City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. We'll return to begin our study session. And so we'll start with public comments. Are there any requests to speak?

I have no request to speak.

Thank you. We'll move

into item one, discussion regarding the committee, commission, city council policy, presentation by city clerk, Rick Miller. Yep. There

we go. Back on March 7, council member Constantine requested that the city council take a look at the city council policy regarding committees and commissions and the fact that council members be present at the time of interviews in order to make appointments to any committees or commissions moving forward. With with that being the case, what you see on the screen is the first number two interview process. That's the current policy, and I went ahead and further down below in yellow, modified it if that is something the council would be interested in. But this is city council policy. It's your your decision to make on on this one. I'm happy to answer questions if you have any.

Okay. Thank you. I'll open up to council comments. Who'd like to speak on this?

Well, I'll start if that's okay.

Constantine.

Sure. Well, I just wanna say thank you for bringing, the matter forward tonight, Rick. And yeah. I mean, I really like it as revised in the yellow, and I think it's great. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Harper.

Thank you. Yeah, I think although the I think it has good intentions. I I don't think it's I think I'd prefer to keep it the way it is. There may be a reason that a council member is not able to attend the interview and and I think it would be I don't think they should be precluded from voting just because they missed the interview. They can they may already know many of the applicants are people we know in the community, and we also can glean from their application as well as ask the opinion of other council members if there's some applicant that we're have a question about.

But I think they require any physical presidents presence in the interview. Although we should all make our best efforts to be there, don't think it should be a requirement to vote.

And last thing.

Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Rick, so I remember in you saying, I think previously, that if a council member couldn't make it to the interviews, then you would happily reschedule.

Yes. I

would. Because as we've seen, there's such a difference in person in conjunction with what is on the written paper and and that is the application by the applicant. So I believe it really is imperative that we read the applications and also interview. And if we cannot be present for the interviews, then you need to forfeit your somewhat right to vote because things happen. Thank you.

Any other council comments? Well, my thinking on this is I think the spirit of it is to encourage maximum participation from from those making decisions on on who to select for committees and commissions. While there's always some wiggle room for emergencies and, you know, as much as we'd like to make this a firm, almost a condition of participation, I I tend to agree with vice mayor Harper that there are just sometimes situations that we may not be able to foresee. But I think with with this exercise is is telegraphing, and I think that it's not lost on me, is the importance of making almost beyond best efforts to be part of the full process, which starts with reviewing the application and actually confirming some of the questions in person with that applicant as they're in front of us, And then also kind of testing to see how do they do under some of that questioning,

you know, that's that's a

that's a big part of of kind of, you know, is that person first of all, are they truly interested position? Do they understand what they're applying for? And also, you know, do they think they're gonna be able to do a good job? So it it it kind of goes both ways for that that interview process. And to be able to watch that and to observe it, I think it gives the decision maker the best informed opportunity.

What what I'm a little bit concerned about is we've had some members of the public recognize that and and sort of call us out on that. And so maybe that's also part of this response is to tighten up the language. But I think at the end of the day, I I think we can we can do our best efforts to make sure that we're we're present at at the entire process. So

Mister mayor, if I

may. Councilwoman.

Okay. The gloves are gonna come off. What transpired a couple meetings ago when we were seating the I'm just so beyond, I I can't even think of which one it was. A housing and community development, HCD. That never should have transpired.

If we're gonna give basically, whatever will be will be for city council, we gotta do it for the the people that are interviewing, our residents that are interviewing. Well, if they can't make it to the interview, my application is good enough. I mean, that's what that's what I'm seeing here that there's no real importance to this procedure. We're the ones that can decide what should be and if we leave all this we have a procedure. The procedure was for many many years until we had a council member challenge it.

So now we're trying to tighten it up or I think we are, but it's looking like that's gonna go out the window.

Mister mayor?

Yes.

So first off, I don't think just to be fair here, I don't think we had a council member challenge it. What happened was myself and council member Bui received an email from Rick stating, can you do this date? And I replied back, yes, to reply to all. And then council member Bowie, instead of doing reply all, replied to just me, and I didn't notice it at the time that he was replying to just me instead of both of us. And he said in advance that he was not available. So though I agree with you that we should be present to vote, I just wanna clear that it wasn't something that he tried to get away with or do. It was a simple misunderstanding.

No. And I get that, and I apologize. What I'm saying is that in knowing that he didn't interview the two applicants that we had, to me, just looking at the applications is not good enough. To me, he should have stepped out and and not voted. And because that isn't what happened and he voted and then we had the discussion about the two applicants which we've never had ever. I I can't. I This is not good.

Well, think that's a separate issue. I think there should be open discussion in the future if if we want to talk about who we're going to support or not support. I mean, we should be giving reasons why we're in favor of somebody or not in favor of somebody. So I think I think that's healthy. I think we should do that in the future.

I don't think we need a policy on it, but in the future, I will speak up when I wanna advocate for somebody or not advocate for somebody. So I I'm I'm but I do agree that if if you're going to vote on it, you should have at least interviewed the person. So I think I think this wasn't a major issue. I think it was a minor one, but one that we're correcting hopefully with this.

And I will say, work incredibly hard to make sure all five of you are there, and I will move dates as often as I can or as many times as needed to make sure all five of

you are there. Did five times on this one.

It was an unfortunate situation. And to be honest, I can't recall another time when a council member wasn't present. It just just to give some some background on it.

Yeah. This is more of an anomaly than, I think, warranting an addition of of kind of fairly restrictive language on council members.

Right. But at the same time, it's very unfortunate that we even had this before us. I shouldn't have voted in the previous and we can't go back to that. So I don't know why we can't put this in there.

Well, I think we've all what do we do? Let's move forward.

Just kinda give one more opportunity for any other council comments. One last chance to weigh in. Not not hearing any. I think we've got two two that have possibly three that say don't add the language, one supporting adding the language.

Yeah. I'm just going to add to what council member Grange is saying is after I reply, actually I hit reply all, but I guess I literally I learned from how the email system work is. When you reply, it goes back to the last person who respond. That's why it goes to you, not to the city attorney because it's like the last person said, then when we call it goes on top of you. So it goes to you only, that's why Rick didn't ever caught it. So that's that's probably the reason if I'm sure that if Rick received that knowing that I was not able to attend, he probably tried to make another a fifth six attempt. We would have

rescheduled for another week.

So like I said, I don't think there's a real issue here. Being on the council for six years at any selection interview of any candidate, I was not even missing once. So I don't think it's an issue. It's was more of a miscommunications that you never got the email and you guys went ahead and and and and, you know, conduct the meeting. As far as to councilman Grant is you know he received it but there was he has a busy life too so he part you know didn't realize that, I didn't realize that so next thing you know oh Ted's not here and the meeting went on. That's all. It's not it's a non issue.

Excuse me. So I'm in Council member Bowie, I'm just gonna black and white it. We had two we had two residents interviewing for housing and community development. You were not present for the interviews. I mean, I hate to say this.

You insisted on voting and you did, and you were basing your vote based on what you saw in the paper. Not being in the interviews, you were not aware of what transpired, how council member Grandis and I it it was me and then vice mayor Harper and I think mayor Keene, and then Grandis was in the end at the end, and we were both like looking at each other at the point during the interview when one of the candidates was speaking because it was like we both realized he didn't seem to be aware of what the there were things in the interview. So there's something about having someone in front of you, not just a piece of paper with the information. I mean like I can't even make a sentence now, I am so beyond.

Okay.

So be it. Oh my gosh.

Any other comments or questions? I think we've weighed out weighed all the issues and okay. It doesn't look like there's gonna be a direction to add the language. Okay. But we appreciate the the thoughts, the councilwoman Constantine. The the the spirit of this, I think, will drive us forward and and we'll we'll be present. I mean, that's that's the goal.

This is horrendous. Okay. Whatever. Yeah.

Good. Alright. Thank you. Okay. We're going to recess until we begin open session at 6PM.

K. I'm gonna call our meeting to order. We're right at 06:00. Welcome to Mount Valley City Council meeting. We're gonna start with an invocation from pastor Natalie Benson. So if you could please rise.

Good evening. My name is pastor Natalie Benson from King of Glory Lutheran Church across the street, and it's an honor to be here tonight. I invite you into a spirit of prayer. Creator of all, we gather today with many various beliefs, identities, and walks of life, yet united in a shared love for this Fountain Valley community. We give you thanks for the many ribbons of life, many cultures, and stories that have come together to allow us the life that we inhabit here from the land we inhabit to the people who first stewarded it, to the people gathered in this room and beyond who pour their time, talents, energy, and hearts into making Fountain Valley a thriving community.

Empower us to wisely steward and celebrate the blessings we have so that they may be blessings for others. And may our love for this community create ripple effects of love and justice from our city, to our schools, to our state, nation, and the entire world. May it be so. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, pastor Benson. And if you could please direct your attention towards our flags. Place your right hand over your heart before I salute if you're a veteran. Ready to begin.

I pledge allegiance the of United States Of America and to the republic for which

Thank you.

Next is City Council successor agency housing authority roll call.

Council member Bui. Here. Council member Constantine. Here. Council member Grandis. Here. Vice mayor vice chair Harper. Here. Mayor chair Kunin. Here. All members are present.

Thank you. And are there any supplemental communications?

We have none.

And mister city attorney, do we have any reportable actions out of closed session?

We do, mister mayor. On item one, there were two anticipated litigations initiation. First item, council voted five zero to join Fullerton's antitrust lawsuit against fire apparatus manufacturers. In the second item, council voted five zero to authorize the city attorney to obtain an inspection warrant.

Great. Thank you. Okay. Now we'll move into our city manager update. City manager Lee.

Yes. Thank you, mayor and city council. First off, I wanted to share with the public. This week is public service recognition week. So I want to take a moment to recognize and celebrate our employees who serve our great community every day.

Thank you for your commitment, professionalism, and passion to enhance the quality of life for all. From public safety personnel and maintenance crew to administrative staff and community service team, each plays a vital role in keeping our city running smoothly. Your efforts often behind the scene make a lasting difference in the lives of residents. Again, thank you for all that you do. Help me recognize our amazing employees during the public service recognition week.

I will also wanna inform the community that the city of Fountain Valley, summer adult softball registration is still open. Get your team together, hit the field, and make it someone one to remember. Spots are limited, so go to our website at fountainvalley.gov to sign up. And the Fountain Valley adult softball will begin. Let's see.

Registration is April 6 through May 10, and the season starts May 18 through July 17. Also want to share with the community, the Fountain Valley Community Foundation in collaboration with the City of Fountain Valley and Republic Services is promoting responsible disposable practices and raising public awareness by hosting a free electronic recycling paper, shareholding event on Saturday, May 16 at Fountain Valley Sports Park, corner of Ohio and Arnold And Brookhurst.

Got it.

The event will take place from 9AM to 12PM or until the truck is full. That is it on my end, mayor.

Thank you, city manager Lee. So for the mayor's update, please join us this May at the center at Founders Village Senior Community Center as we celebrate Older Americans Month. We will have a full itinerary of activities and events all month long. This year's theme, champion your health, focuses on prevention, wellness, personal responsibility, all as cornerstones of healthy aging. We will be offering free coffee from May and refreshing cucumber lemon water from May 18 to the twenty second.

Please visit us in person at the corner of Talbert And Bouchard. The Fount Valley Civic Center Ad Hoc Committee applications are open, and they will be open for a couple more days. The purpose of the Fount Valley Civic Center Ad Hoc Committee is to provide input on the future of the Civic Center property with a focus on the Huntington Valley Boys and Girls Club facilities. We call that Clubhouse Academy and Child Center Child Care Center that's located here in the City Hall, basically the campus. The ad hoc committee will identify and present to city council recommendations for the location considering focus on the following options, maintain the location of the current use, facility rehabilitation will be required to maintain the current use, amend use plan of current site, recreational development, public or private development, long term civic center, site plan, civic use, potentially public safety.

The committee will comprise of the following two city council members, have already been selected. Four Fount Valley residents, and those are the ones we're looking for for for our applicants, and five city of Fount Valley staff members. The appointments of the residents who wish to serve on this committee will be made by four of the city council members with the mayor not making a choice. Appointments are scheduled to be made at the May 19 city council meeting. So I think we still have some openings?

Yes.

Okay. Great. Now encourage encourage applications,

please. Can I interrupt there? Yes. Has anybody filed the application,

mister Souther? We have three applications.

Three application.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. So we're seeking one more at least. We we would like a lot more. Okay. Crawfish Festival.

The festival returns to the city of Fountain Valley Sports Park, May 15 through May 17, bringing a lively taste of Louisiana to the community. Crawfish Festival will be Friday from five to 10PM, Saturday two to 10PM, Sunday twelve to 8PM. Late fire chief Bill McClaid's memorial bench unveiling will be on May 16 at 10AM. On April 21, fire chief Bill McQuaid's memorial bench was placed in Huntington Beach at the 2nd Lifeguard Tower. Tracy McQuaid, Bill's wife, who's here in the chambers, will host an unveiling event with friends, family, and the entire fire family on May 16 at 10AM at Tower 2 on Brookhurst and Pacific Coast Highway.

Youth basketball summer twenty twenty six registration is now open until May 16. Make sure to register now to secure your spot today. Lace up your sneakers, and we'll see you on the court. Youth basketball summer twenty twenty six registration is now open. Yeah. May 16. And I'm just really excited about basketball, I'm just saying everything twice. That's all. And then lastly, donations for the marines family at Camp Pendleton. Every six months, Fout Valley Rotary Club does a collection at the center, and it's a great event where there can be really a a whole bunch of things that you can give that will help young marine families at Camp Pendleton.

So that will be at the center at Founders Village, the parking lot. That's in Bouchard. And just an idea of of the things that are needed, furniture, undamaged, cookware, dishware, bedding, blankets, towels, baby baby furniture, baby clothes, diapers, and toys. And so we encourage you to to join in on that. And then also lastly, I wanna mention the next mayor's breakfast will be on Wednesday, May 20, same bat place, same bat channel. We encourage you to join. Last last mayor's breakfast was a lot of fun. And as you know, health and fitness is one of our big themes, and so wear comfortable shoes is all I can tell you. Okay. So that's the that's the Mayor's update.

Next, we're going to move into presentations, and I'm going to start with the Public Works Week proclamation. And so we've got a lot of our public works staff in the back, and I'm going to I'm going to queue you up. Should we should we have them all come on down? Alright. Public works folks, come on down.

Gonna go a little Phil Donahue style. Okay? We're gonna move up here.

Alright. Are we all gathered? Great.

Okay. So it is my honor to read the proclamation for public works week. Rooted in service powered by community, May 17 to the twenty third twenty twenty six, whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, services that are vital vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities, public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of the city of Fountain Valley. And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are responsible for operating, maintaining, rebuilding, improving, and protecting our city streets, water supply, wastewater, and solid waste collections, storm water systems, public buildings, and other facilities essential for our residents. Whereas public works employees are essential in responding to civic emergencies, taking immediate action to preserve life, property, the environment, and restoring critical infrastructure.

And whereas this year, the American Public Works Association has chosen rooted in service powered by a community as a theme for 2026. National Public Works Week has been celebrated since 1960.

This year

marks the sixty sixth anniversary. That's whereas, I promise. Whereas, it is in the public interest for people and civic leaders of Fountain Valley to gain knowledge of and to maintain an interest and understanding about the importance of public works and public works programs. Now, therefore, I, Jim Keene, mayor of City Of Fount Valley, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim the week May 2026 as Public Works Week in the city of Fount Valley and call upon all citizens to celebrate Public Works achievements, services, and programs, and recognize the vital role Public Works plays in providing for the health, safety, and comfort of Fountain Valley citizens. So I'd like to present this to director of public works, Scott Smith.

Congratulations. Round of applause. Thank you. Okay. This is gonna be a lot of fun.

So we're gonna call this the state of the city presentation. I think we might have a couple slides just sort of as background, but tonight, we are proud to finalize and present checks to our valued partners following a successful and memorial and memorable evening celebrating community, civic pride, and shared accomplishments at the City of Fall Valley twenty twenty six State of the City address and dinner on that we had back on Thursday, 03/05/2026. Just a show of hands, who who is there? Whoo. It's like most of this chamber.

Awesome. So thank you to the generosity of our sponsors. The State of the City Planning Committee was able to secure 60,000 in cash sponsorships and more than 20,000 in in kind contributions, an outstanding show of support. We extend our sincere appreciation to all of our sponsors and especially our Golden Eagle sponsor, Orange County Realtors, for their generous $10,000 contribution. We have Bryant Genovese.

Okay.

So we are pleased to share that as part of this effort, contributions are being made to several outstanding community partners tonight. So we're gonna start first with 500 to the Miss Fountain Valley Scholarship Foundation, and I'd like to present the check to director Sandy Licata, if you could come up with Miss Fountain Valley team. Oh, yeah. If city council could take a stretch, come on down. We're gonna be doing a lot of pictures, and you could just stay down here.

Okay. Next is a $1,000 check to Los Amigos High School, cheer adviser and activities director, miss Williams, coach Karen, and Los Amigos cheer performers. So come on up. Alright. Huge congratulations.

Okay. Next, we have a thousand dollars to the Fountain Valley Royal Regiment Booster Association. Director Nelson, come on up. Great cast. Hey. This is for you. Thank

you. For trying.

Thank you. And these are live jack.

So one of my favorite jazz songs is Take Five by Dave Brubeck, and they actually played it during the State of the City. How about that? Yeah. It was awesome. Thanks.

Okay. Next is a thousand dollars to Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce, doctor Van Voo chair, and Debbie Killy Pass chair. Come on up. Alright. Congratulations.

And doctor Vu has the money? Is that the way you

want it?

In addition, a check of $1,400 is presented to Tracy McQuade representing proceeds from the Mimi's Jewelry Necklace in support of the late chief McQuaid Memorial Bench. The Fount Valley Community Foundation, Fount Valley Kiwanis, Fount Valley Rotary, Fount Valley Fire Association, California state senator Tony Strickland, congressman Derek Tran. They also donated toward the memorial bench. Join the McQuaid family and the fire department, as I mentioned, on Saturday, May 16 at 10AM for the unveiling of the memorial bench at State Beach Tower 2 off of Brookhurst and PCH. So I'd like to present this to Tracy.

I'm gonna need a little help from council on this one. So our last check presentation, maybe let's give this to vice mayor Harper and sort of share that. Okay. We are proud to present $31,461 to the Kiwanis Fountain Valley Club for a potential sister city program, subject to the city council's consideration, or programs to support youth as an alternative. Just a little background, the sister city's advisory committee, which we first met last November, will work over the next year to determine the most impactful use of these funds.

City staff and the Sister Cities Advisory Committee will update the city council at the May 19 city council meeting for direction on a potential sister city program. So now we'd like to present this, and who wants to come up for the check? Steve Alright. Come on up. President and former mayor, Steve Nagel.

Alright. That was a lot of fun. Thank you so much. Okay. Next, we have Talbert Middle School student speakers, represented by principal, miss Jay Adams.

These student speakers are part of what's called the peer assistance leadership. The those two representing will be Jocelyn Swan and Kai Trinh. And do you wanna come on up?

You're gonna all come up together.

Okay. And then we're also gonna be welcoming from ASB, Helena Lee, Celine Salebe, Ava La Noire, Summer Nguyen, Olivia Caldarella, and Tyson Day. Welcome. And so you're welcome to come up to the podium. And I just wanted to to let you all know. So we're we're live. We're we're on YouTube.

Yes, sir.

We are on Facebook.

Oh,

wow. I believe channel three. So no pressure.

So we're gonna go viral.

But you can also go back and watch just how great you're gonna do. So

Thank you.

Welcome and

Thank so much.

It's all yours.

Good evening, council and mister mayor. My name is Helena Lee, and I serve as vice president at Talbert Middle School's Associated Student Body, ASB, our student council. With me, I have Celine, Ava, Tyson, Summer, and Olivia, who are also representatives from our school's ASB, here to talk a little bit about what makes Talbert Middle School so special. Thank you so much for having us.

In general, AUSP students create and host events at our school to hype up our students and make them wanna come to school and create, like, such a fun environment for them.

At Talbert, we also have tournaments with other schools in the Fountain Valley School District. In order to hype up the student body and those in and those in the team, we hold pep rallies. At pep rallies, we have games and just different things that we use to unite the students together and just to feel like really excited for our teams to compete. We also use pep rallies as a way to showcase many programs at our schools like cheer and band.

Talbert is very much a high high hard work, high reward community. So every end of the trimester, we host a very important event, expect excellence, where kids who did really good academically get to, you know, have fun with a DJ, bounce houses, photo booth, music, snacks, and drinks. So yeah.

And so we have fun themed dances. We prepare this for to have a good experience with your friends. The dances include food, drinks, face paint, DJ, and a photo booth with Kona Ice. And we pay for these expenses by hosting huge fundraisers at the start of the year.

Once again, thank you so much for listening to how we encourage kids at Talbert. Even though we're in Huntington Beach, our roots are deep in Fountain Valley. Teenagers really aren't that scary. We're just trying to improve the student culture at Talbert. Because we're here at Talbert, we're gonna change the world someday. Now we'll have one of our other leadership programs at Talbert present, PAL. Yeah.

My name is Jocelyn. I am a member of PAL, and PAL stands for peer assistance leadership. Some of the things we do are help new students get adjusted. We help with student inclusion, like helping special needs students, and we organize special focus weeks like Red Ribbon Week and Mental Health Week. It's important for us to encourage our students to, like, be drug free.

Hi. I'm Kai Chin, and we us pals also like to outreach into our community. One of our projects this year was to support pediatric cancer research. Our district goes gold in memory of Carter who was a student at Cox until he passed away. We know Carter's mom is watching at home on the livestream. So hi, Carter's mom.

So

how we celebrated pediatric cancer research was to make an event called Coins for Carter, which had homerooms celebrate and go against each other to make the most donations and see who would win. Through these donations, we've raised about $1,900.

They wanted to know if you have any questions for them.

I think one question I had, do you

have any other special guests from the school district? Maybe teachers or leaders? Today here we have our principal, miss Adams. We have our pal advisor miss Murray and our superintendent doctor Stopp. The ASB advisor couldn't be here today because she is on maternity leave. Oh and our vice principal miss Adam I mean miss Gregory.

We also would like to recognize trustee Sandra Crandall is in the audience who is a teacher for many years. I'm so proud. And also we've got trustee Ashley Ramirez. Welcome. And so much of this couldn't happen without the fabulous Joy Myers.

Great.

Mayor, do you want to go

down and take a quick photo?

Actually, I have a question for a real question. So you mentioned that you work, one of the programs, kids with special needs. I have a son with special needs. That's important to me. What kind of programs do you do with kids with special needs?

One of the events we had to, like, collaborate with the special needs was the lunch bunches where we get to talk to them and make them feel included. What do do during lunch bunch? During lunch bunch, we get to, like, have lunch with them, play games, and, like, get introduce ourself and, like, make them feel wanted.

That is so wonderful. Thank you for that.

In addition, at each of our four sports tournaments that happen throughout the year in our district, we also have specific games to help special needs children feel integrated and celebrated, and we have so much fun playing these sports with them and just being friends with them.

Well, you guys are angels for doing that. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Alright.

You're gonna come down and take a picture? We're gonna invite up all Fountain Valley staff. Well, that was just wonderful. We are so excited that our local schools are are coming up and speaking. You know, it's not easy.

Right? This is a big deal to think about this. They're they they know this is coming up tonight, preparing for it, and so we're just so privileged to have these future leaders come up and and join us. And one of the things you don't need to stick around because I know you got a lot of homework and probably your parents may go, where are you? So feel free to enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you.

Okay.

Next is First City Council successor agency housing authority public comments on unscheduled matters only. Do we have any request to speak?

We have three requests to speak. First is Prem Balani.

Welcome. Thank you. That's a tough act to follow. Good evening, mister mayor, council. I wanted to close the loop on something that I promised, but life happened to me last year.

And so I just wanted to return to the council and and close the loop. Last July July, I was at council and I had requested council to try and spread kindness at the end of every meeting and if you did that, I would make a donation to our Veterans Banner Program. I just wanted to close the loop on my end at this time with this day of giving and I didn't know it was going to work out as well. So on behalf of myself and my wife Linda, I'd like to make a donation to Fountain Valley Community Foundation for $500 for the Veterans Banner Program. And if Rob Friselt could come down and grab this check from me.

Thank you, Brett.

Wow, that's awesome.

Thank Thank you. I appreciate the time.

Thanks so much, Prem.

Next speaker is T. Togafow.

Welcome.

Hi. Thank you so much. First of all, I wanna say that the Fountain Valley School District is, I believe, the best in the entire universe. I was a student here growing up, and I just appreciate the principals and the district, the superintendent, and everybody who works effortlessly to help grow our students. I'm sharing this in support for special needs, for fair treatment for these children and all the students and their families throughout the district.

Unfortunately, this year, I haven't had the best experience with principal Mullins at Temura Elementary School. He has been making meetings to see me unscheduled. He said my son does attend his school, a part of their special needs program. Mister Mullins would yell loudly at me and my son. He would make him feel uncomfortable, and he would forecast that my family would need to go to the Fountain Valley Police Station, have meetings, and end up in court.

He insisted that my other son at a different school was not doing well and that he would pull records from my other son who attends Cox. He said that this was because he was the principal of the district and he had every right to do so. I don't understand exactly why he decides to treat our family this way, especially since he was once my principal several years ago. I don't know if he has a a motive for doing this, but I do believe he has discriminated against our family because my son has special needs. I would just ask that that he would that I would call for accommodation for special needs kids.

Again, they do have a problem, not just an issue of feeling included as it is, just to be cautious of how they are spoken to. And I know that the the team of aids are amazing with these kids. And I just hope that since this is the end of the year, maybe next year we can have just a better experience overall. Again, I just appreciate the Fountain Valley School District. I know that the teachers and the principals everywhere are just amazing. They work so hard to help grow our kids. And again, it is the best district district in the universe. So I thank you for that and I thank you for for taking the time to hear me out.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Vicky Johnson.

Good evening, City Council and Mayor. I brought two handouts. And first of all, wonderful presentations, accommodations here. I really appreciate those. I'd like to also just say a word on behalf of Katie Wright, who's sort of a watchdog. Her passion is Toastmasters. I think it would be great if she were on more committees and treated with the respect that we watch docs find a bit hard to earn sometimes because we don't always bring welcome news. Okay. I have two updates on the Orange County Power Authority, which you have joined to take over the electricity generation for Fountain Valley, and that will happen in April 2027. So interesting things are happening.

Just a couple updates. One is, as you see in the handout, there's some columns with an X. So, OCPA was presenting on their main webpage about the residential rates. Here are the rates for OCPA and here is SCE, which is about $20 cheaper. Recently, I'm not sure when, they just removed the SCE comparison column.

So now if you look at OCPA, it did show the SCE comparative prices, but now they don't. I find that very odd. I think they're embarrassed. Charge a lot more than SCE would. And it's just a warning to you that when such information is removed from the web that the public can't see it.

Just beware, they withhold a lot of information in my opinion. And I really think it would be in your best interest to withdraw from OCPA. Now another thing that happened just last week in the Irvine City Council, a study was done to see how much Irvine would save if electricity accounts were moved from OCPA back to SCE. And this was about $800,000 a year that would be saved by making this transfer out of OCPA back to SCE. The city council, which has three or four OCPA board members or alternates, they talked and talked, well we just wanted to leave this item.

And I think it went on $30.40 minutes. We never got to the agenda item. It was just a lot of chitchat about we should just delete this item, which did happen procedurally and the public didn't ever hear the arguments for taking the municipal electricity out of OCPA back to SCE, saving 800,000 a year. That was a study by the city itself. So please beware OCPA does, they just want to keep things quiet and they're not comparing very advantageously to SCE to yeah. I mean, is cheaper. So please, please consider withdrawing. Please study what's going on. Thank you.

Mister mayor? Yes. So this is a nonagendized item, so I can't speak directly to that. But I would like to encourage the public on our second meeting in June, June 16. We'll be doing a complete study session on OCPA. We'll have OCPA here, and I encourage everybody to come with their questions. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Next, public comments scheduled matters only. Are there any requests to speak?

I have no request to speak on scheduled matters.

Okay. Next is consent calendar. Consent calendar items one to three will be approved simultaneously with one motion unless separate action or discussion is requested. Are there any items that council wishes to pull?

I have a question on the the fee schedule, which I'll pull that one whichever one it is.

That's number four. I make a motion to approve items one through three on the consent calendar.

I'll second. Please vote.

Items one through three pass five zero.

So on the item number four, I'd like you through the fee schedule. It looks like many of them are increased due to the inflation cost, but many of them are staying the same and there's no change. So just wanted kind of a general explanation about which fees are changing, which ones are not.

Okay. So we're actually moving into Item four or?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah. It's related item four. Yeah.

Probably in four. Yes.

We'll address that.

Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Public hearings. Just a reminder, each person will have up

to three Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was public hearings.

No worries. No worries. You had the right Each person will have up to three minutes to speak on public hearings. So item number four, fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven, comprehensive user fee schedule

The seating this item before you tonight is a an update of our user fee schedule for the fiscal year 2627. So what are what are the user fees? These are fees that provide private benefit with limited or no community benefit. State law requires that the individual use of the service must be voluntary. And two, the fees must reasonably relate to the services provided.

Generally, if if these two aren't met, it'd be considered a tax. So which is which is completely different. So what what kind of separates a tax and a fee are are generally focused on these items here. Fee levels are determined through city council fee adoption and does not include development impact fees, utility rates, business license fees, taxes, etcetera. In 2324, fiscal year 2324, we did a fee study, which was conducted by a consultant called Will Dan.

And fiscal in year twenty four-twenty five fee schedule was adopted on 05/07/2024, following the conclusion of our fee study. And part of this resolution included a provision to adjust the fees annually by the lower of CPI or 5%. And only fees adopted by resolution are affected. So to council member Harper's and these would include fees determined by municipal code or outside agencies would not be included. Community services, which generally the rates are based on market market costs.

And water sewer fees, those schedules are unchanged. They they go through a separate process to change those fees. So you'll see fees on the fee schedule that are changed, and those are the fees that are affected by this. The others go through either different processes or they're set by an outside agency or municipal code separately. So how did we come up with this year's price adjustment?

So the year over year percentage change of the CPI for Los Angeles, Long Beach and Anaheim, is the area that we're in, was 3.4%. So we took the fees that were calculated last year and adjusted them by 3.4%. And each year, we will continue to do that by applying the percentage increase to the prior year's unrounded fees and then rounding down to the nearest $05 The city receives approximately $5,000,000 annually from user fees. They're driven by activity and demand for services by residents and businesses. These last couple of years, we've had quite a bit more development activity, so we've seen a lot more fees.

The proposed fees reduced the annual general fund subsidy and increased overall user fee revenue by an estimated a 170,000 in the coming year. New fees are scheduled to take effect on Monday, July 6 to account for a two month waiting period between tonight's public hearing and the when they would go into effect. So the recommendation is to adopt the resolution establishing the twenty six twenty seven conference of user fee schedule. And I'm available for any questions.

Alright. Hold that thought. I'm gonna open the public hearing. Are there any requests to speak?

We have no requests to speak.

Okay. Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Now questions from counsel.

Thanks. Thanks. That answered my questions with the presentation. Thank you.

Right. So this is something that we basically voted on and agreed upon in prior year. And I assume the only reason it's coming back is state law says if you're gonna increase the percentage even if it's agreed upon in a prior year, you must have a public hearing.

Yeah. And and we wanna bring this every year for the increases, keep it transparent so everybody knows what we're doing. And we want also wanna you know, like I said, these these tend to be a private purpose that these fees are are helping to to pay for. So we wanna make sure that those that are benefiting from that private purpose are the ones that are paying for these services. So that's why we adjust the fees every year.

And there's, it's breakeven. We can't make money and put it into the general fund

or Exactly. Yep.

Okay.

Yep.

Thanks for clarifying.

Any other questions from counsel? Okay. Yes, Vice Mayor Harper.

I do one on the ambulance fee. Is that something that we are going to review on a periodic basis or is that how is that one set?

Yeah, that'll be reviewed periodically and we'll review that again before the ambulances before our program goes into effect later this year.

Thanks so much, Director Smith. I'll move to approve.

I second. Okay.

Item number four passes 50.

Alright. Thank you. We'll move

on item five. Introduction and first read of an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Fount Valley, California amending chapter 14 dot one eight of the Fount Valley Municipal Code pertaining to water conservation to be consistent with the new statewide requirements. Presentation by Christine Smith, senior management analyst. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor and city council. As you've already read the introduction, well, I don't seem to have a mouse up here. So are you gonna help me? Oh, someone knocked it off.

Sorry about that.

Just Christine, just use the arrow keys.

Oh, arrow. Yeah. That doesn't seem to be working either. Voila. Okay. So what brings us here tonight is state assembly bill fifteen seventy two, which was signed into law on 10/13/2023. A b one five seven two established new statewide requirements for prohibiting the irrigation of nonfunctional turf, keywords here, with potable water, another keyword, on commercial, industrial, and institutional properties in common areas of homeowners associations, common interest developments, and community service organizations or similar entities.

First of

all, I wanna clarify what AB one five seven two does not do. It does not prohibit the use of potable water, which is drinkable water, to protect the health of trees and perennial plantings or to address immediate health and safety concerns. It doesn't apply to cemeteries, which doesn't apply to Fountain Valley, and it does not apply to single family residential properties. K. Public water system requirements.

As part of a b one five seven two, public water systems like the city of Fountain Valley, we are required to revise our regulations, ordinance, or policies governing water service to include specific requirements of AB one five seven two. And we have to communicate those requirements to our customers. In addition, we will have to also stop watering our nonfunctional turf. All of our compliance deadlines are for 01/01/2027. So tonight, we're bringing a proposed ordinance to you to consider amending our Fountain Valley Municipal Code chapter fourteen eighteen, which pertains to water conservation.

We have permanent water conservation requirements and demand management measures that are affected all times to prevent waste and unreasonable use of water. So this ban prohibiting the use of potable water on nonfunctional turf on specific properties fits right into our permanent water conservation measures. The key points proposed additions to our municipal code is the permanent prohibition of the use of potable water for the irrigation of nonfunctional turf located on specific properties as of the following dates. I'm gonna pause real quick. Nonfunctional turf.

What is it? I was in a meeting recently, and they explained it quite easily. Would you let your toddler toddler play on it? No. Would you let your toddler play on the grass median out here in front of City Hall? No. Would you let them play on a little parkway strip? No. If you only walk on it to mow it, nonfunctional turf. Our little hills right here besides our employee parking lot, nonfunctional turf.

It's not used recreationally, it's decorative. That's it. Turf around grocery stores, industrial areas, anything that is not really used for anything other than trying to make things look pretty. Grass takes a lot of water. So in the state of California, following the lead of the state of Nevada has found that using portable drinking water to keep grass green, nonfunctional grass is not applicable.

Now schools, parks, baseball fields, those type of areas, your front yard, your backyard does not apply to any of this. That's all usable grass. It's not nonfunctional turf. So that's it. A lot of it this is definitions. Turf. So a lot of people think artificial turf. Well, of course, you're not gonna water it. No. Turf, grass, sod, lawn, the stuff that grows and you have to mow.

That is what we're talking about here. So we're just the state is targeting the nonfunctional turf that we're used to a certain look here in the state of California. It got installed years and years ago, and we're starting to move to a more water California drought friendly landscaping look. So 01/01/2027 is our big one where properties owned by the state and local governments, local or regional public agencies, and public water systems, those located in disadvantaged communities, we have to stop watering it. If there are trees planted out there like on our mediums out front here, we're allowed to water around the tree, but the 20 feet in between trees, no.

So we've already turned off our sprinklers out between the trees. We water the trees. We don't water the grass. It's just our natural dew. Our natural rain is what keeps it somewhat green. And luckily, the state is rolling this out. It hits us first as the city and any other government agencies in the city of Fountain Valley and the entire state. 01/01/2028, it rolls out to all other institutional properties and all commercial and industrial properties. 01/01/2029, it affects common areas of homeowners associations, common interest developments, and community service organizations or similar entities. Definitions are being added to the municipal code to clarify all those.

Probably the biggest one that probably might alarm people is the homeowners associations. If you live in a community that is a homeowners association and you have maybe a little patio area with some grass and it's fenced off for private use, keep watering it. That's fine. In a communal area where the kids play or maybe you have an ice cream social and community events out on that, keep watering it. You're fine.

If it is a little strip of grass between two parking areas that only gets mowed, nonfunctional. Let's put some take out the turf, take out the grass, put in some shrubs that are drought tolerant. So it's not going to say, take out all the grass. That's not what they're saying. They're just saying if we're not going to use it for enjoyment, for recreational purposes, then we need to stop watering it.

You can still use recycled water. So Hyundai, when they built their facility, tapped into the recycled water. And they don't really have a lot of grass. They put in a lot of drought friendly. They were already thinking ahead in their landscaping.

So we're having to change how we think in the state of California. So this is our first step towards moving Fountain Valley to comply with this. And like I mentioned, we're adding the related definitions. The last deadline is 01/01/2031 or a date upon which a state funding source is made available for conversion of nonfunctional turf. And that applies to public properties and disadvantaged communities.

I know that's a lot. Financial impacts of this decision, there are no direct financial impacts of amending our ordinance. However, there are indirect financial impacts of AB one five seven two and amending our ordinance. Reduced water fund revenue resulting from less potable water use for irrigation. Costs associated with nonfunctional turf, also called NFTs, so you're going to start hearing that a lot.

Education, compliance monitoring, and incentive programs for turf replacement, which are expensed to the water conservation account in the Water Fund. So we participate in rebate programs through the Municipal Waters of Orange County. But even though they get a lot of grant funding and they get money from MET to pay for that, we still do have to pay our share, the administrative costs and we pay inspection fees. And costs associated with nonfunctional turf replacement projects on city properties. We did one already in front of the city yard.

We had a nice rectangle of grass that nobody used. And so we were able to get that converted over to a very attractive drought tolerant landscape. And we hope to be able to do that with more. Over the next six months, we will really we have a kind of a short list of easy targets, but we're also gonna have to really dig down and really look at what the city owns and what is considered nonfunctional turf. Create a list, and then as funding is available, start working to find better alternatives.

So that's that will be the cost that we see. So our recommendation is to approve alternative one, which is to introduce, which I've just done, and approve for second reading an ordinance of the city council of the city of Fountain Valley, California amending chapter fourteen eighteen of the Fountain Valley Municipal Code pertaining to water conservation to be consistent with the new statewide requirements of prohibiting the irrigation of nonfunctional turf with potable water. Are there any questions?

So hold that thought, I'm gonna open the public hearing. Are there any requests to speak?

I have no requests to speak.

Okay. Hearing none, I'm gonna close the public hearing. I open up to counsel questions.

Mister mayor?

Yes. So all of this is potable water, which I understand.

Mhmm.

You don't wanna waste drinking water on areas that aren't gonna be used. Can you use non potable water, the purple pipes? I assume those are purple pipes.

Yes. That's recycled water. It's not gray water, different beast So recycled water is often referred to purple pipe because it does run through purple pipes. So if you ever dig in, you find purple pipe, it's recycled. We do have access to recycled water.

However, it's somewhat limited. It comes up ward from, like, OCWD in Orange County Sand Area, comes up ward to Mile Square Park, splits off, goes up Euclid about halfway up Mile Square Park and up Brookhurst about half tell about Heil. So it's like a goalpost of purple pipe. So it is up to the customer to apply and pay for the in the pricing of running pipe into the main and taking recycled water out. So it's not an inexpensive option, but it is an option. So it kind of depends on where you're located at in the city if that is a viable option.

Okay. I assume the golf course, of course, probably

They're already recycled.

Yeah. They're using it. Okay.

Yeah. Olive Mile Square Park is recycled. Makes sense.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay.

Any other questions?

Other questions, counsel? Great presentation.

Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Great presentation. Really, you covered all the questions I had as we were going through it and really appreciate the thorough explanation and presentation.

You're welcome. Council member Bouley?

You may know the answer. You may not. It's which is okay. I was just wondering, any other city has take a proactive on this one?

Any other cities? Mhmm. Actually, in Orange County, we are the first city to do it. So a lot of us were planning on doing it in the next six months. However, next meeting, we are also bringing bringing you our urban water management plan and our water source contingency plan, and this kind of ties right into that. So we decided to go ahead and move forward with it. And then we're gonna take the next six six months to focus on identifying our nonfunctional turf, reaching out to our customers. We're gonna be designing a website. We're gonna figure out how to best communicate to our CII customers and letting them know. It seems like they already know.

I also work with the rebate program. I have to approve inspections. And we have seen a dramatic uptick in CII turf replacement applications. I've been working on rebates for about ten years here. In those ten years, I mean, I I ran a list because I have a meeting tomorrow.

I think I have eight replacement projects right now going through MoDoc to remove their turf. That is probably more than I've had in ten years. So the businesses know about it. So we just have to, you know, educate the ones who haven't heard about yet. We need to let our community know when the grass does start going brown that these people aren't neglecting their properties. They're following California law, and they are doing their part to make every drop count. So we have a lot of communication work and education work ahead of us. So once we take care of our ordinance, we're going to turn our focus to that.

So are you also saying since we're the first, we'll be the first in line for the grant recipient?

Well, a lot of our grant funding comes through MoDoc. MoDoc is a fantastic resource for us, and they have some really great grant experts. They're always trying to find money. Now the rebates have gone down and cuts because a lot of that funding comes from MET, and MET has cut it down dramatically. So we went from 2 to $3 a square foot all the way up to $7 per square foot, and we're back down to 2 to 3 because MET is considering their budget. So it kind of fluctuates on how much you can get if you are removing it. So

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions of council?

I will thanks so much, Christine,

and we'll go ahead and call for a motion on that item.

I move to approve. Mr.

Mayor, can I have Yes? This is an ordinance of the City Council of the City amending Chapter fourteen eighteen of the Fountain Valley Municipal Code pertaining to water conservation.

Heard of first from Councilman Granda, second from Councilman Constantine. Other discussion? Okay. Please vote.

Item number five passes five zero.

Okay. Move on to administrative items. Item six, City of Fount Valley three year goals 2026, 2028 and six month strategic objectives for May to October 2026 presentation by city manager Maggie Lee.

Thank you, mayor and city council. The item before you is for the adoption of the City of Fountain Valley three years goals 2026 to 2028 and the six months strategic objective for May through October 2026. On 03/24/2026, the city's council held a strategic planning session with executive management team and department manager to revisit the three year goals and discuss the next six months strategic objective, which you will hear from our facilitator shortly. As you recall, every three years, the city council and city staff review the city goals and revise them as needed. In September 2025, we completed the three year strategic goals from 2023 to 2025, and city staff released an informal request for proposal.

The deadline to submit the proposal was 09/01/2025 four proposal were submitted. City staff conducted interview with the four firms and selected Chappey Smith and Associates effective 01/05/2026 through 01/02/2029, not to exceed $48,702.5 I will turn over to Ryder Smith, President of the Trappe Smith and Associates. I also wanted to add that Chippepe Smith and Associates did provide in kind sponsorship for our recent state of the city. So I'll go ahead and turn

it over to Ryder. Alright.

Alright. Welcome. Thank you, honorable mayor, members of the city council. It's great to be with you this evening. Always lovely to follow Maggie, though always difficult to do so because she does such a fantastic job. It was truly a pleasure to get to work in Fountain Valley and have a chance to work with each of you on your strategic planning process. It's a committee we've had the chance to work in before many times, including your incredible state of cities, which are always lovely. So thank you for the opportunity to participate again, Maggie. As Maggie noted, I'm just gonna provide a brief rundown. You all went through this, but I'm gonna provide a rundown for the benefit of the public about how we got to where we are today, and then I'm gonna cycle through this PDF document. So no snazzy visuals tonight. We're gonna keep it simple, and then transition any additional questions or follow-up that you

may

have. So as part of our process, we met with city staff to kick off the engagement to make sure we had our bearings about us, about the workflow that they wanted to see in alignment with our best practices. We also did some outreach questionnaires to each one of you to get some additional feedback to kinda wet your appetites for thinking about the future of the city. And then after that, we conducted one on one interviews with each council member to dive into some deep questions and better prepare for the strategic planning process. In parallel, the city council and city staff indicated a desire to have public engagement in this process and to include community sentiment.

So we launched an online feedback form for people to provide structured feedback to us as well as conducted a community workshop, which we widely advertised using social media. Didn't get a massive turnout for that, but we got about 10 community members who participated. Mayor, I believe you were there for that conversation, and we split those two groups into or we split the them into two groups and asked them to work through a series of questions to kind of talk about the future of Fountain Valley, what they love about it, and areas of concern. I most memorably recall there were some very fierce, I think it was soccer advocates, that were president and accounted for and stayed on message. So I applaud them for their grassroots efforts.

And we consolidated all this feedback, both the online forms and the workshop information into a public engagement summary packet of information which was conveyed to you prior to our workshop together so that you could have the benefit of community feedback as we went through this process. We then all gathered together, had our meeting, and, which was phenomenal. We I very much loved the amount of city staff participation we had in that and the kind of holistic support that was present. I don't usually get that in my workshops. And then the excellent discourse that you all engaged in, even if you weren't in perfect alignment on all the issues.

Following all that, and you'll recall that during that meeting, it was kind of a working meeting where our goal was to come out of the meeting with the actual final work product or close to it. We took those goal areas and objectives and brought them back to city staff to work through the tactical steps that were necessary to execute, and that brings us to where we are today. So on your screen, I'm just being reminded that you have your mission statement and your vision statement for the city and the core values. Fortunately, these did not change because they are emblazoned on the wall behind you, so we don't have to make any structural changes to the council chamber as a result of that. A reminder that our first of the four goal areas that we identified was to cultivate a workplace culture and safe environment that makes our community a nice place to live, and we identified four strategic objectives under each one of those.

I think since you have the benefit of the staff report being in front of you, I don't want to dwell on these particular items, but I think they speak for themselves, and I'm sure that myself or Maggie would be happy to answer any specific questions you have on those items. And the general point to the public is these goal areas, things are going well in the city. So the goal areas are not significantly changed. We just tweak some of the language on those goal areas. The second goal area is to ensure long term fiscal stability by evaluating processes and attract and retain revenue producing businesses and opportunities.

Third area remains focused on attract and retain quality staff through best practices and trends. And then the fourth area is maintain, build, plan for, and modernize infrastructure to support growth and future needs of the city. As you will see, as is consistent with past practices here in the city, we've identified when certain dates are going be hit to achieve some of these objectives that were outlined by the council and by in collaborating with city staff, who the lead individual is on city staff responsible for executing on that objective, a description of the objective, which is what we discussed in our meetings together, and then some additional comments as necessary to provide context on the particular objectives. As I noted, there was a lot of additional ideas that surfaced during the workshop phase and in the interview phase, and not all those items were prioritized by the council in our workshop. I will just make the obvious point that if you prioritize everything, then nothing is a priority.

So you had to go through the effort of prioritizing and, frankly, giving your staff the direction of the 5% to 10% of work they can do beyond the day to day of filling potholes and doing the great work that they do for the city. So in light of that, I did want to make sure that we accurately reflected the totality of these additional ideas. So they were also enumerated in your staff report and are held here as well. And I would just kind of consider these grab bag options that are available so that as we check off objectives over the coming three year period, we may want to grab some of these or others will naturally surface in the course of the process. My understanding is we will revisit all of these in about six months to have another horseshoe gathering in the community center and have a conversation and go from there.

And with that, I will answer any questions or defer to Maggie to fill in any gaps I have.

Thanks so much. Any questions, comments from counsel?

Councillor Mabee?

Yes. First of all, welcome on board and it was great having you at the last strategic budget planning. It was very well conducted. I can't speak for others, but I really enjoy your presentations and how you conduct the meeting. So once again, thank you for what you do best.

Any other comments?

Yeah, I'll just echo that. I thought it was very productive, one of the best that we've had and I thought it was great that we did a lot of pre work So that when we got there, we were able to focus and define exactly what we needed versus trying to come up with certain stuff there. So I thought that was a huge benefit to us.

Yeah, that was a pleasure working with you and Morgan, I think on your team. I think you had an intuition on what we needed to do and we just got right to the work, which I appreciated. And, you know, I think we're we're off to a great start. And as you said, you know, we have six months to to noodle on some of some of the grab bag items, which is you know, love that ability to focus on priorities, but not lose sight of some of some of the bigger ones that may insert themselves. We don't know. I mean, but at least there's that flexibility, and so I really appreciate that.

Okay. Okay. Great.

So I think at this point, thanks so much. And there's a motion on this item or

Manager Yes.

So the recommendation from SAP is to approve the three year goals for 2026 through 2028 and the six months strategic objective matrix for May through October 2026. And then on a monthly basis, staff will bring the item back to update City Council on those objectives. That concludes presentation.

I'd like to make a comment on the recommendations. I spoke with the City Manager earlier that I think it's great to have continuous three years contract, but perhaps it's for future discussions. I brought to my point to the senior manager is do we really need every six months? From her perspective, is because I think she want all of us to build that relationship with our executive teams, understand and give us more the opportunity to work with our executive team and platform. But at the same time, do we feel that there's a need for it?

Perhaps that's a different discussion in the future. Is it one year is good enough or we continue the history of Phan Bali, which is every six months that has always been the history? And do we need to continue the history of that or should we explore the other avenue? That's just something I want to share, but that's all.

Okay. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Okay. So we'll call call a motion.

Well, actually, I have something more. So if we can please call up Ryder. I have a question. You were referencing first of all, too, I was at that just for a while, the community meeting that you had at the rec center.

Thank you, council member. I apologize.

That's right. You have the community questionnaires and, you know, there was somewhat of a low response much to my dismay. What's being done with those, the questionnaires, the results? And are you gonna launch it again or

Great question. So I'll maybe defer to Maggie on the process of how she envisions the next six month process going. The delivery there was and we did run some social media to try to prompt those responses. We got a lot of viewership and very little engagement on that social media post. So we brought them to the proverbial trough.

They just chose not to drink the water. So long story longer, the intention was, as we did, was to deliver all this in one packet of information so that it was available to you as a city council to kind of digest on your own accord prior to our actual gathering for the workshop. In my experience, sometimes somebody surfaces an idea or there's a particular theme that runs throughout that bubbles up and can surface additional options. I would also say that to the extent we go back and look at that to identify other priorities that may want to go into the grab bag at discretion of City Council or as we dig through that to look at the next six month round, assuming we do one, it would be an opportunity to revisit those and put those to work as well. Do you have comments on?

So the engagement, communication portion of it was the intent of it is to get any feedback from the community to see if any of those rise, for discussion for City Council to consider as part of the next three year goal. It is not intended to, you know, revisit on a regular basis. It's basically starting of the new three year goal to see if anything that is of value that we can add that to the City Council as part of the discussion to take into consideration. So if you want to revisit the next three year goal, I guess on a positive note, if not many people kind of evolve, I think they are content and happy with the service level or the goals that has been set by the city council. And those information will be on the city website under citywide strategic planning session.

Sure. Great. And so I do like the twice a year strategic planning. I've been attending even before I was elected, know, ever since 2014 and to go to like once a year, that to me, I'm not crazy for that. I really like the twice a year because things change and we can really be very, very hands on and I think it works well. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Harper?

Yeah. I just wanna comment. I think for for me as a council member, it's it's good to have an opportunity to interact with all the different areas of the staff in one location, in one place. I get a lot of valuable feedback from talking to all the people that are there as well as members of the public that might show up to attend. So I think they're good workshops and for the public that's watching out there, this is one of the ways that we try to identify what's important.

The staff are dealing, know working with it every day and a lot of the ideas and the priorities come from them interacting with you the public. And I think it's been a good process for prioritizing what's important in the community which is for me it's to protect our quality of life and keep Fountain Valley a nice place to live and I think I think the city manager and city staff are doing a great job making that happen.

Any other comments?

Yeah, I echo it. I think every six months is really important. I think the main reason everything that vice mayor Harper said, but also accountability. You know, if you have something that's important and we prioritize it, it must be done within six months. And then we look at it in six months. Was it done in time? You know? And then what we do is that's this what's a direct reflection of what comes out of this is are the study sessions that we have before the council meetings. So when you see different study sessions, typically, it's coming from that. So I would hate to see us trying to have to plan something if we had the meeting in March for January of the following year.

So I like keeping it every six months. I like that it was concise, that it wasn't all day. We were able to do it in four hours and I think we should continue to do that.

Great. Okay. So do I have a motion to approve?

I make a motion to approve.

A second? I'll actually second.

Oh, I thought you used it. Tricked me.

System froze there for a second.

No, don't worry. You go. You.

Item number six passes five-zero.

Okay. Great. Thanks so much. So we'll move on to item seven. Introduction of an ordinance of the city council, city of Fount Valley revising Fount Valley municipal code section two dot zero four dot two zero zero regarding the selection of mayor and mayor pro tem. Presentation by city attorney Colin Burns.

Good evening, mayor and council members. This is a council requested item. This is about the mayor rotation. On March 17, staff was asked to bring back a study session proposed ordinance a proposed ordinance, sorry, providing for a mandatory mayor rotation. As you know, the current rotation is a preferred rotation, but ultimately, it rests in the discretion of city council.

There was a request that we take out the discretion and make it a mandatory rotation. The way to do that is shoulds were replaced with shall and also provided that the council may remove a person from office of mayor or mayor pro tem at any time for any reason. So while the rotation is automatic, after a person is rotated into the mayor or mayor pro tem position, council then has discretion to remove that person for any reason. Another option could be to limit removal or limit appointment to for cause situations. For cause situations are unable to unable or unfit to fulfill the rule roles or malfeasance, lack of participation, any other cause can raise in November or at any meeting.

However, a for cause skip or a for cause removal would require compliance with the Brown Act, which would mean it needed to be agendized unless it was done at the at the meeting where the mayor would is going to be appointed in the first instance. That completes my presentation. The proposed ordinance simply removes should, replaces it with shall, and leaves open the option of council to remove the mayor at any time for any reason if counsel does wanna move forward with the ordinance and also include a for cause provision. A for cause provision could be built in to the ordinance and presented for second read. And I'm available for any questions.

Any questions from council?

Yeah. I'm kind of intrigued by one of the slides because I didn't remember seeing the verbiage in here about that a vice somebody serving as vice mayor and or mayor could be, pulled by council. What might be some of the, yeah. That's the one. Council may remove a person from the office of mayor or mayor pro tempore at any time for any reason.

That carried over, I believe, from the prior ordinance. So it it's it's a suggested language to give counsel the option to remove a person. The council can strike it if council doesn't like it. It does go against the mandatory nature of the ordinance. So if council doesn't like that provision, by all means, I'm open to remove it.

Well, I mean, it it's intriguing to me. At the same time, it's very broad.

It is. And and you could also replace it with a for cause provision to remove

Yeah.

Or have no discretion to remove. Somebody's automatically appointed and that's it.

Kind of like it for cause. I think there has to be some reason.

Yeah.

Yeah. I agree.

So for me yeah. For me the the ordinance is fine the way it is. I don't see any urgency or need to change it. So my I would vote to keep it the same.

We just kinda go around and get thoughts.

I I just wanna clarify this too that this is gonna keep the way we currently do the rotation and have done for the last thirty years. So if everybody gets reelected, we'll just assume that. Next in line is vice mayor Harper, then council member Constantine, then myself, then councilman Bowie, and then mayor Keenan again. Just wanna confirm that is what we're all agreeing to.

And so I really like this.

I'm sorry. I I actually wanna hear that. That's what we're all agreeing to.

No. That's what I

If anybody's not agreeing to that, let's speak now.

We're agreeing. I agree.

Yeah. No. I agree. And I think it's very important. I mean, I just kinda went off on a side note on the other that will really if we can do this, this would be great and I'll not even worry about the removing anybody.

If I can respond to that to her concern, especially in the policies that if we're going to remove person for for cause, whatever reason, it requires four vote. So only a person who is not voting is the person that's been removed.

Four members present. That's right. Four members

have to

be present, but a majority vote would carry it.

Yeah. So

it's it's not even three quarter. Right? It's four member out of five.

I get that.

No. That's not true. So four It could be. Four members voting, but a majority of the four. All four don't have to

Well, I I assume that

could be three one.

Yeah. The person might not show up is the fifth person. That's what I'm thinking.

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying.

I'm saying that it requires majority of people, not just three out of five. It's four. You gotta be present.

No. It could be three

to Well, the the ordinance has written says four. You council can remove that provision. That was a carryover from how the ordinance was before.

Oh, in order to vote for the mayor? Yes. Oh, I think that's reasonable. Reasonable.

Yeah. Yeah. That's That's what what it's it's for. For, George. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. I I didn't didn't realize that. That makes sense.

So this would replace voting for mayor and vice mayor.

That's right. It would happen automatically. Yeah. As written Sure. It would happen automatically on on the whatever meeting we would usually rotate. There would be no vote.

I really like it. I'm scared to really like it because we saw what happened in the study session though. I'm just being honest.

Alright. I'll make the motion that we approve this and we use the language of with cause.

For cause instead of for any time for any reason? Okay. Second. I can change that for the second.

Okay. We have a first and second. Any other discussion? Okay. Call for the vote.

And this is an order to the city council, the city of Fountain Valley, revising Fountain Valley Municipal Code section two zero four two hundred regarding the selection of mayor and mayor pro tem.

Item number seven passes four one. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Next is council member items for future consideration. Are there any council members who have items for future consideration?

I do. Councilwoman Constantine. I just have one. Okay. So in the news in voice of OC, and I don't really wanna get into it, but it has to do with the fact the the FIFA World Cup was coming coming this summer, but it's I think it we're kinda late for that.

But ahead of the twenty twenty eight Olympics, there are some cities tightening up their short term rental Airbnb fines and and that sort of thing mainly because the Orange County grand jury recommended last year that cities update their short term rental laws ahead of the World Cup and the Olympics Just to keep things tight and we banned short term rentals in November 2021. So I'm just seeking a second where we can have a study session and talk about what we do as far as enforcement and our citations and fines for people having short term rentals that are banned in the city.

Just Actually would support that. I think it would be

a good reminder of what our rules are and just to refresh

the environment of short term rentals with a lot of these big events coming through the next really three years or so.

Perfect. Thank Okay. You very

Any other items? Okay. Hearing none, we'll move on to City Council successor agency housing authority.

Oh, my apology. I forgot. Yes. Actually do have fun. I just remember.

I was talking to my colleague here and I probably forgot about it. As you know, year is the anniversary of the United States, two fifty years. There's going to be a lot of fun activity throughout the city, not in ourselves, but other cities as well. So I'm thinking about fourth of July you know, firecracker. So is it perhaps we want to remind other resident of the ordinance that there's no firecracker, know, in the neighborhood, right, for the safety of the community.

But at the same time, I kind of want to propose that if you want to celebrate the twenty fifth year with firecracker with your families, friends and whatnot, perhaps we should either collaborate or communicate with the county is tell people if you want to do it, do it at the Miles Square Park. It'd be much safer. It would not disrupt the neighborhood, the traffic's something to think about a place for people to get where they can go enjoy the firecracker should they want to celebrate that two fifty years, but not in the neighborhood for the safety for everyone. So just a thought.

Are are you say I think you mean safe and sane fireworks, not firecrackers.

Yes. Firework. That's what I meant. Okay. So yeah. So to to propose that, you know, do it at the Miles Square Park, and, you know, that's that's just a thought there.

Amongst all the trees and every that's a fire danger. I mean, I'm sorry that's I had proposed to having a fourth of July event in Miles Square Park community wide and they kept getting rejected. And I believe it truly would cut down on people setting off any kind of fireworks here. Really do.

Well, people are still doing it on fourth of July. I mean, it's better in Miles Square Park than in the neighborhood.

Well, would support at least exploring the idea because Yeah.

That's what I meant, explore the idea.

As you mentioned, we get pretty excited about our our big ones. I remember February. Mean, '76 was amazing. Yeah. So, let's I support that. All right. Okay. Any other items for consideration?

Yes. May I get

that clarification on that? So there is a request to do a study session potentially considering fireworks opportunity on July 4 at Mye Square Park. Are we talking about both the city and the county side so we would have to coordinate with the county or you're just referencing the city side?

I'm just referencing to the city side, but I might reference to the county side just in case we might put the county on the loop, just in case they venture into the county side, what's going on, right? My my point in the county is just to let them know, but I referenced to the firework for the city. We see we have it's been organized by the you know, I'm not sure what is it Troy that organized that? I mean that's a city firework for the event. Right?

You mean at Summerfest? Yeah. It's Summerfest. It's the Summerfest committee.

Okay. So they organized that. I don't I don't meant by that. I just meant for

Don't worry. I will attach this to Ralph Fizzell, our deputy center

manager, so it's his director,

so he would have all those answers.

He's walking in. He's I mean, he

heard it. He heard it. He's coming in.

I'm coming now. Actually, I I have a question for Colin. If we do this, we're gonna have to change the city law

Yeah.

To allow it, and it's sixty day July 4 is in sixty days.

Do

we even have time to do it?

I think we could.

I think we could do an urgency ordinance if we if there if there's a will, there's a way to do it if council wants to do it.

Okay.

Yeah. So unfortunately, thank you for the question and it's a fun idea. Unfortunately, our our municipal code does ban all fireworks in the park and in in private and public spaces. And I'd have to check on the Orange County Mile Square Park portion what their ordinance code is because they're under the jurisdiction of Orange County Sheriff. But if if there's time to allow amendment to our muni code, And I don't know if you can just amend it for a certain amount of time, but

We we we can. We just have to we have to make sure to kind of motor on this item to make sure everything gets done in time. So there there's at this point, I think there's still time to do it. It's just we need to bring it in pretty quick succession.

So it sounds like Colin has volunteered to take the lead on this?

I I'm happy to bring forward an ordinance. The the logistics and everything else I leave to Rob and Chris and all those.

And we're just talking the safe and sane fireworks, or is there a desire for an actual fireworks show?

Just saying the same. Yeah.

Okay. So

so the other thing just I know we're not supposed to discuss this here, but just when you bring it back to us, please let us know would we have any staff available to work on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary? Because we couldn't just allow residents to go do that without staff involved and a lot of effort. So

Yeah. I mean, that would be discussion for all the department heads because there would obviously have to be a little police presence or or availability that day along with fire and probably some parks and rec.

An ambulance. Yeah.

And lots of trash cans. Oh my gosh.

Collaboration.

Yes.

Maggie. Almost there.

Colin, know, as you mentioned, if there's a will, there's a way to do it. We're two months out. And if there is an amendment to the ordinance, timeline wise, what are you anticipating? Is this something that staff would have to bring back to the city council for a conversation at May 19

Yes.

Meeting?

First read. May 19, first read. July June 2, second read. Ordinance takes effect on July 2.

Actually, May 19 would be a study session for the team to share what their research is. And then May would potentially be the date where the first read of the amended ordinance. Is that correct?

I mean, would I would bring the amended ordinance just in case council wants to go forward at the second meeting of May.

Rob?

Yeah. I mean, we can if and I think council member Grant has assigned the item to the attorney for the city, so I appreciate that. But, know, obviously we'd want time to notify our public too that the availability would be there. So we'd like to

do it also as when you bring it back also, we would need the finance department to figure out how much this will cost, what the funding mechanisms would be. It's not a bad idea. I think I

Setting off fireworks in the park?

We're a council member. But it's I I my concern is this should have been brought up a year ago, six months ago, two sixty days prior is gonna be tough, but let's see what the what you can do. It's been a second.

So Yep.

That's it.

Okay. Great. Thanks so much. Okay. Now move into City Council successor agency housing authority AB one, two, three, four general comments. I like to start with Councilman Grandis because I know you've got a flight and feel free to flee after your comments if that helps with that. Fly away.

So what I've done since the last council meeting is be on vacation,

so I

have nothing to report. And I will leave. Thank you.

And you

are excused. Alright. Safe flights. Okay. Council member Bouie.

Actually, I was going to submit it later, give them an opportunity to leave. Thank you. I'll go ahead submit it.

Okay. Thank you. Housewoman Constantine? Sure.

Some of my whereabouts included, I've already submitted my list, but the Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce Business and Leadership Awards, the first responders appreciation night, our public works Arbor Day presentation at Courageous Elementary was fabulous as always. The police department badge pinning ceremony, a couple of new police officers and some promotions, very well deserved. Our advisory committee for persons with disability social club, the weekend Pacific Islander event was great. And our monthly historical well, ours, but the monthly historical society board meeting I attended last night. Thank you.

Thank you, councilor McConsody. Vice mayor Harper.

Thank you. On April 27, attended the OCTA board meeting. May 2, attended the Pacific Islander Festival at the Rec Center Sports Park. That was that was really great. We had a great turnout. I'd say Hawaiian, Samoan, and some Japanese also. But there had to be like over a thousand people there. Don't know what the final total was, but it was was tremendous as as Trump would say. He was he was great. A lot of great people there. Really, really like it. So anyway, it's a good good event. I think we outsourced the production this year and they did a great job and May 4 yesterday with the OCTA Regional Transportation Planning Committee meeting. Thanks.

Thank you so much. My activities since our last meeting included the following on April 22. I attended the Fountain Valley Chamber Business and Leadership Awards at Mile Square Golf Course, where I got to co emcee some of the awards and announcements with deputy city manager Rob Pursell. The city of Fount Valley was also honored and we actually received the final award and so I just I brought it here to the dais. I just want to read what it is.

It says Fat Valley Chamber of Commerce and the City of Fat Valley, we were awarded the business and community forever partnership pledge and this is actually a nice little kind of a vague two hands combined, so I'll put this up here. So thank you so much for the recognition from Fat Valley Chamber of Commerce. Later that day, I attended the first responders appreciation night held at Steady Brewery in Fount Valley along with vice mayor Harper, councilwoman Constantine. It was great being in such fine company with our best in class crime and fire suppression heroes. On April 23, I attended the Arbor Day celebration at Courageous Elementary School.

Wanted to mention that I just got a letter from the Arbor Day Foundation. They congratulated us on continuing to be a tree city, and so everybody knows I love trees and birds, and so excited to announce that. Later that morning, I visited with UCI Health and and participated in a tour with CEO Randy Rogers and COO Andrew Pete. On Saturday, April 25, I first joined in the community service day at Mall Square Park, then later that day joined city manager Lee and her husband Ty at the Cal State Fullerton annual induction ceremony and awards banquet where our city manager manager was awarded the public administration Pi Alpha Alpha Alumni Year Award. Then that night, I attended the fiftieth anniversary gala for congregation Bene Zedek or also known as CBT at Mile Square Golf Banquet Center.

I was able to present CBT with a certificate of recognition, and it was a wonderful evening. Congratulations on the important milestone in our city. On April 27, I got to tour the new Ontario Tower Buzzers Baseball Stadium Facility, which is the new home of the Los Angeles Dodgers single a farm team. Thank you to city manager Lee for arranging this very important informative event with the city of Ontario and stadium staff. This is helping us gather information for future discussions on possible sports venues here in Fount Valley.

On April 29, I attended and was honored to make closing remarks at the Fount Valley Police Department pinning ceremony. Congratulations once again to police service office police services officer Catherine Martinez, dispatcher Jerry Riddle, officer Joshua Holly, corporal Anthony Clements, corporal Matthew Spencer, and sergeant Julio Vega. On April 30, I participated in two tours of local Fount Valley businesses with their national headquarters here, Hyundai and Yacolt. Thanks especially to city manager Lee for arranging these very interesting experiences for many of us. On May 1, I made opening and welcoming remarks at the first Fount Valley Pacific Islander Festival together with councilwoman Constantine, city manager Lee, and all and vice mayor Harper.

We hope this tradition continues. And just wanna mention today, Cinco de Mayo. In 1862, the battle of Pueblo was fought. There that was a Mexican independence from Spain. We love our freedoms. We too once had to get free from Mexico and Spain. So so on that note, you too will be free from this meeting, and so we're gonna go ahead and adjourn. We will meet at our next regular city council meeting here in the chambers on 05/19/2026 at 6PM. We're adjourned.