City - Regular Meeting

Thank you for being with us this evening. It is 6 o'clock, so we're going to have go ahead and get ready to start our meeting. Before we start our meeting, I'd like to ask Mayor Prom Deborah Lewis to give us our invitation. Please stand. Shall we bow our heads? And heavenly father, we come to you first of all thanking you because you are the almighty and there's nothing that passes your eyes that you don't see. And father, right now I pray for our nation. I pray for countries throughout the world. I pray for wisdom uh at our national level and I pray for wisdom within our state. And father I pray for wisdom tonight on this das that you will help us as elected officials to do the best that we can to represent the citizens of the city of Los Banos. We ask that you strengthen everyone here. Bless the people who have attended. Bless those who are watching uh by YouTube and other ways. And we just ask that you um just give us strength tonight and we give you glory and honor in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. like to call our meeting to order for March 4th, 2026. Chief Rea, if you could give us the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And thank you for joining us again this evening. And now we'll have roll call. Lucy Perez here. Chavez here. Lewis here. Hammill

here. Next item is consideration approval agenda as submitted. And the recommendation is to adopt the agenda as submitted. So moved. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as submitted. Any further questions? Not hearing any. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it.

And we have a few presentations here. Hey, Joe. Joh, our park and recreation director and this Friday is Arbor Day in Lasis and we are honored to proclaim and recognize Arbor Day in our town. Whereas in 1872, Jay Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas the trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil, cut heating and cooling cost, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce oxygen, and provide habitat for the wildlife. And whereas trees are a renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in the city increase property values, enhance the economy vitality of businesses in our area and beautify our community. And whereas the city of Lasis has been recognized as Tree City USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation and desires to continue tree planting ways. Now therefore, it be a proclaimed that I, Michael S. Ammoil, mayor of the city of Lasanis, and our city council of Lasanis, California, do hereby recognize March 6th, 2026 as Arbor Day in the city of Lasanis, and urge all citizens to

support efforts to care for our trees and woodlands and to support our city's community forestry program. Joe, thank you. Angelina. Well, we read about this and I was notified about Angelina and you're very impressive. Let me tell you this. And I we can't help but be honored to be able to recognize you in what you've already achieved and what you're going to achieve in your future. And this is proclamation recognized Angelina Belli. Whereas Angelina Belli, a student athlete at the Lasenis High School, has achieved national recognition by earning the ranking of number three in the nation by Sports Illustrated and number one in the state of California in Girls Wrestling, reflecting years of hard work, discipline, academic commitment, and the support of her family, coaches, educa, educators, and community. And whereas Angelina accepted an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy where she will continue her academics and athletic journey while preparing to serve our nation. Whereas Angelina will join her brother Larry, a Lasanis Tiger wrestling alumnus, class of 2024, as at the United States Air Force Academy. While fellow Laspanis Tiger wrestlers Nathan Coloulton, class of 2025, is currently attending the United States Naval Academy, marking three Lasis Tiger wrestlers in three years to earn appointments to the United States Service academics. And whereas Angelina accomplishments represent the

values and dedication, resilience, leadership and character and serves as an inspiration to fellow students and young athletes throughout the Las Vegas community. Whereas Angelina's success highlights the important role and supportive in family committed coaches, engaged educators and access to safe training space spaces and school facilities play in helping students develop the discipline and preparation necessary necessary to pursue opportunities such as national rankings, collegic athletes, and service academy appointments. Now therefore be it proclaimed. I Michael Asam Bill the mayor of the city of Los Banis and the city council do hereby recognize and congratulate Angelina for her outstanding achievements in athletics, academics and service and extend the best wishes for continued success at the United States Air Force Academy and her future service to our country. We're so proud of you. Thank you. It's quite an achievement. Okay, next we have a Peninsula Clean Energy program updates and presentation by Sean Marshall, the CEO of Peninsula Clean Energy. And I'm going to turn this over to our community and economic development director, Soua Elms, before

you speak. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. City Council, it's my pleasure to introduce Shawn Marshall, the executive director of um the chief executive director of Peninsula Clean Energy uh to provide you an update of their programs and services um offered to our residents of Las Vegas that are enrolled in Peninsula Clean Energy. So Sean, you'd like to take it away? Uh we will pull up the PowerPoint presentation. We're so honored to have you here in our town.

Nice to see you all again. Good evening, mayor. Good evening, council members. I was just uh chatting with my colleagues Vir Reia and Mark Hirschman, who I believe many of you know. Uh I believe I was here exactly to the day last year uh doing maybe a similar update. And so the time flies um and we've been having we've been having a busy and good time um at Peninsula Clean Energy. I do want to acknowledge the service of Mayor Emibel on our board. I really appreciate how much you've leaned in and all the value that you provide um on behalf of the city of Laspanos to our board. So um I'm going to keep this one very very short. Hopefully all of you received the letter that uh was sent to the council and city manager I think about 3 weeks ago. We do that annually just sort of detailing uh the different benefits that the city along with its residents and businesses um have gained since you have been part of our agency since 2022. Uh so lower impact delivered together. That's really um what we are focused on. Our value proposition is maintaining lower electric generation rates which we have since the day we were formed in 2016. Um we have provided cleaner energy um all the way through. We are currently at 60% renewable 100% carbon-f free across all of our um products and we are very focused on community reinvestment specifically economic development in the community. So here in Los Banos that means um solar panels on the Losanos community center. I believe there are batteries uh going in there as well to augment that project. Uh we have solar panels at the wastewater treatment plant. And we also have provided grants

grant funding for both HVAC and water heating at various city facilities with more to come. So um hopefully you all have experienced that benefit as well. Uh so far we have saved Laspanos customers $4.5 million since 2022. That's the equivalent of about seven free days of electricity each year. Um and we also have $10 million in community reinvestment through bill credits. You might recall that a couple of years ago we did a $300 rebate for our lowincome customers. Solar systems. We also have disadvantaged community green tariff um community-based solar out here. So there's a project in Daspalos that you might recall uh Mr. Mayor cutting the ribbon on that serves another about thousand customers in Los Banos with 100% clean energy sources. So when we began service in 2016, uh our primary focus has really been on um provide being your default electricity provider, maintaining lower rates and reducing carbon emissions. Since then and now we are in our 10th year of operations and celebrating 10 years this year. We're really shifting now into doing that, plus really working with our community and our customers to be our partners in making smart investments, smart choices for the homes and businesses in order to lower your rates and switch over to healthier uh electric um electric investments in your home. The year ahead, uh, as mentioned earlier, we're going to be integrating a battery system at the community center, which will add just resilience and capacity to that existing system. Um, the board in January adopted a 10% rate

discount for customers. I want to just be clear that uh that was an actual 47% discount uh and a rate reduction that we made at PCE in order to chase PG&'s rates down because they lowered their dropped their rates precipitously in January. So we said yes, we're going to do the same thing and then we're going to do an additional 10% on top of that. So your customers are going to be saving even more than they did last year when you all were at a 27% 27 to 29% discount. So just making you aware that um those rate savings are meaningful. Uh we are going to be rolling out a new solar plus storage um program for our residential customers. And then we have a new local uh partnership here in town with B National of Central California. and uh they received a $40,000 grant to support community outreach um in Spanish-sp speakaking communities to make sure that those customers are aware of all the different discounts and special programs that um those customers can tap into. So, we're excited about that new partnership. And then um last couple slides here, I just want to give you all a heads up. Uh, and Mayor Amabil isware well aware of this cuz he's served on our marketing and naming committee that coming soon, Peninsula Clean Energy is going to rebrand and rename itself to be more inclusive of a service territory that serves more than the peninsula. And so, um, the board adopted a new name called West Light Energy, uh, that will be coming to you in June. customers will begin seeing that on their bills starting in July, August. So, the really important message

here is that it's the same agency, same people, same products and services, a great new chapter marking our 10-year anniversary, and just really wanting to make sure that we have a name that is representative of our whole territory. Um, so that's that's coming to you in this summer. Um, our ask tonight is that you have on your consent agenda a JPA amendment. We are required to do that by law that basically adopts the new name and so that we can change it in our formation documents. We are also asking and perhaps working with your staff team to help us clearly communicate the name change to our customers so they understand that this is not a new company. It is not a new charge. It is not an additional charge. actually it is replacing um PCE and then help us we'll do certain community events uh with Ver's help uh in town to mark our 10-year anniversary. So that will conclude my remarks. I do just want to say thank you for having us. Look forward to coming back and here to answer any questions.

Any questions for Sean? Well, I I just want to say thank you on behalf of our community um and all the communities uh Peninsula Clean Energy serves because uh I do enjoy being on your board. I enjoy your leadership. You have a fantastic staff and associates you work with and I I can really tell everybody really cares about their position and their job and and what they're meant to uh provide to the communities. and that's under your leadership and I want to thank you and for all that. Thank you. So, thank you for being here this evening and I'm sure we'll get up you to the JPA amendment. Enjoy the rest of the evening. Good to see you. Good to see you, too. Thank you.

Okay. So, now we'll go to our public forum. Members of the public may address this council on any items of public interest that's within the jurisdiction of our city council. This includes agenda non-aggenda items. No action will be taken on non-aggenda items. Speakers will be limited to 5 minutes. I will give opportunity to speak on items that are on our agenda. So if you want to wait and when we once we reach those items and speak or you can speak at the public forum, it's up to you. And we'll start off with our supervisor, Mr. SA.

Thank you, mayor and council members, city manager. Um, just a little bit of exciting news I want to share with you. We don't have final details as far as a date yet, but something long I've been asking for at the county is is if you're a resident on the west side of Merced County and you need simple things like a copy of your birth certificate, a copy of your marriage certificate, death certificate, some filing a fictitious business name, you have to travel all the way to Merrcett on that. And so in the process now working with the it's the auditor controller recorders office in securing it. It's I guess I was talking with the city clerk a little bit earlier back some years ago they used to do it. The rules around it have changed the the equipment that they print those copies of official copies of your birth certificates and whatnot on. It's a very specialized piece of equipment. It has to be locked. You can't let anybody have access to those. And you could probably see the reason why. So, as we're securing that um equipment over the next coming weeks, we're going to start a pilot program. Originally, it's it's going to start out with one day a month to where and we've settled on a location. It's actually going to be at the Spring Fairgrounds at 403 F Street. um when when we have more details exactly when the date is, what day of the week it's going to be, I would definitely come back and share that with the council and then ask you folks to help share the word, get the word out there that that service is now kind of available on the west side. And really, it's going to be dictated by are people actually using it? if people are actually using it, we could see this grow into something where it could I could see it being offered multiple days a week um on the regular basis, right? So, I also want to say I think that's kind of exciting news for our our Westside residents. I know that there's services online out there that you're able to acquire those from at the state level, but nearly at double the cost of what you would pay if you just went into the the recorder's office. So, exciting news on that front and um I look forward to coming back and sharing with you when we have an exact date that is going to

go live. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the update and that's good news. Anyone else, please come forward. Good evening.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, city council, city staff, and uh my fellow residents. Um I want to talk a little bit about the incident that occurred uh this past week regarding the hazardous incident. Um there was a lot of information and unfortunately there was a lot of misinformation because of the gaps in information that wasn't uh centralized. uh hopefully uh these uh there's been discussion about identifying these gaps and how to mitigate and so that uh in the future because again it's not if and when but if but when another emergency will happen. So uh our citizens are well informed because often it isn't so much the incident causes uh harm but the reaction to it and it's very important that uh our residents citizens get the information in a timely manner and that it's accurate so that we avoid um hysteria panic which also causes unnecessary injury or damage. One of the things that I I like to uh talk about and I've talked about it in the in the past is the Cert the Community Emergency Response Team. This is a federal program. Uh there's training that already established that was part of the search for C for Santa Clara County for many years. They help and assist and aid our uh first responders in providing information, providing search and rescue uh responding to uh incidents like such as this by providing coordinate areas etc. Again, a lot of this information and training is already available through FEMA, the federal uh emergency management agency. So again, I hope that you would look into it because they provide training in fire safety, search and rescue, timberization, disaster, and medical response. So again, there's a lot of uh ability for us to grow our infrastructure as regards to uh mitigating uh incences we had. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. Welcome. Thank you.

Mayor Bill Council members, good evening. Uh I want to talk about item 13 on tonight's uh agenda about council pay. To me, it's simple. Public office is a privilege. It's not a way to earn extra money. I want to say that one more time. Public office is a privilege. It's not a way to earn extra money. Tonight, it seems like we're focusing on the wrong thing. There's no clear reason given for a raise other than the fact that the council can't give itself one. Seeing that this uh seeing this on the agenda is disappointing and quite honestly feels out of touch with what we the people expect. The council sitting here tonight is here because the voters said no this past election. No to lavish pay. No to taking power away from the people. No to how city staff are treated. And no to a leadership that put this city at risk. People want leadership with a clear plan. A plan for smart economic growth, responsible development, and good land use. That's what the people want to hear about, not how much more council members should or want to get paid. So, I have a few questions. Which of you, Deborah, Marcus, Mike, Mity, which of you thought it was a good idea to put this item on the agenda? I find it hard to believe staff brought it up, especially after the recent Panero City Manager fiasco and the big multi-million dollar payout that us, the taxpayers, are footing the bill for. Is this really the time to ask for a raise?

Do you have a clear plan for the city's future? Are you leading or just reacting? How have each of you earned a raise of almost $1,300 plus benefits? Why is the mayor the only one that will receive the increase immediately, as I understood it from the policy memo, if approved, and the rest will wait until the next election cycle? Why was this item placed at the end of the agenda when viewership drops? As we know, and most audiences head home because they have to be up first thing early morning, 3:00, 4:00 for that next 2-hour road trip. If the idea is to hire the pay to get more people to run for office, I strongly disagree with that thought. Money should never be the reason someone pursues public office. Period. The report also says the mayor could get extra pay on top of council pay. What is that amount and why? We the people deserve a clear explanation so the public understands what we are paying for. I'm asking for a roll call vote so we the people know exactly how each of you stand on this item for the record because we deserve to know. And just out of curiosity, what other benefits, stipens, prediums, or allowances do council members and the mayor get either from this city or other agencies? The public deserves the full picture. Again, that wasn't included in in the policy memo report and the agenda packet. I did a quick search. Uh I went to public playpaid.ca.gov gov. And in there it states, you know, uh the mayor gets a total retirement healthcare contribution of $31,281.

A council member retirement healthcare contribution of $29,000. Another one $14,000. Uh and the last two between $600 and $700, and that's not including the pay. After having said this, you have the audacity to sit here and ask for a raise. When it comes to our taxpayer dollars, being open, clear, and transparent isn't optional. It's the least we should expect. Let's do better, council. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll be discussing all that when we reach I13. Thank you for your comments. Next, please. Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor Amabil, Mr. Ton, and members of the council. Nathan Alonzo from Pacific Gas and Electric, your local government affairs contact uh with our company. Just wanted to come before you here tonight to to say hello and to also uh bring your attention to an item that I will be sending over the the course of the next couple days, which is a release that our company put out. Um that for the now the fifth time in two years, we are reducing the price per kilowatt hour. Um this is part of an overall company initiative towards affordability. So when we have u our friends from PCE here and everybody's talking about affordability, everybody wins. So I look forward to coming back later on this year maybe to give a more comprehensive presentation about our work in the community, our investment uh in our footprint here in Los Banos and some of the other things that uh we have in support of all of our neighbors here in Los Banos. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you for comments. Anyone else, please come forward. Looks like it says Deo. I was going to come up here and sing. Um, I just want to know I want to speak on one of the items, but you said you're going to have a forum. So, I just want to make sure that you are for item number 12. Um, it doesn't say that there's a public input, but you said you were going to talk. You are. Okay. That's all I need. You want to talk now, you can. Or you can wait till 12. Oh, no. I like to It's better at the point. Okay. Thank you.

Today's in a two week two meetings in a row. My name's uh Javier Powell. I'm here representing the Milicanin Museum. I'd like to report that our 8th annual Charles Sawyer lecture series, which was last week, uh, went off without a hitch. It was actually really great. We had our World War posters out there, which many of them are over 100 years old now since many of them are from World War I. And we haven't had those out for, I believe, about 60, 50 years. So, that was a really great event to have. And there is a YouTube video now online with all the lectures that were done about Las Veterans. I honestly recommend you guys give it a view. Um, there's some pretty cool stories in there, including that of Paul Seter, who hasn't really been uh, put out there that much. But I'm also here to report that this week on Friday, uh, I know it's in a couple of days from now, will be our Arbor Day breakfast. This is our main fundraiser at the museum. The lecture series is more of a community service we like to do in honor of Charles Sawyer. Uh, this one is more of um, fundraising for our local museum. It's uh $10 for a uh a breakfast consisting of hams, eggs, pancakes, and your choice of coffee or juice. You can have it to go. You can stay there and dine in. We will be having our TV again this year with photos from uh Lasers throughout the years, and our photo archive is pretty extensive. Uh it'll be from 7 to 10:00 a.m. Uh so there's about 3 hours to catch it. Hopefully you guys do. Uh, again, that's 10 bucks for a ticket and each ticket gets you a pretty good portion of food and I'm not sure you can find breakfast for anywhere else cheaper at this point. Uh, but yeah, that's our main fundraiser. I hope to see you all there. Um, and learn more about local history. Have a great day.

And I heard Paul Laughler loud and clear that Lasanis is the center of the universe. The center of the universe. So, that's going to be our new tagline. Could Could you have him indicate where the pan pancake breakfast is going to be? I don't think. Yeah, it's going to be at Miller. Miller and Lux, right, Javier? It'll be at the community center. Oh, community center. It's at the community center. Thank you. Anyone else, please come forward.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Blanch George and I live in the downtown area. I wanted to um follow up with a request that I had, a thought that I had and it's it's just um it is being allowed to be able to add a poster to the airport where the pilots fly in and out of their lounge area. And what it is is the thought of individuals being able to those pilots deciding to go ahead and take a hitchhiker, which is an animal, out of our shelter. Uh what that would entail is that they would call the number um the phone number. There would be uh there are several employees that are eager to get those phone calls. They will call the rescue to wherever the pilot is is going to to make arrangements for the rescue to go ahead and to meet that pilot at their airport and um and then to of of course have the dog being adopted from the rescue. So I would really appreciate that consideration. I don't know who the decision maker is. I've I've have positive feedbacks all the time. Uh, another point I really want to make briefly is that with the animals, while the staff is so amazing and I had such an beautiful experience last week and there'll be more discussion on that, but um, those those individuals work so hard. They dedicate themselves and they really now push rescues. The rescues are ready for kitten season and puppy season. We're all scared of that right now, but we're ready.

When it comes to adoptions, while the staff works hard, our situation nationwide is not going to be all end adoption. It's going to be encouraging with the spay and neutering. It's going to be with trap neuter return plus m which is manage. All of that is going to be really crucial in order to tap down the population and to get it under control. You guys are vital for funding with something like that and there'll be more talk about that soon. But what you guys have done so far and continue to do congratulations. There's some wonderful things that are going on. Just a little tidbit, one of the things when I do go out and I get a call to that a resident wants some help with an animal, I go ahead and counsel them. I walk them through the process. They get educated about the about the feeding and scheduling and what the process is. All of that it is so wonderful for the resident to know not just going and relieving the problem but with education and that is all free of helping out our community. So I just wanted to go ahead and just let you guys know that you know that there are some wonderful things. Um, one last uh since I have one more minute, one last thing is that I know that we need vets and we've spoken about that. One of the important things is that and I've learned this from your economic developer uh uh Stacy. Stacy went to and after listening, she

went ahead and went to a meeting or or to a conference and asked. And sure enough, there now are veterinarians that will be investing and want to invest in shopping centers. We've got plenty of shopping centers. What I did actually also find out about that was I I then after being so excited about her news, shopping center owners want to give benefits to any vet any uh veterinarian that wants to move into their space because it's going to be an anchor. and anchors and shopping centers are really crucial for growth of that shopping center which means also tax dollars for our community then trickles down to budget and then trickles down I think to the animals. So all in all, I just want to, you know, just uh play a little bit with this, but there was some beautiful things that have been that have been going on these past few months and years, and I really appreciate it. All of you guys are just driving them forward. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, M.

Anyone else, please come forward. You're welcome to come forward. I promised I'd come today, but I didn't expect to have these two today while my wife's teaching a class right now. So, anyways, I'm Miguel Alejandre, high council, mayor, city staff. Um, I came just mainly to ask to for the city and county to work together in making a public awareness campaign about the emergency response. a lot of people's they weren't alerted on time or there was uh issues with it. Um and yeah, just mainly because there right next to Kagumi is a senior housing and a lot of seniors reached out to me and told me that they weren't feeling good. Not sure if it was for that but they said it was because of that and also because I live right next to it. So I would have preferred being alerted as well. I wasn't signed up. I signed up afterwards. Well, tried to. I had I had issues and um I talked to two CalFire firefighters yesterday after the board of super supervisors meeting. Sorry, they're heavy. And um yeah, they said that they're going to work out through the bugs, but now it's just getting the the people aware, the people of Los Banos Palace, all the county aware of all the um stuff that goes on. But usually, so sorry about that. Usually it's until it's too late where people get notified like with Plunder and DP with the floods and that's when they start signing up. But anyways, yeah, thank you very much and have a beautiful evening.

Thank you. And uh Chief's going to be giving a report at the end of the evening. Thank you for your comments and I admire you to bring one up there. Anyone else who'd like to speak, please come forward. Anyone else? Okay, I appreciate everybody that spoke and we can hear you and we hear you loud and clear. And now, is there any letters, Lucy, that could you read off the one letter we did receive?

Good evening. I am writing today to raise concerns about the recent ammonia leak and the breakdown in public safety protocols that followed. While I surely appreciate the efforts of emergency responders and pray they remain safe always, several critical failures must be addressed for the safety of our community if other types of public emergencies should occur in the future. First, the county's emergency notification system failed to notify residents in a timely manner. The system was recently changed, but residents were not informed that they needed to create new accounts. Many registered users did not receive alerts, leaving residents to learn about the situation through social media at least an hour after the leak was first reported. Why was the public not informed of the system change prior and why was no backup method used to alert the community? Additionally, the delay in issuing a public warning left residents exposed to harmful fumes. The Laspanis Fire Department was contacted and I assume responded immediately at 5:30 a.m., but residents didn't learn about the danger until 6:30 a.m. after the fumes had already entered homes. Why was there a delay between the initial response and the public alert? The confusion compounded with conflicting messages from the Los Spanish Unified School District, Eric Sourersby, director of elementary education via the parents app said schools were open and accepting students. While the director gave the green light for schools to remain open, principal Hicks at Loreno Felasco Elementary, which was closest to the leak site, initially announced that

the school was closed, only to delete the post very shortly after. This lack of clear, consistent messaging caused unnecessary panic. Why was the decision to open schools made before the shelter in place order was lifted? The shelter in place order was lifted around 10:30 a.m. by the Losanis Police Department, according to a Facebook post. Will an afteraction report be made public? And most importantly, what steps are being taken to ensure that a situation like this is never repeated. Thank you for your time and attention to these concerns. JulieRaton.

Okay, we don't thank you for that letter, Julie. And is there anything else? It was just the one letter. Just the one. Okay. Thank you for reading that off. Now we'll go on to item H, which is consideration of approval of the consent agenda. And Lucy, I'm going to go back to you if you could read off the consent agenda, please.

Okay. Items on the consent agenda are as follows. Warrant numbers 256355 through 25657 in the amount of 2,119,33.15. City Council meeting minutes for February 18th, 2026. City Council resolution number 7054 approving the purchase of a code enforcement vehicle in the amount of 36,97920 from Wy Chevrolet Elkrove Auto Group through the state of California contract number 1-22-23-23D. City Council resolution number 7055 authorizing the city manager to execute amendment to the existing cooperative procurement agreement with Axon Enterprises Inc. for the addition of Fleet 3 incar cameras to the police department's existing Axon system in the amount of $69,517.74 annually. City Council resolution number 7056 authorizing the purchase of one Fouts Fire 4 mini pumper in the amount of $433,836.38 from Fire Apparata Solutions. City Council resolution number 7057 approving and authorizing the mayor to execute an administrative amendment to paragraph 2.2 two of the Peninsula Clean Energy Joint Powers Agreement reflecting the name change from Pen Peninsula Clean Energy to West Light Energy. City Council resolution number 7058 approving and authorizing the city manager to execute the first amendment

to the professional services agreement with MUNTS Government Staffing Services, Inc. to increase the total not to exceed compensation amount from $30,000 to $150,000 and the items are to be approved as submitted. Thank you, Lucy. And before we turn it to the council, is there any item from A to G that any of the uh people out in the audience would like to speak about before we take any action? Okay. Not seeing or hearing anyone coming forward. I'll turn it to the city council. Is there any item you would like to pull off? if you'd like to approve it as submitted. Then if we could have a motion, please.

Yeah, mayor. I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as submitted. I'll second. Okay, we have a motion and second as stated. Any further questions or comments from the council? All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Eyes have it.

Thank you. And now we'll go to a public hearing. Item nine, you challenge the proposed action as described herein to the court. You may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at a public hearing described within or written correspondence delivered to the city at or prior to the public hearing. Our first item of public hearing is to receive public comment and consideration of approval of a final map plan 2025-01, the Overland Trail Subdivision. This is a Stonefield Home Incorporated. And with this, we will the next item is well, let's see. The next item is resolution 7059 approving the final development plan of 2025-01 for the Overland Trail sub subdivision Stonefield Home Incorporated. And with this, we'll go to our community and economics director, Susa Elms. Stacy,

thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council. Um, so this project, just a bit of an overview for you. Um the plan finalizes the Mission Village Estates development. This is the last um really last infill parcel of that original development um which is for 50 single family residential lots um on 7.81 acres. The lots and zoning they range between um over 3,700 um square ft to over 10,000 square ft. So, various lot sizes in the medium density zoning district. And um the design flexibility, it proposes uh a request for rolled curbs instead of the standard vertical curbs and using the final development plan is that me excuse mechanism to provide um that flexibility from the city standards. Uh this is the location of the project. It's located located east of Mercy Springs Road, south of Mission Drive and north of Wilmont Avenue. Uh this is an infield development which it's consistent with the surrounding residential character. Um so this is just west of Grasslands Elementary. You can see Grasslands on the very uh right hand um side of the frame of that photo of that aerial photo. Um, and it's just south of Overland and where uh the new 7-Eleven and Starbucks are located. According to SQUA um the California Environmental Quality Pro act, this project was previously evaluated in the Michigan Village and Mission Estates subdivision um under

mitigated negative declaration state clearing house number 20002115 which was approved back in July of 2001 by the city of Las Vegas. Um, no new or more severe impacts have been identified um through this proposal. Um, and the project remains consistent with the environmental analysis already completed. The project design uh the intent of the final development plan is to provide a diverse selection of production homes positioned on a wide range of lot sizes with varying widths. It includes 21 elevation styles to ensure differentiation uh among homes for visual interest and cohesion with surrounding phases. All homes include twocar garages and the net density is 8.96 dwelling units per net acre. The final development plan uh with that application the applicant is requesting the use of rolled curb throughout the subdivision. Uh the city has conditioned the vesting tenative map which was approved with the planning commission for the use of rolled curb to only be allowed at uh the driveway approaches. Staff is concerned this may encourage vehicle parking on sidewalks. With the rolled curb, we tend to see two wheels parked up on the sidewalk throughout some of our existing areas that have rolled curb uh within the front yards. And we're also concerned about vehicle conflicts with infrastructure such as hydrants and street lights. So as conditioned with the vesting tenative map, staff is requesting that the rolled curb is limited to driveway frontage areas only and all remaining curb within the subdivision is required to be standard

6-in vertical curb. So this at the driveway you would have the rolled curb and that would eliminate that apron of the dip uh at the approach. This would just be then a solid straight sidewalk because there would be rolled curb at that approach. Um the these are examples of the architectural styles that are included within the final development plan. It has an early California, California coastal and California rustic. So all very um kind of contemporary um architecture. These variations help avoid repetition. So, there's 21 different um elevations and this helps eliminate repetition, enhance the long-term neighborhood character within uh this subdivision. Um here are other examples. Um this is a 1600 square f foot and 2,000 square foot example. Um so there's various singlestory and twostory um elevations. Um and as you can see each elevation has an enhancement whether it's stone veneer um it could be sighting um or a mixture of both um within those elevations. It also breaks up the massing of the elevations um with window trims um and various paint colors. So, the circulation um access to the development is provided from Wilmont Avenue and Mission Drive. Uh the subdivision does have three local streets with a 52 ft ride ofway. Um which is one travel lane in each direction, a 5-ft sidewalk, and they're proposing rolled curb throughout uh the entire subdivision. Um but as I stated, staff is proposing through the

conditions of approval with the vesting map um that the driveway approaches would be the only location with the rolled curb and street A will connect Mission Drive and Wilmont Avenue. Um so that's the north and south connector within this subdivision that connects Mission and Wilmont. And then um there is a secondary access off of Mission Drive, but Wilmont will be the primary entrance into the subdivision. Um at Wilmont and State Route 165 intersection, CALR has initiated a controlled intersection improvements due to safety. Um so Calrans conducted a study at uh that intersection and then also um so it met warrant for needing a controlled intersection and then they evaluated the signal versus roundabout um and determined that the roundabout was the recommended alternative. Calrans is in the dei design phase with district 10 operations team and the project is slated to be begin um and be ready for build July 2028. So that's when the design will be completed. Um it'll go out to bid and they're hoping that construction would be completed in 2029. Um subsequently uh a development a commercial development was approved on the northeast corner of um Wilmont and 165 and a mitigation measure was required u which required that project to install a temporary roundabout until Calrans installs the permanent roundabout project. The applicant is working with CALR currently um and they've had various uh meetings that the city has been included in just to keep us in the

loop um with CALR through that encroachment permit process. The temporary roundabout is anticipated to be installed by the commercial development in summer of 2027. So this is the infrastructure um that is proposed within the final development plan. Water and sewer will connect through Mission Drive and Wilmont Avenue to existing infrastructure that's there and drainage will connect to Wilmont Avenue. All utilities have been accounted for in the city's utility master plans. Uh this project was presented um to the project review board uh in March of 2024 and then to excuse me to the design review which is a study session with the planning commission in March of 2024 and then to the project review board in October of 2025. Um and at that time staff provided feedback which has been incorporated into the final design and into the conditions of approval. Uh public hearing notices were published in the Westside Express and mailed to a 300 foot radius on February 18th, 2026. And as of the date of uh the staff report and of this presentation, no comments have been received uh by the public. So staff is recommending that the city council would consider adopting resolution 7059 approving final development plan number 2025-01 for Overland Trail subdivision for the development of 7.8 acres into 50 single family residential lots located east of Mercy Springs Road south of Mission Drive and north of Wilmont Avenue subject to the conditions of approval. And that concludes my presentation. I'm here to answer any questions.

Thank you Stacy. So, at this time, I'd like to open up the public hearing for final development plan 2025-01 for the Overland Trails Subdivisions, Stonefield Home Incorporated. Anyone that would like to speak on this item, please come forward to the podium at this time. Welcome again.

Hi, Kathy Ballard. Um, resident of Las Panos. I just have two questions. Um, when you say SQUA, I don't know everything that's involved in that, but does it take into consideration that the only school that's out there is Grasslands, which has no openings and has a waiting list to go to that school? Um, I don't know if your SQA takes that into account. Um, also, I've never seen a rolled I know I've seen rolled curbs in other cities. Um, I've never seen rolled with square. Does that affect anything with drainage or how the water flows to the storm drains only because one is I don't know. I just want to know if it affects that. Um I've never seen them together. Do we have them?

We have the train. We have them here in the city. Yeah, we'll answer your question. Thank you, Kathy. Thank you. Anyone else? Please come forward. Welcome.

Hi, Mark Tri. I'm a resident. I just want to make sure that the uh fire department and the uh city council has been making sure that the access egress to this new subdivision is a lot better improvement than the stuff that's out there behind the Ford dealership south of the Ford dealership south of the Sinclair. Several of those subdivisions were completed and are horrible. fire access and egress is diminished because you cannot even get the fire truck barely past some of the park vehicles because the the lanes were not made wide enough. I I see your thing said 53 ft. That may be wide enough. However, I don't know if that's what they did over at those subdivisions, just the vehicles parking on the sides of the road. do not allow two vehicles to pass each other, which actually should make that near a subdivision that's not feasible because access egress is your biggest issue for your fire department and your police department. Therefore, if those uh areas have not been widened and considered for vehicles parking on the side and two vehicles still being able to pass needs to be enhanced because that is a necessity of all of our cities. Access and egress is number one. You want to get people out fast, you got to have the room for them to pass each other. Those streets over there, downright dangerous. you put in a evacuation plan over in those subdivisions, guarantee you you're going to get a lot of accidents and it's going to look like the Oakland Hills fire. Bunch of abandoned cars in the middle of the road and a bunch of dead people. So, just I've been to the worst of them. I've been to the best of them. And access egress needs to be your number one issue when you're building a new subdivision, if not your water supply and all that. So, this is something I think you need.

Thank you very much. Uh, welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members, city staff. Thank you for that presentation. Uh, the presentation got me thinking a little bit about Oh, sorry. Yeah. Ross Movieos, resident of Laspanos. Um, the presentation got me thinking a little bit about, you know, the development, the progression of Los Banos and its housing. Um, Los Balance has seen enough uh development over the last 2530 years for city staff, for residents to say, "Hey, we know what we like and we know what we don't want to see again uh in future development." Uh and so when uh the planning director and economic development director was given the presentation, the one thing that came to mind, and this is not a question that can be answered here, but uh you know, do we have a list of types of homes, developments that we don't want to see a repeat of in the future? uh you know talking about some roadways where they're too narrow and we realize now that just doesn't work for the type of parking because there's multi-generational housing in some of these uh throughout our community frankly you know uh ADUs is another one do we have enough sufficient parking all these things and I know some of it's mandated for city staff to consider but I'm just thinking we have enough lessons learned in Los Banos to say let's not repeat this again. Um, personally, I look around. I look at Stone Creek every time I park there, get my coffee. Uh, I I look at all the different type of materials that we have, wood, stucco, stone, and it's been, I don't know what, 15, 20 years probably since it's been there. Uh, and it still looks relevant. It looks tastefully done. And then I I know when we had a conversation during a potential appointment to plan commission, I was talking about how Home Depot looks very sparse, empty. Uh, it just doesn't flow nicely. So, I I think it'd be really relevant uh to the city, to the community, the people who are looking to come here, not to have a repeat of what doesn't work for Losanos. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else? Please come forward.

Yes. Uh Blanch George downtown Losanos. I just want to say I love the I love the look of the homes and you kind of know that because I live in a early Americana home and that looks so nice being broken up. Uh with that being said, again, I've mentioned this before and I'd like a consideration cuz these 50 homes will approximately have anywhere from four to five pets in them. That's a minimum of 200 pets um with this. And I'd like to see personally, and I think that we can achieve it, uh of having a subdivision that has amenities that homeowners can purchase and check off the box that they want. And let me express um to uh and people would pay for this for this for these individuals to build is uh including a built-in dog wash station or mudrooms. Um additionally some uh the cabinets for feeding stations and um a underneath this stairway for there to be um a a area where there could be kennels. Um, and these individuals would pay for that amenities. I know that when you purchase a home, a new home, you could check off certain things that you want. And this would just make it much more friendlier, very unique for the for the um for the subdivision. It is happening in Southern California and um it would be wonderful to have it in Los Banos. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else please come forward. Welcome to speak. Mr. Mayor, council, staff, good evening again. Again, just echoing some of the concerns about Yeah, yeah, we have to now have it recorded. That's the That's why we're asking all the time now. I Okay. Um, you got me off track.

Oh, sorry. Sorry. uh regarding the uh egress uh of the emergency vehicles, ensuring that there's plenty of room for those vehicles to navigate those streets and respond to emergencies. Also, the uh offset from the home to the sidewalk. Sometimes they're very very close and again sometimes that uh reduces property values in the long run because people just don't want to be that close to the road. Another concern I I had a couple residents reach out to me to ask, is there a park? What is the nearest park? I wasn't paying attention. I'm sorry. During your presentation, uh uh what's nearest Park for that development? So, that's some of the questions. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else? Please come forward. Welcome. Please state your name. Good evening, uh mayor, council members. Uh my name is Matthew Rogers. I'm with uh Benchmark Engineering, the engineering uh firm in charge of developing this site. Um I'm here to answer some of the questions the residents have as well. Um first off, I'd like to say thank you Stacey for your presentation. It's very thorough. Um we worked very uh hard with staff to come to a product that we think the city of Los Angeles would enjoy following the city standards and um taking all their accounts in these development meetings. Um first one first question I would like to address would be the emergency access. Um so our our streets are wide enough to allow for the dual parking. Um there's should be 20 ft between the two parking stalls. It's a total of 18 ft from like or 36 ft from curb to curb flow line.

Please face the concept. Sorry.

It's okay. Um, and so I we believe that that's going to provide enough space for parking on both sides of the street as well as 20 ft of um travel lane. Uh to put that in perspective, a highway lane width is usually around 12 ft. And so we believe that' be sufficient travel way for that. Um there were questions about the drainage for the transitions for the curb. Um the what what we do in those transitions is we keep the flow line consistent and so all the water would fall follow follow that flow and the curb the back of curb and face top face of curb are the ones that do the transition. I don't want to get too much into that um and run out of time. Um there was a question about the school. I know that that is a big concern for a lot of the citizen uh citizens of Las Manis and that there are talks with the school district and for finding suitable locations to kind of expand that um sorry I'm trying to oh I have glasses in my head sorry accessibility uh types of home architecture uh we uh Stonefield Home uh be the ones building this product and they are keeping in mind consistent with the city's um standards in the home development and the style of the homes. Um as we know the building code always changes and so there's always things that be did um added on to and um managed and so they are very cognizant of that and are doing their best to work with the city and potential home buyers to create a product that everybody would find pleasing. Um, as far as the amenities for pets, uh, that's always an option available to the home buyer. Um, I know this had come up in a previous, um, discussion we had before and that's something that Stonefield Home is um, aware of and that

they can easily be worked out with in home buying. I think I got everything. If I didn't, I apologize. Uh, does city council have any questions that I may answer? Well, we'll ask our questions after public hearing is closed. Okay. I won't have liability to come and answer those or uh if it's needed. Yeah. Oh, okay.

Cool. I think that's everything. I hope I didn't leave anybody out. If I did, I apologize. Oh, uh setbacks. Sorry, it was written on um there is 2 ft of separation from the back of walk to the property line. And from the property line, it is a 20ft setback to the garage. So ultimately you would have about 22 feet minimum from the face of the garage to the back of the sidewalk. That's usually that should be sufficient parking uh space for the biggest of trucks. Well, the biggest vehic uh commercial vehicles available for um residents to drive. I believe that's it and I will be back if there's questions. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else please come forward. We welcome you. Please state your name for the record.

Hi, Miguel Alejandre without kids now. Um, thank you for having me. So, I work in the heating and cooling, so I think a lot about a lot how hot it gets around here. Something that I feel like has never been talked about or spoken about here is could we maybe choose different instead of using asphalt, maybe use concrete. I know the lifespan for concrete is a lot more so reparations wouldn't have to be done as much. I know the initial cost is a little more, but that way it keeps the I guess roads cooler and even for for pets, animals, it's cooler on their feet when want to walk your dog in the summer to something different besides just make maybe using trees and stuff like that. Um, but yeah, that's one thing I've never heard anyone really talk about if that could be used for new homes, new builds, new streets, using concrete, something that's a little cooler than uh asphalt. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else please come forward? You're welcome to speak. Okay, I do not see or hear anyone coming forward, so I'll go ahead public uh close the public hearing. I do appreciate everyone that spoke. And now I'll turn it back be and to Stacy before the council asks any questions. Um let's talk about the streets first compared to the streets that were compared with. So how much I know these are wider streets. I don't know exactly the width of those smaller streets.

Yes. So in those areas at the time that those developments came in uh that was a 32 ft right of way. Um whereas as as you saw in the presentation the right of way is 52 ft. so much wider. Uh we have now a design bulletin in place which while our city manager was our public works director where we widen the streets so that new developments coming in um would have to meet that standard. Um and this will uh definitely exceed what is out behind um Walmart and Target area. Um,

okay. Maybe talk a little bit about SQA.

Yes. So, SQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, uh, schools are taken into account, public facilities are, um, analyzed. Um, all public facilities including also police and fire are also analyzed. Um, and in this particular environmental document, um, it was mitigatable. So, it was a mitigated negative declaration. So what it said under public facilities is that um they would be mitigated by paying impact fees and paying the appropriate mitigation fees for the school district. Um so that is how it addressed um schools but also as the applicant stated uh they are looking at expanding um school sites with the school district as well. I know we do have roll curbs in uh some areas. Actually, where I live, there's a rolled curb just a couple blocks away.

Yes, in some of the presidential area there are um there's presidential, there's also state streets have rolled curbs. So, we do have examples in town and then where that transition between rolled and vertical come into place. Um you can see where that transition happens. Now, this will be new and different for us and this will be the pilot program. Um, but we felt it was a compromise. We understood the the applicant's request. Um, we understood the aesthetics of the subdivision and having that even sidewalks. You're not having that dip with the aprons of the driveway approaches. And so taking that into consideration really tried to come up with a a unique compromise understanding both sides staff's concern about infrastructure and parking on sidewalks but also understanding the aesthetics that the applicant was desiring to have within the subdivision.

I just I want to add one thing to it because I'm negotiating with CALR in front of my business right now and I have a brand new driveway with with uh regular curbs. They're taking that out because that little bit of a dip does not follow ADA standards anymore. So I think in the future you might see more of a rolled curb so you can keep one level with it. That's going to be required I think in the future. I just wanted to add that and uh we had questions about learning from subdivisions of the past and what we're doing about our new design standards and we're really working hard on this stuff. We are. talk about it.

Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry you can't speak. Yeah. But you're right. We think about that.

Yes, we are updating our community design standards. So, uh, great comments. Um, and we're visually putting within those design standards examples of what we do not want to see and what we desire to see. So it's very visual of what that expectation is. But I also want to just have the council understand and note that also the city is required to not be subjective in our design standards. The state of California has said that jurisdictions have become prohibitive by using their design standards in prohibiting housing development. And because of the housing crisis in California, we are um bound by by by serious uh criteria of what we can and cannot require of uh residential development. Um but we do we can always encourage and we've set the standard within we're setting it within our new community design standards which you should be seeing soon um come before the city council be going to the planning commission. hopefully sometime um in April and then hopefully to the city council in May um on those community design standards. So, those are in the works

and we just updated our building standards two months ago by the state. And also want to just state too that I I meet with the de the developers that are building in our town

all the time. And as Stacy said, we can't require certain things, but uh they're grac gracious enough to ask what does this council want? And that's where I talk about smaller homes, less square footage, more affordable homes, good-looking, good homes, but more affordable and the design, the looks, not all looking the same. And so we're passing those messages on to personally to the design for design. And then let's talk about parks. So, DirectorHeim has put together just real quickly where the closest parks are. So, Joe, would you be able to provide that?

Um, yeah. So, there are two parks uh under a half mile away. Although, one you do have to cross the highway on, which is something that um you know, it's it's a big concern on uh in terms of really counting that one. That would be Davis Park, which is.3 miles away. It's basically just across the way. But the other one that's.5 miles away is Regency Lot D Park. Um there's also Regency Tot and Skyllark Park which are just past that. Um they're 6 and.7 miles away. And then um Talbot, Verona, Sunrise Ranch. Those are all in about the plus or minus mile range. Um I think the challenge with this particular location is it's a small space to try to fit um a pocket park into. Um I do think with the 0.5 mile you have you have a walkable distance to a you know it's uh Regency Lot D is probably about a sixacre park. Um it's got basketball court and two playgrounds. So um you know I think on that in it's sufficient in that way. I know that it was also mentioned that grasslands I know they don't necessarily open their their their um outfield space there but um there is some green space there as well nearby with the with the school.

Thank you Joe. And I Stacy did you write anything else down? I think that covered everything.

Um the use of concrete versus asphalt. I did want to state that that um is within the city standards and specifications which designates what materials can be used. So this subdivision is vested within those rights of the state the city's current city standards. Um and I don't think it would be our practice to or the practice of other jurisdictions because of the cost of asphalt versus concrete. Yes, that's correct. Um the the concrete does if it's if it's structured correctly, it does last longer. But if you have to make any repairs to water lines, sewer lines, storm lines, now you're h now you have to cut concrete um to get back down to what we're trying to get to. And it's uh it's a lot more durable material, so it's a lot more difficult to cut into that and remove it. And then when you replace it, then you have to replace it with concrete so you don't have a strip of asphalt. Um the cost of asphalt is less also uh for for the repairs um and for the initial um construction.

Yeah, it becomes affordable issue with affordability issue with the housing too cuz I'm sure and this is how we the council looks at everything. It's sure we want everything goldplated, but we also want the h homes affordable. And I bet you concrete would probably add $10 to $20,000 a home, you know, if you put all the concrete in front of it. So, I mean, is that what we want? Do we want it the houses to cost that much more? So, it's it's a juggle. You have to figure all this out. And that's

what the what we're doing up here. And I just want to talk about parks real fast. I've said this in the past personally. Um, we have park fees and everybody pays park fees and this subdivision will pay a park fee per home that goes into the park fee fund to help us with big parks, other parks. And um, personally, I am going towards smaller park pocket parks in subdivisions and saving some of that money to go to regional parks now where we have soccer stadiums. I mean, it's not stating the soccer parks and fields and and be able to have large areas where people can uh exercise and people can have sports. I think today's time, you know, you have grandparents walking the children uh because both spouses have to work these days. It's a lot different than 30, 40 years ago when everybody had these giant parks all over the place. So, uh that's how I'm sort of turning towards parks. But um I want to just re say that again. So uh with that, you have anything else, Stacy?

Nope. I think we covered all So with that, I'll turn it to the city council for questions or comments to staff or the applicant.

Yes, mayor. I'd like to um well, first of all, make a comment uh in regards to the narrower streets. Uh before the recession back in 0809, it was a trend throughout California to build narrow um more narrow streets because um you would have single families in a home rather than multiple families. And after the recession in California, everything became so expensive that uh it takes sometimes multiple families to live in one house in order to be able to afford it, even even if it's a rented house. So, um, we're not the only ones that built those narrow streets. There are a lot of communities within California that did the same thing, uh, to make those, uh, areas more cozy and amanable to the families, but they become a problem now. Um, so the question I have is, um, a third we were the older streets are 32 feet wide. Is is that what I heard? And the newer ones are 52 feet wide. Is is that what I heard or is it wider?

So, correction from uh director VI, it's uh the streets the street the right of way is 52 but the street is 36 itself from curb to curb. So that allows for 8 ft of parking on each side and you still have 10 foot lanes. Uh so that creates the 20ft space that fire requires um for access.

So that's requirement for fire. What I want to know is if a firetruck's going down the street, naturally we're supposed to pull over by law and let them go by, but if we have two vehicles traveling down that street, is there going to be enough access without someone feeling like they're going to get their car scraped on the on the driver's side?

Yes, there should be. If if you're if there's if there's cars lining both sides of the street and they're parked, if you're if you meet a fire truck and you pull over as close as you can to one of those parked cars, you're going to take up about 8 ft. A car is generally about 7 ft wide, so you're going to take up about 8 ft. And then that still leaves the fire truck 12 feet and a firetruck is 8t wide, um, not counting the mirror sticking out. So that's still going to that's still going to leave you 12 feet. It's going to be a tight squeeze, but but fire can get through. And if there if there's two cars traveling, as long as they don't stop right next to each other, right, then then the fire truck can weave through the stop traffic. That's the purpose of pulling over for fire so they can weave through where they need to go.

Okay. May prot if I may add one more things to that. So when we did the standard change at the I believe it was at the end of 2022, we did bring it over to traffic safety committee as well as planning commissions and specifically fire and PD were commenting on those those 20 foots like William talked about from a park car from park car to park car. Those 20 foot was the police and fire requirements. So they should be able to reverse I mean go into each one of those thoroughare even be able to make turns. Um like William said, um the standard parking with um which is parallel parking. Um you've seen some of the really high density area, they usually go to seven. We've actually put it to eight um which allow for you know open doors and things like that without impacting the um the travel way. So that's why that was changed back in 2223.

Yeah. I I just want to make sure not only for the safety of our our um public safety uh getting into communities, but also just everyday people driving past each other that there's adequate room um without it feeling like you know I I'm barely making it. Um the other thing is um you know in general um I have been in favor of roll curves and uh but that with the caveat would be that there would have to be uh public uh green space between the street, the sidewalk and the and the property. Uh and I I believe this subdivision has no green space. So with continuous roll curves um curbs throughout the the uh project um it m it it doesn't mitigate the problem that we have in our community where people are parking additional cars on lawns and uh things like that. They could just drive right off the street onto grass uh and space that we want to keep our community elevated and looking nice. So I I think that the the squared off curb uh is going to be the answer and also with I think one of our residents had a question about drainage uh that will also enhance the drainage. Um I I did look at um there was a community not in in in our area and where I live there's also uh roll curbs in in um the old uh garden area

and so I I do see vehicles parking on the sidewalk. You know, it's just like they just kind of roll up on the sidewalk because the judgment is not there. So, um I I appreciate the staff thinking through this process. Uh the other thing is that it appears that the ingress egress for the driveway and the and the sidewalk, there's not going to be that dip. And so I I can appreciate that as well because I see people uh in my community who are handicapped in wheelchairs and they're they have to ride in the street in order to uh be safe. uh which is not safe because your wheelchair can tip over very easily with the ingress egress of the way our you know the standard driveway curb is cut out. And not only that, you know, when you're walking it's it's really kind of rough on on your hip and your legs and your feet when you're you're constantly passing a dip and houses are that close together. So you walk maybe a uh you know two or three feet and then you're in a dip again. and just, you know, for me when I hit long stretches of sidewalks where there's no ingress and egress, it makes me happy when I'm walking my dog. But, um, th those were the two things that I I had concern. So, within the conditions of approval, it's stated in there that, uh, it will be the square curbs with the roll um, ingress egress.

Yes. The conditions of approval state that the rolled curb would only be allowed at the driveway approaches and that the rest of the subdivision would be vertical. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Any other questions or from the council? Okay. Then before us, we have approval request for approval resolution 7059 uh for 2025-01 for the Overland Trail subdivision Stonefield Home Incorporated. How does the council feel on this issue? Do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve resolution number 7059 as read by title. Second. Okay, we have a motion. Resolution 7059 is stated and a second. Any further questions or comments? Not hearing any in favor signify by saying I I

opposed. Eyes have it. Thank you very much. Thank everybody in the public hearing that spoke and we will move on. Item number 10, consideration adoption city council resolution 7060 approving an application for funding and the execution of a grant agreement up to $3.6 6 million and any amendments thereto from the 2025 funding year of the state community development block grant CDBG program for a tiny shelter village. With this we'll go back to Stacy.

Thank you again, Mr. Mayor and City Council. Um so I do um send Christiey's regrets. She has laryngitis. She actually was determined um our housing program manager to be here tonight to give this presentation. Um and she's been looking forward to it and pretty much had to say please stay home. We don't we all don't want to be sick. Um and she needs to rest and and get her health back. So um Christie did want to be here with us tonight and hopefully I can give this presentation justice just as she would. So, with that being said, um tonight we are asking the city council to consider an application allowing staff to submit an application for community development block grant um for emergency tiny shelter village. Um and then we're asking for direction of the location of uh this emergency shelter. Um, some background on this item. The California Office of Housing and Community Development, HCD, administers the state of California's annual annual federal allocation of community development block grant, CDBG funds for eligible municipalities. And these are municipalities that are less than uh 50,000 in population. So, um those are considered non-entitlement cities. If you're over 50,000, you get a direct allocation from HUD. Um, so you do not need to have your um housing funds administered through the state and it's a direct allocation, but you would need to be over 50,000 population. So the city of Las Vegas, we are categorized because we are less than 50,000 as a non-entitlement

jurisdiction. That means that we have to compete for any funds uh that are provided through the community development block grant CDBG uh which is administered through HCD. The CDPG program is designed to assist local governments in improving economic opportunities and meeting community revitalization needs. And this is particularly for persons of low and moderate income. It has to meet that threshold in order to qualify. uh CDBG notice of funding availability. The NOA was released on September 30th for the 2025 CDBG ent non-entitlement program. Um and through this NA um up to $3.6 million uh per application is available through a competitive process. Again, we're competing with um over 164 cities and grants must address one of the following national objectives. That it benefit low and moderate income persons, that it aid in the prevention or elimination of slums and blight, or meet an urgent need. And to meet an urgent need, it would need to be um an emergency due to an earthquake, a wildfire, um flood. So something that uh may have been like an act of God, unpreventable that is urgent and needs to be addressed right away. Um there is funding that is set aside for that urgent need. Um the submission for um the CDBG application, the portal opened on February 2nd. I do want to take uh take a step back though um that HCD released the NOA on September 30th. um and then had said that the portal would be available um would be open um at the end

of the year in December of 2025 and um folks could start applying. Well, they pushed a pause on that for a minute um and then in January notified jurisdictions that the portal would be open February 2nd and that the application deadline to submit is April 3rd. um and that they're anticipating submitting award letters to awarded jurisdictions in September of 2026 and that the expenditure deadline is 2 years and 9 months from the execution of a standard agreement and those standard agreements if we are awarded and hopefully we are um based on hopefully the approval of the city council tonight for an application um it would still those execution of those standard agreements ments would happen in a rolling basis at best case scenario in October of 2026. So still a timely timeline. This doesn't happen with the state overnight. Uh the CDBG notice of funding availability. Uh the current NOA states that approximately 27 million in federal funds for the CDBG program is available statewide. Um but again only up to 3.6 6 million can be applied per jurisdiction and we're competing with lots of other jurisdictions and HCD has the sole discretion to fund eligible applications on a competitive basis and this program uh this year's program is very competitive and funds are very limited. So, the background on this item, back in December, staff presented four emergency shelter solutions to the city council. And at that meeting, the city council unanimously directed staff to proceed with the option of development of a tiny shelter village that includes case management services, shower, restroom,

and laundry facilities for unhoused people. The city council also directed staff to pursue grant funding opportunities to support this effort. So the role of emergency shelter, I just want to highlight the importance of this in our community because emergency shelter is an essential element of the city's response to homelessness. Uh participants in emergency shelter are able to stabilize and better participate in case management. There is a need for emergency shelter to preserve public spaces, address public health and safety issues, and to stabilize people experiencing homelessness. staff recommends elevating the city's response system with temporary shelter and case management resources and to augment the overall homeless response system as a pathway to permanent housing. So currently right now we do have bridge homes. We have two bridge homes. Uh, one is funded by the city of Laspanis through our PHA, our permanent local housing allocation, which is a direct allocation from the state of California. And one is funded um through uh Merced County um through the COC but through Merced County um and their funds are operating the other bridge home which in total provides 20 emergency shelter beds within the community. And we know within our current encampment there's definitely more than 20 tents. And so with the building of One Tree uh Village which will have 58 permanent supportive housing units and the 20 emergency shelter, the bridge homes, the 20 beds that we currently have, there is a gap. And so what this emergency shelter would be doing is providing a sustainable approach to fixing that gap that we have in our system. Uh recently within our

program, we've had a case um that demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach. We had a former encampment resident who accepted emergency shelter. So they went into one of the city's bridge homes and was able to stabilize and enter substance use treatment. They were able to gain secure employment and ultimately obtained permanent housing through a section 8 voucher. Within one year, this person has transitioned from living in the encampment to full-time employment with benefits and now has her own apartment to call homes. This is just an example of why it's so important to have this role of emergency shelter within our system of um shelter within the community. So the need assessment currently like I stated the amount of shelter beds in the city of Laspanis is not equal to the amount needed for today's unhoused population. Uh tents in the encampment are offered as only a temporary solution and have only a useful lifespan of not more than about a year. Uh a long-term emergency shelter solution for these currently unhoused and those at risk of homelessness is needed and that's where uh this solution comes into place. The intended use of funds of the CDBG funds, if awarded, would be used to purchase pallet emergency shelter structures through the California statewide contract number 1-23-54-01B. So, the city would be able to take advantage of a statewide procurement um process that the state of California already went through. we'd be able to um take advantage of that and show readiness to HCD for this CDBG application. These structures include a minimum of 30 shelter units um and uh potentially depending on the

funding um we could potentially get more but at a minimum 30 shelter units with bathroom, laundry and shower units as well as one office unit for those wraparound services. The grant may also fund the pre-construction utility work, design plans, and other construction costs procured through a competitive bid process that the city would have to go through. Um, but this is to connect the utilities to these the pallet structures to the emergency shelter. Staff proposes applying for the maximum funding amount allowed in the notice of funding availability of up to $3.6 million to be able to complete this project. Site selection and location analysis staff consisting of a joint commission of city departments conducted a comprehensive and structured evaluation of potential sites for the proposed tiny shelter village to ensure that the selected location is appropriate, feasible, and consistent with the city priorities and the CDB application requirements. This evaluation is documented in the attached tiny shelter village property selection decision matrix which is attached to the staff report uh which is attachment three which objectively compared multiple sites using weighted criteria aligned with grant scoring criteria priorities excuse me. Each site was evaluated and scored on a scale of one to five with five representing the most favorable condition and the criteria were weighted to reflect factors of greatest importance to both the city and the CDBG program including public health and safety, neighborhood compatibility, environmental conditions, project feasibility, readiness, and cost effectiveness. Evaluation factors included parcel size, proximity to utilities and services, environmental constraints, cost and time required for

polar preparation, and whether the site is city-owned, city controlled. So part of that site selection process, two factors were given particular emphasis due to the relevance to the CDBG competitiveness and compatibility. So those we looked very strongly at and that is the proximity to residential neighborhoods and sensitive land uses. Staff intentionally sought to minimize potential impacts by avoiding locations near residential neighborhoods and schools and sites farther from residential concentrations received higher scores and the environmental conditions and potential soil contamination. And this item is is really particularly with CDBG relevance. Um and sites with known soil contamination were scored lower due to increased remediation costs, regulatory requirements, and potential delays which negatively affect grant feasibility and readiness scoring. So, a lot of the properties within the matrix that are city-owned are along uh the rail trail and um some of most of those properties, actually all of those properties that have been transferred over to the city. There has been remediation of the soil, but those that are contaminated were only remediated to a commercial level. There is a land use covenant that's recorded on all of those properties that have contamination due to former use of uh it being a railroad and and um arsenic that was used as a part of the pesticides um back in the operations of the railroad. It only cleaned to a commercial level. So the land use covenant restricts any residential uses on those properties. In order to turn those into residential uses, the city would have to further mitigate and

remediate, which would be additional costs and time that would create a potential um delay factor with CDBG and our readiness score. So additional considerations included access to utilities, electricity, sewer and water, proximity to supportive services and transportation, overall development cost, and the ability to prepare the site within the grant implementation timeline using the evaluation matrix. Multiple sites throughout the city were analyzed and the G Street parcel located between 9inth Street and 10th Street received the highest overall score among all sites evaluated. This site ranked highest due to its limited proximity to residential uses, its absence of known environmental constraints, availability of nearby utilities and relative cost efficiency and the readiness for development. And so this is where that site is located along G Street. A portion of it is already being used um by the encampment and is covered in an asphalt pad. Um and that's essentially the area that we would be if approved tonight and we received direction would be moving forward with for the emergency shelter. Um it's only it would only encompass half of this 1.1 acre parcel and it essentially that is encompassed with where we see that asphalt pad today and as you can see it is not adjacent to um permanent residential units. Um it is adjacent to commercial units. It is furthest away from um any impact on schools and um based though on the environmental constraints. This parcel

is not identified. It does not have any contaminants and does not have a land use covenant on the um parcel. Um it ranked the highest. So, the G Street location places the city in the strongest possible position to compete for CDBG funding. The site's characteristics directly align with HCD scoring criteria related to feasibility, environmental clearance, readiness to proceed, cost effectiveness, and benefit to low and moderate income populations. Selecting this site minimizes implementation risk and demonstrates the city's capacity to deliver the project within required timelines which two months uh excuse me two years and 9 months is an aggressive timeline considering that the state and the award process is not very quick. Um, so that that is an aggressive timeline for us to put in all of the infrastructure. Um, well, first obtain the units um, and have a contractor be able to put in the infrastructure and all the components it does it will take to put this project together. That's an aggressive timeline. Um, and we will need to have an aggressive project to be able to meet those timelines. a very doable, but um with any potential environmental factors in place and any remediation that would need to happen that would limit our ability to be able to complete this project on time. The structured datadriven site selection process ensures the city's recommended location is not only suitable for from a planning and operational perspective, but also strategically optimized to maximize competitiveness for CDBG funding. Based on the results of the weighted site evaluation and the overall suitability of the G Street parcel, staff is requesting city council direction to proceed with this site for development of the proposed tiny shelter village. Council direction is necessary to finalize the project location for

purposes of grant application submittal, environmental review, and subsequent project planning and implementation. So, we do have to have a particular site selected in order to be able to apply for CDBG and we need the council's blessing. That's not on the resolution, though. So, it's just a verbal. You're giving staff direction to pursue the 9inth Street site. Uh the resolution is giving staff the authorization to apply. Okay.

Uh fiscal impact. No match is required to apply for CDBG funding. In addition, if awarded, the city is eligible to receive an administrative portion up to 7% of the total funding, uh, which reimbures the city for staff costs associated with administering the grant program and reporting. I do want to note um that the resolution clarify um and that's on the next slide that staff is recommending that the city council adopt a resolution authorizing the city of Lasanis to apply for up to $3.6 $6 million of community development block grant non-entitlement program funding to develop a tiny shelter village with supportive services for unhoused people for at least a 30 person capacity within the city limits of Losanis and to clarify on the resolution uh that there is a typo the project that we would be the amount we would be applying for is 3 million program funds would equal $500,000 000 and the admin would be a 100,000 is what uh we're proposing to be within that application.

Project is 3 million, program would be 500,000 and admin would be a 100,000. Staff is also asking that the city council would provide direction to utilize the city-owned G Street parcel located between 9th Street and 10th Street as a proposed project site. And that concludes my presentation. I'm here to answer any questions. Okay. Before uh we turn it to the council, anyone from the public would like to speak on this issue, please come forward and state your name for the record, recorded record. Mark Trile,

uh big thing I see for you guys is it seems like you're mixing um a little bit of things that shouldn't be mixed. Difference between unhoused and homeless. It's a big difference. People don't understand the difference. Homeless person chooses to be homeless sometimes and sometimes doesn't want housing, doesn't want help. they want to stay. So, I think if you're taking people that are maybe lower income, trying to look for a hand up or a help up, you need to think about keeping them a little bit separate from the unhoused homeless people that don't want change or might be a hazard to those people that have families that are trying to get a step up. Maybe take your village, cut it in half, and make half for unhoused, half for homeless, so that you're not mixing people maybe with kids or that are trying to make a step up in their life and putting them with people that are over there stealing out of their yards and things like that because I've seen a lot of the homeless in this town be a little bit violent to some of the people, um, offend them on the rail trail, things like that. So, I've seen that quite a bit in this town. And so, I think you ought to make some sort of consideration of duplicating it. That parcel's big enough. You said you only need half of it. Why not put one half on one end or one half on the other? Put the homeless closer to the police station and the unhoused closer to the community center. Might give them a little bit of chance that if they've got kids or something that they're not running into the homeless man every day laying naked out in front of his house. Just my thought. I think it's something you guys really should consider because they are a separate. It's like it's like considering undocumented and illegal immigrant. They are they are different. Un illegal came here illegal. Undocumented might have been here illegally and overstayed their welcome. They're now undocumented. So there is a difference. So I think you ought to consider that when you're making this development because you can keep some

separation in there. And I think that would be helpful for community safety, for the police, for the fire, because they're going to know whether you're going to subdivision A or subdivision B. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Anyone else like to speak on this? Please come forward.

Please state your name for the record. Larry Buyers, a proud member of the Los Spanos Tree Commission. I live off Pioneer Road. Um, we are applying as I see it for a $3.6 million grant and I have a short statement to make and that if Christy Mammon working together with Stacy Soua Elms are are writing the proposal for the grant, they have been responsible for getting us multi-million dollar grants. They do an excellent job writing the grants. They know how to write proposals for these grants. I say go for it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Anyone else, please come forward. Okay, I don't see or hear anyone coming forward. I'll go ahead and close that. Turn it to city council for comments and discussion on resolution 7060. Any questions to staff? I just have a very quick question. Does it cost anything to just apply?

There are some costs to the city. Um, but if we are awarded, we'd be able to recoup those costs. Um, but that is in order to get us ready. CDBG requires improvement plans to show that we are ready to put shovels in the ground as soon as we are awarded. Um so so we have um already started to initiate that process in the hopes um that we would have an application. Um, and we also would have to have a NEPA clearance, which is for the National Environmental Protection Agency, which because this money originally comes from the federal government, we have to have NEPA clearance. Um, but if we are awarded, which we feel this is going to be a heck of an application, and I appreciate what Mr. Byer said, um, we've been successful in getting other state grants. Um, and we feel that if if at this location and um with all of the due diligence that we've put into place, we have a darn good chance um to get this money. It is very competitive. So, I also want to to make sure everyone knows that we can't count our chickens, right? But, um, we're going to give it our best shot and we're really putting together everything that we can to give us the highest score in readiness. So, NEPA clearance is one of them and improvement plans um which we're we're prepared to do.

Thank you. And just for transparency purposes, what around um what do you estimate that cost will be? Uh NEPA clearance is about $12,000 and the improvement plans to have those done would probably be about $24,000 if I'm not mistaken. Um all of which though if if we are not awarded would still be eligible for the next project. It would just make us you know that doesn't go away. We would be eligible. So it's not like like a loss really really. It's just preparing us for additional applications. Oh thank you. Any other questions? Yeah Stacy. So gentleman uh earlier he spoke about uh space

you know between homeless and you know trying to get some families in there. uh you know what's what's the space that we that you have there in between that stuff because he makes you know a lot of sense there.

So I do want to note that the purpose of this emergency shelter is to really take the place of the encampment. We know we will probably still have tents because there's always going to be an influx of unhoused which is actually a HUD definition. is not a city of lost Spanish definition. HUD has determined um who is unhoused, unsheltered, and what those terms and terminology mean. And so we're very careful about um how we use those terms. Um especially in our application, we will be extremely careful. Um, so it's really the purpose of this emergency shelter is to create a sustainable housing option, an emergency shelter for those living in currently in the encampment. Um, for those at risk of homelessness or um temporarily unhoused, it may be more suitable to be in our one tree project, which is permanent supportive housing. And so that would be a portion in the system where they would be more appropriately located to be housed probably in permanent supportive housing. But if you're in the encampment right now, this would be a more sustainable approach to that encampment that we see now today.

So you're looking at this to basically it's a it's a replacement for the tents. It is. It's exactly it's a sustainable replacement for the tents because those tents are expensive and not sustainable. So, and and you know, so of course the plan is not you're you're not trying to house families there for extended amounts of time and stuff like that.

Exactly. We have a place actually within our system where um we work with our service providers to house families in motel with vouchers and try to get them um section 8. Uh we're we help them apply for housing. Um and so we discourage families in the encampment. Uh we really don't want minors mixed in in that type of environment. And so um families with minors typically were working with our service providers and and thankfully we have um those resources within our community that we can reach out to in those instances. And so most of the time we're trying to put them up in hotels.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Uh Stacy, for clarification for council as well as the public, these units are only about what? A couple hundred square feet, 70 square ft to 120 square feet. So that's not enough room for families. So this is specifically for individuals, uh single individual in a Yes. in a tent. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mayor.

Okay. Well, so this is a bridge home waiting to go to the one tree. Um, I really think it's important that hopefully we get the 3.6 million. That's what we're hoping for. But even if we do and we run a little short to not be able to cover all the people in the encampment, I think this council should look at funding and finishing out. We got to get rid of those tents. We got to get rid of that encampment. That's my thought to it. that has to go. We have to give people the these homes these bridge homes have air conditioning and heating inside so they can and then of course uh they they can wash their clothes, they can take showers and they can start learning to live outside of a tent and u that's our goal. You told one story about the success story about that one woman and we want a lot of those. The other thing too is um it's very important that even though these bridge homes, we're going to have to have someone there that monitors them full-time. I guess they'll be living there. Is that correct? Or just an employee watching them cuz uh now it's not like that in the tents

and we're providing that. It's going to be part of it. That has like in our low-inccome housing that we have in town, the apartments that have been built, we now require that. the early ones that were done in the in the late 80s and 70s, they these people would build these low-inccome apartments. They didn't live in town. They would leave and somebody would pick up the rent and you saw what would happen. So, none of that can be even in this bridge home pallet home area. It has to be monitored full-time. So, uh, I'm in favor of this and, uh, so before us, we have resolution number 7060 and we need an emotion along with okaying the site. Correct.

Right. And and with your amendment of the 3 million, the 500,000 for programming and the 100,000 for admin has to be put into that resolution. So you can just make that motion as said if you want to. Yeah, mayor. I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution 7060 and as read by title. I'll second approval.

Okay. Read by title. We have a second with the amendments that was stated along with the the area that was discussed in the presentation. A lot of those areas uh along the railroad corridor unfortunately have a lot of contam just top soil contamination from when the railroad would spray for weeds and they used diesel and for you know decades and decades and decades hundred years. So eventually in the future we're going to have to clean we cleaned a lot already and we're going to have to continue to clean those and they're you you can use them for some things but you can't put houses on them. So anyway, that we have a motion and a second. Any further questions or comments from the council? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I

opposed. Eyes have it. Thank you. Thank you, Stacy. Next item 11, consideration adoption city council resolution 7061 accepting the independent accounts accountants record on agreed upon procedures related to the city's capital project for the period of July 1st 2022 through June 30th 2024 as prepared by harsh harshwall and company LLP. This is something that this council wanted after we were seated in these seats. I know I talked about it during my campaign and let's see, we are going to our finance director, Moreno. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Tonight, uh, I will be presenting the much awaited results of the spe specialized audit. This item presents the independent accountants report on agreed upon procedures for the city capital projects covering July 1st, 2022 through June 30th, 2024. The city engaged Harshwall and Company LLP to perform this review. Unlike a financial statement audit, this engagement focuses on specific procedures agreed upon by management to evaluate compliance with law, regulations, and city policies related to capital projects. No audit opinion was issued and this was a procedures-based review intent intended to provide transparency to our council. As a part of the engagement, the auditors reviewed capital projects active during the period and evaluated the city's policies and internal procedures. They selected a sample of projects based on materiality and risk and test compliance with the California public contract code, city ordinances, procurement policies, payment authorization procedures, grant requirements, and prevailing wage laws. They also reviewed project budget, change orders, supporting documentation, and the accuracy of accounting records to ensure ensure appropriate oversight and monitoring. The auditors auditors reported no exceptions related to compliance, procurement processes, payment authorization, or accounting records. However, two projects experienced contract overruns. the 2023 street rehabilitation project and the animal shelter module building project. While the over ones were limited to these projects, staff will strengthen and has strengthened by ensuring appropriate contingency amounts are included at the time of contract award and will return to council for additional authorization

if change orders exceeded approved contingencies. Overall, the report reflects strong compliance with applicable requirements. We are asking council to adopt a resolution accepting the independent auditor's report on agreed upon procedures related to the city capital projects for the period of July 1st 20232 through June 30th 2024 as prepared by Harshwall and company LLP the city's independent auditors and I am available for any questions. Thank you, Minnie. Before we move on to the city council, anyone that from the public would like to speak on this item, please come forward at this time. Okay. I do not see anyone coming forward. So, I'll move it back to the council. Any questions, comments? Well, Deborah,

I I just wanted to know, were were there any deficiencies at all found in this audit? No. None.

No. The only uh the only things that uh were uh were done or were identified was a 12,000 overrun where the um contingency was not enough for to pay for the project. Uh and that was in the street rehabilitation project. And then on the animal shelter, um our prior public works director used the green book instead of our contingency policy in um the green book counts for 25% contingency. Our contingency is stricter which is 10% and so therefore it was not um it it was not enough for that overrun. But other than that, everything else was followed. Um, city ordinances, procurement, um, everything, uh, according to state law, um, there was no other findings whatsoever.

All right. Thank you.

Okay. Well, um, I'm I'm really glad to see that only those two things were founded and basically there were mistakes by Green Book and not our book and things like that. But uh what I will say is that those those items would have been I think we this council would have done things a lot differently and that's and maybe there's nothing wrong procedurally or legally or anything like that and I'm really happy for that but I know some of those developments and projects um weren't done in my view correctly in a sustainable manner. center with transparency to the public and that's what we're out to change and so I'm really glad that you that's all you found and um I appreciate all the work your your group has done your department has done on this I know these these audits even though we we sent them off to a company it takes a lot of internal work and and we have uh I'm really proud of the directors we have in place here so

thank you so much and just to let you know as a side note we have gone through 12 audits since I've been here in April. So, and we have been really successful in in improving processes and improving a lot of things that we can improve upon because that's what these audits give us is is how can we improve and strengthen our internal controls and I'm very proud of our team. Good. That's a lot of audits in less than a year. So, with that, we have resolution 7061 before us. Pleasure of the council.

Okay, mayor. I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution 7061 as read by title. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second as stated. Any further questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Eyes have it. Motion carried again. Thank you, Minnie. And we'll move on to item 12, consideration of adoption of city council resolution number 7062, establishing the process to fill the district number two vacancy that was caused by uh Evan Sanders having to leave the state. With that, we'll turn to our city manager, Neron Than. Neron,

good evening, mayor, city council. Um, I'll tag team this with our city attorney, uh, Mary Lerner. But as you just stated, um, District 2 council member Evan Sander resigned from his council seat effective January 9, 2026. Um, so as a result, we do have a midterm vacancy that occur um, in this seat. Um pursuant to governing codes uh section 36 uh 512 subsection B the council um when there is a vacancy occur the city council must within 60 days from the date of those vacancy either fill the vacancy by appointments or by calling a special election to fill the vacancy. If council choose um to select an appointment route um this must be done by um within those 60day which would be Tuesday March 10th. Um so again based on this midterm vacancy council currently have two options. Option one is to appoint a successor for the remainder of that term. Um that would be from March 10th to November 3rd. Um and then option two is to call for an elections. Um if the council vote to call for an election that election will be held at the next regularly established election date which has not which has to be not less than 114 day from the call of that special election. So in this case that would be November 3rd 2026 and it would be coincide with the general elections. Um that conclude my report. Those are the two option the council have and staff would like to get some directions on which direction you guys want to to proceed to.

I already have anything to add please. I do not. The city manager covered it well. Okay. Comments from the council discussion

as mayor. I'll I'll start off. Um, you know, we had a we had an election here uh this past September um when we ended up having um a vac well we had a vacancy and we uh we couldn't appoint because two people on council had already been appointed so we had to go to election and it was a it was a pretty quick turnaround uh with I think it was something like 8.9% of the population or in the low 9% of the population turning out for that election uh costing the city over $40,000. Um so in short, my opinion on this one is that I think the people in district 2 need to decide who they want to elect for their district to represent them. And it also gives extra time for people who may be on the fence about running for council in dis in district 2. Um rather than, you know, just a really quick decision of uh people having to pull applications and and run. Um, I I just think it, you know, the general election is our best option right now for council to have people uh run for this position. And therefore, it's not our decision making it. It's it's the people who live in district 2 making the decision as to who they want to sit in that seat uh for the period time remaining. And um anything short of that to me would be a disservice to the to the to the residents who live in district 2 and to the city of Los Manos.

Thank you. And actually I should have opened it up to the public before you spoke. Okay. But I'm sorry for that. But anyway, this time I open up to the public. So we have two options here. We can appoint call a special meeting do it tonight. Call a special meeting to appoint uh this week or next week. That's easy enough to done to do. We've I think in August we had seven special meetings or something like that. So, um or we can let it go to the November election. So, anyone would like to speak on this, please come forward at this time.

We'll be getting old friends up here. Hi, Kathy Ballard, resident of Laspanos. I live in District 2. Um, I would prefer not a If you can go to a November election, that means you don't have a representative for council until that time and then they don't get confirmed. So, we're talking December having representation. Um, I would prefer to appoint because it's such a large period of time. Um, I don't know what's involved in appointing if um I don't know how you would notify the residents for us just to say yay or nay or I don't know um in regards to who applies for the position. Um I know quite a few people in my district. I know that there's some that are willing to do that to um be appointed but not to run in November. It's not something they want uh to be there all the time but are are well qualified. Um like I said I would have pre preferred to appoint than to wait till November or December to get representation for me personally. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else, please come forward. Please state your name for the record.

Miguel Alejandre. Um, with all due respect to Deborah's comments right now, I think the residents already kind of have spoken on who they wanted for district 2. In respect to the mayor race, um, Rafuho did win majority for district 2. So, a lot of the people have voted already for him to want to represent district 2. So, I think the numbers already show that and it's a like Kathy B just stated to wait a not a full year but that long without representation in that district I think would be a disservice to the residents in Las. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Please state your name for the record.

Mark Triol. I'm willing to accept an appointment or attempt to try working with the council. Being that the fire department didn't want anything to do with my services, I'd like to try to offer it up to the city council and give you a chance. I live in district two. I'm willing to maybe try the November ballot, see how it works out. I've never done anything like that before, but I've worked with a lot of fire districts and councils and I know how it all works. So, more willing to offer myself up.

Appreciate you willing to serve. Thank you. Anyone else please come forward. Okay. I do not see or hear anyone. Okay. We'll move it back to the city council. Um, so I think you know I've milling over this a lot and it's a big there's a big difference of I think a very fair question is why we appointed a year ago and if we do appoint now or don't appoint now what's the difference I think the big difference a year ago we need we didn't even have a council in place and we needed real fast to get a council that we could govern govern this city. And uh I'm always sort of for in unless it's out a couple of years. I'm sort of I lean towards letting the people decide. I think what Miguel said makes a lot of sense. Uh uh but it is different this time because we are so close. And I just want to tell you a little story. uh way back when 30 years ago uh the council did the same thing to sort of push me from not running for mayor. They appointed and they had somebody retire and they appointed a mayor and to give that little boost uh coming to the election. I'm I'm not against that, but that's sort of bothered me a little bit back then. And luckily, I still ran for mayor and I still won back in '94. But, uh, it was sort of done to me once. Not that there's anybody up here right now, but um, sometimes I think it's up to the people, but I'm I'm willing to listen to

what everybody has to say here, and I'm I'm very open. I know it's unfortunately we're sort of pressed on time, but we had some obligations that were when no one knew Evan was going to that was that that threw us all for a loop. He didn't even know that he basically got offered this job. I think he had five days to leave the state or something like that. And that's when we all found out because that really floored all of us. So, no one was prepared for this. And uh sort of like when Ken Lambert handed me the letter the the night of the city council meeting to he was resigning. Those things sort of throw you. But anyway, so I I want to listen to everybody what everybody has to say here. Yeah. So, I agree that, you know, the people should decide, but we're looking at that seat being open for an entire year practically by the time um person gets sworn in. You know, like Kathy was saying, it's a long time. Um and yeah, and I think the people will still get to decide in November. Uh even if we appoint someone, um you know, I I think it's worth exploring, looking into. Um, I definitely not interested in any kind of special election. Those things cost money and that's just not a route I'd like to go. Um, so I'm open. I'm I'm I'm open to it, but I I think a year is a long time to go with that seat open in my opinion.

I also do agree that it's a long time. Um, what was when was the date that we'd have to appoint someone? Next week. By Tuesday. It's the Tuesday which I mean we could say put your applications in before Friday. We can look at them. We call a special meeting next week. That's not an issue. Um we don't need weeks and weeks and weeks to decide. It's it's really different. We had all those applications before we had public open meetings. We could actually do that. Have everybody line up say we can appoint uh if that's what we decide to do.

Okay. I mean, that's pretty rushed, but I I'd be open to that if that wouldn't be a problem for the residents. Um, like you said, I I know we can make it work, you know. Um, definitely gone through in in life a lot of very high pressure decisions and I know we can make it work, but I'd also be open to that just because it is a very long time until um November and then possibly December.

Okay, that's everybody. So, uh we need to have direction what we're going to do. So actually before you is a resolution and in it has two options. So council could choose to adopt the resolution selecting option one which is appointment of a qualified individual or option two placing the vacant position on or council could actually just give direction to call a special meeting if that's what it would like to do. So you do have those options before you. You mean like call a special meeting next week to make the decision or correct? I recommend you call it from Monday. Yeah. Tonight with the Tuesday deadline,

make a decision or to appoint to appoint. If that's the decision if that's the decision of council. Mayor, if I may, um maybe Mary, can you touch base a little bit on the governing codes and the legal requirement for city city for appointments? And then if I may ask, put Lucy on the spot a little bit. There's the legal requirement and there's also the customaries of what has been done through an appointment process. So that way, you know, we can be transparent to what has been done.

Sure. I'll I'll start. So if the council chooses to make an appointment, the appointed individual would serve until the November 3rd, 2026 general election. That period would constitute the remainder of former council member Sanders unexpired term. With respect to the appointment process, there are no specific state laws or provisions in the Las Spanish municipal code establishing a required procedure. There's no formal application process mandated by law. The council may appoint any qualified individual who is at least 18 years of age, a registered voter of Merced County, and a resident of district 2. If the council opts to fill the vacancy by appointment, all discussions and actions must occur in open session in compliance with the Brown Act. This matter may not be discussed or decided in close session. There are certain legal limitations on the appointment authority. However, none apply in this situation. The council may not fill a vacancy by appointment if doing so would result in a majority of council having been appointed rather than elected. And the council may not appoint one of its own members to another vacant seat except to the office of elected mayor. Neither of those circumstances is present here. Should the council wish to proceed with an appointment, the action must occur on or before March 10th, which is Tuesday, I believe.

And then Lucy, um, previously for the previous appointment, what was the process traditionally, I guess?

Um, well, it was um probably a two-part, sometimes even three-part. They would discuss it and then we would come back and decide how to move forward. We would advertise in the newspaper in the website and we would give candidates ample time to apply because it's a very important decision. And then we did um interviews out in the open. So it was um more than five days. It was like a month or two process. I think the difference a little difference is we were trying to back then it was decide on the procedure how we would select voting was a big deal. I remember that we did a two round and that was one whole meeting I remember just that and then it sort of fell apart at the next meeting but but still it you know so a lot of those things have been decided. I don't like it not being able to get in the newspaper. I don't like that

if that's the decision of the council. Uh but you sometimes you got to do what you have to do. Yeah. So with that, let's see. Do this would this have to be a motion?

So no council could give direction to call a special meeting. I would recommend if you do that to also have this resolution on for that same meeting date because it does give you the option at that time to appoint the qualified resident or if let's say no one shows up no qualified resident comes in at that special meeting you would still have the option then to place it on the November 3rd election. Um, would the option be to adjourn this meeting to a date certain so that we don't have to call a special meeting? No, you would still need to call a special meeting. Okay.

And we have time for that, right? I I just feel like um you know here we are Wednesday's gone, we have Thursday and Friday and I I know some of the residents here have stated that they want an elected p I mean a uh someone to represent them and this is not a discouragement but you know with our last administration there were quite a few people who never returned their phone calls and I ended up getting their phone calls from their constituents in their district and having to do the work for them. I don't I don't think that, you know, we're not we're in districts for a particular reason, but we're not the type of council that won't answer phone calls or emails that people will send us. At least I'm not. Um, but being that you have tomorrow and Friday and then we have to make a decision Monday, how, you know, again, like you said, how do you get the word out to the public? There may be more than just, you know, the two people that are sitting here in the audience tonight that want to apply for that position. There may be other people that may want to consider it. So, you know, personally, I just think two days is not enough time because there's no there's no city business on the weekend. Um, so that that's just my opinion. I I think we need to be fair to the public. Um, I don't think that anyone here um on this council would not be willing to answer questions for people in other districts. And certainly, mayor, you you get a lot of emails from people uh that are in everyone's district

wanting, you know, questions uh answered. So, um I, you know, I'm I'm just going to stick to my guns on this one. And, you know, I'm in favor of uh option number two where we go to the November election. Um it's it's eight months technically. Usually by the what first two weeks in uh December that person is seated because they're they're there for the Christmas parade. I think the Christmas parade is what the first or second week of of um um December

December. So um that's that's how I look at it. and and so that's that's going to be my vote tonight is to go for the the general election. Is to be clear for the record is that a motion I will make I will make a motion then uh that we go with option two which is uh to place it uh district 2 council vacancy on the November 3rd uh general election ballot. So that's a motion to approve resolution 7062 with option two. Is that correct? That's correct. Yes.

Do I hear a second? Motion dies. Second motion. Another motion. Yeah. So make a motion for uh for option one u to adopt uh resolution 76 7062 uh for option one.

I'll second. Yeah, we do have a motion and a second and uh before I call for the vote, um can we advertise on social media enough in the next two days to to get it done? Because I've nothing is impossible. So, I think we can move things around and get that advertised, but it is um we're going to have to look for some assistant with our city clerks and Vienna um to get in tomorrow um to do that. So, we'll have to move stuff around. So, we can get it out by the notice of vacancies out by the end of the day. Um again, like we talked about, we can get it on the website on social media. Um but unfortunately, I think we just missed a time frame for the newspaper and and it wouldn't matter anyway because you guys come out on Wednesday, right?

Wednesday next week. Yeah. So, those are the only I do got two copy word of mouth. Yeah. So, mayor, the public portion of this, public comment portion of this is closed and so it really is the council's um time to speak. Thank you. Okay. So, uh yeah, I know this is not ideal. I know this is a bad situation. we don't have time and I know you know all due respect I mean I I I you know I I respect you very much but it's just

it's I just yeah I mean it you know and and it's a long time to go you know and I think the people will still get their chance to to vote in November. Um yeah it's not ideal. We don't have the time. I I totally get that. Um you know wish it was different. definitely wish it was different, but we just don't have it. Um, yeah, I mean, that's that's all I wanted to say basically.

So, I know there's people that have been watching us that are interested. There's people that have run that are interested. I think Miss Ballard said she knows people in the district that would serve and maybe not even run in November, which would be that's fine, too. I mean every it's the willingness to serve is what's important here and so so uh there's a lot of I it's not ideal but hopefully if you've sort of if you're interested in serving your community you've sort of kept up a little bit with what's going on in the city I guess a little bit.

Yeah. I mean you know we had people speak here tonight and social media can be very powerful. So, I I would say, you know, help get it out. Spread out as fast you can. Tell anybody you know. Uh, you know, Rosmo said it earlier. It's a privilege to serve. It is it's it is a privilege, but so get the people involved. Get it out. I don't know what to what to say. I know we're trying to get the paper and all that good stuff, but get it out. Okay. If there's anything else with that, I'll call for a roll call vote, please. City attorney, can I ask for clarification?

Yes. Um, since you're going to call a special meeting for the appointment of a council member, how do they decide? Do they submit an application and all that type of stuff? Do we just do practice? I think it was referenced that they could submit interest by close of business on Friday. Is that correct? Yeah. If the meeting's on Monday, they have to do it by Friday. Yeah. And then at that meeting on Monday, would you want everyone who submitted interest to attend so that you could interview them? Yes.

Because we have an application from last time that we could update and use. That's council's discretion. Yeah, that's I think that's how we would do it. We've already done it once, twice, three times. So, no, I let's not change the way we're doing things. Okay. So is do you understand? So update the application from last time. Yeah. To submit that. Yeah. You'll be able to get it on the website tomorrow and I have access to documents

okay. Anything else? Anything else from you? discussed that'll be the same. It'll be a two round thing and

that's one thing. Just so that we're clear on it, I think um if council decide to go with the appointment route, we can um set a deadline to receive applications. So that way staff has sufficient time to prepare the staff report for you to consider. And then the meeting, it sounds like it will be called then for Monday and then at that meeting we can do a two item. One is to establish the appointment process um whether it's votings and things at that meeting so it's clear and then you proceed to the second item but then do the interview and the appointment at that second item. that. Okay.

Okay. With that, anything else? Is everybody available Monday? 6 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 3:00, 6 o'clock. Later in the evening would be better. Make it work.

Hey, damn good with me. I know Tuesday I'm not. So,

council member Travis, it was your motions. Um, so do you want to revise the motion then to go with to clarify is for option one which is the appointment route to open up the application process tomorrow with a set application deadline of Friday at 5:00 pm um and to do a special meetings on Monday at 6 pm um to go through the selection process and the appointment. Correct. Correct. Okay. And does your second still stand? Yes. And you have everything, Lucy. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

No. Yes. Okay. So, we move on with that. So, let's go on. Thank you all. 13.

Okay. Item 13, discussion and direction regarding amendment to Losb Municipal Code section 2-3.301 uh to increase elected compensation. That's what you were doing. I'm going to go to That's you, Mary. Okay. Yes.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. Tonight, staff is requesting direction only, so no vote necessary from the council regarding a potential modification to the elected officials compensation as permitted under state law. As background, the city of Laspanos has seven elected positions, the mayor for council members, the city clerk, and the city treasurer. In 2023, Governor Nuome signed Senate Bill 329, which amended California government code section 36516. This legislation applies specifically to city council members in general law cities such as Losanos and increase the maximum allowable monthly salary based on population. The intent of this amendment was to modernize council compensation and allow cities to adjust for inflation, thereby supporting broader economic diversity and public service. Under government code section 36516, a city council may enact an ordinance establishing compensation up to the statutory maximum tied to population for cities with populations over 35,000 and up to and including 50,000. The maximum allowable compensation is $1,275 per month per council member. According to the US Census Bureau, Laspanos had a population of 45,566 at the last census. As of July 1, 2024, the estimated population is 48,684 and the California Department of Finance estimates the population at 48,896 as of January 1, 2025. Based on these figures, the city qualifies for the 1,275 per month maximum. State law further provides that annual increases may not exceed 5% per calendar year from the last operative adjustment or an amount equal to inflation since January 1, 2024 based on the California consumer price

index not to exceed 10% per calendar year. Importantly, no ordinance may provide for automatic future increases. Each increase would require a separate ordinance amendment and would take effect when newly elected council members are seated. Pursuant to Lasanis Municipal Code section 2-1.303, the current salary for council members is $300 per month and the mayor receives $400 per month. These amounts were established in 1989 and have not been increased in approximately 37 years. Originally in 1966, compensation was set at $150 per month for each council member, including the mayor. If the city council directs staff to proceed with increasing compensation at any amount but not to exceed the statutory maximum, I would prepare an ordinance amending the relevant sections of the municipal code. Because Los Banos is a general law city, any increase for council members would take effect after the next regular municipal election in November 2026 when newly elected members are seated. However, for directly elected mayors such as in Los Banos, an increase may take effect during the current term. If adopted, the ordinance could become effective 30 days after adoption for the mayor and following the next regular election for council members. With respect to fiscal impact, increasing compensation to the maximum of $1,275 per month would represent an increase of $975 per month for each council member and $875 per month for the mayor. These costs would be allocated across the general fund, water administration fund, wastewater administration fund, and solid waste administration fund. Assuming the mayor receives additional compensation pursuant to government code section 36516.1, the additional fiscal impact would be calculated as the mayoral increase multiplied by 12 months. For historical and comparative context, the city's 2024 compensation study prepared by Bryce

Consulting indicates that Losanos base salaries for elected officials are significantly below the labor market median. The study shows the mayor's base salary is 57.5% below the median and council members base salary is 66.67% below the median. While total compensation, which includes benefits, is closer to market levels. base salary and total cash compensation remain substantially below comparable agencies. With respect to the city clerk and city treasurer, each currently receives a base salary of $100 per month. The total annual compensation for the city clerk is $6,78.32 as she does not participate in health benefits. The total annual compensation for the city treasurer is 32,284.53. Should the council wish to consider adjustments to the salaries of the city clerk and our city treasurer, staff recommends that a revised salary schedule be prepared and brought forward for approval for each position. At this time, staff respectfully requests direction from the city council on whether to proceed with preparation of an ordinance to increase council compensation up to the maximum amount authorized by state law. And I'm available for any questions.

Okay. Thank you very much, Mary. With that, I will turn it to the public for any comments on this. Uh, you're all welcome to comment if you have say anything. I just want to make just want to ask you one make one thing clear before you you the compensation. You said that was 66% that was other council members and mayors that you said we were below. Are you talking correct? Correct. So there was um a study done and Neron can maybe talk more about the study, but there was a study done that looked at 12 other communities

and averaged those communities pay for council members and mayor and it was your base pay, which currently here it's $300 and $400, and then your total compensation, which includes like the health benefit, dental, vision. Um and I don't know Neon, did I miss anything with respect to the compensation study?

Yeah, and I think we can share this also. So on the study itself, um the median's um council or mayor, I'll start with that one. The median mayor salary for all those 12 is $630. Um and currently the mayor lobbanis is $400. Um and then for city council, the median labor markets for those 12 cities 500 and city of Lasanis is at 300. Um but again um we also look at total compensation which includes retirements as well as um healthcare benefits. Um for the median is $2,985 per month and those banners is $2,991 per month for the mayor positions. Uh for city council the median's uh um compensation total compensation package is $2,928 per month and Losanes is $2,883 per month. Okay, with that, I'd like to open up to the public. If you have something more to say to us, please come forward and please state your name for the record. Turn on mic, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council, Staff, Refu Yamas. U city of Merced has an estimated population of approximately 98,000 folks. Concurrently, they handle budget twice as large, twice as many problems, etc. City council members receive a annual pay of approximately $6,000 a year, paid in installments of $500 a month. The mayor receives $7,200 a year paid in $600 a monthly installments. Again, it's a city twice our size. And now we're asking the citizens and the taxpayers to essentially more than double

pay here. Um I don't think that uh I don't think it's appropriate especially when we have residents who are working two or three jobs uh single mothers, single parents uh trying to um just put food on the table, maintain etc. And I think this disposition is one that you want to serve and give back to your community. It should not be something that uh you look at how do we increase it and we justify by saying well somebody else makes more than I do. I don't think that's that's the benchmark we want to use. Um, and I think that uh I appreciate the analysis and I appreciate the information, but at this time I I believe that this money if spent would be better uh used on uh working to develop our economic structure, providing better paying jobs for residents, uh additional personnel at the uh uh animal care facility, maybe additional personnel, maybe funding grants to spay and neuter animals, etc., etc. So there's a lot better use of these animals would help our residents and not uh for individual uh increases in salary. So again, I I appreciate the analysis. I appreciate the information. It's good to have the information, but I I do not believe that it's it's warranted at this time. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else?

Okay, I do not see or hear anybody else coming forward, so I'll go ahead and close the public. And I think I'm going to start with this one. Uh I'm the one that asked for this to be brought forward. I did not even I was not even aware of the 2024 study that was done the last console. I had no idea with that. Um I do not do this job for the money. I probably lose. See, it's different for me because since I own my business, I have to pay somebody to take my place when I'm here. Um, I ran for mayor because I love this job. I love doing things for our community and I love progress to the future, for basically my children, my family, and the rest of the town. I love that. But the last thing I do this for is for the money because if I did it for the money, I'm losing money every every month to have this job. Right now, it's around I think I'm losing around $2,500 a month, even with the pay. So, it has nothing to do with money to me. What I'm worried about is how 37 years since this has been looked at, 30. Think about that. 37 years. Um, I'm worried about the future. You do not want Okay, this is how things have changed. You go back to the 70s, the 80s, the 90s. You look at any club in this city, Lion's Club, Rotary Club, they had a hundred members. I remember Rotary meet at my my restaurant once a week. They had a hundred members that showed up every week to that. And they're all volunteers. Now, you know, I think they have I I don't want to talk for them, but every club, the volunteer, unless you're involved with your children and it's a school activity and you're doing

something to help your child at that school, you'll see volunteerism. But you can see volunteerism is leaving society, not just Losis, but all of society. I'm worried about the future. I'm not worried about me. I'm not worried about money for these people up here. We need people to be enticed. I know I heard the thing you this job, you want to do it, you want to do it. You can't lose money. Today, there's two families in a family. There's both both uh husband and wife, both partners have to work to make it to make it work. When my father was mayor, my uncle was mayor of this town, one person made plenty of money and still could volunteer because they only worked six, seven, eight hours a day. My father was a farmer. He worked 15 hours a day, but most people and they would get there. There were farmers up here, business people up here, principles up here. I remember coming to the meetings when I was really young and my principal was up here, you know, and it was it was really different. And but today we have to have Mary here making sure everything is done right so we're not sued because you know how we're deep pockets. People like to sue the city so we have to make sure we run on a straight and level road and I'm worried about the future. So, do you want Luckily, we appointed young people and if you noticed that was part of the goal to get young people involved. Do you want a bunch of old men and women sitting up here that have the time to serve that don't look at things exact now? I do. I I'm still working. I'm still working every I work every day and so I don't feel any different than I did 20 30 years ago but I know if I retired

you know what starts to happen pretty I don't even want to leave the house you know those things start happening and that's just being human and I don't put anybody down for that everybody do does what they want but I'm worried about the future what is it going to take to get in 10 years 5 years four years three years people to be able to take on this jobund bill $100 million budget all these meetings I've already had five meetings this this week this is my fifth meeting and I am not complaining I love it I actually love it but do you expect somebody else that has to have a full-time job that works for a company that can't I you know I see what what Marcus sacrifices he takes He takes his his vacation time for console time because he he you know he works for another company and and so that that's a big deal. Today's a different world. Do we want we want to be able to entice people? I I don't know what the number will be in the end if we even raise it but that was my goal. A compensation is not a token compensation. It's a compensation that maybe will people will look at it differently and if I'm going to do all that work, you're not as crazy as I am to do all the work for no reason at all except for the you know sometimes you have to entice the younger generation to make it worth their while. And that's what I'm afraid of. Now I I understand I I think the thing that really gets me is it hasn't changed in 37 years. So just give us the cost of living increase in 37 years. I don't even know what that

would be. I couldn't even remember how much I was making honestly because we have direct deposit. Was it I know the council was 300. I was thinking maybe I'm 350 till I read the report and saw that I was making 400 because it's a direct deposit and money is not the issue why I'm here and I'm retired so my benefits my my health benefits are a lot different than that could be paid to a younger person sitting in this this seat. I'm still going to run for mayor. I'm still going to do it. I'm still going to follow because I'm I'm for this town and I want other people to get involved. We're doing things this year with bringing the high school students in here. We I go talk to classes. The first thing I said, you have to run for for government. You have to be involved in your community. This is our town. Don't sit back and complain. Get involved. Make a difference. But when I talk to 18 year olds, honestly, the first thing they say to me is, "How much do you get paid?" You know, and I tell them and they just roll their eyes, you know, and you know, we looked we and this is just follows what we've been doing about 3 four months ago. We looked at all salaries and tried to make everything uh legit to today's standards. Good example, and Marcus will talk about this. When he went to and and Mitsy went to their conference, they get $6 for breakfast. Can you buy a breakfast of $6 at a convention center? Think about that. Maybe you can buy a cup of coffee, but that's how old our standards were for paying council members. And so everything has to be looked at.

I'm a businessman and I look at what what would entice somebody to take on this job. Have the five meetings by Wednesday. Have the 20 emails a day. Spend the time doing that. I hope there's people standing in line. Please don't have one person, you know, run for an office. That drives me crazy when one person runs for an office. We should have 20 people running for office. So that's it was me. It's not any of these people up here. That's why I did it. I'm a businessman. I've been speaking to these young kids. I've been seeing what they're in thinking about. And I thought maybe it's time after 37 years to maybe increase this pay a little bit. And I don't even have to take it. I It's not has nothing to do with money for me. So, you know, uh I'm thinking of the future and that's why I wanted to do it. And uh I think there was another question. Well, anyway, so that's that's all I can think. Now, I'll open to the rest of the council what they think.

Well, mayor, I'll go since I've been sitting up here for 13 years now. And uh prior to that, I was on planning commission by appointment of the mayor. Uh when I looked at my numbers, I thought it was 10, but I think it was 12 years that I sat on planning commission and didn't get paid a dime because I I do love this city and I I wanted it to be a nice place for people to move and live here. Uh so that was my goal. Um and I and I also volunteered for other things. I was on the Merced County Fair Board for third for what seven, eight, nine years, something like that. There was no pay in that, but I did it because I loved what I was doing. I was elected to sit on uh Valley Air. Now, I don't know if there's anybody here tonight that's a special district employee, but they got raises, too. And we got raises on on the airboard. We went from $200 to $400 a meeting and any additional meeting after that we get another $400. So if we go to three meetings, you know, we get the compensation. So I'm making more now on the airport than I'm making here. And that's just one meeting a month. Um I have health insurance through my retirement. There there are some things like eyeglasses that I don't get. So you know, I I take that compensation. Uh, but I have I have my own health insurance coverage. But I challenge anybody who would come up here for this position as to whether or not they would deny taking health insurance. I I have one colleague that sits on the airboard with me uh out of a different city. They get over 3,000 a month, but she would give up the whole 3,000 to get health

insurance. So there's a blessing in this for people who sit in this position. And I agree with the mayor when I looked at this and it was like 37 years. In the 13 years I've been here, we have tried our best to be faithful and fair to our employees, not only for their salaries and their benefits, but for their budgets as well. And I'm not saying that we were neglected, but we're decision makers sitting up here and for 37 years, this is what we've been paid and never asked the public for anything. And and we have people coming saying that we don't deserve this. It's a lot of work in this. It's not just sitting here at this meeting. You've got a lot of materials to read through. You've got decisions to make. As the mayor says, you know, there are a lot of meetings to attend. There are volunteer things that I go to that aren't even required, but I go because I'm an elected servant to the people in this city and I go. So, I don't think it's a whole lot to ask that you would make your council whole because there are other people who will try to run in the future. And even though, you know, whatever decision is made as to what the compensation may end up being, it's not a livable wage. But I do think it's worthy of people who sit here and give their heart, their time, their energy. uh and making decisions for this city to try to make it a good place for people to live. Um so that that's kind of my take on it. Uh and I know there are other people that have set up here that don't b benefit from the full uh package of

what's given to them. And as far as retirement is concerned, nobody that sits up here that was elected I think before 2010 gets any retirement. There's no retirement package to us. We're not full-time per city employees. So when we're off the dis, the money goes away, the benefits go away, we get nothing. So is that a whole lot to ask for your public employees, your public officials that that are trying to make this a better place to live in? I don't think it's it's a lot to ask. So I, you know, I may sound a little bit dogmatic here, but that that's my opinion on it. And and I think anybody, you know, who sits up here in the future, whatever the uh increments of raises that may be eligible to come to them, I I think they should deserve that. and and we as a public have to make sure we elect good people to sit up here to make sure that your city moves forward in a way that it should move and and have a desirable community to live in and bring businesses here. We're trying to work hard to bring businesses here to help people have livable livable wages here and to work with our college system, our junior college to to see that they are offering courses that are going to, you know, get people in jobs that are going to help them live without having to work two and three and four jackbox jobs to try to make ends meet. So, um, yeah, 37 years is a long time and, uh, nobody can live off $3 and $400 a month. So, that's not that's not the issue at all. I I think, uh, the issue

is to compensate your your elected officials to a point where um, you feel they deserve it. you know, your your your state officials make a lot of money and your federal officials make a lot of money and you pay taxes for them, too. So, um I I think you you know, as a public official, I don't see myself as a politician. I see myself as a servant to the people who elect me and I've tried my best to serve the people in the district and the city as a whole um since I've been here on this DAS. I think one of the questions I know is that gets paid for. None of us get paid for any of the NC energy. That was one of the meetings I had today and and part of the board. I get paid nothing for that. I get paid nothing for that. The The other thing we get paid for is our phone allowance. And uh we do that because honestly people ask for public records and they want to see our phone calls. And so I have my personal phone that I call my wife and tell her how much I love her and I don't want anybody to see that. So I have my cell phone that I call Neuron and tell him to get to work. So, uh, and he does a good job with that. So, we get $75 a month for that. I think $80. It just went up to 80 or something like that. So, that's it. We do, if we go out of town, like if I go to MCG, I could turn in that mileage. I don't do it. I think in the year almost two year and a half I've been mayor, I turned in mileage one time is when I was going to Sacramento,

speaking in front of the Senate committees and I was making all those trips to Sacramento, meeting with the lawyers and the lobbyists. Those were 18-hour days up there plus and that was part of the drive and it worked. We got a unanimous decision out of that last committee. I would not even let the lawyer buy my I brought my wife one time. She couldn't handle it anymore and she stayed home after that. Listen, you really want to listen to politicians go to Sacramento. But anyway, uh they wanted to buy us lunch. I wouldn't let them buy us lunch. No, because then I have to report it for the next two years or something. It's not worth it. So, so, so anyway, that's that's how that goes. So, I should be probably turning in my my mileage. I don't even do that. So, anyway, Marcus or or Mincy, you have any comments on this?

Yeah. Uh, first I would say I don't I don't you know the number I think 1275 is just that's the number. I think we're just stating that's where it could go if you wanted. I don't think no one's saying that's uh

that's what the proposal is or anything like that. I think it's just more of a conversation what makes sense. Um, yeah. You know, I would say I definitely was shocked. Uh, first pdeium, six bucks for breakfast. And I was like, I can't even get Starbucks for that. And then I'm sitting there looking at what we get at work and I'm just like, that's wild really. And then they said, yeah, they've never they've never adjusted that in eons. And then I find out the the last time a race took place here was 89, I believe, and 37 years ago. I was like, what's going on with that? And I asked, well, why? You know, I was trying to figure out why. Why why is it never gone up? Why, you know, because the generations now it's a little different. Um volunteerism, it's off the cliff. It's not how it used to be, you know, with people having pride and stuff like that. Yeah, you got people out there, but it's a lot less. I'll say that. Um and and then I come to find out, you know, I think it's the city clerk, maybe I'm wrong, Mary, but it's like a hundred bucks. Like, yeah, it's a hundred bucks. You know, I mean, Lucy's never said anything. I was shocked to hear that. and she's retired now, but how much longer is she going to hang out with us? I don't know. How do you get somebody to want to do what she's doing? It's it's 9:00 right now and she's going to go and try to get applications posted and all kinds of stuff. So, she's not even done and she got here before, you know, six o'clock. It's 100 bucks really. It's like, wow. And then then that's just something else. So, I think it's worth looking into. I think it's worth, you know, getting some more feedback, getting some further discussion. Uh, and I like I like to hear what staff would have to say. What's what what do they think? Um, nobody's getting rich doing this. This is for sure. Uh, but I think it's worth taking a look at, especially for I mean, you you heard the mayor and uh Deborah, they've been doing this for a long time. Um, and the one thing I did hear is when I was kept asking, why is

this never changed? And I kept hearing the same thing over and over. It's like, "Ah, man, people don't want to do that because uh they're afraid they're going to use that against them at re-election." And I was like, "All right, well, I guess look, I'm no politician." And you guys see that. I'm just a regular working person. You'll catch me anywhere. Uh I was in here earlier today with a work shirt on. Rushing talk to Neuron and and you know work on stuff. We're always working on something. We're always going somewhere. We're always doing something. Um you know I I mean I haven't even turned in reimbursement for cell phone since we had this change. You know it it's again it's not about anybody trying to get rich. This isn't a job. This is going to pay your bills. It's nothing like that. But I mean, yeah, you know, you heard you heard Deborah and Mike and I think it's worth looking into. Again, no one saying 1275, nothing like that.

Yeah, those back down to 37 years.

I I pretty much agree with everything that's been said. Um, just like you, I do get asked, people for some reason do think I'm getting paid a lot for this. And when I tell them, they're like, "What?" Like, they really can't believe it. And you know, I came into this knowing fully aware that that was the the pay. I didn't mind. Um like Marcus, I also haven't turned in a single reimbursement for the phone. It's it's just for me it's a lot having to get that out of my you know, my T-Mobile app and then turning it in. I you know, for me it's not even worth it. So I just let left it at that. Um, I think it's a good idea to have something to entice the younger generation just because like I said, um, people are in shock when I tell them that the pay is 300. Um, I certainly don't mind for myself because again, I don't take this as my primary job for sure. You know, I have my second job, but I do take a lot of time off to come to the meetings. Um, with my new job, I sometimes work up until 8:00 p.m. So, thankfully, they're working well with me. they they're aware that I will be taking half days um for our council meetings. So, I'm really happy that I was able to find a job that's flexible for me. Um but again, that just shows that we do sometimes sacrifice to put in the work and um I think a lot of people aren't aware of all the work that goes into it. Seeing I think my first um agenda that was 900 900 pages, I was like, "Oh my god." you know, so um it's a lot of information um to keep up with. It's not about um compensating for that time, but again, it makes you feel good to know that you um are deserving of that and it will help in um getting other people to try try out and get involved. So, that's pretty much all I have to say.

Yeah, I you know, I've for all the years I was mayor, I try to run the city as a business and that really is the financial part of it. I know employees, government employees, that's different. You have to have protection and they have uh you know there's a lot of legal things involved. There's unions. There's a lot of things like that. But the rest of the money buys, you know, our first budget up here is this year we're in. And as was said the last meeting, we're 800,000 in the positive, which is almost 2 million more than last year in the first six months we've made because we're running the place. We have good directors, a good city manager, and we are running the place like a business. So I look at all that and I go maybe we should be somehow looked our pay looked like as a business. So anyway, that's where we're at. I think uh I think I'd like to give direction to the staff Mary to come back. I think we talked once uh you were on on you were at legal council for Chachilla that just did the same thing, right?

Correct. They did it last year, last May. And and what did they end up doing? Do you know? They they have a population of significantly lower. So they had the the lower amounts. I think it was 900. And the mayor got his immediately because he's now a directly elected mayor. That is new for Chailla because they had to switch to districts. And the rest of council will not be elig eligible for an increase until after the election this year, even though they adopted the ordinance change last year.

Yeah. I may adjust for data just because you know we've been discussing out here and there's a lot of words talking about CPI and inflation. So I just pull it up from the U US Bureau of Labor Statistics for this is for consumer price index for all urban consumer US city average for all items. So we plug in $300 in January 1989 and put that into CPI for January 2026. That would be $85.74. That's according to the labor statistic. So that's what we that's a very good point. That's something we need to see when we discuss this at the next meeting and the meeting after that. If that's the decision, just do CPI since

um hold up. It's $85.74. That is from $300 in 1989 to January 2026. So anyway, I I would like to go ahead and if everybody agrees to give direction to tell staff to come back with I guess some type of model. Okay. So it would be a it would be a proposed ordinance revision. Okay. Um with a dollar amount as directed by council. We can talk about that tonight or when I bring back the ordinance revision. It's always something that could be filled in at that time.

Yeah. It's there's not a hurry. I think it's a discussion we need to take we need to move forward with this and uh and the governor passed this law and I think well I think he they actually saw a need for consoles. So is everybody agree with that? Yes. Yes.

Okay. I appreciate everybody's comments. We hear you and I understand. Hope you understand where I'm coming from in the council because no matter what the outcome is, nothing's going to change up here. If it stays the same or we're going to still do the same job we always do. It has nothing to do with that. I'm really looking at the future. So with that, we'll go to city department reports and we'll go with community economic direct director Stacy Soua Elms. Stacy, anything else to report? Um so no public hearings to report as our March 11th um planning commission meeting will be cancelled because the planning commission will be attending the planning commission academy um which will be in Anaheim and um it w is hosted by the League of California Cities. Um four of the five planning commissioners will be going um and uh which we wouldn't have a quorum back home to be able to hold a planning commission. So that concludes my report.

Thank you very much. Finance Director Minnie Moreno.

Yes, council and mayor. Um I went to the CSMFO conference last week and it was an amazing conference. There was 500 uh new attendees or first-time attendees and it was about 2,000 of us at Palm Springs and it was a really good um conference with a really good training and I um my accountant too went with me and it was it was pretty amazing. So, just wanted to to let you know. Um, also wanted to let you know that the marketer rate study for the city uh council member Lewis that you've uh requested um is going to be hitting the um the public next week and um we'll have a short turnaround, three weeks, and um and then bring it hopefully to council on April 15th. So, uh, we're working really hard on all of these audits and all of the tasks and and we're going to get ready to, um, start the budget again. Um, it's going to be a year I've been almost I've been here in April and so I'm totally excited to get that process started and and get our next budget cycle uh, going with all the departments and with you and and workshops and all the amazing work that our staff does. That's all for me. Thank you, Fire Chief Paul Twalla. Paul,

good evening, Mayor and Council and staff. Um before I touch on the uh the incident on Johnson Road, just want to highlight a couple things. Uh on the 26th, um AMR had a meet and greet here in town over at the fairgrounds. It was a good meet and greet, asked some questions. Uh we did have a few community members there, which was really good. Um, also like to note that um I stay in close contact with uh with AMR and the EMS agency on our compliance and we've uh we're at a 96% compliant. So that means that 90% of the time they have to reach at 90% of their calls they have to reach uh our calls at 12 minutes and 59 seconds and we're doing that at 96% of the time. So it's pretty good. We've had a few delays, but a lot of that's due to uh call load with a growing community. Uh we're seeing more and more call volume for oursel, not only for ourselves, but even out in the county areas that the call volume has been increasing. So, but I'm happy to report that our ambulance compliance is uh much better and that the uh county and EMS agency did a good job on um kind of staying on top of the uh whole ambulance contract. So, this has been a good thing. We are also in weed abatement season. So we're starting to filter complaints. And uh one good thing is we've been working on a application with uh actually the uh county really helped us out on this because the countyy's using this weed abatement application uh on mobile devices to track uh weed abatement and the way we're doing it now is kind of antiquated. So we are hoping that we'll get the roll out here in the next week or so so we can start getting on that weed abatement. So, we've already taken in a few complaints, but this will help us streamline that process and then be able to have um be able to complete these uh weed abatement notices and things like that in a a faster manner. So, we're looking forward to that.

You put up your satellite, take satellite pictures. Is that what you're doing? Yeah. Well, not quite yet.

Not quite yet. Not quite using the drones yet like the insurance companies do now. So, um, but what is really neat is the application itself will allow us to capture pictures with GPS coordinates and then be able to identify um our lots and with the data that we're getting um that's on the back end, it's updated by the recorders office every week. So, instead of us getting our monthly reports and it it will actually have current address information. So when we send out notices since we send them out certified, you know, spend the money send certified, then it comes back return that there's, you know, there's no address to be delivered to or it's the improper address. So hopefully this will help us clean up a lot of that. So great.

And then uh obviously this beginning of the week, we did have a major incident for the city. Uh was an ammonia leak over at KOMI. um our folks um we were very taxed with our resources and uh uh I got to the incident uh after a few notifications from our battalion chief and uh a call from the city manager also asking about it. So uh we did identify a few things that we're going to have to address with some notifications that we need to look at. Um what we're going to plan to do is do a post incident analysis uh with having all the key players and one of the big things with this incident is it's a hazardous materials incident so everything uh starts to slow down and then you're calling in a lot of resources in initially so probably like the first 10 minutes we're trying to get resources and our closest hazmat team is actually coming out of McWain and that's just to get the hazmat unit. uh part of OSHA requirement is you have to have two in two out similar to what we do for a structure fire. We only have two trained hazardous materials techs and specs within our department and one of them was actually having to run the incident. So um when you don't have the personnel uh adequate personnel, we can't make any entries. We can't we can't we have to put together plans. There's a there's a whole big process with a hazardous materials incident that's quite different than uh like respond to a structure fire or a vehicle accident. So there's a lot of planning work involved and uh we did spend a lot of time initially trying to get those initial resources in. Both um chief's team did a great job of getting us resources and then getting us county resources uh for law enforcement for putting in hard closures, trying to get notifications made. Dispatch worked on that. Um we know that there's um things that we'll have to address with the notification, but we're working on a plan for that now so we can get out those master

notifications quickly. Um and we realize that there'll be a lot to come out of this post incident analysis. So, we're looking forward to having this with uh all the key players to include Kyomi so we can take a look at how we're responding to these incidents whether it be from the public works side um law enforcement side, fire side, um the OES side. Uh we had a lot of our key players there and even our non-governmental agent uh organizations such as Red Cross uh what their part would would be in this uh type of incident in the future. So, um hoping to get those things out. Uh I know there was some information or questions on the schools and we identified we do what we call um plume modeling for you know where we anticipate that that that plume may go and we identified those things very early so that we can make sure we had proper notifications like to the which schools were going to be impacted. So um this is um definitely uh one of those instance we call uh very high risk and very low frequency. So these do uh tend to pose an issue when we don't have these all the time. Although we may train and prepare for them, but when the real thing happens, you know, uh what really counts is having that personnel, the initial personnel on scene. So

I think it's really important that as you look at everything is you uh go to the school sites, we'll go to the super interim superintendent and make sure they can say the same message that you're putting out. I think that was a lot of confusion. I know I had parents call me, they said the school was closed, the school isn't closed, this school is closed. And I know a lot of it's hearsay and it gets exaggerated too, but I think if the school has the same message as we do and they if you say code blue or whatever it is, the school does exactly this and their principles and vice principles know that I think that will help. And I also know that the the way we notify people on the reverse 91, a lot of that stuff just changed too.

And so we I I know Neuron wants to talk. Maybe you want to say a little about we we need to make sure our people know you have to reregister, you have to do that. So, we learned a lot and this is why we're doing that new station with the EOS. This is a perfect example how we we're work we're thinking about the future and so this is very unfortunate. We can always do better. I can do better. Everybody can do better. But we're this is we're going to learn from this and we're all going to be a lot better.

No, absolutely. and the school district will be involved in our post incident analysis of the incident. So we look forward to what comes out of this and I think a lot of it is just taking ownership on things that we did well and things that we didn't do well and things that we can improve. So we if we at least learn from these incidents so that in case we have another incident it's not if it's when uh especially with these type of hazardous materials incidents it's we we live in an area that we are prone to have hazardous materials incidents. to me not specifically to ammonia per se, but we have a lot of agriculture, too. So, those are things that we need to be prepared for. So, uh we look forward to having that uh the meeting with everyone to to really discuss this.

Great. Anything else? I that's all I have. Okay. We appreciate it. I appreciate you with that and your department and I'll also thank the police department for and public works. Everybody worked really well together on that. Um, human resources interim director Isabelle Carlos.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, Madame Mayor Prom, and members of the council. Just a brief report tonight. Um, three items on the recruitment activity. We we will uh have uh some new uh announcements for new hires coming up pretty soon. Also, for this reporting period, the HR team will be will be participating in portfolio day at the Losanos High School this Friday. And this event was sponsored or is going to be sponsored through the RO program. They're going to be facilitating mock interviews for the students with various organizations including the city. So, a couple of our uh team members are going to go and and uh help with the the mock interviews. The students are also going to be able to showcase their professional portfolios and they've been working on those all year long. So, that's going to be exciting. The department also uh coordinated participation for the read across America event that is uh happening this week at Grasslands Elementary School. And so we have various uh city officials and city employees participating in in that uh uh reading event. They're going to be able to select a a book of their choice. And so we're we're happy to be able to contribute to the educational collaborations with our local schools and also to help uh prepare our youth for future career opportunities. That's my short report for tonight. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. Parks and Recreation Director Joe. All right. Good evening. I'll keep this brief. We have our Arbor Day celebration this Friday. It's at Citrus 2 Park which is at 4:15 Second Street. That's the park that has a little basin there on the way to Lena Felasco uh Elementary. That's from 400 p.m. to 6:30. If you miss Arbor Day or if you would like to join another event, um we have our egg hunt at the end of the month um on uh March 28th and that's at Olive Vera Park and that one is is really really popular. Um so please try to attend both of those if you can. And then the last thing I wanted to update was just um we are registering for T-ball and that that fills up quick. So I just wanted to let everybody know.

Great. Thank you, Joe. Police Department Police Chief Ray Rea Chief.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Uh, a few items. Um, as I mentioned before, we were uh, very fortunate to bring the SNIP bus to Los Banos a few times. Um, and we had two events recently. We were able to perform 115 spayneuter events. I bring this up because um these events are so popular with our community and our ongoing commitment to address um unwanted animals that come in and out of our shelter. Our four trainees that are scheduled to graduate March 27th are still on track. Uh as promised, when they graduate and I swear them in at the academy, I will bring them here to um meet you all. But just an update that they're still on track. Uh very excited to also report that uh we provided a conditional offer to our maintenance one employee uh for the police department. So we are working through that final stage. Um I do have one cso, one dispatcher in backgrounds. Uh we just did CSO or boards today and we are moving a few other candidates into backgrounds as well. Uh congratulations to two of our new officers, officer Zachary Zuspen and David Aferalta. They recently started with us. They have now uh finished their field training program and so they are now released to solo patrol. So instead of being with a training officer on duty, they are now going to be on their own which puts two more police officers on the road in our community. So that's always a good thing.

Um, and then just to touch up on a little bit more about um what Chief Tua mentioned, uh, Monday it was all hands- on deck. Uh, first thing in the morning, uh, we were all on the phone with each other as we were trying to get to the scene. We were on the phone with the superintendent. So, there was a lot of coordination. Um, unfortunately these things they are ever evolving and so we are trying to gather information and we're trying to provide information. We're also concerned for our staff. We're trying to provide road closures. We're trying to get equipment in the air. We're trying to get equipment and personnel to Losanos. Um so just just to add um we pride ourselves police and fire in working very well with the public in um collaborating with the public and ensuring public safety. Uh so as as the chief mentioned um we're not above looking at incidents like this and saying why waste them? Let's learn from them. So our two departments have already talked. We are scheduling additional uh conversations. We're going to bring in um additional partners uh to see for the next time something like this happens. Uh the next time it may not be a hazardous material incident. It could be something else. And so we are always looking for these events to work and to make ourselves better. So um I think that's all all I have. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. I know when it when uh an emergency happens and it has hazard material that unfortunately delays things so much. It's because you have to do this notification. You have to get the people in board and then and you're and I know the firemen can't even go. No one can go in. No one really knows what's happening. It's a it's a crazy but we're going to learn from it and do better. Thanks, Chief. Good job. And now we'll go our public works director, William Vi. William. Uh, I have nothing to report. Good job, William. We like that. Okay. With that, our city attorney report. Mary Leonard.

Thank you, mayor. So, I did attend the Parma conference last week. That was the public agency risk management conference. They had a number of great courses, but most notable was the keynote speaker who was Captain Richard Phillips. If anyone recalls, he was the captain of the ship that was captured by pirates back in 2009. Tom Hanks actually portrayed him in the movie, but he he gave his whole background and then he also um spoke on the importance of leadership and putting your community first. So, I think that was probably one of the things I enjoyed the most about that conference. And then next week I am going to attend the Cal City's Planning Commission conference with staff, but am always available by phone and email.

Well, keep learning. That's what it changes all the time. Thank you. This job is changing every day. Thank you, Mary. And we'll go to city manager report than Non.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll try to keep this short, but sometime it hurts when there's a lot happen in a week. Um first of all, thank you to our teams for the Janu um the Monday event. Um I was fortunate enough to be on scene for the entire event um starting from 6:00 in the mornings and that was the first phone call um from the Merced County CEO Mark Hendrickson's um on the event itself that their team was mobilizing our team mobilizings. Um unfortunately emergencies and stuff like this happens almost at the most un opportunist times. Um you know it happened right before the commute traffic right before school starts. So a lot of decisions were required to be made just before then. Um I was on a phone call with the superintendent along with fire chief as well as the police chief. However, you know, we need to have a level of certainties on the level of evacuation, shelters in place and you know, a lot of those things depend on technologies and some of those technologies are rest with other agencies like the county, the plume models, those things we need to have certain assurance because one thing we didn't want to have happens also is the cost panic. Um there was definitely discussions about closing school for the entire uh districts. Um we understand parents sometime do not have sufficient resources um to watch the kids at home. they might be workings um they might be over the hill um by the time we call right and at 6:30 by when we make the call for the shelter in place and establish those radius some of those kids are already been dropped off at school so those are also deci that factor into decision however I can assure you that the first thing that come to mind is always the safety of our community the onem radius that was established was very very conservative knowing where the plume was actually going we expanded at significantly further than what's needed to be just for precautions in the event that hey half an hour from now or an hour from now the wind might change directions. Mother nature's has their has her own plan um um and we just have to be able to to adapt. Um I'll be the first one to tell you that we're not perfect but we're working toward it. Um one is

resources. Um I can tell you that as of um this morning actually we've been planning for this for the last two months now that our request for um qualification for fire station 4 and the emergency operating center uh center has already hit the street. So, we know that that that's something that our community has been looking for and needed to to bump up our resources from public safety standpoint. Um, this is a $13 million project that we are planning and we'll be installing um right behind Walmart to accommodate those growth and the demand for our community. Um, secondly, um, in additions to the emergency respond is on the day-to-day. Um, you know, I know, um, I travel the same road as you guys do. Um, that our roads are are are in poor conditions. We are working on those. Um what we are working on now beyond the design and beyond the engineering and construction is the community outreach is that to tell our resident which road we're paving. What is our next four-year paving plans going to look like? We are putting those map together because we've already been working on those those plan right right now um the first phase for 2026 actually going to uh um go out to bid here in April. Um so in the next four year I can share with you this that about 32 lane mile of our road is going to be reconstructed. So that's what we're working on and we're going to be sharing with you all those map and what those road are going to look like and I think a lot of you will be happy to see that majority of them are those collected in artial street that many of us are are traversing every day. Um so we are working on a lot of of different fronts um and I look forward to providing those more information to you and um we got direction from council that they want to be transparent they want to engage with you. So we will be working on community outreach and engagement plan that will includes all of our resident and find an easier place for you guys to get information as well. So a lot of that is will be to come in the next uh couple month. That's conclude my presentation or my report. Sorry.

Thank you very much. Okay, we'll go to district three. Marcus Chavez. Marcus.

All right. So we'll try to keep it short. Um, one thing that I I think it was last year uh we were working on I think it was a community design standards and other things and I know it was a big topic uh of discussion for us was the widening of the roads. We wanted them to make sure that fire and police had adequate space to properly respond everywhere. So I know that was something we've already been working on because definitely uh what was referred to earlier on on those real small streets that doesn't work. So just so people know that that is something that you know we still continually discuss and more. Um I did want to ask our city manager um I someone reached out to me about uh you know backflow valves and you know you know why do we have people from out of the city working on those if we want to keep money uh inside the city and spend and support local and stuff like that. And I appreciate the question. I didn't know the answer. So, I wanted to see if Neuron could uh just real quick, how does that work?

The city public work departments has a list of certified backflow preventers. Um, we do not select backflow preventers to do the works. It's actually the private business who's actually contract with backflow preventtor to go and then, you know, certify their backflow. We as a city only get the test result back. So, we do do not solicit or or hired company directly for those private businesses. All right. Thank you. Um, so just, you know, thanks to staff as always. It's late. I'll I'll keep you short. So, thank you. You Marcus, Mayor Prom, Deborah Lewis, District 4.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I have a few things. Uh first of all at our last airboard uh we accepted an appropriation of 3,15 um 3 million $15,461 from the air resources board carbs uh which was designated uh funding from the department of finance and distribution funds to uh formulate a local air district to fund projects to mitigate excess emissions. And um it's kind of a difficult thing to explain how that all happens, but money is given out to uh companies and organizations to reduce their uh um adding pollution in the air and buying new equipment to mitigate that. So that that was the only thing I had to report from the air board. I did attend the MCAG meeting uh on behalf of the mayor and the one project measure V which affects uh Los Banos. Um the implementation plan uh was delayed and the release of um uh the well the staff report to release the the implementation plan has been delayed because there was not a quorum to pass um an issue with Livingston and uh so we couldn't separate out uh the west side project from the east side project because it was all put together as one on the agenda. So I think mayor next time it comes they're they're going to separate those out so they can vote on the west side and you know get our plan moving forward and the east side can deal with their issues that they they need to deal with. Um

uh everybody uh this evening I put a calendar on your desktop uh for the air district uh it's the annual calendar for 2025 and that particular calendar has a lot of different drawings in there. the the cover page was a student that won uh who was awarded $500 for their drawing. And each calendar month and there are 13 in there of different students that were selected, they each got a $100 for their drawing about air pollution. So, in the five years that I've been on that board, and next year will be my last year. Um, no one from Los Banos ever won anything and I don't think anyone applied. So, I made a mission to try to get that information out and went to the school board and gave a presentation there. I understand some kids have already submitted their drawings. Uh, and also I checked with our air board and it doesn't just have to be the school district. The city of Los Banos can do its own mission and try to get this out. So, um, for our staff who I knew had children, I gave them an application inside their calendar. The rest of the applications, which are in English and Spanish, I've left with our uh, with our parks and recck director. And I'm hoping maybe that, you know, we could schedule something, maybe Joe, that you could put something together at our community center and have, you know, all the kids come in who want to enjoy this and and join in and have a drawing day and submit that to the airboard. So, we're going to inundate them this year and uh they'll they'll see more Los Manos applications than they've ever seen in their life. So, yeah, they'll they just be all Los Manos kids on the calendar next year. So, it it's a great opportunity for our kids and there's

that incentive, you know, when they found out the school board that there was money behind it for these kids to get involved in drawing. Um, I think a lot of kids are excited about doing this. Um, Minnie, I want to thank you for fixing the um check register. I can read it now and I don't need a ruler to try to figure out what line is what. It's an excellent job. So, you did a great thing on that. Thank you so much. And mayor, I think I have um hit all my high points. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Pro Tam district 1, Mity Perez. Mity,

I I don't have anything to report, but um I am very excited for Arbor Day and I'm thankful to have been invited to announce the winners. So, I'm really looking forward to that. Um, and then just very briefly because of the vacancy, I really we're going to try and do the social media thing and everything. Um, but I really encourage I think word of mouth is very powerful. So, you know, we have District 2 residents today. Spread the word out. This is very rushed. It was a hard decision for me, but um I specifically lean that way due to just hearing directly from District 2 residents. So, you know, it'd be very helpful. Just spread the word and, you know, we're going to try to get that done to give you that representation. Um, and that's pretty much it. And thank you to the staff.

Okay. Thank you very much. I'll start off. Uh, so the Peninsula Clean Energy that we talked about during the meeting a little bit, but the care program, I just wanted to report uh my meeting I had uh I guess it was last week. uh 20% of our population is on the care which is a a lower cost for for electricity and um that's 1,000 actually no it's a 20% credit on the PG& bill on the electrical side which is Peninsula Clean Energy and that's 1,100 households is enrolled in that and so uh it really is helping a lot and and Sean this evening talked a little bit about that. We had our 2x3 meeting with the school board last week. Two council members, Mayor Proten, myself, three uh school board members, and we had a very constructive meeting. Uh and basically, we're talking about future school sites. That's what it's all about. We need to get them in the planning so it's not our schools are overcrowded. Let's look for a school. Let's be let's be proactive on it. And they're all for it. and they're doing it. Um, I went to the boys and girls open house last Saturday. That was at uh Scripps Park there, College Greens Park at Script Drive. Uh, I was very impressed. They've been in Lasis pretty much full-time since 2000 November 2024. Before that, I think it was just the week, just one or two days a week. Uh, they're running after school programs. I was very happy to hear that the school district in March is going to start providing u uh transportation from the elementary schools to College Green Park so they could more students could be part of the afterchool program. That is

really where it's all about. So when parents have to work to five, they can pick up their kids at the College Green uh park. And I know we've talked about this uh but they really do need a permanent site in our town and that has to be part of the discussion because uh right now they're servicing 1,400 students in Lasis and uh good group. They need two representatives from Los Banis. They need you to apply. I know I think Blanch you've been a part of this Boys and Girls Guard.

Yeah, I think they we talked I remember that. But they need there's two openings and they need Las Manis. Uh again, it was talked Javier talked a little bit about the museum talk last Wednesday. I've been to all of them. I spoke at a couple of them. Uh it was great. I I encourage you to go um online on YouTube and watch it. Uh Paul Laughler, who was the star in Fresno, I told him he has to run for mayor of Fresno, uh told me, I think three or four times that night, that our tagline, I said it already, for Lasis has to be center of the universe. Lasis, center of the universe. And I like that. So he actually said it on the microphone, too. So that was great. And uh and then Mike Hughes did a great job. Paul did a great job. and Paul Sentner did a great job in 1970, graduate from our high school, 250 hours of fighter pil pilot time and it was quite a story. He was in the Pentagon a 911 when the jet went into the Pentagon. He was in his office. It was a incredible stories. So anyway, uh Monday, Mayor Prom and myself, we met with Anna Buoyena that's running for county superintendent. Very nice lady. I encourage you, there's I think seven people running for county school superintendent this year. Uh Dr. Teen is retiring who's the current one who used to be the superintendent of Lasis Unified and uh supported him since the beginning. So anyway, get to know your candidates. We'll be voting for them. I was very impressed with Anna. Uh, tomorrow I actually do have a meeting with P Gen too. And I not sure what we're going to talk about, but it's about the future of something about Los Banners. I hopefully it's grants. That's what we're after. And again, I encourage everybody to go

to uh the Arbor Day breakfast on Friday at the community center at 7:00 a.m. to 10. We need to run raise more money for our museum. And uh hopefully Mary, they've thrown on your desk the property for the museum, new museum on the corner of 7th. We need to make sure we get going on that, move that forward so we can get a new museum along with this. So, what the plan is on the corner of Seventh and G uh G 8 H Street, H Street, um school district, I mean, excuse me, the water a couple of water districts are going to build a building and provide the bottom floor for the museum and it's going to be it's going to be funded by the water districts. city owns the property. So, we're going to try to work it out so we can get the somehow give them the property for a dollar, whatever it is. But then the Milican Museum will move to the corner of 7th and H with the big window looking at our Henry Miller statues. It's going to be perfect. Love that. That's why if you're want to be part of this council, some exciting stuff is happening in our future. So that's all I have and we will be going into close session public employee performance valuation city manager pursuant to government code section 54957B and if any decision is made in close session we'll be coming out here in the public and letting it be known to the public or taking a vote if necessary. Thank you all for joining us. Appreciate all your comments during our meeting. We're going to close session.

Okay, we're out of close session and we had Let's see what it says here. A public employee and performance evaluation city manager pursuant to government code 54957. Uh only direction was given. There's nothing to come out and vote on or report on. So the time is 11:07 p.m. Thank you for being with us and we'll see you real soon. This meeting's adjourned.