Meeting details are here.
Items of note to me:
1) Councilmember Herrera Spencer has appointed a new member to the Open Government Commission after her prior appointment resigned. Per the City's Open Government Commission page, as of March 21, 2023, most terms had already expired in December.
I am curious to know when the other Councilmembers will appoint their OGC members, as the next OGC meeting is set for April 3, 2023, and the commission's membership can make or break its effectiveness as a semi-independent watchdog.
2) In Item 7A, Alameda Police Dept., through Chief Joshi, is asking Council to approve a significant supposedly temporary increase in the hiring incentive for new police officers. It would be $75,000: "$25,000 paid upon being sworn in with proof of graduation from an accredited California POST academy," or an equivalent, and "$50,000 paid upon completion of the Field Training Program." If the hire leaves before 5 years, the $50,000 is to be paid back in $10,000 increments. The staff report states that this would be paid out of budgeted for vacant positions. Notably, this incentive is $35,000 more than the highest amount of incentives included in the the staff report ($40,000). There's not really any clear explanation in the staff report why the numbers that were chosen were selected, given the discrepancy. Our current (and apparently unpersuasive) incentive is $30,000. I call this a supposedly-temporary increase because it would remain in place until the City has 88 sworn officers - but the City has had a deficient in sworn officers since at least 2009 - so it seems unlikely the City would be able to reach the full authorized number of officers.
3) In Item 7B, Council will consider improvements to Clement Avenue and Tilden Way - the first intersection in Alameda after the Fruitvale bridge. As someone who lives east of Broadway and south of Tilden, and who has tried to walk to Nob Hill for groceries, I can confidently say that almost anything would be better than the current configuration. I've tried taking Broadway, but it gets hairy at the Broadway Tilden intersection. I've tried taking Versailles to Fernside, but the intersection of Tilden with Clement/Fernside is also horrible on foot. The infrastructure is not friendly to peds, bikes, or cars. The cars trying to cross Fernside to get to the bridge from Pearl, for example, currently must navigate the slip-late right turn from Tilden to Fernside, the cars coming straight from Clement to Fernside, and/or cars turning left from Fruitvale/Tilden onto Fernside.
I know there's some folks who are just not happy with the idea of a roundabout, but I think it can be an effective calming device that reduces overall conflicts between users.