City Council - Regular Meeting

Hello all and welcome to the Carperia City Council meeting. Today is Monday, March 23rd, 2026 and it is 5:30 and I will officially call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. Council member Mayor here. Council member Namura, here. Vice Mayor Soreno here, council member Clark here, and Mayor Alakon here. Uh, next item is the close session report. Thank you, Mayor Alicon. Uh, council members, we have no reportable action this evening.

Thank you. And if you are willing and able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Moving on to agenda modifications. We do have one modification and that'll be moving item 16 and 17 to the public hearing as opposed to administrative matters. Um just making sure we're all in consensus. Great. And we will now move on to introductions, proclamations, and presentations. We have a handful of proclamations today, so that's always exciting. That's a great way to start our meetings. Um, so we'll start with item number two, which is a proclamation designating April 2026 as DMV donate life month in the city of Carperia. I'd like to open up public comment and we do have one speaker slip, Roelo Delgado. Welcome department.

That means message cancer. April is national uh donate life month. Uh currently uh organ donations are not enough. Uh each person can save eight lives. We all know of someone uh who has received a transplant and someone who has passed away uh because of not receiving a transplant. you who are listening uh might need a transplant in the near future or your family, you can register at the DMV uh talk to an uh uh organ uh organ organizations and you can talk to your doctor. There are the the last uh few months I know of locals who have received a liver transplant uh people who are in need of a liver. Uh someone has lived 28 years after his transplant. I know of someone who has cerosis uh a death sentence but uh he's afraid of a transplant because of fear that that he might develop uh diseases uh after the surgery but on the contrary uh if they don't do anything uh uh

kidneys uh might get damaged. I know people who who are waiting for both the liver and a kidney transplant on April 6. It will be my uh third year after my complete liver transplant due to fatty liver. I have liver cancer. Every six month I have an MRI to check for cancer. It's a long recovery but this is a second uh life to enjoy life itself and uh and family. Please register uh for organ uh organ donations. Thank you. Thank you for your comments and thank you for sharing that personal story with the audience and the council. I do not have any other speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom? Mayor, we have no raised hands on Zoom. I will close public comment and bring it back to the council for a motion.

I'll move to proclaim uh to adopt the proclamation designating April 2026 as DMV donate life month in the city of Carpentia. Second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor?

I. Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes. And we will read the proclamation and we'll begin with council member Mayor. Whereas organ, eye, tissue, marrow, and blood donations are life-giving acts recognized worldwide as expressions of compassion to those in need. And whereas more than 103,000 individuals nationwide, including more than 23,000 in California, are currently on the national organ transplant transplant waiting list. And on average, 17 people die each day while waiting. And whereas the need for donated organs is especially urgent in Hispanic, Latino, and African-American communities. And whereas a single individual's donation of the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, and small intestine can save up to eight lives. And

whereas donation of tissue can save and heal the lives of more than 75 others. And whereas organ donors saved more than 46,000 lives last year. And whereas any person can register to be an organ, eye, and tissue donor regardless of age or medical conditions. And whereas being a registered donor does not impact the quality of life-saving medical care a person receives in an emergency. And

whereas California residents can sign up with the Donate Life California donor registry online at any time by visiting www.d donate lifecal.org or for Spanish speakers www.donaval.org. And whereas California residents can sign up to be an organ eye and tissue donor when applying for or renewing their driver's license or identification card at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. And

whereas California residents interested in saving lives through kidney donation may visit www.livingdonationcal.org. And

now therefore be it resolved that in recognition of National Donate Life Month, the month of April 2026 is hereby proclaimed DMV donate life month in the city of Carperia. And in doing so, we encourage all Californians to check yes online or when applying for or renewing their driver's license or identification card at the DMV. And we are so happy to present this proclamation to One Legacy and Mr. Steve Burns. You are welcome to step up to the podium and share a few words before we take a photo.

Actually, I brought some friends. And I changed my name to Scott, but it's close to Steve, but it's no big deal. My apologies. I got the last name right. Mr. Burns is what I should have said. I've known Wade for a long time, and that's he probably changed it when you guys weren't lucky. I did on purpose. Yeah.

Uh trying to bring a little humor into this actually. Uh I had I've had my uh kidney transplant for almost 11 years. Uh about 20 years ago, it turned out that I was having problems with my kidney. It turned out that I'm one in 250,000 one of 250,000 people who I'm allergic to a leave which causes kidney failure. But nobody knew about that. So it took him about 5 years to figure it out. Finally got resolved. But by the time that happened, it was already too much kidney damage. And so I ended up with getting a a kidney getting a new kidney. Uh I just want to thank you guys all for doing it. A couple of quick comments. Um there's about 100,000 people nationwide looking for organ donations. Uh state of California, it's 19,9005 uh a week ago. Uh county of Santa Barbara, 188 people are on the waiting list. And that was last week. So think people get on the list and people die. So we don't really know the exact numbers at any given time and they do not give out the numbers on a local city basis because it's just they don't think it's appropriate. With that being said, I'm going to introduce Priscilla.

Thank you. I'm Priscilla Marcus and I received a liver transplant 18 years ago and I consider this my bonus life. I had a slowly progressive liver disease called sclerosing colonitis and knew that I would eventually need a liver transplant. And when it finally I was on the waiting list for out of UCLA for about three and a half years and then my body started crashing and the liver and all the other organs were affected as well. But um since then I've enjoyed my grandson who's three, a granddaughter who's 13, my son graduated from UCSB and got his master's degree, and life is good. And I'm very, very grateful to my unknown donor who said yes to organ donation. Thank you for the proclamation.

Thank you. And before a photo, I'd like to just give an opportunity to fellow council members to share a few words if you have any.

Um actually, sure. I would love to. I I'm very happy that you guys are here today to accept this organ donation is something that I know it can be scary for people to think about when they're um renewing their driver's license to to get the little pink dot on it. But um but it's something that everybody I know should should um actively seek out to do. Uh so thank you for being here and just giving the stories to show why this is such an important thing that everybody should consider doing. I'd like to quickly say um I'd like to thank Scott because of Scott I was given the awareness of what it's like for donors of tissue and items and organs. So thank you very much for the awareness of that one. Appreciate it very much.

Okay, we'd love to take a photo with you in the front.

Please. You guys are funny.

All right. One, two, three.

Okay. Look at my Thank you. We will now move on to item number three, which is a proclamation designating the week of April 13th through the 20th, 2026 as International Dark Sky Week in the city of Carperia. I do not have any speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom?

Mayor, we have no raised hands. I will close public comment and bring it back to the council for a motion. Um, I'll move to uh adopt the proclamation of the city council designating the week of April 13th through April 20th, 2026 as International Dark Sky Week. Second. We have a first and multiple seconds. Um, all those in favor?

I. Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes. And we will read the proclamation. We will start with council member Mayor. Whereas the natural beauty of Carpuria, including a star-filled night sky, is valued by residents and visitors alike. And standing beneath a starry sky, starry night sky inspires feelings of wonder and awe, fostering a growing interest in science and nature, especially among Carperia's youth. end. Whereas light pollution not only impacts the ability to see stars but has wellocumented economic and environmental consequences that significantly impact ecosystems and human health, including in carpentia. And whereas carporia's natural areas are impacted by light pollution which disrupts nocturnal wildlife and degrades ecosystem health particularly in sensitive local habitats such as the carperia salt marsh carbonia bluffs local creeks and nearby foothills. And

whereas light pollution results in roughly $3 billion per year of wasted energy in the United States and contributes to unnecessary energy consumption and diminished energy security. And whereas reducing the light pollution can be simple as directing a light um out outdoor lighting down and where it's needed and using it only when needed and necessary. Whereas Dark Sky International, a globally recognized authority on light pollution, sponsors International Dark Sky Week to raise awareness of the effects of light pollution, provides educational resources and practical solutions, and promote the enjoyment and protection of dark skies. land. Whereas the city's general plan and local coastal land use plan includes policies to ensure that lighting in new development minimizes light pollution and limits impacts to environmentally sensitive habitat areas and encourages the establishment of a night sky ordinance to provide standards for reducing direct and ambient light pollution. Now therefore, the city council of the city of Carperia does hereby proclaim the week of April 13th through 20th, 2026 as International Dark Sky Week in the city of Carperia and urges residents to learn about lighting that protects the night sky, to implement practices and improvements that will reduce light pollution, and to look up and experience the wonder of the starfield night. and we will be presenting this proclamation to the Carpenter Valley Association. And welcome Mike Wandalowski and friends. Thank you, council. Um, I'm Mike Wandali with Carpenter Valley Association, and I'm here to thank you for this proclamation on behalf of a countywide coalition of of like-minded organizations that are actually quite

diverse in their mission, but who all recognize the value of a dark sky and taking action to protect it. Thanks to the advocacy of these groups, Santa Barbara County and six of the eight cities in the county are issuing proclamations or resolutions recognizing International Dark Sky Week this year. Carpentry was a leader in this effort when uh when it first issued a proclamation for this week in 2023. Now, um as they should, the other parts of the county are following your lead. We want to thank the city for its ongoing recognition of the value of a dark sky benefit not only allows us to experience the seeing the Milky Way and the constellations but also advantageous for the health of ecosystems both natural and agricultural as well as for human health. As I said before, light pollution is the one kind of pollution that is unique in that once the lights are pointed down, it is immediately no more pollution. And that is a significant uh impact or significant result. We look forward to working with the city to establish a night sky ordinance that uh to better protect our dark skies. As a proclamation recognizes, our existing general plan includes a policy to establish just such an ordinance. A policy has been in place since the general plan was passed 23 years ago, but not acted on. The draft general plan update has a similar, even slightly better policy wording, and we look forward to the city acting quickly on that once the new plan is in place. Santa Barbara County updated its outdoor lighting ordinances last year. Just last month, the Buin City Council unanimously approved its dark sky ordinance. So, we hope the city will maintain its leadership position on this topic and act quickly moving forward with its ordinance. Again, as I've said before to you in previous years, it's completely feasible that when we walk out of the

council chambers on a moonless night, we would see the Milky Way spilling across the sky or in fact from anywhere in Carperia, even near developed areas. That's what good lighting allows us to do. So, we join the city in urging residents to learn about lighting that protects the sky, to implement practices and improvements that reduce light pollution, and once in a while to step outside, look up, and experience the wonder of the starfilled night. So, on behalf of CVA and our partner organizations who also value dark skies, thank you so much.

Thank you. And any comments from fellow council members? Seeing none, we'd love to take a photo with you. Thank you. every day.

So, okay. Two cameras again. Hold tight. Here's the first one. Excellent. One more. Fantastic. There you go. Thanks. Good to see you. We will now move on to item number four, which is a proclamation designating the month of April 2026 as Carpenteria beautiful month in the city of Carperia. I do not have any speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom?

Mayor, we have no Zoom speakers. I will close public comment and bring it back to the council for a motion. Uh, you want to go? Go for it. I move to adopt the proclamation um designating the month of April 2026 as Carpenter Beautiful Month in the city of Carperia. Second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor? Any opposed?

None. The motion passes and we will begin reading the proclamation with council member mayor. Whereas the month of April is recognized nationwide as Keep America Beautiful Month. And whereas since 1992, the month of April has additionally been proclaimed as Carpentry a Beautiful Month and celebrated by the downtown display of Carpentry a beautiful banners. end. Whereas on Tuesday, April 22nd, the 56th anniversary of Earth Day, with this year's theme, our power, our planet, will be celebrated through harnessing collective grassroots action to defund to defend environmental protections, advance a clean, sustainable economy, and ensure long-term climate stability, empowering communities to take action. And

whereas on Friday, March 27th, in preparation for the April celebration, Cart Maria Beautiful volunteers and the city of Cartmaria will cooperate in a citywide leader and litter and creek cleanup. And whereas throughout the month of April, Carp volunteers will continue their year-round efforts to remove graffiti and refill dog waste bag dispensers. and the adopt a spotter and trash mob will redouble their already considerable efforts in keeping carpenteria litter-free.

Now therefore, the city council of the city of Carperia hereby designates April 2026 as carpenter a beautiful month and urges all residents to share in the observance of this month by making a personal commitment to enhance the beauty of their own properties and neighborhoods for the benefit and enjoyment of all. And we we will be presenting this proclamation to members of the carpenter of beautiful. Do we have anyone in the audience today? Welcome. Good evening everybody. Um I moved to Carpenteria in 2001 when I got married. I think in 2002 or three I joined Copper and Beautiful and it's been an honor working with them and being president of this organization. This organization actually embodies and defines grassroots. It's a small dedicated group of people over the years um who've decided to take on things that a lot of people won't want to touch. Graffiti abatement trash and so forth. We also have a lot of other programs and but it's crow this crowd this crowd this group is something we can be really proud of in this organization in this this community I don't know of many other communities that have this there are some um through our efforts we spread it to ohigh Isa Vista and Ventura um how they're doing they're doing pretty good but it's been a fantastic organization uh is a fantastic community and their mission is really simple keeping carpenter clean green and beautiful and as doing that part of the green aspect is that I'm going to let Clyde here, our treasurer, just uh come to the microphone and give you a challenge.

Thank you, Brian. Yes. As we uh have for many years in the past, again, we want to make a donation to the city with the challenge for the city to match it. This year's donation is $2,000 for the purchase and planting of new trees throughout Carperia. And again, we want this to be an honest challenge. We want you to match the funds and get us a bunch of trees. Thank you. Go ahead.

Yeah, I think all I have to add to that is we will have on this coming Friday about 40 of our what we call our adopto spotters, people who spend uh quite a bit of time keeping things clean and neat in their adopted areas. and that is our way of doing community cleanup this year. Um we were scheduled for Saturday and um another event got in the way. So u I'm sure many of you will be watching that one, but hopefully we'll have our city all cleaned up for you by then. So thank you for your support. Thank you. And

I want to just really really fast talk about us working with the city. Uh obviously you mentioned the 27th we'll be out there. Um the big green will be coming out a couple days earlier. We're doing this quarterly with the city. June will be uh creek cleanup. We'll have people in the creeks. We'll have people um doing the uh pathways and so forth. So we're really working with the city has been fantastic. U again knowing other people live in other towns. I don't know of any other council, any other city that really works with it citizens on such a level on such a grassroots level. So it's really appreciated and you all deserve a hand for that cooperation. So we thank you very much. Thank you. And I'd like to just say how much I appreciate your organization for such a small group of dedicated individuals and how much work you all do. Um I'm really grateful for it and I know the rest of the community is as well. I just wanted to I thank you all for everything that you do. I know you're small but mighty. I do want to give special shout out to Brian Mootz just because you've been such an amazing uh steward for uh the environment here in KARP. are so good about getting out into the community and really talking about what you do, what you all do, and and why it's important. So, um, thank you for always making that extra effort to to connect with with, uh, with us, with city staff, and with the community.

Good. Uh, and I've shout shout out to Donna Jordan who founded the organization and came up with the concept. Semi semi mostly semi. She had help. Yeah.

I would just like to add something that really separates Carpandria from almost anywhere else is just that spirit of all of us together do something and to make it a better place. And I think what you do is really lead by example and you show people that it can be something as simple as just keeping your neighborhood beautiful. And so thank you for leading by example. And I would like to say uh Donna, thank you for all your hard work. I see Arthur all the time. I feel really guilty when I walk by you and I'm not carrying somebody else's trash. It hurts quite a bit. Um what I would like to suggest, if you wouldn't mind, is maybe taking a look at extending out the um invitation to the younger people. I' I'd like to see them getting more involved in the community pride.

As a matter of fact, as a matter of fact, open the door. We have a member Robert Stokes and we've already um we have several programs in the in the works working with teachers uh working with students working with schools. Uh if you look the Caperna Middle School is one the courtyard beautifification project was spearheaded by one of our one of our members Robert Stokes and we do have plans to continue on for all grade levels. So but as you know you know once once the plans first made when they come to fruition could take some time. So but they are in the making and they are but you'll see the uh you'll see the uh end result soon. and I'd love to take on that challenge. And so I'll look to city staff to see if we can we can do that $2,000 match.

Yes, mayor. Um so the city has currently an $8,000 budget for planting trees. So we've already uh 400% uh match on that already budgeted. I I do uh you know full no one will ever say we're not fully transparent because I'll also admit that zero dollars of that has been spent this fiscal year. And so the challenge could be to identify those locations to plant these trees and to use the money along with the with the donation and get that work going. I think that's a great a great plan forward. Note taken.

With that we'd love to take a photo with you all. That must be the second.

Don't cover the All right, we are done.

You're right. And just as a a thought for everyone that's listening, um it'd be nice to acknowledge the work that Jerry Campo Piano did for Carpa Beautiful as she has recently passed away. Um her spirit will live on with the work you do. So thank you. Thank you. Item number five is a proclamation celebrating the 67th anniversary of the Carpenter Community Awards Banquet. I do not have any speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom?

Mayor, we have no Zoom speakers. I will close public comment and I'll bring it back to the council for a motion. I move to adopt the proclamation uh celebrating the 67th anniversary of the Carpondria Community Awards banquet. Second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor? I.

Any opposed? Motion passes and we will begin reading the proclamation with council member Mayor. Whereas the first Carpia Community Awards banquet was held in 1958 and was called the man of the year event and after several different names over the years, it is now known as the annual Carpaia Community Awards banquet. And whereas this annual event was previously hosted by the Carpentria Valley Chamber of Commerce and is now hosted by the Carpentria Community Association, a nonprofit organization formed specifically to continue honoring the spirit of Carpentia. end. Whereas this event has been held in various locations including the Palms, the Carpenter High School cafeteria, the memorial building, the Monaceto Country Club, the Carperia Boys and Girls Club, the Myiar, and even in a tent at the Carperia State Beach. This year it will be held at our local Girls Inc. of Carponia facility. And

whereas the 67th annual event will showcase the Carpa Valley Museum of History and the rich history our museum displays and commemorates. And whereas this event provides an opportunity for our many local service organizations and others to publicly honor their valued volunteers with merit awards. And whereas a local business is selected to receive the outstanding community business award and two local businesses will also be spotlighted. And whereas two teachers from our local carpentry schools are chosen to receive an award as educator of the year. One from one each from the elementary and secondary schools. And

whereas following a rigorous selection process, three high school students are chosen as finalists for the junior carpenterian of the year award with once selected as the junior carpenturan of the year and with each of them receiving a generous college scholarship with funds donated by community members. And whereas the culmination of the evening is the announcement of the carpentry of the year, a distinguished honor given to the individual or individuals for their outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the Carpondria Valley community. Now therefore, the city council of the city of Carperia congratulates the Carpenter community awards banquet on its 67th anniversary and commends the Carpenter community association for its commitment to honor the spirit of Carperia. And with that, I'd love to invite K I see Karen Graph

and the team and the team.

It's not a one, it's a team effort for sure. So, good evening. Thank you, Mayor and council members for the designation and the proclamation. Um, I'm going to introduce the team. Uh, we have Clyde, who you know he was just up here, Clyde Freeman, Maryannne Coulson, Donna Lamir, we have Curtis Lopez, Beth Cox, Bob Burkinmeer, myself, Karen Graph, and uh, not here tonight is Lori BS, who's new on our team, and Gary Dobbins, which I thought he'd pop in here, but he's not here alas. So, um, you know, you might wonder what is the Carpenter Community Association? And um we have all been um members from the get-go. And and for us, it was so important to keep the legacy of this event going that we created this organization so we could keep it in the spirit that it was intended and keep it in Carpia by Carperians for carpans. And so we are very proud of it. And uh as you can see, 67 years. And uh we show up and we just put this event on and and 300 plus people come to our event every year. And it is probably the best celebratory party every year. Uh so proud of it. And as you mentioned in our proclamation, the uh theme this year as we're honoring or showcasing um the museum is honoring the past and celebrating the present. And we really wanted to take a moment to to celebrate what's been going on at the museum with Jamie and all the good work she's doing there to uh freshen up our history. And we've got such a legacy and such a rich history here. Um, also we mentioned

about uh who gets honored and you're right, we give merit awards out to all the different organizations. Uh, we honor three uh young people out of our high school and one of them gets the designation of carpent junior carpenter of the year and then we have uh the highlight and the crescendo of the night is uh the reveal of the carpenter of the year. So I also wanted to I think we discussed that we are honoring um three different businesses and for your ears as the first to know but it is going to go into the paper. So if the paper's here but it's not. We are so excited to honor as our carpentry business community partner and showcasing them is the carpentered lumber company and Jason and all the good works that he does with Maryland in our community. And then the two other smaller businesses but vital to our community that uh we are honoring um is Carpentry and Nails um that's um Ken and um Fawn Haw and they um just do so much behind the scenes and I know you know that but we are really proud to acknowledge that. And then the other is Delgato's. And what better rich history do we have than Delgato's because they have been around for a very very long time. So these are the three businesses that we are going to showcase that evening. Uh let's see details, details, details. So the event is on April 18th um at Girls Inc. It starts at 5 o'clock. It's uh we are honored uh that um Island Brew will be our signature beer and um we'll have uh Catered by Ringcon uh Beach Catering. It's a wonderful night and I know you've all been there and we expect to see all of you again and it's just a great party. So with that, we thank you. Does anybody want to say anything else that I'm I'm just going to

do one shout out to the coast of View to Michael Vanstry who about three weeks ago did a wonderful spread and Donna who has got the most history with our event was able to contribute a lot about the backstory about the event. So if you haven't had a chance to read that issue and go online and find it but it's a great spread to talk about the event itself and we're just so so proud. So that's what I have. Anybody? Yeah. Okay. Well, thank one thing. All right, come on, Bob. I'm going to look at the TV camera and say, "Look at the board members up here. We're a bunch of old gezers. It's about time to get some young folks stand up and join us." So, if you have any interest in helping us put on this party this year or in year's future, please consider joining our committee.

You know that. I know. Should say I should say speak for yourself. No. Anyway, thank you again for the proclamation. We are excited about the the event next month. So, thank you. And I'd like to just say thank you all. I know that this event has changed hands in the past and I appreciate you all keeping this tradition moving forward. Um, I know firsthand my my niece was a former junior carpenter and those scholarships are so important to the youth in our community and every year I'm more amazed by how amazing those finalists, those high school finalists are. So, thank you all for all that hard work that you do. students for sure

and I will look to my colleagues if anyone would like to share a few words. Seeing none, I will invite you all to take a photo. Wonderful. Thank you. We have I think we're gonna need to give us once in a while. probably have to do a side. I'll get out. She's still got it.

Okay, here we go. Squeeze in a little bit. Excellent. Okay, we have one more phone. Okay, our smiles extra happy. Perfect. Thanks again. Of course.

You too. All right.

Item number six, our final proclamation of the evening is a proclamation designating April 2026 as Carpenter Business Month in the city of Carperia. I do not have any speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom? Mayor, we have no Zoom speakers. I will close public comment, bring it back to the council for a motion. I move to adopt the proclamation designating April 2026 as Carpandria Business Month in the city of Carpondria. Second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor? I I.

Any opposed? Motion passes and we will begin reading the proclamation with council member Mayor. Whereas the city of Carperia supports the success of its local business community and acknowledges their role in generating local tax revenue to support municipal services that enhance the quality of life for Carperia residents. And whereas local businesses are a vi vital pillar of the community providing essential products and services and contributing to nonprofit and volunteer initiatives through the dedicated efforts of business leaders and employees. And whereas local businesses create significant private sector employment opportunities, ensuring the strength and competitiveness of the local workforce. And

whereas the city of Carperia values business community feedback in developing ordinances and policies, ensures business inclusion in city outreach, and provides aid to local businesses as needed. And whereas since 1912, the chamber of commerce has represented local businesses interests. helping to build a strong local economy and a positive quality of life. And

whereas the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce collaborates with the city of Carperia to support local businesses and align business community needs with city goals. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the city of Carperia hereby designates April as Carponia Business Month and encourages all residents to celebrate and support our local businesses. And we would like to present this proclamation to Rachel Murphy who is a representative of the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce. Welcome.

Good evening. Thank you for having me. Um, Mayor Laron and council members, my name is Rachel Murphy and I am a public policy coordinator with the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce. I'm excited to be here tonight to accept this proclamation and introduce myself as a new member of the chamber. I work closely with the rest of the chamber staff on our efforts in business advocacy, economic support, and community partnerships. The chamber proudly represents businesses from Galita to Carperia. We are proud to represent the economic interests of our region while also supporting the unique business communities across the the three cities. Here in Carperia, we are lucky to have such a vibrant business community. We have large employers working to produce cancer diagnostics. We have well-loved family restaurants that have served this community for years. We have lawyers, retailers, and service providers, all of whom are run by the very people that we call our neighbors. All of these businesses and more are truly the backbone of the Carpentria community. The chamber is proud to accept this proclamation, declaring April 2026 as Carpentria Business Month on behalf of the city's business community. We appreciate the city's formal recognition of the key role businesses play here in Carperia. We are proud of our work in partnership with the city of Carperia to support Carpentia businesses and we look forward to continuing to grow that support handinhand with the city. We are thankful for the leadership of both the council and your staff to ensure that local businesses can flourish and have the support that they need. To the Carpenteria community, we we would like to say this isn't business month without your support. This April, we encourage the Carpentry locals to show some extra

love and support to the community's businesses. Stop into your regular shops, visit a local establishment that you've been meaning to check out. Invite your friends and family to join you at your local at your favorite local restaurant and take some time to learn more about the amazing large employers developing worldchanging technologies in your very own backyard. Thank you again to the city, the mayor, and the council for this proclamation and for your support to the local business community. Thank you, Rachel, for those words and I appreciate your call to action. I think that's definitely something that we will all be partaking in. Um any additional comments?

Uh thank you so much for your words and uh you know I think about especially in a small town like Carpanderia business community is part of a very flourishing ecosystem. Uh they're the people that are donating to your nonprofits. These are the people who are employing your neighbors. So really keeping our local businesses thriving is a way to keep our community thriving.

Thank you. We invite you to take a photo with us. almost film you guys.

Okay, I'll go. We will now move on to public information reports and announcements and we will hear from our first district supervisor's office. Welcome Daisy. Good evening. Let me fix that. Good evening, Mayor Aleron and council. Nice to see you. Hello, staff. Um, okay. Lots of updates to share. So, for um housing and unincorporated carpia, there are no applications for Van Wingeran one and two, so we're not going to talk about those spots. Um, Bailor, let's talk about that. So, the last joint meeting was February 16th and that was focused on the um ingress egress concerns um on the city side as well as the emergency access pointed out by Karp Summerland Fire District. So, since that meeting, I assume the applicant has been addressing some of that feedback. Um, car Summerland Fire Marshal Mike Lmon Monaco told me that he specifically gave them some requirements for an evacuation study that they're going to do. Um, and also dis discussed some constraints around the Pandanas alley. Um, I don't know what uh Karp City Public Works talked about with them, so you might want to ask them. Um but in that meeting on the 16th or excuse me on February 16th um there were a lot of concerns

about width of the road and parking with the um park and of course the alleyway itself. So I'm going to defer to city public works on what they discussed with them, but I assume that's what the applicant has been working on since that meeting. And we are having a new joint meeting on March 26th, so this Thursday, with teams from the city, from Karp Summerland Fire, from the county, and the applicant. And I believe the applicant is also planning to meet with the Cassidus Village HOA board members that same day. Um, and as of now, the builder's remedy application is still open and hopefully we'll get some clarity on that on Thursday. Any questions? Okay. Um, cannabis updates. So, uh, we had a board meeting on, uh, March 10th, and there were eight applicants that were seeking extensions for their odor abatement plans, and zero extensions were granted to the operators. So, what that means is um, there was a compliance deadline of March 18th where all operators in the valley had to have carbon-based scrubbers um, installed. So, uh, PND planning and development, county devel planning and development is in the process of issuing notices of violations to those operators that are out of compliance. And after March 31st, the CEO's office of the county can revoke business licenses for the operators out of compliance. That decision is appealable um by the applicants or by the operators and that doesn't go to the board of supervisors. that would go to a state

administrative court. Um, and I believe there's the hearing has to happen within 60 days. So, uh, people can still report odor complaints through the county website planning and development through the enforcement tab. So, that's what's happening on the cannabis front. Okay. Um, budget hearings are coming up for the county. Um, the week for hearings is April 13th, 15th, and 17th. Excuse me. Yes, April 13th, 15th, and 17th. And this is to hear proposals for the county's 2627 fiscal year budget. Um, as the city is also facing this um there are huge budget cuts coming down the pike for California specifically. um the HR1 or the big beautiful bill um cut a lot of funding at the federal and state levels. So, every local jurisdiction is going to have to face budget cuts. So, um the board of supervisors role is to maintain as many services as possible. Um, but Supervisor Lee wants to stress how important it's going to be to work together, the cities and the county to really maintain that to make sure that the most vital um services are being retained. So, uh, my call to action to you all, to the public, is to, um, try and tune into those hearings and listen to what is being proposed because every county department is proposing their budget and it will reflect those service cuts. Um, so the hearings are April uh, 13th through 17th. Then there's two months until the actual hearing adoption in June. So in those two months, we would love to hear from community members

about um what is essential for the people of Carperia. Um we want to hear from you. Okay. Um some county public works updates. Um I know this is in Summerland, but I think it affects a lot of folks in Carperia. The Via Rial um closure at Padaro Lane makes it really difficult for folks who are traveling on Via Rial to get to Summerland. Um that closure has been for a long time, a lot longer than it was supposed to be. Um there's been some issues with the um contractor that's been doing the work, but we have been assured that um the completion should be happening in June. So, for anybody that's been following along, I believe that was supposed to be finished last August. Um, so it has really dragged on. Um, and it's a huge inconvenience to a lot of people. So, um, hopefully that gets wrapped up by June like we've been told. Um, the other thing that's happening public works wise is the Santa Claus Lane phase two is starting. That's going to be the, uh, railroad overpass construction. Um, and when I say overpass, it's not like a bridge over it. It's like a a a flattening out across it. Um, so the construction has been open to bids. That's what's happening right now. And it'll be a few months until they uh or about a month perhaps until they um pick uh the bidder hopefully if they get something in the right budget. And then after that, um, construction will begin a few months after that. But public works is trying to, uh, work with the business owners on Padaro to make sure that it's not a huge impact to them, uh,

the park, uh, excuse me, the camps, the beachgoers. So, um, that is kicking off. The phase two is kicking off. Um, also along the lines of public works, um, they are having their road maintenance annual plan meeting. This is March 31st. It's 6 o'clock. It's on Zoom. Um, there is Spanish translation available. And this meeting is for community members to weigh in on the roads in unincorporated um, Santa Barbara County that need attention and need help. So, um, definitely let us know what needs attention. It's a great time to be heard. And if you can't make that meeting, um, you can always provide feedback to public works roads at coosbw.net or you can always just email our office and we can connect you. Um, more things that are coming out. Uh, the community hazard awareness map has been released by the office of emergency management. And so it's a public research, excuse me, public resource designed to help everyone um, understand what hazards they face in their specific address. So you can search your address, you can search different areas and see um if you're in a flooding zone, if you're in a tsunami zone, if you are in a high-fire zone. Um so it's it's a really interesting resource, the community hazard awareness map um that you can find through the county office of emergency management. Um, another update from one of the recent board meetings is um the adoption of a sidewalk vending ordinance and a six-month pilot outreach program. So, um

this is a response to the um illegal food vending that we've seen popping up in places along highways um and uh in the county specifically mostly along highways. So, this is um a program designed to uh help vendors get a sellers's permit, a business license, and a county health permit. And vending is limited to paved sidewalks and pedestrian paths. So, really trying to keep this off of highways. Um the pilot program is an out is the outreach portion of this. So, it's April through October and it's establishing a coordinated outreach between environmental health services, public works, and the sheriff's office. And it's to help these vendors um get these these um permits that they need. I also want to be really clear that this outreach team will clearly identify themselves as county staff and they will not collect or share vendors citizenship status during this health permitting inspection and pilot program. Okay, my last update is actually not on the agenda, but I got an email from Mayor Alcon today and I think it's worth sharing. Um there has been I think I c I can tell I'm sure other people can but there's been more mosquitoes lately. Um so I wanted to give you an update that um we have this cool little thing called the mosquito vector management district and they are a special district. So they operate independently of um the counties or the cities but they do operate countywide. Um, and they work alongside public health when it comes to um, outbreaks caused by um, vectors, which if you

remember math class, it's not little arrows pointing in a direction. Vectors are like varmint basically. So, mosquitoes, rats, ticks, all the unpleasant stuff. Um, so um, their general manager is, uh, Brian Cabrera. he's offered to connect with county staff about getting some of this information on the um KARP website. So, I'll give you the update he provided. Uh so, he said Southern California is experiencing unusually early and intense mosquito activity this year due to warmer temperatures and heavy January through February rainfall. So, mosquito activity usually begins in May, but we're starting to see it in February. Um, a key concern is the spread of the non-native ankle biter mosquito um that was recently found in a backyard in Santa Barbara on the west side. Um, and so they're monitoring the ankle biters and um, in Carper Carpia and the Summerland area, the most known breeding grounds are the Greenwell Preserve in Summerland and the Salt Marsh here um, in May through October mostly. So, um, and there's also local creeks that stagnate in warm weather. So, um, we're lucky there's a lot of flowing water. If anybody's a hiker, there's a lot of water that's still flowing, but there are pools of standing stagnating water. So, um, the mon, excuse me, the mosquito and vector management district um, is responding to complaints and they are treating breeding sites um, under the California Health and Safety Code. They have that authority. So what residents can do is they can report mosquito problems on their website uh mvmdist.org uh a phone number 805969-50. Um they're also asking residents to

eliminate standing water in containers, bird baths, toys, drains, tires, anything that is uh sitting there with water in it and there's no drain, dump it out. Uh, scrub bird baths and pet dishes weekly. Use um EPA registered repellents if you're sensitive to getting bit. So, de um oil of lemon and eucalyptus, picardon. Uh wear long sleeves and pants in mosquito-prone areas. Make sure your windows and doors are screens are intact. And um you can stay informed by subscribing to their website, the itching post, which I think is very cute. Um, so definitely subscribe to the itching post. I think it's quarterly if not monthly. And um, if you do see any signs of daytime biting, that is the ankle biter mosquito. So definitely report that immediately. And I also suggested um, Brian Cabrera, the general manager, perhaps he'd want to come and give you all an update uh, when it's peak mosquito season. That's all I've got.

Thank you for those updates and the followup on the mosquito email. I appreciate that. Totally. Um I have a quick question in terms of it may not actually be quick. Um you mentioned the budget and if the county is looking at $23 million in budget cuts. Is that correct?

Yes. I believe it's 60 over the next five years. Um, and the, you know, the the question really becomes like strategy. What how is the board going to tackle this? Are they going to try and do a lot of intense cuts at the beginning um and really make this year the difficult year or do small cuts incrementally over the next four or five years. Um but yes, I believe 23 million is the is is this year's projected and so some things for example that may affect the city is for example like library funding that we receive from the county. Yes.

My other question is in related to the sheriff's budget. I know that was like $20 million in overtime and the board of supervisors is now auditing time sheets. Do they audit, for example, our contract is is separate from the county and is just with um it's like the city of Carpa's contract. Do do they also audit those or do they just audit their dollars spent in the county and not other contracts?

I don't know. That's a good question. I would assume they do not audit the contracts, but does staff know? Mayor, I'm I'm also not aware, however, we have a a fixed contract. So, if they were required to do overtime that's already calculated in in our cost for our budget, uh there is uh and I forget what the term is, but for each uh staff person, there's like a an extra and that's for when they're being covered and various things when they go on vacation. Uh but to my knowledge, if there's overtime outside of us requesting it specifically for Avocado Festival or something like that, maybe related to the ebike um uh enforcement that we don't get charged for any additional overtime.

That's I appreciate that clarification. Thank you. Those were my questions. Yes. Uh one quick question, Daisy, if you wouldn't mind. Um item four, public works. It said that um Via Riala Padero you estimated it to be the end of June. Um in our notes it says it was estimated to be completed at the end of May. Is that just a mistake or is that a change or a modification? I wrote that in there because that is what we were told verbally and then we were told recently best just to say June.

Okay. Okay. That's what I thought. Just wanted to confirm that. Yeah, the same um contractor that's working on that Via Rale section is also the same contractor working on um Wallace Avenue, which is what most people know as the Summerland on-ramp. Um that has uh been plagued with some unforeseen um flooding issues. So when you have a a contractor working on both, they kind of tend to respond to the emergency situation and um as you know, we had a lot of rain. It's why we have so many mosquitoes. Um so that's that they've been kind of tackling both projects at the same time.

Thank you. Okay. Any additional questions? See none. Thank you for your report. Thank you. And I have a question for staff just in terms of the the county's hearings on their budget. Is there anything that we are doing as a city? Like will we have staff in attendance or how can we also stay um up to date with maybe potential cuts that would affect the city?

Yes, mayor. Good question. So, uh, we are aware of the cuts potentially related to the library and understand that the county is considering three different percentage scenarios for for cuts. We receive um I believe it's 150,000 from the county for our library. So, I think in perhaps a worst case scenario of like a 10% reduction, it could be about $15,000 in worst case. So, we're keeping an eye on that. And then staff also will be monitoring um any news and updates more generally from the county budget process. Is that is that money from the county? Is that is that a grant or is that a pass through from uh residents on their tax bills?

Council member Clark through the mayor. So, my understanding is that it's it's a per capita uh amount that we receive, but that the the county gets to set. So, they can increase or decrease that per capita amount. That's at the discretion of the of the board. Seeing no other questions, we'll move on to item number eight, which is the city manager's report. Yes, council. Uh just as always uh encourage everyone to uh read the full city manager report. We don't always cover every item in detail. There's helpful links there and these are just meant as uh brief general updates. And if the council were to have any item that wanted to go in more depth on, happy to agendaize that for a future meeting. Um, I will just start before, uh, handing this over to Assistant City Manager Ryan Kins to give us some employee updates, just speak to something that's not on the city manager report that people may have heard of. Uh, the Cassidus Plaza Shopping Center was evacuated earlier because there was an explosion in the UPS store. Um, you know, they had some assumptions on what it could have been and and uh but not wanting to make any assumptions, they did send in the bomb squad, which is one helpful thing of having that contract with the sheriff and their ability to do that. At the end of their uh investigation, discovered that it was a 20 lb uh fire extinguisher uh was what caused the explosion. There were uh no injuries, but just happy with how the sheriff took that matter very seriously and ensured that, you know, we were safe. But that was the result of that. Uh I don't know much more than that, but if you have any questions, I'm happy to pass those along to our chief and get back to you. If there are none, I'll

just turn it over to uh Ryan Kint to give us some city employee updates. Great.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor's uh mayor, council members. So um just a brief brief update on current employee um and training items. So for recruitments, the city currently has six active recruitments underway. The accounting specialist or accounting technician recruitment is currently pending screening of applications. The library technician recruitment closes on March 29th. We have the lifeguard program coordinator recruitment that closes on March 25th. and the beach lifeguard and pool lifeguard recruitments both closed on April 30th. The maintenance worker one recruitment closed on March 22nd. Additional information on all those jobs is available on our website. And just uh to provide clarity, these are no new positions. Um we only add new positions when approved by the city council and these are just replacing positions that have are either retiring or moving on to other positions. I also wanted to highlight some recent professional development by the parks recreation and community services department. Uh Tori Cutbirth, Jenna Jenkins, and Kayn Peina. They all attended the California Parks and Recreation Society conference in Long Beach from March 11th through March 13th. The conference provided educational sessions and networking opportunities focused on current practices, emerging trends, and professional development in parks and recreation. And then in addition um the PRCS director Janette Gant, she did attend the National Recreation and Parks Association director's school from March 1st through March 5th. This was the first uh year of the 2-year director's academy program which focuses on strategic planning, datainformed decision-making, organizational leadership, and management of parks and recreation agencies. The program also provided an opportunity to engage with parks and recreation directors from agencies across the country. And I do want to circle back to our uh

recruitments. I want to let the council know that we're actually getting a lot of applications for these positions. Um the maintenance worker one position, I just checked this morning, we have 40 applicants, which is an all-time record for that position. So definitely a lot of activity and interest for people to work for the city. And that concludes my remarks. Um, I just have one quick follow-up question to something you said about the number of uh city employees that has been I think there's a a misconception about about that number and you had mentioned that new positions can only be formed when when council makes the a decision to do that over the last say decade. Do we have a rough sense of how how stable or steady has that number of city employees been?

I can tell you the last five years because that's in my mind. Um, so starting in 2020, we had 40 positions. Um, and since then we've added three. So in five years, we've added uh three positions. All right. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I appreciate you also uh preferencing the the announcements of the positions by by reiterating that these are not new positions. Thank you.

Yes. And if I vice mayor solar, if I could add, we we spoke on that um I think last week and I I realized that I missed one important fact to to add is that one of those positions was fully funded by special funding for that position. So, you know, if you if you don't take that one into account that didn't involve any additional city money, it's only two positions uh over the last 5 years. And uh one of those also is related to our ability to respond to our emergency operations plan and communications related to our uh transparency goals and was also a very important one. Great. Thank you so much.

Um and I have a quick question in terms of I'm happy to see that our parks and wreck uh programs or department is attending professional development. I know that was an important piece to to staff development. Out of curiosity, do you know if there was any um key takeaways of things that our director could begin to implement with the department? I'll let our city manager Michaels ask that. Go ahead.

Yes, mayor. Um so I talked to Janette about it briefly. U she's not here this evening, but happy to add that as a summary to our our city manager report. I know that she was uh one of just a handful of people from California and was one of just a few of the smaller agencies in attendance. So, there were a number of ideas and things going around from much larger cities with different programs. Um, however, I do know that she took away some information that she could apply um yeah, apply here and I'll have her add that to our city manager report next meeting.

And then although it's not in your report, um I did hear that JG's opened up junior guards. I heard week one filled up fairly quickly. Just curious about week or session two if you all can provide an update. Yeah. Uh we can definitely track that and provide it in the in the uh CM report moving forward as as we move towards uh final finalizing uh those recruitments. Great. It doesn't need to be move. I mean an update would be nice at the next meeting.

Absolutely. We'll do that. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to our community development director, Nick Babro, to give us some updates on community development related items. Thank you, Michael. Good evening, Mayor Aleron. Council members, got just a couple items in here for you this evening. Uh, first up, I wanted to share that the Clinton mixeduse project at 4745 Carpenter Avenue is nearing project completion, and we expect it will receive its final signoffs either later this week or early next. Uh the project includes 24 rental apartment units including three incomerestricted affordable units, a six room hotel and a groundf flooror commercial tenant space that's intended for future restaurant or cafe use. Uh so possibly as soon as this week we'll you may see residents starting to move into the apartments. Um the hotel use might be trailing by a couple weeks depending on where things are at. And I think the restaurant will trail a little bit farther behind as they still need to secure a tenant and do the interior build out of of some of those facilities, but it's coming along and we're excited to see that project wrapping up. I also wanted to just remind your council and anyone watching from home uh that the project applicant team for the 5885 Carpenter Avenue residential project, this is next door at the Tea Time property, uh will be hosting their community openhouse event on Thursday, April 9th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Carpenter Community Church, 1111 Valiscina Road. And the event's open to the public and it's intended to be an opportunity for interested persons to learn more about the proposed project, meet the project applicant team, and also an opportunity for the public to provide input back to the applicant team on what they might like to see there in terms of a revised project. Um, there is a website that's up for the project now that has some graphics and some uh

initial preliminary information. Uh, the URL for that is www.thefarmcarper. thefarmcarpia.com and uh folks can also subscribe on that website for email updates about the project. And then lastly, I just wanted to share what we have coming up on a couple of our next meeting agendas for both the architecture review board and the planning commission. So, this Thursday, March 26th, the ARB will be taking a look at a proposed resident uh residential remodel and addition project over in the Konchaloma neighborhood at 5538 Canolino Drive. The agenda and staff report are up for that on our city website. And then on April 6th, the planning commission will be holding a hearing as well to conduct continued review of the proposed Verizon Wireless communications facility uh located at 912 Lynen Avenue. And we we've been in contact with Verizon Wireless. We expect that they're going to be asking the commission for an additional continuence to give them time to continue in their uh negotiations and due diligence with the county about relocating this facility to another location. So, I don't expect there's going to be a lot of actual business conducted at this hearing other than just Chevron making that request for continuance to give them more time to to search that out. And that concludes my city manager report updates for you, unless you have any questions for me. Real quick, Nick, you said Chevron.

I did not mention Chevron tonight, but I can No, no, you said you said restudy the Chevron. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, restudy the Verizon wireless antenna location. Might have Chevron on my mind, but um thank you for clarifying.

And just a couple more items for the council. So, one is uh and for the community is we are going to have our uh CIP um update scheduled for next Monday, March 30th here in council chamber uh at 5:30 p.m. We'll be going through a similar exercise to what we just did uh with the budget but for specifically for CIP and that'll be led by our public works director John Alassen with support from team uh general government and also our administrative services department. So looking forward to that. We'll have an additional um meeting on our CIP um on the second meeting of April along with our midyear and we just got done with with midcycle but we'll or sorry we just got done with midyear and we'll be doing midcycle already um in our second meeting in April and so at that point in time we'll be looking at uh other projects that have come up like the Tommo interpretive play area and how those fit into our projects moving forward. Uh so we'll be doing that at that time but uh next meeting we'll just be discussing our current projects and updates and any adjustments to uh funding or moving of fiscal years. Uh and lastly just touching on one of the other parks and rec items uh for the community garden. They're going to host a seed ball uh making workshop on Wednesday, April 1st at uh 5:00 pm. This will be led by our parks, recreation, and community services uh program director Tori Cutburn. Uh participants will learn how to create uh California native seed balls, which can be tossed into gardens to promote local bio biodiversity and support uh pollinator habitats. Uh with that, that concludes my city manager report. Happy to answer any additional questions. Do we have questions?

I don't have a question, but I do handily enough know the answer to the junior lifeguard question. If if I may make that update. Um, both sessions of junior lifeguards entirely sold out with the exception of the B-group which is 12 and 13 and there are five spaces left there. Thank you for that. And um the aquatics program has added this after school after school after junior lifeguard program. So this is a new pilot pro program that Lexi Pursoon has put in and it is 50% sold out. So that's a really cool pro program. So there you go. Thank you for the update. Sure.

Um and I do have one follow-up question. I wasn't sure if uh staff or council were able to determine if council members were able to attend the community um outreach event held by what do they call themselves 5885 carpenter the farm project. Are we able to attend that?

You know I I think we have a determination on that and I'm just going to wait for Jenna to return and we'll add that in later. Uh, but I also was just reminded I just wanted to give a special shout out to Council Member Mayor for being the keynote speaker at the Carperia uh, Children's Project Breakfast. I I still asking and don't know whether there's a recording of that, but it was very inspiring and would definitely be viral within our community if it was available. Uh, and so just want to say that was really great and I was definitely inspired as a city manager here.

Thank you. Thank you for being there. We will now move on to public comment on matters not on the agenda. I do not have any speaker slips, mayor. I'm sorry. We do have public comment for item number eight, the city manager's report. I do not have a speaker slip. Oh, perfect. Thank you. Delgado welcome.

Uh thank you R. Um once again uh uh it's about budget uh concerns uh current the current number one the current inflation we can all feel it. Uh number two, the rising uh city expenditures on landscape services. Number three, uh the sheriff's uh rising costs uh taking uh 40% uh of uh the city's uh budget. Uh number four, the big uh beautiful bill. uh the impact of that bill uh in the in our city basically after the uh midterm uh uh elections that's when uh everything is going to happen uh on state uh on federal uh uh programs grants uh number five uh wonder about uh like uh on uh uh city personnel will uh hours be reduced uh maybe uh layoffs. Uh number six, uh uh wonder about the steps that the city uh uh uh steps are being considered uh in moving forward and uh trying to avoid uh like Santa Barbara for example. I think that we should all uh uh both uh the government and uh uh the people should work together uh on this for a a healthy budget. Uh thank you.

Thank you for your comments. I do not have any other speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom? Mayor, we have no Zoom speakers. I will close public comment. Yes. Yes, mayor. Um, so it was correct in my initial thought, but it's so as a u one of the exemptions to the Brown Act is for cere ceremonial events. Uh, so this would be covered under there. However, there are still always ways that a a Brown Act exemption could still become Brown Act violation. So would encourage the council to sit separately and of course not discuss any city business at that uh event. However, as a ceremonial event, it would uh fall under that exemption. Um I think was your question about the bluffs uh project meeting about the farm?

Yeah, she she was asking about the farm project presentation.

I also wanted that two for one. Yeah. I can restate. My question is if council can attend the farm project openhouse if we can all be in attendance if we choose to or is would that be a Brown Act violation because of the contents of the of what the farm project is doing?

Uh Mayor Aleron, that is a great question. Um if if I can, I' I'd appreciate some time to think that over. We're still um having communications with the applicants legal council to understand what uh they're proposing in terms of a format for the open house. And so I think as we get more information there, we can provide uh better guidance to you all. Um so I I will be in touch. I don't want to provide incorrect guidance. So, um, appreciate your question and we'll definitely be on in touch on that. Thank you. Yes.

I would like to say that in the past though, we have not been able to go to those if it's a public public forum.

Mayor, one of the items I'll add is I imagine that would be difficult and especially um past history, it sounds like something we've avoided. One of the things that uh Jenna is talking about in terms of the format and some questions I recall is trying to clarify was uh I think it's scheduled from 6 to 8 correct and they have did I get that time right? Is it 6 to 8 I think. Yeah. Uh I know they're going to start off with or at least proposed right now some sort of an intro at the beginning. However, it's not necessarily crucial. Remember one of the clarifying questions I asked is does somebody have to be there at exactly 6:00 or what if they have some conflict and they're able to show up at 6:30 or 7? Uh and they assured me that there would be somebody there at the front to welcome and again they're not going to get the first opening um you know I guess spill that everybody's giving but we'll clarify and one of the things we might be able to do is just stagger um attendance. So we again we'll clarify that and uh get back to you all. I think we can do that via email.

Yes. Um if we if we may not attend, how do we get information about what happened? How do we get information about what the public has been told? Um, for example, I've heard that they're they do have a proposal, but they're already have on the table that they're going to reduce the number of units and they're going to move stuff around. And are they going to roll that out? And and I mean, I just don't want to be caught with all this um citizens asking me questions when they probably know more than I do if they've attended the thing.

Yeah. Council member Clark through the mayor. So, uh, I' I'd like to think that you you all will be able to. If not, we'll definitely have somebody there to be able to gather that information and report back. Um, one of the things that I think us as staff have been speaking to them about, and I'd like also any folks listening that plan to attend to also engage in these types of conversations with them, is is regarding uh tradeoffs. So we know that they're at least init their plan is to have like a sort of a stations thing and you can go around to these different stations and receive information. But I think it's very important that the community engage them about those trade-offs as they talk about, you know, um a farm or reduced units or more affordable um units offsite. Uh there is of course those who are going to want to vo voice opposition to the project as a whole and understand people's right to go ahead and do that. Um however it it would will also be very productive for folks to give them feedback on what they would like to see when they're weighing you know a versus b. I know that at the staff level that's what we are going to be asking them about in terms of uh the feedback that they get from the community. So, uh, encourage folks to engage in those types of conversations.

And, um, council members, so the mayor, if I can add some additional, uh, thoughts in response to Council Member Clark's, uh, question. I think, um, your your question is a a good one. And I I also think um that if there is clarity that's needed at this point, that's a these are great questions to be asking um the applicant at this meeting, right? They are the ones with the most information at this point. And so if there are questions about what is being proposed, um you know, please, you know, let members of the community know, advise them to show up to the open house with those questions. What I would like to say um on on those points specific in the past also instead of us attending we would have staff go take notes things like that. One of the main reasons that we at that time made the decision was a factor that if in fact they were open to suggestions and being and willing to change the profile of the projects that they're presenting or proposing forward that council if we were to engage in any kind of discussion may potentially affect the outcomes of those things without legally being um a group. So that was one of the reasons why we couldn't go this that as as a potential.

Okay. Um did we close we officially closed public comment. Uh we closed public comment for item number eight. And now we've got the general public comment next. Excellent. Thank you. I just wanted to sure. Um, okay. We will move on to public comment on matters not on the agenda. Do we have any speaker slips? No speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom? We have no raised hands. Mayor, I will close public comment. Yes, that has not happened in quite some time. Um, we will move on to the consent calendar and I'd like to open up public comment on the consent calendar. I do not have any speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom?

Once again, no Zoom speakers. I will close public comment and bring it back to the council for a motion. I move to approve the minutes of the regular meeting held March 9th, 2026 and the special joint meeting held March 16, 2026 to receive and file the warrant register for the period of March 2 through March 13, 2026 pursuant to the Carpondria Municipal Code section 2.08.150F 08.150F to receive and file the report on contracts executed by the city manager for the period of February 3rd through March 2nd, 2026 to adopt resolution number 6440 as read by title only directing the city manager to prepare a report for the consideration of continuing street lighting district number one for the fiscal year 2026 2027 to adopt resolution number 6441 as read by title only, ordering the preparation of a report describing the financial status of the district and recommending assessments for fiscal year 26 to 27 for Carpondria lighting, landscaping, and right-of-way improvements district number three. Adopt resolution number 6442 as read by title only ordering a report by the downtown T business advisory board for the purpose of continuing assessments for the Carpa parking and business improvement area assessment district number four for fiscal year 2627 and to adopt resolution number 6443 as read by title only ordering the preparation of a report describing the winter protection berm program and associated assessment and continue the winter protection berm assessment district number five for fiscal year 2627

second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. And thank you council member Mayor for reading all of those. That was a that was a lot. I I do have a question on that if you wouldn't mind real quick. This is for staff. On the um proclamation we gave to the uh chamber itself. I noticed that we didn't have anybody from the downtown T business advisory. Were they invited to the um event? Council member Namura. No, it was just the chamber. But uh for next year's proclamation, we can certainly invite members. I

I would encourage that only because it seemed pretty uh evident that they were not invited or included. Thank you. We will now move on to um we will have no items under administrative matters due to the agenda modification and we will move on to the public hearing where we will um listen to items number 16 and 17. We'll start with 16, which is public hearing to declare the results of the property owner protest ballot proceeding for the formation of Carpenter Landscape Maintenance District number 2025-1 and the levy of assessments commencing fiscal year 2026 2027. And we will now continue the March 9th, 2026 public hearing regarding the proposed landscape maintenance district number 2025-1 for the purpose of declaring the results of the tabulation. And if no majority protest exists considering formation of the Carpenter and Landscape Maintenance District number 2025-1 and levy of assessments for fiscal year 2026 2027 following the close of the public testimony portion of the public hearing on March 9th, 2026. City Council announced the close of the period for submitting ballots and directed the tabulation of ballots to occur in public view to determine whether a majority protest exists. Before we proceed to announce the results of the protest ballot tabulation, we would like to invite any remaining public testimony. Anyone wishing to speak on the proposed formation of the district or the assessments should present a speaker card to the city clerk. So, I'll be opening up public comment on this item. I do not have any speaker slips. And do

we have anyone via Zoom? Mayor, we have no Zoom speakers. I will close public comment. And will the city clerk please announce the results of the protest ballot tabulation and indicate whether a majority protest exists?

Thank you, mayor. Uh, the results of the property owner protest ballot proceeding indicate that a majority protest exists. This means that ballots submitted in opposition to the proposed assessment represent a majority of the weighted assessment ballots returned. Therefore, pursuant to article 13D of the California Constitution and the applicable provisions of the government code, the proposed assessment shall not be imposed. I'd like to open it up to council for any questions that you might have.

Um, sure. Yeah, I have I have a couple questions. I think going forward it's really important for voters to to know and to understand what it means that this was rejected. Um this was a a fairly minimal increase um to an assessment that hadn't been increased since the 1990s. And I know that just like for for folks who who work or who have any sort of income themselves, if wages hadn't increased since the '9s and you were still trying to keep up with payments in 2026, that would pose a significant problem. So, I wanted to ask what can residents expect to see uh as a result of this assessment being rejected?

Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor. Yeah, I mean that's a it's a big hit to the city for sure. Um so, since since the assessment's not going to be updated, uh the city will definitely continue to rely on subsidies from the general fund, um measure A and other discretionary sources going forward, just like we have been for the past 30 years. So, um, but we do project that those costs to continue to increase just like they have. I mean, we are seeing inflation continuing to go up. So, it's going to be tough because the city council is going to have to prioritize some of that funding. So, as as the council knows, you know that those two assessments mainly or we can just talk about landscape for now, but just landscape was going to bring in about million additional funding for the city. And again, just to remind the council, that was just to cover the costs of providing those services of the assessment district. And that's it. Just costs, revenue, matching. Um, so the, you know, the specific impacts will depend on future city council decisions, but we know for sure that you're going to have to rep prioritize funding away from other programs and services. Um we've talked about a lot how in fiscal year 28 we are going to be facing some major fiscal challenges especially if we don't proceed with some additional uh revenue generation some some long-standing ongoing revenue generation not not something that's just one year um it needs to be ongoing um but you know in terms of specific to the assessment district there there you know conceivably the council could direct us to reduce the frequency of landscape maintenance throughout the We could we might have to delay tree trimming cycles. Um slowing response times just because we're limited staffing for for tree damage related to tree damage. Um and then the big one really is, you know, this the programs and services. Um one of the main ones we

take from um one of the funds we take from is measure A. Um and that's prior primarily for you know our CIP projects and and streets and roads. And so, um, we're going to have to continue to take from there. So, that means there's less funding to do th those types of services. So, it will be important for the public to understand that if there is less street maintenance going on, then that's one of the very natural consequences of having voted against this assessment. Is that right? 100%. Yeah.

Yeah. And and again, this these will be decisions that your council will have to make in the future as as as we move forward with uh grappling with with this lack of funding. And some of the comments that I've I've seen in the community or heard have been the perception was that that these these increased assessments were meant to try to tax the city's way out of budgetary um concerns and can you speak to that a little bit as to whether was that Absolutely. Yeah. Because I mean my understanding of what the assessments were meant to do is not that and so can you just from your perspective?

No, we conducted a very transparent process. We conducted an engineering report assessment and what that showed was we are providing a taking from the general fund and other funds including measure I like I mentioned to subsidize the um services for the assessment district for landscape. So all we were doing as part of this process that was implemented by the city council and the direction of the city council to maintain fiscal sustainability for the city is to match what the costs are to provide those services. So, we weren't trying to tax our way out of anything. We were simply just trying to ensure that the that the revenue that's coming in matches what it costs to provide those services within the assessment district.

Okay. And Vice Mayor Solar through the through the mayor, if I can add something there. Your question brought up a great point. So, something that's very specific to a special benefit assessment is that the funds that would be obtained through that special benefit assessment can only be used for very special um purposes. in this case, these special benefits that residents would are receiving. Yeah. Um from this from this assessment and so they're really limited to providing those services to the residents. They can't be used to um supplement or augment other parts of the city's budget.

Right. No, I appreciate that. And I just um I also just want to say I appreciate the people who voted in favor of the assessments. I think it was it's really important going forward uh for for uh residents to understand what the budgetary challenges we're going to be facing are and this was one vehicle uh to do that that was a very reasonably um u a very reasonable amount a very small amount um so I want to thank staff for all the work that you did um on trying to push this forward thank you any other questions yes

um actually this is a common comment for staff to take a look at um realizing that uh this measure did fail and that we are going to be short on funds for landscape maintenance, ongoing maintenance. Um, I'd like to suggest we take a look at the um new incoming landscape projects that we have coming in under public works. Um, evaluate those and be a little bit more specific on minimizing maintenance. In other words, we're having trouble with street trees right now. There are ways to um mediate or moderate the amount of damage done by root systems, by trees themselves, maybe even the tree selection process. Also, um we are no longer using turf is um part of the parkway strips. We are going to plants. My concern is that for example the um landscape plan and project that came through um on the walkway adjacent to the creek um project that one in my opinion was over planted over landscape. We should have taken a look more at minimizing planting and um maximizing more heartscape for ease of maintenance and for minimal water use and consumption.

Mayor if I could. Uh so council member points taken on that. We'll definitely uh be revisiting that over the the coming weeks. One of the u things that the city will have to look at as well related to trees is as you mentioned we had the tree selection is an important thing and several years ago when these trees were were planted there wasn't the forethought for the damage that it would do to our sidewalks and our streets. And so to this point, the city has been able to maintain a strategy of preserving those trees at all costs. Even if it meant uh re um refixing those sidewalks and those streets over and over again, the city's going to lose its ability to continue to refix those sidewalks and is going to have to take a a different strategy of replanting and putting in the appropriate trees that that won't cause that ongoing cost. you know, however, you know, it's going to take many years for those those trees to mature. And that's just one example of some of the things that are happening. Um, wanting to make some other comments from Vice Mayor Sloan that she brought up that I think are are important. You know, things that I've I've heard recently is about the the city being subject to the market conditions uh that that are facing all of us. And the the interesting thing with us as a city is we only face half of the market conditions. So we face the increase in expenses. However, whereas uh gas and um groceries and every other service around us is able to increase their costs at their own discretion to match the cost of their their new expenses. The city has to ask permission to increase those rates and that's what this assessment district process was. So we are subject to them but only on half and unable to do what other folks uh do. and also some con um comments I've heard around uh belt tightening and I've mentioned in

previous meetings that we are definitely doing that already. The issue is is because of the trajectories and the example that you gave about if wages didn't increase from the '9s. You can imagine um what that kind of belt tightening would be in the early 2000s, the 2010s, you know, all the way to where we're at now. At first it might be cutting your gym membership. a few years later, you're cutting your your health care. Um, and then you're it starts to get progressively worse because you can't um belt tighten your way out of those types of trajectories where your expenses are just going up at that rate and your revenues aren't. The only way to resolve this issue would be a combination of right looking at ways to be more efficient with our funds to definitely tighten where we can uh while we're in this moment. But the ultimate solution has to be increasing revenues to match the expenses that are increasing around us.

Any additional questions?

Um, real quick, there is one item I did fail to mention. Some of the U municipalities that have had issues and challenges with street trees specific u most of them ended up being the um I would say more water watered areas along the coastline. They actually put in place a 25 and 30 years recycle or replanting of trees themselves. So after 25 to 30 year cycle of that tree, it is then replanted in specific neighborhoods. If you stagger that throughout, you won't have a full community that has to be reforested all with young immature plants. But at least this way you could cycle through the community. Council member Nemore point taken as well and and coincidentally I spent this weekend and had a chance to visit our past city manager Dave Derlinger and uh we can't for whatever reason can't get away from talking about work even when we're not there and we spoke about that exact idea and the issue and the reason why there I think we have to get exactly to where you where you're saying but why there's going to be some early pain points is that u and we've heard Dave say this at last year at state of the city is that all of our pavement and tree planting happened between the 60s and 70s and it's all deteriorating at the same time or the trees are all hitting that point of where that damage is happening at the same time and creating a little bit of an inability to do the staggering that we do we will need to change to. So, I think what we're looking at is maybe a a major overhaul that's going to be noticeable for folks with us looking to uh have some sort of system like you mentioned in the years moving forward. Um, and I'd like to just say I appreciate your explanation or your um just what you're sh you're sharing in terms of like the the belt tightening because I hear that often and feel pressure in terms of like yes yes we need to spend less but the reality is is

that we're really status quo in a lot of what the city is doing and is managing things or departments um with small small budgets. Um, and like you all said earlier, we've we've had three new positions in the last five years. And so, how can we, especially just after the the update from the county in terms of their building a strategy and their hearings, like how can the council have more in more in-depth look on I mean, this assessment district is just on trees, right? But it's clear that trees need to be addressed. Sidewalks need to be addressed because they're h safety hazards, at least in my opinion. Streets need to be a priority. That's my opinion as well. So, I think my question is how can we I'm feeling this pressure to really like deep dive into the budget on some of these these items. And I want to know how we can best do that in a way that's yes, transparent, but also give the council an opportunity to really ask these these hard-hitting questions because um I I think we are doing what we can with the budget that we have. I don't think we're we're spending more than what we need to, but there's still that pressure of spending less or or not allocating as many dollars to certain things. So, open-ended question, but I' I'd like to hear what

Yeah, Mayor, that's a that's a great question and one of the things that we're going to be uh addressing in our finance committee meetings moving forward and then looking to make a part of that second meeting in April as we look at, you know, our CIP is one of the the big deals here. I know a lot of times we get a lot more participation at our operations part of the budget meeting, but our CIP is equal to or greater than that and has a larger impact uh on the city. And so we're going to be looking at all of that and coming to the council with solutions. Uh I know that there's a number of different concepts out there that we'll be able to explore. Um the city hasn't borrowed any monies since 1989 and I think I was having conversations related to the pool and the parking lot and the number of things. But as things increase, the city will have to look at creative ways to save money. So with our last pavement project, we know that the original engineers estim estimate came somewhere in the $3 million range and by the time we had a chance to pave it, it was $6.5 million. So would the city have been better off um borrowing or using, you know, different different funds to get it done at the $3 million price so that we didn't have to pay the 6.5 million. and but that's also a a a difficult um thing for people when we haven't borrowed in so long and there's a certain amount of pride that comes with us not having to do that. However, we're looking at Galita and and those who just put out bonds for millions of dollars to to fix all of their streets because they realize if they wait till they have the money saved oftent times by the time you get the money saved it doesn't cover the cost of the work anymore. So, it's going to be creative options like that that we'll be bringing to the council. uh for revenue generation, um borrowing, a number of different things, and then the council will have a chance to to u uh vet staff's analysis and then make decisions on that moving forward.

One quick follow-up comment is I I think that that's really important for us to to do the deep dive into the budget and to understand that. And I also think it's really important for residents to understand though that stopping new revenue sources is going to mean cutting spending to things that they value a lot. So when people give us comments like you the city needs to spend less just stop spending that's going to inevitably be on some programs that are important to them too individually because everybody you know it it it's hard that I know it's really easy rather it's easy to to think that things should be cut as long as they're not the things that are important to you or that you prioritize or need. And I would just encourage residents to try to think about the fact that the city is it it's in the business it's in the business of providing services to the residents and it has to be a partnership in order to move forward because everything we pay for now whether it's groceries or gas is so much more than it was 30 years ago and the same it's the same with the costs that the city comes across when we're trying to provide services to the public. So I just I hope that there can be a balance of really like looking into the budget but also understanding that the bottom line is we do need more revenue sources because prices are going up everywhere no matter what.

Yeah. Points and vice mayor solo know that that there's a number of u you know there's that idea of unfunded state mandates that people have heard for years. The city is is subject to those as well. we have things that we can't cut without, you know, uh, without negatively impacting the city, ability to receive funding for other things from the state. And so those things have to be kept up. And I don't think, um, you know, that's something we'll have to work on as staff to communicate that to the public about the things that we we have to do, things related to trees and sidewalks. You can let those go and save money, but then when you have trip and fall incidents and claims, it can cost the city more money in the long run. So there's going to be places where we we have options and there's going to be places where um we don't. But it comes down to then those discretionary things uh that the council has the opportunity to decide on every year related to programs that we support in the community and various things that are going to be those items that we're going to um be considering if we continue on this trajectory.

Okay. Any additional questions? No additional questions. I'll ask for a motion from the council. Um, I'll move that the city council direct the city clerk to declare the results of the property owner protest ballot uh proceeding the for the formation of the carpentry landscape maintenance district number 20251 approve resolution number 6446 closing the public hearing certifying the results of the property owner protest ballot proceeding and since a majority protest exists abandoning the proceedings for the formation of the carpentry landscape maintenance district number 20251 and levy of assessments for FY2026 627. Second. We have a first and a second. Roll call vote, please. Council member Mayor,

I. Council member Nura, I. Vice Mayor Solarso, I. Council member Clark, I. And Mayor Alakon,

I. Motion passes. We will move on to item number 17 which is public hearing to declare the results of the property owner protest ballot proceeding for the formation of carpenter coastal burm assessment district and the levy of assessments commencing fiscal year 2026 2027. So we now continue the March 9th, 2026 public hearing regarding the proposed carpenter coastal burm assessment district for the purpose of declaring the results of the tabulation and if no majority protest exists considering formation of the coastal burm assessment district and levy of assessments for fiscal year 2026 2027. Following the close of the public testimony portion of the public hearing on March 9th, 2026, city council announced the close of the period for submitting ballots and directed the tabulation of ballots to occur in public view to determine whether majority protest exists. Before we proceed to announce the results of the protest ballot tabulation, we would like to invite any remaining public testimony. Anyone wishing to speak on the proposed formation of the district or the assessments should present a speaker card to the city clerk and that what this means is uh opening public comment. I do not have any speaker slips

and mayor we have no one on Zoom. Okay, no one on Zoom. We will close public comment. Um and I will ask will the city clerk please announce the results of the protest ballot tabulation and indicate whether majority protest exists. Thank you, mayor. The results of the property owner protest ballot proceeding indicate that a majority protest exists. This means that ballots submitted in opposition to the proposed assessment represent a majority of the weighted assessment ballots returned. Therefore, pursu pursuant to article 13D of the California Constitution and the applicable provisions of the government code, the proposed assessment shall not be imposed.

Thank you. I'd like to bring it to the council and open up any questions or comments. Sure. Um so given the fact that the occur current assessment uh income from the burm is not enough to sustain it, is it possible to um opt to keep the burm up year round and not c and just pay for putting it up and not taking it down and putting it up? Would that be an option?

Vice Mayor, that's a really good question and you know staff did explore that. Um the the city's burn program is governed by permits issued by multiple regulator regulatory agencies including California Coastal Commission, uh Department of Fish and Wildlife, Regional Water Quality Board, and the US Army Corps of Engineers. So those p those permits really specifically require that the burm be constructed and removed within a defined seasonal timeline. Um, so leaving the burm in place year round would not be consistent with those existing permits. So we'd actually have to uh and oh and then if we do that if we do that without getting new permits we would expose the city to regulatory violations and fines and stuff. So any change to year round burm would require a new or amended permits to do that. um including environmental review, biological monitoring requirements and approval from those multiple agencies that I mentioned. That process would be extremely complex, very time consuming, expensive and it and it might not even uh guarantee that it would be approved.

Um so it's not the best option, but if that's the direction of the council, it is something we can definitely explore. Well, I think given that that basically the assessments are not paying for the maintenance of the burm, are there any other cost savings that we can apply to the burm? I and I don't know the answer might be that there isn't, but I I just given that the the property owners opted to not increase the the rates um you know to to actually sustain the burm, are there any ways that we can can tinker with the dimensions of it or the the height or or anything like that?

Yeah, thanks Vice Mayor. Uh short answer unfortunately no. The Burm unlike the landscape maintenance district really has those strict permitting requirements that we have to maintain and manage. So like I said the seasonal construction and removal requirements that are under the regulatory permits, environmental monitoring and reporting, emergency response during storm events, labor equipment and material costs. Those are the main cost drivers and there's not much flexibility to those. So unfortunately, you know, besides potentially the the leaving the burm up year round, there's really no other cost-saving measures with the burm that we can institute. Thank you.

Um Ryan, I do I have a question or something we may want to look into. I know the uh channel counties division of legal California cities um they're going through a lot of initiatives right now because of the loss of u the erosion of beaches. So they're losing sand in itself. We on the other hand are just the opposite because we're a north facing beach. I bring this up because there is potential that funding was is going to start coming more to the U Channel City's areas and that would be in the way of reanding beaches. If this were the case, we may be able to fit that into some of the upcoming grants as a potential something you may want to just look into. Council member Neora noted south facing beach. Um and uh you know as we look at various things that we have in our CIP the the dune management system and those types of things uh those are going to some more permanent solutions that we're going to look at. And I'm sure, you know, that's going to have its pros and cons as as folks that are there on the shore have have enjoyed various clear views of the burm going up and coming down as we have to look at more permanent solutions. Those are things that I think those property owners will be taking into account and thinking about. Um, real quick, one of the challenges I see is the closest one, uh, that is Ventura, Port Wine, where they're losing substantial amounts of, um, sand on the beaches themselves. One of the solutions that was posed forward is that they try and figure out some way to retain the sands that are north of them being us. So, that may in fact assist us as far as trying to fund it and having the the beach sand actually um, stored here in Carponia. Any

additional questions or thoughts? Um I I think just to sum it up, I think it just puts us in a difficult situation. Um having that this is this assessment district didn't pass or in the way that we had hoped for. Um and so just encourage staff to take a really close look in terms of how our costs expenses with the burm. Um the burm itself was probably something that you know the I don't know if there's certain requirements to do the entire beach or if it's we maybe we've done the entire beach just because in the past but re-examining or analyzing um how we've how we've done that how we've laid it out to see if there are any cost savings. I I would like to bring up one point SP sorry this is very specific to the actual measure itself that failed and that was um the reason for this was because of the um sea level rising factor and the more vulnerable properties and areas we have along the beach. I would highly recommend that we start tracking to see what in fact results we are getting from the sea level rise to see if in fact we are becoming vulnerable quicker than later than we expected. at least this way. Having a tracking of that one to current times would give us justification potentially to readress this, take a look at it and do a restudy.

I appreciate that the comment, Council Member Numero, because I think there there is some pretty uh strong evidence just in the last, it wasn't last year, I think it was the year before when the water did breach the burm at Ash, right? And it went over and it went into the neighborhoods. And I thought that maybe that might have been something that that property owners in that beach neighborhood might might have remembered because that was pretty shocking. Um it it it really it um and and so to your point exactly. I think that we are seeing that the impacts of that sea level rise much sooner than people anticipated. But um um I I I guess it it wasn't enough to to have people want to pay a little bit more to to sustain the burm.

Actually have a question. um how well one the estimated cost of of the city to um do this these assessment ballots. What was the cost that we spent? And then two for this in particular, you know, after that the the last comment um would it be beneficial for us to redo this assessment in the future? How easy would it be? Like would we have to spend the same amount of money that we did this last round? Um, and this one was what, 44 in support and 56 in opposition in terms of percentage- wise.

Uh, yeah. Um, mayor, those are really good questions. So, in terms of the cost, um, that's something we'll have to follow up with you. I can I can definitely dig into the budget and get those numbers. Of course, the city attorney office helped a lot and and those numbers will be a little harder to quantify because I'll have to look at their invoices. Um, and then sorry, what was your second question? Oh, if we could um would it be a cost savings if we decided to do this again for the

BM? Yes. So, um you know, we've talked about this and um with staff and also our consultants. The Prop 28 process is really hard. It's very challenging. Number one, there's a lot of strict legal rules we have to follow. It it can be confusing to the property owners. Number two, it is a property owner process, not a voter process. So, you tend to get differing um different voter numbers than you would if it was in a regular election um that doesn't just have property owners. Um and then three, it is very timeconuming um and and and it does cost money. It's expensive. You know, I think the LMD and the staff has discussed this. I think the landscape one is likely one we should abandon and and and look at other ways to bring in revenue for the city to cover those costs. The Burm I think does and Michael and I have discussed this. I think it does present some opportunity because the ballot was so close. Um the ballot count was close roughly you know 11 ballots give or take. Uh so that was close. It was a close one. So I think there is some some potential there. Again, the Burm only brings in 20,000 right now. It would bring in a H 100red if it to cover the cost. Again, not a substantial amount of money. So, the we would have to weigh the return on investment and the cost to do it again versus the ongoing. And then, as Michael mentioned, there's other plans in the works like the DUNE management plan um that could potentially resolve the issue going forward. So, I think it's something that staff can definitely explore if the council wants us to do it again, but I I do think and Michael can expand on this. Um, I do think we should start looking at other avenues to bring in revenue for the city.

Yeah, Mayor, I'll just add that I know it's 100,000 plus. Uh we'll get that exact number for you. But that was one of the reasons I think I'd explained in past meetings why uh that escalator was built in there that would allow the council to increase it because the cost of of just going through this process $100 $200,000 when you have to do all the various legal items that are with it would just eat up, you know, a lot of that money if we were doing this, you know, every single year, every few years. And so, um, I think, uh, Ryan said it correctly. We'll be maybe looking at the the, um, the winterm versus the landscape. Um, you know, we heard comments about, you know, the community not necessarily supporting it and because of the reasons that, uh, uh, Ryan mentioned about this being a property owner vote, right? And that's one of the tough things about this as uh the assessments didn't pass and you look to reduce services for people who live in town. Not all of those people who live in town had the opportunity to vote. I heard from you know a number of people were very in support of what we were doing. Um but if they rented or again didn't own a property um you know on the shoreline to even weigh in on the um on the winter BM they didn't have an opportunity to vote either because they weren't in the district or because they weren't property owners. And it's tough because the impact will affect folks that that live here. Um, and there are other items that we're looking at similar situations with um where we'll have the council will have to consider our our parks maintenance tax. The um landscape maintenance district covered everything outside of the parks and the city's rightway. At some point in time, we're going to have to look at all the maintenance the city has done in the parks and consider whether it's worth going through uh that process. It's uh different than the 218 process, but it's also a very difficult one that requires

a super majority of 67%, but we're in a very similar position. And depending on, you know, the feedback that we receive about this moving forward will be whether the council and you know, staff want to consider looking at that um uh you know, in the years ahead. And then I'll just add one more thing. Thank you, Michael. Uh we do have the uh revenue analysis study that was conducted by HDL as per the city council's direction. Um we are bringing that to the council at the next meeting uh April 13th. Um and we will be analyzing that study with the council and asking for direction to proceed with um some sort of revenue measure based on the council's direction.

Thank you. And I will uh bring it back to the council for a motion. Um, I'll move that the city council direct the city clerk to declare the results of the property owner protest ballot proceeding for the formation of the carpentry coastal burm assessment district. Approve resolution number 6447 closing the public hearing certifying the results of the property owner protest ballot proceeding and since a majority protest exists abandoning the proceedings for the formation of the carpentry coastal burm assessment district and levy of assessments for FY202627. Second. We have a first and a second. Roll call vote, please. Council member Mayor, I. Council member Namura. Hi. Vice Mayor Solarso. Hi. Council member Clark.

I. And Mayor Alcon. I. Motion passes. And I'll now ask for a 10-minute recess. We'll be back. Thank you.

meeting today is March 23rd, 2026 and we will resume our council meeting with number item number 18 which is the city's 2025 general plan annual progress report to the governor's office of land use and climate innovation LCI. I and the California Department of Housing and Community Development, HCD.

Thank you, Mayor and Council members. My name is Megan Musaf, and I will be giving a brief overview of the general plan annual progress report. Of course, this is a much longer report and so for brevity, I will try to just be hitting the highlights this evening. A little bit of background on why we do this report every year. Um this is a required annual report on the city's general plan um pursuant to government code 6540. We submit this report annually to the governor's office of land use and climate innovation as well as housing and community development each year. And this report is separate from but related to the housing element annual progress report um which your council approved at um the most recent city council meeting before this. The purpose of this report is really just to provide both the state of California as well as the public with information and updates on what the city has been doing to implement the goals and policies of the general plan. This document has five main sections. An introduction, a review of development activities and projects, and a program review. This is mostly um planning and building related items. The main section of the report is the general plan elements and implementation which is where we review the progress under each element that's been made throughout the year. Um the fourth section is if there have been any amendments to the general plan coastal land use plan and the zoning code during the reporting year. And finally, a section called goals, priorities, and objectives. And here is where we're trying to show the ties between the city's current strategic plan and our general plan. Um, so to begin some of the highlights

from 2025, um, in that year, the city issued 330 total building permits and 12 certificates of occupancy for residential units. And this is an increase in the total number of building permits from the prior year. Our architectural review board reviewed 22 separate projects throughout the year. And our planning commission held eight meetings in 2025. And at these meetings, they approved six development plans, three conditional use permits, and certified one environmental impact report, which was for the Chevron oil and gas processing plant decommissioning. and a couple of highlights um from your council's actions last year. Um in 2025 um the city council moved to form a standing public engagement committee. Your council adopted citywide goals and values for our two-year strategic plan. The council adopted the California Coastal Commission modifications um in order for us to implement our housing element program one. And this program created the new residential mixeduse zone and our objective design standards. The council approved a memorandum of agreement with Santa Barbara County's Office of Emergency Management for some disaster preparedness tools, so the ready SBC alerts and the Genesis emergency zone mapping system. Your council heard an appeal of the Chevron decommissioning project and voted to uphold the planning commission's decision to approve the project. Your council designated $10,000 for nonprofits supporting our immigrant community in Carperia and we celebrated the city's 60th anniversary in 2025 which was exciting. And along with that um we also held a state of the city event. So now I'll move into just reviewing um

a couple of the highlights from each of the elements of the general plan. Um again these are just highlights. Um there are many more programs and actions noted in the complete report. Our land use element has um strong overlap with our 2025 housing element implementation. Um and again I just covered the housing element annual progress report at our last meeting. But I think the key item here is that in 2025 we implemented program 1 which created enough zoned capacity in the city to accommodate our arena allocation which is very important. Um additionally staff created the proposed housing projects section on our city website to provide the public with information on applications for housing projects which proposed 25 or more units. Um, in the interest of public information and transparency for our community design element in 2025, the objective design standards took effect. These design standards apply in the new residential mixeduse zone as well as for any projects that are wanting to use um streamlined permitting review under state law. And these objective design standards provide a minimum level of required detail and design for projects to adhere with so that when the architectural review board and planning commission don't have the authority to review them as ministerial projects. The circulation element is all about how people move in and through the city. The planning commission approved the Franklin Creek Trail improvement in July and the architectural review board gave their final approval in October. Um, this project will provide an accessible pathway connecting 7th Street to Carpia Avenue. And also, um, the construction contract was granted in summer 2025 for the Lynen Avenue improvements project between

Carpia Avenue and Sawyer Avenue. Um the main construction on this is mainly complete. Um and this project provides upgrades to bicycle, pedestrian, and storm water infrastructure on this key road in the city. And for our open space, recreation conservation element, in February of 2025, the Land Trust of Santa Barbara County announced that they had acquired approximately 2 and a half acres at the far east end of Carpentria, um, now known as the Rinkcon Gateway. And no formal agreement has been formed between the land trust and the city. However, this application or um this acquisition by the land trust does open possibilities for these parcels to potentially expand the Ringcon Bluffs Preserve. Over at Monte Vista Park, the off leash off leash dog park pilot program continued for its second year to allow parks, recreation, and community services to assemble an application to form a permanent dog park um at the same location at Monte Vista Park. This was actually a pretty big year for our citywide safety efforts. Um C, the community emergency response team uh trainings resumed in 2025 after a fairly long hiatus. Um the C training wrapped up in July and resulted in a new cohort of residents with disaster response training. City staff also participated in EOCC, emergency operations um center and um shelter preparation trainings in the event that the city has to open up an emergency shelter. And FEMA approved our new flood insurance rate maps for the city which will become effective in June of this year. And these are the maps that show in the city where our special flood hazard areas are for our noise element. Um, the city continues to require entertainment licenses for

businesses that host live music. And these licenses have conditions attached to them that help to mitigate noise. For example, certain hours of the day or number of days per week that live entertainment is allowed. Moving along to our public facilities and services element, the living shoreline uh project made progress in 2025. The consultant for the environmental review and engineering design services was selected for this project and they began work on early planning and technical studies for the living shoreline. This project will use nature-based techniques to provide onshore uh to protect onshore properties and infrastructure uh from flooding and sea level rise. And over at the pool, consultants and the city conducted a facilities needs assessment in April 2025 and identified about $1.2 million in necessary repairs. Staff have pursued multiple grant opportunities to fund this project and a request for proposals for project design was released in November. Um, Parks, Recreation, and Community Services has reviewed the three responses to this RFP and is currently in contact contract negotiations with the top pick. And the last thing that I'll touch on um is our current general plan update that we are undergoing. While this report is based on the city's current 2003 general plan, we do continue to make progress towards our new general plan. A few weeks ago, an updated draft of this document was uploaded to the project website. Um, and this is accessible through the hot topics. So, if you go to the city's main web page and just scroll all the way down to the bottom, you'll see this grid of hot topics. And the coastal land use plan/general plan update is available here at the center

bottom. This updated draft that we uploaded shows some strikeout underline um with comments explaining some of the larger changes that have been made since the last draft was released. The next step for our general plan update is environmental review um which will begin with a notice of preparation and a public scoping meeting for the draft programmatic environmental impact report. And as always, members of the public can sign up for our general plan update newsletter to receive project updates as they come. So that brings me to the end of my staff presentation. Um staff's recommendation is for your council to accept this report and direct the community development department director to submit this report to LCI and HCD. Um, I want to thank my colleagues in the other city departments for contributing um, information to this report. This was definitely a team effort to compile. Um, and I'll also note that Nick Babuff and John Alassen are here if you have any um, questions about um, some of the programs mentioned in this report. But thank you very much. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you. Questions from council? Sure. Just two quick questions. Um I first of all I thought the report was really a great resource document to just show what's been accomplished over the past year. Um in the community design element it was helpful to be reminded of some of those design guidelines that we have in place for some neighborhoods in the city. I think it's for uh Konchaloma the beach neighborhood and then single family neighborhoods north of Highway 101. Is there are there plans to continue doing that in the other uh neighborhoods within the city in the future?

Thank you Vice Mayor. That's a good question. Um, we do have the intention of continuing to develop design guidelines as well as potentially more objective design standards like we did for the residential mixeduse district. Um, I believe this effort is in our strategic plan. It may be more of an on deck item. Um Nick can can correct me if I'm wrong just just due to staff capacity, staff workloads, other competing priorities, but it is the community development department's intention to continue to write these uh design guidelines and standards.

Yeah, thanks Megan. Just to add on to that, uh Vice Mayor, so right now in the current general plan, it does call for eventually developing additional design guidelines for these other neighborhood districts in the city. And to Megan's point, I think going forward, our emphasis is going to be to move away from these more subjective guidelines and instead really focus in particularly for residential areas or areas that can accommodate residential development moving towards objective standards. So I think it'll still get us to the same end point, but it may take a slightly different form.

That makes sense. Thank you. And then my just my other question is um in the circulation element, one of the projects mentioned was that Lynen Avenue improvements project which just seemed to wrap up. Um I think the work looks really good. Uh some community questions I've received about that are um why that project was taken on um in instead of maybe other uh capital projects. And so I just wanted to confirm the what was the funding source for that Lynen um Avenue improvements project. Um I'll invite our public works director John Alawson to come up and answer that question

through the mayor c vice mayor uh solar council members. Good evening. So the source of the funding for the Lynen Avenue improvements project between Carp Avenue and the Lynen Avenue overcrossing is it's called the circulation improvements fund and that is measure a money that was allocated or appropriated to the city of Cartria due to the CALR highway 101 project. So they are discretion uh they are discretionary for a restricted fund specifically for pedestrian bicycle improvements which this particular project is

right. So and I think some of the confusion was maybe not understanding that that wouldn't be the same bucket of money that we would use for say like the general pavement rehabilitation um project or other things like that. I think I just want to kind of call out that this there was a specific funding source that was for this Lynen Avenue project that that's funding that could not have been used for other um for unrelated projects. That's correct. I appreciate you being educated on that. There are misconceptions about that. Uh but the circulation improvement res is specifically for pedestrian bicycle improvements. Uh unfortunately not for pavement.

Right. Thank you very much. Do we have any additional questions from council?

Actually, I do real quick. Uh John, I hate to bring you back up here again, but the question, same project. That's why I was going to ask you about with that project being almost done. Um when we say that is there any um I would say improvements to the side where the asphalt has not been yet um worked on and is it going to be slurried or anything like that or just remain the way it is? uh through the mayor, council mayor Numura. Uh coincidentally, the public works department staff, the construction management staff, and the contractor, Torah Enterprises, are going through the construction accounting of the project. And this is not a promise, but we're going to look at particular um the the funds that would be RA because right now uh what it seems like there may be additional funding from the project budget to do so. And I'm I've already reached out to the president of Toro Enterprises to see what we could they could do for us with the remaining funds. So right now it's a negotiation. Uh so it's not nothing concrete or any type of promise in that way. But uh that is coincidentally we are looking at as uh resurfacing the entire street. You as you probably noticed is it's just half the street. Yeah.

And that's has to do with the pavement transition, right? Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Okay, seeing no other questions, I will open up public comment. I do not have any speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom? Mayor, we have no raised hands. I will close public comment and bring it back to the council for any further questions or um comments. And of course, a motion. Um, I'll move to accept the 2025 general plan annual progress report and to direct the community development director to submit the report to the governor's office of land use and climate innovation and the department of housing and community development. Second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? None. Motion passes.

Thank you for your presentation and all your work on that. We will now move on to item number 19 which is resolution adopting the city council policy titled policy on policies and initiating a legal policy audit.

Good evening, mayor, council members. Yes, thank you so much. Um really excited to have our management analyst Ryan Benson present this item to you tonight. Uh this is just a process um of improving our transparency and our efficiency as per the city council strategic uh goal setting sessions guidance that you've provided staff. And so I'll turn it over to Ryan Benson now to present this item.

Oh, all right. Good evening, mayor. Good evening members of the council. Tonight I'm presenting the policy on policies update. Okay, let's go. This project began as a directive from Ryan Kintz, the assistant city manager to audit the city's existing administrative policies. During the consolidation of of policies, um the city clerk, uh Brian Baron and I realized that this project was not as simple as updating a few outdated policies and then consolidating all of those into a repository. Uh we realized that the entire system for managing policies um needed to have a revision. With this in mind, uh Brian and I designed a new policy framework that's intended to outlast any staffing changes in the future. So we we we kind of built it to last. Tonight I'm going to be presenting why the policy on policies update was necessary, the new policy framework, um and then um on to discussing next steps. So as an overview, chapter 2 in the municipal code, um the city manager maintains operational control for the city. Higher level council and city manager approved policies and then lower level department um procedures define how these operations are conducted. When policies and procedures are up to date, when they're clearly understood um and are implemented throughout the organization, those policies then help point the city towards council directives as well as um keeping the city in a federal and state uh law compliance. The original 1968, let's see. Oh, here it is. The original

1968 policy on policies authorized the city manager to issue administrative regulations and established a centralized repository for city policies called the administrative manual. And it's still used today. It's it's in Brian's office. However, the resolution didn't update how um didn't have a framework to manage the life cycle of policies with regards to creating, amending, and then removing those policies. And so, because of that, there's just this pileup of created policies, amended policies, and then outdated policies. And it's it's what we call a policy mound. And so because of this policy pileup, city operations are affected. Confusion sets in. For example, some staff might follow one policy that was adopted in 2006 while another staff member uh might follow a more updated policy. Understandably, this might cause some internal operational friction. The more pressing issue though is from a risk management and human resources standpoint. So every 5 years um California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, CJPIA, they do an organizational audit of the city. One of the things they check for is if our policies are in compliance to federal and state laws. When laws are implemented or changed, policies also need to be created or updated as well. So what this new policy framework does is it ensures that staff efficiently integrates those changes from the state or from the federal law or local law. From a human resources perspective, policies are important for re retaining

institutional knowledge amongst the staff. When a staff member leaves um their knowledge and processes might leave with them. Um, so our our new policy framework helps maintain that institutional knowledge when everybody, you know, leaves and and transitions on. Uh, to develop this new policy framework, the city clerk and I took into consideration how other clerks manage their policies within organizations. So, we did that. We also received input from CJPIA from Tim, our risk manager. He gave us the thumbs up. He said it looked good. Um so the next few slides highlight some of the major updates. First um we created policy templates and instructions for staff. So we're not just thinking about the policy on policies but how to disseminate that through the organization. So instructions, we created criteria um for what policies need um city manager approval versus what policies need to be um presented to council um and approved via resolution. So we thought about that those details. uh and the framework is an also um an approval process to ensure higher level policies go through legal checks and align with council and strategic goals. So we have this um approval process uh um ensuring that takes place. The framework also provides um the city clerk with a policy numbering system which is new to manage uh amendments and then the removal of policies. So we um we kind of mitigate against that buildup. And so this last slide is is discussing where we go from here. Once the policy

framework has been adopted, staff um can start working to implement the policy on policies. Um and then we're we're doing this right now. We're thinking about new policies and then we're we're having people go through the process. Um so it's it's something new but we feel like it's going to be good uh from a risk mitigation standpoint. Um and then the second step is twofold. On one hand um staff will continue the audit process of of legacy policies. Um so we're also consolidating all of the departmental policies that maybe didn't make it into that repository. So we're doing that putting it all in one place and then we're going to evaluate what needs amendment. um what are those policies that maybe have been outdated and then bring the plan is to bring that to council um and I'm pretty sure as a consent item and we can just say hey this is what needs to be removed and then do it all in one sweep. Um but the the goal is just to have a good foundation set um for the city going forward with regards to policy and that's what I had tonight. Thank you for your presentation. Do we have any questions from council? I'm

sure. So, how many policies does a city have? It sounds like since we don't have a this uh policy on policies and it sounds like like there may be some all over the place over the years. What roughly number do we have? I would say a lot in in in in the official. Brian, do you want to do you want to say something to that? I I couldn't ascertain a number. Um, like I said, it's just a lot over uh 60 years. That's a lot. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, like and and also like in the at least in the spreadsheet like it's like maybe 150, but plus like the lot is is we're talking about the ones that are outside of that scope.

So maybe tens and you know, we don't we actually don't know. And there's also others that are included in resolutions and we have several thousand resolutions. So Okay. Yeah. I was because I was wondering how long it was going to take to do this audit of all the policies that are going back to I guess the city's formation. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it sounds like it's really good that that that's something that that you guys are are working on. Are there any specific areas of policy that are that you that particularly need to be addressed? Because I I know that there are policies for everything. Um so are there Yeah. Are there specific genres of policy that are on target focus?

Yeah. Uh recently we just did the loss control action plan audit. So CJPI came in I think last year. Ryan, is that right? He they came in last year and they audited our policies. Um so what we're doing now with the new repository is we're having a column that says if it's CJPIA loss cap um required or if it's not. Um most of the time those loss cap items are are um uh legal compliance. And so I think we're we're especially with that Ry Ryan and and Michael at the head, we're trying to make sure that we're getting into legal compliance. Um so I would say that would be a huge thing that we're working on right now. First is just identifying what we have and then the second thing is making sure that that we write those policies and it goes through this framework. Um, we've been trying to write a lot of those CJPIA policies, but at the same time, you know, Brian and I, we talk and we're like, I think we got to think holistically about this system before we implement just one policy. So, that hence the policy on policies.

That's great. And then this repository that you're talking about, would that be in the city clerk's office or is that your where would where will that live? Yeah, it'll be on uh the city's server for all employees to access. basically be like a Excel spreadsheet with hyperl uh policies. Great. Thank you very much. Any other questions? Um I was going to ask about the timeline just because thinking thinking about going through this feels very daunting to me, but do you have a general like goal in mind for when you would have this done?

You know, that's a good question. It's definitely it's going to be ongoing. I think there's that element to things. So, we'll probably do one thing implementing this new system. Um, the second thing is just going through the repository that's that we currently have on our Excel spreadsheet. Like I said, we're looking at maybe 150 policies. Um, a lot of that I we've already been through. Um, parks, for example, parks has some policies. Um, so we've we've already transferred that into the new system. Um so right now it's working on a lot of the HR policies. Um a lot of it's in in the general government realm and so that's what we're going through bit by bit. So it's taking some time. Um so I I maybe few I'm even I don't even know exactly the timeline. Maybe a few weeks to really get at at least through those 150 maybe two weeks from now.

That's amazing you know. Yeah. I was like I thought you were going to say a few years. Oh no no no. We could we could do it. Yeah. And and and what's good is is is Ryan and Michael, they're really putting that as a priority. Um so, you know, I think that's really valuable. I really commend you and think this is a very worthy and worthwhile endeavor. Ryan, I got a quick question for you. Um, when we had to shut down this building because of the black mold and we ended up moving to Via Realel, we put all of those documents in a storage bin. Are are you going through those?

So, Council Member Namar, I think you're referring to all the paper resolutions orances. Yes. Luckily, um, every time we do, uh, the resolutions, ordinances, we scan them and so everybody refers to the electronic copy rather than the paper copy. My gosh. So, that thing was wall to- wall. I mean, literally, you could barely walk through that thing. You guys did all those, huh? Already? I'm impressed. No, we haven't we haven't touched all of that yet. No,

that would be a daunting task in itself. Hope you don't find anybody in there. Okay. Is there you know you there it's mentioned that you know may maybe some policies are not necessary anymore and we get rid of those but might you going through history discover policies that maybe are needed new policies is that something that may occur?

Yeah. Yeah. I think I think we're coming into this with an open mind. Um, and there's there's probably some legacy stuff that that really smart people have put into place before. Um, and case like thinking about even digging up um Ryan and I, we were digging up the risk management policy, you know, lays out a lot of stuff for the risk manager and all of these duties and responsibilities and and it gave some framework to the risk program. Um, so I think digging up something like that and really relying on um the knowledge of of those people before I mean that's definitely something we're um keeping an open mind about for sure.

Council member Clark, if I can add. So one really good example is like a telecommunications policy. Often you'll find those with references to uses of pagers and number of things. the telecommunications policy is still a good policy, but it's not effective unless we update it with the times. And so to your point, that would be, I think, one of those examples.

I'd like to just say thank you for spending the time on this project. I mean, it's clearly very timely, but I think it'll make an an enormous difference in terms of the potential staff confusion that might be currently happening. And so this is like a foundational um project that needs to happen to really set up the city for success moving forward. So thank you for doing that. And um you gave me a really clear visual of what this policy mound currently looks like. So can't wait until you guys are on the other end of it. Great. Um okay, I will open up if there aren't any other questions I will open up public comment. I do not have any speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom?

Mayor, we have no Zoom speakers. I will close public comment, bring it back to the council for a motion. I'll move to adopt resolution number 6445 approving the city council policy on policies. Second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Quick quick question. Yes. Are you guys going to have a party when this is done? Yes. Uh that is huge. I couldn't imagine taking that on. We got to burn the last one. We will now move on to legislative update.

Uh thank you, Mayor Alicone. Um council members, we just have one quick update uh this evening. Um it's in regards to Assembly Bill 2517. um which would is being uh proposed to improve the fire hazard severe severity map zone mapping process by requiring the state fire marshall to update local responsib local responsibility area maps every 5 years um with a preliminary release public comment period as well as regional workshop. So the bill would also require public access to the data as well as the methodology in use being used which would um hopefully increase the transparency um behind the creation of those maps and then help local governments and and residents better understand the actual fire risk risk to their um their areas including uh related defensible space and home hardening requirements. So, League of California Cities does support this bill and recommend sending a letter uh of support as well.

Would any council members like to support this and sending a letter? Yeah, I think that really is applicable to to our area. And then just a reminder for public comment. Yes. Um okay, I will open up public comment. I have no speaker slips. Do we have anyone via Zoom? We have no Zoom speakers. Mayor, I will close public comment. And do you need a motion or do you have enough direction? There was consensus. I have enough direction. So, thank you.

Thank you. We will now move on to committee reports, inquiries, and other matters presented by council members. Looks like there are no updates and attendance of council members for future meetings. Yes. Yes. For everyone. And it is 8:29 and we will officially adjourn the city council meeting. Thank you. Thank you.