City Council - Regular Meeting

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We'll go ahead and start today's meeting. We are at the regular City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 7th, 2026. Thank you all for attending. Let's go ahead and start with the roll call vote, our roll call. Vice Mayor Reed?

Here.

Council Member Pratton?

Here.

Council Member Sandhu?

Here.

Council Member Farmer?

Here.

Mayor Rodriguez? Here.

If you would please join me in a silent prayer and then the flag salute.

Okay, Madam Clerk, could you read the replay statement? This meeting of the Galt City Council is recorded with closed captioning. The recording will be cablecast on Metro Cable Channel 14, the local government affairs channel on the Comcast and DirecTV U-verse cable systems. The recording will also be video streamed at metro14live.saccounty.gov. Today's meeting replays Friday April 10th at 9 a.m.. And Saturday April 11th at 9 a.m.. On Metro Cable Channel 14 once posted the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at youtube.com forward slash Metro Cable 14 Thank you.

Mr.. City manager. I see a new face in the crowd

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Yes, you do. We do have a new member at the table. I would like to introduce our new interim director, Fritz Buchmann. He's replacing Chung. Before introducing Fritz more, I would really like to thank Chung Trinh for his time that he spent in the chair. Did an absolute fabulous job. Stepped up on a number of high-profile and somewhat difficult issues. So I really appreciate the effort that he gave. So Fritz comes with a lot of experience. He's been a director most recently in San Joaquin County, but he's had a number of stops at different cities. I'm probably not gonna get them all, but I'll just say Sacramento, Elk Grove, and then San Joaquin County. So it brings a ton of experience. We're very excited to have him on board. The last name may sound familiar to you. We had a finance director briefly with the same last name, and they are related.

Well, welcome, Mr. Buckman.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Rodriguez and council members. I'm happy to be here and look forward to working with you.

Great. Thank you. Welcome again. You didn't say Manteca, though.

It was close, though. Okay. Okay.

Okay, any additions and or deletions for the agenda? Okay, seeing none. Presentations. California Department of Water Resources. Yeah, yes, there you go.

And the mic's okay? Okay, well thank you for having me. My name's Chelsea Spear and I am with the California Department of Water Resources. We have four region offices and I'm out of our north central region office based in West Sacramento. And we have, within our office we have points of contact assigned to every single groundwater basin within our region which goes from Ukiah to Stockton on the south end. And I'm the point of contact for the Cosumnes Basin. I also coordinate with all of the points of contact in our office and convey what's going on with our headquarters and other groups within DWR. And so for today's presentation, I'm gonna go over just briefly what the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is, the roles and responsibilities, there's a little bit of a complicated governance system there, how success is measured under SGMA, a really brief timeline, and then a little bit about the assistance role of my department. And there'll be time for questions at the end too. So the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act involves local government and two state agencies, so it's kind of unique in that respect. From the very beginning when it was enacted, the heart of SGMA is really supposed to be local control unless something goes wrong. So the two state agencies involved, my agency, Department of Water Resources, has a dual role. We review the plans that local agencies put together and evaluate their progress towards implementation of that sustainability at regular intervals. And then the State Water Resource Control Board, which is our sister agency, if we determine that plans are not going as they should and not in a place where they look like they're going to be able to reach sustainability, then the State Water Resource Control Board would step in as they're considered the backstop, but they could implement measures such as demand reduction, restricting pumping, mandatory reporting of pumping with lots of fees. So even in the worst case scenario where a sub-basin is determined ineligible and they go under State Water Resource Control Board control. The goal is always to get that basin back to local control as soon as possible once their plans have been updated and they can show that they're ready to manage. So the local role is really, to develop plans and then to implement them, and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is set up over a 20-year timeframe, so that clock starts, well, I have another slide with timelines, but it started in 2022 for most basins, so we have until 2042 to fully reach that, those sustainability goals. And then SGMA is really measured, the success of local agencies and the groundwater basins is measured based on real-time results and measurements. It's not just based on model predictions. So monitoring is really important to the evaluation of whether or not basins are meeting their metrics. So it's really... The law centers around six undesirable results and avoiding those undesirable results. So the basins need to avoid lowering of groundwater levels, reduction of groundwater storage. They need to avoid seawater intrusion, which doesn't apply in this part of the state since it's not right on the coast. They need to avoid degraded water quality specifically due to over pumping. Land subsidence is a huge one. Luckily in this area there's not too much issue with land subsidence, but in the Central Valley there's billions of dollars of infrastructure that's damaged that has occurred from land subsidence, so that's a really big one. And then, They wanna avoid depletion of interconnected surface water because when you're pumping water out of the ground within any proximity of a river or a stream, it's gonna pull some of that water out of the river and stream and there's ecosystems and lots of things that depend on that surface water as well. So a quick timeline, SGMA was enacted in 2014 under Governor Jerry Brown. Following that, local agencies had until June 30th of 2017 to form brand new agencies called Groundwater Sustainability Agencies. There can be several groundwater sustainability agencies per basin which need to come together and create either a single plan for the basin or multiple plans with a coordination agreement. on how they're gonna reach sustainability of their groundwater within that 20-year timeframe. So those initial plans for the basins that were in the critical condition and already had signs of overdraft were due in 2020. For all other basins, they were due in 2022. and following that initial plan submission, basins are required to submit plan evaluations and if they want, they can amend their plans at the same time every five years. So my department reviews those plans, the initial plans, and they either are approved or if they're found inadequate, the basins have six months to revise those, and if they're still inadequate, they go to the state board process. And that same evaluation happens every five years with those updates. And then, in addition to that, there is data reporting required every year, which is due April 1st of every year, and the department looks at that. And then this continues for that 20 year time frame. And hopefully the end goal is within that, at that 20 year time frame that basins will have met their sustainability goals that they outlined. And then my last slide, I wanted to highlight some assistance programs that my department has because we have the dual role of, we do have that regulatory role of reviewing the plans, but we also have a lot of assistance out there. We have a lot of grant programs. I would say in the last five years, we've administered over a half a billion dollars in planning and implementation grants for SGMA. Proposition four was passed in 2024, which is a bond that has $10 billion statewide for climate resilience. And there's, I wanna say 280 million, maybe it might've been 380 million for SGMA specific projects. So those grants will be coming out in 2027, but if you're interested in that, They're starting scoping meetings. The first of those will be April 30th. We also have technical assistance. We do a lot of data collection in the department, groundwater level monitoring, water quality, surface water. A really good website. If you're not a super technical person, it's designed to be easy for the layperson is Cal Groundwater Live. And I put some flyers on that back shelf there. And on the back of the brochure here, there's a link to it if you guys are interested. But that one's really fun to just look at your local conditions. You can see what the groundwater levels are, what the subsidence has been, how many wells are going in and how many dry wells there have been. And it's easy to select by county or whatever time frame you're interested in. I'd recommend checking that out. We also have technical support services that has drilled several hundred monitoring wells throughout the state over the last 10 years to help with the monitoring required under SGMA. We have facilitation support services and we have a whole lot of guidance documents and educational resources. Most recently, we just put out a best management practice on managing subsidence, and we should be having a interconnected surface water guidance document being finalized in the next few months. So that's all I had, but if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer that. And I also left some of my cards back here if you guys think of questions later. All right. Council, any questions?

I do, but no first of you do.

Oh, I don't. Well, I do, but not. It's a comment. For public.

I just want to thank Chelsea for coming out.

Well, thanks for having me.

Yeah, no, it's good information. The groundwater thing is something I think we're kind of getting more and more into. So I'll be reporting out on it more as I learn more. So thank you.

My question is just to kind of better understand. So Matt's our designated representative. So for our basin, how many, you said that some basins have more than one board that's formed.

It's really variable, whatever local agencies were interested in it at 2017 when they were first formed. So in the Cosumnes sub-basin, there's seven GSAs. In some sub-basins, there's one GSA where they have multiple agencies that are part of a JPA, but there's a lot of different structures. Eastern San Joaquin, who's 16, Luckily, all of the basins in our area decided to come together and do a single plan for the basin, which makes it a lot simpler. Some of the areas, like in San Joaquin County, where it's a lot more complicated, they actually have like five or six different plans, and then they have to coordinate everything. It makes it quite a bit more difficult.

So our board for our basin...

But you guys have seven, yeah.

Okay, so we come up with a plan, and then you guys just oversee to make sure that plan is...

doable or just trying to think of yeah so you guys submitted your initial um plan in 2022 and then with each of those submissions the department has up to two years to review it so we approved it and said it looks adequate all of the approved plans come with um

recommended corrected corrective actions that um there's expected to be progress on by that next five-year update just for just so just for the audience or somebody watching this back what what would be an example of some of the things in our plan for our basin is it what were some of the things that maybe you don't know or maybe matt could comment are those things like we're saying what we're gonna do to um you know Control the use of I mean what what are some of the give me an idea of some of the things that are in? That plan that we submit to you guys that you guys then approve like look give me an example for ours What would be some of those things?

Like that we're gonna Okay, first you gotta remember. I've been to one meeting okay Sorry, yes, no there is a new plan, and it's being submitted. I have gone through it I think the bit my biggest takeaway from from what I've seen so far is just the It didn't feel to me like they really had a great plan before. It looks like they're actually gathering more information now. I think they were afraid to go out and oversee a lot of the farmers and stuff in the area. Some of them get a little grumpy when when the government's overlooking their shoulders, but it's for them, right? What we do here is not, the intent is not to control them. It is more of to find out what's going on in the basin, and you can't do that without good data, and I think that's the biggest piece of what I see in the report.

So we assess the data, then determine based on that data what possible problems could arise in the future. Let's say that, you know, there's massive development, new housing development in a certain part of the basin, and then based on the data that we might be at a critical level, that would be of a concern, then we have to come up with a plan of how we're going to mitigate that impact. Something like that, would that be? Yeah. Okay.

I mean, that makes sense, but also there's just, you know, again, some of the stuff I was learning was, you know, where is the water, how is it actually flowing under the ground? So they're getting a better and better picture of that. Aquifers and stuff like that I think are in the future. I don't know where that comes from. But the grant piece and stuff that she was talking about helps the farmers out. I was going to report out later today, they had a barbecue recently that was open to anybody interested in coming. I was surprised there was quite a few farmers there that took an interest and were the ones that I talked to, the ones that I knew. They were excited to be able to get the information and the help from our CGA.

So Chelsea, two more questions for you. Is one of your roles as a department to oversee, for example, disputes? I don't know if this, I'm trying to figure out how to phrase this. So a while back we had, I think another city, or not another city, but I forget, somebody came to us, we were redoing one of our wells and there was some people upset that came and said we weren't, you know, we weren't giving everybody the heads up that we were redigging one of our wells because it became not sufficient, so we're redoing an existing well. they came before us and kind of put us on the spot about that. Is that something that if there was disputes within that, that you guys are the immediate over that or no, no, that's, that doesn't fall within Sigma.

That's, that would just be like local. So Sigma is really like broader basin scale. So we wouldn't be looking at like, one well going in here or there unless it was like say just like a massive one where it's dewatering like all the domestic wells nearby but just maybe to add just a little bit more to your last question i i've been with this basin since 2019 but the original plan is like very structured what sections need to be included um But the monitoring data, like you mentioned, is a big one that is a corrective action for almost all basins to fill in data gaps. There's the six different things that you're monitoring for. It's a lot of measurements that we're looking for. Another big corrective action is making sure that all of the thresholds that are set, are tied to the beneficial uses and users and showing the linkage of how those thresholds are protective of say domestic wells or how are they gonna be protective of say wetlands that rely on interconnected surface water.

So does your department report to a higher, who do you guys report to?

We're under the Natural Resource Agency.

Okay.

Whereas, and then State Water Board, who is like the backstop, they're under Cal EPA. So we have different agencies.

So is your department involved in policy at all? Do you guys have input in policy at the state level? Do legislators look to you guys to get information before they set policy? Or do you guys, is there a chance in the process of something like, so there's some new piece of legislation that's coming out regarding water. Do they look to you guys to kind of consult, give input? Or do you guys actually go and, you know, put your hand up and say, hey, this is concerning because of X, Y, Z? Does that stuff happen or no? No.

That's a little beyond me. I think there's like certain situations where they do ask for our advice. And then there's a lot of other situations where we're like strictly prohibited on taking a side one way or the other. And I'm not sure exactly where that line is.

This leads me to my last question and this just this I'm just very curious about the subject because there's a question I get a lot in the last seven years I've been in office And I this is me just thinking if I was someone in the audience or someone watching this meeting back What would be something that someone general citizen or farmer or something would ask from the audience? And this is the one that I come up with people always ask me Why is it that we have? these guidelines and plans per se and so on and so forth to make sure we control how much water we use. In Galt, we have metered water. We're told you can only water your lawns on certain days of the year, et cetera, et cetera, and all of that, which makes sense because we're always concerned about our lakes and our water SUPPLY, RIGHT? BUT AT THE SAME TIME YOU HAVE A STATE THAT'S PROBABLY THE MOST AGGRESSIVE IN PUSHING NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENT WHICH IN TURN IS PUTTING A MORE BURDEN ON THE WATER SUPPLY. SO EXPLAIN THAT ONE TO ME. IF I WAS JUST SOMEBODY ON THE STREET WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THAT?

There is a lot of conflicting stuff, and I have heard that one a lot. Personally, I won't speak for the department. That does feel like a gap in SGMA where they didn't tie in land use to it because that's a big... I think there was a lot of negotiation when they created it, so that was just one piece they didn't... But I have seen that come up in lots of basins where like, what do you do if there's like another huge housing development and you're required to try to expand your housing, right? And I'm sorry, I'm not putting you on the spot for the question. I just, you know, I'm just curious. I'm just curious if you've heard that before. But I definitely have heard it. And I think it is kind of a gap.

It's just something I never have an answer for. I honestly don't. I look at people and I go, you know, I wish I could give you a good answer, and it's just frustrating as an elected official, the people of Galt, when they're told don't water your lawn on this day, and then they see houses being built across the street from them, and they're like, really? So it's frustrating.

And there is no tie-in, like, Sigma, groundwater sustainability agencies can go to the point where they require pumping or restrict pumping, but there is no nexus for restricting land use with that.

All right, well thank you for answering my questions. Oh yeah. Thanks.

I just, that actually triggered a question and now it just left my mind. Land use, I can see why the legislators wouldn't want that part of it because not just residential but all industrial, all that, which probably are the heaviest water users than anyone. But, shoot. You want me to go and you can go back? Yes, go ahead. All right.

So I kind of piggyback off of what Mr. Farmer said was that's one of the biggest complaints that we get in the other GSAs that are in our group is that we just keep building housing, right? And they're told by the state that they need to restrict water and the city of Galt just keeps building houses. On the flip side of that, I really wanna give kudos to our public works department because we're also the only group or the only water entity in that group that can tell you exactly how much water it's pumping out of the ground, exactly where it's going and how much water we're putting back into the stream And when it comes out, it's a very little water use compared to most other people, and that's because of the great job that our Public Works people have done.

That's all.

Mr. Sandhu?

No, I don't have question, but thank you for your presence.

And it's still gone, so it must not have been important, but thank you very much for your presentation.

We do have public comment. Oh, we'll take public comment. Bob Wilson?

Ms. Spear, you can step aside and let them. Thank you.

Hello, everyone. My name is Bob Wilson and I live in Galt. And what she's saying is really critical for us in the upcoming generations. We don't want to get to the point where we have to have water come in a truck like some countries do. And the situation there is not good because not only is it costly, but it might be contaminated water. And you can imagine if your family are waiting for your delivery water when it's going to come. Also, we don't want to get to the point where we have to be tied into a desalination plant on the coast, and the water would be pumped here, because as you know, those are very expensive. There is a lot of new good technology, but the filtration process takes a lot of energy, and then there's contaminants that return back to the ocean, and that's happening in Southern California. And another thing is we don't want to have to pump in water from another state. So by doing these measures that she was talking and other things, we will hopefully get to a better level of control. Also, you're aware in other states, the farmland has been like shut down in cases and they buy the water rights. And when this occurs, there's a lot of legal activity that can go on for years. So, as you all know, the Colorado River Basin has experienced this. So anyway, in order to set a good example to talk about this, my wife and I, what we did is we took out all our lawns up front and back, and a lot of neighbors said, we're crazy, you guys shouldn't be, what are you doing, it's gonna look bad. And so we said, well, let's just give it a try. So what happened is we replaced the lawn in front, and we put in all rock except the shrubbery up by the porch. And... It took a while for the plants to grow. We got native plants that take less water, drought resistance. So at first, everybody goes, this looks like rock.

But guess what?

Now, several years later, people are coming by our house all the time, barking their dogs and everything. They say, oh, how nice it looks. It's not boring like green grass. Oh, look at those nice flowers. Another thing that doing reading, or let's say like a new development, let's say like the addition to the industrial park, I read that you may have, if you want to go more advanced in all this, you may have to have like two pipelines to the water treatment plant. You have like a brown water plant, brown water like pipeline, and then you have other water pipeline. And I thought, well, why couldn't you just like have the other water pipeline, you know, go from your house into the garden? But that is not recommended because the water should be treated more extensively. So for the future, especially for like a dumpster park or something, and that would be closer to the sewer water treatment plant, that's another consideration to consider as time goes on. Another big thing about, she talked about the wells. As you know, if the well goes deeper and deeper, it gets more and more expensive, and the maintenance is also increased. And that, of course, can cause more issues and things like that. But now there's a lot more technology now for drip systems that's better in sensors over the years. And so a big thing, too, is water quality. And she mentioned that and Listerine on the aquifer. And also, as you know, some cities have programs where they pay money for people to take out lawns, like so much for a square foot, and do other things like, you know, inside the house appliances and reducing the toilet flow and things like that. And there should be a program because we kind of have our own water district where we, you know, look into that in the future. And any way we look at it, it's unfortunate. The bills are going to go up, so regardless of what we do. So anyway, just kind of like food for thought, and this is like a huge topic. So thanks very much for listening today. Appreciate all your time and attention.

Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Councillor Schell.

Gavin Voyne.

Mine will be a little shorter. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I mainly just have some questions about the monitoring or metering of our wells and if fees are going to be attached to properties that have existing wells. I would like explanation of that fee structure, if it's going to be per acre and how often the fees are to be paid, and who sets that fee amount. So if that's something the city of Galt is determining, I would like that they keep in mind that we have citizens that have wells that are on fixed incomes. We also have small farms that are already working within tight marginal limits, and this would directly impact their profits of that whole production. That's my main question. And if we're going to start implementing landscaping that calls for less water, I think that should start with these new developments before they get imposed on the existing residents. And that's really all I had. But if I could have a little more information on whatever fee structures are coming and if it's something we're voting on or if it's just a fee that we're going to have to be assigned to and when that's proposed to start. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe just really quick to answer that question is not the city of Galt. It is the GSA. GSA. GSA. So I think.

Attend one of their board meetings.

Yeah, Mr. Pratton will probably help in that.

Yeah, I brought it up at the last meeting just to make people aware that it's coming, but not right away. So we're in talks with them right now. We'll try to get that information out to the public. I mean, you could attend a meeting. That's not a problem.

That's what I would recommend. I would recommend bringing that issue up to the CGA itself, attend the board meeting, and ask those same questions. They have control of it. The city does not.

Okay, and if there is some, I reached out to other people that I've heard were already paying these fees. They told me they were not, but they were provided with exemption forms. So if your well is dry or not in use, or if you don't irrigate certain portions of your land, you're able to exempt that from those fees. So if we could just, as residents, get some help with any of that information that you guys are aware of, if it's passed on to us. I will make my best effort to attend that meeting, thank you. But just, it would be great if we had some insider information on any of those types of programs. Thank you. Thank you.

I'll just add that the fees have to be implemented per Prop 218. So there would be a notice period just like we do for regular residential water users. They get their fees and rates. So all of the affected property owners will receive that notice. And there is a majority protest proceeding under that that allows you to vote no for those. And so obviously that's all gonna be public notice. There's gonna be public hearing on that. So you will, the public will definitely have outreach and notice and opportunity to respond.

I don't know if Matt knows the question or answer, but maybe you do, Mr. Reid. Are the other members inside the, I already forgot what it is, GSA? Are they paying well fees? And it's just the GALT, inside GALT residents that are not?

Amador County does.

And they're in our GSA? Yes.

So I should probably clarify the structure because I just learned this myself. The CGA, which is the Consumers Groundwater Authority, is a JPA, but the actual and the state water resource control representative, Chelsea, can correct me if I'm wrong, but all of the seven members of that JPA are each in their own GSA. Okay. And she's not hearing yes. So we are a GSA under the SGMA that she just outlined. So each of those members will pass on those fees and charges to their respective property owners within their jurisdictions.

So in our GSA, our specific, well, Amador's not in ours, are they?

No, no. The city of Galt is a GSA, just like there is the... Amador is a GSA. Okay. Slough House is a GSA. Gotcha. And then...

And then the board that we go to is a joint, a GPA. A GPA, basically. Of all those.

So the others in the GPA, because some of those people that came that you were referring to were people just outside of the city limits who had wells, who were already being charged. So, or at least that was the question.

No, this was another entity. I believe it was somebody else on the board that we sit with came in.

Right, but I think that they were, yeah, wanting to know why those within the city of Galt were not being charged for their well. So something like that. Anyway, so my question now, I guess, back to Frank would be, if the others in our GSA are already paying a fee, would this Prop 218 only apply to, how many do we have, 20 in the city of Galt?

THERE'S PROBABLY MORE. WE DO HAVE A SURVEY THAT WE DO HAVE A SURVEY THAT IDENTIFIED ALL THE WELLS, IDENTIFIED ALL THE WELLS, WHETHER IT BE RESIDENTIAL OR WHETHER IT BE RESIDENTIAL OR COMMERCIAL. COMMERCIAL. I JUST DON'T HAVE THAT NUMBER I JUST DON'T HAVE THAT NUMBER WITH ME. WITH ME.

THAT WAS ACTUALLY ONE OF THE THAT WAS ACTUALLY ONE OF THE FINDINGS THAT CAME OUT FROM THEM FINDINGS THAT CAME OUT FROM THEM TO THE CONSUMER'S GROUNDWATER they wanted every single GSA within that JPA to identify their wells. And the city obviously identified their wells, but there were several private wells that were inside of our GSA that had not been identified. And so they worked through, it was John at the time,

So that's ultimately the disconnect. The disconnect is the city pays a fee to the GSA for the water we use, much like the Galt Irrigation District and the others that are part of the regional GSA. There wasn't a mechanism for the city or for the greater GSA to then provide that fee to that individual private wells. They kind of fell through the cracks, so to speak. So there's an effort now to figure out how to fix that. But we don't have the answer to that at this time.

Madam Mayor, just to answer Mr. Gavin's question. The new development, there is a certain percentage. The developers are not allowed to put in over a certain amount of landscaping on the new developments that require water. There's a certain amount of it has to be drought tolerant type thing, but not to make you feel better. If a homeowner was to move in, they could just rip all that out and put all grass in and they could do whatever they want. But at least the developer's not allowed to. So just to answer that.

All right, anything else? Well, thank you, Mrs. Spear. That's probably went much further than what you had intended. It's obviously a hot topic. All right, presentation number two, Measure R Citizens Oversight Committee Fiscal Year 2024-25 Annual Report. Chief? Oh, no.

Yes, Madam Mayor, members of council, our chair, Chair Harvey, will give this year's annual report for the Measure R activities on behalf of the Police Department and Finance. Mr. Harvey? Thank you.

Council members and others here tonight, I am Paul Harvey, a member of the Measure R Independent Citizens Oversight Committee. On behalf of the committee, I am privileged to present the fiscal year 2024-25 annual report. The committee's role is to review the spending of major artist revenues to ensure that the use of these funds complies with the voters' intentions. And the council members have received the audited financial statements. Major R is a November 2008 voter-approved half-cent sales tax rate increase to fund public safety services within the city. As our police chief presented during a previous council meeting, the 2025 reported crime data show this funding is beneficial in helping the police department provide their public safety services. The Measure R revenue supplements close to 20% of the department's annual budget and helps fund program costs, including equipment and personnel for patrol officers, gang detectives, school resource officers, professional standards officers, dispatching and administration, and record keeping. Our committee is comprised of five GALT citizens that meet quarterly to review the financial reports provided by the GALT Finance Department. The fiscal year ending in 2024-2025 measure R accountability report was reviewed and approved by the committee on February 25th, 2026 during our quarterly meeting. For this past year, the starting unspent carryover balance was $1,714,843. The reported revenue from the measure R tax was $2,491,433. And expenditures were $2,945,190. And then the fund balance decreased during the year by $453,056, resulting in an ending balance of $1,261,787. And capital outlays and increasing costs for supplies and materials were some reasons for expenditures exceeding revenues. Committee members confirm that proper stewardship was maintained over these funds in accordance with the Major R Sales Tax Ordinance. On behalf of the Major R Committee, I thank you for the opportunity to present this information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Harvey. Does anyone have any questions, comments?

I just would like to say that thank you for serving on that committee. I mean, obviously it's an important, Measure R is very important to the community and some time to time, you know, I'll hear people, you know, they like to complain about GALT sales tax and stuff, but things like Measure R, Measure Q, you know, serve an important purpose. But Measure R, you know, there's a lot of public safety things that the police department has and that we're able to do that just simply wouldn't exist without that half cent. And half cent is such a small price to pay, honestly, for some of those things. So I just want to say thank you for that. Thank you to our predecessors for, you know, for Measure R. People who came before us.

And the voters. I agree. No taxes hardly ever go away when they're implemented. But this is one that I really think is very important for the city. But thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Harvey.

All right, Madam Clerk, you want to read the public comment statement? Under Government Code Section 54954.3, members of the public may address the City Council on non-agenda items. The public comment 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. KEN LEE.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL MEMBERS. I'M KEN LEE. I LIVE AT GAULT PLACE WHERE I ALMOST GOT HIT BY A BICYCLE. IT WAS GOING 10 MILES PER HOUR AND THAT WAS IN THE HALLWAY OF THE APARTMENT, NOT EVEN ON THE STREET. So I want to bring up all my research that I've done in the past 20 years now has been lectured by historians and historical society. Upcoming May is Chinese Historical Month. And due to all the new milestones I want to bring up, because we're going to be doing our three-book tour, April 18th is the 128th year Great Quake 1906 anniversary. And the A Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese survivors were left to defend for themselves. Relief and housing for the thousands of Chinese, Portuguese, and Italians were offered up at our Oakland cannery because food still had to be canned during that earthquake, and the refugees had to live someplace. And our family had some influence in Galt over 100 years ago, being that my great-grandfather was the CEO of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1922. He could have had a little bit of say. And it's the 150th anniversary of the Chinese attack on Monterey in 1875, where they used seven warships from China to demand that they leave the Chinese alone or more ships would be sent. It's documented in the Army's book of strategy and as well as the college thesis is being used in San Bruno. Our ethnic studies book on Chinese immigration laws using the UC College system in China and New Zealand has reached the 25-year mark. And basically, we were the first family to use I want a lawyer for immigration. And they're using that same slogan now. And the reason why it worked for us is because we were the Flying Tigers, and basically they had to keep us in America. And so they made these laws to change the immigration. Buckskin foods that used Buffalo Bill Cody on the label was the secret canning process of the Chinese canneries. They were kept out of the public knowledge because our secret process of sterilization and soldering was a national defense because food had to be shipped for the war effort. And Chinese workers couldn't tell anybody because they couldn't speak English. And these men were also used by the CIA to overthrow China in 1910, and then fight against Ponce de Villa in Mexico as General Pershing's mercenary soldiers. These men ended up in the four canvases in the Delta, Eyalton, Antioch, Monterey, and Oakland, because we had to put them somewhere. And we also christened the Liberty Ship for John Wilkie. He was the OSS founder, which became the CIA. And that shows you how deep our family was involved. So our books are the textbook called Remaking Chinese America. It's all about our family's immigration. Bitter Roots, it focuses on Chinese racism that we encountered for the last 125 years. Chinaman Tycoon is the accounting of the richest Chinaman in the world in the early 1900s. And basically, we had General Bidwell's Ranch in Chico. And he's also known as the father of assimilation because he told all the Chinese people after the 1906 earthquake, if you're going to remain in America, you learn to speak English, you dress like an American, and you cut the ponytail. He wanted to basically assimilate, and so basically he learned English, and he made friends with the big four-way road men. And that's how he got his ocean liners, and that's how he got specials to ship his foods. And also, he had the biggest silver mine in Virginia City. So he cut his cost shipping it by train. And he also shipped... immigrants from Mexico. That's why we were in Mexicali. We were bringing food to General Pershing and putting on the immigrants back up here to America. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lee. Amy, Amy Fesnock.

Hi, I'm Amy, I'm the Preserve Manager of Cosumnes River Preserve. And while I understand the importance of a cohesive logo and brand for Galt, I appreciate the need to differentiate Galt from the sprawl of Elk Grove, and I appreciate the desire to not just be a bedroom community of the greater Sacramento area. I don't really know or understand how you can identify the uniqueness of Galt without talking about the Cosumnes River Preserve, the Cosumnes River, and the wildlife and plants that call this home. The Cosumnes is the only unregulated river coming out of the Sierra Nevada. And while that creates challenges for all of us during times of floods, it's what brings the bountiful life to this area. I don't know if you're aware or not, but the Cosumnes Forest was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1976, specifically because of the outstanding biology and bird life. We are identified as an Audubon important bird area, and while there are many of those across the state of California, Cosumnes is one of the few that are identified as a globally important bird area, not just a regionally important bird area. We host more than 250 species of bird, the Sandhill Crane being one of those. In 2003, the California Fish and Game Commission designated the preserve as one of its ecological reserves. It's the only ecological reserve, to my understanding, that is for different landowners. Normally, the Game Commission only identifies lands that are owned or managed by CDFW. And we are unique in that that reserve designation incorporated other lands outside of CDFW holdings. I am unsure if you're aware that we host more than eight to 10,000 students from the Galt School District every year. Second and third graders come and collect acorns and plant trees. Third graders and fourth graders look at coho salmon eggs in their classroom and set them free in the Cosumnes River. Sixth graders are joining us this week and next week in our canoe mobile. started today. We have a Sunday community paddle from nine to 12, and I invite you to come join us and experience the river. I'm not sure if you know that we conducted a visitor use survey in the year 2024, and our data documented that more than 130,000 people used our core trail system in that year. We have and bring a lot of people to the area. And while I understand While I agree and understand that the city is more than just cranes, I challenge you to really think of Gault without the preserve, without the Cosumnes River, without the wildlife and the plants that call us home. We bring vitalness to the Gault community as much as the Gault community provides to us. and we bring in the economics of ecotourism that Galt benefits from. I invite all of you to either come for a special tour or perhaps I could come and give a presentation more in depth of what the preserve does and what we bring to the city of Galt so you may not be so quick as to throw the crane off your logo and perhaps just make it a smaller part of the greater whole. Thank you.

Thank you for your passion as well. carol smith um

Good evening, Madam Mayor, all city council members, everyone here. My name is Carol Smith, and I reside on Cornell Road. So my comment is just brief tonight, and it's just one of respect. So everyone knows about the Fairway Oaks or the Fairways development, and we've dealt with a lot of issues. Tonight, mine is one of like I said, respect the trash that the people come out on the site and they leave their trash. They were there today paving Bernal Road. The tarp that they used is still at the corner of my property when I left here this evening, left there this evening. It's still sitting there and I'd like them to respect us. Their development over there is beautiful. It's very nice and clean and I would hate to see anyone go over there and trash it. Also, the weeds that are up against the walls, I've asked this for months, to please have them removed. Do weed abatement. Residents are supposed to abate their weeds. The city of Galt says so, but it hasn't happened and it's not happening in my neighborhood. Now there's a couple of challenges on Cornell Road. Most of the neighbors there, most of my neighbors, we try to keep our areas neat and clean, and some of us pay to keep them neat and clean. I have a neighbor, Mr. Frank, he goes through with his own equipment and he mows down Cornell Road, on the north side of the road these days, but he does. So I'm just asking for consideration. I've spoken to several individuals regarding this, like I said, for months, since really not too far after the inception of the development being started. But I would ask you, all members please, to have the developers to respect us, just as they would want it done in their own neighborhoods. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Smith. No more public comment. All right, we'll move on to item E, reports by city council members on regional boards, commissions, and committees. Vice Mayor Reed.

I don't have any.

Council Member Pratton.

I have a few. All right, Thursday, March 26, Air Quality Management District. I attended Sacramento at the Board of Supervisors chambers. It was a fairly long meeting. But nothing really to report out on. It was just a lot of updates and some presentations. I don't think we even voted on anything. So that was that one. Of course, I attended the... Special City Council Planning Commission joint meeting That was excellent that was on Monday March 30th right in right in these chambers So the first Wednesday of the month I have both the the CGA consume these groundwater Authority and the Sacramento local agency formation Commission the LAFCO meetings and There was no CGA this month But for those who want to go to that CGA meeting it is the first Wednesday of the month And they do post and all that but anybody can get a hold of me if you're interested in going to one of those meetings and I'd be welcome to meet you there. Now, as for the LAFCO, LAFCO was fairly quiet also. I think the meeting was about an hour and a half. It also is at the chambers, the county board chambers. in Sacramento. Consent calendar. Yeah, I don't have a whole lot of notes on this one. Some public hearing items. Nothing really to report out that South Sacramento reported. So South Sacramento has a water district that's had a lot of problems. So the interesting part with there was they tried to raise their rates years ago and they were denied. So now they're in a situation where their water rates are going from $40 to $90 all at one time. I just thought that was interesting. And they're hoping that'll get them operating decently again. But they claim they're doing all right, but they're way behind in dollars. And that's all I have.

Thank you. Council Member Sandhu.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a couple of things to report. One thing, same thing Matt said, I also joined that City Council and Planning Commission meeting, and we tried some discuss some new code development for the new development. The other thing, on March 23rd, I did join the safety committee meeting in the Galt. And on this one thing, they appointed the new chair, Mr. Schambrer, and the new vice chair, Ms. Shelby. And we also discuss on that before we stop on Krillian and Boesel. And Mr. Trunk was there, he very much explained to that that four-way stop is already there, so that's done. The other thing we did discuss with the Lincoln Bay and 8th Street, there's the student safety and traffic concern. And Chief did hear that and he know that what kind of action overwatch we can look at. And the last thing was not an agenda item and that's why just a public comment because it can lie it and That on a public comment as same thing. We discussed the same thing last council meeting Illegal food vendors there are 99 and 20 rule the reason we discuss as a vendor, because one thing, they don't have a license, but it's not that much safety committee's concern, but I feel myself, and there is a little bit safety concern. and because when I watch myself, I have some picture I can put them on, but when the customer park, there is no park, they park almost in the street. And then I talk to chief, you're gonna talk to the city manager, and I believe all council last time was agree, if we can do, I know this is, outside of the city restriction because this is in Sacramento County. But I would just ask the staff if anything we can do to do that. And that's all. Thank you.

Council Member Farmer.

Thank you.

Yeah, I too was obviously at the joint meeting planning commission. I want to thank Jenny and other staff that brought stuff. I think it was very productive. I think it was good. And for those of you in the audience who may have not known that happened, I feel like Part of that was answering some of the things we've had to deal with on the back end, such as the fairways, for example, things with that project that the Planning Commission had to try to do a little damage control on, because we don't have better objective design standards. So I feel like sometimes you can't fix things, but what you can do is you can take the adequate measures to... try to do what you can to prevent things not happening again in the future so i think that meeting was a step in that uh direction i look forward to seeing the final stuff that comes back from staff and i think it's going to really be uh i think that what we're going to end up with is going to be very helpful i think Then I had my Youth Commission meeting last night with the Galt Youth Commission, and we just went over our normal business. But I did use that opportunity, and I think Amy Mendez might find this fascinating, is I did use that opportunity to ask 12 high schoolers that serve on the Galt Youth Commission. We briefly talked about the branding campaign, and I asked them, You know, one of the questions that was asked to us in our kickoff meeting, it was very funny. One of the questions was, if Galt was a person, what would that person be? Would that person be a female or a male? How would they dress? What would they be into? What would their hobbies be? And the kids were very fascinated by that question. I'll preface their answer with, In our kickoff meeting, which was maybe 10 or 12 of us in that meeting, was all middle-aged people, more or less, right? Almost everybody in that room said Galt was a female that was of a certain age, such and such. I was the only person that said, I think it's a male. Everyone except one of the youth commissioners said it was a middle-aged 50-year-old male. 11 of the kids said it's a 50-year-old male who is hardworking, probably is in the ag business or ag somehow or another. And then there was a couple other nuances. But Bailey, I thought it was very interesting that they all felt that it was someone of middle-aged male. The one person who said something different said it was a teen female, but she was shy and she grew up on a dairy. So it's very interesting. And then I followed up that with asking each of them to give me one word that described Galt. And the words that they gave me were humble, homey, dairy, old-fashioned, small, traditional, quaint, little, hospitable, farm, and little. Those are all the words that I got from the 12 commissioners. So I'll leave you guys to think about that for a moment. That's all I have.

To ruminate like a dairy cow. Interesting. I, like all five of us, Mr. Reid was there as well, attended the special meeting with the planning commissioners and I agree with Mr. Farmer that I think that was one of the most productive meetings that we've had in a long time and I really appreciated staff and everything and everyone who worked hard on that and is probably still now probably working harder because of it. but I think it was a very productive meeting. Yesterday, I attended SACOG's Policy and Innovation Committee, kind of like yours, Matt, the long meeting, and not much to report back. We went over the budget, which will now move forward to the full board, so I get to listen to it again. And we also heard from the lobbyists, both state and federal, on behalf of transportation and things like that. And there's some interesting things trying to play out, both at the state level and federally. As many of you know, federal funding that had been promised and awarded for transportation with the new administration was at least, at best, put on hold, if not completely taken away. So there is, people are rallying to try to get some of that back in the queue. Some of the things that, some of the transportation programs that SACOG had been working on, like the Green Means Go, which was a big initiative, they did come and talk about it at one point, but we, many of the entities who had received funding for that through the Green Means Go have not accomplished their goals. So it's a huge possibility that SACOG's gonna lose millions of dollars, and these projects are just starting. So it's a little disappointing, so they're trying to scramble to see if they can get a little bit more time. They're working hard on that new bill that a senator Calderon is working on state and federally, and of course I had to contact my little birdie back in D.C. to see the perspective from a D.C. staffer versus the lobbyists who are lobbying and what they're reporting. that they were not on par, but I would say that the lobbyists were a little bit more positive than what I was hearing from staffers. So, which, for Galt, I don't think it's gonna affect us tremendously. We're not in the running for a lot of these fundings, but one very important statistic that I learned that stuck in my head through this is that there's what's called the Basics Act, which is trying to be pushed federally. And what that is to do is to basically reroute the money through local entities. And this is pretty specific to roadways and bridges. And I don't think we have any bridges in our jurisdiction that would be covered under this, so it might not pertain to us. But the interesting fact is that 75% of the bridges in the US are owned and governed by local agencies. However, local agencies only receive 15% of the federal transportation monies. So this Bridges Act is trying to get more of that money to, in our case, to the state so they can distribute it a little bit better. But we'll see. This was the act, the push that there was a little bit difference in view from the lobbyists and the staffers. So because some of the, although, and here's positive for California, because California has more of their thumb on their entities, that we have a better money distribution coming from the federal government, that it's better distributed or more competent in its distribution. Whereas other states, And I'll just name one to say they don't have that go-between for the state. And so the federal government has a hard time giving huge federal funds to, say, a small county of 15,000 people. And so that's where kind of the hang-up is. And so if the states don't have things in line to help manage over the littler entities, that's where the hiccup is. The federal government, the leaders are like, eh. I don't know. So, but California in this respect has a little bit more respect back there because California has more control over their smaller entities in this case. Anyway, it's just a little interesting, so. All right, with that, we'll move on to item F, the information consent calendar. It is recommended that items one through six be acted on simultaneously unless a separate discussion and or action is requested by a council member. Council members?

I just have a brief question about F5. Maybe, sorry, my mic's not on. I just had a brief question about F5 and maybe if I can just ask that question and then we can still do the consent all at one time instead of pulling it? Okay. That's fine. Mr. Buckman, welcome.

And here you go.

I had to find a question for him just so he can feel welcome. I'm just joking. It's my understanding that the $250,000 that we're asking for for general fund money is for the engineering services, et cetera, et cetera, but that's all reimbursable. Once we do that, we collect those fees back from development and then it gets reimbursed. Is that correct?

That's correct, Council Member Farmer. Public Works has experienced a higher than anticipated level of development review activity this fiscal year. And the item before you is to provide additional expenditure authority to cover those costs. And as you mentioned, there will be no net fiscal impact because those additional costs will be recovered through developer fees.

Okay. That's all I have. Thank you.

And I see that Ms. Menor was nodding and agreeing. She's backing him up. Okay, with that, I will, let me go ahead and read them all. Number one, receive and file warrants for period ending March 23rd, 2026. Number two, minutes of the regular meeting of March 17th, 2026. Number three, military equipment use annual report. Number four, city of Galt routine maintenance agreement project initial study mitigation negative declaration. Number five, a funding increase for development support. Number six, a national fitness campaign grant funding.

So moved. Second.

Moved by Council Member Farmer and seconded by Council Member Pratton. Roll call.

Vice Mayor Reed.

Aye.

Council Member Pratton.

Aye.

Council Member Sandu.

Aye.

Council Member Farmer.

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez. Aye.

Motion passes 5-0. It doesn't look like we have any public hearings. We'll go ahead and go on to the city clerk's report. Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board Representative.

And just to back up real quick for communication, I just want to remind everyone in the public there's no city council meeting on April 21, 2026. Thank you. So for the Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board representative, the recommendation is to appoint a council member as a representative to the Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board. On February 3rd, 2026, city council was informed the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors would create a new body, the Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board, known as SHHB. The SHAB will be made up entirely of elected leaders from the county and participating cities. The current proposal of the SHB is comprised of two county board members, two Sacramento City Council members, and one member from each additional participating city. The first anticipating meeting is Friday, April 17th. However, we just found out that is for staff only to start discussing the logistics for the SHAB, including meeting frequency, agenda items, and it is anticipated that the SHAB itself will not meet probably until after May.

So you're looking for an appointment. An appointment.

But we really don't have any details as of yet.

Do they need that appointment now? Because I'm afraid.

I would make a motion to table this item because I don't think, I for one couldn't volunteer to be appointed unless I knew how often they're going to meet and what day of the week, what time of the day. I mean, that's all important to me. Because I, you know, have work and stuff, so...

This was all kind of last minute after the agenda.

I mean, can we just... Can we appoint somebody after we find out what that is? You could do that, or you could...

Someone could appoint... somebody provisionally, and then if the schedule doesn't work out, and then appoint a backup, and then if it doesn't work out for one or both, then we would just come back here anyways. So the appointment could be made provisionally, and then if it doesn't work out, we would just come back, it would effectively be tabled and come back anyway. So I don't think there's harm in making the provisional appointment tonight. How long is the appointment for?

Do we know that?

I don't know.

Hey, this whole thing they're organizing is off to a real great start. Yeah, I mean, if I said I was real skeptical, if it was really gonna accomplish anything, I guess I should hold my comments. I don't know, honestly, I would have to know. So do we have to make a motion?

To do what? To table it. Yeah. Okay, so I make a motion for us to table this appointment until after we get more clarity from the board on their frequency and their meeting times.

Yeah, I second that. And the term, correct. I support that.

Okay, can we just do a consensus for that? Yeah.

Is there at least three of you that want to just do it that way?

Yes.

Okay, then we'll just table it.

All right, moving on. Item K, comments by staff.

We have a couple. First up, Armando Solis, Parks and Rec Director.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I just wanted to give you a save the date. Our blue monster slide is complete, or near completion. We just have a punch list to go through. And we have Saturday, May 23rd, if you can put a save the date. And at this time, I invite you slash challenge our council members to go down the slide that day. So besides bringing your scissors to cut the ribbon, Bring your bathing suit and attempt to go down there.

Attempt?

Attempt. I've heard some have failed, but hopefully you guys will all succeed.

Is there an elevator to get you all the way up there?

No, bring a bottle of water and some sunscreen to get up there. So I'll get you more details as we get closer.

And then next up, Assistant City Manager Amy Mendez.

Good evening. I wanted to let everybody know that we are beginning our outreach efforts for the branding initiative and the utility bill will include a QR code. There's a little advertisement in there. We're asking residents to take our survey. We also were at the Saturday market this weekend. We have a newsletter that will coming out on Friday. We will be distributing a flyer to the Chamber of Commerce, to the school districts, trying to get additional participation from residents outside of just social media. So that will begin this week. I believe all of the council members received an email in regards to a one-on-one interview. We do have one-on-one interviews that are being conducted in the next couple of weeks. We also have group interviews that we will be coordinating. there's a lot going on as it relates to the outreach so just wanted to get everybody heads up no further comments okay council member comments council member reed

All right, so I'm gonna start with some kudos for the police department. Chief already knows, because I texted him directly. I was out shopping with my wife and I had the great pleasure of seeing some of our police officers, I feel, go above and beyond what they had to. We had a gentleman that was stranded on the side of the road, right there in front of the antique store on C Street. and Officer Little and another officer, which I don't know what her name was, and the only reason I know Officer Little is because I've been around for a little while.

It was Officer Maramontes.

Her. A little while. They pulled up, got out of their cars, they popped their hoods, they got the jumper cables out, and they did everything to try to get this vehicle up and running, and they actually got it done and assisted him and I got to watch I took a picture and send it to the chief and I just I appreciate that our officers do that kind of thing because they could have just said oh we'll call you a tow or we'll you know call somebody else that you know I've seen it many places where some law enforcement don't think that that's their job so I'm glad to live in a city that sees it that way. The next thing, because Tuesday was a holiday, I got the great pleasure of visiting the Galt Market, which I haven't done in a while because I work every Tuesday and Wednesday. And I just wanted to reach out to or say to Armando that it's fantastic. I loved it. It was really nice to see the carnival that was there with all the little kids running around and having their fun jumping on their carnival rides. So, yeah. Haven't been there in a while, so it was a very nice. It was had way more vendors than I thought so Thanks for that and then the last thing and Chris knows where I'm going with this so this might take a minute As you guys know I closely monitor everything that does that happens with 911 emergency in our city Okay, and I'm just going to read the email that I sent to Chris because it says it a lot better than I could do it As you know, I closely monitor the availability and reliability of 911 emergency response resources in our city. And based on some recent incidents that I have previously shared with Chris, my little concern is growing, particularly in Galt, with our ongoing population growth. For context, on March 17th, multiple fire apparatus, not just ambulances like it normally is, but other fire apparatuses were also responding to 911 medical calls within the city of Galt. There was at least three Galt ambulances, or three Elk Grove ambulances in Galt at the same time. On March 19th, we also saw a significant presence of Galt unit, or Elk Grove units in Galt because we had five separate 911 calls that originated from Rancho Seco skilled nursing facility in the span of two and a half hours. So at 445, 538, 752, 833, and 829. That's more than our two ambulances can handle here in Galt. These events highlight the importance of maintaining clear visibility into our system performance and mutual aid reliance. So with that in mind, I'm requesting with the council's concurrence, A QUARTERLY REPORT THAT'S DUE TO THE CITY COUNCIL FROM THE FIRE DISTRICT TO INCORPORATE MULTIPLE THINGS. TOTAL 911 CALLS IN THE CITY OF GAULT. TOTAL NUMBER OF PATIENTS TRANSPORTED BY OUR GAULT UNITS. BOTH EMERGENCY TRANSPORTS AND NON-EMERGENCY TRANSPORTS WHICH IDENTIFIES THE CRITICAL PATIENTS VERSUS THE NOT CRITICAL ONES. NUMBER OF INCIDENTS REQUIRING AMBULANCE RESPONSE FROM OUTSIDE OF THE CITY OF GAULT INTO OUR JURISDICTION. and then average response time for those ambulances that are coming into Galt, and then the number of patient transports by those units outside of the city of Galt, and then also categorized between non-emergency and emergency. And this was again highlighted today on my way home from work. There was an ambulance that was dispatched to the city of Galt from Kaiser South Sacramento because that was the closest ambulance available. And the total response time for that ambulance was 35 minutes. And so this is why I'm so passionate about this, because this is what I've lived my entire life since 1997 when I started on an ambulance fresh out of high school. And this is very concerning to me, and that's why I would like to request this quarterly report from the fire department. And

Mr. Reid, has this been brought up on your two-by-two?

We've had one two-by-two meeting since I was assigned to that, and we discussed it in length. And yes. Let's put it that way.

You've had one two-by-two in a year and a half?

Yes.

But Mr. Reid, I was thinking that I was on that meeting too. We don't discuss that detail. We need to go back. It is okay we can discuss, but we need to go back to two-way to meeting. We can discuss more briefly on that, but it's up to the council.

Absolutely. I still think that we... I think we're in a position, it's different between us and the police department, right? The police department works for the city, right? Any of us can reach out to the city manager or the police chief and ask them any questions. They technically work for the city, which works for the city council, right? The fire district is totally different than that. They work for a completely separate board of directors. And so there's that difference in that relationship between the city services and the district. So that's why I'm putting it out there for us to ask for that information. Because with the population growing, the population hasn't grown yet. And you saw just for the information that I presented that it's a problem that certain people don't want to identify as a problem.

Well, I know we can't really discuss this because it's not an agendized item, so we've got to be careful not to get into a hold. But I support your concern for sure, but I think what I'd be looking for is I'm more concerned that you guys aren't having more two-by-twos because I felt like this could have been brought up in the two-by-two, and then if you came back to us and said that it was pretty much had no traction in the two-by-two, then we can figure out how we can better address it, but...

Yeah, we've got to call it. So either we want to give the staff direction or not, we can't get into more discussion on this just because it hasn't been agendized.

Just real quick, I did exchange... some emails with the CSD general manager and he's open to providing reports. So a couple other things, yes, we need to schedule a two by two soon. And then the other is we are having a representative from CSD come here in like a month to give an annual report. So I think a quarterly report by them is not asking for something crazy. I think that's something they can accommodate.

Well, that's good. Let's see what he has to say when he comes and seems like the city manager is making some rule and then we can go. Is that?

Yep. And then there was one more future agenda item and it's too bad that she's gone. I really would like the preserve to come out and if that's something and give a presentation like that lady said to the council. That's a possible future agenda item. I'd support that.

There's three. We can reach out.

she had me on the protected forest. I would definitely support that, but obviously up to the council.

I think there was three at least.

That's all I got.

All right, thank you. Council Member Pratton.

All right, attended the Saturday market. Mr. Solis, excellent job. I didn't stop and say hi, because you were working. So I just moved on. But it was great. There was a huge attendance by city staff there. So I think it is our event, but it was well attended. So I mentioned earlier the CGA had a luncheon that was on March 19th. I attended that, talked about that a little bit already, so I'm not going to go into detail on that. I... I did have my branding one-on-one already. That was good. It was about 20 minutes. Took a little bit of time to get the Zoom working for some reason. But once we got it going, it was a very good conversation. It wasn't just a list of questions. It was actually conversation. Felt to me like there was an intent there to gather as much organic information as possible. Just for the record, I didn't ask him to take the bird off or anything.

But did you ask for more trees?

Goats.

Goats.

I attended a Helping Hands general meeting. It was on March 25th. Now, Helping Hands is a fairly new organization. Outfit here, they've come they've done a presentation, and I was very impressed with their general meeting they got almost 75 members now It's pretty good and you know I think when they came to town there was some concern that you know when they open that up and started that that there was some concern that there would be some kind of conflict or or you know sometimes folks don't like how things are going with one one one outfit, so they'll go and create their own. But I don't see that with this group. I think they are what they say they are, helping hands, and they're absolutely trying to help anybody who's asking for help. So just wanted to pass that on. In two weeks, Cap to Cap's coming. I'm not going to go because it was a lot of work last time. So I want to thank those of you who are going to that, and good luck. That's all I have.

Council Member Sandhu.

Thank you, Ms. Mayor. The few things, first of all, I would like to thank you all staff in City of Guelph. They work in their heart. Thank you for the public comment. Thank you for the public came to this meeting. And lastly, I would like to welcome and congratulations to Mr. Buckman. Thank you for joining the team. That's it.

Council Member Farmer.

Yeah, so first of all, Saturday market was good. Thank you. Please pass on to your staff, not only the people that run it, but the people that clean up in the aftermath, because that's really, those are the people, you know, after all the fun's over and everybody's gone, they're out there picking up litter and stuff, and you know how I feel about litter. So they do a good job. They cleaned it very well, and they always do a good job with that. It was actually really, really busy. And it was so busy we actually caught the attention of Congressman Matsui and Don Natoli and some others that had gotten together and they were going somewhere in the area and then they noticed it like, hey, what's going on over here? Oh, it's the Saturday market, let's go. So we had a Lodi City Council member, Mikey Hathi was there, Don Natoli was there, and Congressman Matsui was there with her staff. She actually talked to quite a few people. in the area there, some citizens. They took a lot of photos and stuff and it was good. They were really impressed by the turnout. I want to thank Mr. Buckman for answering my questions earlier and welcome. I know Mr. Chung left, unfortunately, but I was going to thank him for filling in. I know it was not an easy job. It was really a trial by fire, and I'm sure he's happy to have you here. But with all the fun aside, though, as you can see, there are concerns that you've kind of jumped in both feet right now, and there are concerns. Some issues that you've heard from some Cornell Road folks today. I think I'm sure that the staff and the city manager are perceptive to the complaints about the weed stuff that was mentioned and the trash. That has been an ongoing thing. And I think that, you know, it frustrates me when existing citizens are burdened by something like that. I mean, they're already being burdened because their way of life is changing for sure because of the development, but it doesn't need to be burdened in ways that are not acceptable. So I would appreciate staff looking to this ASAP and take care of those issues. I support that. And I want to thank PD for their extra e-bike enforcement. I appreciate the social media. I think it was well perceived. General majority agree that there is a concern with the certain types of vehicles that are being used. And the crazy thing is I went to Lodi on Easter morning, actually. And in my short trip through Lodi to drop something off and back, I probably passed at least 10 or 15 illegal e-motos that were just going down the street with kids on them, and I was like, wow, it's everywhere, really. So, and that's great, the story you heard about the, true story, the battery on my bike died, my motorcycle I was riding, and Golf PD was nowhere around. to jump my bike. So I had to make other arrangements to get home. So anyways, I think that's all I have. The water slide, I heard somebody got stuck in it. Is that true? No? Somebody started a rumor and said somebody got stuck in the tube. Kind of made me a little nervous, I'm not gonna lie.

I was able to fit through it. All right.

Okay. All right. I think that's all I have, Mr. Mayor. Thanks.

I attended the Commission on Aging meeting. I've been trying to get over there and finally did, and I was very impressed. It was a very strong conversation. They have a lot. of ideas and some deeper ideas, and there were some transportation questions for seniors, so I kind of preempted them and passed along some information to the city manager, so hopefully we can see some movement from the Commission on Aging, other than bingo, they throw a great party. But they really are trying to do a little bit more than just social interaction so About that was really nice. I also attended the Saturday market was wonderful as always just keeps growing it seems And it's great to see the local community brick and mortars actually getting a lot of foot traffic. I had heard through the grapevine that the new sourdough place runs out of sourdough, so that was the first place we went early in the morning, and there was a line out the door. And then, of course, went over to the coffee shop, and there was a line out the door. So that's great for our local merchants. And then just all of the vendors, it's just been great. So please. Pass it along to your staff. Extremely happy they're doing a great job. It's been wonderful. I did have one small issue. Unfortunately, my issue was with the police department. Someone stole my coffee, or at least attempted to. I was thirsty. Where were you? He was the one doing it. Someone took off with my coffee. He was in this uniform and bald head.

I wonder who that was.

No, but no, all was good. I do have a question, though, Chief, because someone asked me, and I don't completely understand the e-bike thing. what is an e-bike and what's an e-moto or whatever. But someone asked me, before these motorized bicycles came along, those original scooters that you just used to kick with your foot now are motorized and were motorized before that. What are those rules? Are they the same?

They require you to wear a helmet first and foremost and then follow all the regulations that we put in the ordinance. So there's speed controls and right-of-way considerations and general conduct. So they fall in the matrix that we have for that equipment. And the moto bikes are the ones with VIN numbers, and then the e-bicycles do not have VIN numbers, and they're classed one through three. I don't know if that means a lot of money or a lot of information to you, but those are the three tiers that we have.

But they're all following the same basic laws that we have.

That you guys approved in the emergency ordinance last October.

Yes. Other than that, if anybody has anything else?

Yeah, just the simple thing for the public that's watching is if it doesn't have pedals, if it just has pegs, it's not legal to be ridden on the street or on the sidewalk or even on the bike lane. It is basically a dirt bike for off-road use. That's the simple thing. The classifications, you can Google it, call PD. Very happy if you're to call PD. They can help anybody who's looking to purchase one or find out if their kid's riding something that's legal. The simple one is pedals versus no pedals. That's an easy one.

And always wear a helmet.

But there's a different rule. Adults don't have to ride or use a helmet on a regular bicycle, correct? But they do on those. Yes. All right, and welcome, Mr. Buckman. Again, like Council Member Farmer said, jumping in the deep end here. Yeah, good luck. No, we're very glad that you're here to help us along here. All right. Okay, with nothing else, we'll go ahead and close this meeting. Well, I'm using this time, 7.37.