City Council - Regular Meeting

Like to welcome everyone to the regular city council meeting, Tuesday, May 5. If we can do we have anything to report from closed session?

Mayor, nothing to report.

Thank you. Alright. We'll go ahead and start the meeting with the roll call.

Vice mayor Reid. Here. Council member Pratton. Here. Council member Sandhu. Here. Council member Farmer? Here. Mayor Rodriguez? Here. Thank you.

If you could please join me in a silent prayer and, flag salute. Thank you. Tina, can you read the 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, the 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, May 8 at 9AM and Saturday, May 9 at 9AM on metro cable channel fourteen. Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at youtube.com/metrocablefourteen. Thank you. Do we, have any additions and or deletions for the agenda?

Alright. Seeing none, we'll go ahead with item h, presentations. Number one, City of Galt Special Sponsorship Program Preview Fiscal Year 2526.

City and staff. Oh, sorry. Good evening, mayor, city council. Today, I am here to provide you an overview of our special sponsorship program for fiscal year 2627. For this, not only am I providing you an overview of the sponsorship program, we're also going to review the fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven, 11 applications that we received regarding the upcoming sponsorship request.

These presentations tonight will only be a review of applications that we received in May 17. We will come back to counsel for counsel direction. The sponsorship policy and goals and objectives for the sponsorship program is to maintain to make sure they're promoting the city Of Galt as a desirable place to live, visit, and to do business, provide and promote the city Of Galt as a visitor destination, and bring tourism associated with the revenue to the city, enhance the quality of life and well-being of the citizenry, advance the city's commitment and pride in being a multicultural community, encourage the development of neighborhood identity and pride, and promote cultural and artistic awareness, aligns with the city of goals mission statements and our strategic plan. Sponsorship requests are not to exceed the $5,000 per event unless the city council approves a higher amount when it sets the entire budget for the sponsorship program. Soft cost examples are rental facility fees and any staff costs during regular scheduled time, and hard cost examples are janitorial services and any staff costs outside work schedule.

Security services are tangible items, And those are broken down in each slide. So, on this slide right here is a review of the 11 applications that were submitted, and now we'll dive into each application that was received. So for this year, we have Galt FFA Farm to Fork Dinner that has submitted an application for the 4th Street Promenade in September 12. There is a ticket entry fee and the total cost, which is police service cost, is 1,090. The Galt Sunrise Rotary is the Taco de Mayo.

The cost that we are asking for sponsorship is a $450 fee for security services as well as the soft cost which is the rental facility fee. Galt High Parade is a city street closure free community event on October 16, and there's two costs which is broken down below, and that is for police service cost as well as public works cost, and that total is $3,008.23 68. Liberty Ranch Homecoming Parade has asked for city street closure cost, and it's a free community event for September 25. The public works cost and, police service cost is a total of $4,006.95. Lahime of Galt, trick or treat on 4th Street, a city street closure on October 24, and it's a free community event and they are asking for sponsorship of, public works costs and it's about $7,800.

The Children's Makers Market is a street closure cost for May 1. It's a free community event, and they are asking $5,000, and that is to cover the cost of traffic control equipment. And, again, it's an event partnership with the Saturday market. The Cub Scouts is asking for 4th Street Promenade to be part of the Saturday market booth and to sponsor. They're asking for two sponsorships, two dates at the Saturday market of $90.

The Galt Chamber of Commerce is asking for up to four applications submitted. Each of them have them broken down on what request is which. Old Town Dinner and Dance is $5,000 request. The Boot Miracle on 4th Street is 2,500. Veterans Day is 5,000, and Poor and Play is $5,000.

So on 06/21/2020, the special sponsorship program was adopted, and it was a $7,000 budget for the sponsorship program, which has historically been our baseline for this program. In past and current, we have increased the community because of the interest, and we've increased the, expenses for this program. So as of right now with the budget, it has expanded to $34,000 to better support the growing demand of the sponsorship program. This increase reflects an evolving community engagement as well as the program needs. So at this time right now, we do have, some of the applicants that have submitted, their applications that would like to speak on their behalf.

So I will now invite each of them to speak. So first, if Grace Molson is here? Nope. Okay. I have, let's see, Zachary Atkins.

I'm I'm Zachary Atkins. I'm representing the local Cub Scout pack, and we're actually asking for the last three Saturday market dates, not two. I don't know if there is a mistake. That's okay. So the the main thing that we're looking to raise money for is for our outdoor activities.

We'll be we would be selling popcorn at the Saturday market. This is our big fundraiser for the year just like the Girl Scouts have their cookies. Ours is not as well known, at least from my understanding. Back the original Scout Handbook all the way in nineteen o eight even says that the Scouts should learn to pay their own way, and that's why we're not allowed to, like, solicit any donations except, like, I applied for this. But the money from the popcorn sales not only teaches the kids to earn their own way, but they also help it also helps families that may have a hard time paying out of pocket for things.

So for every popcorn sale, 24% goes to the scout to spend however the families that family deems fit, and then 10% goes towards the pack. And so this helps pay for things like they can use it for their membership, their camping trips, their camping gear. And then the last last year, the packs portion of the popcorn sales was able to pay for our upcoming camping trip at Rancho Osaco, so that helps out. Last year, my family and another family just split one of the Saturday market costs in hopes and and we did make enough to to more than pay for it, but every little bit helps. We're a smaller pack, and so even just getting out of the Saturday market helps us to be seen in the community.

That's it. Thank you.

Okay. Is Mariah Bray here avail or here? Gail Weber, and that's for the trick or treat on 4th Street.

My name is Gail Weber. I am the board president for Lahime of Galt. This will be our fifth year doing the trick or treat event. The event is free to everyone involved. We just ask businesses and service clubs to show up. We have about 30 to 35 that should come. Estimated attendance last year was close to 2,000 people. We actually make 2,000 treat bags every year that we hand out to all the kids and parents, anyone who comes. It's a fun event. It's become one of the biggest trick or treat events in Galt.

The street is completely closed off is what we asked for so that it's safe for the kids, and PD is there, usually the community service officers, and, anyone who's willing to help. It's fun event, so we're hoping that it can get approved again. Thank you.

And I have Becky Ronsby with the Children's Makers Market.

Good evening, everyone. Council members, mayor. So the Children's Makers Market was just this past weekend, I think I'm still recovering from it. But it was awesome. We had 92 kids participate and 64 booths, I believe. There was about seven that we I don't know what happened to them. They didn't show up. So, each time, it gets better and better. This time was actually our best one. It's getting smoother.

We've got it figured out. We have more volunteers. And with the city sponsoring us, it really helps cut those costs and it makes it a great event for the kids because they're in the street just like the big people at the Saturday market. So, Senator Nilo was one of our judges this past time, and so I think he really enjoyed it and we had the backing of him. So by closing the street and having the city sponsor us for that, it really helps us make that experience even bigger and we can focus on putting funds towards other things.

So, we're only going to do it one time a year now. We did it twice before and it was just too much for the kids and too much for us. So, we're going to do it at the May every weekend and coincide with the Saturday market. So, we hope that you approve it and it's a really great event. The kids absolutely love it. We've had people come up to us and say what that's done for their kid and how much confidence they have and it's teaching them to be a business owner. So, it's a pretty cool event. Okay, thank you.

And I have Kat Siebold from the Galt Chamber of Commerce.

Hello. So the dinner dance, this will be our fourth year hosting it in Old Town. It is part of a tradition that dates way back before any of our time, building the stage in Old Town, country music, barbecue. Hopefully, some of you have attended. So we like to keep that tradition going. Miracle on Fourth Street. So we moved the trees on 4th Street to the Chamber Courtyard. That turned in to be quite a great event for the community. We had over a thousand people actually vote for People's Choice for the Trees, and each night was hosted by a different local business as well as each tree is sponsored by a business, and it turns into a tree decorating contest. So we'd like to continue that.

For Veterans Day, we actually partnered with the Saturday market to celebrate our local veterans. I know that some of you council members were present for that as well as county supervisor Hume, and so we'd like to do that again this year. Pour and play is a spin on our beloved wine beer and food event. And so this year, it would actually be wine, beer, and tequila tastings partnered with a casino and the dueling pianos. And so the goal of any event that we do, obviously, is to keep our community local, support local businesses, and I know to the chief's favorite part is we do have a lot of alcohol at our events, and we do a great job at being safe and making sure that we're making good choices.

But pour and play, I think, will be a great way to continue to improve on wine, beer, and food highlighting our local breweries, wineries, and tequila that is coming.

So that concludes our presentation this evening. Like I said at the beginning, this is a review of the applicants. So we'll be coming back on May 17 for, direction from council. Any questions?

Council, any questions, comments?

So we're not approving this tonight. This is just a preview, correct?

Correct.

All right, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Alright. Our next presentation is the Galt Youth Commission Galt Youth Commission funding request.

Good evening, city council. My name is Daniel Rivera, and I am the chair of the Galt Youth Commission. We are here today in order to request funding for the commission's activities. With that being said, I will pass on the presentation to my esteemed commissioners, Estrella Diaz and Armand John.

Today, the Galt Youth Commission is asking for $2,500 added to our budget. And here are some of the things that we've accomplished, and you guys can help us accomplish more. One thing we do is we give away scholarships to local kids in Galt. They send in an application, and they ask for help, and we give them up to a thousand dollars for scholarships for their colleges to help them advance after they leave Galt. Another thing we like to do is civic engagement. We do a lot for the community. These are some of the things we do. We do community service, so we pick up trash. On weekends, we go around. We pick up trash around the community, make all a better place.

During Christmas time, we do toy drives. That's my personal favorite thing to do. Toy drive, I went. I worked with officer Colby. The night before, we worked. We packed up toys for all the kids. We divided by ages and genders. We and then the next week on Saturday, we got to hand it out to all the kids. It was amazing seeing their faces light up as they got those toys that their families may not or could not afford. Another thing we do is fundraising dinners. So we did the A to Z dinner for veterans the other day.

I'm sorry. So

in that, we were waiters. What we did, being waiters, we served food. We took down the costs of these fundraisers so they wouldn't have to pay people, so we could give all the money straight to the veterans themselves. Another thing we do is student outreach. I was in charge of getting new members of the Galt Youth Commission. We did social media. We got 25 applicants this year, which is a big up because our commissioners, we did go out to our schools, handed out applications. We went out to the Saturday markets. We gave our application. We got to talk to the people around Galt. What can we accomplish with the $2,500 So

I will take it from here. Thank you. We are hoping that we will be able to expand on how much we're giving in terms of scholarship for our students. The max we have done has been a thousand dollars in scholarships but this year we were, we did only 500 and though that is greatly appreciated, we know that we can do more to expand these career goals and opportunities for our students and this would lead to more efficient nurturing and enhancements of those students career goals because a lot of the decisions are based on financial aid and we just wanna be able to support them. And enhanced civic engagement.

Armon here already spoke about how we consistently go out into the community. That's something we're quintessentially known for and civic engagement were would allow us to be more present in the community and these funds would allow us to be more accessible for these events and participation and more resources would allow students to have a more hands on experience. I know that I've fallen in love with community service because of this. He already spoke to you about his experience and we just know that community service essentially, that knowledge is empowerment and we know that we can share that with the rest of the youth even if they're not on the commission if we had these funds. And we want to maximize student recruitment.

We have improved significantly this year, but we want to work harder on that. We want to go beyond just social media. We want to be able to show up on campuses and talk to students during their lunch. We want to go again to the middle schoolers. We want to go talk to the high schoolers in Gothai, Liberty Ranch.

We even have people from different high schools that are still living in the area and we just want to be able to continue expanding that. Like it says there, we want mentor and commissioner led workshops in order to better teach and integrate these lessons and values into our youth and we would be able to do that with presentations and demonstrations at schools. So, how do these accomplish accomplishments benefit us? Overall, we are all about the youth gaining a voice. We promote encouragement and involvement and we know that we can give the youth a strong foundation for leadership and we know that we are giving them a strong potential for change. So, even though we're already doing quite well, you can give us the opportunities we need to better enhance and maximize this. So, thank you.

Thank you. This is just a presentation at this time. Correct?

No. This one needs a decision.

It does need a decision. Okay. Okay, counsel, any thoughts and anyone like to start off the conversation?

Sure, I'll start it off. First of all, the presentation was phenomenal. I'm just going to say that. You guys wanted jobs. I think we were hiring so in the city. No, good job. The three of you is very good. I mean, obviously I'm a part of the Youth Commission as the council liaison. So I know firsthand what you guys do and what you guys are trying to do. And so, obviously, to my fellow, council members, we know that we we do, give a similar amount to other commissions for things. And, I wasn't sure. I think the staff report said that

the youth commission hasn't got any money since '18. I thought they'd

gotten some since then though. No?

No. They haven't.

Wow. So, yeah. So they haven't actually So there's been times in the past where we've given, you know, that set amount that we had come up with a while back to some of the other commissions. But the youth commission had not. So that's my plug for you guys. I hope that the council is supportive. I think you guys are great. I think it's important what you guys do to the community.

Yeah. Mayor Rodriguez, do you mind if I add something before council comments? I would just like to say that that was an awesome presentation and I certainly appreciate the work that the youth committee does and it's very important. And I wanna go back to something Councilman Farmer mentioned that it's been a long time since we've budgeted funding for the committees. I would recommend that the process we go back to providing that funding through the budget cycle.

So, as the budget cycle comes, the department responsible for each of the committees or commissions then provides that budget. So anyway, that would be my recommendation on how we move forward with that. The amount obviously up to council.

Which department is youth commission under?

City clerk. We've gone to city council. Okay.

Mr. Reid?

What's their current budget?

Anybody know? None. They just fundraise.

But I I would say, like, it's we have other committees too that have asked or requested funding and have gotten it in the past. You've got the Commission on Aging, you've got the Beautification Committee, all with appropriate uses of funds too. So if we are to fund one, we should probably do the others as well.

Mr. Kratton.

No comments.

Mr. Sandhu.

Thank you for, first of all, you for the presentation. And Youth Commission is very important committee. All community, all the continue are very important, but youth commission, that's our future. I agree with you what city manager said, but if we can do something to help them, we should help them because they will ask for long term. Thank you.

And I agree with all that's been said, especially the presentation, not just the visual, but the speakers did a phenomenal job. These are our future leaders and they're trying to, you know, here we are talking about the future of our city with this survey going out and they are the future of our city and if they want to participate, I don't want to be someone who puts an obstacle in their way.

I do have their amount if you wanna know it.

Okay.

$3,900

Is the

Budget in their account before Okay.

Current balance, yeah.

Okay. And that covers, I mean is that their only expense are the scholarships?

No, they have, does anyone wanna get up or?

I can speak. They participate in the Saturday market, which I don't know if there's a cost associated with that, but they do participate in the various parades to promote the awareness of the youth commission. They purchase candy for that and I think Halloween as well. Usually a lot of the adult mentors are kind of helping a little bit, but it's a little tight sometimes, you know, with the scholarships and stuff, they're rubbing nickels together occasionally. So this is why I think the decision was made to come and ask for at least some seed money.

And I know in the past, I don't know if they've did this recently, but when the new commissioners come on, don't they do some sort of get to know you go somewhere?

Yeah, do a team building event. Past its been, you know, various things. I think one year I went was to Big Trees and they did some hiking and things like that. They've done other things, but those are costs, of course, too. You know, all those things cost and they've been raising their own money to this point, so.

Okay, and remind me again the ask. It was 2,500? 200. 2,500. Okay. Well, I'll entertain a motion if anyone

I move to approve the the amount requested. Second.

Okay, moved by council member Farmer and seconded by Vice Mayor Reed. Roll call.

Can I clarify, is this a one time or do you want it per budget cycle?

Well, let me ask a question about that. So what Chris brought or the city manager brought up was visiting the budget cycle for all of the commissions.

Yeah. So let me give you history, mister Reeve, if don't mind. So I think correct me if I'm wrong, but we a few years ago for you, the three of you were here, we we brought back a twenty five hundred dollar amount would be something that the commissions could ask for. And we did do that. I'm not sure when actually that kind of stopped, but that was a reoccurring thing for a couple of years.

Pre COVID when we had a different city manager when budget Right,

okay. So it was something we had done in the past, but it just, it lapsed. And so we're not doing it anymore. So I've for certain, the commission on aging is very important. Obviously the youth commission, they're all very important. Now, obviously the parks and rec commission, they never came and asked because they operate differently. Planning commission, Beautification did. So they're not all gonna ask. There's only a few that actually need money that are out in the community doing things. I would like to make the motion that we not only grant the money as of tonight, but we bring those amounts back in the budget cycle for the particular commissions in the past that have,

I think, because I think it's

equally important for all

of them. Okay.

So you've amended your motion?

Yes, correct. So just to clarify, because I seconded it last time, the motion is 2,501 time and then we visit putting it into the budget for future funding after this. Yes or no?

Yes. Except I also heard and also potential budget for other commissions and committees as well.

Right, Tina, just to clarify,

can you identify which commissions that we're probably talking about?

It was only commission on aging, Galt Youth Commission and beautification.

Correct, so three. So my motion would be to basically include the $7,500 total in the budget cycle for those three commissions on an annual basis. Now if that needs to come back in the budget, but that's what I'm proposing. I don't know if

we can do that now or that has to come back at the budget time, but.

It would just be in the budget.

So are you asking that we establish boards and commissions like budget?

Correct, like an annual thing.

Yeah, if you wanna do a motion for sevenone that we can establish that and then we can put in this 2500. If you already approve it now, we'll make that effective 07/01.

But this '25 is now?

If you if the for this fiscal year fiscal year and then what will happen is it'll carry into as our base budget for '27.

Right. Okay.

So, as a motion to fund the 2,500 now for this fiscal year for, the youth commission and then for the budget going the next fiscal year, 2,500 for those three commissions. Correct.

Yes.

Okay. That's the motion.

That's my motion. Second.

Okay. All right. Roll call vote.

Vice Mayor Reed. Aye. Council Member Pratton.

Aye.

Council Member Sandhu. Aye. Council Member Farmer.

Yes.

Mayor Rodriguez. Aye. Okay. Passes with a five o vote.

Thank you. Thank you for attending and

for all that you guys do for the city. You probably don't get a lot of thank you, but officially we see it and thank you very much. Alright. Let's move on to item I, public comment.

Situated here. 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 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'm trying to live peace at Gott Senior Apartments without a prison atmosphere. At age 72, I figure I'm entitled to live in peace. Many of us have now been attending the emergency room because of the the mental anguish they've been putting on us. I'm not the only one in that building that goes to the I've been to the emergency room already three times. Okay. I'd like to bring up a consumer alert at the flea market. The T Mobile from Arden Fair Mall, which is 50 miles from from here, is back. Their alleged game is they trade up people's phones from other companies.

And they convince you that their plans are cheaper. Guess what? You have to drive all the way to Arden Fair to go get your phone and sign. Shouldn't they be doing it at the flea market? So you drive up there and you never get the same rep because he's not there. Their game is to trade you up to a higher price plan and a phone. And they switch you into a higher phone plan. And if you pass the thirty days, you can't change any of the plans or get any satisfaction. Okay. The response was when I took back my Internet, the Internet do not work all the places in Gaul.

They have to look up the address to see if the internet will work. They don't do that here. Even the T Mobile in this town, which is a fixed thing, are complaining about them to the corporate office. So supposedly, the the only reason they settled my my thing because I took the phone I took the WiFi back to the corporate office, and then I had to call about the phone. Well, add a phone on to your Internet, $10 a month.

Well, when you don't have the Internet, they boost it to $70 and they will not take the phone back. And so, basically, I had to call the corporate office. And so they took the phone back because they found out I was the one that took the sales force, Philip Morris. And she said she worked there. And they said, you are under training manual as a corporate terrorist. And so they trained all the affiliates and other corporations not to make somebody mad. So they learned a lesson. They took my phone back. I didn't have to pay. A lot of the government phone companies are coming to the flea market.

They are no longer allowed to take pictures of your Medi Cal card and your EBT card. That is how they skimmed and and drained everybody's account of the EBT card. So I notified the state, and they took action on that. So don't let them take any pictures. So it is the one hundred and thirtieth anniversary of the twenty year setting your civil service for retirement and pension.

That was all brought on by my great grandfather in 1895 when he was choked out by the police chief of San Francisco. 1896, the chief resigned without a pension. I'd like to see some action taken on safety issues. At elementary school, all the parents and the kids are crossing anywhere they want. They're not using the crosswalk.

So when we go to senior bingo, 100 of us, we have to run the obstacle course. We're a little bit slower on stepping on that brake and seeing things. So they need to have the school teach them to use the crosswalks because that's no way to teach the kids cross wherever you want and the cars will stop. And so basically, I like to bring up parking issues, AB four thirteen. You know, the Sunshine Law says you can't park 20 feet from a crosswalk and it's 15 feet from the Bob outs.

And did you know the spaces that are shorter, that are within fourteen, eighteen feet have to be marked compact parking only. Because on 4th And C Street and some other spaces on C Street, the spaces are shorter than 14 feet. So paint a line in between and let motorcycles park there. What else? Grocery outlet is nearing completion.

And they already committed to helping the food bank. And the owner has already come to the food bank to help out personally. I also like to acknowledge Park and Rex for trimming the bulb at 4th And C Street to two and onetwo feet. You can actually see somebody crossing in between the bulbs. Because before it was so high, you might see them when they get into the intersection.

So now you can plainly see them. And they do proper cleanup. After they trim everything, they don't blow all the garbage into the street like these private landscapers do. And I like to thank the flea market because the carts are now equipped with fire extinguishers and first aid kits. It took them a year and a half and basically, they're all the employees are trained and they're covered by the Good Samaritan law. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Lee.

Gail Weber.

Hi. Gail Weber again representing Lahime. Lahime is a small nonprofit that's on 4th Street. Our main focus is community support. We do everything from helping

with

the homeless. We provide them hygiene kits. We sponsor kids to science camp. We give money to the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts. We basically fill a need that other nonprofits don't even fill. So, we also do projects. We've done projects for the city, the schools. We sponsor a sewing class at McCaffrey. And today, we finished a project that we work on every year. This is probably our fourth or fifth year.

And since we just finished the project, I brought it here for Parks and Rec. We make them approximately 100 reusable net coolers for their employees. They go for the lifeguards, the people at the flea market, landscapers, anybody who works for Park and Rec. We do about a 100 of these a year. This is one of the few projects that we actually purchase fabric for. We don't use our donated fabric because we've got like to get really cute things. We have ladybugs and plants and a bunch of different spider spider man and stuff like that. So I'd like to present this to Jackie for for Parks and Recs. Like I said, we did 106 of these, and this is, our fifth year doing them. Their Parks and Rec is the only department that asks for them.

So if other departments are interested, we are more than welcome to do them for them also. So thank you very much.

Thank you so much. That is such a great service. Let's see the small town, love, feel, everything. That's awesome.

No more. No

more. Alright. So let's move on to item j, reports by city council members on regional boards, commissions, and committees. Those who attended cap to cap need to specifically address that as well as any other meetings that you've attended. We'll start with vice mayor Reid.

Fantastic. We'll start with the meetings, and then we'll move to Cap to Cap. So on April 23, I attended the, Sacramento Library, Authority Board, meeting. It was pretty straightforward. We, you know, got a couple of presentations from the friends of the library who do a lot of, fundraising for them.

And, then we just went over some contracts and renewing their, contracts and approving some furniture purchases. Nothing no real big deal there. The next thing I attended was, with, council member Sandhu, the city manager, and the police chief. We attended the two by two with, Consumness Fire. They gave us a pre they gave us a presentation on the last three months that I we requested from Consumness on how they're doing with their responses, and some of the things that stood out in the first quarter of the year, so January, February, March, the units in Galt responded to eight sixty seven nine one one calls.

And on the grand scale of things, Galt is on the lower end of that because Elk Grove is just busier. So 25% of the time, our our fire engines and ambulances are actually doing the work as opposed to 40% of the time, the ones in Elk Grove. One of the things that I did that I requested that I did wanna point out that in the first three months, there were fifty nine one one calls in which a app or an ambulance from Elk Grove was dispatched to Gault. Of that, only 28 purse or 28 of those 50 were transported to the hospital, and only one of which was a 911 call that required lights and sirens to be transported all the way to the hospital. But then we had some conversations about using Station 46 for other purposes that had to do with law enforcement, and that was about it for that.

So we'll move on to the cap to cap. Right? So obviously, we know that we went to cap to cap a couple weeks ago. The first, I will go into the three basically, three letters. I was on the public safety team and we wrote three white papers.

The first one had to do with federal funding of public safety. The second one focused on public safety innovations, and then the third one focused on workplace readiness. Most of it all act asking for either more funding or to continue the level of funding in which they are right now because a lot of the grants that are used through public safety have been on that chopping block from the federal government's budget over the last several years. We met with the public safety team met with senator Sheehy, representatives Kim, Barra, Matsui, McClintock, Thompson, and Kevin Kiley, which, Kevin the Kevin Kiley meeting, at the end of it, one of the things that we were that the public safety team was looking for was an additional funding to complete the regional, the regional fire police and EMS training center in Placer County that they coordinate with Sac State to train all of those types of individuals, and we've even gotten several of them here that work for Galt in the police department. And they were coming up short on the funding, and so Kevin Kiley's office basically said that they were gonna fill that gap to be able to complete that training center which will is not it's gonna benefit all of us, all of the Sacramento region.

And that's

yeah. That's it.

Great. Council member Pradden.

Alright. Couple of things. On Thursday, April 23, Air Quality Management District, where we had, five consent items, four public items, and one closed session item. Nothing real exciting to report. We have been working with them to have a meeting with our staff to look into some specific things that that maybe they can help provide us for our community.

They're they've got some grant money and we're gonna see if we can get some of it. April 23 at eleven, same day, I attended the CAPS luncheon. That was a great event. Don't wanna go into a lot of detail, on that, but it was a great event. Second year I've been able to attend that and, they do a great job.

I'd like to see that again next year. And I had one other item. So on the same day, I attended the ribbon cutting chamber of commerce for the Howe One Woman project which is going on tonight. They were very successful in their first, event, almost $14,000 to the person. So I'm anxious to see how they do tonight. That's all I have.

Council member Sandhu.

Thank you. I also attended, with the vice mayor Tamir Reid, CSD, two by two meeting. And if you remember the last meeting, vice mayor asked if they can give us say three month report. But we all were there with the staff and we are very much satisfied, you know, they're they're doing really good job. So, we all are satisfied they can give the report yearly instead of quarterly.

But, we also agree if if we feel something they really need to do quarterly, we certainly will ask them. And that was the meeting we have like local level and also I would like to report a little bit about the CAP meeting. Mister Reed already tell a lot of things what we did over there, but I have the opportunity to attend CAP to CAP conference in Washington DC. I will be representing the city of Galter with the elected official and also staff member. There were three three staff members, city managers, staff and assistant city manager.

Do during the con during the conference, we met with the federal lawmakers, some agencies, and we advocate what we need for our community. Like, in for example, infrastructure, transportation, public safety, development, and affordable housing. And there is a two meeting I really like to report back to the city council. One meeting I was attend with madam mayor, with the all the elected official from this area. I think maybe 70% elected official.

They did exchange with each other what they need for each county. There was a five county in this region, they went over there. What is surprising, everybody, and that's true, everybody have their own interest. I know there is some project like in Placer County and Sacramento, Placer County, they want it done, their best interest. And it was a good meeting and we meet each other and there are a lot of things I learned from that meeting.

The other meeting, I was with the city manager and assistant city manager with the congresswoman Doris Mathewy. We went to her office. You know, it it was very respectful meeting. There's some other agencies and assistant city manager. She did an excellent job to explain to her what we need for the city and is so surprised like in shiny star, there was a two, three agencies sitting.

She just jumped on it and tried to explain what we need. And, I'm not sure until the money can be our hand. Last year, we also talked to the congresswoman and she's very good listener and hopefully next couple month we can get some kind of federal funding for the city. And, the last thing, you know, this cap to cap meeting, they have a lot of fun too. There is a gala, reception, there was when we go over there, there is the first day reception. Thank you. That's it, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Mr. Farmer.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. I only had one, I did not attend the cap to cap with my constituents. So unfortunately I don't have anything to report on that. But I do have, I had a youth commission meeting last night and was good meeting as usual, as you can see by the caliber of our young people that were here earlier. We went over some budget stuff.

We went over some fundraising ideas and we do a thing in the beginning, I just mentioned this one thing, we do a thing called the icebreaker in the beginning of the meeting where it's just a question that one of the adult mentors poses to each of the young adults And it's always just to get conversation going. Conversation last night was if you had to eat one fast food restaurant for the rest of your life. So what I can say is if whoever's doing the marketing with Taco Bell towards the young people, they're doing a phenomenal job because that was the biggest hit. It was a surprise, but

The new Dunkin' nuggets.

Yeah, that's all I have to report. Thank you.

So

I did not have the opportunity to attend any other meetings other than cap to cap. I for cap to cap, I was on the civic amenities committee. We did not meet our committee did not meet with legislators. What our committee did was go to areas around DC where they were showing us how things can be improved and building relationships. And so one of the places they took us to is Union Market and just a brief history on Union Market back in the late 1930s.

It was a huge open market and it was just the everything in that area. Everybody came to it. It was everything and then it just kinda went downhill after a few after a decade or two, and then unfortunately, led local legislators made rules that you couldn't have open air markets, and so it pretty much shut it down. So it kind of became, forgotten and, taken over by whoever. And so then in 2012, a developer came in and developed a relationship with the city and developed a more importantly, developed a relationship with that with that neighborhood who were very, very, standoffish and leery and very untrusting of anybody coming in.

So why do I tell a story? Why do I think this is important? Well, I should say the developer has invested, the city has invested in this area, and it is now a very up and coming area. They've reframed. They are, a place to a destination place that people go. It's a huge food hub. They do they there's let's see. I I did write some stuff down. I guess I could read it. They've it's that features a gourmet food hall, luxury apartments now, creative studios, and niche retailers, and it's really became become the place to be.

The whole thing isn't done. So walking some of those streets, you know, you can see what it had been, and they're slowly building it and it is pretty fascinating. So what it did and what I brought home for Galt is what it reminded me of, not that the Galt market has gotten that bad, but it just shows what type of relationships if we can build trust within the community and trust with with, marketers and develop and the big bad developers that all of them are not big bad, that they can come in and build something great, that a destination, a place where people want to be, and and then eventually maybe live since we have all this housing being built. But it it was pretty fascinating to see what had become of this. They've got I don't know if anybody watches Top Chef, but one of the top top chef contestants is one of the chefs down there at one of the hotels.

It just really has become a a destination where it was a a place that you avoided before. One of the the next day, they took us to Nationals Stadium. Now, Galt's not gonna have a big baseball stadium, but what Galt does have is a lot of fields. So it was an interesting, you know, you had to pick and choose what what to bring home and what could associate with home. And one of the things that they talked about was the relationships that they have with the food vendors at the stadium.

Their food vendors, they have the big guys like, I think it's Coke, the big national brands that come in, but their food sources are local vendors. They're, Ben's Chili Bowl, which apparently is the everything in DC, they have they are a vendor there. So I I would equivalent them or yeah, I equivalent them to somewhere, you know, like maybe Velvet Grill and if somehow we can develop some sort of relationships at our new fields coming in or or do something that we utilize our local people. Anyway, that's what kinda went through my mind was that this is this is how we utilize. We also went to the Kennedy Center, and they have teamed up with a program called the Breach, is a an art the art community out there, and so that that was another I had to leave that one quickly because I wanted to make the elected meeting that council member Sandhu mentioned.

I won't go into detail, since he already spoke about it other than that I will say it was probably one of the most beneficial meetings I have been in in years. It was interesting because it was called Sac Metro Chamber puts on this cap to cap. They had one representative there who acted as a, well, a mediator, but as a facilitator in the conversation. And there was no staff members. It was just electeds.

And I don't know if that was the trigger for this conversation or what it was, but it was very raw and very interesting to hear the needs from the different areas and the different municipalities, and then almost the pleading the other municipalities to allow them to, forego their funding that they're receiving from other places so that, in this case the JPA connector, that grant line, big long thing, they want all the funding available, all to go to that and all of us to forego that, the other funding. And so you can imagine how other entities felt about that. And it was very interesting. It was also interesting, and I highly recommend, our local school boards attend because a very good discussion happened, with high school board level, with junior high level, and the universities who, lo and behold, find out in this meeting, they're not communicating. And so one brought up something and the others went, well, I wish you would have told us this.

It was just a very interesting, very raw conversation, and very good conversation. So if I took anything away from cap to cap, that right there was great. Oh, actually, I take that back. The best relationship that I got, and, Kat will be happy about this, I actually made a good friend with Union Pacific. So I we're hoping to be able to utilize this contact to maybe hurry up some progress that we're trying to do on that property.

So there we are. Okay. Moving on item k, information consent calendar. It is recommended that items one through 10 be acted on simultaneously unless a separate discussion and or action is requested by a council member. Council? Sorry. For the consent calendar, would anyone like to hold anything?

Yep. Five and seven.

Okay. Anyone else?

I'm just number 9, please.

Number 9? Okay. All right, then I'll entertain a motion for I'll read them. Item one, receive and file warrants for period ending 04/23/2026. Number two, minutes of the regular meeting of 04/07/2026.

Number three, lease amendment with California Department of General Services for warehouse space at 140 Enterprise Court in the city of Galt, extending the term through 05/31/2028. Approval of senate bill one s b one annual project list for fiscal year twenty twenty six twenty seven. Number six, lease agreement with set with Storr Transit Systems Inc. For warehouse space at 140 Enterprise Court in city of of Galt from 07/01/2026 through 05/31/2028. Item eight, twenty twenty six primary municipal elections.

Number 10, legislative update and letter of opposition to senate bill eight zero two. Is that it? I think that's it. Do we have any public comment? No public comment. Thank you. Thank you. I will entertain a motion on items one, two, three, four, six, eight, and 10.

I move to approve as read by the mayor.

Okay. Second.

Okay. Moved by council member Pratt and seconded by council member Sandhu. Roll call.

Vice mayor Reid. Aye. Council member Pratt. Aye. Council member Sandhu. Aye. Council member Farmer.

Aye. Mayor Rodriguez. Aye. Those pass five o. We'll move to number five, award of construction contract for the Walker Park Walker Community Park phase two a project, CPI 625A and award of professional services agreement for construction management and inspection services. Mr. Reed.

Yes. So, I had a little bit of back and forth with, the public works director and the city manager about this one. And it my concerns for five and seven are both the same. My concerns are, one, a schedule, in in the projects. Two, basically a timeline of what each step is gonna take.

And then three is what are we gonna do or what are we gonna put in place to make sure that the the contractors stay on schedule. Right? So we have problem we we've had problems in the past with with contractors going past their their estimated dates, and what I'm asking for is talking about putting in something into that that says, if you're this many days late, then you pay you pay a fine and so on and so forth. And when and I'm just gonna go back to my email with the public works director. And what he said was, basically, the contractor is subject to damages in the amount of 7,200 for working days if the construction is not completed within the allowed working time and then the same thing with the gun range, but that cost is different at 1,500.

And so that, that was the suggested language by him to put into this, but I told him I I wanted to make sure that we brought it in front of the council before so that we could all make that decision because I just wanna make sure that the contractors have some vested interest in getting this done and getting it done on time.

I have a quick question for mister Splendario. Can we change that since it's already went out to bid and that's what they bid on

without What is the current LD's amount?

Those those are the amounts. The for Walker Park, the liquidated damages amount is $7,200 per day. For the gun range, it's $1,500 per day. And that's built into the contract. That's a contractual provision.

And that was part of and the contract was attached to the bidding materials.

That's correct. I think what Vice Mayor Reed and I discussed in our back and forth email is adding language to the council reports to highlight for the public and for the council what the expected construction timing is, you know, the expected start of construction, the number of allowed working days, and what happens if the contractor does not complete construction within the allowed working days.

Yeah, that seems like a reasonable approach. I would be hesitant to change the contract since it's already been formally bid and we're stuck with a public contract code, but casting that kind of like information is a good way.

And I'll

just say the LDs are not something and I'm sure your public works director knows this. Sorry, liquidity damages aren't something that we can arbitrarily make up either. They have to be tethered to real world costs and impacts. If not, it's going to be looked at as a punishment, and courts won't enforce that. So LDs aren't sorry, liquidity damages have to be something that is based on real world costs and impacts. That's why those two contracts have different amounts.

And our general approach is to use a formula developed by Caltrans, so we're not doing this arbitrarily.

Right.

Yeah, and thank you for that. And I misunderstood that in the very beginning, but I do agree that making it more publicly known is great because of, you know, a lot of problems that we've had with contractors and all of this and, you know, just so the public knows that we're trying to hold these people's feet to the fire and make sure that they get the job done when they said they're gonna get the job done and on time. So thank you.

Anyone else?

Is there not language that says, I mean, if we have there's language that says that if they go over, then they this is how much the damages are. There has to be some language that says what those dates are. Right? Correct. So there is language in there about that?

Yes. There's working days.

Yeah. The contract has provisions that allow a certain amount of working days and also sets the liquidated damages if the contractor doesn't complete the job within the allowed working days. That's all built into the contract. The contracts are two contracts that are currently before you have that in there. What we're talking about is highlighting in the staff report what the expected construction timing is and what the liquidated damages amounts are. So we'll now add language, the two sentences that provide the information for the benefit of the council and the public.

Okay. I don't have any more. Thanks. Thanks.

Mr. Sandhu, anything?

No. Thank you.

All right. If you're

Sorry. So was saying since that was a concern for both, you could do one motion to approve both.

Yeah.

I'll make a motion to approve five and seven.

Unless someone else wanted to speak about seven? Okay, okay. So we have a motion to approve seven or, yeah, five and seven. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

K. So I have a motion by vice mayor Reid and a second by council member Pratton. Can I have a roll call, please? Vice mayor Reid?

Aye. Council member Pratton. Aye. Council member Sandhu. Aye. Council member Farmer.

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez. Aye. Motion passes five zero. Item nine, mister Farmer.

Yeah, this item is the opposition letter. We're being asked to sign to oppose the two assembly bills, Assembly Bill 2,315, Assembly Bill sixteen seventy nine, which are being proposed to essentially change the existing MECO laws, which is a micro enterprise home kitchen operation laws. For those of you in the audience may not aware or watch this mending back, this is regarding the home based restaurant food laws. And so, Ms. Mendez, I know the staff report is pretty thorough, but I would just wonder if you would hear me and just giving just a very quick maybe overview, maybe just off of the thing about really why this is such a big deal, why we're being asked to oppose it.

So microenterprise home kitchen operations or WE GOES are essentially, small home based food businesses in which people prepare and sell meals directly from their homes. Right now, they're only allowed in areas that choose to permit them, and Sacramento County does not currently allow them. Assembly Bill two three one five would change that by requiring all cities and counties to allow MECOs. It removes local control by mandating permit approval, limiting zoning authority, and shifting oversight mostly to county health departments. Whereas Assembly Bill one six seven nine would require cities to allow temporary pop up businesses in existing commercial spaces for up to one hundred and twenty days and subsequently create a path for them to become permanent businesses.

In short, both bills are intended to support small business, but they significantly reduce local control and create new requirements for city. I think Assembly Bill 2,315, from a code enforcement standpoint, and quality of life in our neighborhoods is, risk, that we would be dealing with. But additionally, from an economic development standpoint, really is an unfair advantage for our existing restaurant businesses that operate currently. Without the overhead, these small home based operations would be able to cook meals in their kitchen and sell them directly to consumers, either by pickup or delivery through online sales, and really not a lot of oversight from the city would be allowed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the research I've done on this, this basically would allow if someone wanted to open a restaurant in their house, in their neighborhood, they could set up tables backyard, inside the home, even the front yard. They can basically conduct business just they would in a commercial location, is that correct?

Correct. The county showed a video of San Diego County and there were picnic tables set up in the front yard and they had acquired an ABC license to sell liquor out of their garage or beer. I'm not quite sure what type of license it was. But there was a cashier in the garage, drinks in the garage, the cooking was being done in the kitchen, and people were able to gather and consume the food in the front yard.

Yeah, so thank you for that, Ms. Mendez. I mean, for those of you that may like, again, will be watching this or if you're in the audience, just to kind of really break this down in layman's terms, what this really means is that businesses could people in a residential area I mean, have zoning right now. The city of Galt has process where someone wants to open a certain type of restaurant. There's certain zoning, there's commercial, there's mixed use, and so on. And then we have residential zoning. Residential zoning is, just like it sounds, it's neighborhoods where people live. I mean, do people do conduct their own businesses out of their homes? Maybe somebody sells something mail order. Maybe you might see a UPS truck coming and picking up boxes and dropping off and things like that.

But this is an entirely different animal. Whoever thought this was a good idea, I just This is a perfect example of somebody thinking, as it says, that the intent of this was to create to encourage entrepreneurism. Right? Well, it's great that we're encouraging that and we want people to start businesses. But I don't think that the crazy idea of letting people open a restaurant, bar, you know, coffee shop or whatever in their home and just conduct business, I mean, think about, imagine 30 or forty, fifty cars maybe more a day coming and parking all over in the neighborhood in front of people's houses so that they can go to your neighbor's house and drink at Joe's Sports Bar in his garage or whatever.

The fact that people would be The ABC thing is even another level. People could be drinking, driving you know, drinking and driving, you know, is already a dangerous thing. Now people could be drinking and driving in your neighborhood. Some of the scary things is there's not even it says in there that it strips away local control of not only allowing these things, but it strips away that there's no limit to how many can be had. So you could have seven of them on the same street of various things.

The other part which is very unfair to, I mean, you can already kind of imagine the unfair playing field that you're gonna be talking about versus not only brick and mortars, but even, you know, food trucks and things like that that operate legally under certain parameters right now. But you can then go into a site where there's language and you're talking about, you know, like if you go to a commercial restaurant in Galt, they're gonna have to have, you know, if they're cooking there, they're gonna have to have a hood, fire suppression system, those kinds of things. You're not gonna have those in someone's home. And so those things are being waived. You don't have to have those things.

So talk about unfair rules. So I mean, what will happen is this might be great to spark up somebody starting a taqueria in their garage or bar or whatever in their home. But the problem is it's going create a massive safety hazard in the neighborhoods. It's going to be a code enforcement nightmare, to put it lightly. It's creating a completely different set of rules for someone who wants to connect a business in brick and mortar versus under this new thing should it pass.

And I can just envision who's going to move into a vacant building. Ms. Mendez works very hard to court businesses to come in and occupy a vacant space in our commercial area or our downtown or old town or whatever. Who's gonna wanna do that? Who's gonna wanna do that when they can just open in their house?

And then they say, Oh, we're gonna inspect it. They're gonna be held to the same standards. I can tell you right now, Firsthand, as a business owner, Satt County, it tells us all the time they're so far behind on their inspections that they're not gonna get inspected. Maybe initially, but they're not gonna get regular inspections. And I've seen some of the videos that you spoke about, Amy, it's disturbing. So I am very much supporting the opposition to this. I would hope that all of us will oppose this. I hope that our letter will hopefully catch someone's eye. Hopefully other cities will do this and we can prevent what I think is gonna be a disaster. And I'm hoping that, you know, our chamber of commerce can step up.

I mean, as a council member, we are here to, you know, we're not here to stop business. None of us have ever done anything to stop business in Galt. We encourage nurturing business. But my job as a council member, and I think all of us, is to protect not only the businesses in Galt, but to protect the economy in Galt and economic development in Galt. And this is, on the face it might sound like it's promoting that, it really is gonna just be massive side effects that are gonna be bad.

So again, I hate to go, I could carry on about this, but I don't think I need to belabor this. But I just wanted to state that for those of you who are watching this meeting back and don't really understand what this is, this is a big deal. And I'm praying that it doesn't pass. So that's what I have to say on this topic. Thank you for allowing me the time.

Do we have public comment? Okay. Ken Lee.

I'd like to bring up when I've witnessed some of these faces He's doing them. They go under the disguise as a fundraiser weekly, and they use it as illegal party to bring people there from out of town and encourages gang activity. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lee.

No

more. Oh.

She still has

to turn

in a card.

Asked Chris. He said

come up.

Oh.

Miss Siebel.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight about MICOS. As director of the chamber, my role is to advocate for and support our local businesses, many of whom face significant challenges. Galt is often described as a bedroom community. I wanna begin by saying that we fully support entrepreneurship and small business growth. Many successful businesses do begin at home, but there is a difference between encouraging entrepreneurship and unintentionally creating an uneven playing field.

Many of our existing restaurants and food businesses have invested heavily in our community, and my concern is whether Mikos creates direct competition under a very different set of operational standards. And my concern for them is, you know, they have a lot of different parameters that they would have to follow between ADA compliance, health inspections. There also is quality of life concerns. So when you think of DoorDashers coming into your neighborhood or, who would be responsible for patrolling the different residential areas that could potentially have these pop up restaurants and what impact that would have for pulling our police departments into neighborhoods instead of our commercial areas. And so I'm not asking counsel to dismiss innovation, or entrepreneurship.

We're simply asking that, we really move thoughtfully and carefully and that we consider our current existing restaurants and storefronts as we make this decision. Thank you.

Joan Warblin.

I have two issues on this. Number one is the parking. You talk about parking. I mean, I sat through a meeting here one night when we talked about where are people going to park their boats and their trucks and so now we're going to have a restaurant. No one is addressing the thing that concerns me is the health of the people of Galt.

In some of these areas, and I've talked to some people in the last few days where they've had this, they've set up, you know, you have to have a refrigerator for the food you're selling. You have your own refrigerator. Now this is in somebody's house. So how many people are gonna have a separate room that they can have a refrigerator in and all of the stuff just for the food that's being sold? It's a home.

Where is the dog and the cat and the kids? They're in the kitchen with mom cooking. I mean, as silly as it sounds, a heptavirus is from rats and mice. If you've all been following the news, you know that they have a ship right now that has had three people die and they've had to airlift someone. This comes predominantly from, mice and rats and food sitting around in quantities and all attracts rodents.

I mean, I think one of our biggest concerns that can be voiced for anybody is this is not a good idea and God knows the county doesn't do. I mean, I know they're overstaffed and if you read the b, you see all the restaurants that are closed down because of rat and mice drippings in the kitchen. Every week, they have a list of restaurants in Sacramento closed and those are the ones they get to. So and they're clean places. I've eaten in some of them and was upset when I saw their name on the list But, it is a serious problem and it could become a really bad epidemic and you could lose some citizens.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Wardlin. Any Tim or So Mr.

I strongly support small business. Right? Small business, we know, is the backbone of communities like ours and basically across the nation. So we are already having a problem with pop up food vendors that are not working out of people's homes. So you give them the ability to now work out of their homes, it's gonna be even more of a problem. Right? Problem for my biggest concern would be public safety. Right? Now the chief is gonna have to have a lot more work on his plate for law enforcement and the fire department. Right?

I just looked it up, and up to 50% of residential fires are from cooking. So now you're talking about increasing the amount of cooking in a home that's not made for commercial use, and now it's just going to, you know, reduce the amount of availability of public safety in our town where I already have concerns about it. So that I'm absolutely 100% against it, and we should do everything we can to stop it.

Thank you. Mister Pratton.

Just would say that the, council agenda report is very well written, discusses all these issues and, yeah, I absolutely think this is craziness. My biggest issue is the, you know, the taking the control out of local. You know, some city wants to do this, good for them, but no control. I don't like it. So I'll support.

Mister Sandhu?

You know, I will support with that because that's not make sense when you're running a businesses. You have a commercial, you have a huge permit, so anybody can go over there. But when you're running a business from home, you know, I'm not convinced. So that's why I'm going to I agree with all my other council members.

I just want to add two quick things too that weren't I agree the staff report very well written. Thank you, staff. What about garbage? I mean, are we going to drop commercial dumpsters in front of somebody's house? What about grease traps? I mean, people cook that, they have grease traps. I mean, there's just so many questions. I think there is mixed use buildings in town. If somebody wants to rent an apartment above the fourth Street Tavern where there's residential above whatever, they know what they're signing up for. Know, they'd understand that they're gonna live above an establishment.

This is a common thing in Sacramento and in various areas where you have mixed use. But when people buy a home in a residential neighborhood, they don't sign up for all of a sudden a law getting passed that now allows their neighbor to start up a restaurant in the front yard. So that is the biggest problem is that we've now blurred, like the staff report says, we have blurred the lines between commercial and residential. Essentially, we're just might as well just eliminate the zoning altogether. What would be the point of it? Cause there won't be any zoning. There'll be, you know, commercial, residential, whatever, won't be any different. So, again, highly disturbing. I can go on and on about the things, but I think we've made points. Ms. Mayor.

Yeah. I agree with everyone, everything that was said. I do have kind of a strange question, though, because I didn't think about the ABC license, and maybe this is a chief question. Are don't we aren't there alcohol laws that you can't be out, like, on public property drinking? So, can they all be out in the front yard? Or are they going to have to stay in the garages? Or, I mean, that just seems like you're opening up public intoxication issues. I don't know.

Yeah. So there's going to be an issue with, that will probably be highlighted in the assembly bill. But there are concerns with obviously, we have it was highlighted earlier in public comment, my concerns about everything being an alcohol based event. So certainly, we'll have issues with, residential properties hosting, you know, restaurant businesses with or without an ABC license. So it needs to be controlled.

Thank you. Oh, well, and parking too. Don't I mean, right now,

our businesses, anyone that goes into a commercial area, you have to have a certain amount of parking available. And obviously, I mean, they're just sidestepping every rule, every ordinance that is put in place to keep the public safe when it going to a business or an event or whatever. We have these rules for a reason.

Yeah, I'll just quickly say for the record before you all vote to approve this item. There is I'm not sure about the videos that Ms. Mendez is referring to. Those may have been videos of people not behaving well or properly. Under the Microenterprise Home Kitchen statute, it allows them to make, prepare food, and sell for off-site consumption, or they can consume on-site.

But it doesn't authorize the MECO statutes don't say anything about alcohol service. Obviously, ABC regulates that. So that would be a separate issue that you'd have to take up with alcohol and beverage control. But this MECO statute doesn't authorize that on its own. It doesn't, you know, it's preparing food, selling it for off for off-site or on-site.

Gotcha. Okay. If everybody's set, I'll entertain a motion. Moved.

Second.

Okay. Moved by vice mayor Reid and seconded by council member Farmer. Roll call. Vice mayor Reid.

Aye. Council member Pratton. Aye. Council member Sandhu. Aye. Council member Farmer.

Yes.

Mayor Rodriguez.

A very, very huge loud yes. Okay. Moving on to I lost my do we have any scheduled public hearings? None. So the regular consent or regular calendar, city council office, public safety appointment. Miss Hubert?

So tonight, the recommendation is council member Sandhu appoint a community member to the public safety committee to fill a vacant position with remaining term ending December 2026. The vacancy occurred due to the resignation of Khiradip Sandhu on 01/13/2026. City staff advertised the vacancy on the city's website and social media sites for a total of four months. One application was received and the applicant meets the required qualifications. And

Yes. I would like to point to Lynn John Cotton Smith to the vacant position. I believe she can be here, but she have another event, so she cannot attend the meeting, but I would like to appoint her.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Item two under item m, treasurers city treasurers report.

Thank you, madam mayor, city council members. Tonight is, two things. First, I will talk about the investment policy for the upcoming fiscal year 2627. So every year per government code, the investment policy has to be brought before you as the council. And, really, what it policy does is a couple things.

One is, ultimately, you as city council members have the authority to invest funds for the city. And so what this policy does is it delegates that authority down to the city treasurer. And along with that, it it also in the policy, it states exactly what the objectives of the city treasurer should be, you know, safety, liquidity, yield, and then also what types of investments that, that the city can get into. So that's the purpose of the investment policy. Now between this past fiscal year, or I should say this current fiscal year and the proposed next fiscal year for the investment policy, I've made three changes.

First and the most obvious is the actual fiscal year. So it it shows 2627. Second is on page three of the policy. Under paragraph seven, it talks about ethics and conflicts of interest. And I'm just gonna read the one sentence that I added, and that is California's, senate bill eight fifty two who requires public officials who manage a local agency's investments is required to file form 700 statement of economic interest through the Fair Political Practices Commission's e filing system and not the city of Galt.

So what that means is I have to file a form 700, which I have done throughout the decades to do that. And and in the past, I have turned those into right here at the city clerk's office. But about five years ago, the city clerk changed that, and I've been filing electronically directly to the FPPC, as I said, for the past five years. And so the but just it now needs to be put into the policy here. Okay? So that's one change. The other change is on paragraph

let's see.

On page five, which is under section nine, authorized and suitable investments, there is one investment that I could invest money into, and that is called commercial paper. And what we're doing is just simply changing the maturity limits from two hundred and seventy days to three hundred ninety seven days. Now what that all this is is just the the California code chain made that change, and I'm just reflecting that change in in here. As the city, we have never invested in commercial paper. And, there's based upon our small investment portfolio, there's really no reason to.

Commercial paper is used mostly for, like, say, large cities or large counties, and and they could use that change in in the number of days. The reason why it was changed was so that way the California code could be more in line with the s c SEC rule 12 dash seven a, which more or less governs money market funds. So all they're doing is just kinda matching up the SEC rules along with the California government code. And that, of course, I just wanna match it as well. Okay?

So those are the three changes to the investment policy, and I ask, I'll ask for at the end that you approve both the treasurer's report and the investment policy all at once. So now in speaking to the treasurer's report for the period of ending March 2026, as you know, I always kinda give an economic update, k, as as requested. First, I'll talk about the unemployment rate based upon EDD's website. And it says that the city of Galt has a labor force of 13,200 people, and, 12,400 are employed, which, which means unemployed is about 800. And according to their website, Galt's unemployment rate is 6.3%.

Now the county's unemployment rate is 4.8%. I will say according to the ED's website, not saying it's accurate, I don't think it is, but I'm just saying, Our our unemployment rate of 6.3 is actually second to Ileton. Ileton is actually higher. They're at 10% unemployment rate, and then Galt is next, which kinda surprises me because usually there's a couple other communities within Sacramento County that's usually higher. But, again, if, you know, if you don't if you don't agree, take it up with EDD.

Okay? So that's the unemployment rate. Then I wanna talk about, of course, housing. That's always a favorite topic. And I will start off by providing you with City Of Galt's, sales for the month of March.

There were 23 homes that were sold. The, median asking price was $550,000. The sell price ended up being 545,000. So if you look at, the closed price per square foot, you're looking at about $314 per square foot. Now of those 23 homes, 20 sold within sixty days.

Okay? Now you're gonna hear a little different story for the month of April. So the month of April, there were 28 homes sold here in Gull. Listing price was 534,000 and the closed price was 520,000. The which if you do the calculation, that means $302 per square foot.

So it's kinda the price per square foot went down from March to April. And of those of those 28 homes, let's see. 25 of those were sold within ninety days. Okay? And 20 of the 28 were sold in sixty days.

So it's they seem to be on the market a little bit longer and at a slightly lower price. Now when I was here last time, council member Farmer asked me to to look at our neighbors to the south of the city of of Lodi and how how we as the city of Galt compare to Lodi. Well, Lodi has two main ZIP codes, and that's what this report goes by. The first one is like downtown, which then go downtown Lodi and then goes south and east. So that is the zip code of 95240.

And, just a couple statistics from there is for the month of April, the listing price was there the I'm sorry. There were 24 homes that were closed. Listing price was $5,505,000. Closing price was exactly that, 505. And the but the closing per square foot was higher, $377 per square foot.

Okay? And of the 24 homes, 18 were were closed within sixty days. Now for the ZIP code of 95242, which is just outside of downtown and then which goes east and north all the way to Acampo. So there were 29 homes closed in that in that ZIP code, and the asking price was 659,000. So you got a little bit more expensive homes.

The closed price was 650,000. So it's pretty close, but slightly down. The the per square foot was 310 or I should say $3.11. So it's very close as far as the square footage to what we had here in Gull. Okay?

Now there's tons of statistics that you can find. And also, while I was doing a lot of this research, I found a website which I thought was just very, very interesting. It's called unitedstateszipcodes.org. And if you put in a ZIP code into that website, it will just provide you with tons of data as far as income data, demographical data, just pretty much, you know, educational data, pretty much anything you want along with tons of charts and graphs, and it's very, actually, very interesting if you really are are into and you wanna look at all all these statistics and and look at demographics of whatever community you wanna look at. So with that, I'll address now the the treasurer's report actually of of March 2026.

The main thing here is that, I wanna bring out two things. We we, as a city council, always talk about buying local or investing local. And as a city, we do that. We have, as at least at the March, '25 about $25,000,000 invested right here in our local bank. Okay?

And now remember, this safety comes first. Those deposits are all collateralized, which means that there are securities that are held by the bank that that back up the money that we have invested. K? So I just wanna make sure that everyone knows about that. We received a interest rate of four point o 8%, which is which is pretty good.

Interest rates have ticked down a little bit, and so four point o eight is actually pretty good. Now for the first nine months of the fiscal year, we as a city have earned $4,400,000 in interest. Now in comparison, that's slightly down from last year, and it's a real easy reason because interest rates have come down. Last year at this you know, last year, last fiscal year, I could get somewhere around 5%, whenever I buy a bond. Now I'm getting around four to about four fifteen.

So that's I mean, it's a very simple simple reason. If I had to make a projection as to the end of this current fiscal year, I'd say we probably will earn somewhere around $5,400,000 in interest, which is the would be the second highest that we as a city have ever earned. The the highest was, of course, last fiscal year where we earned about 5.9%. Again, the reason be that's farther down is just simply lower interest rates. So with that, I'll answer any questions that you have, but I'll ask for your approval for the treasurer's report for a period ending of March 2026 and also the, the investment policy for the fiscal year 2026 to 2027.

Counsel, mister Reid, do you have any questions, comments?

I only had one, and it was, brought up to us at our two by two with Consuminous Fire. And they asked us a question, and we didn't know the answer. And I said, there's probably one person that does, and that's the treasurer. K. They asked, what's the median age of people buying homes in Galt?

That's a great question. I don't know it off the top of my head. Yeah. I honestly, I would check that website that I would actually that I actually just gave you. My my estimate or my guess would be probably about mid thirties.

I read an article recently. It says the median first time home buyer right now is 40. 40? Yeah. Because of the prices of being so high. Yeah.

I'm I'm not surprised at that. You know, for those of, who have kids right now who are who are in between ages, you know, 20 and 30, I mean, you you just you just can't do it just because because of where the interest rates are at. You know, their inch thirty year mortgage is right around 6 and a half right now, and the homes are just, you know, as you heard, they're very high. I mean, they're 500 and some odd thousand, and the payments along with, property tax and insurance, and if you have to get PMI, private mortgage insurance, then, you know, your monthly payment is probably around 32 to 3,500 per month. And and if you're between 20 and 30, it would be very, very difficult to to make that, house payment.

Thank you. So thank you. That's great great question.

Mister Pratton.

$495 a month, my first mortgage. So thank you. Years. Yes. That's my point.

I'm older though, but go ahead.

Thank you for presentation. I always enjoy it. That's all.

Council member Sandhu.

No question. Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you.

Mr. Farmer.

Good presentation. I have no questions this time. Thanks for the information. Crazy enough, my first mortgage was exactly $495 a month. I swear to you that's the truth. That's bizarre. Yeah, the good old days, right? Thank you for good presentation, Sean. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes. Thank you for the presentation. Always very interesting. And I think it opens up a window into the dynamics and the demographics of our own city. So I think it's great. So I will entertain a motion to accept the treasurer's report for period ending March 26 and the city Of Galt and I wrote on it, I can't see it. The City Of Galt investment policy for fiscal year twenty twenty six twenty seven.

So moved. I'll second. Either way.

Moved by council member Farmer and seconded by council member Pratton. Roll call, please.

Vice mayor Reid.

Aye.

Council member Pratton. Aye. Council member Sandhu. Aye. Council member Farmer.

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez. Aye. Passes 50.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Do we have any communication? None. City clerk's report? None. Comments by staff?

Couple. First up is deputy public works director, Jackie Garcia. I mean, parks director. Sorry, Jackie.

I'll take another one. I

saw the look on her eyes.

I was like, okay, messed that up.

Well, good evening again. So I have some fun and exciting news that's happening in recreation and special events. So the first one is that we have our water slide ribbon cutting ceremony, which is on May 23. The ribbon cutting ceremony is from twelve to one, and we encourage everyone to come out, council members to, be part of, going down the waterside. Absolutely.

So we look forward to that, and then the grand opening to the public will be from 2PM to 7PM. So in addition, we also will have our new activity guide coming out, our summer edition, that will kick out or be pushed out in June. So that'll have a lot of new activities that we have coming for our senior programs as well as, a bulk of information related to what we have for classes at the aquatic center. So, also, I have some exciting news about just giving you a recap of our Saturday market that we just had happen. It was our Cinco de Mayo taco showdown event.

This, has been a continuous, theme for the past couple of years, but this year we did a spin off with the taco showdown. We went to 17 taco businesses in this community, including the ones at our flea market. Unfortunately, we only had six sign up. Four actually came out to the event. We were only anticipating selling about a 100 tickets.

We ended up, increasing the number, so we sold a 125 tickets. All revenue that was collected that day from those tickets will go back to our Parks and Recreation, scholarship fund, which will be assigned to our senior programs to offset some of their fees, for their aquatics classes. So we are excited to have that information and then we also, with that, had over 140 vendors. This was the largest turnout that we had for vendors and right now for our market, we do have a waiting list of about 20 vendors that are interested in being part of our series for Saturday Market. So that's all I have.

That's awesome. And next up, Police Chief, Brian Kalanowski. Not to be confused with the Fire Chief.

Come on down.

Good evening, mayor mayor and council. On? Can you hear me? There we go. I just wanna alert you to hold the date for Wednesday, May 27, 09:30AM in the parking lot of the PD. We're in the final stages of preparing the unveiling of, after many long years, the Armander Graywall Freeway sign. So they will have one installed prior to that date. They're going to bring the second sign to unveil. Obviously, we all can't march down to '99 and do the dedication down there that caused some issues. So it'll be May 27, again, at 09:30AM, thirty, forty five minute ceremony with some pictures.

There'll be a state representative there to understand, and director of Caltrans for District San Joaquin, and probably some other folks like that, and then our local team, city council members and city staff and department members. So if you can put that down, we'll get something out to you on the email, and we're getting something in the newsletter based on timing either this Thursday or the next run of the Galt Connect. Thank you.

And before signing off, would just say I want to thank the council and the staff that attended Cap to Cap. I mean, it was a very productive trip. We did get some verification of some grant funding that we should be coming home with. So I do believe it was productive. But what gets overlooked at times is the work that goes, the pre work that goes into Cap to Cap.

So for example, Sunday is usually a day when all staff and council members are there. So there's a lot of pre planning for the activities to come up and a lot of touring of the city. And I appreciate the Sunday activities of the group that we had. It was a great day and a great team building if anything event. So thank you.

All right. Let's move on to comments by city council. Future agenda items. Vice mayor Reid.

So I just, I have a couple of things. One, I wanted to thank Parks and Rec for the Saturday market. Right? They invited they invited a couple of us as judges for the taco competition, me and the mayor, and, they were fantastic tacos. Do we know who won? Because I had to leave.

I believe it was El Sosun.

For the judges but the people's choice

Was?

Was

El Tacos Romero's I believe. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Alright. Well, thank you. And it was great. One of the things that stood out to me and I it's kinda sad it's sad that it's only once a year, but I completely understand why, was the maker's market. Right? I haven't been to a satur I haven't been to a Saturday market in a while while the kids were there, and they almost, space wise, were bigger than everyone else that was there on the 4th Street, side. So it was great to go to walk through those booths and see these kids doing their thing. Right? Trying to get their products out and then watching the judges come there and ask them all their questions. And these kids were right on it, giving them, you know, answering all the questions for the judges.

So that was great. And then, the second thing was the PD volunteer, luncheon. It this I've been to a couple of them now. I can't remember how many, but it always, surprises me the amount of hours that these people put in and the amount of support that they do for the police department. There was one that was sell that they were awarded for doing over four thousand hours, and that's just amazing to me. And we're lucky to have them, and so I thank the police department for doing the luncheon and inviting us so that we can congratulate all those people that do great work for nothing. So thank you. That's it.

Council Member Pratton.

No comments.

Council Member Sandhu.

Thank you for all staff for their hard work. Thank you for the public comment and thank you for coming to this meeting. And that's all, Mr. Madam.

Council Member Farmer.

Yeah, I'll make it quick. Saturday market was great. Good job Jackie. I spoke to Armando yesterday and said to pass it down to all you guys. It was a great market, well attended, keeps growing and what we hope for when we approve the idea in the first place. Makers market was phenomenal. I was out there interviewing some of the kids. Just great to see some future business owners potentially. Big shout out to Ronspie and Johnson and the city for putting that piece on. I wanted to thank Parks and Rec for doing a good job with landscaping.

I feel like I do see you guys mowing out there every time I turn around. Come a long way since 2018, let me tell you. So it's nice to see that. I do want to give a shout out. I had a citizen actually pass on a praise about the public works booth at the Saturday market. They said that the, I guess you had the wastewater guys out there or something in a booth. They said they were very impressed. It was very educational and this particular person spent quite a bit of time talking to them and they said to pass that along. With that, that's all I have this evening. Thanks.

I have a a few things. I'll get the boring things out of the way. The first being, I'm a contract person. Is there any way that with these contracts that are coming from whatever department that we can at least get a link to what that contract looks like? Because I feel like we're approving and and granted, I do trust staff, but, we're approving contracts that we're not ever seeing.

This I mean, we're getting summaries, but not the actual contracts. So if I mean, I they're probably thick in a lot of them, but if there's a way that the actual contracts themselves we we sign a resolution, but not staff report. And they they were distributed. It's been years, but they were distributed in the staff reports regularly, and they stopped about, I don't know, six, seven years ago. So, it would just be I just because that's just me.

I'm a nerd that way, but if we can get access to that, that would be great. Okay. For future agenda item, because we have so much, development going on and contractors coming in, and we've been pretty lucky with Elliott and when oh my gosh. What's his name? Mike Gutridge.

When Gutridge was here, we had great relationships with them. But as we've had some of these larger guys come in and just, you know, new developers developers to our area or builders to our area. I just would like I'm asking my fellow council members if you could support me on this. Would like to see us maybe look at our our development ordinance. I don't know what it's called, but that has, like, the rules of the hours that they work and see if there's if they're good enough, strong enough, too tight, whatever, that, as new developers come in that we know what we're answering to, especially as we've gotten complaints from nearby residents.

So that was just kind of what I'm asking.

So you're asking to have staff bring that back for us to see what it is to review?

Or maybe just can, I don't know if they can just distribute it for right now and then if enough of us choose that we need to discuss it, So, I don't

we do, I mean that section is in the noise ordinance, that limits, the noise at different hours? So, you know, if, I mean, we could present that to you in any manner you wish.

Is it possible Frank to differentiate because I think there's a difference between a regular noise ordinance and like construction going on. No.

It's in the there's specific construction Okay.

Rules Yeah. And you can distinguish it as long as it's not based on, speech content of speech.

Okay. So there are again, in the existing code, there's rules for construction related activity on noise levels.

Well, to support what the mayor is asking, could we could you distribute that to the council members via email? And then if some of us have concerns about it, then we can, ask to maybe have it agendized. Okay. That'd be okay?

Okay. Great. On to the fun stuff. I concur about the children's maker's market. That was phenomenal and just absolutely amazing to see so many young adults that are, again, our future leaders, our future people in Galt. That's just so great to see and just wonderful for, Ron Spie and Johnson to head that up. And then, of course, our staff for the behind the scenes that seem to, know, they're ones out there picking up garbage. Although, they did instruct all the kids to pick up the garbage around their own things. Whether or not they did it, I don't know. I did appreciate being a judge for the the taco.

Although that first one that came with two different salsas, we needed some direction as to how hot each one was. But because I may sport the last name, but I don't sport the taste buds, so I needed a little bit of warning. But it they were all very good, and, it was that was a fun thing. I hope that continues. That was great. I see new clocks and a timer. I think that's awesome. I don't know where that came from, if that was a grant, but I like the little, color, you know, warning things, although I never saw yellow go.

It's a glitch. Oh, okay. But it's part of our pay grant

we got. Oh, that's awesome. I think that's great. I do I would also like to bring up and and let staff know from Parks and Rec know that I had a an acquaintance who I she had talked about becoming a vendor at the Galt Market on Saturdays. I didn't know that she had done it, but she called me, and this was unfortunately not this one, but the one before.

And she's probably on your waiting list because she said this was one of the best vendor areas that she has done over the last two or three years and was so impressed with just all of it from from the cleanliness to staff to all of how many people were there. So it and she's from the Fair Oaks area, does vendor fairs all over, and she was just really impressed. So I did wanna pass that along. I think this is this was a great decision back, what, in 2022, whenever it was. Staff has just ran with us, and it has just been I you know, I think we can be the next, dare I say, at Lodi Street Fair.

I mean, think we can build. I think it's wonderful. So thank you, staff. And that's all because of the inspiration of everybody involved in that decision and then moving forward from there. So thank you. Is there anything else?

I dare people to come and go down the water slide on the opening day because I'm doing it.

I got

the invite. I haven't I have to take the day yet.

With that, I will I will follow-up with the, cap to cap, and I forgot to mention this before, but I do think that the shining star for our trip was actually miss Mendez. She probably met and spoke with more legislators than we did, and she's, probably all of us put together. She did a phenomenal job as a great leader out there. And, the whole trip was the bee's knees. So I will close the meeting, at 07:59.