City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, and welcome to the May 19 City of Hesperia council meeting. I'm going to call the meeting to order at 06:30. Our invocation will be done by pastor Jack Johnson from Grace Grace Christian Church. And mayor Patam Poland, will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance?

Come before the you. We, Lord, we ask to continue to bless this great city of Asperia. Bless the mayor, the city council, all of those who are in authority, the police, the firemen, and all those in attendance. Lord, we come because we ask that all things be done in decency and order. And, we ask that you have your way. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Can we have a roll call, please?

Mayor Bennington? Here. Mayor Pro Tempullen?

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?

There are no revisions this evening.

Thank you. Do we have any closed session reports?

Thank you Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. We did discuss session one item of real property negotiations. No reportable action was taken at that time.

Thank you. Moving on to general public comment.

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 item 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. Kim Jones?

Thing you folks sent in the mail about your tax increase, the survey. It don't have anything on there that I'm interested in. That's animal control. You know, I don't wanna see any more of them animals getting killed and such. And I always wondered about how much it cost to mail them papers out.

Did it come like out of general fund or, you know, where you got the money or what, you know, where she took the money out of to print them things. There had to be a whole slew of them. And I wondered about the whole survey thing that you had that hearing or whatever here a while back or that guy on that thing there, and I wondered why he didn't come to council meeting. He talking to you across, you know, over that video thing. But where in the world did they get all them people they said they interviewed?

You know, how do they choose the people? Where do they get the names in the ages and the ethnic background and, I don't know, the political background or whatever? Where'd y'all get all the information, you know, to to these people, you know, to contact these people? I'd like to know that. You know, I was kinda wondering about that. And what was it? 666 people, EV carrier or something, if I remember right? And I'm like, where'd you get this information? You know? But this paper, I gotta tell you right off, I ain't I don't wanna vote for I'm not gonna vote for it.

I'm no. I've been having a lot of financial. A lot of folks, you don't understand what it is being on Social Security. I mean, it is not easy. My property taxes, I'm late on doing that because I had plumbing problem. My truck went. You know? And that took all my money. And now I'm eating beans and rice, and that's gonna be there until the next month too, you know, to get all the bills caught up. So I'm like, I don't care if it is 1p or something on the dollar. I pick pennies up off the ground. Y'all don't know what that's like. But I appreciate your time. Thank you.

I've lost my speaker list. Yeah. Thank you. Melanie Melanie Lloyd, please.

Hi. I'm here to talk about Hisperia Lakes. I know you guys can't talk about it, and I do understand that it's a different entity than what you guys would like parks and rec. But we've gone to meetings. We have begged them. Like, let's put it on the agenda, and they tell us it's the Brown Act. I don't know if you guys can give us a way that we can get it on the agenda to get them to talk to us. If you guys can be like, hey. It is our property. Why is the equestrian center still closed? They first told us that it was because of there was a safety hazard. We told them they didn't have money to fix it. We told them, let the equestrian community come together. We will fix it. And then it wound up not being that.

Like, every single time we say something, they it it's just another thing and then now all the faucets are locked and so it's barricaded. I have kids. They're homeschooled. That equestrian center is everything to us. We go down. We picnic. We ride. We ride in the riverbed. It's an all day thing for not just us but our friends. So we're just asking you guys if there's anything that you can do to help us to get it going. If you can tell us how to get it on the agenda like we're just trying to go up the chain of command since they are not helping us. I'm telling you I've gone to four meetings. I work nights. I take time off. I go there. I try and get their attention. The general manager, he'll have his back to us. You know? Like, we just we feel like we're not being taken serious, so we're coming to you guys as a city. You guys own the property.

Help us help these kids. Like my daughter, she'll talk later. She was life lighted. Her one thing was to go and represent the city of Hesperia and the community being a queen in your rodeo. She rode in your parade. Like, she loves it so much. It teaches her so much responsibility, and it's just it's heartbreaking to hear her. Like, when can I go ride there? We can't trail ride. Like, I don't have enough property for her to practice. That's where we practice. I now haul all the way out to Lucerne Valley so that she has an open area to ride. That's hard for me. So I'm just asking for your guys' help. Anything that you can do to help us tell us, like, even on the side, like, this is how you get it on an agenda, anything. Any help that we can get is greatly appreciated.

Thank you. Bristol Lloyd, please.

Hello. My name is Bristol Lloyd. I'm 11 years old. I know you can't address his very legs, but I wanted to come speak tonight because horses in Balshee Arena mean a lot to me and a lot of other kids too. I work really hard to make sure my schoolwork and chores are done so I can ride and practice there.

I'm homeschooled, horse shows and gym cannas are also where I get to see my friends and spend a lot of time with other kids who love horses like I do. Earlier this year, I was starting for my horse and got really hurt. I worked really hard to get better because I didn't want to give up riding, and I kept hoping the arena would open again by the time I was cleared to ride. One of the reasons I fought so hard to recover quickly is because I wanted to track for a Spear Wrangler's Queens team and hopefully represent the city city of Hesperia and be a role model to other kids. The Equestrian Center is more than just a place to ride horses.

It is a place where kids learn responsibility, confidence, teamwork, and make friendships. It gives us something positive to do and keeps us active and outdoors. Riding has taught me to work hard and be responsible, and I make sure my school my chores and schoolwork are done before I get to ride. I keep asking the adults in my life, when is the arena going to open? And they always tell me they don't know. I wanted to come asking myself when is it going to open and why is it opening? Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you. Pastor Paul Jones, please.

Good evening, mayor, and to the city council. God bless each and every one of you. My name is pastor Paul Jones. I have a church called Independent Trinity. Also have a resource center. It's called Benjamin e Jones Community Resource Center. Just wanna talk about it just a little bit. We've been serving Hesperia over ten years. I had to go back to find out how long we have been serving Hesperia. Our first event up here was when Cedar Middle School had their ten year reunion.

We were putting on a job fair and the principal asked me could she join our job fair with their ten year reunion. We was more than happy because we thought we would have more people that would network there and it was. We had over 500 kids and everything. It was fantastic. We left the next year and we went to Oak Hill High School with mister Capps. We put on a resource fair there. We had a lot of stars to come out. Virgil Gibson of the Platters came out, sung acapella. Miss Swanson was dancing with with Virgil. We won't talk about mister Swanson, but anyhow.

But it was awesome. We had over 15 people that came 1,500 people that came out to that event. So we've been serving his spirit for a long, long time. Amen. I just wanna talk about one of the things that we just started doing. To the lady that says that she'll be eating beans and rice, no, sweetheart, no, you won't. We have networked with the senior center up here, and we will start a food program every second Wednesday of the month. Okay? And this is for seniors. I kinda noticed that it's not too much going on with seniors.

Well, guess what? We bring in some stuff that's gonna happen for the seniors. Okay? We're gonna try to start next Wednesday just to start, to find out what is needed in Hesperia, and then every second Wednesday of the month, we've already been cleared. The food bank, we got the food. We got everything. Everything is ready to go. I'm so excited about doing it. My statement today is y'all come out and see us. Come check us out at least one time. Okay? I guarantee you. And and whatever you do, just like I tell everybody in San Bernardino, don't come out dressed up. Come dressed down. We're have some homeless people there too. We're gonna have seniors there too. We're gonna have a lot of people there too. And come dressed down and then help us out. God bless you.

The name of his program? Pastor Paul?

Pastor Jones? We have a couple questions for you I for

do apologize.

That's okay. They were both talking.

Yes. Go ahead, Ellen. Sir.

I'd like to know what the address is and when is the food bank?

The the food giveaway is every second Wednesday of the month. The address is 9922, I think it is, 3rd Street. If you go down if you go down Main Street and you go south on 3rd Street, it's the senior center

Okay.

There on on yes. Okay? We'll be there from we pick up the food at 08:00 in the morning. We get up here by nine. We should be ready to go by 09:30 every second Wednesday of the month.

And what is the name of your organization?

Benjamin e Jones Community Resource Center. I named it after my father. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you for that.

Thank you.

Tim Moustakis.

Hi, guys. Madam, counsel, thank you guys for listening. We had to bring the cuteness factor tonight. So you guys have always been very supportive of of the wranglers. So I do appreciate anything and everything you guys can do for us, whether it's backdoor phone calls, whatever. However, it can get done. Again, know that we're here to try to make the city look good. That's the whole idea of the wranglers is for that equestrian area and community outreach. So, again, thank you for everything you guys do. Alright?

Thank you. Al Vogler, please.

Good

evening, counsel. I'm Al Vogler. I received your polling mailer and understand now that the $217,000 expenditure to consultants was not all. How many mailers went out and at what cost for the exorbitant large fold out format? The city of Hesperia, the consultants CivicX and True North Research have failed to answer certain polling questions, hiding instead behind the concept of proprietary.

We want to know how many consultant surveys were sent and to what hand selected populations they went. Over 217,000 spent and taxpayers are not privy to the methodology. Why would the city spend more money when they already have the results of a survey? Fiscal accountability from your mailer, all funds stay local. Yes, but since they are general funds, there is no promise on how the money will be spent.

We have requested a list specifying projects to be completed and we have not received answers. If approved by voters, would provide 15,000,000 annually to fix potholes and pave city streets. Very deceptive. Pave streets only if approved by the council. If passed, the city would receive approximately 28,000,000 annually plus suspected cost of living increases.

Not much of the money from sales tax comes from visitors who don't live here. Some, but not much. Hesperia feels that since other cities have a higher sales tax that we should also tax voters more. Clearly, the city council wants the double sales tax to pass. However, they are supposed to be neutral regarding the tax. The mailer is not neutral. Consider this. Research shows that five streets will be targeted for work. Maple, Oakwood, Cottonwood, 7th Street, and Live Oak. Each of these streets are in voting Districts 23, and 4, and each district will have an incumbent running in the November twenty twenty six election.

Coincidence? One Street, Maple, will cost $6,000,000 approximately for three plus miles. And, in the city's mailer, it is stated 489 mile 498 miles of streets are maintained by the city. On what date will the city council meet to vote if the sales tax issue will be on the ballot? How much money will the ballot issue cost?

It is calculated that an average family in Hesperia will pay another $250 to $500 a year if the double tax is passed. Hesperia, please stop spending money on real estate and other unnecessary pursuits. I thank you.

Do we have any additional public comment cards? We do not. Thank you. Moving on to our joint consent calendar. Do I have a motion to move the consent calendar?

I have a first by council member Choe, a second by mayor Pattem Pullen. Can we have a vote vote, please? The item passes by five zero. Thank you. Moving on to agenda item seven, our budget public hearing and our second workshop. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and council. Tonight, we have our second budget workshop and also we are gonna be talking about AB two five six one. That's our vacancy and recruitment efforts. That's part of the public hearing. So you can see I have Rita Perez here. She's our deputy HR and IT director. She's gonna be talking about the positions and recruitment or I'm sorry, vacancies and recruitment, and I'm gonna finish up the budget workshop. So I already talked about the agenda. We're gonna go through the workshop. The focus tonight is the general fund and what changed there as well as continue the conversation of the financial policy on the police balancing per, per the budget.

And then Rita will take over for the AB two five six one. So this slide is a comparison of the budget workshop one general fund and then where we are today. You can see that the deficit of $1,100,000 has decreased to a negative $527,000 And so that's where we're at today. This what I'll get into is coming from the schedule a. The county did go through.

In fact, let me advance this slide. The county went through as I shared in the last budget workshop was looking at prepaying the liability, and bonding insurance and that would create a savings and then pass that savings on to the contract cities. That did occur. It did pass the savings on to the good partners to the city in a tune of 491,000 roughly about 2% of the Schedule A reduction. So you can see I'm going to advance back up.

You can see that 500,000 is what the reduction is to the general fund. So at this point, this is where the budget is. Let me come back up. The other funds, your streets fund and water operating funds, there was no change from our last discussion. This, the general fund will be presented with negative 527,000.

This will be balanced with the use of reserves. You can see the cash balance is actually better than it was at budget workshop one at five point seven months. The council policy as well as the recommended amount is two months. So we're still above the council policy and we're still above the recommended from GFOA of two months, cash reserves were at 5.7. It is an area that the city will be monitoring because this negative amount does mean that operating revenue or operating expenditures rather is exceeding operating revenue.

So it is an item that we're looking at but it doesn't impact cash at this point and we will be having a discussion obviously in June when we present the budget to the City Council but again at first quarter and mid year seeing if our projections are holding and what it looks like. So now moving on to the financial policies specifically looking at police. I had it's a long policy. I broke out three key areas of the financial policy. First is the methodology.

In the annual resolution of the financial policy, it states that the police department budget, which is about 98% of that schedule eight amount we just talked about, shall not exceed 53% of the three year average audited general fund budget. The second point is there are a carves out carve outs from that audited balance, and we remove out transfers to other funds, debt service, or capital outlay. The reason we remove those out is one time in nature, so you you wouldn't wanna have that in the average and spike the average. And then the last, portion of the policy is should the amount exceed 53%, the city manager is authorized, by the city council to negotiate with the, the county to bring the police, formula back down to 53%. And we're not recommending that tonight, but we did run the the formula per the financial policy.

You can see our actual general fund budget that's coming from the audit verified by the auditors. The three year average is 42,145. We took the formula carve outs of the debt service and capital outlay. Those are those one time costs to create an adjusted gross. That adjusted gross is balanced against the Schedule A of 20 or the police budget rather $26,000,000 And you can see that per the council policy we're at 62%.

So we do exceed the 53% that the policy shows. So I just wanted to show that amount that we are actually exceeding where we should be. We're not recommending any changes, but we're not under that 53%. So before I turn it over to Rita, first I want to make sure, see if there's any questions on the budget. Also looking forward the next steps is we will have the proposed budget to, presented to counsel at the first meeting of June.

We'll go through a detailed CIP budget the second meeting in June. We'll outline all the projects, public works and myself will be up here discussing that budget. And then the last item is by Friday, we will have the budget to the city council, the draft budget to city council. I know that's important to read over the Memorial Day weekend. So we're working towards that. So before I had to hand it over to Rita, just wanted to see if there's any questions I can answer on the numbers and then Rita will be talking about the positions.

All right. Casey, not necessarily a question but a comment to this. Would we be able to add into the yearly budget that we're informed of where that number lies every year, the 62% for this year for the schedule A for the police because I don't think we actually went over that in-depth or seen that in front of us during the last budget to actually put that number to us.

Make sure I understand. Can you repeat it? I'm sorry. Can we have

this percentage of the general fund versus the Schedule A put into the slides year over year because these weren't in there last year.

Absolutely, absolutely. I'll include it going forward, I'll include it in the first budget workshop when we're talking with general fund and then we can include it with the operating the first meeting in June so we can see that we're maintaining this percentage absolutely. Do

we have any further questions? Thank you.

So now I'm going to turn it over to Rita who's going to handle the AB2561 discussion.

Good evening. I'm here to discuss the AB2561 requirements. In 02/2025, sorry 2025, the cities were required to have a public hearing for each fiscal year at least once each fiscal year prior to a budget adoption to review and provide status information on job vacancies, recruitment efforts, and retention efforts. In addition to the requirements, it also allows employee organization to participate during this public hearing and if there's specific reporting requirements for high vacancy rates. And those high vacancy rates have to be 20% or above.

Fortunately for the city, our vacancy rate for 2025 is not 20% or above. It is averaging together 5.2%. For represented employees, it is coming in at 5% and for non represented employees, it's 6.5%. Your non represented employees does not include at wills that work directly for the city manager such as the veterinarian or director of public works nor your part time employees. So this is strictly our full time staff.

Currently in 2026, I am highlighting 2025, but currently at 2026, we are right now with 15 vacancies. Six of those vacancies have offers already made to date, and so they should we anticipate their hire date by June 30. And the nine vacancies that were reported on the staff report include four that are in the interview phase, one that is currently accepting applications, and four that is in the review freight phase of the recruitment. So each time there's a vacancy status, we review these recruitments, and we review the position and we're looking at the job description, advertisement, and a strategic placement for openings and closing of this position. Oh, lastly, I wanted to point out that these nine vacant positions are averaging forty days to be filled.

So in 2025, our average time calendar days to be filled a position of open and competitive position is ninety one days. We filled 74 positions in 2025. In 2026, we are we have filled 16 positions and we're yes, we are averaging the calendar days at a 129. However, that just includes four months, the first four months of of the calendar year. It also includes a couple strategic reviews of recruitments.

These reviews of recruitments include strategically opening challenging positions where we don't open, say, a senior accountant. We wanna look at the timing of when we open it. We also made a decision to hold off on opening a a personnel technician position that was vacant because we had hired an HR program manager and we wanted them to build their team and so we delayed the opening of that. The position is now filled, but it does go into our recruitment average number of calendar days. It does extend it out because the calendar starts counting the once the position is vacated, we start counting that position until the position is filled.

We do anticipate that this number as we include the rest of the eight months of the calendar year will trend down. The reviews of positions as I stated entail a strategic placement of recruitment. We look at our onboarding needs as well. We're also looking at career fairs and making sure our advertisement is specific to our targeted applicant audience. So we are attending community career fairs to make sure that we have involvement with those specific targeted audiences.

We also are maximizing our NeoGov system. Our NeoGov system is our online application system where we're using that specifically to target applicants who have specific skills that we're looking for. So in addition to recruitment efforts, we need to talk about our retention efforts in order to maintain our workforce. We always have the challenge of our location and since we can't move the city of Hesperia, we're looking at other ways to maintain our workforce. And one of those is through the onboarding process where we are streamlining our recruitment process through the NeoGov system where we've included the process of not just the online application and the recruitment tool, but also going into the pre boarding and the offer is all made through NeoGov including the orientation that we start with once they're a new hire.

And so the applicants can maintain knowledge of where they are in every step of the process in real time. We're also, as I stated, continuing to maximize NeoGov by using it for orientation process. We revamped our orientation process to include multi day orientation process. One of those days does include reviewing policies and procedures through NeoGov, which is all through an online system. And then we're also making sure that our new hires are prepared to hit the ground running and continue to acquaint themselves with the position by assigning specific training to these positions so that they're well equipped to start learning the skills that they need for their new position.

In addition to that, we're also including with the city manager's welcome, we have it includes a city tour of the community to show what the area that they're currently serving. To maintain our current workforce, we're also looking at training for our current staff, which we've included not just professional development schedule, but we're also looking at well-being, physical and financial as well. And this concludes my presentation on our AB2561 requirements. Are there any questions?

Thank you. This is a public hearing item. I will open up the public hearing at 07:01. Do we have any public comment cards regarding this item?

No. We do not.

Thank you. Great job, Rita. Great job. I will close the public hearing at 07:02. And do we have any council comments?

Hearing none. Thank you. It's a receive and file for the budget. Great job, Rita. Moving on to new business.

Discussion on residency requirements for candidates running for city council and it's being presented by city attorney Pam Lee.

Thank you mayor and members of the council. Last month there was a request to bring this item back to the council for consideration and discussion. And basically, the request was to determine whether or not there is a residency requirement or if the city can establish a residency requirement prior to running for elected office, such as the city council. And basically, the California courts have determined that anything beyond a thirty day residency requirement is unconstitutional as it potentially violates the equal protection clause of the California and The U. S.

Constitutions. And so, to the extent that there is any residency requirement to live in a location of the city or district that exceeds thirty days, that has been struck down in other cities as being invalid. The city doesn't currently have a residency requirement. It's presumed that you are required to be a resident of the district in which you're going to run for office for a local election. But the code for Hesperia doesn't currently have residency requirement such as the thirty day one.

So that's one option the city can entertain whether or not you'd want to adopt an ordinance requiring a thirty day residency requirement prior to filing nomination papers. The other option is to include as part of a policy or a resolution requiring that candidates can submit verified documentation for their residency and potentially continue to do so for maintaining their office, whether it's once a year or once every two years or once every six months. That does happen, although it's not very often. But that can be included as a policy or a resolution if the council so desires. They're not mutually exclusive.

You don't have to do an ordinance for a thirty day requirement or, you know, a verification check. You can do one or the other or both. So that's basically my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any further questions you have.

We do have a public comment card regarding this. Robert Davy, please.

Good evening, mayor Bennington and council. I wanted to speak tonight regarding the discussion about the residency requirements candidates moving into districts immediately before running for office. I understand the city of Hesperia is likely limited by California state law as a general law city and current law probably does not allow the city to impose longer residency requirements for council candidates. I recognize that reality. I'm not asking the city to violate state law.

However, I do believe there's a legitimate public policy concern here that deserves discussion. If the purpose of district elections is neighborhood representation and giving residents of a district their own voice, then allowing political insiders to simply relocate candidates into a district at the last minute undermines the spirit of district based representation. The purpose of district elections is supposed to be local representation, people who truly know and live in neighborhoods they seek to represent. So as many of you know, I am running for city council in District 4, and I've lived in Hesperia for twenty nine years, and twenty three were in District 4. Pardon me.

Got a lot going on right now. I know I know the neighborhoods, the traffic concerns, the public safety issues, and the day to day realities faced in residence because of the community has been my home for nearly three decades. My desire to serve is about political strategy. It's about wanting to improve the quality of life in his area and being a genuine voice for the people who live in the district every day. When candidates can simply move into a district immediately before filing, it creates appearance that districts are being manipulated for political convenience rather than genuine representation.

Public trust does matter, and perception matters. California did not originally require cities like Hesperia to adopt district elections. Many cities moved to district systems because of concerns of the California Voting Rights Act and legal pressures associated with that large elections. So if we are going to maintain a district based system, I believe residents reasonably expect those districts to reflect authentic community ties and genuine neighborhood representation. So, again, I understand.

I may not have the authority under state law to change these requirements locally, but I do think it's appropriate to acknowledge the concern and perhaps incurring state legislators to revisit the issue for general law cities in the future. So I think it's it kinda undermines having the district if we're gonna have districts, if we're gonna manipulate and just move council, candidates into, districts at the last minute. So it's a good point that you brought up. Thank you, Cameron, for doing that.

Thank you. Do we have any additional public comment cards? We do not. Thank you. Do we have any council comments?

Yes, madam mayor. I wanna speak to this. For for those who've been up here on this council for for quite a while now, we've seen how the bad actors come into the city and start to influence the residents of our our city without even living here. It's really a dangerous gamut. At at this point, seeing that, you know, we can't really have faith in the the state legal system on this, it's really up to informing your neighbors of what those instances are.

If you have somebody that moves into a district, I guess that's really our our only avenue. Whenever you have instances that that took place down in Arcadia, how as a city are we supposed to mitigate factors like that? I mean, recent during the last elections, there was a a felon and stuff like that running for a different city. How do you mitigate those? Well, I guess I guess it's the state's not gonna help us with that, so it's really gonna be about informing our neighbors, our colleagues, and holding those people accountable that are sitting up here on this dais.

So I would just express that information to the people that do come after us up here. Hold your representatives accountable, hold each other accountable to make sure that we're doing what's in the best interest for all the residents.

Thank you. Do we have any additional council comments? Hearing none, that was Okay. Thank re you.

I think that this presents a question as to why this hasn't been addressed in previous years prior. I think speaking to public perception, waiting five months before an election is going to happen to change election rules is not the appropriate time to change election rules. It would be after the election. We've had the opportunity last year to do this and address this, which would have been an appropriate time to address changes at the council level. As someone who is a felon and has served this time and paid his debt to society and has done everything possible to grow as a person and serve their community, I don't think that being a felon is a negative aspect of someone's character if they've learned from their mistakes.

I serve my community here as a community health worker. I've been enshrined in the community for the last six years since I've lived here. I worked with Haysperia Unified School District as a COVID tester, keeping schools open. So I think that if a person believes that they've changed, they can represent the area that they live in. That being the case, I mean, we have the example of our commander in chief of our nation who is a felon and who is serving in his office, in his capacity, and doesn't seem to hinder him in his day to day duties.

That being the case, I understand your concern as to moving in people who are never lived in the district. That is concerning, But that's something that so close to an election, we should be mindful of the public perception of us trying to undermine opponents, because that could come back and backfire on it, and to that, a yield.

Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak on this? Thank you. Moving on to council committee reports and comments. Council Member Ochoa, will you start us off, please?

Yes. Thank you. I had a very productive month. I think I've been kind of quiet. This might be the Ochoa hour this time around.

We started the month off on the seventh going to represent SCAG at the SCAG conference as Hesperia's delegate and being able to attend a lot of really awesome conferences, learning about power that we desperately need in our region to power our homes, power our businesses, building really good community partnerships. I had really great conversations with the city of Adelanto working and what we're going to be doing on working together to amplifying our region. Mayor, everyone's favorite MVP, Mayor, the Vice Mayor of Adelanto is really involved and he is encouraging me to get involved as well. So that was very I felt very supported. Think that we're going to do great work with SCAG.

Also, as you know, all went to this County Cities Conference which was a lot of fun and I'll leave it at that. And, but we did learn a lot. There was a lot on AI conferences, AI technology and I got to see a lot of the really cool things that our fire department is doing. You guys have a lot of cool toys. I won't go there.

But tonight, I'm going to bring something up for conversation here. I respectfully request our counsel agendaize and at a future hearing a resolution that was passed in 2016, Resolution No. 20 sixteen-five entitled a resolution of the City Council of the city of Hesperia declaring opposition to the relocation of refugees from The United States refugee resettlement program in the city of Hesperia. This request is rooted in concerns regarding civil rights, community trust, and the long term reputation of the city of Hisperia. While the resolution was adopted during a period of heightened social anxiety, its continued existence sends a message that may be interpreted as exclusionary towards refugees, immigrants, and individuals based on national origin.

Although largely symbolic, such resolutions contribute to perceptions of discrimination and undermine the public trust in local government. We are committed to fairness and inclusion and equal treatment under the law. It's the responsibility of us as city officials to deliver that to our citizens. Federal immigration and refugee policies are governed primarily by the federal government, and local actions perceived as targeting refugee populations can create reputational and legal concerns that I find concerning, particularly in relation to equal protection under the law, fair housing, and civil rights protections. Maintaining this resolution also risks portraying the city as unwelcoming, which may negatively impact our economic development, the opportunities that we have and are working towards as a city, partnerships with nonprofits, our workforce creation, and grant competitiveness.

Rescinding and renouncing this resolution would not diminish public safety or any concerns therein or erase policy disagreements from the past. Rather, it would reaffirm while respecting the constitutional principles upon which this nation was built. Because I asked the question, and it's very simple, where does this mentality end? It was Syrian refugees yesterday, it's Mexican immigrants today, but who tomorrow? Archaic local actions can have serious consequences for generations to come.

So let us address the sins of our fathers and make right any action that could shed negative light on the Hisperia that we leave to our children and our posterity for generations to come. As Ronald Reagan once said, Anyone from any corner of the earth can come to live in America and become an American. Likewise, it is enshrined on the Statue Of Liberty. Give me your poor and your tired and your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Above us are the words in God we trust.

I pray that your hearts, and I ask my fellow council members to second that we agendize a discussion for the removal of this resolution. And I believe in this principle of our forefathers that all men are created equal. I believe rescinding this resolution would demonstrate leadership, unity and commitment in ensuring Hispere remains welcoming, forward looking, and aligned with the best ideals of our republic. Thank you.

Thank you. Council member Greg.

Alright. Thank you, madam mayor. First off, I wanna say that PVWRA meeting got moved from last week to this Thursday to this coming Thursday, so I'll be able to give an update during our next council meeting. Awfully, a lot of speaking, Chris, and yet you failed to mention one of the most memorable days of all, Memorial Day, to commemorate those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country, Memorial Day. Folks, it's not just about a barbecue.

Remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms that all of us live every single day. With that time, there's gonna be a lot of drinking, I'm sure. Plan ahead. Don't drink or drive. Slow down whenever you're going to your party or anything like that. Stop giving our folks in the back more difficult time than they need. Slow down. Get to where you're going safely. Plan accordingly. Other than that, madam mayor, that's all I have.

Thank you. Council member Lee, please. Alright.

On May 7, I attended the National Day of Prayer with mayor Bennington outside of our city hall. And pastor Penn and Tim Silva and the rest of the speakers did a wonderful job. It was a great event. I hope everybody's Mother's Day was wonderful. It sure is a different type of a day for me not having my mother around to honor anymore.

So those that is still difficult for me to to deal with. May 12, I attended the Boy Scouts troop fifty meeting to help the young scouts finish their citizenship in the community badge, and some of those young men are going to go ahead and get their Eagle Scout, which is really a huge honor in the scouting world. Yesterday, May 18 was our VVTA meeting in Barstow, and May 25, Memorial Day, also my sister's birthday. That is a day to celebrate our armed forces. Please do so responsibly.

I also want to talk about, San Bernardino County Fair is starting this Saturday at our Victorville Fairgrounds, May 23 through May 25, and then again, May 29 through May 31. And we also had a really wonderful thing happen to a young Oak Hills High School senior. Her name is Emma Berman Healy, and she traveled to Alabama to go through the highly competitive audition for their color guard team. Emma was selected as one of only seven new team members and the only one from California. So congratulations to Emma, and roll tide, go Alabama.

Hopefully, they'll get to the Rose Bowl again, and I can attend, hopefully, they will win. I'd like to thank our staff for all of the hard work they do on these agendas for us. And I'd like to thank the folks in the back, all of our first responders. Thank you so much for all that you do. I know it's selfless.

You guys work hard, and I appreciate each and every one of you. And I got anything else. I also attended the city county conference, and I don't think I have anything else from them to talk about. I will end with your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. And that's from Steve Jobs. That's all I have.

Thank you. Mayor pro Tim Poland, please.

Thank you, madam mayor. I attended my normal SBCTA meetings, the general policy meeting and board of directors meeting. The Mountain Desert Division was canceled due to the city county conference, which I also attended. I echo, please celebrate responsible this weekend. Those shooting off fireworks already, I know Bridget's hearing them all over her neighborhood and it's been fairly quiet around my neighborhood, but areas are burning and remember all the animals that they frighten year after year after year.

So, please celebrate responsibly and, enjoy yourselves, make plans, please call a friend or somebody to pick you up if you are gonna be drinking or any of those participating in any of that. And with that, I yield.

Thank you. I attended the National Day of Prayer. Thank you, pastor Penn, for organizing that. And I have to say thank you to my pastor, pastor Tim Silva from High Desert Church. He oversaw the prayers, and it was very well organized. And then his wife, Taylor Silva, sang Amazing Grace, and it was amazing. It amazing. It brought tears to my eyes. She's such a she's just so beautiful. So that was a lot of fun. I did the via Zoom coffee update, the city county conference. It was a great event. There are really good workshops this year. I was very impressed. I stayed in the same room.

I think that's where all the best workshops were, but the the speakers were great. The panelists were great. I learned a lot. I have the Cal Cities joint meeting in Ontario, and I will be attending an event that means a lot to me, the San Bernardino County peace officers memorial that's Thursday, and, I'm looking forward to that. That's a great event that's put on by our sheriff's department. So it's I'm looking forward to that. And I'm we're already having fireworks in my neighborhood, and they're not baby fireworks. They are rocking my house, so already starting. It's going to be it's dry out there. Every day, there's fires surrounding areas.

There was a fire a couple of fires in the Cajon Pass. Fireworks are illegal in the city of Hesperia, so please stop. I say that, and it falls upon deaf ears. I would like to say happy birthday to my grandson, Parker. He'll be 10. Happy birthday to Allison's sister. And then, also, June 2 is election day. And as a point of reference, the county building across the street has a ballot drop off box. It's very secure because you can barely fit your ballot in there, so there's nobody sticking anything in there to pull out that ballot. If you would like to drop it off, I strongly encourage it.

And I would like to remember our veterans on Memorial Day to keep our troops and their families in our prayers that are serving our country. And I believe that's all I have. I would just like to say kindness is a language that everyone can understand, and I'm really focusing on my personal life on kindness because it goes a long way. It's much easier to be kind than it is to be mean. So I don't have anything additional.

Do we have any city manager, city attorney reports? Then I would like to close our meeting in memory of Debbie. Hold on. Sorry. I got too many notes on okay. I lost my train of thought here. On Donna Davies. Sorry. Donna Davies. She passed away, and we do have some relations along the way.

Her granddaughter played soccer with my daughter for many, many years, and she will be missed. We missed her on the soccer field, and prayers to you and your family. And nothing else, we'll adjourn the meeting at 07:26. Debbie. I'm so bad with names. She's very pretty.