City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] Gorgeous.

Art is innovation. Art is new ideas. Art is positive vibes. It's like the greatest hits of Corona in one wall, especially from its golden age. And that's something I wanted to have the opportunity to share. So, a better place than in our park. This is where the fun begins. This is the local history of Perona and stories give us values. Stories give us a way to connect with others. Art elevates the value of our stories. And if it's a work of art, it belongs to everybody. There's four murals. I wanted to tell the entire story in a nonlinear way so that there's some kind of ambiguity. So these were meant to be touchston of moments in history so that they could inspire the local residents and visitors on the possibilities of Corona. So one section is about the founders where did Corona begin when did the story begin and these are the the faces of the people who started the city. The other section is about welcome to Corona which is visible from the street and then the other focuses on a resident who was an artist. I wanted to show how artists are important in the way that gave Corona an identity and also tried to document it through her work from the local artists. I also included entertainers that came by to the city to perform in significant events. And then this is a bit more like a broader you know stage for the narrative of the mural. When people see this brings them a smile even to the point that will steer their emotion and they feel moved by it and feel the love that went into this. Hopefully this will inspire more engagement with the community, inspire more murals in the city so that Corona will truly be centered and it's got value to be lifted through art.

Hi, welcome to Bahasa. We're the best ceichi baron. We're the original ceviche barona. We specialize in fresh ceviche. We've got shrimp ceviche, fish ceviche, Mexican scallop, insanado, white clams, which are really hard to find. Fresh Pacific oysters. Look at that. Every Wednesday after 3 p.m., we're doing $1 oysters and $3 beer at every location. Corona, chino nails, and up. Thank you for coming to see you again. Also, Shop D approved.

Welcome to the city parking day. Doing the community outreach is a great way to get everybody involved. The city is so focused on getting everybody's input because this is a place that's going to be a city community center. Making sure it's the right fit for everybody I think is important. So, I love this little event. It's just exciting to see this new changes that are coming to Corona. The city park, we want to see it look beautiful. This park was actually first introduction to Corona and it almost dissuaded us from moving here. It's very exciting to see what the possibilities of the future city park could be. Yes. Exciting. Corona has a lot of a lot of good culture here and looking forward to having a center place to celebrate that.

We're excited about the rebirth of the city park for over 100 years a community. Now more important is going to be a chance for a rebirth of city park to be timeless. I grew up in this park. I'm glad to see all the different plants. I love that we get a say in it. So it's not Hey, we're we're the the government officials, the city officials making the decisions, you know, with this budget, it's saying, "Hey, we want to incorporate your ideas, your thoughts." So to have something like this, it's nice that they're letting the community choose their park and take a look at all the models and be part of it. I'm seeing more and more now the city council parks and reccks are more concerned what the residents want.

It's all about the residents now with how do we make Corona, you know, more beautiful and more attractive and more come to. I love it. I think it's great. It really allows you to see what they're really planning on doing. The presentation is good. Absolutely. I think this city does need something like this. The main thing is they're listening to the people. I'm excited to hear what they had to say. I was I've been very conservative for a long time. We try to add constructive criticism, but it looks like they're doing a great job and we're really excited for that groundbreaking to start. I think everybody put a lot of thought into this. I am grateful to have a community that cares. I think they'll still feel like park with the trees. I love that they're trying to preserve the trees but think of activities for all kids of all ages. So, it's awesome.

Glad to see the city, you know, try to lead an effort here I think we'll all benefit from. It' be great. Good for community. Looking forward to it. I hear it's going to be done by 2027. That gives us time too to continue to figure out how we can bring the programming over to the parks. Be a great addition to our city, not only for our businesses, our children, and our families. Good job, Corona. and I'm looking forward to the the progress and the location of the park. I just want to thank the city and the first bridge for all their work. They're doing a great job. Come out people. You guys show up. That's the only way this changes. Thank you guys.

Give your opinions. You can also do so online. You can do on our Facebook, our website, anywhere you like. You can take a better look at them and ask questions. Give us your feedback. Thanks a lot. [Music] Welcome everybody to our city council meeting. Could you please stand for the pledge of allegiance?

Place your hand over your heart. Ready to begin. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Thank you everybody. All right, I'm going to convene open session. I' this time I'm going to call the meeting to order. Can the city clerk read the special instructions, please?

Individuals wishing to address the city council are requested to complete a speaker card and deliver it to the city clerk staff prior to the item being heard by the city council. Please observe a threeminute limit for communications and once called upon to speak, please state your name and si city of residence for the record. Mayor, I do want to note some revisions to the agenda. For item 5.2, the presentation was added. Item 6.6, an exhibit was added. Item 8.3, the staff report was revised. And item item 9.2, there was a revision to the presentation.

All right. Thank you, Miss Edwards. And I'm also going to be moving up item number 9.2, which is the pickle ball. I know last time we made you guys wait for like four hours, so we're going to take care of you tonight and get you uh after communications from the public. All right. All right. Uh first uh presentation we have commuting patterns, employment locations and big data applications by WRCOG. So I like to call Chris Gray up to the podium from WRCOG to provide a presentation. Hi Mr. Gray.

Hey you. Evening members of the council. Uh as you said I'm Chris Gray with WRCOG. here to present some work that Deb Cog's been doing recently on issues of commuting travel patterns where people live where people work and um to make this more interesting because it's a pretty dull subject I call it the 10 myths about travel commuting and employment in the debugg sub region so let me just go ahead and get started and so u we've been looking at trips travel patterns commute trips congestion and also what kind of jobs we have you know what kind of jobs do cities have how many jobs do they have and we've been looking at this uh really throughout all of Southern California. So, one thing I want to talk about, sorry, I need to go back. Oh, so our data sources, they're all public. We're using data from the census. We are also using data from a vendor uh called replica and then we also are using data from another vendor called Compass IoT. So, this is all readily available data. Um, one thing I want to talk about and address address really full on is I get this question a lot like, well, aren't you spying on me or aren't you violating my privacy? The truth is we're not because somebody already else has. And so, we're simply buying data from someone who's already gotten your data. So, your phone, if you want to know, government's not spying on you. Your phone is spying on you. Your TV is spying on you. your car navigation system, your computer, your websites, every time you log into Uber, Yelp, everything you do in your life is spying on you. So, we have decided to take advantage of that and simply purchase the data from those folks who are spying on you. Um, and so here's just a couple of key definitions. We have employed residents. So, these are people in the city of Corona who are working. We have live and work in the jurisdiction. So, those are residents in Corona who live here. Um, work and live. So those are actually jobs held by residents. There's a little bit of a difference. Uh homebased work, as we talk about homebased, that's when someone drives from their home straight to work. Homebased other is when someone drives

from their home to anything else. And non-homebased is any other time someone makes a trip that doesn't start or end at their home. So we're going to be talking about some ratios today. An important one is people who live and work in the same city. So in Corona, you have 150,000 residents. um you have a certain number of employed residents and so we're going to talk about the percentage of people who live and work in that city and then we're going to do the same thing but we're going to look at number of workers. So same number on the top different uh denominator on the bottom. So I want to use this as an example to talk about how people travel and I think people travel a lot more than they do. So this is the daily this is a daily Wednesday in my family's life. So I my daughter who goes to Santiago High School, she starts tomorrow. She will get up and stop at Starbucks even though I tell her not to. She goes from Starbucks to high school. At the same time I'm getting up, I'm going to work. And at lunchtime I am going to Taco Bell because I like Taco Bell. Then I'm having a delivery come to my house. Then I'm driving back from Taco Bell to the office. My wife is going to CVS to get a prescription, then going back home. Uh then my gardener's coming out. Then my daughter is driving from Santiago to her uh volunteer job at the library. And then at this point I've left work and I'm stopping at the EOS fitness on Bedford and Corona. Um by the way I live in South Cor uh unincorporated county just south. So that's why there's a lot of Corona stuff on here. I didn't make it up. And then at that time my daughter's coming over from the library. So there's a lot of traffic trips going on. And if you look, there's really only none of these actually or one there's one trip when I drive directly to work. Everything else is someone driving for another reason and that's important. And so one, we have had this perception that our traffic congestion is caused by people driving from Western Riverside County to LA, Orange, and San Diego County. It's

just not true. About 90% of all trips that start in Western Riverside County end in western Riverside County. Um, and for the city of Corona, half of all trips that start in the city of Corona end in the city of Corona. So it means most of the travel and the congestion you see isn't people driving to LA and Orange County. They're people driving from their house in Corona to the grocery store or they're driving to and from school. Second issue that we run into is everyone focuses on LA and Orange County and San Diego, but actually we send just as many people to San to San Bernardino County. So for example, when someone leaves San Bernino County, as many of them go to San Bernard, sorry, when someone leaves the city of Corona, more of them actually go, sorry, the same number of them go to Orange County as San Bernardino County. So you have just as many people going up the 15 to go to Rancho Cukamonga and other places like that to work as you have driving out the 91. Uh, another thing I want to point out is most people don't actually work. So in the state of Corona about 42% of your total residents work and the reason why that is is about 30 or 40% of your residents are too young or too old to work and then we there's something called labor force participation which has been going down and so about 60% of the people who can work actually do work. So what I would say is by the way you have one of the higher percentages of people who work but no city in our region has more than half of their residents who actually work. Uh this just shows the percentage of travel. And so generally speaking, when someone gets in a car in Corona, they're not driving to work. They're driving somewhere else. They are driving most often to school, uh shopping, eating. Uh work trips are a very small percentage of the total amount. Here's another thing is that you might think everybody on the 91 in the morning is driving to work and they're not.

uh at most about 50% of the people who are on the 91 at any one time are driving to work. That is the highest in the morning and that drops down significantly. So over on an average about 25% of the people who are driving on the 91 at the Riverside Orange County line are going to and from work. The rest of them are going for other reasons. So you have people from Corona going to school in Orange County. And the other thing is we have a tremendous amount of what I call businessto business trips. So the next time you're stuck in the traffic on the 91, look for things like work trucks, work vans, things like that. There's a lot of that travel making and there's a lot of deliveries and there's a lot of maintenance vehicles out there. And so it's not the work trips driving the congestion, it's all these other trips. And so I will say that in the time when we when I've worked in the Deb Cog region, I hear a lot about our traffic is bad because of the people from this city driving in my city. Well, okay. Yes, people. 47% of the people on Corona roads don't live in Corona, but keep in mind your residents are leaving. They're going to Norco. They're going to Eastville. They're going to Riverside. They're going to Lake Elsenor. They're going all over the region. So your businesses are taking people there are people from outside your city driving to your businesses supporting your businesses and vice versa. Uh most people don't live and work in the same city. For Corona it's uh 15% actually 16% of people in Coron who live in Corona work in Corona. The other 84% don't. You might think that's really low. No actually that's the third highest in our region. Uh the only people the only uh cities higher are city of Riverside and city of Tmacula, but you have one of you have the third highest. And so here's something to think about. Not only is that a low number, it's also

been getting worse. So in 2002 that number was 18, now it's 15. For the average of the WCOG region, it was 13, now it's 10. But for San Bernardino, Orange, and San Diego County, those numbers are going down, too. So this is a happening all throughout Southern California. It's not limited to Corona. And then when we look about people who live and work in the same county, that's been going down too. So on average for Riverside and Sanino County, about half the people live and work in the same county, but even for Orange County, it's 64% and even San Diego County, it's closer to 80. It's uh 80% and they're all going down. And so when we compare you against your other cities of your size throughout Southern California, your 16% actually does pretty well. It's a little bit below Anaheim, a little bit below Irvine, um but it's not significantly below uh really what I call your peer cities. And so 16% is actually a pretty good number. And so then when we look at it, as I said, look out through the Deco Cog region, it very similar numbers. And so one of the things we also heard a lot about is there's this focus that says we don't have enough job or we don't have enough highpaying high-skilled jobs which is certainly true but we don't have enough jobs period. Our region has a deficit of about 500,000 jobs. So we have three region three employed residents for every two jobs. Um but even with this deficit we're still importing people to fill our jobs in our county. And let me show you what's going on. So if you look at Corona, you have a surplus of um residents who work in the education, healthcare and public administration. Anyone who works for a government agency of any level is this education, healthcare and public administration. So you have a lot of residents who work in those jobs. You have more residents working in those

jobs than you have jobs in the city. You have a lot of jobs in Corona for construction, agriculture. This is manufacturing too. Uh a lot of jobs in the city for that. not as many residents. But for these other like professional services, which is things like banking, insurance, and the like, you actually have a balance. What happens is is just because you have those jobs in that field doesn't mean people are going to work at those job. People in your city are going to have those jobs. And so here's here's here's the daily inflows and outflows. So there are um about 11,000 people who live and work in the city of Corona of and you have about 70,000 employed residents. You have about 80,000 jobs. So on a daily basis, you're actually importing 70,000 workers and you're exporting 60,000. So if you have all these jobs, why are they leaving? Well, a lot of reasons. You may have started your job somewhere else and moved to Corona. People don't just change jobs when they change cities. You may have uh seniority at that old job. You may have a very specific job that's not being offered in Corona. So, what I've heard um public agency folks say is, you know what, if we just brought more jobs to our city, we're nobody's going to ever leave our city. And let me show you what that looks like. That's what Irvine did. So Irvine has close to 300,000 jobs. 125,000 people in Irvine are employed and only 34,000 of them actually live and work in the same city. Every those they have they're exporting almost a 100,000 people and importing over 260,000 workers every day. So simply adding jobs does not make your commute any better and it could actually make it worse. And so what I wanted to share with you is we've heard this a number of times like where do all the people on the 91

go? Where do they come from? Where do they go to? So we have started purchasing a data from a data from a company called Compass IoT. Compass IoT actually tracks people's individual car trips and they give us a sample. And so we looked at this is just a sample of trips from uh two trips we pulled for the system uh out of Corona. Somebody went to Cal State San Marcos and somebody went to Chula Vista. Why they went there, I don't know, but it shows that people are traveling long distances throughout the region and they're not necessarily going to work. Cal State San Marcos, very likely they're going to school there. Why someone went down to Chula Vista, I have no idea. Um, but this just shows the diversity. They're not all just getting in the car and driving to Irvine. And so, here's some key takeaways we want to share with you. One, there's a lot less travel outside the region than people have been saying. Uh, we've been saying this for a while. Most our travel is not workrelated. We have congestion because of everybody getting on the freeway, not just people going to work. Most people live outside of the cities they live in. And you also, you can't make someone you cannot make your employer an employer in your city hire only your residents. Nor can you make your residents only work in your city. So, I went through a thought exercise. And I said, "Okay, well, what could you do?" I said, "Let's take one scenario. City of Corona subsidizes a private developer to build an office building. I'm not saying you do this. I'm just saying this is an example. We have very few office buildings being built in our region right now because there's enough vacant office space developers are not building. So essentially, you would have to subsidize someone to build a building. So let's say you gave them $5 million. Not saying you have $5 million. I'm just saying an exercise. At best, you might get 200 people working in that office. And since at most 25% of the people live and work in the same city, maybe you get jobs for

50 of your residents, maybe. Who knows? Uh, and so you're spending $100,000 to get 50 pe jobs for 50 people living in Corona. So, let's say you go the other direction. You're going to build you're going to subsidize affordable housing. By the way, affordable housing is $600 to $800,000 a unit. So that same 5 million, let's give you, let's say you're at the low end. Um, let's just say you're going to subsidize that 5 million and they're going to leverage the money. You might get 20 to use. Let's say you get 40 people working there. Let's say they all work there, which is unlikely, but that could happen. But still, at best, you're getting 10 you're you're giving 10 of your workers u a chance to work in your city, and that's even more expensive. So the logical question then is well what do you do about it? Here's the things that here's the things that we see working. One is helping your local businesses grow. Two is helping your local entrepreneurs. A lot of business a lot of employment growth is actually traced to small businesses. Helping existing businesses expand. Rather than spending millions of dollars to attract a new business, why don't you keep the businesses you have now? And then finally, I want to share with everyone, and I think this is something the city excels at already, but I I would encourage you to keep doing it. It's called economic gardening. If you create a city where people feel safe, they have amenities, um, and the community is attractive, people will come here, businesses will come here, people will move here, people will want to be here, businesses want to be here because there will be customers that they have here. So instead of spending millions of dollars to attract these new businesses which may not give you any benefit at all doing the things that you're already doing that seems to give us the most bang for the buck. U so with that I want to thank you for the presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gray? I just want to thank Mr. Gray. Sorry I jumped in ahead of you. I didn't realize you wanted to speak. I just want to thank you. I um uh Mr. Mr. Gray is a deputy executive director of WRCOG, a a county agency that I sit on representing and he presented this data, especially the graph with the little circle of how many jobs are in here, how many people go out and how many people come in. And I requested that he come and speak to us because I think this is really interesting data, but not creepy, just interesting. So

Mr. Gray, the data that you purchase, what is the margin of error? Um, you know, the the issue is it's a it's a it's a sample and we get about roughly a two to 3% uh sample set of all the vehicles on the road. And so the the reason why we have confidence in the data is we can get data for two years. So it's not just one day. And so we can get data for 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, two years. And then we also get data from multiple sets. So we compared our compass data against our replica data which has replica might have I don't know 100 million data points or more. Um and so we're able to see that the data sets are fairly um consistent. I will tell you that both of these tools are used widely throughout the industry. um they are used by um Calrans, Scagg uh trans agencies all across the country and when they've actually done validations they've performed very well. So I can I can tell you that I have confidence in the data but I would also say um we make sure that the data seems reasonable and our u my professional opinion is we are getting reasonable results from our from our tools.

So I I appreciate the the presentation. And I guess I'm just having a hard time accepting that data because, you know, we sit on the intersection of the 15 and the 91 freeway and we see hundreds of thousands of cars on those freeways every morning and then every evening and then all throughout the day. So I don't really care where they're going, but they're traveling through our city. And that's the part that we're trying to rectify. Absolutely.

Thank you. So I I think that we're not saying they're not there. We're saying they're not all going to work. That to us that's the that's the important because that relates to how you fix it. So for example, there are I have heard people advocate that oh we need more metro links, we need more trains. That's not going to work because those kinds of vehicle those kinds of modes don't help someone who's driving there for let's say making a delivery or someone driving to school per se. So that's really the the perspective we want to bring.

Uh thank you Mr. G. I know you and I sat next to each other what three years ago um at a Cal Cities and we had this exact discussion and and I I appreciate you bringing all the data back. Yeah, lots of shocking things that I'm going to need some time to process because it challenges some of my my preconceived notions of things. Um it's interesting to see and I I totally understand the fact that if we know what kind of people what people do in our city and we're able to bring in a business and I agree with all of your you know all of your your points at the the last points you made those are spoton. Um it's interesting that only 25% of if you brought a business here and you're you know and I guess if if you were able to tailor that business meaning you know and my the example I think I gave three years ago and I I gave repeatedly is I have a hundred I I do a poll and I find there's a hundred transportation engineers that live in Corona that are willing to leave their job because the freeway is not getting better and it will not get better um at least marginally better uh that they would take a And I'm hope would hope that that 25% would be a little bit more. And and but but you're right, we there is nothing that that would guarantee that. Um I'm surprised it's so low, but not not totally surprised. But I'm um thank you for the presentation. I I look forward to to digging in and I know I'll have a bunch more questions the next time I see you. Well, one reason we want to provide this is we we also want to really educate not not necessarily or you're an important audience, but I think also state leaders are an audience because they're looking at places like Corona and they're saying, "Well, why don't you have more transit because that's going to fix your traffic problem." And we know it's not true. And so, we hope that you can use this kind of data when you're talking to people in the legislature, people in the governor's office about things you can do to really solve your mobility issues. And it's not the policies the state's pushing.

No. And and and that was my next point was the fact that you know we keep the the state has made you know building a a lane over a mile um almost illegal. Um I mean you the mitigation that you have to go through in order to build anything is makes a project not feasible financially and frankly it's not going to help. you know, I mean, as you point out, it's not gonna it's not going to make, you know, it's not going to drive people into onto their electric bikes or it's not going to drive them onto Metroink. And, you know, and I I appreciate your argument. I I think that that public transportation can't move enough people. I mean, just just from a um you know, a practicality standpoint. Uh you know, one lane of traffic holds 2500 cars an hour and that's it going at a decent speed. Um, and there's no no train on this planet can can that you know that we would have that would all be able to operate on our our current metro link uh that would be able to move you know 10,000 people. You're talking five lanes of traffic in an hour. They just it just can't. So, thank you. I appreciate that.

Thank you, Mr. Gray. I u I had to I have to I'm with Wes. I have to rethink a couple things and how traffic patterns move now. And I I you're I hope everybody got great value out of this. My only question is is uh have you made any headway on the daughter and Starbucks? Have you fixed that yet or? Um it's kind of expensive. I've had to take my credit card off the Starbucks app. So now she has to use her own money. Um so she has to decide if she wants to go to Starbucks I she's she's going to go to college next year and I'm trying to teach her to be financially responsible. So me taking my American Express off her Starbucks app seems to help. Nicely done. Thank you, mayor. Thanks for that, Tom. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Chris. Thank you.

All right, moving on. Item 5.2, Green River Road, Foothill Parkway Study. I'd like to invite Resolve Reeno, city traffic engineer to the podium to to provide a presentation. Hi, Rosie. Hello. Which one works? This one? Yep.

Good evening, esteemed council. My name is Rosie Reeno and I'm the city traffic engineer. This evening I am pleased to present to you an update on the Green River Road Foothill Parkway Study. So the purpose of this presentation is to provide the city council with an update on the Green River Road Foothill Parkway Study. Today's agenda is as follows. I'll provide you a brief overview of the 91241 Express Connector project and of the Eastern Corridor Operations Project. I'll share the results of both the studies prepared to evaluate the Green River Road Foothill Parkway corridors. And lastly, I'll present to you a summary of the results. I'll try to be brief but informative. And I hope you keep you engaged while bringing you into my world of traffic engineering. Let me first introduce you to a few projects. The 24191 Express connector project is a mediantomedian direct toll connector project developed by the transportation corridor agencies. Construction is expected to begin in early 2026 and the project is anticipated to open in traffic by late 2028 to early 2029. The Eastern Corridor operations project is also known as ECOP. This project is led by the RCTC, the Riverside County Transportation Commission, and proposes to add a general purpose lane to the eastbound State 91 from the 241 toll road to the SR71. This project aims to improve traffic operations on the eastbound 91, especially during afternoon and evening hours. The milestone schedule for this project includes environmental revalidation in 2025 with final design in 2026 through 27 and hopefully open to construction. I mean open to traffic by 2030. Now for the meat of this presentation, how can these two projects potentially affect the Green River and Foothill uh

corridor and the city of Corona? So why a study? What are our concerns? So initial study was performed by RCTC project team in 2024 to address these concerns. These included increased vehicular cut through traffic, traffic congestion and travel time delays. The study also was to recommend mitigation measures to help ease these impacts. The study evaluated level of service and delay for various scenarios including existing conditions in 2030 with a no project with the project a 202050 what we call buildout with the project and also with no project. The pro the study also identified um ways to impact and um recommended mitigation measures. So, the study area included all the signalized intersections on Green River Road from from the 91 all the way through Foothill Parkway to the uh I-15 ramps for a total of 16 intersections. The team utilized modeling software to determine the level of service and delay focusing only on the eastbound afternoon traffic. Traffic distribution models and assumptions were based on big data from a company called Street Light Data. The ECOP project is also proposing to modify the Green River ramp uh from a single lane to dual lanes on the main line and then adding an additional right turn lane at the end of the ramp resulting with a single left and a triple right turn configuration. Both right turn on red and no right turn on red scenarios were evaluated and both operated with an acceptable 95% queuing lengths. So a little bit of level of service before we dive into the results. Level of service is a standardized way to evaluate how well a signalized intersection is operating. The LOS metric account for vehicle I'm sorry. This metric accounts for vehicle delay and volume to capacity ratio. We use these performance metrics to identify um

areas that need improvement and pl also plan for future infrastructure projects. Most intersections in our city currently operate at an acceptable loss or D or better. Not like you're used to for school where D is almost failing. For us, E and F are worst case scenarios. So, in order to determine the impact of these intersections, first we have to evaluate what the what it's operating at. Now, as you can see in this table, the existing intersections all operate at a level of service D or better. So, this is a list of all the intersections evaluated. So, street light data was utilized to model the volume distribution down the Green River Road Foothill Corridor. This data was captured using cell phone and connected vehicle data similar to the data that um Mr. Gray just mentioned to you. This data was used to determine the additional traffic that expected to utilize Foothill in order to cut through the city and access the 15.

So the result of this Can you go back a slide? I just want to make sure I understand this really quick. Are you saying that 100% of the 100% of the people that get off at Green River only 8% of them make it down to the 15? Is that what this is suggesting? That is what it said. main gate through to Elserto and then 11% at Khako so 19% almost 20%. Okay, I just wanted to make sure I understood that. Thank you. So this is the assumed model that they used.

So remember this is a 2024 study. So this slide provides you with a brief summary of the results of the initial study. It combined peak hour volume traffic and peak hour cutthrough traffic for the worst case scenario. It also recommended revising the 91 river uh green river road offramp to include the triple right turn with a no right turn on red. So it is able to kind of meter how much traffic is getting off on green river during peak. And the most noticeable impact was at the intersection of foothill California and at Foothill Bedford. Both of these intersections resulted with the level of service E at the 2050 scenario. So why did we do a new study? When the results were first um shared with RCTC commission meeting, council members speak questioned some of the data and the assumptions of the study. Staff met again with RCTC project team to address the concerns and further analyze some of these impacts. So a new study was born. So we're going to call this one the 2025 Green River study. So, this updated study addressed staff concerns with data used to establish volume and direction of travel from the Green River ramp to the 15. It included additional traffic counts for Friday traffic and license plate readers to substantiate this data. What you just asked, um, Council Member Dario, we weren't sure if we could trust that data. Um, our team said, "Yeah, we're supposed to just kind of rely on it. So, how can we cross check it, cross reference it?" Right? So we um the team put up license plate readers to be able to kind of check their work. Um staff was also asked for the new study to increase the population growth factor for the cut through traffic. This means while the traffic volume grows at a 0.5% we assume the um cutthrough traffic grew at a 2% every year. And the study also collected additional counts and analyzed a Friday afternoon scenario which is not

typical for a standard traffic study. So, like I mentioned before, we did 2% annual growth and we added more capacity at the Green River Road offramp. Um, evaluate the same scenarios as the initial study plus the scenarios for the Friday afternoon traffic with the annual growth. So, this is a map of the study area. It included all the inter same intersections as the first study but this time we added the evaluation of Lincoln upper mast's corridor to kahalo. As you noticed the first time the streetlight data assumed a lot of diversion and kind of they split off at Lincoln. So we asked the team to also um analyze this corridor along with Friday traffic. This is the location where we in where they installed um license plate readers also included historical counts and all afternoon counts in the Eastville Foothill Foothill Parkway Travel using um license plate readers and 24-hour tube counts placed at key locations as identified on this map. So the study compared this license plate reader data to the street light data resulting in similar percentages along Foothhill Parkway but lower percentages along Upper Masters. Um the study ended up use utilizing the more conservative values for the analysis. We were also shocked. We were expecting I don't know 40% cut through traffic. It turned out that street light data was a little bit more conservative. Um it captured about 400 vehicles per hour observed during the afternoon peak hour. Uh Friday was very similar street light data to low license plate reader data. It also matched well along foothill and upper and masters. Um so this data comparison confirmed that street light data was suitable for modeling the trip distribution and origin to destination

trips before you change. Um so the 16% of the 100% ended up at Bedford. Yes. And 15% of the 100% ended up at at at U Kahalo. Yes. So together 31% versus the streetlight data that was 19%. Because it was 8 and 11, right? Well, that was the Are you comparing the first map? The 2024 study. Yeah. 2024 study. We ended up redoing new numbers. Yes. And but this is 30. So 18 versus 30%. 31%. Yes. Okay. But this is still using the street light data. Still using the street light data still. So they uh they went and got new street light data because the street light you can get different moments in time.

Okay. So it increased. Yeah. We just didn't capture the the master's corridor and didn't analyze it the first time or it was not analyzed the first time. Okay. Thank you. So we're going to get kind of a try not to bore you with this, but this table is the study results. This is the volume how it was distributing along the corridor. um it enters at Green River and you can see it dissipate along the corridor with only 50 vehicles reaching California. In a typical traffic study, that's usually a threshold where we stop the analysis. But in this case, because we wanted to we wanted the entire corridor analyzed, this is how it kind of dissipated.

Can you go back to that really quick? Yes sir. Interesting. If you look at uh I mean looking at the way the configuration between Veno and and the 15 on ramps. So those 47 cars that at the El Elserto southbound, we're assuming they're those are those cars are all getting onto the freeway. Yes. Okay. All right. I just want to make sure. Yeah. This is a similar table, but for Friday, very similar to weekday. Um California also just saw and added 48 trips. Because I I find that interesting because I see so many cars that are turning right on Bedford. So at Via Go it's 45 and then people getting on the freeway 45.

Well, this is what the project is adding. This is not what's currently there. Okay. So this is using the model and then they say okay if we have 330 cars added from this project and using those percentages this is how it's going to end up looking per hour. Okay. Thank you.

This is the peak hours. So it's the highest peak in the afternoon. the uh table you're seeing right now, it's Friday. So, I'm going to show you both scenarios. Don't get shocked. Friday is scary. All right. So, like the first study, we have to analyze and find the existing um level of service um enable to have a baseline and compare to the opening year of the project. As you can see in this table, the existing intersections operate at a level of service D or better. In the weekdays and in Fridays, uh the major impacts are I'm sorry, except California. And then the major impacts on Friday are at Rimpa, California and Bedford as expected. So as expected, this um for the no project. Okay. So this table shows you a 2030 no build. So that's saying no project a 2030 build and then adding you the volume date delta that was added and also with mitigation. So if they mitigate how can they improve it and that is with signal optimization. I didn't want to bore you with so many slides so we kind of had to consolidate this data. Um, with the ECOP project, the level of service at Rimaw California and Bedford Canyon are expected to be D's and E's, but with signal timing optimization, we found that the intersections delay can be improved to below 2030 no project levels.

And this is ECOP, not the not the 24191 project. This is analyzing EO.

Okay. because that's my bigger I mean I I this is a this is a a big question for me because I I really wanted to make sure what this was going to do. I am still really worried about the 24191 dumping all those cars into the toll lanes and I know that RCTC is trying to work through that with TCA and OCTA um and overwhelming and maxing out the toll rates there which would drive people out and onto Green River which they're going to be crossing. The 2030 build includes the cumulative projects which is a 241 data and also assumes the um express lane connector in the southern extension the LPC project also build out because that's supposed to open in 2030. So as you're going to see there's going to be a relief on the east end and then this ECOP these numbers of the delta is what we're adding on from ECOP.

Okay. Yeah. With that additional added lane. This is Friday as expected. D's and E's all across the board. If we can optimize these signals, we can improve some of these to D's. Um, unfortunately, Bedford Canyon at Foothill, it just kind of stays idling at E. Yeah. And I know that's something I brought up before, but that needs to be a discussion with the county and CALR to that that intersection's poorly done and needs to be realigned and reimagined some way just because it it's such a nightmare and it really is a configuration nightmare. It is a tight area.

Rosie, help help me out here because I'm not that smart. Dumb this down for me. Are you saying that when they build this extension, it's going to add more traffic to Corona about per the model about 330 cars off Green River and their numbers that they gave us, we didn't believe. So, we went out and ran our own numbers and it's even worse than they than they are that they are reporting. Not necessarily. They both did both studies, but the first study, what we weren't concerned about was the street light data, that modeling assumption. If 330 cars get off Green River, how is it that only 15% make it down to the southern end of the city? And that is where street light um or license plate readers were able to capture it.

And today that's a cut through traffic that we see. So we're saying that with the data that we collected using the same routes and everything except with additional information, the street the license plate readers that 30% of those cars are going to make it down to the 15 freeway. M 30% of the additional the addition Yeah. 30% of the additional cars are going to make it down to the 15 freeway. And even with um street light optimization and all the wonderful stuff that that our traffic department is doing, the best that we're going to get is a D. D is acceptable per our standards.

Well, I you know what? I made that argument to my parents many years that D's were acceptable. And I'll tell you what, it didn't pass with them. And it ain't going to pass with our residents either. And that's why I showed you that first table where it's A through F, including an E. So you still have to get to the E and then to an F. Yeah. So D is almost like a C in our world. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know. I'll tell you what. I mean, didn't work with my parents. It ain't going to fly here. So there is there what can we do to help mitigate even further or is there nothing that we could do? Not at the top of our head right now. Okay. Just going to be honest and frank with you. Yeah.

Yeah. You had to bear the bad news today. Congratulations. Always gets the bad news. Are you getting stuck? I'm so sorry. It's okay. That's so it it's always your your cross to bear. Just presenting the data. I think there is mitigation which is the mitigation at Bedford that Bedford Canyon and the 15 and Kaha and Elsto needs to be reconfigured and that would frankly I mean I don't know may maybe it may end up drawing more cars because then people could know that's the the path of lease resistance and where the water flows. So that's how traffic flows is how water flows.

Rosie, can you opine a benefit to this project that never mind the fact it's going to dump more cars in Corona. Um, but they're probably not coming back from work if you listen to the WRCOG presentation, right? They're probably just coming back from the grocery store or something. That's neither here nor there. But is there any benefit to this project that you can see? I think regionally there's a benefit because once the 24191 comes in, they're going to we're going to need some relief over on the Orange County line. So for those people who are traversing politician answer right there regionally it's going to help out.

I mean it's it's accurate because it's going to move I mean I was sitting on the Windy Ridge to toll loan today. It took me an hour and a half to get here this this afternoon which is why I don't have a tie on. Um, and it's basically to try and divert that traffic and and but the problem is is that where it's going to go and and I know RCTC and TCA, they're working where, you know, what the rules are going to be for how that that interchange works and you're going to have to pay to use it. um you know TCA is going to charge and they're going to try and use the dollar amounts on that to to to throttle back the amount of cars because if you dump you know a thousand cars onto the 91 toll lanes it and the toll lanes again and as I've said many many times people that don't understand the rate that's projected in the tolls is how busy the toll lanes are not how busy the freeway is. So the higher the toll, the higher the the busier the toll lane is. So you put more cars in it, it increases the price to ensure that cars move more smooth. So the price will increase because we're going to create additional pressure and and then I'm worried that people are going to, you know, because there's an opening there, they're going to jet out and create the spaghetti bowl. And one of the reasons when you have a left hand entry, you're supposed to have elbow room, which is what we did on the westbound side. That helps so much. Um this eastbound corridor operations project is is desperately needed and it's part of the original 91 project that was supposed to be built. Um uh and it yeah absolutely needs to happen but you know really curious about because I I it does just move the move the the um the bottleneck further down the freeway which is what all all widening projects do because eventually they have you you're a snake follow swallowing a rat it has to slow down at some point. um just how what the impacts are and how they impact everybody including us which

is why I I wanted you know this to to be done so great job thank you okay let's continue almost done here so this is um okay so I didn't share with you so that was 2030 so this is opening year now in 2050 we're expecting you know we modeled a more extreme growth of 2% for cut through traffic while the main line is only growing at a 0.5%. And the reason for that is there's only so much capacity on the freeway. You're not going to add more in those peak hours. Nope.

So that means that it'll be heavily uh impacted in 2050. So no build project. We're going to see um lots of E and Fs. See now we have Fs. The D um Tony and we have the 2050 build in the U PM peak hour. A lot more E and Fs. And with optimization, we can bring a few more to a level of service D, which is even better with no project. And also some of these E are just slightly better improved than the E with no project. And same for Friday. I won't bore you with those details. You can see it in green and yellow. So this is another way to see this travel time. How long does it take me to get from and in this case um they analyze Lincoln to foothill and this is using a simulation model using sim traffic from Lincoln and Foothill all the way to to the ramps in 2030 with no project they anticipate it takes about an average of 13 minutes and 48 seconds with um the project it'll take 15 minutes so adding delay but if they can optimize the signals and make them run smoother you're looking at an actual better um than the no field at 12:54. Um, the question was asked to me, what is it today? So, I went last Friday and I did a couple runs. Some were 8 minutes, some were 12 minutes. It all depended what lane you stayed on and how soon you got stuck in the queue and this is a Friday scenario. So, this is a summary of the study results. Um, we're almost done. Updated methodology included Friday PM analysis. Um we found a lot of uh delay with the L loss um E and Fs and um the result is signal optimization should improve some of these um intersections

but not all of them should. Um in summary, this is just a comparison of the first study with the second study. Um the second study did analyze a lot more including that Friday afternoon traffic. Um the biggest takeaway from the second one is that license plate reader did validate that street light data because in the beginning we we just didn't know if that was we're just putting all of our trust and confidence on that but it did. So now we just have to accept the data as it is and then hope for the best basically. Um scenarios that were analyzed included all the Friday afternoons and um we also were able to see the Lincoln Upper Masters corridor by itself. So this is what I just presented to you. If you want to see it in a snapshot, I won't bore you because I just said it. And here's our conclusion. Um the the updated study did satisfy our concern of utilizing that street light data. Um and although the project will be adding more volume, that impact isn't is expected. So we have some ideas of how we can um advocate staff advocate for RCTC to help us mitigate these um impacts. Uh possibly more funding for signal optimization and implementation, maybe upgrading some of our infrastructure, funding for additional street rehab and maintenance for all that additional wear and tear. Funding for additional public safety enforcement efforts because without them people may be speeding, maybe cutting through and maybe they can help fund for more staffing. Um also funding and implementation of infrastructure such as simple LPRs. Maybe we do want to in a couple years check what the cut through is. We can probably install license plate readers and be able to grab casual data. Maybe there's this accident on the 15. Maybe we can see how many people that day were able to deviate from the 91. Um maybe some speed feedback signs, traffic

simulation installations, and um additional resources and funding to monitor our signal operations. So, thank you for allowing me to provide you this update. Thank you, Rosie. Do my colleagues have any questions? I do want to add that Mr. David Thomas from RCTC is here in case you have any questions for him, but I'm here to answer any for you.

Uh, this was great. This was exactly what I wanted. Um, it helps equip me for for a larger conversation. Um, but thank you, Mr. Mr. Thomas, for for coming down. Uh, probably feels like the old days with a room full of people, but no one's here yelling at you, so that's good. Uh, but thank you and and I I appreciate the information. I'm gonna I've spent some time, you know, you know, kind of digesting it and and your recommendations on what it's going to take to mitigate are are are real and we're we can show that they'll they'll help us and uh hopefully I can make the case um to influence some of those things that'll help us along including trying to figure out what to do with Bedford and and Elserto. So, thank you so much.

Thank you, Rosie. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public for on these presentations? Mayor, yes, we have one speaker card for agenda item 5.1. Okay, come on down.

Good good evening. Um, I I wanted to put a card in for 52, but I'll just put them all out, put them together, and just take the same amount of time. Uh, for anybody in the room who's not familiar with who uh Dave Thomas is, um, he's sitting in the back back there. Um he's the guy that designed and ran the project for the 91 corridor operation project which anybody who was living here during that period of time uh he's the guy who did it. He's the guy who screwed it up. He's the guy if you have confusing lanes, poorly built project, he was the guy in charge of it. So um I you know I' I'd say you'd get a round of applause but you don't deserve a round of applause. RCTC is largely incompetent and any numbers that they come up with should always be suspect. Um, and it's I was always curious like it's going to get worse, but if we make the traffic signal optimization better, then it will be about the same. It seems like we should be making the traffic optimize now and compare make it as good as we can now versus we'll make it better promise after RCTC makes it bad again because they always make it worse every every project they do when they flip the switch traffic gets worse and everybody in the room knows that. So, um, so back to 5.1. Um, hearing the term economic gardening was really interesting because I've talked about that in this room several times before and and and nobody really acknowledges it. Uh, we learned about it learning in local government and why why some cities are desirable places to open a business and why people move to particular cities, why they open a business in a particular place. And it's always about the quality of life. It's always about educational opportunities, cultural opportunities, uh, uh, entertainment options, you know, it's about having a well-rounded city, and aside from a bunch of paid social media ads, you guys aren't doing any of

that stuff. And, and I'm wondering how a 500 unit apartment complex at Sixth and Maine fits in that with a strip mall. if you know how how does what you're doing downtown add to this. It doesn't make it better. You know, I I doubt anybody here really knows exactly what you guys are up to. For anybody who's not clear about it, if you love Metro and 111, you're going to love the new downtown. So, it's exactly the same only with Stuckco as Mr. Richen seems to think is important. So, uh so that's what's going on downtown. And so when you hear, you know, how can we keep people in town, how can we grow businesses, how can we make this better, a better place to live, you guys aren't doing that stuff. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you, Joe. All right, let's see. We are going No other speakers, Sylvia. Nothing else. Mayor, we do not have any additional speakers. All right, thank you so much. All right, moving on to our consent calendar. All items 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 consideration. Do my colleagues have any items they'd like to pull for the discussion?

Yeah. Uh 6.5. Just really quick, I wanted to make a point. And then um uh 611, I wanted a presentation. Okay. And then are we getting a presentation for 619? A lot of it's on consent. Let's see. 619. It's the quarterly budget and strategic plan. Only if you pull it. I mean, I'm I'm okay with not pulling it. I mean, I read it. All right. Cool. It's up to you guys. There's a lot of good information in there. All right. Anybody else pull anything? All right, Miss Edwards, were there any uh body from the public that wanted to pull an item? Mayor, yes, we have two speaker cards for agenda item 6.14,

6.14. Okay, then can I get a motion for all items on the consent calendar except for 6.5, 6.11, and 6.14? So moved. Second. Okay, Wes and Jackie, please vote. I don't have anything on my SC. Let me see. Back to the agenda. There we go. Okay, that passes 50. Let's go to West 6.5. You wanted to talk about

6.5. I just I didn't need a presentation. I just wanted to point out I had a couple people ask me about this task and it's, you know, another $1.4 million for our transit system. And I had a couple of folks point out to me that that we have very low writership. And I I wanted to say this is this money is all passed through from the feds and RCTC and if we didn't take it, it would just go elsewhere. And so uh just wanted to reiterate there's no general fund money in this in this task and that's it. Thank you. All right. Do you want to make a motion? Yes, sir. So moved. Second.

Wen Tom, please vote. Okay, that passes 50. Moving on to 6.11. Wes, that was you, right? Yes. I just wanted to get the presentation. All right, Mr. Tucker, who's given that presentation? Um, Miss Julie Kenn from our budget team. All right, Julie, it's all yours.

Thank you, sir. Uh, good evening, Mayor and Council. The report included on tonight's agenda is for the sales tax results from quarter 1 of 2025, which is January through March. For the city of Corona, sales tax receipts were down by 1.2% when compared to the same quarter in 2024. Adjusted for reporting anomalies such as late payments, actual sales decreased by 2.7%. While Bradley Burns returns were 2.7% below, Measure X posted a positive return. That is the report. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. Any questions?

I I didn't have a question. I just wanted to It's a little bit I mean, not totally surprising that we're seeing sales tax be down a little bit even with the corrections. Um, and I think if I remember right, this is the second or third quarter of decreases, I think. If I remember right, I would have to look that up. Yeah, that's okay. Um, so I'm I'm just, you know, I know we're we're spending a lot. We have some big projects and I want to make sure that we're um keeping a really close eye on this and as sales tax uh you know this revenue fluctuates that we're monitoring closely as we as we spend. That's it. Thank you.

Sir, I do just want to add for you. Um while HDL had projected and are still projecting a slight statewide decrease, uh they are looking for a modestly positive return for fiscal year 26 and then stronger growth in the following years. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. You want to make that motion, Wes? Sure. Wes and Tom, please vote.

All right, Council Member Dario, that passes 50. Moving on. 6.14. This was pulled by a member of the public. That you, Mr. McCoy? All right. Hello. There you go.

There we go. Um, so I'm I'm happy you guys are doing this. I'm happy we're kind of codifying it and standardizing it. But when I was going through the staff report, I saw one thing that I'm a little concerned with, and it's the part where it talks about uh the city's right to reserve, the right to reject uh proposed presentation materials. And a lot of these are no-brainers, you know, copyright items, pornography, you know, illegal items. But then there's this one on there that just says or violates community standards. I know I'm big, but I'm not that big. Uh I I'm I'm concerned about who is going to be the the the the reviewer of that and how that's going to be done. And the only reason I'm saying that is because there have been times in the past when we've had contentious items come up where there's been there have been folks here that are upset that want to bring something up that may not agree with whatever we may be looking at as an agenda item. Uh so I I'm just concerned about who's going to be making that call. There's nothing in here about any type of judgment on that about what quote unquote violates community standards. It's a very open phrase.

Mr. Tucker, can you address that? Oh, Jamie, Mr. Redmond, city attorney. Sure. Sorry. That uh provision in the policy will give us the ability including our office to look at the material completely understanding everything has to be within constitutional guidelines. No, you know, viewpoint neutral, content neutral. But it just the idea of this um policy is to give us that uh time in advance to look at it and not have to make an on the-fly decision, you know, on the dis.

I Okay. And and I I won't I won't like argue it or anything. I'm just I see that as being problematic if it's something that somebody feels is very important that they want to bring up and that they want to show that is not pornography, is not illegal, is not any of these things, but may be disagreeable with what the city's policy is. So, I'm not going to pound on the podium or anything, but I do think it's something that we need to just consider how that review is going to go and who's going to be the final arbiter and is there going to be some type of an appeal process or something that can be done about that. Chris, can you give an example of when that's happened? You said in the past.

Uh, well, I mean, we're only just starting now to get into this kind of idea where we have folks that are bringing materials in. I mean, we've always done it to a certain point, but, you know, for instance, I do know tonight there's going to be a lot of material brought up during the open public session on on the hub and the plans for that. um if somebody wants to bring something up that has numbers on it that they're upset about or anything like that, uh you know, and they might be competing numbers to what the city's showing or something like that. There might there might be contention there. I don't think there's going to be, but I I just see it as a as an alarm bell for the future. And I would like you to at least consider some type of program or system or something codified in here that says the clerk will make that determination. They'll go to the attorney. um that person will be notified that it's not going to be in there and then if there's an issue there they have some type of an appeals process if they feel the m

copy that thanks Chris

evening Joe Morgan 2063 Rand I may or may not be the person who's brought contentious items in front of the council and uh and I can tell you I frankly the the I had a discussion with my friend uh the clerk, my good friend, who I really like a lot. Um and and she was under the impression that it was 24 hours. It's never been 24 hours. It was always noon of the day of the council meeting. And and so that's been the policy since I've been here and I've been here 10 plus years at every meeting. So, um, so and what I've seen with that 6 hours of lead time is that the presentations get shown around. And so, what what you know, and and there it's not about whether it violates community standards. It's about whether uh whether they're politically palatable or whether the council wants to adjust the meeting or work out talking points to pre-butt whatever somebody says. I've been in the room and where I've submitted things and literally the meeting got flipped around upside down where they took things out of order because they knew that I was going to present something later on in the room. So, I think that that our that our clerk is way more than capable of looking at something and saying, "Yeah, I think we're good." You know, I think anybody in the room here could make that judgment. It's not that complicated. And and nobody's in here submitting kitty porn. So, you know, it's not it's it's it's I think way overkill and and just in just in terms of general kind of fairness about it, you don't need this much time. You don't have to don't you don't have to go through full legal review because somebody puts up slides from your presentation, you know, so you know, it's it's it seems way overkill and you don't need it. So, uh, this doesn't have to h, you know, I think there should be a written policy. Absolutely. But it doesn't need to be any more than what has currently been for the last 10 years, which is noon on

the day of the council meeting, you know. So, thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments? Seeing none, do I get a motion? Second.

Who is that? Wes. Wes and Jackie. Okay. Vote. Council member Dario. Okay, that passes 41. Okay, we moving on to communications from the public. Persons wishing to address the city council are requested to state their name and city of residence 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 state law prohibits the city council from discussing or taking action on items not listed on the agenda. The city council will appreciate your cooperation and keeping your comments brief. Please observe a threeminut limit for communications. Miss Edwards, are there any speakers from the public? Mayor, yes, I have 17 speaker cards for communication from the public.

Okay. So, these are items that are not on the agenda. So, feel free to come on down, guys, and uh line up accordingly, please. Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Art Gum. I'm a resident of Corona. Um, I'll make this quick and I'm actually going to read an email that I sent to Joe Belding. I originally sent an email on July 29th and followed up on August 5th, which I received a response from M Mr. Belding. Uh, both my wife and I are pilots and aircraft owners and we've noticed a significant increase in transient people around the airport and things of that nature. And in between that email chain, um, I heard actually on KTLA Channel 5 News that a Cessna 172 November 1489 Fox Trot was stolen. And the only reason that I recognized the airplane is because our granddaughter loves rainbows. And we said, "This is Oakley's airplane." But, uh, my email basically said, "I'd like to raise a serious public safety issue regarding Corona Municipal Airport. The current f fencing around the airport is incomplete, lacks adequate deterrent like razor wire, and leaves the airport highly vulnerable to unauthorized access. This isn't just a security issue, it's a safety issue. Homeless individuals and others have been known to steal aluminum, metal for scrap value, and this week even a Cessna 172 was stolen from the airport. And if if an aircraft component were removed and went unnoticed during the pre-flight check, this could result in a catastrophic uh accident, not just for the pilot, but the but for the surrounding community. We shouldn't wait for a tragedy to act. A con comprehensive secure perimeter fence could prevent unauthorized access, protect aircraft, and safeguard the public. I urge the city of Corona to explore all options uh including federal funding via the FAA, partnerships with organizations like AOPA or matching grants to secure the airport. I believe the community would support this proactive approach. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Yes, sir. I had a presentation that was going to get put up. Can you uh There you go. There we go. Uh who's the slide guy before we get started? So did I just say next or Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Oh, not next. Go back to the first one. All right. Perfect. My name is Rory Connell. I live in District 5 and today I'm going to address why people in the city of Corona feel deceived by the council's current vote to pursue this plan for the Corona Mall. So everyone in the room, please pay attention to these renderings. Option two and three is where the council voted and they settled on 2.5. Pay attention to that blue building and those yellow buildings. That's a 200 room hotel and highdensity housing. Next slide, please. This is the city's current website. Please visit that the coronacircle.com. There is no mention of any condos, any hotels. I see businesses and a green space. Next slide, please. Further evidence of this. It says we will have a iconic sixth in Maine. If you're going to build an iconic hotel at sixth in Maine, please put a volcano in a casino in it. Next, please. When they come and blame it on the previous council, this is from 2019. Wes, Jim, and Jackie were on the council. Tony, and Tom came afterwards. Please read this line. Oh. Ultimately, it was determined that the housing development for the Corona Mall was not in the best interest of the community and the city proceeded forward with the interest of a commercial development on the site. This is 2019. So, when they blame the old council, it's a lie. So, here's the next one. Here's your comments for over a decade, Wes. I don't picture us scraping it clean. I don't picture one person buying it all up, but that's exactly what you guys are doing. Go look at the Corona Mall. You guys are scraping it clean and buying it up. 10 years now, almost a decade, you've been telling people this is what you want. So when people think they're going to get entertainment, shops, schools in a gathering space or land to attract investment, putting in restaurant, bars, and other attractions, that's what they expected because that's what you've been telling them for over a decade. You told them that when you were asking for their vote, but what has changed? Nothing.

Next slide, please. Next slide, please. So now, Mr. speak has said that you guys voted on 200 condos. That was your comment yesterday. So, for years you said entertainment and dining and now we're at 200 condos. Once again, what has changed and is that factual? Did this council actually vote for 200 condos? You vote to pursue a plan for them, but will anyone here on this council back that statement? So, what can you do? Next slide, please. How can Citizens Vixus vote for new people, not incumbents in the next cycle? In 2026, we have three people up for re-election. If you're tired of being deceived and you don't want condos in your neighborhood, please vote for new people. Next slide, please. And don't forget, buy a $45 t-shirt from the Corona City website because like everything in Corona, it's overpriced. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you. Next, please.

Oh, hi. My name is Zoe and I have been an activist for the past six years and this raern for our city and it is the increase of immigration rates and people may disagree or agree but I'm going to read you something. So, on July 7th, approximately 5:45 a.m., someone's father was detained by ICE. He had just gone to AMM for gas to get a cup of coffee before heading out to work with his boss doing landscaping, which is something they've both done for years, and neither of them had a criminal record. In the weeks, ice hadn't been waiting because of the increase of ice activity in the area. This morning was the first time they felt brave enough to go out and try to learn, try to earn a living again. And now they have been detained. So I feel like a problem is that there is an increase of fear within this city, especially our immigrants. And I just want to know if there's a way we could protect these immigrants, um, especially the ones without criminal record.

That's a good one, Zoe. Yeah. Um, I think I'm done. All right. Thank you for speaking tonight. [Applause] Welcome.

Hello. Is it this one? Yes, it is. Um, hi. My name is Lexi and like Zoe, I will be expressing my objection to ICE in our neighborhoods. Spending the majority of my life here in central Corona, I have witnessed the culture developed by a predominantly Latino community. I grew up local. I was a dual immersion student throughout my elementary, middle, and high school years. And through those programs, I was taught at a young age the contributions of Latino Americans, both immigrants and their descendants, and what they have made for the enrichment of our national identity and the strengthening of our government. An integral part of my own cho identity is rooted in how Latino Americans have shaped Corona, usually from their small businesses, such as the wonderful marriage of music and art brought together by the owner of DBZ Books and Records, which is on Sixth Street, thrift stores, restaurants, down to the food vendors on street corners. These are the aspects of my town that make it unique, and for that we can thank immigrant communities. The truth of the matter is ICE is not compliant with the law and has been documented through video and through other firsthand accounts to show disregard for the rights we documented citizens or not possess. Allowing ICE in our cities is an invitation for racial profiling, for violence, and for fear to fester on our streets. I refuse to betray the soul of the streets that raised me. And so I object to ISIS presence in Corona. Thank you. That's it.

Thank you, Lexi. Before I start, what I'm going to say, I want to say the last two ladies that were up here, very brave and I've brought this up with a few of you already. We We need to do something to protect our own people. We have a lot of people that are working in this city that for one reason or another are undocumented, but they are hard workers and they're not criminals. And we need to find a way either with CPD or some other way to protect them. So anyway, um I want to talk about the Chronom Mall, too. I'm not quite in Rory's space on this one, but I I do think it's important to talk about it. I I do want to congratulate you guys on getting the project closer to the finish line. Um redeveloping an entire downtown, it is a daing task, and I appreciate your sincere efforts to try to get it done. Um I understand that housing is going to have to be a part of it to make it pencil, whether I like that or not. Um but the progress is great. the payoff comes in many small ways. Um, we can already see some of that. I've already walked over to Circle City Tavern like three times and I love having a walkable neighborhood in one way or another. Um, it's a great excuse for me to say that I'm going for a walk to exercise and then I can go have a whiskey sour and nachos and, you know, pretend that I exercised. Um, but the thing I want to remind you is I am a resident of the circle and um, I've raised my kid here and I have a big stake in this project and um, it's going to impact my home and my life directly. And um, I remember coming to these first meetings about these plans and talking to you guys about them, talking to you about height, talking to you about the fact that we want to try to keep a vintage look, um, try to make it um, honor our history as a city. Um, and that is going to be the first thing I talk about here is um, height and size. It's imperative. You guys have all said 2.5. I ran through with all the people that we have at Citizens for Corona in our Facebook group. By the way, if

anybody wants to join, please join Citizens for Corona. We do our best to try to empower you to be able to come here and know what's going on in your city. overwhelmingly the folks that were talking on our group in our group and there's like almost 10,000 people there was option two. I appreciate 2.5 but the thing that I want to get across is no please no more than that and not even please I'm I'm going to make it very clear you set a goal and I would like you to hold the line and stick to it. Um we bought this land. You went out and bought the dirt. We own the dirt. This is not like a development where the developer can come in and run rough shot over it. You have the power in this case. So when we have a developer, a particular developer come in and tell economic development, "Oh, that's not going to pencil for me." There's the door. Not going to work for us. We're going to do what we're going to do. I ran through a developer um uh website that allows you to do calculations on how much development is going to cost. If we do 200 units, it's at roughly 412,000, which is the average for the county. Uh they're still going to make 25 million after all of their costs. That's their net. And that's not counting the rent they're going to get from the commercial buildings. That's not counting the parking. That's just on the condos. So, I'm going to ask you to hold the line. You said it between 200 and 250. Please stick to that. Do not

Thanks, Chris. Good evening.

Good evening. My uh oh, excuse me. Uh my name is Jazzy. I've been a resident here in Corona for the past 5 years. Uh and I've fallen deeply in love with this community. I'm also here to speak about the immigration and custom enforcement raids that have been taking place in our city and in our county. Uh on July 23rd, there was evidence of Corona PD assisting in an ICE raid. Uh there is video evidence and photographic evidence uh that has been going around on social media. Uh I would urge that this council pass some form of legislation to prevent this and come out against this as I've seen in Los Angeles what ICE is doing. I've been on the front lines of the protests there and it is a very chilling effect what we've seen. There is a great harm to the businesses and the residents there and there is lawlessness that is being brought in through these ice raids. Thank you.

Thank you, Josie. [Applause] Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Rick Help and I live in Corona. I want to discuss also the immigration rates. However, what I want is some accountability from you guys. As you guys are well aware, there is now a TTRO in place. It's been reaffirmed by the Ninth Circuit last week. And what I want to know is how this city intends to actually enforce that TTRO. We're starting to see more rates. We've seen them here in the city of Corona since the TTRO took effect. As the prior speaker spoke today, we've also seen some sort of cooperation with Corona PD. We'd like the city to speak out and just reassure its citizens that there's going to be no cooperation with PD and helping these masked men come in and terrorize communities that are simply trying to live their lives. They have done nothing wrong. Most of the ones that we have seen that are being deported or being arrested and detained are not criminals. They're simply fathers, mothers going to work trying to provide for their children and they're breaking their windows. They're not telling them who they are. They're showing up masked and they're acting as if they're police agents, unmarked vehicles. We have a lot of evidence, both video as well as witnesses to all of these things that are happening. And it's systematically happening throughout the state of California. I don't want to see it here in my city. What specifically does Corona intend to do to uh to enforce that TTRO?

All right. Thank you very much. [Applause]

Do I press anything? Nope. Just go ahead and talk. Hi, my name is Mauricio Jamie. Um, the reason I'm here is I want to help everyone. I have a plan to help everyone and uh I have a website. Sir, can you uh speak into the microphone so we can hear you? I have a website called www. Christconsciousness club doc.ai and um I have a plan to like throw a huge uh festival at the end of the year called uh Christmas and Corona and it'll generate a lot of money and uh if people go on to my website and just check it out um I think it'll explain uh a little bit more. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, please.

Hello. Hi. I'm going to get on my tiptoes here just so I can reach the mic. Um,

my name is Victoria Hibbert and I have lived in this city almost my entire life and I am here to speak once again as many people have about ICE in the city of Corona and specifically the possibility that Corona PD is assisting them which does go against the law. Um, I was present after the abduction that happened at that Takadilla on July 23rd. Um, we know that witnesses did see a Corona police cruiser at that scene as well as three undercover vehicles that had uniformed Border Patrol agents. Um, one witness that was actually um, inside the Takadilla did mention that he overheard Border Patrol being disappointed that they were not able to catch the person that they were trying to get and instead had a gardener pulled over who was driving by. Um, we also know that once we got there, that gardener's work truck was already gone, which is quite suspicious when it comes to ICE activity because usually they leave vehicles there, including here in Corona. So, unfortunately, the only thing we can conclude at that point is that Corona PD has been assisting ICE at least in that one particular abduction. We do also have, as someone else brought up, video and photographic evidence of that and possibly of other abductions as well where they may have assisted. And I do want to ask why RPD can apparently break state laws considering we are a sanctuary city and sanctuary state. And I want to know what not only you guys as the city council, but also all of us as residents really are willing to tolerate when it comes to this kind of terrorism within our community. because it's not acceptable to have people being kidnapped off the street by people wearing masks in vehicles that don't even have license plates.

I cannot tell you the amount of times I've had to watch videos of people in our own community being kidnapped screaming, screaming for help, one young man screaming for his mother. I will be haunted by those screams for the rest of my life. And I want to know what we are going to do about that because this cannot continue. As someone else previously mentioned, there is a restraining order in place and we want to know if that is going to be upheld in our community because right now it's not just people who don't have papers who don't feel safe or people who are brown who don't feel safe. It is everybody now. Because what is to stop somebody from just dressing up as an agent? mask up in an unplated car and kidnapping people.

That's all I have to say. Thank you very much. [Applause] Good evening. Hello

everyone. My name is Alan Vargas. I'm a resident of the city and this city is my home. I graduated from Centennial High School and I'm come speaking behalf of our immigrant community that is afraid to go out in public right now. We've seen the effect that these raids are having on our businesses. People afraid to do commerce. And we will not survive four years. Small businesses will not survive four years if this continues any further. But I also came here to remind the city of its oath to follow SB54, including our chief of police, that SB54 does allow the restriction of police between ICE. Only in the most extreme cases can police cooperation be allowed. And as someone who lives in this city who every day is sleepless because of the anxiety gripping our community, neighbors come to me saying, "Was there ice and ice rate in this part of our city?" And the thing we have to ask ourselves is what type of city are we? Do we only look out for a certain amount of people or do we look out for all of our residents whether they can vote or not? Because those people who live in our community that you don't notice, our undocumented community, pay tons of billions of dollars in taxes. This isn't just, you know, an opinion. This is a fact that the IRS and different parts of our federal agencies have acknowledged and they not only pay pay sales tax, but they are thriving, vibrant part of this community and this city. And they may be afraid to come speak out today, but I most certainly am not because I feel unsafe as a US citizen because this administration and ICE has engaged in a war against its people. Masking themselves up, getting out of trucks, and bumrushing people, taking street vendors, arresting US citizens who are veterans because they were on their way to work. And our police has a responsibility to look out for its citizens and its people. And this city and its leaders also have a

responsibility to look out for every single person in this community. Because when we have residents screaming for help and kids reaching out to immigrant activist groups saying that I am scared. I am scared. Where is my mom? I haven't heard from her in an hour. I haven't heard from her in 30 minutes. Our city has a responsibility to rise up to this occasion to protect our small businesses, to protect our residents, and to make California the city that I know it is. I know this because I've lived here all my life. I went to Centennial High School where there was a great amount of diversity and where we all felt safe that our city was the place to be. So now we are going to have to ask ourselves and I am going to ask you, what are you going to do for your city, its residents and its businesses that are struggling to survive? Because if we can't get a hold or handle on this, many small businesses will go out of business. uh here on a Friday night after the raid was empty. Not a single person in there. So, we have a responsibility to our citizens just as I do to my community. Thank you.

Thank you, Alton.

Alrighty. Welcome. Hello. Can you bring the volume up? I think it I think this is better. I have a prepared statement. If you take the the small microphone, you can move it more towards your mouth and it'll be a little bit louder for you. There you go. Here. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Um, my name is Carolina Buer. I am actually a candidate for governor of California. And I noticed that most of you are paying attention when it comes to the topic that was just discussed. And I really do appreciate that. And I have noticed that there's about three of you that really could care less, which and I find that also quite interesting. Um, and so I'd want to prepare I want to read this. Um, how a city responds to DHS defines its true values, not just politically, but morally and historically. I'm requesting that you commit to the people of Corona that our neighbors will be safe. allowing local police to cooperate with ICE or DHS is essentially alignment with a system that meets the definition of human trafficking as um investigative organizations have already found. These are respected investigative organizations and they have found this in their research for the mass deportations of 2025. Structurally, what is happening right now by definition is human trafficking. Trump's 2025 mass deportations are lawlessly taking human beings and funneling them into for-profit detention and foreign prisons. That is trafficking. There are confirmed reports of sexual abuse inside ICE facilities. Pregnant women are misaring without medical care and young girls are traumatized by the very institutions claiming to protect them. If police refuse to intervene, the city does not represent safety. And when I see when I say intervene, I mean protect the people that are being taken and funneled through the system. Um, if um the uh the city represents, okay, if the

police refuse to intervene, the city does not represent safety. The city instead represents what Epstein represents, exploiting vulnerable people through their bodies for power, for profit and political convenience. We know that um 40% of the population in California is Latino, is brown, and that we are aware of the war that's happening right now with the votes and gerrymandering and trying to get the um the votes for the correct party. I don't really care about parties to be honest. I think it's all BS. I'm, you know, not naive or anything, but um it's very obvious that the Latino community is being scared to exit the country because the control the vote is trying to be controlled. I have already written to Governor Num about this and he's already said this. So, I am asking that everybody who um wants to support people being here legally that are part of the community to please um call their Congress representatives and tell them to vote.

Thank you, Carolyn. [Applause] Next up, welcome.

Hello, city council members and audience. My name is Alice Hibard. I have lived here for 49 years. I'm 78 years old and I have seen the changes in this community over time. I've belonged to PTA, another volunteer organization that helps trauma victims. I worked for the government in my working years. And what worries me so much are the children who have to endure this fright that emanates from seeing what's happening to their parents or their friends in the schools especially. I have seen what trauma does not only to adults but to children as well. And it's sad to see that children are being held back possibly from school because their parents are too afraid to take them to school or to appear at the school for fear that they're going to be taken away. That is one of my very main main concerns. As I said before, I belong to PTA with my children and with my grandchildren. So, I'm very familiar with the school system. And I belong to a group that went out to check on people that have experienced trauma. And you see that

trauma and it's very, very palatable. So, I ask that you come up with something to help the community, whether they're documented or not, or whether they're citizens or not. Help them get through this period of time that is so horrific that in my lifetime, I never thought I'd see this. Thank you.

Thank you, Alice. [Applause] Good evening, council. My name is Elise Todd, um, Westpak, and Jackie and Mayor Jim Steiner. I met with you a few weeks ago. I'm from Kingdom Builders New Harvest here in Corona off of California Street. Uh the address is 2363 California Avenue and it's sweet 106. Uh we work heavily in the community. Um what I've noticed in our particular area where our building resides is that we have people that are on drugs and they c um usually camp out over there. And I know um it was told like you know to call get law enforcement involved just because we have a lot of children that come in and out of the building because it is a church. Uh however, the problem is once we do call law enforcement because some of these people um need to go to rehab or they struggle with mental illnesses and then they stay a few, you know, few days um in jail and then they come back out and we have the same problem over and over again. Um there are some that come in the um the parking lot and they're very violent attacking people and also vandalizing. So my thing is there have to be a solution uh with this because we want to make sure that these people actually get help. Um they can get detained but after detained and being let out where do we

go from there? because we understand like me mental illness people need to get help for it. Um we need to know uh I I really want to know who can we talk to? Is there any free rehab uh facilities here in Corona uh that are going to be able to assist these people because it's going to be an ongoing thing and we don't want to this is a very familyoriented community. Corona is and I'm proud to be in Corona, but some pe we can't even have the kids go out and do certain activities because we have this issue. And again, um with the ICE situation, my mom, she's Mexican. We are great contributors in this community and if we don't do something about this um we will lose our community because we contribute a lot to the community and we help build the community and help build the US. So we want to make sure that our family is safe. All my family they're documented but they feel like they're not safe. Well, thank you for listening. Thanks, Elise. [Applause]

All right. Good evening.

Hi, my name is Monica Witron. Um, I've lived here in Corona for God, I don't know, over 35 years. Um, and I will like to add a personal touch in regards to the ICE rates, the presence of ICE in our community. While I should feel like my parents are safe, that I should feel safe being born here. I'm not. I I have to track when my father goes to work, when he's coming back to work. I mean, coming back home from work because I don't know I don't know if the day is going to come where he's going to be taken even though he is documented. that fear. I can't even imagine the children. I'm I'm an adult. For children to actually experience this in real life, seeing their parents being taken from them, I can't imagine that trauma. And I would just like to ask that you know the city of Corona models after Huntington Park which we've seen them what they've done what how they've stood up for their community that also their police department has actually helped and stood up for their community. That's all we want. A lot of us are actually in favor of of course keeping, you know, criminals out of our city. But the fact that even by the the appearance of, you know, my physical appearance, I can seem to them as a suspect because they're coming up to people without warrants, without identifying themselves, and just taking people abruptly without without any evidence.

There's we live in the United States. There's due process in this country and it's not being given to anybody. People we've seen reports. I think you guys can turn on the news and it's everywhere. People have come out. They're US citizens. They were taken and they tell them, "Hey, I'm not an immigrant. I'm not undocumented and it doesn't matter." like what can we do and we can do a lot. I just ask that with all the facts that everybody has said I you know of course I I I was prepared to say you know read out what SB54 states but it it goes beyond that. It it seems like this administration is just pushing for unlawfulness and that's not going to happen in the city of Corona and I would like for the support from you guys and Corona PD. Thank you.

Thanks Monica. [Applause] Miss Maddie.

Hi. Maddie Paxton, 33year resident of Corona. Um this is very pertinent especially with our hot weather that we're having. Um, it's been said that a per a picture is worth a thousand words. Then I have something to show you that's priceless. Miss Edwards, an important reminder from Corona police, especially as our temperatures heat up. Don't leave your kids alone in the car. Officers say they got a call last week about a baby left in a car. When they arrived, the engine was off, the windows were up, and the baby appeared to be in distress. Officers broke a window to get him out. They say internal temperature of that car was 110°. Keep that in mind. Those officers, according to Chief Newman, um the officers are Sean Slain and Leno Marcado. Okay. Now, for those of you that had been corona in a long time, you may remember this. Go back to um when that occurred on June 17th that um in the year 2000 on June 6 um on uh August 15th, June of August 15, 2000, six-month-old Caitlyn Russell um was left in a hot car in her babysitter when her babysitter left her in the hot car and she passed away that day. Temperatures, right? Everybody remembers that. So, um, she would have been 25 this year. Long time is gone. Excuse me. She was the youngest, um, daughter, the youngest child of Tommy, of Tammy and Colon, um, Russell. And her birthstone was a purple amethyst. And to cope with the grief that they had for her, they launched a camp a campaign um, a nonprofit for kids' sake in Corona, two months after her death. And if you remember, we had purple ribbons all over the city. That's the reminder to never

leave a child in a hot car. So, that's my little prop here. Um, they chose the purple ribbons and signs as a reminder of the dangers because of her birthstone. So, in 2001, they went to the state and they they had a law created and um enacted. It's called Caitlyn's Law in California that's illegal for children ages six and younger to be left alone in vehicles. And the purple ribbon campaign has now sp spread to um Canada, England, and the US Virgin Islands. So just please remember um for the law that was passed, never leave a child alone in a car, not even for a moment. And also never leave a a child in a vehicle that is running or with a key in the ignition. And just to as a reminder, children's body temperatures rise three to five times faster than adults. So if you think it's hot out there, please please always be vigilant and never over overlook sleeping adults. Thank and excuse me, sleeping infants. Thank you.

Always a good reminder. Thank you, Maddie. [Applause] Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Judy Anderson and I live at Green River Village and I have been working with the council and I'd like to say thank you very much for all your hard work on the rat stabilization. I have a request. We had originally our park was senior oriented and they have limited income and they need help desperately. I have lost a lot. I am one of the few seniors left in that park. They can't afford it. And I'm just not feeling really good because I think we need to get this resolved and resolved quickly. The owners of our park will be meeting early in the fall to determine what our rent increase will be beginning February. And most of the seniors are planning on moving. We have over 18 homes for sale right now. They can't afford it. They were used to paying under a,000. Now we are paying over $1,700 a month. And with an increase, we'll take it up to approximately 1,800. Most of them with social security don't even get that much money and they're going to be homeless. So I would like to encourage you if at all possible can we step up the program and whatever any of us can do to help we will do. I am not in that problem of not being able to stay there but most people are. I had a resident come to me yesterday. He said after I paid the rent, I had $32 left out of his social security and and he's been there 24 years.

So, we need to step up the program if at all possible. But again, we all appreciate what you are doing. Sacramento did nothing for us. You are making an effort. I just would like to push it forward. Thank you very much. Thank you, Judy. [Applause] Hi, Dale. Hello, Dale Plung. I was going to come up here and see how long I could talk about the birds and the bees before the mic shut off. Somebody might beat you up out there.

Yeah, but it has a practical application. Last time I was here, we were talking about the park, the 25 acres, which I just the drive to make that happen for me is very, very strong. I don't want the city to think that's fallen dead. It's still being worked. Last time I was here, I was talking about the bees and the new state requirement to do an audit on the bees. And during the last week or two, all the studies have been completed. the bees. They didn't find any birds uh on the property. They did find some bees. They're mitigating that. They're submitting that to the county um during the next two weeks. So hopefully in the next four weeks, there'll be some feedback from uh the county planning commission. Um the goal, this has been this has been nine years now, Jim. It's been nine years. And hopefully there'll be some kind of approval and permit drawn where the park will be turned over to the city, you know, before the end of the year. That's my goal. Um,

it's a good goal, Dale.

Yeah, I appreciate it. It's um it'll mean a lot to me. That's one. Number two, I painted my house for the first time in 30 years. I went with bright white and I painted a week before that fire and then we heard the sirens come by our house. 10 seconds later, more sirens. 10 seconds later, more sirens. And I just wanted to say thank you to the city of Corona and the others. But I know that you guys rolled it. It was like we were in downtown New York City. It was just truck after truck after truck. The fire was blowing exactly towards our house. It stopped on Palisad. It's just the other side where our house is. And we were right under the cloud where the smoke was coming. So at 7:00 I went out and our house was no longer white. It had a pink and reddish hue to it. So I was up until midnight with the pressure washer getting it off and it all came off. And I loved doing it because we really were, you know, when you all those other big fires, it was a windy night. It was in uh the hills along Palisades there. So I just want to say thank you to the city and what you guys did to get that fire out quickly. It's I've I've never been nervous about a fire before. This time I was. Um that's it for that. The last thing, the airplane, you know, I used to fly to work as you guys know every day from the airport. The airplane was stolen and found and if you followed any of the follow-up news on that, the owner found the plane, chained the plane to a pole, and took the battery out. Two days later, he told the airport that it was at that he was going to come back to get the airplane. Two day two days later, he came back, the airplane was stolen again. They they did find it. So, it was stolen

twice. So, um there's other airports that have security that that allow an airplane to be stolen also. So, that's it.

Thanks, Dale. Hello, my name is Mark Maize. I'm the principal at Maize and Associates and we are a business advisory company. We work with small businesses, cities, chambers of commerce, hundreds, if not thousands of businesses. We've been helping businesses for over 40 years. In the last 10 years, I've had the great privilege to work with the chamber, the Corona Chamber of Commerce. And I have to tell you that for me, in my case, I've worked with businesses throughout California, throughout the United States, some know of the chambers, some don't. I can tell you as a business owner for myself of 30 years, owning a large construction company in Corona, we didn't even know about the the Chamber of Commerce. So for the first 30 years of business, I never was associated with the city nor the chamber of commerce. But in the last 10 years, I have to compliment you on your city, on your city's performances, on the professionalism, and of your chamber of commerce. I've had the great blessing to be behind the scenes within the Corona Chamber of Commerce, to see what they've done, to see what they do building the structure, empowering the city businesses, the entrepreneurs, and really pulling this community together. I I can't tell you I from being outside looking in how important and how valuable your chamber of commerce is. You guys are an exception. Other cities do not have the chambers of commerce like you do. They do not do what your Corona Chamber of Commerce does. We cannot let those budgets get cut. Please, it's it's not just about the Corona Chamber of Commerce. It's the Corona businesses. It's the Corona

community that they pulled together. We We're going to have a different leader next year. Please do not undermine the success of what they've built over the last hundred years in this city, especially in the last quarter of a century under the leadership that we've had to build and grow the community that we have now. Please think about that. Please support them because they do a tremendous job to support you and the community of businesses in this city. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Mr. Fuller.

Good evening. Don Fuller. I'm resident here in town. Three things. For those of you not familiar with Maddie Paxton, she was a lady talking about the children being left in cars. She is a genuine treasure and a genuine asset to this town. Uh number two, uh regarding the subject Mr. McCoy is talking about on the revitalization of downtown. I will cast my vote with him on uh item number two, not 2.5, not three, but number two to stay there. And uh three, there have been a variety of people coming up to this microphone this evening talking about ICE. There is no such thing as a little bit of democracy. And in this past six months, we have seen a lot of the democracy of this nation go away. There's no such thing as a little bit of freedom of speech, a little bit of freedom of religion, a little bit of freedom of the press. There's no such thing. You have those things or you don't. And they are slipping away. I am an old man. I'm 81 years old. I'm an old white man. I got a lot of miles behind me. I got a lot of metal inside of me. got some just a few weeks ago and much of what is important to me has been taken away from me. So, regarding ICE and regarding Christine and the Department of Homeland Security and regarding the thug Tom Hman who runs ICE and regarding the entirety of ICE, it is my considered opinion they can all go to hell. Thank you. Thank you, Don.

Good evening again. Uh, so I want to second what Miss Anderson said. Um, you know, we do need to move along on this on this range stabilization. I really don't understand why the you know, I think we've decided where we're going to go. You know, we should just go ahead and get it done. Um, so and also on the subject of ICE, you know, we we we had a couple people that we invited to our Fourth of July party. Um, a couple of them didn't want to show up. Um, one of one of the people that didn't want to show up um has raised three kids that all went to college, uh, gets up at 5 in the morning and bust his ass all day long in a thankless job and comes home by 5:00 at night. and you know, so he didn't he didn't want to come. Um, another friend's wife is in the process of going through the citizenship and going to court. She's afraid to come out of the house and she's she's doing the thing that she's supposed to be doing. So, you know, so there there are some things to be addressed. I'd like to say and I would like to assume that our friends at the PD will be the same PD that they've been all along, which is, you know, community first. I I would expect nothing less from them. that's how they've operated, you know, and and and I assume that that's how it's going to be. So, I I that's my fervent hope. Um and and lastly, I want to address the uh the Corona Mall thing. Um the notion of penciling is a is a really curious thing. You know, whether things will pay for themselves or not. I'm often wondering, well, why aren't there apartments on top of Walmart? Why why don't we have apartments, you know, on top of Target? you know, why don't we have apartments on top of movie theaters? Uh, people want to go to them. Um, you only have to throw a bunch of apartments at something to get it to pencil when you don't have any reason for people to come see it. So, you can have a downtown with a a a minimum and

I'm not completely opposed to how the same right since lab was talking about 50 or 100 units. they were talking about all along and that was originally the discussion and that's and that's the part that's you know kind of legally required somewhat as far as how you guys acquired the land but just to jump to and I'm not and I was at the meeting when it was two or three and the discussion was 450 that was your that was your bargaining chip that you you know that was your opening gambit for your negotiations that you're going to that now go do so to think that you're going to have a number and that they're going to come in less when you have no other attractions to bring anybody down there, you know, is laughable. So, you know, the fact that, you know, everybody pretends that you have to have apartments to build anything or to do anything. You could build something cool downtown. You've chosen not to do that. You could have community oriented cultural activities, you know, like you could build a performing arts center. You could do that. You could have what you're building at the park down there that where you could do things down there and bring people downtown, but you've chosen not to. So, no, we're going to have apartments. Thank you very much.

Thank you. [Applause]

All right. Is there any other speakers? Okay. I want to address uh some of the comments and uh have some of the team address some of them. First, the art. He talked about um the homeless down at the airport cutting the fence um stealing planes and stuff. So the chief, chief, police chief Newman has heard that. Um he will relay that to hope so they can step up enforcement in and around the airport area. But I will caution you, it doesn't matter how many fences we put up, homeless have nothing but time and they're going to cut through everyone minutes after we install it. So, it really is um just try to do our best job enforcing a very difficult issue and I I'd be very surprised if a homeless person stole the plane, but maybe he did. Um, regarding downtown, a couple of you mentioned it. So, since I've been on council, we've talked about housing this entire time, and it's not so much I mean, for me, it's it's it's so we have built-in clientele for what we're we're putting downtown. Now whether it's 200, 300, 400, I don't know what that's going to look like. Part of what we had said was depending on if there's different things that occur if we acquired the Horvath buil building, which I don't probably think we will, but if we did, that would open up more opportunity to have more people down that in that area. In our last meeting, we talked about uh the different projects. We talked about downtown Riverside, how they had uh don't let me see 400 or something. No, 200 240 units at downtown Riverside on 2.15 acres where we're proposing anywhere between 2 to 450 if a Horvath building gets purchased if additional land comes about. But we're and we're on 8 acres. So, there's ways to do it to where it it's it makes sense, but I don't know where that's going to be it. I honestly don't. And uh I think that if you watch the meeting, I think most of

us said that 400 sounded too high. I mean it's it's videotaped. So but there was there were some things that were included in that. As far as penciling it out, I don't think I've ever I don't think anybody up here has ever said we got to build enough to pencil it out. I think that's coming from the public. So I don't know. I don't I don't ever remember saying that we need to pencil that out. I 100% believe we're going to have some really cool stuff down there. Um, I think we've we've already shown that at least one business that opened is awesome because it's packed. Um, and I think that just shows uh how excited the community is to have new stuff, you know, and they're tired of the same old blighted downtown that's looked like crap for four decades. So, we're trying to we're trying to make it better. Not everybody's going to agree with the process. Um, ice. Okay. So, I I think that probably most people in the room agree with with most of your comments and I am 100% in belief that our police department is not cooperating with ICE because it's against the law to do so. But I would like the expert, Mr. Tucker, could to please chief chime in on this.

Chief Newman.

Yes. Good evening. Thank you, Mayor, for giving me an opportunity to address this and to address our community. uh to let our community know that the Corona Police Department and our members and our officers are sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States as well as the Constitution of the State of California. Um and that ensures to ensure the rights and safety of everybody. By doing so, primary purpose is to ensure the laws of California. Right? California has a California values act that was enacted in 2017 which is very clear on what we can participate with immigration um and when we can participate and one of the speakers had mentioned there are very few circumstances that we can um I do not know the videos that they were referring to um I would love to step outside and maybe have a conversation with some of the speakers so I can see those videos and maybe address those most more specifically um however I just want to assure the community that we are we are here to protect the constitutional rights of everybody, ensure the safety of everybody, but that also means that ICE agents must be protected. So I ask the people that if if something is happening and you are there, you're present to call us and let us be the people to intervene. And in some of these situations that you may see, you may be concerned about may be that we are receiving 911 calls from both sides. And we are obligated to respond and address and in many cases keep the peace to ensure that that nobody is injured, that nobody's hurt.

Ma'am, can you please be quiet? Let the chief talk. We didn't interrupt you.

And at no time are we cooperating or with immigration status. At no time. And in in fact, there's been several times when immigration officials have asked us to engage with them and we have refused because it was solely a civil issue about immigration that we are that we are required not to participate in. My officers understand that we are um we're committed to ensuring that our community is safe and to upholding their rights um and in protecting them through the enforcement of the laws. So, like I said, please um understand that we're in a difficult situation as well because we want to protect everybody. We want to help everybody, but that also means that we cannot interfere with federal law enforcement while we're also trying to ensure the community safety. So, like I said, I appreciate if anybody wants to talk in a calm manner, I will step outside, watch the videos, uh and address those with you. Chief, would you do me a favor and um would you just step outside and see if anybody comes out to to speak with you? I'd appreciate that, brother. Thank you. Okay. Then we had let's see uh Miss Miss Hud from Kingdom Church. Uh we did meet with her or I met with her. Sounds like you couple of you guys did too about the homeless around uh their church area. We did share with her the or I shared with her the PD non-emergency number because nobody was calling anything in. And like I've told so many people, if you don't call it in, it didn't happen. So call in that non-emergency number. You everything gets documented and so much is driven on data that when the chief runs the data and it says, "Oh my gosh, there's been a hundred calls for California and Foothill or Ontario in the last month. I need to redeploy my my resources." So, um, she seemed to understand that as far as rehab and stuff, we have case managers throughout our system of care that that, um, it's

their job to to get the person the help that they need, regardless of what that is. Now, that's not always easy and there's not always a lot of facilities to to help make that happen, but that's what our case managers do. Um Judy from RSO or for RSO. Um it looks like it's coming back to us October to November. That's through the from the ad hoc committee as early as September, I'm told. So that's not that far away. We do feel for you and we hope that none of your mobile home folks end up on the streets. Um I think that's pretty much pretty much it. So uh no other speakers. We will move on. And then like I mentioned, sorry pickle ballers, I didn't expect you had to wait two hours tonight for this, but we're going to move that up to discuss it right now. And that is Let's go to 9.2. Okay. So, Council Member Richen's request. You're not going anywhere, buddy. This is your request. Oh my gosh. All right, I'll take over then. Councilman Richen's request to discuss the proposed pickle ball courts at Elserto Park. Uh, I'm just going to go right to Donna Finch, our community services director. She will present this item.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening. Uh, mayor, member, one second. Yes. I need some clarification before we start this. Yes, sir. And unfortunately, the person that I need clarification from is Tom.

However, the last time or where where this currently is stated is we are on a pause until the end of the year. And Mr. Richens brought back a motion to talk about that pause. That's what we should be talking about. We should not be talking about options for pickle ball when it is still paused. And so I I'm really hesitant to even want to hear about options when it is currently still paused. So, so would you like to take a take a would you like to take a vote to unpause and then talk about it? Well, I think we should at least wait for Mr. Richens.

Sure. To come back because unfortunately there may be a tie vote that needs to be cast. No doubt about that. Yes. But your point is well taken. Since he's the one that brought this, we'll wait for him to come back. Yep. Embarrass him when he comes back. And hopefully it's a quick one. How do we embarrass him when he returns? What's that? How do we best embarrass Tom? Embarrass Tom. Everybody look at Tom when he comes back in. Oh, no, no, no. When he comes, let's applaud. Let's applaud when he enters the room. He's not holding the microphone, right? At least he Good thing we're not miked up. Yeah. Good thing we're not miked.

Yeah. play the Jeopardy music. Yeah, hold that thought. Donna, you're right. We can't embarrass him. Yeah.

You going to knock on his door though? [Music] I told you you like it. We're not indulging. All right. So, we waited for you because you were the ones that requested to discuss the proposed pickle ball courts because currently we we are on a pause and the reason you voted to bring it back was because of what? You really did wait. Sorry. I uh I was going to blow up. Um

no need for details. Without going into details, I um I I just would like to when I changed my vote, I wanted to hear more about pickle ball. I wanted more information, and I believe that's what Donna tonight is going to give us. Sounds good. Miss Finch, you're up. Thank you, Mayor. Um good evening. So, as discussed, I'm here to provide an update. Miss Fch, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to interrupt you again. That's not a vote. I just said Miss Finch is up. I'll I'll propose to unpause. Okay. And I agree. And then so does Tom. There we go. Miss Finch.

We just voted. Go ahead, Miss Finch.

Thank you. Okay. So, I'm here to provide an update on the proposed pickle ball courts at Elserto Park. As discussed, um we had a CIP to propose converting two tennis courts uh into eight pickle ball courts and constructing four new courts on a vacant parcel. Um as council member Dario mentioned, that uh project was paused. Um but it was a request to bring it back for rediscussion. So I'm here today to provide that discussion. Our ask of the council is that you provide direction on the construction of new pickleball courts at Elserto Park. And I will start by providing a little bit of background um just on pickle ball in general. So as many of you I'm sure know the demand for pickle ball is growing um not just here in Corona but throughout the US. It is currently ranked as the fastest growing sport in the US. Participation um just between 2023 and 2024 grew by 46%. And this is according to the sports and fitness industry association. And over the past three years um participation has grown by over 300% with currently 19.8 million players throughout the United States. Um this is also aligned with trends that we're seeing with growth in sports activity um in all sports. Uh currently there is 25 million more people that have been active in sports since 2019. So not just pickle ball, but we're seeing trends throughout the US in all sports activity, which is a good thing. People are active and getting out there wanting to be u more involved in sports. Um when we developed our park and recreation master plan for the city of Corona, pickle ball was identified as one of the top four outdoor features um by residents in the parks and wreck master plan. The other outdoor features that were requested um to grow in the city were splash pads, dog parks, and pump tracks. But again, pickle ball was ranked in there with the top four. Um and the park and recck master plan calls for a total of 23 pickle ball courts um

in the city to meet the level of service guidelines, which is one for every 7,300 residents. Currently, Corona has 17 pickle ball courts. 12 of those courts are um dedicated to pickle ball only. Uh we have 10 courts at Border Park that are just pickle ball and two at Houston Park. And then we have five multi-use courts located in the city. Um three of those are at the Circle City Center. Those are available for drop in pickle ball on Tuesdays from 8:30 to 11:30. And we also have um two pickle ball courts that are striped on the tennis court at Elserto Park. Um, so taking all of that into account with the courts that we currently have, this leaves six more courts that are needed in order to reach the 23 courts required with our level of service guidelines. So um I know tennis has come into the discussion as well. So we wanted to provide some background on tennis um in the city. As mentioned, demand for sports is growing across the board. For tennis specifically, we saw an increase of 8% in participation between 2023 and 2024. And this is based on data from USA. Um, currently Corona has 19 tennis courts that are located at seven parks um throughout the city, which is one for every 8,200 residents. These courts are located at Elserto Park. We have two courts there. Eagle Glenn Park has three courts. Mountain Gate Park has four courts. Kellogg Park has four courts. Mangular Park has two courts. Prominade Park has two courts. And Aubberdale Park has two courts. Um the three courts that are located at Eagle Glenn Park, I do want to note, are located um just 1.8 miles from the proposed project site, which is El Certo Park. Um so we do have a concentration of courts in that area. And um I wanted to note again that 19 existing courts that we have in the city do currently meet our park and recreation master plan level of service guidelines. So we are right where we need to be. And um just

an overview, this is where the pickleball courts are located um in the city in comparison to where our tennis courts are located. So um to provide a background on the proposed project, as mentioned, we did propose a capital improvement project in the fiscal year 26 CIP to construct up to 12 pickle ball courts at Elserto Park. Um Elserto was identified as the preferred location for pickleball courts. Based on the cost, it is more costefficient to convert tennis courts to pickle ball courts. Um, it also meets the distance requirements from homes. Our park and recre master plan right now recommends that pickle ball courts be located a minimum of 300 ft away from residences and ideally 500 ft away from residences. We don't have many parks in the city that meet those requirements. So, El Certo Park was identified as an ideal location based off of that. Um, as mentioned, the project proposes converting the two tennis courts into eight pickle ball courts and constructing four new courts on a vacant parcel for a total of 12 courts. Um, the city council did vote to pause this project during the budget adoption. However, it was um reintroduced by council member Richens as a future agenda item to bring it back for redis, which is what we're doing today. Um, and the estimated project cost is just under 1.1 million. I do want to note Elserto Park is owned by Riverside County. Um it was uh given to the city as a lease back in 2010 right after it was constructed. So we currently have a 30-year lease on that property. Um pay a dollar a year. So it's a great deal. And any improvements to the park or not improvements, I would say alterations to the park as listed in the agreement do require county approval. So we would need to go to them for written approval before we were able to move forward on any project there. So, as mentioned, um, as the council is reconsidering this option, we, um, or this topic, we did want to bring a few options to you for consideration. Um, to

council member Dario's point, one of the options is to continue to pause the project. We wanted to make sure that that was available to you for consideration today as one of the options um, for moving forward. The pros of this option is that there is no additional cost. Um, we would just maintain status quo, keep things as they are. It would preserve the two tennis courts at Elserto Park and it would allow time to evaluate the impact of the new um private pay courts that are being constructed at Eagle Glenn Golf Club. Um the cons is that it does not meet our park and wreck master plan level of service guidelines. So we would continue to be in the same situation with an additional need for pickleball courts. Um for option two, we have two options for option two, 2 A and 2 B. I'll start with 2 A. Um this is to convert only one of the tennis courts at Elserto Park to pickle ball courts. The pros for that is that it would have a minimal cost impact to convert the one tennis court um as opposed to building new pickle ball courts. It would also retain the one of the existing um tennis courts which we have heard from the tennis community that they would like to see uh remain at Elserto Park. So, this would occur with this option and it is one of the preferred locations for pickle ball by the pickle ball community is um having some additional pickleball activities at El Certo Park. Um the cons is that while it does retain one court, it removes one tennis court and that it only provides four new pickle ball courts versus the 12 that were originally proposed. And the um estimated cost for this option is $64,000. Option 2B is to convert both of the tennis courts at Elserto Park to pickleball courts. Um, again, another pro is that there's a minimal cost to convert tennis courts rather than build new courts and it's the preferred location by the pickle ball community. The con is that it does remove both of the tennis courts at Elserto Park. And the cost for this is approximately 128,000. Option three is to convert only the vacant parcel to pickle ball courts. Um, so the two tennis courts would remain

and then we would construct uh four new pickle ball courts on that vacant parcel. The pros is that it retains both the tennis courts at Elserto Park and it is the preferred location for the pickleball community. Cons is that it only provides four new pickleball courts versus the proposed 12 courts and it is a higher cost at an estimated 972,000. Option four, which is our proposed um CIP project in the FY26 uh capital improvement program, um is to convert both the vacant parcel and the tennis courts at Elserto Park to pickleball courts to give the 12 courts that were originally proposed. Pros is that it meets the park and McMaster plan level of service for pickle ball um and that it is the preferred location by the pickle ball community. Cons is that it removes um both the tennis courts at Elserto. It is a higher cost impact and could have parking impacts on the community and it doesn't provide time to evaluate the impact of new private payball courts at El Eagle Glenn Golf Club and the cost for that again is just under 1.1 million. And then our final option for consideration is what we are calling the compromise option option five. Um this would be to add eight pickle ball courts to Elserto but retain one of the tennis courts and to bring back one tennis court to Border Park. Um, this option still needs to be evaluated a little further to find out exactly what that configuration could look like, but we put some um, rough sketches up here of how we think that may work. Um, the pros for that is that it retains one of the courts at Elserto and it brings tennis back to Border Park. Um, there is a no net loss of tennis courts in the community. So, we would still maintain our level of service guidelines for tennis while meeting our level of service guidelines for pickle ball. Um it would help reduce some of the pickleball noise at Border Park which we have heard from the community has been problematic over the years. Um it gives us a net gain of six pickle ball courts in the city and it achieves the park and bike master plan um level of service guidelines which I mentioned for both pickle ball and tennis. Cons is that it removes one tennis court at Elserto and

the cost is approximately 100,000 higher than the original CIP project at 1.2 million. So, this is a um summary of all of the options that I just presented. Um I'll leave this slide up for the council to consider. And again, our recommendation tonight or our ask tonight is that the city council provide direction on how to move forward with this project. All right. Thank you, Miss Finch. Miss Edwards, are they speaker cards from the public? Mayor, yes, we have 20 speaker cards for this item.

Okay, you guys been here long enough. You know the drill. What's that? Go ahead. You got plenty of time.

Come on up. Members of the council, appreciate you hearing us this evening. So, my name is Paul Foster. Uh, family of five. We live in South Corona. Uh, we took up tennis during COVID. And my son, Zack, Zack, go stand up with your tennis racket. Smile. Turn around.

So, he is now going to be going to Santiago as a freshman and trying out for the tennis team. Um, so we're excited to be Sharks and school starts tomorrow. So, two or three times a week we frequent El Certo. Um, we go there for lessons, uh, private. We also go there for, um, hitting group sessions that we go over there. And then also, we go there for warm-ups on the weekend. I've learned that, you know, once you go to tournaments, you have to go warm up ahead of time, like 45 minutes for the kids. So we tour, we usually go Mountain Gate and then we go uh Eagle Glenn and then Elserto. And hopefully we find an open court. And it's difficult on the weekends. So we find it, we warm up, then we go to wherever the tournament is. We can't warm up where the tournaments are because all the courts are utilized wherever it may be on that side. So Elserto is really it's been a rally point for the family. uh as much as we frequent it, we've met a lot of people there. Uh we'veworked, we've enjoyed it immensely. Uh and we utilize it and there's not a plethora of courts available to us. We'd like to retain what we do have and keep tennis and keep it available for the community. It's been great for us and we would really like to retain tennis. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Paul. Good evening. Come on up. Hello. I'm Jerry Miguel. Hi, Mayor. Hi, city council. Hello.

Our pickle ball community is very excited about the future of this sporting activity in Corona. At the same same time, we have we are a little unsettled by some of what we've heard. A new pickle ball complex in Corona has a chance of being very special. It doesn't have to be a Rolls-Royce. It just has to be done well without cutting corners. TmAcula recently Oh, we have a a picture. Sorry. Um Tmacula recently completed a gorgeous pickle ball complex complete with 17 courts, two parking lots, stadium lighting. It attracts crowds of 100red or more regularly. It costs 2.5 million but is larger and more involved than what we are looking for. If you haven't seen it in person, you really should. It's a really good lesson there. Riverside recently demolished two tennis courts and is under construction now with nine new pickle ball courts that take their place. Total cost 2.4 million. The demolition demolition adds to the total compared to what we are proposed here. Corona has budgeted 2.1 million for new pickle ball courts. The master the park's master plan calls for a pickle ball complex with 12 or more courts. Yet the new budget of 463 million has less than one quarter or 1% airmock for pickle ball. We think it can be done with that little sliver of money, but careful and cooperative planning. However, cost savings, cutting corners, choices in in-house refurbishment of the pickle pickle of the tennis courts could very well end

with poor results and minimal use of the by the public. use court contractors for new surfacing has has been done for four pickle ball courts in Kellogg Park. Why use professionals on our tennis and basketball courts, but then use city staff to resurface pickle ball courts. Just 1.1 million requires things to be done carefully, so they must be done right. If you build it, they will come, but if you don't build it correctly, it will be a ghost town. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Welcome.

Welcome. I uh name is Mark Woler Cronis. I'm going to look at more to me is like partly a ordinance issue number one. So as as she has as she had greatly mentioned on the plans making there's an insurance regarding uh the actual nuisance right decel levels need to be controlled and that to make get 300 ft you know from a from a building uh number one border isn't that way right so that's maybe 150 ft so that one's ripe for litigation right there when you're dealing with this other park though you have to take into consideration two different type of sporting people. There's nothing wrong with pickle ball, but you have to take into consideration if her master plan says that it's met right now. Any deviation from that plan, taking off one court, two courts, deviates from that plan. So, we we have a two sports that are both increasing in actual acceptance. And viewers, just like has been said, there's been that increase on a new sport such as pickle ball, even though it's been around forever, that increase is always going to be greater than something a sport that's been around forever. So the you got a high demand on both sports, but then how do you implement it within the city? Even though the surreals park is probably ideal regarding a a nuisance issue, right? But then are you willing to discriminate against the tennis population to satisfy another group of sport? So if you want to satisfy them both, you maintain the current which makes it within the plan. You're not deviating from the city plan even though there's going to be more tennis players next week, next year, but put those additional courts on that open land. So

if you're looking at to me that feasibility that's what you have to do any deviation if other cities have taken two courts and then split in half. One is going to be pickle one is tennis. Toughree park is one of them. Uh in Brea if you're going to separate any courts you'd almost have to go to mountain gate because mountain gate's got four courts. You take two courts and then you got all the courts you need. However, you're going to violate the nuisance. You violated nuisance already by putting in border. At some point in time, those are going to be probably taken out because the decimal level of getting to 64, you're at 70 dB on pickle ball at and that's at the 100 ft. When you're at 150 ft away, you're still exceeding the 64 decel. So that's something's going to happen. So the complaints have already been coming. Other cities have already dealt with lawsuits and it's probably around the corner. I want both sports to succeed, but I think you got to build new courts because if you have the demand like most cities, they're charging a lot of times if you if dealing with a lot of cities, Fullerton, they're all contracted courts, you could have a revenue generation machine to be able to maintain a higher level of courts for pickle ball because you're going to probably Thank you. [Applause]

Hello, council. My name is Tyler Sunberg. Um, and I am a resident here at Corona. And Justin, how are you? Um, so I guess first my big question is how many of you guys are actually or how many do you live do does anybody live in Elsarto?

Very good. I live in Elsarto. I've been, my family's been there since 1982. Um, my in-laws bought their house there at that time. Um, my family and I moved in in 2004 and we've been there. We started playing tennis on the tennis courts there when that park first opened and you saw me get emotional last time when I was here because it's been such a huge part of our family. Option three, where you build some new pickle ball courts, keep the tennis courts, I think helps support both sides. I don't see that there's any reason to have to get rid of the tennis courts. Um, tennis is a growing sport here in Corona. My daughter's played at Santiago High School. I have one that's going to be a sophomore. She plays varsity tennis at Santiago. And my 11-year-old boys, they're twins. They play tennis and they're looking forward to continuing to play tennis. We walk down to that park almost daily because it is so close. To get rid of those courts would be a travesty to our community. So for the El Certo community for Corona, please look more if you're going to go through one of these options. Go for option three where we retain those courts because it's a huge part of who we are as a community. Corona is a big sports community. sports here have grown immensely and we don't want to see any of that go away. So, please continue to support that and do what's right for both sides. Thank you.

Thanks, Taylor.

Welcome. Uh, good evening, council. My name is Tony Haro. I've been a resident of Corona for about 30 years. So, um, as I was listening to the the court usage for 19 courts, um, at at Arbenddale Middle School, it says there's a new measure for, uh, Colonel Unified School District that there's going to be a new building on the uh, gymnasiums on that court. So, 19, take away those student. But, uh, you know, I'm just here on behalf of my my, uh, 16-year-old daughter who plays high school tennis. um allowing the tennis courts at El Certo um Park to be taken over by pickle ball players would greatly affect kids like mine um in the sense that practice and training would be taken away and uh my daughter many others students like her uh hope to attend college um via tennis scholarships. While I understand pickle ball provides socialization and and exercise for older adults, it's still not a college sport that offers scholarships. Um, so in closing, um, I think we just like some fairness here. Um, you know, 17 courts is great, um, or 17 reality with the new Auburnale construction. It would take us down to 17. So, uh, we just want fairness, um, on both sides and we hope to keep those those tennis courts. Thank you.

Thanks, Tony. Welcome, mayor and council members. My name is Bob Dere. I've been in uh Corona here for 49 years, and I'm here for pickle ball, but all the talk about congestion, I want to be the first one to volunteer to get off the freeway. If you just simply make the airport bigger, I wouldn't have to drive to Van Ice. So, uh, but, uh, my concern, we met with the, uh, parks and wreck about their proposals about all the different pickle ball courts, uh, at, uh, Elserto, and we desperately need them, and but we're not here to promote taking things away from tennis. Tennis is needed, but I've seen some of the conditions of some of the tennis courts, too, and they're they're about as bad as ours. I have a photo of of uh ours right here. um that's less than 8 months old and with the help of the city getting pressure washers out there but again all we get is like today a bunch of us were out there with brooms pushing water after the city worker came with a pressure washer with weight not enough hose so he's using it more like a hose than he is a pressure washer and he obviously doesn't know the difference between why you need a pressure washer versus a hose because all we did was wet the dirt and move it to somewhere else. um it it was just a disaster and that's what we get when we don't get it cleaned right and then you spend all the money resurfacing and eight months later we we're we're playing on those kind of conditions. So the other concern with doing El Certo and taking tennis courts is everyone who takes a single court wants to put four pickle ball courts on and if you do that there's not enough room and it's going to be a self-fulfilled prophecy prophecy here we built it and no one came. There's not enough room to put four courts on one pickle ball on one tennis court unless you expand the boundaries. So, I just implore you to really research this well. Make something designed for pickle ball and do it right. We can't do it

with city workers and put paint on something and deal with this constantly. We need professional courts. We need professional uh surfaces. Thank you.

Thanks, Bob. Welcome. Hello. I'm Javier. Um, I've been in Corona for 18 years, tennis player, professional racket stringer. Justin, I've strong kids rackets uh for many years. I see a lot of familiar faces. Um, tennis is not slowing down. I'm busy. I string on the tour and then I sing for my community. High schoolers, they're all coming to me. I'm taking care of them. I'm busier than ever. The only solution that I see for pickle ball and tennis to coexist is to have an equal amount of space for both. But not blended lines, not sharing courts. This is separate courts for pickle ball, separate courts for tennis. Don't take away from tennis and give to pickle ball what they need in order to have the space for themselves. We can coexist. It's not, you know, us against them or them against us. We have to be able to do this together. So really think about Elserto. Think about what it's going to do and how it can work so that we all work together. So thank you very much.

Come here. Welcome.

Hello members of the city council. My name is Sharon Abear and I am a resident of Corona. Um, I like many of my other tennis uh folks here have definitely felt the effect of losing courts to the conversion to pickle ball as far as availability. But what I really wanted to address tonight is our youth, our juniors. They are the cornerstone of the growth of the tennis program. And as you can see the young ones here holding up the USA sign. Our our all the high schools in Corona have a boys and girls tennis team. They compete against other high schools. They use these courts after school hours and on the weekends to practice, to train, to better their skills. I think we can all agree that having kids on a Saturday morning playing tennis is much better than at home playing on computer games. This is what kids need to grow. camaraderie, team sports, exercise out in the fresh air, and they utilize these courts for practice, for their upcoming matches. And I think it's very important to keep public courts available for our youth, our juniors, and the growth of tennis. Thank you.

Thanks, Sharon.

Welcome. Hello, my name is Esther Hendershot and I am a representative of the United States Tennis Association, Southern California. I am also the director of community tennis and this the city of Corona is part of my territory and I am very concerned about the issues that our tennis compatrates here are expressing and and sharing with you. uh because pickle ball has been growing. Yes, we do agree with that. But so has tennis. Tennis continues to grow. In the last uh few years is growing by 8% just as the young lady said earlier. We are at 25.9 million players and tennis will continue to grow as we see it in many communities where pickle ball is taking over our our tennis courts. We also see many communities that are now regretting in you know painting over and taking over tennis courts because number one the noise factor number two the traffic number three taking it away from the youth and families of the community. One thing I want to uh remind everyone is the history of tennis overall. How many years has tennis existed? It is a sport of of discipline, of respect, integrity, character. All all skill sets that we teach our youth from the young age when they start playing tennis. Uh and we also provide opportunities for many families whether they can afford tennis or not. And that is what the United States Tennis Association does. Parks and Rex is very important to our communities. We understand that. and tennis park tennis courts at parks and recrecks were built specifically for tennis not for pickle ball. I encourage the city council to to too I suggest just as many people have shared before build some pickle ball courts but separate not at the expense of the

tennis courts that currently exist that are in use. If they were not in use that's one thing but they are currently being used by high school players, families, grandparents. My father's 94 years old and plays tennis. So, I want to see tennis continue to thrive and thank you for this opportunity to represent uh the United States Tennis Association and our tennis family here. Thanks, Esther.

Welcome.

Hello. My name is Charlotte Deassa and I like Esther work for USA. I'm the adult league coordinator for Inland Empire and so I Corona is in my region and a lot of my fellow um teammates and players and they're here today and I want to say that um there aren't enough courts in Corona because my players don't have places to play. Um they're impacted every Saturday, Sunday morning. People are fighting over reserving the courts. And I know you have a reservation process, but it's not being, I guess, run correctly or or people aren't abiding by the rules. Some people just take the courts, make money on the courts, and aren't paying the fees that should be paid to the city of Corona. And and my players who rent the courts are paying $80 a day to rent courts. And so I feel that there should be more courts available for players like like my USA teammates and um players, but also I'd like to say this the USA um has met with many of your um officials here at City of Corona and we're trying to work a partnership where we resurface some courts um and we have a shared um revenue process. So, there's money to be made for both the city of Corona and USA. And I'd like to see it done and I'd like you also to consider a private facility for pickle ball because I don't think they do coexist and the city of Tmacula has done a fabulous job. I've played at the pit. I play pickle ball as well and I really feel like that that the facilities need to be separate. So, thank you for your time. Thanks, Charlotte. Welcome.

Hello, council members. My name is Joseph Garcia. Um, I moved here in 2019 and I remember one of my favorite things about moving here was the Elsto Park because it's um right by my house. And just from my experience of the past um 6 years I've lived in Corona um it is hard to find tennis courts sometimes like I had many times on the weekends where I had to drive to Elserto Mountain Gate um Eagle Glenn and just all the courts were taken. So because of that for that reason um I know that pickle ball is growing but again I think option three is the only sensible option. I think that Corona we should be and we have grown but continue to grow and I don't think replacing tennis courts um with pickle ball court with pickle ball courts is growing corona I think that we need to have it separate and yeah I mean tennis has been a big part of my life for six years here and those courts have been my home courts and it would be a travesty to have them go and I think it would cause just so much traffic at Eagle Glenn which would be the next court closest to my to my residents. So yeah. Um so yeah, overall I um I hope that you we can choose to build the pickleball courts for the pickleball players and preserve the tennis courts for the tennis players. Thank you.

Thanks, Joseph.

Welcome.

Hello. Hello council. Uh my name is Carlos Tihada, representative of Corona. Um, tennis has been a huge part of my life. Um, played in high school. I was tennis captain. Um, if there weren't sufficient enough public spaces, I wouldn't be the person I am today. You learn so many life lessons doing sports. You make so many friends. You get so many connections. Um, I wouldn't have the scholarship that I do for college. It's not a It's not a sports scholarship. It's an academic scholarship. Schools look to see if you're involved in other sports in high school sports, tennis, football. that you look to see that you're all inclusive, that you don't just have like the mental space there, that you work well with others, you work well as a team. It's just really important thing to think about. Um throughout the world, um America has the most tennis players in the whole world. Uh the USA spokesperson said 24 million, 25 million. Our courts are just as crowded as the pickle ball courts if if not more. all you if taking out these courts would just take out would lead to more traffic just lead to more places being more crowded. Um at the Serria courts I currently train with some of the uh current students at Santiago High School. They use these courts to get better not just you know at school not just the tennis get better at life. They use these courts to get scholarships to move on to their next stages in life. Um, I know there's a big problem about the private court, the private pickup courts, uh, happening at Eagle Glenn. I know there's some concern about the price. The price for private tennis courts to get a membership at a country club is $3,000 minimum. A lot of these people don't have that type of money. We use leagues, we use USCA, we use these courts to get out and play. Um, there's plenty of space at El Certo. Um, I don't see why we both can't exist. To me, it's kind of like the same issue. Like just

because, you know, America, pickle ball is getting very popular in America. To me, it's like the same issue like baseball is more popular in America. What happens if we take out the soccer fields for baseball? Is that really fair to any of the other sports? We can't be pitting these sports against each other. Um, the removal of these courts, you're driving like the tennis players out of Corona. They we have to go somewhere else because the courts here are too crowded. I also think that you would increase the traffic into Corona from all the pickball from all the pickball players surrounding. Last council meeting I came to, we heard about people from Harupa coming to Corona to because there's no courts there. You guys would also be increasing this traffic I think and everything. Just lastly, we shouldn't be putting uh we shouldn't be pitting these two sports against each other. I think there's enough room for us to both work. Um yeah, that's about it. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening.

Hello. Uh Tim Kessle, been a resident of Corona for 36 years. Um I'm here for the pickle ball. Uh what is this new game with a weird name? Well, first of all, it's not new. It's been it began it began back in the 1960s. It all started as a family family fun sport and still is exactly that. It is unique way that it draws people together to play in mixed and large groups. One city official described it as a real community gathering sport. He he was asked about more courts in Corona 9 years ago and now nine years later we are finally getting around to giving our residents an honest to goodness pickle ball facility. He said, "This is exactly what the type of community investment we promised the voters and citizens when the sales tax increase was voted on and went into effect. Are there enough pickle ball players to make a new facility worthwhile a venture? Well, look at the impact it has on the neighborhood around Border Park. My first photo shows um the the backup one or it's the one with the street, the cars in the street. There we go. shows some 54 cars parked along the street at border. This is a typical afternoon or evening along border. The next photo shows a um you'll often see 40 to 70 people mingling to waiting to play while there are 40 people on the courts. The last photo has shows a full paddle rack of people having to wait. There's not enough courts available. The park's master plan calls for 12 more courts and as requested by the citizens. Now is the time to provide these residents with a real a real pickle ball complex. Not just another ancient or not just an ancient citrus grove water tank with quartz painted on top. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Tim. Good evening.

Good evening. Uh my name is Alice Wagner. I've been a resident of Corona probably longer than a lot of you people have been alive. Um but anyway, um as a longtime resident of Corona, I just want to express my observations of the ongoing planning process for pickle ball in Corona. Pickle ball is here and needs to be addressed and accepted as part of the recreational options provided by our city to its residents. I appreciate that Corona has attempted to accommodate by repurposing the border park site and that over the past several years has allowed for the popularity of pickle ball in our town to grow. But it's time to acknowledge that there is a need for a wellplanned site, not just a band-aid approach again. It should also not be diminished because of private ventures occurring within the city and surrounding areas. The social sport of pickle ball is best served by placing multiple courts in one location versus scattering two or four here and there around the city. Concerns of neighbors regarding noise and congestion also have to be considered. Carefully considering the layout and planning to accommodate the large number of players that will come is crucial to the success of the developed site. If done incorrectly, it may be money wasted. The Elserto Park site appears to be the best option to accomplish this and players will come from all over Corona and surrounding areas, but only if it is properly developed. It should not just be a remodel of the tennis courts already there. I have also been a tennis player for many years and appreciate the concerns of the tennis community. However, in looking at the

report that states there are currently 19 tennis courts in our city and driving by those sites at different times of day and night, it appears there are sufficient courts to service the tennis community. My concern as a tennis player would be in approaching the city to do some badly needed resurfacing. if you can put up my first picture of Mountain Gate Park. Uh that is desperately in need of resurfacing for pickle ball or tennis. Um also the second picture if you put up but I guess it's a moot point. The Auburndale Park tennis courts should be subtracted from the total count as those two courts need major repair to be considered safe and playable. So, I just want to thank you for the consideration of the needs of both the pickle ball and the tennis community and try to get us to all have fun.

Thank you, Alice. Welcome.

My name is Mike Wagner. That was my wife. Uh, as she said, we've been here a long time. I've been here longer than her. The city has changed a little bit since my little league days. Um, and I'm going to just ignore what I spent half the day writing. Uh, we didn't expect to see this. and I'm here with the pickle ball group, but I also feel for these people. As my wife just said, she played Corona tennis with a women's group for probably close to 30 years. I played for part of that time. We've we've had a lot of tennis time in Corona. Our oldest daughter played at Centennial High School. uh put in a lot of hours on tennis courts in town and then played on a scholarship at UCR. We know what the tennis does for people. We've we've been there. We've lived it and and there's no doubt that it's important. But what these folks are looking at is the unique kind of sport that allows 13-year-olds to come out with us that are in our 70s and come and play and mix with all your neighbors and meet more people. It's a little different feel than the typical tennis situation. As Alice said, we just

Mike, can you speak into the mic so we can hear you? We got very curious the other night and we we drove from Elserto across town and looked at all of the tennis courts. We counted 17 tennis courts and we counted nine of them that were being used. So approximately half and I think we probably counted 16 to 20 players. When we got to our side of town, we drove up border to look and see what was going on there and you saw the pictures. There were 40 people on the 10 courts and 45 more waiting. There's much more impact right now in the pickle ball community. But I agree. I there has to be a way somehow and it's going to take more than a quarter of a percent of the budget if we could get a little more money involved. Everything points to Elserto for us because of the nature of the game, because of the noise, because of the neighbors. It it just Elserto is more isolated than any other park. And we've looked at all of them. But we're not out to steal anybody's tennis courts. The one thing that I have played with drawing different diagrams and whatnot that came up in Elserto Park, there is room for us to convert the tennis court and the dirt facility and have the 12court facility that the master plan calls for. That master plan was put together for a reason. We could put 12 courts there and we could take the two or possibly even four tennis courts and move them up in the northwest corner of the park and they're still in El Certo. They're closer to homes. They're on the other side of the baseball fields. We can't go there. We would fit there, but it's too close to houses. And then we run into the same

issues we have now. Tennis is quieter. Kellogg Parks tennis courts are 50 ft from homes. Thanks, Mike. Welcome. Thanks. My name is Deer Walters. Um Justin, how's it going? Tom, I'm Chuck Norris from the state of the city uh video. Um a few months ago, I got bored and I started watching the city council meetings on YouTube. You must have been really bored, dude.

Yeah, really. But but on YouTube, you can speed them up two times. So, tonight it's been a lot longer than than what I usually watch. Um I've I've been able to see your personalities and and uh Tony, I appreciate you, you know, putting a pause

on this. I don't play tennis. I don't play pickle ball. Um I played them. Um it's they're fun. Um, but I did notice in that, you know, watching that last video, uh, a lot of the pickle ball people came from outside of Corona, Hoopa Valley, Norcco, Eastell, and I thought, you know, if they're coming, if the city's paying for it, but you're paying for other people's coming from other cities, so they should go talk to their city as well and say, "Hey, we need more pickle ball courts, tennis, whatever it is." Um, so I noticed that in the video, just watching that. Um, I'm here cuz in that video I saw Tyler whose daughter's coach or coach my daughter now who's 10 um and uh tennis, right? And so uh I saw him. I'm like gosh, guess I should come up here and say something. Um you know she's t just getting into it. uh she's had one of his daughters had another daughter um who's who's coaching her now and and she's figuring it out. Um and it's fun to see uh you know and I actually live in Tesco Valley and so it's good to hear that the courts are Riverside County cuz technically I'm Riverside County so so I can have a voice, right? Um but I just you know I get everybody wants a place to play. um you know and and the private sector is a great place for that. And it doesn't matter if it's pickle ball, tennis, uh you've got uh baseball, football, you got all these leagues that now you're playing travel ball and you're paying these high dollar amounts because you want a better experience. So it's easy to complain about the courts. Ah, they're bad. The the pickle ball courts are bad, the tennis courts are bad, the football fields. My my son plays flag football Els Certo on Friday nights and if there's pickle if there's

12 pickle ball courts there we can't find parking let alone with no pickle ball courts. So parking will be a huge issue at El Crito. Um and so again I have I really don't have a fight. Uh my daughter again she's she's here uh playing and so I'm here to support her and thank you. Thank you.

Welcome. Hello. Oops.

Can I move this? Sorry. There you go. Okay. Hello. Um, my name is Jaylen Cornblum. I've been an avid tennis player for about 13 years. Um, I played on like all of these courts over here in Corona, all over Inland Empire. Um, I wanted to say first of all that I am not opposed to pickle ball. Um, I respect the passion of all those players who showed up as well. Um, however, I do oppose unnecessary destruction of facilities that provide educational opportunities for students. Uh, during high school, I relied on these courts to train and to practice for tournaments and that ultimately helped me earn a tennis scholarship. And without access to public courts, that access to my education were tens of thousands of dollars would not have existed. Um and my story it is not unique at all. There's so many so many student athletes who go through the same experience. Um and most of the times public tennis courts are the only pathways for students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to develop college level skills and access college education. Um everyone has seen all of the options for um you know building pickle ball courts and tennis courts that the plan proposed. Um, but I I feel like most people can agree that converting these courts permanently to pickle ball courts destroys the broadest possible benefit for our community. Uh, public tennis courts do not need constant crowds to justify their value to the community. Uh, their success is measured by the opportunities they create beyond recreation. They serve as gateways to higher education that pickle ball cannot provide for us.

Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Hi, John Straer. Uh, Corona residents for 37 years. I don't envy you guys. This is tough. Fun job, isn't it?

Fun job. Um, I think there's an option seven. I really do. I I think the things I heard were you really should not try to combine these two these two things in one location. Meaning put tennis next to pickle ball courts, you're just going to have a congestive problem. But I think Elsero really is your answer. But it's going to take some more money. And I think Mike Wagner started to address it. You could put the 12 pickle ball courts that you need in El Certo and build new tennis courts on the far end of El Certo. And you could even move basketball courts over there as well. There's plenty of space. Um, everybody wins. It's going to take a little more money. That's I think that's going to be your biggest challenge. You've got a problem at border right now. that that facility was never designed to handle that volume. You probably get calls from your uh neighbors all the time about the noise and all that. So, border really does need to shrink. Needs to maybe it doesn't go away. Maybe it's three or four pickle ball courts. Maybe you put another tennis court up there as well. That's great. But you need to probably invest some money and do it right and do it at Elserto. Thank you.

Thanks, John. Welcome.

Hello. My name is Quintis and I've been playing tennis for about two years. I play varsity at Centennial High School and I play around 5 to six days uh on Corona Courts and I usually find myself hopping courts uh trying to find space. I want to talk on behalf of my mom, Alice Park. And her note to you guys was, "Dearesteemed members of the city council. I've been a homeowner in Karona for over 20 years. For most of that time, Corona was simply where I slept. It was a bedroom community to me. I commuted to Orange County for church and to Los Angeles for work. I knew hardly anyone here. My heart and community were always elsewhere. But everything changed 2 years ago when my children picked up tennis, wanting to support them. I picked up a racket myself last year. What started as a simple attempt to bond with my kids has blossomed into something far more meaningful. I found my community and in doing so I finally found a home. Through tennis I've met people of all backgrounds, all ages, all stories. At the Elserto tennis courts, I've witnessed firsthand the depth of humanity that this game brings out. We've rallied together for you players recovering from open heart surgery, supported a stroke victim who found healing and hope through tennis and welcome newcomers like family on any given evening. The courts are filled with laughter, sweat, shared victories, and shared space. We wait our turn. We share courts. We encourage each other. This is not just a game to us. It's therapy. It's community. It's where loneliness turns into belonging. And so, it breaks my heart to hear that the city may be turning its back on this vibrant, diverse, and deeply rooted tennis community to cater solely to the growing interest in pickle ball. I understand the need to support all sports. In fact, we already do. Our tennis courts have permanent pickle ball lines to allow for shared use. And yes, sometimes soccer players wander onto the courts and damage the nets. But we still find a way to share and coexist because that's what a true community does. Please, I respectfully urge you to reconsider converting the Elserto's tennis court solely to pickle ball. This would not only displace a devoted and welcoming tennis community, it would erase a space

where so many of us have found healing, connection, and purpose. In a world where division is so easy, these courts have been a place of unity. Please protect them not just for the game but with the people behind the game for our community. With helpful help heartfelt gratitude, Alice Park. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Welcome. Thank you. I want to do a quick uh correction there. Um I would say that about 90 95% of our um pickle ball players are actually residents, longtime residents of Corona. As the city moves forward, what's your name? Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. I'm Dana Lopez.

Nice to meet you. I've been a resident for 16 years here. Right on, Dana.

Thank you. As the city cont as the city council moves forward with plans to build a muchneeded exclusive pickle ball park for the city of Corona. I want to emphasize the importance of this project. Currently, Border Park has 10 pickle ball courts, but with the growth and increasing demand by all ages, we absolutely require additional courts. Moreover, providing 12 pickupball courts at Elserto Park will allow city lessons and possibly events, and it will also attract players from surrounding cities, enhancing our community's reputation as a pickle ball destination. I strongly recommend that if this project comes to fruition, the council engages with our local players for their insights and feedbacks prior and during the development of the new courts. Forming a pickle ball committee will be ideal. Compromised of actual players will be vital for ensuring the success of this endeavor. Additionally, we must pay attention to crucial details such as the quality of pickupball nets, court service paints for safety, sun shades, windsh benches, and storage units for longevity and much more. Hence the ideal of having a committee. Together, we can create an outstanding facility that our community will take pride in and also give back the peace and quiet to the residents near Border Park.

Thanks, D. Thank you. Good evening. Evening.

I'm John Melendez. I've lived in the area for a long time. My family moved to this area in 1969. I grew up with uh my father being a city manager. So much has not changed because I as a teenager, I would go watch some of the city council meetings and it would go past midnight. And I can see that's what where this is going right now. The only difference that we had was smoking was legal and so the whole ceiling would be full of smoke and I was just used to it. However, I grew up playing tennis. Um I took over uh the youth tennis league here in town several years ago, probably 20 and um I helped grow it from 180 kids from kindergarten through high school to 350. And I met I was meeting constantly with the parks and wreck department back in those days 15 20 years ago. And I remember sitting down with the director of um parks and wreck and I said you know the you know I hear these things about the general plan. I said well you know the general plan calls out for 10 courts at Santana and Park. He says no it doesn't. Yeah it does. So his assistant ran out of the room came back a few minutes later. He goes I'll be darned. It does call out for 10 courts. And the the parks director said, "John, while it's very impressive that you have 350 kids playing tennis, it's never going to happen." I said, "Why?" He said, "Because we have 7,000 soccer players." Now, I understand that, but this young lady over here gave a great presentation earlier on. And when she mentioned Aubberdale, Auburndale courts have not been used for decades. They're so dilapitated. There's no nets. And so, we really can't count those anyway, even though there is going to be construction on the site. I tried my hardest to get two more courts built at Kellogg Park because I was in constant contact with the USA

and to bring extra revenue in. I wanted to um throw have USA tournaments and we need a minimum of six courts and the city turned me down over and over again. And about a year after I was trying so hard, they came to me and said, "Hey, John, we built two tennis courts in the city where Prominade Park." Well, it wasn't going to do me any good for any kind of tournaments. Alls I'm saying is I appreciate pickle ball. I've I played tennis all this time. I played with retired coaches in town. Some of them my teachers and coaches from 50 years ago. And as they were getting older, I have a house that I bought in the area with an acre. And I bought it because a lot of it's vacant that faces north and south. And I was going to build my own court. So my next door neighbor approached me. He said, "John, just play on my court for the time being. I have lights. You can play anytime, day or night. Doesn't bother me. My kids never played on the court." So we had it resurfaced. I had all these coaches coming and I asked the surface guy said, "Do you want any other kind of lines?" "Yeah, put pickle ball lines." because as they approached 80 and 90 years old, we started playing pickle ball. I love the sport. I just don't think you should take any courts away from the city in as far as tennis is concerned. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Hi. Thank you. Uh my name is Laura Bach. I've been a longtime resident. Uh we're our family is fairly new uh to tennis. We've only been playing since um COVID when everything got shut down and um my children were locked in and we had kind of figured that would be a resource. So um we're females and as female tennis players, uh you got to get up earlier than everybody else to get on the courts. So, my daughter and I started that path. And what I'm emphasizing is we would have to beat other tennis, I wouldn't say clubs, but organizations and and a group of men. And so I was up at 6:30 in the morning. We would race to Kellogg. We would race to Mountain Gate. We would race over to Eagle Glenn. And honestly, we were we we ran across Elserto. And I was like, how does nobody know about this place? So we got lucky lucky lucky a lot going to that park and it is close to our house relatively. So, we've been there for a while now, uh, going on five years and and we've used the facilities. We've been with the, you know, the Tyler family also. And, um, something has actually changed at the El Certo Park is they have a new walkway that directly connects the middle school to the parking lot so that the parents have a new avenue of picking the kids up in the middle of the tennis court. And so it's to relieve the congestion that's been happening on the other side. So um and directly behind and I'm only telling you this because we played them just last week is the bungalows that are right there are 20 feet at the most. The roof line for where we're actually hitting the balls.

So, I don't know how you can accommodate, you know, 1,200 students with bungalows that are two going this way. They've got about eight. If I think that on maps, you'll see that you say that there's an ordinance not, you know, intruding on people's homes. But what about these kids' education that you have not heard the pounding and the thumping of pickle ball? And I love I think it's great. It is an amazing sport. But now we're not even considering the impact it's going to have on those students. And how about the accessibility of their parents picking their kids up? Come on now.

So I I'm not saying that Elser cannot be a part of the solution, but it sounds to me like we haven't even considered, you know, we'll consider the homeowners, the taxpayers, but our children are supposed to be getting their education there. And I'm it's just sad that it's so connected to that school and no school on that side is actually utilizing the courts that should be used for those kids, too. So, we're not even turning kids on into from from public schools on to tennis even though they're rightfully accessible to them. It's sad. So, you know, I know there's going to be a huge impact and I I I can't imagine the decibb being fantastic, but you know, um that's what my the thumping and the yelling and you know it is connect.

Thank you. Welcome.

Hi, my name is Skyler Bach and I'm a student at Santiago High School. And um first of all, there's nothing wrong with um pickle ball. I think it's a good sport. It's a rising sport for I think the older community, but of course the younger community is also getting involved with it, too. Um I think instead of focusing so much on incorporating um pickle ball or no sorry yeah pickle ball into tennis and um like trying to hire up them. I think we should have like an equal ground of well like with option three where you um we build the pickle ball courts on the tennis court but keep both of them and like it's not like one's better than the other or they're hiring up on them and like you know like we shouldn't really focus so much on that and um instead like focus on kind of the what's it called the repavement of the tennis courts um instead of like oh well pickle ball is like you know let's let's force pickle ball into the the um into tennis's like corners and spaces you know um and you know tennis has been a really big part of my family and my you know in my life a lot of my friends that I've met um has been through tennis so you know I don't think there should be like a really higher up there and just like you know like focus on like repaving tennis courts cuz like if you going to mountain gate or Elserto, the courts there are not looking so hot. So, you know, they could lose a little little little repaving cuz, you know, you're sliding around there. It's like can't even hit a ball. Um but but and I also think that like um like the help with like some of the school's tennis courts as well. Those um I feel like would add to the um 19. But yeah, I also go back to like what Jaylen said and my

mom said is like um everything is kind of going back to El Certo like Elsto is connected to El Crito's connected to the school the middle school right there which makes parking and you know school since it's coming up now or we're going into school. Hell, it's making like it's going to be crazy. Then we want to add pickle ball courts to it and then like keep the tennis courts, but um it's going to be crazy. And then there's soccer. I don't know if soccer season's coming up, but then there's soccer. It's kind of like all of it's just going back to one like place when you know we could go to other parks or try to go to like other places in uh not Corona but like in the Inland Empire um to put the pickle ball courts to add to it and um cuz it is it is hard to find a court every once in a while um especially like like for wanting to improve it's like hard to find tennis courts. um we have to go to all the courts. Elserto, Mountain Gate, we have to go to all of them to even find um a court. So I think it's good to keep them level and not like one's higher than the other one and just like have them live in their own space but like as two separates in a way. So thank you. That's all I have.

Welcome.

Hello council. My name is TJ Jackson and I've been a resident here in Corona for 21 years. I have two children. Uh, one's a senior and one is a freshman that are both tennis players. They grew up on the courts of uh, Elserto. And I just want to I didn't have any intention of speaking tonight to be honest, but I felt an obligation for the kids, for my kids, for the kids I see playing tennis. Um, I know many of you don't know I was a baseball player growing up. Didn't have any intention of being a tennis dad, but when I saw the highest GPA sport for high schoolers was tennis, I was like, my girls will be tennis players. As a city, I don't know why we would want to limit our chances of our kids playing this amazing sport that takes so much fortitude, not only physically, but also mentally. Um, the perseverance you get from tennis is something you don't learn in a classroom to be honest. So, I just as a father, I'm trying to speak up for not only my girls, but all the kids. Um, another thing I want to say real quick is I I've heard a couple people say how there's often times tennis courts are half empty or half open. Maybe that's at 400 p.m. when it's 95°, but when it cools down, it can take an hour to find a court in our city. My daughters, just last night, we went to go hit at 7:30. We didn't get on a court until 9:15. We went to Eagle Glenn, Elserto, Mountain Gate, back to Eagle Glenn, then ended up at Elserto and waited 30 minutes for a court. So, this shortage or this this idea that there's too many tennis courts or not enough players is crazy to me. Um, and I think that's very important because when it is 95°, 97 degrees,

sure, you're going to see half of those courts probably empty, but I promise you'll see it with pickle ball as well. The other thing I just want to say, and um Laura mentioned it just a minute ago. I don't know if all of you have been to the Elserto courts, but if you literally stand on those courts, there's a school, Elserto Middle School, that is right there. Pickle ball is a very loud sport. I have nothing against it. I hope we can figure out a solution for these players for as I get older, I want to play and stay active as well. I know how how the sport is growing, but I I have to think we have ordinances for homes. We should have ordinance for schools as well. My my daughter was homeschooled last year, so we would go play in the courts at 11:00 a.m. We can hear the bells ringing. We can hear teachers talking to students while we're playing tennis. If you don't think you're not going to be here in a couple years dealing with issues from the school because it's too loud on these possible pickup courts, this is a warning. So, thank you for your time. God bless you all. Thank you. Thanks, TJ. And I wanted to give a shout out real quick to Police Chief Newman. He made it back in with no scratches or blood or anything on him. So, good job, brother. All right. Next up, how you doing?

I'm good. How are you? Hello, my name is Amir Katab. Um, I'm about to be senior captain at Santiago High School for tennis. And um, as you can see, I just came back from tennis practice. I heard this was happening. I had to come share a word and share my opinion. Um, so tennis has been a huge part of my family. My dad has like pushed me on to playing tennis. I really like the sport. I've had freedom and to play multiple sports and tennis is what appealed to me the most. Me and my brother play competitively, but of course he's too scared to speak. So, I had to set a role model. Um, tennis, it's it's a way to cool off after an argument with my parents. Of course, it torments him when I lose at a tournament. Uh, me and him play tournaments. We play competitively. Um, as senior captain of the Santiago tennis team, we need a place to practice. Um, after we're done with school, maybe you want to hit after school, go to Eltoo Park. Um, most of the times it's always busy, but we usually find a way to play. Um, also around us, Mountain Gate, Eagle Glenn, all these courts, they're usually always busy, too. And we're high school players. We need to practice. We need to keep our skill level on par with other high schools, even though we're the best school in the district, but that's not the point. Um, what I like to say is I get why pickle ball is growing. Pickle ball is an easy sport. Um, it appeals to the elderly and my my bad for throwing any shade there. I don't I don't mean to be disrespectful. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but

you might want to sneak out right now, bro.

I play pickle ball myself. It's a really fun sport. It's not that expensive. And I feel like the only way to coexist both as both tennis players and pickle ball players is to build other pickle ball courts. Um, tennis has been a huge part of my life since I was just a little kid. Me and my brother as I'm going to say it again. He's over there. He was going to talk, but he doesn't want to. Um, I would appreciate if you guys keep the courts to us. Um, tennis is a huge part of my life. I play on a daily basis with my high school friends and my brother. My dad pushes this on to us all the time. He's a tennis player himself. Matter of fact, a very dedicated one. So yeah, I would I would appreciate it if you guys kept the tennis court to us. Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Hi. Thank you. My name is Rick Taylor. I've been a resident of Corona for over 30 years. And uh what I really wanted to do is give you my perspective of the tennis community for those 30 years. Um, I'm probably going to echo what a few of people have uh told you already, but I don't know if anybody remembers or played tennis 30 years ago when I came to Corona. We had these little boxes that you put your money in to get the lights to come on and all around us the ball fields and the soccer fields were all lit up all night. Nope. But we had to pay. But we showed up anyway and we we used the courts and you saw some pictures of the conditions of most of the courts in Corona. Um, we'd put the money in the meter and we'd get half the lights to come on. But we'd come out anyway and we'd come out and then we'd have a net hanging by a couple of little threads on the cord that runs across and we'd play anyway. And you saw how slippery some of the courts are. They're born down to the concrete. But we come out and we play anyway. I did my own tally of the courts. So from what I could think of what what we had in Corona 30 years ago I came up with 15 and I didn't even know about the Auburnale middle school. I didn't know about the Mangular. Well, I didn't know about Mangular. I was reminded but it's in such bad shape. You cannot play tennis on it. The ground moves when you run across the courts the last time I was there anyway. Um that was 30 years ago. Has the population in Corona increased a little bit in 30 years? We haven't had a new town card except for Elserto and uh Prominade and now you talk about taking El Certo away doesn't make sense. I laughed a little earlier when the uh traffic engineer was up here talking about adding one lane of traffic to the 91 between the 241 and

the 71. and they're going to have a plan in a year and a proposal in a couple years and and maybe by 2030 we're going to have that lane ready for for use. Does anybody here believe that that one little lane of traffic is going to do a damn thing in five years from now? We have been so far behind on building courts in this city for 30 years. Previous councils have been a failure at this. Okay, don't be that. We need more courts for everybody. I commiserate with the pickle ball people because I've lived it for 30 years playing tennis. We have great facilities. This the city has grown beautifully in those those years, but just kind of missed the boat here on parks and recreation, I think. Um, so that's my that's my story. Um, thanks for listening.

Thanks, Rick. All right. Thank you.

Good evening, city council. How are you doing? Uh, first of all, my name is Solomon Perez. I just want to thank you for uh allowing us to get up here to express our uh our feelings on the matter. And uh I just wanted to say that it kind of feels like I'm on an episode of Law and Order right now, but I probably should have worn a suit. Uh, no. But I'm here to represent the tennis community. I am a former tennis player myself. Now I play more recreationally. I used to play competitive. Uh, but now I give that to my sister. She's back there. So, she is currently a competitive tennis player with the USA and also the UTR. Uh, and she's way better than I've ever been. But, uh, she goes to a school much like I did when I was back in high school, uh, that does not have a tennis team. So these tennis courts were our home courts that allowed us to train because outside of high school in order to prep for college back when I had to do that too and now it's her turn. Uh she has to apply for these scholarships and these tennis courts allow her to practice and train and then apply for those scholarships because she doesn't have the opportunity to um to play tennis in high school. Uh, but I just don't think it's fair for the pickleball community to take this away. Um, I know a lot of them, as you heard them today, want to kind of take over the entire El Certo Park. Uh, and I have nothing against pickle ball. I think it's it's interesting. It's become a pretty big fad because of social media recently. Uh, and I know it's been around for a long time, too, but it's only gained popularity recently. Uh, but according to the Harvard Health status, I'm going to bore you guys with a little bit of science because no one else did that today. Um, but you burn 600 calories per hour while playing tennis while you only burn 150 to 250 calories per hour playing pickle ball. So, it's it's a healthier sport and I'm sure the city of Corona cares about our health,

right? Um, uh, but I just wanted to bring that up as a fact. And on top of that, as I mentioned earlier, when it comes to colleges and universities, 95% of the universities in California are NCAA and do not recognize pickle ball as a an official sport. So, I don't think it's fair to call it a sport. Um, so, um, now you might want to go early, too. So, in saying that, I think it's a fun hobby, but I don't think we should sacrifice real athletic infrastructure for a casual hobby. So, thank you. All right.

Welcome.

Hello. My name is Dallas Jackson and I am a 14-year-old incoming freshman at Santiago High School. And I wanted to talk about the impact tennis has had on my life just so far. I've only really been playing competitively for around 2 and 1/2 years, almost three now. But it really has become something so special to me. As my dad said earlier, I was homeschooled for 2 years. And knowing that you don't really make many friends just being at home all the time. So, I really relied on tennis for that. And the community that I've built within this sport is just impeccable and I'm so grateful for it. That being said, as he said literally last night, I could not find a court and I don't really think anybody has said this. We find so many pickle ball players on our tennis courts multiple multiple multiple times that we lose courts to them honestly. Maybe not many, but there it's still there. We're trying to play tennis on our courts and they're there playing in the singles lines which don't really do much. and we're just waiting for a court while they're just playing pickle ball on ours. So, I don't think that that's really fair to us. Of course, they deserve their solution, but I don't think a their solution should be taking away our hob, our sport and our love to many. I also find tennis to be a big part of my future. Hopefully, I really plan on playing in college and using it to get a scholarship if I'm able to. and it's really going to be a big part of my future and achieving all my goals. So, I really hope that you guys take this in into consideration and keep these courts, give them their solution, but don't take away ours. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jackson.

Good evening, everybody. I'm going to have a I've got a completely different take on this. You might not be surprised. Um this is uh debacle number four in an ongoing uh series of debacles from the parks and recre parks department of community services. Uh first was we had the field use fee debacle where the the teams were not consulted about a fee hike and so we had a big show up like this because they never communicated with the with the leagues. They didn't have an understanding of what the leagues did. We had the library maker space thing which Mr. speak remembers really well because he got he got dressed down by his employee, the city manager about that. Um, we had the historic civ civic center usage thing where staff never discussed the uh fe the room allocation with the people who actually use the rooms. So, they went in there and redesigned the program for the people that use the historic civic center. Uh, and now we have the pickle ball pickle ball versus tennis cage match. Like only the most incompetent management would set up a zero- sum game between two popular sports and have them come in here and fight in the city council meeting. Not fight, fight politely, but they were not involved in this process. What happens now since we've lost having a functional parks commission that we used to have that that would have made sure that this was handled in an efficient way, you know, and that people would have been contacted and there would have been a fully vetted plan. We don't have a fully vetted plan. These people didn't know about it. I mean, the tennis people didn't have any idea they were going to lose their courts during this. They would have been down here to begin with. So when you handle things in the back room and and handle things by wink and nod and well somebody's complaining so just come on down here. Oh don't worry we'll handle it and you don't handle it

in a forthright manner and you don't do it in a in a fully vetted public sort of a sense then you end up with things like what you had here. Remember this is number four, right? So you got to stop it and you got to acknowledge what's going on here. You have a city manager, not not Mr. Tucker, you know, you're the you're the assistant city manager stepping in, but Mr. Ellis fancies himself the parks guy and he's really running the parks department and he's really calling the shots. And it's gone back to the old Corona deal where you just sort of throw something at the dart board and maybe it'll work and maybe it won't. We got to stop this. We have to stop this. I I want to vindicate Mr. Dario's pause on this because if you hadn't paused it, the tennis courts would be gone and there wouldn't have been this discussion. We wouldn't have had this discussion at all that we should have had a year ago. Thank you very much.

Thank you. [Applause] Welcome.

Hello, councils. My name is Risa. I've been a corona residence for 10 plus years now and I am a tennis player. I've dealt with um you know coaching the high school teams and you know interact with all these young generations and thank you to the city that you guys are growing the young generations without the tennis club you know that's all because of the public courts that you guys have for us and if this elerido is going to be a pickle ball court that is going to be the precedence And that is going to happen to other courts as well. And the tennis courts seems to be empty during the day. Just like the other gentlemen say, it's hot on the court. It's 10 plus more Fahrenheit degrees Fahrenheit. That's going to be hotter than the other surfaces. So, um, please don't look at that, you know, afternoon time. That's for the sake of our lives first of all and high school you know when when you look at the Google map of Coron city of Corona it looks like there are so many courts tennis courts but that's because you know high school courts because of high school courts that's not available to the public you know and I just wanted to say wanted to say that the city has been doing the tremendous job growing the young generations of tennis players as you can see but and please do not take any opportunities for them to even grow further. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, this looks like it might be our last one. Welcome.

Hi, my name is K Chong. I'm 17. U I've been playing tennis for as long as I can remember. Uh my parents are actually My parents are actually here. I started for since I was five and I've honestly been around all these courts. We've gone through from 6:00 am in the morning to find courts. Sometimes there are courts, sometimes there aren't. And Elser one of the courts that we play at, especially if my dad and I want to come hit. And a lot of the time, um, these courts are def a lot of the courts are definitely filled. And I'm not going to say anything mean about pickle ball because I have my own experiences about it. Um I practiced at um Los Cab for about an entire summer and there it was definitely very loud. I can understand the uh noise complaint from those other people. Um, I am in currently in college right now and I've played with a lot of the Santiago kids or rather have either played with them in the same team or you know grew up with them. But in my point is I don't want our Elserto courts to be taken or replaced by pickleball courts because well yes we do have a lot of courts but majority of the those courts are high school courts which are unable to access after school hours. So maybe we could reach out to schools but that would be a different conversation. Correct. But this does not mean that any sort of sport should take out another court. Correct. Um, yes, option B does sound valuable, but a from what I've heard, uh, basketball courts are also an option. I'm not sure if that would be a plausible idea for the pickle ball side, but if that is, maybe that could be go

into consideration. Um, another thing is I think that a lot of the courts, yes, they definitely do need more resurfacing, but in my point of view, I kind of feel like this is a petty conversation. As much as that might offend a couple people, it really is a petty conversation between a lot of adults. And I've heard so many remarks and rebuttals from other people, especially the pickle ball side. I'm so sorry. Um, but there's this one lady who kept making remarks and rebuttals and you know I I know everybody wants to go home. But my final option, my final conclusion is that don't replace courts because someone else wants to for their own needs, but instead find a reasonable solution to be able to put two and two together and be able to have both parties in peace. Thank you very much.

Thank you. All right. Not seeing any other speakers. Miss city clerk, do we have any written comments? Mayor, yes, we received one written comment for this item. I support option four on the Elserto pickle ball courts proposal. Also, keeping six courts at border. Courts one through four too close to home. Courts 5 through 10 at border can be used and and a little money towards sound mitigating barriers on two to two to four fences. This is this is to me the most effective plan to meet the needs of the public. Thank you, Larry Burril.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, thanks everybody for showing up tonight and and stating your case. Do you have any comments or questions for my colleagues? Tony,

so many comments. Um, first of all, I really want to thank everybody that came out today um to speak in favor of their their sport and their opinions. Um, I learned a couple of things today that I hadn't considered uh previously and that was very important to me. So, I want to thank everybody that showed up today. Um, I was keeping count probably like everybody else and I counted about 26 people that were here in support of tennis and about six people that were here in support of pickleball. And I think everybody is looking for some sort of common ground. Um, my colleagues, uh, Council Member Speak and Council Member Richens love to um, give us a history lesson. So, I'm going to give you guys a history lesson. Tennis originated in the 12th century. Rackets were introduced in the 16th century and modern tennis originated in 1873 with the first Wimbledon in 1877. So by my count, tennis is at least 150 years old at least. And I think that um hearing the data that this sport is still growing is very um very encouraging to me. Um, there was a gentleman that came up uh and talked about back in the day having to put quarters in the lights. And um, I wouldn't consider myself a tennis player, but I used to hit quite a bit in high school because it would keep me sharp between sports. And I remember having to bring a roll of quarters to put quarters in our high school sports because they still allowed them open. And I remember my parents having to come get me at, you know, 11:00 at night because I was still playing and uh, it was time for me to go home. So, I think we've come a little bit farther in that sense, and I'm glad that uh we're not charging, you know, quarters for lights anymore. But the things that I thought were very interesting that I didn't consider were number one, by putting a pickle ball facility at El Certo, it's

going to make parking a nightmare. And I I can foresee a year down the line uh after it's built that, you know, uh people are coming in complaining about parking. And that is a multiuse sports facility. We we've got baseball going on there. uh soccer's going on there, basketball is going on there, and if it's and if it's already a challenge to find parking, it's only going to be worse in the future. So that thank you for educating me on that because that's something that I hadn't considered. And I also hadn't considered the proximity to Elserto Middle School and what the sound is going to do for the teachers at that school. Um so I appreciate that note as well. Um, I've said it all along that this plan wasn't ready to go and that's part of the reason for the pause. And I like to admit when I'm wrong and I think where I went wrong was just saying, "Hey, we need to look to see the impact of what the uh the new pickle ball facility at um Eagle Glenn is going to do on our on our players. But more importantly, we need to see what the impact of a facility like that is going to have on this park in in the long term um in the long-term status. Um I think parking will be a disaster. I think it will be a noise um pollution problem for the middle school. And quite frankly, I don't think that we need to put 12 courts there. And I would like to have some more time to fully vet out a plan. Um, you know, the the courts at Auburnale are terrible and nobody plays on them, but we are addressing that in the redo of that park. And once that park is completely done with new tennis courts, I would hope that, you know, that would add tennis courts for our tennis players. Um, more so than ever, I am convinced that putting 12 pickle ball courts and taking out tennis courts at Elserto is the wrong answer. So, I think that our parks

department needs to come up with a better solution and I didn't see any of them on these uh solutions that they provided. So, um, those are my thoughts for right now. I don't I don't really have any questions. Again, I want to thank everybody for showing up today. It was it was important. Um, Chucky, you were supposed to speak. I like how you sent your son down there, you big, you big scaredy-cat. But, um, I do appreciate everybody showing up and giving us their feedback because again, I learned a few things today and I'm excited to see that our tennis players in our community are thriving and are advocating for their courts. So, thank you. Um, I'd like to to ditto what Mr. Ddario said. Thank you all for coming and and I I want to say that this is, you know, as um Mr. Morgan pointed out, um we should have been engaging with you prior to this. Um that is uh that is definitely something that I'm going to take back. And thank you also, Mr. for basically bringing this up as a financial decision and how it was going to impact and really this is a broader discussion and I think we've all learned something here in the la these last two meetings about um you know what the demand is and frankly there we have a massive demand uh and I I drive by the mountain gate pickle bar pickle or sorry mountaingate park every single day my house is just right up the street and I see those parks are are those uh courts are busy all the time. I do however see folks that are monopolizing those courts for lessons which you know bugs the heck out of me. I know our our rangers are constantly um you know checking on that and making sure that that those are being utilized by the folks that um that live here and and can utilize those parks. Uh I I do sense that there you

know there needs to be some more homework done. However, I will point out that our current parks master plan was voted on by the previous parks commission and that plan said for us to have uh pickle ball courts at this location. Now, I I like the idea of finding a a solution that works for everybody. I don't want to take away um uh tennis courts. I also do not want to not give um the pickle ball community something that they've been waiting and and advocating for for um a very long time. So I I don't have any other questions. I think they've all been answered. Um uh but I am curious about, you know, what my my colleagues think. I'm leaning more toward option five. Um and then with an option an opportunity for us to look at um additional locations that we can place both um pickle ball and and and uh tennis. Um I think there's a lot of a need. I know that you know there's a um a commercial pickle ball facility that will open up here in the next month or so. But we also have a commercial tennis facility that had been planned for many years. it just kind of started at uh uh and I know they've only built a few courts over on Foothill and State and I know the plan is for him to build more um and which tells me frankly if that's happening there there still is a a uh a need uh for additional courts and I know that we've spent a lot of time looking at ways that we can you know um add to our parks facilities and then continue to tweak those and continue to come back and how those changes happen is by hearing from folks like yourselves. So, please stay in touch with us. Please continue to to write and talk to us. Um, and and I'll apologize for myself for not talking to you about, you know, this change and and thinking that that those

discussions that are already taking place. So, thank you all for coming and sitting here, you know, and and speaking your minds to us for uh the second meeting. So, I appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, Tom. Um, just to go in order here, I I think Tony brought up two important uh considerations, the parking and the noise for the middle school. And I don't know if Donna is prepared to talk on that. And if she is, great. If not, that's fine, too. The uh I do consider pickle ball a sport, not a hobby. I'm I'm actually very impressed with the pickle ball community. I uh I've been following them for many years. I we as a council get many many emails from them saying that they need more courts. They want more courts. The community brings a lot of love. It it builds community. The people get together. They make friendships. It It's really a sport that's quite admirable to be honest with you. And so I do support pickle ball. Um, as far as tennis and tradition and Tony's history lesson, we we have a great history lesson of tennis in Corona, too. We had a two of our citizens died in 911 and Darlene Embry was one of them and she was a member of the Corona High School tennis team. So we we will always look to her and she played tennis in our city. So that is good. I I was leaning towards uh option three, keeping the two tennis courts and building the four um pickle ball courts. So if the council or if my fellow colleagues aren't in favor of that option, then I would go to option five with with Wes. So, or come back with a whole new idea altogether. But I I do want the city to facilitate

pickle ball. I do want it to be a priority and it's important. And those are my comments. Thank you, mayor. All right. Casillas.

Um, first I just I want to acknowledge the passion and the commitment that everyone has towards their sport. It's it's so refreshing. I know that it's late at night, but this is truly the democratic process and the engagement. And I just I appreciate you for taking the time to come out. Um, I also want to acknowledge that part of being a community means that we share our public spaces and there is no perfect. There is always a give, take, compromise. And that's something that we have to recognize as part of our social contract to one another. We like the city we live in. We ideally like one another and hopefully we find a a good a good balance. My original um intention for a pause, the reason why I supported a pause was a financial concern about the possible impact to the demand that we were just unaware of until um you know we saw something else uh come online in in the form of some private um courts on Eagle Glenn at Eagle Glenn. That is still a concern of mine. And so while I appreciate and really hats off to the team for coming up with some creative solutions, um some that I think are are good options, I I still don't think that um it's it's that right now is the time to vote on these options because we still have this unknown variable. So um I still support a pause. I still would like to see its impact on the use of our parks. I think already by delaying this vote, we've learned more that will help inform a better product of our shared space. So, thank you.

All right, so it looks like we're kind of all over the place here. Um, yeah, so Wes had mentioned that the parks and rest MA master plan vetted this back in 2024. Um, so that's important. Um, someone brought up, could we negotiate with CNUSD um to use their tennis courts? So, that's a legitimate question. Um, can we look into that? Absolutely. If that's the direction of the council, we happy to talk with them about use of their

Well, I mean, we all know that the demand is high for for both sports. That's that's obvious. And we've we've had really the pickle ball community only uh screaming at us for four or five years now to build them one real court, one real area uh complex, something where they can gather in large numbers, potentially have tournaments. I can't tell you how many times the public has has told me we got to go to another city to play pickle ball. How come we don't have that here? So, I haven't heard from a tennis player in six and a half years, but that's okay. there hasn't been real any reason to to reach out to me. Um the Auburnale courts, they're not being torn down. They're they're getting redone, right? So, they're still going to be here. So, they they'll be available. The comment about noise for middle school guys, I don't I don't buy into that. Have you ever lived next to a school? They're the ones that are noisy. Um so, we're just paying back and they're the one that causes all the traffic drama in every one of our communities. It's the schools um near near our homes. I mean, um I I was considering option four with the possibility of bringing tennis back to Border Park so it protects the residents over there from the excessive noise. Or at least, you know, Larry, the pickle ball ambassador, when he wrote in, he thought maybe courts one through four could be uh converted to a tennis court since it's closest to the homes. Um,

it's maybe I read it wrong. What's that wrote, Wes? I think that's fine. Is what you're describing. Option four. Convert some of the courts to a p to a a tennis court. So, it we don't lose another court, but it also is is being a good neighbor to the residents of in that area. So, I was kind of going down that path, seeing how um we I think we literally have almost all different opinions on this. Tom and I are on five. Tom, you're on five. That's only Let's see. That's eight pit. Can I flush that out a second? Flush it. So, you want to make Let's flush that.

Flush it. You want to make mang You want to make mangular or border? Sorry. All tennis and El No. Okay. I I voted last time to support the CIP project that's currently in front of us to turn uh Elserto tennis courts into a pickle ball facility and then we could decide if we could get tennis back to border where it was originally at. That way we got one legitimate pickle ball facility in the city, one legitimate area to play pickle ball in this city. He's saying four. He's advocating for the thing that was on the table. Yes. Yeah. I just want to know I don't see a conversion of Yeah. I don't see border park going back to tennis on

Yeah. That's in That's in front. But but why couldn't we do that? We could. I just That's why I'm asking additional questions. That's where you want to go with it because I actually do feel for the residents at Border Park that listen to those balls all day long. That doesn't sound right. But uh because you flushed it out. I flushed it out. Um, so I it yeah, I would I would like to give those residents that live in those houses next to Border Park a little love as well. Well, it solves that problem and it doesn't really take away tennis courts. It relocates them.

I think part of the the equation here is that no matter what we decide, nothing was going to be built for at least two years, right? So my when I asked for a pause, it was just to kind of come up with a better plan and nothing will be built for at least two years regardless. And so what's the hurt in just coming up with a little bit more thought in this plan? Yeah, I think we could give direction and say, hey, can we take a look at what it would look like to to bring tennis back to border and minimize the number of courts there and you know, when does Auburnale come on board? And you know, we could ask for certain things along that way and provide some direction,

but we still nothing's going to get built for a couple of years regardless of what we decide tonight. Well, I think with everybody being so divided, I I kind of feel like that's our only option at this point is to get some more answers. I I don't disagree. know and that border we do need to know if border can be done within budget or do we got to you know well I mean that I think that's that's what's five is it another $100,000 is is needed to convert basically would you would leave one tennis court at Elserto and bring back a tennis court to border in the location that you're talking about

yeah that's a potential then you got one court at Elserto one court at border and you still got pickle call it border, but they're farther away from the homes. Yep. I bet you do. You know what? I'll listen to one perfect idea, then we're moving on. Come up to the microphone with your perfect idea, please.

Can you state your name, please? Reline Brutder, District Yeah. All right. 25 years. What do you got for us?

So, the perfect solution would be to build a new pickle ball facility in that space at Elserto behind the baseball fields. We don't need to be concerned about noise because the freeway and the large mature trees will drown out any noise that pickle ball makes. There's parking. There's enough parking for us back there away from everybody else. And trust me, I have spent time back there behind those baseball um fields and it drowns out the free freeway drowns out all noise. The the residents won't hear anything. The homes over there are singlestory homes with large backyards far set off from the um the side of the uh the end of the field there. It's perfect. It's that space in the in the far back where there's like 20 um pickle or uh pick uh picnic tables and that whole area back there would be perfect.

I I like your idea a lot. I just wonder I just Well, unless you might have an extra three to $4 million. I'm not sure what No, it's going to cost more money. That's for sure. But guess what? That's what the answer is. So, uh fewer condos and more courts. More courts for everybody. So, it's so it's almost perfect. Thank you for your comments. All right. No more of that. I can't hear him. What? I said thank you for your comments. We appreciate it. Okay. All right. Okay. Um, Mr. Tucker, what do you think? What do you think? Because I don't feel that we have a So, it sounds it sounds to me like there are a couple of you who'd like to pause and reevaluate, have us come back with a couple more options.

Well, I think what we need to know is what would it cost to convert border back to tennis? What would it cost for the perfect idea? And is that even feasible with the county owning the land? Okay. Right. We want to see if the schools would be interested in letting us use their court since they destroy our neighborhoods with traffic. Interested. That might be a good a good compromise. Okay. Um, does that sound all right? get a little bit more a little bit more information based on some information that we got tonight from the tennis players

pickle pickle ballers I I'm completely behind you. You you really uh worked hard to get to this point. Um but there may be a better option and I think we should look into it. So perfect idea back there. We'll see. So, I I'd like to make a motion to continue the pause until we get some more information that we've asked for. Yeah, I think that's our only option at this point. Yeah. Not happy about it, that's for sure. But I think that's our only option. Okay. So, we got a motion in a second. Oh, we're not voting. Um, well, you want to

get more information? I think we're kind of forced to you guys, so I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that for some of you. All right. So, we're going to go on to this.

Um, no, that's not a votable. No. So, we are going to go on to our public hearings and I'm going to try to get some of the residents out of here because it's way past some of their bed times. So, we are going to start with um public hearing 8.3. And uh this is for resolution of necessity to acquire by eminent domain a fee interest in a portion of property at 3298 Skyline Drive, APN12-320-019 for the continued use of Skyline Drive and continued public access to the Skyline Trail. The public hearing is now open. This is a hearing on proposed resolution of necessity for acquisition by eminent domain of a fee interest in a portion of certain real property located at 3298 Skyline Drive, Corona, Riverside County, California, for the continued use of Skyline Drive as well for the continued bicycle and pedestrian public access to the Skyline Trail. I call upon the city's legal council, Mark Easter of Best and Creger to explain the nature of the scope of the hearing. Mr. I haven't seen you in a long time. I hope you're doing better, buddy.

Really, really glad to see you.

Good evening. Yes, I'm glad to see all of you. Good evening, members of the city council. I don't know if we're going to have 30 people speaking on this one, but we'll see how it goes. As uh as the mayor has indicated, this is a uh hearing for the city to consider adopting a resolution of necessity to exercise its eminent domain power to acquire a portion of land APN 112320-019 for the continuation of pedestrian and bicycle access to Skyline Trail. Um to adopt the resolution, the city must by a twothirds vote make the following findings. Number one, that the public use of necessity requires this project. Number two, that the property is needed for the project. Number three, that the the uh project has been planned in a manner that's most beneficial to the public with the least private injury. and number four that the offer of to of just compensation uh as required by the government code has been made to the owner. So the hearing will proceed as follow this. The the clerk is going to confirm uh that notice was sent to the owners of record and then staff is going to make a presentation on the need for the project and uh and the property. I might add that the four findings uh that the city council is to consider adopting are also addressed in the staff report, including finding number four, which was that an offer was made to the uh property owner in the amount of $15,900. And then after the staff has made a presentation, if the owners are present, they're to be given an opportunity to um speak on the adoption of the resolution.

And then after that, if any members of the public have requested an opportunity to speak uh there to be given an opportunity and then at that point, the city council can u ask questions of staff or uh close the hearing and vote on the resolution. and a couple of other things. Uh the issue of valuation or just compensation is actually not the subject of this hearing. It is the rather it is the four findings that the city is considering. I might add that having said that that I know there have been some ongoing discussions um with the property owners that have not at this point resulted in a um a voluntary acquisition. The city adopting the resolution necessity will authorize the city to proceed with eminent domain uh filing, but it that will not cut off or end negotiations with the property owner. And so that is the nature of the hearing and I will turn it over to the the clerk.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Eer. Miss Edwards, was a notice of this hearing mailed to the affected property owners? Mayor, yes, it was. Okay. Um Donna Fch, the community services director. is going to provide a report on how the real estate interests to be acquired related to the city purposes. Miss Finch.

Thank you, Mayor. The Skyline Trail is the city's most popular hiking destination. Um the trail, as you know, is surrounded by nature and it is the gateway into the Cleveland National Forest. A significant portion of the Skyline Trail follows along Skyline Drive and it can be assessed from uh accessed, excuse me, from Foothill Parkway. Skyline Trail and Sky Road can both be traced back to the earliest days of Corona and its founder RB Taylor. Taylor envisioned a road from Corona to the top of the mountain as far back as the late 1800s. And he dedicated Skyline Drive in 1927 by breaking a bottle of locally grown orange juice. City records indicate that the city has actively maintained Skyline Drive for the public benefit for generations. Maps and records show that Skyline Drive has connected to Chase Drive since 1962 and improvements were made to access roads by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1996. On February 21st of 2024, the city council approved a trails master plan that provides a comprehensive guide for the development of trails throughout Corona. Improvements for the skyline area were identified in the master plan and were further explored based on public input during the development of a separate master plan specific for the skyline area. The skyline area master plan was approved by city council on June 18th, 2025 and it focuses on the land that is owned by the city which includes the meadows south of Skyline Drive and the hillside area between Skyline Drive and Foothill Parkway. Despite the regional draw of the Skyline Trail, most of the users are local residents who live in and around Corona and use the trail multiple times per week. Data gathered during the development of the trails master plan shows that 73% of total trips to and from Skyline Trail occurred between Corona or neighboring cities such as Norco, Eastale, and Riverside. As the

Skyline Trail approaches the Foothill Parkway underpass, it passes along and abuts the eastern property line of a property located at 3298 Skyline Drive. This property consists of 2.24 acres and a small sliver of the property, roughly 704 square ft, lies at the very south end of Skyline Drive and extends into the southern portion of the road. This sliver parcel should have been reserved to the city many years ago, but that mistakenly did not happen. Although residents and local families have enjoyed Skyline Drive as the main route to the Skyline trail head, the owners of the property have intentionally blocked the public of such access by installing barricades in the form of Krails and other large barriers completely across Skyline Drive, which are specifically designed to block pedestrian and recreational access. Furthermore, the K rails have been laced with a white substance believed to be sugar that is designed to attract bees and wasps. Not only has trail access been barricaded, but individuals are now coming upon the barricades and risk bee and wasp stings, which are known to cause in certain people allergic reactions, including hives, difficulty breathing, or even anaphylactic shock, which requires immediate medical attention. The resolution before you tonight is intended to ensure that the local residents continue having having unimpeded access to Skyline Drive, which has been a vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian public rideway for many decades, as well as a public access point to the Skyline Trail. And that concludes my presentation.

Okay. Thank you, Miss Finch. Miss Edwards, did we receive written objections or requests to be heard? Mayor, yes, we did. Okay. So, persons with an interest in the property who wish to be heard, please come to the podium. Good evening, Mrs. Long.

Good evening, council members. I'm here today to formally oppose the adoption to initiate eminent domain proceedings against our property. First, the city has not conducted goodfaith negotiations as required by law. We submitted a license appraiser report showing a loss in property value and severance damages including nuisance, increased noise and loss of privacy to the remaining property. Despite this, the city has not acknowledged the appraisal, provided a counter offer, offer any comment, nor reimbured us the 5,000 fee we were forced to incur. This lack of engagement directly contradicts the requirement for just compensation and good-faith negotiation. Second, the city has not shown that this alignment causes the least private harm. Reasonable alternatives haven't been explored, nor have mitigation measures been proposed, like sidewalks, fencing, sound barriers, lighting, privacy buffers, or restricted hours which have been done in other nearby neighborhoods. This reflects a failure to minimize negative impacts on property owners. Third, the city is seeking more land than is reasonable, necessary for the trail. Can you put up my picture, please? We have already offered at no cost to the city, it's upside down, to donate the portion of our land that the public can use to go under the

bridge. But the city declined and is demanding more land with no clear purpose. I'm not an attorney. When I simply asked your attorney, I don't understand why wouldn't a city take free land. His reply to me was the city doesn't have to accept that they are in a good position. This raises serious concerns about overreach, lack of transparency, and waste of taxpayers money. Fourth, we requested a hold harmless, but the city offered an easement deed without a full release of liability. We were willing to grant a public easement over this property if the agreement included a full release of liability, which it did not. Our insurance excludes coverage for public activities, so we declined to sign. It's unreasonable for a private owner to bear legal risk for a public benefit. In 2023, we legally installed barriers, no trespassing signs, and cameras to limit our liability exposure. We didn't put them there to block people. We put it there to cover our liability exposure. And they have been constantly like just like she said that someone had poured something on it. Someone's always doing something to them. I've even had them thrown into the the wash. Fifth, in 2020, in 2006, the city transferred this part of Skyline Drive to private ownership because they didn't need it anymore. And

they even raised the property taxes instead of designating it as a trail at that time. They they took this property, they didn't want it anymore, and they gave it to the property on 3298 Skyline Drive. If it was a trail, they would have put it as one at that time, and they didn't. Now, the city claims it's always been a trail, and they treat us like we're the one that's doing something wrong. This process has moved forward without good faith negotiations or any respect for our rights. From the beginning, my husband and I proposed a better solution, placing the trail on the other side of the wash with a walkover bridge, avoiding harm to any property owner. The city rejected this due to cost and instead is choosing to target senior citizen property owners like my husband and I through init domain simply because it's cheaper and you have the power to do so and you're in a good position. This is not right and you know it. I respectfully urge the council to review the paperwork I submitted to you and deny and delay this adoption of this resolution until good faith negotiations take place. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Mrs. Long. Were there any other speakers with the property interest? Good evening, council members.

My name is Don Long. My wife and I are the property owners of the end of Skyline Drive. The problem started several years ago uh by us expressing to the city our concern about safety and liability with the people who trespass over the property every day. After several discussions with the city, finally they put up railing along wash the wash and a bike uh chicane. These were much needed and were very good a good start. However, that didn't take away the liability and our exposure. The city attempted to have us sign an easement deed that did not adequately address or eliminate our liability. They tried pressing the pressing us to sign it, but it was not in our best interest. I'm concerned about what the plan is for this property after the deed has been transferred. We were informed at the public works director that there may be plans to establish access from Foothill down to the property. Although it has been denied officially, it has raised serious concerns for us regarding transparency and the city intentions. There's never been a good faith negotiation with the city. yelling at me and calling me a liar, I don't consider good negotiating skills. Having one of the commissioners of the parks and recreation publicly attacking us on Facebook by stating, "My wife and I have negotiated in bad faith."

This statement incited the public to individually to verbally attack us and our ren. This comment was unprofessional and damaging and did not resp rep represent good faith negotiations. Additionally, we received two citations from your code enforcement demanding that we remove the legally placed barriers on the property. At one point, we offered to donate a portion of the property to the city at no cost. However, in reply, the city representative redrrew the line to gather more property. And when we offer offered an explanation for that, we were told either accept it or the city will proceed with acquiring the entire area. This is not acceptable and way to negotiate. We also submitted our our appraisal our analysis showing the negative impact the trail will have on our remaining property. To date, the city has refused to acknowledge or respond. Ignoring this information undetermined un I'm sorry, undermines the the principle of fair negotiation and just compensation. Give me someone in the city that I can sit down with and have a good faith negotiating conversation. I'd like to go over both appraisals and work toward a restoration or a resolution to the end of this. I ask the council to delay the adoption of a good faith negotiation until I get a good commitment and have an opportunity for that to happen. Thank

you. Thank you. Okay. Was there anybody else with a property interest who wished to be heard? Yes, sir.

Hello, council. My name is George Valdez. I live near the area near Skyline Drive, and I've lived there since 88 and just wanted to uh remind the council of what uh a problem, a neighborhood problem, uh Skyline Drive has been since the day I lived there. And when I say a problem, it's a unique street. It's a dead end uh effectively. It has a culvert on one side, a very steep hill on the other. And what we ended up with there was young people, I assume, partying all week, heavy during the weekends, loud music, uh fireworks, the like. And it went on for years and years. It finally got better when uh Rob Hutner, who lived in the corner of Chase and Skyline, planted a Boen Villa and got so thick that they couldn't park in his section there. But further down where the where Don's Reynold Rener is, uh it was a veterinarian that lived there and uh the stress of the situation he claimed gave him a heart attack and I think it probably did add to it. It's that that Skyline Drive not managed well is a real problem and that's my concern here. If if I don't know what the future plans might be, but having parking uh so they can access Foothill and the trail and what have you is I'm going to say for someone that's experienced it in the neighborhood has been a real problem. It's hidden there. The police didn't like it. They would call we called them all the time. We'd confront the people ourselves. It was it was a real challenge. It that what the police didn't like about it was it was a uh one

way in, one way out, uh steep sides, no no street lights. Uh it was a dangerous situation for them and I could I could understand it. it became a problem and I don't again I don't know what the future plans or designs might be after acquiring this this this land there but parking and making it uh a a facility to uh access Skyline Drive I would not recommend. So that's my piece. Thank you.

Thanks George. All right. Anybody else with a property interest? Good evening. My name is Rebecca Beta and I actually am the renter and resident at 3298 Skyline. This has been an ongoing issue um since I have lived there for the last four and a half years. And I'm really the one that escalated it to the city because in July of 21 I was unlocking my gate to go pick up my son from work and there was some young people up there and they pulled a gun on me and quite frankly it scared me. It was about 5 days after the shooting at the Doselago movie theater. So at that point in time we began engaging. I notified my landlords immediately that I had had law enforcement and what happened. They got on board. They're the best people ever and they're just being portrayed in a bad light in this whole negotiation. and and lights were installed, cameras were installed, and you know, we've had engagement with the city, we've had law enforcement, Corona PD is every interaction that I've had with them has been very kind and to that I'm grateful. But this is unnecessary. This eminent domain, it could have been done by donation. We've been through an appro approval. The vandalism that was mentioned in your presentation, I live there. So when I engaged the city, it was, "Well, you're the renter and you can leave. You have no skin in this game is what I was told by city staff." So I do have skin in this game. It is my home. The Longs have used their property to really support the community. They've done so much good. And the city, you

know, you just have your admin mentality is us against them. So for two hours it was pickle ballers against tennis players. So now we've got residents and property owners against the public. I've received threatening letters through my gate. People calling me angry, sad, depressed, suicidal. I must be so angry. Blocking the trail off. We've had vandalism to our property and just people coming and engaging me, screaming and yelling, cussing me out. Somebody called the police. They rolled up like in a panic because Chase and they were walking Chase and um four kings. There's an imminent domain on the trail. This lady is hostile. So the police officers rolled up on me on July the 8th and was expecting this horrible thing and it really wasn't. So, it's these kinds of activities by the public that they think they can trespasses, they're jumping over the fence or they're jumping. You know, those are there for liability reasons because my renters's insurance, there's times that I've come out of my driveway when before the gates went up and there were ebikers that won too many close calls. So, yes, that helped, but as a race for the remedy, you didn't take care of the liability issues. And this is just a paperwork issue. And I don't know why you cannot accept the donation from the longs. Thank you.

Thank you, Becky. And I um I worded incorrectly just a property interest is the Long family. So everybody else is members of the public. So any members of the public who wish to be heard, you can come to the podium. So you're still allowed to speak, but just not under the property interest. Okay. Well, enough said. I mean, thank you.

We know it's been ongoing. You've tried to help. I will say is it the job of the city manager's office to dictate what happens between council and residents and they're really your admin is kind of pit pitted the council against the property owners and Ann and Don you know they really have given this their best but they're coming for their insurance and my insurance and we're having a really hard time keeping the property insured. Thank you.

Uhhuh. So, was there any members of the public who wish to be heard? Come on up, Los. You going to talk? All right. I live at 1480 Westchase next to Dawn. I built that house up there for a lot of good reasons. I love that area, but lately I'm out in the front yard doing stuff and people will pull up to me and completely at me because that trail's blocked off. But, you know, a lot of people don't understand Don's gone out of his way to help everybody up there. I mean, he's done a lot of stuff for a lot of people. I've done a lot of stuff for this city. I I know you guys know what I do. I build for LAR homes and I I donate a lot of time and to get the disrespect that we've been getting, it's just it's not right. And Jim, I I I got to tell you, I I mean, you know, my son goes up there and honestly, if something would ever happen to him up there, I mean, that trail, it was over 11 ft down to that trail with no guardrail. Well, you guys chipped in and put that rail up, which I think was great. I It was a nice gesture. But if he would have went over there and went down there, everybody knows that was a thousand% dangerous and illegal to have that because they know what I do for a living. I mean, that's one of my things I do. And I I thought that was great. But then this little thing where he's been trying to give you guys something and and the feedback he gets and I've been getting in my front yard when people go by, I I don't think that's 100% right. Because if I tell them and treat the people to go by to go walk on that trail like I would people on the job site or something that that's not right. I'm not going to lure myself to do that.

But in to say things that like, oh, we've put stuff on the barricades and stuff like that. That's not right. I've gone up there with my golf cart every other night and there's been people that unfortunately they on those golf on on those barricades just to upset these guys and that's not right. They push him down in that ravine. That's not right. You know, cuz they want to go down there in real quick through the barricades, the the yellow barricades that you guys put up there. But I just I think there's a better solution to this thing. He's not asking for the end of the world there to put the fence up to where the people don't come down skyline, the the foothill. And you guys, I've been up there. Like I said, I built that house. I know that area very well. If someone thinks they're going to come down that trail, it's going to take 47 steps from Foothill to come down that trail and then park on that side of the street where it's a bike lane and people are going to have to go around it. It It's not going to happen on Foothill. So, put the parking lot across the street or something. Let the people park over there where the trail goes behind where that big void area is at the top of Foothill and uh and Chase. There's a big open area up there. I think it'd be great idea. I don't know if you guys have ever looked into it. It's an open spot. There's a driveway. No one has to put a driveway there and just let the people park over there and hike right behind there and go on the trail. So, thanks for listening.

Thanks, Les. All right. Was there any other members of the public who wish to be heard on this subject? Seeing none. Okay. Do I have any uh questions or comments for my colleagues? I just have one about the the liability and the the uh comment that the the property owners would be liable if even with an easement. I didn't I didn't understand that. It seems to me like if that the whole point of the easement would be to remove them from liability. So, I'm just trying to understand that. I think we're fine.

Um the it's in your packet. the easement that um was drafted um to try to accomplish this. Um the way it's worded is the city would hold uh the longs harmless for anything any use of that public trail, but we did have language that would exempt any negligence on the part of of the longs. So again, the idea if they have something, you know, something happens in their yard or they put a barrier out there and that creates liability. Um the idea was that the city shouldn't have to hold them harmless for that. That that that would be their actions. But the way the agreement was or the easement that we had presented to them was drafted was um that the city would in fact hold them harmless. And and I don't know exactly what happened with the discussion after that, but just reading it, that's what it says.

Any other questions or comments?

Yeah, with that with that explanation, I we're this is public now. So, if the city reaffirms that they can have this easement, the longs aren't held responsible. Why don't we just do that? Why don't they just agree to that right now and we'll solve it? We'll finish it. I mean I I'm I'm I mean I'm reading it again and it says except for the extent of such damages, cause of action, liabilities, claims and injuries are caused by the negligence, willful misconduct of the grtor. So that would be the long. So it's only thing that the city is not allowing or not providing coverage for is if they do something wrong. So that then if I get that right, if I'm okay, I think I get it now. So if if there's an easement, the longs would still own the property, right? But the city would say, "Hey, we were in this deal with an easement. We won't hold you responsible." The only thing that would be held responsible is if the longs did something like park a boat upside down and someone hit it. I'm making it up, but uh you have a few of them. And uh so it would just be if the longs did something and not that you are cuz you're beloved by me, but if the longs did something stupid, then that's when the negligence would come in, right?

That's the way the easement was was presented to them. Willful conduct. That's a pretty defined statement. So is there is there a workaround? because I I don't think the longs are well the workaround is that they would have to sign the the the deed. They would have to sign the deed, but they're saying their insurance company's not liking it. Right. So,

can you come to the microphone so we can My name is Alan May. I'm a 30-year resident of Corona and I know these folks real well and I know the property reasonably well. I don't think the issue is whether the city will hold the longs responsible. It's the people that would walk along little trail that you folks have an easement that they own the property and those folks would go get an attorney and sue everybody and let these two old folks have to suffer and wonder if they're going to lose everything they have. Well, no, it's it's it says in there that Let's Let's have them finish the comments and we'll move on. Yeah. Sorry. All right. I would think that Mr. and Mrs. Long might want to consider getting a advice from a attorney before we wash it under the rug.

I I'm with you. Jamie, is what he said true? That somebody can walk by and hold the longs responsible on a Well, anybody can sue anyone. We know that we we we get sued all the time. Um and then it would just be a matter of No, no, we've already had public comment. I I would just caution that. Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure we want to have we don't want to negotiate this long. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, ma'am. We already have public comment. Is there any other comments for my colleagues? I have no comments. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Do I uh The public hearing is now closed. Do we have a motion? I'll move. I'll second.

We have a second. Please vote. Let me see. I've got to get back to the agenda here. All right, my screen got so tired it went to bed. Silia, can I get your voice? I. Council member Richens, your vote. Oh, I'm No, I'm a No.

I wasn't done flushing it out. All right, that item passed 4 to one. Moving on to public hearing 8.2. That's to get some more people to bid. Um, okay. So, this is the appeal of the planning and housing commission recommendation denying tenative trackm 37895 to subdivide 61.6 6 acres into the 10 103 single family lots in the R-1-12 zone located on Laurel Canyon Way from Old Timuscal Road. The applicant Marie Gurgess LLC. So, the applicant requested that the public hearing on this item be continued to the city council meeting on September 17th. We still have to do a public hearing. Um, but keep in mind that if you speak tonight, which you're welcome to, you're just going to have to come back on the 17th and say the same thing. So that's up to you guys. Um, so having said that,

uh, the public hear Yes, ma'am. If I if I meant Yes. You clean me up a little bit here. If the if the hearing if we're going to continue it and the hearing's open, their comments tonight count. That'll be part of the administrative record. Sorry about that. Okay. So So if they don't want to have to come back, they absolutely can do that tonight. Okay. Okay. But it is continued to the 17th. that that's what you need to take action on, okay? Is is to to continue it. But again, we would leave the public hearing open. Okay? And that way everything that's said tonight is part of the record and then the at the continued date.

So my question then, if we don't continue it, is this done? Um I I don't believe that the applicant developer is prepared to proceed with the appeal tonight and that's why they have requested the continuence. This is their their application and they're asking for more time. Um so for due process reasons, it's our recommendation that we um grant the

Okay. So we grant it, but what you say tonight is in the record forever. It's good. So sorry about that. I made a mistake. So, um, all right. The public hearing is now open. The public can provide testimony on the item this evening or wait until the 17th, 2025. Does anyone from the public want to speak on this item?

2063. Why are you granting the extension? I mean, does was there a vote that I missed? Was there an action taken? It's a recommendation that you take it. You don't have to do it. These these guys have had chance after chance after chance after chance. And if they if they didn't have their ducks in a row now, that's just part of their business plan. That's how they do this. So, the fact that they're dragging these people out more and more and more and they're just trying to get people, you know, have to have come back again. Uh my my friend Dino, he he got worn out. He was here on his birthday. He was here on his birthday. So, you know, the fact that they've dragged these people down there. How many times have these people been in this room like at planning commission meetings over the years and it's just one more time just adding insult to injury. You don't have to grant this extension. You know, you this is just just the way these incompetent fools are working. They they they've they were given how many chances by the planning commission to rectify what they did and move forward and they just they they just couldn't manage to even make a chain link fence. And so the fact that you guys are giving them additional grace and extending this out even more and dragging these residents through this nonsense even a couple of months or having them even come back because yeah, you could say, well, yeah, you testify tonight and you're going to even remember what even happened. You know, you're just going to have another meeting. You know, you're just going to have another meeting that maybe something will come out in favor and maybe it won't. Why not just take care of this deal tonight? they asked for this process and if they are now not now now not ready that's on them. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And m Miss uh Raymond that was um a legal opinion that we we should do that we should extend it it for due process reasons. Again this is an applicant you know with a we have to provide yeah procedural due process with you guys. All right. I I don't want to keep dragging you down here, but I'm going to go with the city attorney's recommendation. All right, come on up.

Hi, I'm Elisa Barella and I've lived in this neighborhood for over 12 years and our small neighborhood trusts our city council that's here tonight and our city council set up this committee to oversee this development and the developer that's trying to develop on this property. Our our small community currently consists of only 50 homes and this project will more than triple the amount of homes in the community. We already have problems with traffic and the safety of going in and out of our neighborhood because of how narrow the entrance is under um under the freeway. Adding additional cars is going to create more of a traffic hazard and more of a safety issue and we don't need any more safety issues. We already have problems in our community with the police coming out unsure if we are county or police. Um and and it is it is such a hassle every time somebody a police officer drives down our neighborhood and we have been incorporated for a long time. Um, on behalf of our lovely neighborhood, I ask our city council to uphold the decision that the committee made unanimously in June and and when they decided to deny the developer with moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, esteemed mayor and uh council members. My name is Julie Trap. Um, this project's been a nightmare from the beginning. I've hope that you've seen the reports. I've hoped you watched the planning commission um, meetings. A quick summary, a man made a very bad business decision. That's what it comes down to. And since that time, we as adjacent residents have suffered. Um, so do we continue this venture? Is this a liability that the city of Corona really wants to take on? Um, I say liability because Old Tesco is just that. It's a liability. Um, it's unsafe. We've talked about it again and again. 27 feet wide and you're bringing 104 homes in that way. Not to mention all the construction traffic, which they lied to the planning commission and said, "We just have some touch-ups to do." They called it finished carpentry was their words. Um, the second entrance and exit that's required by your fire department. um hadn't even been approved by the county when they brought it to the planning commission. So, the last meeting we have where it was um they were denied um I don't know if it's been brought yet. Maybe that's what they need more time for. They've had so much time. Um some examples, this particular developer is haphazard. He ran machinery into the property that the dump owned. He actually dug up old dump property. Um he worked outside the scope of his permit. He was shut down by fish and wildlife. Um he let the tren tenative track map, the original one expire by a day. They ran it and said, "Oh yeah, we let that." And they expected a pass. Okay, this is who we're dealing with. That's on them. They signed anou with our HOA 10 year Well, it's really 12 2013. Um they have not acknowledged the

items or completed them. I mean, we're talking a fence around our property that they bulldozed, that the fence was there. We are liable for that if somebody falls in that. And they have yet to put up a fence. Okay. 2013 that was signed. I know you have copies of that. Our city engineers amended the old traffic study that was used. It's so unrealistic because they know Old Tascal is unsafe and they said now 80% of the traffic is going to go through the county. That's a lie. Okay. Is this who you want to work with? I don't believe a continuence will do anything. You are not required to do this. They asked two days ago for this. Okay. Again, a another continuence. Um well, we've done this for more than 10 years with them. Lastly, um they have made two very deliberate attempts to quiet our neighborhood. number one in ourou. And then just months ago, a letter was sent to a resident stating they will work on some of theou issues if we do not contest them. Um they are not responsible work partners and our city should not be involved with them anymore. Um you guys know the exit to Ontario builds up that left lane to turn right. Our city engineers have said that 80% of that traffic is going to get in that lane to take Ontario Avenue to get to that building on a road that's still not approved. rather than making like we do a zip quick right right and right again that um you do not have an obligation to this building you work for the city you work for us give us peace for over 10 years you have an obligation to us to

have on that agenda it says you have a or I know that you can do a on any vote and do what your committee has to do. Thanks,

Julian. [Applause] My name is uh Chris Salazar. Uh I am also a resident uh on Laurel Canyon, which is uh the the bottom of the street. Some of you guys may know the area. Um to uh Julie's point, um these guys are trash contractors and the fact that you guys are even entertaining one more delay, one more unprepared, we're not prepared again. The last meeting we're at with the commission, your guys's commission that you guys take recommendations from, it was unanimous that they denied this project. And here we are again because they weren't ready again and they have still yet to do the things they promised to do. I am the HOA president there and they promised us years ago that they were going to replace our fence. They came out and did a half, you know what, attempt at putting up a fence. The fence is trash. I'm a contractor in this town. I have to pull permits. I have to uh make sure I'm licensed, bonded, and insured. Guess what? These guys send out to my property to work on my property and ask if they can get on and our HOA's property that we are liable for unlicensed contractors putting up fences that are inadequate. I'm a plumber. I know how to build a fence better than these so-called fence guys. No tension wire, completely off property line. I recently asked them to come out and survey and make sure that they're put they they they cut six feet of my property off of the back of my house to put up a fence because it was easier for them to put up on the top of my property than to put it on our fence line which is on a slope. These are the kinds of contractors Oh, and the first time they didn't even have a permit. You know what happens to me if I and I've had code enforcement pull up on my

jobs when I don't have a permit doing business in here. you know, how how is it? And then you guys keep granting these guys some sort of grace. Like, we're the residents here. You guys represent me, my wife, my community. These guys aren't even from Corona. These are some builders from who knows where. And you guys have more loyalty to this random guy. I've been here since the second grade. I'm 46 years old and I've been here since the second grade. My mom was a teacher in this community, a representative for CTA for many years at Sacramento level. And you guys are bending over backwards for this contractor that has done nothing but on us at our at our expense. Our neighborhood has looked like trash for 15 years. It's been more than 10 years. It has been 15 years. We still have a construction erosion control that's falling apart on the side of my street that I drive by multiple times a day. They just cleared up some old uh sewer pipes that they ripped out 10 years ago that have been laying on the side of for the last planning commission. They just ripped out these sew or cleaned up these sewer pipes, you know, within one day of the planning commission to come here and have a meeting. Last minute inadequate work is what you guys are are are allowing here. And I think it's nonsense, man. Thanks.

Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Megan Salazar and I'm a resident at Laurel Canyon. And my biggest concern is um the safety of the street, which I know we've spoke about before. The builder, I believe, kind of speaks for themselves with their character and their intentions. They've not done anything that they've said they're going to do um as far as the fence behind our house and whatnot. But when it comes to the safety of the street, 19 years ago, that street was unsafe. 19 years ago, there was an accident at the top of that hill because the street is so narrow. And a young boy was hit and he he was severely injured. Um, and that was with a lot less traffic and just our 50 homes because as you come up over that ridge at the top of Old Teams, just as the sun is setting perfectly, you can't see. And if you have cars coming this way and cars coming this way, all you have is enough room for one vehicle to go. And it just so happens that that poor boy was walking down the middle of the street when that happened. So now you want to add 103 more homes. Who knows how much more traffic and you can't add sidewalks to either side because it's property. So you're you can't take from people's property. You're going to add all of that traffic, more people, more children walking, more adults walking, and it's just going to congest the street with one in and out because that gate is there that we have no access to. And it creates quite a predicament for not just us homeowners who have been there, but for all the people that are now going to be in those 103 homes. And it there's there's there's nothing that the builder can do or change for safety. What you can't you

can't change the road. You can't change somebody's property line. And you just want to add these homes and this congestion to where we've been living quite peacefully and contently all these years. It just doesn't make any sense. And they've come in, you know, like my husband said, with with the gate and the fence, and they came in with no permit, nothing. I leaned up against that fence in my backyard that is not completed. My dog is able to get out and run a muck. I leaned up against that fence and I fell. Uh this this woman here came, she saw the property, walked the property with another woman, and I I'm bruised down my leg because they had contractors come onto my property, not permitted, not licensed, put up a fence that's not safe, and I was injured in the process on my own property from people that they had on our on our property, which is just it's it's insane that this has been allowed to go on when your job is to protect us, the people that live in in your city, in our city, and you're just letting them make these empty promises. And at what point are you all going to say, "Enough's enough. There is no more extensions. There is no more. There is no more any of it. You're done. Your broken promises are just that, broken, and we no longer are willing to accept it.

Thank you. [Applause] Ladies and gentlemen, council, thanks for hearing my um my name is Vincent Jenko, 28 year veteran um citizen of um Corona. Uh what I'm hearing from you guys, I can't believe. I mean, you guys are granting these people another post moment. I mean, at what point do you people stand up to this developer and say, "You're really insulting our intelligence and you're making us look bad, really bad, and showing each one of you your lack of experience." I've sold ranches. I had a 54 acre ranch in Wdemmore. I've dealt with developers, sat down with city council who gave developers one chance. This is the way we do things in this town. This is the way we do things in this city. You will abide by us, you'll get the hell out of our city. All right. Will Demar shut down Walmart. Okay. Who wanted to build a shopping center cuz Walmart had two chances to comply. They failed. Since then, they never built a Walmart there. Okay. You guys keep giving these people chance after chance. I'm Chris's next door neighbor. I'm a secretary treasurer of our HOA. Uh they took down the fence. Now, in order to put back up the fence, they claim that they want me to trim the poglia in the backyard that was there when they tore down the fence, but they want me to trim it for them to repair the fence. Okay? This is the type of stuff we deal with on a on a regular basis with these people. They show up unannounced. They do a half-ass job with no permits. Okay? And they just leave. You don't know if they're coming back or or what's the story. But I I I've just never seen a city council that keeps giving a a developer over its own citizens chance after

chance and postponements and delays and reschedule. You know, I mean, you guys really really should be embarrassed of yourselves. I mean, I heard this developer telling, you know, of course, it's the developer, what a great job you people are doing. You people are fantastic. Great job. All right. Really? Really? I've dealt with Riverside City Council, San Bernardino River uh council when I sold my 54 acre ranch in Wdemmore when I sold my 64 acre ranch in Neweo. Okay. And I I went with developers there who wanted to start a project on my properties and those city council says this is what you do. You fix the streets. You pay so much to the fire department, to the police department. Okay? You widen the streets. You people have these developments going on. The streets cannot handle the volume. And that's why I'm so amazed. I'm just so amazed you keep it's like it's for the tax dollar. The hell with the quality of life. All right. For the people of your city. The hell with that. Okay. You want the tax dollars and that's what it comes down to. Okay. Cuz we have traffic. Our city, our town, our intersections are like Santa Monica now. You can't even get down the streets in the afternoon. I'm retired. Okay. I have to go shopping at Albertson's. Okay. at 8:30 at night so there's no traffic cuz I have warehouses that have people coming to work leaving work lunch breaks the streets are cubed out and you people keep on you have these people giving traffic surveys okay where's this traffic coming to a mall in Corona okay with with condos and more development but you don't know where the traffic is coming from you guys play naive and you guys play dumb really really good. All right. Have some more surveys. Okay. Like I said, you've taken the way out of your life. You can pat yourself on the back.

All right. Thank you.

Good evening, city council. I'm not my preferred way to communicate, but I'm going to read this because I have a lot of words and not very much time. My name is Carol Stline and I live on Old Tesco Road just a few hundred feet from the proposed Laurel Canyon entrance to this potential development. Old Tescoll is the access road that leads all the way to the point of that entrance. Traffic on Old Tesco Road will increase exponentially. I am extremely concerned about the safety of people driving on Old Tascal Road in front of my house if this new development is approved. I am even more concerned about all of the many people who regularly walk on our street at all times of the day and night, including students who walk to high school. Old Tesco Road was designed many years ago as a residential street for a handful of homes. It is definitely not designed as an access road for more than a hundred more homes and all of the traffic activity they will bring on this narrow, unlit, unsafe roadway with no sidewalks, no street lights, and barely enough room for two cars to pass each other in some locations. And add to all that, there is zero visibility in some locations. It's not a flat street. It's a double blind hill going in both directions. and cars do not go slowly. On Old Tesco Road, between where you go under the freeway and to the proposed tracked entrance, there are several significant blind locations traveling in both directions at the same time. Both drivers at the same time cannot see each other. And you don't even know how blind it is, how dangerous it is, until you realize you couldn't see the car coming in the opposite direction and they couldn't see you either. And even worse, until you have almost hit someone walking along the narrow roadway and you couldn't see them. This is not an

exaggeration. This is a current reality. The close calls are too many to count. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or worse. And this is a foreseeable liability for the city. Ultimascll is 23.5 ft wide from property to line to property line at the point of my driveway. One particularly dangerous point in the road is only 27.5 ft wide. 27.5 ft. As I read the city code, there is a requirement of 56 feet. That's less than half the width it should be according to city code. How can this important fact be ignored? This is a public safety liability and the responsibility of the city that simply cannot be ignored. This blows my mind as an impossible for me to reconcile that the city officials and city council would approve something this dangerous and not in the public safety interest. it will be a significant liability to the city. I am requesting that due to public safety this development is denied. If you are inclined in any way to prove this development, which for so many reasons I think you should not, please, I beg of you, come drive Old Tescoll, come drive the road at night. It will help you realize the impact to public safety and city liability that your important decision brings. I have so much more to say about But I don't have time. Maybe I will shut this whole thing down tonight.

Maybe we will. Thank you. [Applause] Dang, she's feisty. Hi, Dale Worthington. I have a proposal.

Why don't we build a pickle ball court up there? Um, several several points here. Uh, first of all, I'd like you to look at the clock and I'd like you to note that there are by my count 12 people, 13 who have been sitting here for almost five hours. Okay? And I like to ask Mr. Saunders, where is your applicant? So, we all showed up because we got by very short notice, we heard that there was an an application or a request to have this table until September. Okay. We all showed up in case of in case you decided, no, we're not granting the agenda or the extension. We're going to vote on this. The applicant didn't even bother showing up. Okay? We took the risk and said, "No, we're not going to take the risk." Excuse me. We're not going to take the risk and not show up. We're going to show up because I was told by an email from a city representative that the council has to grant the extension. It's not just give me. I also like to point out that city attorney works for you. She's giving advice to protect the city. I would challenge the legality of that advice. There's A up there or there's B up there. That's what's been on the agenda for how many weeks? Okay. If the applicant wanted to apply for an extension, why was it done 48 hours ago? Why was it not done weeks ago? Lastly, as a as um again, due to the hours here, there were a lot of representatives here for residents off of State Street, of which I am one of them. Okay. I'm the only one left because of the

hour. Okay. They all find a one by one throughout the evening left. The traffic study was noted about or somebody made a comment about oh 80% of the traffic will go out on State Street. They are absolutely right. On Friday nights, where are they going? You know where they're going, Mr. Tucker. They're going to do Lagos. They're going to the crossings. Where are they going in the morning? They get on the 91 fast track lanes or 15 fast track lanes right there. And no matter what your bogus traffic study they submitted, yes, all that traffic is going to go down State Street. No street lights, no sidewalks. You got a heck of a liability. You want to talk about liability over on on your skyline liability and you talk about liability over there. I've talked to the county. The county says the applicant has not applied because they can't apply until the city first approves their side of it. So, we're in a catch 22 here. So, really what it comes down to is the applicant went to mommy, the planning commission. Mommy said no. So, they said, "Well, let's go to daddy to see if daddy overrides mommy."

Thank you. Thanks, Dale. That's it. No deal speaking enough.

Deal's a good guy regardless of what he has to say. Good evening. I'm David Saunders. I'm uh 601 South Main uh for a while uh at the law building and uh I just wanted to uh address some of the issues. I represent the applicant uh Marie Gurgus and um the request is for a continuence tonight and um I'm going to focus on the request for the continuence. Um the the issue was raised why the late request. The applicant's representatives were at the property. They met with Mr. Salazar and the neighbors and in the area and they determined that there's a question on where the fence needs to be constructed. Uh and the U surveyor needs to come out and do a survey to determine where the where Mr. Salazar's property line is. Members of the council, this project was previously approved years ago. Your staff has recommended approval and this applicant has some work to do with the neighborhood. I'm not going to dodge that. The applicant isn't going to dodge that. And um we need some time to establish that property line and determine where the where this fence can be constructed. All of the testimony tonight from the neighborhood and the people who are concerned about this project are part of the hearing that we're asking to be continued until the next meeting. And at that next meeting, you'll hear from your planning director as to why her department recommended approval, why it meets your general plan, how it meets your zoning, how it will comply with your conditions of approval. At the end of the day, the question then becomes to you folks. Is this a project that meets your

requirements? This project will be continued to either satisfy your requirements of conditions of approval or it will not be constructed. And what this applicant is asking for is a few more weeks to get these issues resolved with the community. They know that that's their burden. They have to come to you and establish that they've acted in good faith to solve these problems. If they haven't solved these problems and you reach the conclusion that they have acted in bad faith, well then you reach the conclusion you want to reach on the project. But we're asking for a continuence. We've not prejudiced these folks. They've been heard. They can be reheard if that's their desire at the next continued hearing. But we confirm our request that the matter be continued until September 17th. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. So, we got one more speaker. All right. Yes, sir.

Good evening. My name is Carter. I live off of Bellair Street. It's a little I'm a little tired. I didn't want to talk, but uh I just want to say something to this gentleman. Uh, I'm a contractor and if I waited a day or two to put up a extension and I've had 10 years, I mean they might be I haven't done nothing for 10 years on a project, I would get fired a long time ago. And you guys being the city, I mean, you guys have responsibility to us, not to them. We are the we are the ones that pay the bills. We're the ones that live there. If y'all live there, what would you do if that was your kids playing on the streets and these guys want to bring their tractors and so on and so on and run over you where my grandson can't even play no more? You know what I mean? It's they're not safe no more. I bought into the neighbor cuz I love the neighborhood. I love cuz it was safe for my kids. What these guys were trying to do is not safe no more. I don't feel safe no more. And as a somebody that pays the bills here and pays my taxes, I think your responsibility is to me and not to them. That's all I got to say. Thank you. All right. Seeing numerous speakers. So, um you saw me get up and confer with the city attorney. So, I'm going to tell you what I said. I said, "What if our next uh option is to ask for a motion to keep the public hearing open and continue to the 17th? What happens if we don't get a second?" And basically, we could shut it down, right? But we would most likely get sued. you you can entertain another motion. You know, if somebody has a motion, but I would if you're going to entertain any of these either of these actions, you should have a discussion and and

have some basis for your decision because my initial response is I'm trying to keep us from getting sued over something that we're going to hear again in a month. I agree with every one of you that came up here tonight. And um and and would we give the findings after there's no second So, if you don't get a second, if you don't get a second to if you don't get a second to continue, then yeah, you you might want to have a discussion on what what you want to do in terms of A or B. I like that approach. So, I'm going to ask, is there a motion to keep the public hearing open and continue the item to September 17th? I I apologize. I I I did not hear the the discussion about the legal I was in the restroom, so I'm sorry.

Can I Can I get that again before we before we move on? I apologize, Mr. Mayor. In terms of the request for a continuance, this is the applicant's um application. They asked for a continuence. We routinely grant these continuances. Um in in these types of situations when applicants need more time to present uh information for due process reasons, uh we have recommended that that the uh item be continued, but it is your decision. Okay. Thank you. So, is there a second? Who made the motion?

I didn't hear one of those either, but we have to have a motion on whether to continue it or or deny it. You want to have a discussion first?

So, okay, I'll start that discussion. So, um, thank you for coming out here and thank you for sticking it out. I actually did go to the site with planning commissioner Alexander last week and she got me up to speed on everything that uh you said where some of you live, some of your comments. We looked at the fences. They were actually putting up a chainlink fence that day. Um obviously trying to to struggle to get some of the stuff done before tonight. Uh that was obvious. Um they should have done that a long time ago. uh as as I was driving or as it's funny one of you mentioned or most of you mentioned how dangerous uh that road is. So this was this was midday and uh and we were we were done looking at everything and as I was driving out went Laurel Canyon make a ride on Tim Old Timiscal and as I'm getting near the top a lady's trying to make a right into her driveway and then someone else coming behind her swerved around her and almost hit me head on. This is I was there like 20 minutes, 30 minutes. I almost died. Um it it is dangerous and there aren't going to be any street improvements. And it it was clear to me that if a project like that gets built, it needs to have two it needs to have two ingress and egress separate from the Bair community. It needs to be away from it. If they if they want to stay, that's that's fine, but they got to find another area to leave without cutting through your community because yes, it will cause a lot of drama and probably uh some injuries. So when you say that that we we don't stand with you, I understand why you would say that, but I just beg you don't believe that because we we we stand with our

residents over at developers any day of the week. So I have a comment. Yes. I uh I got an email from the owners saying that they would like to meet with me. I don't know if the four of you got that. I got that, too. But I wrote back and said, uh, I have no desire or will not meet with you. I didn't write back.

You, uh, you either do what the planning commission says or go to hell was kind of my comments to them. And they didn't respond to my email back. So, uh, I guess they're in hell. But, uh, I I have no no love for these people. I think they've made you suffer for 10, 12, 15 years. I I won't make a motion and I won't make a second.

I um I want to jump in here. I've had the opportunity to um visit multiple times and tour with residents and I'm familiar with just the the negligence of this applicant for years. Um and I I recognize that um staff is making recommendations based on uh legality and policies and you know you know our general plan and and but that's kind of bare minimum right like as a council that's where where we step in and say you know sure this is the general plan right but like what is it to our community that's happening and I just I don't see the decision changing. Um I don't see my decision changing. um it's been clear that there's been a lot of time to act and the applicant hasn't acted and I what I I think is fair as unfair is um the time and the investment the fact that the request for um a continuence was last minute I don't that doesn't that doesn't that doesn't sit well with me so you know I just I don't I'm not in favor of I I'm totally in favor of the decision that the of upholding the decision of our planning commission and I don't think that delaying this will will will change that.

Mr. Mayor, can I Tony? Yeah, go ahead. I just wanted I just wanted to ask Miss Kleta, have we had continuences on this project already? Not not not on on appeal, but just in general. Have there's been continuences on this project at the planning commission level? Not at the city council level. How many continuences have been granted? There were two continuences and then the third one was the denial. Do you remember by any chance what years they were? Uh it was 2023, then 2024, and then 2025.

Okay. So they've And how long ago did they start this project? The original project was back in um 2014 and then they brought it back recently in 2023. Okay. So they they started this process in 2014. Then they they had an approved map, the map expired and then they reprocessed a new map and they came back. It was like 2022 to come back and then we took it in 2023. Okay. Do I remember that that they had asked for like a two-year extension, but we only gave them a year?

No, they missed the opportunity to file an extension of time, which is why they had to file this new map. Okay. So, I guess we're supposed to believe that in the next

month they're going to miraculously start to perform. I I I guess after um I can't math very well this late tonight. 11 12 years they just they're they're not really going to be able to perform and I don't know what their holdup is or what their game plan is. So I'm with Council Member Casillas. I would like to uphold the recommendation by the Planning and Housing Commission and let's end this.

I um I I just have a few comments. Uh I I actually first learned about this project back in 2014 and I want to address the gentleman in the black shirt that came up and and uh shared his thoughts about us. This body has not continued anything and this body has continued to stand with residents and and I frankly I'm I'm a little bit offended. I I've heard worse words but and that's fine. But to accuse us of not listening and not being open. I think there's people in this audience that I've I've sat with many many times and had many discussions um and I and I did take the call of the um of the applicant and I shared exactly the same sentiments that that council member Richen said. Do what you said or go away. And that's the same thing I told them in 2015 when I was approached. in 2017 when I I ran for when I was running for council when I was talking to folks that that lived on State Street that were having issues or living lived on Billire that were having issues and I repeatedly ask them to just do what you said and that it hasn't happened. So, I I you know, but but I want to caution you all. Don't you know, and I you can kind of sense the way this is going. Don't celebrate too much because housing is being shoved down our throats every day of the week. I sit on a statewide board where we constantly fight over local control and it's being ripped out of our hands. So, you may get something come back that we don't have a choice. And this body has had to vote on two projects where it was shoved down our throats what was coming. ADU's bonus density were someone they were slotted based on the on the rules to put 27 units and they wanted to put almost 70 and we ended up with a compromise

where we had no choice. I call it a compromise. It was basically shoved down our throats that they were able to build 43 units. So, I I think you can sense the way that we're going here, but realize something will come and it may be worse. It may get a you may get a better, you know, better developer that comes in and and actually will do what they say. But I, like I said, I caution you because it may be at some point where we have to get up here and vote for something even though it's morally and physically repugnant to all of us, which we've done twice already in the last year. And it is disgusting. And I talk to my my colleagues in other cities where they've had to do this more often than we have. But when we have a discussion with a with a landlord or with a developer that starts off with the second question other than, "Hi, my name is and what we're doing." The second question was, "Has a city ever been sued under under bonus density law?" That's coming. So, I I um you know, I like I said, I know that there's a motion on the floor and and I feel like it's going to carry, but I I want to make sure I I warn you all to help us pay attention. Um uh talk to your state representatives about local control and and housing law. And I'll say this project was approved before any of us were here. Any of us. So anyway,

one last thing is I'm assuming that they're probably not going to continue with any of the improvements that they're trying to get done by September 17th. So you guys are aware of that, right? Okay. So, um, sorry that took the long way around to get to this, but um, I'll make the motion to deny the continuence. One second. Did I say that right? I I believe we need if if your motion is failing to grant the continuence, then you would need to be making a motion to uphold to do A or B, which was the recommendation on the staff report.

Thank you. So my recommendation or my motion is to uphold the recommendation made by the Planning and Housing Commission at its meeting on June 23rd, 2025 to deny TTN 37895 based on the testimony provided at the meeting and our own homework that we did. Second. Please vote. We're going to have to do voice votes for this item. Council member Dario I. Council member Speak. Hi, Council Member Richens. I, Vice Mayor Casillas. Hi, Mayor Steiner. Hi. All right, moving on to

8.1. All right. Public hearing 8.1 for issuance of a tax exempt revenue bonds by the California Municipal Finance Authority under the Tax and Equity Fiscal Responsibility Act in the amount of not to exceed $50 million. Does any council member want a staff report on this? No. I want to say yes. Nope. Do it. Yes. Did you say yes? Go ahead. What? No. No. No. No report. No. You're good, Karen. Thank you. All right. Um I meant yes as in like Julie I should say Julie Julie's but you got to open it up first.

Save you. Public hearing now open. Miss Edwards has the city clerk's office received correspondence on any speaker cards from public regarding this item. Mayor we did not receive correspondence or speaker cards is now closed. Thank you Sylvia. Do I have any questions or comments from my colleagues? No. About time. Thank you. I have a motion. So moved. Second. Most Wes and Jackie, please vote. That's April. We're gonna have to do voice votes. Oh, yeah. Again. Um, council member Speak, I. Council member Richens, I. Vice Mayor Casillas, I. Mayor Steiner, I. And the item passes.

All right, we're moving. Let's see. 9.1 is professional services agreement with the Chamber of Commerce. Thanks, guys, for sticking it out. Let's see. Joel Beldin, our economic development director, will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor Standard and City Council members. I'll be brief if that's permissible. Uh the item before you tonight is the annual contract that we enter into with the Chamber of Commerce to provide some supplemental services for economic development and support. So the uh request is to authorize us to execute that agreement and carry forward. So this is just a very quick diagram of all the different partnerships that we have to support really our four core mi core missions. Uh we have financing and incentives being able to connect businesses with vital resources to uh establish themselves or grow here. Workforce and training to help support the local workforce. We have recovery and resilience to deal with some unexpected issues. Uh and then education and mentorship. That's really where the chamber comes in as our primary partner here along with a few others that provide ongoing training and business development services and uh help us attract high-quality uh businesses to the city. Uh and again, we very much support the chamber's core mission of supporting the local economy uh helping businesses get established and grow over time. And we've had that partnership for many, many decades, and we look forward to continuing that partnership uh going forward here. So, I I'm happy to go into specifics for the contract. Uh the bottom line is it's a $60,000 cash contribution. There's some inind services for a little over 10% more. And really the the overall philosophy for this contract is to balance the fact that the chamber provides vital services is really that connection point to all the small businesses and large businesses that we have in the city and provide that sort of ongoing uh engagement with them. but also recognizing that the city council has granted tremendous resources to the economic development team. We're fully staffed. We have six people. It's more than really than we've ever had for the last couple of years. And so the comm the city council has provided these resources. We have tremendously talented people on the staff. And so we we have the ability today to incorporate a lot

of the services that we've relied on the chamber to providing in-house so that we can grow our own skill set and provide in-house services that uh then we we're asking that the chamber can supplement with some things that they do uh better or more efficiently uh but not relying on them so much to provide sort of day-to-day economic development support. So that's the overall driving philosophy here. I'm happy to go in again to specifics. We maintain some of the key items that are uh highly visible to the public. The taste of Corona sponsorship, the sponsorship for Good Morning Coronas. Uh we have manufacturing tours, which when I first got here, that was a great way for me to get a very quick introduction to the very strong manufacturing economy that the city has. So, we're looking to continue that, too. Uh and then also some new items that we're adding today uh are we're rolling out a couple new tools. We have the restaurant guide that's coming out a little bit later this year. We have a businessto business buyers guide that we'll be rolling out also. So looking to the chamber to help support those new initiatives. There's also shop dine corona and live work corona that we'll be partnering with them to help support and grow those important uh elements that we have. And then also some business surveys. I always like to look at the more we know about what's happening in the community, the better we can do our jobs. And so really building in a formal process so that we're collecting data on an on a regular basis from businesses to identify ways that we can provide better support to them and also in changing economic times so we understand what's happening before it hits the news and that we're guiding uh our other partners that we have to provide training and resources to help support businesses as they're adapting to new changing circumstances. So again, I'm happy to go into specifics if you'd like. I know we have a fair number of speakers probably here tonight. Uh but our recommendation is to move forward with the staff suggested contract and I'll conclude my presentation now. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you Joel. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public? Mayor, we have nine speaker cards and two written comments. Okay, let's do it. Who's going to speak first? Don't be shy. All right, I won't be shy. Too late to be shy. All right. Good evening, uh, mayor and council. Hi, John. Uh, Councilman Speak, I didn't wear a tie. I didn't want to outdress you. So, I do want I do want a question before I get started. The traffic study, not a single result of that said any was going to play pickle ball or tennis. So, I want to bring that to your attention. Thanks for that.

All right. So um so first uh I want to present to you I did bring a presentation if you wouldn't mind please uh pulling that up but first I want to start by saying that the city and chamber of of commerce relationships play a significant role in the strengthening local economies through a variety of strategic initiatives and collaborative efforts. Um I know that Mr. Building just shared with you some of the great things that we've done. We very much uh like and respect and and continue to see great value in the partnership. Therefore, tonight my what I was trying to do tonight is is I want to look back historically at what that relationship looked like because after meeting with each of you, our city leadership, it seems there's there's a disconnect between what my experience is on both sides of the fence. Uh so I wanted to kind of level set this. So if you would please go to slide one of 54 please. This should be short.

Oh. So, starting with the beginning, in 1960, the chamber went to the city to advocate for a hotel tax. Today, that tax is called a toot tax you're familiar with, I'm sure. Today, this tax results in a in over a million dollars annually of of revenue to the city. This was to help support the efforts to retain and attract businesses in Corona. So, remember the source, guys. In the late 1970s, the city invested $75,000 in corona chamber in a partnership which today would be equivalent to $292,000 if the partnership that was found valuable back then would be today. Am I here asking you for that? Absolutely. Would I expect that? Absolutely not. Next slide, please. Okay. So, in what ways can this be accomplished? Remember this, the core of the city's ED department is to stimulate and support economic growth within the community. Next slide, please. Look, we're going through quick these 54. So, the primary goal of the ED is to attract new business, support existing business, create jobs, increase tax base, revitalize communities, foster innovation and sustainability, and build partnerships. Next slide, please. And then potential consequences of a fractured partnership would be weakened business support network, reduced economic development opportunities, limited advocacy and representation, fewer community events and engagement, missed marketing and branding opportunities, and fragmented communications. Next slide. So why partnership matters? A strong city chamber relationship creates a collaborative ecosystem where businesses thrive, residents benefit from job creation and services. The city grows in a sustainable and inclusive way and it unifies the business, the community and the city. Next slide. The city budget breakdown. You guys are all familiar with this. I I won't, you know, I don't have to go into dive detail, but if you'd hit the slide

again, you'll see that what the ED budget is. It's circled there. It was uh one point. There you go. So, you'll see what the ED budget is. Hit the slide again, please. you'll see that this is only 043% of the total budget that goes to ED. Next, uh click it again. So, out of the proposed partnership of $60,000, which we truly are are grateful for, but how however later on you'll see kind of where the scope needs to be maybe adjusted some, this is a small 3.61% of the ED budget. Uh, one more time. So, which is equals 0.0142% of the city's total budget. All right, next slide, please. So, in the local area, Riverside, their total budget's 1.38 billion with a B. Their econ budget is 22.5, which is 2.15% of their budget. Marino Valley at a $36.78 million budget. 2.6 6 million is allocated to econ which is8 8.85%. And Corona at a 410 million.3 410.34 million so a much higher budget than Marina Valley by by more than 100 million and the econ budget is 1.8 which is43. So that's just local area guys that I wanted to share with you just to build some context to maybe level set what other areas are doing with partnerships with with their chambers. All right, next slide please. So the years if you look back over those historical years and and uh Mr. Speak and and Richens this is for you because it's historical here. Um you'll look back here in 197879 there was $75,000. It went up in two four uh 204 and and 2005 and then stayed stable in 2022 and 23 and then look at

2324. This is this is after co times where where our our support is is greatest needed. Uh we're trying to recover from all that and and you see it kind of went way down. So we're hovering down to the lowest marks in in in a 100 well in since 1978. So, I know it's late. We don't want to do math, Daria, but I just that doesn't seem like it's the right track and there are some great things that I I really am impressed with the ED team. I know I've met with um our assistant manager. I think uh Mr. Tucker and I have had great meetings and I see great things for for our chamber. My theme designed to deliver. I think that we've proven that time and time again with our impact in the community and I think it's minimized. I'm not sure where uh well I probably think I know where the messaging of the chamber isn't a value a great value to the city which I disagree with and and don't take my word for that there's other people here tonight I think there's one more slide so considerations if you look at this list the scope of services when you look at the actual amount that our partnership is for and you look at the scope of what the services are adding new things you look at the cost of labor insurance overhead and services that have significantly increased year-over- year year inflation that's caused the dollar value to fall. The chamber continues to support this city with special requests like the tariff meetings with manufacturers um with you know just other things that weren't part of it and we're happy to do that. So we are doing things that are of value and they're probably not recognized. And through our Inland Empire World Trade Conference we bring in large businesses a large business audience to hear all about Corona to celebrate our city. Um and then we uh the proposed 60,000 PSA again we are truly great.

Thank you, Chad. Thank you.

Who's next? Try it again. Yep. No, not yet. Okay, I can speak louder if you want. I think you're on your first advantage. No, you're good. All right, let's

I'm Claude Dardant. I'm representing for packaging, a longstanding company in Corona. We acquired that company from Janet Steiner and her family in 2018. And since then were two main competitors. Edelman in Ontario did closed door and here in Corona West did the same. We have been doing the opposite. We've been growing the business. We did acquire another company in Ontario that we plan to move both in a new building here uh in radio in Corona bringing a total employees of uh about 200 people. Okay. But to get there it's difficult because it's a lot of money to put on on the on the business. You know that housing for people is very expensive. Commercial business is not any different. Okay. So to convince my owner to put that much money it's really difficult. The other part is when you come from out of California there are a lot of things that are different here and it's not easy to understand. some people are failing because they don't understand the specific and everything. So we we had to do a lot of work to to build that project and to make it successful. Uh the the Corona chamber of commerce has been really key in that business in that project. They have been helping me to find contact to to know about building that are available to tell me about resources that were available including resources at the city of Corona. Thank you J. Um and uh really it's going to be a success. Okay. But I want to point the importance of each partner. Okay. We are one. Okay. Because we want to have our business still working on on running. I

can tell you that uh uh other states over city are own did try to to get us to go to their facility. So if we stay here, it's because of the chamber of commerce, because of the city of Corda, too, and because the owner has been willing to to put the the money behind. So it's really a success story. It's a win-winwin, and it's the way it should be. So I really think that for us businesses whatever the resources you can provide it's important to have people to channel us to much more questions and help us to figure a way in in a business uh that is really more and more difficult in California. That's it. Okay. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Who's next? Good evening. Pretty soon I'm going to be saying good morning. I I know, right? Um the first

good Well, good evening. Good almost morning. Um my name is Rachel Duron and I'm the director of human resources at American Electric Supply. Today HR stands for hooray. It's almost over. Um I'm proud to speak on behalf of American Electric. We've been we've celebrated 40 years in the city of Corona. Since 1984, we've called Corona home. Over the decades, we've grown, evolved, and become a key part of the city's fab uh economic fabric. Today, we are proud to be among the top 10% of tax generating businesses in the city. It's a responsibility um and privilege that we take seriously. More than 50% of our employees live here in Corona. For us, this just isn't what we do for our business. We It's where we live. It's where we raise our families, and it's where we invest our time, energy, and resources to make our community stronger. Much of our deeper involvement in the community has been made possible through the partnership we've developed with the Corona City Chamber. The chamber has helped American expand on our impact through programs like the um executive leadership roundt which the class of 2022 was the best right woohoo. Um I'm the co-chair for the workforce development program at the chamber and we also part participated in the gold star blue star project for the city of Norco just to name a few. These initiatives have allowed us to give back to our meaningful ways and helped strengthen our connection to the people and the purpose of Corona. Without this passion, leadership and relentlessness commitment of the Corona Chamber, businesses like ours would have the same opportunity to thrive and serve. Their example has made the chamber one of the most respected and modeled chambers in the state of California.

American Electric and the Corona Chamber share a common goal to support, serve, and uplift this community we all live in. It's a partnership rooted in purpose and driven by a shared vision for success not only for our businesses but for every resident in Corona. Thank you for your time and I think it's time to go home. Thank you. I agree with you. Who's next? Joe

Joe Morgan 2063. I have to wonder like why is this why is this even a thing? I mean why wasn't this on consent? This is an up to contract and I don't recall you guys busting all American asphalt balls. If the public work the public works director says go out and pave the street, you know, like it's an up to contract. if if they if staff wants to do this workshop or that workshop, this is a pre-authorized PO. This isn't just, you know, here I'm giving you 65,000 bucks. This is you you do this thing and you get paid. And and if staff doesn't call them to get paid, I don't really understand what the what the dog and pony show is all about. I mean it if if if there's a recommendation that they do the P when when has there ever been this much drama over such a small contract for like basically an at will you know up to contract? I don't I don't recall that in here. I don't recall seeing that before you and it seemed like we're just wasting everybody's time talking about it. This could have been a consent thing or I seem to recall just a couple of meetings ago that you authorized $120,000 limit for public uh for a professional services agreement. I mean, this could have been done, you know, in the office and put on the quarterly report. I just don't I don't get this. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening.

Good evening to you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. I'm a resident of Corona and a proud member and commit committed member of the Corona Chamber of Commerce. I've been a resident of Corona for greater than 20 years. I had an opportunity to operate a business here for more than 10 years. The latter years I have worked predominantly as a soloreneur. In my experience with the chamber, the chamber educates and advocates for those that are not able to do it for themselves. I've had over the last several years or so to work with the chamber as they host events for women, giving women an opportunity to share their voices, to inspire others, to help grow others. As you know, the chamber has a strong track record here and beyond. And as you know, the chamber will continue to have that track record. As you know, the chamber impacts our local economy and we in a positive way and we all want that to continue. So I ask you tonight to support the people, the chamber who support the people, the community.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening everyone. My name is Tim Garling. I serve as the dean of the business school at California Baptist University and I also serve as the chair of the governing board of the Corona Regional Medical Center. I wanted to stand tonight to ask the leadership of this great city to strongly consider increasing your investment in economic development. And it is on that general topic I wanted to speak tonight. Uh certainly while it may not be the most popular topic, uh Corona finds itself in a competition with cities nearby. Marina Valley, Riverside will vi for the same businesses that Corona ves for will vi to be the headquarters to be the operating capital for where they will do their business and have their employees. And it is important to note and somewhat surprising as I did research and found that Corona may have underinvested in economic development over the years and certainly at the moment is significantly underinvested in comparison to cities like Mareno Valley and Riverside. While I love those cities too, I think it's important for Corona to make its stake and to really think carefully about investing more heavily because ultimately while a city can advocate for itself and do economic development, I've had the pleasure of doing business in 10 states in the US and I've discovered across those states and even here in California that the best economic development activities are a partnership. A city that tries to do it on its own will lose out to other cities that partner more effectively with industry and most importantly with their chambers. Uh Corona has not for example established what I've seen work in other cities as a formal economic development entity outside of city government except you have one that's operating and has for a hundred years and that is the chamber of commerce. So, I encourage you to invest more heavily generally in

economic development and more specifically in your relationship with the chamber. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Who's next?

Good evening.

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Wayne Tolman. Uh my wife and I own Inland Janitor Supply over on Sixth Street and uh we also run Smart Clean uh janitorial service out of there. Usually when we're out this late uh we're cleaning the buildings. Nobody else is here. But um we have I've lived in Corona since 1996. We I ran my business my previous businesses out of the city of Riverside. And when I had the opportunity to buy the store a handful of years back, I had questions about whether it was the right thing. Retail in the city of Corona, brick and mortar building. I went to the Corona Chamber of Commerce and I talked to them and went over ideas and options and possibilities and said, "Okay, let's move forward." A little bit later after I bought the the business, I had the opportunity to buy the real estate. So purchased a building on Sixth Street and that was a huge purchase for me buying a commercial building in a city. I wasn't, you know, didn't have a lot of good feedback from a handful of companies that tried to do business and I went to the Corona Chamber of Commerce and said, "I'm curious about this. I'm curious about that." And a handful of things. They said, "Talk to this person. Do this. Go here with the city." So all of my interactions with the city have been positive, very positive because they gave me the idea of where to go first. I never got frustrated and then started to vent. And I've seen some of the stuff happening this evening. you know, then the city, you start talking about all the stuff you're going to do on Sixth Street,

you're going to do in the the city park. I didn't come to the city and say, "Uhoh, what's going to go on?" I' I've been to a few meetings and I hear a lot of people venting about a lot of things. I go to the Chamber of Commerce and I talk to a handful of people and then I meet a lot of you at Good Morning Coronas and everything else and I get a good well-rounded understanding of what's going on in Sixth Street. You guys took two lanes right out of my right in front of my store, but you put three parking spaces in. But I saw so much feedback, talked to so many people as it happened. But all of that was facilitated through the Corona Chamber of Commerce. It wasn't that I was going to go to the city and initiate and find what to do. So yeah, I think you're underestimating the value of the Corona Chamber of Commerce at $60,000. Um my I have about 40 employees between the service and the things. So we have sales tax, we have property tax. I think you're undervaluing. I would just want to say my piece. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Who's up?

Hi Kathy. Good evening.

Good evening. It's so nice to see all of you guys and thank you so much for being patient. Uh my name is Kathy Armstrong. I know most of you. Don't fall asleep there. Um so, uh I'm the CEO and uh partner at Do It American Manufacturing Company. I'm proud to be uh creating jobs here in Corona. Um we're constantly growing. We've gone from uh working in a from out of a garage for two years. uh when my husband and I quit perfectly highpaying jobs um right when we had a newborn and a two-year-old to start a manufacturing company out of our garage uh with a partner. Um and so we researched for two years and we picked Corona for so many reasons because of people like you, because of the city, because of the support, because of the zoning. So, and we do when we do something, we do a lot of research. So it we found our place in Corona but um at the same time uh we felt like well eventually we be became members at the chamber and they became our lifeline. Um and by the way we live in a place in like West Corona. It's called your Belinda so we go against the traffic. We help you with that. Um but I want to say I'm proud to say most of our employees went to Corona High. Their babies are born here in the Corona Regional Hospital. We just the last three um babies we had, they were all born in Corona Regional. So, a lot of local people, which is great. Um the first few years um working I just felt like Corona was just a place I went to work and I went home until I took the ELR class through the chamber which is the executive leadership round table and I really fell in love with the city, the history, the people. I had no idea what

Corona was until I took that class and I really owe it to the chamber. Um, and then I just want to give you guys a couple examples of what they did for us. And it it's not because we were a member and then eventually I became, you know, part of the board and then I'm the chair elect. Um but during COVID just providing the masks for free like I we we're essential 90% of our uh customers are our sales are with uh we sell to public utilities gas utilities and we were told that you can't shut down and we had case COVID cases. So the just providing the masks were huge having the zoom calls figuring out okay what do we do next? um was huge. But what was even bigger um about two and a half years ago on a Thursday, we heard on the news that I our bank went bankrupt. So here's a manufacturing company. We deal with hundreds of thousands of dollars every day. I had two of chamber members reaching out to me saying, "You have payroll coming up. Our accounts were shut down." They offered to give me their money so we can make payroll. So, thank you Paul Bender and Dean Aton. Thank you, Kathy. Next, good evening, mayor and council members. Uh, almost good morning. Thank you for staying late. Um, also thank you to fire and police. without them, they have a

hard job in the city to find that fine line to keep the peace and keep us safe. So, thank you both. Um, my name is Derek Murray. I'm the president of Sunset Vans. Uh, we're a local manufacturer here in Corona. Uh, we have over 200 employees locally. Um, and we see ourselves as a value valuable asset to the community. Um, and today I'm really just here to advocate for increased funding uh to the local Corona Chamber of Commerce. Um, this financial support, it's a strategic investment that will directly fuel economic growth and enhance the cultural fabric of our city. It will also be the most effective dollars spent towards accomplishing the city's economic goals compared to all the other options I've looked at. The Corona is run so extremely well or the the chamber. I'm new to it. I just joined the board. They do such an amazing job of watching their resources, helping people, you know, watch every penny and everything they touch, they do so well. Um, I want to share an experience I had in June. They invited me to go up to Sacramento where they had the first governor debate. It was a really cool experience. And going there, we got to see thousands of people. It was joined with Cal Chamber. And I learned all this. There was 230 chambers from the state of California. That's a lot more than I knew there were. And Corona Chamber was the top three. They received, you know, recognition as being one of the top chambers in the state of California. That's pretty amazing. And so that shows how hard they work, what they do, and they're representing the city. They're representing us as a business. And that's from the leadership that you guys have. And that may not be known, but it goes a long way to show the commitment. I mean, look tonight. They're the last ones here and they're talking about a few thousand dollars. I mean, we're all business owners. We

could pay it ourselves. So, what I'm asking you to consider is let's work together. Let's get us back on track. Let's up the budget. Let's find a way to have a stronger partnership. We both win. It helps the community. It helps other businesses because they're that resource of compassion, trust. They do what cities don't do well. You guys do a lot of things well. What they do is they keep people here and that's what drives millions millions of tax revenue and keeps businesses coming back. So I really want you to urge and consider looking at getting budgets back on a normal trajectory like a path that should be considered. Um and that ultimately helps make Corona a better place um a better community for all people. And uh kind of going off topic here, but really let's just make Corona a better place. Let's work together. Let's look to increase that budget and get it on track. I mean, basically, the budget you guys are talking about now is a budget that's been stuck in a time capsule from over 40 years ago. Let's break out of that capsule. Let's get this back on track. Let's work together stronger, better, and win together. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Uh, here comes the comedy show. If you make us laugh this late, I'm going to be really impressed. I started my morning with with Paul Bender and sticks worn off, so I can't talk when my lipstick's worn off. Um, I my alarm goes off for 9:30. Can we have the timer up there? Because, you know, I'm going to It's broken. struggle. Oh, is that what it is? I went to bed. Yeah. Well, good afternoon. A good

Not quite morning. in five minutes. Mayor and city council members, as you know, my name is Paul Binda Badesher and I own Express Employment Professionals and I'm here today not only just as a local business owner, but as someone whose life was transformed because of the Chamber of Commerce. 19 years ago, I was a recent immigrant. We've heard a lot about that today. A stay-at-home mom with a toddler and an 80 8-year-old. I didn't have a network. I didn't have any business experience. Honestly, I didn't even know where to start. But I had a work ethic and the determination to build something of my own and support my family. What I lacked was connection. That changed the day I walked into the Chamber of Commerce in Corona. I was welcomed and introduced to people who believed in lifting each other up. The chamber gave me tools, resources, and most importantly, a community. Fast forward to today, I run a successful business most of the time, and I am proud to give back to others. We've helped thousands of people find work. And with the help of our partners behind us and my clients, we've been able to keep local people employed and food on their table. When businesses thrive, so does the city. The chamber isn't just about networking. It's an engine for economic growth. It supports small businesses, fosters entrepreneurship, and build stronger communities. You know this, we help you with job creation, tax revenue, and vibrant, resilient neighborhoods. City funding for the chamber isn't an expense. It's an investment. It's an

investment in people like me who just need a door opened and to build something meaningful by being given an opportunity. As you know, being in business is one of the hardest things you can do. 65% of us when we go into business lose personal wealth. It's a it's an industry, an area that immigrants thrive in because many other doors are closed. What I want to talk about as the final speaker is we so appreciate our partnership with the city and thank you Joel for what you shared and kudos to you. You're growing your economic development department. But 60,000 every year we go through. We started negotiations with the city in January. Here we are eight months later. We could have, as Derek said, earned that in other ways. I am here to ask you for a total of $83,295 because the scope of work that the professional services agreement outlines, that's what it's going to cost. And that's at a third of the cost of one of your economic development officers. Thanks, Paul Bender.

All right. Anybody else?

Oh, thank you. Miss Edwards, you got a couple written correspondents? We have two written comments, Mayor.

Go ahead, Miss Dwarte. My name is Desiree Ramirez and I serve as the president as the vice president of operations and membership development at the Corona Chamber of Commerce. I'm writing to you on behalf of the businesses we serve daily to respectfully request your consideration for an increased financial investment in the city's partnership with the chamber. The Corona Chamber of Commerce plays a critical role in supporting, retaining, and growing our local business community. We currently serve over 700 members, but our our reach extends well beyond that, touching thousands of businesses through programs, events, education, and advocacy. Our work directly complements the city's goals. We help entrepreneurs navigate permits, licensing, and city resources. We offer leadership development programs that build work for uh workforce readiness. We create visibility for small businesses through grand openings, ribbon cutings, and create opportunities at our hosted events for them to showcase their products and services. We advocate at all levels of government to remove barriers to growth and support policies that strengthen our economy. In the past year alone, our chamber has hosted over a 100 business events, assisted in the launch or expansion of numerous businesses, and collaborated with the city on initiatives ranging from work for work workforce support to community engagement. But the demand is growing and so is the need. With an increased investment from this investment from the city, the chamber would be able to expand outreach to new and undeserved business sectors, launch targeted support programs for small businesses, strengthen joint marketing efforts that position Corona as a businessfriendly destination, and provide enhanced data and reporting to support strategic decision-making. A visible and adequately invested partnership between the city of Corona

and the Corona chamber sends a powerful message that this is a community that champions business, values collaboration, and invests in its future. We are proud to serve as the voice and advocate for Corona's business community and we deeply value the relationship we share with the city. Together, we can continue building a resilient, thriving local economy. Thank you for your time, your partnership, and your consideration. Dear honorable Corona Mayor Steiner and members of the Corona City Council, on behalf of Waste Management, I am writing to express our strong support for the Corona Chamber of Commerce and to highlight the vital role it plays in fostering a thriving business environment in our city. Waste Management has proudly been a member of the Corona Chamber for over 30 years. Many of our company leaders, including myself, have served as board members because we deeply value the chamber's critical impact on the local businesses on the local business community. The chamber consistently demonstrates its commitment to Corona's economic uh vi um sorry vitally sorry fatality. Through its leadership, the chamber brings together diverse stakeholders, fosters meaningful dialogue, and champions initiatives that strengthen local businesses. Waste management has directly benefited from the chamber's collaborative spirit and strong community ties. For example, we've partnered with the chamber to host educational workshops that help business navigate evolving recycling regulations efforts that have supported both environmental compliance and community s sustainability. As a current board member of the Corona Chamber, I want to express our sincere appreciation for the city council's continued support. The chamber has proven record that it plays a vital role in driving economic development, supporting the business

community, and enhancing civic engagement. Looking ahead, we believe there is a significant value in reassessing the city's professional services agreement with the chamber to ensure that future funding levels reflect the growing demands and expanded scope of services it provides. Strengthening this partnership will help sustain the chamber's ability to serve as a key resource for the business community and a trusted liaison for the city. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to the prosperity of Corona for considering this request. Respectfully, Lily Kiora. All right. Thank you.

All right. Any questions or comments from my colleagues? Um thank you for all of the speakers uh to come out. Um this this this topic always gets difficult every year. Um one of the challenges that I have today that I wanted to just kind of address for the chamber is um you guys are are are knocking on the door of of um having a big void to fill. And Bobby, that's not a it's not a joke. Um, you know, you are somebody that obviously cares deeply about this community and and I wouldn't want to have to fill those shoes. So, I'm glad that's somebody else's decision. So, um, that's a little concerning to me. I'm just going to be honest with you guys. Um, when you've had somebody that's been around as long as Bobby has, not a joke, Bobby, but it's literally true. um it's a big void and um the partnership with the community and with the city is extremely important to us and so I'm glad to hear that um that you guys are are moving forward in the in the replacement process. I don't know how somebody's going to fill your shoes, Bobby, but that's a little little bit of a concern and it's not because it's the city versus the chamber or anything along those lines. it's it's because of the leadership that that he has provided um with the boards that rotate. So that for me gives me a little bit of pause. Um and I just wanted to acknowledge that um you know that Bobby has decided to retire. I'm excited for you. Um but it is going to be a void for the chamber to fill and I'm I'm sure that there's a plan for it. But I think that I wanted to acknowledge that and I'm going a little delirious at this late tonight. So,

yeah, what they really want is money. Okay. Yeah. Well, that is a request, but my concern is is that, you know, when you have somebody that's that's been a part of that chamber for a very long time and leadership, you know, goes, there's a void that has to be filled, right? And so we're always charged making sure that that our money is is um well spent and that we are being good fiduciaries. So it's a concern that I have. All right. Thank you for that. Well, you have anything?

Yeah. I just wanted to say and maybe to address um council member Dario's point that the chamber and Bobby has said many many times and I've gone to many many chamber events. The chamber is the people that are sitting in this room. Bobby there is certainly one that sets the table, but the folks that actually get the things done are the are the people right there and and many many others that I've seen. Um I I understand the ask and and frankly I think they're you know seeing the the cafeteria checklist of things that that uh uh staff has kind of picked. I think it's a it's a great start. I agree that, you know, if there's other opportunities for us to for us to support each other, let's try and identify those and move those forward. Um, but there's nothing that precludes, you know, that number from changing and and uh as as needs arise. I think that checklist of of items that that staff has picked and and Joel's right, his staff is just getting their feet underneath them and they've done a heck of a job so far. So, I'm really impressed with with where we've gotten. In fact, I think frankly the not only the best numbers of folks that we've had, I think this is the best economic development team that we've had in a very long time. Um, but I I I do want to make sure that as we say this this, you know, this 60,000 or whatever ends up being is is a starting point and we find other opportunities to build upon those on on those partnerships and identify those things that, you know, Chad and I, you and I talked many many times about um additional meetings for for manufacturing and and how those are different and and how there's opportunities for those. Um, so I I see the value in those and and I think that you guys have no problem highlighting what those values are and and what those value is to the city. And as these arise and as they come forward, that's one

thing the chamber has been really good at is is finding, you know, new opportunities and new avenues to to help all of us. So I I that's all I didn't really have any questions. Just one of you guys. You like it? Isn't that great? Tom, what do you got? You got anything productive here? I think it's all lovely, but um is it questions and comments or just comments? I I think that they're all great and good people and give them the 60,000 and we go home. And you got six more things to do.

Oh, I'm really tired. Um I didn't know the American Electric Lady was out there. I I gave those guys a million dollars last year, so we might need to talk. But that's about it. Thanks, Mayor. Okay. Thank you, mayor. You guys have said a lot and have said like nothing. I was like, what was your direction? Here's my here's my my direction is is that we have the 60,000 that that the staff is recommending that we go forward that. But I also want to make sure that it's an open discussion that if there are things that pop up that outside of that 60,000 that that it doesn't have to come back to this body that that staff can make that decision to push forward. So um how's that? Is that clear enough?

That is very clear. Appreciate it. And I think I think what it speaks to is the fact that this council is always open to creativ to creativity and to creative solutions and to try new things. I think um clearly if we haven't modeled that I don't I don't know what else we've done. And I think you know this relationship it's valuable. It's also very unique. There's no other public uh you know contract that is um that is dealt with this way you know um and public service contracts are usually their bid there's their scoring we don't we don't do that with the chamber and um I think that speaks to the unique relationship that we have um and I think that there's really there's things that you all do that the city can't do and for several years because there wasn't as much of a robust economic development team and in-house knowhow like you you had to do it and so um I think that the city is growing evolving growing our in-house economic development team and that's just changing um it's changing what it is that the city needs and so it's a dynamic um

what are you trying to say

we're a little over So, um I just I want to express my appreciation for the chamber. I want to express my appreciation for what you do. Um I also want to acknowledge the uniqueness of this contract and I also want to acknowledge the timing. Um we have already voted on the fiscal year budget for this next year. Um I know that conversations began in January. I would love for next year to have this conversation before we vote on the budget. Um so with that I I am in agreement with the service contract um which as presented to us and I'm always open to new ideas. Um but as of tonight this is what I what I can support.

All right. Um so one of the slides that showed the 60,000 60,000 60,000 is pretty much hasn't changed um in a long time and um and it should change. Everything gets more expensive. It's got You would think it would go up, you know, a certain percentage each year just like everything else. So, I support Pal Bender's request of 83 grand. I'll second that. All right. We're going to have a vote. Mayor, I'm going to take your voice votes.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Before we vote, were we able to put the um the the the recommended request back up or is the computer still down? Give us a moment. Okay.

Not that one. The one that had the dollar amounts on it. That one. I I do have one other suggestion that I would like to request. Um the Taste of Corona event has been growing over the last two years. last year was a was a huge event or this year was a huge event. Um they they mitigated a lot of the challenges. They they grew and they learned from the previous year. Um and I would like the city of Corona to take a more active sponsorship role in that and be more um involved. And so, um, in my conversations with members of or with the chamber staff, the different levels go in $2,500 increments with with the highest level being at $10,000. I would like for the city to be at that $10,000 sponsor. It's like a title sponsor, I believe. So, I would I would request that we up our sponsorship on the Taste of Corona event. And I think that that event's going to continue to grow and grow and grow. What was your number, Jim? 83,000.

That was Paul Bender's number was 83,000. The dashes. Yeah, that's lovely. And then we're going to add So then you're 60,000. Tony's up in another 5,000 for Taste of Corona to 65. I'm almost there. 138. So good morning.

I I would rather I would rather do if So there's $18,000 to get to Paul Bender's number. So I' I'd rather get the chamber to start promoting the downtown. So, the $10,000 downtown initiatives would be where I would focus it because we have a lot going on in the downtown and we could use all the support we can get. So, if if we're going to up the number, then we should start picking what we're going to up the number on. Community community business. Yeah. Um,

so just as a point of clarification, the the staff recommendation was $60,000 and then the proposal was $83,000. We'd like to know where you want to allocate to what services that that the That's what I'm doing. So Tony's 5,000 on Taste of Corona. So apparently that's pretty kickass. Um, I would I we're on a big push right now for the downtown. So I would like the 10,000 which leaves you another $8,000 to play with. So, I just spent 10, Tony spent five. You three talk it out. Your mic's not on, Bobby. Maybe. I There you go.

Okay. Thank you. So, there were a couple of numbers that were on the original thing that are lower than what we're selling the the programs to for our members. So, we've adjusted those. I just want to go through some things. So, maybe it'll help you a little bit easier. But for the executive partner uh ship to keep it at the 20,000 if we're going to do that shop dine restaurant thing that we want to do, we still need to know. We have to have clarity on it, but we're going to put in a $15,000 buffer in there just just to see what that is because we we don't have enough answers on that. The $24,000 partnerships uh for the events, I totally agree totally agree with that. And then the um manufact that includes some manufacturing the city sponsorships. Thank you so much uh Mr. Dario. Uh we had actually um uh looked at going a little higher and so 10,000 would be very good there. Thank you. And then the good morning coronas there's a budget for 3,000 for sponsoring three different ones. Uh we're at 50 $575 um for the three plus uh some extra attendees. We do have the women's conference that's coming up that our uh vice mayor is going to be one of the speakers. It's not predicated for her to speak for you guys to sponsor, but initially the the time before this last one, there was a a sponsorship of $2,500 included in that. We have different sponsorship levels there. What I'd really like to do is just ask if there's an opportunity for you to just agree with the dollar amount, allow Joel Building and us to work it out. You guys mention a couple of things that you want and we'll pick and choose the other things and we can fine-tune that.

83,000. I I'm still the what I say of 10,000 for the downtown initiatives and however you work out the rest is right 10,000 for Mr. Dario 10,000 for Mr. Richens's and then we work on these other things with Mr. building total $83,295. What are the downtown initiatives? What what is we don't have any? So it's part of your platform, but when we presented stuff, we were politely shared that they they can handle it and but we'll be glad to jump in and do stuff.

Got it. Got it. So Joel, you need to give them $10,000 worth of work in the downtown. That would be sweeping. and I can sweep the floors. Okay. I know some good janitors. Okay. Thank you. So, I had a motion on the board. I second. Can I just get some clarification on what we're supporting that adds up to 83? I just want to know. Uh Tony spent 10,000. I spent 10,000. 510. And then they're going to work it out with Joel. That's how I understood it. Say that one more time. I spent 10K. Tony spent 5K. And then Bobby said they'll work it out with Joel. He'll probably work it out with Justin who will take it to Jacob. That sounds right. So 83 295.

Yeah. For what our staff has recommended plus what we've asked for and they'll work out the rest. They'll figure out the rest. Okay. I'm fine with that. As as a note, we also need to appropriate an additional um 23,000 plus dollars uh that was not allocated in the budget so we can come back with that in the future. So then we're going to come back with this contract in the future just with a request for funds. I'm sorry. What do we have to come back with? Amount was $60,000 that was budgeted and so we need to ask for another we ask council for approval for another $23,000 appropriation. That's what we're doing tonight. Correct.

That's what Justin's saying. So Chad will say it's like 0859% more that we need to ask for and Tucker will handle that. But the the decision will remain tonight. Correct. Yep. Stop while you're ahead. Thank you. So, u Miss Edwards thinks that we can do that by by a motion. So, if you wanted to motion to appropriate that additional funds um general fund, we can do that. I see. Oh, because because we've already voted on the budget, right? Correct. And to Vice Mayor Casillas's point, we got to get this in before budget next year. All right. So, you make the motion? I made the motion. I'll second. Wes already did. Oh, I'll third it. So, voice vote. Council member Dario, yes. Council member Speak,

I. Council member Richens, I. Vice uh or sorry, Mayor Steiner, yes. Vice Mayor Casillas, yes. That item passes 5-0. Let's move on. Mayor, really quick, I I don't want to overlook the fact that the that that Chad's math really pointed out that our economic development team is doing wonderful things with less money. So, thank you. All right. Okay. So, number 10, legislative matters, none reports from boards and commissions. Library planning, parks, uh, none. Regional meetings. We have an update from Vice Mayor Casillas on the Tump Northwest Zone annual meeting of July 23rd.

I emailed that over to our city clerk. So, it will be part of the record and I'm not going to provide the report for either this item or the next. And if anyone's super curious, they can just read the record.

Yeah, it's a great idea. So, let's move on to Councilman Dario's update on the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority, the meeting on August 4th. Thank you, Mayor. Um, really the the biggest thing of note is we had a spirited discussion on uh MSHCP clerical change uh to the conflict resolution process. We have found ourselves in a in a what do they call that a sticky wicket where a situation where um we have had an appraisal done a a land owner has had an appraisal done there's been a discrepancy in the numbers and so we have a process with which uh a third appraisal is done and it is binding. However, that third appraisal will come in either higher or lower than either of the two established appraisals and because it's a binding appraisal that we have to go with it. And the the change that we made ultimately after a spirited discussion was that uh the third appraisal has to come in using those parameters as established the high and the low rather than going above or going below. So um that's really the biggest discussion that we had uh that I want to report out on.

All right. Thank you. Uh Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public on the regional update? No, mayor. We have no speaker card. Thanks, Miss Dwarte. Is Sylvia still over there? Is she go home? She's here. So, I know she's not feeling great. Mr. Mayor, is just with your uh Could we take 14.1 and 14.2 together since we're going to the same place? 14.1. Yeah, we'll do that in a second. First, we got to get to uh city attorneys reports and comments. Council met in close session. No reportable action. Thank you. City manager report and comment. Mr. Tucker.

No, sir. All right. Uh, city council member reports and comments. Um, so this one is travel request. Well, first of all, you guys got anything you want to say before we get to that? Good. Okay. Uh, travel request for both council member Westpak and for Vice Mayor Jackie Casillas for travel request, let's see, for the League of California City's annual conference and expo. They both are going to the same event. Um, they both should be covered. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards on the public? No, mayor. There is no speaker cards. Okay.

I just want to make note the difference is that I um I'm staying out there. You're what? I am staying. I think I like my own bed. So, I want to sleep in my own bed, right? I have to be there for the whole thing. So, and how how long is that again? Tell us real quick. Say that one more time. How long is it? Two days. Two days. Three days. Two nights. Three day conference. I have to be there for the last day for voting. I'm sorry you guys got to go to the Okay. So, um, do we have a motion to approve the request for both of them to attend this? Ex. I'll make the motion. I'll second. Voice vote. Mr. Can we do a voice vote? Yes. Council member Dario. Yes. Council member Speak. I. Council member Ridgen.

Yes. Mayor Steiner. Hi. Vice Mayor Casillas. Yes. That item passes 5-0. All right, you guys. Last one. It's a future agenda item, and of course, it's going to be Mr. Speak who keeps us here longer than we should. Um, listen, that's not my fault. You remember this has to have three votes to put staff to work. Council member Speak, will you please uh introduce your request for consideration?

Yes. due to a an altercation that I had at my front door a few weeks ago, I realized that we have a couple gaps in our um ordinance for uh uh vendors. So, what I'd like to do is have uh in my my request that details what my my request would be to be amended amend or look to amend the um the ordinance to make sure that folks would have to identify themselves and present their peddler's license and and if they licensed by the state that they present that as well. That's it. All right. There's much more written there, but I figure you guys are ready.

No, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. All right. Um, any speaker cards from the public on this topic? Seeing none. Thank you, Joe. All right. Um, colleagues, comments, I'm all for it. I'm concerned. Okay. What are you concerned about? just the you know peddlers and solic solicitors what you know I figure if someone's coming to your door they should identify themselves if they're they know who you are they're knocking on your door they you should have every right to ask who they are right and they should leave when you ask them

is this what's what's the uh like the other cities on this the the the definition of a peddler I It's all in the ordinance already. Well, I guess anyway, I have concerns. So, we're not voting on it. We're just voting on whether to get more information on it. Correct. Yeah. So, I hate solicitors, too. So, let's get some information. Thank you. Anybody else? Oh, yeah. We all hate solicitors, everybody. I I don't like them at all. Okay. So, we're going to ask for more information on that, Mr. Tucker. And any comments, closing comments from any of you guys?

I I just have one. And I want to say thanks to the the friends of the library went to their um their event this week and and just a reminder they gave over $100,000 to the city to support library um library week library books and everything they do and and uh I just wanted to say thank you for them doing this literally for years and they continue to do so. Um and they continue to have the highest number of volunteer hours of any any uh volunteer uh group in the city. Okay. Um, mayor, there's a rock concert tonight. Just if anyone's interested in going out front, there's a rock concert.

Yeah. And and thank you to staff for broadcasting. I couldn't make the first couple and I actually got to be able to watch it afterwards. So, fantastic job to the broadcast crew for for showing. It was awesome. All right. The next meeting of the city council is August 20th. This meeting's adjourned.