City Council - Regular Meeting

Councilmember Stever?

Yes, can you hear me?

Okay, there you are. We got you.

Do I sound good?

You sound great.

Perfect.

thanks for dressing up absolutely

Test, test.

I think we're okay now.

Mayor, I think we're good.

Chaplain John Gaiman asking you to be our chaplain here. Would you mind lead us in prayer? Is that all right? Can everyone stand? We're going to start in prayer. That's what we do in Canyon Lake. Absolutely. You've got to hit the button. It should be red. Wow, this is going to be very difficult. Chaplain John Gaiman asking you to be our chaplain here.

There we go. Can you hear me now?

Test, test.

test test you got the links Being able to move their voice what I'd like to call. Yes, test.

Please join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you with grateful hearts, acknowledging you as the source of all wisdom, peace, and understanding. Thank you for the privilege of gathering here in the service of this community and for the leaders who have accepted the responsibility to guide it. Father, we humbly invite your presence into this meeting. Let your peace rest upon this council and upon every official, upon all who are gathered here tonight. Lord, please grant wisdom, discernment, and clarity as decisions are made that affect the city Father, we pray, Father, that this council will be blessed tonight and that you will guide their hearts and direct their paths. Be with our city council as they carry out their duties in an upright and honorable manner. Help them to seek what is just and to serve selflessly and to work together for the good of all in this city, Lord. Lord, we ask that your blessings will be on all of the people that serve in this city, all the public servants, the firefighters, the police officers, and all the public servants. Lord, we also lift up the nation, Father. This is a time of much uncertainty, and we ask that you would grant wisdom to our national leaders, our state, and also our local leaders. Bring healing where there is conflict and unity where there's division. Father, may we always remember that our strength comes from seeking your guidance and your help, Lord, is what we always desire. May this meeting be blessed by you, Father, and may all that is said and done here tonight be a benefit to the people of this city. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you, Chaplain. William and Zachary, will you guys lead us in the flag salute with Papa? Would you do that for us tonight? Is that okay?

Here, you can use this if you need.

This is what it's all about.

Where are you at, Zach? Got your right hand?

Where's your right hand at? Okay. Here's the part.

Okay.

Look at the flower.

Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Amen.

William and Zachary, thank you for doing that. I know you made Papa's night. Yeah, we haven't even started yet. All right, we're going to call the meeting to order due to technical difficulties slash budget cuts. It is now 638. So we are going to go on. Roll call, please, Madam Clerk.

Mayor Patan Castillo here. Council Member Stever here. Council Member Terry. Here. Council Member Welty. Here. Mayor Smith.

Here.

Have a quorum.

Thank you so much. Mr. City Attorney, closed session report. You got anything for us?

Yes. Litigation direction was given on item one by a vote of five to zero. No other reportable action on today's closed session.

Perfect. All right. Committee reports. Who wants to kick us off? I think Council Member Welty does, right?

Yeah. We'll go ahead and bring something up. I'm on the vector control, and you all wonder what vector control does. It's a mosquito control district, and the goal is to keep mosquitoes from becoming rampant in our area. And so we all think, well, what's irritating about a mosquito? I grew up in Minnesota. I mean, we basically had machine guns to take them down. The term vector kind of refers to disease-carrying animals or creatures, and so the importance of vector is that we keep the mosquito population down in our area. There have been reports of testing of mosquitoes in Orange County, and they also found a bird in Eastvale, I believe, that was carrying the West Nile virus. It's not like COVID's coming. It's probably very controllable, but it's easier to control with the help of the whole community. So we would like the community to all step up. And if you find a mosquito, don't see it as an irritant. See it as a potential problem. My wife's friend that she knew since she was 20, their daughter got West Nile. She didn't die, but she no longer could. She was in a wheelchair. She was bed bound. She had really no or extremely limited mental capacity. Totally and 100% care for. And so if you've ever seen the devastation of West Nile, you know that it's serious. So what I want to do is we're going to take a look at how do you report and deal with West Nile. So you start out, we're going to kind of make it a little simple. As you go to the Canyon Lake webpage, we have it up on display. Go to the site and you'll see a local service directory. It's under our community. And then you go to local service directory. And under there, you'll see slide down to look like there we are. We are under environmental. So you can click on that site. The phone number's on there. You can call in. You can leave a message and tell them what's going on. If they don't answer, they're very busy and out in the field. They will contact you and they will come out and help you address the problem. Now, the primary problem and the way mosquitoes kind of breed in our area, you would think, well, the water, the lake, they must breed like crazy. And they don't really breed wildly in lake water. Lake water tends to move and it has life and the depth isn't something they like. And they don't really breed in pools. They don't breed in maintained pools normally. But if you have a pool that's been emptied and the rain came in and there's a little inch or two of water, that's where the mosquitoes go. If you had a birdbath, those little fountains that you have in the backyard and it has an inch of water in it, that's where they love to breed. And if you're seeing a lot of them in your neighborhood, More than likely, somebody has water standing in their lot. So the first thing you want to do is go out and see if you have any standing water, because maybe you're the problem. And if you have standing water, simply empty the water and move on. And if it's not you, then call Victor. Let them know. They'll contact you, and they'll come out and address it. So it's not a big problem, and we don't want it to be a big problem. So that's where we're at with that. Today I had the privilege of going to MSJC. They had an open meeting, and they've announced a new – I wouldn't say announced. They announced it before that Tawny Dotson will be the new superintendent president. She did a talk today. I think she will be amazing. She comes from the military. I think she was a colonel. So she's nice as peaches until she's not, and she knows how to run an organization. So she's extremely – out front and things forward. We're very happy she's coming on. And so that's the news. That's about it. Perfect. Council Member Terry, are you good?

Good evening.

First of all, before we even get started, Chief, congratulations. It was a real historic honor to be here on Friday, and I hope that those who did attend understood the levity of just how historic that is for our residents and had an opportunity to meet with each one of your oncoming sergeants, captains, and officers. And I tell you what, per capita, I think we have more experience than any department, probably in the state, if not the country. And I think that's going to serve our residents very, very well. And congratulations. I know it was a whole lot of hard work. I also want to extend those congratulations to Mayor Smith, Mayor Pro Tem Castillo, and our city manager, Aaron Brown. This is something that did not happen overnight. I came on council four years ago, and the word was we were going to start a police department. And I got to admit, not having much experience, I thought they were nuts, but... worked so very, very hard at doing all of the little things to do this correctly. And to the three of you, I am very, very happy for you. And it was good to see both of you guys up there leading the way. And congratulations. In June, we didn't meet in July, the WRCOG, the Western Riverside Council of Governments, which I'm a member of, representing approximately 19 cities through Western Riverside, we had what we call our General Assembly. That's where not only do the members get together, all the Riverside County agencies get together, and all the council members also are invited to come, and we had We had four of our five council members that attended, and that was pretty cool. Tony Hawk was our guest speaker and thought he did a really, really good job. And afterwards, we have a meeting, an actual meeting the next morning, and it's at Pechanga. And each year we have a speaker who comes in. And I would say of the last three years that I've attended, it's been a complete mess. You know, people on behalf of the state touting stuff on behalf of the state, which I have a tough time with our state. So I went to this meeting thinking at a certain point, I'm going to go. And we ended up having a speaker who spoke about the difference between affordable and low income housing. And it's amazing how people kind of put them both as being the same, that affordable is low income and low income is affordable. And they are two entirely different subject matters. So low income, and we're not gonna really go into that, but let's talk about affordable. What is affordable? I have a son who has a fiance. They both have very good jobs. I have a daughter who has a husband. They both have very good jobs. Guess what they cannot afford? For the most part, a home. And it was fascinating to see the reasons behind that, because what that also does is shows us the pathway of the things that we need to tackle, especially when we go to the ballot box, right? Regulation and permitting. It's a huge problem in the state of California. Just getting to buying the property and getting it to where you actually have a lot. I mean, I think the average is six to eight years before that can even happen. Type of homes that they sell. How many times you go driving down and you see these big five, six bedroom homes, right? Four bathrooms, huge homes, little lots. And yet if you were to ask my daughter and son-in-law, they need 1,200 square feet. They need two bedrooms and two bathrooms. But we don't sell those homes anymore. And as a result, my son and daughter don't really have a need for a five bedroom home. Lack of home builders. Darcy and I have had a little experience with this. There's developers, but then there's the actual companies that build these homes. And in California, Southern California specifically, what if I told you there's only 10 of them? So the competition isn't there. All they do is make a couple phone calls, and guess what? This is what we're going to list these homes for. Capacity fees. Darcy with Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District invited me to serve on an ad hoc committee where we actually met with developers, we met with the utilities, and it is a necessary evil. If you're going to go build 5,000 homes out in the west part of Riverside, guess what? You're going to need water. You're going to need storm. You're going to need sewer. And that's why Darcy is constantly harping on us as cities to come up with our five-year plan, where we're going to be, and so that they can go ahead and plan ahead. But that also comes at a cost. That ad hoc committee was... to see if there were things that we could do between municipality, the water district, and the developer to bring those fees down. Because right now, I don't want to – we did get them to come down, and Darcy's probably going to talk about that here in a little bit. So I thought that that was a real fascinating conversation, and it was also – a relief to hear somebody actually looking at the reality and not looking just to stick it to us. And I think it does provide a very clear pathway of the things that we need to do as council members, as councils, as cities, as a county, the things that we need to target because I do believe in homeownership. I believe that everyone should have the opportunity if they work hard and put themselves in the position to purchase a home. I see the value in home ownership. And so that's what our meeting was about. Again, Chief, congratulations. And that's it. Thank you.

Was there a Canyon Laker that got honored at that meeting?

There was. So for the first time, In the history of Canyon Lake being a member of WRCOG, we were able to nominate, and our nomination was chosen as a Community Service Person of the Year. She's here tonight, and that would be Monica Lyons. And, you know, when you're in a small city, it's these little steps, these little progressions. I mean, you serving as chair RCTC, correct? That's huge for a little city like us. And the fact that Canyon Lake is now sitting at the table is a good thing. And once again, congratulations, Monica. You were the perfect pick.

Especially because it was Tony Hawk. The cool of that. Don't get me getting into Tony Hawk. All right. Our Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you. A couple things. School's starting back up. I know that my kids start school on Monday, so I want to say good luck to any Canyon Lake kids who are starting back from summer. Sorry, your summer seems to be cut shorter and shorter every year. Again, I want to say, Chief, what a fun event Friday was. You know, When we started our fire department and then now our police department, my favorite thing is that our community members come out and Our first responders know them by first name and they know our first responders by first name. And when they have events in the community and we say, hi, Tim, and Tim's not always in uniform, but we know Tim and we know how Tim cares about his community. And it is such a point of pride to know the resumes of our firefighters and know the resumes of our new police officers. And like Mayor, or sorry, you're not Mayor anymore, but Councilmember Terry said, I would absolutely put those individuals against any individuals from any other agency. And we really did it right. The familiarity, the trust, It's hard to explain unless you live here. So I'm just so looking forward to having our community know our police officers. So thank you so much for that event. In line with listening to our community, We have on the consent calendar the second reading of our e-bike ordinance. So hopefully our citizens actually read that so they know what the new constraints are and how that will be implemented and enforced. And then also, you know, I'm on social media. So I happen to notice quite a bit lately that there seems to be some confusion about amongst residents about what has happened in Canyon Lake and when it has happened. I noticed the other day there was a post about the golf carts and what's going on and when is this going to be implemented and how is that gonna work? And I was able to cut and paste information from the City Manager's newsletter from February. So I would encourage members, residents, citizens to sign up for the newsletter. If you haven't already, go to our website. You can enter your information and we'll send it to your email and you will get that real-time information and maybe not have to rely on chat GPT posts from Facebook so much. kind of from the horse's mouth would be great. That's all I have.

Well said.

Council Member Stieber? Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, City of Canyon Lake. I'll be brief. As summer flew by real fast and majority of my committees were either dark or rescheduled this summer, but I as well got to join my colleagues at the WRCOG General Assembly. And even though that's just an amazing event every year, this year struck it a little more for me because, as Councilmember Terry stated, I got to see and meet my childhood icon. And listening to Tony Hawk's story, that was just incredible. And not just Tony Hawk. You know, WRCOG every year always is bringing just a great keynote speaker that really brings, enlightens and inspires you to just keep doing more and better in your community. Also back in June, I attended my Southern California Edison government advisory panel meeting. And shocker, utility rates are just gonna keep skyrocketing. So me and a few other appointed electeds across the Southern California citizen territory definitely are brainstorming and finding ways to keep costs down for our communities as best as we can. In July, I got to attend the Independent Cities Association and was asked to be on a panel to discuss about cities like Canyon Lake. And I was on a panel with City of Santa Monica, who also has their own independent departments for both police and fire. And we got to share to other municipalities across Southern California, kind of the good, the bad, the ugly of of having these departments and just coming off that panel, there was quite a few cities that has also been in conversation to create their own either police or fire departments and wanted to explore more in conversation on that. Um, I got to spend just, you know, a great summer, but I think the best was spending time with family for our country's birthday and not only within our country, but even in our community. So again, happy birthday, America. Congratulations again, Chief Rails and Canyon Lake Police Department. Looking forward to seeing everyone around. And just like Mayor Pro Tam stated, you know, we have school starting back up here. And not only for the students, but even for the parents, I just want to wish everyone a warm welcome back to the 2027 school year. That is all.

Perfect, thank you. I'll end it off by saying, once again, an incredible event. I think we all were hot and sweaty. It was 107, 105, and it was a huge shout-out. I said this at the POA meeting last night to the men and women who brought their classic cars out at 3 p.m., the hottest part of the day, and cars that do not have air conditioning. And it was so cool, some of them, and it was so cool to see them rally. And I think they had close to 35 or 40 classic cars. And then just to see the men and women that are going to be made up of our police department is so crucial. And, Chief, I want to tell you, man, I had so many residents. And it was awesome because the event was a four-hour deal, so people just came in waves. And so many people came up to me and said, the reason why this move is so important, just like fires, because of local control. And I had, just like the Mayor Pro Tem said, and shout out to our fire chief, because I think you've really done that. You've made it where the boys and gal are known in the community. I know you're going to do the same thing, Rils, with your team. A lot of residents have come up and said, if it's anything like our local fire department, who built the relationships with residents. It's going to be an incredible adventure that we get to go on. And I said, it's all because we've got a leader at the helm like Rels who understands what it's like to be community first minded. And I'm just so proud of everything you did. And I had a person reach out to me two days ago and this individual went on and on about, I can't believe it was 15 months. This is insane that this was all done in 15 months. And it was because of your leadership, Mr. City Manager. And also, obviously, our chief rail. So kudos to you, my friend, and kudos to the team. And we're looking forward to Monday. I can't believe it's almost here. It's kicking off. And the staff did an incredible job making it an event that we're all going to remember forever. So I just want to give a big shout out to you all. And thank you. I just got two quick announcements. We have an event coming up, a summer bash event, and this is in partnership with Locally Rooted and the Chamber of Commerce. This is really cool. It's going to be a great opportunity for kids to come out to the town center. There's going to be a garden foam zone, photos, live mermaid. There's going to be race cars, food vendors, and My Pops is going to bring out one of our race cars for kids to sit in and start the engine up and have some fun. So I think it's going to be a cool opportunity for residents to come out at the town center. And it's a free event, so plan on making that on your calendars for August 22nd. I won't steal too much of Darcy's thunder, but we did have a home run at Lejvo. We had a special board meeting this month. And for the first time, I believe we had a huge success for the city of Canyon Lake or the community of Canyon Lake. allocated close to $200,000 towards study and looking at ways that we can help improve our water quality here in Canyon Lake. So good things happening. And thank you for the residents who showed up to our coffee at the Country Club this morning. I encourage people to continue to show. And it's something that our Mayor Pro Tem started when she was mayor. And we continue to do it to this day. And it's a great opportunity to hang out with your POA directors, your water board director, and a council member or two. So with that, we're gonna go into ceremonial matters. And I want to kick off a presentation. I know on the agenda I'm going to go off base a little bit, so I apologize, Council Member Welty, but I think this is important considering what most of our comments were. As most of you know, it was a big deal for the city of Canyon Lake to start our own police department, have that ground opening, but tonight we want to honor someone. and that someone is in the audience and that's former council member Jennifer Dane. She doesn't know why she's here. She actually thinks she's here for Mayor Pro Tem Castillo, but we're actually honoring Jennifer Dane tonight. Usually, we would come up there and present a certificate, but my colleagues, I know them well, and they want to talk about things, and they want to share a story of Jennifer and how we got what we got. And she's so mad right now, and she's so upset, and she's probably texting Councilmember Terry right now saying, how dare you, but this is about you tonight in regards to this proclamation, just because... Jennifer, we honestly could not be here without you, so I'm going to be selfish and start. Jennifer, one of my favorite council members because she always had questions. Every time we entered into public policy, she would come with a binder and notes, and she would always start us off with great conversation, and when it came to the police department, she did that exact same thing. And the conversation continued. For those of you that are listening online or here tonight, we've been working on this for close to four years. And that meant meeting with many different municipalities, different agencies. And it was so fun working with Jennifer because we would be sent out to go meet with the municipality, me and Mark or me and... may pretend to see and then she'd be like all right i got ten questions that you should have asked when we met with them how does this work how does this work and so is this constant rotation of learning more and when it came to the final decision to move forward i know that if we had councilmember dane with all those questions and the answers that we had to provide convinced that this was the right move for canyon lake the feeling felt good to move forward. So I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your leadership and your dedication. Thank you for being a pain in my butt and making me work harder to find those answers. I do appreciate that. That's how it should be. And I'm just so proud of you and what you've given back to the community. And we definitely miss you. And we're so happy that you make around. You were there too. You're sweating with all of us. But you should put your name on this and you should feel very proud of the hard work that you did to make this happen. So with that, I'm going to kick it to Council Member or Mayor for Tim Castillo.

I have two good stories about Jen and the police department. We had some consultants. Yeah. And. Jen had some of my very favorite comments and questions for those consultants. And it's awesome to see people who believe or are experts in their field have to answer questions of people who are laypeople. And it was really entertaining for me. I loved every minute of the questions that you had for them because they were good and they were designed to really kind of pry open where any potential problems or weaknesses would be. And we approached the police department like we approached the fire department, which was amazing. Yes, this is something we really want to do for our community, but only if it makes financial sense. And Jennifer was our numbers girl, and we relied on her to really dive deep into those numbers. And the reason that we were super successful with the fire department And I think now with the police department is because you didn't let things get glossed over or let things go. And I appreciated that about you. My other funny story or good story is when we were picking the logo, the badge, the design of the – police car, Jennifer was very, very opinionated. And this was after she was off council. And I loved so much that you were making sure that our stuff in the community looked good, that we were well represented, our logos, our badge, everything. And That just kind of shows what you are as a person and as a public servant. You didn't stop once you got off council. You still had opinions, and you still brought them to us to make the decision, and I'm glad that we picked the design that you told me to pick.

Well, keep in mind, Jennifer was texting Casey in the middle of the meeting, and she's like, hold on, we've got to stop. Luke is telling me what to do here.

I'm like, okay, okay. Not that one, you morons.

Oh, sorry.

I was just thinking, I mean, I appreciated the fire department, how it came across and how Jennifer was just tough. I mean, sometimes you think that the council gets a crazy idea in their head and they just go marching on and logic be damned or reason be damned, but that's... That's not true at all. We, we have a number of members. We have that tough finance committee that's grinding the numbers out. So, uh, you know, it's like, how do the numbers work? And there's a lot of gaps in these numbers I'm looking at for the budget. And, you know, you, you know, before we move ahead, you need to fill in all these budget item numbers and we're not, we're not moving ahead. You know, it would be nice if we had insurance before we started a police department, that would be, I have a nice play and, and, uh, You know, she was tough and she did an amazing job. And as we move ahead and the way it pieced together so well and the building came together, it wasn't all raw enthusiasm. It was asking the tough questions early on. And Jennifer just swung that mallet. Jeremy says, I know I felt that mallet so many times. But yeah, it's that balance in the council that made us work so well. So thank you.

I'm in so much trouble. You know, you need that accountability. And you have two highly motivated council members who four years ago said, we're going to have a police department. And it's real easy to get carried away with that. It's real easy to... start coming up with badges before you've even gone through step one. Um, but you were a huge part of the due diligence and you need that one person that, you know, I'm going to have to explain to, and it's good to know when you're planning and you're doing something that there is going to be this person who's going to expect a more than reasonable explanation on why we're doing it. And, um, One of my best friends, I saw you on Friday, felt bad that perhaps we didn't include you a little bit more. And so we came up with this idea, I think, Saturday. And I could not be more happy in being in so much trouble.

From a land far, far away, Councilmember Stever, you got anything to add?

Um, Miss Dean did just a tremendous job and, you know, I'm, I'm filling her shoes. So I, I'm blessed to be able to move some of those goals that, that she had and worked on with, with you guys and was able to keep moving forward on it. Um, one of my, if we're going to tell stories, I'm going to tell one quick, fast one, but, uh, This was quite a few years ago, but I invited Miss and Mr. Dane to join Chief Rails and I in a cornhole tournament, and we beat them. So hopefully she's not upset about it, but just the few years I saw her on council and some of my... local government work that I do on the side, you know, seeing her involved, seeing her around, she really stepped up to the plate. So congratulations and definitely earned it tonight.

Chief, you got anything? Technical difficulties. We're going to bring you up for a photo anyway, so. What happens when we go dark in the month of July? Nothing works.

All right.

I'll kind of stand this way because I can't look at you if I'm looking forward. But for me, it's kind of ironic because I was here during this whole entire process when it first started. So I've been here for five years. I was on both sides. And a lot of the times I was trying to talk you guys out of doing it. I was giving you the pros and the cons. But I mean, I was supportive in a way and helping when I could because I was sitting in those shoes and And I had to give, you know, the pros and cons on both sides, but you always had a lot of questions. It's pushed me on a lot of things, which is good because you forced me to answer the questions from the, from the sheriff's department side and it got my wheels turning and made me think, okay, this, yeah, this is possible. And there is, there's a lot of good pros to it. But you were always so supportive of my job when I was the captain of the never negative. You're always positive and saying great things about what we were doing and how we were doing it and just from a law enforcement perspective. So, um, even though I was squeezed in the middle, I felt like I was a part of the process. And now, now I'm here and you guys hired me. So no, that was going to happen after trying to talk you out of it for so long, but it's, it's great. It's so good. Aaron.

My story is definitely my first interview with the subcommittee.

Who was on that subcommittee?

It was Mayor Pro Tem Castillo and at the time Councilmember Dane. And I remember thinking, holy cow, if this is just two of them, what's five going to be like? And it turns out... It was like what I thought. I've said this before, but I remember leaving that interview going, man, what do I have to do to work there? And originally, I was coming as the interim. The interim's job is to keep the lights on and get it ready for whoever's coming in. And because of people like Councilmember Dane and the rest of that council involved, It became a, how do I stay here? And she's such a huge part of that for me. And I told her that when she left. It was hard because you feel like you kind of came in and it's part of this job. It's going to, the cycle changes and you just continue on whatever that new vision is. Very fortunate as a city manager and the vision has stayed the same. But In terms of how I got here, she's always going to be part of that story for me.

Yeah. So good. Jennifer, I know you're mad, but can you come up here and take a photo with all of us, and we're going to present this certificate to you of recognition, and we're going to thank you again.

Come on, everyone. Let's get up. Jennifer. Jennifer.

oh yes after we take a photo i'm going to stand over here okay that microphone doesn't work okay

Okay, I won't say too much. Believe it or not, I like to ask a lot of questions, but not talk a lot. I'm very surprised. I've been sitting there trying to think of things to say. I wanted to say some nice things about Mayor Pro Tem. I didn't know why, but I wanted to say some nice things about her. So I'll save them for when I need to say them. I'm so proud of this council for getting the police department started and Most people don't know, I sort of wasn't really for it in the beginning. Sorry. But being on the finance committee and seeing the financials and got to the point that we couldn't afford not to do it. And I think that's so important. And I still care very much about the financials of this city. And I want the city to continue to thrive. And I know it's the important thing to do. So really proud. I was a little sad that I wasn't a part of it. So this makes up for it. Thank you. I won't be mad for too long. To Chief Frales, thank you. Sorry, but not sorry for all the questions, because that brought us to this point. And I just appreciate this very much. Very surprised. Thank you.

You're the best. We appreciate you. Thank you.

I'm glad we did that. Okay. That was a dinger.

You're still in trouble. Council Member Welty, it is your time to introduce the Canyon Lake Quilters and why they're here this evening.

Okay.

Microphone on, please.

I'd like to welcome the Canyon Lake quilters who have created a patriotic quilt to honor Canyon Lake resident Jack Walmsley. We just want to thank you guys. This is not the first quilt they've done. They've done a number of quilts. They do a Veterans Day quilt, and they try to honor a serviceman or service person, a woman that has done their time. I just want to talk a little about Jack. Jack has lived a life of service. He has had an amazing life. He's over 90, which means he was born somewhere in the 30s, and I read about history in the 30s, and it's not like it was today. It's a very different world, and Jack tells the story about how he was pretty much on his own at 16. He found work, and he was able to be somewhat successful in his work, but he really, when it came time to enlist in the military, he stepped up and he joined the Air Force, And that's where he started this life of service, by serving. the people through the Air Force. And after he left the Air Force, he moved on and he became a firefighter. And again, he served the community as a firefighter. He ended his career. He was the coordinator for the movie studios for fire safety. So he was able to bring his fellow firefighters on to the movie studios and tells a story about meeting John Wayne and meeting all of our heroes in the movies. And he loved it. Just in his day, he's just a wonderful person. And he... he also continued his service in the canyon lake as the poa uh on the poa and that on while on the poa it's when he started and and that group started to think we needed to have our own city uh he he was one that stepped forward and did really a large part of the groundwork to make us the city are we are today i'm not saying the city wouldn't be here if it was wasn't for him but But there's a good chance it wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Jack. So he's one of our founding fathers, and he has just done an amazing job. He also was on the first city council in 1990. Again, the amazing level of service goes on and on. And personally, when I was on the POA, he became kind of somewhat my mentor. He was one of the main mentors that kind of kept me in line. What does he always say to me? Don't get in trouble. Every time I leave his presence, he says, don't get in any trouble. So he has kept me in line. So I just want to say personally, he's doing a great job. And I, if the quilters want to move up in the center where they can, everybody can see what they're, they're going to do. He he's not feeling well tonight, so he couldn't make it. So we're going to arrange a day in the next, uh, a couple of weeks and we're going to go over to his house and we're going to present them with this. And, uh, What a wonderful, I want one, but I wasn't in the service, so I'm not getting one. No exception for me, trust me. But I have family members in the service, and when they get one, I'll be happy to stand up and take a picture with it. So anyway, thank you guys. You know, those things just don't come out of Walmart, these quilts. They take a lot of commitment and a lot of service, and thank you for your hard work.

Thank you, ladies. We appreciate you so much.

Amazing. Absolutely beautiful. All right. We are moving on to presentations.

We're going to start off with our Water Board Director, Darcy Burke. Thank you for coming out tonight. I know it's been a long day for you.

Thank you, Mayor, Council, neighbors, friends, guests. I'm not going to repeat what I covered last night at the POA, but I am going to repeat one part. Mayor Smith has done an exceptional job at Lejoie. The Lake Elsinore San Jacinto Watershed Authority. This is the first time ever Canyon Lake has gotten anything, basically. We could bring up the dredging, but let's not, shall we?

Thank you.

And that's because he's able to build consensus and he's able to bring reasonable options to your fellow board members there. So it wasn't my thunder you're stealing. I just want to augment the job you're doing. And I'm going to also reiterate that one of the studies about golden algae is not the everything, it's something. So it'll go into the bigger study of work that's being done nationally. And all of it's important. But so thank you, Mayor Smith. I know you probably didn't want that assignment. I know I encouraged you to take that assignment. So thank you for taking one for the team because you've hit a home run. And it's very much appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you.

On that same water note, let's talk a little bit about the MS4 permit and the economic impact. By Beacon Economics, Chris Thornton, recognized economist. What it didn't talk about was replacement water, the cost of the replacement water. Because that stormwater that they want to make sure they capture up above in the watershed to make sure that the I'm going to say pollutants don't get into our lake. That water belongs to Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District. It doesn't belong to anybody else. And that water is used to refill Canyon Lake. So if we don't have that water, I have to go buy water from Mother Metropolitan. And free versus $1,500 to $1,800 an acre foot is a big difference. And that was not included in Chris's analysis, which, by the way, I did send him an email and mention that to him. So the $80 million tax implication plus the trash implication didn't address the implications to the Water District and to all of our customers in addition to that for many of the cities listed. So thank you for sharing that with us. I know we're going to weigh in as well and I appreciate that. How about some good news? So I'm going to tag on to what Councilman Terry started on the capacity fee ad hoc. In At the end of June, actually, we passed a revised capacity fee schedule. Is it everything I wanted? No. Is it more than I thought I'd get? Yes. So we were able to lower components of that fee. We're still the most expensive. I can't help that because we have no infrastructure in the ground. But here's where we were able to make big changes for our developers. And when we talk about your nonprofit spotlight, this impacts them too. Every time you need an inspection of the work that you're putting in for us, we charge you. We were able to lower that cost by a third. That's huge. The amount of deposits needed to start your project have changed. They're actually based on reasonable reality, not some random number that somebody picked out that they thought it looked good. The other thing that was changed, which was the one thing that I harped on, is we used to withhold 10%, period, no matter what it was, no matter how big the project was. That's no longer true. We don't hold just 10% as it's going to be ours and you've just given it to us as a gift. That will make a huge difference, especially to the bigger projects. I'm going to tie that in to how it works. When I ask cities, what are you planning? What are you building? There have been a lot of laws, and I'm sure your attorney can attest to it. To build in California is very difficult. To build anything in California is difficult. To build something large is even more difficult, whether it's a housing development, whether it is a warehouse, whether it's a data center. And I say that with breath because people don't understand the process. And we don't, as government, do a good job of explaining it. Anytime you're going to build something big in California, more than 500 homes or the equivalent thereof, as part of your environmental, you get to do an additional water supply assessment study. You're looking 20, 30, 40, $50,000 additional. And in that study, if you were a developer, you would put everything you possibly might put on that piece of property because you only want to do that assessment one time. People see data center in that list and automatically think that's what you're doing. That's not necessarily what you're doing at all. It might be one thing you're considered doing. As the water district, my job is to stay in my lane. I don't tell you as a city what you can build. I can tell you whether I can serve you or not. And if not, I have to tell you what I can serve or what I'm doing to fix it. You may read a lot of things about our water district in the papers or online these days. We are looking for water everywhere. We penned a deal with San Diego County Water Authority, and we're about to pen another one because none of you get less thirsty because the state makes restrictions. New development pays for new development. We have enough pipe in the ground right now to go from here to Denver. That's all on us to repair and replace. And if you don't think that's important, let me refer you to West Hollywood. Three times in three weeks, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has had blowouts. Then they were in Santa Monica. Then they were in Sherman Oaks. That pipe is 115 years old. They don't even make that pipe anymore. You don't make riveted steel pipe. So if we're not proactive, it doesn't just cost money to replace the pipe. It costs money. impact to economies, to families, to residents. So I know we're the silent service. I know my infrastructure isn't that sexy because you can't see it, but it's necessary. So I appreciate your service on that committee. It did make a difference. It was a struggle to get that committee together. I'm very grateful that my fellow board members, at least at first I thought, I know they think they were humoring us, but we did make a difference. So thank you very much. And I'm happy to take any questions.

Any questions? Everyone good? You're getting off easy tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. We have our Canyon Lake property owner's vice president in the house. Lainey, the floor is yours. Thank you for coming.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Pro Tem. City Council members, new police force, thank you for having me. I will be brief. POA board, we finalized our fiscal audit for the year ending in April of 2026. I said it last night at the meeting, and we ended with no significant issues. And that is a very, very large accomplishment, and it's probably only overshadowed by the fact that it's the third year in a row. So as the board takes fiscal responsibilities as the number one priority, high up there with obviously safety, but fiscal responsibility is critical. And so this has been a huge, huge success, Mark. And it's much kudos, not to the board specifically, but to the finance department and everybody who prepares and goes through these audits. We spent a lot of times working on the revised lake and marina rules with increased fines for safety-related issues, specifically things like swimming in the tunnel and other directly serious, serious safety issues. So those fines will be increasing with the new rules going out. And the big part of the work is condensing the rules into what I call end-user rules. simplicity, that the average person can pick up the rules, they can read them, they can understand them, they know what's expected of them, and it doesn't take, you know, translations in any forms. As always, lots of discussion about our e-bikes, specifically the new requirements with regarding headlights and reflectors. And I would say to any parent or any child for that matter, if you're not already aware of them, if your bike's not already equipped with them, you should get on that ASAP. We are looking forward to our joint work on enforcing the rules that already exist. And with the kids returning to school, one of the greatest fears is the use of the golf course as the highway of e-bikes to get to and from school and the damage. And we've recently experienced more damage on our golf course. Also exciting is we're launching the solar tech, sonar, excuse me, the sonar technology to, let's call it disable. And I would say eliminate, but I know that there is no permanent elimination of golden algae, but we will just call it, it's a reduction in its destruction, if you will. And those are going into the East Bay. This is a pilot program. We're fortunate to have worked with them at no cost to us. And so there will be six initially at various points in the East Bay. We'll evaluate the progress in consideration for additional use of the program and also continuing on with the floating islands for construction. uh iridation in the uh in the again primarily in the east bay but considered else we don't want to introduce both programs at the same time uh for various reasons but one of them is then you just contaminate which results you can attribute to which technology And then on maybe a less serious note, but I think still important note, we have passed rules that change that you can put your holiday decorations up at the end of the year as early as November 1st, and you can now have the liberty to take them down to January 30th. So those of us that embrace the holiday seasons with decorations, we don't have to become as frantic about it. And Lord forbid if you took a vacation before that.

Oh, that's pretty common sense right there.

And lastly, to put everybody's minds at ease, we have officially been notified that the tree at the lodge is dead. So for those of you who are going to say, Lainey, did it really take an arborist to confirm that? Maybe yes, maybe no, but it is officially dead and we are planning the proper funeral and extrication for this lovely thing. And the next question will be, but what about the holidays and summer? there will be the appropriate plans in place in time to make sure that the holiday decorations and festivities will be well accounted for.

Nice. Any questions? Lainey, thank you so much. Appreciate you. Thank you for your leadership. We just made my wife's night. Looks like Christmas lights are staying up for a long time. All right. We are moving on now to our Chamber of Commerce. We have the president and the VP in the house. Gentlemen, thank you for all your help with the open house. It was awesome. You guys kill it as always. So blessed to have you guys at the helm. Appreciate you. Seriously.

Absolutely, Rick.

Rick's great. Team effort.

That's right. Mayor Smith, Mayor Pro Tem Castillo, City Council, City Staff. Just a couple items before I hand it over to the Duke of Events here. I'd like to briefly introduce the Kenya Lake Chamber new membership. I think I gave you a copy of the Next Gen Entrepreneur. This is designed for young entrepreneurs ages 18 to 25. The program provides networking, membership, education, and business connections to help develop our community's future leaders. We are excited to invest in the next generation. This will allow us to strengthen the local business community. We also have our newest member, our first member of the next gen, Torres Junk Removal. So We're looking and searching for many more members. I think we might have some trash bin cleaners coming soon. So we're looking forward to that. We have a new board member, Tina Pineda. You might recognize the last name. She is our new director of membership. We also have a new board member coming here soon. We've added three additional ambassadors to our existing three. So we have six total members. Two on the horizon. July was also a record month for new members. We had 12 new members. We had four pending. We were trying to get to 16, but we ended up with 12. With three renewals, we also have currently seven pending for the month and three new members so far four days into the August month. Lastly, I'd also like to thank, as you mentioned, the city of Canyon Lake and a special thanks to Maddie for allowing Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce to partner with the police department, open house and ribbon cutting. We're thankful for the opportunity to celebrate such a big milestone, historic occasion. So we did did it well for you. So we appreciate it. Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, so continue. So good evening. I'm Rick Tobin. I'm the VP and director of events. Continued shout out to Maddie Gonzalez. We just followed her lead for the ribbon cutting and open house for the police department. It's the hardest I've ever seen Johnny work in an event. We were just so honored to be included. He went out and got most of the sponsors for your events. Johnny, great job.

Thanks, Rick.

Okay, so business of the month, Pepe's. I'd like to thank Erin Ryder. So last month, we scrambled and gave her one day's notice. We've been doing a tri-chamber speed network and a mixer with Lake Elser Chamber, Menifee Chamber, Canyon Lake Chamber. We had a huge venue in Lake Elser all set up for last week, and there was an issue there, and they shut down for two days. Johnny got on the phone with Aaron. One day's notice, we moved it to Pepe's last week. So thank you to Aaron for that. So for events, tomorrow morning, the Roundtable Breakfast Meeting. So Thursday, August 6th, 8 to 9 at the Magnolia Room, downstairs Magnolia Room at the Gob Club. I'm going to be presenting tomorrow. And part of what I'm going to be sharing is the origin of Canyon Lake and real estate trends from the late 60s to present day. Then next week, Thursday, August 13th, Canyon Cowboy, Business Connect Mixer. So it's 537. And then the mayor talked about the Summer Bash, August 22nd. That's going to be a really fun event. And we're doing that, obviously, closely with Locally Rooted. I guess that's it. Oh, and thank you, Mark Terry, for coming to our land cruise in June.

That's right. I think I was the right guy. Yeah. You were definitely the right guy. That was a lot of fun. That was a great event. And, um, I know there's a couple of people in the audience who attended and I, I think, uh, very proud of the job you did. I also am really, really proud that we have this next gen, um, uh, program membership coming up. I mean, Aaron, uh, What was the last meeting where we brought up the two kids that did the trash cleaning? And, you know, you hear a lot that our youth are not inspired, that they go to college and they have nothing to do. I think this is a great way to get people involved and enable them to. to have the confidence in going out and starting your own business. So great job.

I appreciate it. One last thing. I sent a text to a couple of you. We do have a new chamber booth that will be delivered in 10 days. I think it represents the city and the commerce properly. I saw it looks great. You guys are awesome.

Thank you. Good job guys. Thank you. Thanks for all the help. All right. With that, we're going on to our nonprofit spotlight, which is Council Member Mark Terry.

Yeah. We get to introduce a colleague of mine. I get to call you a colleague because we served on the ad hoc committee together. And her name is Tammy Marine. She is the president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Inland Valley. Kind of ironic that maybe it's just kind of coincidental that we were talking about affordable housing and you know, and I think you got a lot more to add to that than I did. Habitat for Humanity Inland Valley, dedicated to making affordable homeownership possible, improving housing through partnerships with families, volunteers, local organizations. So please join me in welcoming Tammy and learning just a little bit about Habitat for Humanity. Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor, council members, city manager, and staff. It's such an honor to be here in Canyon Lake, one of my favorite cities in the cities that we serve in Southwest Riverside County. So I want to give you a quick overview of kind of what Habitat is about. There's a lot of misnomers about what we do and who we serve. But to start off with, our mission is in partnership with God. We work to facilitate the dream of homeownership, but also improve living conditions right here in Southwest Riverside County. We serve basically 10 cities, but also some other outlying areas here in our suburban area. And we work very hard with hardworking families. We don't work with the homeless. That's a population that we do not serve. We work with hardworking families that can't get into home ownership, but we also work a lot with seniors and veterans, particularly on the home improvement side. We have four primary program buckets, if you will. The first one is creating homeownership. And I really appreciated Councilmember Terry, your comments about affordable housing versus low income housing. There's a major difference. And what we believe at Habitat for Humanity is that homeownership matters, that when people are stuck long term in subsidized rental, that it not only forces them to stay down and not elevate their families and move on. have upward mobility, but it also taxes our system in a really incredible way. So I'm not going to go into it in detail, but we did a study with Cal State San Marcos a few years back that talked about what does it cost to house someone in Section 8 for a 30-year period versus get them into a Habitat for Humanity house. And the tax savings was phenomenal across the state. If we looked at it collectively, the 40 affiliates doing just 10 houses a year, it would save taxpayers $1.9 billion in a 30-year period. And so if we were able to multiply and do hundreds of homes like other developers are, we really could impact the state budget in a very significant way and help to elevate families long-term. That's a goal of Habitat. But in the meantime, we're stuck in this system where Habitat is a homeownership. We're called self-help homeownership. You can't get into homeownership without sweat equity and a down payment and going through education and having a partner advocate. Those are the criteria of our program. And so you can't get in to homeownership with Habitat without that. And so we do it in a variety of ways. So we construct brand new units. Right now we're in the process of building six in the city of Temecula. We also rehab existing units. We partner with developers. So we're trying to partner with Lennar Homes on a couple of developments. We'll hear back on that soon with the utilization of what's referred to as the density bonus. And the density bonus allows a developer to improve increased density if they are able to provide so many affordable units. But the unique thing about our program is that our program is fair. So what we do is very creative financing. So we have finance layering that includes a down payment from the homeowners. It also includes mortgage assistance, but it also includes other innovative things, including a split equity component. So it's commiserate to what a homeowner puts into the house and in terms of what the equity is on the backside of the loan, if you will. So there's a lot of different things we're doing like that because we know, just like you said, that there are hardworking families that are doing amazing work. There are teachers, there are firemen, there are policemen, there are all kinds of people that can't get into homeownership, and we're trying to bridge that gap. As I mentioned, from a state level, there is no state fund that supports Habitat for Humanity. CalHome funds were the one source that we had, and that's been eliminated from the state budget. So we're trying to do everything we can in order to help increase the number of units we're providing and help to increase the number of homeownership opportunities. I want to move on to our preservation program. We really specialize in home repairs. We do about 150 of those a year, so we're working every weekend, primarily with seniors. We know that seniors are living longer, and so our program helps them to age in place, if you will, and cover... There's a variety of buckets that we do in terms of home repair. Some are just outside exterior repair that help a homeowner, but also help eliminate blight in a neighborhood. We sometimes bundle those together in a particular development, and that's called neighborhood revitalization because it lifts up a whole area. and then there's also critical home repairs that are roofing and mechanical issues that happen a recent study that came out actually two years ago from harvard studied the housing crisis in general and one of the challenges is that not only that we're not building enough units in order to keep up with the increase in population but we're not taking care of the units that we have so that's a part of the motivation for that program we also have a real estate and education center in temecula we have financial wellness classes and i want people in canyon lake to know that maybe it's your kids that might want to go through those classes it's a series of six they can earn a certificate but we're also this close to being a hud certified housing counseling agency And that means we walk with individuals to understand their specific situation, what they need to do. They might become a strong habitat applicant, but we might match them with down payment assistance that they don't even know exists. Or we might put them on a savings plan where eventually they can get into homeownership on their own. So we've sent about 1,600 people through those programs. We're very proud of that. It was started with seed money from the city of Temecula. And then out of that center, we also do construction training apprenticeship, part of our workforce development programs. And then lastly, I just wanted to let people know that we have social enterprises called the Restores. There's one in Lake Elsinore, very, very small. It's called our clearance center on Central. But we have two large stores in Temecula. One is referred to as the design center. It's got brand new furniture and home furnishings. We get the returns from Wayfair as an example. So they're beautiful pieces offered at a discounted price. And then we have a traditional Temecula Restore that has home improvement items, things you'd see like in a Home Depot. And so while those centers help raise money to support our programs, they also are a program in themselves that people can improve their living conditions just by shopping the store. I just wanted to mention a couple quick facts on why habitats work matter. Obviously, California homeownership rates are lower than any place else in the country, and we know for long-term sustainability with families and to have inherited wealth for future generations, that homeownership is the key to that. So that's why we're working so hard with the seniors. Twenty five percent of seniors will be 60 plus by the year 2030. And so being able to have them age in place again is an important thing. And housing stock, more than half of California's housing is 40 years or older. So if we're not addressing those kind of issues, we're going to have a compounded challenge. And then education. Housing education is extremely important. It's very hard if you've never owned a home to maneuver how to get there. And that's why our education center is so important. And lastly, things that you can do to help. We are always looking for partnerships with the density bonus. As I do want to mention, if any of you happen to go to the League of Cities conference, I won't be there because I'll be at my daughter's wedding in Italy. I know it's really sad, but I'm typically there every year. I know. I'm typically there every year. But what we're highlighting this year, and I encourage you to attend that session if you're interested, is the city of Temecula is sitting on a panel discussion with us and talking about how partnerships with the city and affordable developers like Habitat for Humanity work. and can really um meet the city's goals but also the residents goals and so i think that would be an interesting conversation for for some of you to be a part of and i just got to brag a little bit in our area that um temecula has really taken the lead on innovative ways to work with us and we'd love to work with you too so um participating in that and learning what some of the options are, but also telling your residents about our financial wellness classes. I think that would be helpful. Shopping our stores, come to our fun events, be a part of the wonderful things we do, get a volunteer group out there. All those kinds of things help bring light and co-brand our program with yours. And it would just be a really honor to work with you in any of those types of capacities. So that's basically the end of my presentation, but I'm here in case any of you have questions.

When you build a new home, what is the average square footage of that home?

So to your point, the average square footage is usually 1,100 square feet. The ones we're building in Temecula are slightly, I think they're 1,200, almost 1,300 square feet because we're doing two levels because of the density.

And these are families? Families.

They're families, they're three bedroom, two bath homes. They're beautiful. I'd live in one myself. To your point, I think innovative ways in which we build is a really imperative thing that we need to think about in the state of California. I know myself, I'm a young senior. And so I don't want the big house that I used to have. I want something because I wanna travel and do fun things and I want something small. Young families are the exact same way. And that is not what we're always seeing in the development world. But it's something that's needed and more cost effective and can serve many more people.

I want to be very careful here. I think you need a rebranding program because what you're presenting us here today is phenomenal. And it's across the board. It's from the young couple from receiving education, the financial assistance, the opportunity of home ownership, and then what you're doing for seniors. I'm not quite sure that the general public's perception of Habitat for Humanity includes all of that. And I am so fortunate that you decided to come here today. I'm very, very thankful. It was an honor to serve with you on this committee. I'm glad to call you a colleague. And thank you so much for everything you do. And congratulations on the wedding and enjoy Italy.

Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yeah, thank you very much. We really hope to be able to work with you all in the future. We know that there aren't a lot of low-income homeowners in the gated part of Canyon Lake. We worked outside in the mobile park that's adjacent, but there's other things that we can do to help and to serve, and so we look forward to any future opportunities.

I think any educational assistance that you can offer the younger generation here in Canyon Lake would be extremely helpful. And we do have a great deal of seniors that could really benefit from some of the programs and opportunities that you provide.

So thank you very much.

is on it.

And don't forget that League of Cities panel discussion. If you get a chance, I think you'd gain from sitting in. San Diego is going to be represented there too. Nice. Talk about different ways they work with us.

Thank you. Sounds good. Thank you for that. All right. And we're getting around to applause. Incredible job. All right, we're now moving on to that portion of the meeting where we address public comments. I'm going to do it a little differently this time, Madam Clerk. I'm going to ask you, are there any public comments on consent calendar items?

We have three in-person speakers. They are all non-agenda items.

Non-agenda items. Okay. So I'm going to take up the consent calendar first before we hear those public comments. I do have, we have a couple, I don't want to pull the items, Mr. City Manager, but if you don't mind, could you, before we take up the consent calendar, would you mind just addressing the last item on the consent calendar, item number 13? This is, you know, it's different for Canyon Lake to see a carryover request. Just kind of describe a little bit about what that is. Are you okay with that, City Attorney, as opposed to me pulling it?

Okay. Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem and Council. These carryover items just consist of items that we have not yet completed. So, as an example, the City Council allocated $1.2 million for the startup costs for the Police Department. Not all of that is done yet. Some of it has to be in action to be able to do it. So it's carrying forward that money that you allocated to be able to spend in this fiscal year. The other items are for CIP projects at the fire department that would consist of, I believe it is both the tanks and the generator replacement. Again, it was in last fiscal year that it was allocated. We're moving that along. We're at a point now where we'll be able to go get some bids on that pretty soon. But this is a formality that's required for council to allow us to move those funds from the prior fiscal year to carry forward or carry over to the new fiscal year.

And have those funds been allocated yet on what to do with them?

Yes, it's both the $1.2 million, which we've got a little bit left of that as we're paying down some of the startup costs, and then the new tanks and generator that the engineering drawings are done, but we have not yet gone to bid to be able to have those items either put in or replaced in terms of the generator. Perfect.

And then Mayor Pro Tem, you want to say a little something on Item 9, right?

Yeah, 2023 you brought this up and this is an exciting time for Canyon Lake I think with this item.

It is Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem.

I really don't understand fully why we're doing this again either. We approved a resolution for the lease agreement. Now we are getting close to the actual construction starting of the fire engine. We expect delivery in May, 2027. So what this is doing is locking in our interest rate, locking in our payment, finalizing our term of 10 years on the lease purchase of the fire engine. And that's why we're bringing it back tonight. Nice.

And I can answer the question as to why we're doing it. It's because the bank, in their infinite wisdom, they've decided that resolutions expire after 90 days, even though a resolution exists in perpetuity unless it is revoked and replaced. So we're doing it in the words of Forrest Gump, because you told me to, Drill Sergeant. We don't have a choice.

So... What are we getting in 2027?

We're getting a fire engine in May in 2027. So what we've got to figure out now is how all that plays in. Your primary becomes your reserve. Your reserve becomes your we'll see. But that's where the play comes in. And we'll have the Black Pearl. We'll move to the reserve, correct, Chief? Yes.

That is correct. And the new engine will be almost identical with some improvements that we've learned over the last five years from our experiences with it.

Very cool.

That's exciting. That's awesome.

Okay. So that was my way to have conversation without having to pull the item as a city attorney. So with that, do I have a motion and a second on the consent calendar as is? Okay. I'll make the second on it. Can I do an all? No, you won't let me. You will let me? Roll call. Dang it. No problem.

Member Pro Tem Castillo? Aye. Council Member Stieber?

Aye.

Council Member Terry?

Aye.

Council Member Welty?

Aye. Thank you. With that, let's go ahead and dig into public comments on non-consent calendar items.

Three in-person speakers tonight. Our first is Daniel Kitt.

Good evening, Daniel. The floor is yours.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council, my name is Daniel Kitt. I am the 6th District Vice President of CAL FIRE Local 2881, representing 1,400 CAL FIRE firefighters and paramedics that serve the County of Riverside. I recently sent this council two letters. One received a response with a lot of words, but very few answers, and the second received no response at all. So tonight I'm here to ask the questions that remain unanswered. Why did the city approach Lake Elsinore, Menifee, and Paris regarding fire response? What problem were you trying to solve? Was it an ISO problem? Is it an insurance problem? Mr. Brown, I know you know what NFPA 1710 is. And to quote, if you wanted the benefits of regional cooperative fire protection, maybe you should have never left it. I feel like you've read or heard that somewhere recently. Operationally, where does this department stand? What are your staffing levels? What is your retention? Can this department handle a major emergency without relying on outside resources? And let's not confuse medical emergencies with structure fires. They are two completely different operational challenges. Medical calls are not the same as having the staffing, equipment, and command structure necessary to safely handle a residential structure fire. NFPA 1710 exists for a reason, and that question is simple. Can Canyon Lake Fire independently provide that level of service? That answer is no. And because that answer is no, you now want to put this responsibility on the backs of my firefighters. I think not. What about your firefighter wages and their retirement? I know this department is one of the lowest paid career departments in this region, and you do not provide them or their families the dignity of an industry standard pension. This is exactly why the California Professional Firefighters fought for Assembly Bill 2967. This law ensures no municipality can enact this flawed model again and deprive their firefighters of the safety retirement them and their families are entitled to. When you shortchange the people protecting the city, the residents are the ones who suffer. This is not about politics or union rhetoric. This is about whether enough trained firefighters arrive fast enough when a family is having the worst day of their life. Show the data, answer the questions, or change course. You have two options the way that I see it. One, do the job right. Fully fund this department. Pay your firefighters a living wage. Provide them and their families the dignity of a pension and build a department that stands on its own without depending on the regional system that this city chose to leave. Or option two. Have the courage to admit this model is not working as intended. Put politics and pride aside and seriously consider returning to the regional fire protection system that served this community faithfully for decades. Your firefighters deserve better. Your residents deserve better. And the only question left is whether this council is willing to do better.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Rita Benland.

Rita, thank you for joining us. It's been a long day for you, too. You were at our coffee meeting this morning.

Well, thank you. I always said my triplets trained me well.

Don't get mad at me when the beeper goes off. You only have three minutes, okay?

Okay. Basically, I'm here to be a resident and a citizen since we had property here in 1974. I bought it for $4,000. But we have moved into Canyon Lake at 88. My husband helped build almost 40 homes in here. We were all face construction at one time. But what I do myself is we decided to stay in Canyon Lake because I fell in love with it. Thanks to some of our council. And so long story short, what I do, I am a dual diagnosed counselor. I work with the Riverside Boards. I was on the boards. My one handicap is it's been 14 years since I've actually worked. And I've decided to work for myself. I was even going to run for the boards once upon a time here, but decided that the best thing I can do is help the people. And that's what I do best. My careers and my background, I've been able to help individuals. I work with drugs, alcohol. And the reason I'm thinking about doing it again is because the last case I had, I had a 10-year-old commit suicide. And I am not going to allow this. And I have tons of children myself, and they're doing fine. But I wanted to mention too, I remember we didn't talk about this, and thank you for the prayer at the start, is that Riverside County does work with all churches. And it's a recovery program. And I wanted to make people aware of it because to be a community, we have to work hand in hand. My job is to make sure the right hand and the left hand know what's going on. And when I briefly did a service for the... to the county just a little while ago, January, February, and March as a volunteer. And when I went back and did inspections at the hospitals at Riverside County, San Bernardino County, and also Orange County, I was appalled. And so that scared me. And I said, I'm not going to sit here and do nothing. I'm going to do whatever it takes to make this. I want 1950 back where everybody was a good guy and there was more or less bad guys. But anyway, just wanted to know that I'm here and want to help in any direction that goes. Also, I came out of a lot of military. I had a staff sergeant for a dad. not to mention police officers, fire departments, and from Brooklyn, New York. So I understand. So anyway, thank you. And especially thank you.

Of course. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here tonight. With that, I believe we have one more speaker online. Is that correct, Madam Clerk?

We have Tim O'Meara.

So we have a speaker online too, right? Okay. Two online. Okay. So you're up, bud.

City Council, Mayor, City Manager, my name is Tim O'Mara. As you know me, I'm a resident of Canyon Lake. I'm a father, I'm a fire captain here, and I'm the Vice President of the Firefighters Association. Approximately eight months ago, I decided to come up with hopefully a helpful solution with funding for the Canyon Lake Fire Department and public safety in general. That was to format a citizen initiative. And looking into this, a citizen initiative might have been better off for us 15 years ago. It's unfortunate that we are so far behind the game. I came up with the citizen initiative to support public safety. It's a 1% sales and use tax. That is going to go for anything that we purchase within Canyon Lake that meets those standards. We're hoping that this is gonna bring in anywhere from $800,000 to $1.1 million. That being said, it's probably going to be under $100 per person per resident. Any citizen could have done this 15 years ago. It would have helped out with Cal Fire contracts, RSO contracts, getting our own fire department and police department started. This has been a struggle. And as we all know, when finances are tight, it's a struggle for everyone. We have been creative in the past. The City Council has been creative in the past for making sure we're funded, whether that's the EMS subscription fee, fire property tax, or the remaining user utility tax, which is electric and telecom. And that's always dependent on your usage rates. So if you have solar on your house, you're going to pay very little in your user utility tax. I pay about $5 a month in mine, but I don't have solar. So... That being said, I'm looking for endorsement on this. We went out and we petitioned members of Canyon Lake. We had to have 10% of the voting public here, which was approximately 850 people. We have 8,500 registered voters within Canyon Lake, 11,000 residents. We contacted more than 2,500 people, door to door. boots on the ground, talking to individuals and seeing what they want with their fire department and where it wants to become, seeing what the police. And like you said earlier, we're on a first name basis with these individuals. We know who they are. And it is important to them to have a community fire department. We have made that 850 signatures. So we're pushing to be on the ballot this November and hoping that the city council will endorse this and We can see what we can do with these funds to level up the fire department and the police department to give Canyon Lake what they deserve. Canyon Lakers deserve a great fire department and great police department. Thank you.

Thank you, Tim.

Appreciate you being here.

All right, Madam Clerk. Now we have two online speakers. Is that correct?

Speaker tonight will be Stephen McIntosh.

Can you hear us, Stephen? Does it work? And this is our first time doing this.

I'm going to unmute. Let's go to Ryan Sherman.

Ryan Sherman, can you hear us? Yes, I can. Can you hear me? Perfect.

You are up, my friend. Great. Good evening, council members. My name is Ryan Sherman. I'm the legislative representative for the Riverside Sheriff's Association and also for the California Narcotic Officers Association. Just wanted to say thank you to you all for passing the ordinances tonight dealing with Kratom and 7-0-H. and the nitrous oxide provision. We've been working with city councils and boards of supervisors throughout the state getting similar measures passed. And we just want to thank you for your willingness to take this on. As you know, or maybe not, the Drug Enforcement Administration, I believe today, or maybe it goes into effect tomorrow, has made 7-OH products available place it on schedule one. So it's now going to be a federal felony to possess, sell, distribute 70H products that are concentrated and synthesized just as your ordinance addresses. However, even though the federal law is much more strict, Unfortunately, it is not enforceable by the Riverside District Attorney's Office because there's no comparable state law. So thank you again for making sure that Canyon Lake is protected from these dangerous products. And thank you again. Thanks.

Thank you, Ryan. Appreciate you joining us tonight. Is there a last speaker? Is he able to unmute?

Mr. McIntosh, we're going to call you again.

Hello, sorry, the app crashed when I hit the unmute button.

Oh, you're good now. We got you loud and clear.

Excellent. Thank you so much. I wanted to speak also on the Kratom issue as the last participant did. I'm a retired instructor from Mount San Jacinto, and I don't have the pleasure of living in Canyon Lake, but we are neighbors. And I wanted to thank you for this good ordinance. I wanted to, it's one more thing that the city can add to its accolades for being ahead of the curve, for seeing a problem before it becomes a serious one and doing things to keep these dangerous adulterated products out of the hands of miners and all of the other things and i i just wanted to um again thank you for your time and i know consent items aren't supposed to take a ton of time so anyway i'll uh i'll leave it at that and just wanted to thank you again thank you so much madam clerk do we have any more do we have dan gibbs mr gibbs the floor is yours you have to unmute yourself can you hear me we got you sir good evening mayor

Give me one second. Good evening, Mayor, members of the Canyon Lake City Council. My name is Dan Gibbs. I'm speaking to you regarding the proposed creative ordinance. I'm not a lobbyist or someone with a financial interest on this issue. I'm a father. On December 6, 2023, my wife and I lost our only child, Austin. He was 25 years old. According to Dr. Kent Harshberger, a board-certified forensic pathologist and chief deputy coroner, Austin died from a tragedy toxicity. Austin believed the kratom he was buying was a safe natural product. He was sold openly in a retail store with no physician oversight or standardized dosing telling him what constituted safe or dangerous amount. Austin was 25. A 25 and over ordinance would not have protected him. Toxicity does not discriminate by age. Austin also did not die from one of the isolated concentrator or semi-synthetic 70H products receiving so much attention. He died from mitragynine, the primary alkaloid naturally present in kratom. Mitragynine is pharmacologically active in opioid receptors and is a metabolic precursor to 70H. The human body converts a portion of mitragynine into 70H after consumption. There are also serious ambiguities to this ordinance that should be resolved before adoption. The ordinance prohibits synthesized or semi-synthesized kratom alkaloids, yet permits 7-OH up to 2% of total kratom alkaloids. So what exactly does that 2% threshold permit? How will Canyon Lake distinguish naturally occurring 7-OH from 7-OH that was synthesized, semi-synthesized, concentrated, or otherwise produced during manufacturing? The 2% limit also creates another problem. It is a percentage of total alkaloids, not a maximum amount of 70H per package or serving. So where's the absolute limit on how much 70H a consumer can actively receive? These questions go directly to enforcement. Who determines what is exactly in these products? Who verifies the labeling and determines whether a product complies? Canyon Lake should not have to become a Kratom regulatory agency. I respectfully ask you to go further and consider prohibiting kratom in all forms, regardless of age. At a minimum, these ambiguities have to be resolved before this ordinance is adopted. Thank you.

Next speaker, Madam Clerk.

Our next speaker is Susan Eppard.

Susan Eppard, please unmute yourself.

They're doing it right now. Hello? It's just one asshole from Ohio and New York that brings...

Susan, you're good to go.

Okay. My name's Susan Eppard, and I fully support banning all forms of kratom, not just semi-synthetics. I'm sorry. I don't know what that is. My 22-year-old son, Matthew, died from natural whole-leaf kratom powder, the least potent form of kratom available in the United States. Kratom caused him to have a seizure and go into cardiac arrest and die. His toxicology and autopsy showed he died from the toxic effects of mitragynine, an alkaloid found only in kratom. He had no prescription drugs, no street drugs, nor alcohol in his system when he died, and his autopsy showed he had no underlying health conditions. It's important to note my son didn't die from 7-hydroxymetragynine a trigenic pseudodoxyl, or any synthetic kratom. He died in 2021, long before semi or synthetics hit the market in the US in 2023. And the equipment used for testing kratom, particularly its high level of alkaloids, is cost prohibitive for most small government bodies, with over hundreds of thousands of dollars for testing equipment. And without that, you'll have no idea what is actually in the Kratom products. And then the billion dollar Kratom industry is left to police itself. The majority of Americans have little to no idea what Kratom is. Yet it's in seltzers that are advertised as alcohol-free, caffeine-free, plant-based, improving focus and productivity, relaxation and mood boost. And with every sip, enjoy a brighter outlook on your day. Some people are likely to share these with their children because they're deceptively marketed as safe. I myself would have probably bought these seemingly safe drinks until my son died from kratom. And I am speaking for a mother, Holly Trueville, who lost her son, her only child, Tyrell, at 25 years old from kratom seltzers. So age-gating wouldn't have saved his life, nor my son's life. And most people who die from kratom were over 21. I'm here to speak for the hundreds, if not thousands, of people whose loved one died from natural whole-leaf kratom powder long before 7-OH or synthetics hit the market. Kratom isn't always routinely tested for post-mortem. That, combined with the fact that many people hide their use, kratom deaths are likely hugely underestimated. I had to request that my son be tested for kratom after his death. Because they told me it was not routine testing. Thousands of people follow me on social media. And those on whole leaf kratom have had or still have severe addictions to it. And others say they had liver injuries, seizures, withdrawals, and worse than heroin. And many have loved ones who died from kratom. And don't take my word for it. Please do some searches with the following terms. Kratom deaths and quitting kratom. For as many so-called experts who claim it's safe, there are many, many more who warn people from using it. And there was a two-year-old who recently died, and the toxicology showed the death was from metragynine, and that is found only in kratom. And I thank you so much for your time, and don't let this happen to children in your area. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, we have two more comments.

Kelly McCann.

Kelly, can you hear us okay?

I can. Can you hear me?

Yes. The floor is yours.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. My name is Kelly McCann, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. And I'm also here to urge you to reconsider the regulation that you have and consider banning Kratom in its entirety. My oldest child and only son, Benjamin, died from acute Kratom intoxication in September 2024, and he used it to manage psoriatic arthritis pain, believing it was a safe, natural alternative to prescription medications, as harmless as coffee. He even advocated for it at one point, and he said probably all the arguments that you've heard. And this misconception cost him his life, and it has left our family with indescribable heartbreak. My son described Kratom in a way that made me think it was similar to green tea, and it's often referred to as tea, and he even suggested that I take it for back pain. I was shocked to learn the truth about Kratom when I began researching after Benjamin's death. It was upsetting to discover that many states did not act when the DA attempted to classify Kratom as a controlled substance in 2016. Since then, the situation has escalated with more dangerous derivatives, rising deaths, addiction, and adverse health effects. I have connected with many families who have suffered the same devastation of losing a loved one to kratom. And regulation alone will not protect the public. It may even foster a false sense of safety and misconception that kratom-related issues have been resolved. Kratom includes mitragynine and 40 plus additional alkaloids. If it is not banned in its entirety, access to all the alkaloids remains as well, as well as ability to continue creating more dangerous derivatives. I want to read something to you that Christopher McCurdy, he's a big wig researcher and that he it was in an article, the Supply Side Supplemental Journal, just a year before my son died. And it says, we really know little until the right studies are conducted in humans and animals. McCurdy says, no one knows how much kratom is safe and how much is too much. So which kind of defeats the purpose of putting a, you can't put a safe quantity on it if there's no quantity that has been discovered yet. Those answers may not come to light for a long time. We know nothing about interactions of kratom with other substances or prescription drugs. However, we can start to understand a bit from the poison control center calls, which has gone up 1200% since 2016. The FDA databases and autopsy reports, these provide information as to what combinations could be problematic and harmful. In many cases, we do not know what doses of combinations or timing of substance ingestion took place. That is why controlled clinical trials are so important. We really know little, and from a pharmacist's perspective, combining Kratom with anything is a risk at this point. including ingesting large amounts of kratom, particularly in extracts forms or extracts or concentrated forms. So I feel like keeping this legal is pretty much making our children and families guinea pigs because the clinical studies are not there yet to support the safety of kratom.

Thank you. Last speaker, Madam Clerk.

Allie, are you there?

Hi, I'm here. I'll keep it brief. I know it's late. And I apologize if my voice is kind of gone. Just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to consider this item and for passing it. I think it's fantastic regulation. So thank you for standing your ground and implementing something that follows what the federal government is doing. We really appreciate it. And I just hope you guys have a great rest of your night. And if you need any information, I'm happy to pass along any resources. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Madam Clerk, does that complete the online comments that we have as of right now?

That does.

Perfect. Thank you so much. We are moving on to public hearings. Good news, colleagues, we have none. So we only have two items left. You guys can hopefully enjoy the rest of your evening. We have business item number 14. This is the consideration of resolution certifying the initiative petition entitled the Canyon Lake Public Safety and Emergency Response Protection Measure. This is going to be presented by our clerk.

so honorable mayor members of the city council the item before you tonight are two resolutions related to the canyon lake public safety and emergency response protection measure microphone the first microphone aha we got you she doesn't mess up too often so we gotta take full advantage of this moment everyone realized that the clerk does not have her microphone on now she does so The first resolution certifies that the petition contained the required number of valid signatures and has been certified by the Riverside County Register of Voters. And the second resolution before you calls the election on the measure For November 3rd, it requests consolidation with the county and establishes the procedures for the impartial analysis and ballot arguments in accordance with the elections code. Staff recommends the adoption of both resolutions, and we're available to answer any questions.

Do we have any public comments?

We do. We have one commenter tonight, Tim O'Meara.

Tim, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much for having me back. So talking about this citizen initiative, what is it going to do? So it's going to take our fire property tax, our EMS subscription fee, our user utility tax, and potentially this measure, if it is voted on by citizens, and it's going to take all those funds and put it in a secure funding source for public safety within the city of Canyon Lake. What can Canyon Lake do with all those? We've just talked about what is affordable. We need to be smart with our money. We need to be affordable, whether it's a city or personal. But we do have the ability to level up. All of this funds is not essentially for fire or police. It's going to have to be shared. But we do work under one roof, and we do work together, whether it is on a TC or a domestic. We will see the police officers out there quite often. I propose we can potentially run a second unit. Like Dan said tonight in his brash way, we do miss a couple key points where we could be better on. Right now, our entire staff is out tonight. We have three members. We do not fit our two in, two out. We could take care of that. We could have that, and that's gonna help. If we ran our second unit, our patrol that we have in our house, we could give back to the community. All the times when we have a secondary engine come in, we could take care of that ourselves. And that 1% where we need county, we need county to come in and help us. But we could give back to them 10 to 1, which would be hugely beneficial. Same with our mutual aid agreement partners of Corona, Murrieta, Hemet. When they've come in to help us with helping hands, we can give back. And when there's wildfires, we can have a unit ready to go. So I would like the city to push for leveling up our fire department and police department when we see the need to and be ready for it and be ready to build for the future. Thank you.

Thank you madam clerk any other comments. Colleagues do we have any comments.

Mr. Mayor, I got a question. I'm going to direct this to city clerk, but it might get passed over to city manager or city attorney. When reviewing this item, and you and I spoke about this this morning, but when reviewing this item on Exhibit A, Section 3, it talks about, which I think this is great, that the proposed could be generated up to over $1 million from this measure. But I do see that the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration would be charging a fee. Is that fee already on top of the 1.14 million? Or would that be after? And what does that fee look like from that department? Mr. City Manager?

Absolutely. I can take that, Mayor. And to answer your question, Councilmember, there is always an administrative fee. So anytime sales tax, just the existing sales tax that we have now, we certainly are not in a position to where we could process that tax. So there is always an administrative fee. for them to essentially pay for the care and feed of their processes to be able to do that. So unless there is something I'm missing, that is absolutely nothing different than we would have for any of our existing taxes to be able to administratively process that.

And is that fee already considered into the number that we state that could potentially generate $1.14 million, or would that be after, like, Do we know what that fee could be?

I don't know what the fee is offhand. I don't know if the city attorney knows exactly what that percentage is. We can pull that up if needed.

I'd be happy to research it for you, council member. My understanding is it's relatively nominal, but I can work with the city manager to send you a follow-up answering that question. That'd be great.

Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. Any other questions? With that, since we have no more public comments, Mr. City Attorney, you're probably not going to have an issue with me taking up both resolutions with one motion?

Not at all.

Cool. So with that, I do need a motion, and this is to adopt resolution number 202639 and 2026-40. Any takers? I'll make the second on this. Madam Clerk, can I please get a roll call vote from you?

Tim Castillo, Council Member Sieber.

Aye. Aye.

Council Member Terry.

Aye.

Council Member Welty. Aye.

Mayor Smith. Aye. Thank you so much. Moving on to our last item for the evening. This is item, business item number 15, designated a voting delegate and an alternate for the League of Cities 2026. I believe this conference is in October. I'm not mistaken. Is that correct? Out in San Diego.

September 23rd through 25th.

Where's it at? San Diego? Where are we doing? Anaheim. That's right. Any takers? Dale? Council Member Stieber?

As much as I would love to and very active with the League of California Cities, unfortunately, I will be attending another conference with the counties on the day of the vote, so I will not nominate myself this round.

Councilmember Welty? I'm willing to step up and do it unless anyone else would like to take the position.

Councilmember Welty, you're being forced to step up right now.

Oh.

That's kind of what's happening here.

I'm getting a look.

You're getting a look, and we were going to push you through anyways. Do we have an alternate? Councilmember Terry, would you be willing to do the alternate?

I will be in jury trial.

I will take the alternate because Terry already is in trouble with Jennifer Day tonight, so I will do the alternate if my colleagues are cool with that. Good?

Perfect.

You don't need a roll call or anything like that? You want to do a roll call on that? Okay, so for the record, we are going to designate Council Member Welty to be the voting delegate for the League of Cities, and I will back him up. Please don't miss it. With that, can we get a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Stieber? Aye. Council Member Terry?

Aye.

Council Member Welty?

Aye.

Aye.

All right, moving on to city manager comments.

Yes, Mayor, Mayor Potamac Council. I have lots of them. So sit back and enjoy the fun that I'm about to bestow on you after reading all of the social media over the last month, two months. I'm starting to think that social media is where somehow grown fourth graders go to be heard. There was a lot that was said, and then when the firefighter came in and made comments about an ISO rating and me reaching out to cities, for those that are unaware, this city council employs me to be both proactive and reactive, and I take that very seriously. It's very common to reach out to your peers in other cities and say, hey, let me get a line on this. What do you think of this? This top secret memo that I keep laughing at that they're talking about was a draft of a letter that I was sending to Chief Fish that was basically laying out some of this stuff and talking about the auto aid agreement and my preference for a modification and that based on the same NFPA that he's talking about. So, my running joke is in the beginning, the comments were that it was backroom deals and quid pro quo. And what I've said is there was neither a quid nor a quo. No one was offering anything. It wasn't anything like that. The letter is harmless. It was... We're looking at, proactively, we're looking at the possibility of an ISO rating reevaluation that could go lower. I want to be in a position to where I have all of our ducks in a row. And one of those ducks was the auto aid agreement says they will send one. And in a confirmed structure fire, what I was asking for is that NFPA requirement that it would be, and the chief can tell me, I believe it's two and a half or something like that, three engines, chief? Yeah.

They're talking about trying to get a total of about 17 personnel on scene within a specified period of time as well. That's one component of NFPA 1710 that's not always talked about. It's not just the number of personnel and type of apparatus. It's in a timely manner, which is very difficult to meet.

So what I did was reach out saying, hey, what are your councils going to think of this? Because it's my job to gauge that, to be able to come to my council and say, hey, I've talked to other city managers. They've told me their council members may or may not be for this. This is just... What we do every day. So I can tell you, I go back to social media, the individuals that have said that their insurance went up because our ISO rating went down are either misinformed or they are intentionally misinforming other people. There is zero truth to that. One, our ISO rating has not gone down. We did get an evaluation from essentially the ISO rating board, and they gave us things that we will need to do to be able to maintain our current rating. Our fire department is doing every single one of those things to a point where I believe we need to pick up .17 to stay the same, Chief? Actually .7. We've got 69.3. Okay. So we need to pick up 0.7. We have plans to pick up far more than that. One of those plans is we have two water agencies in the city. One of them, maybe they thought it was spam. They just didn't reply at all. That hurt us. We have a meeting with them next week, and we'll be going over that. They'll respond to that. That's going to get us enough points. The training that the chief has implemented is going to give us the points. So one, we're not in danger of losing the ISO rating based on all of these things. Two, it didn't go down. So every single statement that somebody says, my insurance went up $3,000 because our ISO went down is absolutely false. So there's my... social media stance for today. Now, if I could, I'll move on to some good news. One of the things that council has expected of both me as a city manager and the staff, there were buildings that were acquired and those were acquired for economic development, for reinforcing the council's vision and expectation to be able to bring I call it vitality to this town center. We have done that and we are doing it. We have very proudly landed a restaurant that's going into one of our buildings that is quite happy to be here. Very proud of what they're going to do. Going to be making a significant investment for those that haven't had the fun of going through a restaurant build. There's a lot that has to be done and they're putting their investment in because we're a city and because we're able to say, okay, look, here's the investment you're doing. There are things that we can look at. We don't have to offer what market value is immediately. We can look at ways to be able to do exactly what council has asked us to do. And that is pure economic development. So, um, I'm, I'm very proud of the team. I'm proud of what has happened and I'm proud of, uh, I'm not going to make the announcement. I don't want to take their thunder of that restaurant because when they're ready, they're going to talk about it. But I will tell you this, um, I am very excited, and I will be there at least a couple times a week. I wish I could say what it was because you'll see why I'm so excited about it. I want to thank Maddie, the chief, Ruby, everybody that worked on that amazing event, and especially the premier partners we have in the chamber. They threw an absolute bash and a half. It was 100 and stupid degrees, and everybody was happy to be there. The cars were amazing. I did tell the car club there was a Pantera there. I was pretty excited about that. I had two posters on my wall as a kid. One of them was a Pantera. The other one I shall not talk about, but that Pantera was amazing. So I really want to thank everybody for that. And the chief at the event, as I told him, this will be reflected in his review, but he put me on the spot. But everything that I said in that scenario was was absolutely true. We're very lucky to have each and every one of these individuals. I think there are some things in your career that you will always look back on, and they're going to stand out far above some of the others. And having the privilege of spending 15 crazy months working with amazing partners, one of which is our police chief, will, in my mind, be one of the highlights of my career. I want to absolutely thank this council for doing it for many reasons. One, because it was really neat to do, but two, former council member Dane hit the nail on the head. There's a lot of decisions that this council has made, not because they wanted to, but because they had to. We do not have a methodology to go back in time and figure out what would have happened. But I can tell you, if you look at the numbers of what our costs would have been for Riverside County fire versus what our costs have been with Canyon Lake fire department. We know that the savings they're documented. The savings are anywhere from 800,000 to a million dollars in a year. that's not only money that was saved, it's money that prevented us from spending all of that down in reserves. Because as everybody knows, you only have so much reserves. I forget who the saying is. It's like the socialism saying, it's great until you run out of everybody else's money. This is, and this council takes it serious, this is the people's money. And there's only so much that can happen. And The fact that now we're in a position where we have our own police, we have our own fire. Not only do you have local control, but you have that ability to see exactly where that money is going and to have a response and individuals that you know, as we've talked about. So I'm very, very happy to see everything that's gone on. But Monday at 8 a.m., Chief, you're all ready, right? We're going 10-8, 8 a.m., Monday morning. That's when it happens. I text Chief and Maddie earlier saying I need a plan because I want a live film of when Chief goes on, thanks RSO for what they've done, and said Canyon Lake's 10-8. So we will have that, whether it's social media or whatever, we will get that out there because that one radio call is a pretty big deal. I promised a lot today, and I think I gave it, Mayor. So that is the end of my comments. Thank you.

You're not done yet. I have one announcement. Our next council meeting is September 9th. But you're going to adjourn us tonight, Mr. City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. I have the fortune of serving on the Merchants Association, and I have for about the last, I believe, a little over a year where I served with Lynette Gibson. Lynette Gibson has been around Canyon Lake for 50 years, and I had asked the mayor if we could adjourn in her name. I've got something to read. Lynette Gibson passed away July 10, 2026. Lynette has been involved in this community since 1976 when her family moved to Canyon Lake. For 50 years, Lynette conducted business alongside her family, buying, selling, developing, and managing properties in our area. Canyon Lake being her family's hub, she impacted many lives in the community. Lynette composed herself with grace, passion, pride, and integrity. She will be missed, so I ask that we would be able to adjourn in her name. Thank you very much, Mayor.

Let's do that tonight. Let's adjourn in her name until the time is 836. Thank you so much for doing that, Mr. City Manager. Thank you, everyone.

Good night.