From: [email protected] on behalf of eSCRIBE.Admin To: Tonya Hussain
Subject: Public Comment Approval Request
Date: Friday, November 3, 2023 3:31:55 PM
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User Dr. Diana Cornejo-Sanchez has enter the following comment(s):
As a resident of National City I am extremely disappointed by the lack of empathy and compassion that is being shown to our local street food vendors. National City is rich in culture because of its community members and the talents they bring by serving us meals that are representative of our demographics. Many have rolled with the constant enforcements placed on them and now the City is threatening to shut them down. Please allow them to continue to feed our communities.
for PUBLIC COMMENT in Regular City Council Meeting 11/7/2023 6:00:00 PM Please log into eSCRIBE to review the submitted comment(s).
General Comment
From: Kathleen Lippitt
To: Public Comment
Cc: Luz Molina; Marcus Bush; Jose Rodriguez; Ditas Yamane Subject: AMENDING CHAPTER 10.70 POLICE REGULATED BUSINESS REGULATIONS OF THE NATIONAL CITY MUNICIPAL CODE
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 4:03:08 PM
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Dear Mayor Morrison and fellow city council members.
National City’s decision to permit 6 medical marijuana dispensaries and retail sales along with the County’s first marijuana consumption lounge is a decision that will burden your most vulnerable residents for generations. To become the first city in the county to permit a marijuana consumption lounge is nothing of which to be proud. Allowing a predatory for-profit drug industry like marijuana to trump protecting the health, safety, welfare, and human potential of its residents is shameful. No amount of revenues will ever compensate families who will lose loved ones to substance abuse and addiction.
This litigious industry will relentless pursue the removal of any and all regulations you may attempt to impose on it.
The research and evidence of the corruptive influence and corruption in the industry is not just a potential concern but one that has been documented repeatedly, most recently by an L.A. Times investigation that documented the depth of corruption in the weed industry and found it to be widespread in the California’s weed industry. The state is said to now begin taking action, but it will likely be too little too late? Bribery, conflicts of interest and other corruption in cannabis licensing has been allowed to grow unchecked. Pay-to-play schemes, demanding cash in a brown paper bag for a pot license, threats of violence against local officials, and city council members accepting money from cannabis businesses were uncovered in the Times investigation even as cities were ostensibly regulating the businesses. they regulated them.
Proposition 64 was the Trojan Horse to allow the predatory marijuana industry to take root. None of the promises made to the public in that legislation have been kept. Local governments from rural Northern California to Calexico near the Mexican border are now trying to put this evil genie back in the bottle.
General Comment
From:
To: Clerk; [email protected]; Luz Molina; Marcus Bush; Jose Rodriguez; [email protected] Subject: COMMENT FOR CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 4:04:20 PM
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Good evening Mayor and City Council,
As we leave October behind and its clarion call regarding mental health issues, we especially focused on mental health issues experienced by youth and teens.
We were reminded that while rates of depression and anxiety have increased across age groups, children and youth are experiencing some of the greatest challenges.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in its Youth Risk Behavior survey that the number of adolescents reporting poor mental health increased from 2011 to 2021.
Students who seriously considered attempting suicide increased by several percentage points during that period.
California follows the national trend, and the California Department of Public Health noted last month that suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults aged 15-24.
Locally, Rady’s Children’s Hospital recently reported a 30 percent spike in children experiencing mental health crises as they entered the hospital’s emergency room.
I think this City Council knows the soaring demand for mental and behavioral health services must have our first attention for funding, for staffing, for press releases, for policies.
And the City must look at all its associated messaging through a prism that recognizes youth marijuana, tobacco and alcohol use greatly undermines youth mental and behavioral health
Thank you.
General Comment
Diane Grace
From: Patrick Athay
To: Public Comment
Subject: Police department harrassment
Date: Saturday, November 4, 2023 8:51:36 AM
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One of my employees was harassed and illegally searched by National City gang unit officers on 11/3/23 at 230pm in cvs parking lot at 1201 plaza Dr. He is a 66 year old man working hard doing his job and he is harassed and violated for no reason and no probable cause. They said they were doing a welfare check. He was fine.
They searched his car and his person with no warrant and no probable cause.
My family member attorney has instructed him to file a complaint with the city and police department.
The only criminal act was by these officers.
They should be reprimanded or relieved of their duty for abuse of power and violating a person's civil rights.
Police departments like this are corrupt.
The city is also responsible for allowing police to act illegally.
He will be advised to contact every counsel member, the mayor, as well as the police chief.
Thanks.
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General Comment
From: Zachary Gomez
To: Clerk
Cc: council; Public Comment
Subject: 11/7 Council Agenda Item 9.1 “Surveys”
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 4:59:38 PM
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Hi Mayor and Council,
Hope you’re having a good week! As you review the Engineer and Traffic surveys that the Engineering Department has presented to you, I would love to invite you to a site visit of the two blocks on 8th that I have safety concerns.
I hope the field trip would urge you to work with the City Engineer for the evaluation of E. 8th Street and A Ave, E. 8th Street and B Avenue intersections because my experiences crossing those streets as a pedestrian are not pleasant (I’m sure others feel the same way) and speed deterrents (for example flashing lights similar to Plaza Blvd) could be a solution.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Resident, Zachary Francisco Gomez
Item 9.1
From: [email protected] on behalf of eSCRIBE.Admin To: Tonya Hussain
Subject: Public Comment Approval Request
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 10:22:51 AM
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User Ted Godshalk has enter the following comment(s):
Please reduce the speed limit on Cleveland Ave. Please read my entire email attached to your agenda through the clerk. The reasons for the decrease in the speed limit are clear and you have the responsibility to MAKE ALL STREETS SAFER.
for Second Reading and Adoption of Ordinance Establishing Speed Limits Based on Engineering and Traffic Surveys in Regular City Council Meeting 11/7/2023 6:00:00 PM Please log into eSCRIBE to review the submitted comment(s).
Item 9.1
From: Ted Godshalk
To: Public Comment
Subject: COMMENT FROM MR. TED GODSHALK for item 9.1 on November 7, 2023 Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 10:20:36 AM
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COMMENT FROM MR. TED GODSHALK FOR item 9.1 on November 7, 2023 The time to take the responsibility for the public’s safety is now. You have a moral imperative to do so. The speed limit on Cleveland can be reduced if you make the findings to direct the City Engineer to do so.
Please reduce the speed limit on Cleveland Avenue from Bay Marina Drive to Civic Center Drive for the following reasons:
There are many pedestrians and bicyclists who use this street, crossing the road, sometimes in the early or dark hours, and during the longer work days.
The heavy trucks need to be controlled below the current median speed.
There is little compliance with “Truck Routes” requirements.
There are no “traffic calming “measures installed on Cleveland.
There are no crosswalks.
There is inadequate lighting a key intersections and mid-block.
There is a lack of turn lane painted markers in the center median.
There is a lot of truck parking with loading and unloading with forklifts in the median turn lane.
There are many potholes which require unsafe maneuvers by motorists.
There is a lack of police enforcement.
The sight lines from driveways and intersections are dangerously short.
There is passing of slower vehicles in the middle median by speeders.
There are speed limit signs that are blocked and not maintained by city staff.
There is double parking in the area and heavy demand for parking, only to get worse with the Bayshore Bikepath coming to McKinley Ave.
There are ineffective, unmaintained, and poorly designed speed indicators signs in two locations on Cleveland Ave.
Lastly, there are serious accidents, unreported accidents, and near accidents every year.
Hoover Ave., National City Blvd., Highland Ave., and Euclid Avenue are all currently posted as 35 miles per hour and are recommended for reduction to 30 MPH. Cleveland Avenue also needs to be made safer.
An NC police officer has reported that he cannot ticket speeders for 42 mph on Cleveland. I think you know the police Traffic Unit is understaffed, but the department should increase enforcement on Cleveland Ave. AND be supported by a 30 posted speed limit.
Make it safer for everyone who uses this key street in National City.
Ted Godshalk
@@@@@@@Please indicate to me if you have read this email prior to the City Council Meeting.@@@@@@
From: Dustin Steiner
To: Public Comment
Subject: Oppose Item 10.2
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 4:00:24 PM
Attachments: AGC PLA White Paper.docx
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Dear Honorable Mayor and Councilmembers,
Please see the attached outlining our concerns with Item 10.2. We respectfully request that the Council oppose this item and meet with ALL stakeholders in the construction industry before passing a blanket PLA.
Thank you!
Dustin
DUSTIN M. STEINER
Vice President, Government Affairs
Associated General Contractors of America
San Diego Chapter, Inc. ‘2021 AGC CHAPTER OF THE YEAR’
Item 10.2
Project Labor Agreements: Expensive and Exclusionary
The San Diego County construction industry is over 80% open shop. When Project Labor Agreements (PLA) are mandated, efforts to hire locally are hurt when union contractors and workers from out of town displace San Diegans. Thousands of craft workers from our programs are San Diego residents, who pay taxes and should have the opportunity to build community infrastructure in their own neighborhoods. Listed below are major issues with a standard boilerplate PLA:
1. Limits Core Workers to only Three
Generally, PLA language places a limit on core employees – typically three core employees (one core worker/one union worker, a second core worker/second union worker, etc.). Not only does this put open shop contractors at a significant disadvantage when it comes to project efficiencies, with only three core employees allowed, open shop apprentices would likely never be dispatched even if language allowed them to work on a PLA project.
2. Exclude Apprentices from Open-Shop Programs
While a few PLAs have language that apprentices from all state approved programs are allowed, without a much larger “Core Worker” standard, minimum apprenticeship ratios will make it next to impossible to dispatch openshop apprentices to city Projects. Open-shop apprenticeship programs that would be excluded include: National Black Contractors’ Association, Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association of San Diego, Associated Builders and Contractors San Diego Chapter, Western Electrical Contractors Association, Associated General Contractors of America, San Diego Chapter, Inc., and the Independent Roofing Contractors of California.
3. Force Workers to Pay into Union Funds Without Receiving Benefit “Equal to or greater” language is a common loophole used by the Building Trades Council to shut out open-shop benefit programs. The San Diego Unified School District uses this same language, and to this day not one nonunion benefit program has been allowed. The result is thousands of dollars spent into union trust funds that the workers lose at the end of the project, because they did not vest under the union’s rules. To fix this flaw, language should specify that workers benefits be paid into their previously established employer funds in accordance with state prevailing wage laws which would ensure workers’ existing benefits are maintained or they are compensated in their wages for any difference. This is one of the primary reason unions push PLAs is to have tens of millions of dollars flow into their trust funds. And if the fringe benefit money does not follow the worker, contractors will be reluctant to utilize apprentices and/or bid on projects resulting in increased costs to the city.
4. Increase Costs of Projects
According to the 2011 study Measuring the Cost of Project Labor Agreements on School Construction in California, by National University System Institute for Policy Research (NUSIPR); California school construction projects built using PLAs experienced increased costs of 13% to 15%, or $28.90 to $32.49 per square foot, compared to projects that did not use a PLA. Another study in 2021 by the Rand Corporation, The Effects of Project Labor Agreements on the Production of Affordable Housing, states that PLAs increase construction costs by 14.5%.
While we continue to oppose government mandated PLAs because they increase costs on projects, exclude qualified apprentices, and force workers to pay for union benefits they will never receive; there is potential for compromise on a threshold that mirrors the recent Biden Executive Order and proposed state legislation of $35 million and above. Such a threshold would meet the City’s desire to incorporate PLAs into City projects, while also reducing interruptions to much needed infrastructure investment.