City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Good evening and welcome to the meeting of the Hercules City Council. Today is Tuesday, July 14th. I'm Mayor Chris Kelly and I'm calling the meeting to order. Can we have the roll call, please?

Good evening. At this time, Council Member Grimsley is absent. Council Member Butteri?

Present.

Councilmember Bailey?

Present.

Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin?

Present.

And Mayor Kelly?

Present. Thank you. Thank you. We have one item on closed session tonight. Ms. City Attorney, would you like to read the item?

Sure. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Tonight we have one closed session item pursuant to Government Code Section 54957. It's with regard to public employment for the city manager position.

Okay, and I don't see that we have anyone here to speak on this closed session item. Do we have anyone online?

Not at this time.

Okay, we will research. Thank you.

Recording in progress.

Good evening, and welcome to the meeting of the Hercules City Council. Today is Tuesday, July 14th. I'm calling the meeting to order. My name is Mayor Chris Kelly. Can we have the roll call, please? Good evening. Council Member Grimsley?

Present.

Council Member Butteray? Present. Council Member Bailey?

Present.

Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin?

Present.

And Mayor Kelly?

Present. Thank you. Thank you. We've just come out of closed session. Madam City Attorney, do we have anything to report? No reportable action taken tonight, Madam Mayor. Okay, thank you. Council Member Grimsley, could you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Absolutely. I pledge allegiance 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.

Thank you. Our next item tonight is the moment of silence, and I'd like to hold a moment of silence for Mary Horton, who passed away on June 25th, 2026. Mary was a council member in Pinole for 19 years. She died from pancreatic cancer. She had served as mayor on the city council four times, and she worked as a job counselor for 40 years. She is survived by her husband, Will Horton, and a number of other family members. Could we have a moment of silence for Mary Horton? Thank you. So on to our next item and we have a presentation tonight that i've been looking forward to, and this is a presentation for east bay mud east bay municipal utility district so we've got iana burrell and joey appear to give us a presentation, can you come up here, please to the dais. Both of you yeah.

Thank you. And just introduce yourself so people know who you are. Okay. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for welcoming us. My name is Joey D. Smith. I have been working at East Bay Mudd since 1992, and I got elected to the board of directors in 24. So I am in the second year of my first term as a board director. But I am definitely not a one-trick pony because I started off working out in the plumber series, worked my way to becoming a supervisor, decided I was going to retire with my sanity, so I took a voluntary demotion and became a water conservation technician, which got me all types of exposure to our engineers. I served on many, many water mitigation projects for loss, water loss mitigation, energy loss mitigation. So I also served with the unions. So you get a big variety with me as a person who cares very much about the water industry. Today, I'm going to introduce you to my community liaison, Ms. Iannot Burrell, who is our community affairs representative number two for this area. And I wouldn't be able to do a whole lot of the stuff that I do without her assistance. So please welcome Iannot.

Hello, everyone. Hello, hello. I am Dr. Iannot Burrell. I'm so excited to say that. Just saying. Thank you, Mayor Kelly, for this invitation to present on behalf of East Bay Mudd. I think we're going to have a little fun. Hopefully, some of this information will be new, fresh, enlightening. Let's see how we do, okay? And at first, I said, I'll take the clicker, and then I thought... She's so kind, I'll let her actually move the slides. So next slide, please. Tonight, this is what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about who is East Bay Mudd, where your water comes from, some emergency preparedness, contract equity program. We're gonna talk about investing in education, caring for the community, and then if you have any questions, hear for it. Thank you. Who is East Bay Mudd? affectionately known to some folks as the water company. Some folks actually resonate with that because there was a time when in certain communities it was the phone company, the electric company, and some called it the water company. But tonight, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Utility District, next slide. What is East Bay MUD? East Bay MUD, it's a non-profit utility. governed by seven member, and our director, Joey Smith, is one of them, elected board members. We're gonna talk about those rate dollars, where those rate dollars go, how they're broken down, and gingerly about some capital projects. Ysby Mudd is also about all additional revenue is invested in the system, and we're gonna talk a little bit about that system. 1.5 million, is that surprising to anyone? 1.5 million are the number of customers that East Bay MUD serves. We're talking about five local reservoirs, two upcountry, Pardee, Comanche, and then we have six water treatment plants. And by the way, if you'd ever like a tour of any of the wastewater treatment plants, just let us know. We're happy to do tours. We've done them before. Most recently, we've done them as well. On the wastewater side, close to 750,000 customers are served. and the wastewater treatment plant, 50 million gallons. Can we even conceptualize 50 million? I'm gonna put one of those millions in conception for you. But that is what's happening and who we served on the wastewater side. On the side there, when you see the cities there, all of those cities, Richmond, El Cerrito, Kensington, Albany, which is the ward we're in, ward one, then we have all the cities you see there, Emeryville, Piedmont, Oakland, Walnut Creek or West of Hills, Lafayette. Did anybody hear about what recently happened in Lafayette? The lowering of the Lafayette Tower? Come on, it's a big deal. Put it in Google, 50 million hits you'll get, but that just happened on Saturday. It was a huge endeavor. Next slide. Hmm, what does that top number say? One penny. one cent average cost per gallon of water delivered to those 1.5 million customers. Where does the rest go? 90% of the water, of water customers comes from McCollumy Watershed and the Sierra Mountains. 50 million gallons, we just talked about that wastewater, 4,200 miles of pipe are maintained throughout the system. 4,200 miles of pipe. 57,000 acres of watershed land managed for the public, and then we have that 150 million gallons of water delivered daily. I wanna put that 150 million in perspective. According to Google, 227 Olympic-size pools. 227 Olympic-size pools equals 150 million. Olympics are coming up in 2028. I don't know if anyone went to the last one, but think of 227 million, no, 227 Olympic-size pools. Next slide. Let's talk about where your water comes from. Where does it come from?

Next slide.

Here is a snapshot when we have our ward briefings, and we have one coming up September 24th. Director Smith will be doing a ward briefing at San Pablo Community Center. We'll dive deeper into this slide, but this is where your water comes from, the McCallamy River, we have the Sacramento River, we have the local runoff. Everything within this slide, the depth of it will be explained at the ward briefing. I'm giving you the big snapshot. Anybody ever been to Pardee Reservoir? We have an event every year in Pardee, every year. Now we have two, because sometimes it's really hot, so now we have two. Let me know, I'll put you on the guest list. Anytime, but we have a big event at party reservoir every year and it's really really it's quite the the event to to go to for sure Next slide We've had a lot going on in emergency preparedness. There's been, we have our wildfires happening. Unfortunately, we've had some recent very large fire situations happen, which are saddening. But what are we doing at East Bay MUD to prepare? Let's talk about that for a minute. Hydrant and system maintenance. Does that number look astonishing? 31,000 hydrants are under the, under East Bay mud in terms of testing. 31,000, that's throughout our entire service area. So we're taking care. We have our regular maintenance of pumps, we have our building code, exterior facilities and material compliance, We have our mutual assistance because none of this can be done in a silo. None of it can be done alone. We have to have partnerships in order to bring these emergency issues together where we can be of assistance. I will say to you, there's something you should be doing as well at home. And that is, number one, please try and have a minimum of two gallons per person for at least three to seven days if there's an emergency. Two gallons of water per person for at least up to seven days, thank you, of coverage if there's an emergency. Store it in a cool place. Make sure you do that. And please don't forget about the fur babies. We love the fur babies. I have one of my own and we want to take care of them. So think about our four-legged friends and for those who have birds or two legs, all the friends, all the animals that you have, just make sure you think of them. Replace that emergency water every six months. Super, super important. You've got to know where your water shutoff valve is. Don't wait until there's an emergency to figure out where that valve is. That's gonna be very, very, very important. And then for East Bay Mud, we have alerts. Alerts, eastbaymud.com slash alerts. If you sign up, you will know about when there's water, interruptions, when there's any construction in your neighborhood, when anything is happening under our purview, please consider signing up, ebmud.com slash alerts. You'll constantly be informed. And guess who gets some of those alerts when it happens in your ward? That would be Community Affairs myself. I love doing it, love, love, love doing it. Next slide. Contract equity is a program that we have, and I do have, and I'll leave one for each of you if you'd like, our contract equity newsletter that comes out every quarter. What is contract equity? Let's talk about it a little bit. We have outreach and engagement, quarterly matchmaking. So contract equity is around those companies, large or small, medium size, various organizations, whether they're in hauling, paving, A lot of the business that we do, we have a program where if you sign up, we do matchmaking and we have a business expo. Doing contracting can be difficult. The system is difficult. Trying to navigate signing up, you have the license you need, the insurance, there's a lot of information. We wanna make sure that small business or any business get the information they need. Then we have something called the vendor readiness and technical assistance. We've been in these systems, this click doesn't work, that button isn't working. This is where our technical assistance comes in to make sure that your application gets through Applying is not approval. You have to apply. You want to get on the list. And getting in the list allows you an opportunity when Primes or other large companies are looking for a business to partner with, they go into our database and they're able to see businesses that are signed up. That's super important. So we have the technical assistance to help with that. I'm a woman of my word. Looks similar, the equalizer. That is this right here. And this comes out at least twice a year. It has a lot of information for businesses around contracting. But even if you're not the business owner, think about your community. Think about the businesses in your city. Can they benefit from being a part of the contract equity program that East Bay Mudd has? And I think we... I think they can. Over 40 years, the program has been in place at East Bay Mudd, and we're happy to have it. Next slide. I love education. I've loved it. My mom said I've loved it for a very, very, very long time. And there's something about knowledge that is super important. And with that, East Bay Mudd invests in education. What are we doing? We're starting at the fifth grade. Someone said a long time ago around that fifth grade, I think sometimes it's the third grade, minds begin to develop into the careers that students may want. So we particularly target Title I schools and we have field trips. The field trips are of our systems, the systems that we have. I love the A in STEAM. A long time we've heard STEM. When you put that A in, and it's even my own experience personally, that art piece, it makes a difference. So we have a STEAM program where we have science fairs. We attend science fairs. We also give some science fairs as well. And then we have these STEAM kits. We have pulled together a kit for educators where we can pass along that kit and they can actually teach filtration presentations. So we've designed this kit to really empower teachers and educators to do this because we can't be at all the schools, but we've done it and it's quite popular. What else are we doing? That's a familiar face. Our director is always a part as much as capacity. in these programs as well. So here you actually see our Katherine Horn and Christine Burns and Director Smith at the Michelle Obama Elementary School doing one of the presentations and our students are involved. I think at one time they'll be teaching us and that's the goal, to teach us. And these are just a small list. of the schools. We've done these presentations at over 55 schools throughout our entire service area, of course, including where we are. So we love STEM and STEAM. Thank you. Who would have thought that East Bay Mudd would be in the music industry? Well, we have arrived. We have arrived with the H2 Flow Alphabet Rockers. We've put together this video. It's gotten millions of views. And these two well-known hip-hop artists have collaborated with East Bay Mudd to put together, and you see we have some winning situations already. We've already received the Hauser Excellence in Communication Award, a 2025 winner. They've put together this music video to really another way of explaining and encouraging and talking about water. Over 30 new community water ambassadors we have as a part of this. 85 plus wastewater and facility tours. 85 plus. Hopefully you will be one of them as well. And over 2,400 customers reach through our Water Wednesdays. Our Water Wednesdays, which is once a month, I'm telling you, You click and you sit there and you get a breadth of information. All of our Water Wednesdays are on our YouTube page, so you can always go back and take a look. But this video has become very popular. We have it in English and Spanish, and it is just, it's different, it's new, and we're loving it. We're loving it. Thank you. Aziz Bey-Mudd knows that during hard times, during difficult times, we need to support. And with that, the Customer Assistance Program has been in place for a very long time. What does it do? First, let me bring your attention to the very top line, because what you're seeing are numbers from 2024. Those numbers have increased in terms of the income level, in the middle, the household size as well, and I believe the third column as well. Those numbers are a little different, just a little higher. But with CAP, with an application, easily done over the phone. Pick up the phone, customer assistance, do the whole application on the phone, and they can tell you right away if you qualify for what? 50% off your water service and flow charges, 35% off of wastewater services, an additional 35% for cities that have sewer collection charges, Oakland, Emeryville, and Berkeley. This is huge. Water is a is needed, is required, it's definitely something we live by every day, and thank you for giving me water when I came in. It's the first thing I said, get us some water. And so we are committed to making sure we get the word out about the CAP program. We have a CAP administrator that has a team that can table at events. Are there events here in the community you would like us to come to? Let us know, we can come table, give out the information, maybe if we have capacity, help with the application, it depends. But please make sure that you're sharing about our CAP program. And there we are. How do we stay connected? Community Affairs, that is the email. That email address goes to our entire team. That way, no ball gets dropped. That way, if one person is out, I'm out, it gets picked up. But we talked about those alerts. It's a little different from kind of what I shared. I said ebmod.com slash alerts, but you see it's slash customers slash alerts. And all the social media, we are there. The YouTube is there, where our Water Wednesday will be is located now. Instagram, Facebook, please stay connected.

And that is all I have for you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Burrell. Appreciate it. That's a great overview. And some of these programs I've never seen before, so great to know. So questions here from the council. Yes, Council Member Grimsley.

First of all, I just want to thank you both for being here and thank you for the presentation. It was really... very eye-opening for me. I wasn't aware of all the things that East Bay Mudd is doing in the community. I'm particularly excited about the involvement with education, with students, particularly at the young age of, or education level fifth grade. I think it is a really critical time. And I'm just excited to see one of our schools on your list. So I was also really excited that you addressed preparedness. both things that East Bay Mudd is doing and things that we should be doing at home. And then your program for folks who might be having more financial challenges, which is also really great. I'm wondering if East Bay Mudd has any services Individuals who might be housebound or, you know, you were talking about knowing where your water valve is and being able to turn that off. Are there any services like that that are available to folks who have limited ability or otherwise housebound?

Thank you for that question. We are informed when residents are experiencing that, but we don't have any authority to either go in their homes. However, we make accommodations, so if there's construction going on, we are notified. This is a critical care customer. We have to make sure there's no parking signs. We have to keep their driveway completely open. So we are informed if there's a water shutoff that may happen for them, we will take the extra precaution to, or sometimes we were told their home care provider needs to know in advance to make sure if they're on dialysis or some machinery that requires the water, we get those notices to them in advance, but we don't, for what you've described, no. But we definitely make sure they're not impeded by any work that we're doing or any interruptions in service.

Okay, that's great, really great to know. And then I just have one other question for Director Smith. How often does your board meet or do your board members meet like a council meeting?

Generally, we have been meeting twice monthly. There's been a small change in certain seasons where we will meet once monthly, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. we are out and about involved with special districts and derwa which is a recycle program umra which is up country so there's a lot that we do i know that you're everywhere all the time i was wondering when there might be time to have a meeting but thank you appreciate that

Okay, are there questions here? No? Yes, Council Member Battarai.

Thank you both and the great presentation. I have a question around your customer base. I think it's 1.4 or 1.5 customer, and I think the presentation had changed since the last time you submitted to us, I guess.

You're so good, just astute. You're absolutely right. Our last presentation was 1.4, it's now 1.5. No, that is not the case.

Actually, the reason I was asking is, you know, I think especially when our customer base is not raising enough compared to your deferred capital improvement projects, I believe, expenses. So how you're managing your, you know, the cost burden without increasing your peers rate per year serving your customers, I think. I just wanted to understand that part, that dynamics. Thank you.

Okay, so let me make sure that I'm clear. We do not take any of our customer funds to apply to our consumer assistance program. when she started it off with any additional, gets reinvested. So we have different programs where people can donate towards that particular fund. In the past, we've gotten grants to serve that particular fund. So we're not taking any money from someone who has paid their bill to pay for somebody else's bill.

Thank you. And also, how you guys on your capital improvements. Like, you know, I think these hydrants, fire hydrants, or, you know, all these, you know, the, your, the infrastructure has been old enough, I guess, you know, at least 50-plus years, right? So I want to understand, you know, especially the, we are very prone to the, you know, the fire, you know, the hazards and whatnot. I was curious, what is the contingency plan? If something happens, the water pipe breaks down and whatnot, how the financially you guys are doing, just to be sure that we are not interrupted in the services.

Very interesting. I was just in a meeting with our general manager today and part of the team that is ensuring that we are hardening our infrastructure, especially in the more critical areas for hospitals, schools, and the like. It's something that we've been working on for a while and we're in the midst of figuring out which ones definitely need to be upgraded because if it were an earthquake situation, you're better off having steel or non-conductive in the ground, such as cast iron or asbestos. Those are being replaced as we speak.

Thank you again for the great presentation. Thank you.

Yeah, Council Member Bailey.

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you to the team from East Bay Mudd, and obviously for the presentation. Did I mention the CAP program? So a resident making less than, I think it was $62,000 could apply for the, yes. I think that's, I didn't know that. And so I'll make sure a lot of our seniors, I'm sure, qualify for that. And so it'd be something to have folks that may need assistance. Things are increasing in cost very rapidly. So I want to share that with the community and make sure that everyone knows that that's available to them. So I really appreciate that program. i appreciate the safe drinking water um i do i have a bottle here from city hall because they take care of us but at home i try to to drink out the tap i understand it's clean and it's good i have a filter and i try and do that as much as possible the city gave us excuse me a refillable water bottle and i try and use that as well so um we appreciate having clean safe water i think it's something we take for granted but what you guys do is important to our community for the various reasons. We do our own wastewater, but the water coming in is East Bay mud. So thank you guys very much for coming out.

Yeah.

No questions, just thank you both. It's so great to see you here in town, and thank you for everything that you do. I'm sure a lot of this stuff gets super overlooked, but similar to what Council Member Bailey said, we take clean water for granted. We know not everybody in this country has access to clean water, and you don't have to travel far in this country to see that. So thank you for everything that you do.

Thank you.

I will say I have my East Bay Mud water in my refillable bottle. I've got a bunch of these in my car and elsewhere. I carry them with me. I know somebody from East Bay Mud once said, it's not that the water you pay for, you pay for the infrastructure that's carrying the water. And I know East Bay Mud has been pretty diligent about trying to replace all of those old pipes and things so that we have a consistent supply. One question that I have is how are the meters read? Are they read at a residential area? Is there a person who goes around and reads the meter or is it done like through the cloud now? I mean, is there a person who's coming to my house and, you know, opening up that little thing and having a look-see?

It depends upon the area. There are some places where we can get a reading through Wi-Fi, satellite, and the like. But we do very much have boots on the ground people going back and checking and making sure that everything is accurate.

Okay, that's good to know. Maybe I'll see that person one day. And then my last question here is, what about leak detection? What if my neighbors or I think that we have a leak? Is there a way that you can help us figure it out? Because a lot of us around there, myself included, we have watering systems that are in the ground, and if something's leaking, we wouldn't necessarily know. So is that something that you could help us with?

Absolutely. We have a free leak kit that we will send you. Call us. Let us know you think there's a leak. We have a kit to send you to test. And remember, there is some accountability, of course. While if you found that there was a leak, we're not responsible for that happening in terms of what's happening in your home. But we're responsible for the pipe from the street to the home, not... Yes, however, please, yes, we have the free leak kits.

Okay, I will let my neighbors know. That's really good to hear, yeah.

Yes. So that I'm clear, the street to the meter. I said to the home. I understand. Yes. Yeah, I understand. You know, we're being recorded. We want to make sure that the information is accurate. We're a team.

Okay, and lastly, thank you for sharing all these programs with us. I'm going to go take a look at that music video. That's pretty cool. And I'm also going to hit you up for a tour of one of the facilities at some point. Come on.

It'll be wonderful. And I'll leave these here for each of you to have one if you like, and anyone here.

Thank you. Okay, so thank you, Director Smith and Dr. Burrell. Really appreciate you coming out.

Thank you. Great.

Okay, so now we will move on. And next item, Mr. City Manager, do we have any agenda additions or deletions?

Madam Mayor, no additions or deletions this evening. Thank you.

okay so our next item is public comment uh madam city clerk do we have anyone uh here for public comment for items not on the agenda in person audience if you'd like to if you'd like to make a public comment on an item not on the agenda please come up to the podium seeing none i'm going to turn to my zoom attendees

If you'd like to make a public comment, please use your raised hand icon. I see Christina has her hand raised, and this is for items that are not on the agenda. Christina, please go ahead.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Hi, I actually, I raised my hand during the East Bay mud presentation. I was trying to let you all know that via zoom. Um, all that we saw was the windows Explorer tab where she opened up the presentation and the agenda and we never actually saw the presentation. Can that be sent out somehow? If people want it.

Yes, sorry about that, Christina. It is on the website currently. If you go to our agendas page, you can find it there. But if you'd also like to contact me tomorrow morning, my name's Eilish Melendez. I'm also happy to send it to you directly.

Thank you. And then I did have a question for the lady from East Bay Bud, if she's still available.

We generally don't take questions, but you can just ask your question and then.

I mean, my question really is, how do I get a hold of somebody that I can actually talk to about the meter readings just because I've called before and asked about them because what shows up on our bill never matches the meter that's in front of our house. So it's very frustrating and confusing. And I was wondering if there's somebody to actually talk to.

Okay, I think if I go to the end of the presentation right now. Yeah, if you call 510-287-7208.

That's 510-287- Yeah, I've called the basic line and they told me well we'll have somebody go out and then they never got back to us and they said that we can't talk to the person who goes out and checks it and it's buried under dirt there's no way that they actually have checked it, it's It's a frustrating situation and it's just one of those. It would be nice to actually talk to somebody who's going out and doing the readings to figure out what's going on.

I understand. So I tell you what, if you email me, I will get you the information.

Okay. And your information is on that presentation?

Yeah. And that's for anybody who's listening.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else here for public comment for items not on the agenda? I think none that will end public comment. Okay, so then we will move on. And now tonight we have two public hearings. And the first public hearing is regarding the proposed fiscal year 26-27 sewer service charges to be collected on the county tax roll. And Mr. City Manager, would you like to introduce this?

Certainly. I'm going to ask our Interim Public Works Director, Mike Roberts, to present this item.

Thank you, City Manager Dayton. Good evening, Mayor and Council. So this agenda item is regarding the fiscal year 2026-27 sewer service charges to be collected on the county tax roll. The proposed rates were previously adopted by council resolution in July of last year following an extensive study and public outreach. The resolution includes five years of rate adjustments with this year being year two. The purpose of the rate adjustments is to ensure the sewer fund maintains a healthy balance and there is sufficient funding to maintain and operate the sewer system as well as construct needed capital improvements. The rate setting process for fiscal year 26-27 must be in accordance with the state health and safety code, which includes the public hearing scheduled for tonight. At this point, I'd like to turn the staff report over to Mr. Ed Espinoza from Francisco & Associates, who serves as the city's expert sewer charge administrator and also participated in the original rate setting in 2025.

Thank you. Good evening mayor and members of the city council. It's good to see you again this year following the city's adoption of the new sewer rate schedule that was approved last year as your public works director described. The city must complete an annual process to place the sewer charges on the upcoming property tax role. The 1st step as required by the California government code notices of the fiscal year 2627 sewer charge rates were mailed to all property owners and customers of record. On May 22nd of this of this year also a written report identifying each parcel and its corresponding sewer service charge. Has been prepared and filed with the city clerk as required by the health and safety code. A public hearing has been scheduled for this evening to receive and consider any written protests regarding the proposed placement of these charges on the property tax role. Notice of tonight's public hearing was published in the West county times on June 30th and again on July 7th. If written protests representing a majority of the affected parcels. Are not received by the close of the public hearing this evening. Staff is recommending that city council adopt the resolution, approving the written report for fiscal year 2627, authorizing the continued collection of search service charges. Through the property tax role, if approved this evening, approximately 8.3Million dollars and sewer service charges will be placed on the upcoming property tax role to fund the operation maintenance and capital improvements. associated with the city sewer system that concludes my presentation this evening i'd be happy to address any any questions council or the public may may have thank you thank you mr espinoza and thank you mr roberts uh before we open the public hearing are there any questions here from council yes council member bailey

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and to our staff here in the room, and the folks online, to Ed, our contractor there. So can you remind us, just talk us through how we got here? So last year, there was a vote, and if you could just explain that, and then what this is for. I've had a number of residents contact us, so those are my two questions, and I have a third, which is what is the voting threshold? We can answer that separately, but the first part is how did we get here, and Are we voting for a second increase or is this the existing plan being implemented?

Thank you, Council Member Bailey. So from 2014 to 2020-25, the city did not increase the sewer rates at all because there was sufficient surplus in the sewer fund to pay for the incremental difference between the rates that were charged the fund balance and the expenditures. So we were actually spending more money than the revenue coming in on the rates. So we were able to keep rates low for a decade. However, we reached a point where the sewer fund needed to be supplemented with additional revenue in order to meet the various benchmarks of a healthy sewer fund, excuse me, as well as be able to maintain the sewer system. The sewer system of course is underground or behind a fence. So it's not readily known or seen by most folks So in a nutshell for people who might not know they're actually 62 miles of sewer lines and in the maintenance and operations of these It's necessary to do top-down cleaning where you clean them and then you televise them and then you identify deficiencies And you make repairs And so this is one of the aspects of which the funding goes to. The other is there's about a dozen hotspots throughout the city where oils and fats congregate, and those need to be cleaned regularly to prevent overflows. We also have seven lift stations. These lift stations have pumps, generators, telemetry, electronic equipment, as well as they're in buildings and they have fences. So those all need to be maintained and looked over daily. There are something like 1,660 manholes. These actually, they can sink or corrode from the sulfuric gases of the wastewater. So those periodically do need to be inspected and then repairs made as needed. And then we have 4.5 miles of force mains throughout the city which are pressurized to overcome gravity. And The sewer does come from a total of 7,000 sewer laterals, which comes from the residents into the system and then heads downhill and actually makes it to the Hercules-Panol Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is a jointly owned plant, but operated by Panol. So a considerable amount of the city's revenue from these service charges do go to pay for that operation and function of that plant, at which point then, The treated wastewater is pumped over to the Rodeo outfall where we have an agreement with the Rodeo sewer system. And so we do pay for that as well. So it's a fairly complicated system that involves a lot of maintenance and operations and joint funding. And then, of course, we do have our capital improvement program, which is identified in our five-year capital improvement plan. I think that was last updated in 2020. Constructed things such as the Sycamore Avenue sewer main replacement, which I think was in the tens of millions, if I recall correctly. So this system, while underground, does involve a lot of work to keep it functioning. And obviously it is a health and safety issue. So additional revenue was needed then based on a study which was done in 2020 by Woldan and Associates and included a five year projection in order to provide adequate revenue to come in to take care of all of these needs of the sewer system. And while the rate increases are significant, in fact, they're raising the rates from well below what surrounding agencies have because, again, we had surplus sewer funds and increasing them up to what's needed in order to maintain a healthy sewer system and more in par with other agencies. So the rate increase was incorporated in over a five year period based on the study. And of course, that was what the council adopted by resolution for future rates. And this then would be year two of that five year process.

Thank you. And then just, if I understand correctly, so we had money built up, and then we did the sewer truck line replacement, which went from basically Duck Pond Park out to the... to the sewer treatment plant, which is actually in Pinal?

Yeah, it was approximately a mile long. It's been a while, but I think it was $12 to $14 million. Replaced the existing sewer main, which in fact had collapsed in two paces beforehand, and so it was much needed replacement. But it should last for many, many years to come. So these kinds of projects do come up. They are identified in advance through the capital improvement program. So part of the five year projection is to see these projects out into the future and make sure they're funded.

Thank you. And then my last question, and this may be for the city manager perhaps as well, because it's sort of finance related, but my understanding is we get audited every year, and we need to keep a certain amount of money in that fund. Does that sound about right? And if someone can help us understand that we were prompted to do this because we need to make sure that we keep our books, you know, to make sure we pass our audits.

Yes, Council Member, that is correct. We do have to maintain a certain minimum balance. I'm not sure what that figure is, but we're very careful to maintain that and not go below that minimum.

Thank you very much, both of you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Yes, any other questions here? Yes, Council Member Grimsley.

Thank you, Director Roberts, for the presentation. The numbers that are listed in our agenda packet have increases for a single-family dwelling of about $50 a year in the increases over the next few years. Are those numbers certain or those estimates?

Those numbers were modeled in the study that was done in 2020 to ensure that the benchmarks were met. However, it's not an exact science. And so while the numbers are exact, obviously it's an approximate science. What I can say is we did check over this last year and the revenue and projections are following the model, and so they continue to be valid.

Thank you for that clarification. I appreciate it. And I just want to say, you know, our sewer systems are something that we as residents don't often think about, and we don't have to think about when they're being well-maintained. And so life in California is getting very expensive, even here in Hercules. So any increases, you know, makes... of us kind of you know a little unhappy but it is very very important that we continue to maintain our sewer systems and this is a pretty modest increase per year in the effort to do that so unfortunately we have to have the increase but fortunately the increase isn't so great that it's going to severely impact most households thank you very much

Thank you. Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Director Roberts. Totally hear what everyone's saying. Hypothetically, right, you have that person who's maybe just not doing financially well. Is there anything that they can do to try to reduce these rates, or is it just completely locked in? And is there any assistance out there to help people who are out there right now?

Yeah, there is one form of assistance, which is called the Residential Waiver Program. And that's if a resident can demonstrate they use less than the senior living rate, which is 74 gallons a day, then they'll be charged the senior living rate rather than the rate they're in. So that's the current opportunity for people to lower their sewer charge.

And is that like something that's like year by year you would have to apply, or how long does it stay in effect for?

Year by year, per the code, May 1, they would need to fill out a waiver request form. However, of course, as we're transitioning in, we're honoring later dates this year, and we're happy to look at any waivers people may submit.

And on that, where would someone go to find this form and then submit it?

It is on the engineering sub page But they can simply call the city and they'll get transferred to someone who will help them. Awesome. Thank you

Thank you. Councillor Battarai, do you have any questions?

No, no question. I just wanted to make, you know, the comment there, you know, that thank you for the presentation. Definitely, I think it was kind of curious why, you know, it is self-explanatory that, you know, I think that because of the capital improvement that we did in the last year or so, I think that caused us this one. But how we can, you know, my only question was, The projection was for five years. Is that the only time that we needed or that is a continuing of $50 per year perpetuity?

So it's difficult to project beyond five years. So the intention is to have these five years of rates and then undergo another study at the end of it to see what the future needs are of the sewer system.

Not to go backtrack, but how come we have 10 years almost from 2014 to 25 surplus, but now we are kind of deficit now? Is it a structural deficit that we are facing now, or if that is the case, does this projects and make sense for the other? We don't want to go through the same route again, I guess.

I think the city is continuing to become more sophisticated with the advancement of time and putting behind the difficult financial times of the past where we had such low staffing. So this last 2020 or 2025 study with the five-year projection is just a step forward in better administrating the sewer system, but wasn't done previously. Thank you very much.

And just a comment here, because I was around for this. So I know we didn't collect between 2014 and 2025. There's a big jump in rates between 25 and 26. For a single family, that was about $175. And now, as Councilmember Grimsley has said, it's around $50 going forward for the next, what, four years. So, you know, sewers are one of those things that you never really think about, but as Council Member Grimsley said, if everything goes wrong, boy, you know it. And we need to have a good sewer system. So with that said, I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing. And the public hearing is now open for the sewer rate charges. Do we have anyone from the public who would like to speak on this item?

I'll turn to my in-person audience. If you'd like to make a public comment on this item, please come up to the podium. Seeing none, I'll turn to my Zoom attendees. If you'd like to make a public comment on this item, please use your raised hand icon.

And seeing none, that will end public comment. Okay, so with that, I will close the public hearing, bring it back to council. If council has no further questions, then we do have a resolution before us.

Madam Mayor? Yes. I'd like to make a motion that we adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Hercules approving the fiscal year 26-27 written report and authorizing the levy and collection of sewer service charges on the Contra Costa County tax roll in the same manner by the same persons at the same time as together with and not separately from general taxes.

Okay, motion by Grimsley. Is there a second? Second. And second by Walker-Griffin. Any further discussion? No. Can we have a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Grimsley. Aye. Council Member Butera.

Aye.

Council Member Bailey.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin.

Aye. And Mayor Kelly. Aye. Passes 5-0. Thank you, everyone, and thank you, Mr. Espinoza and Mr. Roberts. So our second public hearing tonight is for mandatory garbage, solid waste disposal, delinquent accounts. Mr. City Manager, who will be handling this?

Madam Mayor, our city clerk will be presenting the staff report on this item. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome, Ms. Melendez.

Thank you, Mayor and members of City Council. This item comes before you two times a year, generally in February and July. The city's municipal code requires that property owners in the city subscribe and pay for garbage collection service through Richmond Sanitary Services. Collection charges that are delinquent in six month period are subject to the notice and hearing process defined by the code. If those delinquent charges are not addressed, the process results in an assessment lien against the property for which service was provided to cover the delinquent garbage collection charges penalties and city costs. The lien is placed on properties and the assessment is collected either through escrow when the property is sold or by the city with its regular property tax collection from the county. Richmond Sanitary District receives a payment for the delinquent fees and charges from the city. Richmond Sanitary District has complied with our code and has done the following. They have sent notices to the affected property owners, they have submitted delinquent accounts to the city, and the city has also mailed notices of the public hearing to the owners listed in the report no less than 10 days prior to the hearing. The list included in your agenda packet is for unpaid charges for the period of January 2026 through April 2026. Richmond Sanitary Services preliminary lien list report lists 91 accounts, totaling $55,195.85. By August 10th of each year, the city council approves the final assessment levy and the confirmed report is submitted to the county auditor for inclusion on the property tax rule. Any payment made to Republic Services between now and August 10th will be taken off the list. This list is updated regularly by Republic Services and is also provided, or I should say the city has provided a current listing of accounts prior to the recording. So tonight we ask that the city council conduct a public hearing and upon conclusion consider adopting a resolution confirming the report of delinquent accounts and placing liens on listed properties and special assessments upon property taxing pursuant to the city's municipal code. That concludes my report, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions here from council about delinquent accounts? Yes, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Similar question that I had to the previous item. Someone's in a dire spot. What do they do to get out of it if there's even an option?

they would have to contact for public services directly to figure out what options are available.

Got it. Thank you.

Sure.

Any other questions here? Yes. Can I? Council Member Bhattarai.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for the President's staff report. I noticed that I think our delinquent has gone from last year, I guess. Is that the case? The delinquent numbers of the delinquent accounts, I think they are increasing this year from the previous year?

They've actually gone down.

Okay.

Yes, they actually have gone down from the previous year.

Do you know why that there's a driver? I was curious why.

I honestly do not. I'm happy to follow up with you. I can contact for public services and see if they are aware of any variables that could be affecting this.

Okay, thank you. Sometimes our mayor gives the explanation of why, but thank you for that.

Any other questions here? Yes, Council Member Bailey.

I just had a technical question. It used to be that the public would come to this, be at the meeting, whether it be on Zoom. Is there anyone here today from the public?

No, no one is here from our public services tonight, but I can have them attend in the future.

I just was curious, because if we get questions like that, it's useful to help out. I understand that they have an appeal process. They can appeal up to the night, I think, of the actual, that we do the vote. Yes. To get that corrected. Yes. So I just think it's important the public know that. It's in the staff report, but I think there's like 15 people that read the staff report. Most of them just read the agenda heading. So I just wanted to mention that. I think the question asked by the vice mayor, about that process, I think it's important. And I'm glad to hear that the numbers are coming down, because our rates did go up last summer, so I'm surprised to hear that there's less. So thank you for that information.

And I would say that the numbers have gone down over the years. You know, after the Great Recession, I used to go in here and find lots of addresses in my neighborhood, and I didn't find any this time, so that's one thing. There's another thing I want to mention is a few people do decide to not pay their garbage bill so that then it goes on the tax rolls and they feel that they can deduct that on their taxes. That is a strategy. I don't do that, but I have been told that some people do that. So if no more questions, I'm going to open the public hearing for the Dingalincoln accounts. Do we have anyone from the public who wants to speak?

Once again, I'll turn to my in-person audience. If you'd like to make a public comment on this item, please come up to the podium. Seeing none, I'll turn to my Zoom attendees. If you'd like to make a public comment on this item, please use your raised hand icon.

And seeing none, that will end public comment. Okay, so this will end the public hearing, bringing it back here to council. We have a resolution before us, so do I hear a motion?

Madam Mayor?

Yes.

I'd like to make a motion to adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Hercules confirming the report of delinquent accounts and placing liens on said properties and special assessments upon property taxes pursuant to the City of Hercules Municipal Code Section 5-2.01. to 5-2.16, mandatory garbage, solid waste disposal.

Okay, motion by Walker-Griffin. Is there a second?

I second.

Seconded by Battarai. Any discussion? No. Roll call vote, please.

Councilmember Grimsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Battarai.

Aye.

Councilmember Bailey.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin?

Aye.

And Mayor Kelly?

Aye. Thank you. Passes 5-0. So that's the end of the public hearings. We are on now to the consent calendar, and there are two items on consent. Would anyone care to pull an item? Yes.

Yes, Madam, I'm sorry. I was processing the last thing that happened. Okay. I would like to pull the feature agenda items list.

Okay, go ahead, please.

Okay, I just, I looked at the featured agenda items list and I was talking to the city manager. It looks like the next meeting is pretty busy. There is an item that I had asked to be placed on the agenda item for the last week in July that is the monument sign, and if it's good to counsel, I'll just, assuming that I am reading this correct and it's gonna be a very Intense meeting. Yeah. If we can move it back to the first meeting in September. Sure. Let me just check that on the calendar.

Yeah, that's now scheduled for July 28th. So, yeah, we could move that, I think, to September 8th, which will be our first meeting in September. Is that okay with council? Okay. Okay, so that's fine. We can go ahead and do that.

I have to vote on that separately. What item is that?

we have to vote on that separately i was just asking what item we're moving i wasn't clear on that monument sign yeah so we'll move the monument sign from july 28th to uh september 8th council meeting

Madam Mayor, if I might interject. So this wasn't an action item. Usually this is just like a receive the report on the quarterly agenda. So like taking an action is probably not something we should do tonight, but I think it seems like council has direction and it seems like you're going to meet with the city manager and the city clerk and I, as you do regularly, and we can confirm that, you know, that item can be moved. It sounds like that's the will of the council. So we'll confirm that in our upcoming meeting with you. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

Okay, so if that's done, are we putting the future agenda item list back on consent?

No, so once an item is pulled from consent, we handle it separately. This one's sort of funny since there's actually no action. It's just you're receiving the report anyway. So if you want to just vote on number one, and it sounds like you've already received the report for number two, you can just vote to approve the consent calendar as is.

Okay, so do I hear a motion to approve the consent calendar?

So moved.

Okay, motion by Bailey.

Second.

Second by Walker-Griffin. Any discussion? No. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Grimsley. Aye. Council Member Butter, aye. Aye. Council Member Bailey. Aye. Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin. Aye. And Mayor Kelly.

aye thank you thank you everyone so now we're on to discussion or action items and uh we only have one this evening i think it's pretty interesting and that is going to be waterfront directional signage mr city manager yes madam mayor i'm going to ask our community development director tim rood to present the staff report on this item good evening

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tim Ridd, your Community Development Director. The City Manager asked me to prepare an informational report on waterfront directional signage, my understanding based on a request from the Mayor for an update on a one-year pilot program that the Council authorized in 2015, which we'll talk about more in a bit. The issue I believe that we're working on here is that unlike businesses in central Hercules that have good visibility from the freeway and large pylon and other signs that are visible from the freeway, The waterfront businesses that are located in mixed-use buildings are not obvious to casual visitors. Now, we all know that these days most people find restaurants and other businesses online and navigate directly to them, but, you know, people also encounter destinations spontaneously as they're moving about the city. So I'm going to report a bit on what the council discussed in 2015, and then I also drew upon my own professional background in design and wayfinding to propose an alternative idea that could be done quickly and inexpensively just for the council's consideration. So should the council like this idea and wish to move it forward, it would essentially need to be developed into a project Small capital improvement plan project with the assistance of our colleagues and friends in Public Works so Can we go to the first slide please for the next one? So in January 2015 the City Council approved a one-year business district directional signage pilot program for railroad Avenue and And staff proposed that a directory-style sign listing the names and addresses of two individual businesses, Layla-by-the-Bay and the Powder Keg, be installed about three-quarters of a mile away at the northwest corner of San Pablo and Sycamore. staff proposed that the header for the signs would identify the railroad Avenue business district and the individual businesses including their business names and addresses Staff planned to work with the two businesses proposing the sign to enhance the graphics to be more stylized and in keeping with the area The council directed that two signs be installed Although the second location was not detailed in the minutes. Perhaps some of you may remember that The staff report stated that there would be no fiscal impact because this signage would be funded by participating businesses and that staff would work with these businesses to refine the design. Staff also noted at the time that this type of offsite commercial advertising is not allowed under the city's sign code and suggested that the process to consider and amend the city's sign code to allow for such signs would take a considerable amount of time given staff workload and competing priorities. Staff is not aware of any signage having been installed as a result of the one-year pilot. There is a large unpermitted wooden sign advertising Layla by the Bay, which has been there since at least 2016. Staff is not aware of who installed that sign or under what authorization, but it has served the area well. So, you know, since then, of course, can we go to the next slide, please? Okay. Well, so some of the issues with these type of off-site directional signs, first of all, they're not addressing the user, which is a person in a vehicle. These types of signs are typically found in shopping centers where you're directing people who have arrived at a site to individual businesses. Caltrans actually says that if located in the right-of-way, this type of sign should be shielded from drivers so that it does not create a dangerous distraction. So this is what's known as a directory sign. It's not helpful to help someone find a destination that's three-quarters of a mile away in a car to see a sign like this with the address on it. They're also expensive, difficult to maintain, and you don't have to look very far to see examples of them that have not held up well even under private ownership. Next one, please. And then another type of wayfinding sign, so there are many different types of wayfinding signs. The council has discussed monument signs, message boards. These are what is known as pedestrian wayfinding signs, which are aimed at people walking in a downtown or another area that is dense with destinations. They are like these ones in Napa or the ones in Healdsburg are typically installed by a business improvement district, which is funded by the merchants and property owners. And the bid staff typically kind of manages the program and interfaces with the city's public works department. uh we don't have a business district here to take on that kind of role and you know moreover these this type of sign is really appropriate for an area with a lot of pedestrian traffic to help people reach destinations that are a block or two away the signs typically don't have addresses they might just have you know the visitor ice cream and an arrow or something that kind of spurs a short walk around the corner to see what's over there. If you're at San Pablo and Sycamore, you are a long way from a business that you could just stroll around the corner and find. So our primary target is really people and vehicles. Next, please. So this was the condition back in 2015. We only had one road out to the waterfront then, Sycamore, and we only had two businesses out there, Leila Waida Bay and the Powder Keg. So there's a certain logic to having one sign to encourage people to make that left turn, even if it wasn't the type of sign that someone could read from a moving vehicle and react to in time to make that turn. Next, please. Looking at conditions today, now we have two primary routes to the waterfront. We have John Muir Parkway. We have multiple businesses at the Exchange. We have businesses at Aventine. We also have businesses in the live work homes along Railroad Avenue and Sycamore. So it's not necessarily feasible or appropriate to try to advertise each of these businesses on off-site signs. It's not really within staff's capability to keep that type of thing up to date as merchants move in and out. But what we could direct people to is the destination of the Bayfront or the Bayfront Business District, which people know there's a bay out there, but when you're driving by on the freeway, it's hard to tell that there are businesses out there. So if we were to brand the Bayfront Business District and put up some low-cost vehicular directional signs, staff believes that could be an effective way to encourage casual visitors to make a left turn or a right turn and check out our waterfront. And once there, they would arrive at Railroad Avenue at the Powder Keg, or they would arrive at the Exchange. They could see their destination in front of them. Next, please. So the, let's see, signs within the roadway are governed by regulations from the federal and state governments, and in California we have what's called the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, California Edition. And so this is it, or MUTCD. This is an illustration from the California MUTCD showing an example of community wayfinding guide signs. These are the kind of standard blue signs like you see around town directing people to the rec center, the swim center, the library, city hall, et cetera. They may have an optional branding element on top as shown here, and we thought that this could, again, be a low-cost opportunity to sort of make a quick and effective, you know, kind of easy win to get some more visitors out to the waterfront. There are various regulations in the MUTCD about where these types of signs can be placed because there's a hierarchy of signs in the roadway with regulatory signs like 30 miles per hour, stop, yield being the highest priority, followed by kind of advisory signs like signal ahead and then after that informational or historic marker signs like the U.S. 40 historic signs that you see around or the Juan Bautista de Anza trail signs that you see around on light poles. So these types of signs are typically installed on existing poles. I am told that The cost to manufacture them is, you know, in the hundreds of dollars per sign, and that they could be installed by our friends in the Public Works Department. Now, the actual design and placement would be subject to engineering judgment, but if the council likes this idea, staff can develop further and bring it back with a better estimate of the cost.

Next, please.

So in terms of the design, this is just a mock-up that I made showing what a branding element based on our 2024 logo redesign could look like with our friend Quentin the Quail at the top. Just an idea for an optional branding element, but again, one that's simple enough to be understandable when you're in a moving car. And then just the simple legend Bayfront Business District and an arrow. And the orientation of the arrow, of course, will depend on which way we want you to turn. So in Wayfinding Design, you think about what's called the user journey or the user experience. It's kind of like designing an interface for software. You put yourself in the shoes of the person whose movements you're trying to influence. So our goal is just to get people to make one turn, turn right or left onto John Muir or Sycamore and find their way down to the Bayfront Business District. So that makes it relatively simple. Next, please. And so in looking at it, Hercules is also kind of unique in that We don't have a grid of streets that just bleeds into neighboring cities the way Berkeley or Albany do. We have basically highways and San Pablo Avenue that provide the routes in and out of Hercules. So what this is showing is that one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight signs, I think eight or nine signs could effectively Direct anyone coming off highway 4 off 80 from either direction or from San Pablo in either direction To you know, let them know that by making one turn they could visit the Bayfront business district And again, you know exact placements size orientation, etc would all need engineering review from either our esteemed interim or potentially future new public works director next please Is that it? Okay, that is it. So that concludes the staff report. Happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Rood. I think that's just, it's very simplified and creative. I'm kind of impressed. So comments here, questions from council. Council Member Grimsley.

Thank you, Mayor Kelly, and thank you, Director Rue, for the report. So I like the idea of the business district signs at the critical areas, freeway exit areas. I think that also, if I were visiting from another city or if I were not familiar with Hercules, might want some indication that they're of the type of businesses that I might find if I drive toward the business district so not necessarily individual business names but restaurants or when I'm when I'm traveling somewhere and I see like I'm getting tired on the road and I see like a restaurant sign from the freeway you know that's I know I can go eat something that just says food That makes sense.

Or even have an icon that might show food. I don't know, maybe that's getting too much, huh?

is that, oh, thank you, Elish. Generally, it's the idea that this would be something that could be flexible. You know, businesses come and go, but the idea is that these would be directing people to the destination where they could further explore.

Do we have any idea of what the range of costs would be for something like this?

Something like this, I think the whole thing could be done for probably between $10,000 and $20,000, but I mean, I haven't called up sign companies. I understand that Public Works has a vendor that we typically use for all of our signs, you know, stop signs, yield signs, et cetera.

um we've we've done signs very similar this to before these would just have a you know a more complex shape and a little branding element on them but thank you low cost yeah vice mayor i think about it and thank you director root i think this is absolutely awesome um totally tracking what you're saying about uh in terms of like what we can add into the wording but just thinking about this right if folks are going down to the bay front i mean It's the reminiscences and large parts of our old dynamite factory. So I was curious to know if it's possible that we could say something like the historic Bayfront Business District, right? One, to try and get those people like myself who are nerdy and like, oh my God, historic, get them down there. But then also, too, just so that, hey, like, there's some pretty interesting history going along here. You might be interested to learn that that building right behind the powder keg was literally a part of the dynamite factory. So I'm curious to know if we could do something like that.

Yeah, the MUTCD actually does talk about that. If we could go back two slides, I think. You can have essentially, yeah, see the ones that have like two or three separated by a white line? Yeah. You could have historic waterfront and then you could have bayfront business district or just business district. You could have one that said historic waterfront and one that said business district.

Okay, cool.

Or something like that. But I think it's important to brand it as the bayfront business district because it's not Creekside and Lucky's and everything else.

No, totally agree. And to echo the comments that Council Member Grimsley said, I mean, yeah, if I just found my way stumbling through Hercules and have never been here once in my life, like my colleagues on different boards always say, I wouldn't know that there's a beautiful waterfront coffee spot, pet store, restaurants. Heck, my little sister gets her eyelashes done over there. So I think it would be great advertisement for this. So thank you for this.

Yeah, Council Member Bailey.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thanks to the staff for the report. I like the idea. I guess I have a couple issues. The Council did discuss this after the 15th because I wasn't on the Council on 15th. A previous Council, yeah. No, I think I was on Council, actually, when we discussed it. So it came back at some point, and we voted, I think, no on the concept at that time. What I remember from the report was it was a wooden sign, is what I remember, and it was done in black and white. But I think we did have a conversation on it. My concerns are just more the larger issue. So we talked about a cost of $10,000. I think I'd like to see us, well, first of all, I think it should go to Economic Development Subcommittee so we could see what we need. During this presentation, we've called it two things, Bayfront and Waterfront. I think we should decide what we want to call that area. If the signs are for, as you described, and we did this when we built some dorms on campus when I was in college, with the DeBartolos and so they walked us through you want to go in if you don't live there where are you going and I don't know if someone getting off the freeway would know what the waterfront or district was or if they would know what the bayfront district is we know as residents of Hercules we know what that is because well half of us know because it's part of town that is surprised that Aventine is there, right? And so I think that's part of the communication piece. So I would say I think we should decide what we want to call that district that might, economic development might be the best place so the business owners can come in and talk about, is it bayfront? Is it the best description for it? We do use that. Is it waterfront? What do you want to call it? Partner with those buildings, because they don't even have signs on the buildings. So if you go to the building, you showed a slide that had sort of the businesses in the area for pedestrians. those businesses, the building owners don't have those down there, like a map on the exchange that shows which businesses and what suite numbers for the various items. We might wanna sort of figure out how we work together on that process. Not something the city can control, but just how we do that. For branding, I think it's important that we look at our branding. We had previously talked about doing sort of a sign plan was sort of a discussion, and that may come up as part of the monument sign discussion, but at my previous job, we had a catalog, sort of like the Waterfront Development Master Plan, and if you needed a sign, you could flip through and find the one that applied, sort of you describing here, but we may need to start there, and then from there, get to how we put these signs up. And then... You know, I did talk to a couple business owners, and it becomes, why don't we have one for our side, right? And so we do all, I think, communicate the understanding for the water side of town, waterfront or bayside, but then why don't we direct them to the left where there are other vendors up that direction that you can't see from the freeway, right? We do see the Home Depot sign and a couple other things you got the freeway, but the smaller businesses aren't up on that sign, and no one knows they're there. We can't solve every problem, but that's why... some sort of a discussion with the community as to how we do that. Maybe it just says, as the mayor said, food, retail, in which case we just put an arrow the other direction, right? But I think there needs to be some discussion there, and then it may need to go to Planning Commission as well. So I know this is a very process thing, but if it's their signs, that's usually, sign plans are usually Planning Commission as well.

Well, I think it's important to clarify that what we're talking about here are directional signs that would be owned and maintained and installed by the city, As such, they really would not be able to advertise individual businesses by name, and I don't think that's a business. I would not recommend that the city try to get into that business of maintaining directory signs with individual businesses listed on them. That's typically something that landlords do.

I would agree. What I'm saying, though, is that we could have that conversation so folks understand that, and then again, a question is why are we pointing everyone away from their existing businesses because we've been here longer? We know there's a reason. I'm not acting like there's some nefarious thing going on here at Council, but it would have the community able to have that conversation. I'm not sure if Council's the best place, but if it's Planning Commission, if it's Economic Development, just where folks can talk about, I'd like this to say LELA's in the example that we just talked about, or I'd like it to say, and then you can explain, and we can have a conversation about why we're limiting it. I agree with the limiting, though. I don't think we should have individual business names on the sign, but I think the community should have input on that. is what I'm trying to say there. So I'm not sure what the best forum is for it. I've named two, Economic Subcommittee, Planning Commission. It may be neither, it may be Library Services Commission, but wherever it goes, I think it's important to have that insight.

Thank you. Council Member Battarai, do you have comments?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Well, you know, I think all great ideas, I echo the same, but, you know, I think... I like the idea of rebranding or branding ourselves. I don't know what we really want to call and then it makes that sense to us at all. Maybe waterfront versus the bayfront or maybe something new that we can come up with and then maybe start rebranding. That is a great opportunity for us, how we want to envision the city for next 10, 20, 50 years. I would like to have more input on this one, but I'm open for that. And secondly, I think sometime, you know, people are new and they don't know how far and how far they are. Sometimes, you know, distance probably would help them. Hey, by the way, it's more or less than one mile. Hey, why not try there, right? You know, the people are going around. I think that could be just .02 mile or .1 mile or something, you know? Just a thought here. Thank you again.

Thank you. You know, when this came up in 2015, we didn't have the kind of GPS tracking on our phones that we have now. So I think that's all improved. So I like the idea of the directional sign. And also to take Council Member Bailey's point, we should decide whether we're going to call it the bayfront or the waterfront. I know we've been going back and forth for as long as I can remember. And I think we should just decide on one term. and then use that. And also, I like Council Member Bailey's idea to take it to the economic subcommittee. And maybe, Mr. Rood, you could talk with them and get the community input and decide on something. But this looks like a relatively inexpensive way to sort of promote the city, and I think it would benefit the citizens, too. I think they would like that. Mr. City Manager, you want to say something?

Maybe we should check if there's any public comment on this item.

I'm about to. Okay, is there any public comment on this item? And if you have a comment, you will need to fill out a public comment card at some point, too, and give it to the city clerk.

Thank you. Thank you. I will fill out the comment card. I wasn't expecting to talk on this topic, but now that it's come up, I figured I'd give my opinion on, well, for one.

Can you identify who you are?

My name is Oscar Adams. I currently live in Hercules off Refugio. Okay. What I noticed when I drive into Hercules, let's say from coming from Pano into Hercules, there's something that I noticed. First of all, the roads are fresh. The lights are brand new. You notice it. But when you come in and you're on the on the overpass of the highway, you notice that it opens up. And I really think that even every driver that comes through will pay attention more to say, oh, look at all the big signs. We have to pay attention. There's something important here. So my point is, is that even though you're going on a highway northbound towards Vallejo, once you cross over and you see Highway 4 coming up, you notice that it's an important junction. And I think Hercules is a family-oriented kind of city. And I think that showcasing our city would be to our benefit, of course, to everybody. And I know that there's probably regulations to what I'm about to say, but what if there was a large digital sign off Highway 4 that the restaurants could all pitch in for their little three-second slot or five seconds or whatever it is? You know, Layla by the Bay or, of course, Powder Keg. Everybody gets their little time slot, Refugio Valley Park. And so that people know that, hey, we're on a family trip. We're not from California. We're driving through. Why don't we take a pit stop? And I think, you know, Hercules Junction, whatever you want to call it, you can call it North Bay Junction, whatever. But it's as long as people are stopping to enjoy our city, they're going to pay for restaurants and the restaurants are going to pay taxes and then the citizens are going to benefit from that. So I think it was just relevant for me to say that. Is it possible to have digital signs, you know, over Highway 80 coming into Highway 4. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Are there any other speakers who want to make a comment on this item?

I'll turn to my Zoom attendees. If you'd like to make a public comment on this item, please use your raised hand icon. And seeing none, that will end public comment.

Okay, so bringing it back to council, I think, Mr. City Manager, you're looking for some sort of direction. Is that right?

Mayor, if I can make a quick comment. Oh, yes, please. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut. Yes. Yes, it's ironic. I think that was my first vote on planning commission was the large sign years ago. So we have discussed that to our guests. We have discussed a large sign over the freeway. I think it was going to be in what is now going to be a housing area. coming up pretty soon, right at the Loop site. There was a large discussion over the brightness of that sign. I just wanted to say, I think this is a good idea. I do think we should look at options. I just would caution, I hope if I could talk to council into not being focused on the $10,000 number. I think that we should look for a nice sign. We're not trying to spend, because these things can be expensive. Back when I was in college, it was $2,000 per sign for a lighted sign. We're not going that far. but I think there's things we can do as opposed to a poll with the metal retroreflective sign. We did those around that 2015 time period with the Hercules, with the population, and those white signs were put up at about that time. I think Mayor Romero, I think, spearheaded that project. I'm hoping we do something a little more exciting than that is what I'm hoping for, understanding we do have budget constraints, but I hope that we start with two and do a nicer sign as opposed to doing eight Lesser nice signs is what I'm trying to suggest. That's all, Mayor, thank you.

Okay, any other comments here from council ideas? So I think, Mr. City Manager, we're looking for direction, right?

That's correct.

Okay, so would council like to make a suggestion that Mr. Rood talk with the economic subcommittee and they come up with some ideas and then bring it back to council? Do we need a motion motion or just a... First I want to see if council members would be okay with that. Yeah? Okay. Do we need a motion or is it just basic direction?

I think the direction is clear now. So what I'm hearing is the concept is favorable. but we may want to explore additional options. We want to have community engagement, so the suggestion is that this would go to the Economic Development Committee for further discussion, and then back to Council or potentially to the Planning Commission first. I don't know about, I think the suggestion was go to the Planning Commission. Do you want a three-step process or you want it to come straight back to the to the city council after the economic development committee.

I will say that if I can make a recommendation, normally for our subcommittees, they come back and present to the full council, and then if it goes to planning, it would be after that, but the subcommittee would not be authorized to make it. Most of our subcommittees don't make decisions independent of the full council. I'm not trying to change that.

That's generally happened. The subcommittees will discuss something, and then it'll come back to council.

Okay, well that sounds fine to me. Do you have any comments, Director Rue?

I would just comment that this type of signage would not, I don't believe, require planning commission review the way a commercial sign program would. But certainly if the council wishes to get their feedback, that's fine.

Let me say this. I was only doing it because when I was a planning commissioner, we reviewed signs. But as you mentioned, they weren't on the streets. They were in the Safeway project site or some other project site.

So private signs go to PC. Public signs don't. Understood.

Understood. I would just add one caveat is that we look at this in conjunction with the monument sign so that branding is consistent. That's the purpose. And fonts, for example, are consistent. Thank you.

Okay, I think we have direction right now.

We do, is there a time frame when you would like to see this item come back to the council?

Come back. I'm not part of the economic subcommittee, so yes.

Well, I think it would be nice to hear at the same time when we are talking about the mining. I already know the minimum sign, I guess, timing-wise, maybe September at least.

So both of the directional wayfinding signage and potentially monument signs would go before the subcommittee, and they would work on a kind of cohesive plan to recommend to the full council. Included in that would be some determination of branding. And we've heard, you know, is it a bayfront or the waterfront? We heard from a public speaker, Hercules Junction. So I guess those items as well can be discussed by the subcommittee.

Okay, that sounds fine to me, yeah.

All right, thank you, and thank you, Mr. Rood. Great for your creativity. Okay, so we're gonna move on right now. That concludes our discussion and our action items. Madam City Clerk, is there anyone here for public communication for items not on the agenda?

I'll turn to our Zoom attendees once again. If you'd like to make a public comment on an item not on the agenda, please use your raised hand icon.

and seeing none, that will end public comment. Okay, so now we come to reports. Mr. City Manager, do you have anything to report?

Yes, Madam Mayor, I do have a few items that staff would like me to share with the council and with the public. From our Parks and Rec director, St. Vincent de Paul is providing free night grocery kits to families while supplies last. This will be at the Hercules Swim Center on Thursday, July 23rd from 1215 to 115 p.m. We also have coming up on July 17th this Friday movie night it'll be Zootopia 2 and it will be at Refugio Valley Park and not the other location movie will start once he gets dark you know probably around 845 then we have national night out which the city will partner with bayfront chamber that will be held at refugio valley park on tuesday august 4th there'll be vendors and other events in conjunction with that that we have from our economic development director some information regarding our general plan update The preliminary survey for the Horizon 2050 general plan update remains open, and there is a website you can access to get information regarding this. It's www.hercules2050.com. The results will be shared at an initial community workshop on Thursday, September 10th at 7 p.m. at our local library. The survey will remain open through September 20th. Residents are encouraged to visit the website to sign up for updates and e-notifications. And finally, I would like to turn this over just briefly to our Public Works Director. He has some announcements of interest.

Mr. Roberts? Thank you, City Manager Chang. Good evening, Council. So I'm pleased to report our maintenance crews are sprucing up a couple of the parks, starting with Railroad Park. They're making repairs and painting the benches, tables, and ballers. Obviously, this has been a long time coming. At this time, some of the replacement planks are being specially fabricated because they're a unique size and shape. The work should be taking place over the coming weeks as other work allows. The second park is Shoreline, where they are painting the bathroom there. Currently, we're purchasing the supplies and matching the paint color We actually anticipate to start the physical work next week, and it should take about a work to complete the painting. That bathroom actually has block walls, so it's got a lot of grooves. So we're going to be out there using brushes and rollers, not spray paint. So if we get another blistering day like today, I'm sure they'll appreciate some refreshments. So maybe out there visiting them. Additionally, there's other work being done in Shoreline Park, and that's repairing the slide and also the matting. And that's being handled by. Parks and Rec Director Roque, so much appreciation to him there. Moving on, I've got some especially good news with the trailer here out front, the mobile trailer. All of the furniture has been removed. And the company that hired to do it is actually taking the salvageable furniture and transferring it over to companies like Habitat for Humanity. Separately, the services of a company has been secured to actually remove the trailers at no cost to the city. This is still in development. The date for them to be roomed has not yet been determined, but there'll be updates on that. So we'll be able to finally get those trailers out front out. And then, oh, for these items, by the way, I should mention that all credit goes to Chris Morris, the city's new maintenance and operations superintendent. You know, the prior one was here for 35 years. The average tenure in maintenance and operations has been 25 years. So we're very excited to have him on board and we hope for good things to come for a very long time here. Last, I'm pleased to report we just received our amended Water Smart grant from the US Department of Interior. This grant will provide the city $100,000 to upgrade the remaining 15 clocks in city parks to cloud-based controllers that will be tied into a weather station and accessible to staff via a mobile app. So this will absolutely transform the way we handle our irrigation in all of the parks throughout the city. For example, it uses weather-based watering, which means it takes daily weather data, temperature, humidity, wind, to calculate how much water plants have lost and then automatically increase or decrease irrigation as conditions change. So no longer will water be programmed Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and run for an hour, regardless of whether it's overcast or hot or even raining, because with the remote weather station, it will simply turn the irrigation off automatically. Additionally, It's cloud-based and has a mobile app. So we'll send alerts, for example, if we have a leak or a pipe's broken, as I was joking with councilmen here before. Certainly in my tenure here previously, it was not unusual to try to track down a gusher at one o'clock in the morning that was only on for 15 minutes and was extremely annoying for residents. So in this case, it will simply send alert to our relatively recently created position, our irrigation and landscaping and lighting technician, who will be there to manage it now. So these are huge step forwards for Public Works. For me, at least, very exciting to see. So those are things coming from Public Works, and thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roberts, that's all very exciting. Yes, please.

Mr. Roberts, thank you for that. And JR was out showing me the app a couple of days ago, so he's excited about that. Is there a plan for what happens once the trailers are gone? I just wanted to ask if there was a, do we have this spot out there where the trailer used to be? Do we have a plan? If we don't, it's okay, I didn't advance the question. When what's gone? When the trailers are gone, so there's a trailer that's gonna be removed?

Not that I'm aware of, yeah. Okay. So certainly that's something to follow.

It's a start, though, so we appreciate that. I might need some furniture from 1975, but probably not, so thank you, we appreciate that.

Yes, and if I might, on that point, the company that will haul away the trailers will also cap off the utilities, so we won't have to provide for that. But it will leave a scar, a site that needs some further work, whether it's landscaping or otherwise. So that'll be the next phase.

Thank you. All very, very good news. So I'm going to ask our city attorney, do you have anything to report?

Nothing for me tonight, Madam Mayor.

Okay, so bringing it back to council, maybe I'll start with Council Member Grimsley.

Do you have anything to report?

I will just note that the West Cap Board of Directors did not meet this month due to scheduling conflicts. And I will just say that I have a couple of future agenda items for that portion of the meeting.

Okay, Council Member Battarai.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will be joining the Westwater meeting with the city of Pinal. I hope that our interim director will join us as well, and we'll see how that goes. Thank you.

Okay, Council Member Bailey.

Yes, I just wanted to, again, this goes to Mr. Roberts' team, but there are some new signs posted in the Bayfront slash Waterfront. So this is up by John Muir Parkway. Clear signs about parking. I'm not sure folks are reading them. But I did see that our parking enforcement folks had put notices on cars. I think that was Saturday morning when I was doing my walk. So folks are being advised this is happening. It basically restricts parking until 8 o'clock, which means at 6 o'clock you're kind of okay to leave your car. But before that, hopefully it will have more circulation for the businesses that are down there. We have two in place and another one coming, so just glad to see that improvement. I think I also saw smoking signs, I think those were new, on the bayfront slash waterfront, so glad to see both of those signs. I attended the MCE Tech Comm Committee, that's technical committee, we do all of the contracts. We just, one of our wind farms that is coming online, was due to come online in 2027, but it's coming online in a couple of months. So we're going to have some wind energy, and we discussed just the purchase of that, so it's a benefit to us. For RE purposes, it's the best kind of energy. We get the most kind of points, for lack of a better term, for wind energy over solar, and so we're glad to have that, and that will advance to the full board tomorrow, Thursday, whatever day that is, two days from now. That'll go to the full board. I'm so excited about that, and that's all I have. Thank you.

Okay, Vice Mayor?

Yes, thinking about a mayor. On the Fourth of July, I had a really productive conversation with Julie Wagner, which led to a great day with Director Roque earlier today. thus leading to the free family dinner that was mentioned by our city attorney. So thank you, Director Roque, and thank you to our interim city manager, I apologize, for announcing that. It's really exciting to see us come together and really support those in the communities with the free meal. So to reiterate again, it'll be July 23rd from 1215 to 115 at the Hercules Swim Center. In addition, I joined my colleagues at our Foxboro Ribbon Cutting. Again, thank you, Director Roque and all the folks who were involved. with making that happen. It was really exciting to see not just a new playground, but an all-accessible playground, too. That's much needed in our ecosystem. Last week, I attended the Mayor's Conference in San Pablo. It was great, beautiful city hall, and it's so great to see all of our friends from around the area and join my colleagues as well in a Czech presentation for Natalie Barton to the city of El Cerrito via Congressman Giramendi. And later this week, I will be at the Green Empowerment Zone meeting. That was all.

Thank you, and I attended some of those meetings with you as well, Foxborough. Also, I want to let you know that on June 29th, I had a tour of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. That's the nuclear power plant down in San Luis Obispo via PGE. I didn't know what to expect, but I came away very, very impressed. That power plant is located 85 feet above the ocean. They explained how they've used all the power. There has never been an incident there. And the power plant has been extended, its life extended for a few more years. They're looking to extend it now to 2045. And the reason is because it produces nearly 10% of California's power. And we just don't have enough wind or solar power yet. So there's a big discussion about that. And if anyone is interested in going down and taking a look at the power plant, get a hold of the PG&E rep or you can talk with me. I also attended a staff lunch on July 1st. I went to the Red Oak Victory with my husband in Richmond, that old cargo ship from World War II on July 4th, and I was at the Garamendi check presentation. That's all I have to report. I do have one item to bring up, so I'm going to come back to future agenda items now. And Council Member Grimsley, what do you have?

I have two items. I recently had a conversation with Bisa French who was the former chief of police for the city of Richmond. and is now currently the executive director of the Family Justice Center. She would like an invitation to the city of Hercules to talk about the Family Justice Center and what they offer. So if it pleases the council, I would like to invite her to speak at a future council meeting.

Yeah, is the council okay with that? I think that's a great idea. Love that. Yeah, they're the wonderful organization.

The second item is somewhat related to the earlier discussion we had about signage and our future agenda item for monument signs. We have a lot of wonderful businesses in the city of Hercules, a number of small businesses in the city of Hercules, and a lot of them go relatively unnoticed, even by folks who live here in town. For those of us who don't live near the waterfront or bayfront or whatever we decide we're calling it, don't necessarily know about our ability to get eyebrows done at Luna's or the new coffee shop at Home Coffee next door to Dream Bowl's. The concept that I thought of is similar to other cities in the area that have city strolls. Something that allows us as community members to get out, highlights those businesses. It would require us partnering with those businesses and them being amenable to opening up this kind of family-friendly activity, but really just an opportunity to get out, visit the businesses, be a community together, particularly in the Bayfront Waterfront area because it's a growing business area. A lot of our residents are asking about or have questions or comments about the fact that we don't have many businesses. I think we have more than folks realize. So I think most of us think of Powder cake and Layla's when we think of that area and we don't necessarily think about Some of the smaller businesses that are there somebody mentioned the the pet grooming business that's down there, you know, so just something to kind of bring community together and bring life to that area and then maybe down the road somewhere we could do something for our you know, the I don't know what we could necessarily do with sort of the strip mall areas that we have, but I really would like for us as a community to engage more and bring more attention to our small business community here in Hercules.

Is this something that you would like to organize and promote on social media and through our Hercules Herald? What exactly are you suggesting?

I'm looking for right now is how amenable the council is to pursuing something of this nature.

I think it's a good idea. It might be one of those economic development committee things is what I'm listening to, but I'm okay with it however we, whatever forum it takes to look into it further.

And who exactly would do this? You know, we have limited resources here, so is there, I mean, should we send it to the Economic Development Subcommittee, or do you want council to discuss this? What are you proposing exactly?

I would be happy to present to the Economic Subcommittee, Economic Development Subcommittee, if that is the avenue that we wish to take when more fully developed this concept.

I know we can't talk too much about it, but if I hear you correctly, just to make sure I understand, the goal is to basically come up with a program to promote established businesses. Is that fair, or am I not saying?

That is correct.

Okay, I understand what you're asking to vote on, and I'm willing to vote for that to help.

how about if we send that to the economic development subcommittee you could present to it and then you can kind of flesh it out some more would that be okay yeah okay i'm happy to do that vice mayor are you okay with that i'm happy to come back here or the subcommittee well let's set it how about if we send it to the economic subcommittee so you can you know kind of talk it out and and and see how that would work okay

Thank you. Yeah. Okay, any other agenda items?

No? Then I have one here. I would like to call up CUP 26-01, also DRP 26-01, for a retail store with drive-up donation operations at 1551 Sycamore Avenue, otherwise known as the Goodwill Store. This came to the Planning Commission recently. It was approved. I would like to call it up here to council. I have concerns about illegal dumping, and that's why I'm suggesting this. So I'm wondering if the council would be willing to have a discussion about this.

Madam Mayor? Yes. I believe I share many of the same concerns as you, as many residents have pointed out. So I would absolutely be in favor in calling this item up. So do I. I just have a question.

Yes, please. And again, I can't touch much. I watched the Planning Commission meeting and I don't want to give folks the appearance that we have a reason to stop it because I think we have to have, there's findings for that. So that's my concern. So I need some information to, because I don't want to, I understand what the political process is here. I just want to make sure that we legally understand that sometimes we're stuck.

uh madam either mr city manager or madam city attorney um yeah i i think um this simply calling it up if you choose to do that by a majority of the council that's permissible that's certainly something that is within the council's rights as to the scope of that call up that's something that would be clearly outlined in the staff report you would be provided guidance as far as what the call up means the extent of your authority in this particular case would be outlined there So I'm not that concerned with the call-up per se, but yeah, there are some scope issues that need to be made clear.

So if I can ask a question again, does the call-up have to happen today, or could the things that I'm referring to from being a planning commissioner, can that be explained to the mayor just so it hasn't already been?

under the muni code you have to make the decision to call it up tonight and if you call it up it has to be heard on the 28th if you wish to deny the project and overrule the planning commission it's not clear to staff that the findings for denial could be made so the item might have to be continued to september if the council wishes to overrule the planning commission and deny the item. If the council simply wants more information about how after-hours donations are managed, I'm happy to provide that.

I would like to have a discussion about this because I think there are some genuine concerns about illegal dumping, and I don't know that I'm satisfied with what the retail store has provided us in terms of information. So I would like, if the council's okay with that, I'd like to call it up for the 28th.

I'm fine with that.

Yeah, Madam Mayor, I think I have a similar concern here just to make sure that, you know, the one of the biggest, you know, storefront wouldn't have this, you know, the safety issue as well as, you know, the illegal dumping. I would like to have that bring it back to the council hearing, I guess, just to give opportunity to just to hear per council just to be...

okay so i've got these two uh councilmember bailey well i i just i'm trying to be clear so are we saying for illegal dumping only are we saying for the whole i'm i'm asking because we're gonna end up in a box here is my concern so the munich code call-ups are treated like an appeal so it's that de novo you have to make all the findings that the planning commission made or choose one or more not to make if you wish to deny the project

With that said, the Muni code also requires the call-up to express a reason for the call-up so that staff has some, as the city manager said, scope to work with in terms of additional information that the council is requesting or in terms of a specific finding that you might not be able to make or concern that you have about the approval so that we have some scope but you you would be able to vote on the project as as director rude noted you know de novo but it would be helpful if um you do decide to call it up to provide some direction as to um the scope of your concerns so that the staff report for that item can address that further otherwise you'll get the same staff report that the planning commission receives so what i would like to address is just the uh donations

behind the retail store there. I think there is an opportunity there for illegal dumping. I can see that coming up. I know the police department has concerns about that. I'm not satisfied that the retail store can adequately address that, and I'd like to discuss the donations on the outside.

Well, with that, if there are no other express issues you want to have addressed by staff, what we would like to have is a motion so that we can make sure that we have consensus on the council whether to move forward with that or not.

Okay, so then I'll make a motion that we call up the Goodwill store. There were two issues, there were two things cited there that the mayor just cited. CUP, what was the number, please?

CUP 26-01, DRP 26-01, and it's regarding the drive-up donation operations.

So it's for the purpose of discussing the driver donations.

I'll second that.

Okay, so a motion by Bailey, seconded by Grimsley. Any discussion? Can we have a roll call vote? Council Member Grimsley.

Aye. Council Member Butter, aye.

Aye.

Council Member Bailey. Aye.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin? Aye. And Mayor Kelly?

Aye.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Any other future agenda items? Okay, so that concludes our meeting for tonight, and I would like to close the meeting in the memory of former Pinal Council Member Mary Horton. Thank you.