City Council Regular Session

[SIDE CONVERSATION] Recording in progress. [SIDE CONVERSATION] Good evening. If everyone could please take your seats. Good evening, and welcome to the regular session of the Martinez City Council. I'm officially calling this meeting to order. It is Wednesday, June 3, and it is 7:10 PM. Thank you for your patience. We got a little bit of a late start. Please rise and join me 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. And this isn't on the agenda. But Greg, thank you for joining us for the Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Greg Young is remote this evening. All right, city clerk, please call the roll. Mayor Brianne Zorn. Present. Vice Mayor Molly. Present. Council Member Jay Howard. Present. Council Member Greg Young. Present. Council Member Debbie McKillop. Present. Thank you. All present. Great. Excellent. All right. Thank you all for joining this evening. We have a handful of presentations and proclamations this evening. So if I can have my council join me down below, and we will go through the proclamations. OK. Hi. Thanks for joining, everyone. All right. I have the opposite problem. I don't have reading glasses. All right. So we will just pass it down, and everyone can participate in reading this evening. OK. LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Month, June 2026. Whereas the City of Martinez has a diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender questioning, intersex, asexual, two-spirit community and is committed to supporting visibility, dignity, and equity for all adults and youths in the community. And-- Whereas communities across the United States recognize and celebrate June as LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Month to provide support and advocacy and affirm the right for all to live authentically, safely, and free from discrimination. And-- Whereas while various advancements have made for equitable treatment of LGBTQIA2S+ persons throughout the nation, there continues to be opposition, making it important for cities like Martinez to stand up and show support for our residents who are affected. And-- Whereas in honor and recognition of June as Pride Month, the city has raised the rainbow flag, a symbol of LGBTQIA2S+ movement that signifies inclusion at Ignacio Plaza for the last five years, and will hold the Martinez Pride Event in September. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the city council of the City of Martinez hereby declares the month of June as LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Month in the City of Martinez, and further recognizes Pride Month by flying the progress pride flag at City Hall as a symbol of inclusion, and invites everyone to reflect on the ways we can all live and work together with a commitment to mutual respect and understanding. Do you want the witness? That's it. All right. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. All right. We're presenting this to the Martinez Pride Team, who's planning the Pride Event in September. And this, and be at the center of the photo, and we'll take a group photo. [APPLAUSE] There you go. [SIDE CONVERSATION] 1, 2. 1, 2, 3. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Which one do we have? This is Juneteenth. OK. All right. Our next proclamation is for Juneteenth. If we can have the Black Student Union join us up here. [APPLAUSE] Same thing. Pass it around. We'll start where you are, if you will. May I read one of the whereases? Oh, yes. Say yes. Of course. Do you want to kick it off? Yeah. I can do the first, whereas. Let me know when you're ready. We are ready. OK. Thank you all. Whereas on June 19, 1865, more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, word finally reached Galveston, Texas, that slaves were free and-- Whereas on June 18, 2021, President Joe Biden proclaimed Juneteenth as the 12th federal holiday to be observed on June 19. And the City of Martinez, likewise, officially observes this holiday in recognition of its historic and cultural importance. And-- Whereas Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating freedom from slavery in the United States, celebrating with traditions handed down through many generations, including family gatherings, picnics, music, stories told by elders and local historians, speeches, and recognition of prominent individuals who have made significant achievements and contributions to the community. And-- Whereas it is time. It is a time for reflection and rejoicing, a time for assessment, self-improvement, and for planning for the future, and a time to recognize the resilience shown by generations of Black Americans in the pursuit of justice, and equality and-- Whereas residents are encouraged to join together in celebration of freedom, family, and community by embodying a spirit of peace, respect, and brotherly love to honor and salute our city's rich cultural legacy and diversity, and to reaffirm our continuous call to action to advance equality and justice for all. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the city council hereby declares the week of June 19, 2026, as Juneteenth week in the City of Martinez, and urges all residents to commit to rededicate ourselves to the ongoing work of guaranteeing liberty and equal rights to all Americans. [APPLAUSE] You all are going to speak? Yeah. OK. All come this way-- Hi. My name is Camille [INAUDIBLE]. I'm a senior at Alhambra High School, and I'm the Treasurer of the Black Student Union. When we first started BSU, our meetings consisted of coming together at lunch and having discussions about any topic that came to mind. Eventually, we were able to organize potlucks and watch movies. And we also got to partner with SLARM-- Student Lead Anti-Racism Movement Club at certain events and encourage upcoming students to join BSU. During our junior year, we were able to inform the school about Black History Month by adding information into weekly announcements about historical Black leaders and inventors for the month of February. We also tried to find events for Black students in the area, such as Black men and white coats, which our BSU president was able to attend. It was a full day experience where Black students who wanted to pursue the medical field had opportunities to hear current Black doctors speak about their experiences and give advice. At the event, there are also breakout groups for students and activities like CPR training to get more hands-on experience and personal insight into medicine. I'm Ra-Jae Tisdale. I'm a student at Alhambra High School, as well as the girl standing next to me. We're excited to take on BSU as juniors. It's definitely a big responsibility, but it's also a great opportunity. We want to help make BSU a welcoming and positive space for everyone, and we're looking forward to continuing where our senior started while adding our own ideas and leadership. I'm Amira Miller. And as well as Ra-Jae Tisdale, I will also be taking over BSU as a junior. I'd like to also thank the board for this proclamation and for recognizing our BSU. As we look ahead, I'm excited to see how the club continues to grow and make a positive impact on our school community. We have learned a lot from our current leaders, and I hope to carry those lessons forward while helping create new opportunities for students to connect, learn, and support one another. Thank you again for this honor, and for supporting student voices, and organizations like BSU. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you very-- [APPLAUSE] [SIDE CONVERSATION] 1, 2, 3. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you to the members of our Diverse and Cultural Commission for helping us read those proclamations tonight. All right. Next up is Jeff Manley. I see it a lot. I know. All right. Jeff Manley, Park, Recreation, Marina, and Arts Commissioner, 2020 to 2026. Whereas Jeff Manley has been a resident of Martinez since 2017, where he has actively served his community, and whereas Jeff was appointed as a regular Park, Recreation, Marina, and Arts Commissioner, PRMAC, in July 2020, and whereas Jeff was elected chair of the PRMAC in December 2025. And whereas during his six-year tenure on the PRMAC, Manley has played a pivotal role in assisting the city to reach notable accomplishments, such as providing recommendations to improve annual processes, including is-- this going out. OK. Including the park fee study and annual parks and recreation report, assisting with playground replacement projects, offering guidance and direction during the 2020 to 2022 pandemic transition expertise and recommendations for open space development [AUDIO OUT] And whereas the Martinez community has greatly benefited from maintenance service and the city of Martinez will be forever grateful. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the city council of the city of Martinez does hereby recognize appreciation and gratitude for Jeff Manley's service at the Park, Recreation, Marina, and Arts Commission and his commitment to serve the Martinez community. Thank you, Jeff. [APPLAUSE] Thank you very much. Yeah. I just want to say real quick, yeah. I've been on this commission or was on the commission for about six years, and I hit it on the commission at just such a pivotal time in 2020. That little pandemic happened. And I just have to say, we worked with some of the most creative staff and people during that time. We had to really change how we did things in park and recreation, and it's just great to see how staff have come up from that and just such talented people I've seen at that time. So appreciate everybody's help and also to my family for supporting me, being on the commission. So thank you, everybody. Do you want to tell him what your new job is? All eight. That's why you're leaving, and I think it's important that you're still doing the work. Yeah. OK. I won't give out my number. Yeah. So part of the reason I had to actually leave my position as commissioner is with East Bay Regional Park District, I'm a park unit manager. and I shifted a role, where I oversee Martinez shoreline as well. And it was a conflict of interest, but it's also a silver lining because yeah. I'm sure we will cross paths, yeah, no matter what. So I'm really grateful to be a part of this community and just can't wait to see what happens with the master plan and many other projects we have on our list. So thank you everybody. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Thank you so much. [APPLAUSE] We can take a photo. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2. 1, 2, 3. Sounds good to see you. [APPLAUSE] All right. Last up, Charles Martin. Come on up. Yay. [APPLAUSE] That's you. Got to come up. Come on, boss. Do you want to? I know you're not shy. [APPLAUSE] [INAUDIBLE] [APPLAUSE] Testing. We'll try. We can't-- Thank you. Higher. [SIDE CONVERSATION] Is that what was happening? Oh, my goodness. OK. Oh, I'd love to. He said, make sure to hold it higher because I was intercepting. Higher. Oh. Yeah. I think don't touch the bottom. Don't touch the bottom. OK. Here we go. Charles Martin. Veterans commissioner from 1999 to 2026. Wow. Whereas Charles Martin has been a resident of Martinez since 1964, where he has actively served his community, and whereas Charles Martin was appointed as a regular veterans commissioner in April of 1999, and whereas during his 27-year tenure on the Veterans Commission, Martin has played a pivotal role in assisting the city to reach notable accomplishments, such as coordinating the Sea Cadets, Boy Scouts, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Martinez Police Department, Martinez City Council, Martinez Public Works Department, Martinez Community Choir, the Martinez Community and Recreation Services, veterans Commission to assist in observing Memorial Day and Veterans Day in Martinez. And whereas the Martinez community has greatly benefited from Martin's service, and the city of Martinez will forever, forever be grateful. Whereas now, therefore, be it resolved that the city council of the City of Martinez does hereby recognize and express appreciation and gratitude for Charles Martin's service on the Veterans Commission and his commitment to serve the Martinez community. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Yes. This is for you. Well, it takes great people to do great things. Not that I'm great, but I had a great team. And that is that yes. So that's all I can say. Is the man read it, everyone joined the team, everyone did a terrific job. So it was good. That's why it was successful. Because it was successful people. And that's what the country needs. Is successful people to make it great. And they've made Martinez great. So we need more great people. So let's make the United States great with great people. [APPLAUSE] Thank you so much. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] [INAUDIBLE] Yeah. 1, 2, 3. Thank you. Great job. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. All right. [SIDE CONVERSATION] Thanks, everyone, for joining. And I feel like we missed in the proclamation. Our Juneteenth will be celebrated on June 28, so the last Sunday in June. So I hope you can join us down at the waterfront for that celebration. All right. Moving on to public comment. As a reminder to everyone, public comment is a time to speak on items that are not on the agenda. Everyone has three minutes to speak. I will start with those that provided a speaker cards to start, and then I will open it up to whomever else is left in the chamber, and then we'll go to the virtual audience. So as of right now, it looks like I just have the one speaker card for public comment. And that's the kite man Tony Jetland. Ta-da. Come on up. We're strangers bearing gifts. Thank you. Where do I start? I've been worried about this. This is all positive. I got asked by the city with Eve to do the 4th of July, put some kites up. Yay. And then to come back in the end of August to do a bigger kite display. I can't thank Martinez enough for what it's done for me over the last 27 years. August is a big month for me. August 1, I started my contractor's business. The City of Martinez has always supported my business for 25 years. I've been flying these silly kites down at the Marina for 26 years, and they've supported me with that. I've flown the kites literally all over the world; China, Dubai. Pick a country, and I've been there. I'm not known as Tony. I'm known as KMoM , the Kite Man of Martinez. And I'm proud to say that. Like I said, this has been my home. When I do events locally, I'll be talking to Eve about this, they give away kites to kids. Come out and get a free kite and fly. Because August is so important to me, I took it a step ahead. [APPLAUSE] Kite Man of Martinez loves Martinez. I've got 500 of these in my living room to give away. Eve's going to come up with a design for the city, so I just wanted to get this one going. Plus large display kite, I have a 9-square meter lift kite with LEDs for the event. So I just wanted to say thank you to Martinez. Thanks, Tony. [APPLAUSE] And that's how they come. Lines, tails, everything. That's awesome. Thank you. The kids are going to love it. If I could ask a favor-- Sure. --please sign. I'm going to hang this in my kite studio at home. Oh, yeah. Wow. Please, for me. Yeah. Hand it over to us, and we'll have it to you by the end of the night. And if you've already left, we'll bring it to you. We know how to find you. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] Thank you. Thank you, Tony. All right. Is there anyone else? Yeah. Please come up. I have to say, this is one of the most energetic council meetings I've been to. Congratulations to the city and all the proclamation winners for that. My name is Emily Barnett. I'm the Communications and Government Relations Manager for the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District. Most folks know us as Central San. Mayor and council members, I am here to personally invite you and the residents of Martinez to Central San's 80th anniversary celebration. Central San is your friendly neighborhood sewer agency proudly serving this community. There's going to be fun here, I assure you. We are hosting a once a decade sewer party, where we pull out all the stops. And this is our time to say thank you to our customers for entrusting us to safely collect and treat their wastewater, and protecting public health and the environment. On Saturday, June 13, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, Central San will host the 80th anniversary event. It will be multi-generational, family-friendly, educational, and very, very fun. We'll have educational displays, treatment plant tours, big trucks, free food, and poop emoji ice cream, a 1 ton toilet that the council could actually get inside and take a photo-- it will be our photo booth, toilet racing. I'm being very truthful here. And this is all free to the community. So for more information, I know we've got a lot of folks in the room, Our website is centralsan, S-A-N.org. You can find out all the information there. And I just want to say a big thank you. The City of Martinez has been a wonderful partner to Central San. So I hope the city council will consider attending, but certainly the residents of Martinez. Thank you. Can you say the date and time one more time? Absolutely. So it is June 13, which is a Saturday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and it will be in Martinez at our treatment plant headquarters. We have shuttle parking off site, and we bring you right to our door step. It's wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you. The address for the parking? Yes, I can. But it's actually easier. We have two parking spaces. So it's the County Assessor's Building, which is also shared, as I'm understanding, by another-- yes, would you like to-- It's the Sheriff's Crime Lab, not the Assessor's Building. We've had this-- I'm sorry. I misspoke. It's the Sheriff's Crime Lab. And then there's a few folks that work for the Assessor's there. That's about right. And then it's the County Public Works on Glacier as well. So Arnold and Glacier, the two locations. But those addresses are on our website. Again, centralsan.org. And then the shuttle drops right to our treatment plan. We expect well over 1,000 people to attend, so it's going to be lots of fun. Thank you. Any other public comment in the room this evening? All right. Seeing none. Anyone else in the virtual audience like to provide public comment tonight? Please use the Raise Hand feature. I show no hands. All right. Let's move on to the consent calendar. We have items 6-- Mayor, we have a presentation, the I-680 presentation. Oh. I'm so sorry. Oh, my gosh, I totally skipped it, I apologize. OK. Thanks. Wonderful. I'm so sorry that I skipped you. Please come up. Good evening, Mayor Zorn. Council member. Thank you for having us here tonight to present on planned ramp metering on I-680. My name is Stephanie Hugh, Director of Projects at Contra Costa Transportation Authority or CCTA. With me, this Caltrans staff, Chris Tsang, as well as Scott Patera, who will be speaking on ramp metering later-- ramp metering expert that will present on the technology that we're trying to deploy later. So this is an item that's related to consent item number 14 as an MOU for ramp metering. We're doing something different on ramp metering implementation on 680. The other corridors that have implemented ramp metering in Contra Costa didn't include maybe quite a robust stakeholder collaboration, and this is one that we are doing differently with a very collaborative approach, including working with the local jurisdictions, technical staff in preparing this memorandum of understanding, or MOU, to memorialize common understanding about ramp metering operations, expectations, governance, roles and responsibilities, and such. So this is actually an 18 months of preparation and collaboration. So we're happy to be here to present and get your approval and signing this MOU. So the problem we're trying to solve on 680 is that there's heavy congestion. This is an article from an April article in the SF Chronicle. And 680 is listed as one of the heaviest bottleneck or congestion in the Bay Area. So why ramp metering? It helps to regulate traffic flow entering the freeway. It smooths out the traffic conditions or flows as it optimizes the capacity of the main line. It also discourages those who want to use the off ramp to bypass traffic and get back on the freeway on ramp. It reduces crashes in the weaving area, thereby improving safety. Also it provides reliable and efficient travel on the freeway so that it prevents those who want to exit the freeway to cut through the city streets. And also it is consistent with the state's approach in not building more freeway and using ramp metering to help reduce congestion. So the history about ramp bearing for 680 is Caltrans had already programmed some state dollars to implement ramp metering in the both direction of 680 in Contra Costa. At the same time, CCTA has been implementing a program called Innovate 680, which you may have heard of. We had come to present on Share Mobility Hub once. So the Adaptive Ramp Metering or Coordinated Adaptive Ramp Metering is part of the Innovative 680 program. We partner with Caltrans to basically develop a segment of northbound 680 from Acosta to Burnett to implement a new technology called Coordinated Adaptive Ramp Metering, or CARM, and the gentleman behind me will provide more background on each of these technology in a second. But the collaboration and partnership between Caltrans and CCTA have been very effective, and for us to find common scope in order to share costs and scope in delivery for a more efficient packages of work. And also at the end, there will be performance measure or performance evaluation to see how effective the ramp metering are for both system. And just a note on Innovate 680, is it is a suite of projects, a program with many projects to address congestion on 680 without really widening or increasing capacity. The Coordinated Adaptive Ramp metering, or CARM, is under the advanced technologies project bucket. And under CARM or advanced technology, it hits on three strategies for innovate 680, basically, cooling the hot spots or very congested areas of the corridor, using operational strategies to improve the capacity and congestion, and then also preparing the corridor for the future with latest technology that we're deploying. All of this avoids really costly expansion or widening that we no longer can do anyway with the state's new policy, and also yielding maximum benefits with lower cost with deploying technology to solve our congestion problems. So in a moment, I'm going to hand this off to our Caltrans staff to explain their project or ARM. And then Scott will come up to talk about CARM. Hi. Thank you, mayor and city council member. My name is Kristen. I'm the Branch Chief for the Remington Operations. On behalf of my deputy director of traffic operations, I'm here to provide the information about the future Adaptive Ramp Metering projects on 680 corridor and the performance of the two previously implemented ARM projects in Bay Area. So Caltrans and MTC, we have implemented the ARM project around 300 freeway on ramps, including I-80, I-880, and San Mateo, Santa Clara 101, and also the Bay Bridge. And we are expanding the adaptive metering operations coverage for the major corridors, including the 680, 237, highway 4, 85, and Marine 101, and Solano 80. Note that this new adaptive system does not activate based on the time of day table. It's the typical peak hour peak period metering. We don't do that. It turns on and off based on the traffic conditions. That's why it's adaptive. It proactively changes the ramp metering rates based on the traffic bottleneck forming, and turns on and off for handling the crashes, incidents, and accidents. And it also optimizes the ramp metering rates based on the mainline traffic conditions. So we have already implemented this adaptive ramp metering system on I-880 from San Jose all the way to Oakland, as well as San Mateo, Santa Clara 101 from Gilroy to Brisbane. Including I-880, it would total of about 300 ramp meters. And this is the performance for the 101 corridor. As you can see that in October 2023, the dotted line was the original traffic. It is just during the pandemic. And then the orange line is the performance before we implemented adaptive metering system, and the blue line is the one that after. As you can see, we save the travel time especially during the AM and PM peak hours. So similarly, for the I-80, the dotted line is-- when it's turned on, it is when arm is off. And then the other two lines are the travel time when the meter is turning on. So as you can see, there's a travel time savings from our studies. OK. Scott. All right. Good evening. I'm Scott Patera with GHD. So the Innovate 680 CARM project, so Coordinated Adaptive Ramp Metering, will operate as a three-year demonstration, as a proof of concept for a new ramp metering strategy to the Bay Area. As Stephanie mentioned, the CARM project will operate only in the northbound direction of I-680 between El Costa Boulevard and Willow Pass. So CARM adds capabilities to the Caltrans Arm System. It involves additional vehicle detection and provide real time data and additional capabilities through ramp metering to cooperatively control the flow of vehicles on the main line, while managing the ramp queues at ramp meters and preventing impacts to adjacent arterioles. The key difference between CARM and other systems is the fact that it's coordinated. So all the ramp meters in the corridor can all talk to each other. They could all work cooperatively, working together to prevent the onset of congestion on the main line, while managing ramp queues and preventing backups onto adjacent arterioles. So this will be the first project of its kind in the Bay Area. There was actually a very similar project that just went live last week in Temecula, California, the I-15 CARM project. So there's a link there on the slide in your meeting packets, and you can look there for additional information. So there are a number of different components that enable CARM operations. There's additional vehicle detection, advanced sensors that are strategically placed along the freeway mainline, and also additional detection on the ramps. So those two things working together provide real time data in order for the system to adjust metering rates and real time to manage congestion on the freeway and manage the queue of vehicles on the ramps. The project also includes a small number of ramp modifications in select locations to add additional space at ramp meters to provide more operational flexibility, and additional CCTV cameras to allow operators to see what's going on and to make operational changes if any issues arise. So the CARM system is powered by an advanced freeway management platform called STREAMS. The software has advanced algorithms that take the real time data from all those new detectors installed on the freeway mainline and on ramps and cooperatively use all the ramp meters along the corridor to manage the flow of vehicles on the main line, while again preventing backups onto adjacent arterioles. The system, through coordination, is able to manage the ramp wait time at every ramp. The queue of vehicles, the number of vehicles waiting at every ramp and to keep ramp wait times and travel times under control. The system will also provide a platform for performance monitoring and data sharing. So the image you're looking at on the screen right here is the dashboard from the I-15 CARM project in Temecula that I mentioned. So stakeholders are able to log into this and see real-time operations and also historical data. So CCTA plans to provide something similar to stakeholders along I-680, including the City of Martinez. So CCTA and Caltrans have been following a collaborative approach for ramp metering implementation along I-680. Memorandum of understanding has been developed, which serves as a foundational document and describes the roles and responsibilities and basic assumptions for how the ramp metering systems along I-680 will be operated, maintained, and evaluated. It provides a foundation for how the projects will be evaluated, including key performance indicators, communication protocols to answer operational questions and address any concerns. And it establishes a stakeholder coordination and governance structure that will oversee operations for both projects along I-680, and provide a forum for any technical questions, operational comments or concerns to be addressed. So this MOU document has been in development for some time. It's been through multiple rounds of reviews with local agency staff, including the City of Martinez. So the ramp metering operations and maintenance procedures document, the OMP, provides a lot more detail on ramp metering, operations, maintenance, and evaluation for both projects. It will serve as a user's manual for how the systems will operate. This document is currently under development. We anticipate a few different rounds of review with city staff before it's finalized. And in terms of implementation schedule, so the Caltrans Arm Project is under construction currently. The Innovate 680 CARM project is in the final design stages. We anticipate beginning construction early next year. The construction for both projects will be complete in 2028, and we anticipate each segment to be fully operational in early 2029. So I believe we have a request to approve the MOU as part of the consent agenda later in the meeting. But at this point, I think the team is here to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions for the team this evening? I have a question and a comment. I think this is great. A couple of the terms that I heard that I really made me pay attention was improving efficiency without widening freeways. That's a big deal. We've been going through this widening of what is it, highway 4 and 680, as long as I can remember. So this is exciting if we can get everybody talking to each other. And so it sounds like this stream is-- we're going to create a smart freeway. Is that basically it? Yes. Basically, that's the goal and CARM or the Coordinate Adaptive Ramp Metering is one of the key components of a smart freeways, and Scott probably can talk more about it, but there's many tools that can make a freeway smart. Gantry signs with no speed limits or speed harmonization, where it tells you what speed to travel at. So the whole speed-- everyone traveling the same speed with advance notice, especially during incidents to give you some forewarning to slow down before you hit that bottleneck. Stuff like that. So this is one piece of the smart freeway concept that CCTA is hoping to deploy in the future. More of these things as we have funding. So everybody will have access to Waze. Some of the features Waze does, they're like, slow down. You can see that you have a red light area coming up. And I spend a lot of hours on the freeway. So that saves me. And I really appreciate that. You know what? It kind of popped up in my mind that if it is going to be a smart freeway and on ramps are talking to the main trunk, can that information then be corrupted by bad actors? Do you know what I mean by that? Yeah. Maybe Scott can talk about the security protocol or-- So there's a number of different protocols that are in place to make sure that the system is secure. So the main brains behind CARM and the stream system has operated in a cloud environment. However, there's an edge processor that's installed within every ramp meter. So if there was ever any corruption of data or communications issue, the system would have a fallback, and it would be able to operate locally based on time of day. So anything gets weird, it shuts itself down. That's what you're saying? I would revert to a different type of ramp metering, where it would just be looking at local conditions. Yeah. And it should be mentioned that for CARM at least, during the pilot phase, this will be actively monitored during peak periods. So there will be operations folks looking at CCTV cameras, looking at the platform that we showed earlier. So if any odd data starts popping up or weird traffic scenarios, things can be adjusted in real time and turned off if necessary. So you'll have a crew of people watching monitors, watching display screens, monitoring-- correct me if I'm wrong, but 300 different freeway locations? So Caltrans monitors at freeway operations through their normal processes. I'm talking specifically about the CARM segment, that pilot project that will be northbound from El Acosta to Willow Pass Road. Got it. More local. Caltrans, do you want to comment on the security? So for the 300 remedies that Caltrans is operating, we meter from 5:00 AM to 8:00 PM. It's automatic. We have a system that monitor the occupancy rates of the mainline. Mainline occupancy. And then our ramp metering controller will react to the occupancy and adjust the metering rates by itself. Security. In terms of the security, we have a very stringent IT protocols. So the only issues that we may face is sometimes the mainline occupancy-- the loop detectors may not work. But we have an algorithm to average out. So in terms of the IT, we don't have any issues. But in terms of the hardware issues, that we will use algorithm to average out. So it's constantly working, and we have TMC monitoring 24 hours. Very good. Thank you. Sure. Thank you very much for the presentation. So just to bring this a little bit more local, so if I understood correctly, so the most direct impact for our residents will be those-- we have, I believe, is it three on ramps, off ramps on 680 in the Martinez? I mean some of them, I don't think they're in the city limits per se, but they're still in the Martinez. So we have Arthur, Pacheco, Marina, Vista, is that what we're talking about? So that's where we're looking to bring this new technology? So the CARM system that Scott spoke of, the Coordinated Adaptive Ramp Metering, the CCTA-sponsored project ends in Brunette/Willow Pass Road. North of that would be the Caltrans adaptive ramp metering arm. And yeah. Those three ramps that you mentioned would be the Caltrans-operated ramp metering system. OK. Do we not have already something similar? We have some metering already in place on-- Highway 4. --on Highway 4. Right? Highway 4. Correct. So when that system first came online, I know that there was a period of adjustment there because I don't think it was as closely monitored, and it was creating some unnecessary backups, if I recall correctly. So I would just ask that as we look to maybe doing something similar at 680, that we'd be a little bit more proactive learning from that experience. The onboarding with the highway 4 metering, because I remember there were quite a number of concerns when that first came on board. But understandably, when you implement new technology, there's a little bit of an adjustment period. Yeah. No. I thank you for pointing out by highway 4. Actually, that is one reason why we decided to do more of a collaborative approach. Having an MOU with discussions and collaboration with the local jurisdictions technical staff was very important for us to make sure we hear concerns from the traffic engineer, from each of the cities and wanting to make sure that it doesn't negatively affect the city streets. And then in terms of deployment, when we are ready to turn things on or close to turning it on, we will have robust campaign for public education. We're thinking about doing some videos to educate the public what they will expect, yeah, because 680 doesn't have ramp metering at the moment. Yeah. So we hear you. And that's one thing that we want to avoid. Thank you very much for that. And my only last comment, and I would be remiss if I failed to take this opportunity, given that we have both CCTA and Caltrans in the room. Is just that I appreciate. I fully support everything that you just laid out. We need smart freeways, but we also need clean freeways. And it's really important that if we're going to have people-- you're regulating the flow in terms of how people get on and off the freeway, what have you, those on and off ramps, particularly here in Martinez, I just got to be honest, it leaves a lot to be desired. And we really need our partners at Caltrans and whoever. So my message to directors at Ambuehl who oversees Caltrans district 4, please, we need help. It's important. This is all great. But if we're missing the basics, which is just people want to-- we should have a clean freeway. I don't think it's too much to ask. Quite frankly, I have family and friends that visit from abroad. They are just shocked at the level of trash that is on our highways. And you just don't see that in a lot of other countries. And so I would really, really like to implore because especially highway 4, 680, these are the gateways in and out of our city. And so all of our cities, whether it's us, Hercules, everywhere, we all want to leave a positive impression. But we don't have any control over that, but you all do. So as much effort as you all are putting into this endeavor, I hope that you would also respectfully put as much effort into making sure that the freeways, and particularly on-ramps and off-ramps into our city corridors are kept clean please. Thank you. We'll take that back. I'm sure Chris will to the maintenance departments. Thank you for being here tonight and for sharing this great smart technology. I had the benefit a couple of years ago, maybe, to sit on the Innovate 680, and was there for one of the meetings where this was being discussed. And what was interesting to me at that time was, the concept, obviously, it takes a lot of moving parts to be put together. And I think the big concept was that it's not just isolated to one neighborhood, one city, one area, it's meant to work together over a large section of freeway many, many miles. And if it was coordinated, as you say, throughout this entire segment, then what I recall, and maybe you can speak to this, that the goal was to keep traffic flowing at a certain speed and I forget what the target speed was, so that there wouldn't be these stop and start and stop and start and all that. It would be more like consistent and more uniform. And that saves money on gas. It saves time because people are getting to their destination safely. And we're not quite there yet. This is the start. All these pieces have to be put in place throughout these entire communities up and down the Bay Area. But can you speak a little bit about what the ultimate, ultimate goal is? When everyone is connected, what are some of the benefits that we'll see in the future? I'm talking about the future beyond 2028 when it actually goes into effect. But the overall goal, because I know there's a bigger goal than just the local goal. Can you share a little bit about that? Yeah. You spoke about some of it already. I think one of our main goals for goals for CCTA is to demonstrate the effectiveness of this CARM system and be able to deploy more of it along the corridor, because we're really just focusing on the-- maybe the Northern half of 680 in Contra Costa. I think our goal is to prove the concept that it works, and other places have already deployed such technology in Australia and Colorado and Scott talked about RCT-- sorry. Riverside County that just deployed theirs started last week. The hope is to convince Caltrans to invest dollars to create smart freeways and deploy more of these in our county, if not the 680 corridor. Speaking to the goals of interface 680, this is just one component of the freeway is flowing faster, and we get to deploy the bus on shoulder technology as well. It will just make the 680 corridor more efficient. And we talked about we can no longer widen freeways. 680 is very space constrained. There's no more space, even if we wanted to widen, and the state is in a place that they are not supportive of widening just for climate goals and reducing vehicle miles traveled. So I think the goal is to really find creative technology-based solutions. That doesn't cost a whole lot of money, doesn't require moving dirt. And being able to move residents and travelers throughout county more efficiently. And being able to deploy other things with a company, these technology, like I said, more effective transit. You have to move faster. We can deploy more express buses. So it kind of all gets-- they're all connected, and the shared mobility hub that we're working on with your staff helps with that as well. It's just a suite tools that we're hoping to deploy to help mobility in the corridor. Thank you. Thank you very much. And as much as all this is great, I do have to share with what Satinder said that sometimes if you find times to pick up some of the trash along the freeways, I know we've had an effort this year of doing community cleanups in all of our districts. And so that's been great targeting districts. But the ones that I've had where people have come and shared with me, they said, can we clean up the side of the road? I know it's dangerous. And I'm like, no. We can't have a community cleanup there because it is too dangerous for the volunteer citizens. But I would think that there's ways in which we can find other solutions to be able to get it a little bit more clean, at least on ramps and off ramps, where people see it the most. But I digress. But thank you very much for the innovative technology that you're sharing with us and that you're deploying. I can look down like 10 years from now, and hopefully it will be a completely different driving experience for the people that have to drive on the highways, like Jay. Luckily, I don't have to drive on the highways as much as I used to. But thank you for sharing this tonight with us. Greg, do you have any questions? No questions. I appreciate the presentation. I appreciate the automation and innovation. I'm still just thinking about particularly as you're looking at more industries and companies moving away from remote work, and that's putting more people on the roads, and if you have that, because of the affordability issue, people are continuing to commute long distances. So love the automation and innovation, but not sure if it's going to completely solve-- I mean, we just have folks, more and more people on our roads. And I understand the intent of trying to control the traffic flow. But once we meter, you're still going to have a lot of people on the roads. So yeah. I mean, great presentation. Love the concept. I'm just, in my mind, trying to play with the reality because if we are more efficient, then that can potentially mean more folks on the road. And if there's more folks on the road, we're going to have more traffic. But nothing for you all to solve right now and tonight. So appreciate your presentation. Thanks Greg. My question, I had an opportunity to see one of these presentations a month or two ago as well. And I remember hearing about the Pacheco southbound on-ramp getting metered, and that is one of on-ramps I take fairly regularly. And it really does not have a very long approach, and I don't think there's even anywhere for cars to queue. Can you give us a quick update, if you know, what the timeline is for the Pacheco southbound on-ramp? That would be a Caltrans question. And then also, I was under the impression that there was going to be widening or something. Is that part of this or are we only talking metering or arm? Well, some locations will have some widening just to, like you said, it needs more space for cars to queue up before the ramp meter. I can't speak about the Pacheco one because it's the Caltrans south. So southbound is all Caltrans arm. Right. I don't know if Chris can answer that, or maybe we can provide information later. So your question is whether or not Pacheco's southbound ramp will be widened. Correct? That's your question. First, when. When. Second, will it get wider? Because it almost doesn't matter if it's getting a meter because just a meter won't work, so that's why I was wondering, what's the actual plan for Pacheco? Yeah. [INAUDIBLE] I'll provide you with the information. OK. That would be great. Thank you. Our northbound has already started. So tentatively, the project will be finished in 2028, so all these will be done. OK. So our community will start noticing things happening not this year or next year, but probably 2028 when things go live. So my impression we're going south to north. So if you travel down South County, you'll see a lot of construction going on, like Danville, San Ramon, Alamo. That's where all the activity is taking place right now. And that's all the Caltrans ARM project. The goal is to have both ARM and CARM turned on at the same time. So that would be 2029. And in my understanding, this ends at the Benicia Bridge. So Marina Vista is literally the last road. Correct. But I think their plan actually goes past the bridge to 780 a little bit. And they're also installing fiber as part of the ARM project. So you'll see construction just for that too. Great. Well, that's all very helpful, because sometimes we get these presentations and we're all ready, then we don't realize that we're at the very beginning of a multi-year project. So thank you. So we'll keep our eyes open. We'll provide information on when you will see construction in this area. Great Maybe I can email Joe with information. Yeah, that would be awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. And we do have some fact sheets, so maybe I'll just hand it over to somebody over here, and they can give-- Yeah, just hand it down and they can pass it over. Thank you so much for the presentation. We appreciate it. All right, moving on. I am actually going to propose because I know we have several people in the room this evening that we're going to skip the consent calendar and just hop right to the general business, which is item 23, adopt a resolution approving the mayor's recommended appointments to fill vacancies, because I know there's a handful of folks in the room this evening. And if the consent calendar goes along, I don't want to make them sit through all of it. Thank you. Here you go. All right. And Kat's not here this evening, so she asked if I could give a quick summary of the appointment. So, just so everybody knows, it is reappointment season. When we do go to the consent calendar, you'll see that there are reappointment items on the consent calendar. This item is only for new recommendations for some of the vacancies. And as everybody knows, over the past couple of years, we've been slightly tweaking how we do appointments. And so this time around-- let me pull up-- nope. This time around, we had vacancies in several of our oversight commissions and committees, as well as the PRMCC as well as the planning commission. And so the way that we've been doing this now, it is not just me who is reviewing applications and interviewing folks. We have liaisons on the council who review the applications and provide recommendations. And then I conduct interviews with the chair of those respective commissions or oversight committees. So I want to thank those over-- I'm sorry. I want to thank the chairs who participated in all of that with me. So with that, let me open this up. I'm so sorry the iPad was not working. Let's see. I'll read out the names. All right. It's a long list. All right. So for the PRMAC, we're recommending a alternate position. Luciano DiTullio who's here. I know. You can wave, say hi. For Measure X Oversight Committee, Vivian Robinson who's here. Hello. Measure x Oversight Committee, Catherine Monroy Dexter, who joined us on our last sesquicentennial hike. Measure x Oversight Committee, Brian Dunnewald. Measure X Oversight Committee, Valeria Gonzalez Sandoval who is one of our students at Alhambra High School x and so is Luciano, for that matter. And then let's see. Measure x Oversight Committee, Chris Chin. Measure D Oversight Committee, Matt Miller. Measure D Oversight Committee, Chris Tsang, again. Planning Commission, Courtney Ayers. Planning Commission, Sarah Tarelko. Planning Commission, Bill Wood. And lastly, Veterans Commission, John Doms who will be replacing Charles Martin's vacated seat. So I am open for questions if anyone has any. Go right ahead. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. I do have a quick clarifying question for our city attorney, if I may. City attorney, can you please clarify under what circumstances a member of the planning commission would need to recuse themselves? Specifically, I know in the case of Ms. Ayers, she is a local realtor. And so I'm just wondering if you could just clarify, what are the types of scenarios under which-- I presume we've had realtors successfully serve on planning commissions in the past, but I was just wanting to get just some added clarification to better understand how that would work in practice. Yeah, happy to provide some clarification on that. And I'll note upfront, the art of the science of conflicts advice is the science of careful lines and careful exceptions so everything is-- my comments now are general. It will all turn on the exact facts of each particular proposal as to whether recusal is or is not required. As note, the standards turn on a 500-foot, 1,000-foot standards. But generally recusal is not required automatically for any realtor. There's a specific FPPC regulation that says that possessing real estate license does not force recusal automatically. Instead, it's tested as clients or properties in which a commissioner or council member or any other city official has an interest or on an agenda, or are near within 500 feet and 1,000 feet depending on the circumstances of a project on which the commission is taking action. So if a client within a year for whom a realtor received a commission of 500 or more is the applicant for a permit, for example, recusal is almost certainly required. If the applicant is a listing the realtor has, that would be anticipation of receiving a commission relatively soon, probably recusal required. If the applicant was a client from five years ago and there's been no transaction more recently, recusal is not required. And just to lay out a couple of scenarios. And what I would recommend is we work with the planning staff to make sure that we assess in advance as applications come forward, potential scenarios to ensure that the commissioner doesn't step into a trap unknowingly. I hope that's enough for the generic component. That's perfect. That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much. Thank you. And I appreciate that question that actually came up during the interviews, because we knew that she was a realtor and so we were kind of clarifying with her what our understanding of those rules were. So thank you for asking that follow-up question. Any other questions or comments? Anything from you, Greg? All right, I'm going to open this up to public comment, because Luciano did provide a speaker card. Would you like to say a few words? Hello city council. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Zorn. And good evening to everybody else here tonight. My name is Lucian DiTullio. I am a student at Alhambra High School. And I would first like to say that I am deeply honored and grateful to be considered for such a position like this. And I would also like to add that I think when it comes to a commission like PRMAC, lots of decisions are tailored towards the youth and families of Martinez. So I think having a young person like me on the commission is really good as I think I provide good insight and connections to the youth of Martinez. So with that being said, thank you so much for your time and consideration. Any other public comment? All right. Anyone in the virtual audience this evening? Please use the raise hand feature now. I show no hands. All right. Back to Council for a motion or any final comments, please. I make a motion if we're ready. Yes, please. Any seconds? Second. So I motion that we adopt a resolution approving the mayor's recommended appointments to fill vacancies on various city advisory bodies. OK. Thank you. All in favor roll call vote, please. We'll call a vote. Mayor Zorn. Yes. Vice Mayor. Malhi. Aye. Council Member. Howard. Aye. Council Member. Young. Yes. Council Member McKillop. Aye. Motion passes. All ayes. Congratulations. Thank you so much. [APPLAUSE] And I just want to say really quickly. I was really excited for the number of people that submitted applications. And I want to thank Kat for all of her support. We finally have a really good process for receiving applications, for reviewing them, and then keeping those that were not appointed this time around for the next iteration. So we've got a lot of really great people that have been appointed to various commissions. And I also want to give a shout out to Luciano since he did speak. We have had one other person from Alhambra High School serve on the Parks and Rec Commission in the past. But usually, the people that apply are seniors, so we only get them for one year. But he is a-- Freshman. --freshman so we get him for multiple years, which I think is great. So thank you again for applying. And, Vivian, we look forward to working with you too. All right. Let's go back to the consent calendar. Thank you, everyone. And you all are welcome to stay or leave whatever you'd like to do. Thank you so much. All right. We're going back to consent calendar items 6 through-- goodness-- 22. Anyone on council like to remove any items? Oh. [INAUDIBLE] worth of people. I would like to pull item 9 regarding animal services. Anyone else? We're good? OK. So-- Which one you're saying? Item 9 on animal services. Did anyone else want to pull any other items? Oh, just kidding. And 19. Sorry, I thought you were going to pull that one. I mean, I had a question, but it wasn't like-- But if you're going to pull it, that's fine. Yeah, you're welcome. OK, So-- [LAUGHS] No, that was pretty good. Squeeze it up. All right. So I'm going to open this up to public comment. We only have one person in the council chamber this evening. So does anyone have any comments on consent calendar items 6 through 8-- bear with me here-- 10 through 18 and 20 through 22? All right. Virtual audience, anyone want to speak on any of those items? I show no hands. All right. So if I could have a motion for those, we'll-- Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to pass consent item 6 through 8, 10 through 18, and 20 through 22. Second. All right. Roll call vote, please. Mayor Zorn. Yes. Vice Mayor Malhi. Aye. Council Member. Howard. Aye. Council Member Young. Yes. Council member McKillop. Aye. Motion passes. All ayes. Great. Thank you. All right. The two items that I pulled, If it's all right with everyone, how about we'll discuss them both? And then if there's no changes to either of them, we'll vote on both of them together. So the first item is regarding animal services. This comes back to us every single year. And we are frustrated with it. And I didn't want it to go by without a reiterating the frustration that was included in the staff report. So, Mike, I see that you signed this agreement in 2022. I wanted to vocalize my concern about escalating costs and reducing services year over year. When is this up for review next? So it was approved in 2022, and they renew in three year increments. So I believe-- Oh, so. It just got renewed last year probably. Yeah, and it's going to be in a cycle. And the challenge with it is that all the cities that participate have to-- so animal services said like, we'll talk to you about the contract and we're open to things except everybody else also has to agree to the same things. I will say that a challenge we're having is it's not just animal services. Our county contracts that we have for things are having escalations that do not match our increase in revenues, and it's creating significant concerns. For example, we subscribe to ARIES, which is an information exchange system. It's pretty old and antiquated. They're proposing massive increases. And I can tell you that other cities at the last Chiefs meeting I was at are talking about just pulling out altogether and looking at other options. The challenge with animals control is that we have a legal obligation to provide a certain level of service, so there's not currently another option. But I can tell you from the staff perspective and speak for the city manager, we saw reductions based upon calling in. And I think you were at the last big meeting that we had with them, but it's a challenge. I mean, you can look at the numbers in the chart and it's staggering, because the service level is not increasing at all. Right. I think the other thing I'd mention too, is that looking at agreements. For example, another one we have for fingerprinting services and whatnot, we went back and found the original agreement from the late '80s. And the justification that existed then about why we would do it may not necessarily hold today when you look at how much stuff is grown. And we see that across everything. It's not just a county thing per se. It's just costs are increasing, which makes us have to go back to look of like, well, what do we need? For example, on that information exchange system, It's always nice to have a lot of stuff, but do we actually need it and then what alternatives? So we're having a lot of discussions about it. No early answers, but that's why we're making a very clear report, even though it's a receive and file that everybody can see it. And certainly, if we see opportunities, we'll try to pursue those. I can tell you that right now from my own experience, last agents I was at, we ran-- In fact, I stood up animal control services. We haven't crossed the threshold of what it cost to provide the service there. So I think right now, although it looks like a big increase and it is, we haven't crossed the tipping point where it's like, well, we need to look at doing it ourselves. We aren't there yet. OK. Thank you. So what does that look like? What's the tipping point? Yeah, because-- We're close to it. It's about-- So the last agents I was at, we were in for around the $400 and something thousand dollar range. But if you look at, CPI and everything else since then, I think we're still within there. The problem is you need a facility to hold the animals. You need staffing to deal with that. And you really have to run two components. You have to run the care component, and you have to run the control component. The other challenge is that you have to have robust programs to try to adopt out animals, because nobody wants to look at euthanasia. So that is a whole 'nother challenge. And there's regulatory licensing that you can't just hire anybody to do the service. So it's a challenge, but it's getting close. And I can tell you that talking to other cities, they have discussions just that the ones that have gone off and done their thing, they have their own sets of challenges within that. Are those challenges are greater or-- They're greater. I mean, it expands challenges we already have within the public safety, public service realm with recruitment and those sorts of things. It's just challenging to staff it. One thing I will say, though, is that although they're budgeted, line item keeps going up, they have been delivering savings at the end of the cycle so that does reduce. What they propose will likely come in less. So it was I think the last-- I don't know if it's in the staff report. Yeah. The savings rebate for 25, 26 that we realized was 35,000. And that was savings from the prior year, so it probably won't be for 495. But I mean, that is what they're budgeting, and that's what we need to think about. OK. T