City Council - Regular Meeting

And don't Mayor, can you turn your mic on too, please? You want me to start over again? Okay. Good evening, everyone. It's okay. Good evening, everyone. I was talking without the mic. It's Monday, November 3rd. Welcome to our November 3rd um regular meeting of the city of Cal Mesa Council meeting. We're going to call the meeting to order at 6:00. Dian, can you do the role for me, please? Yes. Council member Kundiff here. Council member Garcia here. Council member Manley here. Mayor Pro Tim Cervantes here. Mayor Molina.

Yes. Thank you. And for the record, city manager Kobo's here, city attorney Flowers here, city clerk Gertis, finance director Reid, planning director Lucia, uh, public works director Shakir, city city engineer Thornton, for deputy chief Shaw, and Captain Northup are all here as well. [clears throat] If you, if you would all please stand, we'll salute the flag in our country. Ready to begin? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all. [clears throat] So, this evening we're we're pleased to have a presentation uh by the for the Blue Zones project and we'll be welcoming Ruben to the mic. Good to see you.

Uh, madame mayor, uh, before it starts, uh, can I do a briefly introduction for the presentitation, please?

Oh, sure. It's [clears throat] good. Um, well, thank you Ruben for being here and for everybody being here as well, too. Um, I would like just to take a brief moment and share why tonight's Blue Zone project presentation is so important to me and for our community. Over the past several months, I've been speaking with local health leaders, residents, professors from the University of uh Redlands and regional partners about how we can make Kamesa not only a beautiful place to live, but a healthy place to live. through those conversations, they led me to reach out to the blue zone project with uh Ruben um and invited them to present tonight because I truly believe that this initiative can help us take the next step towards improving the well-being of every kissa residents. Uh the blue zone framework is proven cities and partner uh participate see lower chronic disease rates, stronger communic uh community connections and even increased local business engagement. It focuses on a simple lasting change. Improving uh walkability, supporting health, food options, expanding parks and trails, and strengthening our sense of belonging. These are the values that reflect who we are already as a city. This presentation isn't just in um informal. It's also an opportunity to envision Clemens future. We can connect this to our strategic plan update, our parks and recreation goals, and even regional wellness and economic development efforts. Uh for our seniors it means healthier lives uh close to family and community. For our youth it means building habits of wellness and civic pride. And for our working families it means a city that prioritize their health and quality of life. I want to thank the city manager Will and the staff for coordinating this uh uh presentation with Mr. Gonzalez and the blue zone team. I hope that after tonight's presentation, we can continue this discussion formally exploring how

Kissa could partner with Blue Zone to develop the local initiatives. This is about more than just one program. It's about setting the vision and for healthier and happier and more connected Kamesa. Thank you guys. And I'll leave it up to Mr.

Wow. That Thank you. I appreciate that. I pretty much Edgar, you you covered it all. I think I go home now. Honestly, that that [laughter] was fantastic and well said. Thank you, Council Member Garcia. And uh good evening, mayor and uh fellow council members. It's very very good to see some of the familiar faces and some of the new ones. Um very grateful to be here. I was the former council member in the city of Banning and now I get to serve continue to serve my community in the Blue Zo capacity and so I'm excited to tell you a little bit more about the background. You set that stage perfectly and so I just want to give a little bit of brief history. Um I'll go dive in directly on the the five longevity hotspots. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the Netflix documentary. If you haven't seen it already, I suggest that you do because it really goes deep into our founder and his discovery and his journey. So, in 1990, our founder, he was actually a world cyclist and so he traveled a lot. He he actually won, I believe, three world Guinness records with his uh his bicycle his cycling career. During that time, he came across this little area in Okinawa, Japan. And he noticed that there was these people living 100 to 105 years old, still riding bikes. And he was like, "What the heck are they doing? What are they doing to live so long?" And so, it piqued the interest to see, okay, is there any other regions around the world that people are living that long? And what what is it that they're doing? Well, sure enough, they found five other four other areas. Sardinia, Italy, Ikaria, Greece, Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, and our very own Lomol Linda, California. And so those five areas, these that we went he him and his scientist and the anthropologists and researchers, they did they did a deep dive, they did all the data, they tried, they interviewed all these people that were living these long lives, and they finally came up with these nine principles that we call the power nine. So, the power nine, they these were all of the same things that all of these areas were were doing, right? And so,

the first one was moving naturally. I find it very funny that none of these regions had a 24-hour fitness. They didn't have a gym, right? Not to knock gym goers cuz it's a great thing. You want to be, you know, cognitive of your health, but moving naturally was such a an important part of their daily life. Okinowans would sit down to have dinner. They would sit down on the floor to, you know, have family time. And so essentially they're doing what 40 to 50 um sit-ups or or or you know squats per day, right? And so a lot of these areas they were moving naturally on a day-to-day basis, walking to the store um just natural movement. So big part having a purpose. I don't know about you how important it is to have a purpose to wake up every single morning to make sure that there's something to look forward to. But that equates to adding seven years of your life by just having a purpose. Downshifting. I know there's no workaholics in here, right? you don't have a problem with overworking yourself or being ambitious. I know that's a big problem in a lot of our staff, our leaders, is not knowing how to downshift. Now, you know, balance is really important and it's a moving target, which means you're not going to con you're not going to achieve it in one day, right? You're constantly seeking balance with your family, your loved ones, and so downshifting is a huge part of what the the cultures did in that those areas, too. 80% rule. I laugh about this one because in my in my culture, in my community, the way I grew up, I don't know about you guys, but when you were at the dinner table, you weren't allowed to leave the dinner table till you did what? You finished your plate. You had to finish your plate. Why? Cuz well, we don't waste food in this house. That equates to money that you're just throwing in the trash, right? And so the 80% rule is very counterintuitive to that culture that we don't you don't have to eat the whole plate. It's okay. If you're full, you're full. And the 80% rule is a good way that was something that they all did is when they were 80% full, they just stopped eating. And that's okay. Plant slant. A lot of plant-based foods. And that's another reason why Linda was also on the five original longevity hot spots

is because they had 7th Day Adventist, right? And a lot of them were were vegan. And so part of that culture, eating a lot of plant-based foods also attributed to the longevity at your life. This one's a fun one. Wine at five. Not necessarily to condone alcoholism, right? This isn't something that you overconume. It's it's all about the connection, the social aspect. Uh making sure the part of the downshifting and at the end of your workday, you had a tough one maybe and you need to go and have a glass of wine with a friend or some family members. That's really really healthy for you because if you you hold all that stuff in, how many know you blow up on on your loved ones and you end up bottling all it up, right? So wine at five was another um attributed factor. The last three, right tribe. Having a really good right tribe. It's not about quantity of friends, right? But the quality and you sometimes you learn that later on in life. And that was another thing that was attributed. Having your loved ones first is very very important for these areas as well. And then the feeling of belonging there. There's a statistic that blows my mind that says people that live alone or a lonely life, they really don't connect with people outside their home. It's like it's an equivalent to smoking 13 to 14 cigarettes a day. And that's just because they are secluded. They're not they're not social and they're not volunteering at these nonprofits and and things to get active. So those were the five I mean the nine I'm sorry the nine qualities that all of those areas had. So what does that mean for let's say banning right or calamsa or riverside these are right now there's currently five projects blue zones projects that are going on. Riverside banning Coachella Palm Springs and me valley that's in just this county. There's there's about a hundred that are going on around the globe right now. So the purpose was or is sorry to empower everyone everywhere to live better longer. Our founder had a friend that was dubbed have 6 months left to live. And the reason why he started these blue

zones projects is he wanted to create a model to bring into communities so that people can live better longer cuz his friend had 6 months left to live and he's like what can I do? What is there? Is there something I can do to change his his world, his environment, his behavior? Uh he went back to to Greece and he ended up living 10 years longer just based off of the environment that he was in, right? Big big attributed to your environment. And so this came about for doing Blue Zones projects. So the life radius, right? 90% of our lives are within 20 miles of our home. And so the most unavoidable things that you can that you can't you can't ignore is in every single community there's people, there's places, and there's policy. And so if you focus on your environment to where all those longevity hotspots, those people almost lived healthy accidentally. They didn't even try to live healthy. It just was part of their community, their culture, their environment. And so if you're living next to a bunch of fast food and smoke shops, liquor stores, and it's really within your vicinity, what do you think you're going to consume? Those things, right? It's well within it's within your environment. So by focusing on this life radius blue zones projects came about. And these are some of the things that happened through those blue zones projects. Albert Lee, Minnesota was our very first Blue Zones project. That was our pilot one to see, hey, do we even have something here? Is it worth even continuing to spread? Right? Sure enough, they were able to decrease medical claims cost by 49% in that area, adding three years, almost three years to every single person's life in that community. 40 48% increase in tourism, which is your economic development that you were talking about. Roondo Beach was another Blue Zones project. They were able to decrease childhood obesity by 55% because they worked with the school district on their cafeteria, their director of nutrition. Right? So, you're starting to see, okay, well, it's it's

school districts, it's nonprofits, it's businesses, it's restaurants, it's everything that where we go and attend. If it's it's encumbered and it's it's included in your environment, then it's just easier for you to make healthier choices, right? It's not as hard or difficult if it's available. Fort Worth, Texas was a huge smoking community, right? Think about Cowboys, Marro, man. They were able to decrease smoking by 31% in Fort Worth, Texas by having a Blue Zones project, $27 million reduction in self-insured medical claims in the NCH healthcare system. And so, and I'll talk a little bit later on why it is that we're funded the way we're funded is because that industry sees that there's benefits in um health savings cost. So, what's the process? Let's say a city, a lot of neighboring cities have asked me to come and speak about it to see what the process is like, what are the benefits, what are the values. Um, and so the assessment and development phase is really the feasibility aspect. Is this community even want it? If the community doesn't really want it, if the school district, city council, the nonprofits, the business owners, restaurants, if if if there's not a big buy in from the community, it really won't work because it's a community-led initiative. And so that feasibility study in the beginning is is it is it going to be feasible? And then once it is and if it's we they gauge our business development comes in and says okay yeah I think they're ready. They do a foundation period where that's 9 months community input well-being measurement coalition building training blueprint development. A lot of that we work with the um well-being index the Gallup well-being index. So we need to see what the statistics are in that community and then how we can better those statistics. Right now Banning's in our first year of our transformation phase. So we have it it's a three and a half year project. So that means that I'm not going to be there for the next or after 3 and 1/2 years. We focus on sustainable strategies to where when we're gone we we work ourselves out of a

job. So that those those places and policy th those are still there when we're gone. And so this we're in the first year of our transformation phase. Uh I think about six months to be exact. And I'll talk about some early wins. And then of course the end goal is well you you become a Blue Zones approved community, right? And that's the uh the added value almost like an amenity to residents because they're like wow this this is a great community that has a lot of health involvement and and in the environment. So I'm the executive director for the banning team. Every single project has an executive director. And then we have a well-being organization lead which Robert focuses on businesses, work sites, restaurants, schools. That's his all the places. We call that places pillar. Ashley focuses on the community engagement. So she is, you know, working with the press and awareness part and community engagement. Um there we do walking mois, hiking mois, things to to attract people to come out outside their house and be you know moving right and then we have our public policy lead where we work with let's say the school district or city council and we work on tobacco and alcohol policies that you know I don't know if you guys what the the culture is like with the smoke shops here selling to minors but we have that problem in banning and so what could we do with council to say hey what right now these people are getting slaps on the wrist for selling to a minor And that's not okay. We need to be tougher on some policies in the ordinance to make sure that they don't do that. Right. Here's some wins just to give a brief background on the that sector in the people sector. Year one engagement numbers where we have what we need every single year we have to hit a benchmark of how many people know about blue zones and that's that's on the people side. Um we already completed two walking mois restaurant engagement. We part partnered with um a lot of restaurants already. We had done some cooking demos. These are things in the community engagement you

know that you would see also let's say in Calamsa in the community like I said places that's what Robert focuses on schools restaurants. So he has eight schools registered and you're like well what's what's registered means? That basically says that that school is willing to work with blue zones to become a blue zones approved site which it has an entire criteria and a point system. to where they need to hit certain things, right? Purpose workshops, volunteering, um having the principles take the teachers to do an activity to where it's focused about downshifting and leadership. You know, there's an entire criteria. Same thing for restaurants. Is there staff recognition programs in the restaurants so that they feel like they want to go to work every single day, right? Grocery stores. How can we work with grocery stores to make the the checking aisles differently? not Kit Kats and and Snickers on the where you check out but what is it that we can encourage healthier items right so those are just some examples um on the places pillar and then last is policy which is my favorite and I know some of you are probably policy geeks as well but there's an awesome opportunities for policy changes right that that really last built environment is just our word for infrastructure basically let's we have some built environment um policies like working with I don't know if you guys have a safe routes to school plan or strategy, but we just had a tour today with our subject matter experts from National. They come down. We look at areas that we can work for safe routes to school. There's some intersections that kids are are, you know, to and from school that are really unsafe. So, how do we work with the city and the public works department to say, hey, can we redesign this? Find some grants, do some things to where it's a little bit more safer for these kids to walk to school. And that's just one for built envir environment food systems. We do not have any grocery stores um central and eastern side of our town. It's all on Highland Springs, right? And so there's a lot of lower income demographic on the east side of town that they may not even have the means to

get all the way down there. So they have to take a bus. Um they have to rely on, you know, Door Dash or some other aspects. And so it's not convenient in their area. We don't have a grocery store. We have little mini markets, right? Um, but you know, if you're not a big grocery store, you you you get different bulk prices than you would a smaller market. So, working to either acquire get a grocery store on that side or working with those many markets to make healthier choices accessible on that side of town is what we're working for. Food systems and a farmers market. We recognize that farmers. Are you talking about south of the freeway or um along um Sixth Street? For which one? for banning for markets. I'm just kidding.

Oh, yeah. So, we're gonna have we're projected to have it in January at Replier Park. Okay. Yeah. Because that's the central most the central part of the town and we recognize it need it. They need it the most and we'll accept the you know the EBT market match um so that it it goes a longer way.

Of course. And then lastly, tobacco and alcohol policies. We're working with county supervisor right now to uh work on an ordinance and a legislation to ban all flavored tobacco products in all of Riverside County. And so we we're working with the supervisors to get that done. And then also for Banning's municipal code, we want them to uh adopt the same ordinance as well, just so that there's some more teeth. Um and if you have it at the county level and in your city, it just it's just a little bit stronger. And so there's alcohol policies, tobacco policies. Um like I said, we have an entire blueprint. It's about a 100 plus page document that it's our strategy to create sustainable strategies um for the community of banning and just banning. The way that we really get access, right, is by having the steering committee, which you know, we have our superintendent of schools. We uh we have county supervisor, we have nonprofit leaders, restaurant owners, you know, we have a group that we call our steering committee that meets every single month so that they could see, okay, this is where we need to focus on for council. We have a council member on our steering committee. So, you know, for him to be championing the tobacco and alcohol policies and getting access, that's how it really functions. And we hold each other accountable at the end of the day. And then we always we have all these little sub commmittees as well that are champions for pushing that initiative forward. This is the last slide. Just wanted to show you guys that IHP IH IHP foundation Kaiser Molina RHS Bannon Coachella City Palm Springs Riverside these are all fiscal agents and sponsors to make it happen so that we don't have to we're not a nonprofit so we don't have to go out there chasing donations. I don't know if you know the nonprofit world, but that's all you feel like you do is can we have money for this? Can we get this funded? And so, we're really really grateful that we are already funded for this project uh by

these fiscal agents and they see the massive value and the the savings as well for uh medical claims cost. So, with that, I'll just open it up. If you guys have time for any discussion or questions, I'm willing to uh I'm here and I'm I'm willing to answer that. So, and thank you for having me, though. By the way, I appreciate you guys having me today. Council person, any questions? [clears throat] I actually do. I got a few. Yeah, sure. Um, I saw Pawn Springs on the presentation. Um, my wife works over there. Nice.

So, she was uh interested and she wanted to know uh what are the things that Palm Springs are doing right now for the blue blue zone areas.

Yeah. So there's the same thing what I just delineated for banning. It's the same thing in Palm Springs, but their blueprint's different than ours because it's tailored towards the community. So they have a lot of restaurants. So our our goal for banning is to have three approved restaurants for the total project cuz we don't have a lot of restaurants and so that seemed feasible. Palm Springs has a lot of restaurants. So their certification criteria that as an example they have to hit a a higher number of restaurants they have to hit a higher number of grocery stores higher number of engagement of people because it's a bigger population. So based off the population and the the culture and the and the I guess the the economy itself that's how the blueprints drafted to accommodate you know what the best u appropriate blueprint would be.

Thank you for that. I know um we just passed for uh the summer when it's phase two to five, right? Uh where we're going to be having parks and um trails as well too. Yeah. So this is this is all exciting that um I'm looking forward with the trails cuz um I used to I used to bike myself. I used to bike with my dad and um we used to hike a lot too. So I know the um being active is very important of transitioning from the medical field being you know on the floors walking down to the school district now that I'm kind of literally in my office.

It's a whole different world. I gain weight for that same reason and cuz you're not exposed to the open environment. I have to kind of put a timer on my watch to get up and walk around the the the building itself or outside of the parking lot just to kind of get 15 minutes of walking. Um so and it's and it's true it's uh we get consumed with our daily work just being indoors or um not going out there being very active because time goes by pretty quick and then we have activities with the family as well um which makes it even more challenging right

um so I I am very excited I'm very excited to even see IHP Kaiser Molina and the Riverside University there too and I'm looking forward to see our our Kamesa uh logo up there as well too. So, uh but uh with that, you know, I'd like to make a motion to request that the blue zone project partnership will be brought back to the formal council agenda item for discussion for possible direction for staff. Okay. Second.

All in favor? I I So it's all of us. Thank you. And yeah, and just so that you're aware that it's above my pay grade. I just I contact business development and they they take it there, you know, from there and they'll work with you guys to coordinate um you know, calendars, dates, and all all the jazz. So, I'm just here telling you what my experience has been in banning and it's it's been great and I'm I'm a banning race boy and so I'm just I'm glad that I get to, you know, serve in that capacity. Thank you, Ruben. Yeah. Thank you for having me. Yeah. [snorts] [gasps and clears throat]

Okay. Communications from the public. I have one slip. Howard Reeves. My name is Howard Reeves. I live at 1017 Douglas Street, Kame Mesa. Madame Mayor, council members, city staff, I'd like to make a council aware of my opinion of how the trunk or treat went last Friday night. As you guys know, my wife's a commissioner for the library and she worked with what's your name, Darlene? Is that your name? Darlene here. And uh one of the big things that we we asked Darlene was we don't want to give out candy. That's a lot of sugar and stuff. So Darlene was so gracious to switch us over to chips. And the chips now come in bags about this big. And even the people that picked them up for their kids, they go, "Where'd you get them from?" I don't know. Somebody bought them and gave them to me. And but that's the trick-or- treat bag chips now for the for the kids. Which is a great idea for these manufacturers to do that. But uh so u so we had a probably I don't know maybe eight or 12 different brands of different makes of chips, you know, of all different kinds. So the kids got we laid them across the tailgate of the truck and the kids got to pick whichever one they wanted. And u but uh this is our third year my wife and I doing this and uh the first two years every we ran out of stuff. Okay. But uh so the staff I got to commend you guys. You did a great job this year cuz you they gave us 10 boxes of chips and we went through eight of them. And when I and on those boxes,

I added up the uh amount of chips that was in each box that we went through. 600 chips we gave out and we gave two boxes of chips back to the city for future use. And uh but they really went over really popular. It was a great turnout. I really recommend commend the staff for a great job and the city for doing a great job. And uh we had a study flow of people from f when they opened the gates at 5:00, they were ready to come in. They were lined up and waiting to come in. And it was just a great great event all the way. I think the uh the the battery packs for the lights that the city used was a great idea this year cuz last year we kind got got some darkness out there. But they put up those flood lights down up and down the parking lot with those battery packs and uh that really gave the light to where people could see cuz it got dark before we got out of there. So, so I'm we're really pleased that we were there and got to see this and I just wanted to share it with you people my observation of uh how it went and I think it really went well had a great turnout and and I know there was a a lot of people there from the community at the summer community that was there even what's your name sir [laughter]

Santa he he even showed up [laughter] was he did he turn out to be Santa Claus. Okay, so that's all I have. But it was just a great great thing. I just wanted to share that with you guys and it really went over well and how much how much we handed out. So we know that we had at least 600 kids go through this year. So we got a record of it now. So thank you for your time.

Thank you, Howard. Any other comments? Okay. Okay. We're um now at a part of our agenda where we um have the opportunity, council persons have an opportunity to take anything off the consent calendar. There's six items. If not, I'll look for a motion to approve the agenda, consent calendar, and wave the readings of all the full readings of ordinances. So moved. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Any opposed? Okay. Passes 50. Thank you very much. Okay, that takes us now to sheriff captain's report. Captain Arthur,

good evening, mayor, council. Um, due to this meeting being so close to the beginning of the month, the part one crimes are going to be incomplete and obviously subject subject to change. Uh for the month of October, we had two aggravated assaults, one burglary, one autotheft, and 14 larseny thefts. There approximately 26 arrests for the month, and about 434 incidents. Just a few significant incidents I just want to kind of go over real quick. On October 8th, deputies responded to a fatal traffic collision involving a single rider motorcycle in the area of Cherry Valley Boulevard, east of Cali Mesa Boulevard. Uh deputies arrived at the collision scene and learned from Cal California Highway Patrol who was already on scene that the uh rider had succumbed to his injuries. The uh we borrowed a traffic team from a neighboring station. Uh they came out and did the uh the investigation. So the Cherry Valley Boulevard was closed for several hours during the course of that investigation. Then on October 23rd, Cali Mesa deputy responded to a flock hit of a stolen vehicle in the area of Cal Mesa Boulevard and Singleton. Uh the deputy located the vehicle, conducted a fel stop on County Line Road at the I 10 uh which prompted an emergency response for backup deputies. Uh upon arrival, uh the vehicle was recovered and the suspect was taken into custody without incident. Then on October 25th, the Cali Mesa deputy responded to a rapidly evolving situation at a business in the 11 1100 block of Cali Mesa Boulevard. Riverside County Dispatch broadcast information regarding a male subject inside the business armed with a knife that was making slashing movements um towards other patrons. Recognizing the seriousness of the situation, the deputy immediately request responded with lights and sirens and requested sheriff's dispatch enter a real-time mode um to ensure there was no delays in the flow of updated information. Realtime mode basically means that the uh dis the caller goes

straight to the dispatcher and that information is relayed rather than going from uh the caller to our pap or our phone operator then to dispatch. So it it expedites information and gives it more of a real-time uh response. Upon arrival, the suspect had exited the business um and was located in the parking lot. The deputy deputy immediately engaged that uncooperative suspect. A use of force occurred and at the time the patrol sergeant was about a minute out. He responded in a in emergency response and they were able to take the suspect into custody. Um and nobody was injured in the the incident. So that's uh just a few kind of incidents that uh kind of gained some attention in the public and you know with response emergency responses and stuff like that people tend to ask what was going on. So lastly the holiday season is here. Uh in an effort to reduce crime we are we're going to ask citizens not to leave gifts gifts in um plain sight and unattended vehicles right in order to reduce crime. And then we always ask that they report any suspicious activity or criminal or crimes that uh they see. So it said any questions?

No, I was just going to make a recommendation since we have so many mobile parks. I know from my citizen patrol days that um um people leave their vehicles in their driveway unlocked or the garage doors open late and that's just an invitation for for trouble. I know even at my property I have a lock gate and I still lock my car doors. It it'd be nice if we could um put something maybe on our website will um for for the holiday season to remind people to lock their cars even if it's in their driveway and make sure their garage doors close before dark because it's just opportunity for it's just opportunity. So and and seniors, you know, they don't think in in those terms, but they're probably usually the worst the first targets. Yeah, we can definitely do that. We can um also remind patrol staff to drive through those areas, stop and point those things out to our citizens in order to reduce some of the thefts that we've been seeing.

And also being at the ATM, people, you know, be aware of your surroundings. Yeah, always be aware of your surroundings, right? Um not just in the holiday season, but during the holiday season, we do see an increase of maybe people being followed out to the car. you know, our suspects like our thieves like to watch as people put belongings in the car and then walk away to go do some more shopping. Ultimately, you know, we end up with increased thefts because of that. So, thank you so much, Jeff. Just [laughter]

captain, if I may just ask a follow-up question. You mentioned holiday season and then the uh an increase in maybe some thefts. Um maybe think of maybe you can share some tips on some best practices for um you know, delivering of packages. I I've had some neighbors lose some packages off their front porch, you know, um deliveries. Have you noticed an in like a an influx or increase in this area? What can people do to maybe minimize that?

I think the best thing that you can do is have a camera in front of your house, right? Um if most people in the city work, they're not home uh during the day, keeps keep surveillance cameras. If you're going to have packages come to your house, you know, make sure that those cameras are on, activated, and the ask that the package get delivered and placed in front of that camera. So, and then again, report it, right? Um, often times I see or hear of thefts that go unreported. And we certainly can't uh make arrests if we don't know that the crimes are occurring. So, we can't respond and increase patrols or deviate from our patrol practices to find those those areas that are seeing those increases and try to reduce them without knowing that the crimes are occurring. So,

uh thank you, Captain um for that report. The deputies were okay? Yes, sir. Okay, perfect. And great job. Pass that along to them. That's outstanding to be able to uh to to make those apprehension, you know, without incident, those kind of things. So, great job. I appreciate that. Thank you. Other questions? Go ahead.

I got one. Um I'll echo what Eric said. You follow that message to your um to your team as well, too. Um, I'm not sure if this is appropriate for um for traffic around the schools or or doing open um comments for like council, but um our community around the summer's uh community at the summer school. It apparently looks like there's a um there's this particular vehicle that is parking and leaving their car unattended like almost blocking in the middle of the uh of the street and picking up their kids from school and then going back. Um, I'm sure if you guys want to just kind of follow up with that, uh, I got some pictures and license plates as well too, but I'm pretty sure it's probably happening around different schools as well too within our uh, city boundaries. Um, but I just wanted to bring that to your attention. I'll follow up with uh, um, whatever you guys need so I can Yeah. So, as you might have seen, we did put out a public safety announcement on parking, um, and some other traffic related issues in and around the schools. Uh, some time constraints and other priorities. Uh, we haven't been able to enforce that as much as we would like. However, it's an ongoing um, priority for us and we will continue to try to educate the public as well as enforce some of those parking and other traffic laws when needed. Captain, don't this don't the schools also have like staff that kind of monitors? I mean, I know they have um directions on where people are supposed to come in. I mean, not all parents follow the rules, especially if they're in a hurry to get their kids or what have you, but don't they make a good effort um to have school like pickup zones and drop off zones?

Yeah. So, yes. Right. Uh they most schools do put out staff um particularly during pickup in the afternoon or evening hours to make sure that the traffic flows better. Um but ultimately, you know, you're going to get a lot of cars parked waiting for their kids for, you know, 10, 15, 20 minutes, sometimes longer. Um sometimes they got to wait for one child that gets out at hypothetically 3:00, the other one gets out at 3:15. So now you get cars parked there for 30 35 minutes. Um you know and and the other issue is a lot of times these schools don't have enough parking for for uh this this traffic especially during um recess when evening hours when schools let out. So you might have you know 100 parking spaces and you got a thousand kids. So that you know you're going to get parking on public roadways. It's been a long time since I had to pick up kids at school, but I remember those days. Thank you. Any other comments?

Thank you for great report. Thank you, Michelle.

How are you tonight? Hi. Excuse me. Doing well, mayor, council. Um, I'll keep it short. Uh, our calls for service uh from this time last year up about 20%. Sorry, I'll speak in the mic. Um, uh, of that about 20 just a tick over 20% or EMS related calls. Uh, and and some of those are uh due to uh an increase in calls assisting you with our autoate agreement. Um, aside from that, our response times are steady at about 6 and 1/2 minutes and other than the structure fire we had a couple of weeks ago, um, no significant calls for service. End of my report. That's good news to hear.

Anybody have any comments or questions? Yes, sir. Okay. Try um I think it was sun Saturday, Sunday. Um, I saw the the fire department on the freeway. Uh, I think there was an um a trailer RV and the truck kind of there's a pretty bad accident. So, I did see the team working hard. So, I appreciate that. And if you can um tell the team, thank you for their services as well, too. Appreciate that. You said that. I will certainly give that back to them. Thanks.

Thank you, Edgar. Okay, we'll go on to item number seven. It's a business item, professional services agreement for a strategic plan update and organization mission, vision, and values assessment. Thank you. Good evening, Madame Mayor, members of the council. Uh before you tonight is professional service agreement with Jacob Green and Associates to lead the city through an update of our strategic plan and to conduct a comprehensive review of our mission, vision, and value statement. Uh the city's last strategic plan was adopted in 2020, shortly before the pandemic. While the plan served as an excellent foundation, a lot has changed in Calamusa since then, both in our organization and in our community. We've grown by nearly 2,000 residents, welcome new council members, and experienced significant staff transitions at multiple levels of leadership. At the same time, we've made major progress on the original plans goals, many of which were achieved despite the challenges of CO 19. Best practices recommend that strategic plans are uh be refreshed every 3 to 5 years to reflect new realities, emerging priorities, and community expectations while being mindful of any resource constraints. This update gives us an opportunity to not just look forward, but also to make sure the organization is aligned internally and externally on where we're headed. A big part of this effort will also involve reviewing the city's mission, vision, and values, which were created many years ago, long before the last strategic plan. Since that time, Calamea has evolved significantly. Our demographics have shift shifted. Our regional role has expanded, and our organization has matured. So, this is an an ideal time to revisit those guiding statements to make sure they still reflect who we are as an organization and what we aspire to be as a community. Finally, this process is

important not just for the council, but for staff. As city manager, I'm responsible for carrying out the policy direction of the council as a whole, not the individual goals or preferences of any one member. A clear adopted strategic plan helps ensure that staff has an a unified roadmap to follow. It provides clarity, prevents conflicting directions, and keeps the organization focused on what the council collectively determines as the city's top priorities. Jacob Green and Associates comes highly recommended with extensive experience working with California cities and a proven track record of facilitating collaborative, inclusive, and actionable planning processes. staff believes they're an excellent fit for Calam Mesa and will help us create a plan that continues to build on the city's strong foundation while charting a clear path forward. And tonight, joining us from uh Jacob Green and Associates is Dave Brown, um who will be, I believe, one of the people that will be involved in our project. That concludes my report. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Will. The report was a great reminder from back to 2020. It was a a good um um um workshop with um Henry. Henry. Yeah. So, uh does anybody have any uh questions or comments? Brown, did you want to speak? I I apologize. I called you Ruben and you didn't you didn't correct me. I meant I saw him outside. I go, "Hi, Reuben." You didn't correct me. So, I I apologize. Thank you. Don't call you late for dinner, right? Mayor, appreciate that very much. Appreciate the opportunity. And uh do want to thank the staff first of all, number one, for putting us uh first on your agenda tonight.

I realize we're the only item on your agenda for [laughter] appreciate it very very much. Um but in all seriousness, I just we just want to say thank you uh on on behalf of the entire uh organization for considering us uh selecting us out of it's truly a group of very qualified firms. Um we are California-based. uh our sweet spot is small and midsize cities, counties, and uh special districts in the state. We really love working with with smaller communities. And so our team's super excited to get started. Um I can certainly answer any questions. I know that you've uh you've got our proposal, the city manager's um uh staff report was very thorough, and I don't want to uh bore you by going over any more of that, but I'm certainly willing to answer any questions you might have um about the proposal or about the uh the u contract. I start.

All right. Thank you. I appreciate you for being here. I think this is an important item. I've been a lot of kind of thought thought to this and as Will kind of mentioned, it's kind of help us to give u direction. So deciding policy is the reason we're here, the most important thing that we do. And so having some um some direction for staff, for council, but I think the most important aspect of it u being starting with the community engagement. So that was some of the questions I had is it kind of all starts there. So it gives us an opportunity because I feel sometimes we don't get as much um engagement necessarily as in this in this in this realm as far as planning strategic planning what are you looking for versus just you know specific issues that might arise that we address with the community but to actually be involved in what do you want the city to look like and and the direction of of policy on this broader scale. So that's what interests me the most. So my question is just what what are you going to be able to do cuz sometimes I feel like it's a challenge to

bring the community in get enough feedback to like a meaningful amount of of feedback that you know it could be use useful to us. I was just interested in what what you do to try to I'm sure it's a challenge everywhere you go.

Yeah, it certainly is council member Manley and and it's a great question. Um, every community is different and we don't have, we always say in JJ, we don't own any cookie cutters. We just don't believe in cookie cutter proposals or cookie cutter approaches. And so we what we do our first our first effort in every strategic plan is to get to know the community. Uh, our our uh our team will be in char uh in contact with your primary uh point of contact from the very beginning getting every document we can get our hands on. We certainly have the previous strategic plan. and I know that the mayor and and others worked on. Um, but we will engage at at a level that you probably have not seen before. We'll do a tremendous number of one-on-one interviews both with with obviously with the council and the executive team. Um, but we'll also recommend that we do one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders in the community that you identify. And uh we also we als and from our from our one-on-one interviews and and the and the research that we do on the on our our uh uh communities, we develop customized uh community surveys from that. And so we gather the information, we talk to the key stakeholders and and to the the leadership and policy makers and then we develop a comprehensive survey to survey uh the community. Um we we we certainly can do focus group uh meetings. We can do we're not we're not big fans of of large workshops. We just find that um the information that comes out of those sometimes in a larger group like that um isn't as valuable and as and as you know meaty and and really honest as those one-on- ones and those surveys um and engaging the community. Um, but we're certainly will work with with city manager and and the and the staff and and obviously they'll take direction from you. Um, because Calam is a very uh uh different community from other communities. And so we'll to

answer your question more directly, we'll reach out to you and we'll ask um the team here in Calamea what uh what you think would work, but then we'll bring ideas to the table as well so that we know that when we do that that when we do get to the to the workshop with with uh you and with the executive team, we've got a tremendous amount of input to to work with on that day. Great question. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. Did you have Ed? [clears throat]

Oh yes. So it is a very important item for [snorts] our city and for our residents here for uh for Kameesa as um you know we're we're in the beginning stages of growing and um you know for me it's more because you know I come from the medical field and now education and seeing it both um ways now our youth is the future. You know they're our future leaders. They're going to be providing back to our community. We're going to get older. We're not going to get any younger. So our youth is going to be the ones providing our their support for us and we um I I want to leave it for the youth for them to be successful of what we're building now and then when they take over I want them to make it better how we left it and that's been my my thing all the time that when I speak with these kids at school. Um so you know one of the things that I really and I I saw in the agenda item that you're going to be meeting with us um for an hour right one by one to kind of see um what we want for our city and for me uh one of the things that I I want to bring is you know medical facilities you know more for the youth um good paying good paying jobs for the positions for those as well too. Um I am against other so many other things because I think about our youth that they should be working for good companies like uh medical facilities becoming going in there as blueco collars and moving up to become leaders. Um and then um and with that we'll support our law law enforcement because that brings that brings in the taxes that brings in all the revenue for them to be um to grow within our city. same thing with our fire department and our other services with public health our um our public services within um city our our staff to grow as a city as one as well too um with that. So I'm going to um just want to say you know um

you know thank you all and the staff for bringing this you know item forward and it's it's more than just planning doc um document it's our chance to shape the next chapter of KMS's growth as we move uh through this process. I want to highlight two priorities that I hear consistently from our residents. The need for medical facilities and a good good paying jobs right here in our community. Uh families shouldn't have to drive 30 to 40 minutes for urgent care or specialty services. We have an aging population and growing families who deserve access to local healthcare clinics, urgent care centers, and medical offices that serve their needs close to home. Um at the same time uh we have to focus our economical development that creates stable highquality jobs. Uh the kind that allows our residents to live and work in the same city. Jobs that support families uh strengthens our tax base and help small businesses to thrive. As part of his uh strategic plan, I would like to consider policies and partnerships that attract healthcare providers, encourage private investment in medical um infrastructures and expand opportunities for work force development, especially for youth entering the job market. Uh when we invest in health and opportunity, we're investing in the future of Kamesa. I'm confident that with this plan and this console, we can continue to build a city that is safe, healthy, and economically strong for everyone who calls it home. Thank you.

Thank you, Edgar. I have to say that for for the, you know, the strategic planning geek that I am that just wants me to engage with you and ask you a ton of questions about it. And that's what we'll do in our one-on- ones is we'll have those those really deep conversations about because all of you clearly have pass things that you're so passionate about for Calamea. And that's our job is to pull that out. So appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. So, first want to say thanks to staff for for selecting a a great uh consultant for this project. I know there was quite a few applicants it looks like and you spent some time vetting those and uh finding the very best. So, thank you. Um I also have a question about um a couple questions for you. First the um so the strategic plan update just is that mean we're going to completely does update I guess mean completely revise or does it you know does it mean just work with the existing one and give us a new version of that or are we going to develop an entirely new one? It's a it's really a great question and the executive team might might have heard this next uh mantra that we have in our company and we have a a very we we we and we adhere to this when we come into a community and and start working with a client. Our focus is evolution not revolution

because there's so many good things going on in Calama. There's the the plan from uh 2020 has got some great stuff that I know you haven't been able to get to. Nobody predicted that you you'd enter a pandemic the month after you [laughter] Um, so evolution not revolution is our is our mantra that we'll come to the table with and we will we will we will guide you and facilitate you through a a process that that holds dear the things that are dear to to Calama but also leaves room for some evolution.

Yeah, that's great. Thank you for that. So I also appreciate the sixth month project roadmap that you gave us. Um that was really helpful to see the big picture of that and I was to remembering back to 2020 I was a new council member back then and going through this process and it was it was really a great team building exercise as as well as valuable the the end result was incredibly valuable for the city. So I'm looking forward to doing that with this group and engaging through that process and identifying our priorities and goals and vision. So um really exciting. So thank you.

We are too. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. It was a good refresher. It brought back a lot of I I went through all the all the goals and we've we've accomplished some already some really good ones and so I'm looking forward to u meeting the changes in our city since then. So I'm look really looking forward to this too and thank you for coming tonight. Thank you so much. So at this point then um with if there's no other if there's no further discussion, I'd look for a motion to approve the professional services agreement with Jacob Green and Associates Inc. for strategic plan update and assessment of the city's mission, vision, and value statement in the amount of $77,600 and authorize the city manager to execute the agreement on behalf of the city. So moved.

I'll second that. Thank you. All All in favor? I I all five. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Okay. This brings us to mayor and council reporting of county and regional meetings and conferences. Eric, I'll start with you.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh, I had no regional meetings that I attended. Um, but I did attend the it was basically the summary of draft zero uh regulation. Um, [snorts] this was uh done on October 23rd with the committee. It's a threeperson committee uh up in Sacramento. You and I had spoken about that, city manager and others. And I've been outspoken about this zone zero thing about the impact it may have um you know on our citizens. And ironically when I asked the question the meeting was from 10:00 in the morning till about 4:00 in the afternoon via Zoom. Um when I finally got to my time to to ask the questions about the impact insurance companies are going to have. Can they deny claims? What's the likelihood of that? um they just tossed the ball back over to the Department of Insurance and and they said, "Well, that's not our field. We're just implementing policy right now." And so with no regard as to what it's going to do u costwise or um you know, people living paycheck to paycheck, some in our community and uh retirees and the like. Um it was not very comforting to hear that. Um, but ultimately, uh, there was several people, I'd say 160 roughly that were on this Zoom, half of which were in favor of it and the other half which were not. Um, but it looks like what they're looking to do is adopt some options. And I'll just share what those are looking like for you guys at this time. So, uh, of the vegetation option for zone zero, meaning nothing, um, vegetation wise or combustible from the exterior of a structure or your residence to 5 ft out. Um, they had several options to include nothing, uh, meaning that everything had to be removed. um another one which had some pots with plants in it and then what seemed to be the one that everyone that

was in favor of it which was about half of those folks which would allow plants in pots and other vegetation in zone zero but prohibited dead or dying plants needles leaves weeds etc combustible mulches um so it seemed to be a compromise that they were at least exploring um it's still I I make the argument I don't believe embers are going to care whether there's a 5ft buffer zone. Wind and embers is a terrible combination and if your home is not hardened, it's going to find its way somehow in there. But um regardless, that that was one of the options. And then as it pertains to trees, um the there was only two options. Uh the first being um well-maintained trees were allowed within 5 ft of buildings. Um or option two, which seemed to be what everyone was going to, was well-maintained trees allowed. Uh branches must be at least 10 feet away from chimneys or stacks from from homes. So, I share that with you guys and for those residents in our city because once this happens, um there's no mechanism of enforcement and when Chief Okonnell was here with us, you know, explaining this to us, uh it doesn't seem that there's going to be any kind of uh effort on our s city's behalf to go out and force residents to do that. I don't think we have the stomach to do that. I'm not speaking for everyone. I'm just sharing my thoughts on that. Um, but ultimately when a home burns down, god forbid, but these things happen, what are the insurance companies going to do? We still don't have an answer to that. So, I'm going to in the next week or two, I'm going to try to reach out and find out with a point of contact at the uh Department of Insurance where they stand on this or or what's going to happen with it because there's no there's no direction, no answer yet from that. So

did did they mention anything about if residents do follow what's recommended that there's a break in insurance cost that they even address that?

So they did address that and they said there is no guarantee that there would be a break in insurance cost which again makes it kind of silly. Why are they pushing this? Um it seemed to me that a one-size that was the common theme was one size doesn't fit all because a lot of the people that were in favor of it um were [snorts] northern California folks. You know, Berkeley area, San Francisco, around that area. Um the folks that were in opposition to it seem to be mostly central and southern uh California. Um yeah, but there's no guarantee that they they can't this committee is not going to speak for the insurance companies and and tell us yes, you're going to get a break. Um insurance costs are going to go down because of it or even as a whole. Uh because we all know our insurance rates go up when there's a fire. It may not even be in our region in our in our general area, but our costs go up because there's so many claims going in and that's the way insurance companies operate, unfortunately. So, it was not very it was very disheartening, you know. Um, but I just want to share that with you guys because it's it's coming whether we want it or not. You know, they're they're going to do something. Um, and u I think it's it's a it's going to be unfortunate for our citizens that can't afford to remove wood fencing, vinyl fencing, all these different types of combustible materials um away from their homes to accommodate this zone zero. So, uh that's all I have to share. Um, if I get any more information on that, I'll be happy to bring it to you.

Thank you for spending all that time on it because it's something that affects all of us. Thank you, Eric, John. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, October 29th, I attended a parks head committee 2 by two with Bach Valley Parks Department. So, we just had our ongoing conversation about our f future partnership uh with them. And on Halloween, I attended our little trunk or treat. So, I appreciate all the staff being out there on their day off. And then there was it was as previously stated well well attended. People were coming to go in the whole the whole time and the whole the whole neighborhood was out there having having a good time. Nice and active out there. And that will conclude my report. Thank you.

All right. [clears throat] I got a few. First, um I would like to take a brief moment and share an important update with the city staff, my colleagues, and with our community. I'm truly honored to share that I've been appointed to serve as Kissa representative on the Riverside County Committee Action Commission uh representing not only our city but all of district 5. Uh this commission brings together the county leaders and local agencies with one share goal to strengthen our communities and identify needs connecting resources and expanding programs to support our families and our seniors and our youth. Mr. Council member and now as your voice on the commission, my commitment is simple. Is to make sure that messa needs are heard and that the resources available across Riverside County reach the people who need them the most right here at home and in our in within our district. Whether it's housing stability, food security, utility assistance, and workforce development, I will be working to open more doors to opportunities for our residents. I will also continue to sharing updates with the council and our community as new initiatives and grant opportunities become available because progress only happens when everyone is informed and engaged. I want to thank the city leaders, our city staff, our city manager and our partners at the Riverside County for their trust and collaboration. Together we are shaping a stronger, healthier and more connected messa one where every resident has opportunity to thrive. Um, for the Halloween stuff, uh, I would like to take a moment to share what we did for Bulmont Unified School District. Hosted an incredible Halloween um, event this year. Um, it was an honor to participate. I was Santa Claus. Um, and it was wonderful to see so many students and um, and families come together for

such a fun and a creative celebration. Uh, each department decorated um, their area with their special themes. Um and our student support services chose the polar bear express. Um the student absolutely loved it. I'm uh and I will proudly share that our department was voted best theme in the district by students themselves ranging from TK through fifth grade. Um it was a joyful event and truly reflected the creativity, collaboration, and community spirit of our district staff. I'm grateful to everyone who helped make it make it [clears throat] a success for our families and for being part of a session memorial evening for our students [clears throat] and for u for our city event. I would like to take a moment to highlight killing this Halloween event at the summer Charles Park. It was incredible event filling filled with community spirit and laughter and joy. Um I continue my traditions dressing up as Santa Claus as most of you guys saw me dress as a Santa Claus. I was utilizing my voice. Ho ho ho. And um and it was a wonderful place. The smiles and the children's faces as they came for for the candy and photos. Um events like this remind us that that makes us so special. Our sense of uh togetherness and our commitment to giving back. I want to thank our amazing staff, uh the sheriff's department, uh the fire department for showing up and giving their time to make um this event such a success. Their participation truly shows what it means to serve our community with heart. [clears throat] Um it was a beautiful night in Kamea with families fund and community pride. A perfect reflection of what our city stands for. Now um so you know how we attended the Cal City's uh uh conference uh spent what almost a month um I saw all these awards that other cities were being given and stuff. So, um, with that, I would like to ask if we could explore

opportunities for Kameissa to participate in California City Awards programs through Cal Cities. Uh, these programs recognize cities across the state for innovation, collaboration, and excellence in public service. Although we're a very small city, our staff continues to grow. Our staff continues to go above and beyond every day, delivering exceptional results and creating real impact for our residents. I believe it's important that we showcase their dedication and hard work at that le at the state level as well too. I would like to suggest that our city manager look into the process and legibility requirements for these awards so that we can highlight the great work happening here in Kilmissa and give our team the recognition that they truly deserve and that will include mine.

Thank thank you Jeff. Yep. Thank you mayor. [sighs] So along with council member Manley, I attended [snorts] um the ad hoc for the parks and community um ad hoc commission. Uh what he didn't mention is it was during game five of the World Series. So it was quite a sacrifice on our behalf to attend. Go Dodgers.

Go Dodgers. Um so we ended up losing so it wasn't that big a deal and it was a quick meeting. And uh one bit of information came out of that though was as council member Manley said we're working on the partnership in the in the broader community and that they've they've rebranded themselves. No longer are they the Bowmont Cherry Valley Parks Wreck but they're Can we say this will or no? Yeah, they passed a resolution resolution. So they're the pass area wreck district. Did I get that right? Name right? It's the pass area recreation and park district.

Yes. Park district. And the um idea behind that is because they want to be more a pass area. So not just for Bowmont or Cherry Valley, but they want to represent the entire pass area and they want their name to represent that. And so I thought I think that's a good idea. Um so more details to come and council member Manley and I as we sit on that ad hoc. I also attended the um WRCOG today. There'll be a report of that forthcoming. RCA was cancelled today due to a lack of substantive issues. Um, and also just want to give a shout out thanks to staff for their um, organizing the trunk or treat event. I did not attend, but I've heard great things from those who did. So, thank you uh, to all those involved in that. And that concludes my report.

Thank you so much. It was so much fun. My family's already fired me from next year giving out. Gave out too many pieces of candy. Okay. Um I attended several county um uh um meetings. Uh first on the 23rd RTA board meeting where they um handled routine finance, on-time performance reports, approving a holiday the holiday events and purchasing of vehicles and also had their selection of uh nomination committee for officers. Um attended on the 24th a Metroink board meeting. most uh what's happening in in the metro meetings. These are five counties that are that are um discussed. There's been a series of um train incidents, quite a few. Um I didn't know there was such a thing as death by train and um that's where you hear about people dying on the tracks. Um but we also had a couple of trains hit other trains. So that's a big issue because it affects ridership. People are late. um schedules are offset and that init you know at some point affects funding. So that's that's a serious issue. Um attended the RCTC budget and implementation committee that I chair and they also uh cover routine financial reporting have a federal legislative update which most entities have. Um but uh at this meeting they uh went over the 2026 transportation improvement program projects recommendation list to the state. And so while none of them were ours, two um that were that are being forwarded for the state um have an impact on us. And one is the I 10 Highland Springs um uh project that's being uh postponed because they're not ready to to move forward. So the money is being taken from them and given to another project that'll be funded and that and they'll be back on on track for the 26 28 year.

Also the most important thing to me was the Pennsylvania um grade separation project that affects that's that's not in our city but it affects um travel and people being stranded emergency services and people um because the the the train tracks stop traffic. And so they're moving forward with uh and forwarding that project to the state for approval. Hopefully it'll be approved in uh by CTC, California transportation committee. Um and then RCTC is in the process of again swapping funds for projects to that are more ready and um excuse me. I I think we know of a project that is going to be ready for funding. So just putting that out there.

Yes, we do. Uh our Cherry Valley project. Okay. Um, and more more to more to come on that, right? Um, okay. And then, um, also I'd like to commend the city for their free spay and neuter clinic.

I I'm still scratched up for my cats. Bringing my cats in. Um, was it was I think it was fully booked within a day. Um, it a great great mobile crew that came out and did that. Um, also the trunk or treat, you know, our staff is I I can't compare them to anyone else. They put on a show. They should have well they all wear multiple hats but you guys did a wonderful job and there were a lot of kids a lot of kids that came. The line was long before we even opened at 5:00 and right up until we closed at 7 people were still coming in. Great costumes great fun for everybody. It was a lot of fun. Um and those lights with the portable generators beautiful. Um I forgot the name of them. Jaya told me but they were they put Gaya put them up herself. They're really fantastic. So, I'm glad we have some of those. I'd like to get some myself. Um and then um let's see. Um um obviously everybody got adjusted to the time change and I think that's all that I had to cover. Yep, that's all that I had. So, with that, thank you Angelina for coming. Um that brings us to our city manager comments.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um I also want to thank staff. um I had planned to attend and um as in addition to be a city manager, you also know I'm the father of three teenagers, all of who are very active socially. And so they had three different plans and there's only there's three of them and only two two of us, my wife and I. So um I had to attend to that and drive people all over town and um get, you know, people fed coming that were coming to our house. So, it was that was the reason I couldn't attend. But, um I'm glad it went went well. No doubt I had no doubt in my mind that it would. Um our staff is just unbelievable. They're awesome. Um and I'm I'm so appreciative that I get to work with them every day. Couple of animal control updates. You mentioned the spay and neuter clinic on the 28th. That was a great success here. Um we are scheduling another one. So, uh, you know, as this council knows, we do have a 2x two by two, I think, by 2x two committee. Um, with other cities in the region to talk about optimal control and in long-term solutions, but one of the things that we had talked about was in the short term, we could partner um for a spay and neuter clinic through our count our contract with the county. And so, we were doing that. Um we have it um scheduled for at this point for at on November 18th at Bowont City Hall and it will be open to um not only Cal it'll be open to Calama, Bowmont and um Banning residents and so we expect that will fill up very very quickly. Um so we will be putting out more information um on that but again that's November 18th at Bumont City Hall. And lastly, the county as another part that came out of the 2 by two is um in our lobby in our senior center, we now

are the proud owner of a um pet ID tag machine engraver. Um so residents can come in and um pick up a free tag for their um for their pet. It's part of the county's no naked pet um campaign. um they want to try to get um an ID tag in addition to chipping for all pets so that if they do get lost it helps them reunite them with their owner. [snorts] So um they provided one to us. They also provided machines to the cities of Banning and Bowmont as well. So they came by, dropped it off and we actually made a few for our seniors that we were getting ready for fit after 50 when they came in. So it was really good timing. And so they made a, you know, several tags for for the seniors and they were very happy about that. But it's free, completely free, um, for people to come in and, uh, get a tag for their pet. So they stop by the senior center when they're whenever we're open.

Um, no, we we have staff that will assist. Um, so they trained, um, um, Victoria, um, our new senior center manager, on how to use the machine. Um the other cool thing about it is it's pretty portable so we can in future um events we can also bring it with us. Um and they said that usually works out really well. Um it's really popular. So it's very I mean they showed me how to use it. It's very easy to use, very userfriendly. So we're we're excited what what that can do for us. So that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you. Will I just had a question? I don't know if maybe if you know this or not. I I brought um I had feral cats and I brought them in. I I feed them but they they live on my property. Um but they offered chipping. They didn't say whether they charge you for that. Normally uh vets charge for that that um do they charge for No. So that's they will chip if the if the pet is not already chipped, they will chip it for you as part of the spayed neuter. Okay. And they'll do that for free of charge. Well, I couldn't see chipping a feral cat. But I mean that's a great service. That's a great service. Yeah, it is. And that because that is also you know anything you know the more they can do to reunite pets right

even there there's a cost of doing it upfront right but the the other side of that is shelter space and you know trying to track down owners and there's so much more that goes to it plus it's you know the most humane thing to be able to unite you know people want to be united with their pets so yeah it is it's it's a free service. Thank you. They they are very very efficient and a lot of people people lined up quickly. Yeah, they we ended up doing I believe 25 altogether but they usually have spots for 30. So I guarantee 30 will be done on the on the 18th. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay,

that's a great question. So the question was what's the weight limit? Um because it's the mobile clinic and small um the weight limit is 20 pounds for so it is geared towards small animals. So if if larger if they want to bring larger animal men for animals in for spay and neutering um they would have to go to the shelter. They can offer that at the shelter though. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Without any further um discussion we'll adjourn tonight's meeting at 7:16 and look forward to seeing everyone back here on November 17th at 6 pm. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for presenting.