By Thomas Gase, Times-Herald, Vallejo, Calif. The Tribune Content Agency

The current Vallejo City Council is scheduled to have a busy Tuesday night with seven action items on the agenda. Topics include the Broadway Project, merging of Cal Maritime with Cal Poly and the city's smoking ordinance.

Tuesday's agenda item concerning the smoking ordinance is to hold a public hearing to go over a possible resolution that would establish fees for the Tobacco Retail Licensing program. However, the recommendation is to delay the hearing until the last council meeting of the year scheduled for Dec. 17.

Staff has said it needs additional time to review the draft fee study and have it posted on the city's website at least 10 days before the hearing, in compliance with State law.

The city passed the ordinance 5-2 on Nov. 20, with Vice Mayor Mina Loera-Diaz and JR Matulac opposing. The ordinance addresses tobacco retail issues and repealing some restrictions on accessibility.

The ordinance passed with some changes to the language. Added to the ordinance is language focusing on business owners with three violations in one year. Also, the transferability of selling a business to another owner or stranger outside the immediate family lasts until Jan 1, 2032 (transfers last forever within family). Also stricken from the language was the use of the word co-inhabitants, with Vallejo Mayor Robert McConnell contending "that could be anybody, that could be a roommate."

The adoption of the possible smoking ordinance aims "to protect the public health, safety and general welfare and to guarantee the right of nonsmokers, especially children, to breathe smoke-free air and to recognize that the need to breathe smoke-free air has priority over the desire to smoke; and to reduce addiction to tobacco products by children and teenagers."

Broadway Project presentation

Also on tap to be discussed is a presentation concerning the Municipal Resource Group summarization of its assessment of the Broadway Project.

Vallejo City Manager Andrew Murray has said that the Broadway Project - a 47-unit permanent supportive housing venue for those experiencing chronic homelessness - is 80 percent complete and will be completed the first quarter of the new year. The project will have a full lease up of 90 days after construction is completed.

However the project has been delayed numerous times and the city council asked in May for a review of the Broadway Project. Two months later the council directed staff to award a contract to the Municipal Resource Group to conduct an assessment of the Project.

The Municipal Resource Group has completed its assessment and will present its findings and recommendations to the city council and is expected to provide the City with a written report of its findings and recommendations, which the city will publish.

However, Murray's recent Vallejo Weekly message stated that SHELTER Inc. is the property operator of the Broadway project along with developer Firm Foundation Community Housing. In February the city asked Municipal Resource Group to remove SHELTER Inc. from the Broadway Project Homekey Standard Agreement. Murray has been critical of SHELTER Inc. many times , mostly concerning a purported but undocumented $2 million construction loan to the project.

In June Murray asked for an extension for the Broadway Project's completion.

"The construction timeline has been longer than we had previously anticipated when we entered the agreements with the state," Murray told the Times-Herald earlier this year. "So we want to have everything up to date on our state records regarding when we're expecting to complete it, which is going to be the first quarter of the new calendar year. We're still in dialogue with the state about that extension for the completion of the project."

The total cost of the Broadway Project is now at $27 million with $11 million of that sum being funded by the State of California Homekey Project and another $6 million being funded by the American Rescue Act Plans of both Vallejo and Solano County. More funds for the Broadway Project include $2,879,665 by Measure P and $2,559,656 by California Infill Infrastructure Grant Program.

What's in a name?

Also on the agenda is a letter from the council addressed to the California State University system board of trustees expressing displeasure in the decision by the board to exclude the name Vallejo from the new name of the institution formed by the integration of CSU Cal Maritime and CSU Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Last month it was voted on by the California State University Board of Trustees to have a integration of the two schools. On July 1, Vallejo's Cal Maritime Academy and San Luis Obispo's California Polytechnic State University will operate as a single university. The integration would be complete by the start of the 2026-27 academic year.

However, trustees omitted the name "Vallejo" from the name of the newly integrated institutions.

The merging comes due to the rising employment and operational costs have contributed to the fiscal crisis for Cal Maritime, which has an annual budget of $53 million. It was determined that Cal Poly was clearly the best aligned with Cal Maritime for a successful integration because the schools have similar institutions in many fundamental ways, primarily in their academic missions and learning ethos. Both institutions rely upon a hands-on approach and both offer degree programs within high return-on-investment program areas.

"The integration of Cal Maritime and Cal Poly will benefit the students, faculty and staff of both institutions, as well as advance the broader mission of the CSU system by enhancing the quality, diversity and sustainability of the CSU's academic programs and services statewide," said Relyea and Evans in a CSU statement earlier this year. "In addition, it will serve industry and workforce needs of the state of California and of the nation while also supporting U.S. economic and national security interests. We are confident in our recommendation."

Display of menorah

Other actions items include a possible resolution authorizing the acceptance of a donation of a menorah and the display thereof on public property designated by the council.

Another item is the possible introduction of an Ordinance repealing Sections 5.04.200 relating to Peddlers and Solicitors and 8.40.100 relating to placing objects on the streets. The ordinance aims to allow Vallejo to regulate sidewalk vendors, peddlers, and solicitors in compliance with state law and would repeal existing provisions of the Vallejo Municipal Code that are not in compliance.

This would come six years after the California legislature passed, and the Governor signed, Senate Bill 946, also known as the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, which aims to promote and support low-income and immigrant communities throughout the state.