City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Special City Council meeting for May 26, 2026. We have a quorum. Could I get a roll call, please?

Council Member Maloney?

Present.

Vice Mayor Pearson is absent. Council Member Mendoza? Here. Council Member Orliman?

Here.

Mayor Meyer? Here. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Moving into public comments, the public comment time for tonight's meeting items will be three minutes each. In order to ensure that all speakers feel welcome to share their views, members of the audience are kindly requested to refrain from applauding or speaking to counsel from the audience without being called upon first. In addition, in order to maintain decorum and ensure that no one's side is obstructed, public commenters are reminded not to approach the dais.

At this time, the members of the public are allowed to speak to the council on items listed on the closed session agenda. Prior to this meeting, we received four written public comments summarized on the screen and available on the city's website. First speaker I have is Deborah.

Good afternoon. Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council, my name is Deborah Gailey and I am the President of the Brentwood Supervisors and Professionals Employee Association, speaking on behalf of our membership and membership of other Brentwood Employee Associations. On behalf of concerned members of the various Brentwood Employee Associations, we are writing to express serious concern regarding the recent public reporting involving City Manager G. Harold Duffy, as well as incidents at the City of Brentwood workplace that have been reported to the city's Human Resources Department relating to gender-based discrimination. Managers and supervisors are responsible for upholding respectful workplace standards and ensuring that employees feel safe, supported, and professionally valued. Executive leadership sets the tone for your organization. When conduct of this nature becomes public, it can negatively affect morale, confidence in leadership, and the overall workplace environment across departments. The City Council recently adopted administrative policy prohibiting discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, which is intended to ensure that all members of the community and workforce are treated with dignity, fairness, and respect. Members of the Brentwood employee associations have expressed discomfort and concern regarding interactions with city manager Duffy and its impact on the city organization. Giving the seriousness of this matter, we respectfully urge the city council to consider this information while conducting city manager Duffy's performance evaluation, as well as immediately initiate an independent third party review. This request is not intended to prejudge any outcome or findings. Rather, it reflects the importance of transparency, accountability, and maintaining employee trust and confidence in city leadership during this process. We appreciate the council's attention to this matter and this commitment to maintaining a respectful and professional workplace environment for all employees. And that is from the Brentwood Association Miscellaneous Office Division. the Brentwood Employees Association Public Works Division, the Supervisors and Professionals Employees Association, and the Managers and Confidential Employees Association. On a personal note, I will reach a milestone of 30 years of employment with the city later this year. In that time, I have worked with many council members, many city managers, and others in executive leadership, and have yet to witness the level of disrespect, discomfort, and anxiety that I currently see in my colleagues. After reading and hearing accounts from multiple sources, I ask you, how would you feel if you were in a workplace environment that has been described, and what would you expect to be done about it? Thank you.

The next speaker is Danny.

Well, I had to amend this just a little bit. The question I have for everyone here and everyone there, how would you feel if something you did 30, 40 years ago came out? The Internet has everything. My wife, I found a picture of her as a junior cheerleader in high school 50 years ago. How deep do you guys want to dig before someone finds something on you? Because I guarantee you somebody has something on you. I am so glad I'm an adult of the 80s because God dang it. If I were of this age, God in heaven, I don't know where I would be. Now I'll go to what it was I wanted to do. Some of you have voted for this following gentleman up to three times.

You can let me grab by the pussy. You can let me grab by the pussy.

If there's going to be a threshold of holding people accountable, let's use that. It was a private conversation, a stupid private conversation, but a private conversation nonetheless. How many of you ladies in here and out there have gone and had a bachelorette party? and things got a little crazy or you guys talked a little too much because you had a little too much to drink. And damn, how many of you guys have been to a bachelor party or sitting on the sidewalk or walking through the store? We are not the thought police. regardless of what everyone here says. We are not the thought police. Now, I don't know exactly what he said, because I have better things to do with my time than to go digging. But I can tell you, I did dig up one guy who had something to say. I found he was going through divorce proceedings. and had a restraining order. That was one Google search with one guy. So let's call it what it is. He's getting called out because he's a black man, period. And I dare anyone to tell me otherwise. I wanted Darren at first. And then I found out about the Yolanda thing. And then we had the quarter million dollar man. He's done more for us in six months than those two combined. Just call it the way it is.

The next speaker is Melissa.

When I was in fifth grade, boys thought it would be funny to snap my bra strap and tell me to touch my elbows behind my back. When I was in eighth grade, the boy that I was dating told people that I'd be a 10 out of 10 if I just put a bag over my head. In high school, boys thought they were entitled to certain things because my body had matured faster than some of my other peers. So by the time that I was actually assaulted in college, I carried the guilt around with me for years because my inner monologue had become that the only worth I had to offer was due to the shape of my body. What business did I have trying to say no? The women referenced in the text messages between Mr. Duffy and Mr. Johnson didn't even have the choice of consent. This is not just about inappropriate comments, but about a culture that normalizes the objectification of women and reinforces the idea that their bodies are public property, open for critique, humor, and degradation, often without their knowledge. And we know unequivocally that this culture does not stay contained to text messages. It follows women into their workplaces, shaping how they are perceived, how they are treated, and whether they feel safe or valued. According to the US Equal Opportunity or Employment Opportunity Commission, approximately 25% to 85% of women report experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace, depending on how it is defined and measured. A 2018 report by the National Academy of Sciences found that sexual harassment is not only widespread, but that it undermines professional advancement, contributes to high turnover, and has measurable impacts on mental and physical health, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. The Institute for Women's Policy Research has also documented that women who experience harassment are significantly more likely to leave their jobs or entire career fields, often at substantial economic cost. This is the lived reality for women navigating systems that too often excuse or minimize this behavior, especially when it comes from those in positions of power. And that is why this moment matters so deeply. Just recently, our city welcomed a number of young women through the Youth in Government program. These students shadowed city officials and staff who showed up eager to learn, to lead, and to imagine themselves in public service. So I have to ask, Is this the kind of rhetoric we want them exposed to? Is this something that you would want or feel comfortable having your own daughters, sisters, or other female relatives witness as part of their introduction to civic leadership? Do you believe this fosters an equitable and professional work environment? If these officials were comfortable engaging in conversations of this nature over channels they knew would be subject to public records requests, what was being said in conversations they believe would never see the light of day? even if Mr. Duffy hasn't acted in the same manner since coming to Brentwood, apparently he has, even if he didn't say the most deplorable things, but he didn't put a stop to it, which makes him complicit.

The speaker's timer has expired.

Melissa, I'm sorry, we have to cut you off at three minutes like everyone else. Melissa.

I have no additional speakers.

Thank you. At this point, I need a motion to recess to closed session.

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. We are recessed. Thank you.

Test, test.

Good evening, thank you for your patience. We are reconvening from closed session and have nothing to report. We are going to move into, Continuing the item F1 of the special meeting, the budget meeting to a date and time certain, which will be May 26th, 2026 at 8.40 p.m. to allow for the interns to give their presentation. And do we have a motion to do exactly what I just said? I need to say. All in favor? Aye. Okay. So now we're going to begin the regular Right, Amanda? Regular council meeting at this point. And can we get a roll call, please?

Council Member Maloney? Present. Vice Mayor Pearson? Present. Council Member Mendoza? Here. Council Member Orleman?

Here.

Mayor Meyer? Here. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

at this kind of at this point things are a little different based on how the evening has run so far we're going to return to the budget special meeting after the students present about the internship and i'm also going to be pushing out some items to a future meeting and that will be items g2 which is the objective design standards Item H2, the solid waste collection services. Item J1, the request from Vice Mayor Pearson concerning noise mitigation and also our informational report. So as we move to a future meeting. So at this point, we would like to welcome the Launch Internship Program presentation.

Mayor, did you want to make a motion and have a second and a possible vote on that motion to move to a future meeting?

Yes, I would love to do that. Thank you.

I make a motion to move G-2, H-2, and J-2.

J-1, I think.

J-1, I'm sorry. J-1 and informational reports to a future meeting.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Amanda, did you have something else?

Okay.

All right. So at this point, the Interim Director of Human Resources, Teresa Fairbanks, will introduce the Launch Internship Program presentation.

Thank you, good evening, mayor and council members. Before we start the presentation, I wanted to give a brief overview of the city's launch program. The city's launch internship program provides high school students with an opportunity to intern and access focused learning within various city departments. The program is designed to provide real world training and expose students to the public sector as a career choice. This is the city's third year partnering with the Liberty Union High School District. At this time, I do want to take the time to recognize staff from Liberty Union High School District that are present this evening. We have Denise Rugani, Superintendent, Eric Faulkner, Associate Superintendent, and Todd Arrola, Director of Curriculum and Instruction. With that, I would like to now turn it over to our interns.

Good evening, City Council. My name is Karina Helvey.

My name is Amara Espinosa. My name is Chloe Oakland. And my name is Fiore Binh.

And we're so excited to tell you guys about our experiences within our respective departments. Thank you.

All right, so I'm going to be starting. I'm with the Public Works Fleet Department. I didn't get a picture with my mentors because not all of them were working on the day this was due, but they're all up there right now. I'm very grateful for everything that they taught me, everything I got to learn and obviously like the independence I was given to kind of figure things out on my own sometimes. Okay, so I got my own little desk in the shop. Some of the highlights were I did a lot of shop upkeep, inventory and parts. I worked with Maintenance Connection and I did a few solo projects. okay so i cleaned up a lot but it's very um necessary and i'm i'm grateful i gotta help out keep everything in order there's lots of cobwebs um lots of dust gets up in there um i cleaned a lot that whole that picture up there that like all the workbench area i fixed a lot of those parts um took a while and then ensured like a safe work environment obviously things get dirty um and things need to be kept up yeah i did a lot of inventory and parts i repaired some and they cost a lot of money so cleaning saves the city a lot of money and i got to help with that with that weird glove machine it was very fun very fun um kept the inventory system up to date It's like scan the barcodes because things you use, things come in, and then help with organization and communication. I used a maintenance connection, added parts that were used for work orders and helped with some labor charges and parts for repairs as well. And then some little things I got to do, I built a little charging station in the shop for like the headlamps they use for working in the big trucks and the smaller cars. And then I got to decommission six police vehicles and two undercover ones, which I thought was very fun. That was one of my favorite things. And then I learned a very deep understanding of how the city actually moves around, what it takes to keep vehicles up kept, and I learned meaningful skills working hands-on and with databases. And then some advice for a future intern, I'd say, don't be afraid to get dirty. I got dirty a lot. I got, I got very wet. I got very dusty, but, um, it was very fun. And yeah, clothes get washed. Um, I'd say it's important to ask questions because things can always be learned and to take tasks seriously, but make sure to like talk and engage and have fun. And that's all from mine. And then next up is going to be Karina.

Hi everybody, my name is Karina helvey and I am incredibly excited to share my experience interning with the city Brentwoods park and recreation department. My journey this semester really centered around one core idea, which was understanding the care and the craft that keeps our public landscapes and Community spaces thriving. So before diving into the projects, I want to give a massive thank you to the people who helped make my growth possible. I was so lucky to be surrounded by such an amazing team. And I want to specifically thank my incredible mentors, Amanda Chaney, Diva Santiago, Stacey Dempsey, JJ Brennan, and Thea Nguyen. Thank you so much for your constant guidance, your support, and for truly believing in me for every step of the way. Because Parks and Rec touches so many different parts of our community, my internship highlights were incredibly diverse. I got to dive into everything from creative event photography and deep dive municipal benchmarking to hands-on teaching in our dance and gymnastic classes and also facilitating our energetic spring youth camp. First up was photography and public relations. This was a fantastic way for me to practice event coverage, sharpen my camera skills as well, and also get to work on creative storytelling. Two of my absolute favorite memories were capturing a senior couples dancing class, which was just the cutest thing to witness, and also getting out on the fields to cover a high energy adult baseball tournament as well. And on the administrative side, I worked on municipal benchmarking and data organization. I built comparative analysis sheets for things like winter markets and also local sports complexes. Every Monday you could find me happily working away in my very own cubicle, which honestly felt so professional and was a lot of fun. Teaching the dance and gymnastics classes was a massive highlight for me because it was purely nostalgic. I actually took these exact same classes when I was a little kid and it felt so full circle to guide a new generation through safety awareness and team instruction. I got to sit with them in the butterfly stretch. I got to ask them where they were flying to today. I got to help them practice somersaults and I got to hand out stickers just like my teachers used to do for me when I was a young child. But my absolute favorite experience of all time was definitely the spring break youth camp, it was absolutely unforgettable i've never listened to so much K pop demon hunters music in my entire life. And I got to pass down card tricks that I learned when I was little and I spent hours drawing pictures of all of their favorite characters for them. It was a beautiful exercise and relationship development and also conflict resolution within the between the children. Reflecting on the whole experience this internship gave me immense growth in both my hard and my soft skills and getting so much real world exposure to live events administrative planning and Community outreach. As well as hands on programming really showed me what goes on behind the scenes that makes a city's parks and recreation department thrive. My biggest piece of advice for the future interns is to try everything. Because Parks and Rec is so diverse and success truly just comes from general engagement. The environment was so welcoming and enjoyable that us interns honestly find ourselves coming in even when we're totally free. And I highly encourage the city and the district to keep sustaining this internship program because it was so worth it. And I want to thank you all for investing in us and caring so deeply about our youth initiatives. And now I'll hand it off to Fiore Bin, our finance intern.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council, and everyone else here in the audience tonight. My name is Fiore Binh, and I'm the finance intern for this year. As someone relatively new to finance, I was very nervous when I first started here. However, everyone's welcoming nature in the finance department really encouraged me to feel at home in the office, and that made me excited to show up every single day, even on my days off. There's a picture of you, my mentors there. There's Terry and Christine on the left, and there's me and Sonia. During my internship, I've had the opportunity to work on several projects, including the operating budget, the capital improvement program, cash receipts, and various reconciliation projects. So people typically think of finance as entering numbers and doing calculator work, but finance is much more than that. Throughout my time here, I've explored my creativity through redesigning the demographics and historical timeline pages of the operating budget, in addition to creating the new department introduction pages. And additionally, after reviewing the capital improvement program projects, I had the opportunity to tour the solid waste division, the wastewater treatment plant, and the water and wastewater laboratory, which gave me insight into the processes behind the projects here in our city beyond just what's written in the budget. While here, I also completed a variety of accounting work, as seen up there. I entered cash receipts, which included utility billing, gas taxes, and franchise fees. And furthermore, I assembled journal entries and assisted with reconciliation work, which included bank analysis fees, affordable housing, and retention payables. So overall, this internship taught me about finance's role in the city, whether it's through learning its numerous financial processes or producing financial documents such as the CIP. Moreover, during my time here, I met people from various departments that gave me great insight into my career and educational goals in the future. So I encourage any future intern to, again, as Karina said, to try everything because finance contains a vast number of tasks that are important and fun. And when completing these tasks, I guarantee that asking questions will help you understand the purpose behind your task and its significance in the city. Lastly, while this internship has taught me so much about the city's financial procedures, it's also, more importantly, gifted me amazing connections to the people I met here. A major part of my internship experience lies in the relationships I've developed with my coworkers and mentors, which I'm so grateful to have gained here during my internship. Thank you. And now I would like to introduce the engineering intern, Amara Espinoza.

Hello, good evening. So my name is Amara and I am the engineering intern and I picked engineering because when I moved here three years ago from Southeast Asia, I was really interested in the difference between how my city was built in my hometown and Brentwoods. So beginning with my mentorship, I was mainly mentored by Megan Oliveira, but I think more than just my mentor, I think everyone in the engineering department, I developed a really familial relationship. I had so much fun coming into the office every day. They not only helped me with my professional and my career aspirations, but they've also helped me so much developmentally. And I really appreciated my experience working here in such a positive and supportive environment. So some main highlights, which I will be delving into later are listed, but I just wanna say in the photos, the first week that I was working here, I got my own office because they didn't really know where to put me yet. So I felt like I really moved up in the workplace really fast, which I appreciated. And then also during my internship, I got into my dream university, which is Stanford for mechanical engineering. And I don't think I could have done it. Thank you. I don't think I could have achieved it without my experience in the engineering department. So first up was me getting to interact with the residents, which I really appreciated. Once they finally situated me out of my office, I was at the front desk where I could directly answer and listen to any resident questions. I would grab an engineer and I would take notes on their conversations and also do any additional research that they needed. Additionally, I also learned about traffic enforcement and Brentwood I looked at a lot of surveys to see what. The residents thought they needed in their neighborhood to feel more safe and if we wanted to make those changes what signatures, do we need how much money do we need to end up for this, so I found that very helpful. One of my most favorite parts was also getting to visit project sites. If you see the downtown alley rehab, I got to interact with a lot of professionals in their field. So not only taking notes, but learning how to make proactive questions and really get to know everyone's experience in my chosen field and which really guaranteed that I want to be an engineer in the future. And I don't know if you guys saw this, but I did make an engineer week video showcase where I got to display the different projects coming up in Brentwood. Most of all, I wanted to understand from a resident perspective, how their money is being used for their benefit. And I wanted to showcase all the positive things that the engineering department is doing for the city of Brentwood to make our residents have a more comfortable and convenient life. And on the more technical side, I worked on a lot of standard details about micro trenches. I got to really familiarize myself with the software I'll be using in my college and my professional career. Having all of these transferable skills, as well as having mentors that could help with every single question I had was one of the most integral parts about this internship and why I'm so grateful that I was accompanied by such amazing mentors. So reflecting on my whole experience, I learned a lot about city-specific needs and tasks and explored my interests as an engineer. But beyond that, I got to meet all of the people that make this city so great. I got to experience all of the effort that comes into making my everyday life more convenient. And I think that was the most unforgettable part about this experience for me. Some advice for new interns is to always be curious, be proactive, and be prepared. You never know what it's gonna be thrown at you in the workplace, and you always wanna make sure that you're coming in with a can-do mindset, and you're also coming in where you are. I found such an amazing community just being myself, and I really appreciate the Launch Internship for giving me that. Okay, I'm sorry. Thank you so much launch internship from all of it in turn to thank you, thank you so much.

Thank you, thank you.

Good stuff take a picture of. Can you Thank you.

Is it possible to have the interns come up with these who spoke from school district and their mentors? I'm sorry.

Yeah, that kind of meant that I didn't say it. Sorry. I would love for all of the school leadership and also the interns.

And while you're walking up, you guys did such an amazing job. You guys all did so great. So thank you. And thank you to all of you. for everything you guys, you know, at the district, because it's a lot. Hi, how are you?

We heard quite a bit about the work you were doing, and we were just really enjoying following along. I was thinking we could stand up. I'm thinking we'll stand up behind. We are going to move back into reconvening the special meeting for the budget.

And through the mayor, if you'd like to take a motion to recess the regular meeting and then... Thank you.

Motion to recess the regular meeting and reconvene the special meeting.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Special meeting reconvened. Thank you. Okay. For this item, Kerry Breen, Director of Finance and Information Systems, will introduce and present the Operating Budget Workshop.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, and welcome to the 2627 to 2728 Operating Budget Workshop. Tonight we'll present a high-level review of the proposed budget with a focus on the larger financial themes, significant cost changes, and new requests included in the draft budget. We'll also review the updated 10 year general fund forecast and talk about some of the longer term issues we're continuing to monitor. After tonight's discussion, staff will incorporate any direction from the city council into the final budget and bring it back for adoption next month. Before diving into the details, I do want to remind everyone that the operating budget is built on three core fiscal principles designed to ensure long-term fiscal sustainability. These include maintaining the city's general fund reserve at 30%, proactively addressing long-term pension and retiree medical obligations, and ensuring that future capital and replacement needs are fully funded. In addition, the city maintains a structurally balanced budget, avoiding the use of one-time revenues for ongoing expenditures. So our budget process started several months ago with departments submitting requests and updating projections. After internal reviews, adjustments, and meetings with departments and the city manager, the draft budget was brought to the budget ad hoc committee for review. Around that same time, we had the CIP workshop discussing capital project needs and ensuring funding was appropriated through this budget process. All of the capital project assumptions from the CIP are built into this operating budget. Following tonight's workshop, the final steps in the budget process will be the adoption of the CIP budget later this evening, followed by the adoption of the operating budget next month. Although we are primarily focused on the bigger picture items tonight, for anyone who would like more detail, we did include a more thorough operating budget memo as part of the staff report. So we'll start briefly with a review of citywide revenues and expenditures. And the main thing to keep in mind here is that while the general fund gets most of the attention, it's really only about 25% of the city's overall revenues. The majority of city revenues are legally restricted and can only be used for very specific purposes, things like utilities, infrastructure, debt service, capital projects. On the expenditure side, You might notice the budget is higher than the annual revenues were. That's mainly because we have several major capital projects underway this year, and they're being funded from established reserves and accumulated project balances rather than current year revenues. So we don't have an operational deficit. It's really tied to the timing of infrastructure and facility projects. Now we'll move into the general fund and its budget. So the general fund provides for the majority of the core services offered by the city, including police, parks, and streets. General fund dollars are typically unrestricted and available to allocate at the discretion of the city council. Before diving into the new two-year budget, I do wanna briefly touch on where we expect to finish the current fiscal year, 25-26. In January, at the mid-year, we were projecting roughly a break-even result, and that's still essentially the case. We're now estimating a modest surplus of about $300,000 for the fiscal year after maintaining our required 30% reserve. And pursuant to City Council policy, we will split that year-end surplus evenly between the pension pay down and the budget stabilization fund. Next we will discuss the two-year general fund projection. So looking forward, what you're looking at in the draft budget before you tonight is a projected two-year surplus of $35,000. So essentially that's break even with a budget of 85 million, 35,000 is a rounding error. Historically, we do adopt budgets that have deficits on paper, but our projections are typically breakeven or slightly positive, and that's what you see here. And this is because by the end of the year, we always have operational savings. So you're going to have vacancies, turnover. programs that come in under budget, those sorts of things. So we allow for that in our projections and have history of what those savings are. And so we incorporate them here. And they're conservative. So we start at 35,000. Hopefully we'll see that number become a larger surplus as the year goes on. Up next is a summary of general fund revenues and expenses. So general fund revenues for next year are budgeted at $84.8 million. And our two largest revenues continue to be property tax and sales tax. Both of those revenue categories are projected to see very little growth due to slowing economic conditions, elevated interest rates, sluggish development activity, and softening consumer spending trends. We're also seeing a downturn in our hotel tax revenues. So kind of the gamut on our revenues is slowing down a bit. Overall, the revenue forecast remains stable, but growth has moderated significantly compared to prior years and really constrains what we can do on the spending side. So on the spending side, our total general fund expenditures are budgeted at $85 million. So personnel costs continue to represent the largest portion of expenditures, accounting for approximately two thirds of the general fund budget. And, as I mentioned earlier, so the budget largely maintains existing service levels and ongoing operations, while incorporating a limited number of new requests and strategic investments that will be reviewed in more detail after covering our reserves and the 10 year forecast. So here's a look at our reserves projected for the current year and what's in the budget for the next two years. And the biggest takeaway here is that the city continues to maintain strong reserves and remains in a stable financial position. So in addition to the 30% general fund reserve set by council policy you see at the top there, we've also set aside reserves for future priorities like the general plan update. redistricting and the eventual implementation of the police department fifth beat. We also have $1.3 million in reserve in the line called future capital projects. And this really, this is a council designation. And so the council has the flexibility there to utilize those funds as they need over the next two years. So it does give you some budget flexibility so that if something comes up or you want something added to the budget, particularly a one-time cost, this would be a source that could provide for that. So our reserve policy does allow the city to respond to future needs, but maintains current financial flexibility at the same time. So let's take a look at the 10 year forecast. So how does this all fit into where we're going? So the 10-year forecast is one of our primary tools we look at when we wanna see beyond two years, what's going on in years seven, eight, what's going on down the road. We do that because we wanna identify those long-term pressure points so that we can make adjustments earlier, sooner rather than later, and not suffer the ups and downs that I think some other agencies do suffer where times are good, they add, times are bad, they cut, and we try to stay off that roller coaster. So the model is intentionally conservative and historically our actual results have tended to outperform the forecast. So we are intentionally conservative there and you'll see we do have some drawdowns on this chart. So this chart is showing you the general fund 30% reserve per policy. That's the blue line. So you see that going up and that just naturally goes up as expenditures go up. We need a bigger number to equal the 30%. So we're remaining financially stable throughout the majority of the 10-year period, but you probably noticed that the green bar, which is the budget stabilization fund, is shrinking. And this is something we've been showing you for a while now, where it's drawing down over time. Here it expires, actually flips to negative, you can see on the last year of the forecast. It's just continued pressure from pension costs, health care costs, inflation, infrastructure obligations, and slower revenue growth. Pretty similar story to what I think you would hear anywhere. So with the budget stabilization fund being fully utilized by the ninth year, that does highlight our limited capacity for ongoing service expansion without identifying additional revenues or other service cuts. but it does give a fairly decent intermediate term picture for the city. And I would note that in the longer term, so when we look out maybe 15 years beyond the scope of the tenure model, we do see significant general fund savings out there from the completion of our retiree medical pre-funding strategy. We'll see a big drop at that time. And we will also see the end of a couple of our debt service obligations. So both of those will bring savings to the city, which could be used in those years beyond the 10 years shown on the screen there. So we do have a strategy to smooth those higher expense needs of the long-term or the short-term against the long-term savings that I just mentioned. That is one of our finance department's top 10 projects. Of course, we will update this model continually and keep you posted as to what we're looking at. So now let's take a look at some of those new costs I mentioned earlier, what's being added into the operating budget for 26, 27 and 27, 28. So you can see a highlight of some of them on the slide there. So we have a conversion of a human resources limited service position to permanent part-time. We have carryover funding for strategic initiatives related to economic development and city-owned property disposition. And although these are not necessarily new relationships, staff does wanna ensure that the council is aware of continued community partnership funding for organizations such as the Family Justice Center and Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels actually is requesting an additional $10,000 this year, which would bring their total budget to 36,000 from 26,000. This is for the senior nutrition program at the Brentwood Senior Activity Center. The additional cost would be included in the budget for both fiscal years. However, we would have CalAIM grant funds to cover the 10,000 increase for 26-27. Additional new general fund costs included in this draft budget include expansion of our citywide sidewalk repair program, initial operating support for the Sand Creek Sports Complex, which will open at the midpoint of the fiscal year, We do believe the complex will break even financially, but will require some funding for replacement set asides as we look out down the road beyond these two years. The budget also includes two new vehicles for parks maintenance operations, as well as carryover funding for permit center safety improvements at the city hall. So these requests primarily focus on maintaining infrastructure, supporting new rec programming, increasing safety. All right, a few more new costs. So on the contractual services side, we are looking at some costs for some grant writing. So hopefully that will actually bring in revenue more than what the costs would be. And I would say the same thing about the legislative advocacy you see up there, we can hopefully benefit from that much more than the cost on the screen. We do have costs for one time updates to the municipal code and carry over budgets for the equity strategic plan and updates to the city by document retention schedule. So that's it for the general fund. Let's take a quick look at enterprises. So we do have some new staffing requests on the enterprise side. You'll notice there wasn't any new staff other than the conversion on the general fund side. On wastewater, we do have a position request for wastewater treatment operations, fleet maintenance workload increases, and regulatory compliance requirements. So three new staff for that. and then we also have identified staffing that would come with the future implementation of the enhanced solid waste organics collection services that was brought to the council a couple meetings ago we didn't have time to get that into the draft budget we will be building that into the final budget so that will be a change from this budget to the next that you see in june Additional Enterprise Fund operational and capital requests to call out. We have an office reconfiguration project, two additional wastewater maintenance vehicles, and early replacement of solid waste collection vehicles to improve operational reliability. All of these are funded through the Enterprise Funds. Okay, other funds. So just a quick hit on these, they're all in the workshop memo, but we do have funds in there for agricultural program and harvest time funding, economic development incentives, an increase in the amount for first time home buyer loans, cybersecurity and software investments, an operational study over at Fleet Maintenance, And facility replacement projects at City Hall and the Community Center. They're both in need of some fairly major repairs with HVAC and interior paint. And again, all of these are projects that we've set money aside for and it's kind of time to do them. Okay, so there were a few items. I mentioned one already that was not included in the draft budget, but will be in the final budget that we bring back to you next month. We did detail them in the workshop memo, but again, implementation costs with the solid waste collection services. We do have the new city attorney employment agreement, which wasn't originally built in, and then the second street parking lot lease agreement that was approved. So that will be added into the final budget as well. so a quick little summary before we wrap up um except for the enhanced solid waste services and the opening of the sand creek sports complex those are really the big items in here the budget largely maintains existing service levels while continuing the city's focus on the long-term financial stability and conservative budgeting practices We do maintain the strong reserves, 30%, and a structurally balanced general fund, even as we're facing a little bit of a, you know, some revenue challenges and expenditures continue to increase. So it is getting a little tighter. Most new expenditures are modest and tied to infrastructure, operational needs, regulatory requirements, or previously identified council policies. Next, we will discuss topics that we are monitoring. So there's always a budget watch section that we kind of throw up the caution light on that things we have to watch for. So as always, we always say economic uncertainty and there's always something going on right now. Inflation seems to be coming back. You've got geopolitical issues. We are seeing slowing on the property tax and sales tax side. So those are our challenges there. We're one year away from labor negotiations, or at least the expiration of the current labor contracts. Those expire in June, 2027. CalPERS is one thing we always have to watch for the investment returns, but I think we have some positive news on this one. The market has done really well. I think the AI increases have really helped CalPERS return. So we're looking better there. And then there's Assembly Bill 1383 relating to retirement benefits. So this is one we're watching. This is working its way through the State Senate right now. So let's wrap up by going quickly over the next steps in the budget process. So the Council will hear the Capital Improvement Program budget later tonight. final operating budget will come back to you on june 23rd again we'll incorporate the things i mentioned that weren't in here and then any feedback you have tonight and we'll be back in front of you then in january of 2027 when we do our six month update as part of the mid-year review So that concludes it. I do wanna thank the city council for the continued support and focus on long-term financial planning and fiscal sustainability. And with that, I would be happy to take any questions you may have.

Thank you for the staff report. On behalf of the mayor, if you have clarifying questions or staff, please raise your hand and we'll call on you in order for staff to respond. If there are no questions from the council, we'll now open up public comments.

At this time, the members of the audience who would like to speak on this special agenda item, please fill a speaker card. I have no cards in person. And I do have one hand raised in Zoom. Tracy, if you'd like to speak on this item, you may speak now.

Hi. I noticed in the budget they had money set aside for the fifth beat. And I know we have like two guys that are currently in the academy. And, you know, hopefully they make it through. They probably will. But I'm wondering if we're planning on hiring more people Um, I, I don't think 2 is enough. So, I'm just curious with all that money set aside, like, what are we planning to do with it? That's just my question, I guess.

I have no additional hands raised in zoom if staff is comfortable to respond to Tracy's question and possible about the 50 and the 2 individuals who are in.

Sure, maybe the chief and I can tag team this one. I'll speak to the money side and he can probably talk to the staffing side. So the reserve we have for the fifth beat that was set up so that when we increased our staffing, the budget would be able to absorb it for the first three years. So we have three years and it covers the vehicle purchases and the staffing of going up and since we haven't ever fully filled those positions we've had the reserve on the books for those for all those years once the fifth beat gets implemented we will reduce the reserve basically free it up to pay those costs and then it gets built into future budgets so yes we do have the money in there it's fully budgeted to take place i think the challenge is more on the operational side actually filling those positions and i'll turn it over to chief maybe to speak about that

Yes, thank you, Carrie. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. That has been the issue, unfortunately. It's been kind of an ebb and flow process. We are working very diligently to reach our current allotment of 72 sworn positions. We are currently down approximately 11 positions in the department, and that is just due to attrition retirements. It has been an ebb and flow, but we are working diligently to get and get those positions filled. And once we reach a number closer to 72, we can then work toward fully implementing the fifth beat.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Amanda. Can we move into council discussion at this time, closing out public comments?

Ready? OK. Sorry. First of all, thanks again to the finance team. You guys all know I love it all. You guys do such an amazing job. And our financial health is in large part due to all of your hard work and your advice. So thank you so much for your continued guidance. There's one thing I want to ask the council if they're open to. So we have the $1.3 million in future capital project money that's sitting there that's advised to use for one-time monies. And we had talked about in our CIPs about adding Heron Park because I think it's the third, second biggest park, something like that. And it's one of our most used parks. And we know a bathroom is about $300,000. So I was wondering if you would be open to putting a budget in from that $1.3 million for Heron Park. And then the other thing is, have we always had a CIP budget that just sits there? Or is this some, I don't remember having that before.

Do you mean the, I'm sorry, the reserve? Yeah, that. Oh, the 1.3. So it was reserved a couple years ago. No, it hasn't always been there. And then it increased a few hundred thousand. Maybe Christine may have more on that, but it was something that is not historically we haven't had. We did set this up and it's not been a past practice to do it, but it actually is pretty beneficial because when you have a request like this, this is how we fund it.

The only reason I'm saying this is because I'm really big on paying down the pension. Like I just want to make sure that the pensions will always be okay. So is there any benefit time value of money of prepaying some of the pension with that money? Because I do see that negative in year 10 and I can't stand a negative. It drives me insane. So is there any benefit of putting money in today so that it earns, you know, it pays down some of the pension and then the surplus does aim earn interest?

So, yes, absolutely. I mean, it's always a balancing act between, you know, I'm always a proponent of that. But we also, you know, we just want to make sure that we're getting everything that the council wants and needs for the residents. So if we can maintain that, yes, I would, rather than just have it sit there, if there's not a plan to use it, it does much better for us to go into, even if it went into our Section 115 trust. Yeah. something like that's still gonna earn more. So yes, that absolutely would be a good place for it.

Because if we really need funds, we can go into the surplus, right? If like for some reason the project comes up and we really need it, we could pull it from surplus, like the little amount that's in there out of the fund.

Yeah, as long as we have the surplus, it's just kind of tenuous at this point. We typically end with a surplus. I don't want to promise that, oh, yeah, if we send off this money that there'll be money again. I can't say that for sure. I hope so. But if there isn't an immediate, and by immediate I mean next two-year plan for those funds, I think a reasonable thing to do would be to utilize them to pay down obligations. Sure. Yeah.

And those are just my suggestions, whatever the council wants to do. I just, and I think Harold wants to say.

Good evening, for the record, Gerald Duffy, city manager, just just reminding the council, just what you said tonight regarding the opportunity to be able to build to build that restroom because you have those funds. So if your strategy is to actually move that money to refund, I would I would consider not moving it all but leaving some there just in case you have emergencies like this.

I just wanted to say, Carrie and to everyone in the finance team, thank you all for all your hard work. It's been a huge learning experience being on the budget committee with all of you and council member Mendoza. So I'm really enjoying myself in that. And I support everything with Heron Park as well.

Thank you guys both for your report. I miss you. I miss being on that ad hoc committee, uh, getting the in-depth look from the experts is, is valued. Um, so I do miss that part of it, but, um, I agree that, that, that money set aside, uh, the 1.3 million taking the money out for her in part or for the bathroom, but, There wouldn't be any, there's no rush in paying down that budget or that, say it again, the pension obligations. So should we find a surplus at the end of the year, we could use it then, but it would be nice to have a good portion of that sitting there available for us to access should another item come up like this.

Vice Mayor, any comments?

Nope, they said it all. I do wanna thank my council members who have volunteered to be on that committee because that committee scares the mess out of me. But I thank you all for your report. And I have no objection to adding to the expenditure of money for the bathroom at Heron Park. I think people came before us actually asking for that.

Thank you, and I would also like to thank the intern, who's no longer here, who supported Carrie and his team. We're talking about how amazing she was and how she actually made the presentation even more graphically exciting. So I appreciate that, having gone through it and pointed some things out. And I will say, too, that the... uh the restroom at heron park is certainly something that we've heard about before during public comments comments here comments online and i think that is a fair ask so with that do we have a motion

So it sounds like there's motion for the park. I will leave the other money. So I think the bathroom was about 300,000 or?

It may be more. I probably wouldn't put a number on it. Yeah, I think it was 300,000 when we had the bathroom during COVID. That was the cost. So that was now six years ago. It may be more.

So just to make a motion that we pull funds from this budget, from this capital project budget for the park, you know, for the Heron Park bathroom with the remaining portion staying in that account. Should we do an amount not to exceed amount? Not to, should we do a not to exceed? Not to exceed 400? Or 500, maybe 500?

Yeah, I would do it not to exceed $600,000, but you're going to be going out to bed when the bids come back, you'll have opportunity to revisit.

Well, we want them to do what they should get on. It was three.

Let's do five. Okay. Let's take 500. Sure. Not to exceed 500,000. I'm hoping it comes in closer to 300,000 like last time. Okay. That's my motion.

I'll second. All in favor. Aye. Okay, thank you again for that. And now we need a motion to adjourn the special meeting.

I make a motion to adjourn a special meeting. I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Special meeting is adjourned, moving into our regular council meeting back where we left off, which was public comments. Can you read it for me?

The public comment time for tonight's item will be three minutes each. In order to ensure that all speakers feel welcome to share their views, members of the audience are kindly requested to refrain from applauding or speaking to the council from the audience without being called upon first. In addition, in order to maintain decorum and ensure that no one's sight is obstructed, public commenters are reminded not to approach the dais. So open it.

Can I take a minute just to request that we do a call to order and a new roll call just since we are readjourning a meeting we had temporary recessed.

Yes. Do we need to do the Pledge of Allegiance again or just do the roll call? No, ma'am. Okay. Can we have a roll call, please?

Council Member Mendoza? Here. Vice Mayor Pearson? Present. Council Member Maloney? Present. Council Member Orleman? Here. Mayor Meyer? Here. Thank you. Thank you. And if you can give me one moment so that we can electronically switch from the special meeting to the regular meeting, just 30 seconds while we... And she says we're already switched.

Less than 30 seconds.

So now we're moving into public comment.

So at this time, the public is permitted to address the City Council on items that are not listed on the agenda, items listed under informational reports or on the consent calendar, requests for future agenda items, new requests, comments for the meeting's detailed agenda items or business items should be made when those items are called. Please limit your remarks to three minutes or the microphone will be muted when the timer expires. We did receive two written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting, which is summarized on the screen. First comment I have is Danny.

We have you here past your bedtime, Mr. Dorman.

Yeah, it sure is. Before I begin, I want to make one thing clear about my previous comment. My comments are not directed towards anyone that has suffered any assault or harassment firsthand. Anyone who has participated in any assault or harassment should receive punishment. I myself have been a victim of harassment and assault. So to those that I have offended, I truly apologize. My comments were directed to three groups of people, the snowflakes, the headline grabbers, and the hypocrites. To the snowflakes, stop clutching your pearls, unclench your panties, and stop crying. The world isn't about you. The real world is hard. Pull up your big boy pants, your big girl panties, and shut the hell up. To the headline grampers, where were you when other provable instances of harassment and discrimination were brought forth? If the allegations of misconduct today are legitimate here in Brentwood, as your mouthpiece implied, has there been any filing given to HR? Or are you headline grabbers cherry picking because this circumstance has a greater chance of making the news? Now the hypocrites. The people like Contra Costa News, who has supported a convicted felon as president. A man who was caught on tape.

I moved her like a bitch. You hear me? Grabbed by the pussy. I moved her like a bitch. You hear me? Grabbed by the pussy.

So you use the, oh, he's from Compton. Oh, he's from Oakland. He's DEI. You are the group of people I'm calling out. You want him out because he's a Black. Back when Harold was hired, I truly thought Darren was the better choice. Then the Olanda cover-up occurred. I know some of you don't like that term, but regardless, all the mistakes made with the Olanda case was under Darren's watch. And don't even get me started on the quarter million dollar man. In a little over six months, Harold has benefited the city, has had a positive impact to the city than our two previous city managers. It was a conversation and now hypocrites will say, well, what about the Antioch police scandal? Those texts were private. Yes, they were private, but their conversations were executed. They were perpetrators who happened to document their actions.

Last speaker I have is Denise. I have no additional speaker cards.

Thank you. Public comments are closed. We're now moving into consent. Do we have anything that needs to be pulled or a motion for consent?

I'd like to pull item F7, please.

Anything else? Do we need to have the ordinance title read for F7 at this point or wait till after?

I believe if it's being pulled, you can approve the consent calendar and then we can consider the ordinance afterwards. Yeah. Do we have a motion for the approval?

I make a motion to approve the consent calendar absent item F7. I second.

All in favor?

Aye. consent item moves forward uh minus f7 and if you wanted to um open your item on that yeah i'm asking that we pull i'm pulling up seven because i thought that it was agreed upon that the definition as to nuisance consistent with penal code would be added and i also thought that council member maloney in making her motion asked that the unruly naming convention be removed um to her original proposed naming convention

I believe I said loud, but it was loud and they removed loud. But if you want to remove unruly, I'm okay with that.

And the penal code definition should be in the recitals. And you should be able to see the penal code listed after the definition.

I didn't see that. Can you tell me where? Can we put it on screen? I didn't see it in the recitals. I looked for it.

Is that what you called it initially unruly? I initially called it a social nuisance ordinance.

So I would I would ask that. Well, okay, I'm sorry. That was what I was. I'm pulling it because I'd like to go to what Councilmember Maloney originally titled it was social nuisance ordinance, which I think I seconded you did one.

So the staff have a problem with that name?

No, we don't have a problem. We just have to make sure if it's just a title or if you want us to change the references throughout the ordinance. So for example, there's sections of the ordinance that reference unlawful or unruly gatherings in the definition or just in reference. So if it's just a title or you want us to eliminate those words and replace them throughout, we would just need that clarification. And for the vice mayor, section 8.39.020 definitions, letter C,

The council member Mendoza just showed me it on her computer. So thank you very much. And I don't know, do we need to go through public comment on this or can we talk about it? Because I still have an issue with the word unruly and it not being adequately defined. I do go back to social nuisance ordinance, social nuisance being the operative term versus unruly.

I don't believe we need public comments because for consent it's at a different time, correct?

Okay.

Yeah. Okay. It was, but if we would offer, if anyone had any public comment, it would be appropriate just since we did pull it separately. Okay. Anything else before we open that public comment?

No, that's all.

Okay. Thank you, Amanda. So if any member of the public did want to make a public comment on this particular agenda item, they may do so now. and I have no interest for public comment, thank you.

Okay, moving into discussion.

You have one hand raised in Zoom.

She was raised for the initial general. Do you wanna check with her if that's? Amanda, sorry. She had her hand raised for the general public comments.

Tracy, is your hand still raised for general comments or would you like to make a comment on this ordinance item? Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Do you have a comment on this specific item?

No, I had a comment for general comment and I was passed over. But I also have a comment on this. So I would like to reclaim my the general comment time.

Right, if I may, just a moment, please. Just a moment, please. The general public comments, we don't allow Zoom public comment for that portion of the meeting, but since this item was called separate, if you'd like to make a comment specifically on this ordinance, you may do so now.

Oh, okay. Well, anyway, this unruly debate, I'm having a problem with it because I have two neighbors in different areas that literally have unruly and I'm talking criminals who are stealing cars, getting raids, you know, just complete criminal activity that they have been trying to get resolved. And you know this unruly is criminal behavior, so if anyone has a problem with the word unruly. You know I don't know what neighborhood you live in, but it must be nice, but there's some of us that don't get the privilege of having a nice neighbor. So unruly when it comes to criminal activity that's unruly so I mean I don't know if you want to add the language. to where you're getting SWAT, or you wanna add homes that are getting raided by SWAT or the police department, or people are going in and getting arrested. I don't know what you wanna call that, but I'm a little upset about this unruly business because there is a version of unruly. And I think the police should be able to determine that or, you know, I just I find this offensive because I know for a fact That there are 2 residents 1 on my street at the very end where they were doing donuts between Minnesota and valley green, like a bunch of cars and they always hang out and they always party. So, yeah, that's unruly. But if a neighbor has a party and says, hey, man, I'm going to have a party, you know, celebrating this that most neighbors don't care. So, you know, I don't know what's going on here, but in defense of my neighbors, they are unruly and it's criminal sometimes. So, yeah, I think the city needs to use unruly as a term of art, I suppose. Anyway, that's all I have to say.

I have no additional hands raised. Thank you, Amanda.

Chief, I think, I don't know if this also would go to Thomas and also to Alexis, but I think I would like to hear if the word unruly being in the title of this ordinance means anything to how you can address these kinds of behaviors or, Alexis, how you could enforce them. Just to, I think there's some confusion around the naming and what that actually implies and also about what this ordinance is doing that it didn't do before. So that would be helpful too, thank you.

but I can speak from the perspective of police response that that term would not be problematic in our enforcement efforts, be it if it's a California penal code section or us using this social nuisance ordinance as a foundation for problematic ongoing issues with particular residents.

and from uh the community enrichment perspective the the title isn't as important as how we define the activities that were that were enforcing um and i don't know if you want to share my screen i can show you uh the definition that we have now of unlawful loud and or unruly gathering um in the ordinance so it's so feedback okay so um you see here letter d letter d letter d Okay, so what matters most is the terminology that we use to describe. So whether we say it's a public nuisance, means a gathering of two or more persons, or you know, so what matters is how we define it. So you can include the word loud or unruly or disturbance. but we need to be as precise as we can from an enforcement perspective.

Thank you, Alexis and Chief. And I think the important thing to note is that we approved the additional language for this ordinance to allow for staff and the police department to have an easier time of being able to address some of these concerns that were a little harder to address and enforce in the past. Correct?

Correct.

Okay, so the naming is actually something that we did talk about last time. It just somehow didn't make it to the consent calendar, right?

And I wanted to discuss this and make it abundantly clear. I was the first one, a second, a social nuisance ordinance. I am not against or opposed us stopping behavior that is not consistent with the law and that causes a nuisance to our residents. What I'm against is when we have language that is not clearly defined that can impact marginalized groups. So we do not carefully, certain terms of art like unruly versus a social nuisance, right, can be used to create circumstances that can be used against marginalized groups. I'll just say that. I did receive phone calls from residents saying, what the hell did you all just do? one person's definition of unruly may not look like the other person's definition of really i said that last time again once i speak up here all of a sudden i'm anti a person who's a judge a person who taught the post a person who taught police explorers i'm now pro-crime that's the stupidest mess i've ever heard and you can quote me on that on whatever little blogs social media quote me on it it's stupid What I'm here and what I consistently stand for is for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. And as I police that from this seat that I've been elected to, I want to ensure that we're not using terminology that is going to impact marginalized groups. So while I am all for this entire thing, and I never was against it, I am also for us making sure we are careful about our language and how we define things. Now, to Alexis's point, we've carefully defined it, yes. But that word there, a resident getting the word unruly without the full context can make a call and say, my neighbors are unruly based on their individual definitions. I just wanna make sure we're using language that's consistent across the board. The social nuisance as was brought up last time was used by other cities. Council Member Maloney brought it to us. Why are we not using it? Why do we go to unruly? I thought it was a great term of art. And if we can place any placeholder there, then who's to say we couldn't put any other word there? Why are we using unruly? Unruly to me is... it is really going to be based on our own worldview and through our own lenses. So that's the only issue. That's the only reason why I brought this back. It is not to attack what the four out of five voted on. The only reason why I didn't vote on it was because one, we didn't add the penal code and two, I didn't think we carefully defined it. So I'm only asking for us to change the titling and instead of the unruly changed everywhere you see unruly to social nuisance.

So there's a definition in here of unruly on page 53. So you don't like that definition. No, I'm not against the definition. I'm against the word unruly. That's the only thing I would say. I guess I don't, for me, I just don't see it. And again, I told, I've called the cops on my own uncle when he was having a party and I got no problems. He was being unruly and, um, And I had to be at work at 7.30. So to me, it's the excessive noise and traffic, public drunkenness, harassment. Like this is how we're defining it. If we didn't have the definitions, I would agree. But we have definitions in here that our staff can use and our police department can use to determine public urination, theft, assault and battery, acts of vandalism, excessive littering, obstruction of public streets. So if it wasn't a definition, I would feel more that way. But because there is definitions of unruly, I'm okay with it. If it was just unruly with no other descriptors, I would get what you're saying, but because it has it in there, I just, I don't know, I'm kind of okay with it. I'm sorry.

So can we go back to considering then changing the title of the ordinance to social nuisance as it was originally proposed and then keeping the definition and the specific within?

And I think that would be a great compromise and I would appreciate that compromise.

Yeah, I would do that.

Do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve item F7 with changing the title to social nuisance ordinance. I second that. Thank you.

All in favor? Aye. And I do need to read. Thank you, Amanda. Which I'm trying to see how it would fit in to the current title of the ordinances and ordinance of the city council of the city of Brentwood. regulating social nuisance and adding chapter 8.39 to the Brentwood Municipal Code. I'm getting a nod.

Can I clarify something real quick? So is the title now an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Brentwood regulating unlawful or social nuisance gatherings and adding chapter, is that what you said or no?

I went straight to social nuisance. So if you want to include the regulating unlawful or social nuisance and adding chapter 8.39.

I thought we were just removing the unruly and change it. So I think everything else is the same. It's just or. Or social nuisance. Or social nuisance gatherings. Is that okay? Yes. Because I still want the regulating unlawful, you know, like if it's illegal. Yeah.

Thomas, it looks like you're in support of that.

right i'll read it full then an ordinance of the city council of the city of brentwood regulating unlawful or social nuisance gatherings and adding chapter 8.39 to the brentwood municipal code and all in favor you can in favor aye aye thank you all right moving into public hearings sonia agostini accounting manager will present the capital improvement program

Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the city council. Tonight, we are presenting the final draft of the 2026, 27 to 2030, 31 capital improvement program for the council's consideration of adoption. This capital improvement program or CIP outlines the city's infrastructure and capital project priorities over the next five years, along with the proposed funding sources that support these projects. This proposed five-year plan includes project funding of over $115 million with 46.4 million planned for the upcoming fiscal year. The CIP is an important component of the city's overall budgeting process and it's updated annually to reflect the city's current infrastructure needs as well as the city council's priorities. The program includes projects related to roadway, parks and trails, water, wastewater, and community facilities improvements. It also includes sections identifying future improvement needs and anticipated development related projects. Preparation of the CIP is a collaborative effort involving staff from all the city departments resulting in the final draft presented to you tonight. On April 14th, the city council held a public workshop to review the draft CIP. That workshop provided an opportunity for public input and council discussion and direction, which has been incorporated into this final CIP. Most notably, project timing for several park playground replacement projects has been adjusted throughout the document, and the Heron Park restroom project has been included in the future improvement section of the document. ALL UPDATES THAT HAVE BEEN MADE SINCE THE WORKSHOP HAVE BEEN OUTLINED IN DETAIL IN TONIGHT'S STAFF REPORT. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE MULTIYEAR PROJECTS THAT THE COUNCIL IS BEING ASKED TO APPROVE PROJECT BUDGETS FOR THE UPCOMING FISCAL YEAR ONLY, FISCAL YEAR 26-27. THE REMAINING FOUR YEARS OF THE CIP ARE INTENDED TO SERVE AS A LONG RANGE PLANNING TOOL AND STAFF RETURNS EACH YEAR WITH AN UPDATED CIP FOR COUNCIL'S REVIEW AND APPROVAL. Also as a reminder, all contracts or agreements that are over $50,000 per fiscal year will be brought forward to the city council separately for approval. Adoption of the CIP does represent another key milestone in the city's budget process. As Kerry mentioned earlier, the funding and expenditure budgets included in the CIP have been incorporated into the draft two-year operating budget that was just presented here at the operating budget workshop. We would like to thank the City Council for the policy direction and priorities that guided staff throughout the development of this document. And at this time, staff is available to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Sonya. Any questions for Sonya? Okay, moving into opening up the public hearing.

At this time, the public is permitted to address the city council on this agenda item. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're in person, please file a speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda item or after the timer has expired. I've received zero written public comments in advance. I have no hands raised in Zoom and I have no speaker cards.

Thank you, Amanda. Any council discussion on this item?

I have a question based on our budget conversation. Will we add a sheet now for a CIP for Heron Park?

What I would recommend is the CIP can be adopted or amended at any time. So once staff gets around to that project, they can go out to bids without actually having the project sheet. They can come to council with a draft sheet with the associated budget.

Okay, awesome. Thank you. And thank you for all of your hard work.

Any other comments or do we have a motion?

As detailed in the staff report, I move to approve a resolution adopting the 2026-27 to 2030-31 CIP. I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you, Sonia. We are at this point going to skip item G2 as we announced earlier and move into item G3. And this is the Brentwood Municipal Code related to restaurants. Jennifer Hagan, Principal Planner, will present the next item regarding amendments to the BMC related to restaurants, including those with the sale of alcohol for on-premise consumption.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. Perfect. Tonight we're here to discuss the city's focus zoning code update, specifically regulations related to restaurants, including those with the sale of alcohol for on-premises consumption. This agenda item is related to task three of our focus zoning code updates. This task includes amendments to various sections of the zoning code to better reflect the community's values based on feedback from the community and the city council, including changes to some of the permitted and conditionally permitted uses throughout the city. In September of 2024, the City Council provided initial direction on alcohol-related uses. And then on March 10th of this year, the City Council provided direction on final amendments to be brought forward. Last month, staff presented those amendments to the Planning Commission who recommended that the City Council approve the amendments with additional changes related to the establishment of future schools, as well as additional separation requirements for new uses adjacent to residential properties that were not separated by masonry walls. While many of the focus zoning code updates have limited or prohibited certain uses within the city, this amendment was created to allow for consistency across the city and spur economic development while encouraging a wide variety of restaurants with new code updates that will be easily understood. The overall goal of these amendments is to reduce hurdles to new restaurants and only require conditional use permits where appropriate. As proposed, the amendments will provide regulations only for those serving alcohol within 500 feet of K through 12 schools and with a sliding scale for those located near residential properties. The table shown here has provided a summary of the sliding scale, which starts with the requirement for CUP for all restaurants serving alcohol within 100 feet of residential property and expands out to being permitted if greater than 300 feet from residential property. Based on that, staff is recommending that city council introduce the first reading of this ordinance to amend title 17 of the municipal code by adding chapter 17.695, which is restaurants with on-premises alcohol sales, establish development standards for on-premises sales and amend land use classifications for restaurants with or without the sale of alcohol throughout the city. These exceptions or these proposed amendments before you tonight are, Citywide except for properties located within the downtown specific plan, the PA1 specific plan, which is the Innovation Center, as well as PD6, which includes the streets of Brentwood and the Raley Shopping Center. And with that, that concludes staff support. Staff is available for any questions before you tonight.

Thank you, Jennifer. Any questions for staff? OK, moving.

I just want to say thank you to staff. I really appreciate all the hard work by staff and the Planning Commission on this one. You took everything you and the Planning Commission took everything that Ludd as well as the council brought to your considerations, specifically the definition of schools. You took that in consideration, the distancing requirements. um as it pertains to schools and residential neighborhoods the wall and then also what i really appreciate because we were never trying to restrict businesses that exist right or trying to shut businesses down that you found a way to work around if a school comes after a business is established i just wanted to personally thank you all and the planning commission

Thank you moving into opening the public hearing.

At this time the public is permitted to address City Council on this agenda item if you're participating via zoom please raise your hand if you're in person, please file a speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda item or after the timer has expired, we receive zero written public comments in advance, I do have one speaker card in person Denise.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. My name is Denise Cosgrove. I'm the president of the Brentwood Chamber of Commerce. I want to thank you for the years of work that have gone into this zoning update. 15 meetings over two plus years is no small effort, and we appreciate the city's commitment to getting this right. And that's exactly why I'm here tonight, because I believe we're close, but not quite there yet. RZ26-002 creates a two-tiered system. And when you look at it closely, the three exempted areas, downtown, the Innovation Center, and the streets of Brentwood actually tell three very different stories. None of them make a compelling case for why anyone else should play by stricter rules. Let's start with the streets of Brentwood. That center's owned and managed by CentroCal Properties, backed by Heitman, a global real estate investment with $48 billion in assets under management. The tenants coming in are national and regional chains, American Eagle, Slice House, Pandora, et cetera. These are corporate-backed operators with legal teams, compliance departments, and deep pockets to navigate permitting processes. They are not going to be burdened by CUPs, independent restaurant or on lone tree way or balfour they will be that's not a level playing field now let's talk about downtown we genuinely are proud of what the town brentwood coalition built 153 active businesses over 401 000 in tax revenue last year occupancy exceeding 90 percent but that success means downtown is essentially full It encompasses roughly six square blocks. There's a very limited capacity for new restaurant openings there. So the downtown exemption protects businesses that are already established while doing nothing for the next generation of restaurant owners who wanna open somewhere else in the city. So when you step back, here's what this ordinance actually does in practice. It creates more flexible rules for corporate owned lifestyle mall, a nearly full historic district and a master plan development that doesn't exist yet. While putting CUP requirements and proximity burdens on the independent business owners who are open right now, serving Brentwood families right now and paying taxes right now, I'd like to ask the council to consider who exactly is being asked to go through the CUP process. It's sit down restaurants, owners who hold state liquor license, carry liability insurance, train their staff and stand to lose everything, their license, their livelihood, their reputations, if they serve a minor. The incentive to be responsible is built in when you take on that responsibility to be a restaurant owner in Brentwood. These are legitimate businesses and they deserve to be treated accordingly. The Chamber is not here to oppose reasonable regulation.

The speaker's timer has expired. I have no additional speaker cards or hands raised in Zoom. Thank you, Amanda.

Can I have a motion to close the public hearing?

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Public hearing is closed. Moving into discussion.

Um, I understand the Chamber's concerns, but I think we've been over this. Um, and we we did consider everything and, you know, whether it's a chain or a small mom and pop, they all have to pay the C. U. P. And I rather go through the extra steps and make sure we do it right, because we've seen a lot on our on our Council that wasn't done right. And then we have to deal with the ramifications after the fact. So I rather have those things in place so that we make sure that if we're going to put something near a school it's a cup or near a home and that there's a process that also includes the schools and the residents and they can all come in and have an opinion about it i just think it's safer for everyone other comments or emotion I can make a motion. As detailed in the staff report, I move to introduce and waive the first review of the ordinance amending Title 17 of the Brentwood Municipal Code.

Second.

And I'll read the ordinance title and ordinance of the City Council of the City of Brentwood approving a zoning text amendment to the Brentwood Municipal Code, RZ26-002 to add chapter 17.695, restaurants with on-premises alcohol sales, establish development standards for restaurants with on-premises alcohol sales and amend land use classifications for restaurants with or without the sale of alcohol citywide.

thank you all in favor aye aye and the item passes thank you thank you for your comments moving into item g4 aaron wanden park maintenance manager will present the next item regarding the city's landscape and lighting assessment districts

Thank you and good evening mayor and city council members. In accordance with Landscape and Lighting Act of 1972, this item this evening is the third and final step in the annual approval process to authorize the levy of assessments for fiscal year 2026 slash 27 based on benefit conferred to property within the citywide park maintenance district number 98-1. landscape and lighting assessment district number 19-3, landscape and lighting assessment district number 21-1, which is Deer Ridge, and the city's other 69 landscape and lighting assessment districts included in the consolidated report. Citywide maintenance district number 98-1 will provide an estimated $4 million in revenue for fiscal year 26-27 to maintain the city's park system. The assessments for the district are proposed to be levied at the authorized maximum rate. Landscape and lighting assessment district number 19-3 is comprised of non-residential and multifamily developments and has multiple zones of benefit. The zones of benefit were created to address varying degrees of benefit from landscaping, parks, street lighting, and trail improvements. This district will provide an estimated $160,000 in total revenue for fiscal year 26-27. The proposed assessment rates for each zone of benefit are proposed to be levied at or below the maximum that was established when the district was formed. Landscape and lighting assessment district number 21-1, the Deer Ridge, is comprised of a construction component and a maintenance component. The construction component provides funding for recently installed landscaping improvements and will be assessed to properties within the Deer Ridge development through fiscal year 2031-32. The maintenance component provides funding for the ongoing maintenance of the landscape improvements and is assessed annually. This district will provide an estimated $100,000 in total revenue for fiscal year 26-27. The 69 landscape and lighting assessment districts included in the consolidated report will provide an estimated $11.5 million in total revenue for fiscal year 26-27 to maintain landscaping, parks, street lighting, and trail improvements benefiting properties within each of these districts. The proposed assessment rate for each of the districts is proposed to be levied at or below the maximum established when each respective district was formed. Upon the close of the public hearing this evening, staff is recommending city council approve the engineers reports and adopt a resolution authorizing placement of the fiscal year 26-27 assessments for the city's landscape and lighting assessment districts on the upcoming tax roll. The city's consultant and I are available for any questions you might have. Thank you.

Thank you, Aaron. Any questions for staff? Okay, can we have a motion to open the, excuse me, can I now open the public hearing?

At this time, the public is permitted to address the City Council on this agenda item. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand to speak. If you're in person, please file a speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda item or after the timer has expired. We receive zero written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting. I have no public comment cards. or hands raised in Zoom. Thank you, Amanda.

Can I have a motion to close the public hearing?

I'll make a motion to close. That was popular. I'll make a motion to close the public comment.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, council discussion or a motion?

um thank you for all of your work on this i know it's a lot of work um i think we might need to have some more discussion but not tonight on the um on the ones that are underfunded and i think we're probably going to have to start having discussions on what we do with those i live in one of those so um i think it's something we have to do i mean deer ridge paid for their own landscaping when They wanted it and I think it, you know, because the city is subsidizing that and we have to figure out is that something we want to keep doing, or we want to address it. So thank you for all of your work. And I think there's more work to be done at our level at some point, like a workshop or something so that we understand what areas and how much. So, thank you. And what. I can make a motion. As detailed in the staff report, I move to adopt a resolution that approves the City of Brentwood's 71 landscape and lining assessment districts for fiscal year 2026-27. Second.

All in favor? Aye. And the motion passes. Thank you very much. Item G5, James Wolfe, Water Operations Manager, will present the next public hearing regarding the Urban Water Management Plan and the Water Shortage Contingency Plan. Actually, we're not going to review the, are we doing the water contingency one too? We are, okay. Actually, no, that's the solid waste, so yes.

It is all one item.

Yeah, we're doing each one.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council. My name is James Wolfe. I'm the Water Operations Manager. I'm glad to be here tonight to introduce and present a brief overview of the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan for consideration. We have organized the presentation into five key sections, Urban Water Management Planning Act, Water Use and Efficiency, System Reliability, Water Shortage Contingency Plan, and Adoption, Submittal and Implementation. The Urban Water Management Planning Act is a law and it was established in 1983. which requires suppliers to update and adopt a plan every five years. These plans give the Department of Water Resources a clear statewide picture of system water reliability. Here we see the city's historical and projected water demand from 2015 through 2050. This slide illustrates how recycled water use conservation practices and passive water savings contribute to ensuring the city's water supply is sufficient to meet future demand. Here we show projected population service connection growth from 2020 through 2050. This steady growth reinforces the need for long-term planning to maintain reliable and sustainable water service. This graph shows per capita water use, which is the average amount of water used by one person in a single day. The decline in per capita water use over time shows sustained conservation progress and confirms the state targets are being met now and in the future. This slide highlights the city's water efficiency programs. Continued conservation measures and expanded recycled water availability are expected to reduce overall future demand. These projected savings support long-term sustainability by lowering per capita water use and ensure reliable water supplies through future planning horizons. The city's water supply consists of surface water from the Delta, groundwater from wells, and recycled water used for irrigation. Having multiple sources ensures water supplies remain adequate. The city's reliability assessment shown here in blue illustrates that available supplies remain above projected potable demands. Even under a severe drought scenario shown here in green, the city will still meet projected demands. Regional studies project warmer temperatures, variable precipitation, reduced Sierra snowpack, higher Delta salinity. These changes are expected to influence outdoor water use patterns and supply reliability, which are taken into consideration for this analysis. This slide summarizes how the city responds to water shortages under the water shortage contingency plan. Through annual assessment, response actions, community outreach, and continued monitoring, the city can ensure the plan remains current and ready for future conditions. The city's water shortage contingency plan includes six stages that correspond to increasing levels of shortage. each with a targeted response action. The plan is structured to be activated through authorization by city council under a water shortage condition declared by the governor's office of emergency services. The actual water supply conditions would be assessed in the appropriate stage alert and measures necessary would be recommended to achieve demand reduction targets. Lastly, this slide outlines the urban water management plan lifecycle from adoption through implementation. After public notification, public hearings, and council approval, the plan is submitted to the Department of Water Resources, the State Library, and posted to the city's website. Thank you. That concludes our presentation. City staff, Brown and Caldwell staff are available for any questions.

Thank you, James. We're actually gonna take a three minute break and then come back. Hopefully that's all right with everyone. Thank you.

Testing, testing.

Amanda, good? Harold, good?

Okay, my apologies for that taking a little longer.

We are moving into whether we have questions for James, and thank you for the presentation.

I do have one question. It looks, if I'm not incorrect, because this is all different than what I do, it looks like we have a lot of capacity with recycled versus what we're using. Am I right? Do we have a lot of extra recycled water every year or no?

No, we actually don't have a lot of extra recycled water. Our recycled water system is pretty much at capacity. You'll notice in the CIP book, we have a project to do some engineering to expand that ability to use more recycled water, but we are roughly at capacity during the summers.

Okay, so here's my other question about that. Would it be beneficial for new developments to have to have purple pipes for exterior irrigation?

Yes, if they have large park areas, and that is something that we do require for- Not even the parks, I'm talking about their homes. No, that's an entirely different conversation. The amount of regulatory hurdles that you'd have to go through to use recycled water on a home-by-home basis is way more than we want to tackle, and it's not really worth our effort.

Okay, so in their park system is where- Correct.

Large uses, common landscaping, that kind of thing, that's where you get bang for the buck in recycled water use.

Okay, I tried.

Thanks. Thank you, and I don't know if this is for James or for Casey, but kind of going back to what Councilmember Mendoza said, I remember when we had the people could bring their truck and get recycled water, and we're not doing that as much anymore. Is that because the capacity has gone down?

No, we actually still do that. A couple of years ago, you authorized us to automate that system, so we now have that open 24-7 year-round for residents. The usage of that residential fill station waxes and wanes a little bit. Obviously, in the summers, it's higher, and in years when we have a little more drought, the usage increases again. On wet years and during the winter, the use of that facility slows down a little bit, but we do use that year-round.

Could we do a campaign on that? I feel like I remember when it first came out and the excitement around it was huge. There was a lot of residents that were just posting their own pictures and talking about it a lot. And now I'm not, that's kind of died down a lot. So I'm just wondering if we can kind of just remind people that it's there basically.

Yeah, we certainly can. I will tell you that gas prices, what they are, that demand tamps down a little bit because it costs a little more to, you know, to get back and forth and take heavy loads of water around town. So we certainly can republish that through WebLit and some of our social media outreach.

Thank you. That does make sense. Okay. Any other questions?

Just speaking of quality of water, because I don't want to go off agenda. Thank you for your social media posts.

Okay, and if anyone has questions about that, look at the city's social media pages. James, thank you very much. And if we can move into the public hearing for this item.

At this time, the public is permitted to address the city council on this agenda item. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're in person, please file a speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda item or after the timer has expired. We receive zero written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting. I have no speaker cards in person and I have no hands raised in Zoom.

Thank you. Do we need a motion to close the public hearing?

A motion to close public hearing. I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Public hearing is closed. Any council discussion or an agenda, excuse me, or a motion?

Well, thank you for all of your work and I'm ready to make a motion if no one has any comments.

Through the mayor there for this item, there isn't a motion unless you wanted to amend the current plan as proposed. Thank you for that reminder.

And we will move into the first business item, which again, James Wolfe, water operations manager will present this item regarding the approval of the urban water management plan and the water shortage contingency plan.

I'll actually take this one, Mary. Thank you. Due to a quirk in the regulations for this item, they require us to bring this as two separate agenda items. So what we're gonna do with the second item here is just ask you for approval of the resolutions associated with the adoption of the Urban Water Management Plan and the Water Shortage Contingency Plan. So it's the exact same materials you just heard. We're just asking for formal adoption of those resolutions.

Thank you very much. So I'm guessing there's not going to be any questions, but we still need to move to public comments. Thanks, Casey.

So at this time, the public is permitted to address the City Council on this agenda item. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand to speak. If you're in person, please file a speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda item or after the timer has expired. We receive zero written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting. I have no public speaker cards in person or hands raised in Zoom. Thank you.

Moving into discussion, or we can start with motion number one.

I'll make a motion as detailed that report I moved to adopt a resolution approving the water source shortage contingency plan for submittal to the California Department of Water Resources as prepared by staff and brown and cobble engineering consultants. A second.

All in favor? Aye. That motion passes. Number two.

I'll make the second motion. As detailed in the staff report, I move to adopt the resolution approving the urban water management plan titled UWMP for the middle to DWR as prepared by the city staff and Brown and Colwell engineering consultants. I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. James, it was nice to see you.

Thank you.

Thank you. We are going to skip over item H2 per our earlier discussion. And, yeah, we're also gonna skip informationals and we're moving into I, which is request for a new agenda item. Does anyone have any? Okay, I actually have one. I would like to bring back the MPA appointment to have a little bit more of an in-depth conversation on those appointments and potentially reevaluate who we appoint to that. Any questions from staff on that item?

Okay, wonderful, thank you.

And we're also skipping item J1. And at this point, I think- Can I ask a question?

If it has already been on agenda, does she have to bring it through a future agenda item request or can it just be on the next?

I was advised by Thomas, although I'm not sure

I was just wondering, the mayor's future agenda item request to bring back the MPA, if we've already had a discussion on it, does it have to come through the formal process of a future agenda item request, or can it just be put on the next?

I believe I can put something on the next agenda, and Thomas, the report is already done, correct? So then we can just kind of adapt that to whatever.

Yes, I can do that.

Thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, then I believe the only motion we have now is...

If I could, only I was looking back and item G2 that was continued, it was a publicly noticed item and I don't know if Alexis had any, if it was okay if we could focus on, sorry, regrouping.

Putting it to a date and a time certain if it's going to come up at the next city council meeting.

We need to check with our consultants because we confirm they're not available at the next council meeting on June 9th and they need to be present for that item so we'd have to check their schedule.

So we have no current date at this time we just re-notice?

If the council wants it to come back a certain date that's the council's purview but I would want to check with our consultants to make sure they're available if that's okay with council.

So then saying a date uncertain will be based on when the consultant's available?

Yes, and then we would re-notice the item.

Okay, I'm okay with that if everyone else is. Let's plan on the re-noticing if your consultants aren't available. You can go through the re-noticing process, correct?

Correct. Okay. So it can stand how you've already continued it in every notice. Thanks for checking on that. Okay.

So I believe we had a first and a second on the motion to adjourn, correct? All in favor? Aye.

We are adjourned. Thank you.