City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. It's wonderful to see you here with us. Welcome. Welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting of the Arvin City Council successor agency to the Arvin Community Redevelopment Agency, Arvin Housing Authority, and the Arvin Public Financing Authority. Today is Tuesday, March 24, and I call this meeting to order at 6PM.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Remain standing for a moment of silence. Please seated. Roll call, please.

Council member Tarver? Present. Council member Horton is absent. Council member Reyes? Present. Mayor Pro Tem Perez?

Here.

Mayor Calderon?

Here. We'll begin with agenda the first agenda item, approval to the agenda as to form staff. Are there any changes to the agenda?

There are no changes, mayor.

Great. Roll call. Do we have a motion?

We have a motion. Second.

Roll call, please.

Council member Tarver?

Yes.

Council member Reyes? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Perez?

Yes.

Mayor Calderon? Yes. Motion carries. Four zero.

Okay. We'll move on to public comments. You all know that this is your opportunity to address the council on any subject that's within our jurisdiction. And so you have two minutes in English. You have four minutes if you will require translating support. And all I ask is that, I'm in a model. We have a translation that's happening in real time. The meeting is being streamed live. And so for the purposes of accurate translation and for the clarity of the Spanish video that lives online, if we could all take our time when we come up here so that our translator can accurately translate. So with that, we open it for public comment.

Good afternoon. My name is Sonia Alivo. I live at 1612 Verde Court here in Arvin. Could you I'm sorry?

You can move the mic towards you and speak up. Yes, we can hear you. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. Perfect.

Yeah.

I don't know if

this is within the jurisdiction or not of the city council, but I have a couple questions in regards how we can get more answers in regards to the substance abuse facility that is going to be built here in Arbonne. I don't know if you were informed of it or not. There's just concerns in regards to it. We just wanna know as residents, like, didn't know anything about it. So is it something that falls within the jurisdiction of the city council, the mayor?

How do we get to know more about it? Our concerns answer ask questions to be able to know how it's going to be run, how if it's going be a closed facility, an open facility. Just because it is going to be built so close to our high school and there's a lot of students that constantly walk, There's a lot of things. So there's a lot of concerns in regards to that facility. So it would be something that I would like to know as a resident how that is going to affect and how that will be right.

Can you share your name again and where you live? Sonia Olivo. Sonia. And can you also take your time

and share concerns that you have? Just mostly how it's going to be run. Will it be an enclosed area? How it will how do I say this?

Yeah.

I know there's, like, stigmas and stuff in regards to, like, facilities like this. But for the most part, it's just I know people patients, when they go through certain circumstances like that and they go into facilities like this, going

We're

do that. For our children. Be Okay. You know, especially the high school because it will be a little bit closer to that area. And our students are already so vulnerable to situations like that, you know, where they probably see, you know, experiences or maybe they've seen it or they know a family member or friends or something that goes through it. You know what I mean? If we've never had anything like that so close to a small town like this, so that's like one of the concerns mainly that I have as a resident.

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us and for asking that question. You probably learned this in the press, like most of us did. So this is a $27,000,000 grant, and it is for this nonprofit, Hope in the Valley. Their plan is to build a campus, a treatment campus, and it is not being built in the city of Arvin.

And so that was a story that was corrected. Twenty three ABC News corrected that story that went out. So if you go back and you see, there's like a blurb at the top of the news story that says it's being corrected. So it's being built in Kern County, not within the city of Arvin and not within the jurisdiction in terms of our zone of influence. There was also another story from Bakersfield now that was also clarified.

And so so that we're all clear, this has recently been announced, the land has not been purchased. I know that you probably saw reports that they were in the Bakersfield Now story that it was gonna be built over by the corner of Varsity and campus. Our city staff has been in conversations with a nonprofit and the developer, and they clarified that that was erroneous. So that's also been corrected. It's not going be built there on Varsity in campus.

The developer does own land out in the country. And so they're identifying that location. But again, it is in the preliminary stages. This is, you know, down into the future. It's not being built immediately.

They're not breaking ground here in Arvin. So I know those concerns, in terms of it being proposed that it was gonna be that close to the high school. I could imagine that it caused a lot of folks in our community heartburn when they learned that that when they learned that. But just so you know, again, just to get clear, it is just announced that the money and the money, there is also a 10% match. So this nonprofit has to come up with $2,700,000 There's a 10% requirement to draw down that grant.

So again, no need to be alarmed at this time. It is not being built in our city, and it's not being built across the street from our high school. It is being built in Kern County. And as we I know that our staff is going to be working with the developers that we will make sure to keep the community well informed. But just rest assured that it's not being built in the city or near the high school.

Because I did see it on the news, but it just retracted the part where it says it will be for families, women, and children. And the correction was for that it was going to be mainly a substance abuse facility.

So that's been corrected. So

it's It not doesn't it didn't say anything about eliminating Arvin itself. It just said that it retracted what it said in regards to women, children being helped at like homeless. It said that it

was The title says Kern County, not Arvin anymore. But that's why I'm

But Yeah. But then the article at the bottom, it doesn't have the correction in regards to Arvin. I didn't when I looked it up again the next day so I can read a little bit more, and I like to things a couple times just to make sure that I understood what was on there.

Yeah.

That that was the only correction on there. That's why it doesn't clarify that it said it does say Kern County, but then at the bottom when you read the article, it says Arvin. So that's why that brings up alarms in regards to, okay, how is this gonna be run? I understand that there's Yeah. All over the county, all over California, counties everywhere, Orange County. There's always concerns about these facilities being built Yeah. Close to homes, community, schools. So that's why it's one of concerns that came up in regards to just to need to know exactly how the process will go, how it will be ran.

That's why I'm so happy to hear it today. So if you could help us, and I know this is being recorded and help us spread the word out throughout community, it is not being built in the city of Arvin. It is not being built in the zone of influence of the city of Arvin. It has they just announced that the grant was awarded. However, the grant hasn't been drawn down because they still need a 10% match. And so this will be, I'm sure, a multi year effort. But rest assured that it's not in the city of Arvin. Okay. Thank you. You're very welcome. Look forward to

seeing that.

Yeah. Are there any other comments or questions? My

name is, Maricela Tamayo. I'm a resident of Arvin. My address is 2116 John Court. Can I add to that? I just wanted to ask you, do you know where it's going to be built?

Right now, the nonprofit and the developer are working that out. Like what we can just share with you that's a matter of fact, it is not in the city of Arvin. That's a fact. And in terms of where they're going to build it, right now, they're in those conversations. The nonprofit is with their developer, but it's not in the city. So rest assured that it's not being built in the city of Arvin.

Do you think we'll get notice of where it will be? I mean, I'm concerned. Really concerned about that because not only that, but if it was built around here, then it would bring more. You know, like, I'm pretty sure it would be for 200, 300, but it would bring more from Bakersfield. It will bring more from maybe if they don't have in our area, if they don't

have enough room for their number, they'll bring them down to wherever this facility will be built, correct? So again, this is all very preliminary, okay? So all of it is incredibly preliminary. What they say in the news is that the proposal is for a 100 bed facility. That's what we know, what you probably also read in the news.

But in terms of where exactly it's going to be built, that has not been confirmed. The nonprofit is working with a developer. But it's what I can say to you is that here in the city, it's not being built in the city of Arvin. And these are plans, I'm sure they they're barely starting the process with the county, I'm sure, to request permits because there's a whole process Okay. To request permits and to get that approved. So once that process starts, the best place to go and express those concerns would be to the county, the Board of Supervisors, because that's in the supervisor's jurisdiction, not in the city. Okay.

Well, for now

But no, but please, this is really helpful for all of us to hear these concerns. This is very helpful for us as well. And rest assured that the more we learn, we know that this is a subject of interest. We'll make sure to do our part to keep residents also informed as that moves along. But again, because it was just announced, our staff went out to also get these answers because the council had the same questions you all had. So what we have heard from our staff is it's not being built in Arvin. But we're happy for that. Yeah, for now. It's not being built in Arvin. It's not being built across the street from Arvin High School.

Thank God. That it is a grant that's known as a contingency grant. So they need to there's 10% match on the grant. So the grant was a $27,000,000 grant, and the nonprofit has to raise another $2,700,000 to draw down that grant from the state. And that they haven't even started the process for permitting with the county. So that's going to take its own time and its own course. As we learn more, we will make sure to keep the community informed. Well, you very much. You're very welcome. Thank you so much for being with us.

I hope you stay for the rest of the meeting. We're going to be talking about the budget as well. Any other comments or questions? Okay. Seeing none, we will go ahead now and move to the consent agenda. Are there any comments or questions from the council or the public on consent? Seeing none, do we have a motion?

We got a motion.

Do we

have a second? Second. Great. Roll call, please.

Council member Tarver?

Yes.

Councilmember Reyes? Yes. Mayor Pro Temperes?

Yes.

Mayor Calderon?

Yes.

The motion carries, four zero.

We are going to move on to our first discussion item. We are going to discuss the community outreach and education. Where are you? I'm so sorry.

I apologize. Action item 4A?

Yep. Action item 4A. This is the consideration and approval of the city council to approve the department head salary schedule. Staff recommends approval of the resolution. Staff, do you want to show your report?

Sure. Honorable mayor, members of the council, members of the public, as you know, the city is currently recruiting for a new police chief. And what we have to what I'm allowed to pay the police chief is based on a couple of things. The council has to approve an eventual contract that the city manager recommends hiring this person. They have to approve this contract.

And second, there has to be a salary for the police chief that is within what's called a salary schedule council approves. Doing my research, the last time the salary schedule for the police chief, the community developed director, and the finance director was updated was in the year 2016. So ten years ago. So the salaries at that time are ten years old. So I'm going before the council to update the salary schedule right now for the police chief because that's the immediate need for the city to show a competitive salary schedule.

And the range I've determined for this, I did that by looking at what other cities in the county are paying their police chiefs. So I looked at Tehachapia, I looked at Wasco, I looked at Shafter, Taft, Delano, Bear Valley Springs. And the range, the low end I could find was 164,000 for Bear Valley Springs and the highest was at like 196 including incentives in Tehachapi. So this schedule tops out at one ninety seven. I don't propose to go there in my recruitment process because I want this to be a living document.

So I have room for expansion in the future. Let's suppose I get a really good police chief and bring him in at 165,000. I want there to be room for growth for like a two or three year contract by giving merit increases if the budget permits at that time without having to go back to counsel and ask them to amend the salary schedule over and over again. Anne, open for any questions on that.

You worked this with the city attorney on this resolution?

Madam mayor. So we did assist with the drafting of the resolution. So, I did just wanna point out that you did receive updated documents. Initially, what was posted was a typo at one seventy nine, and so you'll just notice now that it was a typo and changed to one ninety seven. So what's before you and what's online is accurate.

Thank you. Are there any questions from the public at this point? Seeing none, are there any questions or comments from the council? Council?

I have a question. Why didn't did you look into McFarlane because that's comparable to Arvin as far as city size?

No, I did not look at McFarlane.

Okay, well I did. The Chief and McFarlane makes 135. Wasko is between 140 and 150.

That's incentives and that's why I got it up to that 165 number.

I think my concern is right now is I understand the meaning behind this. However, what's the word that we're spreading when we're in the middle of negotiations. So in my opinion, I don't think it's equitable to go ahead and give a certain roles a salary raise when you're in the middle of negotiations. That's my take on it.

I think I can understand that. But my if I do that, if we don't do this, we don't modify the salary resolution, I'm stuck at topping out the up, the most I can offer would be $141,000

And I think of the last budget report that you presented to us, we were in deficit a of 400 a little bit over $400,000 So where do you plan to continue to sustain this if it moves forward? Or what do you plan to do? Are you planning or is the city planning to layoff in order for you to sustain this?

Two answers to that. The answer the big answer to that is let's wait until I do my budget presentation in a few minutes. The other answer is that when I looked at the package for the Chief of Police and I looked at how the city of Arvin is structured and I looked at the budget and I realized that before the budget had money for a Chief of Police and a Deputy Chief of Police who is a retired annuitant. And if you added those salaries together, we were at like 194,000. Yeah.

And my experience with working with a couple of police chiefs now is that the deputy position is not really needed. To me, a deputy position kind of equates to the lieutenant. And my scenario right now does not include a lieutenant in the budget. So if I eliminate lieutenant position, I have enough money to pay the chief a little bit more and have my sergeants make a little bit more and perhaps is it, I'm gonna call the super sergeant role. Something a little bit above a sergeant, but not quite to a lieutenant, which I believe at this point is the correct structure for the police department based on my experience in the four years I've been city manager.

So if I'm hearing you correct, this is a salary range. This isn't an offer that's being made. It is a salary range. And the range, the rationale here is that it allows for this new schedule to live long into the future so that you don't have to keep coming back to us. If the concern that Ms.

Reyes has raised about the base of the range, could we perhaps amend the base of the range to a number that perhaps would be that you would be open to. If you said you looked at McFarland, for example, and the base of McFarland, what is the salary in McFarland?

135.

135. Well, we that's significantly lower than us because we are we were paying what was the salary? 130. No, we were at $141.40.

140. For the forward chief.

140 is where we were. So And would you be comfortable with the base being at 140 at this with the range at 140 so that this is something that could live long into the future and we don't have to revisit it since the last time that this was amended was or proposed was in 2016, almost ten years ago? To be honest, I'm not. I'm not. So you would propose that

we take this back and come back

If we're facing financial challenges, I don't understand why are we going to go ahead and approve this salary range when we're still in the middle of negotiations. I think we settle that first and then think about what is our other options as far as looking at the budget, making sure we're spending accordingly and move forward after that.

I can respect that to somewhat. However, if I'm hearing you correctly, you would prefer if, let me see if I understand this correctly. So what this basically means is suspend hiring the chief process until the union negotiations are complete. Is that that why I'm hearing or I'm missing something here?

Because I'm I'm pretty sure you get a chief of police.

At 100 and That's willing to At 141

Willing to have a salary of 140. We had one before. We had what was that other one, mister Tarver? Tutson? Tutson. Tutson, yes. Over He was a good police chief. And then prior to that, we had mister refresh my memory. Brock. Brock was making, I think, the same 130 to 140.

Correct. In 2021. Correct. 2022.

So if I could suggest so that we could, as a council, be forward looking. What is before us now is that we update our salary schedule. This is not based on what is going to be offered. It's a range. And that what this does is that it positions our cities so that we could be competitive in recruiting a quality chief of police with experience is what the staff is requesting of us and what staff is recommending of us. Yes, we are facing difficult financial challenges. That's a fact. It's not a secret. Everybody knows it. And yes, we are also in negotiations as well.

And we need to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time. We need to be forward looking and ensure that these schedules are updated and revised while we're also exploring what our options are for either cost revenue increasing revenues and also seeing how we can find efficiencies and save in spending over time as well. But I would suggest that if staff is recommending based on cities of comparable size to us, again, we can have the base and we can amend the schedule so that the base is at 40 where we were with the previous chief and keep it to the high range so that it could be a living salary schedule for many years to come. We will be at some point, we're gonna be out of this hole, and we are going to be moving forward. The suggestion here is that we have a salary schedule that is set so that the staff doesn't have to keep coming back to us is what's being proposed.

Mr. Perez, Mr. Tarver, do you have questions or comments at this

point? So

what's on the yes.

So here's where I'm at with this. I think you got the horse before the cart. And why I say that is, is today you have a budget presentation, which none of us have seen or discussed since when? When was the last one that you

guys said? When we passed the budget So July or something,

I would think that it would be more strong for future.

Strong And

we're do

that.

That.

To

We're correct.

Okay. But here's reality. It's just like having a $100 in your pocket and say, I'm gonna keep this $100. As soon as you spend that first $5, guess what? A son of guns, they 'll they run out of your pocket like they're on fire. Okay? So if we go ahead and give you that authorization, and you don't have to come back to us, and it's at your discretion, right, to to start them where you want to and then present it?

Correct. And that's the key. Present it. You will And then

we have

council has the right to say, we don't we don't like staff recommendation of of where you place in the salary and you vote it down.

So, I guess what I'm saying is is is if the city can sustain this kind of wage for a chief of police and put it out there, show me how we do it through your budget.

And again, that's why I was explaining by combining lieutenant and the chief. Say again, please. By combining the lieutenant and the chief.

Now see, we've done this combining before. We did it with the city manager director. It was a cost of savings too. Right?

Yes.

You guys recall that? Yes. Yeah.

What you were mentioning?

What did you get out of that? We got a letter from the grand jury saying we should split them.

I thought you said the assistant. Again?

Yeah.

Was it not the assistant?

Correct. We've without a lieutenant since Olin Armstrong left in 2020. That's right. So we've been kind of just rolling the budget dollars forward and either having

That's incorrect. You did we did hire a lieutenant. We did. Oh. Yes, we did. Who was it? That's correct. Yeah, we did.

Okay. And so let's

allow 2023. Let's That's take correct. One at a time so that we can hear everyone's questions, comments and concerns. You, Mr. Tarver, are proposing that we see the budget presentation before we vote on salary schedule.

And what staff is recommending to us, again, is recommending that we update the salary schedule because the last time it was done was when? 2016. So ten years ago, the city set the salary schedule. The salary schedule was what in 2016 for this specific position? Don't remember For this what specific position?

Yes, I'm trying to remember what that do we have the staff report? I think the staff

report talks about what it was in 2016. Ten years ago.

I know. We're looking that up. Wasn't

Well, he's looking for that. Let me throw this in there. You mentioned 2016 was the last time it was updated. Do you folks realize that in 2016, your population was different? In 2021, ARVIN was at a peak at over 21,000 people. Now ARVN has declined to 2010 with 19,000 something people.

Mr. Tarver, those numbers are not accurate. That was based on the 2020 census that was happening during COVID. We know that the the census was not an accurate count of our current population.

So you're telling me in 2010, we weren't at 19,000 people?

What I'm suggesting is that the current number that is out there through the census is not an accurate count. That census happened during COVID, and so that affected account. That's all I'm suggesting. That's just

That's correct. I call it the Mass Casualty Act of 2021. We lost like 2,200 people in the census between 2020 and 2021 just because of the revised revised way the census was conducted.

Yeah. So we we get to do a better job of having our community understand how important it is to respond to the census. Because as is, our community has a really low response rate. I know now as they're considering a citizenship question on the census, that might also affect it.

Alright. So I have the prior range for the police chief. It was one 2000 to one 41000 in 2016.

That was ten years ago? Correct. And since then, Mr. Tarver, the department has grown in size. The police department has also grown in size. And the city is also facing growth. We know we have a new community college. We know we have the new Hard Rock Casino and Hotel. We know that we are going to continue to build more housing in our city. So our city will grow.

So talk to me about Mais Jurelle. Is it growing? The very thing that supports the majority of the city. Is it growing?

It grew until about 07/01/2025 and then it has dropped significantly.

Okay. So where does the money come from that pays for those officers and the police chief? Is Major L part of that money?

Measure L, I have to look at my, I have to go to my budget, but I believe Measure L is allocated to four or five additional officers. It's four officers and a sergeant or five officers, and I believe there's a dispatcher in there as well.

So if it's dropping, so does that mean that we're going to have to get rid of officers?

Again, that's I guess that's why we want to listen to the budget presentation.

That's what And now we're looking at increasing salary range for a police chief. How does that make sense? Just make sense out of it for me and I'll go along with it.

I guess the only way to me that it makes sense is if you want to attract people that are talented, you have to offer the money. The 135,000, I believe that's Councilmember Ray, I believe that's correct. But if you've looked at the people in McFarland, they've just been rotating the chief job like four times in three years between sergeants and then sergeants become chief and the chief will go lead, lead to become an assistant somewhere else in Kern County and they'll bring another chief in at 135 number.

And I think that's one of the strongest argument is what is the true return on the investment when we have a competitive schedule that allows for the flexibility to recruit, achieve with experience who can be here for the long haul. And so if we need to table this conversation, we absolutely can do so. And let's discuss the budget and we can always bring this back, Mr. Tarver, after we have a budget conversation. Okay.

So do you really think that the reason why you're not attracting quality candidates or whatever you want to call them is because of the pay?

Yes, I believe so. And what happened with the I had two candidates. We had two candidates that were had gone through the interview process. They both it turned out when I included incentives, they both wanted between $225,000 to $230,000 In fact, the person that I offered it to, I never even countered my number at one seventy nine. They wanted two twenty and two thirty five. And then when I countered back to my one seventy nine, the one person went up with his counter.

So in layman terms, what they're saying is, you're gonna you're gonna make it worth it if I'm willing to take the chance. Because if you look at the history, you're gonna see what, how many years did the police chief stay here? Two years? Correct. And how many of those have you had?

Too many, sir.

Okay. So do you really think that you can buy your way out of this situation? That's not it. It's the govern it's it's the governing and the leadership of this place. Because when I was mayor, guess what? We had a chief for eight years. Mhmm. How does that happen? So I'm we but we do need to give it a fair chance, we do need to look at your budget proposal, what's going on with that, and go from there. I'm only one voice. And whatever the council decides to do, I'm 100% with them.

Again, we are looking at the budget now. We're going to move on to the budget conversation. And to be clear, no one is proposing that we buy ourselves out of any challenge with recruiting talent. What we're proposing is being in a place where we could be competitive to recruit talent into the future because this is a schedule that hasn't been updated for the past ten years. And if we need to lower the base range, we can lower the base range to an amount that would be reasonable for the council. So we'll table this yeah, until the

go ahead. May I ask in my direction? I'm gonna do a little more analysis. Yeah. Would the council be acceptable if I took the range at 2016 and then added the inflation factor between 2016 and today and came back and told you what those numbers were?

Think that would be really helpful if we look at based on inflation what the 2016 range would look like. Is that something that would be reasonable for the council?

I think I would also like copies of the salary schedules from maybe back two, three years, four years. Let's just do

five years. Salary schedules of what Ms. Reyes?

Just the salary schedule of the chief, just the basic salary schedule of all the staff.

Go ahead.

The latest we have is from 2017, so we don't have anything different for five years. Are you did you

want I just wanted a copy because we

we weren't given a copy. Of the salary schedule?

I was given a copy of the salary schedule because I requested it, but it says 2025. The one that I have in front of me says 2025. It says effective 01/28/2025.

But you're asking for the previous salary schedule? Correct. That the only one we have is the one that was what 2020?

Well, there's we talked about salary I tend to think of it in different parts. And if I'm if this is what we're asking for, go for it or otherwise I need a little more clarification. The salary schedule is in like three pieces. There's a piece at the top that talks about SEIU. There is a second piece that talks about APOA, our two unions. The third little piece that is our unrepresented employees. And the fourth piece of the schedule is the department heads. And the department heads are the ones that have not been changed since 2016. There's been some movement in the other three in the ten years.

Thank you for the clarity. So Ms. Reyes, what would you like? The salary schedule for management is what you were discussing now? Yes, for the Chief?

Yes. Okay. To go back. I have another question. Since you're currently utilizing Measure L, let's just say hypothetically, we have a Chief and you pay him 135, 140. And then you freeze up the lieutenant. Where would you utilize that money for? Can you utilize it to put it back to the parks, resources for the residents?

Correct. Measure L is totally I'm not going use discretionary, but it's totally fungible. It's for any purpose the city needs. It's a general tax. In 2008, it was discussed about parks and roads and public safety and recreation, I believe. But any savings would be redeflected into those categories.

It's a general tax that can be used for anything in the direction of the

So what do you want to put it back to the community? Because we're constantly spending and spending on parks.

Ms. Reyes, that's up to the council. So we absolutely can provide direction. That's us. That's why we've been elected. We, the majority of the council, can provide direction to the staff of how we can move on to the budget conversation that would provide clarity there if that's something unless there's other questions or concerns on this specific item. So we'll table this item and we will bring it back to the next meeting so that we can focus wholly on the budget conversation that will help inform the salary schedule.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, absolutely. So we have the budget coming right after staff is going to share with us just the education and outreach related to yard sales. That's Item five. So Mr. Medina, would you provide your staff report?

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. My name is Isaiah Medina. I am the consultant city planner. So the past

couple of

council meetings we've had discussions related to yard sales within the city. And at the last meeting, council directed staff to provide some information on how we're going to educate to And next And we'll we'll

start

information that residents might need if they're planning to conduct a yard sale. So stuff like, first off, where to get the permit or first that a permit is required in the first place, how much that permit is and where they can get then, with And then, next

next

next we'll we're with years. Next the We're still We're seeing trying to reach out to some community organizations. And the biggest point of this is that we're going to be including it in the water bill. So we're going to be partnering with the Arvin Community Services And do then, to to that. We'll do do the information, get it out to as many residents as possible.

So that's the flyer. We're also planning to do pending conversations with the police going that. That. To do we're to permits that it'd be a little difficult if everyone who's doing yard sale without a permit were to receive a citation right off the bat. So we're probably going to do a couple months of amnesty to allow the public to learn of these requirements, learn the process on how they can get their permits.

And then after that we can consider enforcement actions with the police department. Other than that, I think that's kind of our main plan of attack at the moment. Just really trying to, focus on, this public education, letting the public know what is required for a yard sale, in the city.

Thank you so much. Are there any questions or comments from the council?

Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you very, very much. This education piece is critical. So thank you very much for your great work. Moving on to Item six, budget update twenty fivetwenty six.

So good evening once again. This is kind of what I kind of call sort of a living document. It is intended to be updated, discussed, analyzed going forward. This right now is the current snapshot and a basis. There's also an additional report that I did not include here, because I know people don't like looking at a lot of spreadsheets and a lot of numbers.

It is a two page report, which I can include next time. It basically talks about revenue and expenses in our five or six general categories, salaries and benefits, fire costs, maintenance costs, legal costs. So I've got like five different categories for expenses and then five or six different categories of revenues, sales taxes, business licenses, police fees. And that particular analysis talks about the first six or seven months and I gauge it on how we're doing to budget. So if I say something is at 50% of budget, I look at the period July 1 to December 31, that's six months of the year, that's 50%.

And my reporting is for six months and I'm at 50%, everything good. If I'm at 45%, if it's on the expense side, that's great because that means I'm under budget. If it's on the revenue side, not so good because that means under budget on revenue and not a good thing. So those numbers are kind of what I used to help prepare this report, and I can share that at the next meeting. So on to the presentation.

So the first step is looking back to where we were as of 06/30/2025, the end of the last fiscal year. For that fiscal year, it's projected to breakeven with both revenue and expenses being above budget and the net impact being balanced for that year. So revenue equaled expenses for that year, no increase to the general fund, I would say contingency or unrestricted fund balance, but no decrease either. So at 06/30/2025, the unrestricted general fund balance is about $2,100,000 And as a comparison, our general fund operating budget is about 10,000,000. The Government Financial Officers Association or GFOA recommends that a city has for their unrestricted general fund budget, a target of anywhere between 15 to 25% of one year's general fund expenses.

So in this case, our target for unrestricted general fund balance, which you can think of as savings account against negative economic conditions, negative bad events that might happen in the city, 15% to 25% for Arvin would be about $1,500,000 to $2,500,000 So at the June, I estimate we're tracking at about $2,100,000 So we're right in that target range. We could be better, it could be 2.5, but the fact is there are reserves. So if you recall, we adopted the twenty fivetwenty six balance using $470,000 of that $2,100,000 to balance the budget for the year. The reason we had to do that was because the Kern County fire contract contribution required from the general fund increased from $694,000 in fiscal year twenty five to $1,186,000 in fiscal year twenty six. Also, police salaries and benefits for the year, again assuming a full staff of 22 officers, increased from 3,646,000 to 3,892,000.

I've also seen in this budget, we had tremendous increases in property, liability and workers' compensation insurance. And I touched about this at budget time, repeat myself now. Back in twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, the city was paying like $300,000 $350,000 for insurance, liability insurance, property insurance, things to ensure the city. Because of the increasing insurance costs, that number has tripled over the last five, six years from 350,000 to about 1,100,000.0. And this is something that's going on nationwide.

As you might also know, I'm on the a member of the what's called the Central San Joaquin Valley Risk Management Authority. Authority. Basically, that's a group of 47 cities that are combining to pool our dollars to make sure our insurance dollars gets the most for their money. I'm also a member of the Finance Administration Subcommittee and also Executive Board of Directors of the RMA. So I am very keen to insurance cost and believe me, I'm trying hard to keep those down. But the result is they've tripled since 2017, 2018.

Can you go back to the last slide?

What's that? Okay. Where am I at?

The left.

Left, okay. Back. Back to that one?

No, the next one.

To this one? Yeah. Okay, is what I was talking about.

Yes.

Any questions on that or should I move forward?

I do. Okay. Okay, on the first slide, you said unrestricted general fund balance. That's your reserves, the 2.1, correct?

Correct, yes.

So out of the $2,100,000 to balance out the budget, you took out $470,000 correct?

Correct. That was what it was.

So now that leaves us a 1,000,630 Correct. In the

If we're on budget, correct.

Yes. That's what we approved last year. That's the budget we approved last year.

Correct.

Yes. And the salary and benefit increase, could you enlighten us as to that increase?

Believe it had to do with merit increases and another I don't have that up by But

that's where we are. That's the increase we've seen from this fiscal year to last. Correct.

And that's why this is a working document. I can come back with you and

explain

exactly what that was. So I'm making a note now. And Dennis, need I your help, so make that note as well.

Because, yes, that would be helpful. So if you could just make a note of that, Dennis, that's like a $200,000 increase there, if we could just understand that. But go ahead.

All right. I talked about property liability work comp. Should I go on to the next page? Okay. All right. Thank you. Isn't this moving?

Yes. Next slide.

I know. Just okay. I'm dealing with two things. I'm trying to read from my screen and look at what Then it

what we can do if that's going to make things complicated, we could just wait till the end to ask the questions then, if you want to go through it.

This is okay, because you guys have screen of conscience questions I'd like, that's good.

Okay. All

right. So expenses for the six months ending December 31 are about on budget. Salaries and budget are 45.6% and remember I talked about our target being 50. So this is a net good number of 278,000. We also work the benefit of the fire contract.

The fire contract provides, it's a complicated contract. But what I'm seeing is that over the seven years of the fire contract, they had gradual increases and that's why it went from 694,000 in 2021 to 1,004,000 in 2728. But part of that fire contract says, if your property tax valuations of the city increases over that lifespan of the contract, we will rebate you some of that fire cost. So I'm happy to report that. And I believe this number is a year behind. They don't give us current refunds. Why should they there to fire? Anyway, that's 100 basically it's 150,000 variance in our favor.

Repeat that one more time slowly for all All of

So the city, part of our fire contract is they base the contributions based on property tax dollars of the city. Because the fire department gets some of those property tax dollars. And if property tax dollars increase, the city will get a rebate from the numbers that were quoted over their seven year contract. And that number is analyzed annually, but it's reported, I'm not sure if it's one or two years

back. Okay.

So right now we're seeing positive benefit of $153,000

Got it.

Because the valuation property valuations have increased. So that's a good thing.

Okay.

However, those savings were offset by higher expenses in legal, professional services and I'm particularly talking about a consultant help, meaning planning and engineering, utilities and park maintenance costs. If we have a water line break, it's a 15,000 to $15,000 bill off the top. And we only have so much money in the budget for things like water line breaks. If people do vandalism at our parks, at our restrooms and it costs $1,500 $3,000 because they're flushing things down the toilet, clothes, iPhones, bricks, you name it. We've got to pay that.

And this is not hypothetical. You're talking specifically of what our experience our city has experienced with the vandalism in our public bathrooms that are costing us thousands of dollars to repair.

And all that stuff leads to higher park maintenance costs because I don't budget Right. All

the

right. To the the January 31 are substantially below budget. I'm calling this the triple shock. The triple shock of immigration enforcement, tariffs, and now the Iran war will have created large and very significant budget misses in respects to revenue received by the city. And what I mean by that, this especially impacts our measure l.

Because people are either unfortunately self deporting or hiding. They are not spending money. They're not spending discretionary money. They're not buying new cars. They're not buying new refrigerators. They're not even buying new clothes. So all this money that you anticipate you're going to get back in sales tax has tanked since basically July 1. Arvind is not alone in the situation. Many other cities of our size in the Central Valley are also experiencing this decrease of like percent plus in sales tax. And when I say plus, I'm talking about year over year.

So I'm looking at if we brought in, do some math here, dollars 600,000 in Measure L money in a quarter. Now I'm only seeing like $420,000 These are just I'm just tossing out numbers. Both of those numbers are higher, but I'm trying to do some math and explain here. So if you have 600,000 budgeted, but you've had a 30% drop to $4.20, that's $180,000 variance for a quarter. You multiply that by four and you get a $700,000 variance.

And that's what I'm talking about. Next slide. All right. So current projections is that total revenue for the city will be about $1,000,000 below budget. Major drivers of that is due to our cease and desist situation. When I was budgeting last year, I did not expect us to go into year four we're

And able we're

that. Regarding sewer water spreading capacity and the structural integrity of our Pond Number 3 at the sanitation plant, the State Water Control Board put a growth moratorium on all sewer connections in the city of Arvin. Which means that if you did not have a valid building permit in 2023 or let's the only exception would be like if you have a if you're building an ADU and you want to add one, that those are allowed. But the bottom line is economic growth pretty much stopped in 2023. So our building department revenues dropped substantially.

And at the time of the budget, I was projecting that the cease and desist would start to be lifted. So I was hoping that numbers would not be as depressed

So what I'm when we passed the budget on June 30, you were projecting that that cease and desist was going to be lifted.

In the latter part of the year, yes.

Right. And so because our city has been facing the inability to issue new sewer permits, it has held us back in our ability to grow and bring in that revenue in way of those permits and buildings.

Right. So when you, let's say, build a house or build a supermarket, there's a lot of fees that the city that people pay the city for planning fees, permit fees, inspection fees. All that revenue is calculated and captured in the budget. And if you don't have those items or substantial decrease, you're not going get the revenue. If you don't have that revenue, your budget your revenue is going to drop and you're not going to hit your budget target. Got it.

And that's

So I'm anticipating, what do I have here, dollars 200,000 below budget. Hopefully it will improve, but Another that's what I'm thing is that we had expected to get some interest income because we had cash on hand. But as we had to use our cash on hand for our grant projects, because our most of our grants are reimbursable grants, we don't get the cash upfront. The city has to pay for the expenses and then we're reimbursed by the state. I have to use cash on hand to pay for that.

And if I don't have cash on hand, if I have to use that cash on hand, I can't bank it and get interest. So because we've had a lot of more projects and they take longer be paid back, our interest revenue projection is substantially lower as well.

So right now, based on the triple shock that you've described, we are facing $1,000,000 shortfall.

And add that to the $470,000,000 we adopted negative for the year. Correct.

In addition to say that again?

That's $1,000,000 on top of adopting a budget that was already in a deficit position.

Right. So because last year we dipped into the reserves to pass a balanced budget, we dipped into those 400,000. You're saying is we're really at 1,400,000.0 in shortfall.

Correct. If sales tax numbers do not recover in the next in the last six months, January through June 30. So I'm anticipating that the depressed sales tax number, the depressed building permit numbers continue for the balance of the year. They could get better.

So the 1,400,000.0 you've already taken into account the $100,000 that we are losing in building and planning revenues and in addition to go

ahead. Correct.

Yes. So the 1.4 accounts for the three bullets there as well?

Yes. Okay. And again, the last bullet point is again, I'm talking about the big one is the Measure L, Penny Tax being down 30% for the six months for the first six months of the year.

For the first six months of the year, we've seen a 30% decrease in our sales tax revenue.

Correct. Okay. And so if you continue that out, that's why it projects to the one point the $1,000,000 I'm saying.

And so what you're saying is based on immigration enforcement and based on tariffs, which is increasing the cost of everything in addition to then now the increased cost of energy fuel because of the war in Iran.

Yes. And anything else that comes by it. I mean, who knows if there'd be layoffs of people that are working in the fields or anything because of that. Again, any layoffs, any negative impacts to our residents will decrease our sales tax, depress our sales tax. It's a downward spiral.

So it's fair to say that the financial hurt that our residents are experiencing, we are mere reflection of that. Our city's financial health reflects our residents' financial And so we see that folks are not out there spending, which is what this 30% hit is to sales tax here Okay, go on.

And we briefly touched on this already. Fiscal year six twenty is now projected to close the year deficit of $1,400,000 I'm

sorry, couldn't hear

you. All right. I'm sorry, I will speak up here. Fiscal year twenty twenty six is now projected to close the year at deficit of $1,400,000 The unrestricted general fund balance is estimated now to be at $700,000 at 06/30/2026.

From $2,100,000 to $707,100,000

dollars yes, exactly. Should the economic conditions continue between 07/01/2026 and 06/30/2027, the unrestricted general fund balance will be negative at the June 3027.

We will have if we continue spending and revenues do not increase in any way, then we will be in a deficit in 2027. Right.

Yeah. Say that again, Jeff.

All right. Back up here. All right. If I project we're at 700, let's suppose the year closes as the way I'm currently projecting. Our unrestricted general fund balance will be down to $700,000 as of 07/01/2026. Okay, 700,000. If we see a repeat of what's happening in fiscal year twenty six into fiscal year twenty seven, we'll wipe out that $700,000 and the unrestricted general fund balance will be negative.

Yes. So we'll have spent all of our reserve and we'll be in the negative. Correct. Do you have in terms of the triple threat and all of the uncertainty that you can't control for in the market and in the economy, Do you foresee the sales tax downward trend to continue?

I'm hoping not. I'm hoping I expect it to continue, but not quite as much. I mean, instead of being down 30, we might be down for the next six months, we might be down in a quarter 21%, 22%. What

are you basing that assumption on?

Because I received on Friday the sales tax numbers, we get sales tax, I get sales tax numbers monthly from the state. The first two months, it's basically the sales tax numbers are reported in a three month cycle, okay? You get the first month, you get an advance on money. The second month, you get a second advance. The third month, they say, okay, what were the sales taxes for that entire quarter, deduct your advances for the first two months and pay the balance.

So typically, a city will get a small number in month one, a small number in month two, and then a larger number in month three when things are done what's called a true up or balancing in month three. So what I saw this time in month one, which I just received on Friday, month one basically being the results for the month of January 2026, sales tax numbers are reported two months in arrears to me, is that the state number improved a little bit because the general the advance that we get when we get an advance, the way that is calculated is they say, what is ARVIN's prior year, what was the advance of the prior year? Yeah. And then they take a look at all the sales tax numbers the state receives in a given month. And so if overall the sales sales tax for the state increase, I will see an increase in that advance for the first month.

And that's what I saw. There are also things that are called prior period adjustments where people are late on reporting their sales tax in a prior month and we'll get that money instantly in a month instead of having to be trued up at the end of the third month. You saw some positive money come in for prior period adjustments and I also saw an increase in the advance, which suggests that the state numbers aren't quite as bad as they have been. I use those two numbers to make me think that things are improving a little bit.

So that we're still going to see a decline in sales tax revenue, it won't be 30%, you're thinking closer to 20%, is that what you're saying?

I'm hoping, but again, this is one month, one month is not a trend. Yeah. The first six months was down 30. I'm just saying, I'm seeing a little bit of signs of a little bit of hope.

Okay.

Let's keep For this presentation, I'm assuming down 30 for the balance of the year. All right.

Should we keep going? Okay. Thank you.

All A city's total general fund balance should not become negative. In order to prevent this from happening, the city needs to either reduce expenses or raise additional revenue. Let me repeat. In order to maintain a positive general fund balance, the city either needs to reduce expenses or raise additional revenue or combination of the two.

Yeah. So it's not either or, it's

It could be.

It could be.

It could be both.

And yeah, it could be both. So

what I have done is I have not for this discussion, I have not let's do a combination of both, okay? I've looked at two scenarios.

Okay.

I've looked at what happened if we just want to reduce expenses and not touch revenue. Should the city decide to reduce expenses, it is estimated that at least a 10% across the board decrease is needed. This would mean either layoffs or compensation concessions. And the reason I say that is in a general fund of $10,000,000 salaries and benefits is about 60%, 65%, 68%.

The 68%, close to 70%. I'll that up

for the next meeting if you want. I'm just talking

Yes, from that would be helpful. Just so that 70 so 68%, close to 70% is salary and benefits of our budget. Yes?

That's typical of all cities.

Yes. Okay. And so that's why you're saying here that if we're not looking at increasing revenue, given where we are, that you say what would be needed is a 10% cut.

Percent, correct. And the math on that's pretty simple. 10% general fund budget of $10,000,000 10% of

that is $1,000,000 Say that one more time.

Okay. So the general fund budget is $10,000,000 Yes. A 10% decrease in expenses is one Yes. Million Okay. So that's one option. The second option

But we're still at 1.4.

We're still at 1.4. So I mean it might be even more than that. But right now I'm

just Because we would still be eating into our reserves at 10%. So we're not going to be we're still going to be trending downward and eating up our reserves at 10%.

Would still be something, yes.

So then why isn't that 12% as opposed to 10% so that we are

So we could have this discussion. I just wanted to explain what and thank you, Mayor. I wanted this to be an open so we could discuss.

Okay. It. Okay. Go ahead.

So should the council decide to instead of reduce the expenses to increase revenue, this can be achieved by placing an additional $0.15 or $01 local sales tax measure on the November 2026 ballot. A $0.15 sales tax measure would bring in approximately 1,100,000.0 to $1,250,000 and would solve, I'm going to say substantially solve the current structural budget deficit of the city. And why say structural, that's assuming that sales tax doesn't increase. I'm assuming we're stuck in this reality right now that our sales tax numbers are not

This assumption is based on the 30% downward trend in sales tax. Yes?

Continuing, yes.

Continuing, moving forward. A $05 would bring $1,250,000

Up to, yes.

Up to $1,250,000

Correct. And that would pretty much

That's assuming 30% hit?

Correct.

Yes?

Yes.

Okay. Got it.

Okay. A $01 tax measure would bring in double that, dollars 2,200,000.0 to $2,500,000 And in addition to solving the structural deficit and again, again, I'm going use the term structural deficit in quotes because if sales tax numbers do recover to prior levels, the structural deficit won't be as bad. But for this analysis, I'm assuming it maintains.

Right. We're looking at a structural deficit of 1.4. Yes. Okay, go ahead. Okay.

So anyway, zero one tax would provide 2,200,000.0 to 2,500,000.0 which would provide an additional 1,100,000.0 to 1,250,000.00 per year on top of solving the structural deficit. That number could be used to improve city parks, repair city streets and or provide needed recreational opportunities for our youth.

Right. Because additional $1000000.1500000.0 to be used to continue to repair the streets and the parks and the other things that the community has asked us to prioritize.

Correct. Especially start to provide some recreational services for the city, which are really needed.

Jeff, before you go, I know that you've said that it's one so it's 2.5. The community has shared with us loud and clear that they want us to repair our streets and our parks. We have deferred maintenance in our city as it relates to streets that have been abandoned for many, many years. And now because of that, the costs are significant to repair those streets, not to patch them up, but to fully repair them brand new. What was repair all of the streets in Arvin?

That assessment is now working on eight years old. I believe the number was What

was that?

I believe it was eight years old in the assessment. I believe the number was

Eight years ago?

Eight years ago. I believe the number was $50,000,000.

$50,000,000 to repair all of the streets in Arvin. Now To make them new, not to patch them, to Correct. Make them

Okay, go ahead. Tanshu, you're kind of leading on another subject I'd like to talk about here is what we would do with this money. We could talk about that for another meeting, but one of the things that I would do if said, okay, the citizens agree we have this need, we're going to get this additional money. I would, what's called bonded. I would say take at least $5,600,000 set it aside and get a bond in the amount of, I have to do the math, million, 20,000,000, pay it back over thirty years so we could do some substantial road improvements. I would not do a pay as you go with chunks of that. I would bond the money.

Explain the the fiscal soundness of a bond and what the risk is to the city and the benefit.

Well, the risk to a bond is it's gonna be on the bondholders. The risk to the city is nothing really per se. Because we're banking on the good faith and credit of the city saying that we know, the bank of whoever is investing is, that we will guarantee you this $500,000 in Measure L revenue per In exchange, you give us thirty years of funding upfront.

So we can start those repairs immediately. Correct. Got it. Yes. Okay.

All right. Now I'll go on to the next.

So you didn't do a combination of both of what it would look like if we were both being

If we did revenue and expenses Yes. And a little

I would suggest that we absolutely explore those. We need to be looking at efficiencies. And if there's any waste, if there's any ways to cost savings across cost spending across the board.

I totally agree with you.

Just like our residents are also looking at how they cut their own budget.

Yes. And that's where the budget next year's budget process comes into play big time. Right now, this is more again, talked about being a living document. The purpose of tonight is to alert and advise what is is happening.

That's so this will be an ongoing conversation to Correct. Help inform our So,

know, the future we can talk about, you know, what a what a 5% reduction in expenses plus a $05 sales tax, like all sorts of we could do different scenarios. However, time is short if we went to our sales tax measure. I'll talk about that in a minute.

Okay.

So many cities in California have sales tax rates that currently exceeds Arvin's 8.25%. Ridgecrest has a 9.25% rate and they use that additional 1%, the difference between 9.258.25% to support a new pool and recreation complex they just built in Ridcrest. I also understand that McFarland has gone up to 9.25.

That's correct.

I did not include that

in this slide. They just passed it in November. So effectively, Ridcrest and McFarland will both have a tax rate of 9.25.

Correct. So we would not be the we would not be the first in the city to Yeah. Do that.

And they're also doing it to do the same too.

Right. Right. Because right now, we have to realize that if people want services, they're they're gonna have to help pitch in. The city, the model that was effective in the eighties, the nineties, the early two thousands doesn't work anymore. We need we need more help. And that's Other cities acknowledge that. Lancaster and Palmdale in the High Desert have a sales tax rate of 11.25%. Think about that.

The last time the tax measure passed here in the city of Arvin was back in 2008, almost Correct. Twenty

years I'm addressing that in the next slide.

Oh, Okay. Thank you so much. Yeah.

All right. So in other cities in the Valley, Porterville has 9.25, Reedley has 9.225, Lindsay and Woodlake have 8.75. What a lot of these cities in the Central Valley that do not have higher sales tax rates, they do charge additional other taxes to their residents. A lot of the cities in the Central Valley have what's called a user utility tax.

Right. We don't have that.

We do not have that. And a user utility tax is like, let's suppose your PG and E bill is $300 a month. The city would tax that anywhere between, you anywhere between 410% with that money coming into Arvin as additional revenue. A lot of cities that do not have a higher sales tax do have this user utility tax.

Right.

And just for your information, the city of Arvin did propose a user utility tax. I believe it was on the lower end. I can't remember if it was four percent or 6% in 2018. It was on the achieved about 330% of the vote.

Right. But at that time, you had two tax measures on the ballot, cannabis and this user tax.

There was zero outreach done for Alright. You at that So moving on. This is where we talk about Harvard and Israel. All right, so what's interesting is that since the year 2011 or fifteen years ago, five thirty four sales tax measures have been on the ballot amongst all the cities and counties in the state. Think of that.

So the city have gone, city or county have gone to their residents statewide, five thirty four times in the last fifteen years, four forty one of them have passed. However, IRWIN's Measure L was back in 2008. We were kind of one of the, I want to say early adopters additional sales tax.

So you're saying that over the past eleven years, five thirty four tax measures, 400 have passed almost a 90% success rate and Arvind has only done it in 2008.

Correct. And the last point I have here is that should the council decide to move forward with placing a tax measure on the November ballot, we need to act quickly. And it is recommended that the city hire a consultant to help with outreach and education. And I've received a quote of 30,000 to 35,000. This particular firm, think it's called Underdog California or something like that. I get the exact name. But they have had a tremendous success rate with cities in the Central Valley in getting measures passed like it Like which one? What's that? Which one? The Underdog California or other cities?

No, the other cities that have successful.

I know McFarland was one. I know there's several others in the valley. They don't come to mind. There is Farlands? Yeah. But they have they have extensive experience in the Central Valley. They understand the dynamics of smaller cities, of DACs, of of communities of this, of the composition of Arvin.

So this is the, they've supported McFarland in the last two tax measures that were successful?

Not of the last two, but at Got the last it. And how this would work, I believe they want like $505,000 a month per month. They also are recommending that we, the city, invest in a 30 to $35,000 survey that would go out to the residents, you know, Spanish, etcetera, etcetera. And I'm not advocating for that.

Okay.

And with that, that is the end of my report.

Okay. So based on the budget that we passed on June 30 for the current fiscal year, that's coming to an end June 30 of this year. So we're going to have to pass our budget for '26, We '20 are looking at a 1,400,000 structural deficit. And this deficit is because of what you're saying. You said it's immigration enforcement.

Tariffs.

We heard anecdotally from our

then

And And and someone might be deported that they would have those to savings to be able to support a loved one. That in addition to tariffs, everything is just really expensive. So when you're projecting building costs, all of that increases. And then now you're saying all of the energy increases because of the war. All of this has caused a massive shortfall of 31% in our sales tax revenue, which is our primary source of income to provide service to the residents.

And so now what we're faced with is figuring out the 10% cut or looking at cuts reducing expenses in the city and also exploring the possibility of increasing revenue. Right now you're proposing possibly 10%, but it's open for discussion.

Fact, open for discussion. This presentation was not necessary to shock everyone, but was to to mention the extremes. Okay? Because I realize that I realize that you can do a combination of of revenue increase revenue increases and expense decreases and not have to go to the extreme on either side.

I'm sure it doesn't shock everyone to hear that we're in a world of hurt, especially when we know that at the state level we're facing an $18,000,000,000 deficit. And there are proposals at the state level that also want to come in and take some of our property tax, the little bit that we get that I know would hurt us additionally. It's not something that's passed, but they're proposing in Sacramento figuring out how they dip into cities as well to close their budget hole.

I hope that happened. Have not heard that. But you're I'm involved with the League of Cities. I believe you're even more involved. Maybe you've heard that. I have not heard that they're going after cities revenue, but that's always been a target.

That's always been a target.

And the league has pushed back strongly in the past.

To oppose it, yes. Are there any comments or questions from the public before we open it to the council? Absolutely, come to the mic, please. And remember, we have two minutes.

Sonya Olivo again. Hi. So you're talking about, well, it's a proposal. I understand that. And there has been, as you have spoken in regards to a decrease spending. Let's say you do put that on the ballot and it passes. If you look at the community here, they're not going to want to shop here anymore and it's going to even bring it more down when you propose that, increasing it. If you look at Bakersfield and what is their tax rate there?

There's 8.80.25%. Okay.

So 1% difference. And then you're looking at other cities that are bigger than Arvin and their tax rate.

There you If you

go out to Lancaster and Palmdale and you look at their environment, it's a little bit different than here. Their cities are maybe a little bit bigger, sporadic. Their landscape is probably around the same, but there's a lot of fields. They are expanding in like shopping centers and things like that. But if you're looking at it in that perspective, if you look at our community by increasing or by trying to increase the tax rate, that's going to make them want to spend less here and go maybe to Bakersfield to spend because it will be a little bit tax.

And that little bit of savings, they're gonna see a difference in that as well. Other times when you've raised the taxes back in when was it? 2008 that they said it was gonna bring in officers. I moved out here in 2005. The officers that I've seen, the activity is not as much as it should be when they increase that tax that it said it was going to increase our police officer activity out in the streets.

Last year, I did see with our previous captain or chief or whoever he was, I did see a little bit more patrolling in the areas, which that was okay better. But since that time, with that increase, the patrolling was not it. If you guys wanna increase the money here, then do what you're going to say. Like get the money, do what you're going to do it, but actually improve. Bring in the activities. Don't just because ever since I moved out here, that's all you always hear is Arbenz's deficit. Arbenz's deficit. Arbenz's deficit. There's never been a time where you see an increase Thank and

you so much for your comments. Perhaps that would be helpful to see about McFarland, if they've increased it recently. Perhaps it would be really helpful to see if that has if they've seen a decrease in their sales tax because of or the activity in their community because of their increasing in their sales tax. They did it this past year and the year prior to that. So they did it incrementally, $5.00 $0 or $04 Perhaps that would be helpful.

That would helpful. But let me address the question of higher tax. That's a good question. But let me do the flip side. So, okay, so Harvard increases its rate, people shop in Bakersfield or the county, right? But two years ago, Bakersfield increased its rate. The county increased its rate. I did not see a corresponding huge jump in Arvin because people suddenly stopped shopping in Bakersfield or the county, now that they have the same sales tax. You would think that they want to stay local if sales tax being the same.

That's a really excellent point.

Let me

ask you question. Absolutely. So

let me ask you this, Mr. City Manager. So back in 2008, when the city got the measure of tax passed, Okay. So I that's

case.

It wasn't that much. I It was like 200 or $300,000 coming in on tax revenues. So when did it start coming in in the boatloads like you're getting?

It's been incremental. I mean, it's pretty much started since 2014, 2015 and has been incremental It's been going up.

But from 2008 all the way to 2014, that big money wasn't there. Correct? Is that right?

I'd have to look, but it makes sense.

Yeah. You know, in regards to expanding the police department and control and all that stuff, the money hadn't even been generated yet. I don't think that money started coming in like it is until later. So, I mean, you know, and and and again, you're absolutely right. What you're saying is if the council's presenting that with this tax measure, you're gonna do x, y, and z, and I recall when it was done, it the money was ear notched specifically for those things.

But, however, if you go and look and you say, okay, it's supposed to be police, fire, roads, recreation. Now if you look at those things, ask yourself, where's the money for the recreation?

What happened to that? Where are you doing, what did you do with the

road money? Where is that? Okay. So now you're looking at two departments, Jeff, Fire and police? Is that right? Correct. Where 90% of that money goes, right?

Correct. And Big? Yep. And the big hit is in the fire.

Beg your pardon?

The biggest hit is in the fire, the fire contract.

Yeah. I know. They're eating us a lot.

So Yes. Absolutely. You're correct. If we say we're gonna do something, we absolutely have to do what we say we're gonna do. But so that we're crystal clear, measure l was a general tax.

It was a general tax, which means the city could use it for whatever it deemed necessary year after year. You have the ability to do with that money what you please based on the direction of the council. The council provides the direction of where that money should be and how we should be spent. And that's why it's important for the community to come and share with us what you believe those priorities should be and that we're here listening and saying, we're going to make sure that those funds are being spent that way. Because since 2008, Measure All Money has been focused on public safety.

And that is just a fact, but that's because that measure could be used for anything under the sun in the city, correct? But what Mr. Tarver is saying is that when the city went out there and asked the residents to pass that tax measure, what the residents were told is that it was going to be used for fixing the roads. That was primary. And then obviously police and public safety and so forth.

Recreation.

And recreation. And so when that hasn't happened, the community then believes that promises are being broken. The promises are not being kept. The reality is you're saying public safety was also priority. And so the funds have been used to grow the police department. What's the size of our police department now?

Budgeted at 22.

What was that?

Budgeted 22 people. And that's not including dispatchers. That's 22 sworn officers.

We are 22 sworn officers is And in the total with dispatchers and with everyone that's What is the total size of the personnel in the police department?

31 or 32.

31 to 32 in the budget? Correct. Okay. The fire contract, year after year, we've seen an increase in the fire contract because we all see that it's getting hotter and drier and the risk of fire increase, which increases the cost of our fire contract and this is happening across the state.

I wish I could say that was the case. No, it's just Kern County taking advantage of the what I call contract cities. Yeah. The the people that the cities that contract with Kern County, they just the rate was something they said, you take this. We had really no negotiation.

Have there been discussions with the other cities in the county to to renegotiate and to explore revisiting that?

You betcha. That's something that I had out, in fact, on my city manager's call, Kern County city manager's call this morning. We had this subject again. We're not they're gonna be want to fire contractors and be up for renegotiation in another two to three years. And and cities are very upset at the cost of the county and the service provided. Heck, we even talked about contract, we were kind of joking, but I take it as more of a serious point is, heck, all of us should contract with Bakersfield and not the county.

So this is something you're saying that all of the cities in the county are going to face this contract up in about two to three years you said? So they're preparing now for those negotiations? Okay.

And Shafter has taken the lead on this. They're really being helpful as far as getting a lot more information about true fire costs. And yes, we're working on it at city manager level within the county.

Okay. Are there any questions or comments from the council? From the public? I'm not too sure if

I didn't hear it. How much are we currently generating in Measure L Funds?

Well, it's budgeted at $2,700,000 and it's going to come in at about $20,000,002,100,000.0 dollars

Because of the 30% hit?

Correct. And how about cannabis?

Cannabis is like 200,000 and that's been kind of steady.

Yeah, about that.

And the last time you did, I think that you conduct an audit, it was two years ago?

I have been three off the check on that.

Okay. Because I don't think that's correct.

You think it was two years ago? Is that what you're saying?

Yeah. Don't think it's accurate.

No. Well, that's that's fine. Can get back to you when we did the audit last.

Could you up, mister, so we can hear you? Could you speak up?

Sure. I'm sorry. My mic's not working well.

That's no. It's just to get closer. Yeah.

Alright. I think the question was when was the last time the one cannabis outfit was audited. Correct?

When was the last time what?

The the cannabis firm was audited. Mhmm. The cannabis business. And I don't I said three years ago, but I'll have to fact check that.

And I think at that three years ago when you reported, you reported that definitely they owed us close to $300,000 correct?

I don't think they owed us something, I don't think it was $300 Dennis I will work together to get that number and we'll report back at the next meeting.

Okay. Thank you. I think the the premise of your question, miss Reyes, is that folks really believed that that was gonna bring significant revenue into the city. And that's why you approved the cannabis being grown in our city. And that's not

And it's not

playing out the way folks foresaw it. Does that shock you, mister Jones, is seeing how the tax revenue for cannabis didn't pan out the way it was projected to and the way that it was presented to our city?

No, it does not at all. In fact, was I was the former city manager at the time back in 2017. He thought we'd bring in millions millions of dollars from this tax. And I said, no. And I said, no. It's only going to be half 1,000,000 if we're lucky. Because what's happened is not only cannabis, the cannabis market has just tanked over the last five, ten years. It's People are still buying illegal or off off the street and not they're not buying through the dispensaries or or the government market places.

Yeah. Now they can purchase it anywhere online. It's yeah. Okay. Are there any other questions? I do want to say that this is going to be an ongoing discussion, so there'll be additional we'll have another presentation on the budget at the next meeting. I know the questions we ask, the clarity, perhaps a balanced approach, but we'll continue to have these conversations. So we'll be prepared for next council meeting, April Madam Clerk, is it April 14? April 14 will be our next council meeting at 06:00. Are there any other questions or any other just direction to the city manager in advance of that presentation?

I do. I really think that you really have to look into our expenses and figure out what is it that you really what are the needs and what are the wants? Because right now you really have to pay close attention to what we're spending. I think everybody is hurting, not just the city. School districts are hurting, enrollment has been declining every year after year after year it has been declining.

I'm not too sure about current high school district but being in certain webinars and other districts not just here, LA County, Orange County, they have noticed that there has been a decline in enrollment. Where are people moving? Out of California. And I think going back to spending and that includes myself, if you go to Vallarta and sometimes you want to buy just a coffee creamer, coffee creamer in Vallarta could be $6.07 dollars versus you go to Winko, you could buy two coffee creamers. So I think that's where our residents are seeing like do I stay here or do I drive a little further and spend my money in Bakersfield.

And I think at the end of the day, we also have to look at our expenses and what are we cutting and do we spend it here? Of course, we would like to spend it here in our own city, but sometimes we have to do what we have to do at the end of the day to provide food on the table for your family. So I think everybody is struggling and I just think that you really have to look at the logistics and really think about and restructure certain things here in the city and to try to see if we can move the city forward. Appreciate that. Let me tell you

one of the we talk about expenses and what is needed and what is not needed and I'm going to go back to vandalism a little bit here, okay? So we have issues with three of our bathrooms at our parks. And as we all know, our parks is really much all our people have for recreation. We don't have much. And our citizens deserve clean, efficient working restrooms. That's a basic fact. And unfortunately, due to vandalism or whatever, we have a situation now that we need to fix the interior stall doors at Kovakovich, at DiGiorgio, at Smotherman. Now, one of the parks, there are no stall doors. That is the one we have to dress for. They've been

torn out. Yeah. They've been torn out. Vandalized.

And to improve to fix that, it's like $8,000. If I was to fix all of the other ones and the concern at the other park is the doors don't lock. They're not not secure. They're not the quote on that was like 34, 35,000 to do everything. And I I told Public Works, we can only afford to fix the 8,000 right now. And I'm gonna go back to them because I want a little more information on those doors. Is there something else we can do to fix it? Why do we have to replace an entire door if the only problem is a locking mechanism or Well, something like

I I again, what we are the bigger picture that you're facing here is that we have a vandalism issue. The bathrooms are repaired and then they're vandalized again. And so this is where everyone can help us in the community to say this belongs to all of us. We get to take care of this. Because when the bathrooms are vandalized, when the plumbing is vandalized, we're all paying for it. And when the bathrooms are closed and shut down and folks are saying, why aren't the bathrooms operational? It's because they're, again, they're going through repair. Similar to when we invest in beautiful fountains and they're destroyed. We're all bearing the cost of that. And so this is a bigger issue.

In terms of getting quotes and going out there and getting quotes for repairing missing doors, damaged benches, damaged tables, and so forth. Imagine you have to go out there and get quotes. But you also were a city. Right? This isn't someone where I can privately go and find the best deal. You also have to abide by Prevailing wage. Prevailing wages. That's just the law. And so our city has to follow the law of prevailing wages, which is why those quotes come out to this amount that might shock folks because we have to pay a prevailing wage. To Mrs.

Reyes' point, when she asked and she says things are very expensive and folks are making like that cost benefit analysis and then say I'm going to take off to the county because I can buy it cheaper at Walmart or at Sam's or Costco. This is also an opportunity for the council to share with the community that also calculate in the amount that you're paying for gas to drive out there to buy a cheaper creamer. And you're not taking that into consideration. Maybe you're just looking at the bottom line. But also that in a city like ours, our sales taxes, our local businesses, thank God, are actually owned by Arvin residents.

These are people from Arvin. They have families here. So it's also supporting those families, the jobs that they create, and also the revenues that come into the city so that we can pay for all of these services. So sales tax is key. And but you're right, folks are going to they're going to make those decisions. But it would really be incumbent for us to explain why it's so important that we shop local. And Mr. Tarver, I saw that you had your hand up. Did you want to share a couple of thoughts?

I just wanted to make a comment. You know, in regards to the bathrooms and those different kinds of things, I kind of see it a little different. I know that we have to pay prevailing wages, but we got to work smarter, not harder. And in saying that, I don't see and I don't understand why we don't have people that can turn those projects into public works projects, where we're not paying that prevailing wage. You know, I mean, god, think I I just think about myself. You know what? I I don't call a plumber. I have to do it. I have to mow my yard. I have to fix the pipe.

I have to fix the toilet. You see? That's the way we've got to look at it, and that's the way it used to be, where they had individuals down there that can do plumbing, where they had individuals down there that knew how

working

on. Of And we on. Public Works. You see? Work I mean, And anytime something goes wrong, he's like, call a plumber. Call this. We gotta start getting people in here that do can do some of those kind of things. And now I'm talking about it. What happened to the mechanic that we hired? I think I was on the council with you,

He's still here.

Still here.

He's working. Where is

he at? Doing a tremendous job as far as repairing all of our police cars and our fleet vehicles. We're seeing a substantial I'm seeing a major decrease in the bills having to take outside. That's one of greatest But

he can't work on Street Sweeper?

I think he has, Mr.

Can he do it?

Maybe, maybe not. But that's something that's still something we're looking at.

All right.

So Mr. Tarver, are you suggesting that we explore and direct staff to also in public works hire in house plumbers, hire in house electricians, hire in house carpenters that we hire those trades in the public works department. Because that would also mean we are going to pay more than what we're paying for now in public works.

And here's the thing. The keyword is, do you have knowledge of plumbing? Do you have knowledge of carpentry work? If you put it if you specifically say we need a plumber, well, guess what? It goes up. But just within those people that you have working for you, they should have some kind of general knowledge of that kind of thing. Right?

That we don't have to contract out if it's in house.

You go. And that in itself will save us a lot of money.

Yep.

You know, see them digging down in the park just for a minute, and then I see a fancy white truck come, I think.

Have said it before as well.

We think about creative ways to cut costs for these repairs, we have beautiful volunteers out there that are out there. And we have a lot of talent in our city of folks that perhaps want to volunteer. I know that folks have expressed interest in wanting to support repairing the fields at Smotherman Park or invest in I could go on and on, building and placing benches, picnic tables and so forth. What would be the legal and this is a question for our attorney, if we wanted to create the mechanism so that we can accept those donations in kind, whether it's that labor support or whether it's a foundation or whether it's an a resident in Arvin that wants to also, you know, make a grant for specific purposes like this. What would be the legal mechanisms for us to be able to take these donations by way of labor, by way of equipment, by way of resources?

So most cities actually have what they call a gift policy, gift and donation policy. I have talked to this about staff staff has addressed this with me. And so I will am going to provide a few samples of what other cities do. But, basically, all it does is just provide a mechanism for the city's proper receipt of any kind of donation. I normally see just monetary donations.

We would have to do a little bit of research as far as, you know, volunteer work. That might be something different in terms of a program that you guys offer. So I'm not sure that labor necessarily falls into that automatically, but it is something we can absolutely look at as an option, because there are and this is just in general. Anytime any kind of agency has a volunteer program, there's liabilities associated with it, not high, but in case somebody gets hurt while they're helping to clean a park or something of that nature. So it is something we have talked about and should be forthcoming pretty soon.

Okay. So what we're looking at is you're saying if folks wanted to we have someone here that does construction work and have access to heavy equipment that we could utilize that perhaps our public works doesn't have, but we don't have the money to buy a $100,000 $400,000 machine, then donating that to the city is something that would go into that policy, whether it's that or labor as in kind?

Yes. So like for that example, it could be maybe that piece of equipment. That's the donation, right? But

Just like borrow it.

Oh, just to borrow?

Yeah. To borrow it for, like, a specific project. Let's say we wanna do a specific project. We don't have neither the equipment or the manpower or the capacity. Could that be within this policy?

So it could. I would recommend that that would just be a separate agreement between the city and the donor. Okay. You're just donating a piece of equipment for a certain amount of time, and so you just wanna lay out, you know, the obligations of each party. Oftentimes, that includes, you know, returning it in the same manner that you received it and things of that nature. So we can absolutely tailor your donation policy to whatever is necessary for Arvin. I know that the basic outline that you see in a lot of agencies don't really talk to that. So we'll have to kind of do slight research and build that in.

And so you've already started to explore that so we could see it forthcoming in the next, you think, three to four meetings?

Yeah. We we have talked about just bringing it forward for your consideration. And with this direction, we can make sure to try to add that in to the policy.

Is that something everyone would like to see on the council? Yes? Yes. Okay. So can we move forward with that policy as we're looking creatively for how we reduce spending in our city?

I have a question. I know in the past, I think it was maybe three years ago or so, I'm not too sure, is there an agreement already in place Cecilia because I believe that at one point public works request talk to the sit to the school district and we loan them I forgot what kind of machinery it was, but that was about three to four years ago.

We have a volunteer waiver form Mhmm. Where, you know, they sign. They can do basic things, like maybe painting. We did loan out an area for folks to place a machine at one time for work that they were doing, but I don't recall anything from the school.

The other thing I recall from the school was that we could use the facilities like for emergency purposes where we had the blackout of four years ago. We had agreements that we could use a couple of elementary schools.

Remember. Okay. But Ms. Reyes, you said that the school district, just like the city, is also facing really difficult financial challenges. You're seeing a drop in enrollment. You're also seeing the world of hurt that we're also facing here.

Correct, yes. And

in your budget, have you also looked at similar things to just cut across the board in your

Teachers were laid off. There are certain teachers that were pink slipped because they had to be pink slipped by March 15. And I think it was a total, don't quote me, I think it was about 17 teachers. That were laid in the school district?

17. 17. Wow. Okay. Wow. Alright. Okay. So we are going to be moving on to our closed session. And I hope to see you all at the next meeting, on April 14, but meeting is going to still be open. You're just going to be we're going to be silent. We're going be in closed session, and we'll come back to report out. We'll go to closed session now. Madam Attorney, do you want to read the closed session item?

Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. The council will meet on conference with legal counsel for one case of anticipated litigation.

Okay. I'm gonna go to the bathroom.