City Council - Regular Meeting

Captain Boyd and the men and women who serve in the Riverside Sheriff Office. But Lord, we really ask that you put your arms around the men and women who are serving in our military, who are serving our country to preserve our freedom. And we ask this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen.

Amen. Thank you for doing that, Mark. Chief, would you... Oh no, shoot, we got two chiefs now. I got to identify. Chief Letenders, would you lead us into the pledge, please?

All right, thank you for your patience, everyone. We had some technical difficulties.

I'm going to call the meeting to order now at 633. Madam Clerk, can you please conduct the roll call?

Here. Here. Here. Verifying by the roll call, Councilmember Stever, you can hear us just fine? Yes. Awesome.

Close session report, please, Mr. City Attorney. Thank you, Mayor. There's no reportable action out of tonight's closed session.

Perfect. Madam Clerk, we're going to mix things up tonight, as usual. I apologize. Don't hate me. We're going to take public comments now. Do we have any? Okay, we're going to move on to the consent calendar. If there's no items that my colleagues would like to pull, knowing that there's now no public comments, I do need a motion and a second on this.

I would like to pull item number nine, please.

Perfect. Anyone else?

Mr. Mayor, I just have a question on item number three. Receiving file.

All right, we're going to go ahead and adopt the remaining balance, polling item number three and number nine. Madam Clerk, you need a motion on it? Second. I got a motion and a second. Can I get a roll call vote? I'm sorry, that was a motion by Councilmember Terry and a second by Councilmember Welty. Councilmember Welty, that's correct.

Mayor Patem-Castillo? Aye. Councilmember Stever? Aye.

Councilmember Terry? Aye. Councilmember Welty? Aye. Mayor Smith? Aye. Motion passes. Councilmember Stever, you are up. Item number three, receiving file, monthly public records request report.

Thank you, Mayor. City Attorney, I got just a quick procedural question regarding the PRAs and kind of that process. Since PRAs are available on the city's website, why does a council need to receive and file something like this?

um council member that's not really a question i can answer uh the city council uh can receive these it came from the city manager perhaps city manager would be best to position to explain why he put this on the agenda mr city manager absolutely uh mayor and uh council member

The reason this is placed on the agenda is because there's been a lot of emphasis. Specifically, we had a whole discussion on the budget item and basically the amendment that we had to the first iteration of the budget. This is a big enough deal that it's important to me as your city manager to make sure that The City Council is seeing this without having to go through the efforts of going in and searching for which ones have come up this month. So this was entirely my choice to place on the agenda.

Council Member Stever, any further questions?

No.

Mr. City Manager, I just want to say thank you for doing this in the light of transparency. I know that was our point in our last meeting. If we are going to continue to invest in PRAs because that's what's currently happening, I just want to say thank you to you and staff for making it a point to have it be part of our meeting every month so the residents know exactly what is happening. So I appreciate that. With that, I do need a motion and a second. This is a receiving file to my colleagues, so... Perfect. Comment taken. Moving on, item nine. This one's yours.

So I feel like this is a big enough deal that we might comment on it as a council. I know that having a designated zip code for the city of Kenyon Lake has been a goal of ours since, I think, at least 2018, 2019. And we have hit considerable hurdles trying to accomplish that. There are a lot of benefits to having our own zip code, such as getting the sales tax remittance for Canyon Lakers. Additionally, having mail go to the right city, popping up on online shopping. So when you try to have something sent to your house, it doesn't say Men of Fear Sun City. And to me, it's a point of pride. Right. I think we are a we're a city. We should have our own zip code. So I'm excited to see that this is moving forward. And I'm grateful to our city staff for making this happen.

hundred percent and all further uh council member mark terry myself and the city manager met with senator padilla's staff on this and it's exciting to see that the senate has taken this up too and they're trying to do a cleanup for more than just our little city here in california i think there's a total of was it 13 or 9 that are in the state of california

Correct. And there's more than 60 throughout the nation.

Throughout the nation. So it's good to see that this is being seen. So I'm very excited.

We're one of them.

We are one of them. And Eastville's a lot to thank for that, too. So they've been pushing hard. Congressman Calvert's been huge on this for us. So anyways, nonpartisan, which I love. With that, I do need a motion.

Second. Perfect.

We got a motion from Mayor Pro Tem Castillo. And we got a second from Council Member Mark Terry. Roll call vote, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Castillo? Aye.

Hi.

Hi. Perfect. Moving on. City Council comment reports. Who wants to kick us off tonight?

Dale, you want to go first? Or should we let the presentation go first? I'll go ahead and go first. Last year, we were able to fund transportation for a lifeguard program for our kids, and I thought it was a great thing to do. And some people wonder, well, why does the city invest in the kids in their community? And I just wanted to go over some of the high points of why we would. Of course, we have a unique relationship with the POA and the city is that most of the facilities are owned by them. by the POA and they operate a lot of things for our children. So heads up to them and everything that they do. They do a great job of providing services to their members and their residents. So I just want to talk about the positive impact to sports. One, it improves their health. Two, it helps them make friends, which is important for their mental health. Improves their feelings about themselves. Helps them succeed at school. That's 58% of them and helps them become more active with their families. And I'll tell you from personal experience, when my kid was in football, I felt like I was on the team because I was dragged nonstop to events and games and practices. And we had great conversations with our child and the way there and back. And it was a wonderful experience. So moving past that a little bit, okay, so that's great for the kids and great for the parents, but what impact does it have on the community as a whole? I just want to bring Anne Owens of USC, and what the title was is the one thing rich parents can do for their kids to make a difference, and buying a neighborhood is probably the most important. Buying a good neighborhood is probably the most important thing you can do for your child. They will have better schools and educational programs, access to resources, in their neighborhoods, positive social networks, higher expectations and aspirations, and improve health and well-being. I mean, that's everybody's dream for their kid. And so for us to provide a level of service to provide that, I think, is just amazing. And I also want to comment, what about the people that don't have kids or their grandparents? Why would they want to support such a thing as other people's children? And this is kind of data collected from Redfin. It basically, the curve there basically says what is the median home price sale versus the elementary school test scores? And if you look at that, if those schools that are in the zero percentile, the value of those homes ran somewhere around $175,000. So if the schools were not very successful in helping their kids, using test scores as the guide, helping their kids be successful, you could see the value at 175 is at the low end of the scale. So let's go to the other end of the scale and look at what happens to property values when the kids in those schools are in the 90 percent percentile. And what we see is the value of those homes goes up to 400,000. That's over double the price of the value of the lower performing schools. I think for all of you that kind of question of why we put money and the POA puts money in our kids, the payback is huge for all of us. Even those that don't have children, the return on investment is unbelievable. And this is a pretty consistent across the nation. Investing in our kids is investing in your homes. And that's one thing we would like to do. The POA in their documents, one of the requirements is to maintain and protect the home values. For us, it's just basically what every city wants to do is protect their citizens' financial health. on our to-do list. So I just want to point out that, again, these programs that are done and paid for by you through the POA or through the city provide a huge return. I mean, I know we have a problem with e-bikes, and I'd sure rather see them out there playing sports than running around on their e-bikes, sometimes creating mischief. So the opportunities to keep them busy, to do things that's going to make them better human beings, I don't think we can miss them. That's it.

Perfect. Thank you, Council Member Belty. Council Member McTier?

You never cease to amaze me. What he's saying is so important. And it seems like we're getting pushed away from investing in our community and investing in our kids. We live, you've heard me say it, greatest city on the planet. the cooperation in the past between the Property Owners Association, the County of Riverside, as well as the State of California. All of those are investments into our youth. One of my favorite weeks of the year is Junior Golf Camp. And thank God they moved it up to June because it used to be in late July, August, be about 110 out there. But they receive such value from those four days. Junior lifeguard. That is something I couldn't do. And here we have 8, 10, 12-year-olds going out there and learning such a valuable, something that's going to be a great asset to them for the rest of their lives. And I think the great thing about camps is I still remember every camp I ever went to. sports camp, Boy Scout camp. I remember the good days at camp, the bad days at camp. You kind of learn how to work all of that out. And I would encourage our community to, I don't know if support, but to get behind the idea that we do have an obligation to invest in our kids, in our residents. That's all I'm gonna say about that. Awesome. I'm not done.

So much for keeping it to two minutes, y'all.

I'm on a time restraint?

We are now.

Well, I serve on WRCOG. We all serve on a regional committee. But we're the only ones that have one of the biggest gatherings in Riverside County. And that's going to happen on June 18. And our speaker this year is going to be Tony Hawk. Now, when they announced it was going to be Tony Hawk, I kind of, I didn't get it. I miss that generation. But man, if you're 35 years and below, Tony Hawk is such a big deal. And I'm really looking forward to that. But the reason I bring this up For the first time in the history of WRCOG, we have a resident who is going to receive the Riverside County Community Service Award. And I am so proud. Monica Lyons will be receiving that award. We're all going to be in attendance. And I couldn't be more proud of her and all the things that she's done for our community. I would like to give credit to our city manager, who really was behind the nomination, and thank you very much.

Thank you. I did delegate a big part of that to Brianna, if I can find her back in the corner.

So as always, she was- But how great is that when you get a team working behind you because they believe in the nomination? Absolutely. You're looking at me like I shouldn't have said anything.

No, no, no, come on.

Good job, Coach. Thank you.

All right, with that, we're going to do a presentation. I know that Council Member Stever has requested SCE to come, and I think they have some PowerPoints for us. Are you ready to go, my friend? Sure. Josh, would you like to say anything, or you want him just to take it away?

Yeah, I'll quickly start and then I'll let them present and I got a few more I'd love to talk about. But last, we were going to present this back in Maine, Ernesto, appreciate you stepping up today and be able to make the presentation as I'm not there. in April council member Welty and I got the privilege of taking a tour of the Wildermore campus with Southern California Edison and council member Welty and I asked some good questions of what types of incentives are available for residents and businesses, especially those that might have medical needs and due to quite a few of our power outages or even our PSPSs incentives that again our residents and businesses can take advantage of so Ernesto I'll pass it over to you and again truly appreciate you doing the presentation tonight of course thank you council member

I know it's under 35, okay, so looking forward to watching Tony Hawk, so just FYI. Well, good evening, Mayor, City Council, City staff, residents of Canyon Lake. Thank you for allowing me to speak here today to talk about some of the available programs for customers at Automatic Baseline, access functional need customers, and customers really that are impacted by public safety power shutoff events. But before I kind of touch into the programs, I wanted to let folks know and bring awareness to why these programs are important related to public safety power shutoffs. As folks may know, every year PSPS has become a routine thing. and SCE continues to update its criteria year after year on what could qualify for a public safety power shutoff event. We factor in, of course, warm weather conditions, dry vegetation, damage to our infrastructure. We can't predict the weather 100% and we sure can't control the weather, but what we can do is utilize and deploy resources that are available for customers, such as community resource facilities. During PSPS events, of course, if a city and partners such as yourselves require additional resources, we'll be more than happy to deploy community crews out to areas that are impacted by PSPS. So some of the programs that are beneficial for customers, I would encourage customers to please visit SE online, and I'll leave some information here too. Quite a packet full of information, by the way, for those of us who like to read. or the Critical Backup Battery Program, which is SCU's critical backup battery program that's designed to help protect customers who rely on electricity powered, electricity that powers their medical devices during outages and emergency PSPS events. The program is available for customers who are on medical baseline program and who live in high fire risk areas. When you go online, you'll be asked to provide your address to see if you qualify for this program. And for those customers, also, they're a medical baseline. You'll be asked to bring a physician's note showing that you, of course, can qualify for the program and that you're not just taking advantage of the program. Another program is the Backup Power Solutions. The Backup Power Solutions program offers a range of backup battery solutions for customers. So when you visit our website, there are two different links that customers can kind of navigate through that offer two types of rebates. The first rebate is a rebate of $200 for smaller portable batteries that are used to charge your laptop, tablets, cell phones, and the other one is a $800 rebate that is used for larger appliances like a fridge. I don't know who's going to be doing a lot of washing during outages, but that too. And also too, these programs are fully available for customers, like I mentioned, on medical baseline. But if you think you live in an area that experiences PSPS or live in a high fire risk area, please, I encourage you to visit the website to see if you qualify. And then also, finally, the medical baseline program for customers that require a medical device, of course, to sleep or to basically just go around doing things on a daily. So the program receives a flat 11% discount right off the bat and also provides additional kilowatt hours for their medical devices. I got, again, some information here to show if you qualify, of course, if you are interested in applying, you can apply to see if you qualify. And also, if you visit se.com, you'll be able to see the different selections, actually, what would qualify for a medical baseline rate.

Next slide.

And then another program is the self-generative incentive program, which is a battery storage system that helps customers maintain power during outages and public safety power shutoffs. Eligible customers may have most, almost all, if not their entire cost covered by this program if they would choose to install solar panels and battery storage in their homes. The program is state funded. And currently this year, unfortunately, it is fully allocated. All the funding has been fully allocated. There is a pretty high wait list. So I would encourage customers to please, again, visit se.com, go online to stay up to date on whether this year, well, I think for this year, the program is closed. But just to stay updated to see next year when program opens if you can qualify and jump on in to see if you're eligible also too when you go online and you visit this program the matrix there that's available shows just how much energy saving well usage is happening in your neighborhood and a lot of this data that's provided to us are by third-party vendors that we have worked with in the past so and then next slide cool so the fun the fun part which is the visit and the tour that we conducted with council members steve and welty um thank you both for stopping by the service center i was very happy with our district manager to show just how much work goes behind maintaining the grid and also responding to emergencies across the service territory here in this area. The service center employs about 250 professionals, line workers, engineers, planners from across this region. The facility is environmentally friendly and meets all of the environmental responsibilities for infrastructure. I will say this facility was built a little before my time, so even I still find myself in places that I'm not familiar with. It's pretty large. But I would encourage everybody, and of course, other council members, if they're interested in a tour, let me know. We'll put something on schedule. And let me see. Let me make sure I'm not lost here. Oh, next slide. So the service center is a great hub that is pretty much self-sufficient when it comes to its operations. The location of the facility is next to the freeway, which gives our crews and our team quick access to respond to damage to our infrastructure, outages, and customer issues. Also, too, it's self-sufficient. So a lot of the resources that we have available at the service center um stuff that we kind of stockpile to prepare during storms or any changing weather conditions or even if we have to respond to a critical issue at the moment with that that's all i have on my talking points councilmember stever if i missed anything please let me know if the slides are made available to the public i added some links in the And of course, if customers have any questions regarding their bills, please contact the 1-800 number. I'll hang around here also if anybody has any questions and hand out information. Thank you. Do you have any questions?

job appreciate that thank you for making yourself available and coming and giving the presentation of course my wife told me to wear a tie today good so i wore a tie thank you keep listening to her we truly appreciate it and please let all the staff know who was involved in that tour that again council member welty and i truly appreciated that tour so thank you and i strongly encourage any of our residents or businesses to take advantage of those programs A couple more items regarding community, regional, and state involvement. One I wanted to touch on, it was a couple months ago, but I thought our community would love to hear this. Back in May, I got to attend Lake Elsinore Unified School District, State of the District, and two items that came out of that that I thought were incredible was one, congrats to LAUSD for being one of five school districts out of 1,100 in our state to receive the Golden Bell Award. That is a huge achievement for the district. It is not the first time they received it, but out of five that were awarded and out of the 1,100 that are within the state, it's an incredible achievement for them. Another item on that is they have roughly over 2,500 employees and the board created a legacy employee program, which is pretty much employees who work for the district once attended school as a child in the district. that legacy pull up employees out of 2,500, there's over 650 of those legacy employees that are in that program, which quite a few of them come from Canyon Lake. So it's great to hear that once when these teachers or faculty were children attending the district, they've came back and even moved back into our community and are a part of that program. So I thought that was incredible. I also attended the SAFA committee meeting and that's the JPA with Animal Friends of the Valley. One key takeaway that I took from that is in 2025, they had over six point, they had registered over 6.5 million 6,400 volunteers and they also did an intake of a little over 8,000 dogs and cats. So that shelter is being well used both by the intake of animals but also the volunteers that also step up and support that shelter. So I thought that was great. Chief Rails and city manager and I, earlier in June, I think it was, I forgot the date to write it down, but we got to attend Cal City's Riverside division meeting and just thought it was great and even an honor to not only show off our city manager, but even Chief Rails since he has been sworn in. So we had a great time, got to hear from Riverside Sheriff Chad Pianco and also San Bernardino Sheriff and quite a few other police departments in the area on kind of what's going on within their cities. uh fiesta days uh we all attended but really want to thank the mermaids club for allowing me to be involved in their charity uh even though i was at the beginning of the dunk tank i still got dumped so uh mermaids club thank you again for letting me be involved in that I also last week sat in my Cal cities, communication, transportation and public works policy committee. There are four e-bike bills making its way through Sacramento that are being pushed harder. Three of them are assembly bills and one's a Senate bill. And they're talking about pupil safety, speedometer, safety limits. So even though we have our concerns here in our community, this is definitely a statewide concern and our state representatives are actively pushing faster for some of these bills to get put through to not only help the state overall, but even us local governments uh when it comes to enforcing e-bikes a couple more items uh want to congratulate uh mayor uh smith council member welty and i we got to attend last week the 40th anniversary for pac rap and post i thought that was very incredible uh that we have a business that's been in our town center for over 40 years. Talking with Debbie and a few other of the residents that attended, there's only a couple more businesses that are just a little longer than that, but we provided Debbie and her staff a certificate of recognition for their achievement of their 40th anniversary. I also got to attend with my family over the weekend and I think they did an incredible job but that was the Canyon Lake Fire Association for their Canyon Lake golf cart show. I made it at the tail end of it but definitely asked the association and our fire chief how well it was attended and they said it was a steady flow throughout the day. And last comment I want to make to all the fathers out there, it's coming up here in the next couple of weeks, but happy Father's Day to everyone. But that concludes my comments. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

So I've been active on social media lately. Some people tag me. Others, I think, intentionally do not. But what I have learned is that there are residents who would like to hear directly from the city attorney and or city manager related to the lifeguard bus funding. So I would defer my council member comments to you.

Mayor? Please, Mr. City Attorney.

um so i i i've seen some of the discussion as well um i wanted to make it clear that uh that both the mayor and the mayor pro tem uh have been very open about their involvement in the clear foundation and the junior lifeguard program uh state law does not expect council members to be potted plants who serve on the council and don't do anything else. Most of you are, I'd say all of you are pillars of the community. You serve in other roles in public service. I wanted to also state that based on our look into this, the city has not entered into an agreement with the Clear Foundation. The Clear Foundation is a nonprofit organization. Both of you serve in uncompensated roles with that nonprofit organization. And the third was that the transportation was not a private benefit to the foundation or to any council member. It was available to all participants as available in the junior lifeguard program. From a legal standpoint, conflict of interest laws are usually focused on whether a public official has a financial interest in a governmental decision. Uncompensated service on a nonprofit without payment or personal financial benefit does not establish a disqualifying financial interest. um similarly the city's provision of transportation for youth program participants serves a public purpose youth recreation and safety it is not a gift of public funds like i've seen discussed so i just wanted to make it clear that you were both very open about this we we knew about your participation uh and we also knew that it was not an issue under the conflict of interest laws previously and i'm happy to clarify anything if you'd like

Mayor, if I could, I can add to that. It is perfectly normal for, as the city attorney said, council members as pillars of the community to participate in charities or nonprofits or any of these types of groups or events. And not just is it normal in other cities, it is normal in this city. We have multiple council members that serve as a part of either a formal nonprofit or a nonprofit group, meaning they're not a recognized nonprofit. And we as staff either support that with staff individuals at those events. We have facilities that we have as per our policy available to those individuals. So this is just a perfectly normal course of business and something specifically with the involvement where it is the clear foundation This is something that has been on budgets going from 21-22 on and has been through multiple city managers. The city attorney has seen that throughout the whole process. So this is just a normal course of business from the city standpoint. And you heard the city attorney. There's no legal issues there.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

I, too, went to the Firefighter Association golf cart show and was very impressed by the level of participation. It was nice to see other municipal fire departments there, and that was really cool. So great job to all the firefighters and great job to the community for supporting that group.

All right, my turn and I'll wrap it up. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney and City Manager and our Mayor Pro Tem. I want to publicly thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem, because you and I constantly get tagged on social media posts. And if you don't get to it before I do, one of us does. And I just want to say thank you because that's exactly what we're trying to do. And I want to encourage my colleagues and members of the public, please don't allow some of the rhetoric that's occurring from keeping you from serving. I think the one thing that I've learned the most when people have asked why you do what you do, it's hard sometimes, but you try to do a good thing, and it's been difficult, but we've got to continue to serve. And last night I had the opportunity to go to our POA meeting, and it was such a good night because you saw, in my opinion, you saw a board that listened to the community and made a decision because of that. And I don't serve with anyone up here who's not trying to do that every single day. And, you know, for me personally, I will always answer my phone. I will always answer any message that comes my way. I think we've seen that with our Mayor Pro Tem too. So I just want to say thank you for serving next to me. And I want to say thank you for continuing to give more and more to the community when we don't have to. Don't worry, I'm not going to resign or anything, but I just want to say thank you. It means a lot. With my updates, I got some big ones, and bear with me. I don't want to bore the world, but this is somewhat important. As most of you know, we had an election just last week. And has it been? Yeah, just last week, Tuesday, right? So a couple things happened. We had some county races. All of our supervisors got re-elected. Karen Spiegel got re-elected. Supervisor Gutierrez got re-elected and Manny Perez out in the desert got re-elected. So no change on our Board of Supervisors. This is important because these are the same people that we are talking to about the potential cemetery project. So this is very meaningful for our community that we still have those key players there because Darcy Burke and I have spent a lot of time with these supervisors and have dedicated a lot of information on the importance of opposing this project. That's number one. Number two, we also, on the other side of things, our auditor controller Ben Benoit ran unopposed. Our treasurer tax collector Matt Jennings, who happens to live here in Canyon Lake, ran unopposed. and our assessor, Peter Aldana, also held the seat. This is important because these three men have done an incredible job, my personal opinion of course, helping Canyon Lake with anything that we possibly need, so that's good news for us. And lastly, RCTC, we just had a big meeting, not just because we approved our $1.3 billion budget, but the commission took staff's recommendation and moved forward with ending the sunset on Measure A. Measure A is very important to the city of Canyon Lake. It's funding that we receive, close to $300,000. This, along with gas tax, are monies that we use to do things like pave Railroad Canyon Road or do unique projects. So a lot of things happening in the county, and I'm excited to see what's next, but things are happening, moving, and shaking in Canyon Lake. I'm going to go off script again, and I'm sorry, Madam Clerk, but I believe we have our business spotlight. She's here, and she's a mom. And I believe we have, because I know this well, because I've got three girls at home, and I know that you are needed elsewhere. So we're going to bring you on up to do, actually I'm going to have Council Member Mark Terry introduce our business spotlight, I mean our nonprofit. See, I've got the business spotlight thing going on all the videos that we're doing.

The mayor is very excited because tonight we get to talk about Thomas the Train.

Yeah, it's my favorite.

Who likes Thomas the Train, right? It is my pleasure to introduce Sarah Hardy, manager of visitor experience for the Southern California Railway Museum. my grandchildren have frequently attended. Sarah has an extensive experience in both education and museums and is passionate about creating and engaging experiences that inspire curiosity and lifelong learning. She is joined today by her partner, Alex, and their youngest child, Luke. Please join me in welcoming Sarah as she shares more about the museum and the important work they do. Thank you.

All right, thank you. I apologize that he's crying out there.

No, you're good.

So thank you for that introduction. My name is Sarah. I work with the Southern California Railway Museum. Some of you have been there. Have any others of you visited before?

Oh, yeah.

OK, great. Well, I'm excited to share for those of you that don't know the museum and hopefully something new for those of you who have been there before. So a little bit about us. We are the largest railway museum in the western United States. We sit on just over 114 acres and have 200 pieces of full-scale rolling stock. Notably, we have the largest and most complete collection of Los Angeles railway yellow cars and Pacific electric red cars. And we welcome about 80,000 visitors annually hosting signature events like Day Out with Thomas, We have a new Harry Potter event this summer and the Polar Express. The next slide. So the museum started in 1956. It was founded by 14 young rail fans who really saw their passion for streetcars disappearing before their eyes. In the 50s, streetcars were rapidly being scrapped in favor of busing. So these 14 young men decided to start purchasing rail cars for scrap value. They started storing them in travel town and Griffith Park. And then in 1959, bought 10 acres of a potato farm and a one mile stretch of abandoned right of way in Paris. And the rest is history. The museum is now celebrating its 70th year as a nonprofit. And that's really thanks to the dedication of members and volunteers. We have, like I said, over 114 acres. We're an open-air museum. We have a lot of different exhibit barns and two really beautiful parks with some mature shade trees. It's a really great way to spend an afternoon. I'm not going to spend too much time on our exhibits, but I hope you guys get a chance to see them all. They really range from our oldest being an 1880s narrow gauge collection We have our Los Angeles Railway collection, Pacific Electric, our steam engine, and a whole diesel restoration barn, as well as an exhibit about Fred Harvey and his restaurants on the railroad. But we are so much more than a museum. So we are an operational railroad. So we operate our historic trains and trolleys on the weekends. And we also perform award-winning restoration. The two that are featured up on the slides are two of our most recent restoration projects. The black and white 560 actually won a national restoration award for its achievement. And then the one... the red, white, and blue one is our bicentennial that recently was mechanically restored and it'll be running this 4th of July for the first time. We do a lot of work in-house also. We have over two miles of track and it's all maintained by our volunteer maintenance of way crew. And we also have an onsite fire and emergency services that helps support that hot work that's done on the tracks. So I really encourage you all to visit we are open Tuesday through Sunday. It is free admission So even if you're not a rail fan, it's a really nice way to spend an afternoon in our park spaces You can book a guided tour Tuesday through Saturday for five dollars Saturday and Sundays when we pull out our historic equipment for passenger rides and

also do a lot of free community programming on the first and third saturdays so the next one coming up is on the 20th for father's day so dads will get to ride free and we also ordinance number 281 is an ordinance addressing an issue that has received a lot of discussion in the city of canyon lake and statewide recently and again this directly flows out of the establishment of the city's police department uh so now that we will have our own police department uh worked very closely uh with our police chief to make sure that we do have a local ordinance on the books that will address this unique community's needs so there are new enhanced state laws that are coming out regarding e-bicycles it's getting a it's been getting traction over the last few years But especially over the last, I'd say, six months, after we've had a few fatalities directly attributed to minors operating, which are vehicles which are improperly called e-bikes, or it'd be better to call them e-motorcycles. Surrons. Surrons. So these are electric bikes. They don't have pedals, and they can exceed 25 miles per hour or 28 miles per hour. So the proposed ordinance here does include a lot of regulations regarding the operation to ensure that these vehicles are operated in a safe manner. There's explicit prohibitions on the electric motorcycles and non-compliant electric vehicles. Golf carts and neighborhood electric vehicles are exempt from the definition of this ordinance because we already have a regulatory ordinance related to those. And unique to the city of Canyon Lake, unique compared to any entity that I advise, are additional provisions regarding to the applicability to private property. So Canyon Lake is a unique community in the state of California and the country. um the vast majority of the streets in the city are actually private streets within the property owners association so the ordinance is drafted without any further applies to public areas public streets areas owned and operated by the city and other public entities however under section 1403-050 the chapter may be enforced on private roads private common areas private recreational areas at the request of a property owners association common interest development like the merchants association only after they have adopted rules of their own that mirror these they have filed a written request with the city manager for enforcement on the private property and they enter into an agreement in a form approved by the city attorney

Essentially, once this ordinance obviously gives teeth to the idea that our POA board could potentially look at their own ordinance that would allow the city to then start looking at ways to help out with the e-bike issue that is so popular, as you can tell.

There's no one here.

Throughout the community.

Thank you for coming.

And, you know, so I think it's great that we're doing this. I mean, this is something that has been asked of us, and I'm glad to see the language in there that it's going to require them to also participate, too. I mean, we're now going to be, in my opinion, the more enforcing agency. You know, we were obviously with RSO, but especially now with our own police department. So it's, I mean, it's a big deal that we're doing this. Yeah.

and so you know this is uh the uh homeowners our property association has not adopted the vehicle code uh to be enforced uh behind the gates of my knowledge um and so we we had to look at a way where we could have this partnership uh in a way that would be consistent with state law so that that's why you have these specific provisions and if the property association the merchants association decide that they would like to have the city enforce these rules on that private property, then, like you said, they would need to adopt substantially similar rules and then enter into an agreement with the city where we would have that authority to enforce on their private property. Additionally, there is an exception for security personnel of the private property owner. They may continue to use these vehicles on the private property with the permission of the owner. That's based on our understanding, I think it was actually discussed today, that they are going to have their own e bicycle or motorcycle patrols so we want to continue to allow them to have that that ability there is the authorization for the police department to seize illegal electric motorcycles in certain circumstances, including reckless operation, willful disregard for traffic control devices, unsafe riding. Essentially, if there's a safety issue, there's a nexus to a safety issue, this person, if they continue to have this, they present a safety issue, then it can be seized and it will only be returned after they attend a safety class. And if they're a minor, their parent has to come in. to retrieve the vehicle. They would also be liable for any storage costs incurred by the city. Council Member Welty?

This is exciting. I mean, we had visions of how we would be changing the patrol in the community. And this is one step, hopefully of many, where we can really, we're trying to protect the kids in the end. They're driving around recklessly, and they're the ones vulnerable because the drivers in cars are much safer than the e-bikers. So this is exciting for me and kind of part of everything we hope for when we start our own force.

So essentially, they can take our ordinance and just incorporate it by reference

That would be one way to do it. The ordinance has a section regarding specific operations and prohibitions. They can adopt a rule regulation or equivalent that essentially mirrors that or incorporates it by reference and then enters into an agreement with the city authorizing the city to enforce our ordinance and their regulations on their property.

So I noticed that it... It authorizes if the hypothetically POA decides to accept this, that the city could enforce it on parks and trails and common areas that are uh used not only public common areas but private common areas would that include golf cart um what are they called paths golf cart paths yep that could be included as well and it's a very good point mayor portem because that's the entry point that we're talking about of them coming in yeah and you know i i know that the chief rails doesn't have a microphone but

You know, I'm curious, you know, we're starting to see a lot of municipalities, flatbed trucks taking on e-bikes, and I'm assuming that, you know, there's still this standard out there for law enforcement that they're not pursuing these individuals with SIRONs, and it has to be these kids are pulled over and then they're taking these SIRONs. Are you able to comment on that, Chief, on what you're hearing on what's happening with e-bikes and whatnot?

Yeah, with the Surons, just working. Yeah, with the Surons, vehicle code does apply. So Captain Boyd is over. They're doing a lot of that right now. They're taking them and pounding them. Parents have to come in and pay quite a bit of money to get them out, actually more than what the Surons were. So yeah, we'll be doing the same.

Captain, in your experience, is the Sheriff's Department, you know, because we're seeing a lot of photos in Riverside County at least, these kids are giving up, right? I mean, there's no chasing going on. And then, like, how is it happening? Because I'm seeing multiple photos of, you know, a AAA truck or whatever with five or six of them. Menifee PD just did one. They just did an announcement that they got, like, six of them in a row. Walk us through, since we're talking to this ordinance, what would that look like in regards to an enforcement standpoint when you have... What is that?

Sorry, somebody was asking me a question.

Was it a Canyon Lake? I'm just kidding.

Well, yeah, ideally, we would like everybody to stop if you're breaking the law and everything else like that. We're not seeing... A large amount of it, but we do get some people that run. A lot of them in those cases are adults that are on those bikes that are running. And it's a great question because it's challenging because you have to, you know, is the juice worth the squeeze, you know, type thing. So we have to try and get creative on how we're enforcing that. In Lake Elsinore, we're using drones basically to kind of do some overflights and maybe follow them where they don't know that we're watching, follow them home, and then go knock on the door and talk to the parents or try and get them that way. WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT, I'D LIKE TO ADD THAT MY INTERPRETATION OF THE VEHICLE CODE FOR THAT IS RECENTLY I TOOK A FIELD TRIP TO CANYON LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOL AND I WENT OVER TO THE BIKE RACK AND TOOK A LOOK AROUND AND SOME OF THE BIKES THAT ARE IN THERE THAT ARE TAGGED WITH THE CANYON LAKE REGISTRATION CENTERS, I WAS ABLE TO LOOK AT THAT AND SEE. We're talking about e-bikes and e-motorcycles, right? And I think the city attorney made the very clear distinction that those are two different vehicles, right? And the second that you remove the chain, and this is what I saw, you take the chain off the pedals, the e-bike might have pedals on it, but as soon as you remove the chain from that or disable that chain, it now becomes a modification of that vehicle. I HOPE THAT ANYBODY THAT'S LISTENING OUT THERE, YOU KNOW, AS A PARENT, THEY LOOK AT WHAT THEIR KIDS ARE DOING. WHEN THEY TAKE THOSE CHAINS OFF, YOU'RE NOW MODIFYING IT, WHICH MAKES IT AN E-MOTORCYCLE TECHNICALLY.

YEAH, IT'S CALLED FIXED PEDAL.

YEAH. AND SO THAT'S AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION THAT WE'RE GOING TO START LOOKING AT BECAUSE THE ELS NORM MUNICIPAL CODE IS JUST NOW GETTING ADOPTED AS YOU GUYS ARE DOING IT. those are the things that we're going to start looking at and there's a huge education component of it in the beginning but there's going to be a very limited time of that and it's going to be zero tolerance because it's enough i'm an avid e-bike rider i don't want to see all this stuff i don't want to see it taken away because it's fun it's opened up a lot of opportunities and i think they're fantastic for parents it's a it's a great tool to get kids back on board to school but with that comes a lot of responsibility right and you're giving your children basically this tool to go out there and ride at 12 years old that they don't necessarily understand the risks that they're taking on, right? And they're driving in traffic. And it'd be one thing if you stayed on the side of the road, but like everywhere else, every time I drive home, I see them, they can't just not ride a wheelie in the middle of the street. It gets frustrating. As you're trying to protect them, you don't want to get involved, but it jams traffic up and it creates confusion. They just do what they're supposed to, and it takes parenting and education. We're going to get into the schools, and Jim and I will work together to do that stuff as part of this, because a lot of the children that live in this community, obviously they attend school in Lake Elsinore Unified School District. So we're going to send that messaging out here over the summer through Parent Square and things like that to try and really get ahead of this and let people know what you can and what you can't do. Again, I want everybody to have fun, but they need to be safe about it.

Can I make one more comment? One of the other things that I appreciate about this ordinance is that if the POA or the Merchants Association accepts it and mirrors it such that they have the same rules, it still doesn't create an obligation on the part of the city for dedicated patrol or security services that kind of thing and i think that's important because we're not becoming allied right we don't we are we still we're going to be police and we're not downgrading into private security correct

Mayor Patem, the way I would explain this is in the event that they did adopt the ordinance and go through that process, it allows us to do something where without this we can do nothing. I don't even know, would you have reckless driving that you would encounter with that? I know you'd have DUI capabilities, but those two were probably the only times you could really get involved with an e-bike on private property. Would that be correct?

Well, yeah, if it's a misdemeanor of the vehicle code, something like that would allow us.

Right. So aside from this, we could do nothing. But we would not take over for Allied. We would not become the e-bike patrol. It just gives them a method to do something about it.

So the way I read this is that it's not just reckless, but it's careless, unsafe speeds, failure to yield, riding against traffic, then the stunts and the wheelies and all that stuff. if the ordinance is adopted safe manner so i think it is a lot of the things that concern canyon lake residents um conduct that intentionally or recklessly frightens harasses or threatens others i think we've heard a lot about that it's almost as though staff went on social media and copy and pasted all the issues and concerns as though that canyon lake have have brought up when it comes to e-bikes

It's wild because it's it's it's right there. So our ordinance. This is I know this is our ordinance But you know to further that it's what I start said in the beginning of this meeting, you know about the mayor pro tem You know the willingness to be active with the community and this ordinance shows that We were asked by members of the public but also a couple board members to do something and once again the city is reacting accordingly, I think not just by starting our own Police Department and But also now especially with the help of the Sheriff's Department because this is this is a Riverside County Orange County's up and down the state problem And I I would just you know recommend I'm sure that the chief has plans on this but it's been exciting to see you know many fees progression on this very topic and They did a sting op that was literally cinematography produced where they had drones follow these kids through a park and they documented all this and then they were able to take photos of, you know, a flatbed of eight or nine of these serons being, you know, and it kind of, we got tagged, I think Casey did too, but I got tagged in these saying, is Canyon Lake going to do something, right? And it's exciting to see kind of some of the complaints come to fruition in an actual ordinance. If the POA is willing to participate, then at least the city can say, oh, we're doing it. We just need them to move forward on their end. So kudos to staff on this. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney, for copy and pasting social media comments and creating an ordinance. I mean, there's not much more transparent than that. So I appreciate it, man.

Will you please reiterate that you authored this?

I did, but it was based on a significant amount of feedback from the community. This is Canyon Lakes e-bike ordinance. This isn't someone else's. I did want to just briefly touch on 1403-040D specifically prohibits tampering with the pedals or the equipment in a way that it would not meet the California vehicle go definition of an electric bicycle to the captain's point. so we did address that and then to the mayor pro tem's point uh zero five zero d specifically states that the city has no mandatory enforcement duty and that it would not require the city of the police department code enforcement personnel or other public agency to provide patrol dedicated enforcement security services or a particular level of enforcement because at the end of the day the police department is a general law enforcement agency that has to respond to the issues that they are facing at any given time

Thank you. Any public comments? Any other questions? I wish I could let Dana make the motion. I'll make the motion.

Second. Second. Give it to Josh.

Roll call vote, please.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Happily, aye.

We have an EBI ordinance.

We have an EBI ordinance.

Good deal. Awesome.

Okay, we have one more item, and then we are done for the night, except for city manager comments. Okay, last item tonight is also for our city attorney who's going to be presenting. This is introduction and the first reading of Ordinance 282.

yes um for the last eight years every year i've had the privilege of rewriting my jurisdiction's accessory dwelling unit ordinance to comply with the new rules that the state of california has come up with uh whether the side setbacks are six feet five feet four feet what are the heights that they decide are okay this year what is the square footage they decide are okay this year We got a friendly letter from the state housing community development. Changing it once again. Informing us that there are some changes that they would appreciate seeing. That's the friendly first letter. And rather than move on to the unfriendly second letter, worked well with Ruby. and other staff to update our code so that we are in full compliance with the newest regulations out of the state regulating ADUs, JADUs, and all the other small dwelling units that the state of California insists on allowing to build on private property. So I'm not gonna go through and list all the changes unless the council wants to talk about one in particular, but you have an ordinance here that will bring us into compliance with state law.

Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. Do we have any public comments? No, we do not. Council, any questions? Seeing none, we need a motion. I'll make the motion. Council Member Welty is going to second it. Roll call vote, please.

Mayor Patricia Steele? Aye.

Council Member Stieber?

Aye.

Council Member Terry? Aye. Council Member Mull? Aye. Mayor Smith? Aye. Motion passes. City Manager comments? Wrap us up.

Thank you, Mayor. I will make this as quick as possible, but I want to acknowledge our assistant city attorney, Catherine Eshed. I, just as a city manager, I am a bit of a Tasmanian devil, and I believe firmly in getting in the helicopter with the city attorney and taking off and then reaching over and telling the city attorney, I need clearance to take off. And That is not for the faint of heart and having somebody like Catherine over this period that I've been here who has been able to provide a lot of insight into how we do our business day to day and who has been able to miraculously pull out contracts that are a very important aspect of what we do and who has been able to win our City Attorney is not available. Sit-in is his stead in a wonderful fashion. I just wanted to acknowledge that, thank her for her work, and make sure council knows the appreciation that I and staff have for what she does. We will have a new assistant city attorney that is assigned who has very big shoes to fill, and I'm looking forward to that relationship as well.

That's awesome. Awesome. Any other comments? That's it? All right, Madam Clerk, this one's for you. Our next meeting is going to be August 5th, and with that, I am going...

I did not get to the clerk, so we do... Sorry, Mayor, we do need to make that change. The August 5th meeting, the... August 3rd. August. It was the August 12th. It was August 3rd. And then it was, yeah, that's right, the 3rd, that's right. And now it is August 5th. So that was, the city attorney is available on that Wednesday. We did not think that was going to be possible.

So it's going to be on a Wednesday, August 5th.

Additionally, we wanted to change the November 11th day, which is on Veterans Day, move that to November 12th. That's correct. Sorry, Madam Clerk.

We need to tell you something.

Oh, that was all mine.

So with that, I'm going to adjourn the meeting at 828 till August 5. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.