City Council - Regular Meeting

We're missing Pam. Good evening, and welcome to 05/05/2026 city council meeting. We will call the meeting to order at 06:30. Our invocation will be done by pastor Penn. And then council member Ochoa, you lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

Thank you.

Cross up there. It's one that I took and wrote something on the back. We've given out a bunch of them. Number two, this Thursday is the National Day of Prayer. And each year at the flagpole in the out front, we have a brief thirty minute prayer service, and the Hesperia High School choir will be there singing, and we'll have opportunity to pray together.

We've just recently celebrated reading the entire Bible at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. And in honor of the Scriptures, I'd like to read the Beatitudes to us this evening. Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up into the mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them. He said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are you when you are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Let's pray.

Lord, we pray that you would make us more like you and that your righteousness and holiness would be the characteristic of our community and that you would give us wisdom as we deliberate on the most challenging things that face us. And, Lord, we thank you for your love that fills our lives, and we pray for those most needy, those most hurting, those most challenged within our community, and we thank you for the gift of our fine city, the city of Hesperia. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. 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.

Can we get a roll call, please? Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Pullen? Here. Council member Greg? Here. Council member Lee? Here. Council member Ochoa?

Here.

Thank you. Do we have any corrections or revisions to the agenda?

We do not.

Thank you. Moving on to announcements and presentations. Our first presentation is for our employee of the quarter.

It is my pleasure to present to Henry Corona, the employee of the quarter. Henry has been in the building maintenance section since January 2024. He's extremely detail orientated. The mic was cutting out on me a little bit there. He's extremely detail orientated, and he shows an excellent work ethic. His focus lately has been on the police department where I just recently got a compliment for him from Captain Allen that said he always brings a positive attitude to his work every day in the police station, which is a building that never stops moving. So it's really an undertaking for him to show up every day and and

do such a good job.

He's also a problem solver, and he always is trying to find solutions to issues that he'll see up at the workplace, and he always shares those successes with his team members for them to also be able to use those solutions. He is someone his team members can count on, and he's always willing to step up and help, and he always puts his best foot forward on every task. I think this quote from his nomination perfectly sums him up, that Henry's positive attitude and reliability makes him an invaluable member of the team. And congratulations, Henry. This is well deserved.

Great job, and thank you so much for your service, Henry. We appreciate you. Moving on to our presentation from San Bernardino County Fire, the drone program by battalion chief Chris Boden and engineer Jeff Alexi.

Alright. Good evening, mayor, council members. My name is Chris Bowden. I'm a battalion chief with the fire district. I'm currently assigned in our South Desert Division, Yucca Valley area but I'm also our robotics program administrator And with our robotics program, it covers a number of areas. We have ground based robotics, we have sub training robotics, which go indoors, we have underwater robotics and we also have UASs. And with the vision and the courage that our administration has had in venturing into these areas, we are among the leaders in the fire service in deploying these things. And so, waiting for my presentation to pop up.

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Well, I

will just keep talking to them for a second here. So our robotics program currently has been out in the field. It is consisted of one of our personnel who is a UAS operator licensed with the FAA. We actually have 12 licensed operators within the County Fire District. One particular person right now has been assigned specifically to robotics, and he goes out throughout the county.

He's been up in the Hesperia area quite a bit on incidents with our drones and our UASs and our robotics. And this is so this, what I'm here to talk about today, is something we're pretty excited about getting moving into and what we're calling our early aerial situational awareness. So a lot of you have probably heard what DFR or drone as a first responder. We are using and that's a law enforcement term. They use that for intelligence in their law enforcement scenes and to increase officer safety on scene.

They're being able to to see and observe what's going on. We are referred to as early aerial situational awareness for the fire service because that's truly what we're using it for, is early situational awareness for our personnel. And it consists of very similar theories as that law enforcement is using it for. However, we're using it for our personnel to be able to you know, one of the primary things, especially, what I'm gonna talk about here today is for our fire service personnel to have a visual of what they're coming into before they ever get on scene. So for us, our early situational awareness will consist of using UAVs or UASs, unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, to provide that aerial perspective to our ground resources prior to arrival.

They'll launch from a box, essentially, a dock that's on a roof of a fire station, and they will go direct to the incident. We will have we will be operating these out of a central fusion center located at Fire Headquarters. That will be operated by licensed UAS operators working under our FAA's agreements, our licensures and our waivers that allow us to fly what's considered beyond visual line of sight, meaning that our drone operators don't actually see the drone with their own eyes. They're using a video feed from first person perspectives to see where that drone is operating and manipulate it in the area that they're flying it. With that also comes other overlays that allow us to see air traffic in the area so that we can make sure that we are not conflicting with manned aviation such as like the sheriff's helicopters, medical helicopters and other aircraft that come in and out of the area.

So those drones will launch, and they'll be able to provide our units with a real time video feed of the incident that they're coming into. So current practice is our units will get dispatched to a fire. The first unit that gets on scene will basically give a size up over the radio. Somebody needs to get out of the vehicle, needs to walk around the entire incident while folks are setting up hose lines, getting ready to attack the fire so that we know what we're dealing with. This system will allow them to have seen that full three sixty degree view prior to even getting on scene because it's providing that direct video feed to our personnel's iPads, the fire captains and the engines, the battalion chiefs en route, provides that real feed to our administration if they're monitoring what's going on as well.

So everybody has that situational awareness of what we're entering into. And again, that feeds directly to our iPads that are in our fire engines and our command vehicles. The other thing that our UASs provide for us is we have thermal imaging capabilities so we can see heat sources. So it allows us to be able to direct our personnel really where the bulk of the heat is in the fire so that we can hit that fire, knock it down quickly and keep it from progressing. Some other things that we're able to do with our early situational early aerial situational awareness or ESA is we did a trial last year in January down in San Bernardino City to to see how this was going to work.

And we were able to determine certain call types that we send fire engines to, that a vast majority of the time, when that fire engine arrives on scene, there's actually nothing there. Usually, this is somebody who drives by and they think they see smoke and they call 911 from their cell phone, and we have to send a fire engine committing that fire engine to go out to the area, investigate, and turns out it's nothing or it's a barbecue, something to that effect, right? So in certain call types, based on the information coming in, we'll actually be able to launch these ESA aircraft to that incident, get them overhead before we even start a fire engine and be able to determine, do we need to actually commit a fire engine to this or can we keep that fire engine available to run other higher priority incidents because there actually isn't a fire? We will also launch them in conjunction with the fire apparatus to confirm reports of fires. And again, like I said, it gives us that early situational awareness that allows for the safety of our personnel to be increased because they have a better idea of what they're rolling into.

And then as we look at the future, really, because this whole field and technology is progressing so much that there's companies out there that are working to be able to even overlay AI or advanced intelligence into these systems to be able to provide us back with even more information just by analyzing the video feed than we can even determine with our own two eyes, really giving us a good a good ability to come up with a really good plan and be able to keep these fires from getting much bigger. This is just a little bit of information I wanted to include in here, kind of to show you what our actual data was from our trial. This again was back in January. And over the course of three weeks, they were basically sitting, if you're familiar with the Caltrans building in Downtown San Bernardino. We had two personnel sitting on top of that building throughout the night with the drones because at that point, we weren't able to fly beyond that visual line of sight.

So we had to have a visual observer as well as our UAS operator. So these two gentlemen sat on the roof of the Caltrans building overnight for about three weeks and would go launch the drone on calls. They monitored the radio, and they launched the drone on calls. And that, the FU call is essentially what the what the dispatch center puts into the computer when it's a fire type unknown. Again, it's that one person driving by on a cell phone.

I see smoke coming from the park. Do you see any flames? No, just smoke. So they would launch the drone over there, and turns out most of the time it was a homeless encampment, burning some trash in a trash can to stay warm, and it wasn't a threat to anybody, and the fire engine wasn't gonna do anything when they got out there anyways because it it wasn't an emergency. And then they also, again, responded to actual regular fires and were able to provide that early overhead awareness.

So in week one there, they responded to 15 calls and their average response time to get an aircraft over the scene of those calls was two minutes. Where when we look at a really good response time for our fire engines is three minutes, and we're more leaning toward the industry averages from the time of 09:11 to getting a fire engine on scene. If we can get them there in five minutes, we're doing that's really good. Getting eyes overseen in two minutes. In week two, they had 14 calls.

And then in the third week, you see that drastic drop off to four calls. So the interesting thing with that was on the UAS is that they were operating, they had a speaker on them. And so they were able to get over some of these fire type unknowns that were burning trash in trash cans and things like that. And over the speaker, this is the fire department, you need to extinguish your fire. And by the third week, everybody was talking to each other out there and said, hey, the fire department is overhead and telling us

to put these things out,

so maybe we shouldn't light them in the first place. So we really actually saw a decrease in in some of those nuisance fires as well. So it was a huge success. We did it for three weeks, and ever since then, all of our folks in the field have been asking, when is this coming back? You know, being able to see these things ahead of time. And the great answer for we form we have now is very, very soon. So what does that mean for Hesperia? This is what the drone looks like. It houses in this box. It will launch from that box.

It'll be operated by our drone operators in our Fusion Center headquarters. And it'll go out, and it will go to the scene. The two places that we are looking at in his or the two places in Hesperia where these will be at is the roof of Station 302 over on Olive. And if you take a quick look, this is just the, the company we're going with. This is a quick mock up drawing, but basically, just what's on the roof there is a box and then the antenna that the UAS communicates with.

And the other location we're going to be placing it at is Fire Station 305 over on Caliente. We'll have a unit there as well. Currently, we're in the final stages of getting through some permit processing to get the electrical put in. Once the permits and the electrical get put in, which shouldn't take long, the company that we're going with will be able to have those things out and installed in a couple of weeks. We're really optimistic to be able to be running out of the Hesperia stations here within the next probably two to three months, three months tops.

I think we're probably pushing two months in that realm. We will actually have our first unit being deployed off of Little Mountain in San Bernardino here with any luck either by the end of this month or early next month. And so throughout the throughout the fire district, we'll end up having five of them. Two of them will be in Hesperia. These will allow us again to be able to get overhead of these incidents early, provide personnel with real time intelligence, providing for that safety, increased safety awareness for the first responders that are on scene, allowing us to be able to quickly respond and protect the citizens of Hesperia in a just again, much quicker, safer, efficient fashion.

And this is just a quick view of what or a quick picture of what the operators are going be seeing. So this is that first person view I told you about. They're basically tracking the aircraft and and sending it directly to the scene and getting an overview and providing that live feed to the responders coming in. So again, I just wanted to be able to give you guys a quick orientation as to what we're bringing to your community. Chief Anderson asked us to come and do this for you. We're really excited to do it. We're really excited to be able to have Hesperia as one of our first cities that we're going to be providing this service to. And I'm open for any questions if anybody has any.

I'm trying to get my screen back. Council member Greg. So this

is really neat technology that that's kind of enabling you guys to free up your hands, so to speak, in a lot of your daily activity. Can this be used during our glorious fourth of July firework pandemic essentially that we have around here? Is that going to be able to be utilized to enforce? Or is it more defensive in nature to where we can actually allocate other resources?

So for us, it's it is more situational awareness in nature. So we wouldn't we're not gonna be using it necessarily. At least we have no plans to use it to push enforcement, surveillance, anything to that effect. Now with the fireworks types of calls, again, really those are reactionary for us anyways. But what we'll be able to do with that then is as these fireworks calls come in, we'll be able to quickly respond the drone or the UAS out to the area to determine if this is starting a fire or not.

Because really, that's where we end up chasing a lot of things on the July 4. We get the fireworks calls because we don't know if they've started something on fire or not. And then we get backlogged on those, and it's a it is a real problem for us. So we'll we'll be able to really have the intelligence on where we need to prioritize our responses, where they're actually starting fires. So that's, I think, where the fourth of July will really come into effect. These things will be helpful in that.

Yeah, think it's a great opportunity to see how they perform around that time. And then with the law enforcement aspect too that could be something that comes online as well.

So yeah, and the sheriff's side I do know are working towards their program as well.

Thank you. Council Member Lee.

Thank you, Battalion Chief Bowden. That was a great presentation. I do have one question. Yes. How far can the drone go from the base of the box?

So our the current models that are getting installed, which is what they have available right now, they have a four mile radius from the box. Our initial setup on them, we're going to be running them at about three and a half miles. Again, just to kind of have that safety margin in there as we'll work on pushing them out and seeing what we can do with them as we develop the program. However, there are they are on the forefront with this company that we are going with as well as the rest of the industry in moving the aircraft to five gs platforms. So while they'll still have some communication with their antennas when essentially, it's an antenna problem, right?

So once the five gs program is into effect, then the aircraft will be able to respond beyond their antenna reach and it really becomes a battery limiting issue. And so these aircraft have approximately a thirty minute battery life, so we're looking at ten minutes away from the base, ten minutes back with a ten minute reserve.

Thank you. That is a great program. I am excited and thank you for choosing us for two placements of the drone. Do you have any additional council comments? Thank you very much.

Appreciate Thank

you. Thank you for your time.

Moving

on to general public comments.

Individuals wishing to speak during general public comments or on a particular numbered item are requested to submit a speaker slip to the city clerk with the agenda item noted. Speaker slip 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.

We have a voicemail via telephone, correct?

Yes, we have one voicemail. I'll play that now.

Name is Christina, and I'm the outreach coordinator for the Fair Housing Foundation. And I wanted to inform you all of the vital services that we have to offer here at the Fair Housing Foundation and that we can provide to residents of Hesperia completely free of cost. So as a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Fair Housing, we offer one on one confidential counseling on landlord tenant issues, including rent increases, repairs, and evictions, and also investigation of housing discrimination complaints to ensure all residents have equal access to housing. Additionally, we offer free educational workshops covering tenants' and landlords' rights and responsibilities. These workshops are held weekly and are available in multiple languages.

Additionally, we would like to invite you and the community to our upcoming virtual fair housing workshop on June 16 from 01:30PM to 3PM. This event will provide valuable information on fair housing laws and rights. For more information or to register for the workshop, please visit our website at www.fhfca.org or contact us at 804463247. Thank you again, and we appreciate your time and support in ensuring that Hesperia residents have access to Fair Housing resources. Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

Again, my name is Christina with Fair Housing Foundation and can be reached at 8044632471103. Thank you, and have a great rest of your meeting.

Thank you. Robert Davy, please.

Good evening, counsel. My remarks tonight were triggered by a BB and G article describing a collaboration with Saint Mary's Medical Center and Kaiser. No longer a collaboration for our new hospital, but now allowing Kaiser patients to utilize St. Mary's already overwhelmed underserved facility that already has hallways lined with patients. We only have one facility in the High Desert that claims to be a hospital, though I challenged that claim profusely.

Even their DVM's DVMC or Desert Valley Medical Center website calls it DVMC. I have personal experience with Saint Mary's and Kaiser both. Myself in 2023, I stayed in the hallway two and a half days at Saint Mary's with stroke like symptoms. Stroke like symptoms. Half of the time, I was not even monitored, and they said we don't have enough monitors to go around. It was only by the grace of God I didn't have a stroke. My wife last August presented with upper respiratory. They broke her ribs, pounding on her back instead of using the percussion jacket. My father in law's brother, two weeks ago, presented with a 254 over 143 blood pressure and was in the hallway for two days and sent home with medication. He's 85 years old.

Saint Mary's is so bad, when my wife recently had to go to the hospital, bleeding profusely from her stoma last month, She chose Desert Valley over Saint Mary's even though Desert Valley almost killed her in 2015. A doctor made a mistake that ruined her life forever. She had a five percent chance of survival. She beat unsurmountable odds and survived. She won a medical malpractice claim against Desert Valley, but she still chose them over Saint Mary's. That's how bad Saint Mary's is. Asperia is affected more in the High Desert because we're farther away. All of our doctors and medical facilities are up on Highway 18 in Annapolis Valley. We're further away from treatment. We lack of a hospital.

How many Hesperians die needlessly because of this by the time we get transported down the hill? If you can't fix it I know you can't fix it immediately, but our long term master plan has got to include adequate medical care facilities and doctors' offices and a hospital of not just a hospital, but a level one trauma center. So we need before all the land is covered with huge warehouses and car washes, let's designate an area zoned for only a hospital and medical facilities here in Hesperia. We need that. Proper health care is a basic human right, not a luxury. Thank you.

I'm going to butcher this name and I apologize. Tony Ventum Megilli Muzakis. Yeah, sorry. I have a simple name, Bridget Bennington. You know, it's been like

that since I was a kid, so I'm used to it. No. No worries.

There you go.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, city council members. As Bridget tried to say, my name is Tony Ventimiglia Mestegas, and I serve as an officer on the Hisperi Wranglers Board of Directors. I understand my comments cannot be addressed under the Brown Act. However, I would like to express a genuine concern regarding the equestrian area at the Hisperia Lake Park. At this time, it remains the only portion of the park that is still off limits despite previously being a space used year round by the equestrian community.

As the property owners, I respectfully ask that you consider seeking clarification on the extent of the damage to the equestrian area as well as a projected timeline for when it may be accessible again. Our group has consistently attended Hisperia Recreation and Park Board meetings and raised our concerns, yet it has not been placed on the agenda, and we've not received any meaningful updates. It's disheartening to bring this request directly to you, especially given the long standing relationships that we have with those that are involved with the Park District. However, we feel we've been left without answers and are simply seeking transparency and communication regarding this important community space. The Hisperia Wranglers has a long time lifetime agreement with the park.

We've been down there since 2011, and for some reason, we are the only ones that haven't been allowed back in to the park. We've had to find other places to host our shows, and it's really disheartening because we've got lots of youth that are really involved in the horse community, and they want to be active. We

even have a

place to host our William Kennard Memorial Scholarship Show this year. We have a fine family at the Pioneer facility that has offered to allow us to use their facility, but this young man died serving our country and this club, you know, brought in a scholarship to honor his memory. He was a member of the club and he died at 21 years old. We're having to host it somewhere other than the Val Shear Arena because the Val Shear Arena is still inaccessible to us. So what is the problem?

All we're wanting are answers, and every time we go to a Park District meeting, we get blank looks. It's not on the agenda, so of course they can't address it, and I know it's not on your agenda tonight, but as owners of the property, maybe you can get an answer. Because we're just sitting there getting nothing. Every other piece of the lake has been opened except for the equestrian area. It's literally barricaded off.

So what is the problem? We've asked what the problem is. What can we do to help fix it? That's all we want to do, to be able to help fix it and to be able to get our kids back in there and back in their home arena where they belong. We're part of the rodeo committee. We help keep the ground great for the rodeo, and everybody's pushing for the rodeo. But what about us? Thank you.

Two tens. Oh, which one?

I'll I'm gonna take mister Burns first, please. Bruins.

Hi. Tim Burns. Good evening. You should all should have a packet that kinda looks like this in your information. So I am here because the city of Hesperia outsourced weed abatement to the San Bernardino County, and ever since, I've been receiving yearly notice of order to abate letters for a problem that is not on my property. My most recent notice is dated April 23. That's on page two. The photo included in that notice, which is in this packet, all show the same thing. Page two shows a photo taken from the Northwest Corner of Peach

identifying my home. Page three, a similar angle showing weeds at the roadside that are not on my land.

Northwest Pages four and five, these photos are from the Southeast corner looking south on Peach Peach Avenue and it clearly shows the weeds and the grasses are growing inside the water culvert that is a part of the roadway, not on private property. This is the same issue my next door neighbor was cited for earlier this year. When I called the city, I spoke to Britney who told me they would send someone to inspect the culvert and clean it if needed. I explained that I've reported this to the city before and although equipment was sent out, nothing changed because the culvert is u shaped and continues to trap dirts and weeds. A bulldozer won't clear it.

Every year the county sends the same notice from the same vantage point taken by what appears to be the same person. And every year the photo shows the same thing, a city owned water culvert that needs maintenance. I feel I shouldn't have to pay a nonrefundable $100 charge to dispute a citation for something that is not clearly on my property. That fee is a gamble, and residents shouldn't have to gamble to avoid being charged for city infrastructure issues. So I'm asking the city to take action before May 20 this year, and here's two reasonable options.

Hire me or my neighbor, preferably my neighbor. He's out of a job. He could use one by May 15 to dig out the culvert by hand if that's the most efficient solution. Engage with the county, confirm ownership of the culvert as number two, and send a city crew to remove the dirt and weed so the problem stops reoccurring. This is a simple fix, but the yearly notices feels like harassment through a county process for an issue that belongs to the city. I'm asking for a clear resolution and follow-up so this doesn't continue year after year. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to the city addressing this by May 20.

Thank you. Rachel, can we have staff meet with mister Bruins regarding this? Yeah.

I can I will have I'll call him myself?

Okay. Our city attorney city attorney. Our city manager will call you regarding this. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. Okay. Now, Tim. Moustaklas?

Moustaklas.

Moustaklas. Yeah. Yeah.

Good evening, madam mayor, city council members. Thank you guys for entertaining us here tonight. Again, I won't take as long as my wife. I guarantee you. She hit everything that we wanted to ask you guys.

Our is just we're beating our heads against the wall with with the parking wreck right now. So we're just asking you guys as property owners to see if maybe you guys can get some kind of clarification of why the Equestrian area is closed. They claim there's been some water pipelines, but we walked through there last weekend, and everything appears to be fine other than an old, waterline that was from the old fish hatchery area that's been exposed for the last decade, that people walked over. They hit it with their tractor when they were dragging. So if that's what they are claiming as the damage, then I'll go down there and cut it out with a handsaw and move it by hand if I have to.

I I don't a little hard work doesn't scare me. So, I need to get into that arena so that we can prepare it for the rodeos for our community because that's for what they've done. They've dragged it, but it's just put a ton of rocks in it. So it's gonna take some time to get it back into the condition we need for that rodeo. So I yield the rest of my time back. Thank you.

Thank you. Hesperian News and Politics.

Good evening, guys. It's good to see you. I'm just gonna comment briefly on two items. So tonight, I wanted to ask regarding the Maple Basin. This is comments I got on my news page from other folks. They want to know from an engineering standpoint what purpose the rocks currently placed in the basin are intended to serve, And I wanted to know what will happen when mud and debris is that come from Cedar Middle School and the Bandicoot area. When it eventually covers those rocks, is there a plan for that? Is that going to interfere? Another thing is a lot of people are concerned that the basin was not dredged back to the original depth, that it's higher. So I was wondering if we can get some info on that.

And then my second item is actually a safety concern that one of my neighbors reached out to me in my neighborhood regarding a homeless encampment, and I want to emphasize understand many homeless individuals. They're going through extremely difficult circumstances, especially in this economy. I don't want to target anyone personally. However, I think it's still important for us to recognize the potential safety concern associated with this because these encampments are sprouting up in a dirt lot that's right next to a bus stop. And this is the bus stop for middle schoolers, the bus stop for kindergarteners, elementary students.

Like, I stop there all the time from the bus. And it's also a it's a land that's owned by the power company by Edison and got a lot of rush and all the debris and it just seems like a big safety risk to have there. I know we've had that issue with encampments over the years. They did bring this up to the sheriff department, but they didn't get any follow-up. There wasn't really like it. It just seemed like they were really busy. So I told them I would come here and I would speak on that just in case that's something we need to start tracking. Regarding that, that's all I had to really talk about. Thank you for your time. You guys have a great night.

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

No. That's the last

one.

Thank you. Madam Mayor, on that last comment, can we get, Husperry News to provide that location of that encampment to staff? Maybe, Casey can answer some of those questions as with the rocks and stuff as well for

Thank you. Reason.

Oh, you have the location of the encampment? That. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank

you. Moving on to our joint consent calendar. Do I have a motion to move the consent calendar?

Bridget, sorry to interrupt. There was an error noted in the minutes on the joint consent calendar. So we're going to be pulling that from the agenda. The corrected minutes will be provided next meeting. So we'll approve the joint consent calendar minus the draft minutes which is Item number one.

Okay. I have a first by Council Member Greg, a second by Mayor Pro Tem Pullen pulling Item one. Can we get a vote please?

And item passes five zero. Thank you.

Moving on to item six. Welcome, Ryan.

Thank you. Tonight's item is a request for an appeal of the Planning Commission's decision to approve CUP 20 two-sixteen intended at Parcel Map twenty four-four. As a little bit of background, the Planning Commission approved the project on 09/11/2025. And shortly after the Planning Commission hearing, the Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility, who uses the acronym SAFR, submitted an appeal application to the City Council requesting that the council overturn the Planning Commission's decision to approve the project. This item was previously scheduled for the March 3 City Council hearing.

At that hearing, just prior to the hearing, the appellant and the applicant both requested that this item be continued to a later hearing. At the city council meeting, the city council did continue this item to a later hearing but added that this project must be returned back to the city council no later than two months later. And so it has now been two months since this item was continued from the March 3 city council hearing And this item is back before you tonight for consideration and a decision. So these are some conceptual renderings of the project. The CUP 22 was approved by the Planning Commission by a five-zero vote to construct two warehouse buildings, with each warehouse building totaling approximately 75,000 square feet.

As a part of the approval, the Planning Commission also approved a tentative parcel map to consolidate five parcels into two parcels with each building located on a separate parcel. In conjunction with approval of the project, the Planning Commission also approved a mitigated negative declaration, which concluded that all environmental impacts from the project could be reduced to a less significant level with mitigation measures incorporated. For reference, a mitigated negative declaration is a the name of an environmental document that is prepared pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act. An MND essentially identifies that the project could potentially have significant environmental impacts. However, those impacts can be reduced to a less than significant level with mitigation measures incorporated.

This is a general plan map of the project location. It's located in the commercial industrial business park zone of the Main Street and Freeway Corridor specific plan. As you can see, it's surrounded on all three sides by CIPP zoning and the 15 Freeway is located immediately to the east of the site. This is an aerial of the site. Site is located immediately west of the 15 Freeway, located just East of Highway 395.

Immediately to the south of the project site is the Little Sisters Truck Wash. To the west of the site is Commercial Industrial Business Park. And to the north on the four parcels that you see on the aerial, each one of those parcels is currently entitled with a warehouse distribution building. The parcel that is immediately to the north was just constructed with a 408,000 square foot warehouse building. That building is fairly prominent from the 15 Freeway.

It was just recently constructed within the past couple of weeks to the past couple of months and it's currently awaiting a tenant. This is the site plan for the project. As you can see, the project includes two buildings. Each building is about 75,000 square feet and is located on two separate parcels. The project also includes the construction of the necessary site improvements such as truck parking, employee parking, landscaping and associated pavement and all the site improvements that go with the development.

So the appeal that's before you tonight is a request to grant approval of the appeal to overturn the Planning Commission's decision to approve the project. The appellant contends that the mitigated negative declaration does not adequately analyze the project's impacts and requests that an EIR be prepared to analyze potentially significant impacts upon biological resources. Attached to the staff report is the appellant's application that was submitted by the SAFR Group. The appeal application includes the appellant supporting documentation for why they believe that the impacts upon biological resources were not adequately analyzed and that is included as an attachment to the staff report. The mitigated negative declaration was circulated for a public review from June 18 to 07/21/2025.

During the public review period, we had five comment letters were received. We received a comment letter from the Mojave Water Agency, Southern California Gas, and the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District. And each one of those three agencies provided that they did not have any concerns or issues with the project. We also received one comment letter from CDFW, that's California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and they requested that the project revise a couple of the mitigation measures. The final MND does include all the revisions that were requested by CDFW and they did not have any objections to the project.

And then the fifth comment letter that was received was from the SAFR Group who requested that an EIR be prepared for this project. With regards to the mitigation measures, the MND contains eight mitigation measures that are specifically for biological resources. These mitigation measures include requirements that the project obtain an incidental take permit for the removal of any Joshua trees. There are currently approximately 20 to 30 Joshua trees located on the site. The project is required to prepare a focused burrowing owl study as well as a preconstruction general wildlife survey, in which a biologist is required to survey the site just prior to any sort of construction or grading to ensure that there's no sensitive wildlife or any nesting birds located on the site.

The project is required to prepare a preconstruction nesting bird survey to document if any nesting birds are located on the site. A desert native protected plant plan is also required to document the potential for the relocation of any Joshua trees and if those could be preserved on the site. With those mitigation measures in place, CDFW did not have any objections to the project. And as I mentioned earlier, with these mitigation measures in place, the environmental document, the MND determined that all potential impacts to not only biological resources, but all other impacts analyzed in the environmental document would be reduced to a less than significant level. With that, staff is recommending that the City Council uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve the project and adopt the associated mitigated negative declaration.

And that concludes my presentation and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you. This is a public hearing item. I will open up the public hearing at 07:17. Do we have any public comment cards regarding this?

We have no cards, madam mayor.

Thank you. Then I will close the

My apologies. We have a card that was submitted after the meeting started. Would you like to accept it?

Yes, please. We will. Thank you.

Aleyha Kretcher.

Thank you very much. Good evening council members. My name is Aleha Krutcher. I'm an attorney with the law firm Lozo Drury, and I'm here on behalf of the Appellant Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility or SAFR. SAFR appeals the Planning Commission's approval of the Cargo Solutions Truck Warehouse project because the mitigated negative declaration or the MND prepared for the project fails to adequately assess the project's potentially significant environmental impacts.

Therefore, SAFR respectfully requests that the City Council grant the appeal and direct city staff to prepare an environmental impact report or EIR for the project. The standard for requiring an EIR is quite different from an MND. SECRA requires that the preparation of an EIR as opposed to an MND where there is substantial evidence supporting a fair argument that a project may result in significant environmental impacts. Even if there is a disagreement among experts over the significance of an effect, a lead agency is to treat the impact as significant and prepare an EIR. Here, there is at least a fair argument that the project may have a significant impact on biological resources.

First, SAFR's expert wildlife ecologist, Doctor. Smallwood, found that the biological resources evaluation prepared by Ultra Systems failed to adequately analyze the project's impacts on burrowing owls. Burrowing owls are a candidate for listing under the California Endangered Species Act, meaning that they're entitled to the same special consideration and legal protections as species that are formally listed as threatened or endangered. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has put out guidance for analyzing impacts to burrowing owls, which include first conducting focus surveys to properly detect the species on a given site. No such survey was conducted here despite the project site being deemed suitable for habitat for the species even though it's proposed as a mitigation measure and needs to happen before.

Without the proper surveys, the MND remains deficient in its analysis of this special status species. Second, Doctor. Smallwood found that the project site supports other species, special status species, including the California horned lark, red tailed hawk, American barn owl, and American kestrel. The MND failed to analyze the project's impact on those species. Lastly, Doctor.

Smallwood determined that the project may significantly impact the special status species relying on the project by contributing to habitat loss and interfering with these species movement in the region. Doctor. Smallwood's analysis and conclusions demonstrate that at the very least there is a disagreement among experts as to the significance of the project's impacts on special status species which would warrant an EIR. Thus, for these reasons and those in SAFR's written comments, SAFR again respectfully asks that the City Council grant the appeal. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Do we have any additional public comment, Kurt?

No, we do not.

Thank you. Do we have any council comments?

I just have a question. Do we have is this a local group that that this SAFR is at a local group to the the High Desert in a sense? Just a little bit. I'm seeing that the attorney's office is out of Oakland, California. Do we have any background to this?

To my knowledge, the SAFR group is throughout the state of California. Not it's not specific to just the High Desert.

Okay. I I have to point this out. Whenever we look at this, if this was a local group pushing some of these things, I think it's a little bit more palatable in the sense that it makes more sense. It's community driven. But just looking at the safer, they're based out of Covina, California. Not Hesperia, not at Victorville or Apple Valley, not what our community needs. There isn't a one size fits all to our communities. Our communities know what

our

communities need, not from outside entities or outside influences, other cities or things like that. I just want to at least touch on that.

Thank you. Do we have any additional council comments? I have a motion by council member Greg, a second by council member Lee. The item passes five zero. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ryan.

Madam Mayor, what time is the public hearing closing for this item?

I have must I 07:22. Thank you. Moving on to Item Number seven, we have a presentation by Ryan and Leilani.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Tonight, I bring back an item that was at the last meeting of 04/21/2026, and it was brought back after a continuance with direction to staff to remove the car wash component to a development that proposed a car wash, gas station, as well as a convenience store. Staff has provided a revised resolution at your direction and is here tonight to continue the item.

Thank you. I would like to reopen the public hearing so we can get the applicant who wrote the letter give a presentation because you were not here at the council member council meeting due to a conflict. So, come on up, please. Thank you.

Oh, my request

is Oh, I'm sorry. Need a second. Can I get a second? I made a motion. I just moved forward. So come on up. Thank

you, mayors and council members. My name is Matt Turner. I'm with Plaza Street Partners, the company owner and developer of the property of the Northwest corner of Phelan Road and I-three 95, where the proposed convenience store, car wash and gas station we're discussing is, and as well as I represent the AU Energy, who would be the operator or tenant of that property. So we've prepared a presentation. Just want to there it is.

So as you can see, there's the proposed site. Next slide, please. I wanted to talk a little bit about our tenant or the brand. It's going to be a Loop Neighborhood Market, and they are a high end convenience store. And they focus on healthy organic food products.

And The car wash is a is a core component of their brand. So they program the entire site around all of their offerings. So the car wash go to the next slide, please. Sorry. So there you can see the the inside of the convenience store, fresh hot cold food offerings, deli sandwiches, with a focus on fresh and organic groceries and food offerings, and then the Loop Car Wash subscription options.

Next slide, please. The operator is AU Energy. They're out of Sacramento, California. They've been in business since 1978, and they operate over 63 of these stores throughout the state of California, focusing in the Sacramento area as well as Southern California. Next slide, please.

We're the preferred development partner for AU Energy, and we're helping them expand throughout the state of California. Next slide, please. And I want to backtracking the history on the site. As the developer, we've owned this site since 2020. We had an approved CUP on the site in 2021, which you can see includes a C store, a restaurant, a car wash and a 5,100 square foot fuel canopy.

Next slide, please. As you can see in this slide, this is the updated CUP. What happened with that last project, it hit right during COVID, and we experienced a hardship with construction costs. Our user and tenant went away, and we were unable to deliver that project. Fast forward till now, we've got a new tenant, a new project, and we've been working with city staff for almost eighteen months on this.

From the very beginning, we have never proposed this site without a car wash. We have worked with Caltrans. We've done every requested or required study for this project. And next slide, please. As you can see, here's an updated site plan of this.

The market, we have increased 1,000 square feet, but you can see we've removed the restaurant. The fuel canopy, you can see we've reduced it by over 1,000 square feet, and we've removed four pumps. The car wash, we have expanded by about 600 square feet, but we've removed the restaurant completely, and we've lowered parking by eight parking spaces. So we focused on this project. As you can see, we're heavy on landscaping.

And this car wash is just a key core component to our overall development. Without the car wash, all of this program together does not work. Yeah, next slide, please. So what we're requesting for the CUP approval criteria is that you determine of the authority approval authority of the site based on your CUP approval criteria. And we believe that this site fits all of those criteria.

Next slide, please. So determination of the approval authority. The site is proposed use is adequate in size, shape, and accommodation, all yards, open spaces, setbacks, walls, fences and parking areas, fire building code consideration, and other features pertaining to the application. As you can see here, we think that we meet all of those requirements. And really, one of our biggest hardships here is just that we've planned we spent eighteen months I'm really sorry I'm struggling so much, guys.

I'm really sorry. I've never presented before city council before. But the long story short here is that this car watch is detrimental to our development. Our user programs us in. It all feeds off each other. We would not have pursued this to this point had we gotten feedback earlier that the car wash was not going to be approved by the city. We understand that you guys have too many car washes. That's the feedback that we got in the last city council meeting. We think that we can really overcome this. I mean, we've hidden this with the car wash is not going to be seen.

As you can see here, we've got landscaping. It's hidden behind the convenience store. We've reduced the canopy. And our goal and the core of our project is this high end C store market. And I mean, again, this car wash is just detrimental to the approval of this project from our client, from our tenant.

And we'd really like you to reconsider the allowance of this car wash in this project. Next slide, please. So back to your CUP approval criteria. The proposed use will not have substantial adverse effects on the abutting property or the permitting. Use thereof or will not generate excessive noise, vibration, traffic or other nuisances or hazards.

Obviously, this is a highway property on I-three 95, and it's in a heavily industrial area. It doesn't abut to homes or anything like that. Next slide, please. Determination of the approval authority. So the proposed use is consistent with the goals, policy standards and maps of the development code, general plan and other applicable codes and ordinances adopted by the city. Again, we think that we meet all of that criteria. Our proposed development satisfies the current code standards of the CEP findings. The car wash is not being proposed as stand alone use. Dropped in an inappropriate location. It's part of an integrated convenience fuel service center.

The site design includes landscape buffers, perimeter treatment that helps soften the development. The proposed car wash is screened by the street from its positioning behind the C store and fuel canopy as well as landscaping. Next slide, please. This site for the proposed use has adequate access, meaning that the site is designed the site design incorporates street and highway limitations. The site fronts the major roadways and was specifically designed with street highway access considerations in mind. We conducted a traffic impact analysis and it has been approved by the city of Hesperia. Proposed access meetings, design guidelines and requirements. Next slide, please. Thank you. And I just really want to apologize for my nervousness up here.

But I do want to say, I think, again, going back eighteen months, going back five years, six years on this project, it's always been proposed with the car wash. It's always been, we've worked with staff, closely with staff on this. We've expended a lot of time, a lot of resources, a lot of energy on this project, and I just I really would like you to reconsider this. We it is it is a we feel like the market that we're bringing, the C store, it's a positive to the community. It's focused on health, fresh food.

It's going to be well lit. It's run by a good operator. I know the car wash component is not what you guys are looking for, but it is key and core to our brand. And we would love to be in the city of Hesperia. We'd love to be a part of your community, and we would love for you to reconsider our car wash. Thank you. And again, I apologize

for

how nervous I was. I don't know what happened up here. Thank you.

Problem. Thank you. I will open it up to public comment. Do we can we do public comment? Is this an item we would redo public comment?

Yes. Can I make a comment?

Do we have any public comment cards?

We do not.

Okay. Thank you. Then I will I opened it at 07:33, and we'll close it at 07:33. Council member Lee.

So I would like to have us revisit this car wash aspect of this. I know that a lot of people from the Phelan area will come out to this car wash. I hear I do a lot of business out in Phelan, so I hear people talking about the car washes. They have to drive all the way out. They're excited that the quack quack is there.

But I think that if we revisit this, we're also going to have all the employees from Amazon. And I know we're inundated with car washes, but I really would like to have a discussion between the five of us to see where everybody's at on this. I think that we should move forward with it. That's my opinion.

Council member Greg, please.

Thank you. First off, you did great. I know it's nerve wrecking. All of us have been there. You did really great at present presenting. It really looks like a fantastic project. It's a shame that the restaurant aspect was was taken down. I mean, as as council member Lee, put it, Amazon is right there. So many workers are gonna need a place to, you know, get away from, you know, the regular hustle and bustle of working in Amazon, and what better place? Unfortunately, the restaurant aspect was taken out.

We're left with something that the community has been very boisterous on with no more car washes. Why are we building all these car washes? Again, it looks like it would be a great project, but it's been scaled down to a way to where it's pretty much a gas station and a car wash. And I I can't I can't support something that the community has been so so for so much against in the past. It's just I'm gonna hold to to my roots to that.

But I'm curious to what my colleagues say on this. And and I see I see the aspect of the feeling aspect of people coming from there and stuff like that. But those same people are going to drive right down the street to Kwikwak. The other four car washes that are within that same vicinity of that. Not to mention what Atalanta is building right down their way on 395 as well and what could potentially be built out in Phelan. So I'm kinda curious what my colleague's thoughts are on this.

Sir, do you mind if I can I approach again and address any of that or not?

Unfortunately, the the hearing's closed for that. You had your time.

Have I closed it? I haven't closed it. Yeah. I did. Sorry. I'm I'm thinking I just would like to say that I would like to see this project come to the city of Hesperia. Yes. We have quite a few car washes, but here's an opportunity to get some revenue from gas. We have an opportunity for some actual fresh fruits and vegetables and healthier foods, which this city is we need here. I don't know that we have any grocery stores that would offer healthier.

We're going towards family orientated within their budget. We have a lot of grocery stores, a lot of the 99¢ stores. So I would like to make an amended motion, if I can, to amend the project approval for agenda item seven, allowing the inclusion of the car wash component as part of the overall development. I think the gas, the revenue, the store, the taxes that we're going to get on that, and then the car wash, it's right in a prime location as far as I'm concerned. How many people use 395 to go to the Sierras?

Go three ninety five is is heavily used. So I if I can make the amended motion or subsequent motion, I would like to do that. So please

I have some motion.

Provide some guidance. Okay. Then we will vote on the first motion to exclude the car wash. I have a first by Councilmember Greg. Do I have a second?

I just want to make my motion clear that my motion is to exclude the car wash but move forward and hopefully that that would you know allow them to build the restaurant back to the original size that was excluded from that.

Do I have a second? Seeing none, you'll have to direct me Pam, I'm sorry. Thank you.

Alright, so your motion is to approve the project, the CUP along with the car wash ancillary use. The City Council meeting from last from April 21 did have the resolution with the findings of approval, so we would be able to fall back on those findings. And that would be your motion to approve the project with the ancillary carwash use.

Thank you. So said by our city attorney, if I could use that motion language. So, do I have I have a do I have a first, a second? Can we have a vote, please? The item passes four-one. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming in. You did a great job. Thank you. Moving on to new business, item number eight, our first twenty twenty six-twenty seven budget workshop. Thank you, Casey. Thank you for that.

Good evening, mayor and council. Tonight, have our first budget workshop. As always, tonight, we'll be talking about our operating funds and spending a good deal of time on the general fund. So with this workshop, as I go through, you know, feel free to interrupt me. Let's have a conversation on the different topics.

So our agenda, you can see the the general fund is flushed out. We're going to be talking about sales tax in relation to gas prices, the law enforcement contract, and then that will go into the liability insurance for the general fund. We have water and sewer and street maintenance funds. Spoiler alert, there's not much change there. So those will be the quicker slides. As you can see since agenda is broken out, we'll be spending time on the general fund. And as you can see here, this is why we'll be spending time on the general fund. Our revenues are increasing by 4%, 2,300,000. Our expenditures though is increasing by 5,500,000 or 11%. And you can see that leaves a deficit of 1,100,000.

We are using reserves and I'll get into detail of what those reserves are. But if you back out those reserves because those are for onetime projects, our operating expense is increasing by $3,000,000 or 5.2%. So why let's get into revenue and talk about what the revenue is and why it's not funding the increases. So budget to budget increase in revenue is 2,300,000 Real quick that the largest the lion's share of our revenue increase is 700,000 and that's our development related revenue with the plan of three zero five single family residential permits. So that category is going to bring in an additional 700,000 to the city.

We have an additional 300,000 for vehicle license fees. That's based on our what they do is take the population of let me back up. The the state will now take the all the vehicle license fees that are paid in the state and then it's divided out by population or pro rata share comes back to the city. So with the population increase and it's also based a certain percentage on property taxes, we're expecting a $300,000 increase in that revenue portion. And then what we're going to spend some time on is sales and use tax.

It is up $470,000 $300,000 is due to fuel. So as the fuel prices increase, we do see an increase to the revenue. And the same is true when the fuel prices are down, we see a decrease to that revenue. So here is our sales tax. We've seen this chart before.

I have broken out the fuel portion of that pie, the pie chart down off to the side. And the reason being is that fuel price is the most volatile and variable component of sales tax. The movement of fuel prices every $0.10 is a change to the general fund revenue about $22,000 So every time we see the fuel prices cheaper for the consumer lower, then actually the $0.10 impact to the general fund of $22,000 So every $0.10 drop is a reduction of revenue. In this case, we do have higher prices. The prices as you can see in February when budget was originally planned and built, we were expecting $14,100,000 in sales tax.

And that's because the fuel price was at $4.6 That was our estimated amount in February. Our April estimate has fuel prices budgeted at $6 and that's where that $300,000 increase is coming to sales tax. So what this means is as fuel prices move, so does our general fund revenue. This chart really outside of showing movement of fuel prices, again, every $0.10 is $22,000 yields $300,000 from 4.6 to $6 to the general fund. What I wanted to break out is where is the fuel prices going?

What is broken up when you pay at the pump? So you can see at the top, the light blue or the here the teal color is the Hisparius share. That's the 1%. So at $4.60 that yields about 5¢ comes back to the city or 6¢ on a $6 fuel. The federal and state both have fixed tax. Those are excise tax. So, they're guaranteed 18¢ or the state has 60¢ per gallon. So, that's what you're paying at the pump. There are variable programs. You can see at $4.60.

The variable programs, both federal and state, is about 19¢ on $4.60 a gallon or since it's variable, goes up to 25¢ a dollar. And finally, you have product sales. That's everything from crude oil all the way to refine refine it and then go into a station and people are paying for it. So that's what a $6 or $4.60 fuel works. For us, it's that top that 1% we get.

So that's the real change in revenue. It was really those three buckets of revenue that got us the $2,200,000 So now I'm going to move into expenditures in that 5,500,000 As I shared we are using reserves for one time projects. There is and it will be presented with the CIP budget. A $2,000,000 set aside for continued repair to roads due to the storm damage. That's going to be use of reserves again a one time project and we have that money in our savings account to do so.

We are using reserves for 300,000 for the development code update. This was one of council's top strategies when the strategic plan was passed. And back to the strategy number two. I'm going to spend most of the time on the number two, the operating expense $3,700,000 increase to the Schedule A or the law enforcement contract. So in November, back when we did first quarter for fiscal year twenty five, twenty six, we had a conversation that the police contract increased by $1,400,000 or anticipated to increase $1,400,000 during that year.

And that was due to labor negotiations between the shares association and the county. At that time, I provided council with an estimate of what I anticipated the fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven impact to be to the budget for a full year and we're expecting $2,700,000 increase. Unfortunately, we received a Schedule A a couple weeks ago and that increase was $3,700,000 I was off $1,000,000 And this is going to be a conversation we have several slides on this but it was due to liability insurance. Just like homeowner insurance and your vehicle insurance going up so is the liability insurance for municipalities and county. So So you can see here just in one year the general liability increased by 1,400,000 to the Schedule A.

It was obviously a greater number for the county but our share of it was 1,400,000 and that goes back to why the general fund is off 1,100,000. With that the county is assisting with the issue. They are allocating $20,000,000 to reduce that liability but that will be a single digit decrease to the Schedule A to the city. However, 1% of the schedule a change is 258,000. We found that information out today.

So we don't have a measure of how much of an increase will be. I'm guessing right around 1%. But still with the insurance market the way it is and liability insurance increasing, this is where our risk area is. So, with that, I do want to spend some time on the liability insurance. I'm going to shift to not the county but the city.

If the council recalled back in 2024, we did a review of our insurance provider, Perma. We were looking to see if there was other providers that were one, a better fit for the city and two, would it save us money? And this project was broken out into two phases. Phase one was, let's identify what our universe is and will these providers be a fit for us before we look at cost. And at that time, we found three three key facts during the study.

First, our insurance market or municipal insurance market is what they call a hard market. There's only a handful of providers that can provide the insurance needs that a city or government needs. In this case, there was four. Perma who were who we currently insure with and then there was CJPIA, Prism, and CIRA. So when we were doing Phase one we found out okay there's four entities.

During this study we learned that there's a rising risk exposure. We've heard this on the news a lot of the settlements with the wildland fires is driving those costs up as well as the ability in California to file claims and lawsuits obviously increases costs. The third item that was discovered during the study is the insurance market itself and we experienced this personally at home is expecting higher deductibles so that the government itself has taken on more of that risk. So you see increase to deductibles. Back to identifying the four potential insurance providers.

We moved on to phase two and said, okay, hey, let's look at these four providers and let's see if we could save money. And so during phase two in December, we applied to those four, well, three entities. We're we're already with PERMA and CIRA was the only one that at that time would take on the city assuming we met their their requirements. One of the requirements with a $500 zero deductible. At the time, we were a $50 zero deductible.

So, it did not make sense and so at that point, we closed phase two. And the reason I'm telling you this is in July 2026, Perma will increase the city's deductible from 50,000 to $250,000. Again, this has to do with the liability, the state of the insurance market in California. Six cities at the same time of the 32 agencies in Perma will be moving to the 250,000. So it's not just a Hisperia issue.

It is six other cities. I'm sorry, six cities total experiencing increases, three of which are going to two fifty and you can see our neighbor Barstow, Victorville as well as Norco. Banning and La Mesa are increasing from 10,000 to 125,000. So of the pool in Perma, 22% are either at or exceed 250,000 deductible. The rest of the pool is made up of small agencies such as BBTA.

So it's usually special districts and they have a lower deductible threshold. Larger cities are at the two fifty rate. So what does that impact to Hesperia? One, starting July 1, we'll we'll take on more risk because of that deductible. Meaning, that we have to pay up to that $2.50 before the insurance kicks in whereas before it was 50,000.

So the responsibility and the risk shift is to the city. However, our premium did drop. An exercise was done to look to say, hey, look, if we kept it at 50,000, again, we don't have that choice. But I was curious to know what the impact would be. And if it was at 50,000, our annual insurance payment would be $1,600,000 It has lowered to $1,000,000 with the $250,000 deductible.

Looking back and reviewing the previous study and what the information I just shared, Perma even with the increase is still more viable than CIRA who with a $500,000 deductible in 2024. We don't know what that market would be today assuming the insurance increase and it would just increase. But there's still permit still is the best fit and the only fit for the city. The reason I'm bringing this up is insurance is going to be a topic and an impact to the general fund each year. Moving forward, we'll we'll have this conversation and that's why I wanted to talk about it and it comes timely with the Schedule A where we experienced the increase of $1,400,000 of liability from the county.

So now sharing this slide again, we covered the information how did we get here on the $1,100,000 It really is due to the liability insurance of the Schedule A. I do want to point out that the cash reserve is still five point six months. It is dropping from 6.2 or 6.7 at the revised, but it is five point six months. Also our policy is two months reserve. So we're still better than the policy but our operating expenditures is not matching the operating expenditure I'm sorry, operating revenue is not matching the operating expenditures at this point.

So on that somber note, I'll move to the water operating listeners questions. The water operating is balanced. It does have a positive $57,000 surplus. You can see the water operating budget and expenditures have decreased from $25.26 to $26.27 and that's because of all the ARPA projects are completed. And now we're just back to a rollover budget.

Also in this budget, we are putting in our savings account $1,400,000 for water rights should they come up to the market. So we're building that cash reserve. And you can see the cash reserve is growing from three point three months to six months and that's because of that set aside for the $1,400,000 The $1,400,000 was identified in the 2017 rate study as a savings if we were to go out and finance for water rights. Well, we there was no opportunity to finance. However, I took that plan or we took that plan debt service and put it in a savings account in case that opportunity comes so we can self fund any purchase of water rights.

Sewer operating, similar story as water operating. It is revenues and expenditures are decreasing. That's because of the ARPA projects are completed. It is essentially a rollover budget. One thing I would like to note is you can see the month's cash is decreasing because we're using operating cash to balance the budget and that was planned in the 2017 water rate study.

At the time it had I want to say sixty to seventy months cash reserve and so there was a plan by council to use that cash reserve down to to limit the rate increase. However, you can see we're we're in single digit month's cash. So, during 2526, a water rate study was commissioned. We're completing that and that will be back in front of council for discussion and consideration and one of the areas that it's going to be looking at is the sewer fund. But as of right now, it's proceeding as planned and it's balanced using the cash reserves as counsel allocated in that 2017 study.

Streets operating, we're balanced as a rollover budget. Again, the big increase here in April 2026, the council approved the Vision Zero study, which was grant funded. So you can see that we have highlighted here the Vision Zero grant coming in. It will be a multi year grant. This is just half of the grant and expenditures are up about the same amount due to that grant.

So here this is a recap. Looking at the council's top 11 priorities, we have five priorities that were identified in this budget and I'll just run through them real quick. Number two, as I shared, there is the development code update that was priority number two, three hundred thousand is use of reserves in the general fund to meet this priority. Number three is the development economic development strategy and action plan that will be completed into council for discussion in the next quarter or next fiscal year. Number six, conduct regular assessments of the city approved fee schedule and that's going to be the completion of the water rate study for discussion.

Number nine is the yearly check-in with council. So we've had several check ins with the budget this being one of them. And number 11 was update city master plans with the Vision Zero plan and the water rate and sewer master plans are in the budget that we will be working towards completing that strategy. So next steps, we'll have a budget workshop two. This will be a public hearing to discuss positions. It's required by AB2561 and it'll be a discussion of vacancies as well as positions coming into the next year's budget. And with that, that concludes my presentation. I can answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Casey. Council Member Greg.

All right, thank you. Schedule A, so I just want to touch base on that because a lot of folks don't realize that yes, although we're increasing the expenditure to the Schedule A, that doesn't include additional services. The fine folks in the back provide us. What I'm curious about, Casey, is where does that put us on that percentage that the council set years ago from the general fund? And can you refresh all of our memory on what that percentage It

has changed. It's a rolling average, a three year average to ensure that the schedule doesn't exceed 53%. I don't have that percentage right in front of me. But given it's a rolling average, I can what I'll do is I'll have that to the next budget workshop and we'll have that average so we can look at where the schedule is and how it compares to the three year audited average.

So looking at that number, if it is 53% at the 25,000,000 there, that's around 43%. So we should have

It should it should be fine. I I just I'll I'll show that calculation into the second workshop so we can see it. But you're correct. It it should it should be fine. But, again, we're still developing the budget, I'll I'll give you an accurate number.

Yeah. Well, what I'm curious about is what the additional percentage left over is to where we can actually allocate that to law enforcement to hire additional staff members or new deputies or anything like that. If we're falling short of that 53%, I want to use that because that's been close to the running average, if I'm not mistaken. I think we're falling short.

Yes. To not exceed 53%. So it ensures that it will not exceed. So at this time, it was, let's say, 10%, you're not exceeding the 53%. But the one thing I will let me go back a couple of slides here.

Any change to law enforcement will increase the negative balance, thereby using your reserves to fund operations, which the other policy is your operating revenues and your operating expenditures should not fund your ongoing operations. So if any increase to police beyond, well, even including this, we'll increase the deficit and you would be that deficit spending even more.

I know that this is the time to bring it up.

Sure, absolutely.

I I would like to see that number push closer to the 53% not to exceed amount if we're able to. We know that law enforcement is needed within our community. We know that they're short handed. So, this is the time to have that conversation. If we're falling short down into the 43% range, I think it's a good topic that we can have for discussion to actually push that number up even closer to 50% would be pretty substantial to the folks in the back, I believe.

I'll have that calculation and then what we can do to what the discussion is what the deficit spending would be required to do to meet that 53%. We can have a slide on that in a second workshop.

Thank you, Casey. Any other council comments? I I we are feeling the squeeze of the insurance companies too. I don't know if everyone is familiar. The SIR is basically our deductible.

So every time there is a lawsuit claim filed, the city now is responsible for $250,000, and then the insurance will pick it pick up the $250,001. So we're feeling the squeeze of that. I think we're not a large city. 50 to $250,000 is a huge hit. So I'm glad that at least they lowered the premium to balance it out somewhat, but we're feeling the squeeze of that as well.

We had when we were doing the pallets and the insurance, the concerns with the insurance companies, we too are feeling it. And, also, the cities go through self insured or insured through self insured pools to save money and also to obtain insurance. They consider us a high high risk entity. So do we have any additional comments?

Yes. I just want to say to city staff for many years of figuring out how to pay our bills with a very, very little amount of money, thank you. And to all the staff that has come before you, thank you. And all the staff that has retired and or gone on to other places. It's not easy to cut a dollar the way you cut it, four ways, 10 ways. We have

to do

something. And these prices are only going to continue to go up, and we're not going to be able to cover our bills. Running a city, like running a family budget. You sit down at your kitchen table, and a very wise person once told me, we're not broke, we're poor. And that should sit in.

And as a working poor person who makes well under $100,000 a year and lives paycheck to paycheck, I know what it's like to take a dollar and make it stretch. And that's what the city has done. We have got we have been as creative as we can be with our dollars. There is no more room for creativity, and we have to start taking accountability as leaders, as citizens of our city to do what's in the best interest of our future, our present because the people that we're leaving this all to are going to inherit our mistakes. So we need to do the right thing.

I see everything moving in the negative. And if it wasn't for gas prices being so high right now, we wouldn't be where we're at. So we need to take that into account. Gas prices will go down eventually, considerably, and we're not going to be in a good place. So thank you. Thank you for this presentation. It was stark. It was sobering, and we're going to do what we can.

Thank you. Moving on to council committee reports and comments. Would you start us off, please, Councilmember Lee?

Thank you, Mayor Bennington. I attended the open house at the Newcastle warehouse, on 04:30, and I hope that we get a tenant in there quickly. We had a lot of city presence there, which was really nice to see. Tomorrow was VMI. And please do not forget to celebrate your mothers on May 10.

For those of you that still have a mother around, It's very, very, very important holiday for me. My beautiful granddaughter is turning 17 years old in the next couple weeks. Oh my gosh. How can that be? Happy Cinco de Mayo to everybody for today. I do want to say our staff is fabulous. You guys, Ryan, your team, Casey, your team, you guys have done a great, great job on this enormous agenda that we've had. So thank you all for your hard work. I really, really appreciate it. And, that's all I've got.

And thanks to the folks in the back. Definitely appreciate you guys. And that's all I've got. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Gregg, please.

Alright. Thank you, Bridget. First, I'd like to request that we place on the next, meeting agenda an update from Hesperia Recreation and Park District regarding the Valshare Arena. What's taking so long over there? My the community members for that really did speak.

It it is our property. We should show a vested interest in into what's happening down there. I hope that all the the questions were answered regarding the the Maple Basin and the safety concerns for the home homeless encampment. I'll get that information as well so that we know the the location of that encampment, and we can take a look as to see what we can do as from a council perspective. I wanna remind folks on the National Day of Prayer on Thursday at twelve.

That's great. Mother's Day, the tenth, Sunday. Gentlemen, don't forget your moms. So other than that, I don't have any other meetings or committees coming up to speak to. Folks, Get to where you're going safely. Drive careful. Stop making it difficult for our folks in the back. We already know that they're stretched thin. We see that now during budget time more than ever. So thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Ochoa.

Thank you Mayor. I just want to say I owe our staff again an apology. Last council meeting I did not say thank you for the Monday municipal mile, which was well attended even on the windy days and, just thank you for, making my vision for that come true, and what we're excited to see that. I will be traveling this week, representing the City of Hesperia, at the, annual SCAG conference. And I also was looking at this flyer here, a free workshop with the City of Hispani with

the

Fair Housing Foundation on June 16. I really I know that we had that call in but I encourage everyone to attend or share the word. Housing in our area is a top priority for me, making sure that there's fair and affordable housing throughout our area so that everyone has a share in the American dream. And that's all I have when I yield back.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tempoland.

Thank you, mayor. Let's see. Over the last couple of weeks, I had my standard SBCTA meetings. I went to Sacramento with the mayor and Rachel, our city manager. They both did a great job advocating on behalf of the city. I also attended, the Hesperia High School Performing Arts Center. They had their first musical there, the high school did. It was really, really well done. The kids there did a great job. I attended a Relay for Life in Barstow, and happy Mother's Day to not only your moms, but your wives also. I forgot your wife, Cameron. End of report.

Thank you. I just wanna compliment the fire for the ESA program, the drones. I'm very excited that, that's cool. It'll save money, injuries, and missed calls that are going out for a smoke a smoke only fire. So that'd be kinda cool, hint, hint, wink, wink, we could get one to go over and, bust some of our abusers of illegal fireworks.

So maybe in the future, we will ask for that. I had the MDA QMD meeting. I did the in person coffee break, and the this Thursday is the National Day of Prayer. I'm looking forward to that. And then also the Zoom chamber update.

So I have that going on. I would like to I know Tammy, you're gonna be so mad at me right now, but Tammy's birthday is this week. And then also my son Curtis and my grandson Isaac, so we have a lot of April birthdays I mean, May birthdays. And then I just wanna thank our staff. Thank you to police and fire, public works, our animal control, and our code enforcement, and Rachel and her staff.

You guys all do an amazing job, and I just appreciate everything you do and everything that you're working to bring into our city, new businesses, industrial buildings. And I'm really excited to be part of this, moving forward with these projects, and I'd like to thank my council members. I think we are in a great place. We work very well together. Happy happy Mother's Day. My mom it's her eighty ninth. Well, not '89. Okay. I'm not gonna say what Mother's Day it is, but she's 89 because then I'll be disclosing my age. But I just wanna wish happy Mother's Day to all the moms and also Grammys and everybody else.

So I have nothing further. Do we have any city attorney or city manager reports? Thank you. Thank you for everyone that attended tonight, and we will adjourn the meeting at 08:11. Thank you. Take my notes.