City Council - Regular Meeting

of the Calamusa City Council. Today is Monday, March 16th, and we're calling this meeting to order at 6 PM. If we could have a roll call, please. Council member Kundiff here. Council member Garcia. Council member Garcia had a work related obligation, so if we could excuse him. Council member Molina here. Mayor Proin Manley here. Mayor Cervantes

here. Let the record show that our city manager Cobalt is in attendance, city attorney Flower, our city clerk Gertis, finance director Reed, our uh community development director Luchia is not here, public works director Shakir, city engineer Thornton, our deputy fire chief Shaw, and our sheriff uh captain Esabel here. Thank you all for being here. Appreciate that. And if I could have um Council Member Molina, would you do the do us the honors and leading us in the pledge?

Definitely to the flag of America to the Republic and justice for all.

Thank you for that honor. Right. This is a time for our communications from the public. I want to remind anyone in attendance. If you would like to make public comment, we welcome you to do so. Just fill out one of these speaker slips, please, in advance and give it to our city clerk. And we just ask that you would respect the three minute time constraint uh in doing so. When you are called, uh, please step to the podium, state your name, uh, for the record, and, um, let us know if, if you're repres representing somebody other than yourself, please let us know who that is. All right, we have two speaker slips. I'm going to call Bill Thomas.

Thank you very much for your time. My name is Bill Thomas. a resident of uh Cal Mesa for 43 years and I uh say good evening to you all on this St. Patrick's Eve. Um the reason I came in this evening is um specifically I'm encouraged by um what happened uh this past week uh in the city of Ukipa with the free freeway quarter plan specific plan being rescended. And I thought that was a timely time to come out and just maybe be a spark for a minute about uh about our town specifically uh for uh Singleton Road and uh all the legislations that's was there and changed over the years specifically with approximately 4 million square feet of uh warehouse being built there. And I wanted to talk about uh what that means for the city. Uh well, we know what it means today, but uh I think it's important to talk about what it means in the future uh at build out for Calam Mesa because that was planned to be regional retail. Regional retail would be um different than it was when it was envisioned when it was put together uh in late 90s uh to what retail is today. But the retail today is spectacular. And uh it's unfortunate that we took the filt of the Oak Valley specific plan, if you will. uh when Mark Nuringa started his planning uh there's so much I can tell you about it but with the interest of time um when they put that that Oak Valley specific plan together they had initiated that area identified that area as regional commercial and um business park and there's a reason that buildout Singleton Road is nine uh lanes of

travel because that area was going to be spectacular for retail. Now, when I say the future, when we are buildout and that area now is clustered with uh big industrial buildings, we're not going to have the retail sales tax just like what UKIP is going through right now. They're saying, "Wait, we don't have money right now." The reason they don't have money is because they say retail. But you have to understand international council shopping centers which I'm hoping that you guys embellish. Uh there's site criteria. Okay, this is again just a spark. So I have to depart now. But this conversation is going to continue because it should we must address this issue because we are going to be a poor city if we don't change what we've already started when it's at buildout. people are going to be shopping in Bulmont and Cal Mesa or Bulmont and Ukipa and this is this is what's happening. We need to be visionaries. Okay. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, sir. Howard Reeves. My name is Howard Reeves. I live at 1017 Douglas Street, Kal Mesa. I want to uh come tonight and to thank the city for their generous contribution towards this new league that we put together. I think it's going to go a long ways in helping the league get off the ground and get the equipment and the all the necessary things that they need to own to keep the registration fees down to where people can afford to play. I personally want to thank the mayor and

uh Eric for showing up Saturday and also Yza for showing up and also the uh you there sir. They said they said that they said the chief of police was there. Was that not you? Oh, okay. Was you there? The fire department came. There must been 25 of them. I don't know where they found it. Did you get some from Yukipa? No. But anyhow, and uh I know John uh Will was not there because I knew he was out of town. Couldn't be there. But uh and then John, you I got your email. Thank you for apologize.

They they have 911 that could have ported you out there. But anyhow, I just want to thank everybody for what you guys did for us. We had pictures Saturday morning 8:00 went into opening ceremonies and it went over really well and had a lot of guest speakers there and a lot of lot of things and Jeff you did an outstanding job on the microphone and sir Will was right. He said go talk to Jeff

and it worked out super and so I just want to thank you guys. So, tonight was our first games. T-ball's running, pitching machines running, and I got a game going on tonight over in over in Rialto with one of our teams. Okay. So, anyhow, thanks for everything. I appreciate it. Okay. Thank you, Howard. I was going to mention that during council comments, but I don't know if you'll be here. So, I wanted to say thank you to you as well, sir. Appreciate the work you've done for the for the youth of this community. Um, it was great seeing the kids and the families out there. So, shout out to you. All right, that is all the speaker slips I have. Do I have any others? No. Okay. Now, I need to approve the agenda, consent calendar, and wave full reading of the ordinances. So before we do so, let me ask staff if there's any changes to the agenda or items that you would like to pull from the consent calendar.

No changes from staff. All right. Council, any items you want to pull consent calendar? No. If none, I'll move to approve the agenda consent calendar in waiver of full readings of ordinances. All right. We have a motion. Second. All in favor? I I I. That is 4. In support. So, we have a report from the Cal Mesa Chamber of Commerce. Always good to see Tony. Oh, look at here, huh? Back.

Thanks for having me, guys. Um, I want to first off, I want to talk about the breakfast meeting last week. I want to thank uh Will for coming out and sharing uh vision for the city. Um, it was quite informative. probably could have gone on another hour or so. I know he had uh three or four days worth of information, right? Uh but he he cut it short and he he put he condensed it for us. So it was a it was a great presentation and um next April 14th at the Cafe Royale 7:30 in the morning is uh networking and then the presentation starts a little after 8. Um, we're going to have Sky Moore from Twin Graphics. His topic will be the advantages of advertising and small businesses. Uh, so that looks to be very informative. Um, we've had some pretty good uh uh presentations so far this year. So, we're going to try to keep that going. And one of the things that we're going to do with that is May 12th, we're going to meet the mayor. So, we put uh we're going to put a a lasso around Jeff and and drag him over there to to share with us. So, I hope that many of the council members and the your staff uh come and enjoy uh the breakfast and and of course there's no charge for showing up unless you get something to eat. So, um I just appreciate that for that. uh our Scottish festival, not our Scottish festival, but the chamber uh was invited to help work out help volunteer at the Scottish festival March 21st and 22nd. That's at the Calama Event Center uh this coming weekend. So, I believe it's this coming weekend. So, uh I've been told it's going to be pretty cool. They're going to have uh music and kind of dancing kind of stuff.

You know, I'm Welsh, so um you know, I'll bring my axe and my shield and but okay. Uh so we have some changes to our board of directors. U our administrative staff since the installation changed uh went from to Karine. Uh so we're working on getting Karine up to date and um familiar with all the different aspects of the uh chambers's um influence into the community and also uh we as you guys know we had our uh president in December she was on her second supposed to take her second term. Well she resigned and we received we had a new president installed. Thank you for doing that, Jeff. Um, but he resigned. So, uh, yeah. So, at this point, your vice president of your chamber, um, is unofficially acting, uh, due to restrictions that I have through my work um, or running, helping to direct the chamber. So, I'm going to do my best until we find another chamber president to take over that role. Uh hopefully it's soon. Um we're working we're gonna working on our web page and the links to the members businesses. It's very exciting um because uh Stacy here I was sharing with her our our difficulties right now and uh she's throwing in her her uh expertise to help us out with that. So I'm looking forward to that. Uh our social media will be upgraded uh through constant contact. Um and then coming in

May uh right after the um mayor's breakfast meeting um we have our scholarship te. Um I think we're about uh five or six scholarships going out this year. Um, don't don't quote me on that yet because I don't know completely, but uh we don't have a location yet uh for the tea. So, as soon as we get that location, then we'll get the information out to everyone for that. Um, we normally do that at the Edward Dean Museum, but they changed, uh, uh, you know, the city, the county of Riverside took over the Edward Dean Museum and they no longer do char allow charitable um, you have to pay basically you have to pay to use their facility. So, we're hoping to find a place that doesn't require that because all the money that we have for the scholarships go to the scholarships. So, so we'll see how that works out. Um, and then our membership logs are being updated. I know I said this in February and I said it in January, uh, but they're being updated. We're we I hope to have a membership um number and for new and renewing members. Uh but I think we're right around 125 130 members and um I think in the last two weeks Karine has brought uh five new members but again I'm not getting my numbers u because it's just one of those things right now. But bear with me. We're heading in the right direction and I think our chamber by the end of the year is going to be as strong

as it was or better. So, any questions for me? No, sir. It It takes a lot to eat this egg. So, I appreciate you guys listening. We'll see how we uh get moving forward. So, thank you guys.

Yeah. Thank you for the work you do. Next on our agenda is our business items. So business item six is the is about approval of a letter of to Sacramento and adoption of a resolution advocating for restoration of local land use authority. So I'm going to hand that over to our city manager.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh this item responds to a request made by council member Kundiff at our last council meeting. He asked staff to review the actions taken by the city of Ukipa regarding state housing mandates and to explore whether the city of Kel Mesa should take consider take uh a taking a similar position. Over the past several years, the state of California has adopted a growing number of housing laws intended to address the statewide housing shortage. While the stated goal of these policies is to increase housing production, the cumulative effect has been a gradual erosion of local land use authority as more and more aspects of the planning process are dictated by state law rather than local policy. Further, these housing laws have shown to have little effect to date as housing production continues to decrease. The narrative that is often accompanies these laws is that cities are the primary obstacle to housing production. However, Calamusa's experience tells a very different story. The city of Calamea has already planned for and approved development capacity that far exceeds our regional housing needs allocation or arena. In fact, we have thousands of residential units entitled or approved that will be constructed over the over the coming years. From our perspective, this demonstrates that local land use policies are not the primary barrier to housing production. Instead, many of the challenges affecting housing development stem from factors outside of the control of cities, including the complexity of state regulations, lack of coordination between state agencies, infrastructure funding challenges, and the increasing costs and difficulty of bringing projects to construction. For example, in the realm of coordination between state agencies, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, is responsible for certifying housing elements and overseeing implementation of say state housing laws. In recent years, HCD has significantly expanded its enforcement role and now works closely with the attorney California attorney general's off office to ensure cities are

implementing the housing programs identified in their housing elements. These agencies frequently scrutinize local policies and fees, including development impact fees, which cities rely upon to construct the infrastructure necessary to support housing growth. At the same time, other state agencies impose regulatory requirements that can significantly affect the timeline and cost of development. For example, CALR exercises jurisdiction over state highway facilities and can require extensive review and approvals for projects that affect state transportation infrastructure. Environmental regulations overseen by agencies such as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife can also extend project timelines and increase costs. Finally, the California Environmental Quality Act or SQA, while an important environmental protection statute, is frequently used in litigation by project opponents, which can add significant time and uncertainty to development approvals and in some cases make otherwise viable projects infeasible. In short, cities are expected to deliver housing while navigating a regulatory system largely controlled by the state itself. Despite these realities, recent state policy respon responses have increasingly focused on limiting local planning authority while portraying cities as the source of the problem. The proposed letter and resolution included in your agenda packet seeks to push back on that narrative. They make three central points. First, Calama has complied with state housing law and has already planned for signi significant housing growth. Second, cities should not be treated as the cause of California's housing shortage when many communities are already doing their part. And third, if the state truly wants to accelerate housing production, attention should also be directed towards addressing the regulatory and coordination challenges that make housing difficult to build and working with cities instead of against them. The resolution before you tonight also encourages collaboration with other cities throughout the Inland Empire and

the state of California that may share similar concerns regarding the balance between state housing policy and local planning authority. Ultimately, this item is about making sure that Calam's voice is part of that conversation. With that, staff recommends that the council approve the letter and adopt the resolution included in the staff report. That concludes my presentation and staff is available for any questions the council may have. Thank you, city manager. Questions, comments from council. I have comment. Yes, please.

Thank you, Will, for um putting this together and bringing it to us this evening. And I especially like the fact that we're citing and identifying the fact that the state tries to make cities scapegoats. um we do everything that we can within our realm of jurisdiction uh to accommodate for development especially as it pertains to arena numbers um by changing those and allocating them and everything else. And so I I like this that we can kind of make our voices heard hopefully collectively with other cities in our region. And it would be a wonderful thing if we can get them to ease up just on some of these burdening regulations um you know that may be prohibiting some of the construction from from going forward uh or the permitting policies you know so some of those things but thank you very much for doing that and bringing it to us.

Thank you council member pro Tim. I'll just say I I strongly agree with every point of that letter that was that was outlined. So, I'm all all for moving forward on it.

Yeah. I also want to thank uh Council Member Kund for requesting to put this on the agenda and for our city manager for preparing the doing the research and the comments. I've I've had a long frustration with this state's one-sizefits-all approach to think to housing in particular, but many things. Um it's frustrating that people in Sacramento think that they can just come up with a policy that applies to all cities across the state, this uniform uh policy um without um attention to the to the differences cities have or the funding. Absolutely. So I'm all in favor of it as well. So if I could get a

motion uh option. Yeah, I'd make a motion that we approve the attached letter to the governor and state legislator addressing the continued erosion of local land use authority and requesting legislative relief. Uh number two, adopt resol resolution number 2026-07 formally calling for restoration of local planning authority and recognition of the role cities already play in delivering housing. and three, direct staff to coordinate with regional jurisdictions and organizations advocating for policies and better reflect the realities facing uh inland communities. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? I.

That is 40 support. Next on our agenda is item number seven, city of Cow Mesa endorsement of Larry Smith to the local agency formation commission LAFCO board. Um am I going to take that? Yes. Yes, mayor.

Okay. Thank you, sir. So, uh before us is um for the council's consideration is an endorsement letter uh for Larry Smith. Um, and so let me just say in full disclosure, myself and council member Kundiff met with Larry uh recently to get an update on the state water project which he will also be bringing to council on I hope April 6th. We're going to schedule him to bring that. And in during that meeting, he asked if we would the city of Calamoa would would endorse him for a seat in LAFCO as a um a special districts representative on that on that board. LAFCO is an as you know an important agency. Um I know it does more than city boundaries and annexations and corporations, but I'm not sure what it does beyond that. But uh maybe city manager can speak to speak to what it does beyond that. But but uh Council Member Kundiff, I won't put words in his mouth. I'll let him speak to this as well, but um I'm asking that we would recommend uh and endorse Larry Smith uh seat for a seat on LAFCO. And if council gives the uh authorization to do so, I would sign a letter on behalf of the city endorsing him u for this position. So, I'm going to turn this over to council for discussion and uh I'll begin with council member Kundiff.

Yeah. Thank you, mayor. Um many of us know Larry. Many of us know um of the work that he's done countless amount of years in the past area. He was a council member here for a number of years. And um to me, why this was important um was it gives us my opinion better representation in the pass area. Um so, we're kind of isolated out here. um us three cities, you know, the pass area banning Bowmont and Calama and of course the pass water has a lot to do with the things that you know go on with water in our in our uh our jurisdiction. So for me, I'm I'm in favor of it obviously um and would be more than happy to you know throw our support behind him for this special election.

Yeah, thank you for explaining the rationale a little bit more detail. I appreciate that. Council member I also I'm am in in favor. I I'm an alternate for Lavco and I see the need for us to be represented so I think he'll represent as well and I'm in favor as well. Mayor Pro Tim. Yeah, I know that Larry has served this community in a variety of ways and he has uh an extensive resume and so I'm absolutely uh behind supporting him for this position.

Thank you. Yeah, he's more than qualified. He served on uh city council not only in Calama but in the city of Hemet. He's currently on the Sanggonio Pass Water Board. Right. And it was with that agency that I think he'll sit on um LFCO. So, so if I could get a motion then recommendation or to that effect that we approve the uh backing of Larry Smith for the position of regular special district member western Riverside County the Riverside Social Local Agency Formation Commission LACO and authorize the mayor to sign the endorsement letter. Second.

Thank you. All in favor? I I that's 40. Okay. So now, mayor and council members reporting on county and regional meetings and conferences. I'll begin with Council Member Molina. If you wouldn't mind. Yeah.

So, if I can read my notes here. Um on March 4th, I attended um I chair the Riverside Transit Agency um admin and ops uh committee. And so, uh, we attended that meeting and they had just routine items to approve. Um, also the same day, um, our, uh, Cal Mesa Breakfast Lions Club had, uh, its student speaker contest. This is an annual event where students from the local high schools have an opportunity to raise sometimes up to $40,000 in scholarships for a five-minute speech. And so, we do this um, every year. And I was um honored to have um Yaya and Christine Vanheiming um from our staff to participate as judges. It's great opportunity for our students. It shows that the community is interested in what they're doing and empowers them. So that was that was interesting. So this was the third competition. We have another one this Wednesday and then another one in April. So like I said, they have an opportunity from the 9th grade to the to 12th grade. Every year they can compete. Uh the Lions Club um uh um picks the topic every year. This year the topic was youth mental health, excuse me, overcoming barriers uh to well-being. So the speeches were very good. On the 5th, I attended Skagg and um I have um Skagg is always in person. It's it's um they this the very beginning of the years they like all of our other organizations they approve the chair vice chair um and then they make recommendations for uh transportation issues. It's very well it's very um Los Angeles-based and so this is one of the reasons why I joined to get our our keep our voice in Riverside County. There are quite a few of us from Riverside County and so they um see my notes. I brought the the the um the program. Uh you can be on I'm on transportation commission uh

transportation committee for SCAg and um we look at what we can do for the year and they give updates on Metro link at that meeting as well as um anything anything uh transportation. So um look forward to uh continuing with that this year. Um, I went to RCTC commission meeting. I brought some pass outs for everyone. Um, as well as, um, information on the Riverside County transit report. So, I'll bring that. It's in English and Spanish. So, I'll have Darian copy them and give it to everybody. And on the 11th, uh, attended a committee. This is kind of kind of a commu confusing committee. It's the city county city selection committee. You have to be a sitting mayor to participate. whether you're chair or vice chair of the committee and then the committee then works with special districts and so the action for this meeting I was chair I was mayor last year so I was chair of this committee and um they um notes look at my notes um Jeremy Jeremy Smith um was elected chair kind of like I was someone nominated him somebody second and everybody approved and he was it and Linda Koopa who's outgoing uh him um council member is vice chair And so the action items on this meeting was uh to approve um eligible again you have to be a mayor a city mayor to to participate. Um Steve Sanchez from Lita uh was up was up for renewal for the uh airport land use commission which is alle and also LFCO east side portion. So he was unanimously um approved to continue and it was eligible. And then uh on the 13th, this is my favorite part. Um we had a visit by the principal from Valley Elementary School here at the last council meeting to talk about and invite

us to the um uh leadership day there at the school. So Eric and I went. It was very empowering. Um I thought this was a program that um was at all the elementary schools, but it is not. It's strictly at valley and the former principal who's wife of is it school board or wife Bob Miller Kathy Kathy Miller

yes started this started this program and so the the whole campus all kids were so energized even kindergarteners they were all um all focused on Steven Cubby's seven principles and and habits of of highly effective people and they demonstrated they were very articulate all the heads. They ran the whole show. They gave awards to other students, but it shows that they were they were they drank the juice. They were they were all they they were um very respectful. They were all participative. And it's clearly a a way to empower our kids for higher education to be empowered by in public speaking as well as recognition of others uh doings and being respectful. So, I was very happy to be there. It was quite a quite a few parents that were there as well. They did tours of the classrooms afterwards and um I attended that and and was happy to be there for our our council, Eric and I. And I believe that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kundiff. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh on the 5th, I attended the T now uh transportation now meeting. Um nothing to report on that. It was just some business items at that point. Um on the 11th, it was a orientation for WRCOG, which you previously sat on. So there's not really a whole lot to to bring from that either. But um the biggest one, well second biggest in my opinion was the 13th that may council woman Molina just brought up about Valley Elementary. Um the leader in me school day. Um I don't think we could praise it enough.

Um the leadership that these children from grades second all the way to fifth displayed was just incredible. these kids, they had adult supervision the whole time. You know, there was obviously principles and teachers and and helpers and things, but these kids at at those grades to be able to do that. Um I I truly believe that they're doing it right to give them building blocks to be successful in life. Um and and that was just fantastic. And and it again, it was started by um Kathy Miller, I believe, started the program, but currently Chris Rexad, who brought his students here, is the principal, and I believe Dr. Jamie Anderson is the um assistant superintendent for education. Um they they're supportive of this program and uh and without them supporting it and driving it, you know, it would probably not be successful. And uh so it was just can't say enough good things about what those kids at that school are learning and I wish all the schools in our area would do that. So um I was happy to be there with Linda. And then on the 14th, um, Howard, you know, which we talked about the opening day baseball, softball thing. Um, that was such a beautiful day. It was such a beautiful event. There was hundreds of kids out there. They were all appreciative. The parents were all appreciative. Um, they were just really grateful and um, it w it would not have been a success had it not been for Howard and Pat Reeves putting it together at the grassroots of this whole thing. and they've had lots of other help and contra, you know, contributors and everything and that's great and thanks to them as well, but Howard has had this vision for those of you that know them for many years, many, many, many years. And to see it finally come to fruition, um, it it was just on the face of those kids that that said it all.

And, uh, it was just, it was a great thing. So, um, that was another wonderful highlight. Two other things. Uh I would like to thank staff of course for all their hard work and and for going on their days off to these events. Um you know working tirelessly for the city and and I don't think they get recognized enough by the public on that but they do and uh so thank the staff for that. And then lastly I wanted to bring some awareness to an issue um I was reached out by a board member um for Donkey Land. Uh I don't know if you guys are familiar with what Donkey Land is but bless you. Um, Donkey Land, without messing it up too much, um, was started by Bob Barker years ago. Um, it's in Riverside County, and it was a it was a large piece of property that was purchased and supported by um, some of their nonprofits to um, house stray donkeys. Uh, because in our region, we have lots of them. And apparently um here in the newspaper and probably local TV news um we there's been a rash of um animal cruelty um to these poor animals. So there's been um donkeys shot with arrows. Um there's been other ones that have been mutilated and and all kinds of things and and so one of them reached out and asked me to pass along some information which I'm I'm going to do now. So um Donkey is hosting a town hall meeting to address the recent donkey attacks and maulings. More than 100 community members are attending, including agencies and stakeholders from Riverside, San Bernardino counties, and other impacted areas. Uh the meeting will be held Monday, March 23rd at 6:30 p.m. and that will be at the Sandals Church at Hunter Park at 150 Palmia Avenue and Riverside 92507. Um there's several entrances there, so they're going to be in auditorium 3. And um just so that the public is aware, um there is a $50,000 reward, cash reward

for any help in apprehending some of these grotesque individuals that are committing these acts on these poor animals. Um, so they've got the attention of a gentleman by the name of Steven Laam, uh, who does some productions for different types of saving animals, uh, you know, whatever that those needs are. But he he's involved in that and and his he's a producer, award-winning producer apparently that, um, is focusing on on this issue now with them. So, I'm bringing some awareness to our area, to our citizens that may be listening, uh, or maybe if they read about it in the paper, um, see something, report. see something, say something. Um, the Richie Canyon, Santi Canyon, we got donkeys all over. And uh, so it's it's something that uh, it's unfortunate that's happening, but it is. So that's all I have. Um, thank you again to staff and thank you for the time.

Mayor, please.

Um, I know both supervisors, uh, Gutierrez and Ralph are from San Bardino have been involved in trying to rescue the donkeys. What happens is they they they live up there. There's a sanctuary. They're trying to enclose it to save the donkeys because they're they're animals. They're out foraging. Well, they don't know the difference between plants at the cemetery and somebody's yard versus, you know, what what they find in the desert. And so people want to pet them and and they pull their car over and they offer them food. Well, so they're not afraid of cars. So they wander out into the onto Canyon and um and they get hit, you know, they they cause accidents and um and it's a problem, but there, you know, there's signs everywhere not to feed the animals because they're wild animals. You're not supposed to do that. So the supervisors are aware of it. There's there's organized uh volunteers that that that manage these donkeys. And it's a great program. I've been up to Donkey Land. It's a fantastic area that's that's walled completely in in metal bars, but it's a beautiful place for them. It's their original habitat. There was a movement last year of someone trying to uh trailer them to Texas, a two-day uh road trip to Texas where half of them were dying because they weren't fed food or water until they got to Texas just to get rid of the donkeys. But that's what this, you know, they were born there. So, I hope that we can support them. It's a great it's a great thing. But I I I forgot. I'm sorry. I forgot. I was going to bring up some something um during my comments about travel. I Councilman Garcia is not here, but um both of us are are deficient in one area of our travel. I know we have uh till uh June 30, but um I wanted to hopefully bring it up at at the next council meeting or a future council meeting on uh realigning how we how we develop our transfer our our travel funds because there are annual events, recurring events that we almost

always go to and it would if we made some changes in our budget. Now, we've talked about several ways to do that, but I would like to bring it up for future discussion because our city is growing. We need to we need we're regionally minded. We have to, you know, network with other communities. And I think it's important for us to be have a place at the table. That what the saying, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. That's right. Yeah. And so, I believe that. And so, I'd like to see if we can um better allow us to do um more work out uh in the in uh Riverside County. Thank you. Thank you. If we could agendaize uh for upcoming council me travel funds. Yes. Yes, we can do that.

Thank you. All right. Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, mayor. On March 11th, uh the mayor and I met with Congressman Ken Galpert. Uh so that's a it was an important meeting. you know, we really appreciate him coming down and he's here to listen to all the concerns or concerns of of our community. So, I did kind of want to highlight he's been a big supporter of ours and he's helped us in very significant ways in the past. Um, so just just a reminder for for the community really, but you provide us a million dollars for the emergency operations center, two million for the Cherry Valley, the beginning part of the Cherry B interchange, uh, four million for the county line road and Cal Mesa Boulevard, and 5 million from the Singleton missing on and off ramps there. So, uh, he's been consistent to support us. So, he he is here here to listen. So, the mayor and I kind of addressed some of our the biggest concerns that the community have uh to him and so him and his staff were are here and happy and engaging with that. And I guess I'll leave it to the mayor if he wants to add anything else uh from that meeting, but that will conclude my report.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. Yeah, that was a uh we welcomed the congressman to city hall and it's always great to see him here. Uh the mayor pro Tim, myself, our city engineer and city manager were in attendance and really we just wanted to express our appreciation as the mayor pro Tim said for his ongoing support for our city and projects we have. He's been just a a a solid support for us um and for this community and we wanted to let him know how much we appreciate that and at the same time to also let him know of our existing priorities and needs in the city with uh the hope that he wouldn't we he would continue to uh you know remember us and uh with future legislation. So um it was it was a great honor. I thought it was uh it was a very productive time and I enjoyed it. So, uh, oh yeah, I think you covered it, the the support. So, so thank you. Um, also I attended on March 14th, as uh, Council Member McCundiff said, our Calama Youth Baseball and Softball League opening ceremony. As was said, it was just a great event, great time to be out there outdoors with the families, the kids of Calama, to see the the joy on their face running around throwing a ball. Just the sights and sounds of baseball are just uh, fantastic. And to have that now in our own city and our community was a historic day, historic moment. Um, and you know, from start to finish, right, we had one of our own singing the national anthem. We had our fire department there, our our police were representative, our city council, and of course our staff here, the city and and of course the the board and the president of the youth baseball, Howard Reeves, has just done a fantastic job thus far getting this off the ground, organizing it. It was just a lot of fun and it was honored to be there and to be

a part of it. So, shout out again to him. Um, that concludes my report and I will now pass it over to our city manager. Thank you, mayor. Um, just a couple of things. Council member Garcia asked me to let everyone know that he's very excited about the farmers market that will be coming soon to our community, which was item number five uh in your packet on the consent calendar today. He also wanted to thank staff for all the work they put in to help make this um possible for Kame Mesa. Um also I wanted to briefly note that staff submitted a letter on behalf of the city supporting Assembly Bill 2517 which addresses the state's process for adopting fire hazard severity zone maps. So, as the council may recall, uh, when the state released the new local responsibility area maps last year, we expressed a number of concerns about the lack of transparency in the modeling process and the fact that cities were essentially required to adopt the maps uh without meaningful local input. Um so this bill would improve that process by requiring earlier release of draft maps, greater transparency in the underlying data and opportunity for regional workshops and public comment before cities are required to adopt them. So based on the discussion and feedback the council provided when we adopted the maps, um I did feel comfortable um submitting the letter on behalf of the city because time was of the essence. So and I included uh a copy of that letter in my latest update to the city council last week. And finally, um I just wanted to let the community know we are going to have our Easter egg hunt um Saturday, April 4th at 9:00 a.m. at Summerwind Park. So, we hope to see uh all the community there. And that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. The city council will now go into close session. And so, I will hand it over to our city attorney to read the item. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh the council has one item in close session uh agenda for tonight is conference with labor negotiators per pursuant to government code section 54957.6. The represented employees are the Cal Calamea Professional Firefighters Association. The city's negotiators are the city manager and the deputy city manager. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And thanks to everyone for attending today. We'll see you next time.