City Council - Regular Meeting

special meeting and now we'll move to the july 14th city council meeting on july 14 2026 call the order council members akino here koslowski leary roba here and raythel is absent pledge of allegiance please stand Any agenda updates?

Yes, we have several tonight. So first, agenda item number six. Staff is requesting to continue this item to the next meeting of the council, which will be August 11. And then we have additional material on a number of agenda items. I'll just list them off. And I believe all of the material have been provided to the council, but we also have copies on the back table for the public.

and those are agenda items number 12 13 14 15 17 and 18. thank you now we go to the section business from the floor and these are for the public to address anything that's not on the agenda and you have up to three minutes

um to speak and go ahead krista okay we have a few speakers tonight so i'm going to call your name and then i'm also going to let you know who's next to speak so if you hear your name as next on deck you can be ready our first speaker tonight will be robert slater who will then be followed by sherry richter and i understand this is material to pass out it is thank you very much

Thank you for the opportunity to address the Folsom City Council. I am Dr. Bob Slater and I'm here to raise awareness about one of the greatest accomplishments in human history which has direct ties to the city of Folsom. And I urge the Folsom City Council to issue a proclamation that will create a new day of recognition here in this city to honor the first time humans walked on the moon Next week will be the 57th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, July 20th, 1969. And there are meaningful and crucial ties between the historic Apollo 11 mission and Folsom specifically. For example, all of the rocket engines used on all of the stages of the Saturn V rocket that took the astronauts to the moon and brought them safely home again were designed, built, and tested right here in our area. Many of the people who did that crucial work lived in and around Folsom. That includes people at every level, from the shuttle bus drivers, cafeteria workers, maintenance workers, Scientists, as just one specific example, consider Larry Basham, who just passed away two years ago. Larry was an engineer whose entire career was at Aerojet. Starting in 1959, he and his wife Donna lived here on Folsom Lake. He rose through the ranks at Aerojet and became a senior vice president. He met with the NASA astronauts and teams planning the Apollo missions, and fortunately for them, Larry got to them to revise the plans so it worked properly based on the dynamics of the rocket engines built here. Many of the other engineers who also lived in Folsom, and so it's safe to say that without Folsom, there would have been no landing on the moon. It's as simple as that. Lunar Landing Day is something all of us can celebrate together, since it marked the only time in history that we all pulled together as a species to watch such an extraordinary accomplishment. And it can serve to pique the interest of the next generation promoting STEM education in our fulsome schools. The time to do this is now. There are only a few of the astronauts from the Apollo era still living among us mortals. and all four of those who remain alive who have actually been to the moon and walked on its surface publicly support this plan, as do thousands of people from all across the nation. Folsom can establish Lunar Landing Day as an annual celebration of that triumphant accomplishment. I'm the director of a national coalition of people working on this campaign. And for your reference, I have provided the brochure which you see in front of you that highlights some of the progress we've made on this endeavor. Wisconsin and Arizona have passed proclamations for their states, as has Sacramento County. I urge you to issue a proclamation calling attention to this historic day as the first city to do so. A draft has been provided to you as one example of what might be considered. You're out.

Thank you. Appreciate it, thank you. Okay, our next speaker is Sherry Richter, who will be followed by Michael Bowling.

Good evening. I am so happy that the City Council is recognizing the zookeepers tonight. They are the backbone of the zoo, and the love and exemplary care that they provide is the reason that our animals routinely live longer than animals do in captivity. As you all know, our animals all have a story to tell. If they could be in the wild, they would be, and most of them have had very difficult lives before coming here. But once here, they thrive and blossom. That is also true of many of the guests that we interact with. For instance, every summer, we host a group from Mustard Seed. These children are unhoused on the very day that they come. So many of them start the tour quiet and withdrawn. As they learn about our animals, you can really see the transformation that occurs. And by the end of their tour, there are a lot of smiles and a lot of kids enjoying just being kids. This is repeated every day with so many of the visitors we encounter. We never know what is happening in the lives of our visitors, but our unique mix of animals and the nature of the sanctuary itself provide a strong emotional connection to so many children and adults as well. For the fiscal year ending in June, the docents hosted 6,500 guests in 127 tours, generating over $68,000 in revenue, which was a 53% increase over last year. Docents also work in many roles to support our zookeepers. We run four three-day camps for around 100 kids aging ranging in age from five to seven during the summer. The zoo staff also runs zookeeper camps throughout the year, giving their kids a unique opportunity to see behind the fencing workings of our zoo. Several docents work crossover duty with volunteers in the gift shop with the hoofstock animals and through our animal interpreter program. This program brings some of our animals, reptiles, and bugs who are normally not visible out into the zoo so that our visitors can get up close and personal with them. Just this last Saturday, I had Radagast, our rosy boa, out, and it was really fun to see people who were backing away and afraid of snakes, actually, after they learned just a little bit about her, willing to touch her. And you could see that victory that they had over a horrible fear. Several of our inhabitants serve as amazing ambassadors for their species throughout the year. The zoo is a thriving community of animals of several species, including humans, who work closely and cooperatively together to connect and educate those who enter our gates about the importance of responsible behavior towards all animals. So once again, thank you so much for recognizing the important work that our zookeepers do each and every day. Thank you.

Thank you, Sherry. Sherry, I'm a little conflicted wishing that you brought the boa, but also glad that you didn't bring the boa.

Okay, our next speaker is Michael Bowling, and Michael will be followed by Robert Dresser.

Good evening Madam Vice Mayor and members of the City Council. I'm here tonight because I believe the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary is one of our city's greatest treasures and an important part of what makes Folsom truly distinctive by nature. The Zoo Sanctuary is much more than a place to see animals. It is a permanent home for rescued, non-releasable animals that cannot survive in the wild. Every animal has a story, and every one of those stories teaches compassion, responsibility, and respect for wildlife. As a docent, I have the privilege of seeing those lessons come to life every day. I watch children discover the wonders of the natural world, ask thoughtful questions, and leave with a greater appreciation for animals and conservation. That educational mission extends far beyond the sanctuary itself. Through school outreach programs and zoo camps, we inspire thousands of young people each year to become good stewards of our environment and to care about the world around them. The sanctuary also provides affordable family recreation, attracts visitors who support local businesses, and enhances Folsom's reputation as a community that values education, conservation, and quality of life. I would also like to recognize the incredible dedication of our staff and volunteers. Together, they contribute thousands of hours each year of caring for the animals, educating visitors, presenting outreach programs, and helping make the sanctuary a place our community can be proud of. I understand that every budget requires difficult decisions and careful stewardship of taxpayer dollars. But I encourage you to view the zoo sanctuary not simply as an expense, but as an investment in education, tourism, conservation, and the character of our community. As we consider Folsom's future, I respectfully ask you to continue supporting the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary. It enriches our community, inspires future generations, and provides a safe, lifelong home for animals that have nowhere else to go. Thank you for your time, your service to our community, and your consideration.

Okay, our next speaker will be Robert Dresser, who will be followed by Scott Rafferty.

Good evening, and thanks for the opportunity of appearing here. I'm going to respectfully request, this is I think my third time, that the council consider settling the lawsuit about creating bi-district elections. It's been going on for a number of years now. The original petition requesting it was signed by over 300 people, probably more Republicans and declined to state than Democrats, so it's not really a partisan issue. Eventually, the city voted to adopt by district elections, as you know, and this eliminated at-large elections, which we think ensured Asian minority residents greater opportunity to elect their chosen representative. and also for council members to be more approachable by residents of their various districts. I attended the city council meeting where the vote was taken, and some of you were there and may remember that several of the council members said we're only voting to establish bi-district elections because of the lawsuit that was filed. And our attorney, Scott Rafferty, had filed that lawsuit a year or two before. But the point is that but for the lawsuit, according to what they said on the record, the lawsuit, the district elections would not have been approved because that's what they said. However, rather than going ahead and settling the lawsuit and pay reasonable attorney fees, which are mandated by the California Voting Rights Act, the council has not yet, after these years, agreed to any kind of settlement. So our attorney has not been paid a dime, despite the public service that he has rendered in persuading the city council to adopt the bi-district elections. My guess, and we made a public record act request a couple years ago, is that the city has probably paid in excess of a million dollars to private law firms in addition to whatever fees were paid to the city attorney staff in order to defend this lawsuit. I understand that there's now a big deficit in the city treasury, and why pay more to private law firms, which might be hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time this thing is done, rather than approach the attorney and make a reasonable settlement offer. I think that would be good government, it would be fair, and I think it's really the right thing to do, and I believe save the city money. So I respectfully request that the City Council do the right thing and follow the spirit of the California Voting Rights Act and consider a reasonable settlement.

Robert, if you can wrap it up.

Yes, and though I don't expect any applause, because the other speakers were very good. Thank you very much for your attention.

Okay, our next speaker is Scott Rafferty, who will then be followed by Muriel Braunstein.

My name's Scott Rafferty. I'm the attorney that helped your constituents with this suit, who are out of pocket, thousands of dollars in just filing fees. And I haven't been paid a dime, as was said. But I want to focus a couple comments on the benefits and the flaws in what has happened so far. Your constituents overwhelmingly supported district elections. It makes them closer to their representatives. uh unfortunately there are two things there's three things really that have been problematic for the asian community that was intended to benefit from this they were they only elected a member in 2020 the presidential election year that's why there's a state law that says you have to give special consideration to have them elect in the presidential year and because that didn't happen and also because they only had four months notice uh of what the boundaries were proposed to be and a lot of uncertainty about what the court was going to do, they didn't even field a candidate. So they haven't voted for six years. And that's the opposite of what this was intended to do. And that should be fixed and can be fixed. We'll talk about that perhaps later this evening on one of your agenda items. The map's not good. The map stretches, has gerrymandered things that stretch from one northwest of the city to the southeast. I'm sorry, northeast to the southwest. It doesn't follow neighborhoods. But I think we can work with that and have... Perhaps there's economical ways to have independent redistricting after the census. And so there's grounds to make things better. And I'd like to do that for your constituents. I think it's the honorable thing to do. There does have to be a money payment. I mean, almost no other city had done this before. And when you drag things out for six years, it's been an enormous burden. I can tell you. I've sent you privately or whatever. Maybe it's private. I don't think it is. I think it's in this. When cities go past the safe harbor deadline, the settlement, the fee awards have been in the six or seven digit, I'm sorry, seven or eight digit category. We're not there quite yet. So I would try to settle this. I'm actually in good faith and I do want you to really fix this for your constituents. I think it can be better and I think the model over the long term is gonna work really well for the city. So I'd encourage your consideration. Thank you.

Okay. Our next speaker is Muriel Bronstein, who will be followed. Mr. Dresser, I have two speaker cards for you. One, what you previously spoke on. Sorry, Muriel. And then a request to speak on districts. Did you want to speak twice or was that? No. Okay, thank you very much. Sorry, Muriel. I just wanted to get that cleared up.

My name is Muriel Brownstein. I live in Natoma Station. I'm speaking on bi-district elections. Several years ago, when a group of us began advocating for the city to change to bi-district elections, we met with each city council member individually. When we met with former Mayor Carrie Howell, the first words out of her mouth were, if you go ahead with filing for bi-district elections, the city will immediately owe $30,000. Carrie Howell knew then, as do all of you now, that the city owes our attorney, Scott Rafferty, for successfully bringing this suit. It's been more than two years since the court denied your claims of immunity from attorney's fees. You can't deny that the plaintiffs have achieved districts which entitled our attorney to those fees. Stop wasting everybody's time and our tax dollars by trying to avoid paying Scott Rafferty what you owe him. Thank you.

Okay, our next speaker is Martha Doran, who's followed by Shawna Garrett.

Thanks for this opportunity. I just wanted to say I'm a relatively new Folsom city member. moving here a couple years ago with my husband, and initially just amazed with the city, had some great encounters with all different kinds of city services as we were new to the area, ranging from firefighters that helped with a call at our house that really wasn't needed, but they came anyway, and recently the far end of the spectrum is helping the community with a mother duck who six of her ducklings had gotten down a drain, and So between the Folsom police and then the animal prevention help, we were able to get her reunited with those guys and into wildlife help. And so in the middle of all this, though, is this amazing jewel that I have found as a newly minted docent with the Folsom Sanctuary Zoo. And I just can't really even find words. The people that have spoken before me are so well-versed and knowledgeable in all that we do. But just being there myself now these last few months, just made me feel I had to share with you guys. I mean, it's right here with you, so you must know too, but it's just amazing that sense of sanctuary and what it does for all of us, for the people, for the animals, for the community, and to think it's this jewel nestled in Folsom. I mean, it allows us to be this place that cares in the sense of a community. I mean, that is really amazing. And as a docent now, and I've heard this from family members throughout many generations that have been doing this kind of outreach or working at the zoo or bringing their children back to the zoo, their grandchildren back to the zoo, it's just hard to put into words what kind of a resource that really is. And it starts with our zoo people, which I'm just so excited to know we're going to be honoring and proclaiming. You probably may not hear from her directly, but it's tone at the top. And to know that our director, Jocelyn, was out there with a broken foot or whatever on a little scooter the night that the rodeo stuff was going on to make sure our residents were not hurting, were not harmed by the noises and stuff. I mean, that to me is just like, that's worth a million bucks. So I just had to say thank you, and it's a great, great place to be. Folsom and the Folsom Sanctuary Zoo.

Okay, our next speaker will be Shauna Garrett and Shauna will be followed by Sid Bailey.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening and to highlight the vast community support that the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary receives. Not only residents of Folsom, but citizens from all over the greater Sacramento area. I've been a docent for nearly 10 years, and I'm directly involved with the volunteer program at the sanctuary. Not only do volunteers donate their time, they help generate revenue through a variety of programs. The value of the donated time can be measured in both dollars and equivalent employees. Because supporters are so generous with their time and talents, The sanctuary is able to provide activities, programs, educational experiences to the public without incurring additional costs. Docents are involved primarily in education, but also provide enhanced experience for guests. One way is by introducing animals as families explore the zoo. We've heard comments that the only animal a child wanted to see was a snake, and they were thrilled when a docent walked up with one for them to meet up close and personal. The HostDoc team grooms and walks our miniature donkeys and horses twice a week, often stopping outside the library where children attending story time are able to come out and meet animals at their eye level. For many of these little ones, it's the first opportunity to touch an animal that's not a family pet. Our volunteers are members of the public and range in age from 18 to 80. Some are students seeking experience as they begin applying to colleges, while others are lifelong animal lovers looking to give back. They perform many duties, including cleaning animal enclosures, staffing the gift shop, grounds and plant care, as well as working in our commissary washing dishes and preparing animal diets. All of the work that these volunteers perform creates opportunities for zookeepers to provide expanded care and augmented activities for the animals at the sanctuary. Keepers are able to design and create stimulating habitats for these rescued animals, as well as train animals to participate in their own veterinary care. In fiscal 25-26, docents logged approximately 11,000 hours, while community volunteers performed nearly 3,500 hours of service. This is the equivalent of almost 15 part-time employees. In terms of payroll expense, conservatively, docents and volunteers provided nearly $300,000 in cost-free labor. They also generate revenue without incurring payroll expenses. Volunteers staff the gift shop, docents provide tours to school groups, and also run a summer camp for our youngest citizens. For just these three segments, the revenue generated for the past fiscal year is over $170,000. When added to the saved labor costs, volunteers support the sanctuary with a contribution value of nearly half a million dollars. Our community supports the sanctuary and deserves acknowledgement for their kindness, generosity, and willingness to care for these animals that would otherwise be euthanized. The sanctuary may not be anyone's number one priority for spending, but Folsom has proven that the sanctuary is of great value beyond dollars and cents, and for one that I am very proud to be part of that community. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, our next speaker is Sid Bailey, and Sid will be followed by Randy Crone.

Thank you, council, for hearing me out. I'm not even sure why I'm up here, I guess. I've been a resident of Folsom for 23 years now, raised my family here, raised three children. Raised my grandchildren here, and I've loved everything about this city. A couple weeks ago, something happened to my wife. She was attacked by vandals. I'm sure some of you guys know the story by now. And I'd really like to address some of my grievances with the police department and the difficulties that I had in ordering to pursue justice for something. We all know that kids will be kids. I think what's going on in Folsom right now is a little different than kids being kids. They're being dangerous. They're destroying property. They're putting lives at risk. And the frustrations that I had with the police department are inexcusable. And I think if Justin didn't get involved, I probably still wouldn't have justice at this point. After much, much redress and grievances with the police department and getting Justin involved, the district attorney decided to file charges. But a citizen of Folsom should not have to go through that in order to get justice and keep his family safe in this town. I think it's just kind of silly. We all know that the e-bike scourge is kind of like the latest thing that's hitting Folsom, but it's out of hand. I had no less than probably 20 people reach out to me that were victims of children on e-bikes, whether it be rocks thrown at them, bottles thrown at them, spitting on them, spitting in people's faces. It's just kind of gotten out of hand, and I think the police need to address this in a little bit more serious issue than just children being children. So that's all I had to say, and I just hope that we can see a little more accountability from this point on.

Thank you, Sid. Okay, our next speaker is Randy Crone, who will be followed by, hold on one second, Randy. Muriel Bronstein, I have another speaker card from you. Did you want to speak again? No, okay, thank you. Sorry, there was just two cards from you, so thank you. I apologize, Randy, go ahead. After Randy will be Catherine Omorda.

Okay.

uh well my name is randy crone i'm not from fulsome i'm actually from rockland um wasn't going to speak tonight never been to a city council meeting this is weird for me but the reason i i'm up here is because i did mention that i'm a big fulsome zoo attendee i've been there close to 500 times since i retired i go there every friday And I go to the Sac Zoo every Monday, so they're in competition with them. But Folsom Zoo is my number one activity, even more than Sac Zoo, because of the people, the keepers, the docents, the administration, the critters, all of it, you know. I don't know what I would, I'd have to travel long and hard to find a better place than Folsom Sacramento, I mean Folsom Sanctuary. I know they got their 60-year thing coming up, and SAC just had their nearly 100, their 99. I'd love to see Folsom Zoo improve, get better, and last another 40 years to give them the confidence. I won't be around to see it, but somebody will. The animals there, they're special. I go, I was in the Navy, I go back east to Navy reunions every year, and I hit every zoo at every city that I visit. That's Boston, Philadelphia, you name it. Folsom's right up there at the top. Can't imagine how such a small little city like Folsom, that's such a great zoo. They all have personalities, all these animals. I've got an affinity with this macaw, rocky, and bingo. I'm starting to get a bad reputation because I talk to birds, and birds are never my thing, but they are now. I guess all I wanted to say is whatever it takes, budget-wise, I'm not a money man. I don't know as a mailman. I would hope that it climbs the list of priorities, that whatever it takes, keep the zoo going. I think they try their hardest with what they got. They can't expand. And that's all I got to say, all right? Thanks.

Okay, our next speaker will be Catherine Omorda, who will be followed by Steve James.

Hi, good evening. Thank you all for being here. My name is Catherine Omorda. I've lived in Folsom for more than 25 years. It's an amazing place to live for so many reasons, the zoo among them. I'm actually here this evening to encourage the council to settle the Shetty v. City of Folsom case and pay the reasonable attorney fees. It's kind of a... kind of a sore point for a lot of people. And it's been dragging on for a long time. It's a little embarrassing, actually. And the city really has already moved to city to buy district elections. So it's really time to settle and move on. Every additional month of litigation only adds to the fees and the bills. And that money comes out of Folsom residents' pockets. So it really impacts our taxpayers. It also impacts the city's budget that's already troubled. And I just want to encourage you to do the fair and lawful thing and settle and pay the reasonable fees. It's the fiscally responsible thing to do. Thank you.

Okay, our last speaker tonight under business from the floor will be Steve James.

Okay, thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I am obviously a zoo docent, but I wanted to come at that from a broader perspective because I'm a retired professor with the Los Rios Community College District in Biological Sciences, and I've been a resident of Folsom since 1992. My kids are 39 and 34, so I don't know, they're not giving me any grandkids yet, so I don't know if that's gonna happen, but we've been coming since they were little kids, and the zoo is much smaller and all that. But it goes much further than that for me, because as a professor in biology, I taught mostly people who are not biology majors, and we would use the Folsom Zoo as a field trip sometimes in a more formal aspect, But even after the pandemic, when things kind of opened up, but they kind of didn't, one of the ways that students would achieve their field trip goals was to come to the Folsom Zoo. It was close, it was inexpensive, and it was something that they could do in a reasonable amount of time. So it was a really valuable, and I think still is, a really valuable education experience for those students. I mean, even for them to go to the Sacramento Zoo, which I also love, It's a lot bigger expense, or oftentimes they had to drive really far to get to wherever the other places were, but the Folsom Zoo has been a great resource for me as a father, as a community member, and as an educator, and now as a retired educator, I guess, with all the little kids and families and everything, you know, how you can walk up to them, you got your little badge, and they know right away you're part of the part of the scene and you're not a bad guy um but we can walk up and just help those families have a really great time and say you know what this is probably one of the best days you're going to have because you're going to go to the zoo you're going to go up into the park and play and then you're going to go ride a train and what's better than that for a day in the park so anyway um thank you for the support that the zoo will be getting i hope and um and thanks come by sometime we'll give you a tour but anyway thank you very much

That brings us to our next agenda item, scheduled presentations. One moment.

Vice Mayor, would you mind if I- No, go ahead. Added a couple comments. First off, I appreciate all those who have come today, who have spoken, and even those who have not spoken and are here to support whatever they were here for. Just to the gentleman that wife had the incident with the e-bikers, I'm so sorry that happened. um the reason why i wanted to talk a little bit about this is it is something that is really important with uh to us to me personally i know it is to chief green uh into the entire police department and so uh this was going to be part of my uh city manager comments but i'm not sure if uh everyone will be here for that so i just wanted to share some information about some of the things that the police department is doing so by way of update on so the police did conduct targeted e-bike and e-motorcycle enforcement efforts and during that they used marked patrol vehicles unmarked vehicles drones and the officers conducted traffic stops issued citations and educated riders on the rules of the road and safe riding practices enforcement results were 19 riders were contacted voluntarily and educated on e-bike laws eight citations were issued including two for operating a motor vehicle without a valid driver's license and two illegally operated e-motorcycles were towed the goal is to promote safe riding through education while continuing strict enforcement when riders violate the law put themselves at risk or put themselves or others at risk and i'd also just to share a quick experience we were at the uh amazing uh castle park uh last sunday i had some nieces and nephews in town and kudos to our parks department and the community for building such a wonderful place but i received a visit of six e-bikers that came up into the And fortunately there was no vandalism, but there was some annoying behavior. And so I got to see firsthand that the development of the frontal lobe happens later. in life from that experience and so i had the opportunity to address them and this is a problem because this is happening on a very regular basis and so if anything my comments are to say this is important to us this is just the beginning of our education efforts but we will enforce and we will hold people accountable going forward the other thing related to the zoo thank you for all you do we've had some difficult conversations over the last year or so and appreciate your patience as we navigate those challenges because I recognize all the time, effort and energy that goes into that. then related to the cvra case uh this is important to me too um i i was not necessarily as familiar it's kind of been in the the periphery of the conversation and and um we've been dealing with a lot of things but i appreciate the comments it's my goal to kind of get to a resolution as soon as possible as well so just want to make that but with that vice mayor thank you for the opportunity

Thank you, Brian. I think that was an important follow-up. Just so the public is aware that we are usually prohibited from speaking on business from the floor items and having a discussion. So I appreciate, Brian, you adding those points. Now to move towards scheduled presentations.

Okay. Your first scheduled presentation item this evening is item number one. This is the proclamation of the mayor of the city of Folsom proclaiming July 2026 as Parks Make Life Better Month.

all right it is my real honor to deliver this particular proclamation which i seem to draw every single year this is a proclamation of the mayor of the city of folsom proclaiming july 2026 as parks make life better month whereas parks and recreation are essential to the health vitality and quality of life of our community by providing welcoming places where people of all ages backgrounds and abilities can gather learn grow and thrive And parks and recreation have the power to foster belonging, strengthen community, build meaningful connections, promote stewardship of nature, inspire play, and enhance the overall well-being of residents. And through the power of belonging, parks and recreation provides inclusive public spaces where residents feel welcomed, valued, and connected to their community. And through the power of community, Parks and Recreation bring neighbors together through events, recreation programs, volunteer opportunities, and shared public spaces that inspire civic pride. And through the power of connection, Parks and Recreation encourages friendship, mentoring youth, supporting families, and providing opportunities for people to engage with one another across generations and cultures. And through the power of nature, Parks and Recreation enriches lives by protecting open spaces, preserving wildlife habitats, improving environmental stewardship, and providing opportunities to experience the beauty and tranquility of natural spaces. And through the power of play, Parks and Recreation encourages creativity, learning, exploration, and physical activity while helping children develop, adults stay active, and families create lasting memories together. And through the power of well-being, Parks and Recreation supports physical health, mental wellness, stress reduction, social interaction and resilience through trails, recreation programs, sports and outdoor experiences. It's really, really good. And the dedicated professionals, some of whom you see right here, volunteers, community partners, and supporters of the City of Folsom Parks and Recreation Department work every day to enrich lives, protect natural resources, provide recreational opportunities, and make lives better for everyone. Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Mike Kozlowski, on behalf of Justin Rathel, Mayor of the City of Folsom, do hereby proclaim July 2026 as Parks Make Life Better Month, thusly proclaimed this Bastille Day, the 14th day of July 2026.

So thank you. Thank you City Council for proclaiming July's Parks and Recreation Month. This past year has been outstanding. Just want to say thank you so much to all the employees, our volunteers, the dedicated volunteers, all of our staff. And I know we have two staff here that want to say a couple of words very quickly. So Celine and Sophia are our day campers and we're lucky to have them here today. And they just wanted to share a quick story.

Hi, my name is Sophia. I'm Celine. And about four years ago, or four summers ago, we met through the Trailblazers in Training program through the summer camp of Destination Recreation. It's truly been, like, a great experience. Touching on the connection point that you made, like, we truly were the only two people in the program the very first year it started, so it was just us in that group.

we got such like a great connection from that and we've really been best friends ever since um she's like my bestest friend ever and i honestly i didn't even know her before so we don't go to the same school um we're we live in different neighborhoods so it's truly like it's amazing to see how our city is able to connect in these types of ways so thank you so much

this is just one example and then the hours and hours the city of folsom all of our community cares so much and i have a couple of examples of those individuals right here brian wallace has been with us as a commissioner and dedicated volunteer behind the scenes he helped us so much with castle park and so many fundraising projects and it's so many ideas so i want to also recognize Brian and then Dean, who's also here representing the Folsom Athletic Association and also is a Parks and Recreation Commission. And Dean is also a champion and also has a huge heart and always trying to find a solution for any problem or challenge, but really facilitating those discussions. So I'm going to let Brian say a few words too.

I didn't know this was happening. No, it's Parks Make Life Better Month. I always get excited about this because it is the one month we really do get to celebrate, but it is. all year long that there's so much going on. As you guys know, Castle Park, to see that reopened and all the volunteer efforts that were made to really commit to contribute meant a lot because we couldn't have done it without the community. But so much here with the volunteers, For the Zoo Sanctuary, it couldn't be a better night to do this with all you here. But so many great community partners, so many great folks in the community that just love the system and are doing everything they possibly can do to make sure that we have the best parks here at Folsom. So thank you for everything you do.

All right, this guy likes to talk too.

I never say no to a mic. Ask my wife. So my experience comes more from the youth sports side. I've been in Little League presidents and all the things for 34 years probably since we moved here. And one of the things and why I stay involved is because of this community and how much we put back to our kids. That's why we're one of the best cities in the country, is because we care about our kids and our parks and our trails. And so that doesn't happen without the community it didn't happen without the parents and the businesses in our area that help support all these teams and so it's an ongoing battle obviously with budgets but we're working really hard and going outside of the box and i think that's the biggest thing is that we don't say no we go okay how about this way and i think that's we're going to see this in all of our all of our adventures here so and i just am honored to be part of it so thank you

Parks make best friends forever.

Congratulations, everybody.

Thank you. Please read the next item.

Okay, your next item is scheduled presentation item number two. This is a proclamation of the mayor proclaiming July 19th through the 25th as National Zookeeper Week in the city of Folsom.

Those aren't, that's not a boa. Oh, I don't keep them far away.

Don't worry, we'll keep them up here. Don't worry.

Oh my God.

Welcome zookeepers.

Is this on? Oh, there we go. OK. This is a proclamation of the mayor of the city of Folsom proclaiming July 19th to 25th of 2026 as National Zookeeper Week in the city of Folsom. Whereas the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary plays a key role in the city of Folsom's goals to increase tourism, the quality of life of our residents, build community, and contribute to the city's distinctive by nature attributes. And whereas zookeepers significantly contribute to the zoo sanctuary's mission statement of teaching responsible behavior toward all animals. And whereas zookeepers meet and exceed the rigorous requirements of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the United States Department of Agriculture, and whereas zookeepers diligently care for the zoo sanctuary, many do sanctuaries, many rescued animals comprised of over 40 different species, all of which are animals that could not survive in the wild. And whereas zookeepers possess unique and exceptional skills, enabling them to create behavioral enrichment items for the animals and use positive reinforcement training so that the animals may participate in their own vet care. And whereas zookeepers work tirelessly to provide outstanding veterinary care, staying late and coming in early when animals are ill and require additional treatment. And whereas zookeepers continuously demonstrate their unwavering dedication, including working weekends, holidays, during all types of weather, and as the animals still need to be fed and cared for. and whereas zookeepers educate and inspire youth about conservation and native wildlife and guide them into careers in the animal welfare field. Now, therefore, it be resolved that I, on behalf of Mayor Rathel of the City of Folsom, do hereby proclaim July 19th to 25th, 2026, as National Zookeeper Week in the City of Folsom. Thank you for all the work you do. I'm often there with my grandson on the weekends. And from what I've heard tonight, so are a lot of other peoples who are in the audience. It's always good to see you there.

hand this over to jocelyn thank you council member leary i'm jocelyn smeltzer the zoo manager and i'm really grateful to receive this commendation for national zookeeper week from the city council thank you all of you and we've brought some staff here today nicole lemke is our zoo supervisor she had her ferret ritz out but he's new to outreach and so he only had a few minutes and then he gets to take a break as he learns And Rocky, our zookeeper, is holding that famous snake you heard about, but we'll just keep him right up here. And we have other staff in the audience, and we're grateful to our volunteer docents for bringing our miniature donkeys, Hallie and Rosie, who are some of those ambassador animals. So they're pretty mellow, so if animals enjoy going out to story time and to other events, then we'll take them, and if they don't, then we'll give them a break and they'll get to stay behind. Thank you to all the volunteers who make what the zookeepers do possible. I've worked for the city since 2000, and I have to say the staff we have now are some of the hardest working staff I've ever met. So I'm very grateful for everything they do. And we couldn't do what we do without all that support you've heard about from the wonderful volunteers you see here and also our amazing Friends of the Zoo members. And their president, Peggy, is here, and she'll say a few words, and then we'll move on our way.

I don't want to strangle you here. So on behalf of the Friends of the Folsom Zoo Sanctuary, I would like to commend zookeepers and the work they do. It requires an entire week, not just a day, to fully appreciate the difference they make in the lives of the innocent animals who live at the zoo sanctuary, not by their choice, but because circumstances outside their control would not allow them a more natural life in the wild. The Friends of the Folsom Zoo Sanctuary exists to further the mission of the zoo and support the essential work performed by these individuals standing before you. We raise money so that we can provide for staff and animal training, improve habitats and living condition for our resident animals, purchase specialized equipment and enrichment, and reduce reliance on city funding. The generosity of the many donors to the friends underscores how important the zoo is to the surrounding public. This zoo sanctuary is embedded in generations of Folsom residents and families from throughout the greater area. We look forward to many more years of partnering with the staff to make a difference in the lives of the animals. It takes a team of people to care for them. And it's not just a job for these zookeepers. It's a passion. Their deep commitment to providing excellent care is apparent. They are truly worthy of this resolution commending them.

Thank you. And lastly, I wanted to give a shout out to Autumn if you wave. She's the zookeeper in charge of those lovely miniature donkeys over there. Thank you.

That moves us to our next item, the consent calendar. Does anyone have any items they want to pull for discussion?

No, but I think we're continuing item six, is that correct? Correct. Okay, so I can move adoption of the consent calendar with the exception of item six, which is being continued. Okay, I'll second it.

Call the roll.

Okay, council members Aquino. Yes. Kozlowski.

Motion to move all but number six.

Correct.

Yes.

Leary. Yes.

And Rorba. Yes. And that takes us to the next item, election related items.

Yeah, so your first item under your election related section this evening is number 13, resolution number 11675. This is a resolution calling and giving notice of the general municipal election for November 3rd, 2026, requesting the Board of Supervisors consolidate the election with statewide election and establishing policies for candidate statements. So, Madam Mayor, I'll go ahead and take this one. This is a routine resolution that we bring before the City Council before every election. Both the Folsom Municipal Code and state law requires that if an election is being held on the same date as a statewide election, that we shall consolidate those elections and that we request that the County Board of Supervisors do the consolidation. In addition, Folsom's charter establishes that there will be five members of the council elected to staggered four-year terms. And lastly, elections code also provides that the city can set the criteria for candidate statements, which are usually contained within the voter information guide. So that is the item that is before you this evening.

Are there any council questions?

Seeing none, I'll entertain a public comment. Yeah, you do have one request to speak on this item from Scott Rafferty.

Scott Rafferty, you know, this is routine and it is not mandatory that you consolidate the election. You could have a second set of ballots and run your own election, but that's not usually a good idea. But it's also an opportunity, it's when you do the specification of the terms as districts and questions that are going to be on the ballot. So this is an opportunity to fix the issue in District 3. If you had a two-year term, this would be pretty much right forever, and we could deal with the map on a much longer term basis. and you've done this before without a court order. Other cities have done changed terms without a court order in this context of complying with the CVRA. So I just say that that's a very easy way to fix what I think is the most urgent issue, to give that district an opportunity to vote, which they did not have four years ago, and have an actual election, and then 20, in 2028, 2032, it would all be fixed forever. So I would hope you would consider that either tonight or amending that or in taking an action. The deadline for the consolidation is actually August 7th. I don't know if you're meeting before then, but in any event, that's just one thing that I hope you would consider further at some point. Thank you.

Thank you, Scott. Any further discussion? I'll entertain a motion.

I'll move that we approve resolution number 11675.

Second. Call the roll. Council members Aquino. Yes. Kozlowski. Yes. Leary. Yes. And Rorba. Yes. next item okay item number 14 is authorizing the submission of a ballot measure to the qualified voters of the city to amend city charter section 4.03 related to appointment of the city attorney and associated operational changes within that item you have two sub items resolution number 11665 and ordinance number 1371. is there a staff report on this

There is. We've talked about this a couple times over the last few months. As we look at this, Related to the city attorney position, the different options are available. And how we came to this conclusion was through the city charter review process. And basically what the resolution is doing is changing the authority or who the city attorney answers to from the city manager to the city council. I mean I guess that the question really is whether the City Council wants to move forward with the language that's been presented which is Shall the measure amending the adopted charter of the city of Folsom to have the city council appoint and direct the city attorney and to make related operational changes be adopted? That's the main ballot question that's listed. I think it's pretty straightforward. Madam City Attorney, any additional information on that that you'd like to share?

No, the the only additional information I would just note is the Council previously had a public hearing at the last Council meeting where you considered the ordinance which has the actual language where it's talking about the operational changes and that is included as the second attachment that will also be included with the voter information guide if this does move forward to the voters.

Any Council questions or considerations.

any public comment on this you do have one request to speak on this item from scott rafferty come on down well i i do just have some observations because i think this is a really wonderful city it's a great community and you have a lot to be proud of but you've had a number of election problems and i'm only involved in one of them and yes i do have some issues i'm not going to necessarily lay them all out tonight with how The former city attorney conducted himself in disclosures, said things he said to the public that were not accurate, and things he told the court that were not accurate, and under oath. But leaving that aside, there have been other issues. There's been the Roger Gaylord matter, and I wasn't involved in any of these. There was also, there's another Quo Veronto I'm not going to talk about tonight. And most... disturbingly, frankly, was the lawsuit against Carrie Howell. That was thrown out because it is something that cities are not entitled to do. So there is a real, it destroyed her reputation, and I think that was an abuse of the city attorney's power. And so there's a question of who should control, but he didn't stand up to you. And that's a concern that I would bring to the table. It's going to cost $12,000 to $55,000 to get this on the ballot. And I think the people should know what exactly you're trying to accomplish. And one option is to have an elected city attorney. That's something that usually larger cities have. Many cities your size, and I'm not going to get into all the numbers. rent out or retain on an as-needed basis, don't have an employee as such as serving as city attorney. And that can, you know, lead to some independence because people value their reputations and they can deal with these difficult election-related issues. But there is an issue here. And, you know, I hope the people have all of the options available if it does go to the ballot. And that would be you know, my input, but I think there's real soul searching that I hope has gone on someplace about what happened to Carrie Howell. She didn't have particularly nice things to say about me, but I really felt that that was a really, really bad course of action. So you do need to look at the relationship with the city attorney. So thank you.

Madam Vice Member, would you mind if I add some comments to that? I appreciate the comments by Mr. Rafferty. Just a point of clarification, the action that I understand is happening puts us more in alignment with the majority, the vast majority of cities within California. There are cities that do contract out their city attorney services, but all of those are appointed by And so what this action would do if the voters approve it would make that the city council appoints the city attorney as opposed to the city manager. So just by way of about 97%, 469 cities of the 482 incorporated cities appoint their city manager. Not all of those have- Or city attorney. What's that? Or city attorney. So not all of those have an employee of the city. They may have a contract with an outside legal firm, but the city council can choose to either hire an outside firm or hire their own employee. And cities are sides, it's not uncommon for us to have employees as a city. uh the city attorney be an employee of the city either so i just want to make sure that in many ways the change that's being made i would argue helps resolve some of the concerns that actually have been brought up by the comments just that we just heard so that's all i have i'll entertain a motion to and then further discussion for resolution for the first resolution i'll move resolution number one one six six five

Second. So the comment that I wanted to make too, Brian, you touched on. It was something that came up during the Charter Review Committee meeting. But I didn't have this knowledge before. But there's only two other cities in the entire state of California that does not work for the city council. Two other cities that their city attorney does not work for the city council directly. And I agree with what you just said. There were lots of discussions at the Charter Review Committee, which had five members of the public in there. And this I believe this was unanimously supported. So I just wanted to give that little insight. And I think it's, you know, there's a reason that city councils direct and appoint their city attorney.

And I would just add in response to Mr. Rafferty's comments, there is language in section 4.03C of the proposed charter amendment that allows the council to determine if they would prefer to have an employee of the city or, it says, or maybe contracted by the city council. So that will be an option.

Thank you. Any other comments?

I will just, I say this every time, just to be consistent, I don't necessarily disagree with any of these. I just don't think any of these are so pressing that we need to spend the money. I think maybe if we had known the true cost of these ballot measures prior to appointing the Charter Review Commission, we may be in a different place. So anyway, I'm going to vote no. That's it.

I'll entertain a motion.

I made a motion. Oh, yes, you did.

I'm sorry. Call the roll. Council Members Aquino? No. Kozlowski? Yes. Leary? Yes. And Rorbaugh? Yes.

Okay, and I'll move ordinance number 1371 for approval as well.

Second. Call the roll. Council members Aquino? No. Kozlowski?

Yes.

Leary? Yes. And Ruba? Yes. Next item. Your next item is number 15. This is authorizing the submission of a ballot measure to the voters of the city to amend city charter section 4.07 related to decision decision making authority of boards and commissions. Beneath this item, you have two sub items, which is resolution number 11666 and ordinance number 1372.

Great, thank you, Vice Mayor, members of the council. This item is a continuation of the effort of the Charter Review Committee and the efforts of the council to get to this, the last kind of step to move this forward to the ballot if the council so chooses. So basically this item relates to section 4.07, boards and commissions, and it strikes the language that all city boards and commissions are only advisory to the council, confirming that the council may set the powers and duties of the boards and commissions by ordinance. And then as we go forward with this item, The language for the ballot question is, shall the measure amending the adopted charter of the city of Folsom to confirm the city council may grant decision-making authority to boards and commissions by ordinance be adopted? And so there's a resolution and an ordinance that brings us all together. And Madam City Attorney, if there's anything else you'd like to add.

Nope, that's it. Any discussion on the matter? Public comment? Any public comment? You have no request to speak on this item. All right.

I'll entertain a motion. I'll move to approve resolution number 11666.

Second.

Call the roll. Council members Aquino? No. Kozlowski? Yes. Leary? Yes. And Rorba? Yes.

And I'll move approval of the second reading of ordinance number 1372.

second call the roll council members aquino no koslowski yes leary yes and roba yes call the next item okay item number 16 is authorizing the submission of a ballot measure to the voters of the city to amend folsom municipal code section 2.48.030 related to campaign contribution limits again you have two sub items resolution number 11667 and ordinance number 1373.

Great. Vice Mayor, members of the council, the ballot question for this, we have a resolution in ordinance, but the ballot question that's being proposed is, shall the measure increasing the campaign contribution limit from $150 to $500 per donor per election on campaigns for Folsom City Council be adopted? I don't know if there's anything more that needs to be added to the presentation. Happy to answer any questions.

Any council questions? I'll entertain a motion. Oh, I'm sorry. I'll get it down.

Any public comments? You do have one public comment. Thank you. You have a request to speak on this item from Scott Ravarty.

So on this one, I'm just trying to be helpful, but it is a puzzle to me. One of the reasons district elections are so popular is that they cut the cost of campaigns. And that's a huge issue the bigger the city gets. And so I'm not going to exaggerate how important that is in Folsom. But as the cost of gas has been going up rather dramatically, it's not going up 350%. as the cost of making a maximum campaign contribution is. So I'm really puzzled by this because the idea of reducing campaign costs is really an important element to making the the district elections work. I mean, you have neighborhood, the ability to campaign in your neighborhood, it should cost one-fifth of what it costs to have an at-large election. So you're removing that barrier. So it just puzzles me that you would, in these times, more than triple. That seems to give an undue advantage to the wealthy and It also is gonna cost, even if this is an incremental ballot question, it's gonna cost the city $12,000 just to ask the question. So I just, I don't think this is necessarily something that you need to do, but thank you.

I'm going to make a comment. I think one of the reasons that this was talked about and brought up at the Charter Review Committee, among other reasons, but one of the reasons is because actually the $150 campaign limit actually prevents individuals from having any power and from the residents actually having the impact that they could have against PACs and other entities and unions and everything. all the power with $150 limit, a lot of the power lands with those business entities that can spend thousands and thousands of dollars and past elections, even over $100,000 sometimes. And individually, that is really hard to compete with. So this is just kind of trying to equalize that a little bit that residents can have more of a say in individuals getting elected versus PACs or unions. And that's just trying to make that a little bit more equal. That's the comment I had. Any other comments or questions?

Yes, I do have a comment on this. And I think that we've been well educated by people looking at the amount of money that's been coming into the campaigns here over the last few years. And I was elected in 2024. And at the $150 limit, I was able to raise $20,000. however my opponent received over ninety thousand dollars in independent expenditures and so having the ability to raise more than 150 dollars a shot which is going to be rare that people pay that but it will give some people that want to help the ability to do so can put us on more of a even playing ground with other candidates who are well supported by various PACs throughout the region. Citizens United has caused election prices or donations to go up from a tilted number of people within our region. So I think it's fair to give the residents and the candidates a shot at raising some more money on their own. I know that candidates cannot interact with the PACs. They don't go out and plot raising all of this money, but it is happening on a regular basis. And the disparity of $80,000 for an election, it can be daunting. and it does prevent the residents from having a greater say in what goes on in our town in terms of who gets elected thank you barbara i'm going to go ahead and move resolution number one one six six seven second okay

And I'm just going to make one clarification. I remember last time that this came to council, I received a couple emails and a phone call wanting me to clarify that this is up to. You don't have to donate $150 right now. You can donate $10 or $25. So the $500 limit means you can't go above $500. That means you can still donate $25, $50, $150. It's up to the amount of $50. So hopefully that alleviates that. Go ahead and call the roll. Council Member Zucchino. Yes.

Kozlowski? Oh, sorry. No, I'm sorry.

I was trying to think.

Do we even have a second? I don't remember having a motion and a second. We got you. There was a motion and a second. Okay, good. Council members Aquino? No. Kozlowski?

Yes.

Leary? Yes. And Orba? Yes.

Move ordinance number, oh, I'm sorry. I'll move ordinance number 1373. 1373. Ordinance 1373.

I thought you said 1573.

1373.

I'll second.

Second.

Call the roll. Council members Aquino? No. Kozlowski?

Yes.

Leary? Yes. And Rorba. Yes. That moves us to our public hearing. Yeah, your first public hearing item this evening is number 17. This is resolution number 11662, approving and confirming the report of delinquent utilities charges and requesting Sacramento County to collect such charges on the tax roll.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, Council Members. I'm Elizabeth Hanna, Revenue Services Manager. Before you is Resolution 11662, a resolution of the City Council approving and confirming the report of the delinquent utility charges and requesting Sacramento County collect such charges on the tax roll. This is an annual process to transfer delinquent utilities to the county for collection, and there is a revised staff report and resolution, which includes updated account balances as of this morning. So the resolution you're approving tonight includes 242 active accounts for a total of $360,000, $360,217 delinquent. So with this item, I'm recommending that you adopt the revised resolution 11662, requesting the county auditor transfer these delinquent amounts to the property tax rule.

Any questions from council? I do. Liz, there are some on that list that are like $100, $200. So that's not somebody who's just a month behind. That's a balance that's been on the account for quite a while?

Yeah. So it has to be more than $150 delinquent to be noticed. So if they're $150 delinquent, that's 60 days past due, which is about 90 days past the bill generation date. So if they're $150, it's more like a $500 account balance. So they've been delinquent for a while.

got it okay thank you and the question i had is when they um when this goes to the county does the county place a lien against their properties or is this something that they have sort of a mechanism okay you can pay a hundred dollars a month or so it's not a recorded lien it's a it's a levy to the property tax roll so a little bit different than the recorded liens

i believe i'm saying thank you yes uh so it just goes on to your property tax roll so it goes on your tax bill you pay it just like you would um your property taxes your l l any other like itemized line that you see on there so they have to pay half in december and half in april great thank you yep all right seeing no more questions i will open the public hearing do we have any you have no request to speak on this public hearing i will close the public hearing

I can move adoption of resolution number one, the revised resolution number 11662. Second. Call the roll. Council members Aquino. Yes. Kozlowski.

Yes. Leary. Yes. And Orba. Yes. Next item. Okay, your last business item this evening is public hearing item number 18. This is ordinance number 1375, readopting ordinance 1353 to amend chapter 17.52 of the municipal code for the historic district relating to design review, sign permits, demolitions, and accessory buildings. This will be introduction of first reading of the ordinance and determination that the action is not subject to CEQA.

Acting Mayor Rohrbaum, members of the Council, I'm Desmond Parrington, Planning Manager in the Community Development Department. I'm here before you tonight to talk about the readoption of the changes to Chapter 17.52. Oh, sorry, I'm not done. I just sent it. Okay, great. Okay.

It has a power button on the left. It may have to slide towards you.

Power button on the left and slide.

down would be towards you. Okay, well, I'll just use this.

So, as you may recall, our original reason for doing this was to try and take minor approvals that were subject to Historic District Commission approval and take them down to the staff level, and in some cases, exempt them altogether because of the lengthy and costly review process in the historic district, and that these were not things that were going to change in any way the overall character of the area. You know, we were getting feedback not only from historic district commission members, but members of the public, of the business community, homeowners and so forth, that for, you know, minor things were having to wait several months, go through the process, you know, pay quite a bit of money just to do improvements in their home. A case in point was, I mean, we had situations, for example, where A property owner was having ongoing damage through leaks in their window. And they wanted to be able to, they had tenants coming in and the rainy season was about to start. They wanted to replace those windows. Our code said because the windows weren't like for like, there was one window in the rear that was a different size because they couldn't attain the same size, they were gonna have to go back in front of the commission to get approval. That was gonna be a month or two process and they were gonna sustain further damage to their home. But there was no out in the code. There was no exception in the code for something like that. So these were the things that we were trying to address. The other thing is that we were hearing from folks that are noticing process because it was just one stake at the front of the property to let them know that there was a design review happening, that that was insufficient. So we changed that. We also made the entitlement rules regarding extensions and explorations consistent with the rules on the rest of the city. It was confusing for staff, it was confusing for members of the public. We also did things to address some of the lack of regulations related to accessory buildings in the historic district. I'm not talking about ADUs, I'm talking about accessory structures like sheds. In the Historic District, those could be built as high as the main home, and there was no prohibition on them in the front yard. So we went ahead and did that. However, the reason we are back before you, you approved those. The Historic District Commission had recommended approval. with one vote against, but all the rest were in favor of it. And we brought that forward to you, and you adopted it in October of 2025. The reason we're before you here is because a lawsuit's been filed against the city claiming that there was insufficient environmental analysis under CEQA. However, There's been no change in what I'm bringing forward to you to our environmental determination. It's still not a project under CEQA. We believe it's exempt because these kinds of changes, and I'll go into more detail, don't have a reasonable chance of having a physical change to the environment. So we've added for the record and for this lawsuit, we've added additional information to kind of bolster our original findings. Again, the reason we did this was to free up staff time to work on bigger efforts to help protect the district, like the work we've been doing on AB 2415, the work to try and get objective design standards prepared for the district, the work to try and finish our zoning code update. Also to reduce the staff turnaround and reduce the fees so we get greater compliance. So people don't just ignore us all together and just go out and do whatever because the process is gonna take two months or cost $800. And then we wanted to make sure that people were more aware when design review projects were coming forward. So we did noticing to adjacent property owners. And then we've set up way more information than we've ever had before about projects that are going through the design review process that are now being handled by the Community Development Director. That information is up on the website. Anyone can access it. And there's a feedback loop built in where we're reporting out this information to the Historic District Commission and they can let staff know if they'd like to see some adjustments into the way we're interpreting or handling things. So we have that kind of ongoing loop with them. But there's been some questions raised as you've seen by the additional information packet about whether staff is following the rules and whether this is in fact exempt from CEQA. So I wanted to touch on that a little bit because there's a lot of information before you that we've tried to go through and address that. SECTION 1768 OF THE FOLSOM MUNICIPAL CODE LAYS OUT HOW WE HANDLE ZONING CODE AMENDMENTS. AND THERE'S SOME, IT'S NOT COMPLETELY CLEAR, BUT IT DOES SAY THAT IT NEEDS TO GO TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION. WE'VE NOW DONE THAT. STAFF HAD GENERALLY CONSIDERED THE HISTORIC DISTRICT AS KIND OF THE OPERATING PLANNING for the Historic District, but obviously the recent lawsuit in 2024 changed that. So we're now before you tonight and we held a hearing with the Planning Commission on June 17th. We also had one with the Historic District Commission as well. We had a special meeting. All of those meetings were publicly noticed And then we're presenting this to you, we're presenting the Planning Commission's recommendation as well as the Historic District Commission's recommendation and their report out to you tonight. And again, we did this back on October 14th of 2025. While the code does say that the Planning Commission prepares the report, staff has always done that. We work on behalf of the Planning Commission and the Community Development Department to provide that information to you, and so we are doing that tonight, and I'll go over those recommendations. We also received an alternative proposal for revisions, and it really would have been nice to get that before we were sued. But that being said, there's some good language in there, but the changes essentially open up the concern that we have that, that all new structures and any modifications to structures would be subject to design and architectural review. The way that we see the code written in there, We do not see things like fencing and walls and pathways and things like that as necessary for, and frankly, subject to design review the way that the code is written. In fact, this isn't done in the rest of the city. Fences are temporary. They come and go. And we don't have the resources to do that. It makes the commission kind of acting like a homeowners association board as opposed to one that is actually regulating planning and development and design within the district. Furthermore, we actually haven't taken... STRUCTURES TO THE HISTORIC DISTRICT SINCE I'VE BEEN HERE AND STAFF'S RESEARCH INDICATED THAT SINCE 2000 WE HAVEN'T DONE THAT. SO THIS WOULD BE A FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE TO ALL OF A SUDDEN START TAKING THINGS LIKE FENCES AND OTHER STRUCTURES TO THE HISTORIC DISTRICT. In the comments that Mr. Delp had with regard to it being not subject or exempt from CEQA, he zeroes in on this change from structure to building. And as you can see in front of you, the definition for building is quite broad. It means any structure having a roof supported by columns and or by walls intended for housing or sheltering of any person, animal, or shadow, which is another name for property. And then you can see the structure definition is slightly more broad, but it says structure means anything constructed erect upon the ground or attached to a structure having a location on the ground. So anything on the ground. So these are some examples of structures that aren't buildings. The way that we read the code is we wouldn't be doing design review on wells, cemetery, fences, walls, Trellises that are in the back pathways privacy, you know retaining walls fences decks pool spas and plays it play equipment and so forth So I understand the concern about okay. Well, what if that? Structure is historic and it's somehow, you know ends up being demolished. Well without historic district commission review Well, we don't provide for that. I mean we don't We don't allow for that in the code changes we made If it's a historic resource or eligible to be a historic resource, staff has to refer that to the historic district for consideration. So we're not talking about losing valuable structures or losing cemeteries or pathways or things like that. And so, like I said, has the historic district reviewed these in the past 20 years? Based on our research, no. I mean, we even, as silly as this may sound, there was a shade structure that we, under the definition of building, we considered a building, we brought it forward. It was for a preschool. Now, I mean, you could argue, oh, it's just a shade structure, it's a structure, and so it's not a review. We took it forward as a structure, and they got HTC hearing and review. So... With these new regulations, it would be heard by the community development director, but it wouldn't necessarily be exempt because it's a building. So the other thing I want to point out is that The structures that are listed in Mr. Delp's letter and in the list I presented to you before, they're not contributing features to listed and eligible structures in the historic district. Structures like fences, pergolas, decks are not contributing features of the district. So staff's position remains that this is not a project under CEQA and in fact is exempt. So again, just to add belt and suspenders to our original analysis, these are all the environmental sections in the CEQA guidelines that would apply in this situation. And then the other issue that was raised about whether what we've done is really consistent with the Folsom Municipal Code. So I wanted to point out a couple sections in here that speak specifically to the community development department's role and the commission's role. So the review of design and architecture of any new structure alteration to existing structures are within the Historic District as further defined in this chapter. We further defined it in the chapter. In 1752, 130, it goes on to say in our administrative report that the Community Development Director shall carry out those additional duties delegated by the Historic District Commission. The Historic District Commission has voted once, and they voted again to authorize for us to do this. and we've increased the transparency and we've increased the communication with our commission. So reporting out on the commission's recommendation and the report is that both commissions did recommend that council readopt the ordinance with the updated CEQA findings. But the planning commission recommended that the city council consider instructing staff to reconsider excluding all fencing types except chain link from design review and consider including instead the list that is contained in the historic district design and development guidelines. The reason we are, and then they went on to say that they'd also like to see staff revisit modifying or redoing chapter 17.52 as a whole as part of the zoning code update. So I'll touch on each of those. So staff is not support of the first one because it really puts us in the position of again, regulating the zoning code. regulating fencing. And we generally, if people have questions about what type of fencing should they do, we point them to the design and development guidelines. But again, the design and development guidelines were adopted as guidelines and not as standards. In addition, with regard to modifying 17.52 as a whole as part of the zoning code update, if we had more staff and if we weren't routinely being sued, we would like to do that. However, what we have done instead is we are getting the rest of the zoning code ready and prepared. And then we will be doing a comprehensive update next of the zoning code. We did not want to have the variety of issues that are quite complex and that there's a lot of passion about in the historic district to further delay an already delayed zoning code update. And there are major fixes that we need to do in our zoning code update that affect the rest of the city. And those need to be taken care of as soon as possible. With regard to the Historic District Commission's recommendation, they recommended, again, that the City Council readopt the ordinance with the updated CEQA filings, and they did not support the Planning Commission's two additional recommendations. They did instead recommend that the City Council direct staff to prepare the objective design standards for the Historic District as soon as possible because of the concern over the vulnerability of the Historic District under all the new state laws that have been passed, most recently SB 79. So the action before you tonight is to introduce and conduct the first reading of Ordinance 1375, which is the ordinance to readopt Ordinance 1353 to amend Chapter 1752 of the Municipal Code for the Historic District relating to design review, sign permits, demolitions, and accessory buildings, and determine that the action is not subject to CEQA. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Any questions from Council?

Yeah, I have at least one. Just thinking as a thought exercise, the interpretation of walls and fences being something that's not subject to Is there any consideration in CEQA for the level of permanence of those things? Because part of the argument that you made was that they're temporary features on the landscape, they go away. And again, just to kind of take an extreme example, if somebody decided to turn their backyard tailing pile into a rock wall to use as a fence would that change the situation because of its relative permanence um the so just just a general kind of just backing up a little bit it's a hypothetical yeah yeah so so

Currently right now, our approach in the entirety of the city is that fences, they need to be on the property line, they can't be above six feet tall, and on the front they may need to be much lower for sight and visibility issues. With regard to the permanence, Again, I don't know.

Yeah, it's just think I'm just thinking yeah, I have at least one example in the historic district currently of a backyard retaining wall that becomes a fence above grade that is concrete block and liable to survive just about any kind of future and

Yeah, but I think in general.

So Desmond, if I, so part of it.

I guess my question is just about does permanence come into play with regard to CEQA exceptions?

It could, but I think. arguably the bigger issue is under what circumstances would the city even have the ability to perform that CEQA analysis? Because part of the issue with fences is many of them that we're considering do not require a building permit. And so the city would never even have an opportunity to review those in the first instance to know if we would even get to a CEQA.

I'm talking about the most extreme version of a fence that has a foundation and masonry sitting on that foundation.

So that does require a building permit. So it is typically routed through. Anything that's, in most cases,

We would say it would probably be exempt under a categorical exemption for new construction or conversion of small structures. But then there are the exceptions to the exemptions we look through on a case by case basis. So it could apply.

And I think what one of the things that we'd be looking at was, you know, whether this is any kind of contributing resource or. you know, affects a historic, you know, a property that's listed on the Okay, so start.

So now I'm going to one more hypothetical just to make sure we cover all bases here. The sound wall that was constructed along Folsom Auburn Road to protect the backside of the Muir House. Fast forward to 40 years from now. Has it achieved some kind of special status because of its age and its relative permanence on the landscape? I just want to make sure that we're not setting ourselves up for ambiguity later on.

Yeah, so the Muir House is a tough example because it is a federally listed historic site, I believe, the entire property.

The sound wall was only added because of Folsom Boulevard being constructed and widened.

right but what i'm saying is the way our ordinance is drafted it requires design review which would include sequa for any project that could even potentially affect a listed property so that particular example would absolutely achieve review I think the ordinance says 50 years, so it's been there more than 10, so in 40 years, yes, it would achieve some kind of special status. In isolation, yes.

That's specific to demolitions. If they were doing the wall by itself,

And it was not tied to let's say we're replacing it.

Yeah, it's something different Yeah, if we're replacing it with with something different Then under the the under the code if it if it's less than six feet tall and um let's see if it's less than six feet tall it's on the property line and they're replacing and it you know uh an existing structure then it wouldn't necessarily come in for design review no it would be exempt

however it would be a city project so not unlike the riley street street project that was before the council tonight there would be a secret determination in association with that particular project yeah because it's a sound wall it that's separating the right away from the property

Because it would be likely be part of a larger set of public improvements to that that road.

No, it's 50 years down the road and it's dilapidated and somebody wants to replace it. With something different, that's the key thing, something different, because now it's 50 years further in the future. it's that wall is 80 years old people are attached to what it looks like this is my analogy of painting the golden gate bridge something besides bright orange people thought it was crazy at the time and can't imagine it some other way now and i'm just the hypothetical future person can't you know straight away imagine changing that wall if they're in that future right yeah

So, under the current code, that would not be subject to design review.

I'm not questioning what's been proposed. I find it fine. I'm just wanting to make sure that there isn't additional landmines related to certain types of features that ostensibly work as a fence, but have much more permanence than a wooden fence would. So that's all I was trying to get at.

And if it is above six feet tall, then it would have a building permit, and then we would see it.

I got you. Then it would go through review because it exceeds what is typical for a fence or a wall, yeah. Yeah, anything that's out of the ordinary, they need to get either a variance or a planned development permit modification. Those are all... Yeah, but see, that's out of the ordinary is squishy, right?

And that's part of what all of this is about, is the squishiness, right?

Yeah, but it's very specific when it comes to fences and walls. If it's over six feet tall, and you're trying to do something over six feet tall... All right, suppose it's five feet tall.

And the guy who built the Watts Towers wants to come emulate that style. And now you've got somebody building a semi-permanent structure out of old rebar and bottle caps. That's unusual, right? And it's more permanent than a fence would be, right? It may find itself identified as a piece of artwork and gather itself up some other kinds of protection, but I'm just trying to make sure that we- In that kind of a situation, we have the ability to escalate that to the commission. Okay. So there is an ability to make a judgment about a particular physical improvement that exists or is proposed.

Yeah.

Okay. But as a matter of course, that stuff is exempt. Yes, that's correct. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Sorry for filibustering this one.

I just have, um, it's kind of a question about 2 separate items. You mentioned the zoning code update that had been recommended and, um, to complete the objective design standards. So. Our oath or 1 of those on, um. the horizon for you? Do you sort of have a timeframe? I know that you're under staff, so what's the most, what's prioritized?

We're reengaging with our zoning code consultant to try and get the zoning code to the finish line by the middle of next year. um we we have an administrative draft that needs some work um and some cleanup and some retooling kind of based on all the new state laws other issues that have come up but yeah we are working on that we did adopt the objective design standards for those key target areas where we increased heights and densities but that specific purposely did not include the historic district because we weren't making any changes around the historic district station SB 79 has changed that so we are engaging with a team on SB 79 and our hope is at least some interim objective standards can be put in place sooner rather than later that would buy us some time to do a more detailed version for the historic district, because that will be a time-consuming effort.

Thank you.

Sure.

Sarah, did you have any? All right, seeing no further questions, do we have any public comments? Oh, excuse me. Now I open the public hearing.

Okay, you have one request to speak under this item. Loretta Hettinger, come on down.

Hello, no one could disagree with the goals that Desmond stated. We support completely the intention of this ordinance to relieve staff, to make clarifications, to delegate the sign approval, things like that. We totally support. The problem is that the ordinance does not live up to these goals. And Council Member Kozlowski has zeroed in on one of the major ones. Details matter in a historic district, details like fences and walls, and whether they are impermanent or whether they are permanent, they matter because they are very visible, contrary to what the categorical exemptions that are defending this ordinance say. In the current regulations, the fences and walls have not had to go to the Historic District Commission because the guidelines clearly state, and I really question whether we should actually have called them guidelines because they were adopted as city council policy. But that aside, the issue with regard to these temporary structures, Because there was nothing in the ordinance that specifically exempted from historicity, you could fall back on what the design guidelines say that they need to be of historic design. The change in this ordinance specifically exempts them, which means that somebody could build any kind of a fence they wanted, any kind of a wall they wanted, paint it purple, it doesn't matter. there is no recourse to make it properly historic now because the ordinance has said it is a minor project, a small project, but they haven't defined small either. So you have HPL's letters on this. I'll just call out a few of the problem topics, the exemptions that he mentioned. structure versus building protection, the demolition provisions, the basis for the community development director's decisions. That is far from clear, far from clear. And I would hate to be the one that has to make that call on some of these in between. And that's not even mentioning the appeals. Based on my decades of immersion in the historic district and my background as a planner, the issues called out by HPL do have the potential to physically affect cultural resources. The look and feel is the definition, part of the definition of historicity. I know, and I'll hurry, please tolerate. I don't have much more to say. You really should pay attention to Bob Delp's points. I don't always agree with him, but he is thorough. And I understand that his total goal is for the city to carry out the historic district regulations. And we should all be in support of that. We certainly are.

the best way can i ask you a question would that be okay may i ask you a question oh please do okay so so the and you and i have had this conversation before on a couple of different occasions the ultimately regardless of where we draw the line as to what deserves review by the historic district commission or doesn't there will be people who disagree with that okay that line is very hard to choose and is going to leave somebody feeling like there's like a lack of review in certain instances and i think desmond made the point that we're tiptoeing towards using the historic district commission like an hoa board and i i'm fearful of that that being said though there could be instances where things that are curious looking have existed for a long time and people can't imagine getting rid of them right and thus they take on some characteristic of being historic And you could also have somebody propose something that is somewhat curious to be built brand new and people would absolutely lose their mind over it, even though given time, it would become part of the landscape and in itself would achieve historic significance. hence my analogy of the watts towers okay people were not happy about that when it was built and now it's a national historic site right so you know in the color of the golden gate bridge tomorrow we painted it purple people would lose their mind but they were really upset when we chose wrote orange cone orange originally you know 100 years ago so i ask you this how do you effectively separate the what should be looked at by the commission and what shouldn't

Well, there has to be a line somewhere. And that line has been drawn, if we will pay close attention to it. The historic design is based on designs that were or could have been built in historic Folsom in the 1850 to 1950 time period. And that is what Desmond plans to base the objective standards on. were the designs that were or could have been built in a small historic town like Folsom in the Motherlode. So that should cover the kinds of concerns that you're having.

I don't think it does though, and this is the part that you and I have talked about before, is that in 1950, you could have hundreds and hundreds of different house designs that would be popular at the time, right? And seem old fashioned now, or popular at the time and seemed very cutting edge still today, right? So we had the big discussion about the project where somebody wanted to do a flat roof, right? And flat roof buildings have existed for all of time. They were uncommon in a place like Folsom, but they weren't excluded from a place like Folsom. Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water was built in Pittsburgh in the 1930s, right? And it was exotic in the extreme at the time, but it's one of the most historic buildings that exist today.

Well, that is also covered. The goal is to have not only preservation of all of the most beautiful examples of architecture of the period. The goal that Glenn Fate articulated all those many years ago was that we don't have a lot of fancy architecture. We don't. What we do have is something that is becoming increasingly rare, and that needs, it's a small town of the era prior to World War II, post-World War construction that gave us all of the curvilinear streets and the tract building in contrast to the grid streets and the lot-by-lot development. So you can There is a provision in the code, or I forget if it's the code or the DDGs, that says just because it was built in the past doesn't automatically mean that it ought to be duplicated again or called up from some other place and built here. with only the justification that it was done in the past. It needs to meet the standards that Folsom has always had for quality design. So that kind of situation is appropriate for the Historic District Commission to weigh in on. Thank you.

all right uh loretta thank you can i just say that i agree with desmond that we don't want to contaminate the process for the zoning code i think you did say you made that point i appreciate it you made thank you loretta okay thank you thank you for your question mike any other i have one last question and it's for the staff is there urgency to this or could we bring this one back for a future meeting could i ask that it be tabled

It is up to the will of the council.

Is there urgency to it in terms of how we operate the Historic District Commission in the next month, say? And I'm willing to go with it if there is, I'm just asking.

So right now, these changes are in effect. So the changes have happened. They were approved back in October of last year. So the changes are in effect. Whether you want to table this or not, that's, like Sarah said, that's the will of the council.

But it is. So we're re-adopting something that currently exists. That's correct. We haven't changed anything. You retract my question.

I'm going to close the public hearing.

Any other questions? No, I just wanted to echo some of the same things that Mike was bringing up. And I think, you know, there's I think a lot of things in the historic district that Have been built since the 1950s are not necessarily something that reflected what was already there and may have maybe reflecting other styles, like art deco or things that you don't necessarily see here. So. i find it a little bit disconcerting that some of this even though there might not be one here there may have been one in the past in an art deco house is is that not okay now because we're only basing our judgments about what's acceptable or not on what has been seen i don't know in the last 30 years the same thing goes with the fences so I'll entertain a motion. Oh, did you have a question? No, no. I just, if Desmond wants to, we want to make a comment about that.

We had a project at the duplex. Desmond will remember the one where there were, I believe there were no examples of that particular style of architecture in Folsom, but it was a prominent style during the 1850 to 1950 time period. And so that was a, you know, prominent item of discussion when the, when the

because it becomes confusing when we're talking about a certain fence type or wall or whatever and well we don't have a lot of examples of Queen Anne houses but that was the predominant style in this time period that we're talking about so it gets really hard to you know think about how we're going to move forward with some kind of latitude if if everything is clearly defined as having to look a certain way and that includes fences

Well, so just to clarify, so right now, anything that's a new structure or an addition to an existing structure, that goes to the Historic District. We're not, to the Historic District Commission, we're not taking that role of the commission away. These are aimed at things that are generally relatively minor in nature, fences, walls, like for like replacement of windows and things like that. And we're taking those and making them either reviewed at staff level or exempt from review altogether. We wanna focus on those things that do have a real visual impact on the historic district, like a new structure, we take that forward to the Historic District Commission, we evaluate it against what's in the code, whether that design style is consistent with the design styles that you saw between 1850 and 1950, and then we also look at the Historic District Design and Development Guidelines to see how it addresses those. The challenge that we're going to run into is as we have to shift under state law to using objective design standards, that is going to tie both staff and the commission's hands more when it comes to residential development.

I'm going to entertain a motion to focus any further discussion.

I'll move introduction and first reading of ordinance number 1375. Second.

any further discussion barbara did you have something else all right call the order council members aquino yes koslowski yes leary and roba yes now to the next item city manager report and i believe uh brian had to leave he has a family thing at 8 30. we almost got out of here and christine you're going to give his report yes

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council. I'm Christine Brainerd, Communications Director, and I'm pleased to share a brief city manager's report. First up is a 4th of July public safety update. Between July 1st and the 5th, the Police Department and Fire Department worked together to respond to firework-related incidents. This year, we saw a 32% increase in a call volume compared to last year at this time. Between 8 and 11 p.m. on July 4th, we received 227 calls alone in the communications center and had two fire-related case reports, including one arson case and one reckless burning case. Both incidents resulted in grass fires caused by fireworks. There were also four misdemeanor citations issued for illegal or dangerous fireworks. Today, city officials attended a topping out ceremony for Dignity Health Folsom Complex and celebrated the completion of the building structural framework and look forward to cutting the ribbon in 2027. And on Thursday, July 16th at 5.30, we're going to be hosting a community workshop on the East Bidwell Corridor Improvement Project. That's going to improve one of the busiest corridors on East Bidwell from Scholar Way to US 50. Community members are encouraged to attend and learn more, and more information is available on the website. And then last but not least, National Night Out is coming up, so residents interested in hosting a party in their neighborhood should register by July 20th, and National Night Out will be held on Tuesday, August 4th. That concludes.

brian's report thank you christine um sarah did you have any council comments uh i will just say congratulations to sari for being named our new city attorney uh council member leary and i um had the honor of sitting in on the interviews and um i can say unequivocally that she is professional and ethical and very very capable so we are proud to have you as our in-house attorney um madam vice mayor good job running the meeting thank you barbara

I'd also like to second that. I'm very glad to have Sari on board as our official city attorney, and you need a little nameplate there because it still says assistant on it. Don't want anybody to get confused, but thanks for all the work, and I know you've been here long hours over the last month, and we appreciate it. Thank you. So thank you.

Just a couple of quick thank yous to everybody that was involved in putting on the hometown parade, if that wasn't mentioned already, and the Folsom Pro Rodeo. And special thanks to our fire department and police department for keeping all 20,000 people that were actually probably 25,000 people that were at those two events safe. And for keeping 4th of July a safe and sane holiday.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I was going to mention all of those things. I will mention, as well, Castle Park grand opening. It's been three weeks since we had our last meeting. So that was between the last meeting and now. What a great event. There was, I mean, hundreds and hundreds of people. So thank you to all the staff and the entire community that came out. It was really a really nice ending to a long process. And then the cattle drive. um probably never gonna do it again but i'm certainly glad we did and i think some people's favorite moment was when the cow got away and then they got the cow and no one got hurt so um i know fhda did a lot of work and they were worried about that exact thing and um but luckily maybe god's grace we don't know we don't care it was a win someone captured an extraordinary picture of the loose cow um that's at snook's candy so check that out if you get a chance that's funny um the button busting is always a fan favorite as well um thank you to our public safety for um kind of cracking down on illegal fireworks especially during the fourth we want to allow all of the kids and the families that are are acting responsibly while actually um you know having consequences for those that aren't so i really appreciate all the work that you did there was a recent fire in um just a house fire almost a house fire and i just want to thank the fire your fire crews for making sure that that did not take out the entire house or neighborhood even so um thank you for that um uh just to remind everybody that the re we have a recess schedule um our next meeting um will not be until august 11th and i now call this meeting adjourned at 831.