Public Affairs & City Clerk Department*

"The City's website is not updated or easy to navigate, creating a lack of governmental transparency resulting in a disservice to residents and visitors." Response F1: The respondent agrees with the finding.

"Minimal Spanish language content on the City's website results in limited site utility to a significant number of residents." Response F2: The respondent disagrees partially with the finding. The City's website has Google translation embedded on its site and while Google translation is a good tool for providing basic translation services, it is not perfect. Google translation can sometimes produce inaccurate or misleading translations, which could lead to confusion and frustration for users. Additionally, Google translation does not always translate the tone or intent of the original text, which could lead to misunderstandings. The City of Seaside has acknowledged the importance of providing access to its website to all residents, regardless of language. The City is committed to providing more Spanish language Include, Innovate, Inspire content on its website, and it is working to improve the accuracy and reliability of Google translation. In the meantime, the City encourages Spanish-speaking residents to contact the City for assistance if they have difficulty understanding the website and this will be noted on the City's webpage. The City has bilingual staff who can help residents translate website content or answer questions in Spanish.

"Lack of documentation and reporting of illegal fireworks Calls for Service and complaints throughout the year does not provide the City Council with adequate information to make decisions regarding the health and safety of residents and visitors." Response F3: The respondent disagrees wholly with the finding. All fireworks calls are documented in the Dispatched logs held by the Monterey County Communications Center. We do have sporadic calls related to fireworks, but we have determined decades ago, the issue is prevalent during New Year's & the 4th of July. We have reported this to Seaside City Council and the community for decades.

"The Flock Safety gunshot detection system's inability to distinguish gunshots from illegal fireworks renders the system useless in combating the use of illegal fireworks in the City of Seaside." Response F4: The respondent disagrees wholly with the finding. This system, which has not been deployed, captures explosions consistent with gunfire. Flock cannot yet commit to distinguishing what object is the root cause for an explosion, but they are in the works for enhancing their technology to distinguish such explosions. Again, if the system can capture an explosion already, we do not consider that useless.

"The City's planning efforts and focus on illegal fireworks enforcement exclusively during the Fourth of July holiday period does not adequately serve the health and safety needs of residents and visitors throughout the year." Response F5: The respondent disagrees wholly with the finding. Our planning efforts are robust and more involved than any other Monterey County agency facing the same issue. We also evaluate collisions, violence and fires, and all of those severe public safety concerns are extremely low considering all the activity we have during both holidays. We do not catch every person engaging in illegal fireworks activity, but we do issue multiple citations. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people involved in illegal fireworks activity. Expecting to catch everyone is no different from expecting CHP to catch every speeder on the freeway.

"Current efforts by the City to convene a regional illegal fireworks task force are not sufficiently organized to develop meaningful strategies to combat the sale, possession, and use of illegal fireworks and renders it ineffective." Response F6: The respondent disagrees wholly with the finding. This is a very strong opinion for a process that has not formally launched. We had a pilot of our efforts for this past New Year's and saw a reduction. We are still working to build up our collaboration, but it will take some time. Again, this is another step we have taken to combat this issue. To render this effort ineffective is irresponsible.

"The limited data collected and compiled by the City does not provide adequate information for the City Council to fully understand, prioritize and address the scope of the illegal fireworks problem." Response F7: The respondent disagrees partially with the finding. The information shared is detailed and complete. This past year, we even provided information on a hostile crowd that attempted to surround our staff and threatened violence. The priority of illegal fireworks has been on the forefront our community for many years. It has been a serious challenge to curb it, due to the culture that has formed out of it. In regards to the recommendations of the Civil Grand Jury, City Manager Jaime M. Fontes, on behalf of the City of Seaside City Council, submits their responses with specification as to whether the recommendations are one of the four options in accordance with California Penal Code section 933.05 (b) (1) - (4):