Area Council - Regular Meeting

She's doing okay. She's doing pretty well, actually. She's hip around the, without, and they can walk around in the yard. She's getting a little bit too sure, a little nervous. She's a very interesting woman. She's a very interesting woman. Yes. She didn't take any crap off of me.

Don't say it.

You can see the opening. I wasn't planning on saying her. Yeah.

Yeah.

only near for 54 years.

All in. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

She said, texted her yesterday, and said it was the longest five, you know, she hates flying, the longest five and a half hours of her life.

Where did she fly? She went to Hawaii.

The girl just wrote there, right? Oh, yeah.

Oh, really? The girl... Yeah, I read that. Yeah, she just wrote a boat all the way to Hawaii by herself. I'm not sure. I don't even know if she's there yet. Okay.

All right. Roll call, please, clerk.

Council Member Woodison. Council Member Hood. Council Member Kramer.

Eric.

Mayor Sloan and Vice Mayor Downey is absent.

Right. Go to the presentation of the fiscal 2026 budget workshop.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, Council Member. So we have a few slides, not a lot, pretty high level. Some of the key actions that we had to take to balance the budget. So feel free to Interrupted in time, do it as a question and then. If you want, we could also go and. Dig into our online, but. Yeah, this would be a question if you'd like to answer. Okay, so that would be helpful to. Start by just a quick overview of the strategic plan goals that the council said. last year. Number one, I put that in bold because that was underlined as the most important, being economic development, for public facilities and infrastructure, celebrating clearly, making sure it's clean, physically sustainable, and safe. So just a little bit of economic outlook. We'll start with sort of the U.S. outlook. Continuing to see economic expansion, just so you know, most of these notes came from Beacon Economics, one of the leading economists here in California. Maybe no surprise to you that there continues to be a lot of federal gridlock. Congress does very little these days. source to the Iranian war, which we understand may be coming to an end, has had significant effect on oil prices, global trade, et cetera. Hopefully those bumps will be served out here soon. One interesting thing, even with economic expansion, the labor market nationally is flat. It's not growing a lot, which is one of the kind of negative signs One of the key parts of the U.S. economy is consumer spending. It remains positive. Disposable income is up, largely attributed to some of the tax policies in the big people bill. Federal budget deficit. is something that we've heard about for decades, really, but it's definitely at a place that's far above anything that's ever been seen in the history of the United States. Now, 6% of GDP, which is up three times over just 10 years ago, there's a lot of concern about, at some point, this is going to have to be dealt with. federal reserve policy to help deal with that. They have just seen that a lot of folks were kind of hoping, we have a new federal reserve chairman now, and that perhaps interest rates would be pushed down a little bit further in order to increase spending and borrowing out there. They did have a meeting. They didn't give any real direction, but there was some concern coming out of that that because inflation has begun to take up again they may actually look at raising interest rates again soon which in spite of all this um the outlook is really for moderate growth in india from the near term and over the next year so they're predicting about two and a half percent next year. If we look at California, there's also some different factors going on there. The economy here continues to grow, but the job market is actually shrinking, which is concerning. California, the economy itself is outpacing the growth Consumer spending is rising at a significant amount of 5%, but we have the highest unemployment rate of all 50 states now, 5.5%. It's pretty unusual to have a higher unemployment rate than a lot of the southern states, actually. And there's a lot more interesting we could dive in on this point. The number of jobs we have actually shrank since the beginning of the year, and a lot back to the ai sector so for a pretty long period of time government has been the largest industry sector in california um just maybe a little surprising but um you know it's not hard to figure out some of the state issues we deal with and you know the enormous regulatory machine that exists in california as a result of that but the information sector where ai is categorized is now the largest sector of the economy in California. AI is interesting because it requires a pretty low number of employees but a very high amount of economic output, which is just growing exponentially right now. So it's really causing a cooling in home prices and no meaningful expansion in a recent term. I should not say inter-residential permits, but in residential building permits. They're expecting AI to continue to drive CFE growth, which helps state revenues. As most of you know, the state is very reliant on capital gains tax, and so state revenue is pretty volatile. But when there's a boom going, the state does very well. Investors do well. The average worker does not so well. So they're expecting continuing volatility. The state budget is there. Um, we look at clearly like a little bit, um. Our costs, um, and I'm, I'm really. And we have a lot of different costs and several funds, but largely focus on the general fund here, because that's really discretionary revenue that the council has in the lines for the bulk of services. Our costs continue to grow faster than our revenues. Sales tax has really been a slow decline over the last several years. It is currently projected to increase in sort of future years from this point, starting in 27, 28, but at a very small amount, a few thousand dollar increase. And of course, that's based on the existing businesses that we have. Back to the economic development focus, that's really one thing that can happen in resources we have. I also wanted to point out that property tax, which is normally very stable, has been somewhat unpredictable lately based on what we discovered with the county's practice of doing negative apportionments as a result of deficit tax sales. So a few years ago they reduced our property tax by over $300,000 without notifying us. There's some other negative portionments that are expected in the near term, and we've been having a lot of conversations with them on how to deal with that to avoid this happening. If you have questions, we could go into that a little bit more, but it would be a pretty significant impact for us. Community expectations seem to be higher with each year. I know probably all heard me say this a number of times, but I felt like my job as city manager was much easier when I first started because no one expected a whole lot. We produced a number of things and given folks hope, which is good, but with all those improvements, results of increasing expectations. So, you know, in order to shift the revenue cycle, you know, the last few years what we've really been doing is just doing our best to trim expenses in order to absorb cost increases with shrinking revenues. And, you know, we can't continue to do this. So there's going to have to be some discussion of tax increases. My preference would be continuing to focus and lean into economic development efforts. But something is going to be needed to support and expand services. We have a poor community, largely, and I don't think forcing more taxes on our community is a great way to go. But something's going to have to change. Fortunately, we are continuing to see a lot of interest in development. Still affordability of the land and living here in California, particularly the North Bay is continuing to drive growth. And by that, I mean, largely population growth to Clear Lake. And so we do expect Unfortunately, most of these projects take a number of years to do design, put funding together, et cetera. And they're difficult to build. Pause there real quick to see if we have any questions, Bob.

Why do we think sales taxes then rise until December?

Well, you know, I think it's just more related to general economic conditions that they're seeing out there. I mean, it's a little hard to compare even the state of California or the United States with consumer spending here in Clear Lake. You know, I don't believe that we see as many dips in high So, you know, it's pretty stable and we don't have as much of, for example, a tourism sector, like during COVID, Healdsburg, Catston, it's an enormous drop off. In fact, wherever they were, we didn't see that level of it. You know, we would like to have more tourism, but because it's a smaller park, I don't know if you don't see the inflows, but... Because a lot of folks are on a fixed income, fuel prices went up as an example, and we actually get more revenue when fuel prices are high. But from a consumer perspective on a fixed income, this still has to travel around maybe two at another retailer. So, I mean, there's a lot of factors there. It's a little hard to know what they all are, but I think that there is the expectation that we're going to start seeing more of the growth in building and borrowing investment nationwide than existed maybe more than 10 years ago or so. okay um so a few key points um this budget so we look at the overall budget numbers and look at those a bit overall budget is up significantly um and that's because of a lot of grant funding that we got for primarily the housing project up by the hospital a few other grants general fund is down slightly over last year You'll recall the budget that was adopted last year included an over $1 million in general fund structure and deficit, so that means that the expenses that were approved were over $1 million above the revenue that we expected to receive. And so we were relying on one-time funds or fund balance from previous years in order to cover that structural deficit. Obviously, and we talked about it at the budget hearings, that's not something that is certainly advised on doing over a long period of time. And so as we moved into, or really even a very short period of time, but into this budget year, one of the primary goals was making sure that the general fund had a balanced budget and there was Um, and, you know, I kind of mentioned this earlier, but again, this. Comes after multiple years of absorbing cost increases by cutting other things. And so, you know, you can't, um. There's only so much you can cover. So this year, 1 of the things that will be up to this point, not cut any staff. As a result of that. Um, this year, um, 6 positions in the budget are frozen. So that means the allocation is there, but there's no funding associated with it. And then, um, 1 lay off in the community department. So, there were a couple of, um. I guess the timing was somewhat fortunate in the police department and public works that With different timing may have required of layoffs in those departments, but we have a detective that his last day of work was today and he's leaving. So, like, that position is frozen, which normally would have filled. A dispatch position was frozen that we've been trying to fill for a period of time and have been unable to. And then the community service officer position, which was recently started the police academy to become a police officer. Um, refilling that position for us in the budget and. Yeah, that's 1 of those things that just to make sure you're awesome background that, you know, we can't. Get away with that without having that nonstorm position, but 1 of the, there's a lot of, um. Other things that community service officers do does 1 of the big things is just transporting people to jail. And so while our officers can transport people to jail. It's a lot of times that they're not on the street. And so, you know, that's something, but we didn't feel like we had the other option at this point and then. Public works, there's a couple of positions that have been vacant for a little bit and then 1. Public works employee that that just left recently that we would have been refilling the position. And then, I guess just on the 1 layoff, I mean, obviously. We looked at the number of options in the organization related to that. And, you know, this is not something that you just want to do, but it was determined that this position was one that other positions within the organization would be able to more easily fill the gaps. This is going to be more work now for folks than we had in Sylvia, those challenges. Um, you know, I think just kind of talk about this a little bit, but, um. All the budget units were basically in departments were asked to absorb all constant increases. I mean, there's some things that. You know, we can make decisions on whether we have to. you know, replacing a piece of equipment, some equipment you kind of have to, but some things like our insurance, we don't have a lot of options. Our, you know, insurance premiums went up $150,000 this year. So that was, you know, an increase that had to be absorbed by other things. And then this budget really includes no significant budget request. no funds for it. And then we continue to be more reliant on special funds to help fund things that are paid out of the general fund than is ideal over the long term. I'll just give one example of what I mean by that. So we have the Measure P Fund, which was passed by has to be spent for police services. We have a number of police department employees that are paid directly out of that budget unit. This current fiscal year, fortunately, we had some savings. We try to use those savings in future years for equipment and other one-time expenses. But this year we had to push, even with the adjustments we talked about, we had to push more employees to be paid out of Measure P or equipment purchases to be paid out of Measure P. And any extra fund balance in that fund is basically down to zero. So this is not something that we're going to be able to continue doing year after year, but we were able to do this year to avoid additional impact systems. Any questions?

I have a question. The boxer from East Farm that went to the academy, that's one of the positions that was frozen?

No. Well, the two, so we had already, before we kind of made final decisions on this, so there's two other vacant positions in the police department where we had police trainees that were brought on and They are, they went to the Academy a few weeks ago. So 1 was the community service officer and 1 other new hire. Those 2 are going to be and then we'll. Be back late this year, so those positions. We didn't take action to, like, remove them from the. Okay.

Yeah.

So what we've been doing on that, just as a reminder, is once we have someone that passes all the background stuff, which, you know, takes many, many months to get through, we hire them as a police trainee and then send them to the academy.

And then once they pass the academy, then we hire them as a police officer and they start their field training program.

It'll be next year before they're off their field training program. Yes. Yeah. They're anticipated to graduate the Academy approximately November 15th. And then if everything went perfect to field training, we've got four months. So it'd be looking, you know, March, April, next year.

What part of the insurance across the board?

I think it was primarily our general liability. Did workers' comp was a part of that too?

workers was not as high of an increase as general liabilities.

Reliability went up exponentially.

Well, I should say, like, where I talked about absorbing cost increases, I mean, we actually – I didn't put this in a slide, but we went through, and every general fund department, the overall budget is – even with salary increases and stuff that, you know, are agreed upon already through MOUs – is less than sort of the base budget, which is like last year's budget. The only exception was there's a few thousand dollars over for the finance department because the finance manager position wasn't initially in the base budget last year. And so we almost got that And it's going to require a lot of adjustments from, I mean, all sorts of small things that we're used to spending money on that's going to be not the same. Okay, so just a little bit of history here. So this is all funds. You see $63.4 million. And this is revenue. THESE OTHER THREE ARE ACTUALS. I THINK LAST YEAR IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HIGHER. YOU KNOW, THE BIG VARIANCE HERE IS WE'RE NOT SURE THEY'RE TAKING IN A LOT OF CAPITAL PROJECTS, SO WE'LL BUDGET THE BIG AMOUNT, AND THEN THIS IS WHAT ACTUALLY GETS SPENT. BUT THE BULK OF THIS IS THE APARTMENT PROJECT WHERE WE HAD, I THINK, SOMEWHERE UP TO $40 MILLION OF STATE FUNDING THAT'S to complete that. If you look at the general fund, you can see here it's the last few years. Again, 23, 24, 24, 25, 25 to 26 are the actuals. It should clarify that the $10.3 million for this fiscal year is year-to-date. That's going to go up a little bit because we still have a little bit of time left, which I want. And the So just kind of a bit of a breakdown, all funds again, all revenue 63 million, you see the grants making up almost 34 million of that, property taxes. Franchise fees have became a larger part of our general fund revenue, fortunately, over the last few years, and it's largely. So we get franchise fees from Gold State Water, PG&E, Mediacom, and Clinic Waste Solutions. Clinic Waste Solutions is the one that tends to grow out the other ones very little. All expenses 67Million for all funds point out that that's a 4Million dollar use of fund balance. So, in this case, that is some portion of grant funding or other funding that we have already received that hadn't been spent yet. So it shows up on the expense side, but not the revenue side. Again, this breakdown between capital projects here and the way it's categorized in contract services, those are essentially – I mean, some of the contract services are things for, you know, subscriptions for various things and stuff like that, but it's really all capital projects. that makes up those two categories. And then you can see about 10 million citywide for various personnel costs. Quick look at the general fund. Again, 10.1 million, that's rounding up slightly. On the revenue side, property and sales tax are our biggest pieces. Franchise fees, there are a million other revenues, which is in large part transfers in from other funds that I was talking about. Measure P, measure B, other things. Supporting, for example, the cost of the annual audit can be shared with the other funds and not just paid by the general funds. And then on the expense side, general fund personnel services is the biggest piece in well over 60%, 6.6, almost 6.7 million. Contract services for various things, supplies and so forth. So that's really the high level overview. Our recommendation, of course, is to about the budget was proposed, but I'm happy to address any questions. That's what you should do. Well, it's not a tax collector issue. It's an auditor's office issue. So, you know, all this stuff involves really the three elected offices. You have the assessor, which sets the rates. So they're all kind of involved in this stuff. But, you know, it is a result of tax auction. you know, once the auction happens and payments are collected from the new buyer, then it's the auditor's office that does the Well, it shouldn't be, but unfortunately it has been because in some cases they've been making overpayments to us and not telling us about it. And then once they get around, sometimes years later to figuring it out, that's what a negative apportionment is. They're reducing our like, say, current year property taxes that we're supposed to be guaranteed to receive. And this is all based on an error that they made during the auction process. Nothing that we did. And so, yeah, it's pretty frustrating. And it's been difficult to get some straight answers on what's happening. Supervisor Sabatier posted a meeting just last Friday. I was there, the tax collector's office, the auditor's office. And we got information at that meeting that there's an additional error teachers recently discovered that they haven't told us about. So I don't know. Like, I don't know the answer yet. I'm very concerned about it. It's frustrating because it's supposed to be that stable source. But it's quite concerning.

So I just read that the auditorium was specifically related?

Yeah, no one ran for any of those three positions.

And were they also taking clawing back that was their interest involved in that money they were trying to claw back?

Well, again, I'm not saying I have a full picture because we haven't gotten all the information. My understanding is that they have not tried to collect interest. Now, it was raised by the auditor at our meeting last week that Well, it's at least 500,000 so far and there's been a few auctions. I think at least 2 auctions that have happened. Um, that we haven't seen any numbers yet, so I don't know, but the tax collector told me that. At least 1 of those auctions was bigger than any of the other ones as far as the amount of deficit sales and that's really where the problem exists. So. Yeah, I mean, it could be, based on that, it could be, I don't know, I guess, I don't know, another $500,000.

So that $500,000 has already been clawed back?

$300,000, a little over $300,000.

Out of which?

It was a few. It was back, like, in 21.

But it's come back.

But there's two or three other sales, which is another... over 200,000 that at any moment they're planning to call back. That's one of the urgencies I have in pushing this issue is I would like to have this issue resolved before there's actually, you know, when they give us our next property tax payment, they could just take it out. I don't think they have a legal authority in this case to do that, but they.

So where is that showing up in our budget?

Um, it's our budget or general fund budget is based on the property tax revenue that we should. Normally expect to get so there's a reverse portion that it would. Immediately cause a deficit to 100,000.

Wonderful.

to do this all the results when i think you originally never did any tax sales just that that's probably what well i mean the county would certainly argue that the volume of them and um you know our settlement agreement with them to you know essentially follow state law because they were so far behind is what caused this and it's more manageable when you have a smaller number but it wasn't our fault that they weren't doing tax options But, yeah, I think the volume of it has made it more of a significant.

Well, we can pay the price and there's upcoming.

Yeah. They're required to have a tax loss reserve phone, which they do. And, you know, my opinion that they need to cover those issues when they make. some error like that or they claim their software is unable to do this calculation ahead of time um and that's uh that's why they're getting all my new new software there well one they hope i don't think the software that they use for tax options is not part of the millions they're spending on there's a little bit of sarcasm No, well, well, we can talk about what we can do about it at a later time, but I just think it's important for you to understand the potential impacts of it.

Wonder how the county is doing with their.

Well, you know, I. Watch a few bits and pieces of their budget hearings. They had their budget hearings this week. I didn't watch yesterday's. You know, every, almost every agency in California is adopting deficit budgets.

Well, we did last year, but that's the right way to do it, in my opinion. You can't continue to have that deficit.

Once.

It's not looking like there's a very real possibility we'll be back into it. Yeah, okay.

Anybody from the public wants to comment on this.

Would you like us to comment now or in public session? It's up to you either way. Yeah, we have the. He wants to sit down up there, but it's right here. First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Beauchamp. I'm with the Operating Engineers Level 3. I'm a visitation that represents VA. We're in marketing. However, I'm here to discuss the one layoff. Allen, Melissa Swanson, we've been working very well together. We've resolved many issues. Before we get into the specifics of the layoff, I just wanted to share with you guys a little bit more. Earlier in the year, I was reached out to by a member with significant issues with her supervisor, making decisions over the hospital work environment. And we were able to find a resolution. We were able to move Jessica under the . And things were going in a good direction. What we found out earlier this week is now the one layoff is Jessica. There's a lot of questions I have in regards to that. I didn't notice in the presentation that the job duties and responsibilities are going to be absorbed by other staff. And again, we haven't met and conferred yet, but I did have a preliminary conversation with Melissa, and as of is protected only through classification that there may be relying on non-representative people to take the test. And I don't want to say, I don't want to cast aspersions or anything. I know we still want to sit down and go into the details, but this is where I'm at. But this is, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. uh or fetch for membership in general to now say yes whether or not they know issues whether this is what we don't want to go there we have like again we have great working history with oe3 in this city and i have no doubt that any issues going forward we're going to be able to sit down conversations five minutes i happen to have reservations concerns and possible disagreements Yeah, I can't. Probably would have the lowest speed in the building. It was shared that she is the only one in the community development department. I have questions on where the funding is coming from because her paycheck was on the plane. These are all things I'm about to say. I'm going to go into detail on them. I'm not sure that her wages would move On another note, we can talk at a different point in time when it comes to anything. You guys are looking at that task measure. Oh, we did that with the smart training. The next 30 years city Santa Rosa is in a forms. all three and a latent council for november putting a task that measure together uh we might have to do that in our state helena and we are on the board for you guys as well if that is you reach a decision that you need assistance that you need to work with us great appreciate that thank you allowing mayor another city council

Monday, the city manager gave me a letter informing me that he plans to lay me off pending the acceptance of this proposed fiscal year budget 26-27. I believe that this layoff is not due to financial constraints, but out of retaliation for getting my union involved because I needed a change of supervisor due to the building services manager harassing me. The building services manager created a toxic work environment for me for months, going as far as following me into the bathroom to harass me. My concerns about this went unheard. Only two months ago, I got a new supervisor, and now I am being laid off. I have a permanent employee who is certified for my role bilingual and a university graduate. I am not the employee with the least tenure, and I have served the city for almost two years. I am the least paid on city hall side and the only one being laid off. I do not believe that the budget deficit cited requirement in my office accurate. In 2025, the city manager created and filled a brand new. Unposted to the public well paid managerial level building services manager position. The city manager also paid for two separate week-long out-of-state workshops just this 2026 year for the same individual. For these reasons, I urge the members of the council to further investigate the fiscal year 26-27 budget before adoption tonight. Thank you for your attention.

Anybody else in the public? All right, if not, we'll have a recess till six o'clock. Okay, recess till six.

I was planning to go ahead and present next time. so that I understand they want to yes I Well, yeah. So the point is, I don't need it. I don't need it. I'm saying all that's happened so far. Is that correct? So, but I mean, I'm not playing. Yeah. You know, that would break. No, I don't want to. I'm just going to break that up. He's putting a draft and saying, you should stop. He's going to be. Yeah, I was telling them after she said she's been having, she doesn't have regular periods.

So she went to the doctor because she has like uteruses. Maybe, possibly six months.

They didn't know because her periods are irregular because of her issues. So fingers crossed that it

It goes all the way. Yeah.

Praying. Praying. I'm telling you something. That should have gone generally separately if it was going to be decided. That's a big change. To me, when you... It's still... Hey, I heard someone... You also still... I heard someone say up here, well, it sounds like it's four to one. That sounds like... So they would have tried to adopt the ordinance. Well, clearly. I said, well, I guess it is, but just wait. I don't know where the line is, but to me, it was the line. All of a sudden, something completely out of nowhere. It wasn't a chance. Like our people didn't come. As they saw this, I said, well, we're in favor of that. I couldn't wait to have a discussion. So, well, That would have been one of those things to do without a first reading. It struck me. It struck me. It struck me. It struck me. It struck me. It struck me. House is an issue. That's fine. I mean, we made two of them. I don't know. For me, it's that the appearance is bad. I don't know why someone would want to settle out.

We had earlier a budget workshop, and we'll continue now with our regular meeting. I just wanna mention the meeting procedures. All items on the agenda will be open for public comments before final action is taken. Citizens wishing to introduce written materials into the record at the public meeting on any item are requested to provide a copy of the written material to the Administrative Service Director, City Clerk. It's on the end over there. Prior to the meeting, so that material may be distributed to the meeting and speakers must restrict comments to items as it appear on the agenda and stay within three minutes time limit. The mayor has a discretion of limiting the total discussion of time on each item. All right, we go to our first part. Let's see, we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. Kramer.

If you remain standing moments of silence to remember our heroes.

Okay, thank you all. Mr. Flora, are there any changes to the agenda? No modifications, Mr. Mayor. All right. Can I have a motion to adopt the agenda as submitted?

Roll call.

Roll call. We did already that with our workshop.

Okay. I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented.

I'll second. All right. We'll go to our voting platform. All right. Our first item is Madam Clerk.

Motion passes with unanimous vote of the council.

I'll go with first presentation is the June adoptable dogs. I'LL SEE CHARMAYNE UP THERE.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL. I'M LIKE A NERVOUS CHihuAHUA PUBLIC SPEAKING. she's fine she's stressed okay so the june adoptable dog is baby girl she's a chihuahua mix about five years old um she has a little memo it says hi i'm baby girl a five-year-old black mixed breed who's all heart i'm a petite girl who loves nothing more than snuggling up close I'm affectionate, cuddly, and so gentle with everyone I meet. I'm already spayed and heartworm negative, and I've lived happily with other dogs before, so I'd make a wonderful addition to any home. Come meet me, and let's cuddle our way into your heart.

See everybody?

All right. So we have, I'll give the stats in just a second, but we have 52 dogs on site, 10 young puppies, 19 cats, and six of those are kittens. We have 31 dogs in foster homes. 15 of them are foster to adopt, so they're just waiting for their spay and neuter surgeries to finalize those adoptions. We have nine cats in foster, a couple of adults and kittens, but three of those are neonates, which means they still need a bottle. Let's see. Okay, so animal intakes since the last meeting. We took in 71 animals, 57 dogs and 12 cats, and two baby raccoons. And animal outcomes since the last meeting are 78, 56 dogs, and 20 cats. We had five dogs returned to owners, 36 dogs transferred out, five euthanasia, and one died in care. And then for the cats, 18 transferred out and one euthanasia, so that's 20 cats. Other things happening since the last meeting, we've had some fun events. Send Rover and over hosted a fun run walk. Um, fundraiser it's called for it's for the dogs. Um, for us, we took three dogs from the shelter with us that drug us for like two miles. They totally could have kept going, but we were not. Um, and we also brought puppies. Um, on June 6th, we participated in the California adopt a pet day, two cats and four puppies found families that day sponsored by the ASPCA California animal welfare association. and the San Francisco SPCA. That same evening, we went to another fundraising event on our behalf at the Buckingham Golf and Country Club. And we took more puppies and a dog named Gumbo at the shelter. He's the shelter's longest resident. Been there since 2023. He's doing great. He was in foster care. He's great with other dogs. And we do have a foster prospect there. that we're working with to take him over there probably tomorrow or the next day to see how he does. Then last weekend we hosted a rattlesnake avoidance workshop at the shelter. We had a great turnout from the public and a couple of our foster dogs participated also. And just last week the SPCA of Lake County donated a spay and neuter day for the shelter animals on a Friday. They all came in and helped us Check some dogs off our list. Eight dogs were spayed and neutered. And then we took a cat. She was already spayed. And then coming up events on June 27th, we're having our first volunteer dog walking orientation. So we've had volunteers coming. We have some dog handlers coming. but this is like a specific orientation to teach volunteers who want to walk dogs, handle dogs with our trainer, Steve from Canine Constitutional. So everybody's on the same page in handling animals the way we want them done. So we're hoping to get more volunteers on board to be able to walk dogs every morning, seven days a week before it gets hot. That's it.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you.

Any questions or All right, go now to presentation by we serve veterans. Notice that we have a little package on our on the dials here for everybody.

Good evening, members of the council. My name is Rick Mayo, citizen of Clear Lake, Vietnam veteran. Earl Morehouse, Vice President, Army Veteran, Vietnam. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you what We Serve Veterans stands for. In your packet, you have an introductory letter that came from our CEO, David Waldsmith. So I won't bore you with that. Then we have 2025 accomplishments developed and instituted major food distribution program during holidays. Distribution of $3,800 in food vouchers to low income struggling veterans. Distributed 50 turkeys and 20 whole chickens. Sponsored hosts a free veteran dinner at the Clear Lake American Legion and the Moose Lodge. I partnered with the Clear Lake Senior Center to provide food and meals on wheels to low-income veterans and families. Made a $1,000 donation to the center to help them in that endeavor. Purchased food vouchers agreements with grocery outlet food stores, both here and Middletown, and Outreach, and let me see, where am I? And the River Area Food Market in Kelseyville. Bus passes, transportation distribution locations, Lakeport VSO, Clear Lake VA, Clear Lake Clinic, the Clear Lake VFW, Clear Lake American Legion and the Clear Lake Oaks Moose Lodge. We purchased a cargo trailer and retrofitted for supplies and marketing and outreach. Vouchers, distribution to Clear Lake VFW, Clear Lake American Legion, SWMM, Solano Women in Medicine around the lake, North and South Shore and clear Lake Oaks Moose Lodge. Homeless Emergency Shelter Evacuations, we are partnered with the Lake American Legion for 12 Beds and Emergency. VFW, 12 beds in the case of an emergency. Cobb Mountain Community Church, six beds. Major presentation to Board of Supervisors was made on May the 20th, 2025. We took over the Pearl Harbor Memorial and retrofitted that for Pearl Harbor Day. Numerous We Serve Veterans presentations with vendors, organizations, and entities. We reestablished our veteran pinning ceremonies, if you would. Look through your packet. This is what the document looks like. We happen to have been our vice president, Earl Morehouse, at the American Legion a few days ago. Yes. And thank him for his service to this country. We also are... starting to re-institute this around the lake with the other partner veteran organization partners that we have. Because we want to make sure that all of our veterans in this community know that we appreciate their service. Okay, moving right along. All right. We continue to support annual veteran stand downs in the South Shore. They're held at the American Legion now in Austin. All funds raised are spent in Lake County to help veterans. We have all volunteer advocate staff, no paid staff at all. We're all veterans who serve. We continue to acquire necessary veteran homeless and at-risk data to apply for grants. We thank all of our local businesses, patrons, sponsors for this year's success in serving our local veteran community. Okay. Oh, you did, okay, you beat me to the punch. But those are the $25 free veteran food vouchers that we give out to any needy veteran, veteran families, Gold Star families in our local community. Clear Lake has 459 veterans here in the city of Clear Lake. And they're shared between the American Legion and the VFW.

All right.

We personally want to thank the City of Clearlake for joining us as a partner in serving our veteran community and for co-sponsoring a free veteran dinner and dance at the American Legion once a month. We congratulate you for doing that. If you will look at the brochure, this one, this one has all the other veteran affiliates that we partner with. Our mission is mission orientated results driven with over 7,000 veterans in our beautiful community Your support goes a long way to make our community a better place. And we have some testimonials from the sheriff of Lake County, the police chief of Clear Lake, and Joyce Overton, the senior center director. It's very impressive, all of these individuals that think we're doing a good job. Okay, I will turn the rest of the program over to Earl. Yes, sir.

Good afternoon. My name is Earl Morehouse. I am one of three people that comprise We Serve Vets. My job is I have a trailer. I parked it outside. You may have seen it. I take that trailer down to the VA, VA, on Mondays and Wednesdays. There at the VA, when a vet goes in the building, when he comes out, he's looking at me. And what do I have? Everything a vet could want. Socks, underwear, t-shirts, toothbrushes, money, food, clothing, tents, sleeping bags. Everything that a vet could want is in my trailer. Our trailer, excuse me. And it is no charge to the vet. Absolutely free. So I've got the trailer out here. If anybody would like to walk out there and look at it, I'll be happy to open it for you. Any and all. Anybody wants to look at it. That being said and done, thank you for your time and your support. Thank you.

I'm not getting behind you. You ran over me last week.

Backed right over my foot, he did.

Members of the council, again, thank you for your support, for supporting the veteran community. And this concludes our presentation.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thanks. Appreciate it.

All right, we'll go now to public comments, but the first item is a proclamation I want to read. It's LGBTQIA plus Pride Month this month, June 2026. Whereas our nation was founded on the principle of equal rights for all people, but the fulfillment of this promise has long been coming for many Americans. Some of the most inspiring moments in our history have arisen from the various civil rights movements that have brought one group after another from the margins to the main street of American society. And whereas in the movement towards equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, people, a historic turning point occurred on June 28, 1969, in New York City with the onset of the Stonewall riots. During these riots, LBGTQAI plus citizens rose up and resisted police harassment that arose out of discrimination, criminal laws that have since been declared unconstitutional. In the four decades since civil rights for LBGTQA+, people have grown substantially. And the LBGTQA+, Pride celebrations have taken place around the country every June to commemorate the beginning of the Stonewall Riots. And whereas California has been a leader in advancing of its LBGTQA+, citizens, and while further progress is needed, it's important to recognize and celebrate The substantial gains that have been achieved in the City of Clear Lake stands with the LBGTQA community in the struggle to ensure equal rights for all and to advocate for LBGTQA rights as human rights. Therefore, the City Council of the City of Clear Lake does hereby proclaim June 2026 at LBGTQA Plus Pride Month in the City of Clear Lake and advocates for for the protection for all individuals to make our community a place where people, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, are treated with dignity and respect. Thank you. Signed by me. And there is nobody here that can accept this proclamation, but I will give it to some people that would really appreciate this proclamation. All right. We go now to public comment. Crystal, you may come up.

Hello, my name is Crystal Peck. First off, shame on you, Chief Hobbs, and your Lieutenant, Brian Peterson. Not sure if you guys knew about that meeting they had with me this week. Shame on all of you if you did. I don't know if I have stupid written across my forehead. I had like something to say when I came up here, but I know that two officers' words in the court of law will hold up against mine. I could be telling the truth and they can corroborate their lie. And if I'm telling the truth, it's not gonna matter because that's two officers. And I was taken in a back room no audio, no video, no body cams. And then your chief of police himself admitted to altering body cam footage and it's all recorded. You know what I mean? Like it's funny. He's got, he was, and it wasn't, to deal with an issue. He wasn't answering any questions. He wasn't, there was nothing. He did respond, but he was gonna give a written response to my questions, right? But he didn't, when I tried to, why, if you're gonna cut me off through the meeting, you don't wanna listen to anything I have to say. Why would you meet with me? I don't know, riddle me that one, right? And you were pretty upset because I brought a quote unquote crowd.

You need to direct your comments to the council.

What? Okay, fine. That's fine. That's fine. Because I brought a crowd, which is the property owner who I have a power of attorney over, right? And somebody has to take notes because I knew I was going to be nervous. I was nervous. Right. But they didn't they didn't see. They didn't see. I don't know what kind of what I'm a little new to this. I'm still a little nervous. You know what I mean? And and your officers, that's a chief of police. telling me that I'm not subject to everything. You guys are at my house. Why can't I see the body cam footage? You're going to alter it and redact it for generalized. It's not okay. Transparency, the transparency issue. Completely, completely. And I'm going to get stonewalled. I'm not a bad person. I don't go around doing bad things. You know what I mean? Like, I come up here, I've been coming up here, and I'm not going to stop. I'm going to keep coming back. And if I have to take it to court, I'm taking it to court. And your chief admitted on camera. Oops.

Thank you.

I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet. I'm going to wait for my clock to run out. Even if I stand here in silence, you guys are going to stare at me. The next intel, I don't know. Shame on you.

Thank you. All right, the next is Carolyn Jarrett.

Good evening. My name is Carolyn Jarrett. I've lived in the city of Clear Lake since 1983. I was a teacher at Burns Valley School for 18 years, and then I served eight years on the Connaught High School Board. I feel very attached to my community. I know that the issue of vacation rentals is complex, but I believe the council is elected to serve the needs of the community. There is a housing shortage. It does not help to take houses off the market, which could be going to families and retired folks who live here now. Vacation rentals are disruptive to their neighbors. They negatively impact our narrow streets with parked cars, boats, and trailers. They often create noise, excess noise from people who come here to celebrate and party. They often cause unsightly yards as vacation rentals leave their garbage. We are told to call code enforcement or the police department to report these violations. But our departments are overworked and understaffed and could be using their time for more important issues. at the last meeting jessica houghton told a very amusing fairy tale she said that outside buyers want vacation rentals because that way they can pay off mortgages and move here when they retire But the facts show otherwise. She herself, as a real estate agent, has sold two properties in my neighborhood to a man who lives in the Riviera, who immediately turned them into vacation rentals and never intends to live in either one of them. It is my opinion that Jessica has a conflict of interest. as she directly benefits from the loosening of city rules and regulations. I am deeply disappointed that the rest of the council has not asked her to recuse herself from any discussion and voting regarding this issue. If it is not illegal, it is unseemly and dishonorable, and she should certainly recuse herself. People in my neighborhood have been in discussion with the city, the city manager, and certain council members regarding this issue for 15 months. We thought we had a meeting of the minds. The 51% rule is a fair safeguard for the integrity of our neighborhoods. Now it seems the council is ready to get rid of it, and we are being thrown under the bus. We are at the point where the council needs to decide who you really represent. The big money buyers from outside the city and the real estate agents looking for a fat commission or the people, the working families and the seniors who compromise the neighborhoods that elected you. Please do the right thing.

Thank you. Anybody else from the public that wants to speak? Come on up.

Good evening. Margaret Garcia with the City of Clear Lake. I've come up many times to talk about the road conditions and potholes and streets that aren't even streets. They're just potholes. And I am serious about trying to pursue some kind of a... point where some streets are just so horribly in disarray. And things can't be more evenly spread to where there is some work getting done on streets that have been neglected for literally decades. And I do want to take Alan Flora's thought of me coming in to make an appointment to discuss this. And maybe I should just do this right now because I haven't gotten any return phone call from you, Alan, about that. I did leave you a message and I would like to come in and have a, you know, talk with you outside of the city council meeting. So it'd be great if you could get back to me on that. All right, thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else in the public? If not, anybody on Zoom, Madam Clerk?

There are no hands raised on the Zoom, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, we'll go to item number H, consent agenda. Anybody who wants to pull an item or have any... If not, can I have a motion to approve the consent?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.

I'll second it.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Public comment, Mr. Mayor. Anybody from the public who wants to comment on this item? Not. Bring it back here. We can submit our vote.

Right.

We'll go to item number seven, adoption of the city. Okay. Oh, we're waiting for it.

We have only three votes.

Sorry.

We can't see that.

Motion passes with unanimous vote of the council.

Great. Now we go to item number seven, adoption of the city of Clear Lake budget for fiscal year 2026-27. Earlier today we had a budget workshop. Everything was discussed in general terms. Is there anybody else? Any more comments about it?

Yeah, I'll just turn it over to Finance Manager Sales, but there's really nothing to add unless the council has additional questions from the workshop.

I have no additional questions. Nobody else? Okay. Can I have a motion? Anybody from the public wants to comment on? If not,

Sometimes I just, it's Margaret Garcia, city of Clear Lake. I feel compelled sometimes just to come up and ask a question because I'm just curious, this is the budget. I don't have my glasses on. The budget for the next year, in other words. And so I guess you guys have discussed the budget between yourselves and it's not necessary to discuss anything specific.

There was a budget workshop starting at five o'clock today.

See, I miss those things. All right, well, I appreciate that, and I appreciate the time, and I will let you proceed.

Thank you. Ms. Garcia, there's also a link if you look at the staff report. Our entire budget is on our website. So if you have any questions when we meet about the roads, you can ask.

All right, thank you. Thanks. Okay, can I have a motion?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve Adopt resolution number 2026-22, approving the City of Clear Lakes budget for fiscal year 2026-2027. I'll second it.

We have a motion and a second. Voting seems to be stuck. Oh, there we go.

There you go.

We're good.

Motion passes with unanimous vote of the council.

Number eight. Item number eight, adoption of appropriation limit, the GAN limit for fiscal 2026 and designate the formula to be used for calculating the same. Mr. Flora.

So I'll turn it over to finance manager Sayles to talk about this item.

Thank you and good evening. Mr. Mayor, council members, the state constitution requires all government agencies adopt appropriation limit each fiscal year. That's based on a calculation overseen by the Department of Finance. The city's proposed budget is 2.8 million below the maximum appropriations limit. So it would be appropriate for the council at this point to adopt resolution 2026-23, approving fiscal year 26-27 appropriations limit.

Okay. Any questions? If not, if the public wants to make a comment on this item. If not, anybody on Zoom, Madam Clerk?

There are no comments on the Zoom, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, so I have a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-23, resolution of the City Council of the City of Clear Lake adopting the appropriation limit for fiscal year 2026-27 and designated in the formula to be used for calculations of the same.

So we have a motion. Can I have a second?

I'll second it.

Yeah, let's see if we can get our portal to work. All right.

Motion passes with unanimous vote of the council.

Very good. We go to item number nine, adoption of the City of Clear Lake fee schedule for the fiscal year 2026-27. Mr. Flores.

Turn it over to Finance Manager Sales.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, council members, each year along with the adoption of the budget, the council adopts the fee schedule for the upcoming fiscal year. There were a number of changes this year, so I have five points I wanted to touch on briefly. This year's staff proposes a number of non-substantive changes, such as removing redundant information, condensing information, and adjusting for clarity. Three sections are affected by those types of changes. Business license fees, building permit application fees, and special event fees. Additional fees were also added for different types of solar electricity systems. That appears under the building permit section. Staff advised that previously our solar fees were too narrow, limited only to roofs. and too low. The new proposed fees are more in line with standard practice and will help with cost recovery for associated staff time. Third, there's a correction under the planning fee section. Lot line adjustment and lot line merger amounts were transposed. So the $500 and $800 fees got switched for the two of those. Let's see here. Number four, under special events, there's a new $200 road closure fee. And lastly, added last year was a fire mitigation fee and that received the required annual adjustment. This year, the 20 city average engineering cost index year over year, June to June was 4.1% and the fee was adjusted accordingly. If there are no questions related to this, that's all I have to report for the fee schedule and would recommend the council adopt resolution 2026-24. Any questions?

Questions. Okay, open it to the public. Anybody from the public wants to comment on this item? If not here, anybody on Zoom?

There are no comments on the Zoom, Mr. Mayor.

Bring it back to the council for adoption.

Mr. Mayor, I'm making a move to adopt a resolution The resolution approving fiscal year twenty six twenty seven fee schedule which is resolution number twenty twenty six dash twenty four of a motion of a second.

I'll second it a motion a second go to a portal.

Motion passes with the unanimous vote of the council.

It go to item number 10 consideration of adoption of resolution 2026 dash 20 stop sign installation evaluation policy.

Thank you Mister mayor members in the Council tonight the City Council is being asked to adopt a stop sign installation and evaluation policy. City acrylic regular receives requests seeking installation of stop signs at intersections throughout the community. These requests are often based on concerns regarding speeding, visibility, pedestrian safety, or perceived collision risk. While stop signs can be effective traffic control devices when appropriately placed, traffic engineering research demonstrates that improperly placed stop signs may reduce compliance, increase rear-end collisions, and create unnecessary traffic delays. The California Vehicle Code and Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices require that traffic control devices be installed based on engineering judgment and traffic studies. I did meet with members of the Traffic Safety Committee and we discussed several different traffic concerns throughout the city with the stop signs being a major topic of discussion and decided it was appropriate to come up with this policy. and bring it to council. And this policy will improve transparency, support traffic safety objectives, and ensure that traffic control devices are installed in accordance with accepted engineering practices and state standards. This policy acknowledges that stop signs are generally not intended as speed control devices and should not be installed solely to reduce speeding. The fiscal impact associated with implementation of this policy expected to be minimal and can be accommodated with an existing public works operating budget. I'll entertain any questions. Any questions?

Yeah, just one. Stop signs, especially out in the avenues, it seems like or they're needed the most in some cases, but the part about them slowing down before they get to the stop sign, That seems to be a major problem that I've noticed anyway. Is there any signs or is there any recommendation for signs approaching stop sign or?

Like a warning sign that tells you a stop sign is coming?

Yeah, that would be good. Okay. Would that be something?

Inside your packet, I believe, is the evaluation and process for evaluating that inside that packet.

All right. I mean, I'll read it a little more, a little more closely than if you unless you can.

I mean, your suggestion is a good one, Councilmember Kramer. But, you know, we need to, I think, focus on the stop signs first. And I mean, it's there's a like a lot of other issues we have. It's fairly monumental. OK, so your thing is start taking a bite at it.

Yes, that was the main thing. Thank you.

But any other questions? If not, I open to the public. Anybody from the public wants to comment on this? This is Garcia.

Margaret Garcia, City of Clear Lake. Regarding the stop signs, I'm not sure where this all leads to, but there's a particular intersection, and I'm just curious how this would work. Lakeshore Boulevard and Park Street, right up the road and the two roads meet and there's no stop sign for either direction and the oncoming as well. And I'm not sure what is expected at that intersection. I avoid it because people come up pretty fast. And so I'm just curious if that's something that would be looked into with this stop sign thing you're talking about. But that's Park Street and Lakeshore Boulevard.

I think there is a stop sign there. There is a stop sign, but not all directions.

We did look at that next year.

Margaret, if you want to have that looked at, there's a form to fill out, and then they will look at it.

Okay. Is that through the code enforcement?

No. It's on Public Works. We have a form. We're going to be able to put it on the website now that I didn't want to put it up there until it was approved.

That's the purpose of this whole discussion, this policy, so that you can just go on the website and request us to look at it and then implement it if appropriate.

The website, I still find very user unfriendly. I don't know, maybe it's me, but it's not the easiest and the prettiest thing I've seen.

Thank you. Anybody on Zoom? Madam Clerk on this? Yes, you're If not, can I have a motion?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-20, resolution of the City Council of the City of Clear Lake adopting a stop sign installation and evaluation policy.

I'll second it.

We have a motion and a second. We'll go to our portal to vote.

Motion passes with unanimous vote of the council.

Item number 11, update in discussion regarding the Lake County Sanitation District. Mr. Flora.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, Council Member. So as you know, we've been having a lot of discussions about the sanitation district. I don't have a lot here, but I thought it may be appropriate to have sort of a standing item to share some information with the council related to that. So you'll recall May 7th, We had a discussion. You gave me direction on a number of items. One of the important ones is requests for information. On May 12th, I sent the county a very lengthy request for information, a number of documents. On June 4th, 23 days after that request, I got a response that they would provide an update within 14 days, which is today. While we're having the meeting, I did get an email from special districts administrator informing us that they are working on providing some documents to us. So I know we were hoping to get some information in a timely manner, and there's concerns about whether that's gonna happen. Clearly it's not. I would also point out that There was also a request by Supervisor Sabatier for detailed information to the Board of Supervisors slash Board of Directors of the district recently. And they were told that the task was so enormous to provide those documents, basically not to expect anything anytime soon. So not great news there. I'll keep you updated when we do get any documents.

is there any way we can make them?

Well, um, there may be some paths for that, that we could talk with our attorney about at a different time, but all right. I mean, I think as we all know, the most important way to, um, or the most effective way, presumably to get better information or get any information and, and, um, See, some changes is related to the governance structure. Of the current board, you know, I think the council knows we've been working on that and unless there's a change of course. The board of directors should be initiating a process on July 7th related to that. So hopefully that all stays on track. I think that should make a big difference. The other thing I wanted to mention that was also directed and we did do over the last couple of weeks is we have issued 10 of our own notices of violation to the sanitation district for a number of things, mostly related to the number of sewer spills. I think there have been the Robin Lane one and then three that we're aware of since then. So there's a number of violations of the municipal code related to that. And then also, you're aware that the lift station one and lift station two both do not have adequate odor control devices. And they've had notices violations for Lake County Air Quality Control District since 2023 that haven't been resolved. And it's also a violation of our municipal code. So we have begun to try to use that additional avenue in order to see some accountability.

um that's really what i have to report be happy to address any um questions around this topic because we have additional questions anybody else i think we just move forward with putting as much pressure as possible and then take whatever steps legally that we need to if that doesn't work going forward anybody from the public wants to comment on this item

Hi, Margaret Garcia, City of Clear Lake. I think, you know, maybe a foot up someone's behind might be helpful in this regard because they seem to be just totally indifferent to anything has to do with this. I mean, how... if they could just refuse to produce or to report or whatever it is that they're supposed to be doing, I think they should be reprimanded in whatever way, whether it's fines from the city, whatever you can do to to bite back on that too. I mean, you've got to hold them accountable for these things. And I'm wondering how much this may have affected the lake, of course, and the lakes, what's in the lake, which I'd like to know more about anytime soon. So anyway, thank you guys.

All right. Anybody on Zoom? Madam Clerk?

are no comments on the zoom all right i think miss carsey has a pretty uh good understanding of that issue although her preferred option would probably get me in trouble with chief hobbs so we won't do that all right we'll go to city manager and council member reports mr florigan uh just a couple additional things um our staff are working on preparing a housing element update for the general plan um that cycle for updated is we're required to have the update next year. So we're trying to handle that in-house this time. It's a pretty expensive project and with the budget situation, our staff are working on it. Code enforcement has been a little bit behind on some of their regular duties lately because they're doing enormous amount of work supporting the clinic environmental research centers. vegetation cleanup efforts that they're getting ready to start um so there's a number of areas around town that they have been working on getting right of entry forms for um near Meadowood some other areas in the avenues and then the lower avenues out to the east side of Walmart and so they've been fairly successful in getting right of entries but these are I don't know, in total, maybe a couple of thousand parcels close to it. And so ones that we don't, can't get a right of entry form for, code enforcement is working on abatement warrants. And then once access to the property is secured, a clerk will be going in and doing vegetation removal on all those properties at no cost to the city or to the property. So it is going to be a really important project. We're glad that it's finally coming together, but yeah, We're being a little patient with some of the other code enforcement duties because they have to visit each parcel individually and take pictures and document that before we're able to get a warrant. The Burns Valley Arrowhead Olympic Road project should be finished with all the striping tomorrow. So the project looks great. We're still waiting on HCD for clearance to move forward with the Dam Road roundabout. Had some issues with the font size wasn't to their standards. and having a lot of conversation with AC to get that straightened out. But hopefully that's coming soon.

All right.

I'll go.

I don't have much. I was able to tour. Calpine, the geysers.

Pretty cool.

Yeah, and Mary went alongside and Alan was there and our project manager from the city joined us. It was really cool to get to see how that all works and especially with geothermal wanting to come into the area. It was nice to get kind of a hands-on view and some really good information about how they make clean energy.

to piggyback on what Councilmember Houghton said. I was really proud to be reminded that we have the biggest geothermal plant in the world and that's amazing for this for Northern California. I had, I served on a committee for the League of Cities to, let me look at what the name of it, it's about using public, it's about using art to develop economic, do economic development. It doesn't have a lot to do with the city other than it's something that we could look about, uh, look at, um, more in depth. Um, the projects ran the gamut. There was cities that use, um, superhero art to, as a branding, um, there, um, cities that, um, have a database of artists. There's cities that use, um, the arts to, um, develop youth leadership. So, um, I can't tell you who won, though, because they're going to announce it at an event. So when it comes out, I will be able to tell you that. I also attended the League of Cities Advancing Equity Committee meeting last week. We are looking at developing community tools for advancing equity in our cities, and the city survey is just about ready to go. I think we're looking at PUTTING IT OUT IN NOVEMBER.

AND THAT'S IT.

I WANT TO COMMEND COUNCIL MEMBER WILSON ON TAKING ON THE LEAGUE OF CITIES REPRESENTATION. YOU'VE DONE A FABULOUS JOB. Meeting that APC actually may or may not go for an APC meeting. It's our last meeting. A couple of things of just kind of interest. I think Lake County SAFE, which is Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies, which of course we don't have much freeways in Lake County, but what it deals with are the call boxes that we find on, I think, on Highway 20 and probably in a few other places in the county. They've been trying for several years to upgrade them and make them a little more reliable, maybe make a few more of them. There's a lot of discussion on whether we should be really spending as much time on 20th century technology rather than 21st century technology with cell phones, since everybody has a cell phone. But there is several hundred thousand dollars that's allocated to seeing what can be done to improve the service on the on the phones. And then the second one is also interesting, I think, is something that came up several years ago and everybody's been a thoughtful wire. Come on. And that is very service, the feasibility of very service in Lake County on Clear Lake, something that happened 100 years ago, and we didn't have great roads going around it since. Anyhow, before we talk about it, it actually makes some sense. And there is, we are doing a feasibility study with grant money from CalTrans. I think it's, let's see, $179,271 is being put up on the grant for the local match of $23,000 and change for the total project costs of $202,500. And it's to look at all of Yeah, look at ferry service across the lake from all aspects, from a tourist standpoint, from transportation, for evacuation, things that I quite honestly didn't think about when we first started. I think it's going to be an interesting study, and I'll wait for the report. And that's my report.

The only thing I added to that was I recently had to go down 20, although Williams, And I noticed that in Colusa, there are none. So I don't know what that means. And it also suggested to, if they have another South France kind of grant, that we might include a gondola to the top of the mountain as a tourist attraction. But I don't know if that goes very far. I did also attend the LAFCO meeting yesterday in which we approved the dissolution of the Scotts Valley Water and Conservation District. That was apparently been in existence since the early 70s. Never had any money, never did anything. They had a board of directors that had been trying to fill for the last 15 years and only two members kind of still on there. So it was legally not even operating. The county asked LAFCO to make that resolution. So now it will be managed by whatever they were supposed to manage by the county itself. That's my report. Although I have a little personal item, is that I got a free backup battery installed in my house. Tesla battery, whole house battery. There are some programs out there in PG&E that have that. Look on your PG&E bill and see if you're knowledgeable for that.

All right.

Any future agenda items? If not, we'll adjourn to closed session.