San Leandro City Council Meeting April 21, 2025
ll sick of me already, but, yeah, we are not above the law. For years, the city has known that our at large voting violates the California Voting Rights Act. Rather than address it with the urgency that we required, the city sat sat on their hands. This is about representation and accountability. As I’ve said in previous interviews and chats with some of you on the city council, we can literally be sued for millions of dollars for committing this level of disenfranchisement. My goal is to elicit this change without costing us millions of taxpayer dollars. You all know that this is a million dollar gamble. And as as stewards of our taxpayers money, I find it upsetting that knowing the stakes, the city chose to wait until a lawsuit was filed rather than what was doing what was right. You know, what was smart? I disagree with some of this council’s sentiment that this effort is undemocratic. The law clearly states that this method of at large voting is what’s undemocratic, not the other way around. Although many have elected officials and hundreds of residents that I have talked to throughout the city, there have been less than a handful, that would prefer the current at large system, mostly those who are or have been elected through it. So you may harbor some resentment towards me for taking action when elected officials chose not to. But remember, that also means that you also harbor resentment for those that want this type of representation. And we can do better because I know we can. And, you know, we don’t gotta fight. We just gotta do what’s right for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Leo West? Well, this is caused by somebody who lost the election that wants to redraw the system as if, the race or a person would determine how they vote. The way that people vote in a city council is accordingly to the interest that bankroll their campaigns. We see meeting after meeting, they consent calendar with the issue are cooked up behind the scene, and we all we see is a 7 years vault. We also see our meeting after meeting, less and less council member even bother to show up here. That was not happening before. A total of the respect for the people, San Leandro. And, so you are gonna change 1 way or the other. You don’t touch the internet behind them. They take time to go to other cities, to other states. And **** the citizens. That’s the reality. So, Asian representation was claiming. We had a Asian representative when I was living in the Manor District, Benny Lee, who was consistently in favor of landlords, voting against any proposal of rent control, even, the tenant relocation assistance. And now we have no agent who spends her time going to 1 city to other states and neglecting the district. Thank you. Mister mayor, there is no more public comment. Okay. So with that, I will close the public hearing. It is 07:42. Okay, so continuing on the item. Are there any council member questions at this point in time? Okay. Seeing none, we will move to our next agenda item. Again, reminding the public that we will be taking public comment for a number of additional meetings. ll sick of me already, but, yeah, we are not above the law. For years, the city has known that our at large voting violates the California Voting Rights Act. Rather than address it with the urgency that we required, the city sat sat on their hands. This is about representation and accountability. As I’ve said in previous interviews and chats with some of you on the city council, we can literally be sued for millions of dollars for committing this level of disenfranchisement. My goal is to elicit this change without costing us millions of taxpayer dollars. You all know that this is a million dollar gamble. And as as stewards of our taxpayers money, I find it upsetting that knowing the stakes, the city chose to wait until a lawsuit was filed rather than what was doing what was right. You know, what was smart? I disagree with some of this council’s sentiment that this effort is undemocratic. The law clearly states that this method of at large voting is what’s undemocratic, not the other way around. Although many have elected officials and hundreds of residents that I have talked to throughout the city, there have been less than a handful, that would prefer the current at large system, mostly those who are or have been elected through it. So you may harbor some resentment towards me for taking action when elected officials chose not to. But remember, that also means that you also harbor resentment for those that want this type of representation. And we can do better because I know we can. And, you know, we don’t gotta fight. We just gotta do what’s right for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Leo West? Well, this is caused by somebody who lost the election that wants to redraw the system as if, the race or a person would determine how they vote. The way that people vote in a city council is accordingly to the interest that bankroll their campaigns. We see meeting after meeting, they consent calendar with the issue are cooked up behind the scene, and we all we see is a 7 years vault. We also see our meeting after meeting, less and less council member even bother to show up here. That was not happening before. A total of the respect for the people, San Leandro. And, so you are gonna change 1 way or the other. You don’t touch the internet behind them. They take time to go to other cities, to other states. And **** the citizens. That’s the reality. So, Asian representation was claiming. We had a Asian representative when I was living in the Manor District, Benny Lee, who was consistently in favor of landlords, voting against any proposal of rent control, even, the tenant relocation assistance. And now we have no agent who spends her time going to 1 city to other states and neglecting the district. Thank you. Mister mayor, there is no more public comment. Okay. So with that, I will close the public hearing. It is 07:42. Okay, so continuing on the item. Are there any council member questions at this point in time? Okay. Seeing none, we will move to our next agenda item. Again, reminding the public that we will be taking public comment for a number of additional meetings. Thank you very much, and have a great evening. Thank you. Douglas Spalding, may you may unmute yourself. Thank you very much. Well, you know, I loves me some, some good art when it’s good art. So thank you so much for, for for doing that work. I I I’m scratching my head a little bit because I keep going by the Hesperian Triangle. I’m trying to figure out what that circle piece of art is. If it’s a portal someplace, how do you get to it? Because it’s all fenced in. And and it’s not really facing in a way that that welcomes people to our city coming in off the freeway on a hundred and fiftieth. So so, you know, I don’t I don’t sure how we make sense of all that. I I just I love this program. I I thank you for all the the, the events that happened downtown. It really makes San Leandro a happening place. And there is no other more cost effective program than I I think than the safety ambassadors. I think we really have to see it as part of a whole providing for public safety. It is very effective. And, and I wanna I wanna piggyback on what Jenny just said. You know, I’m I’m also remembering that we’ve talked or there’s been discussion about extending it to the greenhouse. And I think other areas too, you know, the manor, the Bay Fair District, you know, there there probably are half dozen or more areas that could benefit from a similar program. And I’d I’d love to see us sink more money into this very, relatively low cost, highly effective program. It just is, it it it is the right approach. So thank you very much. Thank you. Mister mayor, there is no more public comment? Oh, close public comment on the side of it. Come back to council members for questions or commentary. Beginning with councilman, Resvedo. Thank you for your presentation and yeah you guys this past year. There’s been a lot of great events. I’ve gone to a lot of them with my families and friends and I really enjoy it. My question for you is, have you heard any, feedback about the sign ordinance with businesses in downtown? Because I’m hearing that in District 2, like, Guadalajara’s and all that. Has it been affecting the businesses in downtown? I think that, you know, the sign ordinances were not enforced for a very, very long time, and signage really got out of hand. So I was really appreciated to see that the community preservation. Group was starting to enforce it. I think that the there’s a lot of confusion because people didn’t know what the ordinance was before the hammer kinda came down. So on balance, I think it’s really helped the downtown, but there are some unfortunate incidences, particular incidences that it could have been communicated a little better. But in general, I think it’s important that we do have standards. Otherwise, we’ll have feather flags just all up and down East Fourteenth Street. And, but, yes, some of our downtown ones are are scratching their head. They just don’t understand it. Yeah. There has to be some kind of order, but yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Some more education, I think, is probably in order. Okay....
