Alameda City Council 12/17/2024
Transcript Are you ready? Okay. Good. Alright. Alright then. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the city council of Alameda. Today is Tuesday, December 17, 2024. And, I’m about to call I am calling the meeting to order. And we’re gonna start with a special city council meeting, which is a closed session. And I would like to ask the city clerk, Laura Weisinger, to please call the roll at this time. Vice Mayor Jasag. Here. Council member Hara Spencer. Present. Mayor Ezea. Here. 3 present. And, hopefully, the other 2 council members will get here shortly. Hopefully. Alright. So at this time, we take public comment on closed session items only. Madam Cook, do you wanna introduce what those items are before we take the public comment? Performance evaluation and 3 b is potential litigation. Alright. Thank you. And do we have public comment? We do. Alright. Estella Villagrana. Welcome. Hello, everyone. I’m here in person for the first time. I tried to speak, on the phone a long time ago. And, the reason why I’m here is in my last intent to save my business, which is building 43 Winery. I am building 43 winery, not Todd. Todd is not building 43 winery. And my business is suffering and is about to be shut down by the city, leaded by the mayor because of what Todd doing in his personal or personal label. He’s doing whatever he’s doing, challenging the sequel against the city again in his personal level. So I met with city staff last week and my last intent or 1 of my intents to save my business. But it did, you know, seems to me that they didn’t have the power to offer any help, any support, and I’m here. I sent earlier a letter to all of you. So I just wanna make sure that you guys received the letter and you had the opportunity to read the letter or if you have a couple of minutes before you go into closed session to read that letter, do so, please. And I just hope that I get the same support from the city as Project Burger did at the time. And you all know the help that you guys give Project Burger because I was here when you guys made that decision. So I hope that I will get the same support, not less, from the city. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker, Todd Hickman. Welcome, speaker Hickman. So I’m just gonna talk today on what I’ve seen and how shameful I think it is the way that the city has treated Ms. Villagrana. Building 43, they’ve tried to get at me me and my personal hobbies of filing CEQA lawsuits. I mean I just love CEQA. I love the environment. It’s my own personal crusade. I love historic districts. I just can’t get enough of historic districts particularly military bases. It’s a big part of my life and it’s just, you know, how I’m gonna spend, the rest of my life is on being a historic, particularly with relation to, naval bases, a preservationist. And it’s just something that I’m enthralled with and something that I’m gonna do, so I’m not gonna be stopped. You know, I have, you know, several other, things that I do as well but, you know, Miss Viagrana, this is all that she has is this business it’s her business it’s not my business. So the way you’ve treated her the harassment what the mayor said publicly I mean quoted by the, Alameda Post, we have evidence of what she’s done through what I call her minions. These, public, participants in her crusade, to try and shut down building 43 and what she’s told them to do. The 100 of 1 star Yelp reviews, telling people how to get at us or try to get at me. And again, none of it really worked because I’m just picking up steam and now as you notice I’m more encouraged than ever. I’m just not gonna stop. And Mr. Shen, I mean, you know, I thought we were gonna be tight, you know, having a beer after work and stuff and you’ve just let me down. You failed to reign in the mayor. You failed to perform to your lawyer’s oath. You committed felonious fraud on 2 judges, a warrant representing the people of the state of California and inspection warrants as the municipal attorney, the landlord’s attorney, and you’re committing a felony telling a judge that you’re gonna represent the people of the state of California? Are you ******* kidding me, mister Shen? Are you ******* kidding me? My, oh, my. This has got a ******* stop up in here. Enough of this ****. You people have ******* lost concept with reality and how this really works. This is not how government service works. I’ve been there. I’ve been there. I’ve been on all sides of government service, and this is not how it works. So what you have done is scandalous. What you’ve done is illegal. What you’ve done, you are going to pay for. So I hope you’re smug. I hope you’ve had a good time sitting up there smirking. I hope you’ve had a real, real good time because the party’s coming to an end. Kinda like that, like that Natel party you had all scheduled, last week, you know, at the hearing, you know, that party you had all set up, all those people watching. And your time is up. Thank you. Our next speaker? We don’t have any more speakers. Okay. With that, we will close public comment on closed session items. And, we will adjourn to closed session to, consider the matters that do you wanna read them more fully? 3 a is public employee performance evaluation pursuant to government code section 54957. Positions evaluator city attorney Yves Shen. 3 b is conference with legal counsel potential litigation, potential initiation of litigation pursuant to government code section 5495.9 subsection D4. Number of cases 1 as plaintiff’s city initiating legal action. Potential defendant, Steel Town Winery, LLC DBA, Building 43 Winery. Thank you. Alright, everyone. We will be back by 6:15. Thank you. Okay. Everyone involved We’re good. And we’re good. Yeah. Oh, what’s that? I said a few things. You’re the 1 who didn’t hear that. All right. If everyone could, give us your attention. I am going to call the meeting back to order and good evening, everyone and welcome to the Alameda City Council meeting this evening is Tuesday, December 17, 2024, last City Council meeting of the year. And the City Council has just returned from closed session. And, I would like to start with the announcement of action taken in closed session. So on item 3A, which was public employee performance evaluation for the city attorney position, The council voted on the process that we will follow. It was a 4 to 1 vote with council member Herrera Spencer voting no. And then I will go on to the city clerk for the report out on item 3b. 3b which is regarding potential litigation. Staff provided information and council provided direction. Also by 4 ayes with council member Horace Spencer voting no. Alright. Thank you for that. And with that we will adjourn the, closed session. And I will call to order the special city council meeting. And I’d like to start with the pledge of allegiance. Council member Harris Spencer, may I call upon you to lead us in the pledge? To rise. Yes. You’re able. Ready to begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, 1 nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, council member Herrera Spencer. And, now we will go to roll call, madam clerk. Would you call the roll, please? Yes. Vice mayor Dason? Here. Council members Herrera Spencer? Present.