City Council - Regular Meeting

you

Yes, Council Member Carr?

Here.

Council Member Pendero? Here. Council Member Sandhu?

Here.

Council Member Tonneson?

Here.

Council Member Williams? Here. Vice Mayor Bertani? Here. And Mayor Vaccaro?

Here.

Thank you.

Okay, the invocation will be provided by Pastor Jeff Hood of the Baptist Church.

Thank you. Let's pray together. God this evening we want to start by giving you praise and expressing our gratitude for who you are what you do how you take care of us every day for your goodness for your grace I thank you for knowing us and caring about the things that concern each one of us and we thank you for our city the place where we live where we work where we raise our families WE WILL HOLD UP TO YOU TONIGHT OUR OUR MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL AND YOU KNOW HONESTLY THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT I GET TO PRAY FOR THIS MAYOR SO I PRAY FOR HIS LEADERSHIP IN THIS COUNCIL AND IN OUR CITY I PRAY THAT HIS TIME AS MAYOR WILL BE FILLED WITH POSITIVE CONTRIBUTIONS FOR FAIRFIELD GIVE HIM WISDOM IN HIS POSITION AND I PRAY THAT THAT FAIRFIELD WILL BENEFIT FROM MAYOR VICARO and also i thank you for the rest of our council for their leadership and commitment to our city and i pray that i pray that you would give them wisdom in addressing issues and finding solutions to problems guide them and help them as they provide direction and help them to keep in mind and recognize all the different people that are part of our city that constitute fairfield There's no person that is unimportant. Each one is worthwhile, and I pray that you would help our council navigate challenges in a manner that will bring positive resolutions. I pray for any presentations that may be coming tonight. Help each person to give their best, their most cogent submission. And Lord, I thank you for freedom that we've been given in our country, to have our voices heard, even in the realms of local government. And again, I lift up the mayor and council, and I pray that you give them the wisdom that they need for the sake of every citizen. And this I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Council Member Sandu, can you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Yes.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, council reports. We'll start with Councilwoman Williams.

think I the first to say welcome back mayor I'm thrilled that you're here and it dies with us I wanted to report on three different things one is an event that I attended last week the community healing and unity Town Hall it included pastors and youth leadership and organizations, very, very positive, uplifting, solutions-based, and it was led by Dr. Pastor Harris. We talked about public safety, youth development, and community development. So I'm thrilled that this is one of many. I believe they're going to be happening all over Solano County. Then I want to tell you all about two events that are coming up. Saturday, in fact. One is Kids 707 Day. It's going to be at Laurel Creek Park. Again, that's this Saturday from 12 to 5. And I'm hoping this is one of an event that is years to come. 707 Day happens normally in Vallejo. It was kicked off there either a year or two ago. So the fact that they're bringing it here to Fairfield and centering children is pretty awesome. And then finally, I would like to then announce the grand opening of See's Candies. That is this Saturday at 10 a.m. 5081 Business Center Drive. It's right next to the Xfinity Comcast, which of course is in the Safeway Shopping Center in Green Valley, right around the corner from Costco. So please support this business on an ongoing basis. We are thrilled that they are in Green Valley. So thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and welcome.

We had a wonderful parade. One of the bigger ones I've attended, and I've been attending them for many years. So I just want to hand out some thank yous. A huge thank you to Jennifer Rice and the Economic Development team, Juan Seguera and the Parks and Rec team, Mike Volek and Mike Ramirez, the two Mikes who were in the bucket trucks when they drop the drop the veil and a special shout out to mark sharp building maintenance for his creative unveiling of that concept and the handcrafted donor recognition recognition sign and all of the staff and the volunteers who hard work and dedication help make America's 250 celebration such a tremendous success. I just want to thank you all. I'd also like to give a special shout out to the mod team. They're the ones that put everything out on channel 26. AND FOR AN OUTSTANDING COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGN FROM KEEPING THE CITY INFORMED THROUGHOUT THE LIONS CLUB FUNDRAISER. SHOUT OUT TO THE LIONS CLUB. EFFORTS IN CREATING GRAPHICS, BANNERS, FLYERS, PAMPLETS, STICKERS, PINS, BADGES AND SO MUCH MORE. JUST A FANTASTIC TEAM EFFORT BY ALL. I WANT TO GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO KELLY BALLARD AS WELL. I HAD SOME LAST MINUTE REQUESTS AND I OWE HER AN APPLE FRITTER. FINALLY, I'D LIKE TO RECOGNIZE LIZ APTICAR. I SPEND A LOT OF TIME AT CITY HALL AND I HAVE OPPORTUNITIES TO SEE FIRSTHAND JUST HOW MUCH HAPPENS BEHIND THE SCENES. LIZ IS CERTAINLY ONE OF OUR UNSUNG HEROES. SHE NEVER LOOKS FOR THE SPOTLIGHT OR FOR THE CREDIT. SHE JUST ROLLS UP HER SLEEVES AND GETS THE JOB DONE. on this event did not go unnoticed. And I want you to know how much it is appreciated. And just thank you all. Thank you all to the city. And then moving on a little bit, we got a lot going on downtown. The Dumpling House is open. It's been super popular. Fit for Life, they've come to town. Archer's Den, I don't think I've mentioned Archer's Den before, but it's in the 700 block of Texas Street. AND A NEW SOCCER SHOP OPENED DOWN ON THE CORNER OF MADISON AND A NEW SOCCER SHOP OPENED DOWN ON THE CORNER OF MADISON AND A NEW SOCCER SHOP OPENED DOWN ON THE CORNER OF MADISON AND TEXAS. TEXAS. TEXAS. SO THERE'S A LOT GOING ON SO THERE'S A LOT GOING ON SO THERE'S A LOT GOING ON DOWNTOWN AND APPRECIATE EVERYBODY DOWNTOWN AND APPRECIATE EVERYBODY DOWNTOWN AND APPRECIATE EVERYBODY COMING TO TOWN AND GO VISIT COMING TO TOWN AND GO VISIT COMING TO TOWN AND GO VISIT DOWNTOWN.

DOWNTOWN. DOWNTOWN. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANKS, MAYOR. THANKS, MAYOR. THANKS, MAYOR. THE CITY HAS HOSTED ITS NEXT THE CITY HAS HOSTED IT building right across here, the city hall building, Willow Hall. And also just an information, Abode is now the coordinated entry system administrator for Solano County. And you can get more information at 707-346-5870. And like my colleagues have said, I also was down at the 4th of July parade, and it was just a really, really nice day. The weather, everything was good. The dumpling house is real good. I went there for lunch, too, and I just can't seem to get enough. It's real good. If you guys like dumplings, it's real good dumplings. And that's all I got. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mary. Good evening, everyone. I also attended the parade and I just want to second all the thank yous, but I just wanted to share one of my favorite moments was so I love parades like I they are my heart. I love being out in community. And I think this one was obviously very special, not only for our country, but for our city. And for me, the best part was just seeing all the families in our community together, smiling, enjoying just this moment of unity for a very special day. just seeing everyone just waving their flags and waving back to us and just being happy to be outside and with with each other so it was a really amazing morning to spend together and again thank you to all the staff and everyone that made that moment happen as myself and councilmember Doug Carr are the two representatives for Cap Solano JPA so they are the group that oversees a lot of the homeless funding that comes in through the county and And so it was just announced today that we do have, there is now a new executive director. So a new executive director was chosen for Cap Solano. The current executive director, Michael Wilson, is set to retire next week from the county. The new director, her name is Stephanie Weaver. Her career spans federal and state government, nonprofit leadership, and military service. And most recently, she served as an administrator of the Veterans Home of California, West Los Angeles, and she will begin her new role on July 30th. So I look forward to working with Stephanie and seeing her continue to move the organization forward. And then lastly, I, along with several other members of the city staff, attended the first annual Solano Hispanic Chamber Scholarship Luncheon. So usually they did scholarships during their gala. And so this year they did it as a luncheon, which is really nice. It was over at the Susun Valley Inn in Susun Valley. and they awarded and recognized three college students and one business owner and they also introduced their first ever full-time president and ceo ceo cruz avila and so i'm a past president of the slano hispanic chamber and so for many many years ever since it's been in existence it's been all voluntary board so everyone's a volunteer no one gets paid as with regards to city chambers where you always have a president who's paid you have paid staff And so for the first time now, they do have a paid staff member, which is great because then this one person can focus on the mission and vision of the chamber, which is really amazing. So congratulations to Cruz and to all the recipients on their achievement. Thank you.

Welcome back to the dais.

Now is Mayor Vaccaro.

You're very welcome. I just want to say good evening to everyone. Thank you for coming out to the meeting. Thank you for watching from home. It's always a better meeting when we have a nice filled chamber like we do this evening. So thank you. I, too, attended the Fourth of July parade, and I've attended many like my colleagues have said. This one was super special, extra special. A lot of time and effort went into everything that happened at that Fourth of July parade. And the new sign, what do you think? It's beautiful. So I just reiterate thanks to everyone who made Saturday happen. It was wonderful. And thank you to all of the families and folks who came out to help us celebrate. Two quick announcements. I have my last public table town hall meeting this coming Saturday, July 11th. That's gonna be at the Lake Club at One Lake, which is at 2480 Lake Club Drive. It's Saturday morning from 10 a.m. to noon. And it is literally what it's called. It's the public table. It's a time for you to come together, for us to come together and talk about the issues that matter to you. You don't have to be from any specific district to come out and have the conversations and talk about the issues that matter. It's your meeting. So I hope to see you there on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. then we, the Clergy Action Network, the Fairfield Police Department, the City of Fairfield, we're joining together with a band of believers of Solano County for an event called Unity in the Community. And it's just a time for us to come together to fellowship together to pray together and to enjoy community together this is going to be held on saturday july 25th from 5 to 7 pm right outside in the quad the quad area right outside these chambers so please come by and show some support and help us to increase the unity in our community through this event those are my remarks thank you mr mayor

Thank you, Mayor. Just one update. Just wanted to highlight a new business that opened up in District 6. It's been under renovation and construction, and they finally got everything all squared away. They have their grand opening on 4th of July. A while back, Councilman Thompson and I had a chance to go tour it when they were getting up and running, so it's called Enough Cafe and Bar at 5, 8, 6 Parker Road, right outside Travis Air Force Base. So if you have a chance to grab some coffee. They also do cocktails, too. So if you want to grab a drink or a coffee and a drink and just stay the whole time, you're more than welcome to. I think they have free Wi-Fi. Please go check it out. Thank you, Mayor.

Excuse me, Mayor. I forgot one thing. May I? Yeah. Party City is now the Pickler. They have indoor pickle courts, the pickleball courts. I stopped by there and saw that, and it's pretty neat. If you guys are into indoor pickleball, that's where you might want to go. And the grand opening is on Saturday at noon. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, colleagues. Well, first of all, I want to echo what my colleagues said about the parade. I think that was my 16th or 17th parade I've been at. I think this was probably the best attended one that I've been at. And kudos to everybody who was involved. and planning it um you know it went off without a hitch it was really nice to see all the families out there and the community members it was just like i said it was a great day i did just want to take a second to thank everyone who who contacted me about this they know this is not a position that i'll be in for a long time but the support that people gave me to be here was um was very nice. And the support I got from former students of mine throughout Fairfield and the county, some of the emails I received. And it was really nice to know that people believe that you're going to do an OK job. And I think that's really, you know, for me, the reason why I accepted this was because I love the city I live in. I raised my kids here, my family here, educated a lot of kids here, and it's special to me. Fairfield is always going to be special. I've always said that diversity is our strength. And I will always believe that. And I look around in our audience and everybody, it's just a great place to be. And so I'm honored to be here for the limited time that I am here. I want to thank my colleagues also. I'm looking forward to working with the staff. I know we have a great staff and they've always been very supportive. I don't really know what else to say except thank you for the people that did reach out. And colleagues, I'm looking forward to working with you, everybody up here. And hopefully it's gonna be a really good next few months. And on that, I'll turn it over to city manager, your report.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I want to echo everything that the Council said on 4th of July. Thank you to Public Works, Parks and Recreation, Fire Department, Police Department, City Manager's Office. It's a whole team effort to pull together those big events. It went off masterfully. We did pull a report. We have a data system in economic development where we can pull reports on estimates of population We're thinking that there's anywhere from 4,500 to 5,000 people at the parade, which is a very big, great crowd. And thank you to the Lions Club and everything they did to raise the funds. Sign looks beautiful. So just truly proud, and thank you, everybody, for making all of that happen. The only other thing I have, Mr. Mayor, is under the consent calendar, items J2 and J7. We'll need to pull those just for staff to make a couple of quick comments when you get to the consent calendar. That's all my report.

I have nothing to report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to say that I enjoyed being a judge for the Independence Day Parade and being a part of the 250th anniversary of our nation. That was really special. I wanted to thank our poet laureate, Michael Wiley, who read a perfect poem for the occasion that he wrote. And then lastly, if you're interested in running for city council, the open seats are districts one, three, and five, or the mayor's seat. We start meeting with the candidates on Monday, July 13th. The calendar that day is full, but we have a few openings on Wednesday morning, the 15th, because the Tuesday, the 14th, is also full. Thank you.

Return to public comments now, Madam Clerk, if you please.

Yes, public comments. Persons wishing to address the city council on subjects not on the agenda but within the jurisdiction of the council may do so at this time. The council cannot discuss or take action on matters not on the agenda for this meeting, but council members may briefly respond to statements made or questions raised by the public, ask for clarification from staff, refer the matter to staff, request staff to report back to the council at a subsequent meeting, Place the matter on a future agenda if you're online to speak on an agenda item Please use the raise your hand feature or press star 9 on your phone speakers are limited to 3 minutes per item as determined by the mayor and our first speaker is Greg Lyon and

As she already said, my name is Greg Lyon. I was born here in Solano County. 20 years ago, I saw the potential in downtown Fairfield, specifically a natural 24 block downtown bounded by Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Jefferson, and Missouri streets. This is an excellent foundation for a walkable, vibrant district filled with shops and restaurants. To achieve that vision, the blocks within the area should be zoned for ground floor retail with office or residential uses above. A mixed use pattern proven to activate streets and support neighborhood business. Two decades ago, I started buying properties on the block border by West Texas, Madison, Empire, and Taylor Streets, including the building that currently houses Aunt Bill's Restaurant. My first tenant was actually Chez Sol. Properties that are located in the very heart of downtown. Today, I doubt I could sell my properties for what I paid for them 20 years ago. One of the properties I purchased was 733 Madison Street, a 100-year-old bedroom track house typical of the area, actually typical of California. I was intending to demolish it when a gentleman approached me and wanted to rent the property. I made it clear I thought it was a teardown. but I agreed to rent it to him and his family at a reduced rate. They have been tenants until this past December. Now that they have vacated, I am moving forward with demolition I always planned. but I ran into an obstacle, the city planning department. Five months ago, I applied for the demolition permit. The structure is riddled with asbestos and termite damage. I have already expended significant resources on asbestos abatement and have a demo contractor awaiting a demo permit. The planning department has withheld approval demanding that I first pay more than $10,000 for an independent historical review conducted by a certified historian to prove the negative that 733 Madison Street is not a historic resource. This is despite the fact that the Heart of Fairfield plan has already done the work and identifies 32 properties that the Central Solano County Cultural Heritage Commission, that's a mouthful, and the Fairfield Main Street.

30 seconds, sir. Pardon? 30 seconds.

30 seconds. Okay. Consider potentially historic. Note that the plan does not include these are just potential. 733 Madison is not amongst them. The law that the Planning Department is holding it up on is the CEQ. And the CEQ section 15064.5A does not identify requiring me to do it. Your time's up, sir. Okay. I simply ask you guys to look into it if you want to develop a vibrant downtown Fairfield.

Thank you. Our next speaker is E.J. Johnson to be followed by Michael Jefferson.

mayor if i could real quick mr lyons mr lyons um right out uh dave zeller's our community development director would be happy to chat with you right out in the lobby if you want okay

Hello. Good evening, mayor and members of the council. The past month at the Downtown Theater has been full of art, honor, education, and community. We are proud to successfully host the Matt Garcia Foundation, the Fairfield Police Department Cadet Ceremony, and several amazing concerts and community events. Our open house was also a huge hit. It brought so many people into the building, including many who have never been inside the Downtown Theater before. A special thanks to Roslyn Pugh for a wonderful evening of entertainment. A big shout out to the Downtown Theater businesses that generously donated gift cards and prizes to our raffle. Famous Creations, Evelyn's, Butter Pecan, Alejandro's, Rustwater, Teresita's Floral Creations, and McDonald's. Coming up next, Missouri Street Theater School of Rock opens July 18th at the Downtown Theater. The question we've been asked most often is, are the kids really playing live? And yes, the answer is yes. They most certainly are. This production features young performers playing their instruments live on stage, and it is truly something special to see. Tickets are on sale now and the community members can use the code heart for $5 off each ticket. Thank you. We hope to see everyone at the downtown theater. Have a great evening. Thank you.

Next is Michael Jefferson to be followed by Vince Webster.

Hi, good evening, Council, and I wanted to congratulate you, Rick Vaccaro, on your appointment. I never met you before. I went to Rodriguez. But I've heard you have a stellar track record. There's only one discrepancy. There's a fact that your wife had worked for California Forever as a consultant, and it was on their campaign finance that they had released that. And when it was revealed that she kind of said, oh, I'll return the money. And that's that. But it begs the question of the extent of her work, what is going on. And that's probably the one question. Otherwise, you seem like a fantastic person, seem like a great guy. No hard feelings whatsoever about what exactly happened. But that's one of the public concerns, because for me personally. I'm from Sassoon City, and my city unfortunately took from Solano County the opportunity to vote on California Forever. And that was a highly controversial, very volatile situation. And my question is, well actually I can't field any questions that you can reply to immediately, but The point is that California Forever is a wealth extraction plot. And I want to absolutely warn, do not believe anything that they're going to try to tell you. They're going to tell you that there's these glowing examples of how the Bay Area Economic... The Bay Area Council Economic Institute has this glowing paper that states that it's going to be this brilliant, amazing thing. $200 billion investment that's going to create so many jobs, so many things. This was actually... The economic... Institute actually utilized a very faulty system to determine that. This was used by, I believe it was Implan, and Implan is a system of economic input-output modeling that actually was utilized by things like from the states such as the train to know where everyone's favorite my pit that has just generated losses in the one hundreds of billions and so when you input what you want into that system it'll output whatever you put into it so this implant system has been just absolutely demolished by any repudiated a rip-off reputable economists from Dartmouth to Harvard, from every Ivy League school, they have denounced this in-plan model. And so they're going to utilize this paper to claim that this is glowing and it's great. It isn't. It is a wealth extraction plot. It's going to privatize profits for an elite few at the very top and socialize all the problems to the hundreds of thousands in Solano County and California in general. And so this has real lasting ramifications. What's going to happen to the South Bay when Silicon Valley came in, they're going to do the same thing here. Because this is the last bastion for affordable living in the Bay Area, where the median house home is about $587,000. With California Forever comes in, it's going to shoot up to 800,000. It's going to match the East Bay. It's going to match Contra Costa. It's not good. It's going to be at the cost, the grave cost of hundreds of thousands. Thousands will be displaced in Solano County by the inflationary spillover rate of all the quote unquote value that will generate for all the oligarchs above. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Vince Webster to be followed by Rick Johnson.

No, it's bigger.

Sorry, old age. I'm Vince Webster, and I'm here to speak on behalf of Measure P. I want to encourage a yes vote on Measure P. I'll be coming at this from two very quick angles. One, I am blessed enough and fortunate enough to have been raised here in the city of Fairfield. My father retired from the military. He chose Fairfield as a place to live, and I'm thankful that he did. It gave me the opportunity to grow up here. and eventually worked my way into becoming a paramedic and a firefighter and eventually promoting to the position of fire chief. That allowed me firsthand to see the effects of an early emergency response, be it medical or fire. Any of the fire representatives in the room will tell you it's critical that we get to an emergency scene quick. We call it either the four minute, three to five minute issue where brain cells can die if somebody's unconscious, or trying to get to a structure fire before a flashover occurs. It really makes a difference. If Measure P unfortunately does not pass, it could mean that the Fairfield Fire Department would have to brown out stations. That could affect emergency response time and then unfortunately affect lives being saved. I can say firsthand that I've been in a situation where I've responded as a paramedic, provided emergency care on somebody who was lifeless when we get there, no pulse, no breathing, etc., We provide emergency care and on numerous occasions, probably more than I can account, that person has come to either a council meeting or to the fire department to thank us and other folks for saving their lives. Early emergency response makes a difference. Not to mention all of the other wonderful quality of life things that the city of Fairfield is all about. I'm grateful to be here. I'm grateful to be part of a diverse community. My wife and I walk the neighborhoods regularly, and probably top amongst the organizations that we're involved with is the Matt Garcia Foundation. Giving back to our youth, giving back to our community, the passage of Measure P, in my opinion, is paramount to keeping that happening. Thank you.

Next is Rick Johnson, to be followed by Dave Harrison.

Welcome back there. And good evening Council staff. Money huge huge huge. I'm speaking specifically about the Vista Ridge money and the liability that I believe is still resident there. Latana has told us verbally that the documents that have been filed are insulating the city from loss. I've not heard, and I've not been at all meetings, I've not been to the closed session meetings, but I don't believe you've been told what money is at risk for how long. reviewed the documents as he suggested and i find that the city is still liable for the backstop of the home key loan though there is some mitigation the council has been told that there is no liability verbally to my knowledge the city needs the protection of an analysis by a third party like an investigator that the long-term liability of this agreement with the state Latana cannot be the only assurance that you have that the city is protected. The total indebtedness can reach approximately $58 million by year 55. You can't be comfortable that you have done all your due diligence if Latana, his verbal assurance, is your due diligence. Please. I did an AI deep dive, and nobody should rely on AI. It's a tool. It should be used as an indicator. The results are what you have in front of you there. The questions I asked, the results it gave. It's a very good tool. It helps you digest immense documents. You can then query it as an intelligent individual, but it's not perfect. But in my research, it indicates that we definitely need to have an analysis. THE EFFORTS THEY HAVE MADE ARE DEFINITELY GOING TO BE HELPFUL. THE BOTTOM LINE IN THIS REPORT IS THE BOTTOM LINE. THE CITY HAS DONE EVERYTHING LEGALLY PERMISSIBLE TO PUSH THE OPERATIONAL RISK ENTIRELY ONTO DANCO. How the state level home key private level partnerships are legally frameworked. If the project suffers a catastrophic structural failure that the private markets won't salvage, the city of Fairfield remains the backstop of the last state of resort for the contract to return the monies. You need good information. You've required good information. 30 seconds, Rick. 30 seconds. You've required good information to be supported in other actions you've taken. This is $58 million that potentially hangs over a city that is 11 million in the whole... It will be 11 million in the whole next year. And again, Measure P, as the former prior gentleman said, is a very important thing. The voters, if they see you to be worthy and trustworthy, will vote for it. If they do not believe you, they will not. Thank you very much.

Mayor. Can I ask- Councilor McDonough. Can I ask a question?

OR DAVID.

HOW MANY OF THE PSH, THE PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING, HAVE FAILED ACROSS THE STREET, ACROSS THE STATE AND COST THE CITY MILLIONS?

ACTUALLY, MR. MAYOR, IF I MAY, THIS ITEM IS NOT AGENDA, SO I WOULD RECOMMEND THAT WE HAVE NO DISCUSSION WITH STAFF ON THIS MATTER.

OKAY. NEXT SPEAKER.

NEXT SPEAKER IS DAVE HARRISON TO BE FOLLOWED BY DR. SAM

Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Welcome, council members and city staff. My name is Dave Harrison. I'm born and raised in Fairfield. I currently reside in District 3. And I came here tonight to recognize this body and the work that you did at the last city council meeting. I know that filling the mayor's seat was not an easy decision. I know that it was very hard work, and I saw some compromise here. I heard the discussion, and I want to commend each and every one of you, because I think you made a great decision. So thank you for that. With that, Mr. Mayor, I heard you in your opening remarks talk about your short time here. And I hope by short time, you don't mean very short. It is July, and I'm going to encourage you that if you haven't already to pull papers for the November election. Just want to publicly support you and your election in November to maintain your seat here. I also want to second some of the comments from previous speakers in support of Measure P. My wife and I recently conducted a side-by-side comparison of the cities of Fairfield, Vacaville and Vallejo on economic health. And the study that we performed concluded with the fact that we have Measure P and we're the only city of the three that actually has a funding mechanism like that. The Fairfield is in the healthiest economic state of the three cities. We have done a lot of things here, but I think the work's not done. There's a lot more to do. So I'm going to encourage folks listening at home and anyone here today that when Measure P comes up to urge a yes vote. So thank you for the time.

Next is Dr. Sam Morris to be followed by Ryan Massano.

Hello. Hello. Just want to start off by just saying good evening. Congratulations to our new mayor, Rick Piccaro. I wanted to also acknowledge our vice mayor, distinguished council members, city council, all of you, our city attorney, city staff, first responders, everyone that has gathered here tonight. Before I begin... I want to reflect on really what's on my heart tonight. I am here to talk about Measure P, but also my heart is drawn toward the words of Micah. There's a scripture in Micah 6 and 8, he says, he has shown you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God. Those words spoken during a season when God's people were wrestling with injustice, uncertainty, broken trust. God's answer to them was not division, but it was a call to pure justice. It was a call to walk with integrity, to extend mercy with compassion and to lead with humility. And it's those same principles we seek and I ask of you today. Our city has experienced some difficult days. We continue to carry the weight of the heartbreaking loss, and our community mourns the life of Jamario Baker, who was taken far too soon in an act of senseless gun violence following what should have been a joyful graduation, a celebration, a moment, a mark meant to solidify hope and new beginnings. But it was a tragic ending. We also hold in the prayers Maurice Williams, that 15-year-old student, whose recent encounter with law enforcement has deeply affected many. Those moments ripple beyond the immediate events. It touched families. It touched classmates. It touched first responders. It touched educators. It touched our ministry. It touched neighbors all around. And it reminds us behind every headline is a story of a loved one, a community grappling with grief, questions, and the deep need for healing. I've had the privilege of working beside all of you behind the scenes. Much of that work that brings healing is not visible. It's like a rudder beneath a ship that quietly helps guide the direction of the whole vessel. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve in that capacity behind the scenes and remain committed to bringing people together rather than driving us apart. This is why I believe Measure P is important, because Measure P is more than a funding measure. It is an investment prevention.

Thirty seconds, Sam.

So we often take for granted and remain available when our community needs them the most. And I just want to suggest to all of us that we should invest more in our city. This is why Measure P is important. We need our police. We need our first responders. Everybody wants them to be able to respond. And we want to make sure that we have the funding to make sure that all of our agencies are able to govern effectively. So please consider making sure Measure P is at the top of your list.

Next is Ryan Massano, to be followed by Amy, or Ami.

Good evening. It's a pleasure to come and speak before you and the citizens of Fairfield. And ironically, the topic of tonight's speech is explosive and it's controversial. But for those who understand love, we understand that love requires truth. Because without truth, It's fake, and that's not real love. So to objectively go over some facts that are going to be very uncomfortable at times, and to guard against the psychological terrorism that is routinely leveled against people who say things that others don't like. And so the whole point of our 250 year anniversary, the very First Amendment in this nation, was to design if an unpopular opinion like Socrates or Jesus got up and was spoken, they would not be killed for having an opinion that a lot of people don't like and some people violently dislike. That was the point of the First Amendment. And it is the job of every elected official to defend that First Amendment for every speaker in this nation, whether you agree with them or not. So, you know, I wish there's thousands of objections to what I'm going to say, and I can't even nearly confront all of them, so I have my own website where I have 1,000 books, 2,000 actually, seem to be 3,000, and they are not in the libraries, they're not on Amazon, they're not on YouTube, they're not on social media. I do want to apologize because if you're on the radio, television, movies, social media, you've been lied to since you were born, and that is a hard fact to swallow. But just briefly, in 1776 to 1965, you were not allowed to move to America unless you were white. That's a simple fact that 90% of Americans are not even aware of. Now, in 1965, America was told that in the Hart-Celler Act, we were told that this nation was going to be allowing non-whites to move to America for the first time. And we were told that this would not affect our demographics. We were 90% white at the time. California was 90% white in 1960. And that was a lie. California now has 24% of her children are white. The nation is 58% white. And so whites actually never voted to become a minority in their own country. Africa, no one has a problem with Africa being 90% black.

30 seconds, sir.

Thank you. No one has a problem with India being 90% Indian. No one has a problem with China being 90% Chinese. No one has a problem with Japan being 90% Japanese. But if a white person says they want a country that's 90% their race, this is racism and white supremacy and Nazi and racist and all this. So the logic, if you really carefully look into it, it doesn't hold water. There's a lot more. Thank you for listening. I will be back. Thank you.

Next is Amy.

Hi, I'm Amy. My speech is about victims who have the legal right not to be ignored or discriminated against. There are a lot of victims in Fairfield who wish they could speak up but can't because no one has created the system to protect them and their family from retaliation. Mandated reporters, police officers, and government officials need to create a system so they can save themselves helping the victims of child trafficking escape their abusers. I'm here to ask you to prioritize your responsibilities to this community because we have all suffered so much these last eight years or so. You must create this system for us because you work for this community and you care about us. If you are showing signs of the exact opposite, that's when it's called a conflict of interest. Working for people who don't care about everyone inclusively in this city is a conflict of interest. I'm here to help you remember to make better decisions for the people you serve. Thank you. That's it.

OK, I don't have any other speaker cards. I do have two hands raised online. Did anyone else here wish to speak on public comment? OK, Valeria, can you bring the first person?

Yes, the first person is called John MacDonald. You have three minutes. Thank you.

Good evening council and welcome Mayor Vaccaro. Really happy to see you in that seat. You're one of my favorite people. And I'm not running for an office, so I'm not trying to solicit anything from anyone. What I do want to say in all seriousness is I also support measure P because it involves funding once it's passed that the state cannot take away. But I want to introduce two measures that probably will never ever show up on a ballot, but which needs to be a universal kind of ballot. And that's measure K and measure C. And that's kindness and civility, which sometimes we came here to Fairfield with the Air Force. And not only do I love this country, but I love, love, love, love Fairfield. I love the district, district one that I'm in. I love the council person who represents that. But most importantly, I love the people who are sitting on the dais. So when I talk about measure K and measure C in terms of the kindness and civility, these have been things that have been absent recently where we have had people personally attack someone based on their vote based on their opinion. And also in other situations, we would tell our kids if they were personally attacking someone, that it would be considered bullying. When a 400 pound man, and I'm an old school kind of female in some ways, where it's not acceptable for men to attack women, but also to attack someone with lies. So going back to measure kindness and civility, I wanna offer myself as a volunteer, and I think I'm an ongoing volunteer, to support our community in any way possible, whether it be going out to families, whether it be going out to support our council people, but let's just be kind and let's just exercise kindness and civility and let's just stop the bullying and the lies and just the unkindness because this is not what Fairfield is. This is not what Fairfield represents. We are a community of people with diverse ideas and opinion and let's respect each other. And there again, welcome Mayor Vaccaro and the council. I really appreciate the work that you do. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker from online, please, Valeria.

Yes, next speaker is anonymous. You have three minutes. Thank you.

Go ahead.

Hello. Good evening, Fairfield Council, members of the community. My name is Joseph D. Joyce. I was calling in today just to follow up. On first, Michael Jefferson, who is one of the former mayor's minions, who just wanted to throw a dig. Michael is running for mayor of Suisun City and so hell-bent on spreading this misinformation about California Forever, which is actually Suisun City expansion plan, similar to the 1971 cherry stem annexation of Cordelia that brought Cordelia and married it with Fairfield. I find it ironic, I wanted to call in, because today they actually are doing a update. They updated the Suisun City Council on the environmental impact report, which if Michael Jefferson was so concerned about stopping California Forever or Suisun expansion plan, and was fact-based in his reporting, he would be there today to listen to an environmental impact report. So I just wanted to say that. Congratulations, Mr. Vaccaro, on your appointment. I'm excited. I think we need to move past this to some expansion talk for Fairfield, as Fairfield has many issues that we're dealing with here in our community, and it's time to just move this conversation forward and pass who soon matters. Also, I wanted to touch on that racist Klan member that came in. I wish he would have pulled that stuff last week or last meeting when the supporters of Maurice Williams was there, but he didn't. He took advantage of tonight. I just wanted to condemn his speech. It's ridiculous. He's traveling around to all of our diverse communities and spewing hate, and we don't need that. Let's move on Fairfield. Thank you. Congratulations again, Rick.

Okay, Rochelle Cooks.

I am so concerned about Fairfield. I've been here a very long time. Either the city ordinance has changed, something has changed. There's so much revenue that the city can make. The city has allowed vehicles under car covers to be parked on our city streets for years. I've seen over three, and the cars have not moved. Code enforcement, I see them driving around, but nothing has changed. There's recreational vehicles. There's motorhomes. I mean, they're taking up so much space. Grass is growing under them. The street sweeper goes around them, and nothing happens. All these trailers, they're so wide, two cars cannot pass down the street. Someone has to stop in direct traffic for the other car to get through. Trying to go and do groceries, I almost got T-boned twice. These trailers are so high, they're as tall as houses. The vehicle that's pulling it is facing the wrong way. Something's wrong. I mean, somebody's not doing their job. These cars under car covers, there's just too many cars under car covers. And I figure if I can see this, why can't anyone else see it? Something is being neglected along the way. I'm not going to stay too long on that because there's something else I want to bring up because the weather is warm and these speakers and microphones in residential areas, it is truly disturbing the peace. When you cannot sit in your home and watch TV or listen to your music because you have to read the lips because everything is so loud, something is wrong with that. That's disturbing the peace. And to me, that should be out in the commercial area with the wood and the concrete. No one wants to have loudness forced on them. Someone is not enforcing this. And the officers should not have to respond to tell someone this is too loud. It should be something in the ordinance. If they respond, it should be a citation. That's so disrespectful. I would love to see that changed. And I don't know what's happened to our city ordinances. This didn't used to be. You couldn't have boats and trailers and all that on your front lawn in front of your house. Certain neighborhoods are going down. Certain neighborhoods.

You have 30 seconds, ma'am.

Certain neighborhoods it's paid attention to, but certain ones it's not. I just hope it improves. Thank you.

OK, I don't have any other speaker cards. Did anyone wish to speak?

OK, and there are no more hands raised on line, Mayor.

Consent calendar notice, please.

Yes, all matters listed on the consent calendar are to be approved with one motion unless a member of the City Council or the public requests that separate action be taken on a specific item. And I believe you said we're pulling J2 and J7 for discussion? Correct. Yes. Okay. So we should take J2 first?

Yeah, so for item J2, which is mayor's revised appointments, we had updated the document that is attached on that item based on the document that had gone to the City Council in January at the Council retreat. And so at the retreat in January, so we had updated it to add Mayor Vaccaro on there, but at the retreat in January under the City Council Appointments Committee, The Council actually had updated the appointed members to be Council Member Pandoro and Council Member Tonneson. I don't believe the Vice Mayor was on that Appointments Committee. So I just wanted to make that clarification here for the record before you voted on that. Of course, any changes Council wants to make on this is totally within your purview and your prerogative. But by updating that document, we had just missed that item that was updated verbally at the retreat. So I wanted to make that clarification. Happy to take any questions if you have them.

Any questions? No? Okay. So vote on it separately.

Do I have a motion? Sorry, you need to take a public comment. Sorry, I didn't mean to yell so loud.

Oh, was there any, is there any public comment on item J2?

Okay. Do I have a motion? So moved. So moved. Okay. Moved by Councilman Sandu, seconded by the Vice Mayor.

All those in favor?

Aye. All those opposed?

Thank you, and then I'll read item J7. Resolution 2026-153, adopting the second update to the Landscape Oversight Committee guidelines and duties of the committee. Second update to the Landscape Oversight Committee guidelines and duties and discussion and direction regarding the Landscape Oversight Committee request to modify residency requirements. Chris Lewis. SENIOR MANAGEMENT ANALYST FROM PUBLIC WORKS.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL. TONIGHT'S ITEM INCLUDES TWO MAIN TOPICS AS A FOLLOW-UP TO THE APRIL 7TH MEETING. THE FIRST TOPIC IS IN REGARD TO AN UPDATE TO THE LANDSCAPE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE GUIDELINES AND DUTIES DOCUMENT AND THE SECOND TOPIC IS REGARDING THE LANDSCAPE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE'S RECOMMENDATION FOR RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS. SO FIRST I'LL START WITH THE UPDATE TO THE GUIDELINES AND DUTIES DOCUMENT. At the April 7th meeting, the Council directed staff to update the guidelines by narrowing the scope of responsibilities to oversight functions only and to also remove any duties related to Proposition 218 processes and community engagement since that was inconsistent with and conflicts with the intent of an oversight committee. So staff has prepared the proposed updates for you, which is included in your packet. And just as a brief summary, the new responsibilities are described as reviewing quarterly financial reports and annual budgets related to LLMD and general fund landscaping services. reviewing maintenance service contracts and quarterly performance reports to ensure compliance with agreed upon standards and deliverables, and examining the use of LLMD and general fund revenues specifically allocated for landscaping maintenance services to ensure transparency and effectiveness. So along with the updates to the responsibilities, there were several administrative updates as well, just for clarity and efficiency purposes. So for example, the current guidelines state that the vice chair and chair will serve a one year term and then the administrative updates in the proposed document clarifies that the term will begin on January 1st and on December 31st. So just a few minor modifications for clarity and efficiency purposes. So tonight for the first item, staff requests that council adopt the resolution to approve those proposed updates. And the second topic is regarding the Landscape Oversight Committee's recommendations regarding residency requirements. So at that same April 7th meeting, prior to the council directing staff to update the guidelines, I was presenting the committee's recommendation to allow at-large appointments for all committee members. Currently, the committee is comprised of six members representing each council district and one member at large. And at the April 7th meeting, the committee's recommendation to the council was to convert those six district-represented seats to at-large seats, so there would be seven at-large members. So after that April meeting, the Landscape Oversight Committee brought to my attention that the council didn't provide an official response to their recommendation, and so they were requesting that the council tonight provide a response to let them know the official decision from the council. Thank you.

Any comments? Yes. Rick Johnson?

good evening again why was the landscape oversight committee formed this was a question that council person sandu asked at the april 7th meeting of the council the city manager responded and said it was a result of the failed 218 efforts that's what you were told the landscape oversight committee was formed by an approved resolution on february 21st 2023 resolution 23-26 The vote tabulation for the horribly planned 218 campaign in all nine districts took place on June 7th. It hadn't failed yet. So the information you were given was inaccurate. It was formed because we had historically problems managing both the money, which is what they wanted to limit the committee to at this time, it's just the money, the procedures were the problem, how things were enforced, or how things were communicated to you. You did not know that the money problems stretched way back and did not allow the contracts to be enforced. Having the committee that can observe and review operations would give the committee the ability to do that. They would be able to observe and comment to you on a broad scale. But if it's just the numbers only, that's just part of the picture. And serving on the committee from the beginning, it has been difficult. We've had so many issues. One of the largest one is the organization that we are overseeing runs my committee. Chris is the liaison. The city manager, the director of public works, the supervisor of landscaping, two other staff people attended most of our meetings, which is why Congressman, sorry, you're promoted. Councilperson Tonneson noted that we had so many staff members. No other committee has that pressure applied to them. And in talking with one of my members that resigned, that was one of the reasons they identified is the pressure that they felt under during our meetings. Having to face the staff that we're trying to understand what they do and to be able to ask questions about it. That has recently changed, which is very good, thank you for not attending. The pressure is down and people feel like they can participate. But we've had several problems- 30 seconds Rick. We've come to you with a couple of different requests to try and resolve the problem. We asked for more members, and one recommendation by one member was maybe we should have less members. So I'm very frustrated. We really want to do well. I want to participate and support the good efforts, but there's a good amount of efforts that are not good, and you need to hear about those as well as the good. THAT'S WHAT WE'LL DO IF WE MAINTAIN OUR OVERSIGHT OF THE THAT'S WHAT WE'LL DO IF WE MAINTAIN OUR OVERSIGHT OF THE OPERATIONAL PORTION AS WELL AS THE OPERATIONAL PORTION AS WELL AS THE OPERATIONAL PORTION AS WELL AS THE FINANCIAL. FINANCIAL. FINANCIAL. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. DID ANYONE ELSE WISH TO SPEAK DID ANYONE ELSE WISH TO SPEAK DID ANYONE ELSE WISH TO SPEAK ON THIS ITEM?

ON THIS ITEM? ON THIS ITEM? OKAY. OKAY. OKAY. ANY COMMENTS? ANY COMMENTS? ANY COMMENTS? CAN I ENTERTAIN A MOTION? CAN I ENTERTAIN A MOTION? CAN I ENTERTAIN A MOTION?

SCOTT, DID YOU HAVE A COMMENT? SCOTT, DID YOU HAVE A COMMENT? I THOUGHT WE WERE CLEAR LAST TIME THAT WE WEREN'T IN FAVOR OF AT LARGE. WASN'T THAT YOUR QUESTION?

IT WAS. AND I REVIEWED THE TAPES. I THINK THERE WASN'T A CLEAR YES OR NO RESPONSE TO THE RECOMMENDATION AND THAT IS WHAT THE COMMITTEE IS REQUESTING. SO TWO THINGS. ONE, TO ADOPT THE RESOLUTION TO APPROVE THE UPDATED GUIDELINES AND DUTIES. AND THEN THE SECOND IS TO PROVIDE THE LANDSCAPE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE WITH AN OFFICIAL RESPONSE TO THEIR RECOMMENDATION.

So you wanted the first action?

To adopt the resolution?

I would make a motion to do that.

Okay. I made a motion by Councilman Tonneson. There is a second.

Is there a second? Okay.

Seconded by Vice Mayor Bertani. All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. I have a question.

Okay.

Oh, with the approval of this.

On item one or item two?

Are we done? We're on the second page. I'm clarifying what we're voting on. OK. Are we voting on the amendment of language and responsibility or?

Correct. The resolution is specifically to adopt the updated guidelines and duties.

That's the current motion? Yeah. Thank you.

OK. Motion passes. Second? So what are we?

Not a vote, just direction to staff and an official response to the Landscape Oversight Committee regarding their recommendation.

ANY COMMENTS FOR THAT DIRECTION? ANY COMMENTS FOR THAT DIRECTION?

SO I THOUGHT WE MADE IT SO I THOUGHT WE MADE IT CLEAR THE LAST TIME BUT I'M CLEAR THE LAST TIME BUT I'M NOT IN FAVOR OF AT-LARGE MEMBERS NOT IN FAVOR OF AT-LARGE MEMBERS EVEN I THINK COUNCIL MEMBER EVEN I THINK COUNCIL MEMBER MANVEER SUGGESTED SMALLER. MANVEER SUGGESTED SMALLER. I WOULD GO WITH SMALLER BUT I WOULD GO WITH SMALLER BUT LEAVING IT AT NO AT-LARGE IS LEAVING IT AT NO AT-LARGE IS WHERE I WOULD LAND. WHERE I WOULD LAND.

I WOULD CONCUR WITH MY I WOULD CONCUR WITH MY COLLEAGUE. COLLEAGUE. I AM ALSO NOT IN FAVOR OF

Okay, Vice Mayor Bertani and I just want to make clear that I am in favor of moving to at-large because I believe that this committee Can be comprised of people who are number one very interested in landscape oversight actions and that who are fired up and ready to go and I think that that's been one of the challenges of the landscape oversight committee in in having members who are really engaged and actually want to and are capable of doing the work for the committee so i'm in support a hundred percent of at large any anyone else want to comment seems like the direction's a little split go ahead castleman williams counselor councilwoman williams

Thank you. I thought I was clear as well last time. I would like to keep it is as is. I think people that have left, various reasons. I don't think that is the reason. But I think if we end up with a committee that is at large that means there will be known no representation from different areas of the city and I think that's key. So thank you.

Thank you, I also will in favor of at large for the same for the reason of also representation from across the city. Thank you.

OK.

Councilman Sandu. Councilman Pindar, can you restate you're in favor of representation citywide?

Correct. I'm not in favor of at large.

Thank you. Question for staff. The reason we went to district a while back was because there was some gentleman suing a bunch of cities in regards to folks not being represented enough. Does that apply to commissions and committees as well? Or did that only start and stop with elected bodies? Or would that trigger down to appointed bodies as well?

I don't know that any case law has ruled on it, but I would not think it applies to a commission. I think it's at the discretion of the council as to how they want to, other than the planning commission, because they are mandated by statute or allowed by statute. But since these commissions are advisory only, I think you could make it up however you want. Because the case law you're talking about has to do with enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, and Voting Rights Act does not apply to this. Okay. Thank you.

Well, it looks like the direction is to keep it the way it is. I just want to make a comment, too. And I understand what the vice mayor is saying, too, about, you know, wanting people there that are going to do the job. The only thing I hesitate about that is that I would hate to see, you know, just one area of the city basically on this committee. Because I was, you know, a representative at large. So was Vice Mayor Bertani. You know, and when we did go to districts, it was um you know it was sort of i had mixed feelings about it i agreed that we did need representation from all the different areas i think that was really important i think the one thing that bothered me was that i felt like i could not reach out to other other districts and that bothered me because i was you know i was able to talk to everybody in the city But you know, I the majority of the council wants to go in that direction. So that is the direction Yeah, good.

So I I think we suggested last time though in Kay's district they're doing a fantastic job and they're just doing it in their district and it should be a 218 committee is what I've been asking for for a few years now, so ever since it started but I don't know if we can go that direction or if that has to be something that's agendized. Because people could do it district by district, you know, LLMD district by district. Because all we want to do is pass 218. And then the game changes. But that's just a suggestion.

Maybe that should come back in another meeting. I think we already gave you the direction from here. So, okay. Thank you. Turn it calendar. Madam Clerk.

Yes, so we still need to vote on all the other items on consent, excluding J2 and Jason.

OK, do we have any public comments on any of the?

I do not. Did anyone else wish to speak on any other of the J public comments? No? OK. No hands raised on that.

Make a motion.

So moved.

So moved by Vice Mayor Bertani. I'll second. Seconded by Councilman Carr. All those in favor? Aye. OK. So now we turn to new business.

Yes, new business. K-1, minute action approving the mayor's appointments. Minute action approving mayor's appointments to the Planning Commission and the Youth Commission. So we do need to vote on it before I administer the oath of office.

Do you have any public comments on this?

I do not. Did anyone wish to speak on this item? Okay.

I'd like to make a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilman Tonneson. All those in favor?

Aye. I'd like to make some comments too, Rick. Is that okay? Yeah, go ahead. So the Planning Commission is loaded with people that want to serve. And I'm not suggesting it now, but maybe at a later date we could look at reducing the term to two years. PER COMMISSIONER AND MAYBE SOME KIND OF A TERM LIMIT WHERE YOU TAKE A BREAK AND THEN ANOTHER TERM LIMIT BECAUSE WE LITERALLY HAVE 24 IN THE LAST TWO, TOTAL OF 24 IN THE LAST TWO FOR A COUPLE OF SPOTS. SO I THINK, AGAIN, DOWN THE ROAD, I JUST WANT TO BRING IT UP TO MY COLLEAGUES NOW. I THINK IT WOULD BE WISE TO CHANGE THAT UP A LITTLE BIT.

SO MOTION PASSES.

Yes. Okay. So I would like to call up Hannah Cordero Chen.

Mr. Mayor, I don't actually think you voted.

Oh. Sorry. Second. Actually, Councilman Tonneson seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes.

Okay. Thank you. So I will call up to the front here Planning Commissioners Hannah Cordero Chen, Shashi Paul, and Aiden Ali Sullivan, and also Youth Commissioner Fateh Thakkar. Okay, maybe I'll have you stand here facing the crowd because people might want to take photos. Okay, so we'll start with I and our individual names, and then we'll do everything simultaneously.

Okay, I. I, Aiden Alley-Sullivan.

Oh, sorry, and raise your right hands. Okay, do solemnly swear. Do solemnly swear.

That I will support and defend.

That I will support and defend.

The Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of California. against all enemies foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation, purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter okay and I think we're missing our photographer tonight so So I would like to take a picture of all of you and then I need you to sign your oaths and I have some jelly bellies for you and also a pin, a city pin.

Oh, will you do it? Okay. Thank you, David.

Mr. Paul asked if he could have a photo with the families too.

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, the families come down. Thank you.

Thank you.

Congratulations, everyone.

We ready for the next item?

Yes. Item K2, Resolution 2026-156, Golf Volunteer Program, Authorized Development of a Volunteer Program for City Golf Courses and Adopting Volunteer Service Benefit Policy. And our presenter is Christina Konzinger, Director of Parks and Recreation.

Mayor and council members, this item is being presented to the council due to the request to include benefits for volunteer services provided at the city golf courses, which is unique to all other city volunteer programs. So I'm going to give a little bit of background on, whoops. sorry so the statement of issue of why this is also coming before you is the touchstone golf foundation which is an affiliate with the touchstone golf llc is dissolving and they were the ones who oversaw and managed the volunteer program on our golf courses so with that termination the we had been working with our golf advisory board and their recommendation was that the city consider taking over that management of a volunteer program So just a little recap on some of the key timelines. In 2022, the council had directed staff to initiate a RFQP process with the preference of providing or having a single provider to improve the effectiveness of the overall management of all operations at the golf courses, maximizing revenues, obtaining more self-sufficiency, and affirmed that being part of the goal of the RFQRFP. So in 2023, through a series of interviews and our selection committee provided direction for hiring Touchstone Golf as our new management company. And they began actually their contract started in January of 2024. And that's when the Touchstone Foundation came in play and provided the volunteer services. However, in 2025, Kemper Sports actually acquired Touchstone Golf LLC and with that transition, the foundation was not part of that and the foundation is dissolving. So, as I mentioned, the Golf Advisory Board, which we refer to as GAB, had several meetings in which we were working through some alternatives for the volunteer program. After February 12th was the first time that we had information that was provided to them. Kemper Sports had provided the 2025 volunteer service program. Overview and summary of the number of and the days of the week that complimentary golf was provided that's on page 210 of your packet and at that time we first started the dialogue of either having an option of enveloping the volunteer services as paid staff into Kemper operations or creating a city program and At their May 7th meeting, staff provided the memorandum from legal counsel relevant to labor laws in compliance with the Dominionist benefit provisions for volunteers. That memo in its entirety is on page 212 of your packet, which I will highlight a little further in the slide presentation. At that same meeting, staff provided an outline of just key components of what the City Volunteer Program may look like, and that's on page 215. The board members at their May 7th meeting, we had some dialogue and trying to reach consensus on what the GAB would recognize as reasonable and fair benefits. However, during that deliberation, there was no consensus and actually asked for additional information from both Kemper and the city staff being what would the actual benefits look like if it was an employee benefit. And then they asked for the city to propose an actual outline of what a city program would look like. And they did review both of those documents at a special meeting that was held on May 28. And at that meeting, they had quite a bit of discussion. And again, we recap that what they had previously directed us was either the options of incorporating into the operation of staff being paid staff through Kemper or developing a city volunteer program and key factors that were highlighted during both the May 7th and the May 28th was really looking at the benefits and less about the program itself the benefits because that's what's before you tonight so legal definition of what constitutes and defines volunteer and then secondarily was looking at financial impacts and operational efficiencies. So legal had provided again the main full memo is in your packet but generally the two areas that I mentioned so FLSA quotes an individual who performs hours of service for civic charitable or humanitarian reasons without promise expectation or receipt of compensation for services rendered and the DLS E also quotes that it intends to volunteer his or her services for public service, religious or humanitarian objectives, not as an employee and without contemplation of pay. FLSA also allows volunteers to receive expenses, reasonable benefits, a nominal fee or any combination thereof. So that's where we spent most of our time at the May 28th meeting, that special meeting. And again, the legal recommendation provided to us and to the Wealth Advisory Board was if the city is proposing a city program, We need to define the role of the volunteers to ensure that there's a separation of duties performed by the volunteers versus a paid staff member, develop a waiver form, apply city policies that are standard for our committees and whatnot, which includes things like anti-harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and then create a schedule for de minimis benefits. So after quite a lengthy deliberation after May 28, while the GAB still was looking for this to be a city managed program, the benefits that they recommended really aligned more with the Kemper employee benefits. So here's a comparison Visible for you to see what the Kemper employee benefits are what ultimately the golf advisory board had proposed during our deliberation and So with it being a city run, however, we would recommend that based on council goals and expectation of the golf enterprise being self-sufficient and in particular with the outside council legal, we recommend that we would need to limit the task assigned, reduce the complimentary golf, and also modify the other benefits. So at the end, if we're looking at a city-run program, your staff is recommending what's highlighted here, which differs from the two other proposals, the employee benefit through Kemper and the Golf Advisory Board recommendation. Again, highlighting that the benefits really align most with what Kemper is already doing with their employee program. So sorry, keep forgetting to forward these. So for city managed program, we're looking for the action from the council to allow that we develop and implement a volunteer program and that we adopt a policy that clearly specifies what the benefits would be. Adding that structure and the this is what you need to do to get these benefits. The alternate action would be to deny developing a city volunteer program and have Kemper assume the duties utilizing paid staff. The implementation of Gab recommendation really mirrors that of the Kemper model, but under the city management, which does create a little bit of a conflict with what the legal is proposing and recommending for the city to consider. So in your staff report, too, on Page 2 of 6, I did start by saying that from the city's perspective, the best alternative would also be having this move into the Kemper oversight and management. However, given our dialogue with both the volunteers and our GAP members, we did want to provide what a program that would be managed by the city would look like. Again, taking direction from your council goals and legal recommendations.

Speakers yes, so why don't we take the speakers first and then we'll do council comments.

Okay first is Bryce bins and

The first 24 volunteer policy onboarding legacy program that I was presented with when I became a marshal included three rounds of non-free hours. Most of the people that take advantage of the free dollars are mostly retired. and played non-peak anyways. There we go. They offered a family discount, $10 green fees, range balls and non-peak hours, merchandise discount cost plus 10%, meals 30% discount, beverages 50 cents. That was kind of like the legacy and I understand that this was something that's been with the city for many years july 2026 resolution 2026-156 section 2 attachment 9. one round per three shifts worked opposite of what we were used to 50 discount on cart fee just make it a flat rate meals 25 discount during shift Range balls are not even mentioned or included in the proposal. Merchandise discount, excuse me, is not included in the proposal as well. Significantly reducing the benefits to volunteers can really lead to the increased turnover of the marshals, decreased morale within the marshals and the staff, course degradation, increase to both city and Kemper staff time for recruitment and onboarding of new Marshalls due to the turnover Possibly required going with the paid staff Which would increase operating budget if it came to that? Therefore I request council to adopt resolution 2026 dash 156 with the following amendments related to section 2 and benefit policy attachment 9 strike one complimentary round of golf for every three shifts worked, replaced with two complimentary rounds of golf for every one shift worked. Add practice balls are available during non-peak periods. Add pro shop merchandise available at cost plus 10%. Strike 50% discount on cart fee. Replace with, okay, $10. $10 flat rate cart fee per round. Strike 25% discount on food purchased during the shift. Replace with the common practice of current 50 discount of 30 seconds within the shift strike benefit redemption monday through thursday anytime after 1 pm replaced with benefit redemption monday through thursday one and one half hours before sunrise and after 1 pm i ask that the council just take all that in consideration before adopting this resolution thank you

Our next let's take direct. Let's take the speakers.

OK, excuse me Sir, can you leave a copy of that with us? What you read out loud? Great OK. My next speaker is Chris Peterson.

Sure, next is Ron Collins. Hello Ron.

Hello, City Council, Mayor. Appreciate this opportunity. For 36 years, we've had a volunteer program. We didn't start in 2024. It changed touchstone, started handling in 2024. We started the volunteer program back in 1990 when Club Corp was our golf course operator. And we continued it with Kemper when they came in for their first run. And why did we do that? Because rounds went to six hours and a half. We needed marshals on the course to control the pace of play. And that's what we do, amongst other things. We handed along a list to you of things that marshals do that no other, the staff at the sites do not do. This is above and beyond what the staff does there. Since 2025, Kemper Touchstone and city staff seem to want to eliminate us. And based on two things as far as they inflated the cost to the marshals at $240,000 per course. That blew me away. I don't think I can play that much golf in two years, three years. And they had an overstatement of fair FLSA liability. As it's pointed out in the email, there's windows of opportunity as long as you control that nominal fee. Once you cross the line, then it becomes a wage issue. But the way we work, a task that we do, which is not anything else anyone does, we fall within the category of monitoring that pretty close. But since 36, we've had this program. I know because I work today four hours on shift. I hope I can work tomorrow and the rest of the month. That's what the marshals want. What we'd like to do is reject the Parks and Recreation's proposal, the city's proposal. I don't see many people out there since I've been doing it and I've been working out there six years that come out and see what we do. There's no on course to evaluate what work we do. Only people who see it are our patrons. I don't see... Kemper on the course, seeing what we do. Again, we do it. We control pace of play, customer service, all kinds of stuff that we do on our own. It hasn't been valued by city staff or Kemper. They may think they know what they're doing and probably do, but they're not out there seeing what we do. I reject I would ask the council reject the Kemper proposals. It's been said because they charged extra money We don't need extra money being going into our budget. I think you've got other issues besides 30 seconds around, okay We just like to return we urged That the City Council returned the program oversight to city manager's office like we've said and we've done it for 36 years establish a compliant perk structure and delegate operation oversight to the head professionals. When I worked, we didn't have the city council or anybody in the city manager's office to oversee setting lifeguards schedules or program softball schedules. That should stay with the head pros at each site and develop a structure with them.

Thank you.

Mayor. Mayor. CAN YOU HAVE HER PUT IT ON SCREEN 10, ON PAGE 10? CAN YOU HAVE HER PUT IT ON SCREEN 10, ON PAGE 10?

DO YOU WANT TO HEAR THE DO YOU WANT TO HEAR THE SPEAKERS FIRST?

SPEAKERS FIRST?

ACTUALLY, I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ACTUALLY, I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THAT BACK UP. THAT BACK UP.

IT'S OKAY. IT'S OKAY.

SLIDE 10.

SLIDE 10. THE LAST, THE ONE THAT, YES, THE LAST, THE ONE THAT, YES, THIS. I'm assuming most of you know Ron Collins and who he is and what he did. And if you don't, he was, I think, doing what you do for basically the manager for decades here. He was the one that started this whole volunteer program. My name is Chris Peterson. I came here in 1983 as a brand new Deputy District Attorney and I've served in that capacity for a long time. Semi-retired and they called me back. So like many of the marshals here, we spent our life in Fairfield. I'm a little concerned about a couple of comments. One that said the city is taking over the volunteer marshal program. No, it's retaking over the program that it worked for decades. The suggestion one free round of golf for every three shifts worked. There was a comment made about it being reasonable perks or benefits. That's not reasonable. Again, that's basically 30 hours of standing outside, either in the heat or the cold or whatever, to maybe get to put your name on a list two times that month. And again, I would address kind of city manager Gasser only because I know he's a golfer. I don't know who else is a golfer. That's not reasonable. And that's certainly not consistent with what the standard is in the industry. I know those marshals that work at Cypress Lakes, for every four hour shift, they get a token they could play two rounds and they can give it to anybody else. We're not saying that. We're saying, hey, what the golf advisory board recommended is one for one. And that's fine. That's less than we have now, but we're saying that's OK. We're willing to do that. The $240,000 is somewhere between disingenuous and out and out a lie. I don't know where that number came from, but in fact, when we had the first meeting, Temper and Touchstone said that each of the courses had 300 volunteer rounds per month. The actual number, and the city had that, at Rancho Solano was 120 per month. So when we get a little exercised because of the numbers being fudged, for lack of a better term, that's why. I'm a little disconcerted also that the golf advisory board basically has been told we're not going to do this. 30 seconds, sir. And again, I think that it's worked fine. Give the discretion to the head pro to decide when we can play and what we can play. We're not taking money from the city. We're not playing Saturday mornings at 10 o'clock. We can't make tee times, and we're fine with that. But the way the program has been running is consistent with what the Golf Advisory Board recommends, other than the benefits are actually reduced under the Golf Advisory Board's recommendation. Thank you.

Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. I think I misheard you. Could you restate how many free rounds you get currently?

Right now, we are allowed to play three times a week. And we just work whatever, usually it's about six times a month or so, six to eight times a month. But none of this is what is current. These are the different proposals. But right now we can play three times a week. The average for the marshals at Rancho Solano in the last year was we played one time a week. Three times a week. So there's not a lot of abuse.

For how many hours of work?

Whatever a shift is. It depends. In the wintertime it might be slightly shorter a shift because it's less hours. But right now the shifts are about five hours. Thank you.

I don't have any other speaker cards. Did anyone else wish to speak on this matter? OK, what's your name, Sir? Thank you.

Mr Mayor City Council members. I'm sure when Harris. I'm a resident of Fairfield since 2000. I'm a golfer. Also work with the homeless. And my shift is on Saturday. I work 10 to 3. Sometimes they shift it from 8 to 1. And it's rain or shine. And what you're missing is the customer service element. I know the golfers that come. They come from San Ramon. They come from San Francisco because their prices are too high over there. So they come and golf at our course. Now, since September of 2025, I've worked all my shifts except for a few. And I've golfed maybe six times. So you do the math. That's 20 hours a week, I mean 20 hours a month, prime time for me because that's Saturday. I work. I'm not retired. So I work five days a week. I give you my Saturday. I give the city my Saturday. My wife ain't happy about it. We can't go fishing because we go to church on Sunday. I have to plan my vacations and everything else. with my grandkids around my ship because of my loyalty to my brothers here and to Dominic at Paradise and to Anthony at Paradise. It means something to me that if I'm on a ship, I have to be there. And, you know, it's a sacrifice. You don't understand the sacrifice for around the Gulf. If they go to any one of these, I'll go back and I'll pay and get my loyalty rewards and I'll get my fishing trips back. So, thank you.

Come on down, sir. What is your name? Oh, Mike Reese. He always calls me his dad.

Karen and I share a common name. We spell it the same. I've been a resident at Fairfield since 1987. I've been a marshal at Rancho Solano since 2007. 19 years. I don't do it for the Gulf. I do it because I enjoy getting out. Let's wrap this up in a little bow. You've got a volunteer program that's highly successful. It's put your golf courses in the top 25 in California out of 500 and some odd courses. That is an accomplishment. We've grown the program. We staff five shifts a day. We have a solid training program that keeps our guys uniform and standardized. It's my military background that's helped do that. And we don't need to fix something that isn't broken. We really don't need to buy a cow when the milk is free. And it really boils down to you're going to spend $200,000 to $240,000 to provide an inferior part-time employee paid product if you don't maintain this program with a reasonable amount of benefits for the folks that are contributing back to their community. It's really very simple. It's about dollars and cents.

And it's about community involvement.

It's about people who enjoy what they're doing, like to come out, be in the open air, and work with people. The fact that we're rated that highly in California should say something to you about quality and about what you're being given back. I would urge you to approve retention of the Marshall Program. Avoid part-time employees if you can. And provide a reasonable benefit for those folks to keep them encouraged to come out. Thank you.

Did anyone else wish to speak?

Okay, are there anybody online?

There's one hand raised online. Valeria, is that for this item, K2, regarding the Gulf Volunteer Program?

I'm not sure. His name is Raymond Cordomach.

Raymond Cordomach.

You have three minutes.

Yeah, thank you, Valeria. Welcome, by the way, Mayor Rick Vaccaro, Vice Mayor Fatani, City Council, and staff. Again, thank you for just being leaders for our great city. And I said this particular item, again, I want to echo Ron. I want to echo Chris and Sherwin and their comments. Again, oh my God, their leadership and their commitment to bring value to this great city. I do want to point out that the Matt Garcia Foundation is humbled and honored to host their their annual golf tournament, which raises funds to pour back into this great city to the youth of our community. Many of you have supported that in the past and we're grateful for that. So again, I just want to echo the comments that were made from these great leaders. You know, they greeted us at our last tournament, Ron and Chris, again, just great leaders, great community partners. again any way that we can continue to serve alongside them and alongside you that's what we want to do so again those are just my comments on this particular item so thank you for allowing me to speak a little here tonight thank you all okay that's it okay i'll bring it back for council comments i'll start down with councilman williams would you like to make any comments

I was still formulating my thoughts, but my thoughts is considering what we have right here on the screen. And what stands out is how similar the first two columns are, an employee benefit and the volunteer benefit. And by the way, thank you all so much for volunteering and your service. It's obvious that that you all are just a huge benefit to Fairfield and the the course so anything I say is not to offend you I am just curious by nature and want to get down to the bottom of things So what stands out is these first two columns and how similar they are. And as a employer myself, I'm wondering if this shift, this shift looks like it maybe have been recommended so that it doesn't look like volunteers have the same type of benefits as an employee benefits. It seems like that might be a risk. So that's what comes to mind. Is there background, is what, the city of Fairfield recommends this volunteer benefit. There's some shifts here. There's some narrowing of hours. There's a specific not flat rate. There's a discount on rate. Where did you get these recommendations from?

So we developed these recommendations primarily with taking consideration of the legal memorandum that was giving some guidance to us. And as was requested from our golf advisory board was for us to develop something for them to review. And so that's what we had done. And again, reminding that the core things that need to be considered is the difference of what benefits are being received by this volunteer group, that none of our other volunteer programs have any benefits at all. And then secondarily is to look at if and how we're utilizing these volunteers at the golf courses to ensure that the city risk of the labor laws are clear and that we have compliance with the benefit de minimis that we're not creating an um risk for the city okay that's that's kind of what i thought so it is it is a risk mitigation measure correct okay And again, I want to just reference a couple of things that were commented. So the Kemper sports analysis, which there's questions specifically to this document on page 210 of your packet, was the actual going back through the daily registers with signatures. What wasn't there was a time that they actually signed. So that's where we got the 240 was looking at both of those courses. What was the cost or I shouldn't say cost the potential loss of revenue for the use of those time frames and then also looking at the discounts that were provided for food and merchandise. That's where the 240 comes to that represents what was a benefit given to the volunteer group as a whole. And then on page 211 is Kemper's analysis and recommendation that if they were to envelop the Marshall program as paid staff, they're showing the shifts and the additional costs to the operation, which was about $55,000. And James Burchall and Jake Stewart are in the audience if you have specific questions. And the legal counsel Genevieve is on Zoom should you have any questions on her memorandum, which again, I just highlighted very few sections on 212 through 214 is her full analysis and recommendations to the city for consideration should the city entertain benefits for this volunteer program.

Hold on. Councilman, will you? Councilman Sandu has a quick question. You're not finished yet? No. Okay, got it. Okay, sorry.

Either you or the council or the experts sitting down, can you provide an example of a lawsuit that's happened because marshals were provided rounds of golf as a benefit in the past year or decades? Do you want to phone a friend? I guess he's raising his hand if you want to.

Can you come to the mic, please, sir?

Well, hold on.

Yeah, I mean, Genevieve is online. Valeria, I don't know if she's a number or a name on there. Number?

Okay. I don't know if you can hear me.

Yes, we can hear you.

Great. So I'm not aware of a specific situation where marshals have sued over rounds of golf. The question that really is present for us is whether or not these individuals would be considered as employees and whether they would seek employment benefits because they're not being treated as volunteers and they're being treated as employees and that really goes to sort of the expectation of compensation and the general rule that for volunteers any benefit or compensation that they do receive should be de minimis because the volunteering is the goal of the action not what they would receive in return thank you

uh, And Mr. Mayor, if I may, to add on to what Ms. Ng said, I think to the council member's question, enforcement of the fair labor and wages would be under the California Division of Labor Standards enforcement. It's a bureau of the state of California. They enforce the labor laws basically by two mechanisms. I'm simplifying this. One would be through the complaint process if someone filed a complaint saying that they weren't paid fair wages. They would potentially investigate. They also, in their enforcement bureau, do spot checks. So they could just randomly pull up, you know, this golf course and say, you know, we're going to audit you because we've heard there's people out there who are volunteers, but it sounds like they're actual employees. To anticipate your next question, it's impossible to say whether that would or would not happen, right? You don't know if anyone would ever make a complaint. You don't know if you'd ever get audited. You know, the attorney's job, Ms. Ng and I's job is to, you know, mitigate risk and warn you of potential dangers. So you can go 100 years and not get audited. I'm not going to lie. I'm not thrilled that this is a public hearing, that we just talked about all this. But, you know, I'm kidding, of course. Kidding. Thank you.

May I have one follow-up for counsel? Yeah. What's her name? What's her name? Genevieve. Genevieve. Genevieve. One follow-up. What if the marshals waived the right to employment or signed some sort of document stating they're not wanting to do that going forward? Would that be fine? Would we mitigate litigation concerns if the marshals signed some contract of the volunteer program

That indicated that they were going to be volunteers and they did not want to be ever considered employees for purposes of this receipt of benefits. Is that?

Yeah. Can we get them to sign a contract saying they will only ever be volunteers? Are we allowed to do that?

There are times when there are agreements where individuals will say, I'm entering this relationship as a volunteer and I'm not seeking any employment benefits, but that is just one factor that courts will look at in determining whether or not an individual is an employee or being treated as an employee. So while the intent of the parties may be again one factor but it is like a 20 factor analysis to determine employee status it's not necessarily persuasive to a court if all of the other say 19 factors weigh in favor of finding an employment relationship thank you thank you mayor um

I KNOW THE GAP SPENT A LOT OF TIME ON THIS, MANY HOURS, AND I KNOW A LOT OF THESE FOLKS WERE IN THE ROOM. IT'S OUT OF KEMPER'S HANDS FROM WHAT I CAN SEE. SO IT'S UP TO FAIRFIELD. IS THE CITY GOING TO PROVIDE A VOLUNTEER PROGRAM? BECAUSE IT'S NOT GOING TO BE KEMPER RELATED, CORRECT?

If they were with Kemper, they would be paid staff in addition to receiving all the benefits on the first column. So in addition to receiving the benefits, they also get paid. And I believe that would be a minimum wage.

So Kemper's out of the race. IS THAT FAIR TO SAY? CORRECT. IS THAT FAIR TO SAY? CORRECT. SO THEN IT BECOMES.

SO THEN IT BECOMES. SO THEN IT BECOMES. SORRY, I DON'T MEAN TO SORRY, I DON'T MEAN TO SORRY, I DON'T MEAN TO CONTRADICT, BUT IT'S NOT OUT OF CONTRADICT, BUT IT'S NOT OUT OF CONTRADICT, BUT IT'S NOT OUT OF THE RACE. THE RACE.

THE RACE.

BUT I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE BUT I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE BUT I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT IT'S CLEAR THAT THAT'S AN THAT IT'S CLEAR THAT THAT'S AN THAT IT'S CLEAR THAT THAT'S AN OPTION STILL.

OPTION STILL.

OPTION STILL. KEMPER IS NOT GOING TO START KEMPER IS NOT GOING TO START KEMPER IS

SO THE CITY IS GOING TO GO INTO THE BUSINESS OF A VOLUNTEER PROGRAM THAT HAS BEEN HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL AS FAR AS I CAN TELL. SO IT COMES DOWN TO WHAT BENEFITS ARE WE GOING TO PROVIDE. I'M SEEING ON PAGE 10, WHAT I CAN'T SEE IS WHAT WE'RE COMPARING THIS TO. IT SEEMS LIKE WE'RE COMPARING THESE THREE BOXES. But what was it before? I mean, was that on page 8? There was something else on page 8.

That's just the same thing highlighting the advisory's recommendation, which mirrors what the employees are receiving.

OK. So if you can go back to page 10, then. Wait, wait. Sorry. Go back to 8.

If I may, Councilman Tonneson, I think I have the same question as you. What the current policy is, is that before us right now? The current benefit for the Marshall Plan? Do we have that in front of us?

There was no structured program. And between Paradise and Rancho, those were not in alignment either as far as the hours per shift and whatnot. So providing some structure. And as a city-run program, again, this is unique for this program. You have a CERT volunteer program. You have your VIPS volunteer program. I believe it was just stated at your last meeting that we have over 50 people now, groups, volunteering for your trash pickup. until recently when the park ranger retired you had a very robust volunteer group that was doing maintenance out at rockville so we have precedents of other city-run programs that they do not receive benefits and that's where we just want to make sure that whatever the council is directing us we will be glad to put that into place we also just want to be mindful of what our legal had been providing to us as guidance and directing The decision So I don't I get the volunteer part of it, but I don't think those are like So what was stated by the one of the volunteers just a moment ago was they get to play three times a week Maybe working six shifts per month

Hold on. Ron, is that what you do up there at Rancho? Okay.

He can't talk from there. Okay.

There's a handful, not many. I don't know exactly how many, but we get six under the proposed one for one. We would get six shifts a month. I play four times a month. That's all I can play. So normally big offers, when you look at the numbers last year, 1440, that averages it out to 120 rounds a month divided by 30 marshals. That's four times, four perks a month for the marshals. And out of that four perks, you got 800 in 2025. You got 810 donated labor hours. And you got, for the year, you got 9,720 donated hours.

Councilman Tonneson, any other comments before we move on?

Yeah. Go ahead. So we're going to be put in a position to make a decision tonight. I think the program is viable. I think we should do something that's a mix of these. The golf advisory board one looks to me more favorable if I'm looking at page eight. Can you shift to page 10 now, Christina, please?

Same thing same document just looks a little bit smaller because I included the other elements in the city's program But the comparison of those three doesn't change.

It's just the city's one is highlighted So I don't think we're gonna make a decision that's gonna make everybody happy, but I don't think it's gonna make everybody sad And I know how much time the Golf Advisory Board put in I rely on certainly on them to do some heavy lifting for us and Spent a couple hours on it and I keep coming back to the golf advisory boards recommendation and And that's what's in front of me today. And and that's the one that I'll be going with the councilman car And on this

Being a golfer or used to be a golfer before injury, I know how valuable the marshals are. I spent my whole childhood and I spent a lot of time on a golf course. And I'm torn as well. I know times do change and times are changing. Things are all getting more expensive for everybody everywhere. I know that there's some concerns for the future. We have advisory boards and we put them together for a reason and I think that I also would end up going with the advisory board's recommendation. Thank you.

Okay. Councilwoman Pandaro.

Thank you. Yeah, so I for me, I think it is about just getting something on paper and like it's been shared that we didn't have anything on paper. We need to have it a more formal program that we were able to as a city see where the time is being spent and then how it's being returned back to us. And I think that I appreciate the Gulf Advisory Board for their time and figuring out all these benefits. But also I think that we need to maybe, like my colleagues have said, maybe combine, also combine some of the things that the city of Fairfield has said so that we can make it a more formal volunteer program. So whether it's, I think I read, like creating a handbook or a waiver form, just some other pieces to it so that it has a bigger, a better structure around the program itself.

Okay.

yeah so on the administrative part if the city moves forward with the program then that comes into play as well so really we're just wanting to have direction on the benefits and then that all culminates after thank you so ron collins said that this program started in 1990 so has it been

conducted in this manner for the last thirty six years approximately thirty six years when we met with

Okay, my understanding from meeting with representatives of the volunteers that there have been, over those 36 years, they were employees, they were volunteers, they were employees, they were volunteers, but I believe the majority of the time they were volunteers. some say it was under the city although there was never a city structured program that came before the city for any of those benefits i know karen has documented hours of volunteer service but i don't think there was any formal program that outlined a structure of this is what you work or donate your time this is what the benefit is going to be received so we're just trying to get clarity and structure

And I ask the question, and maybe this is a question for the attorney on the line, but the fact that this program has been administered for almost 36 years pretty much like it's going now, is there any argument for waiver? In other words, has any party kind of waived changing it now? Because we've been doing this for 36 years. So, I mean, like the analogy would be like a squatter. right, who, you know, is squatting on somebody's property, and the squatter doesn't own anything, but after a certain amount of years, the squatter actually has rights to say, no, this is mine now. So the analogy is, since this has been going on so long, is there any argument for waiver with respect to our ability to change things now after 36 years? Do you understand the question?

So I'll...

I do, and there is... And there is no past practice or waiver in the situation. Can you repeat that, please?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Can you please repeat?

Oh, no problem. I understood your question, and there is no past practice that's been established that it would be binding on the party going forward, so there is no waiver in the situation.

Okay, and you said there is no what binding on the parties? There's no past practice that would be binding on the parties going forward. Okay. So waiver's not an issue then. Okay. well with that said I am you know inclined also to agree with my colleagues in that you know the Golf Advisory Board are the experts on golf and that's why they're on the Golf Advisory Board so I'm interested in if I could Mr. Mayor and I'm not sure if this is acceptable, but I'd be interested to know what mr. Collins Perception is of the of the Golf Advisory Board recommendation Mr. Collins once you come to the mic and then I'm gonna follow up on that afterwards. Okay.

Thank you First of all, I appreciate the Golf Advisory Board they've been supportive throughout this whole process since December of 2025 we've been hired and fired many times and Unfortunately, all the Golf Advisory Board recommendations are not up there. There was two others missing. One, they voted to have up to 30 marshals in each course. And two, they suggested, recommended having a volunteer scheduler at each course. Not through the city, but at each course, work with the head pros to develop a schedule. So that's the two things missing. With those two things added, to answer your question, Mr. President, Yes, those two things that it would be a good program.

You said 30 marshals per course and a schedule a schedule for each course in the recommendation of city.

They they said that the city would do the schedule for the 30 marshals. It's always been done by scheduler at each course working with the head pro. You work with the head pro to develop a schedule because they know what's going on at the golf course. It's a lot of legwork back and forth to decide. somebody to run out there and see what tournaments are there or show us what we need and all that stuff. That's all handled through the head pros and I'd suggest a volunteer to work with each head pro and that's what was missing off this thing.

And so you're saying, Mr. Collins, that with those two additional items that you would be thumbs up with the Golf Advisory Board recommendation? Mm-hmm. Thank you, sir.

Yes. And Karen, bless her heart, she filled out all the applications for 36 years. They all went through her and the city manager's office, and that's how we got on board. Thank you.

Thank you.

Just a few brief ones. The Golf Advisory Board recommendations here, how competitive is this package with neighboring golf courses?

Good evening, Council. James Burchall, Vice President of Operations for Kemper Sports. It's a good question, but it's hard to answer because volunteers at other golf courses are not as common as they used to be. So from a benefit perspective, In our professional management of every different type of golf courses, the benefits for employees is determined by each golf course. You have two very successful and popular golf courses that have high demand for play. And so our job as your managers is to do the best fiscal and financial responsibility for your facilities. And so by managing our T-sheet appropriately for how many rounds get paid for is what our job is to do. And so that's what we are trying to do regardless of whether we have volunteers or employees, their benefits. We want to make sure that the golf courses are financially stable. And so there was a lot of comments about numbers of what we presented we gave an estimated number based on the amount of rounds that were played by volunteers we gave a range of fees based on our fee schedule for what could be paid at that time it's not an exact science I couldn't tell you an exact number because there isn't one because there are multiple rates per day per time that get paid it was an estimated amount so Ultimately, I can't answer your question of how this benefits compares because operators do things differently at different golf courses. One gentleman mentioned a neighboring golf course that you can get a token, and I think he said four or five times, play that. Whatever operator wants to do, they can. Our job as your management company that you hired is to make the golf course financially stable, and that's what we're trying to do.

Thank you. You know it's obvious I think from the council the majority of us here agree with the GAB recommendation. I just wanted to say a couple of things really quick. You know having known Ron and having known some of the other marshals up there and I think it's more than just you know, looking at hours and shifts and all that. I mean, these are people that truly care about what they're doing, where they're working. Mr. Harris, you had said, you know, you work five days a week and you spend Saturdays up there, right? I mean, that shows, like, that's the dedication that, you know, I love to see in this city. And I know so many people that are proud of the golf courses here. and the marshals you guys do a heck of a job there's no doubt about it i mean i know that this volunteer program has been around in the past i know it's gone through different iterations in the past but i mean with me i'd like to see a direction back to the city As far as taking over the volunteer program, OK, and then the recommendation by the gab and maybe making some adjustments that we can make as a Council if it comes back to us and maybe we want to make, you know, a couple of changes. I think that's I think that's within our privilege to do. Does everybody agree that? mean if there's in other words if there's something in the in the program that we think might you know needs to be changed we can when it comes back we can make a comment but i am okay i am okay with the gab recommendation or some of the options we haven't seen if we excuse me or some of the options we haven't seen because it sounds like yeah there's a couple of things that like ron was saying that haven't yeah so i'd like to see it come back i don't know when that's going to be hopefully you know sooner than later

Okay, so you want us to return with an overall outline similar to what Gab has? Correct. So you're looking for the recommendation tonight? Well, I'm trying to go off of what you all, I see nodding heads based on what the mayor just said. What I heard the mayor just say, correct me if I'm wrong, Mayor, is the majority seem to be going towards what Gab's recommendation is. But before it's finalized, you want it to come back.

So we can look at it.

To identify the full program outline. Do we?

OK. Do I take a vote on it?

So just a point of clarification. So when it comes back, it's going to contain the report or proposal is going to contain the full gap recommendation, including the additional two components that Mr Collins mentioned.

is is that what we're saying okay okay okay um mayor yes just to add um i would like to um uh avoid risks so what i would like to see back is um When the attorney online was speaking, she gave an example of there's like a checklist of 20 things. And based on that 20, that's where a judge would say, oh, these are, you know, you're acting as a, you're saying you're a volunteer, but you're acting like an employee. I want to make sure that we...

you know lean toward what uh the gab has advised but we do it in a way that protects the city so if we could find that balance that would be really great okay i think that when it does come back we can have the attorney also you know look at it see if there is a you know so there is something against the city or the council recommendation but i think it's pretty clear what the direction we want to go in

IS THERE A TIMELINE?

YEAH. I MEAN, WE'RE ON A TIMELINE BECAUSE TOUCHSTONE FOUNDATION IS WINDING DOWN IN SEPTEMBER. SO WE'LL HAVE TIME. A LITTLE BIT. I MEAN, AUGUST, YEAH. SO IT'LL PROBABLY BE BECAUSE I KNOW FROM AN AGENDA PRESS REPORTS WERE DUE YESTERDAY, SO IT WILL PROBABLY BE THE FIRST MEETING IN AUGUST FOR US TO BRING THAT BACK.

WOULD IT BE FAIR TO JUST GIVE US THE GAB OPTIONS? BOARD OPTIONS?

WHAT WE'LL DO IS WE'LL WHAT WE'LL DO IS WE'LL WHAT WE'LL DO IS WE'LL PREPARE IT AS SOMETHING THAT PREPARE IT AS SOMETHING THAT PREPARE IT AS SOMETHING THAT THE COUNCIL CAN APPROVE THAT THE COUNCIL CAN APPROVE THAT THE COUNCIL CAN APPROVE THAT NIGHT AS A, YOU KNOW, FULL NIGHT AS A, YOU KNOW, FULL NIGHT AS A, YOU KNOW, FULL PROGRAM WITH ALL OF THE DETAILS PROGRAM WITH ALL OF THE DETAILS PROGRAM WITH ALL OF THE DETAILS AND THEN YOU CAN APPROVE IT THAT AND THEN YOU CAN APPROVE IT THAT AND THEN YOU CAN APPROVE IT THAT NIGHT OR YOU CAN MAKE ANY NIGHT OR YOU CAN MAKE ANY NIGHT OR YOU CAN MAKE ANY MODIFICATIONS TO IT THAT YOU MO

k item k three resolution twenty twenty six dash one five seven cfd bonds one lake planning area five authorizing the issuance and sale of special tax bonds for city of fairfield community facilities district number twenty twenty three dash one one lake planning area five with respect to its improvement area number one and approving and authorizing related documents and actions And our presenter is John Furtado, Director of Finance.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council. We are here today to talk about special tax bond issues. Just a reminder that this is for non-general fund purposes. So whatever bonds are issued would be paid by the CFD. uh in general this the background on this one uh we are talking about the one lake development 358 acre planned site as you see there This specific issue that we're talking about is on the CFD 2023 planning area five. We have an improvement area within this district with 932 residential units and some parks. So what we are doing today is we, a couple of years ago, the CFD was formed, and we had $100 million authorization to issue debt. We issued 36.5 million debt in 2024, and now we are proposing to issue another 15.25 million of debt with a true interest cost around 5.16%. a good appraised to burden ratio of four is to one. This would leave around 48 million left to be raised in the CFD as work progresses. Now, a lot of this money that will be raised in the CFDs will go to fund the infrastructure within those CFDs. So streets, street lights, storm drains and those kind of things, this particular CFD is also funding a fire station. So the required action today is you've got several actions here, approving the preliminary official statement, which will go to potential bond purchases, the continuing disclosure certificate, the supplement to the fiscal agent agreement, and the bond purchase agreement. So pretty routine in nature. And we also have an asterisk on the agenda because we updated the resolution to bring the authorization to the 100 million that was authorized before instead of the 90. And that's all I have. If there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Questions from council? Councilman Sander.

What's the cost per home? And what's the duration of repayment for this? And when will this wrap up eventually?

So these ideally are issued for 30 to 40 years. It depends on the timing of the issue. So we had one two years ago, and then the developer has kind of got things ready, sold new developments, and then we issue a second tranche. So it depends when we exhaust the $100 million. So that could then extend the time.

How much has already been exhausted?

36.5 million has already been exhausted. This is another 15.25. 36 of the original 100. Correct. So we will be left with 48.5.

I guess what I'm asking is, does this need to happen now, seeing the fact that there's already money left in the original CFD?

No, the $36.5 million that was issued was then used towards the infrastructure that the builder had already done.

So how much is currently left in this CFD?

So are you talking about authorization or actual money? There are two different subjects. So it's authorized for $100 million. We issued $36.5 million two years ago, and that $36.5 million was drawn down by the various parties. We took $12.5 million for a fire station. The builder took the rest for infrastructure that was complete. we haven't actually hit the 100 million cap yet no we only issued 36 and a half got it we're issuing 15.25 in the future we'll come back with another 48 and a half if the builder so has those i see okay thank you any other questions if there are any public comments any public comments on this item uh no madam clark

karen any any public comments on this item sorry it's okay um k3 no i don't have any and there are no hands raised did anyone wish to speak about this item i think we're mainly down to staff here okay entertain a motion so moved so moved by the vice mayor second Second by Councilman Carr. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Thank you. Next item. Actually, we're going to, Mr. City Manager. 2K7.

We're going to move to K7.

Oh, okay. What about K6? We have someone here to speak on it. K7. Oh, okay. Okay. resolution 2026 159 and ordinance 2026 06 proposed ordinance and resolution for amending tut tut ordinance resolution 2026 159 approving an ordinance and ordering that a measure be submitted to the voters of the city at the general municipal election to be held on November 3rd 2026 to extend the city's transactions and use tax and increase by 1% the local transaction and use tax from 1% to 2% until ended by voters, with the tax administered by the California Department of Tax and Free Administration and Ordinance 2026-06... amending sections of Article 7 of Chapter 18 of the Fairfield Municipal Code to extend and increase the rate of the existing transactions and use tax by 1% from 1% to 2% until ended by voters to be administered by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. And our presenter is Assistant City Manager and HR Director Farbode Perusman.

Before we move on, Madam Clerk, right after this we'll take K6.

THANK YOU, MAYOR.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, VICE MAYOR, MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL. I DON'T HAVE A PRESENTATION FOR YOU TONIGHT BECAUSE I MADE THE PRESENTATION LAST TIME, BUT I AM OBVIOUSLY HERE TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS AND PROVIDE ANY INFORMATION THAT YOU MAY NEED.

ANY QUESTIONS? ANY COMMENTS? YES, I HAVE MICHAEL E. SMITH.

Good evening, Mayor Vaccaro, Vice Mayor Bertani, council, staff. I'm here to speak in favor of the increase in Measure P because as your fire chief from 2003 to 2008, of course I understand what happens with how the department operates. I know that budgets, you know, council budgets get tight. You know, public service is something that we have to have. Not only fire, but police, but public works. That's also, I consider, public safety. It's important that we maintain the level of service that we currently provide. None, I don't think any of us want to really see a tax increase, but we have to do what we have to do. You know, things have gotten more expensive. and we need to pay for what we currently enjoy. So I would recommend to the council that you move it forward and let the voters decide. whether or not we want to support the increase in taxation. I believe that we do. We love where we live. We want to continue the service that we provide. Like even last summer, I live up in the Rolling Hills area, and there was a wildland fire that started right up there behind, between my area and Rancho Solano. And the smoke completely covered my neighborhood. My neighbors started calling, what do we do? Do we evacuate? But I just happened to be watching Channel 3 news coverage, and the helicopter was up there. So I could see that the firefighters were there. CAL FIRE CAME IN WITH THEIR AIRPLANE, DID A DROP, SO NOW THEN MY NEIGHBORHOOD HAD THIS NICE PINK STRIPE GOING THROUGH IT, BUT IT PREVENTED THE FIRE FROM GOING FORWARD, POSSIBLY GETTING INTO THE HOMES IN THE AREA AND IT BEING REALLY SOMETHING THAT'S DEVASTATING. SO I SUPPORT, YOU KNOW, WHAT WE HAVE. I WANT TO KEEP WHAT WE HAVE, AND I FOR ONE AM WILLING TO PAY FOR IT. THANK YOU, COUNCIL.

THANK YOU.

WE HAVE ONE MORE SPEAKER, FEA PRESIDENT RON BREMMER.

Okay. I'm not going to be as eloquent as our former fire chief, but speaking on behalf of the employees that work for the city of Fairfield, I am in support of Measure P going forward because we need to keep what we have, like you said, and potentially expand what we have as the time comes. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers?

No. Did anyone else wish to speak? Oh, okay, Steve, I know your name. I will fill out a card for you.

So I'm Steve Ansel. I am on Measure P Committee, and I'm currently the longest-serving member on Measure P. All the cities in California are facing much the same problem that we're facing, a lot less federal money, a lot less state money coming to the city, so the cities have to try to generate revenue themselves. Right now, among the seven cities in our county, we are next to lowest on our local tax rate. Last election cycle, four of our sister cities around us all raised theirs, so we're now next to the lowest. um this would uh let us get it back up to meet kind of the other cities uh i think the measure p committee as i've served on it has been very forward-looking we have a lot of people that are very uh very much interested in the finance and tax situation we have a great relationship with the finance director in the city we ask a lot of forward-looking questions to get a lot of forward-looking answers we helped identify that the headcount employees was growing and we we forecasted to be at some point you might have to freeze positions we also forecast the some of the structural deficit deficit issues such as rising calpers liability so i think the major pa has been very very beneficial to our city The ones that is lower than us. They're also in the process just like we are right now of Potentially going through raising theirs as well, but ultimately will be decided by the voters So we'll give the voters the best information that we can and let them make the decision.

Thank you Take it back any council comments Okay Have a motion So moved. So moved by Councilman Tonneson. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Carr. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes.

And now we'll go to case six.

Yes, item case six. Resolution 2026-158 and ordinance 2026-05, submitting to the voters a measure to make the office of city clerk an appointed position. Resolution 2026-158, approving an ordinance and ordering that a measure be submitted to the voters of the city at the general municipal election to be held on November 3rd, 2026 to change the office of city clerk to an appointed position. And ordinance 2026-05, adding a new article for city clerk to chapter two administration of the Fairfield Municipal Code to change the office of city clerk to an appointive office. And again, our presenter is Farbode Perusman, assistant city manager and HR director.

Good evening again. Just as a reminder, we spoke at length about the general trend in the city of California for cities to go to an appointed city clerk position given the complexity of state regulations. So this matters before you again. I'm here to answer any questions, provide any information you may need.

Yes, Arletta Courtright, who was our former elected city clerk, and she also handled the sister city, Narasaki, Japan, program for like 20 years.

Thank you so much, Arletta. Good evening. Yes, I was your elected city clerk for eight years and I worked in Benicia for ten years as a planner and was very familiar with what the city clerk did in that position. It was also an elected position and that's one of the reasons I decided to run for the city clerk position when it became open. But once I got into the position, I realized it involved a lot more than I even knew about. And so I took every course that the City Clerk's Association of California offered. I ended up getting my certified municipal clerk authorization, and I took it all very, very seriously. At those courses, I discovered that most city clerks in California that I met were appointed positions. Very few were elected. And the whole problem with, as has been mentioned before, the whole problem with electing a city clerk is that you don't know who you're going to end up with. And if I can, at risk of sounding like I'm praising myself, I just want to say the city has been really lucky since 2003. You did have a previous city clerk who didn't do the minutes for nine months. And there's nothing you can do about that except say, could you maybe do the minutes? Anyway, lots of damage can be done by somebody who doesn't know what they're doing and doesn't want to do what they need to do. There's so many new laws and regulations and rules that the clerk has to be aware of, particularly when it comes to campaign finance and that sort of thing. Asking that you do go ahead and approve this I cannot recommend it strongly enough and I do speak from experience So, thank you Thank You Arlinda No Action Any comments from council?

No, okay entertain a motion. I'll make a motion so moved by a councilman card second second by second by the vice mayor all those in favor aye Aye. Motion passes, and now we go to K4. K4.

Yes, K4, Presentation and Direction for Homeless Priorities. And our presenter is Samantha Burrows, Homeless Services Manager.

Good evening. Okay, so this evening I am bringing forth a continuation of a discussion from our retreat. So we're talking about different funding, talking about a couple different items that I was asked to look into so you can make decisions on if we want to pursue those avenues or not. But let's dive into this. Okay, so very familiar with this, bring this to you every time, our 2024 pit count, and to answer Kay Patrice before she even asks me, I am hoping to have the 2026 pit count numbers by the end of the month. At the last JPA meeting, staff said that they were hoping to bring that to the JPA meeting at the next meeting. So fingers crossed. But this is the data that we have looking at here for right now based off of the pit count. We know it's flawed. We know there's a lot of populations that we aren't able to capture with the pit count. So here's some other information for you to kind of do a broader picture. There are 300 Fairfax households on the coordinated entry housing queue. So these are folks that have been assessed that potentially could qualify for permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, if the resources are there in the community. So they're just kind of waiting in the queue. In December 2025, the Fairfield-Susun Unified School District released data on families that are experiencing housing insecurity within the school district. So this is just Fairfield-Susun, not the whole county. And then just to broaden that definition, these are individuals that are unhoused. precariously housed. So that means that maybe they're couch surfing, jumping around. It's not stable housed, maybe they're not on a lease. So very, very high at risk individuals who could potentially fall into being unhoused. And then our Canby Access Street Outreach Team, there's 114 individuals that they're actively serving in that first half of the year. Additionally, we maintain a waiting list to try and get into our emergency shelter beds. So I just wanted to share as of this morning, our queue has been quite large and we had 57 households as of this morning. 37% are families on that queue, which is a household, and I'm defining family as a household that has a child in it. I'm not talking about like a couple or anything like that. So just so that you know that we have that. Overall nationally, homelessness has dropped by about 3.3%. So that's like in the first time in the decade since 2016, which is very exciting. But nationwide, we still have 745,652 people that are unhoused, which is about 22 individuals per every 10,000 in this nation who are unhoused. In California, we're looking at about 46 individuals for every 10,000. So the issue is still very large. Currently supporting, you guys are very familiar with this. We are funding 28-ish emergency shelter beds, and I say ish because can be fluctuates between 21 to 23 depending on household size. 10 inclement weather winter beds, so that is our Bay North program. The street outreach team, which started in 2025, which allowed us to have the HIT team focus more on the enforcement side of things. They can do the social services side of things. And then we do have MOUs to help support Capsulano JPA. As Councilmember Pandoro was speaking on, we helped with the staffing, the executive director that started in a couple of weeks, and the coordinated entry. And Councilmember Carr did give the update that we have a new administrator overseeing coordinated entry. And then just a little bit, high level investments, results from investments, outreach in between January and March, so January 2025. So since we've had the whole contract with them, 84 individuals have exited the streets into either a permanent housing solution, so that's 38%, or a temporary housing solution, so that's 50%. and so temporary would be like getting somebody to come into an emergency shelter or maybe be housed with family temporarily overall we have very positive housing outcomes in our programs and of course there aren't there is no data for this fiscal year for bank because we no longer fund them for operationals and i did also include placements that our winter shelter was able to do which is a above and beyond what they're funded to do, which is provide a safe place for someone to sleep. I wanted to kind of introduce this concept of functional zero. So functional zero is when a system can reduce their homelessness at a level that is so low, rare, brief, and can resolve quickly with the system capacity to meet the numbers, right? So this is, I get a phone call for an emergency shelter. I can move someone into an emergency shelter then and there. We're nowhere near this in Solano County, but I did want to bring this forward because this would be the ultimate goal. And there are communities within the nation that have been able to do this. Also, just visually, just to kind of give us a current system flow, you know, With our entry points, you know, we've made investments into outreach, which is having an impact on the community, coordinated entry with diversion if we have it, support services, that's going to be our wraparound services, helping folks through the system. Then you get to emergency shelter, which is limited, right? We do know that there is... a funding issue for emergency shelters in the community. But the gap is our exits, right? We have a bottleneck and that is affordable housing, being able to get folks. And this causes folks to exit to the streets from our system or return to homelessness because they can't afford it. And the main causes are that we're extremely limited in the affordable housing across our county. There's really long waiting lists for the affordable housing projects. So whether it is our housing choice voucher programs or our site-based programs, the waiting lists are very, very high. And coordinated entry is very, very high. You saw on that first slide there was 900 plus individuals in that housing queue that we don't have placements for within this county. So people just can't move. So it's a deadlock. We just can't move folks. If we get them into a shelter, it's very, very difficult to get them out and into a stable housing. Returns to homelessness, you know, these are causing from if they had a temporary stay. We know temporary is not stable. Even if we can get folks with their families, something can happen, and maybe they lose their housing again. Not being able to afford rent. Rent is extremely, extremely, extremely high right now. I found a study with the National Library of Medicine that says every time rent goes up by $100, homelessness increases by 9%. So that's a big deal. The affordability piece of it is very, very real. You know, evictions happen, maybe we get in there, they can't pay, they get evicted, and then just ongoing chronic health issues. Short-term options that we can think about and talk about we could re-increase capacity for emergency shelter We have decreased what we fund because of having to make cuts with the budget constraints and As a result, you know, we do have more of a deadlock being able to get folks in We can increase assistance for non-subpopulations, and when I'm talking about that, a lot of the money right now is very, very focused on individuals with behavioral health, veterans, and some for transitional-aged youth, right, our TA population. So if you don't fall into those categories, it gets very challenging to access services within our community because everything is very driven by the funding that is available out there. We could look at increasing transitional pathways, so not just emergency shelter, so transitional or rapid rehousing programs, diversion programs, things that are a little bit more short-term, and then also mention prevention and diversion. One of the things I was asked to look into is recovery-based sheltering programs at the retreat. So I did do some research, and we do have some projects coming into the pipeline here in Fairfield for the county. Archery Recovery Services is building their 62-bed residential treatment facility for those with substance use disorders, and that's scheduled to open in early 2027, so after the new year. The other thing that since the retreat happened, Solano County Behavioral Health got funding to expand their recovery campus. So that's the big campus right there on Back Avenue. And that is scheduled to be completed in late 2028. And that will include 14 additional crisis stabilization beds, which would take them up to 26. peer respite program with 20 beds and a sobering center that would have 12 slots. So as you can see within the community there are some pretty strong programs coming on board in regards to recovery. I also dug into one program that is in San Francisco and I will say scale is very different. right, for San Francisco versus what we have. This one particular program that I'm going to speak about, Hope Housing, is less than 1% of their sheltering budget for San Francisco. So just keep that in mind. It is a non-congregate 58 bed. So that means everybody has their own individual sleeping area. It's not one big dorm. It's run by Salvation Army. It's 90 days to one year. It is not Housing First compliant, which means they are not able to utilize any funding that comes from the state to support this program. So all the funding that supports this program are local dollars or foundation dollars. And it is costing them $8.1 million for two years, which is an average of $191 per bed night because it is very service heavy to do a program like this. So it doesn't, it complements their continuum of care, but it's kind of like a parallel model because it's not housing first. It's also opted in, so folks have to choose to go into that program. They also have to have enough stock of their emergency shelters program, which they do, they have over 4,000 emergency shelter beds in San Francisco in any given night. So if somebody is unsuccessful and they relapse, they have to be able to immediately transfer that person into a regular shelter bed. So system capacity is very, very different when you're looking at this project. But because we're in California and we do have the Housing First requirements and all of our funding and the expectations, looking at programs that are outside of California isn't super helpful, right? Okay, current funding. So things have changed a little bit since we met. State funding has been decreasing since COVID. We had about $6.9 billion during the COVID time going into the state. It declined in 2024, 2025 to $2.5 billion. For last fiscal year, it was about $1.5 billion. Update no longer proposed. HAPS 7 is in the current budget. And it actually is $900 million. So surprise. That was a very awesome surprise to have that come through. But it was new information that came out after the slides were submitted. Other money is behavioral health service dollars, which again, is not new money. That is reshuffled money that was already in the budget and got reallocated to be more focused on housing. Locally, we support Cap Solano JPA. They have not yet been able to bring new funding into the community, but they have been able to get existing money that is just been sitting on the books into the community, which is really great. And we were awarded 2.1 million for HAP 6, which is one-time funding. HAP money is always a one-time funding source. And with this particular money, it is currently on track to be put towards interim housing. So like emergency shelter, things that are temporary, a little bit in rapid rehousing and supporting like HMIS. Now that could change because there is language written into HAP 6. As our governor has been watching what's happening on the federal level that is putting permanent supportive housing at risk so there is money in there that language in there that it may switch if the groups decide to do so and have it focus more towards housing. Federally, HUD did issue their 2026 COC and youth homelessness demonstration program grants. It's $40 billion in competitive grants. I will put out there that there has already been a legal challenge against this, so we will see what happens. The legal challenge did rule against HUD for the 2025 COC. NOFO that they put out saying that it was unlawful, so this could change. And when we're talking about annual demand, that is the amount that the COC basically has control over how that gets spent. Anything after that, the other 40% will go to a national competition. Okay, we are applying for this. It's due tomorrow, so I couldn't wait to bring it before you guys, but this particular funding, there has been a change. It does have some of permanent supportive housing. It's very focused on transitional housing services specifically, which is what we're applying for, which would be for street outreach. We'll see what happens, but it has definitely shifted with the prioritization. There is money coming down through the Department of Justice on violence against women to focus on transitional assistance grants. So that is something that's due next week if we're exploring that. And then just to kind of touch base on a few California funding sources that we do know that is out there, HCD has not released a calendar in two years for like their normal NOFO schedule, so this is just based off of what we know. HAP 6, and like I said, that may change, but it is supposed to be focused on interim housing, emergency shelter, rapid rehousing, and HIS in this program, within our COC. There's the encampment resolution funding. That funding cycle did just close last week, but if they don't have enough applicants that they approve, it'll continue to be roaming. This funding source has not been successful historically in Solano. Three times prior to this particular funding cycle it has been applied by other cities and all three times it has been denied because we cannot meet the requirement that has permanent housing solutions. You have to have that strong housing permanent solution for this program. State Home Key Plus, which is Prop 1, so it's behavioral health, that would be the creation of permanent supportive housing projects, whether that's new builds, conversions, you guys are familiar with conversions, there's a lot of different ways this can be used. And then the federal COC dollars, which we spoke about on the other slide, and the Office of Violence Against Women funding. Okay, so for discussion, We had a lot of conversation at the retreat of all of the above, but we need to kind of try and narrow it down. So what I'm just kind of as guiding, what short-term solutions, if available, do we want to look at? Do we want to look at emergency shelter, outreach, diversion, support services, pursue any other known funding? Do we want to look at another permanent supportive housing project? Do we want to wait a year and see how existing projects are buying in the pipeline do we want to do a more recovery housing focused or do we feel that what's in the pipeline is significant enough it's really a discussion yeah i just have one card gene ahu

Good afternoon, folks. Congratulations, Rick. Good to see you back. Vice Mayor Bertani and City Council. I come here because we had signed a contract and moved into using seven of our beds instead of five, which the city agreed to. And so I come to see if we get the City Council to consider a revision on the cost of the beds to $140, because that's what the beds were costing before, but we were given $25,000, but that don't match two beds. And I also wanted the city to consider, I have eight other beds that are empty. I've heard Samantha say a couple times that you guys have got a massive waiting list. I got a massive waiting list, too. You know, and I got women with children that we can house in those extra eight beds we have. So I'd like to ask the city council to consider this. You know, going from either eight beds to 10 beds or to 15. You can take three more, that'll give you 10 beds, or you can take eight beds, all eight of them, and that'll give you 15 beds. Thank you.

And the next speaker is Amy.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm Amy. So I just wanted to say that Is there a way that the homeless people can speak up? I want to trust that this situation is being handled by proper management, properly, because I've been through the system of homelessness. I've been on the list for eight years. And I've seen a lot of people not get any services, like almost everyone. I was an advocate for a nonprofit center that serviced houses as well. And I've seen them all not get any housing or any help. And part of the problem might be the step between the help and them, like someone that they can trust, that can speak for them like an advocate. or a liaison or something that can help reach out to them, someone qualified to talk to the houseless people. And I just want to see the billions of 6.9 billions in dollars, all each of it, actually provide housing for everyone, especially the women, the victims of violent crimes and stuff. I believe that everyone can get housing. Maybe I think it's a communication issue. There's lots of communication between the houseless and the housing applications. Maybe because I filled out so many did so many. What are those things called? I did so many so much paperwork and no one ever got back to me. Spent eight years and yeah, that's my suggestion.

Any other public comments?

No.

Anybody else like to speak? I'll bring it back to Council discussion if you want to discuss the items on one, two and three or anything that would Jean had said comment Scott.

Yeah, I'm. I'm cool with additional beds for Jean. I think 15 is a stretch, but is there room enough room for 10? I think we have enough room for 10.

So the council previously authorized general fund monies, and you did so based on, I don't know how much funding, I forget the specifics, Samantha.

We're talking about the funds that were left over that we allocated at the last retreat. Correct.

Correct, and then just implemented in the budget, yeah.

Yeah. How much is left, Sam? Out of the IGS funds, based off of what you have allocated before, there is a bit over $270,000. So we're giving them $140,000 now?

Jean, sorry, Mission Samoa, you did $125,000 a year.

And there's $200,000 left if we gave them, is it $200,000 for $10,000?

I'd get behind that. That would at least fill some more beds. I mean, obviously it depends on how the council feels. I'll wait and make some more comments after.

Okay, Councilman Williams and Vice Mayor Bertani.

Thank you Sam. That was a very comprehensive report and I feel like we've been waiting a long time for it. So thank you for being so patient. Yes, you know I'm going to ask about the pit count for sure. But you mentioned that there are homeless people that are uncaptured. If you could educate us on what you mean.

Yeah, from the pit count. So the pit count counts very specific guidelines. So it is those that we literally see that one day that we count, whether it is we literally see them right there on the street, We think someone's sleeping in the car and there's an equation with average for cars, I don't know what it is off the top of my head, or living in a shelter. So it is not capturing folks living in a motel. It's not going unless it's a program, right? So unless it's a motel that's being used as emergency shelter It is not going to capture our precariously housed right that maybe are actually jumping from couch to couch because we're not physically seeing them Right. They're not in an emergency shelter. So in Solano County Specifically, I'm going to tell you our families are way under counted because we don't have but can be assisting families in an emergency shelter. And even then, it's only like 21 to 23 beds. So it's not a lot that is able to help. And there are singles in there as well. So our family numbers are extremely undercounted. I would say it was the largest population, which is why I pulled the number from the school district because that is the best representation that I'm going to probably be able to get because they count those through the McKinney-Vento requirements that they're supposed to report to HUD or whoever it is that they have to report to.

Thank you and so you touched on this as well, which I call predictors into homelessness in and one of the predictors you indicated and I really appreciate it is when you see rent go up what the percentage of homelessness increases. Are you also looking at predictors including evictions and foreclosures.

I don't really look at foreclosures so much. Eviction, we haven't been able to get a very clear data on that. I think there is more movement towards that, but there hasn't been a large comprehension of study that I've come across. Yeah, because you know I would report it out. You'd see it in the weekly because that would be something I would jump on right away. But we do know that eviction rates do increase. And I do think that we are seeing right now, because I said this for many, many years in my experience, We weren't going to see the evictions as a result of COVID for several years, right? Because the ordinance stayed in place for a really, really long time. And then you can't evict somebody, you know, month one. You have to build a new history. So I think at this point, we are now really seeing the impact of folks that had things like that happen. And, you know, there's a lot of contributing factors that go into folks becoming evicted. One life moment. right, one medical thing, one lost job. Our income rates have not increased at the same rate as the cost of housing has. And folks just can't afford it. And if they lose it, it's extremely expensive to get rehoused. So anyone that does the work, they know that. Anyone that's moved knows that. If you're trying to get into an apartment, it's very expensive with the security deposit first month, everything you've got to put into it. even with new ordinances that are in place about limiting, they can't do double deposits anymore or anything like that. There's new laws that have passed, which is great for that, but it's still extremely expensive.

So do you see indicators surrounding cost of living? Because that has gone up and that is pinching people.

Yes. I don't know if I wrote it down, but there have been some recent studies with that. The recent study, The Gap, came out which has the new latest data in it. I don't think I put it in my notes here to give you the correct information, but every year a study called The Gap comes out and that is one of the things that looks at that.

I would love to see that. So, I run a transitional houses and what I'm seeing is an increase of women and children living in cars And I am seeing, and I'm going to use the word seniors very loosely because I'm 56. And they're my age and higher. And they're coming in with chronic health conditions. And they're coming in from living in their cars too. So my question is, what are we seeing, and does that match some of the funding sources that we're tapping in, that you're asking us to tap into?

there is not funding sources focusing on seniors for the most part i think we'll see it soon because yes there's a big increase happening with seniors seniors are going to need a higher level of assistance right because the incomes are fixed most of the time they don't have the ability because of usually medical to increase their income in that way. So those individuals do need low-income properties that aren't going to be skyrocketing on them. But I am seeing that. We have a lot of seniors on our waiting list. And I have a handful of just like sisters that were living together that are seniors and they have lost their housing. I have a couple of those situations on our shelter list and trying to keep them together if all possible. Families are definitely increasing and Families are a little bit probably more unique because usually they might conduce shorter interventions like rapid rehousing because in a lot of, not in every case, but in a lot of cases they have the ability to increase income to some degree or another. But seniors is going to continue to be a challenge until we have more affordable units that target that population because they will need on, if we're trying to keep them in market rate units, they're gonna need ongoing subsidies. Got it, two more questions, Mayor.

So the violence against women, that funding, that is something I'm interested in tapping into funding and meeting our needs in different ways. The violence against women, I would be remiss to not say that that is, whatever the numbers are, is bigger than it seems. there are not only women fleeing domestic violence and they're on the street and living in cars, but there's also women that are being violated on the streets, they're being raped on the streets, they're being harmed on the streets. Also, there's a huge number of women that are taking different drugs just to stay up. because when they go to sleep, they could be harmed. So that is a huge need, and I didn't realize how big that need was until the more women that I talked to in our women's facility. It's very eye-opening. So I only say all of this to ask um to beg my colleagues that we do go after these funding sources um and wherever we can it seems like it's limited how we can target it but target where we see these trends like the what's awesome about us having a homeless division is sam keeps these comprehensive lists she's tapping into ih i'm HMIS, thank you, thank you. And she's really seeing trends that I feel like we need to get in front of and target. Hear, hear. So I wanted to make that point. And then as a second point is what really helped us is, as a grant writer myself, is having money and a bank to match. So I think we need to keep the money in the bank to possibly match funding sources. So I know that Mission Samoa came and said, hey, I need dollars. I do want to say that I have had touch points with Mission Samoa. I've gone to their facilities, really blown away how well it's run. I've had touch points with CanBe. I haven't been into the old Heather House in a long time, but I've gone to the CanBe service facilities. They are run in excellence. And also, I've gone to Bay North. um and the work they do is phenomenal and what i will say is when i first came there were vendors that i was concerned about i was like where's our roi where's the heart in the work where is you know the stretch of the dollar you know making every penny count to make a difference and i feel like in those three we have huge value and it makes me proud whereas before it's just like this feels I don't want to say shakedown, but I'm tired. It just didn't feel right, and we do have the right vendors. But I do think, in my opinion, colleagues, I think we should leave the money in the bank until we understand if there's any matches that are needed. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Sam, for a great report as usual. So my question is, well, one point that I have of three is that I'd like to see Mission Samoa operating at full capacity. And I say that because we've invested in Mission Samoa, and I've been at, just as an example, I've been in a meeting with Mission Samoa, I was at a meeting at that facility, and in between the meetings, someone said, hey, came into the meeting, Jean, can we talk to you for a second? So they step aside and devise the strategy to go and literally pick someone up. They saw someone on the street, I don't know how they knew him, and they literally went and picked this person up, brought him back, and put him into Mission Samoa, which is not just a flop house or a shelter. They get people back on their feet and into society once again and productive, et cetera. So my question is, of the one-time funding and the 2.1 million and half six one-time funding, can any of that funding be used to get Mission Samoa at full capacity?

If it is still kept at interim housing, yeah, they could apply for it.

That'll be through the JPA.

Okay. And I don't have a timeline yet when that will be released. I'm, I don't know, I can follow up with them and ask, but I know a lot. Follow up with them being who? The Capsulano JPA staff. Okay. I know there was a lot happening, like right at this moment, they're probably not doing it because we're getting this COC rank and review happen. This is a big lift, right? The federal NOFA is a big lift. So I don't anticipate that happening until after that is submitted and done. And they just got the award in the last few couple of weeks. So I don't even know if they have the money yet.

So can we stay on top of that in terms of making... And Bay North is another program. They run the shelter program for those periods of months. And like it was said before, that is a top-notch program. And so if any of this one-time funding can be used to expand the capacity of programs that we know work... I would love to see us make sure that we stay on top of the application requirements, the deadlines, and let Mission Samoa, let Bay North know, hey, this is what needs to be done. Let's work together in unison and make sure we get some of this funding. Because I would like to see both of those programs work. running at full capacity. And the other thing that I wanted to say is it's not anything, I guess, on this list, but I really want to revisit the issue of Shelter, Inc. And I say that because Shelter Inc. has not worked at full capacity for a really long time. And so I would like to just ask if we can consider some options that the city council might have at this time to make that happen. I THINK THAT UNDERUTILIZED FACILITY IS REALLY, IT'S A BAD LOOK FOR US. BECAUSE WE ARE SAYING WE WANT TO GET PEOPLE OFF THE STREET, BUT WE WANT SHELTER INK TO BE WORKING IN A WAY THAT IS COMPASSIONATE, CONSISTENT, AND AT FULL CAPACITY BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE FACILITIES TO DO IT. SO I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO DISCUSS WHAT CAN WE DO AS A CITY COUNCIL to really put some serious eyes on shelter inc and get and and get that place running at full capacity in a way where people want to bring clients um there and it's a productive facility so those are my points

yeah thank you uh... mayor as far as it goes as on our discussion on these three two points i say we kind of look at all three of them mainly preserved pursuing the funding for more short-term solutions uh... it's no secret everybody knows that i work in a specific population and i work for the solano county courts in the different courts from bets on through and a lot of times i'll get somebody that they're just they just got to need some place to stay for a short time and we can keep them from being homeless we can keep the crime rate there's a lot of things we can do and there's one shelter that's been consistent that helps me with that and that's mission samoa so i've i've been to like a vice mayor tani said i've had people that people call me up and say hey here's this guy you got to do something with them no shoes nothing just out of jail and i went out to shelter and no one even answers the gate uh... there's no one there to help me but every single time when i need to get some of our fairfield residents off the street mission small goes over and above to help me get that done more than any other place that i work with and i work with pretty much all of them at one point or another so i'm in favor of uh... i know that right now just uh... touch on uh... but he says a 125 right now sound that he's getting but we added 2 beds but that should have been at one 40 correct the direction at the retreat was yes to take them to a 125 and I would be for and those beds are city beds are constantly for I know that and I think that if we had those other pallet shelters filled and I am like I said I don't know who on the council hasn't been there the place is is is really good because of the way it is those pallet shelters and and they have the the cooling room and they have the laundry room and we paid for a lot of that and i i just think that we really should be using it at at at at our best capacity so i i would i would absolutely uh... vote for that but i would use the price per night out there again uh... gene so it and it also runs in my research It runs cheaper than almost every other place as well. So I think it's a bang for our buck.

Yeah, I was just going to, if I could.

That math isn't working.

uh yeah just uh councilmember carr one one thing you said there i want to sort of clarify for the the whole council what i heard you say is well we kind of got to do it all um and i appreciate that and i agree right it it's a continuum we need the full continuum um the reason we came back tonight and i think the reason samantha walked through her presentation and in the way that she did was because there's not necessarily good funding opportunities for a couple of the items on the board. And there are potentially shifting priorities, right? So for example, one of the things on the recovery housing front was, let's go look at that. So we've done some of that research. We've looked at what those structures are, and they're not really anything that fit under any of the current state or federal funding programs. Now that may be shifting, As Samantha pointed out, the COC funding, the current administration has shifted what those dollars should be eligible for. However, as she mentioned, I think it was just today, 21 state attorneys general filed suit. So I don't know if that means that that gets changed. I don't know if that means that's stayed. Don't know if that means that it goes back to what the prior COC requirements were from 2025. ONE THING I WANT TO SORT OF PUT TOGETHER IN TERMS OF AS I'VE ONE THING I WANT TO SORT OF PUT TOGETHER IN TERMS OF AS I'VE HEARD SOME OF THE CONVERSATIONS HEARD SOME OF THE CONVERSATIONS AND AS I'VE TALKED WITH YOU ALL AND AS I'VE TALKED WITH YOU ALL FREQUENTLY ABOUT THIS BEING ONE OF FREQUENTLY ABOUT THIS BEING ONE OF THE HIGHEST PRIORITIES FOR THE CITY THE HIGHEST PRIORITIES FOR THE CITY COUNCIL. COUNCIL. THERE'S AN INSINUATION OF A THERE'S AN INSINUATION OF A QUESTION UP THERE AND I CAN'T QUESTION UP THERE AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO BELIEVE I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO ASK THIS IN PUBLIC. But with looking at the data, looking at the populations, it is true that seniors are a rapidly increasing population on the streets. We know that. There may be opportunities to structure grant applications for permanent supportive housing dollars through the state of California. focused on seniors now it's going to have to have a behavioral health requirement because those are the that's the funding mechanism that the state has right now is those prop one funds as samantha pointed out but that's where i think what we're looking for is Yes, as COC funding dollars come along for short-term solutions, we will do what we can to apply for those dollars. There are some programs we've not applied because we've known in the past we're just not going to be competitive for them like the encampment. The largest pot of money out there right now is Homekey Plus. I know what we've gone through with Vista Ridge. I know the concerns that that raises in the community. But that is where if you want us to look at some type of project that maybe does not have the concerns of the neighborhood like a Vista Ridge project, focused on a specific subset of population, like a senior population, then those, that's the type of guidance we're looking for, because then that narrows us in on, okay, now we can start to look at what are the opportunities across town, bring those opportunities back to you with the funding sources in alignment saying, okay, is this something then that you want to pursue? Because right now that's where we've been struggling a little bit since the retreat was had a lot of this same conversation which is good conversation everybody agrees all of the above is necessary but it doesn't necessarily mean that all of the above aligns with what our capabilities are in the here and now of staff focusing on what are those opportunities to go try to fill the gaps that we know exist in in the near term

Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but I did point to number one as something that I'd like. And then that's the population I see. I don't have too many people. I know that they're there and the numbers are rising, but I don't see too many seniors. And so that's something that isn't my forte. So I trust Samantha on that. But as far as it goes, it's the public and the people and the tents and the vacant lot. i think that for business all of that it's the current crowd that we have to deal with not only to keep our constituents happy but also to bring in business that's the biggest thing that people i they may or may not understand is is we can't bring in quality businesses if we have a big homeless population we just can't do it because they're not interested and people are scared to go downtown people are scared to go to the mall and it's because of a mental health and i think When we pursued Vista Ridge, taking mental health people, getting them places, these are the things that are going to show that we're making productive moves and we're reducing that population to bring in those businesses. So I'm mainly focusing on that criminal justice, the substance use and the mental health people that are kicked to the curb most of the time, that if we work and focus on that, do the grant money for other dollars such as the senior. I think that would be our best, as far as my knowledge, that would be the best course of action to pursue. Thank you.

I have a question, Sam. So as far as, you know, we were talking about seniors, but, you know, so I'll go to my own background, you know, working for years in juvenile hall and, you know, seeing a lot of young people that, that I worked with in their late 20s, early 30s, mid 30s, these young people, and they're homeless. And I almost feel like even younger, I mean, I saw some of the guys I worked with right out of high school, and they're walking around, nowhere to go. So like a funding source for something like that, some of the kind of goes back to what you said, Doug, too. But I mean, you know, there's mental health problems, there's addiction problems, and they need help now, like right away. So what would be like a funding source or where could they go? Somebody like that, where could they go? Maybe, I don't know, possibly Mission Samoa, Bay North.

You have a question? I just wanted to say that I agree with everything that everybody is saying. Of course, we... You can come to the microphone, Sam.

Pastor Sam.

I'm all with the work that Mission Samoa does and Canby and the others, but the systemic issue is not just the work that we do during the winter. It's the work that we do when winter is over. I don't think you understand that when we close... The doors, because the weather is better, the people still come. So we don't even have funding where we spend probably upwards to about $15,000 a month for retention so you don't see people get homeless. We just help seniors. This week, we paid their entire mortgage or they would be on the streets. And so retention is another place you need to look at actually putting money into so you don't have to get them completely off the street. So by us saving the two seniors that came to our church with a mortgage issue, we actually had two dilemmas. Either we pay it or they get behind even further where it's just too beyond our capacity to help. Or even if you call or another council member call with an issue of rapid reentry that needs help, maybe it's paying their rent, maybe it's paying insurance, maybe what those costs are, those still impact our ministry. long after we get back into helping the unhoused. And so what I'm saying is there's a trifecta issue that is happening in our city where you have individuals that can't pay their PG&E, so they're going to make a toss-up. Do I go to work? You have Uber drivers. We have so many Uber drivers now that are complaining that they can't make ends meet because of the gas prices. So we give gas cards. You have people who can't make ends meet for groceries. So what I'm saying is that the issues are bigger than just looking at the people we see that are under the bridges and that are asleep in these encampments or that are even being used by the facility that Mission Samoa has is actually stopping some of the people actually ending up there is the greater issue that's actually before us that we're actually not discussing in this meeting at this moment. That's what I want to say.

Mr. Morris. I just want to let everybody know also, I do agree with that, and if we can pursue grant money in that direction. Just keeping another, I had a client in treatment, and he was going to leave his treatment, which would put him and his girlfriend homeless and him on the run, and I called Mr. Morris, and the reason he was going to leave treatment, because he had to get some work to pay for his wife's car, or they were going to repo it, And then they would all be, and Sam stepped up and he made that car payment, and to this day I can't say thank you enough. Not only did you keep people from being homeless at that, but you also kept a guy in treatment who's doing good still and didn't go back to prison all because of that. So these kind of things are so important, and I thank you still, and I appreciate everything that you do over there.

Well, absolutely, and I think that, and what I'm asking for is not for us to just receive money to give it away. What I'm asking for is we have programs prior to this where we did reimbursable grants, where we basically paid their PG&E if they actually met the requirements, if they could actually show the hardship, which we still do as a ministry, but we don't get reimbursed. In this case, when you find the facts and you report the data and you say this month we had six families that were actually reimbursed, on the brink of being homeless, and we stop that, that is actually also account to helping with the homeless issue. And it's a lot cheaper to pay the PG&E and they stay in their house another 30 days than to try to find, you know, the first, the last, and the second. So what I'm saying is the greater issue is you'll save more by actually having boots on the ground, helping first, because when they come to us, we're not going to say no. But we're already known for the work that we do. And so what I'm saying, the biggest pandemic that we're starting to see, especially at our doors, is helping people stay in their homes.

And I'm going to go back to my original concern, Sam. And as far as some of the young people I see out there, so they come to your shelter. I know and I've talked to people not only at your shelter but other shelters too. They come to the shelter, a day later they're gone. They're gone. And I see them back out there. So it's almost like you talk about retention too, right? I mean, that's what I see too that needs to happen. Because I just see, I've seen it so many times with the kids I work with. I mean, yeah, they got a roof under their, hey look, I had kids that would get arrested on purpose so they could go to juvenile hall and get three meals a day and a bed to sleep in, right? And I feel like that sometimes happens at shelters. Not because of the people running the shelters, but hey, you got a bed, you got three meals, good, I'm gone. And then on to whatever. So I guess that's what I'd like to see.

Well, that's, again, the main case is for workforce development. And so, for instance, today we had two young men who were in need of a place to stay, but they had to work on the church campus. So they worked all day. And after they got through cutting trees and hedges or whatever I can get them in to keep them busy doing, then we were able to provide for them the resources to go ahead and get off the street. And so what I'm saying is, yes, we want to definitely give them a hand up, but they actually need training. He had never done gardening, but now he loves it. And so one of the things is partnering with a local landscaping company. But we have to do things where we partner with our unhoused, but we also have to hold them accountable as well. Because as long as we keep giving them a handout, they will come and eat and leave and disappear so we have to put some programs and some things in place to give them the opportunity to develop that self-worth again and if we can do that um especially with this large campus that we have that is sitting on i'm not going to speak to that but it's underused i think we can absolutely implement some of those programs that will make those things an opportunity for our city

Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Morris. And thank you, Mr. Mayor, for sharing that. So maybe under discussion item number one, pursue funding for more short-term solutions. If available, we can add the prospect of reimbursable grants. that like Pastor Morris just mentioned, because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You know, if you can get the mortgage payment done and it's a reimbursable grant, the folks whose mortgage is now being paid are not out on the street because it's ten times harder to get people off the street once they're on the street. And then we have a reimbursable grant program so that your ministry is not significantly depleted in your ability to help people in these short-term situations where they need a PG&E bill paid. They need a car note paid. They need a mortgage paid just to get over the hump, and then they'll make it. So I like the thought of reimbursable grants, and I think that we should add that to item number one. for short-term solutions if we can find funding to facilitate that. Reimbursable grants.

Sam, can you remind me how big is your team? Two people. Can you also walk me through the trade-offs in selecting one or the other? I'm having a hard time figuring out what we lose based off of what we pick.

Well, there's capacity issues for sure. Our team is very heavy with customer service. Anyone who spent Scott, I know he knows, up there, when we were on the fourth floor, folks come in all the time. Folks call all the time. We're tree judging all the time. Because we answer our phones, right, and help folks walk through the system. So currently, there is a lot of that that happens. And not only just those looking for services, but we get... Complaints community members were triaging working with the hit team working with heart. You know, there's a lot that goes into that and a lot that has with like the systems as well, so You know myself and an analyst we do the best that we can with applying some of these are larger lifts Right.

Can you explain which ones are larger, which ones are not?

Anything that goes to the state of California is usually pretty large with reporting and ongoing. So like just even with, you know, we have the PLHA funds, there's a lot that goes into that with reporting and that supports currently right now can be For this fiscal year because more money hasn't been released yet. So anything that goes through HCD, there's a lot of administrative work, not even just with the application, but ongoing, which we do. But the more that there is, the more loaded is on us individually. to do that. But we're always looking. We're always looking. And things that we can't apply for as a municipality, we forward to our nonprofits. You know, Mission Samoa does a lot of workforce development. Anytime we see anything like that, we forward that on. And because as, you know, a nonprofit, they have a lot more flexibility in what they can apply for. There's things that we can't, we just can't apply for. the event the council majority agreed for option one what impact would that have on how you guys operate as a team well we are still doing that regardless if we wanted to look at something like more diversion or prevention that is not something that we're currently doing that would be a new project on our team overseeing shelter outreach support services those are already things in our queue that we do. We oversee all the grants that the city puts out there with emergency shelter. We oversee the street outreach team. We're overseeing a support services contract in partnership with the housing authority. We're doing the support services. So that's already in our portfolio on top of everything that goes with the systems, phone calls, walk-ins, everything that happens there. So there is a lot of

So part of the discussion, I think, was about prevention. That'd be a new responsibility that does not currently fall.

That is not a current thing that our city does. I have brought it up before in conversations. We get, oh God, every day I get phone calls about PG&E, every single day. I have phone calls about PG&E, phone calls. There's only one provider in the county that administers PG&E assistance, and a lot of times their well is dry. It's out of Vacaville. But we get phone calls all the time with the city, people needing rental assistance short-term. There is an organization called Keep People House Solano that does work on prevention. There's various opinions on how well that is going. And they're not doing PG&E or anything like that. There is a small grant that just got issued to opportunity the organization that opportunity house in Vacaville that it does have a little bit of prevention dollars I mean that's gonna get spent in a heartbeat it was only 80k I'm remembering correctly and that'll be spent down in a heartbeat between PGD and rental insistence and whatnot in talking to providers that are doing boots on the ground, especially like the street outreach. When I talk about, you know, if we're looking at shorter term solutions that are going to have the biggest bang for the buck, looking at diversion prevention and rapid rehousing definitely comes up in the conversation a lot, especially rapid rehousing. Because again, yes, it's extremely expensive to get somebody rehoused. But like populations not necessarily their seniors because again like I said that population is going to be more aligned like with our behavioral health folks that need longer term ongoing solution because they're not going to be able to increase their income. But our families, families historically are very, very successful with rapid rehousing. And I actually just looked at data. not that long ago that came out and rapid rehousing programs, I don't know what page I had it on, as a whole across all COCs are, it was like low, high, mid 90% success rate in keeping people housed. right across all cocs in the nation so it is very very successful it can be a lot like a chunk to get people rehoused and then maybe like a few months of sustainability sometimes people need a little bit more longer term than that but especially for our families a lot of times they can do that because they can increase their income thank you

Thank you. Sam, earlier you made a comment about how many families you looked up this morning. Can you repeat that number? Was it 57? No.

I have 57 households on my list. So that's including my seniors. I have 21 families, which is 37% of my waiting list as of this morning. And that fluctuates. That fluctuates. But the biggest challenge with families is there's not movement. small tiny program that only does families and there's not it doesn't move that fast right and I do know that families are way more successful in if we can just move them straight into housing than hitting the shelter system because all times folks have fears especially if they have kids if they have kids that have special needs it can be very very challenging especially if they don't have their own individual space

Yeah, and so I mean I asked that again just because I think for me and just also being a part of a lot of conversations at Capsulano, the prevention piece is such a big topic across the county and obviously with these families it'd be easier to keep them housed versus like trying to get them housed again. I'm a renter and in my complex I can't, if my rent were to go up I don't know how I would make it. Like honestly, like I work at a non-profit. and my PG&E bill, I don't know why it's so high. I'm like, I turn off the AC, right? So I can't imagine having a full household. My next door neighbors have a full house and it's because it's where they can't afford to live. And if anything were to go wrong, They would be on the street, right? And so I just, I'm grateful for the roof that I do have over my head, but then also looking at the current system of flow, right? Where the exit options happen to be, where the gaps are, a big part of that is the inability to afford rent, right? And just being priced out of where you live. And if it's because of PG&E, that's that's ridiculous. And so I think for me, I would appreciate looking into like prevention diversion dollars. I know that's a new project, but it sounds like it's a lot of the calls that you also get. But then also looking at short term solutions, because obviously we have folks waiting on if we can just get them in somewhere. I think that would be also helpful. Yeah. And we do know that

housing preventing from hitting the system and housing someone is cheaper than right staying in the emergency system i was going to just maybe jump in i'm starting to hear a theme here and i think that theme is much more of a focus on number one Short term solutions. I've heard a few council members bring up an increase in funding with Mission Samoa for essentially paying for some additional capacity that they have sitting vacant out there. And then I heard I think the sort of the biggest jump here then was to some sort of prevention program. Now, I'll remind everybody that in the one time funds, right, the IGSA, I'd said general fund earlier, but I meant IGSA. Those monies are just one time. Right. Once once they're spent, they're gone. I heard in terms of, you know, potential prevention, potentially doing that as some form of reimbursable grant, so that would be creating a new program. We do have a somewhat similar program that are our, you know, housing rehab programs where, you know, monies are granted to low-income families to do improvements, and then if they later refinance their home or do something along those lines so not saying that type of program all I'm saying is that there there are programs like that we could look at some sort of you know whether it's PG&E or rental assistance with you know some sort of potential future repayment provision we would have to figure out how to how to do that how to make all that work but so if if I can kind of cut across increase funding with Mission Samoa, focus on any of our grant applications, grant focus on short-term solutions, and then look at the possibility of creating some sort of prevention program to help people stay housed rather than always focusing on sheltering and rehousing.

Does that sound like the direction you want to go? turn your mic on sorry yeah excuse me no we've been talking about it that's what we've been talking about yeah um okay so it sounds like that's the direction we're going in number one anybody want to make those final comments before we move on yes

Sam, a topic that does come back from time to time is houseless students, specifically.

I just said it.

Where does that get, where does the support for something like that specifically come into play here?

Are you talking minors or are you talking college age students? Those are two different separate those in the school system.

Actually, yeah, I actually looked at these guys. OK, what do you do with high school kids?

So high school kids would be considered unaccompanied minors, and so it's very challenging. So we cannot put them in an emergency shelter as they currently are. I did want to tell you for the TAY population, so 18 to 25, there is an emergency shelter within our continuum that actually targets that specific population in Vacaville. So it's not huge, right? But there are targeted services. There are targeted rapid rehousing dollars for the TAY population specifically. So there are carve-outs that are required, especially with the COC dollars. So that's why it says homeless... and Tay, right? So there are specific carve-outs that happen. There's also support services at Solano College. Doris can attend. They actually came and did a presentation at Cap Solano JPA couple weeks ago so there are there are some programs but unaccompanied minors because they are minors most of the time cannot hit the shelter system unless it's a specially designed program that is like a group home for that population okay Jean do you want to say something real quick can you come to the mic please

Yeah, currently we've been taking students. I've got Fairfield High School calling me. I've taken a student, a kid from Rodriguez High School that we've taken in, that they're homeless. I don't know what their parents are doing, but, you know, they let them come on their own. We've been taking them. And in fact, when the city has a bed, I'll call them and say, hey, I got this person here, can you help? But we've taken three of them lately.

Okay. All right.

And we'll continue taking the young kids. Thanks, Gene.

Okay.

We're going to wrap it up.

Yeah. Out of all that we've discussed, I think the one area where there does seem to be some grayness is when it comes to, as we just discussed, what do you do with students that end up homeless? It's hard to say where responsibility starts and stops, and I think that is something we should talk more about going forward.

I think I think actually it's a systemic problem and it's going to be a systemic problem for a long time unless it gets solved from up above. Meaning you know the state.

Yeah, and I will say there I don't. I can't cite the study off the top of my head, but over 50% of those that are unhoused were in the foster system. At some point they may no longer be transitional aged youth, but they were in the foster system at some point and are unhoused at some point in their journey.

direction here so i think we're going to move on so yeah i would love specific direction if we're increasing funding for one of your operators i would i would really prefer to have direction on what that dollar amount is and then how much is it that the council's interested in with the remaining one-time dollars on any creation of any prevention program so we have 251 oh sorry did you go yeah

I can tell there's a lot of energy to empty the bank account or take money out and I'm going to say again as a grant writer that writes for homeless programs when there's matching funds needed and these are one-time funds once they go they go so in January when we're talking about this again we'll have a better sense of what grants you know how much money is really left and then i think it should be an equal distribution of or some type of rationale of the remaining dollars toward three programs that are pretty phenomenal i don't like that we're divvying just you know piecing piecemealing um tonight i i don't favor that but i just wanted to kind of and this is somebody that is a fan of all three of those programs so anyway i just wanted to make that clear thanks um councilman thompson you had some so if there's 250 left in that there's two a little over 270. so there's just call it 270 rounded it would be 25 70 150 more so that would leave us

Several 70,000. No, if we if we gave 150 more, we're still.

You're talking 150 more over the two years. We don't have enough for 150 each year.

No, no, it's 75 each year.

So it's 150 total. Yeah.

And if there's 270 left in there, that's 130 left. 120 left somewhere in there These is that a question or no you were asking what the number so yeah, it's 200 if it's 200 grand We're if we're giving him okay. I thought we were at 140, but if you're at 175 now Yeah, that's what we're asking for is what 75 council direction 75 twice would be 150 so 200 a year 200 for 10 beds You're increasing it by a hundred.

Well, that's what he had proposed.

So that's I'm just doing the math We still have a hundred and twenty thousand ish left in there That's just my recommendation I did not so that's that's something specific It's 200 grand a year.

That's the specific number Council feel about that. I Are you making a motion? we making motions tonight or are we just direction if everybody agrees i mean i would have to bring it back yeah we're going to have to bring back a formal action i'm a thumb up on that um do we take a vote or just i mean i mean how does everybody feel about that i think i saw at least five thumbs ups there i have a question on it go ahead

I feel good about that and I'd also like to see if there's any funding any additional funding for Bay North and their.

that one is going to be a challenge because it is not a 24 7 program most money that comes down through the states and the federal government wants it to be a continuous program so like when we talked back at the retreat you know we like talked about plha funds and i said i can't use this for the emergency shelter because they want it to be a program I don't usually see funding that trickles down from the state or the federal government for a winter shelter or inclement weather. Usually that is absorbed by the city itself. I just read, I was looking at the cutbacks that the city of Berkeley is having to do when they're cutting their winter shelter, and that's general funds. They're not using grants for that. unless we found something that was like a foundation or something that could cover it. I'm right now not foreseeing federal or state dollars.

okay i just if there's anything that we can do because like pastor morris just said i mean when the shelter when the winter shelter closes they don't stop so it's an ongoing it's an ongoing cost and it's a depletion to the ministries you know resources as well so if there's any creative way that we can um do that that would be great too but i'm fully thumbs up with missions okay

And then you did not talk about prevention. Are we looking for outside funding for prevention? Okay. Yes. Okay. Got it.

Item K-5, Resolution 2026-119, Internet Service and Telephonic Service Disruption Policy, adopting the Internet Service and Telephonic Service Disruption Policy for City Council meetings. And our presenter is David Lim, City Attorney.

good evening honorable mayor members of the city council i bring to you resolution 2026-119 the internet service and telephonic service disruption policy this will be quick if you recall back on june 17 2026 i brought this before the council it was accidentally placed on consent calendar and by law it must be brought in an open agenda item so we pulled it from consent but had you pass it anyway and i told you that in an abundance of caution we would bring it back as a new item tonight so here it is There's nothing changed about the policy. You actually enacted it on June 17th and just in advance of caution we're asking you to pass it again as resolution 2026-119. So moved. Second. Third. Fourth. You need public comment.

Hold on a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Any public comment? I'm one. He's two. No. No public comment. Okay. Who made the motion? Okay, Councilman Tonneson, who's seconded it? Councilman Pandora, Councilwoman Pandora, all those in favor? Aye, aye, aye, aye. This meeting is adjourned. We'll meet again on July 21st, and hopefully it's going to be a little bit shorter.

Great job, Mr. Mayor.