City Council - Special Meeting

In accordance with Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, if you require a disability-related modification or accommodation to attend or participate in this meeting, including auxiliary aids or services, please contact the City Clerk's Office at 310-952-1720 at least 72 hours prior to the meeting. Government Code Section 54954.2. Public information. The public may address the members of the City Council on any matters within the jurisdiction of the City Council or on any items on the agenda of the City Council during the designated public comment periods. There will be two oral communication sessions, one for agendized items, comments about items on the agenda, and the other for non-agendized items, comments about items not on the agenda. The all communication portion of the agenda is limited to a duration of one hour unless otherwise approved by the City Council. Comment time is normally three minutes depending on the number of speakers. Public viewing available by live stream on the city's website. The meeting will be streamed live over the internet via www.carsonca.gov. YouTube, www.youtube.com slash at City of Carson, California. Cable TV, Spectrum Channel 35 and AT&T Channel 99. carson tv app you may also download the carson tv app to stream the meeting app availability the carson tv app is available in the apple app store google play store roku and amazon platforms if you're not able to attend the meeting in person public comment can be submitted before the meeting via email the city clerk at carsonca.gov the cutoff time to submit any email communication is 3 pm on the day of the meeting written comments can be dropped off at the city clerk's office at city hall the cutoff time to submit any written communication is 3 pm on the day of the meeting written comments dropped off at the city clerk's office or any email received will not be read aloud at the city council meeting but will be circulated to the city council and incorporated into the record Public comments can be made live during all communications portion of the agenda. Pursuant to Senate Bill 707 and our commitment to public accessibility, we offer three ways for you to participate in person. If you're with us, please submit a public comment card to the city clerk. virtual two-way audio-visual platform Zoom. You may access the Zoom meeting information at carsonca.gov slash government slash live broadcast. To join us via phone, you may call 1-669-900-6833 and enter the meeting ID 846-366-3031-3POUND. Thank you, Bishop. We're calling to order. Today is Tuesday, August 11th, the City of Carson Housing Authority, Successor Agency, Public Financing Authority, and City Council Special Meeting Agenda. Roll call, Madam City Clerk.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Council Member Rojas? Present. Council Member Deer? Present. Council Member Hilton? Present. Mayor Pro Tem Hicks? Present. Mayor Davis-Holmes?

Present. Thank you. I have a flag salute by Council Member Deer, please.

Okay, everyone looks like you're ready. Stand if you can, and you start off the meeting.

THE INVOCATION IS PASTOR TULIS HERE.

Thank you, Father, for another day. We thank you for our city council, our mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, our council. We pray your blessings upon this body as they continue to do the work of you for the city of Carson. We pray blessings over our staff, our management team. We ask, O God, that you just continue to bless, cover, and keep, lead, guide, and direct. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Thank you. Closed session item number one and two. Madam City Clerk, any comments on closed session item? Oh, I'm not on yet? Yes, I am.

None, Madam Mayor?

Mr. City Attorney?

Madam Mayor, we have no need for these two closed sessions tonight, so we're ready to move to the regular agenda item.

Oh, we don't have to have a closed session?

We don't need it.

Oh, wow. Okay, well, let's move to the regular agenda.

Thank you. So we have presented to you a copy of the partially executed tax payment and settlement agreement. And I wanna just walk you through it real quickly to make sure that you're satisfied that the terms and conditions of the tentative agreement that was agreed to between the parties last night is actually reflected in the agreement. I know we have at least one representative from Tesoro watching this meeting. And I wanna confirm that your crack staff tracked down the county registrar recorder's office today. And you received this email, which we will be forwarding to Tesoro representatives after this meeting. Good afternoon, I am sending this email on behalf of the Elections Coordination Unit. We affirm that the Carson Oil Refinery Tax for city services public safety and environmental cleanup measure that was submitted to our office on Friday, August the 7th, has been officially rescinded and will not appear on the November 3, 2026 ballot. Please let our office know if you have any further questions, best regard. and Jetta Allen, Administrative Analyst 2, Elections Coordination Unit. So your resolution of rescission is now in effect. So what was the deal that we agreed to last night? $370 million, $120 million of it up front to settle the tax dispute litigation and the balance to be paid over 15 years. So With the agreement in front of you, if you wouldn't mind turning to page two of nine. And we're gonna start with section 1.1, annual business payment. And you'll see that in return for pulling the ballot measure, you will receive the sum of $16,666,666.67 over the next 15 years starting January next year. If you look at section 1.3, and that number, as I'll explain to you in a minute, is gonna get rounded up much higher than that.

But it can't go any lower. I'll tell you why.

If you look at section 1.3, you'll see $120 million to settle the tax dispute litigation. Now that money will come in a couple of forms. You are holding approximately $70 million in tax deficiency money that Tesoro paid in response to notices of tax deficiency. And we agreed until the litigation got resolved, we would segregate those funds from your general fund. And those funds will be released to you, I just talked with William, instantaneously, and you get to keep all the interest on that money that was earned while it was sitting in your internal escrow. The balance of that, which is about $50 million, you'll get in the next 45 days. Okay, now let's go to 1.5 on page 3 of 9. This says that Tesoro is gonna continue to pay Measure C, or as we technically call it, the Oil Industry Business License Tax, as currently calculated. They get no credit for it. There's an agreement about how we apportion that tax. That's the practice we've been using all along, but we've just confirmed it in writing. So that's why that massive number, 166666, I'm not sure if that's the sign of the beast or not, but anyway. That number will get rounded up between 20 and 25 million bucks a year when you add in Measure C tax plus the business payment that will be made. And then finally, We've already confirmed that the ballot measure has been rescinded, the county's rescinded it. We agree that the legal counsel for Tesoro will file a request for dismissal of the tax litigation. Technically, what is gonna happen now is the Supreme Court's gonna remand this case back to the trial court. When it gets back to the trial court, we will file a dismissal with prejudice. Tesoro has agreed that they will not seek to recover costs or attorney's fees from us in that litigation. That's in the agreement. So the deal is now done on paper, and if you turn to page nine of nine, you will see their signatures. So all that remains for you is a motion to approve this agreement, authorize the mayor to execute the agreement on behalf of the city. After this meeting's over, Madam Mayor, we're gonna ask you to stick around and sign the document. I've approved the agreement as to form on behalf of Ms. Soltani, who's out of the country. And you and Dr. Bradshaw will execute the agreement. We will email it back to them, and this is a done deal.

If I may just add, if I would, Madam Mayor and Council. The only caveat to everything that our councilor so eloquently spoke about is item number 17. I think that's very important. Initially, in the agreement, there was some back and forth between both the city and a marathon. And they pointed out, because it's still stated year nine, however, it has been coming to an agreement that this is in good faith that in year 14, of the annual payments that there would be renegotiation between both Marathon and the city. So in the 14th year of this agreement, there will be some renegotiation in regards to this particular agreement. So we thought that this was a very vital piece. So we're appreciative of both you all as a council and Marathon for coming together and having this included into your agreement. So congratulations.

Councilman Hicks is queued up. Thank you, Madam. I'm sorry. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just glad that we were able to get this done expeditiously and that we, I guess they say you bring out the big guns when you've got to have big issues to deal with. And I want to thank Mr. Bill Winder for coming out and addressing and helping us out. OG. Yeah, the OG and making sure this comes to fruition in the city. But, again, I mean, we had anticipated this. something on this magnitude, but just to know that the residents of Carson have received some funding that will now kind of solidify that we're able to do some things to get the city back on the right track. I know back in 2008, back when I was a staff member, we went through our economic downfall. We had deferred maintenance, a whole lot of things that has now caught up with us here in 2026. And then now we are finally getting the funds that staff that is here now can actually do the work to create a better city for all of our residents here in the city of Carson. I just want to say thanks to this city council for your tenacity and sticking it out. I know that sometimes we don't always be happy with the way we have to dig our heels in the sand and you gotta fight sometime. Sometimes it's not always a nice way, but you have to do it and stand your ground. But again, I'm just happy for that. With that, Madam Mayor, I wanna make the recommendation considering an approval, of the tax payment and settlement agreement by and between the City of Carson Tesoro Refinery and Marketing Company LLC and Tesoro Logistics Operational LLC and authorize the Mayor and execute the agreement forming approval as to form by the City Attorney. Second.

Second.

I'm queued up to just say while I'm ecstatic and excited that Tesoro Marathon came to the table, while this is $370 million on paper, This is actually over $400 million, considering that they gave their measure C, they're continuing to give their measure C mining. This is well over $425 million. if you add the numbers up. So I want to thank Tesoro. I want to thank Marathon. This is a great partnership, and I'm super excited that they are good partners and super excited that we were able to resolve and come to an agreement with the city of Carson, that they were able to come to an agreement with us. So incredibly grateful. that we can do more for the residents now.

Councilwoman. Well, I am very excited that we were able to come together and work as one, as a super majority. And again, working together with the people in the community, our major stakeholders, that's what it's all about maintaining relationships to help keep this city running smooth and that is what we ended up doing today so i am happy that all of us we were able to to work together and thank you to uh everybody involved and uh we've got work to do so looking forward to that congratulations to everyone here Congratulations to the city of Carson. Thank you.

Councilman D, are you not giving up?

Yeah, I also want to congratulate our great staff and our legal representation with Elshar and Winder. The company has been with us for how many years now, Bill? A long time. Over 20. So I think this is a term of success and it's going to be good for the people of Carson and good for all parties all the way around. Thank you.

Thank you. As the mayor of this great city, I want to thank you, Councilwoman, my bishop here. We don't always agree. We agreed on this. And to my mayor pro tem, this was a four one vote to add this to the tax, this tax to the ballot. And had we not done that, if I'd never received the four votes, we wouldn't have gotten anything. I wanna make it very clear. This council meeting was packed, and we had to make a decision. And that decision was, were we gonna stand up and say, we're sending this out? Because that was our negotiation arm. That's how we were able to get this settlement. And had we not had four votes, it would not have ever made the ballot, and you would be sitting up here talking about 450 million or whatever that dollar amount is. So I wanna make it perfectly clear. Sometimes you have to do what's not popular to the people that's sitting here. But in our hearts, we came together, the four of us, and said, this is what's best for the city. It gave us a negotiating arm. A lot of people didn't realize that. I know some of my colleagues may have said, you know, you better watch your election. But like I tell everybody, the Carson residents know that we work for them.

And we just came victorious off of fireworks.

campaign that everybody said we were gonna lose. Carson knows that we fight for them on their behalf and I'm telling everyone I will stand alone and be the lone vote if I know it's right for the residents of the city of Carson. And this is something we've been trying to get on this agenda for years before I was elected. But this is the first time that this council, the four of us, were bold enough to say, we're going to put this out there and put it on the ballot. We did it in 2007 with Measure C, and we did lose that. But I also hear, Mr. Attorney, that there is some difference in the appropriations that will boost that amount up. So we're almost where we wanted to be. but it gives us when you heard me speak at the why I was gonna put this, wanted to put it on the agenda. In one year alone, we have $159 million in infrastructure work that needed to be, that needs to be done, and our residents deserve that. And so I wanna thank all the staff for all that you have done, the hours that you've worked, the city attorney, both here and now. I said, bring my OG back. You're the short timer, but you know what? you fought a good fight, and even though we lost at the Supreme Court, it was a good fight, because again, that was the first time, and again, that was a 4-1 vote. I want our residents to understand one thing, believe half of what you see and none of what you hear, because everybody's gonna be around pounding their chest about this, 450 million, but understand who voted for it and understand who didn't. And I want to say thank you and we have a motion and a second on the floor. Madam City Clerk.

Yes, Madam Mayor, and your screens should be available for you to vote unless you just prefer to do a roll call vote.

Let's do a roll call vote.

Absolutely. Council Member Rojas. Yes. Council Member Deer. Yes. Council Member Hilton. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Hicks.

Yes.

Mayor Davis-Holmes.

I don't know.

Yes. Yes. The vote is unanimous. Motion carries. Congratulations.

Awesome, again, awesome. We will be able to get to really call this the jewel of the South Bay once we complete all those projects that we have on the table and when that medium comes in signage, everything that we're doing, it's just a great time and I'm just honored to be able to serve the residents here in the city of Carson as your mayor. You may not agree with everything that I do, but at the end of the day, it's for you. So thank you, where are we going from here? We'll have a signing and there's another meeting tomorrow. At what time? One o'clock? Yeah, the city manager will discuss that, let you guys know, but it's a special meeting. It's an amendment to the charter.

That's what it is.

Okay? So thank you, thank you, thank you to this wonderful staff. You guys are phenomenal. And Dr. Landis is back.

Did you have a wonderful vacation?

Good for you, good for you. I would also like to announce, before we close up, Brevin Baker, William Baker passed. Wayman Baker passed away. One of our longtime volunteers, he passed away. and the son passed, they're planning his funeral today, a son passed, and the son passed first, and he passed a couple weeks later, so Bishop, I know I said this, we're gonna adjourn, but could we give a prayer, because I wanted to announce that before our next meeting.

Let's bow our heads. Father, we lift up the Baker family tonight. Today, we pray that you would bless them and keep them and comfort them as they are going through this season of loss with their son and with their father. I pray that you would comfort and keep his children, his entire family. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Thank you. And I think that concludes this meeting. We don't have any presentations or minutes, and so what time is the meeting tomorrow? One o'clock, be a brief, short meeting. If I can get everyone in attendance for that meeting, I would really appreciate it. And then after that, we will be dark for the rest of August, right? Okay, this meeting is adjourned. And then I have to call you back out. Sonny will be back. It's always good to have good backup though. So thank you, thank you for being here. Bill Winder, my first city attorney when I was elected councilwoman. When I retired from staff, 2007. I know, I know. Okay, we're doing a monument in his honor, by the way.

Yes, the statue. When is that, in November? February?

Please. Okay. This meeting is adjourned.

Woo-hoo! Bill?