City Council - Regular Meeting

Done by father Jonathan Tsai from Hillary's Esquivel Church. And then also, council member Lee, will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance, please? Thank you. How are you?

I'm good. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Let us

pray.

Heavenly Father, as we thank you for the hope and renewal that Easter brings. As we gather to govern, we ask that the light of the resurrection shine upon our work, inspiring us to bring new life to our community. Grant us all the wisdom to make decisions that promotes peace, decision that promote peace, justice, and prosperity for all. Let love be victorious in all that we do and help us to serve with humility, compassion, and a commitment to unity. We ask this in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Please

place your right hand over your heart and join me in the pledge of allegiance. Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and the state of the republic which stands. Under

god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Thank you. Can we have a roll call, please?

Mayor Bennington? Here. Mayor Poehlen? Here. Council Member Greg? Here. Council Member Lee?

Here.

Council Member Cholla?

Here.

Thank you. Okay, where is my presentations? Do we have any corrections revisions to the agenda?

No revisions this evening.

Do we have any closed session reports?

Yes, thank you Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. We did meet in closed session to discuss one item of potential litigation and one item of real property negotiations with respect to APN 3904. No reportable action was taken with either item.

Thank you. Moving on to announcements and presentations. We have a presentation of proclamation to the San Bernardino County Children's Network declaring April as child abuse month. If you can join me down, counsel. And we're meeting with Ashley.

Hi, Ashley. Thank you. Tonight, we are honored to welcome Ashley Bookshare, Children's Network Officer, who is here to accept a proclamation on behalf of the San Bernardino County Children's Network declaring April as child abuse prevention month. April is recognized as child abuse prevention month to raise awareness and emphasize the role of the community in protecting our children. Preventing child abuse requires ongoing collaboration and strong community support.

The City of Hesperia encourages residents to support local efforts and initiatives focused on the child abuse prevention. Ashley, would you like to say a few words on behalf of the Child's Network?

Sure. Is it okay if I go to the podium and do that? Thank you. I appreciate that. If I can do that without turning it off at the same time.

Well, you, mayor and council, for declaring April as child abuse prevention month in the city of Hesperia. Child abuse comes in many forms and can look like physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. We recognize the detrimental effects that child abuse plays on children and families. It also affects children in ways of adverse childhood experiences, and children that experience those adverse experiences in young childhood often have negative effects as they grow in both behavioral health and emotional health. We all benefit when children have a safe and stable and nurturing environment that help prevent those adverse childhood experiences as children grow.

Suspected child abuse can be reported to the child abuse hotline for San Bernardino County anonymously at (800) 827-8724. We are the eyes and ears of our community and can help to keep children safe and keep families stable. Just from a data perspective, I wanted to share that in 2025, for the County Of San Bernardino, there were 30,545 reports of suspected abuse and neglect to the hotline for San Bernardino County as a whole. And then for the City Of Hisperia, there were fifteen oh one referrals generated to the San Bernardino County hotline for the City Of Hesperia. So again, this highlights the importance of reporting suspected abuse and neglect and being those eyes and ears of the community that we aim to serve.

Thank you again for proclaiming Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Thank you very much, Ashley, for your continued efforts in making our city, our community, and county of San Bernardino a safe place to report a safe place for our children and a means to report any abuse. Thank you very much. Moving on to general public comments. Thank you.

Individuals wishing to speak during general public comments on a particular numbered item are requested to submit a speaker slip to the city clerk with the agenda item noted. Speaker slips should be turned in prior to the public comment portion of the joint agenda or before an agenda item is discussed. Comments will be limited to three minutes for general public comments, consent calendar items, and new business items. Comments are limited to five minutes for public hearing items. In compliance with the Brown Act, the City Council may not discuss or take action on non agenda items or engage in question and answer sessions with the public. The City Council may ask brief questions for clarification, provide a reference to staff or other resources for factual information, and direct staff to add an item to a subsequent meeting.

Thank you. We'll start with our voicemail, mister Bob Nelson.

Okay. This is Bob Nelson. I'm part owner of a ranch in Summit Valley bordered on two sides by its very own land, I have a serious concern about the decisions being made during these public meetings. Although presently, I am temporarily enjoying life in Meridian, Idaho. Absolutely, without question, you five as per your residencies on the diocese have proven we no longer have a free press on guard against government abuse of its powers, at least here in San Bernardino County.

On 12/29/2021, a Victorville court officer said not guilty to at least the two counts tried in people versus Robert Aldridge Nelson in the I zero six seven two o, among fleets serving the June 6 and 06/20/2021 as per city council meetings in violation of PM code four zero three by breaches of that evil unconstitutional on its face three minute rule. Yet without a peep from any daily newspaper or radio or TV station During 25 of the next regular 27 or as per as city council meetings, the city council, as domestic enemies of our constitution, continue to enforce that unconstitutional on its face, three minute time limit by p c four zero three arrest. Even after three p c four zero three citations were each issued along with a booking form for a long night in a crowded jail cell in the remote high desert detention facility. So, absolutely, political power holds the free press range, at least here in San Bernardino County, as you five have proven. Absolutely.

Without question. On March 25, the complaint was mailed, certified, return receipt requested to the San Bernardino candidate, which included the government documented proof of violations of California penal code one eighty two, conspiracy defined by the five members of the Asperia City Council, the San Bernardino County district attorney, and at least three judges of the appellate division of the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. And if the various city council meeting agenda for April 21 this year still contains a standard of evil three minute rule for rostered speakers, you five the spirit of city council members will have proven irrefutably that the political power exercise in San Bernardino County, besides ruling San Bernardino County's DA's office, the court system, and the appellate court system even rules our county's 19 members of the San Bernardino County grand jury. And should the San Bernardino County grand jury also be silenced by political pressure on this complaint, the California Supreme Court and violations of federal law making chronic violations of the First Amendment of felony. Stand next in line, folks.

Bye bye.

Kim Jones, please.

I just wanted, again, thank the Hesperia Animal Control and the employees on there for getting my dog, Ruben Joseph, back. And anybody, if you got dog, cat, or other animal, and they have that chip in them, please make sure you have the correct phone number and your address. And if you don't know if your animal has it, take the animal to the either the pound or veterinarian. They got the device to rub on them. And if they don't have it, it's best that you get it because you never know what's gonna happen.

My Ruben was actually gone for nineteen months even though the dates were two years. He's adjusted and everything, but it was rough nineteen months for me wondering, was he still alive? What happened to him and everything? Again, thank you, Hispura Animal Control.

Thank you. Al Bogler, please.

Good evening, Consul. I'm Al Voegler. I am the seeker of information regarding a proposed City Of Hesperia sales tax increase. Not only an increase, but a doubling of the existing tax. A tax which currently brings in about $14,000,000 which will increase to approximately 28,000,000. I tried to access information for this from the city and was told it could not be released because it was proprietary. The city suggested contacting team CivX. I did so with no luck. They suggested contacting True North Research. I have done so several times.

Three telephone calls and multiple voice messages have resulted in no answers by Mr. Tim McClarney, your consultant. We have now sent certified mail and questions to him and are waiting. Waiting on someone who did not bother to appear in person during the city council meeting of 03/17/2026 such that we could ask him questions. Some of the questions are, what form did the survey questions take, I e, in person, voicemail, text, by telephone?

What were the questions and points? How many total surveys were sent out? Of 606 respondents, clearly, were opposed to a tax increase. That means that out of 56,000 voters in Hesperia, some number smaller than 606 were not in favor. Hardly a random sample.

The city insists that information is proprietary, meaning the city owns the information. I am the taxpayer paying for the study information and I cannot access it. My public records request is now over one month old and not yet answered. I again ask Hesperia City to supply the voting public with a list of projects and their potential costs that will happen with increased sales taxes. I'm quoting the bias of your consultant, quote unquote, General taxes are more popular.

Well, yes, they are. It's easier to pass them. You could have tried a specific tax, but that would require larger voter approval numbers. Thank you.

Hesperian News, please.

Hello. Good evening. For those who don't know, my name is Nana. I'm with, Hispari News and Politics. I just have two things to really bring up today. So the first thing is, for the roads that are being worked on right now and being repaired after the storm, thank you. I know we can't get perfect roads overnight, especially with infrastructure we have in this desert, but the efforts that are being made, I really do appreciate them. I personally have noticed more construction and more patchwork being done on the roads, especially the ones that were on the list. So for you guys, thank you for that. And then I also wanna thank for the second thing, Josh, because I I don't know if you recently saw on my post, but there was a concern where I guess Silverwood only had one route in and one route out currently for their community.

And I raised that concern to Josh because I wasn't sure if he was aware of it. And he reached back to me and he said he was gonna look into it. And I wanted to hopefully get some more information on that today or at least know where I need to go start asking questions. I don't know if that's something with the HOA or with the city. I did I do wanna know that there is some progress being made on it because I went to visit it this past week and the sandbags on, I think it's Warner Springs that connects to Farmdale, those have been moved. So they are making the effort to get that done, but I know that part of that road is still not paved. As far as I know, Farmdale is still not paved. And if we're going be selling these beautiful homes, we got to make sure people have one way in and one way out because not everyone's car is going to be able to off road through the back way. So, that's all I really wanna bring up. And I, again, wanna thank you, Josh, for your response because when I sent him the email, he responded like that.

He was on it. So and I know, like, getting those kind of things fixed, especially when it comes to the city, takes a lot of time. But the fact that you were so responsive to it and took took it serious, I really do appreciate that. So, you for that.

Thank you. Do you have any additional public comment cards?

No more speaker cards.

Thank you very much. Moving on to the joint consent calendar. Do I have a motion?

Madam Mayor, I want to pull items number three, seven and twelve.

Madam Mayor?

Yes. I

believe we might have another speaker. There might be a confusion.

Ken Anderson for consent calendar or general public comment? General public comment? We do have one for general public comment.

Okay. I apologize for that. Thank you. Thank you for pointing that out. Appreciate it.

We would like to thank the Cub Scouts for joining us tonight. We wanted to recognize you. You guys are leaving, but appreciate you coming out. Thank you. Good

evening, members of the council and staff. Thank you for such a beautiful day. The declaration of independence was signed in Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1970 in 1776. The second continental congress voted for independence of The United States colonies by passing the Lee resolution on 07/02/1776. The declaration of independent was then proclaimed on 07/04/1776.

On 07/04/2026, The United States will celebrate two hundred and fifty years since the signing of the declaration of independence. This anniversary isn't just a bigger version of the July 4 celebration and fireworks. It should be a year long national reflection, an opportunity to offer gratitude for religious liberties that have defined the American experiment since its inception. From the early settlers seeking spiritual freedom to the founders' invocation of, quote, endowed from their creator, faith has been a persistent thread in the American tapestry. This anniversary serves as a sacred monument, a moment for us to honor the diverse ways in which spiritual convictions have inspired movements of justice, charity, and communal strength throughout our history.

On April 26, at our chapel at Bear Valley Road in Ridgecrest in Victorville, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints will be celebrating with song, prayer, and words, a reflection of the freedom in which is offered in this country. Community is invited, and I have included an invitation for all of you to be there so we can celebrate two fifty amazing years of this great country of The United States. We also have an invitation for the community as a whole for a Red Cross blood drive. It's on April 14 at 02:00 to 08:00 at our Maple Chapel, just one mile north of the high school. And of course, we cannot remember, or we cannot forget Hesperia cleanup days.

I have been advertising this a lot. I hope we have a great group that comes out. The staff does an amazing job with this cleanup, and we appreciate everything we do for our community. The last invitation I would like to give is for a very, very special occasion that I would offer to you as a councilman here. It is a invitation for a tour the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in Yorba Linda, California.

This is a special opportunity before it becomes dedicated. The general public is allowed to go in. I give you a VIP invitation to go. If that's something that you would like to do, if you would please let me know so I can make sure and get you on a list. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any additional public comment cards? Sorry. No more white cards. Okay. Thank you. Moving on to the joint consent calendar. Do I have a motion to approve removing items three, seven, and 12. Oh, a first by council member Greg, a second by mayor Potempolin. Can we have a vote, please?

Thank you. The item passes. Oh, I don't have it up yet. The item passes. Five. Okay. Item number three, Casey.

Good evening, mayor and council. I'll give a real quick recap of the staff report. First, we have a resolution to, ratify the emergency expenses that occurred during the EOC. This is allowed during an emergency by the municipal code in which the city manager can make enter into emergency contracts and then later on presented to council which we're doing here of those emergency purchases. The second resolution is to adjust the budget to $1,276,587 and you notice there's a difference between the emergency ratification of 1,000,000 and the budget adjustment of 1,200,000.0 is because the emergency ratification is for those contracts that exceed $50,000 which is in excess of the city manager's approval.

But the total storm cost associated with the December event was rounded 1,300,000.0. As you can see, we do have three or four types of cost centers. The first one is 480,000 that was paid to Cooley Construction. That was a time and material bid. I'm sorry, not a bid a contract and that was the immediate response right after the storm a day after the storm we entered into a time and material contract for 480,000.

Grouping two is 594,000. That is a series of five contracts that we did emergency bids on. Here we did go out. We solicited vendors but it was in a very shortened period and the city manager authorized those contracts knowing it would be brought back to city council for approval tonight. Number three is materials and equipment.

Those are a summation of all the materials and equipment that were bought under 50,000 such as truck rentals and supplies to work on the storm. And then finally, had the EOC overtime hours of 58,000 in here for the and that was added for the budget amendment. So with that, that concludes my brief presentation. I can answer any questions that you may have.

So the reason I just wanted to pull this item was so that the folks out there can understand and see that there was a substantial cost to repairing it. You see that we were doing something about the storm and that we took action. So I just wanted to make sure that that was highlighted versus just approving something in a joint consent calendar. Thank you Casey for highlighting all that. I know we looked at it all but sometimes it's good for the residents to be able to get and hear from you on this as well.

Thank So Yeah. Like I said, $12,000,000 was a storm response. There is another subsequent staff report item 18 which we'll get to which is the rest of the storm response outside of this EOC event.

Any additional council questions or comments? Thank you. Item seven, please.

Hello, madam mayor and members of the council. We are available for any questions that you may have for this item.

So with this additional cost to the Ranchero Bridge project, is there any is there anything in sight to where we're gonna stop having cost overruns on this project? I mean, we just approved an additional cost overrun of a substantial amount recently to do this. Can you provide a little bit more background for our community why we need an additional $65,000 on this project?

Good evening, madam mayor and council members. I would be glad to answer that question for you. Request for an amendment that was previously brought to council and approved was strictly for the contractor and construction only. This particular item is for the engineer of record. They are responsible for items throughout construction such as responding to questions that the contractor may have.

These are requests for information also referred to as RFIs. They also help the construction management team review and approve any potential change order requests. And unfortunately during the process of trying to obtain the Department of Water Resources permit, the engineer of record had to perform a lot of plan changes in accordance with DWR's requests. And so that depleted a lot of our budget for their services. And so at this time we want to ensure that we have these vital services for construction of the bridge because it is a structure, all projects are important to ensure that they're constructed properly, but with a structure such as this, we want to ensure that everything is done properly and we have them at the ready in case we need them.

So is it safe to stay safe to say that the DWDWR is from the state of California that that keeps having the city incur more costs time and time again, all these mandates and things coming down from the state because they keep moving the goalpost for our community?

These actions were prior to present day in the process of obtaining our Department of Water Resources permit for construction but there were vital changes needed to accommodate the bridge structure that were at the request of DWR.

And they previously approved this numerous times, correct?

They approved the prior permit. We have to we with the new contract we had to apply for another permit because their means and methods for construction would be different.

Alright. Thank you.

Do we have any additional questions or comments by counsel? Thank you. Thank you very much. Item 12, please.

Good evening, madam mayor and members of the council. Item 12 is in regards to replacing evaporative coolers at the animal shelter and we're available for any questions that you may have.

So just like item number three I wanted to pull this this item to highlight that the city is taking the residents comments concerns and putting in them into action. You know, this is something that's probably long overdue. I would ask what can what more can we do as a council to support the animal the animal shelter down there, and is this enough?

Good evening, madam mayor and distinguished council members. I'm Brian Blackwell,

the operations manager at, Public Works and part of my duties is facilities. I I think you guys are supporting us as much as you can and we do appreciate the support with all the things that we are doing at the animal shelter at this time.

With something like this, I don't think the council has any objection to approving things like this. So, you know, at least from my perspective, bring them to us. The worst that that the council can say is no. Right? So I think that you have a a council here here that does care and and does want to see our shelter successful and taking care of the animals to the best of our ability. So thank you for bringing this to us, and

Thank you.

That's all I have.

We appreciate your support.

Any additional questions or comments? Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve items three, seven, and 12 of first by Councilmember Cholla, second by Councilmember Lee. Can we have a vote, please? The vote passes. Five. Thank you very much. Thank you for the report and great questions from our council member, Greg. Moving on to Moving on to new business. Tammy.

Good evening honorable mayor and city council members. The item before you is to request consideration of resolution number twenty twenty six-seventeen approving the Measure I continuation expenditure plan developed by the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority also known as SBCTA. SBCTA is responsible for administering a 1 half cent sales tax known as Measure I and is dedicated to transportation improvements across San Bernardino County. Measure I was originally approved by San Bernardino County voters in 1989 with the program beginning in 1990 and continuing through 2010. Following its success in delivering transportation projects, voters extended the measure in 2004 with the renewed program taking effect in 2010 and continuing to 2040, representing the current program.

I would like to share a Measure I supported project list for the City Of Hesperia. This list reflects some of the City projects supported by Measure I and includes projects for roadway widening, bridge rehabilitation, traffic signal upgrades, and improved transit infrastructure. As mentioned earlier, the current program is set to expire in 2040. Because transportation projects require significant time to plan, develop, and prepare for delivery, initiating this discussion now helps ensure that progress made will continue without interruption. And please note, this plan would extend the existing tax, not increase it, and it would remain in effect until voters choose to end it.

And staff recommends that City Council adopt Resolution Number twenty twenty six-seventeen approving the Measure I Expenditure Plan developed by SBCTA. That concludes my presentation. I'm available to answer any questions you may have.

Do we have any questions from counsel?

Said on SBCTA, correct? Do you have any concerns or is there anything added to this? There was a

No, I think as Tammy said, it just extends it beyond 2,040. It doesn't raise the tax. It, keeps the tax in place, and it would have to be ended by the voters.

Thank you. Do I have a motion? Motion by council member Ochoa, second by council member Lee. Can we have a vote, please? The item passes five-zero. Moving on to Item 16.

My name is Cassandra Sanchez. I'm the director of public works, the city engineer, and tonight I will be presenting to you the Highway 395 waterline relocation bid rejection and waterline material betterment appropriation. A little background on this. SBCTA is coordinating with Caltrans to construct improvements along the Highway 395 corridor. During the design of this project, it was found that there is an existing Hesperia Water District waterline that is in conflict with the new roadway, and it would need to be relocated.

Because the Hesperia Water District has prior rights, this would be funded by SBCTA to perform the relocation, and the city is only responsible for the betterment costs. We've also presented this to council in December 2025 for the betterment of improving the water line to a 12 inches line, which matches our master drainage plan, and not just replacing the existing six inches and eight inches lines that are currently out there. So the city conducted a formal solicitation of bids, and we also publicly opened and read the bids. That was on February 12. There were seven bidders, and that information is shown there on the slide of the seven bidders.

As we are moving forward with our project for the waterline relocation, there was a shift in SBCTA's timeline, and so the city would not be able to perform the work in time for SBCTA to move forward with their project. Therefore, SBCTA would like to move forward with doing the waterline relocation as part of their project instead of having the city do it separately, with the city again still only being responsible for the betterment costs as we were before. And this would actually be really good for the commuters because we won't be going through with two projects and tearing up the roadway twice. So therefore, staff recommends rejecting all bids associated with the city waterline relocation in accordance with the bid documents. In addition to that, with further conversations with SBCTA for this project, we were originally going to do a c 900 PVC pipe.

SBCTA told us that they could do ductile iron pipe for an additional $24,000. Ductile iron pipe is stronger and performs better under traffic loads, which would lead to less repairs and less needs to go into the three ninety five to replace that pipe, and then SBCTA would install the ductile iron pipe as part of their waterline project. Therefore, for the fiscal impact, there is none for the rejection of the bids. However, we are asking for an additional appropriation of $24,000 to the Water Capital Fund seven zero one so that we can include that betterment of the ductile iron pipe which would bring the total project appropriation to $274,000. Staff's recommendation is rejecting all submitted bids for the Highway 395 waterline relocation project and adopt joint resolutions number twenty twenty six dash o five and number twenty twenty six dash o three to amend the twenty five-twenty six CIP budget and appropriate an additional $24,000 I am available for any questions that you may have.

Do we have any questions or comments?

I just want to say thank you. Great job on that. Thank you.

This the city's going to save a couple million dollars by doing this. That's That's awesome. That's something to be, you know, celebrated. So thank you for, you know, having the force the foresight to this and additionally looking at the option of upgrading it now Mhmm. To the the higher quality the piping. It's gonna serve us a lot longer than the old PVC stuff.

Thank And I wanna give credit to my project managers, Deanna and Tina, for helping with all of those conversations with SBCTA. They worked really hard on it.

Awesome work.

SBCTA as well. Thank you. Thank you. I have a motion by council member Greg, a second by mayor Potempolin. Can we have a vote, please?

Item 17 passes five zero. Thank you. Moving on to item 18.

We're actually on item 17 now.

Thought we missed it. Oh, sorry. Yep. I got ahead of myself. Item 17.

Good evening, council members and mayor. I'm here to present the safe streets and roads for all grant acceptance acceptance. Some background on the s s four a. The safe streets for all s s four a is a federal program through the US DOT transportation the US Department of Transportation. Sorry.

The program firms local governments in development and implementation of roadway safety, focusing on safety and mobility for all road users. Some information on this SS-4A is that the City Of Hesperia did receive one of the largest planning grants for the local government in California. The grant funds would be used for the city's Vision Zero Action Plan, Supplemental Complete Streets Plan, and Supporting Transportation Studies. The Vision Zero Action Plan is a safety plan focused on reducing serious injuries and fatalities for all roadway users. The roadway users include motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, school children, transit users, and persons with disabilities.

These plans will create a data driven roadway map to guide the city's transportation planning and potential CIP improvements for the city. The plans will also establish eligibility for future state and federal safety grant opportunities, many of which do require a road race safety plan to be adopted in order to apply. The SS4A grant did award the city approximately $1,500,000 It does require a city match of approximately 400,000 coming to a total funding for the Vision Zero Action Plan and Supplemental Complete Streets Plan to approximately 2,000,000. The funding will be included in the fiscal twenty six-twenty seven budget. The recommendation for staff is to adopt resolution twenty twenty six-four, which is for the acceptance of approximately 1,500,000.0 grant funds of SS4A and authorize the city manager to execute grant documents.

Are there any questions?

Do we have any questions or comments? Oh, public comment? Al Bogler. Thank you.

Good evening, counsel. I'm Al Vogler. Agenda item number 17 this evening is acceptance of safe streets and roads for a grant amount of 1,577,600 for Vision Zero Action Plan. Safe streets and roads is defined by USDOT to support local governments and the development of comprehensive safety action plans intended to help prevent roadway fatalities and serious injuries, prioritizing safety for all road users. Total project costs 1,972,000.

During the Hesperia City Council meeting of 10/21/2025, item number eight is guided by quote ensuring a safe and efficient roadway network unquote. Goal c one one is stated as a roadway network that provides for the safe and efficient mobility needs of residents, businesses, visitors, and emergency services. At that meeting, I brought up again the serious safety issues existing on Rock Springs Road at Glendale eastbound where the road narrows to two lanes, one in either direction. Several deaths, serious injuries, and the destruction of private property have happened at that location. In one instance, a driver crashed into a wooden power pole and ended up suspended by a power pole guy wire in mid air inside his vehicle.

Speeding on Rock Springs Road is epidemic. On 10/21/2025, I asked the city what plans exist to widen Rock Springs Road from Glendale easterly to the city line, and I have never received a response. On Friday, 03/20/2026, there was another head on collision on Rock Springs Road at Glendale. I have the photographs. I can only guesstimate for the past four or five years how many times requests have been made for information regarding widening Rock Springs Road with no information forthcoming.

Is there even a plan under safe streets or any other funding mechanism? Inquiring minds need to know. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any additional comment cards regarding this item? No more white cards. Thank you. Councilmember Greg?

Rachel, would you have any information on on the widening of that little corridor over there? I know that we're putting in the new bridge or San Bernardino County is. Is that going to also include a widening of Rock Springs Road?

Thank you, Councilmember Greg. Yes, the county has a project there in Rock Springs Road. I don't know the details of that project. I'm not understanding that capacity is being added, but I don't know. Tina, do you know? Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't know the specifics of the county's project, but I can provide that information to Mr. Volkler. For the city's CIP, that will be presented here in the council meeting, the second meeting in June. The CIP is presented at the second meeting in June of every year.

And the CIP budget is available on the city's website in Great Teedale to see which projects are being planned for. Currently, there is not funding set aside for the widening of the roadway section that you're referencing in the city of Hisperia. Whether or not plans come forward or informed by some of the master plans that we undergo in the next five years or so, I can't speak to that. However, there's not currently a funded project for improvements on that section of roadway.

This may be a good opportunity. We just, you know, received the information for the betterment of our of our water piping. It looks like they're going to realign Rock Springs Road there. Is probably the best opportunity that the city would have to actually look at widening that in conjunction with the county, I would think. But just fruit for thought I suppose maybe we can get a memo about what we should know what's going on in that area because it does impact our residents and if there's any opportunities for that over there to where we might be able to achieve something at a reduced cost.

I also wanted to highlight some of these things in there. Going through these slides, great job. I've seen the striping and things like that in Casey. I think that our that money will go a lot further since we do have the in house striping now a little bit. Are any are any of these monies able to go towards purchasing additional striping machine for the city or anything like that? But time will tell for us, but I think that I'd well, I would confidently say that the money is going to go a lot further with us doing in house versus going out to the contracting world. So thank you for that, and at least some of those fruits are starting to to bear here.

And this money is yeah. I'm sorry. Didn't know if I was muted or not. This money is for the creation of these plans, so it won't be for additional equipment at this time, but they will be making recommendations for striping and improvements that can be made to make intersections safer or move smoother to help avoid collisions.

Great job on the teamwork in getting that grant money. That's that's awesome. Thank you very much. Do I have a motion by council member Ochoa, second by council member Greg? Can we have a vote, please?

The item passes, five-zero. Moving on to Item 18. Cassandra, you're very busy tonight.

I am. I also learned that most of my presentations have really long titles. Alright. Well, hello again, madam mayor and members of the council. My name is Cassandra Sanchez. I'm your director of public works, city engineer. I'm here with Keith Chung. And today, we will be presenting to you dirt road, shoulder repair, and retention basin rehabilitation. So as you are all aware, since December 2025, we have had multiple rain events throughout the city. These rain events have accelerated the deterioration of our dirt roads and our roadside shoulders throughout the city.

The rain events have also filled our retention basins with sediment and damaged some of the inlets and outlets at those locations, and so maintenance is needed to ensure functionality and capacity of our infrastructure throughout the city. We have four projects that we are looking to move forward with. The first one being dirt road repair. This is to help provide a smooth compacted surface for our residents that travel or live on dirt roads. We would be grading with an inverted crown, and for anybody that doesn't know what a crown is, a crown usually in the middle of the road is the high point.

On dirt roads, we make it a low point to help keep some of those low flows more in the middle of the roadway, keeping it away from driveways and meter boxes and things like that that can be exposed. We also have a dirt shoulder repair. This is within all four quadrants of the city. It is to fill in eroded areas along the roadside or also to haul off sand where sand has built up along the roadside because of the storms from the roadside shoulders throughout the city. Tamarisk Basin Rehabilitation, this is one we actually just cleaned out not that long ago, but it is, again, full of sediment.

This is at Mojave and Tamarisk in the kind of northwest corner of that intersection, and it's full of sediment and the culvert leading into that basin is now full of sediment as well. So the goal of this project would be to return it to its original grade. Performed very well throughout all the storms, and so everybody was actually very happy with how this has performed. And then the HO-one Basin Rehabilitation, this is located between 3rd And 4th Avenue in Mauna Loa, and the pipes leading into that basin are full of sediment, and then the basin itself is full of sediment and debris that will need to be cleared, the basin will need to be taken back to its original grade. These projects, if performed by a contractor, will help accelerate the ongoing cleanup that's already being performed by our Public Works staff.

I'm going to now pass this over to Keith.

Okay. Okay. A few key highlights regarding the bid process that was conducted is that they all followed the city's standard formal bid process per the purchasing policy. The bids all included mandatory on-site meetings, or what they call job walks, that were held with the prospective bidders to provide visual clarity over the scope of work and to answer questions. All bids were released on the city's public bid website, public purchase, and they resulted in five bids received for the dirt road repair, Tamarisk Basin Rehab, and the HO-one Basin Rehab projects, respectively, and two bids received for the shoulder repair project.

Finally, all projects would be funded using general fund reserves. And that concludes the presentation. We're available for any questions.

Do we have any council member questions or comments, please?

I do. Want to say that, I did look into the contractors, and I am especially concerned not concerned, happy with the contractor, the Jeremy Harris Construction Company. Their experience in recharging basins is quite extensive, and I think that is a great, great contractor to have do that. So thank you all for the hard work that you're doing on all of this, and I appreciate all of you guys' hard work on it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any additional comments, questions? Okay, I have a first by Councilmember Ochoa, second by Mayor Potempolin. Can we have a vote, please? The vote passes by zero. Thank you very much. Great job to staff. Moving on to our council member committee reports and comments. Can you please start us off, Cameron?

All right. Thank you, Bridget. I had one meeting, VVWRA, March 19. I think that was a really great meeting. We had a workshop, and it allowed us to really build on each agency's employees as well.

And we found out and and, Rachel, please correct me if I'm wrong. I we all share the same ultimate vision of working towards one goal, and this kinda highlighted that even further. So, again, so much work has happened over the last year, and getting that collaborative nature back into VVWRA has proved itself, and we see this in those workshops. So that's all that we have on that. I don't have anything else to report. I hope that everybody had a safe Easter. Folks, drive careful. Get to where you're going safely. I'll say that every time that I'm here. Our folks in the back, great job at what you do.

I wish people weren't so mindless in in their activities and keep giving you guys a hard time, but hopefully, the stupidity will stop at some point. For servicemen and women overseas, again, I I hope that everybody will keep them in in their prayers. Other than that, that's all I have.

Thank you, Councilmember Gregg. I also appreciate you serving on that committee. You've done a great job. I appreciate you and Rachel and all your work. You have come a long way the best you've gotten more accomplished in a short period of time. So great teamwork, and thank you very much. Council Member Cholla, please.

Yes. It's been a very productive last month. Mostly I just want to thank staff for all the work that they're doing on the Monday Municipal Mile with the Healthy Hisperia program. Every event is amazing. Get new people, new faces all the time. And also just to all the hard working staff members that we have, thank you. We're doing a lot and we are recovering the best that we can and putting in good work in our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Lee?

I won't touch that anymore. That was me. Sorry. Thank you, mayor Bennington. On March 31, I got to tour the Amazon Building. Oh my gosh. So exciting. It is huge in there. I wanted to take a ride on the conveyor belts, but they wouldn't let me. Anyway, on the March 29, I attended the Sultana Band car show vendor clothing drive.

That was a lot of fun. I saw my council member buddy down there, Chris Ochoa. He was there as well. On 04/02, I attended the CCAC meeting, and that was great. I always love that one because I hear all the great nonprofits that come in for our CAP program. So that's I'm looking forward to that coming up in June, I think. On the sixth was yesterday, Monday, municipal Mile. Next week is gonna be the last walk that we have until September. I'm kinda sad about that. You might find me in the park anyway walking, so there's that.

This afternoon before we had our closed session meeting, I did attend the ribbon cutting for the Hesperia High School Center for the Arts. Gorgeous, gorgeous facility. Go scorpions. Rachel, you've got to go look at this thing. It is fabulous.

It's gonna it's just gonna be so great for that school and our community, so I'm I'm really thrilled about that. And I do wanna thank our staff for how hard they're working with all of this grant money and digging into everything and our shelter, getting the new, swamp coolers, everything, and the new dump trucks and stuff that we got going on. You guys are doing a great job. I really appreciate it. I appreciate it because you're trying to make our city better, and I love that. And thanks to the sheriff and the fire department back there. Appreciate all you guys do. And I wanna say hi to Erin. You're you're missed. You look fabulous.

It's good to see you. My quote is by Benjamin Franklin, an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. That's all I have.

Thank you. Mayor Brotempohlen, please.

Thank you, mayor. I had a SBCTA board of directors meeting on April 1, public safety committee meeting with Cal Cities or League of Cities on March 27. I also got to attend a warehouse tour with staff in Mayor Bennington. It's pretty wild to think that there's 38 miles of conveyor belt in there. It's pretty amazing.

With that, I want to say condolences to the family of Taylor Cole, who is a close family friend. He was the motorcyclist that was killed on January, in the hit and run last week. He was a close friend of my brother-in-law, so I'd like to say that with, as Cameron always says, slow down. I did take the opportunity yesterday to meet with the SBCTA executive director and president of the board of directors to discuss that exact, need for the desert, the widening of, 130 Eightone Hundred 72 in Summit Valley Road, so to, pass that on with our earlier, presentation about SBCTA. So with that, yeah, nothing else.

Thanks to the people in the back and prayers to our military members.

Thank you. I attended Detroit agency meeting on April 1, and great it was a great meeting. There was a lot accomplished. Unfortunately, I was a little late, but it's it's moving forward and positively. We have a lot of engagement with the parks district and the school district, and it's just a great great place it's a great committee to be on. And congratulations of the Hillsborough High School Center for the Arts. What a great opportunity. Unfortunately, I was tied up. I wasn't able to attend. Thank you for attending on our behalf.

I'm very excited to get to see it and be a participant in, some of their events or not a participant. Gosh. Help me to be able to watch what they have in store using utilizing that building. I'm also upcoming, I am attending the Desert Mountain Division for Cal City's meeting in Needles on Friday. I'm sure it it's scheduled to rain. Either it's gonna be very, very hot or rainy. It seems every time I go out of town, it I get rained out. But, hey, it's always an adventure. And like Josh said, we toured the Amazon facility, the building. There are no words.

It's so huge when you walk in. You cannot see from one end to the other. The conveyor belts are crazy. They said it's, I think, 2.5 miles. So if you walk the parameter, you get your steps in. I can imagine the workers when we get the building up and running, they're scheduled as slated to employ a thousand people. Even where the employees are required to park, there's a bridge. It's just crazy. I think they said they're gonna have to run shuttles to get the employees to work on time, but it's just crazy. The bridge is really pretty, but Josh and I asked, is there gonna be glass?

Because it was very windy that day. And at first, we were told no. We're thinking, oh, well, good luck with that. But it is it is glass, so we're reassured about that. Today, I did participate, I laugh, in Cottonwoods Career Day event. And they did it differently this year instead of having us in the one area, and I'm usually between police and fire. They're like, oh, police and fire, and and you are. So we were able to go from classroom to classroom, and I had the a little little one that was, two inches tall. He says, do you raise our taxes? And I'm thinking, wow.

No. But, anyways, it's a great event. Cottonwood is always always inviting, and I really enjoy that part of it. And I believe that's all I have upcoming oh, Ken Anderson is not here, unfortunately. I had the opportunity. I went to the East Coast the last week in March. So I went to Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York. And with the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, it was so amazing. There's so much history on the East Coast. It was just a lot of fun.

We went with my granddaughter's eighth grade history field trip. I walked 46 miles. We were competing for steps, and my best step day was 30,000 steps. So there's a lot of walking, a lot of stair climbing, but just memories that were just amazing. So I can't wait to go back with my grandson. I would like to thank Rachel and her staff, our public works, code enforcement, animal control, and you guys all do a great job. And I'm just very proud of you for all the hard work that you do. Appreciate you. And follow-up with Cameron and Mayor Pro tem. Sorry.

Cameron, council member Greg, and mayor pro tem Poland. Be safe out there. There's way too many accidents and just slow down. And with that, I have nothing for oh, wait. Sorry. Sunday's gonna be my granddaughter's fourteenth birthday. So happy birthday, Brady. And with that, do we have city managers? Yes. We will close the meeting in honor of

Taylor Cole.

Taylor

Cole. And we have any reports from city manager or city attorney, then we will close our meeting in memory of Taylor Cole, and we adjourn the meeting at 07:36. Thank you very much. Thank you for attending.