City Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

Today's meeting will consist of the following, city council and the housing authority. Please note we will open all meetings for consent calendar at the same time. At this time, I would like to call to order the meeting of Montana City Council. I'm passing the gavel to housing authority chair Garcia.

Housing authority is in session.

We have our roll call. I'll start with our mayor pro tem Garcia.

Present.

Council member Roberts.

Present.

Council member Sandoval. Present. I'd like to note that council member Cochran is not here today. Please stand and join us for our invocation led by council member John Roberts, and we will have our pledge led by council member Sandoval.

Thank you, Harris Marheads. Heavenly father, we thank you for this beautiful day you've given us. Thank you for the many blessings that you've bestowed on our community, and we just pray that you'll be with all those in public safety and military service. Keep them safe during this time and give our people traveling mercies as they go back to their homes. And we ask this in your name. Amen. Amen.

Repeat after me. Pledge allegiance

the flag

of The United States Of America

and to the republic for

which it

stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Everyone can be seated. Thank you for joining us. We did not have closed session today, so we're gonna enter our ceremonial items in our presentations. And we have one special one today. I'd like to ask Jim Viogue to please come on up.

We're gonna recognize San Bernardino County fire captain Jim Gargoli for his retirement, and we are looking forward to say such nice things about you today. Come on up here and join us. If my council members could join me in the front, please. Wow, I don't know if I like this. You are so welcome.

Today, we're honoring a great fireman, not only a fireman, but a great friend to this great city. And as you look at the progress in history with our great city, Jim has been right in the middle of it all the way. I really would like to acknowledge all your crew out there and thank them, and also our c r chief, Jim Birchfield. Let's give our fire department and Jim a big hand, everyone. Before I make this presentation, I'm going to have each council member say something about you.

You've been part of our fabric. I'm going to start with our mayor Tim Garcia, then I'll go to council member Sandoval, and then I'm gonna say a few words. But I'm gonna let your buddy John finish us off. Okay? So we'll start with mayor pro tem Garcia.

Thank you, mayor. Jim, it's been great knowing you. It's been probably loan you known you the least amount of time here, but during that time, you've been great. You've been very responsive, great for our city, a great liaison, and we're really gonna miss you. And I wanna thank you and just appreciate you for all you've done for the city. Thank you.

Thank you.

Also, Jim, thank you for your continued service here, citizens of the county. I mean, you cover the whole county, not just the city of Fontana. Thank you for protecting us and protecting having your men protect us for everything that they do for the city. Thank you very much, and have a great retirement. Thank

you, sir. Well,

this is really hard for me because you've been such a great friend. But just watching through the years how much you care about this city and the entire county, absolutely. But I think we're special in your heart. I think you've used us as a model, you've been able to take that model to other areas, and we appreciate you for that. And also, just to let you know that various families around the community are shocked that you're retiring, and they wanted me to tell you how much they care about you, and that we love you, and you've done things to help this community with our youth, with our seniors, with all of our residents, and you kept us safe. And that makes a big difference. Now I'm a let your buddy finish us off.

Well, thank you, mayor. Jim and I go back, I think, till the for the beginning of his career. As many of you know, Jim was the president of firefighter local nine thirty five, and I had the distinction in 1976, probably before he was born, to be the vice president of the the local. And, you know, it's like a big family over there. And Jim took real good care of his family, you know, and and he worked with every elected official in the county to make sure that our firefighters got what they deserved, and he he was there in in good times and in bad times.

And he made a huge difference in the working conditions of our firefighters. And and also in making sure that they had the equipment, the the stations, the staffing that were required to keep our communities safe. That's the most important thing because it's ultimately all about the people we serve, and public safety is the top priority of government. And Jim was in the forefront to make sure that that happened. And I can't tell you how grateful I am for your service and everything that you've done for the city of Fontana and keeping us safe.

And I can highly recommend retirement. So I've been retired about twenty three years now, and it's it's a it's a great thing to do. And hope you keep active, and and we hope we don't see you going away anywhere time soon so we can still harass you a little bit once in a while. So, Jim, Thank thank

you so much.

I'm gonna read this plaque and then Jim, you have to give us some good words up in here. Okay? Whereas fire captain Jim dedicated twenty nine years of honorable service to residents of San Bernardino County as a member of the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Throughout his career, he earned respect of his peers through leadership, commitment to firefighter safety, and unwavering dedication to fire service. Captain Jim served for twelve years as president of the San Bernardino County Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local nine thirty five, where he was a strong and effective advocate for firefighters and paramedics.

In this role, he worked with county leadership, regional partners to advance firefighter safety, labor relations, staffing, and benefits. His leadership and advocacy has left a lasting impact on the fire service profession and the communities of San Bernardino County. You go anywhere in The United States and you mention fire, they know captain Jim. Now therefore, it be resolved that the mayor and city council of the great city of Fontana do hereby recognize and congratulate fire captain Jim on the occasion of his retirement after twenty years twenty nine years of distinguished service to fire department. And we extend sincere appreciation for your leadership because you have been in the gap when most ran away.

Dedication and commitment to the community. We wish you luck. We wish you happiness, and we wish you to come back in some format. Congratulations. Let's give him a hand, everyone. Well,

first, I'd like to thank the council. Thank you so much for this honor. It's I'm truly blessed to have spent about twenty of my twenty nine years here in the city of Fontana. I believe that Fontana is the home of county fire. It always will be, and and it's been an honor to serve here.

It has I ventured out a couple of times when I promoted up, but it was for but always tried to get back here as quick as possible. I also wanna thank the council for their commitment to public safety. What I have seen since my time here when I started, how much we have improved in our public safety, not only our fire stations, our fire equipment, but also our manpower that is the most important to protect the citizens of Fontana. You have a commitment from this council and the city manager, mister Palantine over there, that public safety is the highest priority. And for that, you cannot get a better group of leaders that you have here in the city of Fontana.

I also like to reach out to chief Burchfield. Thank you so much, chief, for your leadership here in Fontana. My replacement out there, Nick Harkins. He's he's gonna be my replacement in the union. And then the people that came out, the chiefs and Tony Mascaro. So much. Thank you for coming by and sitting here and sitting through it. But thanks all to the citizens of Fontana. It's been a blessing to serve you. So thank you so much.

Okay. We're gonna take a picture. Anybody would like to take a picture? That concludes our special presentations for today. That brings us to public communication.

Good afternoon and thank you again for attending this meeting of the city council. The Brown Act provides that members of the public may offer comment on any item of interest within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council and on any action item, including items on the consent calendar. What this means is that the council welcomes and encourages your input on issues of city business and on action items on today's agenda. Issues of city business do not include personal attacks on city officials or city staff. While we acknowledge your right to comment on our actions or activities with respect to city issues and business, we will not tolerate purely personal comments not having to do with official performance of city duties.

Please do not use profanity, name calling or any other behavior that would disrupt the proceedings this afternoon. Speech or other activity such as yelling from the audience, applauding, that disrupts the orderly business of the council and will not be allowed. After a warning, continued behavior that disrupts the meeting may result in you being asked to leave the meeting. Thank you. At this time, City Clerk Key, do you have any public comments?

Mayor, we have seven requests to speak. Four students from Cal State University I'm going to call up together.

Before you do, did anyone mark for consent calendar? Communications. All Okay.

So Karen Sanchez, followed by Giselle Cueva, followed by Daisy Son Martin, followed by Michaela Smith. Mikayla Smith. And each speaker has three minutes.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and and members of the Fontana City Council. My name is Karima Sanchez and I am a lifelong resident here, in of Fontana. I'm here today alongside with three fellow students from California State University of San Bernardino. We were where we have been working together on a community assessment project, focused on the city of Fontana.

We chose to center our project here because this is not just a place of study, but it is our home. As someone who has grew up in this community, I care deeply about its future and well-being of the people who have lived here. As part of our project, our group con con conducted 29 surveys across parks, neighborhoods, and Downtown Fontana to better understand the needs and concerns of residents. Through these conversations, two issues consistently stood out, lack of affordable housing and a strong need for housing assistance. This is not just data to me.

I reflect my live it reflects my lived experience. I had lived in Fontana for twenty years, and like many young adults in our community, I still live at home with siblings who are older than 25 years old. Even while working full time at minimum wage, it is simply not enough to afford moving out due to high cost of housing. I urge the city council to prioritize affordable housing and expand support for working families. We need solutions that allow residents to remain in and contribute to the community that they have grown up in. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Good afternoon members of city council. My name is Justel Cueva and I'd like to briefly share what we learned from speaking directly with members of our Fontana community. Through a survey and conversations with residents, one concern came came up repeatedly, house assistance. Many individuals and families expressed stress about affording rent, avoiding displacement, and finding stable housing. There was a large number of people unaware of the housing support programs already available to them.

This gap between available services and community awareness creates unnecessary hardship. People are struggling not only because of financial challenges, but because they don't know where to turn for help. I encourage the council to straighten outreach efforts especially around housing assistance by making information more visible, accessible, and easy to understand for all residents. Thank you for your time.

Hello. My name is Daisy, currently a student at Cal State San Bernardino. My group and I had distributed a survey to those residing in Fontana for the purpose of conducting a community needs assessment. Through the surveys distributed, we found that the majority of participants marked a need to address housing assistance and homelessness. With that in mind, my group and I have contacted CityLink to see if we could partner with them and spread awareness on their rental and mortgage assistance programs.

Many people are unaware of CityLink and all the resources it has to offer. CityLink in Fontana is a local outreach department of Water of Life Community Church that partners with Fontana to provide community assistance, including food warehouse, housing, and utility assistance. CityLink strives to reach out for those in the Fontana community to offer assistance to the poor and those in need.

I'm the last speaker of our group, so I'll be wrapping things up. We believe increasing awareness about housing assistance can make a real difference in the community. It can help prevent evictions, reduce financial stress, and give families more stability overall. When people know what resources are available to them, they're more likely to ask for help before things get worse instead of waiting until they're already in a difficult situation. Even just having access to clear or simple information can make a big impact, especially for individuals who might not know where to start or who to reach out to.

As we move forward with our project on April 18 here in Downtown Fontana, we're hoping to continue to spread that information and help connect people to resources that support them. Thank you for your time and giving us the opportunity to speak today. We really appreciate everything you do to support the Fontana community and for taking the time to listen to what we had to share. Thank you.

Our remaining three speakers are John Pecroza or Pedroza, sorry if I mispronounced that. Mania Oguin. Last speaker is Carolyn Ambrose.

Alright.

Hi. Mayor Warren and Fontana City Council members, I'm here to request immediate removal of commissioner Benjamin Alba from his position on the Parks Community and Human Services Commission in response to mister Alba's role in the homicide of Diego Rios on 11/28/2025 in Claremont, California during mister Alba's tenure as a Claremont Police Department officer. I ask as the Fontana City Council agenda is removal of miss of mister Alba from his position in the next council meeting and director staff to open the process to new applicants for the Parks Community and Human Services Commission. The Los Angeles Medical Examiner's, office determined on 02/05/2026 that the that Diego Rios' death was a homicide due to prone physical restraint by law enforcement. The LA County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau is currently investigating mister Alba with assistance from the LA County District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division.

The medical examiner made clear that mister Alba's unreasonable prone restraint was not a coincidence in determining Diego's death. Mister Alba violated California police policies and his actions caused Diego's death. The video footage of the incident is not ambiguous. It shows mister Alba using high risk, unlawful tactics that violate California government code subsection seven two eight six point five, the statutory prohibitions on chokeholds and techniques which create a substantial risk of positional asphyxia. First, the video shows an illegal chokehold, then unreasonable prone body weight restraint on Diego.

Most disturbing of all, mister Alba places his knee on Diego's upper back for over one minute and fifty seconds. The video captures Diego saying he can't breathe, but mister Alba continues his brutality. The agony and and terror Diego felt in his last moments of life are undeniable. The family of Diego Rios has have filed a formal complaint with the city of Claremont. Mister Alba should have been forthcoming with Fontana City leadership about the homicide determination, the formal complaint filed with the city of Claremont, and the fact that he's being investigated by the LA County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau and the LA County District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division.

If you're not aware of these facts, you should have serious concerns about mister Alba's lack of lack of honesty and transparency as a member of city lead leadership. Whether or not the Fontanis Fontana City Council was previously aware of mister Alba's involvement in Diego Rios' death, the city council must now take immediate action. Your community your community deserves honest and lawful public representatives, and the severity of mister Alba's involvement in this homicide should render him unfit to serve the city of Fontana. Within the Fontana code of the city, chapter two article eight section two dash three four one, it specifies the justification or process necessary to remove a member of a city commission stating, saying, all members of each commission, committee, board, and bureau after taking office shall serve at the will and pleasure of the mayor. Any council member may recommend to the mayor that any one or more of the commission members be removed at any time with good cause or without cause.

The mayor in his or her discretion, the mayor may in his or her discretion Your

time is up. Our next speaker, Maya Mania Oguin.

Good afternoon. My name is Manija O'Quinn, and I'm a resident of Fontana and a mother of three children. And I'm standing here today because the city of Fontana has completely failed me and my family. I've reached out to the mayor, the city manager, the city attorney, and the housing authority department, as well as many others and have emailed and called and I've asked for help over and over again and I have been ignored. My children and I have been had some unexpected issues happen and I did what I was supposed to do.

I came to the city for help. It was the city's duty to help me and my children who were born in the city of Fontana and have been members of this community for over fifteen years. I asked for housing, just shelter, a safe place for my children, and instead of help, I was handed pamphlets. Pamphlets do not house families, pamphlets do not protect children, and pamphlets do not solve homelessness, and yet the city continues to say it is addressing the issue. I have tried my best, but I do not qualify for the majority of the places because I do not meet the income qualifications as a mother of one, as a single parent.

And what I do qualify for, which is a studio or a one bedroom, we aren't allowed to rent because the maximum maximum capacity is a limit of three. According to the the 2025, pointed time count, the homelessness in Fontana has increased by 20%. That's 364 people that are homeless. And that number is the amount of people, the families, and the children that that's me and my kids right now. We are part of those numbers.

So I just want someone to explain to me where all of the money is going that are being allocated to the the different commute the different I'm sorry. The different partners in the community that you guys are partnering with. They get millions of dollars that are allocated to them to help us and instead when we call and ask for help, they tell us they're out of funds. So people a lot of people are being placed on waitlist, me included, and I have been on waitlist for over eight months, and I haven't gotten any assistance. No callbacks.

No emails. Nothing. Me and my children still remain homeless and unhoused in the city that I've been in, and I pay taxes in. So there's a lot of family struggling and I did see, and I don't want anyone to take offense to this, on September 17, there was a post that was made on the mayor's page and it said, not just one South Fontana dog park groundbreaking, but two. So the city has money for two dog parks, but there still remains over 300 people that are homeless in the city.

That's unacceptable in my opinion. So I'm holding the city of Fontana accountable. I will be holding the county accountable, and I am prepared to take this to the state if necessary because what is happening here is systematic. This is why chronic homelessness still exists and continues to rise because when people come asking for help, they're turned away until they give up. I'm not gonna give up and I haven't given up this entire time. I refuse to. And I'm gonna make sure you guys continue to hear my voice because I'm speaking for myself and my children. Thank you for your time.

Carolyn Ambrose.

Hello, mayor Warren and Fontana City Council members. My name is Caroline, and I am a resident of Claremont, California. And I am here in support of Diego Rios and his family. I apologize in advance for my shaky voice. I'm here to echo John's comment to request the immediate removal of commissioner Benjamin Alba from his position from the Parks Community and Human Services Commission in response to mister Alba's role in the homicide of Diego Rios on 11/28/2025 in Claremont, California.

I ask that the Fontana City Council agendize the removal of mister Alba from his position and direct your staff to open the process to new applicants for this commission. Within the Fontana code of the city, chapter two, article eight, section two thirty sorry. Two three four one specifies the justification and process necessary to remove a member of a city commission saying, all members of each commission, committee, board, and bureau after taking office shall be shall serve at the will and pleasure of the mayor. Any council member may recommend to the mayor that anyone or more of the commission members may be removed at any time with good cause or without cause. The mayor may, in his or her discretion, remove such member subject to city council approval upon or approved by at least three three members of the city council.

Good cause shall mean, but is not limited to, three absences within any twelve month period, immoral or criminal activity, and any other inappropriate behavior which the City Council from time to time may find constitutes cause for removal. Any commission board or committee member who is removed for cause in accordance to this subsection shall not be eligible for appointment to any commission, committee, board or bureau for at least one year. And I want to go back to what John mentioned in his comment. The medical examiner made it very clear that Mr. Alba's unreasonable prone restraint was not a coincidence in determining Diego's death.

The video captured Diego saying he can't breathe, but mister Alba continued his brutality. I urge you all to watch the video if you haven't already. The agony and terror in Diego felt in his last moments of life are undeniable. This community deserves an honest and lawful public representatives and severity of mister Alba's involvement in this homicide should render him unfit to serve the city of Fontana. When you consider Benjamin Benjamin Alba's shameful and violent actions and this section of Fontana's city code, the Fontana City Council, including mayor Warren, should have both justifications and ability to remove mister Alba from his role. Thank you for your time, justice Verdiego Rios.

Speakers, mayor.

Thank you. I'm gonna ask deputy city manager, Phil Birm, to come forward regarding our housing programs. There are very clear parameters based on what we've been able to do. Keeping in mind, we have thousands of requests from residents throughout the city, and we do have waiting lists not only for homeless, but for seniors, for foster, just all our populations. And this city has done more than most in terms of trying to provide more affordable housing. So I'll let him explain the different programs.

Thank you, mayor. In broad overview, I'd tremendous empathy and applaud the comments from the group that spoke earlier, there's probably not I couldn't think of one sentence that they said that was untrue. The fact is California is in a severe housing crisis, and the housing crisis leads to unaffordability, which just kind of it's a self feeding cycle. The fewer houses you build, the more expensive the houses you have are. So affordability is a big problem in California, Southern California, particularly.

The city of Fontana, though, it would be a stretch to say that we will ever build enough affordable housing to satisfy all of the demand. But in the just in the last year, the city acquired a new community for $26,000,000 and immediately made available 70 new apartments that are being rented at below market rates. The city has provided funding for development in South Fontana. That's first phase is 50 units and then 56 more that will offer units at the 30%, 5080% of market rate income availabilities. And we're in the final planning stages of a new 30 unit housing community that will include permanent supportive housing for those that were recently homeless as well as very low income housing.

But that's a to to the young lady's comment earlier, that's that is a dent, but that's about what it is in in the housing crisis. That is Fontana. Fontana has 2,300 units, I think, 2,300 or 2,400 units that we either manage directly or have affordability covenants on. The for the population size of Fontan and the income levels of the immediate region, there are thousands more that could be built and need to be built. It's about funding priorities and the ability to obtain them.

This council allocated in the last three years, I'm trying to do quick math in my head, about $17,000,000 towards homelessness, including services and new facilities. We purchased a motel on Valley Boulevard, The Path, which is operating a 60 bed or 120 bed, 60 room facility. Just purchased a second motel that we're working on the conversion process. That was another $9,000,000 investment. The city acquired a building that's going be converted to a homeless navigation center that if all things work as planned, the county will eventually buy from the city, but the city has already invested $12,000,000 and will invest another $12,000,000 before it's done and ready to be sold to the county to open up the navigation center.

In addition, as I just mentioned, the $26,000,000 spent on the new apartments, the $17,000,000 dedicated to the affordable housing community that's going to break ground this summer and another $12,000,000 on the Cypress Grove Apartments. I can appreciate someone that's experiencing a housing difficulty being challenged with Citi spending money on other things. But as I think was mentioned earlier when we were recognizing the gentleman that retired, the city's primary function is public safety, and then I would throw transportation into that and then just local governance, parks, housing, all those other things are choices. And to spend $600,000 on dog parks to satisfy a blighted area in the South that's never had them in comparison to spending $50,000,000 on housing, I think the council's priorities are are in line with what the students were talking about earlier. The council is trying to address the challenge.

In California, it's very expensive to build housing. And the council has, at least for the five years that I've been here and then candidly, the fifteen years prior, has spent a great deal of resources increasing the affordable housing supply. But Mayor, there's no way I can honestly look at you and say we will ever address the problem entirely. The more we build, the higher the demand gets. And the waiting list and I feel very severe empathy for the young lady that spoke, waiting lists in some of our communities are several years long. So I'm not sure if that

Thank you. I just wanted to get the overview. Also, to the students that came, typically when students are doing their research, they do ask for a meeting with our staff so that we can at least help you and assist you with what we're doing now. What I'd like to do if you like, I invite you to set up a meeting with me and my staff so that we can sit down and explain to you all the housing opportunities that we do have and the areas where they exist. And I'd love to see some of the research that you accumulated.

So after the meeting or if you wanna leave your information with our deputy city manager, we can get that meeting set up if you so like. Thank you. Thank you, mister Byrne. At this time, that closes our public comments. That brings us to our consent calendar items. To my knowledge, no items have been pulled. So with that, I would ask that I have a motion to approve the consent calendar for the following meetings, city council, and then housing authority.

Move those consent calendars, mayor.

Need a second?

I'll second.

Have a motion to second. Please cast your votes. Oh, that's right. Okay. We're going to have a roll call vote. I'll start with council member Sandoval. Aye. Council member John Roberts.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Garcia.

Aye.

Mayor, aye. Thank you. At this time, we go to our public hearing item a, it's a quarterly lean action for delinquent sewer and solid waste accounts. This public hearing is now open. City clerk, do you have any written correspondence on this item?

Mayor, we do not.

Okay. We have our chief financial officer, Jessica Brown. You provide the staff report.

Good afternoon, mayor and members of the city council. The item before you for consideration is the city's quarterly action of delinquent sewer and solid waste accounts, and is part of our ongoing process to safeguard the city's revenues and maintain the financial health of these essential services. This is an administrative process. It's not punitive action, but is designed to ensure that unpaid service charges remain recoverable over time. Liens being recommended at this time reflect sewer accounts that are sixty days or more delinquent and solid waste accounts that are ninety days or more delinquent.

Property owners have received all required notifications, including regular billing, mailed lien notices and legal publication in accordance with state law. For this quarter, the proposed lanes include 180 sewer accounts and 81 solid waste accounts totaling approximately $119,000 There are no weed abatement lanes for consideration at this time. These lanes will remain in effect until fully paid. If unpaid by July 1, they will be added to the annual property tax roll. The sewer and solid waste lanes will be recorded with the San Bernardino County Recorder's Office, and any unpaid balances, as mentioned, will be on the tax roll.

The process protects the city's revenues and helps ensure that the cost of delinquent accounts is not shifted to other rate payers. These liens are authorized under health and safety code section 5,473. Staff recommends that city council authorize the recording of the liens for all eligible delinquent accounts and adopt the resolution authorizing the collection of these charges on the county tax rule. While this is a routine quarterly action, it's an important component of the city's overall fiscal management practices. And with that, I would be more than happy to answer any questions.

Does council have any questions of our chief financial officer? Seeing no questions, city clerk, do you have any request to speak?

Mayor, we do not.

Okay. I'm going to close the public hearing and bring it back for action. May I have a motion to approve staff's recommendation as provided in the staff report?

Move staff recommendation.

I'll second.

Have a motion and a second. Let me read the adoption. Adopt resolution number 2026Dash019 of the City Council of the City of Fontana authorizing the collection of certain annual wastewater and solid waste service charges, including delinquent charges for each service on the county tax rolls, and determining record liens against current delinquent parcels. If I could have a motion and a second?

So moved, mayor.

Okay. I need another second.

I'll second.

Because I had to adopt a resolution. Sorry. At this time, we'll do an oral vote. I'll start with mayor Potem Garcia.

Aye.

Mayor, aye. Council member John Roberts.

Aye.

Council member Sandoval. Aye. Motion approved. That brings us to our city manager communication. Matt?

Yes, mayor and council. I just wanna kinda highlight some of the consent calendar items. We awarded a contract for the new City Hall building, and I believe the pricing came in pretty pretty good. And so we're you're gonna start seeing a lot of activity out there starting probably with the demolition of the the building around May or June. So we should see action there. But again, I think our staff did a great job and the timing couldn't have been any better. Also wanted to note that we're doing some additional street paving that's included in here. And then I kinda wanna highlight, we're we're retiring one of our canine unit dogs, Goose. And we have Fontana Police canine pals.

They have

a wonderful program where they they train our dogs, and so we have a new dog, Chico. But that wouldn't be made possible without the Fontana Police K-nine Pals, and so I appreciate their donation and contribution to the police department. And that concludes my reports. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. That brings us to our elected official communication. I'm gonna start with our city clerk, Key. Do you have any comments?

Just to mayor, congratulations to captain Grigoli's retirement. I'm coming up hearing his information, I realize it'll be ten years for me at the end of this month, so retirement is a good thing. Congratulations, Captain Grigoli. And then one other quick thanks to Saul across the street at Party Pro. What I can say is I took some unwrapped gifts in there this morning in a hurry, and Saul hooked me up. So good to maintain our city vendors and stores, and Visit Party Pro for your gift wrapping.

City Treasurer Brooks.

Thank you, Mayor. I too would like to congratulate our fire captain, Gregoli, and wish him a wonderful retirement. Thank you.

Alright. I'm gonna start with mayor Pro Tem Garcia.

Thank you, mayor. Just wanted to promote a little bit some of the things that are going on at Stage Red. A couple weeks ago, I think, we had our our inaugural Victrola Club record night. So it it was very well attended, sold out crowd, actually over capacity over there. But it had some good music going on.

A lot of great people that attended, and that's gonna be a regular event. One Wednesday starting well, it started a couple weeks ago, but it'll be, one Wednesday out of the month, to start with. So, keep an eye out for that. Also attended a lot of other events going on. So take a look at our website for for the the artists that are coming up. The last week, I attended the what do they call them now? The it's not Oingo Boingo. It's the former members of Oingo Boingo.

So good.

Got to meet them. That was good. But the highlight was the the band that opened for Oingo Boingo, which was the Intouchables. And and I really really enjoyed their music. And I'm gonna date myself here, but I attend the last time I saw them live was at a Halloween party at the university I attended way back when in the late eighties, probably.

But it was really good to see them. I I I really enjoy their music. And what else? We have other things in the works coming out. We're trying to get a we used to have when it used to be a center stage theater, they used to have a monthly salsa night.

And so we're trying to get something going again because there's a lot of interest in that and a lot of people who used to attend those events asking when are we gonna start it up again. So, just a lot going on there. We wanna make sure that it's a center for the community, you know, not just to have music, but other events. And so keep an eye out on the website for all the events that are coming up there, and, you know, hope you all enjoy yourselves attending the the venue. Other than that, I think I'd just like to wish everyone a good afternoon.

Thank you. Council member Sandoval?

I'd like to like to see I mean, some residents came and made some acquisitions on one of our commissioners. So I'd like to see what is going on in that bid as far as a commissioner. I mean, we're here to protect our commissioners. We're also to protect our our residents. So I'd like to see a report what's going on with that situation if it warrants any further action from this council.

And also, far as the homeless and the residency, I like to see if we have a proper hotline or sounds like the communication isn't getting out there. And to see if it may be a language barrier also to make sure we're putting it out there in different languages so people understand, you know, where to go, who to call. I mean, I think I don't know if we have a hotline or a certain number that some residents can call and ask these questions or a time that place that they can meet these people. I mean, sounds like there's a communication issue going on. So I'd like to see if we can look into that.

And lastly, not my daughter goes to Cal State San Bernardino. She's gonna graduate in May. I just like to wish her a happy birthday. And later on, I'll be talking about how to congratulate her that she'd be. You know, she's a single mom. No. She's a married mom. She's married. She has two kids. She works full time. She struggled just to make sure she get her bachelor's degree, so I just commend her on on doing that. You know, you got she got two boys that like to be active and, you know, and then she goes home, make sure she has her everything ready for the next day for her two boys and her husband. So but anyways, I'd like to make sure I wish her a happy birthday. That's all I got for tonight, mayor.

Thank you. John Roberts?

Thank you, mayor. Yeah. I'd like to again congratulate captain Jim Grigoli for a tremendous career in the fire service. I worked with Jim for quite a number of years and he really contributed to the fire safety of Fontana. And I wish him the best in retirement.

Also, I'd like to congratulate Calvary Chapel Fontana Community Church, is across the street from the Old City Hall and also next to the Woman's Club. They're doing fabulous job of reestablishing and repairing and upgrading that church facility over there. It's looking great. And it's a 100 year old church, and preserving that church is just a tremendous event for the city and we want to thank them for everything they're doing over there. And finally, wish everyone a happy Easter. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. A couple of things before I get into my comments. This city has really done a phenomenal job with our housing programs. It's on our website. All you do is put Fontana Housing.

Everything, all of our stock shows up. The other part is when people call into the housing department, they will walk you through eligibility to see if you are eligible for their services and if you need help due to language barriers, they will assist you with that. Also, we have various partnerships around the city. One is with CityLink where they do provide some servicing. But what they do is work through the county system, which means you may not end up in Fontana, but the county does provide assistance throughout the services, but it's based on eligibility.

And we talked about our deputy city manager. We have long had a long list on the waiting list. We're a town of 220,000 people and we're doing as much as we can. But keep in mind, housing is very complicated in the state of California. When you look in the city of LA where it's almost $800,000 a door, we've been able to maneuver and get funding and get grants, That's why we go back to DC, we go to Sacramento, and just early as yesterday, Robert and I had a great meeting with the governor's office about more resources that we hope that we'll be able to bring to the city.

And we are constantly looking for ways to assist people. But there will never be enough stock based on the issues that are going on in our state. So it's a statewide program. We work with our colleagues throughout the state, other mayors, other council members through our associations, trying our best to figure out ways to get in there. And then the idea that land is just available and you can just go on there and just start building.

And I think the perception is the city owns everything, and we don't. We do not own all the properties, so we can't just go to people's property and start building, and we definitely will need the funding resources. And we're balancing on the needs. We get blamed for what goes on in the schools. We work with our schools. We work with all of our partners. We work with agencies. And we do try to assist people. And we really make an effort to get the word out. So those are the things that we are doing as a city.

We also have Mayor Mundy, where we talk about newly acquired properties or newly acquired resources that we provide out to the public to make sure our social media is on steroids. If you're on Facebook, you're on Instagram, if you're doing Twitter or at Lincoln, new site, every new program is listed there for the city. And then you can always come in to City Hall. This entire council is available to you through email or you can call and get an appointment and see if there's anything we can do to help. So we have several methods by you understanding what housing we do have available.

And we work closely with San Bernardino County. San Bernardino County is the largest county in The United States. And they are always looking at ways to fund through their housing authority. Right now in San Bernardino County, there are no Section VIII vouchers to my knowledge. And that is something that we are all requesting from the federal government, HUD, to provide so that people can get assistance if they're at a certain level with their income to get assistance.

So we're gonna continue that fight, and it is a fight to get more housing in this city, and we will not stop doing that. But we all have to have a realistic expectation that the city doesn't have a house for everybody at this time, but we are trying our best to add more inventory. We talk about the Forge District, where apartments are coming. Some may be market. Some will be affordable, but that's going to put between 400 and possibly 600. But the city doesn't build those. We work with developers that have come in and want to invest. Sometimes we have the land. Sometimes we don't. But we have to work around all those issues.

But I assure everyone that we are doing everything in our power to provide that housing. Just wanted to talk to you also. I want to talk about the PE Trail fitness ceremony we had last week. I want to thank our great staff, and I want to thank our congresswoman Norma Torres for helping us with that in terms of providing funding. Everyone is so excited, and that area is when you go through baseline, going up north on your way to Etiwanda High School, we were able to get funding for a fitness pad.

And if you go there, you're going to see like a treadmill. I saw them on the news talking about the senior exercising, and some of that exercising equipment looked pretty familiar there. But I've gone up there and I have a ball, if you're trying to walk between Fontana and Ranch Cucamonga. You can take a break. We've got benches there.

There's an overhead to keep the sun out your eyes, but you can have an actual workout free just on the trail. And we're constantly making sure that as we renovate our trails, they represent what people are looking to do. So make sure you check that out. Special thanks to all our staff members that were recently acknowledged for their service awards. And we had someone there, I think forty years, Matt? I was really shocked about Yeah, forty years. So, But, let me tell you, if you miss the last Spring Street Market night, you miss the party. We had a ball out there. The music was good. We had the great DJ, Severe.

It was just wonderful. And we had vendors. We had food trucks. We had the beer and wine garden, but we had families. People came out with their kids, and we really had a great time. We even had a kids zone. A lot of awards, a lot of, gifts that we were giving out for people participating. The next one, I'm not sure when it's coming up, but you don't want to miss it. Then, I had the opportunity to participate in the College of Career Day at Southridge Technical Middle School. Great, great information given out to the students, and we were able to share our journeys to where the positions we hold we are in today.

My favorite time of the year is principal for a day. I went over to Chaparral Elementary School. And if you look on social media, I had a great time. We just had a ball, and I got a chance to greet the kids when they were being driven to school by their parents. And you can imagine their faces. They were like, Mayor, what are you doing? I said, I'm the principal for the day. So I came out to greet everyone. So I had a great time. I want to thank that great principal, Mr.

Tim McAfee. And I want to thank our school board for allowing us that opportunity. And I think I really can appreciate what a principal does. They have a lot on their plate. I want to thank Eric Fornenberry, the Fontana Baseball Association opening day.

It just reeked of why Fontana is so great. As you all are aware, and we keep saying that, people don't get it, but we got it. We got 52 parks in this great city, and we want people to utilize them. So it was really great to go up to the Veterans Park and see that opening. Also, as we move forward with the summer months, I was reminded to tell parents, please, don't leave your children in the car when it's hot.

That's the big messaging that we are trying to put out. A friend of mine, we were talking and he said what he does, when he's taking his kids somewhere, if it's an infant, he'll put their bottle in the front seat so when he gets ready to get out of the car, if you have forgotten, you'll see that. I'm good about nobody keeps their shoes on when I'm dropping off grandkids, so I just put the shoes in the front so I know where they are when I get ready to get them out the car. Think of whatever it takes for you to be reminded that you have a child in the backseat. And some of the cars actually let you know you just left some weight back there.

So everybody just be careful. One of the things we're looking forward to is the summer. And we want everyone to plan accordingly. Our programs at our parks are clearly on our website. The book went out.

If you didn't get the book, you can actually get the book on the website. So, let's look at what activities are available so that our kids can have fun this summer. And with that, we will be adjourning today's meeting in memory of Pastor Emeritus James Reese, husband of Jean Reese, dedicated member of Fontana Exchange Club. Please stand and join us as we have this moment in his great memory. I adjourn this meeting to our next regular city council meeting on Tuesday, 04/14/2026 at 2PM in the Steelworkers Auditorium located at 8437 Sierra Avenue, Fontana.

Meeting adjourned. Housing authority chair Garcia.

Housing authority is adjourned.

Thank you all for joining us.