City Council - Regular Meeting

They're going to go to 16. Good evening. I would like to call the November 12th, 2025 close session city council meeting to order. I want to point out that this meeting is being hosted via a live stream on the city's website. I also want to remind the council to have their microphones turned on and positioned so that the audience can hear them clearly. City clerk, may we have a roll call, please?

Thank you, mayor. Council member Clark, present. Council member Lodge is absent. Council member Males here. Mayor PM Koopa here. Mayor Peterson here. Let the record reflect that all members are present with the exception of Council Member Lodge. And Mayor, we will need a motion and a second to excuse Council Member Lodge's absence. I'll make a motion to excuse. I'll second. I I have a motion by Mayor Pertim Krupa, a second by Council Member Males to excuse the absence. We'll do a roll call. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Males, yes. Mayor PM Koopa, yes. Mayor Peterson, yes. That motion passes 4 to zero to excuse the absence.

At this time, members of the public may only comment on an item appearing on the agenda. Please adhere to the following when addressing the council. Comments will be limited to three minutes or less. Comments should be directed to the council as a whole and not directed to individual council members. City clerk, are there any registered speakers? Mayor, there are no registered speakers.

Council, we will now proceed to close session. Thank you for joining us. A report of the closed session will occur after the deliberations. You're doing much better.

Go ahead. Hello. You could uh hide self view or turn your camera off. Okay.

Do you have anyone um uh on the on a list that you know of or it would be a last minute Okay. Oh, but they so they could be watching um remote. They could be watching it on the live stream. True. Got it. Okay. Okay. I can. Yeah, perfect. Okay. Okay, we'll be here. There's there's only one public comment period. Okay, that's fine. Sure. Okay, perfect. Yeah. chat or type

What would we do without electricity? Did it go dark?

[snorts]

It was not We're just waiting for Good evening. I would like to call the November 12th, 2025 regular city council meeting to order. I would like to point out that this meeting is being hosted

through live stream on the city's website. I want to remind the council to have their microphones turned on and position so that the audience can hear. City clerk, we may we have a roll call, please? Thank you, mayor. Uh, council member Clark, present. Council member Lodge is absent. Council member Males here. Mayor Pertim Kupa here. Mayor Peterson here. All members are present with the exception of council member Lodge. And do we need to excuse him again? Do we need a motion to excuse him? We could take a motion to uh in a second to excuse I'll move to excuse council member Lodge. Oh, go ahead. I'll second it.

I have a motion by Mayor Prom Kupa, second by Council Member Clark to excuse the absence of Council Member Lodge. We'll do a roll call. Council member Clark. Yes. Council member Lodge. Excuse me. Council member Males, [laughter] excuse me. Mayor Fran Kuba. Yes. Forces of habit. Mayor Peterson. Yes. That motion passes four to zero. Thank you. The invocation will be given by Christian Tikas from all good things ministry after which Mayor Prom Kupa will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please stand.

All right. Let us pray. Tonight we pause um Father to acknowledge that your word uh in James 1:17 reminds us every good and perfect gift comes from above. And we thank you for the many blessings you have given our city, its people, its progress, and the opportunities before us. So as we gather to conduct the business of Hammet, grant us wisdom that reflects your goodness. Let gratitude shape our leadership and guide our decisions. May we recognize the gifts within our community and steward them with integrity, unity, and compassion. Lord, during this season of thankfulness, deepen our appreciation for the work we do and the people we serve. Bless our council, our staff, and every resident who calls him at home. In your precious and holy name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Please join me in a salute to our nation's flag. Place your right hand over your heart and repeat with me. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [snorts] We will move to the city attorney's report from close session. City Attorney, can we get a report out?

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, we met in close session. For item 5A, City Council met in close session. Direction was given by consensus. For item 5B, city council met in close session. No reportable action. Thank you. Thank you, city attorney. We will now move to presentations. our first presentation. I will be presenting the proclamation for small business Saturday to Nancy from Hemet Party Rentals. And Nancy, I invite you and any of your family members you would like to bring up. [snorts] [clears throat]

Um, we need the microphone. It right here. Oh, excuse me.

Come on up.

City of Hammock, California. Proclamation for small business Saturday. Whereas according to the United States Small Business Administration, there are currently 33.2 million small businesses in the United States, small businesses represent more than 99% of companies with paid employees and are responsible for over 60% of net new jobs created since 1995. Whereas small businesses employ nearly 47% of the employees in the private sector in our country and contribute positively to the local community by supplying jobs and generating tax revenue and along with advoc advocacy groups and public and private organizations across the country that have endorsed the Saturday after Thanksgiving as small business Saturday. Today, the city of Hammet celebrates our local small businesses and the contributions they make to our local economy and community. And whereas it is essential to support our city's valued small businesses, which create jobs, boost our local economy, and preserve our neighborhoods. And therefore, I, Jackie Peterson, mayor of the city of Hemmet, along with the Hemtt City Council, do hereby proclaim the day of November 29th, 2025 as Small Business Saturday and urge the residents of our community support to support small businesses and merchants today and throughout the year. presented November 12th, 2025, signed by myself and all we council members. And I just want to say a few words about Nancy and then I'm going to let her say a little bit. Okay. So, I recently met Nancy and some of her

family members and they have a wonderful small business of party rentals. Um she has a great story where she had many challenges and she rose above them all and um they helped us with our state of the city this last Thursday. Fabulous job. They were so hardworking. They had such a congenial attitude. She was just a delight to work with. And I said, "You know what? This is a perfect family business to give this proclamation to." So, we will have a little picture with you. Okay.

Then I'd like you to say a few words if you would like. Oh my goodness. It's such an honor.

Oh, sorry. It's such an honor being here for the first time and it was an honor be part of your special event last week. I was very nervous but uh at the same time very proud of my business, my family because without them I'm nobody. My son Nathan, he's 16 and he works for me with me. And I love giving opportunity to young people, young kids, because I rather them to be busy with me or any other small businesses or familyowned businesses than being out there doing something else. Who knows? I'm proud to say that he's a really hardworking guy. There's sometimes that he asks me to give jobs to his friends and I'm like I can't you know we're not too busy yet but we sure will one day you know very proud of being um a Hammet you know I mean in Hammet even though we come from another city another country originally we love Hammet and we'll do what we can to support the business any business small big because we want to contribute to our city. This this is our city now. That's where my kids were born and that's where my kids are raised.

Wonderful. So, um supporting small businesses, you know, is great because we contribute to everybody. I said that already, huh? [laughter] Thank you. Thank you. So, thank you everybody. Very good. [applause]

Thank you. Good job. Our final proclamation is for the United States Marine Corps 250th birthday and Veterans Day and it will be presented by Council Member Males to police officers Max Guerrero and Nick Mororrow and police officer Triney Andrew Morales. Gentlemen, Marines front and center. [laughter]

All right. How you doing, sir? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I should have called Kate.

All right. This proclamation is for the 250th birthday of the United States Marine Corps and Veterans Day. Whereas on November 10th, 1775, the United States Continental Marines were founded by our nation's leaders to conduct shipto- ship fighting, provide ship shipboard security and discipline enforcement, and assist in landing forces. And whereas for 250 years, members of the United States Marine Corps have served with the utmost courage in nearly every conflict our country has faced, earning a reputation as a formidable fighting force and a symbol of honor, integrity, and personal courage. And whereas Marines, whether active duty, reserved, or retired, embody an unyielding dedication to service and duty, and their sacrifice along with those of their families contribute greatly to the defense and protection of the freedoms and liberty liberties of the United States American people. And whereas President Dwight D. Eisenhower called on all citizens of the United States of America to observe Veterans Day each year on November 11th as a time to honor all Americans who have served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. Both in times of war and in peace. And whereas during the nation's darkest hours, the men and women of our armed forces have stood as guardians of freedom and beacons of peace, demonstrating unwavering courage, leadership, and commitment to our communities and country. And whereas the city of Hammet joins with all Americans in expressing our deepest gratitude for the service and sacrifice of our veterans and active duty personnel and in particular extend special recognition to the United States Marine Corps on its 250th anniversary. Now therefore, Jackie Mayor Jackie

Peterson, mayor of the city of Hammet, along with the city Hemtt Council, do hereby proclaim the days of November 10th and 11th, 2025 as the 250th birthday of the United States Marine Corps and Veterans Day and urge all citizens to recognize, celebrate, and honor the courageous men and women who have served and continue to serve in the United States Armed Forces protecting the rights and princip principles upon which our great nation was founded. Gentlemen, thank you for your service and for your continued service as heck police uh department officers. You want to say a word? Thank you.

Thank you. It's a privilege to serve this city. Thank you, mayor, city council. Thank you, chief. And thank you all. [applause]

Thank you, gentlemen. There is We will now move to public comment. There is a three minute per person time limit for all general public comments on non-public hearing items. All who wish to speak, including council members and staff, need to be recognized by the mayor before speaking. Please state your name and the item you are commenting on before speaking. We will take public comment for items listed on the agenda.

There are no items on the agendems on the agenda.

We will now take public comment for items not listed on the agenda. Thank you, mayor. Um, we have several speaker forms and I will call them um to step up to the podium. First speaker is Robert Davis, followed by Roy. Uh, Madame Mayor, city council, I'm here tonight on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. should have maybe one of these up there, I hope. Just to thank you for the city's continued support of this nativity in the park event and on behalf of not only our church but all the different denominations that uh will be at the park that night um in the parade and and just providing some goodness to the city. Thank you for your support of that. And I put a few of these over on the table if anybody has would like to pick one up. And if the city council has any questions going forward, uh, contact me and I'll get you any the information you might need. Thank you.

Next speaker is Roy Michael.

Greetings, my esteemed colleagues. My name is Roy. I've lived in Hemet for 10 years now. The last time I spoke here, I misspoke a critical statistic. When explaining the number of empty warehouses in Southern California, I stated 25,000. That's way too big a number. Uh the actual number is 2500. I apologize for that, but the point remains there is no need for future building of warehouses in Hemtt. There is a growing market glut of warehouses. On that note, I spoke of FedEx cutting their entire workforce by 10%. These are the leaders in warehouses. This year, UPS last week announced that they were laying off 46,000 employees. Do you think they need extra warehouses? I don't think so. I didn't make a mistake on that number. 32,000 of which are drivers and warehouse workers. The writing is on the wall for warehouses. There's a music store at State in Florida that is part of the Shooters building called Music Mania that has a beautiful mural painted on the outside back wall. It's not that big and you cannot see it from Florida Avenue. I met the artist, a very talented man. Apparently, code enforcement saw that they did not have a permit and advised them to paint over it. This thing is beautiful. We're trying to build a community downtown and someone does something nice and the city wants to destroy it. Please let them pay for a a permit and continue our efforts to beautify downtown. We are a community. This is how you build communities. Uh police stats for October calls for service 6683. Firearms recovered 10. That's 10 less guns that are on our streets. Stolen

vehicles reported 10. Stolen vehicles recovered 10. I count that as 100%. Uh pedestrian checks and stops. Everybody's complaining about the people that walk up and down Florida Avenue. They're checking on them. They're doing their job. Traffic collisions 205. People learn how to drive out there. Traffic citations 222. Drug violations 61. DUI arrests 21. Total arrests 310. They're doing a hell of a job out there. As I've said before, I've matched them against other police departments nearby. Their numbers are so much better. Um, I'm hearing a lot of chatter about rent control at mobile home parks. I happen to live in one. Riverside County has it. Shouldn't we? And then finally, annexation. I only got three minutes, so there's no way I can go through all of the negative issues with annexation. I'll just simply say this. No, thank you. Next speaker, we have Antonia Mangler, followed by Vicky Kitchen, who's been donated six minutes. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Antonia Mangler and I'm a resident at London Spires Mobile Home Park. I'm here tonight because the residents in my community have experienced three

rent increases and soon a fourth to happen in the past three years with jumps as high as eight and nine% each year. Many of us are seniors on fixed incomes and these increases are far above what is allowed under state law and our local rent stabilization protections. These increases are putting people at risk of losing their homes and their stability. I'm respectfully asking that this council to refer this matter to the city's rent commission for investigation to determine if increases are lawful and pro and to protect HMIT residents from potential abuse. We are not asking for special consideration, but fairness, transparency, and enforcement of the laws already in place. Thank you for listening and supporting us with the resident residents of Hemmet who simply want to stay in our homes. Thank you,

Vicky Kitchen. Followed by Jenny Hes. Vicki has six minutes. Good evening, mayor and mayor and council members. My name is Vicky Kitchen and I'm a resident of London Spires Mobile Home Park. I've been a resident for over 12 years. Like many residents who moved in before 2021, I have a month-to-month lease. For the fourth time in four years, we're facing another rent increase that will make it difficult to meet our monthly rent. London Spires is an owner occupied mobile home park with a total of 165 spaces and approximately 150 spaces are occupied. Ownership of the park changed in early 2021 and the first rent increase was 5%. For years before that it was 3%. Since then the increase has been 9% 8% 9% again and we just received notice of the increase of 8.6% to be effective January 1st 2026. The proposed increase will mean a jump of around $59 per month for most residents. The social security increase for 2026 is 2.8%. A dollar increase of approximately $33 more per month. Most of us are seniors on fixed incomes and we cannot afford these large increases. When the ownership changed, two other mobile home parks were also bought.

Jackson Mobile Home Park on El Street in Hammet and Pueblo Sereno Mobile Home Park in Sano. I do not know if the residents of these mobile home parts have been affected in a similar way. What I do know is that there are rent increase limitations under civil code 79830.5 for mobile home parts located between two incorporated cities. It states the management cannot increase the gross rental rate for a teny in a qualified mobile home park by more than 3%. CPI plus the percentage change in the cost of living or 5% whichever is lower over any 12-month period. The restriction applies to rent increases occurring on or after February 18, 2021, and the code section is operative as of January 1, 2022. Many residents in California receive social security on a fixed income that is significantly below the cost of living in California. According to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research states, 30% of older students 65 plus in Riverside County don't have enough income to meet their basic needs. The single older adult who rents in Riverside County needs at least 32,928 per year to meet their basic needs. While you cannot help the seniors and London inspires be able to meet their needs, you can see the potential for elder financial abuse if an unfair rental increase is happening. Also, according to the HIMT Mobile Home Rent Review Commission, Division 3, Section 2-201,

the substantial investment of mobile home owners and such homes, the people of the city find and declare it necessary to protect the owners and occupiers of mobile homes from unreasonable rent increases while at the same time recognizing the need of the park owners to receive a fair return on their investment. and rental increases sufficient to cover their increased cost for repairs, maintenance, insurance, upkeep, and additional amenities. The concern of unmade repairs and capital improvements at London's buyers are a different problem that may be addressed at another time and/or another avenue. These rising rents are putting people at risk of losing not only their homes and their stability, but also their sense of community that is vitally important for seniors. They have a need to be connected now more than ever at this point in their lives. Many are without families and even though they own their own home, have nowhere to go if they cannot pay their rent and are unable to afford to move out. I'm respect respectfully asking this council to refer this matter to the city's rent commission for investigation to determine if the rent increase is over the lawful limit. We love our community and we just want to be able to stay in our homes. Thank you for your time and helping to protect the residents of him.

I'm done. [applause] Next speaker we have is Jenny Hes followed by Clinton Hess. He's gonna He has to. He's my husband.

Good evening, city council. Um, I was going to talk slow, but I have something else to talk about, so fast as usual. Jenny H. unincorporated, Riverside County, East Hummit. Over the last several months, it has become a concern for some of us who oppose annexation that the city manager respectfully may have a questionable amount of power and influence with seemingly little oversight by you, the council. In regard of the pro proposed annexation specifically on March 25th, the city manager provided you the council a presentation and asked you to receive his report, review his fiscal data, asterisks and all and refer zoning actions to the planning commission. On that same day, the Riverside Executive Council provided the city manager a letter expressing concern and asked you all to table that presentation which the mayor suggested to accommodate and again I remind you was dismissed by a majority of the council. So that evening you went on to receive the presentation and then two private citizens apparently speaking for 40,000 of us in the unincorporated area though we didn't know it were privileged to further persuade you with a one-sided perspective up here. You then all asked questions what that were not answered and after what can be totaled in literal minutes you went along with a plan to make ke the fourth largest city in Riverside. You heard many of us from unincorporated voice our issues. Unfortunately, you had no input from the city population, which are actually those who voted for you and who you represent. Also affected by annexation. Some of us in the community continue to have questions for you about this. Did you all take an oath to your constituents or to executing the city manager's agenda or a doctor's agenda or a small private group of citizens agenda? Did you know the entire aforementioned group were engaging on the topic of annexation months prior at a private residence, which can only be labeled as shady and obtained through public information requests?

Why would you allow anything to progress on March 25th when your questions were not answered, still have not been answered? Do you understand the impacts of an annexation? Why didn't you agree to table the item? Demand reasonable time to engage with your community and explain what an annexation actually is and help people understand if they even live in the city or county limits. Because me and my friends have answered those last two questions so many times that we cannot help but to feel that your obligations to inform your constituents and serve their best interest are not being met. Here are some more questions. Has the March 25th Riverside County Expo letter been responded to? Who were the outside individuals involved in this development review committee? What even is that? How were other stakeholders recruited from the unincorporated areas? Have you seen the plan of service from the applicants? Will you, when, what are the actions on that plan of service? Will you do your due diligence, read every single page, and can you question the content or say no to anything that doesn't make sense to you? This one's rhetorical. Do you know how many boards and advisories and nonprofits and groups across the Hemet Valley that these five private petitioners are tied to? Not to mention their ties to many of you memorialized on social media. They're by screaming conflict of interest. I'm going to close with the biggest question of all that none of you will answer. Do you support annexation? And are you ever going to facilitate transparent dialogue? I'll be up here until you decide to answer that. The community is watching, talking, asking questions. They're concerned and we are being ignored. Less than 150 people follow Hemet Rising United. The three-year-old petition was certified at barely over a thousand signatures. Opposition is at at around at least 2500 known supporters opposing annexation, probably closer to 3,000. remember those numbers at election time. But more

importantly, when making important and ethical decision decisions that require integrity and that may impa impact generations beyond even your lifetime, I will continue to show up here to ask you to do the right thing. I'm also in I'm infuriated seeing this mobile home park here with us tonight because I spoke to Mr. Preswitch in that parking lot out there with Mr. Graham in July and we specifically talked about one of our concerns with annexation was that the um ordinance number 772 from the city of Hemet which is not rent stabil stabilization. It's basically protest. Um well let's see. I was four years old when this was written and released and I'm old. The year starts with uh 197. Um I really hope you do the right thing again ethically and with integrity for the group of people behind me. We talked about this. I was told that you guys you you admitted you needed to look at it. You admitted that you needed to do something about it. I never heard again from the email I sent you. So now I'm just more pissed off than ever. Have a nice night. Next speaker we have is George Evans followed by Julie Paul. Thank you, council, for the three minutes. Um, first and foremost, I want to commend the exchange society uh organization for the flags and our mayor and mayor promp for being out there helping on Saturday. We also are going to need help this Saturday to take them all down. So, it' be great if anybody can get out there at 8 a.m. Again, I also want to commend the chief's report of the police department the last

meeting. Awesome to see the crime rate going down. 285 officers nationwide, 30 of them resulted in fatalities have been shot this year alone. The number is coming down, but we need to reduce that even more. Um, yesterday's program for the veterans program again, mayors, Joe, it was nice to see you all out there. It was a beautiful program. Well done. I really appreciate it. Now, on the negative standpoint, I did a photo shoot recently, a couple weeks back, just around the city hall. And for the city manager to make $285,000 a year, I don't think he looks outside his window because all the properties around city hall are vacant massive buildings. The parking lots are dumps. This needs to be cleaned up. Again, I am a thousand% against the annexation project and I hope you are too because the city is a beautiful city. Our community is very diverse with its different availabilities and it should be left the way it is. Handle your backyard first, which you are doing. You are making strides. I totally agree. Okay. Clean up your backyard before you try to take on more property, more land, and more growth. This town to go from my house to Winkco takes me 30 minutes down Florida Avenue. That's absurd. What's it going to be when they wipe out orange groves and things like that? You know, these are things that we don't need currently. Maybe in the future, 10 years, 20 years, I don't know. But I am opposed to the annexation a thousand% and I will commend you on the goods that you do, but I also will stand strong against the annexation. Thank you and thank you for all you do. Next speaker, Julie Paul, followed by Andrea Mars.

Good evening. Good evening, Mayor and Council. What's left of you? [laughter] I'm Julie Paulie and um I wanted to come and introduce myself. Um I am the new government affairs director for the Southwest Riverside County Association of Realtors, SRC. So, um, uh, it's really my goal in this role that we're a trusted, we're seen as a trusted resource as you all do your work of public policy that, um, things items that are going to impact property owners that were at the table having the discussion before it comes to you for a final decision. So, it's also my goal to reinstate the city manager breakfast. That's on my list of things to do. So, um I think it's I'll change hats because you all know me from my other role with mobile home parks and so it's kind of ironic that I'm here tonight. Yes. So, um to my new friends from London's buyers, this council can't refer an item a rent increase. Um the voters put in enacted the rent review commission to protect mobile home park residents from egregious increases. And it sounds those are high increases that are probably worthy of review, but they need to turn in the petition and follow the guidelines to meet the legal requirement. This council has done its job by making sure that that commission is populated with commissioners that can review an application once it's brought forward. So, it's all of the mechanisms are in place for that to be reviewed. So, I hope that they will um do that. Um, I will also hand out my card because they need to be aware of the parkowner funded uh, MET rental assistance program. Nobody should be displaced because of a rent increase. And this is a safety net for anybody that is priced find themselves not able to afford rent. Um, and it does happen from time to time, especially with long-term

residents. they can outlive their savings or a social or a death of a spouse can really cut a social security income. So that's what this program is for. It's a bridge to section 8 and we want to be a resource to to those folks. So I'm going to leave my card with them. Get them hooked into that. So all right, thanks all. [applause] Mayor Peterson, uh, Mayor Prom Kupa, members of the city council, city manager Preswitch, and city staff. My name is Andrea Mars, and I am your new government relations manager for Southern California Edison. Uh, Julie and I have been kind of following each other at a bunch of city council meetings. So, um, we're making the rounds. I know many of you have seen me and met with me over the past three months in my new role, but I'm here to officially make it official. And while I'm new to the role, I'm not new to the region. I was born and raised in the Hemet Saninto Valley and I remain a Riverside County resident. Prior to joining Edison, I handled public safety policy for third district supervisor Chuck Washington. I look forward to strengthening the relationship between Edison and the city and working with you and your staff to meet the city's energy needs. I'd like to add that while the government shutdown will hopefully soon be over, uh we understand that customers may be uh financially impacted right now. Any residential customer who needs additional time to remmit payment on their energy bill is encouraged to contact Southern California Edison customer service team at 1800655455 to discuss payment options. This can look like a lot of different things. It can look like deferment of payment, installation plans, waiver of the 20% deposit for extension, and no late payment charges. With that, I've left my cards with the city clerk, and I will thank you all for your time.

Last speaker we have is Judith McFerson. Good evening, council, mayor, and city management. Um, I have a question regarding, and I know you cannot say much, but maybe you could say yes or no. Um, regarding item 5A, uh, which uses the government code 54956.9, uh, regarding close session matters. um in the when um a person has named themselves in a possible lawsuit or there already is a an active lawsuit already filed. Uh the name is there and I I may be far off but I like to ask questions. I'm an a seeker of knowledge. Um, I'm wondering if that has anything to do with case CVME2512310 filed on October 8th by the so-called whistleblower Lionel Martinez versus the city of Hammet and whimsically used an attorney from a law firm called the Simon Law Group. Um, there's also another one I was wondering if it could be CVME2508-528 filed in July by a Crystal CIS versus Wen u, an outsourced company that we use for plan reviews and has recently amended

the complaint to add the city of Hammet. I was just wondering or if either of those might have been relevant to 5B. Probably not. But just curious. Okay. Thank you. We will now move to receive and file. Are there any questions or comments from the council on the warrant registers and periodic payroll payments?

I have none. We will receive and file the reports. We will now move to the consent calendar. All consent calendar items will be acted upon simultaneously unless requested by an individual council member for separate consideration. We have a note from staff requesting that item 16F be pulled from the calendar. Are there any members of the council who would like to pull any other consent items for separate consideration? Yes, but I'm looking for it. Give me a minute.

Could we pull 16B? Uh 16 G 16H. Mayor, I request that we pull 16 C.

Anyone else? D. No, B or D. No, we did not. Was that boy or delta? G. Yes. And I want to pull 16. I think we pulled them all. Pretty much all of them tonight. Okay, we got them all. Read them all. Okay. Hope so. Uh, can you read them back to me, please? City clerk, will you read them back?

Yes. It's approval of the consent calendar with the removal of items B, C, D, G, H, and I for separate consideration. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve the remaining items? I make the motion to approve all remaining items. And a second. Connor, I have a motion by Council Member Mails, second by Council Member Clark. We'll do a roll call. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Males, yes. Mayor Prom Krupa, yes. Mayor Peterson, yes.

That motion passes four to zero. Moving on to 16B as in boy. So, I have questions for public works. The years for this grant for any acceptance is it's expected to be fiscal year 2728 that we would actually be approved in recent we're in 2025. So we're two

25 26. Yeah. Um, and do we have at this time for say in the next 45 minutes we have an earthquake and we need generators, are we covered? So, um, until recently we've had portable generators that we would be able to pull out to the sites and hook up and run the wells as needed. Um, South Coast Air Quality Management District has revoked those permits and so technically we aren't allowed to run those. Um, I'm sure in a major emergency we would find a way.

Yeah. Okay. Um, and if we're not granted, are we uh looking into other funds? Because this is pretty important for It is. And we've um we we added a CIP in the last update that was to do similar to this project, but we've you know we'd like to get some grant money to pay for it instead. So that's why we're applying for this. Okay. I just wanted the public to know that it's 2728 and you're working on it and we're working on it. Thank you. Yeah. Nothing further.

Okay. Huh? So, [laughter] I move to accept 16B. Any other comments on that one? Would you like to make a motion? Yeah, I move to accept 16B. I'll second. I have a motion by Council Member Clark, second by Council Member Males. We'll do a roll call. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Males, yes. Mayor Pertam Koopa, yes. Mayor Peterson. Yes. That motion passes four to zero. Moving on to 16 C as in cat.

So, Mayor, I had requested that we pull this because I wanted to request uh the council remove all references to code enforcement. The intent here is for the code enforcement manager to report directly to the community development director with the reorganization. And essentially the the chief building official will serve as um essentially a deputy director within that department. So will we bring it back at another time? Then with your motion tonight, we can remove those references and that would address the issue. Do I have a motion to do that?

Yeah. make a motion to uh remove all the reference references to what was it? [laughter] Code enforcement. Code enforcement and um report to community development. And report to community development. Thank you. I second it. Something like that. Something like that. We're good. I have a motion by Council Member Males, second by Council Member Clark. Uh as as amended, and we'll do a roll call. Council member Clark. Yep. Council member Males. Yes. Mayor PM Koopa. Yes. Mayor Peterson. Yes. That motion passes four to zero. Moving on to 16D as in dog.

Yes. Where's Where's our public works director? There he is. Okay. Um don't disagree with the need and the procurement of this. Just had a couple questions on um when it got down to listing the fiscal impact that the design the five or four numbers that are listed there add up to the 1.127 but you're only asking us to approve 9993,000.

929 that's correct,000. All the other part would have been done through existing on call agreements, but the CIP itself had a $1.5 million um appropriation. And so we're just looking to award the construction portion of the of a contract. Okay. So the other the other amount is that being taken up, you said by other contractors. Yeah. Other other professional services that's already been approved in some place else. It has. Yes. Okay. All right. That's all I wanted to clarify because I'm looking at that and going, "Yep, those two numbers don't match up." So, thank you very much. And if there's no other f further questions, I will move approval of item 16D. I second.

I have a motion by Mayor Prom Koopa, second by Council Member Clark. We'll do a roll call. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Males, yes. Mayor PM Koopa, yes. Mayor Peterson, yes.

That motion passes 4 to zero. Moving on to 16G as in go. So, staff report has two um of the two dedicated stalls at Gibble Park and three at Hemmet Public Library, which is fine, but what about the parking lot down by Chambers and state which would place it closer to some locations like Mweeny. Could we move one of those to over there so that maybe because that's right by Dominiconi too.

Um so this this grant that WRCOG has it targets um some certain disadvantaged area tracks. Um, so I'd have to look and, you know, touch base with them to to look at that specific parking lot. Um, I think it's maybe a little too remote from what they would want um as far as um near charging and um bus stops and I I mean there might be one near the school, but um I'd have to we'd have to take that a closer look at that. Um I know there's other maybe you we'd like to look at options over on the west end of town, too. Um, and one uh location that came up, I'm not sure how many parking spaces we control at the police station um with the west um

substation. Um that's something that we could look at and the action here this evening is really just to kind of formalize the partnership with WRCOG to um entertain this program and a formal agreement will will still have to come back to the council at another time. Okay. Well, I'm on WR COG. So, I got one quick question, too. Is this just within the valley there? Nothing long distance where they can take these cars. Yes. So, these are not intended for commuting. They are just for mainly for around town.

Okay. If we ever uh thought about doing something for the veterans because I know at the Legion, we used to get calls for people to get them to the VA and all that, we could sure use something like that for long distance to help our veterans out. So, sure. I have a question too. Um, and maybe this will have to come from archive, but uh the two dedicated stalls in the north parking of Gibble Park, are there charging stations there now? There are not. So, this is not a that's not a good location if they have to be recharged

there. ultimately whoever you know the the third party company that WRCOG is working with will need to make sure that they get charged um over time and or you know it'll be part of the whoever's using them to go get them charged um and so they would have to go to a place that there is a charger but they would be able to still go and pick them up at that location and drop them off even though there's not currently charging available. outside of the library, the police station, and city hall. The city doesn't have too many chargers at this time. Yes,

I was going to say, where are the charging stations? Uh, yeah, it's kind of a a charging station desert, so something we need to look at. But there's one going in down on Yale. Yes. At the far end from Gibble Park. Anyway, there you go. You answered my questions. I move we accept 16G. I'll second. I have a motion by Council Member Clark, second by Council Member Males. We'll do a roll call. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Males, yes. Mayor Pertim Kupa, yes. Mayor Peterson, yes.

That motion passes four to zero. Moving on to 16H as in high. Oh. Oh. Oh, we have you. I thought we were going to have you. So, [laughter] Thank you.

Before we start, may I make a a comment real quick? Uh, this London Spires is in my district and I would like to formally say that I would like to get the rental commission um going on this because their rent is going to be January 1st. They plan on raising it. So, I'd like to make sure we get started on this and get something going so we can counter the the the rental uh the the rate. Um. Ah. How you doing, Scott? Good. You?

Good. Good. I have a problem with this because last meeting I spoke with that gentleman over there, Mr. Noah Raalo, and I asked him if cabling was going to be involved with that $55,000 um job of tearing down eight cubicles and building 13 cubicles. And my understanding was yes, it was. And um now we're here again to add an additional $27,000 of running just Cat 6 cable. That's it. Cat 6 cable. Yes.

So we're getting charged $27,000 for a what? at the most $10,000 job. And the $55,000 for the cubicles, replacing eight cubicles and adding five additional cubicles for the cost of $55,000 is it's ridiculous. I mean, if I had a chance to take my vote back from the last one, I I would take it back because we're I researched this and it shouldn't cost us more than 25,000 for the entire job. And here we're paying 82,000 with the addition of the cable. So I don't understand where these prices, where this cost comes from. And I mean, does this sound logical to you?

It it seems expensive. It is. And it it definitely is expensive. Um for the cabling, the cabling contract that we got was um literally on a co-op agreement. Um, and the cost of that because it becomes a public works project because it's actually wiring that's established within the building. Um, we do have to pay prevailing wage. We do have to pay a lot. I keep hearing that over and over, but prevailing wage is like it it's I mean spending money. Yeah.

An additional 50,000 total. I would say 50,000 that we're kind of just giving somebody for, you know, for what? I mean, it's only a $25,000 job, maybe 30 at the most, if that much. Um, I I can't vote yes on this. I'll be honest with you. I can't because I know the cost of running cable. I've ran cable before for 20 years, actually 30 years working for other people. And um I know costs have gone up, cost on on uh material, but we're only talking cat 6 cable here. How much is that a reel for a th00and foot? 500 bucks at the most.

That I'd have to talk to the vendor. Yeah. I mean, it's ridiculous. This is I I can't I can't I just can't vote for this something like this knowing that it's an outrageous cost to be honest with you. This is something I know about. I can only imagine other things that we probably overpaid for and other um upgrades. But um I mean um I'm sorry, but yeah, it's a no for me. So I I just like to say though, if we're required to do prevailing wage, we we can't get around that. Correct. Correct. Yes.

But this is above prevailing wage. This is stealing. I mean, 13 cubicles for Cat 6 cable at $27,000. Think about it. I mean, it's ridiculous. I mean, for maybe $1,200 worth of cable, you're charging $27,000. I I can't see it, and I I just won't vote yes on it. So, I I I don't approve it. Um, I mean, I'd run the cable over there just to save us $27,000. Get you and me and myself out there. But we're required to use prevailing Wire you. Yeah. We can't get around it.

No, we can't get around it. Get a company that that's more um you know that that's to the what the cost should actually be. Cost shouldn't be more than $10,000. Maybe 12, 13. They I I can't see paying 20 something $100 for a cable run in a cubicle. I I I hear what you're saying. Um however, prevailing wage is something that even if one person, if you were the one that were going to do it, the fact is it's the act of actually the doing of the work, the installation itself triggers prevailing wage. So we we need to all local agencies, public agencies need to follow prevailing wages and pay.

Where do they get that wage from? You're paying somebody a thousand dollars an hour to run cable. Federal government. That's ridiculous. I come from the public sector. So this is ridiculous. That's why states or cities are going bankrupt.

So no, I I somebody wants to approve it, that's fine. But I vote no on it. Mayor, we didn't talk about this before the meeting, but another alternative would be for us to u seek bids, three bids um from different vendors to the extent possible to identify a lowerpriced option and then proceed with that lower priced option if that was available. So, what we when we referenced this other contract, this was a competitively bid contract in another public agency and so we're relying on that. Uh but given the scope of this project, there may be a a local and if um if council member Males can provide some recommendations on companies, we could potentially go get three different bids from them as well.

I I just can't see paying this. It's ridiculous. Isn't there a specific timeline that we're hoping to do this though during Thanksgiving when there is a timeline, but we have an alternative with um with I believe some uh Wi-Fi options. Um they're longer term not a good cost-effective approach, but um the cabling will be more affordable, but that could be a temporary issue. And and we have u the ability to leave some people in the other building for a little longer. So there are some options. Okay. I'm I'm all about saving money. So, if we can uh have another option, I I would look at it again.

So, yeah. You want to just bring this back if um Scott? Um I think we could do some research. We could also uh receive any recommendations from others uh and we can uh contact them, explain the scope of work and receive bids on those. Sure. So, do we move to So, we would we would just not act on this one tonight. Bring this back at a later date. Yeah. Sorry. The um

I think part of the focus here though, let's see, the action was to authorize the administrative services director to establish a supplemental appropriation. So, you could do that or reduce that $27,000 and then not award the contract. but but uh provide the motion to to utilize those funds. So what we didn't do is budget this uh at the beginning of the year anticipating that this would happen. So that that appropriation is not in the budget. So that's one act you could do today. Um or we could bring that back at the December 9th meeting.

I'd say bring it back and we'll have I'll have you three vendors that'll come and do it for the price that it's should be done for. But just it's just ridiculous this even the 55,000 and tearing down eight cubicles and putting 13 up is ridiculous. But I thought cable was included with it. So I kind of you know so let's bring it back. I need a motion for that now. Um I make a motion to bring it back to the next uh city council meeting. I second it. Thank you, Scott. I [clears throat] have a motion by Council Member Males, second by Council Member Clark. We'll do a roll call. Council member Clark,

yes. Council member Males, yes. Mayor Portm Kupa, yes. Mayor Peterson, yes. That motion passes four to zero. Moving on to 16 I

I I just had one uh question and a little clarification on this. Um, usually if you lease a vehicle, it goes back to the dealer. And with this, it says that we would receive some money. So, how is it that the city can receive money if it's leased? Madame Mayor, um, so myself and department staff have been working with um, enterprise fleet management since July. Um, ultimately the goal is to save money while um purchasing newer vehicles with better technology and safety features. We've been working with uh Dan Skaggin who has ultimately um got a presentation ready that he can uh provide you.

Okay, great. Uh good evening, mayor, council members, and city staff. Thank you for having me here. Uh we appreciate the opportunity to walk you through what we can do. Um that is a great question. Um I can answer that now or throughout the presentation, whichever you'd prefer. Do your presentation and it'll answer it. Okay, great. [laughter]

I've been with Enterprise for 30 years and um helped a lot of municipalities and special durs over those years implement this this program right here that you're going to see in just a minute. Locally, we have 288 government clients in Southern California. Some of them you may recognize here on this list. City of Corona, um, city of Bowmont and, um, uh, city of Marietta, and we also work with the city of San Hosento. the you guys are members of source well and we won the source well uh RFP for fleet management. So that's the uh contract or the due diligence that you would leverage or that all these cities are using to implement this program. What you're seeing right here is a graph, a life cycle graph of the best time to replace a vehicle while the resale value is still high um and while maintenance expenses and fuel expenses are still lower. Today, the um non-inforcement fleet is over on that bigger circle over there. uh much older vehicles, much lower resale value, and higher maintenance and fuel expenses. So, I'm going to show you here in just a minute what it looks like in terms of the the financial impact it'll make by cycling vehicles at a at a better time when it makes more economic sense and answer your question about the the lease. Um, this is the open-end equity lease. Um, and this is a sample of a $40,000 vehicle. And as you rightly said earlier, in a

typical like dealership lease model, they own the vehicle. That's their vehicle. You return it back to them. And if there's any equity in that vehicle, all belongs to the dealership. This is not that kind of lease. This is an ownership lease. It's really just a finance to a balance. Okay? Okay. And so what you're what you're seeing here is a $40,000 vehicle. And the benefit to HEM is that they're paying $30,000 towards the ownership of this vehicle. Um what that means is there's $10,000 of cash flow per vehicle. When you use this mechanism to finance the vehicle, it's really just a finance to a balance of $10,000. the vehicle [clears throat] in this example. Forgive me, my eyes aren't able to see that slide from here. The um unpaid balance on this lease is $10,000. At five years, this vehicle is worth 22,500. What that means to the city of Hammet is that $12,500 of equity, that's your money, comes back to the city of Hemmet when we sell that vehicle on your behalf. There are no mileage charges, no wear and tear charges. Um, this is what this is the mechanism that a lot of cities are using to improve cash flow and get a lot more vehicles with all less capital. Does that make sense?

Okay, great. This is what your fleet looks like today. And what you're seeing here is an average age of non- enforcement vehicles that's 10 years old. Some vehicles over 20 years old. And so what we're recommending is not to hold on to vehicles for that long, but to cycle them sooner. And what does that impact look like? Over the last year, um, I've worked with Lieutenant PZ and his team. We've analyzed the numbers, and this is a spreadsheet we've come up with and put together. And what this is saying is that the the 10-year impact by partnering with Enterprise is a savings, a total impact of $271,000. And the reason that is is because we're buying the vehicle. We're going to order it directly from the factory on behalf of the city of Hemet leveraging the source contract. We're going to plug in the open-end equity lease model which allows you to get a lot more vehicles for a lot less capital. And then we're going to move up that cycle from 20 years to five years. By selling the vehicle of five years, it's worth a lot more money. We're going to take that vehicle to market on your behalf. We're going to sell that for you. Keep in mind, we sell about 500,000 to a million vehicles a year. And we're selling those vehicles for about 2 to 3,000 over Blackbook. That's all Hemet's money. So, if we can get a lot more money on the back end and preserve the the capital with a me with the open and equity lease, that's how we get to that $371,000

savings. You don't get a commission on that sales that you make? No, none of it. So, your money is upfront then. Uh the 30,000 that we that you mentioned, that's Or am I wrong? Wait, say that one more time. Okay. So, where where does your money come in? You got to make something in order to Yeah, of course. Um, when we sell the vehicle, there's a $500 $400 service charge. That's part of our profit. There's interest expense on the finance the vehicle. That's part of our profit. And there's um hold back money on the vehicle when we order it from the factory, and that's part of our profit. So, there's three areas there.

Yeah. A byproduct of cycling these vehicles sooner um is that they'll have a lot more safety. You'll have a much safer and reliable fleet. And what you're seeing here are some statistics on your current fleet today which lacks a lot of those safety features. So, in summary, um a partnership with Enterprise will help lower the the vehicle budget year in and year out and provide a much fresher fleet um that's safer and more reliable. Any questions?

Yes. Can you go back two slides? Yes. It was where you had all the numbers right there. Yeah. Um where did I see that? I set One of them I saw the annual mileage of 6,000 miles. Yeah, that's correct. When you look at the uh non-inforcement vehicles and the previous slide analyzes that as well,

the average annual mileage is just 6,000. And that's a great thing. I'm glad you brought that up because what that means is and and that's pretty standard for most municipalities. At five years, that vehicle has very low mileage and is worth a lot of money. and that's the time to sell it. When you hold on to for 20 years, that odometer doesn't mean anything. It's just an old vehicle and it's worth next to nothing really on the market. So, so these are are really low mileage vehicles. I mean, five years you have 6,000, but this is 6,000 annual. So, that's what 30,000 miles. Exactly. And so, today you're not doing that. You're holding on to the vehicle for 20 years. Seen some of them. And so,

especially the Toyota. Yeah. even more. Um, a a vehicle at five years, which is 30,000 miles, sells for a lot of money, $25,000. So, that's really the fund. That's where all that equity comes back to the city and helps drive future replacements forward because you're leveraging all that equity. But when you hold on to it for so long, all that's gone and you're starting all over again. And so, that's why this strategy works so well for municipalities. Okay. Police stations you work with, uh, do they allow their police officers to take cars on? Thank you. Yeah. Police. Um, okay. So,

every agency and this is your vehicle. So, you guys have all rights of ownership on this. So whatever policy and aftermarket you guys want to put on it, it's all Does that add additional miles though to your chart or Well, what we took was the odometer on the existing fleet and we backed into the annual mileage using that. So on the fleet we have now. So you Okay. You calculated the numbers through that. Okay. Thank you. Exactly. [snorts] Any other questions or comments? Thank you for your presentation. That that gave us a lot more information. So, thank you. Thank you. That that was good. So, um I would make a motion to approve this. I will second that.

I have a motion by Mayor Peterson, second by Mayor Prom Kruba. We'll do a roll call. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Males, yes. Mayor Proim Krupa, yes. Mayor Peterson, yes. That motion passes four to zero.

We will now move to the discussion action item. Can we have a report from staff on item 17A? [clears throat] So, um let's see here. So, council, um, the item will be popped up here pretty quick. Um, this is our sustainability and staffing. Um, it kind of has reverted to a few different names. Right now, what we're looking to call this is the 10-year information technology capital replacement plan. Um, this is kind of uh something that's been worked on for several years. Um this is the timeline in doing this will be kind of explained in the presentation that we're about to perform. Um so this doesn't reflect on the client first uh folks that we have up here today. This is myself obviously Scott Underwood IT manager. I have Tom Jacobson here with client first and also we have our administrative services director Tiffany Barnett. So, we'll all be providing portions of this um for the review of the council. Um what I'll go ahead and do because the majority of this work has been done by client first. I want you to kind of see it from their perspective. Um and then we'll be answering questions as we go. Mayor and Council, I also want to augment um those comments by letting you know that this was something on our fiscal year 2324 work plan. And so while uh we know that our IT staff has been extremely busy and today's presentation will reinforce that, it's a it's also an example that we didn't forget. We didn't

overlook the fact that this was an item uh that you requested and we're bringing it to you now. Madame Mayor, members of the council, my name is Tom Jacobson. I'm a partner with Client First Technology Consulting. Um, I last presented to you in 2023, uh, with the purchase for the server replacement plan. We did the procurement process for that particular project. Um today um I'm going to go through a little bit of a background on us, talk about sustainability planning, show you benchmarks related to financials spending for it versus for other municipalities and staffing and then uh talk show you some staffing comparisons and answer your questions. Happy to answer your questions throughout. That's me. Uh I think I was younger then. Um and and Kendall Kraut who's a business applications consultant. He does the statistics and benchmarks for our firm. Uh a little bit about client first. We're a local government focused consulting firm. We have uh one notfor-profit client and it's one of my favorite not forprofits. Um 99% of our clients are local government, 60% are in California, and over half are probably 75% are cities. We've done a lot of projects over the last 20 years that we've been uh in business. Um I I guess uh all of us use uh nearby cities as as reference material. We've worked for uh Corona, Cathedral City, Palm Desert, um others around the area and all over the state.

Scott,

yep, I'm up. So, uh this portion of the presentation will be an IT update. Um we've been pretty busy obviously with all the work that we've been doing. Um this slide here depicts kind of what we needed to start out with um versus what we're working on now. Obviously, as uh TJ had already told you about, we did firewalls and servers. Those were kind of the first core items that needed to be done. Um then we moved into Office 365, which was kind of brought on primarily by COVID. Um but it was also that was kind of the move that most agencies have been making towards cloud-based um technologies simply because a lot of the different applications out there are moving in that same direction to get that synergy to work those together is important. Then um what we did is we moved obviously to the um telephone system replacement. Um that included networking. Um so that was replacement of networking. It was a replacement of our wireless system. Um and it also had to do with a lot of cable remediation, copper, fiber, things like that. Um to make sure that the telephone system that we were putting in would be reliable and stable for years to come. So not just a a once right now but for several years to come. So something that we can grow into. Then the very next item

is that a cloud-based system the telephone system or is that something in house? Yes it is a cloud-based system. Okay. Um it's ran by Ring Central. Okay. So um the whole idea behind that is to in the event we do have some kind of a natural or man-made disaster um that system will be survived. it will continue to operate even if we have critical outages here. Do we plan on going uh to data centers or going to the cloud anytime soon with our servers?

Um the we right now we're kind of in limbo of that. We have a solution called DRAZ um that allows us to in the event we have a a major problem here at city of him we can hit the button and move that and transition that environment to the cloud. Um, we do have other pieces of the network that are currently on the cloud. Um, but the we're still kind of in a hybrid state. Um, and that's where most agencies are. Most agencies have not moved completely to the cloud yet. Um, so it's kind of we're testing the waters, but we're not quite there. Okay.

Um, so best of both. Um, the last thing that obviously we've been working on is the ArcGIS upgrade and laser fee. So that's your document imaging. Um that is anything that can actually provide you a map or reference material for the projects that we've been working on for all departments not just it. Um and then on the very top of that slide so basically the part of the iceberg that you can actually see those are the projects that we're currently working on right now. So that's going to be the council chambers audiovisisual. It's going to be the EPL or permitting licensing. Um that's also the EERP replacement. So those are both Tyler products. Um one again for licensing, the other one measly for financials. Um the other one is the citywide computer replacement. So those are all in work and being worked on as we speak

and which will be finalized when the computer replacement. Well, not the computer uh the her and whatever systems they use and for per uh permitting and so on. Let's see here. that is on this next slide. Oh, okay.

So, uh yeah. [laughter] Um and that kind of breaks that down. Um this one actually is simply the work that we've been working on. The following slide will actually be the one that actually shows the current inwork project. So, these are completed initiatives. Um and it kind of starts that process or at least shows that um through that iceberg. So we started most of these the firewall replacement and all that in about 23 fiscal year and then kind of moved our way up. So the office replacement, server replacement, um GIS, there's some web redesign, there was some networking and firewalling work that needed to be done here at the library. Um we're also looking at the CIP and that's the the other differentiation is between these initiatives. If they're a CIP, we called out the CIP project number. um if they are an SP that's actually a strategic plan item. So that was something that council voted for and high medium priority. Most of these fell into that high medium priority unfortunately but uh we got them done. So the next slide is the one that I know Joe was referencing and that's the uh initiatives that we're currently working on right now. Um and that is the EERP and EPL. Um the EERP is the financial system. We're still working on the portion that's cashiering and the portion that is um HR. Those items still need to be completed. We're looking for the completion date of the end of this fiscal year for those. Um, with the EPL, that's your licensing. It's building department, code enforcement, those um, that system is looking right now to be coming online in February.

Okay. So, that's that's soon. Um, obviously the council uh, chamber item, I know that's one that's big for everyone here. Um, that one is going to the core work of that is starting in December 1st. So, once that starts, we've given the company 30 days to complete. So 30 days, 30 days. So we're looking to make sure that that does happen and hold their feet to the fire and make sure they are accountable to that.

Um the other is computer replacement. Um obviously we want to try to migrate um the people that can to a laptop. Those are primarily people that are not eligible for overtime. So it's going to be directors, managers, etc. Um move those folks to laptops, migrate all computers to Windows 11. and we're anticipating that project completion by the end of this month. And then finally, cyber security improvements, dark web scanning and multiffactor authentication. That's the uh codes that you wind up seeing that they tend send you as a text or an email and things like that. Um unfortunately, those are now a requirement. Um and those are looking to be completed by the end of this month as well. [snorts] I'll pass it back to Tom. Any any questions on the uh status?

My my only question is uh you have what four employees? Yes, four employees. How do you get it all done? It's very difficult. I can imagine. It truly is. And we're having to uh you know reset plates constantly. Do you have a lot of u desktop um calls for people that are having issues or anything where you have Yes, we do. Um we've seen that kind of uptick. What's your average on that? On average for every day we're looking we went from about three to four years ago we were averaging about four to five. Currently to date we're averaging anywhere between 10 and 12. So 10 and 12 for the business [clears throat] days that we're here.

Um on Fridays on the weekends it's usually two or three. So it kind of dries up a little bit but not much. Um but when the bulk of those staff come back on on Monday it comes right at us again. Okay. And how do you stagger your people? I mean, you have you work Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday. You have two on two two working Monday through Thursday and two working Tuesday through Friday or

No, what we have is we have all of our staff right now currently working Monday through Thursday. We did augment. We did have um one staff member, myself, um working Tuesday through Friday. Um, unfortunately when we do that it splits up the department where we only have three solid days a week to be able to work on larger projects. So, and because we're doing a lot of those key initiatives trying to get those things done, that's kind of slowed those projects down. Is somebody on call on Friday then if problems? Okay. Yes. And that's been that way since co um and longer. So, we always have somebody on call. So, when the police department can't log in at 2 o'clock in the morning, we're on it. Good. Okay.

And that also holds true for the library. Um they are open Saturdays and Fridays as well. So it covers them as well as public safety.

All righty. I'm going to go through some financial benchmarking information here. Um so, uh I did want to say one thing though. I was last here in 2023 and I too am impressed with all the work that Scott's team has gotten done. When I came back and I looked through the cyber security tool set that was in place, I was really pleased to see the tools that that were in use and there are very few gaps in that particular field. So Scott's done a Scott's team has done an excellent job over the last two plus years. Okay. What we do uh we do a lot of technology master planning and with those plans we gather financial information related to fund spend on enterprise funds plus other technology funds anything that Scott's team would support and we compare that to the IT budget for each client [snorts] and we generate uh a really cool graph which is the next slide in the we use 27 aent agencies over [snorts] on the I guess it's it's right um is the benchmark um almost all agencies we work with are under the 6% number maybe we've had one in the last five years over 6% um 4% is a recommended low quite a few that are under 4% and you can tell so uh the benchmark is 4.24% 24% of operating expenditures for the city and you folks are comfortably in that range just above the 4.24. So by this measure your spending is is adequate. Next slide. Um I want to talk about how this project got started and what we're what we really started to accomplish. The purpose of the sustainability plan

originally was to generate what I would call the tech capital replacement plan 10ear capital replacement plan for the city. Consider it to be the capital improvement plan like public works except for all technology equipment. We want to include as much as many things as possible that plug into the wall. Uh, in some cases we include um door access control, video, I think those are over in public works and well maintained at the city so they're not included here, but we include everything else. Um, a typical computer replacement plan is like PCs and laptops, but we want to make sure that all the equipment's included. We added a couple other goals to this as we work through this. We wanted to align our investments to meet the city's goals. We wanted to understand costs associated with application improvement and I'll talk about that a little bit more later. And then um we really wanted to show you an what an annual set aside would look like so we could reduce surprises with when we needed big capital improvement expenditures. Okay. So I'm going to review some more benchmarks here. Oh, I got another methodology thing. Roll forward, please, Scott. What we did is we collected all IT expenditures from all departments. Not everything is in the IT budget. Some some technology expenses are in other departments. We put all of that together. Licenses, maintenance, operations, and support costs. We identified some strategic gaps in funding or gaps in in work that needed to be done and included those into the plan. And then we developed a 10-year capital replacement plan. And we have some other benchmarks here too. Here's the consolidated budget. The next slide, this is the current year budget. Um, if

you include all technology, salary, wages, um, total IT budget comes to uh, 5,37,000 and change. Um staff have been using a budget increase average of 5% per year uh to cover increases in licenses and software maintenance costs. Uh that's served staff well and uh actually is lower than the number I typically use. But if it works for you, go with it. Can I stop you a minute?

Sure. your maintenance and operations. Can you give me the reason why 2024 25 is at 1341 and you've reduced it this year 2025 to 26. Is there a reason why there was that spike and you think it's going to be lower this year? Do you know why that is Scott? Um it would be professional services. Oh okay. That's a reduction in professional services costs which are flexible by yours. Another example is implementing the telephone system um two-factor authentication etc.

Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions?

All righty. Next slide. We want to talk a little bit about strategic gaps in IT investment. Um the capital equipment set aside is uh really a best practice in technology. Um we use it um for all different types of government agencies and that's to level out the expenses for IT equipment and prevent surprises and large capital outlays that have to come out of this year's operating budget. Uh, one of the things we looked at is in the past when the city has implemented a new application like we just talked about ERP or um the business license permitting application, it's been implemented and left in place with no improvement plan until the next implementation is required. So essentially the software is just used in its current state for the next 10 to 15 years without without considering whether business processes are changed or requirements of residents have changed. What we wanted to do is is add in a at every five years an evaluation of software to make sure it still meets your needs and see what improvements and business processes can be implemented and how we can better serve residents. We also included several other cyber security related items. Um, these really aren't uh hard tools. Scott in the IT team has done a good job implementing the tool set, but what they are is policies and procedures, planning for disasters, planning for cyber security incidents, and business continuity, and then um testing those plans to make sure that they're fully functional. And then uh some of the things related to back a sec

[clears throat] technical difficulties implementing [snorts] IT governance model to help the help the city and the departments prioritize technology initiatives going forward. Um so the departments had a little bit of a say in in what and what improvements each group needed and what the priority of those were. Who who um implements your cyber security improvements? Is that you or is that one of your helpers? That is myself. That's yourself. Isn't that kind of like a constant job in itself just by itself?

Anymore as as the threats kind of grow and you know become more and more prevalent? Yes. Yeah. I mean, last week, um, I had a client that had two different threats in the same week that both in both required investigation. One of which was a fraud item and one was of which was a fishing item. Have we had any threats recently? Yes. And you've been able to handle all of them or do you have to upgra um escalate it to?

We do. Um eventually if it's something where it's a fraud um we generally would get uh finance involved or PD. So and we do have had some of those in recent months. So yes. All righty. Um next slide please. Are are you doing real time backups right now or? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, the backups are both on premise cloud-based on premise and cloud-based. Okay. And then and also from the cloud. You're doing backups to the cloud.

Yeah. All right. So, the primary approach for capital replacement planning used our best practices replacement um planning which is the table on the right and has recommended replacement cycle for equipment. And as we talk about, you know, the need to replace equipment on a regular basis, things start to fail. Um, and and pretty soon you can't get uh patches and cyber security updates and all those kinds of things. As a matter of fact, this is such a serious issue that the latest um requirements from uh the FBI require all systems to be supported in one way or another. either you have to have a maintenance contract or you have to have the ability to support it through spare parts and a a vendor contract. So, um what we did is we built a 10-year uh replacement plan. Part of the reason we did that is because the dis dispatch systems replaced at 10 years and we wanted to include those costs. That's a major cost item in the plan. Then we reviewed all the budgets and we included ongoing maintenance costs. Next slide. It's kind of not not readable by the by the uh audience here. This is uh one page from the spreadsheet. Uh the the spreadsheet had about 75 different initiatives on it. Um as you can see, there's some ongoing costs that are annual. There are some one-time costs for replacement parts. And in fiscal year 3031, there's a a $1.3 million item and an $800,000 item. And what we want to do is be able to plan on an annual basis to accumulate funding so that when those those hit, we're not caught um needing

$2 million out of the general fund to pay for those. It's just one sample page. How many uh computers do you have that are sitting out in the hallway and in your office that need to be installed? 83. 83. Yes. How long have we had them? We've had those for at least two months. That's it. Just two months. Yeah. So, by the time we put them in, they'll be obsolete. My hope is not. So, like I said, the hope is still that be able to push those out by November. Okay. The end of November. By November. Yeah. Okay. Um this month, what do you do? How do you um on your hard drives, do you have a program that mirrors everything? When it comes to desktops,

yeah, uh desktops we do not back up. What we do is the files that are on those um generally exist in folders that are Microsoft. Um so you have everything at the server level then. Yes. So what happens is those folders are actually synced up with Microsoft 365. So those are automatically moved to the cloud. Okay. That way in the event you were to log into another computer those files are available to you. Okay. And those get backed up as well. They go from there's a also a backup that's on the cloud that does a cloud to cloud. What's your procedure for installing all the applications that need to go on each computer? How do you mirror them?

So the way that we mirror those is through a tool called Microsoft SECM. Um and we lay down one operating system on every machine that's the same and then depending upon the department they have specific packages the software for those departments and those lay down um as individual blocks on top of that operating system. Okay. And then their files are just on the um in the cloud anyway. Correct. Okay. Thank you.

I have a question. life years most times. I I'm a little shocked at the firewall replacement at seven. So, I'm assuming that it would if we needed to replace a firewall for whatever reason. I mean, because I don't know what's going to happen next week, let alone on my computer in three years. Um, so that's an ongoing review so that we do it maybe in five years instead of seven.

The reasons it's seven years is that's the typical life life of a firewall before the vendors stop supporting all the software features on it. And that that's what's really important is the threat prevention and the uh you know advanced uh advanced detection mechanisms. So that's a typical life from the time you know you purchase to the time the vendors stop supporting and they're always adding things to that and any more of the cost of the firewall cost is a minimal piece compared to all this software stuff and and plus the maintenance agreements always give you the firmware upgrades and so on. So yeah you have to you have to do that

because replacement in the public sector is five four to five years. Yeah. And it we had this a long discussion at another meeting the difference between public sector and private sector. We do make things last longer. Um it just is the nature of the public sector. Um what we're really trying to do is maximize the life of equipment and that's that's really what your residents want for the most part. Yeah. Absolutely. But I just want to make sure that we're good. Um seven years is a long time.

Yeah. Good stewards. Yeah, I would that works. Um, we we work with lots of lots of agencies obviously and so the seven years is is through experience. Any other questions? Okay. Okay. So, uh, oh, one of the things, Scott, we one of the things you're doing is upgrading to Windows 11, too, with those computers. And that does take time. That's not a fast process. There's no way to do that quickly.

Yeah. Okay. So, the total 10-year capital replacement cost based on the spreadsheet um was a was just a touch over $10 million, which gives you an annual need for a set aside of about a million dollars a year. A million.

Yeah. And these are best practice investments. Um what we did is we added some additional systems that we're seeing similar agencies procuring. um AI tools. Staff are actually looking at a couple different AI tools now. Um cyber security management tools. Um the city doesn't have a construction management system. Lots of lots of your peers use construction management tool systems. And then uh the electronic document management upgrade and social media archiving is are another couple items. Okay, next slide. Um we also did some of our staffing benchmarks. That's what we lack. [laughter]

Yes, that's exactly to your point, Council Member Males. Um, the these these are comparisons with 43 different agencies. Most of the 43 understaffed to start with. All four metrics point to a staffing deficit. Um, some case in the computer devices per IT staff of about 2 to one. Servers per IT staff is 3 to one. Um, so we're starting from a place where we've got a very small team and I'll show you a comparison slide here in a second doing a lot of work [snorts] and uh it's taking takes a long time to get things done sometimes. Next next slide. I'm going to what we're going to do here is compare the Hammet staff of four to other cities of similar size that are also f full service. forward. This is city of India. Um similar size city, full service, police, fire, total of nine FTE and it next is uh Whittier in um eastern LA County.

That's my hometown. There [laughter] you go. Uh full service police and fire, a total of 10 FTE in it. And another is Southgate. They're South LA County. Similar size again, police, no fire. Uh really they actually um started with a staff of four when we did the technology master plan. The recommended is 6 and a half FTE. So I can summarize that in the following slide. Shows you the population. You can see they're all very close to your population. Um total IT staff he the lowest of allow

um our long-term staffing recommendation would be a total IT staff of seven one in GIS. We talked about the deficit of IT support and the need to really work with the business units to continually work improve the use of application software. I think way I think about it is application software the C spends millions of dollars on these tools and to not spend a little bit more money to help the departments improve how they use these tools over time is just you know leaving letting it sit. It's like collecting no interest on anything. Um and then uh as you mentioned con council member Scott does all the cyber security updates. He's both IT uh leader and a systems engineer and he has a third party helping him.

Scott, how many hours do you work at home? I work usually pretty much every day. So about seven days a week. Um when I go home on the weekdays it's usually about four hours in addition. Um, on the weekends it's full-time, so it's a usually from 8 to 10. Yeah. Or hours on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yeah, I figured that. I I know the job. So, yeah.

Okay. [clears throat] You You're a better salesman than I am. Uh, recommended five-year staffing plan is as follows. Here again is the current staffing size. Um, go ahead to the next slide. What we really want to do is get Scott some relief in year one, add a systems engineer to the team. Um, a lot of the infrastructure is currently supported by a third party as I said, and then really someone to help with the cyber security gaps, cyber security gaps that were identified and the maintenance of all the cyber security tools. Adding all those tools over the last couple of years does add operational cost, you know, because we got threat threat alerts. Some of them are valid, some of them aren't. All of them has to be investigated. So, what we really want to do is get Scott some relief in year one. Next slide. We'd like to add uh recommend a business systems analyst in year two, someone to start helping the the departments with application improvements. It's a good time to do that after ERP and uh the permitting system been implemented. It's always good to let them let staff use them for a little bit to get familiar with them. So you're actually getting real requests and and not uh I just don't like this. It doesn't work. It worked this a different way before.

Is your company the one that uh converted the systems? No, we did not. You did not.

Yeah. Um but uh really prefer waiting six months and then adding this position. So be right after budget you could start looking. And then next slide please. And then years four or five, we'd recommend uh adding a second business analyst primarily dedicated to public safety uh to help the public safety folks while you know another one focuses on financials, community development, those kinds of things. This isn't terribly cheap. So the next next slide is is uh oops next slide shows the metrics. Again, I was jumping ahead. So um next slide shows how that changes the metrics. uh gets you really within the range of the budget on the computers per IT staff. Um servers per IT staff is still a little off but m makes a much more balanced picture. We have a lot of clients that end up with some of the metrics are positive in their favor and some are negative. That's why these are all individual statistics and you look at them as a group. But it it really will make a difference in in the performance of the team and the systems for the city. Next slide. So a summary of uh the current staffing costs. Uh and these these these figures come from staff um as a part of the comp and class study and total cost year for each year. And it shows you where we are today and then total cost going forward over five years. And that concludes our presentation for tonight. Well, my recommendation would to uh would be to get get you a system engineer right away, at least by January, February. Um, if we lose a I mean, if we get

hacked and locked out of our systems, it can cost us millions of dollars. I think hiring one person January, February may cost us what, a couple hundred thousand a year or something. Um, I mean it's important to make sure we're staffed properly, especially for computer systems. Look what we have now in the hallway. all these 83 computers that'll probably be obsolete by the time they get installed. And um and we can't function that way as a city because if we lose our system due to you know somebody um getting in uh because you're tired and you worked 80 hours a day and we you know we had we just decided not to hire anybody to help you out. It's it's going to be our fault just as much as your fault. So, we need to get staffing up up to up to par, get you someone in there and then work on the other three I I believe individuals, uh, business systems analyst and network administrator or help tech. You need help there. Um, you really do. And I've I've seen it, you know, overworked IT directors. Someone comes and said, "Hey, work for my firm. You don't have to work as hard. I'll get you whoever you need." And boom, you're gone. [laughter] So, I think one of our priorities is to get you help right away. It's going to cost, but it's better than having to pay for it by losing systems. Is it hundred thousand? A couple hundred thousand will turn into millions.

Looks like Linda has a comment. First, first a qu. Well, thank you for the the presentation. Very good. Um This [clears throat] was something we looked at years ago when I first got on council and discovered we couldn't afford it. Yeah. So, it always comes lose our systems either. Uh so, uh do we currently have an IT annual replacement fund like we do for vehicles and other equipment? I I'll have our administrative services director address that. Uh but the short answer is yes. Uh we're doing pretty well. Um, but we do we have added some new equipment and investments in the last couple of years and that's going to continue to challenge the budget.

We do have a equipment replacement program. Um, it does have a small amount in there. Uh, we don't have like a ongoing equipment replacement plan like this 10-year plan would actually set us in a good position to where we would be setting aside money for future years. um we really don't have anything set in place at this point in time. Okay. And and we use and we use a cost allocation methodology. You may want to address that a little bit too there. Well, there is a cost. The way that we fund um it is through cost allocation plan where all the departments get charged out for the internal services fund that we have argued about every year since I've been on council. Yeah. Yeah.

So that that is how it's funded. It's funded through other departments. So um that that's how the internal services actually um serve to the city. So question on this uh best practices the recommendation here of setting aside an annual million dollar amount would that be over and above the internal services charges that everybody gets charged or would it be above and beyond? It would be above and beyond. Above and beyond. Okay.

So it's something we definitely need to look at come budget season in January. And then the the 10-year total for new and improved systems, that's over and above the million dollar a year uh set aside for the the 10 million. Yeah. 10-year total for new and improved systems is $4.5 million. It is included. So that would be in addition to the set aside of a million dollars a year for replacement. No, it's included. Included in there. Okay.

All righty. Um you know, it's it's It's definitely good information. Uh but currently there was a point in here where you said currently we have third party doing a lot of the stuff that our four magicians can't do [laughter] and some of the support. So have we looked at cost comparison on third party versus employees?

I can answer that. Um employees actually are almost always less expensive than third party companies. Um the way firms work um you know firms pay less in benefits typically than municipalities do and that's a part of the profit but then there's most firms make more profit than that difference. And with third parties you're having to wait. you're having to deal with people that maybe don't know systems as well as they should know and they come in and they make things worse. So,

well, but there's also the the trade-off on that with employees. You got to keep sending them to training. So, I mean there's a there's a cost on either one of them. I'm just really curious if study has been done on a actual cost comparison in the long run. Is it you know which way does it go? employees because there's a lot of cost and overhead for employees and Kalpers and all of that other stuff too.

Yeah, we we've done those studies and and presented them in various forums and and it's almost invariably less expensive to hire employees for ongoing work. Um it's better to hire third parties when you need subject matter experts for a specific project like a telephone system replacement. You don't have that expertise in house. It's better to hire third parties when you need expertise, a small amount of expertise over time. Um there are now virtual cyber security officers that you can hire on a part-time basis. So there are places where it is better to hire um third parties, but you're you're the deficit you folks are experiencing is actually an ongoing work. It's just in the kind of the constant flow of work and ongoing projects and you're better off funding that directly through employees.

Okay. Thank you. Those are those are my comments. I have a quick question with that. Uh third party, how much are we paying in a quarter? Do you know?

It depends. Right now when we're doing third party work, um that's primarily for the new systems we just brought on. Um some of the networking, the telephone system and things like that. Um, right now we're paying um I'd be almost guessing, but I I want to say that it was close in roughly to about 35,000. Um, and it was only for a set six months. Um, and it was trying to give staff that currently is going to be taking that equipment over um a chance to kind of get caught up a little bit um and understanding it a little bit more and then transition off of that. Um obviously the more and more technology that we wind up rolling out um that kind of almost forces our hand to extend some of those things that's where we want to get away from.

Agreed. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I have one more question. Do we have a redundancy built into our um internet at all? Do we have two different providers?

We have three. So, um, uh, the police department currently only has two. Um, but our city hall, we have three there. We're looking to get the police department on as well as three. Um, we are going to be doing some work here next week and moving that to a technology called SDWAN. So, that way it will actually look and inspect the utilization of the connection and see if there is problems, not only just an outage, but if it's um, not performing as well as it should. if we're getting reduced speeds and things like that, it will then click over automatically. So, it's taking advantage of some of the technologies that are built into that hardware um to do that for us.

Do they use AI now for your internet uh connections? No. No. Okay. So, but that that is similar to an AI, you know, but it's called SDWAN. So, it's just that technology that's built into the firewall. So, next generation firewall is what they call it. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation, Tom Scott. Uh, thank you, Tiffany. And, um, it's pretty thorough and we will see what we can do for you. [laughter] Thank you. Thank you for your time. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

With that, we will receive and file the report. We will now move on to city council and staff reports. Council member Clark. It's been busy. Okay. October 27th, I went to Alessandro High for a tour because I had been invited on the focus committee which came a little later. Um, let's see. October 30th, investment quarterly meeting with the city investment. We've we're very healthy and growth is very conservative. Um, November 1st, girls empowerment at Hemmet. Um, I got to say, uh, I need to get Sam something special because she totally went out of her way. just a little goodie or something. She really rocked. Um, very dedicated and some of the stuff she did awesome. Um, let's see. Valley White Galla was that night. Oh my gosh. Saboba did an awesome job and all of the different businesses that um provided food there. Um then WR COG we had a meeting on November 3rd. Uh November 4th was my Allesandro focus meeting that was for their designation as a um exemplary school. It was just they do they are doing so much over there. went to the student of the month for y'all over there and that was very heartwarming.

Anytime you don't want to go mayor or mayor prom, you let me know. Um then we had our state of the city for HMT and that was a classy affair and I've got to say Mayor Peterson you really did a good job and you were very very classy. Um, November 7th was Meny State of the City. That was veryformational. Came back with a lot of information. Um, I have been dealing with a business uh having code issues. I've got a citizen with some engineering concerns with the building department. A citizen left a message on the uh music mural. Um, citizen has a noise complaint that uh, Chief Ariano is working on um, very diligently with code. Uh, citizen work with the weed abatement that's coming soon. A citizen has a vacant building owner that's not securing and lots of transient dump camping. and another citizen had a neighbor abusing the ADUs, no permits. Um, and so I directed him to go somewhere. So, and I want to put a plug in because in January I want to do a district uh public town hall meeting. I would like to have police there. I would like Ben there. I would like the city manager um and the and planning also to go. But I I have a question that I want answered so we don't go off in different tangents. But what educational, public safety, new business, or recreational changes or additions would you like to see? And that's specifically for

district one. Although anybody is invited, but my folks in the past that I've been sitting up here with y'all, there isn't a whole lot of voices coming out of District 1. They're very quiet, hardworking folks. And so I want to kind of pull them out of their shell and see what they want. So I'm looking for that. and I'll be looking forward to having uh the police chief and everybody else. Ben will give us the harrah we need. So, thank you. That's it. Council member Mal.

Okay. Um over the last two weeks, I've had the privilege of representing our city on a full slate of community, regional, and veterans focused events. On November 3rd, I attended the Planet Fitness ribbon ribbon cutting in Paige Plaza. Their facility is now open 247, and it's great to see new business investing in Hammet. On November 4th, I was invited by Council Member Phil Ayala of Santa to the Veterans Voices and Legacies of Service. And that was at Santa Leadership Academy. And I was impressed with that academy. They had him out there. They were doing drills. Um the principal there um is a army veteran of 20 years and boy he was amazing. Sounded like a marine to be honest with you, but he was good. Uh November. Okay. And after that, I left for a quality of life meeting with our city manager and the mayor, continue continuing our work on neighborhood improvements and city services. November 6, I attended the Santa Cino Hemtt quarterly county meeting followed by our own Hemtt state of the city where we showcased the progress progress we're making across public safety, infrastructure, and economic development. And it was a well-hosted uh event. On November 7th, I attended the Meny State of the City of the city uh state of the city strengthening our regional partnerships and keeping Hammock connected to what's happening across the valley. On November 8th, I joined volunteers in placing 1776 American flags at Gibble Park for our Veterans Day field of honor. A powerful site and strong reminder of what service truly means. On November 10th, I met

with our city manager for agenda review. And later that day, I had the honor of attending the Hemtt Police Department's Marine Corps birthday cutting uh ceremony, our cake cutting ceremony as the oldest Marine um present. I was blessed to cut the first slice as well as celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States Marine Corps with our HMT police. Uh and then uh on November 11th, I attend att attended our city of Hammet Veterans Day ceremony at Gibble Park with two outstanding speakers. Michael Bailey from Riverside County Veteran Services and Major Antonio Williams, senior marine instructor at Tquitz High School's MCJOTC. And later that day, I attended the Santa veteran ceremony at the Estudio mansion. Standing alongside our valley partners to honor those who served. We're moving Hemet forward forward with teamwork, transparency, and relentless focus on improving the quality of life for our residents. Thank you,

Mayor Prom Kuba.

Okay. Uh well, every I've attended everything that they did, so I'm not going to go there. Um it it is busy. So Monday, um we had California League of Cities meeting in a general meeting for Riverside County over in Palm Springs. the mayor and I were there and uh we installed our new president for the Riverside Division and that is Colleen Wallace who is a council member from the city of Banning and we had election of the executive committee and I was reelected to another term on that uh Riverside uh transit agency meeting last month or last week uh came up with uh just some some new programs that they are instituting and uh they will be taking delivery of five hydrogen hydrogen cell fueled buses in mid 26. Uh they are redoing their parking lot and expanding their parking facilities here at their Hemet uh station or Hemtt facility because they are going to be expanding the maintenance and the fleet to hopefully bring Dialeride in inhouse instead of having it contracted which will probably add about two or 300 more jobs out at RTA and Hemet. Um they have their veterans ride free which of course was yes uh yeah veterans day was yesterday.

Yes.

Okay. And they uh the also continuing the students ride free to till the end of fiscal 26 will be which will be the end of June in 2026. Uh the day of the state of the city for HEMIT, I was at a regional uh council meeting for the Southern California Association of Governments in LA. And the guest speaker we had that day was was uh this takes me a while to get his name out. Toque Amashakin and he is the CEO of California transit California transportation commission in Sacramento. He was appointed by Governor Nuome a couple years ago and he was talking about different funding uh awards that were going out and how Riverside County and the rest of Southern California compete in getting these awards. the state uh state transportation um block grant funds and the the CMAC which is climate mitigated air quality awards. Uh and and we do pretty well. We submitted for Riverside County 17 projects. 11 of them were approved. And the really good news about it is while we didn't get any of this the 11 uh for Hemtt, the first number one on the contingency list is the Hemet East Menllo Avenue project. So if any of these others fall out of rotation, we will uh be receiving funding for that. The bad news connected with that is that um the process goes through what used to come to our county uh agencies of Riverside County Transportation Commission to award these

things now has to go through SCAg, which is another layer of bureaucracy, which of course they have to cover their overhead and their staffing, which reduces the amount of money that then comes down to the agencies like us that really need Um uh we had an RCTC meeting this morning and had updates on several things and one of them uh was a receive and file on the 2019 to 2029 work program work for all funding especially measure A funds through RCTC. And the takeaway from that is that in 20 in that 2019 program initially, Midcounty Parkway and the realignment of Highway 79 were listed down in category 5, which means no funding, no nothing. They're too expensive. We don't have the funding. We're not going to touch it. through a lot of conversation uh and work on this Mid County Parkway uh phase two which is from Ryder to Briggs or not to men uh Warren is now in the funding process and going to be started hopefully very soon. It's supposed to be completed in 26. We'll see if that happens. but also the midcount or the uh highway 79 has been moved into the funding group. So in a short time we have reallocated where the funds are going to go but it's taken a lot of pressure from city staff and conversation and with the community and with RCTC that we're tired of being ignored in our little valley. We are we

are growing. We have a lot of people and we also need the infrastructure. So that was the good news. We we're we're getting back on track. So, and you can you can do the rest of them. Okay. Linda and I are on a couple of these uh together. So, she's going to give me and I'm going to ask her for some uh information on the first one. So, Ramona Bowl um they have the Bertland Ranch up there and it's going to be on November 29th and it's a great entertainment night. You can buy gifts for Christmas. Um, it's going to be from 5 to 900 pm and they're going to have food trucks and music, a full bar, local vendors, and a petting zoo. And I heard they're going to collect food for the pantry. Is that correct? Have you heard that?

I believe.

Okay. I think I saw a video that they were saying that they were going to collect things for the pantry, which is now right behind us here at Simpson Center. So, they're not fully open yet, but they will be soon to to serve our community again. Um I just want to add a little bit on the homeless outreach meeting that we went to. Um all the agencies are working together and we have had some good success recently. Um they said that the San Hinto Riverbottom has gone from like 33 encampments to just three now. And there's a a company that's helping us called Impact and they're working with uh Riverside County on this grant that we received and they are going over to San Hasinto in three days a week and they're doing outreach over there and they're getting, you know, to know the people that are on the streets and and gaining their trust and they've had some really good success in placing people and they have already placed some people in our city through that program. And then [clears throat] the um this is really good news. So the police department has a detachment called Arrow and it's it stands for the active engagement response and outreach team. Uh right now we have four people on that team and we are training four more people and we by the end of this month we are going to have eight people two different teams and at sometimes they will overlap even and they will be out assisting our homeless and helping them to find resources and find them shelter and hopefully you know eventually get into a real home situation. So thank you police department for what you guys are doing. It's really important already. I know that they have had success and um it it it we're going to get there. We're going to get there. And also the navigation center should open up um in

the first quarter of this coming year and um they can house 24 people up to 90 days so they can get benefits and documents and everything that they can find some permanent housing. So we're working on that very diligently. um the CALR meeting we just had and uh some of the discussion topics was um the synchron synchronization of Florida Avenue traffic signals and we were told by CALR it's mostly during rush hour and uh I guess basically we just have to live with it for right now right so so so they're not saying of anything that they can help us with right now but um you know it gets bogged down during u certain certain hours of the day. So, um it was reported that there were Saninto Street potholes developing and they're going to go out and check those. So, that's good. And um I had a concern about the bike lanes on Florida Avenue. I'm like, is that really safe? And I don't know. I guess it's been like that for a while, but I just recently noticed I think they repainted them and they're more vivid now.

Bigger.

Yeah. And they're bigger now. And um they said that that's what they can do. you know, some some of our streets have enough room for an alley on the side and where they don't, they just make it in the regular stream of traffic. And I I'm just hoping our motorists look out for the bicyclist because they're going to be in those lanes. So, um there's a couple other little concerns that they had. Uh, one thing that, uh, we wanted was, um, them to explain why there was a left turn lane over on Florida around Kirby because that's where it's really busy with the shopping center and in and out and everything. And we were saying, doesn't it make more sense to go this way than the other way? And they said, no, they couldn't do it that way. So, for now, the the left turn lane will um stay [laughter] and I don't think it gets used that much. So, it's it's too bad we can't put something else in there that's better. So, um the Veterans Day uh ceremony yesterday, I think it went very well. And we did honor Larry Lee Rutnick and we put his name on the uh memorial under the Vietnam uh conflict. So, his family was there and we had an unveiling that was really nice in a program. So, um, arts and culture, we met this last week and we are still looking for different grants that we can, um, you use to, uh, beautify our city and we are working with a company whereby we want to advertise what's going on in the city. We want one central location that everybody can go to to know what activities and things that they can go to. So that that would be a really big thing for our city for um our residents and to bring in more tourism too even. So, and the Hemoth stock farm um we are beginning um talks on that with um various parties and

we've got some ideas and you know we what we want to do there is uh do some housing development but we also want to preserve the historic buildings and the grandstand there and we just have to figure out a good fix for everybody on that. So, so it works for the developer so it works for the city. So, we are uh working on that. And a shout out to the fire department. I can't believe nobody said this so far. The girls empowerment camp was in between our last um meeting. Um a couple of us were over there for the kickoff that morning and um it it's a great program. you know, it's well organized and they they learn teamwork, they learn um you know, uh medical safety, they learn firefighting, and it's a weekend. And I'm sure I didn't get to go over there on Sunday towards the evening, but um I'm sure they had a great time and learned a lot. So, thank you, Chief Webb, and your department for um doing that. That's great. So, and um I just want to say publicly thank you to all the city of HMT staff from all departments. Um the state of the city, I think everybody really enjoyed it this year. I think it uh was well presented. We got many comments from other cities that were there and um everybody from the littlest person on up to the city manager did a great job in organizing that and uh we were really really happy the way that turned out. So thank you city manager.

Well thank you mayor. Uh we had a HMT youth council meeting on Monday. Council member Lodge attended. the uh youth had an opportunity to tour the library and coincidentally the city's drone was uh living on the back porch. So we had a chance they had a chance to see that in action and learn a lot more about that. That was a fun experience for them. But they had a great time uh touring the library. They are they have finalized a youth survey that we will be working on getting out to the community and then uh they have a big idea for a spring music festival. So that's something that uh we will continue to work on. Um but the the uh idea is there and it will be interesting to see how that develops. Um just a plug for our Christmas parade which is going to be on on December 6th. There's going to be a very large event in the park uh that's been that's going to be larger than it has been before. I think we're up to about 85 vendors. So this is going to be Christmas in the park following the parade. Uh we have a city update newsletter that will go out later this week digitally. You can sign up for those on the city website at hemttca.gov. And finally, uh we are dark in the second half of November. So our next council meeting is going to be December 9th.

Thank you, city manager. There being no further business, this meeting is adjourned as the city manager said to December 9th. Thank you for joining us tonight.