City Council - Regular Meeting

Everyone, we are going to rock and roll. It is officially 6:30. Um, if you don't mind, we're going to start with prayer because that's what we do here in Canyon Lake. Can you please stand? And I'm uh grateful to bring up Darcy Burke. She's going to lead us in prayer this evening to kick us off for the 2026.

Thank you, Mayor Smith. I thought I would start with the very first prayer that was read at the Continental Congress on September 5th, 1774 by our first president, George Washington. We start with the pledge of allegiance say one nation under God. And when you hear the words of this prayer, I think you're gonna understand why it was so important to bring God into that room. And it's so important to bring God into this room, too. So, however you in your faith start prayer, you will join me. For me, I'm Catholic, so I always start with the sign of the cross, name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen. Oh Lord our heavenly father, high and mighty king of kings and lord of lords who douse from thy throne. Behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the kingdoms, empires and governments look down in mercy. We beseech thee on these are American states who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on thee. To thee have they appealed to the righteousness of their cause. To thee do they now look up for thee countenance and support which thou alone can give. Take them therefore, heavenly father, under thy nurturing care. Give them wisdom in counsel and valor in the field. Defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries. Convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause. And if they persist in their sanguary purposes of our own unairring justices, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle. Be thou present, oh God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly. Enable them to settle things on the best and shest foundation, that the scene of blood may be speedily closed, that order, order, harmony, and peace may be effectively restored, and truth and justice, religion, and piety prevail and flourish among the people.

Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds. Shower down on them and the millions they here represent. Such temporal blessings as thou seeest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ thy son and our savior. Amen. Way to go. So fitting being that it's 250 years coming up. So well done. Uh Mayor Pr team Castillo, would you mind leading us in the pledge?

Thank you. I will. Hand over your heart. Ready? 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. Thank you for that. Madam clerk, can we uh conduct the roll call, please? Mayor Potm Castillo here. Council member Siver here. Council member Terry here. Council member here. Mayor Smith here. Mayor, you have a quorum. Perfect. Close session report. Thank you, mayor. We have no reportable action out of tonight's close session.

All right, moving on. Ceremonial matters. Tonight, I'm sad and to report the loss of a good friend to the city and also the POA. Um, and that is Warren Kelsey and and we have the honor tonight to recognize him for not only his dedication for this entire community, but the fact that he was so loved. Um, he had one of the biggest hearts I know. And um it it's tough because when we have good people like Warren who care so much about the city um we need that in our community. And Warren was a fighter. He always was. There's so many people here that um loved debating him. He uh he was my favorite because he would constantly tell me how we need to eliminate red tape and I was the problem of the community at times and so I appreciated it. But bear with me as I read a little bit about our good friend Warren Kelsey. Tonight we honor the memory of Warren Kelry. Born in 1938, even though he didn't look a day past 50, his contributions helped shape the city of Canyon Lake. Warren was a member of the incorporation committee and played an important role in the information for our city. Mr. Wamsley, I think you can relate and you know it very well. Um, in recognition of his service, he he was honored in 2016 as a city father and served as a grand mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar marshal of the Fiesta Day parade alongside other charter leaders who helped lay the foundation for Canyon Lakes's future. He also remained deeply committed to the community long after incorporation, serving on the Canyon Lake Property Owners Association, which we all know well, and supporting traditions and reflects our shared values. Among those was his generous donations of the American flag for the city annual's Veterans Day tradition, ensuring that every veteran and activity duty service member is recognized in honor. We are so grateful to have Warren part of this community and I know that he is going to be very very well missed. With that, I'm excited to be able to present to the families here. We have his wife and his daughter. Um, we have

some flowers that we have prepared and we also have a plaque that we were able to make. And I also want to make this this note as well as we present this. Um Warren cared deeply about Canyon Lake, not just the city, but the POA as well. And it would not be custom for us to honor him and his legacy with also having the POA here. So, um I'm going to ask that we have our general manager, Eric, who I believe is here. We also have a POA member, Jeff Bill. Is there anyone else from the POA that's here? No. Okay. So, would you all come up with me as we present this? So, we're going to have the entire council come up and is there any words that you would like to say? I don't want to put you on the spot. Sure.

Okay. Come on up. I got I got a mic for all of us. So, cuz I know you have some stains to say, too. Perfect. And thank you, Eric, and Jeff Bill, for being here as well.

Thank you, Jeremy. I was also very sad to hear about Warren's passing. I first met Warren at a Fiesta Day parade and um in person at least. We probably exchanged emails prior to that. But uh it was a pleasure meeting him. He's an amazing guy. I I learned off right off the bat he pulled up in his PL silver I think Plymouth Prowler and I used to have a Plymouth Prowler. So we immediately had something in common and uh exchanged many um spicy emails with him over the years. It was always much more fun debating with him in person. uh cuz it was always with a smile and uh always enjoyed being in the same room with them. But uh I had a lot of fun uh arguing and debating with him and it was pure entertainment and uh what an awesome guy. Um not only like Jeremy said, not only was he a founding father, uh original city council member, but also served on the POA board and uh very much one of my favorite people that I've met in this town and was really sad to hear of his passing. Um, I'm also proud to have called him a friend and our organization would also like to recognize him for everything he did in this community and and we also have a plaque for him.

Thank you very much. Is it okay if the family comes up as we present this to you? Is that all right? Um, in fact, the the last time I was able to hang out with with Warren was with our city manager, um, Council Member Wely, and he was fighting the good fight, yelling on yelling at us on permits. Oh, yeah. Doing the deal. doing the deal, bringing us to his house in his office and says, "You will do this." And the city manager did that, didn't we? We did. But first, I saw that Marine Corps stamp and I knew I had a You were done. I I I knew as a as a Marine, I I I had a a a kindred spirit there. Yeah. I I think I think when you guys mourn War Warren and especially when you have your service, you're going to find out so many people that he impacted and and that's what

and that that's what's also sad but also brings us a sense of peace because without this man in this community, I can guarantee you Canyon Lake would not be what it is today. So with that, we're going to present this and we're going to take a photo if that's okay. Can I have the council come up here as well? We're going to present flowers and thank you for doing this. Come up here too and you guys come over here. Exactly. So, we're going to stand over here.

Okay, we will take it in. Three, two, one. Oops. I'll take a few. Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you for letting us do this. on my script here. It's it's also noted to let you know that you don't have to stay for this boring city council meeting that we get to do every month. So, you will not offend us. We just can't thank you enough for taking the time to to come and, you know, let us, you know, honor him. And, um, I want to ask if my colleagues have anything they would like to say. I just want to say I had a wonderful time with Warren. He he loved the debate. Somehow he always ended up laughing throughout the debate. Um he definitely had a side and and when you countered with a different opinion, he would come back with another opinion and by the end it was it was a very great time. So uh I just want to say thank thank you for b loaning them to us at some of our meetings and we appreciate it.

Thank you all very much for all your kind words. I appreciate that so much. Of course. Any other comments? I would just say he was very supportive. As much as he um wanted to argue about certain things, he loved this city and he only wanted it to move forward. And I really appreciated his input and constructive criticism. That's we fed off of it. So, he's definitely going to be missed. Thank you so very much. And he was very talented. He found a way to get under your skin, but not enough to be upset. You know, I remember the last day said, "German, don't you call yourself a Republican? You better call me on this." Okay. Okay. I get it. I get it. He found a way. So, appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. I got one real fast. I'm sorry, Josh.

My conversations were were a little different. I always thank them for his service, but today I want to thank you for supporting him through all that. So, all my condolence. Yeah,

Mr. Terry, you have some good. Okay. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. All right. That's tough when you're 94. But you don't drive like you're 94. Jack, I saw you back that truck in. Well, I started this city and I got some good people. Thank you, Jack. We appreciate you for coming. All right, with that, we're going to go into city council um committee reports. So, I'm putting this at the front because I know my colleagues are going to keep this to 60 seconds. So, we're gonna go around and start off with you, Council Member Stever.

Perfect. I'll be brief. Um, in chronological order. So, uh, holidays were here. I got to spend, uh, the time with my, uh, my kids and just had an amazing time both, uh, Christmas and New Year's. Uh, coming back, kicking things off. Um, Mayor Prom and I had earlier this week our community engagement committee meeting. So, we're excited here uh soon in the next few months to share some of the fun uh events and things we'll be doing. Um and lastly, uh last week uh League of California Cities appointed me to their um transportation communication and public works policy committee for the state, which starts next week in Sacramento. So, looking forward to it.

Nice. Mayor Bertim, uh happy new year. Just echoing what council member Suber said. We had a great meeting and I'm excited for what is in store for the community this year. That's why you're my favorite. Council member Wely.

Yeah. I just want to get my microphone on. Just let you know, you know, you see us up here once a month and you see us throughout the community, but we we often do uh other meetings outside of the city. Uh we meet with Wobb Western Regional Council Governments, Western Riverside Council Governments. We we meet with SKAG, Southern California Association of Governments, and local transportation organizations. So, we're we're busy out there at least one one day a week out there running around supporting our city. And a lot of times we don't have discussions about it because it's just a a lot to say about a issue that may go on for a year. And I don't think you need to be update on uh every little thing we do. But, uh we had some big things come up. I wanted to talk about them. Um do we have the slide? There it is. Okay. In the T now meeting of discussion, a representative from uh let's see the the organization that collects the fees, the toll road organization came up to us and said, "We want to let you know we're going to put in an express connection between the 241 and the 91. It'll allow for people coming from southern Orange County to come right across and get into the uh HOV lanes and go on up through it. It will help those people that are willing to pay and go through. That'll help them, but it also should help the freeway have less traffic because, you know, if you're coming up the 91 and they all merge in, you get slowed down and a lot of those people are merging in and then they're sliding over across four lanes to get on the HO HOV lane. So, now they'll be able to go directly on the toll road and it'll certainly help the people who live in Canyon Lake or who commute to uh to uh southern Orange County come on. and it'll help the people coming from main sections of Orange County because it'll limit that traffic. So, we're excited. Uh their intent is to start in 2026. They need an approval or two. Should be down by 2029. And if we can just get them to turn

their attention to the 15 and maybe continue that toll down to Railroad Canyon, I think uh it's definitely a goal in the hearts of all the cities of southern Riverside. But uh it's a reach and that's one of the committees that we all are part of that pursue that 91 freeway so they can get the toll road expanded down. We all take the toll road, you get off of Corona, then you go back and sit in traffic. So it's not very helpful. So the other uh big thing is is the LA Olympics are coming. So, um, the tickets are now open apparently January 14th. Um, that's a, uh, for a lottery.

For a lottery. Yeah. So, you can go ahead and get into a lottery form to get tickets for the Olympics. So, that's coming and that's a big discussion on the Skagg front. And so, what we we had the meeting uh was about the economic impact of the Olympics. And as you can see, they're intending to bring in uh about $14 billion into the region. A small amount of amount of it goes to Riverside. So they're going to bring about a billion dollars into our region economic activity through the Olympics. LA, of course, and Orange County will get the lion share, but that's where most of the activities are. Aren't they doing the the horse races in Tmacula? Or is it Norcco? They pulled it.

Yeah, don't worry. We tried, but Canyon Lake gates and everything. We couldn't get them in. We could go up and swim something. Yeah, some something about the heat and Tmacula was a little made the horse the owners of the horses and the the competitors, they were uncomfortable with the amount of heat out here. So, yeah.

Uh so, moving on, you can see that over the how many how much it's going to impact us. It's going to start the income is going to start now and it's going to go through 25, 26 and 27 and then the peak of course in 2020 when they have the games. So, huge amount of economic activity. We're very fortunate as a region because if you go to a city uh and they haven't done the Olympics, they have to spend billions on facilities uh to house the Olympians to give them a place to do their sport. Well, because we've done this a number of times, we have most of the facilities in place. We have a lot of college campuses that have dorms we can house people. So, because of that, we're actually kind of a very affordable place for the the local community to or the region to afford. So, it's helpful. Okay. Next one, uh, job creation. The huge, they're going to bring in 20,000 jobs in construction. Most of that's going to be on transportation, uh, getting ready for the Olympics. So, that's a great thing to get more jobs in the area. A minimum 20 20,000. Uh, as you can see, there's the overall job. This was an economic report. This is the overall job forecast. As you can see, in 2025, they expect 22,000 jobs. to 2026 they expect 14,000 jobs and then 2027 85,000 jobs. So you can see there's a distinct reduction in how many jobs we're going to have in Southern California. A lot of people find affordability and ability to live here limited. So we do see some people moving away. Okay. What was in the interesting point they brought up in the in the session was that after chat GTP opened there was a a change in the trend of our economics. So as you can see there's been a decline in the employment of high-tech services because now uh people are able to use chat GBT and they think that trend has continued. So they're they try to drive real numbers on that and I I think the

graph says that at least something's going on. Okay, next um and you can see there's chat GBT again and there's manufacturing financial activities also declining kind of a chat GBT thing. So AI will impact us. Uh we we hear uh people say that uh 90 only 1% of us will ever need to go to work in 15 years. I think that's a little bit of a reach. Uh Aaron would have to be a city this only city employee of three cities in order to make that happen. And I don't he's a great guy, but I don't think Aaron could handle three cities all by himself. So uh on to the next one. Uh one of the huge growth uh sources is health care and services. You can see that that's rising. We have an aging population. Uh and healthc care is a big thing and that's one of the things that they're looking at in the transportation corridors is how many health care hospital workers live in Riverside and then go on into Orange County to work. Just a huge number. So going to the next slide. Uh as you can see on the line below it was what the speaker was saying. He estimated there are 350,000 people commuting to the inland or the coastal cities from the Inland Empire. My own estimate, I did a back of the napkin, is that's over $20 billion of annual funds for our area. I think to be honest, that our our personnel is our largest export out of the Inland Empire. I don't know of any other particular business that does 20 billion dollars, but uh our real export is uh our our people. They're all going to the coastal cities to work. And you wonder why if you wonder why these people are commuting and why they're doing their craziness, you look at the look at the cost of housing. Orange County, uh, median price to over a million. LA, it's pushing a million. Riverside, we're in the five to six 4 to $600,000 range. So, if you're a family

member or you're a person and you want to own a home and uh you're not making the $2 million a year salary, we are a great option. So, we'll probably continue to see Riverside grow and we have an opportunity, at least in our mind, to make a great place. I think there's one more. This is a big number. It talks about vacancy rates. We know in COVID the work at home thing came into play. A lot of offices that were built suddenly lost lost uh occupants. Uh you can see LA, it's looking somewhere in the 202 24% range of vacancy. Orange County, 19%, Ventura, 13. And there we are in the Inland Empire. We're in the 5% range. So, it's kind of a good thing for us. That means if if we have offices that we want to rent that there is a demand. Um, SC argue just bought their own little office building, which was a perfect time because they they were able to buy a building at a really what I thought was a pretty good rate. And uh that's very important for for what we do is that we have we do have the capability and probably the land to build a few more offices and it looks like there's more demand here. Uh and there's more how would you put it? We have a lower vacancy rate. So we have an opportunity to rent out some units. So we're excited as a city. We do own a couple of offices in the center and we can glide to continue uh getting those offices filled. That would be it.

Nice. Thank you. That would be it. That That's my pres. Mr. Terry, you're up. Lady, great job. Good job, buddy. Thank you.

He does he does a terrific job on a regional basis. It is truly his passion. Um Dale and I had an opportunity on Friday to attend uh the WRCOG strategic planning meeting and I thought that was um was a very positive event. Um, happy new year to everyone. Um, don't have a whole lot to report on. I I would say that uh I attended with uh Mayor Smith coffee at the country club. And I encourage all of you if you have the opportunity the first Wednesday at every of every month, 7:30 in the morning, hosted by Director Burke and Mayor Smith. Our last meeting was so informative and I I really do appreciate everything that you brought to that meeting. We've kind of built it up to 15 20 people and I I I anticipate that growing um and uh once again very appreciative of all the information, all the questions that you answered and I think our residents are in a very good spot.

Thank you. Um my update. Thank you um Darcy Burke for your willingness to have coffee with me once again and thank you Mayor Prom Castillo for starting this coffee with the mayor. I think it's it's been great and I'm excited to do it for the 2026. Um I gave Dale most my time. So I'm going to just simply say uh happy new year as well. It's been a dark kind of month. That's what happens during this time of year. Um I am excited though. my good friend uh Tim Sherin in the city of Lakeer was just um voted in as our second vice chair for RTA. For those of you that are listening or here um RTA, which is Riverside Transportation Agency, is hiring. They're looking for bus drivers. So, there is an opportunity for those um if you would like to apply. Uh sorry I can't put in a good word for you, but you can apply and it's a it's a it's a ready job. So, um they're looking to hire I think 50 or so bus drivers for uh Riverside County. With that, we're going to go straight into presentations and I'm going to ask our director of water, Darcy Burke, to come on back up and uh tell us a little bit about what's happening over in your hood. Thank you, mayor, council, staff, guests, residents, friends. A lot's happening in my hood, actually. So, um I'm going to start with a new program that we launched on January 1st called the Community Assistance Program. This is a voluntary program that we are asking residents to if they feel so inclined to make a donation to. We have the rare program that is an ongoing program that helps those that have um income eligible options that give them an offset every month on their water and wastewater bill. If you are eligible for care through Southern California Edison for our community, you're automatically eligible for rare. But we run into a lot of other situations. Um, there's a lot of surviving spouses that maybe never paid the bills and the passing of their

spouse was unexpected and all of a sudden their water shut off because they didn't know they had to pay the bill or the funeral expenses were too much and there was no money to pay the bill or they had an unexpected job loss or I could go on and on and on. And the idea of this set aside, because we're not allowed to use rate money to do this, is to give our customer service representatives the ability to help those families at really bad times of need and without income eligibility, but bad things happen to everybody and to give them the flexibility to do that. So, that's something that just started and uh we'll see how it goes. It's all voluntary. It's not something we're adding on to your bill. It's not a rate, but we actually had some people ask, "Hey, if I wanted to donate to help my neighbor, how would I do that?" And this is a way that we found legally that we could do that without setting up, believe it or not, a whole another entity and going through that process. So, we'll we'll see how it goes. Um, I want to thank the chief because he attended a firecaping, which is a fire kind of proofing landscaping workshop we had and was diligent enough to bring that back to Canyon Lake. And you're actually hosting it here on February 5th. It's a free workshop for the citizens of Canyon Lake and I just want to thank you for taking the time to do that and so um if you haven't heard about it, you'll probably hear about it more on social media and other things. There is no cost to attend. I believe you just need to register. So you can either check our website which is evmwd.com. I know that chief also has a flyer that has a QR code. So there's lots of ways to do that. But as um fire becomes more of an issue and our landscape requirements change, this will kind of give you a heads up. I also want to give the chief kudos because last year he attended the fostering water leadership program if I remember. Well, we're about to start cohort two. So, if you have not heard of this and I believe many of the council members that didn't attend last year will get an invitation. This is a program that kind of shows you

the bigger picture of water for California. more about Elsenor Valley, what we do, our system, our regional partners, and I think it's only three or four opportunities you have to meet. We try to do it within a short amount of time because we know you're busy, but to give you an idea of what we do because most people have no clue of what it takes to move water or waste water and what it does to happen to work with our partners. So, I know I was very excited that the chief participated last year and hopefully he'll be able to recruit others to participate because I think it's important, especially if you're making policy. Next week, we'll consider 65 million more dollars in wastewater capital improvement projects. That includes sewer trunk lines for capacity in Lake Elsenor on Mission Trail. If you've heard that we're out of room, we're getting close. So, this will address those issues. That also includes some of the grant funding money that will be coming up for the septic to sewer conversions. So, um there's a lot of construction going on. Um some of this includes micro tunneling down Mission Trail. So, if you drive down Mission Trail, you're welcome. I'm sure you'll be very pleased about that. There's also paving going on on the 74. So, be aware of that. That's if you go towards the west. If you go towards east, that's eastern. I can't help you with that. Um, except to direct you to their customer service. And I think I think that's all I have right now, unless there's something. Oh, yeah. Rate discussions are starting at Metropolitan next month and we're looking at 23% right now.

Any questions for our director, mayor? I do. Um, I missed the cohort last year. And, uh, is that going to be an invitation from the to the city or is it going to be individual? Individual. Perfect. Thank you. And I think I failed to mention you're now vice chair. Oh, yeah. I am vice president. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Appreciate you. Thank you. All right. With that, we have our vice president of the POA, the man with two first names, Jeff Bill.

Sorry, Jeff. It's okay. I think I've gotten used to that. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, Council, staff, uh, just want to tell everybody happy new year. It's great seeing you guys. I really enjoy that we're kicking off the year in prayer. Um, I just um I just really appreciate that. So, a few updates. It's been kind of slow obviously with the holidays. Don't have a lot to report there, but we do have our year three paving project completed and under budget, and we've already started engineering for the next year's project. Also, this week we'll be finishing up our motorcycle security secure parking area. Um, we do have the fence up. It's been up for a while, but what we're putting in this week is the gate readers and the motors to open and close the gates. So, we've uh we've made a lot of progress. That that was a it's a good thing. You know, we had issues with motorcycle thefts in the past. So, I'm really excited about that happening. So, the um Bluebird Hall, speaking of security, we are currently upgrading our monitoring stations. We've got uh new very large monitors about like what you guys have up there. We've also up the staff in there to help with the customer service. And then uh on a positive note, I want to let everybody know that Saturday, February 21st, the Marshall Tucker Band is going to be playing at the lodge. There are still a few tickets left. So if you want to go, you need to get those tickets really soon. And then on a personal note, I would like to thank uh Chief Rails. He joined our security advisory committee the other night. Uh gave us an update on the police station, visited with us, and it was just great listening to him and talking to him. Uh that's really all I have right now, unless you guys have any questions.

Any questions? Appreciate you, Jeeoff. All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Way to go. It's going to be a good year. All right. With that, we have the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce. I think Johnny and Rick are both here. Or is it just No, unfortunately, Johnny couldn't make it. Okay. So, he sent me. Rick, you're in charge. Well, for just for tonight. Just for a little bit. Just for three minutes. So, good evening, Mayor Smith, Mayor Prom, council members, and city staff. I'm Rick Tobin, the new vice president and director of events for the Canyon Lake Chamber, and I'm here to present our monthly update. First up, did do you get the quarterly events that I handed out? Nice. And I handed these out around the town center earlier this week. Very cool.

Um,

and as of today, our website is updated. So, if if you can get out your phones and go to canyonlakechamber.org, you'll see our new website. Again, just went live today. I know this is a PowerPoint, but that's uh if you go on your phone, you can see how how nice it is. Um, and so special thanks to Web Village for assisting with the website design and media craft for the beautiful drone videos that that was shared are shared on the first page. Um, according to the SBA and US Chamber of Commerce, small businesses with 500 or fewer employees make up 99% of all US businesses. Upwards of 82% of the 33 million small businesses are run by just one owner with no employees. and 16% have one to 19 employees. So out of the 98 small businesses, 98% of small businesses um they have 19 or fewer employees. So it's our intent for the chamber. We want to emphasize the sharing of education for our members both online and in person like how to sell, how to market um by following our president Johnny Pana's vision. We want our members and others in the community to think of the chamber as their fellow fellow uh helpful co-workers who can assist them with business related questions or concerns. We're also streamlining our member billing and email updates to make it much easier for our members to view and access. Okay, so now to focus on just the events on the calendar for this month. We'll start with a bingo fundraiser tomorrow evening at Sports Stop Pub uh Pub and Grill. It's a fundraiser for Stacy Hails Hails, the um the groomer at Just for Pause, who tra had the tragic uh home fire uh event. And so it's a fundraiser. It's tomorrow evening, 5 to 9 p.m. Megan Cortiz uh organized it. She asked us,

she's a former Canyon Lake board member. She asked us to help promote it. Uh, next week on Thursday, January 22nd at 5:30 p.m., we'll have a joint ribbon cutting ceremony and after hours mixer at station number two pizza, you know, in the back of the town center. The following day on Friday, January 23rd, starting at 4:30 p.m., we will host another ribbon cutting ceremony at Eden Accounting for Cassie Eden. That's about 100 yards down the down the road. Uh the following week on Thursday, January 29th at the Lake Ells Storm Baseball Stadium is the Mega Mixer business networking event. That's between 3:30 and 7:00 p.m. That's the biggest event that I've been to out here. They get upwards of a thousand people. There's 10 chambers involved. Um numerous business uh booths. And so if you come by, we'll please visit us at the Canyon Lake Chamber booth and uh and bring lots of business cards to share. And thank you for allowing the Chamber of Commerce the time to share our latest monthly updates. And I'll be glad to address any questions you may have.

Council, any questions? No, that was very informative. Thank you. Oh, thank you. I do, Mayor. Um first want to apologize. Uh I didn't bring this up in my council comments earlier, but uh back in December, I had the privilege to install our new chamber board coming in this year. So I appreciate that moment. But uh please take back to the chamber. What an awesome job on that website. Uh it's it's a different change and I've probably seen it 10 times today now. So Oh, great. Good job. All right. Well, thank you. I think you guys are doing a great job. We're just getting started. really progressing and I appreciate it and I know our businesses appreciate it as well. Thank you. It's a team effort. So, thank you for the help from the city.

Thank you for the the event for tomorrow. I mean, reaching out to help somebody. It's just not about the businesses getting together, but you saw a need for one of your co for one of your business workers or employees and to reach out and help them is a pretty nice thing to do. Yeah. Okay, Rick, appreciate you. Is this um is this new? Uh yes. Can you make sure that we get this internally with our staff so that way we can make sure these are all on our calendars cuz this is great. Oh, thank you. I I dropped them off at the office on Monday when I was going around the town. But we'll we'll started bumping some of these into my calendar. So, um I just can't thank you enough. This is this is a game changer. So, we're going to do it every quarter. So, thank you. Awesome. Appreciate it. All right. Have a good day. Thank you for being here. You too.

Thank you.

All right. That leaves us uh Canyon Lake Fire Department. Chief, you are up. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, city council, city staff, members of the public. Jeff Lutender, your fire chief, and I am first off here to wish you a happy new year. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and holiday break, and we are back. Um, I'm here to give our reports for the month of December. Month of December, we responded to 94 emergency incidents. Of those emergency incidents, one was a structure fire, 69 were medical aids, one was a hazardous condition, eight were service calls, 10 were good intent, five were false alarms for the total of 94. And for the year of 2025, we ran 1,120 responses. That actually is in our four years of service, our busiest year thus far. So, um, on that note, we will be putting together our annual, um, annual report, and we'll have that at the next meeting for you. Our turnout times for the month of December um, came to a shock to us a little bit. On average, 50% of the time, our turnout time, time from notification till we get out of the out of the station was 1 minute 12 seconds. Our travel time was 5 minutes 13 seconds and our total response time was 6 minutes and 19 seconds. You'll see on the top line there, that was our longest of the year thus far. So, I'll come back to that in just a minute. Our fractile time or what we're doing 90% of the time when we go to medical emergency events, our turnout time was 2 minutes 5 seconds. Our travel time was 7 minutes 1 second. and our total response time was 8 minutes and 20 seconds. So, it's the

first time this year and I think first time in our history that we did not meet our internal goal for turnout time. Um, we have already dug down into that. There were several responses unfortunately that came at poor timing. And when I say that, we have to be ready 100% of the time, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. But activities still go on. And some of our guys got caught in the shower. Some of our guys got caught in training activities that took them longer to respond to than what we what we like to see. So, we're working on that internally. We're reviewing what happened during those cases. And I guarantee you next month when we come and give our presentation that those times will improve. During the month of December, we responded to nine incidents under automatic or mutual aid outside of the city. All nine of those incidents were in the good or in the Lake Elsenor area and that's by zip code. So for all of 2025, we responded to 117 incidents. Again, 120 two of those were in Lake Elsenor, three in Good Hope, 10 in Meny, one in Paris, one in Riverside. Uh, and then we did respond again um a year ago. Uh, our crews would still gone were still gone a year ago. They were gone for two weeks to the fires in Los Angeles County. U, this is a map again and and as I said, we looked at the zip code. These are the physical locations where we responded to. And if you look at that closely, it's actually more in the unincorporated area outside of uh Lake Elsenor as you head into the Mebrook area. Conversely, Riverside County Calire responded to six incidents inside the city during the month of December. For the total year, they responded to 773 incidents. Again, we believe that this

is still a very reciprocal agreement between us. Even though we are going out more often than they are coming in, they have the ability to come in with additional units. And so while these are looking at incidents, one incident might require three of their units to come and assist. So we are we are happy that we are able to assist and pleased with the numbers as we look at them on an annual basis. Just uh an overview, it was probably our most successful event ever, but uh in December we had our donuts with Santa. We had a face painter there. We had the gingerbread man. We had an amazing Santa Claus that came in. We had a Home Depot again that came in and had crafts for the kids. We estimate 300 people showed up. It was just an incredible day and we just want to thank the community for their support and our our volunteers that came in and assisted us. Uh we're out in the community a lot this month as well. Um, we were doing some inspections in the town center and someone came out with their puppy and wanted to have their picture taken with the firefighters. Our Spark Spark Love toy drive, we had three trucks full of toys that we had to take to deliver for our donation collection this year. Again, the community was amazing in their donations and their generosity and so we are grateful them for them. Our families, our firefighters worked over the holidays. we are here every day and so they got to come in and celebrate the holidays on Christmas Day on New Year's Day with the firefighters. Um we participated in the POA golf cart parade. Uh we were out there uh for that event and then we had our own department Christmas party. So very uh busy month for us. As director uh Darcy already spoke about, we are hosting on February 5th, 6 o'clock, right here in this room, a landscaping or a fire escaping

workshop to talk about landscaping. If you're not following it, there's a lot of changes coming forward in our state laws and requirements on what you can do around your house because of the fire threat. A lot of this is is still being evaluated because of what happened in January in the Palisades and in Altadena with the eaten fire. Um our speaker Douglas Kent has authored books on this. I went to the presentation at the Elser Valley Water District. It was incredible and partnering with the water district. We are bringing him here free of charge to the uh to the residents. It's very inspiring, inspiring, very informative and educational and I encourage everyone to uh come in and participate. There is a um QR code on on the flyer that you can register with. We're also hosting a cert training workshop again. So during February 20th, the 21st and 26, Friday night, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday, uh we are putting together another workshop to train members of the community to be C volunteers. Our C program is active and strong. We're meeting here tomorrow night in preparation for our workshop and we encourage anybody to also attend this workshop. Again, it's free of charge for all residents of the city. It's teaching the people how to do the the greatest good for the greatest number with the least amount of people. We'll cover disaster response, basic fire safety, medical operations, and team organization. So, we hope to see you there. Uh, finally, we want to uh officially announce our firefighter and reserve firefighter of the year for 2025. John Sassy was our firefighter of the year and Michael Longardo was our reserve of the year. These two individuals have contributed greatly to our department's mission statement to

furthering the betterment of the fire department. Uh John Sassy promoted this year. He just had his first child in December, so we're very proud of him. Michael Longardo holds a full-time job as a fire inspector with the uh Orange County Fire Authority, and we're just honored to have him as part of our team. So, congratulations go out to both those individuals. And then finally, we want to recognize and remember um CalFire engineer Danny Cook. He uh passed away December 31st on a structure fire in um Newevo. Uh services will be the 20th next week. We will be participating in covering one of their fire stations so their personnel can attend the services. We are wearing our morning bands. Uh we have our memorial flag out at the fire station and uh Chief Roberts will actually be doing sentinel duty uh at the funeral home tomorrow. Um Chief Roberts worked with him. Another one of our captains also worked for him. So it's a very sad event for us. So I'm sorry. And that's all I have and I'm available for any questions if you have them.

Thank you, Chief. Any uh questions from the council? I do not a question. No question. Just thank you guys. Yes. and please convey the council's condolences 100%. Um, Calire and Chief, it's true. Um, Chico's been busy covering everyone's shift while I have kids, right? He's been running around like crazy covering for all the young pups.

I don't have a count. I know he worked at least four days straight over the holidays, including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and so forth. Uh he tries to always he has a family tradition of going to Pasadena for the Rose Parade every year. I think the weather scared him and his family away. So he was very disappointed that he could not attend that. But um everybody in the department stood up. We had two people actually in uh December that had children and so uh they were both off and so a busy month for the firefighters. You guys are awesome. Absolutely awesome. Congratulations. Thank you, Chief. Mhm.

With that, um, I'm excited to turn it over to Council Member Mark Terry. We're going to be doing the nonprofit spotlight, and I'm excited to continue doing this. You brought this forward as as mayor last year, and it's been so cool to see us, you know, look at different uh, nonprofits in the region, and our community. So, this one's yours, my friend. Take it away. Really appreciate you uh, continuing this in 2026, and we already have four organizations booked.

Love it. So, it's it's going to be a great year. Um, rose above Julie, if we remember that presentation, I gave her a phone call and um said that we were going to be continuing the nonprofit spotlight in 2026 and did she have a suggestion of a nonprofit um that we could invite? And um the organization is called His Little Feet. Great name. Just gets me right off the in the beginning. It's a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving children who are experiencing homelessness, neglect, and poverty. Their mission is to provide brand new high quality athletic shoes along with socks, school supplies to the children living in the shelter, foster care, and communities facing crisis throughout the greater Long Beach and Riverside and Orange County. And it is my honor, please welcome board president Sonia Kent.

Nice. Way to go.

Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Smith, Mayor Prom, esteemed city council, city manager, city leader, staff, and the Canyon Lake community. It's actually an honor and a pleasure for me to be back here with you in this room. A few of you may recognize me from my time as a resident here, where I had the privilege of serving a number of years as the co-chair of scholarships and the co-chair of philanthropy for the Canyon Lake Junior Women's Club. I also served two years as the director of events with the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce. So, my heart remains very much tied to this community. So, when Hie was sick, I jumped at the chance to actually step in for her. So, you're going to have to excuse that I have a lot of my notes here on my phone. Um, I met Hie four years ago at a mom's and prayer meeting where our daughters attend Lynfield Christian together. And last year, I finally decided to commit to a leadership position within his little feet and help push forward its mission. For those that don't know me, my name is Sonia Kent and I am the 2026 president of the board of directors for His Little Feet. Tonight is a particularly uh special occasion as it's officially our 12-year anniversary. We are thrilled to celebrate over a decade of service by sharing our mission with you and sharing the ways that perhaps we can partner here together. At His Little Feet, our mission is simple but life-changing. We're a local 501c3 dedicated to providing new shoes as stated, socks to children in crisis, those experiencing neglect, poverty, those who are within the foster care system. So, we work with the Rose Again Foundation as well as families who have experienced disaster. While it might seem like such a small gesture, a pair of shoes is a gateway to confidence. The data shows that highquality well-fitting shoes are directly linked to increased academic performance and school attendance. It improves self-esteem and social interaction and it allows for greater physical activity and holistic

development. Did you know that in the US one in five children cannot afford properly fitting shoes? In addition, in Riverside County alone, 84,000 children struggle with having the basic necessities. shoes being one of the most requested items. So here at His Little Feet, we work to remove that social and that physical barrier so these ch children can just focus on being kids and being students and not on their circumstances. So if you want to click to that next slide. So I believe data tells a story. So over the last 12 years, thanks to our volunteers and our partners, we've achieved the following 26,866 pairs of shoes. we've provided. 63,000 pairs of socks were distributed.

3,100 backpacks were filled to the brim with school supplies. And we've logged over 31,000 service hours by 547 dedicated volunteers. So, if you want to click to that next slide. So cool.

So, yeah. So, on the screen, you're going to see photos from one of our recent outreach events. Beyond shoes, these children, like at our back to school event, uh they received haircuts from local barbers, um and but muticians. They received a warm lunch from the local Chick-fil-A, but more importantly, they received the feeling that their community cares about them. I know firsthand how generous and how service-minded Canyon Lake is. I've stood here before you presenting scholarships to the youth and delivering necessities to those community members in need. So, I know the caliber firsthand of the people in the city. We aren't here tonight to ask for a financial handout. We're looking for a partnership within the Canyon Lake community. So, how does that happen? Sponsorship number one. We have something called a soul club, S O L E. And that allows for people who just want to be able to donate 12 month or for 12 months, $45, you provide a new pair of shoes every month for a child. In addition, we have internships. We offer incredible opportunities for Canyon Lake youth to actually apply and to gain realworld skills. Our interns are very much a part of our program management, collaboration, event coordination, and community leadership. These are all skills they can take when they go to college representing Cany Lake community. In addition, we've got outreach. We're looking for people to join community outreach and development committees. We meet monthly to help identify local families that are in need and to help us connect with new partners. Lastly, you can participate in any one of our annual events in 2026. We have a gala in April. We have our back to school events in the summertime. We have a golf tournament, which I know there's a lot of golfers here, in October, or any one of our holiday outreaches. And when I say seeing those kids' faces, um I particularly went to this one that is a preschool that services only homeless preschool children and watching them light up when

Santa gave them a gift and when shoes were given to them and socks. Um you just cannot cannot imagine I can't even put into words uh what that feeling is. In closing, we want to be a part of this community. Whether you're a city official, a resident listening at home, there is a place for you at his little feet. So, thank you for giving us this spotlight on our anniversary. I invite you, if you want to go to the next slide, I invite you to follow us um our journey on social media. It's outlined on that slide. Reach out to our team or our founder Hie via our website at hisfeat.org. So, it's kind of So, there's two his little feetats. This one is hitt.org. Um, thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

So cool. Any questions, council members? Hi. Hi. We missed you. We do miss you. Um, you are so giving always, but something that you just said kind of struck me. I know that um, you work in building um, relationships and collaborating and teaching. I know that you speak at different schools and I do tell, you know, high school students how to line their resume and get jobs, good jobs, right? Yeah. This is an amazing partnership.

When I I can't even look at Mark Terry because I'm going to cry because this is just such a a moving um and amazing nonprofit and you you knock it out of the park every time you bring someone here. Um, but it's so nice to hear from you and I I'm so excited to help participate in this in any way. But I think what that point that you made um that there are Canyon Lake students who probably would just absolutely fit in with your mission. I'm so glad you're highlighting this for them.

Yeah. And I mean, having the pleasure of given I think it was close to like 40 40 scholarships, you know, seeing all the great kids that we had here in Canyon Lake. Um, and the and the amazing stuff they do. I mean, this was when I was talking to Hie and and telling her, she's like, "You know Canyon Lake, right?" I'm like, "Oh, I know Canyon Lake." Yes. They will love um to have their students be a part of these internship opportunities that we have. 100%. Yeah. I would encourage you to keep in touch with our city clerk. Any information that we can get out to our residents, we'd be more than happy to do it. Fantastic. The one thing that you said, we all have children.

Mhm. a new pair of shoes. Simple. Simple. And it's so, you know, it's something that nobody feels like, oh, that doesn't really do much. But, but the data actually showed that these students, they feel good. Um, I watched this little boy that was homeless. He put on a brand new pair of shoes and he was like instantly a superhero. Yeah. Right. He was running around. He run so fast. Yeah. I run fast. Make me faster. Yep. Make me taller. Make me faster. Make me better. I love it. Yeah. It's so good. Absolutely. Well, thank you again. Thank you for taking the time to be here and congratulations on 12 years. Yes. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Thank you. All right. Byebye. Appreciate you. Every time.

Every time. All right. Moving on. Public comments. Madam Clerk, can you take this one away? Mayor, we have three public speakers tonight. Our first is Greg Langworthy. Awesome. Mr. Langworthy, it's good seeing you on this side.

Yeah. Well, good to see all of you. So, um I'm going to speak tonight about our election system. Uh you were highlighting uh our founding principles. Uh we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty in the pursuit of happiness. And to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the govern. So that's how important our election system is. It's where we secure our god-given rights. So our group is the Riverside Election Integrity Team and we are investigating uh overseeing our election system here in Riverside County. Um Jeremy's probably aware of a lot of the work that we do. Um, elections really are simple. There's just voters, votes, and count. Uh, we try to keep it simple because then people can understand the problems. Um, for voters to be eligible, they have to be residents of Riverside County. They've got to be alive. They have to be um,

we hope

they have to be citizens. Um, problems, however, arise when mail-in ballots go out to people who are not residents, who are not citizens, who are not um, uh, even living in Riverside County anymore. So, the basic elements of a secure election are the voter roles must be accurate. We have a problem there. Only eligible voters may vote. The system must be highly accurate. The federal requirement and the state requirement for an election system to be certifiable is one error in every 125,000 ballots. 08%. The reason that standard is so high is because many elections are decided by 10 15 votes. If you have an election system where even have a 2% error, that is like thousands of votes plus or minus. you're not sure of who really won. That's one of the problems with our election system. We have a very simple test for judging our election system in Riverside County and it's right there in election law. It's election code 15302D. 15302D. And it's a very common sense law. The number of votes counted in an election must reconcile with the number of ballots cast in the election. Very simple way to say it is there's five of you up here probably that are voting members. If you voted and somehow seven votes get counted when there's only five of you, you would know there was something wrong. Okay. So, I'm going to give you two examples. And this is the work that we've done in Riverside County. And this is how we've gotten the attention of our county. We're now working with Supervisor Spiegel.

I'm sorry, Mr. Langworthy. That's the the three minute. Three minutes. Okay. So, I will come again and give you those examples. We don't have the nice display at the county like you're used to. I know. And I apologize, but that's the three minute. You know the rule. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you for the update, Madam Clerk. Our next speaker is Renee Griffith. Thank you, Renee, for joining us this evening.

I did in 16 font, so hopefully I don't my glasses. So, good evening, mayor. Good evening, council members and staff and everybody else. Um, I reviewed the pay schedule that is being proposed tonight for the new police department. The numbers you're proposing for the police finally respect the real value of our first responders. When I compare it to the pay for the fire department, it seems that the goal the city has is to ensure the police officers and firefighters end up making around the same on an annual basis. That's my opinion. So, but it appears that way. However, when you compare to the number of hours it takes for a firefighter to get there, it's not fair. I want to compare a police officer at step C, what's being proposed, to firefighter, paramedic at step C. I'm going to assume a 3-day 12-h hour shift. I know it could be a 410. I don't know what the schedule's going to be, but I'll use that in my example. And then, of course, our firefighters are the 4896. When a Canyon Lake police officer works three 12-hour shifts per week, it's 1,872 hours per year, resulting in $69,545. When a Kenyon Lake firefighter paramedic works 48.96, it's a total of 2,912 hours and that'll result in $71,897 annually. While the annual earnings are roughly the same, the firefighters must work an additional 1,040 hours to be roughly equivalent or the annual pay. So, I'm going to go on to the the hourly pay that's scheduled. And again, I'm just using step C for a police officer and a firefighter paramedic. Police officer being proposed is 3715 an hour. Firefighter paramedic 2469. Firefighters are being paid 33% less, not because their job is easier, but

because they are required to work over a,000 hours a year. The one thing I don't know yet and I will be requesting is an entire benefit package for full-time fire and police so I can compare them. It's possible that the city has structured retirement and other benefits in a way that offset the 33% pay reduction and disparity in the hourly pay. I don't know yet, but I want to be fair, so I will review that. What I do know is this. Under the pay schedules you are proposing right now, Canyon Lake firefighter paramedics will be required to work over 1,000 hours every year to reach the same annual pay as a Canyon Lake police officer. That means you are officially valuing evaluating firefighters time at about one-third less per hour even though they are medical professionals work 24-hour shifts face higher cancer risk and far and spend far more time away from their families. I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not criticizing the police pay. I think you guys got it right. Your police pay schedule reflects what first responders are worth. As it stands right now, the same standard is not being applied to the people that are protecting us from fire and helping saving lives of those who need and medical emergencies. Thank you for coming. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your comments. Sorry that stinking timer always goes off faster than than we would like. Um, I believe we have one more public comment. Uh, Matt Piery. Thank you, Matt, for joining us this evening. The floor is yours, my friend. All right. Can you guys hear me? Yep.

Uh, good evening, everyone. Uh, my name is Matt Piery. I live on Skooner Drive near the East Gate, and I'm here to bring attention to the danger posed by reckless driving on side streets. Uh, I have two sons, aged five and seven, who love to play outside, uh, playing basketball in front of our house for hours on end and riding their bikes to nearby parks. Uh, my wife and I regularly emphasize the importance of street safety to our children. But no matter how much we teach our kids to be safe outside, drivers are just as responsible for ensuring safety on Canyon Lake streets. Uh while my kids and I have played in the street, we've routinely watched as drivers race large trucks and SUVs down the road and others who drive their golf carts distracted with their attention fixated on their phones. Uh we've heard similar concerns from neighbors and other parents in Facebook uh groups. And I wanted to bring this issue to the city council's attention. Uh we could opt to issue more citations for reckless driving, but it's not realistic to police the speed and focus of every driver in Kenyon Lake at all times. Uh there are other ways to improve our streets, however. Uh whether we visually narrow streets by painting lanes or crosswalks, of adding stop signs to every approach of side street intersections or adding curb extensions uh at corners to reduce turning speeds, just to name a few. Uh there are many proven ways we can uh explore to make our street safer. Uh for our family, we place multiple children at play signs down the middle and along the sides of our street. Uh and this works to slow most but not all drivers who uh tend to race down our street. Uh according to a 2017 study conduct conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board, uh 5% of pedestrians who are struck by a vehicle at 20 mph are killed. Uh these numbers jump up to 45% being killed uh when struck by a car moving at 30 miles per hour and 85% killed at 40 miles per hour. Uh and the percentages of pedestrians who sustain a severe injury when hit are even higher. In short, speed matters. Uh, additionally, these statistics were obtained from crash data in the 90s when cars were smaller and

less lethal than they are now. Uh, using publicly available data uh from the transportation injury mapping system, I think, if I have that correct, uh there have been five pedestrians hit by Canyon Lake uh by cars in Kenyon Lake in the last 10 years, and three of those have resulted in a serious injury or fatality. Uh and these are just a fraction of the 112 people injured or killed in 78 car- rellated incidents during that time period. Uh which is an average of one accident every 6 to 7 weeks. Uh while these numbers might seem low to some, they are non-zero and represent real lives impacted by vehicular collisions. Uh and we don't have to accept this status quo as inevitable unchangeable reality. Uh the US Department of Transportation, as some of you might know, has established the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, uh which is a competitive grant program offering $1 billion uh to fund local governments through grants to prevent roadway fatalities and serious injuries. Uh CALR offers similar assistance at the state level through their local assistance program. And these funding sources could be used to help uh make our streets and residents safer. Uh oh,

sorry Matt, that's that bill that we hate. Almost add it, but uh thank you for your time. Unfortunately, due to the Brown Act, we can't have conversation back and forth with people who are giving public comments. But, um, Mr. City attorney, I can have a conversation with you and I can talk about, you know, the importance that Canyon Lake is just such a weird community because we have all these private roads throughout our residents and how it's that interesting what the city can do and what Mayor, you can have a brief response to the comment if you'd like.

I just Hey, I I can do this all day if you want me to role play. Um, unfortunately for for us at the city, this is one of those frustrating conversations that we constantly have because when we look at roads inside the gates, um, we don't have any authority. But luckily for you, we do have, um, a POA member right there and his name is Jeff Bill and he happens to be the vice uh, president. So um, and he's also just as tall as you as well. and he cares deeply about this community and I know he would love to have a conversation with you about the importance of our roads being safe inside the gates. Okay. And and thank you for being here. Seriously, thank you for taking the time um and show up and be part of the process because this is how things get done. So, thank you so much. Appreciate you. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I want to point out we're not tall. You guys are little communication back and forth. So, Madame Clerk, I want to double check no more cards slipped your way in that process. We have no more public. Perfect. Before we move on to the consent calendar, I want my colleagues to know I'm going to be pulling item number six. Uh, are there any other items uh that you all would like to pull since there is no more public comments on consent or non-consent calendar items? Don't want to pull, but just brief comment on five. Let's pull it. I'm going to pull item five and six. Madam clerk, is there anyone else? Going once, going twice. Yes, I do need a motion and a second if I can get it. Oh, thank you. I need a second. Second.

You got a motion from Council Member Terry and you got a second from Council Member Welty. Madam Clerk, conduct a roll call, please. Mayor Poim Castillo, I. Council member Stber, I. Council member Terry, I. Council member Wely, I. Mayor Smith. I. Consent calendar passes with item number five and number six being pulled. I'm going to start off with number five. Your comment, Mr. Sber.

Thank you. This will be brief. Um, appreciate Council Member Terry's uh, dedication towards our nonprofits uh, in the area. And when we dug into the CB CDBG, sorry, I'll tongue twist that uh, funding um, I reached out to um, I almost called you Mayor Terry. Council member Terry and just, you know, I couldn't believe only one nonprofit uh, submitted an application for those CD CDBG funds. Um, I know it's a stringent process, but uh I challenge uh council member Terry and I that we will find more nonprofits to be able to uh go after those monies this coming year. So, that was just my brief comment. It was we only had one submit um which is great. It's hope, but love to see more.

I I love this item because I talk about it almost every year. Um when Mayor Prom Castillo and I were elected, literally first council meeting, her and I had this exact same conversation if you remember Mayor Prom. And this is one of those frustrating programs that is completely ran by the county, not the city. And so we took it upon ourselves um to learn and to deep dive on this and we actually sat down with Helping Hands because that's one of our local nonprofits that we wanted to, you know, garnish these funds towards and unfortunately they're not applicable to receive it. Madame Clerk, you know this inside and out. You know that this is a frustrating program and other cities um they receive real funds. Uh what does the city of HIMT receive on this, Mr. City Attorney?

Um I don't know the number off the top of my head, but it's over 400,000, right? It's it's in the mid hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah. And so this particular program for the city of Canyon Lake, I think this year it's $22,000 and some change. So we had to be creative and we tried to look at ways to keep it local. and unfortunately hope in this particular instance we're actually grateful we actually have an applicant. Um but you know we tried to be creative with using it for ADA purposes which we've done in the past. So I want to applaud you by putting on that you know cap and kind of thinking what can we do here? Um because it's a tough one. It's a very tough one. So that's what I hear. Madam clerk, do you have an issue if I go right into six and take the two together? Absolutely not. Cool. City attorney.

You have an issue with that, Mr. city attorney or you want me to do a roll call on this one right now? Uh let let's keep it clean. Uh and take take a vote. All right. I do need a motion in a second. This is for item five. This is the approval of the city's FY2627 community development block grant for CDGBG. I'll make a motion. I'll second it. Roll call. Mayor Prom Castillo. Hi. Council member Steber. I. Council member Terry I. Council member I. Perfect. I motion pass. Done. All right. Moving on. Item six. This is the approval of the first amendment to the amended and uh restated city manager's employment agreement with Aaron Brown. Um I pulled this item, but I'm going to go around. Does anyone have any comments on this?

Do you Josh? I do, but Mayor Prod looks like you're going first. Aaron Brown is awesome. Council member Stever, thank you for turning the air conditioner on.

Yeah. Uh uh thank you, mayor. Uh for the benefit of the public and the record, I'd like to talk briefly about how this works in practice. Uh I want to be very clear. Uh I support our city manager tremendously. You've done a terrific job. And I also support the $25,000 comp uh compensation amount. I think again I think he's done a very good job and I'm comfortable paying him fairly and competitively. Again, my concern is not the amount. My concern is the structure and the risk to the taxpayers. As written, this amendment pays the full amount at the beginning of the year. It vests immediately and there is no proration or repayment if the city manager were to leave mid year. That means the city is prepaying compensation for work that has not yet been performed and assuming all of the risk. Now that this now that this is no longer a match and it is a guaranteed annual benefit, I think it should be paid in a way that reflects when the work is actually done. I'd prefer that we either pay it at the end of the year or more of a consideration now even split it during the year so the compensation is earned rather than prepaid. This is about being good stewards of public funds and structuring this in a way that's fair to both the city manager and the taxpayers.

Thank you, Council Member Steber. Any other comments?

Uh my comment is Aaron, you're doing a great job, a wonderful job. Just in the vote, Aaron or in the convers in the in negotiations, Aaron did not ask for a cost of living raise or did he ask for other raise. So that we are basically in that summit at the end of the year is is is is balanced out from last year. I think we are getting such a bargain with Aaron and I have a lot of faith in Aaron. This is the one thing he asked for. He could have come in and and requested a a huge amount of money but he didn't. Not that we would have guaranteed him a huge amount of money but we we this could have gone another another way. And in my mind, he asked for very little and uh I respect him and I I think he'll he'll do the right thing. And uh uh I appreciate the risk of the 25,000, but I I think Aeron's coming in and doing a great job and um we're getting him at a bargain as it is. I don't want to negotiate the 25,000 because I believe we are getting an incredible bargain up there. Council member Terry,

I appreciate um your thoughts, Councilman Stever. Um those are well warranted and make perfect sense. Uh the reason that I am in favor of moving forward with this item is because of the amount of trust that I'm putting into Aaron Brown. Um, it's a very well-known scenario that you're bringing up and my consideration was that you're going to make good on this and there was never a shadow of doubt in in my mind. Our residents are very fortunate to have you as their city manager. 2025 was an unbelievable year for our city and our residents and you were a driving force. um behind all of that and um I for one um I'm all behind you and I'm all for moving forward with item number six. Thank you, Aaron.

Can I make one more comment other than Erin's awesome? Um Aaron has saved us well more than $25,000.

Like exponentially more. That's all I have to say. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. Um, yeah, so first of all, I want to say thank you uh obviously for the hard work, but you know, last council meeting, we were able to report out and our report was a five-star review across the board from all five of us. So, it's clear as day that every single one of us up here put you at a high scale, high level um without a shadow of a doubt. Um, for me, knowing how negotiations work, especially with city managers and public employees, I want to say thank you for not raping us over the coals. You literally hit every single benchmark that this council has put out for you. Um you could have easily taken us to the cleaners and you chose not to because you know that we are starting a police department and you know we need every dollar we possibly can. So for me um it was easy for me to request that the city clerk and the city attorney put this item on there and that without a shadow of a doubt um this was a no-brainer. Um, so if there's no public comments, madame clerk, and if gohead

one more com I just I just say is Aaron, one of the most important things that a city manager can do is buy into the city's mission and and the value of a city manager that's not in his biggest thing is not their own income, not their own retirement, but when a city manager's biggest goal is the mission of the city, you can tell. And that's what I get from Aaron Brown. He is willing to make time sacrifices, effort sacrifices in order to see this mi city's mission come come true. And uh when you get a person that that the mission comes first being a Marine, uh you you you got to you got to be totally thrilled with it.

Y good good words.

To add again, my my concerns is definitely not Aaron and definitely not the mount. It's the structuring and the risk and and I'm willing to still compensate that 25,000 this year. Let's just get some time in there. If it's a couple payments a year, it's quarterly. So, those were just my concerns cuz at the end of the day, as uh Jeremy or mayor stated, sorry. Um you know, we're we're we're a little strapped right now on our budget and uh you know, just be able to know that we have some extra funds available when we need it. We're there. But at the end of the day, you know, I support him 110%. Uh I just love to see this structured a little differently in the best benefit of our taxpayers.

Can I ask a question about that? What so the benefit of the taxpayers and even though it's we're going to pay it, right? And we're going to pay it this year. What is the benefit to the taxpayers that you keep saying? Well, if it's going to get paid and it's going to get paid this year and he's in an employment contract. Yeah. So, he's in an unemployment contract. Um, and at any time he could separate from that contract that could be March and now wore out that money. And where I look at maybe a half, you know, a twi a two-year payment, so half year and end of the year where the work now has already been completed to where we can offset and pay that out. Now,

but here's my question. Wouldn't that still be part of the employment contract for payment purposes?

My my current contract uh does give this exact uh uh amount and it is up to me at what point that I did that. So um if I wanted I could uh give the money to my 457 in January. It with the current contract if this council elected to make no changes I could do this in January on my own. This was for me and and I don't want definitely don't want the public to misconrue this. This was for me I cannot express how happy I am to be here. Um but I didn't want to negotiate against myself and say thank you so much. I've done a great job. Here's a way I could get less. So, I I looked at things that I could do to to be creative and um I had a conversation with the mayor and said, "Hey, it'd be really nice because I'm making some investments personally in a different spot if I got it in January because it doesn't cost us anything additional." Um, and uh it was a way for me as the person who brings this budget to you to not take a hit uh giving myself money. It was a way to bring that opportunity and um I I appreciate exactly what uh Council Member Stever is saying. I I appreciate the need for a commitment. Um I can tell you uh I I've been at Cal City Cities events. I've been at other events where council members have been sitting with me when other city council members have come up and approached me and and flat out proposition is a bad word, but they handed the card and said, you know, I can pay you way more than they can. And every time that the council members can tell you, I've said, "I'm happy where I'm at. Keep your card." So, I I'm I'm not going anywhere. There's no plan to go anywhere. This was not a way to try to come up with a way that I could get early money. It really was a way sitting

down by myself going, "How can I not ask for a raise?" Even though pridefully I feel like, you know, I met all the requirements. I I you know, I deserve that, if you will. It was how can I do this in a way that does not impact the city that I love, the city that I work for, but I come to an advantage. So, I I appreciate what you're saying, but I do want to clarify I am not asking to give anything. It actually is already there. It's whether or not I would put that money in in January and I hope you don't leave. Um but you know my duties here with my colleagues. Contracts are written um for what happens if circumstances do change and so not for what we hope happen. So look forward to working again with you this year. Uh but I'm still going to stand on my concern.

Any other comments for my colleagues?

Uh mayor, we we do have to provide an oral report on the change under the Brown Act. Um, I think you all have effectively covered it, so I don't want to take up too much time. Uh, the current, uh, agreement with the city manager provides for deferred compensation through a city matching contribution with a total city contribution cap of $25,000. Uh, that has historically been made in periodic matching amounts. Uh, but there is no requirement that that be done in a periodic way. As the city manager said, he could do that in January if he chose to. Uh the proposed first amendment modifies section 8 restructured this into a guaranteed annual lump sum contribution. Uh so the city's uh maximum liability here has not changed. It's 25,000 before, it's 25,000 after. Uh what has changed is that it will be paid in January and we will avoid the administrative cost and expense of monitoring those periodic payments and making matching contributions um from the city. Um, and this is an advantage to the city manager because putting it in the first pay period of the year uh is generally seen as a wiser investment strategy as opposed to the periodics um uh over the year because it allows for more potential market growth. Um overall we we analyze it as having no fiscal impact because it's the same uh amount over the same time period. Um but you know as the council member mentioned uh that there there is always the risk in a at will employment contract. So that that should be noted. Uh but coming out of a performance evaluation where the city council unanimously gave the city manager an excellent evaluation that risk seems relatively low from the city attorney's perspective.

Mr. City attorney, can you repeat that statement you said about decreasing administrative activity on Yeah. So uh you know uh every time the city manager makes a contribution and he can decide what contribution level he is going to make in any given pay period. Uh that has to be routed through the city and to our outside vendor and a matching contribution has to be reviewed and approved. Uh so there it's not a there it's a soft cost in the sense that we're already paying these people to to work but you are taking time that could be otherwise spent on other projects to perform this administrative task. So it is an avoided task and

that's why I appreciate you Mr. City Manager. You're finding ways to save staff time even within your own contract. So with that I do need a motion and a second on this item. A motion. Council member Terry with the motion. Who's got the second? Second with our mayor prom. Can I get a roll call vote, please? Prom Castillo. I. Council member Siver. No. Council member Terry. I. Council member Wely. I. Mayor Smith. I. Motion passes.

All right. Consent calendar is done. Moving on. We are at public hearing. This is going to be uh business item number seven. For those of us following along in the audience and online, this is a report of employee vacancies and recruitment efforts in compliance with Assembly Bill 2561 and approval organization changes. I'm going to announce the time, which is 7:54, unless the madame clerk wants to disagree and fight with me on the time. Okay, we have a presentation by our administrative services senior analyst, Kayla. And I want to warn the council to go easy on Kayla. This is her first time presenting in front of this council. So, please be nice or I'll throw a gummy bear at you.

Honorable mayor and city council, uh, this report reflects the city's annual requirement under Assembly Bill 2561, which requires a yearly public hearing on employee vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts. The rep the report also brings forward proposed organizational changes, updated job descriptions, and revised salary changes for council consideration. As of the adoption of the fiscal year budget or uh sorry, fiscal year 2526 budget, the council approved 14 full-time and three part-time non-safety positions. There's one current vacancy in the fire department. and the council approved 11 full-time, two part-time positions, and 15 reserve volunteer firefighters. There are no current full-time vacancies. Successful full-time recruitment since July 1 include one fire captain and two firefighter paramedics and one police chief. To support recruitment and retention, the city has modernized payroll and hiring systems, conducted ongoing staffing evaluations, and updated job descriptions. The city has also completed construction of its in-house police department and is preparing for its launch later this year. The report also includes proposed organizational changes to better align job classifications with actual duties and improve operational efficiency. These include two non-safety reclassifications, the creation of one accounting specialist position, the elimination of the office assistant position, and the addition of 12 uh 12 police department position. Additionally, a salary adjustment is proposed for the community engagement coordinator classification to ensure compliance with the state's minimum salary requirement for exempt employees that was issued from the Department of Industrial Relations effective this year. Costs associated with the staff with the police staffing will be incorporated in the fiscal year 2627

budget and other staffing changes result in a minimal net fiscal impact. Staff recommends that the city council open the public hearing, receive and file the annual assembly bill 2561 staffing report, approve the proposed job descriptions, and adopt the resolution approving the safety and non-safety salary and wage schedules. Uh, this concludes my report. Staff are available for any questions you may have. Kayla, thank you so much. Council, there any questions for staff on this item? All right, we already heard one public comment. Any public testimonies on this?

Mayor, if I could add one item that there was uh a minor mistake that I noticed on here that uh we missed in the safety where it says new positions. Uh the reason it doesn't lay out the records clerk is because it's not technically a new position. we will be reclassifying a uh current uh code enforcement officer. So I I didn't want anybody to to think that that was not considered. It's just not laid out as a new position that is reclassified. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. All right. As mentioned, no public testimony. Um are there any mayor if I may our fire chief would like to make a public comment? Oh, he would.

Mr. Mayor, I'm just kidding. Um, as Kayla pointed out in her presentation, part of that was some recruitment in the fire department. I probably should have done this under my presentation, but I would like to recognize our new firefighter paramedic, Rocky Red here tonight, and also a new firefighter paramedic on a part-time basis, Brett Heatley. So, those are some of the new positions that gave you. Thank you guys. Appreciate you guys being here. Thanks for doing that, Chief. Good. Anything else? That's all.

Thank you, Chief. Appreciate that. Um, all right. Uh, any rebuttals on this, Madam Clerk? No, I don't see it. Everyone's good. Cool. We're moving on. Um, all right. Public hearing is now closed and it is 7:58. I think that's a 5m minute public hearing if I'm not comments from council members before we uh look for a motion in a second. Only comments. I'm excited the police uh department's moving ahead and this is a key part of that and I think we need to to bless this and get our police department up and running.

I just want to say uh Kaylee killed it. Um phenomenal job on this staff report. We had a public comment on this particular item tonight. Um and that individual even gave acclimates to how well this was put together and kudos to you and the hard work. I know that um you are doing a lot both in your personal life and professional life and obviously here at the city. So thank you and for us up here on this dis we are so excited because it's actually happening and this is one of those items that I look forward to for 2026 looking at what our police department is going to look like. Um and I'm just so proud um of all the hard work and it's going to be pretty incredible. So thank you. Any comments? Can I get a motion in a second on this please?

A motion. I'll make the second. Madam clerk, let's go to a roll call. I council member Sber. Council member Terry I. Council member Wely I Smith I Awesome. That was the only public hearing we had for this evening. Now moving on to the business items. Oh yeah, we got this up here. Did everyone get one? Yes. Did uh did our chief slide this in on us, Madam Clerk? That was uh Santa Santa Santa Claus over there. Santa Chief Santa Rails. Santa Rails. Santa Rails. Can you tell Before we move on to our business item? This is it. That's it. That's the package. This is awesome, man.

Uniform soon to come hopefully. So, it looks so good. It's clean. I love it. We want jackets. We want shirts and all that cool stuff. It's coming. Okay. On its way. Okay. Cool. Now that we have the staffing, we can Oh, sorry. get the department going and it'll come quick. Love it. Congratulations on this item, Chief. Well done. Good job, Chief. Way to go. All right. Business item number eight. This is the establishment of a facility maintenance capital improvement program, CIP. City manager, you get one if there's not enough already tonight.

Thank you very much, Mayor, Mayor Prom, and and city council. Uh when we did the uh uh budget as a city and city council voted on it uh May of last year, one of the things that we had taken out was a city manager's contingency account. Uh that had existed prior. Uh the issue is we just didn't have the revenues to be able to cover that. Um uh in this uh circumstance uh I was able to work through uh that problem by um a in in terms of a settlement that happened with another organization uh and we were able to uh secure for the general fund 160,000. So what what I am requesting in this for the city council is that we can take that $160,000 uh as as this is a government organization. We have to have council allocate money uh so we bring in uh uh revenue. We also have an expenditure account. So we're asking city council to allocate this money to that uh account. um giving some examples of uh what that will be spent on in some cases uh like the deferred maintenance 31542 that was an emergency item that almost nearly drained our facility's budget for that. So we'd be replenishing that uh deferred maintenance 3 31600 that is some air conditioning repair. Um moving forward with something we've been looking at for a while that's a EAP or employee assistance program. uh GovCloud, moving our uh IT services uh that we get from Microsoft to the GovCloud off of the the public cloud. Uh we need a new switch and firewall. Uh dedicating not to exceed $25,000 to our memorial uh veterans wall. Uh NEOGV uh uh same thing. We did have

to move forward with with that. Depleted one of our software accounts, looking to replenish that so we can continue out throughout the year. that allows us to um move into about 1990 or so and take uh applications online and get away from that PDF we had where you could download and you'd fill it out and send it in. Uh a tech fee study uh for our uh the technology that is being utilized by building and safety permits, things like that to be able to have uh that essentially fund itself instead of having the general fund fund that portion. and then the additional amount would go into that that fund to be or sorry that uh account to be able to handle things as they come up. Um that does conclude my presentation, Mayor, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Is there any public comments on this item, Madame Clerk? Mayor, we do not. Um you're $35,000 above not needing this to come forward to us, Mr. City Manager. It would have been 85. Any uh council member colleague comments? Mr. Mayor, I have just a quick one. Uh, and this is just for the general public's understanding for the memorial and veterans wall. Uh, this is going to be a replacement from the military banners. Um, so my colleagues have been working on a a great opportunity that will better serve our our the ones who are serving us and our vets. Uh, and this will be replacing that. Right. Perfect.

Is that a motion? All motion. Perfect. I need a second. I'll second. Roll call, please. Potent Castile. I. Council member Stber. I. Council member Terry. I. Council member Welty. I. Mayor Smith. I. Motion passes. All right. Moving right along. Business item nine. This is the designation of voting delegates for SCAG, other words known as Southern California Association of Government. Um, Madam Clerk, this one's yours. Before I let you do your thing, status quo was Steber and Wely. I believe so. Cool. We just need a delegate and an alternate. Do we have any public comments? We do not. Why don't we just keep it the same unless I have opposition? Good.

Delegate alternate. Is that what it was? Yeah. Delegate alter. Yep. Done. Everyone go with it. I do need an official motion. And um Okay. So, a motion for council member Sber to be our delegate. Council member Welty to be our alternate. Other way around. Other way around. Got it. Okay. I'll second. Cool. We need a roll call. Mayor Prom Castillo. Hi. Council member Steber. Hi. Council member Terry. I. Council member Lely. Hi. Are you sure you kind of hesitated on your own deal here? I got a problem.

I for uh for our our good uh I'm so thankful you guys are willing to do it. Thank you. All right. Business item number 10. This is the consideration of fees for the EMS program that we have here in Canyon Lake. This is for fiscal year 2026 and 2027. Um, city manager, this one is yours as well.

Absolutely. Thank you again, Mayor, mayor Potm and council. Uh, this is an easy item. This is a requirement of the ES EMS program that is brought to council and the public hearing is set. uh my with my Nostradamus abilities I can tell you when we are bringing it forward the staff recommendation will be that we do not raise the MSVS and that they stay status quo so I can tell you where that where that recommendation is going to be when we bring it forward for the public hearing say more things like that Mr. city manager. Do we have any public comments? We do not. Are there any comments from my colleagues? Just glad to see did it increase. Love it. Yep. Uh I'll take that as a motion from council member Stever. I do need a second. I'll second.

Can we get a roll call vote? Madam clerk, can I just clarify that the motion is to keep it status quo and set the public hearing. Staff's recommendation. Got it. Mayor Poten Castillo. Hi. Council member Siver. Hi. Council member Terry. Hi. Council member Welty. Hi. I passes 5 Z. City manager, close us out. What's your comments?

The only comment I really have, mayor, is I I want to I want to thank uh Kayla Hernandez uh for for that presentation. So, um when I got here, I I kind of singled Kayla out and told her, "We've got we've got a lot going. It's going to be a bullet train. Unfortunately, nobody's going to stop for you to get on." So, I just really want to uh uh commend her uh thank her for all the work that has gone into that the positions that you just adopted. Um there is not a team of people that's going to put that recruitment together. It is a team of Kayla

and so uh we're we're looking forward to uh a lot of the processes that we are putting in place. Uh I am not ignorant to the fact that when uh I come up with a um a very biased great idea. Um that it does not come with a lot of hard work. And so uh I thank the entire team. Uh this this city has a uh an incredible staff and we're very fortunate to be as lean as we are. Uh I would put what we do up against any city in the world, let alone in California. and we have an under $9 million general fund. So, we're we're doing the same things everybody else is doing. We just don't have that that big uh

zero big zero at the end. So, uh that's the only update I have. So, thank you so much. I have a a question on that. I heard the recruit the recruiting might be easy because we have a lot of people who are interested in coming to work for Kenny Lake PD. I I wouldn't go so far as to say the recruiting is easy, but I I think between the individuals that have expressed interest to myself and and Chief Rails, Santa Rails,

um Santa Rails over there, uh I our numbers of people that have reached out uh exceed our our existing positions. And and I I said this when when we started, um I have never been so popular. My LinkedIn went crazy when the announcement was made. the city council decided to move forward with uh creating a police department. A lot of people wanted to be our police chief and um I started having friends I've never had. It's like it's like building a pool. If anybody's ever built a pool, that's what I felt like.

A lot of my friends were showing up and so it's it's that same scenario where we're getting a lot of people that are reaching out wondering what they can do, wondering why we don't have the positions online yet, when they're going to be able to apply. And we keep reminding them we're starting a department. It's not already done. This is not something where we can just hire people and wait. We've got to go through all of our our requirements. And we're looking forward to uh uh finishing some of the requirements for our police chief. We should be around March or so, we should be able to do a formal swearing in uh for him and he he'll be able to transition from that uh interim or designate to chief in in terms of uh our department. So,

I think we should at least keep saying Santa Rails till then and then we can call him Chief Rails. That works. Um, I got a couple announcements to make. Madame Clerk, I'm I'm sure you're aware. Um, our February city council meeting was going to be on the 11th. It has been moved to the 17th at 5:00 p.m. Do we need to do April, too? I I believe, mayor, we were canceling the February 11th and we were doing a special on on the 17th. Correct. So, and then April, we can make that announcement in in March or we want to do it now. I have the dates. I might as well do it now so that the city clerk can have that process.

Enjoy this note because this is the first you're hearing it. And in April, um instead of the 8th, we will be uh having that meeting on the 14th. Um I think it's fitting this evening to adjourn this meeting in Warren Kelsey's memory. With that, I'm going to close this out and the time is 8:11. Thank you everyone.