City Council - Regular Meeting

Hi, I'm Ashi Sergoza. I'm with the city of Corona. The city of Corona recently toured Latitude 36 Foods. They're a Corona food manufacturer that took the Liveware Corona pledge which shows their commitment to hiring local. Here in Corona, we do have about 80% of our workforce [music] that works and lives here in Corona. And so that's very very exciting for us. They get to, you know, work here and then [music] go right back home, you know, just a couple exits away from the freeway. And so that's very very exciting for them.

They didn't have to worry about commuting to longer distances which in California can be quite an odyssey. [music] It also helped keep retention. So it was important to our leadership team to keep the business here. And again, it just demonstrates our commitment to continue to grow the business right here in the city of Corona. Throughout the transition from one location to another, we had a very successful partnership with the city of Corona themselves and and a lot of support [music] when it came to, you know, moving to a whole new home. And so that was really exciting for us and we truly appreciated the support from a structural standpoint.

We appreciate everything the city's done for us as well and you guys have made yourself very available to us. Again, we actually engage with the city on a few [music] occasions to really help us navigate cuz there's always some new regulation that comes up. Uh and definitely having someone that's uh well-versed in those rules and regulations has really helped us uh smooth the process out a bit for us. So by by taking the pledge [music] uh we actually got a lot of other resources right that came in with that partnership. They help us with [music] remarketing right feature us uh when it comes to you know their website because it really does open up ourselves to different talent you know people that maybe haven't heard [music] of lot of 236 foods and they're able to uh show them what we do here locally. So I would take the pledge and I would encourage every other company to do so because again there's a lot of resources available with the city and the city is a great resource and has been a great resource for Latitude 36 Foods. So take the pledge today or contact us to learn more.

Good morning everyone. We're here at City Park. We have our first street cleanup of 2024. We had about 50 volunteers come clean up the city as well as paint the skate park. It [music] came out really great. It's good to help our community. I encourage everyone to volunteer with us in the future. Our next cleanup event is going to be for Arbor Day at City Hall on March 16th from 9 to 11:00 a.m. We'll see you there.

Most people look at carbon health and are like, what is carbon health? Carbon health is the home of good health. We are here as an urgent care primarily. We have three providers that work in this clinic. We try to make sure that our teams are pretty fluid so that way everybody [music] can do everything. School physicals, work physicals, pre-employment physicals, workers comp. If the [music] employer needs a drug screen ahead of time, we do that as well. Vision, hearing, weightlifting, [music] whatever physical needs.

And then Carbon Health gives us a lot of the good resources in order for us to do a good job. Um, I feel like I have a lot of good tools here. Their goal is to try to make [music] Corona a happier, healthier community. And so we work really hard to try to make sure that we are as connected in the community as we can be. I think Carbon Health is working very hard to try to make healthcare accessible to everyone. With the app, you [music] can do everything with your healthcare here at Carbon Health. I think that by itself sets us apart from everybody. So we're hoping that we can draw our patients from Corona in instead of them going outside of Corona for their care. The idea behind the name is that we are all carbon life forms. Every carbon life form needs help. Carbon health. [music] The Green Alleys is composed of 34 [music] alleys that were picked to be repaved. This grant was targeted by Calrans to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged communities. It brings a lot of improvements to the city, including the ability to absorb water [music] and uh recharge our local water table. It's considered a green technology. When it's really raining hard, [music] this porous pavement will soak the water in. Whatever water was here has infiltrated into the water reservoir that's [music] underneath the 6 in of asphalt. This is like a long-term good technology so that we're more resilient to handle drought seasons because we'll be capturing water that will stay here locally and will serve the city well. And the green alleys probably provide [music] the most volume or area to capture rainwater. So the alleys have multi-purpose. You know, everybody would use them. The cars, the bikes, whoever wants to use an alley as

a less congestion [music] pathway to navigate the city. You're improving the community for sometimes communities that don't get a whole lot of improvement. The community has been very happy that we improve their neighborhood. Beautiful alleys. [music] Our white lion flavor this month is [music] You want to try a sample? It looks so good. [music] I love it. And it comes with chur and it's pretty freaking good. [music] [music]

So good. Grandma just [music] [music] look at that. Cooking. I love to cook. You guys need the menu. [music] My name is Sergio and we are in Torasala, city of Corona. Torres is 44 and it has four meats. Tortas are the number one [music] sales in this place. We do like 4,000 tortas a month. This is Sinaloa special. And this is a [music] Kubana. So we have such a big menu but we have barbakcoa, we have carneasada [music] plate, we have burritos, we'll call the breakfast rancheros, omelets. Carneada is one of the favorites. [music] Yeah. Three tacos. Every single product and item from this place is homemade cooking. Yes. My wife in tortois [music] in Aloa, she's been in the company for 20 years. She's makes every single day. She makes all these fresh waters and we also have fresh juices. You can order whatever you like.

[music]

I'm the one that's do every single recipe in this place. It's a homemade FL. Yeah, we do it like maybe four times a week. Mexican [music] dessert. I've been cooking for 45 years now and this 2025. But when I came and open this, I learned about the community and they're very kind people, very nice. Yeah, [music] I love the people from Corona. So, I put so much effort and heart into it. We are [music] in 1520 West 6th Street and we in the Walmart shopping center. Oh yeah. All right. All right. Hello. Good evening and welcome to the city council meeting of Wednesday, January 7th. We're going to get this meeting started with the pledge of allegiance. Um, if we could please have the very special Maddie Paxton come and lead us in the pledge.

Will you take the mic up there? Everybody has a sash. Would you please stand? Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. 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, Maddie. We're convening open session. At this time, I'd like to call the meeting order. Um, Miss Edwards, would you read the special instructions?

Yes, Mayor. Individuals wishing to address the city council are requested to complete a speaker card and deliver it to city clerk staff prior to the item being heard by the city council. Please observe a three-minute limit for communications and once called upon to speak, please state your name and city of residence for the record. Mayor, I do want to note that there were two revisions to the agenda. For item 6.9, exhibit 2 was added and item 9.1, the presentation was added.

Thank you, Miss Edwards. All right, we have no proclamations or recognitions to present tonight. So, we're going to move straight into the consent calendar. All items listed on the consent calendar are considered to be routine matters, status, reports, or documents covering previous city council action. The items listed on the consent calendar may be enacted in one motion with the concurrence of the city council. A council member or any person in attendance may request that an item be removed for further considerations. Would my colleagues like to pull any items for discussion? Seeing on this side? Nope. 6.7. 6.7 for vice mayor speak. And then uh Miss Edwards, are there any cards for any items?

Mayor, yes, we have one speaker card for agenda item 6.8. 6.8. We have a speaker. Okay. Well, in that case, I'll entertain a motion for the consent calendar with all the items except 6.7 and 6.8, which wonderful. moved and seconded. Everyone, please vote. And the consent calendar passes unanimously. Let's move to item 6.7, which was pulled by Vice Mayor Speak. Floor is yours.

Uh, thank you. I just wanted to um just call attention to this item just because I I think it's a neat project. Uh it was a project that we had a couple of residents that were interested in finding out how they could, you know, close a gap in the sidewalk and uh Mr. uh Koo went out and and was able to find some some money and uh here we are voting tonight to start this project. So very happy to see that. It also highlighted some of the um funding issues that we have with project especially in older neighborhoods. So it was really good to see. So I just wanted to just call attention and say and say again thank you. and I know the residents of that area are very much looking forward to seeing that that get built. So, thanks again. With that, I'll move.

Wonderful. Move to approve. Second for item 6.7. Okay. And let's take a vote. All right. That item moves passes unanimously. Now, we're going to pull item 6.8, which there was a speaker for that. Will the speaker please come down? 6.8. 8. This is 6.8.

I gave him a picture over there, which I took off of the uh city website. My name is Don Fuller. I'm a local resident. Uh that's the new fire engine that we want to buy for a million and a half bucks, more or less. Looks like a dandy. Uh, and people might complain about a million and a half bucks for a fire engine. That's what they cost. Apparently, this is going to take about 2 years to get it. And the one we currently have is uh worn out. So, I'm not at all in opposition to getting a new fire engine. I think it's great. But there is one thing that I want to uh recommend or make a request is that I think since us taxpayers are paying a million and a half bucks for this thing that when it comes time to road test this thing, a couple of us taxpayers ought to be able to get to drive it. So for that particular task, I recommend myself and Mr. Joe Morgan. Uh we both have a lot of automotive expertise. He's an instructor at Riverside Community College and he's a drag racer of some renown and I have testified in over a hundred different court cases and I was a road racer. So, u we both have racing experience. We have background in it and I think that Mr. Morgan and I ought to be able to test drive this beauty when it finally hits this town. So, uh keep that in line. I haven't even asked Mr. Morgan, but my bet is he'd go along with that. And Mr. Dario, you can come along too if you want.

They won't let me drive it, and I've asked repeatedly. So, that's all. I'm in favor of this thing. I just think uh some of the citizens ought to be able to get to uh drive it, and we'll be more than happy to file a written report on that when it's all done. Thank you very much, everybody. Have a good night. [laughter] Thank you, Mr. Fuller. Uh Miss Edwards, are there any other speaker cards on this item? Mayor, we do not have any more speaker cards. I have uh Vice Mayor Speak has moved. Can I get a second? Second. Second by Council Member Richens.

And everyone cast your vote, please. [clears throat] Okay, that item passes uh unanimously. All right, moving on to agenda item seven, communications from the public. Persons wishing to address the city council are requested Oh, Miss Edwards, do I ask you to read this part? No. Right. Usually the mayor reads it.

Okay. All right. I don't know why there was a tab here. Then um persons wishing to address the city council are requested to state their name and city of residents for the record. This portion of the agenda is intended for general public comment only, which means it is limited to items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council that are not listed on the agenda. Please note that the state law prohibits the city council from discussing or taking action on items not listed on the agenda. City council will appreciate your cooperation and keeping your comments brief. Please observe a threeminute limit for communication. All right, Miss Edwards, are there speaker cards from the public? Mayor, yes, we have six speaker cards for the communication from the public. Okay, come on down, whoever would like to be first. I do.

I want to wish everybody a happy new year to start out with. And I want to start out with gratitude for the new year. The first thing I want to do is thank the city of Corona, Corona, the fire department, police department, and for the people task force for their food and toy drives that they did to help our our residents. I know it was gladly appreciated. Second, and I promise I won't get too emotional. [sighs and gasps] Yes, it was my birthday the other day, and I want to let you know that last year I had one of the big birthdays. And for me, that's amazing because I was told that I was not going to see Christmas in 1997, the first time I had cancer. I'm here. So, to do that, I I missed out last year. I was sick for three months. And I swear that this was going to be first anniversary of that of that birthday. and you did it well on on on Friday you put RSO into effect and let me tell you I've been crying for days because knowing that I thank you. knowing that I helped 140 plus families breathe a little easier is the best birthday present I could have ever gotten. So I really want to thank all of you up there. I want to thank Karen Roer, Cynthia Lada, Marabel Nunees, Bill Seaton, and Lydia Husner. And for all the other people that helped, thank you. And if you would show, I did just smart Alec me said, "Let me see what RSO, what cities have RSO in 2026." There's Corona.

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Corona was listed on the internet and I just every time I think about it, I cry. The second thing I have to say is um I want a big thank you to Savant and to Rosie Urano. I don't know if any of you noticed driving on the 91 that thing was left over from the 71 freeway. I saw a big rig at night suddenly veer to the left and um knew that had yeah we're in trouble. Sent an email and I was told it's a CALR issue but I knew that they had access and I didn't. The sign is gone and I really want to thank them for getting that done. We don't know how many accidents we prevented. Um moving on, tomorrow is National um Labrador Retriever day. So I've already contact police department Captain Rston for Raider, Captain Harmon for Rocky to celebrate the day. Um Friday the 9th is National Law Enforcement Day. Then um for concerns, something I would like to take up this year and that's regarding ebikes. And if you would please show that, Miss Edwards. Um this was on KABC a couple weeks ago. If you would show that clip, please. may recognize where that is on Main Street,

right? But so I just big shout out to our police department. I do want to take up that subject this year though because it's getting dangerous. So thank you very much. Happy new year. Happy birthday. You're doing it well and you're showing and leading by example. So, happy birthday, Maddie. Happy birthday, 1997.

All right. So, it it's funny to hear you do the uh Brown Act speech about how you can't take action. And Mr. Derland, I've I've always thought that you were somebody that had, you know, a good amount of integrity. I've seen you say things that, you know, that go against the council and and say the truth. You made a motion. You made a motion. It was ridiculous what you did. You were asking for consensus among the council members on public comment. You were asking, you were discussing an issue. I want to do this. I want to do that. We should do this. We should do that. We should move this up. We should do that. You were setting the agenda and you were asking for consensus. And then Mr. Durless like, "No, nothing to see here." No, there was no Brown Act violations. None of it means anything. You you guys hide behind the Brown Act and you use it conveniently to to stunt dis to stunt stunt discussion, you know, and you use it, I think, cynically. And it was clearly on display at the last meeting and you really should be ashamed of yourself and I hope you do better. You've done better in the past. You should continue to try to do better.

Thank you. Next, just real quick, Mayor Joe, you know, my uh phone is always there, so call me. happy to talk to you and explain to you why it wasn't a violation. Thank you, Mr. Derlith. Next up, next speaker. If you'd like to speak during public comment, please make sure you submit a card to the um the blue card

happy new year. My name is Rory Connell. I live in district five. I moved in Croa in 1991 when I was six years old. My wife was born here. We both own and operate our own businesses here. We're raising a son here. It's safe to say we're invested in the community. It's no secret that in 2018 I started an Instagram page called Takeback Corona. Surprise, right? On that Instagram page, we've covered topics from taxes, the Foothill extension, pensions, fake Facebook accounts, all sorts of fun stuff, right? And over time, you know, it comes and goes because it's a personal passion of mine. It's not a job. I try to keep up and I try to follow. But if you go look at the page, you'll see all those topics before you guys were here. [snorts] But since July, things have really ramped up, right? We've gone from 400 followers to almost 8,000 now, almost 4 million views, hundreds of thousands of likes, clicks, and shares. And that feels great because the community is active. It's engaged. And you know, as critical as I can be, you know, it's hard not to highlight the positives. And I think we need to highlight those things. So when I started doing council meeting summaries, you know, the agenda summaries to make it more digestible for people to read, it felt good to see the city take note and copy that. And I'm going to take credit for that. I don't care because surprise, you guys are doing it 6 months after I started it. But the problem becomes when this feels like deflection. It feels like you guys are doing everything you can to tell us what's there without. We're just checking the boxes and doing the minimum. It feels like you're afraid to tell people the truth in these summaries. And if you're afraid to tell them the truth, it's probably safe to say they don't agree with it. There's 20 pages in an Instagram carousel. You

could have put the images of the renderings for item 9.2 in there. So, in 2026, we've got an election coming up. Corona Wes, Jim, and Jackie are up for a re-election. Jim has taken a knee after 8 years. He still thinks it's a dump. Mad props. You're stepping down. So, Wes and Jackie want more time and more patience from residents. If this is your idea of transparency and getting the community engaged, I will use every single ounce of my effort to make sure I can affect change in this community and make sure people are engaged. So, welcome to 2026. [applause and cheering]

Thank you. Who's next?

Next speaker. Good evening, council. My name is Alfredo Resza. I have been a resident here of Corona for the past 11 years. I first wanted to say happy new year. And if you guys celebrated Christmas, I hope you guys had a very merry Christmas. Um, so I rely on the public transport system to be able to get to and from work. Um, I regular take regularly take the route one um to connect to the downtown Riverside Metroink station. Today, despite taking um leaving work about an hour early, um the bus was running about 15 minutes late behind schedule and I only had about 2 minutes to be able to catch like my Metro Link bus uh train. Um this is not a one-off thing. Um and delays like the on the route one make the Metro Link unreliable for those of us that um use it to be able to get to and from work. Um, I know none of you guys are my bus drivers and I know none of you guys are um directly responsible like directly linked to um the RTA, but I am asking the city council um to work with the RTA to review an on-time performance evaluation um especially for those that are connecting to the Metroinks. Um yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, next speaker. Hello, city of Corona, California 9 288 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Uh, my name is Jesse Soho. My occupation is video producer, photography. I work in Oldtown Productions. Basically, it's uh a video production for it's video production for for reasons being music videos. Okay. So, I'm just going to go straight forward with this. Uh, what is this um tom foolery with everything going on? I'll go partial ways with how the city is being built and having a marketplace for the rest of Corona residents, but having these condos is just completely foolish to begin with. This is a pit stop go community. You you bring your car to a mechanic shop for reasons being that you're having to fix your vehicle. you're not here to stay and be integrated with the rest of us because if these LA natives come here and um or wherever they're coming from, Meny Riverside, they're just here to occupy space. And as I was speaking to this lady over here, she's saying she's having hard times of people paying for their um for their housing. So, if we have condos, it's going to cause more of a of a debt for for them and then they're just going to be ruining and tearing down our city regardless. So, yeah, get rid of the showcase theater. But here we are. We're just bringing more of of this obnoxious culture to Corona anyway. So, it you're just going to be bringing the rest of the residents down. And if we have a marketplace, it's like, yeah, it's a pit stop. Go. going to fix your car and you can stop over here at the mall and have like a little bit of a ery for your family, you know?

So, it doesn't make sense as to why you would be uh trying to do this and try to integrate it as if this is a booming city. It's not a it's not meant to be a whole industrialized thing. I mean, think about it. modernization is basically a form of um poverty, you know, because it's just you're causing more of an issue for the city and causing more of a ruckus for the rest of us are trying to work and and be and grounded and uh and everything. So, so that's that's my take on it. You know, we need to take care of our Corona residents first. The bathroom over there, I mean, you guys are spending $200 million. I go to that bathroom and it looks like absolute crap. But then again, I haven't seen much of it as as of lately. But still, I know you guys are trying to fix up the city, but 2026, why don't you do it 10 20 years ago when the rest of us were here in Corona being a resident? You know, it just doesn't make sense. Why? Why now all of a sudden? Tell me. No. Okay. So now we know and I'll give up my time at four. Thank you.

Are there any other speakers?

Happy new year. Good evening. Um [clears throat] in light of the comments, I just am so looking forward to 2026. And yes, it is campaign season for some, but more importantly, I just love the positivity that Corona has right now. I know there's a lot of things that we're working on collaboratively, but I don't see the productivity and just being so negative about it. So, for all of you, thank you for all you do. And I know that I'm going to be doing my little part to make this place um a better place for my children. And um looking forward to it. Thank you. Thank you, Nancy. Are there any other speaker cards, Miss Edwards? Oh, there's another. Right. Good evening, honorable mayor, honorable vice mayor, and members of the uh Cronis City Council. Colin Marovich here, senior district representative for state senator Sabrina Cervantes representing the 31st district. I just wanted to take the opportunity of the new year to congratulate Mayor Castillas on her new role and to thank the city council for your efforts on behalf of the city of Corona uh as well as to provide a very brief legislative update to the council. As you may be aware, the legislative session has started and it has started in earnest. So on on Monday uh the senate did swear in a new senate prom uh leader of the senate senator Monique Leone of Santa Barbara. Then on Thursday, uh the governor will be giving his state of the state address and on Friday uh the governor's director of finance will be giving a preliminary presentation on his initial proposed budget for the 2026 2027 fiscal year. Um as folks are aware, once the governor has presented his budget, then that will enter into negotiations with the legislature um for final approval in the summer. And Senator Cervantes, as she has since being elected, um looks forward to continuing to advocate for the Inland Empire and ensure that our region is receiving its fair share. Um and so we encourage definitely encourage and look forward to those conversations with her legislative colleagues uh with our uh constituents and with the

governor. Uh I did also want to mention uh that the senator senator Cervantes has been appointed uh by the senate prom as chair of the senate appropriations committee. Uh as you all know the senate appropriations committee is the entity in the senate that reviews all bills containing a fiscal uh substantial fiscal or financial component. Uh and so in this role um she looks forward to evaluating the fiscal impact of bills on our constituents and again ensuring that our region ensuring that Corona ensuring that the land empire receives our fair share of funding. Uh lastly, I did want to uh remind the council and remind the public that our office remains uh ready to assist with any inquiries they may have with state agencies such as the Franchise Tax Board, the DMV, CDPH. Um please reach out to our office or or uh visit our website. We are more than happy to see what we can do to assist to cut through the red tape uh and some of the bureaucracy there. I do have someformational flyers that with the council's permission, I'd be happy to leave. Um

yeah, we can leave them in the and Miss Edwards, can we leave him in the back or with you? With me. Okay, leave him with Miss Edwards. Okay, we'll absolutely be happy to do so. Once again, we'd like to thank the council for uh your collaboration and partnership and we look forward to another year of uplifting and supporting the residents of our circle city. Thank you, Mitch. Thank you for the work you do. Appreciate it. Okay. Any other speakers? Oh, come on up.

Good afternoon. How you guys doing? Good afternoon. Good evening, Wes. Good evening, Jacqueline. Good evening, Jim. Hi, Tom. Hi, Tony. Hi, Jacob. Hello, Sardine. Um, I live uh my family established the city of Corona. They lived off of Prao Dam. I belong to Corona bands and Gabrio Indians. And I'm thankful. I'm thankful. I'm I'm excited actually see the new changes that are going to start taking place here in the city of Corona. D I'm stoked. Um I'm expecting a baby. My fiance, she's she's having a baby in March. And um the roller rink. I'm excited about the roller rink. And um the hub, I haven't tried out the hub. I quit drinking and I'm staying on that. I'm staying truth on that.

And thank you. Yeah, there's something that I want to be a better father. I want to be a better uncle. But I just want to thank you guys for doing the the great work that the city needs to change here in the city of Corona and as well as the city the city park. I'm waiting to see the lazy river, the bike park and new changes. I see a lot of new changes here in the city of Corona and I'm thankful for you guys and just keep on pushing because better things are yet in store for everybody here in the city and nobody can make the changes but us as residents and you guys as well. But I want to thank you guys. I hope you had a great day, Wes and Tom. Thank you guys. Thank you. And your name for the record?

Oh, my name is David. Again, I belong to Corona bands at Gabina Indians. My family were the first ones here in Corona. Congrats on the baby. Congrats on the baby. Thank you. All right. Seeing no other Oh, one more. Okay. And make sure that if you're speaking that you've submitted a card with Miss Edwards. Go ahead and state your name.

My name is Jocelyn. Um, I was born and raised here in Corona. Uh, the reason that I'm up here is because I want to invite anybody that is into running. I have a running club that we meet every Tuesday at Lampost Pizza. Shout out to Lampost. Uh, we meet every Tuesday 6 p.m. We are prepping for any marathons coming up. We're doing Surf City. Um, and Corona is actually having their first 5K run on the Grand Boulevard. So, we're excited for that. You can find us on Instagram, revival.run. And yeah, if anybody's into running, we'll see you guys Tuesday. Thank you. Thanks, Jocelyn.

Okay. And I heard there was one more speaker. Come on up. Please state your name. Thank you. Hi. First of all, thank you so much. You're doing a very good job in Corona. is changing so many things in the street and upgrading the shield [snorts] everything. Maybe you don't like my accent but it is what it is. We love accents.

Um one thing that is really so surprise me you want to bring the college and the student in this city but you're going to do the library to the business center. I was in this uh library and I saw the shelves is just one five shelves. The first one is some Arabic language, the other one Chinese language and the last 550 shelf was the English language. The books are reduced. there is no books and uh I don't know how you can have the future when there is no education in the city. The fun is good in the parks. They have a really great grade. You making super fun for everyone in everywhere but education is nothing. And if you want to have a future with the kids with the next gener generation, we need the education. So why you are doing the library as a business center? The library was before fall off the books. I use so many years. I am 15 years now in the corona. My kids grow up in the corona [snorts] library. The bulls they are doctors. I am so proud mom but if there is no education there is no future for this city or for any places. So please be careful. And by the way another things that bother me. You fix the alleys. You make nice. You try to make nice in

downtown but the things is you put the light and in my alley is some drug dealer the night now the light is off for a week. So I want to know is it much more important for me to have a nice asphalt or nice road or to be a safety place for me is safety place. Please take care of those problem. If I go to someone else, they send me every time to someone else, another person, another. No one take care of the problem when I'm talking. But I am residents and I like to see more safety place in this city and more education in this city than the fun place. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. What was your name? My name is Elor Shabgahi. floor and congratulations on your kids being doctors. Thank you for coming to speak to us. I think Mr. Koo can speak to you about the light and um I know that there's a lot of changes in the library. We have a library commission as well that you might be interested in um in joining their meetings. But if there's ever a book that you're interested in, they can always order it. Look, this is just five shelves now. Before there was a big library so many books I have because the most time I am in library but not there now it's it's not thank you.

Thank you. We appreciate it. Um Jocelyn, thank you for the running club tip. And then Alfredo I think we have the chair of RTA who I know was writing down notes. Um and I know you spoke with Mr. Koo as well. So um I'm sure that that'll make its way to the commission as well. Okay. So, wrapping up communications, we're going to move on to item number eight, public hearings. There are none. Let's move on to item nine, administrative reports. Um, I wanted to bump up item 9.3, um, just to get it out of the way. Um, so item 9.3, non-conforming uses in downtown Corona. Um I made a motion that was voted on and um per advice from legal in order to undo the motion to delay we have to have another motion um to begin um the discussions and have that voted on as well. So if you remember I had the original motion was to delay the conversation about amortization but upon further discussion with business owners in the community. We heard loud and clear that this is not a topic that um we should bring back and definitely not do so in 6 months. But the intent is not to delay discussion. The intent um is to have uh the business community, the chamber and the city um start having public meetings um and and convene together to get the business's um uh feedback on the um u revitalization of downtown and in specifically Sixth Street. So that's uh the motion is um on the floor. Um I don't know, Mr. Mr. Dr. Tucker, did you need to present on this item because I we didn't need a presentation. It was just to remove the previous motion.

Correct. I don't have a presentation. I was just um going to notify you all that this was a discussion from the November 19th um council meeting as you mentioned and that you request to put it back on the agenda and we're seeking your direction. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, I hope that's clear. It's just um formality. We have to take a vote to undo a motion that was voted on from the November 19th motion. So, um, not trying to open a can of worms. We heard loud and clear from our community and our business. So, um, Miss Edwards, are there speaker cards on item 9.3? Yes, mayor. We have three speaker cards on this item. All right. Please join us.

Good evening. Good evening. Tim Graham, Corona Chamber. I wanted to applaud the council on the step you're taking today and of course as I've mentioned in previous discussions the chamber stands ready to be part of the conversation and we think it's very important for the business community to speak into the ultimate design of redalization. It's easy to sit back and to criticize or say we don't want this, we don't want that. My goal is to really engage our members and the community in general to help be part of the solutions that we come up with. So, thank you very much for taking this action tonight and we stand ready to be part of the conversation. Thank you. Next speaker,

Rory Connell once again. So, I did your ad hoc committee for the uh what was it when you guys audited the water department and I said, "Hey, you know, I wasn't real stoked on that." And I totally got ignored as a citizen, right? Totally. by you and you specifically because you appointed me and you just blew me off on the phone call [snorts] and I was the citizen that you appointed and I appreciated the fact that you wanted my opinion but you didn't listen to it. So when we go into this process like when I stop talked about transparency I think it's fair if you're going to do surveys put the survey out to the community what questions are you going to ask and people can ask because the surveys you do obviously when we go jump back into 9.2 too. We're going to see that you don't listen to them. Um, but they're push polls, right? I can create a survey. Hey, do you like blue clouds? Yeah, everybody likes blue clouds or white clouds. You know, you can ask the questions you want the answers to. So, if you're going to do this and you're going to do it right because everybody's pissed off about it, obviously. Let's put the questions and the surveys out to the community. Let's do it the right way, the real way, the transparent way. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. Further, I think you should be honest about what what your aim is for Sixth Street. You only have to look at the general plan to see that the the the the plans that you have for the mall is the same plans you have for the entire Sixth Street corridor. So, the plan is to have mixed use uh three over one boba shops as far as the I can see. That's the plan. It's not about aesthetics. It's not about where whether uh in the in the words of the former mayor, the downtown looks like or not. It's not about aesthetics. It's about scraping the last vestigages of of what Corona was and that Six Street's a commercial corridor and making it a residential corridor, which again, you know, one of the other saddest things besides McKinley and the destruction you've brought down there is the fact that we did the districts to try to get some representation for downtown and we still don't have representation for downtown. We don't have anybody fighting to for the people that live down there or the businesses down there or to or to keep any of the heritage down there. We have the the last old buildings in Corona down there and and all you guys can picture is apartments. All you guys can picture is mixed use. All you guys can picture is, you know, we got to get the housing element, you know, ele, you know, all we've got to get the housing. All the housing has to go downtown. So, it's so cynical to talk about this as revitalization when it's not revitalization. It's just dumping all the housing, all all the stuff that you're mandated to do, you just dump it in somebody else's neighborhood. And we don't have anybody sticking up for Sixth Street. So, we'll be sticking up for the businesses for sure. And we're trying to get the residents down here, too, to stick up for themselves so they don't get on like they will be with the market. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Are there any other speakers on the item with the motion? Okay, come on in.

Hello, I'm I'm Wayne Tolman Uron. I actually have a business on Sixth Street and I'm kind of glad you're bring you didn't uh postpone it forever. I have a business on Sixth Street. I own the building. I run my business out of it. And as part of the chamber, as part of a business owner, as part of Corona, I want to work with you. There's don't agree with everything, but that's almost the fun of it. So when you're moving forward, I just want to be a part of it, in it, and you know, we'll work together, you know, as as part of the chamber, as part of business owner. I'm I'm pro revitalization. and I'm pro moving forward and uh I'm it sounds like nobody's doing anything to say we we don't want we want to put anybody out. Everything I've heard is we want to move forward and I want to move forward. So, whatever you come up with, I'm going to try and watch your websites and stuff and I want to be part of whatever you're doing, whatever groups you put out, whatever things you want, agendas you have, I want to be part of those meetings and um I I'm on kind of both sides. So, thank you.

Well said. Thank you. And as member of the chamber, I'm sure we're going to circulate those dates. Are there more speakers on this item? specifically on the motion to take away the last motion. Go ahead, Jesse. I don't know what that would be, but uh volume power. Um so, um regarding the heavy traffic, let's let's just think for a second. Heavy traffic and also the bikers just going on the streets. We're bringing in so much traffic here. Do you know do you even know the safety that's going to happen to the to the youth that are going to be here? It could be anything from driveby shootings. It could be anything from I mean the whole mess of it. I mean just thinking about

Thank you, Jesse. Do you have something to talk about the non-conforming uses? Because we're talk it's not public comment. It's specifically on this item. Do you have something that item 9.3 non-conforming uses? Um, we're voting to um remove the the last motion which was a delay. Do you have something to say on the non-conforming uses? Uh, if not then then that's okay. That's part of the delay, I guess. All right, Jesse. Sorry for wasting your time. Thank you. No, not a waste. We appreciate you participating. Thank you. Go school. Go school shooters, right?

Are there any other speakers on item 9.3, non-conforming uses in the downtown Corona? Okay, seeing none, then um I will make the motion. Mr. Derlith, do I need to phrase this any particular way or can you help me out with what I have to say in order to As long as the city clerk understands uh what the intent was, I think I think the intent is to remove the last vote, which was a motion to delay the conversation amization. We don't want amateization to come back. Um and and we don't want a delay to engage with the business community and partner with the chamber. Okay, that works. There's your motion. That's my motion. Can I [snorts] get a second?

Questions before I could second it. Miss Mayor, I I don't think that I'm uh understanding of what this action is going to look like as far as you know, we talked about ad hoc. We've talked about a couple different things. I I want to make sure that I'm understanding what we're going to do. Is there a presentation that's going to come back and ask us for direction on how we want to move forward or my Go ahead, Mr. I can comment on that.

So, what the plan is at this point is to continue on with the business outreach as we had originally anticipated with the formation of a business improvement district. So, that'll be expanded to include more businesses along the Sixth Street corridor beyond what the original sort of smaller engagement effort looked like. that'll be in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and will involve multiple community meetings and then the the results of that conversation will come back to the city council for further discussion about how we revitalize the downtown in terms of uh utilizing a business improvement district as part of that solution.

Okay. So, I agree that I want to move this forward. I don't necessarily agree with that plan. I I would like I would like for this to be an ad hoc. So, I can ask for and I can make an amended motion. I think that this should be an ad hoc creation. If it doesn't get seconded, then so so be it. I'm I'm okay with that. But I think that this should be an ad hoc rather than the path that you outlined.

Tony, before you before you do that motion, just just I want to offer my thoughts, [clears throat] which is basically the information needs to get to the business owners. So the faster that happens, I know that we're already making some of those strides already. The faster that we can connect, we already the chamber's already on board to to help help facilitate those discussions. And to me, I think if we have an ad hoc, all we're doing is slowing the process down. And I think that the faster that we can get everybody talking, the better. So I I don't want to bring it to an ad hoc. I I I see where you're going cuz I think you're trying to we want to craft a little bit more, but I think that the information needs to get out and we need to get information so that so we can start the two-way communication and then I'm not opposed to doing something at a later date, but I think that there should be a good exchange of information between the city and the businesses to us so then we can set the set the table for where we want to go. So I I don't disagree with you

at the next step, but this first step should be I agree with that unfettered staff talking to businesses, businesses talking to the staff coming back and presenting a report to us with the chamber that has everything that that we have options. So and then that way then then if we need to do an ad hoc to fine-tune some of those things, you know, we can discuss it at that point. But I I think the idea is and and I was mistaken under the last meeting [clears throat] that you know since we had given staff a direction to pause for 6 months that they were going to have to wait 6 months to have those conversations and I think that uh Mayor Casillas is I'm trying to clarify

is to clarify to saying no pause start conversations now get that information flowing back and forth so then they can come back to us with what they're hearing from all the businesses not just the folks that will show up to an ad hoc meeting. Yeah, I think I think my exact problem is just that they're having individual conversations rather than everybody Nope. Rather than getting everybody in the room at once or having several large groups all at once and if and if I'm wrong then say that and I want to know what those meanings are because what I've heard is that it's individual conversations. it has been individual conversations and I'm concerned about that because then information isn't consistent

and that's where we run into problems. So mayor can I clarify that then? Yeah and thank you for raising that. So individual outreach to invite people to the meetings would happen because we want to make sure we don't miss anybody but the intent is for group community meetings where everyone gets in the room and hears the same presentation and is part of the same conversation. And I would like to ask that we only are doing multiple meet or we're only doing meetings with multiple people. I don't want any more individual conversations at all.

I mean, we still have to reach we we do have to reach I don't want to um I don't want to take a tool out of our toolbox. We do have to go out and reach out to these businesses and there's I don't think there's a problem with that if we're having these group if they are having these group presentations. So, can we have a motion on the floor? We have a second.

Um, so let's take a vote on this motion to not delay to move forward with these community meetings. Thank you very much. And that passes 41. Okay, let's jump back to uh item 9.1. Thank you so much. Um, we're going to have a presentation about the city's updated Kalpers's unfunded liabilities and approval of the fiscal year 2026 pension stabilization trust contributions. Um, Miss Sitten, finance director, will present on this item. Good evening, mayor and council. Thank you for the opportunity to present on this item. So, tonight we're like you said, we're going to talk about the pension stabilization trust and the contribution for fiscal year 2026. So, the ask tonight of the council acting as the pension stabilization trust board trustee board, uh we're asking you to review the information that's provided and to approve the recommended $2.3 million contribution to the city's pension stabilization trust. So, we'll go through and talk about the pension stabilization background um and the city's investment reports as well as the updated unfunded acred liabilities and the contribution for the current fiscal year. So the city approved pension obligation bonds in 2021 and along with that a pension management policy was approved. As part of that a pension stabilization trust was approved in 2022 and that's in alignment with IRS regulations uh section 115. And the goal of that pension stabilization trust uh or pension management policy, excuse me, is to pay off the bonds once those bonds are callable in uh 10 years. Originally when we established that trust, the board members were the city treasurer, the city manager, assistant city manager, finance director, and

accounting manager. And the goal of that group was to review the updated PERS and trust information and provide funding recommendations to the city council. In October of 2025, we brought forth to the council, which was approved, a proposal to change the the uh structure of that trustee board for the council to act as that board. staff would then present the information to the council on an annual basis and we felt like this is a better use of resources and it reaches a broader audience and makes the efficient more the process more efficient. The trust value as of the end of November 30th uh 2025 was $59.2 million. That's the market value if all of the the investments were liquidated at that point. The investment reports can be found on the city's website under the finance department's page and there's also those items um are brought to the city council generally the second meeting of the month. However, sometimes that may vary due to holidays or things like that. So now to talk about the unfunded acred liabilities from Kalpers. So this is a picture of the current information that we have from Kalpers. As of fiscal year 2024, uh the total unfunded acred liability is $97.8 million for all of the city's plans. There's a one-year lag in receiving the information from Kalpers. So fiscal year 2024 is received in August of 2025. And there's always that one-year lag, like I said. So looking at all these different plans together, the average is uh funded ratio is 91.1%. That's an increase of approximately 1.3% over last fiscal year. And what's nice to see is some positive movement is you can see the difference between the last fiscal year's unfunded liability and the fiscal year 2024

liability. So you can see it's an improvement of $10.5 million or 9.7%. So there are multiple factors that impact the city's unfunded acred liability in the calculation of that number. Kalpers has two main sources of income. The first is contributions and contributions come from both employers and employees and the second is the investment earnings that they earn. When the investment earnings don't match their projections either positive or negative then the contribution rates from employers uh must be adjusted. So the investment income uh is currently estimated what they refer to it as the discount rate. We would call it the rate of return. Uh their estimate is 6.8%. For fiscal year 2024 the actual result results were 9.3% which was 2 and a.5% more than they had estimated. For fiscal year 2025 they've released their preliminary information and uh we can see that it's 11.6% which is great. Uh 4.8% 8% more than they had originally estimated. There's some other factors that go into the calculation of the unfunded liability which is member demographics of both uh retired and active employees, salary changes and then actuarial assumption actuar sorry actuarial assumption changes such as mortality rates. This table represents the Kalpers's investment returns over a long-term view. One thing to talk about is that any given fiscal year is just a snapshot um of a moment in time. For example, in fiscal year 2025, which we haven't received those reports yet, uh the returns were 11.6%. But when you look at the longer term perspective, which is what Kalpers does, that's what they use when they're coming up that with that estimated discount rate of the 6.8%. Prior to April of 2024, when the when

the returns that Kalpers received in investments was greater than 2% more than what they'd originally estimated, it automatically would trigger a reduction in the estimated discount rate. Well, a reduction in that sounds great, right? But what that in turn meant is that the employers had to contribute more towards the uh Kalper's unfunded liability. So in April of 2024, their board uh paused that automatic change and uh they have to discuss and vote on that every every year when that occurrence happens. So in July of this this year, July, I'm sorry, July of 2025, Kalpers affirmed that they were not going to change the discount rate in the next year's actuarial reports. Um even though there was a much bigger uh increase, that 4.8% that exceeded the original estimate. And one of the main reasons that they gave for that um affirmation was to uh minimize volatility on employer contributions. So like I mentioned on a previous slide, we have a target of 10 years uh to pay off the pension obligation bonds. And so we've come up with a uh contribution estimate over that 10-year period of what we need to set aside in the in the pension trust in order to make that happen. So, the bonds will be callable in 10 years, which would be after we make the May uh 2031 payment. Funding contributions of $2.3 million for fiscal years 5 through 10 would need to be added into addition in addition to what we've already contributed to the trust. Uh since the inception, we've had some very positive returns on that funding that's been set aside, about 12.68% 6.8% in returns and total contributions so far is a little over $40 million. So for fiscal year 2026, the recommendation is that the uh city contribute $2.3 million to the trust and

that keeps us on the target that we mentioned a couple slides ago about funding that payoff in fiscal year in Ipologize in 10 years in 2031. So again, the ask of the city council acting as the pension stabilization trust board is to review the provided information and approve the $2.3 million contribution to the city's pension stabilization trust. Thank you, Miss Sitten. Uh Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public on this item? No, mayor, we do not. Okay. Do I have any questions or comments for my colleagues? Nope. No. Okay. I think we're all just happy that the returns are higher. [gasps] Okay, then we'll entertain a motion.

So moved. Moved by Vice Mayor Speak.

Second by Council Member Steiner. Okay. And that item passes 5 Z. Let's [clears throat] move on to item 9.2. first amendment to the professional services agreement with SBA architects and budget appropriations for the Northmar architectural services. We have um assistant city manager Dustin Tucker who's going to present on this item. Mayor and members of council. I'm so excited to be with you tonight to talk about the North Mall. Um this item before you is uh an architecture design services contract and a discussion about the surplus lands act process. [clears throat] Excuse me. Our ask is that the council give us um provide the staff's direction on whether or not to pursue a surplus land act exemption and approve the first amendment to the professional services agreement with SVA architects or to initiate the surplus lands act process for the north mall site. Uh this item was initially brought to the SVA contract during the November 19th meeting 2025. uh and the the object of that was to hire an architect to move forward with entitling the project to retain control over the site. During that meeting, council requested additional information about the qualifications of this architect whether or not they could design a project that uh expressed the vision of the council in creating a historic looking downtown. And they requested additional information about the surplus lands act as land act as it pertains to this redevelopment project. During that meeting, you also provide some additional clarification about the residential component, the number of residential units, and a strong preference for those units to be for sale rather than to be corporate rentals. So, first we'll talk about the about SVA's qualification to design this project. You asked that we return with

um a design that you could see whether or not they would be qualified to um create and entitle this project. SVA is one of our on call contractors. They've passed our um our screening process. They've designed dozens of completed mixeduse and multifamily projects that have been built. They have extensive public sector work experience. They have a proven track record of delivering projects on time and on budget. Most importantly, they understand Corona's goal with uh regards to the North Mall architecture in terms of look and feel. So we provided them with some sample images that um reflect the historic nature of the downtown. You can see here some of the iconic buildings that have been lost to time. They also went back to look at the original design of sixth and main which was built on 25 foot modules for each of these buildings. So when you see the width of a building it was 2550 or 75 ft wide on each of those properties. So using that information, SVA came back with this um with this image, [clears throat] uh this image is a cross-section across Sixth Street with on your left hand side being Main Street moving east uh through a pedestrian corridor all the way to Ramona on the right hand side. uh above the image you'll see reference images from which they've drawn these architectural details and designs and embodied them inside the inside the drawing. We'll zoom in here on the left hand side uh where there's proposed to be a hotel in our conceptual design. Uh you see some mission Spanish revival and Spanish colonial revival architectural styles as reflected from above. Moving to the right, you see a portal to this pedestrian connection between the the hub and the north mall where we would have some community amenities where we envision the community gathering to experience the retail and entertainment spaces there that are on the first floor. Moving farther to the east from that prominade, you can see some

architectural details like brownstone revival. You'll see a Koopa. Moving farther to the right to the east, you'll see other styles reflected. um Craftsman bungalow revival on the far right hand side um which is reminiscent of the uh original uh train depot. You'll also see a roof line that's reminiscent of the lemon exchange. So what's difficult about these is that these are two-dimensional images and you can't see the depth and breaking those up. But on the first floor there's a pedestrian prominade um that separates the the street from those buildings and then there are some um spaces of depth where you can see uh some some stepbacks in. Um, I also wanted to put up here on the bottom left is the conceptual design of the of the massing that we talked about. Um, where that would be referenced. And then a reminder on the bottom right image that the first floor of all of this is commercial retail entertainment space and the housing would be above that. As we've discussed previously, that is approximately about 100,000 square foot of retail and entertainment space. Um, additionally on that right hand image, you can see a pedestrian walkway and places for for the community to gather and experience that what we're envisioning as a thriving and vibrant downtown. So, that is the the first thing we wanted to cover with the architect qualifications. And the second is a follow-up on the surplus land act. This is a state law that governs the lease and sale of all local [clears throat] and agency properties. So it applies to all cities um and other agencies and this is going to be key in redeveloping properties. We have a number of cities who are going through redevelopment projects and so it's important that that we understand why um sorry how to maneuver through this because it is a state law that applies to everyone. Um very briefly, the North Mall is a key catalyst project in our downtown revitalization plan. Since the early

2000, this has been envisioned as a mixeduse project and zoned as such. that's been reaffirmed in the early 2000s as the city went out and sought to acquire these parcels to redevelop them. As we've noted before, there was a pause uh with a resumption uh after the dissolution of the DDA with with the lab. And if you can look at the map now, we currently own all but one of those parcels within the North Mall. Um the the North Mall redevelopment project is envisioned to be a thriving vibrant mixeduse development with retail, residential and com commercial components. Uh most recently, the council gave staff direction to pursue an entitlement on the property to control the design, the look and feel, and what that uh experience would be like in the downtown. The surplus lands process uh is for all for sale or or for any leases that we enter into for more than 15 years on any parcel. The process goes that this the council would declare the property surplus. Then the city files a notice of availability with the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The Housing and Community Development, HCD, has a list of qualified lowincome and affordable housing developers and other agencies that get first dibs at this site or any site that the city's offering up. It's the requirement that the city or the agency enter into good faith negotiations with these affordable housing and other qualified developers first and preference is given to the largest number of housing units proposed at the deepest level of affordability with a minimum of 25% of the units being affordable. One key criteria is that the city cannot demand more than the market price for the property. So for example, if a

market price proposal comes in that is 100% housing, the city cannot deny that proposal or raise the price to prevent that proposal from winning. And if a market price proposal comes in, that is all housing, there would preference would have to be given to the housing proposal over a mixeduse proposal. At that point, uh, as those good faith negotiations end, the city provides documentation of the process of negotiations and the agreement or no agreement with each of the proposers to the housing and community development. HCD takes that information and makes a determination whether or not the city has complied with the process and the outcome of these um, negotiations. So, that's visualized in this upper um, graphic. these steps about declaring uh the NOA negotiating a qualified housing affordable housing developers. There are some exemptions to the surplus land act process and that's um noted below. These exemptions bypass negotiation with qualified affordable housing developers and does not give them first priority in the negotiation process. There are a number of SLA exemptions. I have attached to um the staff report the the SLA guidelines from HCD so you can all review them. It's about 45 pages 40ish pages of guidelines on how to pro proceed through the SLA. There are exemptions for development agreements that were entered into prior to 2020. There are exemptions for um transfers of property between agencies. There are exemptions for transfers to specific housing, affordable housing developments. There are exemptions based on size. For example, we just went through the SLA exemption process for some small units in the hub that were

less than half an acre. And then the ones that I think are most relevant to this are exemptions for mixeduse products, for mixeduse projects. Two of them apply to this site because of its size. The first one is a mixeduse development of at least 300 units with at least 25% of the units as affordable. That language is um written for you above. Uh and the source is down below. This one when we were talking with HCD, they pointed us to this. If we were going to go with a mixeduse development, this was one that might qualify. They also indicated that if we wanted to do a mixed-use development, mixed use being commercial retail with housing above, we could devel use use a this exemption, which is a mixeduse development with all of the housing being 100% affordable. Does not tell us exactly how many units need to be built. There's no unit minimum, but all of them have to be affordable housing. In our consult multiple consultations with HCD, they have um noted that proceeding with an entitlement without an HCD deter HCD determination of whether or not we've complied with the SLA process could be a waste of taxpayer money. That's because if we entitle a project with a specific design and look and feel, that project would be one option, but the city could not require that a developer do that build that project. and we could not force um uh a specific developer to win that bid because they were doing our project that way. Additionally, a project with more housing units or a higher offer or at market price could out compete the entitled project. They've also noted that we can't uh negotiate with any developers to determine whether or not the product would be viable until HCD has determined that. But that if if the city is

pursuing an exemption that we can have discussions with builders about what is um what is buildable. So we could pursue an entitlement process to look at the to design the exterior of these buildings, the massing while simultaneously working on um working on a development agreement with a builder. As previously noted, two mixeduse exemptions could apply to the site, the 300 units or the 100% affordable housing. There was a question as well about whether or not uh a community land trust for housing would be an option. HCD noted that yes, that is a possibility. Uh but this is what would happen. We the city would have gone to acquire all of these sites and then we can transfer transfer ownership of those properties to a nonprofit to build 100% affordable housing and the nonprofit would control the site. That is what a community land trust does for housing. Um, finally, HCD did say that they would review a proposal because there was some concern about that from council before making a final determination, but they basically said as well if you're pursuing um an exemption either the 100% affordable or the 300 units that those criteria are pretty straightforward. So, I wanted to bring you up to date on that. And I think it's important to go all the way back to the beginning. The goal is always to create a a thriving and vibrant downtown. And so we routinely get questions, why don't we just build 100% retail and have a developer do it? Well, first of all, that failed last time. Um, the pro is that it would be all retail. The con is that the SLA would still apply if we were to sell it or enter into a lease for more than 15 years. And I doubt that we'll find a developer who will want to lease that property for less than 15 years and build a 100% retail center. If we go through the SLA process, we also face the risk of um having a proposal

that is 100% housing. Additionally, right now, 100% commercial developments are not being built. In fact, to the contrary, most of the struggling 100% commercial and retail developments are building housing next door for Brea for the uh the development at Orange, the San Bern, the San Bernardino Carousel Mall, a number of these dilapitated retail centers are building housing to bring in money and residents to stimulate those retail spaces. Uh so if that's not an option, how about we do option two, which is have the city build a 100% retail um experience downtown. The pro is we would get 100% retail. The con is we would still have to go through the SLA if we entered into a lease with a tenant for more than 15 years. And we will be unable to attract a retail tenant, a large retail attractive tenant that will enter into a lease and improve that site for less than 15 years. So that means going through the SLA process once again potentially you could get a bid with 100% housing. Um there's some serious long-term uh concerns about whether or not a 100% retail site is actually commercially viable and ultimately if the city bid it built it, we wouldn't have a good sense of whether or not it matched the needs in the market. That's just not what cities do well. Developers do that well. The third option is what we're uh staff is recommending, which is a mixeduse proposal, uh an exemption from the SLA with a minimum of 300 units. The pro is the city would be able to control or at least at least maximize the retail offerings in a development agreement. Another pro is that the city would be able to almost immediately once once HCD has made that determination begin to work with builders to validate the concepts that we design so that while we

are working on an entitlement process to make the look and feel right, we can use market experience to determine the size of units to determine how many are viable economically there. Using this exemption, you have no risk of losing control to an allousing uh proposal. This is a council-driven design um both in the entitlement process and in the DDA and it would expedite revitalization. The single con is that it's 300 units if you see housing as undesirable. Option four is to just go through the standard SLA process. The pro is it would not require you the city to build 300 minimum units or a 100% affordable housing um development. The con is that's a very high risk. If you want a mixeduse site, you would not be able to guarantee that. You would only be able to evaluate the proposals that you received, which could include a 100% housing option. The SLA process is governed by statute and you have a risk of losing control of the site. You would not be able to dictate whether or not these you would not likely be able to dictate whether or not these were for sale or for lease units because that would all be involved in the developer proposal. Ultimately, if you didn't like any of the proposals, yet one of the proposals came back at a market value, you could not reject that proposal. That's been clear from HCD. If a market value proposal came in, we would not be able to reject it based on whether or not we liked the look or the aesthetic or the number of units. And ultimately um you may end up with less units or you may end up with way more housing units. But that would be all in control of the SLA legisl or the SLA process. The fifth option is to pursue the other mixeduse exemption which is 100% affordable. The pro is you would have affordable housing. The con is that um affordable housing doesn't pay for retail. In fact, most of the time

affordable housing requires financial subsidy to be um to be effective. Additionally, retail requires some additional subsidy to get off the ground. Uh, these are not likely to yield forale units. Um, this is also not typically a vibrant type of development that would bring in high-end retail or uh even nice retail experience. I don't think we'd be able to ret attract a large number of retail and entertainment tenants in these commercial spaces if they were surrounded by a 100% affordable housing development. And then ultimately the the residents in an affordable housing um development won't have the spending power to support those downtown businesses. So the staff recommendation uh we have two. The first is option A which is to start the entitlement as previously indicated and pursue an SLA exemption of the 300 units. Option B is to not entitle the project and start the surplus land act process. There is a third option option C which is to start the entitlement and simultaneously pursue um sorry to to do the surplus land act process. We think that that well we would not recommend that because you'll engage with an architect to entitle a project that could potentially not be built. Option B is high risk as I've indicated previously. Uh the surplus land act process is open to those affordable housing developers first and um HCD has been very strict on on agencies following that that process all across the state. A number of them have gotten in trouble that with that. So staff recommendation is to uh start the entitlement as we brought before you in November to approve that contract and simultaneously pursue an SLA exemption of the 300 units. So uh that is the ask tonight uh for council to provide direction to pursue a

the surplus land act exemption and approve that first amendment services with SBA architects uh or initiate the surplus land act process and uh I'll be here for questions. Thank you Mr. Tucker. That was a lot of information. And so before we go to the public, um do my colleagues have any clarifying questions? Not your comments, just clarifying questions. No. Um I did want to ask um so you alluded to it, but what happens if uh cities don't pursue exemptions? Then you're just you're subject to the SLA process as it is, and you once it goes, you can't like put that genie back in the bottle.

That's correct. Once you declare it uh once you declare it surplus and you go through the notice of availability and you begin negotiations, you're you're required to go through um 90-day good faith negotiations with all the proposals. Okay. And then um and can the entitlement process ensure residential units are for sale if if we're pursu if the city pursues an exemption? Yeah. Then yes, there the entitlement process would allow us to to do that in our negotiations with the developer. Okay. Thank you. That's all that I had for clarifying questions. Let's go to um speaker cards from the public. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. U Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public? Oh, yes, Mayor. There are seven speaker cards for Okay, let's have the speakers come on up.

I got a presentation card before you start rolling the time. Can you pull that up before you start counting my time down? All right. All right. So, there's the missing slide, everyone. That's the slide. That's the community survey that says additional housing scored less than 10% on the list of priorities for new development in the area by Corona residents. What's the opposite of 10%? 90%. 90% of people want all those fun things, but they don't want housing. You have spent, to what I know, through public records request, over $21 million of tax funds that you said were for public safety when you guys all ran around and said, "Hey, let's raise taxes for police and fire." $21 million of Measure X money has been spent on acquiring these parcels. That's from your public records request. So, we spent $21 million and we've got to sell it at market rate. You're not going to sell that for $21 million. So instead of subsidizing affordable housing, we're subsidizing developers. If this is for a community benefit and not for new residents or the benefit of a developer, you might as well make it all affordable housing, right? Because it's for community benefit. Because I know nobody wants to go to another strip mall with condos on top. I'm sorry, that's ludicrous. You guys had the opportunity to do something in the middle of town. in the middle of town. The most valuable real estate that we have right at Sixth and Mate. Build something beautiful, a landmark that Corona could believe in. An amphitheater, a public park, pickle ball courts. I know you laugh at that one, but anything for public benefit for the people who are actually funding this and paying for it. The people who are paying for it. The people who are paying for it once again. And you're paying for it with money that was you told us was going to be for police and fire. Right. So, here we are now. So, you can lay claim in your legacy to 300 condos. 300

condos. And news flash, if you don't live in District 5, there's a lot of condos for sale or not built because there isn't a high market for condos anymore. Bedford is not built out. It's all condos and town houses. Mixed use is a scam for higher density. Affordable housing is a scam produced by developers. And you guys are playing along into it. Go look at Ontario, Ontario Ranch, all around the Inland Empire. It's all mixed use. Yay. We're all getting screwed. You guys are all playing the part with developers. This is our city. That's our land. Shame on you for turning public property into condos and telling you that we telling us that we wanted it. That survey says it right there. You ignored every single resident that voted for you and trusted you when you vote for this. And my prediction, 4 to1. Wes is gonna vote against it because he knows you guys are all going to do that. Put that on Kalashi Bets. Thank you. Next speaker. [applause] [clears throat]

Hello. Good evening. My name is Jeremy Divine. I'm a citizen of South Corona. Mayor and council members. I'm speaking specifically on item 9.2. This item is not simply an architectural services amendment, although you portray it to be. It commits the city to pursuing the supress land act exemption for a mixeduse project of at least 300 housing units. Even though those numbers were very small in all of your slides, not up front. It authorizes nearly $1.5 million in public funds for the north mall design. That is a major policy and financial commitment, and it deserves to be treated as such. The city's own outreach survey, which Rory just showed, for the Corona Mall shows that additional housing ranked near the bottom community priorities for this site. Residents overwhelmingly asked for dining, retail, gathering spaces, and cultural uses. Yet tonight, the city is being asked to walk in a direction centered on hundreds of housing units, 300 at the very minimum. That shift has not been clearly explained for the 192 that you have on the site. The agenda language makes clear that 300 unit density is not incidental. It is being selected to qualify for a statutory exemption that the public deserves to understand why that legal pathway is being chosen and whether all statutory prerequisites have been met. The city's own option analysis confirmed this was a choice. Retail only options were evaluated, but long-term leases still triggered the SLA. A full SLA process was also evaluated, but rejected due to loss of control and delay. The mixeduse exemption was selected to retain control and expedite the project, not because housing at this scale was the community's top priority. I'm also concerned about the alternative is are being reframed. Option number five, which is 100% affordable, is being presented as a contrast to option three. [clears throat] The public record does not clearly show that the city has formally formally declared these parcels surplus, issued a notice availability, or completed the good n uh good faith negotiation process required by the SLA. Those steps are not technicalities. They determine whether housing density is

mandatory or discretionary. Approving architectural funding and committing to density before that clarity is provided reverses the proper order of decision-making. I also want to address the process. In 2024, this council held close session meetings under the real property negotiation exception. That exception is narrow. It allows for discussion of price and payment terms only. It does not allow decisions about redevelopment, direction, housing district, or project scope. When those outcomes appear after close session, the public deserves assurance that the Brown Act was strictly followed. This project involves a web of agreements with the lab holding LLC and multiple affiliated and successor entities including entities that hold option agreements, promisary notes, and assignment notes under the rights under the disposition to develop an agreement. Public funds, public land, and public risk are distributed across these relative entities making transparency even more critical. The project includes option agreements that fall that allow deductions from land value promisary notes financed through public entities relocation of pre-development costs and now measure X funds that is a substantial public investment is required height heightened transparency accountability especially when obligations and spread across multiple LLC's if you allow me to continue I'm um stating uh state statutes and I want to be clear that what happens when transparency does not occur when residents feel that major policy and financial commitments are being made without full disclosure. They do not disengage. They escalate through waffle civil processes available.

Thank you. [clears throat] Thank you, Mr. Chief. [clears throat] Thank you, Mr. Divine.

Thank you, Mr. Divine. Thank you, Mr. Vine. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Divine. Thank you. [snorts]

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. transparency does not delay projects. It protects the council and protects the club. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. [applause]

Sounds like he's figured out the same thing I figured out that you guys talk about things in close session that you shouldn't be talking about. Now, all this artifice, all of this SLA stuff is because you want to play land speculation and you want to buy this and flip it to a private developer. You don't have to do that. You could actually retain it for public use. You could actually build something downtown that would make it downtown. You could actually invest in downtown instead of just investing in speculation. You could you could build your you know whatever flowery terms you used about your civ your community center that you want to build to to cover up the park. You could build that downtown. You could build something that would be for public use on the public property and not have to do it. And honestly, if you did something really cool down there, it wouldn't be bad if you had a little bit of housing on it. It wouldn't be a big deal if you actually had something to attract people to downtown. But you sort of want to do this dog and pony show where the housing sort of supports the retail, you know, and that's the wrong way to do it. That's lame. That doesn't work. It never works. You can look at Metro. Anybody consider Metro to be a downtown? Raise your hand if you consider Metro to be a downtown because you're just building another metro. We can walk around on the sidewalks down there, but that's not a downtown. What's the operative difference between this and metro? What? A hotel on the corner? There is no difference. You're just building another garbage metro development. You could build something that people would that would attract people to town. You could build something that would attract people to come here and spend money, but you're not. You're just building another little habit trail for commuters, another little commuter storage facility where people just go in, they park over here, and they drive out of town to go do stuff and go work. That's all you're

building. And frankly, if if if you actually did a real rendering, a 3D rendering, and people saw just how out of scale and crazy looking this is going to be, if people actually saw that, if I I'm not even sure if you guys even have the imagination to understand just how messed up this is going to be downtown, just how out of scale and inappropriate and non-fitting this will be for the city of Corona. you know, you're you're planning on dropping a mission in type thing right in the middle of downtown out of nowhere just because you ran out of imagination. I mean, it's just it's just disgusting. Like, just watching the soul of this city being ripped out and and and built for expediency's sake because you guys are so thirsty you put your name on something that you'll literally eat dirt. You'll take any piece of garbage and then and and claim, "Yeah, we did something." It's it's just heartening for the people who actually know Corona, for people that have actually been here and watched what this city has been and what it could be. But you guys just whatever take whatever the consultants say.

Thank you. Next speaker, [applause] Maddie Paxton again. Um, I grew up in Orange County and my first job was across the street from John Wayne Airport in Irvine. I spend my weekends between Irvine and Costa Mesa and Santa Ana and Brea Anaheim. And I've noticed when they do this and put the retail on the bottom and the housing on the top, it's it feels so crowded. I just drove there this weekend and it's like this is crazy. But what I noticed is the lanes of traffic to support that were at least three lanes in each direction, maybe even four. There's no way we're going to have enough infrastructure to be able to support that many between the the hotel, the um retail shops, between the everything going on. I just feel like again, we're trying to put so much into it. I just really don't think that it's going to work. It's just way too crowded. It's going to take people forever to get down there, even if there is parking and to be able to come out of it. I just really don't see how this is all going to work. Personally, it's just too much. And as I told one of the council members today, I would be really happy if you did prove me wrong, but I just really think that there's just way too much and too busy that you're trying to accomplish. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. [applause]

Victor Ramirez, lifelong resident. Um, I know I'm old enough to remember when uh the Chrome Mall actually had beautiful fountains in it and a lot of u patronage there. Um, but change is inevitable. I I I know that's part of life, but please listen to us, the residents. Please listen to what we have to say. Um, it's my understanding that only two of you are homegrown and that's okay. Like if you come here, adapt what Cron was about. It should have been about always been about family, faith, and industry. Of course, beginning with Citrus, then we had vendor come in. We had Silverest, Modular Homes, um, the, uh, pharmaceutical company. We had different businesses come in. I understand that. But listen to the residents of what we want. Um, six degrees of separation. Mr. speak. Our brothers played football together at I was I was a ball boy there. Um Chief Newman uh was a childhood friend of my good friend Joey Morgan. Um there's just connections that we all realized that we have here and our biggest desire is that you hear us the residents. I'm this is my first time here and and I'm a little disappointed in in what I've been hearing and I just ask that you listen to us the residents. Please take it into regards what we want. Mr. Steiner, you came to my door and I voted for you because you came to my door. You seem sincere and I I I and I understand maybe your verbiage wasn't great in describing the mall, but to a certain extent I do agree, but how about listening to us as residents and not give us slick answers and and then pull the rug from under us. The Cortez family has built quite a a legacy here. The Vasquez family, who your brother was good friends with, Mike Jr. was a great Their family is great. They've they've built and put roots down here. And that's all I ask is that you listen to us, your residents, and don't go over our heads because a slick salesman is going to come and tell you that we can

build this, that, and the other when it's not very feasible. Downtown has become an eyesore. The streets, it's just in the mornings, it's hard to navigate. So, please, I beg of you, listen to us, the residents, and what we want. We we want to work together. I don't want to be negative. I don't want to come throwing mud and saying this that or the other, but please hear our hearts. Please don't go over our heads. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Next speaker.

I'm Don Fuller. First thing is I wish that when they made those graphical presentations to go up there that you'd make them in more higher contrast colors so I could read the damn thing because it's all pretty colors. You can't see the contrast. Uh I have taken just enough architectural classes to get myself in trouble. There was a fellow by the name of Albert Spear Ser. He was Hitler's architect. And among other things, uh, they wanted to build this big avenue through the middle of Berlin. And I've seen pictures of the model of it. And it was enormous. This huge wide street, these giant buildings with just rows after rows after rows after rows after rows of windows, giant buildings with all these windows. And it was amazing. And it was also grotesque because it was so ma massively out of scale with anything else that you could possibly imagine. And one of the comments was when people looked at this stuff after afterwards, they said, "Who's going to sit behind all those windows up there?" It was kind of a puzzle. They don't have enough people to sit behind all those windows. And if I'm thinking about things that are also out of scale, I think about that abomination of a ballroom that the convicted felon wants to put on our White House. That thing is so grossly out of scale. It's disgusting. So when I look at these pictures that were up there, I mean, like I said, I took just enough architecture classes to get myself in trouble. But when I look at the when I look at the elevation drawings, they just seem to me to be who's going to sit behind all those windows, they look to me to be massively out of scale for what that corner is and for what this town is. And it's on a

street that has one lane each way on Sixth Street and two lanes each way around some really awful curves on Main Street. So, I just wonder if it's just way way way too big for what we have down there. So, uh like I said, I'm not the architectural expert, but it just seems to be way way out of scale to me. And you want this to be nice because 75 years from now when your great great grandkids are around, they see your name on a plaque, you'd like them to think well of you. So, uh, that's all. I'm done. Bye-bye. Thank you. Next speaker. [applause]

Hi there. Karen Alexander. I 44 [clears throat] year resident and I was recently asked about as a council candidate how I felt about two to 300 200 residential units going to 300 and my [clears throat] my idea was I I don't know that that's anything that anyone wants. I ended up I mean I know there's a tipping point between development right seven years on planning commission the projects that come before us there is a proportion between the commercial part there is uh uh a balance there where the developer says they need to pencil it out but I don't know how what my position is on the residential increasing to 300 is the right question is it relevant I spent hours going through multiple times the SLA that was provided by staff uh PowerPoint slides what staff is presenting. It's uh the SLA the uh surplus land act. It's it's 44 pages of guidelines. It's it's not guidelines. It's mandatory law um mandates for any municipality. It talks about increased monitoring with AB uh 1255 and AB 1486. Sacramento is really sticking it to the agencies especially when they don't comply. Uh if this land is deemed uh surplus land and we apply for this process then everything that is done during the process is uh monitored by the state. uh HCD talks about um uh fair negotiations, reasonability, good faith

negotiations with they tell us which the housing entities are that the city has to first uh go into negotiations and everything in that 45 uh 44page document is to maximize residential development with the highest affordability levels on land sales. this land that the city owns. It's the epitome of state government overreach and it removes local control. Uh I can see if the say the city failed to comply with our 8-year housing element. I can see if the city uh didn't add our 6,88 uh units for residential. Uh we did uh came through planning commission came to you guys. Uh we have an emergency shelter for chron chronic homelessness. We have uh homeless solutions strategic plan annual enhancements. We have a hope team that goes out and helps offer shelter. Uh we have the street outreach contract with city net homeless individuals. That all saying is it doesn't matter that we did all of that. It doesn't matter that we were recognized by the county as one of the best practices overall in the county. We're still mandated by this SLA act. The problem is is that it is state law and we have to look at it as if we're going to do something with it and there's 300 units then the exemption that is being proposed 300 unit

thank you miss Alexander I'm sorry thank you next [snorts] speaker

hello Vanessa Van uh resident and downtown business owner. Um so rather than echo what everybody has um just said, I just want to ask a clarifying question. Um the state requires a percentage of parking per unit. So where is that projected parking um supposed to be? And I didn't see any of that on the presentation. And then also are we looking at more imminent domain because of it? And then which building? Because one of my buildings is down there. So I want to know, you know, am I going to have a building still or what are we looking at? Thank you, Miss um I didn't catch your last name, but Vanessa, thank you. We got your questions. [clears throat] Next speaker. Any other speakers? Okay, let's bring it back to the council. We can open it up for comments, questions for my colleagues.

Do you want to let Justin answer the questions? Uh okay. So, I wrote down a couple of questions. Um, Mr. Tucker, can you address the um parking uh requirements? Absolutely. So, the the models that were presented earlier um to the city council all have structured parking and those parking calculations include uh all the residential units plus excess uh for the retail and and entertainment in that proposed development. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. And then there was a question about traffic developments like this have to come with traffic studies, correct? And what are the implications and the relationships between that?

Uh yes, absolutely. So we would have to do a traffic study as part of the entitlement process. That's part of this uh proposed contract with SVA that they would do a traffic analysis for all those homes and as well as the the retail entertainment requiring therefore requiring that the traffic the infrastructure is sufficient for the proposal. Correct. Thank you. Um, okay. I think those are all the questions I got from the comments. Mayor, can I address one question that came up from one of the speakers regarding the former agreements with lab holdings and their various entities including the promisary notes and Yes, please.

and agreements to sell land. All of those agreements have been unwound. So those agreements were entered into sometime around 2016 2017. That developer was given close to 7 years to try to make something happen. Wasn't able to do it. So all of those agreements have been reversed, unwound. All of the property is back in the hands of the city. So none of those are none of the agreements with Lab Holdings and their LLC's are relevant at this point. Thank you, Mr. Derlith, for that clarification. I was going to say I think there was a few other questions and I saw you diligently writing and I don't know if there was anything else. Anything else you'd like to contribute before we come back to the council. Mr.

There were a couple other things. There was a note that um that this had all been done um some seemingly behind the scenes, but this was presented in March 2024 with uh when we presented all the six catalytic projects in the downtown in the north mall. The slide that I used in my presentation earlier about the north mall was the exact same slide that I used back then that uh this was a mixeduse project for a thriving vibrant retail mixed uh used experience. So I wanted to clarify that um we conducted significant outreach during the downtown revitalization process. Over 2,000 people responded to surveys and we held multiple groups on what the vision was for the downtown. That's all in the downtown revitalization plan which was approved in 2022. Um and then additionally there was some question um I think Miss Alexander was talking about the penalties of non-compliance. If a if an agency or a city in particular is found to be in violation of the SLA, it's a 30% um it's a fine of 30% of the disposition value of the land that's being proposed in the first offense and a 50% of of the disposition value in the in a second or subsequent violation. In other instances, uh, for example, in Anaheim, they pursued u a settlement which required additional affordable housing on that proposal and they rescended the development agreement. So the penalties are very severe for non-compliance with the SLA.

Yeah, the state is serious.

Uh, mayor, if I could just add one more thing. Sorry. Uh with respect to the issue of the close session discussions, there have been many close session discussions over the last 5 to 10 years with respect to these properties. And that's because not only those property uh acquisition and disposition processes with lab holdings and then getting all that property back, but there's been many, many partials that have had to be acquired. Each one of those close sessions specifically described the individual parcels that were being discussed at that time and it was all about the price in terms of acquiring those pieces of property. What this project is going to look like and all of these things that we're talking about at this point were not part of those close session discussions.

Thank you Mr. Durley. Appreciate the clarification. Thank you Mr. Tucker. Appreciate the clarifications. So, coming back to the council, opening it up for um comments and questions. Council member Dario,

just finishing a last thought. Um I do have a couple questions. So, there was a a comment made about the the order of operation here and and on one of the asks is to you know contract with SVA for their architectural and budget services. Um but it was very clear in your timeline that we have to get approval from HCD. So how does that work before we get before we start designing and spend any money on design? Do we take the concept to HCD and say this is this is what we're going to do or this is what this is the exemption that we're going to go after and you know do you approve before we spend any money on design?

Uh that's a great question. In the guidelines, it says that if the council is in pursuit of an exemption uh of these one of these SLA provisions that we can start uh working with developers. So that would also apply to this um the entitlement project for this. So they can run in parallel if the direction today is to move uh forward with the exemption of the the 300 units. Are we worried that we're going to spend we're going to start spending some money on on entitlement and design and HCD is not going to approve this project?

Uh so because HCD did point us to that 300 unit exemption if [snorts] they've essentially said if you're coming to us for this exemption and it meets these requirements then you can move forward. So, um, but if the council would decide that they wanted to move forward with an exemption and then get HCD clearance and then go forward with the entitlement, that that's something that staff could do if council directed us to do that.

Well, I'm I'm, you know, concerned about the state changing their mind because quite frankly, they do that sometimes and I would hate to spend any money on an entitlement if they all of a sudden decide that they don't like that process or whatnot. So, that's a concern that I have. Um, another question. I got a couple questions here. Um, is part of the process through the entitlement design understanding how many square foot in retail we're going to get versus or what the square footage retail what the retail square footage looks like as far as a total number um versus, you know, for the for the size that we have, the housing, the amassing, all that type of stuff. I know that in a couple different presentations the the numbers have been somewhere between 70,000 square feet of retail up to 125,000 uh square feet of retail. So when do we get an understanding of what that sizing could be?

So in the the concepts presented before it was about 100,000 to 125,000 square feet of retail and we'd move forward with the entitlement on that you know based on your direction the number of units. Um ultimately some of that will get negotiated with any future developer, right? So we and the entitlement process will work through all the secret required documents and um and then do all of the the facade work and then ultimately we would enter into a DDA agreement with a developer and they would make some small revisions that might adjust the square footage on the commercial up or down based on the community amenities that we were asking them to provide.

Right? So they're going to like any developer, they're going to ask for as much as they can get that's going to make them the most amount of money, which is the entire part of the entitlement process is we want to really control what gets built there. So it's an ask, right? As we start having conversations with them, should we move forward, they're going to ask for certain things. We're going to push back and say, "This is how it was entitled. You know, you're asking for too much or something along those lines." But it's not until we start having conversations with them that we understand how many square how many thousands of square or how many hundreds of square feet we're going to get retail versus the the amount of homes for sale etc etc

in terms of exactness. Yes. But we'll have some some parameters that we're going to work within right which we talked about which is about 100,000 20,000ish. Okay. And then um there was a question about you know the amount of money that we have spent to acquire all of those parcels right over the last 25 years probably the city's been acquiring parcels. Who when will we and who's going to determine the value of the North Mall property? That's a great question. So we'll have an appraisal done on the property um given the constraints um and then we'll come back with that with that value.

Is that after the design has been completed? Um, I don't know the answer to that question whether or not we'll we'll do that, you know, simultaneously with with the entitlement or sometime in the future because I would imagine that the value of the property changes when there's been an approved entitled project because then you're given you're you're signaling people that might be interested in it that there's a project that's shovel ready and ready to go which increases the value of the property. Is that correct? That's correct. Yes. Okay. And then um in the agreement, I I didn't read all of the fine print, but in the agreement is part of the agreement a 3D model like they did for the park.

So if we enter into an agreement with SBA, yes, there are multiple renderings that you'd be able to see of the of the um project. Yes. But a 3D model. If it's not explicit in there, we'll make sure it is. Okay. Those are the questions that I have. and and I would like to know um when you get a chance about the about when we're going to assign a value or get the the property um appraised. Thank you, Council Member Dere. Council member Richens. Oh, Dean, please step in. With respect to the timing,

with respect to the timing, you can safely assume that we would not be valuing it for purposes of disposing it to a developer until we have the ability to assume that entitlement uh has been approved. Right. So, whatever evaluation there's going to be, it's going to be done with the assumption that the entitlement is on the property because, as you said, that's the most valuable time to do it. So we it wouldn't be to our benefit to do the valuation before we have the entitlement worked out.

And the design process is going to be about a year, right? Do I understand that correctly? And then once the design has been refined and approved, then it goes through the entitlement process. So we're looking roughly year and a half, two years before we understand the value of the property. I think the contract is actually shorter than that. It's like eight months, I think. I think you could assume that we'll know the value within about a year. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Dario. Council member Richens.

Thank you, Mayor. I uh I first want to thank all the citizens and residents that showed up to speak and listened and watched today tonight. Uh very very respectful and glad you came. Uh next, uh I want to answer Vanessa's question. And without giving away your property location, hi. without giving away your property location. Uh your building isn't infected isn't affected with this project, just so you know, but you probably already knew. Uh uh next, uh I heard someone mention Cortez Jewelers, and if they haven't heard, they'll be moving to the uh Southside hub. So Cortez will move there. They'll build and they'll continue to thrive as they always have. Uh, moving next, I I really I don't know if someone is here from SVA Architects tonight, but I I want to thank them for the phenomenal job that they did with their renderings and for the time they put into researching and looking into Corona's history. And I uh I kind of marked up the drawing a little bit. If you could put it up on the on the screen if you have it. No bueno. Oh, sorry. I I have small writing, but I just want to show what the uh SVA architects did. So, if you start from the left where the large hotel is, it pays homage to the Hotel Del Rey that was once on Sixth Street. And then if you look at the the covered walkways and the arches, that pays homage to the historic civic center. Where the large tower is next to the arch, that pays homage to the Corona Historic Theater.

The brownstone building to the right of that pays homage to the to the second IOF building. The the tower next to that pays homage to the hotel Tescoll. You can see specifically the dormers pop out. Next to that you see the Lord building that Koopa that once stood on top of that. Um to the right of that you see the Corona lemon exchange. So it follows the same roof line as the original Corona Lemon Exchange. And then as assistant assistant city manager Tucker said, the uh the building on the far right pays homage to the original train depot, not the second train depot. So um and that's just this rendering, right? There's way way way more more architectural historical elements that can be pulled from Corona history as the building turns corners and goes places. And uh whoever at SVA Architects worked on this project, kudos to you and thank you. You really knocked it out of the park. I think a lot of this this building, this complex, if it gets built, will pay homage and will represent Corona's history well. So, I wanted to point that out. I um I kind of want to build on Karen Alexander's comments. She she took the time to read the SLA process and her and I were texting a little bit back and forth and it's the SLA process is just not something you want to screw with. It's uh the the state will punish you. They're punitive if you don't follow it. And to get around it, you have to follow the exemption of 300 units. And um I know this council before wanted 200 units, but I know there's a reality involved with the SLA process and the

300 units. So um I I really feel that this project will complement the downtown. I think it has the potential to be entitled and done right. I think it's very special and important that the city sets the standards through entitlement. That's why we get historical architecture elements. That's why we get murals. That's why we get landscape features that complement rather than a developerdriven project. A developer-driven project will be moneyoriented. It'll be shortcuts. It'll be built on the cheap and it won't be what the citizens want. um to go through this entitlement process to be public and transparent and share with everyone here to be public and transparent and share with everybody in the city. I think this is a really good step forward and I support it 100%. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Richens, Council Member um sorry, [clears throat] Council Member Steiner.

Thank you, Mayor. So, Victor, you kind of alluded to it. um when I was campaigning in 2018, I did knock on a lot of doors and uh and communicated with our citizens trying to figure out what they wanted. I think we all wanted the same thing for the most part. Uh but one of the common themes that I got was people wanted jobs to get people off the freeway. They wanted things to do and they wanted to preserve open space. So, I'm pretty sure that you guys have heard this a lot from your either yourself or your family members, your neighbors. I know I hear it all the time that there's nothing to do here there. We have to go to Orange County. We have to go to Riverside or Riverside or we have to go to LA for for good food or entertainment. And I I believe that's pretty much true. Um, so we're trying to change that, you guys. and and we've you know we're talking a lot about 300 units, but what we're not talking enough about is the goal of having 105,000 to 140,000 square ft of retail dining and entertainment. Now, I know if we go through the surplus land act, you're going to get a heck of a lot more than 300 units. Um we won't have a say. And I and even if we didn't have to build even if the state says no you don't have to do anything I would still say that we do need some housing units to support that much retail dining and entertainment. We want a built-in customer base. So the things that we want will be there forever. They won't go out of business. So, um I know not everybody agrees with that, but I'm for option A with pursuing the SLA exemption.

Thank you. Option I think it was option A, wasn't it? To pursue the exemption. Pursuing the exemption. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Um Vice Mayor, speak.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor. I um I think I've spent the last six years on uh HCD uh the housing community economic development committee at um Cal Cities and I you know I've been saying it for so long with all the different laws that have been passed in the last six years. There's one you know basically it's like death by a thousand cuts. Um SB9 SB started off with SP35 I think six year eight years ago and I sit over there and and talk to the council that was up here at the time to try and fight that. Um, and then add in the other word salad of of um bills that have been passed in the last three years. The state has said and they're I mean there's no hiding about it that housing is coming and and sitting in that statewide committee and hearing you know other cities have to go through where they're they're getting this forced on them. Um, you know, we've only had just a couple of the projects where we've had our hand forced. Um, but this is an opportunity for us to at least take part of that away. Um, I'm not happy about the 300 300 condos. I'm I and I agree with you, Jim. I think that they're, you know, I think all of us were fine with something. Um, but the devil's in the details and and what people have said is they, as you said, they want things to do. And you're right, 107 or 100,000 square ft of of retail will not be like um Metro Maine. You know, the folks that live at Metro Maine are perfectly happy with it, but it doesn't attract people to come there. I sure have had dinner at a couple of places there. The the taco place is great. Um um but I I'm not going to, you know, venture down there to walk around and hang out. And that's not what we want. That's not what any of us want. Um we want kind of that that uh the next phase of what we're doing at the hub

which is entertainment um a little bit of retail uh experiential and frankly no one is building none no developer I I sat in one of the last committee meetings for that um um housing community economic development um they had a group of folks that were developers that said that they um nobody's building retail big box is dead the small stuff is, you know, no one's building strip malls. Um, that stuff doesn't, you know, doesn't supply itself on really until it's a really small area. But I'll tell you, all the highdensity developers were salivating over anything that was between five and 15 acres because they could make a hell of a lot of money. And the numbers I was hearing on that many acres was between 600 and 1,200 units. Um, and so frankly, like I said, I'm not happy about it being 300, but or u but I think that they have an opportunity to really build something that people will want to come to. Um, I'm excited about that part. I'm excited about the the the steps that we're taking at the hub. I did have one question. If you could go back, I think it's either page eight or 11 or slide eight or 11. Um, yeah, next one here. So in in the drawing we're showing that basically there's a you know a gap pedestrian walkway but in the um the lower left hand corner there's it shows that there's more of an area and we've always talked about that in the center here there was going to be some gathering spaces there was going to be program spaces for people to get together where it just isn't them walking to you know uh as as everybody likes to hear boba place which man that'd be the largest boba place in the um uh there'll be opportunities for people to go and basically and kind of hang out and and you know like you see in Anaheim like you see some of these other places where it's just not a

pedestrian walkway and I realized that we have to call it something. Um but in the drawing doesn't quite match the area that we've I know we have that bridge there which I think is actually really cool. It's I think it's going to be a great entrance. Looking behind that, it looks like it's going to be, you know, solid, you know, either, you know, that residential or or sorry, retail and entertainment spaces on the bottom, that 100,000 plus square feet of of uh folks and things for, as Jim says, things to do. Um, can you talk a little bit about what that area will be used for? And and it's not just going to be a bunch of concrete.

Sure. So essentially the the the layout if you look at the bottom right hand corner is a the original alignment of Main Street more or less north south and the original alignment of Fifth Street East West and that will be a pedestrian walkway with open um open space dining. Um there'll be likely to have you know arts and entertainment in those spaces. Um we understand the vision of a of the vibrant area that's active for communities to gather and so we'll build in those places places for them to come and congregate um in in right ways. Right.

Okay. So th this again is for everybody watching and then the narratives that keep getting spun this is a facade. This is what you're going to see from the outside but there will be gathering spaces on the inside. and that, you know, the the developer that we eventually pick to work with to build this, we are being purposeful. Um, and and the fact that the we're entitling this, yes, it makes it more valuable because time is money. This actually cuts out a lot of time, but you know, make no mistake, it's going to take the right developer that's going to want to build this. Um, most developers are going to want to build, you know, flat flatfaced, easy stuff, tilt up, you know, whatever else you can do. This has got so much detail in and as you know Tom pointed out there's so many hearkens back here to to the things unfortunately that used to be here. Um but an opportunity for us to which is what I always envision if we built back um you know what we had downtown that it looks something like downtown used to look like. Um and so I I'm I'm I'm excited to go forward. Thank you for making those those additional tonight. All we are voting for is to hire this architect to continue their their work which they did did so on, you know, for free. Um, and I I want to thank them publicly for that. I had a architect friend of mine um basically ripped me a new one for basically telling that this is kind of forcing this architect to spend a bunch of money that they didn't have to and and I said tough. Uh, but you know, this is what we needed and this is frankly exactly what I asked for. So, I appreciate that. Um, and I am um also 100% for any way that we can retain some control because I'm telling you, we do not want to be Huntington Beach that they keep losing time after time after time and have to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees and and still have to do the same thing. Um, this is a a a very narrow window for us to go to. And

I I will say if this get keeps getting pushed out, that window is going to close. You know, I don't know if you've heard some of the the the folks that are running for governor where they're they're pushing saying, "We need more housing. We need more housing." And they're going to continue to close all these loopholes. So, frankly, I think the faster that we can get through this thing, the better that we have an opportunity to control our destiny and build what we want to see and not just we, what people wanted to see. And I I and thank you for for putting up, you know, people. Yeah. Nobody wanted more housing. Um, but what they wanted, as Jim said, things to do. And this is going to be things to do. People are so excited for the little teeny things that we've done at the hub and there's so much more coming and and this will just be um you know just the uh the topper on the cake here. So um that's my direction. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I [clears throat] want to um start by thanking everyone who's here tonight. Thank you so much um also for speaking. I know it's it's not it can be a little intimidating. So u Mr. Ramirez, Miss Vanessa, I still didn't catch your last name, but thank you so much for being here and for pulling a card and coming to to speak. Um, I I want you to please um stay engaged, you know, uh, keep staying cur curious. Um, give us your feedback, tell us how you feel, ask questions, and know that your council's available to you. every single one of us um while we have full-time jobs except for the guy who's retired um we keep ourselves busy um but we always make ourselves available for a coffee um to meet up to meet up before meetings whatever the case may be um we all care we all care deeply um for me personally this is this is my hometown I was born and raised in the circle on 10th in Sheridan um I remember walking to the mall with my mother and I'll tell you in in the last 40 years, even from my childhood, um you know, the mall was never thriving in my childhood. Uh that mall was already deteriorating and it's it's been deteriorating and it has become a safety concern and we've heard it loud and clear from re residents that there was safety concerns. Um a lot of the unoccupied buildings uh were broken into several times over. there would be, you know, fires lit for food and for heat and causing fires in those um uh unoccupied buildings. It is a safety concern and Measure X was passed absolutely to address safety in our community. We have had community engagement. I I recognize that for some folks, depending on where you are in the spectrum, you might think that this conversation started yesterday and it didn't. Um when this council came on board, in fact, previous councils have all tried have

tried to address this. When we came on board, um I was elected in 18, some of my colleagues were elected in 2020. Um there was already, you know, a bigname uh uh developer attached to this project. And it was, I think, the third or fourth time that the council had worked with a developer to try to revi re redevelop or to re revitalize a downtown. So I I hear and I get it even from my family like are you serious? I remember seeing I thought you guys were already doing something. You're like yeah I know I know but that was that was then with that developer and it fell through and they had seven years they had seven years to deliver on something and it never happened and they were proposing 100% retail. And I'm telling you, big big names and they have creative ideas and they have some really great developments in Orange County and honestly we were all jazzed about it and it just did not work out. Um, but you know what they say about the definition of uh of uh of uh insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over again and expecting a a different outcome. So what we're doing differently is an entitlement process. We're trying, we want to secure and what it is that's going to be built and by doing so have our a better pick of the developer that we partner with. Take that process off the table and say, "Hey, this is exactly what you're going to deliver for the community because we've heard loud and clear throughout the years that residents want the downtown addressed. We need to deliver on these big bold decisions because everything else everything else doesn't matter if you're not doing the big thing that has been there and neglected for 40 years. So that's what we're that's what we're doing. But this process is complicated and it's and there's little decisions

all along the way. And so today's decision is is is one decision, but it's not everything. So stay engaged, be part of the conversations, keep giving your feedback. And it's been said already, but the state is really trying to address housing development. Now, cities are not developers. Developers are developers, but the state wants to make restrictions, wants to remove restrictions to promote development and thereby trying to remove cities from the decision-making process. And as folks have alluded, um it's getting harder and harder to do that. The the surplus land act is a really strict rule that just says you got to do this and if you don't, guess what? You get booted out. Corona. And and this is what's the folks that we say um uh that have, you know, met the requirements, they're going to they're going to be allowed to develop because they've met all of the, you know, they've met um the requirements and they're producing housing because housing housing housing is the number one issue for the state of California. And I completely agree. And I'm telling you, I've been I've participated in the League of of California City for several years now. these laws are just going to keep coming because affordability and housing affordability is just getting worse. And so if you you think that you know the restrictions now are severe, there won't be fewer restrictions moving forward. Um so really the bottom line is today's decision is about risk and control. It's about risk and control. controlling what it is that gets developed there, but assessing the very real risks that Corona doesn't hold all of the cards for the decision. If we once you trigger the the surplus and last land act, you can't unring that bell. And so when I think about that and I think about my town, my

city, my hometown where I'm choosing to raise my kids in, I I want the best we can possibly get for our community. I want a development that we can be proud of. And I also want one that we have the most control over. And what that means is we've got to make a few concessions and be as strategic as possible along the way. So here we are. We're we're facing the decision of of risk and control about moving forward with an architectural design firm and pursuing an exemption. With the pursuit of an exemption, we know exactly what we're going to get. without the pursuit of the exemption. It's these developers uh uh gamble. It's a gamble. And we know for a fact that there are uh low-income developers, and I'm not knocking on low-income development. We need low-income development, but for our downtown, we need to hold as many cards as possible. And we know for a fact that big developers absolutely want this much land this close to transit. and they will absolutely take advantage of the opportunity if given that. So given all those uh restrictions um given where we are in the process I too think that the most prudent decision is to pursue an exemption because we can protect the development and control as much as possible. So thank you Mr. Tucker. I think we've got um answers for three. I don't know if the rest of my colleagues have weighed in on where they land, but I think we can entertain a motion now.

So moved. Move to approve by Vice Mayor speak. Second.

Second by council member Richens. Thank you. And that motion passes five to zero. Moving on to item. Actually, I'm going to bump up an item because we have an appointment here and um I don't want to make her wait all this way. And now the rest of this stuff is mostly us just talking. So, we're going to bump up item 14.4, [clears throat] the reappoint uh to the Northwest Mosquito and Vector Control Board of Trustees. Um, I'd like to make that uh I'd like to bump that up before legislative matters. So, um, we have had u Miss Nancy Jimenez Jimenez representing the city of Corona on the Northwest Mosquito and Vector Control Board now for has it been four years? Nancy, Miss [snorts] [clears throat] Come on up.

Good evening. Yes, it has been four years. Four years. I went by. blinked, right? Same. And this is an appointment that the mayor gets to make. And so I I think you're doing a great job. I'd like I'd like to um you know, yield the floor to you to share any thoughts you may have before I make your formal nomination.

Really quick, uh congratulations, Mayor Casillas and Vice Mayor Speak. Um I had the wonderful opportunity to serve this term. Um it was a plethora of stuff I'd never been exposed to. A lot of learning and um I'm just really grateful for the opportunity. I served in different capacities on the board with our um my colleagues from six other sister cities and um I'm looking forward to taking the presiding chair position uh God willing in two weeks. So thank you all for your confidence and trust. I look forward to working hard and serving uh our community for the next term.

Thank you, Miss Man. Now, there are some procedural stuff we're just going to get through. Miss Edwards, are there speaker cards from the public for this appointment? No, mayor, there isn't. Okay. Um, sorry, I keep saying Miss Edwards, but [laughter] um Okay. So, then I would I'm I'm proud to make the motion to uh nominate Miss uh Nancy Jimenez um to the Northwest uh Mosquito and Vector Control Board. Once again, Miss Nancy Jimenez Hernandez, sorry. Um, and I would love a second on the second on the motion. And let's go ahead and vote. [laughter]

All right, the vote is underway. All right, five to zero, unanimous consent. Thank you, Miss Thank you so much. Looking forward to it. Thank you again. We appreciate you. Thank you so much for your service. Bite on, Nancy.

Okay, that might have changed my vote [laughter] as a Bruin. Anyway, okay, moving back uh to uh item 10, legislative matters, there are none. Item 11, reports from boards and commissions. Library Board of Trustees, none. Planning and housing commission, none. Parks and Recreation Commission, none. Regional meetings. Let's go to an update from Council Member Tony Dario on Council Member Dario on the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority RCA meeting of January 5th. Take it away.

Thank you, mayor. Um, we had a budget update, both state and federal, waiting to see what the governor comes back with, but there's not very high hopes that there's going to be money approved for land acquisition, but we're waiting to see. Obviously, we're advocating for that. um some results from our SCOP study um which is which we had asked for to kind of combat some of the challenges that we're having with the um Hans Development Act which kind of forces us to buy property at a very expensive rate. um they reached out to uh several stakeholders who've kind of come back and said that they agree with the fact that unintended consequences of the MSHCP and 25 years ago there's no way that we could have foreseen the fact that you know this loophole is there. So working on getting that fixed they appointed some committee members uh to the executive committee. Thankfully, I was able to dodge that bullet. Myself and uh Miss Wallace from banning sit on what's known as the bad kids corner. So, they leave us alone. Um

don't bismerch miss Miss Miss Wallace.

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's probably mostly me, but she certainly encourages me. That's for sure. Um, we did have we did have a um a presentation for the reserve of the month and they spent a lot of time talking about the longtailed weasel and it is a very interesting and elusive animal and I'm sure we're going to get some some update from council member Richens on his animals that they deal with. But um looking forward to getting some updates when the governor releases his budget proposal and kind of seeing where we're at. One of the things that I did ask for is as um yourself and the vice mayor start talking with our local elected state officials and federal officials, just kind of some talking points that that mirror our legislative priorities for not just the city but for RCA as well. we all sit on individual boards and um it's something to put in their ear as they start thinking about their budget allocations as well. So, I'll be delivering those to you as soon as we get those so that when you guys are talking with your um uh state and federal representatives, you guys can put that bug in their ear for them as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. All right, moving on to update from Council Member Richens on the Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency RCHCA meeting of December 11th. Thank you, mayor. I would uh I would like to talk about the uh the kangaroo rat, but I I can't. Um we we held a meeting, but we didn't hold a meeting because not enough people from other cities showed up for a quorum. So, uh there's this really mean woman that works with these kangar rurat people. I can't remember her name, but she thoroughly yelled at everybody, berated all the council members that didn't show up. Um, and then followed all that up with an email. And, uh, then I just went home, right? So, hopefully the Lord's work will continue at the next meeting and we can get the kangaroo back rat back in back in its rightful place.

All right. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. I'm glad you didn't remember their name. Um update from council member Steiner on the Riverside Transit Agency RTA board meeting of December 18th. Thank you, mayor. Just two quick updates. Um I have been elected chair for 2026 of the Riverside Transit Agency. The vice chair is Cindy Warren, council member from Myetta and the second vice chair is council member Timothy J. Her Sheridan from Lake Elsenor. And uh want to thank uh C Riverside City Council member Steve Hemmonway for doing a great job last year. And we're also hiring bus drivers. So RTA is hiring community bus drivers. So if you're interested, go to RTA's website for more information on how to apply. That completes my update. Mayor,

thank you, Council Member Steiner. Uh update from Vice Mayor Speak on the Southern California Association of Governments SCAG joint policy meeting of December 4th.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. It was uh it was a great meeting. I actually got to to listen to uh well, I guess now Ambassador Garcetti or former Ambassador Garcetti. He came in. He's also president of the Olympic Committee. Uh came and gave a presentation and update on the preparations for the games, including what the financial impacts were going to be for each one of the regions. Riverside's not getting a a monster increase, but the the region itself is I think it was um $7.8 billion just for just for that that just few weeks. And that was just for the Olympics, not for all the other fun stuff that's going to be happening. um uh that this Olympics was very unusual because they really didn't have to build anything which is kind of untrue because they did do a ton of transportation projects um over time which which frankly the the you know the community will be able to use for years to come. Um he also uh introduced a a a panel of folks that gave an update on not just the uh each individual county, the Riverside, they combined Riverside and San Bernardino County, which is always rude, which I told them it was rude. Um but it it uh we actually fared better in the job the jobs part, which I was pretty interesting. But the one of the the fascinating, you know, regionwide things was the unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds was insanely high and they're they're directing that really to the impact of AI that that folk companies are using AI for what you would use an intern for what you know you'd use entry level people. So it was um alarming the number was was pretty big. uh and so they are worried about whether or not there there is a concern that uh hopefully that there'll be jobs that will be additional jobs that will be created because of uh these things that happen and there's been you know there was a correlation that that was pushed during the meeting that talked about you

know the same concern was when they you know started to use typewriters that people that were handwriting things would be replaced and then when they the computers came that they'd have you know nobody would be able to do those sorts of things. So there there's this hope um but you know frankly looking at the numbers there's a there's a um distinct impact. Um they did basically say that housing challenges are one of the things that's that's uh or affordability as uh the mayor said is a a big issue. has driven up um prices by you know almost 100% in some communities um and including rents that are that are exceeding um 80% in some areas especially in lower income areas which is really putting the a pressure on folks. Um but one of the things they did say was that that um housing starts are at the lowest point they have been in I think 40 years. And that is also keeping the job market down. And frankly in the Riverside and San Bernardino area, the lack of housing starts was actually um directly related to the uh lower uh sales tax and and income growth. and um and but they think that that will get better actually in 2026 with uh was hopefully some of the continuing cheapening of borrowing. Um so that uh despite job growth and raising wages, only 12% of buyers can afford a median priced house. Um which is which is why we're keep the state keeps talking about housing. We just want to be able to help push the push it around a little bit. Um that's it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I think the next one's also yours update. on the RCTC meeting of December 10th.

Um, not a ton. We talked about some of our investment reports. There was some uh uh we did award a lot of money. Um, uh, State Route 79 realignment segment one. We um, uh, awarded uh, or bought some property there. We continued with a cooperation agreement for Me Valley Metroink station and then um uh or we're actually constructing the 215 Ethan interchange um [clears throat] gave a um contract out for that for a few tens of millions of dollars and then um assigned contracts to several different uh Native American tribes for monitoring for some of these projects and then the awarded the contract for the state 60 Pro Boulevard project for $48 million and the Pennsylvania uh Avenue grade separation for another 14 million. And those are all funded by the local agencies. RCTC has been uh called upon by some of the smaller cities to help do their construction and be the um project managers. Um but all the funding is either coming from outside sources or from the cities themselves. That's it. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Um, vice mayor speak. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public for the regional updates? No, mayor. There is not. Sorry. Um, city attorney reports and comments. Mr. Dorlith, do you have any comments? No, I know those appointments are coming in. All right. City manager, Mr. Ellis, do you have any comments? No, ma'am.

Okay. So, we're going to move on to city council members reports and comments. Um, we have the city council appointment of Southern California Association of Governments, the SCAG general assembly delegate and alternate for the meeting of May 7th through 8th. Um, we've got to make an appointment for that. Do um, Mr. Darte, do I have to do the uh, cards before the nominations or after? You get to them before. Okay. So, Mr. Dart, are there any speaker cards from the public for this appointment?

No, there is not. Okay. Then um we've got to discuss that appointment and I think we're going to default. Mr. Speaker, are you already planning to attend this meeting? And okay, then I would nominate you to be our appointment. Can we get a second? Second. It's second. Um is it in Long Beach? No, I don't remember. I think so. I'm sure two folks can attend. Did you want to go? I'll be the second.

You'll be the second. You'll be the alternate. Okay. So, we have a motion for um vice mayor speak to be our appoint uh our uh delegate and council member Dario to be our alternate. Uh let's vote on that. [snorts] That item passes unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to appointments to regional boards and commissions. Um we are Miss Edwards or Miss Darte. Sorry, I've crossed it out. I promise. Mr. Dwarte, do we have any speaker cards for the public on these appointments? No, mayor, we do not. Okay, then and do you have the list of all of the appointments? Can you read them off with the exception of um RCTC? Um

would you happen to have that handy? I do not. Okay, that's okay. Um, so I'm I'm the um the appointed uh representative for WCOG and my c my colleague uh council member Dario is my alternate for RCHCA is um council member uh Richens and the alternate for RCHCA is we're keeping everything the same except for RCTC. So I just wanted you to I never miss a meeting mayor so we're we're cool. I don't think I need an alternate at this point. I'll be my own alternate. [clears throat]

Well, um there has been a change for RCTC and I'd love to um allow um vice mayor speak to share a bit on on that change.

Thank you. Um very disappointed to to announce that I I you know I'm actually very happy in one way and very disappointed another. um that I was promoted at my position at my job to being a um an officer position which would uh after some some discussion with uh the attorneys um that it would be a conflict of interest because the firm I work for does do some work or is on teams for RCTC. Um so I would not be allowed and didn't want to jeopardize my firm. So, I've resigned effective the 26th of December, my position at RCTC. Thank you. We're sad. Very sad day.

Yeah. But that we have to um we appreciate your service. You've been a really strong advocate for the city and you um you don't miss those meetings and you read the entire packets and you participate actively and you've been able to get us some some wins along those years. So, thank you for your service on RCTC. I would like to uh appoint uh Council Member Steiner to serve out the the balance of the term for RCTC. I [laughter] know you're very excited about that, Council Member Steiner, and to have um Council Member Dario as his alternate. Um and so I'd love to make that nomination for RCTC and have all the other appointments and regional boards and commissions remain the same. Can I get a second?

Second. Okay, let's vote on that. That passes unanimously. Congratulations, Jim. So great about that. [laughter] All right. So, moving on to item 14.3, resolution approving the city council meeting schedule for calendar year 2026. Miss Dwarte, please present the 2026 council city council meeting schedule for discussion.

Good evening, mayor and council. This item is to seek city council direction and approval of the city council meeting schedule for the 2026 calendar year. Staff is recommending that the regular city council meeting start time remain at 6 p.m. for the 2026 calendar year. Additionally, staff is seeking direction regarding the second meetings in July and December. I'm available to answer any questions. Thank you, Miss Tarte. Uh do we have any speaker cards from the public on this item? No, mayor, we do not. Okay, then uh do we have a motion for my colleagues? Move to approve by Steiner, second by speak. Um let's vote on this item. Mayor, we do

Oh, sorry. The direction on the last two meetings. What was need the second [clears throat] meeting in July and the second meeting in December. In Jul the second meeting in July, we go on a summer recess and the second meeting in December is is the winter break. So, I move to approve the calendar with those two um cancellations. I mean my my understanding in the past we've always done the cancellations but if there's been something that's popped up last minute that we've been able to so yeah it's still that's still the option then yeah correct

second wonderful let's vote on that and that item passes 5 to zero. We've already done 14.4. Um, now moving on to city council member colleagues. Do my colleagues have any comments? Council member Dary, none. Anybody else? No.

Just uh one thing. I I know that uh I I did ask the family for a bio and I did not get get it in time, but I did want to mention that um Mr. Dan Sullivan, he was the founder, one one of the family members that helped found Gracanos. Uh he passed away last week. um good guy, very open to the public, you know, very much um you know, letting the the the room really be used for almost anything, including I think um Council Member Steiner had some events there. Um and just an all-around good guy and gave uh lots of folks opportunities and you know, sad to hear of his passing. Dan Sullivan.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Speak. I also um want to close the the meeting in honor of of a Coronin, an exemplary Coronin, Judy Hen. Um before we adjourn this evening, I want to just take a moment to honor a life uh the life and longtime Corona resident Judy Heran who passed away on Christmas Eve. Judy moved to Corona in 1964 and devoted her life to education, mentorship, and service. As a teacher, department chair, and assistant principal within the Corona Unified School District, she shaped generations of students and educators. Her commitment to our community extended far beyond the classroom. through board service, philanthropy, and more than five decades as a proud sir optimist, including the lasting legacy of the Judy Heran Scholarship, which will continue to uplift uplift young women for years to come. And I had the honor of serving with uh Judy on the um uh Norcco Community College President's Advisory Committee. So, she'll be dearly missed. She led with wisdom, kindness, and grace, and her impact will long be felt across um our community. So on behalf of the city of Corona, we honor her life, her service, the many lives she touched. May she rest in peace. May her reg may may Judy and Dan both rest in peace and may their legacy continue to inspire us all. That's it. And we're going to close uh tonight's meeting and rejourn on January 21st. This meeting is adjourned. A cool business, a great place to [music] eat. Claros is it. We saw something very similar with the Circle City Tavern opening up. That place has been [music] packed every day.

So, the Circle City Tavern is kind of proof of concept that Coronins want.