, and I'm going to put GP as one, LM, S, and T. And I'm going to put a tower for each person. I'm sorry. If you could see it, you would know what I'm talking about. And I'm going to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. OK. So Commissioner Barajas, do you have any other strong opinions about ranking at this point? So if that was your least favorite, but La Macarena is in Colombia, so would you say that's number three and then the other two are tied? Correct. OK. Thank you for reading me. Does anyone else have any opinions on their rankings at this point? It's a starting point. Can I speak? If we open it up to public comment, we could take in public comment at this point for three minutes, or we could extend it up to five. I'm going to ask [INAUDIBLE] since commissioner is not there. Alternate? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Yes, we can do that since she is not here. Let the record show that we have a commission alternate joining us tonight. I think you're going to have to pronounce your name for the record. [INAUDIBLE] So [INAUDIBLE] will be joining us at the dais. Thank you. I don't have a thing for you. Join me in the middle. And roll call will be adjusted for the change. Thank you. So for me, actually, I'm looking at the coastal. I think, for me, it's number one because we share that. We're actually looking for a lot of tourism here in Martinez. It's one of the big things that people come here is the Marina we have. And I think we can learn a lot from them. That's my point of view. I think that's a plus point to look at Solida-- I don't know how. Solidaridad. That would be my first option. And then the next one is going to be the La Macarena, for sure, as we are having the same interest. OK. Marina, it's a strong-- the coastal line is a very strong, I think, we need to think about. Maybe we can get good ideas how to improve our service here. Thank you. And then between Gómez Palacio and Torreón, do you have any preference or thoughts? I would go with Gómez, that's for sure. I feel it's more we have the daily logistic. They have manufacturing with this something maybe we can learn from. The way I look at it that we need to learn new ideas, bring more new ideas to our city. Something new. Thank you. I would like to share my thoughts on Gómez and Solidaridad. I think both of them are, in like the description, they both were seeking an active collaboration between the sister cities. I think that would make them one of my higher choices now, just thinking about everything we discussed. Although, Solidaridad has higher tourism. I think it goes beyond it as well. They have other avenues that they're willing to collaborate with educational ones, and I think this could be honestly a great opportunity for Martinez as an area for collaboration. So I would have Gómez, Solidaridad tied probably in first with La Macarena in second or third, I guess. OK. Thank you. I'm shifting my choices a little bit, going through a conversation. I think at this point, my first choice is Gómez Palacio. And then either tied or second, and then it's hard. Solidaridad still cause a little bit. And then La Macarena and Torreón is my last choice. Thank you. Can I pick on a commissioner? Because now, I'm just looking at my graph. Commissioner Tran, would you be willing to share any initial ranking? I don't have rankings, but I can tell you the points from each city that really stood out to me. And so it's hard for me to rank one over the other because there are different characteristics. But Gómez Palacio, they had a really strong industrial heritage, and then a working class identity, which we can totally identify with. La Macarena, they have a small town governance scale, which was I felt like that's very similar to what we have here in Martinez. I already spoke about my initial thoughts on Solidaridad. And for Torreón, Coahuila, they have a river-based identity, which is what we have, which and it's not coastal. We are not coastal ourselves. We are river-based, though, we are pretty near to a coast. And they're only 17 years younger than Martinez, and they have a strong industrial economy and heritage. So those are the things that stood out. It's really hard for me to rank them outside of just that very little information. In fact, I took some notes about, if we were going to not make a decision tonight and had more time to do a little bit more research, I'd be interested in learning about their local political climate, whether or not they're queer friendly and some other details about them other than the characteristics that we outlined in our last meeting that you've highlighted here. OK. Thank you for the feedback. I have dots on each one of them. For me, I'm going to do my ranking also. So I'll say for number one, I will choose Gómez Palacio, Durango. For number two, La Macarena, Colombia, for number three, Torreón, Coahuila. And then for number four, Solidaridad. OK. Thank you. Can I ask a clarifying question? We are making a suggestion, correct, and then it is up to city council to make the final decision? You are going to make a recommendation of a preference, and then staff will take this preference and reach out to the city and see if there's a mutual interest. If there is a mutual interest, then it will be presented as the preferred candidate as a sister city. If say, the first city did not see a mutual interest, I would ask the second city, which is why I was asking for a ranked list. And if the second city had a mutual interest, then we would take that forward to the city council for the recommendation. And if the second city, there was no mutual interest, then we would-- and so on and so forth. And that's why I was also asking to see if there was any strong feelings of exclusion on the list, because if we only had two sister cities that you felt were a potential match, I didn't want to make it seem like, well, you're going to have to have the third one. We can also exclude ones from my reaching out list. So it does sound then that there is some action that comes out of whatever our decision is tonight. It's not so much of-- there is going to be-- This is the recommendation that you'll be making. OK. Wheels will turn. I know I missed the last two meetings. I've been outside the country, but can we have more time to look into it? One of the things that we were aiming for, and that there's a strong preference to do from the city council, is to be able to, at least, make a recommendation or announce great progress towards during the April 1 meeting, because it is our sesquicentennial anniversary, and we are doing a lot of-- the entire meeting is going to be based around sesquicentennial events and initiatives. It's a right timing perspective for us to be able to move that forward. We that there's still after steps that will come, because even if we have their ratification, then after we ratify, we have to take it back to the other sister city. There's still paperwork to be done. But it would be a great opportunity to be able, on our anniversary, to announce a new sister city. Let's see. And also, excuse me, I'm going to ask if everyone could just make sure that your mics are on. I don't think we need to do the off, on, off, on things. I mean, you can. This is my because since I'm not sitting over there, I can't do as much. So just checking to make sure everyone's mic is on when they speak. Thank you. So I have most rankings. I don't have one person's rankings, or, at least, I didn't write them down at the time. And I apologize for that. Yes. So my number one is Solidaridad for the reasons of coastal base. They're a willing collaborator and a strong conservationist. La Macarena was my number two, just from the ecotourism, rural, small scale perspective. Though, listening to the argument today, I think I would probably change my number two to be Gómez Palacio, La Macarena in third, and then Torreón in fourth, just because I don't know as much about it as the other ones. OK. Thank you. So I would like to announce the great news that we have consistently probably eliminated one city from contention, which is Torreón. So I'm very sorry to Torreón. They're a wonderful city. But they are ranking consistently as maybe not the best fit. So I would like to propose that we put that as our last option for now. Does this sound acceptable and we can focus on the other three candidates? Sounds good to me. Thank you. OK. Motion to remove Torreón. Second that. OK. I'm not going to ask for an actual vote at this point, but thank you. I did not hear anyone saying no. I got a second. We're good. Now, actually, when I'm looking at it, it is pretty much-- let me see. I'm going to do quick math. Apparently, I can't do quick math when people are looking at me. So right now, we are actually showing Gómez Palacio as being a high choice, followed by Solidaridad, and then La Macarena. So that's currently after your initial impressions where we would informally rank them. So I'm going to go ahead and put that out there for you guys to react to. Does anyone have any further thoughts about Gómez Palacio as the number one leader right now? I agree with that. However, I would like to put the real-world problem that you don't have to leave the country to find out about that is associated with focusing solely on tourism, which is gentrification. So I would like that to be something that everyone takes into account. While it is very helpful for any city, you may find that you're leaving some of your population completely in the dark because of it. So I do agree that Gómez Palacio is number one, and I think I would probably think that my ranking is identical to my Commissioner Loraine, where I would say La Macarena should be second. OK. Thank you. Does anyone else have any thoughts about Gómez Palacio being the current frontrunner? Any concerns at this point? Nothing disqualifying. I think the commission has spoken. So we have our ranking. One thing, now that I have an idea of where you guys are, and that's great. I'm not trying to change your mind. Now, this is the point where I go, I don't know everything about these cities. And one thing I wanted to check is because I couldn't find too much information on the Nazas River, and I wanted to just double check to make sure that a couple details on it, just because we are focusing on a river identity. And both of these did come up. So I thought, it comes up enough when they were talking about themselves and their industry, that it felt like it was a strong choice. But let me just go like this, and let me bring up the map. Oh, that's not a very good map, is it? So let's go out to here. Let's see if I can bring this up. Or maybe I went to Antarctica. Baby steps. Maybe this isn't going to work. Well, that's unfortunate. Do I have to go slower, do you think? We believe in the process. One second. Apparently, I can't do it. I apologize. So that's not going to work. I guess we'll go back to this map just to bring it up. So you can see that the river actually went through, or it breaks up Gómez Palacio and Torreón So it is on a river. And that's why it was there. As you were looking over the documents, and as you were comparing cities, were there other pieces of information that you were wondering or hoping to know before you made a decision? I don't know that it would necessarily affect my decision too much of the council's decision, but I would similarly be curious, similarly to Commissioner Tran, how their local government functions, what sort of programs do they have for their community. Are they an inclusive community? Do they have similar values to us? I would be curious to find that out. Any other curiosities? I do have a curiosity. Is this regarding still Gómez Palacio? Is that what we're talking about? I was reading about, is it the Nazas River, N-A-- I would like to know more information about that, because I know it's a very long river. I think, the research said like 350 miles long. But there's a lot of dams that are there. I'm just curious how much of their lifestyle revolves around the river since, as my fellow commissioner also mentioned that is an important part. Not the only part, but an important part of our city. I remember reading, there's what, three dams in Durango along this river. So AI gives us a great overview, but I'm finding that it sometimes is a little inaccurate. So I'm going to Wiki, if you don't mind. I'm not going to talk so you can read for a moment. Is any of this helpful yet? Let me know if you guys want me to scroll down. You can scroll down just a little bit. Maybe I go like this. Yeah. Economy. That's a good word. I don't know if there might be more relevant information, if you keep scrolling. Yeah, not that much more. There you go. I'll take off the further reading. So it does seem like it is a long river that goes through Gómez Palacio, and it doesn't seem like it ends there, which is a good thing. That was my main concern, actually, when I was thinking about my internal map, I couldn't remember if I saw it-- keep going or not, but it does seem like it does. That was my main concern. Not that my opinion matters as much, but that was my burning question to answer for you guys. So now, we know. I think we run into a similar issue here in the Bay area as to where does the Bay actually end? Why does Vacaville think that they're part of the Bay Area? It just depends on where the body of water ends. Even having had a childhood home here just down the block, I've always had to convince people, yes, I can see the Bay from my house. It's not a river. So with that in mind, and also seeing familiar names, such as Francisco and Rodeo, which happened to be not that far from Martinez, to me, this feels very familiar, which if what this city is touting itself as why is it a good sister city candidate as wanting to exchange not only economic ideas, but cultural ideas. I mean, it does make me safe to say that I picked a pretty first choice for a sister city. And thank you for bringing that up. I am pulling up the sister city profile for Gómez Palacio, just for you to review. See if you guys have any further questions that we may be able to answer or any thoughts that you have as we're narrowing down onto this choice. And I've been looking also in parallel at the website for the government of Mexico. And it does show a lot of good stuff on a lot of good data on Gómez Palacio. For example, the sentiment of public security with women, who are 45% of women feel really safe in that city. So it's about pretty much half and half with men, which is, for example, we could think trust on authorities is pretty high. They have a lot of good stuff showing up. Thank you. That's great of you to-- Go back to Mexico. So I'm just reading a little bit about Gómez history, and it looks like it's very rich in the history. And it says politically, it functions as a major municipality in Durango, often influenced by state level politics and service agent industrial hub with sectors like steel, textile, and food production. So it looks like it's very strong city. As far as you were asking about the politics, it looks like they have a strong leader for that. Strong workers identity. Yeah. But it says political focus in the region often centered on supporting its diverse industrial base, including cotton, wine, and metal work. So it looks like it does offer a lot. Yeah. I feel like we're up here trying to dig into their past and find skeletons, and that doesn't necessarily seem fair to Gómez Palacio. We've taken a vote, and it seems like everyone's pretty satisfied with the conclusion of Gómez Palacio. OK. I think we have a direction to move forward with. OK. So that is wonderful. I'm going to put Gómez Palacio on the top of my list as the number one preferred candidate. Now, so that's settled. Thank you very much for the direction. Looking at the two remaining candidates that have not been put anywhere on my list to go forward with after this meeting, there's a very small difference between the ranking of Solidaridad and La Macarena. Currently, La Macarena is number three. But from your initial impressions, it's very close. So I just want to see if we want to keep it this way, or if anyone wants to-- if you want to revisit it or if you're comfortable putting Solidaridad at number two and then La Macarena at number three. I am comfortable with that, just speaking from hearing in the group it sounded like Solidaridad ended up as number one on multiple people's rankings, even if it didn't ultimately end up being the direction we chose to go in. So in that sense, it should probably be number two. OK. That would put La Macarena at number three. So that is the direction that staff was looking for. Thank you very much. You do not need to vote. This is direction. Yay. Thank you. Yay. I want to go and travel to these places. The one follow-up question because I will be going out and contacting through the Sister Cities International. These couple of cities in order to see if there's mutual interest in how it would go moving forward. I will let you know if there's any drastic changes. However, potentially, we would be bringing this forth on April 1 to the city council for their consideration. So I just want to make you all aware. I also want to make you aware that you are invited to that city council meeting. And you're also invited for other reasons, not just because of this item, but also because you're our commissioners and because you are Martinez residents. Thanks. Yes, please. Star this as a thing. Is there anyone who-- no, never mind. I forgot what I was going to ask. We're good. Does anyone have any comments before I close this item? I think we're good to close this item and move to public comment then. If anyone in the virtual audience would like to make a public comment, please use the Raise Hand feature now. And I show no hands. We have some staff updates. I don't see Lauren here. Should we skip that? I have no updates other than please come to the April 1 meeting. It will be at 7:00 PM. There will be a 6:00 PM celebration beforehand. And then also, we do have the remaining meeting dates for the year on the agenda. So please mark those dates on your calendar. Thank you. And before we adjourn, are there any closing comments from any of the commissioners? Actually, I just want to mention one thing. I don't know if I should mention it after. I was supposed to send it earlier. I didn't have time. So Martinez Muslim Community Center here in Martinez, we are making our first-- I don't know if you know that we are in Ramadan right now, which is our holy month. And so we are planning for our first annual dinner this Saturday. And we're going to have the Mayor Zorn, and her VP coming for that dinner. And I would like to invite all the commissioners to come over too. I can share the invitation with you guys. Or I don't know if you want to put it on the screen. If you send it to Eve, she can communicate it out to all of us just to avoid any Brown Act issues. OK. Yeah. Sorry. Just decided last minute. And I'm running like crazy between everything. So it's going to be this Saturday at 6 o'clock at the Martinez adult school. Cool. OK. Thank you. And I will send you the reservation, too, for that. So I know how much food to do, but I would love to have you guys over. It's going to be a good chance to meet the Muslim community in there. We are brand new there, and we're trying to encourage people to come out and be part of Martinez, too. All right. Yeah. Similar vein, have an event announcement, I'd like to make. On March 22, myself and the member of the City Parks Commission, along with Mayor Zorn, are going to be hosting a second annual city of Martinez Plant Swap at John Muir Elementary. That will be on Sunday, March 22 at 2:00 PM. Similarly, I will forward the flyer to Eve and we can disseminate that to the council to avoid any Brown Act stuff, but we would love to have you guys show up for some plants. We're going to have lots of tomatoes, lots of veg, lots of-- What time is it? 2:00 PM. Down the block. Any other comments? Shout out to the Martinez Unified School Districts. Yay. All right. If there are no further comments, we will adjourn the meeting. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Recording stopped.