City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular city council meeting on Tuesday, December 16. We are starting our meeting right at 06:00. I'll go ahead and call the meeting to order, and I'll take a roll call. Vice mayor Reid?

Here.

Council member Pratton?

Here.

Council member Sandhu? Here. Council member Farmer?

Here.

Mayor Rodriguez? Here.

Those who'd like to join us, please stand for a silent prayer and the flag salute.

One nation under God, indivisible, and liberty and justice for all.

Madam clerk, could 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.satcounty.gov. Today's meeting replaced Friday, December 19 at 9AM and Saturday, December 20 at 9AM on Metro Cable channel 14. Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at youtube.com/metrocablefourteen.

Thank you. Okay. Item b, agenda approval additions and or deletions. Council? Anything? Alright. Seeing none, we'll move on to item c, presentations, parks and recreation, new activity guide. I don't see mister Solis, so I'm assuming that miss Garcia is here.

Alright.

So good evening, madam mayor and city council members. Today, I'm pleased to present to you our new initiative from the Parks and Recreation Department, our Parks and Recreation Magazine. This is an opportunity for us to engage in a publication designed to serve our community and showcase the work that our Parks and Recreation team does year round.

So

the reason why we created the magazine is we wanted to make sure that we were providing centralized and consistent resources for our residents to boost community engagement and modernize communication tools. With this resource guide, it'll include our special events, facility updates, wellness resources, spotlights on the people who bring our mission to life, as well as seasonal programming, dedicated staff volunteers, and community partners. Our goal with the magazine is also to be an inspiration for people to participate, boost our community engagement, as well as highlight the meaningful investments that our Parks and Recreation team do. So our distribution plan for the magazine, it will be digital and print. It will be stationed at a lot of our city facilities, as well as the Senior Resource Center, our businesses that we partner with.

We'll send an email blast through our ActiveNet program and also our online resources that we have. It also will go out on our social media platforms. And with the website that we have, because it is a digital magazine, we're able to track the clicking of how many people are viewing our magazine, as well as what page they're focused on. So we're excited to share this magazine with the community, and we look forward to using it as a tool to further connect our residents through this program, service, and event. And again, I thank you for your time and support, and happy to answer any questions related to the magazine.

All right. Thank you.

You're

welcome. Do we take public comment on presentations? Yes. Okay. Is there any public comment? No public comment. Okay. Counsel, with comments or questions, miss mister Vice Mayor? No. Mister Patton? No. Thank you. Mister Sandhu?

Yes. I just wanna ask what kind of cost on that magazine to the city?

So there is we're doing four magazines per year. So each magazine runs about $1,800 per issue.

$1,800. Thank you.

You're welcome.

So this is going out once a quarter?

Yes.

I mean, the only question I really have is, who's this guy right here? Just joking. It looks really good. Obviously, I just got it. So but I think anything that we can do to further engage the community and have another layer of, like, when people say, why didn't know about that? Or Right. You know, where was that posted or whatever. I mean, this is just another way to get to people. So I think it's a good thing. Transparency and engagement and all that is never a bad thing. So looks good. That's all I have to say.

Thank you. I actually really love it. About, I would say, eighteen years, Armando, about eighteen years ago, the paper actually printed one. This looks so much better. Looks so much more professional and just wonderful.

Jackie did it in the program.

Yeah. You, Jackie. It is wonderful. Any other comments? All right. Thank you so much. All right. We'll go ahead and move on to item D. Tina, can you read the public comment?

Under government code section 549,543, 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. Mister Craig Morris.

Good evening, counsel and staff. My name is Craig Morris. And I'm here tonight on behalf of South County Services. I'm the board chair. As you know, I know Bonnie knows and Sean knows and Paul knows that we had our senior luncheon this last Friday.

So with that said, normally we have the city council come and they volunteer to help. But we had staff there except for necessary rights who had other plans. But the point being is that we wanted to offer our apologies to the counsel for the oversight. So I've done every single one of these, but then the last two years, I've had help. Well, my help and I miscommunicated.

He thought that I invited you and I thought that he invited you. And that person will remain anonymous. I just wanted to see if he would do that. Yeah. So, unfortunately, I will say that we had a good laugh because I couldn't figure out why I didn't see Sean and Paul and Bonnie and I don't know you two gentlemen.

Although, you, Tim, you came to the house and you're know, I so it was nice seeing you here. So, anyway, I just want to say that I'm sorry about that and that you can pencil in. So, our next luncheon for 2026 will be December 11 at the Cibola Center. Okay? And Armando is the ramrod. So, you do whatever he says. And we like to see you there maybe around 11:11 fifteen. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Morris. Any other comments?

Am I able to comment on

You're gonna defend yourself?

No. It was 100% my fault. Okay. I just I wanted to make sure you understood that Friday was our the senior luncheon. It was a day off for these directors, but the majority of of these directors all showed up, drove in from Manteca, drove in from other towns to serve lunch to our seniors for an hour and a half. And I just want wanted you to understand what committed staff you guys have.

Thank you. And thank you to all the directors.

Bonnie, can I make a comment?

Sure.

Sorry. Madam Mayor, sorry, just call you Bonnie. Thank you, Craig, for that. And we were kind of wondering, like, why? Was that yesterday? I was like, that's weird. We didn't Craig didn't come. You always come and invite us.

I thought I was in trouble.

Yeah. Thought maybe we didn't scoop the potatoes right or something.

I read into Amy at the post office, and she said, what happened?

I said, what do you

Yeah. Well, we appreciate the you showing up tonight saying that. Thank you. And thank you, staff, for for showing up in in our absence. So we appreciate that.

Alright. We'll move on to item e. Reports by city council members on regional boards, commissions, and committees. Mister vice mayor?

I don't have anything.

Mister Pratt?

Nothing tonight.

Mister Sandhu.

I just attended the Metro Cable Television Commission meeting on December 4. There was actually there was a very short agenda item. The only thing we discussed what can be the meeting for the next year. And that's and there was one item that was, like, with the legal counsel, so I can discuss with you guys. And that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Mister Farmer?

Nothing to report tonight. Madam Mayor?

And I also do not have anything to report tonight. Okay. We'll move on to the consent calendar. It is recommended that items one through seven be acted on simultaneously unless a separate discussion and or action is requested by a council member. Staff, have we will be pulling item three to discuss after. We move on with the others. Does anyone want to pull any additional?

Yeah. I would like to just pull item f four for a quick question. Thank you.

Okay. Anyone else? Is it a discussion or just a question?

Probably just questions.

So can we just do that?

Yeah. You can ask a quick question.

Okay.

So I apologize. I didn't read this very thoroughly till just this afternoon on this one item. I'm just is this just I'm trying to understand. Is this something is this just like housekeeping, basically? Or what I'm trying to understand what's what's the need for this. Is this something new? Or

Yes, mister Farmer. The risk management policy is an initiative directed by our joint pooling authority. It's a strategic plan that we'd like the council to formally adopt and get behind and support the initiatives that we're putting forth.

Okay. I just because the first when it talks about the background, it just comes off as like it falls into the category of what I call goes without saying. You know, like, we should be ballizing. Well, of course, we should.

Right.

Do we need a formal something to to actually to exercise that? And so that's my question.

Yes. The JPA does want us to formally adopt a resolution Okay. In support of this policy.

Okay. Alright. Well, that's the only question I had. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. So

Miss Mayor, on the item number F3, nobody pulled that item. Right?

She didn't Yes. We pulled it. Yeah. Okay. So items, one, receive and file warrants for period ending 12/05/2025. Two, minutes of the regular meeting of of 12/02/2025. Four, adopt a risk management policy. Five, Central Square annual renewal. Six, receive and file the senate bill one sixty five, special tax accountability report for community facility District two Thousand 5 dash one and receive assembly bill 1,600 reports for development projects. Does anyone wanna make a motion?

Move.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay, moved by Councilman Sandhu and seconded by Vice Mayor Reed. Roll call. Vice Mayor Reed.

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

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez. Aye. Okay with item number three. Yes,

I would like to announce that on item number three, my family property within 500 feet on that project. So I'm going to recuse myself. I'm gonna leave the room, and I will ask where when this agenda item done, can somebody call me?

Absolutely.

Frank, does he have to leave or he just says I thought he just recused himself from the vote if there's no discussion. No.

So you don't have to leave the room if it stays on consent. But since it was pulled from consent and it's an open item, it now has to yester.

Okay. Item three, second reading and adoption of ordinance number twenty twenty five dash 12, rezoning of Sheffield subdivision and establishing the applicable plan development overlay development standards. Do we have any discussion, or is there a motion?

I'll motion to approve as list as presented. I'll second.

Okay. Moved in moved by I almost called you the mayor. The un mayor, Sean Farmer. And seconded by Councilman Pratton. Roll call, please. Vice Mayor Reed?

No. Council Member Pratton?

Aye.

Council Member Farmer?

Yes.

Mayor Rodriguez?

Aye. At the motion passes three one. Okay. We'll go ahead and move on to item g, scheduled matters, notice of public hearing. I don't see any. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. And we'll move on to the regular calendar. Human resource department.

Amend section two point twelve point zero twenty ordinance city council salaries and benefits. Miss Kobe.

Good evening, madam mayor and council members. Tricia Kobe, human resources director. The item before you updates the city council salary ordinance to align with recent changes made by senate bill three two nine. SB three two nine increased the maximum allowable compensation for council members based on city population, raising Galt's range from $300 per month to a new maximum of up to $950 per month. The proposed amendment we are recommending would set council compensation at $902.50 per month, which is consistent with the council's compensation philosophy of 5% below the state law maximum.

As required by the government code, the adjustment will not take effect until the next council term beginning in November 2026, so there is no fiscal impact this year. This increase is intended to incentivize Galt citizens of different income levels to serve the public and support their families. Tonight, staff recommends that the council waive the first reading and introduce the ordinance amending section two point one two point zero two zero. So I'm available for any questions that you may have.

Thank you. Do we have any public comment? No public comment. Okay, counsel. Any questions or comments? Vice mayor? No. Mister Pratton? Nope. Mister Sandhu?

Just me, I do have a couple of questions. Okay, one thing, the question is that, the salary increase, Ms. Kobe, first of all, thank you for bringing that agenda item. Your report is very detailed and thank you for that. And that increase, it's a one kind what kind of percentage whatever the council member is receiving now and what is your proposal? And I'm talking about the city proposal or what kind of percentage increase? Is it around 300% or 200% or 400%?

Well, would be three times what they're currently receiving right now. So they're currently receiving 300 per $300 per month and it would increase to $902.5

So around 300%, right? If I'm right? Right. The other thing is, I believe this is not in the report, if you can help me a little bit, surrounding city. And they also have some kind of compensation. And our surrounding city, can you maybe give me $4.05 if you can? If it's not, that's fine for me. And with the population.

Sure. We did study surrounding cities about a year ago. So the population of Elk Grove, which is our neighboring city right to the north, is about 182,000. And their council compensation was 2,550 per month. That was base salary only.

Lodi just to the south of us was they had a population of 60 around 67,000, and their monthly compensation is 1,666 per month. Dixon is also north of us. Their population is around 66,000, and their monthly salary is $13.66.

Thank you. That's all. Some other questions. I don't have any question at this time. Maybe go to second round if there is.

Mr. Farmer?

Yeah. So, I mean, this is this is an item that I wish there was more people from the public here tonight. And I'm actually surprised that there's not one council or not one public comment or anything. I'm sure there will be afterwards for sure no matter what, in the aftermath. But for those people watching this meeting back, I think this is something that's been talked about for a long time and and I'm sure with previous councils, it's something that no city council really wants to do because of the optics of it.

The optics that nobody wants to look like we're voting to give ourself raises to pat our pockets or whatever people want to say because this is the perception of the public anyways that some of us are already doing for some people who like to say those things. But what we have to realize is that this job takes a lot of work. And I've seen people say, well, you know, you only have to do two meetings a month. I mean, you have this two hours of you know, for two hours a month, an hour meeting, or maybe it's a two hour meeting, so it's four hours. But I can tell you, anybody who's never been in public office, I personally dedicate, I'm going to say, twenty hours a week.

And that's probably a low conservative number if I factor all the time. To other meetings that we're assigned to, attending public functions in the official capacity, not to mention the time that some of us, not just myself, spend speaking to citizens through email, in person. Myself, I spend a lot of time on social media trying to, you know, have dialogue with the community in the in my capacity as a as a representative. So it's a lot of work. It's a lot, a lot of work.

And for $260 a month, to be honest with you, it's actually almost kind of insulting. I mean, none of us do it for the money. That's not why we did it. None of us ran for that. You have to do it because you love the community and wanna make a difference.

But you also have to understand that you have to expect that future council members, future people that are expecting to run, they have to be fairly compensated for the time that they're taking away from their family, taking away from their jobs or their work if they if they do that. And those are huge sacrifices that those of us that have been on council for a long time can can tell you if you newer council members what that is gonna look like. And so to have, from what I'm understanding, the council pay hasn't been increased in at least twenty five years that we know of. We couldn't even go back for as far than that, but we know it's minimum twenty five years.

That's correct.

So, I mean, I don't think anybody would say, would you expect someone to do a good job and put a 100% of effort in their job for twenty five years without a raise? Nobody would do. Nobody would do that. It's just not it's not fair. It's not practical.

And so I do wanna clarify again as stated that this phrase doesn't if if approved tonight, not go in into effect until the next election, which three of us actually may or may not be in the seat after that time. So this is not even plausibly not even gonna affect us at all. So I just wanna state that at all. So my support of this tonight, and I and I wanna clarify, I do support it, after long thought, is because I believe we have to entice future people that wanna do this. They need to be fairly compensated.

I think what breaks down to $11 an hour is not too much to ask for future council members to do this job because that's what it'll basically equate to less than that if you take out taxes. But so I know there's gonna be probably maybe some backlash in the community for those that like to, you know, that are would be upset about something like this. But I do think there is lots of people in the community that would understand and would support this. And I look forward to defending my decision tonight on supporting this. I think it's a long time coming.

And I think as council members, I was talking to mister Sandhu just outside before we came in here. There's lots of decisions that we make in this council that are very tough to make. People might say that this is an easy decision to make because it looks self serving. It's actually probably one of the most difficult decisions that I have probably ever made, to be honest with you. But with that said, I do support it. I think it's a good idea. I think it's gonna set the platform for some good candidates in the future because we do need working class people to be on this council. We can't just expect retired people or people that are independently wealthy to be the only council members that run for council. We need a a variety of people. And for those people, compensation needs to be there. So that's what I have to say. Thank you, miss Mayor.

Thank you. I agree. I'm not gonna go into all the same details that mister Farmer went into other than to add that I know that having reported on council and school boards and all of these, local leaders for the last almost twenty years, I've watched sacrifice of family time, vacations. They're taking time off of work. So, yes, I think that it is a little naive to think that it is simply just a couple of meetings here and there.

So I wholeheartedly agree. Again, I will reiterate, I may or may not be here next year, whether or not someone runs against me and I lose or I draw the wrong straw again. I mean, those things happen. But I do think it's it's wise for many of the things that mister Farmer said. So I too am in favor of it. So any other comments?

I did wanna make a comment. Because this this actually got brought up to us a while ago to for a possible agenda item. And I just want everybody to understand where we stood on it and that the council agreed that we were gonna put off even entertaining this idea until every single one of the staff members in the city was taken care of. So we put it off till we got all the contracts negotiated and the contracts finalized for all levels from management all the way down to the frontline staff and the city manager. So we wanted to make sure that every one of our staff was taken care of before we even entertained this idea.

Anything else?

Yes, mayor. There is thank you for my colleagues, you know. They are going to support on this agenda item and I'm not disagree with them. And I'm looking for a different prospect. Each person have a different opinion and as a council, we all have a different opinion.

And very hard for me to appetize this kind of increase. And there is reason on that. And since, you know, while this salary has been not adjusted since 1984, so forty year, how many council member till today is in this council chamber? They have the opportunity, same opportunity we have it. And they are very wise person was on the council.

And I never seen they put this kind of agenda item on that to increase their own compensation. And and the other thing is, you know, this adjustment, if it's not forty year, I know his compensation is very low, but that's my opinion. All we as a council member is self-service. We are not here to make money. If I make money somewhere else, I'll make it much more, maybe 100 time more than what we're getting.

But that's not the tie. These people, these surgeon, they pointed us. We were voluntary. They don't mandatory us. You have to run it. This is very voluntary. We run everybody we run, and we lectured and we believe them. And this is this this is like in my conscious and my personal principle and moral responsibility. I do not allow me to in the favor of increase my own compensation. And that's not me, and I'm not agree with my colleagues.

Whatever it says, not that much, you know, compensation we're getting. There is a lot much more work every council member doing. And the third, my reason is because this money is public funds. This money is not as somebody private corporation. These fund is every the citizens have a public fund and we're getting that. And I'm at the end, this is my last statement. It's very hard my for me to advertise to increase my own compensation. That's my principle. That's my conscious. And I will end with that.

It's very hard point to you. I maybe on this agenda item, I will say no. Thank you. Thank you very much for everybody. Thank you for the staff. Thank you for my colleagues. Thank you. I do have a

question, miss Kobe. I forgot I didn't ask this when I was speaking. There was mention of some kind of CPI ing or whatever. This is just a one time thing, or is there some other verbiage in there? I'm sorry.

This is just a one time increase. You can go above the Senate bill maximum and that increase would be based on the adoption of the ordinance and CPI. The CPI maximum can't be more than 10%.

Right. Yeah. Just to just to elaborate on that, you can there's no automatic escalator in this ordinance. If the council wants to give an increase under the statute, you could do 5% per calendar year. So let's say ten years from now, you could go back if you the council wanted and go 5% times 10 and give the an increase to that extent. But we did not build in any automatic escalator into this ordinance.

And there's no there's no legal there's no legal thing that we could put in place that says that this needs to be revisited every five years or something like that. Right? I can't. You can't bind future councils to agenda items like that or something. Right?

No. You could put in the ordinance that this needs to be reviewed.

I would like to add something like that because here's my fear. Look, everything goes up. We obviously the councils for the last twenty five years didn't wanna touch this with a 10 foot pole, and I don't blame them. But, I mean but the fact is that somebody had to make this decision to do this at some point. Somebody had to take the elephant in the room and talk about it. And I applaud all of us for talking about it, even though Mr. Sandhu, I know you don't support it, but we're all talking about it. That's good. I think that I would like to see something that maybe binds future councils to at least bring it up. And they can say no to it, whatever they wanna do.

But I think that I think we'd be doing a good service to honestly have that resurface. Every few years, I think, would be sufficient. And if it just doesn't go nowhere, then fine. But they can do whatever they want. Those councils can do that. But I just would like to see it revisited so it's not another twenty five years.

Councilman Farmer, Mayor Rodriguez, if I may add. I'm trying to understand if there's no potential increases to the amount you're potentially agreeing to tonight and that any raises would need to come back. So if I understand your request to review it on another agenda, you're potentially making it uncomfortable for, you know, that next council to review that. Since all raises have to come back to council anyway, if there was the intent to try to keep up with the CPI, you would have that brought back to you anyway. So this amount is, as the human resources director mentioned, is much lower than the region.

We went 5% below the amount that you were allotted. And I could tell you, having worked with you all for the past two years, that the amount of work that you put into it, this money doesn't cover the effort that you put in. So I respectfully request that maybe you don't put in that clause into that ordinance, that I think there's protection already in as the city attorney mentioned, that the ability to increase really is already protected by having to come back to counsel.

I see what Mr. Farmer is saying though, that it was uncomfortable to bring it tonight. It was uncomfortable for us. We had to put provisions on. No. Make sure everybody's taken care of. And I think with having it built in that it makes that council that's one thing that that future council doesn't have that decision out. It says we have to bring it back every six year, whatever it is. Know? So it just kind of gets them past that step so that now we can consider it. Yes or no. You know? Or maybe it's a $5 raise. I don't know. Because gas went up or something.

What whatever. So I I see the point behind what mister Farmer's saying. I also see your point. But if it makes it that much easier and it's not that I want the money, although my printer just went out, so it's a good thing I won one. But I probably print almost $300 worth of stuff from counsel and SACOG and all that kind of stuff off of. You know, that cost is only gonna increase in ten years. So maybe they need to revisit it at in ten years and see, you know anyway.

So just so I'm following you. So the intent is to, you know, bring it back regularly for potential increases, not

Yeah, because I mean, look, normally agenda items wouldn't be brought up. Would, you know, normal agenda items, future items are brought up by a council member. I would have to speak up and go, hey, What you know, how would my fellow council members be okay with bringing back an item that looks at our salary increase or whatever? Nobody wants to be that guy. Like, just it's not gonna happen. And clearly, twenty five or plus years That's a good point. Where you brought this forward. This was your idea to bring this on a council. And so I think I wanna take the awkwardness away from future councils that somebody has to be that guy. I want to make it a regular discussion so the discussion is thrown out there.

They can do what they want. They can say, no. We don't wanna leave it the way it is, whatever. And they can do whatever they want, you know, for their to to the people they represent. But I think putting it, locking it in for a regular interval would be a good idea just force that conversation.

Do we have a policy to review policies regularly on a certain time basis? Can we fit it in with that?

No. Actually, one of the initiatives we did this year was update majority of our policies, some as old as 2006. But we can can draft a new policy if that's the direction you want to.

Well, I I just didn't know if there was Alright.

So one of the ops I was gonna I was gonna bring this up before the mayor. You just mentioned it. You don't have to change the ordinance to do this. The council has its own procedural guidelines and administrative policies and those are adopted by resolution. So, the council could amend the administrative policies by resolution and put that requirement into it.

It doesn't have to be codified into this code tonight. I just wanna know I wanted the council to know that that is also an option. And that because city council procedural guidelines no more binds the council in terms of processes, procedures, different things that the council needs to do than this would. It doesn't bind the council. This is just a administrative procedural requirement that the council has self imposed on itself, and future councils can change that. And they could change that in the ordinance as well if they wanted to. But so you could do it either way is my point.

I would like to hear what the vice mayor and councilman Pratton has their thoughts on this discussion.

So I think I think it's a good idea because of the reasons that were stated. Right? When we first talked about it, it was really awkward to even bring it up. Right? And so this gives the ability for those future councils to not stress about it as much as we did. Right? It's something that we have to address, so let's address it instead of, you know, the way that it played out this time. So I'm I'm in support of it. Matt?

Even when I was campaigning, I said we should do this. So it's not awkward to me. I'm a businessman. I think people should get paid for what they do. What I've said to other folks that I've been on boards and councils and stuff with is, you know, if you're uncomfortable taking the money, you can donate it. You don't have to take the money. You can use it somewhere else. Give it to the kids. Give it to a charity or whatever. So you can do that publicly. You don't have to do that publicly. But I think people should get paid for their time. I've I've always said that. And I absolutely am in support of this.

Would you be in support of

adding a I'd be fine with adding some kind of a an annual percentage.

Well, I I'm Tie it. I'm more looking at just instead of just doing an automatic because I'm afraid if you put in every lock in some of an annual percentage CPI that you could get you could that 5% buffer could get locked out quick. I'm just only looking at it's just being brought back on a certain interval like every, you know, whatever. I don't know. It doesn't have to be that often, just once in a while.

So I'm wondering if it's prudent to revisit this after an election, because then it would take, you know, the two years to the next election to take impact, but maybe tying it to, you know, the cycle, the council cycle would be prudent. Good idea. Something to think about.

So suggesting we that this will be a procedural thing every time a new council gets seated, so every two years? That would make sense. Just to I mean, yeah. Why don't we do that? Would that be?

Well, you wouldn't do it after the election. Here, get elected. Now give yourself a raise immediately.

Yeah. So you figure out yeah. Mean, that's true. No.

But it wouldn't affect you as well. I guess the new ones, it would half year or half term in. Right. But those that are being termed out would not.

I think I personally would rather see it on a longer term basis. I don't think this needs to happen every every election, but maybe around an election. So maybe every ten years or something like that. And I I I like what the attorney was saying. It doesn't necessarily have to be part of this Right. But maybe just part of the procedural guidelines to, hey, it's time to review.

The other thing I would caution against is waiting too long to address the issue because then you run the risk of having to have this massive or potentially have this massive increase as noted currently. So maybe it's better to adjust it on a more frequent

basis. I would like to suggest that we I'll just cut to the chase. So I would like to make a motion to approve as worded with some sort of stipulation, however needs to be written, Frank, that we we revisit this every five years as a standard procedure. That the set that the council salaries come up as an every five years. I feel like that's sufficient time.

And just to clarify, are you referring that stipulation would be in the ordinance?

However, what's the easiest way to do it? Whatever's easiest.

Amend the policies and come back with a resolution at the next meeting?

Then that's what I'm suggesting. K.

Okay. There's a motion on the floor. I'm not gonna repeat it because I don't know.

Second.

Okay. And second it. So motion by Mr. Farmer and seconded by mister Reed. Roll call vote.

Vice mayor Reed? Aye. Council member Pratton? Aye. Council member Sandhu? No. Council member Farmer?

Aye. Mayor Rodriguez? Aye. Okay. Pass four 1. Alright. That was a little less painful than I thought it was gonna be, so thank you. Okay. Item number two, transition 18 part time employees to full time employment status and approve the side letter agreement with the in International Union of Operating Engineers, Local thirty nine, updated salary schedules, and amendments to the personnel manual. Miss Kobe.

Good evening again. This presentation outlines staff requests to transition certain part time positions to full time status within Parks and Recreation and Finance departments. The recommendation before you is driven by compliance with the Affordable Care Act, operational efficiencies, and long term cost management. Tonight, staff is requesting counsel to adopt a resolution approving the transition of 18 part time employees to full time, effective 01/01/2026. Approve the side letter agreement between the city and IUOE, Local thirty nine, for changes to representation.

And finally, approve amendments to the personnel manual as a result of these changes. The city is classified as an applicable large employer under the Affordable Care Act, meaning we are required to offer health coverage to employees who average 30 per week or a hundred and thirty hours per month. The ACA defines full time status based on hours worked, and most current part time staff are considered full time as defined by the ACA. Failure to meet health coverage requirements may result in penalties if an employee is deemed full time and enrolls in covered California. There are limited exceptions, including seasonal employees who work over thirty hours but less than a six month period in a year.

Currently, the city does offer health care coverage for part time employees. However, the city's monthly contribution towards part time health care is a $157. Under the ACA, there's a compliance test for both affordability and minimum coverage requirements minimum value coverage. Affordability is measured by the employee's premium for the lowest cost self only plan, which must not exceed 9.02 percent of household income. So that percentage is the 2025 rate, and it's adjusted annually based on inflation.

Additionally, minimum value coverage means the employer must cover at least 60% of the total cost of health benefits. Staff analyzed the recreation two classification as an example. Based on current wages, hours worked, and benefit contributions, the city's part time health coverage does not meet ACA affordability or minimum value coverage requirements. This creates potential exposure to penalties, and the statute of limitations for penalties is six years. Continuing the current structure presents ongoing compliance and financial risk to the city.

As a best practice, staff recommends clearly differentiating between part time and full time positions by establishing a maximum weekly hour limit below the ACA full time threshold. This includes reducing part time staff hours who work on an annual basis to twenty eight hours per week and updating the personnel manual section 6.4 to reflect this change. These changes will require adjustments to the parks and recreation schedules to accommodate reduced part time hours. For classifications not currently represented, we follow guidance from the employer employee relations policy, resolution twenty fourteen dash 15, which assigns classifications in an appropriate unit. Therefore, a side letter agreement is required for the addition of the parks worker one two and the removal of the supervisory classification in the general services unit.

18 current active employees will be transitioned from part part time to full time, reducing resulting in cost savings by reducing the total number of staff needed to complete operations and in comparison to potential penalties. Human Resources will conduct internal recruitments to fill the full time positions while not backfilling the part time positions. This slide reflects the budget analysis for Parks and Recreation. I know it's small, but this was also included as an attachment in the documents. So the transition to full time staffing is supported within the existing adopted budget, and the proposed changes are cost neutral when compared to current expenditures and potential compliance penalties.

Similarly, the Finance Department budget analysis demonstrates that the requested position changes can be accommodated within existing appropriations without additional general fund impact. So I'm available for any questions you may have.

Thank you. Do we have any public comment? No public comment. Alright, council. Mr. Vice Mayor?

Yeah, I have a couple of questions. One, out of the 61 part time employees, how are we determining who becomes full time?

So we would open up internal recruitments just for our active staff, and then just run a normal oral board panel, and those who applied and qualify would compete for the full time positions.

Okay. And then if my math is right, we had 61 part time, and we have 18 that are gonna be full time. What's gonna happen to the other 43?

So right now in Parks and Recreation, we actually only have 46 part time. So in Parks and Recreation, of those 46, 17 individuals would be promoted to full time, and just naturally, through attrition and resignations, we wouldn't backfill the part time positions.

So for the remaining ones, then we're gonna stick to that under '28, the new part time rules Exactly. That were up

Yeah, to be in compliance.

No. Those are my two questions.

Mister Pratt.

Yeah. I just wanted to thank director Kobe for bringing this forward. It's very well laid out. Fully understand it, I fully support it.

Thank you. Mister Sandhu.

You know, I actually don't have them a question, but just for the clarification. These employees right now, how many are part time? 61, right?

We have budgeted 61, but right now we have active 46.

46. We convert converting 18 to So full

it would be 17 within parks and rec and one in finance for a total of 18.

And what can be the rest of that? They can reduce their hour or we can let them to go? Their

hours would be reduced to twenty eight hours per week.

So right now, they're working very close to forty hour?

They are working between thirty six and forty hours per week.

And some of, employee might be working from long time. They depend on but they would they already communicate or not yet?

It has been discussed with staff that their hours would be reduced at the beginning of the year to twenty eight hours per week.

Okay. And the first thing, just for clarification, why are we doing that? Because we're saving some money or better, you know, is controlled as a supervisor or better workflow?

We have met with multiple stakeholders and decided that this would be the best direction to take. We looked at some other options, whether, you know, it would be increasing the health care contributions. But ultimately, we decided that it would be best to offer benefits to some of these part time staff.

Okay. But if they're working, like, right now, they're working much more hour than part time and are we any violation with the ACA? And what's the ACA?

Affordable Care Act. So yeah, we

are And

that agency, state agency, local, what's that agency?

The Affordable Care Act is IRS guidelines for offering healthcare coverage.

Okay, thank you. And the other thing, there is one position in the supervisory position. What can you provide me a little bit explain what the position and and why is TAP wants to do unrepresent?

Right. While we're making all of these changes, we took a look at our resolution twenty fourteen dash 15. It's the employer employee resolution, which identifies that supervisors are not supposed to be in the same bargaining unit as employees that they supervise. It creates issues. So as the four supervisory classifications that are currently in the general services unit, as they become vacant, we are agreeing to meet and confer with the union to move them into the unrepresented group, so that there's a difference between the represented and unrepresented employees.

And yes, so there can be four positions, can be moving from union implied to the non union implied.

That is correct.

Would that union already discussed or not yet?

Yes, we have met and conferred with the union to for these discussions, and they agreed upon the side letter presented before you tonight.

Thank you, Ms. Kobi. Thank you for your clarification.

So I'm just trying to understand that I mean, first of all, in principle, it makes sense. So we we don't wanna be

we need to be,

you know, setting a good example. And I think businesses that, you know, try to skirt around giving benefits to people and this and that by calling them part time, but then they end up working full time hours. It's just not ethical in my opinion. I think that this is a good thing that we're looking at this. We can make sure we make those adjustments.

But I'm just struggling with the math a little bit. So just doing some simple math, if we have 43 part time positions currently and we upgrade 18 of those people to full time, so 18 people at forty hours a week is seven twenty man hours that we're getting out of those people. That leaves the other 25 remaining people to have to be reduced down to no more than twenty eight hours, the part time. That's 700 man hours. So seven hundred and seven twenty is 1,420. Right now, assuming that say those 43 people are working around thirty hours, I could be wrong, maybe they're working more, I'm only getting like twelve ninety. So either those people are working on average, all of them are working more than thirty hours? Is that what's happening?

That is correct, sir.

Okay. So if they were saying maybe they were working like thirty five maybe or something like that, that would give 1,500. So that's where we come out with an even math in your opinion.

That's correct.

The only negative here is the vice or excuse me, as a council member sorry to get around those titles, it's tough is that some people are gonna face a reduction. Right? So you're saying the average of those 43 people, the average are working, let's just say it's thirty five hours.

Correct.

So you're they're basically gonna lose so some of those are gonna lose seven hours a week.

That is correct.

The ones that don't make the don't make the cut. Right? Yeah. I hate to see people get rid their wages reduced. I understand that it's what we're doing here. I just I mean, I guess, you know, like you said, it's it's everybody has a shot, at it. I mean, I think for the compliance reason alone, I think that we kinda have to do something. This is not really an option, so there has to be some option. You said you guys explored other options, and this seemed to be the most feasible. Right.

And let let's not forget that not all of the part timers are working forty hours a week. There are also part timers that are probably right now working around twenty eight hours week.

Is that possible? I That there is some?

I I talked with one of the part time parks and rec staff two nights ago and asked them about this and how and, you know, what their working hours were like and what, you know, what they thought about it. And they said that they they had a few a few of their coworkers and themselves that worked for in excess of forty hours a week for weeks on end. And sometime you know, being on Saturdays and having extra long days on Saturdays because of sports and all these other kinds of things. So and I think we do need to take care of them, but I don't think that it's gonna be I think, yes, there are gonna be some that have their hours reduced, the ones that don't unfortunately get the full time positions. But I think there's gonna be several that are not gonna see any change.

So you said there is, we budgeted for 61 positions. So hypothetically even though we're only doing 18 now to full time, hypothetically some of those people that don't make the cut this time could in the future still vie for a full time position, like get a raise or something, they could be promoted because we do have that built into the budget for that. Is that correct?

Absolutely. And we're running these internal panels and establishing eligibility lists. So the eligibility list is good for one year. If there is a vacancy in the future, we would pull from an eligibility list first before going external.

Okay. Well, I like that. Well, I mean, I think it makes sense. Like I said, I I hate I feel for anybody who might get their hours cut that's that doesn't want them cut. But I think for compliance reasons and the fact that we we can't just be treating these people as part time employees when they're when they should be compensated more fairly. So thank you for your for your answers, Ms. Kobe.

Thank you.

All right. I think most things have been said. It's kind of nice in this seat. You don't have to say anymore. Ditto. And I agree. And thank you, Ms. Kobe, because I know this was probably quite the process. And some employees may it may not have hit well at first because shock comes in, and that's never fun to have to be on the delivery end of it either, either side of it. So thank you. Alright.

I will I will make a motion to adopt a resolution approving the transition of the 18 part time staff to full time effective 01/01/2026 and approving the side letter between the city of Galt and IUOE, and then also approving the classifications within the general service unit, removing the supervisory classification currently unrep underrepresented and agreeing to meet and confer, and then approving the updated salary schedule and approving the amendment to the personnel manual.

I'll second.

And just for the record, there is no public in the audience, therefore there's no public comment.

Okay. It's been moved by mister Reed and seconded by mister Pratton. Roll call, please.

Vice Mayor Reed. Aye. Council Member Pratton.

Aye.

Council Member Sandhu. Aye. Council Member Farmer.

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez? Aye. Alright. Okay. Are there is there any communication?

Just a reminder, 01/06/2026 council meeting is canceled.

Which one?

January 6. Oh,

you first.

Okay. And city clerk's reports.

So tonight is the annual review of the city council appointments to your regional and local boards, commissions, and committees that you as council members currently serve on. So this is a time amongst yourselves for you to discuss if you'd like to keep serving as appointed or maybe ask another council member to take your place if it's not working out. I'll just go down the list one by one, and then in the end, we will need a motion to move as discussed. So I'll just get right to it. And the first one is the Kasumnes Community Services District two by two, and we currently have Sandhu and Reed.

I will keep mine. I wanna keep it too.

The $4.57 deferred compensation plan, we have Farmer.

I don't know that I've ever been asked to attend that.

That's true.

Is that a Human

That is a human resource function.

Okay.

So I'll send you a calendar invite by the end of the month.

Has there been any meetings yet? There has not been any. Oh, okay. Well, that's why then. I was like, I don't know what that is.

You haven't missed anything.

Where does that take place at?

HR Conference Room.

Where?

HR Conference Room.

Oh, okay. Alright.

The cities and schools together, other known otherwise known as CAST, we have Farmer, Pratton, and Rodriguez as alternate.

Yeah. I'll stay on that. I'm good.

Galt Youth Commission, we have Farmer.

I'll stay I'll keep that.

Public Safety Committee, we have Sandhu and Reed as alternate.

I will keep mine. Yep. Me too.

City selection meeting, that is concurrent with the mayor. So it is Rodriguez, and they've already been informed of the change. Greater Sacramento Council, it is the economic development agreement between the Greater Sacramento Economic Council and the city manager. The city manager is the voting representative unless the city manager designates his or her director position to the mayor to serve as an alternate.

And Mayor Rodriguez, would you like to serve on that? I would be glad to delegate that to you.

I this is the one you talked to me about. Right? Yes. I'll I'll take that.

Thank you.

Sacramento Area Council of Governments or SAGHOG. We have Rodriguez and Pratton as alternate. I'll keep SAGHOG.

I'm fine as alternate.

Sacramento Criminal Justice Cabinet. We have the Chief of Police. And then the Sacramento Homeless Policy Council, we have Farmer.

Yeah, we haven't met on that in like, I don't know, a couple years, I think. I'll stay on that, but I don't, yeah, I don't know if that's even a thing anymore. So but, yeah, I'll keep in there for now.

Sacramento Local Area Formation Commission or LAFCO, we have Matt Pratton, and the alternate member is Citrus Heights.

Yeah, I'll stay on that.

Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, we have Pratton and Sanduas alternate.

Yes. I will keep that.

Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission, we have Sandu. And right now, there is no alternate unless you want to appoint someone.

I will keep that.

Okay. I can be an alternate if you want. Okay.

Sacramento Public Library Authority, we have Reid, and the City Of Isleton is the alternate.

Anybody know if there's been any meetings? Because I haven't heard one thing about the libraries.

Good one to stay on.

Yeah, I'll keep it. It's going to be taxing, but I'll keep it.

You know, they they do meet regularly. You might wanna look into maybe he's not getting notified.

I'll check because they were informed

by It's not it's not every month, but it's, like, every other month. Perfect. So if you haven't heard, then maybe they're

I'll just confirm.

Yeah. I haven't been getting emails. But

Thank you. Sacramento Transportation Authority, the members City of Vallton and Sandu is alternate.

I will keep then. And could you find out because the last time there was an agreement, the two year they have it, and then after that, can you confirm on Yes.

Right now, I think we show through 2026, but I'll confirm. South Sacramento Conservation Agency, we have Sandu and Rodriguez as alternate.

I will keep that.

I'll stay. And Kasumnes Groundwater Authority, Vice Mayor Reed.

Watch this. Anybody want it? No?

You're doing such a great Well,

guess I'm gonna have Okay. To keep

So we'll need a motion and a second for, the only change was adding an alternate and, to the cable, and you are taking care of GSEC.

I'll make the motion to adopt a list like Tina said.

I'll second.

Are you doing this or am I? Okay. Moved by.

Again, for the record, there's no need for public comment and there's no one in the room.

Okay. Sorry. Moved by Vice Mayor Reed, seconded by Mr. Pratton. Roll call.

Vice Mayor Reed. Aye. Council Member Pratton.

Aye.

Council Member Sandhu. Aye. Council Member Farmer.

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez. Aye. Alright. Grouch, we're we're coming in at the homestretch. Comments by staff. Parks

and Rec Director Armando Solis.

Good evening, mayor and city council. I wanted to bring up a couple of things. First of all, I'd like to give you some notes on the lighting of the night events, just some numbers. Sorry. You guys were a little quicker than I thought.

We had 95 parade entries, 75 vendors at our market, 300 people attended our concert series at Littleton, and between six and 8PM on 4th Street alone, there was 5,000 people for the parade. Throughout the day, there was 9,000 total on 4th Street. Some of our sponsors that helped us with the event, Jesse the Tree Guy helped us with the tree decoration. Ramos Jewelers provided hot chocolate for the concert goers, and Spons Cookies provided us cookies for our kids to decorate. Although there are huge number of people to thank, I wanted to actually thank a couple of people by name.

Jackie Garcia, Patty Berth, John Costa, Gus Lopez, Oscar Dela Cruz, Hunter White, Greg Steele. The drone patrol is what I was calling them that night because they helped us out out a lot. With that said, we did have a few business owners that were upset with the street closures and few citizens. But we will be providing you a full report of costs and everything once we have our debrief.

Okay.

Community Development Director, Jenny Carloni.

Good evening, counsel. Just wanted to provide you with an update that last Thursday, the Planning Commission approved the multifamily development on Spons Drive. That is 37 new apartment units that we that will be developed at the cul de sac there on Spons. That is the first multifamily development to be entitled in quite some time in Galt, so we are looking forward to the possibility of those apartments being developed in the near future. Thank you.

And police chief Brian Kalinowski.

I thought you were messing with me, Mr. Arayais. Shutting off the microphone. I got a two, the time check based on what I bid for my ending time for the council meeting to determine how many comments I have tonight. But honestly, only have one.

Because we won't be meeting on January 6, I want to alert the council to our next event, which is on January 15. It'll be the thirteenth anniversary of the death of Kevin Tawn. And so we will be doing a wreath placement here at City Hall at 12:00 sharp. And as you know, members of the department and family go to the shooting scene, the scene of the crime down at the railroad tracks just prior to that. In addition, because of the Elliott Homes development in like forever, there's been a plan to have a Kevin Taunt Parkway like there is an Officer Graywall Parkway.

And we finally reached that moment in time because there's a segment of that roadway that has been signed and is accessible for the new development down there. So we will work with the family and confirm, and I'm sure they will be available because they're making the trek here for the dedication of that roadway either before or after the ceremony at 12:00. So I will provide that information. The assistant city managers worked with Elliot Holmes to secure some additional signs like we did with the Graywall family for them when we do the road dedication and presentation. And so I'm thankful for that.

And so that is the event that we have programmed for January and February. We have our annual awards ceremony that we will hold the dates out for you here after the holidays. And then lastly, on behalf of the Gulf Police Department, I'd to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

And then a couple final comments. I would like to welcome Chung Trinh to the director group. He officially started as an interim director last Monday. He's a welcome addition to the team, and welcome, Trung. And then I too would like to wish the counsel a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And there's a potential I see you this the end of this year. But if not, I'll see you next year.

All right. Comments with by city council. Future agenda items. Mister Reed.

So I don't have any future agenda items, but we all were quite busy in the last couple of weeks with city events. I got to attend the ribbon cutting of the playground over here at the softball complex, and I was one of the two city council members that actually used the slides. So that was fun. It was a great ceremony. It's a great playground.

I have to give props to Parks and Rec for that whole event and how the playground was built. This next was the Christmas at the PD. That was fun having all those kids run around and looking at all the Charlie Brown themed dressed or themed. There you go. Charlie Brown themed staff, including the captain dressed up as Charlie Brown.

The Galt community dinner, large amount of us attended this last Saturday. It's a great event put on by the rotary, and we handed out turkey dinners for three hours and had a lot of fun doing it. The Galt Christmas Parade, thanks again for all the work on that. Your report said more than I was gonna be able to say, but it was a fun event that all of us got to enjoy. And it's great to see the amount of people that you bring happiness to when we drive through that route.

I it it boggles my mind every time we turn on to 4th Street, just the amount of people that because I was I was in July the July 1, I was in the Christmas last time, so it shouldn't surprise me. But every time I make that turn, it's just it just seems like there's more and more and more people. So everybody enjoys it and we enjoy it, so thank you for that. And then oh, I think that was it. Thank you for coming, giving us all the reports. Thank you for putting up with us. I was gonna say thank you to the public for commenting, but he he left already. But merry Christmas, happy New Year.

We won't we'll see you

at the second meeting in January.

Mister Pratton.

Okay. Merry Christmas to everybody. I was out of town last week, so I missed a lot of the good stuff. I did get to do lighting of the night, and that was great. Director Solis, that was amazingly well run. Appreciate that For all that activity going on, and I really didn't see any trouble. So I'm sure there were some things in the edges, but it was well done. Thank you to all staff for doing a great job this year. Really enjoyed getting to know some of you and seeing how hard you work. I appreciate it. That's all I have.

Mister Sandhu?

Just very quick. First of all, thank you for all staff for their hard work. You know, we attend a lot of events as vice mayor mentioned. And we all are I believe everybody together, we all the events, like, in Christmas at police department and prayed. And thank you for all that, and thank you for public comment. And if I don't see you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. That's all.

Mister Farmer.

Thank you, madam mayor. Yeah. The PD open house was good. I came a little late toward the end, but I was glad I made it. It was, well attended. I was talking to some of the officers. They said it was probably more attended than last year. So it's always a great event, and I'm glad it keeps keeps growing. The playground ribbon cutting was great. Place looks great. You know, that's a playground that I drive by almost every day because I live near it. I was a little disappointed that Mr. Salees didn't go down the whirly slide or whatever you call it. But I tell you what, it was a little tough playground to get up on. It's tough being a kid. You know, you get up there like, oh, I can get up there. It's it's a little challenging.

It's not that I wasn't willing. I was unable. I couldn't fit.

A for an a for effort, though, sir. The community dinner was great. I wanna thank Rotary and all the people that volunteered and the other people that were there volunteering. We had some youth commissioners there that helped serve. There was other elected officials. There was people from the community. We had some regional people there that came. And so it was it was well attended. And I was very happy to see so many people that came out to get that meal. It's it's something that's great to do that every year because it feeds so many.

There's a lot of people that are like fixed income or widowers that, you know, don't have the ability to have a home cooked meal, and and you can tell when you see them there. This is, the one time, so it's really good. And I enjoy doing it every year. Let's see what else I got. The parade was obviously, it was awesome. I mean, it's bigger every year. I find it funny that I hear some people complain that it's too big. I I just it's like you just cannot please everybody. It's like it's too big. We need to it's I don't know.

But I did have I did, you know, I did get a lot of feedback from lots of people. And some of people are just, you know, I think they just look for reasons to complain. But there was a lot of legitimate concerns. And not that there were problems that staff could have fixed. They're just, we have new route. You know, there's a lot of logistics changes. I can't imagine what goes into planning that. I mean, there's so many road closures and and just all of that is just a lot. I'm sure mister Salis has heard some of those things too. I know there was a little bit of, some miscommunication on a couple of the road closures down in the Old Town area, and people got their cars blocked in.

Like, they were told, well, your car has to be out by this time, but then they got blocked in because the barriers went up earlier than they thought. So I think there's some tweaks to work out, obviously. What I would like to do is if possible before you do your full debrief, if there's any way that you and I could meet just for a few minutes so I can just pass on the things I've heard that I think are legitimate, whatever, and you could take them as a grain of salt, pass them on a stat, whatever. But obviously, you know, we're always we're always looking to improve and make a better experience. And but I think, you know, for what you put on with, you know, probably more north of 200 different vehicles in the parade.

I got back to the parade grounds in fifty five minutes, and then for another forty five minutes was there waiting for friends, and there were still floats that hadn't pulled out yet. So you're talking almost two hours in the float. So it I mean, it's logistically, it's crazy. But I think, you know, as we move forward with the new route that we have, I think it'll just we'll find you know, we'll find we'll slowly improve. And I just wanna say thank you to everybody that was involved, your staff, everybody that planned it, public works for all the street closure stuff, PD for obviously, I mean, you have a lot of people that are working on a Saturday night.

They're working and not enjoying the parade. Then you had the people that went and cleaned the parade route, which they did a phenomenal job the next morning. I couldn't even tell. And that's saying a lot because there's candy everywhere and, I mean, and it looked like nothing had even happened. And they all have to work on a Sunday morning and so big, you know, big big kudos to all those people that do such a great job for that parade. One thing I do wanna say out publicly is that we really need to we really need to figure out how to enforce the candy thing though. It's a big deal. I almost hit two kids in my truck that I was driving because I was looking this way. I looked back and a kid ran out. There, you know, people are still throwing candy from the vehicles and it was left in the road in front of me and there was, you know, I know parents are not doing maybe a good job keeping their kids from running out on road.

But I had those concerns shared with me and I I personally almost had two kids and it was pretty scary because my passenger, like, yelled at me, and I would, like so it I would hate to see something happen. I don't know what we gotta do to really, you know, lock that down, but we gotta figure out something. Last but not least, wanna say that I made sure I talked long enough so that Bonnie can't have the shortest meeting ever because I'm not gonna have her have that title. I thought you were gonna get it early. I was like, wow. She didn't have the shortest meeting ever.

Yeah.

But look at your first first meeting is there's nobody in the audience. I guess it means the whole community is happy. You single handedly just made everybody happy in the first Or they

don't like me.

Congratulations. I don't think I've ever seen a meeting where there was not one person in the audience.

Oh, you see them all the time.

All right. So with that, I want to wish everybody, know, a happy holidays. Be safe. Be safe out there on the roads. It can be dangerous this time of year with people drinking and driving and stuff. So Merry Christmas, and hope everybody has a good New Year.

Thank you. Mister Reed has a follow-up. Things.

For for mister Trung.

With the upcoming weather, we I've seen some concerns about the availability of sandbags. Will we have sandbags available towards the end of this week when it starts to rain? Okay.

Good evening, vice mayor Reid. Yes. Sandbags are available right now. They're on the North side of 495 Industrial on our North exit. So we'll be monitoring the supply and ask if if we need to replenish the supply, we will towards the end

of this week. Okay. Thank you. And then the second thing was, do we have an idea of when Marengo is going to be fully

open? Regarding that poll, so basically within the last week, I've heard that the escrow closed and they were in the process of closing and agreeing to everything. And so it's probably another couple of months, if that was the case, for them to take the poll out and open up the road. But I just wanna add that, you know, they told us that two months ago, and here we are. So

Okay. Thank you.

And Mr. Farmer has an addendum.

Yeah, sorry. I forgot something. I'm sorry.

It's for the record Christmas winning.

Anymore. Yeah. I I apologize. That's something very important I wanna bring up. So, there was a discussion that, was had, with the city attorney, myself, and city manager, when I was still mayor, with my concerns on some verbiage that we wanted to get in front of the council to make sure that we incorporated into our our code enforcement policy.

And it had to do with, you know, basically, just to summarize, you know, when we revisited the code enforcement, we decided to keep everything in place. But there was there has been the understanding in the community is that our our code enforcement is complaint driven. I would like to see that reflected in the actual ordinance that said that we need to match words with saying that that is how we operate with code enforcement. And also, there was discussion about a proximity. I know there's some abuses because I know they're going on because I've spoke to people where people are upset by the code enforcement, and they're basically turning people in that aren't even in their neighborhood.

They're driving around town, just call making calls, you know, complaining. We need the idea was that we would have a proximity because this is what Elk Grove does. I actually talked to Jason Berman. He would suggest this. They have a certain proximity that Code of Forces came up with. So if you make a complaint, file a complaint, you have to at least live within a reasonable distance of that complaint. You can't just be out, you know, driving around looking for something because you're whatever. I think we should need to have some kind of that instilled into our code. And I would like to see that happen as soon as possible before this code enforcement goes into full ramp.

Mayor other council members for that direction, right?

Then I think, so sorry to interrupt, but we are looking at that and have something drafted. We plan to kind of review it with the city attorney this and then get it to counsel. So I'm expecting to report out to you to tell you, inform you of the policy we're taking or having you bringing it to counsel for formal adoption. So early next year, January, either that meeting or February. I just didn't want

to get forgotten about. Thank you.

Okay, I will so what's the over and under? 07:30, is that what we're

Well

Or did you already lose? Who's next?

Is it over?

Okay, I will try to

be That's right.

Actually, I did attend many of the things that was already mentioned, so I won't go ad nauseam into them. But I do appreciate all of the efforts within the city, both by nonprofits that do things and all of the staff just go over and above and beyond and it shows. And I am going to tell a quick story. I've been around a lot of family because of things that are going on right now. And a family member was saying that a good friend of theirs is moving to a very small town in another state.

And the comment was, they even still have parades. And, like, the city manager is something you know? And I went, well, we do that. I mean, we're we're involved. And so I just wanna remind everyone, not here because I think everyone in this room understands it, but anyone listening to this.

We we're small. We do have we're not a 100% perfect, although some of us, you know, feel like we are half the time. But we really do not appreciate what we have. I don't think most people understand what we have here, and it is phenomenal. And going to I went to staff appreciation luncheon, and it was so clear, so clear in that room, the camaraderie that all of staff had with the respect that they have, not just for each other but for their directors.

I didn't get a feeling at all of any, you know, derision or speaking behind a director's back. You know, my boss, they did this. Was nothing. We just have a great staff. And that, you know, comes from the top and goes down. And I just think it's phenomenal. And, you know, if we had a huge audience here, I would ask them to stand and applaud because our staff and our city does just a phenomenal job. And so thank you on all levels. I did attend unexpectedly a swearing in of a new police officer. That was that was fun, and it's nice to see.

He's a homegrown police officer. He's born and raised here in Galt, so it's great to have someone local coming back to serve his community. So I think that that's wonderful. So with that, before anybody can add on, I'm going to end this meeting and adjourn at 07:26.