Community Development Citizens' Committee - Regular Meeting

This is the Community Development Citizens Committee meeting. I am calling the meeting to order on March 10 at 06:32. At some point, we're gonna update that clock. Roll call from staff, please.

Chair Hanzo?

Present.

Vice chair Casaneda? Not present. Committee member Blay?

Present.

Committee member Cox? Not present. Committee member Kim?

Present.

Thank you.

So we have three out of the five committee members. So we have a quorum, and we can hold our meeting today. I wanna thank staff for being here. And before we start, we're gonna do the pledge of allegiance. Allegiance.

So if everybody can rise, then we can do the pledge of allegiance. And we probably have people from, on Zoom watching. You can also watch us on our city channel, channel three here in Fullerton. We will have public comment. We will now hear comments on matters not appearing on tonight's agenda or consent items.

Speakers will be limited to three minutes. Staff, please call the first person to the microphone who turned in their speaker card or anyone on Zoom. So please raise your hand on Zoom.

Chair Hanzo, as of right now, we don't have any comments on Zoom.

No comments in chambers, so we are going to close the public comment period. We're gonna move on to the staff member and staff communication and report section of the agenda. Committee members may ask a question for clarification, make a brief announcement, make a brief report on activities, request to report from staff, and staff can make updates as well.

I have an announcement.

We have our housing manager, Daniel. Go ahead.

Yes. So, mister Cox has informed the city and the housing division, that he will be stepping down from his role as community, development citizens committee. Mister Cox has served the city of Fullerton with distinction both in the capacity of a planning commissioner and here at the with the committee. So, the city extends its sincere appreciation to mister Cox for his passion, his dedication, and we wish him the very best.

Thank you for that update, and we were glad he served last year and the few meetings this year. Thank you. Any announcements from the committee?

Nothing further. Okay.

We're gonna move on to the consent calendar. We're gonna approve the minutes from our February 24 meeting, which was our last meeting. Do I have a motion and a second to approve the consent items? I approve. First by member Blay. Do I have a second? Second. Second by member Kim. Staff, if you can do a roll call vote.

Chair Hanzo, how do you vote?

Yes.

Vice chair Cassanded, not present. Committee member Blay, how do you vote?

Yes.

And committee member Kim, how do you vote?

Yes.

Thank you.

In terms of our item number four, public hearing from February 10, we are continuing this item to the next meeting and postponing public hearing to a later date. We are now moving on to the regular business. So if you're following on the agenda, item two, the twenty twenty six twenty seven nonprofit presentations, the economic development presentations, and the city department presentations. First on our list is Fair Housing Foundation. Please go ahead with your PowerPoint on this item. And just a friendly reminder that you will be given five minutes to present. So staff, please start a timer when they start speaking.

Good evening. My name is Stella Van Porpal. I am the executive director with the Fair Housing Foundation. I will try my best to speak clearly. So, go ahead. Next slide. So the mission of the Fair Housing Foundation, so our proposal was for fair housing services. Our mission, we're dedicated to eliminating discrimination in housing and promoting access to housing choices for everyone. Next slide. So our program, it's a bona fide fair housing program.

We provide fair housing services. We break it down into four departments. The first one is our fair housing discrimination investigation and resolution. So I have a team of three that are dedicated to just opening cases, assisting clients they feel that potentially have been discriminated against. We also assist landlords, realtors if they feel they just have questions on what steps they should do to avoid discrimination as well.

We do consider ourselves a neutral party, so we believe education over litigation. So more knowledge we can share, the less potential discrimination that we see and we try to help out with. Next slide. The second department is our tenant and landlord counseling. We have four housing counselors on the phone all day long assisting with any type of landlord or tenant questions.

Rent increases, evictions, terminations, again, we're neutral, so we help both landlords and the tenants with any type of landlord tenant rights information. Next slide. Our third department is our education and outreach. We have three individuals in that department. They're focused on providing outreach to the city.

So they will do presentations, booths at community events. We do fair housing workshops virtually and in person to try to adapt to both, depending on, you know, what the preference of the the clients. We also do meet we attend community meetings if there's any collaborations in the city, work with other community organizations as well. So we basically try to do as much as we can to promote awareness of fair housing. The fourth op oops.

One more. Go back. The fourth one is, affirmatively furthering fair housing. So anything basically the city needs us to do, whether it's help with reporting, the monthly and quarterly reports we can submit on stats, everything that they need, we're here to assist. So we have two offices. We have one in Orange County, which is in Orange, one in LA County, which is Long Beach. We're open Monday through Friday, eight to five. We have a 1800 number. We have a 562 number as well. To obtain assistance, they can give us a call.

We can schedule appointments. We do offer walk in clinics if requested. Our website has Insta Chat as well or email so people can speak with staff directly. And we do work with an interpreter services that can provide us over 200 languages in real time. We just

give them a call.

We tell them what language we need, so language is never a barrier for us. Next slide. Okay. So this is what we're proposing for fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven. We're proposing two ten unduplicated clients.

16 of those will be fair housing inquiries. Under 194 will be landlord tenant counseling. We want to do two booths, reach out to two four different new agencies, attend eight agency meetings or community meetings, provide at least two presentations, distribute 5,000 pieces of literature, provide fair house four fair housing workshops, two virtually and two in person, And then we do our annual celebration. And so this is just a minimum of our goals if we happen to go over it completely fine. Slide. Fair Housing Foundation takes great pride in upholding the principles and the values of the Fair Housing Act. Thank you for your time. Any questions? With a minute to spare.

Thank you for the presentation, and I know we've been having you as contracted to do this for our CDBG program. My question is I am I know last year and today, you also mentioned instant chat. Mhmm. How much housing discrimination is identified with your chat online feature?

So, basically, it it just depends. We never know in the beginning. It's they'll come in with a general question. We'll try to assist, but we always refer to our fair housing department to give them, like, a second glance review the information. And if it's needed, then they call them back. So I would say maybe, like, five or 6%.

Okay. Good. Just trying to get an idea of how much it's being used. And then my second question before I move on to the other committee members, Generally speaking, the Urban and Housing Department is looking to remove section eight recipients if it has a mixed legal status household. Isn't that discrimination? I know it's on the news right now. Do you have any insight on the status?

So yeah. So it it's we follow the Fair Housing Act. So it's we stay away from asking about immigration status for our clients. And if we continue to do so, we're considered exempt as an organization and don't have to ask for those at this point with the memo that they have released. I do agree that it is potentially discrimination, and we will be facing, you know, housing a housing dilemma. It just take it one day at a time and try to help all the families that we can that do come to us.

Perfect. Yes. I I want you and everyone who gets these funds and money from our HUD federal funds to continue following the law because there is title eight of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, section eight zero eight of the Fair Housing Act, and section one zero five of the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990. And I know that's in your application because you abide by that, and I want all of these funds to abide by that. We should not be discriminating households based on their legal status, in my view. But I'm glad you're staying on top of that. Any committee members have questions for their presentation?

You mentioned that you prefer education over litigation, but oftentimes when there's bias going on or things going on, the tenants the the less powerful side on the table, what other resources do you provide for them?

So we do have connections with fair housing attorneys. We've been in the industry since 1964, so we have established many relationship with, quite a few, fair housing attorneys. So if we reach a point where we're unable to work it out, we've tried multiple times, then we do, reach out to those attorneys. And each has their own specialties. Some have disability. Some have more, families, families with children. So we do reach out to the appropriate attorney that we feel that could would be interested in the case, for them all our material and information that we have and get their perspective. Does it think it's something that we can pursue legally? Is it something we wish to refer to the civil rights department? And we kinda take their lead before moving forward.

And we have referred cases, and on the favor of the clients, they have one. We they they are never charged for services. So the client is given, depending on, you know, the results. But we have had cases where we had to go because there's no other alternative sometimes.

Thank you.

Member Blay and member Castaneda?

Just a friendly comment that I've used your services before. Very familiar with some of your team members, and I'm very grateful for all the work and service that you provide to, Fullerton and Orange County.

Oh, thank you so much. I will relay the message.

For staff, member Casaneda is present for the meeting. So if we can update the role, how does that work?

I noted that he, arrived a little bit later than the 06:30 time.

Okay. Thank you.

He's present. Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation, Stella, and we are good.

Alright. Thank you so much, you guys. Thanks.

Next, we have Care Housing to provide a presentation with your PowerPoint. And you have five minutes for your presentation. Thank you.

Good evening everyone. I'm Jennifer Lowell. I'm the director of social services for CARE housing and I'm gonna let KJ take it over and kind of explain our program. And, she is our on-site social coordinator for city of, Fullerton City Lights.

Hello. Good evening. And I do wanna this is my sixth year at Fullerton City Lights, and I wanna thank you all for your support. And with that community's, support and everyone's involved, this place cannot survive, just to let you know. And I'm very grateful.

So let's go on with this, city lights. As you know, it's it's a very challenging place where, about a 140 people, residents, they all have various problems, you know, mental and physical, drug abuse, and history of homelessness. But lately we're having more problem due to increased aging population and more and more I think we have more than fifty percent at this point people with 65. They're reaching 70s and 80s. The biggest problem is they are under really small amount of like SSI won't cover assisted living place when they need.

And our facility is mainly what we call independent living and which becomes like almost it's impossible to function as an independent living at this point. So this is our biggest challenge going forward. And basically, we we try to get by no matter what. And we have social activities going on. Over two fifty clients been served.

And and since pandemic, I I've given them my phone number, and everybody has it. And they have access to 247. So it which have been I'm I'm okay with that and, very helpful in terms of following up and and, helping these people in need. And lately, with the inflation and reduction of what we call CalFresh and every resident's having some difficulty, not to mention increase of rent enormous amount according to their standard. And that's what we are facing up against at this point.

Their $50 a month increase alone, let's say average, it's it's really devastating for them. And I don't know how we're gonna get through all this, but that's what it is. So next next slide. Yes. This is food donation.

We have ongoing food donation on Wednesdays and Fridays. You won't believe how many people come down to have, you know, this food donation for for their needs because of some people get only $20 a month for their food stamp. They cannot get by. So I got some OC United kind of supporting and it's not just OC United but all the church groups really just stepped up in helping us. Just enormous support we get.

So there's a budget I I put up next slide that last year and this year, it got increased a little bit even though our projected CGBD funding will be reduced. But I think in general, the care housing gonna step up and fill fill the gap. So I'm very grateful for care housing continuing their commitment. And I just end with our last photo of unless you have questions. There we go.

We we had all our children. There are only five children in our facility, mostly single adult. They all got enormous amount of Christmas gift, it was very, very fun and great they're so happy. So here we go. Another year and I think we're doing great.

And just on a footnote, I had fractured shoulder recently, but I gotta tell you something. This pain I'm going through, I I never had this such incredible pain, but they remind me the kind of pain that our residents having twenty four seven day after day, it just remind me I'm deeply grateful for their resilience and their their they're just survivors. Okay. And one of our residents, stage four cancer come down to help other residents. And she's she has like you cannot imagine the kind of pain she has, and then I cannot even point out my pain.

But she said, KJ, we do day by day, and then we're gonna help these people that's gonna heal us. And that's the kind of spirit that that I I cannot go anywhere else to get such enormous wisdom and resilience to fight against any difficulties in life. I have so much respect for them.

Thank you.

Thank care about those, you know, stigma and people count you know, really said bad things about our city lights residents. I tell you, they don't know the truth.

And this is a vulnerable population. Thank you for your presentation. I know you've been with them for a few years, and the 40,000 that the organization is requesting will be mainly for salary. And, I don't have that many questions, but I do remember last year, there was a new management company or new management rules. Are you guys allowing the Ring camera or surveillance cameras now? What was the final decision on that?

You know what? They kinda let us slide, and I I'm not gonna raise any issue about it. Because as long as residents are happy, that's all I care. And if they don't they don't complain or they they they stepping on it, we don't know yet. But so far, so good.

Okay. Okay. Any other members have questions? Vice chair Castaneda?

Thank you, chair. So just, my heart is just, bigger and bigger every time I hear you, and I I'm I'm grateful that you're you're back to present, about your program. So so many of the changes require so much more care and so many more services. I'm wondering why the your proposed request, is less than than last year's. It's about $3,000 less.

This is kind of kind of what I, was told will be given the decision pre it was decided prior to our application submission. So this we exactly followed on that. If you wanna raise, fine. Go ahead. I mean, I'm

Yeah. I have limited resource, so I'm just I was just curious.

And

Yeah. Yeah. I I just followed what the, yeah, program was Oh, great. Providing.

Yeah. Thank you for all your work. Thank you.

Thank you. You.

Any other committee members? I guess we don't have any more questions. Thank you for your presentation today. Thank you so heal. Make sure you go to your doctor and take be a go good role model to your residents.

Thank you. Nothing compared to what they go through. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You.

Next, we have Cal State Fullerton's Auxiliary Services Corporation. And sorry, you have five minutes.

You. Good evening, commissioners. I'm Iris Aguilar. I'm the executive director of the Center for Healthy Neighborhoods. We are a university city partnership that was started in 2016 with the Health and Human Development College.

Since that, we have moved to be under Cal State Fullerton Auxiliary Services. They provide fiscal oversight and grant assistance, while the HHC, the Health and Human Development College, provides programmatic supervision. Our programs are really focused on providing services for free that are centered around academic support, wellness go back wellness and resident leadership. Our funds currently are from state appropriation. We have some private donors and grants as well.

Next. So as you all know, most likely, the location where we're at is at Richmond Community Center. And unlike the rest of Fullerton, our residents in the census tracts immediately by the center have a high poverty rate, lower than the rest of Fullerton's in median income. Our services are all bilingual, English and Spanish, because we do have a high number of Hispanic Latinos in the area who are parents. Next slide.

Our families that we have been serving meet the HUD definition for very low income, and most of our clients are from the City Of Fullerton. Next slide. Some of the activities that we provide, I provided as an additional document our fiscal year 2025 highlights of our programs And so you have that information there. Next slide. For the CDBG fund support, we are looking to provide additional services through our academic success program, which is our mentoring and tutoring program that we run twelve weeks in the fall and then another twelve weeks in the summer.

It's Monday through Thursday. It's one on one for 45. We provide these services through interns, from the university. We have about 18 interns. We do supervision. They're mandated reporters. We do live scan. They take trainings on what to do if someone has an epileptic seizure and so on. So we provide supervision. We added last year a math tutoring, and that is ninety minutes long.

Again, it's one on one with math department student workers. We're looking to add parent workshops as well. We have wellness programming during the daytime. We provide, through a certified instructor, Zumba classes. And we have chair yoga and then traditional yoga as well.

And then we do other classes for the participants as well. And then we have our resident leaders program that is really about doing advocacy in the community. Next slide. So again, this is how we're looking to use the funds. Most of the fund, 19,000, would go towards salaries. There's some overhead. There's program costs really related to a consultant for reading and literacy. Next slide. We will be doing outcome assessments as well. Next slide.

And you have in the packet information, We have been doing, the services for a really long time. We're a trusted community partner. Next slide. And if you're interested in seeing our full fiscal report, you can do so on our website. Next slide. And you have questions for me?

Just so members know we got a extra handout with the information. I have two questions for you. Yep. And I know you're gonna be running the Center for Healthy Neighborhoods for and you're asking for 32,978 from this committee to service 154 residents. What does your bilingual outreach look like? Can you just give a short description?

Sure. So we have a senior community and programs liaison, and we have an outreach worker. So we have two staff that are dedicated to doing outreach. They're in the community. They work we work with the Fuller School District.

We work with the high schools. And then we have our resident leaders who really are able to extend what we do, into the community. And, we do a a monthly community meeting to really bring them up to date on, what is happening in the community. So we've had housing presentations with Daniel, who we had over 80 people at the center really being more aware of what's happening in the community. We are constantly on the phone.

We have a partnership, actually, with Parks and Recs to do more outdoor activities. And so it's really field trips. And we're calling them, we're reminding them, people are busy in their lives. And we know that we need to be in their ear, and we need to be reminding them sometimes of the bigger picture and speaking to them in their language. All of our staff, including myself, speak Spanish. And whenever we do activities, we make sure that we provide it in English and Spanish.

Okay. Thank you. Because I think it's a great resource if you can get, you know, math and literacy tutoring for your kids. So great on the outreach. And I know you're new to applying to us, and these funds are HUD money. And for any nonprofit that applies, you would need to have an intake form and have proof of in of verify income. On your application on question 17, that talks about proof of income, you stated there's a self report on income, and that's not allowed. We would need proof like a pay stub, bank statement, welfare, you know, statement, things like that as verification of income. So I just wanted to point that out.

Thank you.

Are you do you have an income verification form or an intake form that you're currently use that would ask for that verification?

Right now, as I said, we were we do as, an intake form that is self reported. If we were to receive the funds, then we would be committing to, doing as you indicated.

Okay. Perfect. And I think staff have a template of an intake form to help you out. And the that's the end of my questions. Anybody on the committee have questions? Vice chair?

So I was just looking in, my WhatsApp group that there's almost a 100 members and there's monthly, almost weekly posts for the Center for Healthy Neighborhoods. And I'm just blown away by how much value you guys bring to the city, to our community considering that everything is bilingual in English and Spanish simultaneously. So I'm wondering, the amount that you're requesting, it seems like it's gonna go for it goes for all the programs. Right? But, from what I recall, there is a full time employee and two part time employees at the Center for Healthy Neighborhoods?

We have currently five full time staff.

Okay.

But the we're not asking.

Yeah. From who is, like, always there. So it seems like a seems like you're really going for external sources of funding more than the CDBG funds. So I appreciate that, but also, you know, Fullerton owes you guys so much for all the wealth of civic engagement, of just everything that you've brought that you've already presented. So I could only imagine that maybe next year you ask for more if, there's more CDPG funds available.

And we would.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other committee member?

For your education program for the, younger children, you mentioned that you're gonna be, offering tutoring with the funds as well.

Yes. We currently provide, after school tutoring. It would be to expand what we're doing, to include parent workshops as well, as well as, more information to the actual students on their opportunities. We had so I've been there for about a year and a half, not two years. And one of the students that we had in the after so he was graduating.

You would think high school has already spoken to him about his opportunities. But our students that we get, we have about one out of six is neurodivergent. No one had spoken to him about opportunities. But I think that the mentoring piece that our program is able to provide with Cal State Fullerton students that look like them many, many of times, this individual thought, well, maybe I can go to a technical school. And so he's in a mechanic program right now that he had never thought of himself as doing something beyond high school.

And those are the types of workshops that we want to also bring to students so they can, too, begin to think beyond what they have had conversations at home.

So it's not a typical just tutoring, but more like mentoring for future readiness?

Yes. It's traditional homework assistance for forty five minutes. Fifteen minutes, we talk to parents. And we want to be able to add more of that mentoring information piece.

Thank you.

So line, sixteen talks about says that you guys I was wondering if you could share any more information about the literacy assessment performance that you guys measure twice a year, the outcomes.

Sure. So, we have a consultant, and she's actually the other, line item. She's been with the program since 2016. She is, a professor with the, reading department at CalSTRS Fullerton, and she's a consultant to us. She comes in, and she does literacy assessments, with all of the students to, really be able to guide our, tutors, our intern tutors on what may be some areas that, they need assistance with, what might be some techniques that we want to use.

If someone doesn't have homework, what would then be the appropriate activity to do with that specific child. We then have started, since I began, to then do a second assessment because up to now, we had been doing it as a one time to help us define the school year. We are now going to be implementing it a second time to really be able to sort of see how we've been able to help students. So we have not done a formal evaluation, of the program. Adignotably, we know that it's been helping the students.

Thank you for your presentation today. Oh, one more question.

Thank you, Iris. I So I just started thinking that because you're the center for healthy neighborhoods, and all the changes to the to Medi Cal and Medicaid, that are coming, do you have any program material or program events lined up for the Medi Cal reenrollment and some of those new changes as as HR one becomes, implemented? I'm I'm just curious if you have that already in in the works.

We did one two months ago. We had, OC Social Services, come in and do a presentation, on the Medi Cal changes. They were able to bring in three of their workers. And so we were able to set up after our regular community meeting individual meetings where we provided private space for them to speak to anyone interested in sort of talking through their program. We're going to schedule them again hopefully, are available for October when we expect to have additional changes as well.

And then because it piggybacks on that, make sure you look into Cal Othema's leadership programs for additional sources of funding.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Up next, we have Upwards Care Inc. Please go ahead with your verbal presentation, and you have five minutes.

Good evening, committee members, community development team. My name is Melanie For. I'm the community impact manager at UPWARDS. Thank you for this opportunity to share how our Boost program can continue to serve local family child care providers here in Fullerton and expand access to quality care for working families. In our inaugural year, we've made meaningful progress, but year two is an opportunity to make an even bigger impact supporting more providers and expanding the services we offer.

For those unfamiliar with Boost, we support low to moderate income family child care providers through an intensive year long one on one mentorship. Each provider works with an experienced care specialist to build a customized business action plan, create dedicated marketing materials, help them with financial management, enrollment, billing support, hiring support, and more. We also equip providers with a free child care management system that simplifies the administrative side of running their business, including curriculum planning, and providers, retain free access to that platform after the program year ends, supporting long term sustainability. One of our champion providers here in Fullerton, Seleni Itzip of Golden Hill Child Care, joined Boost in August. And since enrolling, she's received marketing support, materials to enrich her outdoor play space, curriculum guidance, and help hiring a new teaching assistant, which will help her expand capacity to serve even more families.

Selenie's been a true champion in the program and shared a, letter of support, which she described how Boost helped strengthen operations, improve her facility, and serve more families with guidance she calls professional, responsive, and deeply committed to provider success. I also want to highlight that Boost supports families directly even though by CDBG standards they'd be considered indirect beneficiaries of the program. Through our family care specialists, any family in Fullerton can access a concierge level of support to find childcare including emergency backup care within twenty four hours. This work is especially urgent given what providers and families face here. As you may know, family child care providers earn on average under $18 an hour here in Fullerton and more than seventy five percent of children under six don't have access to licensed care, leaving thousands of families struggling to fully participate in the workforce.

If you happen to listen to NPR at 05:30PM, you would have heard a lot about this. Or if you happen to catch a recent LAS feature, you would have seen Orange County supervisor Vicente Sarmiento stated, we must address address the shortage of childcare spots and assist local entrepreneurs with the training and support needed to create these additional businesses that serve our communities. So in year one, thanks to the city's support and 40,000 in CDBG funding, we're supporting five providers, create one teaching assistant position, and help more than fifth 60 families access care. So for year two, we're requesting $80,000 in CDBG funding to support 10 providers, create three teaching assistant jobs, and improve access to care for up to 140 families. Because Boost is already up and running in Fullerton, we can hit the ground running and make a much bigger impact a lot faster in our second year should we be awarded funding.

I also wanna emphasize that Boost is designed to be a sustainable program, meaning, to make sure it has a lasting impact for the participants. By equipping them with the mentorship and training and technology and continued free access to that technology, we help them build stronger businesses that continue to serve families long after the program year ends. What I mean by that is hopefully, if all goes well and we can assist 10 new providers this year, we may not even need to run Boost for a third year in Fullerton. We do have other programs when we're launching piloting in Garden Grove who's one of our longest partners that then focuses on teaching assistance. And we're actually meeting with the Orange County Workforce Development team members tomorrow to discuss that program a bit more too.

So with your support, we can help more Fullerton providers grow their programs, create new jobs, and open the door to childcare for hundreds more families in the city. I also was hoping to be able to give you a printed, copy of our recent impact report. My colleague's putting the finishing touches on it. So if it's all alright, I would love to email that because that shows that highlights the impact of Boost in over 30 cities and counties, over the last couple years, all with the help of CDBG funding. And since I have twenty seconds left, I wanna thank the community development team as well for all of their, patience and support. Thank you.

Thank you. I do have plenty of questions, so we're gonna spend a little bit of time on this contract. For Upwards Care Inc, I know you're training childcare providers who are living in Folderton through your boost program, and your goal you're asking for 80,000, and your goal is to get to 10. Last year, you got 40,000, and the goal is, like, 5 or six. From what I understand, the staff here at Fullerton at the housing, division, they're having a difficult time getting information from one contact person. You don't have an office in California. You have an office in Florida. Is that right? Or do you have an office in Orange County or or Los Angeles?

So our cofounder is based in Southern California. Our Boost team, actually, a number of members, including one of the Boost care specialists, Alex Estrada, is about ten minutes away. We don't have an office anywhere. We just moved that Florida address to Austin, Texas. It's really a mailing address. A mailing address. An office anywhere, but we do have team members who are local.

So, when when when you get a contract submitting the quarterly reports, and maybe you're not the one doing that, but the city of Fullerton needs to have one contact or two people's names that are reliable for us to get the backup information and the documents. So if you can send that back to whoever's in charge so that we can have it go very smoothly.

Are you registered Sorry. Could I speak to that really quickly? Because I very much appreciate it. Already have relayed this information to the team as recently as today. There was a shift partly due to health issues from our original program director to our new program manager. She cannot like, the program cannot be in better hands. She actually has the lived experience of running her own successful day care. But in that transition, I think that there's been some communications that, were delayed and lost in the in the mix. And so that's something we really work on. I mean, we've worked with 30 other cities and counties and, unfortunately

Who is the new program manager?

Starlin Perez.

Okay. And are you is this organization a charity in California? Are you registered with a business license or any?

So, we sorry. We're not a chair I mean, we're a for profit social enterprise. So, again, our founder and CEO is based here in Southern California. We have a certificate of good standing in California.

Okay.

And as required, we get a business license. Usually, it's a exempt letter from local cities, for our partnerships. Okay.

And then I have a question. Your services are done remotely. What percentage of your service is done remotely?

The majority is done remotely, but as I mentioned, we do have, local team members who are, I mean, Alex Estrada is if you see hundreds of testimonials from boost providers, half of them talk about Alex Estrada. So she's the one who lives ten minutes away. So she's available to meet with providers as needed for technical assistance. And we also have more team members who are available for, you know, community events. Our director of government partnerships is not too far away.

Okay. And once you have and, from what I understand, you have three clients that we've paid for that you've submitted reports for that. They've completed the program. They started their child care program. Do those clients do those child care providers register their business so that it gets audited or inspected by California authorities?

Yes. So for the Boost program specifically, we're only working with already licensed providers. We do have other programs that will help providers get licensed, but for this program, they're already licensed with the State of California.

So before you contact them, they already have a child care

license?

They already have a child care license. Our goal is to give them all the business tools that they need to keep their doors open because as, both local statistics and national reflect that that, 2025 has been the hardest year yet for family child care providers.

And which California authority are they registered with?

So it'd be, I know we actually are also, we help distribute subsidy in the state of California, including Orange County, and that's through CDSS. So I believe that's who they're registered with. Starlin's the expert there.

Okay. And as far as the liability insurance, do you require the child care providers that you serve to have liability insurance?

I know we're we have our own, and I believe that they're required to have it, but that, again, is more of Starland's expertise. I will say that all of the boost providers we can work with in Fullerton, we can also work with that subsidy program as well to ensure that. Let me backtrack. Regardless of the subsidy program, one of the first steps of the Boost program is to make sure that they're all in compliance, with state laws, and then we go above and beyond what state laws require to make sure that they're offering the best, safest care possible. So for insurance specifically, I'd probably have to defer to Starlin or our subsidy team, but I So

Starlin Perez would know the answer to that. Okay. How do you verify that each provider maintains active insurance throughout their program?

Again, that would be, Starlin or Alex Estrada, who I mentioned, is local. So in the intake forms, they would be going through all of the licensing and compliance requirements with the provider.

So Boost has an insurance. Yes. You train the licensed childcare provider. If something happens to a child under their care, it's only the provider's fault. Does your insurance cover any liability, or you guys will not be liable?

I'd I don't believe it would be under our insurance, but I do not know the answer to that question. I I mean, we provide most of our services remotely. So

Yeah. That's what I'm I I'm curious for, and I think, some staff might be curious about this too. In the event of an injury or death of a child in care, what is your agency's liability and what protections are in place for the city?

I know that the city has copies of our certificates of insurance, but I do not know those details of that's not my area of expertise. But I definitely can get that answer before the next meeting.

And if you can encourage Starling Perez to go to the city website and find this recording since this is being televised, They can watch it and and hear our questions. So I appreciate your time. Anyone else have questions? Chair Kim?

On application, it says that, you will income verify only the FCCs and not the families served. Can anyone weigh on this? Is this something within the guidelines?

I'm happy to I'm happy to address that. It's a micro enterprise technical assistance program. So the direct beneficiaries of the program have to be the microenterprise, which is why we income verify the microenterprise. While a huge focus of the program is also to help support local families, they're not eligible because they're not the microenterprise.

Okay. Thank you for clarifying.

Vice chair?

Oh, yeah. Hi, Melanie. Welcome back.

Thank you.

So I have a question regard with regards to, the CDBG funding is only allocated to providers. So I'm seeing that in page five, the, the number of providers is estimated to be 10 to 13 or 10.

I I can clarify that. It's local, 10 family child care providers and then three teaching assistants. Okay. So that's why that it says 10 to 13.

And so, just from this past, funding cycle, you have five for 10 providers and how many teaching assistants?

One. We this may have come up in the last presentation but basically when we go below six, that's where it's a little more difficult to get that 30% mark, is what we include on our application for the teaching assistants. So it's usually over 30%. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up onboarding more or creating I mean, from Sulani, they already have one, so another teaching assistant before the end of the program year.

Awesome. So I'm following the logic that there's just a doubling of the last year's request, for this year's. And, you I know, wish you I wish you all the best of luck in getting more providers in force. And my my concern is not not a question. Just, my concern is that, because Boost doesn't, directly impact vulnerable populations that are being targeted by all the other applicants.

I'm wondering if there is a there's a specific intent or, like, a a drive behind the scenes that, people are paying attention to with immigrant families or, non English speaking, providers that might otherwise not be included in this the list of eligible vulnerable populations for CDBG funds.

So you said there wasn't a question or is there I'm someone I can just like

Highlight

that. Openly thinking like like are you guys focused on that? But I

mean, I would I would argue that the family child care providers are a very vulnerable population, and it's highlighted in our impact report. But I can just say off the top of my head that, even the rapid studies from 2023 to the most recent one in 2025 are showing at least forty percent of family child care providers facing a core hardship. On top of that, we're also very aware of the new policy requirements for receiving CDBG funding and navigating that with our current boost providers.

I totally agree. I totally agree and I've seen it and I apologize. I probably misspoke. I to say the special needs population under the CDBG categories. So other than that, thank you so much for your presentation again, and, I look forward to all the work that you guys do.

Memorably? Yeah. What was the percent of percentage of families who reported satisfaction with the care they received from year '24 2024 to 2025?

So that program year will end in the summer, and so we don't we don't do that final survey for families until the end of the program year. I can share, you know, historically with our other partnerships, it always exceeds that projected outcome. And I can also share that we're looking to hopefully wrap up our projected outcomes in the next by the end of the month, if not this week, according to the latest report, that I met with our enrollment specialist, Kay. At that point, what we would do is basically create a waiting list, for potential year two expansion. So when I say we can really hit the ground running, that would mean, that we'd already have the waiting list of remaining providers who are eligible.

Thank you.

And I have one last question. How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your services?

So we have a number of measurable outcomes. So just, again, looking at, I would say, the, the end of the program year, what or even on a quarterly basis, what we report. The key metrics are, you know, first that all all of the providers obviously get the the business action plan, the custom marketing materials, the tools that they can continue to use after the program year. 30% will report an increase in revenue of at least 20%. Our impact report shows historically that's much higher.

30% will hire a teaching assistant. And then we, do again survey the families as well. In terms of how we really, determine the success of the program and how we continue to shape and evolve the program, that's based on private provider feedback. So we consistently survey them not just as part of our quarterly progress reports, but just in terms of, like, organic conversation, making sure we're addressing all their needs. And with that, we're implementing their feedback into, the Boost curriculum, which we're currently, developing into a learning management system.

So it's gonna be even a lot more tangible where we can track engagement and so forth, to have even more tangible, I guess, input from the providers in terms of what they're, really responding to and and need the most. But we've probably helped over 500 providers through the Boost program, so that's a lot of feedback we've had since 2022.

Thank you. Thank you for your presentation and for having patience to answer our zillion questions.

I, apologize. I didn't unanswer the insurance one. I will say that we're partnered with the Department of Defense to offer, child care to military families. And with that, they have very, very strict requirements when it comes to insurance. So I'd say we probably are very covered, but I will get back to you with your specific questions.

And also if the child care providers that you've serviced are covered with insurance.

Understand. You can get back to Sorry. I that's what I meant, that they require that from the providers themselves. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Our next presentation would be from the city departments, and we have the engineering division on street improvements. Welcome. And you have five minutes to present.

Thank you. Glad to be back again. Dave Grantham, city engineer, presenting the application for the engineering department. Next slide, please. Known as the Yale Santa Fe Princeton Berkeley Street Improvements. So it's kind of our typical request for street improvements. We'll do the usual, repairs, make the area more walkable, address ADA compliance, and of course, address the rather poor, actual pavement conditions out in the area. Next slide, please. So here is the area. It is kind of on the Easter side easterly side of the city, generally between Lemon and Raymond.

We pick this area because what we try to do with all our projects is try to be as equitable as we can throughout the city or in this case as equitable as we can throughout the CGB areas and the work we've done in the past. Also, we picked this because the adjacent streets in this area are actually in pretty good conditions condition, and these streets are the only ones that are in poor. So once we finish this project, the entire neighborhood will actually have rather good street conditions. Next page. Next slide, please.

So some photos here. Obviously, an aerial photo trying to give you an idea of where the area is. Just to the North Side area, you may know it as the college district. It it has, you know, as we say, Yale, Princeton, all those other areas. So Fulton College is is not too far away to the north. Next slide, please. So you can see there's a lot of trees in this area, so you can't really see the streets themselves. We will do our best to maintain those trees because they are beautiful trees. Obviously, they do some damage, so we'll do our best to keep all of those. We also wanna point out that this is a lot of multifamily areas.

A lot of projects we've done in the past are more single family areas, so we are focusing on a multifamily here. So it will serve and improve the lives of a lot more people. Next slide, please. Typical photos of the existing conditions, not great, obviously. Tree wells, no trees. So we'll take care of all of that, either put in new trees and new tree wells, or we'll just make sure that we don't have a tripping hazard as people walk along that area. Next slide, please. There's no ADA ramps, so we'll take care of that. The ones that are there are not in compliance, so, again, we'll take care of that. I mentioned the trees.

Here's an example of big beautiful trees with the damage they do, lifting the sidewalk, creating potential tripping hazards will, again, will address all of that. Next slide, please. And then finally, some more beautiful photos of our lovely area out there. All of that area will get addressed, including you'll see on the right side, there isn't actually curb and gutter. So when it rains, it doesn't, it does wear away the surface a lot quicker. Water will pond. We will replace that with curb and gutter. So when it does rain, actually, the water will move a lot quicker. The road will be kept cleaner and just be a all around better environment for everybody. Yeah.

I'm basically done. That was my last slide. So, hey, I'll take any questions.

Thank you for the presentation and a lot of the visuals. This is for 350,000 to service a 128 families, Yale, Santa Fe, Princeton, Berkeley. And I just have a general question. With the high guy gas prices right now, do you expect the budget to increase if we get with the increase of, the gas prices, does that mean the city's gonna get more money to fund the student repairs? What do you

think if we

are paying $5 a gallon?

Yeah. It's it's a it's a cash 22, though, because although we may gain more revenue, the cost of the asphalt, which is based on oil, goes up. So it may be a push in the end. The problem we're gonna face short term is our revenues now are based on revenues that were on the lower gas prices, but now we've got higher prices coming in. So we might we may see higher construction prices until the revenue catches up. So this project may come in a little bit higher than we budgeted when we did the application, but I still think we budgeted conservatively enough, hopefully, that, we shouldn't have an issue with the with the budget, but time will tell.

Okay. Anyone else have questions? Vice chair?

Thank you, madam chair. So good evening, David. Good evening. So great presentation. I had a question on your previous slide. I don't know if we were able to go back to the last slide. Essentially, this track, what is considered the city's property? Is it does it include that Little Island, Green Belt in as well as the sidewalk

and the current Yeah.

It's interesting. Just just to get technical on you, the city doesn't own a street. It is to the public. It is public right away. The city and any local agency is basically put in charge of controlling the street. So typically, the street right away goes from the back of sidewalk to the back of sidewalk. So typically, that means if you're looking at the picture on the left Okay. The left side is the property line. That's the edge of the right away. The location that has the tree and the grass, that is considered the parkway. That is still in the street right of way. That is under city control.

Okay. So it's, quite a bit of, land and different amenities here. I'm wondering if, have any residents expressed interest in, kind of buying that or, like, buying these right of ways or maybe So transforming into an HOA type of management over the the streets?

I would say it comes up very, very, very occasionally. And then when we explain to them the process, that goes away pretty quickly. Okay. Well And probably the biggest reason is that utility companies have the right to use street right away at no charge. They would have to agree to give up those rights and yeah. Okay.

Alright. Just wishful thinking on my part. And other than that, does the CDBG funds cover, just the like, a slurry seal, or are you doing, like, the entire redo, like, so the next The city

the the CDBG funds we're requesting do not cover the entire project cost. So the city funds, the city street funds will supplement the project, and the intention is to take the CDBG funds and use it to pay the contractor. The city funds will pay for the design, any costs above and beyond the CDB budget for construction, and all our management costs.

And the last question, my apologies there. There's a chance that if the project is not fully funded, then the project will likely be canceled. Is that

There's always that potential depending on what funding, if any, you award to us, and all our other priorities. There's always that potential. We are basing our budget on hopefully receiving the full amount. If we get less, the potential is always there.

What is that cutoff for, an anticipated, award amount that can make it go that can make it fly?

I I would say A penny

pinch hit.

Would say, to be honest, at least 300,000.

Okay. Thanks for the honesty. Yeah.

Any other member have questions? Alright. Member Blake? You're good.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming today and presenting. Thank you. Next, we have Park and Rec. They're going to be presenting on a senior mobility program. You have five minutes.

Hi. Good evening. Christian Hernandez, Parks and Recreation Manager. This is the first time before you, so I appreciate your time. Our request is for our senior mobility program. Next slide, please. So the senior mobility program provides transportation to Fullerton residents ages 60 and older. The services do include transportation for the Fullerton Community Center programs, medical appointments, and recreational activities. The city partners with California Yellow Cap through funding from OCTA's OCGOM, which is our Measure two program. Just for context, any trip in Fullerton has a minimum charge of at least $20 per ride one way regardless of the distance, and that is a cost to the city.

Next slide, please. Our annual funding overview for fiscal year the current fiscal year twenty twenty five-twenty six, our allocation from OCTA is 176,939. We do have a projected shortfall currently of a $125,000 through the June, and then our request is for $50,000 from the CDBG funds for the future fiscal year to allow for more flexibility on recreational rides for our seniors, which I'll highlight in the next slide. This is just kind of a snapshot of the current rights that we provide. We provide about 14,647 rights.

It ranges from cultural arts centers to libraries, medical trips, nutritionists to our community center, personal care and shopping trips, as well as family and friends. So these are all for our seniors. Next slide, please. Our programs at the community center, just to provide some background, we do have multiple senior programs on a weekly basis, which includes some health and wellness, education and support, and social and engagement programs ranging from fall prevention programs to, like, technology trainings, iPad trainings, legal aid clinics. Right now, for tax services and then social engagement programs, we do provide karaoke, movie days, Tuesday evening dance, which seniors do contract the services to attend these events.

Next slide, please. Our current program guidelines, we do provide unlimited trips to the Fullerton community center, up to eight trips per month for nonemergency medical trips within the cities listed and select satellite locations. And, additionally, we do provide eight free recreational trips per month. We do ask for a small fee of $3 per ride within Fullerton, and outside of Fullerton, 7 per ride. Next slide, please.

We've had to implement a interim stabilization due to our funding. Currently, as of March 1, we're limiting 30 round trips per month to the community center. All other guidelines for non emergency medical trips and recreational trips remain a change, and this will address the high usage from our ridership. Next slide, please. Our second phase, sorry, next fiscal year, we are limiting now 20 round trips per month to the Fullerton Community Center.

The medical trips within Fullerton or 10 miles outside of Fullerton will have a fee of $2 per one way trip, and then grocery trips within Fullerton will have a fee of $2 per one way trip. This will assist in a projected annual savings between 145,000 to 165,000. And one thing to note here is that we are not supporting the with this, current structure, the recreational, which is, why I'm here before you, to assist in that funding. Next slide, please. This is just a table highlighting the changes in a kind of easier to read format, that are current, are proposed, and after July 1.

Next slide, please. This slide here highlights what other cities are doing for context, City Of Brea, Buena Park, Placentia, Orange, and Garden Grove, cities that receive similar funding but operate different structures. So with the additional funding and some of and most of these also utilize CDBG funding, which can actually fund programming staff for those programs. Next slide, please. And that is all, and I'm available for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. How many years has this program existed?

Good question. So I've been with the city for two years. Little bit of background. We've always received the OCTA funding. And during COVID, we had a lot of money in reserves because it's kind of a grant funded and based on the tax.

Now after, I think, in 2021, 2022, there was a different formula. So we have to get our plans approved by OCTA. And since we had so much funding, we were able to open it up for multiple trips. And we've been we've been slowly reducing those trips. The challenge that we faced is there's seniors that live within half a mile from the center but utilize our service because, you know, they can to the community center.

So as I stated, the city gets charged $20 per one way trip regardless of the distance. And there are there are no caps to those trips. So a senior may go to the center and home probably about four round trips a day. Right? So that becomes a $160, and that's five days a week. So I know since COVID, we've been trying to reduce and kind of just create some guidelines for our program. But before, it was more free and longer distance.

Hard time scaling back.

Yes.

So I I noticed on your application on question 19, it said you had OCTA Measure two money of $246,000 But also on your application, it sounds like for next fiscal year, 2627, you're asking OCTA for just 170,000.

So we're Is there

a way you can ask for 206?

So I so to clarify, these are all forecasted numbers that OCTA provides

Okay.

Based on the tax. The OCTA funding is what funds our program. We do not have any general funds towards the program. And the 246 has been, like I shared over the course of the previous years of just money that's been kinda rolled over for the program, but now it's been exhausted. Also, credit to our staff increase in programming at the community center. People wanna come and attend those programs. Additionally, like, they come for senior nutrition programs due to food insecurity. There's Meals on Wheels, which provides

They come for a lot of Yeah. Lot of have different medical equipments, community center rec activities, which, you know, that's part of your program. I was just curious. So the county tells you how much you're going to get based on their revenue from the gas Yeah.

Their forecast, correct. It's been pretty consistent to their forecasted, but it can always be less or it can always be more.

So does the county audit you also, audit the program?

Yes. We have monthly meetings and then quarterly audits.

And does the city audit you do have an internal audit of the program or just the county comes and does that?

Well, it's county funds, so they're currently auditing, but we we track all of our expenditures and cost. And we have a direct portal to our, the taxi company that we can track all of the trips, and we get monthly, like, spreadsheets.

From the tech from the subcontractor?

Correct. Yeah.

So next year's projection is $176,000.

Correct. Okay. And that's calendar year, though.

That's calendar year.

Yeah.

Okay. That's it for me now. Any other members have questions? Vice chair? Go ahead. Go ahead.

Thank you, thank you, madam chair. So, good to, see your presentation. I was at the city that at the city council meeting when this was brought up as well. And I remember a couple of things I wanted to bring up in this, in this meeting. So does the senior mobility program, is it eligible for any additional OCTA funds that are not, from measure two, or maybe a, like, a sub fund like the project V, which is the micro mobility transit?

So our senior mobility program is funded through OCTA measure two. Right? It's not, if it can also be funded through general fund, it can also be funded through CDBG. So the funding sources vary. We have explored the, our least conversations, and I believe as a city, the Measure V of the micromobility Mhmm.

To gear our services, for more of those local, like, nutritional where we can have staff maybe provide that service. So that is what we're exploring, hoping that the additional funds can give us some flexibility. But you also run into some other challenges, which is a vehicle, you know, ADA accessible vehicle and then maintaining other vehicles. So even though, like, if CDBG funding can purchase a vehicle, there's also additional expenses on an annual basis. So or grant funded of the vehicle, etcetera.

But, yes, there's OCTA is currently what's funding our senior mobility program. That's a direct that's our direct expenditure and revenue, but there are potential other sources that can fund it as long as we fit within the guidelines of what those grants or monies associated.

I appreciate that. And so, you know, I was this close to getting project fee funding in Buena Park. It's close. So, but I, I'm I'm glad to hear that there's more future possible funding sources that the city can go after. I wanna switch to the KPIs, so the performance measurements. We're only measuring the number of rides per year. Is that right?

Correct.

Okay. I feel like for a more robust robust, key performance indicator, like, metric, we might wanna survey, all writers with, how much independence does the program restore in their lives. And I feel like that's just a much more impactful way that we can measure measure this program because I think if this is an impacted program in the future, for recurring years in perpetuity, then I can only imagine that we need something more than just the number of rides, maybe even the demographics of the riders as well, if that's something people are willing to give. I'm really concerned that we're we're cutting this program in, you know, so many words. Is there any other, costs that, has been looked at that can be cut?

Like, we're we're trimming all the fat on this program before we reduce the number of potential rides per person per month. Is that right?

Correct. So we're not cutting the program. We're modifying the structure of the plan, to try to elongate the program. Right? So to fund it through the end of the fiscal year, we've made some internal budget adjustments for some of our kind of behind the scenes programs and costs, but this is for future fiscal years, which is our request for the CDBG, to be able to explore the addition of social trips because that is something that in our phase two plan, we will not be providing, as it currently stands, just for the funding purposes.

And what about the replacement of the fleet? How many, buses or vans?

Right now, we're right now, we're just, we don't have any, like, internal vehicles that operate the program. It's all contracted through OCY. The additional is to explore that possibility. So years ago, in in my research, there was a, like, a senior transportation coordinator, within the city because we still have the specs of that. So that's just to give us some flexibility to explore that where we can have staff operate the program within we have passenger vans, for example, right, that that we can utilize if we were to explore that route for just short distant trips to, like, to and from the community center, which is that $20 fee to expand that.

So it gives us some flexibility to explore, but we are looking to include the social trips post July 1.

Okay. And I guess this is the last question. So $50,000 is the request for CDBG funds to, to be allocated for administrative costs. But the actual, like, rides, the actual transportation is gonna be through the general fund? No. 176?

No. The CDBG the CDBG funds, how we have it, and we we have $50,000 just based on our projections, but we don't wanna limit the ridership, right, the seniors. So the $50,000 are to increase the the funds for the senior mobility program, not administrative cost.

Okay.

But it it will allow us to explore some flexibility if feasible within the program.

Okay. That's Yeah. That's thank you for the clarity on that. So just repeating because it's gonna be misconstrued if I, if it's not clearly stated. The $50,000 expands the flexibility of providing more rides, for our Fullerton residents.

Correct.

No administrative.

So question eight says, with allocation of CDGB funds, seniors would still be able to request social regational trips at a low cost without any limits. That's accurate. Right?

That's what based so right now, how we have it is grocery. With with the funds, we're looking to add the social. So when you talk about social, it can be to the movie theaters. It can be to the bowling alley, like any social recreation social trips recreational trips, which are currently not in the plan after July 1.

Okay. Member Kim? If I remember correctly from the presentation, it said that your con subcontractor is the Yellow Cab?

Correct.

Okay. And your program has been in existence for thirty eight years. How long have you worked with this vendor?

Our current our current, agreement, within the last, I believe, five years. There's a renewal phase, a renewal period.

With Lyft, you know, Uber, there's, you know, self driving cabs these days. Have we looked at other alternatives for, to save costs?

So we can explore that. The subcontractor of OCY is the county. So the county went through an RFP process. Mhmm. And to my understanding during that process, OCY, which is the management company, the taxi management company, was the only company that was built, the infrastructure with staffing, number of vehicles, fleet, and it's a co op agreement multiple cities.

So that's why we utilize them because they have the background screens. Everything's already been taken care of, insurances, requirements, etcetera. My understanding is at that time, Lyft and Uber to fall under the parameters of the of the, OCTA's agreement did not have the infrastructure for that program. Right? So but we can always explore, just to give you an example, in the one of the last slides where I where I showcased different cities.

So Buena Park has their own city van. So the the city van has, a driving coordinator, I guess, a senior mobility coordinator, and they schedule trips. And then that van, they go to different residents, pick them up, and bring them to and from the center, the Enderlea Center. So that can be possible. There's other agencies that that have a CDBG funded position. That's the senior transportation coordinator. So there's there's different ways to go about it, but the co op agreement is with COY, and that's kinda county wide. So there's multiple agencies that utilize them.

K. Thank you.

Yep.

So just to be clear with that $50,000 because it is listed on under administration fee, it's to increase funds for senior mobility, and it's not for administration fees. Correct?

Yeah. Right now Okay. We're, yeah, we're looking at increase for that additional.

Thank you.

Okay. One more question from vice chair.

Just to piggyback on, committee member Blay's comment or question. For the staff, is the department allowed to resubmit an amended, application with some different formatting on this? Because when I read this, it just it said $50,000 of CDBG funds under administration, parenthesis, salaries, etcetera. So I think that visual is just confusing for an just a person who is not paying attention to this meeting today. And, I feel like if it goes before council and it's, we get some people nitpicking, they need to understand that it's, it's for services rendered and not for administration, if that could be changed possibly.

Alright. Thank you.

Okay. So I hope you plan ahead with whatever OCTA tells you for the future funding of the senior mobility program. And thank you for the presentation today and answering all our questions.

Yeah. Of course. Thank you guys for having me.

Our pleasure. Okay. So now we have, a presentation from a city department code enforcement for an application for special code enforcement.

Good evening, chairperson Hanzo and the committee. My name is Cecilia Vasquez, interim code enforcement manager presenting a request for funding for the CDBG special code enforcement program. Tonight, I'll share background on the services provided by code enforcement, information specific to the CDBG's code enforcement program, present our request for the funding for the twenty sixth, twenty seventh fiscal year, and finally, expand on what the funding will provide the big communities. Code enforcement response to resident and business complaints reporting such things as property maintenance, unpermitted work, habitability issues, etcetera. The citywide code enforcement program is complaint driven, which means that for every open case, a complaint has to be submitted to our office.

To provide background on the program initially, it was a council directive. Staff identified 12 areas based on the income levels, and the neighborhood conditions. It was presented back to city council, then approved and designated as deteriorated or declining areas. Recruitment was done at the time, and literature was created to educate the residents. As of December 2025, eight of those 12 treks have been inspected.

Community meetings are planned to resume in the twenty sixth, twenty seventh fiscal year. And this month, a new mailing will begin for the Franklin community located on the West Side. To provide a visual of those 12 areas, here's a map of those tracks in purple from west to east. We have the Airport Pritchard area, the Franklin community, which will be sent out those notices this month, the Iris Court and Roberta Woodcrest and Baker community, the Palm Gardens Apartment complex, at the center of the Trussell Patterson Track with the curve rail railroad boundary. And on the East side, you see the GEMS area.

Here's an example of one of the communication pieces created to inform the residents. It includes it in English and Spanish, a letter announcing the program and detailing what they can expect from the program inspections. This is a postage paid, postcard that informs tenants whose landlords are not making repairs that they can mail these back to our office for assistance. A big flyer is also included in these mailings, and it explains the grants that are available for roof, fence, exterior paint, and garage door repairs. It also includes an image of the officer officer who will be out in the area, so this way they're able to identify him.

As a tool to encourage pride and motivation, we also send out thank you, great job letters. It's sent out to those who have corrected violations or if upon first inspection, the officer finds that the residents are doing an exceptional job maintaining their property. A few of the challenges this position has faced is housing is high in Fuller Ton, so we find properties that would qualify for the grant sometimes have exceeded family, extended family in the home to assist with the mortgage payment, which then impacts the required income guidelines for the grant. And, also, tenants are reluctant to submit the postcards even when landlords are nonresponsive to their request for repairs. One of the twenty five twenty six goals was to initiate cross training so other officers understand the CDBG position.

We were able to accomplish that by cross training, one of the officers for that twenty five, twenty six year. Our request before you tonight is to continue to fund the one full time CDPG code enforcement officer in the amount of 130,000, 117,000 in salary and administration, and 13,000 in support and overhead. Funding would provide one full time officer to complete the city council directive to work exclusively in the 12 big designated areas, market housing rehab programs offering financial assistance and to correct violations that are found during inspections, and to continue to provide education and resources to help residents improve their own community, including maintenance for the eight tracks already inspected. Funding will help revitalize those 12 Fullerton communities. Funding this position will also provide relief to the citywide general fund code enforcement program and improve the level of service to residents citywide.

In summary, funding this special program will help ensure all Fullerton residents have access to decent, safe, and sanitary housing. Here is a map showing, the areas of complaint. In the twenty five, twenty six year, a 125 cases were processed for the CDBG area. Thank you for your time and your consideration to fund this project. I'm available for questions.

That was a good presentation, Cecilia. Thank you for doing it your first time. And you actually answered a question I had about, I remembered from my last year's notes about wanting to do cross training. So I'm glad to hear that one officer was cross trained. I have a quest just one question. How many landlords have been held accountable? Or the complaints that come in, have you identified troublesome landlords?

So typically, most of them are when it does come into the CDBG. I do not have the number of which is private household compared to tenant occupied households. I don't have that information. If you'd like that information, I can get that information.

Just a general idea. Is it 20%? Is it 5%?

Definitely, it would probably be more like 40%. Most of, the areas that we have recently covered are all tenant occupied, multiunit properties.

So more landlords than homeowners? Correct. Okay. Thank you. Any committee member have a question? Vice chair?

Thank you for your presentation, Cecilia. I, I'm wondering, do you know if CDBG funds can be applied to a possible proactive rental unit inspection program a a pilot program?

At this time, I'm not aware of us looking into that proactive program. Our program overall for code enforcement is reactive or complaint driven. The thing that makes this specific position special is because it is proactive in these areas. Now if we do receive a complaint outside of these CDBG areas, of course it is addressed, in the same manner. But having this CDBG officer allows that special attention to be given specifically to these areas. So this way, it doesn't get mixed into the general caseload of an officer for that zone. This officer works directly with him one on one.

Thank you. How many more officers would be required for, the same the same scope, but maybe more areas, more more parcels in the map?

I believe there may be the consideration of taking a look at the areas once again once this gets completed to see if there are any additional areas which would fall under the CDBG as it's been quite a few years since that last check was done. Ideally, if that did the 12 locations did increase, then it would require an additional officer.

I think we're happy because I've been on this committee for this is my eighth year, and it's been a long time since we've been asking for a special code enforcement officer. And we had one and then someone left, and then they came back and then we had somebody different. So now this is seems like we're we have a permanent person. So finally, it feels stable. So I'm glad they're getting cross trained too, and and the person is staying in the position. So if we can keep it full, that would be great. Thank you for your presentation today.

Thank you.

Next is the housing administration presentation for the community and economic development part of the city under the housing administration.

Good evening, CDC commissioners. My name is Kate Polajov. I'm the new housing analyst with the city of Fullerton, and I will be talking briefly today about our request for housing administration. So our housing division is requesting at a total of $261,416. And on top of that, 20,000 is gonna go to fair housing, which will meet our required 20% admin cap, which is max from 1,300,000.0 that city is hoping and expecting to receive from HUD for the fiscal year for twenty six-twenty seven.

So administration department manages entire CDBG program, home funds and other related funding that comes from the federal government, such as home ARP or COVID funds from the prior years the city has received. Housing staff provides an oversight to CDCC committee, which is part of the citizen process, which is a HUD requirement. We manage all activities and monitor all of the nonprofits or other agencies that got approved for the CDBG funding, as well as overseeing all of the city departments that received CDBG funding. We're following up on all of the required reports and documents that HUD requires. Some of the documents that Housing Administration provides include public meetings, five year consolidated plan, one year action plan, year end CAPER and amendments if needed to the five year consolidated plan or to a one year annual action plan, as well as required five year analysis of impediments of fair housing choice.

The breakdown of the funding is listed in our application that we are requesting 20% for support and overhead, 52,000, with a total of $2.79, $4.91. And that concludes my brief presentation. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Kate. And from what I understand, you're the full time analyst. Right? Who is the full time inspector?

At the moment, we have a contractor that we use, and I believe we use it on a part time basis, not a full time.

Yeah. That's right. Part time.

Okay. Anybody else have questions about housing administration? Okay. You're done. Thank you. And that was housing administration. Now our last presentation is home improvements and rehabilitation program under the community and economic development part of our city.

Good evening, committee members. Good evening, committee members. My name is Nami Verhelst. I'm project manager for the housing division. I'll be talking about our loans and grants program.

So we currently have, the residential grants, I mean, loans, for income levels of 80. This goes, to single family, homeowners. The current maximum assistance is 65. It is up to the loans loan committee's, discretion, if an increase is needed based on the need of the home. We have the forgivable loan program, which includes, residential roofs, exterior paint, ADA compliance code items.

Homeowners must be within the 50% of the income levels, and you can see the maximum assistance. Those are set. Now for the mobile home forgivable loans, we currently increased it to 30,000. It is forgiven over if the homeowner does use up to 30,000, it is going to be forgiven over a ten year period. If they use up to 15,000, it'll be forgiven, over a a five year period.

We also, include the lead based, paint program. That's 80% of the income levels Based on the lead, abatement and replacement of the item, there is no current, maximum assistance. The block improvement grant, which is the big program, we work closely with the special code enforcement officer. With this specific program, we do exterior, more beautification of those, census tracks. Currently, we are working on two, big projects, One on Balcombe and the other one is on East Rosalyn.

We also do a relocation grant in case the construction we need to relocate the family while construction is happening. So these are the current income guidelines for '26. We are anticipated to have new guidelines as of April 1. So in twenty four-twenty five fiscal year, we completed five deferred loans, two emergency housing repairs, two mobile home loans. We didn't do any relocation grants.

Seven forgivable loans, and then one lead, hazard reduction for a total of 17 projects with a total expenditure of $430,008.74. Currently we have expended 58,190. We have allocated and these are with the two block improvement grants that we signed loan agreements on ninety six thousand five hundred and thirty for a total expenditure of 154,720. Today, we actually did five inspections. I mean, Three mobile homes and one single family home, which the budget for this fiscal year is, 268, I believe.

So the remaining, 100, and 14 will go to these five projects. So these are some of the, projects that we have completed, a roof replacement and exterior paint. This was the, lead based paint grant. The garage door was lead, so we went ahead and we abated and put a new garage door. This was health and safety.

So and if you see on the before, it had a huge hole. When the homeowner would step on it you could see the bottom of the home so we went ahead and put a new shower with grab bars. We did a roof replacement on this one. We didn't do exterior paint but you can see how it changed the the face of the home. This was a forgivable loan for housing quality standards.

The carpets were highly, unsanitary, so we went ahead and we replaced it with new carpet. This was a residential home loan. And So this was, also a residential home loan for health and safety. So, we replaced, the furnace and the water heater with the new one. This was a deferred loan for code items, health and safety. There was illegal wiring in the home.

Projected budget

is we're requesting 184,554 for salary and benefits. This will fund half of my position along with the once we get a housing inspector. Supplies and services, so overhead use of 10,000. Loans and grants, we are requesting 400,000. We currently have about 12 applications that are pending, some type of assistance.

And we have a 150, thousand in our revolving loan account for a total of 744,554. So, again, the project costs were, estimated using historical expenditure data from prior, program years, current allocation projections, adopted salary schedules, and anticipated, staffing adjustments. The rehabilitation costs, were based on prior bib tabulations and average rehabilitation cost per project. Administrative and support costs reflect current staffing levels, anticipated benefit rates, and projected operational needs. Thank

you.

Thank you, Noemi, for your presentation. And I think you answered my question, which which is for fiscal year twenty five, twenty six, the current year, how much has been spent? And I think you mentioned it was 58,000, and you're expecting to do five more projects. Do you have anything to add for how much you've been spending for the 2526 fiscal year?

So right now, we currently have two projects that are ongoing, plus five more by the end of the fiscal year.

Anyone else have questions? Member Kim?

Being new to the committee, you can kind of explain the qualification for this program, is it income based only or do you look at their assets?

So it's income and assets. We do follow the CFR's 24 which indicates that any assets above 5,000, 0.4% of the HUD passbook interest rate is accounted towards annual income.

Okay. And then can you go over the forgivable loans, the five year tenure? How does that work?

Yes. So right now we did for the mobile homes, we instead of offering them deferred loans, which they would eventually have to pay back, we went into more of a forgivable loan process. So if a homeowner, that owns a mobile home, uses up to 15,000, it'll be forgiven over a five year period, so about 3,000 each year for five years. If they use up to 30,000, so $15,001 up to 30,000, then it'll be forgiven over a ten year, period.

So meaning there's no payment, but you just gradually lower the amount of the loan?

Correct. So, let's say that it they used a full 30,000. Five years into the forgiveness, they decide to sell, then they would owe us 15,000.

Ah, gotcha. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you, Noemi. So as far as our agenda, we are at the spot where it says agenda forecast, and it looks like the council chambers, this room will be getting remodeled in the March until maybe the April. So please note that the city clerk reserved this room for us to meet on Tuesday, May 12, 06:30. So I guess we're not gonna be meeting, this month.

We're gonna meet to make our recommendations in May. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments from the staff?

Thank you for mentioning that. I just wanted to quickly mention that you all have been given the Excel sheets. We had emailed it to you for easier calculation, so you will have two different worksheets. One is for public services. You will see all the applicants and the amounts they're asking, and then in the highlighted area, the expected grant amount. Once you know, then we can readjust it. But as of right now, that's the number. And then the second worksheet is for the city departments in economic development applicants. So you guys can start considering how you want to allocate the funding to make sure it adds up to the total. And then please bring your worksheets to the chair so she can kinda get an idea of what everybody is at.

And then deliberations will take place on May 12. And in addition, our CTCC side, citywide survey has closed on February 28. So we will be presenting the results to you to what the residents want, and that's gonna be on the May 12 meeting. That's it.

And did anyone have anything else? If we can get the updated budget from Solidarity, I know the last time we met, they said they redid it. If you can email that to us maybe. And if you can email us something because by ape by, wow, April and May, we're gonna know the third quarter of the performance of last this year's grantees, 25, 26. If we can see a chart on their progress, who's in noncompliance, who's not spending, and then who is on track as far as the grantees from fiscal year 2526.

And, so, originally, we wanted to send our recommendations to city council at the May 3. So now we're gonna send those recommendations in June sometime for city council. Is that right?

Yeah. Historically, we've been presenting your recommendations in July. So that seems to be the we're following that as well this year.

June or July. Okay. Thank you for answering our questions. Do you have anything?

Jessica, can you please update the schedule, the invite the Google, Gmail invite? Thank you.

Okay. So I'm gonna adjourn the meeting. Our next regular meeting will take place May 12, and this meeting will be adjourned time changed occurred on Sunday, so it is 08:21PM.