City Council - Regular Meeting

Sorry for the, we're starting a few minutes late. Do

we

have a report from closed session, Mr. Splendario?

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. The council convened in closed session for the item listed on the agenda and received information from staff and provided direction, but took no reportable action.

Thank you. Alright. So we'll officially call this regular city council meeting to order on Tuesday, March 17. Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

Roll call, please. Vice mayor Reid?

Here.

Councilmember Pratton?

Here.

Councilmember Sandhu? Here. Councilmember Farmer?

Here.

Mayor Rodriguez? Here.

Alright. Everyone, join us for a silent prayer and flag salute. Okay. Tina, can you read our replay statement, please?

This meeting of the Galt City Council is recorded with closed captioning. The recording will be cable cast on Metro Cable Channel fourteen, local government affairs channel on the Comcast and DIRECTV U verse cable systems. The recording will also be video streamed at metro14live.sackcounty.gov. Today's meeting replaced Friday, March 20 at nine a. And Saturday, March 21 at 9AM on Metro Cable Channel fourteen. Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at youtube.com/metrocable14.

Thank you. Alright. Do we have any additions and or deletions for the agenda? Okay. Seeing none, doesn't look like we have any presentations. Tina, would you like to read the public comment, please?

Under government code section five four nine five four point three, members of the public may address the city council on non agenda items. The public comments section is for the city council to receive comments except for brief responses to questions. No discussion or action may be taken on any item that is not listed on the agenda. Please limit comments to a maximum of five minutes. Consistent with the city council procedural guidelines, the mayor reserves the right to shorten the time limit for speakers to ensure the efficient and timely completion of all city business on the agenda. First up, we have Annette Bedsworth.

Director for Sacramento County Animal Care Services. So, wanted to share an announcement tonight that impacts the citizens of Galt. Supervisor Hulme is funding with City of Elk Grove a MASH free spay and neuter clinic for your citizens. It's going to be held in April. The formal announcement you guys are getting a preview because usually we don't announce these ahead of time.

But the formal announcement will be made on Facebook in about two weeks, but we will accept appointments. This is definitely of value because if any of you know the cost of a spay and neuter for your pet, it ranges from 200 to $800 in Sacramento County, and this is being funded free. And your pet will be fully vaccinated and microchipped, So take advantage of this. There's 200 appointments that will be offered over a three day period. We are holding the clinic.

We tried to hold it here in the city of Galt, so it'd be close by for citizens, but there was no room or a place available. So it looks like we're leaning towards a little bit north of Elk Grove. But that's all I have tonight. Please take advantage of these services because spaying neutering your pets do save lives.

Thank you. That's a great opportunity for everyone.

Madam Mayor, can I ask a question? Miss, so that's 200 appointments available for Sac County and entire Sac County?

200 appointments are available to the city of Elk Grove since they're funding half, and Supervisor Hulme's district will be Sacramento County is entitled to the other half of the appointment, so 100 appointments.

Okay. So it's first come, first serve, first 200 It is. And

All eight seventy five

right. Thank you.

Bill Barber.

Good evening, thank you. About six months ago, we had meetings here about the Fairway Oaks subdivision. And the planning people were really nice and gave us a meeting. And they were supposed to update us, but six months later, I haven't got any updates on any of the issues that were brought up. So any suggestions on who I can talk to?

Miss Carlone, do you want to maybe get some information from him and and reach out? Okay. Yeah. I'll go ahead and give you my business card. Thank you.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It looks like the roads are done, sidewalks are done, but nothing's done with Cornell or Bernal or any options for us. Thank you. Stephanie

Albert.

Good evening, city council. I want to talk about a couple items for the Fairway Oaks development. I'm Stephanie Albert. I live on Conroe Road. All sides of my property are impacted from this construction.

So, initially, when we had the planning meeting for the final plans, the planning commission decided that there would be no two story homes built against existing properties, and they listed those lot numbers that were listed in Cahill Vinian properties. But the six that are gonna be on our wall were not listed on there. So that meeting was August, and I sent a follow-up email on 08/14. So I wanna I wanna make sure that those six properties that are gonna be along our wall are gonna be single story because they have already erected four properties for that new Fairway Oaks development. And they look pretty, but I don't want them looking in my yard.

My second point is that on the corner of roadside, there was going to be a EVA access. It's my understanding that that's not going to be EVA access. So I'm wondering what the plans are for that and who is gonna maintain it. Because my suggestion would be for the wall to come all the way down to Corner Road and the wall that's on Corner Road to connect to it so it just seals it all off. Also, my other item is, since they put the wall up, it's like flooding for us on our side of the wall because now the wall is like a dam.

So the natural flow of water is not there anymore. So we have flooding on the side and across the back and on the front to where the mailbox people can't even put mail in the mailbox because the flooding was just so horrible. So I wanna know who's responsible for that. Is that a project, or is that a city Of Gaul project? So if somebody could provide us some information or email follow-up, especially on the houses and that flooding, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thanks.

No more under that portion.

Okay. Let's move on to item I, reports by city council members on regional boards, commissions, and committees. Mr. Vice Mayor.

I don't have anything.

Councilman Pratton.

Yes. I do have a couple. The last meeting I had this one put away, and I forgot to mention it. I did attend the BCC, which is the Sacramento Valley Basin Air Pollution Control Council. That was February 6. That's a Zoom meeting. And so this so this council covers air pollution and the burning of ag. And so nothing really to report on the meeting. That's just one that I attend monthly. It's a subcommittee.

Wednesday, March 4, I attended the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission, the LAFCO. Same thing. Really not much to report on that. It's just an ongoing. We did have the second time around for the there's a piece of property that's across the freeway from the airport. It's been a hot topic. It's been on the news. Actually, this was reported out on the news. We voted for it in favor of it. There was quite a bit of opposition the first time it came through.

This was the final time through. There was not as much opposition this time, but there were a lot of people at the meeting. I think we had about thirty, forty people speak. And so it passed. And there will be an industrial area built in there now going forward. Well, that's the plan. That's what we voted on. So it's going to be brought into Sacramento. And then Sacramento will make the final decision. But they have already voted on it once before it came back to us.

So the other one, don't have the date in front of me, was the Consumey's Water Board Consumey's Groundwater Authority. So this was my first meeting with them. And, very interesting. I learned a lot about our water. The only thing I think needs to be mentioned, I wanna get out publicly, is there's discussion on the we have about 200 lots in the city of Galt that are on well water.

And so if you live outside of the city, you're probably getting billed by this agency for water. It's not a metered thing. It's their fee is generally like $10 a acre. So so there's discussion. They're pretty anxious to try to figure out how to collect that money within the city of Golf for those folks who are not hooked up to our city water.

So I know that that's in discussion. City managers involved, our attorneys involved, Amy's involved in it. So it is being discussed. I just wanted to make it public so people are aware that's something that's probably coming. The conversation is they will be getting billed for it at some point. But are we going to bill them and it's a pass through to them? Or are they going to bill these folks? So working on those details. They're in a hurry to get this going. So I think you'll hear more about it at the next meeting. That's all I have.

I have

a quick question. Is that $10 an acre per month? Or is it?

That would be a monthly charge, yes.

Monthly. And then is that all residential wells as well or just ag wells?

Any property that's not hooked to our city is my understanding. Is that correct, Chris?

So it is residential wells as well. They're gonna pay the same amount as ag wells?

Well, again, that's all in conversation. Just saying there's there's gonna be a fee and folks that have that and wanna look into it. They can attend these meetings. They can contact me. Lindsey Carter is in charge of this, and she's very good at giving out information. So I could get you her phone number. The meetings meetings are first Wednesday of the month out at Slough House. So welcome to attend.

Thank you.

I'll be there.

Council Member Sandhu.

Yes. I'm gonna report there is only one meeting I attended on March 9. South Sacramento Conservation Agency joint power. And that was a very regular meeting. One thing we approved the whole year calendar, what day can be the meeting is, that meeting every other month.

And the other thing we did approve is not concerned with the Galt. It was on Rancho Cordoba. That was a Steel Ridge dedication agreement. There was a developer over there, so we did approve the upgrade in agreement with the developer and the city and the county. And that's all, madam mayor.

Thank you. Mister Farmer.

I had a question for Councilman Pratt. If someone needed more information about the well thing

Mhmm.

They could reach out to you and you could put them in touch with whoever or you can try to give them more information on what you want.

Yeah, would give them Lindsay's phone number and she'll

Okay.

Like I say, she's very good.

And your information's on the city website under council members?

Yes. Okay.

Just want to clarify that. I I apologize. I was supposed to make a statement when we came on open session, but I was busy making notes and I forgot. So I apologize to the city attorney. But out of abundance of caution, I was not part of the closed session prior to this open session meeting due to the item being discussed is within 500 feet of my personal residence. So I was not part of that meeting. Outside of that, I had no official meetings that I attended since the last meeting, so I don't have anything to report. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, I attended, first an orientation meeting for GSEC, which is the Greater Sacramento Economic Council. So my orientation was on this last Wednesday, March 11. That was, I thought, going to SACOG was drinking water from a fire hose, but they added about four other fire hoses. And then the next day, Thursday, March 12 was the first board meeting.

And the this economic council has it's public and private. And so there were some names that when I told my son who was there, he was like, his eyes got really big. And and the gentleman from the council member from Woodland was sitting next to me, and he was fangirling is what I said for some of these people. But what was discussed, which was kind of interesting, they are very pivotal I guess or supportive in getting MLS into Sacramento and MLB. So that was a big part of the discussion to as the A's eventually make their way to Las Vegas that Sacramento is in the running with two other cities on the West for a professional baseball team to come in.

So it was pretty interesting to listen and to hear why Sacramento is better than its Portland and Salt Lake City are the two others. And so that was a big portion of the discussion and a lot of excitement and energy in the air. Congresswoman Matt Sui was there and came and spoke about it and many other things. And it was pretty fascinating. But again, a lot of information. I was very grateful that miss Mendez attended with me because I saw her furiously writing notes, and I will be relying on her with that. But this only meets quarterly. But it was pretty amazing. There's a lot of information that just, again, a lot of information in there.

That's all I've got.

So let's go ahead and go to item J, the information consent calendar. We have I will just go ahead and read them now. It is recommended that items one through seven be acted on simultaneously unless a separate discussion and or action is requested by a council member. Does anyone want to pull anything from consent?

I know we have public comment on some of them.

Okay. Do we have public comment? Okay. So let me go ahead and read them, then we'll go to do we need to pull those that we have public comment on or just no. Okay. So item one, receive and file warrants for period ending 03/05/2026. Item two, minutes of the regular meeting of 03/03/2026. Number three, treasurer's report for period ending February 2026. Item four, cancellation of the April 21 city council meeting. Item five, city council public benefit funds, mister Reed.

Item six, approval of the side letter agreement between the city of Galt and the Galt Police Officers Association amending section 6.3, call in and standby time compensation of the memorandum of understanding. Item seven, grant administration policy. So let's go ahead and take public comment.

Mark Jackson.

Alrighty. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Mark Jackson. I'm the president and CEO of the Saint Martin Foundation. I just wanna take a moment to give you a brief update tonight.

I know back in 2022, we came before city council asking, you know, with help with startup funds. But the Saint Martin Foundation is a small nonprofit who are doing big things with the support of our community and the members of this council. Our mission is aimed at reducing homelessness among male veterans and non veterans who are transitioning from alcohol addiction recovery programs. We help bridge the gap between recovery programs and independent living. At Saint Martin Foundation, we prepare we prepare our participants to successfully reintegrate into society by providing them with the tools and training necessary to become employable and sustain their day to day living.

Since April 2023, which when we got our first resident till till present, we've served a total of 28 residents. Six of those 28 residents are outliers. They stayed less than thirty days, so they're not included. So six of our current residents and of the six of the five, five of the six are currently employed, which is 83% employment. Six 16 residents completed the program.

Of the sixteen, twelve are employed, which is, 75%. And 15 of the 16 were housed, which is 94%. Housed means means they either found housing of their own or they're they united with their family and are living with their family. Seven of the 28 are from Galt, so that's 25% Galt residents served. And our residents that we house and our our residents, they don't pay a dime.

So and, also, I'd like to thank the members of city council for their continued support and involvement in our community. I would also like to thank those who attended our annual Pasta Domingo fundraiser on February 21, mayor Bonnie Rodriguez, vice mayor Tim Reed, council, councilman Matt Pratton, and councilman Paul Sandhu. Although councilman Farmer was unable to attend this year, he has been supporting, from the beginning. And oh, let me see here. Not only has he attended three out of the four pasta and bingo nights, he was there in the, he was also the first council member I approached when I had the idea of starting the Saint Martin Foundation.

I still remember standing in his coffee shop when he gave me some guidance and suggested that I bring, my mission and vision before the city council so it could be captured in the meeting minutes, and put on record. For that support early on, I wanna say thank you. Back in August 2022, like I said, we came before city council. There wasn't any funds, unfortunately, for, startup funds. We talked with the county of Sacramento as well.

There there were no startup funds there, but they did have sustainable funding, through behavioral health services, which, we are now contracted through behavioral health services in Sacramento County. Since opening our first location, we've relied on personal loans and funds raised through our annual pasta and bingo fundraiser along with our fireworks booth. Since then, we've also like I said, we've secured funds through Sacramento County Behavioral Health Services with the help of former supervisor Don Natoli. And while supervisor Natoli was instrumental in helping us secure sustainable funding, We continue to receive support from current district five supervisor Pat Hume and his and his staff. I would also like to thank sac Sacramento County Behavioral Services.

Doctor Ryan Quist and his staff have continued to provide exceptional support and guidance as we work together to serve Sacramento County and the Sacramento County residents and members of the golf community. So thank you again for your support.

Thank you.

Can I comment on that real quick?

Sure.

Thank you. Mark, I just want to say thank you. Great job on what you're doing in that. What you presented tonight is the reason that I've decided to take my public benefit fund and put it towards the St. Mountain Foundation. So for everybody that knows that item J5, the benefit fund is gonna be going to the St. Maarten Foundation to help support everything that Mark and his team have been doing. So thank you. Thank you.

And we have one more. Robert Jenkins.

Good evening. I'd like to say hello to the council in the city of Belton. I'm here at Saint Martin's Foundation on behalf. I thank you for having me here. My name is Robert Jenkins. I'd like to tell you a little about myself today. I am sober. I am a drug addict and an alcoholic. I have been using for around thirty five years now. I've been trying to get sober by myself with no success.

I was homeless, sleeping, gulp for quite a while. I ended up getting in a bad car accident, spent two months in the hospital, and learning how to walk again. I was on the street. Meanwhile, I had quit using drugs, but I was in fear because I was on the street. I was in fear of using again. I met a man who introduced me to Mark. Thank goodness. We had talked. He said I was qualified to get into his house. So I was still on the street while I was waiting on a bed.

Meanwhile, then he can he called me one day and said he had a bed available for me. So I rushed right over, had an interview with the manager. I was kinda scared. I went in there. I was welcomed. I was greeted, very great, and she explained to me the program. The program was every weekday. I had to go and search for jobs at California Human Development, which is right here in Galt. I had to go and do some volunteer work once a week at Sunshine Food Pantry. Also had to do nine hours a week about patient services at the Townshend Drug Rehab.

Had to do five AA groups a week, which I do now. Living in this house has been great. It requires daily chores every day. We supply our own food. We cook our own meals. We do our own laundry. The St. Mark Foundation has been great to me. It's a place to help us transition back into society. If it wasn't for the foundation, I don't know if I'd still be clean.

I don't know if I'd still be living. This house has been giving me the skills to live a life of sobriety, be happy, and, it's also I'm very thankful for the foundation, teaching me the skills for great success toward my sobriety and being a part of society now. And I'm very grateful for Mark and his foundation and the house, and it's a great thing. And I'm glad he's I'm glad he's actually there. It does a lot. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, and congratulations on your success.

Thank you.

No more.

That's it? Okay. All right. Then I'll entertain a motion regarding the consent calendar. Moved. Moved by council member Sandhu. Second. Seconded by vice mayor Reid.

Roll call. Vice mayor Reid. Aye. Council member Pratton. Aye. Council member Sandhu. Aye. Council member Farmer.

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez. Aye. Motion passes five zero. Okay. Item k. Do we have any public hearings? Doesn't look like it. The regular calendar, city council office, commission on aging appointment.

Okay. So the recommendation is for council member Sandhu to appoint a community member to the commission on aging to fill a vacant position with a remaining term ending December 2026. This vacancy is due to the recent passing of Phyllis Johnson, and city staff advertised the vacancy on the city's website, social media sites. Three applications were received from Robin Scarberry, Carol Bakert, and Nicole Hemenover, and all the applicants met the required call qualifications. And applications were sent to council member Sandhu, and did you wish to say anything?

Yes. Thank you, Tina. You know, the Commission on Aging, that mission is very important because a lot of we have a big population on the senior city. So I have three applicant. All applicant was well qualified.

You know, sometimes it's hard to make a decision. But finally, you know, I'm going to appoint Nicole Hemanova to this position. And I believe she's have experience working with the seniors and I believe in she's gonna do a good job. So I'm going to appoint her and I also like to ask if she's in the audience, she can say a few words, come to the podium if she wish to. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Nicole Hemenover. I want to thank you, Council Member Paul Sandhu, for appointing me. I'm a nurse. I've worked in senior health care for the past twenty years, And I look forward to serving on the Commission on Aging. So I thank you for appointing me.

Thank you.

Okay. Moving on to the Human Resource Department. Approve the two side or approval of two side letter agreements with the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local three nine, regarding a unit modification and salary range for the wastewater operator in training, updated salary schedules, and amendments to the personnel manual. Miss Covey.

Good evening, mayor and council. The item presented for you for you tonight recommends adopting a resolution that accomplishes three things. First, approving two side letter agreements between the city of Galt and IUOE Local thirty nine. Second, approving updated salary schedules and third, amending adopting amendments to the personnel manual. The first slide letter addresses a bargaining unit modification.

Following discussions with the IUOE, the city and union agreed that the remaining supervisory classifications in the unit will be moved from the represented bargaining unit to the unrepresented mid management unit. This change aligns the structure with the city's employer employee relations resolution and clarifies supervisory placement going forward. The second side letter establishes a salary range for the wastewater operator and training classification. While this job description already existed, it was not previously listed on the city's salary schedule as required by the California Code of Regulations. The updated salary schedule establishes a lower range than the wastewater operator one classification to reflect different minimum qualifications.

There are currently four incumbents in the operator in training classification who will remain in the existing legacy rate until they promote within the series or leave the position. They will not be reduced in salary or y rated, but will receive the same incremental salary increases previously agreed upon during negotiations. Staff also conducted a review

of the

personnel manual to improve clarity and ensure compliance with new legislation. These updates include adding definitions for promotion and transfer, updating lead provisions to reflect statutory requirements, and expanding the education incentive matrix to include the additional supervisory classifications that were just moved into the unrepresented mid management unit. The restructuring of the bargaining units does not create an overall compensation does not increase overall compensation costs this fiscal year. The current incumbent in the equipment mechanic supervisor classification will move from the represented unit to the unrepresented group, and adjustments to the education incentive are required and will be incorporated into the base salary to maintain overall compensation equity. So staff recommends that city council adopt the resolution approving the side letters, updated salary schedule, and personnel manual amendments.

So I am available to answer any questions.

Alright. Council, do you have any questions?

I just have a quick question, Ms. Kobe. Are any of these positions that we're talking about, any of the ones that we recently, I know we recently lost a couple, at least one of our water treatment plant employees not too long ago. Was one of our supervisors or something.

No, they are not. Okay. That was the utility manager position and it's not.

Okay.

I

was already in the unrepresented mid management unit.

Okay. I was just curious if the vacancy was a result of maybe the time it took to do this stuff and all that, but no connection. Okay, thank you.

Any other questions? Do we have any public comment?

No.

Okay. Any other discussion?

I

I think Mr. Araya has cleared this up for me, but my only concern with this was seems like we have a hard time keeping people here. So my concern is, are we gonna have a recruitment issue at that level that now that we're dropping that salary for anyone new coming in and and retention, will that since we dropped that salary a little bit, is do we anticipate having a retention issue?

We hope not. The reason for reducing the salary for the OIT is because we took a look at the last three years, and we've only lost one operator. So we didn't feel that a salary increase outside of negotiations was justified based on that reason. Okay.

All right. Anything else? I'll entertain a motion concerning this topic.

Moved. Second.

Moved by Vice Mayor Reed and seconded by Council Member Farmer. Roll call.

Vice Mayor Reed. Aye. Council Member Pratton. Aye. Council Member Sandhu. Aye. Council Member Farmer.

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez? Aye. Motion passes five o. K. Any communication? None. Any, city clerk's report? No. Comments by staff?

There are no comments tonight.

Okay.

Comments by city council members. Vice mayor Reid.

I only have one. Over the last week, I was able to attend a town hall for assembly member Flora that came to meet with the community at Galt PD. And it was a wonderful event that was set up by the chamber. It was sponsored by Aroma Bakery, and it was well attended. I did have some issues with the way that it played out being that there was a small group of individuals that basically took up all the time, and, unfortunately, some of our residents were unable to ask the assembly member their questions.

So we I've discussed this with the chamber, and they're working on with his staff on getting a another time in which he can come down outside of daytime hours, nights, or weekends so that we can get our community members back out there and be able to ask their questions so that they can get it addressed. But other than that, I I talked with him for a second, and it it was a great meeting.

K.

That's it.

Council member Pratton.

I also attended that meeting. It was disappointing that, yeah, there were some folks there just through attack, you know, make a political spectacle of it. But, hopefully, yeah, we'll moderate it or something differently the next time. We'll see how that goes. And that's all I have.

Okay. Council member Sandhu.

Just a few things. First of all, thank you for the staff. They're hardworking. The second, thank you for the public comment. Public comment is very important. That's the way the council member know what's going on there. And I also like to thank you everyone come to this meeting. Thank you. That's all.

Council Member Farmer.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a few items, actually I have three. The first is, I apologize to city manager, I just wanted to, this is a last minute thing, maybe you could pass this along to code enforcement. Apparently, there's a home on Pastana Drive, I believe it's 655. Was involved in a fire, I think at least two years ago. House is boarded up. There's been multiple calls of service from what I've understood to that home. The issue with the home is that people are coming and going. I don't know if they're squatting in there or whatever, but the home is a danger to the neighborhood. If it's boarded up, it's a nuisance to the neighborhood.

Property values mature being affected. I've heard the backyard has grown really super high, which is a fire danger. So I can go on and on about that. But if we can have somebody look into it, and if two years, I don't know where we're at in the process, if we're leaning that property, what's happening with it? Why is there no action being done to get the property open again or whatever?

So thank you, Chris. The second item is regarding Fairway Oaks. I just want to thank the people that spoke tonight. I know that a lot of you are being impacted by this project and trust me, know where I live, I live close to the project, which is why I'm not officially involved in the decision making on that. I have been following the project from day one and so there's been a lot of concerns. I just want to bring up a couple points. One is, and I know I spoke with you Chris, but Mr. Trunk or Mr. Tran, I'm sorry. I drove through the project on Sunday and was taking a look.

So you are aware that there's been two types of block used. My understanding is the lower block is is a retaining wall, which would be holding dirt. So that particular retaining wall, as you and I discussed in our emails, they used certain mortars, a different kind of block. Right? And so not so the reason it wasn't a concern is because it's not visible.

And then the top portion is the decorative style wall, which is a different style block. And but but the issue is, as I drove down Cornell, and there's actually some spots on it that there is spots on the old side of the wall, not facing the new homes, but facing people on Cornell, also facing residents on Glendale, that although they got a decorative face on the block, it's two different colors of block. And there's not even motor and stuff. And I know I've talked to Chris and I've talked to you via email, but I'm just want to say this publicly because I know there's people out here and I want to, you know, a lot of things get discussed behind the scenes. And I think maybe some of the residents just don't think that we care or we're talking about this.

And you know there's been a lot of dialogue about this. So one concern of mine is that, know, I had asked who's inspecting this to make sure everything's being and, you know, we have a consultant we hire that's doing all these. I just want to get what I'm asking for from from from you, mister Tran, and from, you know, city management is that we are gonna be holding the people that we're hiring and paying to the absolute you know, the absolute best that they're gonna do their jobs to make sure that what's going on there's drainage problems which are brought up tonight. Those are a real concern. I'm hearing those from people on Glendale.

I've seen videos of water flowing through cracks, and they don't even have dirt up against there yet. I mean, we haven't even had hard rain since then. I just don't want to see this be like a box of hand grenades that comes back on us later on, and I feel like that's what we're leading to. The other thing is, and I appreciate you, Mr. Trinh, working hard to get an answer on this, is there was some concern about the expansion joints that were in the wall, and there was supposed to be filler, which is called out on the blueprint.

I know there was a resident that brought that forward. They had concerns. So we had a conversation, and you finally were able to get me an answer. And you assured me in the email, and while I'm looking to get assurances again to this whole entire body, that we are going to be holding the contractor accountable to put that joint filler that in the expansion gaps, those gaps. They will be installing that. Correct?

I they actually have installed some of them already,

and there's some possibility

doing that. There's also yes. We will as far as what's on the plants, what's on the standards, and it's shown on there, we will hold them accountable to that.

Okay. Because I I can comment on that. I've seen that, what they've done so far, and it doesn't really match.

So. Yeah. Well, expansion joint filler is concerning because I know that some there were some vocal residents that said, hey. And then so they got theirs. They the the the contractor came out and filled the gaps in where it brought up against them. But I feel like, is this what it's gonna be? Is it gonna be that unless the the tenants complain that they're not gonna get this the joint filled? So that that's what I'm concerned about. I feel like, you know, we we gotta make sure that our guy our people, right, our consultant, whoever, is making sure that that gets held accountable. So I have that assurance, mister Chen, right?

Yeah. A 100%. No. We we are gonna do that.

And please match ask them to match the color.

Yeah. So just the bottom of the wall is a retaining wall. And that's tied directly into the foundation. And it's meant for a structural retaining. And that basically has that color. And then obviously the one above that's your typical proto two wall that they do essentially decoratively. So a lot of these materials, they don't come out matching 100%. And especially with different products, can't even most of time, it's hard to match products. But as far as what's on the construction details and what is shown on there, we will hold the developer contractor. Right.

And I know it's rearview mirror. We can't we can't go back on, you know, but I just, you know, I've had planning commissioners come to me who have seen that wall, and they're just frustrated because these are the types of things that the planning commissioners felt like should go without saying. We shouldn't have when we say we want you to build a full wall up against ex neighbors and existing homes, etcetera, etcetera, they shouldn't have to get into the weeds and say, and can you make sure the wall matches? I mean, that shouldn't have to be said, right? So then why so, I mean, look, I know you're out there in the trenches.

Tran, I appreciate your hard work on it. This this project has been challenging, for lack of better words. But I just feel like we just gotta keep our eye on the ball on this thing and make sure that, you know, we don't have stuff that comes back on us later and then we're having to deal with it. Because that's what's been like the whole time really. So that's all I have on this item. So again, I appreciate the people that came tonight. My next item is is a little different, but I wanna bring this up. And again, I apologize, Chris. And I wish that Amy was here tonight and the chief was here, but he's not. But the item I bring up tonight, and maybe some of you aren't aware, but this is more of a statement.

And then I'm when I finish the statement, I wanna actually ask the council's support on maybe an agenda item or something. But for those of you that are aware, we have illegal pop up vendors that are operating on the fringe of our city. And my frustration comes with our code enforcement has worked really hard trying to get a whole county, getting the county out there to long story short, these people don't have food permits. They have no business licenses. They have no mean, PD has been later in the process, PD has been involved.

Their vehicle's been towed. They don't have driver's licenses. They don't have registration. I mean, they don't have anything. They're parked on what is technically county property, which is about literally 18 inches off of the city property. But this has been going on for three years. And I'm frustrated, Chris, because I feel like the county is just not stepping up. I mean, it is ridiculous that we have businesses in this town that pay for business licenses and pay for waste fees, which are expensive. They pay for all the things that the city requires them to have that we require them to have. And then on top of that, you have the county comes down.

They come to my business, too, and they come in, do their inspection, make sure everything's fine, and we got the right paper towels and the dispensers, and we have the right this and that. And a lot of these are little things, but they're big deals to the county when they come do these inspections. If anybody owns a restaurant, you'll know how that stuff goes. But yet, it's the Wild West I hear on Twin Cities Roundabout, and these people are out here serving food. I've talked to a city attorney about this, and I just don't understand why the city if the county's not gonna help us, we need to, as a city, figure out what we can do to step this up.

We have people jaywalking across the the the the roundabout. We have people illegally parking. Sometimes the pop up fender himself is actually parked on the ADA pad on the crosswalk, which I don't even understand how that could even, you know, go without a a citation. I know that RPD is busy handling, you know, what I would consider real crimes. But, you know, if you're a business in this town, and we have lots of his you know, we have lots of Mexican restaurants, are direct competitors of these, you know, this like a slap in the face because we preach shop local.

We preach, you know, do business locally. We act like we support businesses, but we need to be advocating and fighting for these businesses. Basically, I'm looking for from the council is and I'm I'm trying to I was trying to think outside the box here. I mean, if we can't get the county to to to do their job, then how can we level the playing field for our businesses? What I would suggest is maybe we should have a resolution. Maybe we should suspend all business licenses for businesses in Galt. So, like, as long as these people are operating illegally, the businesses in Galt shouldn't have to pay for business licenses and things like that. I mean, just to make the playing field fair. Because it's not fair for us to hold some people accountable to the law, and then other people's we just say, well, that is what it is. Right?

I mean, we have to do something. And my frustration is not at staff. I just wanted to make that clear. My frustration is mainly at the county. But I feel like if we have to have staff call the county every single day and just leave, like, fill up their voice mailbox on this, it needs to be done because this is ridiculous. It needs to be squashed. It needs to be taken care of. And if we expect people to wanna open a business in town, it's a broken window theory. Who the hell is gonna wanna open a business in town when they say, well, I could just operate illegally on the fringe. I could just go right over the county line and just sell hamburgers or tacos or whatever.

So I think I made my point. And I'm sorry to bring this up, Chris, but I think through your I'm just I'm just very frustrated on this, and I just wanna get counsel ideas, support, future agenda items, something. Maybe get direction to staff that maybe Frank can meet with Chris, and you guys can brainstorm with PD on what can we do legally.

Yeah. I share your frustration on the issue, and it is important. And I appreciate you bringing it up. Look, our group has been very proactive in it, as you mentioned. We've done a number of activity out there. Even though it isn't in our jurisdiction, it certainly impacts us greater than any others. And it's amazing how fast they return. So other than a constant presence by the county to be able to address them, I understand their frustration too, how difficult it is for them. So the answer going forward, I don't know. You know, I'm

surprised But Mr. Reyes, two sting we organized they were gracious enough to come down to do like a sting operation, right, with our code enforcement. But that happened like two or three times in three years. And it was like moving mountains to get that to happen. But yet, I know personally businesses in town, they got, like, a visit from county health that says, oh, we got, you know, somebody called us and filed a complaint saying that your business license wasn't up to speed or some there's some caveat. It would end up being some little small oversight or something. It wasn't even anything major. But they have the time to come down and do that. But they don't have the time to come down. And and I know that you know, the last time there was a sting, it was supposed to happen on a certain night.

I drove by two hours later. I called the code enforcement officer and said, did you guys do the sting tonight? He goes, oh, yeah. You know, we cited them. They got cited thousands of dollars. We made them pack up their stuff they left. I said, well, out there cooking right now. And he goes, right now tonight? Oh, yeah. Two hours later, they're back set up again. I mean, it's basically like they're just giving us the middle finger, more or less. And so

Yeah. Sorry. That was an actual clearing

of throat. You sure you weren't trying to get attention?

No, thank you for stopping my rant. No, no. I would if I wanted to stop your rant, I would say, excuse me. But since I have your attention, I will say this. Why don't the city manager and I, with council's blessing, meet and discuss this? And if and obviously, council member Farmer will meet with you and discuss it and we can work on developing either approach or strategy and if it requires bringing back some of the council for discussion, let's do that. We obviously can't discuss more right now.

I mean, is that something the council supports? I'm just looking for support. I

I I certainly will support that. The same thing, you know, councilman Farmer said. The last time when they said that, well, I actually drive by maybe two, three times every day, even at the nighttime after 08:00, they just bring them on there. So I do understand this is not our jurisdiction, but we need to find out a concern of what we can do. This is very, you know, outside of, you know, it is with Sacramento County and Scott to see what we can do.

Yeah. I and

I appreciate it.

Absolutely.

And and just one last thing. I you know, this is not just about, you know, another business in town and then you know, this is a public safety issue. This is a health issue. This is a traffic safety issue. I mean, I can go all across. And so I would just I think this is needs to be prioritized a lot bigger than it has been in the past. So I appreciate your time, Frank, working with with staff and coming up with something. I look forward to hearing what you guys have. So thank you. Other than that, I just want to say again thank you to Public Works for what you guys are doing out there with not only that project, but I know there's a lot of projects going on in town.

You guys are juggling many balls, so I appreciate that. I know I going say something to Armando about his, but he's not here tonight, so I'll save that for him personally. Other than that, I think that's all I had. Thank you for my soapbox tonight.

Thank you. Well, before you get off that soapbox, I didn't get to contribute to that. I am 100 behind us figuring out. I think we can think outside the box. And I'm only saying this because I don't think I'll be in any of these meetings, but I think, you know, this will could we could utilize CAPS.

I would just go and park a CAPS car right where they're supposed to be. Maybe it just moves them down the road, but it might move them down the road far enough that it's you know, affects them and doesn't affect us as much whatever. I think there's things we can do. It's right there by that on ramp. Maybe even CHP would be interested in helping to patrol the area or at least go park there to go and catch people off of, you know, if we encourage them to set up a speed trap I don't know what it is but they're sitting right there that might detour I mean I think we need to reach out to Caltrans to CHP if the county can't help maybe we reach out to these other organizations and maybe they'll put the pressure on the county I don't know but I think that there's other avenues and like I said if we can use caps or you know or just even park a patrol vehicle there and before they come that might detour people from from them setting up.

And I will say this. I I have a family member who is in who is a police officer in another state. She does undercover work, and I asked her if they were having similar issues. And she said, yes. They're kind of the, not as, they have bigger fish to fry.

She's actually an undercover for sex trafficking. But what she said that they have discovered is that oftentimes these pop up food vendors are part of the human trafficking that aged out of the sex trafficking portion of it, they're still under the thumb of whomever, and they now cook. So I think this could be a bigger situation, and maybe we can and Frank's trying to get me to stop again. Waterfront? That's fine. But anyway, so I am a 100% behind the city exploring other options.

There's something going around.

Hope he's not getting sick.

I do have another question not to get on his other soapbox, but for mister Trinh. Can you explain inspections? Because we have an inspector who goes and does these, but it's he's not inspecting every single property and every single whatever. What is what are they inspecting? How often? How many? Is it 10% of what he's supposed to be inspecting? Is it a know, what are what do they actually inspect?

Do you mean for capital projects, business

development, or For a new building?

For the, like, Fairway Oaks or what the fairways now.

So generally for public works project, I mean, main objective is essentially anything that we ultimately will take care of. So essentially, it's the wet utilities, it's the roads, and we essentially, whatever the plans are, we want to make sure the improvements are installed per plan and to meet standards, whatever sewer water line, we want to make sure it's pressure tested and installed per standard. And so at some point when we take over the project, want to make sure that whatever improvements that are there, the off-site improvements or the on-site improvements are an acceptable level. So because we are taking care of

it. So who inspects, say, this because we already spoke about it, the wall. Who who inspects that?

Our our inspector does look at the wall, and I've had correspondence with him and some other members.

I mean, he walk the entire line, both sides? Is he checking? Or is it just portions of it here and there, like spot checking?

It's spot checking. I mean, there's really no time to do every single block. But obviously, you know, there are attention put on things. And we understand that. And when that happens, we make sure that we pay attention to what we're supposed to be paid.

So we can ask that inspector, whoever it is because we contract that out. 100%. Yeah. We can ask them to step up. Maybe you check a little bit more. 100%, yeah. Okay. Because anyway, that's what I would encourage is that there's a little bit more eyes being looked at or things being looked at. Let's see. Okay.

I had something kind of exciting not exciting. I thought it was pretty cool, but Mr. Solis isn't here. But I'll go ahead and say it and then contact him personally to tell him. But I had two young gentlemen over at my house for dinner, and I overheard a conversation between my son and these two young men who they're actually missionaries for a church that travel around different areas in from Galta's probably the most northern border, and they go all the way down to Modesto and out not in the Bay Area, but kind of border.

They go out to Meadow Vista and then up in the foothills and all around. And this conversation was these two young men were bound and determined to move to Galt when they were done with college. They absolutely loved Galt, and their biggest sell was how wonderful our parks were. And they and I and so I interjected and said, really? And they said, yeah. This is these have been the best parks in any of the cities they've been in. They really love community park and were just they said, yeah. I don't think you guys understand what you have here. One is from Idaho and one is from South Carolina. And they just were so impressed.

So I just really wanted to put those kudos out to Parks and Rec and Public Works and just everything that our city is makes a good impression. I think sometimes when we live here and we see it all the time it just becomes numb to us and we see you know something wrong and then all of a sudden that's all that we see. So I just wanted to put it out there and thank staff for all their hard work and I think that goes from from our in training staff all the way to the city manager and everyone in between because I think as you say as the saying is attitude reflects leadership, and I think that it it's showing everywhere. So with that, there's not any other business. I'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting.