Active Transportation Committee - Regular Meeting

How's that? I thought my voice carried, but this is probably better. Alright. Good afternoon. I'm gonna call the, May 18, meeting to order of the infrastructure and natural resources committee. Madam clerk, would you go ahead and, conduct our roll call? Vice

chair Munish?

Present.

Member Tuna?

Present.

Member Klingsberg?

Present.

Member Seaborne?

Here.

Member Sarves? Here. And member Molina is absent.

Okay. So what I'd like to do is if it's, unless somebody, objects, I'd like to go ahead and start with the pledge of allegiance. And I would ask, member Seaborne to lead us if that's okay. Sure. Alright.

Please rise. Place your right hand over your heart. Face the flag. Ready. Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

You're welcome. Okay. So I will, go ahead and preface by saying that, this this is the second time I've chaired a meeting. The other one was a little bit simpler because the, water dispute panel. So bear with me on this. I think, it's time for public comments. So this will be our time for public comments on matters not appearing on the agenda but within the committee's jurisdiction.

So so I think maybe before we start with public comments, maybe it's we can start with addressing that the fact that, chair

We don't speak of him anymore.

Sure.

So

Sorry, Jay.

I will be sitting in, as the chair today. And, because our, actual chair, Chuck Sargent, he's put it out there publicly, so he'll put it out there. He has sold his house and is moving. Yeah. With that being said, it's unfortunate he's not here. I would really have liked to have thanked him. And, you know, more importantly, wish him the best of luck in his endeavors. Moving's never fun, and I think he's been established in this community for decades. So I hope that those of you that have his contact information will take a moment to send him a message, you know, a little bit later saying thank you and good luck.

For sure. And I think just to add to that is so, vice chair would now he's gonna be leading today's meeting. For the next meeting, I will agendize an item on how we're gonna who's gonna get appointed, vice chair of chair. We'll figure that out.

Thank you very much.

Just to let you guys know. So we can move on to public comments, I would say, unless David wants to say something else. Nope. Alright. We're good?

Ma'am, were you, here to speak to us? Please. You'll have up to three minutes. We'll have a timer that gets going. But since it looks like you may be the only one, don't hold back. Maybe maybe we'll let you go longer.

Oh, okay. I probably won't, but that's okay. Okay. I'm gonna. Okay. We What

do you mean?

Alright. Hello. This is the first meeting of this type I've been to, usually council meetings. And it's because of the last council meeting that I'm here. I know that there's the paving project that has been approved. I believe that's your jurisdiction. And I know they refuse to agendize something, so I'm coming here to it's this is in your jurisdiction. The paving we we all know the paving and fortune is horrendous right now. And I know everybody's working as hard as they can to work with what they have within the budget. But some city council members have their neighborhoods come first, and they're not the worst neighborhoods.

My neighborhood's pretty bad, but not still not the worst. So I think the worst should come first. But I my main concern is the lack of of transparency. They didn't mention that they were believe it was three council members, but I'm not a 100% sure. It's two for sure, three third, I'm unsure. I don't want to name anybody in case I'm wrong on that third one. But they're getting theirs done first, and I think they should have not necessarily. We don't need to know where they live. But, hey, this is benefiting me personally. I think there needs to be some transparency there.

So maybe since it seems like they didn't want to answer to the public because the response to another member asking for it to be agendized was pretty severe, in my opinion, which is kind of a red flag. So I'm asking maybe, you take a look at it maybe. I don't know exactly what can be done from this angle, but, like, one of the council members was calling people stupid. I believe the quote was, I saw the stupid graphic and the stupid people that made it. So that's kind of a red flag for somebody that's elected public office.

You know, this is our tax money getting spent for these. I know staff works too hard to have to, I don't know, do extra. But unfortunately, I think maybe this time, a little extra. And that was Dunlap that called somebody stupid. I think it's important to note. So just thinking we need some transparency there. Thirty seconds left. I think that's it.

Thank you so The make sure after make sure there's no other public comments I'll ask maybe Mr. Grantham can provide us some brief. Okay. On that project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I believe it's called the street project, street paving. I don't know exactly what it's called.

Think we're familiar with what

you're talking

about. Thank

you. You.

Well we see nobody else here in chambers. Do we have anybody online? We do.

Elijah, please go ahead and unmute your mic.

Hello.

I first wanna just say thank you for serving on this committee, and thank you to staff as well. I'm going to be talking about the same thing. I'm the person who made that stupid graphic, and I don't want to I wanna make it clear I'm not trying to undermine staff or anything like that, but I do think it's important to disclose when projects are within a certain radius around people's properties that they own. But I think more importantly, that we need a an objective ranking system for how we do street projects and water main replacements. I spoke with director Bies about it a few weeks ago.

I was just curious. I wanted to understand the system. And as I understand it now, we don't have a ranking system for for watermints. Like, there's no objective scoring system. When we put out RFPs, we have objective criteria that we score based off of.

And I think that it would be if we had that with our roads and with our water mains since the water mains are directly linked to which roads are getting done, I think it's much harder to be scrutinized for which roads are being chosen because you're taking you're taking objective criteria and you're punching it into a formula, and that's that's telling you which road or which water main needs to be replaced first. And I think also because we have a serious budget issue, every department needs to look at ways to save on costs and to become more efficient. And while having an objective scoring system and objective ranking system, it might take time upfront to set up, I think it would ultimately save staff quite a bit of time in deciding how these deciding which roads and which water mains are being replaced. Because specifically the Courtenay West Ash area, that water main was replaced, but the street itself, in the staff report, the street itself was in good condition, it was in fair condition. So I don't know why that water main was chosen over others since the road didn't need to be replaced at that time, but what ended up happening was they replaced the water main, and during that replacement period, the the road deteriorate deteriorated from the construction that was that happened.

So, yeah, that's that's all I wanted to say. I just think it would be it would be nice to to take away to just give staff less discretion on this just that then they're not getting scrutinized as much because I know that this is a fair process I understand how things are deliberated but I do think it can be improved and that we can have a bit more objectivity in how we do things So, yeah, thank you.

Thank you, sir. Do we have any other comments, ma'am?

There are no other speakers online.

Okay. With that being said, we'll close the public comments, and I would ask David if you could address both of those concerns that were brought up. One of the things I think that would be helpful to know is how long ago were those street pavings planned? I think that helps with a little bit of transparency. And I also think you know, also, do we have a water main ranking system the way we do with the roads? So maybe we can address the questions that were brought up.

Okay. So bear with me because this might be extended explanation. So we'll start with the water mains. Our water main projects are chosen based on the history of main breaks. So the most the majority of main breaks happen in the North, but we also have area pockets of history of large number of main breaks in the South.

So our water engineering division based on budget, based on locations are prioritizing the locations mainly based on main breaks. So, as far as a priority one, two, three, four, I wouldn't say that they have that. They have, as I've said in many meetings before, a hit list of areas they need to go to. So they have a lot of project areas, and then they just start they're working their way through the list, working their way through the city, but mainly it's based on based on history of main breaks. So as far as coordinating streets and utility projects back in 2021, I believe it was, we had a very in-depth conversation with the committee here as to how we would prioritize streets.

We looked at, needing to work on arterial streets as well as residential streets and also try and do a slurry re restart the slurry seal project so we could at least try and keep the good condition streets in good condition. When it came to residential streets, the idea was to follow utility projects or, actually, the preference would be to do the streets as part of the utility projects. However, the streets don't have sufficient funding to keep up with the water main projects, so we've fallen behind a little bit, a year or so on a lot of a lot of the projects. So since 2021, and it was also supported by council, is to on residential projects, the vast majority of them are to follow the water or and or sewer projects, and that's what we've been doing for the past four or five years. Are there other projects that come up?

Absolutely. But they are usually more specific, either specific funding, specific areas such as CDBG funding. Those are specific areas. So they're not tied to water main projects, but they're typically in the South side of of town, and we've we spread those out throughout the city. Those are about the only residential projects that are not tied to utility projects.

I think pretty much every other, residential project is tied to either a water or sewer project that we've done in the recent past. So these projects have been on from a street perspective, have been on my hit list or our hit list for a long time because we know the water project's coming up. So based on our we try to take them in order that the water projects have done as closely as we can. So when we know what we've got, we do preliminary estimates on all the projects, what we anticipate the street improvement will be, the rehabilitation will be, grind and overlay, reconstruction, slurry seal, a combination of all. Fitting those into what we anticipate our budget becomes a Tetris job trying to fit everything together.

So some projects may wait two years while other projects may come the next year, but most projects are a year behind utility project. And that's the case with the projects we've selected next year. It just happens that this project and I think what we're most likely looking to do is a combination of some slurry seal on most of the streets and some on some of the the more damaged streets and for the area in question.

So would it be safe to say that the, projects that are scheduled coming up, they've been on the books for at least a couple years and going in that order?

Absolutely.

And there's probab so it wasn't like some certain streets got jumped forward No. Given any impropriety then?

No. I I can't think of any time that we've jumped streets ahead of anybody else.

Okay. One of the things I I do wanna bring it ma'am, I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name. So Lisa? Thank you. Munish. You know, I I can only speak for what I know, and I did wanna ask, you know, if there's any impropriety. I trust David. I trust David in that, you know, when he said that, you know, the these streets have been you know, they're they're were they're being addressed in an order based on a plan that they had. And, you know, the one thing I will say is I think it's important to have, you know, everything I think the public always deserves to know.

I did, you know, check just on one of the streets, and you brought up member Dunlap. His street's actually not getting done. It's a street adjacent to his. So his actual street or, you know, he drives on, his kids play on, that's that actual street is not being done. But adjacent to there, yes, it's being done. But he'll still pull out on the same roadway he's been pulling out on for quite a while. I can't talk to any other member's street, but I hope that addresses the question, and I hope that that creates some clarity. I believe member Seaborne had some comments.

Just wanna add something to that. There's been a couple of references about being open, being public, being transparent. If you want transparency, this is a committee for you to follow. So staff will make recommendations about the infrastructure based on the science, the engineering, the technical reports. We receive that information. We weigh it against what our understanding of the technical side is as well as what we feel the community needs. And sometimes we go along with staff, sometimes we don't. Sometimes it's a mix of of things. But that is transparency, and that does happen at these meetings. It's not particularly fun for laypeople.

I have an engineering background, so I really love it, and it's fascinating that, you know, I'm excited about it, but I'm rare. Most people are bored to tears when they hear about pavement index ratings and and all these things. But we do talk about that. We recently approved the or council finally adopted the water master plan, and the water master plan will outline the the deficiencies in our water system and the priorities in our water system. We've talked a little bit about that.

We've made some recommendations. There are some things that council has approved, but that water master plan is in place to help guide this city. And that's the staff, that's the elected, that's committee members like us as to the priorities and the path forward. So if you want transparency, look at those reports, look at those plans, and then follow our meetings and hear what we're, you know, recommending. We don't decide anything definitively.

We recommend to counsel. We advise staff. And through those recommendations and advisements, that's how, counsel uses that information to develop their policies. They also use their own information that they bring to the dais, and that's their prerogative as an elected official. But, I think it's important to note that that we do a lot of that work here in this meeting so that they don't have to spend hours and hours and hours looking at the water master plan, the pavement index, all these other really technical things that that, frankly, are gonna put the rest of the city to sleep, but are really important for the fabric of our infrastructure.

I'd have to defer to staff on the specifics, but, yeah, that is an element to it.

Now I don't wanna get too far into this topic is a discussion. It's not agendized. But oh, no. Please don't. If you wanted to email staff maybe sometime, you know, certain questions, they've generally been pretty open. The other thing I'd like to say is that it's, I I really appreciate you coming up and speaking. Takes courage to come up and speak, and, you did very well. So, hopefully, we'll see you again. The, also to the other caller, I appreciate him calling in and taking credit for, you know, his graphic, but I hope that what we did was provide clarity. And that's why I wanted to ask, you know, was there any impropriety used?

And I I the answer is no. And I think that fair enough. So thank you so much. I I think it's really important to have people come and speak, ask questions. And if there is anything funky going on, the public would need should should know. So thank you for that. With no other public comments, I'd like to close that and move on to the cons wait. I'm sorry. Did anybody else have any input?

I would just suggest that maybe we I would like to move. We take the meeting out of order and take, item four.

I think that'd be in the public interest to maybe go a little bit deeper into the the street projects.

After we do the consent calendar, or do we is this the time to move that around? It's your prerogative. Right. No. Because Greg asked no. No. Absolutely. So if I'd like to do the consent calendar, and then I'm open to moving item number four unless somebody has any other input on it. Objection.

Nope. I'll follow that.

Why don't I move that we approve the February 19 and April 20 minutes with one correction, please? On the April 20 minutes, item one, I believe that was the March 16 meeting

that we were Correct. Approving the minutes of.

Correct. Yeah. That was a typo on

our end.

So with with just that typo corrected,

I I move that we approve both minutes.

Second. It's a competition up here. Other than that, would you go ahead and hold the roll?

Vice chair Munish.

Approved with the one correction.

Member Tuna? Aye. Member Klingsberg?

Aye.

Member Molina?

He's absent.

Oh, is absent. Member Seaborne? Aye. Member Sarves?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Okay. Is there anything else I can sit down? Has anybody wanted to move forward or bring up? No? Okay. With that, we'll move on to regular business and, move on to item number four. Do we have a presentation? Or there

we go.

Yes. We do. Let me share my screen. It's alright.

And for viewers and audience, as he's getting that queued up, I just wanted to add. Item four on this agenda, the CIP, and general infrastructure highlights is really important. I think if you remember the public, if you watch any part of this, this is probably the most important part to kinda get an understanding as to what's going on, when it's gonna happen, how it's happening, why it's happening. And if you have questions, that's a good place to to kinda start with answers.

Thank you, Greg.

So bear with me. I'm it's computer's lagging. So let me see. K. Is it being shared?

I don't see it. Let me see. Let's try this again.

I

don't think I did. I think I got kicked out. Yeah. Let me try to submit log in again.

No worries.

So give me a second.

So while we wait for that, is there anything particular the committee would like to for our staff to expand on as part of

On the CIP? Mhmm. Anyone?

You'll you'll you'll know it when you hear it?

I believe so. I think you'll see the eyebrows raised and people writing notes on their agenda.

I'm here. Alright. Do you wanna make me a panelist, Julie?

I guess I have a particular interest in hearing about projects around schools as we're about to enter the summer season, and you're trying to get that on a shortened timeline.

We

have three or four

that we program that way.

Screen sharing. K. Think. It's thinking. It's thinking. If

you wanna act it out, I'm okay with that. Yeah.

The graphics. Here we go. They help. Alright. So hopefully, it's not every time I click on the slide, it starts lagging. Yeah. It started lagging from the very beginning.

Alright.

It's not Alright.

Can take over presenting if you'd like or sharing the screen.

Let's do that. Maybe yours computer is and I'll just say next slide. Pardon. Your graphics card cannot be configured properly. Awesome. So can did you take over already, Julia? Oh, there you go.

For anybody watching remotely, we're having technical difficulties. Please bear with us.

The first time it does this. Has it done you know?

I

mean, that could be it. So She just needs to make it full screen. There you go. Alright. I think we're up and running now. Sorry about

that.

It's yours again.

Alright. Thank you. So for this month's CAP and general infrastructure highlights, I'll go over updates on current CAP projects and where we're at, along the the process with with the projects that we have going on. Next slide. So this this map that you see on your screen, these are several street projects that are currently in design and bidding phase.

Oh, go

Back to

previous slide. Streets. There you go. Yeah. This this is the streets only slide for design and bid phases. Just a couple highlights, and I know, one of the members was, interested in some of these projects. But, project six, I'll just highlight is Raymond Avenue. So this is between Burn Street and Orange Dorp. I was actually put out to bid today. This project is a partnership project with the city of Anaheim.

Fullerton is the lead, on this project. So this this is a project that encompasses street rehabilitation, so your typical grind and overlay, concrete work, all that good stuff. This also includes sideway sidewalk gap closure, on the east side of, Raymond between the train tracks and Orange Torp. So this this project's expected to start, or anticipated to start this summer. So we'll hopefully, we get some good numbers and bids, in a few weeks, so we could could take this for construction award.

Project number seven, Sunny Hills, Twilight, Las Palmas area. So this is is currently out to bid, and it's actually we're expecting to get bids tomorrow. So we have a bid opening tomorrow. So this project includes also, typical street rehab, which is granite overlay, concrete improvements. There is sewer, point repairs as part of this project as well and manhole sewer manhole upgrades, from brick to, precast.

This is one of the projects. Actually, there was a water main, project, that was ahead of it. So now we're following up, in this specific one. Next slide.

Well, I see. Real quick. Can you go back? Just to kind of follow-up on the point. So the residential streets there, number eight and number four, they're also water main replacement projects. So number eight has been completed. Half of number four has been completed for the water main replacement. So we're trying to design at this time. So we're prepped that, we can move into rehabilitation as soon as we can after the water main.

Didn't part of number seven just have water main done as

well? Same goes.

Yeah. The vast majority of it was a was a water main replacement. So there are times when we try to expand the limits of where the water main was done. Number 7 is an example of that. We're extending out to Harbor. We're also taking that little horseshoe section to the west. That way, we're trying to complete as much of the neighborhood as we possibly can rather than leaving one or two streets out because getting back to that area, will be very difficult and more costly, over time.

Go to the next slide. Alright. So now moving on to design bidding phases for water. So not much has changed since last month, except for the addition of project 10, which is Skyline Miramar area. So this project proposes to replace slash upsize approximately point seven miles of old eight inch water main ductile iron with 12 inch PVC water main.

So that's starting up and ramping up design. Next slide. So now we get into the projects that are in award slash construction phase for water and streets. So I'll I'll highlight a couple. So project nine, which is Palm Street. This is a partnership project with two other cities. This is with Brea and La Habra. This is actually scheduled to start, end of this week, early next week? Yeah. So that's about to start. One of so I believe it's city of La Habra. It's next to what's the high school?

Sonora.

Sonora. So this one is adjacent to a school, not necessarily city of Fullerton, but it is with city of La Habra. So let's about to get started. Projects ten, eleven, and 12, those are all slated to be started either end of this month or early next month. They've been, condo council have been awarded, all of these which are right next to schools.

So, again, we're we're we we schedule these so that they can start construction during summer school sessions. So that's the intent, that school, to get in, once school is not in session. Again, these are very it's your typical, you know, street improvements, taking care of concretes, uplifted sidewalk, curb and gutter, a combination of, different depths of grind and overlays, before the school starts.

All three of those have been awarded?

Correct. Yeah. So Baker has been awarded. Let me see. Pacific Drive, Wanda Avenue, that's also been awarded, and Firethorne has also been awarded. So those they kinda came out around the same time, put them out.

Is it normal that on a combined project where there's water and street that water will come in and do their thing? So you have a contractor come in, cut, trench, lay pipe, services interrupted intermittently through the neighborhood. And then maybe a month goes by, and then the concrete or asphalt guys come in and do their work. I mean, so there's it's kind of a multipart project.

So so I would say, when when we have both, you know, utility work and, street work combined in one project, like that, they could simultaneously be working on multiple things, whether it's them laying pipe, and then on the other end, they're taking care of concrete improvements. So it's overlapping. Right? Obviously, that helps with the schedule, but it's depending on the project, you know, depending on the contractor and their crews to when they could schedule things. But most of the time, that that's what tends to happen. They'll have utility work, and overlapping is the concrete work. And then at the end is when they come in and do their paving operations and asphalt work.

So for the residents that are affected by these, don't be surprised if the pipeline work gets done and there's an intermittent period where nobody's out there working. Don't be surprised. Don't think that it's necessarily done. The crews are mobilizing for the next phase, which is asphalt and concrete and all that.

So And and sometimes to put it

into

perspective, we are at the mercy of the asphalt crews and when contractors, schedule them. So a lot of times is, we're having to wait till the paving crew is available. So there is a period of time where they may not necessarily be seeing any work being done out there, and it's a interim, phase.

Well, the other problem has been historically on the utility side, material supply. Right? Trying to make sure you get you know, certain components are really hard to get. Other components, there's just longer lead times, and it just depends. So I think those are also things that can cause delays and interruptions and and whatnot and the work that is trying to be done.

Correct. Okay. Next slide.

Before you move on, Juan, can you talk a little bit about the, well projects? Given the fact that we've used up a lot of our reserves purchasing MWD water, it's a real priority to get wells back online. So how are we doing on that?

We're still continuing to work with with, you know, trying to get those, wells up and running. I know that this year, we have a few scheduled that within what do you say? The end of this year, They'll be up and running. We had a few that weren't because of various reasons. I think one of them was, like, PFAS treatment.

And so, overall, if you step back, thinking is how this helps the city, right, is that means that we don't have to purchase water, which means buying and purchasing water is a lot more expensive than for us to be pumping from wells. So in the grand scheme of things, this helps us in the long run. So we're still continuing to work with them. There are a few, I think is that main plant or that's completed almost?

Or Yeah. That one's almost done. Well 10, we decided to it's a temporary PFAS treatment. Because of the delay or the time period it takes to to drill new wells and also install, PFAS treatment, we decided to put a temporary PFAS treatment on our easement on industrial site while we are still waiting for OCWD to finalize the design to build a new pipeline from there all the way to our PFAS treatment plant. So we're trying to we it's more economical for us to install the temporary treatment plant rather than buy MWD water for that time period.

So that's one way we're trying to minimize our costs with the very expensive import water. But the downside is that PFAS, the design, installation, material procurement, and and construction is is very time consuming.

But you've you've achieved all of those steps for the these PFAS treatments that are on the list. Right? Is there any other hurdles to and any approval points? There there

are still, other wells that are in design, still other wells that need to be replaced. This is going to be a well rehabilitation and replacement is going to be ongoing for multiple years.

We have have we allocated the funds for the design and procurement? And

A a lot of the PFAS is being funded through OCWD, so that's extremely helpful. We have to pick up the tab for o and m. We have or previously budgeted for well studies for some of the well sites. I don't remember them off the top of my head. We are actively drilling, and actually installing the wellhead at our main plant. So we're anticipating some of the wells we've had to shut down for numerous reasons. Several of them should be coming on coming back online in the next few months so that our for next year, our cost our expense of import water will go down dramatically.

Next slide. Alright. For this list, I'm not gonna go through every section here, but maybe I'll just highlight one or two. I I would say for Euclid Mount Malvern Siphon, we're continuing to work through the design. And just to give an update is, this project is incorporates not only the sewer siphon improvements, but it's also including water improvements, in addition to, street work.

So this is one of the it's an arterial street, I guess, you would you'd call it, where we're trying to combine everything. So we're finalizing design as part of next fiscal year. We've have put, money aside, for the construction phase. So that was part of our review of the CIP budget, in the last two meetings where, this was one of the projects where we had to put money for design. Now we're putting money for construction in the next fiscal year.

Next slide. So for for this list of projects, originally, you were gonna hear about the yard fleet and vehicle EV transition as for the first item, but you'll get to hear it on the next presentation. Secondly, another one that I really wanna update is the Santa Fe parking lot, which I'll get more into depth, but just an update with the PMP annual up update project. That is being finalized, and that's gonna be part of next month's one of next month's, next month's, item to review. So, next slide.

So let's talk about the Santa Fe, parking lot. So this is one of the projects that I just wanna get into more depth and highlight. So this is located at 115 East Santa Fe Avenue. This is between Harbor Commonwealth, East Santa Fe, Pomona in the downtown area in front of the train station, just to kinda put into perspective where you're at. The area in red highlights the, majority of the improvements.

There's some minor striping to the east of that, the small smaller parking lot. But for the most part, this is this was a major work right here. So just a little bit bit of background on how we got here, what why we're doing this, and how how we're doing it. So back in August 2025, city council allocated, $400,000, from the downtown parking program, specifically specifically to rehabilitate parking lots in the downtown. The idea was to reinvest back the parking revenues directly into our downtown area.

So the focus here is to really support our downtown businesses, you know, and improve the experience in this downtown by making improvements to the parking lots, ADA upgrades, and site improvements. So back in February, we received the 18 bids for this project. The lowest responsible bid came in at $3.45, $345,000. Construction contract was awarded back in March, with work starting last month. So this this is a short, fast paced project.

It's not that big, but, it's been moving and definitely one that was needed. So what I wanna share with you is, where they're at right now. Pretty much, it's near completion. There's just some signage striping and some final landscaping, that needs to be completed along with some punch list items. So just wanna highlight, I think, this project as well is the process of public work staff with in conjunction with community and economic development, where we reached out to businesses, really to keep them informed, right, and to minimize try to minimize the construction impacts.

Right? It's obviously it's right near businesses. You know, this is directly where their, clients are parking. So we're we're trying to reduce as many disruptions as we can with them and try to work with them, be vocal with them, keep them involved. Right? So with that being said next slide.

Actually, can I can I just jump in here? Just wanna point out that a lot of people say, hey. That's great. Why didn't you pave my street with those funds? We specifically took restricted funds. The downtown parking is restricted to downtown to maintain and improve downtown. So these these funds could not be used on streets other than the downtown area. And more importantly, street funds could not be used here, so we didn't we wouldn't be using street funds here at all. That's not a street, so we couldn't use that. So if anyone thought we were using other funds, that is not the case.

There were restricted funds used in this area. And I think it was a good partnership project with our community development, our economic development. We plan to do the parking lot to the north, hopefully, next fiscal year. That one certainly needs TLC. So by the time we're done with that project, all of our parking lots will be in good, decent condition and with the idea of providing a more pleasant experience for all the customers and the people who visit, and you're not potentially tripping over a pothole in the parking lot.

Next slide. So I I think, I've been trying to do this more and more where I'm showing pictures. So this is pictures of when they demoed part of the parking lot to install, new ADA parking stalls. You see on the left is basically where it's been demoed out, removed, and they've been staking, where the locations of the new concrete paving and curb is gonna be at. On the right, you see them actually pouring those concrete ADA stalls.

So this is their the contractor's crews pouring the concrete. Next slide. Here is where they're actually performing the paving work after the concrete work has been completed. So this area, it was a three inch grind and overlay, throughout the area of the parking lot. Next slide. So another picture of them paving.

No dig outs.

Yeah. No dig outs. The subsurface material was Very solid. Very solid. There was one area where we deepened, the AC, and that was just because that's where the trash, enclosures were. So that's where you're gonna have the more heavy loading with with the trash vehicles stopping. So we just did a deeper lift on that area. So it was just a small surface. Next slide. So here's a view of after it's been paved.

So the whole parking lot was paved. All concrete work was done. And so next phase to this was gonna be striping. So next slide. So here's another picture of the concrete the concrete work that was done showing the new a ADA stalls striped out. Next slide. Here's a view of the parking lot once it was striped. So you could see the eight new ADA stalls in concrete. You see the new striping for the compact parking, along with a new median of of landscaping. Next slide.

Here's another picture, showing the what the final improvements set for landscaping. Next slide. Here's another view looking towards the businesses. Next slide. Alright. So that's that that's basically the highlight for Santa Fe, parking lot. Final slide is basically our staffing update. I'm much an update regarding the vacancy was so engineered. We're still working with HR trying to fill that position. With that being said, that concludes the presentation for the CAP and general infrastructure highlights.

So at that point, I could open it up for the committee's comments, public comments, go from there.

Greg, you had something for us?

Yeah. Quick question on this. If we went back, say, I don't know, five years, give or take. I don't wanna necessarily say COVID time because that screwed everything up. But Mhmm. What was their staffing like then versus now? I know that there's been a lot of reductions in staffing throughout the city. I just don't know. Does this really show what it would have looked like, say, five or six years ago, or have we kinda let a few staff positions go away?

Actually, over the last few years, I think across many of these divisions, we've actually been able to increase or actually get back to the levels we're supposed to be at rather than what we were at. CIP, I think, has dropped a little. Water engineering has been pretty consistent. Private development has gone up. Traffic has definitely gone up because we needed that.

So it's it hasn't jumped leaps and bounds. I think it's gone up maybe one or two, but more to a level that we're supposed to be at. But I'll be honest, CIP is hurting, with the civil missing. And I would say all the other divisions could do with additional help with our workloads as they are right now. So even though this is the levels that we're budgeted at, doesn't necessarily mean it's acceptable levels.

And with that in mind, and I know, you're probably involved with, I'll say, multijurisdictional engineering groups or, like, public works director type folks in the area. Would you say this is kind of, unfortunately, the norm with most agencies who are struggling to find and keep staff?

I would say agencies are definitely struggling to find staff that are qualified for the positions that need to be filled. We struggled with it with our, advertisement. It was, a little disheartening, to say the least. So we're at we're at a point where we're looking more to keep the staff that we have, keep training them, and more than likely unfill the lower levels and try and keep them and train them and keep them moving up. That's a difficult job in any or difficult environment in any, you know, public or private.

But that's the way we've been doing it right now. It's touch wood, it seems to be We're keeping most of our people for a significant amount of time, but there's no guarantees with anything.

Thank you.

And to add to that, we're I mean, we're also compete competing with the private sector, right, which tends to pay more.

Pay more. Work them harder.

Yeah. But, yeah, it's it's it's it's a struggle, I would say. Alright.

With that, I'd like to actually get public comments on this agenda item if we have any. None in chambers. How about online?

Alaysha, go ahead and unmute.

Yeah. I have three questions. So the first one, I'm really excited about the Complete Streets project on Harbor, and I wanted to know if we get more Complete Street projects. Are we going to be looking at connectivity to existing complete street projects since it has I mean, one is very close to downtown, this one. And it does things like bike lanes, and and it's walkable.

So a lot of times that connectivity is helpful. So I'm just wondering if that is a part of the criteria when we're choosing which streets. I also saw that the Independence Park, there was an update there. So I just I know that there were issues with the federal funding for that park. I just wanted to know what adjustment staff has had to make due to those due to that drop in funding.

If you're aware of that. I know this isn't a parks meeting, but if if you know what changes have been made. And lastly, I mean, the the road that I think everyone at South Side Of Fullerton always talks about is Commonwealth. If I could just I just wanna know, like, when that one's gonna be up, specifically around, like, Acacia and State College in in that area. It's it's pretty bad. So just wondering when when that one is up to to get into this design phase. So, yeah, that's it. Thank you.

Any other callers? Okay. Without bringing it back to the committee. Anybody else? Questions, comments, input?

No. Just ready if staff can answer those questions if they have, have some answers.

In regards to the Harbor Boulevard Complete Streets, I know the question came about connectivity for future Complete Streets projects. So I would I would think that if we do apply for another grant for Complete Streets, that connectivity to an existing Complete Streets project is highly we're gonna score, I would say, favorable. But like I mentioned, this is a grant funded project. So if there's something available out there where we could apply, I'm sure that it would put us in a good position to score higher, to connect Complete Streets projects with another one. I don't know if you wanna

Yeah. I mean, every time we look at projects, especially Complete Streets, it's not just bike lanes. It's if we're missing sidewalk, all sorts of different connectivity. In some respects, we have most of our arterial streets have sidewalk on it, but we're always on the lookout for that. We also obviously reference our bike master plan to see where things make sense.

I think the next project, it's been around for a while, is the widening of Bass And Cherry by the hospital. That'll be the one that that will help with Complete Streets connectivity bike lane. It'll be probably a class four bike lane. Sidewalk is needed on the South side. So that's probably the next location we'll be targeting, but that deals with army corps. So that's gonna be it has been a long time, and it'll continue to be a long time before that really gets implemented. Indy Park. Alright. So we're working on the gym renovation and also the playground construction. There was no federal funding for the gym.

It's all state funding. That state funding is in place. I'm not aware of any issues related to that. The gym project is finalizing design. We hope to get it out to bid by the end of this month, so hopefully construction will be in the fall. The playground has funding and is we are we kicked off design. Parks and Rec Commission picked the playground that they wanted. So we're actually designing the site improvements in house. So we're working on that and then hope to go out to bid probably late summer by the time we're done. I'm not aware of any issues with funding related to either of those projects.

And then State College is Commonwealth. And Commonwealth. Okay. Commonwealth is, yes, is is very poor. We budgeted for the water main replacement next fiscal year, so I'm not sure if they started design yet.

I think they may have asked for some survey, I don't know, in that area. So more than likely, construction will well, we gotta try and time it with the schools. There will be overlap with the schools. So, hopefully, if everything goes well, we will start construction of the water main before summertime, and then we can roll into, hopefully, street work, that summer. But we would have to, budget those funds, and we plan on budgeting those funds next fiscal year, not the upcoming fiscal year, the following fiscal year. I thought I heard State College. So was there a State College question, or was it just

Greg, or is that just I think it's pointing out

State College, Commonwealth. So yeah. And so Acacia North between State College and Chapman, our intention will be to make that part of the include that as part of the Commonwealth rehabilitation as well. North Of Chapman, unlikely, given our budget situation.

Got it. You know what? Any other question? Ma'am, I'm just gonna ask you. I noticed you did step up, and I know we've gone past public comments. But unless somebody objects, I'm okay with you making a public comment because you you did show up. And that's like we have a big crowd here tonight. So if would you like to would you like to come up to the dais so we can get you on the microphone? Either way.

Hello. Lisa again. I had a question about the what's it called? The complete street project. Does that include safety lights?

We'll have our experts speak on that.

Okay. Yes. That includes installation of street lights throughout that corridor.

Okay. And, like, the the pedestrian that has the flashing lights, does that include that too?

The No. So complete streets on the arterial there. The crossings are at traffic signals. Yeah. And the project will include a new traffic signal that will provide a safer entrance to Brea Dam Park.

Okay. So for things like the pedestrian lights, what kind of comment section would that be for? Or when would you ask about those? Because there's a couple places that are pretty dangerous that I had been wanting to

So

bring up a council, but now

I You

you can you can let us know on the side. But Okay. Actually, the the best place to request those or note those is actually to our traffic engineering division. Okay. And that's also the TCC, the traffic circulation committee.

What what was that again? Sorry.

TCC. TCC. TCC.

Traffic and Circulation Committee.

Okay. Commission. Commission.

Four ten.

Okay. Yeah. They they have the authority, I guess Oh, okay. For that one.

Oh, thank you.

If you email the traffic engineering department, they'll have that answer for.

Yeah.

Okay. I did have, just a question on that. Since the, budget is, absolutely, you know, in the public's mind quite a bit as it should be, Does anything come up at least on the current projects that have already been cut or that you're looking at cutting because I understand that there's discussions about different depart from the budget meeting last week, it seemed like everybody's being asked to cut a certain amount.

So for the adopted fiscal year that we're currently on, no. It's it's, obviously, as we're having these discussions for the next upcoming fiscal year, you know, we're looking at the revenues that are coming in, like we further went into in the last two meetings. I think the biggest is, it's was how much general fund is gonna be put towards Infrastructures. And infrastructure. I think that's the biggest question that is till this day, it's still unknown. I know we proposed what we wanted and what we're requesting, but that's I think that for next fiscal year, that's towards streets. That's the biggest question right now.

So for the 2627 fiscal year, we're okay.

Yeah. Uh-oh.

Well, I mean, will that won't be affected? Should it be?

So CIP, the vast majority of the funds are restricted funds.

Mhmm.

And the the concern or the challenge the city has is more with the general fund. Mhmm. So we've the infrastructure fund has the ordinance, so we'll be should be getting that money unless council decides to do away with the ordinance. So that just remains the $500,000 that we requested for streets from general fund. That is a question mark still.

So we

we requested it. Okay. We knew that, you know, with the budget situation, we couldn't we had to be realistic with what we're requesting. So that's what we requested. It's in our budget still. Haven't heard yes or no.

Great. Thank you for that. Okay. With that, we just need to receive and file. You guys try and remember the term.

So I don't believe we have to do roll call for that.

Let's do that. Let's do it. Okay. Anybody wanna make a motion, or do we just receive and file and call the vote?

Chair's, welcome to it's chair's prerogative, but deem it received and filed without objection.

I like that. So deem it received and filed without objection. So nice to have somebody who's done this before on many levels. Promise by the third meeting, I'll be 10% better.

You got this. Yeah.

Alright. Think like

two? Think we'll number one, or are we going to?

We'll move on.

Two. Sorry.

Yeah. We'll move on to item two, which is

Advance clean fleets. Right?

Yes. Advanced Clean Fleets, and we're gonna have, Michelle Duron. She is our solid waste recycling specialist, and she's gonna be providing these updates for you. Do you want let's

hold on.

The screen is yours?

Yeah. Julia's gonna share her screen. There you go. Take it away, Michelle. Okay.

Good evening, committee members. Today, I'm gonna be providing you an advanced clean fleets, as we call it, ACF update. Okay. I'm just checking this so that clicker works. So the California Air Resources Board, we call CARB, Advanced Clean Fleets ACF regulation for state and local agencies was implemented on 01/01/2024 still remains in effect despite some federal changes to, federal and high priority fleets and drayage.

For state and local agencies, we still have to comply with the law. CARB recently adopted a resolution AB fifteen ninety four that significantly alters the ACF regulation in terms of flexible compliance timeline options and improvements for exemption pathways. The city is currently following the purchasing schedule compliance. It's one of two compliance methods that we feel is the best option for our city. And with this option, it requires that 50% of all new fleet vehicle additions comprise of zero emission vehicles, what we call EVs, and this is until 12/31/2026.

Beginning 01/01/2030 I apologize. There was a typo on your copy. It said '27, but 2030. We'll get that amended. So on January 20, a 100% of the purchases of our fleet vehicles for medium and, high duty, heavy duty vehicles need to be EVs.

The city has been compliant with ACF, purchasing regulations within calendar year '24 and '25 mostly by purchasing a few f one Ford f one fifty Lightning vehicles that, meet the requirement of being over 8,500 GVWR with a battery component, so it meets that, weight rating. And, for calendar year 2026, we are on track with compliance. Right now, they are not making EV f one fifties, but the Chevrolet Silverado Lightning could, meet that requirement for us. So right now, this is a short term solution for our compliance, but we have are looking at long term solutions. To note, we are one of the cities that are compliance with this regulation, and a lot of other cities are not have not been prepared to do so.

So we feel pretty good about that. So we have to consider our long term planning, especially based on any changes that there may be federally in the future, because there could be more prescriptive requirements on cities. So one of the steps that we took to start planning for long term EV electrification is, doing a fleet study was conducted by our our consultant, Naresco, to assist with long term planning and implementation. So they looked at our current fleet. This is, really qualifies at our Public Works Maintenance Yard, which that's where our medium and heavy duty vehicles reside, and those would be the type of vehicles that would need to be, transitioned into EV purchases.

So they did an extensive review of that location, and it also included, options for the best charging, ports, charging stations, where, you know, we could place them in the yard, things of that nature. And, also, the city submitted a Southern California Edison SCE charge ready transport, CRT program, we call it, Application May 7 to begin a phase one electric charging infrastructure project at the Public Maintenance Work yard. So we have, a corridor of where our supervisors park their their vehicles, and, we feel that that's the best place to start our first phase of charging port stations and electrification location. We feel this phase is a good start because once we implement, this program fully, we'll be able to get data on how often the vehicles need to be charged, the length of time, the cost, things of that nature, and then that can propel us forward for the next phase if we need to expand further. So the great thing about this program is SCE will handle the electric design, the trenching, the conduit installation, and transformer upgrades.

And this infrastructure is at no cost to the city. So that's part of a program. It's a sort of a grant program, basically. And we are only responsible for purchasing, input, installing, and maintaining the actual EV charging hardware. So we've, we've looked at some different companies.

Seems like we're gonna be landing with ChargePoint, which is the the same company that we have public EV charging with. So we wanted to go with someone that, has a good firm base, the company, so that they have longevity, not some of these new startups where then if we need any maintenance or part changes, you know, we can't get it. So, can you switch it for me? Next slide, please. So this just gives you an idea of what our charge ready transport program activity flow looks like.

It's six phases, and we've completed the first phase, which is the application and, planning an EV acquisition plan. One of the requirements of this program is it, it's one charging port per vehicle. So that's how we over a period of ten years, we have to tell them how many charging ports we're going to implement or install and how many vehicles then we would need to transition. So based on this plan, we're looking at six level two EV chargers dual port and one level three dual port charger. So it would be 12 vehicles and, 14 vehicles in total that we're replacing.

And, we're currently on phase b, so we've been assigned a field engineer from SCE who is going to meet with us, and they're doing the application screening prioritization. They'll be doing a, project site visit with us, and then they'll conduct a conceptual design. And then we'll sign an agreement and then move on to the next phase. Next slide. So the next steps is that we are our focus is to enter and finalize the next phase of the SCE CRT program.

We'll be focusing on each phase completion as it goes and then finalizing the agreement with ChargePoint for the EV charging hardware purchase, installation, and maintenance, and reviewing further grant options to see if they can be stacked with this current SE CRT program or be individual programs to purchase vehicles. We're also considering the feasibility of a sonar panel at the Public Works Maintenance Yard and also monitoring forthcoming updates to the CARB ACF regulation and any state or federal mandates that may affect the municipal fleet electrification requirements. That's my presentation for today. Next slide. I'm open to any questions and would love to provide you further.

Insight. Maybe slightly off topic, so if you can't answer it, that's okay. Sure. Are we embarking on any battery storage systems?

That has been brought up, but typically, the cost outweighs the benefit for what we need at this current time.

Have we been approached? And, again, I realize I'm asking something kinda out of turn here, and you may not be prepared to answer this. But have we been approached by third parties to provide the real estate for that that they'd like to lease to be able to put battery storage on?

I'm not aware of that. I'm sure people have tried to reach out to us. But, from a battery storage point of view, I don't think we are, interested to that level at this point.

Thank you. So senior adviser, would we open up to public comments now before we get in on it? Thank you, sir. Public comments, questions at this time? No? Do have anybody online? Okay. With that, I've got a couple questions that I wanna ask, and then I'll have some of our other members also ask, and I'll come back to more. So there's been a few changes that have taken place, know, statewide, federal, you know, not just regulation wise, but budgets have become extremely restrained. A lot of impact on our municipality as well.

With this flexible timeline, is there a benefit to the city to request any waivers or extended timelines to do adoption? Because EV trucks are extremely expensive.

That is true. We've looked at a lot of different options, even configurations. This latest, amendment, which was AB fifteen ninety four, basically bought us a few more years because technically, originally, we were gonna have to start purchasing a 100% of EVs next year. So CARB, you know, the enforcement agency, they gave us three more years to get there. And they did like, they gave us more of a flexible pathway for exemptions because right now, there are lot of the heavy duty replacements we need, they're not available.

So they do have a site that now, has a list of approved ICE vehicles, you know, combustion vehicle. And if you see one of those, vehicles on the list, then you don't have to submit a waiver.

You can pay.

If you see it on there, then they're already telling you this vehicle's not available and you can just purchase the ICE. So the reason why we feel staying with the purchasing option is best is because this is based on what you purchase, but your vehicles that you still have in your fleet, you can take them all the way to the end, to the term, till they're no good, till the wheels fall off as we say. But the other option, which is a milestone option, is a percentage option, and that's based on how many vehicles you have working in your fleet. So if we go with that option, we may have to retire vehicles that are still in good working order.

So is that coming or is that something they extended out?

That's something you can decide upon. So that's why we've stayed on the purchasing compliance option. Right.

Because it would make no sense to throw away perfectly working equipment.

Yeah. That's some of the flexibility they've given us recently. I don't know if that will continue on.

Because there's been I mean, I got to work a lot on this in another city. But a lot of the vehicles that were being purchased, some of them didn't quite fulfill the needs of the departments. The range wasn't there. The you know, on long term usage, it wasn't there. Are we experiencing that? And then the follow-up to that is the, what is the net expense to our taxpayers by going with the more expensive EV option?

Well, we have looked at, like I said, different vehicle replacement options and thinking about what would work for us is definitely one of those things that we've considered. I mean, we have tried to work with CARB to get them to see that some of our public works utilities should be considered an emergency type of vehicle, but they just don't seem to see it that way yet, maybe at some point. As far as the cost, it is more. So it would fall within our budget, but that's why my one of my major priorities is to look for grant opportunities. I have tried to look for some.

We applied for one that, as a joint effort with, Metropolitan Water District. We did not get chosen. They, awarded the funds to AQMD, and then they put out certain grant opportunities, but we didn't qualify for the the eligibility that they set in place. So, there is a CalFleet advisor representative that I'm going to be reaching out and meeting with, and they tell you all the different grant opportunities available. So, I'm not we have I can get you, you know, a breakdown of what the difference is from an ICE vehicle to an EV. But

No. Not that. I'm just saying that the end result is a taxpayer is gonna put the bill on this. And then if things don't work out, they're gonna have to put that again. So I'm sure you guys are looking at that as consideration regardless of which plan you go with replacement or percentage and that was my point.

We are and that's why we're phasing in slowly.

Correct.

We're not just dump jumping into the deep end because you don't know based on, you know, federal regulations or changes which way it's gonna go. So that's why we're choosing to do this phase one. SCE is covering the infrastructure, which is costly. So, we're taking it slow. We're still in compliance, but not, you know, being very careful.

Thank you for that. Last thing is I really like that you're looking at the solar panels. I mean for carports and protection I mean it just makes sense. I mean you're getting dual function protection and solar whether it's for charging or whatever but without a storage, you know, component, sometimes that can be tricky. But at least if it's feeding back to the grid somehow or something, I think that makes a lot of sense. I'm gonna hold off from my other questions. I'm gonna start to my far right. Member Sarvis?

Thank you. I have

a question about the Naresco study. Was that that fleet study made public, and

what how long ago was it done?

It has not been made public, and it was finalized, I wanna say, probably towards the end of last year, early last year from what I recall.

There's no reason it can't be made public. We're not holding it back on purpose. Right. It's just it was never presented to anybody. I'd like to see that if that happened to happen.

So end of last year being 2025, like, very recently, or was that

Yeah. I would say within the last six months or so. Yeah.

Very good.

So we were still reviewing the information and then thinking of checking to see how we were gonna move forward with this SCE project and program. They gave recommendations, but we're also looking at what's available to us grant wise. So, you know, we're using both of what's available for us to apply for with the recommendations made by the fleet study.

Did does the maintenance yard have enough power right now, or was an upgrade part of that recommendation?

They will have to upgrade. We're gonna have another transformer. So but, and then when it's with an EV, it's separate.

Right? Separate me.

A separate meter.

It's a ZIF type of transformer, separate system completely.

Right.

Which do you know if you're allowed to have solar on that separate system?

I believe not on to my knowledge, I'll have to get back to you, but I believe solar was not a possibility with the CRT. But I'll have to get back to you to confirm.

It's I am I am very much pro solar person as well, but I've seen a lot of these comp these projects get complicated if you try and put too many things together. And sometimes these interconnection rules can can create a difference. And with the net energy metering rules of today, perhaps solar is valued much less than it used to be. Adding on that battery storage to that solar may make that project now pencil out with with newer programs. Let's talk about ChargePoint because I noticed in the slide you were you're looking for them to provide the chargers and do maintenance.

And I wanna caution against that a little bit. Consider the fact that we may not wanna have a company coming out and maintaining the equipment that also is gonna recommend selling their brand new product that they happen to be producing. That is not a comment about ChargePoint in particular. That's just this is a this is a new business. There's a lot of churn out there and different business models out there in other cities, other municipalities can get taken advantage of.

There are companies that do just maintenance, that they don't have a stake in selling new new parts or selling new chargers to you. And that may be a better arrangement in the long term to have a company that's looking at all the different types of hardware out there, having to work and maintain them, and then can work as a partner with you to talk about what may be the next hardware that you wanna deploy at the yard. So what is the plan for for maintenance? Are we gonna be getting parts and and having electricians in house do some of the work, or are you expecting ChargePoint to cover that?

That that piece, is not, our our equipment or fleet manager handles that portion of it. So I don't know all the details, but can definitely take your recommendation because nothing has been signed or decided upon and can discuss it with him as an option of what your recommendation was.

So I think with the charge points we have, mean, some most recent ones, it comes with a certain period of time where they provide the maintenance and operations. So, obviously, we tap into that. After that, usually, we look at what's the the best benefit for the city and either continuing with them or, to your point, going to a third party.

Come on. They can give you a guaranteed service level agreement and not be selling you hardware at the same time. Right.

Okay. Thank you, mister vice chair. Okay.

Member Tim.

Thank you very much. And, also, thank you, member Sarvis, for your comments on that. My mind really besides the points that were already made, if you could just remind me, because it's been a while, I feel like, since I've seen this on, kind

of the

docket. If we fall out of compliance, what are, like, penalties, fines associated with us not meeting the state's requirements?

You know, they didn't have specific penalties on the regulation, but they said that there they could penalize. So that's the wording that we use because, you know, we asked, CARB directly. But as of now, there's not a specific dollar amount that was written on the regulations.

I think it's, from a big picture. If you don't have vehicles, it's hard to penalize an agency. And I would say there's going to be many agency in my opinion, there's gonna be many agencies who are going to be so far behind, they won't know what to do with penal penalizing them.

That is absolutely happening, and a lot of people are realizing that a lot of these mandates are not quite achievable. Yeah. So yeah.

Okay. Yeah. We do we do have an, a collaboration with the League of California Cities and the City Of Fullerton. We put on, ACF, roundtables with Orange County cities. CARP has been out a few times, so we do work closely with them, and we provide comments from an OC perspective on the different challenges and feasibility that we see so they do take that information in.

So, we're hoping that that's something that, will hold some weight later on. So, Michelle, will you say that with other agencies, we're ahead of the ballgame? We are. Yes. We are ahead of the ballgame.

You know?

To other cities. Right?

Compared to other cities. Yes. Some cities haven't begun. They don't have a plan. They're waiting, but we just that's why we wanted to start small. You know, we have right now three electric vehicle trucks in our in our employment. And like we said, we just we're cautious, but we're making sure that we're compliant because we don't wanna be penalized later on. That's also something that ratepayers shouldn't have to be concerned about.

Right. It's, unfortunately, it looks like it's not a clear target either. So which makes things hard for city staff. So thank you for that. Okay. To my left member, No? Okay. So I'll just ask a couple other quick questions. So these things, I mean, I've got an EV. I've had them. I enjoy it. I also enjoy my ICE cars. My question is, are is the city's wholesale electricity, like the power that'd be used to charge these cars, similar to, like, residents where we're tiered energy rates, where we're paying more past a certain amount, or we're we are?

They they do have EV, rates, and they let us know at certain times of the day it's a higher cost than others. So what we're planning to do to make sure that we're charging during the low cost time zone is, we'll have a software program and then you can also program the the charging port.

So the time of use rates do apply?

They do apply. Mhmm. So one of our guys, if they leave at three or four, they could plug it in, but we're going to be putting it in that it doesn't start charging till below cost times.

The vehicle and they need it, then they're going to be paying at a higher rate. Is that correct? Yeah.

If we have to charge

it during the day for whatever reasons, yeah, we would be charging it the higher rate. And Unless Edison has a program that allows that, but I I you know, we're gonna be on the EV schedule rather than your typical meter schedule. Okay. So it'll be it will be lower. What exactly that that schedule is, I don't know.

And is that, net energy for the EVs excluded from our tiered rate that we would pay wholesale on? Meaning, if we use a lot of EV charging, whether it's at a lower rate, at time of use, whatever, can that increase our overall rate? Not just the net rate, but can it put us on a higher tier to pay for higher electricity costs coming to the city?

I don't know.

Because I would really

We could find out for sure.

Yeah. That's an interesting one. I would think it's I I'm I'm not familiar with that. I would think, you know, separate meters are built separately, so it shouldn't they shouldn't be combining them. Right.

Correct. But it's still overall purchase of electric that's why I was just wondering. Is it going to be more expensive overall because now we're a higher net user even if we're paying less for certain electricity?

I see what you're saying. We'd I guess we'd have to ask that question. It's an interesting question. Okay.

Yeah. I can ask throughout the site when they do the prioritization before the design will ask.

It would be good to know that official answer from SCE. Sir Yedder?

I I don't believe that any of these services they should be on commercial rates. I don't believe that they're gonna be tiered volumetrically where you your next kilowatt hour jumps you up into a higher rate. But what would be typical is a demand charge. So what I think we wanna have staff look into is whether all of those chargers on top of the current use would increase that, which would then have implications for the for the rest of the bill.

That's the question. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the

answer is that the demand charge would be specific for the EV rate. It's going to get more complicated because they have a demand charge holiday right now, but that's

But that is listening to it. So that's the mission. We want to know would we be higher based on total usage. I think we're clear on that. Right? Okay.

Yeah. Okay. I can inquire.

I think you had it. So, the other question is the increased registration fees, insurance, all of that. I know it's only a few vehicles now, but we're gonna get hit with all of that as well. Correct?

We're exempt from registration. Registration.

Correct. Correct. You You know know what? What? Thank Thank you. You. I I should should know know that. That.

I'll I'll I'll I'll sign smack my check-in. Feet later. See if I was paying attention.

Yeah. That's exactly it. The what about insurance?

The city in general is self insured. So Should be okay? It shouldn't change other than what we are our deductible is over time.

Okay. Because I know for mine, it was shocking. No pun intended as to the, registration fees that I received and the insurance fees. So thank you for that. And then I think that's it. So thank you. Can we do another receive and file? Since there's no Deem received and filed. No objections. So there we go.

Thank you.

We're doing this. We'll be out by 08:00, or nine. Item three.

Alright. You wanna put it up? Yeah. Alright. For our last item, I'll be presenting on fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty seven NREC work plan.

So our goal this evening is to walk through some of the proposed topics, highlight a couple, several months where we especially need your direction and guidance on you know, to shape next fiscal year's work plan. I think your feedback today is very important. I think to incorporate in our next meeting a final version of this work plan. We'll make final adjustments. We'll, you know, we'll take your input, come back to the committee next month, and we'll finalize the work plan.

Next slide. Alright. So each year, per direction of city council, every commission or committee, prepares a work plan for the upcoming fiscal year. This helps schedule and prioritize items that fall under NREC's purview, while balancing all of the other staff's workload and responsibilities. By no means is the work plan, you know, set in stone.

It could be adjusted, you know, as topics emerge, you know, as members make requests on items that they wanna see be presented, or additional issues that arise during the year. So it's it's more to provide a structure of the schedule allowing us, you know, to make prioritization of certain, topics and priorities. Next slide. So before I get started with the work plan, just wanna restate in Rex's role. I think the committee advises city council on matters related to city infrastructure, energy, natural resources, environmental compliance, and environmental protection.

NREC also is a hearing body for utility billing disputes, as you guys are aware, and make recommendations on underground utility districts and other related issues. Next slide. Alright. So moving into the first part of the fiscal year. So, currently, we have airport update and ADA projects tentatively placed in July and August.

Doesn't necessarily mean that they're locked in for those months. They could be combined into one two two presentations and one meeting. But I think what what I wanna highlight here is the amount of available topics that we have, for the upcoming, fiscal year as you can see in red. I think this gives the opportunity, I think, for NREC, to bring forward items, that you find relevant or meaningful, that you wanna see. And like I said, I think it's whether it's new issues or concerns or deeper dives in areas where you guys think where we haven't touched on.

So I think this is where we really want your input, to see what way this work plan serves our residents, get that information out there. Next slide. So moving forward into the fall, again, November is another month where we have available topics and areas to discuss. December is expected to be canceled due to the holidays. And then starting in the New Year in January, we have items that are fixed.

So, you know, selection of chair, vice chair, we're probably gonna do that in the next meeting again. But then we get into, you know, c CIP part prioritization approaches, SP one projects that, you know, is presented to NREC and taking a council. And then we get into proposed street rehab projects as we're working through as we head towards the CIP budget again. Next slide. So a March, April, we just went through this CIP budget review.

So those are very critical in order to try to get the budget approved and get it in front of council by the end of the fiscal year. May, again, available topic. And June, we have PMP with available topic as well. Next slide. So I think, in the past, we've, you know, we've we've put some topics that, you know, the committee has mentioned or we've put together that we could present.

You guys expressed interest in water systems, infrastructure report updates, community outreach, private developments, and how they impact public infrastructure, street lighting, trash recycling, solid waste, you know, just to name a few. Right? You can see more on your screen. But I think based on the feedback tonight, you know, we'll revise the work plan. We really want your input to see how we could fill those gaps of available topics, for next fiscal year.

I think last year, a lot of it some of the, meetings were taken up by the water rate study. So I know that took, several meetings, which, but, again, this is where I'll open it up for discussion. Really wanna get your input. I think in general, some of it might be getting repetitive, some of the same topics, but we wanna bring new information. We wanna see what you guys think, what you wanna see, what you're hearing from residents, and what you you want staff to present.

So a lot of times, we're bringing, information that's received in file. I think at some point, we we would like to get some topics where you're providing direction to stuff rather than just hearing what we're saying and what we're doing. To Juan's point, over the years, we've done a lot of similar topics. So my concern is that you're hearing the same thing again and again and again. We really want to hear from you if you like the topics, but maybe we tweak the presentation or we tweak how we provide the information.

But really want to find out what you're interested in so we can bring it to you rather than what we think we want to present. So you've been very chatty tonight, which is fantastic. I'd like to keep that going and to see what interests you and what we can what we can do. Now there's nothing to say we have to have a meeting every month. I think we're one of the committees that for the last few years, we've done pretty good job of actually meeting on a very regular basis and having a lot to talk about. Doesn't mean to say we have to find topics every single month. I think what we wanna provide is topics that are meaningful to everybody.

Absolutely. Is there anything that I mean, I'll ask you as a subject matter experts. Anything coming up that you think we should be looking at that are not already listed here?

Anything related to funding, I think, is gonna be on the table.

Because I know that we did a lot as it related to input on the I hate hate to call it well, it is. It's a tax initiative back in 2020. So would that be something that So And I know it's my agenda, so I'm just asking because I know that's going to be a hot topic.

So, I mean, you gotta realize it's we're not as interact. You're not talking about the overarching city budget. You're talking infrastructure. So we can definitely bring back and revisit, funding and revenue sources for our typical infrastructure, and see if you have comments, suggestions, recommendations that can be taken to council too because it's like there's no no secret that we need more money for pretty much everything, not just streets. Storm drains, even sewers, getting to the point where we gotta think twice about it.

So we can definitely do that. Part of that rolls into, I call it, education of the public. Maybe it's it's a better, better phrase would be outreach to the public. That's a tricky subject. I've I think over the years, I've said, what is the best way?

And I don't know there is a right or a wrong answer or, you know, the correct method to reach out, but maybe I know we broached that topic, probably a year and a half ago of how to do outreach, and maybe that's something that can be re brought back up. Because I think a lot of people, if if they're willing to give their time, realize there's more to it than just what they've they've heard before. And we how do we get those people to spend the five, ten minutes to to to listen to it?

I think one of the things is having heard the budget committees, you know, over and over now. A lot of times just by listening to the videos that are online. You know? Ma'am, I I love that you're here and actually attending the whole meeting. It's nice to see there's a you know, getting the word out to people that are actually willing to hear it. I know you've had a lot of ideas from stuffing stuff in their water bill and doing this. The reality is very few people get to that, and I'm not sure what the cost benefit is there. I know that there's also, oh, we should do something on, you know, social media and this and that. Yeah. You'll reach a few people that way too.

But it really is, you know, a lot more effective organically. You know, having people that show up and are willing to spend the time watching those budget meetings. I can tell you that even as somebody who's been around for well over a decade listening to these things, the last one was very educational, to see what's going on and the cuts that are happening and all of that. So to answer your question, I'm not I mean, I know that some people even talked about, oh, we'll hire a PR firm to get stuff out. I'm like, well, all I see is more money being spent when I hear those things as opposed to, hey.

We don't need to spend the time to make ourselves look better. We need to figure out how to make it better. And, you know, probably the you know, all the things that are being done together probably increase awareness. But I think when you're talking about money and cuts and taxes, people listen. I think more people are going to get involved as they should.

I think it's something that should be brought up by any committee or commission that I'm not saying brought up in a two hour discussion. I'm saying at least brought up to say hey this is what's going on and the way you find out about this is by watching the ad hoc finance committee or by watching these videos that are available or attending these things. That's a difficult one to get that public engagement because we will see a lot of the same personalities Mhmm. You know, that come. I mean, myself, Greg, everybody up here, you know, that get involved.

You'll see us over and over. But I I think when you bring up specific targeted topics, again, less services, more services, finances, and potential tax measures, people start to pay more attention. And those are going to be more than, you know, a lot more people that are like, well, what do you mean you want to charge me more? What's it going for? Where was the money spent?

Why wasn't this done? And that's your opportunity to explain it as you guys do a good job of. The other thing I'd say is maybe you, you know, if you had to do a ten minute presentation, leave it available online to where then people can point to it. So people who haven't been able to do it or don't want to sit through a three hour meeting or a two hour meeting can at least say, I want to know what this is about. How do they prioritize streets?

How do they prioritize water projects? What are we looking at if things get cut? How much money is spent here? Short form ten to fifteen minutes. That's the way to I think just make it available, and then as the word gets out, you know, from the different newspapers, blogs, and whatnot, for good, bad, or indifferent, people will find out it's there.

Yeah.

My own personal suggestion on that. Anybody else have any suggestions about topics that we'd like them to discuss?

I'll jump in and just say I think you've done a great job of, opening up opportunities for us to ask questions and to get things on the agenda for answers. That's really good. We need to continue that. And when members of the public come up with a question and we maybe are not prepared right now to really address it, that's a good opportunity to put something on the next agenda provided there's space and time available to be able to address it. And, I think, overall, yes, some of this is repetitive, but it needs to be repetitive.

And things do change. There's updates. There's you know, if things aren't changing, then what's going on? I mean, we always need to be trying to do things more efficiently. And to that end, what do we what have we changed from last year that's maybe more efficient about it this year? Or maybe there isn't, and that's the problem, and and you're looking for solutions. We can talk about it. I I think that's good. I do think it's a good idea to leave some holes in the schedule right now. I think there's gonna be issues that need to be brought up, and we will need time to talk about it.

And that may be CIP. That may be budget. That may be something else that comes in front of us that we have to address. So, anyways, I like where we're going, and and I like your suggested topics for consideration. I don't know that we have to go with any of them. I think we're gonna get through most of these just through the natural progression of meetings.

Number of things work? Nobody on my right?

I I got nothing else to add that isn't on the screen right now, but we've already talked about the water system and bringing pumps back online beyond just what's in construction right now, the multiyear. I think that we could do a deep dive on that. And then, again, I've also brought up the the need to look at the different enterprise funds. I think it would be good to spend we we're getting the budget season. We think about how to divide out what's there for right now, but to take an off budget time to look at what's coming in and how those might need to be adjusted and make recommendations where we find that they need to be adjusted.

I appreciate that because that was one of the things I would I would be interested in doing is bringing that to the public or in enterprise funds.

And then thinking about when in the calendar year and the council's calendar that that makes the most sense. K.

And then trying to explain it to everybody because it's a lot for people to understand.

Takes a bit.

So I think those again, I think graphic short term videos, I mean

Yeah.

I really think that helps. Yeah. Thank you. You could put my name on it. No. I'm kidding. Totally kidding. Hey.

You can interview me. How about that?

I'll go back to the farmer's market.

Let's do that. I like that a lot.

Back I I think I've mentioned this before. Back in the day, I've gone out to neighborhoods and done neighborhood meetings. It's gone really well. Yes. It's just questions.

It's not one on one.

It's just back and forth questions.

And let me tell you, even though you may only do a 150, 200 people over a, you know, twenty, thirty people at a time, that word does get out. Yeah. And it makes a big difference because you've got now a couple 100 people that can speak more with better education on on these topics. Okay. So member 10 you've got some things.

Yes. I just wanted to a thank the community members who showed up and participated in this meeting and gave their feedback on what's going on and their concerns and also staff always, you you guys do a great job dealing with all the myriad inputs and trying your best to explain all these things all the time. But, you know, for me, one of my greatest, you know, concerns always is that community outreach and education. And it may be repetitive to us over and over again, but it does seem like there is going to be a lot of community input coming forward. I've seen some loud voices on the internet who are concerned about things.

And I would like to personally see some level of CIP review in a little more detail for community members to get input, because I have a feeling they're gonna start attending this meeting a little bit more. You know, and just it's like if all these things are accessible, technically, in the minutes, the agendas, materials, but do have it in some condensed and understandable timeline for people. They're

going to have

a hard enough time just understanding the one packet they download, much less connecting the dots and seeing where things come from and originate from. And while I know it really doesn't have much future impacts because we've already budgeted really in a lot of what's going on, I think it's probably gonna be a timely issue to just make available for public and, you know, so they can get that catch up period and actually have that information to share with others and spread in the community. So thank you. I

like it. Okay. With that then, I think you've got our recommendations. That's what you're asking for. Do we need to take a formal vote then on this or can we do a receive and file?

Can we open public comment?

Oh my gosh. Yes. Absolutely. No. Ma'am, you're carrying the whole public comments tonight. No. I think we're No. We're gonna get online too, but I'd like to Lisa, you know what? I I'm just so happy somebody's here. But if you have any comments about, you know, what we were talking about about, like, these projects that are up here and things or what's something you as a community member, because you're speaking for all 160,000 residents, right, That you would think, you know, and I'm kidding, a little. But you can, if there's like, hey, I'd like to hear about this or this, it would be great to hear it. If you can come out over here to the mic.

Way to put it, actually have a public administration background, so not necessarily no issue. But I actually didn't know that this meeting existed, and I have that background. So that's another thing. Should have known it existed. Should have known it was here. So I'm gonna say that a lot of people probably have no no idea that this exists in the first place. And then the CIP, a lot of the a lot of the terminology will probably have to be, like, condensed into

Understand. Yeah.

Maybe, like, eighth grade reading level maybe. Or

Simple. So make it simple.

We'll make it simple. Yeah. Make it simple.

Big picture, small words.

And then quick. I don't know. Fifteen minutes video might that might be good, but then maybe some more, like

Detailed ones.

Really short ones.

Oh, or oh, like the like the YouTuber TikTok shorts? Yeah.

Unfortunately, yeah. I think so.

Welcome. Thank you

for span of a nest.

I like it.

Detention span is yeah. My my generation might be the last generation that's got some of an attention. And I mean, you and I, I'm kinda, like, starting to scroll through. I gotta watch this. But people do want they want the more details, the less details, and maybe, five minutes. Like, this topic is what's an arterial street.

Yeah.

Or, you know, I don't know.

That makes a lot of sense.

I'm assuming the staff probably already knows all that.

Yeah.

You didn't put

Oh, okay.

This should be the forum for the community to respond and interact. So yeah.

Okay. I don't know that a lot a lot of people know about it.

So Okay.

And I'm always gonna go to council talking about the safety of the streets, because there's a lot of them where I'm like, oh my god. I almost got taken out today. Oh my god. I almost got taken out again today. So it's good that I you gave me the email. And I'm going to counsel with some of this stuff, it's kinda like going nowhere. So it's good to know. People don't know that. And people that should know don't know that.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Ma'am, if we since we don't have anybody else here, I think we've got online. Anyone?

Looks like nobody has their hand raised.

Nope. Okay. So with that, I think we've provided the recommendations. Mhmm. Somebody else has something to add. So at this point, will we just do a receive and file? Or

Let's provide directions, and it's done.

We've already provided directions.

Provided direction. We'll come back next month. I'll put something together, and we'll finalize it.

Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. So we've reached that time where we're gonna move on to our staff committee communication.

Most of the time, I'm just gonna read aloud, ma'am, for create awareness. So this is where committee members may ask a question for clarification, make brief announcements, make a brief report on his or her own activities, request staff to report back at a subsequent meeting concerning any matter or take any action to direct staff to place a matter of business on a future agenda. Staff may also communicate with the committee and ask questions at this time. Okay.

I would like to wish everybody a happy public works week.

That's correct. That is it it is public works week. If nobody other than the committee members has any other staff communication, I have something for, the committee. It's just more of a heads up this coming your way. So recently, city council did approve an agreement with Verigee.

Could you repeat that? I'm sorry.

City council recently approved an agreement with Verigee. So this is a I'm sure member Saras is gonna be excited about this. It's an energy savings firm, which where it's gonna be conducting assessments of our facilities and see where solar panels, can be placed. So this is we're barely in the initial stages of it. So as we have more information and we progress, this is definitely something that's gonna come back to NREC for input.

So this is basically it's, like I said, identifying potential energy savings and facility improvement projects. So somewhat very similar to, the Nuresco project.

Nuresco part two. Yeah. Except this is at zero cost to the city up front. We like that. There is no requirement for us to move forward. We can exit stage left at any time at no cost to

the Excellent.

Other than staff time.

Excellent.

So that's it that's it for staff communication.

Great.

I have

a question. I've noticed some, heavy equipment and detour signs on Lark Ellen up in the northern part of the city. Just curious what's going on up there. It's not on our radar, so

I'd imagine water main break last week.

So that that particular pipeline may need to be moved up in the schedule for replacement.

Yeah. Yeah. It's there was two on the West Side Of State College, one on the East Side Of State College.

Ouch. Yeah.

The same time.

So when we saw that happening about I don't know. It was probably twenty years ago now. In the same neighborhood with pipelines, we found out that there was a large water consumer in the area whose valves would suddenly close. They would open. They'd fill up some storage, and then they would close very suddenly. And that would create some problems. Yes. It sounds like something similar may be occurring, and I don't know.

I actually and I don't know how much credence you can give to this, but it happened when there was the change in weather pattern. And that happens quite a bit, and it was we had the main breaks. I think we had six over a course of a few days right around we had some change in the atmospheric pressures.

Did we have to bring in some private contractors to help with it?

One of them we

did. Okay.

Yep. K. So, a couple of things, Ed, that were brought up, that did come to mind. So we do have a lot of committees, and a lot of them do a little bit of overlap. Some of them sometimes overreach in what they should be talking about and shouldn't, in my opinion, get into things that really are not in their purview. So I think it's important that people know, hey, these are the committees that cover x, y, and z. Even though interact really does cover most of the city resources from streets to sewers to, even some of our parks and recs and stuff. Parks and recs stuff. What's that was

And facilities.

And facilities. So, yeah, I got a lot of calls from people. I get them all the time, but, something that's been a main theme is the golf course over there by Brea Dam. A lot of deferred maintenance with, like, their netting where people are walking by. Bike riders are scared that with any sort of wind, it's gonna hit them, and a few people have gotten into accidents because the nets are not secured anymore. They're torn. So they fly out. They capture somebody's handlebars, and somebody's getting into a serious accident. Are those things I know that it's up for a release or going to somebody else or something. Is that something that is going to get addressed just so

So we started a new lease with a new company, much better terms. So Parks and Rec is expecting significant increase to the Brad dam fund. I'm not privy to the details of the lease. I highly doubt the operator is responsible for the netting. It would be nice, but I doubt it. So So it'd be more of a parks and

rec thing?

It'll be definitely a parks and rec thing.

Then I will get that

word out. We we do plan on doing some maintenance up there. So we can bring that up, maybe try and roll some things in, but netting and those poles are not cheap.

No. It's just the way they are right now. It's it's gotten to the point where it's it is dangerous. The other thing was the there was a lot of rapport about the trees being torn out by that community nature garden along the trail east of Euclid. Mhmm. I know again, I know you're not in charge of Parks and Rec, but I feel like you know everything in the city. The I mean, a lot of uproar, and I think it was even covered by one of the local papers, but, I mean, when I'm getting calls from people on certain things, it's a theme. I think it's people are pretty upset that it got torn up with things that were donated. A lot of the community put work in for. Any update that you can talk about?

We have to, as a city, have policies and procedures. We cannot pick and choose when we enforce those. This was unauthorized. Notices, warnings were given.

The the community part or the nature

Basically, improvements, for lack of a better term, or materials were installed on city property without an approved encroachment permit or any sort of approvals. Got it. So, you know, as I tell a lot of people when it comes to, you know, hey. You're working in the street. Hey. You do something in our parkway. It's consistency. We I have to be as consistent as a city engineer enforcing the city code and our rules and regulations. And as a city, we try to be as consistent as we can. If we start picking and choosing our enforcement, it just gets out of control.

So while some people don't see the problem with it, and maybe you can argue that case, we have to we we cannot pick and choose enforcement.

So it was something that was noticed. It wasn't like all of a sudden the city just went in and said, we're gonna do this.

We try we we don't want to go in and, quote, unquote, bulldoze items. We do everything we can behind the scenes to mitigate the issue. But when when the mitigation gets to a point, we have to step in. And, unfortunately, that's when everybody sees it, and they don't necessarily know the entire story or the backstory.

Correct. I And think that's exactly what took place here. I don't think enough people knew the whole backstory, so I really appreciate you saying that. And maybe that if they want if people want to contribute like that, which I thought was pretty neat, they can come forth and get Parks and Rec, too. I don't know what the word would be, but I mean, to write,

I

don't

know Yeah.

I mean,

we permission or

We've we've done agreements with with groups and particular people. It's I would say it's not easy. The rules and regulations we have, you know, we we have to protect the taxpayer. Correct. We have we cannot give out resources for free. So it's it's a little frustrating for people who want to do nice things, but, again, we have to be consistent across the board.

Fair enough. Thank you for saying that. Like I said, I I wasn't sure, and, unfortunately, sometimes a narrative is put out, and it's not always the full narrative. Yeah. So I will put that out. That'll be my contribution back to spreading the information. Okay. So we've got the upcoming items. We talked about the committee work plan. We've got the fiscal year PMP updates, CIP, and general infrastructure highlights. With that, unless anybody has anything else, can we get

Yeah. Before we adjourn, I just wanna say thank you to the vice chair for stepping up, and I appreciate it. You did a great job, and I look forward to you continuing to do a great job.

Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. With that, we're gonna adjourn, and I am going to do this. Is it three or two? Just one.

However many you feel is necessary.

Two more. Thank you. We'll see you if you're I

think we'll be great.