City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone and happy new year to everyone. I will call our meeting to order tonight. The first regular meeting, city council meeting for 2026, which is January 20th, 2026. Let's stand and proudly recite our pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands, one nation, indivisible with all. Madame clerk, would you kindly do the roll call, please?

Council member Brando Cruz is excused this evening. Council member Melissa Lamatina here. Council member David Oro here. Vice Mayor Mark Joseph here. Mayor Pierre Washington here. Uh report on close session and confirmation of reportable action. Our city clerk is not feeling well today. So, we have John the Christina, but we don't have him on to report out. There he is. John, go ahead when you're ready. Hi. Uh, nothing to report. [laughter] Thanks, John. You're very welcome, sir.

Uh, moving forward to proclamations and presentations. Tonight, we have no proclamations, nor do we have any presentations. Um, public comment. Um, at this time, I'd like to open up public comment for any items that are not on tonight's agenda. You have three minutes. Uh, we will time with the clerk, and we will ask for the first person that has a card. Uh, I do have some speaker cards here. I'm going to call Nick Stalker.

Thank you. Good evening, Nick. Good. Good.

Can I get my uh full three minutes back, please? Go ahead.

Thank you. Uh Nick Starker with Barl Creek. Um on on December 15th, we came here to protest several things about the approval of the promontory final map and improvement plans, including that the city had not followed basic procedural steps or agreed to compensate the project for an overburden of backbone infrastructure um as outlined in the specific plan and mandated by law. More than a month after that meeting and despite our attempts to try and understand why this is the city's position, regrettably, we've made zero progress. The city has provided no rationale as to why this project should not adhere to the documents and law that govern it. In fact, when we sought to clarify which documents the city believes to be controlling, Mr. Holly told us via email that the city does not want to share its legal opinion on this matter. It's hard to collaboratively resolve issues when we can't be transparent with each other on how we arrive at our positions. Assistant City Attorney Summers offered us several conflicting reasons as to why the project would not be eligible for reimbursements, none of which make sense. As an example, in a January 13th meeting attended by the mayor, Mr. Summers told us that the city does not believe that the Nord drive has been oversized at all. A few minutes later, city manager Holly recaped a meeting that he recently had with adjacent developers, which concluded that New Drive could be substantially reduced and still be able to serve the project. So what is it? And when we're told that the city does not believe that we are owed anything for the excess infrastructure, is it poor guidance from the new city's attorneys which will end up with high illegal fees or is it coming from the city council driven by other motives? I ask this because we know that the city manager understands that the project should be reimbursed. He's told us this multiple times, including via email. We also know that the city has an agreement with a separate developer which relieves that developer of costs and incentivize is the city to dump costs into our

project to reduce city exposure. But of course, an agreement between the city and another developer has nothing to do with us.

What is frustrating is that we know and understand all this and have it provided you with an off-ramp where you don't have to spend any taxpayer money and can save face. You just don't appear to get it. Earlier today, tired of banging our heads against the wall, we submitted a claim for approximately $30 million in counting. For the avoidance of doubt, I'm here to make sure you understand that the delays and bad behavior are closing the door on the offramp we have offered. And that's that's not a threat. But once we start building the stuff that you have approved, you won't have value engineering through downsizing the infrastructure as a tool in your arsenal to reduce the cost that the city owes the project. So once we start that option disappears and at that point the American taxpayer is on the hook. We'll continue to try and work with you as partners. Please stop treating us like adversaries and come to the table. We all want this project to be successful and to and to move ahead. I have extra copies of the claim here for any members of public that would like to see it. And if anyone has any questions, um, please reach out to me at 917-929-9463. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment, Nick. Valerie Zizac Moraurice. Hello everybody. I'm Valerie Zizak Moraurice, president CEO of the American Canyon Chamber of Commerce. I just came up tonight to say um happy new year 2026 new year. Um we're really kicking off our calendar. We've got a lot of our events on our American Canyon Chamber of Commerce calendar. We start with our coffee morning um Thursday at Dos Patello. It's open to the public. We encourage business leaders, American Canyon residents, business owners to come check out the event. It's 9 to 10:30. It is our uh monthly networking opportunity for um to mingle and mix with city officials, um American Canyon Chamber businesses, our chamber board, and just really get to know what's going on within the community. We had our first economic development uh committee meeting today for 2026. We're really trying to get the community's input along with the business community on what types of businesses businesses we'd like to see here. Um, how can we strengthen our business community and really be the driver for the economic vitality of American Canyon. So, um, if you're interested in attending those events, they will happen the third Tuesday of every month at the American Canyon Chamber of Commerce. They are open to the public and our business community. We hope to see you all there. Um, we would like to announce that we are adding a fourth meet in the street this summer. So, we will be doing June through September, the second Wednesday of the month. And our registration will open in the next couple of weeks. We're also looking for sponsorship, food trucks, and of course bringing out community performances and business tables along with uh small vendors to the event. So, I just wanted to give you an update on what we're doing and hope to see you all participating this year.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Valerie Beth Marcus. Uh, good evening. I just have a question and or complaint. Um, it's about the project or the construction site across the street from me. It's been there since May. I don't see any active work being done on Melvin or uh, James

Road at all. I haven't seen any kind of movement there. But um my biggest complaint is the green screening that covers all this dirt and um piles of different kind of concrete and things are there. It's torn down and I was wondering if they're going to be there further if it could just get fixed or you know um put back up or new I don't know what you call it uh stuff to hide it so we don't see all of it. Privacy fencing. Thank you Beth. [clears throat]

Ivonne Beginski. Where is Ivon? [clears throat]

Hi, my name is Ivon Beginsky and I live here in Napa County. I'm here to say happy new year and thank you for the great bathrooms at the wetlands. I love them. Um, I'm actually here because I I do come down to this area quite often and um and I travel on Green Island Road and so um you know we do have that Measure L that everyone's been talking about in American Canyon and one of the concerns I had was the increase of traffic on Green Island Road and so I asked to see a copy of the traffic study for American Canyon that was done in 2023. and it noted that there are 6,000 trips daily on Green Island Road. And I know because I've sat through so many of these meetings that American Canyon has agreed to reduce greenhouse gases and work towards that effect and that's also part of the general plan. And with 6,000 trucks already using that road every day, my question is how are we going to measure any reduction in greenhouse gases in this community? We don't have an air monitoring system and maybe that's something that should be considered so that there can be a before and after. I know that there's a lot of developments still being planned for that area which is only going to increase traffic which is also going to increase uh greenhouse gas emissions. So rather than looking at reducing them we're going to be seeing an increase and I would like to see something that would be data driven so that we could actually see the increase. I'm currently working with Napa County on their biological resources data, their BDR report and I'm seeing how important it is to have accurate data on all this because when I come up here and I say to you wildlife is declining in American Canyon, I don't have any proof. I can't tell you, oh, we have 34 fewer ground squirrels or the shorebirds. We've noticed a huge decline

in shorebirds unless we start collecting the data. And so, you know, when we go before and we and we and we advocate for land development or we advocate for conservation, having good clear data is really important. And so, I'm urging you to have an air monitoring system placed somewhere in American Canyon, especially in the industrial area, so that you could actually measure. There's another source called Breathe California. And in that breathe California, they track asthma cases. and the latest remark the latest report for American Canyon on asthma cases is higher than the rest of the county. So, um I don't remember the exact percentage, but I just want to point that out to you. Thank you.

Thank you, Ivonne. Um okay, the um uh Sher Tennyson.

Good. Good evening. I'm Dr. Sheri Tennyson from Napa Valley College and to director of the American Canyon Family Resource Center. And I did ask to go last and I am watching the minutes. Oh, it's not moving. Um the point is I want to say thank you for all the help that this community put together to help our Toys for Tots program. That doesn't happen alone. So we were very lucky to have quite a few students from Napa Valley College who live here in American Canyon. quite a few of our graduates come out and work with us. We served 301 ch children with toys this year. So, thank you. I say that lovingly because it can't be done alone. And so, there were three folks that are sitting up here, one's missing. Okay, four people and one's missing. Um, who actually came and was with us the day of. So, they got you folks got to meet our families that are still here in American Canyon and who still are in need. So, all I want to say, of course, is thank you to my buddies at Toys for Tots, Captain Max and and all the great work from American Canyon Fire Department. If it weren't for them and their love of this program for how many years, 301 children would not been happy. I want to say thank you to our council members, uh, Melissa, Mark, and Brandon, and of course, Mayor Pierre, who did not have any problems smiling and taking bags out of toys. Um, most importantly, um, again, I said Max, most importantly, our community because it does take a village and it's our hope that we continue doing this good work for our families and, um, making that audacious goal that we keep growing every year. 301, maybe we go 351. So again, it's needed and I want to just say in gratitude, thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Tennyson. Janelle Celich.

Evening everyone. Um Janelle Celich, executive director of the American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation. Um thank you. Um great to be here tonight. I wanted to just share um a quick update. Um yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and the foundation held a wetlands cleanup. U was pretty astounding to see the turnout. We had over 30 volunteers from American Canyon and throughout Napa County come out. Um it was a beautiful warm sunny day and it it's the trails are a little bit deceiving although they're beautifully maintained thanks to the city um in a pristine condition. Um the the shorelines do collect quite a bit of trash and debris. Um, and yesterday we pulled over 500 lb of trash from the shorelines, including about uh eight shoes, a backpack, a crate, three tires, countless bits of styrofoam, and I could go on and on, but especially with the event being post king tides, what happens is because we're along a shoreline, stuff continues to get pulled up. So, was really proud of the volunteers that came out. It was a great day. It was a great way to give back to the community. Um, we look forward to doing these again. Um, and as uh you may have heard, we're getting closer to groundbreaking on the future Napa River Ecology Center site. And I wanted to invite everyone out to our winter open house on Thursday, January 29th at 4 p.m. That's a week from this Thursday. Uh, it's open to everyone. Please come out, see the site, um, enjoy a glass of wine, have some snacks. Uh, we'll take a a sunset little walk out to the river. um learn about the project and the timeline as well as we have um a local artist that is um helping us with a community based art project. So be able to pitch in and um participate in that as well. So hope to see you. I'm going to leave a couple flyers here and um and all are welcome. Oh, in addition to that, you can learn about the community mosaic campaign as well. So that's our big fundraising effort to help close the gap and break ground. So hope to see you. Thanks.

Thank you, Janelle. [clears throat] Hugh Marquez.

Great volunteer. Hugh Marquez. Uh, want to thank the mayor and council. Um, yeah, it was a great event yesterday. Uh, we pulled out a lot of, uh, a lot of stuff out out of the reminds me when I was a kid. I was telling Ally earlier, uh, playing in the creeks. Now I'm 60 years old and I'm wearing rubber boots and pulling stuff out of the out the Delta. So, it's a it's it was really fun day. Um, I just wanted to come to council and let you know that it's nice seeing the bathroom and the covering out there at the Wellland's Edge. Uh, seeing the covering at Northampton, um, is really good to see. I'm hoping to see the bathroom break ground out there real soon. U, but just want to let you know the council and our our PD, our public works, and our parks director that that uh you guys are doing a great job. Anyway, thank you.

Thank you, Hugh. That's [clears throat] my last uh card. Anybody online? I do have some online. Okay. Do you want to go to online now? Yes. [clears throat] Okay. I'm going to start calling online. Uh Scott Thomasson.

Yes. Hi folks. Uh hopefully you can hear me. Um, real briefly, the Napa Sierra Club recently did a presentation at the American Canyon Library on the potential consequence of future seawater rise to our city. And this presentation is relevant to current land use issues which are coming before the city council. And uh the CR club would like to do this presentation um to the city council at some point in the future and it would take approximately 15 to 20 minutes and I hope that the city council can uh make time for that presentation. Uh I think it's hugely important. Thank you very much.

Thank you Scott. Thank you. Okay, Karen, go ahead. Karen, are you there?

Can you hear me? Yes. Yes.

Okay. Well, good evening everyone, council, staff, public. Um, happy new year to all. I just have one concern and this would probably be directed over to Ally. Um, I signed up for the little um eye spy hunt that we had during the holidays. It was quite fun. I must admit we had a wonderful time. And the lady that put it on that was in charge of it, she was great. Um, my only concern about that was when I registered and I put in my address because you can pay residential price and then you have non-residential price. Well, when I finished everything, it came back that I was charged the non-residential price, which I thought was kind of strange. So when I called the next working day about that, I was told there are no refunds and um the young lady explained that it's the program that they have and it doesn't allow for that. And uh what they do do is give you a credit for 30 or 60 days. But maybe a lot of people such as myself won't be using that within that time frame. So now I'm out the difference of the residential as opposed to non non-residential fee. So I would certainly hope that uh they can work on that and get that corrected. Um I find that to be u a bit of a problem. But uh if you could do that, that would be great. And like I said, it was a lot of fun. I will definitely be participating again this year.

Thank you. Thank you, Karen. For the record, can you give us your last name? Fritz. Oh, Fritz. Karen. Hey, Karen. Hello. Thank you. Okay. He's laughing. Like, really? Yes.

Justin, go ahead. you. Uh good evening. This is Justin Hall. Um I'm going be very pre u pretty comment here. Um Dr. Sharing from NAL is um she did amazing work out there. Um we're uh a helper out there at Napa College fair and I'm going to mind you I went on I'm on a client client visor meeting for NBRC

and planning me well on April 10th I think um we will be buying the mayor see Mary K mayor to come to listen the that stuff. So, I will see you soon on April 10th. It's going to be at the cross set of a new set of a new bank building. I'll see you soon. Thank you, Justin. See you soon. Great. Okay. Uh that's the last online, but I do have three more speaker cards. Okay.

So, back to in person. Reed Robertson, please.

Hello. Hi. Uh, Reed Robertson. I would echo what my brother-in-law Nick Stalker mentioned earlier regarding the Watson Ranch plan. Um, I would use I used the word disappointed earlier with the city to Mark. We You guys approved the final map. I looked at my emails. It was 13 years ago. I came to talk to Brent Cooper with my dad um and thanked him for the email. I Anyway, regardless, David mentioned in December's meeting about an SIA. We still have none. We're looking at uh builders to come in and start building the final map that was approved. So, thank you for that at least. Um, you know, I don't know what's going to happen, but if we build it, what what Nick said is right, you know, and the fees come in and the fees go somewhere else and then it hopefully it does not turn into a big fiasco lawsuit, the money would be gone. The city would basically go into bankruptcy with money that it could never pay. and you guys would unfortunately have to run your political campaigns on driving the city into bankruptcy for absolutely no reason at all. Um I work in Valo. Valo has not recovered from going bankrupt 15 years ago. It it to me it's a failed city. Please don't let that happen here. Um and we we would like to work with you guys. There has been absolutely nothing from the city. And I could use a stronger word than disappointed, but I'll keep it at disappointed. Um, I believe my mom probably is coming up next.

Thank you, Reed. Janette Go.

Good evening, Mayor Washington, City Council members, and members of the public. Um, happy new year.

Happy New Year. U my name is Janco and I do live here in American Canyon. Um I'd like to to address uh two different topics in my three minutes here. Um first of all is the L petition measure L petition. Um if it passes with the necessary 14 or so uh signatures the city council can vote to changing the GIB property from open space uh a to industrial property. the vote of the people will be taken away as is what happened with measure K. Um I went to the li the American can library presentation on January 14th where the Ottabon Society and the Sierra Club had presentations regarding the GIV property and its importance to preserving the wildlife from harm. There was also some very important information in regards to sea level rise and how this particular property is especially vulnerable vulnerable. It was um nice to hear um Scott because he was he did the presentation and was excellent on that too. Um after hearing these presentations though I cannot for the life of me understand why this property should be industrialized. Surely there is other options for like a sports facility or housing in American Canyon. So please allow the people of American Canyon to vote on this topic. Do not take our vote away. Um my next next I would like to address my concern regarding ICE in Napa County. I understand there was an incident in Napa of an ICE kidnap kidnapping. I do not remember reading or hearing about this in the local news. Um my concern is that we we could have another Minneapolis. Are we prepared as a city protect our im immigrants? Are we because we are a very diverse city with many immigrants and many at risk. My question is this. Um is there a plan for American Canyon for

protecting the undocumented people from being stolen from ICE? I do not like to tell people what they should or should not do, but I do feel we should all be concerned whether documented or not. The bottom line is we are all immigrants except for of course the American Indian. I'm going to recommend um checking into the ACLU ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union um.org. You can find lots of information about your rights, whether you are an undocumented, a protester, or just an individual standing by. We must all stick together. Thank you. Thank you, Janette. Bernice Newell.

Thank you for letting me speak. I'm Bernice Newell, daughter of Jack and Bernice Newell, who's worked with the city before it became a city. So, it's we've been with American Canyon for many, many years. in anyway working on this project, we have become very disappointed with and feel very um thwarted by the city and I'm here and it looks like we've come to an impass and I'm hoping that we can work it out very quickly. There's no reason that we can't be partners and not adversaries. Thank you, Bernice. That is my last speaker card.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh I'll close uh public comment and and move on to agenda changes. Uh for the agenda changes, we have five consent items. And if there's no changes, I'll accept a motion to accept the consent calendar. I'll make that motion. I'll second. Thank you. Uh, we have a second. Madam clerk, can we do a roll call, please?

Council member Lamatina, yes. Council member Oro, yes. Vice Mayor Joseph, yes. Mayor Washington,

yes. Okay. Well, next we'll move the public hearing. We have two items for public hearing, which is item number seven, the Crawford Way multifamily condominium tenative subdivision map. Uh, William Heap. All right. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council, and members of the public. My name is William. I'm here with the uh representing the planning division. I'm very happy to give a presentation on the Crawford Way multifamily condominium subdivision map. U pretty brief overview of this presentation. Going to talk about the project info, give some uh uh feedback on the uh public outreach and then go straight to the recommendation for the project. So, planning and zoning for this project. Um staff and the planning commission support the project as condominiums. The project was recommended for approval uh of a subdivision on November 27th by the planning commission. The project site is a 4.3 acre uh site in the Broadway district specific plan under the local serving mixeduse zone LSMU. The access for the uh site is on Crawford Way, but there will be one emergency vehicle access onto Highway 29. Uh the project itself consists of 100 uh three-story homes. These are uh town homes and they consist of 68 two-bedroom units and 32 three-bedroom units. Um the project site will have 16 buildings. Some of these buildings will have four units and some of these buildings will have up to eight units per building. The

project site includes a community building uh with a children's playground as an amenity. And lastly, there's going to be some project frontage improvements on Crawford Way. So, here is the project site. Um, to the north is the Canyon Plaza. To the west we have some uh single family homes. To the south we have the Open Door Church and to the east we have the Highway 29. And again, the project will be uh accessible from Crawford Way. So here is the tenative subdivision division map. Um if um when an applicant wants to proceed with um developing condos, a subdivision map is the next step after a design permit is approved. And this subdivision map, one of the key items is that it will remove a property line that's in the center of the map, which would make it uh from two parcels, two 2acre parcels into one single 4.3 acre parcel. [snorts] Um the project complies with the required findings of chapter 18 in the American Canyon Municipal Code. Um the project is a permitted use in the local serving mixed use zone. Uh the project's size and setbacks comply with the uh LSMU zone development standards. It's a relatively flat site there. There's no concerns with different elevations along the site. Uh wet and dry utilities are available to support the site and the subdivision design will not cause any substantial environmental damage. This was all um uh reviewed in the design permit approval and that's about it. The public outreach was very substantial. Um I had to cut down this list because there was a lot

of other dates that that started in the beginning of the planning commission uh review. But uh we um uh provided their neighbors with with letters. Uh actually on December 2nd there was a public uh um hearing which was continued last month in the 16th. Staff report was published on the 16th of January and then we had a reminder yesterday and um throughout this process we had like I think five or six comments and they were all explained uh staff responded to them in the staff report. Uh this brings me to the staff recommendation. The planning commission uh recommends the the Crawford Way multifamily condominium uh subdivision map without changes to to the uh resolution and the SQA uh review was that this project was part um provided an addendum to the Broadway district specific plan environmental impact report and the addendum found that there were no substantial changes proposed with the design permit or condo subdivision map. And that's all I have.

Uh, thank you, William. Um, just for clarification for people who might just be hearing this, the resolution that we're considering tonight has nothing to do with making these units condominiums immediately, right? There's still a 10-year pause program associated with it. The reason I ask is because when you say condominium and as many times we said condominiums in the presentation, the assumption would be that these would be immediately made condominiums. No. So this is they're on their way. The next step is the tenative uh uh condo map. They also have to get an approval from the department of real estate and um then they construct begin construction

and and there's laws that prevent us from making the developer making these condominiums immediately. Correct. Uh, mayor, I think maybe um what you're referencing, so what what we've experienced in other projects um is a hesitancy among developers to sell uh condo units. And so we see this over at Canyon Ridge uh not Canyon Ridge, uh Village Ranch, for example, where they were designed, built, and approved as condominiums mapped uh but they're still held uh under a common ownership and rented. And so uh what is happening to have that occur is because there is a a limit a statute of limitations as it's known. It's 10 years for latent defects. So essentially if your drywall gets cracked in the first 10 years uh you're allowed to go after and sue the the contractor or owner or developer who who um built that for you. And so much more common in um common interest developments with shared walls and shared roofs and things like that where um things maybe have settled and and there's a whole genre of plaintist attorneys who focus on suing HOAs and suing contractors in year 9 to get all these things and it's really quite a mess. So there there isn't anything that would prevent um folks from su uh from from selling these units. It's going to be up to the property owner if and when they build them. And if and when they move forward with any of this, it's on them that they they will get to decide. But what we have seen in our experience is this uh other state law that exists that is kind of allowing these other practices to happen that kind of um creates an impediment or creates a disincentive for them to for them to do that. So on our end, what we're doing is uh is laying all the groundwork for these to to eventually uh turn out to be condos and be sold that way. Um but it'll be up to the property owner to decide if and when.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I just know that vice mayor, you've always been an advocate for condominiums. So, I just wanted to make sure it was clear that people didn't think we had condominiums coming in here within the next four to five years. We might again, it's going to be the property.

Yeah. Yeah. I I was going to, you know, wanted to hear from the developer first if they had comments because I know there seems to be a dispute over the U inclusionary housing condition. Um, and it seems to me in reading this, it does sound like the developer's intention is to build them for sale, you know, relatively immediately. That's the impression I'm getting. And I and I'm not clear. So that's why I'm looking forward to hearing comments from the developer to figure out what exactly is the intent. I mean, historically, the city manager is right. Usually developers will come up and say, "We're going to build it to condominium standards." I think because their intent is to get the word condominium into the atmosphere so that people like me will say, "Oh, yeah, there's hope." I understand that we can't make you do that. But if the developer wants to, it seems like we should take advantage of that opportunity. And I do know there's a bit of an incentive because as a condominium, they only have to come up with 10% affordability. If it's just a rental, it's 15. So, again, I I'm looking forward to hearing from the developer because there's just some confusion in my head and I'd like to get it all cleared up before I vote. So, thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Any other clarifying questions or count uh comments from council? Seeing none, I will open to public comment for item number seven. Okay. If there's any I have a couple of cards. Okay. Phillip Thomas.

Good evening, Philip. Council members, first happy new year to you. Happy new year to you. Pleasant went better than last year. Um, I live next door to the project and I'm in support of it being condominiums for sale. Uh, the only comment I had during previous meetings, I think we spoke out about having some kind of privacy there. um between the properties and the developer kindly reached out to us and said they would work with us in good faith to put some kind of planning and screening there to to give us some kind of privacy. Um that's the only comments I have and if it goes forward I wish the developer and the condominium project much success. That's the only comments I have. Thank you very much. Thank you Phillip. Okay. And we have Hugh Marquez.

Good evening. Council Mayor uh Hugh Marquez. I live on Crawford Way. Um I have some concerns over the wording. As I look over the the the some of the the wording. I see condominium. I see townhouse. I see single family member single family resident uh and the for the resolution or the paperwork for the resolution. And I understand the developer already is trying to change the wording to say that they can be rentals versus uh in his public comic and other public comics, the developer has said, "No, these are for sale." And I do believe that that having uh affordable housing in our town is good. And so I'm sort of concerned uh of the of the wording and already the developer is trying to get the word rentals away from by telling but then telling the public, well no, we're selling these. So So um I I I'm sort of with the city uh for denying the use of the word rent. I believe the city's response to one of the appeals uh that the developer has made. I believe they made four or five. Uh but one of them was the word rent and I know the city rejected that and going through some of those. Uh it looks like the city made some very good responses to the city and and in and saying no, this is not what we want in our city. So, um, I hope you'll take a look at that and hopefully the developer will be able to explain why they've told in public comment that these are for sale, but now they're coming back for a a re an appeal to get them to say that they're rentals. Thank you.

Thank you. you. [clears throat] I have no other speaker cards and no hands raised online. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Since there's no more public comment, I'd like to close public comment for item number seven and return to the council for any additional statements, questions, or motion to adopt a resolutions approving the tenative subdivision map. Are is the developer going to make any statement or comments?

If if we can avoid closing the the [clears throat] hearing just to hear from them. I mean, I don't want to put you on the spot necessarily, but I am cons I agree with one speaker that I'm not sure what your intentions are and and what assurances we have to make sure all this comes to pass. So, and if Thank you. If you could for the record just state your name and association.

Certainly. Yes. My name is Neil Ryer. I'm part of the developer side team here on the project. And so, um, much to what the city manager had mentioned earlier, um, there are certainly some disincentives regarding just the statute of limitations when it comes to constructibility. So, um, there hasn't been a final decision yet made on, uh, when ownership would like to move forward with selling the units, but I think having that optionality at this time is still something that wants to be uh, secured. So, um, for the time being, I think it's still worthwhile to at least get everything in order right now so that they can be sold in the future, but we just don't have a concrete timeline on when that's supposed to happen. Um, as far as anything with the affordability units, I think there's a mutual understanding there. I don't think there's any uh outstanding misunder uh misinterpretations about how the affordable units are to be calculated. So, um, I think on that end that's all settled business.

Okay. So, it's understood. The only incentive that we really have here is if they are for sale, then you only have a 10% obligation. If they turn into rentals, then it's a 15% obligation. That is correct. And the language we have, the conditions of approval are clear to you that it's kind of like whatever ends up happening. If they're for sale, great. I'm excited 10%. If you can't sell them, they're rentals, I'm not excited, and you got a 15%.

Yes. And I think as part of our submitt to the DR that will be further codified. So we'll go through with that DR submitt process as requested and um once that is finalized then we'll be able to uh present our case fully and explain exactly what it is that we're doing. Okay. Thank you. Absolutely. Council member Oro. So sir, if you don't mind, I may have a question for you and you may want to comment or not. Um so let me just rephrase what I just heard in more simple terms. Right now, we're leaning towards rentals because of the def defect I what's the term for that? The deficiency laws. Statute of limitations for latent defects. Yeah, latent defect laws. Wording.

Yes. The wording, right? And we've been through this before. The village at Vintage Ranch uh did that and they're they're all rentals. I don't know. I think we're coming up close to 10 years. I don't know if they're going to turn it over into condos or not. Um, and so I think you're leaning that way towards rentals with the option in a future time or date to make it for sale property a condo. That is correct.

Okay. Thank you. So, just want to be clear on that is what I heard. Um, and that is the the I don't know if that was clear to me earlier when we were asking these questions. I just want to make sure that the public actually heard that and that this is actually kind of common in the state of California. And considering California's housing crisis and laws, I thought there would have been one in those package of bills uh a statement about latent defect laws to where we could change that to where we can actually build more ownership and housing, which is unfortunate. Maybe we'll talk to our state representatives about that. Thank you.

Yeah. Um and thank you, Neil, for um making that statement. And yes, if you could introduce yourself. So for the record,

good evening everyone. Uh William Yay with the development group. I just wanted to make a point of clarification because these terms have kind of been thrown around. Is it for sale? Is it for rent? Right. The affordable housing, the inclusionary housing policy is very clear and the definition of for sale does not mean that it is going to be sold and put up for market on day one. It means that it has its own individual deed. Right? So, it's a designation for the unit. In other words, you can think about it this way. How many um APNs are there associated with the project, right? So, if it's I'm just guessing the domain at Napa Junction has got one APN or maybe two APNs because they're two separate sites, right? There are not 200 and however many units they have APN, right? It's one or two APN. That means that that is by definition a rental, right? they they the individual units cannot be sold unless they go through this condo process. And so when you say rental and you say, "Hey, you guys aren't going to rent these out." That does not mean that we are ineligible to rent them out. We certainly are capable of renting them out just like the Village of Vintage Ranch is doing, right? So what we're talking about is a technical designation that there will be a 100 individual APNS associated with 100 individual units and those units will have individual deeds for them and can be individually alienated at a future date of the ownership's choosing. Right? To uh to Mr. Holly's point, they get sold after the 10 years because nobody likes getting sued, right? Um and so that's the distinction. So I want to be clear on that. We are pursuing a condo designation for the entire project. There will be 100 APNS and that will thereby make us uh make the affordable housing or the inclusionary housing requirement be 10% of units permitted by Bright which is 86 units. So we will have 8.6 units that are considered

inclusionary. Lower income that rounds up to nine units. That then will be distributed according to the global programming of the site. There are 68 two-bed units. There are 32 three bed units. And so the same proportion would follow through for the affordable or lower income deed restricted units. So that's what we're talking about. We're going for a condo designation. We are when I say, oh, they're going to be rentals, that does not mean that we're going to have one APN and we're going to be subject to 15%. That's not what we're talking about. We do not intend on this project being subject to 15% because frankly the project is too small. It will not be financially viable if 15% of the units are deed restricted for lower income. So, I hope that's clear and I'm happy to take other questions on that on that.

Thank you. Um, William, Vice Mayor. Okay. So, unlike the other developers who just say we're going to build it like a condo, you're actually going to go to the extent of creating the hundred separate APNs, which is certainly a good thing, right? But then the question is if you have a 100 APNS but you still rent them out then in my world I would say okay then you owe us 15%. Not nine or not 10. So h so I guess the question is how do we figure out what your business model is because you're going through all the motions to make it for sale

right but they're rented. So initially in my world it would be you owe us 15% affordability and when you start selling them off let's say 10 years from now you literally could just sell off 90% at market rates and the last nine are going to be deed restricted in some fashion. Right? So I would point to the municipal code and the inclusionary housing policy which does not stipulate when a developer or an owner of a unit needs to sell the unit. In fact, under the ownership section, I can't quote the code, but it says specifically 10% shall be deeed restricted um and uh

whether for sale or for rent. That's the language. So the MUN code captures the and provides for the possibility and the right of the property developer and owner to either sell a unit or rent the unit as a condo which would technically be defined as for sale in this context whether or not it is sold. Okay. So that's what the MUN code says and that's what we're adhering to. Okay. So it sounds like at the end of the day they're going to be set up as condos that could be sold as condos much better than all the other guys. But you're still trying to get a 10% affordability when you're really renting them out.

We're renting them out because the code does not specify that you must sell them within a specified period of time. So we are adhering to the municipal code as it pertains to the inclusionary housing policy. I see Mr. Holly nodding his head because that's the case. So then I guess the conclusion in my head is we've got to tighten up our code. But that's the next guy's unfortunately beyond my perview, sir. That's true. All right. Thank you. I would say we we have the [clears throat] same understanding. Uh notwithstanding maybe Mark's point, it

I think it may be simpler to think about it in the terms of a detached project. For example, Dr. Horton is over in Watson Ranch building homes. They're doing an affordable obligation, although it was met separately through a built project. If they hadn't done that built project, they would have had your basic affordable project. Dr. Horton could build those homes and hold on to them and rent them. and there isn't a point where we could then make that transaction happen and that's um something we can look at and maybe there's language we can tighten up. what we are doing is accomplishing a tremendous amount of administrative work. Um the submitts to DR, the recording of this map, all of the things the the formation of um you know DHOAs and things like to to manage the common properties, all of the leg work that it would take to have the transaction happen if and when the ownership wants to is done. If we waited for 10 years and then said, "Hey, now there now they want to go back and do all that." It would be a lot harder. There would be a lot more obstacles in the way. So, um, all of those pieces are being done now and that was the purpose of what we're trying to accomplish.

Uh, Council Member Oro. Yeah, thank you. And listen, I I this is there's clearly some idiosyncrasies here and I'm in favor of tightening up the code, but also at the same time, I don't want to look at this as something to where uh the applicant here seems to be trying to get out of their commitment to inclusionary housing. They're building housing,

which is much needed in California. whether we get nine or 15. Sure, we would have to we would love to have more than 15, but they're building a product that does not exist in the city of American Canyon. Condominium home housing and like I've every other house here is a middle class home uh either standards from the 80s and and the 70s where smaller footprint 1500 ft and the vast majority of them are 20 2500 or above, right? And they and what we're having now here and I I'm experiencing it myself and some others that I talked to is kids move out and you're you bought a big house but you don't want to live in that big house anymore but you also don't want to leave town and you don't necessarily want to rent but you could buy a condo. We don't have that option now. And so, like, you know, I I just would be careful in terms of categorizing the applicant's business model when they're really trying to make it, from what I could see, they're trying to make it work. That's a lot of work that you just did. We didn't do that at the Village of Vintage Ranch. They'll probably sit on it because I think they're making money handover fist on commercial rates, you know. But, um, you know, I applaud you. I know that you went through this a couple of times trying to figure out exactly what would work here. You had some workspace lofts and some different housing. Um, but I think the City of American Canyon would welcome um an attempt at selling ownership on condominium style housing. So, thank you.

And I just want to clarify, it sounded like I was grilling you. I probably was grilling you, but a lot of it was for me to understand what our code is saying and not saying. And to be honest, I'm going to bring up later on that maybe we need to revisit our code that the 10 10 15% differential is an incentive that doesn't that's doesn't seem to be working. So just [clears throat] FYI recognize you are here under the existing codes which is great and I know you've been at this for a long time. Yeah.

So I don't want to stall or cause any other problems. I'm just thinking going forward and and you're the first developer, by the way, who's gotten this far. Like I said, usually most people come in and say, "Oh, I'll build it to a condo standard." And then that's that and they're just rentals and that's it. You're at least going far enough to say, "Look, this is an option. Maybe not immediately because of the law and everything else, but it's an option." And it will be far more realistic when the time comes than everybody else. So, I applaud you and I appreciate it. And I know you've been at this a long time and everybody ought to be able to get done with things sooner or later. So I just want to be clear. I'm grumpy about the problem with the code, not with your project.

I appreciate the comment and I think from, you know, it's important for us to let the city and everybody know what our intentions are, right? I mean, I've come here personally to attend these meetings and the intention is I can't sit here and tell you like, hey, these things are going to go on sale day one because the realities are the realities. Someone's going to get sued. And you know what that does? That drives prices up. So the general contractor is going to say,

well, are you going to sell these things within 10 years? Then I got to go tell my insurance company because I'm going to get a lawsuit in year eight, year nine, and that's going to drive prices up for me, which drives prices up for you, which drives prices up for the prospective buyer or the tenant, right? So, it's a trickle down. There's no free lunch. We're not getting away with anything. We're complying with the municipal code as it exists, the inclusionary housing policy that exists. It makes it challenging. I'll tell you that 15% right that got adopted I don't know a couple years back. I think the village they didn't have to comply with that. I think they're at five if maybe I'm wrong but yeah.

Um so it's it's a challenge which is it's it's but it's a learning process for us and the delays are not on the part of the city. I mean a lot of it is us learning this process as well, right? and hoping to repeat it hopefully in town again. Um that's that's the intention from our part. So Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you, William, and thank you, Neil, for you know, answering those questions and my colleagues. Um good dialogue, mayor. I just before we wrap up, I wanted to thank uh the developer for working with their neighbors. And it's it's telling to have a neighbor come and and be complimentary of a project. We don't get that all that often. And so, I wanted to commend you all for for doing that. I agree. I met with Philip and his wife some time ago and they were very complimentary of you as well. So, thank you.

So, I'll close public comment and come back to the council to return to accept a motion or adopt a resolution approving the tenative subdivision map to permit the future subdivision of Crawford Way project. Well, just to show there's no hard feelings, I'll make a motion that we adopt resolution number 2026 next in order. uh a resolution of the city council of the city of American Canyon approving a tenative subdivision map to permit the future subdivision of the Crawford Way project into 100 condominium multifamily dwelling units on a 4.34 acre site at the southwest corner of Crawford Way and Highway 29 APN's 058320001 and 058290012 file number PL25-00001 1 Z.

A second. We have a second. Can I get a roll call, please? Madame Clerk, [clears throat] uh, Council Member Lamatina, yes. Council member Oro, yes. Vice Mayor Joseph, yes. Mayor Washington, yes. Uh, next public hearing item is item number eight, the Geo Geo Venoi Logistics Center tenative partial map and designate permit extension. Uh, you too, William. Okay. Yeah.

Good evening again. William, community development department. Um uh I'm here to give a short presentation on the Gvenon Logistics Center tenative parcel map and design permit extension. Uh the uh no slides for this one. I'm just going to give an overview. Uh the Gvenon Logistics Center consists of a up to 2.4 million square feet of high cube warehouse on a 28 acre site in the general industrial zoning district. Uh the city council approved a design permit and tenative parcel map for the project in March of 2023. And in uh November of 2024, the applicant uh filed an an application extension of the project which was approved in March of 2025. Um the the applicant needed more time to complete their uh final map. Uh so they're getting close. And then last November, the applicant filed a second extension for the project. And they um explained that um legal matters have initially delayed the project and more time is required to complete the private improvements that are required prior to the final map. Um, so they filed for the uh second extension and uh according to the municip municipal code, a tenative parcel map is allowed a one-year extension up to three times. This would be the second time. Um the the project is uh uh getting on pace and um if this uh second extension is approved, the um the new expiration date will be March 21st of 2027. And that's all I have for this one. The applicant is here and she would like to say a couple things.

Thank you, Will. Good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Caitlyn Moore and I'm a senior development project manager for Buzz Oats and I'm here tonight on behalf of the applicant. I've been working on this project for the last two years alongside Joe Levich of our team who's been working on it for several more. As many of you will know and remember, this project has been on quite a journey and we are really, really excited to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and the last of the hurdles. I wanted to thank staff for preparing the staff report tonight and for getting us on the agenda. Um, our ask tonight is simple. It's just a 12-month extension on the previously approved conditions of approval on the tenative parcel map and the design review permit. We're not asking for any changes to those conditions. And I'm also happy to add that although I can't disclose any specific names, we are in current negotiations with a build to suit tenant that would occupy a large portion of phase one which is to the east of Delin Road for the project. And with that getting solidified, it'll help us pick up speed even quicker. Um even without that tenant, we still plan to move on this project in 2026 as soon as we can get our permits approved. Um, we're also hoping that if it's a potential that um, the prior grading permits that we had submitted, if we can revitalize those and speed up that process even more, I think that would be beneficial to all. It's all I have tonight and I'm happy to try to answer any questions you might have, but otherwise, thank you for taking us all in consideration.

Thank you, Caitlyn. Mayor Washington, I do have Ernie Odell online with a hand raised. Okay, I I'll get to him in a second. Thank you, Caitlyn, and thank you, William. Um, any clarifying questions from council? I see you, Vice Mayor Joseph. No, I changed my mind. No, you don't have a question.

Well, I'm I'm more excited to hear that we're getting towards the end of the tunnel. Um, my only question is is more the nature of the businesses. I I'm concerned that warehouses are kind of losing momentum here in American Canyon. We're not as competitive as other areas to, you know, outside of Napa County. So, I'm just hoping the build the suit isn't just another warehouse operation and you know recognizing you can't say who it is.

Yes, I wish I could say more and hopefully very soon we can. Um, but being Buzz Oats has been doing industrial development for a long long time and it has been an interesting market this last year for 2025. Um the pickup in leasing activity [clears throat] in general um throughout this area in the central valley has been extremely promising which is why we're continuing to push projects forward. Um just speaking for our company in general, we have a 10-year plan that includes more expansion. So um although the market has been troublesome in this last year, I think things are really turning around and we're excited to bring more jobs into the community and the user that we are talking to that would happen with this project. So I think that's a good news for you guys. Perfect. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Caitlyn. And I I think the assumption is when we start talking about warehousing that it's just for wine and stuff like that. But um I work for a large company and we have two major warehouses and it's pharmaceutical. So it's great jobs that come in to play with that as well. Uh and I've also had an opportunity to talk with Joe and he was a really um informative not telling me who it was but just more informative to let me know that it's not just standard wineries that's going to come that's going to come out. So again, I appreciate your u comment, but if there's no other comment from council, I'd like to open it up to public comment on item number what I item number eight. I know we have the one online, but do we have anybody in the room first? Valerie,

I do have I do have cards. I'm sorry. I thought Ernie was part of the team doing the process. Ernie's not part of this team. Okay. Sorry. It was my my mistake. No, I appreciate that.

I have Valerie. Hello everybody. Valerie Zak Morurice, president CEO of the American Canyon Chamber. Um hello council um and mayor again tonight. So we've been following this project since the beginning. Um, and we've been partnering with uh Buzz Oats and Joe Levich and we've been a supporter of this knowing that this is what we have zoned um for this area here in American Canyon and bringing in jobs and creating more opportunities for our community is something we support as the Chamber of Commerce. So um you've heard me many times stand up here and advocate for the importance of a project like this. So, I'm here again tonight to just reiterate the fact that giving the extension and allowing them the time that they need to um properly work through the logistics of the project, keeping in mind that they have been tied up with lawsuits and other uh legal matters that have delayed this project. I just want to bring importance to saying that when we get a developer like Buzz Oats in our community, treating them with respect and really respecting what they bring to our community is very important and builds a trust with the developer and also creates a name for American Canyon that we are businessfriendly and easy to work with. So, I just want to remind the council um the importance of proving this extension tonight and really um learning from them um their experiences and how this process has gone and allowing us to create stronger partners and really bringing in higher paying jobs and more opportunities for American Canyon. So, uh the Chamber of Commerce is advocating for this project to have the extension and be approved and become a part of our community. So, thank you very much for your time. I just wanted to express my feelings on that tonight.

Thank you, Valerie. Ivon Beginsky.

Hi, I'm Yvon Beginsky with Napa County. Kind of a glass half empty kind of gal today. Um, thank you for your enthusiasm and hopes for the future of Buzz Oats in this community. But what I'm reading in the North Bay Journal and in the Press Democrat and in other publications seem to indicate that the businesses that have traditionally used these warehouses, at least in American Canyon and Napa County, are faltering. Um, we just had Napa Valley Co-op withdraw from this particular project and take 1.1 million square feet and downsize to 100,000 feet, which they're going into Setter Home Winery. warehouse. Constellation is just closing their facility in Southern California. We're starting to see a lot things shutting down. I don't know what the anchor of the Buzz Oats building is going to be, but I will tell you that the New York Times reported last week that a lot of these warehouses are being renovated into ICE detention centers. So, I caution I caution uh leaving these empty warehouses sitting around and um waiting for ice to come in. Um I believe that the level of empty warehouses in American Canyon is almost 20%. Um I don't know um whether that is going to play into this. I know you can't say no. I know that you're going to say yes. You're going to vote yes for this. I know that. But I just want to caution you um that the winery business and what everything I'm seeing is going in the other direction and um and these are going to be some very tough times. So I'm just cautioning you and I know that that's not going to change your vote, but I just wanted to say that. Thank you.

Thank you, Ivonne. That is my last speaker card if you're ready for online. Yes. Okay. Bernie, go ahead.

Ernie, you're muted.

Yes. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Ernie Nodell. I am with Orchard Partners, the developer of the Napa Logistics Park. I stood before you one year ago when the Giovenoni Logistics Park sought to extend their tenative map and design permit. I had requested that council look at correcting conditions in the tenative map and design permit before approving the extensions. I explained the city had made a gross error by understating how much the Giovani developer must reimburse us for their share of the permanent sewer solution. At the time, council member David Oro stated, and I quote, "Napa Logistics Project has been a good partner to the city for a very long time and really brought forward what they said and delivered what they said they would. That was a real project and they met all their commitments. I have to take his words seriously because I know he has delivered." unquote. Vice Mayor Joseph at the time stated, quote, "It seems to be a difficult issue with a lot of money involved. I agree that Napa Logistics has been an excellent project." Council continued the matter for a month to let the parties work something out. However, we heard nothing from the city or from the developer. And on March 4th of last year, Joe Levy of Buzz Oats, the developer of Giovani Logistics Park, stood before you and stated, I quote, "We will be good partners and pay our fair share. Us as Buzz Oats think we have a good reputation in the market and we do what we say we are going to do." As of today, nothing has changed. The conditions are the same as they were a year ago. The Giovani project will proceed with phase one this year and the project will owe us over $2.5 million. The city condition currently states they

will only owe us $85,000. The conundrum for the city is that if you don't collect the correct amount, the city will need to pay us the deficiency. In this case alone, that amounts to $1.7 million. There are two other cost sharing parties and they agree with our calculations. In fact, the Napa Valo Waste Management Authority has paid their share of $317,000 to the city. However, your city manager refuses to forward those funds to us in breach of our agreement. The choice for council tonight is to either allow the gross error to perpetuate and put the city and its taxpayers at risk or finally direct your city manager to fix the error. Thank you. Thank you, Ernie. Any other calls?

I have no other hands raised online.

Thank you. If there's no more public comment, I'd like to close public comment on item number eight. Return to council for any additional statement, questions, or motion to adopt a resolution approving the 12-month extension. Well, uh, my understanding is that we are trying to work those issues out and I'm not going to publicly discuss anything here. I do believe that we should extend the Jebani project and I am looking There we go. Um, so I'll make a motion uh comments notwithstanding uh a resolution of the city council of the city of American Canyon, California, approving a 12-month extension to the Geminoni tenative parcel map and design permit from March 21, 2026 to March 21, 2027. APN's 057 090 00008 057 1 1300 034 and 057130 036 file number PL2513.

I'll second. We have a second. Can we get a roll call, please? Yes. [clears throat] Council member Lamatina. Yes. Council member Oro? Yes. Vice Mayor Joseph? Yes, Mayor Washington. Yes. And for the record, I just want to say Joe and Caitlyn, you have been great partners. So, thank you. Uh, next we'll move on to business item number nine, the uh, re revenue measure. Mr. Holly, is that going to be you or Ally?

Uh, yes, Mayor. Um, I'll just do a little bit of a backdrop here. This has been a topic that the council has put on our uh work plan for this uh for this particular year. Uh it's something that you had delegated over to the parks and community services commission for exploration and over the last several months uh staff has been briefing them on this particular issue and now we're bringing it forward uh for discussion with you all. So we'll take it away Ally.

Thank you Jason. So, yes, um we're here this evening to talk to you about our revenue measure um coming uh for November 2026. Um so, at the council's direction, uh the parks and community services commission was tasked uh through its work plan to learn about and provide input on a potential revenue measure to help fund future largecale civic projects. As part of this effort, the commission received a presentation from assistant city manager Juan Gomez and myself on November 13, 2025 and January 6, 2026. On a parallel path, the commission has been working on updating the parks and community services master plan, which is expected to be completed by June 2026. In early 2025, the commission completed an extensive community engagement process which identified several key wants and needs, including continuing to take care of what we currently have. Install synthetic turf fields, which costs approximately about $2 million per field. Oops, there we go. Um, and we estimate that the city would need about three fields to be able to support our current youth sports organizations, um, their demands, um, of where we're at currently now and potentially into the future. And then update our play pool at the Phil West Aquatic Center, which is an estimate of approximately about $4 million. And then to build a double gymnasium/ community center, which is an estimated approximately $30 million. Through this process, it has become clear that many of these community priorities are significant capital projects and would require additional funding beyond the current general fund capacities.

The commission looked at three different revenue measure options. One is a transit occupancy tax which is also referred to as a toot. So the toot currently right now uh what we have is 12%. Um the city receives that fully. So we receive that 100%. Um we uh that pretty much what happens is the tax is paid by people that stay in that hotel. They pay the room rate plus that 12% and that comes directly back to the city. We currently bring in about $19 million. Um, and we have about three hotels um that currently contribute to that. We have a fourth hotel um that will be contributing to that here in the future. The city could increase that by 1% and that could potentially generate an additional $158,000 a year. Um so that that could be an option. Option two is a parcel tax. So this tax would be placed on a property. This tax could be a variation of things. Um, it could be a fixed amount. It could um it's um it's could it's tied to the property. Um it's um where the owner is um pays for uh it's tied to the property and the owner is fully responsible for that. Um and it's part of the tax. It's part of their bill. Um and it's fully uh it's the burden of the taxpayer on that property. Um and again it's it could be a fixed amount. It could be a percentage. It could be an It could be tied to the number of units on that parcel. It could be um based on the square footage of the home. It could be a variation of things. It's it's really is the makeup of how you want to make that parcel tax break out. Um and to keep things simple, um we currently have 5,500 parcels. Um of those 5,000 are

residential. And um if we were to just kind of again keep things simple, if we wanted to uh impose a parcel tax, we can simple math, $100 per year, that would generate about $55,000 per year. Um and then lastly, we looked at the transaction and use tax. This is also known as a sales tax. Um, currently right now, um, so how that works is, um, it's kind of like you go to Walmart, you buy something, you pay you pay sales tax. Um, the local share is 1%, the city gets that full 1%. Um, and, um, that is currently set at 7.75%, that's what we pay here in American Canyon. Um you have a um there is the ability to um impose an additional district tax increase which we can increment incrementally increase um from 0.125% all the way up to 2% at a max. The max forever would be 2%. Um currently right now what you're most familiar with is measure U um which is here in Napa County has already imposed 5%. So leaving 1.5% on the table for us um for the rest of forever until legislation makes that change. Um so each additional 0.25% 25% roughly generates 77 $750,000 a year. So in essence 5% sales tax would generate 1.5 million and then a 1 cent sales tax would generate 3 million. So with that being said um with the community's priorities and costs in mind the commission discussed three potential

revenue measure options. The commission did not support exploring a transient occupancy tax due to its concerns that it would not be beneficial and could impact hotels competitiveness in Napa Valley um and the hotel market. The commission also did not support a parcel tax as they did not want to place an additional financial burden on residents. Instead, the commission is interested in exploring a sales tax measure since the burden would be shared with visitors and not just residents. The commission is recommending that the city council award a contract with FM3 to conduct statistically valid public opinion research to assess voter support and overall viability of a revenue measure. Um this is considered best practice before taking any revenue measure to the ballot. The survey would be conducted in both English and in Spanish. Um in addition the commission is recommending of increasing our current um contract with Trapepy Smith. Um it is important to do outreach and education with the polling and research because we as a city we can't advocate but we can educate and we were going to want to do that um just so that way we can make sure that we are um informing the public why we're doing this. And part of this process is also um testing and understanding what it what is going to um be important to the community of if we are going to take a revenue measure to the ballot um what they would be interested in and what they would support. And this is where they would test a ballot title and summary. Um they would do the opposition. They would do all of that. Um and then part of um we as part of that process we would also we would like to test a one-cent sales tax measure. Um the testing would include different different variations. It would help determine whether the measure would be a special sales tax which would require um

it would it would excuse me let me take two steps back. Um part of this process it's also going to test and determine what type of sales tax measure it's going to be. Um, and the reason why I say that is because, uh, you're going to want to determine on if it's going to be a special sale, a special sales tax measure or a general. So, a special sales tax measure is something that is very specific, something that you can only spend that money on. So, if you're only going to focus on roads and streets, then you can only spend that money on roads and streets. And that's where you need a 23 um threshold. If you are going for general, then you need a 50 plus one. And that's really where you can spend it on a variation of things. And that's really where the money goes into the general fund. And you can use it to spend on anything that would be accounted for in the general fund. If a measure does pass, it gives the cities the ability to issue debt or it can do a pay as you go option. Um, and this really does give the ability for you to complete those largescale civic projects. And you're seeing this around um happening right now. So you're seeing like the city of Napa is doing it. The city of Walnut Creek um a lot of those um cities that have passed those measures back in no um back in 2024. Now you're seeing a lot of those big um civic facility projects coming to life now. So, just to kind of just kind of put you uh put us where we are and show what other cities are with their sales tax and where we are um in comparison. So, American Canyon is at 7.75%. You have the city of Napa where they most recently passed their 1 cent sales tax measure back in November of 2024. They're at 8.75. Valo is at 9.25. City of Fairfield is 8.375. of conquered at 9.75. City of Akavville is 8.125.

City of Benanishia they passed their 3/4 cent in March of 2024. And then city of Cissoon city passed a 1.75 cent u measure for November 2024 and they're at 9.124. And again, all of these um they're they were general, so they um they were not specific. So they they were able to they went out for polling, they did their outreach, they did their education and um for instance, city of Napa, their uh their measure G is for road repair, parks, public safety, homeless support. City of Walnut Creek, their measure O is a half cent sales tax. Um they're enhancing their measure O was enhancing public safety, parks, youth, senior programs, art, disaster preparedness, downtown revitalization. um uh while replacing aging infrastructure. Um so that that just kind of gives you a sense of like when they went out and they did their polling and their surveying, this is the things that came back as part of that, what was important to their community and what they're focusing on with those um with those tax dollars. So if we move forward and you approve these contracts this evening, this kind of gives you a timeline of what we would be focusing on from now until June. Um because really it's it really is going to be a sprint. Um we would hit the pavement running. Um we really only have a very short period of time to really pull and um understand the viability of a revenue measure with the public from February to May because we would need to be able to make a decision in June. um we would want to be able to make bring a decision back to um you and have a recommendation before you to um bring either say this is our recommendation. We want to bring a revenue measure to the ballot on November 3rd for the general election um or say unfortunately

it's just not going to be a viable option. We'll try again later or whatever the case may be. So, um, this from February to May is our outreach and education efforts and our polling. Um, we're going to test the ballot, title, and summary. Um, there is a potential to do that twice. Um, that is recommended. That's why the contract is written the way that it is. You test it first. If it is successful the first time, then you test it again to finalize the ballot title and summary. Um and then um then that that weight set and ready to go to go to the ballot for November. And then um once we have that set and ready to go, then we would bring that recommendation forward in June. And um uh if the council decides and agrees, then um then from June to November, then our outreach and education efforts would be around that initiative to vote yes on that initiative for November. And that concludes my staff report and I'm here to answer any questions for you. Thank you.

Thank you, Ally. Um [clears throat] for me, one question though on the on the part where you said that uh once we get that polling back in June um so we could push it forward if it's yes to go on the ballot. Say it's a a vote of 41 on the council by the time it by the time it goes on the ballot. I think you and I had a conversation about this, Jason, where you could write the the council members that are supportive of it can write a reason why we support it and the [clears throat] council who are against it could write something about why the cons of it. Correct. Or am I messing that all up?

Uh no, that that's correct. Um so generally just taking a little bit bigger picture. Um generally, uh cities can't use taxpayer dollars to advocate for or against measures. There's some uh limitations to that or there's some exceptions to that I'll say. Um for example, the council can adopt positions of support or opposition and you can do that on on a variety of measures. Um as it relates to initiatives that the city itself might be proposing and that is required in the case of revenue measures. So you all can't just raise taxes. It's only the voters who can do that. So if you thought this was a great idea, you couldn't do it. It's only the voters who can do it. And if you felt like you wanted to ask the voters whether they were okay with that, then yes, it takes a simple majority of the council three yes votes to then place it on an election. And at that point, you really get past the point where we can be using taxpayers on taxpayer dollars on advocacy. So it's really that last time. So, if you wanted to place that on the ballot, uh there are uh literally on the ballot there's uh or in the educational pamphlet there is uh you know opposition response and and a variety of positions are outlined. Uh in the case of a city initiative, the city council has the choice whether it actually wants to write uh that sort of what is an advocacy piece uh be able to write its advocacy. And at that point again a council majority can um work through whatever processes you want to use to write that advocacy piece and even dissenting members of the council are afforded the opportunity to write the dissension piece in opposition and you're given that first that first cut if you will for city initiated measures. It's not the same for voter initiated ones, but it is for um for city initiated measures. So, um that's something we'd be talking about in June if if and when we we get that far. There are a variety of steps uh that we've already been through that that Ally mentioned and there's some more steps that are proposed if the council's

interested. Uh there's no requirement that we do anything. this can be ended right here with a nice conversation and interesting information uh and sort of put at that in the knowledge bank for a future time or if we'd like to move forward for something in November then there's some steps along the way and the the staff recommendation is to start to ask the public what they might think about a tax measure and what do they know about the needs and and that sort of thing. So we'd hire professionals to do that. The firm of FM3 is a a statewide firm recognized for their election polling. uh they do this as a profession. So we would engage them. Uh we would also engage our um our other consultants to help prepare some uhformational pieces related to what um you know what these funds might be used for and and what taxes are and and that's sort of um not campaign yes or no, justformational materials. Um that would come a little bit later. It wouldn't be happening in January. We need to do some of the initial polling first. But um yeah, so that's that's where we are. the the tonight as far as the steps in the process um and again where we've been with with PCS.

Thank you and I appreciate that and appreciate the presentation as well. Um any comment from the council vice mayor? Yes, thank you for the report and [clears throat] I would say that I am interested because I think well I agree with the commission that um increasing the toot my reason for not being excited is if it generates 150 grand a year that's not really enough to do anything. That's almost like just enough to annoy people and not enough to do anything. And I do agree the parcel tax, we've got too many um lighting and light lighting and landscaping or other assessments that feel like a parcel tax. So I wouldn't want to go there. So I do think the sales tax is the right one to look at in large part because of the revenue it can generate. I would like to throw out a couple of suggestions on when they go out and test you know the waters. uh maybe look at if there's any difference between a half cent increase versus a full 1%. I know Napa City claimed that it didn't matter one way or the other and it turned out they were right. But um some of us kind of think cheap and figure there might be more support for a half cent. Who knows? But if we could test that and then I do think parks and wreck and community facilities is probably the the prettiest sexiest items on the list. But I'd like to also test for traffic congestion because that's you know the big mantra and and even road maintenance. And I realize there's other funding sources that are earmarked, so it's not as terrible as parks and wreck, but I'm thinking we definitely want to craft something that's going to get ourselves the majority vote. So, if we could test for that to see if it works. The last

one, as I mentioned to the city manager, I would like to see this as a general purpose tax. Not just because that's a 50 plus one threshold, which is a lot easier than 2/3, but because I do believe down the road we're going to find ourselves in a situation where we might need to tap into it to make ends meet, to have a balanced budget, and so forth. So, I also realize that we should strive for 2/3 because that kind of makes it uh bulletproof in case any other crazy uh state initiatives come up that redefine the terms. So, those are my general comments and I'll leave it in closing. You know, ever since I got on the council, I've been pushing for what I call a capital set aside fund and over the years we've kind of slowly gotten there. This is an alternative approach to a capital set aside fund is to simply generate some new revenues that are essentially used to to maintain those facilities. So, um, in that respect, not exactly the way I wanted to get there, but it gets me there. So, I would be interested in moving forward on this and seeing what the waters look like.

Council member Oro.

Yeah, just a couple of notes and comments here. Um, regarding the toot, I can understand why that isn't, but you know, you should note that uh, everybody up valley voted for a 1% increase in their toot for affordable housing, and it really hasn't affected rates at all or occupancy. In fact, Napa Valley is doing pretty well, which is remarkable considering the price of that. So, if we were to pursue a toot, we we could do that because we never we didn't actually adopt it. our toot is lower than the rest of Napa Valley. Uh we didn't adopt it because we were meeting our affordable housing uh mandates and it seemed silly uh to do to to to tax on that when the rest the rest of the county had to catch up. We pro we wanted to use it for traffic actually. Um we should probably revisit that later which which goes right into my next point. I would love this to be clean. uh for parks and wreck and we it's something that we've just been putting band-aids on recently and and I commend you uh um director Aikita because I think the parks have come a long way in terms of improvement in what we're doing [clears throat] in terms of uh just getting better amenities. uh prior to the study that was happening, I said, "We got to get to world class parks. We actually make it have an opportunity to create something special here. Our wetlands are really valuable, but we need a community center. Um I campaigned recently just on that community center. I'm glad this is coming forward." Um so those are just the comments. I do have a comment on a question, Mr. Holly, and you can answer this when I'm done with my comments.

the 50 plus one. That's the only thing that's going to pass. We'll never get through a twothirds vote, I think. I mean, the polling will tell you, but I don't think we'll get a 2/3 dedicated anything. So, it's going to have to be a 50 plus one, which goes into the general funds money. I want to know that $3 million, how do we make sure it continues to go towards parks? Um, because it just goes into the general funds. I assume that would be set by the council as a policy working with finance to make sure that money goes to there particularly at the beginning because I would think we would bond future monies to pay for some of these things so we can get them now instead of later. Um the other thing I was thinking about and just pause as you were thinking about this. We have a parks master plan coming in June to us. I think we saw a draft of that earlier or some things that were going to go into it. We provided guidance on that. Correct.

Yes.

Yeah. And so I think community center was in there that we had to relook at things and then obviously you highlighted some sport fields and parks. You know, we're being asked to look at a poll for November, but we're going to get a master plan and its recommendations in June. The timing, could we wait until we actually adopted a master plan to see exactly what we needed? We know we're going to have to do this, but I'm just trying to understand like that master plan will inform a lot of us in terms of what we actually need and can achieve. And I think you've given us numbers 30 million for a venue of a community center and we would want it to be top-notch but it just maybe pause. I'm not saying we delay this in any way but would it make sense to have that in our hands beforehand? And then another question I have is around uh the polling questions. Is there a subcommittee within the council to see what that looks like? Because I think the polling questions are going to be very important. what questions are going to be asked or is that going to be by staff who is going to actually review that? Making sure that the important questions are asked and we can get the right read because some of those polling questions um can be used to inform a lot of things. I'm definitely against trying to again like I said I want to clean. We got plenty of funds although they're not enough but there are dedicated funds for improving traffic and road maintenance. Measure UU being one of those. We don't have anything dedicated outside of development fees for parks and I just want to keep this as clean as possible and support those parks and as much as we can. Those are my comments. Um if you want to remark on those fine. Yeah, hap

happy to. Uh was jotting down several notes. Um I'll kind of work in reverse. Um at the moment there is no council subcommittee assisting with the polling. That's only because we haven't asked you and you haven't said you want and if you if you do that's simple enough to do. We could even do that tonight. It's really not I think it's close enough to what we've agendaized. So um and I think that could be useful. Uh we we already have some some different perspectives on what this this measure ought to be used for and or test for. So, um, subcommittee certainly could be involved. It could be the finance committee. We could appoint a subcommittee here. We can figure out that detail, uh, in in a couple of moments. Um, as it relates to timing, um, you you bring up a very very very good question. Um, we are moving forward with the, uh, park master plan. We're thinking June is when uh, actually at your joint session. uh I think it's June 16th with PCS is what staff has currently calendared to have you and PCS sit down with what is their final in their minds ready to go version and to have you all sit and that's going to kind of be the purpose of your joint meeting along with some work plan for next year. So um but to your your point on timing um there's a little bit of a a cart in front of the horse as it relates to polling and to what these funds might be used for. I think we generally have an idea about what they would be but um we don't have that document with those exact things and those estimated costs and then that u sort of regimented process. Uh and so uh we very much could wait until November of 28 to actually go forward with with the ballot measure having you know in June 2026 now having a um a master plan. Um, part of what we're looking at with the master plan is to recognize that new development in our community will also benefit from those projects in the master plan. And there are some potential revenue sources there like development impact fees for example. So, we'd be looking at kind of two inputs. Uh, one being this potential

revenue measure and one being development impact fees to help fund some of those uh improvements that we've identified in the in the master plan. Um but again that fee program couldn't even begin to be studied and developed until after the master plan itself had been created. So we won't know what dollars it could generate or what impacts are related to that. So um you certainly uh November 2028 uh is a possibility. The other thing wanted to to point out um there's a variety of things happening at the state level. So general taxes, we had always thought 50% plus one was enough to do a general tax. Um there are groups in California who don't like any taxes and have sued and there are a variety of cases in Supreme Court cases and such that uh sort of mold around the definition of what taxes and fees are and a variety of things. Um there is a potential for a ballot measure statewide uh that would if passed essentially say all new taxes any new revenue measure anything doesn't matter has to be 2/3 general special yada yada doesn't matter everything's 2/3 and so if that were to pass statewide there's retroactivity provisions to it and there's a lot of cities right now looking at the recently passed tax measures wondering if they're going to continue to exist. So it's a really scary kind of environment out there. What we're thinking about is to try and navigate both both SHOs, I guess. Um, if you wanted to have a general and you still were able to get it passed by 2/3, then it would certainly survive that statewide challenge. It would still go into your general fund because it would be a general tax. the council could very much set up any number of fiscal policies or any number of we'll call them internal controls that would uh keep that money for a set set of purposes that you would decide and to the extent then you bond on those then the bond covenants are required that you pay back that debt um you know and you do the things that you got the bonds

for. So there would be a couple of lock boxes there. Um certainly if you do a special revenue measure then yeah those funds have to be uh budgeted separately uh and couldn't be coingled with general fund and that's generally the distinctions between the two. So um either way uh you could proceed with either type of measure. Um one of the positives of a of a general measure is that it would allow you the flexibility if you viewed that to be positive. Right? If for some reason you wanted to have some flexibility for rainy day or for any other purposes, that's what a general tax would give you. A special revenue tax uh would not it would have to be limited to the purposes that it was passed for. Um again, once you go out to get bonds, you've essentially now dedicated um the repayment of those bonds. You've kind of called your shots at that point, but um the special revenue does it before you even put it on the ballot. um the um how the public receives that information is something that you all are in the best position to kind of judge and the polling will help inform that. Right? Some people and the public may like the idea of a special revenue that could only be spent on the one thing uh and they feel more trusting or more certainty about uh how those revenues are spent and are more likely to do that uh as opposed to the general which they have no faith or trust in how that would be spent. and there are other constituents um that would be trusting in what is being used for and are very supportive of it knowing that it only takes 50 plus one to get that general purpose. So, you know, a variety of perspectives on this. Um revenue measures themselves are extraordinarily difficult. They're uh can be complicated and they're often controversial. So, um probably could have started leading with that that sort of designing point, but um which is why we're bringing this uh this point to you right now. So, um, all of those range of possibilities are there for you. Uh, and, um, including

taking this information and and deciding to just, uh, plot along and, uh, and and wait for November of 28, that the one thing I will say, if you're wanting to do a special revenue measure, it cannot go on a um, it has to go on a general election ballot. So, um, March of 2028 will be the primary for the national election. We move California moved its primary up to March. So, in theory, that would be the next time that a that a ballot measure could go forward. Um, but if you're going to do a special, it has to be at a general election. Um, and I I'm going from memory on that. I don't have the elections code in front of me. So, if that's an important distinction for you, March of 28 versus November 28, we can go back and get that factual.

Yeah. So it's either November this year or March of 28. Yeah.

Or or November of 28 depending on the kind of thing that you have to do. So I we can bring that information forward. And I I hope I clarified the the questions. We we certainly can design questions um that test one half cent versus one set. That's easy. Whether you're testing for a variety of other things other than park and wreck starts to expand the envelope. They It's not the number of questions that the polls charge you for. they view it as time, right? Because when you're when you're calling people to try to get them to answer, it's not whether you have 10 questions or 11 questions, that's not the fee. It's like how long is the um how long is the poll supposed to take? And and people's interest in answering those things rapidly declines, you know, after about seven, eight minutes and if you get them up to 10.

Yeah, Mr. Holly, I've been involved with these in the past and if you ask about something new, you actually have to ask it in several ways to get an answer or a true read. So, if you're asking about parks, you could say, "Do you like parks? Do you want a a civic center? Would you be willing to pay for that? Is a pool an option if it was a general fund?" Right? All those questions wrap around that. You throw in something like traffic. Oh, are you It's not just about adding a sales tax for traffic. would be part of the funds for parks, but it would be like you would have to ask how worried are you about traffic? How worried about you or parks? Which one is most important to you? And so that's where it be gets it gets really convoluted really quickly when you do polling. And so when you get these polling calls and you've hopefully you've taken a few because they are valuable um to the pollsters and to to others and to just the general public, they they they try to keep it very focused. a lot of times they're skewed to what they want to hear and get get something, but a lot of times they're they're actually for true knowledge in terms of pulling public opinion. Um, and what you don't want to do is muddle that um with something that is not very specific.

City attorney's office has their hands raised. Uh, Vice Mayor Joseph, let's let our city attorney go first. Oh, okay.

Hi. Yes. Sorry. This is John D. Christina. Just uh wanted to chime in. Jason, you mentioned talking about you didn't have the election code memorized. I I happen to do [laughter] that aspect of election code uh in in my back pocket. And so the distinction between the special and the general taxes is that the special tax can be the special tax that can be elected uh excuse me, voted on at basically any election that the council would call. That could be a special election. That could be the primary. It's the general election, excuse me, the general tax that needs to be at a general election that includes seats on the city council. So, that's where you're looking at either this November or probably I you know better than I when the next time your your council election is. But that's the distinction between the special and general taxes.

Yeah, thank you so much that for that, John. So, just to clarify, if we wanted to do it as a general, a 50 plus one, it's November of 26 or the next time seats would be up is November of 28. if you wanted to do it as a special um twothirds can be you could actually call a special election and do it that way or it could be at the um at the March 28th the primary. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Okay. Um well, I'm still interested in seeing if we can get it on this November's ballot so that we address it regardless of whether it's special or general. And and I would go with general because I think you're right, 50 + 1 is easier than 66 and 2/3. But also I do believe just financially um having the option of saying if you know it's like you know break glass in case of fire. If our financial condition worsens for whatever reason it would be nice to be able to tap into that and certainly bonding solves the problem. Um um you know because that earmarks it legally. So my point is I think we should go out and test the waters. I appreciate the challenges associated with trying to test too many things. My biggest concern is simply that I'm trying to make sure that we appeal to all the segments in the community. I think younger families obviously are more focused on parks and wrecks and and community facilities. older folks might be more focused on maintenance and roads and and other issues. And as an old guy who's been in the community for a while, I think my natural constituency tends to be the older people, the empty nesters. And so that's why I immediately think, you know, what can we put on the ballot that'll get those votes? So that's why I raised the issue about traffic, but by the same token, we're not just trying to convince you to vote for it. It's got to be sincere. So if we say, you know, is traffic important? Yes, it is. Well, we're not going to spend it. We're going to spend it over here. That's not going to build trust. But we

might want to look at exploring some of those areas that we think will be more appealing. Uh parks and wreck and community facilities are critical and important, but road issues are also important. There may be other issues that resonate with some of the old-timers that have been here or those that just have no kids and and are more negative towards tax increases anyway. So, that's the only reason I bring out the issues um that we ought to be testing for just to see what's out there. Um otherwise, like I said, I'm interested in pursuing. I think it would be nice to have the master plan completed, but realistically you can probably survey people to say, "Hey, is a community center important?" And that's probably more relevant than is a community center relevant if it's 30.1 or whatever the So, I think a lot of the details we don't need just to find out where people's heads are at. Um, obviously going into the general election, we need to have some more specificity, but I suspect we would have that and so we'd be okay in the educational process after June.

So, thank you.

At the risk, mayor of of touching a third rail, I guess that's my job. Um, we haven't touched on it, but the staff report does, so I'll raise it up. Um, we're anticipating uh that there might be another measure uh on the ballot in November. We don't know yet. were aware of a petition circulating um that might end up on the ballot in November. Too soon at this point to know. Um I bring it up only to say that that in that measure there is language about a sports complex. Um it's not in a location where the master plan is contemplating putting a sports complex. The master plan is going a different direction. This is on property that's not even in city limits, which is among the reasons we're not uh proposing to put a sports complex out there. Um, so I raised that to say as we're looking at putting our own potential measure in November, there is the scenario where you have two measures on the ballot talking about a sports complex, one not talking to the other because one's not planned to go in that location. Uh, and one of the first measure being controversial, right? And and the general principle is, you know, if you're going to be on a ballot, you don't want to be on a controversial one, but if you can't avoid it, you don't want to be tied to controversial things if you're trying to get something to pass. So, I raise that to to kind of mention that's maybe another consideration. Um, I think the polling aspects of this could be disassociated enough with the the petition that's being circulated right now, measure L as it's known. I I I I don't think the the opinion or the information from the polling will be to dissuade one from the intermingling of the other. But you could foresee as you start to go down this track where now we get into June, July, August, they're both going to be on the ballot and there's confusion, discussion, controversy amongst one and the other. So, um I raise that only to surface an issue because it's I like to do that before we spend money. Um I do think the the polling that we would spend money in the very next step could be done without the two being too intermingled. But um you know I wanted

to point that out cuz it's somebody of a unique circumstance and I didn't want it to be lost on anyone. Yeah, I can see how that could be confusing. Are you finished my face? Are you done? Yes. Okay. Okay. With that, I'd like to open up public comment for item number nine. Uh any uh open comment? Um I have no speaker cards. I do have a hand raised online. Okay. For a person online. Okay. This is Go ahead, Justin.

Thank you. Uh, thank you, Mayor Kel, and thank you, Just Jason Holly. I thinking um I'm not a um member see a member. I love to do is like a like a workshop like um like a like a 4:00 like 3:00 or 4:00 check workshop so I can be on the list like maybe I can be on station holiday all this or something so I can see I can just listen in and see I can help you out. I would love to do more workshop. Thank you.

Thank you Justin. No other callers. No, I'll close. Uh

Oh, sure. H you Marquez. Uh um I like the idea of the of the new community center. Uh the new um I know that the we talk about the the new the measure L that has talked about a sports complex. Um, I think it would benefit the city uh in passing a general if they have if they sort of commit to putting in the parks and wrecks to help develop a community center that uh would be more within the city. Um, of course, we need a general plan that that is that is going to be and I it uh it's been said that it be that it's going to be out in June. Uh it would be nice if they had sort of an idea that they could put out before June, like in May, and let let the public know and let the council know sort of what the what the idea is uh for for the for the new parks general plan. Uh June seems like to be the the cuto off day for whether we're going to do it in on the 28 no this November or November 28th. And I think it's an important thing that we should consider. Um, I I I'm concerned about it being in the general budget, but as uh city manager has said and as uh councilman Noro has said, if we can if they can if they can direct that money into the parks uh through the council, I think it would show the city uh the the community that that the the parks and wreck is an important factor into our city and we have grown and our parks office is still the same one that was there in 92 [laughter] or whatever whether when the when the the Philip West Center was built. That's when our parks was there. So that was at 2000 whatever. Uh so I think it's good that that we're looking at uh increasing our parks, but we may

want to speed up the the or just give an idea to the council of what the parks uh general plan will be uh before November. So, uh, they can make decisions that the count the, uh, community can. I think the idea of having the the questions to find out what we're going to do would be would be good to to put that in there that that may be out there so that way the community can make a educated vote. Thank you. Thank you, Hugh. Uh, no other hands are raised. I see Janelle. [laughter]

Janelle Celich. Uh, I'm I'm excited to see this come forward. I think it's um I think it's time. I think it's actually probably overdue. Um I'd love to see what the polling comes back like. Um I think the general is probably the most feasible, but but I share um council member Boro your concern about those guard rails. Um and I think you know as a reminder to you know go back five eight years ago you know the community is sensitive to um some previous measures that were passed in the community like through the school district of things being promised and then pulled back. And so I I you know I feel a little bit cautious about when we go out to poll and we talk about the projects that are included if they're parks and wreck focused because the community is really excited about them um just being sensitive to the fact that we need to make sure that um if we go with for this big pot in the general fund that that something doesn't happen and that gets taken away because we know the community doesn't respond well to that. Um, and as far as the p the master plan goes, I think, you know, if we could shave a year off of this schedule and go 2027, that'd be ideal because it would be really nice to have that document in front of us. But I think some of the things that will come out of that, the community is already well behind. And those are some of those big things like the pool update and the community center. Um, and you know, in our world over at the wetlands right now, there's a lot, we hear a lot of excitement about the kayak launch and some of those things as well. Well, so it'd be really interesting, I think, to include some of that language in there and see um how that would poll as well. So, um I'm in favor of it. I think it's a great idea to move forward with the polling and let's see what the community says and um just but let's make sure that what we promise we're going to deliver on and um get the community behind it.

Thank you, Janelle. Okay, we'll close public comment and return to council for any additional statement. Uh council member Oro. Right. So, I'm going put the legal question at hand and I'll ask our acting city attorney to check me on this. Uh prior to the a ballot measure, could we adopt some sort of resolution or policy stating that if this ballot measure passes 1% of or whatever we fund on that ballot would go towards parks and have that as an adopted policy ahead of it actually being adopted.

Uh yeah, I mean that the council could adopt policy statements like that. I I think the council certainly could you could adopt a policy statement. We could adopt a fiscal policy that that talks about revenue measure and set aside things and um I think the bigger point is the most likely scenario uh of us going forward with a revenue measure would be for the purposes of bonding something on a PO basis. It'll take about 20 years for us to save up all the money to be able to do the fun thing that people are interested in. So I don't think people will would be comfortable with us saying, "Okay, we're not going to bond. We're going to do it. We're save up, you know, all of these and then a long time from now we're going to do something." So assuming bonding is the most likely vehicle to then deliver on the promises that were made, it's not going to be a council policy that matters. It's going to be the bond covenants that you'll be signing that tells that tells the the bonding folks, uh, yes, we're taking your money. We're building the things. Uh, and so, you know, I I I'm not too worried. um because we have some very specific things in mind and we have some there are some communities that don't like bonding. In fact, the measure t had some non-bonding uh had some you weren't allowed to bond for uh using measure t. So sometimes this notion into comes into play and and communities will um have not bonding provisions in there because they're anti-ax groups that want to run a a companion measure two years later and then take away the funding. And so I mean that happens in in places. So in this case, you know, if this measure allows bonding when you go forward with those projects, you'll be committing to, you know, higher authorities essentially.

Yeah. I mean, but the but the other way to look at it is like obviously there's going to be a debt payback paying back those bonds. That's a certain budget and maybe that is 75 of that 1% budget. The other 1% should probably go to other fun things that need to happen in town, park improvements, trail maintenance, things like that. Um, so but you answer my question. If we wanted to set a policy ahead of the election, you could you could even do it after the election. It No. No. So So that that misses the whole point. We could do it after the election. I'm talking about to to um suage vote to the speaker's vote

to to to have asurances that this money will be used for parks. You know, that's another tactic one could use or strategy one could use um for support, I guess I would say. Yeah, you you certainly could. It all comes with a caveat. If three of you can do now what you want to do, the next three of you could change that policy, right? So, I mean I understood. But but if you want the vote to pass, you know, you do everything you can to make that happen. You could.

Okay. I'll entertain a motion. Uh I and I'll be happy to make that motion. Uh just a final thought. Um, you know, I I do agree that we're most likely going to bond and I think that's the easiest way and and I think if we said, look, we want to bond, you know, x% of what we anticipate that locks it up and that's the end of that and allow a little bit of difference so that either a if revenues aren't what we thought we still have money to cover the debt and b that it residual would be you know fund And there's a lot of projects that wouldn't make sense to bond for. Um, you know, things that may cost two or three hundred grand that you should just do and that's that. So, I think we could identify two or three of the big ticket items, a community center for sure, um, and maybe two or three other specifics. Bond for that. Make it clear that that's what we're looking to do. And I think that's the best way you can have your cake and eat it too. Uh, and again, you'd still have some monies left over that could be used on a year-to-year basis. So,

one of the go kind of ending points I just wanted to make and and we're not deciding language tonight, but the decision about which kind of measure to pursue will require obviously attorneys will be involved in some very specific delineation of language. you if if you're going to only have a singular purpose, then it becomes a special. And so you have to be very careful about having the right amount of flexibility. If you're trying to have a general or if you only want to have a special, then you have to have the right amount of guard rails around that. So obviously we'll have attorneys involved with that and getting us in the right place. Um okay the last thing um the suggestion of a subcommittee I had heard um you know I um it's clear to me that that that Mark and David have interest in this in the polling and you know if you all wanted to uh to be on a subcommittee doing that um we could do that if if you're comfortable with staff working with the with the consultants we can do that too you know I just wanted to make sure we hadn't forgot about that suggestion

for me I would just love an opportunity to provide input on the questions I don't know if you need a formal staff thing but like here's what the committee's come up or the staff and the polling people have come in and if we could just mark it up with our comments and like you know it doesn't have to be word but like I just want to know if it's going to be off base or not you know so so are you accepting being part of that subcommittee? No, I'm accepting we don't need I'm I'm suggesting we don't need a subcommittee. Just share me a paper copy that I can mark up and I'll get back to you when I'm done with it. Thank you. Yeah, I mean that's

Do not invite me to a two-hour meeting about that. Thank you. Actually, I was going to make the same suggestion because I think being able to review the questions before they're answered and I'd be differential to council member Oro because that's his Bailey Wick. Uh I would just sit there and say gosh that's going to cost too much and scribble it. Certainly not. So we can't. So I don't think we need a committee. Surprised have you kind of redlin some things and bounce topics off. Of course letting us edit the document would probably redlining rights would be sufficient. Yeah, you two got out of that one pretty good. [laughter] Okay. Actually, I was going to say the same thing. So, we're we both figured out how to get out of doing things. Took me 16 years. What the

Okay. So, now that we're done with that, will you make that motion?

I'll make that motion. Uh a resolution 2026 next in order. uh a resolution of the city council of the city of American Canyon authorizing a budget appropriation of $110,000 from the general fund undesated reserve and awarding a professional services agreement to Fairbank Moslin Malin Meds and Associates. Wow, no wonder it's FM3 in an amount not to exceed 60,000 and increase the professional services agreement with Trappepy Smith and Associates from 233,000 to 283,000 for public opinion research and community outreach and education services related to a potential ballot measure. We have a motion. Can I get a second?

I'll sec Excuse me. I'll second. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We have a second. Can we get a roll call, please? Council member Lamatina, yes. Council member Oro, yes. Vice Mayor Joseph, yes. Mayor Washington, yes. And Ally, I'm sure you're tired of standing over there. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you for the presentation. Uh, next we'll move on to our management and staff oral reports. Mr. Holly, I'm assuming um Director Smithies has an update for you on what's been happening and what's supposed to be happening next. Good evening, um, city council, mayor, Erikica Almond, Smith, the public works director. Um, glad to be up here to provide you an update of what we've done in the last quarter and what we're going to come up in the next 90 days. Um, instead of saving you some time and and reading all the list that that was posted already, um, out of the eight active construction um, projects in the last quarter, we completed four of them substantially. Two, you you can you approved the notice completions tonight, which is Rancho Delmare and the city hall re-roof replacement. And um two that will be um close to finishing are the Melbourne sidewalk and drainage project and the wetlands edge enhancement will bring to a future meeting. Um the ribbon cutting is on the 28th. So if you get that notice um please hold that date 1:30 I believe. I'll let Alli's going to be providing that update. Um deputy city manager will be updating that um soon. The um also completed which will give us more construction in the next 90 days. North Hampton Park restrooms, Silver Oak Park restroom, Veterans Playground surface, and East American Canyon Road Garville. As far as we awarded construction contracts, and then we completed design on Northampton Park restroom, of course, that's why we awarded already. Silver Park, Silver Oak Park restroom, the Veterans Park, and South Kelly Highway 29 is at 90% complete, and Melvin Park tennis courts are at 75%. the next 90 days um we will still we'll have nine projects hopefully under construction at that time at that time also the end of the 90 quarter days end of that next quarter the final quarter of the fiscal year four of those nine projects will be completed there may be additional projects depending how quickly they may move um but uh like the SCADA projects for

example they're underway they've been underway almost a year but um there's implementation that still has to happen and so they could be done but they may still roll over in the next fiscal year. The exciting part is um advertising a water construction contract um advertising the Melbourne Park tennis courts, advertising the zone 5 pump station. We received 99% um full package PSN last Friday. We're waiting on one more element potentially that should be here by this Friday, but they wouldn't hold us up from going out to bid in the next two weeks. We have SS4 Broadway sewer. That's a sewer upgrades crossing 29 from Watson Ranch and getting south to Crawford. And then we have um advertising the Greenland Road class one trail since we'll be substantially complete by time it would be awarded and go to construction. So the timing of that is is critical so we're not in the way of the current contractor if it's not the contractor who wins it. And then hopefully advertising the um South Kelly reconstruction project just for a little more depth and breadth there. We're trying to hand off the actual intersection improvements of Highway 29 to Calrans with an upcoming project. So, we've submitted a request for them to do that. We're participating. When they heard that we have actual funds, which I tried three years ago to say, "Hey, we have funds from developer contributions." It we didn't have the right person in the room. We met two months ago and we had the right executive deputy um district manager on that call. He says, "You have money. Why aren't we doing this?" So, we're working on that with MBTA's help um and shephering that pro process. So, hopefully we can split the project out, get South Kelly reconstructed and widen South um Napa County is contributing to the north half of South Kelly and we're doing the south half increasing putting that right turn dedicated lane, the through and the left turn lane um to help improve project um traffic going through there. If you've been there when Amazon's coming out, I

tell you what, it's busy and or at 5:00 or um closing time. So, and then design, we have the citywide pavement rejuvenation, Rancho Delmare phase 2, Main Street Park ADA upgrades, new Melvin Park, Lynwood Park, Main Street Park, and Wetlands Restoration, public access um that we hope to have um underway in design andor close to it. So, u meeting all your uh your your direction and um strategic objectives for this year. Um we're mostly on track. So, um here to answer any questions you may have. Um, any questions for council? Vice Mayor,

how's how's our Green Island uh road project going? I know it's under construction, but can you give us any other updates? We didn't have an engineering meeting today, but they had nighttime paving, so we should be substantially complete or actually complete of all the side streets on Green Road of the Green Road project, which is Hannah Way, Commerce, and Mazetta. Um, I did not get an update on that this before this meeting, but that will leave only Green Road to be that next phasing. So, big ugly. It's It's I don't if you've been out there recently, but I have. I noticed that Jim Oswalt way had like the first lift and I thought, "Wow, this is exciting." They're substantially ahead of I think the schedule originally. So, good, good, good. Well,

the weather one of my legacy projects. So, I'm glad to see it's going. Thank you, mayor. Any other questions? Seeing none, thank you, Erica. All right. Thank you. Uh, moving on to our mayor. One more uh one more update, ma'am. Okay. You again.

Me again. I have some important updates that I um want to tell you about. So, Director Aman Smidy's um let you know that we have our ribbon cutting ceremony coming up on January 28th for outdoor education project. Um, it's down at the wetlands on January 28th at 1:30m. We hope to see you all there, including the community. Please come out. It's going to be a joyous, hopefully beautiful day as we cut that ribbon and officially um conclude that long project that we um get to celebrate the restroom and the all seasonasons uh gazebo and um the beautiful native garden. Yes, sir.

I actually have it on my calendar for the 29th. Is it 28th or 2? It's the 28th. It's on the 29th on your calendar. It should be the 28th. Okay. I will double check that because everybody should have a save the date for the 28th. Okay. I will double check that. It's the Wednesday afternoon. It's the Wednesday. Okay. Okay. The 28th. And then um the following day, the 29th, is the Napa River Ecology Center winter open house from 4 to 6:00 p.m. That's probably what you have on your calendar. Oh, I [laughter] Okay. All right. I've got mine wrong, too. So Oh, come on. Hey, let me double check. Hold on. No, because I did send out invites to everybody. Okay, I've got I have them both on the 28th. So,

I was going to be hanging out at Janelle's shop saying, "Hey, what can I do with this?" This is from me on the 28th. Okay. And I did not invite you to the 29th. So, I don't know who sent you the 29th. Okay. What what's on your calendar is actually two different meeting invites for the 28th at the same time. We have two different It's the same. It's the same one. It's just two different calendar invites. Gotcha. Gotcha. Oh, it's 1:30. Okay. I've got 1:30 is the wetland's edge and then I have the Eco Center groundbreaking at 2:00 on the same day. Uh the Ecoenter is not doing a groundbreaking. They're doing an open house, I think, on the 29th.

On the 29th. Hey It was kind of confusing. They're dragging their feet. Dog gone it. Okay. So, I will I won't show up at Janelle's place afterwards saying, "Yeah." [laughter] Yes. Okay. And then I will need you to save the dates. We have our state of the city town hall meetings coming up on um Wednesday, February 25th. Uh the first meeting is going to be held at Canyon Oaks Elementary School in the multi-purpose room at 6:30 p.m. Again, that is open to the community. We hope to see you all there. And then um the following day is on the 26th, February 26th at the Adult Activity Center at 11:00 a.m. Um we are providing lunch. We hope to see you there and have lunch with us. Um thank you so much.

Thank you, Ally. Two other just quick things, Mayor. Um this Friday, management team is going to be offsite doing an annual strategic planning exercise and some other work that we're going to be doing. And then uh the city council and staff will be getting together on Friday the 6th of May uh offsite to do our annual strategic planning. So just want to put those um at least the latter date out there for the public. Thank you. Got it. And now let sure nobody else going up there. Okay. Moving on to our mayor and council comments and committee reports. We'll start with you, Vice Mayor. I got mine in. So I am a I'm a good person now. Got a a nothing to add. Council member Oro.

Welcome to 2026. I hope you all have a happy and prosperous new year. Looking forward to working with you all. Thank you. Nothing to add to your committee. No. Council member Lamatina. I just want to say I'm very honored to be on this council and I'm really looking forward to a um moving the city forward in 2026. That's my little theme to myself. So, happy new year everyone. Uh, Council Member Cruz is not here. He's waiting on his first grandchild. Hopefully, she's come. Um, I have nothing to add to my um committee report. Future agenda items. Vice Mayor

I yeah I'd like to bring back the inclusionary housing ordinance to explore maybe creating the same incentive well not incentive creating the same requirements regardless of for sale or whatever you know preferably keeping the 15% regardless of whether it's a condo or or rental.

Okay. Um my thinking uh with this is what we would do is bring back just some information first to talk about affordable uh affordable housing ordinance and and how it plays out and the different levels and some kind of baseline information. Um and then from there you all can give some direction to implement all that. We'd be talking about going back to planning commission then eventually council. So it would be that kind of process but I don't want to go to them first because I'm not exactly sure where the interests are from everyone. So what I would bring back is kind of information you can hey let's tweak some things or maybe we don't need to. Um and so we'll do it that way knowing that the process coming back to you after that will be a bit

and then the only other thing u the invitation to have a brief presentation on sea level rise um I have mixed feelings about whether to bring that back just because sometimes a 15minute presentation turns into a half hour but um I'm just throwing that out to see if other council members want to have that presentation or if we should save it for shoreline adaptation. planning efforts and things like that.

Um, in the not too distant future, believe it or not, we'll be talking about the work plan for next fiscal year, the open space advisory, uh, and open space. I forget OATS. Um, you know, the council, you know, if you wanted the information to be out there in a public format, you could utilize OSATs and say, "Hey, as a part of 26 27, I want to put that on your work plan, get a presentation from this group." and there the 15 minutes turning into 30 minutes while is important that's not necessarily the same sort of thing if it happens here at council. So that might be a suggestion.

Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I I do think we need to start thinking about shoreline adaptation plans and with the objective of doing it sooner rather than later in large part because there are obviously parcels of land at play and you know it it might behoove us to recognize what we need to acquire or preserve for open space. So that's the only reason it's worth keeping that ball rolling, but OSATs is probably the better first place than here. So, thank you. I'll just stick with the uh inclusionary housing ordinance review for now.

Okay. Um for the items that we bring forward, we do like to kind of memorialize that as far as action. So, I heard a motion from uh Vice Mayor uh Joseph and I'm assuming someone there's going to second. You guys are going to ask the clerk to do a vote. make the motion again just to bring back some review or bring back materials on the inclusionary housing ordinance and how it relates to, you know, the 10 to 15% affordable ratios. Thank you. We have a motion. I'll keep [clears throat] losing my voice. I'll second.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Can we get a roll call, please? [snorts] Council member Lamatina. Yes. Council member Oro. Yes. Vice Mayor Joseph. Yes. Mayor Washington. Yes. Um any other feature agenda items? Um the it's not really an agenda item, but I heard Beth earlier mention the um construction and the privacy fencing. If we could maybe just contact the

construction house, talk about that, I'd appreciate it. Um and then I also did have a couple of calls about I guess our own project with the um public works. if we could consider putting privacy fencing around that area. I guess I got some new construction. I walked I drove up there. It didn't look bad to me at all. Which project was the second? Uh the public works where they're they're doing some construction work inside of the um uh public the new public works parking area right off of Hess. Okay. And I guess they were just asking if some some privacy fencing would go up on that there as well. I'll just walk in the the area out there that it was

I'm wondering if that's the the layard or whatever. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking actually. The the former Lilyville property. Yeah, Lilyville's parcel of that because there is a lot of stuff there and it's just temporary fencing but no screening. Yeah, we'll take a we'll take a look at just take a look at it. Brought to my attention. I said I would mention it. So that's it. Um if there's no other um future agenda items, we've concluded our business for this evening. We are adjourned. Good night, American Canyon. Thank you. Starting off the new year, right?