City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, we are going to begin this evening. We are having a regularly scheduled meeting of the Atascadero City Council. We're beginning at 5.30 because we are going to go into closed session. I will begin with a roll call, please.

Council Member Funk? Here. Council Member Newsom? Here. Council Member Peek? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Darius? Here. Mayor Burbeau? Here. Here. All present.

Okay, thank you. As indicated, the City Council is going to be going into closed session to discuss items listed on the agenda under the closed session item. And I would defer to the City Attorney to speak to what that item is about.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. City Council meeting closed session pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9, Subdivision D4, one matter of anticipated litigation.

Okay, thank you. And as indicated, the item is an item of one potential case of anticipated litigation, not specification as to what exactly the case might entail. Before we go into closed session, we offer the public an opportunity to comment on the closed session item. So if anybody would like to speak on this closed session item, I may approach the podium at this time. So I assume you're all not here for the main agenda items on the six o'clock meeting. You would be very early birds if you were so if you'd like to speak to the closed session item go ahead and approach the podium. Okay, please state your name, for the record, and you have three minutes.

Is this on? Yeah, okay. First of all, Council, thank you for hearing us out this evening, and I'll be very brief. My name is Dennis Laines, a 45-year resident of Yerba Avenue here in Atascadero. On Saturday, July 25th, while walking my small dog, we were attacked by our neighbor's dog. His name is Shane Stinson. He has a boxer mix. It's a huge dog. I was bitten multiple times on my legs, hands, and arm. Luckily, our dog was thrown free and returned home some hours later. Multiple people on the street, as you see tonight, called 911. And I got a great response from ambulance, APD, fire, animal control. All those services responded. I'd like to compliment them for that. The dog is a menace, and the neighbors are afraid to even walk near their house on our street or even have their kids play out on the street in front of their own house. So that's all I have to share. Thank you.

Okay, thank you um you know I would note, thank you for your comments, I would note that the closed session item did not specify a particular property or a particular case. And so you know it's odd it's unusual for us to hear commentary about. something um of this nature of i mean we we cannot discuss closed session item before we go into closed session what i would invite perhaps some of you to do is if you would like to hang around to the beginning of the regular meeting during community forum would be to address uh any issues you have uh at that time might be more helpful is that appropriate mr city attorney if i could just say something really briefly um my name is lee livek also a

35, well, since 1999, resident of Yoruba. And we don't know what exactly is going to be in the closed session. We just hope that perhaps you're going to address something in our neighborhood. And after the dog attack, we all just felt like, okay, enough's enough. We don't want to wait five years. We don't want to wait another month to your next meeting. So we're just here in the hopes that maybe maybe we'll get lucky. And, you know, the dog thing was really awful. I was out front getting ready to go for a walk and, and saw it. So if with that, we just have one other person that would like to make some comments and we'll be done.

Sure. And I would also invite you to make any other comments you'd like to, if you'd like to go to more detail at during community forum and the regular, but if somebody else would like to speak, go ahead. As long as we have time to actually conduct our closed session before our regularly scheduled meeting is the only thing.

My name is Margaret Bullock, and I'm a 49 year resident of Yerba Avenue. I just want to ditto what they just said. I have a letter from one of the residents who lives right next door. I know you don't want details right now. I'm not going to give them, but we're all scared. We're all scared. It's not just the trash. We're all scared. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. And if you would like to share that with the city clerk, she can make copies for us and ensure that we all have a chance to see it and read it. This is a letter from another neighbor. Okay, gotcha. Okay, I apologize for being a little vague. We, you know, like I said, the item did not indicate a specific case. And when we do have folks address us in community forum, We're not allowed to go into detail on something not on the open agenda. We're not allowed to have an interaction with folks like we are on a scheduled item where we take testimony, we discuss it in public, etc. The Brown Act prohibits us from doing that. And if we take an action in closed section, the city attorney will reveal that. He will address if the council took a specific action in closed session. But otherwise, I would invite you to stay, speak some more in community forum. But I apologize for this, that this is the process. But it just is. So I really applaud you all for coming out here at 530. And I think there may be other opportunities for you to address your concerns more specifically. And please be aware that the city has been aware of that particular property. It dealt with it in the past. So it is not an unknown concern to us. But we appreciate hearing more specifics from you. Thank you all. And I think we're going to go ahead and adjourn into closed session. We will be back here at six o'clock for our regular session. Thank you. She's right there. Okay.

Okay.

Okay, we're going to call this regularly scheduled meeting of the Atascadero City Council to order. Yes, the council has returned from a closed session, and I would like the city attorney to address any action or take it.

Thank you, Mr mayor of the city council met and closed session pursuant to government code section 54 956.9 subdivision D four and one anticipated case of litigation. The report out is that I have been given approval to initiate an action, the announcement that i'm making need not identify the action, but. The direction to initiate the litigation has been given and that the action will be identified upon inquiry once it's formally commenced.

Okay, thank you. So upon filing, then it'd become public information. Okay, thank you. All right, then we will proceed to let's see Pledge of Allegiance. We're not going to do roll call again, correct? Since we did roll call for closed session. Okay, we're going to proceed to Pledge of Allegiance. And tonight it'd be led by Councilmember Peek. Okay, thank you. So if you're attending in person and we have a pretty full house tonight, welcome. And also welcome if you are listening to the city council meeting through one of our many avenues for doing so. We're going to begin this evening with presentations for some recognition awards for the police department. And I believe I'm going to turn that over to Chief Suttles.

Thank you very much, Mayor, City Council. My name is Chief Suttles. I'm the Chief of Police for the Tascadero Police Department. And thank you very much for everybody that came for this. You know, there's a lot of times that we as a community have to come together when there's a tragic event. And I've been here long enough to have experienced a couple of these tragic events. And I've been very impressed with this community, the way they step up and help us with that. But tonight we're here to celebrate an event that could have been tragic that turned out to be something to celebrate. So with that, I will read to you our citation and we have a couple of awards we'd like to give away. Tonight is our privilege to recognize extraordinary professionalism, courage, and teamwork demonstrated during a critical emergency on October 22nd, 2025. On that day, personnel from the Atascadero Police Department and the Atascadero Fire Department responded to a report of an infant who was not breathing. As every second mattered, our communication center calmly gathered critical information, provided timely updates, and ensured the appropriate emergency resources were dispatched without delay. Their professionalism and composure laid the foundation for a coordinated emergency response. Upon arriving at the scene, Officer Alan Hurst immediately assessed the situation and took decisive action to provide life-saving aid to an unresponsive infant who was not breathing due to an obstructed airway. Relying on his CPR and first aid training, Officer Hurst delivered effective back blows that cleared the infant's airway and restored the breathing. Through calm judgment, exceptional skill, and an unwavering commitment to duty, Officer Hurst's actions helped save a young life and exemplify the highest ideals of public service. His courage and dedication reflect great credit upon himself and the Atascadero Police Department and the community he proudly serves. In recognition of those heroic actions, we're proud to present Officer Hurst with the Life Saving Award. Officer Hurst, would you come up here, please?

Stand over here, please.

He's trying to walk away. He has to stay up here. As a matter of fact, and Jeanette, Cheyenne, would you please also come up here? Stand next to him. We're also here to recognize the outstanding performance of Public Dispatch Safety Supervisor Anjanette Odorniez and Public Safety Dispatcher Cheyenne Pacheco. Their professionalism, effective communication, and ability to gather and relay critical information under immense pressure played an essential role in the successful outcome of this incident. Their efforts exemplify the indispensable role dispatchers serve as the initial first responders in every emergency. In appreciation of their exemplary service, Dispatch Supervisor Anjanette Adornes and Dispatcher Cheyenne Pacheco are each awarded the Chief of Police Certificate Accommodation. Join us in congratulating Officer Alan Hurst, Dispatcher Anjanette Ordonez, and Dispatcher Cheyenne Pacheco for their exceptional service, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to protecting the lives of those in this community.

Okay. Yeah, we're not done because the council is so proud of you. We would like to come down and take a picture with you. And it's our honor to do so.

So please. Yeah. I want to make a point that this is the second time that Officer Hurst has been awarded the Lifesaving Award. And the way he's trying to get out of here, I think maybe there's a call you need to go to or something. I don't know what. So please come on down.

Well, we appreciate his humility as well. So thank you. Well, we always appreciate the opportunity to honor our police and fire folks who respond to these kind of emergencies. And sometimes it boils down to that, literally that one first responder knowing what to do. So we're very proud of Officer Hurst and our police and fire departments. And we thank you for all that you guys do for the community. And that child is going to have some stories or his mother is going to have some stories. And I hope that's the only time that he scares the hell out of his mother like this. Okay, we are going to go ahead and move on now to our consent calendar and the consent calendar consists of routine or non controversial items that are acted upon by a single action by the city council unless otherwise requested by a council member. And public comment will be invited, I would ask first does any member of the Council wish to pull an item or ask a question.

Okay, council member Frank you have a question.

I have one question on item five. On item five, do you wish to pull or just ask the question?

Just ask the question.

Okay, go ahead.

Okay, so item five on the El Camino repairs. In that bid, staff considered options to make the street repair last longer by adding chip or double chip sealer. Numbers in the staff report did kind of suggest that it might be cost effective to do that. Are there other costs that were involved, and is the staff recommendation the most cost-effective option that was considered?

Thank you, Councilmember Funk. That's a great question. In the staff report, there's a bid summary that's attached to the report, and that bid summary for the adults also includes traffic control, so you'd have to kind of negate that from that cost. But the real cost from what the base bid with the microsurfacing, the microsurfacing was about $97,500. And then Alt 1 had a chip seal, which was an additional $70,000. And we estimate maybe it might get two more years out of a five-year lifespan for the microsurface. And then bid Alt 2 had a double chip seal, which could go up to 10 years. but would be another $145,000 for that surface treatment. The base bid, as I mentioned, for the microsurfacing was $97,500. So we believe that the best value is to keep the base bid with the microsurfacing, and that will provide the longest best value per dollar.

Okay, thank you. Yep. Thank you. Seeing no others, we will open it up for public comment to see if any member of the public would like to comment on items E1 through E8 or anyone there. Please approach.

Jeff Hoslin, item number two, if it's correct, is about the road closures for hot August nights. Is that correct?

No. Item number two is the June accounts payable and payroll.

Hmm.

My last meeting we had item number two, I believe, was.

Other than we have an old agenda up there.

Back there?

Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Right. Okay. Maybe somebody can check that out. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else wishing to speak on items E1 through E8? Okay. Seeing no one approach, we'll bring it back to the council for a motion.

Move approval of the close of the consent calendar.

I'll second. Okay, we have a motion by Councilmember Funk and a second by Councilmember Newsom. Roll call, please.

Council Member Funk? Yes. Council Member Newsom? Yes. Council Member Peek?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Darius?

Yes.

Mayor Barbeau?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay, thank you. We will move on now to updates from the city manager, Mr. Lewis.

Yes, thank you, Mayor and members of council. I have several updates. If you have kids at home, you will know. And if you don't, I'm warning you that school starts tomorrow. So it will be exciting tomorrow morning in downtown as our students start their new school year. We continue to work with the school on communications to parents to make sure that we encourage several different routes, especially to the middle school. I have an eighth grader, so we've had three years of this, so we're really good at our route. But you need to find the best way to get your child to school. I do want to share that we will have additional patrols out and police at each of the school sites. And there may be a celebrity guest chief in a very prominent place tomorrow, making sure people are obeying the law, driving safely, and really that we can educate drivers on traffic patterns, especially the crosswalks in El Camino and the malls. So tomorrow school does start. School starts at 8.15. So if you don't have a student, I would... some 750 to 830 be somewhere else in town, but that's tomorrow. And so also there is a sidewalk closure at fire station number one. So I do want to make sure people are aware of that. If you're planning to walk, if your student is walking to school, construction will be underway at fire station one for a while for a traffic way in Lewis, the sidewalks are closed. So only use open sidewalks, please. I hope that we, and we will try and advise people of that as well. You can see in the graphic where those are posted. because people will be driving a lot of traffic tomorrow. So if you're a driver, please slow down, stay alert, and use extra caution when traveling through this area in particular. Let's have a great start to our school year. Our aquatics program continues. A very exciting Sunday aquatics. This is a new program. This is every Sunday in August. We're offering swimming opportunities to the community on Sundays, and it's been really hot, so this is a great option. Rec and lap swim are held from 12 to 245. So this is if you just want to float around and cool down and be in the water, this is for you. Swim passes are available for $5 per swim or a family pass with 10 swims for $45. That brings the cost down per family if you want to do that. Passes must be purchased in person at the communitycenter.org. or at the pool only with cash or check. So that's a great thing to do on Sundays in August, Sunday aquatics program. And my hat's off to the recreation team, the council. This is a real priority to you to bring back aquatics last summer. It was your vision, and we did the best we could last summer with a promise to really expand the program this summer, and it's been a huge hit for the community. So appreciate your vision on that. Next, we have a coffee vending opportunity at La Tascadera Lake Park. So if you walk around the park, you're there in the morning and you think, man, I wish I can get a coffee. Yeah, we do too. So we're opening up a vending opportunity at the lake. This is starting September 1st through the end of the year. You'll have a chance to serve coffee to zoo guests, park visitors, and early morning walkers from 7 to 11 a.m. This pilot program aims to enhance the visitor experience and supporting our local small business. So if you're interested in being the coffee vendor, you can go to atascadero.org forward slash ALP coffee. Applications are due Monday, August 17th by 5 p.m. at the community center. So hopefully we get some good vendors for this, which will be a nice amenity for our mornings at Lake Park. Also, as we continue to invest in opportunities and quality of life at Lake Park, we have food truck weekends. They're rolling now through September 27th from 12 through 4. You can see we have several, a different food truck every day or every day we offer this. And so you can see a variety of quesadillas, Mexican grill, Mary's Cuisine, tacos on each of these days. So that's really great. 12 to 4 while exploring the park. Enjoy a snack from one of our local food trucks. The Saturday in the Park concert series continues as well. On Saturday, August 15th at 6.30, we have Electric Lavender Train. This is an evening filled with classic rock and roll covers. So very, very popular. It's a free concert. Bring your chair and food is available to purchase. If you're not at the concert series, the next biggest event in town, if you have missed this, you're really missing out, is Coffee with a Planner. Yes, coffee with a planner is a big hit. See what's happening in town. Share your ideas and help shape the future of the city. The conversation next will be on August 20th at 9 a.m. at Amsterdam Coffee. Usually we have a topic, but this one is more open if you want to know why things are designed the way they are, or architecture, or how projects get approved, why the Kmart Center sits like it does. These are great questions you can ask to a planner, and they'll have great answers for you, and you'll have personal time with this great group of staff people. Next, we have Cruisin' Weekend. That is right around the corner. We had about six tickets left this morning, so I'm not sure where we are now. If you haven't got your ticket, it may be too late. But it is August 21st. We have the 33rd annual cruise from 6.30 to 8.30, and then Mid-State Cruisers on Saturday from 10 to 3. So a really great event. And then Dancing in the Streets, always a big event downtown, is 5 to 10. We do have a new route we've been talking about from Morrill Road to San Jacinto. This will incorporate totally the downtown with the one lane of travel. So we think cars will be able to flow much better. We capped it out at 200. We also have pre-1990 or exotic or limited production. So the quality of the entries I think will be all stellar. And that's where we're headed. So cruise night is coming up. And, oh, there's five passes left, I see. So you want to make sure you get those. If you haven't gotten one, one sold in the last four passes left. So they're moving. Boy, you better get to the community center tomorrow at 9 o'clock. All right. This is a good sales pitch, I guess. Are there three passes left now, Councilmember? All right. And then next we have Movies in the Park. And what a great community we have. Look at all these things. This is Footloose, August 29th at 7. That's a fun one. And this is at Colony Park, 5599 Traffic Way. At 7 p.m. is when the activities and games start. The movie usually starts closer to 745, depending on the light that year. But lots of fun. And this has a family wiffle ball game at this one. So this will be terrific. So those are all the things going on this month. We don't have a second council meeting this month as well. So I hope the community enjoys that summer night in August. And council members, a much earned break for you. You work very hard throughout the year. So this is our only council meeting for August. If you have any questions, I can answer them or you can go to visit atascadero.com or atascadero.org. Thank you, mayor and council members.

Thank you. We're getting the hand signals from Terry Banish on the number of registrations left so it's our staying immediately updated here. So appreciate the report. Thank you for that. And how is speaking of the fire department, you know the buildings knocked down pile of dirt, everything's proceeding according to plan.

Things are proceeding. The slab was poured over at the station, and footings are being prepared. At the police station, I was there today. The slab for the dispatch center and all utilities are in, and we believe that the framing will start this week. So you'll start seeing the new dispatch center pop up right in front of you on El Camino. That'll be exciting. And the site preparation continues with the compaction grading at Station 1. So, yeah, we are on track. We have a big meeting tomorrow, kind of all of our hands, to circle all wagons from all units to look at the construction timeline, budget, and finishes. So we're doing great. Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Thank you. Does any member of the council have any questions of the city manager? okay seeing none we will proceed on to community forum and community forum is reserved for persons wishing to address the city council on an item not on the agenda but over which the council has jurisdiction the brown act does prohibit the council from entering into a discussion on a matter not on the agenda how although we can at our discretion ask a staff member to respond to a question or to meet with a speaker. So with that, I'm going to open it up to the public. Each person has three minutes, and we'd like to ask you to state your name for the record, please.

Good evening, Mayor and members of Atascadero City Council. My name is Katie Osman. I'm the executive director of the Cuesta College Foundation. And I am here on behalf of the Cuesta College Foundation to share that this is a historic year for scholarship support at Cuesta College. For the 2026-27 academic year, the foundation is awarding $1.19 million through 1,092 scholarships to 696 students. the largest annual scholarship investment in our history. More than $800,000 of that support is going to local students who graduated from San Luis Obispo County High Schools. Here in Atascadero, we are especially proud that Atascadero High School graduates received 33 scholarships totaling close to $40,000. That support is helping local students take their next steps in higher education and career preparation. The foundation contributes an average of $350,000 annually to the Quest of Promise. We also provide $50,000 each year in emergency grants and approximately $100,000 annually in departmental awards. Last Thursday, August 6th, we had the opportunity to celebrate our scholarship recipients along with many Atascadero High School graduates at our scholarship reception. None of this would be possible without the generosity of individuals, family members, community members, businesses, and organizations who provide support to Cuesta College. Thank you for your continued support and go Greyhounds.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Council. Wendy Lewis with El Camino Homeless Organization. I'm here to share several updates with you today. First is annually we hold a neighborhood stakeholders meeting, and that's scheduled for August 31st from 6 to 7 at Echo Atascadero. The second announcement is also an appreciation of Today, officially, working with our incredible planning department and city leadership, ECHO received its certificate of occupancy for our Bailey Co. Family Resource Center and ECHO Family Wing. So we are so excited to announce to all of you and the months of support and effort it took to get us here. We will be having our ribbon cutting this Thursday at 10 o'clock to celebrate with the community. Best part of that is one of our success stories is gonna share what the service has meant to her and her children and what the future rooms where families will have their own rooms will mean to the families that will be staying with us so it's super excited to that i wish we could have a visual to show you last week the community we asked all our kids who are currently in echo atascadero what they wanted their beds to look like and we put it out to the community and by the next morning every bed order was filled and so right now over at the shelter we have we beds ready for children with mermaids and butterflies and Superman and all kinds of things. So the kids will feel that sense of home. Thursday also will provide tours for people who would like to see more and learn more. And we're just so excited to be welcoming our first families, probably early September. But again, just appreciation to the city, to the planning department. It took a lot of effort to get us all to this point. We're just really grateful. And then we need to sustain what we just opened, so encouraging the community to come to Long Walk Home, September 26th at 10 o'clock. It's an awareness march to show the community the steps the people we serve take, forward steps in order to get back into housing, and that's the goal for everyone. The other last thing is, as of today, we've helped 222 individuals, their children, into stable permanent housing, or kept them in housing through our homeless prevention funds. So just again, I want to share our appreciation for the community, city council, city leadership, and all of you that helped make that possible. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Next speaker, please. Clerk, I don't see a timer on the screen.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Grant Dunn. I'm a resident of Atascadero. I'm here tonight to urge the City Council to reject the implementation of flock safety surveillance cameras. The gravity of this decision cannot be overstated. Bringing automated license plate readers into a Descadero is a fundamental shift from community policing to automated mass surveillance. It transforms our public streets into digital dragnets, permanently altering our town's character. The core threat of this technology is that it reserves the constitutional... Presumptions of innocence in a free society. Surveillance requires reasonable suspicion or a judgment sign, a judge signed warrant. Block cameras do the opposite. They automatically track, log and store the daily movement of every single driver, regardless of wrongdoing. Every trip to work, the doctor, or place of worship becomes data in a personal corporate system. We are treated as suspects under a potential watch until an algorithm clears us. This complete lack of judicial oversight bypasses our fundamental protections against unreasonable tracking. Furthermore, we are being asked to hand our community's personal data over to an out-of-state for-profit tech vendor. This introduces severe document risks of data breaches, unauthorized pooling, and data abuse. We do not need to sacrifice civil liberties to ensure safety. Our police department already coordinates effectively with residents through the voluntary scram program, which respects privacy by only sharing footage after a specific crime occurs. That is policy built on trust, not automated suspicion. Installing flawed cameras is an invasive step backwards for local freedom. I urge this council to stand up for the constitutional rights and privacy of a Tuscadero's residence. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please.

Good evening. My name is John Sanders. I live at 6790 Santa Ynez. I've been there for almost 38 years. The first thing I'd like to say is thank you to the city for repaving Santa Ynez. It's part of the F-14 program. rehabilitation project this year. I've been there for 38 years. I think that road was repaved 35 years ago. And then, like, two years later, the gas company came through and, you know, trenched a trench all the way down it. So, anyway, with that said, this is my once-a-year request for traffic patrol on this stretch of Santa Ynez between Itasca Avenue and San Andreas since, as Jim said, school starts tomorrow. The stretch of Santa Ynez connects the upper and lower parking lots of the high school. During the morning arrival time, 730 to 810. Lunchtime, 1145 to 1230. And after school from 315 to 4, it's pretty much a drag race strip down through there. These are the times that there really need to be patrols there. Additionally, the stop signs at Santa Ynez and Atascadero and Santa Ynez and San Andreas seem to not even be suggestions anymore. I know that there are many other areas that also experience traffic issues, especially around the schools, but I feel this area needs attention, especially because the number of young drivers speeding in our neighborhood. So anyway, thank you for your time and attention.

Thank you for your comments. Okay.

Good evening, council, Jeff Austin. I'm sure you missed me at the last meeting, but Chris Stapleton was more important than my social life being here. Um, moving forward, uh, we brought this up about a year ago. It's time to bring it up again, that nice little bridge that we, uh, go across behind a city hall here by the middle school. Sorry, the other school there. Can we do something with those flower pots and maybe put something in it and water them or remove them? We're now... about two years into it. It was brought up. We were going to do it. They're still empty. Let's beautify that part, please. Next, Ryan Bentz is probably your hero in public works lately. He's had a few phone calls from me. He's gotten on things that have been very important to the infrastructure of our city. He can elaborate with you at some point, but he's got these things fixed and he's been doing a really good job on that. I did want to bring that up. I am going to bring up Cruise Night and say we did a double whammy. I'm not so sure of the route now because a lot of people that have had parties on the other side, south side of Morrow Road for 30, 40 years now, aren't doing it because the cruise doesn't go by there. We cut the volume of vehicles from about 400 down to 200 and we changed the route. I'm not so sure that's in the best interest of our city. Yes. The vehicles may go faster, but I don't want to be by a fence on El Camino Real on the North end. Um, But the highway behind me in that traffic, I think it's a cost savings more than anything and kind of bummed about that. Lastly, on my agenda tonight, and I appreciate the city manager bringing up the fact that school starts tomorrow. Trust me, I'm thrilled. You can't imagine how you get back onto a schedule. For our residents and maybe the parents of school-age children, it may be a good idea to remind them that we do have traffic lights and walk signals on ECR at West Mall and East Mall. Um, I'm sure our police department will be there tomorrow to enforce that. So they're not darting on and cross your vehicle, even if you are going five miles an hour. Um, I would also hope that maybe even though we missed it preschool, but maybe we can get it tomorrow. Um, that someone from our police department sends the district office a letter. That goes out to all the parents that are in the Atascadero Unified School District, because we've gotten about 12 of them in the last five days, that remind parents to remind their kids to obey the traffic laws there. Jaywalking across a green signal for an automobile is illegal. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the council? Okay, seeing none, I'll bring it back up here. And I think everybody's looking forward to hot August nights and we're going to see how the new route works. It needed to be changed and, you know, we're just going to see what happens, you know, because we had to change it and our staff gave it a great deal of thought and we'll see where it goes. Okay. And obviously, yes, the comments about schools are school opening is appreciated. And I think everybody recognized if you can stay away. It takes a week or two for the traffic pattern to settle down to normal. And I believe chief I don't know if you can address it all the concerns, which are probably greatest around the high school but if you can address it all the concerns regarding speeding and particularly close to high school that I see another person wishing to speak I will go ahead and open community forum backup for one more person. Go ahead.

Just a little FYI, I can't hear you when I'm sitting over there. I don't know if it needs to be louder.

Interesting. Thank you for pointing that out. I can hear my voice going into the microphone and having an amplified sound up here.

And I will admit, I have very poor hearing. Okay. My name is Margaret Bullock. I live on Yerba Avenue. We tried to talk to you before. And I just wanted to read you a letter that I wrote to Mr. Lewis earlier in July. I introduced myself. I live at 4537 Yerba Avenue and have done so since 1977. Over the years, for the most part, it's been a quiet, friendly neighborhood. We raised our daughter there, and now we have our grandchildren visiting often. Our grandson lives with us on the weekends. There were many children in the 1970s. They've grown. They've moved away. Many of their parents have moved away. Some have moved back. And now we're getting a whole new crop of children, and it's a wonderful place to live. We're having a new baby next month right next door to us, and we're really looking forward to that. unfortunately for the past 20 years the neighbor at 45 30 45 43 yerba avenue has created a great many problems and i know you're aware of it she's a hoarder and code enforcement is aware of that too the city cleaned up her property in september and it almost looks exactly the same as before they were there she does not have trash pickup and I watched the video from last May of this council meeting and she didn't mention that and she was saying she didn't have any help but I want you to know that several of the neighbors on we're not monsters we have tried to help her we have talked to her what do you need how can we help and two of us have offered to pay for trash pickup for her and she said no And I honestly think she wouldn't be able to put a piece of trash in a trash can. It's that bad. One of the other problems is that trash, when it gets to be too much, she burns in her backyard. It's not leaves. It's not bushes that she's trying to get rid of. It's her trash. And when my windows are open and they're almost open almost all year long, except for the summer, and that smell comes in, and I have asthma. There's a respiratory therapist who lives between me and this house, and he said he cannot ever open his windows because of the smell coming from that place. She also has a problem with her son, and I really, I know, I was a mental health professional. I know what's going on over there. And it's sad, it's very, very sad, but she is not helping. And I think that you read in Mr. Shortino's letter that was given to you that she doesn't take it that seriously, but she has threatened, she doesn't, her son has threatened. Our lives have threatened the neighbors yells, screams, runs up and down the neighborhood. And he doesn't have just one dog. He has two large dogs. Right.

I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to cut you off.

Because sorry, I wasn't watching. But I just wanted you to know, again, this neighborhood, we don't go outside. Because we're afraid of him. So we're just asking for you to help.

Okay, thank you. And yes, we are aware of and did receive that letter and we are aware of the situation. So thank you very much for speaking this evening. Appreciate that. Okay, see no one else coming forward. Chief, if you could address any any extra efforts on the part of the police department to address speeding during the first week of school.

Yes, Mary and, as a matter of fact, I think someone else had mentioned actually you mentioned the simple fact that, for the first couple weeks traffic patterns are going to be a little erratic. There is going to be speeding there's going to be people running stop signs So these are all the things that we're aware of as well, so we will be upping our presence there as well. it's not just the speeding it's not just a stop signs it's it's a you know, everybody needs to pay attention and and and follow all the traffic laws. You know, we're going to be out there to help educate people, but we're also law enforcement officers, so, you know, we do write tickets as well. So please remind your loved ones, remind your neighbors, and especially our students that this is all about safety, and that's what our priority is.

Mayor Mrakas, Okay, thank you chief okay we're going to move on to item each one, which is a public hearing confirming the cost of weed and vegetative growth abatement i'm going to turn this discussion over to our fire chief Casey bryce. Mayor Mrakas, who looks like he's being joined by our fire marshal and incoming fire chief Dave on song.

Mayor Mrakas, Thank you, Mary that's correct time chief Dave on song will be handling the presentation.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm here tonight to talk about confirming the cost of weed abatement and the vegetation growth abatement. So just a little bit background of our weed abatement. In April, Council adopted the resolution declaring the weeds a nuisance. We inspected 11,282 parcels in March. 5,869 notices were sent out in April, which is 413 less than previous. As every year, our weed abatement deadline is June 1st. 5,869 properties were inspected again after the June 1st deadline. We had 77 properties tagged to abate and 27 properties were abated by our contractor. Here's the quick visual of the timeline of what I just went over. And here is our 10-year history of private parcels cut. As you can see, we were about 17 parcels less than what we abated last year. So the recommendation to council is to adopt the draft resolution confirming the cost of vegetative growth, weeds, and or refuse rubbish from abatement. And here is, we have a couple before and after pictures of what was tagged to abate before and what the contract what it looked like after the contractor here's one example and here's another example of of what our contractors did and why we asked them to abate. And here's an example of good weed abatement and success with the quick extinguishment of a fire we had on carmelita on June 10 of this year. And this property had its proper abatement we had a fire breakout with lower spread rate of spread and easier containment time for our first responders. And that's all I have for you. Any questions?

Okay, thank you. Does the member of the council have any questions for Chief? Go ahead, Mark.

Just a reminder to people that when we hire a contractor to go and weed bait, well, it's really loud now. Thanks, Charles. I imagine it's cheaper if they would hire a contractor ahead of that, right? So they would be saving money. The same thing's going to happen, but if they force the hand on us or on you, then it's going to cost them more, right?

That's correct. We have, we do have an admin fee of 66% of what the actual cost of the abatement is from our contractor added on top of it. So it is much, much less expensive for people to hire them prior to the June 1 deadline.

So that's incentive for them to get it done. But thanks for everything that you guys do to keep this. I'm glad to see the number is only 26. I think last year was a bit of an anomaly. It jumped up. But consistently in the mid-20s to get that done, and that's an important thing. And you've proven success with fires not spreading if it's done properly. So thank you.

Okay. Council Member Peek.

Yeah, we said 77 abatement letters. Is that correct? And then 27, we actually paid the contractor to take care of. Yeah, that's correct. So that means there's a grace period in June for when they receive a letter, they can still do it at no extra cost if they handle it themselves before we show up.

Yeah, so the process is we start the inspections June 1. And if they don't get notification that they're out of compliance June 1, except for a door tag or on a vacant lot, we'll stake the property. And then those go directly into our GIS system, which creates a list of properties to abate that go to our contractor. So whenever the contractor gets that first list is when he starts going to work.

So essentially, if a landlord is out of the area or somehow they miss all the notifications or it slips their mind, they have at least when they get the notice, they can go and whip it out for the week before we get there. Correct.

If they actually physically see that orange tag and the property owner cuts the property prior to the contractor getting there, then he just drives by.

Okay, thank you any questions on my right okay seeing none will open this up to public comment see if anybody would like to address the Council on this subject as a public hearing. Okay, seeing no none, we will close public comment and come back bring it back to the Council for emotion. I will move steps recommendation second. Okay, thank you. We have a motion by Councilmember Funk, a second by Councilmember Peek. Roll call, please. Councilmember Funk? Yes.

Councilmember Peek?

Yeah.

Councilmember Newsom?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Darius?

Yes.

Mayor Brebeau?

Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We will move on to item I-1, which is the subject is fire department command staff restructure, and I will turn this presentation over to Fire Chief Bryson.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Very excited to bring this management report forward to you tonight. We are discussing a potential restructure of the fire department command staff. This staff report that you have before you, it has six recommendations. I broke them down into two slides here. There's a lot here, so I'll go through the first three, and then we'll discuss the next three. The first is to authorize the city manager to add an additional battalion chief position to our total budgeted positions. So that additional one would total three. Then it's to authorize the city manager to restructure all three time cheese to a 24 hour shift schedule. Next is authorize the city manager to add a fire captain position to fill the role of fire marshal and remove a firefighter position. Several three recommendations to follow up to make that happen, who would ask to adopt a draft resolution for non represented professional management workers and confidential employees. That's the updated MOU to allow for the 56-hour work week shift battalion. Second or next, authorize the city manager to execute a side letter with the Atascadero Professional Firefighters Local 3600 for the existing memorandum of understanding dated July 1st, 2024 to June 30, 2027. And that would be to add the fire captain fire marshal position. And then finally, last recommendation, authorize the director administrative services to allocate 150 000 in general fund reserves to liquidate a portion of the holiday leave liability which we'll talk about in a minute prior to 2019 the fire department command structure included one fire chief six shift fire captains the one fire marshal fire captain in september of 2019 city council increased one position and we started with the battalion chief position at that point we added a 40 hour operations battalion chief and at that point we moved the fire marshal fire captain to the battalion chief of Community risk reduction. fire department command staff has been in this capacity since 2019 we have the fire chief and the two battalion chiefs. We, between the three of us, we rotate our night and weekend emergency coverage, so one of the three of us is always on call. And that's worked well. Since that time, we have felt definitely the support of council The Community through D 20 we've increased equipment and engines we've we're building new fire stations and in that 2025 budget 2023 2025 budget Council did add an additional firefighter position which i'll show on the organization chart, so we have felt. A lot of support through the Community and through Council and we're asking to move up to the next step here. As part of council's goals of increased public safety, enhancing public safety, we presented a standards of cover document back in January at our strategic planning. And that was really the kickoff a long-term staffing plan addressing staffing shortages in the fire department. It's a plan that would last years, budget cycles, whatever it takes, but eventually it increases staffing slowly to get to a third fire station at some point in the future. This first step is increasing daily staffing, identified in the standards of cover that we discussed. Increase daily staffing to seven by adding shift battalion chiefs. I'm going to show you our current organization chart. There's the fire chief. We have an administrative assistant, our two battalion chiefs that work 40 hours, and then our three shifts, station one, station two, each A, B, and C shift. And you can see that that firefighter on station one, A shift, there is that fourth person. That was the 19th position that we added in that 23-25 budget. It's been a great addition to the department, very, very beneficial. It allows us when we have someone on long-term leave for an injury or a baby, something of that nature, we can kind of float that firefighter up into the vacancy and stay whole. But you can also see that it is one of the six engine companies is a four-person company, which does increase ongoing daily staffing. I'm gonna get into the shift baton and the reason for it, but first of all, the timing of this. We talked last meeting. My retirement is coming up. We just heard from Chief Bansan. He will be leaving the fire marshal position, and he's been confirmed as the next fire chief. This moment presents a logical and strategical opportunity to make this reorganization. The shift battalion chiefs. It's a critical component of modern fire service delivery. These are management-level chief officers providing on-scene supervisory support for the engine companies 24 hours a day. So they work out of the fire station, may have office hours, office time here at City Hall with admin now, but they are with the department 24 hours a day. Provide direct on-scene command support for the fire companies. That's a big piece of this, The support for the companies during an emergency incident that allows the fire captain to go to work, supervise their crew, provide safety while the battalion chief 24 hours a day is there to supervise the entire incident. This is a standard pretty much in our county and the greater area to have a shift battalion chief. Only Atascadero and Morro Bay do not use this model as of right now in the county. So how does this work? We have our one operations battalion chief who works the Monday through Friday hours. He would move to a 48-hour shift. We would then internally promote two fire captains to the rank of battalion chief, and there's a trickle-down effect all the way down. So two engineers promote to captain, two firefighters promote to engineer, and then it leaves basically one vacancy for a new firefighter absorbing that 19 position so i'll show that org chart here in a minute, but by using that 19 firefighter, we will be only needing to hire one additional person to replace that. To get to the seven full time firefighters on shift each day. In addition to the emergency functions that I already talked about dying chiefs. provide high-level second-in-command type support to the fire chief. They manage large projects, provide leadership in an EOC, Emergency Operations Center, wildfire prevention, strategic planning, public outreach, budgeting, training of fire and city staff for emergency operations, high-level support to the chief. It's really a it's a it's an interesting interesting position because I mentioned how they support the fire captains by supervising and directing and managing overseeing large incidents. But they really do allow the fire chief to focus more outward strategic thinking greater planning by taking up some of these high level assignments, so it really is a support for both sides of the operation. The final piece I have on here is the career pathways and then the employee retention, the future leadership. What this allows us to do is move up these aspiring fire captains into the battalion chief role. When we have had people leave for other agencies, two of four say in the last 10 to 15 years have left our agency to become battalion chiefs, shift battalion chiefs in other agencies. So this really does keep our leaders here. I would foresee the next fire chief in some years down the road coming out of these shift battalions. So it really does develop our future leadership. Here's the proposed organization chart. Again, you have the fire chief with an administrative assistant, and then an A shift, B shift, and C shift battalion chief supervising both fire station one and fire station two captains. You can see it's a complete balance now, seven each shift, seven on duty per day. The final piece off to the side is the fire captain, fire marshal, which is part of the recommendation. We'll talk about that for a minute. We just heard from Chief Vanson. He has been confirmed as our next chief, leaving a vacancy at the fire marshal. Now presents a unique time to restructure that and better meet the needs, be a little fiscally conservative on that position, We no longer will need, with shift battalions, the fire marshal to operate at the battalion chief level. We can go to a fire captain. They will handle the same duties, but they won't need to fill in in the nights and the evenings and the weekends and provide that oversight and that coverage to the engine companies having the shift battalion. So we're gonna take, we'd ask the, now would be the opportunity to restructure this rank to a fire captain. This would be a 40-hour position, Monday through Friday when businesses are open, able to work with the public, handle inspections and businesses and that sort of thing. Similar programs, fire prevention, inspection, plan review, public education, weed abatement, and fuels management. But being physically responsible, we feel like this would be the right time for the shift of time to move this to the fire captain level. This also supports, like the other internal promotions, this would be potentially a promotion from one of our fire engineers, also to move up to the captain rank, and then a firefighter would promote to engineer, and then this would also, this would be a new firefighter position at the bottom through that vacancy. Impact on the department. We hit on several of these already. the promotional opportunities throughout. We would have all ranks able to promote substantial benefit there, creating new people and new positions, and it's a big deal for the fire department, from firefighter all the way up to the battalion chief. It's really a commitment to our long-term people staying with us, having those opportunities to move up and grow. The increase of daily staffing is huge. Being able to take seven people immediately that are in uniform response ready in a vehicle to an incident, it's huge to move up to that seven person daily staffing instead of six. The increase of the ability of the battalion chief to support the fire chief, it exponentially grows. Having three, one on per day on shift, but having three there to take up those big projects, the fire chief will rest easier knowing that there is a shift battalion on duty able to handle that emergency. Fire chief can now focus on whatever the strategic plan or the preparing for council or whatever it is, knowing that that shift battalion is ready to go. We'll talk a little bit about the fiscal impact of this move. There are actually minimal employee salary cost increases. By moving all these new positions and low into the salary schedule, they all promote up, but they start off at the bottom end of the salary schedule. There's actually very little salary increases by this move. It pretty much is a status quo there. There are some overtime costs. We are now keeping seven people on duty each day. We spend overtime when someone is sick, someone takes a holiday day or a vacation day, we backfill. So now with the shift battalion, any one of the seven from the battalion chief down to the firefighter, they take a vacation day, we will be filling that position to keep those seven on per day. It's estimated at about $80,000 annually to keep all seven on duty all the time. We do have some one-time costs. We'll be outfitting the two new firefighters, promotions at the different ranks. We do have background checks, new PPE, custom-sized turnouts and radios and tablets. And those are one-time costs because we usually, we would not have those extra costs available in our operating budget. So we'd be asking for the one-time costs. And then the holiday leave accrual that we mentioned in the recommendations, In light of council's goal of fiscal sustainability, we thought that this would meet council's goals by limiting the holiday leave in the management MOU. So the shift battalions, they accrue holiday because they work those holidays, Christmas and Thanksgiving. People retire from the fire department after 20, 25 years of service with large accrual banks, sometimes hundreds of hours. So to be in that spirit of fiscal responsibility, capping that holiday time at a three year cap. And then as we bring people into this position, paying them down to one year, so it allows them to grow up to that three year cap and encouraging the use of that holiday time. We expect this to be for those two new baton chiefs and actually our existing one, not to exceed 150,000. And that really is the bulk of the presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. That completes my presentation.

Okay, thank you, Chief. Very thorough. I'll start on my right. Council Member Newsom, any questions for the Chief?

No, I appreciate all your hard help and time that went into this.

Thank you. Council Member Funk.

You talk about supervision as the role of the battalion chief in an incident. One thing I've noticed with the reports about incidents is almost always in any, like a structure fire, there are several different mutual aid things from other cities coming in or CAL FIRE, plus you're sometimes negotiating air assets. Could you talk a little bit more about the role of the battalion chief in managing all of the complex communications and the coming and going of resources so that the firefighters who are hands-on putting water on the fire have what they need to be able to keep our community safe?

That is a great question. Thank you for asking that. The battalion chief really is the the organizer of the entire incident. So we will have as many as, depending on the size of the fire, whether it's a structure fire, we may have five other outside agency engines all coming in, each led by an officer or a fire captain. These engines are coming in sometimes right after one another, minutes apart, and they all need to be placed and told what to do, where to go, what their assignment is. The battalion chief, is the ability to step back, stand at their command vehicle and place these engines strategically to affect the rescue, coordinate ventilation, have a rapid intervention crew to provide for firefighter safety. One engine will need to get a water supply. So there's all these different critical fire ground tasks that now a fire captain can safely direct his crew and get that mission done. So the battalion chief is able to stand back, look at the entire picture, and organize and direct and keep everybody safe that way.

Thank you. Okay, thank you. Any questions on my left? Okay, thank you. I did have one question. You talked about the leadership role of the battalion chief and the battalion chiefs being under the management you know, they're non-represented, they're not fire union, you know, represented. Are they supervisory in the sense that in addition to, you know, directing an on-site incident, do they assign work? Do they write evaluations? Do they, if necessary, discipline subordinate firefighters or is that only done by the chief?

They do, they are supervisors, they are in that management role. So supervision, evaluations, the start of a disciplinary process, all that would be fall under their purview.

OK, thank you. OK, I'm going to open this up to any public comment on this item. Please approach the podium, if you will. And I will say that Council has been aware of this idea, has endorsed this idea in strategic planning. And this is kind of coming to fruition with the details for Council's approval. That's probably why you're not hearing as many questions from Council. We've had an opportunity to ask some of our questions previously. Go ahead for speaker.

Jeff Oslin, resident here, business owner. And to our mayor's point, yes, this has been brought up at council before. Chief, I think you did a great job in presenting this organizational flowchart. I think it makes great sense. It doesn't cost the city a lot of money. It probably saves it in retention down the line again. So that's a big positive. I do have a couple of questions. One is by taking duties and saying Monday through Friday for the fire marshal, is he still a full fire personnel? And if so, he or she, they could technically cover a shortage and then they would be gaining overtime. And my question, I guess, comes down to play if that's true. Should it be limited in their position to Monday through Friday, or should it just suggest that most of their operating hours are Monday through Friday? Thank you.

Hey, anybody else wishing to address the council on this item? Okay, seeing none, I did ask that question, you know, the role of the fire marshal, but could you address that, Chief, in terms of the role of the fire marshal of ever filling in, you know, on a fire incident? I mean, they are a 40-hour person, but they are a trained firefighter as well. So can you address that?

Absolutely. Thank you for the question. So the fire marshal, yes, is a fire captain rank. It's one of our personnel that has either been a fire captain with us or is a fire engineer that's completed the fire captain's testing process. fully qualified, they're fully capable, expected during their 40 hours to respond to any incident and be in assistance during the incident. And yes, they very well could fill in a fire captain role in a suppression capacity. It would not be the first called, but in a big need, if we have a large fire happening, we need to put this person on a fire engine, is you know their first mission is the fire marshal, but they are a fire captain that can act in that role.

Okay, thank you all right with that I will bring it back to the Council for possible motion or any discussion.

I move that we adopt the fire department command staff restructure also second that motion.

Yeah, I think Mark reaches. So we have a motion by Council member peak, a second by Mayor pro tem dares. And I was this is an exciting day for the fire department and a major change in its structure and its advancement towards the future. So roll call, please.

Councilmember Peek.

Yes.

Councilmember Funk. Yes. Councilmember Newsom.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Darius.

Yes.

Mayor Borbeau. Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

All right. Thank you. We are going to move on to item I-2, which is a discussion on updates to our native tree regulations. This issue came to us as a result of a discussion last Council meeting regarding the removal of the heritage tree in front of the senior Center i'm in turn this discussion over to Mr dunsmore Community development director.

Thank you, Mayor and good evening Council, yes, it was at one of our July hearings this topic was broached and it was based on removal of the heritage tree downtown. And so, staff has brought some ideas to Council tonight that we're ready to discuss get this little slide to move here, I think this one. up there, it goes now it's moving. Just a little look back was all the way back in 1998 that we originally adopted these native tree regulations. We did more recently amend them in 2018 and tried to streamline the tree removal process and take the planning commission out of the loop and bring a lot more of these features down to a staff level. But it was July 14th of this year where the council asked staff to look at some additional amendments, primarily to make it easier for the community development department to make determinations on dead trees and do we need an arborist report, that question was asked. So based on that direction, what we could do is take some amendments to the Planning Commission and the City Council and incorporate those, just wrap those into the bigger zoning update that we're doing if we get direction to do that tonight. So I'm just gonna show you some of the text and I'm gonna try and explain this to you. This really only applies to a couple of sections. And just backing up a little bit, the tree regulations are part of our municipal code. They're in Title IX, which is the zoning code, and they're in Chapter 11. It does also allude to these guidelines. The guidelines aren't in the code. The guidelines are actually a little piece that's adopted by resolution, and it's more a kind of an instructional manual of how to deal with trees. But staff has also taken it upon themselves, like we do with a lot of things, to make a handbook, and it's sort of a, cheat sheet for what's in the guidelines and the and the actual code right here but basically the column on the left there is a current language and these are just a couple of ideas if if council wanted to amend as they have asked for of what we could do now we haven't done outreach on this we'd like to do outreach on this if you want to proceed with this we would like to bring in members of the community alps and other folks like that But essentially, the current language that we have does require that for us to verify that a tree's dead or diseased or injured beyond reclamation, that it be done by an arborist. And so that is something that our team, the community development director, myself, or someone I designate, does have the ability to make that call. We do have that knowledge. We go out and we look at trees all the time. We know the tree varieties. We know tree health. We know native trees quite well, and we can tell you if something is deceased or not, even when it's dormant. So that's pretty simple. The key thing about that is knowing how a tree died. Did it die due to someone doing trenching or development? And that is why we have historically required an arborist. They look at it and say, oh, look, here's why it died. You know, there's sometimes a reason, but sometimes trees just naturally die. The other part, fees. the council did mention, can we alleviate fees from a situation where trees died? And this was a significant example where we had this heritage tree die downtown. And those fees were established by resolution of the city council, but we could put in here that no application fee shall be required for the removal of a native tree that died due to natural causes, again, as determined by the community development director. So that's an optional clause. And then lastly, it was the mitigation. Do we need to pay mitigation for a dead tree or could there be an exception when it's died of natural causes? And instead, could we just plant a five gallon tree? So that's the text you see there. So very simple potential suggested amendments. Again, we haven't done outreach on this. These are quite simple. We could wrap these into the larger zoning update. And I do understand the council too may want to do a more significant alteration of the tree regulations, and we can also discuss that later on. But at this point, if I can get this clicker to work, I don't really have any more slides anyway. Oh, there it is, there's the last slide. I'm ready to answer your questions, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dunsmore. Before we proceed, I did want to clarify a couple of things for myself and perhaps Council. The way you've characterized this, any changes actually would need to go to the Planning Commission and then come to Council as an actual change in the ordinance.

That's correct, because it's Title IX, and Title IX requires Planning Commission review.

So, you know, this discussion this evening is simply, I mean, we asked, would it be possible to do some of these things at our last meeting? So you're bringing this back, but this is not for a formal decision. It's really to give you further guidance to pursue these changes, et cetera. I would like to, and I kind of broached this at the last meeting. While I would like to see these changes made, I would like to see us have a more in-depth discussion about the entire tree ordinance. I find much of it very excessive, an excessive imposition on property owners. And so I would for one would like to have a much deeper discussion about the ordinance and it's in its entirety, and more aspects of it. In doing so, I think, obviously, we need to have community outreach and have a thorough vetting with the public there are interested parties. We already got a couple of emails regarding this discussion this evening. So I think we don't want to do something and not have a full discussion with the community because there are very much interested parties. I also keep in mind that I don't want it to be an item like a strategic planning as we discussed earlier. as a possibility at the last meeting because I think it could be a very lengthy thing and take over too much of the strategic planning meeting session. So what I'm wondering and keeping in mind, we're having an election, we will have at least one new council member. As much as I would like to have this discussion, I would think it might be wise to hold off and have said discussion in January after we have a new council member seated who could be part of that discussion, as well as allowing plenty of time for community discussion. But so in terms of, I mean, my take on it is, I mean, I for one would like to see these changes, but I would like to see more changes. So I'd like to see, does the council wish to Well, I want to open it up to the public as well, but let's just see what questions council has. We'll open it to the public and then come back for a discussion on how to proceed. So I'll defer to my right. Members from council member, questions?

I have no questions.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Funk?

Yeah, I've been in discussion and correspondence with a number of folks from Alps and other folks who are caring about trees. And so it's a bit of confusion. We took some folks by surprise with this one. So I do have a number of questions. Let me start, first of all, in the scope of what we're doing tonight, which is narrower than what the mayor was just describing. Do the proposed changes apply to heritage trees as well as to native trees generally?

This would apply to all native trees, which would include the heritage trees, yes.

Okay. And for the native tree ordinance, does that apply to properties that are zoned single-family residential in the absence of any construction that requires a permit?

No, they're exempt.

Okay. And do any of the changes we're considering tonight apply to situations of new construction?

Yes.

Okay. Can you clarify that?

So any new construction that could impact or would impact or remove native trees would be subject to the tree ordinance, whether they're in the single family zoning district, multifamily district, commercial district, or any zoning district.

Okay, but the changes that we're making which remove fees for and reporting requirements related to trees that died of natural causes would those changes do anything differently as a result of that what we're doing tonight.

Not for new construction, so that would only be in the case of a tree died absence of construction, it died by natural causes.

Right, okay, and the construction things would be something that we could just address in a broader discussion as the mayor decides sometime later. Okay. The proposed language does specify that instead of requiring the property owner to submit a arborist report certifying that the tree has dead, that the judgment of the community development director about a tree can suffice. You know that we have expertise on staff that can judge whether trees are dead or a hazard to the community. If that isn't your personal expertise, is that something that, does the language of what we're doing or whatever is crafted in response to this, can that allow for this to be delegated or for you to rely on somebody else on staff who might know even more about trees than you do?

Yes. Yeah, it's quite straightforward, quite simple, except for the one clause that you mentioned, I believe you said, about safety. We're not going to enter the world of safety. I think that any tree, whether alive or dead or healthy or not healthy, could be determined to be a safety hazard. So we're not going to go into that arena, but we could go into the arena of identifying size, species, and whether it's dead or alive.

Okay. Are we looking at something that would require staff to make additional visits on site and put a big burden on staff with these changes?

it's only this is only applying to dead trees in this particular scenario so is that a significant burden when something's dead not really but there is some additional staff time that would have to be utilized because we need to have to go in the field or we have to have a really good photographic study of the situation and ensure that you know it's not construction or some other man-made item that impacted the tree so really we'd probably do a site visit but Most of these tree issues are not associated with dead trees. They're associated with development or tree removals that someone proactively applies for, not a dead tree. So dead tree situations are kind of the exception.

Yeah, the whole ordinance was really crafted towards creating incentives for people not to chop down trees in the pursuit of ever more money or other construction advantages. And trees dying of natural causes is something we now need to accommodate better. Because time goes on. Is the language that you've proposed here, is that specific enough so that if you and your staff are not comfortable with what might be going on or why a tree might have died, something suspicious just doesn't feel right, that you could require a report to be supplied by the property owner yes we believe the way the language is it gives us that discretion to make that call Okay, that's important. And Mr. Orvis of ALPS suggested some additional categories of experts just to sort of keep the cost down for folks when they're having to deal with this. Would you have any problem if the alternative to a staff judgment was written confirmation from a certified arborist, registered forester, field biologist, or agricultural extension agent?

Those are fine options.

Okay. And then one of the correspondents suggested leaving current fees in place but giving staff the authority to waive them on a case-by-case basis. Is that a viable option legally for the city?

That becomes very problematic. We get accused of favoritism. We have a lot of friends in the community.

And I think staff should never be put in a position of discretion like that.

Agreed. Okay. Just wanted to check on that. And then just checking on the senior center was initially required to pay fees that were something quoted here in the $1,700 range when their heritage tree died. The staff report mentions a much smaller fee getting waived. I'm assuming that the heritage tree fee was for mitigation for a really big tree, which it was, but if you could explain if another really large tree dies of natural causes, would all of the related fees be waived under the language that we're proposing here, or does it need to be adapted?

They would be waived, and that was a very significant tree, and it's by the inch, So that diameter was massive the permit fees just a couple hundred dollars or $400 I think, but the actual mitigation was the chunk there, but it would all be waived under this proposed situation in a tree that died by natural causes, where we could verify that situation.

Okay, and one thing with the fees, for the record, ALPS tells me that they'll be very happy, that's the Atascadero Land Preservation Society, says they'll be very happy to take a check from the city, but that's not what happens right now, that when the checks from the city go directly to vendors who do projects, disbursements from the native tree fund. Could you confirm if that's the case?

Yes, that's correct. That's exactly what happens.

Okay, thank you. If we're doing some kind of consideration to, in the implementation of this, will there be some outreach to folks who, given that Council is guiding staff on some specific actions that are gonna go through an approval process with Planning Commission and come back to Council, will there be some outreach during that process to ALPS and other folks

Yes, if we received direction tonight to do some of these very minor changes right now, we would definitely do outreach to the community and especially some of the groups that have expressed interest in this topic.

Okay. I'm sorry, Councilman, are you speaking to these very minor changes tonight?

Yeah, because they're going to come back.

I don't know that we'd have a big public workshop or outreach. I mean, I think people can see this is a very narrow change if you're right. I think this would go to the Planning Commission as part of the updated zoning code and back to you. So I don't think there'd be a robust public outreach unless you were a different director. I think we would for the broader discussion on the tree ordinance early in the next year, as the mayor had suggested. I don't want to say we have all this public. I don't know that we're discussing on the public outreach because this would move along pretty quick. If you gave us this direction tonight to be transparent, they go to the Planning Commission and back to you as part of the whole zoning code.

Sure, and the additions would be pretty focused that we're talking about here.

And we know that ALPS is well aware of this, so they would be well aware and certainly have the opportunity to come to Planning Commission hearing on these minor changes.

Yes, okay, and one last question to that. As these go through the Planning Commission, can we have a little discussion about five-gallon versus 15-gallon mitigation trees? There's some concern that the smaller ones may not survive the deer and human interactions. There's other people weighing in saying the smaller ones work just fine. So I would just encourage you to have that discussion and let that be part of the consideration.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions on my left? Okay. Council Member Beek?

Yeah. If a tree is dead and it's standing up, it costs someone to remove it. If it's dead and it has fallen over, it doesn't cost anything. We can just cut it up. Correct?

I believe that sounds accurate. I have never been asked that question. But I guess if it's just on the ground, it's just wood at that point.

Okay. I guess my point is if a storm comes along and one of my dead trees falls over across the creek, I can go with my chainsaw and cut it up like I have in the past. Yes. But the same dead tree, it just fell over because the roots gave out finally. All the dead roots gave out. And then it's no longer a tree. It's just wood. I agree with largely what Mayor Rabot is saying. I think a lot of the costs that we put on the residents... for removing something that's obviously dead. I'm in favor of getting rid of that fee. I also think that I trust you and your staff to determine if a tree is dead or not. I think it's not a small cost to have a certified arborist come to look at your dead tree. I think I talked to one residence and all sudden down it was $600 before they got permission to cut down a dead tree on their property. Um, so I think just keeping that in mind, um, I love trees. I tell a lot of people the best, one of the best things about Tascadero is all our trees. Um, and I, I'm kind of, I'm concerned as well with like the older trees, like Sycamore, Sycamore trees along the Tascadero Avenue, they're all going to die the same time. They're about 120 years old, right? Uh, we don't have a plan for that. And then we'll just have no trees along those, along those areas. So there's, there's, I think the broader discussion is what do we do in the future to mitigate having no trees from when the colony was founded all at once having to be replanted or if we can do them sequentially. I think 15 gallon replacement, if the way the ordinance is written now, the homeowner or the property owner has to pay for the replacement, pay for a fee to go into the fund, pay for all these things, and then now pay for a larger tree. I'm just not, I'm not in favor of that. I think if you look back 30 years from now, 30 years behind us to now, there's many, many, many, many, many more trees than there was 30 years ago in Atascadero because people like to plant trees. So I don't think that we have a tree disappearing problem. I think we have a tree, a great tree population. That being said, I don't want to go around cutting trees down willy-nilly, but taking the fees away from Just minimizing the fees, especially for dead trees. I'm all in favor of the minimal changes that we're proposing tonight to give to the Planning Commission. I think residents shouldn't have to pay anything but the tree guy to cut it down, or themselves, some sweat equity, cut their own tree down. It should be free.

OK, thank you. Mayor Portemderes.

Thank you. On the note of fees for removing a tree, I think we've already discussed this, and I think it's When somebody has a tree that's dead for nothing that they've done, it's natural causes, we'll just call it that, charging them to remove it, I think it's like rubbing salt on the wound. But what I did want to comment on was you had, I think you said a little while ago that you do have the discretion to require an arborist report. And what occurred to me is that you could have a tree that everybody could agree maybe is 100 years old, like the one that died out here. and it died because it's 100 plus years old. But if you have a tree that's 30 or 40 years old and is dying from what appears to be natural causes, is it diseased or something? I think that would be a time when an arborist would be important because you don't want other trees to be infected and have other issues coming along. So A tree that died early of natural causes, I think, is something that is where a time would come where you'd want to see an arborist get involved. But you said you had the discretion to be able to call for that, so I'm assuming that's what you're thinking with that. But I will agree with what the mayor said and what Councilmember Peek said on excessive fees for trees. To remove dead trees, I think, is problematic. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Before we got to the public, I will make a note of correction. And the staff report indicates that, you know, we adopted these ordinance in 1998. And I know for a fact, because I was sitting right over there in Councilmember Newsom's seat, that we adopted a tree ordinance in 1988. And so 1998 represented a substantial rewrite of the ordinance but this has been around a long time and I recall the discussion specifically and it was passed on a four to one vote, which I remember well. I'm gonna open it up to the public for any comment on this item.

Jeff Oslin. I think the minor changes make perfect sense. You know, if you're in the downtown and you have a 100-year-old tree and it's obviously dead, if you don't call an arborist and you wait long enough, it's going to fall over anyways, and that becomes a safety issue. So I think those minor changes make perfect sense. I think on the broad tree ordinance, it does need to be revisited. I can tell you with the construction project I did, I thought one of the ordinances was ridiculous. I never lost a tree. I planted 40 trees when I moved on my property. I have almost a hundred trees on my property. If you count them all, um, some are native, some are not. Um, Where my property lies, I don't have the option really to plant one new tree by a requirement of our building code. If you pull a permit, you have to plant one new tree. So maybe the option is instead of it being on your property as the ordinance and it gets reviewed, maybe it is a you plant one tree or you fund one new tree to the city or something of that nature might make more sense, but for somebody with a hundred trees, I don't have a spot for another tree. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else wishing to approach the council and speak on this item, please come forward now. Okay. Seeing none, I'm going to return it back to council. I, again, would like to comment on, you know, that I would like to see us, you know, proceed through this process, you know, put this out to the planning commission on these changes. I think they're minor and they're certainly warranted at this point, but I do very much wish to propose to my colleagues that we have an in-depth discussion of the tree ordinance come January. I did ask Mr. Dunsmore today how many tree removal permits we've issued in the last five years. And I asked him this evening in the bathroom how many of those are in for single family residences where there was construction versus commercial properties. And because we we talk about single family residences being exempt and they are just on a day on a everyday basis. If you don't have an active permit, you can go chop chop down a. you know, a tree this big around if you have no active thing. And he indicated to me that most of the tree remover permits actually are on single family properties because that's where most of the trees are. You know, people wanting to build new homes on lots, they have to, in many cases, cut down some trees. Although, as Council Member Peek noted, we have far, far, far, far more trees than we did 30 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 years ago, because you know vacant lots like mine that were agricultural as houses are built people plant trees so building houses in the long run is good for tree cover it's good for you know our urban forest and yet our ordinance treats that oh my god somebody's building a house and you have to take out a tree like it's you know the end of the world um i think the whole thing needs a serious revisit and i would like my colleagues uh concurrence that we will address this the tree ordinance in a more significant way come January when we have a new council member. But I'd like to see us proceed this evening, and so I'll open it up to discussion and or motions on this item tonight.

I don't believe we have to make a motion on this. This is for direction. But on your request, I would agree that I think We do need to have an in-depth discussion because I think there's a lot of things, there's a lot of, I mean, we don't want to make it more complicated. You already said that there's too much in there, but I think it needs to be refined to modern times and have just a lot of things more clearly defined. So I would agree, after January would be a good time.

then I would like us to each address then providing staff the guidance this evening to proceed with these particular changes and run it through the Planning Commission and bring back to Council. So I'm going to go ahead and start on the left, though, finish on the left.

Yes, I'd like to provide direction on the several items that were being changed tonight to proceed to Planning Commission.

Okay, got it. Thank you. Council Member Funk.

Yeah, I think we're making some real common sense changes here. I've suggested a couple of fine points that we can even add some other categories of folks who have expertise to keep it simpler and inexpensive when guidance needs to be sought, comfortable with the answers that staff provided on how this is going. And the discussion has been really useful behind the scenes in terms of people being surprised that we're talking about this and then coming to realize what we're doing is really targeted to, you know, a very small subset of dead trees. And let's keep it easy. Keep the focus on planting new trees and not on punishing people for being the one who was caught holding the bag when the tree died. So as far as this goes, I think we're in good shape and it can go through the process. And there will be opportunity for public input on a couple of those fine points. And as to the larger discussion that the mayor was requesting, I think there's usefulness. We're trying to do, people love the trees, we're trying to retain something that's really valuable, not just for individual properties, but for the community as a whole. and doing so in the context of a new general plan with different zoning codes, new state housing codes that regulate this, and a change in climate that may affect what kinds of trees will do well long-term. So if we do that kind of discussion that the mayor is requesting in January, I would like us to include a specific discussion with the community and with arborists about the heritage trees, in particular the heritage trees that are up and down East Mall and West Mall. Because I'm concerned that the beautiful symmetry of what E.G. Lewis planted, that they're all the same kind of tree. could leave us vulnerable 50 or 100 years from now in the life cycle of the next round of trees that all of those trees die at once, as Council Member Peek was saying about the sycamores on Atascadero Avenue. And we need to think about what's the best way to balance the aesthetics of the situation and the long-term survivability of the shade that people will need after everybody on this dais is no longer here. so this is what we're let's take it um from a you know 50 100 year perspective you know the lifetime of big trees um if we're looking at this look at how we're achieving the urban forestry how do we make it simpler to have for people to plant and support and sustain the trees that make our city wonderful thank you councilman newsom

Thank you. I think it's important that we maintain the policy to be simple and user friendly. I think it's important to also make sure that it's affordable to the residents. I think public input, I think right now with the continued discussion that we have is bringing about a lot of people concerned that we're doing away with the policy. So I just want to make sure that it's user friendly and affordable to the residents.

Mayor Mrakas, hey Thank you all and staff is that enough guidance for you to proceed, yes, thank you okay. Mayor Mrakas, All right, thank you all much we're going to proceed on it's less on the agenda item we are going to proceed to Council announcements and committee reports, I will start on my wife right with Council member newsome.

Thank you. SLOCOG met on Wednesday. A lot of discussion. SLOCOG board at the end ended up adopting a resolution to request the removal of Measure H from the November ballot, which would later go on to the supervisors for consideration, determined that there wasn't enough support some of the citizens group that did the fundraising and the initial stages for the ballot measure were not willing to invest the time in the energy to move forward based on polling numbers. They just felt that there wasn't enough support to have this ballot measure pass. So it's been withdrawn.

All right. Thank you. Council Member Funk.

The meeting of the Atascadero Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency that was scheduled for this month has been moved to September, I believe it's September 2nd. This is working on a fairly routine reporting process with a little bit of additional data. And it was deferred at the request of our consultants. The Homeless Services Oversight Council executive committee will be meeting this month. I'm no longer on the executive because I've passed the torch as vice president of the committee. But exec is going to handle an issue with regard to some standards for how homeless prevention money is distributed and the extent to which geographic-based minimums are involved. And then a task force is going to look at a broader range of how it is. Essentially, what HSOC, the Homeless Services Oversight Council, is wrestling with is how to have performance-based funding that also ensures that people in different areas of the county, in different age groups, have equitable access to services and not to have the metrics of performance get caught up in things where an organization looks like it's less successful because it doesn't serve as many people because we didn't give as much money last time. And so they're not, and they keep... you know go you can get get an organization into a downward spiral that has nothing to do with actually getting the services delivered so that's what trying to wrestle that out is what hate sock is working on right now. And then one item, League of California Cities, I'm about to take over from Councilmember Newsom as the rep there. And at the September conference, there will be one item brought forward by the City of Murrieta, which is seeking a working group for a constitutional amendment related to local control over housing policy. So if the council members chose to have some discussion on that, it's a pretty expansive approach to it. If council members wanted to give direction, that would have to be at the next council meeting.

I did also receive that email. I'm not sure, Mr. City Attorney, how much we could discuss that or perhaps Mr. Lewis could address whether that resolution from the City of Marietta is in keeping with our existing legislative plan, which would enable us to, you know, enable Council Member Funk to vote in support of it. Did you see that email?

I did not see that email. I'm sorry.

I have. I'm very familiar with the resolution. I think the resolution calls for establishment of a working group to pursue ballot initiatives that would assure local control, basically, more so over state housing law. So while you're legislative platform defends the city's right to have its legislative local control. It's a little different process. I think we probably should put it on the agenda if you want to talk about it.

Okay, I think council member funk as our representative, she can vote however she would like to vote on that with with or without our guidance. Correct.

Yes, and as a board member for Cal City is actually a pretty strong opinion on the process for that I could advise Councilmember Funk.

I think that would recommend I think that would be helpful. So, okay, thank you.

Thank you. Last month, cap slow met due to my workload. I was unable to make that meeting but they're meeting again next Thursday, and I will be at that meeting.

Councilmember peak.

Yeah, July was a slow committee month for me, but we have city schools committee coming up in a week or two after the start of school year. So that'll be interesting to come up to speed with the school, a couple of school board members and the superintendent. No DRC for as far back as I can remember. As Councilman Funk knows. So everything is hunky-dory there. Was able to attend a few ribbon cuttings this past month, and it seems the summer has been pretty ripe for new chamber members and some businesses opening in town. And it was nice to see the Morrow Road Liquor was finally opened after what seemed like six, seven years of construction. So very nice store, nice deli in there. Just looking forward to the rest of the summer. And I don't have kids, so it's summer for another two more months.

All right.

Thank you. And none of my committees met in July. And so I have nothing to report on that. I also attended the opening Morro Road Liquor there. And that was interesting. But I would also note on that particular project, you know, you have the liquor store down below with a deli, etc., But you also have some residences on top. And it's a classic example of the kind of mixed use project that the city has allowed and promotes. So you get a couple of additional housing units, you know, which provides housing opportunities for people. So I forgot to mention that in my remarks at the ribbon cutting, but we appreciate that happening. And we had a ribbon cutting down here on the Step City Hall, which was important for a non-bricks and mortar business. But we always appreciate businesses opening in our community and want to support them as much as possible. And I would note, as the city manager mentioned, this is our only meeting in August, so we will not be back here until I think it's, what, September 8th or something? So anyway, so you might miss us. So in any case, I'm going to see if there's anybody.