City Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. We're going to now start our city council meeting. today's meeting will consist of our regular council meeting our community foundation our fire protection district and our housing authority please note with all meetings for the consent calendar and new business items at the same time i would like to call to order the meeting of fontana city council i'm going to pass the gavel to myself as community foundation chair aquanetta warren mayor now our fire protection district chair Cothran welcome to the fontana fire protection district we are now in session and our housing authority chair garcia housing authority is now in session mayor pro tem we're going to start with you for roll call present council member Cothran present council member john roberts present council member sandoval not present mayor aquanetta warren present

if you would all please stand with us as we have our invocation done by john roberts our council member and i've asked council member peter garcia to lead us in the pledge as by our heads heavenly father we thank you for the many blessings you've bestowed on fontana we'd ask a special blessing this afternoon for the sandoval family on the loss of jesse's brother father just comfort them in this time of loss Father, we'd ask for you to be with those in military service and public safety. Keep them safe. And we ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen.

And we are so honored today to have the Miss, oh, I'm sorry. We are so honored today to have the Miss Fontana Court here and we'll ask them to join us up on the stage. We're gonna have Councilmember Cothran introduce this court. He did a phenomenal job at the Ms. Fontana pageant, so put on your magic.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and welcome to Ms. Fontana. We are honored to have you ladies here tonight with us. So I am one of the emcees for the Ms. Fontana pageant, so that's why she says I get the honor of doing this, because these ladies get to share the stage. Well, I get to share the stage with them, shall we say. So first of all, the pageant is a wonderful director, Cecily Urana. She's out in the audience with her camera, so say hi, Cecily. There she is. And then my niece is over there as well. She was waving to me earlier on that side of things. I was told to make sure I said hi. Now, we pride ourselves here at the Miss Fontana organization because young ladies, they don't need to introduce, I don't need to do that for them. They're raised and they are taught and they are accomplished young ladies that can introduce themselves and they are here to reign and here to represent the city and themselves for many future generations. So I'm going to pass this off to Yulisa Heredia. Right, Yulisa? Say it correct this time. It's only taken me a couple years. and she will introduce herself and we'll go down the line.

Hello, everyone. I am Yulisa Heredia, the current Miss Fontana, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to be here alongside these lovely ladies, and thank you all as well for being here. Thank you.

Hello, I am Ashley Gomez, your Miss Fontana Princess. Thank you, everybody, for being here.

Hello, all. My name is Victoria. I am also a Miss Fontana Princess, and I'm very excited for this year. Hello, my name is Alejandra Portillo. I'm one of your Miss Fontana Princesses, and I just wanted to say thank you for taking your time to come to our city event today. Thank you.

Hello, everyone. My name is Ariel Baldonado. I am one of the Miss Fontana Princesses. What an honor it is to be here today.

Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. My name is Aubrey, and I'm one of your Teen Fontana Princesses. Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Larissa Segura, and I'm one of the Teen Miss Fontana Princesses. Thank you. Hello, I am Natalie Romo, and I am one of your Miss Teen Fontana Princesses. Thank you. Hello, my name is Victoria Moran. I'm your Teen Fontana Princess Ambassador. Thank you.

Fantastic. Can we give them a round of applause, please? Now, before you go, your pageant director would not be very happy with me if I did not ask you. So tell me, what has the pageant taught you so far, and why do you think it's a good endeavor for the city of Fontana to keep sponsoring this event?

The greatest thing with this organization is it's more than a pageant. It's a scholarship and leadership program that wants to build up women to be the next leaders within our community. Being an employee of the city of Fontana, it's really great for me to be a full circle moment, being here to represent the city that's not only my community, but it's where I call home. Thank you.

Now I believe the mayor has some certificates for you young ladies.

What I thought we'd do is give them, right, exactly. So we have certificates for all of you, but they're not in order, so you all can fight when you get down there, okay? Yes, absolutely. Let's give Councilmember Cothran a big hand for handling this for us. It's easy.

No one's looking at me when you guys are up here. They're all looking at me.

We can stay here, we have another presentation. If you ever attend the Miss Fontana pageant, you'll be so proud because how many applicants, were there over 40?

Over 300 applicants.

300 applicants, how many young ladies actually competed? About 100? 80, the program was amazing, and all of them were very talented. They got asked questions, they had to show their talent, but it just makes you proud, because all these young ladies are from Montana, and they make us so proud. And they'll be with us all year. Everywhere we go, ladies, you gotta come with us. So this time we'll have Chief Dorsey come up with a very special proclamation.

Give the Chief a hand, that's a great job. Big hand, big hand. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Mike Dorsey. I'm the chief of police here in the city of Fontana. And I would like to invite everybody in the community out to National Night Out. National Night Out is a national event, but we do it. We do it really well here in Fontana, and I know I'm biased but we do it the best around and it's on Tuesday August 4th It starts at 5 p.m. Right next door here at the Miller Park Amphitheater and it's an opportunity for our entire community to come out and engage with police department and We stand up, we say no to crime, we work collaboratively with our community to provide services to the community. We're gonna have over 55 different vendors and community stakeholders out there to support our community, so I wanna welcome everybody out on that Tuesday, August 4th at 5 p.m. at Miller Park. I hope to see you all there.

Chief, I have this proclamation. Where is National Night Out? will be held on August 4th, 2026. National Night Out has become a civic tradition that serves the purpose of heightening crime and drug abuse prevention and awareness. Now therefore, as Mayor of Fontana and the City Council, we proclaim August 4th, National Night Out, and we as residents get to tell the criminals, not here. So let's give this event a big hand and we're gonna take a picture.

There you are, Chief.

Okay, that brings us to public comment. 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 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 activities such as yelling from the audience. 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.

How many cards do you have to speak? Mayor, we have 12 requests to speak with our eighth requester, Isabel Rios, needing translation services. Okay.

Before we, I'd like the city manager to explain how that translation will be done.

Thanks, Mayor. So we have a program that will allow an individual to speak in their native language and it'll provide a translation. That translation is specifically directed to the council because you're going to be receiving that input from that individual. That's what is really intended. So as the person is speaking, you will see on your monitors what they're saying in English.

Mr. City Attorney, how many minutes does that person get?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. So because the translation is happening in real time, they get as much time as any other member of the public. The rule that you are alluding to is where we use translation services in person, the law requires that the time be doubled because that's not the system that we're using. We're using real-time translation today for each of the council members at your dais. There is no additional time that's provided to a speaker in a non-English language.

Thank you for that. I wanted to make sure we had that all up front. Okay, I'm going to lower each one to one minute, and you can start calling them up in threes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Our first three speakers are Frank Trenor, Asher, and George Saba.

Did I understand you correctly? I have a minute? One minute, 60 seconds. Okay. I'm here to discuss the fireworks war zone here in Fontana. It doesn't just happen on the 4th of July. This stuff happens a week before and a couple weeks after, and it needs to be addressed. There's definitely venues that fireworks can be displayed that are safe, that have a registered licensed person that is an expertise in explosives, not the guy who is lighting off these bombs in the garage next to his house with the weeds. There's some physical aspects of this I want to address. One of them is the solar panels that get cluttered by all the debris and fallout that falls from this stuff. The pools get clogged with the wadding from the material. Vehicles, this doesn't enhance the finish. Your time is up. This is ridiculous for a minute. Sir, your time is up. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Asher.

Asher wanted to go after me, if that's okay. Okay, I just wanted to say thank you to the city of Montana because you guys improved all the street corners on my block right on the corner of Cherry and Bridal Path. So I thought that was really neat. They're all... good for people that have wheelchairs and stuff, so thank you for doing that. And I also wanted to say thank you for Fontana's Pathway Clubhouse. I've never been there before, but in between, I'm going from some classes I have to do and taking the bus, taking the 82, you know, it's not a very busy bus, so sometimes I would have to sit under the, you know, the bus stop, and it was hot, and I found out about Pathways. I can go there, just watch some TV or have a cup of coffee in between my travels, so I wanted to say thank you so much for providing those services, and since we're down to a minute, I'm going to just say thank you and have a nice day, everyone.

Asher.

In the wake of yet another murder by ICE officials, the latest two being in Houston and Maine, I strongly urge the city council to not support any ICE or DHS presence in Fontana. As a community that is largely Latino, their presence only serves to torment those who aren't white. Children are being taken away from their families illegally, and that is not an act of public service. People going to work and being disappeared is not an act of public service. People being murdered because of their immigration status is not an act of public service. What is in the public service is supporting a pathway to citizenship that doesn't take 30 years or thousands of dollars for someone to actually get their citizenship. We need to have a holistic, humanitarian view of immigration, migration, and those who seek asylum in the United States. Lady Liberty weeps every single time an unjustified, illegal death of our community members happens. Justice for Diego Rios, thank you.

Our next three speakers are Grace, Ada, and John Pedroza.

One minute for 29 consent items covering millions in spending is an adequate public process. I'd ask council to allow more time or pull more items for individual discussion going forward. I'm asking you to pull items E, F, U, A, C for separate votes. Item E raises Stage Red's Interfund loan from about $2 million to $3.75 million. The mayor calls it a success, but the city keeps advancing money that it hasn't yet paid back. Item F is the navigation center, which the county of San Bernardino owns, yet the city of Fontana will be paying for, which $4.2 million of that is coming from the Fund 604, which is the 1% sales tax that the city is paying the residents. And we were told that was to go for infrastructure, not for this. Item U, AI services. giving police laziness which is also um tracking pattern of life of all residents not okay ac great give small ridiculous our next speaker is john pedrosa good afternoon i'm here today asking for the city council to open up the process for new applicants to the parks community human services commission to replace benjamin alba immediately

replace them immediately with someone who isn't involved in a homicide investigation like benjamin alva is um the parks community human service commission has canceled four of the last five meetings is supposed to conduct in public how are things getting approved by this commission without the public being able to witness contribute being able to witness and contribute to the process. Do they have a hidden schedule to meet about these endeavors? How many events and services have been organized, funded, and conducted in this state without input from the public? Why has the Park Community and Human Services Commission canceled their upcoming meeting schedule for July 23rd? His public, Benjamin Alba's public ceremony, public promotion ceremony to a commissioner occurred on February 26th without incident. He's only had one meeting since then. This level of secrecy and absence from public officials recommended by the mayor and appointed by the city council is wrong, and the people of Fontana deserve a higher standard of representation from people positioned to serve them that can and actually will conduct their regularly scheduled public meetings. Dismiss Benjamin Alba from his commissioner position. Your time is up.

Your time is up. Our next two speakers require the translation service.

Isabel Rios.

I do not need translation. My comment is regarding file number 26-1123 on discussion and action regarding appointments in the Parks, Community, and Human Services Commission. Benjamin Alba is on this commission, and he's a police officer in Claremont. He caused the homicide of Diego Rios. And he needs to be removed. In April, Commissioner Alba was appointed to the commission with votes of approval by Mayor Warren and Council Members Garcia, Cothran, and Roberts. Council Member Sandoval voted no. He said at that swearing-in ceremony, Benjamin Alba said, in my free time, I'm a police corporal for a law enforcement agency in L.A. County. Well, in his free time, he also pinned Diego down, face down, and he didn't let him breathe. And Diego died only after being pinned by Benjamin Alba for two minutes. Who on this stage sees nothing wrong with Commissioner Alba's free time conduct? Who among you will stay silent in that discussion later of file 11-26-1123? Your time is up. Your time is up.

Our next speaker is Victor Rios, Sr., and he will need translation services. So we have a Victor Rios, Sr., and Victor Rios, Jr., who does not require translation, just his father.

Go ahead, Mr. Rios.

Good afternoon, members of the council and mayor. My name is Victor Rios. I am the father of Diego Rios. It is very difficult for me to talk about this, but I must do it for justice. My request is one. Commissioner Benjamin Alba must be removed from the Commission of Parks, Communities and Human Services. Ustedes hablarán sobre la comisión a la que él sirve en su discusión del expediente 26.11.23. Remuevan a Benjamín Alba de este cargo. Un comisionado debe ser una persona íntegra, digna y respetuosa. El alcalde y el ayuntamiento lo seleccionan. Your time is up. So Victor Rios Jr. is now speaking.

Hello. Eight months ago, Benjamin Alba killed my brother, Diego Rios. Tonight, you're considering file number 26-1123, discussion and possible action regarding appointments to the Parks, Community, and Human Services Commission. Since you're already discussing this commission, I'm asking you to agendize the removal of Commissioner Benjamin Alba and begin the process of appointing someone worthy of serving the people of Fontana. So I have one simple question. Why is Benjamin Alba still serving the people of Fontana? You don't have to wait for criminal trial to decide whether someone reflects the values of the city, claims to stand for. You know already what happened. You know this. Medical examiner's finding of homicide describing Diego's death as occurring during prone physical restraint by law enforcement. Those aren't accusations from my family. Those are findings from the state of California. Benjamin Alba didn't accidentally find himself in that position. So this is not a choice about criminal guilt. It is a choice about what conduct you are willing to tolerate from your leaders.

Your time is up. Mayor, our remaining three speakers are Gio Tovar, Michael Lee, and Haley Hightower.

Eleven victims have been violently murdered by ICE throughout the U.S., including Alex Pretty, Renee Nicole Good, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and Juan Sebastian Guerrero. Similarly, our city council has ignored numerous requests from the Justice for Diego Rios campaign to agendize the removal of Benjamin Alba as commissioner. The lack of action by our council in light of widespread injustices happening throughout our country should concern everyone in this room. In the case of Diego Rios, both of the officers involved were responding to a mental health crisis. They quickly escalated the situation despite compliance by Diego Rios. Even after several detailed descriptions of the gross misconduct by the former officer, our city council hasn't lifted a finger to work towards justice for the Rios family. That would begin by removing Benjamin Alba from his leadership position. That's what I'm here to ask for primarily. Given this negligence, I urge the 16-year mayor to resign from candidacy for a fifth term. Truly, democratic systems would never allow for someone who was elected to remain in power for such an extended period of time. Instead, a leader, a true leader, with genuine care for the whole of our community would create space for much-needed change and equip youth with the knowledge to engage in local politics.

Your time is up.

Michael Lee. My name is Michael Lee and I live in the Heritage Village community here in Fontana. This is my first time attending the Fair Protection District meeting. I come here today because I want to learn more about how our local government works and better understand the public safety needs of our community. As a Fontana resident and a local business owner, I hope to become more involved in our community, listen, learn, and contribute where I can. I look forward to attending more public meeting and learning more about the issues that affect our city and our residents. Thank you.

Our final speaker is Haley Hightower.

Good evening. One year ago, My life changed. Tonight, I brought two things with me, an email and these flowers. One represents what happened to me. The other represents why I refused to quit. If you're tired of promises becoming excuses, put your hands up. If you're tired, I'm an Oreo, so I don't like when you say, put your hands up in the club. I don't have that rhythm, so please bear with me. If you're tired of people saying you have to understand, put your hands up. If you're tired of someone saying this is just what happens, put your hands up. I read How to Be Black, and I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm an Oreo. So if I'm a little off beat, still put your hands up because the beat may be off, but the timeline isn't. One year ago today, I received an email from Chief Dorsey, Magic Mike, I like to call him. He sent me an email at 4 a.m. telling me that he would put my information on social media. Your time is up.

Here that concludes our speakers.

All right, thanks to all the speakers. Um, city manager. Um, I like the chief to explain the police department's relationship with ice or their lack of an enforcement. Excuse me one more time. This is your first warning.

Thank you, Mayor. The Fontana Police Department has no relationship with any federal immigration enforcement or activities within the city of Fontana. We are completely compliant on SB Senate Bill 54, which requires us not to cooperate with any federal immigration enforcement. Quite commonly, I see federal immigration enforcement within the city boundaries, and I have no knowledge until I see it on social media like a lot of us do. They do not notify us when they're in our city. They are not required to, and we do not provide any support to any of their enforcement operations.

Thank you, Chief. And the gentleman that brought up the fireworks issue, sir, if you could stay after the meeting, I'd like to talk to you personally. All right, so that I can address your concerns. And city manager in relations to the Park and Recreation Commission's meetings, as far as I understand, they're only held if there's an agenda item, is that correct? That's correct. Can you explain that please?

Correct. The Community Services Commission meets pretty much on a quarterly basis. They're advisory to the City Council. They don't take any formal action absent the City Council. So they make recommendations to the City Council to which you can take formal action on. But they meet on a quarterly basis, and if they don't have an agenda item, they will cancel the meetings.

Thank you very much. That brings us to public, our consent calendar items. now mr city attorney there was a couple of concerns related to different items but there was not specific concern about what the concern was what i'd like us to do one this is your second warning the next warning you will be asked to leave the meeting fingers and all thank you now what i'd like to do is just i have a quick report on those items that were brought up

That is within your discretion, Madam Mayor, and if the council has additional questions, I'm sure you'll recognize them as such. Thank you.

Okay. So I believe the one item, did anyone list those? I saw stage red. Go ahead, Councilman McCaffrey.

I believe it was items E as in Edward, F as in Frank, U as in umbrella, C as in cat. I'm sorry? A, C. A, C. Thank you. Okay.

All right. Just Let's start with stage red.

Yes, ma'am. I'm not sure if there was a, I'd like to talk about it, was the comment?

Well, just give a quick overview of what this item is about. That's it.

So there was the item is about the enterprise account funding of the enterprise account for stage red stage red entered into an enterprise account which means it operates independent of the city's general fund on a loan agreement with the general fund. The original terms of the enterprise account, not knowing what the annual cost operates, something like this, was set at a number, but knowing that it was gonna take four, five, or six years for Stage Red to stabilize, the intention of the account is the general fund would start getting repaid, I think, at year seven in the current agreement. So this is just an annual funding based on the activity at Stage Red and based on the expenses. The original agreement of the enterprise account is to start paying the loan back at year seven So that's the concept hasn't changed. Knowing the numbers and as the programming changes, for example, this year at the council's direction and generally community input, we've started doing a lot more, for example, regional Mexican bands and banda groups, not necessarily profitable, but trying to do community type oriented events. Those we've done a little bit more candidly. We've gotten a lot of hip hop interest in there. So we're doing a lot more of those shows recently. until downtown develops. Stage Red won't do sellout crowds, so this is just an annual funding intended to get us through 2027, but we would come back to you frequently Although learning more about public agency-owned venues, I still have the optimism that Stage Red will eventually be a business that can stand on its own. But to remind the council and those listening, when the council had the concept for Stage Red, it's designed as a community amenity, not much different than a park would be. You spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to maintain a park. Although I'd like to think that the business plan and the popularity of downtown, that number will dwindle to very little numbers annually. The city manager has explained to me many times, if a public agency owns a venue, it's hard to be profitable. By way of example, I can give you a couple of examples of other city or agency-owned venues. and a lot of these i'm gonna i'm gonna read through these very quickly mayor in the order in which they opened often the longer something has been established the more viable and successful they are that's not always the case because the city has different motivations for uh for for an operation like this in the case of fontana I believe the council wanted to promote the arts and music and provide a live entertainment option to more suit our demographic population rather than like previously operated as a dinner theater. The demographics of Fontana, the median age is 33 now. That's a lot more suited for a live entertainment venue than it is a dinner theater operation. But at the city manager's suggestion, we went out and polled different venues that are operated and an idea of what they generate annually and what the annual subsidy is. The oldest venue we found was the Mission Playhouse in San Gabriel. It opened in 1927, so it's been around a minute. It generates about $1.1 million annually, and the city subsidizes the operation by about $200,000, so it's at 100 years to build that operational standard. The La Mirada Theater, Opened in 1977, it generates about $7.5 million a year, and the city subsidizes that by $3.5 million. So the net profit is a loss of about $3.5 million a year. The Cerrito Center for the Performing Arts has a capacity of about 1,800 people, and it generates about $7.8 million a year. and the city subsidizes it by $4.5 million a year. Again, that city and that agency has different motivations, so the scale could be different for all. The Temecula Community Theater opened in 2005. The gross annual revenue was $500,000. The city contributes $1.2 million a year. Oh, thank you. There's a slide. contributes $1.2 million a year to generate that $500,000. Clearly, the motivation of the city is not annual revenue generation. It's about the arts and programming and the theater. The Lewis Playhouse right next door generates about $1.1 million a year, and it costs the city of Rancho $2 million a year to make that happen. I'll skip, Yucaipa Performing Arts Theater is the other most recent one. Generates about $750, and the city contributes $650 to get to that $750. Stage Red, the estimate for the first five years is that the net annual operating subsidy is estimated about $900,000, and it's generating about a million dollars a year. So it's kind of in line with the rest, kind of lower side of the in line, but it is an expense, and it's certainly worthy of a conversation.

Okay, thank you. The next item is number F, and that is the award, the construction contract for the West End Regional Navigation Center.

So I just want to correct a misstatement that was made earlier. The county of San Bernardino does not own the building. The city of Fontana acquired the building last year, currently owns the building, is in escrow to sell the building to the county once the construction of the building is complete. When the council was motivated to get this navigation center open, it was determined that the city could more nimbly get this done faster. So the city council gave the direction to acquire the building, design the improvements in consultation with the county, county staff, and even now the operator involved in the floor plan design. award the contract construct the improvements and when all those improvements are done then we would close usker with the county the county would reimburse us for the city expenditures and right in the amount being awarded is is based on the we just opened the bids for the for the project so that's the the contract amount that we're looking for approval for the next one is related to the approved purchase of closure intelligence ai software That one I can't help you with, Mayor.

I'm going to have Ray Ebert.

Mr. Ebert?

I see him. There he is. He's coming down now.

Okay, I'm sorry. I stand corrected.

Don't go far, Deputy City Manager. Got another one.

Mayor and Council, the item in front of you today is for an approval for a three-year contract with Closure Intelligence AI software. This particular software is utilized by law enforcement agencies across the state to compile large amounts of various different forms of data and is really a true force multiplier for investigations. Oftentimes investigations Accumulate thousands of pages of different various types of evidence This software program is see just compliant. It's limited to our data It doesn't go out in a public forum like some AI platforms use and it's able to increase efficiency within the police department by providing investigators with real-time analysis of the data that sometimes could take weeks or Hours, days to compile. This AI software does it with technology.

Thank you, Chief. And then lastly, we have AC, which is the Resolution Approving and Adopting Fontana Business Assistance Loan Program. If we could just get a quick overview of that. I think that is the Deputy City Manager Byrne.

Thank you, Mayor. in the spirit of finding people that are doing things creative that apply to Fontana, what's before you today is a modified version of something that they're doing in the city of Ontario. So fortunately we didn't have to invent the parameters of the program, but the intention of this program is to allocate a specific amount of funding available to incentivize new businesses to open up downtown now rather than waiting two or three years as downtown market develops around. as you know mayor and most of the citizens that follow the council meeting understand one of the primary motivations of the council is the revitalization and the creation of an entertainment district downtown that is going to happen based on the activities that the city has been a part of including acquiring properties bulking them up attracting a developer that's going to come in and build 280 new apartments in the downtown area including somewhere between 78 and 120 affordable units in the downtown area. We acquired a property that we were able to then resell, and a private developer's gonna be building a five-story mixed-use property with three restaurants, a coffee shop, 30,000 square feet of Class A office space, and 20 new luxury apartments on the top of that building. All those things are gonna be happening over the next one to three years. downtown will automatically as those new activities happen and you have new office space downtown with new office tenants and you have new apartment a thousand new residents moving in downtown the market will then develop to attract new restaurants and new retail locations The intention of this program is instead of waiting until that all happens, if we can find some funding and help provide the opportunity for small businesses, particularly, although it's not identified specifically in there that you have to be Fontana-based, the people that have reached out for this assistance are local Fontana businesses and are first-time business. So the idea is to take some of the risk burden off of them because downtown, the foot traffic in downtown is gonna be growing exponentially over the next several years. but next year when our first restaurants open, the foot traffic wouldn't necessarily be there to support six, seven, or eight restaurants. So if we can help some of the financial burden and the triggers on this amount is there's a loan of up to $150,000 per new business, not an expansion of existing business, that if they operate in good faith, don't have code violations and maintain operations of a certain amount of hours every year, then that loan could be forgiven over a five-year period of about 20% per year. So if you borrowed $150,000 and you operated for five years, the loan would be completely forgiven. From the city's perspective, from a financial side, and it's not a direct correlation, but for every square foot of restaurant space in a moderately successful restaurant annually, it returns about $10 in sales tax. So for every square foot that opens downtown, it's over a 12 year period, they're not paying this loan back, but you've generated the revenue to pay back these loans. But the intention is to inspire new entrepreneurs to open up a new business. Ontario's business model slightly one of the differences we have is they were encouraging existing businesses to open a new location our program is really targeted towards new businesses because we want fontana residents to be able to take advantage of the opportunity and we wanted to support their growth in the downtown area thank you mr deputy city manager burn are there any questions from council of those items that were pulled seeing no questions

We're very proud of our efforts that we are taking forward, not only in the downtown revitalization, but homelessness and all the other categories that were pulled. At this time, if I can get a motion and a second.

I'll make the motion for approval. I'll second.

Have a motion and a second. Please cast your vote. Here we go.

Aye. My computer is not working.

Okay. How do you vote, John? Aye. Okay. Four in favor, motion is passed. Motion is passed. That brings us to public hearings. Public hearing item A is the first general plan amendment and project for the first general plan cycle of 2026, Master Case MCN number 23-000034, and Master Case MCN number 23-000044. General plan amendment GPA number 23-00002, Pacific Plan Amendment SPA number 23-0002, tentative track map number 2046-TTM number 26-006. tentative parcel map number 20851, TPN number 23-00008, and design review DRP number 23-000011. Conditional use permit, CUP, number 23-00005 and development agreement AGR number 23-00012. A request to amend the general plan land use designation for an approximately 9.3 acre site located at the northwest corner of Sierra Avenue and Terra Vista Drive. APN 0239-081-52 from residential plan community R-PC to general commercial C-G to amend Arboretum style plan to modify allowed land uses and reconfigured planning areas and park sites for site and architectural review. A proposed commercial center consisting of 69,617 square feet of commercial development. 49,362 square foot grocery store with a 13,017 square foot inland shop building. 9,544 square foot pad building, and a 3,694 square foot drive-through restaurant, or a conditional use permit for the sale of alcohol, for the offsite consumption in conjunction with the proposed grocery store. For a tentative track map to reconfigure and parcelize the remaining planning areas and park sites in the specific plan area. For a tentative parcel map to subdivide the retail center and to amend the Arboretum specific plan development agreement to reflect modified land uses in the specific plan. It's not to addendum to the operating specific plan environmental impact report. The public hearing is now open. We're going to give a test after this.

Madam Mayor.

Yes, sir.

First of all, can I get you to repeat that? Because I think some of us missed it. I'm just kidding. Thank you very much for being so thorough and transparent. I appreciate that. I understand that a member of the council lives in relative close proximity to the project we're talking about here. So Mayor Portem Garcia, if you could declare your conflict for the record.

Yes, I do have a conflict, and I'll be stepping out for a minute.

Thank you, sir.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney.

The conflict, by the way, is because I live close to the project.

Thank you. Okay. City Clerk Key, did you receive any written correspondence on the staff report?

None for this public hearing, Mayor.

Okay. We're going to have our Associate Planner, Cecily Gomes, will provide us with the staff report. There you go.

hello good afternoon madam mayor members of the council staff and members of the public i will be bringing the staff report for this project the proposed project is a specific plan amendment and general plan amendment for the arboretum specific plan area as well as associated development within the specific plan area as you can see on the slide on the left hand side the area outlined in Yellow is the specific plan boundary, so loosely Citrus Avenue and the Edison Corridor on the west, Grapeland Avenue on the north, Sierra Avenue on the east, and Casa Grande for the most part on the south. The project or the property in question that will receive a general plan amendment is outlined in red on the slide, and that's the general plan amendment from residential plan community to general commercial. Additionally, we are looking to do a specific plan amendment and then receive approvals for the associated development of the site. Additionally, there is an amendment to the Arboretum Specific Plan Development Agreement, which would reflect the modified land uses and construction fee credits that are associated with the specific plan amendment. Those land uses that are being modified is the introduction of commercial land uses, general commercial land uses, into the specific plan where they were not previously. This project was recommended for approval by the Planning Commission back on June 2nd, and so now we're here before you for the public hearing and a request for approval of the project. So this is an overview of the requested general plan amendment. As mentioned before, the site that is being amended is outlined in red on the right side. It is currently residential plan community, so that's RPC. And in order to accommodate the proposed development that you'll see in the subsequent slides, we are requesting a general plan amendment to make that 9.3 acre area general commercial, which is abbreviated as CG. Additionally, we are requesting a specific plan amendment, so that covers a few different things. One is to amend the designation for the land use for that 9.3 acre site, amend it from residential plan community to, or from residential, excuse me, to commercial. Additionally, you can see in kind of comparing the resort village and the arboretum village, which are planning areas within the arboretum specific plan, We're looking to kind of reconfigure that, the remaining areas. The Meadows Village and Gardens Village are kind of grayed out, if you will, to show that there are no changes to the layout, the planning areas, or anything like that, as those planning areas are largely developed with just one small area within Gardens Village. I believe that's yet to be developed. So all of the changes are north of Duncan Canyon in the Arboretum Village and the Resort Village. Additionally, I did want to point out that because the 9.3 acre site is being changed to commercial, we've moved to take the units, residential units that were attributed to that site and kind of disperse them throughout the specific plan, the remaining specific plan area. So we won't end up with any additional units beyond what the specific plan and the associated environmental document originally contemplated. It's just that those units are kind of now placed into other areas within the specific plan area. The other thing I wanted to point out is the total size of park area is not changing either. It's just kind of reconfigurated so it looks different but will still end up with the same amount of park space to benefit the community. So this is the site plan for the commercial center that is being proposed. It is at the northwest corner of Sierra Avenue and Terra Vista Drive. It consists of an anchor grocer that is just under 50,000 square feet as well as inline shops that are shown as shops too on the site plan that's attached to the grocer. It also includes pad shops and then also a drive-through restaurant there at the corner. You might notice kind of a white area with text kind of at the top right of the slide, and that is a pad that will be developed, entitled and developed separately, so it just is not part of this original application. Any sort of application for development would have to go through our normal development entitlement process, whatever that may be. So just kind of keeping that in mind, that's not a part at this time. For the site plan, you can see that there are driveways both on Terra Vista and on Sierra Avenue. There's also pedestrian circulation by way of marked crossings throughout the site, as well as throughout the central portion of the site leading to the anchor grocer. There is a landscaped walkway with enhanced paving that will have... pergolas on either side to enhance the pedestrian experience in that location. The applicant is proposing to meet the requirements for parking, which is 477 spaces, which is the requirement. They're also meeting the requirement of the zoning and development code regarding drive-through queuing so they are they are exceeding the amount of drive-through queuing that's required and they also have a plan for a high volume and grand opening times as well and as a part of this the grocery store is applying there's a conditional use permit before you for selling alcohol in association with the grocery store So that is the site plan for your review. Here are some renderings of the proposed buildings. As you can see, it's utilizing a Santa Barbara architecture style, which is characterized by white smooth stucco, the use of Spanish tile as an accent, as well as iron light fixtures and other decorative fixtures. There is concrete as tiles to go with the style as well and the use of stone veneer. You can see that the McDonald's area kind of has its own identity while still being compatible with the rest of the center. And you can also see the corner kind of monument area that's landscaped with benches to kind of provide another area for the community. Here's a similar view at dusk. So you can see the accent lighting that will be applied kind of throughout the center near the eaves of the building, the tower elements. And then this is a view from kind of the interior of the center looking toward the southwest. So this is also at dusk, obviously, so you can see the lighting and also the way in which the architecture is exemplified. So for this project, we did do an addendum to the Arboretum Specific Plan Environmental Impact Report. And I also wanted to point out that there were previously comment letters that were provided that are before you and prior to this public hearing, as well as a response from the applicant that was placed on the dais for your consideration. And with that said, staff recommends that the city council approve the Arboretum-specific plan and retail center project as detailed in the staff report. That concludes my presentation. Staff is available to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Thank you so much. That was a really good report. Any council members have any questions of staff? Go ahead, council member Collins.

Hi, Cecily. Hi. Good job, as always. I appreciate that. So the biggest issue that we've had kind of facing shopping centers at the moment is going to be the flow of traffic in and out at those key points of entry, right? So when I'm looking at this, I'm looking at as soon as you go into the shopping center, there's not a lot of stacking room if you're trying to go left or right, and that's going to cause a little congestion. For instance, when I go to the Falcon Ridge Shopping Center, the biggest complaint I get every single time is that when you turn right in there, cars are going left, cars are going right, cars are going straight, people are walking back and forth, and it just stacks up all the way on. So do you think that we've kind of given enough buffer space between the main road, or do you think this is just gonna be a smaller shopping center that we're not gonna face those larger challenges?

So to answer your question, I don't think we're going to face those same challenges, especially with the entrance and exit off of Sierra. I think we give enough buffer space there. And then the use of two different driveways off of Terra Vista and kind of that straight through on the more western driveway um i think will definitely help with moving traffic throughout i did also want to point out it's been a long week already and it's tuesday i mentioned comments about that we received comments that's on the next item that was not on this item so i apologize But I don't foresee there being any traffic holdups as far as vehicular circulation through the site. I also think the way in which the buildings are placed with the pads adjacent to Sierra and then having the anchor tenant with the inline shops kind of further back to the west allows for better circulation. Things are spread out a little bit more.

And then I can't remember, so obviously if my mind works the way I'm thinking this does, the behind the market shopping center, so to the west of it, that's going to be all residential, correct? Yes. And so the residential, when they come in, they're going to have a little bit of a buffer between, because I know that the second someone moves in there, this is going to be their first, they're going to say, oh, the trucks are beeping, the trucks are beeping all night long. How are we kind of setting a little bit of a buffer between that then for...

So the applicant is planning to do that in a couple of ways. One, there will be a screen wall that will be on that western property line that will be, I think it's going to slightly retain just due to the difference in grade. And then, so we'll have the wall. And then there's also another screen wall that's kind of adjacent to where the trucks load. So you kind of get... that buffering as well but beyond that there's also the quite wide drive aisle between the actual western property line and the rear of that grocery store building so i think with the distance this the wall um for sound and screening and then the secondary wall for the actual truck loading bay i think you won't anticipate or i don't anticipate any noise that will impact future residences We don't know what those residences will be at this time, but we know that that area is slated for that in the specific plan.

I know, but I already knew you were thinking about it. It's going to be on your plate soon enough. It will. Before we know it. And then just knowing that the grade difference up there as you're coming down Sear Avenue, are they going to have to have a pretty hefty retaining wall on one side or both sides? How are they leveling that out? So the –

It slopes from north to south. As we know, you're in a pretty steady downhill as you're going south on Sierra. So there will be retaining along that northern property line for this site in addition to a wall. So that way it will handle the drainage and that sort of thing. We've really tried to take good care in screening things like the drive-through and all of that as you're coming south on Sierra Avenue to really protect aesthetics and visuals. So there is going to be a pretty hefty retaining wall on that northern property line. And then the residences that will come after it north of the site will be at a higher grade.

And then how is this, last question for you here. I know the mayor is probably getting her questions now. How is this in correlation lining up with the school that's going to be east of it? I mean, are the driveways going to line, or is it just too far separated away from it?

So you mean the existing school at Kodiak?

Yeah, the Kodiak Elementary.

So the driveways, I don't believe align. I know that Terra Vista will obviously go straight through, and then there's going to be, for the school existing, I believe there's access points on the interior. from the interior of the neighborhood.

Yes, they don't enter from Sierra. They enter from a separate street on that side.

Right, so I don't anticipate any conflict with cars having to do with that elementary school or anything like that. There will be eventually, I believe, a median there, so we won't have any real impacts there as well.

So let me ask you this now. So this is going to probably end up being one of the intersections that when the future housing comes in, those kids are probably likely to walk across that street, right? Right. So how are we making that as safe as possible?

So that intersection will have crosswalks, and I believe it will be signalized, if I'm not mistaken, so that way it's protecting and holding back the cars to allow for safe pedestrian crossing.

Okay. So something to think about that I'd like to just put on our radar now. So as the housing comes into the north of it, cars coming down Sierra Avenue have gotten to inhabit that they're used to nothing being there. So they're used to traveling at 60, 65, 70 miles an hour sometimes because there's nothing there but a vacant field. So as we're developing the housing and we're doing the Sierra widening, I'd like us to play a little extra caution as we're approaching that school to make sure that we are giving plenty of line of sight, that no kids can be able to jot across, that everything is visible, as cars and parents are going back and forth that we're leaving any possibility that a kid can ever get hit.

Absolutely, and I know that our engineering department, both land development and traffic, have worked very closely with the applicant and also plan to keep working closely together as it comes to future phases and the improvements that are associated. I know that there is gonna be room for deceleration when you're coming south on Sierra. In order to make that right turn onto Terra Vista, they're looking closely at it even in real time about how much deceleration space they need in order for cars to really be able to anticipate the turn that's coming up and slow down and all of that. So like I said, I believe our engineering staff is working really closely with their engineering staff as well as the applicants themselves.

Because I do see a turn pocket as you're heading southbound Sierra Avenue to go west onto Terra Vista. Yes. There is that turn pocket already that we have established.

And then they're contemplating whether or not, you know, it needs to be longer or, you know, if it's sufficient. So a lot of that work has, you know, the study has been done.

Fantastic. Thank you.

Well, actually, you took two of my questions. Thank you. I'm glad you did it, though. Ceci, do we have any idea what type of product type is going to be on that north wall here for the housing?

I believe by way of just overall density, we would be looking at something that's maybe, you know, like townhomes or something like that, but I'm not certain. I think it's really going to come down to the development standards and how they get crafty with the design.

And definitely those will be built after the commercials.

Yes, I would assume so because we don't have an application in for entitlements for new development of the housing to the north. We don't have any applications in right now.

Okay. So when people make their decisions where they want to buy, they will have seen that center already there.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am. All right. Are there any other questions? John, you're light on? No, they took care of it. They took care of it. All right. Well, thank you for that great report. And at this time... City Clerk, do you have any requests to speak?

Here, we have one request to speak from Haley Hightower.

Okay, call her up. Ms. Hightower, are you? She? Okay, all right. With that, I'm going to close the public hearing. And that brings us to making a motion to approve staff's recommendation as provided in the staff report. And here I go. one adopt resolution number 2026-076 general plan amendment cycle number one of 2026 approving an addendum to the aberration specific plan environmental impact report sch number two zero zero six seven one one zero nine general plan amendment number twenty three dash zero zero zero zero zero two tentative track map number two zero six four six TTM number 26-0006, tentative parcel map number 20851, TPM number 23-00008, design review number 23-00011, and conditional use permit number 23-00005 for assessor's parcels number 0239-081-52. including general plan amendments, subdivision of the property, development of 69,617 square foot commercial center, and authorization for off-site alcohol sales in connection with the grocery store. And number two, read by title only, and waive further reading of, and introduce ordinance number 1994, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Fontana, California, approving to an addendum to the Arboretum Specific Plan Environmental Impact Report. Specific Plan Amendment Number 23-00002, an amendment to the Arboretum Specific Plan to modify permitted land uses and to reconfigure planning areas and park sites, and that the reading of the title constitutes the first reading thereof And number three, read by title only and waive further reading of and introduce ordinance number 1995, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Fontana, California, approving to an addendum to the Arboretum Specific Plan Environmental Impact Report, a third amendment to the Arboretum Specific Plan Development Agreement, and that the reading of the title constitutes the first reading thereof.

So moved. So moved.

Great. I need a second.

Madam Mayor, before the second, I just want to remind the members of the council that because your last two items are approval of the first reading of an ordinance, all three of you must vote in favor should you wish to pass this item. It's not a majority of those present. It's a majority of all five council members, although you're missing one and have one recused.

But what if we're presidents? Do we still have to think about that?

Well, we'll talk about that later, ma'am. So we do need unanimous vote if the council's gonna pass this today, just so the council is aware.

So no pressure. All right, cool. Can I have a second now?

So as I make my second on this one, I would like to have my colleagues think of new ways that we can promote healthier restaurants and healthy eating within the city of Fontana. But I will second the motion for approval.

I can't thank you enough. With that, please cast your votes.

Could Councilman Roberts give us his oral vote? Three in favor, motion passed.

Motion passed. I'd like to thank my colleagues for doing that, and at this time we'll have Mayor Pro Tem Peter Garcia please return. okay we can now resume let me announce that mayor pro tem peter garcia has come back and we've lost our attorney now where's reuben he'll be right back okay all right that brings us to public hearing item b public hearing item b is master case number 26-0004 which includes specific plan amendments conditional use permits and design review to amend the text of planning area four of the Ventana specific plan to add gas stations and drive-throughs as conditionally permitted uses. A request to establish a gas station, a request to establish and conditionally permitted uses, a request to establish a request with alcoholic beverage control type 20, licensed for a proposed convenience store as part of the gas station. A request to establish an alcohol beverage control type 21 license and type 86 ABC license for a proposed grocery store. A request to establish a drive-through use for a standalone building within the proposed retail shopping center. a request to establish a drive-through use for a portion of a multi-tenant building, and a request for site and architectural review of a commercial shopping center on an 11.55-acre parcel located at APN 1107-26207 and 65 to an addendum to the Ventana Specific Plan Final Environmental Impact Report. The public hearing is now open. City Clerk Key, do you have any written correspondence on this matter?

Mayor, at the start of this meeting, we had six written communications received. We've been continually receiving them, and so we'll tally the total and provide it to you.

All right, thank you. At this time, we'll have our associate go back to provide a staff report.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The project before you for the Ventana specific plan amendment and retail center as indicated in the description that you provided includes the specific plan amendment in order to allow a couple of new land uses in planning area for with the approval of a conditional use permit, as well as several conditional use permits and a design review for site and architectural approval for the new development. This project was recommended for approval by the Planning Commission back on June 16th, 2016. And so now we're moving forward towards approval. So this is the proposed site plan. The project site is located at the southwest corner, excuse me, of Duncan Canyon and John Prevetti Avenue. And it is a retail center. The first phase of development for Planning Area 4 was approved previously by the Planning Commission earlier this year, which was a 408-unit multifamily complex. just south of this site so kind of if you're looking at the site plan it's towards the bottom it's the portion that is in black and white if you will so this is the second phase for planning area number four and it is in anchor grocer with several kind of out buildings including two drive-throughs a gas station with a convenience store and then a few other shops buildings that would be used for other commercial like retail services office that sort of thing As indicated in the description, the total size of development would be about 98,780 square feet. The applicant is proposing, kind of similar to the previous item, some pedestrian connectivity through the site, including a landscaped kind of walkway through the central portion of the site. I'd also like to point out that there is pedestrian access from the residential to the south onto the site, as you can kind of see where it's you see some trees and like a colored area and then it kind of goes to the black and white. So that's the pedestrian connectivity to kind of create this easy way to get into the commercial area and make use of the businesses, restaurants, and other services that will be located on the site. That walkway is actually enhanced with upgraded or enhanced decorative paving as well as kind of these covered archways that you would walk through as a pedestrian to create a great pedestrian experience and to also kind of just enhance the visuals and the aesthetics as you're making your way to these services, restaurants and other businesses. The applicant is proposing parking that exceeds the requirement of the zoning and development code. It is a requirement of 474 spaces and they're proposing 479 spaces. You can see access points to the site on both John Prevetti and Duncan Canyon for vehicles as well as there are pedestrian connectivity from the streets as well. So that is our site plan. one thing i wanted to mention excuse me so the applicant as mentioned is proposing two drive-throughs those drive-throughs exceed both exceed the required amount of queuing for cars as as indicated in the zoning and development code so there is a plan for kind of typical queuing, if you will, as well as higher volume times, grand openings, and other special events. So as to not impact the vehicular kind of circulation through the site, the applicant has a plan for both in order to limit any impacts on the remainder of the center. So here's a rendering showing the anchor grocer as well as kind of the remainder of the building. You can see that they are utilizing a Tuscan architecture style, which is characterized by kind of a more neutral color palette with dark brown, burgundy, and green accents. There's smooth stucco arches as, kind of elements and other details. There are also metal accents and light fixtures, stone veneer, and then the concrete-esque tiles. They are also using a really large cornice along the tops of the buildings to really enhance and exemplify the style that we're going for there for the Tuscan, which will also complement the other development within the specific plan so far. Here's another view of kind of the shops F so the inline shop as well as the grocery store from the interior of the site and you can see the gathering space with the benches and as well as the landscaping that is throughout and also adjacent to the building to kind of enhance and really work with that architectural style. And then this is shops DNC so adjacent more to john privetti Avenue and so their pads and this is looking from the interior of the center looking toward the east. This project was done with an addendum to the Ventana at Duncan Canyon specific plan environmental impact report. So I did want to point that out. And staff does recommend that the city council approve the Ventana at Duncan Canyon specific plan amendment and commercial project as detailed in the staff report. That concludes my presentation. And staff's available to answer any questions you may have.

Council have any questions of staff?

Thank you for the presentation. I just had one question with respect to the site plan. Yes. And on the site plan, It shows the gas station there. And I think I had mentioned this before to someone, but this is kind of reminiscent of an existing project that we have right now, which is actually the Aldi over on Beach near... What is that, Summit? Beach and Summit? Okay, so if you turn in to the shopping center from Beach, you have the, there's a Wendy's on one side, and then there's a gas station on the other side. And because there isn't any kind of separation on the roadway there, there's a lot of conflicts between cars going between the gas station and cutting across over to Wendy's, and Wendy's cutting across over to the gas station. So the only question, and it looks like there was some separation made, but the only question I had was if... how it's going to work when people are exiting the gas station and if there would be any unnecessary traffic conflicts from people entering from Duncan Canyon or leaving through that main roadway there in front of the grocer in terms of cars going back and forth perpendicular to the roadway.

So I think I understand your question as far as the circulation. In this case, there is going to be a wall that will kind of be adjacent to the driveway as it's coming in as a retaining wall. So I think that separation already will help as far as directing cars. And I have experienced what you're mentioning about on beach. I think that with the directional ways throughout the gas station site, so there's two-way traffic kind of around to circulate around the actual gas station canopy, and that will also get you over to the convenience store, and then the two-way traffic that will run parallel to the actual side of the anchor grocer. I think it will definitely help with guiding the cars and limiting any conflict between those cars and then cars that are just already circulating on the site. But let me know if that didn't clarify.

So I think I see the wall now. Councilman Coughlin pointed it out. So then in between the wall, now you have... the end of the wall and kind of the corner of the anchor grocer, that's the ingress and egress to the gas station?

Yes, so exactly. So at the end of the wall, you know, you'd be going forward a little bit and then turning into the gas station or utilizing that driveway or drive aisle that runs parallel to the anchor grocer then to circulate to the convenience store and that sort of thing. So you do get full vehicular circulation around the actual canopy that will be directed by arrows. Therefore, I think you'd really limit people kind of going any which way, which will kind of mitigate that traffic on site.

Yeah, so that was just my, I guess... Eventually, they'll be looking at that in more detail. And so just as a comment, I think the circulation, we need to really pay attention to the circulation in that particular spot so that we don't kind of run into the same issue we have over at that other shopping center I mentioned.

Yeah, I definitely agree with you. I think, you know, it's been my experience sometimes too where cars kind of cut in a little too early or they cut in too late. And so it just feels like a wide open space where you can kind of do whatever. And so there is that conflict. I think the way in which this site is laid out and the amount of circulation around and through the site, I think it'll feel a lot more orderly and definitely a lot more safe.

Any more questions here, Pro Tem? Okay, Council Member Cothran.

All right, Cecily. It's gonna be a rather good height difference between Duncan Canyon when you're coming off the freeway and that first pad. That's gotta be close to eight, 10 feet, I'd imagine?

I do believe there is gonna be a height difference when you come in, obviously, because you're gonna be sloping from north to south. So there will be that height difference, and then there's gonna be... A retaining wall, stucco retaining wall with a guardrail that is kind of in between the right-of-way and, or adjacent to the right-of-way and the actual berming and landscaping. So you will have, yeah, that retaining wall there that will cut in, kind of like a diagonal, that diagonal of the site where the gas station is.

Very good. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, the northern entrance and exit, that's a right-in, right-out only?

Yes, I believe that is a right in and right out.

The one that goes on Duncan Canyon? Andrew's sitting over there nodding his head yes.

Yes.

Okay. I figured you wouldn't mind the assistance there. All right. So if you're not going to be going eastbound on Duncan, you're essentially going to go back down out to John Previty Way, and you're going to come up that direction and go northbound to be able to go west if you want to. To continue west, yeah. Because then the exit that's down there farther south, that's a right in, right out only. So our main congestion is really going to be the exit flow that's going to be coming out onto John Previty Way at that intersection, which it looks like you could probably get 10, 12 cars stacked in there, I imagine. It looks pretty hefty.

It's definitely sizable for QA in order to make turning movements, excuse me.

And then I really appreciate the actual walkability on this one. So... When you walk in, I mean, that's my biggest complaint when I go to shopping centers is I end up parking out in the middle of nowhere in the parking lot because I don't want to park around cars. And then I walk in, but I have to walk with my kids down the same aisle the cars are driving through. And so that center walk aisle has been something that I've been asking for for a long time, so I'm happy someone's actually doing it for us. But the entrance that you're coming in off of Duncan Canyon, there is no walk down that. Am I correct?

There is not a sidewalk down that area, no.

Okay, so if I'm coming from Hunter's Ridge or Duncan Canyon, I'm coming over the freeway with my kids on a bike or walking with them, I'm going to have to go all the way around the center to walk in. so yes you would go ahead and round the corner and then head south so you'd have you know sidewalk and like protected sidewalk and then have the crossings throughout the site I think most of your walking traffic realistically is gonna come from the housing that's gonna be across the street from it as well as the sorry apartments that are northeast of it so I think you're you're probably okay without having that walking path but I was just trying to figure out how to get there from the other side of the freeway for people that wanted to do that. And then, very sizable, I see another drive-through pad, very long, double-stack there, hopefully.

Yes, so for that pad, the one that's at the corner, they are proposing to accommodate probably more drive-through queuing than I've seen for most. I believe it's 31 cars where the requirement of the code is about 12 cars.

Okay, no pressure on high-quality drive-through then. I'm just going to put it out there.

Got to put it out there.

Two of them. There's two places I'm thinking of mine right now. They both have red logos.

You've been very clear, Council Member Cotton.

you have any more questions okay i'm with you on that so with that said are there any more questions okay city clerk key do you have any requests to speak mayor we have um two requests to speak and if miss hightower has returned she would make number three is miss hightower back okay no she's not so we have two requests to speak

grace and ada and how long are you giving each speaker mayor since this is a public hearing i'm gonna stick with three minutes okay speakers you have three minutes each as long as you stay to the subject good afternoon my name is grace and i live less than half a mile from this proposed site i've lived there for four years now I'm a parent and I also have elderly parents living with me who have health conditions, so this decision affects three generations of my family. Before I get into my concerns, I want to flag a transparency issue. When I looked up the minutes from the June 16th Planning Commission meeting, where this project was recommended for approval, the document posted online was blank, just a date, no content. I'd ask the council to confirm that full minutes exist and are made available to the public before this item moves forward. Now to my main concern. I'm asking you to deny conditional use permit number 26-0001 and remove the gas station from this project. When we bought our home, we expected this empty parcel to eventually be developed with housing. I wasn't thrilled when I learned it would be another shopping center instead, but I was willing to accept that. A gas station is where I draw the line. Had I known a fuel station was a possibility here, it would have changed my decision to invest in this neighborhood at all. My reason goes beyond personal preference. This site is officially designated as a very high-fired hazard severity zone, according to the project's own conditions of approval. Our neighborhood is already dealing with the rising insurance costs and coverage issues because of that fire zone designation. Adding a fuel storage tank to an already high-risk fire area only compounds that burden, and I'm concerned about what this could mean for our insurability and our safety going forward. There's also the air quality issue. The addendum to the FEIR does not adequately address benzene emissions from fueling and fuel storage. Benzene is a known carcinogen linked to respiratory and hematologic harm, especially in children to a range of other health effects in people of all ages. My child and my parents would be living in daily proximity to that exposure. This also isn't an underserved area. Gas stations already exist at the freeway exits north and south of Duncan Canyon Road. I'm not opposed to the rest of this project. I'm asking specifically that this gas station and its ABC Type 20 license be removed and that the specific plan amendment be revised to keep the gas station out of the planning area for. Thank you.

Good afternoon City Council. My name is Ada. I am a retired senior citizen. I live with my husband a little over a quarter mile from the proposed site. I am also my husband's caregiver. He has heart and lung problems amongst other health conditions. and I have heart problems myself. This affects three generations of our family, including my young grandchild. I am asking you to deny the gas station part of this project. Gas stations release benzene which is a known cancer-causing chemical. It's especially harmful to children and to people with heart and lung conditions, like my husband and myself. We already manage serious health issues, and I don't think it's safe to add more air pollution so close to our home. The site is also in a very high fire hazard zone that has already caused problems for our home insurance in this neighborhood. Adding fuel tanks to a high fire risk area only makes that worse. There are already gas stations at the freeway exits on both sides of the Duncan Canyon Road and on Summit, so this one isn't even necessary. I am not against the rest of the project. I just don't think that a gas station belongs this close to homes, especially with seniors' health conditions and a young child in our family. Please consider something like an EV charging station instead, or just leave it as a retail center. Thank you.

That concludes our speakers, Mayor.

All right. Thank you. I will now close the public hearing, and I'm going to bring it back to Council for action. after i read the following one adopt resolution number two zero two six dash zero seven seven approving addendum to the environmental impact report for the ventana at ducking canyon specific plan sch number two oh two one one zero zero four zero zero conditional use permit numbers 26-0001 26-002, 26-003, 26-0011, and design review permit number 26-0002 for a new 98,783 square foot retail center with associated site improvements in approximately 11.55 gross acres located at the southwest corner of Duncan Canyon Road and John Previty Avenue, identified as Assessor's Parcels numbers 1107-262-07 and 1111-07-262-65. And two, read by title only and wait for the reading of and introduce ordinance number 1996 An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Fontana, California, approving to an addendum to the Environmental Impact Report for the Ventana at Duncan Canyon Specific Plan, SCH number 201100400, Specific Plan Amendment number 26-0001, to add gas station and drive-thru uses as conditionally permitted uses. to Planning Area 4, the Ventana at Duncan Canyon specific plan, and that the reading of the title constitutes the first reading thereof. May I have a motion?

So moved, Mayor. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. Please cast your votes.

I voted, but for the record, it's yes.

Okay, thank you. Four in favor, motion is passed.

Motion passed. That takes us to public hearing item C, is adoption of development impact fee, nexus study, and updated development impact fees. This is the time and place set for the consolidated public hearing on the adoption of number one, the development impact fee nexus study, two, development impact fee schedule. This consolidated public hearing is now open. I now call upon the city clerk to confirm the posting and publication of the consolidated public hearing notice and meeting materials.

Mayor, notices for this consolidated public hearing were posted, mailed to interested property owners, and published in the newspaper in the manner and form as required by law.

Deputy City Manager Phillip Byrne will provide the staff report.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Before you today is consideration of adoption of the development impact fee study, the full nexus study that considered the improvements remaining to be completed in the city of Fontana pursuant to the master plans and the imposition of updated fees to new development in the city. So for a quick overview of what a development impact fee is, it's after Prop 13 in the state of California when the state froze local jurisdictions general fund contributions from property tax, development impact fees was a methodology that was created to offset the impact of new development to existing communities. The intention being if a new community comes and creates a new burden, whether it be a traffic signal or a lane of traffic or a storm drain, the existing community should not bear the burden of that new infrastructure through the general fund. So the city of Fontana, I think last updated, it's a full comprehensive study to this level, I think about a decade ago. the last update we entered the covid period and a lot of changes in the development community but we haven't done a almost fully comprehensive update in just a little over a decade so staff after council approved the updates to the master plan for storm drain infrastructure and the master plan for our sewer infrastructure late last december which also had not been updated in several years i think a few decades for the storm drain staff felt it appropriate to update the development impact fee schedule. So the study has been published online. It's available to read all the details and it's also available as part of the staff report. The fees that were studied for new development that impact, their impacts on public facilities, police, fire, library, parks. The city of Fontana has a landscape median impact fee that we charge. local arterials and active transportation corridors, as well as traffic signals, sewer and storm drain. These are all the different components of the infrastructure that the city maintains and the intention of the development impact fee study was to evaluate the impact, the overall burden to the city and then the impact and that can be attributable to new development. The way that it is determined how to assess a specific fee is by way of example, determining the overall gap in master infrastructure, what is existing and what is required to fulfill the infrastructure, estimating the amount of development that is forthcoming based on the city's general plan, and then you attribute a percentage of the impact to each of those developments. Each of these fees was studied based on a needs list that is part of our capital improvement plan that was approved by council. The way that these fees are calculated determine impact by way of examples what's shown on the slide there is a public facility is based on the people that it serves which is different than like a landscape median which is based on the amount of traffic created by each new development. So each fee category is studied differently based on its actual physical impact to the city of Fontana. Sewer is a pretty simple one. If you have a toilet that flushes, you're impacting the sewer system. So it's calculated based on the number of EDUs or ADTs available. This slide depicts what the current fee schedule is in the city of Fontana. And I wanted to highlight a couple things on this. the reason this slide is here. One is highlighted in blue are fees that we did not study. We're not recommending an update to those numbers or those different impacts based on a wide variety of projects that are ongoing. We believe it's, for example, the circulation fee circulation fee which was not studied in this round is going to be impacted by a couple of significant projects that the city has some federal funding going towards so we believe we'll restudy that after the completion of a few other projects this is also showing the storm drain table on the bottom of the chart storm drain when that when this fee structure was developed probably 20 years ago then updated 10 years ago each area of the city as uh demarked on on the slide had its own storm drain system that it was contributing to the recommendation before you today is to consolidate the storm drains into one city wide fee so every new development can be uh would be assessed an equivalent fee regardless of where you are in the city one other big update and i'll get into the details of the updates state law in 2024 mandated the next time any local agency updated their impact fee schedule related to residential development you must now attribute those costs on a per square foot basis rather than a per unit basis I think it was the state's attempt to equalize the McMansion era when people were building 5000 square foot homes. The assumption is those would have more of an impact because they would have more occupants than a 3000 square foot home or a 2000 square foot home. So state mandated that you convert per unit fees to per square foot for residential. So what's before you today is the specific recommendation for each of those categories to be charged per square foot to each of these developments. And I want to quantify the only fee that's being updated that's not on a per square foot basis is the storm drain fee. Storm drain fees are based on the development impact of an acre of land. the bigger or the more impervious uh development you create on the acre the bigger impact you have to the storm drain system so those are not a per square foot or a per residential or edu development so they're charged on a per acre basis so what's being recommended before you shows the slide on the per square foot basis i wanted to include This council has always been very conscious of balancing, not impacting our existing residents on general fund, but also being as pro-business and pro-development as you can. If you talk to anybody in the building industry, every dollar that you pay in a fee is one less dollar they could spend on their house or three more dollars they'd have to charge for the house. So I think the city of Fontana has done a great job over the years balancing the impacts, collecting enough fees to make sure the impacts are offset while not overburdening new development. So this is a chart just showing the difference of the proposed fee schedule based on what they, this is current, I'm sorry. It has Fontana current and proposed. The City of Ontario, the Ontario Ranch, which is a major master plan that has its own specific fee schedule. And by the way, the reason those numbers are so different is the Ontario Ranch had zero infrastructure, much like the Chino Preserve. So they have their own impact fee schedules. They pay a much higher rate. But this is intended to show, even with the new proposed fees on a single family home, Fontana, the fees that Fontana collects on behalf of Fontana are still dramatically less than the industry, but they're perfectly appropriately incised for the impacts that are being created by the new development. So actually, I'm sorry, I skipped ahead on this, the AB602, the residential development conversion storm drain fees, we talked about that. I should have restudied the slides before I brought forward. I do wanna make a note that the Nexus study includes the maximum legally justifiable fee that the city could assess based on the impacts. Because the storm drain infrastructure, the impact is so large By the way, the master plan that was updated in December exposed a $1.2 billion master plan deficit, much like LEDWP has their trillion dollar deficit to build all their infrastructure. Imposing the full maximum legally justifiable fee on three specific uses would create an unfair burden on those uses, effectively eliminate the opportunity to move those uses forward. So what staff is recommending for adoption on the single family detached residential units, which are generally up to six or seven units per acre, rather than assessing the full $77,000 per acre assessment that staff will be recommending that we assess 50% of that. the full assessment would go towards multifamily. From a practical perspective, there is much more multifamily development coming to Fontana than there is single family development. So the impact to the amount of funds that would be collected would still be sufficient to sustain our capital improvement plan. The same comment is true for commercial industrial. I wanna pull commercial out for just a second. Fontana has done so little new commercial development over the last 20 or 30 years. I'm not going to attribute that to our development impact fee, but that certainly plays a part. The dollar amount on a per square foot basis that Fontana currently charges, I believe, is about $13.68 per square foot. New buildings are built for about $200 a square foot, so you're effectively paying about 6% to 7% of your new construction costs and development impact fees. Not necessarily as a result of that, but Fontana has not built a lot of new commercial facilities in the last 20 years. Those burdensome numbers would play an impact on that. If we assess the full storm drain assessment against those developments, that number would go up to about $25 a foot. So staff is recommending that if the city council would adopt this fee, we would be assessing the $77,000 an acre on the multifamily, whether it's medium density or high density, but multifamily attached projects, 50% reduction on single family detached as well as commercial and industrial. And with that, staff is asking that the city council adopt resolution number 26-078, adopting a development impact fee nexus study, those findings contained therein, and then revising the amount of development impact fees to the finance, certain public facilities, and taking certain other actions as related thereto. Staff is available to answer questions. I brought the smart person in because she'll have complicated questions.

Very good. I owe you too much. What are the next steps before I open this door up? We adopted today. Aren't you going to come back with recommendations?

Yes, Mayor. Now that we're right sizing the development impact fee schedule throughout the city, there's one program that's been existing in the city for about 20 years that I would like the council to consider revising. And then there's a separate, especially with the commercial development. I'm a big believer in if you provide appropriate incentives, you might inspire new development more timely. And I wanna clarify that. So I would like to come back in September. The intention after talking to the city manager is coming back in September with a recommendation regarding our current residential infill development impact fee discount, as well as establishing a temporary reduction for our commercial development. I think if we provide a certain, a specific timeline for both, it will motivate some developments to get off the starting blocks and move forward. And we talked about this a little bit when we did the temporary diff reduction on residential during the COVID era. The reason that's beneficial to a city, if you know you're gonna build anyway, the property tax loss between building today and building five years from now, the impact is still gonna be the same, but the lost revenue that the city would incur by not having the property tax or the retail sales tax from commercial is staggering. There's one development that we're waiting to move forward that we've estimated it's about $100,000 a month in lost revenue for the city for every month that project doesn't move forward. So once you've approved a development, we want to inspire it to move forward. So I'd like to come back in September with some specific recommendations separate from this action related to those fees.

Okay, and I'm really concerned about when we meet in September, we really look at that because we're seeing commercial kind of walk through the door right now. Fontana is a big deal.

and people are asking those great questions how can i get in here with restaurants how can i get in here with more grocery stores which is what we need based on the growth it is mayor and the uncertainties related to brick and mortar retail right make any financial gap very difficult to want to make the investment which is what in following the spirit of the city council and their goals to promote certain specific developments i believe that would be very effective in doing so

Well, just alone, having the parking structure completed over to our south here and the next one on its way, it's about to blow up. So we need to be ready. Are there any more questions? Anybody have any concerns? There you go.

I just had a comment. So, Mr. Byrne, one of the things that I was looking at was the – single-family detached that we have here and with respect to the fees and I know we have a different in the code we have a couple different items in there potentially use some clarification in terms of a definition of single-family detached when it comes to the 50% discount so what I'd like is if you can please take a look at that and come up with the proposed definitions that are can be used consistently by staff when assessing the fees and would be very clear to those who will be paying the fees in terms of how it's going to apply to their particular project.

If I can mirror that back to you a little bit, just so I can make sure that I have proper directions. To your point, the words multifamily attached and single family detached don't necessarily appear in our municipal code in that form. So what you're looking for is some added language that might be more consistent with the land use descriptions in our code. So if someone comes to me and asks if they qualify, they'll get the same answers if they come to Patty or a staff planner.

Correct.

So some kind of clean up when we do the resolution ordinance that would make sure that the spirit of the intention is the same. It's making it more clear. So everyone, every developer and every resident and every staff member knows what the intention is. That's exactly perfect. I can definitely do that and the smart person actually reminded me I did. It's in the staff report, but it's not in the slideshow. As you know, one of the one of the big things that I've always been an advocate for, especially with my prior career, is not changing the rules in the middle of a project so although we are intending to update the fees and it does raise pretty much all the fees across the board industrial for example is increasing by 50 um being what staff recommends is that we if subject to the council approval if you approve it today we would not implement the new fee schedule till july 1st of 2027. which would give people that are currently working on properties the opportunity to get their fees paid, get their property developed on the current fee schedules to not to change the rules in the middle. So thank you, Gia, for.

And so obviously some of these are gonna be taking some substantial hits here. Are you anticipating that we're gonna try to take this in one single whack, that we're just gonna increase it at one time, or do you think there's a layered effect that we can discuss at a later point?

The proposal is that it's all in one whack, I guess is the way that you would support it. And I think it would be difficult to pull and break them down into individual impacts, aside from the three that were highlighted on the prior slide that we did not study. Every fee that we studied, we are recommending you take action on that current fee. The reason it's important to enact them all at once, if you'll notice, you look at fees, our fee schedule, I don't have an exhibit that shows a side-by-side comparison. I think you're interpreting that wrong.

I think not as in we're going to take residential and do residential, then commercial, as in if we're going to increase commercial by 50%, are we going to increase it by 50% on July 1st of 2027, or are we going to increase it on July 1st by 30% and the next following year another 30%?

so the intention of this schedule is to increase it to this schedule on july 1st 2027. as a separate conversation on a temporary reduction that may have a phased approach we're still working out with the city manager how we want to do that and potentially like the infill sun setting it's a 50 discount today staff may by way of example recommend revise that to a 25 discount after a year revise it to a no discount after two years but that would be a separate separate discussion and separate conversation thank you are there any more questions okay we're looking forward to september at this time if there are no other questions

i will now open the public comment portion of the consolidated public hearing any member of the audience may make oral written public testimony for against for the diff schedule you are not required to provide oral testimony in order to submit a written comment if you wish you may simply submit your written comment to the city clerk at this time

As you come forward to speak, please identify yourself and your address. Please also note which item you wish to speak on. Or if you wish to speak on both items, please note that as well. Mayor, I have two cards for speakers. The first is from Bill Blankenship. The second card is from Jennifer Cardenas. Mr. Blankenship, would you approach the mic? And how long, how much time are you giving, Mayor?

Three minutes.

I'm so far back here, I can hardly see you.

Don't worry, I can hardly see you, too.

My name is Bill Blankenship, representing NAOP Inland Empire chapter that's soon becoming CREDA, which is an effort at the national level to be more descriptive of the entirety of the association. I'm here this afternoon, honorable mayor and honorable members of the council staff, We had the opportunity to work with your staff and go through a validation exercise, if you will, of the development impact study. We recognize it's been a long time, maybe up to a decade, as was pointed out in staff's report today, since the fees have been completely looked at and analyzed. Currently, the industry right now is going through a bit of an adjustment, if you will. Land prices have come down from where they were post-COVID. Timeframes as well as lease rates have gone down as well. So with that said, the industry is certainly in a readjustment, if you will, and the $3.14 increase will be a high bar, if you will, for the industry to shoulder in the future. However, since it has been a decade, and since staff is recommending a year before the new fee is implemented, I'm here today in reluctance support if you could put the two together, of this fee study. I may come back in a year from now and tell you it is preventing projects from going forward, but today it certainly makes sense, and we appreciate the opportunity that we've had to work with your staff and the partnership that the great city of Fontana has provided to the industry. So with that said, reluctantly, we support the increase, and thank you for the opportunity to come before the council today.

I gotta thank you for that comment, sir. Jennifer Cardenas.

Good afternoon, city council, committee members. My name is Jennifer Cardenas. I'm a resident. I don't think the fees are high enough for industry. I mean, you said it's already been a decade The fact that you're trying to create a warehouse to hold people, our unhoused community shows that you have failed with warehouses. There's so many that are empty that now you need other ways of using them. So that's kind of telling us a lot about like maybe sustainability should be studied a little more and maybe if it's been so long that these industries haven't been paying, maybe their fee should be a little higher. I do see that there's fees for residential, where my community is at, for the parks. A lot of the Instagram posts, Facebook posts, what y'all show is you're asking residents to give up their time to volunteer to clean up parks. I think that there's a job opportunity for our community to actually do that. Instead of just asking us for our free labor on top of also paying for the parks as part of our fees, let's be real. A lot of the impacts that these warehouses have caused, those particles land somewhere. They also land on all of the equipment that the children use. If we had jobs made for community that were more not just volunteer based, but like consistent, you would actually be helping the community a lot more. I think there should be more studies done on this, on how you're applying your budget for parks and fees when community is asked to do a lot of this free labor. But you know what? I might hold this up to our next mayor and maybe our next representatives, but I did want to voice it here today so you also know why we continue to push for better representation. Because as much as you're advocating for industry and commercial, the fees don't really match that in comparison to the residents that have been here. So thank you for your time. And I know you're not going to thank me for my comment, but the community will. Have a nice day.

That concludes our speakers, Mayor. Okay.

Actually, I was going to thank you for your comments because I'm going to get a chance to talk about what you said. Now, seeing no others who wish to speak on this matter, I'm prepared to close the consolidated public hearing. However, before I do that, I would like to provide anyone who would like to submit any written or oral comments a final opportunity to do so. Once the public hearing is closed, we are prohibited from accepting any further oral or written testimony. Are there any remaining written comments?

I have none, Mayor.

Are there any remaining oral comments? I will hereby declare this consolidated public hearing closed. We have a motion to approve staff's recommendation as provided in the staff report.

So moved, Mayor.

Is there a second?

I'll second the motion.

All right, one, adopt resolution number 2026-078, adopting a development impact fee nexus study. The findings contained therein and revising the amount of development impact fees to finance certain public facilities and taking certain other actions related thereto. We have a motion and a second. Please cast your vote.

Councilman Garcia, were you able to cast your vote?

My vote is yes.

Okay, thank you.

motion is passed thank you i'd like to thank my colleagues for uh approving this study and i really look forward to september we're we're trying to make sure what we do is in line with what we're really competing with that and that is with other cities too but at the same time we're sensitive to our needs The comment that sustainability within the industrial area has failed. I guess if you are not aware of the activities and the job gain that has occurred as a result of having these industrial areas, you could say that. But when you talk to residents that work in those locations, they are really adamant about not having their jobs go away. and that they are being allowed to have opportunities and be near their families, not having to drive to Orange County and to San Diego County and L.A. County just to work. And most of the industry that are in those buildings are manufacturers. People really get hung up on logistics and they go after Amazon and all the other logistics areas. If you look at the history that we have seen in this city, we are 3 1⁄2 miles from the largest cargo airport in the United States, and that's Ontario Airport. And that's why the growth in that area in Ontario has just gone way out the window. It is amazing what is being done there. We decided that for the need of 200 beds to help the homeless population, if we could find an open warehouse, that would be a good spot. And we're fixing it up and developing through the construction that occurred today earlier to make sure it's a home for people until they are either placed in another program or they move on with their life. But to sit and not do anything is not what we decided to do. and bringing eight other partners along with other cities and the county, it is our understanding we'll be successful in helping that population. But we have so many other programs going on right now to help our homeless. This is that special program that assists those people that don't know they need the help, that don't understand or want the help. And so when we work with these other partners at the county and behavioral health and the operator, it is going to be our job to try to help them move their life forward. As we move on, we'll now open the public hearing for item A, which is the adoption. Well, first let me announce we're moving on to public hearings for the Fire Protection District.

Yes, Madam Mayor, thank you very much. If it's okay with you, I'll take over from here.

You better.

Thank you. Public hearing item A is the adoption of the 2025 edition of the California Fire Code and appendices and amendments thereto. The public hearing is now open. District Secretary Key, did you receive any written correspondence on this item?

President Cothran, we did not.

Thank you very much. I have Assistant Fire Marshal Curtis Markloff. Will you present a staff report, please? I see you, Curtis. There you are.

Good afternoon, Council.

There we go. My name is Curtis Markloff, Assistant Fire Marshal, San Bernardino County Fire Protection District. And today I'm going to present to you the 2025 California Fire Code for Adoption. So the State Building Standards Commission publishes the California Fire Code every three years. It contains regulations that pertain to the fire safe building standards and becomes effective throughout California 180 days after publication on January 1st. San Bernardino County Fire Ordinance 26-02 was adopted as amended on May 19, 2026 by the Board of Directors of the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District. After adoptions, cities must ratify the ordinance through an official action for it to become effective. Pursuant to Health and Safety Code Section 13869 and Government Code Section 50022, the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District may adopt by reference the 2025 edition of the California Fire Code and may also make local amendments as necessary based on local climatic, geological, and topographical conditions. Significant amendments to the 2025 edition of the California Fire Code that are included in the adopted ordinance based on local climatic, geological and topographical conditions include additional operational permits of battery storage, which is a carryover from the 2022 ordinance, commercial cooking operations, commercial storage of pallets, which again is a carryover from the 2022 ordinance, additional construction permits of electrified security fences, plant extraction systems, smoke control and exhaust systems, refrigeration systems, and dust collection systems. We also carried over from the last code guidance on the minimum specifications for road width surface grades to allow various types of fire vehicles to safely access roads. Update the mandated font size of a building address as is from the street based on the size of the building. and clarified requirements regarding water flow when building a structure and the spacing of fire hydrants in commercial, industrial, and multifamily developments.

Again, all carryovers from the 2022 ordinance.

Updates to requirements for fire sprinkler systems for buildings of 5,000 square feet or greater. Amended requirements for mechanically operated security gates to require exit loops to be installed at all fire access gates and require an infrared automatic gate system for all new and existing electrically operated gates. We adopted Appendix P to provide codes for temporary haunted houses and ghost walks, similar amusement uses, and increased penalties for the transportation and storage of dangerous fireworks from $1,250 to a maximum penalty of $15,000. Any questions?

Thank you, sir. Council, do you have any questions for the first?

I sure do.

if i or one of my neighbors wants to have a haunted house at their home does that apply to that home that is correct if they are inviting the public over that is correct they would have to abide by the regulations out of appendix p okay madam mayor i think there needs to be a clarification on that as if the city allows it by our code not only just the fire code too

Yeah, I was just wondering that.

So I think that's something our city manager can look into.

Will you please? Because we really need to let the public know about that.

Because I know which one you're talking about. Yeah. Any additional questions?

I have a question. Are you still using illuminated house numbers? Yeah, thank you.

Mr. Garcia? All right, so a question for you here. So now that we're going through and the state decides to go through and re-change our fire hazard sections without notifying us or asking questions of us, they just give it to us. How is the county addressing building variations as far as setback requirements, things of that nature, when now we're classified as an extreme fire hazard area for the northern end of our city?

All your setbacks requirements will come out of the WUE code, which the, we already had that in the building code and fire code. They have now just taken that and put it in its own code now. So all those setbacks are gonna be out of the WUE code.

So I get to go and look at the next WUE code for a little while.

You got it.

Thank you, sir, I appreciate that. All right, that is no further questions. District Secretary Kee, do we have any requests to speak?

President Coffin, we do not.

All right, moving forward. Public hearing is now closed. May I have a motion to approve staff recommendation as provided in the staff report? So moved. And one. Second. Read by title only. Thank you, guys. And waive further reading and introduce ordinance number FFD-006, an ordinance of the Fontana Fire Protection District adopting the California Fire Code 2025 edition and the appendices and amendments thereto, and to the reading of the title of constitute of the first reading thereof. We had our motion and a second. Mayor, please vote.

I vote yes.

Four in favor, motion is passed.

Thank you very much. Motion carried. Four in favor. Madam Mayor, it is back to you.

Thank you. I think when you left, they put you offline. Not your bad. This brings us to new business. New business item A, fiscal year 2025-26, fourth quarter budget status report. We're gonna have a presentation now from our Chief Financial Officer, Jessica Brown. She'll provide the staff reports for these new business items.

Good afternoon, mayor, members of the council. The item before you today is the fiscal year 2526 fourth quarter budget report. The fourth quarter report is primarily serves as an administrative fiscal year in cleanup item. The recommended budget adjustments are intended to align appropriations with actual operational needs. required adjustments associated with council items since the third quarter report was presented and approved by council as well as various capital project related adjustments and accounting requirements through june 30th to ensure an orderly fiscal year in close So with respect to the general fund, we do have some requests. We are increasing revenue by $4.7 million. We're requesting to increase expenditures by $1.4 million, or just about 1%. And then we're also increasing transfers out in the amount of $2.1 million. Now, overall, the reasons for these requests primarily stem around our transaction use tax amended or updated forecast. We are increasing revenues by about $4.7 million for that transaction use tax revenue. If you recall, at the third quarter, we did discuss those increases and what was associated with them. we also have some offsetting adjustments there's no net impact however we're decreasing consultant services and transferring the appropriation out to fund 6014 path improvements and then lastly we have some one-time requests in the amount of three and a half million dollars we're increasing expenditures to fund one-time requests um for the next fiscal year or this fiscal year 26 27. We also have a contract included with the finance department with Beacon Economics, and although it's not material in amount, I am excited about the opportunity to work directly with Christopher Thornburg and some of his staff to really look at some of the more detailed reasons as to what impacts our forecast overall. Next, we have... Our revenue, this is overall, we are increasing revenue by about 2.3%, and again, that's $4.7 million associated with transaction use tax. Additionally, for expenditures, we are increasing expenditures by $1.4 million, or just under 1% total. As a result of these requested adjustments, we have a net impact or revenue over under to the good of $767,000. Prior to these requests, we did have a programmed use of fund balance of about $451,000. That increase does represent a 270% increase because we're not using fund balance. On the contrary, we are actually contributing to it for fiscal year end. Other funds and entities. In total, the requests being made are an increase in sources of about $3.2 million. We're increasing uses of about $12.7 million, and we have a fund balance impact of about $9.6 million. So overall, we do have some requests in our capital funds to the point that we're using fund balance of approximately $8 million. This is primarily due to developer reimbursements that we have in some of our CFD funds that are funded by bond proceeds. Once bonds are issued and the improvements that the developers are responsible for are completed, they do get reimbursed, so the budget needs to be adjusted accordingly so those reimbursements can be made. Additionally, we do have an increase in enterprise funds of about $1.6 million, and this is to include the increase in uses of about $1.8 million to sustain and expand the programming for Stage Red. and then we also have a no net increase but we do have some other general fund adjustments and it's primarily to install some or to fund facility lockdown buttons and various facilities throughout the city and then we do have a immaterial smaller reimbursement overall for a parking garage incident that we had so reimbursement lastly we have special revenue we have an a fund balance impact of nine thousand dollars which doesn't seem significant however we do have an increase of sources of about eight hundred thousand dollars as well as uses and this is primarily to due to two grants that the city has received so all in all we're having net fund balance or use of fund balance and other funds of about 9.6 million dollars Lastly, we have the fire protection district. We do have a decrease in fund balance of about $884,000, and this is primarily due to a transfer out of funding from the fire operating fund to the fire capital fund, and this has to do with an increase in project expenditures for the annex building here or city hall phase one, and that had to do with the FX and studio expenditures. So lastly, I have to present is the 2025. It's the Treasury report. Due to the timing of this meeting, as well as the fourth quarter being presented earlier than usual, the Treasury report is being presented as of May 31st, 2026. The report that will be for the fiscal year end or through June 30th will also be available on the website at the point in time that it's completed. So to begin with, the Treasury report reflects a strong portfolio growth and diversification and is structured to obtain the highest yield while maintaining safety and liquidity of assets. Total cash and investments increased by 12% year over year as of May 2026. To start, the advisor-managed subtotal here that I've highlighted, the portfolio balance through May increased by about 26% to $405 million. Now, per California government code, the city's and the city's investment policy, all investments have a maturity of five years or less, with some of those investments being calculated based on their weighted average life. We have pooled investments that increased by 66.3%, or $57 million. And pooled investments primarily comprised of the local agency investment fund investments. And as we've discussed in the past, this is part of a larger strategic plan for the investment portfolio to make sure that we're maximizing our yield. local agency investment fund has been outperforming California class. Therefore, that's where we're holding some additional funds. And then we also have some deposit accounts. This is basically our checking account. As you can see, there's been a 60% decrease year over year, and that reflects the more strategic approach that we've taken to our investment policy overall. And these funds, between the three, The increases in the advisor-managed portfolio and the pooled investments, coupled with the decreases that you see here in the pooled, or the deposit accounts, they're in alignment with this approach where the funds are coming from a low-yield deposit account, sometimes a no-yield deposit account, and we are investing them in better opportunities for the city, including class life, as well as being moved into more dynamic, investment environment through our advisor manager portfolio. Lastly, we have investments held by fiscal agents. They increased by 25, 26% in total of $51.6 million. Now, these do include two of our trust accounts. However, it's primarily driven by the other fiscal agent accounts. In this is comprised of bond proceeds that are held with fiscal agents for the city the rda or successor agency as well as the various cfds that have bonds issued Now with respect to the advisor-managed portfolio, the city's externally-managed investment portfolio totals the $405 million, and it represents about half of the city's overall investment portfolio. The first line there is U.S. Treasuries. We have about 54% invested in this. Treasuries are considered one of the safest investments. investments available because they're backed by full faith and credit of the us government this allocation reflects the conservative portion of the advisor managed portfolio next we have corporate bonds we're at about 28 percent invested in corporate bonds these securities have higher yields than those treasuries typically and they additionally have additional income to the portfolio but they provide diversification across multiple industries while maintaining an emphasis on credit quality. We also have some agency securities. This is about 11% of the total portfolio and is invested in federal agency securities. And they're primarily Federal Home Loan Bank, Federal Farm Credit Bank, as well as Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, or Freddie Mac. And they generally provide slightly higher yields than treasuries while maintaining very high credit quality. These are attractive balance between safety as well as return. The next large category that we have is our CMO and asset-backed securities, and these represent about 5% of the portfolio. And they're highly rated mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, and the investments are carefully selected and monitored. They typically provide the additional yield, diversification, and more predictable cash flows. The city's investment policy limits these investments and also includes additional risk controls associated with these investments. Lastly, we have our cash and sweep and money market account. This is basically investments that have matured and they're kept in a cash and sweep account until they're picked up in another investment vehicle. I'd like to point out here as well, when we're talking about our maturity distribution of the managed portfolio, so this is the $405 million, the maturity distribution as of the end of May reflects that nearly $144 million of investments will be maturing in the next 12 months or less. This represents over 30% of our entire portfolio. What's great about this actually is that it allows us to work real closely with our cash flow consultant to fine tune our investment portfolio overall and invest those funds strategically once they're available for reinvestment. With respect to the fiscal agents, I just want to point out here that we have two 115 trusts. One is for the other pension and employee benefits, and then we also have pension benefits. Both of those are roughly about 20% of the overall portfolio, and they've performed really well. And then lastly, we have the other fiscal agents, which represent 80% of the total other fiscal agent portfolio function. So lastly, the recommendations for the council to consider is to approve the recommended fiscal year, and I apologize, it's actually the fourth quarter report for the 25-26 budget year. And we're asking as well as to authorize the city manager or designee to make necessary year-end budgetary and accounting adjustments to facilitate the year-end closing process and this is not to exceed five percent of the fund's total operating budget the reason this recommendation is being included is due to the timing of this report typically we have about two more weeks to fine-tune what the necessary budget adjustments are i can say that as of today we do not have any material budget adjustments that are needed at this time and If any adjustments are made under this recommendation, they'll be reported out to council as well during the first quarter budget report for 26-27. With that, I'll take any questions that you may have.

I see one light on.

So under the other entities, the notable adjustments under the fire protection district, obviously the fire district is investing back in FXM studios. And I think Monique and I already talked about this because this is going to help facilitate our emergency management broadcast system as well as our fire management, our preventative measures, all of those. for future investments, right? So this is gonna help us get more information out about illegal fireworks, the dangers, as well as weed abatements, all of those things, if I'm correct. That's why this investment is going from the fire back in FXM.

Correct, and there's also a lease that covers any types of improvements that were involved in this building that have a city purpose that are paid back to the fire district.

Perfect, that's what I understand. Thank you.

Are there any questions? outstanding report thank you at this time can i have a motion to approve new business items for the following city council community foundation fire protection district housing authority if i could get a motion in a second i'll make the motion for approval second all right please cast your votes

And just to clarify, we're also allowing City Manager Designee to make those 5% adjustments that's included in the motion.

Absolutely.

I vote yes.

Thank you.

Councilor, four in favor of motion is passed.

Motion passed. New business item B is transformative climate communities program application. Our deputy city manager, Bill Byrne, will provide staff report. There you go.

Part of my plan is to be in front of you so much today, you never ask me to speak again.

So I have a PowerPoint somewhere, I think. Albert?

So the item before you today is the city of Fontana wants to, I don't wanna say take advantage of a great state grant program. The Transformative Climate Community Program is funded by what used to be called cap and trade. I can't remember, they've rebranded the tax that they charge. But the intention of the fees collected is to offer offer the money collected as it's collected into what the state has described as transformative climate communities. One of the focuses is on sustainable energy. There's focuses about affordable housing. There's about green energy and green vehicles. It's a pretty wide swath of things that qualify. What most of this presentation is gonna be about is clean energy and microgrid. This is kind of this is solving a couple different challenges that the city has. I want to focus specifically on the Jesse Turner Center in the north as I talk through these conversations. But the intention of what's the item before you today and we're talking about kind of how our application may be evolving as we go through the solicitation process. is the Jesse Turner Center is often, I don't wanna say taken over because Daniel's very protective of our resources, but the Jesse Turner Center is where we offer cooling events in the hot summer months. When there's power outages, we deal with FEMA and Red Cross. It's such a large facility, helps to have a pool close by too, and it has like a diesel backup generator in case power is ever lost. what staff has been working on as a proposal to have a complete sustainable program in the event the grid ever goes down for a prolonged period of time we would be able to clip from the grid and maintain appropriate levels of power so that facility can operate as a permanent or semi-permanent emergency operations center so this pro this powerpoint that i've got before you talks a lot about the microgrid and this component of the the tcc program But some of the key benefits of having a microgrid that is fully independent of the grid when necessary is the energy resiliency. You're not dependent upon the grid. And I want to be clear in this description for you guys because there's a lot of different proposals that come forth the cities about power purchase agreements that cost the city less for energy or or other things that will enhance because if you have your own solar power and you connected to the grid you can pay less for energy because you now own the system this is a little bit of both of those things with the resiliency of being able to disconnect from the grid so it modernizes the infrastructure it's the the solar proposal that we're proposing The technology has evolved so much in the last 20 years, but if you listen to a lot of tech experts, we're kind of at the peak of what we can draw from the sun with the technology that we have now, so we want to build a comprehensive system. How the microgrid system that we're proposing to be part of this grant works is effectively you have a utility grid. That's Edison. They provide all the power to all the facilities in the city. We would build an independently powered power resource effective center at the Jesse Turner Center in this example, where we put solar covered parking panels. We'd have battery generation that the solar panels would charge. And that would be part of our utility usage so in normal operations we would rely heavily on our new solar generated power in our dependency on Edison would be would depreciate a great deal not going to estimate numbers in this we're working on the design but. You always hear numbers of you want to design a system that will cover 60% of your usage we're still working through what we want to do but. It will not only provide the ability for our utility bills to be dramatically reduced for Jesse Turner, which by the way, as an example, I think our utility bills are about $280,000 a year for Jesse Turner. So if we now rely predominantly on the solar we were providing, that number would come down dramatically. But the reason that staff is eager to process this proposal is this would enable us in the event that grid ever goes down, we can clip ourselves from the system and Jesse Turner would still have air conditioning and it can provide that emergency resource for the public. Sorry, I keep forgetting there's extra things to slide. I'm pushing the button slowly. So it just provides the localized battery storage, creates its own power. Part of the grant application that the state encourages is also workforce development training. So the vendor that we're working with and that we're proposing that we contract with for the microgrid designs as part of their program focuses on workforce development. They'll bring in, they'll work with San Bernardino County Workforce Development, Chamber of Commerce and the local schools people that can work alongside during the construction activities so they can learn a skill that's going to be required, especially if you want to live in California over the next several decades on resilient energy. So they're very focused on that educating the next generation into workforce development. That's a very key part of the TCC grant program. You score very high if you can help train the next generation. This is not about giving the fish, it's teaching them to fish. The reason that we're choosing Elko Building Solutions, ABS for short, is their experience in the solar field and the solar space. What they're proposing to do is, subject to the council approval, we can award their contract. They're going to provide a completely designed, shovel-ready project. from cost estimates to ready to pull permits. So in the event that we are selected for the grant award, which is I think the award period is 2027 summertime, we can immediately go into the project. When you're, as the council knows, we've been very successful with grants, both federal and state grants over the last certainly six or seven years. One of the things that makes Fontana have such appeal for these grant selections the shovel ready if you give us money we get it on the street we build what you give us the money for so having a shovel ready design permit ready project is very important alco as part of our the partnership sorry it's part of our our agreement to work together is they're going to design the facility and they're designing it at a discounted rate If we do get funding and we move forward, we would hire them to do the construction. So they're kind of going in with us on this. They're helping on the design cost, but hedging on the fact that we get the grant. If we get the grant, we would use them to build the construction. The strategy for the grant strategies, we've retained a group called California Consulting who is very experienced specifically with the TCC grant program, but we've worked with them on many of our successful grant applications before. And part of the strategy that is candidly evolving as we go through the pre-proposal process is working with California Strategies to, they do a screening process, a pre-application with the state, where the state provides feedback on what their focuses are. They have provided general guidelines on what strategies they would like applicants to meet. The TCC program has funded $424 million worth of projects. They fund specifically climate initiatives, and they like to focus on disadvantaged communities. Fontana, a full third of the city of Fontana, especially in the Civic Center in the downtown area is economically and socioeconomically disadvantaged. So one of the components that we're looking at is in addition to Jesse Turner, we would want to do a project in the downtown area that we think that the state would very much be supportive of. So our grant strategy is to pull together a proposal for a microgrid, which is great for sustainable energy for the operation of the facility, but also to give us sustainable even when the grid goes down, but to add several different other components to the grant application. One of the applications, one of the strategies we wanna add to it is an affordable housing component. The city has done a ton in economic investment into affordable housing. We have one project, two projects that are breaking ground this year, a 39-unit community over on Cypress Avenue that'll be permanent supportive housing for previously homeless as well as affordable housing for, I think, very low-income individuals. And then we have Court Place breaking ground this year down on Sierra and South Montana. That'll be another, the first 56 of a 160-unit community that will be 30%, 50%, 80% of AMI. We have a large project planned for downtown that'll include between 78 and 140 affordable apartments. we'd like to include the gap funding needed to create those affordable units in our application. And in talking to our consultant, The more programs we can add that are supportive of climate action, disadvantaged community support, and workforce development, the higher that our application will score. We feel very good. There's no guarantees that you'll ever be awarded. It's a $98 million total budget for this funding. The maximum application is about 27 million. Our final application will probably be somewhere in the 20 to 27 million range. It's hard to hedge the bets on what the likelihood of success is, but the proposal today, when this staff report was written, is we were intending to design three separate microgrid systems, but through the evolution of the application process, we'd like to focus on one and design one microgrid system and then complete the application with other projects. so staff would be looking for support for the city manager to execute appropriate documents and any contracts necessary to design the jesse turner microgrid system as well as complete the application process with california consulting that was a lot but i can answer any questions i hope are there any questions of staff on this item can i have a motion to approve new business item b

I move the item, Mayor.

Well, and I want to clarify that motion. So what we're talking about here is doing one microgrid for the Jesse Turner and then other programming, which roughly is probably about $10 million towards the affordable housing component. And then there's going to be some smaller programs. I just want to be clear what the, because this will exceed my $100,000 authority. There's some upfront costs associated with submitting the application. And roughly, Phil, is it about $130,000 if we're gonna do the one microgrid?

Yes, sir, that's correct.

So just be aware of that. But it's an investment of $130,000 to submit the application with the understanding that there's a great potential that we would receive a 20 to a $27 million grant.

So I apologize, that is in the staff report that describes the item, but staff is looking for specific approval for the city manager to enter into a contract of $130,000 to design this microgrid project. understood move the item just a point of clarification if we for some reason don't get the funding it's still ready to go we would still have the design it there's often design standards that change over time but yeah we would still have a shovel ready project and we would seek funding elsewhere we would it is not staff's intention at this time to propose using local dollars or general fund dollars to construct this project it could be seven to twelve million dollars to build it and we would seek outside funding even if we didn't get this grant

Well, with the dry season coming and everything that I know it's heading our direction, especially with the hills above us, I think this is a worthwhile investment for us to pursue.

Not to mention, I understand, well, I'm sure the state's going to have another chance to fund in the same area next year possibly, right?

Yes, ma'am. This funding started becoming available in 2018. This is round six. So it's every 18 months or so they issue a new round of funding based on the amount of revenue they've collected.

Not to mention, so many of the state grants in this category are never applied for. So I've got to hope that we have luck on this one.

Feeling good about our chances.

Yeah, me too. Okay, we have a motion. I thought I heard a second. Yes, ma'am, second. I sure did. Okay, cast your votes.

I vote yes.

Thank you. I don't know why we're laughing about this. We're used to this.

Or in favor, motion is passed. Excuse me, Mayor. Okay, motion passed. We're just giving Mayor Pro Tem a hard time.

I mean, that's the way to get it done. At this time, that brings us to elected official reports and communication. I would like to have a discussion and possible action regarding the appointment to fill the vacancy on the Park Community Human Services Commission. I'd like to recommend Jeffrey Stiles. We have a vacancy because we brought Commissioner Gilbert Rodan over to the Planning Commission, and we're working closely with our Parks and Recreation Commission to make sure they have their quorums and also to make sure they're facilitated as activities and events occur. But I've got to give it to our commissioners on that Park and Rec Commission. They are everywhere. We had our opening this week for our, well, actually our groundbreaking for the city hall, and there was Commissioner Anna hiding behind your head, but I saw her. But I'm just saying, we really appreciate their efforts. They are showing up at all the events, and as a result, people have an opportunity to talk to them and give an input. So at this time, I would hope that the council would agree with me. I recommend Jeffrey Stiles. And unless there's a motion for someone else, I need a motion to appoint.

Madam Mayor, point of clarification on this one. When would that appointment come back up for them for him?

We would just fill them through the end of the term, which is just this calendar year. On January 1st, both the Planning Commission and the Community Services Commission will be reevaluated.

I just want to make sure that we're putting that on the record. It's just going until the next appointment. I'm fine with that. I'm assuming you interviewed him and talked to him?

And then some.

Very good. I'll make the second. Are you looking for a motion or a second?

I'm looking for a second.

I'll make the second for approval.

All right. I have a motion and a second. Please cast your votes with the exception of Mayor Pro Tem Garcia. What do you say, Mayor Pro Tem?

I say yes.

Okay.

Thank you. Four in favor. Motion is passed.

Motion passed. okay that brings us to city manager's communication but before we do that i want to make sure that we add to the roster for our memorials today the yucca former mayor dick riddell who just recently passed at 101 years of age so with that we'll start with matt valentine

Thanks, Mayor. Thanks for everybody's patience. We accomplished a lot today. Yes. First, I want to note, we'll be dark or we will be canceling our July 28th meeting. Our possible next meeting will be August 11th. I want to give a shout out or thanks to Community Services, Public Works, and the Police Department. for the successful Independence Day celebration that we had on July 27th up at Summit High School. And it was a wonderful and safe event. And so I appreciate all those in the community that came out and supported the cause. I want to report on the council. I know it was brought up during public comment about fireworks. As you recall, we adopted a new social host ordinance. And so we issued 39 citations, which is basically double what we did the previous year. It's important to note that we did have some significant events during the Fourth of July. We did have a juvenile that had a significant hand injury. We also had a seven-acre fire, and so there were other things that had pooled our resources. But this was a trial as it relates to our social host ordinance. I think the game plan is to ramp that up in the next year. But those folks will be... The folks that violated our code will be receiving those citations in the mail, and we'll be collecting the $1,000 fine for property. So I wanted to give an update on the fireworks. Also kind of want to highlight some of the things that we didn't discuss that was approved on the consent calendar, which I've been traditionally doing under my reports. We purchased some land next to the Metrolink for the purposes of constructing a police substation. So that was a great acquisition by staff's part. We awarded the navigation center. Again, that was a $14 million investment in that facility, which will be reimbursed by the county. We established a business loan program, which our deputy city manager provided some highlights, but that's really to help with the businesses in the downtown revitalization efforts. We awarded design work for a traffic signal up in the northern part of the city and also some improvements around O'Day Short Elementary. And then we also, we handle, our community services department handles after-school programming for the school district, and the council awarded about $500,000 worth of contracts associated with that programming. Again, that is reimbursed by the school district to us. So with that, that concludes my reports. Thank you, Mayor.

We will now go over to our city clerk, Jermaine Keefe.

Welcome to the new Miss Fontana Court. I was happy to see the girl. Well, couldn't make the pageant this year. Saw pictures of it. Phillip, it was really good. Did a great job again. And welcome to the new Miss Fontana Court. to community services love the fireworks on the 27th I mean there's probably never gonna be a time that I won't enjoy fireworks except when they're illegal and lastly wishing my son-in-law Antonio Griffin happy 50th birthday somebody's getting old here so that concludes my comments mayor need to curb the old thing

Why does that keep coming up?

Okay, next we have our treasure.

Janet Brooks.

Thank you so much, Mayor. I want to also thank the staff for the fireworks. It was wonderful. And I'd like to thank Jessica Brown and staff for their wonderful and hard work on the fourth quarter budget report and just continue to have a safe summer. Thank you.

OK, we're going to start with Councilmember John Roberts.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, first of all, I want to compliment staff on just a tremendous report on our state of the city and how development is occurring, and especially how solvent the city is. And a special, special thanks to Jessica Brown for just a terrific report. On another subject, I'd like to keep Council Member Sandoval in prayer, his brother passed away, and also the family of Yucaipa Mayor Dick Riddell. Dick was a great guy, and he served with me on the Omnitrans board for a long time, and he was a legend in Yucaipa, so I keep his family in prayer.

That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Roberts. We'll now go to Council Member Cothran.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, on that side of things. Fourth of July was always a great event for the city of Fontana. It's always good to see our staff out there and enjoying themselves as well as our residents. Much larger turnout every single year, and I know Daniel's up for the task for next year. Bigger and better, right, Daniel? And smiling face out there. I know. I'm still looking for the history of where that lucky the tiger came from. Lion. So as soon as you figure that out, you let me know how we got a lion in the city of Fontana. I do have a request. So I heard some other maybe SoCal cities have had some good business initiatives on their side of things where they've been pushing for healthier restaurants and healthier alternatives, and they've been doing some grants. Mr. Garcia and I were talking about it a little while ago, and I was seeing if we could try to figure out what those cities were doing and how successful they were in their past endeavors on that side of things. So I'll do my best to give you the cities, and if you guys can get the data, that would be wonderful.

Well, I think we should talk about that. We've been talking about that through Healthy Fontana for a long time.

Absolutely, ties in right in with the rest of you.

So I think, is it Mike Wright? We can start bugging him and his great staff. And then that means we can start bugging Daniel.

Daniel loves it.

Daniel loves it.

It's not bugging him.

It's just getting it done.

It's just getting information from Daniel. He's doing a good job on that side. And then our city attorney, you have some guests in the audience today. Would you like to introduce them to the audience?

Yes, thank you, Council Member Cothran. Joining us today are two of BBK's eight summer law clerks. We spend eight weeks or so running Promising Law Students through all of our practices at various of our offices, and they were tasked with observing today's meeting, and I'm going to grill them very, very much. intensely tomorrow morning. So thank you for giving us a lot of fodder for that conversation.

Let's have them stand up. Stand up, ladies. Stand up.

Caitlin and Kathleen. Let's give them a hand, everybody. They are students at Chapman Law School. Kathleen and Caitlin is at American University in Washington, D.C., School of Law.

Very good. Fun little factory, Chapman University. Same school. Different schools. Chapman, you said you were going to Chapman? It's cool. I like it. I like that job. See, BB&K is doing more things about investing in the future of Southern California. I like it. Future attorneys. Hopefully you'll be sitting up here in a couple months. Kick them out?

At least weeks.

Okay, one more year. One more year. All right. Very good. You have a great future, and we look forward to seeing you guys. All right. Besides that, I think I'm going to pass it off to Mayor Garcia. Mayor Pro Tam Garcia, because I think we have some special things for you.

Well, I didn't say he could talk now. Go ahead, Peter.

Well, since this is our last meeting until August, we have those. two special ladies here um that we need to wish a happy birthday because we'll be missing those birthdays if we don't have a meeting so the first one is our own mayor aquanetta warren and the second one is janet kohler brooks so uh yeah let's go round of applause

I'm glad we got the old things straight.

I didn't say old.

But as the tradition is, I think Councilman Roberts, maybe you can lead us in singing Happy Birthday.

Okay.

Mayor and Janet. Okay. Okay.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Mayor and Janet. Happy birthday to you.

I've been wanting to do that so long on the microphone. You know that that harmony? Happy birthday to you. I saw that on television. No, I will not be the new leader. You continue to sing, honey. I'm just playing. Okay, Peter, now that you've got everybody all upset.

Happy birthday to both of you. And everyone else, you just have a good rest of the evening. Thank you.

Okay, that leaves it up to me to go out on this. First of all, sir, the chief and I are going to spend some time with you. up frank i see you still out there you're focused and we're going to be focused so we're going to come right down and talk to you thank you for your patience um let's see we had a great fireworks show and it was safely done and i think there was over 4 000 people at the at the school with us and there were approximately a thousand people at the fontana park watching Not to mention all the people that sat on their decks. And these are the people that did it right. And those, whatever that number may turn out to be, that are going to get those fines, shame on you. We have done so many programming, so much education about how dangerous these illegal fireworks are. And people bring them in the community. And people come to your homes just because they think they can fire it off. And so we are taking every step we can to keep everybody safe. But I think somebody's hand still got blown off and just irresponsible. And we are praying for that person, too, because no one, no matter what the condition, has ever wanted to see anyone get hurt. I've got to say there was a lot of excitement at the various firework booths with the nonprofits and the things they were doing and visiting a bunch of them because I had to get my sparkles on just to tell the United States happy birthday, happy 250th birthday. Everybody had a great story of someone that had come to the booth and had a great story of whether they were in the a veteran or they had family members that were veterans and it just shows just how patriotic fontana is so that was great and i want to thank my neighbors that participate in our block party and i'm hoping we do it annually we had a great time visiting each other and i think people did enjoy my house the most with the best food i just thought i'd put it out there i'll hear about this when i get home tonight but you know that's the way i feel I want to tell staff you did an incredible job with the alley. Now, what is the alley? We need to bring a picture at our next meeting. It is the section between our new parking structure, where our new city hall, where we sit until we get our brand new city hall, and stage red is there.

Please go over there and check it out.

The asphalt is all painted in a beautiful green, orange, and white color. Not trying to say I had a say, but those are my favorite colors, too. And then you have this beautiful mural with these great seats that you can just sit there and relax and have your lunch or dinner or your snack. And if you come by here on the weekend, you just see families out there just sitting and just talking to each other. So there was food, great food, by the way. I think I overdid it on the donuts. Got a little... over doughnut it that day. Is that what you said? I had an overdose on doughnuts. It was about 15 of them. And I kept saying, I'm taking these home. Well, you know, if you stand long enough and eat them with brown sugar on them, you're going to eat it. Not to mention the ice cream lady that told me, why don't you take ice cream with that? I got in the car empty handed. And you know what I did? Got back out the car and went about 15 more. They were delicious. Stage Red was there doing great music. We were dancing with each other. And doggone it, they had the bar open. So everybody was having a ball. But it's called the alley, and I hope we do it again. Don't forget, this week we have our street market. You don't want to miss. Great food, great friends, and great entertainment. So you need to come out Friday. And then Stage Red, imagine that. Too short is coming. Those of you that were at the State of the City about three years ago, remember Blow the Whistle song. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Garcia. We couldn't figure out who the author was, but we have a hip hop specialist on our council beside Phillip. Now we know that Mayor Pro Tem Garcia partakes in hip hop. Good job. So he'll be here this Friday at Stage Red. And let's talk about Stage Red. This council is bringing entertainment to this community. That's what we're doing. We're not playing around. We're bringing access. You don't have to drive way to LA to the Hollywood Bowl. and all those other places, or out at Thornton Winery where I was this weekend watching my classmate, Gerald Albright, turn it up. Okay, we had a ball. But Gerald was our first act here at Stage Red. So we're getting notable acts, country, western music, the blues, rock and roll, whatever you think about when it comes, even raggae. We are making sure that you have entertainment right here in your community. And that's what we're doing. And we're having a good time at doing it. I want to thank the Exchange Club for giving me the honor of swearing in their new officers. And they do a lot for this community, the parades, as well as raise funds for scholarships for our children. So congratulations to those new officers. And then I got a chance last week to go to the Izzes Petrolia Club. And I know that's not a real word, Deputy City Manager. I call it Izzes. but Iz did a remarkable job. Those of you that like vinyl records, they're coming back. Don't throw them away. You can still play your vinyl records. I had my war album on last night, and my grandkids asked me, is that your, what do you think, those frisbees? They call my vinyl a frisbee. I'm gonna have to educate those kids. But anyway, you can still use that great music. So I haven't thrown my 45s away. Am I dating myself here? And I have not thrown away my 33s. And I still got my dad's 78s. And we'll leave it at that. So we had a great time over there. And people come and they get an album. They put it on a record player. They put on their earphones. And they just stand there or sit there and listen to their music. It's a great, relaxed environment that you will definitely enjoy. Yesterday was history for this community, and I'm sure we taped it and you'll see it. We were able to do the groundbreaking for City Hall. And I want to thank the church, Mas Viva. They came and blessed the land and blessed the building and all that comes from it. And it was a great event. So I think when you look at our social media for City of Fontana, we're moving forward and we're moving on. And we're not joking. But one of the things that this council pays close attention to is when something happens to one of us, especially when people incur a loss. We want to give special prayer to the Sandoval family with the loss of Jesse's brother, our council member. We did honor him earlier this month, but today was his services. And then we want to adjourn our meeting in memory of Yucaipa former mayor Dick Riddell. I got a chance to serve with him on the SPCTA. He was something else. And he just celebrated 100 years last year, right? 101 now. So he lived a very good life. But I'd like to bring up a young lady's picture right now for everyone. If you can get that picture up. This is Candace Iman Simmons. She is the daughter of Bishop Kevin Simmons and Pastor LaQuetta Simmons. And they live right here in Fontana. And she recently passed, and as you can see, she's very young. She had lupus. And her family has requested that in lieu of flowers or anything, they would like you to donate to Lupus Foundation. And you can see it online. But we want to make sure that we let that mom and dad and that family know that we are praying for them. So if you could all join me right now, we are going to adjourn our meeting in their memory. and we're going to adjourn our meeting to our next regularly scheduled council meeting july not july 28th i'm sorry august 11 2026 in steelworkers auditorium we will now call this meeting adjourned The Community Foundation as Chair, I adjourn. Fire Council District Chair, Cochran.

Fire District is adjourned.

Housing Authority Chair, Garcia.

Housing Authority is adjourned.

Thank you all for joining us today.