City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good evening and welcome to the July 21st council meeting. We have a special presentation this morning, or this morning, oh my gosh, here I go. I'd like to invite Chino Police Department Explorers, led by Explorer Jonathan Torres, who's gonna lead us in the pledge, so if you'd please stand.

Good evening, everyone. Please place your hand above your heart, please, your right hand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Jonathan.

Let's give him a hand. Okay, it's my honor this evening to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of one of Chino's most cherished spaces, our Chino Community Garden. Over the past decade, this space has grown into a place of connection, learning, and shared harvests. It's my pleasure this evening to honor the people and the plants that have made it all possible. I'd like to call up Rachel Phelps from Community Services, Parks and Recreation. She's our coordinator. Brittany Sarkal, our supervisor of Community Services, Parks and Recreation. And our Parks and Recreation specialist, Caitlin Chavez. And also... Sochi Huerta, Betty Cielo, and Nathan Franco, would you all please come up? It's Nathaniel, not Nathan. We have a certificate of congratulations and recognition. The City Council wishes you a happy anniversary as you commemorate 10 years of dedication to the health and wellness of the Chino community.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, members of the council. I also want to invite up, we have a couple gardeners here, so if I can invite them up. We have our master gardener, Esther Martinez, and then one of our plot owners, Ozzy Gomez. And the reason I wanted to call them up is because without people like them, the programming at the Chino Community Garden wouldn't be possible. We have our master gardeners of the San Bernardino County, the heart and soul of our garden, our gardeners, our partners like the Chino Branch Library and Green Chino. who make all of our programming at the gardening possible. And then we also want to give a special shout out to Scout 202, or Troop 202, and Nate Franco, because they did a service project at our garden, and they repainted our shed, restained our benches, and it looks amazing. So thank you guys for choosing the garden to do your service project.

Hi, my name is Nate, and like Rachel said, I had my ego project for the Chino Community Garden. First of all, I cannot express how thankful I am to everyone that supported me throughout this journey. First of all, I'd like to thank the Chino Garden staff. Thank you guys so much for everything. I truly could have not gotten it done without you. Secondly, I'd like to thank my troop for all the hard work they've put in. with me and during the Eagle Project. Finally, I also want to thank my parents. My mom's over there. She actually works for the city of Chino. I'm going to embarrass her a bit. I just want to thank them so much for keeping me going, pushing me through any hardships I had, and I'm just eternally grateful. Thank you, guys.

Okay, now time for a photo.

Kinda have to squash in.

Yeah, tall guys in the back.

Oh, there they are, three, one.

Thank you all again.

Okay, next we have a retirement recognition. It's my honor this evening to recognize our Development Services Director, Warren Morleon. Oh my goodness sakes. For 17 years of dedicated service to our community and you can tell he's just nuts. We're gonna miss him. Warren first joined the city of Chino in 2004 after starting his career in the city of Rancho Cucamonga. He left the city for five years, but like so many of our city staff, he couldn't stay away from Chino for too long and returned in 2016. Over the course of his career in Chino, he has held multiple positions before assuming the role of Development Services Director in 2023. Warren's commitment to Chino is reflected in every corner of this community. He helped navigate the city through the housing element and general plan update, and he guided our city's growth and development, especially in the preserve as Chino became one of the fastest growing communities in the country. A former Marine, Warren is known as a workhorse, often arriving early to get a jump start on the day. He's a team player, often bringing in his staff for discussions and giving them credit whenever possible. Chino's become his second home and that shows in the quality of work he's brought to this city every single day of his tenure. Warren, I wanna thank you so much for making such an incredible impact on our city. We are really gonna miss your work ethic and your humor. You would not believe this humor. And we wish you nothing but the best in your retirement. I have a city tile for you. the coveted city tile, and it reads, the Chino City Council, on behalf of the citizens of Chino, wish to express our appreciation for your 17 years of dedicated service to the city of Chino and its residents. I, in particular, am going to really miss this man. He has put up with so much nonsense from me. Questions and looking into things and all kinds of stuff, huh?

I would do it all over again.

Oh, so sweet. Such a good guy. We have been so blessed with your service here. Now, I'd like to call up, we have fire board members Tom Howey and Carvey Luth, and we also have fire chief Dave Williams for a presentation.

Wow, this is bigger than I thought.

All right. Warren, let me just read this out. proclamation here from the fire district. Throughout your distinguished career as Director of Development Services, you have demonstrated exceptional leadership, professionalism, and commitment to thoughtful planning, responsible growth, and the continued advancement of the community you serve. Your dedication to public service and collaborative efforts have helped shape the city of Chino and create a lasting positive impact for its residents. Congratulations on your retirement and best wishes for continued happiness, health, and success in this exciting new chapter of life. You know, I got to know Warren initially when I was on the planning committee. I spent some time on the planning commission many, many years ago. Warren was involved there and what Typically what I find with all of our staff is Warren exemplifies. He cared deeply about, he's not only capable, but he cared deeply about doing the right thing for the community. And I think we all benefited from that. So Warren, thank you. Congratulations.

Well, Warren, it's been a long time. I remember when you were here when you started and came back, and he's done a phenomenal job for the city, let me tell you. But he and I both played in the Chino Corporate Challenge together on the golf team, and I thought, you know, he's a great golfer. I thought we were going to win first place or whatever. What happened? We didn't win. Well, we did our best. We did good. We did good. But congratulations. You know, you're still too young to retire, I think. But you feel old? Okay. Yeah, you will. Anyway, congratulations. You've been a great employee, and good luck in your retirement.

You know, quick story. My name is very difficult to pronounce for a lot of people. And for years, I mispronounced Warren. He's so kind. He never said anything. I would call him Morleone. I'd try everything possible. And then I finally got it was Morillion. Took me a long time. Anyway, he's a great guy, and we're really going to miss him. His sense of humor, his dedication, his kindness. He's so kind. Even when we have projects coming up and we have people who are protesting or just angry. I mean, right now we're faced with some pretty horrible things because of the state that we're having to build in our community. And Warleon, Warleon. Now it's Warren. Oh, my Lord. But Warren is so good with dealing with people. He never loses his patience, and he's just so kind about everything, explains stuff. He's just been a great, great employee, and we're really going to miss you.

Well, thank you, Mayor. I didn't have a speech or didn't plan one, but I do want to point out the guys back there on the right, they're wearing my sweater. So they went and grabbed my sweaters out of my office and they're wearing them. Just wanted, I need some more light later on. All I want to say is thank you to Linda for giving me the opportunity. It's amazing. Got a great crew, staff out there. are also amazing. I learned to not only like them, but love them. Not only my staff, but everybody. EMT is awesome. I met the new lady. She is gonna be awesome, Swati. I didn't know she was a PhD, so I feel like she's gonna be way smarter than me. I wanna thank the council for all the trust you've given us, and I know we went a long way, and I appreciate you guys, because having you guys from behind with the trust makes a difference, and we don't feel like We're climbing a hill that's too steep, so I appreciate that. Fred, thank you for supporting me in my role, and that's it. As you can tell, this doesn't make me comfortable because I don't like celebrating me. Oh, sorry, Chief. Sorry, I didn't see you. He gave me that look. He gave me that look. But I don't like celebrating me. I like celebrating others. I just want to say I love Chino. It's my second home, and thank everybody for everything. It's been an amazing journey.

Okay, let's get a picture with them, and then I wanna bring his staff up and get a picture too. Okay, now staff, come up. Warren's staff.

Yeah, him with his staff.

And all the sweaters. I know. They raided his closet. Even Ben, even public works. It's hard when you lose good people. Next is the Mayor's Home Beautification Award. It's my pleasure to give the Mayor's Home Beautification Award for July to Mary Jane and Benjamin Sotelo of Vincente Street. Would you please come up and join me? We have a beautiful certificate honoring the beautification of your home. We have a picture. And you can see the home on the TV. We have two pin sets for you, one for each of you. We have two lapel pins. See, it just keeps coming. And then we have the coveted yard sign. See now, this is to encourage all of your neighbors to go into competition now.

There's one on Joaquin. I'm going to let her know. Well, you know, it took us a long time to get this done because when we moved here in 19... 97, our house was the ugliest house on the block. So I'm glad we got it done, but I'll be honest, this was my husband's idea. I did not wanna do this because all I wanted was green grass. And because of saving on the bill is what... Correct, correct. And so I did tell him I do not want one cactus, not one cactus whatsoever. But we got a lot of flowers and plants and bushes that would attract hummingbirds and bees and butterflies. And that is what we have today. And I'm a happy camper. And so I have a little patch of grass. And so I'm glad we did it.

So this award...

My husband does. I'll go and help. I'll go and help. But this was my husband's idea. So this is his award actually. So I did tell him he should thank me for it.

I just wanna say thank you to everybody. It came as a complete surprise. We had no idea that this was coming and my sons, they were also very happy, very proud and say congratulations. So thank you again, thank you to the city for this. It's amazing, thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Well, you've contributed to your whole neighborhood. Yeah, so this is nice. Yeah, we've gotten a lot of compliments. We're gonna get a picture. Oh, okay, okay. No, you have to turn the picture around.

Yeah, baby. And here, I'll hold the picture. There you go.

There we go.

One, two, and three. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you again.

Congratulations to you. Thank you. Prior to the council meeting, we did have a closed session. I'd like to ask our attorney to report out any action that was taken.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council, and all those present. As announced, the council met in closed session and held a discussion on two items out of the four that are listed on the agenda under the closed session portion of the agenda. Beginning with item one, conference with legal counsel, one item of anticipated litigation under the heading significant exposure to litigation. The city council received a briefing on that matter and no further reportable action was taken. Item number two, conference with real property negotiator concerning the property at 5349 East Phillips Boulevard. with the negotiating party being Christopher Thee. Under negotiation, our price in terms of potential acquisition, City Council received an update, provided direction, and no further reportable action was taken. And as previously announced, before recessing into closed session, items number three and four were pulled off the agenda and not discussed in closed session. That concludes the report, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you very much. City Manager Wright, do we have any agenda additions or changes? No changes, Mayor. Okay. Within our packet under information is the external agency report for July 21st. I encourage you all to access that online. It has some very interesting information. Next, under public announcements. First, I invite our citizens to participate in National Night Out on Tuesday, August 4th from 5 to 8 p.m. National Night Out is a nationwide event that brings neighbors and public safety personnel together to strengthen relationships and build safer communities. Chino police officers and Chino Valley Fire District firefighters will visit registered neighborhood gatherings throughout the city, spending time with residents, answering questions, and handing out some goodies. My fellow council members and I will be joining the festivities and visiting several neighborhoods throughout the evening. For additional information, please call 334-3217. Next, to allow the city council to participate in National Night Out, the meeting scheduled for Tuesday, August 4th has been canceled. The city council will also remain dark for its second meeting in August, which is scheduled for August 18th. Our next regular council meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 1st. Now, in memory of John Anderson, finally, we would like to adjourn tonight's meeting in memory of John L. Anderson, a longtime regional leader and scouting advocate whose service left a lasting legacy in Chino and throughout the Inland Empire. John was born in Chino on December 26, 1934, the son of former Chino Mayor Carl Anderson. He was born into a farming family, which gave him an incredible work ethic that lasted throughout his life. In fact, he spent most of his life as a farmer raising potatoes, sweet corn, cabbage, cauliflower, and yams. It was his life's work until 2000. John served on the Inland Empire Utilities Agency Board of Directors, formerly known as Chino Bay Municipal Water District, from 1979 to 2011. During his 32 years of service, he helped guide the agency through a period of significant growth and progress in water recycling, groundwater replenishment, renewable energy, infrastructure, and regional collaboration. John also served as the founding chairman of the Inland Empire Regional Composting Authority, helping establish a partnership that advanced the beneficial use of biosolids and ultimately led to the development of the nation's largest indoor composting facility. Beyond farming, and public service, John also had a passion for scouting and Troop 201, where he was an active member for 81 years. John became an Eagle Scout in 1952, served on the staff in served on staff for the 1953 National Jamboree, and served as scoutmaster and treasurer throughout his whole life. He was honored by this very council for his service to scouting in 2024, and the scout house on 11th and B now bears his name, a testament to the legacy of a man who embodied the Scout Oath and the Scout Law. His leadership and commitment to public service and scouting helped create a strong foundation that continues to benefit Chino and communities throughout the region today. John is survived by his wife Phyllis, his three children, and his eight grandchildren. On behalf of the city council and the entire city of Chino, we wish to extend our deepest condolences to the Anderson family, his friends, and former colleagues. So tonight's meeting will be adjourned in his memory. Okay, next is public communication. This is the time and the place for general public to address the council about items that do not appear elsewhere on the agenda. Due to council policy and Brown Act requirements, action cannot be taken on any issues that are not on the agenda. but we're happy to hear your concerns. Our first written request to speak is Pastor George Sasso from Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills. Now, George is going to lead us in invocation, and I invite all of those who wish to join us to please stand.

Let's bow our heads. Lord, we ask tonight that your peace that passes all understanding will come upon this place, Lord, that literally everyone here that serves in this city would feel your arms of love wrapped around them. Lord, you would help and guide them in every decision they make, that it would be decisions for this city that move us forward in every aspect, Lord. So we ask that you would continue the work that you've done here, and Lord, that your umbrella of protection will be upon this city forever. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you, George. Next written request to speak is Maureen Mo Mendoza. And Maureen, I'm gonna call on you again when we get to consent calendar.

I respectfully request that the City of Chino consider implementing a city-supported, low-cost spay and neutering program for the Chino residents. Many California cities have successfully partnered with local organizations to provide affordable spay and neuter services, helping reduce pet overpopulation, decreasing shelter intake, and improving animal welfare. I understand that the Paw Mission provides low-cost spay and neuter services and that AHRQ has a formal agreement with Paw Mission. I respectfully ask the City of Chino to explore whether that existing partnership can be utilized to provide affordable spay and neutering services to Chino residents. If that partnership is not available for this purpose, I respectfully request that the city work with Palm Mission or another qualified provider to establish a similar program. Expanding access to affordable spay and neuter services is proactive and compassionate investment. It can help reduce unwanted litters, decreasing the number of dogs and cats, entering shelters lessen overcrowding and ultimately reduces the number of animals euthanized due to the lack of available homes or shelter resources. I respectfully request that this matter be placed on a future city council agenda for discussion and consideration. Then also I have a second request regarding the quarterly agenda item regarding Animal Resource Center of the Inland Empire. I am once again asking that the city of Chino to place a quarterly ARC update on future city council agendas. The public deserves complete and transparent reporting on shelters operation. And basically, you guys all have a copy of the letter. And basically, it's just like the last one. ARC is sending out these messages of saying how many animals that they're intaking, how many animals are going to rescues, fosters, how many are going back to their owners. But they're not telling the public of how many animals they are euthanizing. It's still out of hand. And I believe it needs to be transparent. It's not transparent. They're only giving you a small shot of what they're doing. They're not giving you the actual things, everything that they're doing. And they're euthanizing too much. And there's so much that could be done to not have that happen. But I'm, again, asking for thought to be agendized and I don't understand why I never got a response back. That was January 20th of 2026 and I haven't heard anything, thank you.

Linda, that partnership she talked about, do you have that information?

I am not aware.

Mo, would you provide the information to staff on that partnership, please? Okay, next written request to speak, Dexter Jones.

Hello, I'd like to first of all thank everybody involved in providing the great activities and the atmosphere that we have over at the Senior Center. I've lived in the city for over 30 years, and I finally retired and got a chance to enjoy a lot of the programs that you guys have here. In fact, I rarely have a reason to leave the city, so I don't. But one thing that did come to mind, one issue that we were having was with our computers over at the senior center. They've been down for an extended amount of time. I went by there today and lo and behold, we got brand new computers all set. So thank you for addressing that problem and getting it taken care of. Because as you may know that for some of us seniors that those public computers are the only access that they'll have to use the internet to contact their loved ones, to look up information that they might need to deal with life's issues. just to even get out of the house. We have one senior over there who's 88 years old. I'll just call him Mike S. He's a Navy veteran, and that's the highlight of his day is just to go over there and look up old movies and movie sets and talk about them, and that's the highlight of his day. So I just want to thank you for addressing the problem. was having to go over to Ontario Senior Center to use their computers, but now I'm back home and everything's taken care of. So thanks for not forgetting about us and just remember that little things sometimes have big impacts. So thank you for what you do and thank you for having that fine staff that we have over at the Senior Center.

Well thank you for acknowledging it. Next we have Janice Parkerson.

Thank you, Mayor, council members, peeps, lots of peeps. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to address an issue that is very important to me and I hope will be very important to you as well. I'm sure we all saw this edition of the Chino Champion. Fireworks explosion kills woman, injures four in Chino. Explosion compels council to revisit fireworks policy. A quote from Councilman Curtis Burton. I think we need to revisit our fireworks policy. This is long overdue. You think? On July 4th, 2026, three weeks ago, a young woman was killed. What more will it take to make you think? Schools argue that fireworks are a major fundraiser. Per the Champion article, Chino Little League faces the cost of $7,000 to replace the infield grass on Field 5 at Ayala Park. Grass? A young woman died. Also, per the Champion article, Church youth rely on fireworks profits to support church programs. It's unfortunate that a few city folk get in trouble with illegal fireworks from time to time. What? A young woman died. How do Chino Hills, Ontario, Upland, and Rancho Cucamonga fund their little league and church programs without fireworks? One of my book club members suggested they do bingo. Or how about a good old fashioned bake sale? Use some imagination. Anything but fireworks, legal or not. Ban all fireworks, except for the professional shows, and then the only fireworks you hear will be illegal. I implore you, on behalf of all the pets, elderly and sick residents, and residents with PTSD, and on behalf of 23-year-old Leslie Bustos, please do the right thing and ban fireworks in Chino. Thank you.

Thank you, Leslie, or I'm sorry, Janice. Next we have Donna Mar, uh-oh. You told me how to say it right, Marchese. No, Marchese. Marchese. That's right, Marchese like crazy.

Crazy Marchese, everybody knows us. Especially the people shooting off the illegals in my neighborhood. I am not well beloved in my neighborhood. I didn't know Mo was gonna talk about it, but this is why I'm here, basically the same thing. Ontario has sponsored with PAW Mission and ARC to have two mobile spay and neuter events out at ARC. We haven't had any. So I gave your gal here a copy. You will have a copy of what this flyer says. So find out who in Ontario is setting this up and see if they'll work with you to tell you how to get it done for us. I've got six people on my board wanting help. I got one yesterday. I've got a city council member. I've got a referral from ARC to get animals fixed. Six people. That's a lot of people for an old broad to try to fix cats for. So what prompted Ontario and ARC to do this? Was the clinic suggested to Chino and Montclair? Did you guys get the same offer that Ontario got to do this? I've never heard of them, Donna. Yeah. It's on the internet, that's how the gals found it. Because I don't have time, sorry. I don't have time to sit in the internet. I'm out catching stuff. So these, find out, when are these held? They've had two so far. Is it every so many months? Is it just hit or miss? What is it? But we need to do something in this town. So when can these be held? Where can they be held? This says it's being held at ARC. Can we get a spay and neuter van here to make it more convenient for people to come to Chino that have cats and whatever in Chino? And who's paying for these services? It's only $50 to get your animal spayed or neutered. So did Ontario pay the difference? Because I'm quite sure the van didn't just charge 50 bucks. Inland Valley charges us 80, Ontario's pays 150. So somebody must have paid the difference between the 50 and the whatever the van charges. So did Ontario pay it? Did Ontario and ARC pay it, or did ARC pay it? You guys need to look into some stuff. And why isn't Chino more proactive for the pets? I know we need to get this clinic here. I've talked to you maybe six months ago about donation bins. Did you ever put any donation bins? I suggested City Hall. I suggested the YMCA. I asked them today. And I suggested the fire departments. Get them spread around. Those people need supplies. We do.

Could have said there are donation bins.

Where? One right out here. Okay. When I came last time, there were only three or four places. And they were very sparse. Because they need supplies over there. They need bedding, they need toys, they need food, they need stuff. And community events. We don't seem to have a lot of community events for ARC. Ontario seems to have more community events where they have an ARC booth. I think we've run across one. I'm not on social media, so I can't tell you all that stuff. And I'm with the gal with the fireworks. Because I drive around my neighborhood just to piss off my neighbors so they have to stop shooting them off. And I went down Monta Vista, and there was a great big huge display, safe and sane. And just before I got it, there was the rockets. It could have hit my car if I'd have been a few minutes sooner. It needs to stop, and it's still going on. We're getting cannons in our area, so. So what can you do to help us with ARC and getting some help out here for spay and neuter? So that's it. And we do need a report. Why aren't we hearing where our tax dollars are going and what's going on? I worked Sunday seven hours. Air conditioning in the CAT section is not working well. Seven hours and it was warm, so I'll be back.

Okay, thank you. Bye.

Remember, Mar-kay-zee.

Mar-crazy. Mar-crazy. Oh my goodness sakes. Okay, next is Darlene Lopez. It's horrible when people can't pronounce your own name and then you screw up somebody else's name. Doggone it.

Hello, Mayor and council members. My name is Darlene. I've been a resident here for over 20 years. I'm concerned about the city's decision to spend $3.7 million on a police helicopter. Even though the city says the money comes from development fees and a county grant, it's still public funds that could have been used for other important needs. The helicopter was also costing us $640,000 every year to operate plus another $108,000 a year to lease a hangar. I feel like that's a lot of money every year for one piece of equipment. As a resident, I also have concerns about how the helicopter is being used. It flies over our homes often, creating loud noise that disrupts our neighborhoods. When it circles overhead, I consider Chino to be very safe, but it makes me think that something dangerous is happening nearby. Instead of making me feel safer, it makes me feel anxious and afraid. I support public safety, but I also believe the city should be responsible with public funds and consider how this helicopter affects the people who live here. I hope the city will be more transparent about when it's used and whether the benefits truly outweigh the costs. Thank you for hearing me out.

Thank you, Darlene. You also wrote one for City Fireworks.

Yes. They said a lot of things that I agree with, but I don't want to take away from the charities and the churches and the schools from getting their funds that they need. But could we at least increase the... Um, fine from a thousand to 5,000, make it more expensive for them to pay something like that. Um, that was my thought on that. And also I'm very heartbroken over the girl that was killed. She was only 27 years old and it wasn't far from where I lived. So that is a huge concern. The fireworks in my neighborhood are mostly illegal. And I know you guys got drones out there for us to help with the citations. I hope that's helping. But it is a big concern because my pets are upset about it as well. And I don't know that when it's going off from May through September, October, that those citations are still being given because it's a Dodger game. whoever's playing that night, they win, fireworks going up in my neighborhood. So it's just really annoying and hoping that you guys can come to some kind of, you know, to fix it, to help things, you know, calm down in my neighborhood. Thank you, darling. Thank you.

Those are the only written requests I have to speak. We have a tradition, and that is that I call on any students or, well, I will, I know. I call on students or Boy Scouts if they are here for any kind of class or anything. Is there anyone in the audience that's scouting or students? Okay, before I ask for general non-written comments, I'm gonna ask our chief to give us a quick update on fireworks, which he probably was gonna do at the end of the meeting, but I'm gonna ask him to do it ahead of time. Sorry, Kevin, spring that on you.

So just a recap, and I know Deputy Chief Morata talked about this last council meeting. So we had over 60 members of the department that worked specifically the holiday, the 4th of July that started at 6 p.m. and went to, well, this one, because of the incident, went well over midnight, but was assigned to work the 4th of July deployment from 6 to midnight. including patrol officers, dispatchers. We had four drone teams, a real-time crime center, and a helicopter was up. We handled, during that time, 463 calls for service. 278 of them were fireworks-related calls, and we issued 112 fireworks citations, and 57 of them were from our drone teams. And I know it was talked about last council meeting, a tremendous amount of our resources once the incident happened over off of D Street was pulled away to handle that incident. And so... Ultimately, we're meeting with the community services. I think the last meeting in August at the community service commission meeting, they're going to discuss, have the opportunity to hear from the community on fireworks, whether it be for them or against them, and ultimately will lead to, I'm sure, to counsel for a decision on fireworks. What modifications to me? We have discussed increasing fines. We've discussed a lot of things. The challenge we have is, when it comes to fines, is law. Is the law misdemeanor, you're, and correct me if I'm wrong, Fred, the $1,000 is the max that we can charge for a fine for fireworks. I know some cities are charging more, but per the law, you can only charge the $1,000 for fireworks.

How are these other communities getting away with charging so much more?

They're just charging it.

And if they're challenged then?

If they're challenged then they'll have to reduce it back down to the $1,000. So. Mark has a question.

Sure.

So I know that the department gave about 57 drone citations and the people that got the drone citations are not aware that they got the tickets yet. Right.

The letters are going out. I don't know at what point. I asked, we're actually getting a lot of information that I gave a due date to my team for middle of next week, or I'm sorry, tomorrow, to follow up on this as far as with the status of the letters going out, where they're at. The citation, it's a citation along with a letter that actually is from me that explains the violation.

So do we know when they're going to be out? Because I know a lot of people... that were lighting illegal fireworks have not received their citation yet, and they will be receiving it soon. So I think some of the concern from the community is that it had no impact, but a lot of the people that, at least half of the people that received citations aren't even notified yet that they received the citation. So we haven't even gotten to that point where people are now aware that even though the police officers didn't come to their house, they were identified and now they're receiving citations for it.

Yeah, we'll have letters out this week. They'll be out by the end of this week at the latest if they're not already.

Okay, thank you.

Go ahead. It's a summary of what, kind of an overview of our 4th of July deployment. obviously based on just the amount of resources that was pulled away from the deployment to handle the critical incident was significant. But that's still, I actually pulled, I don't have the stats in front of me. The percentage of increase of calls on the 4th of July And we polled Ontario, Montclair, Upland, Chino Hills, and we by far have the highest number of increase of calls for service on the 4th of July compared to any other, as far as any other day of the week for the past six months. So I think we're at, I think it was like 133% higher on the 4th of July than any other day.

So I'll give you some stats that came out from Pomona, which Pomona's... had a legal fireworks ban for over 30 years. And they said that between 4 p.m. and 2 a.m. on the 4th of July, they handled 438 calls for service related to fireworks. Thirteen calls for service related to fireworks caused fires. Seventeen citations were issued from the assistance of their drone program. And they collected, I think they said, $2,000 worth of illegal fireworks. So they're similar to us, and yet they have a ban on fireworks. And it's still an issue with them. So I just want to make sure that the community is aware that even if we ban them, we're still going to have them.

Yeah.

Thanks, Kevin. Yep. Okay, now are there any other speakers in the audience who would like to address the council on an item not on the agenda? Okay, stubby, the man in back of you. The man in back of you raised his hand first.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Frank Lopez, a resident of Chino for over 20 years. graduated Don Lugo High School. I'm a civil engineer by trade, worked in private, then I moved into the public sector, so I've worked for several cities similar to the city that I reside in. And I wanted to speak on a couple things. One, my wife spoke earlier about the helicopter, so I concur with everything she says. I would like to see something that shows what the benefit cost ratio for our city is. I respect our law enforcement in our city. They're one of the best. I had a high school friend that was a captain on the force and I follow them on Instagram so I know they do an amazing job. What I believe is that for a city our size, a helicopter doesn't really make sense because As they go up and they make their turn, it really is not that much space for them to do a full turn. and the helicopter not be heard by just about everybody in the city. And so while I understand it would be used to make our city safer if we were already saying we were one of the safest cities, which I have heard and I believe we are, I don't see what the benefit for the cost is to have a helicopter that's gotta be manned by I believe at least two pilots, the annual salaries, annual maintenance. Helicopters aren't like vehicles where you get a loaner while the one is in service. I believe we had mutual aid agreements prior to that and we used the sheriff's helicopter or Ontario's and that would only come out when it was needed and so I just again want to reiterate that I think we need to look at that more carefully. I think our funds could be used for better. I think more officers, more drones, the drone program because I believe there's a lot more than 200 or however many citations the chief mentioned, a lot more fireworks, illegal fireworks going off than that and so a drone program, a larger, program for that would be amazing. To move on, I don't believe we should make fireworks illegal in our town. I do believe that a lot of good comes from them. Maybe we can use some funds to create programs to just like sometimes The police has programs for bicycle users to teach them safety and all that. Maybe we need to teach people about fireworks safety. And maybe there are already programs like that. But anyways, I believe that the funds would be hard to replace for, again, the churches, the schools, and anybody who uses them to fundraise. I know that Don Lugo, again, alumni, uses them. Their band uses them. So I don't think banning them is the solution. I would like to see the funds from the helicopter get moved into other areas like the drone program and other things like that. So I think that's pretty much what I want to speak on. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Chief, I'll ask that you have someone get in touch with Mr. Lopez and teach him about the helicopter program. And then also, Linda, if we could inform he and his wife of when the Community Services Commission is going to be discussing fireworks. Stubby.

Good evening, Councilors. Two things. One, I want to point out, and thank you, Mark, for the Pomona input, but the Northwest County quadrant between us and Pomona, we get people that come in there from Pomona and people that come in there from Chino, and that is very sparsely enforced. So that is also contributes to the problem and eliminating the safe and sane isn't gonna solve that either. Well, what I primarily want to say, and I want to thank the Chief and Chino PD, is they set up that incident command on the 4th, and had total control of that area and they still managed. I was worried that this was gonna affect our ability to respond to the calls. They still responded to, I believe it was, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was 460 something calls for service, despite the fact that they set up a full incident command. And I just think that that level of training which some that they inherited from a few council members here. It's just absolutely amazing, and we should be very thankful that we have a police department that can respond like that and still provide the regular patrol service, even though it wasn't regular on that night. So thank you, PD, and thank you, Chief, if I'm wrong on those numbers.

Well, thank you for recognizing them. Yeah, that incident was very, very tragic. But I do agree, even banning safe and sane is not going to get rid of the illegals. I mean, it was interesting in our neighborhood. It was pretty calm up until July 4th, which was unusual because we usually get the crazy explosions in the county area before that. But it was pretty quiet until the actual 4th. and it was actually pretty quiet until about nine o'clock, and then all hell broke loose. It was nuts, and these are not just the aerial stuff. I mean, it sounded like bombs. These people are crazy, and I don't know what they expect. Someone is gonna get hurt, someone's gonna get killed.

Just, I don't know.

Okay, is there anyone else in the audience that would like to address the council about any items not on the agenda? Natalie, do we have anybody online that wants to address a non-issue?

No, we do not.

Okay, then we will move on to the consent calendar. Before we take a motion or a second to approve, I have a couple of items that wish to be discussed. Mo, you've asked about item number three. Would you like to come up and... That's the elected officials report regarding training, travel, and meetings.

The one that I'll be talking about is the ARC one, item two, Veterinarian Services. As you can see, Ontario has advertised twice on social media and so has ARC. You see the ARC symbol, you see the PAW mission, and you see Ontario. Item two that I'm talking about, I have a copy of it, It says that it's the copy of the Veterinarian Service Agreement with the PAW mission with AHRQ, okay? Mo, excuse me, let me interrupt you.

The item that you asked to speak about has nothing to do with that.

No, it does. It has to do with the minutes of the AHRQ that's attached. Oh, okay, all right. And as I was saying, they upped it to, they upped it 125,000, so now it's at $525,000. And then it says here, the increase in the yearly note to exceed amount from 125,000 to 200,000 reflects AHRQ's exploration of options to offer spay and neuter services to public for privately owned animals. So what a lot of us are assuming is Ontario City got to use that money to do a spay and neutering, reduced fee of $50. And then this agenda paid for it. And if that's the case, where is Chino? Where is Montclair? I always said we're outvoted by Ontario. Is that what happened? I don't know, but I'm concerned because I went to Ontario's website, I researched their agendas, Ontario City, they have no agenda authorizing any money to go to Paul Mission. The only thing that I can find is ARCS, which is on, item three of the ARC's minutes. So I'm concerned. So is that, because I believe you can actually respond to this, seeing that it's a consent item, is that how this was paid for? And if so, when is Chino's turn? Mo, I don't have any answers right now.

No, but. I don't know, I don't know.

But, Curtis, do you know anything about that? I don't have any information on that.

Okay. And Natalie, I just messed up my screen. Thank you. Okay, then, Mr. Nigg, you have a question about item number seven?

Yes, I was asking to be removed from the consent calendar and to be voted on separately.

Well, you wanna voice your concerns?

I understand Chino, like any other city, has great difficulties with the unrealistic mandates being put on by the state. And I'm not here to defend the state. I'll be fighting with them also. But unfortunately, the city cannot blame the state for everything. And hopefully, if you read my previous objections and my most recent one I submitted last week with some graphs and information, you'll understand why I'm here again. The information being presented by the planning division and the city attorney are contradicted based upon a realistic review of the law and the facts. The opinions of the city attorney that government code 65585 does not apply is contradicted by the city's own argument when the housing element was adopted in November 2024. It was argued then the city could not change the building height storage facility inclusions and density in the housing element without HCD approval. Now we're saying they don't need approval. Many of the proposed zoning code changes do directly relate to the affordable housing districts that are in our current housing element. Contrary to the opinion of the city attorney, I asserted HCD's policy that the comprehensive zoning update will have direct effects on the housing element and therefore are strictly bound by the reporting and public review requirements of government code 65585. I refer to pages one through three of my submission last week. I believe a careful review of these arguments should result in the council requiring further consideration of the requirements of the government code. And there's no reason to rush into the adoption of the zoning code tonight without making improvements that protect the welfare of the citizens of Chino. The state did not mandate that the city rezone almost 50% of our 47 mixed-use overways to be rezoned as regional and boulevard overways allowing building heights up to 65 feet and five stories tall. The state did not mandate the transferring of the four area ratio between overlay sites allowing greater density on our mixed use overlays. The state did not mandate that the density of the buildings on the parcel, the FAR calculation, to exclude the residential units. This thought process is just absurd. You're allowing greater density on a parcel that was supposed to be used for affordable housing in mixed use, but you're allowing greater density that the state mandates. And then the state still allows the city to enforce objective health and safety standards. And I recognize that the state has unrealistic standards. However, the city does have the ability not to deny but to mitigate the effects of these large developments. The zoning update contains virtually no objective standards clearly written in the code that cite safety standards and health standards that can be used to mitigate, not deny, but mitigate. For that very reason, the zoning code update should be improved and rewritten. As an example, I take exception to the city's attorney argument that SB30 mandates a deficient traffic study must be used by the city. That's not what the SB 330 states. SB 330 only requires the fees, policy, and standards in place on the application date are to be used. We had a traffic study guideline in place since 2020. That was not used. This planning commission had every right to mandate a valid traffic study be used. And again, I refer to pages four to seven of my submission last week. And I understand this related to a 210 unit development, but it's citywide I'm concerned about. The development standards, if we put stronger health and safety standards, we could mitigate some of the issues. Not stop it, but mitigate it. That's why I think we could do a better job on the zoning code update. Again, I request this council do its due diligence and review all the facts and evidence and not rush the judgment. It would be a disservice to the citizens not to take the time to make improvements to the zoning code before it's passed. And what is the urgent need to pass it today? I don't know. I wish somebody would tell me. And that's it. Any questions? I'm out of time. So thank you.

Okay, and then Stubby, you.

Mayor, I just.

Yes, go ahead.

I'm happy to respond to some of those issues if you're interested. Okay, yes. What's before the council this evening is a zoning code amendment, not the general plan amendment. That housing element of the general plan was addressed. months and months ago. Nothing in what you're doing tonight triggers government code 65-585.

Thank you very much, Fred. Stubby, you have a question on item number 12? Okay.

Wait while you guys get it passed down.

And the lawyer gets it last.

Thank you. Once again, so this item is concerning the building across the street that the city leases and has leased for a long period of time as a restaurant. And it has been addressed by myself many, many times in the past. The building itself, the lease itself is not legal because the building does not comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. So city has done some minor improvements over the years, but they've never addressed the overall impact. And then when this project came up, it was sold as, well, we're just doing, it's called tuck and point repointing the brick, which is part of the seismic reinforcement. That's an unreinforced masonry building that has been structurally upgraded. So what you have in front of you is a decision from the Attorney General of the State of California, which was made in 1994, hence the number 94-1109, which clarifies what staff has refused to believe, which is that structural strengthening for seismic reasonings requires 100% accessibility. So once again, I beseech you, as I have dozens of times in the past, you are the enforcing agency, you five people right here, not staff, not someone else, not DOJ and California law, you are responsible for the enforcement. And I just, here we are, we're approving a contract, city attorney legitimately is going to say, We're just paying the person per the contract, which we have to do under state law. That's correct. But we also have to start enforcing these projects as they come up and people get up here and complain that we're not meeting the requirements of the ADA. We have to do it at that time so that the city becomes compliant. So, thank you. Natalie, here's another copy. I'll email that to you.

I think we need a report on this building, please, as to why it doesn't meet ADA.

We'll do, Mayor. We'll take a look.

Because this item is just to release the money and say that the project is completed. The work we've done, yes. The work was done that we asked to have done, but why was it not brought up to ADA standards?

Yes, Mayor, we'll bring that back. Okay.

I'd like that re-agendized. All right, those are the only requests I have about consent items. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to ask for any information on the balance of the consent calendar items? Any council comments on consent calendar items? Okay, then I would entertain a motion and a second. Okay, there's a motion from Mayor, I'm sorry, from Councilman Lucio, second. I need a second.

Mayor, just to clarify, we're doing verbal motion and second for the council.

Yes, I need a verbal second.

I'm sorry, Mayor, I'm confused about what it is we're taking. Are we taking the entire consent? The entire consent calendar. Okay, okay.

So we have a motion from Councilman Lucio.

I'll make the second.

Second from Councilperson Comstock. And then vote via computer. Someday this thing will work right, maybe. August. The voting on mine is not coming up. It's yours? Neither is yours. The voting is not coming up.

You want to take a roll call?

Yeah, do roll call vote.

Or voice vote works for consent calendar either way.

Okay, is there anyone in opposition of the motion and second for the consent calendar? Seeing none, then it passed. You're going to say no? I'm gonna say no. On the whole consent calendar?

No, you're going on the entire consent.

Would you like to have an item pulled?

This item and the item that Bob made.

All right, so we are going to pull for separate vote item number seven and item number 12. Okay, so the motion and the second is for the remainder of the consent calendar except for seven and 12. Is there any opposition to the remaining calendar? Seeing none, it passes unanimously. Item number seven, we need a motion and a second. Is there a motion and a second? We have no motion and second for item number seven, so therefore it fails. Do we have a motion and a second for item number 12? We have no motion or second from item number 12, so it fails. Okay, moving on to public hearings. Item number 17.

If I may clarify, Mayor, should item, should these, I understand on the item number 12 we'll be coming back with some information as suggested by your city manager. Number seven is a second reading of an ordinance. Is there a suggestion to bring it back at your September meeting?

Well, I don't know because we've already passed the first reading.

Right.

So if the second reading does not pass, then what happens to it?

The ordinance does not get put in place.

Do we start over?

And we'd have to start the whole process over.

Which mean any zoning changes or anything are now null and void, all of them.

Right, you'd have to have the public hearing again and that whole process. So you could postpone it, but I just wanted to get clarification if there are concerns, if there's some questions that should be addressed and rescheduled for September.

Well, we've never had this happen before, so I open it up to council comments. Is there a reason, would council like to verbally explain why they don't want to make a motion or a second item on number seven, which is the second reading of an ordinance we've already adopted?

I feel, in reference to seven, that there's too many outstanding questions in my mind that I would need to get some details before I feel comfortable in passing it.

Okay, then you want it postponed and come back?

Yes.

All right, then is there an objection to postponing it and bringing it back?

And if there's perhaps some direction to staff so they could respond to the question.

Would you like to specify what you want?

I would need to sit down with staff and go through each item and explain it to them.

So, Mayor, I have a suggestion on this item since this has been brought up. I think this was my question during the original reading of the ordinance. I think Mr. Nigg has brought up several issues that I asked were either best addressed during the adoption of the next cycle of our housing element or this adoption of this ordinance update. And I think maybe it would just be best at this point to have either Council Member Burton or somebody like myself to sit down with staff and Mr. Nigg and go through some of the concerns he's raised and at that time if we're satisfied with the review of those issues and we can bring this back for the second reading. But if not, then maybe we can make some recommendations to either regretfully have to re-notice this and bring it back. So that was the question I had during the original comments that he had. And I actually wish at the last meeting we would have said, hey, listen, before we vote on this, let's sit down with Mr. Nigg and a couple people and go through a couple of things that he has raised and make sure that we're all comfortable with this as a council before we vote on it.

But there were other issues as well, and I believe Council Member Flores voted no on it originally for, I believe it was the mural issues.

That's a separate item. That's a separate item, yeah. One of the reasons I voted no, yeah, was because the noticing issue, right? By now it's at 300, and I know a part of that discussion was, hey, send it to staff. I know that's going to be brought back. Look at extending that. But at least in that moment, I thought it's just... I didn't really have confidence in that item coming back sooner than later. That was one of the reasons why I voted no that night.

So on the noticing, Mira, I recently talked to the city manager after listening to that as well. Like for us, even as council members, there are rules like where we can, you know, you know, how close it can be to something for us to vote on it. And my comment was, hey, we should at least make it the same distance before we vote to have a conflict. And I, you know, just on some of our noticing, I think I want to be able to sit from the dais, you know, from a perspective of saying, hey, we've gone above and beyond when it comes to noticing. I've even, you know, thought of some other ideas, like I know it could be expensive, but even hand leafing and utility billing just to make sure people are getting it. But there's a couple areas there where, I'm not so sure that I always agree with Mr. Nigg on floor area ratio. We've gone back and forth on some of this. Sometimes we agree to disagree, but there are other things that I think maybe are worthy of us looking over.

All right, then I think the thing that we need to do is pull this. I don't know whether it would be worthy of a separate workshop or not. It may take that because it is a pretty big ordinance covering a lot of different zone changes. And we're holding up everything for a couple of items that are of concern. If the council is not comfortable passing it, then I see no other alternative.

Well, is there a way to take the items that Mr. Nigg has brought forward and hold on to those along with the others that have been brought forward and pass the balance of it and go back to those? Or what's the best way for us to do it, Fred?

It's a second reading.

Yeah, it is the second reading. I understand that.

I don't know if you can separate out things from a second reading.

That's true. Well, I'm happy to let Mr. Morellian...

Right. So I totally understand the confusion. One of the things I do want to point out, Mr. Nigg has brought up the information before for several months now. We've vetted it. We've gone through it. We've always determined that we're doing the right thing as a city. Went to planning commission, same thing. They looked at it, vetted it, doing the right thing. And as I'm sitting back here talking to the other staff, one of the things that we as city want to do is we want to implement the general plan. So this is part of it. It's a big push for the city. This is major. I think any delay is major, but the council has the authority to do it. But I just want to point out that there's a couple of things that came up noticing. I think one thing that we had mentioned before, the cost of an appeal for residents, that sort of thing. Remember, this is a snapshot in time. I honestly, my professional opinion, we're doing the right thing adopting this thing. I believe, just like the city attorney said, we have reviewed Mr. Nigg's concerns and vetted them. The attorneys agrees that we're not doing anything illegal. We're not trying to hide anything. Um, it allows us to continue to do business. One of the things that's very, very, very important to the city is the economic development. Any delay slows down approval of projects that we'd like to do staff level, um, not cause any delay in new businesses coming in. So I just want the council to very, very, to think about any delay. And the one thing that I w I want to say that's very important too, is it's a general plan amendment. Why this one is a comprehensive one. The council planning commission and staff can make changes tomorrow. So if we adopt it today and we go through a workshop with council members and we determine, hey, look, it makes sense to change it tomorrow, we can start the process of changing it tomorrow. I just want to make sure that there's a few things that are of concern, and I get it, but the majority are tight, and I just want you to make sure if you want to delay it for a few, I think the best thing to do is move it. direct staff to change wherever you want to change it, and we can go from there. I just want you to be aware that a lot of hard work and we've vetted it.

And if I may add, because that was actually the option I was going to suggest, to the extent any changes are desired, you're always free to do that in the future. Additionally, more than just wanting to make this ordinance CONFIRM WITH THE GENERAL PLAN THERE'S A LEGAL REQUIREMENT THAT IT HAS TO COMPORT TO THE CHANGES THAT WERE MADE TO THE GENERAL PLAN, THE HOUSING ELEMENT. SO THIS BRINGS IT IN LINE WITH THAT GENERAL PLAN PER THE PLANNING LAW.

MAKES IT ALL BALANCED. MR. LUCIO.

You know, I didn't make the motion because my computer froze and I know we were talking about two different things and I couldn't click on my computer to figure out which item we were talking about. This is a, it's a big item because we're covering sign ordinance, we're covering digital signing, we're covering.

No, the sign ordinance is separate.

It's separate from this one?

That was adopted under item six. Okay. So this is just the zoning code amendment and zoning map changes to comport to the general plan.

Yeah, and it, A lot of this, I know staff is talking to experts about the notification, changing our requirements for notifications and stuff, and I know there are some concerns. I know we've had disagreements with Mr. Nick over years, and there's a struggle between our legal opinion and his opinion, interpretation and stuff. I don't think that's ever gonna stop because we have differences of opinions, and I think those need to be aired, perhaps in a workshop, but to hold everything up, for a couple of concerns when it comes to zoning. The zoning map and the general plan, I think we're making a big mistake in not passing the second reading tonight and then pulling certain items that have been identified as concern and then working on those items. Like Warren said, you can always go back and modify certain individual things, but to hold the whole thing up I don't know.

What's the process of making a modification on certain items? What is the process?

Exactly what this process followed, which is if to the extent you're making a change to a zoning code, you have to notice a public hearing and notice it particularly to the change you're intending to make. that to your development services director's point, you could fine tune the particular areas that are an issue I will say I understand a lot of Mr. Nick's concerns. I would say most of those are tied to the housing element changes that this council approved months and months ago and the HCD certified. So we believe it was all done appropriately. HCD certified your plan. I think that is a lot of the source of the issues but certainly if you wanna change any portion of the zoning ordinance that you're approving tonight, there is no limitation on your right to do that.

I have another suggestion, Mayor. You know to the comments that have made publicly on this item tonight like we have a lot of these projects that have been entitled that have not been delivered on and there's that's not by mistake right you know some of the things that you know this ordinance is going to shore up for us with health and safety and different things. We're doing the best we can to get the best projects from these developers and we talk about that all the time. So I believe that our ordinance is actually, quite frankly, working because a lot of them have actually been entitled. We're showing that they're not able to deliver on them because of some of the rules that are currently in place. that we have equal concerns about, number one. But number two, if this is the council's desire with public comment or other issues, I don't know if this is something like those few items, if we were to pass the second reading of the ordinance tonight, that could be brought back to, I don't know if it's appropriate for infrastructure committee, Linda, or maybe, I hate another workshop, but maybe it could be vetted with a couple members of the council at the committee level, and then brought back at another time, even the results of the infrastructure committee just for, you know, report out or for consideration for the council for amendment. So that's just a suggestion I would make this evening.

And we can go item by item. So if it's, you know, 2.6 or whatever, I'm just making that up. You can say I have difficulty with this. We talk it out either in a workshop or at one of our committees and we say we want to change it to say this. We can easily come back in September and make that change.

Because what this council doesn't want any member of this public that's sitting here tonight to think that, you know, things that are trying to fall on deaf ears, whether it be regarding the ADA or the issues of Mr. Nibrat forward or the Lopez's in the back, you have a council that is genuinely trying to study these things that, you know, state requirements and mandates into application of our ordinances and our policies. it gets hard, right? But we are genuinely trying to do what's in the best interest of our community and not just what the law says either. Like with this noticing, even though the notice, to me the noticing is inadequate. We could say, well, hey, that's all we have to do, but that's not us and that's not our staff and that's not the city, right? You know, we say, hey, we don't know that that's actually adequate enough. You know, it would probably be better if we were to expand that just for the public comfort and for their information.

So I just want you. And the noticing also, Karen, has to do with the area that's being covered. Absolutely. I mean, if you're next to a whole bunch of blank land, you need to go further because there's no homeowners.

The other thing, and with that too, Mara, is when it comes to our noticing, we're trying to keep on top of it with social media. Now, not everybody gets it with social media, but maybe we do it, like you said, with utility building. But like you said, maybe you're next to a vacant field. There's no perfect project, there's no perfect way to do this, but I do want to say from my professional experience before I set up here and now, I see a council and a staff that's really trying to do things legitimately and with transparency and with the community support. So that is why I just offer like, hey, if there's some of these things that we need to work out through a subcommittee, we're happy to do that. But I happen to agree with you, Mayor, that I do believe that the majority of this ordinance is important to city function, to operations, that it probably would be best to adopt it, the second reading today, and for us to sit with Mr. Nigg on these issues and say, hey, listen, are there a few that we need to bring back for amendment at this time? And I just offer that for consideration this evening.

Well, having that in mind, Mayor, with respect to the council, I'd like to change my mind, vote to approve that. I do have some specific items that I'd like to address. I'll make the motion.

Okay, then on item number seven, we have a motion from Councilman Lucio, second from Mayor Pro Tem Burton. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. Okay, item number seven passes unanimously. Could I have one more comment, please?

Could we just have staff, could you please direct staff to work with Mr. Nigg so we can get this meeting scheduled and the items to the city manager moving forward?

And so I heard discussion about a potential subcommittee to also address this. I don't believe you have.

I don't need a subcommittee. I don't know if the infrastructure committee can be detailed to it.

I don't know if that's appropriate. Well, a subcommittee would not address necessarily Mayor Pro Tem's concerns. So perhaps each individual council member that has a concern with anything in this ordinance needs to communicate that with staff, and allow staff to set up appropriate meetings with the appropriate people to get the answers obtained, and if it isn't satisfactory, then we need to involve it somehow with the council.

But I'm talking about to receive Mr. Nigg's concerns, Mayor, and to vet whether or not we would like to make an amendment.

No, I understand, I understand. but I think individual accounts members needs to communicate with staff what their concerns are.

Okay, we can do that, but can that be handled at the infrastructure committee meeting, Fred? His concerns regarding the ordinance or no?

I don't have the scope of that committee, but I thought it was more of... public improvements rather than zoning changes.

Okay, then if there needs to be a subcommittee, I can volunteer to be on the subcommittee if somebody else wants to be on it, but however staff decides to do it, I'm fine with that.

I think it would be an ad hoc, not a subcommittee.

Okay. Your city manager can simply make the decision to...

Thank you.

My suggestion would be to get from the council that these projects are going to be built in their area and the concerns are there because they have a better nexus to understanding and because they got to answer to their constituents. I would suggest that the ones that have these projects that are coming up, for example, a preserves master plan, so There's really no changes that's going to be impacting the Preserve or College Park. But I know a lot of it has to do with Council Member Flores' area, same thing with Council Member or Mayor Tim Burton's. So anybody of those would probably be a good person to put on this ad hoc.

Yeah, as you know, Mark, there's presently two of mine, and that was why I volunteered for either the subcommittee or the ad hoc committee. I only have two on an ad hoc.

So you can just simply direct as part of this action your city manager to make that selection, or you can select them now, the members.

No, I think we should leave it up to Linda.

I'm fine with that.

It's okay? All right, now we also did not have a motion or a second on item number 12. So I've asked staff to come back and explain to us why it did not meet ADA. This item is to release the funding on the improvements that were done on this building. So it's separate from the request to clarify the ADA. Is there a reason really to reject it and send it back? Because doing that, you're not releasing the funds.

That's my only concern is if we don't vote on this, the developer's not getting paid, or I should say the contractor's not getting paid. But it's not, this contractor isn't the contractor that would be doing the ADA improvements either.

That's correct, and the contract didn't ask for that. So this contractor did their work to our satisfaction, and now we want to release the project.

It was to replace bricks and what do you call it, the mortar in between and stuff like that.

Now, so it's gonna be a separate thing that you're gonna come back and tell us what the improvements need to be done to the building and how you're gonna get us a cost or a potential cost for that?

We need to determine if we've already assessed that building. I don't know if we did or not on our accessibility when we looked at our public facilities. So we'll look at that. If we didn't, we'll do an assessment of the building and determine what accessibility improvements need to be done. But then if we're gonna do the improvements, we would have to go out to bid, get a contractor to come in and do the work.

do we know when we'd be able to bring this back? I know.

We will do our due diligence in August and see if we can, we could probably get an assessment done before we come back in September. I don't, I'm certain that we cannot get it bid out by then. But we can have an assessment, we can come back to the council and we can say these are the items that are deficient in that building and they need to be improved. And we could put an item on in September for that.

That would be my thing. I would like it to be done in September because I don't want it to get lost in the transition. I know it's something that Mr. Barr has brought up before in the past, and I don't want it to get lost.

Okay, yeah.

I appreciate it.

Okay, so with that, do we have a motion and a second to approve to release the funding and complete the contract on item number 12?

I'll make the motion.

Okay, motion from Councilman Lucio. Second. Second from Mayor Pro Tem Burton. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Okay, the item passes unanimously. Now, we're gonna move on to public hearing item number 17, adoption of a resolution 2026-050, amending the city's master use fee schedule. We now declare the public hearing open and ask for a staff report from Lisa Conlon, our revenue manager, and Kim Sao, our director of finance.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will turn this time over to our revenue manager, Lisa, to present the item tonight.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. Tonight I'm presenting the Fiscal Year 26-27 Master Fee Schedule Update. I'd like to briefly explain why only certain fees are being brought before you tonight. Most annual fee adjustments have already been completed administratively under Resolution 2025-029, which was adopted by the Council last year. Therefore, tonight's request is limited to those fees those fee changes that require council approval, including establishing new fees, updating community services parks and recreation fees based on current cost analyses, and approving select fee adjustments that exceed the standard CPI annual increase. As council may recall, resolution 2025-029 established an annual consumer price index adjustment process for most city fees. These routine CPI adjustments are now approved administratively by the city manager and became effective July 1st. This process keeps our fees current without requiring council action each year. Tonight's item is different. We're only asking for approval of fees that fall outside of that administrative process, specifically new fees, market-based adjustments, and fees requiring changes beyond CPI. The first category includes five new fees. These fees are not intended to generate new revenue sources, rather they establish charges for services the city's already providing, but for which no fee currently exists. These include affordable housing compliance monitoring, water meter setup and relocation, backflow device plan review, and two new police citation fees authorized under the vehicle code. Establishing these fees improves consistency within the master fee schedule and helps recover the city's actual cost of providing these specialized services. The complete list is included in exhibit A. The next category of fees that are being presented this evening are for the community services, parks, and recreation. Staff completed a comprehensive review of the community services, parks, and recreation fees with several objectives in mind. improving cost recovery, maintaining affordability, remaining competitive in our pricing with surrounding agencies, and reducing reliance on general fund subsidies where appropriate. As a result, six new recreation related fees are proposed, eight existing fees are recommended for adjustment, and importantly, 144 fees will remain unchanged. The complete list is included in exhibit B. The final category of fees requiring council approval this evening is the special event permit fee structure. Earlier this year, the city council approved revisions to the municipal code governing special events. Those changes removed the minimum attendance threshold for permits and expanded the number of events requiring city review. Following those code amendments, staff conducted a comprehensive review of the permitting process to identify opportunities for improvement. We streamlined internal review procedures, improved coordination between departments, and are currently transitioning the application process to a web-based platform. The result is a more efficient review process that reduces administrative processing time and better reflects the level of service provided today. Those improvements allow staff to recommend a fee structure that more accurately aligns with the current permitting process while keeping the maximum fees lower than would be expected under a traditional full cost recovery model. The proposed fee structure improves cost recovery, reduces the general fund subsidy for administrative services, and continues to support community events through meaningful non-profit discounts, which I'll discuss on the next slide. Staff recognizes the valuable role nonprofit organizations play within our community. The proposed fee structure continues to provide significant financial support while recovering a portion of the city's administrative costs. Nonprofit organizations would receive approximately a 60% discount from the standard fee schedule. Depending on event size, the city subsidy ranges from approximately 600 to more than $1,700 per event. In addition, city partnered events remain free, recognized sports organizations remain exempt, and non-profit organizations continue to receive substantial financial assistance. The proposal simply asks organizations to participate in a portion of the administrative costs associated with processing and coordinating their events. Overall, these amendments better align fees with the actual cost of providing city services. While revenues will vary depending on service demand and program participation, these changes improve cost recovery and reduce general fund subsidies without fundamentally changing the city's approach to service delivery. Staff recommends that the city council adopt the resolution amending the master fee schedule to establish the proposed new fees, approve community services fee updates, approve fee adjustments beyond annual CPI process, and continue the administrative annual CPI adjustment methodology previously adopted by Council. This concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Mayor, before you start, I just wanted to add, at the last council meeting, the council asked us to look at the citizen appeal. That fee is not being considered here in this approval tonight. We will bring that fee back for a discussion with the council to see if we want to eliminate that fee in the future. So I just want to be clear that that's not being considered tonight.

But it is in this document.

But the CPI was already approved on July 1st. So there is an increased fee. You see it. We did it on July 1st. But we know that the council wants us to review that, so we will bring that back.

Is there any reason why it can't be taken out tonight?

Yeah, because I don't think the council needs to review it. I think the council made a direction that we wanted it removed.

Right.

That's within your discretion tonight.

If you want to tell us to do that tonight, I just want to make sure.

That was our direction, was that we did not feel that it was appropriate to charge our own residents an appeal fee if they're appealing something that we're deliberating. OK.

So the exemption would apply to residents Business owners or just residents? Residents. Okay.

Residents. And I saw, I don't recall the section number. Do you know what that is, Kim? So that we know what it is. I just saw it, but I didn't mark the page. What is it? DSO.

It's in the development services portion of the master fee schedule. It is.

There's a city council appeal, resident applicant appealing. There's DS-02000.

And DS-02010 are the two resident fees.

Yeah, 2010. That's planning commission and council where a resident can appeal an item. We specifically said that we did not feel that that was correct.

Okay. Okay. I made a note to remove those.

Okay.

So should the council wish to approve this after deliberating, that could just be part of the motion.

Then we'll note that those are gonna be deleted. Okay, so prior to questions of council, let's see, Mr. Nigg, you filled out a request to speak.

First of all, I do express my appreciation for every council member and the city staff for giving the consideration to some of my concerns. We all want what's best for the city. We can have different opinions, but I appreciate that. And second... I'm happy to see you and I are on the same page on this one. Yeah, I was going to ask that the fees be taken out. I think we're all on the same page with the last one. I know she's the one that brought it up, but yes, I appreciate everyone.

I know you and the mayor are obviously on opposite sides of the street all the time, Bob, so that's okay.

I have five minutes, four minutes left now. Thank you.

Okay. Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to address the council on this item? Okay, seeing none, then I'll close the public hearing and turn it over to council discussion. Mr. Lucio? No? Chris? Karen? Okay, then I would entertain a motion. I'll make the motion, Mayor. Motion from Councilperson Comstock, second from Mayor Pro Tem Burton. Voice vote, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposition? Okay, and it is noted that we are adopting the recommended resolution with the exception of deleting the fees on DS-02000 and DS-02010. Right, Fred? That is correct. And it passes unanimously. Item number 18. Landscape and Lighting Maintenance District Assessment for Fiscal Year 26-27. Staff report this evening. Mr. Keith Martinez, our Public Works Services Manager, and Hajin Lee, Director of Public Works. Oh, I'd like to declare the public hearing open.

Good evening Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. The city forms six landscape and streetlight maintenance assessment districts under authority of the Landscape and Enlightening Act 1972 and the California Streets and Highways Code. The districts are as follows, 75-1, 75-2, 76-1, 76-2, 83-2, and 2002-1. Each year, city council reviews these districts and holds a public hearing to set the assessment rates. Of the six districts, only district 2002-1 has a consumer price index escalator which allows the city to adjust the assessment rates for fiscal year 26-27. With the current CPI of 3.24%, revenue increases for district 2002-1. As listed in exhibit one of the report, there are certain zones in the remaining five districts that have an increase of only 5% or less because these zones have not been assessed their maximum allowable rates since they were annexed. As they continue to increase over the coming years, this will help reduce the city's subsidy amount. The annual maintenance district assessment helps fund the upkeep of streetlights, trees, landscaping, and the water and electricity needed to maintain these improvements. The total cost of maintaining both the interior and perimeter areas of each maintenance district is shared between property owner assessment revenues and a subsidy provided by the city. This partnership helps ensure these community improvements are properly maintained while reducing the portion of the cost paid through property owner assessments. The total funding requirement consists of the city subsidy needed to fund assessable maintenance costs not recovered through assessments and the city's funding responsibility for the general benefit perimeter areas. The July 7th, 2026 council meeting council approved three resolutions, which approved the engineer's report, declared the city's intention to order improvements, and scheduled public hearing for today. Public hearing is required as part of the process to levy the annual assessments and provide the opportunity for all interest persons to comment on the matter. Therefore, staff recommends conducting the public hearing tonight to adopt resolution 2026-051, confirming the assessments and directing the city clerk to file a certified copy of the diagram and assessments to the county auditing controller. This concludes my report, and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have, or if needed, the city's consultant, Webb Municipal Finance, are here tonight as well.

Thank you, Keith. I have no written requests to speak. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the council on item number 18? Seeing none, then I'll close the public hearing, open it up to council comments. Any comments?

If you could put up your chart, because it looks like the middle year, which I think is 24-25, seems to be lower than, or 25-26 seems to be lower than 24-25, and then you have a big jump going from 26-27. What's the reason why it was... Lower in that year and then jumps up dramatically.

It's jumped like this from 21 to 22 to 23. It varies. It's based on the actual assessments that are assessed through the districts and also because the maintenance costs increase. You have the street lighting contractor. We have a landscaping contractor. We have a tree contractor.

Correct, but the middle one is lower than the previous one. Correct.

Do the fees go down? The fees, it's based on the assessed, the 5%, we can only go as high as 5% in these districts. So some of these are, we're at a loss and we are subsidizing that. Unless we go to a Prop 218 to raise those, we have to go to a vote for that. Okay.

But the big jump, is there anticipated extra maintenance during like 26, 27? Is it tree replacement or something? Because that's a big jump, Keith.

It's also included the electricity from SCE too. We can control those costs as well.

That's a pretty big jump. Any other comments or questions? Okay, if not, then I would entertain a motion and a second. Is there a motion?

I'll make the motion, Mayor.

Okay, motion from Councilman Flores, second from Mayor Pro Tem Burton. Any opposition? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, item pass is unanimously. And item number 19, business license reform and small business protection measurement. And our staff report this evening will be by our city manager, Linda Reich.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. Tonight, myself along with the finance team will be presenting the proposed business license reform and small business protection measure for consideration on the November 3rd, 2026 ballot. The proposal is the result of a comprehensive review of the city's business license structure, which was last significantly updated almost 40 years ago. The measure would replace the existing structure with an updated model that better reflects the size and level of business activity occurring in Chino today. This evening we will review the goals behind the proposal, the challenges with the current structure, how the proposed model would work, the ballot language, accountability provisions, the election timeline, and the actions requested by the council tonight. We began this process with four primary goals. First, the proposed structure does not tax residents. It applies to businesses operating in Chino and does not impose a tax based on residency, home ownership, tenancy, or residential property. Second, the proposal protects small businesses. Businesses reporting 75,000 or less in annual gross receipts will pay a flat $25 business license amount. Approximately 56 of the active businesses in Chino fall within that group. Third, the proposal creates an improved contribution structure by better reflecting each business's category, size, and level of activity in Chino. Finally, the reform would provide locally controlled revenue to help maintain the services businesses rely on, including police protection, well-maintained streets and truck routes, and safe commercial areas. Gino's current business license structure was significantly updated last in 1987. The current system relies on a mix of gross receipt schedules, employee counts, outdated classifications, and a maximum cap. Under this structure, a large business can reach the maximum amount and pay the same or similar amount as a business operating at a much smaller scale. As a result, the current structure does not consistently reflect the size, revenue, or operational impact of businesses operating in Chino today. The data shows that the current structure places a greater proportional burden on small and mid-sized businesses. The city's top 100 businesses account for approximately 65% of all reported gross receipts. However, those businesses account for only 12% of the total business license taxes charged. The remaining business license revenue is largely generated by small and mid-sized businesses, even though they represent a much smaller share of total economic activity. This means that smaller businesses may pay a much greater share relative to its size than a large high volume enterprise. Larger operations often create greater demand on city infrastructure and services, including truck traffic, roadway maintenance, cargo and retail theft investigations, traffic enforcement, emergency response, and other public safety resources. The proposed reform is intended to better align contribution levels with business activity while lowering the amount paid by many of Chino's smallest businesses. Now I want to turn the time over to Kim with the assistance of Lisa from the finance department who will explain the proposed business license structure.

Thank you, Linda. Regional comparisons also show that Chino's business license structure has fallen behind those used by many neighboring and peer cities. Cities including Ontario, Pomona, Upland, and Fontana already use gross receipts based systems, many with rates equal to or higher than those proposed for Chino. Eastvale and Chino Hills show lower business license revenue because they use a flat business license fee rather than gross receipts based tax structures. As a result, they are not directly comparable to Chino or the other cities using business license taxes tied to business activity. Despite Chino's large and diverse business base, its business license revenue per capita remains among the lowest in the region. The proposed structure would bring Chino closer in line with comparable cities while maintaining competitive rates and supporting safe streets, reliable infrastructure, and public services businesses consider when deciding where to operate. The proposed model is based primarily on gross receipts attributable to business activity conducted in Chino. Businesses with gross receipts of $75,000 or less would pay a flat 25 annual business license amount. Under the current structure, businesses with up to 25,000 in gross receipts generally pay a flat $40 tax. The proposed model would lower that amount and extend the reduced rate to businesses earning up to $75,000. For businesses earning with gross receipts above $75,000, the first $75,000 is covered by the 25 flat amount and a rate of 60 cents to $1.50 per $1,000 applies to receipts exceeding $75,000 depending on the business category. For example, A retail business reporting 500,000 in gross receipts would subtract the first initial $75,000. The remaining $425,000 would be calculated at 60 cents per 1,000. and the $25 flat amount would then be added. This would result in a total of $280 annually. The proposed structure would also reduce the current framework to five primary business categories, making it easier for businesses to understand and to administer consistently. Nonprofit organizations, government entities, and businesses legally exempt under state or federal law would remain exempt from the business license tax, although they would still be required to obtain a business license whenever applicable. The proposed model places businesses into five categories based on their activities. General and retail businesses including retailers, restaurants, manufacturers, wholesalers, and warehouses would pay 60 cents per $1,000 of gross receipt above the $75,000. Services, businesses and contractors would pay $1 per 1,000 gross. This includes businesses such as salons, car washes, dry cleaners, general contractors and specialized trades. Professional and advanced businesses along with real property and rental activities would pay $1.50 per $1,000 in gross receipts. These categories include medical, legal, engineering, consulting, software development, commercial leasing, apartments, office rentals and hotels. All five categories would pay the same $25 flat amount for the first $75,000 in gross receipts. The rates shown are maximum rates voters would authorize. The City Council could lower, suspend, or repeal the rates, but could not raise them above the voter approved maximums without returning to the voters. Here are the proposed ballot language. The proposed ballot question summarizes the central components of the measure. It clearly states that the measure does not tax residents. It identifies the proposed rates for larger businesses and the $25 amount for businesses reporting under $75,000 in gross receipts. It also identifies examples of general city services that may be supported, including the 911 and police response, protection of local drinking water resources, and efforts to retain and attract local businesses. The question states that the measure is estimated to generate approximately $4.8 million in additional annual revenue, bringing the total annual business license revenue to approximately $5.9 million per fiscal year. The measure would require approval by a simple majority of Chino voters, or 50% plus one of the votes cast on the measures.

At this time, I would turn the time back to Linda. As with all revenues generated in the city of Chino, the proposed measure includes several accountability provisions. Revenue and expenditures would be reported publicly and reviewed as part of the city's publicly noticed annual budget process. The receipt and use of revenues would also be included in the city's annual independent financial audit. All funds would remain under local control and would be used for services provided by the city. The funding could not be taken by the state or federal government. The measure also protects confidential financial information submitted through the licensing process for each business subject to limited exceptions required for administration or by law. These provisions are intended to provide transparency for the public and predictability for the business community. So I'm going to just walk through a timeline on how this would work should the council approve it tonight. So tonight, the council is being asked to consider the resolution placing the measure on the ballot and conduct the first reading of the proposed ordinance. If approved, the city clerk would submit the resolution and required election materials to the county by August 7. On August 10, the county is anticipated to assign a measure letter. August 10th is also the deadline for the city attorney's impartial analysis and for direct arguments for or against the measure. On August 20th, that's the deadline for rebuttal arguments and marks the end of the public examination period for the direct arguments. The measure would then appear before the Chino voters during the election on November 3rd, 2026. If approved by majority of the voters, the new business license structure would be effective on January 1st, 2027. The recommendation tonight is that the city council take five actions. First, adopt resolution 2026-49 calling the election and submitting the business license reform and small business protection measure to Chino voters. Second, conduct the first reading of the ordinance, ordinance number 2026-11, which contains the proposed business license framework that would take effect only if approved by voters. Third, authorize the mayor on behalf of the city council to prepare and final a written argument in favor of the measure. Fourth, authorize the city manager to execute the documents necessary to complete the election process. Fifth, approve an appropriation from the current fiscal year general fund budget surplus of $100,000 for outreach and voter education related to the proposed measure. And just as a note, the county has estimated that placing the measure on the ballot will cost approximately $132,000, which has already been included in the fiscal year budget. A two thirds vote of the full council or four yes votes is required to place the measure on the ballot. In closing, the proposed measure would modernize Chino's nearly 40 year old business license tax structure, reduce the burden on many small businesses and create a system that better reflects business size and activity. The measure is estimated to generate approximately 4.8 million in additional revenue annually. These locally controlled funds could support essential city services and would be subject to annual audits, public reporting, and ongoing oversight. Tonight, the city council is asked to consider placing the measure before Chino voters, which should make the final decision in November. That concludes our report, and we are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Are there any questions or comments from the audience on this item? Natalie, do we have any questions or comments online? No. Mr. Stubman.

Thank you. This is long overdue, and I think that was an excellent presentation.

Very.

measure will depend on two things and two things only if you want it to pass. It's the ballot language, which is very hard to read when you print it that small. But it's a little clumsy. It needs to be refined so that the average voter can instantly understand what it is you are trying to get them to vote for. And the second thing is going to be the argument for, because I have a feeling there's going to be arguments against this from well-heeled, well-funded members of the public. Long overdue, we need this. We really, really need this. And thank you, staff, for including the low threshold exemption, which was something that we had discussed previously. I think that'll be very beneficial to a lot of our really, really small businesses. Thank you.

Anyone else would like to address the council on this item? Okay, seeing none, I'll turn it over to council comments. Chris, you have anything?

Just thank you for the presentation. Just to address the language issue, I know you guys put all the minds together to come up with that language. That's not, I know, official yet, but can you talk about the language?

We have worked on the language and refined the language over probably the last four months. There is a limit on words. And in working with our consultant and our attorney, we came up with the best ballot statement that we could find, and we believe that this is the one we should go with.

Other than that, no, I think I'm in favor of this. I think at the end of the day, we'll let the people decide. And I think with Measure V, we've done a really good job at being really transparent. And I think you, Linda, and your staff have done a very good job at least over the last year and a half really detailing where that money is going to. And I have full faith and confidence that if this does go through, that you and your team are going to do the same thing. So thank you.

Again, thanks for the presentation. It has been a long time. I think the last time this was redone, I was still in high school, so it's been a while. But that being said, I'll leave it up to the voters to make that decision.

Kurt, you have any comments?

Yeah, I also want to thank staff for putting this together. Unlike Councilmember Lucio, I was a young police officer here in the city of Chino in 1987. Having said that, that's 1987. That's 40 years ago. The important thing to look at for our residents, without taxing residents, that's huge. And it supports our smaller businesses in town. It's fair. This is a fair ordinance. You look around at all the neighboring cities, it looks like they've updated theirs three or four times by the amount of monies that they bring in. So I appreciate this. I'm also in favor of this and I think this should pass. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm reflecting back on 1987. Today marks the 57th time I'd taken a trip around the sun. So in July 21st of 1987, or in this area, 87 when this was last updated. You know, Chino was a different community in 1987. There was almost no businesses south of Chino Avenue, and I'm certain when we wrote this business licensing ordinance in that time, the businesses were different and licensing was different, and that was quite a bit of money in 1987. And when you look at the community today and they make up the businesses and the warehouses and different things, I really do believe in studying this, what we've learned is it's about equity and the disproportion of licensing that it requires in some of the larger businesses that have moved into town in order to sustain some of these essential services. So one of the things that we did talk about and took into consideration is our small business operations. But nobody can deny now that we have large scale operations in our community that are impacting our community in different manners that they could help us through their licensing to help sustain our essential functions. So I hope our residents will look at this, try to understand what it is we're trying to accomplish and operations moving forward. so that we can remain sustainable in providing those services, whether it be roads or public safety. And hopefully the residents, as somebody has said, the voters will decide in November and we'll see if they decide to support this or not. So thank you to staff.

Linda, you had pointed out to me when we were starting to consider this, the drastic difference between a very, very big company like Walmart or Sam's compared to one of the local businesses. Do you remember what that comparison was?

The cap?

Yeah.

So currently our ordinance has a cap of $1,250. So nobody in the city pays more than that. So you can have the smallest business paying $1,250 and the largest business paying $1,250, even though their revenue can be in the millions of dollars. And that's one of the things we looked at first. Should we just remove the cap? And as we started looking at the structure of what we have in our business license ordinance, Like Council Member Comstock said, it was a very different business type back in 1987 as compared to today and the types of business and the amount of money coming in each of these business. So this new ordinance and new business license ordinance will remove that cap.

Well, way back in, way back then. Gosh, I told Mark, if he was in high school, I must have been in covered wagons. Yeah, Chris wasn't born. Shut up, Chris, geez.

Yeah, Chris, did you really have to say that? I mean, seriously.

This kid, he didn't know who Neil Diamond was. Or Jack LaLanne. Or Jack LaLanne. Anyway. Back in 1987, we didn't have the Spectrum. We didn't have the big shopping centers. We didn't have Home Depot. We didn't have hardly anything in town. So it was very, very different then. And of course, the great big companies, for them not to pay their fair share is really unfortunate and unfair to all the companies. But we want to keep our small businesses too. So yeah, I hope our citizens see the wisdom in this. and I hope our educational efforts pay off.

Yeah, I'm sorry, Mayor. And I think just also the wisdom of reevaluating our funding moving forward. Anything we don't look at for 40 years is surely not serving us in the right way.

Well, and you also look at the great big gigantic companies that are making millions and millions of dollars. I mean, it's their... their traffic, not just the trucks to deliver goods, but the traffic to and from those businesses that are wearing out the streets, too. So it's only fair that they do their fair share in helping us maintain our infrastructure so that we still have a quality community.

Yeah, of course, Mary. It helps us when we're their point of sale, but when we're not, we have to look at it from a different way. Exactly. Because of their impact to our community.

Right. So with that, I would ask for a motion and a second. Motion from Mayor Tim Burton. I'll make the second, Mayor. Second from Councilperson Comstock.

And if I may read the title of the ordinance.

Never mind.

That's okay. This is an unusual one because actually the voters ultimately adopted it. But for the first reading before the City Council is ordinance number 2026-011 entitled an ordinance of the City of Chino, California submitted to the voters by the City Council pursuant to Elections Code section 9222 adding chapter 5.03 to the Chino Municipal Code relating to modernizing city's business license tax and providing that the ordinance shall take effect only if approved by a majority of the voters voting on the measure at the municipal election held on November 3rd, 2026. And that's being read by title only and waiving further reading.

Thank you. And now I will ask for a vote. All those in favor, state aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, state no. And it passes unanimously. Okay, item number 20, award construction contract to R.J. Noble Company for pavement improvements, zoning one, and Cypress Avenue project ST-260. Staff report will be provided by Michelle Chapman, our CIP engineering manager, and Haygen Lee, director of public works.

Good evening. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Tonight I will be providing background for the award of construction contract to Archie Noble Company for ST-260, Pavement Improvement Zone 1 and Cypress Avenue. The Public Works Department oversees a pavement network comprised of 260 lane miles. The city's maintenance includes planning, design, and construction oversight of pavement projects from slurry seal maintenance to full pavement reconstruction, as well as pavement restoration following utility projects. In 2022, the city hired a consultant to perform street condition assessments to evaluate the state of the city's pavement infrastructure. What you see on your screen is a visual representation of the state of the city's network. The lowest street conditions are dark red and the best conditions are dark green. Street condition assessments are typically performed every five years as a planning and budgeting tool for strategizing pavement maintenance work. Between assessments, the city utilizes software to interpolate the rate of pavement decline and update segments of roadway to reflect pavement treatments completed. Utilizing these PCI scores, that's the pavement condition index, a project is programmed within the funding allowable for a given year. Engineering staff conduct field reviews to confirm or adjust recommendations for appropriate pavement treatment based on the condition of the roadway and prepare a design to address maintenance needs. What you see on the screen is a visual representation of pavement strategies utilized to maintain the city's average PCI. Effective payment strategies aim to extend the life of pavement before pavement conditions fall into the orange and red areas you see on the screen. Each level in treatment incurs a more significant increase in cost as the street degrades and requires more repairs to bring it up to a PCI of 100. Preventative maintenance, shown visually in green, typically includes crack sealing, slurry sealing, and targeted locations of repair. Once a pavement condition falls into the rehabilitation zone, recommended treatments may extend to grinding of the top two inches of asphalt pavement, followed by replacement of the asphalt layer. If an entire street requires rehabilitation or reconstruction, it will also include curb ramp replacements in the pavement project to ensure pedestrian access across the roadway meets ADA standards. Annually, pavement maintenance projects are grouped for construction by the city's quadrant-based capital improvement zones shown here on your screen. The limits of the zones are represented. This quadrant-based approach reduces contractor travel distances, improves construction efficiency, and allows for phasing of work to one zone per year to achieve economy of scale. This cyclical method enables consistent allocation of time and resources to maintain and improve the roadway network equitably. The image on the right zooms in for a closer look at the pavement maintenance improvements included in zone one. The average PCI for these three residential neighborhood locations ranges from 77 to 69 as you see on your screen on the right. Engineering staff reviewed the field conditions for each segment and scope the project to primarily receive slurry seal applications. The cul-de-sac streets showed more cracking at the end of the cul-de-sacs compared to the rest of the segments of the roadway. It is included in the project scope to grind and cap the cul-de-sacs at the end to enforce the asphalt in these targeted areas. The limits of such represented here visually on your screen. This equates to visually what we represent here. This treatment is not in conflict with the city's ADA policy as it meets federal and state policies for maintaining roadways and adhering to ADA requirements. The pedestrian crossings within the project limits are not at the deterioration level to elevate treatment beyond a slurry seal. East of zone one and just south of the 60 freeway is a segment of Cypress Avenue included in this project. Cypress Avenue was grouped with Zone 1 pavement work for economy of scale and a more competitive price on several similar bid items. The current PCI for this segment is in the low 40s, with deterioration shown in the image to the left, we're looking northbound at Cypress to the end of that cul-de-sac. The pavement treatment identified for completion of this segment is targeted repairs and grinding an overlay of pavement to bring the pavement back to a PCI of 100. Early last year, the city completed project ST241, which included the construction of six ADA curb ramps at the intersection of Cypress Avenue and Fillmore Street. You see it on the image on the left. These ramps were designed by professional engineers and constructed in compliance with the city's ADA policy standards consistent with the federal and state guidelines. The ADA compliance was even further memorialized when an after construction survey was completed in preparation of the city's pavement design for this segment. This project returns to Cypress Avenue to complete pavement improvements south of the 60 freeway to just north of Walnut Avenue. In 2023, the city completed a water project, Water Project WA211, with slurry improvements at the intersection along Walnut Avenue and south along Cypress Avenue, visually shown darker on the screen image on the left. The limits of work for this pavement project will tie into the back of the crosswalk on the north leg of the intersection. This is of note because these limits were determined due to a San Bernardino County flood control project that will also intersect with this intersection. That project intends to upsize the existing storm drain to meet a hundred year storm event and will cross the intersection at Walnut and Cypress. That project is planned for early construction in early 2028. That project will disturb more than 50% of the pedestrian crossings at this location and will further trigger an update of all the ramps to be brought to current ADA standards. The limits of work for this project stop behind the crosswalk as we recognize that the storm drain project will also incorporate ADA ramp betterments for all four corners. The project funds allowable for use on this project include a CalRecycle grant awarded to the city for utilizing California sourced recycled tires for rubberized asphalt paving of Cypress Avenue. It also includes road maintenance and rehabilitation account funds restricted for use to pavement improvement projects. Measure I funds, which are half cent sales tax supporting transportation improvements. The total estimated cost of construction is $974,877. The breakdown of each of those accounts is shown on your screen, as well as the additional cost depicted in the project task on the right. The public works team prepared, designed, and finalized the plans and specifications for advertisement in May of this year. 11 bids were submitted, with RJ Noble Company as the lowest responsible bidder. Staff recommends council award the construction project to RJ Noble Company for a total of $852,884, along with all necessary appropriations of funds. Following city council approval and notice to proceed, the contractor will have 45 working days to complete this work. Public works staff anticipate construction to begin in August and completion in October 2026. This concludes my presentation and I'm available to answer any questions you may have. Okay, I have a request to speak from Stubby.

Thank you once again. This sort of relates back to item 12, which we discussed earlier. And thank you for paying the contractor. However, this is where it all begins. This is where that project also began. presents you with a contract to approve and the contract violates the law, as this one does. So as Linda indicated, she's gonna go back and do an assessment of the restaurant and then proceed to bid and the whole works, except the law says that accessibility improvements must be done at the same time as the alterations that trigger them. So, now we have this project. Now, Mayor, you have chastised me publicly for saying this, but this is, can you remember? This is the latest in a long series now of eight projects that staff has selected with the objective to avoid providing accessibility improvements. That in itself is a violation of the ADA. The ADA is not a building code. It is a civil rights law intended to negate discrimination against the disabled community. In the ADA, there are remedial benefits. In the ADA, if you ever read the language, it states that yes, this is going to be expensive, but it's necessary because of all of the deficiencies in the past. So whenever an alteration is done, and alterations, as you saw earlier with that Attorney General's opinion, are determined by law. For instance, on this project. There are several streets that are indicated as being slurry sealed. However, it involves a two-process slurry. It involves going through and installing a number three slurry, which is roughly one-third of an inch thick per stone, and then topping it off with a second slurry. This is classified as microservicing, and the Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation, and the Department of Justice all classified as an alteration requiring accessibility improvements. The difference between microservicing and slurry sealing, which engineering should know, is A slurry seal can only be one stone in thickness, one little rock, whatever the size of that filler material is. If you exceed that, it's microsurfacing. You are actually applying a new layer. You're not filling in the raveling on the existing surface, which is the definition of maintenance, to maintain something, not to alter it. So, stopping... an alteration just shy of a crosswalk is a blatant violation of the ADA. Because the only reason for stopping it there is so that the crosswalk does not have to be made accessible. However, in this case, it wouldn't matter because the crosswalks are required to be made accessible anyway. The project, I think it was SC 241 that was done at Fillmore, There are six curb ramps there, except eight curb ramps are required. And also, the crossing for the mobile home park at the end of Fillmore, they call it Fillmore, but it's got a different name, is also in the public right-of-way, which hasn't been addressed. Every single one of those curb ramps is in the wrong location. The installation of a pair of curb ramps does not create a crosswalk. The crosswalk is created by the location of the sidewalk. This is streets and highways code. This is a vehicle code. This is the MUTCD. They all say the same thing. Crosswalk is the extension of the boundary lines of the sidewalk across the street. California Building Code is very, very, very specific. It says curb ramps must be wholly contained, that's WH, not the religion, within the boundary of the crosswalk.

Steppy, you're almost out of time.

Okay, so I'm addressing you as the enforcing agency for accessibility for the city of Chino. This project is not ripe. It's not accurate. It does not include the additional 20% of pedestrian improvements that are required to be done on any alteration project. So I'm asking you not to approve this. If you do, we're gonna be just extending the cycle one more time. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the audience that would like to? Yes, sir. If you'd come up.

Good evening, council, once again. Thank you for allowing me this time. I actually wanted to get up here. Well, first, I told my wife, hey, let's sit in on the whole council meeting since you've never been able to accompany me to my council meetings that I had to be at. I'm kind of happy there's a few things I heard tonight that we'll be discussing, and maybe I'll come back again. But to talk about this specific item, I kind of would like to frame it around fiscal responsibility. First, I think staff did an amazing job in presenting that. It's always difficult to explain to the general audience residents how and why we Do you pavement repair? And the theory behind it, the theory being that if you want to get the most out of your funds, you usually start with the jobs that are technically easier. You're going to get more miles out of that money than if you start repairing damaged roadway And if it includes a lot of concrete, that also takes away a lot of the funds. So it sounds like what they're doing here is a maintenance project. Maintenance does not trigger ADA. Not only that, they were smart enough to look ahead at other projects and coordinate and see that ADA ramps were gonna be done by a project that actually impacts them. And so they're choosing to stop the project at a limit that does not trigger the ADA. And so they're being fiscally responsible by not constructing something that is gonna be torn up again and then rebuilt. I have a little bit of trauma because several years ago, and some of you may have been here or not, there was curb ramps that I kept seeing being built and the same ramps being torn up and the same ramps being built. And I thought to myself, I wonder why that is. Is the contractor paying for that or is the city paying for that? So I would like the money that I contribute through taxes and all that to be used responsibly and something to only get built once. And so, Great job to staff. I hope you guys can see and understand the difference. I think something like the ADA laws are trying to be used here for something they shouldn't be. It's always been a problem to apply ADA to public works because they are meant for building projects, paths of travel. PROAG is actually what was only recently And I'm not even 100% sure it was adopted. It might have been. But to address ADA in the public rights of way. And so usually that's with new construction, like completely new construction. So when you're modifying existing, it's a little bit of a different story. Again, staff's doing a great job. I hope you consider the difference here. They're being very smart by not spending tax dollars on something that's going to be destroyed and then have to be rebuilt. While I can understand and I'm always in favor of making things more accessible, it's gotta be done in a fiscally responsible way. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else in the public? Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. My name is Ruth, I was here a couple weeks ago too. I live in Morgan Square in College Park, and I've lived there for five years. The roadway there is not as good as it was five years ago, and I've noticed that the streets in the city pretty much have looked the same since I moved here in 2011. And I always wondered, when is the project to slurry seal gonna happen? Because I don't want our beautiful city to look like Pomona. And I went to Cal Poly Pomona and I know how bad those streets are and I avoid Cal Poly Pomona just because the streets still look the same since 1991. When I worked for the city of Norwalk, I had a lot of residents call me and they wanted to have handicap parking in front of their house. And I was a new engineer and I didn't know that you couldn't just say yes. So I kind of got in trouble being so young and so new. And so I remember what the city engineer told me. You can't always please everyone and you can't always put a handicap parking in front of their house. So I know slurry seal is to maintain a street to make sure that after so many years, it doesn't become a grind and overlay. So I would like to see the city a little bit more prettier than what it currently is now. I mean the streets, not the city's beautiful with all the trees, but just the streets itself. So I believe that Engineering or public works has done a great job in especially that PCI picture. I didn't know that that really existed. Looked like that. That was just, I liked that a lot. Thanks for sharing that. So I don't know, my opinion, I'm just a resident who's lived here since 2011 and I love our city, but wear and tear on my vehicles, potholes, especially that one time on Grand, especially after rain and trucks. So it would be nice to see this project start so that the rest of the city can look beautiful again. Because I know isn't a grant just like two or three years? So after that two or three years, we lose that grant. So then this first zone is what, 8,400? So it'd be nice to keep that grant to do that project instead of trying to get money from other projects that we would need. So thank you.

Thank you, Ruth. Anyone else in the audience want to address council on this item? Okay, would you review again why we are not doing the ADA and when it will be done with the next project and how you came up with that idea and conclusion and what it either does to save money or benefit the community?

Absolutely, if I could have on the screen here presentation so I can kind of give you a visual aid to partner with my response. So specifically, as we're looking at the location at Cypress and Walnut, there is a storm drain project that will impact and cut through the intersection, requiring that the ramps will be redone. As a result of that project, it will put in the consideration for directional ramps, which allows you to have all ramps at this intersection completed.

And when is that going to be done?

That project was presented to us from San Bernardino County Flood Control. It's a part of a project they intend to construct in early 2028. They're in the process of designing at this moment. They have a grant, a FEMA grant associated with the design. However, improvements and betterments at this intersection will likely be asked of us to contribute, which does make sense as this would be a betterment to this intersection. So those funds would come from the city and this would be an allowance to not pay for that twice.

Okay. So if we do improve the ramps now, they will have to be retorn up when the storm drain project goes in?

Correct. The disruption to the area will likely cause more disruption to have to redo those ramps.

Okay. So in order to save the public funding and not create a do-over, we're delaying the ADA improvements until the storm drain project is accomplished, which is gonna be in two years?

Correct, and if I may add, if you can see at the top of the screen there, those are the two catch basins that this is tying into to give you that visual reminder as to where those storm drain limits will eventually physically construct to. So you will see disruption in that area.

Thank you very, very much. Okay, council comments.

I may also respond to another part of your question. Yes. So that answers that part of the question. The other one that was brought up was related to preventative maintenance regarding the categories here, if you can kind of see that visual aid here. Preventative maintenance being in green, slurry treatment being preventative maintenance, which is different than a rehabilitation or reconstruction, which would trigger ADA ramps. And the ways in which it would trigger that is if you're using, if you're, negating or stopping short of or purposely trying to eliminate ADA improvements that are in the walking path of a crossing. We are not avoiding, we are doing the preventative treatment necessary for the streets in which we're performing this work on, and we're not going beyond the preventative maintenance. We'd like to also add that regarding the double slurry, double slurry is an acceptable form of preventative maintenance. We even got confirmation from the access board regarding that being a preventative maintenance measure that does not trigger ADA improvements. So we are being responsible with the funding we have available for pavement maintenance to spread it as far as we can, recognizing that in the future, if there is a pavement construction project that required rehabilitation or reconstruction, we would absolutely be adding curb ramps and upgrading those.

Okay, I have a request, and that is in the staff report, and I will admittedly admit I have not read every word in every report, but I would appreciate when we're making an exception to ADA because we know another project is coming up, like the one you just talked about, that that be explained thoroughly within the staff report so as to if we are challenged, there is a reason why it's being delayed, not to be avoided, but to be wise with public funding, and again, not re-tear up something again. We all have a very vivid memory of how many ramps were installed, how many ADA accessible ramps were put in and torn up and put in and torn, I mean, it was just a nightmare. And thank God we're over all of that nonsense now. So I do think, though, that kind of detail needs to be part of these reports. Okay, thank you. Kurt?

I just wanna confirm the, if you can go back to the slide of Cypress at Fillmore. The one right before that.

This is the one with the Fillmore ramps. Okay, there it is.

Yes. So this is north of the intersection. I wanna confirm that that section of roadway is gonna be completed before 2028, correct?

Correct, so if I may, the red section you see here, all of Cypress, is paved with this project. That is all being paved with this project. We had a prior curb ramp project that was ST241, which completed the ramps that you visually see in that image on the left. those ramps and those crossings will be improved as a result of this project. That is an improvement to those pedestrian crossings. So the limits of that work stopped after the ramps were completed. However, this will improve the surface and you will have improved crossings as a result.

And when are we going to start this project? August 26th?

With your approval of this contract, we can start it as early as August.

Absolutely. That section of roadway is horrible, and the residents in that area have been complaining about it for years. So I'm really happy to see that we're going to get started on this immediately. I absolutely understand the intersection issue, and I appreciate the report. Thank you. Absolutely.

Mark, you had a comment?

No.

No. Chris? No. Karen? No.

The project you're seeing brought forth tonight is the result of a lot of study of our streets, but not just from pavement condition index, but roadway management, coupled with us mapping every single road in our city and deciding as a staff what it is we can afford to maintain our roads at annually. During this study session, the council decided we wanted to try and maintain each of our roads between the 70th and 75th percentile in doing this as well as the upgrades to ADA and concrete work when we construct these projects. The other thing that staff decided to do is also to use a different condition when we do maintenance to improve longevity as well as roadway noise which we were experimenting with in doing so. So staff, tonight, thank you for doing this. The other consideration in all of this, including cost and concrete work, is a study in where best to deploy our money based off of economy, based off of roadway condition, as well as regions of the city, which is why you see it broke up into four grids where we can bring that work in and that construction work in and get basically the most bang for our buck in paving and improvements so tonight staff i think you have done a good job with this all of these roads are according to our own index now uh overdue and yearning for these improvements i agree with the comments here i i kind of chuckled when the lady made the comment about hey we don't want to look like pomona that is my phrase actually up here on the council i love pomona as well but the goal is to not wake up and look like pomona in the city of chino God bless our neighbors in Pomona. But listen, we're fortunate enough because of Measure B and other funding now to, you used to be able to see the difference between leaving the county and the city by our roadway condition and a lot of communities take note of that. So thank you and keep up the good work and I hope that this recommendation passes tonight.

Mayor, may I comment on one item? Regarding the 20% investment of a project cost, that clause is coming from the building code, not from a public contract. So that 20% investment of a total project cost does not apply to public contract. Okay, thank you.

Okay, with that, I would entertain a motion and a second. I'll make the motion, ma'am.

Second. Motion from Councilperson Comstock, second from Councilperson Lucio. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposition? Okay, seeing none, the item passes unanimously. Next, item number 21, establish capital project and award a professional services agreement to Van Dyke Landscape Architects for Irrigation Landscape Design Services for Isle Park. Staff report by Albert Espinoza, our public works deputy director, slash city engineer, and Hagen Lee, our director of public works. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, and community members with us here tonight. This evening, we'll be introducing a new project for your consideration, which will award a professional service design for the Ayala Park Irrigation and Landscape Project. So Ruben S. Ayala Park, also known as Ayala Park, is the city's largest community park, about 140 acres, located on the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Edison Avenue. Ayala Park is a cornerstone of the Chino community, and hosting sports events, tournaments, city events such as the Fourth of July celebration, which we just had, family activities as the annual Chino Museum 5K Derriere, Chile Chino Snow Days, and the Halloween Spooktacular, just to name a few events that occur at our park. So the irrigation system at Ayala Park was constructed in phases over various decades, with several controllers now past their operational life expectancy. Because of this aging infrastructure and high pressure zones, the system experiences frequent pipe and valve failures with uneven water distribution. And public work staff is out there performing maintenance and pressure adjustments on the park, on a weekly and biweekly basis. And the image here that you see on this slide is a pipe fitting that separated from its elbow, which caused that water leak that you see there. And these are the types of repairs the team is experiencing throughout the park. So to address some of these inefficiencies, the proposed design work will create a phase replacement to update Ayala Park's irrigation system. The plan will divide the park into isolated and dependent zones, allowing the city to schedule and fund construction across multiple fiscal years, specifically also based on park usage, knowing how busy Ayala Park is. So for us, throughout the design process, we'll be working closely with Public Works, the consultant, especially Sylvia's team, Community Services, Parks and Rec, because we need to closely distribute the operational work because we have so many scheduled events out there. So we have to be smart about this phased approach. So when we bring this consultant on board, we wanna make sure we do this the right way with least impact and again, working with Sylvia and her team specifically, Ted, we've been talking about this and they had a hand in putting together that RFP to make sure we address some of those things. So on March 12th of this year, RFP number 2026-007 was advertised. We did have three proposals from landscape architectural firms. A review committee consisting of city staff from various departments evaluated the proposal separately and scored them on the listed criteria that you see here tonight. So based off of experience and qualifications, past performance and references, THE PLAN METHODOLOGY, THE PROJECT APPROACH, QUALITY AND THE RESPONSIVENESS OF THE PROPOSAL THEY PUT TOGETHER, AND COST EVALUATION, AND THE AWARD WOULD GO TO VAN DYKE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS IF IT'S APPROVED TONIGHT. SO STAFF'S RECOMMENDATION IS THAT WE ESTABLISH PROJECT PK270, OYALA PARK IRRIGATION IMPROVEMENTS, THAT WE APPROPRIATE $221,103 FROM THE WATER RESERVE FUNDS. award a professional services agreement to Van Dyke Landscaping of $221,103 for the Ayala Park Irrigation and Landscape Design Services, and then we would authorize the city manager to execute all necessary documents. Staff is here to answer any questions that yourselves or the community may have on this project, and that concludes the presentation.

Thank you very much, Albert. Stubby, you have a request to speak?

Good evening once again. So this project definitely needs to be done. There's been a lot of deferred maintenance in the older areas over there and the as-builts are horrendous. That's not the issue. My issue with this is the fact that we are paying for it, funding it, with water funds. All right, so we have this little pesky document. I hopefully by now have a copy of. It's called the California Constitution. About 30 years ago, we passed a proposition, Prop 218, which defined how taxes were to be assessed that are property related and also what fees are and what fees are to be used for. So at Ayala Park, we use recycled water. So we're not removing any load from the city's water system. The recycled water comes from IEUA through their distribution system and is a pass-through only charge on the city water, just like the sewers, every time there's a sewer increase, all five of you stand up and go, hey, it's not us, it's IEUA. Well, it's the same thing here. So there is no way to develop an access between using water funds to design or to do anything with recycled water at Ayala Park. The last page I put there, I put the three point takeaways which were discussed a couple years back by the Attorney General. So cost of service, revenue generated from water rates cannot exceed the actual cost of providing service, well obviously.

If we have money to spend on a parks program, we're doing that.

No general subsidies. You cannot charge water rate payers extra to fund general government services or unrelated property benefits. Water is classified as a property-related fee. And then, last but not least, Our water department is an enterprise fund. It's not part of the general fund, and it is required to be completely segregated from the general fund. So I don't have a problem with this, but I have a problem with the funding. You should have a problem with the funding, and this should be funded, hopefully you'll vote for it, with the clarification that it be funded from the general fund, thank you.

Any other requests to speak from the public on this item? Okay, seeing none, Haygen or Fred, would you explain the funding, please?

Yes, Madam Mayor. Yes, we have spoken with multiple sources. We have a water use efficiency group that we belong to and also our consultant who has been instrumental in performing lot of water rates and recycle water rate studies throughout the Southern California area have confirmed that any improvement that could divert the use of using potable water can be used to be able to utilize to help preserve our potable water resources. So we have confirmed it in multiple ways and I think our recommendation to utilize water fund is an acceptable use for this purpose. Fred.

Based on H.N. 's explanation, that is a reasonable analysis to conclude that there is that nexus. So, for example, even though, as Stubby mentions, the IEUA fees are a pass-through fee, to the extent we're offsetting our need to use potable water, the expenditure of the funds would seem appropriate. And I'm not saying that this is generating any extra revenue for the city or anything beyond what our actual costs are providing the service, which is really what Prop 218 is intended to address. If you're charging beyond that, then it's really a tax that requires voter approval. But I'm hearing, based on that analysis, there is that nexus which should address that concern.

So you disagree with Stubby's analysis, in other words?

Yes.

Okay.

Council comments? Nothing? Okay, I would entertain a motion and a second, please.

Motion, Mayor.

Motion from Councilman Flores. Is there a second? Second. Second from Mayor Pro Tem Burton. All those in favor state aye. Aye. All those opposed? Okay, the item passes unanimously. Moving on to Mayor and Council reports. I'm going to make mine very quick. Had a lot of normal meetings. The one I'd like to highlight, there's two I'd like to highlight. and that is Captain Ryan Crowley's retirement on July 16th. It was one of the biggest well-attended retirements I have ever been to. Ryan was a very, very, very special man. He was also a minister, a pastor, which was interesting. Wonderful man, so ethical, set such high standards, and I think if I had any wish I was a little, you know, Tinkerbell and could wave my wand. I would wish that all the officers would have the same kind of drive and ethical desires that Ryan had because he's great. But the amazing thing and so nice is that he's retiring in healthy, full health, He's young enough still to enjoy his retirement. His wife is just absolutely adorable, and his kids are really excited to be able to have him home more. And how was their trip? Do you know? Still there. Is he still there? That's really neat. And then I attended the garden 10th anniversary on the 18th. And I would like to wish both Karen and Chris happy birthday. Thank you, Mayor. So we have two birthday kids up here today. Mayor Pro Tem Burton.

Thank you, Mayor. On the 9th, I attended my one-on-one with the city manager. And on the 11th, I went out to the ARC and celebrated their one-year anniversary. It was really incredible to be out there. Yeah, you know what? It's a temporary shelter, and they are absolutely busting at the seams with animals. So please, please, if you're looking for an animal, go out to the ARC first and look through there. There's an incredible selection, cats and dogs. I went out with Assistant City Manager Jackie Melendez, and we were really, really happy to see the amount of people that did show up, and they adopted a lot of dogs and cats that day. So that was pretty neat. Also in reference to the ARC, we are going to look into the comments that Donna Marchese brought up this evening as well as Mo Mendoza. We're going to look into both those issues and make sure it's right for the city of Chino. On the 13th, one-on-one with the city manager. And on the 15th, I attended the planning commission meeting. The 16th, I attended the walk of honor for the retirement ceremony for Captain Ryan Crowley with you, Mayor. That was pretty incredible as well. Lots of people there at that ceremony as well as some retirees that I haven't seen in many, many years. That's the kind of impression that Captain Crowley made on the department. Pretty impressive. The 20th, I had my ARC briefing. The 21st, I had a water meeting with staff. That's actually today. I met with the developer, with staff, and Council Member Comstock. closed session right before the council meeting this evening. I'd also like to wish Council Member Comstock a happy birthday and Council Member Flores a happy birthday on August 1st. So that concludes my report, Mayor.

Council Member Comstock. Thank you, Mayor. I have just a couple meetings as well to report out on July 8th. I attended the fire board meeting in Chino Hills at their headquarters. I also attended Captain Crowley's walk of honor for his retirement celebration. Go ahead. Thank you. Captain Crowley's retirement celebration for his walk of honor on July 16th, which has already been spoken of. Just one factoid to that. I was actually present the day that Captain Crowley resigned from the police department to pursue a career in ministry. And we were talking in the back parking lot before he left because it was a really, really difficult decision for him to make. And I remember saying to him, hey, Ryan, I know you need to pursue this path for a period of time that you have a calling upon your heart. I said, but I also know you'll be back to the Chino Police Department. And it was about three and a half years that we welcomed Ryan Crowley back to the Chino Police Department. So great day for him and congratulations to him. Warren, you're really gonna be missed, your leadership, your service to our community. I think I've been in denial about your retirement, Warren. So thank you for everything. and enjoy your retirement. And then lastly, Mayor, I'd just like to offer my condolences to John Anderson and his family. John's legacy in this community is rich and deep in scouting, and he will be remembered. And to his family, I just want to offer my deepest sympathy. Thank you, Mayor.

Councilman Flores.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll forego my report for tonight, but I just want to wish Karen happy birthday.

To you as well, my little brother.

Thank you. Warren, congratulations. And maybe I can borrow one of your sweatshirts one day, too. I'm just kidding. His sweaters. My sweaters, yeah. Cardigan.

Cardigan, yeah. That's the right word. Very 70s.

Very 70s. My dad used to wear sweaters like that, Warren. I know. You're not that old yet, oh my. And a hat, and a hat, or you need a hat. Council Member Lucille.

Yeah, so I'll make mine short. On the 11th I attended the ARC one year anniversary and we adopted a dog.

It's a lab mix.

We took her home the following Thursday after she was neutered. So they do have a lot of dogs there, a lot of cats, and they do need homes. My kids wouldn't leave without a dog.

What's your dog's name? What's her name?

Well, in the pound it was Jinx, but they renamed her Bella.

Yeah, yeah. Is she a puppy?

She's seven months old, seven months old.

That's neat.

And then on the 18th, we attended the Chino Demolition Derby. It was a great turnout, great event. We didn't do as good as we would have liked, but we did raise a lot of money. And we are gonna be able to have our Thanksgiving giveaway. Our goal is to feed 575 families during Thanksgiving. So it looks like we're well on our way to getting that done. Warren, I want to congratulate you on your retirement. I want to wish Karen and Chris a happy birthday. I also want to wish my, I have several kids that are born in July, my daughter Samantha on the 14th, my daughter Sabrina on the 20th, my son Gavin on the 21st, which is today, and then we're going to be dark in August, and that is my son Marco's birthday, August 31st, so, and that's all I have. Thank you.

City Manager Reich.

Hi, Mayor. No report. Just happy birthday to council members, and good luck.

Thank you.

Next week.

Yes, Chris. City Attorney Galante.

Well, happy birthday to Council Members Flores and Comstock. On the subject of adoptions, I was successful in coordinating the adoption of a dog that our Mayor Pro Tem had asked about. And luckily, there was somebody in my firm who had a friend that was actually looking to adopt, and it worked out well. So it was a good ending to that story that everybody's happy. And just want to congratulate Warren. I think, like Councilmember Comstock, I'm in denial that he's retiring because he's really been a great person to work with, and I'm definitely going to miss him. That's all I have.

Any director reports? Of course. I do.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Quick update, some feel-good update. So Chino Youth Museum has a new water exhibit. It's called New Aqua Mirror Exhibit, and that was in conjunction with our CSPR and the museum. And we got some grant funding from IUA for water education, so we're able to invest that back into the youth museum. So come and see it. It's actually really cool. Another one is, I don't know if you've been hearing on the news that there's the gigantic Godzilla El Nino coming. Every week they're saying it's strengthening every week. So in preparation of our potentially very, very heavy winter rain, our public works team have been preparing already. So we are in the process of preparing our El Nino response plan and we will bring that to council as a informational item on a future date, but we are already working on it so that we will be ready. It's not even just the El Nino prep, but any emergency we might have. So we want to make sure we are ready and we want to ensure that our residents will be well taken care of. And one more item is last, about last past year or so, I've been giving a couple updates regarding the stormwater permit, the MS4 permit, and we are a permittee under the county. and MS4 permit is ready to be adopted by the Water Board and there's actually another public hearing in Orange actually on Friday and our staff will be speaking to give some consideration to some of these unfunded mandates and impacts and how we're gonna be able to comply physically on how we're gonna be able to come up with additional funds to comply with all of those. So I wanna at least give Council an update that staff is keeping a very tight track of what's going on and staff is responding to the Water Board and regarding the adoption of the new MS4 permit.

Are they still considering mandating filter systems on all the drains?

Yes. The trash mandate is actually all in full force. The compliance period is actually in 2030. So we are also in the process of complying with that. When we finish installing all of our trash capture in all of our catch basins, that's going to require additional cleaning efforts. Oh, yeah. Obviously, that's not something that we could do on our own. We have about 2,000 catch basins that will require some type of trash capture devices.

Is there any effort at all since we're downstream from everybody? We're gonna get everybody else's water. Is there any cooperation going between communities?

Technically, each community is supposed to capture their own trash. Supposedly. Supposedly.

Because we have a lot of land in the county that have no storm drains.

But technically, county is under the same permit, which means they are also required. But problem is, they don't have catch basins. That's what I mean.

So it'll all come down to us. So is the county going to cooperate, help?

You know, that'll be a topic of discussion we could also have. So we are in the process of discussing some other channel improvements and channel maintenance issues, and I will certainly bring that up as one of the topics.

What about the flood district one?

Yeah, yeah, they are the ones, it'll be San Bernardino County Public Works, but flood control falls under the county public works.

Well, if you start now, maybe we can get some help in some of them because they're definitely going to impact us.

Yes, that's a very good point. Thank you, Mayor.

Any other direct reports? No? Okay. Chief Minson.

Just real quick, Mayor, we have a upcoming community academy that starts on Wednesday, August 12th, and it goes through October 14th. It's from 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock. If anyone's interested, we have the online application on our social media, so it's a great opportunity for the community to come out, participate in this class, and get a kind of behind-the-scenes look at what we do at the Chino Police Department. So that's all I have, unless you have any questions.

Great. No, just advertise it on our social media. I know those classes are really valuable. Yep. Thanks, Kevin. Thank you. Chief Williams? Nothing? Wow. Just happy to stay here until after nine o'clock. Well, I guess that's it for tonight. Warren, I've been sitting here all night trying to figure out how to make it impossible for you to retire. I don't know whether it's hold your final check or what, but oh my goodness sakes, we're gonna miss you so much. And you know, if you get to the point where you're absolutely bored, I'm sure we can convince Linda to let you come back part-time or something. But you've been a great, great, great friend and an absolutely wonderful director. Thank you all. You're welcome. With that, we are adjourning in memory of John Anderson and our next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 1st at six with closed session starting no earlier than 4 p.m.