City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Cala Mesa City Council. We're gonna call this meeting to order 6 p.m. June 1st. We could get a roll call, please.

Council Member Cundiff. Here. Council Member Garcia. Here. Council Member Molina. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Manley. Here. Mayor Cervantes.

Here. For the record, we have our City Manager, Cobol, present. City Attorney, Flower. City Clerk, Gerdes. Finance Director, Reed. Our Community Director, Lucia, is here. Public Works Superintendent, he's here, welcome. Great title. City Engineer, Thornton.

Our Deputy Fire Chief, Shaw, and our Sheriff Captain, Escobar.

Welcome, everybody. Thanks for being here, and I now realize We did a little out of order, but that's all right. We're going to go back to the pledge, and we're going to have our Council Member Molina lead us in that.

It's Monday.

Yes.

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

Well, we don't have too many in attendance, but in case you're interested to make communications on any agenda items or just general public comments, you're free to do so by filling out a public speaker slip and handing it to our city clerk, and we'd be happy to hear what you have to say. Madam City Clerk, any communications from the public?

Okay.

So at this time, I'm gonna ask our staff if they have any changes to the agenda or items that they would need to pull for modification.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, we would like to change the order. We request that we hear item 11 before item 10, so under, the business items, the joint meeting for the city and the successor agency, item 11. We want to hear that. We'd like to take that one before item 10. So we request that change.

Okay. Council, how do you want to proceed? Are you okay with that modification? And is there any other modifications or items you'd like to pull?

If none, I'll move to approve the agenda and consent calendar and waiver of full reading of ordinances with the changes mentioned.

Okay. Second. All right, all in favor? Aye. Okay, that was 5-0 for the revised agenda. So at this point, we have our fire chief report.

Here we go.

Afternoon, Mayor, Council. 2026 year-to-date fire department performance summary. We were at 1,030 total responses, essentially unchanged from last year, probably enough, 1,034 responses at the same time. Our medical incidents totaled 741, continuing to represent the department's primary service demand. Our fire related responses including fire alarms, alarm activations and other fire service incidents were about 25 responses total. Miscellaneous calls were at 49 with 215 auto and mutual aid responses. sent and 21 received. Our average response times from dispatch to arrival is about 6.9 minutes, slightly above last report. A few key points is our overall call volume remains stable. EMS continues to drive our operational demand. Fire incidents remain a relatively small portion of total response. However, our personnel, as you know, must remain prepared for the low-frequency, high-risk incidents and events. And our response performance remains steady through response time trends, and they should continue to be monitored.

And that's all I have. Okay. I appreciate that report. Do we have any questions, comments? Yeah. Council Member Cundiff.

There was a small fire, wasn't there, over towards San Timoteo on the outskirts of our city limits today? There was today. Did we send any units or anything, had to support that?

We did not. We did go look. It was Cal Fire Riverside County Fire Department unit response on the what have been west side of San Timoteo Canyon, and I'm sorry, south side of San Timoteo Canyon, west of our jurisdiction by a kilometer or so, and it was a couple acres. They had it under control.

Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Yes, sir. Any other comment?

Sorry.

All right, we're good. Appreciate it. Okay, next is our Sheriff Captain's report.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the City Council. So as we normally do, I'm going to talk a little bit about our Part 1 crimes, and then I'm going to talk just a little bit about some trends that we saw over the course of the last month. So for Part 1 crimes, and this is for the month of May, there were no homicides, there were no sexual assaults reported, no robberies. There was a total of three assaults, and there was one burglary that was reported, one vehicle theft, and then larceny theft did go up by about five from the month of April to May. And then we had no arson. So for a total on the part one crimes is a total of 24 for the month of May. which is an increase of about four from the previous month. One of the things that we did see as far as trends for the month of May is public intoxication and DUI. So just to talk a little bit about it, I mean, it's not an influx, but we do have some, there were some notable arrests that were made, so just wanna let the public know that's listening, whether listening or here in person, that if they do see somebody that is publicly intoxicated, just make sure they call either 911 or call our non-emergency give us a call so we can come out. There was a few arrests that were made. And this was related to people that were actually outside of the city that don't even live here within the city. And then we also had a driving under the influence TC that occurred where a house was hit. And so just a reminder to those that we all occasionally like having a drink, just make sure that we're doing it right. But on the reporting aspect, if you do see somebody that's walking, staggering, they look like they need help or they're under the influence, please just call us. We'll get a deputy to respond out there and handle it accordingly. So that's all I have for the report. If there's any questions, I'd love to answer them.

Any questions from the council? I do. Council Member Cundiff. So of those arrests that were made, were any of those... 647 Fs, like just people walking some of our transient community possibly?

That's correct, yes, sir. A couple of them just from outside coming in. And then, yes, some are those that are unhoused, homeless. And then, of course, the DUI, the one where the house, you know, that could really impact a family, right? Fortunately, on this particular incident, it did not. But it was pretty significant for that family.

All right, thank you, Kevin. Any other? No. Okay. Appreciate that report. Thank you, Captain. All right. We're going to now proceed to our business items as amended. So that means we will take item 11 first and then return back to item 10. So the joint meeting for adoption of the budget and capital improvement program for fiscal year 2026, I believe is going to be our staff report from our finance director.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council. It is my pleasure to present to you the fiscal year 26-27 Budget and Capital Improvement Program. Heretofore, we have met previously. We met with the Finance Committee for several hours on April 13th. that comprised our mayor, Mayor Pro Tem. We had a full length budget workshop that was also about two, two and a half hours. So a lot of the numbers that you see pulled together here have been vetted and discussed. So as a result, I will be providing this in a brief and summary form. If anybody is interested, for members of the public, if they'd like to review the budget workshop in full, it is available online if they're interested in any particulars. So we do have a PowerPoint presentation to be pulled up shortly. Do I need to take any action, darling?

Council, the slides are provided for you.

Oh, thank you. So the opening slide that we have here is the fiscal year 26-27 general fund summary. So the first column on the left is what is very important to the council historically and to city staff from the city manager on and that is a reflection that the city lives within our means and you'll hear to this as our ongoing budget and Operating surplus is what you'll hear. So for this year, we do have an operating surplus, although it's not large, it's about $5,500. This is not intentional to get to $5,000. It really is how the numbers, worked out and such as it is. Those are the decisions that have been made and we'll be talking about some of the expenditures again in the broader terms. The second column that we have are one-time expenditures that you're also quite familiar with. We've used this phrase. These are expenditures that are somewhat discretionary. They don't occur year after year and they're within the council's purview and discretion as to whether or not they were to go on. So you would not see electric bills and supplies and things and staff salaries inside the one-time column. What we do have in here and what the majority of the 118,000 is, is a result of what you recently approved, which is on May 18th, which is the paramedic incentive program. And there's a lot of work and a lot of effort to have advanced life support and take care of our fire department and fire team. So there was funding set aside for recruiting and retention and then the rewarding of those who are on staff and are paramedics with the City of Calamesa. So that's the majority of the 118,000. We also have reflected in the schedule transfers out of about 785,000. Those are somewhat discretionary transfers from the general fund to pay for large and significant capital expenditures, some funding of our information technology and vehicles and so forth. And we have a slide that will provide in detail that. So in summary, as we look at the end of the fiscal year, we're going to be, we expect fiscal year to 2026 to end at about 7.2 million. That's what's been budgeted. This number will vary. But that's what we have budgeted and anticipated right now for a net result projected at the end of June 30, 2027 of about $6.3 million. We've included the available reserves. As I mentioned before, there are discretionary transfers that are set forth in council policy, but there are transfers that are made into the capital projects, vehicle replacement fund, and information technology fund. And these are, we list them here as available reserves because these are amounts that are available. God forbid there's a crisis situation and we need to tap into other funds. These are not funds that are set aside from outside sources. They're internally directed from city council. So within the collective, we have about 6.9 million as projected for June 30, 2027. And that is a reflection of about 62% of our general fund recurring, recurring expenditures. So that's a nice comfortable number. Historically the council has set aside 35% as reserves in Calamasa at least since my tenure and I think before I even arrived Bonnie our previous city manager and the City Council before that had established a higher just in general had a higher reserve.

But so that's a little bit of a context and reference of where we've been.

So we're going to take a look at revenues. This chart may be familiar to you. I won't spend too much time on it because I know you're all pretty familiar with it, but I think what's notable and very visual to everyone is that the top three revenue categories, which are property taxes, sales tax, and vehicle in lieu of property tax, comprise 77% of all of the revenue that the City of Cala Mesa brings in in the general fund. That's a pretty significant ratio. It's a reflection. We don't have a lot of variation or other revenues that are heavily weighted that this is the bulk of our revenues that come in. I'd like to talk about the property tax trend. You've also seen this chart before, and we historically have always looked back, or at least in the recent term, I shouldn't say always, going back 10 years, because this is just a very telling graph and chart, not even necessarily for this year's budget, but to be mindful of decisions that we have to make in future fiscal years, or I should say that city council makes in future fiscal years. So we have this nice growth pattern from fiscal year 18 all the way through fiscal year 23 and even 23-24. The difference between fiscal year 23-24, we had an increase of $750,000 just in one year. And you know what this is from, and this is the trend of all the growth that's been happening. And then you also know and understand that we've not had a lot of build-outs. We haven't had a lot of communities being developed. We haven't had a lot of property tax growth. So the growth that we're seeing now is more a reflection of homes that are sold and revalued and then the standard property tax rates. Our city manager spent some time and really shared us and gave us some in-depth knowledge on how these numbers are derived and calculated. So what's notable is while we had really wonderful years of a lot of growth in significant numbers, over the past three years, we're having increases of closer to 230,000. So even just from, it's just from 23, 24 in between these years, you can see that it's just leveling out, I guess is what I'll say there. So it's slowing down, leveling out, but that's a reflection of what you know and see to be happening out in the community. Our sales tax trend is actually similar. It's actually a little closer. It's been leveling out for a few more years than even our property tax trend. But that's also really consistent with the growth that we've had. We had the second Stater Brothers open and that wonderful shopping center that we now have. And thankfully, it's been around for a few years now. Sales tax is not as significant as the property tax, but it's still $1.7 million, so it's nice to see, but that's also holding steady. And again, we're doing well this year. It has been budgeted and what's before you for decisions. We have a net surplus, but it's to keep in mind of where we've been, where we are, and hopefully where we're going. With respect to expenditures, this is another very dramatic chart when I look at it. And public safety, I think city council takes great pride in the emphasis that is invested into public safety and it is reflected and placed into our budget. Public safety is what you see here is going to round about $7.2 million. We have an additional $250,000 that is budgeted with a supplemental COPS grant fund that we have. So in the collective, we have about $7.4 million that we pay towards public safety in general. This includes police and fire and animal control. So it's a significant portion. It's about 63% of the overall budget. And I think you can see this on this chart here, that's about what that looks like. So because most of the expenditures relate to public safety, that's where I'll be spending just a little bit of time on the slides and how those dollars are spent. And we thought it was important to differentiate between the police department expenditures and the fire. So you can see here these are the Riverside County Sheriff's contract rates that we've seen. I have a trend from fiscal year 21 to 27 and this is just remarkable to see all the different numbers. It's been as low as 1.63 and then most recently in this fiscal year that we're in 8.85, close to 9%. It is notable. I did do an average across all the years. If you take an average it's about 5.15%. So over the years, those are, and that's what we're seeing a lot, and you'll see that when we look ahead, 5% is a pretty common number that keeps coming up for increases in expenditures. So as it evens out, the past three years, there is an average of 7.8% increase. This is a result of renegotiated contracts that have a layering effect and I believe it's about 88%, I read, of these increase in rates that are going towards the Sheriff's Department is in direct benefit for salaries and benefits to Sheriff's Department employees. So how those rates and how it looks and how that translates into dollars, we have the general fund RSO expenditures that we have here, and we went from 2.3 million in fiscal year 2020 and now we are at 3.2 million. So that's an increase of about, let me see if I have a better, That's an increase of about $900,000 over all these years. And there's been investments into the POP deputy. And we have a CSO that is paid for out of the supplemental fund and a reflection of the additional services and time value spent in Cala Mesa. So there's been considerable contributions and expenditures that have increased in budget for police. Moving on to the General Fund Fire Department and Community Risk Reduction Bureau, they also had a very significant increase from fiscal year 23 through fiscal year 27, an increase of $1.7 million. That's about a 74% increase. We have done some research and understand what that comprises of. We did in this timeframe expand to advanced life support services. There's been expansion of team members and additional team member on the engine. There have been increases in staffing on the engines, increases in staff and wages and benefits. There have been vehicle outfitting costs. There have been upgrades to the living quarters. We have new beds. There's been new living room furnishings, kitchen equipment. We've had a BC office conversion. There's been a patio cover, gates, new roofs. There's just been a lot of investment into the Fire Department. I did extract out the ladder truck. It had originally been put part of operations and it just, it wasn't fair to include it in here. It's such a significant acquisition and also included in these numbers is SCBA packs that were purchased for all the, for the fire team and that was a pretty significant expenditure. It was in excess of $200,000. But that was offset by a grant from the federal government of $191,000. So when there was opportunity, we did obtain grants for some of the growth. But there's been a lot of investments into our general fund fire, and we established the Community Risk Reduction Bureau. So included in the budget for your consideration, I wanted to share with you some staffing updates. We have the maintenance worker position, an associate planner position, an HR risk manager position. The numbers that you see before you are inclusive of all salaries and benefits for these positions. And it is noted that we're anticipating the human resource risk manager will be hired. We're looking for a start date about December 1st. Unrepresented employees, which exclude the city manager, there has been included in the budget a 4% cost of living increase for unrepresented employees. Represented employees still remaining in negotiations, so that is still be determined. We have put some budgeted numbers in here, but it's not appropriate to share specifics about that at this time because negotiations are ongoing. And what we did include, of course, as I had mentioned, is what has already been approved by the council, which is the paramedic incentive program of about $100,000. So for our capital improvement program, we have a very robust capital improvement program. This is in addition to all of the other projects of which you're all very familiar with that are ongoing. These are some of the projects that we have new coming online for fiscal year 26-27. We have some ADA ramps that are going to be funded by a CDBG grant and a little bit from the ADA fund. There is, we have park security of $150,000 budgeted through our DIF program. We have a citywide pavement management program, phase three, of which our city engineer will be discussing at the next item. Budgeted is approximately 1.3 million for that. And then some of those transfers that I was talking about that are funded through the general fund for significant capital acquisitions. The fire department requires complete replacement of all of their equipment and gear every 10 years and that time frame is up. So the first 125,000 has been budgeted for fiscal year 27. There'll be a second 125,000 in fiscal year 28. The cardiac monitor and pulse machine needs to be replaced and updated as indicated by our fire department. So that's been recommended. We have a housing element of $250,000. This has been listed in the capital category. It's not technically a capital improvement. However, it's such a significant expenditure and it's so large. We didn't want to include it as part of ongoing operations. I think, as you know, this is something that happens once every six years. Is it, Kelly? Five to six years. Thank you. Five years. So it's not necessarily recurring. Yeah. We have budget software that is recommended. It's a collective of about 65,000. This might be a little on the high side from a budget perspective, but it's the numbers we had in there, but it will definitely come back to council for consideration once decisions are made about specific budget software. And then we're going to be replacing, if the council so approves, the playground equipment at the Mountain View Park phase one. It's an estimated about $25,000. So there's quite a bit going on in Cala Mesa. So I'm actually gonna turn it over now to our city manager and he's gonna talk about looking ahead to fiscal year 28 and beyond.

thank you celeste um so we are going to one of the exercises that we're looking to do is we want to do some more um in-depth um financial forecasting so we do celeste and i've worked on some you know like high-level estimates overlooking trying to look at you know the two or three years beyond the current fiscal year but we want to look at that a little more in depth so we just want to give you a little bit of a preview of that and so First of all, when we budget and we forecast, we usually do it on a baseline. In other words, we're not relying on development. Some cities make the mistake of doing that and having overly rosy projections. And when development doesn't happen, there's expectations that are set that can't be met. So we try to stay away from that. And then once we know the development's there, once we know things are vertical, but once we know things have a CFO that are actually gonna produce revenue if it's a commercial business, because now we've even seen that something can go vertical and still not open. We're very skeptical when it comes to development. So when you look at your revenue increases, that's just based on the current tax base, right? There's no, as the council knows, there's a public hearing scheduled for annexation that will bring in additional revenue. We're not accounting for that right now. We're not accounting for that until something like that is finalized. So when you look at minor revenue increases, about two to 5%, we're talking about the current tax base. Salary increases, we're getting closer and closer to having more folks at their top step. So when you see the 4% COLA, That's in addition to any step increases they may get if they're not at top step. So they may get up to 9% in a single year. So we have to account for those increases. So when we do our personnel budgeting, we do that. So that's why we throw kind of an estimate in there of 5% to kind of capture both the anticipated COLAs plus all of those merit increases that would go in there. Software, we're relying more and more on software. In a lot of cases, it helps us do our job more efficiently. But most of those, the standard increases on those contracts are 5%. So we have to build in 5% for the increases on those as well. And finally, you know, looking forward, it's a little bit of a crystal ball exercise to look beyond 27, what will happen with Sheriff's Department. You know, there's a combination of just contractual increases in the rates. And there's also the fact that, you know, maybe there's got to be service changes, right? So we're running at 107% of our contract, for example. So in addition to the 24 hours a day, 365 that we pay for, We initially were budgeting for one hour per day extra. Now we're budgeting for two hours per day extra. So we're keeping an eye on those things. If we get more calls, there's gonna be additional services that'll come in. So those are the things that we need to factor in too. So it's not just the contract increases, but also any changes in service level beyond our race 24 hours. So we're keeping an eye on that. In the future, when we get to a point where we're able to add maybe a 12 hour a day deputy, so we have a 36 hour total coverage, or even get to 48, obviously that may not be needed because you have that second deputy all the time, or at least on peak hours. So part of that cost that we're budgeting for that eventually could be folded into that. So you wouldn't just see the total cost of that second 12 hours or that 24 hours. We'd be able to absorb some of that in there. So that's something that we factor in too. But again, those things will more likely come with growth. So that's just something to keep in mind because when we're talking about adding 12 hours, you're talking about a million dollars a year. So two to five percent revenue increases are not going to cut that. It's just the fact of the matter. You'd have to cut expenses somewhere else. And as you know, we run a pretty tight, thin ship as it is. So those are just things to consider. And those are the things, those are the major cost factors that we look at when we're looking ahead. So with that, you can go to the next slide. That concludes our presentation. Thank you, Celeste. You did a great job. And so Celeste and I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have on this. Thank you.

Thank you, Celeste. Thank you, Will. Appreciate that. Very helpful information. So I'm going to open it out now to the floor. Council, any comments, questions for our finance director or city manager?

Yeah, Council Member Cunda. Director Reed. Thank you, fantastic presentation. I could follow it. It was very helpful and you always do a great job with that, you and your team. Thank you very much. Fantastic job. City Manager Will. When is the Sheriff's contract due to be renegotiated or re-signed?

Our current contract runs through June 30th, 2027. 2027, okay, thanks. Council Member William.

Council Member Garcia. I've got a question. I'm not sure if Captain is able to answer this, but based on the hours in patrol for our officers here, I know when we need support, there's other officers that will come into our city to do additional support. How is our officers looking and patrolling just within our cities per per officer? I know we have the pop officer and then we have our, uh, main officer, but we have one more, right?

Yeah, it's a it's a civilian community service officer CSO. So we have that. We have a dedicated CSO as well.

Are you able to break down like the many hours based on each officer that are supposed to be here and then do they go within our region of the Cabazon area or do they just kind of be one here support and then when we need more support the other officers come over? Can you kind of give us a little breakdown of that just for our citizens here?

Yes, absolutely. So you have 24 hours of coverage. So you always have a deputy that's assigned. The POP deputy does work different hours depending on the needs. So more or less operating like a special enforcement team deputy. If we have trends that are happening here, sometimes he'll have to make adjustments and those types of things. But typically he works during the day shift, during the... the weekday because he primarily works a lot with code enforcement and some of the issues that are together on that. As far as our community service deputy officer, the same as well. When it comes to an officer coming in, we do have a deputy or a deputy that's associated or assigned to our Cherry Valley. So if there's a backup officer, for instance, we have a Cala Mesa deputy that is that's assigned here primarily, has a call for service and they need some backup, then typically they'll have that Cherry Valley deputy that will come in and offset whether there's backup that's needed and such. There's also the POP deputy. If he's here, he's going to do backups and those types of things. As far as the civilian, when it comes to calls for service, he is civilian, meaning he's non-sworn. So he can back up, but he's very limited in capacity depending on the call for service.

And then what about like the officers when they're doing trainings like off of the area, are they getting substitute to come over? Are you guys able to find another officer to cover our area when they're doing trainings like for just to kind of meet their minimum requirements to be an officer?

Yes, that's a great question. So you will always have a deputy that is going to come in and we're going to be able to offset. There is mandated training per post and per the state that our deputies do have to attend. We also like getting them other additional training that's going to benefit depending on the trends of the city and such. But you always have a deputy that will offset that deputy to where there won't be a lack in coverage.

I would add on that, that is an advantage of using the Sheriff's Department, because they do have a bigger pool of officers to cover, so they can get coverage more easily than maybe a standalone station or a standalone department could. So if we just were on our own, and we only had a certain number of officers, if our officer is not available, it may be harder to get coverage on that. And so there's a little bit more It's a little bit more of a balancing act, but having the right, the resource of the sheriff's department does help with with with that coverage issue.

Yeah, thank you. And the reason why I'm asking just because, you know. This whole region of the county were kind of spread out. So I know with other cities being contracted with the sheriff's department, I just don't want to be stuck in a situation where. There's only one officer in town, and when they need backup, the officer's in the other side of the town by the time they patrol here. I know our surrounding officers are here, but within the Riverside Sheriff's Department, just kind of making sure that we have our officers close by within their radius, instead of just kind of traveling back and forth from one side to the other.

Definitely appreciate the concern. It's much appreciated. Yeah, so we do have, when it comes regionally, I guess we would call this the west of the Cabazon Station and what we serve, the west. There are deputies that are available. So you have your primary deputy in Cala Mesa, and then not too far away, whether it's Cherry Valley, San Timoteo, or what have you, within the same area.

Perfect, thanks. Thank you, Councilmember.

Mayor Pro Tem, any questions, comments? No?

So thank you so much for the preparation of this again and for our third, fourth round of getting to look at these numbers. Thank you. There's a lot to like about these numbers. I think the thing that sticks out to me the most is the 62% operating revenues that we have. I think that that is, speaks to the wisdom of our leadership here at the city. Both of you should be commended for that. And I know that that's strategically important for us. It generates additional revenue, having that. Our fiscal health speaks to so many different things. And so I thought maybe I'd give you an opportunity to speak about why it's so important to have such a sizable Reserve 62% when I think our policy says 35 but we are going above and beyond even right what we say and Remind us the citizens why that's so important for the health and well-being of our city. I

I'd be happy to and certainly a city manager can jump in as well. So the GFOA and general standards at the broadest level says cities should generally have about anywhere from 17 to 18% in reserves. However, what's unique about Cal Mesa is that is a position that is maybe better suited for cities that have 100 million in operating expenditures or 120 million in larger scale cities. Because the city of Cala Mesa, we only average about $11 million of operating expenditures. One of the reasons why the reserves have been so robust is that if we were to have such a low number as generally recommended, that doesn't really cover the cost of what an emergency may be. And it's been said before that if, God forbid, something happens in our city, we don't get a discount or break because we're a small city. It costs the exact same amount it would cost to repair a hole in the street as it does in Beaumont, which I think, as you know, as it's come to our attention, these emergency situations can be sizable. They can be significant. So City of Calamasa would be... in decision-making would be somewhat remiss not to account for that, that it's not just a measure and a reflection that, well, this is a coverage and while we're really thrilled and pleased to share that it's about 62%, we know and understand that that's still, you know, about $7 million as we've estimated. So again, God forbid in the event of a significant emergency. And I think we've seen and understand just on a national scale, nobody's coming to save the day. You know, federal funding, you hear it, where's FEMA, where are the FEMA, you know, trailers, they don't come, they don't show up. So we have to be as prepared as possible that we are on our own and we have to have as much set aside as possible. And because we do have the occasional $250,000, you know, housing element that we have to do every five years, we just have to be a lot more weighted in the reserves. And forgive me for saying we have to. It's just a prudent decision to make. I don't mean to impose my will or opinion too deeply on it, but I hope that shows a little bit of, you know, if somebody were to say to you, well, why don't we spend that? We have so much. Well, thank goodness we do, but also we just have to always have our eye on the prize.

Yeah, I would add, I don't want to throw any of our neighboring cities under the bus or anything, but we see cities in our area with significant financial challenges. And it's because they were doing policies, you know, the antithesis of what we do here. and they're paying the price for it right now for not having the policies and prudent fiscal discipline that we've shown here. So that situation can develop very quickly when you see just this pot of money and are just itching to spend it or wanting to make unrealistic projections to be able to accomplish the goals that you think you need to accomplish. It's a short-term gain, but long-term, it can put you in the situation that they're in now. And those are much bigger cities than we are. So our margin for error in that realm is smaller, to Celeste's point. So that's why it's important. And yeah, you're going to wait two or three years for FEMA if there's an emergency. But we also wrote the policy in a very deliberate way so that it'll grow with us. So as we grow, we can probably take those thresholds down a little bit because of... being able to rely on more economies of scale, things like that. So the emergencies that we have to deal with are gonna be kind of maybe a fixed dollar amount, but as we grow, maybe those percentages can drop, those amounts can drop, and then that frees that money up. We're just not there yet. So that's why as we grow, we do have the policy written in that the policy will grow with the city almost automatically so that we can keep up with those things.

Thank you. Thank you for stressing the importance of that. And I do believe it is prudent. And we are very wise to have such an important reserve policy in place. And it makes us, we should be proud of that. You know, being fiscally conservative and being able to take care of ourselves as a city. I think so. That's what we want to continue to do that. So anything else? Okay, so we need to make several resolutions here. So if I can get some motions to that effect.

I can grab them. I'll just take them individually, I think. I'll move to adopt resolution number 2026-16, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Calamasa, California, establishing fiscal year 2026-27 appropriation limit.

I'll second that then.

Okay, all in favor? Aye. All right.

I move to adopt resolution number 202617, a resolution of the City of Council of the City of Calamasa adopting the proposed 2026-27 General Fund Operating Budget Special Revenue Funds Budget Capital Improvement Programs and amending the fiscal 2025-26 approved budget as specified.

Get a second for that? Second. All right, all in favor? Aye. That's 5-0.

And one more, I'll move to adopt CSA Resolution Number 2026-01 of the Board of Directors of the Successor Agency to the Calamasa Redevelopment Agency, adopting the proposed Calamasa Successor Agency budget for fiscal year 2026-2027. I can second that.

Thank you. All in favor? Aye. 5-0 for all three. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, for reading those for us. And we'll now circle back to our business item number 10, and I'm going to hand this over to our City Engineer, Mike Thorne.

No, you can dive right in, sir.

Okay. All right. Good evening, Council. So we're gonna talk about one of the most important things to talk about in any city, pavement management. Everybody wants to know, are you gonna fix my street? Every resident asks that, and tonight is the night. A little disappointing the attendance from the public as this was on the agenda, but I guess we're doing better because people aren't complaining. So just a little bit of background. We have 44 miles of roadway in the city. How do we maintain those roadways? Funding. And our sources of funding as presented on this slide are Measure A. We also get some, I refer to as gas tax money, RMRA. In previous cycles, we have used that for County Line Road, helped us get that project completed. For some of our growth areas, we have CFDs to help pay for road maintenance. And finally, one of the things Council has done in the past is added some general fund revenues to help us get some more roadways done.

We also, sorry, we also used recently, maybe you're going to say this, one of the funding sources that's not listed anymore is the ARPA funds, the American Rescue Plan Act funds. We also use that for payment management as well.

Did not have that in the agenda, so thank you. So streets completed. I know this is kind of hard to see. Green lines on our exhibit here are showing streets we've completed over the last couple of years.

Can you read every one of those for us, Mike, in alphabetical order, please? Yes. You are correct, Mayor.

So again, this is five miles worth of roadway work that we had done. So you got a number of streets improved from a very lousy pavement index to a much better one that's helping pull the curve up. So that said, we decided after getting that much work done Now is the time to do an updated survey, get some better data, help council select what streets we should do in future cycles. We were approached by a group called Violetics, and they brought us a, they referred to it as a state-of-the-art pavement management program. It is cloud-based. Not sure what that means, but it's cloud-based. It has AI technology. So, and what AI is, I think is they kind of take pictures of the roadway, and then artificial intelligence kind of looks at it and says, oh, this is what it looks like, and they don't need human involvement in it. It looks at things like cracking, surface wear, and tear, and then provides a score for it. So how does it work? What we purchased was the software. We also purchased some equipment. Our public works guys, Kyle being one of them, put a phone on the dashboard of the truck, and when they drive around the city to do other activities, that phone is collecting data. So it's not like we have to have them go out and do a special trip to collect data on a particular street. Just in their normal course of operations, they are picking up and collecting data. Smartphone picks up data every 10 feet. And toward the end of our presentation, we're gonna have kind of an interactive to show you how this data is collected. The software then converts that to what's called a pavement condition index, which ranges from really, really bad where there's hardly any asphalt left to 100% it was just recently paved and it's perfect. So here's our roadway conditions. So we have 10 miles, 10.26 miles of roads that are in good shape. And I would say those are attributable to the work that we did the last, that I just presented earlier, the five miles in the last few years that we've done, together with new development that's come into the city and recently paved roadways. As you can see, percentages kind of vary. And I think that's typical for all cities. You'd find kind of a spread like this everywhere. So now we're gonna take those numbers and turn them into a graphic. This graphic here shows green where the good streets are, and red and gray as streets that are not in too good a shape at all. As you can see, some of the areas we recently paved are in green, as they should be. So how do we focus in on which streets should we do next? Well, this is the data that we kind of look at and say to council, let's pick some streets that need the greatest attention. So the next slide is going to turn off everything that says it's better than 40, a PCI that's better than 40. So you can see how many streets were removed, which ones are kind of focused in here. I think everybody could probably recognize what streets these are. John, I think he knows that that's Desert Lawn down there toward the southerly part of our exhibit. So I think the key streets here, County Line Road, east of what we recently completed, Avenue L and Myrtlewood are the ones that kind of stick out to me. So when you look at that, there's one other factor we need to consider before we start to select streets, and it's the projects that are already funded. So that's what I will try to do from memory. On this graphic, we took the same map that has 40 or less PCI indexes, and I identified five projects that were either funded or going to be funded as part of another effort. So number one there is the intersection of Cala Mesa Boulevard and County Line Road, which we have funding in place. And we are collaborating with the city of Yucaipa to improve that intersection and construct a roundabout. So we wouldn't want to pay or spend any pavement money at that particular location. Number two is a project that the city manager put in with our congressional representative, and it was selected for funding. We don't have the funds yet because the federal government needs to pass a budget for those earmarks to be approved, but that project is in, so we wouldn't want to recommend using funds we have for this program on that roadway this year. Number three is 4th Street. 4th Street, you may, I don't know if anyone drives by there every day, I'm sure, but 4th Street is in front of the park. We are going to rehab that as part of last year's program. Along came San Gregorio Pass Water Agency and said, hey, we're going to tear up that whole street. Don't repave it. So those funds were reserved to give to San Gregorio Pass to pave that roadway. Currently it's showing as a bad street because it is a bad street, but after they pave it, it does not need to be repaired by the city's project. The other two projects that are southerly four and five, those are the interchanges of which council's very aware that we're working on those interchanges and we will repave those locations as part of those interchange improvement projects. Okay, so we're gonna present some alternatives, but I wanted to kind of give some criteria as to how to put together projects to pave. And there's three or four things here that I'm presenting that I'd like you to think about as we work our way through the projects. One is, we kind of like to cluster projects together. Wouldn't want to do a project, I'm gonna say, on the northeast end of the city, and then run down all the way to the south end of the city because you lose, you're gonna end up paying mobilization twice. You group projects so when they bring the heavy equipment out, pavement repair equipment, it can all work in generally the same neighborhood. If they have to reload it, truck it to somewhere else in the city, gonna lose the benefit of moving in once. Strategies, it's the type of work that you would do We'd like to keep that consistent. So as shown here, there is pavement removal and replacement, where the whole street is basically lost. They need to go in and take care of that. Or there's other levels of pavement repair, brine, crack seal, and overlay. It's different equipment, different. So when you pick a project, you kind of want to put the pavement strategy together as one, because then you get the efficiency of a lot of more work. We also receive, and for the public's benefit, we do receive a lot of public comments. So as soon as we finished paving County Line Road, a resident called me and said, you're focused on County Line Road between Bryant and the freeway, you need to keep going east. As soon as it was done being paved. I was like, well, that didn't last very long. But their point was, hey, my point is that we do want to hear from the public at locations that do need attention. The other thing we would ask council to consider is volumes. The heavier used streets, the ones that may need a little bit more attention. So this year's budget, and Celeste already covered this, she stole my thunder, is about 1.3 million. That said, we are trying to put together a payment program that would expand that budget amount. Okay, so think back to the map that showed less than 40. This is County Line Road, kind of at the east end. The little area, I think you could see the roundabout at Bryant and County Line. That's all nice and paved, so we did not show that as part of the program. But on this slide we show the pavement condition index, the range, the data that was again collected as part of the work that our public works guys do. We've added a few other streets. This gets us to about $1.14 million, and we would repair about 7,100 linear feet of roadway. So the north-south street there that's red and yellow I think is Bryant. The street to the right that is in yellow, I believe that is Grant Street. And Rhonda Court is the one in the lower right-hand corner. Alternative number two, and again, Council can mix and match. You could take a street from over there and kind of put together with another one, but the reason we presented this way is they're grouped kind of in the same general location. We're gonna show you seven different alternatives, so plenty to choose from.

Can we ask a question?

Sure.

Do we take into consideration when we're doing our pavement plan, other entities, vehicles, adding to the deterioration of the streets, or maybe big semis driving in areas that they shouldn't be driving, even the trash collection trucks, all that wear and tear. Is that something that we factor in or?

Can get funds for well, so a lot of times that you're especially like utilities. So you're trash in your utilities. They pay that's what the franchise fee is supposed to pay to cover. So the franchise fee is supposed to cover that wear and tear because they're using our streets. So that goes in the general fund. Usually just friends operations, but that's the intention is to cover costs like that. So they already do. So we can't go to them to ask them to pay it again because they've already paid it through the franchise fees. Working with the utilities is a whole different ballgame. It's a completely different thing, especially, you know, well, either one, either South Mesa or Yucapa Valley. But for like the trash trucks and everything, that's through the franchise fees.

I noticed on Singleton at Avenue L, big semis. I'm assuming the signage is there that says big trucks are not supposed to go through there, but end up going down County Line and going through the circle. Are we having issues with that? So...

I think that's something that we need to work on. We do not have a formal truck routes ordinance or resolution. So that's something that, yeah, we need to work on to be able to enforce, because without that, RSO can't enforce on that.

Because I know people complain about it as well as even vendors. I've had the telephone people complain that it really impacts the traverse for everybody is the vehicles, the big semis coming through where they shouldn't be going. And who's gonna stop them? But I just wanted to ask about that.

So city manager's correct. We do need to do a truck route plan and then we'd ask the sheriff to enforce the plan if somebody is in a semi. So they're allowed to drive to a location. if it is not a truck route, otherwise they should not be on that roadway. Meaning they would have to prove to us, hey, this is where I'm going and I need to use this road. There's no other way to be there, to get there. All right, so on this alternative, it's primarily, I'm gonna call it Avenue L East because one of the other alternatives goes to the west on Avenue L. But this gets you about $1.2 million. Again, it includes a couple of local streets. So this is Avenue West, kind of between Cal Mason Boulevard and the last slide you just saw, along with some local streets. It's about another $1.3 million estimate for this location. Four is Myrtlewood. No other streets there, and that one is slightly exceeding our $1.3 million budget. Alternative five, I kind of asked to include this one. What we've done over the last couple of years is to take a number of local streets and get those paved to kind of fix up the neighborhoods. So I asked that we at least include one of those here. So as you can see, there's a slew of streets here and we can get a lot done with the $1.3 million. You'll find that the links are pretty consistent. We go from like between 6,000 and 7,000. That's data that we did provide to you. And this is down at Desert Lawn, Brookside area. So working down there, we would also, $1.3 million, about that same 7,000 foot dimension. And then finally, the west side of the freeway. So Seventh Street is included there. I think some of those streets are in pretty poor shape, so we did include that estimate. Kind of covered basically all areas of the city is what the seven alternatives are presenting here.

Mike, what does purple represent? It's on the color coordinated. I don't see it designated.

So it's really supposed to be gray. I asked that same question. Okay. Whatever happens to the plotter, the color kind of fades a little bit, but that is really supposed to be gray.

That's gray, okay. Which is bad.

Okay, so now somebody else is going to take over here. So Mayor, this is, I'm going to ask you to pick a location in the city. the street and between which two blocks and we are going to bring up what our Violetics program does and shows us so you get an idea of how it works.

So let's pick Avenue L between Cala Mesa Boulevard and Bryant.

So that is it is that that's purple so that kind of shows that we have a very poor Very poor PCI there. So see all the dots that, as he zooms in, you can see the dots there? So Avenue L, a storm drain was constructed by the Flood Control District about 15 years ago. So one side of the street has a better PCI than the other side of the street because they patch the trench and fix that up, even though we were having problems with that trench. But that gives you kind of an idea. Here is the data that the system is collecting. You see all the pictures of roadways, so when you see a PCI, you can actually look at it and say, yeah, that PCI does kind of make sense. Does that look like it's completely failed? Yes, it has. So maybe you could pick another location that isn't so bad. Mayor Pro Tem, you got one?

Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one?

Mayor Pro Tem, you got one?

Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one? Mayor Pro Tem, you got one?

So he gives an idea the pavement's in fair condition here. So for this type of roadway, and maybe I should have taken a minute to talk about pavement management, We really focused on streets that have very, very low PCIs, but pavement management also includes maintenance of streets that have fair PCIs. Purpose of doing that is to prolong the life of the ones that have fair PCIs. So if we come in and do a slurry seal, that extends the life of that system. So this would be a good candidate to do a slurry seal to prolong its life. It's going to improve its current PCI, but then the, Degradation is we're going to curb the degradation curve. Pick the street like this. And it's certainly not something we could include this year. We don't have to not do that particular approach. But because we had so many that were less than 40, that's what we presented tonight.

And we do have a layer here too that shows the different alternatives that we presented to you as well. So that's how that was created. We basically used the software, created those layers to get to that cost. They're marked by year. That doesn't mean what year we're going to do them. It's just that's the only way the system allowed us to group these streets. So these are all the different groupings that we did all together. Travis just selected them all. One other thing too, just by the way, that the software also does for us is it also scans the street signs, like the stop signs and the yellow signs that you see out there for different various things. Travis, you don't need to, if you want to, that's fine. But that's something also that our public works crews can use as they're driving around that it'll tell you, hey, so there you have a layer of all the different signs that are out there. And it'll tell you, hey, this sign's faded. You need to take a look at it. They're also working on refining lane markings as well, like on the pavement. So where there's areas where the lane markings are faded or something like that, it will also alert us to those as well. So it has different things to do, those things. That system I think probably still, it's a newer feature that they've put in. So I think there's still some tweaks that needs to be done to it. But it's something that the software can do for us too. So it's not just for payment management, it's complete street management. And then we can create work orders to go out and fix those things as well. So our crew's already been using that for that purpose.

So just to add a little pressure for council tonight, we do need a decision from you tonight because we have a deadline of July 1st to do some reporting with the city's SB1 funds. So at our next meeting, we will be bringing back a resolution asking you to adopt whatever you tell us tonight. We'll ask you to adopt that so then we can package that up and send it up to the state and say, hey, this is how we intend to use our SB1 funds in 26-27. Okay.

Mayor, I have one more question to ask Will. Is the software able to determine, besides the signage, the signs, the stop signs or various signs, where there's shrubs or blockage by trees of signs, able to detect that?

Kyle is nodding his head yes. That's remarkable software. By the way, the cost of the software, we budgeted about $130,000 to do the survey. Traditionally, you would send somebody out to drive the road and do this analysis. This software with implementation cost is less than $10,000 a year. Yes. That's great. There's also a much more efficient, cost-wise, we're cost-efficient to do it this way. And we've already had a lot of benefit from it. So it's been worked out very, very well. It's incredible.

Okay, at this point, we're gonna open it up for discussion, comments, and recommendations here. So I'll entertain- Actually, I have a question. Yeah.

The roads have been presented, particularly the ones that were gray that came across purple on our sheets here. The level of repair that's going to happen on that, you can't just put a slurry on it, right? So you guys, that's going to be tore up? Is that the deal? You're going to grind, they're going to grind that down and remove it and then repave it? Or what kind of repair is going to be done to that?

So, Travis, can I ask you to, speaking to those guys back there, can you bring back up, I think it was...

Slide 10. Like the one that you showed from Avenue L that was clearly failed, right?

So on slide 10, we kind of gave you an idea. Almost there, guys. So there it is. So if you have a PCI of less than 40, that is typically a removal and replacement, full R&R. If you have something between 40 and 65, then we would look at brine, crack seal, and overlay, which is a cheaper pavement management strategy.

And your purple is under 40, so yes.

So there's potential for us to have a combination of those along that. Okay, so we're not going to do the whole. That's correct. We're already grinding it out. We're not going to, we'll try to, we'll grind out what we can.

So for like Avenue L, for example, we showed you there were some that were yellow, then there were some that were, I'll say gray, dark gray. When a piece of equipment comes out and starts grinding, you want it to continue to do that. You don't want it to stop and then, hey, this piece is okay, now grind again. You just let them go. You get the efficiency of work when they just go. So even though there might be some good pieces within there, you still do the same treatment strategy. What you do is apply these different strategies to the entire roadway. So for example, and Singleton was a good example, I would select the PCI is probably greater than 65 in the section we were looking at in the picture, so we would really look at a slurry seal and re-stripe that section. And again, add more life to the pavement, preserve it longer, and slurry is much cheaper than the other two alternatives that are listed on this slide. Very good, thank you.

Thank you, sir. And one more thing for the council to consider. So we have the seven alternatives that we presented. That's kind of the staff's recommendation is to pick one of those seven, obviously. But there's also another element with regard to Singleton Heights. Singleton Heights, the pavement's about 10 years old. It's starting to get into that yellow area. So it's still above 65, but it's starting to creep down, right, just because of age. So Singleton Heights, as Mike pointed out, has a CFD, and one of the uses of those CFD funds are for road maintenance. So in addition to the alternatives we presented, you can also do that in addition to one of the alternatives that you would select because it would be a separate funding source. So that can also be included in your direction tonight if you so choose. Summer Wind probably will be probably about two or three years behind that. It'll probably be get to about 10 years old in the next two to three years, maybe three, four years. And so it would be then due to do the same thing. And they could use, we could use again, summer, you know, to the extent that funding is available for the CFD to do that work down there. So we're recommending to do it now in Singleton Heights and maybe through, you know, two, three, four years down the road in Summer Wind.

Bill, is that something that if we live in that area, we'd have to recuse ourselves for that?

No. No? Or, what do you mean?

You'd have to analyze when you get to that decision, but at this point, we're not talking about approving that.

Singleton CFT as part of this decision? No, because that would have to be a separate budget decision because we didn't budget for it. So we can bring that back. We probably would bring that back before we do the design so we can bring that back later and look at that.

Okay. We can analyze the potential conflicts at that time. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Okay, Council, what's the recommendation? Mayor Pro Tem? I just have some questions. Yes.

Thank you, Mayor. Let's see. First one for a mic on Alternative number two at the top there for Avenue L, the second. Do you have the, I don't see the PCI, I know it's bad, but do you have it listed for that top section, that long stretch of Avenue L?

Yeah, we did leave it off the presentation inadvertently, so Travis, can you tell us? Oh, maybe you could yell it from over there? So that is Avenue L that we have there. Are you pointing at it? Does it say 36? Can you guys see that better than I can?

It says 35.

35?

That's an R and R. So that would be an R and R. Okay, is it probably, most of that stretch is probably about the same for the long stretch?

So you could see there's, I don't know, it does get worse, but if it got better, it would be a yellow. We've moved to yellow versus what you see up here, but I think the entire stretch is in pretty poor shape.

Okay, thank you. The other question I had for number one, as far as county line, I mean, I think it's an interesting one. I know that the road is in bad shape there, but I guess what's the considerations if we're looking at essentially doing half of a road and some of the complications of that? And I just wonder if there was any conversation at all with like UKIPA as far as like a joint effort to try to finish the rest, the upper part of County Line?

So our timing is good because we're meeting UKIP on Wednesday. We have not had the conversation with them yet because we have not selected the street to do any work. So if council does feel like, hey, we'd like to look at County Line Road, it'll be part of our discussion on Wednesday to say, hey, we expect you guys to step up and do your half.

Okay. And one last question. On some of these other streets that are thrown in there, some of the residential streets that actually are a little bit better PSI, like 60 or so, that's kind of baked in there as far as the, you wouldn't be as much restoration on those street, like the cost savings thrown in there. Let me see which one.

I think that was on page 15. Avenue L. Let's see.

So one. Like on two, I guess on two. So some of these little smaller streets that were thrown in on top of there, of Avenue, that actually, you know, are off of like perpendicular to you. So like Ward Lane, Barnes Court, where they're in the 60s, those little smaller streets. So they would do, they could do like a different type of repair for those little streets. So that's already kind of baked in there as far as the cost savings of that. Okay.

Yes, it would be. So just to remind council, last year there were some cul-de-sacs that had a little bit better pavement condition index and so we didn't include those in the program and then the residents on those streets came screaming at us saying why are you paving all these other roads but you're not doing our little cul-de-sac. So when we pick an area we're going to try to also include short cul-de-sacs even if their pavement condition index is a little bit better.

like hypothetically if we were wanting to push maybe two alternatives together, so like, Alternative two and three if we just wanted to do the Avenue L section and maybe not the side streets could how would we estimate what that cost would be let's say if we did hypothetically L from Cala Mesa Boulevard, so this would be a conjunction of alternative three Avenue L and then alternative to Avenue L so from Cala Mesa Boulevard to Douglas what would be the cost of just doing L there and

So I do know that it's more than our budget because we did look at it, but I'd have to crunch the numbers just to take out the streets. So the idea was to do Avenue L, but then we had a little bit of money left over. So we said, hey, why don't we add some of the streets adjacent to it to get to the budget number?

Each segment of Avenue L. But if you did all of Avenue L at once, then it blows through the budget. It's way too much. Because it's a little bit of a wider street.

Only be doing L. Yeah.

If you just did L from start to finish... and both Arch Leonard was two and three, it would be way higher than the 1.3 million. So that's why we're looking at doing it in two phases. You do like the east and then the one time, then the west the next time, but then there's still some money left over if you just do one of them. Like if you did one segment of Avenue L, you're less than your budget, but if you did two together, then you're over your budget, if that makes sense.

So what we could do is as much Avenue L as the money would take us, and then leave the rest of it for a future cycle, if that's preferred.

Yes, please.

Alternative number seven, are any of these going to be corrected when we start building Mesa Verde? Will any of these streets be impacted?

No, no, these would not be impacted by that.

So maybe I could qualify Will's answer by saying just the intersection of Sandalwood and 7th will change a little bit?

Oh, yes. Where the purple line starts? A little bit down there. Yeah. So on the southerly end, there may be some update, but the rest of it, no. Because it's all off-site.

Just let me try to ask Council if... We want to establish a couple guiding criteria. So here on slide 10. Our city engineer gave us some some criteria we could mobilization of course, trying to group it together, but also volume if that's something or if we want to go off of just pure need. Right so that's a whole different strategy. So if we want to go on. what streets are most trafficked, right? Are gonna benefit the most people or we wanna go with the criteria of which street needs it the most. That's a different criteria. So I don't know, let's maybe talk about that first. Do we have a preference to one or the other of those?

Can I throw something out there too? Slides, alternatives three and five. are in the older parts of the city, and it seems to me that those are long-time residents, and they're in obscure parts of the city, but yet the roads are still bad, and I feel compelled to speak up for those streets.

Three, four, and five, you said?

Alternative three and five. Three and five, yeah. Those are in the older part of the city.

Well, three is L, Avenue L, but the other residential ones, okay.

I just want to throw that out. Okay.

So that'd be another criteria if we, you know.

I'd like to speak up for those people.

Maybe that would just get in that bucket of just need, right? Which is in the worst shape. So what criteria do we want to adopt here? Yeah.

I still want to ask a few questions. I think we're downtown. I do want to touch bases of our downtown area because it's really, the roads are in pretty bad shape, even the stripings. And then of course, Our whole community, they go down and shop at Stater Brothers and their shopping centers there. You know, that's where everybody comes in, you know, buy their products or their stuff.

I think I know where you're going with that.

And I think there's a few things that are going to be funded through the grants, right? However, there are areas that are not funded through the grant based on what I'm looking at the... PowerPoint. on Kalamissa Boulevard, are we able to look into that? And then same thing on Fifth Street, the one that wraps around Stater Brothers, because Fifth Street wraps around Stater Brothers and connects to Jucaipa as well, too. Same thing with Kalamissa Boulevard, those two routes. I know if Link can kind of zoom out and kind of highlight Kalamissa Boulevard and Fifth Street, those two streets, they connect, and they connect to our neighboring cities, which are one of the most impactful

streets with traffic people commuting from work or from city to city uh is it possible to have that as another alternative so i just want to point out first fifth fifth street from cala mesa boulevard to myrtlewood already is included in one of the alternatives um secondly any from myrtlewood or excuse me from sandalwood to county land road is included in that grant request from calvert's office so that we already have funding pending for that um and then the area south of sandalwood down to singleton Um, one of our strategies on that was when we do the singleton road realignment to maybe combine that with, um, doing pavement to just connect that pavement all the way up to that point and maybe actually and then in conjunction with the Calamasa Boulevard project. So we'd use the Calvert community project funding budget for the segment of Calamasa Boulevard from County Line to Sandalwood, and then combine that with payment management funds to just basically pick up that whole segment at once up to the project limits of Singleton. So that was one of the strategies we were considering. But since that money won't be available until next fiscal year, we would bring that alternative next fiscal year.

So just for the community to be aware and informed based on the Calamesa Boulevard itself, based on what you're saying, Will, that will be coming up for next budget for the 27-28?

Assuming that Congress approves the budget with earmarks, yes. If they don't, then we'll have to, we may have to do this, break this up into segments because doing Calamesa Boulevard alone, I believe is a little over $2 million. Just from County Line to Sandow, what is over $2 million.

Just the only reason, just because it's been years of just the world being just the way it is, and it's just getting worse and worse as time goes.

Yeah, we hear that one a lot, and we certainly see it, and we're going to be seeing it hopefully every day when City Hall is closed, or when the new City Hall opens.

Very thankful to Calvert for putting that in here, the budget we're hoping... We'll find out about that soon so we can invest those funds in the revitalization of that downtown area, including Kalamasa Boulevard.

And then for the alternative five you said for Fifth Street, well, where is that going to go to? Can you put this slide?

It goes to Myrtlewood.

Is it possible to connect it all the way to County Lane?

Um, that would probably, I think if we, we may have to remove every other segment that's on here to do that. I think, um, I don't know if Travis will be able to pull that up instantly, but.

The reason why I'm asking is because if we do move forward with counting line, I mean, Calamasa Boulevard next year, at least fifth street will be taking care of this for this project and then move forward with the next project for Calamasa Boulevard for next year.

Yeah, and I think I would point out to you, When we had gone through this exercise in the last couple of years, we had recommended some of the arterial streets, but I think, you know, as Councilmember Molina and Mayor Cervantes may recall, the direction was, no, we want to take care of the residential streets from the council. so that's why there was a focus on those residential streets um so you know there's only so much money to go around and so much to go and so it's you know the philosophy of whatever council's in place at the time of how to do this um and so again you can you know based on the numbers that you've seen you can do anywhere from 61 linear 6100 linear feet 7,000, 6,000, that's, you know, a little over a mile, right? So, I don't know, was, we were able to, I don't know if we were able to do that on this, or a whole segment like that, but.

What do you see there, Will, is that a 40?

That's a 40, yeah.

An R and R2 then. Well, part of it anyways. Yeah. Yeah.

Because even with the striping of the roads too, they're way faded beyond its- Green, some of it's green? Are we able to make it bigger, just so we can see?

All those are green and yellow, perhaps we could look at it with a cheaper pavement management strategy because it's not completely falling apart, the yellows and greens.

I would not be in favor of that. I would be in favor of taking care of some of the other busted up roads, like alternative three or alternative four because we have sections that are completely failing.

I would be in slight preference for three, being the volume of traffic is higher, three to four. But again, if we're using the criteria of volume, I think Avenue L is a good bang for the buck. But if we're using the criteria for just in more drastic repair and need, then perhaps four is worse. I think they were equally bad. Mayor Pro Tem, please.

Mayor, thank you. I'll jump in here again. Just kind of bouncing off, Council Member Garcia, I know you pointed out Fifth Street, that heavily are used. The one that's already in alternative five, that is in bad shape right there. That little smaller section of Fifth Street is heavily used. There's just so much need to go around. But I think at this point, I think I'm in favor of Stinkin' Avenue as well, just because it's heavily used street, and there's a lot of work that needs to be done. And I kinda like the idea of maybe combining a couple of these and probably just maybe starting at Cala Mesa Boulevard and Avenue L and going as far as we can east up Avenue L versus doing it in some of those smaller residential streets that aren't quite as bad as Avenue L itself and just try to get that main artery as long as we can. That's kind of what my general thoughts are right now.

Is that a motion?

You're funny. If anybody else wanted to chime in on it.

At this point, we're just discussing alternatives or if you, I suppose we could take a preliminary vote on what we think of these alternatives and maybe try to eliminate some. How about we do that? So let's, anybody interested in doing alternative one? No? All right. We've eliminated alternative one. Anybody interested in doing alternative two as stated? No?

Okay.

We've eliminated alternative two.

That's alternative two as presented, right? Presented. Because what I just heard was part of that.

Correct.

Okay.

So what about alternative three as presented? Yes. Okay. So let's keep alternative... I also am interested in that one, so that's two for that. So we'll keep that alternative. Alternative four as presented? Yes. All right. Anybody else?

Is this where all the speed bumps are?

Yes.

Are we gonna take those out or are we gonna leave them?

They will have to come out to rehab the roadway, but they could be reinstalled. And we've talked about this before, we want to bring back a speed bump policy to council so that, because everybody asks for speed bumps. People are racing through their neighborhood, we would like speed bumps. If they're on Myrtlewood and nowhere else, I think we should establish a policy to replace them.

Don't they have now synthetic-type speed bumps that are probably more sustainable than concrete?

Yeah, they do. And also, I think they're cheaper to install than having to have that bump. And the other thing is that they can be installed in a way that helps with emergency vehicles as well. So it allows the fire trucks to get by them without having to go over them because of their wider wheelbase. but it still picks up the smaller vehicles, so.

Is there a timeframe in which we're gonna do that? Look at speed bumps?

You can make it a priority. Okay, so we'll keep alternative four for the moment. What about alternative five, Calamasa Boulevard to? This is just a connection. I think this is the one Councilmember Garcia was interested in.

Alternative five, and then we can see we're extending Fifth Street all the way to County Lines with the rest of the ones included. Okay.

What about alternative six out at Desert Lawn Drive? Anybody? No? All right. We'll eliminate alternative six. What about alternative seven? You don't have a vote. We have one no. Okay, we will eliminate alternative seven as well. So that leaves, what was that, three options? So we have options three, four, and five. So can I get some, does anybody want to propose a... Well, let me ask, is there any additional alternatives you would like to entertain? Maybe a hybrid of the two? I think that's what Mayor Pro Tem was suggesting. So let's hear that suggestion.

Just throw out an alternative two, three that we have still there. And that's just to take out the residential streets and extend that on Avenue L.

Okay, so the idea here is we're gonna make a alternative 3B, and that's going to be just Avenue L as far as we could go from Calamasa Boulevard.

Correct.

Okay. So Avenue L as far east as possible. All right. Any other modifications? Council Member Garcia, yours? I don't know. Was that a feasible? Did we determine if that was feasible to do 5th all the way from Sandalwood to County Line?

Not if you're going to do Avenue L. Right. This would be an alternative. Oh, yeah. Well, of course. I mean, we are going to regroup. I will admit I'm not thrilled with the way this conversation went in terms of just it seems kind of conjoined. I think we need to have a more robust conversation about like doing a five-year plan. and have that maybe as an item that we're not trying to decide something right now so we can meet a deadline. So we want to bring something back probably before we even do this actual work to have maybe a more robust plan so we can have this thing segment it out much more um logically i guess you could say so we would bring in like okay what is the cost of doing the arterial so what is the cost of fifth street from sandalwood or from calamese boulevard to county line and what is the cost of avenue l what is the cost of calamese boulevard looking at all the major segments so that we'll have that data for you up front

I think that's how we did it in the past. We had those, that was helpful in analyzing the costs. So I think right now we're sort of focused around, I think Avenue L and this street. as the kind of suggestions right now. So if we wanted to, as council, think about staff coming up with some possibilities.

I got to be honest, I'm perfectly fine with alternative three just because of the nature of how bad the roads are. So if we were to select it just as it is, that would, I think, be sufficient to, well, I don't think the rest of us want to do that and that's fine. But my reasoning for being okay with this is because one, the numbers are already figured out. We know how much pavement's gonna get fixed. We know the deterioration of the good majority of that part of Avenue L is gonna get repaired at least on this, you know, at this time. And it'll also get some of the residential areas in the city, they're older. So that's what, yeah, that's why I was, I thought, ah, you know, it's not a whole, I think the whole Avenue L would be great if we could do it, but. The limited funds we have. The funds we got.

At least we're doing part of it. Yeah, so I would be perfectly fine making that decision on this. I was leaning towards something to do with Avenue L because of the volume of traffic and its need. So I would be good with alternative 3S stands and I'm hearing three.

And then that would give city manager and engineers enough time to get this going. And then they could still work on a five-year plan and bring it to us. At least we can get them moving on this.

Right.

And then they can come back with all the other information for us to.

It's a good suggestion. Other comments? How do we feel about that?

I'll just make a motion for alternative three.

I'll second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. No? All right. That's 4-1 in favor of alternative three. And then also giving staff direction, Will, if you could come back with.

Yeah, we need to do something that's going to be like a workshop or something like that. We'll try to pick a council meeting that has a light agenda that we can focus just on that and have a robust discussion about it.

Just a pretty quick question. So what has been the past practice for the road repairs, especially when neighborhoods like the ones that we just passed right now, making sure that the roads are being repaired and replaced? HOW LONG ARE THESE ROADS ALREADY BEEN IN THAT CONDITION?

PROBABLY FOR A LONG TIME. THEY PROBABLY HAVEN'T HAD TREATMENT SINCE INCEPTION. THAT'S PART OF THE CHALLENGE WE'VE HAD IS BECAUSE UP UNTIL RECENTLY WE HAVEN'T HAD THE FUNDING TO REALLY DO A LOT OF ROAD HABITS. Mike, maybe you can use the mic right there, but as far as prior to the rounds that we did, starting with the ARPA funds, what did our road, I mean, that's a question I don't know, because it's a little bit of a history that I don't have, that you may have.

Historically, all we had was Measure A funds, and we could do maybe one street a year.

Yeah, because you're talking about a few hundred thousand dollars. And when you get under a million dollars for road rehab, it starts to get inefficient because of design costs and construction management and things like that. There's some fixed costs that go associated with a road project. So the more money you have, the more you can do, right? You just get economies of scale. You get better pricing on your materials as well because the more in bulk you buy, the less it gets. So we've really been able to finally invest in the roads like we never had before and we're trying to keep that momentum. But it may be that we need to accumulate like we have to go every other year just because we're not going to have enough funding available unless we supplement with general fund, obviously. And that gets in the whole conversation we talked about during the budget, right? so um but i think as i think maybe where you're going with this is maybe we do need to have a more defined policy in how we do road maintenance and if that's the suggestion i think it's i don't know what words in your mouth but that's probably that's the way we need to go

It actually is, I'm just trying to be nice with it. Just because if it's been taking all this time to repair the roads, I think we need to put a structure in place so we can maintain and keep up the roads instead of just keeping them neglected and the roads are getting worse and worse by the years as they pass. Is it possible to find other strategies by increasing certain fees and stuff like that, just to kinda make sure that our roads are well taken care of, especially in the downtown area? Because it's not only the roads, it's actually the striping of the roads as well, too. I know I've been pretty, vocal on the striping of the roads and stuff. Because there's two things going on. There's the pavement and then the striping of the roads as well.

And I think that's something that we're working on too with public works. We're being more deliberate on, especially since you brought some of those things to our attention. We're definitely trying to increase our awareness and trying to invest in the equipment to be able to do that in-house, which could then do it more cost-effectively as well. We added another maintenance worker to the budget for next year. um with the idea of doing exactly this kind of thing a lot of these more the spot maintenance including the striping and things like that so that's something that we're focusing on um internally with with staff um but as far as road road work I mean that's the problem is and that I can get into a whole dissertation on gas tax and why gas tax is not an effective revenue tool Simply put, because of fuel efficiency, electric vehicles, and a hesitancy to raise gas tax to what it should be, or at least having a mechanism that's better, that funds it in a more equitable way, it'll never keep up with the need. So you're gonna have to supplement it with something else, which is why Measure A was created, was to supplement. And so whether it's additional, you know, an additional tax or an additional, you know, for the for the downtown district, for example, we've talked about internally and something you're going to see in the strategic plan as we talk about economic development is a business improvement district. So that could be something that, you know, the business owners would pay an assessment into, and it can be used to maintain the downtown area, not just the street, but the streetscapes that we've installed as part of the Calvert money and all of that. Yeah.

What about the franchise fees that you spoke earlier about?

Well, if you take the franchise fees and put it into road maintenance, then you have to figure out how you're going to plug that hole in the general fund because right now it's paying for operations. So we'd have to either cut some things in the general fund or... there is the possibility of increasing on the trash side, but then that's just passed on to the customers. So that's been done in other cities, and a lot of people see that as an indirect tax. So it's just a matter of policy.

Okay, that's good. Thank you.

Okay. Yes, please, Celeste.

Well, I wanted to share for clarification, since you're looking at historical context and what's been spent on streets. Back in 2021 and 2022, the city council opted to commit, as Will had mentioned, I want to mention the specific amount $2.191 million, so almost $2.2 million entirely for streets, and then the general fund supplemented and met that amount with two $1 million distributions from the general fund that were provided through development and savings that had been earned, money that had been saved and pulled into the reserves, and there were development monies, and it was built in the collective because the city understood and decision makers saw that the streets had a big need. So over the course of a few years, we had over $4 million... that was contributed. And I believe that was the slide that city engineer referenced when you saw those green streets and that was in part funded by that. And then, so we've had now going into the three phases of pavement management. So that's a little bit of context of the priority that's been done and prior year decisions that have made to contribute towards the streets that helps.

Thank you, Celeste. Is that... like future planning, are we able to include like the machine that I mentioned about, well, to help out the team with public works instead of pushing the stripe behind and having that?

Yeah, those are things that we can, we're looking at and, but again, that's just one aspect of it. You know, the big, big dollar amount is the pavement and one of the, the first thing we'll probably present when we bring that to you later is okay if we were to do the treatment that's needed on all every single street right now here's your cost and it's gonna it's going to make you gasp it'll be more than so yeah so then it's you know then it becomes how do you how do you need an elephant you want about at a time and that's how we're going to have to approach it Again, through our first 30 years, Darlene can attest to this, having been here for 20 years now, that we barely had two pennies to scrape together up until maybe six, seven years ago. Because of that, the funding wasn't available because the allocations are based on population. Before we had the growth, we were getting less revenue than we are now. and um but the cost to paver road in cala mesa is the same as it is in murrieta or temecula or any of these other wealthier areas so that's part of the part of the challenge that we have as a small rural city is to keep this up is you know it's not like staff ignored it it's always been a financial thing it's always been that that's always been the issue so I don't know what else I can say.

For me, just finding a solution so we can just move forward with the roads. That's all I'm looking for, but thanks, Will.

Okay, so with that, we're going to move on to, well, we already got our motion for that. Yeah, so mayor and council members reporting on county and regional meetings and conferences. Council Member Garcia.

Haven't attended none of the meetings, but I do want to give a big shout out to the public works, Kyle, for putting those stop signs and strapping the roads as well too. I want to say in behalf of the Beaumont residents as well too, because it's right literally borderline and our district, our parents and our students are very happy that those are up. And of course, the safety of the kids, safer routes to school. So that has made a big difference now with that stop sign there, so I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to express my respect and all of our respect to the past Memorial Day service that was had this last week. It was a beautiful service at Desert Lawn and thank the crew that put that on, the veterans team. and it was a great event and you were there as well. You gave a nice speech and I was happy that I was there to hear it. So I participated in that as well as today. I had the WRCOG meeting, which I forwarded you guys the PowerPoint information on that. So I won't get too much into that. So other than that, thank you to staff for doing a great job and happy to be here. Thank you, sir. Council Member Molina.

Yes, I have been limited in my participation. I apologize for that. But on the 22nd, I attended a Metrolink meeting in downtown LA where they basically are sending out the budget to the five-member agency. So that's a big deal. Funding is critical right now for mass transit, public transit. Also on the 22nd, May 26th. I attended and I passed out to everyone. Please, please read this. We see how critical Measure A funding is for our city. I sit on this committee. It's one of those committees that I sit on for RCTC. And I really think that Measure A sunsets in 2039, I believe. Yeah, 2039. And there was some thought over the last couple of years to add, it's right now a half cent sales tax and they've looked at maybe a cent or even a cent and a half. And the public just isn't ready for that right now. So please read this information. I think it'd be prudent for us to have someone from RCTC come and and talk to us about this because we rely on Measure A funding, just how critical it is. This is one area where RCTC directly impacts our city. So we'll, if you think that's a great idea, Mike. Oh, there you are. I can't turn my neck that far. So I would recommend, Will, if we can get them to come out. If timing is of the essence, you could pick that time and relay that to Erin if you want me to do it. But please read this. This is great information. It fully explains how it impacts our city.

Yep.

That's all I have to say.

Yeah, I can have him do that. I mean, remember we had Ann Mayer come out a couple years ago with the traffic relief plan, and that's a very integral part of this. And actually, well, I'll get to something else in my report that involves Aaron as well.

Thank you very much. That's all I have.

Thank you. And you're still remarkably active, so I don't know how.

Sorry, I'm sorry I missed the veteran event. That's something I used to chair myself. And so it was very hurtful for me not to go. And someone mentioned that the In-N-Out truck was there. Was the In-N-Out? It was. That was something that used to happen in the past. So that was great. But this group has been doing this for years and they're dead fast in what they do. Plus it's education for our kids on veterans. Thank you.

All right, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank staff for all the work on these very important topics today. So thanks to our finance director for getting our budget finalized there and for the roads. Also, I'm looking forward to maybe doing a five-year plan. I think that's a great idea. Maybe at a workshop or however we decide to do that. for the council to be able to be a little more involved and spend a little more time on such an important topic. I'd love to strategize that a little bit more in the long term. So I think that would be a great idea. And that is all that I have. Thank you, Mayor.

Fantastic. Thank you. So as Council Member Cundith. mentioned i also attended the memorial day event it was a fantastic event very inspiring moving i got to hear from some veterans and a story of one remarkable veteran who lost his life so it was a moving moving event um on the the fifth or excuse me on may 20th i attended the chamber scholarship event also with councilmember kundiff we got to participate in shaking some graduates hands who've earned some scholarships and some truly remarkable students. It seemed like every single one of them was going to Caltech and MIT, I don't know, but it was just remarkable local kids earned these scholarships and it was just fantastic to be there. uh today i attended a rca event and i will have a summary of that meeting for council uh shortly i'll be sent out sent that to the city clerk who will forward it to you and incidentally the most recent podcast by our city manager interviewed aaron hack who is the um who is the executive director of both RCTC and RCA. And so it was a fantastic podcast and you got to hear a little bit of his story and a little bit about both those agencies. So I would highly recommend that. So with that, we've given a little bit of direction tonight to our staff and city manager. So thank you for that. And I will now turn it over to our city manager.

And I have nothing to report.

Yes, so now we will turn it over to our city attorney for our closed session items.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The city council will now recess into closed session. There are three items on the council's closed session agenda. Bear with me. The first is conference with the labor negotiators concerning ongoing negotiations with the Cala Mesa Professional Firefighters Association. The second item is public employment employee evaluation concerning the city manager. The third item, conference with real property negotiators concerning price in terms of payment for acquisition of temporary and permanent easements for the Singleton Road realignment project. There are five separate properties I'd like to identify. The first is 9580 Calamesa Boulevard. 9950 Cala Mesa Boulevard, 9670 Cala Mesa Boulevard, and then two properties that do not have an address, but I'll give you the APNs and general locations. One is the property located on the southeast corner of Singleton and Cala Mesa, APNs 413260032, and the property located on the northeast corner of Singleton and Cala Mesa that is APN 413-260-002 and 026. Thank you, sir.

And we will not adjourn until the conclusion of our closed session item. So with that, thank you all for coming and we'll see you next time.